CBS Television Distribution has sold its syndicated first-run Jeff Probst to stations in more than 70% of the country ahead of its fall 2012 launch. The new one-hour talk show starring the Survivor host is now in 22 of the top 25 markets. New sales include to station groups CBS, Dispatch Broadcast Group, Gray Television, Raycom Media, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Hearst Television.
Tag Deadline Hollywood Daily
Talker ‘Jeff Probst’ Boosts Station Count
Hilary Swank On Her Ill-Fated Trip To Chechnya: “I Should Know Where I’m Going’
Hilary Swank tonight kicked off her image-rehabilitating campaign after the disastrous paid appearance at tyrannical Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov’s birthday party with a visit to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The backlash from the Oct. 5 appearance in Grozny led to Swank firing her manager and most of her agents. The fallout also included her PR firm 42West reportedly dropping her over disagreement how the aftermath of her embarrassing stint should be handled, so it’s unclear who booked her appearance on Leno tonight. In in, Swank tried to repair some of the damage by taking responsibly for her blunder but left some blame for her representatives too. “Human rights organizations had reached out to warn me before I went but I did not get those warnings, they weren’
ICM, Part 3: Agency Board & Rizvi Blow Off Chris Silbermann’s Demands (…For Now)
ICM Imploding, Part 2: Chris Silbermann Forces Decision By Largest Investor And Calls ICM Board Meeting Friday; Secretly Relying On Mike Ovitz’
Actor’s Fake Gun On TV Shoot Shocks Cops
A TV production crew on location in San Francisco was shooting a fake robbery scene they stupidly thought would make a funny episode on the Japanese show World’s Most Interesting Footage. But SF police responding to a call about an armed robbery were not amused. Officers ran into Alpha Market on Cole Street midday Wednesday with guns drawn. ”Drop the gun!” an officer ordered an actor in a ski mask who held onto his plastic pistol and responded “It’s a movie!” The cops overpowered the actor and disarmed him. Fortunately, the thesp wasn’t arrested.
Two More Comedy Pitches Land At Networks
Fox has bought Move Over, a relationship comedy from writer/executive producer Timothy Stack (Son Of The Beach), while the CW has bought The Makery, an ensemble multi-camera/hybrid comedy written by Jason Benoit and executive produced by Teri Weinberg and Scott Aversano. Move Over, from 20th Century Fox TV, centers on a couple in their late 20s who divorce and find themselves in need of living together in the same apartment due to the financial crisis. Paradigm-repped Stack was a consulting producer on NBC’
Hot Trailer: ‘Wish You Were Here’
Kieran Darcy-Smith directed this Sundance Film Festival entry in the World Dramatic Competition. Darcy-Smith and Felicity Price wrote the screenplay about four friends on a holiday frolic in Cambodia from which only three make it home. With Joel Edgerton, Teresa Palmer, Felicity Price and Antony Starr.
Sony To Offer ‘Moneyball’ Via Digital Download Before DVD And Blu-ray
That’s the most interesting part of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s announcement today about its video plans for the movie starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A’
Donald Trump To Moderate GOP Debate
Donald Trump has been tapped to moderate an upcoming Republican presidential candidate debate sponsored by online news site Newsmax and to be broadcast on ION Television. The debate, set for December 27 in Des Moines, Iowa, will be the final one before the critical Iowa Caucus on January 3 and should feature the full GOP field. (There have been so many GOP debates it’s difficult to picture one being more important than another, but the timing of this one at least appears relevant.) Of course Trump, hailed as “a truly great American” in the release announcing the debate lineup, briefly flirted with seeking the Republican nomination for president himself before finally backing off during May’s upfronts, when he announced he was staying on as host of NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice instead.
‘Robot Chicken’ Quartet Led By Seth Green Launches New Animation Studio
EXCLUSIVE: Stoopid Monkey Prods’ Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, creators/executive producers of Emmy-winning animated series Robot Chicken, have partnered with Buddy Systems’ John Harvatine IV and Eric Towner to launch Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, a stop-motion animation production facility for the quartet’s joint and individual animated projects, which will be produced under the new company’s banner. Additionally, the studio will host outside stop-motion animation projects. Stoopid Buddy Stoodios’ first productions will be the upcoming Season 6 of Adult Swim’s top-rated series Robot Chicken and the show’s tribute to the characters in the DC Comics universe. As a result, ShadowMachine Films, which had been co-producing Robot Chicken with Stoopid Monkey and handling physical production of the series, will no longer be involved in it. Robot Chicken‘s 100th episode airs January 15. Stoopid Monkey and Buddy Systems first collaborated earlier this year when they launched the YouTube live-action-meets-stop-motion animation show, Stoopid Monkey. Towner and Harvatine, repped by The Gotham Group, were animators on seasons 2 and 3 of Robot Chicken before leaving to found stop-motion production company Buddy System Studios four years ago. The company has had pilots set up at MTV Networks and Disney XD. UTA-repped Green and Senreich also serve as consultants on Lucasfilm’s animated Star Wars comedy series on the heels of their popular Star Wars-themed Robot Chicken specials, produce online reality show www.ControlTV.com and … Read More
‘Allen Gregory’ To Be Preempted Next Week
Fox has extended the run of Allen Gregory … sort of. The network will preempt the seventh and final (for now) episode of the low-rated freshman animated series, slated for Sunday, December 11, to air an all-holiday-themed animated block. A Christmas The Cleveland Show episode will run in the 8:30 PM slot that night, while the last installment from Allen Gregory‘s 7-episode order will air in the time period the following Sunday. That’s expected to be the show’s series finale as a renewal is extremely unlikely. Five episodes in, the series is still sliding in the ratings after a lackluster premiere.
New York Production Incentives Paying Off, According To Labor Statistics Cited By MPAA
The motion picture and TV production industry is responsible for more than 141,000 jobs in New York, according to an analysis of data recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics which covers the year 2010. The MPAA highlighted the analysis in an announcement Wednesday. Figures cited include direct production-related jobs as well as indirect jobs in businesses working with the production industry. Core production jobs covered in the 2010 jobs report of the New York State Comptroller are up to 43,000, an increase of 20% from the 2008 figure cited in that report (36,000), and an increase of 22% over 2009. Production slowed in 2009 due to uncertainty about the state tax incentive program. With additional production-related jobs not captured in the core data, the number of direct jobs reaches 48,690, up 13% (nearly 5,600 jobs) over 2009. Annual job growth between 2009 and 2010 in New York State was flat (0%) and nationwide was down 1%.
The New York state production incentives have been a boon to the local industry, according to the MPAA’s interpretation of the BLS figures. The incentive is a 30% refundable tax credit applied against qualified expenditures. Increases in applications for the incentives also reflect a corresponding increase in the number of New York projects. In 2010, the New York Film Incentive program received 91 applications — 71 motion pictures, 6 television … Read More
Seth MacFarlane Double Grammy Nominee, Faces Barbra Streisand And Tony Bennett
In between juggling 5 series: Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show and the upcoming Flintstones and Cosmos reboots, his first feature and emceeing duties at the Comedy Central roasts, Seth MacFarlane is fostering a budding music career. And tonight, the uber TV producer earned 2 Grammy nominations. One was for a song from Family Guy, Christmastime Is Killing Us which he co-wrote, in the Best Song Written For Visual Media category. It was the only song from a TV show to make the cut. The other nod was an even bigger surprise. MacFarlane’s debut album as a singer, Music Is Better Than Words, was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album alongside heavyweights Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett and Harry Connick Jr. and international sensation Susan Boyle. I think it is safe to say that this is the first time MacFarlane’s name has been mentioned in the same sentence as Ms. Streisand. (Below is a snippet from one of MacFarlane’s sold-out live performances of Music Is Better Than Words, which was turned into an EPIX special.) MacFarlane was not the only creator of primtime comedy series to land a Grammy nomination tonight. 30 Rock‘s Tina Fey earned one in the Best Spoken Word Album category for narrating the audio version of her bestselling book Bossypants, while Louie‘s Louis C.K. is nominated for his comedy album Hilarious. Among the … Read More
Hot Trailer: ‘The Devil Inside’
Paramount’s Insurge genre label put up this TV spot for the demonic possession flick The Devil Inside, directed by William Brent Bell who co-wrote with producer/partner Matt Peterman. It stars Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, Ionut Grama, Suzan Crowley, Bonnie Morgan, Brian Johnson and Preston James Hillier. It opens January 6.
OSCARS: Screen Credits, Music Submission Forms Due 5 PM Thursday, December 1
Beverly Hills, CA ‘
NBC’s ‘The Voice’ Wins Music Competition Series’ Grammy Showdown
NBC’s The Voice earned bragging rights tonight as all 4 of its musician coaches received Grammy nominations: 4 for Cee Lo Green, 2 each for Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera and one for Adam Levine’s band Maroon 5 (it is for the group’s collaboration with Aguilera Moves Like Jagger). In contrast, none of the judges of the other signing competition series, including The Voice‘s main rivals American Idol and The X Factor, landed a single nomination. The recent crop of American Idol contestants also failed to earn recognition though the series’ 2 best-selling alums, Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson earned a nom each, as did another star of a reality competition, Susan Boyle of Simon Cowell’s Britain’s Got Talent.
Tom Rothman Pissed At ‘Prometheus’ Leak
Caught on the Red Carpet at the Gotham Awards, Fox Filmed Entertainment’s Tom Rothman swats away MTV suggestions that Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is a prequel and disses leaked footage:
Daniel Day-Lewis As Abraham Lincoln
Talk about an absolutely uncanny resemblance… Daniel Day-Lewis was spotted having lunch at a restaurant in Richmond, Virginia, where sharp-eyed local Michael Phillips snapped this picture. Day-Lewis is on location with Steven Spielberg for Lincoln, which also stars Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, David Strathairn, Jackie Earle Haley and David Oyelowo. Four years in the making, Spielberg’s biopic was long set to star Liam Neeson.
Hot Trailer: Andrew Stanton’s ‘John Carter’
Disney has released a new trailer for John Carter, the science-fiction epic based on the series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs that stars Taylor Kitch as the Confederate veteran and gentleman warrior who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars, where he becomes a planetary legend.
‘The Book Of Mormon’ Nominated For Grammy For Best Musical Theater Album
After getting their show to Broadway, winning nine Tony Awards including Best New Musical, what else is there for Bobby Lopez, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, composers/lyricists for The Book of Mormon? Well, just a day after Deadline reported the musical went into the black and investors will turn a profit on their $11.4 million investment, The Book of Mormon original Broadway cast recording was nominated for a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. We connected with Lopez and Parker (his South Park co-creator Stone was either mum, elsewhere or both) in the middle of a conference call Wednesday night after nominations were announced, and the guys sounded pretty jazzed. Who wouldn’t? They have a genuine affection for musicals — Parker mentioned that he and Stone grew up in Colorado “listening to cast recordings and local performances” and Lopez chimed in that he had similar experiences. Because they’re up against a Cole Porter musical, Anything Goes, we asked what was their favorite Porter song? Parker: “Anything Goes.” Lopez: “Kiss Me Kate.” The other musical revival they’re up against for Best Musical Theater Album is How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Favorite Frank Loesser song? Both: “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” Ummm, not Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 or 2? “Oh yes, both of them.” On that note it seemed best to let Lopez and Parker get on with celebrating, but we did … Read More
AMC To Vacate Westwood Avco 4-Plex
AMC Theatres is exiting the Avco Four-plex in Westwood on December 4. AMC and the building’s owner, Avco Corp., couldn’t settle on new terms, the LA Times reported, so the Kansas City, Missouri-based theater chain is bowing out. AMC has a newer, cushier, larger and busier theater in nearby Century City. Property manager Hope Hunter said the owners plan to bring in a new theater chain next year. ”A really high-end movie theater will be taking its place,” Hunter said. “We’re going to provide Westwood with a really great movie theater and a reason to come back.”