The Oscar nominees were announced yesterday. What’s up with The Dark Knight being snubbed out of Best Screenplay (let alone Best Directing/Pic)?
Weinstein also had to shed a lot of dough for The Reader to be nominated for Best Pic.
In the TV world, pilots continue to be picked up. ABC has ordered Eastwick, a show loosely based on the 87 movie about 3 witches starring Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeifer and Jack Nicholson. The pilot is penned by Jack & Bobby’s Maggie Friedman.
In addition, NBC ordered Mercy, a dramedy revolving around 3 nurses “bound together in friendship”. FNL’s Liz Heldens is currently writing the pilot.
Other dramas are said to be on the verge of pickups by NBC, such as Dario Scardapane and Peter Berg’s Trauma, an emergency medical procedural taking place “out in the field”, and another project by Alias/Heroes/Lost’s Jesse Alexander.
The Disney-ABC TV Group is currently in full restructuring with ABC and ABC Studio merging and renamed “ABC Entertainment Group”. ABC’s programming chief Stephen McPherson will head the division.
NBC has meanwhile hired a global marketing firm, Naked Communications, to reposition the net’s brand.
There’s an inextricable link between marketing and programming… These two things define the brand. We’re all aligned against the same goals.
Will they spearhead the network and bring them to less SF/Genre-friendly sked? Will Chuck be back? Will NBC change its mind on various pilot picks? Tune in at an undisclosed future date to find out the electrifying conclusion of NBC: The Brand-Over.
And George Clooney has finally accepted to return for an E.R. cameo. The show’s co-creator, John Wells, recently ordered a closed set for a Clooney appearance.
Also, here is a little clip from Pixar’s next movie, Up. UPDATE: Vimeo removed the vid.
Not much going on right now in the Industry. Probably because everyone is either at Sundance or attending that other thing.
Mather Zickel, Annie Potts and Jack Thompson have been cast to star in Malcolm in the Middle’s creator Linwood Boomer’s new CBS comedy pilot: The Karenskys. The show is about Emily Atwood (played by Sasha Alexander) reuniting with her eccentric family (the Karenskys) after returning to her hometown due to her husband’s job relocating them.
Saturday nigt’s SNL was really poor I thought, save for one skit, the Gitmo fire sale.
As predicted, the cash machine triumphed in the end as Fox and WB reached a settlement for the Watchmen case. Fox won’t co-own the money nor co-distribute it, but it will have a nifty “sizable cash payment” with a percentage on the film’s B.O. revenue. As Nikki Finke loves to say over and over and over again: TOLDJA!
Now that that is settled, let’s move on.
NBC unveiled various announcements such as the premiere date of Amy Poheler’s show: April 9. But still no name in sight. I wonder how it’s gonna down in the TV Guide. “Tune in tonight for the thrilling premiere of NBC’s new hit show, The Untitled Daniels/Schur/Poehler Series.“ Also, no surprise, both The Office and 30 Rock have been renewed for another season.
In other news, TNT has ordered six additional scripts for Leverage. New faces are joining SGU (which will actually premiere in the fall): Justin Louis, David Blue, Brian J. Smith and Jamil Walker Smith. CBS has ordered the pilot for another comedy, Tick Tock, and FOX has greenlit two new dramas, Maggie Hill (a female heart surgeon suffering from schizophrenia) and Human Target (a security expert going undercover to protect targeted clients).
TV Guide has dropped off of its sked grid The CW and MTV among others. Ouch. How the hell will I know now when Smallville premieres?
This morning FOX confirmed that Prison Break is canceled with the last epis being shown on Fridays (with Terminator and Dollhouse). Virtuality was described as too “dense” by Kevin Reilly and the pilot is being recut to one hour instead of the two it should have been.
Meanwhile, NBC announced that 90% of the Super Bowl ads had already been sold. Some of the movie trailers shown will be for Transformers 2, Up, Wolverine, G.I. Joe, Angels & Demons, Land of the Lost, The Fast and The Furious, Star Trek, and Monsters v. Aliens (with disappointing Red & Blue glasses). As for the TV side of things, Heroes will have a special trailer made for the Super Bowl and Chuck will promote its 3-D episode.
Also, Bush wants his own 15 minutes of fame by asking fifteen minutes of airtime on each of the major nets next Thursday, to say goodbye. Please make it quick.
