Trade Round-Up: Paramount Pushes Back Alfie
· Without a Paddle multi-hyphenate super-talent Dax Shephard gets a script deal with Revolution Studios and Adam Sandler's Happy Madison for his comedy Guerilla Photographer. [THR]
· NBC resurrects seven-year-old Fox comedy pilot Five Houses, about a gay couple moving into a suburban neighborhood. [Ed. note—Unthinkable!]. This didn't work so well this summer on Fox when the "gay couple" was "Method & Red." [THR]
· Paramount pushes the Alfie release back two weeks, meekly sidestepping a "a crush of upcoming films targeted at female moviegoers." How macho! Couldn't they have gone with the "to better position it for the Oscars" excuse? Maybe they wanted to space out the glut of roughly thirty films featuring Jude Law in release between October and the end of the year. [THR]
· Because they want ALL the Emmys: HBO signs Emmy-winning Arrested Development directors Anthony and Joe Russo to develop the "absurdust noir/dark drama" Motel Novella. [Variety, sub. req'd.]
· 20th Century Fox TV is in business with Get a Life star Chris Elliott, giving him a pilot deal for an untitled family comedy in which he'll play the father of a young girl with pop-star aspirations. Creepy! We love it solely based on that brief description. [THR]