R.J. Cutler Signs First-Look Television Deal With Lionsgate

EXCLUSIVE: R.J. Cutler keeps growing his relationship with Lionsgate Television. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker (The War Room) and Emmy-winning television producer (American High), has signed a preliminary-look television deal with Lionsgate to develop and create scripted programming for broadcast and cable. Cutler first teamed with Lionsgate TV this development season on drama project Nashville, which provided to ABC and was recently acquired to pilot with Cutler executive creating and pointing. R.J.s fascination with growing his activities in scripted programming meshed perfectly with this particular have to continue coping with him beyond Nashville, mentioned Lionsgate TV Group leader Kevin Beggs. Hes an very creative and experienced producer and were searching toward developing other projects together after we still expand our television business. Put together by Oscar champion Callie Khouri, Nashville is known to love a household cleaning cleaning soap about love, new bands, family, politics and sex set in the backdrop in the Nashville music scene. Cutler and Khouri are executive allowing the pilot with Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment Lionsgate TV is co-creating with ABC Art galleries. Were getting such an enjoyable experience on Nashville that building round the relationship made an appearance an apparent next factor,” Cutler mentioned. “Lionsgate is the greatest home for your kind of scripted television If only to create and direct. Cutler, repped by CAA and attorney Jeanne Newman, is presently creating and pointing the feature documentary The Earth According to Dick Cheney for Showtime.

Valentine's Day Movies For Him And For Her

Deciding which romantic movie to watch on the day of romance can be enough to ruin the entire day. There's no need to sweat over a simple movie to watch together, so we took the time to list the movies you both can enjoy for different reasons. Here are the Valentine's Day movies everyone can fall in love with. "Casablanca" (1942) For her: This all-time classic, at its heart, is a love story. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman star in one of the most beloved love affairs in the history of film and shared one of the most memorable goodbyes ever. It's sure to dampen an eye or two. For him: If any day of the year requires a positive male role model, it's Valentine's Day. Bogart will show you the ropes on how to woo women, smoke, and drink whiskey. We can't recommend the last two, but there's more than enough manliness to keep you interested if romance is not your thing. "Vertigo" (1958) For her: Could your relationship survive a maniacal plot to fake someone's death with the use of a look-alike and an ancestor's ghost? Probably not, so why not spend Valentine's Day watching the story of one that did? Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novac light up the screen as the most romantically obsessed couple of all time. Sure it's got a tragic ending, but who hasn't experienced a bad breakup? For him: Maybe you don't tell her this, but this movie gets messed up. It might not have the gore of today's movies, but it goes to dark places that only a handful of movies are willing to go today. "Princess Bride" (1987) For her: This is the storybook love story you've grown up loving. It's got a prince and a princess, a forbidden and undying love. I'm swooning just writing about it. Of course, it will make for the perfect Valentine's Day movie. Hopefully, some of Westley will rub off on your guy, and soon he'll be responding, "As you wish." For him: Despite how you may remember it from sleepovers when you were seven years-old, "The Princess Bride" is a hilarious movie. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't find this movie in the least bit entertaining. "True Romance" (1993) For her: A hooker with a heart of gold takes up with a misunderstood loser, and the two quickly fall in love. What follows is a fast-paced and passionate romance, just like the rockstars from the sixties. Bonnie and Clyde have nothing on Alabama and Clarence. Plus, there's a nice little cameo from Brad Pitt. For him: Alright, so Alabama and Clarence are both insane. Clarence takes advice from the imaginary figure of Elvis, and Alabama beats the ever-loving crap out of James Gandolfini as a mob tough guy. That's to be expected from Quentin Tarantino, who wrote the screenplay. "Pride & Prejudice" (2005) For her: You may think that by watching this you'll have won the discussion. Nothing is girlier than Jane Austen, right? For him: Wrong. You may pretend to hate this one, but there is a lot for everyone to enjoy here. The 2005 adaptation with Keira Knightley features some of the cleverest dialogue in recent years, and Jane Austen wrote most of it in 1813. "Drive" (2011) For her: Ryan Gosling. For him: Ryan Gosling. And elevator face-smashing. What are you Valentine's Day movie recommendations? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!

Systems Plan Tributes to Recognition Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston The dying of singing legend Whitney Houston has hit Hollywood as well as the record companies hard. To recognition "The Voice," this is a roundup from the products several systems have planned: Monday, Feb 136/7c: 106 & Park honors Houston's existence and legacy (Wager) 8/7c: The Bodyguard (Lifetime) 9:30/8:30c: Whitney Houston Dying from the Diva (VH1) Tuesday, Feb 14Noon: A to Z Whitney Houston Video (VH1 Classic) 1/12c: Cinderella, also starring Brandy and Whoopi Goldberg (Wager)4:05/3:05c: Waiting to Exhale (Encore)10/9c: 100 Finest Women in Music to incorporate acknowledgment (Wager)Thursday, Feb 16Time TBD: VH1 News Presents Whitney Houston's Finest Moments (VH1) 8/7c: Whitney Houston: Symbolic Appreciated (TV Guide Network) 9/8c: Remembering Whitney: The The famous host the famous host oprah Interview (OWN)

Weighty themes, fest vets fill selections

'Sexy Sadie' helmer Matthias Glasner explores family tensions in a remote Norwegian town in 'Mercy.'Though he's weathered plenty of criticism of his programming choices in recent years, particularly in the German press, Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick appears to have made few major course adjustments with the festival's 62nd annual edition. If anything, the sheer number of Berlin alumni in this year's typically serious-minded competition lineup suggests a deliberate, if not defiant, reaffirmation of the talent Kosslick has brought to the festival over his 11-year tenure.Three Berlinale regulars will deliver a strong showing for Germany on its home turf. Christian Petzold ("Yella," last year's "Dreileben: Beats Being Dead") is returning with "Barbara," his latest collaboration with "Yella" thesp Nina Hoss; Hans-Christian Schmid ("Distant Lights," "Requiem," "Storm") is bringing his domestic drama "Home for the Weekend"; and Matthias Glasner ("Die Mediocren," "Sexy Sadie," "The Free Will") explores family tensions in a remote Norwegian town in "Mercy."The roster of non-Teuton alums vying for the Golden Bear is equally imposing. Though better known of late for stirring controversy at Cannes, Filipino helmer Brillante Mendoza (whose "Slingshot" premiered in Berlinale's 2008 Forum section) will deliver one of the fest's most buzzed-about entries, "Captive," a kidnapping drama starring Isabelle Huppert. Italy's Taviani brothers ("The Lark Farm") will be in attendance with "Caesar Must Die," centered around a Shakespeare production mounted by maximum-security prison inmates in Rome, while Benedik Fliegauf ("Forest") makes his competition debut with "Just the Wind," an account inspired by the murders of Romani families in the helmer's native Hungary.Returning to the festival that honored him with a Golden Bear for 2006's "Tuya's Marriage," Wang Quanan is back in competition with "White Deer Plain," a 188-minute Chinese epic about the Cultural Revolution. Out of competition, Wang's fellow mainlander Zhang Yimou (a frequent Berlin visitor with such films as "Hero," "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop," "Hero" and 1987 Golden Bear winner "Red Sorghum") will premiere his local B.O. smash "The Flowers of War," about the 1937-38 Nanjing massacre.All in all, it's a fairly bleak-sounding selection based on subject matter alone. It's par for the course for most festivals and certainly for Berlin, which has never shied away from challenging its audience (easily the largest of any fest, with nearly 400 films screening to roughly 500,000 attendees) with grim, confrontational and politically charged fare.Partly out of aesthetic pride, partly due to the increasing difficulty of competing with Cannes and Venice for auteur prestige or Hollywood luster, Berlin has often staked its reputation on the promise of challenging but rewarding work from lesser-known international filmmakers, such as Maren Ade's "Everyone Else" or Ulrich Koehler's "Sleeping Sickness." This year it will attempt to keep that promise with such competition debutantes as Ursula Meier ("Sister"), Miguel Gomes ("Tabu"), Frederic Videau ("Coming Home"), Antonio Chavarrias ("Childish Games"), mono-monikered Edwin ("Postcards From the Zoo") and Kim Nguyen ("War Witch").Nonetheless, Kosslick arranged a splashy start with the festival's opening-night selection, "Farewell, My Queen," a French Revolution costume drama starring Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette. Helmer Benoit Jacquot's pic is one of two monarchy-themed historical dramas in competition, both set in roughly the same era; the other is Nikolaj Arcel's "A Royal Affair," the story of a small-town physician who rose to power in 16th-century Denmark.A very different period piece, and one of the fest's highest-profile selections, is Billy Bob Thornton's "Jayne Mansfield's Car," a tale of two rival families set in late-1960s Alabama that happens to be the sole American-directed entry in competition. The U.S./Hollywood presence is stronger in the festival's noncompeting strands, which will present screenings of Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire," Jason Reitman's "Young Adult" and Angelina Jolie's "In the Land of Blood and Honey."As usual, the Berlinale will serve as a European platform for Oscar contenders that have already played Stateside, though in terms of critical and commercial reception, the selection of "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" and "The Iron Lady" reps a considerable downturn from last year's sterling choices, "True Grit" and "The King's Speech." For red-carpet wattage alone, the festival's hottest ticket may well be Robert Pattinson starrer "Bel Ami," Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod's adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's oft-filmed novel.Striking less frivolous notes are the numerous documentaries programmed throughout the fest's sidebars. Past Berlin jury president Werner Herzog will present "Death Row," a four-part, 188-minute companion-piece to his recent "Into the Abyss" in the Berlinale Special section. Portraits of artists abound, from such world premieres as Kevin Macdonald's "Marley" and Klaartje Quirijns' "Anton Corbijn Inside Out" to Sundance-preemed titles including Matthew Akers' "Marina Abramovic the Artist Is Present" and Alison Klayman's "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry."Roughly a month before the one-year anniversary of Japan's earthquake/tsunami disaster, the Forum will present three nonfiction efforts examining the fallout of the disaster: Shunji Iwai's "Friends After 3.11," Toshi Fujiwara's "No Man's Zone" and Atsushi Funahashi's "Nuclear Nation." It's the sort of sober, topical programming that befits a festival clearly trying hard to be taken seriously; whether the quality lives up to the promise, only the next 10 days or so will tell. Contact Justin Chang at justin.chang@variety.com

Meaghan Rath Isn't Your Typical Ghost on 'Being Human'

Were playing normal somebody that has these conditions which are supernatural," states Meaghan Rath, who plays Sally on Syfys re-imagining from the BBC series Being Human. "Thats what stand out concerning the show."The Montreal-native shows a ghost who lives having a vampire (Mike Witwer) along with a werewolf (Mike Huntington). Despite the fact that Rath continues to be acting regularly in Canada during the last decade, she's still considered a brand new face in the usa. "It certainly helps you to possess some material to exhibit before coming here," Rath states of her earlier work. "Once the show was being released this past year, I just read articles saying, 'Newcomer Meaghan Rath,' and Ive been carrying this out for a long time. However I love that. You are able to perform a lot in Canada, and it offers a superior lots of time to practice and improve."Back Stage: How have you enter into acting? Meaghan Rath: After I was more youthful, I wasnt really sure things i desired to do, however i told lots of is based on school. I told my buddies once which i was playing John Travoltas daughter inside a movie. I additionally told people who I'd this romantic affair with Jonathan Taylor Thomas on the summer time. I Quickly began these training courses for fun on saturday in the Montral School of Carrying out Arts. Once after i involved 12, a casting director arrived which was casting a schoolgirl for Lost and Delirious. My school picture, by which I had been putting on a uniform, was around the wall. She requested me to audition and that i got role. I performed Allisons Friend Number 3, my best product up to now. (Laughs) Back Stage: Did your ethnicity help your job initially or present more challenges? Rath: My fathers household is part British and Austrian, and my moms household is from Goa, which is incorporated in the south of India. I looked not the same as everybody other person, which now's this type of blessing. It had been harder at the outset of my career. There's not as numerous roles for those who seem like me, also it was always complicated if this found casting my parents. However I could not become more grateful that I've got a different look. Back Stage: How have you get brought to Being Human? Rath: I hadnt heard about the British series. I received the breakdown from my agent and that i connected immediately with Sally. I acquired the very first two scripts and that i thought, I have to do that.Back again Stage: That which was the audition process like? Rath: I auditioned a lot of occasions in Montral. They travelled me to La to screen test with potential men. The procedure involved per month. Back Stage: Did they create you put on a sheet? Rath: No. (Laughs.) I used a whitened dress and attempted to appear as haunting when i could. I did not do like arm waving or strange vocal stuff. I did not put on makeup either because were playing against type. However I am very superstitious and when I recieve it a phone call back, Ill put on exactly the same factor I used the very first time. Back Stage: How have you investigate the role? Rath: Ive been in to the horror genre, so Ive seen lots of movies with ghosts and supernatural stuff. I looked more in to the ghost lore, however i seem like Sally is really a brand new ghost at first, I had been type of learning together with her.Back again Stage: What's challenging about playing a personality that's mostly non-corporeal? Rath: At first, I never got any props, so when you speak with someone, sometimes you touch them without considering it. Individuals were habits which i needed to break, that we think assisted me being an actor. Also, after i take a seat on the couch, the pillows are constructed of concrete, and so i dont make an imprint. Thats uncomfortable. Back Stage: What advice can you share with stars who've to re-make a character? Rath: Dont watch it. I was attempting to create our very own factor which ended by staying away from another show. Should you spend considerable time thinking, I really hope ours is really as good or better, then you aren't concentrating on the job. You simply do your very best and make use of what you could offer for that role. Being Human airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on Syfy.

BAFTA Best Film artwork arrives

BAFTA has commissioned a series of brochure covers to accompany the Best Film nominees ahead of next Sunday's award ceremony, and rather gorgeous they are too.Designed by Eda Akaltun and StudioSmall, the five brochures present an arty take on the five big films of the night. In case you missed the earlier announcements, they are Drive, The Help, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, The Artist and The Descendants.On balance, we'd say that the Drive cover is probably our favourite, although the image for The Artist runs it close. Sadly, the images are not currently available to buy, or else we'd have snapped them up already.The BAFTAs will be handed out at London's Royal Opera House on Sunday 12 February. Until then, take a look at the artwork in full below...