New images for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows, Tim Burton's latest Medieval adventure, has released a completely new batch of images featuring primary cast people The Actor-kaira Pitt, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jackie Earle Haley, together with the inside in the foreboding Collinwood Manor.Depp stars since the luckless Barnabas Collins, who's converted to a vampire by Avoi Green's heartbroken witch, hidden alive and subsequently entombed to get the best part of 220 years.Inadvertently set free in 1972, Collins returns to Collinwood Manor only to uncover his dysfunctional descendents harbouring numerous dark secrets that goes for them. The completely new images show Collins becoming reacquainted along with his former rubber rubber stamping ground, based on Jackie Earle Haley's grizzled caretaker. Michelle Pfeiffer also appears since the family matriarch, searching as age-defyingly gorgeous of course.The comfort in the cast includes Helena Bonham Carter since the family's live-in mental health expert, Johnny Lee Burns since the black sheep and Chloe Moretz just like a edgy teen. Dark Shadows will open inside the Uk on 11 May 2012.

Zachary Quinto To Join FXs American Horror Story As Male Co-Lead In Season 2

EXCLUSIVE: Another key piece of the upcoming second season of FX’s hit drama series American Horror Story has fallen into place. Zachary Quinto, who did a scene-stealing four-episode arc on the first season of the Ryan Murphy/Brad Falchuk drama as the Harmon house’s doomed former co-owner Chad Warwick, will be back as a series regular in Season 2, joining Jessica Lange. Like Lange, he will play a brand new character next season, which is set at an East Coast institution. What’s more, I have learned that Quinto will play one of two male leads and the nemesis to Lange’s character, which will be at the center of the Season 2 storyline. The part is sure to draw parallels to Quinto’s breakout role as uber-villain Syler on Heroes. While Lange had been expected to return — she confirmed ongoing negotiations at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, where she won for her performance on the show, Quinto’s return had been kept under wraps until now. Quinto and Murphy are friends; that’s how Quinto’s original stint on the show came about. After the critical praise Quinto received for his arc, he was open to coming back. “I had an amazing time and I only did four episodes of the season, so it was just a little bit of an appetiser for me; I would love to work more,” he said in an online interview last month. An anthology series like AHS is perfectly suited for Quinto, who wants to keep a hand in television but, busy as an actor and producer on the feature side, can’t make the 5-6-year commitment required on a regular series. In addition to Lange and Quinto, three other actors from Season 1 of AHS will return next season. Murphy is expected to announce their names at the show’s panel tonight, which will open this year’s PaleyFest. Additionally, AHS is casting several other roles, including the male co-lead opposite Quinto. Quinto, repped by CAA and Untitled, won’t be attending tonight’s event because he is in production on Paramounts Star Trek sequel, in which herepriseshis role as Spock. He recently did the awards circuit with the indie Margin Call, which he starred in and produced through his production company, Before the Door. The film won the Best First Feature and the Robert Altman Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, received a best original screenplay Oscar nomination and was named Best First Film by the NY Film Critics.

Casting Directors Tackle Film Adaptations

Casting Directors Tackle Film Adaptations By Pete Keeley February 29, 2012 Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Lee Daniels Last week I mentioned that networks had made 99 percent of their pilot pickups. Now it's probably 100 percent, after CBS' Feb. 24 order for an untitled Martin Lawrence comedy project. (No CD yet; it's too early. But whoever it is, let's hope they bring in Reginald Ballard, aka Bruh Man, to read for a part.)Since I started this column whilst pilot season was in medias res, it's been easy so far to write cohesive pieces, centered on a single theme. But most weeks, it's going to be me trying to find some thread linking whatever random projects I come across. So you might as well get used to disjointed, rambling garbage. (Try watching a few episodes of "Lost" on Netflix instant to warm yourself up.)First up this week is a film project that has "2013 awards contender" written all over it. It's called "The Butler," and it's a biopic of Eugene Allen, an African-American who took a job as a pantry man in the White House in 1952 and worked there through the administrations of eight presidents before retiring in 1986 as the head butler. The source material for the script is a 2008 profile in The Washington Post by Wil Haygood, which I urge you to read. Lee Daniels ("Precious") is directing, and a whole bunch of big names are being talked about for roles: David Oyelowo as Allen, Oprah Winfrey as his wife, Mila Kunis as Jackie Kennedy, and Liam Neeson as LBJ. So, yeah, wow. I'm tearing up just imagining this movie. Billy Hopkins of Chrystie Street Casting in NY and Leah Daniels-Butler, sister of Lee Daniels (Lee and Leah? Really, Mom and Dad?) in Los Angeles are handling casting. Financing isn't locked down, but plans are to get under way in May in New Orleans. Next is a film that will also contend for awards in 2013, but, like, Razzies. I'm sure you're familiar with that old axiom that great books make mediocre movies, and mediocre books make great movies. Well, somebody must not have told the producers of "Atlas Shrugged: Part I," who managed to turn a mediocre book into a piss-poor movie, one that was roundly panned by critics and, much like the novel, left unfinished by most people who started it. Unfortunately, instead of taking a cue from John Galt and retiring to a secluded objectivist paradise in protest, the producers have decided that their work must continue.Thus "Atlas Shrugged: Part II" will begin principal photography in April in Los Angeles. Jeff Gerrard, a big-time commercial casting director, is doing the casting for the film. No word yet on which, if any, cast members from the first film will return.So I guess I sort of had a theme this week: literary adaptations. Plus both were movies. In any event, even if I can't always write a column in which the projects relate to each other in any way, you can always count on "Lost" jokes to tie everything together. Casting Directors Tackle Film Adaptations By Pete Keeley February 29, 2012 Lee Daniels PHOTO CREDIT Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Last week I mentioned that networks had made 99 percent of their pilot pickups. Now it's probably 100 percent, after CBS' Feb. 24 order for an untitled Martin Lawrence comedy project. (No CD yet; it's too early. But whoever it is, let's hope they bring in Reginald Ballard, aka Bruh Man, to read for a part.)Since I started this column whilst pilot season was in medias res, it's been easy so far to write cohesive pieces, centered on a single theme. But most weeks, it's going to be me trying to find some thread linking whatever random projects I come across. So you might as well get used to disjointed, rambling garbage. (Try watching a few episodes of "Lost" on Netflix instant to warm yourself up.)First up this week is a film project that has "2013 awards contender" written all over it. It's called "The Butler," and it's a biopic of Eugene Allen, an African-American who took a job as a pantry man in the White House in 1952 and worked there through the administrations of eight presidents before retiring in 1986 as the head butler. The source material for the script is a 2008 profile in The Washington Post by Wil Haygood, which I urge you to read. Lee Daniels ("Precious") is directing, and a whole bunch of big names are being talked about for roles: David Oyelowo as Allen, Oprah Winfrey as his wife, Mila Kunis as Jackie Kennedy, and Liam Neeson as LBJ. So, yeah, wow. I'm tearing up just imagining this movie. Billy Hopkins of Chrystie Street Casting in NY and Leah Daniels-Butler, sister of Lee Daniels (Lee and Leah? Really, Mom and Dad?) in Los Angeles are handling casting. Financing isn't locked down, but plans are to get under way in May in New Orleans. Next is a film that will also contend for awards in 2013, but, like, Razzies. I'm sure you're familiar with that old axiom that great books make mediocre movies, and mediocre books make great movies. Well, somebody must not have told the producers of "Atlas Shrugged: Part I," who managed to turn a mediocre book into a piss-poor movie, one that was roundly panned by critics and, much like the novel, left unfinished by most people who started it. Unfortunately, instead of taking a cue from John Galt and retiring to a secluded objectivist paradise in protest, the producers have decided that their work must continue.Thus "Atlas Shrugged: Part II" will begin principal photography in April in Los Angeles. Jeff Gerrard, a big-time commercial casting director, is doing the casting for the film. No word yet on which, if any, cast members from the first film will return.So I guess I sort of had a theme this week: literary adaptations. Plus both were movies. In any event, even if I can't always write a column in which the projects relate to each other in any way, you can always count on "Lost" jokes to tie everything together.

Prometheus Faux 2023 TED Talk Hints at Ties to Alien Saga

Ridley Scott may or may not be spilling details on how Prometheus factors into the Alien franchise, but a new clip from the film sheds a few shards of light on the connection, and cleverly so: Watch Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland (CEO of Weyland Corporation, to become the future Weyland-Yutani Corp.) give a riveting TED Talk, circa 2023, promising a bright new future to the tech set. In the clip (directed by Luke Scott) Weyland touches on the Greek mythology of the fire-stealer Prometheus and the sacrifices humanity must suffer in the name of progress, hooking into Alien lore with mentions of a looming developments in lifelike "cybernetic individuals." "We are the gods now," he boasts, stirring the crowd. "I will settle for nothing short of greatness, or I will die trying." Something tells me the latter might just happen (at least to Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, or Noomi Rapace) once the spaceship explosions and still-ambiguous scares start raining down on the intrepid crew of the Prometheus. On the TED Blog, Weyland's TED Talk is described thusly: Peter Weyland has been a magnet for controversy since he announced his intent to build the first convincingly humanoid robotic system by the end of the decade. Whether challenging the ethical boundaries of medicine with nanotechnology or going toe to toe with the Vatican itself on the issue of gene-therapy sterilization, Sir Peter prides himself on his motto, If we can, we must. After a three year media blackout, Weyland has finally emerged to reveal where hes heading next. Wherever that may be, we will most certainly want to follow. "Sir Peter's" bio, meanwhile, reveals his pedigree: Sir Peter Weyland was born in Mumbai, India at the turn of the Millennium. The progeny of two brilliant parents; His mother, an Oxford Educated Professor of Comparative Mythology, his father, a self-taught software Engineer, it was clear from an early age that Sir Peters capabilities would only be eclipsed by his ambition to realize them. By the age of fourteen, he had already registered a dozen patents in a wide range of fields from biotech to robotics, but it would be his dynamic break-throughs in generating synthetic atmosphere above the polar ice cap that gained him worldwide recognition and spawned an empire. In less than a decade, Weyland Corporation became a worldwide leader in emerging technologies and launched the first privatized industrial mission to leave the planet Earth. There are other worlds than this one, Sir Peter boldly declared, And if there is no air to breathe, we will simply have to make it. All of the above would seem to support rumors filtered out of Hungarian press this week citing Scott as explaining Weyland's role as connective tissue between Prometheus and the Alien films; the reports suggests that ruthless, progress-hungry capitalist Weyland is the person responsible for sending the Prometheus crew out to investigate the origin of mankind in the first place. Prometheus hits theaters on June 8. [TED Blog]

Seydoux to star in Kechiche's 'Blue'

PARIS -- Jum Seydoux, increasing French thesp last observed in "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" and Berlin opener "Farewell, My Full," has became a member of the cast of Abdellatif Kechiche's "Blue Is really a Hot Color." "Blue," a 3.98 million ($5.32 million) dramedy according to Julie Maroh's graphic novel, activates a teenage girl who suddenly falls deeply in love with another lady and faces her parents' and friends' judgment. Seydoux will star opposite Adele Exarchopoulos ("Trouble at Timpetill"). Kechiche is creating via his Paris-based Quat'sous Films and joining with Wild Bunch, that will distribute in France and take care of worldwide sales. Belgium's Scope Pictures and Spain's Vertigo Films, which Wild Bunch co-is the owner of, are co-creating. "Blue" may be the French-Tunisian helmer's fifth feature. His newest pic was "Black Venus." which preemed at Venice. His directorial debut, "Poetical Refugee," nabbed Venice's Luigi P Laurentiis jerk, while "Games of affection and Chance" and "The Key from the Grain" each won four major Cesars. "Grain" also required the special jury prize, and three other kudos at Venice. Seydoux is repped by CAA within the U.S. and Adequat in Gaul. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Pregnant Jessica Simpson Feels Like a "Big Blob"

The Dictator has won! The Acadmy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has invited Sacha Baron Cohen to attend Sunday night's Oscar ceremony dressed as his title character in the upcoming film The Dictator, Deadline reports. This decision reverses the Academy's previous stance banning attendees using the red carpet for "stunting" or self-promotion. Baron Cohen had originally planned on walking the Oscars red carpet as the fictional Admiral General Aladeen. Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com EminemSacha Baron CohenBorat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan Bruno

MTV Movies Is Employing!

Are you currently desiring "The Hunger Games" to start? Perhaps you have already planned your "Unpredicted Journey" with "The Hobbit" this winter? Are you able to understand just one factor that Bane states within the "Dark Dark night Increases" trailer? If that's the case, we may be searching for you! MTV Movies is searching for an editorial assistant by having an encyclopedic understanding of movies along with a ceaseless passion to pay for them. Candidates must have ample knowledge about online guides and become experienced in the most recent web-posting and social-media tools. Prior writing and editing experience is essential. You need to have the ability to turn out copy with authority, wit, enthusiasm and factual precision. You need to have the ability to respond to breaking news, pitch tales featuring, and keep flexible working hrs. The positioning relies in NY. Please send your resume, an opening letter and links to many clips to mtvnewshires@gmail.com distribution without the 3 won't be considered.

Netflix ink pact with Weinsteins

Netflix and also the Weinstein Company Tuesday introduced a brand new multi-year certification agreement, their first, to create language, documentary and certain other movies from TWC solely readily available for Netflix people within the U.S. to look at instantly."The Artist" can make its pay TV debut solely on Netflix instead of on traditional premium cable.The pic, written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, continues to be sweeping the honours season, such as the Golden Globe for the best Picture/Comedy or Musical and finest Picture Honours in the Producers Guild of America, British Academy of Film and tv, the London Experts Circle and NY Film Experts Circle.Also making its pay TV premiere on Netflix is "Undefeated," nominated for any 2012 Academy Award for the best Documentary Feature. Pic follows gamers on the Memphis, Tenn. inner-city senior high school football team because it tries to win its first playoff game within the school's history.An assorted slate of TWC niche films can look solely on Netflix within twelve months of the theatrical release, including The Second World War drama "Sarah's Key," "Intouchables," "W.E.," "Coriolanus" and "Bully."The deal, the very first between TWC and Netflix, were not revealed. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

ESPN Takes Action Against Pair For Comments About Knicks Star Jeremy Lin

The sports network today stated it's fired one worker and suspended another for thirty days following separate inappropriate race-sensitivecomments about NY Knicks guard Jeremy Lin. Another incident including comments about Lin — who's Chinese-American, born of Taiwanese parents and was elevated in Palo Alto, Calif. — happened Friday on ESPN Radio NY but no action was taken since the commentator isn't an worker. Following the Knicks lost to New Orleans on Friday — they’s first defeat with Lin, a Harvard graduate and free-agent point guard, within the beginning selection — ESPN Mobile went a tale underneath the headline “Chink within the armor”. The headline was just up for 30 minutes approximately, however the editor responsible for this was fired. On Wednesday, ESPNNews achor Max Bretos built the same comment throughout a job interview.Bretos has been frozen for thirty days, based on an argument launched today around the ESPN website. “We again apologize, especially to Mr. Lin,” it reads simply. “His achievements contain great pride towards the Asian-American community, such as the Asian-American employees at ESPN. Through self-examination, enhanced editorial practices and controls, and reaction to constructive critique, we are better later on.” Lin continues to be the talk of NY since his emergence, as well as spurred Time Warner Cable and Knicks network Monosodium glutamate to solve a 48-day carriage dispute which had stored they — and Lin — from the airwaves within 2.5 million houses in NY.

ASCAP to recognition Carly Simon

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Marketers (ASCAP) has introduced Carly Simon because the person receiving its 2012 Founders Award, to become presented at its 29th Pop Music Honours on April 18.The honours gala will occur just just before the beginning of the performance privileges org's "I Create Music" expo in La. Last year's Founders Award visited Fishing rod Stewart, and former readers include Paul McCartney, Stevie Question, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits.Most widely known on her 1972 hit, "You are So Vain," Simon has collected two Grammys, an Academy Award along with a Golden Globe over her multi-decade career. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Confirmed: Emily Maynard The Brand New Bachelorette

First Released: The month of january 24, 2012 9:21 AM EST Credit: ABC La, Calif. -- Caption Emily on Basic steps The BachelorIts official Emily Maynard may be the new Bachelorette. The only mother who found an appreciation that didnt last with Kaira Womack on Season 15 from the Bachelor will begin her very own look for love around the ABC dating reality show. Emilys season from the Bachelorette the shows eighth, will premiere this spring on ABC. Based on a release sent by ABC on Tuesday morning, Emily is seeking a guy who makes her laugh, does not take themself too seriously and may be her closest friend, the discharge read. ABC describes Emily like a full-time mother, dedicated to daughter Ricki, 6. She also volunteers in her own free time. Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All privileges reserved. These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Apted takes DGA post after interim stint

AptedThe national board of the Directors Guild of America has removed Michael Apted's interim label as DGA secretary-treasurer.Apted had replaced the late Gil Cates in the slot in November after Cates passed away on Oct. 31.The DGA board also moved Sunday to fill Apted's board seat with Jon Favreau, who had been an alternate, and to tap Todd Holland to replace Favreau as an alternate.Additionally, Jace Alexander was selected for the national board to fill Ed Sherin's seat after his stepfather stepded down. Sherin received the DGA's lifetime membership honor at the DGA Awrads on Saturday,DGA president Taylor Hackford made the announcements.Apted was Hackford's predecessor as DGA president, serving for three terms from 2003-2009. He was the chair of the DGA's 75th anniversary advisory committee.Cates was elected to the DGA's national board in 1975 and served as prexy from 1983-1987. He also chaired the negotiations committee for the past four contract talks. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Ben Stiller's All Talk

He's signed onto come with an Cinemax pilotIt's clearly your entire day that Cinemax has made a decision is most auspicious for announcing new comedy aircraft aircraft pilots. Hot round the heels of news about Paul Feig pointing Goldie Hawn inside the Nowhere pill Journals comes word that Ben Stiller has hopped aboard to star, direct, executive produce and run the electrical department* for individuals Talk.Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer cooked within the concept and contains written the script for your pilot, which will stay with the daily dramas from the Jewish family in Washington, Electricity. Foer, whose book Very Noisy And Very Close is presently on-screen in the usa with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock starring, has labelled the show "politically, religiously, culturally, intellectually and sexually irreverent."To incorporate that little bit of extra class, Stiller's Tower Heist co-star Alan Alda (already a telly legend due to the type of M*A*S*H, ER as well as the West Wing) is at predicts co-star. And behind the curtain will probably be Social Media producer and regular Stiller collaborator Scott Rudin.According to Deadline, the pilot is presently pencilling in the late 2012 shoot, which most most likely enables Stiller to function on new film projects such as the Secret Information On Walter Mitty and Noah Baumbach's When we're Youthful. More youthful crowd just finished shooting action comedy Neighbourhood Watch, one minute that Jonah Hill marked on Twitter having a completely new pic in the primary cast. Though large film names will be attracted Cinemax, we question the amount of episodes the ever-busy Stiller would shoot once the series can get acquired. Still, with shorter seasons compared to network TV, more often than not there's the chance he'll be capable of juggle both.*May not be 100% truth.

well worth the weight

It had been a bittersweet season-three preem for that cast of Starz's "Spartacus: Vengeance" because they posed for pictures in the Cinerama Dome on Jan. 18 without lead actor Andy Whitfield, who gave in to non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in September. "Changing Andy was probably the most difficult things for everyone, not only appropriately but personally. Everyone understood him and loved him," creator-scribe Steven S. DeKnight stated concerning the actor who performed the titular role within the first season. Fans were quick to embrace broad-shouldered Liam McIntyre, who assumes the role of Spartacus. "I did not try to copy, I did not try to mimic. I figured that might be a shadow of the already amazing performance," stated the thesp. McIntyre's turn because the gladiatorial defector wasn't a lock, however. Initially, the Aussie actor was 45 pounds underweight. "He looked physically ill. I possibly could have (beaten him up) at this weight," DeKnight stated. "We put him on the workout retainer where he did not possess the job until he demonstrated he could gain all of the weight and appear good." Following the show's lengthy hiatus, everyone else gasped and cheered in the bloodstream sport onscreen that shown the cries for spectacular dying when it comes to. "They loved the bloodstream and also the gore. That's good to understand moving forward,Inch DeKnight stated in the Roman-designed afterparty in the Sunset Landmark. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Italo filmmaker Nanni Moretti in your thoughts Cannes jury

MorettiItalian filmmaker Nanni Moretti remains attracted onto mind the jury as of this year's Cannes Film Festival. "The Festival preferred to celebrate its 65th season getting a European jury leader," mentioned Cannes delegate general Thierry Fremaux in announcing the option. "High-spirited and marked by his modernity and intelligence, Nanni Moretti's films will be the version of good luck in cinema within the last 30 years.In . This Year's festival runs May 16-27. Moretti has presented six films within the festival and won the Palme d'Or for "The Son's Room" in 2001. More youthful crowd needed the director trophy for "Dear Diary" in 1994. He directed and socialized in last year's Papal comedy "Habemus Papam" inside the competition. Festival chief Gilles Jacob mentioned he'd a premonition that Moretti will be a major estimate cinema in 1978 when his "Ecce Bombo" was became a member of into competition. "This is just what happened and i am so gratified to own had this extended and affectionate collaboration," he added. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

5 Teases From Royal Pains' Return: A Brand New Love Triangular and Fallout From Divya's Large Blunder

Wilmer Valderrama, Paulo Costanzo and Mark Feuerstein Before we checked using the HankMed crew on Royal Pains, it had been to blue skies within the Hamptons. Hank (Mark Feuerstein) and Evan (Paulo Costanzo) resolved their variations and assisted persuade Paige's mother to endure electroshock therapy Hank and Jill (Jill Flint) remained as together. However the calm waters is only going to last such a long time - especially after Divya (Reshma Shetty) recommended the incorrect medication for any HankMed patient, leading to him to break down in the finish from the midseason finale. What exactly else is available? Five spoilers approaching in Season 3: Divya will need to spend the money for cost on her screw-up: Divya attempted her better to lead a double existence - employed by HankMed and Hamptons Heritage - but she'll need to admit her actions once the truth arrives that they recommended the incorrect drugs. "We have seen the fallout from what Hank perceives to become Divya's mistake," executive producer Michael Rauch states. "That dilemma eventually ends up as being a major component of the wintertime season finale when it comes to trust, since this is position she's place in where she's nothing, where she's forced to defend myself against this task and will it secretly. It might be a main issue with a larger problem among the siblings." Watch full instances of Royal Pains Jill continues to be headed for Uruguay: Jill continues to be wanting revisit Uruguay since virtually your day she returned and, despite her romantic entanglement with Hank, she is still set on departing the Hamptons. "It is something she's wrestled with backwards and forwards and should not quite put her finger on where she must be, she gets like her heart is incorporated in the Hamptons, but she's a yearning for which be awaiting her elsewhere," Rauch states. Although not before she will get tangled up inside a love triangular including Hank along with a patient: Golf professional Jack O'Malley (guest star Tom Cavanagh) returns for multiple episodes, but it is not really a thrilled homecoming. "Jack and Hank do become very close buddies on the program, which becomes a significant problem when his medical situation alters for that worst," Feuerstein states. "It is affected because he's a part of a really intense love triangular between Hank, Jill and Jack." JoAnna Garcia inspections into Royal Pains because the new doc around What's Hank hiding?: Their romantic competition aside, Hank and Jack will have ample problems to beat due to Jack's mysterious condition, that also incorporate a nephrologist (a physician concentrating in kidney treatment) performed by JoAnna Garcia. "Jack should be having faith in Hank as his buddy and the medical agent, and can he? The solution requires a very dramatic turn," Feuerstein states. "And letting go because, the reality is, Hank's permanent medical record might not be as perfect as it's been.Inch The company may really tear the siblings apart: It has been suggested at many occasions before, but Hank and Evan's greatly different visions for future years of HankMed "rears its ugly mind again within the back six episodes," executive producer Andrew Lenchewski states. "The company takes off, it's grown, and simultaneously, maybe they have grown apart a bit.Inch To complicate matters may be the arrival of Boris' cousin, Claudette Von Jurgens (Judith Godreche). "She introduces a brand new medical device that will allow us to function more effectively," Feuerstein states. "Evan jumps in internet marketing, Hank does not, also it finishes in an exceedingly divisive moment for that siblings." Royal Pains returns Wednesday at 10/9c on USA.

Confab has Hollywood wired for business

LAS VEGAS -- To understand the importance of the Consumer Electronics Show, consider this: the mobile devices everyone carries and most of the entertainment hardware in living rooms worldwide were launched here first.Every January, the major electronics manufacturers trek to Las Vegas to unveil their latest consumer gadgets, and for Hollywood that's meant new platforms on which to distribute its films, TV shows, music and games, along with other content.The major entertainment players have caught onto that, with the last two years seeing a surge in registered attendees from the biz (9,000 participated in last year's Entertainment Matters program, co-produced by United Talent Agency with the Consumer Electronics Assn., and that number is expected be larger this year, the orgs say).This year's show, which ran Jan. 10-13, attracted around 150,000 attendees who visited CES' 2,700 exhibitors.Hollywood execs came to seal deals with hardware makers, but they're also looking to see what's about to roll out to retailers.In the past, those new items have included the VCR, Laserdisc, CD, DVD and Blu-ray players, HDTV, LED and 3D TVs, MP3 players, smartphones, UltraViolet and tablet computers, to name just a few."Nearly every consumer electronics innovation in the history of our industry was unveiled at CES," says Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the CEA.Worldwide consumer electronics spending is expected to pass $1 trillion this year, according to GfK Boutique Research and the CEA, up 5%. Sales are expected to top $200 billion in the U.S., where consumers spent $190 billion on electronics last year, up 5.6% from 2010. In short, Hollywood can't afford not to pay attention and be present at CES."We've been saying this for the past 15 years," Shapiro says. "We're not just a hardware show. We have people here from every aspect of the industry."And here's what everyone has been looking at as the top trends coming out of the show this year: Ultrabooks: Intel coined the term to describe thin, fast laptops that imitate Apple's MacBook Air. These devices save data on chips, instead of traditional hard drives, and access the cloud for content. Analysts expect the devices to represent 10% of all laptop sales in 2012. More than 60 manufacturers are making Ultrabooks to release this year. Smart TVs: While they had been introduced at CES in previous years, the new batch that Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic revealed this time around are still focused on filling up the screens with apps, but also sport features familiar to owners of Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360, as well as users of Siri on Apple's iPhone 4s: gesture and voice controls.And why not? It's estimated that Apple sold more than 30 million of its newest phone in the fourth quarter, and Microsoft has sold 18 million Kinects.Samsung has added facial recognition to cameras built into its sets to recognize who is using its new line of TVs and help them access their apps. TV-makers hope the features will help them boost sagging set sales, which the CEA projects will decline 6.5% this year. OLED and 4K TVs: The next high-def TVs on the market will feature super-thin screens (LG's 55-inch set is 4mm thick) and boast brighter, crisper and more colorful images. Cheaper tablets: Most tablet-makers are introducing smaller, cheaper tablets to compete not with Apple's iPad but with Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook. Tablet sales are expected to triple to 55.2 million this year, according to Juniper Research.Not all new product have been instant hits at CES.3D TV got a big push in 2010, and while the sets are selling overseas, they're still struggling to catch on in the U.S.Approximately 30% of consumers still say they have no immediate plans to purchase a 3D TV within the next six months, citing price and the glasses as reasons, according to NPD Group. (Glasses-free 3D sets aren't expected to be developed within the next year.) The research firm also says 3D TVs made up 9% of all U.S. flat panel TV sales through November, up 2% over the same period in 2010.Although, sales of 3D TVs are soft in the U.S., 23 million 3D TVs are expected to ship worldwide this year, with more than 100 million units to ship by 2015.While 17 million smart TVs have already made their way into homes, only 10% were connected to the Internet last year, up from 8% in 2010, research group Parks Associates says, because many consider the TVs confusing to use.Meanwhile, netbooks, introduced in 2009, were designed to serve as inexpensive laptops that connect to the Web. Apple's iPad pretty much did away with that category.Last year, more than 100 manufacturers introduced their own tablets to compete with Apple. Most, like BlackBerry's PlayBook, have struggled or failed, with HP pulling the plug on its TouchPad after dismal sales. Samsung's Galaxy Tab still remains a worthy rival.Apple doesn't attend CES to showcase new products. It eschews trade shows to host its own events throughout the year, although it did send nearly 300 staffers this year, sources confirmed. Microsoft will be the next to leave CES after this year's confab, ending a 15-year appearance. Contact Marc Graser at marc.graser@variety.com

Marketers re-think comics for pills

Electricity Comics Geoff Johns states digital comics are perfect for giving visitors extra content. The Aquaman comic was created with tablet display in your mind. When visitors opened up "Aquaman #1," last fall, they saw sinister bioluminescent animals climbing the black waters from the Atlantic. Swirling upward in six vertical sections across two pages, design would be a coup for Electricity Comics chief creative officer Geoff Johns following the writer pledged to produce each new problem in the 52-book reboot day and date in publications as well as on digital platforms for example pills.The elevated use of tablet computer systems is forcing comicbook marketers and scribes like Johns ("Eco-friendly Lantern," "The Expensive," "Superman") to think about new methods for creating their books.Assigned with writing tales that will play in publications and pixels, Johns needed to re-assess the medium since visitors of digital comicbooks are unaware of page breaks, concentrating on tales panel by panel rather."Every panel turns into a page, that we find really fascinating," Johns stated. "Right after i saw that, I figured about how exactly that may change your physical appearance at comics."Even though impact of the double-page spread reduces and folded pullouts disappear completely in digital, Johns stated digital visitors take more time on individual sections, slowing down lower and consuming particulars before moving forward. He blogs about the experience to reading through Japanese manga, which paces reduced with merely a couple of sections per page."It's strange to return and check out a few of the old comics now," Johns stated. "Should you read something in this way you will observe items that you missed over so rapidly since your eye consumes the entire page rather than the panel individually. I believe that's most likely among the greatest benefits of digital."Without pages to structure the narrative, large character and action discloses don't have to hide following a page use prevent wandering eyes from missing ahead. Now every panel needs to keep visitors wanting more.A couple of pages after Johns introduces his slimy sea villains, Aquaman defeats a gang of armed crooks trying to take advantage of a large city bank. Now on land, the experience unravels in successive horizontal sections to take advantage of the iPad's capability to spin from landscape and portrait modes and punctuate the stories' transition from water to land."It is simply a subtlesubconscious change -- it feels different," Johns stated. "It's like when Hitchcock accustomed to shoot individuals angles, type of canted angles in the films. It might be an ordinary room but because an position was switched, it might feel a bit off. I believe you will find some things we are able to experiment with."Animation would appear a likely accessory for digital format, permitting figures to maneuver freely and transition between sections. But previous attempts at motion comics, which put on animated elements while trying to help keep the medium's storyboard format, possess a decidedly underwhelming, uneven feel.Johns, who co-created Warner Bros. "Eco-friendly Lantern" film, is also cautious about seem effects and voice-over. In the same manner, the film adaptation of the popular novel can't ever meet the moments and figures visitors picture, seem effects can take advantage of fans of the mental score and make an undesirable distraction, he stated.The scribe has begun scaling back internal dialogue therefore the text will not grip DC's brawny, saturated art. Electronically, the illustrations glow having a hypnotic brilliance."I'd rather allow the art and figures expressions speak on their own, allow the readers go through it weight loss of the subtle experience instead of slamming you within the mind using their inner ideas," Johns stated.You will find more changes around the comic horizon. Johns forecasts digital format will quickly give visitors interactive use of character bios and links to past tales, while an electronic edition from the author's "Flashpoint" comicbook allows visitors break lower the page slowly, getting rid of color to show the initial black-and-whitened penciling. All five issues of "Flashpoint" include this type of "Digital Luxurious" version."The mythology of DC's comics is really deep you can layer on the whole other experience on the top from it,Inch Johns stated.A number of DC's new e-books have zoomed in on certain sections or drawn in dramatic modes to boost the imagery inside a filmic way. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com