ITV

Category: International

  • Disney eyes teen star Bridgit Mendler

    MUMBAI: It‘s too early to compare 16-year-old Bridgit Mendler to Miley Cyrus or Vanessa Hudgens, but Disney Channel has given her the lead role in a new sitcom called Good Luck Charlie.

    “We just fell in love with her,” said Adam Bonnett, senior vice president original programming at Disney Channel. “She has all the attributes of a Disney star.”


    Disney Channel first cast Mendler on freshman comedy “Jonas,” where she appeared in two episodes playing a love interest for Nick Jonas.


    That was followed by a four-episode stint on Wizards of Waverly Place. In the upcoming arc, Mendler plays “an everyday girl with a sunny disposition who is a blood-sucking vampire,” Bonnett said.


    In her first starring role on Charlie, slated to debut next year on Disney Channels worldwide, Mendler plays Teddy Holliday alongside Disney Channel regular Jason Dolley, who plays her brother Casey. When their parents go back to work full time after having a baby, the care and feeding of their new sister — nicknamed Charlie — falls to the teenage siblings.

  • Keegan Michael Key in ‘Gary’

    MUMBAI: Keegan Michael Key has joined the cast of CBS‘ comedy series Gary Unmarried” as a regular.

    Gary, which returns in the fall for its second season, stars Jay Mohr as Gary, a newly divorced painting contractor juggling custody of his two children, a controlling ex-wife and his hot new girlfriend.


    Keegan will essay the role of Clean, Gary‘s old high school friend, a former minor-league baseball player who had a promising career until sidelined by a knee injury. Gary and Clean reconnect and pick up their friendship where it left off, alternating between best buddies and competitors.


    Season 2 of Gary premieres on 23 September

  • ‘The Crooked Eye’ darling of festival circuit

    MUMBAI: Scheduled to screen at five short film festivals in Los Angeles, D.C. D.C.Douglas‘ The Crooked Eye is quickly becoming a hit of the festival circuit in Tinsel Town.

    Having recently shown at Laemmle‘s Sunset Five theatres on the Sunset Strip in the Dances With Films Festival, the film will now return to the same theatres for the LA Shorts Fest on July 27, as well as the West Hollywood International Film Festival and HollyShorts Film Festival in early August.


    Additionally, the film will screen in the SSG Summer ShortsFest at the state-of-the-art Wilshire Screening Rooms in Beverly Hills at the end of July and the Malibu International Film Festival in early August.


    Narrated by Academy Award winner Linda Hunt and starring Fay Masterson and Katherine Boecher The Crooked Eye follows a day in the life of Sharon (Masterson) as she struggles with a recent divorce and a current perception problem.


    The Crooked Eye is based on the short story of the same name, written by Betty Malicoat.

  • Jolliffe takes over from Justine Bateman

    MUMBAI: The SAG Hollywood Board has appointed David Jolliffe to the seat vacated two weeks ago by Justine Bateman.

    The move sparked a minor controversy as the choice by-passed alternate Marcia Wallace, who had the next-highest number of votes in the last round of elections.


    The MembershipFirst party, which holds the majority on the local board, was criticised by ‘Unite for Strength‘ opponents for violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the Guild‘s constitution.


    Although the Board has the right to name any member it wants, Jolliffe had lost both his national and local board seats in the last round of elections and was removed as chair of the TV/theatrical contract-negotiating committee, which was disbanded this year.

  • Seacrest Inks New Idol Deal

    MUMBAI: Ryan Seacrest has inked a deal with 19 Entertainment that keeps him as host of American Idol through 2012 and includes future entertainment projects with Simon Fuller.

    Seacrest will receive $30 million for the next three seasons plus a $7.5 million signing bonus. 19 Entertainment has already shelled out $15 million for all Seacrest marketing rights related to Idol.


    The deal includes his hosting duties on the hit Fox series, distributed by FremantleMedia, as well as new entertainment projects in collaboration with Fuller.

  • Jason Winer in two-year pact

    MUMBAI: Jason Winer has inked a new two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV.

    Under the seven-figure pact, Winer will serve as co-executive producer for Modern Family in addition to developing, writing, producing and directing other projects for the studio.

    It was five years ago when studio brass invited Winer to develop his short The Adventures of Big Handsome Guy and His Little Friends into a TV series.


    Winer went on to land three consecutive pilot orders in as many years with the single-camera Guy at Fox, Giants of Radio at CBS and This Might Hurt at ABC.

    “Ultimately, everything came together as beautifully as it can in Modern Family for which he took a really funny and innovative script and, through his directing, took it to another level, gave it freshness and authenticity,” 20th TV chairman Gary Newman said.

    The plan for Winer is to write as well as probably supervise a couple of scripts by other scribes and get attached to direct existing 20th projects.

    In 2006, Winer made news when he took the $150,000 he got from 20th TV to write a script and used it to film the full-length semi-scripted pilot “Giants,” which was picked up by CBS for fall consideration along with its far more expensive traditionally produced comedy pilots.

  • Big Valley’ film rolls out

    MUMBAI: Kate Edelman Johnson is planning a return to The Big Valley. The producer is spinning a feature film out of the 1960s TV show co-created by her father, producer Louis F. Edelman, and writer A.I. Bezzerides.

    The Western series, which ran on ABC from 1965-69, starred Barbara Stanwyck as the matriarch of a ranching clan in the 1870s San Joaquin Valley. Lee Majors, Richard Long and Linda Evans were among the regulars.

    Daniel Adams (The Golden Boys) has written the screenplay and will direct. Johnson and Adams‘ Panther Entertainment will produce, with an April start date planned for principal photography in Michigan and New Mexico. Brian and Ethan Gilmore of Capitoline Global Finance, Anthony Gudas of Tax Credit Finance and Scot Butcher are financing.

    Edelman produced such films as White Heat (1949) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942) as well as such TV series as The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and The Danny Thomas Show.

    Bezzerides wrote the 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly and the novel that inspired They Drive By Night (1940).

  • Ryan Reynolds cast as Green Lantern

    MUMBAI: After an long search, Warner Bros. has zeroed upon Ryan Reynolds to play the title character in Green Lantern, the studio‘s live-action movie based on the DC Comics hero.

    Reynolds and his representatives entered negotiations for the part Friday, after the studio held two rounds of screen tests for the actor, Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. Justin Timberlake also did a screen test.


    The film is being directed by Martin Campbell and produced by Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti.


    One reason for the lengthy search process was that De Line, Campbell and the studio each had a different favorite among the finalists, making it difficult to come to a consensus.


    If the deal is completed, it would make Reynolds the only actor to have played heroes for both Marvel and DC. He recently starred in a comic-book movie, 20th Century Fox‘s X-Men Origins: Wolverine in which he played Deadpool, also known as the Merc with a Mouth. The character is being developed for a spin-off in which Reynolds will star. He also played Marvel‘s vampire hunter Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity.

  • Danny Huston to play King Richard in Robin Hood film

    MUMBAI: Danny Huston is soon joining the cast of Universal and Imagine‘s untitled Robin Hood movie that Ridley Scott is now directing.

    Russell Crowe plays the legendary folk hero in the latest retelling of the Robin Hood myth being written by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris and Brian Helgeland. Imagine‘s Brian Grazer is producing along with Scott and Crowe.


    Huston will step into the shoes of the historical figure King Richard, who became known as Richard the Lionheart because of his exploits in the Third Crusade.


    Huston appeared this summer on the big screen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, playing Wolverine‘s nemesis William Stryker, and recently finished work on Clash of the Titans in which he plays Poseidon.

  • Ryan Seacrest in a $45 milllion deal with CKX

    MUMBAI: Ryan Seacrest is Fox‘s 45-million-dollar man. The American Idol host has closed a major new three-year deal with CKX, parent of Idol producer 19 Entertainment, worth $15 million per year. The pact is expected to be announced soon.Under the deal, which is believed to be the richest ever for a reality host, Seacrest will be exclusive to CKX in broadcast TV primetime to host “Idol” or any CKX-produced show that might succeed it.
    The pact gives Seacrest a gigantic pay raise, more than trippling his previous salary of slightly less than $5 million per season.

    Both FremantleMedia, North America and Fox declined to comment on Seacrest‘s new deal. The three-year deal gives CKX exclusivity on Seacrest‘s on-camera services for broadcast TV. Seacrest has a separate cable deal with Comcast and is E! Entertainment‘s lead anchor.

    With Seacrest‘s renegotiation out of the way, the Idol producers will focus on securing the show‘s judges for next season.