12 Years, Hustle Top Golden Globes

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1 Daily Page 1 of 9 Inside: lone survivor tops b.o rivals PAge 4 daniels eyeing pryor biopic PAge 5 NBC Orders Wilson, Jones Comedy Pilots PAge 6 supreme court agrees to hear aereo dispute PAge 8 movie review: hercules PAge 9 12 Years, Hustle Top Golden Globes By Gregg Kilday and Michael O Connell After striking out in six other categories in which it was nominated, 12 Years a Slave pulled out a last-minute win as it was named best drama at the 65th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night. Steve McQueen, who directed the harrowing look at American slavery, rattled off multiple thank-yous as the evening drew to the close, making special mention of Brad Pitt, one of the film s producers. While Pitt wasn t present, McQueen said to him, Without you, this movie would have never got made. American Hustle took the prize as best comedy. That pic also earned acting honors for Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence. Although writerdirector David O. Russell 12 Years a Slave helmer Steve McQueen, left, and American Hustle producer Charles Roven accept best drama and comedy film honors, respectively. didn t score awards for writing or directing, the win did represent his second film in as many years to take home that award, which went last year to his Silver Linings Playbook. Said producer Charles Roven of Hustle, We had the privilege of telling this particular story about the art of survival, about resilience and about reinvention. But while the folks behind Fox Searchlight s 12 Years and Sony s Hustle could head on to the post-globe parties in a celebratory frame of mind both movies led the field as the evening began with seven see page 2

2 Page 2 of 9 golden globes FROM page 1 nominations each no one film dominated the night. The Globes 14 film awards were spread across 11 pics. Kicking off the festivities, hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler acknowledged how competitive this year s film races have been, with Fey joking, No offense to the movies and nominees last year, but this year is legit. To just about no one s surprise, critics darling Cate Blanchett scored as best actress in a drama for her portrait of a down-onher-luck society dame in Blue Jasmine. She credited her directory Woody Allen for turning out films with such alarming regularity that we almost take it for granted. The prize was Blanchett s third Globe, following her best actress win for 1998 s Elizabeth and supporting actress trophy Blanchett for 2007 s I m Not There. In the very competitive best dramatic actor category, the victor was Matthew McConaughey for playing a straight redneck who battles AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club. Taking home his first-ever Globe, the actor noted the movie s long, long development history, saying, I m so glad it got passed on so many times or it wouldn t have come to me. He concluding by proclaiming, This film was never about dying. It was always about living. Adams was named best actress in a comedy or musical for her performance as a Matthew McConaughey, left, and Amy Adams earned Golden Globes for best actor in a drama and best actress in a comedy/musical, respectively. con woman in Hustle. Thanking her director Russell, for whom she has appeared in both The Fighter and Hustle, she said, Thank you so much for letting the world know a princess can punch and wear a low-cut gown. Leonardo DiCaprio picked up his second Globe he previously won for 2004 s The Aviator as best actor in a comedy or musical for DiCaprio playing a hedonistic trader in The Wolf of Wall Street. He devoted much of his acceptance speech to lavishing praise on the film s director Martin Scorsese, telling the helmer, You re not only an incredible visionary, but you put the very fabric of our culture up there on the screen. The Glolden Globe for best director went to Alfonso Cuaron for the space epic Gravity. The Mexican-born helmer made fun of his own accent in his acceptance speech. While expressing his thanks to Sandra Bullock, the most amazing collab- orator, he explained, she didn t quit the movie when she thought he d said, I will give you herpes when he really had said, I will give you an ear piece. Lawrence scored the first award of the evening as she was hailed as best supporting actress in a motion picture for her performance as an unstable wife in Hustle. A visibly nervous Lawrence, Lawrence who won a Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy last year for Silver Linings Playbook, exclaimed: I m sorry I m shaking so much. Don t ever do this again. The award for best supporting actor went to Jared Leto, who portrays a transsexual dealing with AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club. The actor joked at first that tiny little Brazilian bubble butt was all mine, he said of the lengths that he took to transform himself for the part but then turned serious. I didn t make a film for almost six years, he said, and I just have to say it s more than an honor to come back and to have this love and this support. Her, the unconventional love story about a man and his computer s operating system, earned that film s writer-director Spike Jonze the award for best screenplay. As he accepted, Jonze gave a shout-out to producerfinancier Megan Ellison, sitting near the stage, as well as Hustle s Russell, who, Jonze said, gave him notes on the film and suggested cuts. Singer-songwriter Alex Ebert earned the Golden Globe for best score for his work on the tale of survivalat-sea All Is Lost. It was Ebert s first film score, first nomination and first Globe win, and he thanked the pic s director J.C. Chandor for letting me try all over your movie. The Golden Globe for best song went to rock group U2 for Ordinary Love, a Leto tune written for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. In accepting, The Edge noted that the group had a long association with the late Nelson Mandela, having performed concerts against apartheid as teens. This really is personal for us... very, very personal, Bono added. This man turned our life upside down, right side up. Italy s The Great Beauty, a look at modern-day Italian society inspired by Federico Fellini s classic La Dolce Vita, was singled out as best foreign film. The feature also is see page 3

3 Page 3 of 9 golden globes FROM page 2 one of the nine movies on the shortlist for this year s foreign-language film Oscar. In accepting for director Paolo Sorrentino, producer Nicola Giuliano threw in a thanks to Italy that s a crazy country, but beautiful. Disney s Frozen, which has collected more than $712 million worldwide to date, was rewarded with the Golden Globe for best animated film. While accepting the honor with his fellow director Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck thanked the movie s fans and offered special thanks to John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, who oversee the combined animation activities of Disney and Pixar. Emma Stone, who appears in Woody Allen s upcoming pic Magic in the Moonlight, introduced a tribute to the filmmaker, recipient of the annual Cecil B. De- Cranston Mille Award, the Globes career achievement honor. Woody s work has been changing the way we think about life, love and the pursuit of neuroses for decades, said Stone. The awards show-phobic Allen wasn t present, but his Annie Hall muse and one-time love interest Diane Keaton accepted on his behalf. It kind of breaks my heart to know I ve known Woody for such a long time, Keaton said of their 45-yearlong friendship. She made special mention of his knack for working with actresses 179 of them by Keaton s Surprise wins in the TV series, comedy, and actor in a TV series, comedy, categories went to Brooklyn Nine-Nine and its star Andy Samberg, left. count and creating the voices of four decades of unforgettable female characters. Added Keaton, Woody s women can t be compartmentalized. On the TV side, AMC s Breaking Bad continued to take a victory lap. The late drama, which took top kudos at the 2013 Emmys just a week before it ended its fiveseason run, earned Golden Globe wins for Poehler best dramatic series and best actor for star Bryan Cranston early during Sunday s show. It marked the first time the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ever honored the series. The previously nominated Cranston has always fared much better at the Emmys. Breaking Bad filled the void left by Homeland, which was snubbed this year after sweeping the big drama categories in It s not much of a surprise, given the goodwill for Vince Gilligan s celebrated series. Long a critical underdog, Breaking Bad seemed to finally have its zeitgeist moment this past summer when viewership swelled north of 10 million and the last string of episodes dominated many a water-cooler conversation. Not anywhere near as expected were the best comedy series and lead actor in a comedy wins for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and its star Andy Samberg. The show, in its first year of eligibility, took the highly competitive categories Bisset and kept HBO darling Girls from repeating last year s win. The critically acclaimed Fox sitcom, which can t exactly be qualified as a hit, was considered a surprise when it scored the two nominations back in December. Girls didn t fare any better in the other category it won in Star and creator Lena Dunham lost the lead actress in a comedy category to Amy Poehler. The night s co-emcee, nominated twice before for her work on NBC s Parks and Recreation, finally took her first lead actress in a comedy prize. Not just a first at the Globes, the win marked Poehler s first big award. She has been nominated for a whopping nine Emmys and has never won. Something less expected were nods for Dancing on the Edge (supporting actress in a mini, Jacqueline Bisset) and Top of the Lake (lead actress in a mini, Elisabeth Moss). The two series, from Starz and Sundance, respectively, brought rare wins to cable networks which have had little impact in originals compared to heavyweights HBO and Showtime. Not that HBO didn t get its share. Jerry Weintraub accepted the best mini or movie nod for Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra. Star Michael Douglas, who brought the bedazzled one to the screen, nabbed the lead actor trophy. Other Golden Globe newcomers include Showtime s Ray Donovan, which saw supporting actor Douglas Jon Voight take home a trophy, and Netflix s House of Cards. The buzzy drama that kicked off the streamer s push into original series got its first acting award with a victory for lead actress Robin Wright. The awards telecast, aired live on NBC from the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, are presented annually by the HFPA, an organization of about 90 foreign journalists who cover Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Click here for more Golden Globes coverage.

4 Page 4 of 9 movie news B.O. Report: Survivor Emerges Victorious By Pamela McClintock Winning over the minds and hearts of moviegoers in America s heartland, Peter Berg s Navy SEALs drama Lone Survivor opened to a huge $38.5 million in North America, far more than expected and the best showing of any post-9/11 war film. The patriotic-themed film, which earned a coveted A+ CinemaScore, boasts the second-best debut of all time for the month of January after Cloverfield ($40.1 million). Survivor was strongest in flyover states, led by Texas (as expected, Canada was weak). The pic s cume is $38.9 million when accounting for its exclusive awards-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster, Survivor is based on Marcus Luttrell s memoir about four SEALs sent on a dangerous mission to Afghanistan. (Wahlberg plays Luttrell.) Universal is releasing the film domestically and in select foreign markets. Emmett/Furla Films produced the $40 million pic, which was financed in part by embattled Envision Films. It s a great story about patriotism, survival and heroism, and incredible courage, said Universal domestic marketing chief Nikki Rocco. It worked Patriotic-themed Lone Survivor s $38.5 million bow is the second-best debut of all time for the month of January behind 2008 s Cloverfield. well everywhere, but Middle America really, really responded. The publicity and marketing effort was amazing, including supporting Marcus in reaching out everywhere to tell his story. Pete and Mark were everywhere, too. Survivor marks a comeback for Berg after his pricey 2012 miss Battleship. Disney s holdover Frozen fell to No. 2 with roughly This week $15 million, pushing its domestic total to north of $317 million. The tentpole, with an offshore cume of $394.6 million, sailed past the $700 million worldwide mark to end the weekend with $712.2 million in total ticket sales. For the first time, Frozen topped the weekend foreign chart, taking in $25.8 million. Martin Scorsese s The Wolf of Wall Street did pleasing weekend box office top 10 Movie/Distributor 3-day gross (in mil) Percent change # of theaters Pertheater average Cume to date 1 Lone Survivor (Universal) $ ,283 2,875 $13,395 $ Frozen (Disney) ,239 4, The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount) ,521 3, Legend of Hercules (Lionsgate) 8.6 2,104 4, American Hustle (Sony) ,629 3, The Hobbit: Smaug (Warner Bros.) ,075 2, August: Osage County (Weinstein) 7.3 5, , Saving Mr. Banks (Disney) ,671 2, The Marked Ones (Paramount) ,883 2, Anchorman 2 (Paramount) ,012 2, rentrak business in its third weekend, grossing $9 million for a domestic total of $78.6 million. Placing No. 3, the controversial film continues to do best on both coasts. Millennium Films new entry The Legend of Hercules followed with a weak $8.6 million, tying with holdover American Hustle for No. 4. Distributed by Summit Entertainment, Hercules needed to do more considering its $70 million production budget. The epic, directed by Renny Harlin, which received a lukewarm B- CinemaScore, is the first of two Hercules pics slotted for David O. Russell s Hustle also remained strong as it crossed the $100 million mark in North America, ending its fourth weekend in nationwide release with a cume of $101.6 million. A number of award contenders expanded on the eve of Sunday s Golden Globes ceremony, including John Wells August: Osage County and Spike Jonze s Her, both of which are now playing nationwide. In addition to benefiting from any Globe wins, contenders also wanted to have an increased profile when Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday. August outperformed expectations, grossing $7.3 million to come in No. 7. The dysfunctional family drama, from The Weinstein Co., bested Her despite playing in far fewer theaters (905 versus 1,729). Similar to Survivor, August was fueled by a strong turnout in America s heartland. The adaptation see page 5

5 Page 5 of 9 movie news FROM page 4 of Tracy Letts play pairs Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts for the first time. The success of the film clearly speaks to the popularity of Meryl and Julia, said TWC distribution chief Erik Lomis. People are judging it on its own merits, whether or not they have seen the play. Disney s awards hopeful Saving Mr. Banks placed No. 8, earning $6.6 million in its fourth weekend in nationwide release for a domestic total of $68.9 million. Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, grossed a soft $5.4 million to come in No. 11. We had a very deliberate rollout strategy. Our strategy was to open nationwide before Academy Award nominations were announced so that we could pick up steam, said Warner Bros. Jeff Goldstein, whose team also intends to up Gravity s theater count next weekend following Oscar nominations. This isn t about today s particular result it s about feeding the film for upcoming weeks. Among other award titles up for top awards at Sunday s Golden Globes ceremony, Joel and Ethan Coen s Inside Llewyn Davis and Alexander Payne s Nebraska made their biggest push yet, although neither movie is playing nationwide at this point. Llewyn Davis, released by CBS Films domestically, upped its theater count to a total of 729 locations, grossing $1.9 million for a domestic cume of $9.3 million, surpassing the entire lifetime gross of the Coen s A Serious Man ($9.2 million). Nebraska, expanding into a total of 521 theaters, grossed $8.1 million for a domestic total of $8.1 million for Paramount. Elsewhere, the weekend wasn t a total wash for Warner Bros. as Peter Jackson s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug crossed $800 million worldwide as it winds down. The sequel, however, won t likely match the $1 billionplus earned globally by last year s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Smaug has taken in $242.2 million domestically, where it is pacing behind the first film, and $566 million overseas for a $808.2 million cume. Smaug has yet to open in China and Japan, where the first film collectively grossed roughly $70 million. Daniels eyes directing gig on Pryor Biopic By Tatiana Siegel Lee Daniels is looking to get back into business with The Weinstein Co. The director is in negotiations to tackle an untitled Richard Pryor biopic as his follow-up to The Butler. TWC, which produced and distributed Daniels surprise hit about a White House butler, will fully finance the Pryor project. Michael B. Jordan, Marlon Wayans and Eddie Murphy are among the actors being eyed for the lead role in the pic, which has been in the works for years with different actors attached, including Wayans and Murphy. Sources say both are still in the mix, particularly Wayans, who at 41 years old is considered to be the right age for the project and whose screen test is said to have wowed Harvey Weinstein. But Jordan, who became a breakout star with TWC drama Fruitvale Station, Daniels has emerged as the frontrunner to tackle the life of the iconic comedian, who died in 2005 at age 65. The question remains whether the 26-year-old can be aged through makeup for the role, much of which covers Pryor when he was in his 30s. Pryor, who was hailed as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, also had a troubled side. In 1980, he set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine and suffered severe burns. His widow, Jennifer Pryor, is producing the film. She brings to the project more than 50 pages of his personal journals, which offer a glimpse into his brilliant but dark mind. Daniels The Butler sparked a heated fight between Weinstein and Warner Bros. over the use of the title (Warner Bros. library includes a 1916 silent short also titled The Butler). TWC wound up changing its film s official title to Lee Daniels The Butler. Despite, or perhaps buoyed by, the controversy, Daniels period drama has earned $167 million to date globally. Daniels is no stranger to gritty fare. His 2009 movie Precious -- the story of a teenage mother living in poverty became an indie breakout, earning $64 million worldwide and several Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director for Daniels. He is represented by CAA. Broken Circle Takes Top Prize at Palm Springs By Gregg Kilday Felix van Groeningen s The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium s entry which has been shortlisted for the best foreign-language film Oscar, on Saturday was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize for best foreign-language film of the year at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, which runs through today. The festival handed out its jury prizes at a luncheon at Spencer s restaurant in Palm Springs, Calif. The FIPRESCI Prize for best actor of the year in a foreign-language film went to Mads Mikkelsen for his performance in Denmark s The Hunt, another of this year s short-listed foreign films. Berenice Bejo took home the FIPRESCI Prize for best actress of the year in a foreign-language film for her role in Iranian director Asghar Farhadi s The Past. The fest is screening 191 films, including 46 of this year s 76 foreign-language submissions. Click here for a complete list of winners. thr

6 Page 6 of 9 tv news NBC Orders Wilson, Jones Comedy Pilots By Lesley Goldberg NBC has added a pair of comedy pilots, one from Casey Wilson (Happy Endings) and June Diane Raphael (Burning Love) and the other from Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation). The orders mark the fourth and fifth comedies picked up Wilson for the season and will join two halfhours already ordered to series. First up, Jones Mason Twins, from ABC Studios where Wilson and Raphael are based, is a single-camera entry about fraternal twins Pender and Lizzie Mason. After having been estranged for 15 years, the duo reconnect after Lizzie s perfect city life falls apart and she returns to her suburban town to discover that her sister hasn t matured beyond her teen-queen days. Wilson and Raphael will pen the script and executive produce alongside Stacy Traub. The network picked up the project with a script commitment in October. The comedy was one of two projects the duo sold this development season, joining ABC s half-hour pitch DINKS (aka Double Income No Kids). The producing duo also collaborated on feature film Bride Wars and Sundance s Ass Backwards. Second, A to Z hails from Jones and producing partner Will McCormack s Warner Bros. Television-based Le Train Train banner and was one of multiple projects the duo sold this development season to broadcast and cable nets. The singlecamera effort is described as a romantic comedy set in the world of an online dating company that details the A to Z s of a relationship, from meeting to break-up. The ensemble project navigates the complicated world of modern dating and poses the question: Is there such a thing as destiny? Ben Queen (Cars 2) will pen the script and executive produce alongside Jones and McCormack. The sale extends the network s relationship with the Parks and Recreation actress, who with co-star Rob Lowe will exit the series after its 13th episode this season. NBC first picked up the project with a putpilot commitment in September. It marks the first pilot order for Jones after she and McCormack inked their overall deal with WBTV in Meanwhile, NBC has added its fourth drama pilot with Coercion, from Keshet Media s Avi Nir and writerexecutive producer-director George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau). The Universal Television drama is described as a thriller that revolves around the O Connor family and their son, Alex, a decorated American war hero and CIA analyst who is a true patriot and loves his country and family. Unbeknownst to him, both of his parents and sister are part of a dormant Russian sleeper cell that has just been reactivated. Once the parents get reluctantly pulled back in, the stakes rise and they are coerced into spying on their own son and turning him against his country. It s based on the Israeli format The Gordin Cell. Chase, D Angelo Set to Reunite for ABC Comedy By Lacey Rose and Lesley Goldberg Chevy Chase could be making his TV comeback. The former Community actor is working with his National Lampoon s Vacation co-star Beverly D Angelo and producer Aaron Kaplan on a comedy vehicle for ABC. The trio is in the early stages of development, and there is no writer, script or studio attached at this stage. The project will be in consideration for the season. The news comes a week after Chase s former network comedy returned to NBC s schedule with original showrunner and Chase sparring partner Dan Harmon back at the helm. Chase, who exited the series during its fourth season, made headlines on several occasions thanks to his public feud with Harmon, which included a leaked, profanity-laced voic to the showrunner and reports that the actor used the N- word on set. The ABC comedy project would mark an on-screen reunion for the veteran actors who played Clark and Ellen Griswold in the iconic film series. The duo is working on a Vacation reboot for the big screen as well. Comedy Central picks up Stiller Series big time By Lesley Goldberg Comedy Central is expanding its scripted offerings, picking up Ben Stillerproduced Big Time in Hollywood, FL to series. The Viacom-owned cable network has ordered 10 episodes of the series from writer-executive producerstar Alex Anfanger. The half-hour comedy, which was picked up to pilot in August, follows two delusional brothers/selfproclaimed filmmakers portrayed by Anfanger and Lenny Jacobson who are kicked out of their parents house and forced to fend for themselves for the first time, leading them on a journey in pursuit of the American dream. Kathy Baker, Stephen Tobolowsky and Jon Bass co-star. see page 7

7 Page 7 of 9 tv news FROM page 6 Big Time hails from Stiller s Red Hour banner and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. The series was written by Anfanger and Dan Schimpf, who both executive produce alongside Stiller, Debbie Liebling, Stiller Stuart Cornfeld and Mike Rosenstein as well as Brillstein s Lee Kernis and Brian Stern. A premiere date has not yet been determined. Monika Zielinska and Adam Londy oversee for Comedy Central. Anfanger and Schimpf, both NYU Tisch Arts graduates, met when they were paired as roommates in their freshman year and began collaborating on comedy shorts shortly afterward. Following graduation, they discovered a scripted reality show they found overwhelmingly pointless, and decided to write a series starring a vapid character in a high-stakes world without limits. That became web series Next Time on Lonny, which is in its second season and hails from Red Hour and Maker Studios. For his part, Anfanger also appears in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which was directed by and stars Stiller. For Comedy Central, the Big Time order comes after Kent Alterman, president of content development and original programming, expressed his disappointment that the cabler didn t broadcast more scripted series. When I arrived, there was a batch of pilots just completed. We picked up Workaholics out of that batch, and I figured that would be the first of many. It s been more difficult than I anticipated, he told The Hollywood Reporter during a May interview. Big Time marks the latest series in Red Hour s arsenal. The production company also nabbed a series order at Comedy Central for standup comedy series Jonah and Kumail as well as IFC s sketch comedy series The Birthday Boys, as the banner continues its push into television under Liebling. The company is developing a handful of projects, including a new take on Reality Bites for NBC and two entries set up at HBO. In addition to Big Time, Comedy Central has ordered animated comedy Moonbeam City, from executive producer Rob Lowe. The weekly series was created and executive produced by Scott Gairdner (Conan) and Olive Bridge s Will Gluck and Richard Schwartz. Lowe will executive produce the series and lead its voice cast. The 1980s crime-show parody series, also featuring Elizabeth Banks, Will Forte and Kate Mara, will debut in Premiere Dates set for amc s Saul, Mad Men By Lesley Goldberg Ahead of its Saturday presentation at the Television Critics Association s winter press tour, AMC announced premiere dates for Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, Mad Men and its new dramas, while renewing The Walking Dead companion Talking Dead for a fifth season. Saul, which focuses on the evolution of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) before he became Walter White s attorney, will debut in November. (A specific date has not yet been determined.) The first half of Mad Men s final season will bow Sunday, April 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, one week after the series debut of Revolutionary War drama Turn, which will get a 90-minute premiere starting at 9 p.m. on April 6. Fellow freshman series Halt and Catch Fire, which centers on the personal computing era of the early 1980s, will launch in summer at a date still to be determined. Western Hell on Wheels will also return in summer. On the unscripted side, Game of Arms will premiere Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 10 p.m. followed by the May returns of Small Town Security and Freakshow. Meanwhile, talk show Talking Dead has, unsurprisingly, been renewed for a fifth season after ending the first half of its fourth season with a series high among total viewers. (Walking Dead was renewed for a fifth season last year, and Chris Hardwick last week told critics that he d host the series for as long as AMC would have him.) Walking Dead and Talking Dead will again launch their seasons in October, with a formal date likely to be announced at Comic-Con. We are extremely excited about the 2014 lineup, said AMC president-gm Charlie Collier. Both the returning and new series reflect our commitment to serving passionate audiences with compelling, character-driven storytelling. ABC Axes Assets After 2 Episodes By Michael O Connell In what was one of the most quiet entrances and exits in recent broadcast TV memory, ABC has pulled the plug on The Assets after two episodes. An ABC rep confirms that the drama is off the schedule and will be replaced by Shark Tank encores for the next three weeks. It was not immediately clear what the plans were for the Thursday 10 p.m. time slot in the remaining days until the Feb. 27 return of political thriller Scandal. Assets, which received very little marketing, entered the schedule on the unfortunate postholiday Thursday, with just a 0.7 rating among adults That made it the smallest drama premiere in Big Four history. The second week fell to a 0.6 rating and 2.92 million viewers. A period piece based on the book Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed, Assets was produced by Morgan Hertzan, Rudy Bednar and Andrew Chapman. It follows in the unfortunate footsteps of freshman drama Lucky 7 in its early exit. Fellow ABC midseason entry Killer Women did not perform much better in its Tuesday premiere. It bowed to just a 0.9 adults rating and 3.96 million viewers. thr

8 Page 8 of 9 legal news U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Aereo Dispute By Eriq Gardner NEW YORK The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review television broadcasters bid to stop Aereo. The upstart service which uses an antennae farm to capture over-the-air TV signals and transmits broadcasts to subscribers digital devices has been in a legal fight since launching in March After being denied an injunction at the Kanojia 2nd Circuit, broadcasters asked the high court to review whether Aereo s system is a violation of their public performance rights. Aereo, which contends that its service is private in nature, had agreed that the case should be taken up to avoid needless litigation around the nation. CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC are among the broadcasters arguing that the 2nd Circuit ruling threatens to upend the billions of dollars that the TV industry has invested in programming by blessing a business model that retransmits live TV to paying customers without obtaining authorization or paying a penny to the copyright owners. The case is arguably the biggest entertainment industry case to be considered by the nine Supreme Court justices since 2005, when the court considered whether Grokster, the owner of filesharing technology, should be held liable for their users copyright infringements. This time, Congress intent in establishing the transmit clause of the Copyright Act will be examined. Aereo has fought back a preliminary injunction in large part on precedent from a nd Circuit decision concerning Cablevision s remote-storage DVR that held that because each RS- DVR playback transmission is made to a single subscriber using a single unique copy produced by that subscriber... such transmissions are not performances to the public. Similarly, Aereo believes that its service is not to the public because after capturing public broadcasts, unique copies for each customer are transmitted distinctly. To hold such transmissions as public performances, Aereo and its supporters believe, would not only threaten Aereo but many new technologies in the cloud computing and storage realm. Broadcasters don t believe the ramifications of the case go that far. They assert that a decision to stop Aereo just means a stop to unlicensed digital streaming of TV broadcasts. Still, they are undoubtedly pleased that the Supreme Court will tackle the topic of public vs. private less than five years after a review of the Cablevision case was denied. An oral hearing will be held sometime this spring. We are confident the court will recognize that this has never been about stifling new video distribution technologies, but has always been about stopping a copyright violator who redistributes TV programming without permission or compensation, said Fox in a statement. In the past, broadcasters have signaled that they intend to go pay-only and stop transmitting on public airwaves should they lose in court. Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia said his company is looking forward to presenting its case. We believe that consumers have a right to use an antenna to access over-theair television and to make personal recordings of those broadcasts, he said. The broadcasters are asking the Court to deny consumers the ability to use the cloud to access a more modernday television antenna and DVR. If the broadcasters succeed, the consequences to consumers and the cloud industry are chilling. China Piracy Ruling could Boost U.S. TV By Clifford Coonan BEIJING The potential of China s online video market nearly 600 million viewers strong long has been dampened by the country s rampant piracy. But thanks to a recent high-profile court ruling against two of the country s biggest copyright violators, insiders say Chinese regulators finally are cracking down, opening the door for licensing U.S. TV programming in the process. On Jan. 1, the National Copyright Administration of China labeled Baidu China s largest search engine and Shenzhenbased platform QVOD the country s top violators of copyrighted video in The move followed a twomonth investigation into whether the companies were streaming unlicensed content, including pirated episodes of American shows. The inquiry was spurred by a joint infringement lawsuit from leading online video providers including Youku Tudou, Sohu Video, Tencent Video and LeTV, with the support of the Motion Picture Association Asia Pacific. The plaintiffs didn t get the $50 million in damages they sought, but Baidu and QVOD were fined the maximum penalty for copyright violation. Although that s only $41,225 each, the symbolism and swiftness of the ruling suggests a sea change in regulation. Long term, it will help drive higher licensing fees, said Adam Roseman, CEO of Beijing-based FansTang, which connects Hollywood talent with Chinese consumers. thr

9 Page 9 of 9 movie review The Legend of Hercules By Todd McCarthy If the strapping but hardly muscle-bound lead actor in The Legend of Hercules, Kellan Lutz, were to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the star of this summer s Hercules, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, the fight would likely be over in less than a minute. Along the same lines, Brett Ratner s MGM/ Paramount epic, due in July, would have to be very bad indeed to feel threatened by Renny Harlin s quarterpounder layered with many slices of cheese. Just as it did last year when it rushed Olympus Has Fallen into the marketplace three months before the far more expensive and starry White House Down to the latter s commercial detriment Millennium Films is trying to steal the bigger film s thunder with a cut-rate version of the same thing. But this first major release of 2014 functions only to help ensure that this January will be no different from Januaries past as the customary worst month of the year for new movies. Although it clearly aspires to the 300 style of hyperinflated, attenuated action, this Bulgaria-shot pseudoepic is marked by CGI sequences so patently phony, particularly toward the beginning, that it could often be mistaken for a mediocre animated film rather than live action, an affliction only magnified by the arbitrary and unimaginative use of 3D. A lion wrestled by the hero into submission early on is so fake looking that it would appear more at home on a children s cartoon show. Nor does the script by Sean Hood and Daniel Giat have much to do with the more commonly known aspects of the Hercules mythology, such as the famous 12 labors. Rather, it quite optimistically positions itself as a sort-of origins story, cursorily charting early adventures of its hero by making liberal use of scenes and situations from famous films about antiquity; among those sampled are Ben-Hur (the captive hero being put to work as a boat rower), Gladiator (his enslavement only redeemable in the arena) and Spartacus (the prisoner rising up to lead a mass revolt against the barbarous regime). And going very much against the grain, this Hercules is portrayed as a onewoman man, a fellow whose fighting spirit is roused principally by the fear that, if he doesn t get back to Greece from Egypt within three moons, his modelish blond girlfriend Hebe (Gaia Weiss) will marry his treacherous rival. If The Legend of Hercules Things get brutal for Kellan Lutz in The Legend of Hercules. were just a little more inept or over-the-top, it might have been ridiculous fun. As it is, unfortunately, Harlin embraces the mediocrity of the screenplay with a dour straight face, draining it of any enjoyably camp possibilities. He also covers and edits sequences in arbitrary ways that betray no awareness of how to present, much less build, scenes dramatically. Nor is there a sensibility here with any evident sympatico for the epic format. When Argos is overrun in 1200 B.C., Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) takes over as king and takes the queen Alcmene (Roxanne McKee) as his own. Sympathetic to her plight, the great Zeus impregnates her in order to sire a hero who may, two decades hence, avenge his mother. Just after the birth, Amphitryon is informed that Alcmene has had a large boy. Large he is so much so that, once he turns 20, there s not enough room in town for him and Amphitryon s yellow-bellied son and designated successor, Iphicles (Liam Garrigan). Taken prisoner in an Egyptian cave after a battle, Hercules and his cohort Sotiris (Liam McIntyre, in a rush to get home, hustle a fightgame entrepreneur (Kenneth Cranham) to pit them in long-odds combat, concluding in a homecoming match in which Hercules takes on six of Greece s finest fighting men. Even when Hercules seems to incur injuries, they don t slow him down or cause any real damage; it must be that god gene. But even the fight and battle scenes are unexciting because they re bogus, contrived and derivative; are we supposed to ooh and aah at twists and turns and stutter-action moves that began seeming old a year after The Matrix came out, and have been outdone by countless video games? The production s scale, like everything else, is unimpressive. Opened: Friday (Lionsgate). Production: Summit Entertainment, Millennium Films, Nu Boyana Productions. Cast: Kellan Lutz, Scott Adkins, Liam McIntyre, Liam Garrigan, Johnathon Schaech, Roxana McKee, Gaia Weiss, Rade Serbedzija, Kenneth Cranham, Mariah Gale, Luke Newberry. Director: Renny Harlin. Rated PG-13, 98 minutes. thr