“I’m thrilled,” a happy Matt Weiner said in a phone interview shortly after his new three-year $30 million deal for Mad Men was announced. He is going back to work tomorrow, the writers room will get up-and-running in 4-5 weeks, and production on the much-delayed Season 5 of the Emmy-winning AMC drama will start in July, the same month the fifth season was originally slated to premiere.

But the deal almost didn’t happened. “I walked away from it 4-5 times in the last few days,” said Weiner who had been objecting to several proposals made by series producer Lionsgate TV and network AMC, including shortening the episodes’ running time from 47 to 45 minutes to make room for more commercials, introducing more product placement, potentially reducing the number of regulars on the show and pushing Season 5′s premiere to March 2012. “It’s never been about money,” Weiner said. “I wanted to do the show I wanted to do and the show the audience has come to expect.”

On the cast: “The cast is safe from financial concerns” for all 3 seasons, Weiner said, adding that he reserves the right to cut actors “on creative basis.”

In terms of product placement, Weiner said that there will be no changes to the series’ existing policy. He noted that there have been only 3 instances of product placement Mad Men‘s first four seasons. “I don’t want the audience to feel they are been sold on the show,” Weiner said.

Additionally, Weiner will be able to continue to do 47-minute versions of Mad Men‘s 13-episode Season 5 for VOD, DVD and all auxiliary platforms, though on AMC, Episodes 2-12 will air 45-minute cuts made by Weiner.

After some last minute saber-rattling over product placement, episode duration, possible cast cuts and the show’s return date, Mad Men creator has come to an agreement with AMC and Lionsgate TV for a new three-year mega deal said to be in the $25-30 million range. With Weiner locked in, AMC has picked up the show for 2 more seasons, season 5 and season 6, with a seventh season a strong possibility as Weiner is now signed for it.

This paves the way for the much-delayed season 5 of Mad Men to finally go into production.

All together now: HOORAY!

Here is the joint AMC/Lionsgate release:

AMC and Lionsgate today announced the return of the iconic series Mad Men for seasons five and six with series creator Matthew Weiner back on board as showrunner. Concurrently, it was announced that Weiner has signed a new long-term deal with Lionsgate, extending into a possible seventh season. The announcements were made by Charlie Collier, president of AMC, and Kevin Beggs, president of Lionsgate Television Group.

When AMC debuted Mad Men in July 2007 it quickly became one of the most talked about series on television. Set in 1960s New York, Mad Men is a sexy and provocative original drama that follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising. Produced by Lionsgate, Mad Men has made television history as the only cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama and the Golden Globe for Best Television Series-Drama for three consecutive years.

“I want to thank all of our wonderful fans for their support.” said Weiner. “I also want to thank AMC and Lionsgate for agreeing to support the artistic freedom of myself, the cast and the crew so that we can continue to make the show exactly as we have from the beginning. I’m excited to get started on the next chapter of our story.”

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Pay the man. It’s that simple.

With news that Season 5 of Mad Men won’t debut until 2012 because of negotiations between series creator Matt Weiner and AMC, all kinds of speculation is leaking out. And right now it’s just speculation because until the two sides publicly talk about what’s going on, I wouldn’t trust a word that anonymous sources are leaking to people who regularly get the facts wrong.

But whatever the price tag Weiner’s asking for, whatever the changes he’s being asked to make — more commercial time or reduction of characters allegedly among them — it’s all beside the point now. AMC and Lionsgate balked two years ago at Weiner’s salary demands and here we are again. Apparently there’s been too much distance — and too much success — at AMC to remember where they were before making Mad Men.

They were nowhere.

AMC was a second rate movie channel (and that’s being generous) until Mad Men put it on the map. No Mad Men, then probably no Breaking Bad (which itself was partly a free gift from FX). So any discussion of Mad Men‘s worth goes far, far beyond the value of the actual show as it relates to the money it brings in.

Just the amount of hype Mad Men has generated for AMC is worth every penny Weiner is asking for, because it created brand awareness in one of the most crowded and competitive businesses. Even if AMC spent $15 million in 2007 trying to point viewers to where it was on the dial, most probably wouldn’t have found it or cared to go looking. Mad Men not only gave them a reason to search, it’s greatness continued to generate what was essentially free advertising and a repeated hammer to the head of late adopters.

Despite not having a deal with Mad Men creator-executive producer Matt Weiner yet, AMC is officially moving ahead with a fifth season of the Emmy-winning period drama, exercising its option with the series’ producer Lionsgate TV. Because of the protracted negotiations with Weiner, referred to in a statement by AMC as “key non-cast negotiations,” the premiere of season 5 is being pushed from the summer to early next year.

Here is the full statement:

AMC has officially authorized production of season 5 of Mad Men, triggering our option with Lionsgate. While we are getting a later start than in years past due to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations, Mad Men will be back for a fifth season in early 2012.

Source: Deadline

Deadline reports that Christina Hendricks has signed on for a new movie role to star in Mike Figgis’ Seconds of Pleasure. Good to hear that she’s keeping herself busy during the Mad Men hiatus!

Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks has signed on to star in Seconds of Pleasure, which Mike Figgis is directing from a Neil LaBute script. The story takes place on an airplane and connects the lives of people on the plane through vignettes. Hendricks plays a wife who catches her husband in a compromising position. Brendan Fraser plays the husband, and Julia Stiles, Matt Dillon and Kristen Scott Thomas also star. LaBute is producing, with production to begin this summer in the UK. Hendricks, also shooting the Doug McGrath-directed I Don’t Know How She Does It with an ensemble cast that includes Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Jessica Parker, is repped by Paul Kohner Agency and KLWG Entertainment.

But what does that mean for Hendricks and Mad Men? HitFix.com says:

The fate of Mad Men is still very much in the air, as weeks have passed without updates on the state of negotiations between Matthew Weiner and producer Lionsgate. Even if a deal were somehow reached tomorrow, it’s unclear when the writers would be able to begin writing, much less when pre-production and filming would be able to start. Even if everything were magically accelerated and Mad Men somehow began production by the early summer, presumably the vignette nature of Seconds of Pleasure wouldn’t have any impact on the return of Hendricks’ Joan.

Here’s to hoping that the Mad Men negotiations will come to a resolution soon… The wait is simply torturous!

The situation with AMC’s Mad Men is a case where no news is not necessarily good news. Though many are proceeding under the assumption that the acclaimed drama will be back for a fifth season, a huge question mark — one shaped like a dollar sign — looms over the when, seeing as series creator Matthew Weiner has yet to renew his deal with Lionsgate, which in turn needs to negotiate a new pact with AMC.

“I know that there’s a Season 5 and we generally go back [to work] around May, June…. We’re just waiting for the word on when,” says Christina Hendricks, who plays pneumatic office manager Joan Holloway. “I’m anxious to get back and see what happens with [Joan], and to work with all my friends.”

In fact, so much work needs to be done toward hammering out each of the two aforementioned deals that some fret Mad Men won’t be ready in time for a summertime premiere. Hendricks, though, deems herself unqualified to broach that hot topic. “I’ve heard just as many rumors as anybody else about the scheduling,” she says. “It’s already a long wait in between seasons for the fans, so I hope they don’t have to wait any longer.”

Until Hendricks’ fans get their next Joanie fix, they can at least hear the actress voicing another fierce femme, ace reporter Lois Lane, in the new All-Star Superman animated film arriving on DVD this Tuesday. Here’s what she shared with TVLine about filling that iconic role:

TVLINE | Is your Lois plucky, strong-willed, hardheaded…?
Certainly! I think she has to be all of that, because that’s Lois Lane to me. If you’re going to play her, you must always remember those qualities about her.

TVLINE | What’s her take on dating the Man Of Steel (voiced by Desperate Housewives‘ James Denton)?
[Laughs] Well, it’s a life long dream, right? She’s been pining after him for years. And I think she holds her own with him, actually. She isn’t too intimidated.

TVLINE | What’s it like, as a voice actor, oohing and aahing over a Fortress of Solitude you can’t actually see?
This was my first time doing voiceover, so the oohs and aahs and sighs made me feel a bit silly at first, with the whole room looking at you. But the script was so well-written that it was very vivid as far as what these characters were responding to. One thing that was interesting to me is I enjoyed the movie so much that I forgot it was me a couple times. I was able to sit back and once in a while think, “Oh, wait, I’m Lois Lane. How cool!”