Jonah Hill Signs For Management With LBI

Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Jonah Hill has taken on management. He has signed with LBI Entertainment, where he will be repped by a team headed by Ian Montone and Rick Yorn. They will rep him in all areas, along with WME and attorney Karl Austen. Hill continues to surprise as he evolves from the fro-headed kid in Superbad to a lead in ribald stoner comedies like This Is The End, to serious roles like his Oscar nominated turn in Moneyball, and the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed The Wolf Of Wall Street. In the Rupert Gould-directed Plan B-produced True Story, Hill next plays disgraced New York Times reporter Michael Finkel, who was sacked just as a suspected killer on the FBI’s Most Wanted List who was using his name got caught, and would only talk to the journo at a time his life was crashing down around him. James Franco plays the killer.

Hill also has a 21 Jump Street sequel after getting story credit on the original hit he starred in with Channing Tatum. And let’s not forget his other pivotal recent screen credit, Bag Head #2, in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

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‘Like Crazy’s Felicity Jones Lands Female Lead Opposite Jonah Hill And James Franco in New Regency’s ‘True Story’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday February 5, 2013 @ 9:26am PST
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Fast-rising British actress Felicity Jones will play the female lead opposite Jonah Hill and James Franco in True Story, the Rupert Goold-directed adaptation of the memoir by Michael Finkel. Finkel’s the disgraced New York Times journalist who resurrected some of his career after discovering that an accused murderer had stolen his identity, and that he would only talk to his namesake.

Hill is playing Finkel and Franco is playing Christian Longo, who was captured in Mexico after rising near the top of the FBI Ten Most Wanted List for allegedly killing his family. Dave Kajganich wrote the script. Hill’s coming off the small but pivotal role of Bag Head #2 in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, and Franco next opens in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers.

Jones will play the journalist’s long-suffering girlfriend, who tries to stand by her guy even after his screwups cost them everything. Jones next stars in Amazing Spider-Man 2, and her latest with Like Crazy helmer Drake Doremus, Breathe In, premiered in Sundance. She’s still scheduled to play the female lead in the Howard Hughes pic that Warren Beatty wrote, stars in and will direct. Jones is repped by WME and Independent Talent Group. Read More »

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Jonah Hill Joins Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday June 15, 2012 @ 10:30am PDT
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The Weinstein Company has set Jonah Hill to play a role in Django Unchained, which is in production. I’m trying to find out who he’ll be playing, but am told it won’t be Scotty Harmony, the kid who loses … Read More »

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Kyle Chandler Joining Scorsese’s ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’

Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Kyle Chandler is joining Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill in The Wolf Of Wall Street, the Martin Scorsese-directed adaptation of the Jordan Belfort memoir that was adapted by Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter. The film’s being financed by … Read More »

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Jonah Hill Set To Star With Leonardo DiCaprio In Martin Scorsese-Directed ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’

Mike Fleming

Jonah Hill The Wolf Of Wall StreetBREAKING: After getting an Oscar nomination playing Brad Pitt’s wing man in Moneyball, Jonah Hill has just been set to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf Of Wall Street, the Martin … Read More »

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Fox’s Alien Comedy Retitled ‘The Watch’ After Florida Shooting

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday May 4, 2012 @ 12:19pm PDT

Here’s 20th Century Fox‘s red-band trailer for the retitled alien invasion comedy The Watch. Fox abandoned its original marketing scheme for the formerly titled Neighborhood Watch to avoid any unintended association with the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin tragedy in Florida. The R-rated comedy concerns a group of suburban men who form … Read More »

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New Regency To Finance ‘True Story’ With Jonah Hill And James Franco

Mike Fleming

James Franco True StoryJonah Hill True StoryEXCLUSIVE: New Regency has made a deal to fully finance True Story. That is the Rupert Goold-directed adaptation of a memoir by Michael Finkel, a disgraced New York Times journalist who discovered that an accused murderer had stolen his identity. Once caught, the fugitive would only talk to the journalist. Jonah Hill is playing Finkel and James Franco is set to play Christian Longo, who was captured in Mexico after rising near the top of the FBI Ten Most Wanted List for allegedly killing his family. Production will begin in July and Fox will distribute. Dave Kajganich wrote the script.

True Story MoviePlan B’s Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt will produce with New Regency. It’s a fascinating and bizarre true story. Finkel was a writer at The New York Times Magazine in 2002 when he learned of Longo’s capture and that the accused killer had taken the journo’s name. The very next day, the real Finkel was fired by Times editors, right after they ran an editor’s note declaring that he had falsified parts of an investigative article. His career seemingly over, Finkel was given a shot at some redemption when Longo declared that Finkel was the only journalist he would talk to. That led to a surreal relationship with the accused murderer, who was trying to declare his innocence. Unraveling the mystery was a chance for Finkel to salvage something of his career. Read More »

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’21 Jump Street’ #1 With Hot $35M Weekend; ‘John Carter’ Slumps; ‘Casa Padre’ Pumps

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday March 17, 2012 @ 10:51pm PDT

 

March 16-18 Weekend Actuals
 
1. 21 Jump Street (MGM/Sony) NEW [3,121 Theaters] R
Friday $13.2M, Saturday $12.9M, Sunday $10.1M, Weekend $36.3M

2. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (Illumination/Universal) Week 3 [3,769 Theaters] PG
Friday $6.8M, Saturday $9.6M, Sunday $6.4M, Weekend $22.8M (-41%), Cume $158.4M

3. John Carter (Disney) Week 2 [3,749 Theaters] PG13
Friday $4M, Saturday $5.7M, Sunday $3.9M, Weekend $13.6M (-55%), Cume $53.2M

4. Project X (Warner Bros) Week 3 [2,922 Theaters] R
Friday $1.5M, Saturday $1.5M, Sunday $1M, Weekend $4.0M (-64%), Cume $48.2M

5. Act Of Valor (Relativity) Week 4 (2,765 Theaters] R
Friday $1.1M, Saturday $1.6M, Sunday $1M, Weekend $3.7M (-47%), Cume $62.5M

6. A Thousand Words (DWorks/Paramount) Week 2 [1,895 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.1M, Saturday $1.6M, Sunday $884K, Weekend $3.6M (-41%), Cume $12.0M

7. Safe House (Universal) Week 6 [1,920 Theaters] R
Friday $827K, Saturday $1.2M, Sunday$701K, Weekend $2.7M (-43%), Cume $120.2M

8. Journey 2 (Warner Bros) Week 6 [1,935 Theaters] PG
Friday $718K, Saturday $1M, Sunday $663K, Weekend $2.4M (-34%), Cume $95M

9. Casa De Mi Padre (Lionsgate) NEW [382 Theaters] R
Friday $780K, Saturday $784K, Sunday $724K, Weekend $2.3M

10. This Means War (Fox) Week 5 [1,660 Theaters] PG13
Friday $760K, Saturday $921K, Sunday $460K, Weekend $2.1M (-43%), Cume $50.5M
 

SUNDAY PM, 6TH UPDATE: Welcome to another weekend of strong North American box office. But it’s down -6% from last year because Saturday grosses proved softer than expected. Probably the NCAA basketball effect. R-rated pics were hot. Numbers for the #1 movie, Sony Pictures/MGM co-production’ 21 Jump Street, 21 Jump Street Box Office Resultsshowed an opening of $13.2M Friday and $13M Saturday for a $35M weekend from 3,121 theaters. Friday’s number includes the $700K Friday midnights from 598 theaters. Overall, nice haul for the raunchy laugher whose budget was only around $45M. What’s especially interesting here is that these remakes of popular TV shows rarely work on the big screen. But stars Channing Tatum (The Vow) and Jonah Hill (Moneyball) are hot right now — with Tatum having two films of different genres in the Top 10 this weekend and Hill coming off an Oscar nom. And directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs) found the right irreverent way in for their first live action feature. Michael Bacall’s and Jonah Hill’s story used the Patrick Hasburgh/Stephen J Cannell series as a jumping off point. Bacall is credited with the screenplay. This is the first successful bonafide comedy of 2012 (since Fox’s This Means War disappointed and Warner Bros’ Project X had a ‘found footage’ conceit). Reviews have been surprisingly good — not just 88% on Rotten Tomatoes but even The New York Times. (Not that this is a review-driven film.) Audiences gave it a ‘B’ CinemaScore. Exit polls showed moviegoers were 53% male and 50% were under 25.

Sony had an extensive word of mouth campaign for the film with over 350 screenings across the country. Overall, the marketing campaign targeted young adult moviegoers and positioned the film as a “must-see” action comedy. There was the usual promotion on high profile sports games and primetime TV But mostly Sony sold the talent to engage audiences and break through the clutter. ”We partnered with 15 different networks to create custom content to showcase the film talent and convey the irreverent humor of the film,” a Sony exec tells me. Jonah and Channing were joined by Ice Cube and Rob Riggle for a domestic regional press tour in Denver, Chicago, Washington DC, Miami, and NYC. In addition to national talk show appearances, Hill hosted Saturday Night Live the weekend before 21 Jump Street opened. Also helping was the pic’s premiere at the South by Southwest fest, while Jonah and Channing visited Wondercon Friday. An extensive campaign was formulated for Twitter including a “Tweet-Off” between Tatum and Hill.

Meanwhile, #2 Illumination Entertainment/Universal’s Dr Seuss’ The Lorax after three weeks in release is benefitting from the fact that 24% of K-12 classes were out of school Friday. But Disney’s disappointing holdover John Carter is still disappointing a week later. Despite its $250M budget it’s only a distant #3. It’s now up to international to perform: this weekend the film earned $40.7M internationally for a worldwide cume now of $179.3M. Otherwise director Andrew Stanton’s domestic bomb is a $100M-$150M writeoff for the Walt Disney Co.

But the real surprise this weekend is Casa De Mi Padre, which is Will Ferrell’s $6M-costing indie filmed almost entirely in Spanish with English subtitles and playing in only 382 locations. The R-rated pic opened in the Top Ten with an impressive $2.2M weekend and the 2md best per screen average. Ferrell, who speaks surprisingly good Spanish in the pic, got the project off the ground and is the only on-screen gringo in what he says is a “telenovela meets a Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez/bad Mexican spaghetti Western”. Ferrell brought in pals from his  Funny Or Die website, director Matt Piedmont and screenwriter Andrew Steele, whose script was written in English and had to be translated into intentionally bad Spanish writing. Casa De Mi Padre was a 23-day production financed by Nala Films, the Santa Monica company behind In The Valley Of Elah and Dan In Real Life. The film is being distributed in limited release in the United States by Pantelion Films, which is a partnership between Lionsgate and the Mexican media company Televisa.

Here’s the Top 10 based on weekend grosses:

1. 21 Jump Street (MGM/Sony) NEW [3,121 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $13.2M, Saturday $13M, Weekend $35M

2. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (Illumination/Universal) Week 3 [3,769 Theaters] PG-rated
Friday $6.8M, Saturday $8.7M, Weekend $22.8M, Cume $158.4M

3. John Carter (Disney) Week 2 [3,749 Theaters] PG13-rated
Friday $3.9M, Saturday $5.6M, Weekend $13.5M (-55%), Cume $53.1M

4. Project X (Warner Bros) Week 3 [2,922 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $1.5M, Saturday $1.4M, Weekend $4.0M, Cume $48.1M

5. A Thousand Words (DWorks/Paramount) Week 2 [1,895 Theaters] PG13-rated
Friday $1.1M (-43%), Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $3.7M (-39%), Cume $12.1M

6. Act Of Valor (Relativity) Week 4 (2,765 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $1.1M, Saturday $1.4M, Weekend $3.6M, Cume $62.6M

7. Safe House (Universal) Week 6 [1,920 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $815K, Saturday $1.0M, Weekend $2.7M, Cume $120.2M

8. Journey 2 (Warner Bros) Week 6 [1,935 Theaters] PG-rated
Friday $716K, Saturday $975K, Weekend $2.4M, Cume $95M

8. Casa De Mi Padre (Lionsgate) NEW [382 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $782K, Saturday $784K, Weekend $2.2M

10. This Means War (Fox) Week 5 [1,660 Theaters] PG13-rated
Friday $745K, Saturday , Weekend $2.1M, Cume $50.5M

Meanwhile, 21 Jump Street had a very limited day-and-date rollout overseas grossing $7M. But it had a big opening in Australia where it became the #1 movie with $4.3M U.S. dollars (including previews) on 243 screens. It was #1 in the market so far, pulling in 38% of the country’s total box office, following a big publicity push by Channing and Jonah who are also executive producers. The film rolls out in the majority of the world in coming months. That said, in North America, I’m told that audiences are responding with whoops and hollers when they see the movie’s biggest unadvertised surprise…

SPOILER ALERT… SPOILER ALERT…
Read More »

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‘Saturday Night Live’ With Jonah Hill Down Sharply From Last Week

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Sunday March 11, 2012 @ 10:36am PDT
Nellie Andreeva

SNL: Worst Sarah Palin Impression Ever?, SNL: Jonah Hill Can’t Shut Up About OscarSNL: Rush Limbaugh’s New Advertisers

Read More »

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SNL: Jonah Hill Can’t Shut Up About Oscar

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday March 11, 2012 @ 3:29am PDT

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Jonah Hill, James Franco Team For Brad Pitt-Produced Drama ‘True Story’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday February 27, 2012 @ 9:30am PST
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Jonah Hill had so much fun working with fellow Oscar nominee and Moneyball producer Brad Pitt that they’re back in business on another fact-based film. Hill and James Franco are attached to star in True Story, the Rupert Goold-directed adaptation of a memoir by journalist Michael Finkel. Pitt and Dede Gardner’s Plan B is are producing.

Like Moneyball, this is another opportunity for Hill to veer from his comic persona. He will play Finkel, who was a writer at The New York Times Magazine in 2002 when he learned that Christian Longo was captured in Mexico after a long stint on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List for killing his family. The strange part was that he had been living under the identity of Finkel. The very next day, the real Finkel was fired by the editors of The Times, right after they ran an editor’s note declaring that he had falsified parts of an investigative article. His career seemed over, until Longo (who’ll be played by Franco) declared that the real Finkel was the only journalist he would talk to. That led to a surreal relationship with the accused murderer, who was trying to declare his innocence. For the real Finkel, it was an opportunity to unravel the mystery and perhaps redeem himself as a journalist. Read More »

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OSCARS: Jonah Hill – ‘Moneyball’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday February 19, 2012 @ 11:25am PST

It stands to reason that Moneyball, a dramatic film about taking second chances on unproven talent, would cast a comedic performer opposite Brad Pitt. Having long been branded the master of deadpan in Judd Apatow’s canon, Jonah Hill aimed for the bleachers and lobbied for the role (after Demetri Martin fell out) of Oakland A’s stat-head Peter Brand, who persuades Pitt’s general manager Billy Beane to radically change his ways in Sony’s feature take on Michael Lewis’ novel. It was a natural progression in range for Hill, who had already shown a fierce literal side as the mama’s boy in 2010’s Cyrus. He spoke recently with AwardsLine contributor Anthony D’Alessandro.

AWARDSLINE: As a comedy actor, did you face any challenges from the director or studio heads over your capability to play drama?
HILL: I didn’t audition. I showed Bennett [Miller] Cyrus before it came out and that’s what they cast me from. You know I was at the bottom of a list of actors who weren’t known for their dramatic work. I knew Bennett socially and he knew I was eager to break out of whatever box I was in. As a respected filmmaker he wanted to make an unsuspecting choice. And [Sony Pictures co-chairman] Amy Pascal and I had a really great relationship coming off of Superbad. She knew I was trying to do more dramatic work. Regarding those comedic performers who segue to drama; out of my generation I think I made the most effort do both. If you think of my last two films last year, Cyrus and Get Him To The Greek come out a month apart and now I have Moneyball and The Sitter coming out about a month apart [almost three, actually]. Those two films two years in a row are completely unrecognizable and that’s the career I strive to have. Read More »

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Red Band Trailer: ’21 Jump Street’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday November 2, 2011 @ 8:51pm PDT

Some of us are not sure what to make of this red band trailer for 21 Jump Street with Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and Ice Cube in the movification of a long-ago Fox TV series about young cops going undercover in high school. The late ’80s TV show starred Johnny … Read More »

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Dave Franco Joins ‘Now You See Me’ At Summit

Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Dave Franco has joined the cast of Now You See Me, which is his second straight movie for Summit Entertainment. Franco joins Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman and Isla Fisher in the Louis Leterrier-directed drama about … Read More »

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Fox Buys Jonah Hill/Hannibal Buress Sitcom With Penalty

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 8:35am PDT
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Fox has bought a comedy project to be co-written by Jonah Hill and standup comedian/writer Hannibal Buress with a blind script commitment plus penalty. The project, whose concept and … Read More »

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OSCARS: Academy Turns Out Crowd For ‘Moneyball’; But Is It Best Picture Worthy?

Pete Hammond

Take it with a grain of salt. But Saturday night’s “official” Academy member screening of Moneyball seemed to draw the most enthusiasm since last May’s packed Midnight In Paris. At least judging by several unsolicited responses emailed to me by Academy members in attendance. Of course it helped that the film came in a very respectable No. 2 at the box office this weekend with just over $20 million. One Acad member told me it was “as crowded as it gets.” While another wrote, “I just went to the Academy screening  of Moneyball, and it was packed! Pretty much filled besides a few random open seats.” The make-up of the Acad crowd was described as “older than usual, and a lot of new faces” and by another member in attendance as “definitely older than I would have expected. But there was great reaction throughout the film and big applause at the end for Brad and Jonah.” Another opined that “the lighter moments played well, which as you know is always telling. The few jokes were responded to well. There was warm applause at the end. But personally I gauge baseball movies by the emotional swelling I get in my throat at least once. I didn’t get that here.” Read More »

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Toronto: Where Are The Film Deals?

Mike Fleming

Just as it did last year, the 2011 Toronto Film Festival has gotten off to a slow start on the acquisitions front. I spoke with many buyers after last night’s onslaught of acquisition title premieres, and the common feeling was these distributors need to fill slots in their schedules and they want to fall in love, but haven’t quite gotten there yet with most of these films. They had some reservations on just about all of the films they saw. These films will clearly find distribution homes, but the reaction means that deals will drag out because those distributors aren’t going to be posting large minimum guarantees, the way they did in Cannes.

Even the big sale of the festival so far, the Steve McQueen-directed NC-17 sex drama Shame, wasn’t a huge commitment for all the press hoopla that followed Deadline’s reveal that the film had sold to Fox Searchlight. I am hearing the deal was a mid-six figure minimum guarantee around $400,000, and a P&A commitment around $1.5 million. That sounds about right, because the filmmakers were most concerned with entering this year’s Oscar race to capitalize on the performances by Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, and ensuring that not a frame of the picture was changed. But it doesn’t sound like a wide release picture.

As for the wide release titles, they are going to sell, but it will be a struggle for sellers to get the dollars they want. I saw one of those titles that sit atop buyer lists last night. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was scripted by Simon Beaufoy, directed by Lasse Hallstrom and stars Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas and Amr Waked, the latter playing a wealthy sheik who pays a fisheries scientist to stock a stream with trout. The film is sophisticated, funny, timely and utterly charming, and I would be surprised if it isn’t snapped up by Monday or sooner. That film got the best reaction from the buyers I spoke with. The pace of auctioning has been complicated by the volume of premieres last night, including Rampart, Take This Waltz, The Oranges, the hockey comedy Goon and the Morgan Spurlock-directed documentary Comic-Con: A Fan’s Hope. Buyers had to make choices, and some were seeing films like Salmon this morning. I expect a flurry of deals toward the end of the festival, which is how it played out last year.

Since there’s little going on so far, you have time to notice things. Here are a few things I’ve noticed: Read More »

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Toronto: Big Stars, Big Risks Hit Film Fest

Pete Hammond

Only at a film festival: I left a movie today in which the basic plotline had to do with a man trying to deal with his wife’s terminal cancer diagnosis and all the horrible things that entails. Afterward, the pic’s publicist comes up … Read More »

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Shawn Levy Eyeing Fox’s Frankenstein

Mike Fleming

As the 20th Century Fox 3D Fantastic Voyage continues to take forever to get underway (script is there, but it’s pricey and they’ve had trouble casting it), I’m hearing persuasively that director Shawn Levy will likely take another Fox film, … Read More »

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