Public sets park season

An outdoor staging of Stephen Sondheim's fairy-tale tuner "Into the Woods" and a reunion of helmer Daniel Sullivan and thesp Lily Rabe are on tap for the 2012 Shakespeare in the Park season from Off Broadway's Public Theater. Frequent Shakespeare in the Park director Sullivan ("Twelfth Night," "All's Well That Ends Well") will helm Rabe in "As You Like It," with the actress cast as the cross-dressing central character in the Bard comedy about the daughter of an exiled duke and her rustic adventures in the Forest of Arden. Sullivan previously directed Rabe in the Al Pacino-toplined production of "The Merchant of Venice," which bowed as part of Shakespeare in the Park before moving to Broadway for an uber-profitable limited engagement. Rabe was nommed for a Tony for her perf. "Into the Woods," helmed by Timothy Sheader, had been rumored as a likely candidate for Central Park for a few weeks now. Sheader previously helmed a much-lauded outdoor staging of the musical in 2010 at London's Regent's Park Open Air Theater. New Gotham version, co-helmed by Liam Steel, will be designed by a team of U.S. creatives and star an American cast. Tuner, with songs by Sondheim and book by James Lapine, follows a group of fairy-tale characters beyond the happily-ever-after resolutions of their familiar stories. The 2012 edition of Shakespeare in the Park will rep the free summer theater initiative's 50th year. The annual slate, staged every year at the open-air Delacorte Theater in Central Park, is often dedicated to the Bard canon, but has occasionally included other well-known works including "The Seagull," "Mother Courage and her Children" and the 2008 revival of "Hair" that moved to Broadway for a successful run. "As You Like It" is targeted for a June opening, while "Into the Woods" will start perfs at the end of July, with exact dates to be announced. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Wikipedia to go to black Wednesday in protest of SOPA

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales mentioned the website will blackout on Wednesday in protest of pending anti-piracy legislation. Wales introduced the blackout in the tweet on Monday, calling it a "decision in the Wikipedia." Wikipedia is up to now the finest-profile of all of the sites to stage a blackout. Even though the White-colored House gave a sizable setback for the anti-piracy bills in the last weekend, announcing it had been towards portions from the legislation, champions in Congress still plan to proceed. Although supporters in the anti-piracy legislation, including Hollywood art galleries and several of the guilds, won significant bipartisan in Congress, they've had trouble in offerring their message round the P.R. front. The central argument the debts is required preserve jobs remains overshadowed by opponents' alarm the legislation expects the freedom from the web. Other popular sites including Reddit and Boing Boing offer introduced expects to seal lower. The Stop Online Piracy Act is pending in your home Judiciary Committee, as well as the Safeguard IP Act is facing the floor election inside the Senate. "Gossips in the dying of SOPA may be premature. But Senate version going strong," Wales written in one of numerous tweets. He even related the protest to Martin Luther King Junior. Wales written, "Freedom is not of your accord provided by the oppressor it ought to be needed with the oppressed." MLK -- on Wednesday, Wikipedia demands."Wikipedia's 24-hour protest will occur only on its domestic site. Wales noted that Wikipedia produces 25 million site site visitors every day all over the world, according to Comscore. Contact Ted Manley at ted.manley@variety.com

Twilights Ashley Greene Ready To Pass The Torch To Hunger Games Stars

First Published: January 12, 2012 3:22 PM EST Credit: Getty Images Caption Ashley Greene arrives at the 2012 Peoples Choice Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles on January 11, 2012LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- As The Twilight Saga draws to a close this year, young adult fiction fans are hungry for the next book-to-big screen hit and Ashley Greene thinks the upcoming The Hunger Games will fill the fans need for the next great story. Its really nice that Twilight is coming to an end and I think a lot of our fans are going to feel that same love and that same passion for The Hunger Games, the actress told AccessHollywood.coms Laura Saltman on Wednesday night at the Peoples Choice Awards. [The fans will] have something else to feel that way about, she explained. Im really excited for people to be able to go through what we went through. Im very excited for that one to come out. The 24-year-old actress, who plays Alice Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephenie Meyers novels, is also happy shes wrapped her franchise. All the hard work is done, were done filming it, Ashley said. Now we just get to kind of sit back and watch it unravel. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 hits theaters on November 16 and The Hunger Games debuts on March 23. Find out what it was like for Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson to kiss co-star Jennifer Lawrence, HERE! Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comcast, Disney see endless options

Executives from Comcast and Wally Disney Thursday patted on their own the rear for any major affiliate deal introduced the 2009 week they stated is excellent business for sides and might help preserve the tv ecosystem as you may know it -- for any decade a minimum of. "It is the embodiment of the deep, broad, multi-platform deal," stated Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo in a Citigroup media conference in Bay Area from the 10-year pact which will go ahead and take partners in to the next decade together. "If little else, it is a major reinforcement," he stated, from the marriage between content companies and video service companies -- as new newcomers like Netflix turn to edge out traditional gamers. It's "the next thing of enhanced television for any large content creator along with a large distributor," he stated. Comcast chief financial officer Michael Angelakis, speaking earlier within the trip to exactly the same event, stated, "What's most unique about this and various is it is extremely broad... It truly is about how exactly we are able to make use of the Disney suite of services over many platforms: in your home, outdoors the house, linear, when needed, mobile, TV Everywhere. It is where we're going." The pact covers 70 individual Wally Disney items provided to Comcast, the country's biggest cable operator, through all available formats. It offers the entire suite of ESPN systems, the recently released Disney Junior and retransmission consent for seven ABC-possessed television stations. Wall Street congratulated the offer too. Nomura Investments Michael Nathanson stated it shored up Disney's key supply of revenue -- affiliate costs. They totaled $8.79 billion in fiscal 2011, repping 21% of total revenue. Younger crowd stated it gives Disney a chance to service clients through its existing authenticated items like WatchESPN, in addition to approaching authenticated items like WatchDisneyChannel, WatchDisneyXD and WatchDisneyJunior. "By doing this, Disney and it is items possess the special capability to personally interact with their clients across multiple platforms." Younger crowd noted that there are less risk since ESPN is going to be tiered, or gone to live in a more compact package that customers purchase individually. Rasulo stated the size of the offer is really a plus because it guarantees revenue to pay for hefty lengthy-term sports privileges deals that ESPN has already been committed. He stated it'll add between $70 million to $80 million in revenue -- or a couple of a be part of earnings -- to both fiscal second and third quarters versus. the very first quarter ended Sept. 30. "For those who have an offer that you simply think has the thing you need and what your lover needs, why don't you extend it instead of get together again in 3 years?Inch he stated. David Joyce of Burns Tabak stated it implies that all systems really are a continue the "TV Everywhere" front which he needs Comcast to draw in to new subs faster using the deal. "Disney's TV+ initiative, and Comcast's authenticated XFinity TV When Needed platforms "happen to be designed specifically accommodate these wide-varying deals that provide verified customers use of basically all the content all the time. This can be a method to preserve the changing TV ecosystem, and really should help retain pay-TV customers." Burns stated he needs Comcast to pay for $39 million in retransmission costs for Disney's ABC stations in 2012, and the other $1.85 billion for that cable systems. He sees Comcast's total programming expense rising in an 8% compound rate for the following 5 years, using the Disney part of that rising in a 6.6% rate, then moving to 7.8% as Comcast eventually adds customers. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

'Simon' leads Swedish awards race

LONDON -- Lisa Ohlin's WWII drama "Simon and the Oaks" leads the race for the 2011 Guldbagge, Sweden's national film awards, with 13 nominations. "Simon and the Oaks" is vying with Ruben Ostlund's "Play" and Lisa Aschan's "She Monkeys" for the best picture crown. Ohlin, Ostlund and Aschan are also nominated for best director. "Play" and "She Monkeys" are contesting the best screenplay prize with Pernilla Oljelund's script for "Stockholm East." "Play" has seven nominations overall, followed by Ella Lemhagen's "The Crown Jewels" with five. Mikael Persbrandt ("Stockholm East"), Sven-Bertil Taube ("A One-Way to Antibes") and Kevin Vaz ("Play") are competing for best actor. Ann Petren ("Happy End"), Magdalena Poplawska ("Between 2 Fires") and Helen Sjoholm ("Simon and the Oaks") are nominated for best actress. The prize for best foreign film is contested by Debra Granik's "Winter's Bone," Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation" and Yorgos Lanthimos' "Dogtooth." The Guldbagge ceremony, organized by the Swedish Film Institute, will take place Jan. 21 at Cirkus in Stockholm. The nominations and winners are voted by a jury of 43 industry members. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Adam Goldberg shuts in on 'Inferno'

Adam Goldberg is at final discussions to see "Deep Throat" star Harry Reems in Matthew Wilder's "Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story," which stars Malin Akerman ("Watchmen") since the title character.Carlucci Weyant's Split Vision Entertainment originates onto co-finance the film with Make the most of Simmons' JARS Prods. banner.Wilder will direct using their own script, using the 1980 memoir "Ordeal: An Autobiography," which Lovelace written with Mike McGrady. Lovelace increased being famous in 1972 due to the large success of "Deep Throat" but renounced her pornography career in "Ordeal" and alleged that it had been forced upon her by pornographer husband Chuck Traynor, who certainly are carried out by Matt Dillon. Besides Dillon and Goldberg ("Saving Private Ryan"), other notable cast people include Paz p la Huerta ("Boardwalk Empire"), former porn star Sasha Grey ("Entourage") and Harold Perrineau, who'll play Linda's sometimes-lover Sammy Davis Junior. Weyant ("The Youthful as well as the Restless") may also be expected to battle a supporting role.Pic will probably be produced by Chris Hanley and Jordan Gertner for Muse Prods., Weyant and Kevin Pugliese for Split Vision and Simmons and Peter O'Keefe for JARS. Timothy Wayne Peternel and Matt Kautz can also be associated with a producer capacity."Inferno" is skedded to start production noisy . February in Louisiana.Strangely enough, Split Vision's V . p . is Louis Peraino III, whose family produced and funded "Deep Throat." Split Vision, which has offices in La, NY and Louisiana, is putting together a slate of quality films including "Mike Stevens," a greater-concept action pic starring Booboo Stewart ("The Twilight Saga") which will be shot in 3d after "Inferno."On Monday, Adam Brody signed onto play Reems in "Lovelace," a competing project from "Howl" helmers Make the most of Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman that stars Amanda Seyfried.Goldberg has furthermore came out in "Zodiac," "A Stylish Mind" and "Dazed and Confused." He's repped by UTA and Luber Roklin Entertainment. Contact Rob Sneider at rob.sneider@variety.com

Demi Moore Looking for Gloria Steinem Cameo in 'Lovelace'

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