Terence Davies adapting 'Sorrows'

Davies 'Mother of Sorrows'British auteur Terence Davies is developing a feature based on "Mother of Sorrows," the prize-winning 2005 debut novel by American Richard McCann.Davies is concentrating on the project with Leopardrama, the fiction arm located in london and NY-based production group Argonon. They have development funding within the EU's Media program."Mother of Sorrows" includes 10 connected tales about two teenage brothers and sisters dealing with the dying from the father as well as the influence from the strong, complex mother. The novel won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award and was nominated for your Stonewall Book Award for gay fiction."It becomes an important story because it touches the humanity in many people,Inch Davies mentioned. "I like the delicacy in the book which is gentle journey from publish-World war ii optimism for your American Paradise with a much much deeper understanding of both maternal and filial love plus an acceptance of mortality by quitting for the light."Davies most recently directed 19 fifties-set melodrama "The Dark Blue Sea," starring Rachel Weisz, which is next set to shoot his extended-anticipated adaptation of classic Scottish novel "Sunset Song," put together by Lewis Grassic Gibbon in 1932.His last film shot inside the U.S. was "The Neon Bible" in 1995, though more youthful crowd modified Edith Wharton's novel "Home of Mirth" in 2000, using Glasgow for NY.Leopardrama, headed by Joey Attawia, Jez Swimer and David Chikwe, co-produced low-budget Brit thriller "The Holding" a year ago making "An Englishman in NY," starring John Hurt, last season.Father or mother company Argonon has furthermore introduced that it's 3d film of Matthew Bourne's output of the ballet "Swan Lake," that's due in U.K. cinemas this year, remains acquired by specialist arts distrib More2Screen for release in than 600 theaters worldwide. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Drac Attack! Sony Pictures Buys Period Bloodsucker Pitch From Jason Keller

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures has acquired a pitch from scribe Jason Keller for a period origin story on the Dracula mythology that will be produced by Joe Roth and Palak Patel. I’m hearing the deal was high six figures against seven-figures. It becomes the latest in a growing list of films about the iconic vampire borne out of the legend of Vlad the Impaler. There is also a new version of Dracula Year Zero that has risen from the grave with Gary Shore directing, Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless writing and Moneyball‘s Mike De Luca producing. There is also an apocalyptic contemporary project coagulating that’s based on the book trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan that concluded with the recently released The Night Eternal, which Del Toro will set up when he completes Pacific Rim. And Keller himself is attached to another contemporary vampire film, adapting the Justin Cronin novel The Passage for Matt Reeves, in which government experiments on terminally ill people launches a plague of vampires. Insiders at Sony would only say the intention is to launch a period franchise. The deal brings together the combatants in the race to launch a Snow White film. Keller most recently scripted Relativity Media’s Mirror Mirror, and Roth and Patel produced Snow White and the Huntsman for Universal. Roth has been revived as a producer making iconic properties in the public domain. Aside from Alice in Wonderland and Snow White and the Huntsman, he’s producing Oz: The Great and Powerful; Maleficent with Robert Stromberg directing and Angelina Jolie starring; and the Channing Tatum-attached Peter Pan Begins. Keller also scripted Machine Gun Preacher and rewrote the upcoming Sylvester Stallone-Arnold Schwarzenegger pic The Tomb. He also scripted Go Like Hell for Fox, the battle for 60s muscle car supremacy between Ford and Ferrari that has Michael Mann attached to direct. Keller’s repped by CAA and Management 360.

Academy awards: Global media descends on Hollywood

The 84th Oscars are held in the Hollywood and Highland Center in the middle of Hollywood.Reporters James Li and Maggie Wang in the China Movie Funnel.Officials in the Military Network, above, around the red-colored carpet at Hollywood & Highland.It's three hrs and counting before the red-colored carpet outdoors the Hollywood and Highland Center is hit with ''the swarm,'' within the words of 1 cameraman busily planning the most popular couple of hrs of the season for showbiz journos.An worldwide stew of languages could be heard by early-coming reporters walking around the red-colored carpet. TV deck hands from timezones around the world are delivering live shots and hosts are preparing for chaos by studying notes with factoids concerning the various nominees -- and also the names of the significant others.One outlet that features the among the greatest auds for that Academy awards is China Movie Funnel, which reaches some 700 million homes around the landmass. Reporters James Li and Maggie Wang the Academy awards is of course certainly one of their greatest occasions of the season. Wang notes they keep your red-colored carpet coverage centered on ''the films themselves'' instead of fashion and superstar gossip.Another number of reporters drawing attention may be the uniformed trio from Military Network, who've been high-fiving the active servicemembers who're right in front row from the fan bleacher seats.

A 'Wicked' good holiday session

'Wicked' came close to the $2 million mark that Broadway usually achieves only on major holidays such as Thanksgiving. Broadway perked up for Presidents Day, with the long weekend's spike in tourist traffic pushing B.O. up by almost 30% in Week 38 (Feb. 13-19) compared with the prior frame.Also adding to the pot were two new offerings, including "Death of a Salesman" ($613,569 for six previews), the Philip Seymour Hoffman starrer that pulled in solid numbers for a first week and played to auds that approached 90% of capacity. The brief run of solo outing "Shatner's World: We Just Live in It" ($305,705 for six) played two previews and four regular perfs, including opening. Except for "The Book of Mormon" ($1,473,606), which held steady, every production on the boards reported gains, many of them significant.The heftiest chunk of change, of course, was pulled in at the top-ticket hits, including "Wicked" ($1,903,024), "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" ($1,709,139) and "The Lion King" ($1,665,141), which climbed by more than $300,000 each. Buoyed in part by the increasing prevalence of premium pricing as well as Broadway's consistently rising ticket prices across the board, "Wicked" came within spitting distance of the $2 million mark, an achievement that a few years ago, used to be reserved for B.O.-busting major holidays such as Thanksgiving.Overall Rialto cume climbed $4.4 million to $20.1 million for the 26 shows on the boards. Attendance was up by 35,000 to almost 210,000, or about 85% of overall capacity.The 17 musicals grossed $16,138,494 for 80.4% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 162,575 and an average paid admission of $99.27.The nine plays grossed $3,932,703 for 19.6% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 47,366 and an average paid admission of $83.03. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Multiplatform viewing develops but TV still rules

New Nielsen data sees signs and symptoms of growth for video consumption across digital platforms, but nonetheless nowhere near TV levels. Video consumption via either PC or cell phones came to in excess of four minutes per user monthly within the third quarter of this past year, far in the over 146 minutes of TV watching in your home through the same measure, based on the "Condition from the Media: U.S. Digital Consumer Report Q3-Q4 2011" released Thursday. However, watching television in your home was up under 1% within the same quarter this year, as the 4 hrs and 31 minutes of viewing registered by video audiences using the pc was up 7.1%. Mobile-phone viewing was flat at 4 hrs and twenty minutes over 3Q'10, however the 12-17 demo is watching more about cell phones than you are on Computers -- unlike other census. Still, video consumption pales compared to non-video habits including social media, Web surfing, text-texting and e-mailing on PC and cell phones. Just 4.3% of your time on Computers is dedicated to watching video and films while only 2.3% of mobile time is dedicated to music and video applications. Video consumption is much more common on cell phones than handheld multimedia products, tablet or gaming systems no matter region, with Europe, South America and Asia Off-shore all confirming similar trends. One-fifth of participants to some Nielsen survey in The United States reported watching video on their own mobile products daily. On Computers alone, YouTube continues to be dominant choice, commanding 44.7% of movie time. Netflix finishes at 10.7%, then Hulu (6.9%) and Vevo (3%). The development of subscription VOD consumption was noted within the research, with 33% of U.S. customers confirming getting streamed a film or Tv show through services for example Netflix or Hulu Plus. In comparison, only 14% report getting compensated to download a film or Tv show to possess. Contact Andrew Wallenstein at andrew.wallenstein@variety.com

William Fichtner To Exchange Dwight Yoakam In Lone Ranger

EXCLUSIVE: Disney has drawn on William Fichtner to exchange Dwight Yoakam within the Lone Ranger. He'll take part in the theif that Yoakam was set to defend myself against prior to the actor-singer dropped out Friday due to a arranging conflict. Now Fichtner is within. He just completed filming Elysuim for Universal and MRC with Matt Damon and Jodie Promote, in addition to Phantom opposite Erectile dysfunction Harris and David Duchovny. Fichtner, repped by Paradigm and Intellectual Artist Management, can make his pointing debut using the indie Coldbrook after wrapping Lone Ranger.

Ford Won't Be In New Blade Runner

Rumours flatly denied by production co.This is one of those stories where we update on a rumour that seemed so tenuous that we didn't bother to report it in the first place. But if you saw reports last weekend that Harrison Ford was in talks to return as Deckard, you can now safely ignore them. Production company Alcon Entertainment has flat-out told Deadline that, whatever Ridley Scott's new Blade Runner turns out to be, Harrison Ford almost certainly won't be in it.Scott had already said this pretty categorically several months ago, and given Ford's well-known antipathy for the film (he didn't come to love it like the rest of the world), the possibility of the actor's involvement always seemed remote at best. But Alcon's Andrew Kosove reiterates that with a fairly strident, "It is absolutely patently false that there has been any discussion about Harrison Ford being in Blade Runner.""What we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story, figure out the direction we're going to take the movie and find a writer to work on it," he explains. "The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment. It's like asking if we're going to make the sky red or blue. There has been no discussion about it."Kosove was also keen to stress that, as most have surmised, Scott is not planning anything like a conventional sequel to his 1982 classic. "What Ridley's doing in Prometheusis a good template for what we're trying to do," Kosove says. "He created something that has some association to the original Alien, but lives on its own as a standalone movie."So what about that "almost certainly"? "In advance of knowing what we're going to do, I suppose you could say yes, [Ford] could [return]," Kosove admits. "But I think it is quite unlikely."

Fox Orders Season 5 of Kitchen Nightmares

Kitchen Nightmares Fox will serve up a fifth season of Kitchen Nightmares, the network announced Thursday."It's great to be back for a fifth season ... Who knew there were that many nightmares to be had?!" series star and executive producer Gordon Ramsay said in a statement.Watch full episodes of Kitchen NightmaresThe reality series follows the short-tempered chef as he travels to restaurants on the brink of closing and whips the place into shape.Ramsay, 45, also hosts Fox's cooking competition series Hell's Kitchen.Kitchen Nightmares airs Fridays at 8/7 on Fox.

Mega Buzz: A House Tragedy, a Housewives Baby-Daddy and an SVU Reunion

Hugh Laurie, Teri Hatcher, Mariska Hargitay Every week, editors Adam Bryant and Natalie Abrams satisfy your need for TV scoop. Please send all questionsto mega_scoop@tvguide.com. Thanks for the preview of next week's House. Anything else you can tell me? - Alex ADAM: While lots of (deserved) attention has been paid to Jeffrey Wright's excellent guest turn as a neurologist deciding House's fate, don't take your eyes off the rest of the team. The incident that leads to the investigation leaves a major character fighting serious injuries that could upend his or her future on the show. And the crippling fallout will even have Dr. Crankypants uttering the words - gasp! - "I'm sorry." Is Julie really pregnant on Desperate Housewives? - Jaime NATALIE: The promos don't lie, and neither do we. Susan is going to be a grandma. The surprise twist? The father of Julie's baby is a character who has been on the show since Season 1. Hit the comments with your guesses! Any new SVU scoop? - Natalie, via Twitter ADAM: Guess who's paying Benson a visit? Her younger brother Simon! The character, who is played by Michael Weston and last appeared in Season 8, shows up with some shocking news: Olivia is now an aunt. There's just one small problem: Simon is about to lose his kid in a battle with child social services. Good thing Benson knows this guy, right? What's coming up on Grey's Anatomy? - Nikki NATALIE: Jackson's famous surgeon mom (played by the vivacious Debbie Allen) will return in an upcoming episode with a urology fellow (Outsourced's Rebecca Hazlewood) in tow to assist on one of Richard's cases. There's just one problem: Dr. Catherine Avery has her laser focus set on more than just Richard's case... Any more scoop on Castle's two-parter? - Christine ADAM: As with the show's previous two-part episodes, there will be crazy stunts and big action set pieces. "We filmed a stunt, and we had to be fitted for wetsuits," Nathan Fillion tells us. But as much fun as it is to imagine Fillion and Stana Katic frolicking in the surf, stripping off their scuba gear, we hear the suits figure into a scene of a much more treacherous aquatic variety. Loving Once Upon a Time, especially the Evil Queen. What's coming up for her? - David NATALIE: Who's more evil than the Evil Queen? Her elegant, yet imposing mother, of course, aka the woman who taught Regina everything. Chills. (This just in: Academy Award nominee Barbara Hershey has booked a multi-episode arc as the matriarch of the most evil family in fairy tale world. The Black Swan actress has the potential to return in Season 2, should the series be renewed.) So sad to see Catherine go on CSI. What can you tell me about her replacement Elisabeth Shue? - Stephen ADAM: Shue's character, Julie Finlay, has a history with Ted Danson's D.B. Russell, who calls on her expertise in blood analysis to crack a case. "They're sort of rekindling the relationship, professionally," executive producer Don McGill says. And personally? "Russell, as far as he's told Catherine, has only... slept with one woman and loved one woman in his life," executive producer Carol Mendelsohn says. "But we will find out that 'Finn' was his work wife. That's a really interesting relationship." 2 Broke Girls, please! - Boris NATALIE: Here's an odd coincidence: When the ladies go to visit Caroline's father in prison, Max runs into an ex... who's doing seven to 10 years for attempted murder. Let's just hope he doesn't break out of prison, because he might be really jealous of the guy Max meets - and hooks up with -- when the ladies get a job house-sitting. I love Maya Rudolph on Up All Night. Got any scoop on her character? - Heather ADAM: Her dad is coming to town! He's the opposite of Ava is many ways - he's lovable, sweet and writes children's books. His one Ava-like aspect? He has a new wife who's the same age as Ava. Is there any hope for Addison and Sam on Private Practice? - Lily NATALIE: "She had a serious thing with Sam, so I don't think she gets over stuff quite as quickly as you may think," Kate Walsh tells us. "Like anything, it takes time and it's a little bumpy and there may be some revisiting." However, Addison and Jake's work trip to Palm Springs is definitely a turning point for their relationship. "There's some sexiness happening," Walsh says coyly. What's coming up on A Gifted Man? Will we see more of Eriq La Salle? - Jenny ADAM: La Salle's E-Mo will be in two of the remaining five episodes, including Season 1's penultimate hour, which finds Michael in a very compromising position. "What if Michael were in a full-blown argument with Anna and somebody walked in on that? How do you explain that?" executive producer Neal Baer teases. "E-Mo walks into a major blowout ... and Michael has a lot of explaining to do." What are they fighting about? It may have something to do with a certain red-headed doctor named Kate, who will soon begin to have doubts about her marriage. Got any scoop on Modern Family? - Sam NATALIE: Get ready for a drunken double date! Claire, Phil, Mitchell and Cam will head out for a night on the town... to talk about some serious issues. "Everyone is discussing the pros and cons of procreating and they get drunk to do it," teases Julie Bowen. In possibly related news, "Someone in the cast who's not a female wears Jimmy Choo shoes," Sarah Hyland says. Adam's Mega Rave: Good job, X Factor. The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem - or in your case, three problems. Now that you've taken the necessary steps, I'll give Season 2 a second look. Natalie's Mini Rant: Congrats to reigning SAG champs Alec, Betty, Steve and the casts of Boardwalk Empire and Modern Family, but can't we give some other people a shot at the glory? Crave scoop on your favorite TV shows?E-mail Adam and Natalie at mega_scoop@tvguide.comor drop us a line atTwitter.com/TVGuide (Additional reporting by Robyn Ross and Kate Stanhope)