You are viewing the archive: “Kevin James”

WME In Clinches With MMA’s Bas Rutten

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday October 10, 2012 @ 2:48pm PDTTags: Here Comes The Boom, Kevin James
Mike Fleming

WME has signed Bas Rutten, the mixed martial arts champion who co-stars with Kevin James in the Sony Pictures comedy Here Comes The Boom. He collaborates frequently with James, previously appearing in Paul Blart: Mall Cop and lending his voice to the cast of Zookeeper. Now, like James, he is in the WME and Jeff Sussman Management fold.

Rutten is currently the co-host of the weekly Inside MMA program on AXS TV and has provided color commentary for several fight organizations including the former Pride Fighting Championships. He knows the subject matter: Rutten is a former three-time King of Pancrase World Champion and UFC Heavyweight Champion. He evolved from a devastating stand up striker who dropped 11 opponents by knockout and then became as dominant in ground fighting, winning 14 bouts by submission. He was undefeated in his final 22 fights.

Comments (4)

Hot Trailer: ‘Here Comes The Boom’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday June 27, 2012 @ 11:20pm PDTTags: Kevin James, Salma Hayek

Here’s Sony’s trailer for Kevin James and Salma Hayek in Here Comes The Boom, which opens October 12th:

Comments (13)

Kevin Hart In Talks To Join Kevin James In ‘Valet Guys’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 24, 2012 @ 11:04am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Kevin Hart, Kevin James, Valet Guys
Mike Fleming

Kevin James Valet GuysKevin Hart Valet GuysEXCLUSIVE: Think Like A Man star Kevin Hart is in talks to join Kevin James in Valet Guys, the Sony Pictures … Read More »

Comments (9)

Nick Bakay Signs With APA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday March 14, 2012 @ 5:53pm PDTTags: APA, Kevin James, Valet Guys

Nick Bakay APAEXCLUSIVE: Writer-producer-actor Nick Bakay had been at Verve and now will be repped by APA in all areas. He wrote the Kevin James movies Zookeeper and Paul Blart: … Read More »

Comments (7)

Cross Creek Pictures Hires Becky Sloviter As Senior Production Veep

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday August 2, 2011 @ 7:11am PDTTags: Brian Oliver, Buck Henry, Colin Firth, Cross Creek Pictures, Drew Goddard, Emily Blunt, James Gray, Jeremy Renner, Kevin James, Kurt Sutter, Steve McQueen, Timmy Thompson, Whitey Bulger
Mike Fleming

After making a splash by funding the wildly profitable Darren Aronofsky-directed Black Swan, Timmy Thompson and Brian Oliver’s Cross Creek Pictures has become an increasing presence in the independent film producing and finance game. To help manage the growing project volume, they’ve hired Becky Sloviter to be senior vice president of development and production. She started work yesterday and had most recently been veep of development and production at MGM, where she worked on such titles as the Kevin James-starrer Zookeeper and the Drew Goddard-directed The Cabin in the Woods, as well as the musical Valley Girl which is on a fast track at MGM. Before that, Sloviter had been a production exec at Stuber/Parent Productions. Read More »

Comments 23

Hot Trailer: MGM/Sony’s ‘Zookeeper’

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday May 23, 2011 @ 8:57pm PDTTags: Kevin James, MGM, Sony Pictures, Trailer, Zookeeper

What a road this movie has traveled. This is Sony’s big Summer 2011 comedy, but pre-bankruptcy MGM did all the heavy lifting. It paid $2 million for the Jay Scherick/David Ronn script and hired Kevin James at a bargain price before he made Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and then steered the pic through production. It … Read More »

Comments 39

TOLDJA! MGM Makes Distribution Deal With Sony Pictures That Includes James Bond

By NIKKI FINKE AND MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday April 13, 2011 @ 4:05pm PDTTags: 007, Amy Pascal, Daniel Craig, David Fincher, Gary Barber, James Bond, Kevin James, MGM, Michael Lynton, Roger Birnbaum, Sony Pictures, Total Recall

Sony Pictures and MGM have finally announced the worst kept secret in Hollywood. They’ve reached an agreement that will return Sony Pictures to its role as distributor of the James Bond movies. Sony, along with studios like Warner Bros, Paramount and Fox, all engaged in talks with the reconstituted MGM on a deal that came at a hefty price. Deadline reported previously that MGM walked away with the right to be co-financier on several plum Sony films, including the David Fincher-directed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, as well as others to be added to the mix, including the remake of Total Recall. The latter film might be particularly painful for Sony because sources tell us that MGM gets to distribute Total Recall in the highly valuable international TV market. This is considered a huge benefit to MGM in that it enhances the value of its international TV portfolio and robs Sony’s existing international TV partners of a title that is expected to be big overseas. Neither Sony nor MGM would comment on the horse-trading part of the deal.

Clearly, Sony wanted the Bond franchise back badly, and now Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton have brought 007 back into the fold. Deadline reported last summer that MGM was being reconstituted as a pure production play and shedding its distribution operation. That immediately put the studio’s most valuable title, 007, in play. Bidders began mobilizing before MGM made it out of bankruptcy. By January, several of the studios vying for Bond rights became increasingly frustrated by the attempts by MGM’s  new chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum to leverage 007 distribution rights to get co-financing rights to plum projects at whatever studio won the deal. This came even after MGM had offered the villain role to Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, a courtship that is still going on (Anthony Hopkins has also been rumored as a potential participant on the evil side of the Bond dossier). Sony Pictures eventually got the upper hand and moved close to a deal in early February, after Sony threw co-fi rights to Dragon Tattoo and other titles into the pot. The announcement doesn’t deal with other MGM titles, but there are expected to be more that get distributed by Sony Pictures, which separately partnered with the studio on the Kevin James-starrer The Zookeeper. That film moved over to Sony when MGM went into deep freeze because of its crushing debt burden, and Sony moved it to the heart of the summer, with a July 8 release date. While Sony was winning that deal, rival suitors like Paramount (which has a strong relationship with Barber and Birnbaum over Star Trek) bristled at MGM’s asking price, plus a relatively low 8% distribution fee on the 007 film that Sam Mendes will direct and which Sony will release November 9, 2012, with Daniel Craig reprising. Here is the official announcement: Read More »

Comments (17)

Health Of Adult Comedy Genre To Be Tested By ‘The Dilemma’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday January 13, 2011 @ 4:18am PSTTags: Kevin James, Ron Howard The Dilemma, The Dilemma, The Green Hornet 3D, Universal Pictures, Universal The Dilemma, Vince Vaughn
Mike Fleming

Over the past two years, Universal Pictures learned some hard lessons about adult dramas when high-priced films State of Play, Robin Hood, Duplicity and Green Zone failed to catch on with domestic audiences. This weekend, the studio will deliver some … Read More »

Comments 57

Kevin James Re-Teams With ‘Zookeeper’ Helmer Frank Coraci

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday January 10, 2011 @ 5:15pm PSTTags: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Kevin James is back in business with The Zookeeper director Frank Coraci. Coraci is set to direct the untitled mixed martial arts picture that James will make his next star vehicle for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Deadline revealed the … Read More »

Comments (4)

Kevin James And Adam Sandler Drive Nick Bakay Laugher ‘Valet Guys’ For Sony

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday December 7, 2010 @ 9:49am PSTTags: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Movie Deals, Movies, Sony Pictures, TV, TV Deals
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Entertainment has made a preemptive deal for Valet Guys, a feature pitch from a potential vehicle for Adam Sandler and Kevin James to play veteran valet parking guys at a South Beach hotel who witness a murder … Read More »

Comments 34

Hot Teaser Trailer: ‘The Zookeeper’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday November 8, 2010 @ 11:59am PSTTags: David Ronn, Jay Scherick, Kevin James, Mary Parent MGM, Movies, Sony Pictures, Trailers, Video, Zookeeper
Mike Fleming

Sony Pictures Entertainment has released a teaser for The Zookeeper, the Kevin James-starrer which will be one of the studio’s 2011 summer tent poles. The film was done as a co-production with MGM, but the early heavy lifting was done by former MGM picture chief Mary Parent, who paid $2 … Read More »

Comments 36

Kevin James To Star In Mixed Martial Arts Pic

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday September 15, 2010 @ 11:12am PDTTags: Kevin James, Movies, Sony Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: It’s easy to forget that Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Amy Pascal had to be talked into making Kevin James’ Paul Blart: Mall Cop by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company which also put Kevin in the summer hit Grown Ups and the upcoming Sony-MGM coproduction star turn The … Read More »

Comments 39