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Deadline Hollywood Daily
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Deadline.com
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Sky Pays Shine 40% Less For Programming
 BSkyB paid Liz Murdoch's Shine Group £6 million ($9.3 million) for programming last year, the company said in its annual report. That is 40% less than the £10 million it paid Murdoch, sister of non-executive chairman James Murdoch, and her Shine Group last year. Shows that Shine, the UK's biggest independent TV producer, has made for Sky include a revival of 80s game show Gladiators.
Sky's directors appear confident the company's share price is going to rise further. In June News Corp bid £7.8 billion for the 61% of Sky it doesn't own. News Corp's offer was rebuffed by Sky, which is holding out for 800p a share. Jeremy Darroch, CEO of  BSkyB, has more than tripled the number of shares he owns in Sky to 230,046 compared with 60,000 shares last summer. This means Darroch could collect £6.6 million if the 800p-a-share deal does go through. CFO Andrew Griffith, 39, has been similarly bullish, acquiring 52,000 shares on top of the 5,000 he already owned. Last month, News Corp's deputy chairman Chase Carey appeared to rule out increasing the offer.
Darroch pocketed a 14.6% pay rise in the year to June 30, bumping up his total package to £2.7 million. Darroch hit his performance targets, triggering a £1.7 million bonus. Combined with his £866,250 salary and other benefits, the CEO's total pay was lifted up from £2.3 ... Read More »
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Deadline Advisory: Comments Back On
The technical glitch isn't fixed. But everyone has been howling about the lack of comments so I'm turning them back on. To do this, we now have to perform an extra step. So comments may be slower to appear than usual.
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HBO Greenlights Judd Apatow/Lena Dunham Coming-of-Age Comedy Pilot
   EXCLUSIVE: HBO has given a pilot order to a half-hour comedy project from comedy heavyweight Judd Apatow and hot young prodigy Lena Dunham.
The 24-year-old Dunham wrote the untitled comedy, about the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of girls in their early 20's. She will also direct the pilot, star in it, and co-executive produce. Apatow and writer-producer Jenni Konner, who got her first writing job on Apatow's Fox series Undeclared, are executive producing. Dunham is the writer, director and star of the much buzzed about feature Tiny Furniture, which won the top prize at this year's South by Southwest. It was actually Dunham's second feature, following the 2009 Creative Nonfiction. Like her features, the HBO project is expected to feature autobiographic elements. With so many young people delaying taking on full-blown adult responsibilities until later in life, there is a lot of attention on today's twentysomethings and a lot of talk about the 20s becoming a new life stage called by some "emerging adulthood."
"Lena has a unique, truthful comic voice," Apatow said. "I am excited to work with her and learn from her." Konner said she was "obsessed with working with Lena" since HBO's entertainment president Sue Naegle gave her a copy of Tiny Furniture. "She has a staggeringly honest point of view and hilarious clear vision," Konner said.
If the project goes to ... Read More »
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After Venice/Telluride Premieres of 'A Letter To Elia,' Should Martin Scorsese Start Writing An Emmy Speech?
  After its World Premiere in Venice and North American Premiere at Telluride, the Martin Scorsese/Kent Jones documentary A Letter To Elia will debut on the PBS series American Masters on October 4. The hour-long documentary chronicles the life and career of director Elia Kazan. Just as that was being announced, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment revealed the doc will be featured in a DVD gift box set of 15 Kazan films that include On The Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire and Gentlemen's Agreement. The set hits the streets November 9. The fascinating film was shown Saturday and repeated yesterday, and received enthusiastic response from the cinephiles gathered at Telluride. That included director Alexander Payne, who told me it was his favorite film at the fest (at least up to that point). Scorsese said he and Jones spent many years on the project, "looking at the films, talking about them, looking at the life, the fame, the infamy, and finding the tone, the balance that felt right for this picture." From an awards standpoint, the PBS airing, and the upcoming launch of his HBO series Boardwalk Empire (debuting September 19th) put the perennial Oscar nominee and winner (The Departed) a hot prospect for next year's Emmys. He adds that he's very excited to also have the doc included in the DVD collection, particularly because five of the films have never before been released on ... Read More »
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Robert Schwentke In 'R.I.P.D.' Deal
 BREAKING: Robert Schwentke has locked a deal to direct R.I.P.D., the Universal Pictures supernatural-themed action film that will star Ryan Reynolds. Schwentke, who is creating buzz for the upcoming Bruce Willis-Helen Mirren-starrer Red, will start shooting late next summer, when Reynolds has carved out a slot in his busy dance card. He is shooting The Change Up, followed by Safe House, and then, hopefully, R.I.P.D.
Based on a Peter Lenkov comic published by Dark Horse, R.I.P.D. is a law enforcement division staffed by dead guys. Reynolds plays a cop who is killed in the line of duty and enlists for the chance to stop his killer. He's partnered with a long dead gunslinger. Script was written by Clash of the Titans scribes Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, the duo that also scripted Staycation for Warner Bros and The Boys for Sony. Schwentke is separately attached to direct an adaptation of Robert Ludlum's The Osterman Weekend for Summit Entertainment, which just set Jesse Wigutow for a rewrite. Schwentke is also attached to direct an adaptation of the Robert Kurson novel Shadow Divers at Fox 2000.
Original's Neal Moritz and Dark Horse's Mike Richardson and Lawrence Gordon are producing R.I.P.D. Schwentke's repped by CAA and Jennifer Killoran.
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Apparition Cuts Staff, Nears 'Tree of Life' Distribution Deal
 In a pre-Toronto blow to the indie film community, Bill Pohlad's Apparition has let go almost the entire staff that hadn't been laid off in July. That means about 8 staffers have followed the original cut of about 15 staffers. They got two weeks severance. Not sure what the skeleton crew will draw. Tom Ortenberg remains as a consultant as Pohlad figures out whether to restructure or not.
 This development validates talk I've been hearing that Pohlad has been showing the Terrence Malick-directed Tree of Life to distributors. I understand the film will land shortly. That means Malick has finished it and it will likely factor into an Oscar race which has suddenly gotten interesting with films that include Black Swan and The King's Speech. Tree of Life, which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, was originally going to be the big title on the Apparition slate, but that scenario collapsed when Bob Berney made a surprise exit on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival. Berney is expected to start an indie distribution company at GK Films, though this hasn't been confirmed.
 I'm told the latest layoffs were done because there were no films to distribute, but it doesn't necessarily mean Pohlad is out of the distribution game, though I wonder if his heart is in it. While it was clear ... Read More »
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Fox Picks Up 'Masterchef' For Season 2
Fox has renewed Gordon Ramsay's newest culinary competition series, Masterchef, for a second season. This is Ramsay's third successful series on Fox, following Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. The other person with 3 series on Fox - Seth MacFarlane. Masterchef was the highest-rated summer series among adults 18-49. It is produced by Reveille, Shine TV and One Potato Two Potato.
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Waiting For Godard Might Not Be In Vain
The Academy responds to recent speculative reports that Jean-Luc Godard won't attend the Academy Awards to accept his honorary Oscar:
Statement Regarding Jean-Luc Godard's
Reply to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
In response to Academy President Tom Sherak's letter informing him that the Board of Governors had voted him an Honorary Oscar, Jean-Luc Godard has sent a cordial, hand-written note back to Sherak. In it, Godard graciously thanked the organization for the honor and referred to himself as "the fourth musketeer," in acknowledgement of the fact that three others (Kevin Brownlow, Francis Ford Coppola and Eli Wallach) are among the year's honorees. His note, relayed to the Academy late last week via an assistant to Godard, indicated that, schedule permitting, he would come to Los Angeles for the November 13 Governors Awards event.
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Three More Directors Circle 'Hunger Games'
 UPDATE: I need to add three more directors to the list of filmmakers meeting in New York this week with Lionsgate brass for the feature adaption of the Suzanne Collins bestseller Hunger Games. I'd already reported that Gary Ross, Sam Mendes and David Slade were meeting, but am told that Lionsgate motion pictures group president Joe Drake and producer Nina Jacobson are also meeting with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe director Andrew Adamson; Rupert Sanders, a major British director of commercials including Microsoft's Halo, who has been in the hunt on several of these big films to make his directing debut; and Susanna White, the Nanny McPhee Returns helmer who also directed episodes of the HBO mini Generation Kill and the British minis Bleak House and Jane Eyre. They could expand the field--Francis Lawrence seems a late candidate--but I gather it's down to this group and that a decision should come shortly.
EARLIER: EXCLUSIVE: The next big film directing job in Hollywood will be decided late next week. That's when Lionsgate chooses a filmmaker for The Hunger Games, the first installment of a trilogy based on the Suzanne Collins novel series that many feel could be the next Twilight. I'm told that Lionsgate (partnered with former Disney production topper Nina Jacobson's Color Force) has gotten Billy Ray's rewrite, and will meet with three elite directors next week before making a decision. Gary Ross, Sam Mendes and David ... Read More »
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