'Silver Linings' for John Ortiz

"Fast and Furious" star John Oritz has became a member of the cast of David O. Russell's "The Silver Textures Playbook," that the Weinstein Co. will distribute. Bradley Cooper stars like a former senior high school teacher who's institutionalized for depression after which launched in to the proper care of his mother, performed by Jacki Weaver of "Animal Kingdom" fame. He attempts to regain his ex-wife but becomes associated with an eccentric neighbor with problems of her very own. Jennifer Lawrence is placed to experience the neighbor, while Robert P Niro will have Cooper's father. Chris Tucker and Julia Stiles co-star as Cooper's spirited friend and Lawrence's older sister, correspondingly. Ortiz will have Cooper's childhood closest friend, who still lives near his parents' home. Harvey Weinstein is creating Russell's adaptation of Matthew Quick's novel. Ortiz, who's coming off an Indie Spirit Award nomination for his perf in Philip Seymour Hoffman's "Jack Goes Boating," will quickly be viewed alongside Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte in Michael Mann and David Milch's approaching Cinemax series "Luck." Thesp formerly made an appearance in Mann's "Public Opponents" and "Miami Vice." Ortiz is repped by Gersh, Sanders Remedy Caserta Management and attorney Ira Schreck. Contact Shaun Sneider at shaun.sneider@variety.com

Warner Bros. Utilizes Scribe for An Online Detective Threequel

Warner Brothers and sisters our editor recommends'Sherlock Holmes: A Game Title Title of Shadows' Trailer: Robert Downey Junior. Does Drag'Sherlock Holmes: A Game Title Title of Shadows' Second Trailer Debuts (Video)A 'Sherlock Holmes' follow-up? For Warners, it's elementary An Online Detective: A Game Title Title of Shadows doesn't open until December 16, but Warner Bros. was already planning the next installment in the period detective adventure movies. The studio has hired Came Pearce, the creator in the British superhero TV satire No Heroics, to pen a script for which is the 3rd Robert Downey Junior.-Jude Law movie starring the An Online Detective creation. The employing from the author this early (too as with anticipating the film is really a hit) mirrors the employing of Michele and Kieran Mulroney to use on Holmes 2 three several days just before the very first Holmes showed up in this area in December 2009. Pearce can be a scribe growing. He's writing Iron Guy 3 for Marvel Art galleries (and so the new Holmes project would reteam him with Downey) and Paramount's adaptation of Electricity Comics' The Mighty. Pearce is repped by WME. An Online Detective Robert Downey Junior. An Online Detective: A Game Title Title of Shadows

After Getting Close On Several Big Jobs, Director Bryan Barbers Taking His Next Meetings With Gigantor In His Corner

As fewer movies get made these days, the hardest thing for a director or a writer is just getting hired. Bryan Barber, who went from helming videos for bands like Outkast to making his feature debut with the stars of that group on the 2006 Prohibition Era musical Idlewild, grew so tired of getting close and losing out on big directing jobs that he hunted and secured a film-centric property to improve his odds. After the lengthy courtship of an 86-year old voiceover artist who controlled the rights, Barber will go to his next studio meeting flanked by Gigantor, the giant flying robot star of the 60s Japanese cartoon import with a catchy theme song and a family-friendly premise. Barber controls the movie, merchandise and videogame rights, and will shop a $60 million live action film he calls Transformers meets Goonies. And guess who’ll be attached as director? Considering that robots remain hotHasbro told shareholders this week that another Transformers is in the offing and a Real Steel sequel is also a possibilityBarber figures there should be interest in this story of a 12-year old boy who ends up with the controls to the giant weaponized world-saving robot. Barber hopes to take the same proactive route that allowed Tate Taylor to direct the summer sleeper hit The Help (he optioned the book before it had a publisher) and years ago got Frank Darabont his directing debut on The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont had written a superb script and controlled the book, and refused to step aside even when Rob Reiner and Tom Cruise were ready to re-team after A Few Good Men). For Barber, the Gigantor idea came out of the frustration of losing out on several big jobs that included Wolverine. While a stylish first effort, Idlewild didnt make a lot of money and seemed to suggest an art film career more than the tent poles Barber wants to direct. The development jobs he got after Idlewild died off when the business contracted. Shortly after my film came out, the writers strike killed those projects and when it was over, the number of films being made in Hollywood dropped dramatically, Barber told me. Suddenly there wasnt as much room for up and coming directors. Those jobs were drawing 15-year veterans. And every time I went for a job, I’d spend huge amounts of time and my own money making presentations for each job so studios could see my vision. On Wolverine, Barber spent three weeks and $50,000 for a presentation that included motion capture, stunts, concept art, storyboards and sound design. Fox was impressed enough that it reimbursed Barber, but he didn’t get the job. Barber makes a living through commercials, videos, and some TV, but he tired of waiting to be chosen. After all, it was five years ago that Idlewild came out. Said Barber: When you hit a roadblock in this business, you can give up, but I learned a lot and made relationships through those attempts. I decided, if I was willing to invest my money to gamble on a project I didnt own, why not spend that money on something I could control? He saw a video box for Gigantor and remembered watching the series after school when he was a kid in the Bay Area. Barber started by calling the video company and eventually tracked the rights to 86-year old Fred Ladd. A voiceover guy for cartoons, Ladd was given control of this orphaned Japanese language cartoon nobody wanted. Ladd recut the cartoons and supplied English language dialogue for American audiences. Barber got him to agree to lunch, and that began a long courtship. A detailed storyboard presentation sold Ladd, Barber said. Fred had been in talks with Fox back in 1996 to do an animated film, but they didnt agree, the regime changed and I think it just got forgotten even though anyone old enough remembers the theme song, Barber said. I got lucky. Theres a film here that doesn’t take itself too seriously, with heart and visual effects, about a super weapon that falls into the hands of a kid who develops the confidence to use the robot to save the world. Barber is now assembling a 6-minute sizzle reel–like Zack Snyder did for 300, Barber said–and he’ll soon be ready to go back to Fox and those other studios and try again. Barber is repped by WME. For those who don’t remember the Gigantor theme song, here it is:

Winfrey to remain after 'Lifeclass'

Discovery Communications' partnership with The famous host oprah Winfrey, OWN, has introduced that Winfrey will still be open to fans every Friday after "Oprah's Lifeclass," both on the internet and on-air beginning now. Winfrey will fix the series, which revisits interviews and moments from "The The famous host oprah Winfrey Show" in greater depth, and enables fans from the cable program ("class mates") to reply to questions requested by Winfrey and react to one another online. Series is created by Harpo Galleries. Contact Mike Thielman at mike.thielman@variety.com

Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter's 1970s Rock 'n' Roll Drama Gaining Heat at HBO

HBO is getting ready to move with Jagger.our editor recommendsEmmys 2011: Martin Scorsese Talks About His Directing Win for 'Boardwalk Empire'Keith Richards Vents About Mick Jagger in MemoirHBO Renews 'Boardwalk Empire' The premium cable network is very hot on a script thatBoardwalk Empire's Terence Winter has turned in for an untitled 1970s rock 'n' rollproject in development, sources tellThe Hollywood Reporter.In addition to Winter, the potential series has a string of bold face names attached, includingMartin Scorsese andMick Jagger, who met with HBO executives to discuss the project over lunch at Craft earlier this month. VIDEOS: Emmy Roundtable: Drama Showrunners The hourlong drama project follows the exploits of a cocaine-fueled record executive in NY City circa 1977, when punk, disco and a new form of music called hip-hop collided. Boardwalk Empire's Winter is attached to executive produce and write the pilot, with his Emmy-winning Boardwalk director Scorsese attached to executive produce and direct the pilot. The Rolling Stones frontman, who initially conceived the idea as a film project, first at Disney and then at Paramount, will also executive produce.His producing partner Victoria Pearman as well as Scorsese's manager Rick Yorn are attached as EPs. The project will serve as a reunion forScorsese, Jagger and Pearman, who collaborated on the 2008 documentary Shine a Light. The news comes as Showtime is developing a 1970s-set music industry project of its own. The latter, titled Vinyl,explores multiple aspects of the music business, from the perspective of record executives and rock stars to drug pushers and prostitutes. Scorsese is repped by WME, while Winter, Jagger and Pearman are repped by CAA. Related Topics Martin Scorsese Mick Jagger HBO Boardwalk Empire TV Development

Jack Osbourne: Im Likely To Be Considered A Parent

First Launched: October 12, 2011 9:49 AM EDT Credit: Getty Images La, Calif. -- Caption Jack Osbourne steps in the very first-Ever Cod XP within the Stages at Playa Vista in La on September 3, 2011In addition with a wedding along the way, Jack Osbourne features a baby coming! The youngest Osbourne child introduced he and girlfriend Lisa Stelly, who he introduced his engagement to merely days ago, obtain first child along the way. My existence is totally insane at this time around I guess technically I really will have something tell you. Im likely to be considered a parent, Jack mentioned within a feel and look along with his parents, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, on CNNs Piers Morgan Tonight on Tuesday. The onetime reality star informed that his adventures in fatherhood would not be taken for your small screen. Im excited. Im somewhat nervous, but Im excited. Its apt to be fun, the 25-year-old referred to. I'm not likely to carry out a reality show though. Ozzy came out being overjoyed about his sons news, telling Piers, Im in shock, In my opinion its fabulous. Sharon also shared her excitement about as being a grandmother. Im happy because its what Jack wants, so Im happy, she mentioned. And Ive always aspired that need considering a grandmother, so that it couldnt much better. Sister Kelly needed to Twitter following a baby news was introduced, Tweeting, been waiting 2 say this for this type of very long time im probably the most pleased girl in the world im apt to be an auntie! Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All rights reserved. These elements is probably not launched, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Prospects For Brand New Cope With Simpsons Stars Searching Good

The reviews from the Simpsons‘ imminent dying were once more greatly exaggerated. It takes place throughout every cast renegotiation — the voice stars and also the creating studio twentieth century Fox TV undergo a really public standoff, triggering a slew of head lines concerning the certain finish from the beloved animated series, prior to the two sides ultimately achieve a contract. This appears to be again this time around as people near to the discussions are positive there could be new contacts using the the cast which will seal The Simpsons’ renewal by Fox for any 24th and perhaps 25th season. The deals aren't done and might close today as talks continue, however it appears like the stars would return having a pay cut within the 30% range they offered the studio but sans the lucrative back-finish participation these were seeking. Among the cast people, Harry Shearer, even suggested to consider a pay cut in excess of 70% in return for points on the program, however i hear that a choice of giving the stars any profit participation would be a non-starter for that studio. The cast’s position was greatly undercut Monday whenever a financial analyst revealed that Fox would obtain a $750 million windfall when the Simpsons will get canceled because the show’s demise will make it readily available for cable distribution. Regardless of the drumbeat, we reported at that time that the cope with the stars could near by sometime in a few days. For The Simpsons‘ producers saying yes to some salary cut to help keep the show going, yes, the studio got the producers aboard before it experienced the nitty gritty using the stars, but the majority of the writing executive producers they are under wealthy overall deals, so salary reduction is nearly a moot point.

As Butch Cassidy, Mike Shepard Rides Again

NY (AP) Mike Shepard is in town.For many years, he's migrated to NY from far-away country houses and existence on the highway. NY may be the "arena" for his work: often a play a book a movie."I have come and gone out of this town a lot, returning to '63," Shepard stated inside a recent interview over tea in SoHo. "It isn't the area I select to reside. It is the place I select to operate.InchShepard has become 67, his eyes tend to be more sunken and the hair grayer, but he remains piercing, charming and mysterious. The routine is remarkably exactly the same.He drives his truck from his Kentucky equine ranch (he always drives, never flies) and returns to NY, where he first showed up like a 19-year-old actor from his father's California farm. He came, he states, "from the desert" and shortly after that set the theater world aflame together with his visceral off-off-Broadway plays that hit happens like pulsing jazz riffs.The occasion for Shepard's latest visit may be the discharge of "Blackthorn," a movie that imagines Butch Cassidy (whom Shepard plays) had he resided on into senior years in Bolivia. The role is fitting of Shepard: a solitary estimate exile.Shepard, laughing hard, recalls an earlier critic remarking, "You do not look anything like Paul Newman!" A gritty and elegiac South American Western, "Blackthorn" bears little resemblance towards the classic 1969 "Butch Cassidy and also the Sundance Kid," which Shepard calls a "cartoon" in contrast.InchHe is a cowboy, you realize?Inch Mateo Gil, the The spanish language film writer of "Open Your VisionInch making his British-language feature pointing debut, states of Shepard. "He's very keen on horses and that he loves large landscapes and loneliness and everything. I figured that some issues i was coping with within the script were much like Sam's issues."Born with an Illinois military base, Shepard's father would be a violent, alcoholic The Second World War bomber pilot that has informed a lot of the playwright's work. In the one production his father Mike Rogers attended, he noisally cursed his son's representation of family existence.Shepard got music from his father (Rogers would be a Dixieland drummer, Shepard a drummer using the band Holy Modal Rounders, which together with on Bob Dylan's famous Moving Thunder Revue) in addition to struggles with alcoholism. Last Year, he was charged with driving while impaired.Shepard's "family plays" "Tooth from the Crime," ''Curse from the Depriving Class," the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Hidden Child" and "True West" constitute his most well-regarded as work.In the 1971 one-act "Cowboy Mouth," that they authored together with his then girlfriend, music performer and poet Patti Cruz, an autobiographical character states, "People desire a street angel. They need a saint however with a cowboy mouth.""I had been writing essentially for stars," Shepard states. "And stars immediately appeared to possess a handle onto it, around the rhythm from it, the seem from it, the figures. I began to know there is this chance of conversation between stars and that is the way it all began."He's sometimes known to individuals plays a few of which he's since rewritten for a number of reproductions as "clumsy." In early stages, Shepard declined to rewrite his plays, thinking about them "pure," a notion lucrative views "simply stupid.""I do not have anything against clumsy," he states. "Sometimes clumsy is alright. By clumsy I meant more that ... I'm not sure, I ought to have done them longer."Shepard lives together with his longtime partner Jessica Lange, with whom he's a couple of his three children. But he's continued to be close with Cruz which week recorded several tunes together with her old tunes by Washington Phillips, Ivory Joe Hunter, Slim Harpo and Richard Rabbit Brown."(Our friendship) transcended any youthful difficulties it transcended all of our different periods of existence," Cruz states. "We are likewise. When Mike and that i are together, it's like no particular time. People part the ones die, but to have the ability to have this type of wealthy history with a person like a friend is beautiful."Though Shepard frequently brings up the inscrutable American characteristics so deeply imbedded in the writing, he's remarkably generous during the period of a rambling interview. He's readily reflective and the humble conversation is interspersed with diversions on various passions, old and new: the tunes of Hank Williams Bob Dylan's storytelling in france they-Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco Gary Cooper ("Just how can anybody nothing like Gary Cooper?") "Crime and Punishment" ("a genuine page-turner") and "Don Quixote," which he's rereading now. "Madness is his exile," he states."He very pads his privacy, but when he's speaking for you and allows you in, he offers everything," states Cruz. "You are able to spend time at his table. You are able to ride his equine. You are able to try looking in his notebook. It's only a matter of walking with the door."Shepard's latest play was last year's "Age range from the Moon." Though he releases less works nowadays, he still creates prodigiously. He flicks with the notebook by his side (he always first creates inside a notebook, later moving to typewriter), evidencing pages of countless working plays, tunes, short tales and "stuff type of like prose poems, I'm not sure things to refer to it as.InchHe is just finished "the bones" of the three-act play he needs to stage within annually. Shepard earlier swore off longer works, but states that one found him "and that i covered it."This past year, he released the storyline collection "Day Trip of Days," a piece in excess of one hundred clips of fiction, largely sent in the road. It's among his finest works, forever fractured but a natural assortment of regret and rumination. He opened up it having a quote in one of his finest literary heroes, Samuel Beckett: "This is the mistake I made ... to possess wanted a tale personally, whereas existence alone is sufficient.InchPerform the devils of his youth still drive his work?"There is nothing peaceful about this,Inch he states, laughing. "Yeah, I'd state that it did originate from a fractured sensibility. And it is still fractured due to the condition of things. I am very grateful which i found writing, however it does not allow it to be anymore peaceful."In Shepard's 1982 book "Motel Stories," he stated he felt like he didn't have a house a sense he states remains."I essentially live of my truck I am talking about around. Personally i think more in your own home during my truck than nearly anywhere, the industry sad factor to express but it is true," he states.He appreciates acting is partially to pay for the rent ("You are able to write 16 plays and never make just as much money while you did doing one movie"), but states he's grown progressively intrigued with acting "because I've much less fear about this.Inch He's behaved in additional than 40 films, but is better appreciated for his Oscar-nominated performance in "The Best Stuff.""Initially when i first began in film, I had been afraid from the camera," he states. "Now I haven't any anxiety about your camera whatsoever. None. I have become regarding this completely to the stage where I'm able to honestly say will be able to occupy that space that Brando personified when he stated, 'Just simply because they say "action" does not mean you need to do anything.'"Shepard has crisscrossed artistic representations, moving from plays to fiction to acting and music. However for him, the lines still converge within the theater."I usually felt like playwriting was the thread through everything,Inch he states. "Theater really whenever you consider it consists of everything. It may contain film. Film can't contain theater. Music. Dance. Painting. Acting. It is the whole deal. And it is probably the most ancient. It dates back towards the Druids. It had been way pre-Christ. It is the form which i feel quite in your own home in, due to that, due to being able to usurp everything."Copyright 2011 Connected Press. All privileges reserved. These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Imperial gets 'Girl'

AmbroseCannavale Exit the moppet ballerino, enter the Follies girl: The incoming Broadway revival of "Funny Girl" has booked the Imperial Theater for its upcoming spring run, filling the space to be vacated by "Billy Elliot."Lauren Ambrose and Bobby Cannavale star in the Bartlett Sher-helmed revival, a production that had previously announced plans for Broadway but had been waiting for a theater to become available. Revival will have a pre-Rialto tryout in L.A. at Center Theater Group's Ahmanson Theater Jan. 15-Feb. 26.This latest incarnation of "Funny Girl" will mark the first Broadway staging of the show since it bowed in 1964 in a production that helped launch the career of Barbra Streisand. Further casting for the new incarnation has not yet been locked in.Story centers on Fanny Bryce (Ambrose), the Ziegfeld Follies star, and her relationship with a gambler (Cannavale). Tuner has music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill and book by Isobel Lennart.Revival arrives on the Main Stem with a team of commercial producers including Bob Boyett, Sonia Friedman Prods., Jean Doumanian, Stacey Mindich, Tim Levy and Center Theater Group. Show targets an April opening, with an exact date still to be determined.Earlier this week "Billy Elliot" announced it would shutter after a Broadway run of about three years. That musical is set to close Jan. 8. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Hollywood Film Fest taps 4 for kudos

The Hollywood Film Festival has attracted on Letty Aronson, Michel Hazanavicius, Diablo Cody and Alberto Iglesias for honours within the approaching event. Aronson can get producer Award for ''Midnight in Paris'' and Hazanavicius will probably be honored while using Breakthrough Director Award for ''The Artist.'' Cody will probably be honored while using Film author Award for ''Young Adult'' and Iglesias will probably be recognized while using Composer Award for ''Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy'' and ''The Skin Home Is.'' The kudos is going to be provided within the festival's honours occasions, searching for the Beverly Hilton Hotel on March. 24. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Sundance Funnel HD increases in Malaysia

CANNES -- Growing its achieve in Asia, Sundance Funnel Global has closed a carriage deal for Sundance Funnel HD with Astro, Malaysia's key pay TV operator, inside the increase for the Mipcom TV mart in Cannes. Furthermore to Malaysia, Sundance Funnel Global is available in Taiwan, Korea, Singapore too as with various nations throughout Europe and Canada. "Astro makes amazing strides in leading Malaysia's adoption of high-definition TV together with other technologies with Astro B.yond which we're excited to make use of this kind of high-quality operator to get our funnel with this new territory," mentioned Erection dysfunction Palluth, senior V . p . of worldwide distribution for AMC/Sundance Funnel Global. Astro Boss Henry Tan mentioned Astro's high-definition channels would greatly make the most of "Sundance Channel's outstanding programming and growing worldwide footprint." Created by Robert Redford, Sundance Funnel includes a number of indie films, docus and original shows. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com