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Global Showbiz Briefs: eOne Taps Aussie Unit Chief; ‘Tiny Times’ Breaks Out In China; ‘The March’ Coming To Television
1 hour ago
eOne Appoints Co-Founder Of Its Aussie Unit To Head Distribution There Entertainment One has promoted Sandie Don to head of distribution for its Australian operation, Hopscotch. Don will oversee theatrical distribution for Hopscotch/eOne including acquisitions, sales and marketing. She previously was marketing and acquisitions director. Along with partners Troy Lum and Frank Cox, Don formed Hopscotch Films in 2002; it was acquired by eOne in 2011. Homegrown ‘Tiny Times’ Wows With $30.8M Opening In China Tiny Times, a Shanghai-set romcom revolving around four girlfriends, had a huge opening weekend in China, putting it on a par with last year’s breakout comedy Lost In Thailand. According to Film Biz Asia, the movie amassed $30.8M in three days. Including previews, it earned $42M in four days. The film is the directorial debut of novelist Guo Jingming and had a 45% market share for the weekend. Meanwhile, Man Of Steel and Jet Li- »
- NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor
‘The Simpsons’ Car Jumps From Screen To Racetrack — But Can It Do Donuts?
2 hours ago
Ok, Simpsons fans, remember that one where Homer finds out he has a half-brother? Said relative Herb (unmistakably voiced by Danny DeVito) runs a car company in Detroit and asks Homer to design a vehicle for the average American. Result: The Homer, a monstrosity in every way, including its $82,000 sticker price. It never got past the drawing board, until now. The guys at Porcubimmer Motors built a Homer — “in a home garage with all the wrong tools,” they say — and raced it this weekend in the 24 Hours of LeMons north of Bakersfield. More than 150 cars started in triple-degree weather, and the Simpsons-mobile finished fifth, according to Porcubimmer’s Facebook page, also taking the race’s trophy for best theme. (Deadline was unable to verify whether the Diy crew celebrated with ice-cold bottles of Duff Adequate.) Here’s a look at the Homer:
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- THE DEADLINE TEAM
Dish Network Provides Live TV On Southwest Airlines Flights
2 hours ago
Less than a week after withdrawing its bid for wireless broadband provider Clearwire, the No. 2 satcaster is taking to the skies for a new partnership. Dish Network and Southwest Airlines unveiled a promotional deal today in which the carrier will offer live TV via satellite, paid for by Dish. In return, travelers will see air a 30-second Dish spot when they start watching, and the satellite provider’s ads will show up in confirmation emails and at airports. The promotion, which runs through September, will give passengers access to 14 live channels and 75 on-demand shows on their phones or tablets during about 60% of flights on Southwest, which carries more than 100 million passengers annually. Related: Dish Network Unveils Social Media App For Its Hopper DVR »
- THE DEADLINE TEAM
‘Revolution’ Adds Patrick Heusinger; Fabrizio Guido Joins ‘Welcome To The Family’
5 hours ago
NBC‘s Revolution has tapped Patrick Heusinger for a recurring guest role on the postapocalyptic sci-fi series. Heusinger will play Adam, a handsome and outgoing thirtysomething. Heusinger’s credits include guest runs on the CW’s Gossip Girl and USA’s Royal Pains. On the big screen he recently appeared in IFC Films’ Frances Ha. Revolution returns in its second-season premiere on September 25. Heusinger is repped by Gersh. Fabrizio Guido has been cast in NBC’s Welcome to the Family. He’ll play the role of the younger brother of the series’ male lead, Joseph Haro, on the single-camera comedy from Mike Sikowitz and Sony TV debuting October 3. Guido recently made his feature film debut in World War Z opposite Brad Pitt. He’s repped by Jaime Ferrar Agency. »
- THE DEADLINE TEAM
Zynga Shares Zoom After It Taps Former Microsoft Entertainment Exec To Be CEO
6 hours ago
Shares jumped 10.4% during the trading day following a report that Don Mattrick would take charge of the ailing game company — and another 5.9% in after-market trading when the news was officially announced. In his six years at Microsoft, Mattrick ran the interactive entertainment operation that includes the company’s Xbox gaming console. Prior to joining Microsoft he was president of Worldwide Studios at Electronic Arts and helped to develop games including “Need For Speed,” “FIFA” and ”The Sims.” Mattrick replaces founder Mark Pincus who’ll remain as Chairman and Chief Product Officer. Zynga‘s shares have lost 43.6% of their value over the last 12 months as gamers lost interest in “invest and express” category, which includes titles such as “FarmVille” and “CityVille” where players try to earn objects that they can display in the game. But the company has found it hard to change its focus away from desktop computers and toward »
- DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
Paula Deen Using Supreme Court’s Prop 8 Ruling To Get Discrimination Suit Dismissed
7 hours ago
It won’t bring back her canned Food Network show, lost endorsements, book deals and merchandising sales, or her reputation in many circles. But Paula Deen today pushed to have dismissed part of a racial discrimination lawsuit — the one in which she confessed to using the N-word in a deposition. The fallout once the deposition became public has quickly led to the collapse of Deen’s cooking empire. The TV chef, who admitted to using the racial slur in the past, is employing the Supreme Court’s recent Prop 8 ruling in her efforts: Today, the defendants filed paperwork (read it here) in U.S. District Court in Georgia citing Scotus’ ruling June 26 that essentially struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s anti-same-sex marriage Prop. 8. Deen’s former restaurant employee Lisa Jackson brought the original suit against the chef; although white, Jackson has bi-racial nieces. Deen’s supplementary »
- DOMINIC PATTEN
Cablevision Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Bar Nlrb From Acting On Labor Dispute
7 hours ago
The cable company is responding to its loss on Friday at the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C.: Justices upheld the National Labor Relations Board’s authority to hold an administrative trial this month on charges that Cablevision resorted to intimidation, bribery and harassment to stop some of its workers in the Bronx from joining the Communications Workers of America (Cwa) — part of a long-running series of disputes between the company and the union. But Cablevision now wants Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts — the Circuit Justice for D.C. — to stay the Appeals Court decision. Cablevision argued that the Nlrb lacks a quorum. The company says that President Obama’s recess appointments were illegal because they were made while the Senate was on an intrasession break, not between sessions. Cablevision also says that an appointment can only be made to positions that open up during a recess. »
- DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
Ann Curry Pounds Matt Lauer In Ratings On One-Year Anniversary Of ‘Today’ Ouster
7 hours ago
Congratulations Ann Curry! Your return to NBC on the one-year anniversary of your Today show ouster clocked bigger numbers than did Matt Lauer last week on his day with his exclusive Paula “I Is What I Is” Deen interview on the morning infotainment show. Ann Curry Reports: A Face In The Crowd, about the recipient of the most extensive face transplant to date, averaged 6 million viewers at 10 Pm Friday, with 2.2 million of them 25-54 year olds — the hot blondes of news programming ad sales. Two days earlier, Lauer’s much-ballyhooed Today sit down with Deen to discuss her career-killing past use of a racial slur looks to have logged just under 5 million viewers, according to preliminary stats — 1.9 million of them in that important demo. (On Friday, hours before Curry’s appearance, Today averaged 4.4 million viewers — 1.7 million in the demo). Sure, there are a lot more Homes Using TV in primetime than in the early morning, »
- LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist
Time Warner Cable Still In Carriage Talks On Two Fronts
8 hours ago
The current agreements between Time Warner Cable and a pair of major content providers — CBS‘ owned and operated stations and Journal Communications — each expired at midnight Et Sunday. But in both cases extension agreements have been reached and negotiations are continuing, according to the pay TV giant. A Time Warner Cable spokesman said today that there haven’t been disruptions to service, as sometimes is the case if the sides want to ramp up the brinksmanship in such retransmission-consent negotiations. CBS’ carriage talks cover major local stations in La, NY and Dallas as well Showtime and CBS Sports Network among the network’s cable offerings. Journal’s talks involve NBC viewers in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Palm Springs; CBS viewers in Omaha; and MyNetworkTV watchers in Green Bay and Palm Springs — a total of a little more than 500,000. The latter negotiations appear to be more heated, with back-and-forth between the two sides coming last week. »
- THE DEADLINE TEAM
Fred Armisen Says He Left ‘Saturday Night Live’ In May
8 hours ago
Fred Armisen let us know he was leaving Saturday Night Live back in May — we just couldn’t hear him. “I think it’s clear. I didn’t do any kind of official announcements, but I really felt like it was obvious,” he said in an interview with Splitsider, making us feel pretty silly for wondering all these weeks. He’s referencing the May 18 SNL season wrapper, in which the final sketch featured him, Bill Hader, Jason Sedeikis and Taran Killam as Brit rockers on the final night of their tour. Another clue we missed: Armisen’s Portlandia co-star Carrie Brownstein was among the musicians onstage. Armisen, in Friday’s interview, called it “an ending that was a love letter to all the music I grew up with, and also to my friends and to SNL and to [exec producer] Lorne [Michaels] and to the cast.” Armisen said he left, after 11 years on the NBC late-night show, »
- LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist
Disney Keeps Bob Iger As CEO Into 2016
9 hours ago
The Disney chief’s contract originally called for him to give up the CEO title on April 1, 2015 but remain chairman until the end of June 2016. Under the new amendment, he will keep both jobs until the end. As a result of the change, he’ll continue to receive in the last year of his agreement the salary and target incentive compensation he receives as CEO and chairman. (He made $40.2M in compensation last year.) “Now, Disney will continue to have the full benefit of Mr. Iger’s leadership as CEO and chairman for the duration of his tenure,” the board’s Independent Lead Director Orin Smith says. “The board remains focused on effective succession planning, and will continue to develop a sound and appropriate process for ensuring a smooth management transition.” Early this year many shareholders — including advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass, Lewis — complained that it would be »
- THE DEADLINE TEAM
Cablevision Shares Pop On Growing Speculation About A Possible Deal
9 hours ago
You can’t attribute the 9.4% increase in Cablevision‘s share price today — and 23% jump over the last five days — to the day’s only solid news: Charter just closed the deal announced in February to pay $1.63B for Cablevision’s systems in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. No, investors are more excited by new reports that the Dolan family — led by Cablevision founder Charles Dolan and his son, CEO Jim Dolan — may finally be willing to sell the company, and that Time Warner Cable as well as Charter want to kick the tires. TWC has long salivated to combine its crown jewel cable system in Manhattan with Cablevision’s franchises in New York’s outer boroughs and suburbs including Long Island. Up to now, the Dolans haven’t been interested. The family tried to take the company private in 2007, but shareholders rejected the offer. Cablevision’s stock took a roller-coaster »
- DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
Lifetime’s ‘Anna Nicole’ Draws 3.3M Viewers
10 hours ago
The Saturday night premiere of the Lifetime original movie on the life of former Playmate Anna Nicole Smith pulled in 3.3 million viewers. Anna Nicole was even with the 3.3 million viewers the Rob Lowe-starring Prosecuting Casey Anthony drew on January 19. It was down from the 3.5 million that heavily hyped Liz & Dick with Lindsay Lohan garnered on November 25, 2012. Saturday’s movie drew a 2.6 household rating. Anna Nicole was the top original cable movie premiere of the year so far among adults 25-54 (1.6 million) and adults 18-49 (1.4 million). That’s best for Lifetime in the key demos as well as among women 25-54 and women 18-49 since last fall’s Steel Magnolias. Agnes Bruckner starred as Anna Nicole, alongside Martin Landau, Virginia Madsen, Adam Goldberg and Cary Elwes. Craig Zadan, Neil Meron and Judith Verno executive produced the Sony Pictures TV film which follows the softcore rise and harsh fall of the former Vickie Lynn Hogan, »
- DOMINIC PATTEN
Ben Rappaport Joins ‘The Good Wife’
10 hours ago
Exclusive: Outsourced star Ben Rappaport has booked a recurring role on CBS‘ legal drama The Good Wife. He’ll be playing a four-year associate at Lockhart-Gardner in the series’ upcoming fifth season, joining Julianna Margulies, Matt Czuchry, Archie Panjabi, Josh Charles, Christine Baranski, Alan Cumming and Zach Grenier, who was recently upped to regular. Rappaport appeared on Broadway in Picnic and was most recently seen in feature The Brass Teapot. He’s repped by Gersh, Invictus Entertainment and attorney Rick Genow. »
- THE DEADLINE TEAM
Comic-Con: AMC, New Showrunner To Preview ‘Walking Dead’ Season 4
10 hours ago
Expect a packed Comic-Con house later this month for AMC‘s The Walking Dead, which broke ratings records with April’s Season 3 finale. The zombie series is returning to Comic-Con for the fourth year in a row to hype up October’s Season 4 debut, AMC announced today. This year’s Walking Dead appearance will also be the first with Scott Gimple in place as showrunner following the highly publicized departure of Glen Mazzara. A dozen cast members and producers are slated to appear with the new series boss at the show’s panel on Friday July 19: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, David Morrissey, Chad Coleman, Scott Wilson, Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer Robert Kirkman, Executive Producer David Alpert and Executive Producer and Special Effects Make-up Supervisor Greg Nicotero. Related: Emmys Q&A: Andrew Lincoln »
- THE DEADLINE TEAM
‘Ray Donovan’ Sets Record For Showtime Debut, ‘Dexter’ Snags Premiere High
10 hours ago
Showtime’s Ray Donovan had the biggest original series debut in the cable network’s history last night with 1.35 million viewers at 10 Pm. The La fixer series starring Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight was up from the 1.08 million who watched the debut of Homeland on October 2, 2011. Homeland’s debut was the best drama premiere the cable network had over the previous eight years; Season 2 of Homeland debuted September 30 with 1.73 million viewers. Over two plays Sunday, Ray Donovan pulled in 2.22 million viewers. Those number were certainly helped by its bloodlusting lead-in: At 9 Pm in its new summer slot, Dexter returned for its eight and final season with 2.5 million viewers, up from the 2.4 million who watched the series’ Season 7 premiere on September 30 and an all-time premiere high for the show. Sunday’s premiere continues Dexter’s unbroken premiere ratings growth since its 2006 Season 1 opener. Overall, Dexter had 3.2 million viewers for the night over all plays. »
- DOMINIC PATTEN
‘The Walking Dead’ Production House Valhalla Boosting Development Teams
11 hours ago
Los Angeles – July 1, 2013 – Gale Anne Hurd’s Valhalla Entertainment is expanding its development teams in both television and features with Stacey Levin being named Senior Vice President of Television, the addition of Meredith Ditlow as Director of Development and the upping of Phillip Kobylanski to Creative Executive.Levin joined Valhalla in August of 2012 and has played an integral part in Valhalla’s current development slate, including period drama Horizon for the USA Network, which begins production this summer. Additional series set up since Levin joined the company include Crash and Burn at FX, Alien Hunter at SyFy, and projects at USA, E!, AMC, A&E, History, Discovery and NBC. Ditlow joins Valhalla from Furst Films & Ole where she was Director of Development helping to shepherd ABC’s new Manhattan drama Hot Property, as well as developing and staffing the new series Star-Crossed for the CW. On the feature side, Ditlow »
- LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist
Gsn Renews ‘The Chase’ Ahead Of August Premiere
11 hours ago
Based on the UK show, The Chase is not set to premiere until August 6, but today Gsn said it has ordered another eight episodes for Season 2 to air later this year. Production begins next month. The network announced an eight-episode first-season order for the quiz competition in May during the upfronts. The one-hour show, in which three contestants battle against an all-knowing opponent named The Beast, is produced by ITV Studios America. Brooke Burns is host. “The high stakes of this ‘all or nothing,’ ‘David vs. Goliath’ battle of the brains result in riveting television,” said Amy Introcaso-Davis, Evp Programming and Development at Gsn. “While there is great gameplay in The Chase, it is also wildly entertaining to watch the always engaging Brooke Burns spar with trivia savant Mark Labbett aka The Beast”. Bob Boden, Martin Scott and Michael Kelpie are executive producers. »
- THE DEADLINE TEAM
Wgaw Annual Report: Guild Earnings Top $1B For First Time
11 hours ago
The Writers Guild of America West saw total earnings rise by 4.0% in 2012 to $1.02 billion, the organization said today in its annual report. Even though the total number of writers’ reporting earnings dipped from 2011’s 4,558 to 4,510 in 2012, the earnings were up from the $982 million the Guild reported in 2011. The Wgaw itself ended the year with net assets of $39 million and an operating surplus of $4.5 million based on revenues of $28.8 million. In the 29-page 2012 report (read it here), the Guild says that $4.5 million came from a 10.1% growth in total revenue in 2012, in part due to an increase in writer’s pay in TV and investment gains. In TV, the number of writers rose from from 3,429 in 2011 to 3,508 in 2012 with total earnings reported at $667.2 million. On the big screen, total earnings slipped 6.1% to $343 million from $365.3 million in 2011 with fewer films made. The 2011 screen result was down 8.5% from 2010, which itself fell 9.1% from the year before. »
- DOMINIC PATTEN
Update: NBC Turns To Christ For Ratings Help In Snagging Follow-Up To ‘The Bible’
11 hours ago
Update: 10:38 Am: NBC: turning to Christ to deliver it from its ratings hole. The network announced this morning it had bought the sequel to History’s hit miniseries The Bible from Mark Burnett — who also exec produces the broadcast network’s The Voice and Celebrity Apprentice. At the recent Produced By Conference, Burnett said he was working on a sequel to the 10-part miniseries that ranked as the top cable entertainment telecast of the year to date and helped make History the No. 1-ranked cable network for the month of March. “I could spend the next 10 years just distributing the Bible series” and the movie version he’s adapted, Burnett quipped happily at that confab. In this morning’s announcement, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said he followed closely the development of The Bible “and knew that the story was far from over after Christ’s Crucifixion. In fact, »
- LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist
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