NBC confirms it is talking to Aaron Sorkin about mounting a live production of his 1989 hit Broadway play A Few Good Men. It’s still in a preliminary stage — no deals have been made on the project — but the hope is to have Sorkin write for a live production based on his original play.
Sound of Music and upcoming Peter Pan producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have signed a three-year development and production deal with Broadway powerhouse The Shubert Organization, they all announced today. Here’s the release:
BROADWAY’S SHUBERT ORGANIZATION ANNOUNCES A DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION AGREEMENT WITH PRODUCERS CRAIG ZADAN & NEIL MERON
NEW YORK (October 23, 2014) — The Shubert Organization has signed a three-year development/production deal with producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, it was announced today by Shubert Chairman, Philip J. Smith, and Shubert President, Robert E. Wankel.
Under the agreement, Shubert will partner with Zadan and Meron in the development/production of original plays and musicals, as well as revivals.
Neil Patrick Harris has been selected to host the 87th annual Oscars. The news just broke on Twitter (see it below) via Neil Meron, who is back to co-produce for a third consecutive year with Craig Zadan. The Academy Awards will air live on ABC on Sunday, February 22, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
ABC has closed a deal for Men In Shorts, a single-camera comedy inspired by the life of professional soccer player Robbie Rogers, who became the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American professional sports league. The project hails from writer Claudia Lonow and producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, whose Storyline Entertainment, along with Universal Television, optioned Rogers’ story rights for a comedy series in July.
“He might be the first tap-dancing Hook you’ve ever seen,” NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said in announcing Christopher Walken’s casting in Peter Pan Live at TCA in July. No sign of that in this photo tweeted by exec producer Neil Meron today, but the Oscar-winning actor certainly has his game face on. NBC will air the revered musical live on December 4, starring Allison Williams as the boy who refuses to grow up. The cast also includes Kelli O’Hara, Christian Borle, Taylor Louderman and Alanna Saunders. Craig Zadan also exec produces.
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NBC has put in development a multi-camera comedy inspired by the book Eat, Sleep, Poop: A Common Sense Guide To Your Baby’s First Year by Beverly Hills pediatrician Dr. Scott W. Cohen, which he penned during his first year as a father.
Five-time Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara has joined the cast of NBC’s Peter Pan Live!She will play Mrs. Darling, wife of George Darling (Christian Borle) and mother of the Darling kids, opposite Allison Williams’ Peter Pan and Christopher Walken’s Captain Hook. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are executive producing the live special, NBC’s follow-up to its hugely successful live staging of The Sound Of Music, which the duo also produced. Peter Pan Live! is slated to air December 4.
Here is the first photo from NBC’s upcoming staging of Peter Pan Live! featuringAllison Williams in costume (and a wig) as the title character. The image was revealed today on NBC’s Today, which interviewed the actress in the audition studio. In the special, airing on Dec. 4, Williams plays Peter Pan and Christopher Walken stars as Captain Hook. Christian Borle co-stars, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan executive produce.
NBC has put in development Better Late Than Never, a reality series based on the South Korean format Grandpas Over Flowers from content company CJ E&M. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (The Sound Of Music, Smash) will produce the project, which draws parallels to Betty White’s Off Their Rockers that started on NBC. In Better Late Than Ever, four veteran actors go backpacking across Asian countries with a young guy who does chores for them along the way. The original series, which aired for two seasons on channel tvN, featured a group of 70- and 80-something guys backpacking though Europe.
Girls co-star Allison Williams has been cast as the title character in NBC’s December 4 live staging of Peter Pan Live!. Williams, who has sung on her HBO show and in various other projects, is a classically trained singer whose online singing videos have logged millions of views.
The story of professional soccer player Robbie Rogers, who became the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American professional sports league, is headed to television. Universal Television has optioned Rogers’ story rights for Craig Zadan and Neil Meron’s Storyline Entertainment to develop and produce a comedy series inspired by the young athlete’s experiences.
Christopher Walken has been cast as Captain Hook in NBC’s live broadcast ofPeter Pan. “He might be the first tap-dancing Hook you’ve ever seen,” NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt told TV critics this morning at Summer TV Press Tour 2014.
Walken, who is currently seen dancing in Clint Eastwood’s screen version of Broadway hit Jersey Boys, began on the Broadway stage in musicals, and has appeared in a number of film musicals, including Hairspray, and the Steve Martin film Pennies From Heaven. He’s well known to NBC’s audience, what with his having hosted Saturday Night Live seven times — where he sometimes performed song-and-dance numbers. Walken won the Academy Award for his role in the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter, and is also known for his performances in such films as Sleepy Hollow, Pulp Fiction, Wayne’s World, True Romance and Annie Hall. He did his own choreography for the memorable Fatboy Slim video Weapon of Choice, for which he won the MTV Video Music Award for best choreography.
EXCLUSIVE: History is teaming with Bonnie & Clyde executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron on a new four-hour miniseries. The network has bought a script for the project, from Sony TV and Zadan and Meron’s Storyline Entertainment, which tracks the origins of the mystic medieval Christian order known as Knights Templar. Written by Keir Pearson, an Oscar nominee with Terry George for Hotel Rwanda, the mini tells the true story of three brothers, all knights, during the first Crusade, as they make the long journey through the Holy Lands to recapture Jerusalem, ultimately bringing rise to the Knights Templar.
Channing Tatum is going undercover with Sony Pictures.
Joining Tatum as producers are his partner, Reid Carolin, as well as Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, best known for movie musicals such as Chicago and producing the recent 86th Academy Awards.
Set in the late 1970s, the untitled project is described as the inspiring true story of an ordinary family man who decides to risk everything by going undercover to take down the biggest mob boss in the country.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Motion picture, television and theater producing team Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will return to produce the Oscars for a third consecutive year, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced today. The 87th Oscars will air live on the ABC Television Network on Oscar® Sunday, February 22, 2015.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Craig and Neil back to produce the Oscars again in 2015,” said Boone Isaacs. “Their showmanship has elevated the show to new heights and we are excited to keep the momentum going with this creative partnership.”
“This year’s show reached viewers of all ages and set social media records, proving that Craig and Neil are masters at tapping into the zeitgeist and capturing the hearts of movie fans around the world,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson.
“We are delighted to work with Cheryl, Dawn and the Academy to produce the Oscars for a third time,” said Zadan and Meron. “We’re proud of the show’s success over the last two years and are eager to embark on another entertaining show to honor this year’s motion pictures.”
EXCLUSIVE: Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who are behind NBC‘s upcoming live staging ofThe Sound Of Music, are developing another ambitious event program for the network. The duo has teamed with NBC for Nemesis, an eight-hour miniseries about famous Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, who was portrayed by Kevin Costner in Brian Fe Palma’s Oscar-winning The Untouchables. The project, from Sony Pictures TV — where Zadan and Meron’s Storyline Entertainment has a long-form deal — is based on the book Nemesis: The Final Case Of Eliot Ness by William Bernhardt. It tells the true story of Ness in 1935, post-Untouchables, as Cleveland’s newly appointed Director of Public Safety. Bodies have started turning up — each one decapitated and dissected with a doctor’s skill and a madman’s bent. The police are baffled and the population is terrorized over America’s first serial killer, the so-called “Torso Killer.” Though it’s not his turf, Ness is forced to take over the case, but the more energy he pours into the investigation, the more it takes over and threatens to destroy his life.
By NELLIE ANDREEVA
Deadline Hollywood
EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that E! is finalizing deals for its first two scripted pilots. The orders, which will be be cast-contingent, are going to dramas Songbyrd, from writer Krista Vernoff (Grey’s Anatomy), top songwriter Diane Warren and producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and The Royals, from Lionsgate TV and the One Tree Hill team of creator Mark Schwahn and producers Brian Robbins & Joe Davola. Both projects were part More