Gawker: defamer, trade

Ben Silverman To Whisk You Away From Society's Ills

Seth — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:15:28 EDT

· NBC is close to unveiling their very fantasy- and action-heavy 2008-09 lineup, including a pickup of Knight Rider, and Robinson Crusoe, an "'adrenaline-charged' update of the classic tale." Said Ben Silverman, "We just wanted to give audiences a viable alternative to all the really, really gay stuff Steve McPherson seems to love so much over at ABC." [Variety]
· The heirs of Superman creator Jerome Seigel have won a lawsuit against Warner Bros. that could cost the studio millions. This all comes courtesy of attorney Marc Toberoff, who's pursued similar claims against the studio on such other projects as Wild Wild West, Dukes of Hazzard, Smallville, and Get Smart, earning him the nickname "The Copyright Crusader," or, as WB execs refer to him, "Ass Tumor." [Variety]
· The first organized protests by a Fanboys fan group called the 501st are not likely to elicit any pants-soiling from Harvey Weinstein: "The 501st claims 14 members showed up in New York and, when confronted by two security guards, chose to go inside and pay to see 21 instead." They are now planning a 21 demonstration for later in the week, protesting the film's "lack of quality Kate Bosworth boobage." [THR]

· Parents of the Bride Steve Martin and Diane Keaton re-team for One Big Happy, a "comic pitch" purchased by Paramount from the creators of Party of Five. All we need is the return of Martin Short's Eurogay party planner, Franck Eggelhoffer, and we're really onto something here! [Variety]
· ICM welcomes Showgirls director Paul Verhoeven and Dude, Where's My Car director Danny Leiner into the fold, where they promise to find both filmmakers "the kinds of craptastic projects that will really let them shine." [THR]

Lionsgate Pulls WGA Into A Negotiation Room For A Spat-Ending Quickie

Seth — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:15:55 EST

Lionsgate, the plucky indie studio who mined the untold box office potential of film franchises featuring a creepy marionette on a tricycle and an equally creepy actor in grandma drag, has forged its own side deal with the WGA:

"Lionsgate is considered a leader in the industry and its signing an interim agreement again confirms that it is possible for writers to be compensated fairly and respectfully for their work and for companies to operate profitably," said WGA West prexy Patric M. Verrone and WGA East prexy Michael Winship.

After the jump: The fates of Mad Men and Weeds hang in the balance!

And the timing of the deal is particularly good for Lionsgate's TV biz; the indie's Showtime comedy "Weeds" would normally be gearing up for pre-production right about now, and its understood that the company had hoped to begin prepping the second season of its much-praised AMC drama "Mad Men" as early as last November.

Whether Lionsgate's arrangement will result in the same kind of first-studio-to-cave bounty piled upon United Artists, with a WGA-branded dumptruck beeping its way backwards and unloading a small mountain of cheap-to-produce, Jessica Alba-friendly screenplays at their front doors, the tides of this industry-eviscerating tidal wave at least appear to be inching backwards. If nothing else, audiences suffering distended remote-control thumbs from a season of TV malnourishment can feast on the sweet, life-giving properties of a freshly baked batch of Mary-Louise Parker's signature brownies, washed down with a replenishing glass of scotch from the decanter sitting on Jon Hamm's desk.

Lionsgate signs as WGA talks go on [variety.com]

Trade Round-Up: Next Up, 'The Geico Gecko And AFLAC Duck Variety Hour!'

Seth — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:04:27 EST

· Hollywood Out of Ideas: Let's Turn Those Mildly-Amusing-At-Best Geico Cavemen Commercials, Which Themselves Are a Rip-Off of That Old Phil Hartman SNL Sketch, Into an ABC Sitcom Pilot edition! [Variety]
· Warner Bros. is turning the Valerie Plame-C.I.A. leak debacle into a feature. You can start plotting your dream cast now, but Warner is hoping Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby will all be played by Eddie Murphy, in his next Oscar-courting role. [Variety]
· With Grey's and CSI in reruns, Fox tramples the rest last night with Idol and strongly showing Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, leading the network to immediately explore possible spinoffs, including Are You Drunker Than Paula Abdul?, and Are You Gonna Eat That? starring Randy Jackson. [Variety]
· In an effort to "minimize children's exposure to violence," the FCC wants broader powers in regulating TV content. In other words the actual CSI decapitation would be subject to censoring, and not just the skullfucking that follows it. [THR]
· TV Land has hired Bill Clinton to address their advertisers at their March 23rd upfronts in New York, who is expected to tell the gathered crowd that in his moments of doubt, he would regularly turn to old episodes of Simon & Simon, where the wisdom of P.I. siblings A. J. and Rick would invariably guide him through his darkest hours. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: Viacom's Healthy Q4 Only Deepens Sumner's Love For Brad

Seth — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:08:19 EST

· With a successful Dreamgirls and World Trade Center DVD release in the year's fourth quarter, Viacom has Paramount and DreamWorks to thank for coming out $86 million in the black. To celebrate, Sumner Redstone ordered Brad Grey to follow the trail of rose petals leading down the hall and into his candle-lit office, where, inside, the scantily clad Viacom overlord lay splayed over his desk for the taking. [Variety]
· The Weinstein Co. renewed its first-look deal with Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella's Mirage for three years. That includes the remake rights to foreign language Oscar-winner The Lives of Others, which they plan an making more accessible to domestic audiences by transferring the story from Cold War East Germany to the gripping milieu of an African American university, where students are preparing for a fierce national step show competition. [Variety]
· This season of American Idol continues to pop the competition into its mouth like a fearsome giant terrorizing the countryside, only to later poop out the Friday Night Lights-flecked remains all over the village windmill. [Variety]
· A new study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. shows that show business is the single largest contributor to the local economy, followed by hooking, and frozen yogurt franchises. [THR]
· It's pilot season! Draft those test options faster, you business and legal peons! Already cast: Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh in ABC drama Dirty Sexy Money, Shawnee Smith in ABC's comedy Traveling in Packs, and Horatio Sanz in something that will likely not get a pick-up.

Awards Round-Up: Art Directors Need Recognition, Too

Seth — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:02:07 EST

· The Art Directors Guild chose fifteen nominees in three categories—period, fantasy, and contemporary—with awards to be presented Feb. 17 at the Beverly Hilton. With Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, Pirates of the Caribbean, Superman Returns, and V for Vendetta in direct competition, the fantasy ballot alone is likely to send fanboys into a locked, upstairs bathroom to "examine" it more closely. [Variety]
· The Cinema Audio Society awards none other than longtime Oscars producer Gil Cates with their Filmmaker Award. (He's a filmmaker?) Congratulations, Gil, for demonstrating excellence under your many hats of "director and producer in feature films, television and theater." And don't forget blogger! [THR]
· Borat's Ken "Rancid Bubble" Davitian recently took some time to appreciate his good fortune as he made his way through a Golden Globes gifting suite: "I'm a short, fat and bald guy living the good life after an overnight success that took 30 years." [LA Daily News]
· Unless you're a meth addict, morning show anchor, or triathlete in training, you'll probably have to set your alarms in order to be up in time to watch the Oscar nominations announced live, Tuesday morning at 5:30 am. [The Envelope]
· And the "For Your Considerationy" for Most Adorable Tiny Internet Ad goes to... [Universal Pictures Awards]

Awards Round-Up: Plenty Of Space At The PGA Awards Table

Seth — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:32:22 EST

· The 3000-member Producer's Guild of America named the nominees for its awards, with the producers of Babel, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen all nominated for best picture. Unlike the Academy Awards limit of three, their awards have no cap on the number of producer's names that can be submitted under a single title, meaning no movie money person will be left out from the fun of feeling like PGA queen for a day. [Variety]
· The Oscars also have a three name rule for Best Song, meaning Dreamgirls' "Listen"—with four credited songwriters including Beyoncé—wasn't eligible unless one name was dropped; the Academy decided that name will be Beyoncé's, in all probability closing the door on her one Oscar shot, while ensuring her Jennifer Hudson voodoo doll sees another needle. [The Envelope]
· The Oscar nominating ballots went out Tuesday, arriving before most Academy members were even back from vacation, and are due back on January 13, meaning marathon screener viewings will be required. Otherwise, a quick match of DVD shuffle board can always quickly knock a few entries out of contention. [THR]
· The Academy has added a 115-member makeup branch (including hairdressers), where those artists used to be lumped into the all-service "members-at-large" category. That's a tenth of the size of the actor's branch, but still may be enough to swing a Best Picture nomination Big Momma's House 2's way. [Variety]

Trade Round-Up: Approaching The Flower Planet Of Pasadena

Seth — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:16:14 EST

· Monday's Rose Parade will feature George Lucas and hundreds of ~~nerds~~ fans dressed as Stormtroopers marching alongside a "Star Wars Spectacular" float "inspired by the landscape of the planet Naboo." Also: The Grambling State U. marching band from Louisiana dressed as Imperial officers, playing "Main Title," "Imperial March" and "The Throne Room," with a "New Orleans Twist." OK, now we kind of want to check this out. [Variety]
· A look at ten "sure thing" stories predicted for 2006 that never panned out, including "Pellicano scandal is Hollywood's Watergate," "Kevin Reilly is on his way out," and all those agency merger rumors that ultimately went nowhere. [Variety]
· It was the year of the midrange budget movies, from Borat to Jackass: Number Two. Look for many more wobbly Handicam movies featuring even more testicles and homoerotic pranksterism in 2007. [Variety]
· The networks are grappling over whether or not to air Saddam Hussein's execution, with Fox reportedly looking at compromising by running a reality special entitled, Saddam Hussein: If We Hanged Him, Here's How We Did It. [THR]
· "Paging Mr. Boll. Mr. Uwe. Boll. Could you please approach the critic-pummeling, hacky video-game-movie director counter?" Capcom partners with Hyde Park Entertainment for Street Fighter: The Movie. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: 2006's Cartoon Glut Meant Your 'Rats In The Toilet' Movie Might Suffer

Seth — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 14:36:14 EST

· Analysis of this year's animated releases reveals that they tend to do better at the box office when another one doesn't open soon after. It's almost as if there was a single audience for these movies—say, parents and their young children. [Variety]
· MTV is looking to expand to the Middle East, signing a deal with Dubai's Arabian Television Network to launch MTV Arabiya. Meanwhile, Tabitha Soren and Kennedy go burqa shopping, hoping no one recognizes them at the open-call VJ auditions. [Variety]
· Bob Yari's Crash lawsuit gets tossed by a Superior Court judge. In other news, Variety's photo editor is clearly not a big fan of the producer. [Variety]
· CBS's CSI, NCIS, and any other series on that network featuring those initials, lead the network to a Christmas week victory, but Deal or No Deal's epic, obnoxiously Yuletide-themed Monday night episode wins NBC that night. [THR]
· Former Mediaweek senior editor and regular contributor Eric Schmuckler, described by colleagues as "the most lovable kvetch I've ever known," died at age 47 from cancer. Sigh. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: 'Blazing Saddles' Farts Its Way Into The Library Of Congress

Seth — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:46:19 EST

· The Library of Congress added 25 titles to the National Film Registry, including Fargo, Groundhog Day, and Blazing Saddles, the last of which you can draw up alphabetically, or by typing in "Movies: Bean-Induced Flatulence." [Variety]
· Eragon is faring much better overseas than it did in North America, while Letters From Iwo Jima has topped the Japanese box office for the third week in a row, proving unless the giant flying monster movie has a "Vs." in the title, the Japanese aren't interested. [Variety]
· Apocalypto has been "stuck in neutral" since its big opening weekend, despite Disney's attempts to re-market it to families with all new subtitles that tell the story of an ancient warrior who needs to get home for Christmas before the evil Santa Mayan Claus can reach into his chest and pull out a beating heart for a lucky little girl or boy. [Variety]
· Samantha Corbin-Miller has been hired as showrunner on Lifetime's series Army Wives, not to be confused with ABC's Football Wives. Yes, 2007 TV is definitely going to be Year of the Woman Defined by Her Relationship to a Man. You go, girl! [THR]
· Elijah Wood will star in Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia's first English-language film, Oxford Murders, saying "I'm delighted to work with Elijah, who undoubtedly has the most powerful eyes in the industry and who is perfect for the part." Sounds like someone has a cruuush. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: Heaven Has A Sex Machine

Seth — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 15:11:44 EST

· The holidays take two biggies from us: Frank Stanton, credited with turning CBS into "the Tiffany network," and the hardest working man in showbiz, James Brown, who was telling friends until the very end that he'd be playing Times Square New Year's Eve. [Variety, THR]
· Dreamgirls took in a healthy $8.7 million on Christmas Day. In a joint announcement with the Association of Chinese Restaurant Owners of America, DreamWorks thanked "all the Jews out there who made this Christmas an unparalleled success!" [Variety]
· The FCC refuses to back down on their Nipplegate fine for CBS, whose lawyers you can be sure have sat down Prince and told him that under no circumstances may he drop his pants to release a thousand white doves come Superbowl half-time this February. [Variety]
· Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined the MPAA anti-pirateers, delivering a statement in which he likened the production of counterfeit DVDs and CDs to "picking someone's pocket or shoplifting." He then handed out T-shirts featuring the campaign logo—a snarling pirate with a DVD eyepatch—which was an image knocked off from a European anti-piracy campaign that everyone really dug. [THR]
· Rupert Murdoch finally dumps his "turd bird," giving Liberty Media his stake in DirecTV in exchange for Liberty's entire stake in News Corp. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: Tom Freston Tries Out His New Material

Seth — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:41:43 EDT

· Hollywood's abuzz about Tom Freston's roast in New York last night, where the terminated, terminally nice guy managed to get a few good ones in, too: "I've been, what do these kids do? Swimming the Internet. Check this out. MySpace.com — one word not two. I'm telling you, one day this is going to be worth a bundle." Make sure to read his instant message conversation with Tom Cruise, in which the two discuss their enthusiasm for something called "MEGA-ATOMIC IMPALER." (Which we'll assume is a video game and not...um...a mega-atomic impaler.) [Variety]
· Charlize Theron will star with Nick Stahl in Ferris Wheel, an indie drama that will mark Bill Maher's directorial debut. ~~Yes, that Bill Maher.~~ Nope! Not that Bill Maher—another Bill Maher who comes out of visual F/X. [Variety]
· Nerd-hot director Wes Anderson collaborates again with his Life Aquatic co-writer Noah Baumbach on Fantastic Mr. Fox, a mostly stop-motion adaptation of the Roald Dahl book for Fox. [Variety]
· NBC 2.0 continues its unstoppable march of radical innovation by putting its four most promising comedies into a two-hour programming block on Thursday nights, then bestowing this chunk of appointment television with an as-yet-undetermined, catchy catchphrase. [Variety]
· Forbes hosted a two-day media conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where the genuine sentiment among execs was one of "consumer fatigue" amidst the plethora of platforms currently available. Finally, however, one lone voice stood up and yelled, "Well?! What are we going to do about it?!" whereupon everyone in attendance instantly jumped off their seats and shouted "Fix it!!!" They then worked together well into the next morning drafting the Pledge of Convergence. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: Rupert Murdoch Ready To Dump His 'Turd Bird'

Seth — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:39:17 EDT

· The best thing to come out of the Toronto International Film Festival so far, says Variety, is a transcendent documentary from a little known Eurasian filmmaker with a "chram thick like tube of Pringles." [Variety]
· We hope Nick Meyer, formerly of Lionsgate, likes hugs, because his new co-president at Paramount Vantage, John Lesher, prefers to celebrate every new acquisition with a big, bear embrace from behind. [Variety]
· Second-tier Rocky and Bullwinkle regulars Mr. Peabody and Sherman get their own CGI feature, in which Sherman finally shuts up the know-it-all, time-traveling mutt by threatening him with a one-way ticket to Dr. Kebarkian's Furry Friends Cat & Dog Clinic. [Variety]
· Rupert Murdoch is looking to dump his controlling interest in DirecTV, a company he has been dismissively referring to lately as his "turd bird." No joke. [Variety]
· "Lolita Davidovich has been cast opposite Lili Taylor in Lifetime's drama pilot State of Mind." Davidovich, fine. But Taylor? A Lifetime pilot? Things sure have taken a turn for the worse since Nate buried her in a burlap sack in the desert. [THR]
· Universal Music CEO Doug Morris tells shareholders YouTube and MySpace users are violating copyright laws, but that he has a great plan to catch them that involves a smoking hot 16-year-old chick with an online video diary. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: Mark Burnett Wants A Slice Of The Kiddie-Wizard Pie

Seth — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:30:21 EDT

· Survivor: Race Wars producer Mark Burnett options the rights to a series of children's fantasy books similar in tone to Harry Potter, but instead of the children assigned to Gryffindor and Slytherin houses, they're segregated accorded to—on second thought, we can't bring ourselves to finish this joke. [Variety]
· As we mentioned before, Jim Carrey kissed UTA goodbye, and is pointing himself towards a CAA tomorrow. [Variety]
· Fox head Tom Rothman brags to the Merrill Lynch Media and Entertainment Conference about his company's "fiscal discipline," except where "creative ambition" is concerned. To illustrate his point, he then runs a 27-minute, behind-the-scenes featurette entitled, "'Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties': From Dream To Screen Reality." [Variety]
· The creator of Medium sells a pilot to CBS called The Meant to Be's, about a dead woman who, "in order to 'pass over,' ... must return to Earth and help people improve their lives." No word yet on which generously beracked actresses are on the shortlist to star. [THR]
· The producers of Invincible, a movie about football, and The Rock, star of football movie Gridiron Gang, are collaborating on The Game Plan, Hollywood's first major attempt at dramatizing the competitive world of professional miniature golf. Just kidding—it's another football movie. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: Bree Van De Kamp's Explosive YouTube Leak

Seth — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:31:28 EDT

· A scene from an upcoming Desperate Housewives in which Kyle MacLachlan goes down on Marcia Cross, "with explosive results," according to Variety, was distributed on YouTube. This angered ABC execs, who insist it wasn't an "official leak" intended to build buzz. We're starting to feel extremely nauseous at the moment. [Variety]
· What do Idi Amin, Diane Arbus, Truman Capote and John Lennon have in common—besides being invitees #2 through #5 to the ultimate dinner party/coke-fueled-orgy of our wildest fantasies? They're all the subject of movies at the Telluride Film Festival. [Variety]
· Fox is stumped, not knowing what possibly more than Emily Deschanel's terrific rack audiences could need to show up for their faltering forensics drama, Bones. [Variety]
· NBC swaps the Jeffrey Tambor/John Lithgow sitcom Twenty Good Years with 30 Rock, putting it in the 8:30 slot, because, Kevin Reilly explains, it makes for a "more compatible lead-in to 'The Biggest Loser'." Take from that what you will, Misters Tambor and Lithgow. [THR]
· CBS wins a Thursday night with mainly reruns of CSI and Without A Trace. One can only imagine how well the network would have done had those CSI staff dunderheads not blabbed about the exciting K-Fed surprise. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: AOL Still Exists, Charging For Crap You Don't Need

Seth — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 15:40:22 EDT

· AOL struggles to find new reasons to justify its pointless existence in a broadband world by offering downloadable movies from most of the majors, set at the three price points of $19.99, $14.99 and $9.99, or crap, crappier and crappiest. [Variety]
· More online entertainment news—we know, it's too much sexy, you can't bear it. CBS will stream episodes of some of their series, such as The Unit and The Class, in the hope that eyeballs they've lost to computer porn might shift over to some of their shows once they're, uh, done with their computer porn business. [Variety]
· A national janitors' union presents their Golden Broom Awards for the "worst place for janitors to work." (Wouldn't a golden broom suggest excellence in the custodial arts? We would have gone with the Leaky Bucket Awards, but hey, not our gig.) Winners this year include NBC Studios, Universal Citywalk and Warner Music Group. Defamer commentators go wild with "Tom Cruise new career opportunity" jokes. [Variety]
· Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank will put their ambisexual chemistry to the test in P.S. I Love You, a movie we will not see because it is called P.S. I Love You. [THR]
· THR claims this year's Emmys arrive among "a din of disenchantment." Hey, if it makes you feel better, Emmy, we'll check you out. On TiVo. Well, we'll just fast forward to the Conan O'Brien bits and to see if Ellen Burstyn wins ~~The Leaky Bucket~~ the Emmy for her 14-second performance. [THR]

Welcome, Black Kotter

Seth — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:23:58 EST

The dry, cracked riverbed of Hollywood inspiration has once again turned to the seemingly bottomless well of beloved sitcoms for creative irrigation: We can now look forward to our fond memories of Welcome Back, Kotter being irreparably soiled on its journey to the big screen, Variety reports, with the no-brainer casting of gangsta-rapper-turned-beloved-star- of-forgettable-family-comedies Ice Cube producing and starring:

The rights to the series that ran from 1975-79 were controlled by the show's creators, Gabe Kaplan and Alan Sacks. Kaplan originated the role Cube will play, a teacher who returns to his tough, inner-city alma mater, where he meets a new generation of underprivileged troublemakers who are as unmotivated as he used to be.
"There was no bigger fan of the original show than me, and I'm very excited to be able to put a new twist on it," Cube said. [...]

Kaplan and Sacks had long resisted movie overtures, but the pair liked the package and Weinstein Co. partners Bob and Harvey Weinstein.

"We were skeptical about selling 'Kotter' because making a great movie from a TV show can be challenging," Kaplan said. "After meeting with the Weinsteins, we knew they were the right ones to bring this project to the screen."

We must thank Kaplan for holding out as long as he has, until an actor came along with just the right combination of self-deprecating humility and Groucho Marx-influenced comic timing to fill the big shoes he left behind. Who knows Cube might even find himself improving on the original, in much the same way Cedric the Entertainer managed to find the funny in ways Jackie Gleason could only have dreamed about in his beloved "new twist" on The Honeymooners.

Ice cool with 'Kotter' redo [Variety]

Trade Round-Up: Radical Rosenberg and the Residuals Revolution

Seth — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 14:54:46 EDT

· SAG elects Alan Rosenberg and his radical 'Membership First' faction to power with 10 of the 11 available seats, with the remaining seat going to a moderate (but decidedly more evening-glamorous) Morgan Fairchild. In a stirring speech for the ages delivered from the roof of the Beverly Center, Rosenberg announces that the streets of LA will "run with the blood of those who aren't on the same DVD-residuals page as we are." [Variety]
· In further Guild election news, Michael Apted is re-elected to another two-year term as DGA president, and "said he was looking forward to working with new SAG president Alan Rosenberg," to which Rosenberg replied: "Two words, Apted: DVD. Residuals. Or your head's on a stick." [Variety]
· NYPD Blue creator Steven Bochco signs a multi-year development deal with Touchstone Television. First up on the development slate is Murder Over There Rock, a groundbreaking musical series that explores the shooting of one Iraqi insurgent over an entire season. [Variety]
· Universal's purchase of DreamWorks is still far from closed at the end of their two-month period of exclusive talks, largely due to Spielberg being tied up on the Munich set in Malta. We presume the production was forced to relocate from Budapest after Hungarian locals grew weary of being required to refer to the director as "Your Most Excellent All-Powerful Supreme Eminence," not to mention his preferred method of transportation, the backs of their children and elderly. [Variety]
· Nicole Kidman will star in and produce a film adaptation of Jules Bass' comic novel Headhunters for Fox 2000, "centering on four New Jersey women who jet to Monte Carlo and pretend to be rich heiresses in hopes of landing wealthy husbands." Kidman's reps released an enthusiastic statement, saying "in the vein of The Stepford Wives and Bewitched, Nicole is once again thrilled to have the opportunity to not make audiences laugh." [Variety]

Trade Round-Up: Everybody Hates Joey

Seth — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 16:14:34 EDT

· UPN appears to have a hit on its hands with Everybody Hates Chris, producing "the highest opening-night numbers for a comedy in UPN's 10-year history," and outperforming NBC's Joey and Fox's The O.C. Joey writers look on in stunned bewilderment, wondering what more audiences could ask for than a semi-retarded protagonist making his way through a hackneyed world.[THR]
· Universal Pictures awards Joss Whedon a seven figure paycheck for Goner, "the story of a young woman's journey that involves a great deal of horror and some heroics." We applaud the audacity of this radical departure from the thematic content of his other projects, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Wonder Woman movie. [Variety]
· Francis Ford Coppola announces a return to the director's chair after an eight-year hiatus with a "self-financed, low-budget pic to lense in Bucharest," Youth Without Youth. We understand Sofia pulled some strings to get him the gig, but he'll have to settle for names like "Tim Roth" and "Bruno Ganz" while his daughter lunches several notches above in Murray territory.[Variety]
· Martha Stewart's yawny Apprentice clone didn't connect with viewers, and her stock's price suffers. Perhaps next week she should try crumpling up that goodbye letter and shoving it down the loser's throat, in quite the same way she force feeds her geese to make delightful foie gras.[Variety]
· Robert Redford and Paul Newman unite once again on screen, as part of Sundance Channel's new six-part documentary profile series Iconoclasts. Ten minutes of the episode are devoted to Redford chewing Newman out for ruining The Hustler with that crappy Tom Cruise sequel. [Variety]