UPFRONTS 2013: TV Spinoffs’ Almost Perfect Year 
OSCARS: Animated Feature Rule Change 
Cannes: Relativity Sets ‘Hunger Games’ Liam … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: Billboard Awards Surge From 2012, … 
Cannes: Park Chan-wook’s ‘Sympathy For Mr. … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Yahoo CEO Foresees Big Opportunities To Sell Ads On Tumblr 
Cannes: Keanu Reeves Presents Directorial Debut & … 
Disney, Lucasfilm Animation Prep ‘Star Wars … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
Yahoo Announces $1.1B Tumblr Deal With Vow “Not To … 
Hammond On Cannes: Sun Comes Out As Parties, Deals And … 
Kelly Rowland, Paulina Rubio In Talks To Join ‘X … 
Cannes: Latest Theft Affects China Film Group VP 
UPDATE: Yahoo Board OKs $1.1B Deal To Acquire Tumblr … 
‘Epic’ Toon Begins $14.5M Overseas Rollout 
Cannes: Sony Classics Wins Stateside Rights To Asghar … 
‘Fast & Furious 6′ Breaks Records In … 
Specialty Box Office: ‘Frances Ha’ Triumphs As … 
‘Saturday Night Live’ Season Finale Posts … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
UPDATE 1:17 PM: The TV news community swarmed over the guilty verdict against Dr. Conrad Murray, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson in June 2009. CBS/2, NBC/4, KTLA/5, ABC/7, KCAL/9, Fox/11, CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News and truTV all covered the verdict live from the Los Angeles Criminal Court in Downtown L.A. Murray had no visible reaction to the news, while cameras showed celebration among the sign-wielding crowd gathered outside the court. In the wake of the verdict, those hoping for conviction were interviewed all over the local news dial, while on cable news pundits and legal experts held court with opinion and reaction. The exceptions were Fox News, which quickly went back to its scheduled news rotation, and KCOP/13 locally, which opted to stick with its Bewitched rerun. Murray was handcuffed in court; his sentencing date is November 29.
UPDATE: TV News Swarms Over Verdict As Conrad Murray Convicted In Death Of Michael Jackson
Forecast: Box Office Sales Will Slow While Home Video Keeps Dropping Through 2015
Mixed news for Hollywood today in investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s widely followed annual prognostications for industry spending. Total domestic revenues for the businesses that VSS lumps under entertainment will grow an average of 2.9% a year to reach $97.2B in 2015, according to the newly released VSS Communications Industry Forecast 2011-15. That’s up from the 1% annual average increase from 2005 to 2010. But box office sales will slow: Ticket buyers will spend $11.3B in 2015 as sales improve 1.3% a year vs the five years ending in 2010, when the industry saw annual growth of 3.8%. Meanwhile home video will continue to decline to $17.7B — the 2.7% annual drop at least will be slower than the 4.6% yearly decline from 2005 to 2010. The biggest lift within the category comes from spending on TV programming. It will rise 5.4% a year to $42.1B in 2015. Recorded music will keep sinking to $6.1B in 2015, an average of -2.2% a year vs. -11.1% over the last five years. But VSS says that digital sales will finally lead to an uptick in 2014. Read More »
Growth, Acquisitions Fuel Media Optimism
In the formally-titled Media Growth Survey conducted by firms Jordan, Edmiston Group and Econsultancy, 82% of industry executives said organic growth would be their respective company’s major growth driver within the next two years. Other growth drivers included: launching new products or services (76%); expansion of market share (70%); expansion into … Read More »
Possibly The Most Idiotic TMZ Headline Ever
“Studio Payout Won’t Stop ‘Transformers 3′ Lawsuit”
As if anything could…
Wash Out Their Mouths With Soap!
Deadline recently delved into the potential career calamity of quotes from Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Now, it seems restraint has gone out the window. Each day brings a dopey new pull-quote that makes you wonder: what the hell are these … Read More »
North America Will Be Slowest Growing Entertainment Market Over Next 5 Years
So says the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report, due to be published next week. Total entertainment and media spending fell by 6.8% to $461 billion in North America in 2009, the second year of downturn. The US and … Read More »
Janice Min Takes Hollywood Reporter Reins
In the most recent development at The Hollywood Reporter since e5 Global Media bought it last December and began an overhaul, former Us Magazine editor Janice Min has been appointed editorial director. THR editor Elizabeth Guider will report to Min. Nikki … Read More »
UPDATE: Ron Burkle & Harvey Weinstein Insist Still “Working Towards” Miramax Deal — Despite Disney Telling Media It’s Dead
UPDATE 5:45 PM: Ron Burkle and Harvey Weinstein just issued this joint statement in response to Disney insiders telling the media (including Deadline) that the Miramax deal with them is “dead”:
“The Weinstein Brothers, The Weinstein Company and Ron Burkle are all working towards
Two Different Reads On CBS Fall Lineup…
This morning I read in The New York Times that ”CBS shook up the upfront week on Wednesday with the most startling moves of any network for the coming season.” But then I read the Wall Street Journal, whose parent company News Corp also owns CBS’ rival Fox, and its headline ”Playing It Safe” for a story … Read More »
Docu On Jimmy Breslin & NYC Newspapers
UPDATE: Former PR guy Dan Klores has spent the last decade making documentaries on New York-centric subjects. So, natch, he’ll next focus his camera on Gotham’s Jimmy Breslin. Klores will begin work in September on Breslin: The Great One, which will simultaneously chronicle … Read More »
TV Upfront Presentations & Party Schedule
Sunday, May 16
8 PM-11 PM: 20th Century FOX Television & Entertainment Weekly
Cooper Square Hotel, 25 Cooper Square9 PM: UTA Upfronts Party
Stone Rose Lounge @Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus CircleMonday, May 17
11 AM: NBC presentation, New York Hilton Hotel, 1335 Avenue of the Americas
Lunch to follow; 9
CANNES: UK Critics Review ‘Wall Street 2′
UK reviews on Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps have come in after its Cannes debut. “Utterly gripping. It’s been 23 years but it was worth the wait,” says London tabloid the Daily … Read More »
Jeff Zucker Launches Charm Offensive…
Within the next hour, Jeff Zucker will be sitting down with Los Angeles-based showbiz journalists for one of his annual off-the-record sessions. But the NBCU chief plans on demonstrating he’s a new and supposedly improved Zucker. A nicer Zucker. And not … Read More »
Profile Of ‘Avatar’ Co-Financier Ingenious: The Fallout After UK’s Tax Man Cometh
One of the key questions coming into the Cannes Film Festival is the state of film financiers in the global marketplace. Here’s a profile of one that’s been in the news of late because of Avatar and an ongoing UK tax investigation:
It’s a space-age white reception area, with primary coloured Op Art couches and banks of modish computers. This is the entryway to Ingenious Media, considered the most pukka of all British film financiers. Office space like this, right in the heart of London’s Soho media district, doesn’t come cheap. Then again, Ingenious’ chief executive and owner Patrick McKenna can afford it. According to the Sunday Times, McKenna has a personal fortune of £520 million – up by £200 million over the past year. This soft spoken former accountant’s Ingenious really got going in the late 1990s once the government’s tax break for film investment bedded down. 
The British film industry, which for years had struggled for cash, found itself awash in green stuff. Ingenious and its film partners alone invested £5 billion over the past 10 years. And just as Ingenious’ reputation was rising, so McKenna’s social stock was soaring, too. This son of a builder and a nurse has dined with the Queen, maintains a vacation home in St Tropez, is chairman of The Young Vic Theatre (there were gasps when he personally donated £1 million during a fundraiser), and was recently shortlisted to be chairman of the influential Arts Council London.
McKenna also has a reputation for being tough. And these are tough times for him and his company. In October 2006, Ingenious set up its own specialist media stockbroking arm which then had the plug pulled on it less than 2 years later. Now Ingenious Media Active Capital, Ingenious’ stock market-listed investment fund, is returning the bulk of its £60 million funds to backers after some bad investments. But that’s not all: Are the wheels wobbly on the film finance side, too?
The British press splashed the disturbing news that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has written to Ingenious’ investors demanding hundreds of thousands of pounds back. Read More »
Oasis Rock Star Planning Beatles Biopic
UPDATE: There’s a great scoop in this morning’s London Daily Mail that Liam Gallagher, former front-man of Oasis, has optioned a book about the break-up of The Beatles. The Longest Cocktail Party charts the rise and fall of Apple Records. Its … Read More »
Saban Brands Born With $500M Capital
LOS ANGELES, CA. (May 6, 2010) – Saban Capital Group, Inc. announced today the formation of Saban Brands LLC to acquire, manage and license entertainment properties and consumer brands across media and consumer platforms globally. Saban Capital Group will dedicate
Newsweek Magazine For Sale
Remember the good old media days when a Newsweek magazine cover could make or break a movie? 
Now its 51-year parent company, the Washington Post Co, has hired Allen & Co to find a buyer for the money-losing mag. Newsweek has … Read More »
Another Fired Variety Film Critic Lands
First, Todd McCarthy lands and now Derek Elley, Variety’s former senior international critic who’s joining Film Business Asia. Elley, who was with Variety for 20 years, was fired in March along with McCarthy.
Polanski: “I Can Remain Silent No Longer!”
Film director Roman Polanski today broke his silence first the time about his Swiss arrest and pending extradition back to Los Angeles. He released this statement to the news media through his Paris friend and author Bernard-Henri Lévy, director of the French magazine La Règle du Jeu:
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