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JULY 29, 2015

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F R O M N E W Y O R K T O H O L LY W O O D A N D B E Y O N D …

S Y R A C U S E U N I V E R S I T Y W O R K S

PAGE 2 OF 13DAILY

graphical drama Dallas Buyers Club.Scott’s Martian — a Fox film starring

Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara,

will come well ahead of its U.S. release, which is set for April 6, 2016, outside of the upcoming awards season. Canadian director Vallee also lensed 2013 bio-

JULY 29, 2015

Fox Searchlight’s Demolition will get the plum opening-night slot at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, but its bow will come well ahead of its U.S. release, which is set for April 6, 2016, outside of the upcoming awards season.

By Etan Vlessing

TORONTO — The Toronto Inter- national Film Festival on Tues-day unveiled its first selections,

with Wild director Jean-Marc Vallee’s romantic drama Demolition, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts, set to open the event on Sept. 10.

The 2015 edition of the fest will also host world premieres for Ridley Scott’s The Martian, Roland Emmerich’s Stone- wall and Stephen Frears’ Lance Arm-strong biopic The Program, starring Ben Foster as the disgraced cyclist. Those pics are among the first 13 features tapped to receive gala treatment at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, with Matt Damon, Liam Hemsworth, Salma Hayek, Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Donald Sutherland and son Kiefer Sutherland, Christopher Plummer and Kate Winslet among the stars set to walk its red carpet.

Fox Searchlight’s Demolition will get the plum opening-night slot, but its bow

Toronto: Gyllenhaal, Watts Drama Demolition to Open 2015 Festival

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KRISTINE TSUI ’15 Associate Producer, The Bindery

Filmmaker Media Strategist Photographer Producer Advertising Creative Web DesignerClient Manager Graphic Designer WriterApp Creator Audio Producer Journalist

WE’RE A

TOP 25 FILM SCHOOLBECAUSE OUR

STUDENTS BECOME SO MUCH MORE

THAN FILMMAKERS

ithaca.edu/rhp

Our film students succeed because they become talented, well-rounded media professionals. Ithaca College makes them ready.

At Ithaca College, our film students are not simply film students. From day one, they explore innovative ways to tell meaningful stories. They evolve their understanding of media industry trends—and grow the confidence to reach beyond them. They discover their creative voices, drawing knowledge and inspiration from thought leaders and courses in over 100 programs of study. They develop professional relationships at our immersive satellite campuses in LA, NYC, and London, and gain entry to internships in every corner of the media universe.

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T H E S C H O O L O F C I N E M A A T S F S T A T E N A M E D O N E O F T H E T O P F I L M S C H O O L S I N T H E N A T I O N

B Y T H E H O L L Y W O O D R E P O R T E R

A vital part of the unique, global culture of San Francisco, powered by Silicon Valley’s creative and technological breakthroughs, the School of Cinema at SF State offers one of the most innovative and comprehensive film programs in the world . . . at one of the most affordable universities in America. Oscars, Emmys, Sundance, Cannes—what more could you ask for?

Learn more at cinema.sfsu.eduB.A.

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JULY 29, 2015

MOVIE NEWS

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels and Kristen Wiig — will bow at Toronto ahead of its Oct. 2 domestic release. And Emmerich’s gay-rights historical drama Stonewall, starring Jeremy Irvine and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, gets a gala berth before Roadside Attractions opens the awards hopeful in U.S. theaters on Sept. 25.

Other noteworthy titles screening at the festival include Tom McCarthy’s Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal film Spotlight, which was shot in Toronto and stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Stanley Tucci; Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne as transgender artist Lili Elbe; Johnny Depp starrer Black Mass, which will premiere in Venice; and Cary Fukunaga’s Netflix movie Beasts of No Nation, starring Idris Elba.

Toronto will host a gala world pre-miere for Peter Sollett’s Freeheld, which Lionsgate acquired at the Berlin Inter-national Film Festival and stars Moore and Page. Julie Delpy’s latest directorial turn, Lolo, a satirical comedy in which she stars opposite Danny Boon, Vincent Lacoste and Karin Viarde, will receive a North American premiere. And Wayne Blair’s Septembers of Shiraz, which stars Salma Hayek and Shohreh Aghdashloo, also will debut at the fest.

Roy Thomson Hall will also serve as the site of three world premieres for

Canadian films: Jon Cassar’s gunslinger drama Forsaken, which stars Donald and Kiefer Sutherland; Deepa Mehta’s Beeba Boys, a thriller set in Vancouver’s drug scene; and Paul Gross’ Hyena Road, a war pic set in Afghanistan starring Gross and Rossif Sutherland. Atom Egoyan’s Remember, which stars Plummer, will receive a North American premiere.

There will be a gala first look at the Hemsworth-starring Aussie romantic drama The Dressmaker from director Jocelyn Moorhouse and with Winslet and Judy Davis in lead roles. And Oscar winner Brian Helgeland will receive an

international premiere for his cockney gangster pic Legend, toplined by Tom Hardy and Emily Browning.

Rounding out the Roy Thomson Hall pics is Matt Brown’s period drama The Man Who Knew Infinity, in which Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons play math geniuses.

Festival CEO Piers Handling and artistic director Cameron Bailey on Tuesday also unveiled a raft of Special Presentations titles set to screen at the event, which is set to run Sept. 10-20.

There are world premieres for Jay Roach’s Trumbo, which stars Bryan Cranston as blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo; Maggie Smith-starrer The Lady in the Van, directed by Nicolas Hytner; Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan, a romantic comedy starring Ethan Hawke, Greta Gerwig and Moore; Michael Moore’s latest project, Where to Invade Next; and U.S.-India co-production Parched from Bollywood writer-director Leena Yadav.

The sidebar also includes first looks for Terence Davies’ Sunset Song, star-ring Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan and Kevin Guthrie; Claude Lelouch’s Un Plus Une, an India-set drama featur-ing The Artist star Jean Dujardin; and Florian Gallen-berger’s political thriller Colonia, starring Emma Watson, Daniel Bruhl and Mikael Nyqvist.

The Special Presentations section features world premieres for Desierto,

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F R O M PA G E 2

Matt Damon stars as a stranded astronaut in The Martian.

PRODUCING THE FUTURE

COLLIN SCHIFFLI (BA ’09)Director: ANIMALSDebut feature; winner 2014 SXSW Grand Jury Prize; winner 2014 Chicago Film Critics Association Audience Award

Theatrical and VOD distribution through Oscilloscope

Director: GhostophobiaSecond feature ( in development )

RHEA BOZZACCHI (BA ’12)Director & Writer: vCARDDebut feature in production; initially developed in Columbia College’s Semester in LA program at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood

Director: The web series Between Friends

Writer: Cheat, Cheat, Bang, Bang short film for Fulton Market Films

Intern: Fulton Market Films, Chicago; Hutch Parker Entertainment, L.A.; FilmEngine, L.A.

Cinema Art + Science

THEIR STORIES ARE OUR STORY. WE PRODUCE MORE THAN MOVIES. WE PRODUCE FILMMAKERS.

colum.edu/cinema

LEAH KILPATRICK (BA ’09)Internship: The Producers Guild of America

Assistant to producers: The feature film Water For Elephants

Line producer and performer: Free The Nipple Distributed by Paris-based WTFilms

Actor: The web series 86’d

Blossoming career: stand-up comedy, including in the Pretty, Funny Women ensemble

KYLE HELLER (BA ’08)Founder and Principal: Varient Pictures, Beverly Hills & London

Producer: Medeas Official selection of the 70th Venice International Film Festival; winner of the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s New Visions/New Voices award; winner, Best Director at Marrakesh; sold to TF1 International, France

Founder and president: Cinematique An interactive platform to discover, shop, and share video content online. One of Fast Company’s top ten Most Innovative Companies 2015

PAGE 6 OF 13JULY 29, 2015

MOVIE NEWS

directed by Jonas Cuaron, who co-wrote Gravity with his father, Alfonso Cuaron; Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s ensemble drama Families, starring Mathieu Amalric as an expat Frenchman on a trip home that will change his life forever; Indian director Meghna Gulzar’s Guilty; and Hany Abu- Assad’s The Idol, a film about the first Palestinian to win TV competition show Arab Idol and starring Nadine Labaki.

There are also North American premieres for films first seen in Cannes: Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winner Dheepan; Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin; Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, featuring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Lea Seydoux; Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, the Italian director’s second English-language film starring Harvey Keitel and Michael Caine; Zhangke Jia’s Mountains May Depart; and Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs, starring Gabriel Byrne, Jesse Eisenberg and Isabelle Huppert.

Elsewhere, there are North American premieres for Danish Girl; Tim God- sall’s debut feature Len and Company, an indie starring Rhys Ifans and Juno Temple that debuted in Edinburgh; and Simon Stone’s The Daughter, which bowed in Sydney. The festival has also booked Johnnie To musical comedy Office, Pablo Larrain’s The Club and Jason Bateman’s The Family Fang, adapted from the David Lindsay-Abaire novel and starring Nicole Kidman, Christopher Walken and Bateman.

There are also plenty of Canadian pre-mieres, signaling some will likely play at Telluride first. They include Scott Cooper’s Black Mass; Sarah Silverman’s I Smile Back, which bowed at Sundance; Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria, which won a Silver Bear in Berlin for its cin-ematographer after being shot in one continuous take; Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, an Irish-Canadian co-production; Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes’ Son of Saul; Anomalisa, by directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson; John Crow-

ley’s Brooklyn; and Beasts of No Nation.Fest organizers will make additional

lineup announcements in the coming weeks, including naming the closing- night film.

SHAFT GETTING REMAKE FROM BLACK-ISH CREATORBy Borys KitNEW LINE IS PREPPING TO GIVE moviegoers the shaft.

The company, which opens the reboot of Vacation today, is in development on a

reboot of Shaft, the classic blaxploitation movie from the 1970s.

Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow, an executive producer- writer on ABC’s comedy The Goldbergs, have been tapped to write the script.

John Davis, who pro-duced the upcoming Man from U.N.C.L.E. reboot and the new take on Frankenstein

with Victor Frankenstein, is producing with Ira Napoliello.

The original 1971 movie told of a private detective named John Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree, who is hired to find a missing girl in Harlem. The pic was on the leading edge of blax- ploitation, a new genre that seemed to embrace and empower a rising black culture (although some said it only enforced stereotypes). The soundtrack by Isaac Hayes (the theme is one of filmdom’s classics) also contributed to the pic’s cult status.

Shaft got a slick and polished 21st- century reboot in 2000 from director John Singleton (Samuel L. Jackson played the nephew of the title character).

The new iteration will have a comedic tone. Richard Brener and Samuel J. Brown are overseeing for the studio.

Barris’ Black-ish mixes race and com-edy as it tells of a black family living in a mostly white upper-class neighborhood.

The show’s star Anthony Anderson is up for an Emmy in the category of out-standing lead actor in a comedy.

Barris, repped by CAA, Principato-Young Entertainment and Morris Yorn, also worked on Barbershop 3, which is currently in production, and has a big-screen version of TV show Good Times in development as well as an untitled girls-trip comedy that Will Packer is producing at Universal.

In addition to his work on Goldbergs, Barnow co-created Matthew Perry comedy Mr. Sunshine and was a staff writer on The Family Guy. He is repped by UTA and Hansen Jacobson.

Barris and Barnow previously teamed up for an untitled comedy about a white guy who begins to hear Ice Cube’s voice in his head, which New Line picked up earlier this spring.

JONES JOINING DAMON IN NEW BOURNE MOVIEBy Borys KitTOMMY LEE JONES IS SET TO JOIN

Matt Damon in the next Jason Bourne installment.

Jones will board Universal’s upcoming untitled Bourne sequel that already sees rising female star Alicia Vikander and Bourne franchise player Julia Stiles on the roll call.

Paul Greengrass is helming the action thriller that is in pre-production as it stares down a July 29, 2016, release date.

Plot details are being kept hazy as Bourne’s memory (though you can bet it will involve the former secret agent being on the run), but it is known that the script calls for an established actor in an authoritative bureaucratic role.

Greengrass is writing the screenplay with Christopher Rouse.

Jones recently directed, co-wrote and starred in Roadside Attractions’ Western drama The Homesman (2014) and has Summit’s Criminal — in which he stars alongside Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman and Ryan Reynolds — in the can.

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BUSINESS NEWS

JULY 29, 2015

By Tatiana Siegel and Pamela McClintockRYAN K AVANAUGH’S RELATIVITY

Media is set to lay off as many as 50 em- ployees this week (and possibly more) as the financially-embattled studio

could file for bankruptcy as early as today, sources close to the company told The Hollywood Reporter.

The 11-year-old studio, which declined to comment, owes hundreds of million

in debt and is scrambling to come up with the money before today. Kavanaugh has been unable to meet a number of pay- ment deadlines, including another key deadline Monday, according to sources. In recent days, lenders have been work-ing to strike an agreement whereby he exits the company once bankruptcy papers are filed, sources said.

Dozens of Relativity employees are expected to receive pink slips, although one source said Relativity president Tucker Tooley has been asked by the lenders to stay and manage the company. Likewise, president of film production Robbie Brenner is expected to stay in her position, according to the source.

Some 350 people currently work at Beverly Hills-based Relativity.

On the film side, there will be layoffs in development, production and physical production. Other units of the company, including TV, digital and branding, are likely to take major hits. The company has long been criticized for its large overhead, given that its business model is based on films expected to earn less than $100 million worldwide.

Red, the joint distribution venture between Relativity and Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp, isn’t likely to be impacted.

Adding insult to injury, insiders say those being laid off won’t receive any severance.

Sources close to the both Relativity and the lenders say the clock has not yet run out on Kavanaugh to come up with the money to service the debt. Former film financier Michael Pierce, who backed the 2003 William H. Macy- Alec Baldwin drama The Cooler, said he is in talks with Relativity to invest $50 million in equity into the company if its debt issues are resolved before a bankruptcy filing.

“It’s an asset that can be plugged into a lot of businesses I’m currently invested in,” said Pierce, a tech indus-try venture capitalist who heads up Digi Ventures. “I’m very interested in Relativity’s reality TV assets and their Netflix output deal. They would marry well with my overall entertainment investing strategy.”

Earlier this month, Relativity reached an agreement with the Toronto-based Catalyst Capital to purchase Relativity’s senior debt of $130 million, but Rela-tivity’s subordinated debtholders, led by Anchorage Capital, exercised an option to buy out Catalyst’s stake, putting Kava- naugh back at square one. Kavanaugh subsequently accused Relativity lender Colbeck Capital of orchestrating a pred-atory buyout scheme.

There are several scenarios for what happens if Relativity goes into bank-ruptcy. Lenders could get their money back by selling the company, or they could end up owning Relativity and appointing new leadership. And Kava-naugh could still buy the company back if he finds a new equity partner. Pierce said he is in parallel talks to invest with Kavanaugh under such a scenario. Rela-tivity declined to comment on any talks with Pierce.

Relativity has a number of movies set for release, but their fates are unclear. Last week, Sony sent a letter to Rela-

tivity stating its intention to terminate Relativity’s deal for U.S. rights to The Bronze, according to sources. Relativity struck the $3 million pact with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions after the comedy — written by and starring The Big Bang Theory actress Melissa Rauch — debuted in January at the Sundance Film Festival.

Letters of termination are sent when a distributor has failed to satisfy, or “cure,” various provisions of a con-tract. (A notice of termination would follow a cure letter). Sony and Relativ- ity declined to comment regarding The Bronze, which was produced by the Duplass brothers.

Sources also said another high- profile project in question is Autobahn, the action film now titled Collide that stars Felicity Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley,

Numerous sources said Relativity titles are being shopped around town by worried producers, although the company is intent on holding onto Masterminds, a comedy starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis, and Halle Berry action film Kidnap. In recent weeks, the release of both films has been pushed back, with Masterminds moving from August to October and Kidnap now set for February.

The fate of other upcoming releases is unclear, including horror film Before I Wake, directed by Mike Flanagan and set for release Sept. 25, and The Dis-appointments Room, a psychological thriller directed by D.J. Caruso that is likewise slated to hit theaters Sept. 25. (Generally, no company releases two films on the same date.)

Insiders say if lenders restructure the company and provide a cash infusion, many of the films could still be released by Relativity.

Major Layoffs to Hit Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media

Kavanaugh

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TV NEWS

JULY 29, 2015

By Lacey RoseNETFLIX’S TED SAR ANDOS GOT THE

TV industry’s semi-annual press tour started Tuesday with his turn on the hot seat.

The streaming company’s chief content officer used the platform at the Tele-vision Critics Association’s summer event to plug Net-flix’s remarkable growth, both in terms of original programming and cultural impact. Sarandos reminded the Beverly Hilton ballroom that in early 2013, his streaming service had just two shows, which he noted “was hardly enough to get [critics’] attention for very long.” Two and a half years later, he was back on stage with 34 Emmy nominations and 475 hours of original fare to tout: 16 scripted dramas and comedies, nine original documentaries, three docu- mentary series, 12 comedy specials and 17 kids shows.

During his half hour or so before the press, Sarandos spoke openly about Net- flix’s greenlight philosophy — “something special for every taste” — and his contin-ued desire to bet on talent and then get out of its way. (And yes, that includes Pixels’ punching-bag Adam Sandler, whom he still staunchly supports.) Though the service’s all-at-once roll-out strategy has been knocked in recent months, Sarandos said he remains bullish on the once “radical” approach. In fact, he noted that doing so had started a trend, adding to laughs: “Hashtag Aquarius, or some-thing like that.”

From live sports to those pesky viewer metrics that Sarandos (still) won’t share, here are Tuesday’s key takeaways:

About those ratingsThough he stopped short of revealing

any kind of hard viewer data, Sarandos

insinuated that Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and Daredevil are the service’s biggest original offerings. “You can feel it in the culture that [they’re] getting a big, broad audience,” he said of the trio. Still, Sarandos once again stressed that Netflix’s goal is not to reach all 65 million at once, but rather to target passionate subsets with each of its series. And if you could stop asking about ratings, he’d appreciate it.

In defense of SandlerSandler may have had a rough weekend

— disappointing at the U.S. box office and the subject of vicious takedowns in the media — but Sarandos, who made a four-film commitment to the star, remains a fierce supporter. “I definitely don’t have to defend Adam Sandler. The movie did $24 million domestically, $25 million internationally, and a third of our sub- scribers are outside of the U.S.,” he told the room, adding: “That’s why we made a deal with Adam Sandler, because he’s an enormous international movie star. That $25 million opening for Pixels is pretty respectable and I think it will continue to grow. We are more encour-aged than ever.”

Fuller House may get even fullerProduction is underway on Fuller

House, which is being billed as a modern take on the late 1980s comedy without losing the spirit of the original. Sarandos noted from stage that the series’ lone holdouts, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, are “teetering” on whether or not to join their former co-stars, and he added post-panel that the twins could return for a guest spot. As for the inspiration: The family comedy has remained relevant in the culture, and reviving it offered Netflix an opportunity for multi-generation co- viewing. Now if only Netflix had SVOD

rights to stream the original, which — to Sarandos’ chagrin — is still tied up in other deals for a few more years.

Arrested Development developments?The Netflix honcho had no official

news to report on another installment of Arrested Development, though he remains hopeful and committed to get-ting it locked down — and only in part so that he can stop getting asked about it. Sarandos added that the delay can be attributed to the complexities of talent schedules and deal-making with owner 20th Century Fox TV. “Our intent is to have another season of Arrested,” he said (again), adding: “All of the negotiations are underway.”

Sorry Hulu, Sarandos isn’t impressedThe exec argued that Netflix’s aggres-

sive push into originals was “not really a reaction to the competitive market- place,” but rather “a move to differentiate [it] in terms of exclusive access to great programming.” In fact, Sarandos pointed to Hulu’s recent and much ballyhooed investment in Seinfeld repeats to illustrate the challenges of securing exclusivity in the acquired space. “While that was a very rich deal, it’s remarkably not that exclusive,” he said from stage. “Those epi-sodes are on TBS, they’re on demand on TBS, they’re on Crackle.” He went on to argue that by creating original program- ming, Netflix doesn’t have to navigate all those complexities of existing outputs deals in other countries and existing output deals through other networks.

His way is better ... or at least saferTo that end, producing original fare

gives Netflix a greater ability to control the launch of his series. “It gives us the ability to launch internationally at the

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Sarandos

Netflix’s Sarandos Talks Sandler,Fuller House, Arrested Development

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TV NEWS

JULY 29, 2015

same moment we launch in the U.S., which is a great deterrent for piracy,” added Sarandos. “In all those license deals where they have staggered win-dows around the world, piracy for U.S. television is enormous. It’s always talked about in movies, but in many parts of the worlds, U.S. television is stolen at a much bigger rate than movies.” So yeah, he’s all about originals.

Marvel, Marvel and more MarvelSarandos whet Marvel fans’ appetites,

noting they can expect two Defender group launches per year. “Ideally there will be a rhythm of about every six months you’ll get a new season or a new series from the Defender group,” he said, “and then they’ll crossover and do a combined season once we’ve launched the first sea- son of each of the four characters.” Earlier in the day, Netflix confirmed that its second Marvel series, Jessica Jones, will launch later this year.

Cosby is (still) no laughing matter As the Cosby saga wages on in the

media, Sarandos said that he remains committed to keeping its scrapped 2014 Cosby stand-up special, Bill Cosby 77, offline. “I don’t think its appropriate to release [the special] now,” he told report-ers in a post-panel scrum. He added defensively of his company’s decision to continue distributing Cosby Show DVDs: “The [Cosby Show] DVDs might still be in the library ... that business is more about the completeness of things published on DVD. The Cosby Show is produced by NBC and owned by Carsey-Werner; [Bill Cosby 77 was] produced by Netflix and branded Netflix. The classic show is on iTunes, it’s on Amazon, it’s on all these other places, too. It think it’s appropriate.”

Don’t expect live sports ... for nowSarandos has both the reach and the

resources, but for the time being he insists live sports doesn’t make sense for the on- demand service. Though he stopped short of ruling it out forever, Sarandos noted

that “today the real benefit of watching on Netflix is the consumer control and not the group think of it.”

TV RATINGS: E! SHOW CAITDRAWS 2.7 MIL VIEWERSBy Michael O’ConnellTHE LONG WAIT FOR I AM CAIT ENDED

Sunday night with the premiere of E!’s latest reality series — and while Caitlyn Jenner’s first solo reality vehicle definitely popped, initial ratings might not be as high as many would have guessed.

Per live-plus-same day Nielsen rat-ings, the first episode of Cait brought an average audience of 2.73 million viewers. That’s slightly stronger from a typical night-of showing from Keeping Up With the Kardashians. (Jenner’s original E! entry hasn’t topped 3 million night-of viewers since 2013.)

Among those 2.73 million viewers, more than half (1.5 million) were adults 18-49. And, with a total of four airings across the night, the premiere did gross 6.2 million viewers. As for night-of, E! (and all NBCUniversal cable networks) now wait until at least live-plus-three-day ratings are in before issuing releases. E! will have share initial time-shifting and other stats later in the week.

Jenner set a very high ratings bar back in April when a sit-down interview with Diane Sawyer brought records for ABC’s 20/20 and 17 million viewers. The hot streak continued with a special episode of E!’s Keeping Up, “About Bruce,” which set a three-year high (4.2 million view-ers) for the parent series. Earlier in July, Jenner’s appearance on ABC’s ESPYs telecast coincided with a significant bump and nearly 8 million viewers.

Cait will have a shorter run, at least where reality is concerned, running another seven episodes this summer. The smaller order certainly adds to the event billing the series has been given, which already boasts an in-depth look at a public figure who’s been the subject of considerable interest of late.

LATIFAH, BLIGE JOIN CASTOF NBC’S LIVE MUSICAL WIZBy Lesley GoldbergNBC’S LIVE MUSICAL THE WIZ HAS

enlisted some musical heavy-hitters.Queen Latifah and

Mary J. Blige have joined the cast, producers said Tuesday.

NBC’s The Wiz, set for Thursday, Dec. 3, will again be executive produced by Sound of Music and Peter Pan duo Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, with Tony-winning director Kenny Leon attached to direct both the live event as well

as the Broadway revival in 2016-17. Tony winner and Broadway icon Harvey Fier-stein will contribute new material to the original book by William F. Brown and work alongside Zadan, Meron and Leon.

Latifah will portray Wiz, while Blige is on board as Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West. They join a cast that includes Stephanie Mills — who starred as Dorothy in the original Broadway production — as Aunt Em in NBC’s live musical. A casting search is under way for the role of Dorothy.

Latifah’s musical credits include Chicago and Hairspray, while Blige is a nine-time Grammy winner. The casting reunites Latifah with Zadan and Meron.

NOTARO SET TO CO-WRITE, STAR IN AMAZON COMEDY By Lesley Goldberg TIG NOTARO IS READY TO TURN HER

life into a scripted comedy.The stand-up comedian — currently

the subject of an HBO comedy special and Netflix documentary — is set to star in and co-write a semi-autobiographical comedy for Amazon, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

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Latifah

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Blige

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TV NEWS

JULY 29, 2015

The untitled comedy, which has landed a pilot order at the streaming service, will be written by Notaro and Oscar winner Diablo Cody (Juno). Notaro and Cody will executive produce the single- camera entry alongside Louis C.K. The

Notaro project hails from C.K.’s FX Productions-based Pig Newton banner. 3 Arts’ Dave Becky and Blair Breard (Louie) are also attached as executive producers.

Here’s the logline: “Tig Notaro has just recovered from an abdominal disease that has left her gaunt, wasted, exhausted and pretty much stripped of everything except her finely honed sense of the absurd. Abruptly summoned home to Pass Christian, Miss., to take her ailing mother off life support, Tig finds her-

self dealing with her clingy girlfriend, her dysfunctional Gulf Coast family and the loss of the one person who held everything together.”

The comedy was initially set up as a script deal at FX but recently moved to Amazon where it was picked up to pilot.

FXP and Amazon declined comment.The deal expands Notaro and C.K.’s

relationship after the latter used his web- site to release her 2012 stand-up show in which she addressed the death of her mother as well as recent health issues and personal struggles after being diag-nosed with cancer in both breasts.

For her part, the openly gay Notaro wrapped a nationwide stand-up tour in January after the emotional special — which was later released on iTunes — took off. She scored a Showtime docu-mentary, an HBO comedy special and Netflix documentary, all of which are set for this year.

Notaro, who has been featured on The Sarah Silverman Program and fre-quently collaborates with the comedian,

has also appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and popped up in Trainwreck.

Louie star C.K., meanwhile, is producing FX’s Zach Galifianakis comedy Baskets and is attached to direct the cable net- work’s Pamela Adlon half-hour pilot Better Things, both via Pig Newton.

Notaro is repped by Integral Enter-tainment and Ziffren Brittenham; C.K. is with 3 Arts and Sloane Offer; and United States of Tara alum Cody, who next has Ricki and the Flash due in theaters, is with WME, MXN and McKuin Frankel.

TV LAND’S SOUL MANTO END AFTER SEASON 5By Lesley GoldbergTV LAND’S THE SOUL MAN IS SET TO

return for a fifth — and final — season.The Viacom-owned cable network

announced Tuesday that it has renewed the Hot in Cleveland spinoff for a fifth run that will bring the multicamera comedy to a close. The 12-episode final season leaves The Exes as TV Land’s lone multi- camera entry as the cabler continues to target younger audiences with its single- camera push.

The Cedric the Entertainer-toplined series ranks as TV Land’s highest-rated original comedy among African-American viewers ages 25-54, and it has averaged a 2.2 rating among adults in the demo.

“We appreciate the fans and all the love the show has received over the years, and we plan to give the viewers some-thing very special this season,” TV Land executive vp development and original programming Keith Cox said Tuesday in a statement.

The comedy hails from Sean Hayes’ Hazy Mills Productions banner and is executive produced by Hot in Cleveland creator Suzanne Martin, Cedric, Eric Rhone and showrunners Bill Martin and Mike Schiff.

For TV Land, the news comes as the cable network has shifted its focus to a younger audience with single-camera fare including Younger, Teachers, Impastor,

The Jim Gaffigan Show and more. The cabler recently picked up single-camera pilot I Shudder starring Hamish Linklater and also is developing a half-hour inspired by the life of The Real Housewives of Bev- erly Hills’ Kyle Richards with John Wells attached and a Groundlings comedy from Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone.

TV Land bid farewell to Hot in Cleve-land after its sixth season earlier this year. The Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White starrer was the cabler’s first original scripted comedy. Soul Man joins Kirstie, Happily Divorced and Jennifer Falls in the can-celed category at the network.

NETFLIX RENEWS BOJACK, CANCELS LILYHAMMERBy Lesley GoldbergNETFLIX KICKED OFF THE TELEVISION Critics Association’s summer press tour Tuesday by handing out a renewal for animated comedy BoJack Horseman and set premiere dates for series including Longmire and its upcoming Aziz Ansari scripted comedy.

Will Arnett’s BoJack Horseman will be back for a third season, with the pickup coming less than two weeks after the comedy returned for its sophomore run. It was created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and is produced by Michael Eisner’s Tornante Co.. Steven A. Cohen and Noel Bright executive produce alongside Arnett and Aaron Paul. BoJack Horseman was designed by Lisa Hanawalt and animated by ShadowMachine and will be back for another batch of 12 episodes.

Meanwhile, Steven Van Zandt drama Lilyhammer’s third season — which bowed in November on the streaming service — will be its last.

“We’re not going to continue with Lily- hammer, it’s become a very economically challenged deal because there’s a partner- ship with the Norwegian broadcaster,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was very

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difficult to maintain the level of global exclusivity and control that we hope to with our shows with that show and the way it was structured with the Norwegian broadcaster. We’re big fans of the show.”

Elsewhere, the fourth season of A&E transplant Longmire will debut Sept. 10 in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The 10-episode season picks up moments after the finale, in which Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) found out who was behind the murder of his wife and takes off after the killer.

Parks and Recreation alum Ansari will return to the small screen on Nov. 6 with Master of None, a show based on the professional life of Dev (Ansari), a 30-year- old actor in New York who has trouble deciding what he wants to eat, much less the path for the rest of his life. Dev’s story takes him through subjects as diverse as the plight of the elderly, the immigrant experience and how to find the most delicious pasta for dinner. The Universal Television series was created by Ansari and Parks alum Alan Yang, and both will executive produce alongside Parks show-runner Mike Schur, with Dave Becky and David Miner also on board.

Set to debut in the fourth quarter of this year are With Bob and David, a comedy starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, and Marvel’s Jessica Jones, starring Krysten Ritter and David Ten- nant. Sofia Coppola’s A Very Murray Christmas starring Bill Murray and a featuring cast including George Clooney, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph, Rashida Jones and Miley Cyrus, among others, is also due in the fourth quarter, along with the previously announced third and final season of horror-thriller Hemlock Grove. Bill Burr’s animated comedy series F Is for Family will also debut in the fourth quarter. Exact dates will be announced later.

And Chelsea Handler’s documentary film series Chelsea Does will launch in 2016. It is comprised of four films that feature Handler taking on marriage, racism, technology and drugs.

KEATON TO STAR OPPOSITE LAW IN MINI YOUNG POPEBy Kate StanhopeDIANE K EATON IS HEADED TO HBO.

The Oscar winner has signed on to star opposite Jude Law in upcoming miniseries

The Young Pope, The Holly-wood Reporter has learned.

The eight-part project centers on a fictional Amer-ican pope, Pius XIII (Law), born Lenny Belardo, who becomes the most conser-

vative leader the Catholic Church has ever seen. Stubbornly resistant to the Vatican courtiers yet full of compassion toward the weak and poor, he faces the prospect of losing those closest to him — even his God.

Keaton will play Sister Mary, a nun from the U.S. now living in Vatican City.

Young Pope is the first-ever TV series from Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty). He will direct all eight episodes, as well as write all eight with Tony Grisoni, Umberto Contarello and Stefano Rulli.

Young Pope is being produced by Wildside (1992) and co-produced by Haut et Court TV. Executive producers for Wildside are Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani, together with John Lyons, former Focus Features president of production. Executive producers for Haut et Court TV are Caroline Benjo, Carole Scotta and Simon Arnal.

The series, which will shoot in Italy, is a joint production of HBO and Sky.

The role brings Keaton back to HBO, where she produced the network’s 2003 Gus Van Sant film Elephant, which won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Keaton also starred in HBO pilot Tilda, a blogger comedy inspired by Deadline Hollywood creator Nikki Finke. The network passed on the project in 2011.

For HBO, Young Pope comes as the pay cabler looks to launch new dramas following the conclusions of True Blood, Boardwalk Empire and The Newsroom.

Keaton’s credits include The Godfather, Annie Hall and Something’s Gotta Give, among many others. She is repped by WME and Gendler & Kelly.

NBC CANCELS COMEDYWELCOME TO SWEDENBy Lesley GoldbergNBC HAS CANCELED SOPHOMORE comedy Welcome to Sweden, star Greg Poehler announced Tuesday.

The series, a Canadian acquisition produced by Entertainment One TV4, FLX and Syskon, has been pulled from the network’s schedule following some “craptastically low ratings,” Poehler wrote on Instagram, where he revealed the news. NBC confirmed that the series will be pulled from the air, with a repeat of Hollywood Game Night set to air Sun-day from 8-9 p.m., with NFL coverage taking over the following week.

The Sunday comedy most recently drew a 0.3 and 0.2 rating among adults 18-49 in its most recent back-to-back broadcasts. Last season, the series averaged a 0.8 rating among adults 18-49 and 2.9 million total viewers in live-plus-same-day returns. The show, which counts Amy Poehler among its executive producers and guest cast, opened to a 0.9 among the key demo and 3.5 million total viewers, becoming the second-highest-rated summer com-edy debut among seven on the Big Four networks in the past five years.

Welcome to Sweden was one of several original scripted series broadcast on NBC last summer as originals have become more commonplace during the typically lower-rated season.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would replace Welcome to Sweden on NBC’s schedule. The network also recently announced it would air Craig Robinson’s long-gestating Mr. Robinson over three weeks with The Carmichael Show following suit, leading critics to question what the network’s summer originals strategy was.

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TV REVIEW

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER: FIRST DAY OF CAMPBy Keith UhlichTEMPOR AL MATTERS HAVE LITTLE meaning in the world of Maine’s Camp Firewood — which might explain why David Wain and Michael Showalter have set Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, the funny follow-up to their gut- busting 2001 screen comedy Wet Hot American Summer, two months prior to the events of the original.

It’s all part of the joke, and at least in the first six of eight episodes to air on Netflix, none of the characters acknowl- edges the chronological contortions — despite the fact the actors reprising their roles are all noticeably older (and often portlier). The result resembles Meatballs by way of Samuel Beckett.

The movie was set during the last day of Camp Firewood’s season, while the miniseries is set on the first day. This allows Wain and Showalter — the latter returning as the hopelessly love-deluded Gerald ‘Coop’ Cooperberg — to fill in back- stories and introduce new characters.

They have four hours (each episode is 30 minutes), and the strain sometimes shows. The first installment, which reintroduces campers and counselors

(Paul Rudd’s misogynistic horndog Andy gets a terrific entrance), is mostly throat-clearing, but things quickly pick up. The most inspired stroke was making Christopher Meloni’s military man-turned- cafeteria cook Gene into a prissy milque-toast engaged to neurotic arts and crafts instructor Gail von Kleinenstein (Molly Shannon). Their are also giggle-inducing new wrinkles, like a covert assassin (Jon Hamm) who is sent by President Reagan (Showalter) to kill counselors, as well as returning favorites like theater-obsessed counselors Ben (Bradley Cooper) and Susie (Amy Poehler).

In the movie, all the silliness added up to something transcendent. When Kevin Sussman’s socially inept, frog- voiced Steve effectively performed a blow- ’em-out-of-their-seats miracle during the frenetic climax, it felt strangely revelatory — a sneakily generous gesture

in a comedy otherwise content to remain an under-the-radar cult item. The mini- series is working under different pre-tenses: It has a loyal fanbase and more wide-ranging clout, to the point that it can attract performers like Hamm, John Slattery, Jason Schwartzman, Kristen Wiig and Chris Pine while also being forced, to varying degrees, to service the excessively marinated expectations of WHAS devotees. The underdog’s become the cool kid, and that’s a tricky space to navigate.

Wain and Showalter mostly acquit themselves, and for every dud plotline there’s a correspondingly uproarious one. It’s not clear if First Day of Camp will, in toto, achieve the ecstatic heights of its predecessor. Maybe it’s enough that, moment to moment, it makes you laugh.

Premiere date: Friday (Netflix).

It’s show time for Amy Poehler and Bradley Cooper on Wet Hot American

Summer: First Day of Camp.

JULY 29, 2015 PAGE 13 OF 13

R=Repeat D=Debut S=Special most viewers in time period

18-49 RATING/SHARE Title of Show MILLIONS OF VIEWERS

TV RATINGSWeek 44July 29 ABC CBS NBC FOX CWMON8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30

1.6/5 5.82.1/8 The Bachelorette: 7.61.9/7 The Men Tell All 6.71.9/6 1.9/7 7.0 6.81.9/6 6.80.9/3 The Whispers

0.8/3 3.33.5

0.8/3 3.1

0.8/3 5.00.8/3 2 Broke Girls R 4.60.9/3 Mike & Molly R 4.80.7/2 Scorpion

0.7/2 4.3 R4.3

0.6/2 4.40.7/2 NCIS: Los Angeles

0.7/2 5.9 R5.7

0.8/3 6.1

1.7/6 5.61.7/7 6.02.0/7 American Ninja Warrior 6.52.3/8 2.1/7 6.7 7.12.3/8 7.11.3/4 Running Wild With Bear Grylls

1.1/4 3.33.7

1.0/3 3.0

1.0/4 3.21.1/4

So You Think You Can Dance1.0/4 3.2

3.60.9/3 3.11.0/3 3.20.9/3 3.1

0.4/1 1.40.5/2 Penn & Teller: Fool Us

0.5/2 1.81.8

0.5/2 1.80.4/1 Whose Line Is It Anyway? 1.40.2/1 Cedric’s Barber Battle 0.8

TUE8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30

0.6/2 2.30.7/3 Fresh Off the Boat R 2.70.6/2 Black-ish R 2.20.5/2

Extreme Weight Loss0.6/2 2.3

1.90.6/2 2.10.6/2 2.40.7/3 2.7

0.9/3 6.60.8/3 NCIS

0.8/3 7.5 R7.3

0.8/3 7.81.0/4 Zoo

1.0/4 6.76.9

1.0/4 6.50.8/3 NCIS: New Orleans

0.8/3 5.5 R5.6

0.8/3 5.3

2.0/7 8.62.0/9

America’s Got Talent2.3/9 10.5

9.72.3/9 10.72.4/9 10.92.4/8 10.71.3/5 Hollywood Game Night

1.3/5 4.75.0

1.2/4 4.3

0.7/2 2.10.8/3 So You Think You Can Dance

0.8/3 2.5 S2.6

0.7/3 2.30.6/2 Knock Knock Live

0.6/2 1.7 D1.9

0.5/2 1.6

0.3/1 0.80.3/1 The Flash

0.3/1 1.0 R1.0

0.3/1 0.90.2/1 iZombie

0.2/1 0.7 R0.7

0.2/1 0.7

WED8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30

0.8/3 2.90.7/3 Black-ish R S 2.90.6/2 Black-ish R S 2.60.8/3 Black-ish R S 3.00.8/3 Black-ish R 3.20.8/3 Modern Family R S 2.80.8/3 Modern Family R S 2.7

1.1/4 5.01.9/8 Big Brother 6.11.7/7 1.8/7 5.8 5.50.7/2 Extant

0.7/2 4.44.4

0.7/2 4.40.7/2 Criminal Minds

0.7/2 4.9 R4.7

0.7/3 5.2

1.4/5 6.01.2/5 America’s Got Talent: Best Ofs 5.71.3/5 1.2/5 5.7 R 5.81.7/6

Last Comic Standing1.5/6 6.1

6.61.7/6 6.51.5/5 5.81.4/5 5.5

1.2/4 3.81.4/6 MasterChef

1.5/6 4.74.5

1.5/6 4.80.9/3 Home Free

0.9/3 3.0 D3.0

0.9/3 3.0

0.2/1 0.90.3/1 Arrow

0.2/1 1.0 R1.1

0.2/1 0.90.2/1 Supernatural

0.2/1 0.8 R0.8

0.2/1 0.8

THU8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30

0.7/3 3.50.7/3 The Astronaut Wives Club

0.6/3 3.84.0

0.6/2 3.60.7/3 Mistresses

0.7/3 2.93.0

0.7/3 2.90.8/3 Rookie Blue

0.8/3 3.83.7

0.8/3 3.9

1.4/6 5.71.5/7 The Big Bang Theory R 7.31.2/5 Mom R 5.71.9/8 Big Brother

1.9/7 5.86.0

1.8/7 5.61.0/4 Under the Dome

1.0/4 4.64.7

1.0/4 4.5

0.9/4 4.70.8/3 Food Fighters

0.8/3 3.53.4

0.8/3 3.50.9/3 Dateline 4.71.0/4 Thursday Night Mystery 5.31.0/4 1.0/4 5.3 5.51.1/4 5.6

0.9/4 3.10.6/3 Boom!

0.6/3 2.12.0

0.7/3 2.21.2/5 Wayward Pines

1.2/5 4.03.9

1.2/5 4.0

0.2/1 0.70.2/1 Beauty & the Beast

0.2/1 0.91.0

0.2/1 0.90.1/0 Dates 0.60.1/0 Dates 0.5

FRI8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30

0.9/4 4.00.7/4 Shark Tank

0.8/4 4.2 R4.1

0.9/4 4.21.0/4 What Would You Do?

1.0/4 4.03.9

1.0/4 4.10.9/4 20/20

0.9/4 3.93.9

0.9/4 4.0

0.5/2 4.50.4/2 Elementary

0.4/2 3.1 R3.1

0.4/2 3.00.5/2 Hawaii Five-0

0.5/2 4.8 R4.4

0.6/3 5.10.5/2 Blue Bloods

0.6/2 5.6 R5.3

0.7/3 5.8

0.8/4 4.10.7/3

America’s Got Talent0.8/4 3.8 R

3.50.8/4 3.80.9/4 4.10.8/3 3.90.8/3 Dateline

0.9/3 4.74.5

0.9/4 4.9

0.4/2 1.40.5/3 Home Free

0.5/3 1.6 R S1.7

0.5/2 1.60.3/2 Knock Knock Live

0.3/1 1.2 R S1.2

0.3/1 1.2

0.2/1 1.00.3/1 Masters of Illusion 1.40.2/1 Whose Line Is It Anyway? R 1.00.2/1 The Messengers

0.2/1 0.80.8

0.2/1 0.8

SAT8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30

0.5/2 2.20.4/2 BattleBots

0.4/2 1.8 R S1.7

0.5/2 1.80.5/2 BattleBots

0.5/2 2.0 R S2.0

0.6/2 2.10.6/3 Boston EMS

0.6/3 2.8 S2.7

0.7/3 2.9

0.4/2 3.60.3/2 NCIS: Los Angeles

0.3/2 3.4 R3.2

0.3/2 3.60.4/2 Scorpion

0.4/2 3.3 R3.2

0.4/2 3.40.6/3 48 Hours

0.6/3 4.2 R3.9

0.6/3 4.4

0.3/1 1.10.3/2 Running Wild With Bear Grylls

0.3/2 1.3 R1.4

0.3/2 1.20.2/1 Aquarius

0.2/1 1.21.2

0.2/1 1.10.3/1 Hannibal

0.3/1 1.00.9

0.4/2 1.0

1.1/5 2.80.7/4

UFC on Fox 16:T.J. Dillashawvs. Renan Barao 21.1/5 2.8

2.00.9/5 2.41.1/5 2.81.2/6 3.11.5/6 3.7

NO PROGRAMMING

SUN7:007:308:008:309:009:3010:0010:30

1.3/5 5.30.8/3 America’s Funniest Videos

0.9/3 4.5 R4.1

1.0/4 4.92.0/7 Celebrity Family Feud

2.0/7 8.78.5

2.1/7 8.91.5/5 BattleBots

1.4/5 4.64.8

1.4/4 4.40.9/3 Save My Life: Boston Trauma

0.9/3 3.3 S3.3

0.9/3 3.3

1.0/3 5.50.8/3 60 Minutes

0.9/4 7.9 R7.8

0.9/4 8.11.9/7 Big Brother

1.9/7 6.06.2

1.8/6 5.70.5/2 Madam Secretary

0.5/2 3.8 R3.7

0.4/1 3.90.6/2 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

0.6/2 4.1 R4.0

0.6/2 4.2

0.5/2 2.00.5/2 Hollywood Game Night

0.5/2 2.0 R2.1

0.5/2 1.90.3/1 Welcome to Sweden 1.20.2/1 Welcome to Sweden 1.10.5/2

American Ninja Warrior0.7/2 2.5 R

1.90.6/2 2.40.8/3 2.70.9/3 2.9

0.7/2 1.50.5/2 Bob’s Burgers R 1.20.6/2 Bob’s Burgers R 1.20.9/3 The Simpsons R 2.10.7/2 Brooklyn Nine-Nine R 1.50.8/3 Family Guy R 1.80.5/2 The Last Man on Earth R 1.2

NO PROGRAMMING

WK. AVGSSN. TO DATE

0.9/4 3.82.1/7 7.5

0.9/3 5.12.0/7 10.1

1.1/4 4.52.2/7 8.0

0.8/3 2.51.8/6 5.5

0.3/1 1.00.7/2 1.9