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EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominated producer David Permut and Jamie Cohen of Australian-based Clockwork Films have acquired the narrative motion picture and television rights to award winning journalist and author David Kushner ’s book, The . The book tells the true story of the birth of the internet and two men’s ensuing battle over who controlled the rights to the multi-million dollar domain name: “sex.com.” This epic, decade long war took them from the boardrooms of Silicon Valley to a gun fight on the bordellos of Mexico – and to the edges of their sanity. Along the way involving the likes of an eclectic cast of porn stars and programmers, billionaires and brainiacs, goons and gangsters. In one corner is the hapless in-love, visionary tech entrepreneur Gary Kremen, who in 1994 used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com, in hopes of driving love and connection over the internet. Seeing the value of domain names, he quickly bought several … [Read more...] about David Kushner’s ‘Players Ball’ Book About Sex.com Rights Fight Acquired By David Permut & Clockwork Films

EXCLUSIVE : AGBO , the film and TV company founded by Anthony and Joe Russo , has a new President of Film. Michael Disco , fresh from producing superhero film The Flash , has joined the company in that role. He will oversee the creative and business strategy for AGBO’s film activities. He reports to AGBO’s Chief Creative Officer Angela Russo-Otstot, who was promoted to that role in November. It comes eight months after the company expanded its senior team with hires including Scott Nemes as President of Television. AGBO is behind films including Oscar nominated Everything Everywhere All At Once and Ryan Gosling-fronted The Gray Man as well as the upcoming Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt film The Electric State. For the last couple of years, Disco has been running his own production banner The Disco Factory, in addition to producing The Flash , alongside the Muschietti siblings. Before that he had a 20-year run at New Line, including as EVP, … [Read more...] about Michael Disco Joins Russo Bros’ AGBO As President Of Film

The union’s new voluntary Personal Managers Code of Ethics and Conduct really isn’t going over well with some managers. Just a day after the code was unveiled, SAG-AFTRA today sent an email to members over the “uninformed lobbying” against the new scheme by the Talent Managers Association . SAG-AFTRA claimed that its former partners in crafting the code had “reached the level of direct misrepresentations being sent to union members in an attempt to frighten them about the true intent of this Code.” Related: SAG-AFTRA Sets New Ethics Code For Personal Managers “Managers have been asked by SAG-AFTRA of the guild if we intend to help them get work,” reads one email from a personal manager obtained by Deadline. “I’m afraid that if we want to stay in the guild’s good graces we must turn away all guild members who approach us with agency representation.” The latter sentence refers to state labor laws in California and New York that limit personal managers’ ability to procure … [Read more...] about SAG-AFTRA Slams Talent Managers Association For Scare Tactics Over New Ethics Code

SAG-AFTRA said today that they’ll sit down with the studios and networks on May 5 to start negotiations on a new 3-year contract.  This is the first truly big contract to be worked out by the union since SAG and AFTRA merged two years ago. The announcement comes less than two weeks after the WGA finally reached a deal on a new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers . Today, in meetings in L.A., the SAG-AFTRA National Board unanimously rubber stamped proposals for the upcoming talks based on their mandated wages and working conditions meetings with members. Typical of SAG-AFTRA,  the proposals themselves are being kept under lock and key. However, there is little doubt that they include measures about a rise in contributions to the now merged unions still separated Health and Pension plans as well as increases in minimums and residuals based on the pattern bargaining approach utilized by the DGA and the WGA. The first union to sit … [Read more...] about SAG-AFTRA Sets May 5 For Start Of New Contract Talks With AMPTP

Related: DGA, Producers Reach Tentative Deal On New Contract As expected, the Directors Guild of America Board today unanimously rubber-stamped the new three-year deal its negotiating committee finalized with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers on Friday. With the board’s approval, the agreement now goes to the DGA ’s 15,000 members for ratification to succeed the current Basic Agreement and the Freelance Live and Tape TV Agreement, which expire on June 30, 2014. No word yet on when that voting deadline will be but the DGA expect to announce a date just before the voting packages go out in the next week or so. The board meeting started around 9 AM today at the DGA HQ on Sunset and went into the early afternoon. The deal, which took just two and a half weeks to reach, sees wage increases of 2.5% the first year and 3% for the second and third years of the agreement. It also sees a 0.5% raise up to 16% overall to the Pension Plan, though the DGA can divert … [Read more...] about DGA Board Approves New Contract With Producers; 2.5% Wage Increase For 1st Year, 0.5% Pension Increase, Some SVOD & AVOD Increases

With one day to go before its current 3-year contract expires, the WGA said today that its members ratified the new agreement by a huge margin — the ones who actually voted, that is. “The WGA membership overwhelmingly voted in favor of ratifying the contract by 98.5 percent,” the union said in a statement. Ballots were to be cast online, by mail or at membership meetings in New York and Los Angeles on April 29. Not that a lot of the union’s members turned out to actually vote on the deal that was struck on April 2 with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers . Of the 8,218 eligible WGA voters, only 1,193 valid votes were actually cast. That’s just 14%. Of those actually voting, there were 1,175 “Yes” votes and 18 “No” votes, according to the union. Last time round in 2011 , 1,952 votes were cast with 90.7% voting in favor of the agreement. Having said that, at least the WGA revealed how many members voted. When DGA members ratified their new deal earlier this year , … [Read more...] about WGA Members Approve New Contract; Less Than 15% Of Eligible Voters Cast Ballots

UPDATE: Today’s statement by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers: “Ratification of the new agreement between the AMPTP and the Writers Guild of America is a significant achievement for both parties and an important milestone for the industry. Taking into account the agreement reached with the WGA, the industry has now successfully concluded an agreement with each of the major Guilds over the past six months. Taken together, these agreements will give the industry an opportunity for a sustained period of labor peace.” April 27th, 2011 To Our Fellow Members: We are pleased to announce that our joint memberships have ratified our new contract with the AMPTP by an overwhelming majority. With a total of 1,952 valid ballots cast, 90.7 percent voted in favor of ratification. The term of the new deal is from May 2, 2011 through May 1, 2014. We move forward knowing that the significant gains we made in employer contributions to our pension plan better … [Read more...] about WGA Membership Ratifies New Contract By Overwhelming Margin; AMPTP Declares “Labor Peace”

After two final days back at the negotiating table this week, the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers late last night reached a deal on a new three-year contract. No details of the agreement have been revealed as both parties want to reach out to respective members later today before going public, I’m told. The current contract expires May 1, which means the longer-than-expected talks leave the union having to pull together a ratification vote lickety-split. Already agreeing on everything but the chestnut issues of options and exclusivity , the two sides took an 18-day break before returning to talks at AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks on Monday. As I reported on March 6 , even with the scribes taking a stronger line than during the last negotiations and the studios/networks more divided than last time, the sides were “very close” to a deal even before they took their first temporary recess from February 15-March 4. That break came after an … [Read more...] about WGA & AMPTP Reach Tentative New 3-Year Deal

Things are going downhill already just days before the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers are set to start negotiating a new 3-year contract. In an almost bizarre move, the producers allegedly told the WGA last week that they want “60 million dollars in rollbacks for writers, 32 million of that coming from our health plan,” according to an email sent out to WGA members today. “But it doesn’t stop there. Other proposals targeted screenplay minimums (11 million dollar rollback), TV residuals, and our Pension Plan,” adds the correspondence from WGA negotiating committee co-chairs Chip Johannessen and Billy Ray. “These proposed rollbacks for writers come at a time of unprecedented prosperity for the studios,” say Johannessen and Ray. “The collective profits of our 6 major bargaining partners (Disney, CBS, Comcast, Fox, Time Warner and Viacom) just hit a record $40 billion. This prosperity is based on our work, we are the creative force … [Read more...] about WGA Claims AMPTP Wants Big Pension & Health Contribution Cuts In New Contract

Nearly a month after DGA members ratified their new three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers , the WGA today announced that it will sit down for their talks with the producers on February 3. The negotiations are set to take place at AMPTP HQ in Sherman Oaks. While the Writers Guild took the step to announce its negotiating committee on November 13, up to today, neither they nor SAG-AFTRA had set a start date for their respective talks with AMPTP. Not like the melded WGA West and WGA East committee doesn’t include some heavy-hitting scribes. There’s recently re-elected board members Billy Ray and David S. Goyer as well Damon Lindelof among the group. The committee will serve under WGAW Exec Director and Chief Negotiator David Young. The WGA’s latest contract is set to expire on May 1. Related: AMPTP Respond To WGA West Plan To Go After Deadbeat Producers The talks next month come, as the Guild’s constitution requires, … [Read more...] about WGA Sets February 3 As Start Of New Contract Talks With Producers