HBO Will Not Get Out of the Diane Keaton Business
Today, in Hollywood: HBO keeps Diane Keaton in the fold, NBCUniversal signs a big office space lease, and CAA looks northward.
Diane Keaton has agreed to a talent holding deal with HBO and the cable channel "currently has writers developing potential works" for the 65-year-old actress, reports The Wrap. Keaton played a Nikki Finke-esque industry blogger in the comedy pilot Tilda, which the network passed on back in February. [The Wrap via The New York Observer]
NBCUniversal is renewing its lease at the 36-story 10 Universal City Tower for another ten years. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal is for "roughly 370,000 square feet" of office space, about half of the rentable space in the "774,240-square-foot granite and glass tower." The lease is "valued at about $170 million," which The Reporter says would make it "the largest office lease in the Los Angeles area since Fox Interactive signed a $350 million deal in 2008 for space in a Playa Vista office development." Sources say NBCUniversal "will be given a roughly $17 million allowance from the landlord to make improvements" to the spaces currently occupied by NBCU divisions, including SyFy, NBCUniversal Television Distribution and Universal Studios Home Entertainment and be allowed to return "about 30,000 square feet of space it currently leases." [The Hollywood Reporter]
Talent agency Creative Artists Agency is "considering opening an office in Silicon Valley" to make inroads with the technology community, reports Reuters. According to one person familiar with the agency's thinking, CAA wants an "'on the ground presence' in Palo Alto" so agents aren't constantly shuttling back and forth from Los Angeles. Reuters breaks the agency's current Silicon Valley operation down into three categories: "[A]dvising tech companies about Hollywood, partnering with venture capital firms to incubate start-ups and matching clients who have digital media ideas with companies that can help bring them to fruition." The new ties would be used to buttress CAA's speakers service, which already represents Twitter founder Biz Stone. [Reuters]
Wolverine 2, in which Wolverine goes to Japan to learn the ways of the samurai, already lost director Daren Aronofsky in March. Now it might be losing Japan. According to Deadline, "the location might switch to Canada or become a combination of the two countries," because "it's hard finding just where to shoot in Japan these days because of weather-related considerations." It's unclear if just the shoot would be moved to Canada or if the entire Japan plotline would be overhauled. We wouldn't be adverse to a movie where Wolverine learns the ways of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. [Deadline]
