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

Film Commissioners announce Locations show

The Assn. of Film Commissioners Intl. will hold its Locations Show on June 15-16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event will run concurrently with the opening weekend of the Los Angeles Film Festival, held June 14-24 at venues centered around the adjacent L.A. Live complex. ''Film Commissions are not just about locations,'' said AFCI Executive Director, Martin Cuff. ''Our annual trade show offers a unique chance to meet with these Film Commissions who collectively provide over $2.5 billion in annual funding. We're very excited about our move downtown, which will create a true international village at the Los Angeles Film Festival.'' The trade show was held last June at Disney Studios in conjunction with the Producers Guild of America's ''Produced By'' conference. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

'Mormon' tops box office

"The Book of Mormon" hit No. 1 on the Broadway top 10 last week -- and it's something of a miracle. Sure, Tony-sweeper "Mormon" ($1,455,329) has been a sold out hit since last spring, and sky-high demand for tickets has pushed the average price paid per ducat into the stratosphere. But the show's overall weekly tallies are limited by the size of its venue, the Eugene O'Neill Theater, which at less than 1,100 seats significantly hampers the gross potential when compared to, say, "Wicked," the long-running hit in a theater of 1,800 seats. But last week, "Mormon," undampened by a slow winter week that kept sales below par at many productions on the boards, improved on the prior frame, broke another house record and came out ahead of "Wicked" ($1,349,433), "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" ($1,268,002) and "The Lion King" ($1,226,681). In a mark of the continuing demand for "Mormon," average price paid per ticket hit a walloping $166. That's way ahead of the second-highest per-ticket average logged for the week, $109, reported at Lincoln Center Theater's hit play "War Horse" ($860,311). In one of the chilliest frames of Broadway's annual winter slump, only a very few productions last week saw B.O. rise over the prior sesh, and the handful to do so -- "Sister Act" ($482,863), "Seminar" ($380,701) and "Wit" ($244,728), in its first full week after opening -- upticked only slightly. Despite all that, "Porgy and Bess" ($905,134) seems to have established itself as a solid performer in the face of the Street's overall downward trend. It's an open question whether sales will further rise along with the tourist tide later this spring. Overall sales fell $2.4 million to around $15 million for 23 shows on the board. The B.O. declines aren't much of a surprise to legiters, who spend the year girding themselves for the tough times that hit the Main Stem after the holiday boom. Last year at this time, sales had slipped to around $12 million for 19 productions running. Attendance also was down last week, falling by about 25,000 to 179,706. Still, that's well ahead of the 145,000 theatergoers logged last year at this time, and last week's average capacity of 78% came out ahead of the 73% posted in 2011. Last year it was around this time that B.O. began to pick up around town. Whether the same will hold true over the coming week remains to be seen. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Rhapsody ropes Napster Intl. into fold

Rhapsody is entering Europe. The music activity-streaming service has acquired Napster Intl., which will particularly expand their footprint in Germany as well as the U.K -- both important beachheads because the organization joins the larger fight for worldwide auds. Move follows the October 2011 acquisition by Rhapsody of Napster's U.S. methods from Biggest Score, finishing one of the primary major purchases of just one streaming service by another. "Purchasing of Napster which is subscriber base inside the U.K. and Germany provides an ideal admittance to the eu market," mentioned Rhapsody prexy Jon Irwin in the statement. "Through the benefit of scale, the potency of our editorial programming and proper partners, we could now bring the Napster intend to a lot more clients on numerous platforms." The overseas move by Rhapsody has come about as levels of competition are rising among digital music companies, with U.S. service Rdio getting launched in Germany captured. The U.S. launch of Spotify as well as the IPO from the planet the planet pandora this season (along with the launch of Amazon . com . com Cloud Player, Sony's Music Unlimited and Google Music) have formerly done much to redraw the domestic playing area. The expansion rate of streaming music services is large. The Intl. Federation in the Phonographic Industry mentioned subscription services elevated to 13.4 million clients this season from 8.2 million this season -- a 65% increase. Major worldwide music services have arrived at 58 nations, up from 23 this past year. Worldwide music fanatics are implementing the streaming services a lot more than U.S. audiences, too. In Sweden, the birthplace of Spotify, streaming sites taken care of for 84% of digital revenues inside the first 10 several days of 2011, mentioned the IFPI. Other areas saw similar spikes in subscription revenues. France, for example, saw an increase rate more than 90% inside the first 11 several days of 2011. Launched in 2001, Rhapsody might be the greatest premium subscription music streaming service inside the U.S., boasting greater than millions of needing to pay people. Though the entry of Spotify together with other global services, the business remains pressurized. (Spotify claims 2.5 million needing to pay folks 13 nations.) Napster, having a, remains most broadly noted for beginning off digital music revolution by enabling peer-to-peer talking about of MP3 files at the begining of part of the decade. Almost all that talking about was of unlicensed copies of tunes, nevertheless the site was later retooled just like a music streaming service. The title recognition remains strong, though, specifically in Europe. Consequently, Rhapsody are not committed to get rid of the Napster title since it did inside the U.S. Clients will probably be migrated for the awesome product in March. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Pilot Season: CBS Orders Comedy in the Muppets's Nick Stoller

Nick Stoller CBS is joining using the Muppets co-author and Nick Stoller on the new comedy series. The network has purchased an untitled single-camera project loosely according to Stoller's real-existence encounters. The comedy would center around a twenty-something guy who will get his heart damaged by his girlfriend simply to find yourself working one cubicle from her in an ad agency. Obtain the latest news on all of the pilot pick-ups here Stoller, who co-authored The Muppets with The Way I Met Your Mother's Jason Segel, got his break on Undeclared before moving to film. Younger crowd directed Segel's Failing to remember Sarah Marshall. Katherine Pope and Peter Chernin will also be attached as executive producers.

'Dark Dark night Rises' clocks most L.A. shooting days

Expect if Warner Bros.' "The Dark Dark night Increases" includes a La type of turn to it if this opens This summer 20. Christopher Nolan's third Batpic produced probably the most shooting activity among features lensed around the roads of La this past year with 249 allowed days, based on figures provided Tuesday through the FilmL.A. enabling agency. ABC's "Private Practice" was the most popular TV series with 424 days. "The Dark Dark night Increases," for auction on permits as "Magnus Rex," compiled six consecutive days throughout the late summer time and early fall because the leading offlot feature production. Most of the locations used throughout the Batshoot were in central La such as the La River, underneath the sixth Street Bridge Dominguez Funnel near El Camino College Grand Avenue downtown Figueroa and fourth Street downtown 830 S. Hill in the Broadway Trade Center and Frank Court Alley between sixth and seventh roads. Dreamworks' family drama "Thanks for visiting People" totalled the 2nd greatest degree of feature production activity in La with 224 days. Release date has not been set yet for that pic, directed by Alex Kurtzman and starring Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Pfeiffer and Mark Duplass. "Sports Camping" was third-most active feature with 156 days adopted "Neighbors" and Judd Apatow's comedy "This really is 40." Hollywood's offlot manufacture of features rose 5.7% this past year to five,682 days. Around the TV side, "Private Practice" easily capped E! Entertainment's "How Do You Look with 329 days and "Skinny" with 295, "Southland" with 267 and "The Braxtons" with 247. Television -- the biggest element of offlot production -- rejected by 5.7%, or nearly 500 days, this past year to 17,349 days. Overall production a week ago rejected 6% in the same frame this year to 610 days as TV slid 17% to 332 days with "Southland" because the top program with 29 days. Other shows shooting in your area include "513," "CSI: NY," "Private Practice," "Touch," "1000 Methods to Die," "Hot Wheels/Angels," "Q Viva The Selected," "Modern Family," "New Girl" and "Parks & Entertainment."Features leaped 30% a week ago to 93 days with indie "Black Forest" because the most active with 29 days. Other film projects include "Awakened," "5 Year Engagement," "I'll Follow You In To The Dark," "Retribution" and "The Change." Spots rejected slightly by six days to 185 having a Chrysler shoot probably the most active with six days. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Hallmark ends Martha Stewart run

Martha Stewarts show, which is expensive to produce, will not continue on Hallmark Channel past the end of summer. "The Martha Stewart Show" is unlikely to be on the air past this summer, according to sources. The news was first reported by the NY Post. For a while, it seemed the Hallmark Channel was practically becoming the Martha Stewart Network, but the lifestyle guru's live show, which debuted six years ago, is set to cease production in April and will likely not remain on the air past the end of summer. The network and Stewart's company said only that the program was confirmed to finish out the summer and that "MSLO and Hallmark Channel are in discussions about potential new programming and concepts for daytime," but those options will have to be more cost-effective than the current model. The show is reportedly very expensive to produce, and the ratings gains Hallmark has seen on the program don't justify its continued existence. The block of programming being debated includes "Emeril's Table," "Mad Hungry" and "Martha Bakes." The network still plans to focus on lifestyle programming during the daytime, but with the pricey lease on the "Martha Stewart" studio set to expire this year, expect a very different slate to be presented to advertisers come upfront season. Contact Sam Thielman at sam.thielman@variety.com

Keck's Exclusives: Modern Family Moves Forward With Adoption Story

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet Ask Keck: Has Modern Family dropped the story line with Cameron and Mitchell trying to have another baby? -Spencer Green, Delmar, NYThey haven't, insists executive producer Christopher Lloyd. "The next funny, and hopefully moving, chapters are on the way," he says. "The reality is this doesn't happen overnight. We have one episode where they find a pregnant girl who wants to make sure they are the right dads for her child. Because the baby's biological father was musical, she wants to make sure Cam and Mitch are musical as well, so they have to audition for her."Another episode will find the boys flirting with the idea of asking a relative to serve as their surrogate mother. Gotta be Gloria, right?Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!