Defamer: Sony

Discuss: Why Would A Studio Give Hayden Christensen a Three-Picture Deal?

STV — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:55:00 PDT

There's a valid debate to be had about the cosmic justice in news that Hayden Christensen this week agreed to a three-picture deal with Screen Gems. Beyond the obvious indignation that directors like David Lynch (and his cow) are reduced to promoting his films on the street while Werner Herzog remakes American B-pictures (when he's not remaking his own), we might look to the more bracing reality that a man best known for pouting his way through two Star Wars films as Anakin Skywalker has been entrusted with the development of three movies for Sony's genre offshoot.

Is it oversimplifying to wonder where this faith came from, or what Screen Gems thinks it will get out of this? Have you ever once heard anyone walking around on a studio lot, at festivals or elsewhere intoning, "I want to be in the Hayden Christensen business?" Seriously, yes or no: Is there a demand for three Hayden Christensen films?

Not that we have anything against Hayden Christensen; Shattered Glass was wonderful, and it's not his fault Star Wars set fire to its own legacy. He's not waving the Hayden flag on some hubristic victory lap this morning, either; the word slipped out via Variety, which reported that Christensen and his brother's shingle Forest Park Pictures will bring projects directly to Screen Gems when he's not invited to participate in the studio's own films. The first film under the pact, the thriller Bone Deep, shoots later this fall (also starring T.I. and Chris Brown, who curiously have SG deals as well), and the two remaining projects are yet to be determined.

"Hayden is a very talented and versatile actor with a proven worldwide box-office history," Screen Gems president Doug Culpepper told the trade paper. Again, nothing against Christensen's talent (we've seen better than pretty much any actor under 30 these days), but "proven worldwide box-office history"? Excepting Star Wars, which you kind of have to do considering what little he's been able to whip up in their "proven worldwide box-office" aftermath, Christensen's only score was Jumper, a generally reviled $220 million grosser that lost money Stateside and cost almost three times what Screen Gems is going to pay to make and market any of Christensen's upcoming projects — genre films like Awake, which did less than $30 million worldwide in 2007.

Obviously this isn't the worst deal Screen Gems could make; there's always that home-video and Flopz™ afterlife. (Or only life, as with his straight-to-DVD 2007 effort Virgin Territory.) Still, though: In this economic climate, Hayden Christensen is a player? Does Screen Gems know something we don't? And if so, can we have stock tips while they're at it?

http://www.link.com">Hayden Christensen is Screen's gem [Variety]

Pepsi Man Jack White Lashes Out at 'Quantum' Theme in Coke Commercial

STV — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:23:38 PDT

There are no quantums of solace to be found today in the Jack White household, where the recent unveiling of his and Alicia Keys's theme song to Quantum of Solace via a Coke commercial has the songwriter lashing out at his Sony patrons. "Jack White was commissioned by Sony Pictures to write a theme song for the James Bond film Quantum Of Solace, not for Coca Cola," read a statement obtained over the weekend by NME. "Any other use of the song is based on decisions made by others, not by Jack White. We are disappointed that you first heard the song in a co-promotion for Coke Zero, rather than in its entirety." Ah ah ah — make that Coke Zero Zero Seven, rebranded exclusively for the occasion of Quantum's release this November. We'll withhold judgment of the song itself until we can hear it in its entirety, but the sample available after the jump certainly sounds low-calorie.

Jack White slams Coca-Cola for using James Bond song [NME]

Today in MGM Denials: Fun New Euphemisms for 'Selling Out'

STV — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:00:00 PDT

After a flurry of weekend headlines further detailing the closely guarded plot to offload MGM, studio reps are firing back today with public denials that the anemic, mute, tired old Lion could soon have another new cage to laze around. And now we don't know who to believe! Is it BusinessWeek, which followed up last week's rumored Kirk Kerkorian 4.0 lowball offer with the news that Goldman Sachs is back on the scene to engineer a sale? Or is it the big, happy, skittish family at MGM HQ itself, which would require an official clarification to be issued these days even if someone said its coffee maker was broken:

STATEMENT FROM METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC.

LOS ANGELES, CA August 25, 2008 — Contrary to recent media reports, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) is not for sale. There is no "asking price" for the company. MGM's existing financing arrangements are sufficient to meet its needs. Goldman, Sachs has been retained to explore enhancements to MGM's long-term capital structure. All of the MGM shareholders, including Providence Equity Partners, TPG, Sony Corp. Of America and Comcast Corp, are pleased with the Company's current momentum and are committed to the future growth of the studio.

"Enhancements to ... long-term capital structure"? Isn't that what selling is? In any event, we'll give the shareholders the benefit of the doubt; the principals have every reason to be "pleased with the company's current momentum," with the minor exception of Heather O'Rourke's outstanding request to God to burn the studio to the ground before it can remake Poltergeist. That will no doubt affect the asking price, which insiders place around an overvalued $5.2 billion that would likely keep the Lion in his same fetid den for at least another year. At least someone could come groom him every once in a while; we hear Kerkorian loves cats. Or at least certain feline parts — where on Leo's body would his library be?

More speculation over MGM sale [THR]
MGM: On the Block, Again [BusinessWeek]

Does Judd Apatow Really Have This Man to Thank For 'Superbad'?

STV — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:10:00 PDT

You're nobody in this town until you've been ripped off, and even then you're just a little more bitter nobody until an actual, attributable success comes along. According to a profile today in indieWIRE, director Alex Holdridge can finally lay claim to both stages in his accelerating career arc: His funny, lyrical LA romance In Search of a Midnight Kiss opens theatrically tomorrow in New York (Aug. 22 in Los Angeles), several years after a less-auspicious development left him burned at the Sony gates.

Not long after his micro-budget debut Wrong Numbers hit at the 2001 South by Southwest film festival, Holdridge said he had fielded calls from every major studio looking to adapt his comedy about "unruly teens trying to buy beer for a party on their last night of high school" for Hollywood. Sony eventually hired him to write the script on spec, which apparently took a couple years too many for the studio's taste, as Holdridge discovered when he heard about a new Sony project called Superbad:

That was the last straw. As far as he could tell, Wrong Number had been co-opted by Judd Apatow and company.

"It was devastating," Holdridge recalls, hesitant to accuse any particular individual of ripping him off. "Their script was different. Our script was fucking awesome, but you can't copyright a concept." Holdridge suspects the executives at Sony may have suggested his idea to more established Hollywood comedic forces, but he places some of the blame in his own lap. "I have some responsibility because I went and made another movie," he says. "I don't want to complain. What if we just had the same idea?"

Yeah, what if? It's not like Midnight Kiss doesn't owe its own life to Before Sunrise/Sunset, Manhattan and a few other couples-gabbing-in-the-streets classics. And Apatow is the Comedy Person of the Year, after all. But as Holdridge alludes to in the profile, Wrong Numbers is illegal to screen since Sony picked it up seven years ago. We can't wait for the double feature when the time finally comes — and as much as we appreciate his discretion under the circumstances, we're fairly sure it will come.

[Photo: Getty Images]

'In Search of a Midnight Kiss' Director Alex Holdridge [indieWIRE]

'Dark Knight' to Make Quick Work of Opponents 'Step Brothers,' 'X-Files' and Others

STV — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:10:00 PDT

Welcome to the latest edition of Defamer Attractions, your regular Friday guide to another oversaturated summer weekend of new movies. While The Dark Knight sets up Batcamp for another week at number one, another brooding franchise goes up against Team Apatow in the also-ran camp. A British classic gets a fine art-house face-lift, meanwhile, and a windfall of new DVD's will keep the agoraphobes among us busy for a while. As always, our opinions are our own, but they're bulletproof, so read on for the only filmgoing advice that matters.

WHAT'S NEW: The primary competition for The Dark Knight's second weekend will be... itself. You have to feel for Sony and Fox for dropping Step Brothers and X-Files: I Want to Believe opposite History's Greatest Film, but that's just the kind of extraordinary season it's been. Those films will perform decently enough, though — roughly $30 million for the Judd Apatow-produced Ferrell/Reilly comedy, $21 million for the sci-fi franchise adaptation — which is another bummer for Fox, which has only its overachieving The Happening to show for a long, lean summer at the box office.

Also opening this weekend are the concert/protest film CSNY: Deja Vu; the oversexed '60s groupie chronicle Eight Miles High; Nanette Burstein's controversial pseudo-doc American Teen; the small-town gardener doc (seriously) A Man Called Pearl; and Minnie Driver's middling psychological drama Take.

THE BIG LOSER: Not so much a "loser" as a handicapping interest of ours, Christian Bale's reported mum-thumping exploits — however blown out of proportion the actually are — could drop The Dark Knight a few percentage points more than it otherwise would have. But even if plunges by 50% (which it won't), it'll still nab $80 million, so again, save your pity for Fox.

THE UNDERDOG: When news hit in 2006 that director Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots, Becoming Jane) was taking on an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, skeptics seemed less anxious about a perversion of the author's elegant, class-crash tragedy than how the film would stand up to the epochal 1981 miniseries adaptation. We don't have time or space to even touch that, but it hardly seems to matter: Jarrold's Brideshead bites deep into the love triangle between middle-class Charles Ryder and the Catholic-burdened Flyte siblings Julia and Sebastian, aided by a cast of young British talent led by Hayley Atwell, Ben Whishaw and the extraordinary Matthew Goode (The Lookout, Match Point). Emma Thompson drops in as well for a stirring matron act, but it's Jarrold's scope and Goode's tone harmonizing so dynamically here that you almost can't imagine this story ever required nine hours to tell.

FOR SHUT-INS: Among this week's new DVD's are the Gen-Y card-counting drama 21; the nifty Famke Janssen pool-shark indie Turn the River; the taut enviro-horror sleeper The Last Winter; and, at last, complete series collection of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's Spaced.

So is this your week to catch up on The Dark Knight? Or do you, as Fox so desperately hopes, want to believe? Can Step Brothers actually have more gags than those in its trailer? Go ahead — call your shots now before the August doldrums come to claim us all.

Bagel-Snatching Craft Services Bandits Terrorize Sony Lot

Seth — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:30:00 PDT

We bring to you yet more news of unsavory comings and goings on the Sony lot, this time in the form of an all-employees-bulletin distributed on the company intranet, informing whoever keeps sneaking up to craft services tables to load up on illicit granola bars, purloined M&Ms, and stolen slices of soggy turkey wrap that the jig is up:

UNAUTHORIZED USE OF CATERING AND CRAFT SERVICE ON THE LOT Thursday Jul 10, 2008, SPE
Over the last couple of weeks, Studio Operations has received a number of complaints from production companies who are experiencing an increased number of unauthorized persons entering their stages and eating from their craft service areas and catering trucks.

Please note that any person entering stages or utilizing craft service and catering services on the Studio lot without prior authorization from the production company or the Studio Operations department is in violation of Studio policy. This also applies to special events, concerts or any other activity on the stages or the Studio lot.
Thank you for your cooperation.

The studio is now mulling taking the extra measure of hiring a new security staff to man each and every table, and going so far as to issue laminated credentials. Should an unauthorized snacker so much as dip a single cauliflower floret into some hummus without first showing their IDs, guards are under strict orders to tazer the offending grazer; legitimate craft services users will then be required to step gingerly over their incapacitated, convulsing bodies, and partake freely of the carb-heavy spread.

[Photo: BravoTV.com]

Previously: Frustrated Sony Worker Seeks Circle-Jerk Companions [Defamer]

Studio Intimacy Sweepstakes Get Richer as Fox Joins Craigslist Circle-Jerk Circuit

STV — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:30:00 PDT

At this rate Craigslist might want to consider a subcategory for "Studio J.O. Break" or some like-titled catch-all for furtive worktime leisure pursuits; Casual Encounters can't possibly contain the epidemic of solicitations that began yesterday on the Sony lot and continues today with an even more ambitious transmission from Fox [NSFW]:

20th Cent. FOX lot. MWM, horny, hung thick! Any other studs here? - 38 (Fox Lot)

38, MWM, VGL, discreet, clean, NEG, and HUNG. Looking for some playmates on the lot for jacking/oral. Or around the area who can host from time to time. Cool with jacking, oral, anything safe. And, yes, total top here. Forward pics. No pics = no response. Face too. Gotta see you before meeting up. Total discretion, obviously. Thanks and have a great day.

No, thank you! Not be outdone, Sony's rascal in Culver City reintroduced his offer as well ("Stuck here on the lot again today, no luck yesterday, getting hornier by the hour"), once again accompanying his plea with a photo of an unsuspecting cluster of folks listening in at the masturbatory hotbed of Stage 19. We can't wait to see how a horny Paramount drone, with the swinging dick of his studio's billion-dollar 2008 tightly in hand, ups the symbolic ante on Wednesday with the C/L's lustiest, most well-cast and best-marketed ad to date.

20th Cent. FOX lot. MWM, horny, hung thick! Any other studs here? [Craiglist]

Sony Lot JO [Craigslist]

Frustrated Sony Worker Seeks Circle-Jerk Companions

Seth — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:35:00 PDT

Now comes that portion of the broadcast where we break from our hard-hitting coverage of celebrity lingerie purchases and NBA ass-tastings to focus instead on what really matters: Bringing you, the lot-bound drone in desperate need of human connection, in contact with your perfect match. We turn to the always-fertile singles' mingling grounds of Craigslist for our latest bachelor offering, a pent-up fellow currently finding it hard to concentrate on his duties at Sony Culver Studios [NSFW] :

Anyone on the SONY lot up for a mid afternoon Jerk? (Culver City)

Stuck here on the lot. Anyone here know somewhere to get together, unzip, pull out our cocks and jerk out a load?
need to cum bad

Could this be the same "preppy and athletic" Sony lot horndog of several years ago, who demanded a headshot and resumé before meeting to rub one out? There's only one way to find out, fellas. And while we wish, per the query, that we could recommend a darkened nook behind some Spider-Man soundstage lending itself to such rendezvous, unfortunately, we have no knowledge of anything currently shooting on the lot beyond a junior exec and FedEx guy in the Thalberg Building men's room. Good luck, you star-crossed tossers!

Anyone on the SONY lot up for a mid afternoon Jerk? (Culver City) [Craigslist]

Why Don't We Feel Better About All These New Movies on ITunes?

STV — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:30:00 PDT

The inevitable grouping of the major studios under the iTunes roof finally occurred today, when Apple officially announced it had reached agreements with Universal, Paramount, Fox, Warner Bros., Sony and Lionsgate (along with previous bedfellow Disney) on day-and-date downloads of their new DVD titles. The studios had made most releases available for rental since earlier this year (with catalog titles for sale before that), but this marks the first time users can buy and download new releases on their DVD street dates.

The good news: You can wait and watch Made of Honor on your iPod in about three months! The bad news: It'll cost you $14.99 to download it. (Or $9.99 three months after that.) And for digital media that costs exactly nothing to reproduce, package or distribute, we think that amounts to little more than information highway robbery. And just in time for the studios to stonewall SAG on new-media revenues!

Or maybe they're not quite connected — yet. Conceding it would get paid for new media when studios got paid, the WGA settled its strike in February by negotiating for roughly 2% of studios' online grosses each year through 2011. But in an earnings call yesterday, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes cited a 60%-70% profit margin during a VOD trial for Warner Bros. films on cable — more than twice the return on Time Warner DVD rentals. It's anyone's guess how that shakes out in terms of purchases, but with DVD sales last quarter at $3.5 billion, and with a fairly clear break between online and traditional media consumers, even a tenth of that revenue online would be enough for SAG president/time-bomb Alan Rosenberg to reinforce the hard line as the first round of negotiations come to a close Friday.

Moreover, as an observant tipster pointed out to us this morning, the markup on these downloads is pretty obscene, maybe even illegal. After piracy concerns were allayed in the last year, pricing was the only remaining sticking point for Apple — which wanted to keep purchases at $10 — and studios, which compromised at $15. Albums on iTunes cost an average of 40% less than their CD counterparts; but with online retailers and box stores pressuring DVD prices below $20, why should they get away with a difference as little as 15% in some markets — especially with no extra features or deluxe packaging? The courts have even addressed this before, but it usually applies to manufacturers complaining about suppliers, not the other way around. Someone! Get the FTC on the line!

Purchase New Movies on iTunes [Apple]

Exclusive: Sony Execs Tried To Pressure MSNBC Into Killing Will Smith Scientology Story

Molly Friedman — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:42:41 PDT

Defamer has learned that executives at Sony tried to have an MSNBC story outing Will Smith as a closeted Scientologist killed. With the Smith tentpole Hancock slated for a July release, execs are clearly worried their big summer blockbuster will turn into another Mission:Impossible 3 conundrum, when Tom Cruise's anything-but-glib antics spurred petitions against the film and damaged the film's B.O. on both the domestic and international fronts. In an effort to prevent a similar shitshow come July, our source claims Sony forced a denial statement out of Smith after MSNBC stuck by their original story:

"After word got out that Will was a secret Scientologist, reps from Sony [the studio behind Hancock] completely flipped out, and asked that the online exclusive be taken down immediately. After being refused, Sony forced Smith to speak out and release a denial statement."

But how did his friends in the Church take the news? Find out after the jump.

As our source explained, it appears the folks at Sony weren't the only ones up in arms about the Smith and Scientology claims. Apparently Will and his family have been giving money to the Church for years, though they've done a fantastic job keeping their donations under the radar. Says our source, "After Smith's Scientologist friends saw the denial today, they got incredibly pissed and some asked him, 'you're still gonna donate money, right?'" Considering the secretive nature of many celebrity Scientologists, coupled with an urgent request from a major studio to remove a rumor on a gossip site, it's time to take this story up a notch from rumor to fact. Since when do execs at a studio as powerful as Sony reach out to news-gathering organizations and attempt to use their leverage in order to kill potentially damaging stories? Oh yeah, that's right, since forever! We applaud the folks over at MSNBC for sticking to their guns (and their story).

Will Smith, Jada the new faces of Scientology? [MSNBC]

Sensational Viral Mystery Eating L.A. Not Such a Mystery After All

STV — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:51:19 PDT

Not to be outdone by the swift, shaky-cam destruction of its transcontinental nemeses in Cloverfield, Los Angeles is getting its own taste of catastrophe in the latest viral sensation to hit YouTube. At least we think it's L.A.; some have suggested that Case 1017 — the grainy home video of HazMat-suited CDC officials and semi-automatic weapons fire that has attracted 1.1 million views since Saturday — is a tease for Cloverfield 2 or M. Night Shyamalan's forthcoming Philly disaster epic The Happening. Follow the jump, however, for what turns out to be a much simpler explanation.

Like the 01/18/08 release date that came to represent both the setting and the cultural catchphrase for Cloverfield, a quick browse through IMDB's release dates — 10/17, specifically — points to Sony's big mystery-disease horror flick Quarantine. The plot summary, which features an L.A. news crew's footage the only record of the illness ravaging the building in which it's trapped — fits as well.

So there you have it! I know, I know — you're impressed. And with only seven months to wait, at least the studio doesn't have to worry about peaking too soon.

Case 1017 - Please help identify this [YouTube]

Leno Made To Feel Like Prettiest Ousted Late Night Host In The Room By 'Tonight Show' Competitors

Seth — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:10:55 PST

Seemingly unstoppable late night force Jay Leno has already demonstrated that he needs no writers to conquer his time slot: Audiences looking for non-addictive insomnia cures and lovemaking soundtracks clearly prefer Leno's middling presence and chirpy joke-delivery over his more cantankerous competitors. For whatever reason, however, the management at NBC decided four years ago that Leno required an expiration date, unfeelingly stamping the host on the forehead with a "BEST BEFORE 2009" notice, and designating Conan O'Brien as his successor. Now, a full two years before his contract expires, rival networks and studios are unfurling their green, high-currency plumage, and doing the late-night mating dance for the still viable talk show host. The NY Times reports:

Senior executives at ABC and Fox said that their networks had discreetly gotten the message to Mr. Leno that they were waiting eagerly for the time when they would be able to make official overtures. [...]

Sony Pictures Television has made an approach through intermediaries to let Mr. Leno and his representatives know that as soon as he is allowed to discuss his next move, the studio will make him a rich offer for a syndicated late-night show that would make him the highest-paid host in late-night television, put his name on a new theater on the Sony lot and give him a financial interest in Sony music artists who appear on his show. [...]
NBC executives, including the chief executive of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, have reaffirmed their commitment to Mr. O'Brien. And if they did change their minds, they would owe Mr. O'Brien a penalty payment: an estimated $45 million.

Industry watchers suspect Leno will gravitate to whichever offer makes NBC seem like the biggest losers in this botched arrangement. Certainly, Sony's pledge to gift Leno with his very own theater, a yearly contract in the low trillions, plus a direct stake in Justin Timberlake and Beyoncés album sales would be an extremely attractive arrangement for the freakishly bechinned vintage-auto-enthusiast. But don't count out the networks, and particularly the anonymous third-party candidate who sent Jay a mint '52 Jaguar, along with a handwritten note affixed to the windshield reading, "Jay: Enjoy the ride. And remember: We can always shuffle old-man Letterman into the Craig Ferguson slot, and slip you into the one-one-three-oh, big guy! Love, L.M."

Suitors Are Set to Say to Leno, Long Live King [NY Times]

'2012' Deal Heralds Return To Studio Excess

Seth — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:20:18 PST

· The strike's over, but we were waiting for a deal like this one to really start celebrating: Sony bought 2012, an obnoxiously over-the-top end-of-the-world disaster flick that's going to cost at least $200 million for Roland Emmerich to make! Yay! The studios are back to hemorrhaging money again! [Variety]
· The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Saturn Awards nominations gave 300 the most nominations with ten, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a close second at nine. Flabbergasted producers of The Golden Compass responded by saying, "We had fucking talking-polar-bear fights! What else could you possibly be looking for?!" [Variety]

· A coup for actors with gigantic eyes: Anime classic Akira gets the big-screen treatment, co-produced by Lionard DiCaprio's production company for Warner Bros. [Variety]
· David Fincher has chosen his next subject to preen over obsessively until just right, then probably get shut out of the Oscars with: Black Hole, the brilliant Charles Burns's graphic novel about a mutating STD spread among teens. This is going to be great. [Variety]
· CBS greenlights two reality show pilots: Splitsville is a "game show for divorcing couples who battle it out for their belongings in a series of competitive challenges," and another, as-yet-untitled project from the makers of Kid Nation, in which cops "help people who have been victims of a crime." [THR]

Sony Has Seen The Future, And The Future Is Godzilla Ringtones

Mark Graham — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:58:28 PST

Drunk on power after slaying the HD-DVD dragon, Sony rolled into CES `08 with more confidence than Colin Farrell after a couple of key bumps. Eager to gloat but unwilling to pay huge appearance fees, they trotted out Leonard Maltin (the poor man's Roger Ebert) and Dean Devlin (the homeless man's Jerry Bruckheimer) to ~~shill~~ discuss the impact that Blu-Ray will have on the filmmaking process. The two spent a few minutes lamenting the demise of the in-theater viewing experience before launching into orgiastic praise of all things Blu-Ray. After explaining that "home video is no longer an ancillary market, now it's a PRIMARY market", Dean Devlin dropped a radioactive bomb on us.

According to Devlin, those people who own a Sony Blu-Ray™ device "will now be able to see Godzilla as we always intended." We laughed out loud, only to quickly learn that it wasn't a stand-up performance. While we appreciate the marketing rationale on a certain level (we suppose it makes sense to try and capitalize on the American public's renewed interest in giant lizards rampaging through lower Manhattan), we can't help but wonder why Sony picked Godzilla from their massive library to push their blazing new format on the masses. We can only assume that Joe Roth's Tomcats must've been unavailable. It didn't stop there, though. Those who own a PlayStation 3 and buy the Godzilla triple-dip will be able to send Godzilla-branded ringtones ("Roar" AND "Growl") over The Internets to their friends ... for free! Kill us now.

As it turns out, the script for Da Vinci ...

Mark — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:42:56 PST

As it turns out, the script for Da Vinci Code prequel Angels & Demons that screenwriter Akiva Goldsman rushed in to beat the pre-strike deadline wasn't as shoot-ready as Sony had hoped, forcing the studio to indefinitely postpone production of Ron Howard's next crowd-narcotizing blockbuster:
"'While the filmmakers and the studio feel the screenplay is very strong, we do not believe it is the fully realized production draft required of this ambitious project,' a Sony spokesperson said. 'At this time, there is no new start date for Angels & Demons, but we are setting a release date of May 15, 2009, and are hopeful to deliver the movie worldwide to theaters on that date. We do not expect any other film on our 2008 slate to be affected.'" But take heart: as we've recently learned, the production setbacks that don't kill Imagine's Brian Grazer only make him stronger, so we have every confidence he'll make sure this latest passion project eventually gets made—even if that means he has to circumvent the too-cautious studio by buying his own copy of the book at the Grove's Barnes and Noble, taking it over to Tom Hanks' house, then forcing the star to act out the story at gunpoint while the dogged superproducer captures every precious word on a camcorder. [Variety]

The corporate mothership has extended the ...

Mark — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:44:48 PDT

The corporate mothership has extended the contract of Sony Pictures CEO/chairman/Showman of the Year Michael Lynton through 2012. If you're thinking of sending over the perfect kiss-up gift to celebrate this happy occasion and get your project jammed into the pre-strike production pipeline, we suggest a basket of ham-and-cheese sandwiches. [THR, Var]

Getting To Know Your Showmen Of The Year

Mark — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:54:04 PDT

While some might find the "some of my favorite things" boxes featured in Variety's "Showmen of the Year" tribute to Sony heads Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton a feature that might be more at home in Mogul Fancy, the resourceful can always find some utility behind the whimsy: for example, knowing that Harold and Maude inspired Pascal to pursue her wildly successful career in "the biz" could lead a bold producer to begin a pitch by dousing himself in gas and lighting himself on fire or by chopping off his hand with a cleaver, creating an instant bonding moment over a shared love of the cult film. Or, you know, he could just bring along a slice of delicious cake, opting for a safer appeal to her decadent side. (For the record, Lynton's "favorite things" box indicates he's more of a ham-and-cheese sandwich guy, Plan your food bribes accordingly.)

[Image via Digial Variety]

Previously: Spider-Friends Remember Sony's Amy Pascal On Her Big Day [Defamer]

Spider-Friends Remember Sony's Amy Pascal On Her Big Day

Mark — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:17:04 PDT

The weekly edition of Variety officially awards its Showmen of the Year honor, the most coveted recognition in all of showbiz trade journalism (and yes, that includes Var's Billion Dollar Director Day celebration), to Sony's Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal, an occasion necessitating the purchase of full-page tribute ads by any talent, producers, or agency ever hoping to get a movie made at their red-hot studio. While none of the ads make direct mention of Pascal's ceremonial bepenising by the publication, this minimalist, phoned-in-by-someone's-unimaginative-assistant offering by Spider-Man's trio of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Sam Raimi (really, couldn't someone have thrown some spider-related clip art on there?—click the thumbnail to enlarge) nods to the co-president's honorary gender reassignment, a little in-joke that only those who've generated billions in box office grosses can get away without fear of career reprisals.

[Ad via Digital Variety]

Previously: They Aren't Kidding When They Say Amy Pascal Can Run A Studio Like A Man [Defamer]

They Aren't Kidding When They Say Amy Pascal Can Run A Studio Like A Man

Mark — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:39:03 PDT

We thought it was a little strange when Sony chief Amy Pascal, THR's Most Powerful Woman in Hollywood 2006 and one of the top-rated honorees in Premiere's celebration of the industry's most influential ladies, was left off Variety's recent Women's Impact Report, but now it all makes sense: The trade didn't want to ruin the surprise that it had awarded her its highest honor, an official promotion to Man, for an incredible year of directing her studio to the lead in motion picture marketshare. We congratulate Pascal on this recognition, and can't wait until someone sends us a cameraphone photo of the many baskets of bananas her new male peers are messengering over to ceremonially welcome her into their fraternity.

[Ad via Digital Variety]

Previously: [Defamer]

Brian Grazer To Play Cowboys N' Aliens

Mark — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:43:09 PDT

· Imagine's Brian Grazer will superproduce an adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens for DreamWorks and Universal, a project the spikey-haired seeker described as the "perfect realization of all the cowboys-meeting-aliens-related ideas I've been quietly developing since I was a hyperactive six years old locked in my bedroom with a chest full of toys." [Variety]
· Fox's show about people who think they can dance continues to shame their one about people who think they can direct movies, pulling in more than triple the viewers of the last On The Lot installment. [THR]
· Another famously overweight TV personality rumored to be under consideration to replace Bob Barker is Drew Carey. [Variety]
· Advertisers give a $2.4 billion upfront vote of confidence to Steve McPherson's vision for ABC, with one Madison avenue booster gushing, "Have you heard about this Cavemen thing? It's like a sitcom and car insurance commercial all rolled into one! Think of what they could do with that Coke ad with the polar bears." [THR]
· Stripping off his shirt and smearing his entire body in warpaint, CEO Howard Stringer whipped 7,000 employees into a frenzy at a shareholder ceremony in which he dramatically declared himself the "Sony Warrior." [Variety]

'On the Lot' CancellationWatch: Fox Taking Plug In Its Hand, Wondering How Hard It Has To Pull To End Series' Misery

Mark — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:25:33 PDT

· Neither a second straight mind-scrambling week of screening its contestants' application films nor a renewed, audience-distracting focus on host Adrianna Costa's cleavage has increased interest in Fox's deeply ~~fucked~~ troubled On the Lot, which drew just 2.9 million viewers and now stands accused of poisoning people against perfectly good House reruns. If things don't turn around quickly (or if the show isn't mercy killed by the end of June), look for EP Steven Spielberg to withdraw the $1 million DreamWorks deal prize, leaving the scrambling network to replace it with a four-week intership as the guy in charge of getting hot extras' phone numbers for Week One judge Brett Ratner. [Variety]
· What's Jennifer Aniston up to these days, besides appearing on the cover of Us Weekly underneath headlines about her ongoing struggle to cope with her 2005 divorce from Brad Pitt? You know, this n' that, a little producing, a little acting. Just stuff! [THR]
· Tapping the same creative mother lode that yielded plans for a Ice Cube-led Welcome Back Kotter remake, Screen Gems is updating The Big Chill with an African-American cast. The full talent roster isn't set, but Terrence Howard is in early negotiations to reprise Kevin Costner's casket-filling role. [Variety]
· William Hurt joins Ed Norton and Tim Roth in Marvel Studios' Hulk project, which continues its curious obsession with collecting talented actors for a comic book movie. [THR]
· Rachel Weisz will star in the Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of The Lovely Bones, a fine choice for a movie we're actually looking forward to. [Variety]

Greenman V. Rogen: The Battle Of 'Superbad'

Mark — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:21:10 PDT

Inspired by the Canadian journalist who has successfully raised awareness of her knocking-up memoir by filing a lawsuit against Los Angeles-based comedy monopolist Judd Apatow, accusing him of stealing her unplanned baby and selling it to Universal, New Yorker writer and Superbad novelist Ben Greenman has issued an open letter to Apatow collaborator Seth Rogen, decrying the actor/writer/producer's re-appropriation of his original borrowing of some obscure James Brown intellectual property for his upcoming summer movie of the same name. An excerpt is above; fortunately for Rogen, no lawsuit is threatened, saving him the annoyance of having to fight off the kind of unhinged legal challenge that his allegedly womb-plundering friend is currently enduring.

Ben Greenman Attacks Seth Rogen [Gawker]
Previously: Canadian Journalist Uncomfortable With How Closely Apatow Blockbuster Mirrors Own Knocking-Up [Defamer]

Judd Apatow Steadily Consolidating Means Of Comedy Production

Mark — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:06:54 PDT

· Local comedy monopolist Judd Apatow continues to integrate the industry's mirth-making entities into his rapidly expanding humor-producing conglomerate, collaborating with Jack Black, Knocked Up's Harold Ramis, Superbad's Michael Cera, and an Office writing team on Year One for Columbia. [Variety]
· The dust is finally starting to settle at a post-Albrechtgate HBO, with "longtime Albrecht right-hand man" Michael Lombardo reportedly being promoted to a new job overseeing all west coast operations. [THR]
· Jim Carrey will star in the dark comedy I Love You Phillip Morris (by Bad Santa's Glenn Ficarra and John Requa), an idea pitched as Catch Me if You Can meets Brokeback Mountain. There is no direct Judd Apatow involvement that we can discern, a fact that could doom the promising project to eventual turnaround. [Variety]
· Imagine superproducer Brian Grazer's unparalleled Bacon-attaching skills lead to ubiquitous actor Kevin joining the cast of Frost/Nixon, the big-screen adaptation of the Peter Morgan play. [THR]
· The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals throws out the FCC's "capricious" rulings against Fox over Cher saying "fuck" and Nicole Richie "shit" during broadcasts of the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards, a landmark decision that reaffirms an awards show presenter's right to "accidentally" swear on live TV. [Variety]

Tomorrow, Sony Retaliates With A Six-Page Ad About The Unreliability Of Italian Preview-Screening Accounting Practices

Mark — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:53:37 PDT

Disney has hopefully ended the studio dick-measuring contest over Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's dueling claims to the record for the biggest worldwide opening (six-day) weekend, splaying its box-office inches across a two-page spread in today's Variety. While the (technically?) triumphant studio's design team was initially going to allow the huge number and curiously tiny #1 WORLDWIDE OPENING OF ALL TIME copy speak for themselves, they couldn't resist surrendering to their cruder instincts with a message taunting their rival and its humbled, slump-shouldered hero.

[Image: Digital Variety]

'Pirates' treasure grows overseas [Variety]
Box Office Catfight By Hollywood Studios [DHD]

A Tired Spidey Takes A Weekend Off From Setting Records

Mark — Mon, 14 May 2007 09:25:46 PDT

Welcome to the Second Official Monday Morning of Blockbuster Season! The numbers aren't quite as impressive as last weekend's, but they should hold you over until Shrek shows up on Friday to narcotize the children of America:

1. Spider-Man 3—$60 million
Contacted for comment Sunday evening after the weekend's box office estimates were released, revealing that Spider-Man 3 fell off 60 percent from its record-breaking debut, dependably positive Sony studio chair Amy Pascal offered, "Even in my deepest, darkest, most secret desires I would never have expected to have a movie with the fourth-highest grossing second weekend of all time. I mean, once when I was 12 I wrote a message to my future self that said, '$60 million second weekend! You can do it, Amy!" and locked it away in my Wish Chest, but that doesn't really count. Wow, I'm still floating. This is amazing."

2. 28 Weeks Later-$10 million
Have horror fans already tired of the novelty of fast zombies? Perhaps what the genre needs is a visionary unafraid to take the undead to the next level in terrifying locomotion. We are, of course, speaking about zombies in wheelchairs. Motorized ones.

3. Georgia Rule—$5.879 million
Audiences clearly didn't appreciate the hardships that Garry Marshall had to endure to get this movie into theaters. Rumor has it that the director suffered a series of mild heart attacks directly related to Lindsay Lohan's erratic attendance record , but his obsession with realizing his dream of seeing Jane Fonda sharing the screen with the Herbie: Fully Loaded star wouldn't allow him to quit and attend to his health.

4. Disturbia—$3.5 million
Shia LaBeouf: We're so over this guy. Bring on the next manchild box office hero!

5. Delta Farce—$2.768 million
It is a tribute to the indomitability of the redneck spirit that Larry the Cable Guy found the strength to press on with his movie career after Health Inspector failed to live up to its considerable promise.

May 11-13, 2007 Studio Estimates [Box Office Mojo]

Humble Sony Chief Taken By Surprise By Hugely Expensive Blockbuster's Box Office Success

Mark — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:10:04 PDT

After finding out that her mega-budgeted Spider-Man 3 had, as many expected, shattered virtually all of the opening weekend box office records anyone cares about, no one would have begrudged head Sony cheerleader Amy Pascal a little celebratory gloating when the media came calling for comment. But to her credit, it appears that she decided to play things humble rather than declare she would be dedicating a large portion of the movie's proceeds to the hunting down and killing of any critic who dared doubt the project's inevitable, benchmark-setting success:

"In your deepest, darkest, most secret desires you could never expect it to do so well," said Amy Pascal, Sony's studio chairwoman. "We're floating."

Of course, now that new weekend estimates have been made available and the numbers have been revised upwards to $151 million domestic and a $382 million worldwide, maybe Pascal will abandon the humility (really, did she make the Most Expensive Movie, Like, Ever! By A Lot! With Inflation Figured In And Junk! without daring to dream they'd take down Pirates 2?) and partake in some public self-congratulation, inviting the press over to the Sony lot to watch her ceremonially don a custom-made Spider-Lady suit and paddle a pair of assistants dressed like Shrek and Captain Jack Sparrow until they beg for box office mercy.

'Lost' Writers Have Just 48 More Episodes To Figure Out What's Going On

Mark — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:23:46 PDT

· Lost's producers officially get three more years to pretend that they have any clue what's happening on that island, as ABC gives the series an advance order for three more 16-episode seasons. As currently scheduled, all loose ends involving smoke monsters, polar bears, and Jack and Kate finally getting it on should be tied up in early 2010. [Variety]
· Did we mention that Spider-Man:3's $227 million overseas was an international box office record? Well, it was! Unless you don't think it should count because it includes a six-day total from some early-opening foreign territories. [THR]
· DreamWorks wins the bidding war for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones adaptation, committing at least $65 million to the project. Now that the deal is closed, perhaps Jackson's lawyers will calm down about assistants sharing the script. [Variety]
· Fans of the The OC who think the show was mercy-killed prematurely should be heartened by creator Josh Schwartz's pilot season buzz, which indicates that his projects for NBC and The CW are looking like strong contenders for pick-ups. [THR]
· In other pre-upfront pick-up news, NBC has already greenlighted Medium for a fourth season, ensuring that at least one network will have a juggsy psychic on its primetime schedule this Fall. [Variety]

'Spider-Man 3' Vaguely Disappoints Record Number Of Weekend Moviegoers

Mark — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:34:03 PDT

Oh, happy day! Records have fallen, mind-bending studio expenses have been vindicated, and millions of American moviegoers have been moderately entertained on this most glorious of Monday mornings! On to the numbers!

1. Spider-Man 3—$148 million
In what has to be the most anticlimactic record-breaking in box office history, Spider-Man 3, debuting in The Widest Release—Ever!!! (capitalization and overly exuberant punctuation added to spice up boring release data), shattered™ the opening weekend mark of $135.6 million set by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last July by hauling in $148 million domestically, a benchmark so formidable that it should stand at least until the end of the month, when Pirates 3 arrives over the Memorial Day holiday. Please stifle your reflexive yawns as you learn that Spidey grossed another $227 million at the international box office, bringing its worldwide take to $375 million, a staggering figure that nearly justifies the movie's reported $3 billion budget. (We forget what the official number is these days, so we'll go with one that properly celebrates the free-spending spirit of the record-setting project.)

2. Disturbia-$5.72 million
Three-time Biggest Movie Star in America Shia LaBeouf's (now so famous we can spell his name without turning to IMDb) agents have already put in a call to Sony, hoping that Tobey Maguire's sure-to-be outrageous contract demands will price him out of the fourth Spider-Man installment and that the studio will go hunting for more modestly compensated, up-and-coming—and similarly boyish—talent to take his place.

3. Fracture—$3.42 million
4. The Invisible—$3.125 million
5. Next—$2.768 million
We're not evening going to pretend to care that any of these movies were screened this weekend. Records have been broken in utterly boring fashion! Haven't you been listening?

6. Lucky You—$2.515 million
We will, however, note that Warner Bros.' attempt to counterprogram Spiderfevermania with a Drew Barrymore poker movie was something less than successful, if your definition of success includes breaking the $3 million barrier or achieving a four-figure per-theater average.

May 4-6, 2007 Studio Estimates [Box Office Mojo]

Transformers Attack Sunset Blvd.

Mark — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:52:44 PDT

This weekend will be all about Spider-Man 3's inevitable march to the all-time opening weekend box office record (we're still waiting for reports about how audiences at the Thursday midnight screenings volunteered to pay triple if that helped beloved Sony get to $140 million), but that's not going to stop competing studios with their own summer products to overhype from trying to steal some of Spidey's thunder. As we speak, motorists stalled in traffic on Sunset Boulevard are enjoying the spectacle of witnessing one of the Strip's most famous buildings wrapped in the largest pulsating, promotional prophylactic ever attempted by mortals:

Sunset Blvd. Transformed HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 4 /PRNewswire/ — Towering above all of Movieland, Optimus Prime and Megatron are busting out of Hollywood's most famous tower in a battle between good and evil. With pulsating eyes and glimmering effects, Transformers have taken over the Sunset Strip. Paramount/DreamWorks enlisted the help of SkyTag, the innovators of Tall Wall spectaculars, to produce the world's largest printed construction wrap enveloping the building at 6290 Sunset Blvd. This mammoth structure is 300 ft high and took over 100,000 sq. ft. of vinyl to complete.

DreamWorks can only hope that this latest act of movie-pimping hubris doesn't meet with the same fate as their previous skyscraper-bagging effort (pictured above), and that God (a Spider-Man fan, we're sure) doesn't once again call forth his righteous winds to strip the graven images of Michael Bay's blockbuster abomination from the building, covering the cars below in the shredded ambitions of a publicity executive who dreamed a little too big.

[If you happen to be in the area and have a camera, by all means, send us a photo.]

UPDATE: Curbed L.A. has a photo (third one down).

Sunset Blvd. Transformed [PR Newsire]
Previously: Billboardtron Blown Away [Defamer]

Then Again, Maybe 'Spider-Man 3' Will Be Huge

Mark — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:34:01 PDT

· After shattering a number of box office records in Asia, Spider-Man 3 is now making a mockery of European ticket-buying benchmarks. Based on this preliminary data, we now predict a $400 million opening weekend in America, kicking off an eventual $3 billion domestic run. [Variety]
· We much prefer THR's "Tom Poston, master of sidekicks" obit headline to yesterday's weak "clueless everyman" effort. [THR]
· Emma Roberts will star "as a spoiled Malibu princess" in the Universal comedy Wild Child; accusations that Auntie Julia somehow got her the role by promising Universal a favor to follow. [Variety]
· NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg honors late MPAA copyright enforcer Jack Valenti's legacy by announcing a "three-pronged" attack on the city's movie pirates. [THR]
· Still giddy over the huge piles of cash Frank Miller's 300 generated for them, Warner Bros. options the rights to his graphic novel Ronin. They plan to shoot in the same CGI-heavy way, hoping that hordes of well-muscled "gangs of mutants and thugs" with computer-enhanced six-packs will prove as wildly popular as the first project's sweaty, ripped Greeks. [Variety]

'Spider-Man 3' Piracy Scoreboard Update: Chinese 0, Sony 0

Mark — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:18:36 PDT

Upon reading published reports that Chinese pirates have already succeeded in getting illicit copies of Spider-Man 3 into Beijing's black market, Sony's ever-vigilant PR team sprang into action to refute the story, letting China's Spidey fans know that the only way for them to enjoy the web-slinger's latest adventures—for the moment, at least—is to blow a month's salary on a family trip to the multiplex:

Statement from Sony Pictures Entertainment Regarding Reports of Spider-Man 3 Piracy
Contrary to news reports about stolen copies of Spider-Man 3 being sold illegally on the streets in China, our investigation in China has revealed no case of the film being pirated to date.

Similar hoaxes and false alarms have occurred prior to the release of other major films. We have uncovered examples of Spider-Man 2 being sold in Spider-Man 3 boxes in China. But thus far we can find no instance where Spider-Man 3 has appeared on DVD.
In addition, after an initial investigation of online sites worldwide, we have so far found no pirated copies of Spider-Man 3 on the Internet.

This incident underscores one of the problems with piracy - people who buy illegal movies often get ripped off themselves.

We trust that Sony's statement will serve as a wake-up call to the Chinese movie-piracy industry, inspiring them to exert some quality-control over their highly lucrative operations and get genuine pirated product into those black market DVD stalls, before their own market share can be eroded by internet pirates undercutting their already deeply discounted prices.

Chinese pirates beat Spider-Man to the punch [Reuters]

Trade Round-Up: Chinese Pirates Already Disrespecting 'Spider-Man 3' Copyrights

Mark — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:05:11 PDT

· Realizing that he's only played a lawyer once (Fatal Attraction), Michael Douglas quickly signs on to fill the courtroom-drama-shaped hole in his career by starring in Tragic Indifference, based on a landmark case against Ford over its "indifference to flaws in its SUVs." Scene-chewing delivery of a stirring closing statement to follow. [Variety]
· Chinese Pirates 1, Sony 0: China's camcording brigade has already made pirated copies of Spider-Man 3 available on the streets of Beijing, nearly two weeks ahead of the movie's U.S. debut. Didn't that flashy Tokyo premiere teach the scofflaws anything about respecting copyrights? The MPAA's next step: dispatching piracy-hating stuntman Manny Perry to smash some black market DVD stalls with a Louisville slugger. [THR]
· The Coen Brothers will make the Fargoesque dark comedy A Serious Man for Working Title and Focus Features. Lantern-jawed muse George Clooney has yet to be attached. [Variety]
· Should ABC pick up the much-discussed Grey's Anatomy spin-off for the fall, creator Shonda Rhimes has selected Krista Vernoff to run the Grey's mothership and Marti Noxon for the satellite; Rhimes will oversee both, which will primarily involve ensuring that both shows' characters have properly overwrought speeches about their impossibly complicated love-lives to deliver and collecting enormous paychecks [THR]
· Lifetime proves its admirable commitment to keeping the female television drama stars of the 90's off the streets, signing up 90210's Jennie Garth and Party of Five's Lacey Chabert for made-for-TV movie gigs. [Variety]

'Spider-Man 3' Boasts Three Times The Villains And Product Placement

Seth — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:42:12 PDT

The same guys who brought us a PG-rated version of 300 set in delicious Caketown are back again, this time with their plug-tastic take on the Spider-Man 3 trailer, wherein sharp-eyed viewers may be able to spot the logos of some of their favorite brands seamlessly woven into the proceedings. Still, if you are one of those tiresome comic book purists who requires their Spidey tales free of encroaching corporate interests, we'd advise you to skip the video (and, if history is any lesson, the movie itself), and simply spend the evening at home, living out your own, unsponsored webslinging adventures with the help of Hasbro's Itsy Bitsy Spider-Man.

[Black20.com]

With 'Spider-Man 3' On Its Way To Theaters, It's Time For The Pants-Crapping Over 'Spidey 4' To Begin

Mark — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:47:41 PDT

Following Monday's Tokyo world premiere of Spider-Man 3, Spidey-Friends™ Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, and Kirsten Dunst should have nothing on their minds but basking in the sweet adulation of the throng of Japanese fans who briefly assembled to cheer on their latest cinematic achievement at the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower before retiring to the temporary, movie-themed love hotels a generous Sony had set up on site for the occasion. (We're told the Venom suite, with its paint-on, edible licorice costumes, was especially popular.) Unfortunately, some pushy Entertainment Weekly questions involving director Raimi's possible inheriting of The Hobbit from Peter Jackson will now regrettably shift the focus from celebrating the current film to fretting about the future of the franchise, which a distressed Dunst modestly believes would meet with Batman & Robin-style rubber-nippled doom should the studio try and go forward on a fourth installment without her pals. Reports EW:

Dunst says she hadn't heard any rumors about Raimi and The Hobbit until EW raised the subject in an interview. She says she can't imagine returning for Part 4 without both her director and her costar: ''It's disrespectful to the whole team, I think, to do that. And audiences aren't stupid. It'd be a big flop without me, Tobey, or Sam. That would really not be the smartest move. But they know that already. [Sony chief] Amy Pascal would never do that.'' Maguire has already expressed his ambivalence about returning for another sequel.

Sony's President of Production Matt Tolmach tells EW that the studio is cautiously optimistic about retaining the team that launched the Spidey franchise so spectacularly: ''Listen, we're making Spider-Man 4. Our hope, dream, and intention is to do it with Sam. But I don't have a crystal ball.''

With Spider-Man 3 about to premiere to an inevitably huge U.S. opening, maybe Tolmach should abandon his public strategy of cautious optimism and start playing some preemptive hardball, appealing to the trio's pride in the hard work they've done in the three completed movies by letting it be known that while Sony would love to have them all back, he thinks they can still do $300 million domestic even if they hand over the next movie to Shia LaBeouf*, Christina Ricci, and Brett Ratner.

[*Now a huge star!]

'Hobbit' Forming? [EW.com]

Trade Round-Up: Hilary Swank Still Happily Signing Off On Just About Every Deal Put In Front Of Her

Mark — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:26:14 PDT

· Hollywood SwankWatch: Freedom Writers and The Reaping actress Hilary Swank is developing (and likely producing and starring in—she really can do it all!) a remake of Patrick Leconte's Intimate Strangers for Paramount, about an actress whose career seems to have no discernible direction since winning two Oscars. [Variety]
· Spiderman 3 will debut in China a day before its North America premiere in hopes that some Chinese moviegoers will rush to theaters to see it rather than wait for the pirated, 25-cent copies that will be widely available just hours after the release. [THR]
· Keep your stunguns at the ready, put your forensic accountants on speed dial, and lock up your overlong directors cuts, because the Weinsteins are back, baby! [Variety]
· Paula Abdul signs with APA, who hope to "work with her on developing multigenerational, international lifestyle branding opportunities" and who will refuse to take her calls the second she's no longer hosting American Idol. [THR]
· In reflecting upon the ICM/Endeavor Richard Abate defection debacle, Var's Peter Bar proposes that agents hire their own agents to orchestrate their career moves. But what about agents for an agent's agent, and a team of agent-managers to steer the whole ship? Soon, getting anything done will require penetrating fifteen nested levels of rep-representation. Where does the madness end, Mr. Bart? [Variety]

Trade Round-Up: Locklear Cast

Mark — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:38:44 PDT

· Paramount is in talks to let The Fountain's Darren Aronofsky loose on Matt Damon/Mark Wahlberg boxing drama The Fighter, a project with a conventional story that might be able to resist some of the director's more bizarre, artsy impulses. Still, Var cautions: "He isn't necessarily expected to take a traditional approach." [Variety]
· Balloons cascade from the ceiling of her ICM agent's office as Heather Locklear is cast in her 1,000th TV project, the ABC comedy pilot See Jayne Run. [THR]
· Punk'd: Plug Yank'd. Unless, you know, this is just another one of that Kutcher kid's incredibly clever practical jokes! [Variety]
· Dancing with the Stars cleans up against weak competition, pulling in an average of 21 million viewers. Also: We're starting to suspect that Heather Mills if faking the amputee thing. There's no way a prosthetic leg stays on when she does a flip like that. [THR]
· Casino Royale will soon break the still-young record for hi-def DVD sales, as viewers scramble to experience every chiseled contour of Daniel Craig's body in the stunning resolution that only the superior Blu-ray™ format can deliver. [Note: this item sponsored by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment] [Variety]

Annals Of Movie Marketing: Taking 'Rocky' Out With The Trash

Mark — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:44:07 PDT

We really have to commend Sony Picture Home Entertainment for its well-executed, thoughtful marketing campaign for the Rocky Balboa DVD, an effort captured in this reader-submitted cameraphone photo of a garbage truck leaving the Fallbrook Mall in the Valley. Placing an ad for the unexpected mid-level hit on the side of a trash disposal vehicle is a subtle reminder of how the actor was callously discarded by a youth-obsessed film industry before making his triumphant half-comeback—an understated promotional choice made all the more impressive given the cheap stunts to which certain smaller studios will stoop in the name of raising awareness of their product.

Previously: Sylvester Stallone Charged With Just Trying To Give Loyal Australian Fans A Look At His Circa-1985 Body [Defamer]

Trade Round-Up: Cruise Taps Himself

Mark — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:49:59 PDT

· After careful deliberation, Tom Cruise decides to insert himself into the WWII-set thriller (from The Usual Suspects team of director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie) he acquired for shiny new toy United Artists last week, taking a role in the ensemble piece as a character who struggles to diffuse his blinding star power for the sake of his fellow castmates. [Variety]
· Blockbuster's CEO is stepping down by the end of the year over a dispute about his bonus. Scintillating! [THR]
· New Line wins the rights to make an inevitably terrible movie from the Xbox game Gears of War; CAA ran the auction, which seems to have been free of messengers wearing elaborate costumes, perhaps in hopes of not repeating the Halo debacle. [Variety]
· Today in bad ideas for potential hero franchises: Columbia options the rights to The Green Hornet in an attempt to prove that the kids will go wild for characters originally appearing in 1930s radio plays. [THR]
· Clear four or so hours (not including that all-important red carpet time) off your calendar on Sunday, February 24th of next year, as the Academy has chosen that now hallowed date for next year's 80th Anniversary Oscars telecast. [Variety]

Trade Round-Up: Will Smith Options Monotonously Uplifiting Story Of Crack-Slinging Gourmet Chef

Mark — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 12:03:04 PST

· Superhero icon Captain America, who somehow survived a near-fatal movie adaptation back in 1990, was not so lucky after being struck by a sniper's bullet in the latest issue of his comic book. [Variety]
· With his homeless-guy-to-stockbroker-bigshot turn failing to bring home that elusive Oscar, Will Smith plans to see if he might have better luck with soft-hearted Academy voters by playing a jailed-crack-dealer-turned-gourmet-chef, optioning the memoir Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, From Cocaine to Foie Gras for what we assume will be an eventual starring, tear-jerking role. [THR]
· Supporting socially moderate Republican presidential hopefuls Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain might—might—not land industry conservatives on Hollywood's right-wing blacklist. [Variety]
· Tim "McWingsy" Daly and Paul "McWho?" Adelstein join the cast of the two-hour, Very Special Grey's
Anatomy episode that may result in a spin-off. [THR]
· Exhausted network rivals take a night off from trying to fight off American Idol, flipping over and offering only token repeat resistance to their inevitable Nielsen buggering last night. [Variety]

Trade Round-Up: Isaiah Washington Gets Image Award For Successfully Completing Gayhab

Mark — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 13:03:06 PST

· Miami Heat center and Kazaam star Shaquille O'Neal will star in a six episode ABC reality series this summer in which he will help fat kids in Florida lose weight, explaining to them that it's only acceptable to carry around extra pounds if you're a multimillionaire basketball player who needs a protective layer of fat to protect oneself from the violent, uncalled fouls of undersized opponents. [Variety]
· Foreigners prove that awkward dubs or subtitles don't interfere with one's appreciation of Nic Cage's fiery-headed High Art, delivering Ghost Rider to a third consecutive weekend atop the international box office. [THR]
· The NAACP recognizes Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington with an Image Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series Whose Well-Publicized Episodes Of Troubling Homophobia We Will Happily Ignore. [Variety]
· Sony thumbs its nose at American moviegoers, announcing that Spider-Man 3 will premiere in Tokyo three days before its U.S. bow. On the bright side, jilted Stateside Spidey fans will probably be able to download pirated, camcorded copies of the movie a couple of days earlier than usual. [Variety]
· Fox's The Winner debuts in third-place in the 18-49 demographic, but scores first with its target audience of 32-year-old men who might eventually wind up molesting their 14-year-old best friends. [THR]