Trade Round-Up: Everything Old is Wagging the Dog Again
· Les Moonves blinks CBS News chief Andrew Heyward out of existence, a delayed reaction to the Bush military service report fiasco that also stained Dan Rather's legacy. Replacing him is CBS Sports president Sean McManus, who plans on retooling their flagship broadcast into the more ratings-friendly CBS Evening Point Spreads. [Variety]
· While Peter Jackson is shrinking himself out of existence, his upcoming King Kong is taking the other route and turning into a bloated, 3-hour affair, pushing the budget to $207 million. Universal executives go giant apeshit behind closed doors, but ultimately give in. [Variety]
· Robert De Niro will star in the Barry Levinson-directed What Just Happened?, "based on Art Linson's memoir about his experiences as a Hollywood producer...[T]he filmmakers hope will do for moviemaking what Wag The Dog did for politics." Remember when everything was the 'Wag the Dog' of something else? "It's the Wag the Dog of black, middle-aged female empowerment movies!" [Variety]
· Dreamworks acquires MacArthur Genius Award-winning author Jonathan Lethem's novel As She Climbed Across the Table for a feature adaptation. First studio note: "Let's take some of this genius-stink off Mr. Brainiac's little science project, shall we?" [Variety]
· The record whose title confirmed our darkest fears, Ashlee Simpson's I Am Me hits the Billboard 200 at No. 1, proving once and for all that we are a loyal, forgiving nation of scat enthusiasts. [THR]