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Robin Williams At CBS Upfront: Strip Clubs, Cocaine Mounds, Ass Sniffing

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday May 15, 2013 @ 2:48pm PDTTags: CBS, Robin Williams, The Crazy Ones, Upfronts

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler introduced him as “the biggest get of the season, actually many seasons” and “one of the defining comedy voices of our time”. Then Robin Williams semi-shocked advertisers with topics not usually discussed on a network upfront stage. Williams plays a “renowned and slightly unhinged” advertising genius/madman in the comedy The Crazy Ones with co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar as his partner and daughter. The show from David E. Kelley and Jason Winer was frenetic and not laugh-out-loud funny but received with big applause. And then Williams walked out. “Nice to come through the strip club motif,” he began. “Welcome to Sugar Daddy’s, where old men dance for young girls.” He likened the upfronts to the Westminster Kennel Club dog show “but with more agents, and a little less ass-sniffing”. I couldn’t make out his punchline about partial circumcisions. But everybody in the audience roared when Robin reminded them, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on TV, 30 years, when there were much simpler upfronts — and a mound of coke.” He noted how “in the old days there were only 3 networks, but now there are hundreds” offering an assortment of programming. “And if a little child wants to be transported to the Land Of Make-Believe, there’s Fox News.” With that, he ended. “Nice to have a job where the checks will clear.”

Related: Live-Blog: CBS Upfront Presentation

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Sarah Michelle Gellar To Star In CBS’ Robin Williams Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 15, 2013 @ 7:10pm PSTTags: Crazy Ones, David E. Kelley, Robin Williams, Sarah Michelle Gellar
Nellie Andreeva

Buffy The Vampire Slayer alumna Sarah Michelle Gellar has been tapped as the female lead opposite Robin Williams in David E. Kelley’s CBS comedy pilot Crazy Ones. Written/exec produced by Kelley and … Read More »

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CBS Orders Drama Pilots From ‘Homeland’ Trio & Michael Seitzman, Officially Picks Up David E. Kelley/Robin Williams Comedy

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday February 4, 2013 @ 12:00pm PSTTags: Anatomy Of Violence, Big Deals TV, CBS, Intelligence, Robin Williams
Nellie Andreeva

CBS has given pilot orders to two more dramas, Anatomy Of Violence, from the Homeland trio of executive producers Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa and Alex Cary, and Intelligence, from writer Michael Seitzman. The network also … Read More »

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CBS Eyes David E. Kelley Workplace Comedy Starring Robin Williams

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday August 30, 2012 @ 4:30pm PDTTags: David E. Kelley, Robin Williams
Nellie Andreeva

Thirty years after the end of Mork & Mindy, Oscar and Emmy winner Robin Williams is plotting a return to series television with a comedy written by Emmy winner David … Read More »

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Robin Williams Cast In ‘The Butler’, ‘Angriest Man In Brooklyn’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday July 18, 2012 @ 5:20pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Robin Williams, The Angriest Man In Brooklyn, The Butler

Robin Williams The ButlerWilliams will play President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Lee Daniels’ film based on the life of Eugene Allen, a long-time White House servant who worked for eight First Families over three decades. He joins … Read More »

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Amy Brenneman, Jess Weixler Join Annette Bening, Ed Harris And Robin Williams In ‘Look Of Love’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 5, 2012 @ 8:38am PDTTags: Amy Brenneman, Annette Bening, Big Deals Film, Ed Harris, Robin Williams
Mike Fleming

Amy Brenneman and Jess Weixler have joined Annette Bening, Ed Harris and Robin Williams in the Arie Posin-directed romantic drama Look Of Love. Posin wrote the script with Matthew McDuffie. … Read More »

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Comedy Awards To Honor Robin Williams

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday March 21, 2012 @ 11:25am PDTTags: Comedy Central, Robin Williams

The second annual Comedy Awards are set for April 28 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. Comedy Central will air the ceremony May 6. Here’s the release:

Robin Williams Comedy AwardsNEW YORK, March 21, 2012 – “The Comedy Awards,”

… Read More »

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Britannia Awards Taps Presenters

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday November 7, 2011 @ 11:48am PSTTags: Anne Hathaway, BAFTA LA, British Academy Of Film And Television Arts, Helen Mirren, Jason Isaacs, Robin Williams

Robin Williams, Anne Hathaway, Helen Mirren and Jason Isaacs will be among the presenters at BAFTA LA’s 2011 Britannia Awards, set for November 30 at the Beverly Hilton. Alan Cumming is hosting the ceremony, which will air December 4 on … Read More »

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WME Signs Robin Williams: CAA Furious

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday September 28, 2011 @ 11:56am PDTTags: CAA, Robin Williams, WME

EXCLUSIVE: There is nothing that infuriates Hollywood agencies more than when they feel they haven’t had warning that a client is about to leave. Which is why CAA’s Bryan Lourd et al asked for a “save” meeting for this morning … Read More »

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Lionsgate Acquires U.S. And UK Distribution For ‘The Big Wedding’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday August 2, 2011 @ 12:03pm PDTTags: Amanda Seyfried, Ben Barnes, Diane Keaton, Film Acquisition, Justin Zackham, Katherine Heigl, Lionsgate, Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon, The Big Wedding, Topher Grace
Mike Fleming

Lionsgate has acquired U.S. and UK rights to the ensemble comedy The Big Wedding, and has set an Oct. 19, 2012 release for the Nu Image/Millennium Films pic that stars Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton as a long-divorced couple … Read More »

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Evolution’s Mark Burg Cashes Out Oren Koules, Names Mike Menchel President

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday June 23, 2011 @ 8:51am PDTTags: James Wan, Leigh Whannell, Mark Burg, Oren Koules, Robin Williams
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Evolution Entertainment partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules are splitting after 12 years. Burg has purchased the 50% of the management/production company owned by Koules. Burg has reconstituted the company and named former CAA agent-turned-producer Michael Menchel its new president.

This brings to an end a partnership that achieved the dream of every boutique management/production company. When these guys got through Evolution’s Gregg Hoffman the script for Saw from Leigh Whannell and James Wan, they put themselves at risk personally to come up with the money to buy it and to cover the $1.2 million budget themselves. They made a licensing deal with Lionsgate but were left owning a film that grossed $103 million worldwide. They continued in that fashion on six sequels, most of which were low budget, with the last costing around $20 million. The cumulative worldwide gross of the series reached $870 million, and Burg and Koules made a fortune. Some of it they parlayed into other fright films under their Twisted Pictures banner, with many of the films directed and populated by clients of the management company. Their client stable includes Charlie Sheen. Read More »

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And In Other Deals…

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday October 19, 2010 @ 7:43pm PDTTags: Gravity, Gravity Casting, Movie Deals, Movies, Rajiv Joseph, Robert Downey Jr., Robin Williams, Sandra Bullock
Mike Fleming

Warner Bros has bought a pitch that will be developed to re-team The Proposal star Sandra Bullock and director Anne Fletcher. The script will be written by Pamela Falk and … Read More »

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