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SSN ORIGINALS
Netflix is buying feature films, Woody Allen is making an Amazon show, and A-list Oscar winners have no problem taking a role in a TV show or miniseries, even at the height of their career. In other words, it’s an exciting time for television. The landscape is changing so rapidly it’ll give you whiplash.
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An especially busy week with dozens of moves in all sorts of departments, with company launches, hirings and firings, and the usual craziness. Click the link for the full skinny.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
The director, hot off the smash opening of his
Furious 7 ($392 million worldwide, but who’s counting?), is the frontrunner to direct
Aquaman, Warner Bros.’ water-borne superhero movie centering on the classic DC Entertainment character, which will star Jason Momoa. Wan has no offer at this stage but he is the studio's choice and some preliminary talks have taken place.
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Iannucci, who created the Julia Louis-Dreyfus-starring show, is stepping down from the Emmy-winning series, with
Curb Your Enthusiasm vet Mandel stepping in for him. HBO has not yet renewed the series for a fifth season, but that seems like something of a foregone conclusion at this point. The new season premieres Sunday night.
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Media Rights Capital is teaming with the studio for the enormous franchise originally conceived by Ron Howard and Imagine Entertainment. The combination of movies and a TV series originally had Howard on board to direct, but he will solely produce now. A script for the
The Gunslinger, the first book in the seven-tome series, has been written by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner. No word on a director or a start date.
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Gad and his
Wedding Ringer director Jeremy Garelick have taken the untitled project around town and it appears that every studio is making a bid for the project, which is still in the pitch stage. Oscar winners Alan Menken would be writing the music and Stephen Schwartz writing the lyrics. Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros’ New Line, Sony Pictures, Fox and Universal have all offered 7 figures for the movie.
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Dominic Cooper is close to a deal that would have him playing the title role in the long-gestating TV show, developed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, along with Sam Catlin. Cooper would play Jesse Custer, a conflicted preacher in a small Texas town who is able to influence people after after he merges with a heavenly creature. The cable network has already picked up the show to series.
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Jim Berk is resigning from the post, and has been temporarily replaced by founder and Chairman Jeff Skoll while the board looks for someone else. Berk spent more than eight years at the company, which has produced over 60 films, including
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,
CITIZENFOUR,
Fast Food Nation,
Good Night And Good Luck,
The Help, and
An Inconvenient Truth.
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The Oscar-winner and her producing partner, Bruna Papandrea, have attached themselves to the film adaptation of another hotly anticipated, yet-to-be-published book for Lionsgate. The book, out May 12th from Simon & Schuster, centers on a 28-year-old woman who appears to have everything, but is struggling to get past a trauma from her teen years that threatens to unravel her current life.
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Warner Bros. has released the first images from the next step in its superhero universe, which will follow next March’s
Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, including a cast photo at the first read through and the initial shot of Jared Leto, who will play The Joker in the film.
Suicide Squad hits theaters August 5th, 2016.
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