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CinemaCon: Who’s Bankable In 2013? Exhibitors Spill

By JEN YAMATO | Friday April 19, 2013 @ 1:55pm PDTTags: CinemaCon, HFR, Johnny Depp, Will Smith

Exhibitors I polled this week at CinemaCon had more faith in franchises than star-driven blockbusters on the 2013 slate. Like Tom Cruise in Oblivion, Will Smith is still a big deal to theater owners. He’s just not a sure thing in a slow-moving sci-fi vehicle like Sony’s After Earth, which now opens May 31.Oblivion IMAX Johnny Depp scored biggest with a surprise appearance in front of elated NATO members and the promise of another eccentric blockbuster role, but the specters of Universal’s Cowboys & Aliens and Disney’s own John Carter loom over the Western. Paramount even trotted out an uncomfortable-looking Brad Pitt to boost World War Z, but exhibitors worry the zombie pic won’t be a must-see for moviegoers. Jennifer Lawrence and Lionsgate’s Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire, on the other hand, had CinemaCon attendees seeing dollar signs. Meanwhile the problem with Aubrey Plaza winning CinemaCon’s Breakthrough Performer Of The Year award (on the heels of her MTV Movie Awards stunt) is that exhibitors still have no idea who she is. The Parks And Recreation star is better known to younger TV viewers than the corporate-leaning CinemaCon crowd. And many theater owners still see television as the enemy, including Regal CEO Amy Miles, who said as much at a CinemaCon luncheon Thursday.

Related: Theater Owners Forecast Summer 2013 Hits And Bombs

But mid-sized theater owners are realizing they have to cater to their audiences, and those may not always be blockbuster crowds. “My biggest movie of last year was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel“, a 40-year owner of a Michigan resort-town cinema said. “At my theater, the biggest star is Kevin James”, another operator of a California second-run multiplex told me. One thing that was not bankable at CinemaCon 2013: High-frame-rate technology. The Hobbit stumbled at last year’s confab by pushing its 48 FPS HFR 3D to exhibitors. Despite the first pic’s $1 billion global box office, nobody this year was pinning hopes on HFR specifically in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug this Christmas — even Peter Jackson, who conspicuously made no mention of it in his taped message to the CinemaCon audience. READ MORE »

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Sony Shifts ‘After Earth’ Release To May 31

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday April 19, 2013 @ 10:00am PDTTags: After Earth, Sony Pictures, Will Smith

The Will and Jaden Smith sci-fi starrer had been slotted for June 7 but Sony Pictures has pushed up the wide release date to May 31, where it will open alongside Lionsgate/Summit’s Now You See Me and … Read More »

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Will Smith Kicking ‘American Can’ With Ed Zwick; ‘The Accountant’ Also On Ledger?

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday April 19, 2013 @ 9:16am PDTTags: American Can, Ed Zwick, Sony Pictures, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: As Tom Cruise today looks to strengthen his box office foothold with Oblivion after a huge overseas opening last weekend, I’ve been wondering when Will Smith was going to start cranking them out again. Looks like he’s chosen this week to really get back into the mix: He signed to do the Warner Bros grifter pic Focus, and I’m told that Sony Pictures and his Overbrook Entertainment partner James Lassiter and Jada Pinkett Smith have revived American Can, and are now looking to Ed Zwick to direct Smith in a reluctant hero role that seems like a tailor-fit. He will play John Keller, a real guy who returned from Gulf War service looking for a new challenge, and found one after Hurricane Katrina devastated his home city of New Orleans. He found a boat and was moving to safety when he saw a blind elderly woman, stranded and calling for her son. Knowing she would certainly die if he passed by, Keller brought her back to safety in the American Can building. Shortly after, he found many more stranded seniors, and brought each of them back, around 244 in total, to American Can, a building that at least was dry. It was tricky business, but using his resourcefulness and his military training to get food drops to feed his new friends, he kept them alive and eventually found enough boats to lead them all to safety. Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘After Earth’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday March 7, 2013 @ 8:30pm PSTTags: After Earth, Jaden Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, Will Smith

Here’s the latest trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth, which pairs Will Smith with his son Jaden as a father and son who crash-land on a hostile Earth a thousand years into the future. The Sony/Columbia release has been teased since last year’s Comic-Con, and the trailer posted … Read More »

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Ex-CAA Agent Ken Stovitz Moves From Overbrook To Paradigm

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday February 27, 2013 @ 4:23pm PSTTags: Ken Stovitz, Overbrook, Paradigm, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: Ken Stovitz has joined Paradigm as a senior agent and will begin working in the agency’s Beverly Hills offices beginning this Monday, March 4. He walks in the door repping Jada Pinkett Smith and Jaden Smith, after working extensively with both at Overbrook Entertainment. Stovitz will join the Paradigm Management Committee, which oversees the agency’s day to day operations. There has been a lotta movement of clients and agencies lately, particularly with Jeff Berg’s launch of Resolution. For Paradigm, Stovitz is a good get, a seasoned agent who knows what he’s doing. Read More »

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Will Gluck Helming ‘Annie’ Remake For Sony, Will Smith And Jay Z

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday January 30, 2013 @ 11:19am PSTTags: Annie, Big Deals Film, Jay-Z, Sony Pictures, Will Gluck, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: Sony Pictures is setting Will Gluck to helm Annie, the re-imagining of the Broadway musical. The helmer who directed Easy A and Friends With Benefits for Sony-based Screen Gems takes on a high-profile project that will be produced by James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Will Smith through their Overbrook Entertainment banner, and by Shawn “Jay Z” Carter, Jay Brown, and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith through Marcy Media. Willow Smith is no longer attached; she was 9 when development began and she has outgrown the role of Annie.

Gluck will revise the film’s screenplay, which was written by Emma Thompson and rewritten by Aline Brosh McKenna based on the musical and its book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin. That’s based on the Little Orphan Annie comic strip. The movie is contemporized and will shoot in the fall for a 2014 release. Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘After Earth’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday December 10, 2012 @ 5:16pm PSTTags: After Earth, Columbia Pictures, Jaden Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, Will Smith

After Earth is the latest pairing of Will Smith and his son Jaden, after 2006′s The Pursuit Of Happyness. The sci-fi pic from director M. Night Shyamalan got a Comic-Con push this summer when Sony touted the massive mythology created around the story, about a father … Read More »

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Michelle Obama Returns To Hollywood For Oct. 25 Fundraiser At Will Smith’s House

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday October 12, 2012 @ 3:48pm PDTTags: Jada Pinkett Smith, Michelle Obama, Will Smith

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith will host this latest fundraiser for Michelle Obama later this month. Tickets range from $2,500-$40,000 for the event at the Smiths’ Calabasas home. Salma Hayek is also co-hosting with Hancock producer and Smith’s longtime business partner James Lassiter and his wife Mai. Roc Nation president Jay Brown and his wife Kawanna, head of Magic Johnson Enterprises, are also listed as co-hosts along with Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter and his wife Rebecca. The Lassiters held a fundraiser for the president last October at their Hancock Park home, with the Smiths, the Browns and the Carters in attendance.

Related: Romney Eyes Hollywood Return After Successful Fundraiser Read More »

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Toronto: Will Smith’s Overbrook, Jay Z’s Roc Nation Board Docu ‘Free Angela & All Political Prisoners’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 4, 2012 @ 5:17pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Jay-Z, Toronto Film Festival, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Overbrook Entertainment and Roc Nation will lend their clout to the Realside Productions/De Films Aiguille-produced documentary Free Angela & All Political Prisoners, which was directed by Shola Lynch. They will become executive producers on a film that premieres at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival and marks the 40th anniversary of the acquittal of Angela Davis on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. The docu was produced by Carole Lambert, Shola Lynch, Carine Ruszniewski, and Sidra Smith. Read More »

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William Hurt Joins Akiva Goldsman’s ‘Winter’s Tale’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday August 1, 2012 @ 10:03am PDTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Big Deals Film, Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Will Smith, William Hurt, Winter's Tale
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: William Hurt has been set in the final major role of Winter’s Tale, the Warner Bros adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel that marks the feature directing debut of Oscar-winning scribe Akiva Goldsman. Goldsman worked for … Read More »

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Comic-Con: ‘After Earth’ Environment Hostile To Humans Will And Jaden Smith

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Saturday July 14, 2012 @ 11:42am PDTTags: After Earth, Comic-Con Wrap-Up, Jaden Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, Will Smith

Luke Y. Thompson is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of Comic-Con.

Despite there being no Will or Jaden Smith and no M. Night Shyamalan, Sony’s panel on After Earth was packed to capacity in Room 6A. Without … Read More »

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Comic-Con: Will And Jaden Smith’s ‘After Earth’ Makes Novel Plans Around M. Night Shyamalan Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday July 13, 2012 @ 8:34am PDTTags: After Earth, Jaden Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, Sony Pictures, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

Will Smith Jaden Smith After EarthEXCLUSIVE: As Sony Pictures begins to create buzz for the M Night Shyamalan-directed Will and Jaden Smith-starrer After Earth, the studio has also sealed plans to get out in front of the summer 2013 tenpole with a number of other initiatives. Overbrook Entertainment, Sony Pictures Consumer Products, The Random House Publishing Group and Ebury Publishing is set to create a broad line of publishing products based on the film and the universe that was created from the script by Gary Whitta and Shyamalan, based on a story by Will Smith. The film is produced by Caleeb Pinkett, Smith, James Lassiter, and Shyamalan.

RELATED: Will Smith Eyeing Cain And Abel Film As Directing Vehicle Read More »

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Will Smith Eyeing Cain And Abel Film As Directing Vehicle

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday July 12, 2012 @ 11:31am PDTTags: Overbrook Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

Will Smith Cain And Abel MovieEXCLUSIVE: With Biblical epics the rage in Hollywood, here’s another. Will Smith is eyeing a film about battling brothers Cain and Abel as his directorial debut. The project is set at Sony in … Read More »

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Sony Pictures Pulls Out The Stops For New York ‘Men In Black 3′ Premiere

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 24, 2012 @ 12:18pm PDTTags: Men In Black 3, Sony Pictures, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

Given the way studios have cut back on lavish movie premieres in recent years, the New York debut of Sony Pictures’ Men In Black 3 was something to behold, and harkened back on to more fun days. The post … Read More »

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Adam McKay Signing On To Direct ‘Uptown Saturday Night’ Remake; Will Smith, Denzel Washington Eyed To Star

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 26, 2012 @ 3:32pm PDTTags: Adam McKay, Big Deals Film, Bill Cosby, Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Adam McKay is in negotiations to develop to direct Uptown Saturday Night, the Warner Bros remake that the studio hopes will star Will Smith and Denzel Washington. Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment has been developing the project. Tim … Read More »

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Warner Bros Plans More ‘I Am Legend’ With Will Smith

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday February 17, 2012 @ 8:40am PSTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Arash Amel, Overbrook Entertainment, Warner Bros, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

I Am Legend SequelEXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has closed deals with Akiva Goldsman and Overbrook Entertainment to produce another installment of I Am Legend, the 2007 hit film. The intention is for Will Smith to reprise his role as scientist Robert Neville, who was the last man on Earth doing battle with a mutated mob in New York City after an apocalyptic man-made virus wiped out the population. A deal was made with Arash Amel to write the script. The film is not being called a prequel, which had been rumored for the past few years. But clearly Warner Bros sees more room to roam on a film that grossed $584 million worldwide. The original film is based on the novel by Richard Matheson. Read More »

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Sony’s ‘Angelology’ Gets Black List Scribe

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday February 2, 2012 @ 10:58am PSTTags: Marc Forster, Will Smith
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures set Larry Brenner to write a draft of Angelology, based on the Danielle Trussoni novel. Will Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment and Marc Forster’s Apparatus is producing. Brenner wrote Bethlehem, a script that made the most … Read More »

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Simon Cowell & Will Smith Team With Sony TV For International Music Reality Series

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday January 25, 2012 @ 7:45am PSTTags: Jada Pinkett Smith, Overbrook Entertainment, Simon Cowell, Sony Pictures TV, Syco, Will Smith
Nellie Andreeva

Simon Cowell’s SYCO ENTERTAINMENT has partnered with Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith’s OVERBROOK ENTERTAINMENT on the development and launch of a live, new international TV format to find the world’s greatest DJs.

This new format has already been developed and will be co-produced by SYCO and OVERBROOK. The show will capture the incredible rise of the DJ phenomena. It has been in development for over a year and SYCO, OE and Sony Pictures Television will soon announce their broadcast partners in both the US and the UK.

Read More »

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Will Smith To Host Kids’ Choice Awards

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday January 11, 2012 @ 8:51am PSTTags: Nickelodeon, Will Smith

Will Smith has been picked to host the 2012 Kids’ Choice Awards, which will air on Nickelodeon on March 31 at 8 PM ET/PT live from the Galen Center at USC. It’s the 25th edition of the event; last year, … Read More »

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