DEADLINE’s Exclusive SAG-AFTRA Post-Merger Details January 31, 2012 – 8:08pm Dear SAG and AFTRA Members: As you know, merger referendum ballots are scheduled to be mailed on or about February 27 – but members of both unions now have access to the complete merger documents online. Full printed merger documents will…

Freelance journalist Dominic Patten is covering the trial for Deadline. The most interesting testimony today in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s lawsuit against Dick Clark Productions over rights to the Golden Globes broadcast didn’t take place in court. Instead transcripts from CBS chief Les Moonves…

Freelancer Cari Lynn is contributing to Deadline's coverage. ESPN execs must grow tired of defending the value of pay TV’s most expensive basic channel. But President John Skipper did so again today at a conference sponsored by All Things D. The estimated $4.69 monthly fee that cable and satellite companies pay for…

Freelancer Cari Lynn is contributing to Deadline's coverage. Add the News Corp COO to the list of Big Media execs who believe that they were simply misunderstood in the debate that led Congress to put aside the Hollywood supported anti-piracy bills. “Clearly this got turned upside down, the whole issue,” he said at a…

The author and publishers of the novel on which The Reader is based have sued The Weinstein Company in a dispute over profit participation on the Academy Award-nominated movie. Plaintiffs Diogenes Verlag, Selb Limited and author Bernard Schlink contend that they are contractually entitled to 2.5%-5% of gross receipts…

EXCLUSIVE: Ridley Scott is in talks to direct the Cormac McCarthy-scripted drama The Counselor. Scott has several films he’s considering, but there is a strong possibility this could be his next film and his followup to Prometheus, the 3D space film which Fox releases this summer. I guess this is what happens when one…

UPDATED: ABC has handed 4 more hourlong pilot orders to Marc Cherry’s soap Devious Maids, Michael Green’s magical cop drama Gotham, Paul Scheuring’s Zero Hour and Melissa Rosenberg’s Penoza. Those are likely ABC’s last drama pilot orders this season. Devious Maids is loosely based on the Mexican telenovela The Disorder…

The coveted role of Eponine in the Tom Hooper-directed film adaptation of the musical Les Miserables has gone to Samantha Barks. While she’s a newcomer to the screen, Barks starred as Eponine in the London production of Les Miserables in 2010 and reprised the role in the 25th anniversary concert held at the O2 Arena…

Disney already owned a large stake in UTV, and already is the leading TV producer in India. This deal, the terms of which weren’t disclosed, will make it the biggest film studio in the country as well. Burbank, Calif. and Mumbai, India (January 31/February 1, 2012) – The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) announced today…

EXCLUSIVE: Piper Perabo will star opposite Billy Bob Thorton, James Marsden and Thomas Jane in director David Hackl’s thriller Red Machine. She will play a deaf photographer who is engaged to Beckett (Jane), whom she met during the Iraq War. The story revolves around two estranged brothers (Jane, Marsden) and their…

Shares are -8.7% after the e-retailer presented a mixed report about its 4Q results, and projected a decline in its 1Q operating profit. Amazon generated net income of $177M in the last three months of 2011, down 57.5% from the same period in 2010, on revenues of $17.4B, up 34.6%. The revenue figure fell short of the…

Fox News made it 10 years in a row as the top-rated cable news network, a streak that began after Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes’ operation first overtook CNN in total viewership in January 2002. Said Ailes: "We are extremely proud of the phenomenal achievement created by the hard work and talent of the FOX News…