Disney Hires Brian Beletic to Direct Matterhorn Movie

EXCLUSIVE: This week there was a rift. Then tonight what looked like?an outright win for Keith Olbermann over his current employer Current TV. But now the rift is back on?after the channel is??doing a complete 180,? sources tell me. Here?s what happened:?Earlier tonight Olbermann was assured by Current TV that it was giving him??carte blanche? to plan and program and book participants for the entire 4-hour block of New Hampshire GOP presidential primary coverage?this coming?Tuesday night.?And that wasn?t all. ?It can be said that Current has seen the light. It can be assumed that Keith will have control over election coverage going forward,? one of my sources assured me. But?later tonight Current TV changed its mind and now is refusing to give Olbermann the time slot. Stay tuned. I have a feeling this is going to seesaw?throughout the weekend between Current TV and its chief news officer/controversial liberal commentator.

It?s no coincidence that the channel?s waffling follows lousy reviews of what the Internet pundits called Current?s fiasco coverage of the Iowa Caucus on Tuesday night. It featured Current founder Al Gore as well as two new Current hires, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and former MSNBC host?Cenk Uygur. Now Current had a unique opportunity to make a splash by having the former VP as part of its election mix. So the channel should have ensured that Gore was?surrounded by a deep bench. But one especially vicious media tweet described the?channel?s coverage?as ? Read More ?

FRIDAY 7:30 PM UPDATE: Even rival studios tonight are saying hooray for a Hollywood winner.?Paramount acquisition The Devil Inside is looking at a big $12 million today, including $2M midnights. The exorcism genre film should surge past?$25M for the 3-day post-holiday weekend. And the pic More later.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount could have another Paranormal Activity mega-profit project in theaters today. That found footage exorcism pic The Devil Inside acquired for $1M opened with $2M midnights from 1,400 theaters. It goes wide into 2,300 theaters today. Funny enough Steven Schneider from the Paranormal Activity team is exec producer on this pic as well. The genre film plays very young and very ethnic so it will probably be frontloaded. But it?s rare for a studio to recoup its cost from just the midnight shows.

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline?s coverage of TCA.

NBC?s multimillion-dollar, Steven Spielberg-produced new musical drama Smash rolled out at TCA this afternoon, carrying with it the primetime hopes and dreams of struggling NBC. To generate maximum sampling and word-of-mouth in advance of the show?s February 6 premiere, the network has launched an extensive promo campaign. It includes consumer screenings in 10 major markets next week, digital downloads over Apple iTunes and Amazon Video, VOD and in-flight screenings on American Airlines. (Fingers crossed that American?s declaration of bankruptcy won?t be a bad omen.) NBC.com and Hulu also will stream portions of Smash from January 23 through February 6. The heavy marketing push is understandable given the stakes for an expensive series whose pilot reportedly cost $7.5 million. And there?s its heavyweight pedigree ? not just Spielberg but film, TV and Broadway producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan and many others. While there is an idea for the musical show about a theater staging a musical about Marilyn Monroe to spawn a real Broadway production of Merilyn, that is not the main goal, creator-exec producer Theresa Rebeck said. ?What we are aiming to do is write a great television show. That is really what we?re all about. And what happens in the future, who knows? Like we could all die tomorrow or something.?

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Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline?s coverage of TCA.

Producers and stars of the new series Awake, created by Kyle Killen (Lone Star), tried to reassure journalists today at TCA that the storyline ? about a detective living in two realities where clues to his cases overlap ? will not be overly confusing. NBC appears convinced that audiences will get it ? the network in May ordered 13 episodes of the drama, executive produced by Howard Gordon, but its premiere date is still TBA. Gordon said that a three-week unplanned production hiatus in October was not an indication the show was going off-track. ?We were very lucky that we didn?t have an airdate, this was a challenging show for us to figure out,? he said. ?We could have kept going, but the three-week hiatus gave us a chance to sort of get our heads together and learn from the distance we had traveled.?

A little more plot: After a car accident Jason Isaacs? detective Michael Britten finds himself awake in two worlds. In one, his wife survives. In the other, his teenage son is the one who lives. The detective doesn?t know which world is real. BD Wong and Cherry Jones portray his therapists in these parallel worlds, each trying to persuade him the other world is not real.?Isaacs insisted the story is simple enough for a child to grasp. How does he know? He said his 5-year-old daughter managed to ? Read More ?

A U.S. District judge in Seattle last month ordered the anonymous actress suing IMDb for age discrimination to use her name on the lawsuit ? or it couldn?t go forward. So today, Huong Hoang (pictured) who acts using the stage name Junie Hoang, amended and refiled the $1 million suit using her real name. Hoang originally sued IMDb and parent company Amazon as Jane Doe, alleging that the popular online film and TV database posted her age (40) on the site without her permission, after which time offers for younger roles decreased in frequency (her posted resume on the site says she can play ages 26-33). The lawsuit spurred reaction from Hollywood guilds, who took up Huong?s fight as an example of age discrimination for actors in the entertainment industry. IMDb and Amazon eventually denied any wrongdoing, and the Seattle judge said the complaint couldn?t go forward without a legal name on it. Hoang — whose credits include the film Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver, a role as a nurse on the reality TV series I Didn?t Know I Was Pregnant as well as commercials and industrial videos — is suing for breach of contract and invasion of privacy.

ABC?s Shawn Ryan Drama On Verge Of Pilot Order, Martin Campbell Set To Direct

Last Resort, the large-scale drama from The Shield creator Shawn Ryan and feature writer Karl Gajdusek, has been given a pilot order. The news comes 2 days after the the Sony TV-produced project, which already had a hefty pilot production commitment, tapped Casino Royale helmer Martin Campbell to direct the pilot. The pilot also has a line producer and a casting director already on board. Last Resort is a thriller set in the near future when the country is very fractured and revolves around the crew of a U.S. nuclear submarine who become hunted fugitives after ignoring an order to fire nuclear missiles. They escape to a NATO listening outpost where they publicly declare themselves to be the world?s smallest nuclear nation with 24 nuclear warheads. The show explores the society the fugitives create, the natives they meet and how what they?ve done affects the group and its unity. At ABC, Last Resort joins Roland Emmerich one-hour, metaphysical drama pilot set against the backdrop of the 2012 Presidential race. In addition to Last Resort, Ryan has another high-profile project in contention, a crime procedural with Criminal Minds creator Simon ? Read More ?

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline?s coverage of TCA.

There was some playfully feigned confusion this afternoon as to who the star of the new NBC multicamera sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? is. Chelsea Handler, on whose bestselling memoir Are You There, Vodka? It?s Me, Chelsea the show is based, is featured prominently in the promos for the series, which premieres later this month. Are You There, Chelsea? centers on a twentysomething bad-girl version of Handler who is played by Laura Prepon while Handler appears in seven of the 13 episodes as her Born-Again Christian sister. Handler, who executive produces the series, was quick to set the record straight. ?We want people to know that I?m part of the show but that this is the star of the show,? Handler said, motioning to Prepon. She stressed that any advertising for the show should be crystal clear. ?We don?t want anyone to get confused or think I?m the star? It?s a lot more fun for me to play my sister than it would be to play myself. (Handler has a sister in real life). It?s a lot more challenging ? But it?s Laura?s show ultimately? I?d love to be in it as often as possible, but I seriously don?t have the time. I like my E! show, I like being under the radar.? The last comment evoked some groans as it came out as a jab at the cable network.

Another ? Read More ?

Scott Thompson will receive an annual salary of $1 million as Yahoo?s new president and CEO, the company said in a Security and Exchange Commission filing today. His total deal with bonuses and grants could reach as high as $27 million during his first year with the struggling Internet giant. Yahoo said the former PayPal chief will be eligible for a bonus twice his salary each year, along with an annual equity grant with a 2012 target value of $11 million. One-time items include a $1.5 million cash bonus, an inducement grant of $5 million and a grant of restricted stock units with a value of $6.5 million. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo has hired a search firm to identify possible additions ? and likely replacements ? to the board of directors. The group that includes chairman Roy Bostock and co-founder Jerry Yang has been criticized by shareholders as the company contemplates its future. Today?s SEC filing also said Yahoo has increased the size of its board from nine to 10 members, adding Thompson as a director.

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline?s TCA coverage.

After a dismal fall, NBC is pinning its hopes for a ratings turnaround on a slew of midseason series. One of them is legal drama The Firm, based on the John Grisham bestseller, which the network acquired in the spring. The series, premiering Sunday, continues the story of attorney Mitchell McDeere a decade later.

Writer-executive producer Lukas Reiter said that author Grisham was on board from the very beginning, liking the idea of doing a new chapter in the McDeere story. ?He really didn?t (have reservations),? said Reiter, a former co-executive producer of NBC?s Law & Order.? ?I have been writing legal drama for most of my career, and The Firm has always been at the top of my list. Why didn?t John Grisham continue the story? I had a thought about how we might do that.? He added that writers and lawyers have one thing in common: ?The ability to think about the same thing for an irrational amount of time.? Read More ?

More NBC at TCA:
Ben Silverman ?Betting On Bob? To Turn Around NBC
NBC Wants To Keep Lauer & Seacrest In The Fold

There was no elephant in the room during NBC?s executive session at TCA?s winter press tour today because chairman Bob Greenblatt shot it down right away. ?We had a really bad fall, worse than I?d hoped for but about as I expected,? was Greenblatt?s first line onstage. ?People say the only way to go is up which I believe is true, but there is a long way to get there.? The new NBC chairman made no bones about the network?s poor ratings performance this season, including from NBC?s new shows, which he blamed on a lack of strong lead-ins, an aging returning lineup and major cast changes on flagship series Law & Order: SVU and The Office. But ?the good news is that we have new owners willing to invest not only with financial resources but with patience,? Greenblatt said, referring to Comcast and NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke.

Greenblatt, who comes from running pay cable network Showtime, attributed the demise of some of NBC?s new shows to the challenges of the the broadcast model, noting that canceled Prime Suspect would?ve been renewed at Showtime after three episodes and would?ve probably run on the cable network for 4-5 seasons. Greenblatt started several sentences with ?The beauty of cable?, playing up pay cable?s advantage with a smaller volume of shows that allows all of them to get a significant marketing push and cut through the clutter as well as the different cable economics that allow quality shows to run for years despite low ratings. Greenblatt said that in his first season at NBC he delivered ?four times as many good shows as I ever delivered at Showtime? in one year, listing such series as Prime Suspect, Whitney, Up All Night, Grimm and the upcoming Awake and Smash. But he was quick to note that he is not sure if ?these shows are enough to turn NBC around. I hope they?re the beginning of new foundation to move us in the right direction.?

Prime Suspect?s failure to click with viewers ?was probably the biggest disappointment,? Greenblatt said. ?Was it too cable, was (Maria Bello?s character) too abrasive? Maybe I should say it was the hat and move on.? In the final analysis, it seems like ?the audience wanted to be entertained with comedy and fairytales? this fall, ?and there wasn?t appetite in the country for a hard-hitting cop show.? Greenblatt was more blunt about NBC?s other canceled new fall drama, The Playboy Club. ?Playboy was a just a rejected concept,? he said. ?We thought going into the period would interest people, but I don?t think people were that fascinated by that milieu and place.? As for the high-profile midseason entry Smash, Greenblatt tried to downplay expectations. ?I don?t think it?s a make-or-break show, but it?s a really good potentially long-term asset for us.?

Greenblatt also dispelled any notion that Community has been effectively canceled when the network pulled the cult favorite on its midseason schedule. Read More ?

EXCLUSIVE: Disney has tapped Robert Stromberg to make his feature directorial debut on Maleficent, the Linda Woolverton-scripted revisionist take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale that is being constructed as a star vehicle for Angelina Jolie to play the villainess. While Stromberg is new to the director?s chair, he is no stranger to dealing with big-ticket spectacle films. He has been production designer on Avatar and Alice In Wonderland, and Disney?s upcoming Oz The Great And Powerful. He also worked on visual effects for such films as 2012, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World?s End and Master And Commander. Joe Roth is producing.

This gives Disney feature heads Sean Bailey and Rich Ross another tentpole feature to complement the Marvel product, with A-list talent. Maleficent stacks up alongside Oz The Great And Powerful, and the Johnny Depp-starrer The Lone Ranger. Stromberg?s repped by UTA.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros just issued an email to the members of the Writers Branch of the Academy in an attempt to fix its mistake of sending some of them the wrong version of the script for J Edgar by Oscar-winning Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black. Instead of Black?s final shooting script, the studio sent a version given it by Malpaiso that was used in post-production and for continuity, not the final version by which the writer?s awards-season chances should be judged.?(For instance, it is missing the writer?s signature descriptions of action between the dialogue). I?d heard that Black was upset by the mistake and concerned it could hurt his Oscar nomination chances. While anything having to do with J. Edgar Hoover smacks of conspiracy, I?m told that the scribe is feeling better after the studio?s fast fix and chalks it up to being an honest mistake. The wrong scripts were sent to about one-third of the writer?s branch who specifically requested a script. Here?s the missive that Warner Bros sent today:

Dear Member of the Writers Branch:

It has just come to our attention that the version of the screenplay for ?J. Edgar? that was sent for your consideration was not the shooting script written by Dustin Lance Black, but rather what is known as a continuity draft. The language in this continuity draft was not written by Mr.

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Well, this has to feel good to organizations like the MPAA, who have been banging the drum about antipiracy laws that have some teeth. The first of five convicted operators behind the illegal file-sharing site NinjaVideo.net has been sentenced after all pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and copyright infringement. Co-founder Hana Amal Beshara, 30, of North Brunswick, N.J., will serve 22 months in prison, two years of supervised release, complete 500 hours of community service, repay $209,826.95 that she personally obtained from her work and hand over financial accounts and computer equipment. She was one of the main operators of the site, which gave users the ability to download movies still in theaters or yet to be released, with that business taking in more than $505,000 in income. The site was one of nine taken down in June by Operation In Our Sites, an initiative targeting online piracy that involves Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia made the ruling.

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline?s TCA coverage.

Ex-NBC programming chief Ben Silverman was back in a familiar and frightening spot this morning: At TCA in Pasadena, representing NBC. But this isn?t 2009, and there is a different guy atop of NBC Entertainment in Bob Greenblatt. Silverman was here as executive producer of the new NBC reality competition series Fashion Star that features host Elle Macpherson and mentors Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie and John Varvatos. So it was a different Silverman ? more relaxed to be sure ? but also in many ways the same guy: He still looked fashion-plate lean and the epitome of shrewd salesman. Silverman admitted that he didn?t see Greenblatt?s session earlier in the morning, quipping, ?They were doing my hair.? Also not changed from the time Silverman was in Greenblatt?s chair is the plight of NBC, which continues to be stuck in fourth place, something the Jeff Zucker-Ben Silverman regime contributed to. When a critic pointed out that Greenblatt painted ?such a sad picture? of NBC during his presentation, Silverman replied: ?I?m thrilled to be making this show on NBC. I can?t imagine a better time period on television than following The Biggest Loser (also produced by Silverman) for the audience we want. ? I feel incredibly happy and excited, and I?m betting on Bob. I love his creativity.? And how does it feel for Silverman to be back with so many of his ?friends? in ? Read More ?

EXCLUSIVE: TBS has picked up to series Men At Work, a multicamera sitcom created by Breckin Meyer, star of TNT?s dramedy Franklin & Bash, which originated at TBS. The series, picked up for 10 episodes, is being produced by Sony Pictures TV and Jamie Tarses? studio-based Fanfare, which also produce Franklin & Bash, which has been renewed for a second season. Men at Work is an ensemble multi-camera comedy that explores bromance, sexcapades and office adventures of four buddies who work at a magazine. It centers on Milo (Danny Masterson), who finds comfort in his three best friends (James Lesure, Michael Cassidy and Adam Busch). They help reinvent his manhood after being dumped by his girlfriend while navigating their own personal and professional lives. As for TBS? other 2 multi-camera comedy pilot, Sullivan & Son and BFF, the network is expected to wait to see both before making a decision.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924268/news/1924268/

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