Tuesday April 1, 2008

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

CBS Films has optioned the romantic comedy spec “Plan B,” by TV scribe Kate Angelo. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the story is believed to center on a woman who sets out to be artificially inseminated and falls in love. Todd Black, Jake Blumenthal and Steve Tisch are producing through their Escape Artists shingle. Spec sparked a bidding war that involved multiple parties. CBS Films has jumped into the post-WGA strike lit market with resolve. Last month, the nascent company paid $1 million for Dan Fogelman’s untitled boomers-in-Vegas comedy pitch. Angelo has an overall deal at ABC Television Studios and has a pilot in contention at ABC with Julie Bowen attached to star. Angelo’s credits include “Will & Grace” and J.J. Abrams’ “What About Brian.”

Paramount Pictures has preemptively bought “Lost City of Z,” a David Grann manuscript about the search for a lost city in the Amazon, with Brad Pitt to produce the feature adaptation through his Plan B shingle as a potential starring vehicle. Grann’s forthcoming nonfiction book concerns British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, who was attempting to find the so-called City of Z when he and his party disappeared in 1925. Over the next 70 years, scores of explorers tried and failed to retrace Fawcett’s path, including a 1996 expedition of Brazilian adventurers. Pitt would play Fawcett. Doubleday is scheduled to publish “Lost City of Z,” an expansion of Grann’s September 2005 article in the New Yorker, in February. When Pitt expressed interest in toplining as well as producing “Lost City of Z,” Paramount moved quickly to buy it. Par previously optioned Grann’s New Yorker article “City of Water.”

Ray Romano is plotting a return to the smallscreen via TNT. Comic thesp has teamed with “Everybody Loves Raymond” scribe-producer Mike Royce to create “Men of a Certain Age,” a comedic one-hour drama in which Romano will also star. In a rare move, TNT is going straight to pilot on the script, which was written outside the normal development process. “Men” will revolve around three men in their 40s, friends since college, who now find themselves going through midlife crises of various sorts. Project is described as akin to “Sideways” in tone.

Chuck Russell is writing to direct “Northern Lights,” an action film set in the field of aerobatics — death-defying stunt flying. Russell is working on a rewrite of a script by David Ellison and Duane Adler; Electric Entertainment’s Dean Devlin is producing with Ellison and his Skydance Prods. banner. Plan is to begin production in Pic will shoot in Shreveport, La., by fall.

Columbia Pictures has preemptively snapped up Matt Bondurant’s upcoming novel “The Wettest County in the World” for Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher to produce through their Red Wagon shingle. John Hillcoat, who’s shooting the bigscreen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy “The Road,” is attached to direct. Based on a true story, “Wettest County in the World” revolves around a moonshine gang operating in the bootlegging capital of America — Franklin County, Va. — during Prohibition.

Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren are toplining Michael Hoffman’s Leo Tolstoy biopic “The Last Station,” which starts shooting April 7 in Germany. They replace previously announced thesps Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep in the roles of Tolstoy and his wife, Sofia. Other key cast include James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti. Warner Bros. has picked up German domestic rights to the e13 million ($20 million) project.

PROJECT UPDATES

Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert documentary “Shine a Light” will be livin’ large. When Paramount Classics opens the film Friday in roughly 270 theaters domestically, 93 of those will be large-format Imax theaters, which bring larger-sized ticket prices. In many markets, the film will be playing exclusively on Imax screens, meaning it won’t be shown in regular theaters. That’s the biggest opening in Imax’s history after “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which opened simultaneously in 91 Imax screens and in more than 3,000 regular theaters. Film will subsequently open in international Imax locations. An Imax ticket costs more — as does each print of the film — meaning added revenues for the exhib and the studio. In the case of “Shine a Light,” an adult ticket will cost $13, while a kid’s ticket will cost $10.50. The appeal of Imax is its quality of image and sound, according to Scorsese.

Scott Bakula has scored the second lead role opposite Matt Damon in “The Informant,” Steven Soderbergh’s espionage thriller for Warner Independent. Bakula will play Brian Shepherd, an FBI agent who exposes an international price-fixing scheme with the help of biochemist Mark Whitacre (Damon). Project is based on a true story; Scott Burns adapted the book by Kurt Eichenwald. Participant Media and Groundswell are co-producing with WIP. Jennifer Fox and Gregory Jacobs are producing.

Lifetime’s hit drama “Army Wives” has been hit with yet another change of command, as exec producer-showrunner Dee Johnson has left the show. As part of the changeover, Nick Thiel (”Burn Notice”) has joined the show and been handed executive producer stripes. “Army Wives” creator Katherine Fugate, considered the voice of “Army Wives,” remains as an exec producer, along with Mark Gordon. Production has just begun on season two of “Army Wives,” which scored an 18-episode salute after posting Lifetime’s best-ever series ratings in the key adults 18-49 demo last summer. Lifetime and producer ABC Studios wouldn’t comment on reasons behind Johnson’s departure, which was first reported by TV Guide, but the old “creative differences” explanation made the rounds.

ll four theaters skedded to bow Argo Pictures’ controversial documentary “Yasukuni,” about the Japanese shrine that honors war dead including Class A war criminals, on April 12 have cancelled, the distrib announced. One is in Osaka and three are in Tokyo. Another Tokyo theater had already pulled the docu from its schedule. Shot over 10 years by Chinese helmer Li Ying, the docu has become a lightening rod for controversy both in Japan and Asia. Scenes include protests by families of Asian war victims against former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to the shrine. Members of parliament, including those belonging to Koizumi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, have questioned the use of government coin to help finance the pic.

ACQUISITIONS/ FESTIVAL NEWS

Chevolution” the Netflix-backed docu about Alberto Korda’s famously enigmatic photo of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, has been picked up by int’l sales agent Fortissimo Films. Pic, which preems at next month’s Tribeca Film Festival, was financed by Netflix’s original content unit Red Envelope Entertainment. Deal between Red Envelope and Fortissimo sees Hong Kong and Amsterdam-based Fortissimo handle sales in all territories outside North America. Helmed by Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez, pic will have its market premiere in Cannes in May.

Senator Entertainment has acquired distribution rights in North America, Germany and Spain to the sci-fi thriller “Splice” from writer-director Vincenzo Natali. Film, which stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, revolves around two scientists who undertake illegal genetic experiments and create a new species fusing human and animal DNA. As the pair become global celebrities, the consequences of their accomplishment begin to become apparent.

Cinema Libre has acquired worldwide rights to Glenn Gers’ “disFigured,” which is making its premiere at the AFI Dallas Film Festival this week. The film is about an overweight woman who befriends, through a Fat Acceptance Group, a real estate agent recovering from anorexia. “With Cinema Libre, we hope to work with groups that support awareness of size diversity issues and would like to set up special screenings of the film across the country this summer,” said Gers. Helmer penned the Diane Keaton starrer “Mad Money” and the thriller “Fracture,” starring Anthony Hopkins.

The Tokyo Intl. Anime Fair ended its four-day run on Sunday with a total attendance of 126,622, up 17.55% over last year and a new event record. According to TIAF officials, 24,479 visitors came to the two business days on Thursday and Friday, down slightly from previous years. Meanwhile, 102,143 came to the public days on Saturday and Sunday, up 22.42% year on year. The number of foreign biz visitors rose 12% to 1,055, while media attendance over the four days gained 23% to 1,626. A total of 289 companies and orgs took booths at the Tokyo Big Site event hall, nearly one-fourth of which were non-Japanese. TIAF will hold its next edition from March 18 to 21, 2009.

BUSINESS NEWS

Jennifer Aniston and producing partner Kristin Hahn have formed Echo Films, a company that will start with a first-look deal at Universal Pictures. Aniston and Hahn have already made several project acquisitions, most of which will be developed as star vehicles for Aniston. The studio has just acquired screen rights to Jane Fallon’s British bestseller “Getting Rid of Matthew,” and Aniston and Hahn will produce with Lynda Obst and Marc Rosen. Fallon, a veteran U.K. TV producer who is married to Ricky Gervais, will adapt her novel about a hard-charging publicist whose lusty affair with a married man is ruined by his decision to leave his wife and two children for her. She invents a new persona, befriends the spurned wife and attempts to patch up the marriage up so she can be rid of him. In the process, she develops a thing for his oldest son.

Image Entertainment CEO-prexy Marty Greenwald is handing the reins of the quirky video and production company he founded to longtime lieutenant David Borshell today. Borshell, who had been chief operating officer since 2000, steps up to president with Greenwald’s exit from the exec suite. The company will not fill the CEO post; Greenwald, a colorful character who formed Image after 20 years in the adult video biz, will remain chairman of the board. The shift comes with the start of the publicly traded company’s new fiscal year. It follows several turbulent years for the company, which entered into a merger with BTP, since dissolved, and earlier fended off a hostile takeover bid by Lionsgate.

Benelux film and TV distributor Dutch FilmWorks has launched House of Knowledge Intl., an international sales, licensing and production division. Building on House of Knowledge, the domestic distribution DVD operation for nonfiction that launched in 2002, HKI will focus on mind, wellness and historical factual properties, Dutch FilmWorks CEO Willem Pruijssers announced Monday. HKI’s first slate will be presented at the Mip TV mart, which kicks off in Cannes next Monday. The first slate, split between docu specs and series, strongly emphasizes self-help and new age themes. It is led by “Staya Erusa: Find the Book of Knowledge,” a follow-up to “Staya Erusa: The Begining,” a film on how people can better live up to their expectations. “Book of Kowledge” co-producer Uri Geller will present the docu at Mip TV. The Mip TV slate also features living guide special “The Secret Goes Europe”; 14-part series “The Secret Workshops”; “The Brain Fitness Program”; docu collection “World War II in Word and Motion”; history of armed conflict skein “War Through Times”; dance guide “Jumpstyle”; “Play Poker Like the Pros”; and “Sexual Intelligence.”

Eros Intl. signed TV syndication deals for packages of films with two of the leading Indian global TV networks, Sony Entertainment Television and Sahara Television Network, on Monday. Sahara gets 35 library films including “Hum dil de chuke sanam,” “Devdas” and “Hey Ram.” SET gets 16 new pics from 2007-08 including “Om shanti om” and “Heyy Babyy.” Eros Intl., listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market, is one of India’s leading film and entertainment companies. It has a film library of more than 1,300 titles and releases 25-30 new movies per year. The $6 billion Indian TV sector is growing by 21% annually.

Distrib Kadokawa Pictures plans to expand its theater chain to some 200 screens from its current 106 screens plus three Tokyo Arthouses. Speaking at Friday’s press conference to unveil its 2008-2009 slate Kadokawa prexy Taiichi Inoue said the distrib was shooting for a box office of 5 billion yen ($50 million) this year.

Woody Allen asked a federal court on Monday to strip a clothing company known for its racy ads featuring scantily clad models of at least $10 million for using his image on billboards and on the Internet. In a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the actor and director said he does not endorse commercial products or services in the United States, which makes the May 2007 American Apparel billboards in Hollywood and New York and Web site displays “especially egregious and damaging.” The lawsuit said Allen was not contacted by the company and did not consent to the use of his image, which was taken from one of his movies. American Apparel Inc., which is based in Los Angeles and operates worldwide, did not immediately reply to a telephone message seeking comment Monday. The lawsuit complained of a billboard featuring a frame from “Annie Hall,” a film that won Allen a best director Oscar. The image showed Allen dressed as a Hasidic Jew with a long beard and black hat and Yiddish text meaning “the holy rebbe.” The words “American Apparel” also were on the billboard.

STRIKE NEWS/ LABOR ISSUES

In the wake of Saturday’s decision by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to ditch its longstanding bargaining partnership with SAG on the feature-primetime contract, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers held off Monday on deciding which union it will sit down with first. SAG, which earlier spurned offers to start negotiations in March, now contends it should be first up because it covers all film work and the lion’s share of TV work done by thesps. SAG prexy Alan Rosenberg noted in a message to members that studios want to end the uncertainty over a possible strike, further motivating the AMPTP to start talks as soon as possible as the June 30 contract expiration looms. “We believe the AMPTP will be eager to do so, especially since motion picture start dates are critical,” he said. However, it’s widely expected that the congloms will start talks as early as this week with AFTRA, the smaller of the two unions, on the three primetime shows it covers. And that move should bolster the companies’ leverage once they start negotiations with SAG by making the notion of going on strike less attractive. SAG’s new request for negotiations to begin as soon as possible marks an about-face from the position it took after the majors announced they were ready to go with talks in mid-February. It was previously unwilling to start negotiations until after it had completed its official preparations — despite pressure from high-profile members George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep to start ASAP. SAG had insisted it could not start talks until a joint board meeting approved the joint proposal — an event that had been set for Saturday but was then called off once AFTRA’s board voted to end its negotiating partnership with SAG.

INDUSTRY MOVES

New Line’s Richard Brener is staying on as Toby Emmerich’s right-hand man and has been promoted to prexy of production. Move comes two weeks after Emmerich was appointed president and chief operating officer of the scaled-down mini-major. The 35-year-old Brener joined the company in 1995 as a temp and rose through the ranks to story editor and senior VP. He’s been serving as New Line’s No. 2 production exec after a promotion to senior exec VP-COO in early 2007.

In an effort to sell more shows and formats to U.S. outlets, BBC Worldwide America has streamlined its sales and production operations under the direction of Paul Telegdy, the Beeb exec most responsible for exporting “Dancing With the Stars” to ABC. As BBC Worldwide America exec veep of TV sales and content & production, Telegdy will now oversee TV sales and co-production dealmaking for the Beeb’s U.S. division, as well as production. Previously, the Beeb’s head sales rep for the U.S. had been Candace Carlisle, exec veep of co-productions and sales and a 22-year veteran of the pubcaster.

Casey Patterson has been tapped senior VP for event production and talent development at TV Land and Spike TV — a gig that will put her in regular contact with Hollywood’s movie marketing machine. Newly created gig puts Patterson in charge of the cablers’ efforts to expand programming and marketing opportunities tied to film releases and other high-profile projects. She’ll also oversee event production and talent development for both nets.

James E. Curry has joined the Century City office of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton as partner in the firm’s entertainment and media group. He most recently practiced as a founding partner with White O’Connor Curry, also in Century City. Curry, a trial attorney, specializes in business lawsuits on behalf of entertainment clients, primarily studios and networks. His clients have included Disney, Warner Bros. and Paramount/Viacom.

Struggling vidgame publisher Atari has tapped a respected industry vet as its CEO, signaling that the long-troubled company is attempting to revive its fortunes. Jim Wilson, who most recently headed Sony BMG’s home entertainment unit and was previously exec veep of worldwide studios for Vivendi Universal Games, was named to the position Monday. He’ll work closely with former EA exec David Gardner and Sony exec Phil Harrison, who were recently named CEO and prexy, respectively, of Atari parent company Infogrames.

TECHNOLOGY/ MULTI-PLATFORM CONTENT

The TV biz was looking highly mobile on Monday in advance of the annual CTIA Wireless confab in Las Vegas, with Sony Pictures Television, Fox, NBC Universal and MTV Networks announcing mobile entertainment deals. The mobile entertainment biz is still very much in the experimental phase in the U.S., though some of the majors are starting to harvest coin from mobile content deals in Europe and Asia, where the market is more mature and advanced mobile vid technologies more widespread. Sony Pictures Television made the most ambitious move in unveiling a slate of mobile games and six new and returning Web serials designed as short-form bits ideal for tiny cell phone screens. News Corp.’s Fox Mobile Entertainment wing unveiled the FoxMobile.com portal featuring a slew of content designed to be viewed on mobile devices. Site includes content from Fox Broadcasting Co., FX, Fox Reality Channel, Speed and National Geographic Channel cablers as well as such show-specific franchises as “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy” and “Nip/Tuck.” NBC U tubthumped pacts with AT&T, Verizon and Blackberry maker Research in Motion to distrib the Peacock’s portfolio of more than 60 wireless-friendly websites dedicated to NBC, NBC Sports, USA Network, Bravo, MSNBC and Universal Pictures, among other properties. MTV Networks has teamed with mobile vid provider mywaves to offer its first free mobile ad-supported vid package of clips and customized content from its various cablers.

Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic film “Fitna” was back on Liveleak.com on Monday three days after the British-based Internet site pulled it following threats to staffers. A statement on the Liveleak site said it had upgraded security for staffers and their families. Liveleak bowed the 15-minute film on Thursday. On Monday, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen met ambassadors of countries belonging to the Organization of the Islamic Conference to assure them the film did not reflect the opinion of the Dutch government. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to take action against right-wing pol Wilders for violating hate speech laws in the pic, which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called “offensively anti-Islamic.” Over the weekend there were protests in Indonesia and Pakistan and calls for a boycott of Dutch products in Jordan and Malaysia.

Walt Disney Japan and Yahoo Monday revealed plans to strengthen their co-operation in the Internet biz. Yahoo will start running the Disney games site banner on its Yahoo Games and Yahoo Kids sites beginning Tuesday. Also, Disney will link to the Yahoo sites on its games site, Disney Games. The object is to join the contents of Disney and Yahoo Japan, enabling users to play the games more easily. The two companies will also co-operate in ad placements on each other’s sites. Disney and Yahoo are already collaborating on mobile service, Disney Mobile, that Disney launched on March 1 with the support of SoftBank Mobile Corp. The new deal expands the target of that partnership to PC users.

Pubcaster Television New Zealand launched digital factual channel TVNZ7 Sunday to boost uptake for the Freeview digital free-to-air platform. The Freeview consortium of broadcasters has added 13 channels since the service launched on May 2. From Wednesday, the Freeview satellite platform will be complemented by a digital terrestrial platform. TVNZ7 joins digital entertainment channel TVNZ6 plus the digital re-broadcast of TVNZ analog channels TV One and TV2; Media Works-owned TV3, high-def TV 3 and C4; Maori TV as well as regional focused Stratos. TVNZ7 features 30% news content, as well as documentaries, current affairs programs and commentary shows.

WEBSITES TO WATCH

http://shine.yahoo.com/
Yahoo aims to shine some light on the underserved adult (25-54) woman demographic with Yahoo Shine. The new destination aggregates original content as well as relevant fare from other sections of Yahoo and offers syndicated material from partners including Conde Nast, Hearst and Rondale. It also provides a glimpse where the new Yahoo is headed, adopting a white-space laden blog format organized around the demo rather than the topic.

http://daisywhitney.com/newmediaminute/

Warner Bros. Television is enlisting the help of video search and targeting firm Digitalsmiths to help manage the video inventory of a new WB video site slated to launch in the coming weeks, reports Daisy Whitney in TVWeek. Digitasmiths provides tools to help visitors find what they’re looking for online and serve ads to the content contextually. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Daisy’s excellent video podcast, New Media Minute. This week she tries to get to the bottom of who’s watching Hulu.

http://video.titantv.com/

Local station website online programming service TitanTV launched a trio of new series recapping the latest episodes of three of the TV’s most popular reality shows – Survivor, America’s Next Top Model and Dancing With the Stars.

SOURCES:

www.variety.com
www.cynopsis.com