Erik Pedersen – Morning Dailies

IDA Documentary Awards: ‘Minding The Gap’ Takes Best Feature – Winners List

The 34th Annual IDA Documentary Awards were handed out Saturday night at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles with Bing Liu’s Minding The Gap taking top honors in the Best Feature category.
Hosted by actress and producer Ricki Lake, the ceremony also h…

The 34th Annual IDA Documentary Awards were handed out Saturday night at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles with Bing Liu's Minding The Gap taking top honors in the Best Feature category. Hosted by actress and producer Ricki Lake, the ceremony also honored Floyd Russ's Zion as Best Short as well as Netflix’s Wild Wild Country which won for Best Limited Series. Other winners for the evening included HBO's John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls for the ABC News VideoSource…

Paul Manafort Lied To Feds “Multiple Times” In “Multiple Ways”, Robert Mueller Says In Court Filing

Paul Manafort, the convicted felon and former Donald Trump campaign chairman, likely isn’t feeling all that merry this holiday season. And the news got no better today when Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed court documents saying the D.C. veteran lied to him “in multiple ways and on multiple occasions.” Those falsehoods are behind Manafort’s breach of his plea deal with Mueller’s team, and today’s filing is the first time prosecutors have outlined how and why that…

Mac Miller’s Posthumous Grammy Nom For Best Rap Album Is His First

The late Mac Miller added to his legacy today with a Grammy nomination for Swimming as Best Rap Album. The nom is the first for the popular rapper, who died September 7 at 26 of an overdose at his home in Studio City.
Swimming is Miller’s fifth s…

The late Mac Miller added to his legacy today with a Grammy nomination for Swimming as Best Rap Album. The nom is the first for the popular rapper, who died September 7 at 26 of an overdose at his home in Studio City. Swimming is Miller’s fifth studio album, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 during the summer. The record, revisits his very public breakup with Ariana Grande earlier in the year, re-entered the top 10 after his death. It will vie for the Grammy against…

Firelight Media Documentary Lab Reveals 2018-20 Fellows

Firelight Media has its 12 filmmakers for the 2018-20 Firelight Documentary Lab, an 18-month fellowship supporting filmmakers from racially and ethnically underrepresented communities. See their names and project below. The filmmakers are culturally diverse, with impressive backgrounds ranging from public and commercial media to investigative journalism and digital production. The projects they bring to the fellowship tell stories of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria's…

‘The Simpsons’ Marks 30th Anniversary With First Episode On Fox & FXX Marathon

“Simpsons, eh? Never heard of it.” Well, Mr. Burns might say that, but any comedy and/or animation fan who has owned a TV in the past three decades knows about The Simpsons, and Fox and FXX are marking the toon’s 30th anniversary with…

“Simpsons, eh? Never heard of it.” Well, Mr. Burns might say that, but any comedy and/or animation fan who has owned a TV in the past three decades knows about The Simpsons, and Fox and FXX are marking the toon’s 30th anniversary with a pair of special events this month. The FX Networks cable net has scheduled a butt-numbing 15-hour Simpsons marathon on December 16, with 30 episodes handpicked by longtime exec producer Al Jean. Featuring one episode from each season, it…

‘The Bachelor’ Season 23 Premiere Expanded To Three Hours As ABC Reveals Cast

Here’s a by-the-numbers snapshot of ABC’s revised plans for The Bachelor next month: Season 23, 30 women, one dude and three hours. The network said today that the live season bow of its winter reality staple has been expanded by an hour an…

Here’s a by-the-numbers snapshot of ABC’s revised plans for The Bachelor next month: Season 23, 30 women, one dude and three hours. The network said today that the live season bow of its winter reality staple has been expanded by an hour and now will start at 8 p.m. Monday, January 7. The supersized premiere is rare but not unprecedented. Season 19 with Iowa farmer Chris Soules in 2015 also launched with a three-hour tour. ABC today also ID’d the bachelorettes who will be…

‘Queer Eye’s Scout Productions Adds Three Development & Production Execs

The production company behind Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot is bolstering its executive ranks. Scout Productions said today that is has hired Joel Chiodi as SVP Strategic Development, Sean Perez as VP Production and Renata Lombardo as VP Talent and …

The production company behind Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot is bolstering its executive ranks. Scout Productions said today that is has hired Joel Chiodi as SVP Strategic Development, Sean Perez as VP Production and Renata Lombardo as VP Talent and Development. As a consultant, Chiodi was a key member of the team that rebooted Queer Eye, which won the Emmy for Best Reality Series this year. In his expanded new role, he will cultivate IP and strategic relationships for…

‘Doc McStuffins’ Creator Chris Nee Inks Netflix Overall Deal

Netflix has signed a multiyear overall deal with Chris Nee, the award-winning creator/EP of Doc McStuffins and Vampirina who has championed kids TV stories with diverse points of view for more than two decades.
Under the deal, Nee will write and produc…

Netflix has signed a multiyear overall deal with Chris Nee, the award-winning creator/EP of Doc McStuffins and Vampirina who has championed kids TV stories with diverse points of view for more than two decades. Under the deal, Nee will write and produce new animated and live-action series for preschool and all audiences exclusively for the streamer. Netflix also will have a first-look option on feature film projects from Nee and her production company, Laughing…

Sean Penn Working On Jamal Khashoggi Documentary In Turkey, Local Media Reports

As controversy continues to swirl around the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, reports are surfacing that Sean Penn is working on a documentary in Turkey about the Washington Post columnist and outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia’s crown …

As controversy continues to swirl around the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, reports are surfacing that Sean Penn is working on a documentary in Turkey about the Washington Post columnist and outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. Al Jazeera and other regional news outlets report that the two-time Oscar winner and a small crew were filming outside the Saudi embassy in Istanbul where Khashoggi last was seen alive in early October. This tweeted photo…

Spike Lee Set For Career Honor From Palm Springs Film Festival

Spike Lee, who’s in this year’s awards race with BlackKklansman, is set to receive the the Career Achievement Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival during its Awards Gala on January 3.
The outspoken filmmaker’s long …

Spike Lee, who’s in this year’s awards race with BlackKklansman, is set to receive the the Career Achievement Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival during its Awards Gala on January 3. The outspoken filmmaker’s long career ranges from such 1980s fare as She’s Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing through Malcom X, Get on the Bus and Summer of Sam to the more recent OldBoy, Inside Man and Chi-Raq. BlackKklansman stars John David Washington as Ron…

‘Breakthrough’ Trailer: Chrissy Metz’s Love & Faith Are Tested After Son’s Accident

“He’s been underwater for more than 15 minutes,” one first responder says. “This is gonna be a recovery, not a rescue,” another frets. But then they find him. Joyce (Chrissy Metz) gets the kind of call every parent dreads in the first trailer for Breakthrough, a faith-based drama formerly titled The Impossible. Her basketball-star adopted son John (Marcel Ruiz) has fallen through thin ice, and a doctor tells her, “We’ve done everything medically possible — there’s nothing…

AFI Awards 2018 TV: ‘This Is Us’ Is Lone Broadcast Show As FX Nabs Four Of 10 Slots

The AFI has released its annual list of 10 top TV programs of the year, with FX scoring four mentions, HBO two and NBC’s This Is Us representing broadcast solo. Of the Big 3 streamers, only Hulu was shut out. Check out the list below.
The top 10 …

The AFI has released its annual list of 10 top TV programs of the year, with FX scoring four mentions, HBO two and NBC’s This Is Us representing broadcast solo. Of the Big 3 streamers, only Hulu was shut out. Check out the list below. The top 10 is heavy with rookie series including Barry, Pose, the Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — whose Season 2 premieres Wednesday — Pose, Succession and The Kominsky Method. Netflix’s new comedy starring Michael Douglas and Alan…

ASC Awards: Cinematographers Guild Sets Robert Richardson & Jeff Jur For Career Honors

The American Society of Cinematographers said today that Robert Richardson will receive its ASC Lifetime Achievement Award and Jeff Jur is set for the Career Achievement in Television Award. They will pick up their prizes February 9 during the 33rd ASC Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. ASC also noted that it also will marks the guild’s 100 anniversary during the 2019 trophy show. In a career spanning nearly four decades and counting. Richardson has…

NHL Adds Seattle Franchise for 2021-22, Giving League 32 Teams

Wanna win a bar bet? Challenge that lug next to you to name the first American team to win the Stanley Cup. It’s not Boston, Detroit or Chicago but the Seattle Metropolitans in 1917. Now the NHL is coming back to the Pacific Northwest. The league’s has board of governors voted unanimously to award its 32nd franchise to Washington state’s largest city. The yet-to-be-named team will begin play in fall 2021, joining the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks and others in the…

Geoff Murphy Dies: Kiwi Filmmaker Who Worked On ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ Trilogy Was 80

Geoff Murphy, a leading figure in the New Zealand movie industry in the 1970s and ’80s who also helmed such Hollywood fare as Young Guns II and Freejack and was second-unit director on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has died. He was 80. Murphy&#8…

Geoff Murphy, a leading figure in the New Zealand movie industry in the 1970s and ’80s who also helmed such Hollywood fare as Young Guns II and Freejack and was second-unit director on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has died. He was 80. Murphy’s death was confirmed by The New Zealand Herald. His directing credits also include Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Never Say Die , Goodbye Pork Pie, Utu and The Quiet Earth, for which he won Best Director at the 1987 New Zealand…

‘Elvis All-Star Tribute’ Gets NBC Premiere Date; Marks ‘Comeback Special’ 50th Anniversary

Fifty years ago today, NBC aired what would become known as the ’68 Comeback Special, which launched the black leather-jacketed Elvis Presley back into the national spotlight. Now the network has set a premiere date for the newly titled Elvis All…

Fifty years ago today, NBC aired what would become known as the ’68 Comeback Special, which launched the black leather-jacketed Elvis Presley back into the national spotlight. Now the network has set a premiere date for the newly titled Elvis All-Star Tribute, which will feature music superstars re-creating the spectacle – even the staging – of that legendary night. The Voice‘s Blake Shelton will host the show at 9 p.m. Sunday February 17. Musicians taking part in the…

Motion Picture Sound Editors Cue Up Stephen H. Flick For Career Honor

The Motion Picture Sound Editors has set supervising sound editor Stephen H. Flick to receive of its 2018 MPSE Career Achievement Award. The honor will be presented February 17 during the 66th annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards in Los Angeles. A two-time Sound Editing Oscar winner for Speed (1995) and Robocop (1988) — the latter being a Special Academy Award — Flick has worked on more than 150 films and TV shows over four decades. He also scored Oscar noms for Poltergeist, Die…

‘Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club’ Gets MTV Premiere Date

Lindsay Lohan makes her return to reality next month. MTV said today that its docuseries Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club will premiere at 8 p.m. Tuesday, January 8.
Produced by Bunim/Murray Productions (The Challenge. The Real World), the program foll…

Lindsay Lohan makes her return to reality next month. MTV said today that its docuseries Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club will premiere at 8 p.m. Tuesday, January 8. Produced by Bunim/Murray Productions (The Challenge. The Real World), the program follows the actress, influencer and entrepreneur as she expands her business empire in Greece with the launch of her new club, Lohan Beach House. But she won't do it alone. Viewers will get to see a new side of Lohan as she calls the…

Artios Awards Career Honors To Laura Dern, Tiny Fey & Others

The Casting Society of America has set the honorees and special award recipients for its 34th annual Artios Awards. Laura Dern, Tiny Fey and Jeff Richmond will be feted along with Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson and Carol Kritzer of Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting on January 31 in dual ceremonies at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles and Stage 48 in New York City. CSA also has set a first-time special tribute to the founders of Casting Society of America: casting directors…

‘Grace And Frankie’ Gets Season 5 Premiere Date On Netflix

Netflix has set January 18 for the Season 5 premiere of Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as the respective title characters. As the press notes puts it — and fans of the series will understand: “They’re back, and out o…

Netflix has set January 18 for the Season 5 premiere of Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as the respective title characters. As the press notes puts it — and fans of the series will understand: “They're back, and out of f*cks to give.” Check out an announcement GIF below. That’s not the first time the series’ has had a racy season-premiere date announcement. Back in February 2017, Netflix touted G&F‘s return using the title duo’s vibrator products…