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Charlie Sheen’s ‘Anger Management’ Sitcom A Go At Lionsgate & Debmar-Mercury

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday July 18, 2011 @ 8:51am PDTTags: Anger Management, Charlie Sheen, Joe Roth, Lionsgate TV
Nellie Andreeva

This is an announcement of the completion of the deal for the project, based on the 2003 Jack Nicholson-Adam Sandler movie Anger Management, which is in early stages and still has no network or writer attached. On the show, Sheen will play an updated version of the Nicholson’s character in the Joe Roth-produced movie, a volatile anger management therapist. “I chose Anger Management because, while it might be a big stretch for me to play a guy with serious anger management issues, I think it is a great concept,” Sheen quipped. While Lionsgate TV will produce, a key point is the involvement of the company’s subsidiary Debmar-Mercury as a distributor, meaning that the Anger Management sitcom will probably be done under the model created by Debmar-Mercury co-heads Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein and pioneered on the Tyler Perry TBS sitcoms House of Payne and Meet the Browns. The Anger Management series is being co-produced by Roth who previously teamed with Debmar-Mercury on another TBS sitcom under the company’s model that was based on a movie, Ice Cube’s Are We There Yet? The model, which so far has only been applied on cable, primarily on TBS, involves a significant ownership stake for the talent, something the release below indicates Sheen is receiving on Anger Management, as well as a short, usually 10-episode, initial network order followed by a massive 90-episode pickup when ratings thresholds are met. (That allows Debmar-Mercury to also launch the series in broadcast syndication.) The question is which network will gamble on a show starring a volatile star like Sheen, who is still embroiled in a $100-million lawsuit with Warner Bros. and Chuck Lorre over his firing from Two and a Half Men, and which writer will sign on to develop the series with him. TBS would still be a main target though the cable network would’ve had stronger motivation to gamble on the new series if it still had the the off-network rights to Two and a Half Men, which it surrendered to FX this past fall. But TBS, which is a corporate sibling of Warner Bros. TV, has indicated that it isn’t interested. Here is the release:

Los Angeles, July 18, 2011 — Former Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen is planning his return to series television in Anger Management, a new sitcom loosely based on Revolution Studios’ 2003 hit comedy feature of the same name. Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury, headed by Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein, will distribute the series that will be produced by Lionsgate Television, led by Television Group President Kevin Beggs and COO Sandra Stern; Joe Roth and Revolution Studios’ Vince Totino; Sheen manager Mark Burg’s production company, Evolution Management; and Robert Maron.

Sheen will retain a significant ownership stake in the series inspired by the film, in which a mild-mannered, non-confrontational man is ordered to attend group anger management sessions led by a therapist who could probably use some anger management himself. READ MORE »

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Deadline Poll: Which Showrunner Desperate Enough To Work With Charlie Sheen?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday July 6, 2011 @ 5:07pm PDTTags: Anger Management, Charlie Sheen, Joe Roth, Lionsgate TV, Revolution Studios

There’s a reason that moviemaker Joe Roth doesn’t produce much TV. Because he comes up with terrible ideas like casting Charlie Sheen in a sitcom version of Anger Management. His plan is to join with Lionsgate TV for a small-tube series based on … Read More »

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UPDATE: Jon Hamm Locks Into ‘Mad Men’ For 3 More Years With Fat 8-Figure Deal

By NIKKI FINKE AND NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday June 21, 2011 @ 4:16pm PDTTags: AMC, Jon Hamm, Lionsgate TV, Mad Men

EMMYS: Matt Weiner Lobbies For Jon Hamm

UPDATE: We hear Jon Hamm’s blockbuster new three-year deal is in the eight figures, catapulting him in the top ranks of cable’s leading … Read More »

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Lionsgate EVP Television Barbara Wall Exits

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday May 23, 2011 @ 6:36pm PDTTags: Barbara Wall, Lionsgate TV
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Barbara Wall is stepping down as EVP television for Lionsgate. Wall, who served as head of development and current programming at the indie TV studio, will stay on as a producer until her current contract expires in the fall. … Read More »

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Lynda La Plante Teams With Lionsgate TV For ‘Villains Of All Nations’ Pirate Series

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 11, 2011 @ 9:02am PDTTags: Lionsgate TV
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Acclaimed British TV writer-producer Lynda La Plante, creator of Prime Suspect, is set to develop Villains of All Nations, a drama series for Lionsgate TV based on historian Marcus Rediker’s book about the “Golden Age” of piracy in the … Read More »

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Lionsgate TV Ramps Up Reality Development, Signs Deal With Booty Parlor

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday January 26, 2011 @ 7:05am PSTTags: Lionsgate TV, TV, TV Deals
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate TV, the company behind such scripted shows as Mad Men and Weeds, is launching a major push in reality TV and is getting a little naughty with it. In one of the first major deals under its renewed focus on unscripted series, the company has signed a multi-media deal with Booty Parlor, a Los Angeles-based company founded by husband-and-wife Charlie and Dana B. Myers that provides body treats, sexy lingerie and other adult playthings that have become quite popular with celebrities. The first project in development under the deal is a reality TV series featuring Dana Myers as an on-camera sexy lifestyle expert. Read More »

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AMC: There Will Be 5th Season Of ‘Mad Men’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 7, 2011 @ 11:10am PSTTags: AMC Mad Men, AMC Mad Men Renewal, Cable TV, Joel Stillerman AMC, Lionsgate TV, Lionsgate TV Mad Men, Mad Men Negotiations, Mad Men Season 5, Matthew Weiner, TV
Nellie Andreeva

AMC didn’t hold an executive Q&E session at TCA, just a panel for upcoming drama The Killing. But at the beginning of that panel, the network’s executives addressed the big question: the future of the network’s flagship series Mad Men. … Read More »

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‘Mad Men’ Cast Options Set To Expire Amidst Series Renewal, Matt Weiner Talks

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday December 17, 2010 @ 4:51pm PSTTags: AMC Mad Men, Cable TV, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Lionsgate, Lionsgate TV, Mad Men, Matthew Weiner, TV
Nellie Andreeva

It looks like we’re in for another round of drawn-out Mad Men negotiations between AMC and Lionsgate TV and between Lionsgate and series creator/showrunner Matthew Weiner. And while talks on both fronts are underway, another deadline is looming – … Read More »

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HBO Nabs Clyde Phillips Crime Drama

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday October 26, 2010 @ 9:44am PDTTags: Cable TV, Clyde Phillips, HBO, HBO Development, Israeli Format TV Series, Israeli Formats, Lionsgate TV, TV, TV Deals
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Clyde Phillips has set up his first post-Dexter project. After a bidding war among several cable networks, HBO has landed a character-driven drama from Phillips and Lionsgate TV based on the Israeli series The Naked Truth. Phillips, who spent 4 years at Showtime running Dexter, will write the adaptation and will executive produce the project, his first under the 2-year overall deal with Lionsgate TV he signed in June. The Naked Truth is set in a major East Coast metropolitan precinct and follows the officers investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl from a prominent family in the pressure cooker atmosphere of an explosive high-profile case that has implications not just for the family of the victim, but for the cops themselves and the political infrastructure of the city. “It’s about the cops encountering people on the worst day of the citizens’ life,” Phillips said. “It’s a bit of an exploration of the middle class and the challenges we all face; it’s a heartbreaking story about a family in a time of crisis and how everyone deals with it.” Read More »

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‘Weeds’ Executive Producers Developing Poker Comedy At Showtime

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday October 11, 2010 @ 12:30pm PDTTags: Cable TV, Jenji Kohan, Lionsgate TV, Showtime, Showtime Development, TV, TV Deals
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Jenji Kohan, creator/executive producer of Showtime’s flagship comedy Weeds and the series’ executive producer Matthew Salsberg have a new comedy project, Whales, in the works at the pay cable channel. The half-hour revolves around a group of brilliant and quirky young people, some of them Harvard and MIT graduates, who move to Las Vegas to live in a lavish apartment while pursuing the $10 million prize at the World Series of Poker. Kohan and Salsberg, who is an avid poker player, are writing and executive producing for Lionsgate TV Read More »

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NBC Develops ‘Precinct’ With Lionsgate & Producers Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday August 23, 2010 @ 12:28pm PDTTags: Fox Comedy, Lionsgate TV, NBC, Running Wilde, Stanley Tucci, Steve Buscemi
Nellie Andreeva

Lionsgate TV is making a return to broadcast TV ‘s primetime this fall with the new Fox comedy series Running Wilde, which it took over at the pilot stage. Now the company is staying active in network development with another broadcast project, 87th Precinct, which has received a script order … Read More »

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David Cross vs. The Volcano: The Peculiar Story Behind The ‘Wilde’/'Arrested’ Reunion

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday July 19, 2010 @ 2:15pm PDTTags: David Cross, Fox, Keri Russell, Lionsgate TV, Mitch Hurwitz, Running Wilde, Running Wilde Pilot, TV, TV Casting, Will Arnett
Nellie Andreeva

davidcrossdaly_andrewBy now you may have already heard that David Cross is joining Mitch Hurwitz and Will Arnett’s new comedy series Running Wilde, bringing in another piece to the Arrested Development reunion that’s … Read More »

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Peter Serafinowicz Joins ‘Running Wilde’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Sunday July 11, 2010 @ 10:03pm PDTTags: Detroit 1-8-7, Fox Comedy, Keri Russell, Lionsgate TV, Running Wilde, Shaun of the Dead, TV, TV Casting, Video, Will Arnett
Nellie Andreeva

PeterSerafinowiczEXCLUSIVE: Peter Serafinowicz has joined the cast of the new Fox comedy series Running Wilde as a regular. Serafinowicz was made a regular after he popped in his guest-starring turn in the pilot as Fa’ad Shaoulin, the Oxford-accented neighbor and frenemy of Steve Wilde (Will Arnett). Similarly, Erin Cummings, who guest-starred in the pilot for ABC’s Detroit 1-8-7 as the medical examiner, was recently upped to regular on the new drama series. The Lionsgate TV-produced Running Wilde centers on Steve Wilde, a filthy-rich, immature playboy trying desperately to win (or buy) the heart of his childhood sweetheart and uber-liberal humanitarian (Keri Russell). Read More »

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Ex-’Dexter’ Showrunner Clyde Phillips Signs Big Overall Deal With Lionsgate Television

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Sunday June 27, 2010 @ 7:00pm PDTTags: Cable TV, Clyde Phillips, Dexter, Lionsgate TV, Showrunners, TV
Nellie Andreeva

Clyde_PhillipsFormer Dexter executive producer/showrunner Clyde Phillips has inked a two-year, seven-figure overall deal at Lionsgate TV. For Lionsgate, this marks a rare pact with a writer-producer not tied to one of the company’s flagship series, like Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, who is under an overall there, as well as Weeds creator Jenji Kohan and her top lieutenant on the show Matthew Salsberg. But Phillips’ work on Showtime’s Dexter, which he joined after the pilot, as well as his background in both comedy and drama (Phillips also created  the Fox dramedy Get Real and created the NBC comedy Suddenly Susan and the Fox half-hour Parker Lewis) were a major draw, Lionsgate TV president Kevin Beggs said. “These days comedy and drama are overlapping on the best cable series,” Beggs said. “And Phillips is the real deal; it’s hard to find people who are not only brilliant writers but can also manage a production.” Read More »

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