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Screen Media, the distributor of “The Outpost” and “Willy’s Wonderland,” has reached a distribution deal with Millennium Media, the company behind The Expendables and Olympus has Fallen franchises, to release at least five films a year for the next three years. The first film under the deal will be “The Enforcer” starring Antonio Banderas, Kate Bosworth and 2 Chainz. Directed by Richard Hughes, the film is shooting this summer in Greece. Screen Media will handle the North American release in 2022.

Millennium Media’s recent films include “Angel Has Fallen” and the reboot of the Rambo franchise, “Rambo: Last Blood.” It has also produced such independent films as “Tesla,” “Blackbird,” and The Outpost, the latter two of which Screen Media released.

In an ongoing relationship with Millennium Media, Screen Media recently released the Megan Fox thriller “Till Death.”

Screen Media is owned by publicly-traded media company Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

Screen Media has acquired “Best Sellers,” a comedy with Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza about a pair of misfits that has a literary twist. The deal is for all U.S. rights, and the company plans to release the film theatrically and on-demand in September.

Directed by Lina Roessler (“Little Whispers: The Vow”), “Best Sellers” centers on an ambitious young editor (Plaza) who decides to try to save the flailing publishing house her father left her by going on a book tour with the bitter, hard-drinking author (Caine) who helped establish the company several decades and an ocean of booze ago.

Cary Elwes, Scott Speedman, Ellen Wong and Veronica Ferres co-star in the film. The screenplay, written by Anthony Grieco, won a 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting award.

“Not since ‘As Good as it Gets’ have we seen such a mismatched pair take to the road,” said Screen Media in a statement.

Perhaps best known for his comedic work on “Veep” and “Arrested Development,” Tony Hale has also been prolific in programs for younger eyeballs over the years, from “Toy Story 4″ and “Forky Asks a Question” to the adaptation of his 2014 book, “Archibald’s Next Big Thing.” Although he continues to work in adult fare (“Eat Wheaties!” and the upcoming “Being the Ricardos”), his recent slate is populated with family-friendly fare: “I Heart Arlo,” the “Rugrats” revival, the “Clifford the Big Red Dog” movie and “The Mysterious Benedict Society” — based on the books by Trenton Lee Stewart — which sees him play identical twins Mr. Benedict and Mr. Curtain.

Ahead of “The Mysterious Benedict Society’s” Disney Plus premiere, here’s Variety’s recent chat with Hale about filming during a pandemic, narcoleptic pratfalls, and the “simple truths” of youth programming.

How did you become involved with the “The Mysterious Benedict Society”? What...

Exclusive: Screen Media has snapped up U.S. rights to Millennium Media’s suspense thriller Till Death starring Transformers actress Megan Fox. A summer theatrical and on demand release is planned.

Till Death begins with Emma (Fox) waking up, handcuffed to her dead husband after a romantic evening in their secluded lake house. Trapped and isolated in the dead of winter, she must fight off hired killers and escape her husband’s twisted plan.

The pic is directed by S.K. Dale (award-winning horror short The Coatmaker) who is making his feature directorial debut here. The role reps Fox’s first genre role since the 2009 Diablo Cody scripted horror pic Jennifer’s Body.

David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (Orphan and the upcoming prequel Esther), Tanner Mobley (The Piper), Yariv Lerner (The Outpost), Les Weldon (The Expendables), Rob Van Norden (Jolt) and Jeffrey Greenstein (The Hitman’s Bodyguard) produce. Till Death co-stars Callan Mulvey (Russo...

More like a mayonnaise sandwich on Wonder Bread than the at-least-mildly-crunchy breakfast cereal of its title, “Eat Wheaties!” is a movie whose blandness ultimately triumphs over its annoyance — but only by a hair. This is the kind of underdog comedy in which you soon want to kick the dog.

Starring Tony Hale of “Arrested Development” and “Veep” as a middle-aged dweeb whose claim of a past celebrity friendship improbably snowballs to ruin his life, Scott Abramovitch’s directorial debut aims for the tenor of something like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” minus the raunch. But its content and execution are innocuous to the point of tedium, while the protagonist is no undervalued sweetie but the kind of grating personality that can clear a room. Screen Media is launching the film April 30 on thirteen U.S. screens as well as VOD.

Sid Straw (Hale) is a longterm employee at a vaguely purposed white-collar...

Life is full of wild and often surprising moments. It’s a difficult lesson that one man learns all too well in the new film “Eat Wheaties!” The comedy focuses on the all too common problems of online misunderstandings fueled by social media. While the story might be an adaptation, bringing the topic into the age of technology shows how little we really know or understand from carefully curated statuses. It also serves as the first project taken from the works of author Michael Kun; “The Locklear Letters” may be his most known title, but he’s written several books, including “We Are Still Tornadoes” and “Corrections to My Memoir.”

Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

The project is packed with impressive talent, led by former “Veep” and “Arrested Development” star Tony Hale.

Continue reading ‘Eat Wheaties!’ Trailer: Tony Hale Stalks Elizabeth Banks In Sweet New Comedy at The Playlist.

Screen Media has acquired North American rights to “The Birthday Cake,” a mob crime drama that boasts a murderer’s row of talent.

The film may be Jimmy Giannopoulos’ feature directorial debut, but the director attracted such stars and veterans as Shiloh Fernandez, Ewan McGregor, Val Kilmer, Lorraine Bracco, William Fichtner, Ashley Benson, Luis Guzman, Paul Sorvino, Vincent Pastore, Aldis Hodge, Penn Badgley, Emory Cohen, and Jeremy Allen White. That’s partly because the filmmaker spent years working in short films and music with artists including Miley Cyrus, A$AP Rocky and Kid Cudi. Screen Media will release the film in theaters and on demand in June 2021.

Here’s the official logline: “‘The Birthday Cake’ takes place on one fateful evening in the life of Gio (Fernandez), the son of a murdered mobster and the nephew of Brooklyn mob boss, Angelo (Kilmer). On the 10th anniversary of his father’s mysterious death,...

Screen Media is making the Tony Hale comedy “Eat Wheaties!” a part of its balanced breakfast and has acquired the U.S. rights to the film. The distributor is planning a release in theaters and on demand April 30.

“Eat Wheaties!” is directed by Scott Abramovitch and stars Hale as Sid Straw, a man who desperately tries to prove that he knows a celebrity — in this case, Elizabeth Banks — only for his creepy messages to her to go viral and get him banned from his college reunion. With his life at a crossroads, he sets out to rediscover the best version of himself and hires an inexperienced lawyer to help clear his name.

The story is an adaptation of a 2003 novel by Michael Kun called “The Locklear Letters,” but is modernized for the social media era (and updated from celebrity Heather Locklear). “Eat Wheaties!” also stars Paul Walter Hauser, Danielle Brooks,...