Survey: Writers Have More Leverage Than Studios in WGA Talks

EXCLUSIVE: Wicked filmmaker Jon M. Chu will direct a new film version of the famed Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Amazon Studios.

The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers sat down on Wednesday as talks continued over the holiday period that had previously been designated a two-week break.

Frontières Platform, organized with the Fantasia Film Festival.  Focusing on genre, the Frontières showcase is emerging as one of the Marché du Film’s biggest market plays, supercharged by this year’s milestone Oscar triumph of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,”  smart genre’s popularity among an emerging generation of filmmakers and its rising tide as one of the most resilient of independent movie market propositions.  

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The WGA and Hollywood’s major employers are set to resume contract talks on Wednesday as the sides aim to make progress in sorting through complicated compensation issues and averting a strike. Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are expected to sit down again in person Wednesday morning at AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks. The WGA had planned to take a two-week break after March 31 to begin the process of a strike authorization vote, with talks tabbed to resume the week of April 17. The guild’s current three-year contract expires on May 1. A rep for the AMPTP declined comment. The WGA did not immedately respond to a request for comment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief C More has commissioned a second, six-episode season of ITV Studios Finland’s glossy detective drama “Helsinki Crimes” (aka “Harjunpää”). The first season of Helsinki Crimes became one of C More’s most-watched crime series to date. After its launch on Netflix last year, in regions across CEE, Benelux, Austria and the Nordics, the series was one of the top ten most-watched series, and the third most-watched in Finland.  In the new season, Chief Constable Timo Harjunpää, portrayed by Olli Rahkonen, and his murder team investigate bloody clashes between street gangs, love scams and a wave of burglaries.

He’s in a New York state of mind. When it comes to dining, there’s no greater place than New York City.

It was a week full of news, from the looming Donald Trump indictment through the Nashville school shooting. Or as Bill Maher put it on Friday’s Real Time, “March came in like a lion, and went out with Trump on the lam.”

McKinley Franklin author Angel Studios has acquired worldwide distribution rights for “Sound of Freedom” ahead of the film’s 2023 theatrical release. “Sound of Freedom” is based on the true story of Tim Ballard, a former US government agent that quits his job to rescue children from global sex traffickers. Ballard (Jim Caviezel), a federal agent, finds himself losing hope in the dark field of children crime work. However, Ballard quickly uncovers his life mission when he’s able to free a 7-year-old boy that was kidnapped. When the young boy asks Ballard to find his sister who was also kidnapped, Ballard decides to devote his life to rescuing children from sex slavery. Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino and Emmy-nominee Bill Camp co-star.

Chad Michael Murray is taking a trip down memory lane!

The BBC’s appointment of Chair Richard Sharp “should not stand” and the process was “fatally flawed,” according to former Director General John Birt, who threw his weight behind the corporation over the Gary Lineker scandal.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Did Millie Bobby Brown turn down a multi-million dollar deal to reprise Eleven in a “Stranger Things” spinoff series? The Sun and The Daily Mail reported as much this week, with sources claiming that Brown was offered $12 million (£10 million) for a potential Eleven spinoff but rejected it because she wants to “branch out” into other roles. The official “Stranger Things” writers room took to Twitter to reject the report. “Yeah, there’s nothing in this article that is true,” the “Stranger Things” writers said while sharing The Daily Mail article. “Don’t know why we have to keep debunking this rumor but get those clicks you guys!!”

Jordan Moreau Marvel Studios executive Victoria Alonso has exited the studio, Variety has confirmed. She joined Marvel Studios in 2005 as executive vice president of visual effects and postproduction, serving as co-producer on early Marvel Cinematic Universe films like “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Since then, Alonso has worked as an executive producer on every Marvel Cinematic Universe film and TV show since 2012’s “The Avengers.” In 2015, Alonso was promoted to executive vice president of production, and in 2021 she was upped to president of physical, post production, VFX and animation at Marvel Studios. She has producing credits on the upcoming films “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “The Marvels,” plus the Disney+ shows “Secret Invasion,” “Ironheart,” “Echo” and “Agatha: Coven of Chaos.”

Bill Maher was in his frequent “down with religion” state of mind during Friday’s “Real Time,” landing a one-two blow to both the Catholic church and his favorite former president to razz, Donald Trump.It being St. Patrick’s Day and all, Maher’s New Rules began with a shout to Ireland, which quickly turned into a political comparison of the country’s division over religion to the current state in the Republican party.“[Ireland] went through a period where political hatred born of religion turned into something called ‘the troubles,’ which meant the hatred got so bad it could not be contained by the usual means of disagreement. So people lived with bombings and sniping and urban warfare, which Tucker Carlson calls sightseeing,” Maher said, cutting to images of Trump supporters storming the Capitol on Jan.

Britney Spears‘ passion for the music industry can be traced back to well before she became a household name.

described how Murray stepped in to protect her after the assault on location shooting the show’s fourth season in Honey Grove, Texas in 2007.The actress said that she and Schwahn — who she refers to as “the boss” rather than by name on the podcast — had to travel together to a Texas high school to inform them they’d be filming at their school.“The flight back from that is when he assaulted me. He assaulted me again in the car on the drive from Raleigh to Wilmington, He went straight to set and he told Danneel [Ackles] that he and I made out the whole time, and it was fun, and he was trying to make her jealous.

Hilarie Burton has recounted how her One Tree Hill costar Chad Michael Murray defended her against the show’s creator and showrunner Mark Schwahn during an alleged assault.

Hilarie Burton is opening up about allegedly being assaulted by One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn and how her co-star Chad Michael Murray stepped in after he saw it happen.

Emily Longeretta Hilarie Burton is detailing her traumatizing experience on “One Tree Hill.” During the latest episode of the “Drama Queens” podcast, Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz and Sophia Bush recap “It Gets Worse at Night,” the Season 4 episode in which the Tree Hill gang goes to Honey Grove to rescue Mouth (Lee Norris) from jail. Burton, who was one of 18 women of the show who accused creator Mark Schwahn of sexual harrassment, detailed the trauma she endured while filming this episode of the show. She and Schwahn, who she never refers to by name, only by the “boss,” had to travel to Honey Grove, Texas, before filming started to surprise the local high school with news that they’d won a contest to have the CW drama film there.

Sticking up for her. Hilarie Burton Morgan recalled how former costar Chad Michael Murray attempted to defend her amid an alleged assault during One Tree Hill season 4.

Julia MacCary editor “There’s nowhere you can walk in this country that is not Native land,” said IllumiNative founder and executive director Crystal Echo Hawk at Rising Native Voices, the Variety and IllumiNative event in partnership with SXSW on Saturday. IllumiNative, which is a Native woman-run social justice organization, DIGA Studios and Madica Productions recently announced their documentary-style podcast “American Genocide: The Crimes of Native American Boarding Schools.” The six-episode podcast examines the human rights violations against Indigenous children at Native American boarding schools, looking for answers specifically at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, S.D.