Signs of the Apocalypse Roundup – June 2009 – Week 4
Travel Channel hunting down ‘Worst Driver’
New reality series based on an overseas format
Travel Channel has picked up a reality competition series where motorists compete for the title of “worst driver.” “The Streets of America: The Search for America’s Worst Driver” is based on a successful overseas format that Travel has tweaked to closer fit its brand. Each week during the show, bad drivers will compete in challenges in different cities. Although the “winner” is crowed the worst driver, the runners-up who prove more successful are the ones who win “driving-related” prizes.
Endemol, Seinfeld to join in ‘Marriage’
Distributor to make local versions of reality series
Endemol has cut a deal with Jerry Seinfeld to serve as the international distrib for his nonscripted NBC show “The Marriage Ref.” “Marriage Ref” will revolve around couples who hash out their disagreements, major and minor, before a panel of comedians and other celebs. Endemol will produce localized versions of the show as well as shop the segs produced for NBC to foreign TV outlets. It will also manage digital rights, licensing and marketing efforts for the foreign editions.
Fox moves on ‘Deadlock’
Network gives reality show a six-week run
Fox TV Stations is giving a trial marriage to Wedlock or Deadlock. The show follows Dr. Michelle Callahan as she works with couples in determining whether they’re ready to get hitched. Half-hour show will kick off each episode with the couple handing their marriage license over to Callahan. After interviewing the pair, she’ll either return their license or rip it up.
E!, Maxim to produce specials
Deal to last two years
E! has partnered with Maxim magazine in a two-year deal to produce a series of hourlong specials. Cabler will air a minimum of six specs, including two to be telecast before the end of the year — “Maxim’s Celebrity Beach Watch” and “Maxim’s Hottest Moments 2009.” The two entities are also planning “Maxim Does …” specials that focus on parties and travel.
Jessica Simpson returns to reality TV
Joins VH1’s ‘The Price of Beauty’
Six years after she became a breakout reality TV star with MTV’s “Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica,” Jessica Simpson is returning to MTV Networks for a new reality series on VH1 targeted for a 2010 launch. “The Price of Beauty,” a docu-series, will feature Simpson traveling the world to meet every day women as well as some local pop culture icons. Simpson will study local fashions, dietary fads and beauty regimes and even participate in some of the extreme practices she discovers.
Business of the Business
Producer calls indie world to task
Jim Stern touts careful budgeting, more
Producer Jim Stern issued a warning call to the indie business Saturday, saying that if it wanted to endure, it needed to stop working at cross purposes with itself and its financiers. “It’s been hip to disrespect the money,” he said. And “most businesses have a complete plan from the start of a project, which includes the whole chain, from manufacturing through distribution. Ours typically does not! I love Sundance, but it gave rise to a sense of entitlement to personal films,” adding that filmmakers are at a point in the business cycle that “if you make a personal film, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t get an audience, or, even much worse, if it doesn’t get sold.”
New service tracks online interest in TV
Will measure engagement on Facebook, Twitter, Google
Web site creation service Wetpaint has launched a measurement system that tracks fan interest in popular TV shows. Billed as the first measurement tool of its kind, TV Fandex tracks the level of “fan engagement” of popular programs on Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Webpaint’s own network of 1.5 million user-created fan sites.
Nine, Warners renew pact
$500 mil deal brings content to Australia through 2015
In what is being billed as the largest single TV deal ever inked in Australia, Network Nine finally has locked up a renewal of its long-standing output pact with Warner Bros. for series and movies. The total price tag for five more years of content through 2015 is almost $500 million if all escalators kick in and the studio’s slate continues as hefty as it is today. The Aussie arrangement essentially secures for Nine ongoing access to upcoming series from such Warners-based TV producers as Jerry Bruckheimer, John Wells, J.J. Abrams, Josh Schwartz, Kevin Williamson and Chuck Lorre as well as the studio’s entire slate — think three more “Harry Potter” installments, Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” with Leonardo DiCaprio and more “Happy Feet.”
Blu-ray sales up, but homevideo rev dip
Piracy, prices, online availablity drag down sales
Consumer spending on video, DVD and Blu-ray — both retail and rental — outside North America fell to $26.4 billion last year, down 3.6%. This year is forecast to see a further 2.5% decline. Sales of DVDs, which make up 68.6% of homevid spending abroad, totaled $18.1 billion, down 4.7% despite a 6.4% rise in units sold to 1.2 billion, as the average price fell 10.5%.
Australian TV indies defy economy
Power subtly shifts to local programmers
Producers of local shows, the hitherto minnows of the Oz TV biz, are gaining clout. The networks have seen their power eroded by the weak ad market, by the eyeball shift to new media and by new cost-conscious network owners. But audiences want local shows, and given that most broadcasters have dismantled their inhouse production arms, they have little choice but to commission them from indie producers.
Planet of the Odd
How expensive is a Hollywood lawyer?
on Monday, attorneys for the film industry filed papers in the Real DVD case about the rates they are charging. Here’s the declaration. According to the papers, Akin Gump partner Stephen Mick is billing an hourly rate of $703.80, partner Reginald Steer is billing at $765 and counsel Maria Ellinikos is billing at $490. The MPAA may seek additional legal fees on other matters at a later time. A $700 billable hour is about twice as much the average billing rate at a Am Law 200 firm.
Publisher of ‘Potter’ denies plagiarism
Bloomsbury to fight copyright infringement claims
The publisher of the “Harry Potter” books says it intends to fight a lawsuit alleging that author J.K. Rowling stole the idea for the series about the boy wizard. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC is being taken to court in London by the estate of the late author Adrian Jacobs for copyright infringement. “The estate … claims that the book `Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,’ reproduces substantial parts of the works of Adrian Jacobs, ‘The Adventures of Willy the Wizard,’ without consent, and that in selling the books, Bloomsbury has infringed and continues to infringe copyright.”
Cohen Threatened With Guns During Bruno Shoot
The funnyman was shooting scenes for the upcoming film in one of the USA’s southern states last year (08) with a group of deer hunters. But the unsuspecting participants in the movie reportedly became angry when the star, in character as the flamboyant Austrian fashion journalist, stripped off and pranced naked around their campsite. The hunters are then said to have turned their guns on Cohen, who was forced to flee with his film crew, according to British newspaper the Daily Mirror.
Black-Eyed Peas manager charged in Perez Hilton fight
Confrontation happened Sunday at MuchMusic awards
Police have charged Black Eyed Peas manager Liborio Molina with assault after a confrontation with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton at the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto. Hilton first alerted the police via Twitter that he had apparently been involved in an altercation with the Black Eyed Peas entourage at an awards show afterparty during the early hours of Monday morning.
California girl gets dying wish to see movie ‘Up’
A 10-year-old girl desperately wanted to see the new Disney-Pixar movie, “Up.” But the cancer-stricken girl was too sick to go to a theater. Thanks to a family friend who got in touch with the movie studio Pixar, an employee of the Emeryville-based company arrived at Colby’s home with a DVD copy of the movie, The Orange County Register reported Friday. The girl died later that night. Colby’s mother, Lisa, said she had asked her daughter if she could hang on until the movie arrived. “I’m ready (to die), but I’m going to wait for the movie,” she said her daughter replied.
The Fine Print
This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.
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