Magnolia Pictures plans a theatrical release later this year for Jiro Dreams Of Sushi, the David Gelb-directed documentary about the life and work of master sushi chef Jiro Ono. The film premiered at the Berlinale. Kevin Iwashina of Preferred Content brokered the North American rights deal. Fortissimo Film Sales is…

UPDATE, 10:45 AM: The 10-year contract will take the partnership through the 2020-21 season and calls for 100 regular-season games a year, including for the first time a national broadcast on Thanksgiving Friday. The press release is below. PREVIOUS, 9:29 AM: There’s a conference call scheduled for later today in…

Lionsgate has formally announced its acquisition of North American rights to Machine Gun Preacher, the fact-based drama about Sam Childers, a reformed badass who established an orphanage in war torn Africa and then supervised a militia to protect the kids. The film stars Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan and Michael…

Sting is getting into the documentary business. The former Police front man and co-founder of The Rainforest Fund, and his manager/producing partner Kathryn Schenker, bought film rights to The Vertical Farm, the book by Dr. Dickson Despommier that the St. Martin's Press imprint Thomas Dunne Books will publish in…

Fanboys screenwriter Ernie Cline scored a mid-six figure advance from Random House for North American rights to Ready Player One, his debut young adult novel. International rights are being shopped, and the movie crowd will be kicking the tires on it starting tomorrow Farah Films & Management’s Dan Farah and Foundry…

EXCLUSIVE: FX has snapped up the TV rights to this summer's first surprise boxoffice hit The Karate Kid. I hear the cable network quietly made the deal with Sony a couple of weeks before the film's opening, a smart move given the fact that at the time the kid-friendly reboot was tracking only OK and projected to make…

Shanghai, June 11, 2010: On the eve of the Shanghai Film Festival, Fortissimo Films Chairman Michael J. Werner and The Weinstein Company's Bob and Harvey Weinstein jointly announced that The Weinstein Company has pre-bought North American and South African rights to Fortissimo's REIGN OF ASSASSINS (JIANYU JIANGHU)…

New York/Los Angeles – June 9, 2010 Fox International Channels has picked up all International Television and Home Video rights to AMC's first wholly-owned original production series, The Walking Dead, based on a popular comic book franchise by Robert Kirkman. The deal includes a first-run window on all FIC's…

EXCLUSIVE: Just because Brad Pitt had the good sense to bow out of the newspaper industry drama State of Play doesn’t mean he’s not infatuated with the ink-stained wretches who practice the craft. Using their development deal with Reliance, Pitt and his Plan B partner Dede Gardner have acquired screen rights to The Imp…

Simon Fuller has teamed up with former Barclay Capital banker Roger Jenkins to try and buy CKX, the entertainment group which owns the rights to the TV talent show. Jenkins and Fuller have amassed a $1 billion war chest to fund the CKX buyout. They are writing to the CKX board with their offer today. Fuller's offer…

ABC Family has acquired the basic cable TV rights to NBC/DirecTV's high school  drama Friday Night Lights in a deal with NBC Universal Domestic TV Distribution. The deal gives ABC Family the rights to five seasons of the critically praised series whose upcoming fifth season on DirectTV and NBC is expected to be its…

Legendary Pictures has announced a movie rights deal for Mass Effect, the Electronic Arts/BioWare videogame for Xbox 360 that will be co-financed  and distributed by Warner Bros. Mark Protosevich, who adapted Marvel Entertainment’s Thor, is in talks to write the script. The scifi series takes place in 2183 and follows…