Tom Sturdy rides with WB biker film

HardyUnder his new first-look cope with Warner Bros., Tom Sturdy is aboard to star in and convey an outlaw biker feature.The "Dark Dark night Increases" star is joining up with Art Linson and John Linson of Linson Entertainment to create via his recently minted Executive Options banner, which Variety first reported Wednesday. Story, composed by "Vacancy" scripter Mark L. Cruz and according to an authentic idea from John Linson, focuses on a wounded Vietnam veteran who returns the place to find Bay Area in the height of unrest of 1969. Among contrasting cultures from the Haight Ashbury district, he emerges being the best choice of California's most violent outlaw biker club.Sarah Schechter managing for that studio.Sturdy came aboard at the end of 2010 to portray the villain Bane within the studio's "The Dark Dark night Increases." The British actor's recent roles include "What This Means Is War," "Mess Tailor Soldier Spy" and "Warrior."The Linsons, Sturdy, and Cruz are symbolized by CAA. Sturdy can also be symbolized by Lindy King at U . s . Agents United kingdom and attorney Jason Sloane.Cruz is handled by Anonymous Content. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Lawyer asserts Sheridan feared reprisal

Nicollette Sheridan is suing 'Desperate Housewives' creator Marc Cherry and Touchstone Television for wrongful termination, charging that her character was killed off from the show in retaliation for her having complained about the incident.Nicollette Sheridan's entertainment attorney testified Tuesday that the actress feared she would be dropped from the show if she made "waves" about a confrontation in which "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry struck her on the side of the head during a script dispute.Neil Meyer said in the Los Angeles Superior Court trial that after the Sept. 24, 2008 incident, Sheridan called him and was "very upset." Meyer said that he called Howard Davine in the business-affairs department of production company Touchstone Television to inform him of the incident."I told him Nicollette was extremely upset and it must have been pretty bad because she wouldn't just call me," Meyer said. "I said we weren't looking for ABC or Disney to do anything," adding that she wanted to put it behind her but that he felt that it was something that Davine should "know about."Sheridan is suing Cherry and Touchstone for wrongful termination, charging that her character was killed off from the show in retaliation for her having complained about the incident. Cherry said he gave Sheridan a "tap" on the side of the head, and it was part of direction for an upcoming scene. He also said that plans were well under way before the incident to kill off her character, and that it was largely done for creative and budgetary reasons. Sheridan was informed in February 2009 that she was being dropped from the show.Meyer testified Tuesday that Sheridan "was very concerned about her job. She told me Mr. Cherry was a very vindictive man." Cherry's attorney, Adam Levin, objected to the "vindictive" characterization, and jurors were told to not consider it in the record.Davine sent Meyer a letter dated Dec. 5, 2008 informing him that the studio's human resources department had concluded an investigation with the finding that Sheridan "was not mistreated" and noting that Cherry had apologized for "inadvertently upsetting her." But Meyer said he never responded to the letter to challenge the finding, saying that "it was a self-serving letter and I don't respond to self-serving letters."Nevertheless, Meyer said on the stand that he didn't believe he mentioned Sheridan's fears of "retaliation" to Davine. He said he did tell Davine that "Nicole wanted to get through this and get back to work.""I wanted to protect Nicollette because I was afraid that if we pursued this (at the time) her job would be in jeopardy," Meyer said.In cross-examining Meyer, Levin spent a great deal of time challenging his recollection of events, suggesting that his memory of what was said back then was suddenly much better than it was when he gave a deposition in the case.Sheridan's attorneys also gave a glimpse of studio accounting during Tuesday's proceedings.Sheridan was a profit participant in the series, but her litigator Mark Baute showed a profit statement from the studio showing that even though the show's revenues exceeded $1 billion, her return in one time period after she left the show was $62,590. It was unclear what her percentage was or the time period it covered.Later in the day, an expert witness for Sheridan's team testified that it was highly unusual for a comedy to kill off one of its main characters. Richard Olshansky, a business affairs executive who has worked at Endeavor and NBC Universal, said that producers "tend not to want to mess" with a successful show.But it's likely that Cherry's team will try to argue that opposite, and are likely to bring in their own expert to provide examples from the comedy and drama realms, including "Knots Landing," a show on which Sheridan was a regular. Contact Ted Johnson at ted.johnson@variety.com

For Debmar-Mercury, 10/90 math adds up

'Tyler Perrys House of Payne'Marcus Bernstein When Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein joined forces to create Debmar-Mercury in 2005, the indie syndie distributor would have seemed on the surface an unlikely candidate to forge an innovative production and distribution model for sitcoms.But that was before the duo had a fateful meeting with a frustrated Tyler Perry.In 2006, Perry was determined to get a comedy series on the air on his own terms. Marcus and Bernstein had the ultimate motivation to help Perry find his path to primetime, as they needed to make some noise with their fledging company.Six years and six shows later, the distribution plan that Marcus and Bernstein devised for "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" has become so well-known that it's referred to in biz shorthand as a "10/90" deal. And there are plenty of stars who have lined up to take a shot at Debmar's unusual formula -- among them Charlie Sheen and George Lopez.The first meeting with Perry -- orchestrated by Mark Itkin, then of WMA -- led to a series of what-if conversations as Perry talked about his struggle to convince a network to back his vision for a multi-generational African-American family show. He was even ready to finance and deliver the production through his Atlanta studio facility.Perry "knew he had something but he couldn't figure out how to get there using a traditional TV series business model," Marcus says. "We had that light-bulb moment where we thought, 'How would you convince us to do that show? What if you just made 10 episodes and they aired?'?"With the dearth of African-American comedies in primetime (then and now), the Debmar toppers were confident there would be demand for Perry's show in first-run syndication. They worked their station connections to set up a two-week test run for "House of Payne" in 10 key markets. The plan was to shop the show nationally with the proviso that station buyers would have to commit to 90 more episodes. That would allow Debmar to sell the rerun rights to cable immediately, and bring cost savings as Perry could produce episodes at an accelerated pace (about 40 a year) without sweating out a renewal every season.But then Turner Entertainment topper Steve Koonin turned the plan upside down. Turner's WTBS Atlanta was one of the "House of Payne" test stations, and the Atlanta-based Koonin knew well of Perry's following among African-American auds. After the test run impressed, Koonin stepped up to grab the show for TBS first, starting in fall 2006, with the reruns hitting local stations in 2008.The timing of the "House of Payne" deal were fortuitous as it coincided with Debmar's acquisition by Lionsgate in mid-2006, though it has continued to operate as an autonomous unit.TBS and Debmar have since partnered on two more Perry skeins ("Meet the Browns" and "For Better or Worse") and the Ice Cube-Joe Roth adaptation of "Are We There Yet." Next up is Sheen's planned comeback vehicle, "Anger Management," also produced by Roth, for FX. And Debmar is closing in on a deal for a show with Lopez.For talent, the tradeoff with Debmar is a smaller paycheck upfront but a more generous slice of the backend profits than most studios would offer. The 10-episode test model hasn't been foolproof; "Big Lake," produced with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay for Comedy Central, went 10 and out in 2010.Sheen's camp first met with Marcus and Bernstein back in 2009, when he was negotiating a two-year renewal for "Two and a Half Men." Sheen's manager, Mark Burg, had been impressed with their dealmaking, plus he had a relationship with Lionsgate as a producer of the "Saw" franchise.With all his notoriety, Sheen is tailor-made for the Debmar model, which requires that a show be rooted in a highly identifiable star or property."It's a three-legged stool, and you need all three pieces otherwise it doesn't work," Bernstein says. "You need someone who has a pre-sold branded element. It can't be an unknown guy with a really good script. You need to be in business with people who have the financial wherewithal to afford this deal and play for the upside. And the third element is they have to be able to execute."The structure of the Debmar deals also offer accounting benefits to the cablers, because they're able to amortize the cost of the 90-seg pickup over four-plus years.Beyond the sitcoms, Debmar has enjoyed a growth spurt during the past few years with its original first-run productions like "The Wendy Williams Show" daytime yakker (which has been on a roll with young femmes), or programs it distribs for others, like gameshow "Family Feud."And there's more to come, Bernstein hints."We have a portfolio of businesses," he says. "We're in the (show) representation business, the original production business and the sitcom business, and quite frankly we are trying to work on getting into the one-hour drama business." Contact Cynthia Littleton at cynthia.littleton@variety.com

Amazing Race's Elliot and Andrew: We Knew We're Better Than That

Willow Smith First she goes bald, now she's seeing green. Willow Smith, daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, has gone through another hair change, which she debuted on her Instagram page last week. Willow and Jaden Smith chop off their locks The 11-year-old singer - whose single "Whip My Hair" soared to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and inspired parodies from Sesame Street and Bruce Springsteen - has dyed her hair neon green less than a month after shaving her locks. What do you think of Smith's new 'do?

Winter debut chills Perry

'Tyler Perrys Good Deeds' offered within the helmers second-least expensive opening-weekend domestic B.O. Tyler Perry's latest offering, "Good Deeds," fought within the late February debut weekend, a slot that's outdoors in the filmmaker's typical Easter time time weekend launchpad. The Lionsgate pic acquired $15.6 000 0000 in your area inside the Feb. 24-26 frame, the second-least expensive debut for your helmer and merely the fourth time among his films has opened up as much as under $20 million throughout its inaugural weekend. Perry's Madea photos are frequently his best: "Madea Visits Jail" bowed to north of $40 million last season, then 2006's "Madea's Family Reunion," getting a $Thirty Dollars million opening. Perry's dramas are often slated as fall releases, for instance 2010's "For Colored Women," which opened up as much as $19.5 million. Still, "Deeds" is definately not done. The pic, which toplines Perry, Thandie Newton and Gabrielle Union, saw the finest Friday-to-Saturday uptick connected having a Perry opening, up 25%. This can be a really important improvement due to the pic's solid "A" CinemaScore rating. Women rated the film finest in exit polls, that may also mean very good news, as femme auds frequently disassociate with opening weekend. Males gave the pic a b -- evaluation. Perry doesn't have extended to attend to prove themselves again. His next film, "The Marrige Counselor," launches Stateside about this summer time 27 via Lionsgate -- the director's first summer season opening. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

Stellar "Journey" continues abroad

It was clear sailing for the second-straight weekend for "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," which again navigated to the top of the overseas box office. Pic grossed a resilient $27.5 million over the Feb. 17-19 weekend, pushing its worldwide cume to $130 million. The Warner Bros.-New Line family film got an early overseas push, bowing in territories like Australia and South Korea four weeks ahead of the U.S. And later key markets, such as China and Russia, are contributing topnotch grosses. In China, the sequel grossed $9.5 million in its second outing, while in Russia, the pic tallied a soph-sesh take of $4.1 million -- a whopping 176% ahead of the original "Journey" in its similar local frame. In North America, "Journey 2" held best among the domestic top 10, down just an overall 27%. Pic showed even more stickiness in Canada, falling 3%, thanks to the country's nationally recognized family day Feb. 20. Toplining franchise newcomer Dwayne Johnson, and budgeted at a reported $79 million, the sequel already has more than recouped its production cost, grossing $183 million worldwide as of Feb. 19. Warners and New Line have committed to a "Journey 3," based on the sequel's success. Elsewhere on the family front, Disney's holiday holdover "The Muppets" proved resilient in the U.K., rising a remarkable 60% on Friday and Saturday in its second weekend over its opening two days (Feb. 10-11). The film's three-day second-weekend total of $5.8 million in Blighty rang in 36% ahead of its opening weekend. In just 10 days in the U.K., the Disney pic, with $17.4 million, has outpaced Sony's "The Smurfs" by 36% and Warners' "Yogi Bear" by 193%. Pic has hit $59.1 million internationally through Feb. 19, with a global cume of $147.3 million. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

'Vow,' 'Ghost Rider' top Friday B.O.

'Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance''The Vow'Yesterday marked a solid start to the weekend for Sony, which looks like it may claim both first and second place this frame.In first, last week's winner "The Vow" is still going strong with $7.4 million from Friday auds. Pic, which was co-financed by Spyglass Entertainment, earned a record-breaking $11.6 million on Valentine's Day in spite of competish from early sneaks of "This Means War." "Vow" has cumed $69.3 million in 10 days since opening.In second, newcomer "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," also from Sony, rode off with $7 million yesterday. However, films made from comic franchises tend to be front-loaded affairs, and B.O. observers suggest "Ghost Rider's" day-to-day drop off will remove it from second in such a tight horse race. It looks to make in the low- to mid-$20 million range through Sunday.Universal's "Safe House" earned $6.5 million yesterday for a Friday-to-Friday hold equal to "Vow's." The closeness of this week's race means "Safe House" could easily upset Sony's entries and gun it to first.Fox's "This Means War" took $5.6 million yesterday. With sneaks from Valentine's Day, the rom com has cumed $7.2 million so far. And "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" from Warner Bros. grossed $4.5 million, bringing its total to $37.6 million. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com