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JULY 31, 2014

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the last two years as most theaters have converted their conversion to digital.

The film supplier has long maintained that it would continue to manufacture film so long as it was profitable. That was

dios coming aboard to guarantee they will pay for some film processing.

With the rise of digital imaging technologies, Kodak’s film sales have plummeted by 96 percent over the last decade. The decline has accelerated in

JULY 31, 2014

BEHIND THE SCREENWHERE TECH, CRAFT AND HOLLYWOOD MEET

A TECH BLOG FROM CAROLYN GIARDINA

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Christopher Nolan insisted that distributor Warner Bros. release his 2012 movie The Dark Knight Rises in at least 100 Imax cinemas that could project it on film rather than in the digital format that has been gradually replacing celluloid.

AP P

HO

TO/J

ULI

O C

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By Carolyn Giardina

TROUBLED KODAK HAS ALL BUT

finalized a deal with the major Hollywood studios that will allow

film to remain alive in certain instances, at least for the near future.

“After extensive discussions with filmmakers, leading studios and others who recognize the unique artistic and archival qualities of film, we intend to continue production,” Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke said in a statement Wednesday. “Kodak thanks these industry leaders for their support and ingenuity in finding a way to extend the life of film.”

J.J. Abrams (who is currently shoot-ing Star Wars: Episode VII on celluloid), Christopher Nolan (who used film on his upcoming Interstellar), Quentin Taran-tino and Judd Apatow are among a group of leading filmmakers who are passion-ate film supporters and have stepped up to urge Hollywood to keep film going. Their campaign has worked, with the stu-

Studios, Directors Help Keep Kodak Motion-Picture Film Alive

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PAGE 4 OF 12JULY 31, 2014

MOVIE NEWS

a notable part of the company’s plans when it emerged from Chapter 11 bank-ruptcy protection last September. The company is the last remaining maker of motion picture film after Fujifilm exited the business last year.

A Kodak spokesman said labs and other suppliers are also part of the discussions, in order to ensure an infrastructure to support film. That includes, she said, Burbank-based Fotokem, the last remain-ing lab in Hollywood.

KURTZMAN TO DIRECT UNI’S MUMMY REBOOTBy Borys KitALEX KURTZMAN IS IN FINAL

negotiations to direct Universal’s reboot of The Mummy.

Kurtzman, who with former writing partner Roberto Orci wrote some of the biggest franchise players in the last decade, is already producing the

movie with Chris Morgan. Kurtzman and Morgan are weaving together a cine- matic universe for Universal based on its movie monsters properties, and Mummy is set to be the first one out of the gate, having a release date of May 22, 2016. The pic is important as it will set the tone and stage for the rest of the universe.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it’s understood that the new Mummy is set in the present day and is not a horror play but rather an action- adventure tentpole with horror elements. It will also feature new characters and not rehash previous incarnations.

Jon Spaihts worked on the script, as did Kurtzman and Orci. Sean Daniel is also a producer on the project. Bobby Cohen is executive producer.

The project has already gone through a couple of directors — Len Wiseman and Andy Muschietti — but that was before Universal began implementing its master monster plan.

“Over the course of developing The Mummy, Alex has demonstrated such clarity and passion about this character and mythology,” said Universal co- president of production Jeff Kirschen-baum. “He knows why The Mummy has fascinated us for so long and how to bring that into an inventive, incredible new adventure. It became obvious that he is the perfect choice to be not only one of the narrative engineers of this new vision but its director as well.”

Kurtzman made his directorial debut with the modestly budgeted drama People Like Us, which starred Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks, so Mummy would mark a significant leap in terms of budget and scope. He is also attached to helm Venom, the Spider-Man spin-off for Sony, though that project is not on the studio’s release calendar for the foreseeable future.

Kurtzman is repped by CAA.Universal’s executive vp production

Jon Mone and director of development Jay Polidoro are overseeing the project.

MOSS, PERRY TO RETEAM FOR INDIE THRILLER QUEENBy Rebecca Ford and Borys KitMAD MEN STAR ELISABETH MOSS will reteam with her Listen Up Philip

director Alex Ross Perry for indie Queen of Earth.

Perry wrote and will direct the psychological thriller, which is inspired by films like Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby. Queen centers on two women who retreat to a beach house to get a break from the pressures of the outside world, only to realize how disconnected from each

other they have become, allowing their suspicions to bleed into reality.

Drinking Buddies writer-director- producer Joe Swanberg is producing the pic.

Perry wrote and directed 2014 drama

Listen Up Philip, starring Moss and Jason Schwartzman. He directed his first feature, Impolex, in 2009, and his second feature, The Color Wheel, was a dark comedy that traveled the festival circuit in 2011. Perry is repped by WME, Mosaic and Sloane Offer.

Moss, who stars as Peggy Olson on AMC’s hit show Mad Men, most recently starred in Listen Up and The One I Love, which both premiered at Sundance and will soon hit theaters and VOD.

The Hollywood Reporter’s chief film critic Todd McCarthy wrote of Listen Up: “Moss skillfully flashes fine-tuned emotional shifts in short periods of time as a woman who summons newfound inner strength.” Tribeca Film will release the drama Oct. 17, with VOD options available Oct. 21.

The One I Love, starring Moss and Mark Duplass, is set for release Friday on VOD and Aug. 22 in theaters.

Moss, who won a Golden Globe for her work on Jane Campion’s miniseries Top of the Lake, is keeping busy with several big-screen projects. She is filming Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise with Luke Evans and Tom Hiddleston, and is also attached to indie psychological thriller Meadow-land with Luke Wilson and Olivia Wilde. Moss is repped by WME and Ribisi Enter- tainment Group.

FANNING TO TOPLINE PERIOD DRAMA STORMBy Borys KitELLE FANNING, COMING OFF A starring turn opposite Angelina Jolie in Disney’s Maleficent, has come aboard to star in A Storm in the Stars, a period romantic drama being directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour.

Amy Baer is producing the indie via her Gidden Media banner, with Joannie Burstein and Rebecca Miller executive producing.

Storm, written by Emma Jensen, tells the story of the passionate love affair

Kurtzman

F R O M PA G E 2

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Moss

Perry

Producing the Future

Collin SChiffli (BA ’09)Director: AnimAls

Debut feature; winner 2014 SXSW Grand Jury Prize; winner 2014 Chicago Film Critics Association Audience Award

Director: GhostophobiaSecond feature (in development)

RoBeRt-CARniliuS (MfA ’15)Director & Writer: JAspA Jenkins

2014 Student Academy Award finalist (winner Midwest regional award)

Director & Writer: PulseThesis short film (in production)

Director & Writer: McTucky Fried HighComedic animated web series (in production)

RheA BozzACChi (BA ’12)Director & Writer: vCArd

Debut feature (in production); initially developed in Columbia College’s Semester in LA program at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood

Writer: Cheat, Cheat, Bang, Bang: short film for Fulton Market Films

Intern: Fulton Market Films, Chicago; Hutch Parker Entertainment, LA; FilmEngine, LA

GARy MiChAel SChultz (BA ’01)Director & Writer: VinCent-n-roxxy

Unified Pictures production starring Anton Yelchin and Megalyn Echikunwoke (in production)

Director & Writer: Devil in My Ride (2013)Multiple award-winner now in wide Video On Demand release

Co-Producer: Rudderless (2014)William H. Macy’s feature directing debut starring Billy Cruddup; premiered at 2014 Sundance Film Festival

Cinema Art + Science

Their sTories are our sTory. We produce more Than movies. We produce filmmakers.

colum.edu/cinema

PAGE 6 OF 12JULY 31, 2014

MOVIE NEWS

between dangerously charismatic poet Percy Shelley and 17-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft, who would a year later write Frankenstein as Mary Shelley. (Fanning will play the budding writer.)

The script aims to tell of the tumult of first love for a young woman out of step with her time (Mary was well-educated and came from a family of intellectuals) who wrote

one of the first pieces of literary genre fiction in modern times.

The project is seen as a perfect fit for Al-Mansour, who is the first female director out of Saudi Arabia and whose breakthrough film, Wadjda, tackled similar themes of a young woman out of step with her country’s culture.

“Elle is amazingly smart and talented and very much relates to Mary as a young woman,” said Baer in a statement. “She is going to do something extraordinary in this role that will transition her from a compelling young adult to a formidable leading lady.”

The project is in the midst of securing financing and is looking to shoot in 2015.

The 16-year-old Fanning is one of Holly- wood’s rising actresses, with Maleficent giving her profile a significant boost. Storm marks the second feature proj-ect she has come on to in the wake of the Jolie starrer’s success; earlier this month, she signed to star in How to Talk to Girls at Parties, an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman short story that will be directed by John Cameron Mitchell.

Fanning is repped by WME, Echo Lake Management and Hansen Jacobson.

SUMMIT KNOCKS TWILIGHT LAWSUIT OUT OF U.S. COURTBy Eriq GardnerNEW YORK — Less than four months after the lawsuit commenced, Summit Distribution has gotten a California judge to dismiss claims that it cheated

U.K. movie distributor and financier Goldcrest Film Distribution III Limited of money from the highly profitable 2008 movie Twilight.

Goldcrest claimed in its lawsuit that Summit had used “deceptive account-ing practices” and had “systematically understate[d] revenues and overstate[d] its costs” on the film. Among the plain-tiff’s allegations was that Summit had “secretly” used $6 million of revenue to pay retroactive bonuses to stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and novelist Stephenie Meyer, possibly to secure their commit-ment for sequels.

The British company might have felt it deserved more money under a deal that entitled them to a third of net proceeds, but in response to the lawsuit, Summit brought a motion to stay or dismiss the lawsuit on the basis that a series of legal agreements between the two companies included “payment directions,” which included a jurisdiction clause that sent disputes to the U.K.

According to the defendant’s motion, “Summit subscribes to the maxim of Sir Winston Churchill that ‘To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war’ but, if liti- gation is necessary, Summit is absolutely ready and determined to proceed in Lon- don to litigate these issues without delay.”

As proof of its willingness to step in the ring — in a proper forum — Summit reported that it had initiated proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London.

There, Summit figures to proceed in its own arguments that Goldcrest isn’t owed more money over such events

as when Summit allegedly received a $4 million signing bonus when Universal agreed to distribute Twilight and other films on home video.

In court papers, Summit said that this wasn’t the traditional “Hollywood accounting” case, and that Goldcrest was wrong when describing the case as one about “deceptive accounting practices.” Instead, Summit’s attorney Steven Marenberg pointed to the com- plicated set of legal agreements govern-ing Twilight net proceeds and argued it was primarily a dispute regarding the interpretation of an English law contract. Goldcrest isn’t owed 33.33 percent of Twi- light profits, but rather 15 percent after the obligations of the payment directions are considered. Or so Summit believes.

In response, Goldcrest’s attorney Mark Holscher argued that the pay-ment directions were irrelevant because allegations that Summit had under- reported revenues and overstated costs derived from another contract called the “Sub-Distribution Deed,” which didn’t include a choice-of-forum clause. This document is described by the plain-tiff as addressing “how Goldcrest’s share of the Twilight participation is to be cal- culated.”

But the plaintiff isn’t going to able to get a chance to go to trial in California with word of how its auditors uncovered over $39 million worth of errors in Twi- light revenue because Los Angeles Su- perior Court judge Richard Fruin was persuaded that the lawsuit “implicates” the payment directives and was not merely about “calculation and account,” but also about the “payment” of Gold-crest’s share.

The judge issued a minute order this week dismissing the case, although we hear that the plaintiff might be showing up in court anyway today in an attempt to allow an amended complaint. This could be a long-shot, but in any case, the litigation on its merits could proceed over in England, and obviously away from an American jury hearing about “Hollywood accounting.”

Fanning

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Summit successfully convinced a judge that if the Twilight money dispute is going to be tried, it should be in England.

PAGE 7 OF 12

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JULY 31, 2014

BUSINESS NEWS

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By Scott Roxborough and George SzalaiIS RUPERT MURDOCH SACRIFICING his European pay TV kingdom for a chance to seize the Time Warner empire?

On July 25, Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox unveiled a deal, valued at more than $9 billion, to sell off its German and Italian pay TV assets to Britain’s BSkyB. Fox will retain its 39 percent stake in BSkyB.

The pact will net Fox about $7.2 bil-lion in cash after taxes, money that most analysts expect Murdoch to use to raise his bid for Time Warner after his initial $80 billion cash-and-stock offer was rejected as too low.

Characterizing the European pay TV sale as “sacrificing pawns,” Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente said it will let Fox sweeten the deal. “Proceeds could be used to increase the bid price and cash percentage being offered,” he noted, suggesting Fox could offer $95 a share for Time Warner, up from its initial bid of roughly $85, and finance 55 percent, up from 40 percent.

This would allow Fox “to boost its offer to purchase Time Warner without having to raise larger amounts of debt,” added

Moody’s analyst Neil Begley, noting that the Euro deal would result in cash on hand of “$12.7 billion plus roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of net proceeds from potential asset sales” like CNN, which Fox has signaled it would sell.

Some analysts see $100 a share as the mark that would persuade Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes to seal a deal, but Beg- ley believes Fox might have to go beyond that, up to $105. And Bloomberg reported July 25 that Fox is willing to offer Time Warner shareholders seats on its board as a lure.

To fund a deal, some observers, includ- ing analysts at Credit Suisse, have sug- gested Murdoch could raise more cash by selling off or reducing his stake in

BSkyB, valued at $9.5 billion to $10 bil- lion. Murdoch might not be ready to part with it, though. Fox president and COO Chase Carey and co-COO James Murdoch are eager to get their hands on Time Warner’s original content — particularly shows produced by HBO — but Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Claudio Aspesi believes the company wants to keep its options open by retaining a foothold in European distribution as well.

“Right now, content is key, but there are ebbs and flows,” said Aspesi. If distribu- tion businesses are seen gaining leverage, “it would be a pity to have divested Sky Europe.”

And if the Time Warner bid ultimately fails, the enlarged Sky Europe, as some have dubbed it, will have the reach — and financial clout — to produce HBO- style series of its own. It will have a com- bined annual program budget of nearly $8 billion and revenue of about $20 bil-lion, more than 50 percent greater than BSkyB alone.

The three European platforms already had begun to develop their first three-way co-production before the deal: a 10-part superhero series called Diabolik.

Is Fox Stockpiling Cash for New Bid on Time Warner?

Rupert Murdoch, left, James Murdoch and Chase Carey.

PAGE 8 OF 12JULY 31, 2014

BUSINESS NEWS

FOX INT’L TAPS ANDREEN AS SENIOR VP PROD’NBy Pamela McClintockMICHAEL ANDREEN IS JOINING FOX International Productions as senior vp production with the aim of serving as president Sanford Panitch’s No. 2 in coordinating the division’s local efforts in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The veteran studio executive has honed his international expertise working for Disney and, over the last year, working for LeVision Pictures, a Chinese company look-

ing to make Hollywood co-productions. He also did a stint at Narratology pro- viding consulting services to Chinese media companies and funds. His knowl-edge of China is particularly valuable, considering FIP’s co-production efforts there, including a Chinese-language remake of Bride Wars, which is cur-rently shooting.

In only six years, FIP has become a prolific supplier of local-language movies in a dozen foreign markets — including China, India, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Spain — and has just crossed $750 million in box office. Highlights include Chinese-language film Hot Summer Days, which grossed $20 million in China. FIP was the brainchild of Fox film chairman Jim Gianopulos and Panitch.

“We’ve evolved and need someone of Michael’s caliber,” said Panitch. “His unique and extensive experience as a producer and executive in international production will be invaluable to our continuing expansion and strategic goals going forward in one of the most dynamic areas of our business.”

Andreen’s arrival at Fox marks a home- coming, as he’s done two previous tours of duty at the studio, including working as a production exec on Master and Com-mander: The Far Side of the World and The Day After Tomorrow, among other titles.

DILLER’S IAC REPORTS SECOND-QUARTER LOSSBy Georg SzalaiBARRY DILLER’S IAC REPORTED

weaker second-quarter financials on Wednesday as its media assets invested more and the company’s revenue was hurt by various factors, including the closure of the Newsweek print business and sale of its digital business.

The Internet company posted a loss of $18 million, compared with a year-ago profit of $58.3 million. Revenue dropped 5 per-cent to $756.3 million.

The company also detailed mixed financials for its media business, which includes content producers Electus, CollegeHumor and Notional, as well as online video platform Vimeo.

Second-quarter media revenue fell 36 percent to $36.7 million due to the Newsweek closure/sale and the timing of Electus projects. Vimeo posted strong revenue growth and higher investment, the firm said. The media unit’s operat- ing loss widened from $2.0 million to $9.8 million.

THEATER CHAIN AMC BEATS Q2 EXPECTATIONS By Paul BondEXHIBITOR AMC ENTERTAINMENT reported shrinking quarterly earnings on Wednesday amid a weak season at the box office. But the theater chain still beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

Net income was nearly halved to $31.4 million in the second quarter com- pared to the same frame last year. On a per-share basis, AMC reported 32 cents, beating analysts’ projection by 3 cents.

Revenue was $726.6 million, down 5 percent year-over-year and falling short of predictions, which were for $731 million.

AMC operates the nation’s second- largest chain of movie theaters and is largely controlled by China’s Dalian Wanda Group. It is traded on the New

York Stock Exchange, where its stock price fell fractionally Wednesday to $22.51 and shares did not trade during the after- hours session.

AMC said the average ticket price increased slightly to $9.55 during the quarter but admissions revenue fell to $478.7 million from $515.3 million a year earlier.

The average person spent $4.22 at concession stands during the quarter,

up 4.5 percent from a year ago, AMC reported.

In the company’s earn-ings release, CEO Gerry Lopez raved about AMC’s new open-source ticketing platform.

“After rolling out our own ticketing engine in April, tickets to an AMC theater are now both easier to get and available in more places on the Web than any of our competitors,” he said. “So far, we’ve seen a 45 percent increase in online ticket revenues this year and have sold approximately 13 million online tickets this year.”

AMC IN TALKS TO BUY STAKE IN BBC AMERICABy Paul BondAMC NETWORKS, HOME OF MAD MEN and The Walking Dead, is in discussions over taking just under a 50 percent stake in BBC America, according to people familiar with the plan.

BBC America is BBC Worldwide’s U.S. channel and it is available in about 80 million of the nation’s households.

The negotiations were first reported by Bloomberg.

Sources also said BBC America is interested in a partnership that lets it use AMC’s advertising sales and distri-bution network.

The BBC has partnered with AMC before, co-producing such shows as The Honorable Woman, an eight-part series starting tonight on AMC’s SundanceTV.

AMC declined to comment.

Andreen Lopez

PAGE 9 OF 12

TV NEWS

JULY 31, 2014

By Lesley GoldbergTHE BIG BANG THEORY CONTR ACT

talks have officially delayed production on the CBS hit comedy.

Stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar have not yet reached a new deal with studio Warner Bros. Television, The Hollywood Reporter has learned, with the cast officially not returning to work on season eight.

“Due to ongoing contract negotiations, production on The Big Bang Theory — which was originally scheduled to begin today — has been postponed,” WBTV said in a statement. The first table read of the season was scheduled to take place Wednesday. It’s unclear just how long production will be delayed as the cast and studio remain at an impasse on a new deal. The move comes as a surprise to the studio, which had not been expect-ing a work stoppage, believing that the cast would arrive back at work with or without a contract.

Galecki, Cuoco and Emmy winner Parsons are negotiating together and seeking big salary increases. Sources told THR last fall that the trio, who currently earn $325,000 per episode, are seeking up to $1 million per half-hour and a cut of the show’s backend. Helberg and Nayyar are negotiating together and are also seeking hefty raises. Co-stars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch previously inked new deals with WBTV, with both securing big raises.

The three-season renewal gives the cast, renegotiating new deals since September, considerable leverage — especially con-sidering Big Bang is TV’s No. 1 comedy among total viewers, a metric it has held since the 2010-11 season. During season seven the show regularly topped 20 mil- lion viewers per week, up 4 percent year- over-year, with an impressive 6.1 rating

among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. The show is also a hit in syndication on TBS, with repeats often topping some of the Big Four broadcast networks’ original fare. Big Bang is again nominated in the best comedy series Emmy category, but the series has yet to take home that trophy.

Big Bang is a key part of CBS’ fall rollout. The network will use a full hour of the show on Mondays to help launch rookie drama Scorpion at 9 p.m. before it moves to Thursdays after the network’s newly secured NFL programming con- cludes. The series will then anchor the night again as CBS uses it to propel soph-omore comedy The Millers.

Big Bang’s cast was a no-show last week- end at Comic-Con in San Diego, where for the second year in a row, the panel con-sisted of writers behind the series. Last year, Galecki made a surprise appearance, with Rauch moderating. Parsons was at Comic-Con the day before the show’s panel to support DreamWorks Anima-tion’s Home, in which he has a voice role. There was no mention of the contract talks during the hourlong panel.

Meanwhile, showrunner Steve Molaro has a three-year overall deal (his first) with WBTV, and co-creator/executive producer Chuck Lorre is also under con- tract with the studio. Securing Big Bang’s future was a top priority for CBS, which last season bade farewell to Monday staple How I Met Your Mother. The network

recently scored rights to Thursday night NFL games, pushing Big Bang to Mondays for the first few weeks of season eight before it returns to Thursdays.

For his part, Lorre didn’t see the con- tract negotiations to be a problem, though that opinion may likely have changed now that production has been delayed. “There are people at Warner Bros. Tele- vision and people representing the actors who have done this before,” he told THR earlier this month. “This will work itself out. I think it’s great; I want them all to be crazy wealthy because nobody deserves it more than this cast. It’ll work out.”

The cast’s decision to delay production comes after Modern Family co-creator/ executive producer Christopher Lloyd staged a walk-out — missing the first week of work in the writers’ room — until he reached a new deal with studio 20th Cen- tury Fox Television. The Emmy-winning comedy’s cast also had a well-documented and contentious contract renegotiation in 2012 that threatened to delay produc-tion that concluded with the six adult actors earning major pay increases.

GIRLS’ WILLIAMS TO STAR IN NBC’S LIVE PETER PAN By Philiana NgNBC HAS FOUND ITS PETER PAN:

Allison Williams.The Girls actress will star in the title

role of the network’s live The Sound of Music follow-up, set for broadcast on Dec. 4, NBC announced Wednesday.

She joins Christopher Walken, who was previously cast as Captain Hook.

“We couldn’t be happier that Allison Williams is our Peter Pan,” said Robert Greenblatt, chairman at NBC Enter-tainment. “She’s a lovely rising star on

Big Bang Delays Production as Cast Still Without Contracts

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Simon Helberg, left, Kunal Nayyar, Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco have yet to reach a new deal.

PAGE 10 OF 12JULY 31, 2014

TV NEWS

the award-winning show Girls — where she occasionally shows off her incredible vocal talent — and we think she will bring the perfect blend of ‘boyish’ vulnerabil-ity and bravado to save the day against Christopher Walken’s power- ful Captain Hook.”

Added executive produc-ers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron: “Allison Williams is a major find. She will reinvent the iconic role of Peter Pan with her wit, her warmth, her dynamic flying and her wonderful musical abilities. The score will be sung beautifully and introduced to a whole new generation of families.”

Since graduating from Yale University in 2010, Williams — who reunites with her father, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, on the same network — has starred as Marnie Michaels on the Emmy-nominated Girls, where she’s exercised her musical pipes. She recorded several songs for the Girls soundtrack and filmed online videos that have garnered millions of views, and has also appeared on The Mindy Project and The League.

“I have wanted to play Peter Pan since I was about three years old, so this is a dream come true,” said Williams. “It’s such an honor to be a part of this adven-ture, and I’m very excited to get to work with this extraordinarily talented team. And besides, what could go wrong in a live televised production with simultane-ous flying, sword fighting and singing?”

The news comes months after NBC named Peter Pan as its next live produc- tion, following a successful go at bringing Sound of Music to the small screen with an impressive 18.6 million viewers tuning in to its premiere telecast in December.

Sound of Music producers and Broad- way veterans Zadan and Meron, who also executive produced NBC’s Broadway drama Smash, are back at the helm.

During the winter Television Critics Association press tour, Greenblatt told The Hollywood Reporter that there likely wouldn’t be a role for Sound of Music star

Carrie Underwood, whose performance was largely panned by critics. At the time, Greenblatt hinted that the central role of Peter — traditionally played by a woman — would likely go to a male actor.

In a chat with THR in December, Greenblatt was hopeful the net would be able to produce the next live production more “more efficiently” than Sound of Music, which took 18 months to produce.

Based on James M. Barrie’s revered book and musical, NBC’s new take on Peter Pan comes after the network in 1955 staged a live broadcast of the Broadway production that opened in 1954. The show, starring Tony winners Mary Martin and Cyril Richard, drew 65 million viewers — the highest rating for a single-night pro- gram at the time. NBC broadcast the show live again in 1956 and 1960. It was also the first broadcast of a musical in color.

Pan, a big-screen feature from Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright is also in the works, with Hugh Jackman and Garrett Hedlund starring.

Fox is also getting into the live musical game, slotting a three-hour production of Grease starring a young ensemble cast for broadcast in 2015. NBC will also be producing a live version of The Music Man, likely following Peter Pan in 2015.

Williams is repped by CAA.Lesley Goldberg contributed to this

report.

ISAAC, KEENER TO TOPLINE HBO’S SIMON MINI HEROBy Lesley GoldbergDAVID SIMON IS BACK IN BUSINESS at HBO.

Seven months after his critical dar- ling Treme ended its four-season run, the premium cable network has greenlit miniseries Show Me a Hero, The Holly-wood Reporter has learned. Crash’s Paul Haggis will helm, with Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) and Catherine Keener (Cap- tain Phillips) attached to star in the six-hour entry.

Based on the nonfiction book by Lisa

Belkin, Hero explores notions of home, race and community through the lives of elected officials, bureaucrats, activists and ordinary citizens in Yonkers, N.Y.

Simon and William F. Zorzi will pen the script and executive produce along-side Nina Noble, Gail Mutrux and Haggis, who will direct via The Wire creator’s A Blown Deadline banner.

Hero is set in an America generations removed from the great civil-rights strug- gles of the 1960s. It centers on a young mayor of a mid-sized American city who is faced with a federal court order that says he must build a small number of low-income housing units in the white neighborhoods of his town. His attempt to do so tears the entire city apart, par-alyzes the entire municipal government and, ultimately, destroys the mayor and his political future.

Isaac will star as Nick Wasicsko, the youngest big-city mayor in the nation who finds himself thrust into the center of a racial controversy. Keener will por-tray Mary Dorman, an East Yonkers homeowner who comes to a remarkable realization during the battle over where to build low-income housing.

Simon, who earned Emmy nomina-tions for his work on HBO’s The Wire and miniseries Generation Kill as well as The Corner, is repped by CAA. Isaac, who next appears in Star Wars: Episode VII as well as Ex Machina and Mojave, is with UTA, Inspire and Stone Meyer. Oscar nominee Keener (Capote, Being John Malkovich), who earned an Emmy nomination for her starring role in Showtime telepic An American Crime, is repped by Gersh.

Hero marks HBO’s latest miniseries. It joins John Turturro starrer Criminal Justice and upcoming Frances McDor-mand entry Olive Kitteridge, which will bow in the winter. The premium cabler has found considerable success with the format, with Parade’s End, Mildred Pierce, The Pacific, Generation Kill and John Adams, as well as Angels in America and Band of Brothers, all earning awards- season recognition.

Williams

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PAGE 11 OF 12

MUSIC NEWS

JULY 31, 2014

By Keith Caulfield, BillboardPOP BAND 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER

splashed in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as the Australian group’s self-titled full-length debut album arrived atop the list. The set sold 259,000 copies in the week ending July 27, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It’s the third-largest debut of 2014, and the fourth-largest sales week. (Cold-play’s Ghost Stories bowed with the year’s largest week with 383,000 units.)

5 Seconds of Summer’s opening also marks the biggest debut for an act’s first full-length album this year, and the larg-est for a new group in nearly eight years. The last group to debut with a bigger bow was Daughtry, when its self-titled debut album started with 304,000 copies in the week ending Nov. 19, 2006.

5 Seconds of Summer’s album follows the group’s four-song introductory EP, She Looks So Perfect, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 earlier this year (selling 143,000 in its first week).

The band’s homeland of Australia can also claim some amazing chart feats with the album’s debut: 5 Seconds of Summer is the first Australian act to debut at No. 1 with its first full-length album. It also logged the largest SoundScan-era sales opening for an Australian act’s first album. (SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.)

5 Seconds of Summer is the second Australian act to top the Billboard 200 in 2014, following Sia, with 1000 Forms of Fear. The band is the first Australian group to hit No. 1 since AC/DC’s Black Ice spent two weeks atop the tally in 2008 (on the charts dated Nov. 8 and 15).

After 5 Seconds of Summer, the long- running Frozen soundtrack rose from No. 5 to No. 2 on the Billboard 200, sell-ing 37,000 units (down 15 percent). The album is spending its 31st consecutive week in the top five.

Last week’s No. 1 album, “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Mandatory Fun, dropped from No. 1 to No. 3 with 33,000 (down 68 percent). Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour climbed from No. 6 to No. 4 with 31,000 (down 12 percent), and Kidz Bop Kids’ Kidz Bop 26 slipped from No. 4 to No. 5 with 27,000 (down 42 percent).

Common’s Nobody’s Smiling is the chart’s second-highest debut, starting at No. 6 with 24,000 units. It’s the artist’s third Top 10 album, and highest-charting set since Finding Forever opened at No. 1 in 2007.

Rock band Crown the Empire is up next on the Billboard 200, entering at No. 7 with The Resistance: Rise of the Runaways (slightly more than 24,000 copies). It’s the best sales week for the Rise Records act, which previously reached the Heatseekers Albums chart with the EP The Fallout. (It did not chart on the Billboard 200.)

The Now 50 compilation held steady at No. 8 with 21,000 units (down 8 per-cent), Jason Mraz’s Yes! tumbled from No. 2 to No. 9 with 20,000 (down 75 per- cent) and Ed Sheeran’s x descended from No. 7 to No. 10 with slightly more than 20,000 (down 16 percent).

Over on the Digital Songs chart, Jason Aldean’s “Burnin’ It Down” fired up at No. 1, debuting with 184,000 downloads sold. It’s Aldean’s first No. 1 on Digital Songs, and his third-largest sales week

(following the 189,000-download debut of “Take a Little Ride” in 2012 and a 189,000-download frame for “Dirt Road Anthem” in 2011). The new single pre-views Aldean’s upcoming studio album, which will arrive before year’s end.

Aldean bumped Magic’s “Rude” from the No. 1 slot, as it fell to No. 2 with 154,000 (down 21 percent). Smith’s “Stay With Me” dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 with 144,000 (down 12 percent) and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” featuring Charli XCX, slipped from No. 3 to No. 4 with 123,000 (down 21 percent). Nico & Vinz’s “Am I Wrong” climbed from No. 8 to No. 5 with 114,000 (up 18 percent), Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” rose from No. 18 to No. 6 with 103,000 (up 61 percent) and Maroon 5’s “Maps” slid from No. 6 to No. 7 with 103,000 (down 2 percent).

Ariana Grande’s “Problem,” featuring Azalea, descended from No. 5 to No. 8 with 100,000 (down 12 percent), Florida Georgia Line’s “Dirt” rose from No. 7 to No. 9 with 95,000 (down 3 percent) and Charli XCX’s “Boom Clap” fell from No. 9 to No. 10 with 87,000 (down 5 percent).

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending July 27) totaled 4.3 mil-lion units, down 2 percent compared with the sum last week (4.4 million) and down 9 percent when stacked against the comparable sales week of 2013 (4.9 mil-lion). Year-to-date album sales stand at 137.8 million, down 15 percent compared with the same total at this point last year (161.2 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 19.4 million downloads, down 5 percent compared with last week (20.4 million) and down 16 percent when stacked against the comparable week of 2013 (23.2 million). Year-to-date track sales stand at 674.9 million, down 13 per-cent compared with the same total at this point last year (775.4 million).

5 Seconds of Summer Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200

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5 Seconds of Summer will play The Forum in Los Angeles in November and tour North America next summer.

PAGE 12 OF 12JULY 31, 2014

FILM REVIEW

GET ON UPBy Sheri LindenIN GET ON UP, FILMMAK ER TATE

Taylor (The Help) propels the story of James Brown with vigor nearly as un- flagging as one of the R&B great’s leg-endary stage shows. If the high-energy feature demonstrates anything, it’s that the self-made superstar was a take-no- prisoners personality whose sense of heroic destiny could be exhausting as well as exhilarating for those around him.

The pic, too, can be wearying, especially in the strenuously scrambled chronology of its early scenes. But under the guidance of producer Mick Jagger, Get On Up is the rare musician’s biography with a deep feel for the music. And in Chadwick Boseman, it has a galvanic core: His performance transcends impersonation, reverberating long after the lights go up.

Despite a “James Brown 101” coda that targets viewers unfamiliar with the Godfather of Soul, the movie is anything but pedantic. Working from a screen-play by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth, Taylor aims, admirably if not always successfully, to break or at least shake up the biopic mold.

Given the draw of an iconic pop-culture figure and his music (new mixes of Brown’s original recordings), as well as the nos-talgia factor for older viewers and what promises to be upbeat word of mouth, Get On Up is primed for a strong chart run. Like Taylor’s previous feature, The Help, it’s an August release with broad appeal, and it, too, will have staying power.

Refusing to sugarcoat a complex and often unlikable man, and rarely lapsing into sentimentality, the film covers most of Brown’s life, with Boseman’s gutsy, uncanny portrayal encompassing his teen years through his 60s. Twins Jamarion Scott and Jordan Scott play Brown as a child, conveying his self-possession and powerful connection to gospel’s ecstatic rhythms. All three actors are called upon to break the fourth wall, addressing the camera in asides that usually state the obvious.

Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in 42, taps straight into the doggedness, grandiosity and self-reliance that kept even those closest to Brown at a remove. A couple of crucial deaths in the story have no dramatic impact because, although a few key relationships are sharply etched as the story jumps back and forth through the decades, it’s the music that propels the action. Thomas Newman’s broody score provides an effective counterpoint to the funkadelic heat.

Re-creating a wide assortment of shows, everywhere from a Georgia road- house to a Paris concert hall and the war zone of Vietnam, Taylor and cinema- tographer Stephen Goldblatt capture the intensity, if not the storied length, of Brown’s concerts. If the “honky hoe-down” corniness that Brown and the Famous Flames find on the set of the Frankie Avalon movie Ski Party feels overstated in its jokiness, Taylor offers the perfect antidote in the super-sexualized fervor of their early shows for black audi-ences. Whatever the venue, Boseman has the dance moves down, splits included.

As central figures in Brown’s life, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jill Scott and Lennie James make the most of brief screen time. A beautifully played scene pairs Davis and Boseman in a decisive confrontation between Brown and the mother who abandoned him years earlier.

But the story’s emotional nucleus, beyond Brown’s drive to perform, is his musical association with singer Bobby Byrd. Imbuing the part with a grounded warmth, Nelsan Ellis is superb, the yin to Boseman’s yang. The bond between Brown and his longtime manager (Dan Aykroyd), on the other hand, never comes alive, veering toward the cartoonish as it traces Big Career Moments.

Broad strokes also shape many of the film’s comments on American racial politics. As in The Help, white bigotry is often reduced to caricature. Yet there are potent, nuanced observations, as well: young James pulling two-tone oxfords off a lynched man; the tension at Brown’s Boston Garden show the night after Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder; and the searing childhood memory of a horrendous form of entertainment once popular with the Southern country-club set.

If Get On Up doesn’t quite succeed at shedding the biopic template, then it finds its own beat in the attempt.

Opens: Friday (Universal). Production: Imagine Entertainment, Jagged Films, Wyolah Films. Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Lennie James, Jill Scott, Octavia Spencer.Director: Tate Taylor. Rated PG-13, 139 minutes.

Dan Aykroyd, left, attempts to manage Chadwick Boseman’s ascendance in Get On Up.