Tina Fey Signs multi-million dollar book deal
Tina Fey is a hot hot commodity in Hollywood and she has now signed an exclusive book deal - after her recent Emmy triumph sparked a bidding war between the world’s leading publishers.
The 30 ROCK creator swept the board at the Primetime Emmy Awards last month (Sep08), picking up gongs for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress. Publishers soon realized the prospects of having Fey on their roster and began a bidding war. Fey has now signed with publisher the Little, Brown Book Group, in a deal that is rumored to be worth $5 million or more. According to New York gossip column PageSix, the book will not be Fey’s memoir, but will be “non-fiction humour” to fit in with the star’s performance style on America’s Saturday Night Live, where she has recently returned to raves for her dead-on impersonations of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
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Kevin Bacon to develop and star as John Wilkes Booth
Kevin Bacon is partnering with Showtime that centers on the man who would eventually assassinate Abraham Lincoln. “The Booths” will revolve around actor-brothers Edwin, Junius Brutus Jr. and John Wilkes Booth and their dysfunctional relationship in the years prior to Lincoln’s assassination. They were sons of British Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and actress Mary Ann Holmes. The three brothers performed together just once, in a New York showing of “Julius Caesar” in 1864. John Wilkes Booth eventually became a rabid defender of the South and clashed with his brother Edwin. John, of course, shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre while the President was watching the play “Our American Cousin” on April 14, 1865.
Development is still in the early stages on “The Booths”; Showtime hasn’t yet brought in an outside production shingle. No writer is yet attached, but Bacon will exec produce for the cabler. Bacon has previously helmed the Showtime telepic “Losing Chase.” Showtime is no stranger to period drama, having aired “The Tudors,” among other shows.
Will Smith who turned 40 yesterday isn’t over the hills as far as Warner Bros. bosses are concerned as the have asked him to reprise his I AM LEGEND character Robert Neville in a prequel to the 2007 blockbuster. Movie executives have greenlighted the film on the movie star’s birthday (Sept 25th), confirming Francis Lawrence will return as the director and D.B. Weiss will pen the script. Smith’s scientist character was killed in the last film. The prequel will give an account of the final days of humanity in New York before a man-made virus caused a plague that left Smith’s character the lone survivor among a mutated mob in the city.