New You'll be able to Occasions Former Boss Made Greater Than The Business Did

Bloomberg smartly notes that former NY Occasions Boss Jesse Robsinson’s$24M bundle this season was “equal close to 2.4% in the companys market cost of $981.9 million, and exceeds the roughly $3 million the business acquired in internet gain within the last four years.”The company’s proxy statement, out today, states Robinson — who left within the finish of 2011 — had an $11.3M compensation package a year ago($1M salary, $767,533 available honours, $797,185 in option honours, $3.6M in non-equity incentives, $523,898 in deferred compensation and $4.6M in other compensation). That’sup 113.2% versus 2010, but includes in “other compensation” a $4.5M fee therefore the organization can request her just like a consultant this year. On top of her compensation, Robinson is entitled close to $11.4M in retirement benefits. Her exit deal includes a “two-year non-competition, non-solicitation and non-disparagement covenant, a 3-year cooperation covenant plus an indefinite discretion covenant.” The business famous her “leadership throughout recent challenging a number of other significant accomplishments throughout her 28-year tenure using the organization”including the development of its digital strategy. It doesn’t hold her responsible for the 22.4% drop inside the Occasions’ market cost this season, or perhaps the 80% drop since she increased being Boss in the finish of 2004.

Julie Benz Will get Female Lead In Syfy Series Defiance, Pilot Rewind Casts First Actor

EXCLUSIVE: Dexter alumna Julie Benz will star opposite Grant Bowler Bowler within the Syfy series Defiance. Tony Curran (Support beams Of The World), Jamie Murray and Stephanie Leonidas also provide been cast within the live-action drama, written/executive created by Farscape creator Rockne S. OBannon, that was developed at the same time by having an movie game. Set on the future Earth, Defiance is occur a global where humans and aliens live together on the planet ravaged by decades of war and changed by alien terra-developing machines. It focuses on Jeb Nolan (Bowler), what the law states-keeper inside a busy frontier boomtown that's among the new mobile phone industry's couple of oasis of calmness and inclusion. Benz, repped by ICM and Vincent Cirrincione, will have Amanda Rosewater, the idealistic recently hired mayor from the mining boomtown who's going to maintain peace locally. Leonidas will have Irisa, an attractive warrior who's a part of an alien race known as the Irathients. After Nolan wiped out her criminal father, he adopted the lady and elevated her as his clever and lethal right-hands. Curran, repped by Domain and Sanders/Arstrong/Caserta, will have Datak Tarr, part of another elite alien race referred to as Castithans who schemed his way to avoid it of his home planet prior to being destroyed. Murray, repped by Sanders/Arstrong/Caserta, will have Dataks beautiful and proper wife. Scott Stewart (Legion) will direct Defiance, slated to start production in April in Toronto. Kevin Murphy will executive produce. Benz just wrapped the indie Supremacy. Shane McRae may be the first actor cast in Syfys two-hour pilot Rewind, from BermanBraun and Universal Cable Prods.Compiled by Justin Marks and directed by Jack Bender, Rewind involves a team of military area agents and civilian researchers who must use untested technology to visit in time for you to alter past occasions to be able to alter the future and steer clear of a devastating terrorist attack. McRae, repped by Gersh and TMT Entertainment, will have Henry Knox,ex-Special Forces who now ranks like a area operative inside a special division from the Department of Homeland Security.Rewind can also be set to start production in April.

Benedict Freedman dies at 92

Benedict Freedman, a mathematics professor at L.A.'s Occidental College who also composed movie and tv scripts, additionally to books, died Feb. 24 in Corte Madera, Calif. He was 92.Freedman written 10 books along with his wife, Nancy, one of these simple, the bestseller "Mrs. Mike," was modified in to a 1949 feature film starring Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes. It and film were using the true story from the Mountie and also the wife in Canada's remote far north. "Mrs. Mike" remains in guides.As he was married in 1941, Freedman have been a showbiz veteran. He dropped from Columbia U. at 16 to help support his family, prone to behave as a comedy author for radio. The happy couple met at MGM, where Freedman will be a author and Nancy a young actress.His bigscreen efforts incorporated the 1954 sci-fi comedy "The Atomic Kid," scripted by Freedman and John Fenton Murray in the story by Blake Edwards. It saw Mickey Rooney's character remade with the pressure from the nuclear blast. Freedman paired again with Murray round the original script for 1956 B-movie adventure "Jaguar" and again on 1961 comedy "Everything's Ducky," starring Rooney and Buddy Hackett as ocean adventurers who sneak a speaking duck onto their ship.Freedman written scripts for television shows including "The Mickey Rooney Show," "The Red-colored-colored Skelton Hour," "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Most Popular Martian."He was produced in NY City, to David Freedman, a author for radio and Broadway, and also the wife, Beatrice, a violinist.He increased to become math wizzard only after returning to college, this time around around UCLA, within the late 40s.Nancy died this season. Freedman is managed to get by three children eight grandchildren four great-grandchildren together with a sister. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

Musician Mike Melvoin dies at 74

Jazz pianist, composer, arranger, former Recording Academy president and prolific studio musician Mike Melvoin died on Feb. 23 in Burbank. He was 74. Sporting a recording resume that included the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" as well as key recordings from Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, the Jackson 5 and Tom Waits, Melvoin was also active as a film and TV composer and released a number of respected jazz recordings under his own name. Born in Oshkosh, Wisc., Melvoin began singing at age 2 and playing piano at 3. He told William Grimm in a 2003 interview, "(I thought) the alphabet ended with G." He attended Dartmouth College in the late 1950s and in 1961 moved to Los Angeles, where he became a fixture in the city's jazz scene, playing with the likes of Joe Williams and Peggy Lee. Melvoin released his first album as a bandleader, "Keys to Your Mind," on the Liberty label in 1966, a year that also saw him notch studio time on the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" single and "Pet Sounds" LP, as well as Sinatra's "That's Life." Studio work on Lennon's "Stand by Me," Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen," the Jackson 5's "ABC" and Waits' live album "Nighthawks at the Diner" would follow. Melvoin began composing for TV and film in the early '70s and contributed scores to skeins "Fame" and "MacGyver." He had a small role in the Robert De Niro-directed "The Good Shepherd" in 2006. Melvoin was the first active musician to serve as topper of the Recording Academy. He received a Grammy nomination in 2003 for his recording of "All or Nothing at All," as well as lifetime achievement awards from the Friends of Jazz at UCLA and Los Angeles Jazz Society. Continuing the family tradition, Melvoin's twin daughters Wendy and Susannah played and recorded with Prince in the 1980s (with the former forming half of the Wendy & Lisa duo), and his son Jonathan was a touring member of the Smashing Pumpkins until his death in 1996. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Imax profit plunges to $6.3 mil

Imax net profit plunged last quarter to $6.3 million from $54 million, mostly on a major tax benefit the year before. Revenue eased to $67 million from $69 million.Backing out the tax item and others, net income fell to $9 million from $14 million. That was in line with Wall Street expectations given the quarter's soft box office.Company said 2011 was a year of record signings and installations with 497 Imax theaters installed in commercial multiplexes, up 33%, driven by China, Russia and North America. In 2012, CEO Rich Gelfond said the company will focus on South America, including four new theaters in Brazil, Western Europe and India, where a recent deal will bring Bollywood titles to Imax.Earlier this week, Imax named London-based Andrew Cripps, prexy of Paramount Pictures International, to oversee the rollout in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.Fourth quarter's film highlight was the December early release of Paramount's ''Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol,'' with scenes shot using Imax cameras. The five-day window when Imax had the pic to itself helped ''helped lead to its status as the must-see film of the holiday season,'' said Gelfond.Separately Thursday, Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions, MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that the next James Bond pic ''Skyfall'' will be released in Imax theaters simultaneously with its international release Oct. 26, and its domestic release on Nov. 9. It will be the first Imax installment of the franchise.Imax said it signed contracts for 209 theater systems last year, including 26 in the fourth quarter, and installed 170 systems -- 57 for the quarter. At year end, there were 263 theater systems in backlog. The company expects to install 95 to 100 new theater systems in 2012, 45-50 under revenue sharing pacts and about 50 under sales arrangements.''Overall, 2011 was highly productive from a strategic perspective,'' Gelfond said, and that's carried into 2012 ''as the recent WTO agreement with China, highlighting IMAX, should enhance programming flexibility in our biggest international market.''''We believe we are positioning ourselves for both financial and strategic success, through our continued focus on differentiation, executing on network growth, and creating a compelling film slate,'' he said.The 2012 lineup is anchored by key franchise titles including ''The Dark Knight Rises,'' which will feature more footage shot in IMAX than any feature film to date; ''The Avengers,'' ''Men in Black 3,'' ''The Amazing Spider-Man,'' ''The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' and ''Skyfall.'' Gelfond said Imax also plans to expand local film releases. It's been been active in China and will move into Russia and France. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

David Stainton ankles Vital animation

StaintonWith the announcement of David Stainton's resignation carrying out a short tenure as mind of Paramount's fledgling animated film division, the question becomes: Without any films yet slated for release, where will it move from here?Four several weeks after employing the previous Disney feature animation leader, Vital introduced Wednesday that Stainton could be departing for private reasons, adding that Vital Movie Group prexy Adam Goodman will take control from the animation team of developers.InchWe're grateful for that time David spent in the studio and that we wish him well in the future endeavors," Goodman stated inside a statement.Vital hired Stainton in October to mind its new in-house animation division, that was introduced last This summer after "Rango" -- its first animated pic not created by DreamWorks Animation -- made a lot more than $240 million worldwide.At that time, this news seemed to be considered a settling tactic with DWA, whose distribution cope with Vital was set to run out in the finish of 2012. Both sides stated that the division might have no relation to discussions -- which were not even designed to begin until early 2012. But sources outdoors the studio saw the initiative as leverage that Vital could provide.The first arrange for the brand new division ended up being to release one pic annually starting in 2014. Though no film continues to be slated for any release yet, studio has stated several viable candidates have been in the whole shebang, including an adaptation from the graphic novel, "New Kid." Contact Justin Kroll at justin.kroll@variety.com

NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the leader of a team of special agents belonging to the NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) Major Case Response Team. Gibbs, a former Marine, is a tough investigator and a highly skilled interrogator who relies on his gut instinct as much as evidence. Gibbs' second in command is Senior Field Agent Tony DiNozzo, a womanizing, movie-quoting former Baltimore Homicide Detective, who despite being the class clown always gets the job done. The team also consists of probationary field agent Ziva David, a former Mossad officer who is a skilled fighter, as well as Junior Field Agent Timothy McGee, a computer-savvy agent often mocked by DiNozzo. Assisting them are Abby Sciuto, the energetic-but-Goth lab tech who is like a daughter to Gibbs, and Dr. Donald Mallard, nicknamed Ducky, the eccentric medical examiner full of unusual stories. This team of elite agents, based in Washington, D.C., solve criminal cases involving Marine and Navy personnel and their families, sometimes traveling the United States - or the world - to do it.