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When Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last September a dramatic expansion of the state’s film and TV tax credit program, it was in many ways just the start of the new effort to lure production back to California. Yesterday, the California Film Commission unanimously passed draft regulations that will govern how the $330 million in annual tax credits will be disbursed. The regulations now go to the state Office of Administrative Law for final approval, so there still could be changes.
(VAR)
The
Into the Wild and
Speed Racer actor got into a brawl that led to him choking Paramount executive Dani Bernfeld last month. If convicted, the actor could face up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The scuffle happened around 3:30 AM on January 25th during a Sundance party at the nightclub Tao. Police were called after Bernfeld, who is VP of Paramount Digital Entertainment and Insurge Pictures, reported the incident to security.
(DH)
The ultra violent drama about an ex-con posing as a sheriff in small town Pennsylvania is in the middle of its third season on the cable net. Unlike the first three seasons, which shot in North Carolina, the fourth season will do so in Pittsburgh. Antony Starr, Ivana Milicevic, Lili Simmons, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Ulrich Thomsen, Hoon Lee, and Frankie Faison star in the series.
(COL)
Willem Dafoe has signed to join Damon in the film, Legendary’s fantastical retelling of the origin of China’s wondrous barrier. Zhang Yimou
is directing the feature that is a pet project of Legendary CEO Thomas Tull, who conceived it with
World War Z writer Max Brooks. It is eyeing an April start in China.
(HV)
Eric Bana will play Uther, the father of young Arthur, in Ritchie’s
Knights of the Round Table, which features Charlie Hunnam as Arthur and Jude Law and Djimon Hounsou also in the cast. The project, which is set to start shooting later this year, is the first in what studio Warner Bros. hopes will be a six-film series. This first installment is set for release on July 22nd, 2016.
(CB)
Alfred Molina and Billy Bob Thornton have joined the cast of the film, which is based on Kim Barker’s memoir
The Taliban Shuffle. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are directing the film from a script by Robert Carlock, and production is now under way in New Mexico. Fey is also producing, along with Lorne Michaels and Ian Bryce.
(WF)
Matthew McConaughey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw star in the Civil War drama about a Mississippi man who had been a loyal Confederate recruit, he defected from the army and took a group of like-minded troops with him to create the Free State of Jones. Knight later married a slave, creating one of the first ever publicized mixed race unions in the South, fought against the Confederates from within his new state and led a daring raid to free children who were still enslaved following the end of the conflict. Gary Ross is directing.
(EMP)
Bao Nguyen’s
Live From New York will open the Tribeca Film Festival on April 15th. Nguyen’s documentary is based on the best-selling oral history of SNL of the same name. Tickets for the TFF 2015 Opening Night Gala go on sale on March 23rd, and the festival runs from April 15th to April 26th.
(UR)
The first look at the upcoming comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, which follows an uptight and by-the-book cop (Witherspoon) tries to protect the sexy and outgoing widow (Vergara) of a drug boss as they race through Texas pursued by crooked cops and murderous gunmen. Film opens May 8th.
(TP)
The 102-page screenplay, written as
The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time, by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, dated October 30th, 2009.
(SS)
