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Exclusive: Alloy Entertainment has promoted Elysa Koplovitz Dutton to the role of Executive Vice President of Theatrical Film Production, the company’s President and Chief Creative Officer Leslie Morgenstein announced on Monday.

A leader in creating and producing youth-oriented content in books, television and film, Alloy has fallen under the umbrella of Warner Bros. Television Studios since its acquisition by WarnerMedia in 2012. Dutton most recently served as the company’s Head of Film, having now worked there for over a decade. On the producing front, her most recent credit is the comedy You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, starring Adam Sandler and Idina Menzel, which sat atop Netflix’s charts for multiple weeks upon its debut last summer. Prior to that, she produced Netflix’s smash hit romance Purple Hearts, starring Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galatzine — the streamer’s third-biggest movie of 2022 — as well as its dance comedy Work It,...

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Usher delivers a smooth break-up ballad, Lil Yachty laments his Sunday scaries, and the Last Dinner Party offer a ferocious take on generational trauma. Plus, new music from Billy Joel, Del Water Gap and Holly Humberstone, and Cash Cobain.

Usher feat. Pheelz “Ruin” (YouTube)

Lil Yachty, “A Cold Sunday” (YouTube)

The Last Dinner Party, “The Feminine Urge” (YouTube)

Billy Joel, “Turn the Lights Back On” (YouTube)

Del Water Gap feat.

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Taylor Swift subverts sexism with a sultry 1989 vault track, Brent Faiyaz remains unfazed on a bouncy single, and Mr. Eazi drops his long-awaited debut. Plus, new music from YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Green Day, and Seventeen.

Taylor Swift, “Slut! (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault]” (YouTube)

Brent Faiyaz feat. Tommy Richman & Felix!, “Upset” (YouTube)

Mr. Eazi, “Fefe No Fefe” (YouTube)

David Guetta feat. Ayra Star and Lil Durk, “Big Fu” (YouTube)

YoungBoy Never Broke Again,...

Producer Jolene Rodriguez has announced that Julio Macias and Danube Hermosillo are set to star in the upcoming action-packed thriller film “Atypical Pirate,” to be directed by Ruben Islas.

Rodriguez was named one of Variety’s 10 emerging producers to watch in 2023, known for her feature film “Righteous Thieves.”

Macias is known for his roles in several popular television series, including “On My Block,” “Selena,” “The Rookie,” “Promised Land” and “Young Dario.” He joins Hermosillo, known for her roles in “Shameless,” “Everything, Everything,” “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “Julie & The Phantoms.” Hermosillo, too, recently starred in Rodriguez’s “Righteous Thieves.”

The film follows the story of Hugo, “a neurodiverse savant immersed in the dangerous theft of a valuable thumb drive as he navigates an escape from those who want it back.” When Hugo gets lost in Guadalajara and meets Cynthia, who runs a local gang, they set out for a new adventurous treasure.

Before “Everything Everywhere All at Once” hit the big screen last year, bringing nothing but praise and success to Ke Huy Quan and his co-stars, the actor was faced with a few setbacks.

Quan, 51, recalled being “so nervous” during the pandemic because he wasn’t being offered any other acting gigs since “Everything Everything”, which marked his comeback role, had been delayed for two years after having shot the film back in January 2020.

Read More: How Michelle Yeoh Helped Ke Huy Quan Prep For ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once: ‘Couldn’t Have Done This Without Her’

As a result, Quan revealed he “was about to lose my health insurance,” while recently appearing on James Corden’s “The Late Late Show”. “So, I called my agent and I said, ‘Can you please get me anything? It doesn’t matter, I just need one job to make the minimum requirement so...

What kind of friend are you? We all fall into certain friendship archetypes, whether we’re the responsible “parent” of the group, the instigator, or the one that never responds in the group chat. Sometimes we fill these archetype roles to bring out the best in our friend groups, but more often than not these roles are set in stone during our youth, before we define ourselves, and coalesce into something toxic and decidedly unfriendly.

Taking a psychological approach to exploring lifelong friendships, digital communication, and Gen-z individualism, A24‘s SXSW breakout horror film Bodies Bodies Bodies is sure to stir up a conversation online. However, a lot of that conversation will rightly be about the outstanding, believable performances from the film’s young, buzzy cast. No one needs an explanation for who Bodies Bodies Bodies stars Pete Davidson and Lee Pace are in 2022, but some of the film’s...

Exclusive: Writer, director and producer Stella Meghie has signed with Lighthouse Management & Media for representation.

The filmmaker is currently co-writing and will direct the musical series Tiana, centered on Disney’s first African American princess of The Princess and the Frog fame, for Disney .

She previously wrote, directed and executive produced the romantic drama The Photograph, starring Lakeith Stanfield and Issa Rae, for Universal Pictures—also writing, directing and producing the dramedy The Weekend, starring Sasheer Zamata, Tone Bell and DeWanda Wise, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival and was an official selection of both the Tribeca Film Festival and SXSW.

Prior to The Weekend, Meghie directed and produced the Amandla Stenberg-led romantic drama Everything, Everything, based on the bestselling novel by Nicola Yoon. The film from MGM and Warner Bros. grossed over $60 million worldwide and garnered Meghie an NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Director.

Format

BBC Studios has revealed a format agreement for an Italian version of Abi Morgan‘s hit show “The Split.” Locally titled “Studio Battaglia,” the screenplay has been adapted by Lisa Nur Sultan (Golden Globe winner for “On My Skin”) and is directed by Simone Spada (“Hotel Gagarin”). The Italian cast includes Barbora Bobulova, (“Sacred Heart”), Miriam Dalmazio (“Anna”), Marina Occhionero (“Monterossi”), Lunetta Savino (“Saturn in Opposition”), Massimo Ghini (“The New Pope”) Thomas Trabacchi and Giorgio Marchesi (“Medici”) .

Originally produced by “Chernobyl” maker Sister in association with Little Chick, the six-part Italian series is produced by Palomar with Tempesta Film in collaboration with Rai Fiction. Production is completed and the series will premiere in 2022. Italy is the third market to license the format after Turkey’s Mf Yapim adapting the series as “Evlilik Hakkinda Her Sey” (“All About Marriage”) for Fox TV in Turkey and Korean broadcaster Jtbc licensing it...

Amandla Stenberg is in talks to join the upcoming Disney Plus series “The Acolyte,” the live-action “Star Wars” series that hails from Leslye Headland.

Details on the character Stenberg would play are being kept under tight wraps, but an acolyte in the “Star Wars” universe has typically referred to a Sith who has just begun their training under an experienced Sith Lord. This, of course, was prior to Sith Lord Darth Bane instituting the Rule of Two, under which there are only ever two Sith in existence at a time — one master and one apprentice.

Reps for Stenberg and Lucasfilm did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

Disney and Lucasfilm previously confirmed that “The Acolyte” will take place in the final days of the High Republic era of the “Star Wars” timeline and will focus on the emergence of secretive dark side powers. For context, the High...

Netflix has hired former Warner Bros. EVP of Production Niija Kuykendall as their new Vice President of Film, reporting to Scott Stuber, the streamer’s Head of Global Film.

Kuykendall in her position will oversee a new group focusing on mid-sized features. At Warner Bros., she shepherded such blockbusters as the It franchise, and Oscar winners A Star Is Born and Judas and the Black Messiah. Other feature credits at the Burbank, CA lot include Just Mercy, The Sun Is Also a Star, Kong: Skull Island; Everything, Everything; and the Magic Mike franchise.

Said Stuber, “Niija’s experience and reputation is stellar, and she brings strength to Netflix through her relationships and creative talents. For some time there has been a significant gap in the market for mid-range films and Niija has a fantastic track record of championing those projects. We’re thrilled that she’ll be leading a new...

Netflix has ordered a six-part anthology “Blackout,” to be produced by the Obamas’ Higher Ground banner and Temple Hill.

The project is designed to will tell six different stories of Black teenagers who find love during a power outage in New York City. Each installment will be penned by a different writer. The project is being developed concurrently as a TV and a film project through Higher Ground’s overall deal with Netflix.

“When the lights go out and people reveal hidden truths, love blossoms, friendships transform, and all possibilities take flight,” Netflix said.

The stories will be adapted from works penned by authors Dhonielle Clayton (“Tiny Pretty Things”), Tiffany D. Jackson (“Allegedly”), Nic Stone (“Dear Martin”), Angie Thomas (“The Hate U Give”), Ashley Woodfolk (“The Beauty that Remains”) and Nicola Yoon. Among the storylines for the installments that Netflix revealed were “two boys trapped on the subway come face-to-face...

In the wake of the success of the Kevin Hart feature Fatherhood on Netflix, the producers of that movie, Higher Ground and Temple Hill, are collaborating with the streaming giant once again for a new project entitled Blackout, a film & television event which will be adapted from six different Black love stories written by six different writers.

Those scribes are Dhonielle Clayton (Tiny Pretty Things), Tiffany D. Jackson (Allegedly), Nic Stone (Dear Martin), Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Ashley Woodfolk (The Beauty that Remains) and Nicola Yoon. Blackout is being developed as part of Higher Ground’s overall deal with Netflix.

From the perspective of 12 teens with six shots of love, Blackout takes place as a heatwave blankets New York City in darkness and causes an electric chaos. When the lights go out and people reveal hidden truths, love blossoms, friendships transform, and all possibilities take flight.

Exclusive: Anonymous Content has closed a first-look deal with New York Times best-selling authors, husband-and-wife duo David and Nicola Yoon, and their newly launched production banner Yooniverse Media.

Under the pact, Anonymous Content will have exclusive first-look rights to original film and television ideas both created and curated by the Yoons. Yooniverse Media is focused on bringing stories to the screen that explore the full breadth of humanity across all age groups, with special attention to joyful love stories starring people of color.

Two of Nicola Yoon’s novels, Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star, have been adapted into futures.

“Nicola and David are such incredible storytellers whose work is full of happiness, love, light and joy. They believe, and we agree, that big love combined with big ideas can be revolutionary,” said Anonymous Content CEO, Dawn Olmstead. “Their commitment and experience telling these stories through a...

Sofia Carson and Charles Melton have boarded director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum’s YA romance “Purple Hearts,” about two star-crossed lovers. Embankment has launched worldwide sales.

Adapted from Tess Wakefield’s novel by Tony Award nominee Kyle Jarrow (“Valor” TV series) and Liz Garcia, Rosenbaum directs the transformative journey of two passionate young souls, aspiring singer-songwriter Cassie and military man Luke, who in spite of their apparent differences, fall hopelessly in love.

Rosenbaum said: “’Purple Hearts’ provides hope that two people with such differing world views, stuck in the same place, forced to fight the same fight, might be able to learn a little about each other’s beliefs, get over their own bullshit, start to understand each other and just maybe fall in love. It’s a very timely, emotional story – truly a romance for the ages.”

Carson will also write and perform the film’s original soundtrack. The actress,...

“The Hate U Give” star Amandla Stenberg has joined the cast of the film adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen” at Universal and features the music and lyrics from “La La Land” duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Stenberg will play the role of the high school senior Alana, which has been expanded and re-conceived from the original stage musical; it will now have Stenberg singing a new song that she will also write in collaboration with Pasek and Paul.

“Dear Evan Hansen” is the story of a high school senior who has severe social anxiety and has trouble connecting with others and making friends. After the suicide of a classmate, Hansen gets caught in a lie that brings him closer to his classmate’s family. Stenberg’s Alana in the film has a cheery facade and a social-media-savvy, but it masks her deeper loneliness and isolation.

Also Read: Steven Spielberg...

Amandla Stenberg is joining Universal’s movie adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen.” She will appear in an expanded role from the stage production as a high school senior Alana, and she will perform a song in the film.

“Dear Evan Hansen,” a Tony Award winning musical, opened on Broadway in 2016. The story follows a high schooler with social anxiety who gets caught up in a lie after the family of a classmate who committed suicide mistakes one of Hansen’s letters for their son’s suicide note.

Stenberg, whose credits include “The Hate U Give” and “Everything, Everything,” will portray Alana — a high school senior whose cheery façade and social-media savvy mask a deeper loneliness and isolation, and whose response to the death of a classmate ignites a movement.

The role has been expanded for the film, with Stenberg singing a new original song composed expressly for the film. She...

Exclusive: Sony’s TriStar Pictures has won a hot and heavy auction for I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the feature film on the life and music of iconic songstress Whitney Houston. The studio has already staked out a Thanksgiving 2022 release date for the film. Deadline revealed the project’s formation back in April, with The Whitney Houston Estate, Primary Wave and Grammy-winning music producer and Houston’s mentor Clive Davis all aboard. Stella Meghie is directing. She helmed The Photograph, starring Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield and her credits include Jean and the Jones, The Weekend, and Everything, Everything.

Scripting and producing is Anthony McCarten, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter who was the catalyst for the project, self-financing a life rights option, writing the script on spec and lining up rights and music to create a tantalizing package leaving only one question: Which young actress can play Whitney Houston?

McCarten wrote the biographical films The Two Popes,...

Fans were shocked when Ruby Rose announced her departure from Batwoman after the first season finale. From what we’ve heard from insiders though, her exit wasn’t a big surprise within the show. Rose was reportedly unhappy with the unrelenting schedule of shooting network television and being stuck in Vancouver, and she felt the series was limiting her movie career.

The second season of Batwoman is set to air in January 2021, meaning they’ll need to start filming the moment the Covid-19 restrictions lift. That tight timeframe also means that The CW are now busily hunting for someone to step into the cape and cowl. So far, the network has somewhat narrowed their potential casting choices by confirming that the role will be played by an Lgbtq actress, and we’ve now heard of one name that’s being eyed.

Sources close to Wgtc – the same ones who told...

Damien Chazelle’s first movie since his tragically underseen “First Man” will be a limited series for Netflix, which has released an alluring first teaser trailer. The teaser leaves much to the imagination, but it promises Chazelle’s signature innovative use of sound to build atmosphere, plus a well-deserved center-stage role for “Moonlight” star André Holland. (Clearly no hard feelings there after the great “Moonlight”/”La La Land” mix-up of the 2017 Oscars.)

The official synopsis reads: “‘The Eddy’ is an eight-episode drama that takes place in the vibrant multicultural neighborhoods of modern-day Paris. Once a celebrated jazz pianist in New York, Elliot Udo (Holland) is now the co-owner of struggling club The Eddy, where he manages the house band fronted by lead singer and on-again-off-again girlfriend Maja (Joanna Kulig). As Elliot learns that his business partner Farid (Tahar Rahim) may be involved in some questionable practices at the club, secrets...

Paramount Players creative executives Matt Dines and Ali Bell are exiting the company that they joined in August 2017, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.

According to Deadline, Dines, who served as Evp of Development alongside Bell, will be joining Jonah Hill’s production company, which most recently produced “Richard Jewell.”

During Dines’ tenure at Paramount Players, he oversaw features like “Nobody’s Fool” and “Playing With Fire,” while Bell oversaw “What Men Want” and “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” as well as the upcoming “Monster Problems.”

Also Read: Mary J Blige to Star in Paramount Players Horror Thriller 'Body Cam'

Before joining Paramount Players, Dines served as a production VP at MGM where he developed projects like “Everything, Everything,” the “Valley Girl” remake and the upcoming Bradley Cooper film “Deeper.” Before that, he worked at Spyglass Entertainment.

Bell was president of production and development...

For a Valentine’s trip to the movies, you couldn’t wish for a hotter and more talented pair of lovers than Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield. He’s Mike, a New York journalist working for The Republic, an online publication that allows him the time and space and support to feel his way through stories (The Republic doesn’t exist, so don’t send in applications). She’s Mae, a curator at the Queens Museum who’s still smarting over her mother’s death from cancer, and adding bricks...

Stella Meghie’s debut feature film Jean of the Joneses made its world premiere at SXSW in 2016. She was nominated for a Spirit Award and immediately became a director to watch. She went on to direct the adaptation of Nicola Yoon’s Ya novel Everything, Everything starring Amandla Stenberg (friend of the podcast) as well as The Weekend starring Saturday Night Live alum Sasheer Zamata.

Meghie’s next film, a romantic drama titled The Photograph starring Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield, is slated to open on Valentine’s Day. With a trailer that echoes black-led romantic dramas like Love and Basketball and Brown Sugar, it is already garnering anticipation. If there is one common thread woven through Meghie’s films, it is that they put a black woman at the center of a thoughtful and nuanced story that always gives a different perspective of the black experience.

Meghie got her...

Quibi has given a green light to Floored, a comedic dance competition series with a moving dance floor, hosted and executive produced by Liza On Demand star Liza Koshy.

In each episode of Floored, produced by Mission Control Media, two teams of skilled dancers take on an insane dance floor with a life of its own. Dancers try their best to perform a pre-rehearsed routine on a floor that actually lifts, tilts, drops, shakes and spins in time to the music. Additionally, the dancers will have to dodge obstacles that are unexpectedly thrown their way.

“As someone who hosts dance parties of one in their living room, I am more than ready to host this one. I’m so excited to celebrate and scream for the fearless, the focused and the flexible as they step up to the plate… or floor,” said Koshy.

In addition to Koshy, Floored is executive...

Anika Noni Rose will guest star on Hulu’s upcoming adaptation of “Little Fires Everywhere,” Variety has learned exclusively.

Rose will play a character named Paula Hawthorne who is described as a renowned photographer and art professor in New York who becomes a mentor to Mia when she is young. Mia is portrayed by Tiffany Boone in flashback and Kerry Washington in the present-day version of the story.

Rose will appear in two episodes: the series premiere and the sixth episode, and is said to be a “big player” in Mia’s arc.

Rose’s recent television credits include “Power,” “The Quad,” “Roots,” “Bates Motel,” “Hack” and “The Good Wife.” She is also known for film work including “Assassination Nation”; “Everything, Everything”; “For Colored Girls”; “Dreamgirls” “Just Add Water”; “From Justin to Kelly” and the animated projects “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “The Princess and the Frog.” Rose was the...

, as stark white-on-black title cards usher in a muted, clarinet-led jazz score of faintly mournful whimsy. Check. It continues: Our protagonist is a dry, lovelorn standup comic, inclined to drop references to Godard and Fellini in casual conversation, working out romantic issues against a backdrop of warm autumnal melancholy. Check, check, check. Yet if Meghie’s easy, amiable film could be seen as a tribute of sorts to the embattled auteur, it also works to pointedly show up his (and many of his peers’) blind spots. It’s all set in California, for one thing, but more importantly, it’s centered entirely on a quartet of African-American millennials — a demographic rarely called upon to carry this kind of generously talky, relationship-focused indie.

“I constantly talk like I’m the supporting actress in a romantic comedy,” says Zadie (Sasheer Zamata), the aforementioned Los Angeles comedienne, in a line that feels loaded in several ways.

Ask Natasha Kingston (Yara Shahidi) who she adores, and she’ll answer astronomer Carl Sagan, whose presence hovers like Cupid over Ry Russo-Young’s winsome and intelligent teen romance “The Sun Is Also a Star,” based on the bestselling Ya novel by Nicola Yoon. Like Sagan, Natasha is rational and trusts only in the scientific method. Love, she insists, is “legit dead-ass not real” — or at least, it’s not provable — until Natasha cosmically collides with moony high schooler Daniel Bae (Charles Melton) when her baseball jacket embroidered “Deus Ex Machina” catches the would-be poet’s attention.

Alas, tomorrow, Ins is scheduled to deport Natasha, an undocumented Jamaican. Between appointments with her immigration lawyer (John Leguizamo), the strangers have one day to wander the city debating their destiny, during which Daniel takes his cues from the New York Times’ viral 2015 Modern Love column “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This.

It takes a skilled eye to make New York City look beautiful these days. With overdevelopment threatening every inch of sun and the subway schedules keeping Xanax in business, the cinematic New York of “When Harry Met Sally” and “Manhattan” has long been a thing of the past. Yet a nostalgic reverence for the city that never sleeps brightens every frame in “The Sun Is Also a Star,” the fifth feature from native New Yorker Ry Russo-Young. The movie is her second Ya adaptation, and she wraps her New York love letter around a topical cross-cultural teen romance

In lieu of any natural chemistry between the young actors, however, Russo-Young’s direction takes center stage — it’s the best thing about the movie. While great direction isn’t the worst problem to have, the fact that the writing and acting couldn’t quite live up to their gorgeous surroundings hollows the experience of watching it.

When Ry Russo-Young arrived at Sundance in January 2017, the festival regular — she had previously debuted films in both the New Frontiers and Competition sections — returned to the annual Park City event with a surprising new feature: an adaptation of “Before I Fall,” based on Lauren Oliver’s Ya novel of the same name, a teenage spin on “Groundhog Day” with a dramatic bite. Featuring a breakout performance from rising star Zoey Deutch, the film pulled in mixed reviews, though nearly every critic singled out Russo-Young’s strong direction and ability to add new dimensions to a story audiences might have thought they already knew.

When it hit theaters two months later, the Open Road production made a tidy $19 million on a $5 million budget, making it the filmmaker’s biggest moneymaker yet in a career that had already seen the release of three earlier features. Moving to a teen-centric movie after...

Nick Robinson will star opposite Kiersey Clemons (“Dope”) in the upcoming feature “The Language of Flowers,” based on the bestselling novel by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, which spent 69 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Award-winning director Michael Mayer (“The Seagull”) is set to direct the Peter Hutchings’ adaptation. Claude Dal Farra, Brice Dal Farra, and Brian Keady of Bcdf Pictures serve as producers.

“The Language of Flowers” will go into production this summer, shooting in South Africa and San Francisco. Mister Smith Entertainment is handling international sales and will introduce the title to buyers at next week’s Cannes Film Market.

UTA and Mister Smith Entertainment will co-represent North American rights.

“Global audiences have witnessed Nick’s immense talents in his recent starring roles in both ‘Love, Simon’ and ‘Everything, Everything,’” said Claude Dal Farra. “We are delighted he is joining Kiersey to bring this special and touching story to life.

Amandla Stenberg has been cast as the lead in Damien Chazelle’s Netflix series “The Eddy,” which will globally debut in 2020.

The eight-part musical drama is expected to debut in 2020. It revolves around a club in Paris, highlighting its owner, the house band, and the chaotic city that surrounds them. Stenberg will play Julie, the teenage daughter of Elliott (Andre Holland) who shows up suddenly in Paris and forces him to face his past. Stenberg also joins Joanna Kulig (“Cold War”) on the show, who was previously announced to play Maja, a singer who is resisting committing to Elliot, her on-again-off-again partner.

“La La Land” filmmaker Damien Chazelle is directing the show, along with Houda Benyamina (“Divines”), Alan Poul (“Tales of the City”). Scribe Jack Thorne (“Wonder”) will also write several episodes. Glen Ballard wrote all the band’s songs. Executive producers include Chazelle, Poul, Thorne, and Ballard. Jimmy Desmarais...

“What if I told you I could get you to fall in love with me…?”

College-bound romantic Daniel Bae and Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha Kingsley meet—and fall for each other—over one magical day amidst the fervor and flurry of New York City. Sparks immediately fly between these two strangers, who might never have met had fate not given them a little push. But will fate be enough to take these teens from star-crossed to lucky in love? With just hours left on the clock in what looks to be her last day in the U.S., Natasha is fighting against her family’s deportation as fiercely as she’s fighting her budding feelings for Daniel, who is working just as hard to convince her they are destined to be together. A modern-day story about finding love against all odds, “The Sun Is Also a Star” explores whether our lives...

This week, IndieWire will be rolling out our annual Summer Preview, including offerings that span genres, niche offerings for dedicated fans, a closer look at festival favorites finally headed to a theater near you, and plenty of special attention to all the new movies you need to get through a jam-packed summer movie-going season.

Check back throughout the week for a new look at the best the season has to offer, and clear your schedule, because we’re going to fill it right up.

From documentaries about real-life heroines to first-time features involving the kind of high schoolers anyone would hope to be no matter their age, this summer’s selection of films that just so happen to be directed by women is as rich and varied as ever. Bolstered by offerings from Olivia Wilde, Lynn Shelton, Jennifer Kent, Gurinder Chadha, and more, there’s more than enough to pick through,...

Universal Pictures said on Tuesday that it has officially titled the upcoming Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield’s generational love story “The Photograph.”

The film, slated for a Valentine’s Day 2020 release, will be produced by Will Packer along with James Lopez under his company Will Packer Productions.

Universal announced a few changes to its slate of films being produced by the “Girls Trip” producer.

The studio has an upcoming comedy from Packer that’s been titled “Praise This.” Universal moved the release date to Sept. 25, 2020 from Nov. 8 of this year.

And another comedy, which is still untitled has been undated after being previously set for a May 15, 2020 release.

Also Read: Paul Feig Inks First-Look Production Agreement With Universal

“The Photograph,” a sweeping love story about forgiveness and finding the courage to seek the truth, no matter where it may lead you, is based on an original spec by “Everything, Everything” director Stella Meghie.

One can never have enough treacly teen romancers that dutifully pander to their youthful fanbase, correct? Director/producer Justin Baldoni's two-hour saccharine-coated sudser Five Feet Apart does not miss a sentimental beat when conveying its mawkish message about compromised young love at the menacing hands of terminal illness. The Clearasil crowd--at least those that will be enticed by Baldoni's melodramatic muck--should feel rather manipulated by the film's ailing version of Romeo and Juliet. Themes of teenaged pretty people, the "fill in the blank" type of sickness at hand, and an unapologetic attraction between said inflicted youngsters make for the  foundation of the teary-eyed tendencies in Five Feet Apart. Recent teen love stories regarding romance and illness such as 2014's The Fault in Our Stars, 2017's Everything, Everything and this year's Then Came You do indeed tug...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Universal Pictures is spreading the love, announcing on Friday that the studio has added Chante Adams, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Y’lan Noel and Kelvin Harrison Jr. to the cast of its upcoming film “The Photograph.”

The film, which stars “Insecure” creator Issa Rae alongside Lakeith Stanfield (“Sorry to Bother You”), is a romantic drama centered on intertwining love stories in the past and present.

“The Photograph” was written, and will be directed by “Everything, Everything” director Stella Meghie, who has worked with Rae in the past, directing the season three “Insecure” episode “Fresh Like.”

Also Read: Lakeith Stanfield Joins Issa Rae in 'The Photograph' From Universal

Rae has also worked before with new “The Photographer” cast member Y’lan Noel, who plays Daniel on HBO’s “Insecure.” Noel also starred in 2018’s “The First Purge.”

Chante Adams recently starred in “Monsters and Men” along with John David Washington,...

“Sorry to Bother You” star Lakeith Stanfield and “Insecure” creator Issa Rae will star side-by-side in “The Photograph,” a new film for Universal Pictures.

The film is based on an original spec by “Everything, Everything” director Stella Meghie. Her directorial debut, “Jean of the Joneses,” premiered at the 2016 South-by-Southwest Film Festival.

“The Photograph” is described as a romantic drama centered on intertwining love stories in the past and present. Will Packer will produce the film along with James Lopez under his company Will Packer Productions.

Also Read: Issa Rae Will Produce Musical Romance 'Love in America' at Universal

Packer’s latest film, the Taraji P. Henson-led “What Men Want,” has grossed $59.7 million worldwide. Universal will release his next film, “Little,” on April 12.

Meghie, who will also direct and executive produce “The Photograph,” has worked with Rae in the past, directing the season three “Insecure” episode “Fresh Like.” She is...

Berlin-bound sales title based on Rolling Stone article.

Jason Clarke will star opposite Love, Simon lead Nick Robinson in the true crime drama Silk Road, which Sierra/Affinity will launch at the Efm next week.

Tiller Russell directs from his adapted screenplay based on David Kushner’s Rolling Stone article ‘Dead End on Silk Road’ about Ross Ulbricht, the hacker and narcotics trafficker who used the nom de guerre Dread Pirate Roberts and ran a vast online black market.

Silk Road focuses on Ulbricht and the ’Jurassic Narc’ who resolved to bring down the young kingpin’s billion-dollar empire.

Duncan Montgomery...

Ask the average film enthusiast to name five black women filmmakers working today, and they will likely struggle to come up with more than a few. Narrow the criteria down to black women filmmakers working at the studio level, and their choices become even fewer, because black women are still vastly underrepresented in the director’s chair, even as industry inclusion initiatives abound. While she has three feature films on her resume (two indies and one studio) in as many years, and two in development (both at major studios), the prolific Stella Meghie remains a relative unknown for her accomplishments as one of very few black women filmmakers working at a consistent rate today.

Among the 814 movies released theatrically in the U.S. in 2018, just five of them were directed by black women filmmakers, and only one (Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time”) came from a studio. In 2017, Meghie...

Every year, some faction of the film industry declares that the sky is falling, while another one shoots for the stratosphere. In 2018, Moviepass floundered and FilmStruck went kaput, but distributors continued to snatch up new titles on the festival circuit with some measure of success. From hot Sundance buys like “Sorry to Bother You” and “Searching” to late-in-the-year slate additions like “Vox Lux,” plenty of visionary storytelling that began the year without clear release plans found welcoming homes. Nevertheless, the sheer volume of new movies premiering at festivals throughout the year guarantees that plenty of highlights either slip through the cracks or scare off risk-adverse distributors.

To qualify for this list, a movie must have premiered within the calendar year, but not have secured any form of North American distribution, no matter how much it deserves otherwise. Memo to distributors: It’s not too late.

10. “Evelyn”

Oscar-winning director Orland von...

On November 1, the 2018 IndieWire Honors ceremony celebrated eight filmmakers and actors for their achievement in creative independence. We’re showcasing their work with new interviews conducted right before they accepted their awards at the event.

Amandla Stenberg knew “The Hate U Give” was special from the beginning. “It has been timely for a long time, and I think it will continue to be timely for a while,” she said during an interview at IndieWire Honors last week. “A story about police brutality will probably be relevant for a while.”

Stenberg received a Performance Award at the event, which also toasted the likes of Bill Hader, Ryan Coogler, and Charlize Theron, among others. She leads George Tillman Jr.’s adaptation of the novel by Angie Thomas as Starr, a 16-year-old who watches her best friend get killed by a police officer; Stenberg’s breakout performance comes on the heels of similarly...

The term “woke” is being thrown around casually these days. There are times when the use of the word is warranted and other times when it is just used as fashionable rhetoric as a veneer to make you look socially aware. But if there is one actress who embodies the term, it’s Amandla Stenberg — but her advocacy and activism aren’t forced, precious or trendy. It’s quiet, effortlessly authentic, thoughtful and reflected in her work and her voice…which is very similar to her character in the 20th Century Fox movie The Hate U Give.

Many may remember Stenberg as the fan-favorite character Rue in The Hunger Games, but shortly after, she made a video titled “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows: A Crash Discourse in Black Culture” that broke down the meaning of cultural appropriation. It went viral and made many think twice about how white celebrities like Kendall Jenner,...

For the second consecutive year, the IndieWire Honors some of the best achievements in creative independence this awards season. Once again held at No Name in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, the casual ceremony honored a handful of the year’s most notable actors and directors: Natalie Portman (“Vox Lux”), Alfonso Cuarón (“Roma”), Charlize Theron (“Tully”), Constance Wu (“Crazy Rich Asians”), Bill Hader (“Barry”), Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate U Give”), Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”), and Cary Joji Fukunaga (“Maniac”).

First among them was Auteur Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga, who most recently helmed “Maniac” for Netflix and will soon direct the next James Bond movie. The filmmaker and TV trailblazer said he felt “undeserving” to win a prize in a room full of so much talent; accept he did, however, thanking IndieWire for supporting him since he earliest stages of his career. He closed with a “Boogie Nights” reference:...

In 2014, John Green had audiences ugly-crying in the theater when the movie adaptation of his novel “Fault in Our Stars” hit the big screen. And in 2017, Nicola Yoon’s “Everything, Everything” stole our hearts with another star-crossed, illness-filled romance. Now, director Justin Baldoni (“Jane the Virgin”) introduces the latest tragic romance, this time between teens with cystic fibrosis, in the upcoming film “Five Feet Apart.”

As seen in the trailer, the film follows the story of Stella, a seventeen-year-old in and out of hospitals due to her genetic disease that weakens the lungs, causes unrelenting infections, and difficulty breathing for most of life.

Continue reading ‘Five Feet Apart’ Trailer: Haley Lu Richardson & Cole Sprouse Star In The Latest Romantic Teen Sob-Fest at The Playlist.

Nick Robinson, Michael Shannon, Britt Robertson, and Alex Pettyfer are starring in the burglary drama “Echo Boomers.”

Based on a true story, the film centers around a group of disillusioned twentysomethings, who break into and steal from the homes of the rich.

Seth Savoy will be making his directorial debut on the movie and helm from his own script. Byron Wetzel, Sean Kaplan, Mike Ware, Jeff Waxman, and James Langer are attached to produce.

Fortitude International holds the foreign rights and is launching sales this week at the American Film Market. CAA Media Finance will represent the domestic rights. Production is scheduled to begin in January.

Robinson, who starred in “Love, Simon” and “Everything, Everything,” will next be seen in the thriller “Strange but True.” Shannon starred in “The Shape of Water,” and received Academy Award nominations for his roles in “Revolutionary Road” and “Nocturnal Animals.” He’s toplined all...

On November 1, the 2018 IndieWire Honors ceremony will celebrate seven filmmakers and actors for their achievement in creative independence. We’re showcasing their work with new interviews this week.

Less than a decade into her career, actress Amandla Stenberg has already enjoyed at least two breakthrough moments, from her heartbreaking turn as the ill-fated young tribute Rue in “The Hunger Games” to her life-changing leading role in the recent big screen adaptation of “The Hate U Give.” Based on Angie Thomas’ timely bestseller of the same name, George Tillman Jr.’s film is built on Stenberg’s capable shoulders, casting the actress as Starr Carter, a clever teenager forced to live in two very different worlds, both of which come crashing down after a horrific crime.

“She’s allowed to be so multidimensional in a way most black characters are not,” the actress said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “She is so nuanced and real.

“Insecure” creator and star Issa Rae will topline Fox’s romantic comedy “American Princess” from director Stella Meghie.

Paul Feig is producing with Jessie Henderson through their Fox-based Feigco Entertainment banner. Brendan O’Brien will also produce the pic.

Rae will play an American woman who moves to London, finds herself drawn into a world of wealth and high society, and falls in love in a very unexpected way. The script was written by Amy Aniobi, who has worked with Rae on “Insecure” as a writer/co-executive producer.

Rae stars in the Fox drama “The Hate U Give” as activist April Ofrah, who helps Amandla Stenberg’s character find her voice and speak up. She and Larry Wilmore created HBO’s “Insecure,” which follows the friendship of two women as they deal with their real-life flaws and a seemingly endless series of uncomfortable everyday experiences. HBO renewed the series for a fourth season in September.

Exclusive: Alloy Entertainment and Paramount Players are set to produce David Yoon’s upcoming Ya novel Frankly in Love.

Yoon illustrated the New York Times bestselling novel Everything, Everything which was written by his wife Nicola Yoon and made into an MGM and Alloy Entertainment feature last year. Frankly in Love is David Yoon’s debut novel and was one of the hottest manuscripts this year, spurring an intense bidding war back in April between ten publishing houses with Penguin Young Readers ultimately prevailing with a North American rights two-book deal. Frankly in Love hits book shelves in fall 2019. Foreign publishing rights for Frankly in Love already sold in 14 countries. The romance book is described as a fresh and relatable take on identity and race as seen through the eyes of a Korean-American teenager.

Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Koplovitz Dutton from Alloy Entertainment are attached to produce. Paramount Players’ Matt Dines...

ReFrame and IMDBPro are now accepting entries from broadcast television and streaming series for their first-ever television-focused ReFrame Stamp program.

ReFrame, a coalition of industry professionals founded by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute, first created the ReFrame Stamp earlier this year as part of a data initiative geared toward recognizing gender-balanced films and television shows. By using data from IMDBPro, ReFrame evaluates the gender parity of films and television shows based on a specific point system, which rewards female representation in eight different categories.

In order to receive a ReFrame Stamp, projects must earn points from at least four of the eight criteria put forth by the coalition, which include having a female lead actress, having a 50% female crew and having at least one female non-writing producer.

Previously, ReFrame and IMDPro have awarded 34 feature films with a ReFrame Stamp, the likes of which include “Girls Trip​​,” “Lady Bird​,” “The Post,...

It’s the small screen’s turn. Since its creation in June of this year, ReFrame and IMDb have already awarded their “ReFrame Stamp” for gender-balanced films to 34 movies, including “Lady Bird,” “Wonder Woman,” “The Post,” “Everything, Everything,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” and “Girls Trip.” Now they want to do the same for TV.

When the ReFrame Stamp initiative launched earlier this year — a partnership between ReFrame, a growing coalition of industry professionals and partner companies founded by Women In Film and Sundance Institute whose “mission is to increase the number of women of all backgrounds working in film, TV, and media,” and IMDbPro — it was founded with the express purpose to find feature films that demonstrate gender-balance in all areas by recognizing those productions that hire female-identifying people in 4 out of 8 “critical areas of their production,” including writer, director, producer, lead, co-lead, speaking parts, department heads, and crew. Next up: television.

ReFrame announced Wednesday that it will accept submissions from TV networks and streaming services for consideration for the first-ever ReFrame Stamp for television.

ReFrame is a coalition of industry leaders founded by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute whose mission is to​ increase the number of women of all backgrounds working in film, TV, and media. This seal will serve as a ​mark of distinction​ for projects that have demonstrated success in ​gender-balanced TV productions​. ​

Along with IMDbPro, the group has awarded the ReFrame Stamp for Feature Films to 34 movies so far, including Universal’s “Girls Trip​​,” A24’s “Lady Bird​,” 20th Century Fox’s “The Post” ​and Warner Bros.’ “​Wonder Woman,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Everything, Everything.”

Also Read: How Anita Hill Paved the Way for American Women to Spill Their Secrets

​The ReFrame Stamp for Television will go to shows that have met four of the eight-point...