Arrow co-creator Marc Guggenheim’s first novel, Overwatch, is out April 15. It's the story of a young CIA attorney named Alex Garnett, the son of a former chief of staff to the president, who gets sucked into a conspiracy at the spy agency. our editor recommends Guggenheim, who himself was a lawyer for a brief time, has written in just about every other medium -- TV, comics, even video games. Among his writing credits are the TV shows The Practice, Jack & Bobby and Arrow; the movies Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters and Green Lantern; the comics Aquaman, Amazing Spiderman and Young X-Men; and the script for the video game Call of Duty 3. And now he’s brought his talents to the printed page of prose. He talked with The Hollywood Reporter about Overwatch, the classic tension between fathers and sons and what’s ahead on Arrow. THR: What’s the elevator pitch for Overwatch? Guggenheim: Basically, it's "Lincoln Lawyer" meets "Jack Ryan.” The slightly more evolved elevator pitch is basically the CIA has a legal department, so imagine a story kind of like The Firm set in the corridors of the CIA. I have a great love of John Grisham and Scott Turow for legal thrillers as well as a great love of Jack Ryan's stories written by Tom Clancy. This idea, this milieu, sort of struck me as the opportunity to mix the two things and come up with a chocolate peanut butter cup of a novel where I could take two great tastes and hopefully make them taste great together. How did you come up with the premise? I remember very vividly actually. My sister-in-law was reading a book on the CIA, which I think was like The Idiot's Guide to the CIA or something like that, and she called me up very excited one day and she said, "Do you know that the CIA had a legal department?" And I did actually but I was fascinated and I went on the Internet and started researching and found out about the CIA's office of general counsel. The more I researched, the more I became convinced that this was a really interesting arena to set a story in. As I thought about it some more, I guess I've always been fascinated by the story behind the story or the world that hides out in plain sight that no one knows about. That got me thinking about what if there was a shadow agency? I don't want to spoil too much of the novel but I was sort of fascinated by what makes an agency legitimate. We've ceded a lot of power and authority to the CIA, the NSA, the FBI all of those three-letter agencies, and I thought it would be incredibly easy for one such agency to basically go off the reservation and start doing whatever they wanted to do and not taking orders from anyone and if this agency was in the world of covert operations, then there would be no means of oversight. I found that very interesting and it struck me as a good engine for this milieu of the CIA's legal department. Mainly because as a former lawyer, I'm very interested in the discrepancies sometimes between what's legal and what's right. I think when you're dealing with covert affairs and the potential lack of oversight, that line between what's legal and what's right can become very blurred and that's sort of one of the themes of the novel. I wanted to examine and challenge assumptions about who the good guys are and who the bad guys are in a world where there really are no black hats or white hats. Everybody's just wearing great. It has a classic Arrow dynamic of a son struggling to come out of the shadow of his father. What about that appeals to you? I started the novel actually a couple years before Arrow. I think the issue of strong parents and parents casting a long shadow is something that I return to a lot throughout a variety of different projects I've worked on. It's funny, I don't spend a lot of time sort of looking under the hood. But I guess I'm very interested in the concept of parentage and I think by writing a long time, it manifests itself as fathers and sons but I'm the father of two daughters. I think mothers can be as influential on sons as fathers. It's not necessarily a father-son thing, it is a parent-child thing. I guess I am very interested in it. A little bit of that is what is nature, what's nurture. A little bit of that is, well, with the case of Alex, what happens if your parent is extremely successful? I think a lot of kids of very successful parents either manage to follow in their footsteps and have great success themselves, or they go in the exact operate direction. They're total screw-ups. I guess I'm somewhat interested in what tips the balance. What is your own accomplishment and what is the boost you get from your parents is a great question. I think so, too. I think all parents want their children to be more successful than themselves. You always want your children standing on your shoulders and reaching for greater heights. But the world isn't necessarily set up that way. I think actually there are some parents that deep down don't want their children to succeed them. They've actually got their place in life by being so competitive that that competition instinct doesn't switch itself off just for your kids. I think there's a lot of interesting drama any way you slice it. One of those things I wanted to do with the novel was give the protagonist an opportunity to actually exceed his father's level of success and achieve something greater than his father could achieve, but at the same time...given with some strings attached and then set him off and see what would happen and what choices he would make. Did you try the story in a different format first? A screenplay or pilot? I played with the idea in a couple of iterations. I wrote a spec pilot which takes place in the world of the CIA, not this story but that world. Then I was between projects and someone suggested I do something I’d never do otherwise, so I decided to write a novel. Overwatch owes its parentage to books. It was a telling revelation that the comps were all literary. Is there something from TV or comics you brought to novel writing? Outlining. My comics got better when I started outlining. My process works better when I outline ahead of time but the key is don’t be beholden to an outline How did you break into the business? As a young lawyer in Boston, I was writing some scripts and decided to take a chance and come to Los Angeles. I got an agent and wrote a West Wing spec script. It just happened that David Kelley was looking to add writers to The Practice and he was looking for new writers who also had a legal background. And to top it off the place the show was set -- Boston -- was where I had practiced law. It was totally about being in the right place at the right time. That’s a great story. I don’t like telling it because it involved so much luck. The level of competition in the business is so much greater today than when I broke in. Writers are competing with more people than ever. It just seems like the traditional route of becoming an assistant on a show and moving up is becoming harder to do. Switching gears: We love Arrow at THR and are fond of calling it the best live-action superhero show ever. This season the show really seems to be firing on all cylinders. Not that last season was bad but this one is fantastic. Are you doing something different this year? Last year the episodes were fractured. This year they are more coherent and cohesive. The “B” and “C” stories connect better with the “A” What can you tell us about the remainder of the season? The people craving more screen time for the core three [Oliver, Felicity and Diggle]. That’s coming in a big way. The interview has been condensed and edited.

HBO has renewed Game of Thrones for two additional seasons, taking the fantasy drama into its sixth cycle. News of the order comes two days after the record-breaking ratings for the fourth season premiere and weeks after renewing deals with co-creators and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. our editor recommends amming president Michael Lombardo. "David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with their talented collaborators, continue to surpass themselves, and we look forward to more of their dazzling storytelling." Based on the A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones has grown over recent years to become the network's biggest series. The most recent season grossed an average weekly audience of 14.4 million viewers, and Sunday's return brought in 6.6 million viewers -- HBO's most watched telecast since the 2007 series finale of The Sopranos. The pricey series, which counts Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington among its sprawling cast of regulars, shoots across Europe with bases in Northern Ireland, Croatia and Iceland. With the renewal, Game of Thrones becomes HBO's longest-running original scripted series currently on the air. It comes as no surprise given ratings and acclaim -- as well as the pay cable network's waning lineup of original scripted dramas. HBO this year will say farewell to True Blood following its seventh and final season, and Emmy darling Boardwalk Empire will also sign off after its upcoming fifth season. Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom will return later this year for its third and final season as well. Anthology drama True Detective is also considered a lock to return but an official second-season renewal has not yet been announced. HBO this year will debut Damon Lindelof's adaptation of The Leftovers. Meanwhile, HBO has a rich comedy slate that also includes critical darling Silicon Valley, Girls, Getting On, Looking, Vice and upcoming half-hours The Brink, Ballers and Togetherness.

CNBC has ordered two reality series and put three projects into development, as well as extending the sophomore run of The Profit. our editor recommends The NBCUniversal-owned network has greenlighted unscripted entries Restaurant Kickstart with restaurateur Joe Bastianich and celebrity chef Tim Love from Shine America for a July premiere, while Filthy Rich Guide gets an August bow. Filthy Rich Guide, from Leopard USA, follows how the 0.001 percent spend their money. The extended eight-episode order for The Profit, which follows entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis who saves struggling businesses while investing his own cash in the process, comes on the heels of last Tuesday's most watched episode for the network in viewers and the adults 25-54 demographic. The new episodes, which have yet to be filmed, will air in October. Meanwhile, new projects CNBC has put into development include Restaurant Confidential: New York (working title), which follows the money and chronicles the struggles and triumphs of various restaurants in the competitive New York food scene. All3Media's Eli Holzman, Stephen Lambert and Aaron Saidman are executive producers. Hard Money (working title) is billed as an inside look at "the high-octane world of 'hard money' lending." Matador produces, with Jay Peterson and Todd Lubin executive producing. The third project is More Money More Problems (working title), a docuseries that centers on athletes, CEOs, actors, musicians and high-net-worth individuals who went from rags to riches to rags. “It’s an exciting time for us in primetime. The Profit is building a loyal fan base with viewers who want to be entertained but also want to get insights as to why businesses fail and how they can flourish,” said Jim Ackerman, senior vp primetime alternative programming. “And our two new series, Restaurant Kickstart and Filthy Rich Guide, are great additions to our lineup and reinforce what we have said all along, that money and business are great backdrops for storytelling."

CANNES -- Kids distributor PGS Entertainment has inked deals here at MIPTV with Cartoon Network in Italy and in Latin America for the comedy-adventure animated series Super 4. our editor recommends Inspired by Playmobil’s universe, Super 4 is produced by Method Animation and Morgen studios, with France Televisions as commissioning broadcaster. PGS represents the series in all territories. Produced in CGI native 3D, the series marks the first time the 40-year-old children’s brand has come to television. Philippe Soutter, president-co-founder of PGS Entertainment, said the show should "translates to fun in all languages and cultures." Added Cecilia Padula, content director for Cartoon in Italy, "The charm of the toy line has been beautifully translated to this series by Method and Morgen." Six-year-old PGS also handles properties such as The Little Prince, Stan Lee’s Mighty 7, LadyBug and Alvinnn!!! and The Chipmunks.

Showtime's Shameless revived one of its former regular characters during Sunday's season finale -- but that wasn't always the plan. During Sunday's season-four finale, former series regular Justin Chatwin made a surprising comeback as aka Jimmy (aka Steve). The character -- a con man who apparently is now going by the name Jack -- was presumed dead after the season-three finale but was seen with a character played by Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse) driving by the Gallagher household in the closing moments of the episode. STORY: 'Shameless' Surprise: Former Series Regular Returns (Video) Chatwin exited the series as a regular in June, with a rep for the cable network saying the door was left open for him to return for one or two episodes this season. But after the mystery regarding his whereabouts was not addressed early in the season, Jimmy's relationship with Fiona (Emmy Rossum) was not explored at all this year. The character, executive producer John Wells confirmed in June, was considered to have died in the season-three finale, though Jimmy's death was never seen on screen. Wells tells The Hollywood Reporter that it wasn't always the plan to bring Chatwin back. "We heard from a lot of people that they wanted more closure," he told THR this week. "We started talking to Justin six weeks before we shot it to see if he was interested in coming back and available and he said he was." Chatwin's return was kept quiet from the rest of the cast and the actor's one scene was filmed quietly in Chicago before the rest of the cast came to town. Chatwin, who was a regular on the first three seasons of the dramedy, was even housed at a different hotel in a bid to keep his return under wraps. Many of the Shameless cast found out for the first time Sunday during the East Coast broadcast of the season finale. "I thought he was dead; he was written as dead and nobody seemed to agree with me," Wells says with a laugh. "I guess we didn't sell it as well as we thought we did." This isn't the first time that Wells brought a character back from the dead. The executive producer did the same with Julianna Margulies' Nurse Carol Hathaway on NBC medical drama ER. The character, a love interest for a then relatively unknown George Clooney, was killed off in the original pilot but revived after Wells and the network tested the pilot with focus groups who responded to the character. "The audience we showed it to before it went to series didn't like that and we did [her story] again and it worked," Wells recalls of the process. Wells said it's important for producers to listen to viewers' feedback on social media and carefully select what notes are worth a second look. "We didn't want the audience to feel confused or as if we didn't tell as good a story as we could have. You have to listen to those things and that's what's great about social media: it's easier to get a sense of that over time," he says. "Though you have to be carful to what you respond to." Looking ahead, Wells says it's too early to know if Chatwin will have a larger role in the previously announced fifth season of Shameless as writers were sitting down this week to plot out the upcoming arc. The plan for now, he says, is for the season to pick up two or three months after the events of season four, which ended as Fiona (Rossum) returned home after an early release from prison and had her probation officer (played by Southland's Regina King) set her up with a diner job as well as AA and NA programs with her new boss -- played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. "I can't say too much but you can take from [Chatwin's scene] that there's something else going on; he hasn't gone back to medical school," Wells says of Jimmy's potential story line, noting his traveling companion (Lachman) remains a mystery. King and Morgan, schedules permitting, could also return. Season five will shoot in the summer and into the fall, also leaving the door open for the Gallagher's famed pot truck to return.

Cavu Pictures has come on board to release the documentary “Breastmilk” in U.S. theaters — starting with a Mother’s Day weekend release on May 7 in New York. Dana Ben-Ari directed “Breastmilk” with Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein executive producing. The film will open in Los Angeles on May 16 and expand into other markets during the summer. The film explores the social debate over breastfeeding among those who want to breastfeed, those who can’t breastfeed and the cultural impact of breastfeeding choices. Subjects covered include work-place pumping, career moms, gay parents, wet nurses, sex practices, freaked-out fathers, impassioned “lactivists” and moms who halt breastfeeding before their infant is six months old. “When we saw ‘Breastmilk’ at both the Woodstock Film Festival and the DOC NYC film festival, it was obvious how passionate audiences were for both the film and the subject of breastfeeding,” said Cavu co-persidents Michael Sergio and Isil Bagdadi. “My producing partner Abby Epstein and I were drawn to ‘Breastmilk’ because of the way filmmaker Dana Ben-Ari approached the subject of breastfeeding through personal stories, without inserting judgment or bias,” Lake said. “The film is refreshingly free of advocacy, quietly observed and elegantly filmed with a surprising amount of humor.”

V.K. Murthy who lensed the legendary Guru Dutt’s films from “Pyaasa” to “Kaagaz ke phool,” the first Indian film in Cinemascope, died April 7 in his home in Bangalore, India. He was 90. Murthy’s work in black and white included a beam shot in the “Waqt ne kiya” song sequence in “Pyaasa” that was achieved with mirrors. Other films he collaborated with Dutt included “Baazi,” “CID” “Jaal” and “Sahib bibi aur ghulam.” His intricate knowledge of how light fell helped in darker films as well as romantic comedies like “Mr. and Mrs. 1955.” India bestowed its highest cinematic honor the Dadasaheb Phalke Award on him in 2008. Born in Mysore, Murthy studied cinematography at the nascent Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic in that south Indian city. Later he went to Bombay to work in Bollywood where started as an assistant to V. Ratra on “Baazi,” which Dutt directed and where the helmer first noticed him. “When ‘Baazi’ was being made, I suggested to Guru Dutt that one entire song be panned in one shot,” Murthy said in a 2008 interview with the Times of India. “The scene was Dev Anand (the lead) standing at a bar, his back to the dance floor. When I saw Dev’s reflection in the mirror, I followed the movement of the reflection, shot it in close-ups and panned down to Dev, who moves towards the dancer. It was a tracking and trolley movement. After pack-up, Guru Dutt told me, ‘You’ll be my cameraman from my next film.’ “ While the two partnered on several films, Dutt’s favorite heroine Waheeda Rehman recounted that the director was impatient with delays when the d.p. slowly arranged the shot the two had discussed with Dutt sometimes walking off the set. “When Guru Duttji explained a shot he wanted to Murthy, he wanted the shot ready at once,” she’s quoted as saying in “Conversations With Waheeda Rehman” by Nasreen Munni Kabir. “But they were never simple — they often involved complicated angles, trolley movements, close ups, mid shots etc.” After Dutt’s death in 1964, Murthy worked on other Bollywood blockbusters of the 1960s such as “Tumse achha kaun hai,” and “Nastik” but once films started to shoot in color his star was on the wane. Murthy himself thought there was no difference between color and B&W. “It all depends on the lighting. Filmmakers didn’t understand the concept of color. They’d want many lights and stars with heavy make-up — but I used the black-and-white technique for color too. I would use soft light and tell the artists to use minimum make-up. Otherwise, color throws up all the negatives of the artists. Survivors include a daughter.

Sony has signed Breck Eisner to direct its sequel to “The Karate Kid,” its hit 2010 actioner starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. The rebooted “Kid” grossed $343 million worldwide with Harald Zwart directing. Jerry Weintraub, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz produced. Eisner’s credits include “Sahara” and “The Crazies.” He’s also attached to Summit’s fantasy-actioner “The Last Witch Hunter,” starring Vin Diesel. Eisner is repped by CAA and Management 360.

It’s a suggestion every filmmaker dreads reading while perusing notes from a producer: “Can’t you make your protagonist more likable?” But in the case of “Sequoia,” such a recommendation might have been well heeded. As Riley, an angry young woman bent on beating the reaper before she’s felled by cancer, Aly Michalka is much too convincing in her fingernails-on-chalkboard abrasiveness, making it difficult to develop a rooting interest in her character’s fate until the three-quarters mark of helmer Andy Landen’s road-movie dramedy. Long before that point, unfortunately, many if not most viewers will have switched off this VOD-bound indie. To be fair, Michalka appears to be playing the role as it’s written by scripter Andrew Rothschild, who doesn’t stint on doling out annoying qualities to the supporting characters as well. But Landen and Michalka might have made the long journey more involving had they given the audience earlier and fuller insights into Riley’s fear and pain, while emphasizing her seemingly endless capacity for savage snark. Facing few acceptable options and long odds against survival after a late-stage cancer diagnosis, Riley hatches a typically self-aggrandizing plan to kill herself by pharmaceutical overdose atop a mountain in the Sequoia National Forest. As she sees it, the suicide will be less an escape from agony and/or disfigurement than one last guilt-tripping attack on her self-absorbed mother, Bev (Joey Lauren Adams), a self-published author who followed her muse after turning Riley and her sister Savanna (Sophi Bairley) over to their alcoholic father, Oscar (Todd Lowe). While en route to the spot where she intends to shuffle off her mortal coil, Riley meets cute with Ogden (Dustin Milligan), a devout yet flexible Christian volunteer on his way to a Third World ministry. Maybe he sees Riley as a soul to be saved, or maybe he’s looking to raise some hell before doing God’s work. Whatever his motive, Ogden evinces the patience of Solomon as he remains in Riley’s orbit, if only to make sure her last minutes are relatively peaceful. Meanwhile, members of Riley’s dysfunctional family — along with Bev’s latest boyfriend, Steve (Demetri Martin), a control-freakish psychologist — follow in what can only be described in lukewarm pursuit. Amid the spectacular scenery captured by Steven Ringer’s ace lensing, the Riley-Ogden relationship plays out at a lackadaisical pace, with frequent cutaways to the other characters squabbling within the close quarters of Bev’s car. Time passes, but not quickly enough. There are two indisputably effective moments in “Sequoia,” one depicting a genuinely creepy interaction between Savanna and Steve (who threatens to be a stern disciplinarian after he marries her mom), and the other an atypically serene conversation between Riley and a fellow cancer patient (a beautifully played cameo by Lou Diamond Phillips) near a tree rumored to have healing powers. For the most part, however, “Sequoia” is such a charm-free grind that some viewers may actually start hoping at the midway point for Riley to drink the toxic cocktail and just get it over with.

Jacqueline Bisset has been cast as the female lead in the independent period drama “Peter and John.” Director Jay Craven begins filming later this month in Nantucket for Kingdom County Prods. “Peter and John” is based on the 1887 Guy de Maupassant novel “Pierre et Jean,” which recounts the story of a French family whose lives are changed when a deceased family friend leaves his estate to one of the sons. Bisset won the Golden Globe in January for best supporting actress in a TV miniseries for “Dancing on the Edge.” She will be seen next in director Abel Ferrara’s “Welcome to New York,” starring opposite Gerard Depardieu in the drama based on the rise and fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

As its title implies, “She’s Lost Control” tracks the gradual breakdown of its heroine (Brooke Bloom), a grad student working as a sexual surrogate in New York. A hundred eighty degrees away from the sentimentality of the similarly themed “The Sessions,” Anja Marquardt’s debut feature favors cold, clinical compositions, often showing characters from behind; this austerity, while mirroring the clients’ intimacy issues, also creates an uncomfortable tension with Bloom’s open, hopeful expressions. Whether Marquardt’s radically distanced style reflects a purely aesthetic choice or an attempt to downplay sensationalism, the absence of warmth may chill potential audience response. Ronah (Bloom) operates in tandem with a psychiatrist (Dennis Boutsikaris) who refers patients to her services. She enjoys a friendly relationship with a few clients (Tobias Segal, Robert Longstreet) whose sessions the film samples — some in conversation, some in bed. When not working, she consults with her own shrink/mentor (Laila Robins), and impatiently communicates via Skype with her increasingly worried brother (Ryan Homchick) about their mentally ill mother. She visits a clinic to extract and freeze her eggs, and eats lonely dinners in her featureless apartment. Walking to her various appointments, Ronah traverses a cityscape composed of angled, unyielding surfaces that cramp and hem her in. Her manner with patients resembles that of a concerned relative or confidante, in many ways offering a low-rent “Girlfriend Experience,” with a starkness that replaces the high-tech patina of Steven Soderbergh’s Gotham. But Ronah’s caring professionalism is called into question by her new client Johnny (Marc Menchaca), a good-looking, red-bearded anesthesiologist who proves unusually recalcitrant. Marquardt traces their relationship from its beginnings, with a swab test for STDs, payment upfront, and paperwork that ensures confidentiality while specifying that their encounters are “not for sexual gratification or entertainment.” Certainly no one here seems particularly gratified or entertained. As his meetings with Ronah progress, in exercises designed to increase intimacy, Johnny takes one step backward for every two he advances, still recoiling at times from being touched or leaving abruptly when he feels threatened. Ronah, on the other hand, begins to fall for her patient, secretly spying on him at work and becoming jealous of his ease with a female colleague. Other pressures mount: Marquardt refrains from treating a leak in Ronah’s bathroom wall as a lesion through which horror seeps (no “Dark Water,” this), though the incident does escalate into a full-blown landlord/tenant dispute as everyone within the heroine’s purview turns impossibly needy or hostile, Johnny shockingly so. Marquardt never buries her symbolic subtext very deep, what with a woman who freezes her eggs and a man who ensures that his patients feel nothing. She presents a tightly wound, lonesome heroine whose only promise of intimacy (sex) must be compartmentalized and intellectualized. Ronah’s loss of control brings neither catharsis nor liberation, either to the character or to the film. Marquardt includes indie helmer Lodge Kerrigan in her end-credits acknowledgments and her film owes an obvious debt to his unsettling aesthetic. But where Kerrigan pushes his minimalism to extremes, Marquardt naturalizes it, paradoxically lessening any sense of what has been left out of the emotional equation. Cinematographer Zach Galler’s low-lit compositions, reducing the characters’ readability while increasing their loneliness, combines with David Meyer’s barren production design to amplify the overall atmosphere of dreary alienation.

From 1937 to 1946, Mickey Rooney played clean-cut, wide-eyed Midwestern teenager Andy Hardy 15 times in a series of films that proved instrumental (along with his Judy Garland musicals) in making him one of the most popular movie stars of his era. They also surely came to feel like a gilded prison around the actor. By the time the series ended, the Hardy character had been to WWII and back (as had Rooney), yet still seemed incapable of getting past first base with a girl (whereas Rooney was already on the second of his eight marriages). The Mickster’s thirst for more adult roles was palpable, and Hollywood took a few different stabs at figuring out what to do with him. There was a series of sports films designed to show off the five-foot-two actor’s virile, athletic side: the boxing drama “Killer McCoy” (1947), in which he is a highly improbable light heavyweight; the car-racing programmer “The Big Wheel” (1949); and “The Fireball” (1950), about a champion roller skater. But Rooney would prove a far better fit for the seedy, downtrodden world of film noir: He gave two of his best performances in a pair of unjustly overlooked classics of the genre. Rooney had come to noir via the 1950 “Quicksand,” a taut, independently made thriller (which he partly financed along with his co-star, Peter Lorre) in which he stars as a naive auto mechanic whose seemingly innocuous theft of $20 from the store cash register snowballs into a series of increasingly violent and dangerous criminal acts. Several degrees greater, however, is 1954’s “Drive a Crooked Road,” where Rooney is once again a mechanic, this time seduced by a gangster’s sultry moll (Dianne Foster) into serving as the getaway driver for a Palm Springs bank heist. The movie’s ad copy — “Why Would a Dame Like Her Go for a Guy Like Me?”— effectively summed it up. Expertly directed by Richard Quine (a frequent Rooney collaborator) from a crackling script by the young Blake Edwards, “Drive” turns on Rooney’s diminutive stature and equally deflated sense of self, casting him as a decent but self-loathing loner who allows himself to be duped by Foster’s transparent charms — and it reveals a darkness in the actor that no movie quite had before. Darker still is “Baby Face Nelson” (1957), directed by the great Don Siegel (“Dirty Harry”) and featuring Rooney as the eponymous John Dillinger associate, known for his trigger-happy ways and massive Napoleon complex. It is an unsparing, startlingly violent film that in many ways anticipates “Bonnie and Clyde” by a decade (unsurprisingly, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther panned it, too), and Rooney is absolutely terrifying in it: shifty, seething with rage against the world, primed to explode. Siegel’s film is rarely screened today and has never been released on any homevideo format; Rooney’s death makes its revival seem all the more urgent. After “Baby Face Nelson,” Rooney veered back to more likable movie roles, but on TV he had one more unqualified triumph in the pit of despair. In “The Comedian” (1957), directed live by John Frankenheimer for the anthology series “Playhouse 90,” he is Sammy Hogarth, a vituperative TV comic who spews invective at all who surround him, not least his long-suffering brother/assistant (Mel Torme). “Don’t make me the heavy all the time!” Hogarth bellows in one of his rants. Rooney only occasionally got to play the heavy, but when he did, he was rarely more brilliant. Photo: Post-WWII, the actor stretched in 1954’s “Drive a Crooked Road.”

“Major Crimes” actress Nadine Velazquez has joined the cast of New Line’s horror-thriller “Crawlspace” alongside Michael Vartan and Erin Moriarty. Phil Claydon is directing from a script by Gary Dauberman. Peter Safran (“The Conjuring”) is producing along with Rick Alvarez. Story follows a family who discover their new house has a disturbing secret. Velazquez will play the second wife of Vartan’s character and the stepmother to Moriarty’s character. Velazquez played an airline flight attendant opposite Denzel Washington in “Flight.” She recently starred in the indie drama “Sister” alongside Reid Scott, Barbara Hershey and Illeana Douglas. She is repped by Gersh and KLWGN.

A poetic, mesmerizing fusion of fairy tale and cultural commentary from director Jessica Oreck. Ronnie Scheib Nature and civilization square off in Jessica Oreck’s poetic meditation-cum-documentary “The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga.” Alternating between two complementary narratives (fairy-tale and cultural-anthropological) in two languages (Russian and Polish) and two formats (animation and live-action), Oreck spins a mesmerizing web that appropriates a wealth of disparate Eastern European images — of mushrooms, farmers, falling trees and war-destroyed buildings — to illustrate its lyrical discourse. Probably less accessible than Oreck’s feted entomological curio “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” “Baba Yaga” ventures closer to experimental film, breaking new ground with calls to the collective unconscious that should lure adventurous arthouse auds. The story Oreck tells is simple: Man, fearing nature’s wildness, builds walls against it and demonizes it in folklore. But there is another, far more violent force within man himself that, once unleashed, sends him fleeing to a wilderness that now affords sanctuary. Eastern Europe, with its war-torn history and amalgam of ancient and modern customs, seems an obvious setting for Oreck’s dual narrative. And using alternating voices — Tatyana Zbirovskaya dramatizing the fairy tale in Russian, Mariuz Wolf offering selected cultural insights in Polish — adds immeasurably to the film’s mystique. It is doubtful that the film would pack a similar wallop in English: The almost unbroken flow of unfamiliar syllables (so that subtitles need to be deciphered by another part of the brain) hypnotically streams into the very unconscious of which it speaks, gathering eclectic imagery on the way. Oreck’s version of a well-known Slavic fairy tale replaces a wicked stepmother with hostile soldiers as the reason two children must venture into the woods. There they encounter Baba Yaga, a fearsome witch who flies around in a giant mortar and lives in a movable hut mounted on chicken feet. She demands near-impossible tasks of the sister and brother, threatening to eat them if they fail. But, aided by small representatives of nature — a talking mouse, cat and sparrow — the duo accomplish her bidding. Foiled, Baba Yaga must allow the children to leave, reluctantly giving them a magic comb; fleeing marauding soldiers, the boy throws the comb on the ground whereupon it transforms into an impenetrable thicket. The siblings wander in the forest where they are reunited with their mother and all live happily ever after. Oreck presents this fairy tale as a series of animation storyboard panels, rendered with 3D perspectives. Though these illustrations do not literally constitute animation — there is no frame-by-frame character movement linking one drawing to the next — the camera simulates storytelling by constantly roaming the panels, zooming in and out and slowly panning across surfaces. The Polish monologue, borrowing freely from evocative poetry, musings and memoirs, encompasses a far less cohesive procession of live-action images. Occasionally the images literally complement the words: When the narrator intones “Beyond the grasping reach of civilization, lost within the indistinct shadows of the forest, certainty falters,” the camera moves with disorienting swiftness through a contorted forest landscape, past Old World tableaux of bucolic enclaves where old men sit on wooden benches smoking pipes as horse-drawn wagons clomp past. But after “It is in the objectification of the world that man becomes unknowable,” the camera travels, picking up speed, past a “Weekend”-like traffic jam of stalled vehicles. Rundown, modern-day apartment buildings afford a variety of long-shot vistas, with individuals on balconies engaged in sundry activities. Grocery storefronts at twilight assume a mystical glow, while the lights of oncoming vehicles are glimpsed between the shapely legs of high-heel-clad women. Deserted, war-ravaged edifices and a crumbling schoolhouse, littered with upturned benches and curling book pages, silently attest to the cost of civilization. Though the alternation between Devin Dubrolowski’s carefully crafted drawings and d.p. Sean Price William’s freeform 16mm live-action sequences yields no overt throughline, Oreck’s vision holds fast to its premise.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tapped museum veteran Kerry Brougher as director of its new Academy Museum, sources told Variety. Brougher, the current interim director and chief curator of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, will assume his new post in the summer. Groundbreaking on the new museum is expected to take place later this year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus. Brougher has a long resume. He’s has been at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., since 2000 and spent three years as director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England. Between 1982 through 1997, he served in several slots at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He also graduated from UCLA with a master’s degree in the history of film and television. LucasFilm chief Kathleen Kennedy headed the selection committee for the AMPAS Museum post. AMPAS announced in 2012 that it had selected Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali as the architects for the $300 million museum, which is aimed celebrating the history of the Academy. The museum will be located in the former May Co. building known today as LACMA West. A past winner of the Pritzker Prize, Piano was the architect of a renovation to LACMA’s campus last decade that featured the Broad Contemporary Art Museum.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced Monday that its 30th anniversary edition will take place from Jan. 27 through Feb. 7, 2015, adding a 12th day to celebrate the fest’s entry into a third decade. SBIFF will also host a new summer film showcase – The Wave Film Festival – in an effort to bring more year-round foreign and independent films to the Santa Barbara community. SBIFF will present a five-day film fest each summer, with this year’s inaugural event focusing solely on French cinema. From July 16 through July 20, over a dozen current French films will be shown at the Riviera Theatre. “It’s fitting that as we approach the 30th anniversary SBIFF expands its programming and has more of a year-round presence with the Wave Film Festival,” SBIFF exec director Roger Durling (pictured at left) said in a statement. “In the future we hope to have several editions — or ‘waves’ — throughout the year, allowing for longevity and continued growth for SBIFF as well as the Santa Barbara community.” SBIFF is also bidding farewell to longtime managing director, Dr. Steve Blain, who will depart the fest as of April 30 to increase his commitment to UCSB and the Health Science Honors Program. Passes are now available for The Wave Film Festival and individual tickets will be sold once the schedule is announced.

n the long build-up to Cannes and the summer/fall festival season, Berlin-based Films Boutique has picked up world rights to Rodrigo Sepulveda’s “Aurora,” Chile’s latest serial prize-winner, and “Two Step,” the acclaimed Texas-set debut of scribe-helmer Alex R. Johnson. The deals are recommendations in themselves: Films Boutique only acquires seven-to-ten titles every year. Some – “Walesa, Man of Hope,” Mexico’s 2013 Cannes Un Certain Talent winner “La jaula de oro” – go on to large sales success. Both, too, are already high-profile titles, “Aurora” even before completion. Produced by Florencia Larrea (“Illiterate”) and executive-produced by Josefina Undurraga and Gregorio Gonzalez at Forastero (“The Maid”), “Aurora” was a buzz title, primarily for lead Amparo Noguera’s performance, even before competing at the Miami Festival’s Encuentros Latin American pix-in-post showcase in March, which is curated by Toronto Fest programmer Diana Sanchez. “Aurora” won Encuentros, garnering a $35,000 pre-sales contract for Latin America from the Fox International Channels Moviecity. Two weeks later, it scooped both the Toulouse Films in Progress Prize and the Cine Plus Special Prize at the Toulouse Cinelatino Rencontres in Southern France. Sepulveda’s third feature after “A Thief and His Wife” and “Padre Nuestro,” “Aurora” stars Noguera as a woman who finds a dead baby in a landfill. She seeks to adopt it, to give it a burial. “’Aurora’ is one of those few films that makes you cry but also makes you believe in love and empathy. The struggle of this woman for the dignity of the baby and the acting of Amparo Noguera make the film very special, moving and unique,” declared Films Boutique CEO Jean-Christophe Simon. The film is expected to have its world premiere at one of the summer/fall festivals, he added. “Two Step” world premiered at SXSW, also in March, to upbeat reactions. “This well-acted character-driven thriller marinates in Austin atmosphere and delivers unconventional thrills,” Variety wrote, summarizing a review that suggested a cult following could be in the offing. In “Two Step,” after the death of his grandmother, college student James inherits her house and discovers she’s been the victim of the “grandparent scam” in which someone posing as James has been slowly bilking her out of thousands. But before James can go looking for the culprit, he shows up at the front door, desperate for money. “Two Step’ is an unconventional thriller focusing on an amazing gallery of characters and on dialogues to build up its suspense,” said Simon. “The Texas atmosphere gives the film a special touch thus turning it into a very original and powerful film.”

CANNES– Argentine star scribe-helmer Pablo Trapero has been tapped to head the jury of Un Certain Regard at the upcoming Cannes Festival. In the past few years, Un Certain Regard – originally created to showcase the most experimental, left-of-field and smaller-scale films that simply didn’t make the Competition cut — has gained a higher profile under general delegate Thierry Fremaux’s leadership. “I am very proud to serve as president of the jury for Un Certain Regard. Proud to take part in another way in the adventure in Cannes. Un Certain Regard, where I have presented three of my films, is always a very exciting selection. It brings us grand masters, promising young talent, new countries and new forms of cinema,” said Trapero. A founding father of the New Argentine Cinema with 1999’s “Crane World,” a minimalist sepia and b/w chronicle of the dire hand-to-mouth economic straits of Argentina’s working class which moved waves at Buenos Aires’ new Bafici festival, Trapero is exactly the kind of filmmaker which Cannes and the French industry at large likes to champion, whether from the U.S. or beyond: An auteur who connects with a public. “Each of Pablo Trapero’s films portrays a harsh social reality in an almost documentary style, through a plot that is akin to a thriller and offers an uncompromising look at contemporary political issues,” said a Cannes press release, a statement particularly true of his sophomore pic “El Bonaerense,” unveiling corruption in the city’s police force, “Carancho,” about false accident insurance scams, and “White Elephant,” turning on two worker priests in a Buenos Aires slum villa. “White Elephant” grossed $4.2 million for Disney in Argentina and $1.3 million in Spain, placing Trapero in the select club of Latin American filmmakers whose movies can open in foreign territories to seven-figure takes. In a career which has constantly opened up, Trapero has been attached to direct Working Title’s English-language India-set “Six Suspects,” a murder mystery. Tags like “New Argentine Cinema” can be useful, Trapero concedes. “But things are very different from 15 years ago. Problems, anguish and desires over the Western world are very similar. I like being an Argentine director, but I also like a kind of cinema that isn’t defined by geographic or political frontiers, but by how it relates to people who see it,” he told Variety. Having served as an associate producer on Lisandro Alonso’s “Freedom,2” in 2002,with Martina Gusman, Trapero created Matanaza Cine, a production house for his films and those of a new generation of Argentine filmmakers such as Raul Perrone, Albertina Carriu and Santiago Palavecino. Trapero has strong ties with the French Riviera-set festival: His sophomore pic “El Bonaerense” played at Un Certain Regard in 2002, while his 2008 drama “Lion’s Den” screened in competition. Trapero was back in Cannes in 2010 with ”Carancho” and with 2012′s “White Elephant,” which both world-premiered in Un Certain Regard. Part of the official selection, Un Certain Regard’s lineup includes 20 films. The full program will unveiled at the Cannes film fest’s press conference in Paris on April 17. As previously announced, Jane Campion will serve as president of the competition jury. Un Certain Regard winners will be announced on Friday, May 23, on the eve of the 67th Festival’s closing ceremony that will take place, as an exception, on a Saturday night.

Imax Corp. is selling a 20% stake in its China operation to a Chinese investment firm, an $80 million deal that will pave the way for an initial public offering. Imax said Tuesday that the investment by CMC Capital Partners would be paid over two installments, one this year and one in 2015. The deal will bring Chinese ownership to Imax China, facilitating an IPO down the road that aims to take advantage of the red-hot growth of China’s film business. Imax, the large-format exhibitor, has been among the most aggressive U.S. entertainment companies in developing business in China during the past 15 years. CMC Capital Partners is run by investor Ruigang Li and China-focused private equity firm FountainVest Partners. “China is an enormously complex market in which we have accomplished quite a bit over the last 15 years,” said Imax Corp. CEO Richard L. Gelfond. “At this juncture, it makes sense to bring in Chinese investors to help us better address local market dynamics and further optimize our business in China, including both our core theatre business as well as new business initiatives such as the home theatre joint venture we announced last year with TCL. We believe Ruigang Li and CMC, as well as FountainVest, are ideal partners whose status, leadership and expertise will be invaluable in helping us accomplish these goals.” Gelfond emphasized that the partnership with CMC would help fuel its expansion plans and strengthen relationships with government officials. Imax at present has 173 screens in China and a backlog of 273 waiting to open. “China’s movie and entertainment industry is at a critical point of its development,” Ruigang Li, chairman of CMC Capital Partners, said. “As the preeminent investment platform in China dedicated to the media and entertainment sector, CMC is excited to be able to forge this strategic alliance with Imax … Based on our common understanding of market opportunities, industry evolution trends, and effective strategy, CMC and FountainVest look forward to working together with Imax towards accelerating the growth of China’s movie and entertainment sector and increasing the presence of premium China entertainment content throughout the global market.” Imax China will remain a subsidiary of Imax Corp., but it will be governed by a nine-member board of directors comprising six Imax reps, one each from CMC and FountainVest and one independent seat. Raine Group advised Imax on the deal.

Organizers of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival have tapped a roster of industry types including Sheila Nevins, Anton Yelchin, Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Wesley, Catherine Hardwicke, Toni Collette and Natasha Lyonne, among others, to serve as jurors for the fest’s seven competitive categories. Hardwicke will judge the world narrative competish with a jury that includes Lake Bell and Steven Conrad (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”), while the world doc winner will be selected by a team that includes New York magazine’s David Edelstein and BBC journo Nick Fraser. Thesps Jeff Goldblum and Adepero Oduyo are part of the jury to pick the award winner for new narrative director, while Heather Graham and Michael Stuhlbarg are among those selecting the recipient of the new doc helmer laurel. Wesley, Goldberg and Nevins, along with Christine Lahti and Alfonso Arau, will crown the winner of the narrative short film competish and Collette and Yelchin — whose pic “5 to 7″ will play during the fest — will judge the doc and student visionary competitions. Juries have also been assembled to select a winner for the Storyscapes section of transmedia programming and for the Nora Ephron Prize, handed out this year by Delia Ephron, Lyonne and Gary Ross. All told, the 2014 fest’s juries will dole out a total of $150,000 (plus an additional $25,000 for the Ephron kudo), with winners also taking home an original artwork as a trophy. This year’s edition of TFF kicks of April 16 with Nas doc “Time is Illmatic” and runs through April 27, with award winners to be announced April 24.

ROME – The TaorminaFilmFest will fete Claudia Cardinale with its Taormina Arte Award and a retro dedicated to the iconic Italo actress best known for her roles in Luchino Visconti’s “The Leopard” and Federico Fellini’s “8 1\2.” Located in Sicily, Taormina is among Europe’s oldest fests, being relaunched in recent editions with a more mainstream format by artistic director Mario Sesti and general manager Tiziana Rocca. For its upcoming edition the fest will also celebrate multiple-Oscar-winning production design duo Francesca Lo Schiavo and Dante Ferretti. Taormina’s 60th edition will run June 14-21.

Hollywood showed lots of affection for Cleveland at Monday night’s premiere of Lionsgate’s Cleveland-set “Draft Day” at the Regency Village. “I loved being in Cleveland,” Jennifer Garner asserted at the post-screening bash, set up on a mock football field with bleachers, goalposts and Cleveland Browns highlights. “People are so real and s0 nice.” “We were there during this time of year, so it wasn’t the tough winter weather and I love towns like Cleveland with stadiums in town, so you can sneak out during work to go see a game,” Kevin Costner mused. Costner allowed that in real life, he’s as well-schooled in pro football as his “Draft Day” character, the general manager of the Cleveland Browns. “Yes, I do know that much about football,” he added. Screenwriter Rajiv Joseph admitted that he had not planned to set the film in Cleveland. “I’m a huge Browns fan and I couldn’t write dispassionately about the team, so we set the film in Buffalo,” he explained. “Then the producers set it in Cleveland anyhow because of incentives.” Joseph’s co-writer Scott Rothman admitted that he was amazed at the scale of the film, complete with the NFL’s blessing and access to archival footage. “We never really expected the film to get made; when we started working, we thought this was going to be very small without the NFL getting involved,” he added. Director Ivan Reitman said that he made the film for those who know little about football. “Our idea all along was to make a film for people who aren’t football fans, so it’s gratifying to hear people say that they don’t know anything about football but they really like the film,” Reitman noted. “At least, that’s what they’re telling me tonight.” “Draft Day” hits theaters Friday.

Drew Goddard is in negotiations to direct Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff “Sinister Six” from his own script. The studio and Marvel Entertainment first revealed the “Sinister Six” and “Venom” projects in December, including Goddard’s attachment as a writer with an eye to direct. Both projects are being produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach as part of Sony’s move to expand the Spider-Man universe by bringing in villains. The “Sinister Six” supervillains first appeared in 1964 and were drawn from Spider-Man’s list of enemies. Led by Doctor Octopus, they included Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman and the Vulture. Goddard, who made his feature directorial debut with “The Cabin in the Woods,” is one of five writers — along with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner and Ed Solomon — who will collaborate on overseeing the developing story over several films. The five writers, along with the two producers and Marc Webb, have formed a “franchise brain trust” to expand the universe for the brand — licensed from Marvel — and to develop a continuous tone and thread throughout the films. Webb directed 2012′s franchise reboot “The Amazing Spider-Man” and the upcoming “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Kurtzman, Orci and Pinkner wrote the screenplay for the latter, which Arad and Tolmach produced. Kurtzman, Orci and Pinkner are writing the screenplay for “The Amazing Spider-Man 3,” with Webb directing. That film will go into production next fall for release on June 10, 2016. “The Amazing Spider-Man 4″ has already been dated for May 4, 2018. “Venom” and “Sinister Six” have not been dated. Goddard is repped by UTA.

The media industry’s quietest chief is starting to roar. NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke has long seemed to cherish a reputation for saying little in public. He shattered that perception Monday by holding court with reporters and asking them to focus their attention on ratings gains the NBC broadcast network has made among viewers between 18 and 49 – the demographic advertisers most covet. “If I were a consumer, I’d want to know who won the football game, as opposed to who scored the most yards,” Burke said, referring to other networks’ highlighting the total number of viewers lured by particular programs. “We’ve got a network that is focused on the metric” against which advertisers say they want to sell, he added. Burke said NBC will finish the 2013-2014 TV season leading its nearest rival, Fox, by 12% in the 18-to-49 demo, marking what has been part of a protracted turnaround effort in place even before Comcast took control of NBCU in early 2011. The executive touted not only the new “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” but also “Today,” which he said was beating ABC’s “Good Morning America” this season in viewers between 18 and 49. The company is by no means done, Burke said, acknowledging that NBC’s Thursday-night performance is in need of work. And he noted that NBC’s ratings have been stoked by its recent Olympics broadcast and “Sunday Night Football.” But even without sports, he suggested, NBC would still run “neck and neck” with Fox. Rivals are likely to disagree. “We continue to believe in the value of every viewer and all demos, and the marketplace has responded to our mass audience and broad strength,” said a spokesman for CBS. NBCUniversal has as recently as last week played up the appeal of older audiences, including those about to transition into retirement. While Burke’s pronouncements certainly have the ait of a victory lap, they also show the Peacock trying to put a stake in the ground weeks before negotiations start for the “upfront” marketplace, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their advertising inventory for the coming season of programming. Burke said the U.S. economy was “still recovering” from the recession of 2009, but suggested ad demand has intensified, as illustrated by recent interest in NBCU’s Sochi Olympics broadcasts, which Burke said had “sold out” for the first time in years. TV networks will need to put their best foot forward in the weeks to come. Advertisers are likely to push against the notion that the economy is back to where it once was, and will also hold up dozens of other advertising options at the ready, including streaming video, social media and mobile devices. Last year’s upfront, which took place with similar economic conditions in place, was weak. The five English-language broadcast networks secured between $8.6 billion and $9.2 billion in advertising commitments in the 2013 upfront, according to Variety estimates, slightly down from the $8.8 billion to $9.3 billion they attracted in 2012. NBC, which has grappled with ratings shortfalls for several past seasons, was the only network to increase the amount of promises from sponsors, luring between $1.9 billion and $2 billion in advance advertising commitments for its prime-time entertainment schedule, excluding football. In 2012, NBC secured commitments between $1.72 billion and $1.74 billion in its 2012 upfront effort.

Showtime’s “Shameless” wrapped its fourth season Sunday with the show’s biggest-yet finale audience and its second largest audience over the years. TV PILOTS/DEVELOPMENT SCORECARD: Follow all of the development action during upfront season According to Nielsen estimates, roughly 1.93 million viewers tuned in for the regular-slot airing of “Shameless” — a 10% week-over-week build over the previous week’s episode and 6% higher than its year-ago finale (1.82 million). The high-water mark for the William H. Macy-Emmy Rossum series remains its third-season premiere in January 2013 (1.995 million). A quickie repeat of “Shameless” late Sunday drew about 900,000 to bring the night’s gross audience to roughly 2.83 million, 18% more than a year ago (2.39 million). Also for Showtime on Sunday, “House of Lies” closed its third season with 731,000 viewers and 10 p.m. and 1.4 million viewers for the night, up 16% from last year’s cume audience (1.2 million) and the show’s best finale night to date. Season-to-date, “Shameless” is averaging 5.7 million weekly viewers, up 7% vs. last season through the same time frame, and on track to rate as its highest-season ever. “House of Lives” is averaging 3 million weekly viewers, on par with last season. Both series will return with new episodes in 2015.