3:07 PM PST 1/5/2017
by
Borys Kit
David Dobkin, best known for directing the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers , is in negotiations to helm Overnight , a family adventure project from Disney.
Neal H. Moritz and Ori Marmur, who are coming off the release of the Chris Pratt-Jennifer Lawrence sci-fi movie Passengers , are producing via their Original Film company.
Oren Uziel wrote the script, which has previously been described as Home Alone in an FAO Schwarz-esque toy store. The plot involves a father and son who win a chance to spend a night in the world’s greatest toy store on the same night that it is targeted by thieves.
The project has been a high priority for the studio ever since it was picked up in turnaround from Sony, with directors such as Ruben Fleischer, Steve Prink and more recently, Jared Hess, in various forms of attachments.
Dobkin’s credits include Shanghai Knights (2003) with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan, as well as The Change-Up (2011) with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. He last directed Robert Downey Jr. in 2014’s The Judge .
Dobkin is repped by WME and Sloane Offer.

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Barry Diller, who famously lost a bidding war for Paramount Pictures two decades ago, says the movie business has unattractive economics that have been crimped by internet’s disruption of the media ecosystem.
« Movie companies rarely make a lot of money, » Diller said during a keynote session Thursday at the 2017 CES trade show in Las Vegas Thursday. « A standalone movie studio today is a hardly a great business proposition, » he said, allowing that Disney is an exception in the industry.
Movie studios today are centered around « huge, blockbuster movies that have to do $500 million to break even — I mean, that is not a creative enterprise, » said the septuagenarian media mogul, who is founder and chairman of IAC and chairman of Expedia. « The fact we get any good movies is almost a miracle.  »
Diller’s comments come after the movie industry notched a record $11.4 billion in North American box office revenue in 2016.
What’s changed for the movie business in the last few years, according to Diller, is that internet streaming and over-the-top video services have weakened the powerful hold media conglomerates used to enjoy with respect to downstream distribution. In the past, media congloms « could be a highwayman taking the toll from anyone who wants to cross the media road, » said Diller.
After Diller lost out to Viacom in 1994 for Paramount after a six-month battle, he issued a terse statement saying: « They won. We lost. Next.  »
As for pay TV, a business in which Diller was once himself a notable player as owner of USA Networks, he predicted that the internet is poised to bring further disruption. The advent of « skinny bundles » from the likes of Hulu, DirecTV, Sling TV and others will reach its ultimate conclusion with consumers picking and choosing which networks and services they want rather than purchasing a bundle, he suggested.
« I think mostly, you will curate (TV content) yourself. You will decide: I like Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, whatever, » Diller said. « Why would you let someone else warehouse those for you?  »
Diller also address the issue of fake news, which became a hot-button issue after the 2016 U. S. presidential election. He said one of the biggest problems is programmatic advertising – because that lets marketers blindly buy ads without knowing where they’ll appear. « Unless you put some human barricades, barriers so to speak, in front of it, this is going to proliferate, » he said.
Diller, who has criticized Donald Trump as a « bad clown » and « huckster » in the past, tangentially addressed the incoming president in his remarks Thursday.
« I’m only marking this new presidency in one-year increments, » he said during the keynote session, moderated by Michael Kassan, CEO of consulting firm MediaLink. Last fall Diller claimed he would either leave the U. S. or « join the resistance » if Trump were elected president. (He evidently has not emigrated at this point.)
Commenting on his approach to acquisitions — wearing both his IAC and Expedia hats — Diller said his companies do not merely stick to their knitting.
« We’re open field, » he said. « We actually truly have no blinders on. We don’t want to. We would have never gotten as far as we have in internet life if we had. « 

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© Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/barry-diller-movie-studios-not/2017/01/05/id/767063
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FLINT, MI — Entertainer Cher has been tapped to star in a Lifetime Channel movie about the Flint water crisis.
A Thursday, Jan. 5 article by The Hollywood Reporter states Cher will serve as an executive producer in the TV movie « Flint » along with Katie Couric, Neil Meron, and Craig Zadan.
Meron and Zedon have worked on « The Wiz Live!  » and « The Sound of Music Live!  » as well as a « Steel Magnolias » remake on Lifetime. Barbara Stepansky has been chosen to write the script.
The singer and actress — known for songs « If I Could Turn Back Time, » « Believe, » and roles in « Moonstruck » and « The Witches of Eastwick » — is set to « portray a Flint resident whose family is impacted by the water crisis, » according to the article.
Cher donated 181,000 bottles of water to Flint in 2016 through work with Icelandic Glacial and made waves after calling for Gov. Rick Snyder to be executed over the water crisis.
Cher calls for Gov. Snyder to be executed over Flint water on Twitter
She also paid a visit to Flint in October 2016, stopping at a water distribution site at Dort Federal Event Center, meeting with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, and giving a speech in support of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at UAW Local 651.
« This city cannot be forgotten about and it’s a microcosm of what’s happening in the whole United States, » said Cher during the Flint visit. « We cannot forget about the people who are suffering.  »
Flint switched back to Detroit for water service in October 2015 after children showed elevated blood lead levels in a September 2015 report by Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha.
Thirteen people have been charged in connection to the water crisis, including local and state employees, as well as former emergency managers Darnell Earley and Jerry Ambrose.
Two former Flint emergency managers charged with water crisis crimes
There was no date provided on when the movie would air.

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© Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2017/01/report_cher_set_to_star_in_fli.html
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Friends and family of screen icon Debbie Reynolds and « Star Wars » legend Carrie Fisher gathered Thursday to pay tribute to the beloved celebrity mother and daughter, who died one day apart.
Meryl Streep, Holly Hunter, Ellen Barkin and Ed Begley Jr were among the stars who made their way to the luxury Beverly Hills compound where Fisher and Reynolds lived as neighbors until their deaths just after Christmas.
The pair are expected to be interred side by side among many other stars of screen and stage in the Hollywood Hills on Friday.
Fisher is believed to have been cremated already, although some of her ashes are expected to be buried alongside her mother.
Reynolds, who won moviegoers’ hearts as a star of « Singin’ in the Rain, » died on Wednesday last week, a day after Fisher.
The 84-year-old suffered a stroke at the Beverly Hills property as she was making funeral arrangements for Fisher, who had suffered a heart attack.
Reynolds’s son Todd Fisher — Carrie’s brother — told ABC’s « 20/20 » show after their deaths that his mother had been devastated not to get the chance to see the « Star Wars » actress one last time.
« She expressed how much she loved my sister. She then said she really wanted to be with Carrie, in those precise words. And within 15 minutes from that conversation, she faded out. Within 30 minutes, she technically was gone, » he said.
Fisher, who catapulted to worldwide stardom as rebel warrior Princess Leia in the original « Star Wars » trilogy, died in Los Angeles four days after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight. She was 60.
The family is believed to be planning a future public memorial service for Fisher and Reynolds, possibly featuring stars such as Streep — who starred in the film « Postcards from the Edge, » which was based on Fisher’s 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.
Other celebrities laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park include Bette Davis, Reynolds’s onscreen mother in « A Catered Affair » (1956), and Reynolds’s close friend Liberace.
Silent film star Buster Keaton, Oscar-winning Rod Steiger and David Carradine, the star of « Kung Fu » and Quentin Tarantino’s « Kill Bill » films, are also buried there.

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