‘iCarly’ duo take lead in ‘Best Player’
Trainor, McCurdy to star in original Nick telepic

Posted: Tue., Oct. 20, 2009, 6:36pm PT

By JON WEISMAN

Parlaying the built-in following of its Saturday night youth skein “iCarly,” Nick has cast series co-stars Jerry Trainor and Jennette McCurdy in an original telepic for the cabler, “Best Player.”
Trainor and McCurdy will play two online game addicts who encounter each other on and off the computer. Production begins Saturday in Vancouver for a 2010 premiere.

Damon Santostefano is directing a script originated by Rich Amburg and rewritten by Justin Ware. Sandy Climan and Christine Foy are exec producing with Jessica Horowitz, Lauren Levine and Nick exec veep of original programming and development Marjorie Cohn.

For 2009, “iCarly” is the top-ranked show on television in the 9-14, 2-11 and 6-11 demos on Saturday nights.

‘iCarly’ pals get own movie

By Maxine Shen
October 19, 2009, 1:45 PM ET

Two familiar “iCarly” faces are ditching the weekly show for a movie shot - but don’t worry, it’s only temporary.

Jerry Trainor and Jennette McCurdy — who play Miranda Cosgrove’s older brother and best friend in the hit ‘tween series “iCarly” — are set to star in the new Nickelodeon TV movie “Best Player,” which begins filming later this week. In the TV movie, scheduled to air next year, they’ll play a pair of master online gamers who enter a ferocious video tournament. Trainor plays Quincy, a 30-something champion gamer who’s reluctant to grow up and still lives in his parents’ basement. Meanwhile, McCurdy will be a teen nicknamed “Prodigy,” who’ll give him a run for his championship money.

The duo were natural picks for starring roles in “Best Player,” says Marjorie Cohn, Nick’s executive vice president of original programming and development. “Part of our movie strategy is to take not just the stars, but the burgeoning stars from our live-action hits and feature them in their own vehicles,” says Cohn. Trainor and McCurdy were “on the top of our list,” she says. As for the impact that the iCarly stars’ burgeoning movie careers will have on the series, fans can rest easy. As Cohn says, “I’m not foreseeing an end to ‘iCarly.’”

TV movies have become big business for channels like Nick and the Disney channel. They can be produced for relatively little money and are drawing unusually large audiences. A “Wizards of Waverly Place” movie on Disney — starring Selena Gomez — drew 10 million viewers last summer, the biggest non-sports show of the year.

Hilary Duff in ‘Business’ for new telepic
To star in comedy based on ‘Diary of a Working Girl’

By Nellie Andreeva
Aug 9, 2009, 11:00 PM ET

ABC Family is teaming with Hilary Duff for “The Business of Falling in Love,” a romantic comedy based on the book “Diary of a Working Girl,” by Daniella Brodsky.

Gil Junger has signed to direct the two-hour original movie, which will star Duff as a fashion reporter who goes undercover in the business world in the hopes of finding love while writing an article about dating men in suits.

In addition to starring, Duff will executive produce the film alongside Frank Von Zerneck, Robert Sertner, Ira Pincus and Jessica Horowitz.

The book was adapted for the small screen by writer Mike Horowitz (”Burn Notice”).

Junger is a familiar face at ABC Family. The director of the 1999 movie “10 Things I Hate About You” also is helming the ABC Family series of the same name that launched this summer.

Additionally, he directed one of ABC Family’s highest-rated original movies this year, the romantic comedy “My Fake Fiance.”

Former “Lizzie McGuire” star Duff, repped by CAA, is on board to play the female lead in the indie “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.”

You can preview the entire SPECTACULAR! soundtrack now at MTV’s The Leak. Check it out!

Mon., Jan. 12, 2009, 6:13pm PT

Autopsy
By DENNIS HARVEY

An After Dark Films release of a Seven Arts Pictures presentation of a Parallel Media, A-Mark Entertainment, Voodoo production. Produced by Jessica Horowitz, Steve Markoff, Bruce McNall, Warren Zide. Executive producers, Olga Mirimskaya, Raymond J. Markovich, Mike Marvin, Darrel Casalino, Michael Arata, Jerry Daigle, Harmon Kaslow, John Martin. Directed by Adam Gierasch. Screenplay, Jace Anderson, Gierasch, E.L. Katz.

With: Robert Patrick, Jessica Lowndes, Jenette Goldstein, Michael Bowen, Robert LaSardo, Ross Kohn, Ashley Schneider, Arcadiy Golubovich, Ross McCall, Janine Venable, Eric F. Adams.

Willfully crass shocker “Autopsy” checks the requisite hapless hotties into a rural Louisiana hospital where nobody ever checks out. Directorial debut by Adam Gierasch (co-scenarist with Jace Anderson of Dario Argento’s “Mother of Tears” and Tobe Hooper’s “Mortuary” and “Toolbox Murders”) takes a somewhat campy approach to lurid genre tropes via ridiculously over-the-top villains and gore. Still, it’s less sendup than homage to retro horror trash. Certain fanboys will be all over this After Dark Fest item once it hits DVD shelves in March.

Post-Mardi Gras partying, five twentysomethings suffer a car crash occasioned by an apparently escaped mental patient. The ambulance arrives without being called; alas, suspiciously underpopulated Mercy Hospital is more in the biz of ensnaring than caring. While her friends suffer serious breaches of medical ethics, Emily (Jessica Lowndes) proves most resilient at combating malevolent Dr. Benway (Robert Patrick) and his equally homicidal staff. A la Argento at his ’70s peak (he’s thanked in the end credits), corridors are lit in atmospherically incongruous rainbow colors. “Autopsy” is as gratuitously stylish as its no-brainer content is gleefully crude. Dull it ain’t, despite brief mayhem lulls.

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Anthony B. Richmond; editor, Andrew Cohen; music, Joseph Bishara; production designer, Dorian Vernacchio. Reviewed at Century 20, Daly City, Calif., Jan. 10, 2009. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 84 MIN.

The long wait is almost over… SPECTACULAR! is coming on Presidents’ Day. Tune in Monday, Feb. 16 (8-10 p.m. ET/PT) on Nickelodeon. Starring Nolan Gerard Funk, Tammin Sursok, Victoria Justice, Simon Curtis and Greg Germann, the Movie Features 10 Original Songs.

PRESS RELEASE:

Nickelodeon’s original primetime TV movie Spectacular! rocks Presidents’ Day as it follows charismatic Nikko (Nolan Gerard Funk, Smallville) on an offbeat road to rock stardom that takes swift, sudden twists and turns. Unwavering, after he’s kicked out of his band and dumped by his girlfriend, the talented teenage rebel pulls out all the stops on and offstage, using dynamic new music to achieve his dream while facing fierce competition and learning some hard lessons in life and love along the way.

“Spectacular! is a riveting story with heart, great music and tons of tween appeal,” said Marjorie Cohn, Executive Vice President, Development and Original Programming. “It’s uniquely Nickelodeon because it stays true to our tradition of great characters driving the story, but the edgy music gives it a contemporary twist.”

(more…)

The first two singles from the SPECTACULAR! Soundtrack (Music from the Original Movie) are here now. Nikko’s “Don’t Tell Me” and the Spectacular! Cast’s “Everything Can Change” can be found at iTunes now. Check them out!

Our first single “Everything Can Change” available next Tuesday on iTunes:

Horrorfest ‘09: Dying Breed and Autopsy Officially Announced
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Bloody-Disgusting.com

It was officially announced today by CEO Courtney Solomon that After Dark Films has acquired the rights to showcase Adam Gierasch’s Autopsy and Jody Dwyer’s Aussie horror pic Dying Breed as part of its After Dark Horrorfest series. The Horrorfest lineup is nearly complete with the five previously announced title’s being THE BROKEN, THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT 3: REVELATION, FROM WITHIN, PERKINS’ 14 and SLAUGHTER. Click here for more details on all of the films, or read on for the announcement and two new images from both films.

Adam Gierasch directed Autopsy, from a script he wrote with Jace Anderson and E.L. Katz. Adam and Jace previously collaborated as writers on the Dario Argento film, Mother of Tears, and are currently in production on Night of the Demons that Adam is directing. Autopsy stars Robert Patrick (Balls of Fury, Terminator 2), Jessica Lowndes (‘90210’) and Jenette Goldstein (Aliens) with Ross McCall (‘Band of Brothers’). Jessica Horowitz, Steve Markoff, Bruce McNall and Warren Zide produced. In Autopsy, a group of young partygoers are taken to an isolated hospital after a car accident. Once there, they become trapped in the hospital along with a number of helpless patients. Laura Ivey and Dana Lambert of After Dark Films brokered the deal with Peter Hoffman of Seven Arts Pictures who represented the filmmakers in the negotiations and is handling the international sales of the film.

“Horrorfest III’s lineup is nearly complete and we are ecstatic to be including Autopsy and Dying Breed in our festival. These two worthy additions are sure to terrify our very discerning horror audience and live up to our tradition of bringing fans well made and interesting horror films that they can’t see anywhere else,” stated After Dark CEO Courtney Solomon.

“Adam wanted to make a horror movie for horror fans, plain and simple. We couldn’t think of a better place for Autopsy than Horrorfest,” says producer Jessica Horowitz.

“We’re proud to be partnering with After Dark on this film. We’re hoping that this will be the beginning of a strong relationship between Seven Arts and After Dark Horrorfest®,” added Seven Arts chairman Peter Hoffman.

Check out the full article and more at Bloody-Disgusting.com.