Tag Archives: Studios

FT: Google Chases Pay-Per-View Buck

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The Financial Times is reporting that Google’s YouTube site is negotiating with the Hollywood studios to participate in a pay-per-view site that will be online by year’s end. That puts it in competition with Apple, Hulu and Netflix in trying to corner the market on streaming film and TV shows. It’s an important battle because studios are reeling with the flattening of DVD titles, revenues where studios keep 80 cents of every dollar, and use that windfall to  cushion all its flops. Google plans to charge about $5 for top titles. All this happens while Blockbuster prepares for bankruptcy.

Producer Mark Gordon Uses N-Word Twice At TV Pilot Table Read: Lifetime Notifies ABC Studios "This Needs To Be Dealt With"

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Producers Guild Co-Prez Mark Gordon Apologizes To Board
EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that Lifetime formally notified Disney’s ABC Studios that prominent TV and film producer Mark Gordon six weeks ago used the word “nigger” twice during a table read of the pilot for the Army Wives spinoff. He did it in front of cast and crew — including two African-American actresses, pilot lead Gabrielle Union and Army Wives series regular Wendy Davis. “Lifetime took all appropriate steps and notified the studio that this is a situation that needs to be dealt with,” an executive tells me.
In turn, a ABC exec informs me, “it was dealt with appropriately. I can’t go beyond that.”
Gordon issued this statement to me: ‘

Marvel Can Make Pics For "The Punisher"

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Luke Y Thompson is covering the Con for Deadline:
I think the biggest news of the Marvel Studios panel tonight is that The Punisher is now owned by Marvel Studios again, and will probably figure into a future film. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige did not say when the Punisher rights reverted, or how. Just that they have. So who is The Punisher? In the comics, Frank Castle is a Vietnam veteran whose family is killed in a Mafia crossfire. Donning a black spandex costume with a skull logo, he declares war on crime and becomes a vigilante. Introduced as a Spider-Man foe in the 1970s, his popularity took off in the late 1980s, when grim and ‘

'Ghost Whisperer' To End After Deal With ABC To Pick Up The Show Fell Through

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After some encouraging early signs out of ABC following CBS’ cancellation of Ghost Whisperer last week, I hear the financial aspect of ABC picking up the veteran drama starring Jennifer Love Hewitt ultimately could not be worked out. (The show is owned 50/50 by ABC Studios and CBS Studios.) Ghost Whisperer executive producers Kim Moses and Ian Sander just issued the following statement:
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ICM Signs 'Cowboys & Aliens' Publisher Platinum Studios To Lasso Film Deals

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ICM has signed Platinum Studios, with the mission to help the entertainment company create film projects from its vast library of 5600 comic book characters. Platinum Studios was started by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who brokered the original deal for Men in Black when he ran Malibu Comics. After years of trying the movie version of the Platinum Comics title Cowboys & Aliens has become a  tent pole being made in partnership between DreamWorks, Universal and Imagine, with Jon Favreau directing Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Paul Dano. As for other Platinum fare already set up for production: Dylan Dog: Dead [...]

THE END OF MOVIE THEATERS? FCC Will Allow Studios To Send First-Run Films Directly To Consumers Over Secure TV

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The MPAA, which is the Hollywood studios’ lobbying organization, just made this announcement about the FCC’s very bad decision. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: once again, Big Media shows that it doesn’t want to share its profits with anyone else. Today’s action allows the major movie studios to undercut the entire process of theatrical release. It would put the struggling cinema chains virtually out of business. (Updates MPAA Asks FCC To Let Studios Transmit First-Run Films Directly To Consumers):
Washington, D.C. ’

ITV Studios Names Kevin Lygo To Top Job

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As predicted, Channel 4 television director Kevin Lygo has been appointed managing director of ITV Studios. Current ITV Studios boss Lee Bartlett will continue to oversee its overseas business. There is no word yet on when Lygo will start. But his departure from Channel 4 was seen as inevitable when he was passed over for the top job. Newly-appointed Channel 4 CEO David Abraham is about to start shortly. I wonder how Lygo will find the move from potentate to supplicant. ITV Studios is, despite its size, just another producer out there pitching for business.
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New ITV Boss to Shake Up ITV Studios

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ITV has signalled that it is looking for a new creative leader to run in-house production arm ITV Studios. Lorraine Heggessey, CEO of production company Talkback Thames, and Channel 4 television director Kevin Lygo are two names being talked about. Current ITV Studios boss Lee Bartlett is expected to be moved sideways.
What to do about ITV Studios will be right at the top of incoming CEO Adam Crozier’

UPDATE: MOST RECENT RICHEST DEAL; Paramount Gets Sacha Baron Cohen Film (After Actor & Agency Get Studio's Goats)

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BREAKING NEWS! UPDATE 11:30 AM: Paramount and agencies are now threatening to send those goats to us if we write any of this. But here goes anyway: as comedians like to say, we suggest you go out, buy a hat, and then hang onto it. Because this is a really rich deal that will give the depressed movie marketplace for star vehicles a real lift. But if other Hollywood studios are going to be looking at this closely, then they should know that the pendulum is swinging back in favor of bigtime actors only under certain conditions. As one insider explains to us: “This actually [...]

WME Gets Paramount's Goat…

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EXCLUSIVE: Just now, visitors to WME Entertainment headquarters were greeted by a goat wandering across the 3rd floor atrium (supposedly defecating everywhere). *UPDATE: Ari had the goat removed after it took a dump in the hallway.* One WME source tells me the animal was sent by Paramount because it wanted the Sacha Baron Cohen pitch which has gone out to 6 studios in 2 days and which Deadline wrote about first yesterday. (Sacha Baron Cohen Pitching Studios On Laugher With ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Trio)  My understanding is that there is a character in the movie that tends goats. “This is the reason why people are [...]