News

Erik Jensen is a multipyphenate who, along with his wife and creative partner Jessica Blank have been called “the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.” Their genre-defining plays The Exonerated, Aftermath, Coal Country, and The Line were all critically acclaimed. As an actor, Jensen’s credits include The Walking Dead, Mindhunter, Mr. Robot, The Americans, not to mention his praised portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in The Bronx is Burning. On this episode he details his approach toward playing that beloved figure, and finding out that “almost the entire body of that character was an emotional word-gesture.” […]

The post “It was Physicalizing the Words That Became the Goal”: Erik Jensen, Back To One, Episode 349 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Erik Jensen is a multipyphenate who, along with his wife and creative partner Jessica Blank have been called “the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.” Their genre-defining plays The Exonerated, Aftermath, Coal Country, and The Line were all critically acclaimed. As an actor, Jensen’s credits include The Walking Dead, Mindhunter, Mr. Robot, The Americans, not to mention his praised portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in The Bronx is Burning. On this episode he details his approach toward playing that beloved figure, and finding out that “almost the entire body of that character was an emotional word-gesture.” […]

The post “It was Physicalizing the Words That Became the Goal”: Erik Jensen, Back To One, Episode 349 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

John Turturro is to receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia, which runs from Aug. 16 to 23. The award is in recognition of his contribution to the film industry and his talent as an actor, director and screenwriter.

Jovan Marjanović, director of Sarajevo Film Festival, said: “With a career spanning over four decades, he has delivered unforgettable performances in a diverse range of roles. His dedication to his craft, versatility, and ability to bring depth and authenticity to every character he embodies have made him a joy to look at every time he enters the scene.”

Turturro studied at Suny New Paltz and the Yale School of Drama. He has worked with a number of acclaimed filmmakers, appearing in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,” Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show,” Francesco Rosi’s “La Tregua,...

In the 30-year existence of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, a total of 15 pairs and one trio of cast mates have directly challenged each other for the Best TV Movie/Miniseries Actor prize, with the latest dual nominees being Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser of “Black Bird.” These instances have resulted in eight wins, which is a far higher amount than in any of the other five solo TV categories. The first to triumph in one of these situations was Jack Lemmon, while the most recent was Michael Douglas.

Lemmon, who had previously gone up against his “12 Angry Men” costar George C. Scott, is one of five men who has been involved in more than one of this category’s cast mate showdowns. As the first member of said group, he has since been followed by Al Pacino, Paul Giamatti, Ed Harris, and John Turturro.

This category’s...

In the 30-year existence of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, a total of 15 pairs and one trio of cast mates have directly challenged each other for the Best TV Movie/Miniseries Actor prize, with the latest dual nominees being Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser of “Black Bird.” These instances have resulted in eight wins, which is a far higher amount than in any of the other five solo TV categories. The first to triumph in one of these situations was Jack Lemmon, while the most recent was Michael Douglas.

Lemmon, who had previously gone up against his “12 Angry Men” costar George C. Scott, is one of five men who has been involved in more than one of this category’s cast mate showdowns. As the first member of said group, he has since been followed by Al Pacino, Paul Giamatti, Ed Harris, and John Turturro.

This category’s...

Daniel Sunjata has joined the cast of the drama pilot at ABC based on the French detective series “Hpi,” Variety has learned.

Sunjata will star in the pilot alongside previously announced lead Kaitlin Olson. The project was first ordered to pilot at ABC in September. Per the official logline, “Single mom Morgan (Olson) with three kids and an exceptional mind helps solve an unsolvable crime when she rearranges some evidence during her shift as a cleaner for the police department. When they discover she has a knack for putting things in order because of her high intellectual potential she is brought on as a consultant to work with a by-the-book seasoned detective, and together they form an unusual and unstoppable team.”

Sunjata will star as Karadec, who was played by Mehdi Nebbou in the original series. Sunjata is known for his roles in shows like “Rescue Me” at FX, “The Bronx is Burning,...

The first season of “Severance,” which originally streamed from February to April on Apple TV+, proved quite popular with Emmy voters this year. The show reaped 14 nominations in the primetime drama categories and blazed a trail as the first Apple program to compete for the top honor of Best Drama Series. Of the three male actors recognized for their work on “Severance,” only former Best Comedy Guest Actor champ John Turturro has won an Emmy before. Four decades into his career, he now holds the distinction of having earned TV academy notices for guest, lead, and supporting performances.

Turturro has submitted the seventh episode of “Severance,” entitled “Defiant Jazz,” for Best Drama Supporting Actor consideration. In the installment, his character, Irving Bailiff, and his Lumon Industries coworkers are met with stricter security measures after they begin learning too many of the nondescript company’s dark secrets. When Irving discovers that...

After buying the Los Angeles Lakers, Dr. Jerry Buss made it his goal to turn them into Hollywood’s team, all based around a philosophy known to every basketball fan as “Showtime.” Antoine Fuqua’s new Hulu docuseries “Legacy” explores how Buss accomplished that goal and in doing so brought another part of Hollywood to the NBA: endless gossip.

“When you’re the team on top, everyone wants a piece of you,” Robert Horry, a six-time NBA champion who won three rings with the Lakers, told TheWrap. “And when you have a history of consistently winning, they always want a piece even when you’re not on top.”

Some attention is paid to the on-court success of the Lakers; but “Legacy,” which was made with the full support of the team and has its CEO Jeanie Buss as executive producer, is more interested in the drama that unfolded in the...

For so many sports-starved fans, “The Last Dance” provided not only weekly appointment television that felt like some semblance of normalcy during a pandemic this spring, but a sense of nostalgia-fueled comfort as well. So what has been “The Last Dance” for “The Last Dance” director Jason Hehir? He’s watched “Escape at Dannemora,” rewatched “Breaking Bad” (his girlfriend had never seen it), ’80s movies, and most recently “Hamilton,” but at the beginning, it wasn’t much. “I was still working, like night and day, on ‘The Last Dance’ when the pandemic began, so there wasn’t a lot of bingeing going on,” Hehir told Gold Derby (watch above). “I was bingeing my own rough cuts at that point.”

“The Last Dance” spotlights the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls dynasty utilizing unseen documentary footage from the entire 1997-98 season, which culminated with the team’s sixth NBA title in eight years,...

Evan Hart has been cast in the upcoming Starz comedy series “Now Apocalypse,” Variety has learned exclusively.

Hart will play a scientist named Lars. The role will see him appear alongside his real-life brother Taylor Hart, who will play Lars’ brother Klaus.

Hart is known for his role on the Showtime series “House of Lies,” in which Taylor also appeared. Hart is also known for his roles in the mini-series “The Bronx Is Burning” and the film “Law Abiding Citizen.” He is also the co-creator of the drama series “The Transplant” currently in development at Sony Crackle.

He is repped by CAA and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman

“Now Apocalypse” will be created and executive produced by Gregg Araki, with Steven Soderbergh also set to executive produce. The series is described as a surreal, coming-of-age comedy that follows Ulysses and his friends Carly, Ford and Severine, who are on various quests pursing love,...

Sony Crackle is developing a drama series that hails from Evan Hart and Kyle Stephen, Variety has learned exclusively.

Titled “The Transplant,” the series would follow an American surgeon who, after falsifying medical records to get his daughter an organ transplant, finds himself in Hong Kong. There he enters the dark and prosperous organ harvest trade, or the red market, operating under a very different set of procedures.

Hart and Stephen previously wrote for the Sony Crackle drama “The Art of More,” which explored the dark underbelly of New York auction houses. The pair co-wrote the episode “Ride Along” in the show’s first season.

Hart has primarily worked as an actor during his career. He has appeared in projects like the mini-series “The Bronx Is Burning” and the Showtime series “House of Lies.” He also wrote, directed, and produced the 2010 short film “Nice Tie, Italiano!” which starred Simon Kassianides,...

"The Bronx is burning in the introductory episodes of The Get Down, Netflix’s new series that presents as urban-cinematic fable the genesis of rap," begins Michelle Orange, writing for the La Weekly. "The cluttered, over-caffeinated 90-minute pilot, directed by creator and executive producer Baz Luhrmann, takes place in the summer of 1977, when a serial killer terrorized New York, a blackout turned the city against itself and the Bronx—widely acknowledged as the birthplace of hip hop—persisted in bursting into flames." We've got the trailer, a clip, and we're collecting reviews. » - David Hudson...

"The Bronx is burning in the introductory episodes of The Get Down, Netflix’s new series that presents as urban-cinematic fable the genesis of rap," begins Michelle Orange, writing for the La Weekly. "The cluttered, over-caffeinated 90-minute pilot, directed by creator and executive producer Baz Luhrmann, takes place in the summer of 1977, when a serial killer terrorized New York, a blackout turned the city against itself and the Bronx—widely acknowledged as the birthplace of hip hop—persisted in bursting into flames." We've got the trailer, a clip, and we're collecting reviews. » - David Hudson...

Graceland and Rescue Me alum Daniel Sunjata will channel famed criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, as the star of ABC’s Notorious drama pilot.

RelatedPilot Season ’16: Scoop on This Fall’s (Possible) New Shows and Stars

Written by Drop Dead Diva creator Josh Berman and blogger Allie Hagan (“Suri’s Burn Book”), the project is inspired by the true-life stories of Geragos and cable news producer Wendy Walker, promising a provocative look at “the unique, sexy, and dangerous interplay of criminal law and the media.”

Per our sister site Deadline, Sunjata will play Jake Gregorian, a charismatic defense attorney...

TNT is looking to shake things up with a development order for “1906,” a proposed four-hour event series about the San Francisco earthquake that took place in that year, multiple individuals have told TheWrap. A co-production from Landscape Entertainment and eOne, “1906” will be executive produced by Bob Cooper (“Amistad,” “John Tucker Must Die”) and Tyler Mitchell (“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” “My Own Worst Enemy”). Landscape's director of development Sandy Shenkman is overseeing the project. Also read: ‘Dallas’ Reboot Canceled by TNT Jim Solomon (“The Conspirator,” “The Bronx is Burning”) is in talks to write the project. The series is described as “an account.

Mike Tollin wants to bring premium sports programming online. Tollin is a veteran producer and director who for 15 years made popular TV shows (“All That”) and sports movies (“The Bronx is Burning”) alongside Brian Robbins. When the two stopped working together, Robbins went off to make more youth programming and placed all his bets on digital, founding AwesomenessTV. Tollin pursued his passion for sports, founding Mandalay Sports Media with Peter Guber. The company has made various TV shows, films and documentaries — but never a web series. Also read: AwesomenessTV Will Net $95M From DreamWorks Animation Deal That changes Wednesday with the debut of.

Stephen King teamed up with his son, Joe Hill, for In the Tall Grass. The short story originally appeared in Esquire this summer and is now making it’s way to eBook and audiobook formats.

“Mile 81 meets “N.” in this collaboration between Stephen King and his son Joe Hill.

As USA Today said of Stephen King’s Mile 81: “Park and scream. Could there be any better place to set a horror story than an abandoned rest stop?” In the Tall Grass begins with a sister and brother who pull off to the side of the road after hearing a young boy crying for help from beyond the tall grass. Within minutes they are disoriented, in deeper than seems possible, and they’ve lost one another. The boy’s cries are more and more desperate. What follows is a terrifying, entertaining, and masterfully told tale, as only Stephen King and Joe Hill can deliver.

One of history’s most iconic action heroes makes his home entertainment debut when Lionsgate releases Conan The Barbarian on Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack (Blu-ray 3D +Blu-ray +DVD + Digital Copy). The film will also be available on DVD and for Digital Download and On Demand November 22, 2011. Check out all the details and the trailer below!

A home entertainment debut as fierce as the warrior himself, Conan The Barbarian brings the iconic action hero back! Based on the character of Conan as originally created by Robert E. Howard, a boy born on the battlefield grows into a hulking warrior hell-bent on avenging his father’s death. But Conan’s personal vendetta soon escalates into an epic battle of impossible odds, facing the fiercest of rivals and the most horrific of monsters. Loaded with special features, the Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and 2D DVD contain audio commentaries and numerous featurettes. Own Conan The Barbarian...

What is it about horror movie people--why are they so frakking stupid? People who start off seemingly sensible, suddenly lose their minds, forget all the rules and we're left screaming at the screen: "Don't go in there! Don't leave the knife on the counter! Don't open the door! Don't let him/them in!" Where does the common sense go?

Just in case you, dear Pajibans, ever find yourself in a horror movie-like situation, here are some of the hard and fast rules. Live them, learn them, never, ever forget them:

5. Don't let a stranger into your house, especially when he (they) come(s) knocking at night. If someone comes knocking at night, have a weapon nearby when you answer the door. (Me, I'm pretending I'm still asleep.)

4. Don't go camping at deserted campgrounds where legend has it that a killer ran rampant. The same goes for exploring any abandoned or haunted house,...

Though Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" isn't slated for release until next summer (over a year from now), it seems that every casting announcement — no matter how ambiguous — throws Tinseltown into a tizzy.

The latest names to be tossed into the ring represent a trio of male actors who each bring their own color to the highly anticipated flick.

A the top of the list is the TV heartthrob Daniel Sunjata, who's best known for his starring role as Franco Rivera on "Rescue Me," but has also appeared on a variety of other shows including "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit," Grey's Anatomy," "Sex and the City," and "The Bronx Is Burning."

Though nothing is official, word on the street is that Sunjata will play "a courageous special forces operative who will be vital to the story."

Next up is Diego Klattenhoff, from the hit series "Mercy,...

Casting news for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises has been nothing short of spectacular. According to The Tracking Board (via Slashfilm) Daniel Sunjata along with two other actors will be added to the cast of The Dark Knight Rises. For those who are unfamiliar with Sunjata’s works, you may need to grab your remote and turn on the T.V. The ladies may recognize him for his role in “Sex and the City” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” and the guys may recognize him for his roles in “Rescue Me” and “The Bronx is Burning.” The actor also has a recurring role in “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” Variety was able to uncover news that the actor’s role as a courageous special forces operative would be vital to the story.

Additionally the Hollywood trade is reporting that Diego Klanttenhoff and Burn Gorman will also be joining the cast.

Update: Variety confirms “Sunjata will play a courageous special forces operative.” They also add two more names to the list, saying Diego Klattenhoff (Homeland, Firebired) has “been offered the part of a rookie cop who is looking to make a difference.” Burn Gorman (Layer Cake, Torchwood, Red Lights) is also “being eyed for a supporting role in the superhero pic.” Check out the original story below.

Casting news for The Dark Knight Rises just keeps coming our way, with the most recent being Josh Pence on Friday, presumably playing a young Ra’s al Ghul, the role Liam Neeson portrayed in Batman Begins. Now, the next addition to the cast is someone you may know, but who he’s playing remains a mystery.

That actor is Daniel Sunjata, who’s likely best known for his work on the TV series Rescue Me, as well as the mini-series The Bronx is Burning,...

Casting has been the thing for Christopher Nolan over the past few weeks. After locking down all of the lead roles in his highly anticipated third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, with actors like Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Marion Cotillard, Nolan has recently been concentrating on the smaller roles. He's cast Juno Temple, most likely as Selina Kyle's sidekick, and Josh Pence probably as a young Ra’s Al Ghul. The Tracking Board now reports that Daniel Sunjata, best known for his role on Rescue Me, has joined the film in a yet-to-be-announced capacity. According to The Tracking Board, Sunjata is "rumored to play an 'important character to the story.'" Thanks for that wealth of information. If you don't recognize Sunjata, you probably don't watch TV. He was a regular on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, played...

The Reconcilers is a new graphic novel debuting this December. It comes from a highly established and award winning team of writers and artists. It has been described as Gladiator meets Bladerunner. From award-winning writer and actor Erik Jensen (Ron Moore and Peter Berg’s Virtuality, The Exonerated, The Bronx is Burning), DC™, Marvel™, and Continuity™ comics legend Neal Adams (Batman, Deadman, X-Men), and Eisner Award-nominated artist Shepherd Hendrix (Stagger Lee (Image™ Comics) The Lord of the Rings-The Third Age (EA Games), Eisner-nominated Best Single Issue/Best Story “Swamp Thing- Fear and Loathing on the Bayou Trail”), comes the graphic novel The Reconcilers, the story of one man’s quest to bring justice to a dark and broken world. (thereconcilers.com) Take a preview and...

Paul Schnee and Kerry Barden's company, Barden/Schnee Casting, in New York, has cast such diverse projects as the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner "Winter's Bone"; the forthcoming film "The Help," starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis; "Peace, Love & Misunderstanding," starring Jane Fonda; "Higher Ground," the directorial debut of Vera Farmiga, starring Farmiga, Bill Irwin, Norbert Leo Butz, and Donna Murphy; "Conviction," with Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, and Minnie Driver; "The Son of No One," starring Channing Tatum, Al Pacino, Ray Liotta, and Katie Holmes; "Flypaper," starring Patrick Dempsey, Ashley Judd, and Tim Blake Nelson; and "Every Day," with Helen Hunt and Liev Schreiber. Future projects include New York casting for Paul Haggis' "The Next Three Days," starring Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, and Olivia Wilde, and the film "What's Wrong With Virginia," starring Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, and Toby Jones. Barden and Schnee received...

With the new tv show Undercovers premiering next month, starring the already oft-mentioned Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who I know best at Freema Agyeman’s (#1 on my ‘Wifey List’) sister on Dr. Who, and pretty-boy extraordinaire Boris Kodjoe, I thought I’d focus on what seems to be, in a good way, a proliferation of Black men on tv shows lately. Although these guys are supporting characters, they’re playing some pretty intense roles and putting forth some great comedic and dramatic performances. Though none of these are network shows like Undercovers, they are often better (and sometimes better performing) than those.

Coby Bell on Burn Notice

Coby Bell has been working non-stop for the past decade. First as a rookie cop on Third Watch, then as team captain & starting running back Jason Pitts on The Game and now as the first cast addition since the show started three years ago – and...

Chicago – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD, we have three DVD sets up for grabs to the complete season seven of “One Tree Hill”!

To win your free DVD courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is answer our question in this Web-based submission form. That’s it! Directions to enter this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.

The complete seventh season of “One Tree Hill”.

Image credit: Warner Bros.

Here is the synopsis to the seventh season of “One Tree Hill”:

Lucas and Peyton are gone, but the tales of intertwined lives and passions remain stronger than ever in the 22-episode, five-disc seventh season of “One Tree Hill”. Nathan’s NBA career is threatened by explosive scandal. Haley faces a family tragedy. Brooke thinks she’s found true love with Julian until a Hollywood hottie decides he’s just her type.

Espn knows sports, but their record with sports films is a totally different matter. Beginning with 2002's A Season on the Brink, they've hardly delivered a credible sports film worthy of their place at the top of the sports-entertainment heap. Who can forget Tom Sizemore's ill-fitting Pete Rose wig in Hustle or Oliver Platt's oversized harrumphing in The Bronx is Burning? Yesterday, the network announced plans to tackle Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers football coach whose name now graces the Super Bowl trophy, and this time, the network is pulling no punches. For one, the film will be a theatrical release,...

Stephen Lang is one of those actors: You may not know his name, but you know his face, his voice and, most importantly, you don't easily forget his remarkable performances. Long before Jack Nicholson played Col. Nathan Jessup in the big-screen version of A Few Good Men (1992), Lang originated the role on Broadway. And his film and television credits include Manhunter (1986), Crime Story (TV), Tombstone (1993), the 2001 TV series edition of The Fugitive (he was the one-armed man), The Bronx Is Burning (2007), and more. And he's having a hell of a 2009, with roles in The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009), Public Enemies (2009) and now, the film that may finally help people match a name to that face and voice, James Cameron's sci-fi epic, Avatar (2009). Set for release on Dec. 18, Avatar is a big-budget, high-tech spectacle in which humans threaten the homeworld of the indigenous population, the Na'vi, on a moon called Pandora.

Last month we reported on the fact that Lions for Lambs director, Robert Redfrod, is going to be making a movie called The Conspirator about Mary Surratt, the alleged co-conspirator of John Wilkes Booth, the man responsible for President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. And today we learn that two of the primary cast members have been found: James McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn.

McAvoy was already said to be at the top of the list of actors for one of the lead roles, and Variety is today confirming his casting. Penn will play (what is presumably) the lead role of Mary Surratt, the woman who in real life was tried and hanged (the first woman ever to be executed by the United States federal government, Fyi) for her alleged role in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. McAvoy will play Frederick Aiken, a young war hero who reluctantly defends Surratt...

Even at 72 years old (7 years younger than Clint Eastwood), Robert Redford is still going very strong. THR's Risky Biz Blog announces that Redford will direct the historical drama The Conspirator, the story of Mary Surratt, alleged conspirator of Abraham Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. This will be Redford's eighth film he's directed. The indie production is being produced by Greg Shapiro, Rob and Web Stone and Brian Peter Falk. James Solomon, an exec producer and writer on "The Bronx Is Burning", wrote the script. Producers are out to cast, with James McAvoy said to be at the top of their list for one of the lead roles. Mary Surratt was a Washington D.C. boardinghouse owner who sympathized with the Confederates. She was allegedly part of the plot to kill Lincoln, supplying Wilkes Booth and his accomplice David Herold weapons at her tavern after the assassin had shot the president...

Melora Hardin of "The Office" is moving to cable, landing the female lead opposite Holt McCallany on FX's drama pilot "Lights Out."

Elias Koteas and Kevin Conway also have been tapped as leads on the pilot from Fox TV Studios and FX Prods.

Penned by Justin Zackham, "Lights Out" centers on Patrick "Lights Out" Leary (McCallany), an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife (Hardin), a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, and three daughters after his fighting days are over.

That leads him to take a job as a legbreaker, collecting on unpaid gambling debts. He is diagnosed with pugilistic dementia (a neurological disorder that affects boxers who receive multiple blows to the head), so he decides he'll need to make another big payday to support himself and his family before his brain turns to jelly.

Conway will play Lights' father and former trainer,...

The PGA on Monday announced producers attached to previously announced nominees in feature film and TV categories.

The names had been withheld pending completion of the the PGA's accreditation process.

The accrediting review and a related appeal process is aimed at determining which producers "performed a majority of the producing functions from development through production and post production," officials said.

Winners will be announced at the 19th annual PGA awards, set for Feb. 2 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

A complete list of nominees follows:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures:

The Diving Bell and the Butterly (Miramax)

Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Kilik

Juno (Fox Searchlight)

Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick, Russell Smith

Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.)

Jennifer Fox, Kerry Orent, Sydney Pollack

No Country for Old Men (Miramax/Paramount Vantage)

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage/Miramax)

Joanne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Lupi

The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Bee Movie (DreamWorks Animation)

Jerry Seinfeld, Christina Steinberg

Ratatouille (Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation)

Brad Lewis

The Simpsons Movie (20th Century Fox)

James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Richard Sakai, Mike Scully

The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures

Body of War (Phil Donahue Productions/Mobilus Media)

Phil Donahue, Ellen Spiro

Hear and Now (HBO)

Irene Taylor Brodsky

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (The Weinstein Company)

Jim Brown, Michael Cohl, William Eigen

Sicko (The Weinstein Company)

Michael Moore, Meghan O'Hara

White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (HBO)

Steven Okazaki

The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year Award in Long-Form Television

The Bronx is Burning (ESPN)

Joe Davola, Gordon Greisman, Bill Johnson, Mike Tollin

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO)

Clara George, Tom Thayer, Dick Wolf

High School Musical 2 (Disney Channel)

Bill Borden, Barry Rosenbush

Jane Eyre (PBS/BBC)

Phillippa Giles, Diederick Santer

The Starter Wife (USA Network)

Jon Avnet, Josann McGibbon, Marsha Oglesby, Sara Parriott

The Danny Thomas Producer of the Year Award In Episodic Television - Comedy

Entourage (HBO)

Doug Ellin, Stephen Levinson, Julian Farino, Wayne Carmona, Rob Weiss, Denis Biggs, Lori Jo Nemhauser

Extras (HBO)

Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Charles Hanson

The Office (NBC)

Greg Daniels, Kent Zbornak, Marci Klein, Jerry Kupfer, Lorne Michaels, Jeff Richmond

30 Rock (NBC)

Robert Carlock, Tina Fey

Ugly Betty (ABC)

Salma Hayek, James Hayman, Silvio Horta, James Parriott, Marco Pennette, Ben Silverman, Jose Tamez, Teri Weinberg, Alice West

The Norman Felton Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television - Drama

Dexter (Showtime)

Michael Cuesta, Sara Colleton, John Goldwyn, Robert Lloyd Lewis, Clyde Phillips

Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, Mark Gordon, Peter Horton, Rob Corn

Heroes (NBC)

Allan Arkush, Greg Beeman, Jim Chory, Dennis Hammer Gerrit van der Meer, Tim Kring

House (Fox)

David Shore, Katie Jacobs, Daniel Sackheim

Lost (ABC)

Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Jack Bender, Liz Sarnoff, Drew Goddard

The Sopranos (HBO)

David Chase, Brad Grey, Ilene S.

• Congratulations are in order to a company that some thought would just be a footnote in the Weinstein family history. Miramax films have made some smart moves...and movies in 2007 and three films that they helped make are in contention for its top feature film award. An interesting footnote pointed out by Variety is that the PGA has diverged with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -- which has 464 members in its producers branch -- in the last three years. The PGA selected “Little Miss Sunshine” last year while the Oscar went to “The Departed”; in 2006, the PGA chose “Brokeback Mountain” and the Acad went with “Crash”; in 2005, “The Aviator” won at the PGA while “Million Dollar Baby” took the Oscar. Winners will be awarded on Feb. 2. And the nominees are: Producer Of The Year Award In Theatrical Motion Pictures"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax

...

Reflecting the shift of longform TV programming to cable, ABC was the only broadcast outlet to figure in five DGA Awards nominations for telefilms and miniseries announced Thursday.

Lloyd Kramer was nominated for directing ABC's Oprah Winfrey Presents Mitch Albom's For One More Day. Other nominees in the category included Jon Avnet for The Starter Wife (USA Network), Jeremiah Chechik for The Bronx Is Burning (ESPN), Mikael Salomon for The Company (TNT) and Yves Simoneau for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO).

The DGA also announced nominees in several other television and documentary categories. Winners will be announced Jan. 26 at the 60th annual DGA Awards gala at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City.

A list of nominees follows:

Movies for Television/Miniseries

-- Jon Avnet, The Starter Wife (USA)

This is Mr. Avnet's second DGA Award nomination. He was previously nominated in this same category in 2001 for Uprising.

-- Jeremiah Chechik, The Bronx Is Burning (ESPN)

This is Mr. Chechik's second DGA Award nomination. He was previously nominated in the 1986 Commercials category for Wave (AT&T), Clock Tower (Connecticut Bank), and Tonight, Tonight (Michelob).

-- Lloyd Kramer, "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's 'For One More Day'" (ABC)

This is Mr. Kramer's third DGA Award nomination. He was previously nominated in this same category for Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" in 2004, and in the Television Documentary/Actuality category for No One Dies Alone in 1988.

-- Mikael Salomen, The Company (TNT)

This is Mr. Salomon's first DGA Award nomination.

-- Yves Simoneau, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO)

This is Mr. Simoneau's first DGA Award nomination.

Dramatic Series Night

-- Jack Bender, Lost, Through the Looking Glass (ABC)

This is Mr. Bender's first DGA Award nomination.

-- David Chase, The Sopranos, Made in America (HBO)

This is Mr. Chase's second DGA Award nomination. He won the Dramatic Series Night award for The Sopranos pilot episode in 1999. Additionally, he was a recipient of the DGA Honor in 2006 in New York.

-- Eric Laneuville, Lost, The Brig (ABC)

This is Mr. Laneuville's fourth DGA Award nomination in this category. He was previously nominated for the NYPD Blue episode From Hare to Eternity in 1993. He won the Dramatic Series Night Award for the I'll Fly Away episode All God's Children in 1991 and also won for his L.A. Law episode I'm in the Nude in 1989.

-- Alan Taylor, Mad Men, "When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (pilot)" (AMC) This is Mr. Taylor's first DGA Award nomination.

-- Tim Van Patten, The Sopranos, Sopranos Home Movies (HBO)

This is Mr. Van Patten's sixth DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series in 2004 for the Sex and the City episode "An American Girl in Paris: Part Deux," and in 2003 for the Sex and the City episode Boy Interrupted. He was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series Night in 2006 for the Sopranos episode Members Only, in 2004 for the Sopranos episode Long Term Parking, and in 2002 for the Soprano episode Whoever Did This.

Comedy Series

-- Michael Engler, 30 Rock, Rosemary's Baby (NBC)

This is Mr. Engler's third DGA Award nomination in this category. He was previously nominated in 2003 for the Sex and the City episode "Hop, Skip & a Week," and in 2001 for the Sex and the City episode My Motherboard, Myself.

-- David Grossman, Desperate Housewives, Something's Coming (ABC)

This is Mr. Grossman's second DGA Award Nomination. He was previously nominated in the Musical/Variety category for "The Smothers Brothers 20th Year Reunion" in 1988.

-- Beth McCarthy-Miller 30 Rock, Somebody to Love (NBC)...

BRISTOL, Conn. -- After such ratings and creative successes as "Playmakers" and "3," ESPN is taking a timeout from the scripted business. With the end this week of the eight-part miniseries "The Bronx Is Burning", nothing else is planned or likely to be green-lighted any time soon, ESPN executives said Thursday.

Instead, the company will spend more time on its bread and butter sports properties and news-oriented shows while announcing plans to run selected documentaries. And in the fall, it's launching an investigative series titled "ESPN Reports".

That amounts to a holding pattern in terms of the Hollywood-style development in what used to be called ESPN Original Entertainment, responsible for those types of shows and a short-lived daily news program titled "ESPN Hollywood". And it's a marked shift from the days of former executive vp Mark Shapiro, who sought to broaden the company's appeal to more than just sporting events and scores.

Today, ESPN executives say that sports and strictly sports-related content are what its audience wants. John Skipper, who as executive vp content for ESPN is in charge of content across ESPN's many platforms, said it's not about broadening the audience but instead about giving their current audience more of what they crave.

"I'm a little less interested in the intersection of where entertainment and sports combine," Skipper said.

NEW YORK -- A longer-than-normal home run derby live from San Francisco delayed by more than an hour the debut of ESPN's much-anticipated miniseries The Bronx Is Burning.

The first episode of the miniseries focusing on the 1977 New York Yankees and starring John Turturro and Oliver Platt was supposed to get started at 10 p.m. EDT. But it didn't start until 11:05 p.m. EDT thanks to the home run derby that eventually was won by the Angels' Vladimir Guerrero.

Bronx averaged 2.2 million viewers, according to data released late Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. That was comparable with a previous ESPN miniseries, Tilt, that averaged 2 million viewers in January 2005. But it was below the Aug. 26, 2003, debut of the controversial football series Playmakers, which averaged 2.6 million viewers.

Even before the big delay, ESPN planned to replay the first episode of Bronx at 10 p.m. Wednesday and again two hours later on ESPN. It also will air at 10 p.m.

Oliver Platt has signed on to play Bob Zelnick in Working Title and Universal Pictures' big-screen adaptation of "Frost/Nixon" and has landed a recurring role on FX's "Nip/Tuck."

Zelnick was the executive editor of the Frost-Nixon interviews.

Ron Howard is directing "Frost/Nixon," which was adapted from Peter Morgan's hit play. Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Brian Grazer are producing the film, which sees Frank Langella and Michael Sheen reprising their Broadway roles as Nixon and Frost, respectively. Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones and Matthew Macfadyen also are on board.

In five episodes of "Nip/Tuck" next season, Platt will play Freddy Prune, the producer of a TV show on which Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) serve as consultants.

Platt, who next appears as George Steinbrenner in the ESPN miniseries "The Bronx Is Burning", most recently garnered Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his work in the Showtime series "Huff". He also earned a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut in Connor McPherson's "Shining City".

He is repped by Endeavor and the Gold Co.

NEW YORK -- ESPN on Wednesday announced a broad reorganization of its content division, including the renaming of ESPN Original Entertainment and expanding its reach from only TV to all platforms.

EOE, as it was known, brought to the network original movies like 3, such series as Playmakers and Tilt as well as the series Cold Pizza and Pardon the Interruption and the forthcoming eight-part miniseries The Bronx Is Burning.

ESPN also has named Keith Clinkscales, who joined the sports giant in 2004, as senior vp content development and strategies.

Reporting to Clinkscales will be Ron Semiao, senior vp original events, who will oversee such content as the ESPYs and the X Games. Senior vp Rick Alessandri will continue to focus on the X Games and ESPN's consumer products business. Content development vp Bob Wallace is working on ESPN Reports as well as other projects.

Clinkscales said Wednesday that the creative community that works with ESPN to develop shows, movies and miniseries isn't going to see a scaling down of what he called the "phenomenal history" of EOE.

Oliver Platt has been tapped to star in ABC's comedy pilot The Thick of It, while Chris Lowell is the latest to join ABC's potential Grey's Anatomy spinoff.

Additionally, Steve Howey has landed the lead in Fox's comedy pilot The Beast, lifting the contingency on the pilot, James D'Arcy has been tapped to star in Fox's drama pilot Them, Lacey Chabert has been cast as a lead in Fox's untitled Liz Meriwether comedy pilot, and Tim Peper has nabbed a lead in ABC's comedy pilot Carpoolers.

Thick, from Sony Pictures TV and BBC Worldwide TV, follows the workers in the office of a low-level congressman. Platt will play the chairman of the Party Committee. Platt, who earned two Emmy nominations for his role on Huff, which was produced by Sony TV, next will appear in the features The Ten and The Martian Child and in ESPN's miniseries The Bronx Is Burning.

Lowell is set to guest star in the "enhanced" two-hour episode of Grey's designed to serve as a springboard for a potential spinoff from the hit medical drama centered on Dr.

NEW YORK -- John Turturro, Oliver Platt and Daniel Sunjata have been signed to star in the ESPN miniseries The Bronx Is Burning. The ESPN Original Entertainment-Tollin/Robbins Prods. miniseries follows the exploits of the 1977 New York Yankees, which won its first world championship in two decades amid a summer and fall that featured a major blackout, race riots and the notorious Son of Sam killings. Turturro (Barton Fink) will play then-manager Billy Martin, who famously clashed during the season with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and star player Reggie Jackson. Steinbrenner will be played by Platt (Huff) and Jackson will be played by Sunjata (Rescue Me).