Tag: Nikki Finke

Why Robert Rodriguez Is Hating On Sony TV

Nikki Finke doesn’t write all that often anymore, but when she does…well, hell, kids, let’s just say that nobody bashes like she does:

by Nikki Finke

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline reported this week that Sony TV just announced it will produce an El Mariachi series based on the 1992 Robert Rodriguez film. Now I’ve learned that Robert Rodriguez and his reps are really pissed about it. I’m told that Sony TV execs reached out to Rodriguez only once to say that they were “thinking” about doing a TV show based on the writer/director’s trilogy ofEl Mariachi/Desperado/Once Upon A Time In Mexico characters.

“After that they stopped returning our calls. So we thought that this had been abandoned,” one of RR’s insiders tells me. “Not only does Robert not have any involvement in this show, he wasn’t even given a ‘head’s up’ on Sony’s press release. In it we noticed that Sony mentioned something about ‘staying true to the original story’. Good luck with that without involving the creator! Not that it matters as the budget that’s allocated for the television production will make  Robert’s original budget of $7,000 for El Mariachi look like Avatar. This TV  series is a sloppy and lazy replica for the tourist trade, without any of the heart and soul that made the original El Mariachi win the Sundance Audience Award and become a landmark in independent cinema.”

The 1% Makes Itself Felt At Disney/Marvel

The Economic Wars continue even though BigMedia doesn’t want to phrase it that way. (You didn’t know TVWriter™ was so wonderfully radical, did you?)

Ike Pearlmutter, today’s villain, in a 25+ year old pic (cuz he doesn’t want anybody to be able to I.D. him? Suspicious, no?)

Disney And Marvel Do Damage Control After Media Scrutiny Of Big Boss Ike Perlmutter – by Nikki Finke

EXCLUSIVE… UPDATE: Sources now tell me that all three female executives in employments disputes with the Walt Disney Co have settled – including one today. This is many months after the women lost their jobs in a Department Of Consumer Products reorganization set in motion nearly a year ago by Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter who is Disney’s 2nd largest shareholder. Former DCP head of fashion and home products Pam Lifford, former chief financial officer Anne Gates, and former DCP HR  exec Susan Cole Hill were all represented by the same attorney with  the Pasadena law firm Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson and Rennick which has sued Disney in other employee rights cases. According to my sources, the three women, who are all African Americans, referred to themselves as “The Help” – a reference to last summer’s hit DreamWorks movie distributed by Disney and set during the civil rights movement about black maids in Mississippi. read article

The Business of Showbiz: Viacom vs. DirecTV

Who Won The War: DirecTV Or Viacom?
By David Lieberman

DirecTV seems to have the edge in my non-scientific checks with industry watchers who monitored the contract dispute that for 10 days prevented 20M satellite customers from seeing Viacom’s 17 channels. But there are champions for both sides — and nobody outside of the companies knows enough about the financial terms to make a solid case for his or her view. Here’s what I’m told: DirecTV’s first year payment to Viacom in the seven-year deal is a double-digit percentage step up from what it was paying before, but less than the 30% that DirecTV said Viacom initially wanted. After that, DirecTV’s outlay for Viacom’s channels will rise by mid-single digit percentages each year. The deal gives DirecTV the right to stream Viacom programming to its customers — both inside and outside of their homes — via the satellite provider’s TV Everywhere program. And it doesn’t have to carry premium movie channel Epix, but has the option to pick it up. read article

Because We Love Good News About Writers

Written by Nellie Andreeva and culled from Deadline.Com by our ever-vigilant Not-A-Bot:

‘Bones’ Exec Producer Stephen Nathan Signs New Overall Deal With 20th TV

Stephen Nathan, Bones‘ executive producer and creator/exec producer Hart Hanson’s right-hand man, has signed a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV, the studio behind the long-running Fox dramedy. The two-year pact (with an option for a third) keeps Nathan onBones as the second-in-command to showrunner Hanson. Additionally, Nathan will have the ability to develop new projects for the studio.

Read it all read article