Valkyria Chronicles Wallpaper, #17516

Phase 4 Films has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to The Crash Reel, which follows the different paths taken by childhood friends and rivals Shaun White and Kevin Pearce. The latter suffered a serious brain injury while training for their anticipated showdown at the Vancouver Olympics; White went on to gold medals and fame while Pierce struggled to recover. HBO, which helped finance the film, retains U.S. TV broadcast rights to the pic, which weaves 15 years of verite footage with a soundtrack that includes music from Chemical Brothers, Underworld, and Moby and chronicles Pearce’s long road to recovery. It premiered this year at Sundance. Oscar-nominated Lucy Walker (Waste Land, Devil’s Playground) directed, wrote the script with Pedro Kos and produced with Julian Cautherley. HBO’s Sheila Nevins executive produced. Phase 4 plans an early winter 2013 theatrical release. The deal was negotiated by Phase 4′s Larry Greenberg and Sam Posner with Andrew Herwitz at The Film Sales Company on behalf of the filmmakers.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles creator Josh Friedman has closed an overall deal at Universal Television. Under the two-year pact, Friedman will serve as co-executive producer on the upcoming NBC pirate drama Crossbones starring Hugh Lauri. Additionally, he will will develop and supervise projects for the studio. “Josh Friedman puts a distinct, unique spin on everything he writes,” said Uni TV EVP Bela Bajaria. “He taps into interesting worlds and is a very talented writer. We’ve followed his career for years and are excited to be in business with him.” Crossbones, from Luther creator Neil Cross and producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, is set in 1715 on the Bahamian island of New Providence where the diabolical pirate Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard (Malkovich), reigns over a rogue nation of thieves, outlaws and miscreant sailors. Cross wrote the script and is executive producing with Parkes, MacDonald and Ted Gold for Parkes/MacDonald Prods; Georgeville Television and Universal Television. Friedman, repped by UTA and attorney Karl Austen most recently had an overall deal at 20th TV  where he wrote/exec produced Fox drama pilot The Asset last season.  He also wrote and produced drama pilots Locke and Key (20th/FBC), Prodigy (Warner Bros/the WB) and Elementary (ABCTVS/ABC).His feature credits include War of the Worlds and Black Dahlia.