EXCLUSIVE: Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision/Company X has acquired the Los Angeles-based experiential marketing agency Lucey Stepp. Under the Company X banner, Lucey Stepp’s team will specialize in creative solutions for brands and cultural properties. Lucey Stepp Lucey Stepp, founded by Brian Lucey and Ariel Stepp, will be part of the newly formed Company X Marketing,

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit Shutterstock For some, this weekend is the craziest of awards season, as the travel crunch is on from events in L.A. to NYC to London, as nominees have to figure out where to be from the ASC and USC awards to the Grammys to the BAFTAs. The latter two are on Sunday, so at least one nominee up for major

Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson admitted today that several passages in her new book, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, might contain passages that substantially mimic the language found in other sources. Abramson has been under fire after a Wednesday night report from Vice News outlined that some of her book’s passages seemed

CBS has ordered three more comedy pilots, bringing its total to seven so far this season. They are multi-camera comedy The Emperor of Malibu, from Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan, former 2 Broke Girls executive producer Michelle Nader, and Warner Bros. TV; multi-cam The Unicorn, from Fam co-executive producers Bill Martin and Mike Schiff, Kapital Entertainment and

The beginning of the No-Netflix Era for Disney is officially at hand. Captain Marvel, which comes out March 8, will be the first title held back from Netflix and instead ticketed for Disney+, the high-profile streaming service coming by the end of 2019, CEO Bob Iger confirmed Tuesday. CFO Christine McCarthy estimated the “forgone” near-term opportunity from this

Refresh for latest…: Expanding to a handful of key markets this weekend, Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World swooped into the top spot on the international box office chart with a $40.2M frame. This lifts the overseas running total to $84.4M from 41 markets so far in release. Universal took a long lead on Dragon 3 offshore,

The voices on the phone were more like whispers. It was as if no one could give full voice to the dreaded news. “I’m locking the doors and pulling down the blinds,” said one caller, a top film director. “It’s like a doomsday scenario.” Fifty years ago, Hollywood was frozen by news of the Charles Manson murders, a dark event the industry seems now bent on

In a heated auction with multiple studios bidding, Netflix won movie rights to Dr. Rapp, and already is eyeing for John Hamburg to write the script and direct the film. The Atlantic Magazine article by Jeff Maysh was published in January under How a Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old Into a Rap Legend. It became the year’s first heated material acquisition. David Klawans

Dick Wolf’s freshman CBS drama series FBI, which was just renewed for a second season, is getting a spinoff. The network has commissioned a backdoor pilot for FBI: Most Wanted, which will air as an episode of FBI in the spring. The project has a series commitment, making an episodic pickup for next season likely. As the name suggests, FBI: Most Wanted is centered

Veteran cinematographer Caleb Deschanel last week scored his sixth Oscar nomination, for his work on Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away, one of the three Foreign Language nominees that crossed into other key categories this year. Deschanel, a respected DP who has surprisingly never won the Academy Award, has such varied credits as Being There, The Black