'2012' Deal Heralds Return To Studio Excess
· The strike's over, but we were waiting for a deal like this one to really start celebrating: Sony bought 2012, an obnoxiously over-the-top end-of-the-world disaster flick that's going to cost at least $200 million for Roland Emmerich to make! Yay! The studios are back to hemorrhaging money again! [Variety]
· The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Saturn Awards nominations gave 300 the most nominations with ten, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a close second at nine. Flabbergasted producers of The Golden Compass responded by saying, "We had fucking talking-polar-bear fights! What else could you possibly be looking for?!" [Variety]
· A coup for actors with gigantic eyes: Anime classic Akira gets the big-screen treatment, co-produced by Lionard DiCaprio's production company for Warner Bros. [Variety]
· David Fincher has chosen his next subject to preen over obsessively until just right, then probably get shut out of the Oscars with: Black Hole, the brilliant Charles Burns's graphic novel about a mutating STD spread among teens. This is going to be great. [Variety]
· CBS greenlights two reality show pilots: Splitsville is a "game show for divorcing couples who battle it out for their belongings in a series of competitive challenges," and another, as-yet-untitled project from the makers of Kid Nation, in which cops "help people who have been victims of a crime." [THR]