Deadline’s Best Film Stories Of The Week
Catch up on the top film stories you missed this week:
A Journalist’s Plea On 10th Anniversary Of ‘The Passion Of The Christ’: Hollywood, Take Mel Gibson Off Your Blacklist
By Allison Hope Weiner – It has been a decade since Mel Gibson made The Passion Of The Christ and watched it become the biggest-grossing independent film with $612 million in worldwide ticket sales. In the years that followed, Gibson made several comments that went public, made him seem anti-Semitic and racist. They made him persona non grata at major studios and agencies, the same ones that work with others who’ve committed felonies and done things far more serious than Gibson, who essentially used his tongue as a lethal weapon.
Anxiety On Sony Lot As Layoffs Coming Early Next Week
By Mike Fleming Jr. – EXCLUSIVE: There is anxiety in Culver City today as word gets around on the Sony lot that significant layoffs are coming as soon as Monday.
Box Office: ‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’ Looks To Take No. 1 Spot; ‘Need For Speed’ Stalled; Tyler Perry’s ‘Mom’s Club’ Lackluster, ‘Budapest Hotel’ Exceptional … Again
By Anita Busch – The news of the weekend is that Fox’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman surprised to take No. 1 in its second weekend out for DreamWorks Animation (Family audiences gave it a strong Saturday night bump) while Need for Speed (Disney/DreamWorks) started out strong on its late night showings on Thursday and then just tanked.
Meet ‘300’ Hero Sullivan Stapleton; Is He Hollywood’s Next Leading Man?
By Mike Fleming Jr. – After 300: Rise Of An Empire had an opening-week global gross of $136 million and resuscitated the franchise potential of a first film that ended with a bloody pile of 300 dead Spartans, the town is asking: who the heck is this Sullivan Stapleton, avenger of Spartans, scourge of Persians and the latest guy in town with a star look and a six-pack?
California Pol Appeals to Jerry Brown to Expand Production Tax Credit Bill
By Diane Haithman – Today at a California Film & Television Production Alliance rally in Sunland, CA, state assemblyman Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima), who co-authored the legislation for an increase in California’s $100 million Film and TV Tax Credit Program, called the crowd to action: “This will not be an easy lift.”
SXSW: Audience Award Winners Announced – ‘Cesar Chavez’, ‘Before I Disappear’ & HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’ Among Faves
By The Deadline Team – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced their Audience Award-winners today including wins for Diego Luna‘s biopic Cesar Chavez in the narrative spotlight and the Emmy Rossum-starring drama Before I Disappear in the narrative feature spotlight.
‘Rango’ Scribe To Pen Paramount’s Miley Cyrus Project ‘Wake’
By Dominic Patten – EXCLUSIVE: James Ward Byrkit has signed with Alex Manugian to write the screenplay for Paramount’s long-gestating thriller Wake. Wake chronicles the high school life and loves of Janie Hannagan, a teen who has the ability to enter other people’s dreams.
R.I.P. Movie Trailer Voiceover Guy Hal Douglas
By Mike Fleming Jr. – Sad news. Hal Douglas, the iconic narrator of movie trailers, has died at age 89. According to The New York Times, the cause of death was pancreatic cancer. Douglas was the Michael Jordan of movie trailer voiceover guys, and the most fitting tribute I can think of is to run these two clips.
Disney, Seth Grahame- Smith Making New Film Of Ray Bradbury’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’
By Mike Fleming Jr. – EXCLUSIVE: Disney is making a new version of the classic Ray Bradbury thriller novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. The studio, which turned Bradbury’s novel into a 1983 movie, has set Seth Grahame-Smith to make his feature directorial debut on the project.
‘Heroes’ Tim Kring, Zak Kadison And Bradley Thomas Launch Imperative To Exploit Fast-Shifting Platforms
By Mike Fleming Jr. – EXCLUSIVE: Heroes creator Tim Kring has joined forces with Blacklight founder Zak Kadison and longtime Farrelly brothers producer Bradley Thomas to form Imperative Entertainment, a production company launched with financing from Dan Friedkin and his Friedkin Group.
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