AWARDS HEADLINES
Directors Guild Announces Nominees, and To No One’s Surprise, Ridley Scott and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárittu Made the List
George Miller and Tom McCarthy also earned nominations, as expected, but the fifth nomination went to The Big Short helmer Adam McKay, which now puts these five men in the driver’s seat to earn the quintet of Oscar nominations, which will be announced Thursday morning. The big snub? Steven Spielberg, who did not earn a nod for Bridge of Spies. (EMP)
Visual Effects Society Also Announces Its Nominees, ‘Jurassic World’ Gets Snubbed
Star Wars: The Force Awakens leads the list of nominees, while The Peanuts Movie earned an unexpected nomination in the Animated category. In addition to the long list of awards categories, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be also presented to award-winning director-producer Sir Ridley Scott. The ceremony is February 2nd. (COL)
BAFTA Awards: Sir Sidney Poitier To Be Feted With British Academy’s Highest Honor
Awarded annually, the Fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA upon an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, television or games. Previous honorees for their work in film include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench, Martin Scorsese and Helen Mirren. Mike Leigh was honored last year. (SAA)
OTHER HEADLINES
TV Development for 1/12/16: ABC Greenlights ‘Marvel’s Most Wanted’ Pilot, Sebastian Junger Tackling Syria Project, History Orders Series from Jeremy Renner
Lots of action in the new year, including a new mini-series about the life of Hugh Hefner, a new HBO comedy pilot for Bill Hader, a sexy new series from Simon Cowell, and something from Mila Kunis and her production company, among other news. Click the link for more. (SSN)
Sundance Picks Its Juries, Will Bring Some Serious Star Power To Park City
Jon Hamm, Shane Carruth, Lena Dunham and Keegan-Michael Key are among the 23 jury members who will be judging the various competitions at the 2016 festival. The annual event in Park City, Utah begins January 21st and runs until the 31st. (IW)
Jim Jarmusch To Get Back Behind the Camera For New Film, With Adam Driver Set To Star
Girls and Star Wars star Driver will play the lead in Paterson, described as a wry comedy, with Amazon Studios and K5 International co-financing. Paterson also stars Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani. K5’s Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur are executive producers and will handle international sales with ICM Partners repping domestic; it also reps Jarmusch. K5 will produce alongside Joshua Astrachan at Animal Kingdom and Carter Logan at Inkjet. (DH)
Ted Danson Is Returning To NBC, and Kristen Bell Is Coming Along For the Ride
The two-time Emmy winner and the Veronica Mars star are joining the network’s new Michael Schur comedy, Good Place. Bell plays a woman from New Jersey who comes to realize that she hasn’t been a very good person and decides to turn over a new leaf by learning what it actually means to be “good” or “bad.” Danson plays a man who, through an unlikely set of circumstances, comes to be her guide through her self-designed self-improvement course. (CS)
Courtney Cox Lines Up Her Own Return To TV, Will Star In New Fox Comedy
The Friends and CougaAwardsr Town alum is developing an untitled single-camera project for Fox, which centers on a woman who inherits her late billionaire husband’s charity and finds that changing the world is far less glamorous than she had imagined. The comedy hails from outside producers ABC Studios and is will be written by Robert Padnick, with James Griffiths on board to exec produce and direct the potential pilot. Cox will also be an EP on the project. (LF)
How Do Young Stars Deal With Sudden Fame? It’s Not as Easy and Fun as You Might Think
At 19, Hayden Christensen was still baby faced when he was handpicked by George Lucas to lead the new Star Wars prequels. The Canadian teen had never set foot on a major film set before shooting Episode II in 2002. Everyone, including Lucas, told him that playing Anakin Skywalker would change his life. Still, Christensen found himself unprepared for sudden fame. He felt undeserving, as if he hadn’t earned his acclaim in any meaningful way (LAT)
Trailer Buzz: ‘Hail, Caesar!’
Universal Pictures has released the final trailer for the upcoming Coen Brothers movie, starring George Clooney, Frances McDorman, Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Jonah Hill and many more. The film hits theaters February 5th. (UR)