Trio Of Agents Leaving CAA

BREAKING: CAA agents Mike Nilon, Jessica Matthews and Shari Smiley are leaving the agency. Nilon is in the feature talent department, Matthews is feature lit, and Smiley was part of the book department. They follow by days the exit of Rand Holston. There has been a flurry of conjecture today about the imminent exit of a number of agents. CAA insiders denied those names are involved. The list is limited to the above three agents. No word yet on where Nilon, Matthews and Smiley will go. Holston is in talks with several agencies.

Marley Shelton Is Pregnant!

Marley Shelton Marley Shelton and husband Beau Flynn are expecting their second child, People reports. Check out the rest of today's news Shelton, 37, who recently co-starred in Scream 4, and Flynn, a movie producer, will welcome their second child in the spring. "[We] couldn't be more excited," the pair told the magazine. The couple, who wed in 2011, have a 2-year-old daughter named West.

Unions Reject Blame for Cleaning soap Deal's Dying

It appears like there won't be any second existence for that lengthy-running cleaning soap operas My Children and something Existence to reside. Inside a pointed statement launched Wednesday, professionals Wealthy Frank and Shaun Kwatinetz of the organization Prospect Park introduced that it is intend to turn Basic steps two canceled daytime dramas into Web series had fallen through. The failure was blamed simply on unions representing the series' talent.In the end simplified in on the financial infrastructure, the contractual demands from the guilds, which regulate our industry, combined using the programs' natural economic challenges ultimately brought for this ultimate decision, Frank and Kwatinetz stated.One of the unions that were settling with Prospect Park were the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and also the Authors Guild of America West. Both released quick reactions Wednesday towards the companys assertion that labor demands were at fault for that plans demise.AFTRA, which signifies stars on shows, noted inside a written statement, Despite initial progress within our discussions with Prospect Park toward solving a reasonable agreement to pay for the entertainers showing up on these programs, i was perplexed and disappointed that within the last month Prospect Park hasn't taken care of immediately our repeated queries to resume individuals discussions. The union also stated it thought that Prospect Park faced other challenges unrelated to the discussions.In the statement, the WGAW stated, I was disappointed to understand that Prospect Parks financing fell through. Just before the finish of a week ago, i was near to a good deal for that authors.The ultimate episode of The Kids broadcast Sept. 23 on ABC. The One Existence to reside finale will air Jan. 13, 2012. By Daniel Holloway November 28, 2011 It appears like there won't be any second existence for that lengthy-running cleaning soap operas My Children and something Existence to reside. Inside a pointed statement launched Wednesday, professionals Wealthy Frank and Shaun Kwatinetz of the organization Prospect Park introduced that it is intend to turn Basic steps two canceled daytime dramas into Web series had fallen through. The failure was blamed simply on unions representing the series' talent.In the end simplified in on the financial infrastructure, the contractual demands from the guilds, which regulate our industry, combined using the programs' natural economic challenges ultimately brought for this ultimate decision, Frank and Kwatinetz stated.One of the unions that were settling with Prospect Park were the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and also the Authors Guild of America West. Both released quick reactions Wednesday towards the companys assertion that labor demands were to blame for that plans demise.AFTRA, which signifies stars on shows, noted inside a written statement, Despite initial progress within our discussions with Prospect Park toward solving a reasonable agreement to pay for the entertainers showing up on these programs, i was perplexed and disappointed that within the last month Prospect Park hasn't taken care of immediately our repeated queries to resume individuals discussions. The union also stated it thought that Prospect Park faced other challenges unrelated to the discussions.In the statement, the WGAW stated, I was disappointed to understand that Prospect Parks financing fell through. Just before the finish of a week ago, i was near to a good deal for that authors.The ultimate episode of The Kids broadcast Sept. 23 on ABC. The Main One Existence to reside finale will air Jan. 13, 2012.

Wilson Phillips Capitalizes on Great Year with New TV Guide Special

Wilson Phillips For a band whose last hit charted more than 20 years ago, Wilson Phillips has had quite a year. The band figured largely in the plot of this summer's box office blockbuster movie Bridesmaids. Band member Chynna Phillips earned a small but devoted fan base on Dancing with the Stars this season. And now the trio is getting its own TV special. Carnie Wilson, her sister Wendy and Phillips are hoping to build on their recent momentum with a new album, the creation of which will be documented on Wilson Phillips: Still Holding On (Sunday, 9/8c, TV Guide Network). "It's a way for people to see how the dynamic between the three of us really works, rather than a sit-down interview where we're answering specific questions about our childhood or our parents or any of that [stuff] we're used to talking about," Carnie says. "[Bridesmaids] put our name back on the map," Wendy Wilson tells TVGuide.com. "A lot of younger people love the movie -- I don't even know if they knew who we were back in the day, let alone being born then - and it's a resurgence of the music and, in a way, a part of pop culture now." Their new album is a collection of cover versions of songs made famous by their famous parents, The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. "[The process] is emotionally charged," Chynna says. "You have such big shoes to fill. You want to do a great job and you know so many people are going to be comparing your version to your parents' version. You just have let go of expectations and people's expectations and say, 'We're going to sing from our hearts, put our Wilson Phillips signature on it, and it's going to turn out the way it's going to turn out." Viewers can expect to see some arguing among these three lifelong friends along the way. "It's not like: We've been friends forever; everything is great," Carnie says. "It's more like: 'You're in a bad mood; you're flaky,' and it's all real. I'm excited and also scared for people to see that yet," Chynna says. "We fight like sisters and we have our disagreements and have to battle through that like any other relationship. I think people will identify with that and I'm glad they'll will get a window into what it's really like to be in a group and to know someone for 43 years." Wilson Phillips: Still Holding On airs Sunday at 9/8c on TV Guide Network. Watch a preview below: "Wilson Phillips: Still Holding On" by TVGuide

The Greening of Whitney Brown

An Arc Entertainment release of a Perfect Weekend production. Produced by Justin Moore-Lewy, Charlie Mason. Executive producers, Ed Fitts, Sue Rathbone. Co-producer, Rachel Harrell. Directed by Peter Odiorne. Screenplay, Gail Gilchriest.With: Sammi Hanratty, Aidan Quinn, Brooke Shields, Kris Kristofferson, Anna Colwell, Charlotte K. Matthews, Keith David, Slade Pearce, Natalia D. Dyer, India Scandrick, Odd Job Bob.The economic downturn proves a blessing in disguise for a spoiled urban tween in"The Greening of Whitney Brown," the tale of a girl and the horse that loved her. When Whitney's father loses his high-paying job in the city, the family relocates to an abandoned farm in the country. Written by Gail Gilchriest, who adapted "My Dog Skip" to the screen, and directed by newcomer Peter Odiorne, this simplistic story of bucolic redemption has few pretensions to depth, ambiguity or realism, relying on its name cast, sprightly lead and a helluva horse to attract family auds on its Nov. 11 bow. Whitney (Sammi Hanratty) reigns at an exclusive Philadelphia school, as evidenced by her landslide election as class president and her snagging the dreamy new kid in town (Slade Pearce) as her prom date. Her sudden move to the boondocks with no cell-phone reception cuts her off from her adoring public, except through sporadic pay-phone calls to a double-dealing BFF (Charlotte K. Matthews). As in countless Hollywood kidpics, the city girl finds new meaning by working with a horse, though here no racing glory is involved, since the equine in question, Bob, is a black-and-white Gypsy Vanner and thus small, adorable and more attuned to humans than Lassie. Bob is always up for rural transportation, assorted tricks, approving nudges, disapproving snorts and dramatic, revenge-dealing appearances at formal occasions. With no friends her own age, Whitney is free to bond more closely with Mom (Brooke Shields), who turns out to be eminently suitable to the homesteader lifestyle, breathing deeply of the fresh air, contentedly perambulating in the picturesque fields and whipping up batches of blackberry preserve to sell by the roadside for profit. Dad (Aidan Quinn), dealing with childhood demons, proves more recalcitrant: Not until Whitney helps him reconcile with his crusty estranged father (Kris Kristofferson) can he finally reconnect with his inner-farmboy. Thesping is predictably pro, Kristofferson bringing a rangy authenticity to the proceedings, his taciturn self-reliance contrasting with Quinn's introverted vulnerability. Hanratty's unquenchable perkiness, though well integrated into her can-do persona, grows wearisome at times. Helmer Odiorne creates a suitably groomed pastoral setting for Gilchriest's relentlessly upbeat script, but does little to suggest a context larger than Whitney's limited p.o.v.Camera (color), James L. Carter; editor, Martin Hunter; music, Randy Edelman; music supervisor, Michael Lloyd; production designer, Caroline Hanania; art director, Christopher Tandon; sound (Dolby Digital), Jim Emswiller; supervising sound editor, Kelly Cabral; horse trainer/stunt coordinator, Tommie Turvey; casting, Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee. Reviewed on DVD, NY, Nov. 8, 2011. MPAA rating: PG. Running time: 87 MIN. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Michael Emerson Took a Long Time to get Where He is Today

Michael Emerson Took a Long Time to get Where He is Today By Daniel Holloway November 9, 2011 Photo by Sebastian Piras Michael Emerson Michael Emerson is sitting in Trattoria Dopo Teatro, an Italian joint tucked between Broadway and the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on 44th Street, nursing a glass of water while his manager and twotwo!publicists eat a schmancy pizza a few tables away. It took him a long time to get here. Not to "here" as in the restaurant but "here" in the metaphysical sensebig city, big career, big group of 10 percenters structuring their days around his interviews and photo shoots. For an actor who waited until he was nearly 40 to go to conservatory, it's not a bad place to be. Not that he didn't want to get here sooner. Emerson has been feted on the NY stage, has become recognizable to millions as a fan-favorite villain on "Lost," and is now the co-lead in his own new show, CBS's "Person of Interest." But decades ago he was a 21-year-old kid from small-town Iowa who came to NY wanting to be an actor. Things went badly. "The city just knocked the wind out of me," he says, his voice eerily, inevitably calling to mind Benjamin Linus, the character he played for five seasons on "Lost." "I didn't know where the auditions were or how you got into them or anything like that. So I lost track of my dream, which is a bad thing to do."It certainly is. And if you've ever been to Jacksonville, Fla., you know that moving there is usually a bad thing to do, too. Emerson did it anyway, and it turned out to be the first step on a long road to success. Not that it seemed like it at the time. Emerson was working as a magazine illustrator until "that career sort of went up in flames, and I thought, 'Well, here I am. There's nowhere to go but up, and I might as well do what I please, since I was at the bottom of things.' " He started doing community theaternot just acting but also designing scenery, building sets, and directing. He was able to make "half of a sensible person's living" as a jack-of-all-trades in the local scene. If there was a role he wanted to play, he would mount the production. "A lot of times I would sleep in the theater at night, just trying to keep body and soul together," he says. "But it was a good apprenticeship in the theater. I found out I had a knack for it, and I grew in confidence."Eventually he branched out, working a circuit of regional theaters in the Southeast. He played the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock and New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Miss. He traveled to Montgomery, Ala.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Savannah, Ga. And he grew as an actor. "I reached a point where I thought, 'I'm too good at this now to keep doing obscure plays in obscure towns,' " he says. "I either needed to go back to NY or I needed to get into a conservatory program. I chose the latter."Roll Tide Emerson enrolled in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's MFA program at the University of Alabama. He was 39 and looking to check out of the world for a couple of years, lead "a sort of monastic experience," and focus on acting. "I guess I would have said then that I meant to commit my life to playing the classics, which isn't a bad commitment to make," he says. "It's taken me a lot of different places."The Alabama program focused, unsurprisingly, on Shakespeare and classical verse. In the mornings, Emerson and his classmates would study movement, voice, and text. In the afternoons, they had rehearsals. Occasionally students would be cast in small parts on ASF's main stage. Emerson was something of an anomaly, being middle-aged and having years of experience under his belt. The same qualities that made him stick out from his peers also made him a commodity for the main-stage productions. "I was useful," he says.Alabama proved useful to him as welland not just for the training he received. He met his wife, the actor Carrie Preston, while working in an ASF production of "Hamlet." After he graduated, he followed her back to NY. His second run in NY didn't start off much more auspiciously than his first. His training had sharpened his skills, and he had a wealth of experience performing in some of the greatest plays ever written. But his rsum was filled with names that no one in the city had ever heard ofSouthern names."I thought surely, for the love of God, someone wants a grown man who can speak the verse, just to carry a spear, or deliver a message, or something," Emerson says. "But it's not as easy as that. I still had some illusions about that kind of thing." Preston, in contrast, was working steadily, having already established herself in NY. (She has, like her husband, built a strong on-camera career; she is now best known for playing the high-strung waitress Arlene on HBO's "True Blood.") Emerson knew that if she continued to book work while he foundered, they would feel the resulting pressure. He gave himself two years to catch traction in NY, after which he would return to the South, where he still had contacts in the theater community. He and Preston would manage a long-distance relationship.Then, shortly before the two years were up, Emerson became involved in playwright Moiss Kaufman's "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde," then still nascent. The play draws on the three real-life courtroom trials concerning Wilde's relationship with his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. In readings and workshops, Emerson played Wilde's attorney. But just before the play was set to open Off-Off-Broadway, Kaufman fired the lead actor. Emerson asked if he could audition for the roleand won it. He had fewer than three weeks to prepare.Emerson drew on his training at Alabama, where instructors had drilled into him the importance of making not just psychological choices but also choices about the carriage of the body, the quality of the voice that a character lives in. He felt he had watched the previous Wilde make choices that were logical but ultimately incorrect. Emerson knew he could make better ones.In his review of "Gross Indecency" for the NY Times, Ben Brantley, who called the play "the must-see sleeper of the Off Off Broadway season," wrote, "[T]he Wilde of Mr. Emerson, making his NY debut, is stunning as he progresses from epigrammatic assurance to a public role for which he is no longer writing the script. By the production's end, he is majestically pathetic, a man who is still unable to understand completely what happened to him."The play was a hit and enjoyed an Off-Broadway run and stints in San Francisco and Los Angelesall with Emerson in the lead. "We got a good review in the NY Times, and we were off to the races," Emerson said. "I guess I have made my living as an actor since that time."Act 2 Over the next few years, Emerson appeared in enough impressive plays to make him a bona fide NY theater actorincluding Broadway productions of "The Iceman Cometh" and "Hedda Gabler," as well as "Le Misanthrope" and "Give Me Your Answer, Do!" Off-Broadway. In 2000, he booked a part on ABC's "The Practice," playing a man who confesses to being a serial killer but whose guilt is in doubt. The role recurred, and Emerson won an Emmy for outstanding guest actor. When Emerson's life-changing job came, it didn't at first look like that kind of role. He was not a loyal viewer of "Lost," but his wife was. "We always had it on," he says. "Sometimes I'd be doing the dishes or something, and I'd look over and go, 'Oh, that's preposterous.' "The part of Benjamin Linusthe villain who became one of the series' definitive characterscame to Emerson as an offer. It was initially a guest spot. The story line called for a meek-tempered man to be captured and held prisoner by the suspicious island castaways around whom the show was centered. Eventually, the character was revealed to be the leader of the Others, the mysterious group that terrorized the show's heroes for most of its run. Between filming sessions in those earlier days, Emerson would cool his heels in a hotel in Hawaii, where the series was shot, missing Preston and NY, and waiting to find out whether his character would survive to the next episode. Around the time of his fourth episode, Emerson realized something big might be happening."One day a director came to me and said, 'When you talk about the leader of the Others, he must be terrifying to you,' " Emerson says. "I said, 'Okay, that's cool. I can play that. But wouldn't it be a gas if it turned out that I was the leader of the Others?' And he said, 'I can't talk about that.' I thought, 'Are you kidding me? Is that where we're going to go? Because that could be fun.' "For "Lost" fans, it certainly was, and Emerson's career reaped the benefits. He won a second Emmy in 2009, this time for outstanding supporting actor. But he always kept one eye eastward."I never stopped being the gypsy actor in my mind," he says. "I would never buy property in Hawaii or get settled too comfortably, because that just seems to invite the theater gods to pull it out from under you. I always thought of it as temporary. It was never home to me."Home was still NY, and Emerson settled back there after "Lost" ended in 2010. His first thought was to lay low for a time, knowing that whatever his next project was, it would be overscrutinized, thanks to the hype generated by his last job. He figured that a theater project would arise and spark his interest, and he tinkered with a pilot idea that he and "Lost" co-star Terry O'Quinn had developed. But the right play never came, and the pilot never matured into script form.Emerson spent close to a year out of work. With pilot season nearing, he approached Bad Robot, the company that had produced "Lost," and asked if there was anything he might be suited for. "They had this nice script at Bad Robot that I liked for a lot of reasonsnot least of which was that it was set in and had to shoot in NY City," he says. "If you start looking around at pilots, you dig deep and you find that not very many of them will be shot in NY or L.A. I had already done my time on the other side of the earth. It was important to me to have a family life again."The script was for "Person of Interest," in which Emerson stars as Harold Finch, an eccentric billionaire and tech genius who has developed a machine that anticipates terrorist acts. Jim Caviezel co-stars as an exCIA agent who, with Finch's voice in his ear, tries to stop those events before they happen. The character has been compared to Benjamin Linus, and Emerson admits that there are similarities. But the actor is comfortable with the overlapwhich is good, because the show has proved a solid ratings draw and recently received a full-season commitment from CBS."Maybe Ben Linus worked so well for me because it tapped into some core aesthetic I have as an actor," Emerson says. "I prefer mystery over obviousness. I prefer ambiguity to definition. And the only way I'm ever going to be able to put that aside is to do a completely different kind of material, probably on the stage."What type of material? He would love to do Shakespeare in the Parkwhich would bring him back to his roots in the classics at Alabama. Or maybe a comedy. "I was always a funny guy," he says, "before I got these frightening roles." And you know what? Emerson is a funny guy, because after talking to him for an hour, you forget that he sounds exactly like Benjamin Linus. Michael Emerson Took a Long Time to get Where He is Today By Daniel Holloway November 9, 2011 Michael Emerson PHOTO CREDIT Sebastian Piras Michael Emerson is sitting in Trattoria Dopo Teatro, an Italian joint tucked between Broadway and the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on 44th Street, nursing a glass of water while his manager and twotwo!publicists eat a schmancy pizza a few tables away. It took him a long time to get here. Not to "here" as in the restaurant but "here" in the metaphysical sensebig city, big career, big group of 10 percenters structuring their days around his interviews and photo shoots. For an actor who waited until he was nearly 40 to go to conservatory, it's not a bad place to be. Not that he didn't want to get here sooner. Emerson has been feted on the NY stage, has become recognizable to millions as a fan-favorite villain on "Lost," and is now the co-lead in his own new show, CBS's "Person of Interest." But decades ago he was a 21-year-old kid from small-town Iowa who came to NY wanting to be an actor. Things went badly. "The city just knocked the wind out of me," he says, his voice eerily, inevitably calling to mind Benjamin Linus, the character he played for five seasons on "Lost." "I didn't know where the auditions were or how you got into them or anything like that. So I lost track of my dream, which is a bad thing to do."It certainly is. And if you've ever been to Jacksonville, Fla., you know that moving there is usually a bad thing to do, too. Emerson did it anyway, and it turned out to be the first step on a long road to success. Not that it seemed like it at the time. Emerson was working as a magazine illustrator until "that career sort of went up in flames, and I thought, 'Well, here I am. There's nowhere to go but up, and I might as well do what I please, since I was at the bottom of things.' " He started doing community theaternot just acting but also designing scenery, building sets, and directing. He was able to make "half of a sensible person's living" as a jack-of-all-trades in the local scene. If there was a role he wanted to play, he would mount the production. "A lot of times I would sleep in the theater at night, just trying to keep body and soul together," he says. "But it was a good apprenticeship in the theater. I found out I had a knack for it, and I grew in confidence."Eventually he branched out, working a circuit of regional theaters in the Southeast. He played the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock and New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Miss. He traveled to Montgomery, Ala.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Savannah, Ga. And he grew as an actor. "I reached a point where I thought, 'I'm too good at this now to keep doing obscure plays in obscure towns,' " he says. "I either needed to go back to NY or I needed to get into a conservatory program. I chose the latter."Roll Tide Emerson enrolled in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's MFA program at the University of Alabama. He was 39 and looking to check out of the world for a couple of years, lead "a sort of monastic experience," and focus on acting. "I guess I would have said then that I meant to commit my life to playing the classics, which isn't a bad commitment to make," he says. "It's taken me a lot of different places."The Alabama program focused, unsurprisingly, on Shakespeare and classical verse. In the mornings, Emerson and his classmates would study movement, voice, and text. In the afternoons, they had rehearsals. Occasionally students would be cast in small parts on ASF's main stage. Emerson was something of an anomaly, being middle-aged and having years of experience under his belt. The same qualities that made him stick out from his peers also made him a commodity for the main-stage productions. "I was useful," he says.Alabama proved useful to him as welland not just for the training he received. He met his wife, the actor Carrie Preston, while working in an ASF production of "Hamlet." After he graduated, he followed her back to New York. His second run in NY didn't start off much more auspiciously than his first. His training had sharpened his skills, and he had a wealth of experience performing in some of the greatest plays ever written. But his rsum was filled with names that no one in the city had ever heard ofSouthern names."I thought surely, for the love of God, someone wants a grown man who can speak the verse, just to carry a spear, or deliver a message, or something," Emerson says. "But it's not as easy as that. I still had some illusions about that kind of thing." Preston, in contrast, was working steadily, having already established herself in NY. (She has, like her husband, built a strong on-camera career; she is now best known for playing the high-strung waitress Arlene on HBO's "True Blood.") Emerson knew that if she continued to book work while he foundered, they would feel the resulting pressure. He gave himself two years to catch traction in New York, after which he would return to the South, where he still had contacts in the theater community. He and Preston would manage a long-distance relationship.Then, shortly before the two years were up, Emerson became involved in playwright Moiss Kaufman's "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde," then still nascent. The play draws on the three real-life courtroom trials concerning Wilde's relationship with his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. In readings and workshops, Emerson played Wilde's attorney. But just before the play was set to open Off-Off-Broadway, Kaufman fired the lead actor. Emerson asked if he could audition for the roleand won it. He had fewer than three weeks to prepare.Emerson drew on his training at Alabama, where instructors had drilled into him the importance of making not just psychological choices but also choices about the carriage of the body, the quality of the voice that a character lives in. He felt he had watched the previous Wilde make choices that were logical but ultimately incorrect. Emerson knew he could make better ones.In his review of "Gross Indecency" for the NY Times, Ben Brantley, who called the play "the must-see sleeper of the Off Off Broadway season," wrote, "[T]he Wilde of Mr. Emerson, making his NY debut, is stunning as he progresses from epigrammatic assurance to a public role for which he is no longer writing the script. By the production's end, he is majestically pathetic, a man who is still unable to understand completely what happened to him."The play was a hit and enjoyed an Off-Broadway run and stints in San Francisco and Los Angelesall with Emerson in the lead. "We got a good review in the NY Times, and we were off to the races," Emerson said. "I guess I have made my living as an actor since that time."Act 2 Over the next few years, Emerson appeared in enough impressive plays to make him a bona fide NY theater actorincluding Broadway productions of "The Iceman Cometh" and "Hedda Gabler," as well as "Le Misanthrope" and "Give Me Your Answer, Do!" Off-Broadway. In 2000, he booked a part on ABC's "The Practice," playing a man who confesses to being a serial killer but whose guilt is in doubt. The role recurred, and Emerson won an Emmy for outstanding guest actor. When Emerson's life-changing job came, it didn't at first look like that kind of role. He was not a loyal viewer of "Lost," but his wife was. "We always had it on," he says. "Sometimes I'd be doing the dishes or something, and I'd look over and go, 'Oh, that's preposterous.' "The part of Benjamin Linusthe villain who became one of the series' definitive characterscame to Emerson as an offer. It was initially a guest spot. The story line called for a meek-tempered man to be captured and held prisoner by the suspicious island castaways around whom the show was centered. Eventually, the character was revealed to be the leader of the Others, the mysterious group that terrorized the show's heroes for most of its run. Between filming sessions in those earlier days, Emerson would cool his heels in a hotel in Hawaii, where the series was shot, missing Preston and NY, and waiting to find out whether his character would survive to the next episode. Around the time of his fourth episode, Emerson realized something big might be happening."One day a director came to me and said, 'When you talk about the leader of the Others, he must be terrifying to you,' " Emerson says. "I said, 'Okay, that's cool. I can play that. But wouldn't it be a gas if it turned out that I was the leader of the Others?' And he said, 'I can't talk about that.' I thought, 'Are you kidding me? Is that where we're going to go? Because that could be fun.' "For "Lost" fans, it certainly was, and Emerson's career reaped the benefits. He won a second Emmy in 2009, this time for outstanding supporting actor. But he always kept one eye eastward."I never stopped being the gypsy actor in my mind," he says. "I would never buy property in Hawaii or get settled too comfortably, because that just seems to invite the theater gods to pull it out from under you. I always thought of it as temporary. It was never home to me."Home was still NY, and Emerson settled back there after "Lost" ended in 2010. His first thought was to lay low for a time, knowing that whatever his next project was, it would be overscrutinized, thanks to the hype generated by his last job. He figured that a theater project would arise and spark his interest, and he tinkered with a pilot idea that he and "Lost" co-star Terry O'Quinn had developed. But the right play never came, and the pilot never matured into script form.Emerson spent close to a year out of work. With pilot season nearing, he approached Bad Robot, the company that had produced "Lost," and asked if there was anything he might be suited for. "They had this nice script at Bad Robot that I liked for a lot of reasonsnot least of which was that it was set in and had to shoot in NY City," he says. "If you start looking around at pilots, you dig deep and you find that not very many of them will be shot in NY or L.A. I had already done my time on the other side of the earth. It was important to me to have a family life again."The script was for "Person of Interest," in which Emerson stars as Harold Finch, an eccentric billionaire and tech genius who has developed a machine that anticipates terrorist acts. Jim Caviezel co-stars as an exCIA agent who, with Finch's voice in his ear, tries to stop those events before they happen. The character has been compared to Benjamin Linus, and Emerson admits that there are similarities. But the actor is comfortable with the overlapwhich is good, because the show has proved a solid ratings draw and recently received a full-season commitment from CBS."Maybe Ben Linus worked so well for me because it tapped into some core aesthetic I have as an actor," Emerson says. "I prefer mystery over obviousness. I prefer ambiguity to definition. And the only way I'm ever going to be able to put that aside is to do a completely different kind of material, probably on the stage."What type of material? He would love to do Shakespeare in the Parkwhich would bring him back to his roots in the classics at Alabama. Or maybe a comedy. "I was always a funny guy," he says, "before I got these frightening roles." And you know what? Emerson is a funny guy, because after talking to him for an hour, you forget that he sounds exactly like Benjamin Linus.

Martin Weisz to helm Safady's 'Dreamt'

Safady Entertainment ("Machine Gun Preacher") is beginning progression of supernatural thriller "Imagined" with Martin Weisz installed on direct.Script by Andrew Alexander, occur current day, concentrates on a few imaging in one another peoples lives. Conflict evolves following a males uncover one another peoples existence, leading one guy to dominate another peoples existence and stopping at nothing to be.Buddies Gary Safady and Craig Chapmans are coming up with along with Todd Moyer in the Flagship Management Group, who's presently creating the Brendan Fraser film "William Tell 3d.Inch Shooting is positioned to begin in April.Weisz directed "The Slopes Have Eyes II" and contains shot over 350 music videos for artists for instance Puff Father, Korn, Live, Sisqo, Nickelback and Fuel. Alexander is represented by Original Artists. Weisz is represented by Anonymous Content and it has Strange Pictures. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Davidson & Lin: Long-distance partners take it in stride

Sophia LinTyler DavidsonTyler Davidson and Sophia Lin never considered forming a formal producing partnership. After all, he is based in Ohio, while she conducts business from NY.But the pair so enjoyed collaborating on the Sundance breakout drama "Take Shelter" that they decided to reteam on the upcoming psychological thriller "Compliance," based on the true story of a prank phone call made to a restaurant that results in a rape.Lin became the first producer to board "Take Shelter" -- which is generating awards-season buzz for stars Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain -- after helmer Jeff Nichols asked the producer to read his script in summer 2009. Nichols and Lin previously worked together on a project that eventually fell apart.Lin then brought Cleveland-based Davidson, a producer known for his ability at raising coin and navigating Ohio's tax credits. Davidson also helped assemble local crews for the Ohio-shot film.Though Nichols and Shannon are longtime friends, no one ever envisioned the "Boardwalk Empire" thesp for the lead. "It certainly hadn't been written with Michael in mind," says Lin, a New Jersey native and NYU grad.But the actor read twhe script and dove into the role of the young father plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions.Davidson, who nixed Florida State's graduate film school at the last minute and instead jumped right into producing with a pair of pics that includes the January Jones-Lukas Haas starrer "Swedish Auto," put together the financing for "Take Shelter," which cost less than $5 million."You have to stay flexible in this business," says the U. of Virginia alum, who has three films scheduled to lense early next year through his Low Spark Films. "You can't be so protective of any one vision or project. Sometimes it's the flexibility both on a creative and business level that is the difference between a film being made or not being made."10 PRODUCERS TO WATCH 2011Jason Michael Berman | Borderline Films | Tyler Davidson & Sophia Lin | James Gay-Rees | Lawrence Inglee | Red Granite Pictures | Laura Rister | Jonathan Schwartz | Diarmid Scrimshaw | Kevin Walsh Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Academy to fete Redgrave

The Academy of movement Picture Arts and Sciences will recognition Vanessa Redgrave at its first European tribute for an actor on Sunday working in london, where she's starring with James Earl Johnson within the stage manufacture of "Driving Miss Daisy." The big event, located by scribe David Hare, includes special visitors Meryl Streep, Rob Fiennes, Joely Richardson, James Earl Johnson and Eileen Atkins. Past Academy leader Sid Ganis will introduce the evening. The salute will explore Redgrave's "dramatic range and exquisite skill," the Academy stated. Redgrave, 74, rose to prominence in 1961, playing Rosalind in "As You Desire It" using the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since that time, she's made an appearance in a large number of theatrical productions and most 70 films, that she received six Academy Award nominations along with a win for supporting actress in 1977's "Julia." She was nominated for performances in "Morgan!" (1966), "Isadora" (1968), "Mary, Full of Scots" (1971), "The Bostonians" (1984) and "Howards Finish" (1992). She stars in "Anonymous," now in release, and also the approaching "Coriolanus." Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

AFM 2011: Drafthouse Buys United States Privileges for Belgian Oscar Hopeful 'Bullhead,' 'Clown'

our editor recommendsBullhead: Berlin ReviewMafia Film 'Bullhead' Belgium's Official Oscar CandidateRelated Subjects•AFM 2011 Drafthouse Films, the independent distribution arm from the Alamo Drafthouse, stated early Friday at AFM it has signed a unique U.S. distribution cope with programming licensee and distributor Image Entertainment and hired James Emanuel Shapiro, former executive director of sales planning and purchases for Anchor Bay Entertainment, as COO. Drafthouse Films has additionally acquired United States privileges to crime drama Bullhead, Belgium's 2012 Oscar candidate for the best language film and comedy Clown. Michael Roskam's Bullheadplayed at Berlin Film Festival, amongst others, and it is in regards to a guy coping with the Belgian cattle growth the body's hormones mafia. Clownfollows "two extremely inappropriate buddies because they run amok with the Danish countryside plowing through social taboos and unspeakable debaucheries." "They perfectly embody the bold and diverse slate that people intend to release under Drafthouse Films, and Image Entertainment is the best partner to assist us obtain the largest possible achieve on their behalf,Inch stated Drafthouse Films founder Tim League. Also planned for Drafthouse Films in 2012 would be the lately introduced releases from the FPand the three dimensional restoration of eighties cult hit Comin' at Ya! The Look deal spans home video, digital, TV and VOD platforms helping expand the Alamo Drafthouse entertainment lifestyle brand. Drafthouse will release both cool product and repertory game titles included in the deal. Related Subjects Worldwide AFM 2011

Village Roadshow creates shingle in China

BEIJING -- Village Roadshow may be the latest worldwide shingle to go in the flourishing China market using the launch of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group Asia, a platform for Chinese film production and distribution. The business's slate is headed by romantic comedy "My Lucky Star," which is created by and star Chinese thesp Zhang Ziyi. VREG Asia and Dadi Media will collectively finance and co-produce the image, which is helmed by Dennie Gordon. The slate includes Stephen Chow's "Journey towards the West," a version from the "Monkey King" story. Chow will helm, produce and write "Journey," while Bingo Group, VREG Asia and Edko Films are collectively financing and co-creating. VREG Asia's topper is going to be former Warner Bros. China professional Ellen Eliasoph, that has 25 years' experience in the area, with Ming "Beaver" Kwei as executive veep of development and production, and Lizhi Chen as veep of selling and distribution. "Getting labored with China's filmmakers and film companies for several years inside a joint effort to build up the film market, I'm gratified to witness China's growing emergence like a major player within the global film industry, and delighted to take part in it," stated Eliasoph, who handled Warner Bros.' participation in "Turn Left, Turn Right," "The Colored Veil" and "Crazy Stone." "VREG Asia will propel this trend forward by working carefully with China's filmmakers, helping them tell their tales, and dealing to create their films for an ever-widening audience all over the world.Inch VREG Asia has additionally created proper overseas alliances using the leading Australian visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic, Cimarron Group, an entertainment marketing group with offices in Beijing and La, and also the researching the market and marketing information company Screen Engine. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com