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Exclusive: Tika Sumpter (Sonic the Hedgehog 3) has co-written and is starring in a new Tyler Perry rom-com for Amazon MGM Studios, Deadline can exclusively reveal. She comes to the project after collaborating with Perry on films like A Madea Christmas and shows like The Haves and the Have Nots.

Currently in production, the film known for the moment as Unt. Sisters in Italy will feature a supporting cast including Bresha Webb (Run the World), Egot winner Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters franchise), Godfrey (Regular Black), Giulio Berruti (Downhill), Edmond Laryea (FBI), Sarayu Blue (Expats), and Justin Chatwin (Reagan). Pic will mark Perry’s final effort under a four-picture deal with the studio, announced in the fall of 2022.

The story follows two estranged sisters who, after their mother’s death, are called to Italy to discover that their mom owned a bed and breakfast in the Italian countryside.

Exclusive: Oscar winner Sissy Spacek (Carrie) and three-time Oscar nominee Nick Nolte (The Thin Red Line) have been tapped for roles in Die, My Love, Lynne Ramsay’s thriller based on the 2017 novel by Ariana Harwicz.

Details as to the duo’s roles are under wraps. The project reunites Spacek and Nolte following their work together on Affliction, the 1997 crime drama written and directed by Paul Schrader. As previously announced, Jennifer Lawerence, Robert Pattinson and Lakeith Stanfield will also star.

Set in a remote forgotten rural area, the story follows a mother (Lawrence) who struggles to maintain her sanity as she battles with psychosis. Pattinson will be playing her husband, and Stanfield, her lover.

Ramsay is directing from her script written with Enda Walsh. Producers on the project include Justine Ciarrocchi and Lawerence on behalf of Excellent Cadaver, as well as Martin Scorsese and Andrea Calderwood. Black Label Media is financing.

Exclusive: After making his feature directorial debut with The Mattachine Family, Andy Vallentine has launched Huckleberry Media, an L.A.-based film and television production company with a commitment to creating daring narratives, crafting rich characters, and championing artistic innovation and inclusivity.

Joining him as a founding member is Andrew Richards, formerly of Imperative Entertainment, who will serve as VP of Film and Television Development.

In a statement to Deadline, Vallentine said, “Our mission with Huckleberry Media is to champion compelling, character-driven film and television projects. Following the recent success of The Mattachine Family, we’re excited to hit the ground running with a slate of titles that explore diverse human experiences, foster empathy, and challenge societal norms through entertaining and authentic storytelling.”

Added Richards, “I’m elated to be joining Andy as we build out a diverse slate of film and television projects in collaboration with emerging and established storytellers alike.

Over the weekend, director David Lowery teased the audience at the Melbourne International Film Festival with details about his much-anticipated film “Mother Mary.” The film, whose fourteen-month, multi-location production wrapped in Germany in July, explores the relationship between Anne Hathaway as a fictional pop star and Michaela Coel, the Emmy and BAFTA-winning star of “I Will Destroy You,” who plays a fashion designer engaged to design a dress for the star. Also starring are F.K.A. Twigs, Hunter Schafer, and Alba Baptista, with original music from Jack Antonoff and Charli Xcx.

Days after production closed, Hathaway described making “Mother Mary” as “one of the most extraordinary, transformative experiences I have ever had.” When asked about the feature, his eighth, Lowery sighed deeply and hesitantly described it as “a weird, weird film.”

“I wrote the first 20 pages when I was shooting ‘Peter Pan and Wendy’ and it’s been percolating ever since,...

Robert Redford had a dream-like Hollywood run before his retirement in 2018. He had a celebrated acting and directing career and was showered with several prestigious accolades. The Captain America: The Winter Soldier actor is also renowned for founding the Sundance Film Festival.

While it can be undoubtedly said that Robert Redford’s career will always be a dream for many, the War Hunt actor almost lost it all in his childhood. The former actor, who is mostly known to keep his personal life private shared one of the darkest moments in his life- when he had polio at 11.

Robert Redford in Captain America: The Winter Soldier | Marvel Studios

For those who are well-acquainted with Robert Redford’s past, the actor has a harrowing backstory. Sadly, life was never very kind to him on the personal front. From losing loved ones to finding himself in numerous near-death experiences, the 87-year-old saw it all.

Mma has been steadily catching up to boxing in terms of combat sport films. While there are plenty of action films that utilize the practice, boxing has been able to capitalize on more character dramas, especially since Rocky hit the scene (no pun intended). While there have been movies like Warrior and Bruised that have showcased mixed martial arts in dramatic films, the popular UFC brand has been geared more towards popcorn movies like Here Comes the Boom and the upcoming Road House remake. The producers of Hereditary are now set to make a UFC-based drama where two Mma fighters, who fight for their own reasons, find themselves on a collision course.

Variety reports that Lupita Nyong’o and Chloe Grace Moretz will star in Strawweight as UFC fighters. The synopsis is said to “follow the journeys of two fighters who find themselves competing against each other in the Octagon. One...

Oscar-winner and 2024 Berlinale jury president Lupita Nyong’o and Chloe Grace Moretz are set to enter the ring for the UFC-based mixed martial arts drama “Strawweight.”

The film — being launched at the European Film Market by WME Independent and CAA Media Finance — follows the journeys of two fighters who find themselves competing against each other in the Octagon. One is a young woman (Moretz) whose life is changed forever when she discovers her passion for the UFC, while the other is a former champion (Nyong’o) who is determined to reclaim her title by reinventing herself. Both want the same thing — respect — but only one can come out on top.

“Strawweight” will mark the feature directorial debut of James M. Johnston. A longtime collaborator of David Lowery, Johnston produced and directed second unit for “The Green Knight,” “The Old Man and the Gun” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” and the upcoming “Mother Mary...

Mickey Gilbert, the fearless stunt performer who jumped off a cliff for Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and doubled for Gene Wilder in films including Blazing Saddles, Silver Streak and The Frisco Kid, has died. He was 87.

Gilbert died Monday of natural causes at his home in Camarillo, California, his oldest son, Tim Gilbert, also a stunt performer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Early in his career, Gilbert was a horse wrangler in William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) and a bank robber in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969). Years later, he took the lumps for Lee Majors’ Colt Seavers on the 1981-86 ABC action show The Fall Guy.

Though they weren’t friends at the time, Gilbert and Redford were in the same class at Van Nuys High School, graduating in 1954. They got together on George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) when Redford...

Tom Waits is set to reunite with Iggy Pop next month when they co-host a two-hour special on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Airing on Sunday, December 3rd, the show will see the two musicians trading personal anecdotes and playing some of their favorite tracks to each other.

A press release teased some of those stories, including the time when Waits hitched a ride to Los Angeles with songwriter eden ahbez, who composed Nat King Cole’s 1948 hit “Nature Boy.”

Meanwhile, Iggy Pop will recall how he once stumbled across Captain Beefheart eating breakfast in LA, but was “wise enough not to disturb him.”

Some of the songs that will be played during the special include Alex Chiltern’s “Bangkok,” Pauline Oliveros’ “Bye Bye Butterfly,” Frank Ocean’s “Moon River,” and Johnny Paycheck’s “Colorado Kool-Aid,” along with the first spoken word song that Waits heard on the radio and a...

The Finale is Christie Vela’s feature film debut. Filmed entirely in Dallas, Texas, in some of the city’s most prominent and historically significant theatrical venues, it also features some of Dallas-Fort Worth’s most prominent in-front-of-the-camera and on-stage talent – talent that includes Gabrielle Reyes, Madison Calhoun, Kenneisha Thompson, Liza Marie Gonzalez, Brandon Potter.

Sagan Riley is a triple threat who has her sights set on Broadway. When she’s accepted to the legendary Stage Left Theater Camp, she thinks her dreams are within reach. Sagan spends her days singing, dancing, acting, and dreaming of love. But soon the Stage Left instructors and Sagan’s fellow campers start dying off one by one. Now, Sagan will have to survive rehearsal and discover the killer, if she’s ever gonna make it.

The Finale will be available on VOD and digital platforms on July 28th, courtesy of Octane Multimedia. Check...

Exclusive: Tika Sumpter has signed with Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment. The move reunites Sumpter with her former agent, DC Wade.

Most recently, Sumpter made her directorial debut with her short film, Night Off, written by Kiana Butler Jabangwe which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival for Hartbeat’s Women Write Now fellowship.

Up next, she will be seen in MGM’s sports comedy The Underdoggs from director Charles Stone III. The feature tells the story of Jaycen Jenning, “2J’s” (Snoop Dogg), a former NFL superstar who, after a run-in with the law, agrees to coach a youth football team in lieu of prison in the hopes of relaunching his fledgling career.

Additionally, Sumpter portrayed Maddie Wachowski in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a role she originated in the original film released in 2020. Prior to that, she was praised for bringing to life a young Michelle Obama in Miramax’s feature film Southside With You,...

The very premise of “Mrs. Davis” all but encouraged the Peacock show’s creative team to embrace their pop culture influences. Co-created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, “Mrs. Davis” is about the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence algorithm and a nun named Simone (Betty Gilpin), who the computer programs tasks with its destruction by sending her on a quest to find the Holy Grail. “Algorithms love cliches,” Wiley (Jake McDorman), Simone’s ex – who happens to lead a group of male resistance fighters like he’s “Fight Club” figure Tyler Durden – says at one point.

“It’s such a pastiche,” “Mrs. Davis” cinematographer Joe Anderson tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview. “The show deals with cliches – like when you do a Google search, the very first topic that comes up. Some of the writing toys with that idea. So we kind of leaned into some of these kind of obvious references,...

The son of acclaimed actor Denzel Washington, John David Washington has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most promising rising stars. Though born into a family of actors, John David has worked hard to forge his own path and establish his own unique identity. After playing professional football for several years, John David turned his focus to acting, landing his breakout role in the hit movie BlacKkKlansman in 2018. His charismatic and nuanced performance earned him critical acclaim and introduced him as a talent to watch. Now with several high-profile projects in the works, including a lead role in Christopher Nolan’s secretive new film Tenet, John David Washington appears poised to ascend to the A-list and make a name for himself as one of the most compelling actors of his generation. His journey from the football field to the silver screen proves that talent and dedication can overcome even the longest of odds.

Every 10 years or so, Hollywood seems to fall head over heels in love with a writer. In the 1990s, studios couldn't stop turning John Grisham's legal drama/thriller novels into movies. Such was also the case with romance novelist Nicholas Sparks, starting with "Message in a Bottle" in 1999 and stretching on throughout the 2000s and a little beyond.

More recently, journalist and writer David Grann has quietly emerged as the hot new thing in Tinseltown. His book "Killers of the Flower Moon" is now a $200 million, three-hour epic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the screen rights to his newest work, "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder," were acquired by Scorsese and DiCaprio before it was even published. Recent years have also seen Grann's book "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" and his New Yorker article...

Four “Hunger Games” movies are coming to Fox’s free streaming service Tubi beginning May 1. The games begin with one girl and one boy from each district trained in the art of survival and ultimately, battling to the death. Unless your character is played by Jennifer Lawrence, in which case, all bets are off.

Watch the trailer for “The Hunger Games”:

Also coming is the Tubi original comedy “Pastacolypse” on May 21. When a global ban on gluten destroys the life of billionaire celebrity chef Alfredo Manicotti, he leads a pasta uprising that threatens humanity. It’s up to his spoiled heiress daughter to save the world.

The true-crime story of Joseph DeAngelo arrives May 10. A devoted family man and police officer, DeAngelo was also the Golden State Killer. For 40 years, he raped and murdered women in California. “Evil Among Us: The Golden State Killer” reveals how a genetic match...

Peter Pan & Wendy takes up again the most classic Disney in, precisely, its anniversary, with one of its most iconic stories.

This time with the appeal of giving us Jude Law as Captain Hook.

Peter Pan & Wendy is a film directed by David Lowery starring Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson.

Peter Pan & Wendy (2023) About the Movie

A perfect opportunity to revisit a classic and make slight modifications to it? Well, that seems to be the idea of Disney and its screenwriters (the film infobox lists no less than ten people on the team).

Peter Pan & Wendy is everything we saw in the 1953 animated version, what we relived with more magic in Spielberg’s Hook and now we return to it with Jude Law playing the bad guy.

There is nothing wrong with the film, except that we have already seen it and, if you are expecting...

There is something fitting about the fact that a charming adventure story about a boy that never grows up who leads a cadre of children wishing to remain similarly youthful and carefree forever gets remade in one form or another every decade or so. It speaks to the fact that the desire to avoid adulthood and remain unmoored and childlike forever remains as strong as ever, if not stronger. At the same time, it reveals our seeming inability to understand fully why the story is so resonant. Every time the story is told, you can feel the creator struggling with the material, wrestling with its meaning, imparting in the story their own beliefs and fears.

Director David Lowery, who has spent the last decade building an aesthetically and thematically similar but tonally diverse oeuvre, is a perfect modern match for this material. His works have explored heartache and loneliness and...

For those that only know director David Lowery from his mystical Arthurian epic "The Green Knight" starring Dev Patel, it may seem a little strange to see his name attached to another retelling of the classic animated film "Peter Pan." But before the visionary filmmaker made the subdued haunter "A Ghost Story" and Robert Redford's "The Old Man and the Gun," Lowery also remade the 1977 children's fantasy musical "Pete's Dragon" for Disney. Returning to the House of Mouse, Lowery is all aboard for a new take on Neverland with "Peter Pan & Wendy" starring Jude Law in a great bit of casting as Captain Hook. 

Peter Pan is so ingrained in pop culture that it can be a challenge to know what parts of the story to include and what aspects to avoid for fear of retelling the same version that audiences already know. To avoid those pitfalls, Lowery...

Get ready, everyone: Martin Scorsese, it’s soon to debut at the Cannes Film Festival – where lucky audiences will get a first glimpse at what one of the greatest directors of all time has cooked up.

With the film now just a few months away, here’s what you need to know.

1) It stars both De Niro and DiCaprio {#h-1-it-stars-both-de-niro-and-dicaprio}

Across his career, Scorsese has had two on-screen muses – the first being Robert De Niro, who’s regularly collaborated with the director across the 21st Century, in Gangs Of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf Of Wall Street. Now, we’re getting a Scorsese movie with both of his favourite movie stars at once – his tenth work with De Niro, and sixth with DiCaprio. De Niro plays powerful rancher William Hale, with DiCaprio as his nephew Ernest Burkhart.

2) It’s about indigenous American murders,...

By most industry standards, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is a massive success. Released at a time when theatrical studio movies have underserved the market for family-friendly entertainment, it transforms the most popular family-friendly videogame franchise into a blockbuster hit.

Enlivened by the same cartoonish pizazz that Illumination Entertainment brought to the “Despicable Me” franchise, the new movie finally cracks an elusive code for Nintendo, which has guarded its library for decades in the aftermath of the misbegotten 1993 live action “Mario” movie. And there’s definitely more to come: With its record-breaking $195 million gross across five days, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” sets the stage for a whole new era of Nintendo adaptations.

There’s only one problem: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is abysmal, at least to my eyes.

I know, the saga of a wayward Brooklyn plumber and his faithful brother, as they get sucked into the Mushroom...

After directing the medieval fantasy film “The Green Knight” and the upcoming Disney remake “Peter Pan and Wendy,” filmmaker David Lowery is going to a galaxy far, far away. He is one of the directors on board for “Skeleton Crew,” the upcoming “Star Wars” series on Disney starring Jude Law, Variety has confirmed.

Lowery joins “Skeleton Crew” alongside directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the recent Oscar winners for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

“Skeleton Crew” stars Jude Law and is created by Jon Watts, who directed all three of Tom Holland’s “Spider-Man” movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While “Skeleton Crew” story details are still under wraps, the Disney series will take place in the New Republic era, following the events of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” “The Mandalorian” team of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni serve as executive producers.

A casting notice was originally called for four children,...

While much remains mysterious about "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew," which is being headed up by "Spider-Man: No Way Home" director Jon Watts, we are starting to learn more about the creative team behind Lucasfilm's upcoming series for Disney . Today, word came out that David Lowery ("The Green Knight") has come aboard to direct at least one episode of the series. The hiring was initially reported by One Take News and has since been corroborated by several other outlets.

This will be Lowery's first go-around in a galaxy far, far away, but he will be in good company. Not only is the show being headed up by Watts and the masterminds behind "The Mandalorian," Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, but we also recently learned that the Daniels, of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" fame, are also directing at least one episode of the upcoming show. Plot details currently remain a little thin,...

Roadside Attractions has nabbed North American rights to the drama Dreamin’ Wild, telling the true story of musician brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson, slating it for release in theaters nationwide on August 4th.

Related Story Venice Review: Casey Affleck In ‘Dreamin’ Wild’ Related Story Sundance Prize Winner 'The Pod Generation' Starring Emilia Clarke & Chiwetel Ejiofor Set For Release By Roadside Attractions & Vertical Related Story Michael Stuhlbarg Joins Matt Damon And Casey Affleck In 'The Instigators'

The film starring Academy Award winner Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Noah Jupe (Honey Boy) and Emmy and Golden Globe nom Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer) puts Oscar- and Emmy-nominated writer-director Bill Pohlad back in business with Roadside, which with Lionsgate released his last acclaimed film Love & Mercy on Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson.

Its central question is, what if a childhood dream suddenly came true — but 30 years later? That...

If I were a decade and a half younger, I'd probably say something along the lines of filmmaker David Lowery having all hits and absolutely no misses throughout his brilliant directing career to this point. But because I'm not and my job ostensibly requires that I find a semi-intelligent way of stringing words together to make insightful points, I'll just point out that between 2016's "Pete's Dragon", the soulful and meditative "A Ghost Story," the tragically underseen "The Old Man & the Gun," and especially 2021's Dev Patel-starring adaptation of "The Green Knight," Lowery has rapidly curated one of the most surprising and sneakily interesting filmographies out there.

Today, we're getting word of his next move and, well, this has the makings of becoming another must-watch, too.

Deadline has the news that Lowery has set up his next production, titled "Mother Mary." Once again teaming up with studio A...

Another animated Disney classic is getting the live-action remake treatment and this latest adventure seems genuinely worth getting excited about.

“Peter Pan & Wendy,” which will debut on Disney on April 28, hails from co-writer/director David Lowery, the filmmaker behind “The Green Knight” and “The Old Man and the Gun,” and looks to interpolate both the 1953 Disney animated classic and the original J.M. Barrie source material. Watch the trailer above.

Originally announced in 2016, around the time Lowery was releasing his “Pete’s Dragon” remake theatrically, “Peter Pan & Wendy” is arguably the most exciting live-action adaptation of a Disney animated project in some time. The impressive visual sweep presented in the trailer (actual locations!) combined with the nifty modernization of some of the characters and settings, and the very committed cast (led by Jude Law as a snarling Captain Hook) make it seem like “Peter Pan & Wendy” will be a cut above,...

They just don’t make action movie stars like they used to. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone dominated the box office in the 1980s with their hyper-masculine, star-driven brand of action movies: a feat some studios, but no actor has fully replicated since. You’d think the experience would have bonded the titans of industry, but Stallone says that shared experience is precisely why they weren’t always friends.

In a new interview with Forbes to promote his upcoming Paramount series “Tulsa King,” Stallone waxed nostalgic about his rivalry with Schwarzenegger and their eventual ability to mend fences by teaming up for “The Expendables” and “Escape Plan.”

“We really disliked each other immensely because we were… this may sound a little vain, but I think we were pioneering a kind of genre at that time and it hasn’t been seen since really,” Stallone said. “So the competition, because it’s his nature,...

“Yellowstone,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” “1883” — so far, Taylor Sheridan’s steadily expanding TV universe has hewed closely to the writer-director’s breakthrough hit. And why not? Kevin Costner’s soapy family saga is a ratings juggernaut, its success credited to a setting in what’s left of America’s wild west, where the old ways of doing things clash with new ideas of right and wrong. A prequel, “1883,” ditches any pretense by abandoning the present to live fully in the past. Surrounding the Duttons’ actual ancestors are colonizers and covered wagons, shootouts and scenic vistas. If Costner represents the last of the cowboys, then Sam Elliott is their paragon at the peak of their prevalence. Even “Mayor of Kingstown,” which has no narrative ties to “Yellowstone,” is told like a modern Western with a heavy emphasis on family, reform, and machismo. Jeremy Renner may not wear a Stetson, but...

Exclusive: The MGM Snoop Dogg sports comedy The Underdoggs has added Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps, Andrew Schulz and George Lopez while casting the kid team of actors which includes Jonigan Booth, Adan James Carrillo, Kylah Davila, Caleb Dixon, Alexander Michael Gordon and Shamori Washington.

Billed as The Bad News Bears in the world of Youth Football, The Underdoggs tells the story of Jaycen Jenning, “2J’s” (played by Snoop Dogg), a former NFL superstar who, after a run in with the law, agrees to coach a youth football team in lieu of prison in the hopes of relaunching his fledgling career.

Charles Stone directs off a script by Danny Segal and Isaac Schamis based off a pitch by Snoop Dogg and Schwartz-Morini.

The pic is produced under Snoop Dogg’s Death Row Pictures banner, with Kenya Barris and Mychelle Deschamps for Khalabo Ink Society, Snoop Dogg’s...

Exclusive: Jeremy Steckler is exiting his post as President of Film Production at Imperative Entertainment to focus on producing under his newly launched shingle Enhanced Hammer. In addition to leading his production company, he will act as a consultant to Imperative Entertainment on select projects. Steckler arrived at Imperative in July 2019.

“My happiest experiences over the years both as a producer and a studio executive involved working with storytellers that are operating on the highest levels making memorable, impactful work. I hope to continue to support talent that I both believe in and admire. My production company, Enhanced Hammer, is a nod to a term in the art world that connotates a work of art that is of such high quality that that it can command a premium situation. I hope to do the same in entertainment,” Steckler told Deadline.

The producer’s new shingle will continue to develop projects...

Stars: Jason Skeen, Augustine Frizzell, Jd Brown, Katharine Franco, Carl Bailey, Roger Schwermer Jr., Joshua Ian Steinberg | Written and Directed by Jason Rader, Jason Von Godi

With a title like The Hoot Owl, I was expecting a film with the Texan cousin of The Owlman from Lord of Tears and The Black Gloves, or maybe the owl costumed killer from Michele Soavi’s Stagefright. As it turned out this was more like The Hills Have Eyes meets The Evictors than any of those films.

The Hoot Owl begins with clips of a man and a very pregnant woman fleeing something. First in an SUV, then on foot. The guy gets killed and we cut away as the woman tries to hide.

Scott and April have bought a house, apparently sight unseen, out in the middle of nowhere. And, along with Scott’s buddy Drew and April’s sister Suzy are...

Casey Affleck heaped praise on Andrew Dominik’s forthcoming Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde during a press conference for his latest film Dreamin’ Wild at the Venice Film Festival Wednesday.

“I’ve seen Blonde and it’s incredible,” Affleck told press corps. “I’ve seen a couple of versions of Blonde and it’s taken him [Dominik] a long time to get it out into the world. But that’s just how he is. He’s so slow with it. And it’s an amazing, beautiful film.”

Affleck began discussing the Nc-17-rated flick after he was asked about his relationship with the film’s director Andrew Dominik whom he worked with on The Assassination of Jesse James, which also debuted in Venice.

Later during the presser, Affleck continued to discuss his work with Dominik on The Assassination of Jesse James when he was asked about his personal regrets and how they...

Exclusive: Karl Spoerri, Viviana Vezzani and Tobias Gutzwiller are officially launching production label Zurich Avenue, which will sit under the banner of their finance company SPG3.

Based in Zurich and LA, the production-specific label will focus on film and TV and currently has ten English and German-language projects in different stages of production.

Among the slate is Bill Pohlad’s Venice Film Festival title Dreamin’ Wild, which stars Casey Affleck, Zooey Deschanel, Walton Goggins, Chris Messina, Noah Jupe, Jack Dylan Grazer and Beau Bridges, and tells the true story of musicians Donnie and Joe Emerson.

Pic was produced in partnership with River Road Entertainment and Innisfree Pictures while SPG3 co-financed with River Road. Kim Roth, Bill Pohlad, Jim Burke, Karl Spoerri and Viviana Vezzani served as producers.

Currently in production are Greatest Days and Nyad. Coky Giederoic directs the former, the big screen adaptation of UK comedy musical The Band,...

When Wolfgang Petersen burst onto the scene with his WWII submarine masterpiece "Das Boot," Hollywood came calling. Any director who could pin audiences to their seats for two-and-a-half hours with a film that rarely leaves the interior of a U-boat surely had the skills to enthrall viewers with a mainstream blockbuster. While Petersen proved more than reliable with smashes like "In the Line of Fire," "Outbreak," "Air Force One," and "The Perfect Storm," he occasionally found himself attached to ambitious projects that, for one reason or another, failed to launch or launched without him at the helm.

Petersen, who died on August 12, 2022, at the age of 81, left behind a litany of what-ifs. He was in the mix on several tantalizing projects that could've changed the complexion of superhero and YA filmmaking; there's an alternate universe in which Petersen revived the DC universe with a Batman and Superman mash-up in the early 2000s.

Martin Scorsese is set to direct another adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio for Apple Original Films.

THR first reported that Oscar winner Scorsese will team up again with Academy Award winner DiCaprio for a seventh feature collaboration. Based on David Grann’s non-fiction book “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder,” the film is centered on a shipwreck in 1742. The book will be published next year.

Grann also penned “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which Scorsese also adapted for an Apple Original film starring DiCaprio, slated for a 2023 release.

“The Wager” will be directed by Scorsese with DiCaprio starring in the lead role. Producers include Scorsese via Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio and partner Jennifer Davisson via their Appian Way Productions, and Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment. Richard Plepler will executive produce through his banner, Eden Productions.

Apple landed the rights to the book detailing how 30 men...

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Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are teaming up once again, this time to tackle an adaptation of the upcoming David Grann nonfiction book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder.

Apple Original Films has landed the rights to the book, due out in April 2023. The project reteams the key players and companies behind the recently wrapped adaptation of Grann’s true-crime tome Killers of the Flower Moon.

Scorsese is attached to direct Wager, with DiCaprio attached to star. Producing are Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment, Scorsese via Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio and partner Jennifer Davisson via their Appian Way Productions

Richard Plepler will executive produce through his banner, Eden Productions.

Set in the 1740s, Wager’s story is set in motion when a patched-together boat with 30 emaciated men lands on the coast of Brazil. The men were the...

Jane Austen certainly wrote some plucky, sassy protagonists. Anne Elliot was not one of them. The first chapter of “Persuasion,” Austen’s final novel, describes Anne as having “an elegance of mind and sweetness of character.” Anne’s love interest, the dashing Captain Wentworth, later claims there is “no one so proper, so capable as Anne.”

The Anne illustrated in Austen’s novel sounds genteel and gracious. The Anne in Netflix’s “Persuasion,” the first straightforward film adaptation of the novel since 2007, is described similarly by her dearest friends. And yet, perhaps in an attempt to make her more relatable in our current resurgence of messy female characters, she also spends much of the film breaking the fourth wall and cracking wise.

Screenwriters Ron Bass (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”) and Alice Victoria Winslow (“Hot Spot”) have given one of Austen’s more demure heroines the “Fleabag” treatment. Luckily for them,...

“Magic Mike” star Alex Pettyfer, Frank Grillo (“Kingdom”) and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s” Maria Bakalova are set to star in “Branded.”

Tom Hopper will also appear in the film.

Kieron Hawkes (“Power”) is set to direct the feature, which is based on New Yorker article “The Brand” by longform journalist David Grann, whose book “Killers of the Flower Moon” has been adapted in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film of the same name. Alessandro Camon (“The Messenger”) has written the screenplay for “Branded.”

“Branded” tells the story of America’s prison gangs, with Pettyfer playing Taylor, a football player incarcerated for murdering a drug dealer who joins a white gang in San Quentin. Grillo will play the gang’s leader Carter, who sees Taylor as his future replacement.

When the authorities try to disband the gang by dispersing its members throughout the prison system, Taylor soon finds himself at the helm of a veritable criminal empire.

Exclusive: Searchlight Pictures vet Angela Johnson is joining ID Public Relations as Vice President, Deadline has learned.

Johnson will be working in both Talent and Content Departments where she’ll be repping filmmakers, below-the-line talent, production companies, actors in addition to consulting on film and TV series awards campaigns.

The accomplished Senior Publicity Executive arrives at ID with over two decades of entertainment industry experience, having spearheaded several successful film awards campaigns that yielded 185 Oscar nominations and 50 wins across all categories, including 24 Best Picture nominations and three Best Picture wins.

While managing domestic publicity for Searchlight Pictures, Johnson oversaw the awards campaigns for Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of

Water, Birdman and Slumdog Millionaire, as well as the below the line publicity campaigns for JoJo Rabbit, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Old Man & the Gun, Jackie, Wild, The Tree of Life, Brooklyn, 127 Hours, Enough Said, The Last King of Scotland,...

Exclusive: Primetime Emmy nominee Kate Mara and The Green Knight filmmaker David Lowery have boarded Shawn Bannon’s feature documentary, The Smell of Money, which centers around Elsie Herring and her North Carolina community as they square off with the multibillion-dollar pork industry, which has been spraying animal waste on their homes and land for decades.

The pic, written by Jamie Berger, will premiere at the Sarasota Film Festival.

Bannon also producers. Michelle Cho serves as associate producer.

A century after her grandfather claimed his freedom from slavery, Herring and her rural North Carolina community are fighting the world’s largest pork company for their freedom to enjoy clean air, pure water, and a life without the stench of sh**..

Sitting on her front porch one sunny day in the 1980s, she felt droplets pouring down on her––but a revolting odor made clear that what landed on her skin and clothes was not rain.

Exclusive: Aaron Magnani has optioned screen rights to Walker Percy’s New York Times bestseller The Second Coming, with plans to develop the novel for film.

He’s currently in search of a director for the adaptation and will produce via under his Aaron Magnani Productions banner. Peter Arneson adapted the script and will executive produce.

The story centers on a wealthy, suicidal widower who searches for proof of God but finds much more when he meets a young woman fugitive from a mental hospital. Influenced by the real-life suicides of Percy’s father and grandfather and suspected suicide of his mother, the plot combines comedy, tragedy and romance, with themes of alienation and redemption.

“This story is very relatable to the world we have been living in,” said Magnani. “And the adaptation is as much a director’s piece as an actor’s piece and incredible character study.”

Percy...

Oscar winner Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Emmy and Grammy winner Beau Bridges (One Night in Miami…), Emmy nominees Zooey Deschanel (New Girl) and Walton Goggins (The Righteous Gemstones), Jack Dylan Grazer (We Are Who We Are), Noah Jupe (Ford v Ferrari) and Chris Messina (I Care a Lot) have signed on to star in Dreamin’ Wild, a film from writer-director Bill Pohlad, which has entered production in Spokane, Washington.

Like Pohlad’s critically acclaimed second feature, Love & Mercy, which told the story of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, Dreamin’ Wild is set in the world of music, telling the true story of instrumental and vocal duo Donnie and Joe Emerson and their family.

When Dreamin’ Wild – the album Donnie self-recorded as a teenager in 1979, with his brother Joe – is re-discovered decades later and meets critical acclaim, adult Donnie is forced to confront ghosts from the past and...

On the second Monday of September, just one week ahead of her one-year anniversary as president of Condé Nast Entertainment, Agnes Chu attended her first Met Gala. She walked the red carpet outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Inside, she sat at a table opposite Elon Musk, where she took in a tribute to Broadway and Justin Bieber’s “jaw-dropping” live performance. She also had a bit of a “geeky girl” reaction when meeting “Game of Thrones” stars Kit Harington and Rose Leslie.

But beyond the glitz and glamour of celebrity run-ins, Chu’s first Met Gala held larger significance. The function doubled as a litmus test for the new global content strategy of Condé Nast Entertainment, the multimedia arm of the storied magazine company — which counts Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Wired among its Tiffany brands — and is focused on targeting audiences any way they can be reached,...

David Lowery’s The Green Knight, releasing in U.S. theaters today, may be receiving all the attention as the most exciting and downright weirdest display of all the filmmaker’s particular sensibilities…but what about his previous movie? Originally billed as legendary actor Robert Redford’s swan song before retirement (until Marvel and the Russo brothers came calling for one last […]

The post After ‘The Green Knight’, Revisit David Lowery’s Previous Quiet Triumph: ‘The Old Man & the Gun’ appeared first on /Film.

It’s a busy weekend at the box office, with three new wide releases: Jungle Cruise from Disney, Stillwater from Focus, and The Green Knight from A24. Jungle Cruise should have a steady lead this weekend, while the other newcomers, which offer solid counterprogramming as adult fare, will likely be in the single digits, with some of the previous weeks’ holdovers likely coming in between. With Covid-19 cases at their highest point since April and projected to keep increasing, we may see lower openings and bigger drops than expected, though the box office remains hard to predict either way.

Based on the beloved Disneyland ride, Disney’s long-in-development Jungle Cruise stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in a hopeful franchise starter in the mold of Pirates of the Caribbean, with the plot centered around finding the Tree of Life. The adventure film takes the low-key charms of the ride and...

It’s tempting to think of the first “Star Wars” movie as ground zero for the new era of popular culture. But part of the primal power of George Lucas’s sci-fi landmark is that it represented a kind of dawn-of-the-digital-age, joystick-happy recycling of many, many things from the past. It drew on the ramshackle movie serials of the ’40s and ’50s. It drew on classic films as serious as John Ford’s “The Searchers” and Akira Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress.” And, of course, there would have been no “Star Wars” without J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.

One of the reasons the “Lord of the Rings” films became such a massive cultural phenomenon is that they were, in effect, the true prequels to “Star Wars.” (It didn’t matter that they unfolded in a more primitive world; they took you over the hills and far away.

“Flag Day” starts and ends with a high-stakes car chase, but that big pursuit is an anomaly. A minor-key movie less invested in grand gestures than the intimate two-hander at its center, “Flag Day” isn’t about crimes so much as the personal toll they take on innocent bystanders. Sean Penn’s first directorial effort since 2016’s “The Last Face” compensates for that misstep, if only just, with that lays out most of its emotional cards from the first act and offers few surprises along the way. In the process, however, it allows Penn to pass his talent to the next generation, with his daughter Dylan Penn taking the lead in a stirring turn that injects the central family tension with authenticity.

The younger Penn plays real-life journalist Jennifer Vogel, whose 2014 tome “Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life” has been faithfully adapted by screenwriters Jez...

The much anticipated film The Green Knight is debuting in theaters on July 30.

An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger.

From visionary filmmaker David Lowery comes a fresh and bold spin on a classic tale from the knights of the round table.

Starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan and Ralph Ineson, watch the new featurette and listen as Ineson, who plays the titular and imposing Green Knight,...

Watching the versatile, ever-evolving career of filmmaker David Lowery is something of a trip. He’s done very human indies, crime films (“Ain’t No Bodies Saints“), but he also has a proclivity for big-budget fantasy, see 2016’s live-action adaptation of Disney’s “Pete’s Dragon.” His latest, “The Green Knight,” definitely bends towards fantasy and epic scope but seems to retain some of his indie roots.

Continue reading Watch: Legends Never Die: An Oral History Of ‘The Green Knight’ Narrated by Ralph Ineson at The Playlist.

There will always be King Arthur movies, just like there will always be big screen riffs on Robin Hood. Characters with such mythic pedigree—and so readily available in the public domain—make this almost a given. Nevertheless, the King Arthur movies of the last few decades have left something to be desired, no?

Whether it’s Antoine Fuqua and Disney’s questionable choice to produce a King Arthur movie without any of the actual magic or fantasy that made those legends enduring, or Guy Ritchie’s bizarre attempt to turn Arthurian archetypes into another boys-will-be-boys gangster movie—but now with medieval chainmail!—Hollywood has lately tried a little too hard to reinvent the wheel. That’s why The Green Knight trailer is so refreshingly weird. Yet that doesn’t make it unfaithful to the source material. Quite the contrary, in fact.

With its ominous reveal of Ralph Ineson as...

"You will find no mercy..." A24 has debuted the full-length official trailer for The Green Knight, the latest film written & directed by David Lowery. After being delayed from release last summer for more than a year, A24 has finally reset this film to open in July this summer. The Green Knight is a fantasy re-telling of the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, starring Dev Patel as Sir Gawain. He is King Arthur's reckless nephew, who embarks on a quest to confront the gigantic green-skinned stranger. The stellar cast includes Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Barry Keoghan, Erin Kellyman, Kate Dickie, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris as King Arthur, and Ralph Ineson as the Green Knight. I am very, very excited for this, I've got a good feeling it's going to end up being one of the highlights of the year. This looks ...