One day until hump day! News bites for your Tuesday:

• One would think that after the success of Spider-Man, Sam Raimi would stay focused on feature films. However, The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the filmmaker is teaming up with Disney/ABC to produce a new, live-action weekly series called Wizard's First Rule -- to get off the ground this fall. The show is based on Terry Goodkind's fantasy series The Sword of Truth, and "follows the extraordinary transformation of woodsman Richard Cypher into a magical leader who joins with a mysterious woman to stop a bloodthirsty tyrant." Production will begin this May.
• In the doc world, Variety reports that Liberation Entertainment and Netflix's Red Envelope have nabbed distribution deals for the soccer documentary Kicking It -- which is narrated by bad-boy Colin Farrell. (This is in addition to the ESPN deal from Sundance.) The doc focuses on "the personal struggles and triumphs of seven soccer players from six countries who participate in the 4th annual Homeless World Cup." The plan is to have a day-and-date release between the ESPN premiere, DVD rentals and computer downloads on Netflix, and DVD sales.
• Finally, I bet those rabid and weary Da Vinci Code fans from 2 Days in Paris would get a kick out of this. According to the BBC, paintings and statues from Lincoln Cathedral, which was dressed to be Westminster Abbey, are on the auction block to raise money for the building. The light, polystyrene pieces were part of an exhibition since the film crews left the location, but will now be sold off in a series of sealed bids through March 31.

When you think of Sundance wheeling and dealing, you probably think of the bigger players on the indie circuit: the studio specialty divisions, the veteran boutique distributors, or the fledging mid-level newcomers driven by recent investments. But a cable sports channel? ESPN jumped into the game on Saturday by acquiring soccer doc Kicking It, according to indieWIRE.

ESPN is not getting into the theatrical distribution business, though. Instead, they will help the filmmakers to secure theatrical, DVD and other distribution while retaining, naturally enough, worldwide television rights.

Directed by Susan Koch, Kicking It focuses less on the sport and more on a group that uses soccer to help homeless people. First established in 2001, the competition for the Homeless World Cup now involves upwards of 20,000 homeless people playing street soccer. That number is winnowed down through competition to 500 players representing 48 countries. The doc profiles seven players from all over the world: Ireland, Kenya, Spain, USA, Afghanistan and Russia. I imagine we'll hear words like "inspirational' in descriptions of the film; how could it not be?

Koch is a veteran filmmaker and has directed documentaries throughout the world. (Full disclosure: One of the film's producers is Ted Leonsis, AOL executive. He also served as executive producer for Nanking, a doc that premiered at Sundance last year.) ESPN feels that Kicking It fits within their goals of reaching out to an international audience, according to the indieWIRE article. We'll keep an eye out for any forthcoming distribution deals for the film.