No Need for Pixie Dust as ‘The Wiz Live!’ Flies Above ‘Peter Pan Live’ in Ratings
The Wiz Live! posted a 4.4 rating among adults 18-49, up from Peter Pan Live, which managed a 2.3 rating with adults 18-49 and 9.1 million viewers. The rating also gives NBC the highest-rated Thursday for any network, excluding sports, since an American Idol episode in 2013. (THR)
Barbra Streisand to Direct Catherine the Great Biopic
Barbra Streisand is planning a return to the director’s chair to tackle the story of one of history’s most powerful women, Catherine the Great for her first dramatic movie since 1996’s The Mirror Has Two Faces. (THR)
Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland Passes Away at 48
Rocker Scott Weiland, ex-frontman of the Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver who battled substance abuse over the years, was found dead on Thursday. He was 48. (VAR)
Amazon Studios to Uncover Mike Wallace’s Secrets in New Series
Max Hurwitz has sold his spec script Forgive Me to Amazon Studios. The script was on the 2014 Black List and chronicles the story of legendary newscaster Mike Wallace. (DL)
Former Superman Tom Welling Heads Undercover for New CBS Series
Smallville’s Tom Welling is set to both star in and produce CBS drama project Section 13. The in-development WBTV series, written by Bones’ Carla Kettner, focuses on a CIA black ops officer-turned-private contractor who joins a covert organization devoted to carrying out the most difficult high-stakes assignments. (EW)
The Firm Developing Film Centering on a WWII Teenage Assassin
The Firm and new film boss Robbie Brenner, among others are producing a movie based on Brian Garfield’s historical novel The Paladin, the true story of how Winston Churchill orchestrated a shift in the war through a top-secret program where he turned a 15-year-old boy into one of England’s deadliest assassins. (DL)
Disney Just Found its Perfect ‘Star Wars’ Ambassador for China
Superstar Lu Han was unveiled as Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ official Middle Kingdom ambassador. With the movie-going demographic in China skewing increasingly younger, the former member of boy band EXO looks like a marketer’s dream. (DL)
Trailer Buzz: ‘Game of Thrones’ Teaser Hits
You know nothing, Jon Snow! Game of Thrones is back with is first teaser for Season 6. So is Jon Snow alive? Maybe yes, maybe no in the new 45 second teaser for season six. (WIRED)
Nick Offerman Enjoys Whiskey and Turns a Concept Ad into Concept Art
Park and Recreation‘s Nick Offerman sells whiskey in a new type of commercial. Other celebs and their agents should take note as it’s nothing short of a conceptual-ad turned conceptual-art triumph. (CO)
Screenwriter Toolkit: How Challenging Yourself to Create Biologically True Characters Will Up Your Greenlight Chances
Contributor Pen Densham describes why screenwriters should be challenging themselves to create characters that ring biologically true and capture the viewer by their close similarity to their own feelings. The more powerfully you do this the better chance your script will make it’s way to the screen. (SSN)