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| Jodie Foster to direct episode of Netflix's ‘House of Cards' Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 06:13 PM PDT  By Jeff Sneider and Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jodie Foster has agreed to direct an episode of "House of Cards" for Netflix, which previously worked with the filmmaker on an episode of its other original series, "Orange Is the New Black," an individual familiar with the series has told TheWrap. A representative for Foster did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment. Foster is currently prepping the Season Two episode on location in Baltimore. ... Full Story | Top |
| Naomi Campbell's ‘The Face' brings on new model coaches Lydia Hearst & Anne V Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 06:11 PM PDT  By Jethro Nededog LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Makeovers aren't just for contestants on Oxygen's model competition, "The Face." The series is making a few changes for next season. For Season 2, two new model coaches, Lydia Hearst and Anne V, will join star coach and executive producer Naomi Campbell. Additionally, host Nigel Barker will be back in an expanded role, which will now include a mentor/advisor role a la "Project Runway's" Tim Gunn. ... Full Story | Top |
| How ‘The Conjuring,' ‘We're the Millers' became New Line's unlikely summer smashes Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 06:05 PM PDT  By Brent Lang LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - In a summer of superheroes, cartooned critters and bloated budgets, New Line Cinemas beat the odds by betting on a pair of low-cost films that defied expectations to become two of the most profitable hits of the year. Going into blockbuster season, "The Conjuring" and "We're the Millers" were barely a blip on the radar. The talk was squarely centered on "Iron Man 3″ and "Man of Steel," with very little buzz left over for a gross-out comedy about an unlikely tribe of drug mules and a horror film without any A-list stars. ... Full Story | Top |
| Jim Sciutto named CNN's chief national security correspondent Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 06:02 PM PDT By Greg Gilman LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jim Sciutto has been named CNN's chief national security correspondent, effective immediately, the news organization said Tuesday. Sciutto, a former senior foreign correspondent for ABC News, will appear across the network's programs and platforms. He will be responsible for reporting and providing analysis on all aspects of U.S. national security, including foreign policy, the military, terrorism, and the intelligence community. Sciutto began his career as the moderator and producer of a weekly public affairs talk show on PBS. ... Full Story | Top |
| ‘Storage Wars' lawsuit: Dave Hester gets go-ahead for wrongful termination claim Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 06:01 PM PDT By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Did former "Storage Wars" star Dave Hester get some good news from the legal system on Tuesday? Yuup. Hester, who claims that he was fired from the A&E reality show after complaining that the show was rigged, will be allowed to go forward with his wrongful termination claim against the cable network, a judge said Tuesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Jason Reitman, Jon Favreau, Paul Feig to appear in Kevin Pollak's comedy documentary Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:59 PM PDT  By Jeff Sneider LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Veteran comedian Kevin Pollak has signed on to direct the documentary "Misery Loves Comedy" for producers Becky Newhall of Newaley Pictures and Burton Ritchie and Ben Galecki of Heretic Films. "Misery Loves Comedy" will explore the mind of the stand-up comic and all those who choose to write or perform comedy as a profession. ... Full Story | Top |
| ‘Blue Valentine' director Derek Cianfrance set for DreamWorks drama ‘The Light Between Oceans' Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:57 PM PDT  By Jeff Sneider LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine") will direct DreamWorks' drama "The Light Between Oceans," based on the international bestseller from first-time novelist M.L. Stedman, the studio said Tuesday. Set on a remote Australian island in the years following World War I, story follows a lighthouse keeper and his wife who are faced with a moral dilemma when a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a two-month-old infant. When they decide to raise the child as their own, the consequences of their choice are devastating. ... Full Story | Top |
| Disney animation, ‘Paperman' director part ways Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:55 PM PDT  By Brent Lang LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - John Kahrs, director of the black-and-white animated short "Paperman" that won an Academy Award in 2012, has left Walt Disney Animation Studios. In a statement to TheWrap, Kahrs said he will develop his own projects elsewhere, but said that the split was "amicable." Kahrs made a big splash with "Paperman," an animated short that debuted with "Wreck-It Ralph." The film combined hand drawings and computer animation to tell the romantic story of a man and a woman who are brought together by a paper airplane. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bill Murray to star in Barry Levinson's ‘Rock the Kasbah' Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:53 PM PDT  By Jeff Sneider LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Bill Murray is set to star in "Rock the Kasbah," which Oscar winner Barry Levinson will direct from an original screenplay by Mitch Glazer. Story follows a burned-out music manager who goes to Afghanistan on the USO tour with his last remaining client. When he finds himself abandoned, penniless and without his passport, he discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice who stows away with him back to Kabul to compete on the popular television show "The Afghan Star," Afghanistan's equivalent of "American Idol. ... Full Story | Top |
| Jon Stewart to screen first ‘Rosewater' footage for foreign buyers at Toronto Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:52 PM PDT  By Greg Gilman LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart is heading to Toronto this weekend to pitch potential foreign buyers on his feature directorial debut, "Rosewater," an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. At an event hosted by Sierra/Affinity, the company representing the film's international rights, Stewart will screen footage from the Iranian political drama. "Rosewater" is an adaptation of Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy's memoir, "Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival. ... Full Story | Top |
| J Blakeson set to direct Sony young-adult sci-fi movie 'The 5th Wave' Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:50 PM PDT By Josh Dickey LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - British filmmaker J Blakeson ("The Disappearance of Alice Creed") is in negotiations to direct the sci-fi movie "The 5th Wave" for Sony Pictures, GK Films and Tobey Maguire's Material Pictures, TheWrap has learned. GK Films acquired rights to the projects back in March 2012 when it purchased a proposal for a young adult trilogy from author Rick Yancey. At the time, Sony was expected to co-finance and distribute, and that arrangement has since been finalized. ... Full Story | Top |
| ‘True Blood' to end its run next year Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:48 PM PDT By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Brace yourselves, "True Blood" fans; the end is near. HBO Programming president Michael Lombardo said on Tuesday that the vampire drama will end its run next year following its seventh season, which will launch next summer. In a statement, Lombardo called "True Blood" — which saw the departure of showrunner Alan Ball prior to its sixth season — "nothing short of a defining show for HBO." "'True Blood' has been nothing short of a defining show for HBO," Lombardo said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Michael Douglas and Matt Damon to present at Emmy Awards Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:38 PM PDT  By Tony Maglio LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Behind the Candelabra" stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon will present trophies at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, the first presenters confirmed for the September telecast. Another first: Neither has been a presenter at the television awards show in the past. Both Douglas and Damon are nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries of Movie category for the HBO film. The evening marks the fifth Emmy nomination for each. ... Full Story | Top |
| Miley Cyrus responds to MTV VMA fall out: ‘I don't pay attention to the negative' Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:31 PM PDT  By Brent Lang LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Miley Cyrus is not sweating the fall-out from her raunchy performance at the MTV Video Music Awards last week. "I don't pay attention to the negative because I've seen this play out so many times," Cyrus told MTV as part of an upcoming documentary on her life and work. "How many times have we seen this play out in pop music?" In fact, the former "Hannah Montana" star said going into the performance of "Blurred Lines/We Can't Stop" both she and Robin Thicke knew they had cooked up something pretty ground-breaking for the folks at home. ... Full Story | Top |
| 14 movies that should sell at Toronto Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:28 PM PDT By Lucas Shaw NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Filmmakers like Alfonso Cuaron and Spike Jonze enter the Toronto Film Festival with a simple question: Will audiences like their movie? Filmmakers like Matthew Weiner and Eli Roth enter the festival with a follow-up question: Will audiences like it enough for someone to buy it? Weiner and Roth are among those entering the festival with finished films — but no distributors. All are in the hunt for a deal, but only a select few can feel certain they will get one. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Cable consumers face more blackouts, higher prices Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:08 PM PDT  By Liana B. Baker (Reuters) - Cable and satellite customers beware. Prepare for more blackouts of major stations and keep a close eye on that cable bill. The cost of a deal announced Monday between Time Warner Cable and CBS, that ended a month-long blackout of the main CBS channel and its Showtime cable offering in New York and Los Angeles, is likely to be passed onto the consumer. And as video programming costs climb across the board, there are likely to be many similar disputes leading to a disruption of service in various parts of the country. ... Full Story | Top |
| Who will rule Toronto? 4 things on the minds of movie buyers at TIFF Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 04:19 PM PDT By Lucas Shaw NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - The independent film world enters the Toronto Film Festival buoyed by the success of smaller films at the box office, expecting one of the year's most active markets for unsold movies. Four films acquired at either Cannes, Toronto or Sundance surpassed or flirted with the $20-million mark since February: "Place Beyond the Pines," "Mud," "Fruitvale Station" and "The Way, Way Back." Roadside Attractions co-president Howard Cohen described that consistency as "pretty rare" — and predicted it would fuel the marketplace at this year's Toronto Film Festival. ... Full Story | Top |
| Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot back in new novel by UK author Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 04:04 PM PDT  By Paul Casciato LONDON (Reuters) - Bestselling British crime novelist Sophie Hannah will revive Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot in a new novel due out next year. When Hannah's agent told her he had suggested to publisher HarperCollins that they ask her to write a continuation novel, an idea she had been trying to turn into a novel for years suddenly took shape, the author told Reuters. "As soon as he said 'Agatha Christie novel' I thought actually that idea would work perfectly as a story set in the 1920s," said Hannah, a life-long Agatha Christie devotee. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rock band Cheap Trick fires back at drummer with lawsuit Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 04:01 PM PDT  By Tom Hals (Reuters) - U.S. rock band Cheap Trick has been around longer than many of the biggest U.S. corporations and now a lawsuit is making them sound more like bickering board members than one-time hit makers behind songs like "Surrender" and "I Want You to Want Me." Richard Nielsen, Thomas Peterson and Robin Zander have sued founding drummer Bun E. Carlos, asking a judge to confirm he was validly removed from the board of Cheap Trick Unlimited Inc and two other band-related corporations. ... Full Story | Top |
| NBA's LeBron James to produce U.S. cable TV comedy series Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 02:24 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Basketball star LeBron James will serve as an executive producer on a forthcoming television comedy series about two men who rise from poverty to fame and fortune, U.S. cable network Starz said on Tuesday. "Survivor's Remorse," a scripted half-hour comedy series still under development, is the Miami Heat player's first venture in TV production. James previously produced an animated internet series about himself called "The LeBrons" in 2011 and the 2008 documentary film "More Than a Game. ... Full Story | Top |
| Princess Diana is celebrity many Americans would bring back to life: poll Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 01:05 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Britain's Princess Diana is the deceased celebrity many Americans would want to bring back to life while most men would prefer to die before their spouses, according to a new survey about mortality released on Tuesday. The majority of Americans questioned in the "60 Minutes"/Vanity Fair poll said they would die for their children, but fewer were prepared to give up their life for their country or religion. ... Full Story | Top |
| Science fiction writer Frederik Pohl dies at 93 Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 11:49 AM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Frederik Pohl, a prolific American science fiction author who published scores of stories including the acclaimed 1977 novel "Gateway" and collaborated with some of the genre's leading figures, has died, according to his literary agent. He was 93. Pohl died on Monday at a hospital near his home in Palatine, Illinois, a suburb northwest of Chicago, his agent Mitchell Waters said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Vimeo offers every Toronto Film $10,000 advance Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 11:10 AM PDT By Lucas Shaw NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Vimeo has offered a $10,000 advance to any film making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival if the movie elects Vimeo as its first stop in its release on digital platforms, the company announced on Monday. Any of the films can still open in theaters or on television's video-on-demand, but Vimeo requires that the movie appear on its still nascent On Demand service before it could appear on iTunes, Netflix or any other digital platform. ... Full Story | Top |
| Johansson alien film disappoints, Korean movie shocks at Venice Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 10:35 AM PDT  By Isla Binnie MILAN (Reuters) - Scarlett Johansson as a predatory alien in Scotland got a lukewarm reception and a film about mutilation and masochism that is banned in the director's native South Korea roused disbelieving laughter at the Venice film festival on Tuesday. Booing followed the customary applause after a press screening of "Under The Skin", a comeback for British director Jonathan Glazer, starring the "Lost in Translation" actress. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venice film fest means business, not just art - marketing chief Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 10:25 AM PDT By Michael Roddy VENICE (Reuters) - Venice has a reputation for luxury and its film festival for emphasizing art over commercialism, so its marketing chief Pascal Diot has his work cut out to prove Venice means business. The stars, film directors and producers arriving at the Lido island festival venue by luxury motor launch or Maserati tend to look and act like they are on holiday as they wave at fans, sign autographs and waltz up the red carpet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spanish film 'Instructions' storms U.S. box office Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 09:19 AM PDT By Ronald Grover LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Instructions Not Included," a Spanish-language film with English subtitles, generated $10 million in ticket sales over the four-day Labor Day weekend, a record for a Spanish film in the United States and a sign of the potential the Hispanic market represents for Hollywood. The film, which stars 52-year-old Mexican TV star Eugenio Derbez as an Acapulco playboy forced to raise a baby girl left on his doorstep, ranked fifth among films in U.S. theaters, despite opening in scant 347 theaters, according to Hollywood.com. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. television talk show host Couric engaged - spokesman Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 08:18 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. television talk show host Katie Couric, whose first husband died of cancer in 1998, is engaged to Chicago banker John Molner, her spokesman said on Tuesday. Couric, 56, accepted after Molner, 50, proposed during the weekend. They have been dating for about two years. "I can confirm that she is engaged," Couric's spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said in an email. Couric has two daughters with Jay Monahan, who died from colon cancer. She launched her daytime TV talk show "Katie" in 2012, more than a year after the end of a stint as the first woman solo anchor of a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Jennifer Lopez returns as 'American Idol' judge Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 07:47 AM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop singer Jennifer Lopez will be returning to "American Idol," joining new judge Grammy- and Emmy-award-winning singer Harry Connick Jr. and veteran Keith Urban on the popular TV singing competition, Fox Broadcasting said on Tuesday. Randy Jackson, who has been on the judging panel since the show started in 2002 and announced he would be leaving earlier this year, will return as an in-house mentor for the show's 13th season in January. ... Full Story | Top |
| CBS win squeezes Time Warner Cable's margins: analysts Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 07:44 AM PDT  By Ronald Grover and Liana B. Baker (Reuters) - CBS Corp won large increases in the fees it will receive from Time Warner Cable Inc in its agreement with the cable operator that ended a month-long blackout of CBS, Showtime and other channels in key cities, analysts said. CBS was asking for as much as $2 a month in "retransmission fees" to allow Time Warner to carry the CBS network and other channels for each of its 3.2 million cable subscribers in the affected areas. ... Full Story | Top |
| Small painting bought at auction uncovered as valuable Constable Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 07:21 AM PDT  By Marie-Louise Gumuchian LONDON (Reuters) - A small painting bought at an auction and kept in a cupboard for years, has been revealed as an original by British painter John Constable worth an estimated 250,000 pounds ($400,000). The postcard-size painting, bought for 30 pounds in the British city of Canterbury around a decade ago, depicts a landscape by the 19th century artist and has been described as a "lost item" by the man who uncovered its origins. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cash from TV deals drives record European soccer transfer spree Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 07:11 AM PDT By Keith Weir LONDON (Reuters) - European soccer clubs have reinvested cash from television deals to go on a record-breaking summer spending spree led by teams from the English Premier League and Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona. Clubs in the English top flight had spent 630 million pounds ($980.5 million) by the player transfer deadline on Monday night. Teams in the big European leagues must now wait until January before they can hire new players. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bezos offers clues to Washington Post: patience, experimentation Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 06:07 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who shocked media watchers when he agreed to buy The Washington Post, told the struggling newspaper he will guide it using the same approach that successfully shaped his e-commerce site and turned it into the world's largest online retailer. In his first interview since the deal was made on August 5, Bezos told the Washington Post's Paul Farhi on Tuesday that he will put the customer first, encourage innovation and be patient. "If we figure out a new golden era at the Post... ... Full Story | Top |
| In era of leaks, Toronto film festival tackles transparency Tuesday, Sep 03, 2013 05:38 AM PDT  By Mary Milliken and Julie Gordon LOS ANGELES/TORONTO (Reuters) - As director Bill Condon was finishing up his film "The Fifth Estate" about Julian Assange and anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden started leaking U.S. security documents, reigniting the public debate over secrecy, security and whistleblowing in the Internet era. "The same lines were being used, the same script was being recited, it was fascinating," said Condon. "And then Assange appeared and became part of the story. ... Full Story | Top |
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