A month ago, Nikki Finke, former
Deadline head honcho, launched her new website,
nikkifinke.com. To kick things off she posted several sexy "scoops" about high-profile Hollywood projects. On June 17th, Finke posted, "I’ve just heard that screenwriter Max Landis ("Chronicle") is working on a new draft for
Ghostbusters 3 with a three-week turnaround." This "scoop" was quickly debunked by Max Landis via Twitter. Now, the
NY Post is reporting how Finke became a victim of a hoax.
Sources say Finke last month received at least five e-mails through her tip line with detailed info about Landis and the “Ghostbusters” sequel, including that studio brass was impressed with footage from Landis’ upcoming adaptation of “Frankenstein,” as well as other particulars. Dangling the carrot further, one “tipster” claimed Deadline was running the Landis story the next day. Another begged Finke not to run the story as it was promised exclusively to Variety.
Of course, in the end she ran the story, and then later deleted it after Landis' tweet. When the
NY Post asked her to comment on their story she confirmed that she had received many tips that ended up being untrue. “
I always check out every tip I receive," Finke told the
NY Post "
In this case, an executive at Sony mistakenly confirmed it, so I went with it. In the beginning I received several hoax tips, and I’m extra, extra, extra careful.”
When the
NY Post contacted Sony to verify Finke's comments, their studio source replied, "
She doesn’t call studios to fact check.”
All of this begs the question: was Nikkie Finke's DC movie lineup scoop a hoax as well? On June 12th Nikki Finke claimed that sources had tipped her off on Warner Bros. plans to announce their DC movie lineup at this year's Comic-Con. The lineup included:
Shazam (July 2016),
Sandman (Christmas 2016),
Justice League (May 2017),
Wonder Woman (July 2017), a Flash/Green Lantern team-up film (Christmas 2017), and a
Man of Steel sequel (May 2018). Working in Nikki's favor is that several days after posting her story
Kevin Smith confirmed it via a podcast. Though, there's some that doubt Smith would be privy to such important information. We'll just have to wait until Comic-Con to know for certain if Finke's report is accurate.