Tom Ford is Toronto Festival's Man of Destiny
It's 90's-a-go-go all over entertainment. Harvey Weinstein's pacing a festival screening lobby , Rupert Murdoch's got it all figured out, and Jay Leno is still the King just like the olden times. It's all in the trades.
• In the first big pick-up of the Toronto Film Festival, The Weinstein Company came out on top after an "all night negotiating session" over the rights to designer Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man. For the newly contractually-joined pair, it was all a beautiful dream. Ford told Variety "Harvey and I have talked about a collaboration for years, in fact, since our first meeting more than 10 years ago." [Variety]
• Weinstein denied rumors, however, that the release of the Rob Marshall musical Nine is being pushed off until next year, a move which would have knocked it out of the Oscar race. The scuttlebutt started when when Weinstein pushed back the release of The Road, landing it on the same date as Nine had been booked to bow. The change would have shaken up an already wide-open Oscar race but Weinstein declared yesterday that we can handle two releases on one day just fine, thank you very much. [Hitfix]
• At Goldman Sachs' Communicopia in New York, Rupert Murdoch thrilled attendees with his plan to save big media by charging for NewsCorp content, starting with the Wall St. Journal Blackberry edition. Jeff Zucker for his part declared NBC's Jay Leno was blazing a trail to the future with his 10 PM show. Asked about a possible Vivendi deal to buy NBC from GE, Zucker was coy saying the company has been "a great partner." [Variety]
• If you worried that we were running low on ideas after Battleship—the A-Team film is moving forward. Jessica Biel and Sharlto Copley are in talks to star. [Hollywood Reporter]
• Red hot quirky comic Zack Galifianakis is in talks to star in the new film by writer-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden. The movie "It's Kind of a Funny Story" will also star Emma Roberts and is described as a "coming of age dramedy.' [Hollywood Reporter]