DAILY

OCTOBER 15, 2015

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OCTOBER 9, 2015

The Martian’s A-list everyman MATT DAMON admits he has ‘a lot riding on this movie’ as he goes from one hero to another in the Bourne return, talks Hillary and takes his turn in the social media hot seat: ‘Oh my God, I look like an asshole’

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‘I’m Not Angst-free’

F i l m s , p o l i t i c s a n d f l u b s

Lessons of TV’s Premiere Week

HOLLYWOOD SALARIES 2015

Dick Wolf’s ex: Her 12-year divorce fight

$1.7M for a dog’s care? The battle over

Sam Simon’s estate

Top 25 Power Business Managers

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I WENT, ‘OH MY GOD, I LOOK LIKE AN ASSHOLE,’ ” DAMON SAYS OF HIS RECENT GAFFE ON PROJECT GREENLIGHT. “I THOUGHT IT WAS A REALLY INSENSITIVE THING TO SAY.”

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OCTOBER 15, 2015

is properly finished?”Sources say early test screenings

of Tarzan, an adventure pic starring Alexander Skarsgard of HBO’s True Blood as the vine-swinger and Margot Robbie as Jane, did not go well. But

packed with visual effects, isn’t getting the attention it needs. “The schedule of the J.K. Rowling movie got in the way of an appropriate postproduction sched-ule on Tarzan,” said this person. “Why would you ever crowd a director into starting a movie before his other movie

Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie are relatively unknown leads for a summer tentpole pic such as Tarzan.

By Kim Masters

S till tallying its staggering loss on Pan, Warner Bros. is said to be facing an unusual challenge on

Tarzan, its next mega-budgeted fantasy reboot. With the film still needing con- siderable work before its July 1, 2016, release date, director David Yates has started shooting his next Warners project, J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Studio sources say the move from Tarzan to Beasts always was planned. “While it’s somewhat unusual, we are extremely comfortable with the pro-duction timelines, which were set in advance, and have total confidence in the skill of David Yates — who is a four-time Harry Potter director — to deliver both of these pictures,” said a Warners executive. (Yates declined to comment).

But one source involved with the project is concerned that Tarzan, with a budget of around $180 million and

Warners Faces Tarzan Trouble as Director Is Double-Booked

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THE STARSSHINE IN CHICAGO

Photos: Robert Martinez, Timothy M. Schmidt

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studio sources say the film is not finished and it’s routine for movies to be revised and improved. And a Warners insider noted that both Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood have gone into prepro-duction on projects before their previous film is finished, though none has been as expensive, complicated or challenged as Tarzan appears to be.

Yates began shooting Beasts, starring Eddie Redmayne and a large ensemble cast, in August, and a studio source said the helmer is focused on that film during the week while reviewing edits of Tarzan on weekends. Sources say if that process proves too cumbersome to get the movie ready in time, Warners could push the film off its summer release date. The stu-dio also has Guy Ritchie’s Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur on July 22 and the DC Comics team-up Suicide Squad on Aug. 5, so its schedule is crowded, and Warners has bumped a July release each of the past two summers, Jupiter Ascending and Pan.

The studio, long the gold standard in Hollywood, is in the midst of a protracted bad run; pricey flops this year include Jupiter Ascending, which was relocated to February, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which was released in August. Pan, which cost $150 million to make and opened to just $15.3 million domestically, could lead to a loss of $130 million to $150 million, say analysts. In that context, especially, the Tarzan situation has raised eyebrows. Veteran producers and executives not involved with the project say they can’t remember a studio pulling a director off of one unfinished big-budget live-action movie to start another. But Beasts — at least as expensive as Tarzan and probably more so — has to make its own release date in November 2016.

Yates has been an extremely valuable asset to Warner Bros. as the director of four Harry Potter pics that collectively grossed more than $4 billion worldwide. Securing author Rowling’s commitment for Beasts was a coup for Warners CEO Kevin Tsujihara in September 2013, just

a few months after the executive — who lacked experience in film or television — took over the studio. A trilogy based on the textbook mentioned in the Harry Potter series is dated for 2016, 2018 and 2020.

“Notwithstanding that Tarzan isn’t a cheap movie, the [Beasts] series is clearly one of Kevin’s three planks in his platform,” along with Lego and DC Comics, said a source close to the studio. “At Warner Bros. right now, anything pales in comparison to those three silos.”

One insider noted that Tarzan also has suffered the loss of producer Jerry Weintraub, who died unexpectedly in July: “If there was a strong independent producer on the movie, this could have been managed better.” And a high-level exec at another studio expresses doubt about the viability of the Tarzan prop-erty and casting a relative unknown, Skarsgard, as the lead, saying, “You shouldn’t make that movie without an actor you’re dying to see in the part.”

Wall Street analyst Harold Vogel said he wouldn’t judge any film before its release but has concerns about the Warners slate in general. “The whole strategy over the last two years has been to emulate Disney and Marvel,” he said. “It shows a possible exhaustion of ideas.” He points to the studio’s attempt to in- vigorate DC, which begins in earnest with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 25), as well as making such fan- tasy fare as Pan, Tarzan, King Arthur and a live-action Jungle Book set for 2017, more than a year after Disney’s Jon Favreau-directed version of the Rudyard Kipling novel opens. Still, Vogel said he doesn’t expect the studio’s issues to affect Time Warner’s stock price at this point.

Richard Greenfield of BTIG also says the critical question for Warner Bros. is the execution when it comes to DC. “They have laid out a multiyear strategy pinned to DC Comics spanning movies, TV, video games and [merchandise],” he said. “In turn, the success of Batman v. Superman and [CBS series] Supergirl are of paramount importance.”

Clearly, Warners insiders are hopeful

that Batman v. Superman and Beasts will be major triumphs in the months ahead. “When things aren’t working, everybody seems stupid,” said a studio insider. “And when it works, they all seem like geniuses.”

Helmer liNklater exitS SoNy’S Rosie PRojectBy Borys KitOn the heels Of Jennifer

Lawrence dropping out of Tri-Star’s The Rosie Project, the romantic dram-

edy’s director Richard Linklater has also exited, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Sources say both actress and director left the project on Monday.

Lawrence’s departure had to do with scheduling, according to several sources. The actress has been jumping from one film to another — she went from X-Men: Apocalypse in the spring and summer to currently shooting Passengers — and the studio was hoping to shoot Rosie Project in the winter. Instead, the Oscar winner needed a break.

Rosie Project was developed as a Lawrence vehicle, and Linklater, then making his first move since nabbing six Oscar nominations for his film Boyhood, came on board for a chance to work with the actress.

The studio considers the film a priority and will look for a new filmmaker and star immediately.

Rosie Project tells the story of a socially inept genetics professor who comes up with a scientifically sound survey to find the perfect mate. His plans go awry when he meets Rosie Jarman, who in her whirl- wind manner, possesses all the opposite qualities he should be looking for.

An adaptation of the 2013 book by Graeme Simsion, Rosie Project has a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber. Matt Tolmach and Michael Cos-tigan are producing.

Linklater

f r o m PA g e 2

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rodriguez to direct Fox’S AlitA adaptatioNBy Borys KitJames CamerOn’s mOre than

15-year journey to bring manga comic Battle Angel Alita to the big screen may

be nearing an end.Robert Rodriguez is in

negotiations to direct the live-action adaptation of the manga graphic novels that will be produced by Cameron and his Light-storm Entertainment partner Jon Landau.

Titled Alita: Battle Angel, the project tells of a female cyborg that is discovered in a trash yard by a scientist.

With no memory of her previous life except her deadly martial arts training, the woman becomes a bounty hunter, tracking down criminals.

The action-adventure story is meant to serve as a backdrop to themes of self-discovery and the search for love.

“Robert and I have been looking for a film to do together for years, so I was pumped when he said he wanted to do Battle Angel,” Cameron said Wednesday in a statement. “He’s very collaborative and we’re already like two kids building a go-kart, just having fun riffing creatively and technically. This project is near and dear to me, and there’s nobody I trust more than Robert, with his technical vir-tuosity and rebel style, to take over the directing reins. We’re looking forward to learning a lot from each other while we make a kick-ass epic.”

Added Rodriguez: “Battle Angel is an incredibly rich and vibrant epic in the tradition of Jim Cameron’s spectacular, character-driven films. Getting to work from Jim’s terrific and visionary script while learning the cutting-edge techniques he’s pioneered is a master class in film- making. It’s an honor to explore the world of Alita along with Jim and Jon, whose films have impacted me for decades.”

Cameron for years intended to direct Alita himself, but other projects kept getting in the way, notably Avatar, which took his attention further when he decided he was going to make three sequels back to back to back.

The Alita project had a script by Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) but it’s unclear whether it has undergone further work.

chiPmunks 4 Set to opeN oppoSite FoRce AwAkensBy Pamela McClintockfOx has tweak ed its plans fOr Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, moving up the pic’s release by five days to Dec. 18 — the same day that J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters.

The fourth installment in the family franchise had been set to debut Dec. 23, a Wednesday. But by going out earlier, it can take advantage of school vacation that starts Monday, Dec. 21.

Road Chip will play younger than Force Awakens, due to its kid-friendly PG rating. The latter movie, from Lucasfilm and Disney, will go out with a PG-13 rating.

All of Hollywood is resigned to the fact that the Star Wars reboot will be a box-office goliath. At the same time, the two weeks around Christmas are the most concentrated of the year in terms of moviegoing, allowing for numerous films to prosper and see huge multiples should they click with audiences. In 2010, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel racked up $156 million between its bow on Dec. 23 and Jan. 3. A year later, three- quel Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked opted to go out on Dec. 16.

This year, the big unknown is how much of the box-office oxygen Force Awakens will take up, regardless of exactly when the other holiday titles are debuting.

The other film set to open nationwide on Dec. 18 is Sisters, Universal’s comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. On Dec. 25, Sony’s Will Smith football drama Concussion launches nationwide alongside Paramount comedy Daddy’s

Home, starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, and Fox and New Regency’s Joy, directed by David O. Russell and starring Jennifer Lawrence. Also bowing in limited engagements are Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, from The Weinstein Co., and Alejandro G. Inarritu’s The Revenant, another Fox entry.

Road Chip has the advantage of being the only PG-rated film to open over the holidays.

GodzillA vs. konG Slated to Hit tHeaterS iN 2020By Rebecca Fordlegendary and warner BrOs. are officially mapping out their new cinematic franchise centered around Godzilla and King Kong.

“All-powerful monsters become towering heroes for a new generation, revealing a mythology that brings together Godzilla and Legendary’s King Kong in an ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new. Monarch, the human organization that uncovered Godzilla in the 2014 film, will expand their mission across multiple releases,” the studios said Wednesday in a release.

The initial trio of films will kick off with Kong: Skull Island on March 10, 2017; Godzilla 2 on June 8, 2018; and then Godzilla vs. Kong, slated to arrive in theaters in 2020. While Legendary maintains its new home at Universal Pictures, the Godzilla films remain in partnership with Warner Bros., who will now also distribute Kong as a part of this franchise. Skull Island begins production next week.

“Audiences really responded to God-zilla,” said Legendary CEO Thomas Tull. “Today, I’m excited to reveal that film was only the beginning of an epic new entertainment universe. As a life-long fan of these characters, I’ve always wanted to see the ultimate showdown, and today we’re pleased to be announc-ing that and more.”

Cameron

Rodriguez

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Broad greeN to adapt Hit Novel oRPhAn tRAinBy Rebecca FordChristina Bak er k line’s nOvel

Orphan Train will be getting the movie treatment from Broad Green Pictures.

Christopher Monger (Temple Grandin) will write the script for the project, which will be based on the 2013 bestseller. The story is inspired by the so-called orphan trains that ran regularly from cities on the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of aban-doned children between 1854 and 1929.

Orphan Train centers on 17-year-old Molly Ayer who is on the verge of aging out of the foster-care system in present- day Maine. Per required community service, she has to help 91-year-old Irish immigrant Vivian Daly — who as a child was shipped from New York City to Minnesota — clean out her attic. Soon, the pair discover the parallels in their lives as outsiders, exposing a secret which has haunted Vivian her entire life.

Kline’s book, her fifth novel, became a New York Times No. 1 best-seller and still remains on the list, along with currently being No. 11 on the Paper- back Trade Fiction list.

Michael London and Janice Williams of Groundswell Productions (Trumbo, Milk) will produce. Asher Goldstein and Shary Shirazi will oversee the project for Broad Green.

“Orphan Train is a poignant story with historical significance; it educates and in- spires as it touches upon universal themes of family, friendship, loss, identity and the meaning of home,” Broad Green chief creative officer Daniel Hammond said Wednesday in a statement. “We are huge fans of the novel and look forward to bringing the story to the big screen.”

Monger, repped by WME, Niroumand Management and Stone Meyer, was nom- inated for an Emmy for outstanding writ- ing for a miniseries for HBO’s Temple Grandin in 2010. He previously penned and directed 1995 pic The Englishman

Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain starring Hugh Grant, and also wrote 2012 TV movie Liz & Dick.

Jerry Kalajian of Intellectual Property Group, Geri Thoma of Writers House and attorney Robert A. Strent handled the deal on behalf of the author, while WME represented London and Monger. Christopher Tricarico and Goldstein handled the deal for Broad Green.

pace, cooN to topliNeBlumHouSe pic houRsBy Borys Kitlee paCe and Carrie COOn have signed on to star in The Keeping Hours, the latest micro-budget genre project from Jason Blum and his Blumhouse label. But in a twist, the project is also

shaping up to be the com-pany’s first love story.

Karen Moncrieff, who directed the 2013 Kate Beckinsale-Nick Nolte legal thriller The Trial of Cate McCall (and is a former soap actress), will be behind the cameras when shooting begins in December.

Described as a supernat-ural love story, the script by

Rebecca Sonnenshine centers on two par-ents whose life together falls apart when their son dies in a car accident. The man, now a successful lawyer, and the woman, now married and an author, get a chance at reconciliation 10 years later.

John Miranda is executive producing.Blumhouse, the label that does not

sleep, is in pre-production on an untitled M. Night Shyamalan thriller that will star James McAvoy and follows this year’s success of Shyamalan’s The Visit (over $61 million domestic), Insidious: Chapter 3 ($52 million domestic) and Joel Edger-ton’s critical hit The Gift ($43 million).

Coon played Ben Affleck’s sister in 2014’s Gone Girl and is one of the stars on HBO’s The Leftovers. She is repped

by UTA and Sanders Armstrong Caserta Management.

Pace, repped by CAA and Manage-ment 360, played Ronan the Destroyer in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the Elvenking in the recent Hobbit movies and stars on AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire. He is currently shooting The Book of Henry, the next movie from Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow.

Sonnenshine is repped by ICM Partners and Circle of Confusion.

emergiNg to re-releaSe aNti-trump doc tRumPedBy Etan VlessingTORONTO — Donald Trump has already shown big ratings for his TV appearances during his current U.S. presidential campaign, but Emerging Pictures is about to discover if he can drive box office after it unveiled plans Wednesday to re-release 2011 documen-tary You’ve Been Trumped through its digital distribution network of theaters.

The David vs. Goliath film, directed by Anthony Baxter, features Trump running roughshod over the beautiful Scottish seaside and local residents in order to build a luxury resort and golf course. The resort, which the Scottish government gave the green light for after a contentious planning inquiry, involves building two golf courses on a site described by scientists as “the crown jewels of Scotland’s natural heri-tage” north of Aberdeen.

Trumped debuted at the 2011 Hot Docs festival in Toronto, and Michael Moore selected the documentary for his Traverse City Film Festival that same year, where it won the special jury prize.

“Whether you support him or not, Donald Trump is everywhere these days,” Ryan Markowitz, Emerging Pictures vp distribution and marketing, said in a statement. The all-digital movie dis-tributor will use social media and other online tools to identify and build theatri-cal box office for the doc.

Pace

Coon

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FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTEINDUSTRY COVERAGE

OCTOBER 15, 2015

BuSiNeSS NeWS

By Paul Bondnetflix shares were plunging 13 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday as the company said it ended

the third quarter with just over 69 million streaming customers worldwide — fewer than was predicted — while also generating less revenue and profit than analysts expected.

The company added 880,000 U.S. subscribers during the third quarter and 2.74 million international subscribers, beating its projections abroad but falling short domestically. Netflix had predicted it would add 1.15 million subscribers in the U.S. during the quarter while adding 2.4 million international subscribers.

Analysts were expecting Netflix to end the quarter with 69.73 million stream- ing subscribers worldwide, but the com-pany said Wednesday it reached only 69.17 million.

Netflix was expected to earn about 8 cents per share on revenue of $1.75 billion, though it earned only 7 cents per share on $1.74 billion. In the same quar-ter a year earlier, Netflix earned 14 cents

per share on $1.41 billion in revenue.Shares of Netflix had been up 130 per-

cent so far this year, but the stock was taking a beating after the closing bell Wednesday after having risen fraction-ally to $110.23 during the regular session.

Analysts cheered last week when Netflix said it would raise its price and consumers didn’t seem to care, though likely because the price hike didn’t apply to current subscribers. Netflix said new customers would pay $9.99 for its monthly streaming service while older customers remain grandfathered in at $8.99. Two years ago, the price was just $7.99.

In his quarterly letter to shareholders, CEO Reed Hastings boasted about con- tent.“We are quickly becoming a global distribution platform for creators world- wide,” he wrote. “Narcos, our latest original series, is a hit and is another fine example of a Netflix original — embraced by both critics and audiences and global in nature (bilingual, Brazilian director and star, U.S. and Latin American cast, shot in Colombia) with substantial viewing across all or territories.”

Hastings also touted Beasts of No Nation, which is set to debut Friday and is the

company’s first original movie. He also promoted the first of four original Adam Sandler movies, The Ridiculous 6, set to debut in December.

“It is clear that Internet TV is becoming increasingly mainstream and traditional media companies are adjusting to the shift from linear to on-demand viewing,” he wrote. “It is a great time to be a creator of content because studios make content to sell content (not to withhold it) and there are new bidders for their product.”

Hastings said the decision last month not to renew a deal with EPIX has caused no material reduction in U.S. film viewing at Netflix, and he said exhibition windows are getting even shorter, with Netflix sometimes getting pics just 30 days after their theatrical release. One exception, he noted, is The Big Short, starring Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Steve Carell, which will play on Netflix “in a more tra-ditional pay TV window several months after theatrical and transactional VOD.”

Hastings also noted mounting compe-tition from Hulu, HBO GO and Amazon Prime. “They remain active bidders for content, in addition to all the cable net- works around the world,” he wrote.

Hastings

Netflix Shares Plummet on Third-Quarter Financials

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By Lesley GoldbergaBC is sending in its rsvp fOr My Best Friend’s Wedding.

The network is teaming with the producers behind the 1997 Julia Roberts starrer for a half-hour TV sequel series, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. ABC has handed out a script plus penalty for the single-camera half-hour comedy.

Academy Award-winner Ron Bass (Rain Man), who wrote the film, will pen the script alongside Jessica Amento. Bass and the pic’s Jerry Zucker and Janet Zucker will executive produce alongside Mike Menchel. The comedy will be pro- duced via Sony Pictures Television and Adam Sandler and Doug Robinson’s studio-based Happy Madison Television.

ABC’s Wedding picks up where the film left off and centers on Julianne Potter (originally played by Roberts) navigat-ing her life in New York City, with best friend George (played by Rupert Everett in the movie) as her guide.

Wedding becomes the latest intellectual property to get the reboot treatment this development season. Key to the process is having the original producers involved, which is the case here. The film, produced by Sony’s TriStar Pictures on a budget of $38 million, grossed nearly $300 million worldwide.

For ABC, Wedding becomes the latest

reboot in the works this season. The network is also developing a female-fronted take on Fantasy Island. Remakes continue to be in high demand again this development season as broadcast net-works look for IP and proven brands in a bid to cut through the increasing clutter. CBS is rebooting Nancy Drew, MacGyver, Training Day and H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau; Fox is readying Behind Enemy Lines; The CW is prepping The Notebook and Friday the 13th; NBC has Hart to Hart; 20th Century Fox Television is shopping a reboot of The A-Team; and Norman Lear is rebooting One Day at a Time (though there is no network yet attached). Fox also has revivals of The X-Files and Prison Break in the works after recently rebooting 24.

This season’s reboots and revivals have debuted to mixed reactions. Fox’s Minority Report has faltered in its early episodes and had its episode order cut to 10, NBC’s Heroes had a modest debut and CBS found early success with Brad- ley Cooper’s Limitless follow-up. Additional revival series based on Rush Hour (CBS) and Uncle Buck (ABC) are due later this season.

Bass is repped by ICM Partners, Relevant Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman, while Amento is with The Gotham Group.

democratic deBate pullS 15.3 mil vieWerS For cNNBy Marisa Guthrie and Michael O’ConnellwhO needs dOnald trump? Cnn’s second debate on Tuesday night — and the first among the Democratic field — lured 15.3 million viewers, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen. That’s a best for the Democratic party, eclipsing the 10.7 million-viewer mark on broadcast and the 8.3 million-viewer record for CNN — both in 2008.

That’s south of the recent GOP num- bers, but, to be sure, the ratings for the first two GOP debates were an anomaly. Fox News set a record with more than 25 million viewers for the first GOP debate on Aug. 6. And 23 million viewers watched the second GOP debate on CNN on Sept. 16. But last night’s debate is still likely to pull in healthy numbers com-pared with Democratic debates from previous election cycles. The highest rated Democratic debate on cable is still CNN’s January 2008 face-off between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that pulled in more than 8 million viewers.

The disparity is due to a Democratic field that has generated far less excite-ment among its base than the volatile and much larger GOP field. But the Democratic debate did include some memorable moments, such as when Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, in an expression of solidarity with front- runner Clinton, quipped: “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

He was referencing Senate Republicans’ continued digging into Clinton’s use of a private email account when she was Secretary of State. The issue has become a political football in Washington as the Republicans seek to uncover deleted emails that may shed more light on the embassy attacks in Benghazi in 2012. Sanders went on to list a number of press-ing issues facing the country, including income inequality.

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Ron Bass, who wrote the screenplay to 1997’s Julia Roberts starrer My Best Friend’s Wedding, will pen the TV adaptation.

Wedding Reboot Headed to ABC

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“Enough of the emails,” he concluded. “Let’s talk about the real issues facing America.”

Clinton, who was positioned next to Sanders on the dais, then shook his hand, prompting voluble applause from spec-tators in the hall.

toP model Set to eNd aFter 12 yearS oN airBy Michael O’ConnellameriCa’s 22nd next tOp mOdel will be its last. After an aggressive num-ber of cycles and 12 years on the air, the fashion-focused reality competition will air its final episode this fall.

Creator and host Tyra Banks signaled the news on Wednesday, tweeting: “Thinking #ANTM22 should be our last cycle. I truly believe it’s time. May your pics be forever fierce.

Keep on Smizing!” The CW confirmed the news shortly afterwards.

America’s Next Top Model has held a unique distinction on the TV dial. It moved over to The CW’s inaugural sea-son in 2006 from the UPN, and it’s been the last lingering series from the now-de-funct network for some time. Produced by The Tyra Banks Company (formerly Bankable Productions), the series is responsible for launching the career of several models and actresses. Adrianne Curry, YaYa DaCosta and Analeigh Tipton are all Top Model graduates.

“America’s Next Top Model was a suc-cessful franchise for two networks,” The CW president Mark Pedowitz said in a statement. “First at UPN and then The CW, and it became not just a ratings hit, but a global pop-culture phenomenon. I want to thank Tyra and [executive pro- ducer Kem Mok] for all their years of success in establishing a show that was not just popular in the U.S., but all across the world.”

The show has also been a pretty stable

performer for The CW, airing late sum- mer/early fall on Friday nights of late. The current season is averaging a 0.6 rat-ing among adults 18-49 and 1.7 million viewers. It’s also the only hourlong real-ity entry in the network’s relatively thin unscripted stable. The CW has recently focused that arena on comedic-skewing entries like Penn & Teller: Fool Us and the revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Banks is also suffering no shortage of work at the moment. Her syndicated panel talk show FABLife, on which she stars and exec produces, has gotten off to a strong start with daytime audiences.

The series finale of Top Model is set to air Friday, Dec. 4, though the network is said to be mulling a possible retrospec-tive special for some time in late 2016.

cBS delayS lyNcH comedy AnGel uNtil midSeaSoNBy Michael O’Connellwith less than a mOnth left tO go before it loses Thursday Night Football for the rest of the season, CBS is playing with its Thursday lineup, as the network will delay the premiere of comedy Angel From Hell, starring Jane Lynch and Maggie Lawson, until midseason.

The shift means that 2 Broke Girls, one of two returning comedies not on the original fall schedule, will make an early return on Nov. 12 in the 9:30 p.m. slot originally intended for Angel. Though CBS is eager to give more space between launching new shows, it’s also worth noting that 2 Broke Girls just went into syndication and started airing off-net repeats. Though the series has been slow out of the gate, it would be worth capi-talizing on any kind of bump in interest. (Syndication did wonders for The Big Bang Theory’s CBS ratings back in 2011.)

2 Broke Girls won’t be there for the first new Thursday, Nov. 5, after football. The slot will go to a Big Bang repeat that night in an effort to give a likely-better lead-in to the season premiere of Elemen- tary. Life in Pieces will also make the

move with Big Bang in the Monday migration next month, but the network has yet to commit to a back-nine order.

As of Wednesday, there are no official plans for when Angel might join the schedule. The same goes for fellow un- scheduled comedy Mike & Molly. The latter has been a pinch-hitter over the past two seasons, held for when under-performing freshmen half-hours get pulled from the schedule.

comedy RoAdies NaBS SHoWtime SerieS order By Kate StanhopeshOwtime is OffiCially hitting the road with Cameron Crowe and J.J. Abrams.

The pay cabler has given a series order to the duo’s comedy Roadies, The Holly-wood Reporter has confirmed.

Crowe will write, direct and executive produce the hourlong project, which offers a backstage look into a tight-knit group of rock band “roadies.” Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life), J.J. Abrams and his producing partner Bryan Burk (Lost) will also executive produce. Kathy Lingg (Fringe) is also attached as a co- executive producer on Roadies, which will be produced by Bad Robot Produc-tions, Vinyl Films and Dooley & Company Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Kelly Curtis, rock band Pearl Jam’s manager and a frequent Crowe collab-orator, will also serve as a co-producer and music supervisor on the series.

The cast of Roadies includes Luke Wilson, Carla Gugino, Imogen Poots, Rafe Spall, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Peter Cambor, Colson Baker (a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly) and Ron White. The series is set to go into production later this year and is slated for a 2016 launch.

“I’ve long wanted to work with J.J. and Winnie, and coming together to tell these stories has been beyond a blast,” Crowe said Wednesday in a statement.

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Banks

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tv NeWS

“Showtime has a great track record with music-based projects, and they’ve been wonderful partners. The actors are all so passionate about music too, and the whole show has the feeling of stories and music shared between friends. We can’t wait to bring it all to life in 2016.”

Roadies is Crowe’s first TV series. The former Rolling Stone journalist mined his experience for the magazine for his 2000 film Almost Famous.

On Showtime, Roadies joins fellow hourlong comedy Shameless as well as half-hour series House of Lies and Episodes. Nurse Jackie signed off earlier this year, and Happyish was canceled after just one season.

kuNiS, WitHerSpooN Sell myStery tHrillerS to aBcBy Lesley GoldbergaBC is lOOk ing tO mila kunis

and Reese Witherspoon for its next mystery thriller.

The network has picked up drama scripts from both actresses and their respective production companies.

First up is Black Stiletto, which hails from Kunis’ ABC Studios-based Orchard Farm Productions. Based on the novels by Raymond Benson, the drama follows a young woman’s evolution into a modern- day hero when a family secret from the past is revealed and puts the one family she’s ever known in imminent danger.

Kunis will executive produce along-side Orchard Farm’s Cami Curtis, Susan Curtis and Lisa Sterbakov. Javier Grillo Marxuach (The 100, Lost) will write the script for the ABC Studios entry. Tony Eldridge and Nancy Moonves also are attached to executive produce.

Orchard Farm is repped by CAA and Patti Felker; Grillo Marxuach is with ICM Partners; and Eldridge and Moonves are repped by CAA.

The untitled Witherspoon drama is a romantic mystery involving a billionaire, newly acquitted for the murder of his wife

and her lover, and the female detective who almost succeeded in putting him away.

Rob Long (Cheers, Sullivan & Son) will write the script and executive produce alongside Witherspoon and her ABC Studios-based Pacific Standard topper Burna Papandrea. Rick Porras also will executive produce.

Long is repped by CAA and Holmes Weinberg; Witherspoon is with CAA.

Ward Set to joiN Nolte iN epix comedy GRAvesBy Lesley Goldbergsela ward is returning tO the small screen.

The actress has closed a deal to replace Susan Sarandon in the Epix scripted comedy Graves, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Picked up straight-to-series, the single- camera comedy stars Nick Nolte as a former president of the U.S. Two decades after his term ends, he begins to think that his policies have damaged the country for years, so he goes on a Don Quixote-like journey to fix things. Ward will take over the part of Margaret Graves that originally went to Sarandon, who exited the series after creative differences.

Here’s the character description: “Margaret Graves begins to pursue her political aspirations when her husband decides to right the wrongs of his admin-istration 20 years after leaving office.”

The deal follows prolonged negotiations with Rene Russo and Kim Basinger, both of whom ultimately passed.

Production is set to begin in New Mexico on the 10-episode series, which was delayed a few weeks during the search to replace Sarandon. The show is expected to premiere in the fall 2016.

Produced by Lionsgate Television, Graves co-stars Skylar Astin, Chris Lowell and Angelica Maria. Roger Bart and Ernie Hudson recur. Joshua Michael

Stern (Swing Vote) created the comedy and will write, direct and executive pro- duce the project. Oscar-winning producer Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker) will also executive produce.

For Ward, the role marks her return to scripted television after CBS’ CSI: NY ended its run in 2013. Her TV credits in- clude Emmy-winning turns in Once and Again and Sisters. On the big screen, Ward’s résumé includes such pics as Gone Girl, The Day After Tomorrow and playing the president in the upcoming Independence Day: Resurgence sequel. She is repped by Gersh.

rutH to Be SuBjectoF mlB Scripted miNiBy Marisa GuthrieNEW YORK — Major League Baseball is going scripted. The league is develop-ing a miniseries about Babe Ruth with Allen Coulter attached as director and executive producer, sources tell The Holly- wood Reporter.

MLB regularly has advised on baseball- centric Hollywood films, including 42, Moneyball, Million Dollar Arm and Trou- ble With the Curve, but the Ruth mini is the first scripted project generated inter-nally. Executives are looking to Coulter (The Sopranos, Terence Winter and Martin Scorsese’s upcoming HBO rock drama Vinyl) to round out the dramatic scope of Ruth’s biography — including his lavish personal life and little-known details — in a way that also will appeal to non-sports fans.

Although he has been depicted multi- ple times, from 1948’s The Babe Ruth Story to 1992’s The Babe (which featured John Goodman as the famed Yankees slugger), the ability to render the Sultan of Swat more as an athletic figure and to recreate the dramatic baseball of the 1920s era in modern HD appeals to MLB executives. If the Ruth miniseries finds a network, look for the league to mine its 100-plus-year archives for more scripted projects.

Ward

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By Ariston AndersonROME — As the Rome Film Festival entered its 10th year, it was clear that the event needed a jolt of energy. That

arrived in February in the form of Antonio Monda, the festival’s charismatic new artistic director. The 52-year-old Italy-born NYU film professor and writer has been a fixture in New York

arts circles for years thanks to legendary salons at his house and a contact list that includes everyone from Terrence Malick (whom Monda interviewed in 2007 in Rome, one of the auteur’s few public appearances) to Wes Anderson (who gave Monda a cameo in 2004’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou).

Plagued during its first decade with budget cuts, a dearth of talent and competition with other fall festivals, Rome again is branding itself as a festa, or celebration, of cinema. But this year, in addition to screenings of awards-season contenders like festival opener Truth, starring Robert Redford, Monda has brought renewed buzz by organizing 10 auteur “conversations” with the likes of Anderson, Joel Coen, Frances McDor-mand, Julie Taymor and William Friedkin.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the first-timer on the eve of the fest, set to run Friday-Oct. 24, to find out how he pulled it off.

THR: There is a great lineup of talent this year. Did you have to cash in a lot of favors?

Monda: I am a great tormenter. I break the balls of everybody: “Give me the film; give me the film.” Of course, personal relationships have a role. And of course, several of these people trust me and trust what I’m doing, yes. But it’s a serious program. They don’t come just to come

to Rome — they believe in the festival.

What can we expect from Wes Anderson’s talk?

He is a dear friend. … This year, he will speak about Vittorio De Sica, who is one of his favorite filmmakers. We’re friends because he has a house in New York, even though he spends most of his time in Paris. I think we’re both eccentrics — he’s another true artist. You recognize immediately a Wes Anderson film. I really admire him.

How did the conversation with Terrence Malick come about during the festival’s early years?

Terry is an old friend. When he comes to New York, he comes for dinner, and we share a lot of things. Not in terms of talent — I’m not so crazy to say that — but we have a lot of interests in com-mon. It took me two years to convince him to come to Rome. At the beginning he said, “I’ll send you an audio tape.” Then he said, “I’m coming, but no pic-tures, no recordings.” Even at the very last moment, when we were backstage, he said, “No, no, no — I’m not going out.” He’s a very shy man — I respect that. I hope maybe next year to do some-thing with him again.

How will you measure the festival’s success?

If the movies will be praised by critics and the audience, then it will be a suc-cess. This year, we don’t have one of the three major theaters of the festival, the Teatro Santa Cecilia. We will lose about 20,000 spectators. If I lose less than that, however, then the festival is a win-ner. I don’t want to lose more than that. I want to give back to Rome the joy of the celebration. I want to feel that energy we had the first couple of years.

You had salons at your house in New York for years, with lots of well-known people. What was your favorite moment?

I introduced Philip Roth to Al Pacino, and a few years later The Humbling became a film. I have 20 stories like that, but I’ll tell you just this one.

Streep cHoSeN to Head BerliN Film FeSt juryBy Georg SzalaiLONDON — Three-time Oscar winner and 19-time nominee Meryl Streep has been named jury president of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, it was announced Wednesday.

The event is set to run Feb. 11-21, 2016.“Meryl Streep is one of the most cre-

ative and multifaceted film artists,” said Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick. “To mark our enthusiasm for her extraordi-nary talent, we awarded her the honorary Golden Bear in 2012 for her lifetime achievement. I am very happy that she is returning to Berlin, and with her artistic experience will take on the chairman-ship of the international jury.”

Streep, honored with a Golden Globe eight times and nominated a further 20 times, has been a guest at the Berlin Film Festival on a number of occasions. In 1999, she was awarded the Berlinale Camera, and in 2003, together with Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman, she shared the Silver Bear award for their performances in The Hours.

In 2006, Streep was in the Berlin festival competition in Robert Altman’s ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Com-panion. In 2012, the actress received the fest’s lifetime achievement honor.

Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky led the Berlin festival jury last year.

Can New York Cinephile Save Rome Film Festival?

Monda

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Film revieWS

cRimson PeAkBy Todd McCarthyguillermO del tOrO tries his elegant best to shake the cobwebs from a musty genre but still ends up telling a traditional and predictable haunted house yarn in his new film Crimson Peak. The gifted fantasy/sci-fi/horror specialist has made a movie that’s bloody, and bloody stylish, one that’s certainly unequaled in its field for the beauty of its camera-work, sets, costumes and effects. But it’s also conventionally plotted and not surprising or scary, as it resurrects hoary horror tropes in conventional, rather than fresh or subversive, ways. It’s a thousand times more elaborate than the most recent demented domicile tale of note, last year’s The Babadook, but not an ounce as disturbing.

The screenplay by the director and veteran scribe Matthew Robbins is informed by the tradition of Gothic melodrama. But no matter how seduc-tively the movie transports the viewer into its spheres of interest, one is still left with a film that makes utterly un- ironic use of such chestnuts as an evil sister-in-law poisoning her victim via the tea she serves; a spooky house con- veniently situated miles from the near-est neighbor; strict instructions never to descend beneath the house’s main floor; and a frightened heroine continually sweeping through dark rooms carrying a candelabra.

The damsel soon to be distressed is Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), an aspiring Buffalo, N.Y., writer circa 1900 who fancies herself the new Mary Shelley and is the only child of indus-trialist Carter Cushing (Jim Beaver). Although beautiful and highly eligible, Edith is somewhat of a recluse and resists the attentions of childhood friend-turned-handsome doctor Alan (Charlie Hunnam).

Weakening her defenses is newly arrived Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tim Hiddleston), an Englishman who has come, accom-panied by his less congenial older sister

Lady Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain), seeking American backing for a “clay harvester” — a mining machine that will do work it normally takes many men to accomplish. But as shrewd old Cushing announces, “There’s something not quite right about them.” He’s abso-lutely right.

The old man pays the ultimate price for his skepticism in a horribly violent murder scene, leaving Edith free to follow her heart, if not her mind, to England as Thomas’ virgin bride. Unfortunately, Lady Lucille is part of the package — a part that could be described as self-anointed jailer and nurse. This sort of malevolent gatekeeper-of-the-family- secrets character has populated many a fusty melodrama over the decades, and the sexual jealousy and hostility Lady Lucille feels for Edith is nothing new, either. Now a prisoner in a cold, dilap-idated mansion, Edith must endure encounters with a grasping black ghost as she sneaks about the house discovering secrets and trying to gain any advantage she can over the desperate Lucille, who feels her brother’s affection slipping away from her.

The leads all play their roles with con-viction, but the one who best captures the spirit of the time is Beaver, a veteran character actor still not widely enough seen on the big screen.

It’s entirely likely that no previous rendition of this sort of sexually twisted, psychologically degenerative and spec-trally haunted fright story has ever been

served up with so much stylistic sauce as del Toro has poured onto Crimson Peak, so named for the the red clay that the Sharpe’s family pile, Allerdale Hall, is built upon and which colorfully, and symbolically, contaminates all it touches. The immersive attention to detail in regard to the fanciful props, glorious fabrics, layers of clothing, color coordination, home furnishings, bathroom ceramics, detailed hand craftsmanship, paintings on the walls, the latest inventions and manifestations of turn-of-the-century upper-class life feel compulsive but not fetishistic; to be sure, del Toro insisted upon and coordinated all of this, but special mention must be made of the exceptional contributions of production designer Tom Sanders, costume designer Kate Hawley, lenser Dan Laustsen and their staffs. For anyone interested in all- in, full-freight period re-creation, the pic is worth seeing for this alone.

Dramatically, however, Crimson Peak plays like a 1946 film made seven decades later; only the technical aspects and gore level identify it as a product of its own era. Rather than revising or reconsider-ing genre conventions, del Toro plays it all very straight. The only surprise is the lack of same.

Opens: Friday (Universal). Production: Legendary Pictures, DDY. Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam. Director: Guillermo del Toro. Rated R, 119 minutes.

An onslaught of horrors descend upon Mia Wasikowska in Crimson Peak.

Page 13 of 13

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OCTOBER 15, 2015

Film revieWS

GoosebumPsBy Michael Rechtshaffenk eeping the Creepy/kOOky mix

entertainingly intact, Goosebumps trans- lates R.L. Stine’s frighteningly successful young-adult horror-fiction series to the big screen with lively, teen Ghostbusters-type results.

Just like those 400 million books sold worldwide, the movie version, energetically directed by Rob Letter-man, has a tongue-in-cheek tone that undercuts the bone-rattling with a dose of funny bone-tickling.

With a huggable cast headed by Jack Black and Dylan Minnette, the romp, marking Sony’s second Halloween-keyed release this season following in the mon-ster footsteps of Hotel Transylvania 2, should create a similar frisson among nostalgic Stine fans and first-timers.

Not exactly thrilled about having to relocate from New York to small- town Madison, Del., when his widowed mom (Amy Ryan) accepts a position as a high-school vice principal, teenager Zach Cooper (Minnette) cheers up upon meeting perky next-door neigh- bor Hannah (Odeya Rush).

That is, until he discovers that her re- clusive dad (Black) turns out to be none other than Stine himself, and he promises to make Zach’s life very unpleasant if he doesn’t keep away from his daughter.

Cutting to the chase, Papa Stine’s warning proves prophetic when Zach finds out the hard way that the creatures in his books have a habit of coming to life if the original manuscripts contain-ing them are unlocked.

Cue the floodgates.When faced with which of Stine’s other-

worldly characters to release from their leather-bound confines, the filmmakers adopted a “more the merrier” philosophy, cramming in dozens of them, led by Stine’s evil alter-ego, Slappy the Dummy.

Although that choice means missing out on any sort of more inspired one-on-one interactions, director Letterman (Monsters vs. Aliens) choreographs the en-

suing creature chaos with panache while still allowing the ample humor in Darren Lemke’s script (from a story credited to Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski) to rise above the cacophony.

While Black doesn’t physically resem-ble the actual Robert Lawrence Stine, he nevertheless creates an effectively droll character, combining a pair of heavy- rimmed glasses, Orson Welles-type literate tones and a spiteful vanity that makes Stephen King the bane of his existence.

Possessing a relatable likability, Minnette and the fresh-faced Rush make sturdy foils for Black, while the preternaturally funny Jillian Bell mines some laugh-out-loud gems as Zach’s wacky Aunt Lorraine.

Meanwhile, Danny Elman’s big playful Hitchcockian score provides a unifying undercurrent for the blend of CGI and old-school FX make-up and puppetry involved in bringing the likes of the Pray- ing Mantis, The Blob, The Creeps, The Vampire Poodle and all those vengeful gnomes to 3D life.

Opens: Friday (Sony). Production: Sony Pictures Animation, LStar Capital, Village Roadshow Pictures, Original Film, Scholastic Entertainment. Cast: Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, Jillian Bell. Director: Rob Letterman. Rated PG, 103 minutes.

Jack Black (left) and Dylan Minnette long

for creature comforts in Goosebumps.