MAY 10, 2013

DIGITAL DAILY FRI.

FILM DIGITAL TV

Peacock PickupsNBC has a busy day, ordering five shows, including “About a Boy.”Television p.3

Alive and KickingZach Braff and “Veronica Mars” campaigns boost Kickstarter’s biz.Digital p.2

‘Hero’ WorshipAfter live-action success, Disney and Marvel team on “Big Hero 6” toon.Film p.4

BY ANDREW STEWART@variety_stewart

‘The Great Gatsby,” Baz Luhrmann’s 3D stylized adaptation of the classic American novel, represents one of the few female-tar-

geted pics in a summer chock-full of

male-driven popcorn fare. And women should make the Warner Bros. pic worth watching at the box office.

Tracking for “Great Gatsby,” which cost $100 million including Australian tax rebates, has been growing into the high-$30 millions or more, despite being sandwiched between two major tentpoles -- “Iron Man 3” and “Star Trek Into Darkness.” The former film scored a massive $174 million domestic opening and should earn roughly half that this

weekend, easily landing it at No. 1 do-mestically for the second time. “Star Trek,” meanwhile, is tracking at north of $90 million next weekend.

In just three weeks, Disney-Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” has amassed a sensational nearly-$770 million globally, with a Stateside cume north of $200 million.

Still, “Gatsby,” which launches today at 3,535 locations, has secured a solid footing with female moviegoers. The

Joining the PartyLuhrmann’s lavish 3D ‘Gatsby’ looks to woo femmes away from guy-friendly popcorn fare

“The Great Gatsby”

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2MAY 10, 2013 VARIET Y.COM

BY ANDREW WALLENSTEIN@awallenstein

New film projects from Zach Braff and a War-ner Bros.’s revival of the “Veronica Mars” franchise are having a spillover

effect at Kickstarter, the company’s founders claimed in a blog post issued on the crowdfunding website Thursday.

Tens of thousands of new visitors flooded Kickstarter in recent months, 63% of whom never backed a project before. Kickstarter founders Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler and Charles Adler attributed the influx to its two most famous projects, but said many of them are discovering other new projects to back, with more than

$400,000 pledged to 2,200 projects--nearly 40% of which has gone to film.

The disclosure comes as Kickstarter, Braff and others have faced some de-gree of criticism that the site is better left to undiscovered talent than more established individuals who are better positioned to fund their own proj-ects. But as the blog post makes clear, having stars on the site is allowing lesser known projects to get attention they might otherwise not get.

“We see more opportunity for cre-ative freedom for everyone,” the com-pany’s founders wrote. “We see more people participating in the creative process. We see more things getting made than ever before.”

“Veronica Mars” set off a Kickstarter frenzy in March by collecting north of $1 million in just four hours, a record for the site. Braff followed suit in April, hitting $2 million in four days.

film represented 65% of Thursday’s ticket sales, according to Fandango.

Robust advanced sales for “Gatsby” have Warner execs encouraged for several reasons: First, they suggest “Gatsby” has significant heat behind it, despite early mixed critical response. That’s important because women typ-ically are the most swayed by reviews. And depending on word-of-mouth, the film could grow shapely legs on Mother’s Day and throughout the coming weeks.

Warner hoped to kickstart buzz early by launching the film at approximately 2,500 locations starting at 10 p.m. Thursday. The studio says a $2 million late-night gross would be a solid start for “Gatsby,” comparable to pics like “Oz the Great and Powerful” and last year’s “Snow White and the Huntsman.”

“Gatsby,” which stars Leonardo Di-Caprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton, originally was dated for last Christmas, but Warners switched gears and settled on a summer release in 3D. The film opens the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, marking the first time in recent memory that a film screens in Cannes after its Stateside re-lease.

In an attempt to make the film fit the summertime mold, Warners is mar-keting “Gatsby’s” flashier elements, in-cluding an attractive cast and original music from stars like Jay Z, Fergie and Beyonce Knowles.

Also, the industry has high hopes for “Gatsby” in 3D as an important litmus test for other 3D dramas. But expecta-tions shouldn’t be too high. It’s unlikely that “Gatsby” will attract more than 40% and 45% of ticket sales from 3D, a sim-ilar perf to “Iron Man 3.”

Lionsgate’s Tyler Perry-produced “Peeples” bows this weekend at 2,041 Stateside locations. The film, which is targeted mostly to African-American women, is expected to land somewhere in the high-single digits through Sunday.

Meanwhile, Roadside Attractions expands its Southern coming-of-ager, “Mud,” to more than 850 Stateside en-gagements, up from 576. The film has been playing solidly at commercial houses, with more than $5 million so far domestically.

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DIGITAL

Kickstarter Gets Kick Out of Star ProjectsCrowdfunding site says Braff, ‘Mars’ campaigns have brought thousands of new visitors to site

Warner’s bigscreen revival of “Veronica Mars” scored with its Kickstarter campaign.

3MAY 10, 2013 VARIET Y.COM

BY CYNTHIA LITTLETON, AJ MARECHAL@variety_cynthia, @variety_ajm

The series order flood has begun at NBC.

“About A Boy” will make its silver screen to smallscreen transition, with Jon Favreau at

the helm. Single-cam laffer based on Nick Hornby’s novel and 2002 pic “About A Boy” stars Minnie Driver and David Walton. Jason Katims penned the pilot and is exec producing. Also getting the nod is the multi-cam laffer toplined by Sean Hayes, “Sean Saves the World” and comedy “The Family Guide,” from scribe D.J. Nash.

Peacock is also investing in J.J. Abrams-produced pilot “Believe.” Warner Bros. TV series will center on a girl with emerging powers (Johnny Sequoyah) and a man sprung from prison to protect

her (Jake McLaughlin).Rand Ravich’s drama “Crisis” has also

received a series order. The D.C.-based thriller from 20th Century Fox TV cen-ters on a Secret Service agent who be-comes wrapped up in an international crisis when the President’s son and classmates are kidnapped. Dermot Mul-roney and Lance Gross topline.

As for current shows, NBC has renewed “Parks and Recreation” for a sixth season.

Pickup was expected though there has been speculation that the upcoming season will be the last for Leslie Knope and company. Creator Michael Schur will turn some of his attention next

season to launching laffer “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” for Fox.

Meanwhile, Peacock’s comedy casu-alties include White House laffer “1600 Penn.” Creator Jon Lovett tweeted: “It’s official. 1600 Penn is a cult classic.” An-other frosh comedy, “Guys With Kids,” is also history.

Also axed after two seasons is “Whitney,” the rom-com starring Whitney Cummings, and “Up All Night,” which imploded last fall as the network tried to shift it from single-camera to multi-cam format.

So far the future is still unclear re-garding Peacock comedies “Commu-nity,” “The New Normal” and “Go On.”

TELEVISION

Peacock Making MovesNBC orders three comedies, two dramas while it renews “Parks and Recreation,” cancels four laffers

“About a Boy”

BY CYNTHIA LITTLETON@variety_cynthia

CW has joined the series pickup fray, giving greenlights to four dramas: “Tomorrow People,” “The

100,” “Reign” and “Star-Crossed.”“Tomorrow” and “100” hail from

Warner Bros. TV. “Tomorrow People” is based on a 1970s U.K. series about a group of young people who rep the next stage in human evolution. “The 100” is set nearly 100 years in the future after a nuclear di-saster has destroyed civilization.

Greg Berlanti’s prolific banner is behind “Tomorrow People,” penned by Philip J. Klemmer Jr. “The 100” was penned by Jason Rothenberg and hails

from Alloy Entertainment.“Reign” revolves around the youthful

years of Mary Queen of Scotts. “Star-Crossed” (formerly “Oxygen”) revolves around humanoid aliens trying to in-tegrate into high school. Both are from CBS TV Studios.

CW bubble shows “Nikita” and “The Carrie Diaries” have also been renewed by the net.

“The Carrie Diaries,” based on the book series by “Sex and the City” scribe Candace Bushnell, is a prequel to HBO’s “SATC” and stars AnnaSophia Robb as a young Carrie Bradshaw.

Spy drama “Nikita” will receive a fourth season with its renewal.

CW Picks Up Dramas, Renews ‘Carrie,’ ‘Nikita’

“The Carrie Diaries”

4MAY 10, 2013 VARIET Y.COM

BY JUSTIN KROLL@krolljvar

It seemed like only a matter of time but Disney has announced that its first animated feature based on a Marvel property will be “Big Hero 6” set to bow on Nov. 7, 2014.

Pic will be CG-animated and will be set in the high-tech city of San Fransokyo.

The film will center on brilliant ro-botics prodigy Hiro Hamada and his team of first-time crime fighters.

The Big Hero 6 first appeared in 1998 and Marvel released a series of six comics featuring the team in 2008.

Given the resources the Mouse House provides on the animated side, it seemed natural that Disney and Marvel would collaborate on an animated project. The animated television series “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” was already one of Disney XD’s most popular series.

After success with live-action comicbook pics, companies turn to more animated fare

FILM

Disney, Marvel Team Up on Toon

San Fransokyo in “Big Hero 6”

BY DAVE MCNARY@variety_dmcnary

In a pre-Cannes move, Los Ange-les-based Epic Pictures Group has part-nered with Norwegian-based Yesbox Prods. to finance and produce an En-glish-language sequel to Aleksander Nordaas’ thriller “Thale.”

The companies will start selling in-ternational rights next week at Cannes. Announcement comes eight months

after the original “Thale” premiered at Toronto.

The sequel will again be written and directed by Nordaas. Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson of Epic Pictures Group are producing alongside Bendik Heggen Strønstad of Yesbox.

The original Norwegian film focuses on two crime-scene cleaners who dis-cover a mythical, tailed female creature in a concealed cellar.

There’s More to ‘Thale’ Tale

“Thale”

5MAY 10, 2013 VARIET Y.COM

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BY JON WEISMAN, GORDON COX@jonweisman, @gcoxvariety

For this year’s Tony kudocast, CBS and ceremony producers have gone with an old fave: Neil Patrick Harris, back to emcee the awards for the

fourth time.Harris, also a candidate to host the

Emmys this year for the Eye, will also serve as a producer of the June 9 kudo-cast, alongside longtime exec producers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss. Harris previously hosted the Tonys in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Harris is one of the rare screen stars who’s also established real stage cred among legiters, having appeared on Broadway in “Assassins,” “Proof” and “Cabaret.” He also starred in the 2011 New York Philharmonic presentation of “Company” (which screened in cin-emas and was later released on DVD and Blu-ray) and has directed L.A. stage productions, including “Rent” and “Nothing to Hide.”

With his fourth stint as Tony host — following emcee outings in 2009, 2011 and 2012 — Harris outpaces Hugh

Jackman, who has hosted three times, but still comes in behind Angela Lans-bury, who’s been a Tony host a total of five times.

Planning for the Tony Awards cere-mony at Radio City Music Hall is cur-rently in overdrive, with last week’s nom-inations announcement at last giving the producers a sense of what titles and performers they’ll have to showcase.

The Tonys are generally the low-est-rated broadcast of major enter-

tainment awards: Last year the show brought in six million viewers, down from 6.9 million the previous year. Legit fans, however, are generally a wealthy bunch with disposable income, and so rep a desirable demographic for CBS.

Harris, who co-stars on CBS laffer “How I Met Your Mother,” is a three-time Emmy winner, two of those coming for his Tony hosting duties.

Weiss is directing the Tonys for the 14th consecutive year.

Thesp returns to host Tonys for the fourth time; will also serve as producer of the kudocast

LEGIT

Four Score for Harris

BY DAVE MCNARY@variety_dmcnary

Benaroya Pictures and Miscella-neous Entertainment have formed a joint venture to launch sales

company International Film Trust at Cannes.

The new banner -- headed by Ariel Veneziano as president -- has an initial fund of $15 million to acquire and pro-vide minimum guarantees on third party

productions for international sales.The first two titles on the slate are

comedy “King of the Castle,” starring Clive Owen and Jacki Weaver from Ben-aroya Pictures and Eduardo Sanchez’ horror thriller “Exists” from Miscella-neous Entertainment.

International Film Trust will repre-sent feature film productions from their own banners on a non-exclusive basis along with titles from other producers

and third party productions.Veneziano will oversee the sales, ac-

quisitions, distribution and marketing for the company. He’s served at Alliance Atlantis Communications as an acqui-sitions exec and served as president at GreeneStreet Films International and Icon Entertainment International, working on distribution of Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” and Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ.”

FILM

Benroya, Miscellaneous Link Up