MUMBAI: Paula Abdul has decided not to feature in American Idol for the new season that will be aired on Fox in January.
It is said that Abdul had been asking for a rise over and above $2 million she made last year.
Her decision came a day it was announced that Kara DioGuardi would return in the second season as a judge.
Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson have already confirmed their return to the talent show.
MUMBAI: Michael Raymond James will star opposite Donal Logue in Terriers, FX‘s hour-long comedy pilot to be directed by Shawn Ryan and Ted Griffin.
Terriers centers on Hank (Logue), an ex-cop who partners with his best friend Britt (James) to launch an unlicensed P.I. business in which the duo, both with maturity issues, solve crimes while trying to avoid danger and responsibility. The show will combine stand-alone episodes with overarching mystery.
After casting Logue, the producers were on the search for the right actor to play his partner. The search ended last Tuesday when the name of James was recommended.
MUMBAI: Academy Award-winner Budd Schulberg has expired. Schulberg died of natural causes at his home in Westhampton Beach, N.Y. He was taken to a nearby medical center, where efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was 95.Schulberg won the Oscars for his screenplay in On the Waterfront. He had also penned a portrait of a Hollywood hustler in his novel titled ‘What Makes Sammy Run?‘ He adapted his short story ‘Your Arkansas Traveler‘ about the rise and fall of a popular entertainer for the screen titled A Face in the Crowd which Elia Kazan directed in 1957.
Born Seymour Wilson Schulberg on 27 March, 1914 in Harlem, he was the son of movie producer Benjamin P. Schulberg. While a youngster, his family moved to the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. The elder Schulberg partnered with Louis B. Mayer in an independent production company. But when B.P. Schulberg and Mayer dissolved their partnership, Schulberg‘s father went on to become production head of Paramount Studios.
MUMBAI: Sony studios is producing The Experiment, a remake of Oliver Hirschbiegel‘s 2001 German hit, that debuts Paul Scheuring as a director. Sony will distribute the movie in the U.S. Travis Fimmel has joined the cast playing the role that had to go to Elijah Wood.
Fimmel had earlier starred in A&E‘s The Beast and also appeared in the 2008 comedy Surfer, Dude.
The story of the film is based on an incident at Stanford University in 1971 in which an experiment that sought to find out how ordinary people would react in a prison situation went horribly awry.
Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker star in the psychological thriller in which Brody plays the leader of the prisoners while Whitaker is the lead guard.
Jeanette Buerling and Maggie Monteith are producing the film under their Magnet Media Group banner along with Bill Johnson of Inferno Distribution which will handle the distribution of the film overseas.
The project, which is being currently being shot in Lowa is likely to release next year.
MUMBAI: Writer-producer Peter Tolan is soon launching a TV production company
that will be based at Sony Pictures TV according to a three-year overall deal. Tolan will be partnered by his agent-turned-producer Michael Wimer.
For the last five years, Tolan has had close ties with Sony TV through FX‘s drama Rescue Me which was Sony TV had produced. He co-created the series with Denis Leary and serves as an executive producer. It is for this relation that the new unnamed company landed at Sony after talking to several studios.
Tolan started off with sitcoms like Murphy Brown and Home Improvement before moving into darker territory with comedies like The Larry Sanders Show — for which he won a writing Emmy — and The Job and darkly comic drama Rescue Me.
“After six to seven years shooting for Rescue Me in fire and smoke on the streets of New York, I‘m looking to go back to a soundstage to do a multi-camera comedy series so I can relax a little bit,” he said.
Tolan is already working on several comedy and drama ideas targeted for broadcast. He is also developing a drama earmarked for FX as a potential replacement for Rescue Me which is slated for a sixth and final season next year.
MUMBAI
: Actor Adam Beach will star opposite Steve Austin in The Stranger, an action film being directed by Rob Lieberman.
Nasser Entertainment Group and Caliber Media are financing and producing the film. Jack and Joe Nasser are producing with Caliber‘s Jack Heller and Dallas Sonnier.
The man-on-the-run story follows an FBI agent (Beach) who is tracking down a material witness (Austin) involved in a top-secret investigation.
Erica Cerra, best known from the SyFy series “Eureka” plays a psychiatrist involved in the case.
The shooting of Stranger begins this week in Vancouver.
The Stranger that will be the second film on which Austin, NEG and Caliber have partnered, the first being Damage, a bare-knuckles fight film is scheduled to release in 2010.
MUMBAI: Greg Meidel has been has been given the reins of News Corp.‘s TV syndication division and as president of Twentieth Television, he will oversee all first-run, network and off-network programming
and distribution for Twentieth TV and MyNetworkTV.
It may be recalled that Meidel held the position of president and COO of Twentieth from 1992-95, when he was in charge of all first-run and reality programming for Fox Broadcasting and syndication including America‘s Most Wanted, Cops and A Current Affair.
Meidel also had stints as president of programming at CBS Paramount Domestic TV, where he oversaw first-run programming including Entertainment Tonight, Dr. Phil and Judge Judy and as chairman and CEO of Universal Television Group, where he was responsible for all television properties, including network and first-run production and worldwide distribution of the Law & Order franchise and “Xena: Warrior Princess,” as well as oversight of USA Network.
MUMBAI: Steven Spielberg will direct a remake of 1950 James Stewart classic Harvey.
The film is the tale of a man who claims that his best friend is a giant invisible rabbit. The original film was based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play of the same name by Mary Chase.
A co-production between 20th Century Fox and Spielberg‘s DreamWorks Studios, casting for the film has already begun. The film is expected to go on the floors early next year. A spokesperson of Fox said that the film is expected to release by the end of 2010.
Stewart received a best actor nomination at the 1951 Oscars for his performance in the original while his co-star, Josephine Hull, won best supporting actress.
MUMBAI: Jessica Biel who is known for her work on television including the long-running 7th Heaven, Stealth and The Illusionist made her major musical-theatre debut last weekend, when the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented a three-night run of a concert version of the classic Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl.
Biel, an American actress and former model, has appeared in several Hollywood films including Summer Catch, the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Illusionist and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
MUMBAI: Former Beatle Paul McCartney dedicated a song to Michelle Obama during his Washington, D.C. concert last Saturday night, when he sang “Michelle” in honour of the first lady.
However, Michelle was not in attendance at McCartney‘s show, she having left for vacation at Camp David.
Last November, McCartney had expressed his desire to perform for President Obama and his wife.