31 Jan 2015
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.
Also See Sundance Film Festival Daily Blog
NON-SPECIFIC (NOT SPECIFIC TO A GIVEN ENTITY)
Variety: Super Bowl Ads : The Best, the Worst, The Movies and NBC
Variety: “Broken Hollywood” Series from 22 top luminaries in the business
Variety: Box Office: American Sniper Sets Super Bowl Weekend Record with $31.8 Million
42nd Annual Annie Awards – Dreamworks Animation How To Train Your Dragon2 Top Winner! See Full List
19th Annual ADG Awards – Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel, Guardians of the Galaxy, Game of Thrones, True Detective, The Big Bang Theory and More Wins
TheWrap: ‘American Sniper’ Sacks Three Openers with $10 Million Friday at Box Office
Deadline: Constantine & Shark Tank Ratings Down, Glee Even & 20/20 Jumps as ABC Wins Night In Demo
PopPolitics: Parks & Rec Makes Final Trek to D.C.; Foxcatcher and The Truth of John du Pont (Listen)
ABC/DISNEY/AMC FAMILY
ABC has ordered a reboot of Uncle Buck to pilot, a comedy to be produced by Will Packer and will be a co-production with ABC Studios. The series will be written by Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley who originally wrote the John Hughes film version that started John Candy. The story centers on a childish man who learns how to be an adult by taking care of his nephews in a very childish way. Cragg, Bradley and Packer will Executive Produce with Wil Packer Prods. head of TV Korin Huggins co-executive producing. The project is hails from Universal TV.
ABC has also ordered a series called Family Fortune starring actor-comedian Fortune Feimster; Executive Produced by Matt Hubbard, Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, and 3 Arts’ David Miner; co-star Feimster will serve as co-Executive Producer; the pilot created by Matt Hubbard. Universal TV (where Hubbard, Fey and Carlock have overall deals) is producing. Fortunate Fimster is about a popular gym teacher(played by Feimster) in Georgia who comes out of hte closet to her close-knit group of family and friends. Unbeknownst to her, she will be dealing with her bickering and happily divorced parents also ‘coming out’ who are also sleeping together again.
AMC NETWORKS/AMC ENTERTAINMENT
CBS/CW/CBSFILMS/SHOWTIME
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION (AOL, AMAZON, HULU, NETFLIX, YAHOO)
DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS (DISCOVERY CHANNEL)
FOX ENTERTAINMENT GROUP/FOX SEARCHLIGHT
HBO
HBO‘s Game of Thrones opened Friday at Imax Theaters to $686,000 US Box Office, screening at 205 Imax screens. It is projected it could earn near $2 Mil for the weekend, bringing the average per-screen to a weekend high of $9,800. Given it is Superbowl weekend, these numbers are very good. If Game of Thrones-Imax had opened a different weekend, the numbers could have even been higher. HBO remastered into Imax format the two-part Season 4 finale and added a Season 5 Trailer to the mix which premiered at a late night Thursday showing. The Imax showing ends this Friday.
HBO‘s Game of Thrones debuted well at Imax but there were many lessons learned. For one thing, content is important when considering collaborative efforts like HBO had with Imax, i.e., comedies such as The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family may not make for good subject material in an Imax theater. There are other lessons learned as well. See More
NBC/UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
Deadline Hollywood – Deadline reported a story on NBCUniversal’s Bruce Jenner “Story”. You can find the story here.
LIONSGATE
PARAMOUNT STUDIOS/VIACOM
Paramont Animation, Nickelodeon Movies release of a United Plankton Pictures production of a SpongeBob movie has been reviewed by Variety. Read their review: Variety: Film Review: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
SONY/TRISTAR
WARNER BROS.
Warner Bros. American Sniper’s writer, Jason Hall, answered questions today, during a screenwriters panel, fired at him regarding the controversy surrounding the film content at the 30th Santa Barbara International Film Festival. He described his film as the story of Chris Kyle, veteran of four tours of duty in Iraq as a soldier who was “back home, but not ‘back'” He elaborated that Kyle suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after finding himself in a war where he reportedly targeted and killed 160 hits, the largest number in US military history. Hall went on to say that the film wasn’t meant to be a portrait of a killer as some are saying. “We know what we intended to do. This is a movie about a soldier, exploring the archetype of a warrior and what that cost is and what that cost is to his family,” Hall explained. Hall has been moved by all of the responses he has been getting from veterans and even those that raise controversy because he feels that it keeps veterans issues in the forefront. American Sniper has been leading in the box office hitting close to $250 Mil.
INDIE
Weinstein Company‘s The Imitation Game screenplay writer Graham Moore and the author of the book from which the film was based, Andrew Hodges (book entitled ) were honored at the 27th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award. See More
Pure Flix will be releasing a new faith-based drama feature Do You Believe? for a March 20 release in more than 1, 000 USA locations. They plan to sell to international markets next week at the Berlin Film Festival. Producers of the film are Andrea Logan White, Michael Scott, Russell Wolfe and Elizabeth Travis. Jonathan M. Gunn directed the film and the script was penned by Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, who also wrote the Pure Flix released film God’s Not Dead. Do You Believe? cast includes Mira Sorvino, Cybill Chepherd, Sean Astin, Lee Majors, Alexa Pena Vega, Andrea Logan White and Brian Bosworth. The story is about a dozen different lives that intersect on the streets of Chicago, beginning with a local pastor (Ted MCGinley) being moved by the visible faith of an old, street-corner preacher played by Delroy Lindo.