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Julia Roberts will receive an honorary César Award at the upcoming 50th César Awards in Paris.

The Pretty Woman star will be honored at the gala event on Feb. 28, 2025, at the historic Olympia Hall in Paris. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Canal+.

“Julia Roberts is not only a movie star but also a cultural icon whose influence extends far beyond her performances,” the French film academy, which presents the Césars, said in a statement. “Offscreen, she is dedicated to philanthropic causes, serving as an ambassador for Unicef and supporting numerous humanitarian efforts worldwide. An environmental advocate, she has lent her voice to documentaries about protecting the planet and actively campaigns for women’s rights.”

Roberts’ breakthrough as an actress came with Mystic Pizza in 1988, but it was her portrayal of Vivian Ward alongside Richard Gere in 1990’s Pretty Woman that made her a global superstar. She has had...

Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson and their Color Force production company have singed a producing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, putting the Culver City lot in business with the producers behind such hits as The Hunger Games franchise, Crazy Rich Asians and award winning TV series Pose and American Crime Story.

“We are thrilled to have this overall film deal with Color Force. Nina and Brad have an amazing track record finding incredibly compelling stories, A+ (plus) relationships in town, the best taste and are just all-around terrific humans who know how to make film franchises,” said Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group Presidents Josh Greenstein and Sanford Panitch.

“We love making movies. That is why we are excited to make Sony Pictures our home base for feature films. Sanford, Josh, Tom, and the whole team have shown their commitment to filmmakers and the theatrical experience time and time again. We...

Exclusive: Rachel Bay Jones (Young Sheldon) and Danny Burstein (Tokyo Vice) are joining newcomer Ana Sharp in the independent feature Rise and Shine, directed by Laura Somers (Rich Kids) from a screenplay by Michael Stagliano.

Rise and Shine is based on the true story of Janice Steele and her daughter Terri, who was born with cerebral palsy and a developmental delay. She was homeschooled until her teen years, when she entered public school and inspired her community with her infectious optimism and positivity.

Jordan Walker Ross, Analesa Fisher, Jordan Nichole Wall and Halie Strickler round out the cast.

Jones is best known for originating the role of Heidi Hansen in the original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen and received Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Lucille Lortel and a Drama League awards for her performance. She recently recurred on Young Sheldon, The Good Doctor and United States of AI and appeared in the films Critical Thinking,...

Exclusive: Veteran literary agent David Lubliner is switching to management and has joined Untitled Entertainment. Lubliner, who starts in his new role as manager effective immediately and will be based out of Untitled’s Los Angeles office, was most recently a literary agent at UTA.

“We are thrilled that David is taking the leap into management and joining us at Untitled,” the company’s partners said in a joint statement. “He is someone we all love working with and are excited to bring into our fold.”

Lubliner has worked with such established clients as Paul Weitz (Fatherhood), Chris Weitz (The Creator), Miguel Arteta (Yes Day), Rob Letterman (Goosebumps TV series), Peter Hedges (Ben Is Back), Jim Taylor (Tracy Flick Can’t Win), Dana Stevens (The Woman King) and Karey Kirkpatrick (Peanuts). Most are expected to be joining him in his new capacity.

“Untitled has built a tremendous reputation for nurturing...

Everyone knows Mila Kunis as a brilliant comedy performer, because her name is strongly associated with such sitcoms, as That '70s Show with her role of the hilarious Jackie Burkhart and Family Guy, where she voices Meg, the eldest child of the Griffins.

After the actress’ roles in Friends with Benefits (2011), Ted (2012) and Bad Moms (2016), which are all comedies, it’s hard to imagine her in a dramatical setting. However, she totally breaks the canon with the 2020 shocking movie, now climbing Netflix’s top.

The film’s plot revolves around Kunis’ Molly, a 31-year-old drug addict on her 15th attempt at sobriety. It may sound really desperate, but this time she’s really willing to stop using heroin, and she’s trying to convince not only the audience, but her own estranged mother Deb (played by the accomplished Glenn Close) of that.

Molly begs Deb to allow her to stay...

Hassie Harrison (“Yellowstone”), Jai Courtney (“Terminator Genisys”) and “Heartbreak High’s” Josh Heuston, soon to be seen in “Dune: Prophecy,” will star in the horror thriller “Dangerous Animals.”

Adding edge to the package, Australia’s genre auteur Sean Byrne, one of the highest rated horror directors of all time on Rotten Tomatoes, is directing “Dangerous Animals” which will be brought onto the Cannes market by David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment.

Starting principal photography on Australia Gold Coast on May 7, “Dangerous Animals” is produced by London and Sydney-based Brouhaha Entertainment, behind Karim Aïnouz’s “Firebrand” and Guy Pearce-led “The Convert,” sold by Mister Smith, in conjunction with Ld Entertainment, Oddfellows Entertainment and management-production firm Range Media Partners.

Producers on the film are a prestige alliance of Brouhaha’s Troy Lum and Andrew Mason, Pete Shilaimon, Mickey Liddell for Ld Entertainment, Chris Ferguson for Oddfellows Entertainment and Brian Kavanaugh Jones for Range Media Partners.

Exclusive: Ld Entertainment will partner with Variance Films on the theatrical release for National Anthem, the queer ranching drama marking the feature directorial debut of Luke Gilford, which debuted at last year’s SXSW. Pic starring Charlie Plummer, Eve Lindley, Mason Alexander Park, Rene Rosado and Robyn Lively will be released in the U.S. on July 12.

Immersed in the world of a rural queer ranching community, and set against the exuberant, real-life International Gay Rodeo Association, National Anthem is billed as a celebration of first love and chosen family. The protagonist of the film is Dylan (Plummer), a 21-year-old working in construction in New Mexico who joins a community of queer rodeo performers in search of their own version of the American dream.

CAA Media Finance is repping worldwide rights, with Decal Releasing handling home entertainment for the film.

Said Variance’s Dylan Marchetti and Kristen Osborne: “Variance...

We probably won’t see this week’s streaming debuts on the Oscars’ nomination roster come January, but they offer a variety of genres that will satisfy whatever mood you find yourself in this weekend.

The contender to watch this week: “Pain Hustlers“

The opioid epidemic has fueled a wave of movie and TV shows in the last few years, from “Dopesick” and “Ben Is Back” to the gorgeous Oscar-nominated documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.” Hollywood’s latest Big Pharma indictment is a star-studded dramedy directed by “Harry Potter” alum David Yates. Based on a book by journalist Evan Hughes, “Pain Hustlers” features Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Catherine O’Hara, and Andy Garcia in a crime saga revolving around a pharmaceutical start-up whose founder served two years in prison. Reviews have been tepid, but “Hustlers” is now streaming on Netflix following a limited theatrical release.

Other contenders:

“My Sailor, My Love...

From left: Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Emily Blunt in Pain Hustlers Photo: Netflix It’s been a long 13 years since Love & Other Drugs made Jake Gyllenhaal’s pharma rep the lovable half of a teary rom-com couple. These days, such characters are more likely to be found in a film like Pain Hustlers,...

From left: Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Emily Blunt in Pain HustlersPhoto: Netflix

It’s been a long 13 years since Love & Other Drugs made Jake Gyllenhaal’s pharma rep the lovable half of a teary rom-com couple. These days, such characters are more likely to be found in a film like Pain Hustlers,...

Julia Roberts is among the Hollywood actors who keep their children out of the spotlight, which, for the Ben Is Back star, once cost her millions. What move Roberts made to protect her kids’ privacy. Plus, what they’ve grown up knowing about their mom’s fame. Hint: It’s not much.

How many children does Julia Roberts have? Julia Roberts | Presley Ann/Getty Images for SeeHer

Roberts is a mother to three children. She and her husband, Danny Moder, share two sons and a daughter. They include fraternal twins; daughter Hazel and son Phinneaus, or Phinn, as well as well as their youngest child, a son named Henry.

Roberts became a parent on Nov. 28, 2004, when she and Moder welcomed Hazel and Phinn. Three years later, on June 18, 2007, she became a mother of three with the birth of Henry.

As for how old Roberts’ kids are now, they’re teenagers...

Kathryn Newton, who recently made her Marvel debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has a fallback plan teed up should the SAG-AFTRA strike drag on indefinitely.

The 26-year-old actress is also an accomplished golfer who helped her Notre Dame High School team win three championships. Though she turned down an opportunity to play for USC in favor of buffing an enviable résumé that includes Big Little Lies, Ben Is Back, Blockers and Freaky, Newton returns to the links as often as possible.

With a break in her schedule, she’s set to compete at a series of high-profile tournaments, including the Omega Masters in Switzerland (Aug. 31 to Sept. 3), BMW Wentworth Championship in London (Sept. 12), the Ryder Cup in Rome on behalf of the PGA & European Tour (Sept. 22) and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland (Oct. 12).

“With this downtime, I immediately was like, ‘Wow, I get to go back to my roots,...

Who didn’t Tony Bennett duet with?

The legendary singer was famously known for his Grammy-winning, platinum-selling Duet albums that featured everyone from Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse to Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand.

Here, we celebrate the collaborative efforts of Bennett, who died Friday at age 96.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga ditched the upbeat, electronic dance sound that made her popular to work with Bennett on jazz music, a genre she had been singing since she was a teenager. The New Yorkers first collaborated on “The Lady Is a Tramp” from Bennett’s 2011 release Duets II. The pairing was so perfect they went on to record 2014’s Cheek to Cheek, with Bennett and Gaga hoping to turn more kids to jazz music. “[Gaga] has a vast group of young people who love her, and they’ve never heard popular jazz music, classical American music … and my ambition was to do this...

Kathryn Newton, Angus Cloud, and Will Catlett have been set for Universal Pictures’ untitled monster thriller from Radio Silence. The pic has been set for an April 19, 2024 release.

The trio join Melissa Barrera, Alisha Weir, Dan Stevens, and Kevin Durand in the thriller. Radio Silence is comprised of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Chad Villella is producing alongside William Sherak, Paul Neinstein and James Vanderbilt at Project X Entertainment. Script was written by Stephen Sheilds, with revisions by Guy Busick.

In the vein of Uni’s recent films like The Invisible Man and Renfield, this untitled monster thriller provides a unique take on legendary monster lore and will rep a fresh, new direction for those classic characters.

Tripp Vinson will produce as well with Radio Silence and Project X, who are recently coming off the $169M global grossing success of Scream VI that Bettinelli-Olpin & Gillett directed, Project X produced and...

Universal’s upcoming monster thriller, directed by “Scream” and “Scream VI” filmmakers Radio Silence, has added to its buzzy cast, with Kathryn Newton, Angus Cloud and Will Catlett signing on for the film.

The trio join “Scream VI” star Melissa Barrera, Alisha Weir, Dan Stevens and Kevin Durand in the yet-to-be-titled movie, which is set for release on April 19, 2024.

Hot off the success of their “Scream” films, which reinvigorated the franchise and set box office records, Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett will direct the project from a script by Stephen Sheilds, with revisions by Guy Busick. Radio Silence’s Chad Villella serves as producer alongside William Sherak, Paul Neinstein and James Vanderbilt at Project X Entertainment. Tripp Vinson will also produce.

Details of the plot are being kept under wraps but the movie is described as in the vein of Universal’s most recent monster movies, “Renfield” and “The Invisible Man,...

Courtney B. Vance has joined the cast of Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch as Cobra Bubbles, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Disney declined to comment.

Vance joins previously announced castmembers Maia Kealoha as Lilo, Sydney Elizebeth Agudong as Nani and Kahiau Machado as David Kawena. Zach Galifianakis joined the cast in February. Stitch, naturally, will be a CG confection. Dean Fleischer Camp, the filmmaker behind indie darling and best animated feature Oscar nominee Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, is directing the remake that is intended to be a major release on Disney+.

The Hawaii-centric story tells of the bond formed between a lonely human girl named Lilo and a dog-like alien named Stitch, who was genetically engineered to be a force of destruction. With nosy social workers and pursuing aliens banging on the door, the two bond over a shared sense of family and win the day.

Ving Rhames...

Exclusive: Emmy and Tony-Award winner Courtney B. Vance has joined the cast of Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch in the role of Cobra Bubbles, Deadline has learned.

Vance joins Billy Magnussen (No Time to Die), Zach Galifianakis and newcomer Maia Kealoha who has been tapped as Lilo.

It’s still unclear how the sequel’s plot will compare to the original 2002 animated film, that Hawaii-set story charted the friendship between a lonely girl named Lilo and the alien, Stitch, engineered to be a force of destruction.

In the Disney animated movie which grossed over $273M WW, Bubbles is a former CIA agent turned social worker—though in an undercover way as he is still working for the government. The role was voiced originally by Ving Rhames in the films and various TV projects. The character was also voiced by Terrence C. Carson, Kevin Michael Richardson and Richard Epcar.

The Dean Fleischer Camp...

For most of Hollywood history, the romantic comedy was a staple of theatrical moviegoing. From the glory days of Ernst Lubitsch (“Trouble in Paradise”) and George Cukor (“Adam’s Rib”) in the classical studio era to the onslaught of Julia Roberts, Matthew McConaughey, and Reese Witherspoon vehicles in the 1990s and early 2000s, pretty people saying funny things while falling in love was a consistent and reliable form of big screen entertainment. In the last few years, however, the genre largely moved to streaming, with studio slates leaning disproportionately toward comic book movies and other preexisting IP while reserving slots devoted to more modestly budgeted fare for horror films.

Yet the theatrically released, well-resourced romantic comedy made a glorious return to the big screen in 2022 with “Ticket to Paradise,” director Ol Parker’s hilarious and sweetly moving George Clooney and Julia Roberts vehicle. The movie has many pleasures, from Clooney and...

Click here to read the full article.

It’s a foolhardy plan to craft a film almost entirely around the onscreen chemistry between two movie stars and hope for the best. But when those stars are George Clooney and Julia Roberts, the combustive power of their pairing will go a long-ish way. Thinly scripted rom-com Ticket to Paradise puffs its way through 104 minutes mostly on the vapors of its lead actors gassing around together, albeit with an assist from spectacular Australian scenery standing in for Bali.

It’s the first time the actors have been paired on screen since dreary hostage drama Money Monster (2016), and it’s their first proper comedy together since they made those first two highly enjoyable Ocean’s movies with Steven Soderbergh at the helm back in the aughts. In fact, it’s the first time in a while either of them have done anything substantial...

Exclusive: Juno Films has acquired rights to the experimental drama The Same Storm, from writer-director Peter Hedges (Ben Is Back), for distribution in the U.S., Canada and the UK. The film will open at the Quad Cinema in NYC and the Laemmle Santa Monica on October 14.

Filmed during the Covid pandemic using cell phones and laptops, The Same Storm invites viewers into the lives of 24 characters as they navigate the spring and summer of 2020. With lockdowns, the Black Lives Matter movement and the looming 2020 election as key backdrops, the film explores the importance of human connection, family and love during a time when all of that seemed out of reach.

Two-time Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker (Colin in Black & White), two-time Oscar nominee Elaine May (Crisis in Six Scenes), Emmy nominee Moses Ingram (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Independent Spirit Award nominee...

After a rare week when no Sony Pictures VOD release ranked #1 on any of the charts, the studio leads on all three. “Morbius” (19.99) topped Vudu, which favors higher-priced PVODs with ranking by revenue, while “Uncharted” (5.99), took #1 at the volume-driven iTunes and Google Play.

The “Spider-Man” offshoot (and second sequel to “Venom”) was lackluster in theaters compared to expectations (it did 73 million domestic/163 million worldwide). But with an 80 million production cost, it still has a shot of making a profit from post-theatrical returns.

Of note is that again Sony, despite the quick burnout of “Morbius” in theaters, went with a 45 days+ window. That is less of a wait than “Uncharted” or “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (5.99). Their patience has had its awards. Not only is “Uncharted” sustaining a long and elevated run, “No Way” also remains on the chart more than two months after its initial home release.

The three Sony films...

After almost three absurdly long years, “Stranger Things” Season 4 is just around the corner. A tentpole series for Netflix — at a whopping production cost of reportedly 30 million per episode — the fan-favorite sci-fi show that launched its young adult cast, led by Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard, into superstardom will be dropping new episodes May 27.

And, according to the Emmy-winning series’ executive producer Shawn Levy, it’s going to be “harrowing,” “cinematic” and “epic.” He told TheWrap in a recent interview, “This is so much more story and runtime than ever before, not by a little. By a lot.”

The last month of spring will also see the return of reality series titles like “The Circle” — a social media-driven competition series where players catfish, befriend and flirt with each other with the aim of winning a grand cash prize — and “Bling Empire” — which centers on a group of uber-wealthy Asian American friends in Beverly Hills.

As the undisputed king of streaming (for now at least), Netflix has enjoyed the presence of some major blockbusters. Now, with its list of new releases for May 2022, Netflix is bringing back one of its biggest ever hits.

Stranger Things season 4 “volume one” is set to premiere on May 27. It’s been a long wait for new episodes of this ’80s-tinged sci-fi/horror series and based on the trailers, the wait will have been well worth it. In this go-around, the kids of Hawkins (now high schoolers) will have to contend with the Upside Down once again to go along with the horrors of the Creel House.

While Stranger Things is the biggest Netflix original this month, it’s far from the only one. Mike Myers’ latest series The Pentaverate premieres on May 5 (fittingly: 5/5). Meanwhile The Lincoln Lawyer is set to arrive on May 13 followed by Love, Death & Robots Volume...

This May, Netflix will release the first volume of “Stranger Things” Season 4, one of the streaming platform’s most popular and successful shows. It also plans to release “Love, Death & Robots: Volume 3,” a new comedy called “Senior Year” with Rebel Wilson, and much more.

Here’s the full list of what’s new on Netflix for May 2022.

New on Netflix on May 1

42

3 Ninjas: Kick Back

40-Love

A River Runs Through It

Are You the One?, Season 6

Blippi Wonders, Season 1

Corpse Bride

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Den of Thieves

Dirty Harry

Empire State

Forrest Gump

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Hello, My Name Is Doris

Jackass: The Movie

Jackass 2.5

Jackass 3.5

John Q

Menace II Society

Once Upon a Time in America

Rambo

Rambo: Last Blood

Road to Perdition

Seven Years in Tibet

Soul Surfer

Summerland

The Gentlemen

The Lake House

U.S. Marshals (1998)

War of the Worlds

When Harry Met Sally

You’ve Got Mail...

It probably doesn’t bear pointing out that Julia Roberts is one of the most magnetic and charming performers to ever grace the screen—big or small. Though in watching Gaslit, one does wish she’d get these kind of juicy roles on the silver screen again. (How was her last film 2018’s Ben Is Back?) And that’s only…...

Exclusive: Kathryn Newton has signed with Management 360 for representation.

Best known for roles in Big Little Lies and Pokemon Detective Pikachu, Newton was most recently seen in the Blumhouse thriller Freaky opposite Vince Vaughn. She can be seen next in Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Other past credits include Blockers and Ben Is Back. She continues to be repped by WME.

Exclusive: Marquise Vilsón (Blindspot), April Parker Jones (Supergirl) and Albert Mwangi (Bump) round out the series-regular cast for the CW’s Nancy Drew spinoff Tom Swift. They join previously announced leads Tian Richards and Ashleigh Murray in the series from Nancy Drew co-creators/executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, their Fake Empire banner and CBS Studios.

Co-created by Melinda Hsu Taylor, Noga Landau and Cameron Johnson, Tom Swift follows the serialized adventures of its titular gay billionaire inventor (Richards), who is thrust into a world of sci-fi conspiracy and unexplained phenomena after the shocking disappearance of his father. Tom takes to the road on a quest to unravel the truth, leaving behind the comforts of his usual moneyed lifestyle, all while fighting to stay one step ahead of an Illuminati-scale group that’s hellbent on stopping him. Tom’s missions will require his genius and flair for innovation guided by love,...

Exclusive: Jake Carter and Travis Tammero have joined UTA as agents in the Independent Film Group division.

Carter will be based in the agency’s New York office, with Tammero working out of its headquarters in Los Angeles. Both will report to Jim Meenaghan and Rena Ronson, Partners and Co-Heads of the Independent Film Group.

“Rena, Jim and I are thrilled to welcome these highly regarded agents to our industry-leading Independent Film team,” said UTA Co-President, David Kramer. “Their broad experience will augment the team in a variety of ways and is especially key in helping to expand our rapidly growing documentary business.”

Carter comes to UTA from 30West, where he served as Vice President, overseeing production on critically acclaimed films including The Mauritanian, Destroyer, Late Night, Ben is Back, Some Kind of Heaven, and the upcoming Chris Pine thriller The Contractor. Prior to 30West, Carter worked at Black Bear Pictures,...

Exclusive: Nat Faxon, Kevin Dunn, Marquise Vilsón, Marinda Anderson, Don Fanelli and Nancy Lenehan are set for major recurring roles opposite lead Abbi Jacobson in Amazon’s A League of Their Own, a reimagining of Penny Marshall’s 1992 film, from co-creators Jacobson (Broad City) and Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle) and Sony Pictures TV.

The hourlong series, described as a fresh approach to Marshall’s classic about the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, will follow new characters who embody the spirit of a generation of women who dreamed to play professional baseball. “The show takes a deeper look at race and sexuality, following the journey of a whole new ensemble of characters as they carve their own paths towards the field, both in the league and outside of it,” according to the streamer.

Faxon will play Marshall, the Rockford Peaches’ team manager who works for league owner...

Exclusive: Roadside Attractions, the Oscar winning distributor of such movies as Judy and Manchester by the Sea, saw a shake-up today with two of its longtime executives, Marketing Boss Dennis O’Connor and SVP of Publicity, David Pollick departing the company, in addition to other cuts in their departments.

Also departing is Head of Field Publicity Ronit Vanderlinden and David Hawkins in Distribution, we hear.

Roadside Attractions Co-Presidents and Co-Founders Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff tell Deadline, “As we emerge from Covid and assemble a new slate of films for the changing theatrical marketplace, we have decided to restructure Roadside’s marketing and distribution organization for the near-term future.”

Lionsgate continues to maintain a 40% stake in Roadside Attractions, and the distributor remains one committed to theatrical with their releases seeing subsequent PVOD, DVD and streaming windows.

“A number of veteran team members at Roadside will be taking on additional responsibilities:...

How many films have been made on which the director never met the the majority of the actors? How often have performers had to operate the camera themselves rather than the cinematographer or operator or director? Any number of films have been made under great duress, but The Same Storm is a rare bird, a scripted feature made last July under Covid conditions in New York City on which the actors performed while isolated from anyone other than their fellow castmates. It even features a number of name actors, beginning with Elaine May, appearing in her first big-screen film since Woody Allen’s Small Time Crooks 21 years ago. And she’s terrific in it.

That alone would justify checking out this modest but adventurous film, which assumes a La Ronde-like structural approach by skipping from one very short story to another on the way to creating a panoramic, if still limited,...

Peter Hedges’ The Same Storm is not the first film to reflect the restrictions and tragedies wrought by Covid-19. The recent film Together, starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan, dissected a relationship during lockdown. And last year’s HBO drama Coastal Elites consisted of five interlocking monologues centering on characters affected by the pandemic as well as the Trump presidency. Now writer-director Hedges (Pieces of April; Ben Is Back, which starred his son Lucas Hedges) adds his take on the subject, with a series of poignant vignettes focusing on a variety of people whose lives were upended during the past year and a half.

Hedges took ...

Peter Hedges’ The Same Storm is not the first film to reflect the restrictions and tragedies wrought by Covid-19. The recent film Together, starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan, dissected a relationship during lockdown. And last year’s HBO drama Coastal Elites consisted of five interlocking monologues centering on characters affected by the pandemic as well as the Trump presidency. Now writer-director Hedges (Pieces of April; Ben Is Back, which starred his son Lucas Hedges) adds his take on the subject, with a series of poignant vignettes focusing on a variety of people whose lives were upended during the past year and a half.

Hedges took ...

Exclusive: Peter Hedges, like so many filmmakers looking not to lose their creative mojo during the pandemic, managed at the height of the Covid lockdown to take advantage of many talented actors trying to survive in the same circumstance, and in the best show business tradition managed to create a new film, The Same Storm, that turned out to be so much more than he could have imagined.

Enlisting the talents of the likes of Elaine May, Mary-Louise Parker, Noma Dumezweni, Judith Light, Sandra Oh, Moses Ingram, Danny Burstein, Ron Livingston, Rosemarie DeWitt, Raza Jeffrey, Daphne Rubin-Vega and many more, he and his team developed a sophisticated shooting system, sent the equipment to each star with some production design and camera setup advice, and created a feature-length movie comprised of a series of vignettes that hand off to one another with seamless editing magic.

Exclusive: Isaiah Johnson is set as a series regular and Sibongile Mlambo, Paul Schneider, Lauren Buglioli and Michael Esper have been tapped for recurring roles in Netflix’s Florida Man, its eight-episode series starring Edgar Ramírez, from veteran TV writer producer Donald Todd and Jason Bateman & Michael Costigan’s Aggregate Films.

In Florida Man, created by Todd, when a struggling ex-cop (Ramírez) is forced to return to his home state of Florida to find a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend, what should be a quick gig becomes a spiraling journey into buried family secrets and an increasingly futile attempt to do the right thing in a place where so much is wrong. The series is described as a wild odyssey into a sunny place for shady people in the spirit of Body Heat and Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight.

Johnson will play Benny, the people-loving Haitian immigrant who owns the Florida motel.

Exclusive: Rachel Bay Jones (Dear Evan Hansen) is set for a recurring role on CBS comedy The United States of Al, starring Adhir Kalyan and Parker Young, from Chuck Lorre, David Goetsch and Maria Ferrari.

Created and written by Goetsch and Ferrari, The United States Of Al is about the friendship between Riley (Young), a Marine combat veteran struggling to readjust to civilian life in Ohio, and Awalmir (Al) (Kalyan), the Interpreter who served with his unit in Afghanistan and has arrived to start a new life in America.

Kelli Goss, Dean Norris and Elizabeth Alderfer also star.

Jones will play Lois, a divorcee who catches Art’s (Norris) eye. Her character will be introduced in Thursday’s episode.

Goetsch & Ferrari, Lorre, Reza Aslan and Mahyad Tousi are executive producers for Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions.

Jones is best known for originating the role of Heidi Hansen in...

Exclusive: God Friended Me actress Rachel Bay Jones will join the cast of Paramount+’s Why Women Kill. She joins the second season in a recurring role.

She will join previously announced series regulars Allison Tolman, Nick Frost, Lana Parrilla, B.K. Cannon, Jordane Christie, Matthew Daddario and Veronica Falcón. The series comes from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, Imagine Television Studios and CBS Studios.

Season two of the dark comedy features a new ensemble cast and storylines set in 1949 that will explore what it means to be beautiful, the hidden truth behind the facades people present to the world, the effects of being ignored and overlooked by society, and finally, the lengths one woman will go in order to finally belong.

Cherry serves as executive producer alongside Imagine’s Brian Grazer and Samie Kim Falvey; Acme Productions’ Michael Hanel and Mindy Schultheis; Marc Webb and Francie Calfo. The series is...

Julia Roberts and George Clooney’s romantic comedy “Ticket to Paradise” is coming to movie theaters next year.

The Universal Pictures film, which reunites the “Ocean’s Eleven” co-stars and longtime friends, will debut on Sept. 30, 2022.

Directed by Ol Parker, the story centers on Clooney and Roberts as two exes who find themselves on a shared mission to stop their lovestruck daughter from repeating their past mistakes.

“Ticket to Paradise” is expected to begin filming later this year. It will shoot on location in Queensland, Australia, and will get tax incentives from the Australian federal government and from Screen Queensland’s Production Attraction Strategy.

In addition to directing, Parker wrote the script with Daniel Pipski.

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title will produce the film with Sarah Harvey and Deborah Balderstone. Clooney is also producing with Grant Heslov for Smokehouse Pictures, as is Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan and...

“Everyone Is Doing Great,” the comedy created by “One Tree Hill” alumni James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti, is heading to Paramount Plus outside the U.S.

The ViacomCBS-backed SVOD has picked up streaming rights to the eight-part Hulu series for the Nordics and Latin America — a deal that marks the show’s first international sale. Endeavor Content is handling the U.S. and international sales.

The comedy rolls out in the Nordics from Thursday, while the Latin America premiere will come later this year. “Everyone Is Doing Great” launched in January on Hulu.

Written and produced by Lafferty and Colletti, the series follows actors Seth (Colletti) and Jeremy (Lafferty), who together enjoyed the success of hit television vampire drama “Eternal” and, five years after their show has wrapped, continue to lean on each other to navigate their professional and personal lives.

Lafferty played lead Nathan Scott in The CW...

Few actors have shown such awards promise in recent years as Lucas Hedges. Since 2014, the 24-year-old star has appeared in four Best Picture nominees and starred alongside such Oscar-winning performers as Julia Roberts (“Ben Is Back”), Nicole Kidman (“Boy Erased”), Russell Crowe (“Boy Erased”), Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards”), and Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”). He’s a former nominee as well, capturing a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 2017 ceremony for his “Manchester By the Sea” breakout performance. But despite that track record, few if any awards experts have given Hedges serious consideration for his performance in “Let Them All Talk.”

That’s a mistake, even acknowledging the depth of talent crowding this year’s Best Supporting Actor category — where multiple cast members of “The Trial of the Chicago 7” are battling with multiple cast members from “One Night in Miami,” not to mention newcomers like Paul Raci from “The Sound of Metal.

Exclusive: Hulu has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the comedy Everyone Is Doing Great which was created by One Tree Hill alums James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti. All eight half-hour episodes will premiere on the streamer on January 13, 2021. The first teaser can be watched above.

Written and produced by Lafferty (who can be seen in Disney+’s The Right Stuff) and Colletti (who appeared in Hit the Floor), the series was crowdfunded after the first two episodes hit the festival circuit starting with its big debut at the Atx Television Festival in 2018 (read Deadline’s interview with them from the fest here). The comedy follows Seth (Colletti) and Jeremy (Lafferty), who enjoyed the success of Eternal, a hit television vampire drama. Five years after their show has ended, they lean on each other as they awkwardly navigate the perils of life and love in a late coming-of-age.

“Distribution...

Exclusive: Black Bear Televison has partnered with Crazy Heart writer-director Scott Cooper to develop a limited dramatic series Angels & Demons. Making his television debut, Cooper will write and direct all the episodes.

The drama is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Petersburg Times article by Thomas French, a powerful and personal true crime drama examining the tragic murder of three women whose bodies were found floating in the shallow tidewaters of Tampa Bay.

Cooper is no stranger to tough subject matter mixed with emotion and heart on the big screen, directing Crazy Heart, Hostiles, Black Mass, Out of the Furnace, and the upcoming thriller Antlers that Searchlight will release next February.

Black Bear will serve as the studio and will be executive produces along with Cooper. Tom French will serve as a Consulting Producer.

The deal with Cooper comes as the feature division of Teddy Schwarzman’s Black Bear...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to John Leguizamo’s feature directorial debut Critical Thinking, which he also stars in and produced.

Written by Dito Montiel, Critical Thinking tells the 1998 true story of five LatinX and Black teenagers from Miami Jackson Senior High School, located in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Miami, who fight their way into the National Chess Championship under the guidance of their unconventional but inspirational teacher. The movie will hit VOD/digital on Sept. 4.

“In today’s fractured society with so many disenfranchised young adults, in our country and around the world, this is a story which can and will inspire all of us to do better, keep focused and stay positive,” said Leguizamo. “With Critical Thinking we wanted to create a universal message of hope and spread this message to the world.”

The deal was negotiated by Peter Jarowey and Josh Spector...

U.S. financier-producer Black Bear Pictures has optioned rights to Irish writer Naoise Dolan’s debut novel Exciting Times ahead of its U.S. release on June 2.

Following a successful release in the UK and Ireland in April, where it debuted on the Sunday Times Best-Sellers List, the novel has been picked up by Black Bear Television, which will develop and produce the novel as a premium series.

According to Black Bear’s synopsis, the story “follows the liaisons of Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, who spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than ‘I like you a great deal.’ Enter Edith, a lawyer. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava...

Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer and Joel Edgerton have all signed up to star in a TV series based on a podcast ‘Gaslit’.

The series will adapt Slate’s Watergate audio series titled ‘Slow Burn’ – a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal, from Nixon’s bumbling subordinates to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes, to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole enterprise crashing down.

Roberts will play Martha Mitchell, a celebrity Arkansan socialite and the loyal wife of Richard Nixon’s Attorney General and most trusted advisor John Mitchell. She’s the first person to publicly sound the alarm on Nixon’s involvement in Watergate.

Hammer will play John Dean, the young White House Counsel torn between his ambition and his struggle with whether he can lie to protect the President.

Edgerton will play G. Gordon Liddy,...

30West on Friday acquired a significant minority stake in British film company Altitude Media Group.

Altitude, led by Will Clarke and Andy Mayson, was formed in 2012 as a vertically integrated studio encompassing production, finance, international sales and UK and Irish distribution.

The studio produced and released Asif Kapadia’s critically acclaimed documentary “Diego Maradona,” detailing the life of the celebrated Argentinian soccer star. Other releases for the studio include the likes of “Amy,” “Moonlight,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Lady Macbeth,” “Beast” and “The Florida Project.”

Also Read: 'Parasite' Scores Biggest Box Office Weekend in 3-Month U.S. Run With Oscar Victory Push

“We couldn’t be more delighted to cement our relationship with 30West,” Clarke said in a statement. “They are an ideal partner to support our ambitious plans for Altitude Media Group, which encompass several significant new areas of business.”

30West’s Altitude investment marks the company...

30West is to acquire a significant minority stake in Altitude Media Group, the British film company led by Will Clarke and Andy Mayson.

The move marks 30West’s second corporate investment after it took a stake in 2018 in U.S. film distributor Neon, whose Korean film “Parasite” won an Oscar for best picture – the first time a non-English-language film won the award – as well as Oscars for director, international feature and original screenplay.

Altitude encompassing production, finance, international sales, and U.K. and Irish distribution. Its releases include “Amy,” “Moonlight,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Lady Macbeth,” “Beast,” and “The Florida Project.” They recently produced and released Asif Kapadia’s “Diego Maradona.”

According to a statement, “30West provides capital and strategic guidance to high-caliber creative projects and forward-thinking companies operating throughout popular culture.” It works with filmmakers “to guide every stage of creative packaging, production, sales, distribution and licensing in order...

Amazon Studios has signed on to finance and distribute “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things,” a Ya adaptation from Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman and FilmNation.

The streamer comes on board a package that included director Ian Samuels (“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”), and Variety can exclusively report the film’s just-appointed leads: Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen.

Shooting is currently underway with FilmNation, run by Glen Basner, and Goldsman’s Weed Road Pictures. The feature film is based off the short story by Lev Grossman, who also adapted the screenplay. Additional cast members include Jermaine Harris (“Ballers”), Anna Mikami, Josh Hamilton and Cleo Fraser.

The film follows a teenager contentedly living the same day in an endless loop who gets his world turned upside-down when he meets a girl who’s also stuck in the time warp. What follows is a love story with a fantastical twist, as the two...

The New Hollywood Podcast has returned from hiatus and is back with a live Sundance episode from the winter wonderland of Park City with director Sam Feder and subjects Emmy-nominated Jen Richards, Marquise Vilson and Tre’vell Anderson from the documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen.

The documentary, which made its premiere at Sundance, puts the spotlight on the depiction and portrayal of the transgender community in film and television, revealing that Hollywood hasn’t exactly put its best lens on the marginalized community. The docu paints a picture of how the industry reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. With prominent members from the Hollywood trans community including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, the film gives them the opportunity for them to share...

Addiction, you could say (and I would), has become the central demon that plagues Americans. We’re addicted to everything: alcohol, illegal drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, psychotropic drugs, sugar-bomb soft drinks, processed food, video screens…you name it. In theory, addiction was made for drama, because it rips up the fabric of people’s lives, and that’s intensely dramatic. Beyond that, many addicts — I can’t think of a way to put this tactfully, so I won’t — are drama queens. (That’s part of why they’re addicts.)

Yet even as the addiction memoir became one of the most popular forms of our time, the addiction movie has struggled to catch on. There aren’t a lot of great ones, and most of them tend to come and go without leaving an imprint. Will the same fate befall “Four Good Days,” a Sundance drama of addiction that’s sensitively...