Phoenix Pictures and Renaissance Literary & Talent are teaming to develop a television anthology based on a series of short stories by prolific mystery writer Cornell Woolrich. Some of the titles to be included in the potential anthology series are A Death Is Caused, After-Dinner Story, Death Sits In The Dentist's Chai…

The Nora Ephron-directed romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle turns 25 today. For Gary Foster, who first read the cross-country romantic comedy as a Jeff Arch spec script and fought for three years to keep its vision intact in the usual creative collisions of star-driven studio films, here provides an illuminating…

At this point, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ governors election looks more like a round-up than a race; more than 180 members have declared their interest in filling 17 contested spots on the 54-member Board of Governors. Voting in the run-off round starts on Monday and ends May 18. That will narrow…

EXCLUSIVE: Mel Gibson, Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne and Mike Medavoy are teaming on Dancing Bear, an adaptation of the hardboiled crime novel by the late James Crumley that is in the early stages at USA Network though Universal Cable Productions. They haven’t greenlighted it yet, but Gibson is aboard to…

EXCLUSIVE: It was one of the hottest scripts on the Black List a few years ago based on one of the most intriguing crimes in Australia over the last 50 years, and it just found a home with Phoenix Pictures Chairman/CEO Mike Medavoy. The company will produce A Country of Strangers from screenwriter Sean Armstrong about…

In only a few short years, Megan Ellison—who started up Annapurna in 2011—has taken a small, vibrant, indie production company and methodically turned it into an impressive mini-major. Those in town are comparing Annapurna to the heyday of Harvey and Bob Weinstein's Miramax, which dominated the '90s, but a more…

EXCLUSIVE: Absolutely Anything, the comedy that stars Simon Pegg and Robin Williams as the voice of his faithful dog — the last feature film that the Monty Python crew have worked on together — has found distribution. Atlas Distribution Co. will distribute the Terry Jones-directed film theatrically. The film also…

Content took center stage today at the U.S. China Film and Television International Expo downtown during a panel discussion that included executives from China and the U.S. At issue was how to make films work for the Chinese marketplace and what “Chinese elements” need to be in place to work. Miao Xiaotian, general…

EXCLUSIVE: What a fitting legacy for Kirk Kerkorian. Because of the late Armenian mogul, the first mainstream film about the genocide of Armenians at the hand of the Turks has finally been produced in Hollywood. Terry George’s The Promise starring A-list talent including Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale had its its…

As U.S.-Cuba relations continue to improve following President Barack Obama’s historic visit, Showtime will examine a period when they were at the lowest: during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The pay cable network has put in development a four-hour limited series based on the book The Armageddon Letters, by James…

A couple of nights ago, I lost a wonderful old friend. I met him in the late 1960s. He and his partner, Irwin Winkler, were making their way as two very prolific producers in Hollywood who could get things done. For an agent, it was always a good idea to find somebody who had close contact with a studio. The late '60s…

The international trailer to The 33, Patricia Riggen’s film about the 2010 Chilean miner drama, has been released and there’s some haunting images here. Similar to how Oliver Stone brought us inside the Twin Towers during 9/11 in World Trade Center, Riggen thrusts us in the midst of the miners’ devastating…