Trade Round-Up: WGA Gets A New President
· The WGA West elects Patric Verrone president and installs his entire Writers United slate, giving him "a mandate to follow through on the efforts...to organize animation, cable and the reality TV sector." Translation: There will be many more people to hold up picket signs for the strike in 2007. [Variety]
· Fox will donate 10% of the box office proceeds from the opening weekend of Roll Bounce to Katrina victims, and will screen the movie free before opening night at 80 shelters in the gulf coast, assuring that the refugees' basic human need for period rollerskating movies will not go unmet. [THR]
· Harrison Ford will take some time off between helicopter rescues to star in the Civil War drama Manhunt as the leader of search for Lincoln's assassin. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, Ford will play the character of Col. Everton Conger with a poorly practiced Russian accent. [Variety]
· My Name is Earl has a big debut for NBC, temporarily keeping the trap door underneath president Kevin Reilly's desk from opening and dropping him into a pile of the moldering bones of other failed executives. God help us all if Earl's success brings a new wave of even more incredibly annoying advertising. [THR]
· Hollywood Out of Ideas, Germans and CZJ Edition: Catherine Zeta-Jones signs on to star in Mostly Martha, the American remake of the German romantic dramedy Bella Martha. She will play a chef, whom we assume will have her icy heart melted by something or other as she learns the true value of love. [Variety]