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CAA Now Strapped To Packaging War In Writer’s Rip-Off Lawsuit Over ‘Main Justice’ Pilot

Any notion that CAA may have had that former prosecutor John Musero’s lawsuit over the alleged appropriation of his Main Justice project was going to be an easy win has now become a far rougher justice.

Penciled in for a jury trial start date of June 8 next year, the ex-The Newsroom staff writer has come out swinging this week against the uber-agency’s desire to see his March-launched action against them and agents Andrew Miller and Leah Yerushalaim tossed – and his Doniger/Burroughs lawyers are invoking a far larger problem that CAA and the other Big 4 agencies are facing.

“This case exists against the backdrop of a major battle—including litigation—between the Writers Guild of America (“WGA”) and the four major talent agencies regarding systematic fiduciary duty breaches by the agencies against their writer-clients,” a July 23 opposition by Musero to CAA’s May demurrer motion (read it here). “By signing with CAA, Musero placed his trust in Defendants to use their judgment and expertise to act in his best interest, and to always put his interest ahead of their own,” the scribe’s attorneys state in the recent filing as they await an August 5 hearing in LA. Superior Court on the motion. “For three years, Musero relied on Defendants exclusively to act as his advocates with respect to his career as a writer. Unfortunately, they did not do so.”

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CAA today did not respond to request for comment on the new filing.

“Musero submitted television show projects to Defendants to pitch on his behalf, and yet Defendants used those properties primarily for the benefit of their larger clients, ultimately receiving Musero’s treatment for a show about the Attorney General’s office styled Main Justice and then developing a remarkably similar show about the Attorney General’s Office also called Main Justice with a larger client, Jerry Bruckheimer’s company, and negotiating a packaged deal with CBS for that project after becoming aware that CBS was previously interested in Musero’s Main Justice project,” this week’s effort to keep the suit alive states, reiterating the bullet points of the case.

Then the magic damning dots are connected, so to speak.

“Musero is informed and believes that Defendants misappropriated his Main Justice, and that the sale of Bruckheimer’s Main Justice was a packaged deal involving CAA clients,” the 15-page opposition throws out there of the project that saw ex-Attorney General Eric Holder partnered with the Top Gun EP.

“While the offending Main Justice was ultimately not picked up by CBS, and its pilot never aired, the show was publicly announced, and CBS cast and produced the pilot for millions of dollars. Thus, by selling a competing project under the same title about the same thing, agent Miller foreclosed any possibility of the prior project he had represented and commissioned, Musero’s Main Justice, being sold.”

AKA – CAA threw me under the bus for a bigger clients and left me damaged goods in the process.

Clearly Musero is not the first writer to connect his dilemmas with his reps to a larger conflict splintering Hollywood – but he seems to be the first one doing it in the courts individually. On the macro level, there have been a slew of lawsuits, responses and new suits from the WGA to CAA, WME, UTA and ICM Partners and back piling up in the courts since the Guild instructed its members over 100 days ago to start firing their agents over the wide spread and lucrative practice of packaging.

However, after being essentially curb stomped with accusations of a “fatally vague” case by Lewis Brisbois partner Craig Holden in CAA’s late May backlash, Musero and his team know that their claims of self interested behavior (imagine that!) on the part of agencies carry extra weight in this particular time in Hollywood.

“Plaintiff’s complaint is a factually detailed pleading which sets forth plainly understandable claims against Defendants,” Musero’s filing point-blankly declares. “Yet through this demurrer Defendants seek to hold Plaintiff to an improperly high fact-pleading standard while misrepresenting the holding of cases that actually support the viability of Plaintiff’s claims,” his lawyers noted. “Accordingly, the instant demurrer should be denied in its entirety.”

With a Guild election fast approaching and more legal moves among the big boys coming soon, let’s see where this all is come August 4.

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Andrea Riseborough To Star In Michael Morris’ Real-Life-Inspired Drama ‘To Leslie’

EXCLUSIVE: Andrea Riseborough has boarded To Leslie, which Bloodline EP Michael Morris will direct off Ryan Binaco’s screenplay which is inspired by the life of his mother.

Claude Dal Farra and Brian Keady of BCDF Pictures are producers along with Kelsey Law. Binaco is also executive producing.

Riseborough will play Leslie, a West Texas single mother who won the lottery and squandered it just as fast, leaving behind a world of heartbreak. Years later, with her charm running out and nowhere to go, she fights to rebuild her life and find redemption.

“Ever since we worked together on Bloodline I knew that Andrea would be the ideal person to play Leslie,” said Morris. “Andrea is totally committed to the truth. She thinks incredibly deeply about the smallest moments and as an actress she is constantly surprising, challenging and fearless.”

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Riseborough can next be seen starring in Stefano Sollima’s true-crime drug series ZeroZeroZero for Amazon, as the lead in Nicolas Pesce’s reboot of The Grudge for Sony and in Brandon Cronenberg’s sci-fi thriller, Possessor. Earlier this year, she appeared in Lone Scherfig’s The Kindness of Strangers which opened the Berlin Film Festival, and in 2018 received critical acclaim for her role as the title character in Nancy, a film which she produced under her production banner, Mother Sucker. Her other film and television credits include The Death of Stalin, Black Mirror, Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Best Picture Oscar winner Birdman.

Morris just directed the pilot of Netflix’s upcoming Locke & Key. He most recently helmed episodes of Better Call Saul, Preacher, and Halt and Catch Fire for AMC, and 13 Reasons Why for Netflix. His episodic directing credits also include Billions and Shameless for Showtime as well as House of Cards and Bloodline for Netflix among others.

BCDF has recently been developing an array of book franchises for film and TV, including New York Times Bestseller The Language of Flowers which will star Kiersey Clemons and Nick Robinson; bestseller The Hating Game, which shoots in August with Lucy Hale and Robbie Amell starring; runaway International Bestseller The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry starring Naveen Andrews; Marie Lu’s #1 NYT bestselling sci-fi series Legend; NYT bestselling supernatural romance series Hush, Hush and romance-comedy bestseller Can You Keep a Secret?  which comes out this September with Alexandra Daddario starring. Deadline exclusively reported this week that Vertical Entertainment acquired the movie. 

Riseborough is repped by CAA, Independent Talent Group, Untitled Entertainment, and attorney Patti Felker. Morris is repped by UTA and Paul Hastings. Binaco is repped by Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman. BCDF is repped by Sheri Jeffrey at Hogan Lovells.

MPAA Promotes Five In Ops Streamlining; Patrick Kilcur To Lead U.S. Government Affairs

The MPPA promoted five executives on Thursday, the latest moves at the global film and TV industry trade group that has been revamping its global operations since May, when the organization upped Gail MacKinnon to Senior EVP Global Policy & Government Affairs.

MPAA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said Thursday in an internal memo to staff that Patrick Kilcur has been promoted from SVP Federal Affairs to EVP, and will now lead all U.S. Government Affairs under MacKinnon. Ben Staub, Alicia Leahy and Peter Tzeng will continue reporting to Kilcur, while Vans Stevenson, Neil Fried, Anissa Brennan and Greg Saphier will newly report to Kilcur.

“Over the past five years, Patrick has proven to be an effective advocate for the MPAA as evidenced by his reputation in Washington, D.C among policy makers and our Members,” Rivkin wrote. “Coupled with his experience on Capitol Hill, I am confident that Patrick will excel in this new role and enhance the value of our domestic advocacy for our Member Companies.”

Meanwhile, Urmila Venugopalan is being promoted to EVP Strategy & Global Operations, where she will “continue to drive more consistency across all our operations in key markets as well as support our global advocacy and strategic initiatives by taking on responsibility for Worldwide Research, Human Resources, and Facilities & Administration,” Rivkin said.

Jason Monagas, Julia Jenks and Debi Bois will now report directly to Venugopalan, who had been SVP Strategy, Chief of Staff. Monagas was promoted to SVP Human Resources & Operations, with Kathy Grant, Theresa Lazzarino and Javier Valencia now reporting to him.

In Brussels, the MPAA upped Emilie Anthonis and Okke Delfos Visser to SVP in the Policy and Legal departments, respectively.

Molly Yeh Signs Multi-Platform Food Network Deal, Including New Episodes Of ‘Girl Meets Farm’

Food Network has signed a multi-platform deal with Molly Yeh that includes new episodes of her daytime series Girl Meets Farm and content across all digital platforms. Network president Courtney White announced the deal Thursday.

Yeh is a food blogger, bestselling cookbook author and the James Beard Award-nominated host of the series.

In the return of Girl Meets Farm, currently in production and scheduled to premiere September 8 at 11 AM ET/PT, Yeh welcomes viewers to her Midwest farmhouse for quick and easy recipes on treats and family favorites.

Planned episode themes for the upcoming season include new mom life, Oktoberfest, Halloween, Midwest potluck, Friendsgiving and party bites.

Yeh is the author of the cookbook Molly on the Range and creator of the food and lifestyle brand my name is yeh. After getting married, she relocated with her husband to a sugar beet farm in the upper Midwest where she currently resides with their 4-month-old daughter.

Girl Meets Farm premiered in 2018 and just a year later Yeh received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Culinary Host and a James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Personality/Host.

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Keir O’Donnell Joins ‘Project Blue Book’; ‘Blindspot’ Casts Julee Cerda

Keir O’Donnell (Wedding Crashers) is set for a recurring role on the second season of History’s hit UFO drama series Project Blue Book, from A+E Studios and executive producer Robert Zemeckis. Starring Aidan Gillen and Michael Malarkey, Project Blue Book is based on the true, top-secret investigations into Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and related phenomena conducted by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and 60s. Neal McDonough, Michael Harney, Laura Mennell and Ksenia Solo also star. O’Donnell will play Even William Blake, a charmingly eccentric alien enthusiast with a religious dedication to his weekly U.F.O meetings. He takes a liking to Mimi Hynek and, thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge of everything extraterrestrial, quickly becomes friend, confidant, and premier informer to Project Blue Book’s best behind-the-scenes agent. O’Donnell’s recent TV credits include Legion and Ray Donovan, and on the big screen he has appeared in Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up and American Sniper, among others. He’s repped by Silver Lining Entertainment.

Julee Cerda (The Loudest Voice) is joining the Season 5 cast of NBC’s Blindspot in a recurring role. Blindspot, from Warner Bros. TV, started off with a beautiful woman (Jaime Alexander) with no memories of her past being found naked in Times Square with her body fully covered in intricate tattoos. Her discovery sets off a vast and complex mystery that immediately ignites the attention of the FBI. Cerda will play Ivy Sands. Further character details are being kept under wraps Cerda was most recently seen in Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, as Wendi Deng, Rubert Murdoch’s (Simon McBurney) younger wife. On the big screen she’ll next be seen in Joker. Her other TV credits include Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Kevin Can Wait and Billions. Cerda is repped by The M.E.T. Group and Take 3 Talent.

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Stephen Colbert Dissects Robert Mueller’s Six-Hour Tour & That “Gangster Nickname”

Like millions of Americans and other Earthlings, Stephen Colbert watched Robert Mueller’s double-duty congressional testimony today. Unlike most people, Colbert has a network TV show. Cue his postgame analysis on The Late Show tonight.

Early on during the monologue, the CBS late-night host revealed that he indeed learned something new today — that the former special counsel has “a gangster nickname.” After playing a clip in which said not-new moniker gleaned from his being named Robert Mueller III was mentioned, Colbert went into a bad accent and said: “Ehhh, not for nuthin’, but Bobby Three Sticks is keepin’ an eye on Big Donny Fish Lips, head of the Trumpino crime family. Rumor has it that Donny Fish Lips is in cahoots with Vladdie No Short.”

Colbert went on to poke fun at Mueller’s testimony that Donald Trump refused to be interviewed by the special counsel’s office — his excuse: “mouth spurs” — and the fact that the report did not exonerate the president. Like many in the Twitterverse, Colbert dissected Mueller’s choice of the word “exclupated,” asking, “Did your graddaughter give you a Word of the Day calendar? Come on!”

Watch an excerpt from The Late Show monologue here:

‘The Daily Show’ And Trevor Noah Dig A Little Deeper Into Robert Mueller’s Testimony

The Daily Show cast and host Trevor Noah joined the rest of the nation today to watch former special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress.

While Mueller answered innumerable questions about this years-long investigation, he didn’t quite get to everything that everyone wanted to know, particularly when it came to HBO’s Game of Thrones and that Cats trailer that lit up social media.

So it remains for The Daily Show to ask what’s on everyone’s mind tonight, perhaps finally putting to rest the long national nightmare that the special investigation has created.

Watch the videos below for what you might have missed during today’s event:

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SAG-AFTRA Unveils Roster Of Candidates For National Office

SAG-AFTRA has released the official line-up of national officer candidates in its upcoming election. For president, incumbent Gabrielle Carteris will face off against Matthew Modine, head of the Membership First opposition slate; actor/stuntman Abraham Justice; and Queen Alljahye Searles, who describes herself on Twitter as an “Entertainment Industry Professional-Teacher-Mother-Accountant-Entrepreneur-Gourmet Culinary Artist-Writer.”

The candidates for national secretary-treasurer are Jodi Long, running on the opposition slate; Camryn Manheim, running on Carteris’ Unite for Strength slate; New England-based actor Chuck Slavin; and actor/stuntman Rob Stats.

Some 45 national board seats are up for election this year, along with all local officer, local board, and convention delegate positions. The guild’s executive vice president and other vice presidents will be elected at the SAG-AFTRA Convention in October.

National officer ballots will be mailed to all eligible SAG-AFTRA members nationwide on July 29, with a return deadline and tabulation on August 28.

The same schedule will apply to the Los Angeles and New York Local elections. Schedules vary for other local elections.

HBO Boss Mum On ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Timeline, Won’t Rule Out More Offshoot Greenlights

HBO officially entered the post-Game Of Thrones era in May when the mega hit fantasy drama ended its eight-season run.

A prequel, starring Naomi Watts, is a pilot, which recently wrapped production and is being edited.

Asked by Deadline in May whether a 2020 premiere for the prequel series is possible, he said, “Having it on the air a year later feels a little rushed, but it’s too soon to tell.”

Two months later, Bloys remained noncommittal. “We haven’t seen a cut. I’m excited but no timeline yet,” he told Deadline at TCA today. As for what he has seen of the pilot, “the cast looks really, really good; it’s exciting,” he said.

Set thousands of years before the mothership show, the prequel will feature “some references” to the events and characters from the Emmy-winning series but “no direct references”

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And if the pilot is picked up to series as expected, it will have the same home as the original GOT and won’t be on the upcoming WarnerMedia streaming platform HBO Max.

“There are no plans to have it anywhere else but on HBO,” Bloys said.

Author George R.R. Martin a couple of months ago teased on his blog that three of the Game of Thrones offshoots, including the prequel pilot, are moving “nicely” at HBO. Bloys would not comment on the status of the other prequels. “I want see how this one goes,” he said.

Is there a possibility for another GOT universe green light by the end of the year? “It’s something I would not comment on,” Bloys said.

Back in May, Bob Greenblatt, Chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer, addressed the possibility of putting more than one GOT followup series on the air.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” he told Deadline. “The answer is yes, we’re having conversations about how do we smartly continue the Game of Thrones universe, but we have to be really thoughtful about not killing the golden goose and not putting on shows that aren’t up to that quality level, and how many is too many. We’re having all those conversations. I don’t know yet what will come of all this material, but I think they’ve been smartly developing things that were really good ideas in this universe, and George Martin is involved.”

‘Los Espookys’ Renewed For Season 2 By HBO

EXCLUSIVE: HBO has ordered a second season of Los Espookys, its half-hour primarily Spanish-language comedy series from Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen and Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video.

Created and written by Armisen, Ana Fabrega and Julio Torres, the series is set in a strange and dreamy version of a present-day Latin American country and follows a group of friends turning their love for horror into a peculiar business.

“It’s a really fun, original, delightful show,” HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys told Deadline at TCA.

Fabrega and Torres star along with Cassandra Ciangherotti,  Bernardo Velasco and Armisen.

Armisen, Michaels, Andrew Singer and Alice Mathias executive produce; Fabrega, Torres and Nate Young co-executive produce. Fernando Frias directed the entire first season. The series is produced by Broadway Video in association with Antigravico, Más Mejor and the Oscar-winning Chilean production company Fabula.

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HBO’s Casey Bloys On Future Of Cinemax Amid Subscriber Loss: ‘Anything Is On the Table’

At their earnings this morning, AT&T reported subscriber decreases for HBO. Asked about the decline during the network’s executive session at TCA, President of Programming Casey Bloys was quick to point out that the losses were for Home Box Office, which includes HBO as well as Cinemax, and it was Cinemax which had bled subscribers after being de-packaged from HBO by some MVPDs, while HBO’s subscriber base had actually expanded.

The development raises an alarm for the future of HBO’s sister network, which entered original primetime programming a decade ago and a couple of years ago switched to adrenalized, action series, most of them lower-cost international co-productions like Strike Back. 

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Asked by Deadline about changes in the programming strategy for Cinemax shortly after he joined the company in the spring, WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt said, “I think Cinemax is going to stay what it has been. It’s a service that’s really well distributed, and I think some of the shows that have come out of there have been really great and have a distinct personality from HBO proper. I think it’s just going to continue the way it has been.”

But with Cinemax’s distribution getting significantly impaired by its de-packaging from famous sibling HBO, that may change.

“It is still status quo but the environment is definitely changing,” HBO Programming President Casey Bloys told Deadline at TCA this afternoon. “It’s an ongoing discussion about what makes the most sense for Cinemax. I don’t know but obviously it doesn’t help when it’s been de-packaged.”

As for original series on Cinemax, “we will have original programming through 2020,” Bloys said. “I don’t know the answer to what the future looks like; it’s something that we are talking about.”

Is there a possibility for Cinemax to revert to being just a repurposing platform for HBO?

“Anything is possible – more programming, less programming, more movies,” Bloys said. “At this point anything is on the table.”

Casey Bloys On ‘Game Of Thrones’ Creators’ Post-HBO Future & Fate Of ‘Confederate’

Game Of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have been shopping a giant global overall deal. They have not landed yet but the signs point to a new home for the hot duo after almost a decade at HBO, likely at one of the big streamers.

“Any place that they end up at would be lucky to have them,” HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys told Deadline at TCA. “I want talent to make as much money as they can.”

As for Benioff and Weiss’ controversial slavery drama series Confederate, which had been greenlighted but on the back burner at HBO while they were finishing Game of Thrones, “I think anything they have with us would likely not go forward” once the pair signs an overall deal elsewhere, Bloys said.

HBO Programming Chief On ‘Chernobyl’ Follow-Up & More Nights Of Original Programming – TCA

A 1980s tale of a nuclear disaster behind the Iron Curtain became an unlikely global phenomenon and a ratings juggernaut. Anchoring a new night of original programming for HBO on Mondays, the Chernobyl limited series grew its ratings every week. Its viewership has surpassed 12 million to become the most watched HBO limited or miniseries since Band of Brothers.

Given Chernobyl‘s success, which includes 19 Emmy nominations, it is not surprising there has been chatter about HBO mulling another historical miniseries with Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and executive producers Carolyn Strauss and Jane Featherstone.

“We have a deal with Craig, and he is thinking about a lot of things,” HBO president of programming Casey told Deadline at TCA on Wednesday. “Obviously he has an interest in history but we are not looking to make a franchise out of it. There is no plans to specifically find another manmade or natural disaster and talk about it. But if he says, ‘I really want to explore this’, and there is a really good story there, an important story, we would be open to it. Anything he gets excited about I would get excited about.”

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Chernobyl was a co-production between HBO and Sky. With the British satcaster now owned by Comcast, would it continue to be a viable co-production partner for HBO?

“We have had good  experiences with Sky and BBC; we know the executives there, they work with talent we like; we sent them Chernobyl, they sent us Catherine the Great,” Bloys said. “I imagine both will continue.”

After successfully expanding beyond Sunday to a second night of executive programming with Chernobyl (HBO also has originals on Friday), the network is not rushing to expand its programming footprint further.

“I think for the near future, two nights is probably what we could handle,” Bloys said, noting the resources for programming and marketing such a ramp-up would involve. “I don’t see a third night on the horizon.”

HBO plans to do around 160-165 hours of original programming in 2020, up from 150 this year. The slow expansion allows to “keep the quality for the rest of 2019, 20 and even into 21,” he said.

Peter White contributed to this report.

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