Woof! Woof! Arsenio Back on TV
Arsenio Hall’s comeback is on.
The former late-night jokemeister has come aboard to emcee Funniest Moments, an hourlong clips-style reality show for MyNetwork TV in the vein of America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Funniest Moments will premiere this fall on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
After the syndicated Arsenio Hall Show went off the air in May 1994 after five seasons, Hall struggled to retain his popularity.
He headlined the short-lived 1997 sitcom Arsenio and, the following year, costarred with Sammo Hung in the CBS series Martial Law. In 2003, he did a short stint hosting a revival of Star Search, popped up in a skit on Chappelle’s Show and, more recently, as himself in VH1’s Flavor of Love 3.
Besides landing a new TV gig, Hall, 53, continues to do stand-up in his spare time and is also lending his voice to the upcoming Weinstein Company animated comedy Igor, unspooling in September.
Pollack’s Projects Up in the Air
Sydney Pollack left behind one of the great film legacies when he died Monday. He also left behind a pile of unfinished business.
The fate of the Hollywood titan’s myriad projects remains uncertain, with his death following so closely that of his producing partner and fellow Oscar winner Anthony Minghella, who died of a hemorrhage following routine surgery in March.
The duo, considered two of Hollywood’s most esteemed auteurs, had several high-profile productions in the pipeline at their Mirage Enterprises, including an English-language remake of 2007’s Best Foreign Oscar winner, The Lives of Others, for the Weinstein Company and the upcoming HBO series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Mirage executives are now scrambling to figure out what to do with the slate.
Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter several of the pair’s projects that do not have other producers attached might end up under the purview of Pollack’s agents at Creative Artists Agency and his family. Alternatively, daughter Rebecca, formerly an executive at United Artists, could step in and oversee them.
“We’re all flying a little blind right now,” an insider close to Pollack tells the trade.
In the meantime, Mirage says it plans on moving ahead with the lineup, which includes the following:
- I Don’t Know How She Does It, a feature film adaptation of Allison Pearson’s novel, helmed by David Frankel (Marley & Me)
- The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, a feature adapted by Minghella from a novel by Liz Jensen
- The Silver Linings Playbook, an inspirational drama based on a forthcoming novel
- Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand, based on the children’s fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud
- The Ressurectionists, a film for Miramax based on the novel by Michael Collins, which Minghella planned to direct
- Colombian Gold, a murder mystery to be directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl)
- Liberty, a thriller set in Haiti
- Turbulence, a thriller Mirage was producing for Universal
Marley Biopic: No Music No Cry?
Is this love? From the looks of it, maybe not.
The late Bob Marley's heirs are jamming the Weinstein Company from licensing the music of the reggae icon for an upcoming movie about his life and career that his widow, Rita Marley, is executive producing.
The reason for the snub, per the Hollywood Reporter: The clan's Tuff Gong Pictures is backing another projecta documentary by Martin Scorsese about Marley.
The family had already agreed to license the musician's hit-laden catalog for the Scorcese filmthe first time the estate has granted such blanket rightsand is concerned that the Weinstein's biopic, set to unspool in late 2009, would conflict with the documentary's release in February 2010 around Marley's birthday.
"Martin Scorsese doesn't want to go out with a competing project, and [producer] Steven Bing has made deals with companies [that are now compromised]," Blue Mountain Music head Chris Blackwell told the Reporter. "The Weinstein project has put the documentary into jeopardy."
Blackwell founded Island Records, the label responsible for bringing Bob Marley and the Wailers as well as reggae in general to the masses, and now runs Blue Mountain Music, the "Stir It Up" singer's music publisher.
Marley's son, Ziggy, an executive producer on the untitled Scorsese expose, added that he and other family members' main priority is protecting his father's legacy.
"All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary," Ziggy, a reggae star in his own right, told the trade. "We believe that this project is the best way to represent our father's life from his perspective, and any other film project pertaining to our father will be empty without his music to support it."
The problem for moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein is that they apparently were willing to get up, stand up for the story, but failed to get music rights.
"When I sold the film rights to my book [to the Weinsteins], the contract did not include any rights to use my husband's music," said Rita Marley.
Neither a rep for Tuff Gong Pictures nor the London-based Blackwell was available for comment.
Marley family attorney Terri Dipalo told the Reporter the clan categorically rejects any suggestions that they were holding back the tunes to get a better deal out of the Weinsteins. At the same time, she didn't rule out his songs from eventually being licensed for the drama, noting "anything's possible."
Weinstein Company spokesman Matthew Frankel indicated that the brothers believe everything will work out in the end.
"We have great respect for the Marley family and Chris Blackwell and are in discussions to look at ways to mutually benefit both projects," he said.
Blackwell, who's reportedly pushing for the company to postpone the biopic until at least 2015, had a phone conversation with Harvey Weinstein earlier this month in which the two discussed the potential conflict, but so far had not settled the issue. One idea the former is bandying about is possibly having the Weinsteins receive a stake in the Scorsese doc in exchange for delaying the Rita Marley-produced flick.
A source close to that project however insisted to Online that the 2009 date for the biopic was never set in stone in the first place because the film does not even have a script yet and remains in development so all the talk regarding a possible collision is premature.
Or good PR.
NBC Preserves Soul of the Runway
Project Runway may have only one season to go on NBC Universal-owned Bravo, but the studio is looking to make sure it gets first dibs on the next wundershow that comes along.
NBCU announced Monday it has inked an exclusive first-look deal with Runway producers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, whose Magical Elves shingle is also behind the Bravo hit Top Chef.
Meaning, Cutforth and Lipsitz won't be bringing the magic to Project Runway once it moves to Lifetime.
"We love Runway, we built our business to some extent on Runway, and we plan on doing a kickass job on season five," Lipsitz told Variety. "But we don't want to do work for hire anymore. We have limited time and energy and focus, and it doesn't make sense in terms of our new deal."
Not one to cry over split threads, the Weinstein Company, which inked the $150 million deal that handed Runway over to Lifetime, said it is already in talks with a new production team to helm the Peabody Award-winning show.