Charles Bramesco
Comcast Negotiating DreamWorks Animation Buyout for Over $3 Billion
The adult version of realizing Santa Claus is not real is the revelation that pretty much everything on Earth is owned by one of a small handful of multinational conglomerates. Trace the corporate parentage of any major entertainment enterprise back far enough, and unless it travels the rocky road of independent operation, it’ll inevitably lead to one of six megastudios...
Biopic Based on the Life of the Late Merle Haggard in the Works
It might be a new record: exactly one week ago today, treasured singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Merle Haggard passed away at age 79 due to complications resulting from double pneumonia. Last night, after a mere six days, Deadline had the exclusive that GMH Productions has optioned Done It All, a script adapting Haggard’s life, times, and works into a biopic...
Kevin James to Suit Up for Inspirational Football Movie ‘44’
A firm believer that it’s never too late to teach an old dog some new tricks, a 44-year-old Tennessee man named Joey Williams returned to college in 2003 to complete the degree he never finished. While enrolled at Jackson, Tennessee’s own Lambuth University, he decided to get the full collegiate experience by joining the football team as a lineman and playing alongside the young bucks — one of whom, in a stranger-than-fiction twist, just so happened to be Williams’ son. Fulfilling a lifelong dream of playing college ball that was once stymied by a busted knee in his senior year of high school, Williams provided NPR with an inspirational human-interest story for their segment “A Lineman At 44.”
Abandoned by Paramount, “The Little Prince” Ends Up at Netflix
French thinker Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s popular novella The Little Prince uses the story of a young boy and a grounded pilot as a portal to hidden worlds of profound emotion, conjuring loneliness, sadness and helplessness from simple language and potent symbols. And so it was weirdly fitting when, a mere week before the film adaptation’s scheduled release, Paramount abruptly dropped it from their slate and pulled it from theaters. Not unlike le petit prince himself, Mark Osborne’s animated rendering of the beloved story was abandoned and left to float around in the vast expanse of the film marketplace. This story has a more straightforwardly happy ending than de Saint-Exupéry’s, though — Netflix has now picked up the rights to the film.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Acceptance Speech Was the Most-Tweeted Oscar Moment Ever
Each year’s ceremony usually yields a handful of viral moments, little unexpected happenings that catch the public’s interest and make their way around social media platforms. Last year, the surprise selfie taken by host Ellen Degeneres quickly set Twitter ablaze, racking up millions of retweets and favorites in a matter of minutes.
This year’s ceremony re-set that bar, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s long-awaited Best Actor win now the most-tweeted Oscar moment of all time.
The New ‘Mother’s Day’ Trailer Loves You, Just Wishes You’d Call Sometimes
Having already planted his flag of squeaky-clean ethnically homogeneous courtship on New Year’s Eve with New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day with Valentine’s Day, and America’s most tragic hour with 9/11 Remembrance Day, Garry Marshall will expand his Holiday Cinematic Universe with Mother’s Day this spring...
How the Oscars Plan to Cut Down on Lengthy Acceptance Speeches
Yesterday, at the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the organization pulled back the curtain on a new innovation designed to streamline acceptance speeches.
Harrison Ford to Reveal New ‘Star Wars’ Theme Parks in Upcoming ABC Special
On February 21, ABC will broadcast a new special titled The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60, a commemoration of the Anaheim amusement park’s sixtieth anniversary and Star Wars devotees just got a reason to tune in that can’t be ignored.
Channing Tatum, ‘Furious 7’ Declared Everyone’s Favorites at 2016 People’s Choice Awards
If the Oscars are like the electoral college, selecting the cream of the crop through an arcane and confusing process available only to an older, white, male elite population, then that makes the People’s Choice Awards the popular vote...
‘Pitch Perfect’ Team Working on Mrs. Claus Movie With Elizabeth Banks Set to Star
Among the many lessons of Entourage (that partying is awesome; that everything sort of miraculously works out when you are rich and good-looking; that showbiz is a twisted game dominated by the loudest bloviators) is that nugget that there’s no quicker path to continued success in Hollywood than sticking with a winning creative team...