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Chinese directors of 5th and 6th Generation have garnered wide international recognition for their fiction output. Their documentary colleagues, however, are not met with the same amount of love and interest at film festivals. Unrightly so, as their work of documenting and exposing the rapid changes of People's Republic of China is highly commendable. Shot almost independently, with minimal budgets and no support from the government, Chinese guerilla filmmakers have to function in some of the least favourable film industry conditions. Here are some of the works representative of the Chinese indie documentary movement of last two decades.

Three Sisters (2012) by Wang Bing

Contrary to what was said in this article's introduction, Wang Bing stands as an exception to the rule. As the most recognized Chinese contemporary documentary filmmaker, he is widely celebrated since his monumental debut “West of the Tracks” (2003). “Three Sisters” however is a far more accessible entry point into his filmography.

“This is Going to Hurt” had a good night at the BAFTAs last weekend, with leading man Ben Whishaw claiming his third BAFTA win with a victory for Best Actor for the Hulu medical drama. Based on Adam Kay‘s memoir of the same name, the series follows his early years as a doctor working in an NHS hospital in mid-noughties England. Whishaw, who is in the mix for an Emmy bid for Best TV Movie/Mini-Series Actor, isn’t the only star hoping for awards success with this critical darling. Harriet Walter could well be in the hunt for an Emmy nomination for “This is Going to Hurt” alongside her bid for guesting in “Succession.”

Dame Harriet Walter portrays Kay’s mother, Veronique, in “This is Going to Hurt” and she is absolutely everything you’d want her to be. She is steely, cold, cutting, and as barbed-tongued as...

On the heels of his acclaimed stage performance at London’s National Theater for “Phaedra,” Assaad Bouab (“Call My Agent!,” “Bad Sisters”) is set to team with filmmaker Benjamin Ross (“The Frankenstein Chronicles”) and European production banner Asacha Media Group on “Voyager.”

“Voyager” will star Bouab as legendary Medieval explorer and philosopher Ibn Battuta who went on pilgrimage to Mecca and ended up travelling for over twenty years and over 76000 miles across Africa, India and Eurasia, more than anyone in pre-modern history. Battuta logged his experiences of the people, places and cultures he encountered along the way, writing one of the world’s earliest and most famous travelogues, The Rilah, and earning himself legendary status in history. The project is being developed as a series.

Bouab, who is half Moroccan, said “Ibn Battuta is one of the greatest explorers of all time and I would have loved to have had his life.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Alex Moffat will make his Broadway debut in the upcoming comedy The Cottage, directed by Jason Alexander. Also joining the previously announced Eric McCormack, Laura Bell Bundy, and Lilli Cooper in the cast will be Nehal Joshi and Dana Steingold.

Sandy Rustin’s The Cottage, Alexander’s Broadway directorial debut, will play a limited run at The Hayes Theater from July 7 to October 29, with an opening night of July 24.

Additional casting and creatives are to be announced.

During his 2016-2022 stint on NBC’s SNL, Moffat was known for his impersonations of Joe Biden, Eric Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Anderson Cooper and Joe Scarborough, among others, as well as his original recurring Weekend Update character, Guy Who Just Bought a Boat. Film credits include Susie Searches and Christmas with the Campbells, and he can be seen on Apple’s Bad Monkey series, an adaptation of...

The previously announced and long-awaited Off Broadway production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters starring Oscar Isaac and Greta Gerwig has been indefinitely postponed due to scheduling conflicts.

The New York Theatre Workshop production was to have been directed by Sam Gold from a new adaptation by Clare Barron.

Originally announced as part of the theater company’s 2019-20 season, the revival was initially delayed due to the Covid pandemic, and the Nytw has endeavored over the last three years to reunite the original company for a summer 2023 production.

“Unfortunately, new scheduling conflicts have arisen for the production’s in-demand artists which proved to be insurmountable in bringing the production to life during the 2022/23 season,” a statement from Nytw reads. The company “hopes to be able to bring this new production to the stage in a future season and joins the community in the disappointment of this second postponement.”

“Because bringing...

The Off-Broadway production of Three Sisters starring Oscar Isaac and Greta Gerwig has been indefinitely postponed.

The production was originally meant to run as part of New York Theatre Workshop’s 2019-2020 season, but was delayed by the theatrical shutdown. The production had been announced as part of the East Village theater’s 2022-2023 season, but the theater now says that show cannot go on.

“In the intervening three years, Nytw has worked to reunite the original company for a summer 2023 production. Unfortunately, new scheduling conflicts have arisen for the production’s in-demand artists which proved to be insurmountable in bringing the production to life during the 2022/23 season,” the theater said in a statement.

“Nytw hopes to be able to bring this new production to the stage in a future season and joins the community in the disappointment of this second postponement,” the statement continued.

Isaac is currently starring opposite...

Mary Stuart Masterson has been cast in Blumhouse’s feature film adaptation of “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” Production on the film adaptation of the popular video game series will begin in February in New Orleans.

She joins an ensemble that also includes Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard. Emma Tammi (“The Wind”) is directing the film. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop will be working alongside Blumhouse to bring the game’s animatronics to life.

As fans of the survival game know, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through. The film was written by Scott Cawthon, Emma Tammi and Seth Cuddeback. The film will be produced by Blumhouse in association with Striker Entertainment. Scott Cawthon and...

Exclusive: Laura San Giacomo, recently seen in NCIS and Barry, has signed with Stewart Talent for representation.

San Giacomo is known for her work in Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotape, for which she received an Independent Spirit Award, along with BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. She was most recently seen on the big screen in independent films including Alma Ha’rel’s Honeyboy and Violet, directed by Justine Bateman. Her other film credits include Pretty Woman opposite Julia Roberts, Quigley Down Under, Under Suspicion, Nina Takes a Lover and Once Around.

In television, San Giacomo received a second Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Maya Gallo on hit comedy series Just Shoot Me! Her other TV credits include the Stephen King miniseries The Stand and Veronica Mars and a guest-starring role in The Mentalist. She also co-starred opposite Holly Hunter in TNT’s Saving Grace. Most recently,...

Showtime announced that Blair Underwood and Lola Kirk have been cast in the upcoming drama series “Three Women” based on Lisa Taddeo’s book of the same name.

As a series regular, Underwood will play Richard, a popular chef who is blindsided when his wife Sloane (DeWanda Wise) enters a sexual relationship with another man. Lola Kirke plays the recurring guest role of Jenny, a free spirit who may be the only woman Sloane has ever been close to.

Along with Wise, previously announced stars include Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin and Ravi Patel. The series is a story of female desire, charting the paths of three women completely overturning their lives. Sloane, a glamorous entrepreneur, enters her affair despite being in an open marriage already when she meets two new strangers. Homemaker Lina (Gilpin) enters an affair after a decade in a passionless marriage. Maggie is a student who accuses...

Drama series from the UK, Belgium and Austria among development line-up.

Italy’s TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has unveiled the nine projects selected for its upcoming TV development platform SeriesLab, including a new period thriller from the Riahi brothers.

The industry programme, which mentors European scriptwriters, directors and producers, selected this year’s cohort from 125 projects. A total of 10 European countries are represented across the nine projects, which are brought by 12 female participants and eight men.

The titles include 30 Bullets by Iranian-born, Austrian-based filmmakers Arash T. Riahi and Arman T.Riahi. Set in the 1990s, the drama series is described as “the...

After 194 episodes, nine seasons and two networks, “Last Man Standing” ends its run on Thursday night with one more story that puts a bookend on the entire series. In the final two episodes, “Baxter Boot Camp” and “Keep On Truckin,” the Baxter family reminisces on some of their good times while camping in the backyard.

But then, later, they gather again after Mike Baxter’s (Tim Allen) beloved green 1956 Ford F-100 is stolen. And as Mike asks family and friends to one-by-one pay tribute to the truck, it’s clear what they’re really doing is saying farewell to the show.

“I adored this show, this cast, this crew,” Allen said. “I never had a bad day on the set, and it isn’t old hat… Of course, all of the actors are still alive and well and we can see each other whenever we want, but I have not...

Over 100 films, stories of women, of precarious work, portraits of contemporary Korean society, between bourgeoisie and working classes; this is the 19th edition of the Florence Korea Film Fest, the most important Italian festival dedicated to the best of cinematography of contemporary South Korea, from 21 to 28 May in Florence, live (pending the provisions regarding the health emergency) at the La Compagnia cinema and online on the Più Compagnia and Mymovies.it platforms. The event, conceived and directed by Riccardo Gelli of the Taegukgi – Toscana Korea Association, is organized with the support of the Tuscany System Foundation, the Tuscany Region, the Metropolitan City of Florence, the Municipality of Florence, Kofic – Korean Film Council.

As every year, the Programme features a rich lineup of over 100 films, including short films and documentaries. Spotlights are on the homage to Kim Ki-Duk, one of the most important filmmakers in world cinema – who recently passed away, at...

Moon So-ri has always been an actress whose projects are worth keeping an eye out for. While she rarely does solo leading lady parts these days, even her work within an ensemble cast rarely disappoints. It is, thus, with anticipation that her latest feature “Three Sisters” by director Lee Seung-won, on which she also acts as producer, was looked forward to.

Three Sisters screened at Osaka Asian Film Festival

As the title suggests, our central characters here are three sisters, each with their different lives yet each equally pitiable in those lives. The eldest, Hee-sook, is an always apologetic florist who can’t seem to tell anyone, not even her rebellious daughter Bo-mi, that she has been diagnosed with cancer. Middle sister Mi-yeon is a devout Catholic choirmaster who can’t get her children to follow the faith as well as she’d want them to, while also just finding...

Ava DuVernay’s superhero DC drama Naomi has found its lead. Kaci Walfall has been tapped for the titular role in The CW drama pilot, from DuVernay’s Array Filmworks and Warner Bros. Television. Also set as series regulars are Alexander Wraith, Cranston Johnson and newcomer Camila Moreno.

Naomi, the network’s latest DC adaptation, comes from DuVernay and Arrow writer and co-exec producer Jill Blankenship. Based on the eponymous comic book series that debuted in 2019, co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker and illustrated by breakout artist Jamal Campbell, the show follows a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core,...

Legendary documentarian Wang Bing is at Haf this year with his new project “I Come from Ikotun,” which follows two Nigerian families with a foothold in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou over the course of the pandemic.

Known for his epically long, unflinching works that have previously tackled sensitive issues like China’s brutal re-education camps, Wang will this time turn his lens on a more cross-cultural subject. In a statement, he said he wanted in this project to explore issues affecting Guangzhou’s African community “in the context of the China-Africa trade, the Covid-19 crisis, racism, colonialism and discrimination.”

One thread of the film follows Nigerian migrant Kingsley, who has worked long days as a barber in Guangzhou for four years yet still can’t afford to pay the $3,000 needed to register his shop and obtain the right work and residence permits. He lives out of a McDonald’s restaurant.

Sarah Niles has been cast in “Ted Lasso” Season 2 at Apple.

Niles will play Sharon, a sports psychologist who has been brought in to work with AFC Richmond. The second season of the popular series is currently in production, with Apple having ordered a third season already.

Niles recently wrapped on the limited series “Viewpoint” for creators Harry Bradbeer and Ed Whitmore. She has also recently been seen in “I May Destroy You,” “Trying,” “Dracula,” and “Catastrophe.” She is also known for her theater work, having starred in the National Theatre’s “Three Sisters” as well as productions for the Royal Court, Old Vic, and Bush Theatre.

She is repped by Denton Brierley, Alan Siegel Entertainment, and Sloane Offer.

“Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis won his first ever Golden Globe Award this past Sunday for his role in the series. It has also been nominated for Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild,...

On the heels of the Golden Globe win for Ted Lasso star and creator Jason Sudeikis, Apple has announced a new cast member for the second season.

Sarah Niles has joined the hit comedy series as a new series regular. She will play Sharon, a sports psychologist who has been brought in to work with AFC Richmond.

Production on Season 2 is currently underway. The series received an early Season 3 renewal in October.

Ted Lasso, which hails from Sudeikis and Bill Lawrence, is based on the popular Coach Ted Lasso character Sudeikis played in NBC Sports videos several years ago. It stars Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, a small-time college football coach from Kansas hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer. Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster and Nick Mohammed also star.

The...

MediaPro CEO

Spain’s Mediapro Group has upped Laura Fernández Espeso to the role of Chief Executive Officer at its Mediapro Studio, which produces and distributes content. She has been with the company for a decade and was previously Corporate and Television Director. In the new role she will direct the management and strategy of all the productions and production companies integrated under the Mediapro Studio umbrella. Recent films out of Mediapro include Woody Allen’s Rifkin’s Festival and Official Competition with Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas.

Dascham Thriller

Exclusive: Filmmaker Christian Nilsson and YouTuber Eric Tabach have partnered with production co Kamikaze Dogfight to finance Nilsson’s feature-length directorial debut Dashcam. Nilsson previously directed short film Unsubscribe, shot over Zoom, which gained prominence for topping the U.S. box office chart in June during lockdown despite only playing in one theater, grossing $25,000. The feature will star Tabach with Giorgia Whigham,...

Exclusive: Investor and Tony Award-winning producer Kevin J. Kinsella (Jersey Boys) and actress Paten Hughes (Heirloom) have launched film and TV banner Cowboy + Cougar Entertainment.

Kinsella and Hughes will look to write and produce around 4-6 projects per year in the prestige and commercial spaces and will have the capacity to develop, package and finance. Already on the slate are books Confessions Of An Alien Hunter by astronomer Seth Shostak, which Cowboy + Cougar will adapt as a sci-fi TV series called Fermi’s Paradox, and Julia Oliver’s Goodbye To The Buttermilk Sky, which the company will adapt as a feature film.

The latter is a coming-of-age romantic drama in the vein of Bridges Over Madison County about a young woman, Callie, in Depression-era 1938 rural Alabama whose torrid affair with a handsome stranger jostles her life trajectory. Lily Houghton (Day By Day) is writing the adapted feature film script.

Exclusive: In a competitive situation, MGM/UA Television has acquired the rights to author Ivy Pochoda’s new thriller novel These Women for series adaptation. Emmy-winning The Handmaid’s Tale creator Bruce Miller will develop and produce the project as part of White Oak’s overall deal with MGM/UA. Miller will oversee the project and will bring in a writer to pen the adaptation.

These Women, set for release today by HarperCollins, is described as a serial killer story like you’ve never seen before – a literary thriller of female empowerment and social change. Those are also leading themes in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which Miller adapted into the Emmy-winning Hulu/MGM drama series.

Set in West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, These Women focuses on five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession,...

Festival will hold physical screenings of competition titles from May 28 to June 6 exclusively for competition filmmakers and jury members.

South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival has unveiled the eight films selected for its International Competition section of first and second-time directors.

As previously announced, the festival will hold physical screenings of its competition titles from May 28 to June 6 exclusively for competition filmmakers and jury members. Online screenings will also be held for public audiences during those dates.

The line-up includes Chinese director Gao Ming’s Damp Season, about a young couple striving to make a living in the southern...

Jeonju, S. Korea – The 21st Jeonju International Film Festival revealed three selections for the Jeonju Cinema Project 2020: “Three Sisters” by Lee Seungwon, “A Distant Place” by Park Kunyoung, and “Afterwater” By Dane Komljen.

Jeonju Iff is expecting this year’s selections will extend the outline of film art. They are from experimental films blurring the boundary between documentary and fiction, to independent films connecting individuals’ lives and their inner sides and telling the relationship between the society and characters.

First, “Three Sisters” by Lee Seungwon throws questions of the meaning of family through dissimilar sisters. The film shows dramatic character portrayals and unique directing of Lee Seungwon that pushes the characters to the limit. Above all, the thrilling performances by actors Moon Sori, Kim Sunyoung, and Jang Yoonju are brilliant.

still from “Three Sisters”

“A Distant Place” by Park Kunyoung tells a story of Jinwoo, who lives a quiet...

South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival, already delayed by a month due to the coronavirus outbreak, is now to go ahead in its new dates, but in reduced format. Some of its titles, however, will screen until September.

At the end of April, festival organizers confirmed that Jiff will go ahead May 28 to June 6, roughly a month after its usual late-April slot. But they said that it will be stripped down to become “an exclusive edition with no public audience,” consisting of just three sections., an international competition, a Korean competition and a competition for Korean-made short films.

“As the upcoming long holidays in May have caused great alarm among public health authorities, Jiff had no choice but to think about the best way to ensure the safety of the public,” said Lee Joondong, a prominent producer who was appointed festival director in December after a power struggle that caused several programmers to resign.

Wings actor David Schramm who is best known for playing Roy Biggs in the series Wings died in New York. No details about the cause of death have been released. He was 73.

Schramm was born in August 14, 1946 in Louisville, Kentucky and attended Julliard. In addition to playing the rival airline owner for eight seasons on the popular NBC series from the ’90s, Schramm was a member of John Houseman and Margot Harley’s The Acting Company in New York. The professional theater company includes a roster of legendary alumni including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stier.

Schramm made his first Broadway appearance in 1973 with Three Sisters and...

David Schramm, the veteran stage actor who portrayed the airline owner Roy Biggins for eight seasons on the 1990s NBC comedy Wings, has died. He was 73.

Schramm was a founding member of the New York-based The Acting Company, which announced his death on Sunday. Publicist Rick Miramontez said he died in New York. No other details were immediately available.

Schramm made his first appearance on Broadway in 1973 in Three Sisters and his last in 2009 in Finian's Rainbow. In between, he appeared opposite Judith Ivey in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce in 1979.

Schramm also worked in productions for the ...

Because of the rigid voting rules for the Oscars, Greta Gerwig was not able to vote for herself for best director for “Little Women.” When Gerwig was asked to be a member of the Academy in 2016, she was invited as an actor, and therefore that’s the sole branch in which she votes — even after a year when she wrote and directed a movie that ended up being nominated for best picture.

Gerwig remembers this Academy oddity while discussing not being nominated in the director category, an omission that was widely perceived, by everyone from Hillary Clinton to the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” to be the single biggest snub of this year’s nominations. Though Gerwig says she had no expectations of being nominated, “there was clearly a chance,” she says with a laugh. “There’s probably a handful of votes that went that way. I mean, mine did — oh no,...

Legendary Comics and the Webtoon hit series Acursian starring John Barrowman returns with the first weekly chapter leading up to the anticipated conclusion of Season One, now available exclusively on Webtoon. The series, rooted in Celtic lore, is a unique fusion of mythic storytelling from co-creators John Barrowman, Carole Barrowman, and Erika Lewis, with art by Beni Lobel and designs by Tommy Lee Edwards. Readers can visit Webtoon.com for more information. In Acursian, Charlie Stewart, the man who had it all, falls victim to an ancient Celtic curse. Every decision he makes, every relationship he has, every choice he’s given is doomed to fail spectacularly, and sometimes comically, no matter what he does. Embarking on a quest for the truth behind the supernatural forces re-writing his destiny, Charlie discovers that his ancestor Bonnie Prince Charlie made a deal with the ruthless Celtic God of War, Bregon, and his...

German indie powerhouse The Match Factory will handle world sales on two Berlin Film Festival competition titles: German director Fatih Akin’s serial-killer chiller “The Golden Glove” and Turkish director Emin Alper’s family drama “A Tale of Three Sisters.”

Akin, a Hamburg native whose “Head-On” won the Golden Bear in 2004, is returning to the Berlinale with provocative “Glove,” which is based on a bestselling book. It chronicles the true story of Fritz Honka, a physically and psychologically scarred serial killer who murdered four women in Hamburg’s red-light district between 1970 and 1975. Akin has told Variety that the killer, played by rising German actor Jonas Dassler (“Lomo: The Language of Many Others”), used to live a couple of streets from where he grew up.

Honka picked up his victims at a dive bar called Zum Goldenen Handschuh (The Golden Glove in German), where he was a regular. The chiller’s...

Wang Bing’s work has been often described as significant and important in showing a side of China which many people never see, ignore or filter out in their lives. Starting with his nine-hour-opus “West of the Tracks” Bing’s documentaries received international attention and lots of praise.

From the haunting images of a refugee camp, the process of decline in China’s industry as well as the portrayals of remote places within the Chinese landscapes, Bing’s films provide a rich collage of what defines China today. However, it is a version contrary to the public image the country would like to create of itself.

Still form “Three Sisters”

Under the title “Wang Bing: The Landscape of Chinese Everdayness” DAFilms proudly presents six of Wang Bing’s works online. Apart form the aforementioned “West of the Tracks”, their selection includes “Three Sisters”, “‘Til Madness Do Us Part”, “Ta’ang”, “Fengming,...

Just last night, he New Group just honored Founding Artistic Director Scott Elliott and celebrated its 20th Anniversary season. Scott Elliott is an award-winning stage director, filmmaker and the founding Artistic Director of The New Group, where he recently directed the critically acclaimed revival of David Rabe's Sticks and Bones. At The New Group, he has directed world premieres by Thomas Bradshaw, Ayub Khan Din, Francine Volpe, Erika Sheffer and Tommy Nohilly and the world premiere of the 2010 musical The Kid Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for Outstanding Musical. Other credits include The New Group's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie starring Cynthia Nixon David Rabe's Hurlyburly and numerous collaborations with Ayub Khan Din, Wallace Shawn and Mike Leigh. Broadway credits include Present Laughter, Barefoot in the Park, The Threepenny Opera, The Women and Three Sisters. This spring at The New Group,...

HollywoodNews.com: The life of bluegrass music pioneer, Bill Monroe, will be brought to the big screen in a feature starring real life couple Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard.

Sarsgaard is set to portray Monroe while Gyllenhaal will easily play the musician’s lover Bessie Lee Mauldin.

Digital Spy overheard Gyllenhaal saying “Bill Monroe, who invented Blue Grass music, had a kind of Sid and Nancy-style affair with this woman Bessie Lee Mauldin throughout his life.

“T-Bone Burnett’s going to do the music and Callie Khouri, who wrote ‘Thelma & Louise,’ wrote the script so we’re going to do that together.”

Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard married in May 2009.

The Monroe biopic would mark the second time that the twosome have worked together onscreen. Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard starred alongside each other in the 2005 Sundance Film Festival entry “The Dying Gaul.” They will be appearing on stage soon in the Gotham...

The Redgrave dynasty has been hit with another tragedy as Oscar-nominated actress Lynn Redgrave passed away aged 67 in Connecticut yesterday after a seven year battle with breast cancer. This is another terrible blow for a family still grieving over the deaths of Corin Redgrave and Natasha Richardson. The announcement was made via her publicist Rick Miramontez on behalf of her children:

“Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven year journey with breast cancer. She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives.”

The sister of Vanessa and Corin, Lynn plowed her own career in cinema and the stage, and was Oscar-nominated in 1969 for Georgy Girl and in 1999 for her turn as the inrascible Hungarian housekeeper in Bill Condon’s biopic of James Whale, Gods and Monsters.

Craig Doyle is getting fraternal.

The film and television scribe has sold two sibling-themed television projects, including one that is being developed by 20th Century Fox TV and the studio-based Chernin Entertainment.

The 20th TV/Chernin project, set up at Fox, is a comedy about an adult man who's made a mess of his life but must come to the aid of his Type A sister after she suffers a tragedy.

Doyle also has sold the multicamera sibling comedy "Three Sisters" to CBS. Produced by CBS Television Studios and Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg's Katalyst Films, it focuses on three very different men who marry three sisters who are extremely close.

Doyle, repped by CAA and Madhouse Entertainment, did work on "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" at New Line and "Closed for the Holidays" at Paramount.

He also has sold a number of scripts that went to pilot, including "The...

MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- The 2006 Monte Carlo Television Festival got off to a low-key start under balmy skies Monday night at the seaside Grimaldi Forum, as the public walked the red carpet elbow-to-elbow with some of their favorite French TV stars from the popular primetime soap, Plus Belle la Vie. A brief opening ceremony featuring a speech by Prince Albert II of Monaco, the festival's honorary president since 1988, preceded a screening of German-made Three Sisters, one of the 100 programs in competition from 23 different countries. Now in its 46th year, the six-day festival and showcase attracts a high-profile list of international TV celebrities, who will jet in for the annual celebration of programming that culminates with a black-tie awards ceremony.

Brian Scolaro has inked a talent holding deal with CBS to star in a comedy pilot for the network targeted for fall. The actor grabbed the attention of CBS executives with his co-starring role in the ABC/Touchstone TV comedy pilot Platonically Incorrect this past development season. Scolaro, whose credits also include the NBC comedy series Three Sisters, is repped by ICM and manager Vincent Nastri.

ABC's new Tuesday lineup posted another nightly win among adults 18-49, while CBS continued its rein on the night in total viewers. At 8 p.m., 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter (12.8 million viewers, 4.7 rating/14 share among adults 18-49) cooled off from previous weeks, but still won the half-hour in adults 18-49, while passing the total viewers baton this week to CBS' veteran military drama JAG (14.9 million, 3.3/9 from 8-9 p.m.). ABC's According to Jim (12.4 million, 5.0/14) at 8:30 p.m. also topped the competition in adults 18-49, building on to its 8 Simple Rules demo lead-in, according to preliminary Nielsen data. NBC didn't see improvement from switching its 8-9 p.m. comedies. The block of In-laws (6.9 million, 2.4/7) at 8 p.m. and Just Shoot Me (8.0 million, 3.0/8) at 8:30 p.m. was down 13% in the 18-49 demographic, and up 5% in total viewers from last week, when Just Shoot Me (6.6 million, 2.7/8) opened the night at 8 p.m. and In-laws (7.7 million, 3.5/9) ran at 8:30 p.m. The two shows' delivery in 18-49 is on par with what Emeril and Three Sisters did for NBC in the time period last year. At 9 p.m., NBC's Frasier (13.6 million, 5.2/13) won the hour with Life with Bonnie (9.3 million, 4.0/10) running second in 18-49, while the two networks' sitcoms at 9:30 p.m., NBC's Hidden Hills (9.9 million, 4.3/11) and ABC's Less than Perfect (9.3 million, 4.1/10) ran neck and neck. CBS' legal drama The Guardian (13.2 million, 3.3/8) topped the 9-10 p.m. hour in total viewers. For the night, ABC averaged 11.6 million viewers and a 4.7/13 in 18-49 to CBS' 14.0 million viewers and a 3.6/9. NBC logged 9.8 million viewers and a 3.8/10, while Fox posted 6.1 million viewers and a 2.9/8 with repeats of That '70s Show, Cedric the Entertainer Presents and John Doe.