Following its deals with United Artists, and The Weinstein Co., the Writers Guild of America West has announced that it has signed a deal with a fourth production company, Spyglass Entertainment. Spyglass, whose films have included Bruce Almighty and Seabiscuit, has distribution deals with a number of studios. All of which raises the possibility that the companies that have signed separate deals may be used to fill the pipelines of the studios that have been struck and could be used also as surrogates where scripts are developed while the strike continues, then "sold" to the majors with which they are partnered when it is settled. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. announced Wednesday that it had sent pink slips to about three dozen employees, citing the writers' strike. The small number surprised media journalists who had been predicting massive layoffs at the studio (which referred to the predictions as "misinformation").

The Sundance Film Festival announced Wednesday that its program of 45 short films -- which are rarely seen outside the festival circuit -- will be available for free viewing on the Sundance website -- one film each day -- and will be sold on iTunes and Xbox Live Marketplace for $1.99 for all 45 films. In addition Netflix subscribers may watch them online through the Instant Watching feature. The festival opens tonight (Thursday) with a screening of playwright Martin McDonagh's first feature, In Bruges, and continues through January 27.

The Amazon-owned website Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has agreed to acquire Without a Box, which helps aspiring filmmakers find outlets for their films at film festivals and provides them with tools to promote them. It also helps the festivals promote themselves. The deal -- terms of which were not disclosed -- will presumably allow IMDb to offer some of those films via its website, although details of how that might be accomplished were not included in the initial announcement.

Claiming that Universal Pictures falsely claimed in the text appearing at the end of American Gangster that the events depicted in the movie "led to the convictions of three-quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency," three DEA agents filed a $55 million lawsuit against the studio Wednesday. "With this utterly false and defamatory statement, the defendant has ruined and impugned the reputations of these honest and courageous public servants in the eyes of millions of people," the lawsuit said. The agents are seeking class-action status with the suit and claim that no law enforcement officer was convicted of any crime related to the events depicted in the movie. They also say the film falsely depicted New Jersey detective Richard Roberts portrayed by Russell Crowe in the movie. Universal denied the accusations, pointing out that the movie does not defame any federal agents and that the text specifically mentions only the New York City agency.

Warner Bros., which announced last week that it is abandoning Toshiba's HD DVD format and going exclusively with Sony's Blu-ray, is not dumping HD DVD any time soon, it would appear. The website High-Def Disc News reported Wednesday that Warner's home video unit has shipped promotional materials to retailers indicating that it will release the Will Smith hit I Am Legend on Blu-ray on March 18 and on HD DVD April 8. Both releases, the website said, will include the theatrical version and an unrated one that provides a completely different ending.

Facing little competition on the home-video front, Lionsgate's 3:10 to Yuma starring Russell Crowe shot to the top of both the video sales and rental charts last week. It was also the top seller on the Blu-ray high-definition format chart. In addition, Home Media magazine noted that Yuma earned $10.8 million in rentals or about 20 percent of its $53.6 million theatrical gross.

Blowing up conventional movies to the giant screen generated giant profits for IMAX last year as its net soared 56 percent above 2006, the company said Wednesday. Leading the pack, it said, were 300, Spider-Man 3, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Transformers, Beowulf and I Am Legend.

On its second night of the season, Fox's American Idol trounced every show in sight, but its audience was well below that for the comparable show a year ago. Wednesday night's two-hour Idol prelim averaged a 17.6 rating and a 26 share (30.28 million viewers) between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. That compared to a 21.6/31 (36.94 million viewers) for the second night of the season last year -- a decline of nearly 20 percent. Still, the ratings for Idol beat the combined ratings for ABC, CBS, and NBC, whose ratings were also down from a year ago.

The television networks will not be lacking new scripted TV shows to air over the next several months if the strike of the Writers Guild of America continues. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that they have more than 100 new episodes ready to roll out. The problem, the wire service observed, is that few of those episodes are "fan favorites." Episodes of the most popular series, A.P. noted, have been rationed "like a hike lost in the desert with a half-empty canteen." One of these, it noted, is an episode of House that Fox intends to air after the Feb. 2 Super Bowl game. Thus far, network ratings have fallen only 5 percent for the season from last year, but they were already down before the strike began. In an interview with today's (Thursday) New York Post, Steve Sternberg, director of audience analysis at ad buyer Magna Global, observed, "Despite no new breakout hits, the combined ratings of the five broadcast networks are down by percentages in line with normal audience erosion we've seen in recent years."

The latest tribulations of Britney Spears fired up the ratings of the syndicated entertainment magazines last week but proved to be disastrous for Dr. Phil McGraw. According to Broadcasting & Cable, Entertainment Tonight saw its ratings soar a whopping 26 percent during the week ending January 6 -- with much of the rise attributed to its Friday, Jan. 4 coverage of Spears's enforced hospitalization, when ratings climbed 34 percent over the previous Friday. Ratings for Extra leaped 20 percent. Inside Edition saw its ratings climb 15 percent from the previous week, while Access Hollywood's numbers were up 14 percent, and Tje Insider, 11 percent. Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reported that, despite canceling his planned "intervention" show involving the pop star, bookers for Dr. Phil have been having difficulty lining up celebrity guests to appear on his 1,000th show. One source told the newspaper, "Nobody wants to go near it" since the Spears episode. Although the newspaper also claimed that Dr. Phil's popularity has also plummeted, the latest ratings indicated that he remained second only to Oprah Winfrey as the highest-rated daytime talk-show host, averaging a 4.0 rating to Winfrey's 4.7.

The Fox broadcast network, which is the only major broadcast network without a nightly newscast or a regular news magazine show -- and which rarely offers even news specials -- plans to showcase the talent at its corporate siblings, Fox News Network and Fox Business Channel, as well as the reporters at its local Fox stations, on Super Bowl Sunday, February 3. It announced Wednesday that it plans to air a three-hour special, covering February 5's Super Tuesday primaries, alongside its coverage of the football game, with Shepard Smith of Fox News anchoring from Glendale, AZ, the site of the Super Bowl. (Smith said on his Fox News program Wednesday night, "I'm not entirely sure what we're going to do, but it's getting me to the Super Bowl.") Co-anchors will be Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly in New York. Reporters from local Fox stations in states where presidential primaries will be held on Super Tuesday will offer coverage of the three major Democratic candidates and the five major Republican contenders.