WB relationship Tom Cruise for 'A Star is Born'

CruiseBeyonceWith executives buzzing about his performance being an 80s rock star in Warner Bros. and New Line's approaching musical "Rock of Age range," Tom Cruise finds themself being courted by WB to topline Clint Eastwood's "A Star comes into the worldInch together with Beyonce. Cruise begins shooting Universal's untitled, Frederick Kosinski-directed sci-fi pic in a few days, and after wrapping production on that film, he's skedded to star in Doug Liman's "You Just Need Kill" for Warners. While there weren't any discussions, not to mention an offer, the studio continues to be speaking to Cruise to gauge his curiosity about the project, a prospect that Cruise did not immediately reject, given the opportunity to use Eastwood the very first time. It's unclear whether WB could be prepared to accommodate Cruise's schedule, but should he pursue the project, he'd play an over-the-hill music performer who falls for any youthful singer who he's trying to make a star. In the last year, WB has eyed Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Leonardo DiCaprio for that plum part. Contact Shaun Sneider at shaun.sneider@variety.com

'Unforgettable' sells to Asian webs

'Unforgettable' continues to be offered to many Asian webs.LONDON -- The new sony Pictures Television has offered hit crime drama skein "Memorable" to many leading tv stations within the Asia-Off-shore region.One of the webs using the show are Wowow in Japan, Star in India and TVNZ in Nz. The series, which airs on CBS in the usa, continues to be offered to webs in additional than 150 nations, including Nine around australia, CTV in Canada and BSkyB within the U.K.Additionally, it airs on Fox Crime in Italia, AXN in The country and OCN in Columbia."Memorable" stars Poppy Montgomery as Barbara Wells, an ex-cop who is able to recall everything she's familiar with perfect detail. It's professional created by Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, John Bellucci and Erectile dysfunction Redlich, and it is created by Timberman/Beverly Prods. and CBS Television Galleries in colaboration with SPT. Contact Leo Barraclough at leo.barraclough@variety.com

Mass Hysteria reaches 'Boiling Point'

Mass Hysteria Entertainment has acquired rights to approaching action thriller "The Boiling Point." Project's put together by Joshua Courtade and Ryan Leeder, with Warren P. Sonoda installed on direct and Daniel Grodnik creating for Mass Hysteria. Craig Brooker and Stan Wertlieb professional produce for Grindstone Entertainment. Story follows a gangster designated to obtain a mob informer -- his ex-girlfriend, who disappeared years earlier to the witness protection program. Production is tentatively scheduled for late spring. Sonoda might be the director in the recently released "Unrivaled," starring Rashad Evans, and "5ive Women," starring Ron Perlman. Grindstone Entertainment has acquired all U . s . States rights. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Dane Prepare To Star In NBC Comedy Pilot Next Caller Please

Dane Prepare is placed to star within the NBC’s single-camera comedy pilot Next Caller Please. The Lionsgate/Universal TV project, compiled by Stephen Falk, focuses on Cam Doherty (Prepare), a brash, hard-consuming, no-filter maverick DJ of the satellite radio show whose world is rocked using the arrival of perky, feminist new on-air co-host Stella Stoobler (Collette Wolfe). Prepare’s casting comes from the NBC development deal he signed last fall. Prepare most lately guest starred around the Forex comedy Louie and made an appearance within the features Solutions to Nothing, Detention and Guns and Women & Gambling. UTA-repped Prepare includes a very effective stand-up career: He's offered out arena venues for example Madison Square Garden and Staples Center, launched several multi-platinum comedy albums and Dvd disks and starred inside a slew of cable standup special offers.

Pilot Season: CBS Orders Martin Lawrence Comedy

Billy Very, The 84th Annual Academy awards It's almost here! The 84th Academy awards are happening Sunday. Let's be realistic: Hollywood's finest evening might be overwhelming, do not worry! TVGuide.com and tv Guide Network possibly you've covered and that means you won't miss only one moment.Beginning Sunday at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, you'll be able to catch our Academy awards Preview, featuring interviews with nominees and experts' picks for who'll collect the gold.Have a look finally year's Oscars fashion hits and missesOur Academy awards Red-colored-colored Carpet Countdown follows at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT with hosts Maria Sansone and Tim Kash, who'll give audiences a sneak look in the early action outdoors the Hollywood & Highland Center.At 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT, Chris Harrison will host Academy awards Red-colored-colored Carpet, where he'll interview the finest stars and nominees simply because they make their way lower the red-colored-colored carpet. TVGuide.com will at the same time stream Fashion Cam coverage in the celebrities' arrivals, and fans will have a way to go over their preferred looks via Facebook.All through the Oscars telecast (8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT on ABC), you'll be able to follow along after we live-tweet the whole show. Among the scheduled presenters: Halle Berry, Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Chris Rock, last year's acting individuals who win Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Colin Firth and Natalie Portman - along with the Muppets, Kermit and Miss Piggy.Have a look whatsoever last year's Oscar arrivalsFinally, we'll leave behind honours season on Monday at 8/7c with this particular Academy awards Red-colored-colored Carpet Fashion Wrap. Ali Landry and her team of experts, including Tabatha Coffey, Camille Grammer and Nick Verreos, will discuss the night's best and worst styles and title the most effective fitted star.

Banderas to see Picasso

BanderasPicasso in the Paris cafe, circa 1950.Madrid-- Antonio Banderas may have Pablo Picasso in Carlos Saura's approaching "33 dias" (33 Days), in regards to the painter's emotional turmoil while he done masterpiece "Guernica.""33 dias" means time Picasso allotted towards the mural, which taken his reaction to the destruction of Basque capital of scotland- Guernica in 1937 with the Nazi Luftwaffe through the The the spanish language language Civil War.Picasso "can be a character that has attacked me for just about any very very long time which i usually rejected. He warrants plenty of respect because I am from Malaga, which i had been produced four blocks where he was produced,Inch Banderas mentioned inside an interview launched Sunday through the the spanish language language newspaper El Pais. French and also the the spanish language language language-shoot will roll next summer season in Paris and Guernica.Project re-teams Carlos Saura with vet The the spanish language language producer Elias Querejeta.Saura and Querejeta composed the script alongside French author Louis-Charles Sirjacq.Allotted over Euros6 million ($7.9 million), pic is produced by Bilbao-based Idem 4 and co-produced by Cinevedas, which has offices in France, Canada and India.Triple Academy Award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro ("Apocalypse Now") is at advanced predicts join the project.Inside the film, Saura shows how painting "Guernica" shown near salvation for Picasso in just a minute of non-public crisis. Pic focuses on Picasso's relationship along with his lover, French artist Dora Maar. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Trippin' to yesteryear

If last year's best picture race at the Oscars ended with the triumph of the past ("The King's Speech") over the here-and-how ("The Social Network"), the current contest has chosen sides from the get go, with Academy members casting their votes for movies that enthusiastically idealize bygone days.Of the nine best picture nominees, only "Moneyball," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" and "The Descendants" take place in the 21st century, and even those films, to one degree or another, ruminate over themes of legacy, history or a time when, say, a scrappy team like the Oakland A's could challenge the mighty Yankees for baseball supremacy.Yes, Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" begins in modern times, but the bulk of the film focuses on the magical trips that its Allen stand-in, a screenwriter named Gil (Owen Wilson), takes back in time to a Jazz Age Paris where he meets the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Gil has long dreamed of living in this particular slice of the past, and those around him deride him for his longing."Nostalgia is denial, denial of the painful present," lectures Paul, a former flame of Gil's fiancee. "The name for this denial is Golden Age thinking, the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one one's living in. It's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present."And, yes, Paul is a world-class bigmouth, but he has a point, one that Allen himself makes late in the film when Gil and his 1920s French girlfriend skip back to the Belle Epoque era. "I'm from the '20s, and I'm telling you the golden age is la Belle Epoque," she tells Gil, much to his dismay.The other movies nominated for best picture -- "The Artist," "Hugo," "War Horse," "The Help" and "The Tree of Life" -- are also strongly infused with nostalgia, and, as Paul might argue, come from places of discomfort or uncertainty with modern times. Contrast the present-day images of a brooding Sean Penn trapped in a steel city in "Tree" with his idyllic recollections of a childhood spent in the Great Outdoors. "The Help" tidily remembers past civil rights triumphs, perhaps an easier task than examining the racial issues that exist today.The remaining trio turn their gaze inward toward the medium itself. Steven Spielberg styled "War Horse" on the epic films of John Ford and Victor Fleming, its outsized music, visual grandeur and languid pacing recalling classical Hollywood. "The Artist" and "Hugo" go back even further, celebrating the early days of cinema at a time when motion picture film cameras and celluloid itself is on the verge of extinction."We do lovingly look back at silent cinema, it's true," says 'Artist' writer-director Michel Hazanavicius. "But the movie is really about a man who finds himself out of the game. Technology has changed and left him behind. And that's relatable now, no?"Relatable, yes. Judging from the nostalgic late of best picture nominees, it seems that, yes, Academy members can appreciate the man's dilemma.Eye on the Oscars: Best Picture PreviewTrippin' to yesteryear | Moody key art set tone for kudo contenders | Poster children for a year of reflection, uncertainty Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com