Paramount's Missing Billion; Joss Whedon on Buffy's 20th; R.I.P. 'Vampire Diaries'; Sunset Tower Sale Details

What's news: It's Paramount's turn to feel jerked around by a Chinese company. Plus: SXSW gets underway, Joss Whedon reflects on Buffy for its 20th anniversary, Disney's live-action Aladdin holds an open casting call and (shocker!) Trump's election victory will be an HBO miniseries. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman. [The Hollywood Reporter - Today In Entertainment]( March 10, 2017 What's news: It's Paramount's turn to feel jerked around by a Chinese company. Plus: SXSW gets underway, Joss Whedon reflects on Buffy for its 20th anniversary, Disney's live-action Aladdin holds an open casting call and (shocker!) Trump's election victory will be an HBO miniseries. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman. Paramount's China Jitters A developing story: Paramount Pictures has yet to receive the first payment it had expected from a billion-dollar financing deal with partners Shanghai Film Group and Huahua Media, Kim Masters reports: The slate financing deal called for about $140M by this point, but those have not been made, [according to sources](. Paramount is said to have requested payment repeatedly, but the Viacom-owned studio's partners have expressed concerns since Paramount currently has no chairman and has announced a new strategy that relies in part on mining intellectual property from its television network siblings. The Chinese partners are said to have told Viacom that no funds will be forthcoming until they meet with Viacom CEO Bob Bakish and whomever is appointed to run the studio to get an explanation of the slate strategy going forward. Elsewhere in film... ↱ In theaters this weekend. [Kong: Skull Island]( opens opposite holdover [Logan](, alongside specialty box-office draws [The Sense of an Ending](, Kristen Stewart-starrer [Personal Shopper](, [Raw]( and the documentary My Scientology Movie. ↲ ► Disney's live-action Aladdin holds open casting call. The Guy Ritchie-directed adaptation sent out a [casting notice]( calling for Middle Eastern actors age 18-25 to audition for its leads. Note: "Must be able to sing" and dancing experience is "a plus." ► Deadpool 2 casts Atlanta breakout Zazie Beetz. Ryan Reynolds [announced]( that Beetz will play Domino in the Deadpool sequel. In Marvel's comic mythology, Domino is a mercenary who mostly works on the side of the good guys. ► Kerry Washington and Warner Bros. to adapt The Mothers. The studio [has optioned]( Brit Bennett’s debut novel, with Washington producing. Bennett will also pen the script for the project, which centers on a big secret in a small black community. ^[Trailer watch, The Fate of the Furious](. The newest trailer shows off more of the spectacle from director F. Gary Gray's film, the eighth installment of the long-running franchise, hitting theaters April 14. ► Two David Lynch films head to Russia for theatrical runs. Distributor Russian World Vision is releasing restored versions of Eraserhead, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Lost Highway, [timed]( to the airing of the revival of cult series Twin Peaks in May. ► Danny DeVito in talks to join live-action Dumbo. The actor [would play]( Medici (one of four human leads), who runs a smaller circus that gets acquired by the evil big-top villain. Tim Burton is directing the remake of the 1941 animated classic. ► Cars 3 adds Kerry Washington, Nathan Fillion and Lea DeLaria. The Pixar threequel has added the trio to its star-studded [voice cast,]( which also includes Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo and Armie Hammer. ► Walt Disney Studios hires Google's Julie Ann Crommett. The exec, who at Google advocated for more representation of women in science and engineering roles, will serve as vp multicultural audience engagement at Disney. [Details.]( KONG BACKSTORY FYI. The beloved movie monster about to hit screens again was [originally supposed to be an actual gorilla]( — battling a just-as-real Komodo dragon in the 1933 version. Also, in the original ending he was struck by lightning. Plus: [How ILM created the new version for Skull Island.]( Joss Whedon's 'Buffy' Memories For Buffy's 20th anniversary, Joss Whedon spoke with Michael O'Connell about his views on reboot fatigue, the trouble with binge-watching and making art in Trump's America. [Full Q&A:]( On TV reboots: "Is the nostalgia bank so goddamn secure that we can just keep withdrawing from it? And this is coming from a man who's made a movie or a comic book out of every show he's done. Somebody has to move on." On the call for more women and people of color in TV: "I was definitely unaware of how things affected people, how representation was lacking. I thought, 'We're doing good here. People appreciate it. And it's really hard, so we're just going to write these stories. We're going to relate to the human experience, but we're not going to overthink the moral aspect.' Then, later on, I would go ... I didn't help out." On TV in the Trump era: "What can you do? The more you harangue, the more you get specific, the more you are likely to pander, condescend or just be faintly ridiculous. ... The things we're genuinely afraid of, that's what's going to show up. A sense of impending doom will definitely be infusing a lot of work — and we'll have a lot of conversations that were never being had before." [Reboot talk]( | [Gail Berman Q&A]( I [1997 review: "Clueless meets Dracula."]( Elsewhere in TV... ► HBO plans miniseries on Trump's election victory. The [yet-to-be-titled project]( is from the Game Change team, directed by Jay Roach and once again based on source material from Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. ► FX renews Zach Galifianakis' Baskets. No episode count was given for the new season, [set to return]( in 2018; however, seasons one and two have run 10 episodes each. The show's season-two premiere drew 1.13M viewers in live-plus-three numbers. ► PBS' Mercy Street ending after two seasons. The network and the producers [cited]( "the complicated nature of aligning production timelines and funding commitments" as the reason behind the Josh Radnor-starrer's sudden end. ► NBC's Jason Katims pilot enlists Josh Radnor. The actor has been tapped [to topline](Drama High, inspired by a true story about a working-class high school drama department. [Where were you for the Game of Thrones ice melt?]( About that glitch: Sources told THR the video went down due to an issue with Facebook, and the standard length for a Facebook Live event was not a factor. The premiere date, by the way, is July 16. ► CBS' The Good Fight recruits Jane Lynch. Although Lynch is currently only slated for one episode, creators and showrunners Robert and Michelle King are leaving [the door open]( for future return appearances. ► CMT's Nashville adds Rachel Bilson, Kaitlin Doubleday. No character descriptions were provided, but both actresses dropped [hints](about their characters when noting their roles on social media. ► Hanna remake series in the works. A TV adaptation of the 2011 Saoirse Ronan assassin film is [in development]( from The Night Manager writer David Farr and NBCUniversal International Studios. ► TNT's The Alienist adds Sean Astin as Theodore Roosevelt. The actor is [set to play]( the then-police commissioner of New York in the forthcoming drama series based on the novel set in the Gilded Age by Caleb Carr. "When The Vampire Diaries was good, it was great." Ahead of the series finale tonight, critic Daniel Fienberg pays tribute to "one of TV's most [purely entertaining shows](." Behind Hollywood's Sunset Tower Sale Gary Baum has a few new details: Jeff Klein will remain part-owner of the beloved and clubby WeHo luxury hotel, but an unnamed American businessman with significant Hollywood ties is expected to be his [new majority partner.]( What else we're reading... — "Paul Shaffer shakes off his post-Letterman blues." Dave Itzkoff's profile: "nearly two years after Mr. Letterman stepped down from Late Show in May 2015, Mr. Shaffer is about to step out with his first major post-TV project." [[The New York Times](] — "The comedian who called Trump's win." Matt Wilstein writes: "In his new HBO special, comedian Jerrod Carmichael shares his uncensored thoughts about the world around him." [[The Daily Beast](] — "Whither the indie band." Hua Hsu notes: "These days, it can seem a little beside the point to play rock music that aspires to sound like rock music." [[The New Yorker](] — "Hollywood ageism punishes actresses, but the art house offers some hope." Critic Ann Hornaday writes: "The purveyors of women’s pictures understood women’s economic power long before the term was codified." [[The Washington Post](] — "In the age of fake news, a festival probes the meaning of truth." Steven Zeitchik visits "True/False, a film festival dedicated to the playful — and at times not so playful — exploration of media veracity." [[The Los Angeles Times](] Today's Birthdays: Olivia Wilde, 33, Carrie Underwood, 34, Thomas Middleditch, 35, Robin Thicke, 40, Jon Hamm, 46, Sharon Stone, 59, Chuck Norris, 77. 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