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Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson Re-Upped Through 2014

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 19, 2011 @ 12:37pm PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Adam Fogelson, Akiva Goldsman, Alexander Skarsgard, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Brian Grazer, Carl Rinsch, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Espinosa, Denzel Washington, Don Winslow, Guillermo Del Toro, Hugh Jackman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Joseph Kosinski, Keanu Reeves, Kristen Stewart, Liam Neeson, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Bay, Mila Kunis, Oliver Stone, Peter Berg, Rihanna, Robert Schwentke, Ron Howard, Ron Meyer, Rupert Sanders, Russell Crowe, Seth MacFarlane, Shane Salerno, Stephen King, Steve Burke, Taylor Kitsch, Tom Cruise, Tom Hooper, Tony Gilroy, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: NBCUniversal’s new owners at Comcast have given a vote of confidence to the studio’s feature film operation. They’ve exercised an option on Universal Pictures’ Chairman Adam Fogelson and extended his contract through 2014. I’m told that Fogelson is, in turn, in the process of exercising the option of Donna Langley and she will continue as the studio’s co-chairman. They will also keep their executive team intact. Fogelson will continue to have full day-to-day operating responsibility for the Motion Picture Group, reporting to Universal Studios President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer (whose contract was recently re-upped through 2015) and will now also report to NBCUniversal Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke.

While Universal has had its ups and downs, higher-ups are clearly convinced that Fogelson, Langley and their team are making progress. They’ve had recent hits –Bridesmaids, Hop! and Fast Five– but also had some recent misses that include The Dilemma, Change-Up and Cowboys & Aliens. In the latter case, the studio was on the hook for one-third of the film, and shared that third with Relativity Media. It has also been a year in which Fogelson and his team have made some painful decisions and let pricey productions go. That began with the Guillermo Del Toro-directed At the Mountains of Madness, which Universal developed for years and which was ready to go with Tom Cruise, until the studio made a late decision not to go forward because of the possibility the $150M film could carry an R-rating. Universal also dropped two projects that were in advanced  stages of development: The Dark Tower, the Akiva Goldsman-directed adaptation of the Stephen King novel series that was to be made into three feature films and two limited-run TV series, with the first film and TV segment directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and Goldsman; and Oiuja, the Hasbro board game that had McG directing and Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners producing with Hasbro. The moves were surprising because Howard and Grazer are cornerstone filmmakers for Universal; and Del Toro and Hasbro have overall deals there. Ouija is one of several Hasbro properties the studio dropped, the others being the Gore Verbinski-directed Clue, the Ridley Scott-directed Monopoly and Magic, The Gathering. These were part of a groundbreaking deal the studio made with the toymaker several years ago, but the studio and Hasbro have re-focused their attention solely on Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, and Candy Land. READ MORE »

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Alex Winter Spins Napster Tale As Docu

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday August 23, 2011 @ 11:09am PDTTags: Julian Assange, Keanu Reeves, VH1
Mike Fleming

Alex Winter, who started his career as half of the Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure tandem before transitioning to director of commercials and TV shows, is finally helming a movie about the formation of controversial music file-sharing service Napster. The surprise is that after 10 years of trying to make a narrative feature, Winter’s shooting it as a documentary backed by VH1, the same division that made 2008’s Anvil: The Story of Anvil. Winter originally made his deal with Paramount’s MTV Films and wrote a script, only to watch that division crater and see his birth of a technological revolution storyline drive The Social Network, which even had early Napster pioneer Shawn Parker in a key role. Rather than scrap Napster, Winter is going back to all the sources for his script, armed with a camera.

“The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made possible everything from Julian Assange, WikiLeaks to the iPod and Facebook,” Winter told me. “It became an expression of youth revolt, and contributed to a complete shift in how information, media and governments work. And it is a fascinating human story, where this 18-year-old kid invents a peer-to-peer file-sharing system, and brings it to the world six months later.” Read More »

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Sony Pictures Acquires Action Pitch Vehicle For ‘Thor’s Chris Hemsworth

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday June 29, 2011 @ 3:00pm PDTTags: Beau Flynn, Carl Rinsch, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Hossein Amini, Keanu Reeves, Kenneth Branagh, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Sony Pictures, Tripp Vinson
Mike Fleming

Sony Pictures has acquired Shadow Runner, a pitch for an action thriller that will star Thor’s Chris Hemsworth. Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce through the Contrafilm banner with ROAR’s Will Ward. Studio’s keeping the fictional project under wraps, but this deal has taken awhile to come together, and its original genesis was an idea by Drive scribe Hossein Amini. The inspiration was an incident in which an Israeli assassination team targeted a Hamas leader whom the Israelis believe murdered several soldiers and helped stockpile Iranian-made missiles. He was tracked to Dubai, and the Israelis managed to smuggle in an entire 17-person hit team to take him out in the corridor of a five-star hotel. The operatives were captured on a hotel security camera trailing after the victim, reemerging and getting on the elevator after he was killed. I’m told that the film won’t replicate those events, but Hemsworth will lead an elite team of operatives who take on impossible tasks. Amini will be exec producer. Read More »

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Hossein Amini Doing Rewrite On ‘Snow White And The Huntsman’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday June 14, 2011 @ 6:41pm PDTTags: Armie Hammer, Carl Rinsch, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Hossein Amini, Julia Roberts, Keanu Reeves, Kristen Stewart, Lily Collins, Nicolas Winding Refn, Rupert Sanders, Ryan Kavanaugh, Tarsem Singh
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Bracing for its race against Relativity Media on rival Snow White films, Universal Pictures has hired Hossein Amini to do a rewrite of Snow White and the Huntsman, the Rupert Sanders-directed film that stars Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and … Read More »

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Albert Hughes Exiting ‘Akira’ At Warner Bros

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 26, 2011 @ 12:19pm PDTTags: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, Andrew Garfield, Chris Pine, Garrett Hedlund, James McAvoy, Jeff Robinov, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Joaquin Phoenix, Justin Timberlake, Katsuhiro Otomo, Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, Robert Pattinson, Steve Kloves
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The twists and turns on the Warner Bros adaptation of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s graphic novel Akira continue. Director Albert Hughes is exiting the movie, I’m told. Insiders say that it is an amicable creative differences  parting of the ways. Warner Bros will try to put him on another movie right away (Hughes and his brother Allen directed the hit The Book of Eli, and WB topper Jeff Robinov is their former agent and is very close with them). Hughes is coming to Hollywood next week to take meetings with his WME reps and look at scripts, hoping to find his next movie at Warner Bros.

As for Akira, the intention of the studio is to keep the picture on a fast track, which means they will find a director quickly. The studio has been wrestling with the approach on the film for the past year. Read More »

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Peter Stormare Is Crooked Lawman in ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday February 24, 2011 @ 7:41am PSTTags: Famke Janssen, Gemma Arterton, Jeremy Renner, Keanu Reeves, Luc Besson, Mel Gibson, Peter Stormare, Vera Farmiga
Mike Fleming

Peter Stormare has joined Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, and Famke Janssen to star in Paramount/MGM’s Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters. He plays the villainous town sheriff ‘Berringer’.  Stormare recently wrapped the Luc Besson produced feature film Lock Out for Sony. … Read More »

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With Arnold Back To Acting, Suitors Circle ‘Terminator’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday February 15, 2011 @ 2:47pm PSTTags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris Morgan, Christian Bale, Fast Five, Halcyon, Justin Lin, Keanu Reeves, Mario Kassar, McG, Pacificor, Sam Worthington, The Terminator, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Shortly after Arnold Schwarzenegger left the Governor’s Mansion and Tweeted his desire to  resume his acting career, there seems to finally be some action on his signature franchise, The Terminator. I’m told that interest is kicking back up. One … Read More »

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Ryan Gosling Is Stepping Up To A Studio Tent Pole With ‘Logan’s Run’ Remake

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday February 10, 2011 @ 12:46pm PSTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Alex Garland, Andrew Rona, Bryan Singer, George Clooney, Joel Silver, Keanu Reeves, Kerry Foster, Logan's Run, Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan Gosling, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is finalizing a deal with Ryan Gosling to reunite with his Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn on Logan’s Run, the remake of the 1976 futuristic drama about a man who tries to outrun a mandatory death sentence … Read More »

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Hollywood Publicist Exits R&C For PMK*BNC

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday December 9, 2010 @ 5:27pm PSTTags: Craig Ferguson, Keanu Reeves, P.R., PMK*BNC, Sandra Bullock

EXCLUSIVE: Cheryl Maisel will be leaving Rogers and Cowan and coming back to PMK*BNC as an EVP in talent. She will be bringing long-standing clients like Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Craig Ferguson, and others.

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Keanu Reeves Pic ‘Henry’s Crime’ Finds Distribution

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday November 17, 2010 @ 2:32pm PSTTags: Henry's Crime Distribution, Judy Greer, Keanu Reeves, Movie Deals, Movies, Vera Farmiga, Video
Mike Fleming

Henry’s Crime, the film that stars Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Fisher Stevens and Judy Greer, has been acquired for North American distribution by Maitland Primrose Group. The film will be released by Moving Pictures Film & TV.  A … Read More »

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Keanu Reeves Would Do Another ‘Bill & Ted’

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday September 20, 2010 @ 6:11am PDTTags: Keanu Reeves, Movies, MTV News, Video

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Keanu Reeves In ‘Generation Um’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday September 9, 2010 @ 5:20am PDTTags: Keanu Reeves, Nicolas Chartier Voltage Pictures
Mike Fleming

Voltage Pictures chief Nicolas Chartier, trying to create some noise to follow The Hurt Locker, has announced a September 9 start date for Generation Um. The film, which stars Keanu Reeves, Bojana Novakovic and Adelaide Clemens, has been announced on … Read More »

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3 Arts & Untitled Talk Management Merger

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday July 21, 2010 @ 4:12pm PDTTags: 3 Arts, 30 Rock, Daniel Day-Lewis, Erwin Stoff, Keanu Reeves, Madonna, Managers, Parks and Recreation, Production, Robert Pattinson, The Office, Tina Fey
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Management/production companies 3 Arts and Untitled Entertainment are in merger talks. I’m not certain they are going to join forces, but they are exploring it seriously. The potential mix of assets of the two companies is intriguing. 3 Arts — run by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg, Howard Klein, David … Read More »

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Horrific ‘Prom Night’ Slays Keanu For #1

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday April 12, 2008 @ 3:15am PDTTags: Actors, Box Office, Comedy, Directors, Horror, Keanu Reeves, Movies, Studios

promnight_galleryposter.jpgSUNDAY AM: Sony and Fox dominated a modest weekend box office populated by mostly mediocre movies. The Friday-through Sunday domestic gross crowned Sony/Screen Gems’ horror flick Prom Night as the box office king with $22.7 million from 2,700 theaters. That’s exactly what rival studios thought … Read More »

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