PONZI'S SCHEME AFOOT

NEW YORK -- The entertainment industry's lead trade publication VARIETY announced today that Starry Night Entertainment has hired screenwriter Christopher Weekes (MUPPET MAN) to pen the screenplay to PONZI'S SCHEME, based on Mitchell Zuckoff's best-seller PONZI'S SCHEME: THE TRUE STORY OF A FINANCIAL LEGEND. Film legend Milos Forman (AMADEUS, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST) is in talks to direct.

Producers Craig Saavedra (left) and Michael Shulman (right) with director Milos Forman at the 25th Anniversary screening of AMADEUS in London.

Screenwriter Christopher Weekes has been tapped to pen the biopic "Ponzi's Scheme," with Milos Forman in talks to helm.

Weekes, whose screenplay for Jim Henson pic "Muppet Man" attracted attention when it topped the 2009 Black List, will adapt Mitchell Zuckoff's 2006 bio "Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend" for the brewing feature. Jean Doumanian Prods. and Starry Night Entertainment produce.

Storyline follows the real-life trajectory of Italian immigrant Charles Ponzi, creator of the eponymous financial scam and the precursor to the headline-grabbing fiscal misdeeds of Bernard Madoff and Kenneth Lay.

Weekes is repped by Britton Rizzio at Circle of Confusion and David Karp and Adriana Alberghetti at WME, while Forman is repped by WME's Chris Donnelly and Aspland Management's Dennis Aspland.

Doumanian's slate of upcoming films includes screen adaptations of plays "August: Osage County" and "Blackbird," while Starry Night principals Michael Shulman and Craig Saavedra are at work developing a new Broadway tuner and a reality TV skein. Doumanian Prods. and Starry Night previously worked together on the recent Off Broadway production of Michael Shannon starrer "Mistakes Were Made."

GREAT PROFILE ON MICHAEL SHANNON IN NY TIMES

NEW YORK -- Michael Shannon, and the wonderful vehicle playwright Craig Wright wrote, continues to garner much deserved attention including the recent full page profile The New York Times did on the Oscar nominated actor from Chicago and the play he stars in, MISTAKES WERE MADE, currently running through February 27, 2011 at the Barrow Street Theatre.

The Times describes his performance, in which he plays a theater producer cajoling, begging, seducing and threatening off-stage cohorts in an effort to mount a new play about the French revolution on Broadway, as "hilarious, tender and graceful."  His bravado, tour de force performance is one of the funniest, and showiest, you'll see on stage this, or any season.

TIME Magazine Names MISTAKES WERE MADE a Top Ten Play of 2010

In its December 20, 2010 issue, TIME Magazine honored MISTAKES WERE MADE as one of the Top Ten Plays of the year. This is in addition to New York Magazine doing the same in its December 13 issue. If you have yet to see the play, get yourself down to the Barrow Street Theater before February 27, 2011 when the limited engagement ends.

Read the TIME article here and the New York Magazine article here.

SHULMAN SINGS "SUNDAY" FOR SONDHEIM

Starry Night's Michael Shulman, who appeared in the original 1990 production of Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS at Playwrights Horizons, paid tribute to the Broadway legend in a rousing rendition of "Sunday" from SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. Shulman joined 287 past and present Sondheim alumni in the evening's climax that brought tears to the composer's eyes.

The concert, directed for stage and television by Lonny Price in March 2010, aired on PBS and is now available on DVD/BluRay.

'MISTAKES WERE MADE' OPENS AT BARROW STREET THEATRE

Oscar nominee Michael Shannon stars as an Off-Broadway producer in the New York City premiere of Craig Wright's new comedy MISTAKES WERE MADE. The play opened Nov. 14 after beginning previews on Nov. 5. Mistakes Were Made is directed by Dexter Bullard, and also features Mierka Girten opposite Shannon. 

Mistakes Were Made is billed as a character study "of a man seeking redemption, but inescapably creating destruction." Felix gets in "way over his fast-talking head when he takes on a gargantuan epic about the French Revolution which he thinks is going to be his ticket to professional and personal reclamation."

Starry Night Entertainment associate produces what New York Magazine calls "a glorious absurdist showpiece." The New York Times says "Michael Shannon is excellent!" and Backstage declares "it's explosively funny! Mistakes Were Made is 100 minutes of high-octane bliss with a tour de force turn from Michael Shannon. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at the theatre. Supremely enjoyable!"

From left producers Tom Wirtshafter, Craig Saavedra, Jean Doumanian and Scott Morfee on Opening Night.

MOSCOWS Writer Gary Sunshine Interviewed

NEW YORK -- Playwright Gary Sunshine is profiled today in Adam Szymkowcz's blog (click HERE). Sunshine started writing plays a year after graduating from Princeton University, where he majored in English with a concentration in Theater. He received an MFA from NYU's Dramatic Writing Program. In 2005, he received the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights. His work has been published in The Best American Short Plays of 2001 and Monologues for Men by Men. He is a member of New Dramatists and the MCC Playwrights Coalition, and is a NYTW Usual Suspect.

DAVID HYDE PIERCE HOSTS SUNDANCE AWARDS CEREMONY

TV and Broadway star David Hyde Pierce and Starry Night's Craig Saavedra at the Closing Night Awards Ceremony 

PARK CITY --  Sundance TwentyTen wrapped today with an awards ceremony that began with host David Hyde Pierce and festival topper John Cooper performing a rap song featuring the titles of every film screened over the last ten days. Needless to say, the unlikely duo brought down the house.

The ceremony and party that followed capped what many felt was the best edition of SFF in years. Personally, I wanted to see far more films than I did but was pleased with the number of meetings and social events I was able to squeeze into a week. I also didn't get a chance to do any skiing.  I started the day off with an early screening of Nicole Holofcener's PLEASE GIVE starring Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt and my buddy Thomas Ian Nicholas, who does a bang-up job in the comedy/drama slice of life.

I also attended a panel entitled ART IN AMERICA that featured playwright Moises Kaufman. It was an interesting discussion on the relationship between artists and government.

After the ceremony I was able to catch up with one of my dearest friends Greg Barker, the documentarian who served on the fest's jury this year. It was a tough day for Greg as he had learned during a screening last night that his editor had just been killed in a hit and run on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Very tragic. Very sad. Still, I was proud to see him honor her memory as he presented the award for best documentary.

With actor Joseph Gordon Levitt at the Closing Night Party

Later in the evening I continued my chat with actor/director Mark Ruffalo about potential projects, and caught up with other friends that were also schmoozing their way around the enormous Racquet Club venue.

All in all, a fun and productive festival. But I'm exhausted and can't wait to get back home. (CMS)