Variety reports on a slew of remakes and sequels today. Disney has signed Johnny Depp for a fourth PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie and he will play Tonto in a new LONE RANGER flick (honest, he will!). Warner Brothers is bringing back Will Smith in a prequel to I AM LEGEND. And Sony TV and Geffen Records are developing a remake of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, which will be written by Jeff Rake of CASHMERE MAFIA.
In the Trades Today
Maybe the third time will be the charm…or, rather, CHARMED
Variety reports that ABC has ordered a pilot based on the 1987 movie THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK which, in turn, was an adaptation of the book by John Updike. This will be the third time a network has tried to turn the Jack Nicholson-Cher-Susan Sarandon-Michelle Pfeiffer movie into a weekly series.
In 1992, scribes Carlton Cuse and Jeffrey Boam were behind a "Witches of Eastwick" pilot for NBC. That version starred Catherine Mary Stewart, Julia Campbell, Ally Walker and Michael Siberri.
Fox developed a different version in 2002. The abbreviated-titled "Eastwick," from exec producer Jim Leonard and scribes Jon Cowan and Robert Rovner, focused on the teenage sons of the original witches. Lori Loughlin, Marcia Cross and Kelly Rutherford starred.
The pilot is being written by Maggie Friedman, who has some bewitching experience — she penned an unsold pilot about about a witch-turned-life coach for the CW last season.
Can Dirty Harry be far behind?
Over the last year or so, Rambo, Rocky, John McClane, and Indiana Jones have all emerged from their bungalows at the Motion Picture Home after decades in retirement to do battle in the box-office once again, Geritol in one hand, a syringe full of botox in the other. Now comes the news that Eddie Murphy is returning as Beverly Hills Cop, who was last seen in 1994. Brett Ratner is directing, no writer is set yet.
Statistics Everywhere
There were lots of interesting statistics in Publishers Weekly today relating to retailing and Print-On-Demand.
According to a Bowker study, the Mystery Genre is what Americans read most, accounting for 17% of all books sold. Science Fiction accounts for 5.5%, General Fiction snags 3%, and Horror scares up 2%. The same study also found that chain bookstores account for 33% of booksales while the Internet sells 21%.
A study by the Association of American Publishers found that total industry sales rose 3.2% in 2007 to $25 billion. The largest gain is among adult hardcovers, which are up 7.8%. The "largest overall gains in the year came from the smallest segments." They note that ebook sales jumped 23.6% and audio books rose 19.8%.
PW editor Sara Nelson notes in her column that Amazon accounts for slightly more than 10% of online sales. She doesn’t seem particularly worried about the company strongarming POD presses to use Booksurge, their POD service. She observes that big publishers use POD "only sparingly," that there remain many other venues of POD sales, and that lawyers she has contacted don’t see the grounds for an anti-trust suit.
And in a news brief, Lightning Source has partnered with On Demand Books, the company that makes the Espresso Book Machine that prints novels for readers on the spot. So far, there are a grand total of seven machines in operation…not exactly a major force in book retailing.
NBC Fall Schedule
NBC has already announced their fall schedule — nearly two months earlier than usual. Variety reports that there are some surprises: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE will do a live, prime-time edition on Thursdays, THE OFFICE is hatching a spin-off, and the long-running series SCRUBS and LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT are missing from the schedule (and are presumably cancelled). New drama series include the revamped KNIGHTRIDER, MY OWN WORST ENEMY (starring Christian Slater), CRUSOE (a new take on Robinson Crusoe), and the Tom Fontana-produced series THE PHILANTHROPIST.
You can find the full schedule after the jump.
TNT Has Tess-osterone.
Variety reports that TNT is developing a series set in Boston based on Tess Gerritsen’s bestselling novels. Other shows in development include one about a female reporter who discovers "a magic lamp with a genie." I’m banking on Tess.
United Artists Breaks Ranks?
Nikke Finke is reporting that United Artists has broken ranks with the AMPTP and signed an interim deal with the WGA. If this is true, it’s a huge victory for the WGA and could inspire more AMPTP defections.
The Only Golden Globes the Public Cares About Belong to Pamela Anderson
I love Nikki Finke. In her report on the AMPTP’s inept PR efforts, she writes:
The organization trotted out the respected David L. Wolper to put his name on a Variety
letter comparing the WGA’s "boycott" of the Golden Globes and Oscars to
America’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. (This is
uncomfortably reminiscent of the time Miramax secretly penned an
endorsement of its Gangs of New York director Martin Scorsese
and attributed it to filmmaker Robert Wise. I’m sorry to say this,
because Wolper has always been lovely to me, but his article is
crapola. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The writers didn’t
even picket Brentwood.
Variety Wrong Again
Last week, Variety reporters warned us that we’d be "swift-boated" if we didn’t reply to every ridiculous, inflammatory claim made by the AMPTP. Well, Variety was wrong, as proven by a report in their own pages today that shows the public is solidly behind us.
There’s an image war raging during the WGA strike, and the writers seem to be winning.
Public sympathy sides with the scribes, as a study, released Wednesday, indicates.
[…]The WGA trumpeted a pair of surveys Wednesday showing plenty of
public sympathy with backing of 69% in a Pepperdine poll and 63% in a
SurveyUSA poll, while the companies received a only a smattering of
support with 4% and 8%, respectively.And the announcement came on the same day that WGA West prexy Patric Verrone and SAG topper Alan Rosenberg huddled with multiple elected officials in Washington, D.C., to explain the guilds’ position.
"These
polls prove that the public understands what’s at stake here," Verrone
said in a statement. "Our fight represents the fight for all American
workers for a fair deal."
Let’s Put On a Show
Nikki Finke reports that "High School Musical 2" broke just about every record there is for a made-for-cable movie. For one thing, it was the most-watched cable program AND the most watched basic cable movie of all time. That alone would be remarkable enough, but with 17 million viewers, it ranked as the most-viewed Friday program, cable or broadcast, in the past five years. As Nikki says:
Just shows that TV viewers will respond to good, clean, energetic fun. Not everything has to be edgy.
How many networks do you think will take that message from the numbers? None. What we will see are a lot more teenage musicals.