Quote:APRIL 18, 2018 5:04pm PT by Lesley Goldberg
'Taken' Reboot Basically Dead at NBC

Courtesy of NBC

Clive Standen on 'Taken'



IN THIS STORY

NBCTaken

  
The drama, starring Clive Standen and Jennifer Beals, aired on Fridays and will wrap its sophomore run on Saturdays starting in May.
Taken has essentially been taken out to pasture.
NBC has yanked the second-year drama — a reboot of the Liam Neeson film — from its home on Fridays, effectively canceling the show starring Clive Standen and Jennifer Beals. The handful of episodes remaining will be burned off on Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT starting May 26 (aka after sweeps).
The drama was renewed for a 16-episode second season — with a new showrunner — after the prequel series was a decent, if not great, performer during its rookie run on Mondays after The Voice. The show's status as a cost-effective co-production between Universal Television and Europa Corp., paired with strong international sales, helped land the freshman effort a second run. 
Season two of Taken returned in January with less than 3 million total viewers and a 0.5 rating in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. The drama aired four episodes before being put on hiatus for a month. After returning in March, the series did not improve and maintained its average of 3 million viewers and a 0.4 in the demo. Taken was preempted this week, and NBC will air a repeat of Dateline in its place.

Quote:John Woo Taps Lupita Nyong’o For ‘The Killer’ Redo At Universal
REX/Shutterstock

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by Mike Fleming Jr

April 30, 2018 1:04pm


EXCLUSIVE: John Woo and Universal Pictures are teaming on a new version of his 1989 Hong King crime classic The Killer. It is intended as a star vehicle for Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o. She is negotiating to play the assassin, a role originated by Chow Yun-fat. The studio has the film on a fast track, with Woo directing.




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ASAC

Eran Creevy (Collide) rewrote the script based on an original draft by Cloverfield Lane‘s Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, and Brian Helgeland is being brought on to do a production pass. Producing alongside Woo and his A Better Tomorrow Films is eOne’s Mark Gordon and Lori Tilkin. Matt Jackson, Lori Tilkin and Luc Etienne are exec producing with Terence Chang. eOne’s Josh Clay Phillips will also have a producing role and is overseeing the project with Tilkin. The aim is to begin production later this year in France and Germany.


 



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Film Workshop

Nyong’o won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years A Slave, followed with two Star Warsfilms, and she just co-starred in Black Panther. In The Killer, she will play the assassin who puts her own life on the line to save a woman whom she accidentally blinded in her last hit.
The film is a touchstone picture, one widely emulated for its balletic, stylized violent scenes. The redo will blend espionage with extraordinary stunts to capture the feel of the original. Universal VP Production Sara Scott will oversee for the studio.
Nyong’o is repped by CAA and Del, Shaw, Moonves. Woo is repped by ICM Partners’ Spencer Baumgarten and Hansen Jacobson. Helgeland is with CAA and Jackoway Tyerman, Creevy with CAA and 42, and Campbell & Stuecken are UTA and Madhouse

Quote:'Six Million Dollar Man' (1974); inset: Damian Szifron (Photofest; Valerie Macon/Getty Images)
'Six Billion Dollar Man' Loses Its Director (Exclusive)
Mark Walhberg is set to star as half-man, half-machine pilot Steve Austin. 
The Six Billion Dollar Man is a little poorer today.
Damian Szifron, who co-wrote the script and was to direct the movie, has fallen off the Warner Bros. project.
Mark Wahlberg is set to star as Col. Steve Austin, a downed pilot who is saved by an operation that makes him part machine, in the long-awaited big-screen adaptation of the classic 1970s sci-fi TV show.
The movie is slated to begin shooting this summer and, despite the loss of director, the studio is intent on keeping its schedule and will immediately look for a filmmaker.
One candidate may already be in the wings: Mel Gibson has already been circling the part of Oscar Goldman, the government mentor of Austin. Gibson, who has been developing a World War II naval thriller as his next project, could be conscripted into hopping into the pilot’s seat for Six Billion Dollar Man.
"Creative differences" are being blamed for the exit of Szifron, but the exact nature of the rift remains unknown.
Szifron boarded Six Billion Dollar Man three years ago when the project was in development at The Weinstein Co. Warners picked up the rights from TWC late last year — for a reported $7.2 million — as the beleaguered company was shedding assets to keep the lights on.

(05-10-2018, 08:49 AM)Dr. Ivor Yeti Wrote: That show did not age well. I loved it as a kid, but saw an episode a couple years ago and — WOW— did it suck.