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Oliver Stone stole the show at CinemaCon‘s Filmmakers Forum today, making the most challenging comments on a panel with fellow directors Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro. Too many movies are made to please audiences, copy each other, and lack a compelling story, Stone said at a session moderated by film critic Elvis Mitchell. “I don’t see the difference between one action movie and another…It becomes a form of torture for the eyes. CIA torture: I’d make you watch GI Joe 3,000 times. Just kidding.” All of the directors said that they enjoy seeing their movies in theaters with audiences. “It’s almost like a theater actor who calibrates [his] performance,” del Toro said adding that being a director “is very lonely.” Raimi described himself as “definitely an audience filmmaker….We’re working to move that audience.” But Stone said it’s dangerous for filmmakers to “run after them like dogs” because difficult films “won’t get audiences slavering.” For example, he said that in “the good old days” he didn’t allow Warner Bros to have previews for his film JFK telling execs “you’re going to get mixed cards all over the place. We’ll never get out of here alive.” Del Toro agreed that directors must fulfill their own vision, something he has tried to do in his horror films. “You can’t make a cozy horror film.” If someone screen-tested The Exorcist today many would object “because it’s transgressive.” READ MORE »
CinemaCon: Directors Debate Whether They Should Try To Make Crowd-Pleasing Films
‘Savages’ Author Don Winslow Hits A Double On Bestseller Lists
In my view, there hasn’t been a quality author more underrated than Don Winslow. He hooked me with The Winter of Frankie Machine and Power of the Dog, but various turns in turnaround hell on his movies has made him a well kept secret for close to two decades. While I think that Universal miscalculated by moving the Oliver Stone-directed Savages from its fall berth to last weekend on not enough screens (the films Ted and Magic Mike provided stiff competition in the counter-programming to blockbusters niche that the studio sought for Savages), Winslow’s novel Savages has just gotten back on The New York Times bestseller list, and so has The Kings of Cool, his recently released prequel to the audacious drug tale. Read More »
#1 ‘Spider-Man’ Blazes $341.2M July 4th Week; Hits ‘Ted’, ‘Brave’, ‘Magic Mike’ Still Hot; New ‘Savages’ Warm, ‘Katy Perry’ Cold
July 6-8 Weekend Actuals
1. The Amazing Spider-Man 3D (Columbia/Sony) Week 1 [4,318 Theaters] PG13
Friday $20.5M, Saturday $23.7M, Sunday $17.9M Weekend $62M, Cume $137.0M
International Cume $201.6M, Global Cume $338.6M2. Ted (Universal) Week 2 [3,256 Theaters] R
Friday $10.6M, Saturday $11.9M, Sunday $9.7M, Weekend $32.2M (-41%), Cume $119.8M International $15.0M, Global Cume $134.8M3. Brave 3D (Pixar/Disney) Week 3 [3,891 Theaters] PG
Friday $6.3M, Saturday $7.8M, Sunday $5.5M, Weekend $19.6M (-43%), Cume $174.0M, International Cume $36.6M, Global Cume $210.6M4. Savages (Universal) NEW [2,628 Theaters] R
Friday $5.7M, Saturday $5.6M, Sunday $4.7M, Weekend $16.0M5. Magic Mike (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,120 Theaters] R
Friday $6.1M, Saturday $5.6M, Sunday, $3.9M, Weekend $15.6M (-60%), Cume $72.8M6. Madea’s Witness Protection (TPerry/Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,161 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.5M, Saturday $4.1M, Sunday $2.6M, Weekend $10.2M (-60%), Cume $45.8M7. Madasgascar 3 3D (DreamWorks Anim/Paramount) Week 5 [2,861 Theaters] PG
Friday $2.4M, Saturday $3.1M, Sunday $2.1M, Weekend $7.5M (-37%), Cume $195.9M8. Katy Perry: Part Of Me 3D (Insurge/Paramount) Week 1 [2,730 Theaters] PG
Friday $2.7M, Saturday $2.5M, Sunday $2.0M, Weekend $7.1M, Cume $10.2M9. Moonrise Kingdom (Focus Features) Week 7 [884 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.9M, Sunday $1.2M, Weekend $4.5M (-8%), Cume $26.8M10. To Rome With Love (Sony Classics) Week 3 [806 Theaters] R
Friday $865K, Saturday $1.4M, Sunday $867K, Weekend $3.1M (+350%), Cume $4.9M
SUNDAY AM, 10TH UPDATE: This big $200M moviegoing weekend is bringing out crowds post Fourth Of July and looking +28% from last year. Sony/Columbia’s The Amazing Spider-Man is an easy #1 with a $65M first weekend. 
That gives the 3D reboot a 6-day total of $140M through Sunday and $341.2M cume worldwide. The film opened last weekend in 13 countries and this weekend is open in a total of 70 territories. It grossed an estimated $129.1M this weekend, bringing the overseas cume to $201.6M. In North America, the film sold $20.6M in tickets on Friday, then went up 15% on Saturday to $23.8M, and is expected to do approximately $20.5M today. ”In the world of relaunched franchises, this is a spectacular success by any measure,” Sony gushed. For example, Batman Begins relaunched with $48.7M in 2005 and $79.5M in its first 6 days. For the Spidet reboot, 75% of the audience for the opening were general moviegoers aged 12+, and 25% were families (parents with children under 12). Of those 12 years old or older, 58% were male and 42% female, 46% were under age 25 and 54% were 25 and older. Of the children who attended under 12, 65% were boys and 35% were girls, while 73% were under 10 years old. The film received an ‘A-’ Cinemascore “and that strong word of mouth is also supported by our own exit scores with very high definite recommend numbers across all demos,” Sony said. Approximately 44% of the weekend’s gross came from 3D with IMAX accounting for 10%. IMAX took in $14.3M for the 6 days ($47K per screen). All in all a nice haul, but only middling when it comes to top moneymakers for any first 6-day time period. Especially considering Spidey is Marvel’s most popular character. Little wonder that Sony is fast-tracking the next installment of its new trilogy with fresh villains and storylines that should spark more interest and box office in this too-soon reboot that was just a retread of the original origins saga.
Meanwhile, Universal’s #2 holdover Ted is still strong domestically with a $32.5M domestic weekend and a fantastic 10-day cume of $120.2M. Audiences were starved for a smart laugher. It’s now eclipsing Hangover as the biggest R-rated comedy. Both Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane can write their own ticket by Monday. (I still can’t believe Fox passed…) The foul-mouthed teddy bear also will be the #1 film in Australia this weekend after opening against the web-spinner. Ouch! Overseas total from just Down Under and Taiwan is $15M.
Related: ‘Ted’ Opens ‘Off The Charts’ In Australia
The newest major studio film, Oliver Stone’s adult crime drama Savages, is looking like $16.1M for the weekend. That’s a better than expected opening for a violent ‘Hard R’ pic with no proven stars. As you know, Universal made the decision to move this R-rated actioner from the safe harbor of a September 28th release (where The Town, a similar R-rated crime film, performed so well in 2010) to this very crowded summer slot. As a result, Savages could only release on 2,627 screens. Dumb move? Those better-than-average trailers made this look like a perfect fall movie. But the studio felt midweek numbers would be better and Savages could counterprogram Ice Age 4 next weekend. On the other hand, audiences gave Savages only a ‘C+’ CinemaScore, which will result in poor word-of-mouth. Good thing it was made for only $45M.
Struggling is the $12M low budget Katy Perry’s Part Of Me which will do around $7.1M for its first weekend and $10.2M for its first 4 days in release. “I guess it will take 5 days to gross its budget,” a Paramount exec joked about the Insurge pic’s cold reception at the box office. Earth to Hollywood: no one cares about Katy beyond a handful of tween/teen girls. Not even Russell Brand anymore.
Meanwhile, Woody Allen’s critically panned To Rome With Love from Sony Classics exanded into the Top Ten based on weekend estimates. Refined numbers in the morning along with analysis of the 10-day holiday box office:
1. The Amazing Spider-Man 3D (Columbia/Sony) Week 1 [4,318 Theaters] PG13
Friday $20.6M, Saturday $23.8M, Weekend $65M, Cume $140M
International Cume $201.6M, Global Cume $341.2M
2. Ted (Universal) Week 2 [3,256 Theaters] R
Friday $10.5M, Saturday $11.8M, Weekend $32.5M (-49%), Cume $120.2M
International $15.0M, Global Cume $135.2M
3. Brave 3D (Pixar/Disney) Week 3 [3,891 Theaters] PG
Friday $6.2M, Saturday $7.7M, Weekend $20.1M, Cume $174.5M
International Cume $36.6M, Global Cume $211.1M
4. Savages (Universal) NEW [2,628 Theaters] R
Friday $5.6M, Saturday $5.6M, Weekend $16.1M
5. Magic Mike (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,120 Theaters] R
Friday $6.1M, Saturday $5.5M, Weekend $15.6M (-60%), Cume $72.2M
6. Madea’s Witness Protection (TPerry/Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,161 Theaters]
Friday $3.4M, Saturday $4.1M, Weekend $10.2M (-60%), Cume $45.8M
7. Madasgascar 3 3D (DreamWorks Anim/Paramount) Week 5 [2,861 Theaters] PG
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $3.0M, Weekend $7.7M, Cume $196.0M
8. Katy Perry: Part Of Me 3D (Insurge/Paramount) Week 1 [2,730 Theaters] PG
Friday $2.7M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $7.1M, Cume $10.2M
9. Moonrise Kingdom (Focus Features) Week 6 [884 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.9M, Weekend $4.6M, Cume $26.8M
10. To Rome With Love (Sony Classics) Week 3 [806 Theaters] R
Friday $860K, Saturday $1.3M, Weekend $3.5M, Cume $5.2M
Read More »
‘Savages’ Clips Introduce Lead Characters In New Oliver Stone Film: Video
Here are five clips released by Universal to promote Oliver Stone’s new film Savages with cast members Aaron Johnson, Taylor Kitsch, Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro and Blake Lively. The movie is set to open in the U.S. on July 6. The first video features Johnson, with the rest on the jump.
Hot Trailer: Oliver Stone’s ‘Savages’
Universal has released its first trailer for Savages, the Oliver Stone-directed adaptation of the bestselling Don Winslow novel about two pot growers from Laguna who are muscled by a Mexican drug cartel. When the cartel kidnaps the woman they share, … Read More »
Simon & Schuster Shifts Pub Date Of ‘Savages’ Prequel To Coincide With Film Release
EXCLUSIVE: Simon & Schuster has moved the publication date of the Don Winslow novel The Kings Of Cool from fall to June 26. The move was made to bring the book closer to the launch of Savages, the Oliver Stone-directed … Read More »
Oliver Stone Starrer ‘Graystone’ Lands U.S. Rights
ARC Entertainment and XLrator Media picked up domestic rights to supernatural horror film Graystone by actor-writer Sean Stone who will star in the feature along with his father Oliver Stone. The younger Stone has appeared as an actor … Read More »
Universal Moves Oliver Stone’s ‘Savages’ From Fall To July 6 Opening
EXCLUSIVE: Looks like Universal Pictures smells a summer hit in Savages, the Oliver Stone-directed adaptation of the bestselling Don Winslow novel. After screening a cut late last week, the studio has moved the film up to a July 6 slot. … Read More »
Simon & Schuster To Coincide Don Winslow Prequel Novel Bow With Release Of Oliver Stone-Directed ‘Savages’
New York, NY, January 4, 2012: Simon and Schuster announced today that Don Winslow’s The Kings of Cool, the much-anticipated prequel to his New York Times bestseller Savages will be published to coincide with the release of Academy Award winning filmmaker Oliver Stone’s major film of Savages from Universal Pictures in September 2012. Savages stars Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights, John Carter, Battleship), Blake Lively (Gossip Girl, The Town), Demian Bichir (A Better Life), Aaron Johnson (Anna Karenina), two-time Oscar nominee John Travolta, Oscar nominee Uma Thurman, Emile Hirsch (Milk), Mia Maestro (Twilight) and Oscar nominee Salma Hayek. The screenplay is written by Shane Salerno & Don Winslow & Oliver Stone.
R.I.P. Bruno Rubeo
Oscar-nominated production designer Bruno Rubeo, who was a frequent collaborator with Taylor Hackford and Oliver Stone, died November 3rd in Trevi, Italy of complications from pneumonia. He was 65. According to his official bio, Rubeo was born in Rome and served in the Italian Navy before immigrating to Canada where … Read More »
Warner Bros Acquires Post-WWII Don Winslow Novel ‘Satori’ For Leonardo DiCaprio
EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has acquired the Don Winslow bestselling novel Satori and will develop it as a star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio to play a Westerner, raised in Japan and taught an assassin’s skills, who gets caught up in the chaos of post-WWII as the U.S., Soviet Union, France and China maneuver for power in Southeast Asia in the early 1950s. Shane Salerno will write the script with Winslow, and John Lesher’s Grisdi Productions and DiCaprio’s Appian Way partner Jennifer Killoran are producing. Salerno is executive producer.
DiCaprio will play Nicholai Hel, raised in Japan by a martial arts expert and genius at Go, the complex chess-like Japanese game. The master, a Japanese general, passes on all his secrets and the student repays him by murdering his mentor as an act of devotion; the military leader would have been disgraced and killed as a war criminal.
For that act, Hel is thrown in solitary confinement in a Tokyo prison and tortured for three years. He is finally sprung by the CIA after agreeing to assassinate the Soviet commissioner to China. Hel is trained for the task by a beautiful French woman he falls in love with. Though he now sees a happy ending to the dangerous assignment, Hel is betrayed by his backers and, using his Go skills for strategy, makes his way through Vietnam hunted by American, Chinese, Russian and French intelligence agencies as well as a Corsican mob and Vietnamese criminal syndicate. It’s a sophisticated thriller, and the studio sees potential for its own Jason Bourne-type action franchise. Read More »
Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson Re-Upped Through 2014
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 »
Q&A: Brian Grazer And Ron Howard On 25 Years Together As Imagine Partners
UPDATE EXCLUSIVE: Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard have reached a milestone unusual in Hollywood: partners for 25 years. When they first got together, 
Grazer was a TV producer. Howard, after growing up on the small screen in The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, had only directed a couple of TV movies and the low budget Roger Corman-produced Grand Theft Auto. Grazer and Howard have been at it together ever since, building a company that over 25 years has been one of the most consistent generators of content. Their TV series output includes 24, Parenthood, Arrested Development and Friday Night Lights; their movies have grossed $13.5 billion worldwide. That includes A Beautiful Mind, which won Howard the Academy Award for Best Director. Grazer and Howard shared Best Picture Oscars that night as well. Not everything they’ve done has succeeded, of course. They they took their company public and repurchased the shares; they helped launched and fold the online venture Pop.com; their most recent film together, the adult comedy The Dilemma, was a misfire that created controversy over the inclusion of the word “gay” in a trailer. They’ve had way more hits than misses.
In honor of Imagine’s Silver Anniversary, Deadline invited Howard and Grazer to look back over their quarter century together, and into a future that includes something never tried before by anyone in Hollywood. They’re adapting Stephen King’s 7-novel series The Dark Tower into a film trilogy, and a limited run TV series in between. It has pushed the envelope enough that their longtime home studio, Universal Pictures, postponed a planned late summer start until next year and asked the filmmakers to cut the budget. Some question the studio’s resolve on such a massive undertaking. The studio has to green light the film by next month or the rights revert to Imagine, Akiva Goldsman and King, who are determined to make it regardless.
DEADLINE: Not many marriages of any kind last 25 years in Hollywood. What is most important about the anniversary?
HOWARD: It’s such a challenging time to get movies made. And yet, look at all we have coming out. Tower Heist, the Gus Van Sant movie Restless, J Edgar with Clint Eastwood and Leo DiCaprio, Cowboys & Aliens, this big broad appeal four quadrant fantasy adventure story with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. With The Playboy Club getting on the air, and Parenthood getting picked up, I’m proud we’re doing what we’ve always done. A wide variety of projects that got made because we care and put in the energy to get them done in light of how difficult it is these days.
DEADLINE: I’ve watched filmmaker partnerships fail because of jealousy, ego, greed, or lack of sustained success. Why have you avoided those pitfalls?
HOWARD: The bi-coastal relationship!
DEADLINE: Simple as that?
HOWARD: Because I’m in New York, we’re not forced to stare at each other’s faces 24/7. But I think that’s not really it. We love what we’re doing, we have fun doing it and our sensibilities are in sync. In a business that can create so many feelings of anxiety and self-doubt, I learned to trust in that. Brian is smart and cares about me doing well and feeling good about what I’m doing. It’s a partnership built on support. It has been that way since the beginning.
GRAZER: It works because we have similar tastes and not only gravitate toward the same material but also what lives inside the core of the movie it becomes. We’ve done, and Ron has directed, all kinds of genres. We have a common interest in the humanity aspect of a movie, regardless if it’s a comedy or a drama. We also share a similar work ethic.
DEADLINE: When you cover all genres, does Imagine have a wheelhouse? For a company looking to last, is it advisable to have one?
HOWARD: The process is what gets Brian and me excited, whatever the genre. Not specializing has given our company a sense of flexibility and adaptability to whatever the market or the zeitgeist is suggesting. We’ve always respected each other as creative people. If Brian loves something and I don’t quite get it, I’ll tell him that but I’ll never try to impede the progress. He’s the same with me. With Apollo 13, I wasn’t sure the genre would work, because space films hadn’t done that well. Brian was instantly so excited about it, and made me realize we were onto something. 8 Mile, I don’t know anything about rap. This was something he understood. I didn’t know how to make that movie, but I recognized a great idea. Whenever the two of us get excited, on films like Splash, Night Shift and Parenthood, those have resulted in the building blocks of the company. I’ve always liked TV but I phased it out for awhile and it was Brian’s perseverance that has made us strong in both TV and films. Independent companies are rarely strong in both.
GRAZER: What we’ve do is agree on the moral center of a project, but nobody’s better at finding the language of a particular movie than Ron. He’s got a grasp of understanding new vocabularies, whether it’s the The Da Vinci Code, fantasy like Cocoon or Splash, or Backdraft and The Grinch. He is great at inhabiting a world and completely understanding and expressing its language. In A Beautiful Mind, he entered that world and understood the medical science of mental illness. So there have been times where he led the charge, and I was drawn in by his excitement.
DEADLINE: What was the last hard conversation or professional disagreement you can remember?
HOWARD: I can’t think of one offhand, but even when we have disagreements, I can’t think of a case where one of us ever said, ‘Oh, please don’t do this.’ If there’s a lot of passion from one or the other, then the support of the company is going to be there. Read More »
Don Winslow To Write Prequel To ‘Savages’ As Oliver Stone Ramps Up Production
EXCLUSIVE: Simon & Schuster has made a deal for Don Winslow to write a prequel novel to Savages, his bestseller that forms the basis of the film that Oliver Stone will begin shooting for Universal Pictures July 6, with Taylor … Read More »
Pair Of Hunt For Bin Laden Projects Could Be Timeliest Movies In Hollywood Now
EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow in recent weeks has been preparing and starting to cast an indie movie with the working title Kill Bin Laden, 
while another movie project about the hunt for the Al Queda terrorist leader at a major Hollywood studio stalled back in 2006. Given tonight’s startling news, it’s clear that these may be the timeliest film projects in recent Hollywood history. And judging from tonight’s showbiz phone calls coming into Deadline about Osama bin Laden’s death, I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie studios are anxious to bring these projects to the big screen as soon as possible, updated with the details behind tonight’s successful military mission. Have you seen those spontaneous cheering crowds that formed tonight outside Washington DC’s White House and in NYC’s Times Square as well as around major American cities and small towns? If a patriotic film about this story can tap into these feelings of first helpless horror and then widespread frustration and then successful closure, it could be a real winner at the box office.
Bigelow and Mark Boal, her collaborator on The Hurt Locker, have been mobilizing their film to go into production as their follow-up to that Best Picture Academy Award winner. Their movie as planned was based on an earlier unsuccessful mission to try to kill the Al Qaeda leader responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attack on America as he hid in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. But now they’ve certainly got a celebratory ending to that dramatic story with tonight’s announcement that the U.S. conducted a military operation that killed Bin Laden. Mind you, reps for Bigelow have told me previously that this movie isn’t specifically about the Al Qaeda leader. A lot of details about this film are stilll sketchy and secret, but I’ve heard that Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle chief Larry Ellison, is ready to fund it. I heard as recently as Friday that Bigelow and Boal were courting Joel Edgerton for the lead actor. Edgerton had been on the short list for two Universal Pictures movie projects in the works, The Bourne Legacy and Snow White And The Huntsman.
Meanwhile, back in 2006, Paramount Pictures optioned Jawbreaker, a book by U.S. intelligence operative Gary Berntsen about the December 2001 American-led military mission to hunt and kill Bin Laden right during the opening stages of the 9/11-prompted invasion of Afghanistan that the author as the CIA pointman had helped coordinate with Special Operations Forces. The heavily vetted book detailed how close those forces came to finding and executing Bin Laden in the rugged mountains of Tora Bora until they were pulled back after a decision was made to let Pakistan tribal leaders lead the search — a decision experts felt helped Bin Laden get away. The studio hired The Path To 9/11 scribe Cyrus Nowrasteh Read More »
John Travolta, Uma Thurman And Blake Lively Join ‘Savages’ Cast
EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Stone is putting together a killer cast for Savages, the drama based on Don Winslow’s bestselling novel. Stone is arranging a Pulp Fiction reunion of John Travolta and Uma Thurman, as the two actors are in talks to … Read More »
Playtone Setting Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’ For HBO Series
EXCLUSIVE: As HBO prepares to unveil its epic-sized series adaptation of George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones this Sunday, the payweb has begun talks to acquire the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods to be developed into another fantasy series. The … Read More »
TOLDJA! Universal Nearing ‘Savages’ Deal
Despite the laughable claim of exclusivity just now by another outlet, I can report that Deadline’s March 19 scoop about Oliver Stone’s Savages heading to Universal is getting closer, but it’s not closed yet. They are now in exclusive … Read More »
FX Developing Conspiracy-Themed Drama Series With Oliver Stone & Virgin Produced
FX has closed a deal for a drama series project executive produced and directed by Oliver Stone. It hails from Virgin Produced, the production arm of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, marking the first major scripted TV sale for the fledgling … Read More »
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