Monday Bloody Monday

ink_will_smith.jpg

In today's Hollywood Ink... SAG prepares for civil war... Fox cuts off a limb... Twilight's shadow gets longer...

· SAG's national board validated the word on the street, narrowly approving a new contract with its longtime studio foes at the AMPTP. The 53.3% endorsement doesn't bode especially well for the ratification process to come, during which the union's rank and file -- 120,000 members who have been without a contract since the last one expired almost 10 months ago -- will likely turn the battle inward when voting commences next month. Worse yet, by all accounts the deal essentially resembles those enacted by Hollywood's other guilds more than a year ago, a tragic sign that all of president Alan Rosenberg's hard work and suffering may have all been in vain. To borrow a quote from another songwriting great, I guess they why they call it blues. Developing... [Variety]

· Fox waited until the weekend to quietly pull the plug on its Fox Atomic label, the genre-centric mini-major that had seen fitful success (at best) since its inception in 2006. Recent times were particularly lean, however, with The Rocker, Miss March and 12 Rounds grossing a combined $22 million in wide release. Still to come: Shelf-dwellers Jennifer's Body and I Love You, Beth Cooper, which, in one of Hollywood's most promising new innovations, may be the first films auctioned off on eBay. BuyItNow™ for $300,000! Not so fast, Harvey. [Variety]

ink_will_smith.jpg

· Two months after an appeals court agreed John McTiernan was too jetlagged and/or drunk to plead guilty to lying to FBI investigators in the Anthony Pellicano case, a federal grand jury indicted the Die Hard director anew. The false-statement charges still stand, joined by a new perjury charge arising from McTiernan's plea withdrawal in February. [AP via NYT]

· Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final entry in the Twilight franchise, is said to be in development at Summit Entertainment. Neither the shoot nor release dates have been set, mentions The Wrap, though the rush is no doubt motivated by utter verisimilitude in depicting the compact timeline of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen's romance. Or the studio just needs to conclude the series before its youthful fan base outgrows its insipidness. [The Wrap]

ink_will_smith.jpg

· Count Will Smith among those undeterred by the recent rebranding of the Sci Fi Channel. His Overbrook Entertainment will produce Unfinished Business for the soon-to-be SyFy, about an ex-cop who sees memories of the recently deceased. The two-hour pilot reportedly features the man trying to understand his visions of an A-list star committing suicide by jellyfish. [The Live Feed]

· Unkempt cat-lady singing phenom Susan Boyle got an offer of $1 million to make a pornographic film. That is all. [The Big Picture]