Trade Round-Up: Matt LeBlanc Plans For Post-Joey Existence
· Matt LeBlanc is already preparing for the day when he can't pretend to be severely retarded on sitcoms. He's close to selling a drama, The Prince, to the WB, which his company would produce. [THR]
· ABC wins this week's ratings war in the 18-49 demographic. NBC's Jeff Zucker, CBS's Les Moonves, and Fox's Gail Berman will spend the rest of the day randomly firing people and questioning the very nature of reality. [THR]
· News Corp. is planning a sports network to take on ESPN, but the decision is dependent on their negotiations with the NFL for broadcast rights. Don't they already have a sports network? Hello? Fox Sports Network? They have a building on Pico, filled with hundreds of people working on Fox sports network programming? Maybe this means they're all fired and should walk out today. That would be fun. [Variety, sub. req'd.]
· Tony Scott's Keira Knightley bounty hunter flick Domino corners the market on creepy actors, signing up Christopher Walken and Mickey Rourke for its cast of thousands. [THR]
· More Fox going apeshit news: Rupert Murdoch promises to up Fox's production slate from 14 films a year to 20-25. Next year, look for the simultaneous releases of Garfield: The Movie II-X. [THR]