Adam Levine Has Two Words for MTV

Adam Levine Adam Levine has two words for Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. "The VMAs. One day a year when MTV pretends to still care about music. I'm drawing a line in the sand. F--- you, VMAs," the Maroon 5 frontman tweeted. When can you next catch Adam Levine on TV, online or on demand? Add him to your Watchlist and you'll know for sure The network also took to Twitter to respond. ".@adamlevine Soooo you'll be tuning in at 9/8c tomorrow right? (BTW, bonus points if you TwitPic your 2004 Moonman!)," the tweet said Saturday. Levine and his band won Best New Artist that year. Check out more of today's news Levine, who's a mentor on NBC's The Voice, has no second thoughts about lashing out. He later tweeted this surrebuttal, "Still waiting to have my 'Jerry Maguire mission statement moment of deep regret. Not happening. Phew!" The VMAs air Sunday at 9/8 on MTV.

R.I.P. Lane Venardos

Former CBS News VP Lane Venardos died Friday after suffering a heart attack in his home in Maui, Hawaii. He was 67. Venardos spent 30 years at CBS, including stints as executive producer of the CBS Evening News and as VP for hard news. Venardos, who earned 13 News Emmys, produced most of CBS News' live coverage of the Persian Gulf War, as well as the coverage of political campaigns from 1986 through 1998. He retired from the network in 2000.

Gerard Butler Saves Sudanese Orphans With The Aid Of God (along with a Bazooka) in Machine Gun Preacher Trailer

“I done several things, which i ain’t happy with. Hurt many people.” So states a repentant Gerard Butler just as real-existence ex-disadvantage Mike Childers at the outset of a clip for Marc Forster’s September curio, Machine Gun Preacher. Just how can Childers save his falling apart soul? By being a born-again missionary helping orphans within the Sudan… by harming individuals who oppose using the aide of the bazooka. What have you expect? Debuting in the Toronto Film Festival, Machine Gun Preacher has some difficulties to beat — namely it’s another myth-of-the-whitened-messiah film being released so right after the controversy was started up through the Help. Obviously, Childers is indeed a-existence hero — and that he did improve an orphanage within the Sudan that houses some 200 children who does well be destitute or worse — so Preacher has a little more credibility than happened between Skeeter and Aibileen, but nonetheless: that poster didn’t help. A clip might, if perhaps since it presents Childers like a guy going to overcome his past devils. That’s the stuff that work well here the orphan-saving antics don’t, despite the existence of quite a badass bazooka. Other conditions: Butler’s indiscernible accent, the always-great Michelle Monaghan reduced to giving pep talks in the supermarket (nice Egg Beaters plug, though), precious little Michael Shannon, which corny kicker. There’s a great movie within this trailer, but whether Forster and Butler can accomplish it remains to appear. VERDICT: Not prepared to convert. Mind to Apple to look at a clip in HD.

'Page Eight' to close Toronto fest Gala

"Page Eight""Trespass""Hysteria""Winnie"TORONTO -- Writer-helmer David Hare's modern spy thriller "Page Eight" (BBC/PBS), starring Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes, will close the Toronto Film Festival's Gala slate, it was announced Tuesday.The fest's final major announcement unveiled eight Galas and 18 Specials Presentations, as well as the Contemporary World Cinema (51 titles, 18 world preems), Visions, Wavelengths and Future Projections programs.The Gala screen will world preem Nick Murphy's psychological thriller "The Awakening," starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, Joel Schumacher's home-invasion chiller "Trespass," with Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman, Tanya Wexler's comedy about the invention of the vibrator "Hysteria," with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy, Gary McKendry's special-ops actioner "Killer Elite," with Jason Statham, and Darrell J. Roodt's "Winnie," starring Jennifer Hudson as Winnie Mandela. Christophe Honore's "Beloved," receiving its international preem, and Marc Forster's previously announced (in a different program) "Machine Gun Preacher" also join the Gala slate.Special Presentations adds eight world preems, including Anne Fontaine's "My Worst Nightmare," Ian Fitzgibbon's "Death of a Superhero," Gianni Amelio's "The First Man," Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness," Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's "Intruders," Pankaj Kapur's "Seasons of Love," Mathieu Kassovitz' "Rebellion" and Geoffrey Fletcher's "Violet and Daisy."U.S. titles world preeming in Contemporary World Cinema include Lynn Shelton's "Your Sister's Sister," Nancy Savoca's "Union Square" and Bryan Wizemann's "Think of Me." The global cinema program also world preems Ridha Behi's "Always Brando," Joao Canijo's "Blood of my Blood," Maggie Peren's "Color of the Ocean," Faouzi Bensaidi's "Death for Sale," Nacho Vigalondo's "Extraterrestrial," Ozcan Alper's "Future Lasts Forever," Jose Henrique Fonseca's "Heleno," Stefano Chiantini's "Islands," Alejandro Brugues' "Juan of the Dead," Christophe Van Rompaey's "Lena," Avie Luthra's "Lucky," "Akin Omotoso's "Man on the Ground," Ribhu Dasgupta's "Michael," Mohamed Asli's "Rough Hands" and Xiaolu Guo's "UFO in her Eyes."Visions' 18 boundary-pushing titles include the world preems of Matias Meyer's "The Last Christeros," Toshiako Toyoda's "Monsters Club" and Joaquim Sapinho's "This Side of Resurrection." The fest's Wavelengths present five programs of experimental film and video work, such as Tacita Dean's portrait of the late Cy Twombly, "Edwin Parker," Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Empire," Ben Rivers' Balouis Art Prize-winner "Sack Barrow," James Benning's "Twenty Cigarettes" and Mark Lewis' "Black Mirror at the National Gallery."Future Projections, the fest's city-wide program of moving-image art, will unleash the world preems of James Franco and Gus Van Sant's collaborative "Memories of Idaho (1991, 2010 and 2011)," multiple projects by Mr. Brainwash (a.k.a. Thierry Guetta), Peter Lynch's "Buffalo Days," Nicholas and Sheila Pye's "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board," David Rokeby's "Plot Against Time," and Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatsky's "Road Movie."The Toronto Film Festival run Sept. 8-18. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Mark Gatiss Talks Sherlock Season 2

Everybody to Baskerville!Starting off the television panel at Empire Presents.... Giant Screen in fine style was Sherlock creator/author and erstwhile League Of Gentlemen star Mark Gatiss. With shooting on Sherlock season two merely a week and a little from completion, Gatiss leaking some news that'll have Conan Doyle purists purring. Season two is exactly what we are calling 'The Lady, The Hound and also the Fall' trilogy, he described, so there will be considered a version of 'A Scandal In Bohemia', a version of 'The Hound From The Baskervilles' along with a version of 'The Final Problem'. For that spoiler-wary, individuals would be the Wikipedia pages to prevent between now and session two's airing, the date which remains nearly as under systems because the will-he/will not-he appearance of Holmes' enemy, Moriaty. Same goes with Holmes be experiencing the dubious Moriarty? "Wait and find out!Inch chuckled Gatiss. Same with that the 'yes'? "It is a nnn-yes. "If we are filing the arch-villain's appearance like a 'definitely maybe', Gatiss was pleased to explore the backdrop from the next instalment of Sherlock adventures. "It is a rare opportunity to perform the beginning of Holmes and Watson's friendship, right right from the start, so all you know has not created. Sherlock's attitude to ladies and to crime continues to be developing, therefore it is a lot more 'plastic'. The only real heresy [concerning the show] is the fact that it's present day, but next it's probably the most faithful versions there's have you been, because Stephen (Moffat) and that i really adore it. A Virtual Detective had become by pointing out hansom cabs and also the fog, instead of concerning the friendship of the unlikely couple, but ours is greatly inspired through the Tulsi Rathbone's version. "We have got a coming feeling that some version of this famous Reichenbach Falls denouement is about the cards. As Gatiss described cryptically, "We arrive at the cliffhanger in some way...".

Is AMC About to Lose Breaking Bad?

Breaking Bad Could AMC lose Breaking Bad?Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show, is shopping the critically acclaimed drama to other networks following "tense" talks with AMC over the fate of the fifth (and likely final) season, TheWrap reports. Breaking Bad sneak peek: Walt and Skyler try their hand at counting cards AMC President Charlie Collier, however, told the site that he is optimistic that the show will remain on the network. Discussions between AMC and Sony became heated earlier this week when AMC requested, in a cost-saving measure, that the fifth season be cut down to six to eight episodes, as opposed to the current fourth season's 13, as the Los Angeles Times first reported. From there, Sony approached other outlets for pick-up, including FX, according to The Wrap. FX had already been pitched the show before it landed on AMC, but the network passed, apparently figuring itself already at anti-hero capacity. Breaking Bad's Dean Norris: You can't keep Hank down The tense tone of the negotiations have since improved when AMC reneged on the shortened-season request, but no deal is in place, The Wrap says. Ratings: Breaking Bad breaks out of the gate better than ever The Breaking Bad dispute is just the latest in a series of them at AMC. Mad Men executive producer Matthew Weiner was initially asked to cut six characters over three seasons. He balked, AMC gave in, and Mad Men is signed through its seventh season (its delayed fifth season launches in 2012). Frank Darabont, meanwhile, departed from his post as Walking Dead showrunner last month.

Twisted

One evening the Collins find their maid Mrs. Murdock at the end of their steps: dead, neck broken. Obviously she had an accident. Consequently they need a new babysitter for an upcoming big party. The sensible Helen meets little Susan Collins at the discount market and likes her, so she offers to do the job. She doesn't know Susan's teenage brother Mark - technically skilled and good in school, but restive and cunning. As soon as the parents have left, he starts psychologically terrorizing Helen and his sister with electronic tricks.

'Smurfs' Co-Authors Jay Scherick & David Ronn Sell Cop Comedy To ABC

EXCLUSIVE: Jay Scherick and David Ronn, co-authors from the summer time sleeper The Smurfs, are dealing with another group in blue, this time around live-action humans on tv. After heated putting in a bid, ABC has arrived just one-camera ensemble place of work comedy in the veteran comedy authors, that is set in a police station. The new sony Pictures Television, sister studio to Columbia Pictures, which created and launched The Smurfs, is creating the series project, which received a script commitment with penalty from ABC. Scherick and Ronn, who began off in TV with stints on such series as Caroline Within the City and Spin City, have concentrated on features in the last couple of years with your films as National Security, Guess Who, Norbit which summer's Zookeeper and also the Smurfs.