Month: May 2021

Kevin Costner is set as the lead in Yellowstone, Paramount Network’s upcoming straight-to-series drama. The project is written and executive produced by Oscar-nominated Hell Or High Water and Sicario screenwriter Taylor Sheridan and executive produced by The Weinstein Company and John Linson and Art Linson (Sons of Anarchy, Fight Club).

Costner, who also is an executive producer, will play John Dutton, who controls the largest contiguous ranch in the United States, under constant attack by those it borders — land developers, an Indian reservation, and America’s first National Park. It is an intense study of a violent world far from media scrutiny — where land grabs make developers billions, and politicians are bought and sold by the world’s largest oil and lumber corporations. Where drinking water poisoned by fracking wells and unsolved murders are not news: they are a consequence of living in the new frontier. It is the best and worst of America seen through the eyes of a family that represents both.

Yellowstone is the first scripted drama series greenlighted by Paramount Network, Viacom’s new general entertainment network and leading scripted brand, which will replace Spike in early 2018, The 10-episode series is slated to go into production in the fall for premiere on the network in summer 2018.

The project marks Oscar winner Costner’s first major return to television in five years following his starring role in History miniseries Hatfield & McCoys, which earned him an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG award. His most recent film work includes starring roles in Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures, Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice and McFarland, USA.

“Our goal is to bring premium cinematic storytelling to television. With an icon such as Kevin Costner in front of the camera, and the renowned Taylor Sheridan behind the camera, we are off to a great start,” said Keith Cox, President, Development and Production, Paramount Network and TV Land. “We are thrilled to have such a celebrated actor as Costner to play the lead role in such an important project for Paramount Network,” Cox added.

“Taylor Sheridan wrote a giant of a character in lead John Dutton,” says TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. “There was only one actor who could be transformational — Kevin Costner. This is a coup for the show and fulfills a joint promise that Kevin and I made — that we would find a mutual project to work on.”

Executive producers for Yellowstone include John Linson, Art Linson, Sheridan, Weinstein and David Glasser.

Filmmaker Rob Cohen, who has long been interested in making a movie from the bestselling comic book franchise Razor, has just partnered with The Crow producer Jeff Most (Most Films) to produce the film with Number 11 Films fully financing and handling worldwide sales on the project. It will be the first film under a new sales and financing partnership Number 11 Films entered into with Lotus Entertainment. The two companies will be introducing the project to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival during the Marché du Film.

Razor is based on two of Everette Hartsoe’s comic book series, Razor and Stryke. Razor, considered a bad girl comic, has sold over 6 million copies worldwide and tells the story of a woman — impervious to pain after the death of both her sister and father — who becomes a superheroine and wears a get-up with razors on her arms to go after evil in Chinatown.

Cohen is best-known for creating and directing the debut films for The Fast and the Furious and the XXX franchises. Because of his work in writing and developing Razor, the filmmaker has also become a comic book creator with his series Red Dog.

EXCLUSIVE: TriCoast Worldwide has lassoed international rights to Timothy Woodward Jr.’s western Hickok starring Luke Hemsworth, Kris Kristofferson and Bruce Dern, and platinum-selling country music artist, Trace Adkins.

Hemsworth plays Wild Bill Hickok who is on the run from the law when he rides into Abilene, Kansas – the most hedonistic town west of the Mississippi. In Abilene, Hickok is offered the position of Sheriff by the town’s mayor, in hopes that his unparalleled shooting skills will tame the wildest cow-town in the West. While delivering his own brand of frontier justice, the infamous hard-drinking gunfighter’s reputation as the fastest draw in the West is put to the test. Dern portrays Doc Rivers O’Roark, Kristofferson is George Knox while Adkins plays Phil Poe.

Cinedigm has domestic rights and will open Hickok on July 7. Pic will also be available day and date for purchase through On Demand and Digital HD ​services.

Hickok is directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. and written by Michael Lanahan, produced by Woodward Jr., Lauren de Normandie, Henry Penzi and Chris Nicoletti, and executive produced by Benjamin Gerry, JD Seraphine, Kirk Peterson and Eric Peterson.

Also part of Tricoast Worldwide’s Cannes slate: Lost Birds, centered around the Armenian conflict as told through the eyes of 2 abandoned children; a heartwarming holiday musical ballet in Christmas Dreams; Natalie Avital’s documentary 3 Hikers; Black Gold starring Mike Colter from Netflix’s Luke Cage fame, Miami Love Storyfeaturing Pit Bull’s recording artist Fuego and music from Wyclef Jean; Mystery crime thriller; The Ghost and the Whale with Maurice Benard, Tippi Hedren and Jonathan Pryce; and SXSW favorite 2 Pigeons starring Guillermo Del Toro protégé, Javier Botet.

Mark O’Brien has come aboard Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s teen supernatural drama The Darkest Minds from 2oth Century Fox. The film, adapted from Alexandra Bracken’s YA trilogy, follows 16-year-old Ruby (Amandla Stenberg) who, gifted with psychic abilities, breaks out of the rehabilitation camp and joins a small group of gifted escapees on the run. Chad Hodge wrote the screenplay, which is being produced by Shawn Levy ‘s 21 Laps Entertainment. O’Brien recently wrapped supporting roles in Andrew Niccol’s film Anon, alongside Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried, and State Like Sleep with Michael Shannon and Luke Evans. O’Brien repped by Thruline Entertainment, The Characters Agency and Don Buchwald & Associates, was last seen in the Oscar-nominated Arrival.

NBC has given its first new series orders for the 2017-18 season to dramas “For God and Country” and “Rise.”

Both shows hail from Universal Television.

“For God and Country,” from Keshet Studios, revolves around an elite team of military operatives who use advance surveillance techniques to help execute dangerous missions around the world to save innocent people from harm. Dean Georgaris wrote and exec produced the pilot. Brad Anderson directed and is an exec producer along with Keshet’s Avi Nir, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan.

The ensemble cast includes Anne Heche, Mike Vogel, Sofia Pernas, Tate Ellington, Natacha Karam, Demetrius Grosse, Noah Mills and Hadi Tabbal. “Rise,” exec produced by Jason Katims, centers on a dedicated teacher, played by Josh Radnor, who takes over a flagging theatrical program at a school in a working-class city. Rosie Perez, Marley Shelton, Auli’i Cravalho, Damon J. Gillespie, Amy Forsyth, Rarmian Newton, Ted Sutherland, Casey Johnson, Taylor Richardson, Joe Tippett and Shirley Rumierk also star.

Katims penned the pilot and is exec producing with director Michael Cahill, Michelle Lee, Jeffrey Seller and Flody Suarez.

The NBC orders are the cap gun going off on the last lap of pilot season. The broadcast networks will order several dozen new series during the next two weeks leading up to the marathon of upfront presentations in New York to be held the week of May 15. NBC Universal is the first up on May 15 with its broadcast and cable omnibus event at Radio City Music Hall.

EXCLUSIVE: Zero Gravity Management has added veteran manager/producer Craig Baumgarten to its management group. Baumgarten comes over from LINK Entertainment, where he has been a partner for the past three years and brings with him all of his clients including: Dolph Lundgren who is in the new James Wan film Aquaman; the seven-time Grammy winner and TV star Toni Braxton; director Rob Cohen, who is in post on his new film Category 5; Roland Joffe, who recently wrapped The Forgiven (starring Forest Whitaker and Eric Bana) as well as the TV series Sun Records; iconic writer Joe Eszterhas (who scripted The Lady of Guadalupe for Mark Burnett and Roma Downey at MGM); and multi-hyphenate Michael Jai White.

China-backed Cristal Pictures has acquired Twin Blades, a female buddy action spec from new writer Ingrid Eskeland-Adetuyi. Logan and Deadpool producer Lauren Shuler Donner is aboard to produce the project, which Cristal will fully finance as a Chinese co-production and take it out to directors soon ahead of an eyed fourth-quarter 2017 production start.

The plot follows an unlikely pair of alpha females — Zoe, an American tech entrepreneur who relocates her company to China, and Maylin, a local female bodyguard hired to protect her – as they struggle to coexist in their daily routine. When Zoe’s life is threatened, the two must put aside their differences and join forces to survive.

The Donners’ Company president Jack Leslie will also produce. Cristal EVP Production Nick D’Angelo brought in the spec from Eskeland-Adetuyi, a recent graduate of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She is repped by APA and Zero Gravity Management who made the sale.

#EskelandAdetuyi #ZeroGravityManagement

Chris McKay will helm a film based on the DC character Dick Grayson, best known as a member of the Batman family.

Warner Bros. is plotting a new DC superhero film based on the Batman-centric character Nightwing.

Chris McKay, who most recently directed The Lego Batman Movie for Warner Bros., is in negotiations to helm the new live-action film, and Bill Dubuque (The Accountant) is writing the script.
#Nightwing #BillDubuque

Angela Lansbury, who has starred in a number of Disney films over her long career, has just joined the cast of Rob Marshall’s sequel Mary Poppins Returns, which is filming at Shepperton Studios. She will portray the Balloon Lady. The film is scheduled for release Christmas Day 2018.

Ray Donovan is adding to its season cast cast. Adina Porter, Brian White and Lili Simmons are boarding the Showtime drama starring Liev Schreiber.

Porter, an alum of The 100 and American Horror Story, has been tapped to play the role of Vicky Delgatti, a fixer like Ray. She will appear in at least four episodes. White (Scandal, Chicago Fire, The Family Stone) will play Jay, a rapper-actor-producer who is one of the biggest stars in the world. Like Porter, he will appear in at least four episodes.

#RayDonovan #BrianWhite