News

Bill Murray is in early talks for the coming-of-age story St. Vincent De Van Nuys written and helmed by Ted Melfi for Twentieth Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment. The story follows a twelve-year old boy who's parents are getting divorced, he sparks an unlikely friendship with a retired next door neighbor (Murray); a boozing, gambling war veteran who becomes his mentor. Fred Roos of Chernin Entertainment produces while Don Cheadle and Kay Liberman are serving as executive producers via Crescendo Productions. Variety reports that the script was on 2011's Black List, getting the same number of votes as Tarantino's upcoming Django Unchained, and even had Jack Nicholson rumored as a potential lead last year. This would have been right up his alley.

Bill Murray is in early talks for the coming-of-age story St. Vincent De Van Nuys written and helmed by Ted Melfi for Twentieth Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment. The story follows a twelve-year old boy who's parents are getting divorced, he sparks an unlikely friendship with a retired next door neighbor (Murray); a boozing, gambling war veteran who becomes his mentor. Fred Roos of Chernin Entertainment produces while Don Cheadle and Kay Liberman are serving as executive producers via Crescendo Productions. Variety reports that the script was on 2011's Black List, getting the same number of votes as Tarantino's upcoming Django Unchained, and even had Jack Nicholson rumored as a potential lead last year. This would have been right up his alley.

It’s been So Long since we’ve heard from Syfy rookie show Alphas, it’s about time we got some info on the second season. It turns out they’re starting production and have added a new cast member, Erin Way (Detroit 1-8-7, I <3 Vampires). She’ll be playing Kat, a “mysterious free spirit” whose Alpha ability is to duplicate any skill she sees, short term. They’ve also added in a new showrunner and executive producer, Bruce Miller, former co-executive producer on Syfy sister show Eureka.

Production Powers Up On Season 2 Of Syfy’S Alphas From Universal Cable Productions And Bermanbraun Television

Erin Way Joins Cast As New Alpha Team Member

New York – March 30, 2012 – Production begins this week in Toronto on the second season of Syfy’s super-powered original drama series Alphas starring David Strathairn, Malik Yoba, Warren Christie, Azita Ghanizada, Ryan Cartwright and Laura Mennell. Joining the...

TNT and TBS announce new programming in development TNT and TBS today unveiled a broad array of plans for new programming, including several comedy projects that are being considered for TBS and a host of projects in development for TNT. The two cable giants staged a joint Upfront presentation in New York, with appearances by a legion of stars, including TBS's Conan O'Brien, George Lopez and Ice Cube; and TNT's Kyra Sedgwick, Ray Romano, Andre Braugher, Scott Bakula, Jada Pinkett Smith, Dylan McDermott, Timothy Hutton, Noah Wyle, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Ben McKenzie, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Breckin Meyer and Angie Harmon.

TNT and TBS rank among the largest networks in television. "Television is more popular than ever with viewers, and that makes the medium very valuable to advertisers," said David Levy, president of sales, distribution and sports for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. "With reach that rivals broadcast and strong programming on each network,...

The big news to come out of the Turner networks upfront presentation today is the announcement that Conan O’Brien’s new late night TBS show will premiere at 11:00 Pm on November 8. O’Brien’s debut on TBS will end a nine-month hiatus from television, punctuated by a 30-city live tour, the creation of a Twitter account, and a somber appearance on 60 Minutes.

The upfront also gave TNT and TBS a chance to brag about their new series, like the 1980s-set comedy Glory Daze and the buddy lawyer series Franklin & Bash. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Here’s the official press release:

Top Talent Chooses TNT and TBS

TNT and TBS today unveiled a broad array of plans for new programming, including several comedy projects that are being considered for TBS and a host of projects in development for TNT. The two cable giants staged a...

By Variety

Don Cheadle has now set his sights on building a mini TV empire.

Crescendo, the production company Cheadle launched with former managers Kay Liberman and Lenore Zerman, has sealed a first-look TV deal at NBC. The company already has a handful of projects set up at the Peacock, as well as several more at ABC, TNT and FX.

Read more from Variety.

Frank Liberman, a Hollywood publicist for more than 60 years, died Monday. He was 92.

Liberman represented Bob Hope for 41 years, Phyllis Diller for 33 and David Janssen for 16. He also repped Henry Fonda, Nat "King" Cole, Tony Bennett, Jack Paar, Harry Belafonte, Steve Allen, Charles Bronson, Joan Blondell, Dorothy Lamour, Peggy Lee, Mel Ferrer, Mike Nichols, Frank Langella, Nick Nolte and William Shatner, among others.

Liberman also publicized such major motion pictures as "Solomon and Sheba" (1959), "The Miracle Worker" (1962) and "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971). As a book publicist, he represented many of the published works of George Burns, Hope, Allen and Diller.

Liberman also served as the publicist for two famed celebrity-frequented restaurants -- Dan Tana's in West Hollywood and La Scala in Beverly Hills.

Liberman, a native of Manhattan, served with the U.S. Signal Corps and Army Pictorial Service during World War II. He began work in the movie...

Oscar-nominated actor-producer Don Cheadle and his Crescendo Prods. are making a big push in television with a two-year, first-look deal at Universal Media Studios.

Under the pact, expected to be announced today during NBC's portion of the winter Television Critics Assn. press tour, Crescendo will develop series projects for the studio.

"Don Cheadle is such a smart and dynamic presence both on the screen and behind the scenes," said Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment for NBC and Ums. "We are already at work discussing ideas that will bring Don's strong and creative voice to our primetime schedule."

Founded in 2005, Crescendo is run by Cheadle and producing partners Kay Liberman and Lenore Zerman. The company, which recently signed a two-year, first-look deal with Overture Films on the feature side, has produced such films as "Traitor" and the documentary "Darfur Now."

Cheadle also was a producer of the Oscar-winning "Crash." He...

Overture Films has signed a two-year, first-look deal with Don Cheadle's production company, Crescendo Prods.

Crescendo, which along with Cheadle is run by Lenore Zerman and Kay Liberman, has a Miles Davis biopic in development as well as "Marching Powder," a drug tale it is set to produce with Plan B.

It's also looking to develop projects in less dramatic genres like comedies and young-adult.

"We don't necessarily have a specific genre; what we want is character-driven material that's well-written and has a foundation in reality," Zerman said.

Overture and Crescendo collaborated on "Traitor," the Cheadle-toplined government thriller that grossed $24 million this year.

The move also continues a pattern of Overture execs Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett working with producers from their MGM/UA tenure; the pair oversaw the studio when it released Cheadle's "Hotel Rwanda" in 2004.

Overture has similar pacts with Philip Seymour Hoffman's Cooper's Town Prods.