Fitzgerald’s Film Loot For ‘The Great Gatsby’

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F Scott Fitzgerald‘s handwritten ledger chronicling his film payments 1919-1938 is now online just weeks before the release of Baz Luhrmann’s new film adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Which, according to these meticulous records, first earned Fitzgerald $16,666 from Hollywood. Including a 10% commission he paid. Twice. This fascinating document is part of the Matthew and Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F Scott Fitzgerald held by the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections located in the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. The writer meticulously tracked his earnings. Here in chronological order is what the movie industry coughed up to him before commissions were taken out. Math wizards can computate what these numbers mean in today’s dollars. But, hey, isn’t that price for a treatment what MGM is still paying?

Head And Shoulders – $2,500.00
Myra Meets His Family – $1,000.00
The Off Shore Pirate – $2,250.00
‘Option on my output’ – $3,000.
The Beautiful And Damned – $2,500.00
This Side Of Paradise – $10,000.00
The Camel’s Back – $1,000.00
Grit – $2,000.00
Titles for Glimpses Of The Moon – $500.00
The Great Gatsby – $16,666.00
‘California work’ on Lipstick - $3,500 00
‘Additional Payment’ The Great Gatsby - $3,333.00
‘Treatment’ Metro Goldwyn Mayer – $6,000

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/f-scott-fitzgeralds-handwritten-ledger-chronicles-film-payments-1919-1938/

Legendary Won’t Partner With Warner Bros On Tom Cruise’s ‘All You Need Is Kill’

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EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros tells me that — technically speaking — Legendary Pictures “was never officially in” to co-finance Tom Cruise‘s futuristic world army-vs-alien fighters sci-fi film currently filming in London. But then why was Thomas Tull’s banner listed on WB’s October 1st announcement dating All You Need Is Kill for 2014? “Anticipated their involvement but was never firm,” WB tells me. So this is what I’ve learned: the movie’s UK production was just notified within the past 24 hours that Legendary “has pulled out” of Warner Bros’ All You Need Is Kill starring Cruise and Emily Blunt with Doug Liman directing. Actually, Legendary’s decision was made about 10 days ago – after Warner Bros begged Legendary to come in with Village Roadshow. “Legendary agreed to come on subject to terms. That meant subject to script, budget, and creative mandate,” confirms my insider. “But then Legendary decided it doesn’t fit within their creative mandate or fanboy demographic and they didn’t really have the appetite for this. So they didn’t come to terms with Warner Bros.” I’m assured that the Legendary-WB relationship is still very much intact, especially with Legendary having brought Pacific Rim and Godzilla to the studio while co-financing Man Of Steel with Warner Bros. Meanwhile, there are vehement denials of behind-the-scenes chatter that Liman is over budget or Cruise is running the show. All You Need Is Kill is dated for March 14, 2014.

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/10/legendary-wont-partner-with-warner-bros-on-all-you-need-is-kill-starring-tom-cruise/

Actors From Rejected NBC TV Pilot Start YouTube Show ‘Bitter, Party Of 5′ (Video)

During the last pilot development season, 5 actors bonded while shooting Downwardly Mobile for NBC, a sitcom starring Roseanne Barr. Now Jason Antoon, Mary Birdsong, Greg Cromer, Tricia O’Kelley, and Romy Rosemont come together on YouTube for Bitter, Party Of 5. Here’s Episode 1 where they start out calling NBC Entertainment honcho Bob Greenblatt’s office to learn whether their pilot was picked up and, well, you can guess the rest. But I applaud the pluck:

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/10/actors-from-rejected-nbc-tv-pilot-start-youtube-show-bitter-party-of-5-video/

HBO And Scott Rudin End Their Deal

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EXCLUSIVE: I love meta-producer Scott Rudin because he always makes news. (And gives Scott Rudineveryone around him heart palpitations every time I call.) So here’s the latest: HBO and Rudin have ended their exclusive deal. Rudin’s reps tell me the reason is so that Scott can have “more flexibility” during his first foray into television. ”You know how full they are. He wants to sell elsewhere.” But another source emails me this, which Rudin’s camp strenuously denies: “HBO is so tired of Scott Rudin’s antics that they terminated his overall deal yesterday.” The end follows such Rudin dissapointments as HBO in May deciding not to go forward with the Noah Baumbach/Rudin pilot The Corrections. Based on Jonathan Franzen’s acclaimed book, it boasted one of most star-studded casts ever assembled on television: Chris Cooper, Dianne Wiest, Ewan McGregor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans and Greta Gerwig. Attempting to bring Franzen’s book to the screen — something that had been tried unsuccessfully on the feature side for a decade — was considered a big swing. Word is HBO brass liked the performances but the decision came down to adapting the book’s challenging narrative. Needless to say, Rudin was not pleased.

At this point it’s unclear how the severed deal will affect all of Rudin’s HBO projects, so many I can’t even keep them all straight. Of course there’s Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom now going into its second season, Ben Stiller’s comedy pilot All Talk which he’s directing and producing and acting in, writer-comedian Harris Wittels’s comedy, first-time filmmaking duo Lisanne Pajot’s and James Swirsky’s Sundance documentary Indie Game which Rudin was developing as a fictional half-hour comedy series. And probably scores more.

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/hbo-and-scott-rudin-end-their-deal/