Come rain or come more rain, the Oscars‘ red carpet show will go on, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences insisted this evening. Despite a freak winter rain storm causing flooding and power outages throughout L.A. County, organizers anticipate no disruption for the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday in Hollywood…

Earlier, this afternoon, Bruce Broughton had his say about the rescinding of the Oscar nomination for the title song from Alone Yet Not Alone. Here’s another side of the story, in a letter Deadline obtained that was sent to the Academy by Martin M. Bandier, the influential chairman of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Like…

Oz alum Dean Winters is set as one of the two leads cast in Battle Creek, CBS' high-profile series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and House creator David Shore. Also cast in the project, from Sony TV and CBS Studios, are Aubrey Dollar and Edward Fordham Jr. It centers on Detective Russ Agnew (Winters) and…

British actor Jon Fletcher (The Good Wife) is set to co-star in CW drama pilot The Messengers from feature producer Basil Iwanyk (the Clash Of The Titans franchise) and CBS TV Studios. Stephen Williams (Lost) has been tapped to direct. The Messengers starts with a mysterious object crashing down to Earth. A group of…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences put out its 2013 Annual Report tonight, just as folks were gearing up for the Oscar parties. The bottom line: There’s a healthy bottom line. The 40-page document (read it here) lists the Academy’s financials for fiscal 2013, ended June 30. Revenue swelled to $134.4M, a…

In this week's podcast, Deadline Executive Editor David Lieberman and host David Bloom look at the many implications of Netflix's big, big deal with Comcast to ensure better video quality of its shows streamed by their mutual customers. The deal could affect the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, net neutrality issues…

Cougar Town co-executive producers Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein have signed a two-year overall deal with Universal TV. Under the pact, which begins June 1, the duo will develop new projects. "Chrissy and Jessica are an inspired writing team with a unique comedy voice that fits perfectly for the type of shows…

EXCLUSIVE: Haifaa Al Mansour made history with Wadjda, the first feature by a Saudi Arabian woman and the first to be shot entirely within the Kingdom. For her second feature, the director is in negotiations to helm A Storm In The Stars for Amy Baer's Gidden Media. The period romantic drama is about the tumultuous…

EXCLUSIVE: Bruce Broughton speaks. The composer and former Academy Music Branch governor, whose title song from Alone Yet Not Alone received an Oscar nom but later was disqualified because of improper campaigning following an expose written by our Awards Columnist Pete Hammond, has written a letter for Deadline. In it…

Single Ladies helped usher drama series programming on VH1. Now the show, from Queen Latifah‘s Flavor Unit, is set to end its run after three seasons. Single Ladies‘ third season is currently airing, with the upcoming March 24 season finale serving as series finale. "We've been proud to deliver three seasons of the…

The campaign teams from Warner Bros’ Gravity and FX’s American Horror Story: Coven came away with the respective Maxwell Weinberg Publicist Showmanship Award for Motion Pictures and Television at today’s 51st annual ICG Publicists Awards. Michael Singer received the Les Mason Lifetime Achievement Award. Other winners…

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of landing his first pilot order last year with ABC’s Big Thunder, hot feature writer Jason Fuchs (Ice Age: Continental Drift) is returning to television with a conspiracy thriller drama at TNT. Written by Fuchs and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV, Black Box, now in development…