MONDAY 11:30 PM: Tonight I've just been informed by a reliable source that "Capitol Films just had another movie shut down" -- identified as An Invisible Sign Of My Own featuring America Ferrera, the star of ABC's hit show Ugly Betty. It looks increasingly like a Capitol-sparked meltdown is happening in the indie film market, just as my sources feared. I'll continue to follow this breaking story... So add her name to the star actors and directors like John Cusack, Helen Mirren, Gina Gershon, Joe Pesci, Jan de Bont, and Taylor Hackford whom I've learned have been, and Jennifer Lopez with writer-helmer Don Roos may be soon, affected by this cash crunch surrounding Capitol Films. So it wasn't just Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal and David O. Russell. "This is a big story that involves many projects," one of my sources informs. All the details are here in my post that explains what's really going on...
- 5TH UPDATE: 'Nailed' Tip Of The Iceberg: Capitol's Money Woes On More Films
- 4TH UPDATE: 'Nailed' Production Resumed; More Capitol Films Suffered
- 3RD UPDATE: David O. Russell Film Drama
- 2ND UPDATE: SAG Shuts Down Russell Film; Jessica & Jake Stand By
- EXCLUSIVE: David O. Russell Film Drama! Jessica Biel & Jake Gyllenhaal Sidelined
Sanford Panitch has left Regency to run Fox International Productions (FIP), a newly formed international production umbrella unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment that will produce, acquire and distribute local language films around the globe. Fox Filmed Entertainment chairmen/CEOs, Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman made the announcement today. Panitch was prez of filmed entertainment for New Regency (a partnership with News Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox) and now becomes prez of the Los Angeles-based FIP, reporting to Rothman and Gianopulos. 
The press release says FIP will oversee production activities already in progress in Japan, Germany, Russia and India, and will expand Fox’s local productions in these and other markets in the future. FIP will work closely with Fox’s other production divisions and partners and also will tap into its News Corp sister companies, including STAR, SKY and MySpace, among others. The endeavor also will coordinate efforts with Fox International, run by co-presidents Tomas Jegeus and Paul Hanneman. Fox International will handle all marketing and distribution for FIP. Panitch was at New Regency for the past seven years, moving from Twentieth Century Fox where he last served as executive vice president of production.
CW
The CW just gave Reaper a mid-season 13-episode renewal.
CBS
CBS renewed The Unit at an appropriate time: the drama series' cast is over in the Persian Gulf for a week to visit with U.S. soldiers. (See photos below). I hear Robert Patrick arranged the tour through the USO. He and other Unit actors Michael Irby, Max Martini, and Dennis Haysbert landed in Kuwait last Thursday to spend quality time with tropps. The actors are sharing stories about the show, signing autographs and posing for pictures.
MONDAY 11:30 PM: Tonight I've been informed by a reliable source that "Capitol Films just had another movie shut down" -- identified as An Invisible Sign Of My Own starring America Ferrera, the star of ABC's Ugly Betty.
So add her name to the star actors and directors like John Cusack, Helen Mirren, Gina Gershon, Joe Pesci, Jan de Bont, and Taylor Hackford whom I've learned have been, and Jennifer Lopez with writer-helmer Don Roos, may soon be, impacted by Capitol Films' cash crunch. "This is a big story that involves many projects," one of my sources informs. All weekend I reported on the on-set drama surrounding Friday's shutdown of the David O. Russell film Nailed shooting in South Carolina, sidelining stars Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal. SAG ordered the actors to leave because insufficient funds were on deposit with the guild. Other unions are looking into the situation. For instance, some Teamsters and IATSE union members left the production because of payroll problems. The film is back shooting today after a Friday-Saturday-Sunday hiatus. But other media sources are now reporting what I revealed on Saturday: that the South Carolina Film Commission may withhold its incentive monies. (A decision will be made when an audit is completed by the panel within 30 days of the end of production.) Now I've learned that Nailed was not the only indie film shut down Friday because of Capitol Films' financing problems: other indie movies have been affected as well. I'm told that "a shitload of people are owed a lot of money," in the words of one film financing expert. One NYC movie funder told me this is going to be "a big crash and burn story" because he'd heard last week that Capitol's major financing source, a hedge fund, had shut down and left it in the lurch. David Bergstein's Capitol Films behind the pic is troubled. David Bergstein in 2006 acquired Capitol, the leading UK-based international sales company which over the years had built a good reputation in the movie biz and made a wide range of commercial and critical successes, including Robert Altman's Gosford Park. But that was then, and this is now.
-- So I'm told by two significant sources that Capitol Films was also funding the $5M-$7M budget of the Rob Schmidt-directed horror indie Bad Meat. According to one of my insiders, that production was shut down while shooting in Canada on Friday by ACTRA (the Canadian actor's guild) for non-payment of actor salaries. He tells me: "Not sure if this is on SAG's radar yet. The various crew unions have told everyone to go home as well. They claim to be getting more money tomorrow, but most everyone (SAG members) flew home Saturday morning. If they are having trouble with both pics, that does not bode well. Capitol's problem is looking bigger than it initially seemed." The second source details for me what went on behind-the-scenes:
"The start of the Bad Meat shoot was delayed for ten days because Capitol didn't provide the promised funds. They claimed that Bergstein's father was ill and that he was unavailable to sign checks. Capitol finally came up with starting money, and the shoot was going well. Suddenly on Friday, two weeks away from completing principal photography, we were told that the money has completely run out and production is shutting down. My client came home yesterday. Many, many people are ending up unpaid-- actors, crew, catering, travel, etc. Capitol is claiming that money will be flowing by the end of the week for Bad Meat. They're asserting that they have a very large credit facility coming from Comerica Bank. We all think that's nonsensical."
-- I'd heard there were financing problems and delays with Jennifer Lopez's upcoming star turn in a film because of Capitol's money woes. But a source close to the project now tells me that Love And Other Impossible Pursuits, written and directed by Don Roos, is still supposed to commence principal photography beginning July 8th. "Supposedly, the cash is in the bank." Others contend it may be put on indefinite hold.
-- A source tells me that International Media Films was producing and shooting Jan de Bont's and John Cusack's film, Stopping Power, in Berlin when they ran out of financing. Capitol Film took over and was suppose to continue shooting and pay everyone "and never did. No one was paid from International Media or Capitol Films. All the actors and the crews had to fled Germany. It was and still is a nightmare!"
-- Still another source informs me: "This isn't the first time Capitol has run into trouble. They've developed quite a reputation in New Mexico for running out of money. The Taylor Hackford film, Love Ranch, was shut down for one day because of a 5th straight week of late paychecks. As of the last week of filming, several actors hadn't been paid.
-- From yet another source: "Another one of Capitol's films, Five Dollars a Day, also had the same kind of trouble." I hear the film has been completed.
- 4TH UPDATE: 'Nailed' Production Resumed; More Capitol Films Suffered
- 3RD UPDATE: David O. Russell Film Drama
- 2ND UPDATE: SAG Shuts Down Russell Film; Jessica & Jake Stand By
- EXCLUSIVE: David O. Russell Film Drama! Jessica Biel & Jake Gyllenhaal Sidelined
EXCLUSIVE: UTA was just informed today, and the actor's agent Shani Rosenzweig is gobsmacked, I'm told. The tenpercentery had repped Emile Hirsch for seven years. The star of Speed Racer, which opened dismally over the weekend, is planning to park himself with his manager Sam Maydew, I'm told. "He claims he just doesn't want an agent," an insider informs me. "It's further evidence how talent is nervous in this town. This is a total shocker." Look, UTA helped make Hirsch one of the best-known young leading men of his generation in films like Into the Wild (for which he was nominated for several awards), Alpha Dog, and Lords Of Dogtown, The Girl Next Door. He'll also be starring in the upcoming Gus Van Sant pic Milk. This year, he was ranked #17 on Entertainment Weekly's high-profile "30 Under 30" actors list. (2008). UTA doesn't deserve this.
The news just came in to me from my sources.... "They're fighting for a back 13 at mid-season, but Moonlight is definitely not on the fall schedule. But it's not dead, either. 
Insiders tell me the sticking point is money: that CBS wants Warner Bros to "step up" more financially. But WBTV is saying back to CBS that the network has to step up as well, even though CBS doesn't own the show. Here's what I can tell you about the behind-the-scenes:
Moonlight has been fraught with problems (see below). But CBS' Nina Tassler told the producers that she was "very happy" with the direction of the series. The show pitched her the stories for all next season, "and Nina loved them". And then CBS gave the show its list of what the network wanted. But CBS made clear that the renewal of the show was "all going to be dependent on making the last four shows of this season ratings-wise. Well, those ratings were only fair. They didn't win the night, but they won their demos. On the other hand, Friday's ratings are always low. But the real story is, as usualy in Hollywood, all about the money. Even though comparatively Moonlight is being done on the cheap (especially when put up against another WBTV show, Pushing Daisies on ABC, which is a notoriously expensive production), and was picked up in the beginning by CBS for a relatively low licensing fee, CBS now wants Warner Bros to pick up more of the tab. There was a specific conversation between the two Big Media outfits about this on Wednesday of last week. "We need you to step up," CBS reportedly told WB. To which WB responded to CBS, "You step up, and we'll step up." Interestingly, I hear that CBS just ordered to series the pilots The Mentalist and 11th hour which both have higher licensing fees than Moonlight. But the producers knew all along that their series was "on the bubble," so to speak. And iun response to communication pushing the network to pick up Moonlight, I understand rthat CBS responded to the effect, "Where's WB? Why won't they step up?"
Meanwhile, there have been other problems. Coming back from the writers strike, the executive producer and showrunner Chip Johanssen was cut loose, despite being a close friend of Tassler’s. Also, series creator Ron Koslow was shown the door after the picket signs went down. That left no official showrunners in place to guide the episodes produced after the strike ended. Husband and wife writers / producers Harry Werksman and Gabrielle Stanton were informally given the reins, and they supervised the most recent four shows ending the season. The question is whether they are up to the task. I hear the Moonlight producers offered to change showrnners to get a CBS renewal. Already, the fallout has led one of the few surviving players, staff writer and producer Jill Blotevogel, to be unceremoniously dumped before any renewal is announced. There's a rumor which I havenm't confirmed that, if CBS does renew, it may bring the showrunners from the expected-to-be-cancelled Shark to come in and retool Moonlight.
Shame on the trades and mainstream media for not making the big deal out of this angle of the Sunday box office story I did. (Or, is that the reason? See my previous, Rival Studios Accuse WB Of Inflating #s). It's now clear that Warner Bros wildly exaggerated its domestic gross claims for its disastrous Speed Racer. The WB-inflated tally of $20.2M put its anime actioner 2nd and Fox's What Happens In Vegas only 3rd with $20M, when every other studio had the ranking the other way around and Speed Racer's tally around $19.7M. Those rival studio execs told me Sunday there was no way WB's kiddie pic would suddenly have a huge Sunday. And, remember, there's primo PR value in these Top 10 ranking which get reported in newspapers and on TV and the Internet. But now the official figures have been reported Monday, and everyone can see how fudged WB's figures really are. Speed Racer made only $18.5M for the weekend, while Fox's Vegas totalled $20.1M. That's a difference of more than $1.6M. Jeez. As I noted yesterday, these kind of controversies don't develop often in Hollywood, but when they do, they can be ugly. That's because there is a certain code of honor among thieves, if you will -- a tacit agreement that every Hollywood studio will try to report weekend box office numbers as accurately as possible. Now it's shame on WB.
UPDATED: Below are photos of an unscheduled upfront week event. Early this morning, because the sitcom Back to You had been cancelled, upset fans made a "memorial" in front of the gates at Fox studios. And the star of the sitcom Kelsey Grammar even posed for a picture beside it. (I just heard that Kelsey found out from my website Friday night that the show was cancelled!) I can confirm that "CBS has shown interest in Back To You.") There were candles, balloons, floral bouquets, over 30 sympathy cards, neckties in honor of "Chuck", and American flags. I was initially told that Fox security removed the memorial, but now fans are telling me it's still there and even being expanded. But everyone connected to the show, especially showrunner Steve Levitan, knew about it and appreciated it.
CBS
2ND UPDATE: I can confirm that "CBS has shown interest" in Back To You, Steve Levitan's Kelsey Grammar/Patricia Heaton sitcom cancelled by Fox.
UPDATE: I'm told that the comedy Single White Millionaire (WBTV) has been killed. The Tower (CBS Paramount) isn't dead, but also isn't on the schedule. Its fate might be decided in a few weeks. The comedy Worst Week (Universal Media Studios) is picked up. The drama NY-LON (ABC TV Studios/Beacon) is dead. Also, the Ed Yeager/Rick Swartzlander comedy pilot that's been picked up to series and stars Jay Mohr (I love this guy) is now called Project Gary.
Mythological X (CBS/20th Century Fox TV) drama receives a series order, but it's unclear if it's for fall or mid-season. It has been re-titled The X List.
The Mentalist (WBTV) drama ordered to series.
Untitled Ed Yeager (ABC TV Studios) comedy pilot ordered to series.
11th Hour (WBTV/Jerry Bruckheimer TV) drama ordered.
Jon Turtletaub's Harpers Island (CBS Paramount) drama ordered for mid-season.
ABC
UPDATED: I assumed everybody already knew that ABC has renewed NBC's Scrubs (hey it's an ABC show, after all...) Now Zach Braff today made an "official" announcement. But it's been official for weeks and weeks...
Eli Stone renewed for 13 episodes.
October Road cancelled.
Life On Mars (20th Century TV) received series order for 13 episodes.
Go behind the scenes at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute which plays host to eight Fellows, handpicked from a pool of more than 2,000 applicants, for the coveted 5-day Sundance Screenwriters Lab. The guiding idea behind the program is to create a protective environment that’s free of external pressures and vested interests. Sundance will not produce or finance the films that come out of the Lab, though advisers and Fellows will stay in touch afterward, and some Fellows who continue on to the monthlong Directors Lab in June will benefit from a grants program funded by the Annenberg Foundation. If their films get produced with a budget of more than $1 million, the Institute asks for a “tiny” percentage of the budget, which it funnels back into supporting the Labs, otherwise funded by a combination of corporate and festival financing. The Institute has just added a new fellowship for producers, which has always been part of Redford’s dream — and has doubtless become a more urgent priority in a glutted market of independent films whose profits have significantly dropped in the last few years. Here's an excerpt from the exhaustive look by my LA Weekly colleague, film writer Ella Taylor:
"Anyone who’s been to summer camp could recognize the instant intimacy that springs up in a group of hermetically sealed people rubbing shoulders round the clock in pursuit of the same mission — in this instance, the perfecting of screenplays the Fellows have brought with them. While they are here, each of these writers will have lengthy daily conferences with multiple advisers, most of them Hollywood or independent film heavies. They will be fed and watered by Institute staff — Feature Film Program director Michelle Satter and her associates, and Institute executive director Ken Brecher, who swans around in outsized lime-green glasses, dispensing wit and encouragement. They will screen each other’s short films and watch selected advisers’ movies. (On the bill tonight is Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’sThe Celebration, followed by a Q&A with Vinterberg, who’s advising for the first time.) They will, if they choose to, walk the beautiful trails, ski downhill or cross-country, and wind down very late at the resort bar.
"The one thing they will not do in this cocooned Shangri-La is write."
I'm told CW picked up How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls (WBTV/Alloy), which was expected. And I, too, think the title should be changed to "Surviving The Filthy Rich" as rumored. (Or, even better, "This Is Our Money-Grubbing Attempt to Clone Gossip Girls But Not Call It A Spin-Off".)
I know there have been lots of rumors to this effect in celebrity mags and infotainment shows. But one of my reliable TV business sources is hearing that Tori Spelling is going to be in the Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff just picked up by the CW. Well, it's official: 90210 is ruined. Please, Les and Barry, reconsider! (Or did Aaron Spelling demand this in his will?)
Talk about a Maalox moment: this is the sort of major news that, coming as it does right before this week's upfront presentatioins by the networks, can give CW co-bosses Les Moonves (CBS) and Barry Meyer (Warner Bros) heartburn. According to the business wires, Pappas Telecasting Inc, the largest privately-held commercial broadcast operator in the U.S. filed for Chapter 11 Saturday with plans to sell its 30 TV stations under bankruptcy court protection. Pappas cited "the extremely difficult business climate for television stations across the country" in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Fresno, Calif.-based company's TV stations are affiliated with a number of broadcasters, and include two big Fox affiliates in Fresno and Omaha. But Pappas specifically blamed the "poor ratings of the CW Network" for some of the financial trouble that forced it into bankruptcy. Also cites as problems are the economic downturn, plunging advertising and the cost of converting from analog to digital TV broadcasting.
I just heard that well-liked veteran show The Unit "probably picked up at CBS".
2ND UPDATE: I hear How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls (WBTV/Alloy) is "probably" picked up at CW, It was considered a slam dunk, like 90210. (Is it true HTTFRG's title has been changed to "Surviving The Filthy Rich"?)
UPDATE: I've just been told that, as expected, the CW has picked up 90210, the spinoff to Beverly Hills, 90210. I reported earlier that it received the OK to hire writers. I hear the deal is closed with Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah to run the show, and the script is being rewritten. CW renewed The Game for another season. Both are CW/CBS Paramount shows. Meanwhile, the town is still waiting on CW news for Reaper. The network is pairing the Tyra Banks/Ken Mok contest show Stylista with that duo's America's Next Top Model. And Variety reports that the CW has pacted with indie producers Media Rights Capital to program the Sunday night lineup this fall, with MRC on board to produce two comedies and two dramas for the block aimed at adults 18-to-49, not CW's younger demos, and the specific shows will be announced at Tuesday's upfront presentation.
I'm told FBC has picked up Joss Whedon's new Dollhouse (20th Century Fox TV) for mid-season. Given his rabid Whedonesques, who don't take rejection well, I don't see how the network could have said no this time around.
As one of my sources complains, "They are secretive fucks." But I'm told CBS is giving two drama pilots, The Mentalist (WBTV) and also 11th Hour (WBTV/Jerry Bruckheimer TV) pickups. And the network is saying "maybe yes" to Mythological X (CBS/20th Century Fox TV) for midseason or possibly even fall. As for CBS comedies, I'm told the Untitled Ed Yeager Project is picked up. I'm told Yeager wrote the pilot alone and on spec and handed it to Rick Swartzlander who helped him get it to ABC Studios. So that's how Rick got attached as producer. But the town is still waiting on renewal news for a lot of shows at CBS, like The Unit or Moonlight.
I hear that, after intense negotiations with David Kelley about cutting the show's licensing fee, ABC has renewed Boston Legal for a 5th season. A source tells me: "Watch for the cast to be scaled down to Spader, Shatner, Candace, and fewer people around them." Sources are telling me that Kelley's other show for ABC, Life On Mars, "probably will be ordered" and is "looking like it should be officially picked up any minute." But insiders say it will have new showrunners: October Road alum Josh Applebaum and André Nemec.
I'm told the Directors Guild is getting involved same as the Screen Actors Guild vis a vis the indie Nailed and Capitol Films' financing woes. (Previous, ON SET DRAMA UPDATE: SAG Orders Actors On David O. Russell Film To Leave)
SUNDAY AM: Showing just how fiercely competitive the summer box office is right now, rival Hollywood movie studios are complaining to me they don't believe Warner Bros' domestic gross numbers released today claiming its disastrous Speed Racer came in 2nd behind Marvel's Iron Man in the weekend's Top 10 contest. All the other majors -- Fox, Sony, Paramount, Universal, Disney, and MGM -- have the anime actioner opening only 3rd. And they dispute WB's reporting that Speed Racer made $20.2 million for Fri-Sat-Sun because its projected Sunday number isn't seen as possible. "That's a very aggressive Sunday estimate to try and claim 2nd," one studio's top marketing and distribution mogul complained to me this morning, echoing the disbelief of most of his colleagues. "Warners is hoping moms want to go to Speed Racer for Mothers Day." (To give Warner Bros the benefit of the doubt, it's true that family pics do well on Mothers Day.) But all the other studios have Fox's romantic comedy What Happens In Vegas in 2nd place with $20 million, and Speed Racer only 3rd with $19.7 million. 
And the rival execs say that, since Speed Racer's gross was even softer than anyone thought, up only 18% on Saturday because of kiddie matinees compared to Friday, the Warner Bros film couldn't possibly get to $20 million for the weekend barring a box office miracle on Sunday. "Their estimate is utterly laughable!," a top exec at a rival major told me this AM. "That being said, from what I've heard, they are not trying to dress up the pig. They're resigned to it being a disaster... just not enough to stop them from fabricating a number to jump Fox for the #2 position." These kind of controversies don't develop often in Hollywood, but when they do, they can be ugly. That's because there is a certain code of honor among thieves, if you will -- a tacit agreement that every Hollywood studio will try to report weekend box office numbers as accurately as possible, even though there's a significant PR advantage to artifically moving a disappointing film up a slot in the Top 10 by inflating numbers. The irony is that these controversies get settled quickly, as soon as tomorrow when the actual theater by theater grosses for Sunday come in Monday and then determine the "actual" figures as opposed to the Sunday "estimates"...
Nobody is disputing distributor Paramount's figures that Marvel's summer blockbuster Iron Man made a platinum $15 million on Friday from 4,111 venues, and $21.6 million on Saturday, giving it an estimated FSS total of $50.5 million, or more than double the domestic box office gross of its nearest weekend competitor, to stay No. 1 again. Its new cume is a monster $177.1M. But Warner Bros' Speed Racer, whether its weekend total is $19.7 million or $20.2 million from 3,606 plays, made only half what the studio hoped, even with lowered expectations because of bad buzz and poor tracking. Not only is the anime actioner this summer's first summer bomb, but it's also doing dismally in key areas of its 30+ day and date opening foreign territories. The pic has gone bust in many international markets, with some disastrous openings in Europe in particular. Besides a too-long running time and a too-small audience of younger boys, the Wachowski siblings spent at least $160M making the pic, whereas Fox's What Happens in Vegas cost only $35 million. Hollywood is convinced Warner Bros has a major writedown on its hands. Vegas took in $7.1 million Friday and $7.5 million Saturday from 3,215 runs for a $20 million weekend. For much more analysis, see my 'Speed Racer' Crashes & Burns To Become First Summer Bomb and Weekend Prediction.
The rest of the Top 10 were holdovers: #4 Sony's Made Of Honor took in $7.6M for a new cume of $26.2M; #5 Universal's Baby Mama, $5.7M weekend, $40.3M cume; #6 Universal's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, $3.7M weekend, $50.7M cume; #7 Warner Bros' Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, $3.1M weekend, $30.7M cume; #8 Lionsgate/The Weinstein Co's The Forbidden Kingdom, $1.9M weekend, $48.2M cume; #9 Fox's Nim's Island, $1.3M weekend, $44.2M cume; #10 Sony Classics' Redbelt, $1.1M weekend, $1.2M cume.
It didn't help that Nina Tassler is a longtime best pal of Exit 19 star Geena Davis because I'm told the CBS drama pilot (CBS Paramount TV / ABC TV Studios) is DOA. Sheesh, what are friends for? But I hear the script wasn't up to snuff.
UPDATE: I also just heard that FBC gave a "cast contingent" pilot pickup to the Shaun Cassidy drama Inseparable (ABC TV Studios). A source just told me he thinks the pilot will be re-shot.
Despite all the buzz, and exec producer McG, and a "phenomenal cast", Spaced is a no-go, I'm told. FBC just turned thumbs down on the WBTV/Wonderland pilot, which was adapted from the successful British TV series.
UPDATE: The Beverly Hills, 90210 Spinoff 90210 (CW/CBS Paramount), a slam dunk pickup, is hiring writers at the CW. I hear the deal is closed with Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah to run the show, and the script is being rewritten. Original alum Jennie Garth is joining. I bet Ian Ziering would pay the network to be cast...
