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Hot Trailer: ‘Salinger’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday June 13, 2013 @ 2:44pm PDTTags: Salinger, Shane Salerno, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

The Weinstein Company has released its first trailer for Salinger, the Shane Salerno-directed documentary that Harvey Weinstein acquired after he and his team were the only film guys to see the film, the morning of the Academy Awards. That happened right after the PBS American Masters team were shown it and bought it for TV and Simon & Schuster editors saw it and bought a companion biography. I saw an early cut of the movie before any of them, before Salinger died. I haven’t seen the film since, but there’s a lot of good stuff in that movie that isn’t revealed here, even from the early version I saw. It has changed as others came forward following the death of the reclusive Catcher In The Rye author. What I don’t know is whether the filmmaker nailed down what Salinger was writing in that bunker of his, work he never released for public consumption. Here’s the trailer for the film that gets a release September 6, ending an odyssey for Salerno, a screenwriter who spent about eight years and $2 million of his own cash to make this:

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Shane Salerno’s JD Salinger Biography Eyes Global Windfall

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 18, 2013 @ 12:24pm PDTTags: JD Salinger, Salinger, Shane Salerno, Simon & Schuster
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: It took Shane Salerno eight years and $2 million of his own cash to make his JD Salinger documentary and book. It’s paid off quickly: The Weinstein Company landed worldwide rights to the movie and will … Read More »

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TOLDJA! Weinstein Company Confirms Worldwide Rights Deal For Shane Salerno Docu ‘Salinger;’ Sets September 6 Release

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday March 21, 2013 @ 1:52pm PDTTags: Harvey Weinstein, Salinger, Shane Salerno, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: The Weinstein Company finally confirmed what Deadline told you exclusively on February 27: that the studio acquired theatrical rights to Salinger, the Shane Salerno-directed feature documentary on JD Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher In The Rye. TWC has set a September 6 theatrical release for the film. As Deadline reported, the deal is seven figures, around $2 million, and covers world rights except for the previous deal that licensed U.S. television rights to PBS’ American Masters. This was one of the most unusual deals in awhile, and came after Harvey Weinstein, David Glasser and the acquisition team were shown the film on the morning of the Academy Awards.

Related:
J.D. Salinger Documentary Acquired By Harvey Weinstein
Secret J.D. Salinger Documentary & Book Revealed

TWC was the only distributor that saw the finished film, and closed the deal right after. Salerno and his lawyer Robert Offer made three big deals for the movie, showing it only to parties that made deals, which allowed the filmmaker to avoid any leakage of revelations in the film that might have resulted with a screening for multiple buyers. It was first shown to American Masters, which quickly closed a 7-figure licensing deal to make it the 200th installment of that prestigious series early next year. It was then shown to Jon Karp and his editors from Simon & Schuster, and right after they saw it, they closed a 7-figure publishing deal for a biography that Salerno wrote with David Shields. So the movie has played three times, and resulted in deals north of $5 million, making it one of the richest pacts ever for a feature documentary. It took Salerno eight years and $2 million of his own money to make the movie and the book happen. Here is the official release from TWC: Read More »

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J.D. Salinger Documentary Acquired By Harvey Weinstein

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday February 27, 2013 @ 3:15pm PSTTags: Big Deals Film, Harvey Weinstein, J.D. Salinger, Salinger, Shane Salerno, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

Salinger Documentary Harvey WeinsteinEXCLUSIVE: The Weinstein Company has acquired theatrical rights to Salinger, the Shane Salerno-directed feature documentary on the reclusive author of The Catcher In The Rye. The deal is seven figures, around $2 million, and covers world rights except for the previous deal that licensed U.S. television rights to PBS’ American Masters. The plan is to release later this year for Oscar season, and the deal came after Harvey Weinstein, David Glasser and the acquisition team were shown the film Sunday morning, the day of the Academy Awards. TWC was the only distributor that saw the finished film, and closed the deal right after. While everyone was partying over the Oscar weekend, TWC acquired Grace of Monaco with Nicole Kidman and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom with Idris Elba. All three of these films will be in the Oscar season discussion, as will Fruitvale, the film that came out of Sundance with strong buzz, and which TWC also acquired. After two years of winning Best Picture, Harvey Weinstein watched Argo best his two candidates, Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained. Looks like he really, really wants to be in the winner’s circle again.

That validates an unusual sales strategy that Salerno employed on the film with his lawyer Robert Offer. It was first shown to American Masters, which quickly closed a 7-figure licensing deal. The plan is to make it the 200th installment of that prestigious series, early next year. It was then shown to Jon Karp and his editors from Simon & Schuster, and right after they saw it, they closed a 7-figure publishing deal for a biography that Salerno wrote with David Shields.

Now, the documentary distribution rights are being sold to the only distributor that saw the film. I’m told that the entire deal for theatrical, publishing and U.S. TV rights will be north of $5 million, one of the richest pacts ever for a feature documentary.

For Salerno, this completes an eight year odyssey, and he has been made whole after investing $2 million of his own money into the documentary and the book. It also closes the circle for me; shortly after I arrived from Variety to Deadline Hollywood, Salinger passed away. This was not long after I’d seen an early cut of Salerno’s film. I thought it was absolutely fascinating. I haven’t seen it since, and the discretion shown in the dealmaking process indicates there are secrets that were held back. But here is what I said about it back then: Read More »

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Oscar-Nommed ‘A Royal Affair’ Team Boards Epic Don Winslow Novel ‘Power Of The Dog’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday January 31, 2013 @ 4:02pm PSTTags: Don Winslow, J.D. Salinger, Shane Salerno
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg, who scripted the Swedish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and followed with the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee A Royal Affair, have found their next project. It’s a feature adaptation of The Power Of The Dog, the epic Don Winslow bestseller framed around the drug war and a 30-year struggle between a hard DEA agent and a family of cartel kingpins in Mexico.

Arcel will direct, and the script will be written by Heisterberg, Arcel and Shane Salerno. Salerno will produce through The Story Factory. This is the same Salerno who wrote, directed, produced and financed the J.D. Salinger documentary Salinger that earlier this week was licensed in the U.S. for an American Masters broadcast and is being shopped for feature distribution after a companion biography sold in a 7-figure deal to Simon & Schuster. Read More »

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Next Up For J.D. Salinger Docu: Film Distribution Deal To Follow S&S Book Pact

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday January 30, 2013 @ 9:23am PSTTags: American Masters, Big Deals Film, Big Deals TV, J.D. Salinger, PBS, Salinger, Shane Salerno
Mike Fleming

2ND UPDATE, 9:23 AM: It has been quite a week for J.D. Salinger. The Shane Salerno documentary Salinger has been shown to only two parties so far, and in both cases, the result was a smashing deal. First to see it was the American Masters team, which quickly paid low-seven figures to license U.S. domestic TV rights and make it the 200th installment of the prestigious program in January. Second to see it were the Simon & Schuster editors, who quickly made a worldwide rights deal on the companion book, The Private War Of J.D. Salinger. Agency sources tell me that deal was closer to $2 million than $1 million for the sprawling book by David Shields and Salerno. It will be published in September, just ahead of the theatrical release.

Next up: the feature distribution deal. I don’t get the impression there will be a big gang bang screening and then an auction; it will be a subtler, more selective process than that. But the goal is to lock in a distributor who’ll give it a nice theatrical play in the months before the American Masters premiere next year, and figure out DVD and those other ancillaries excluding U.S. domestic TV rights. By the time all this is done, it should be a nice outcome for Salerno and the eight years and $2 million he invested to assemble both the film and the book. Read More »

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Hutch Parker To Resurrect James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux Mysteries With Cable Series

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday August 1, 2012 @ 8:55am PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Don Winslow, Hutch Parker, Justified, Shane Salerno
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: After two so-so attempts to adapt James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux terrific mystery novel series into features, the New Orleans-based crime saga is being redrawn for cable TV. Fox-based producer Hutch Parker has optioned Burke’s books and is packaging … Read More »

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Don Winslow Novel ‘California Fire And Life’ Heads For Big Screen

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday July 18, 2012 @ 10:36am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Don Winslow, Hutch Parker, Savages, Shane Salerno
Mike Fleming

California Fire And Life MovieEXCLUSIVE: Hutch Parker Entertainment has partnered with producer Shane Salerno to develop Savages author’s Don Winslow’s bestselling 2007 thriller California Fire And Life. The producers will be going out to screenwriters and filmmakers shortly.

California Fire And Life tells the story of Jack Wade, once a rising star cop who fell from grace in a scandal and now makes his living as an arson investigator. His cardinal rule is “don’t get involved”, but when Jack sees the charred corpse of a young woman that has been written off as an accident, he becomes obsessed with hunting down the killer. Both Savages and Winslow’s new novel The Kings Of Cool are on the bestseller list. Read More »

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‘Savages’ Author Don Winslow Hits A Double On Bestseller Lists

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday July 13, 2012 @ 9:00am PDTTags: Chuck Hogan, Don Winslow, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oliver Stone, Savages, Shane Salerno, The Kings Of Cool
Mike Fleming

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 »

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‘Savages’ Co-Writer Shane Salerno Options Edgar-Winning ‘The Lock Artist’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday June 14, 2012 @ 12:58pm PDTTags: Savages, Shane Salerno
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Shane Salerno, who teamed with Oliver Stone and Don Winslow to adapt Winslow’s novel Savages, has acquired film rights to the Steve Hamilton novel The Lock Artist. Published by St. Martin’s Minotaur imprint, the novel won the Edgar … Read More »

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‘Savages’ Author Don Winslow And ‘The Town’ Author Chuck Hogan Team Up To Write Crime Thriller Script

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday May 7, 2012 @ 3:42pm PDTTags: Chuck Hogan, Don Winslow, Shane Salerno
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: In an intriguing pairing of two top crime novelists, a script is in the works by Don Winslow, author of novels that include Savages and The Winter Of Frankie Machine, and Chuck Hogan, whose Prince Of Thieves was turned into the Ben Affleck-directed The Town. The untitled script is a contemporary crime thriller, of course, and it will be produced by Shane Salerno. The plot revolves around two men who inevitably collide, amidst a host of supporting characters. Winslow and Hogan will each focus on one of the characters and meld the plot into a script that Salerno will bring to studios once it is completed.

Savages Universal MovieThe deal comes at a time both authors are breaking out. Universal shifted the Oliver Stone-directed adaptation of Winslow’s Savages from a fall to July 6 slot, with a cast that includes Aaron Johnson, Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta and Salma Hayek. That script was written by Salerno & Winslow & Stone. Salerno & Winslow are currently adapting Winslow’s period spy thriller Satori for Warner Bros, with Leonardo DiCaprio starring and John Lesher and Jennifer Davisson Killoran producing and Salerno executive producing. Winslow has also written a Savages prequel novel, The Kings Of Cool, which Simon & Schuster will release June 19. Several of Winslow’s other books are in play as movie properties.

Hogan has written for GK Films an untitled script that focuses on Boston’s notorious Winter Hill Gang and John Martorano, chief enforcer for James “Whitey” Bulger who became the government’s main witness. GK acquired his rights after Martorano was released following a 14-year prison stretch for a series of murders. It was during those legal proceedings that a corrupt relationship between Bulger and the FBI’s Boston office was exposed. The script is out to directors. Hogan also teamed with Guillermo del Toro on the trilogy of vampire novels that began with The Strain. The final installment, The Night Eternal, was published last fall and a film or TV deal is inevitable once del Toro completes work on Pacific Rim. Hogan is currently adapting his crime thriller Devils In Exile for Marc Shmuger’s Global Produce. The project, renamed Sugar Bandits, focuses on a group of Iraq War veterans who take on Boston’s drug trade. It goes to buyers in June. Read More »

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Hot Trailer: Oliver Stone’s ‘Savages’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 5, 2012 @ 11:07am PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Benicio Del Toro, Don Winslow, John Travolta, Oliver Stone, Savages, Shane Salerno, Taylor Kitsch
Mike Fleming

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 »

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Universal Moves Oliver Stone’s ‘Savages’ From Fall To July 6 Opening

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday January 31, 2012 @ 6:47am PSTTags: Don Winslow, Oliver Stone, Savages, Shane Salerno, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

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 »

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Simon & Schuster To Coincide Don Winslow Prequel Novel Bow With Release Of Oliver Stone-Directed ‘Savages’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday January 5, 2012 @ 10:07am PSTTags: Don Winslow, Oliver Stone, Shane Salerno, Simon & Schuster, The Kings Of Cool
Mike Fleming

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.

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Warner Bros Acquires Post-WWII Don Winslow Novel ‘Satori’ For Leonardo DiCaprio

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday October 3, 2011 @ 12:32pm PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Baz Luhrmann, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Clint Eastwood, Don Winslow, Jennifer Killoran, John Travolta, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Rick Yorn, Shane Salerno, Taylor Kitsch
Mike Fleming

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.

Leonardo DiCaprioFor 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 »

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Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson Re-Upped Through 2014

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 19, 2011 @ 12:37pm PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Adam Fogelson, Akiva Goldsman, Alexander Skarsgard, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Brian Grazer, Carl Rinsch, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Espinosa, Denzel Washington, Don Winslow, Guillermo Del Toro, Hugh Jackman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Joseph Kosinski, Keanu Reeves, Kristen Stewart, Liam Neeson, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Bay, Mila Kunis, Oliver Stone, Peter Berg, Rihanna, Robert Schwentke, Ron Howard, Ron Meyer, Rupert Sanders, Russell Crowe, Seth MacFarlane, Shane Salerno, Stephen King, Steve Burke, Taylor Kitsch, Tom Cruise, Tom Hooper, Tony Gilroy, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

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 »

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Don Winslow To Write Prequel To ‘Savages’ As Oliver Stone Ramps Up Production

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday June 6, 2011 @ 10:19am PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively, Don Winslow, Emile Hirsch, John Travolta, Oliver Stone, Salma Hayek, Savages, Shane Salerno, Simon & Schuster, Taylor Kitsch, Uma Thurman
Mike Fleming

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 »

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Will Hugh Jackman Soon Be Packing For A ‘Fantastic Voyage?’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 3, 2011 @ 2:22pm PDTTags: Carlton Cuse, Christopher McQuarrie, Darren Aronofsky, David Slade, Duncan Jones, Fantastic Voyage, Hugh Jackman, James Cameron, John Gatins, Laeta Kalogridis, Shane Salerno, Shawn Levy
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: I’m hearing that Hugh Jackman is director Shawn Levy’s first choice to star in 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Voyage, the James Cameron-produced 3D tent pole film. It’s early days, but this would give Jackman a big movie to do … Read More »

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John Travolta, Uma Thurman And Blake Lively Join ‘Savages’ Cast

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 21, 2011 @ 6:36pm PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Benicio Del Toro, Don Winslow, John Travolta, Oliver Stone, Salma Hayek, Shane Salerno, Taylor Kitsch, Uma Thurman
Mike Fleming

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 »

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