Anger Management

Charlie Sheen wasted no time attacking his former show during the premiere of "Anger Management" last night ... taking some not-so-veiled shots at "Two and a Half Men" during the opening scene.

The very first scene of "Management" opens on a tight shot of Charlie (playing a character named Charlie) while he's on an angry rant ... saying, "YOU CAN'T FIRE ME, I QUIT!! You want to replace me with some other guy? Go ahead! It won't be the same!"

He adds, "You think I'm losing! I'm not! I'm ... anyway, you get the idea."

When the camera pulls out, it reveals Charlie is only taking out his anger on an inflatable punching bag named BoBo ... while teaching his group therapy class about an anger management technique.

Not very subtle ...

Charlie Sheen's show, "Anger Management," hasn't even debuted yet, and already there's a lawsuit over who created it and who gets the big money.

Joe Roth, the epic producer who is responsible for a bunch of shows and movies, including "Major League" and "Bachelor Party" and the guy who is at the helm of "Anger Management," is being sued by Jason Shuman, who claims he's responsible for turning Charlie's show into the TV version of the famous movie.

Shuman says he and Roth had a deal ... and he would get a huge chunk of the "Anger Management" profits. Shuman claims Roth is backing out of the deal, and he wants beaucoup bucks -- more than $50 million.

Warner Bros. has fired off a cease and desist letter to Charlie Sheen and just about everyone else associated with his new TV show, claiming they're ripping off "Two and a Half Men" to sell "Anger Management."

Warner Bros. is pissed off because Charlie and company used "Two and a Half Men" photos in promotional material at a recent TV convention at the "Anger Management" booth. The purpose of the convention is to sell TV shows, and Warner Bros. is bent out of shape that Charlie and his team would have the audacity to use "Men" photos to help a competitor.

FYI -- one of the photos (above) shows bad-ass Charlie on a chopper ... before he blasted "Men" creator Chuck Lorre, calling him "a contaminated little maggot" and a "turd."

Charlie Sheen's triumphant return to television will take place on cable ... because the FX Network just sealed a deal to run his new sitcom, "Anger Management."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, at least 3 cable networks bid on the show ... but FX emerged victorious.

The deal is what's known as a "10-90" -- if the first 10 "test" episodes do well, the network will order 90 more.

The powers behind the show released a statement this morning describing the premise -- "a mild-mannered, non-confrontational man is ordered to attend group anger management sessions led by a therapist who could probably use some anger management himself."

As TMZ first reported, Sheen will play the role of the therapist -- loosely based on Jack Nicholson's character in the movie "Anger Management."

In the statement, Sheen explains, "I chose Anger Management because, while it might be a big stretch for me to play a guy with serious anger management issues, I think it is a great concept."

Sources directly involved in the project say the man who is making it all happen is uber-producer Joe Roth, who produced and owns the screenplay to the 2003 movie, "Anger Management."

We're told Charlie's character will stray a bit from the movie role. The plan as of now -- Charlie's character will be an ex-jock who got his master's degree in social work during the offseason. He becomes a counselor to defendants in the criminal justice system with anger management problems. But, of course, Charlie's character will have anger issues of his own.

We're told the deal with Lionsgate is not done, but is in the final stages of negotiations. And we're told, there is no deal with a network to air the show -- at least not yet.