Studio Briefs & Project Development Briefs – Mar 6-8, 2015

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6 Mar 2016

We will be providing briefs of what comes out of the studios or independent project development on a daily basis and summarizing them in daily posts.   These will be a quick way to attempt to keep everyone updated on movement of projects.   This post is updated throughout the day.  So check back for the latest updates.

 

NON-SPECIFIC (NOT SPECIFIC TO A GIVEN ENTITY)

 

ABC/DISNEY/AMC FAMILY/LIFETIME

  •  ABC’s Untitled comedy pilot from Imagine TV and 20th TV has cast Melanie Griffith in the pilot adapted and executive produced by Wendy & Lizzie Molyneux and directed by Jamie Travis, based on the Kip and Mona Lisa Harding Book .  Brian Grazer and Frnacie Calfo executive produce the project.  Griffith will play  former pageant queen Celeste, Mona Lisa Mitchell’s mother who invites her daughter’s family to live with her in Orange County.   Kip and Mona Lisa Mitchell find that their children have extraordinary giftedness and intelligence through a combination of homeschooling and genetics.

AMC NETWORKS/AMC ENTERTAINMENT/A&E

CBS/CW/CBSFILMS/SHOWTIME/Pop

  •  CBS’s new drama hit Battle Creek has just been sold by Sony Pictures TV worldwide, selling to over 100 territories, including RTL for Germany, TF1 in France, Shaw Media in Canda, Globo TV in Brazil and online streaming service iQiyi in China.  Battle Creek is created by Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and David Shore (House M.D.), and stars Josh Duahmel (Transformers) and Dean Winters (Rescue Me).  Battle Creek is about a small town detective (Winters) and a big-city FBI agent (Duhamel) who make up an unlikely crime stopping team in the small town of Battle Creek.   CBS ordered 13 episodes up front and the series had a very strong start (premiered on March 1, 2015).  Two of television’s best storytellers have come together to create a great buddy cop story,” said Keith LeGoy, president of international distribution for Sony Pictures Television in a statement.Battle Creek had a strong debut this week in the U.S., performing especially well with a broad audience, so we anticipate viewers around the world will find this series equally engaging.”
  • CBS’s Supergirl revealed first photos of actress Melissa Benoist in costume.   See below:

  • Deadline:  Homeland Season 5 Headed to Europe; Carrie Leaving CIA – Paleyfest
  • The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King along with cast members attended Paleyfest and were hosted by James Corden who immediately asked about the killing off of Josh Charles’ character. King explained that Charles’ contract was up and he wanted to leave the show.  Baranski commented about the reaction to his murder “speaks to the strength of what we do over the course of 22 episodes over five years,” , adding that the audience doesn’t “get that from shows that are shorter runs.”  But the big news of the evening was that King talked of the possibility of a spin-off.  See more details about The Good Wife’s panel at Paleyfest.

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION (AOL, AMAZON, HULU, NETFLIX, YAHOO)

 

DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS (DISCOVERY CHANNEL)

 

 

DREAMWORKS /DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

FOX ENTERTAINMENT GROUP/FOX SEARCHLIGHT/NEW REGENCY

  •  Friday on Live with Kelly and Michael, when asked about her future with the Fox hit show Gotham, Jada Pinkett Smith replied “I don’t think so, no. I signed for a year and the year is up,” But there are some great things coming ahead on Gotham, believe you me. There’s a lot of good stuff coming.”  Pinkett-Smith played Fish Mooney, gangster/Penguin’s (played by Robin Lord Taylor) boss on Gotham‘s freshman season.  Pinkett-Smith did joke that the door may be left open for more of Fish Mooney in the future, “she could show up anywhere, you never know!” she said with a laugh.Fox responded when asked about the exit of Pinkett Smith with a non-committal and non-confirming one way or another “Fish Mooney’s storyline takes a lot of interesting twists and turns into the finale of season one of Gotham.”
  • Variety:  Vince Vaughn’s Unfinished Business Bombs at Box Office

 

MGM, ORION, UNITED ARTISTS

NBC/UNIVERSAL STUDIOS/USA NETWORK/COMCAST/E!/SyFy

LIONSGATE

  • Lionsgate’s adaptation of the best selling novel The Shack, written by William P Young, directed by Stuart Hazeldine,  is in final negotiations for Octavia Spencer to play “God” with production to begin in Spring.   Gil Netter is producing through Netter Productions along with Brad Cummings.   The Shack is about a man, whose youngest daughter is abducted during a family vacation.  Evidence is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness, leading authorities to believe the girl had been murdered.   Four years later, however, the man receives a note, apparently from “God”, inviting him back to the shack.  With reluctance he accepts the invitation and finds something there that changes his life forever.

 

SONY/TRISTAR/COLUMBIA

TIME WARNER/WARNER BROS./HBO/ TURNER/TNT/TBS/NEWLINE

  • HBO is in negotiations with Anna Paquin to star in Madame X, based on Kate Manning’s , adapted by Julia Hart and directed by Lynn Shelton.    Paquin would star and executive produce with her producing partner Stephyen Moyer through their company CASM, and actor Jack Black thorugh his Electric Dynamite shingle, along with Cerise Larkin and Mark Larnin of Untold Pictures and Priyanka Mattoo.   Madame X is set in Victorian New York city era is a love story, a family saga and the confessions of a chrismatic and passionate woman, Axie Muldoon (Paquin) who changed the lives of countless others.   Axie was one of the wealthiest and controversial women of her day, who helped her husband build a thriving midwife business and defied the law in the name of women’s reproductive rights.
  • Variety Exclusive:  American Sniper Producer Signs First-Look Deal at Warner Bros.
  • Deadline:  Girls‘ Lena Dunham Takes on Critics, Mum on Scandal Role & Defends Sex Scenes – Paleyfest

VIACOM/COMEDY CENTRAL/PARAMOUNT/MTV

 

INDIE

  • THR:  The Gunman:  Film Review
  • IM GLobal’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe have signed on Emile Hirsch and Brian Cox to star, penned by Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing and directed by Andre Øvredal.  Stuart Ford’s IM Global is financing through it’s Octane genre label with Fred Berger and Eric Garcia producing under their Imposter Pictures banner along with Rory Aitken and Ben Pugh of 42.   Ford, Matt Jckson and Ben Shields Catlin of IM Global will executive produce.   The production begins in the UK at the end of March.   The Autopsy of Jane Doe is about father(Cox) and son (Hirsch) coroners who receive a mysterious homicide victim with no apparent cause of death.   As they attempt to identify the beautiful young “Jane Doe” they discover bizarre clues that hold the key to her terrifying secrets.Of course a lot will depend on the outcome of Hirsch’s alleged assault charge outcome at his appearance on March 16 in Utah Court following charges that were filed from a female Paramount executive from a party incident at Sundance earlier this year.
  • Deadline Exclusive:  Justified EP Dave Andron to Adapt Stone Rider Sci-Fi Novel for Working Title
  • Deadline Exclusive:  Benjamin Bratt Joins Brian Cranston in The Infiltrator
  • Deadline Exclusive:  Lorene Scafaria Helms The Medler with Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, JK Simmons
  • Teddy Schwartzman’s Black Bear Pictures has just nabbed rights for The Rocket, a hot property about the fallen baseball hero, Roger Clemens.  The Rocket was highly sought after Warner Bros. for Bradley Cooper to produce, but Schwartzman won the deal.   The script is written by Jeffrey Gelber and Ryan Belenzon.  The Rocket focuses on the latter half of Clemens’ career who was given the nickname “The Rocket” for his fastball, resulting in no hits.   Clemens who started his career with the Boston Red Sox name became tainted once his former trainer, Brian McNamee claimed that the pitcher used steroids.  The script begins about this point where Clemens’ career nosedives as he loses his ability to pitch the fastball he for which he became famous.   Once accused of steroid use by his former trainer, Clemens appeared before Congress and denied the allegations under oath.   But a federal grand jury was not convinced and indicted Clemens on six felony counts involving perjury, false statements, and obstruction of Congress. However in 2008, he was found not guilty of all six counts and retired from his 24-seasons of play.

 

Posted in: ABC, AMC, CBS, Film, FOX, NBC, Televsion ⋅ Tagged: abctag, , , , foxtag, nbctag,

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