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ABC Picks Up Comedy ‘Pulling’, Dramas From McG, David Zabel & Brad Pitt

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday January 22, 2013 @ 7:20pm PSTTags: ABC, Big Deals TV, Brad Pitt, McG, Pulling
Nellie Andreeva

ABC made a late charge on the pilot pickup front to end what will likely be the busiest day this season. (For full list of all broadcast pilots, click here.) The network has given the green light to comedy Pulling, from Bad Teachers scribes Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and producer Aaron Kaplan. On the drama side, picked up are dramas Betrayal from David Zabel; Venice from McG and Byron Balasco, with McG set to direct; and The Returned, from writer Aaron Zelman, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

Single-camera comedy Pulling is based on the praised 2006 British series. Eisenberg and Stupnitsky wrote the adaptation, produced by ABC Studios and Kapital Entertainment. Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly, creators of the original series, executive produce with Eisenberg, Stupnitsky and Kaplan. Pulling revolves around three dysfunctional women in their 30s living their lives the way they want, even if society tells them they should have it all figured out by this point. This marks the second pilot order for Kaplan today, joining CBS’ Dana Klein comedy, and third so far this season, along with NBC’s The Gates. READ MORE »

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McG’s Kevin Costner Thriller Officially Adds Hailee Steinfeld; Amber Heard & Connie Nielsen Also Join

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday January 7, 2013 @ 2:16pm PSTTags: Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, McG

We told you back in November that Hailee Steinfeld was boarding McG’s untitled action thriller starring Kevin Costner. Now Relativity Media and EuropaCorp are confirming that Steinfeld has … Read More »

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CBS Buys Female Vigilante Drama From McG And Daniel Cerone

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday October 11, 2012 @ 11:28am PDTTags: Big Deals TV, CBS, McG
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: McG has teamed with The Mentalist executive producer Daniel Cerone for a female-lead crime drama, which has sold to CBS. Carrying the social media-influenced title #Resistance, the project from McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision and Warner Bros TV centers on an unconventional young female detective for the San Francisco Police Department who won’t let criminals get away with their actions. After she finally goes too far, she gets fired from the force — only to be secretly recruited by the Chief of Police to become an undercover officer posing as a vigilante, allowing her to break the law in order to serve justice. Cerone will write the script and executive produce with Wonderland’s McG and Peter Johnson.

The project, somewhat of a female Equalizer, was put together by Wonderland VP Jeff Grosvenor. It stems from McG’s history and interest in empowered female characters and Cerone’s experience on Dexter, where he served as executive producer/showrunner, and on The Mentalist — both shows centered on characters that fight crime from outside the conventional system. Read More »

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TOLDJA! Kevin Costner Stars In McG-Directed ‘Three Days To Kill’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday October 2, 2012 @ 12:17pm PDTTags: Europacorp, Kevin Costner, McG
Mike Fleming

File this one under, exclusive, my ass. Back in early August, Deadline broke the story that Kevin Costner would star in Three Days to Kill, and also told you that McG was going to direct and Relativity Media would … Read More »

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CW Developing Modern ‘Alice In Wonderland’ With McG And Chad Hodge

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday September 18, 2012 @ 2:57pm PDTTags: Alice in Wonderland, Big Deals TV, Chad Hodge, McG
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: The CW is jumping down a rabbit hole to Wunderland, putting in development a contemporary reimagining of Alice In Wonderland. Fittingly, Wunderland hails from McG‘s Warner Bros TV-based production company Wonderland Sound And Vision, in association with WBTV. Written by The Playboy Club creator Chad Hodge, the drama project centers on a young female detective in present-day Los Angeles who discovers another world that exists under the surface of this ultra-modern city. Hodge will write the script and executive produce with McG and Wonderland’s Peter Johnson. This is one of two public domain properties the CW is developing as potential drama series for next season, along with Sleepy Hollow, which also is being produced by WBTV. Lewis Carroll’s classic has been closely associated with Disney via the 1951 animated film and Tim Burton’s 2010 extravaganza. Characters from the book also have been featured on Disney-owned ABC’s fairytale drama Once Upon A Time. Read More »

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ABC Buys McG-Produced Drama With Put Pilot Commitment

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday August 6, 2012 @ 9:53am PDTTags: ABC, Big Deals TV, McG
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In one of ABC’s first major development commitments for next season, the network has bought a soapy drama  from McG, producer of Fox’s The O.C., which helped usher in the current resurgence of the primetime … Read More »

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McG To Direct And Produce Greg Berlanti- Marc Guggenheim Fox Drama Pilot ‘Guilty’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 9:49am PSTTags: Fox, Greg Berlanti, Guilty, Marc Guggenheim, McG
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In a symbolic move, on the day Chuck, whose pilot McG directed, is ending its 5-season run on NBC, McG has closed a deal to direct his first pilot since Chuck, Fox’s Guilty. The legal drama, from Greg … Read More »

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Hot International Trailer: ‘This Means War’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday December 7, 2011 @ 12:29am PSTTags: Chris Pine, McG, Reese Witherspoon, Simon Kinberg, This Means War, Tom Hardy

Chris Pine and Tom Hardy play spies who discover they’re dating the same woman — Reese Witherspoon. The decide to go at each other rather like another 20th Century Fox pairing (we’ll let you guess which one) and “may the best man win.” Occasional hilarity and physical comedy ensue. You … Read More »

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Chris Shafer & Paul Vicknair To Pen Amanda Seyfried-Starring ‘The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League’ Pic For McG

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday November 9, 2011 @ 1:34pm PSTTags: Chris Shafer, McG, Paul Vicknair, Wonderland Sound and Vision

Up-and-coming scribes Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair have been hired to write The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League, the feature adaptation of a Rolling Stone article that McG’s … Read More »

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McG Eyes Summit’s ‘Puzzle Palace’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday October 25, 2011 @ 5:32pm PDTTags: Chris Pine, David Guggenheim, Denzel Washington, McG, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Reynolds, Summit Entertainment, Tom Hardy
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Summit Entertainment is in talks with McG to direct Puzzle Palace, the cop drama script by David Guggenheim. Summit acquired the project at a pitch early last year from Guggenheim after the scribe sold the spec script Safe … Read More »

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Hot Trailer: McG’s ‘This Means War’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday October 13, 2011 @ 3:28pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Chris Pine, McG, Movie Trailers, Reese Witherspoon, This Means War, Tom Hardy
Mike Fleming

20th Century Fox has released a trailer for This Means War, the McG-directed comedy that pits the world’s deadliest CIA operatives and inseparable best friends against one another when they find they are dating the same woman. The operatives use all their skills and gadgetry in an attempt to prevail. … Read More »

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Warner Bros Sets ‘Aim High’ As First Facebook Series From Hollywood Studio

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday September 29, 2011 @ 6:26am PDTTags: McG, Thor Freudenthal
Mike Fleming

Is it a gimmick or a true interactive programming innovation? Warner Bros Digital Distribution has launched what it claims to be the first “social series” from a Hollywood studio in Aim High. It’s an action comedy series that has … Read More »

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McG’s Wonderland Sells 5 Drama Projects

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday September 12, 2011 @ 6:14pm PDTTags: ABC, CW, Fox, McG, NBC, Wonderland Sound and Vision
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: As it enters its second decade as a company this month, McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision is ramping up TV development this season with 5 drama sales at ABC, NBC, Fox and the CW and several comedy and reality … Read More »

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Universal’s ‘Ouija’ Put Into Turnaround

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday August 24, 2011 @ 11:54am PDTTags: Clue, McG, Michael Bay, Platinum Dunes, Universal Pictures

Universal has dropped another board-game film adaptation from its groundbreaking six-year exclusive pact with Hasbro, sending Ouija into turnaround to join previous projects Clue, Monopoly and Magic, The Gathering. The Ouija film — which has McG attached to direct and … Read More »

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Universal Drops ‘Clue’; Gore Verbinski Moves Forward With Hasbro Cash And New Writers

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday August 3, 2011 @ 10:04am PDTTags: Alex Proyas, Andrew Form, Bennett Schneir, Brad Fuller, Brian Goldner, Burk Sharpless, Clue, Gore Verbinski, Ian Bryce, James Lassiter, John Hlavin, John Krauss, Liam Neeson, Matt Sazama, McG, Michael Bay, Peter Berg, Ridley Scott, Sam Worthington, Scott Stuber, Taylor Kitsch, Taylor Lautner, Universal Pictures, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has quietly dropped out of Clue, one of the seven Hasbro games properties the studio contracted to make into movies in a ground-breaking six-year exclusive deal signed in 2008. Clue becomes the third project out of seven to be dropped by Universal (Monopoly and Magic, The Gathering were also kicked to the curb), but none of those projects are dead. In the case of the murder mystery board game Clue, Hasbro is funding the development and producing the film with Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink. Verbinski, director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, Rango and the upcoming Lone Ranger, still plans to direct Clue, and he and Blind Wink’s John Krauss are producing with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir.

They’ve just hired Flash Gordon scribes Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama to write the Clue script. The writers will draft a take that Verbinski and his fellow producers came up with that retains the murder mystery spirit of the board game, but broadens the setting to a global stage. Beyond scripting Flash Gordon for Sony Pictures, Sharpless and Sazama are redrafting Dracula Year Zero. That project’s still hanging on at Universal, after being halted just short of the start line because of a high budget, when Alex Proyas was directing and Sam Worthington was going to star. ICM reps the writers.

Is all this a clue that Universal no longer wants to roll the dice on board game movies? Insiders say no. Rather, they tell me that Universal and Hasbro gradually narrowed their focus to the four films that most made sense for the studio: Battleship, the Peter Berg-directed summer 2012 action movie that stars Taylor Kitsch and Liam Neeson, with Universal just releasing its first trailer (below); Stretch Armstrong, which has Rob Letterman directing and Twilight Saga’s Taylor Lautner attached to play the rubbery title character; Candy Land, which is being written by Kung Fu Panda 2 co-writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, who’ve described the film as Lord of the Rings, with edibles; and Ouija, which has McG attached to direct and Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form producing with Ian Bryce and Hasbro’s Goldner and Schneir. Read More »

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‘Terminator’ Back With Arnold To Star: Schwarzenegger In Package Shopping Now; ‘Fast Five’s Justin Lin To Direct

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday April 26, 2011 @ 4:17pm PDTTags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, CAA, Christian Bale, Halcyon, Justin Lin, McG, Pacificor, Sam Worthington, The Terminator
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: He’s baaack! Arnold Schwarzenegger is attached to star in a rights package that CAA is shopping today that will revive The Terminator, one of Hollywood’s most iconic scifi franchises. The agency is dropping the package on studios this afternoon. I’m told that already, Universal, Sony and Lionsgate, and CBS Films are looking hard at the package. There is no screenwriter attached at this point, and Robert Cort is producing. This is the first real activity on The Terminator project since February 2010, when the property emerged from a bankruptcy auction and into the possession of Pacificor. The Santa Barbara-based hedge fund posted a bid of $29.5 million, with the promise that additional multimillion-dollar payments for each film would go to Halcyon, the company that made the 2009 McG-directed Terminator Salvation. That film starred Sam Worthington as the cyborg and Christian Bale as John Connor, and the storyline  launched the battle between Skynet and the human survivors of the apocalypse, the war foreshadowed in James Cameron’s visionary 1984 original film. Halcyon wanted to make several films but ran out of money. At the time of the auction, Pacificor beat out a combined bid by Lionsgate and Sony planning to make back-to-back sequels to bring the franchise to a natural creative conclusion.

While many felt at the time that Pacificor overpaid and that Lionsgate and Sony would have been better matches for the material, CAA has chosen an optimum time to seek a new deal. I wrote back in February that Universal quietly was trying to arrange for Lin to be helmer of the project. At the time, some turned up their noses. Given the strong international grosses being racked up by Fast Five and the expectations for a strong domestic opening this Friday, Lin has a lot of heat. And Schwarzenegger is looking to recapture past marquee glory ending his run as California State Governor. Schwarzenegger has circled several projects including Last Stand for Lionsgate, but here, he’s the star, returning to the signature role that once established him as the world’s biggest movie star. Read More »

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McG Launches Comic Imprint, Plots ‘Haunted City’ As First Project

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday March 31, 2011 @ 6:24pm PDTTags: Chap Taylor, McG
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision has launched a new comic and graphic novel imprint to create transmedia properties out of original ideas. The first title will be Haunted City, based on an idea by screenwriter Chap Taylor. Taylor and … Read More »

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20th Century Fox Buys Space Adventure Steered By McG

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday March 14, 2011 @ 11:05am PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, McG, The Expendables
Mike Fleming

20th Century Fox has acquired an untitled pitch for a large-scale science fiction adventure film that has McG attached to produce through his Wonderland Sound and Vision banner with an eye toward directing. All parties were scant on details, but … 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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