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Exclusive: In an expansion of its Lab program, the Black List has named the projects and writers for its inaugural Projects Lab. The six writers are developing feature projects they intend to direct. The Lab program, now in its eleventh year, provides creative mentorship and professional support to promising screenwriters during a weeklong workshop in Ojai, CA.

This year’s writers are Dylan James Amick (The Estranged), Steve Anthopoulos (My Summer in the Human Resistance), Meghan Lennox (Gay For Amy), Alex Murawski (Walking In Iowa), Gabriella Mykal (Fuzzy), and Alexandra Qin (Thirstygirl). The Black List selected these writers from over 1,700 script submissions on blcklst.com.

During the Lab, each writer will develop their screenplay through peer workshops and one-on-one sessions with working professional screenwriting mentors, including Hannah Fidell (A Teacher), Liz Hannah (The Girl From Plainville), Maryam Keshavarz (The Persian Version), Sarah Adina Smith (Birds of Paradise), Axelle Carolyn (The...

Exclusive: Ace Entertainment has optioned TV rights to New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young’s In Nightfall, a young adult horror novel that was sought after by a number of production companies, sources tell Deadline.

SVP, Television Paul Kim and VP of Television Kendyll Boucher will serve as exec producers of the small-screen adaptation, we’re told.

Billed as a gender-swapped Lost Boys, or The Lost Boys meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, In Nightfall was published by Penguin Random House/Delacorte Press in March 2023, going viral on X and being springboarded into the publishing zeitgeist when no one showed up to the author’s book launch in Tempe, Arizona.

The book takes place in the quaint town of Nightfall, Oregon, where it isn’t the dark you should be afraid of — it’s the girls. Theo and her brother, Marco, threw the biggest party of the year. And got caught.

Jack Champion, Sophia Lillis, Kate del Castillo, Tony Dalton, Whitney Peak, and Bobby Cannavale have joined Dave Bautista on action project Trap House, which has begun principal photography in North America on Monday (April 1).

Inde Navarrette, Zaire Adams, and Blu del Barrio (Star Trek: Discovery) have also joined the cast. Michael Dowse directs from a screenplay by Fast & Furious creator Gary Scott Thompson and Tom O’Connor.

The action film follows an undercover DEA agent and his partner who embark on a game of cat and mouse with a group of thieves, who turn out to be their own teenagers, who...

Exclusive: Scott Foley (Scandal) has signed on to star in La Dolce Villa, a new romantic comedy for Netflix. Others cast in the film, from director Mark Waters (Mean Girls), include Violante Placido (The American), Maia Reficco (Do Revenge) and Giuseppe Futia.

La Dolce Villa follows successful businessman Eric (Foley) as he travels to Italy to stop his daydreaming daughter Olivia (Reficco) from blowing her life savings on restoring a crumbling villa she purchased for €1. Italy, however, has different plans for him as it delivers on its legendary promise of beauty, magic, and romance.

Script was written by Elizabeth Hackett & Hilary Galanoy. Pic’s producers are Robyn Snyder, Deborah Evans, and Nicola Rosada. Hackett & Galanoy are serving as executive producers.

Best known for roles on shows like Scandal, Scrubs, Whiskey Cavalier and The Big Leap, Foley will next be seen on the Max political...

Exclusive: Yvette Nicole Brown (Community) and Jonnie “Dumbfoundead” Park (Raya and the Last Dragon) have joined the cast of K-Pops!, the film marking the directorial debut of eight-time Grammy winner Anderson .Paak, which we were first to report on. Also now aboard the project from Stampede Ventures, which has secured an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA, is new strategic partner Live Nation Productions, which has made an equity investment into the production alongside the former company. It’s been set to enter production in Los Angeles October 30, with additional filming to be done in Korea and AlUla, an ancient Saudi Arabia market city which was scouted through Film AlUla, the film agency of The Royal Commission.

Park joins the cast of the dramatic comedy after developing the project with .Paak, who leads the cast alongside his son, Soul Rasheed. The film is about a washed-up musician from Los Angeles who attempts...

Kit Connor is best known for playing Nick in the LGBTQ+ Netflix rom-com series "Heartstopper," which follows teens as they navigate their way through school, their feelings, and their sexualities. While the series itself spotlights LGBTQ+ characters in a beautifully authentic way - giving many of them ample space to come out in their own time - the compassionate messaging behind the show appeared to have been lost on many when Connor was seemingly bullied into announcing his bisexuality.

In a tweet shared late on Oct. 31, 2022, the "Rocketman" star announced that he is bisexual, but he added that he felt forced to come out after being harassed by fans. "back for a minute. i'm bi," the actor wrote. "congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. i think some of you missed the point of the show. bye."

In a Teen Vogue interview published on Aug. 7, Connor's "Heartstopper" costar...

The story of Nick and Charlie wasn’t new to the world when it first appeared on Netflix in April 2022, but it has become a larger phenomenon ever since. Author Alice Osemon first introduced the two beloved characters in Solitaire, a novel about Tori, Charlie’s older sister, way back in 2014. The author is a household name in the queer community for writing underrated, heartwarming queer stories for young readers. Heartstopper, originally written as a webcomic, got published as physical graphic novels after it achieved massive success and currently has four printed volumes.

Apart from having the most wonderful characters and a perfectly sunny plot, even with its difficult themes, Heartstopper has managed to garner huge buzz because of its positive storytelling. Oftentimes, gay media representation is rather dark and sometimes disturbing to see, and amidst all the bad representation (let’s not even talk about the overly sexualized shows...

Heartstopper is a heartwarming show about young people learning to love themselves, but some of the discourse around the Netflix hit is much less endearing. After Kit Connor’s sexuality became a topic of intense speculation in the more toxic corners of the internet, the actor who plays Nick Nelson on Heartstopper was bullied into coming out on social media. It was the umpteenth example of an online mob gone awry, but Connor has received support from many, including his Oscar-winning co-star Olivia Colman.

Kit Connor came out after a cruel internet campaign Kit Connor on Feb. 19, 2023, in London, England | Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Connor came out as bisexual in a tweet last Halloween. The teen actor made it clear in his post that he was doing it entirely because of peer pressure.

“Back for a minute. I’m bi. Congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself. I think...

Playing the anti-hero Teresa Mendoza in Telemundo’s hit drama “La Reina del Sur” (Queen of the South) has become second nature to its star, Kate del Castillo. In a way, her hectic career as a producer, actor and entrepreneur, mirrors her character’s upstream struggle against patriarchy — sans the guns and contraband.

Speaking via Zoom from the U.K. where she’s working on the indie film “A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea & Tomorrow” with director Katherine Fairfax Wright, del Castillo reflected on the parallels between managing the challenges of her multi-faceted career with those faced by Mendoza in the show’s long-awaited third season, which premieres Oct. 18 on Telemundo. “La Reina” is a co-production of Telemundo and Netflix, which has international rights to the series.

The new season sees the titular La Reina taking on the brutal male-dominated cartels of South America once again, picking up four years after U.