News

Greta Lee, the star of Past Lives, is going behind the camera for her next project. She's set to direct an adaptation of Monika Kim's bestselling horror novel The Eyes Are the Best Part. The acclaimed novel tells the tale of a Korean-American college student's descent into madness as she becomes a cannibalistic serial killer.

Deadline reports that Lee will also write the script for the adaptation of Kim's 2024 novel, making it her directorial and screenwriting debut. The book centers around Ji-won, a young Korean-American woman whose family has splintered in the wake of her father's infidelity. Her sister is lost and confused. Her mother has an obnoxious new white boyfriend, George, who's making everyone's lives miserable. And Ji-won is dealing with not only her own tumbling grades, but a growing, all-consuming obsession with eating human eyeballs. Conveniently, it just so happens that George is sporting a delectable pair of baby blues.

The Past Lives and Russian Doll actress is making her feature directorial debut at Searchlight with her adaptation of Monika Kim’s bestselling novel The Eyes Are The Best Part. Greta Lee will pen the script, with Matt Jackson and Joanna Lee producing through Jackson Pictures, Lulu Wang through Local Time and Dani Melia. The author Kim will EP.

Kim’s horror novel follows Ji-won whose life is in disarray. Her father’s affair has ripped the family to shreds, leaving her to piece their crappy lives back together. Then her mother’s new white boyfriend enters the scene, bragging about his knowledge of Korean culture. As he swaggers around their claustrophobic apartment ogling her teenage sister, Ji-won’s grip on reality begins to slip. She finds herself growing obsessed with his brilliant blue eyeballs, resolving to do the one thing that will save her family – and curb her cravings.

Exclusive: Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Acid title Drunken Noodles from Berlin-based M-Appeal on the first day of the market.

Drunken Noodles is the latest English-language feature from Argentinian-born, New York–based filmmaker Lucio Castro.

The queer drama stars Laith Khalifeh as a young art student who arrives in New York City to flat-sit for the summer. He begins interning at a gallery where an unconventional older artist he once encountered is being exhibited. The film co-stars Joel Isaac, Ezriel Kornel, and Matthew Risch.

Castro was inspired to write the story by the real-life artist Sal Salandra,...

One of IndieWire’s Best Queer Films of the 21st Century was Lucio Castro’s “End of the Century” from 2019, a slightly surreal will-they, did-they, won’t-they gay romance set in Barcelona. His follow-up film “After His Death,” about a woman (Mia Maestro) in freefall after an affair with an enigmatic musician (Lee Pace) who appears to quite literally have a cult following, premiered at the Berlinale and took Argentine writer/director Castro briefly out of the queer cinematic space.

But he’s back with another gay quasi-romance, this time in New York City, with “Drunken Noodles,” which feels like Apichatpong Weerasethakul directing an early ’90s New Queer Cinema indie. It has a lo-fi, shot-on-film aesthetic mixed with mystical elements, and it’s premiering in the Cannes Film Festival Acid parallel section later this month. Here, the mind-bending elements of “End of the Century” take on fuller force (and in...

Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has picked up international rights to “Drunken Noodles,” the latest feature from Argentinian-born, New York-based filmmaker Lucio Castro.

The English-language erotic tale with surreal undertones will world premiere next month in Cannes’ Acid sidebar.

Set between New York City and upstate New York, “Drunken Noodles” follows Adnan, a young art student spending the summer in the city to apartment-sit. He begins interning at a gallery where an unconventional older artist he once encountered is being exhibited. As moments from his past and present begin to intertwine, a series of encounters – both artistic and erotic – open cracks in his everyday reality.

“Lucio’s filmmaking is elegant and evocative,” said M-Appeal managing director Maren Kroymann. “’Drunken Noodles’ drew us in with its refined camerawork and strong sense of atmosphere. It’s artful yet accessible cinema, and we believe audiences will be equally captivated.”

The U.S.-Argentine production stars Laith Khalifeh,...

Paramount+ has announced that the new six-part docuseries Mafia Spies, directed by Tom Donahue and produced by CreativeChaos in association with Danny Strong Productions and See It Now Studios, will premiere on the service on Tuesday, July 16 in the U.S. and Canada.

The series will be available on Wednesday, July 17, in the UK, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Mafia Spies is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

In Mafia Spies, viewers discover real-world spies, gangsters, honeypots, and mistresses that unravel a hidden conspiracy between the CIA and the Chicago mob to assassinate Fidel Castro at a critical time in the Cold War; President Kennedy made it known that there was no living with Castro with missiles 90 miles from American soil.

Based on the book Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro by Thomas Maier (Masters of Sex), this action-packed...

Jan Haag, who a half-century ago founded the landmark Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute, has died. She was 90.

The remarkable Haag, who also was an actress, painter, poet, novelist, playwright, writer of travel stories and creator of needlepoint canvases, some of which required hundreds of hours to complete, died Monday in Shoreline, Washington, according to the AFI and the Mb Abram agency.

Haag had directed dozens of educational films for the John Tracy Clinic and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare when she became the first woman accepted into the Academy Intern Program at the AFI in 1970, three years after it was founded by George Stevens Jr.

She was assigned to Paramount’s Harold and Maude (1971), directed by Hal Ashby, then joined the AFI staff in 1971, and among her duties was to administer the nonprofit’s film grant program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Exclusive: Paramount+ International is investigating Mafia Spies.

The streamer has ordered a six-part premium doc series, based on Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro by Thomas Maier, who wrote the book that Showtime’s Masters of Sex was based on.

The series comes from CreativeChaos, Danny Strong Productions and Jackson Pictures.

Based on never-before-released JFK files, the series tells the shocking connections between the CIA, the mob, and Sinatra’s Rat Pack from Vegas to Miami to Havana. It explores America’s most remarkable espionage plots ever—with CIA agents, mob hitmen, “kompromat” sex, presidential indiscretion, and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue.

In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves...

Writer/director/producer/editor Ed Wood‘s 1957 film Plan 9 from Outer Space has long been considered to be one of the worst movies ever made, if not the worst of the worst… although most genre fans have seen a lot worse than that one. Composer and B-movie fanatic Somtow Sucharitkul is clearly a fan of the film, as The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that he is giving Plan 9 from Outer Space an opera adaptation!

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Plan 9 from Outer Space: A Really Grand Opera by Somtow Sucharitkul is “currently in the libretto stage. Rehearsals will begin in earnest next year. Sucharitkul plans to release a teaser suite from the opera next fall and to premiere the full opera in 2024. Torsten Neumann, director of the Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading indie film fest, is producing.”

Sucharitkul had this to say about his opera plans: “Plan 9 is,...

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix will not be returning to the Otherworld.

The streamer has canceled its teen drama series Fate: The Winx Saga after two seasons. Developer and showrunner Bryan Young announced the cancellation in an Instagram post Tuesday.

“This is not fun news to share, but Netflix have decided not to move forward with season three of Fate: The Winx Saga,” Young wrote. “This is especially tough because I know how many of you loved this season. It’s a heartbreaking silver lining, but a silver lining all the same.”

Based on the Nickelodeon animated series Winx Club, Fate tells the story of Bloom (Abigail Cowen), a fairy raised by human parents who enrolls at a boarding school for other fairies, begins to learn about her past, and confronts a threat to both the magical Otherworld and her earthly home.

The series debuted in January...

Netflix has canceled “Fate: The Winx Saga” after two seasons, TheWrap has confirmed.

Showrunner Brian Young first announced news of the cancellation Tuesday.

“This is not fun news to share, but Netflix have decided not to move forward with Season Three of Fate: The Winx Saga,” Young wrote via Instagram. “This is especially tough because I know how many of you loved this season. It’s a heartbreaking silver lining, but a silver lining all the same. I’m so proud of everyone who worked on the show, and so happy we got to tell the stories we did. Our cast and crew put in a ton of hard work creating this world and these characters. I’m grateful for each and every one of them, and for all of you for watching. It’s been an amazing four years. Hopefully we’ll see each other again in the future!

The journey of the fairies is over.

Netflix has canceled Fate: The Winx Saga after two seasons.

“This is not fun news to share, but Netflix [has] decided not to move forward with season three of Fate: The Winx Saga. This is especially tough because I know how many of you loved this season. It’s a heartbreaking silver lining, but a silver lining all the same. I’m so proud of everyone who worked on the show, and so happy we got to tell the stories we did. Our cast and crew put in a ton of hard work creating this world and these characters. I’m grateful for each and every one of them, and for all of you for watching. It’s been an amazing four years. Hopefully we’ll see each other again in the future,” wrote showrunner Brian Young on Instagram.

Fate: The Winx Saga follows...

“Fate: The Winx Saga” has been canceled at Netflix after two seasons, Variety has confirmed.

Series showrunner Brian Young originally made the announcement in an Instagram post.

“This is not fun news to share, but Netflix [has] decided not to move forward with Season 3 of Fate: The Winx Saga,” Young wrote. “This is especially tough because I know how many of you loved this season. It’s a heartbreaking silver lining, but a silver lining all the same. I’m so proud of everyone who worked on the show, and so happy we got to tell the stories we did. Our cast and crew put in a ton of hard work creating this world and these characters. I’m grateful for each and every one of them, and for all of you for watching. It’s been an amazing four years. Hopefully we’ll see each other again in the future.

Jackson Pictures, the Matt Jackson-run production company behind Sony’s forthcoming Whitney Houston jukebox biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” has entered a multiyear first-look agreement with Fifth Season.

Formerly known as Endeavor Content, Fifth Season will work with Jackson Productions across film, television, and documentary divisions to develop premium content for all platforms. Jackson and his senior vice president Joanne Lee will anchor the deal on behalf of their company. CAA and attorney Neil Sacker negotiated the agreement on behalf of Jackson.

Fifth Season is coming off recent prestige hits including Apple’s “Severance” and Netflix’s awards player “The Lost Daughter.”

“As an admirer of Fifth Season, I am thrilled to partner and deepen our relationship with the entire team. Jackson Pictures is committed to support all artistry and deliver inspiring story-telling with a global reach. We’re grateful for the opportunity to entertain in all forms...

Matt Jackson’s Jackson Pictures has signed a multi-year, first-look deal with Fifth Season, the global film and TV studio formerly known as Endeavor Content.

Under the partnership, Jackson and his company’s SVP of Development and Production Joanne Lee will collaborate with Fifth Season’s film, documentary and TV departments on content across all platforms.

A former executive at The Mark Gordon Company and Im Global, Jackson founded his production company in 2018. Jackson Pictures’ past projects include Aaron Sorkin’s “Trial of the Chicago 7” and Amazon’s newly released “All the Old Knives.” Up next are the TriStar Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”; Spike Lee’s musical about the drug Viagra; a feature adaptation of “The Sundance Kid Might Have Some Regrets” with Zoë Kravitz at Warner Bros; and the Skydance series “Ring Shout” starring KiKi Layne.

Also Read:

‘CSI’ Producer Carol Mendelsohn, Julie Weitz Ink...

Producer Matt Jackson and his production company Jackson Pictures have signed a multi-year first look deal with Fifth Season — the global film and TV studio previously known as Endeavor Content, which has been behind such decorated titles as Apple TV+’s Emmy-winning series Severance and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Oscar-nominated Netflix drama The Lost Daughter.

Under the deal, Jackson and Jackson Pictures’ SVP Joanne Lee will collaborate across the studio’s film, television and documentary divisions to develop premium content for all platforms.

Jackson Pictures will next produce Spike Lee’s musical based on the breakthrough Pfizer drug Viagra. The company is also developing a feature adaptation of Leyna Krow’s short story “The Sundance Kid Might Have Some Regrets” with Zoë Kravitz at Warner Bros., and will produce the upcoming Skydance series Ring Shout, based on the award-winning novella of the same name by P. Djeli Clark, with Kasi Lemmons...

Edinburgh’s industry programme runs from August 16-19.

Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has unveiled its industry programme, running from August 16-19, including a repositioning of the Works in Progress strand as well as a raft of new training opportunities for curators and producers.

This year, the previously UK-focused Works in Progress strand will open up to include both documentary and fiction projects from Ukraine. With support from the British Council and in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute, four Ukrainian project teams will be welcomed to Edinburgh to present their work.

As part of this partnership, two Ukrainian feature films...

Netflix dropped the first look at Season 2 of “Fate: The Winx Saga” on Wednesday morning, with actress Abigail Cowen promising a “whirlwind of emotion and adventure.”

The new season will premiere on Sept. 16, 2022, Netflix also announced Wednesday.

Here’s the logline for the new season: “School’s back in session under the militant authority of Alfea’s former Headmistress Rosalind. With the Burned Ones gone, Dowling “disappeared” and Silva imprisoned for treason, the Alfea of last year has grown up with new magic, new romances and new faces. But when fairies start to go missing in the night, Bloom and her Suitemates discover a dangerous threat lurking in the shadows. One they’ll have to stop before it wreaks havoc on the entire Otherworld,” per Neftlix..tpd-featured-video.youtube{position:relative;overflow:hidden;width:100;padding-top:56.25}.tpd-featured-video.youtube>iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;right:0;width:100;height:100}.tpd-featured-video.in-content{margin-bottom:2em}

Also Read:

‘Fate: The Winx Saga...

Oscar-nominated Miranda Richardson (Good Omens) and Daniel Betts (War Machine) have joined the cast of Netflix original series Fate: The Winx Saga for its upcoming second season, which premieres globally September 16.

Richardson will play Headmistress Rosalind, and Betts will play Professor Harvey.

Accompanying Netflix’s premiere date announcement is a BTS video that promises beautiful landscapes, fun action sequences, and a lot of magic. The video features Paulina Chávez who was previously announced to play the Latina earth fairy character Flora in Season 2 following controversy after Flora was replaced by a white version of the character, named Terra, in Season 1. Chávez expresses her excitement for “fans to see [Flora’s] magic.” (You can watch the video below)

Fate: The Winx Saga follows the coming-of-age journey of five fairies attending Alfea, a magical boarding school in the Otherworld. The second season explores the question “What am I going to be when I grow up?...

Alfea is finally reopening its doors this fall when Fate: The Winx Saga returns for its seven-episode sophomore season on Friday, Sept. 16, TVLine has learned.

Per the new season’s official logline, “school’s back in session under the militant authority of Alfea’s former Headmistress Rosalind. With the Burned Ones gone, Dowling ‘disappeared’ and Silva imprisoned for treason, the Alfea of last year has grown up with new magic, new romances and new faces. But when fairies start to go missing in the night, Bloom and her suitemates discover a dangerous threat lurking in the shadows. One they’ll...

“The Batman” star Zoe Kravitz will star in another film for Warner Bros. after the studio won a bidding war for “The Sundance Kid Might Have Some Regrets,” an adaptation of a sci-fi heist short story that Kravitz will also produce.

The short story is narrated by one-half of a pair of bank-robbing twin sisters, who considers herself the face of the operation. But it is her sister Maggie who gets the heists done with her superpowers, which include telekinesis, super strength and invincibility. The narrator and Maggie have stuck together through it all, but the narrator begins to question their criminal lives after one attempted robbery goes awry and ends up in a hail of gunfire.

Also Read:

Simon Rex Joins Zoë Kravitz’s ‘Pussy Island’ With Channing Tatum at MGM

“The Sundance Kid Might Have Some Regrets” was originally written by Leyna Krow, who also has another short story,...

Click here to read the full article.

Warner Bros. has come out on top of a bidding war to pick up The Sundance Kid Might Have Some Regrets, a short story adaptation package that has Zoë Kravitz attached to star and produce.

Matt Jackson of Jackson Pictures, who recently produced the Chris Pine thriller All the Old Knives, will also produce, while the company’s Joanne Lee will executive produce.

Written by Leyna Krow, Sundance Kid is described as a redefining of the heist genre with a story centered on bank-robbing twins — one with supernatural powers and one without. One twin is named Maggie, who is the brains and the brawn with her telekinesis, super-strength, language fluency, invincibility and more, while the narrator is the self-appointed face of the operation. This twin will follow Maggie every step of the way, but when their newest venture goes awry, she begins to...

They’re after you, and your wives and children! This Corman/VeSota/Ed Nelson shocker with the excellent poster is a Robert Heinlein knockoff that can’t quite sustain the paranoid pitch of other ‘parasitic possession’ sci-fi horror epics. One of the cheapest of the drive-in cheapies, it remains a must-see title just for the audacity of its ad campaign, and a random moment or two of spooky serendipity. Don’t get your hopes up if you’re coming to see Leonard Nimoy’s performance — unless his voice is enough to satisfy.

The Brain Eaters

Blu-ray

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 61 min. / Street Date January, 2022

Starring: Ed Nelson, Alan Frost, Jack Hill, Joanna Lee, Jody Fair, David Hughes, Robert Ball, Greigh Phillips, Orville Sherman, Leonard Nemoy (Nimoy),, Doug Banks, Saul Bronson, Hampton Fancher.

Cinematography: Larry Raimond

Art Director: Burt Shonberg

Film Editor: Carlo Lodato

Written by Gordon Urquhart

Uncredited Executive Producer:...

Like the Emmys’ Best Drama Directing category, there have not been a lot of individual female winners in Best Drama Writing. Only five solo women have ever won before — slightly better than the three female drama directing champs — but just like the directing race this year, there are three chances for another woman to join the drama writing winner’s circle.

Yahlin Chang (“Home” from “The Handmaid’s Tale“), Misha Green (“Sundown” from “Lovecraft Country”) and Rebecca Sonnenshine (“What I Know” from “The Boys”) are all individually nominated this year for their scripts. There are other two female nominees, Janet Mock and Our Lady J, but they share their bid for the “Pose” series finale with co-writers Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuck and Steve Canals. The other nominees are solo dudes: Peter Morgan (“War” from “The Crown”), Jon Favreau (“Chapter 16: The Rescue” from “The Mandalorian”) and Dave Filoni (“Chapter 13: The...

Constance Wu couldn’t help but notice the similarity between Mindy Kaling’s real life and her character on “Late Night” and Kaling’s career itself. The film which breaking up the writer’s room boy’s club on a late night comedy show.

“The character is definitely based, a lot, on the way that I was when I started ‘The Office,”‘ which Kaling wrote produced and acted on. “I was the only person of color and the only woman, in a staff of seven. It was a small staff, that was 2004 and now that would be absolutely insane.”

Kaling continued explaining the worry she carried with her due to the lack of representation, “A lot of times when you come into a room and you’re the only person of color or only woman if you’re working with a lot of white guys and they say something dumb...

Emerald Fennell replaced Phoebe Waller-Bridge as showrunner for the second season of “Killing Eve,” and now she can do what her predecessor was unable to: become just the sixth solo woman to win the Best Drama Writing Emmy.

Fennell, who will cede showrunner duties to Suzanne Heathcote for Season 3, is nominated for penning the second episode of Season 2, “Nice and Neat.” She is the only woman nominated by herself; Kira Snyder shares her nomination with Bruce Miller for “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The other nominees are Peter Gould and Thomas Schnauz (“Better Call Saul”), David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (“Game of Thrones”), Jed Mercurio (“Bodyguard”) and Jesse Armstrong (“Succession”).

First given out at the 7th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1955, Best Drama Writing has long skewed male. It took 19 years before the category crowned its first individual female champ, Joanna Lee, for “The Waltons” in 1974. Five years later, Michele Gallery (“Lou Grant”) prevailed,...

Phoebe Waller-Bridges (“Killing Eve”) is the only female nominee in the Best Drama Writing Emmy field of six. And “six” will also be associated with her should she win because only five other solo women have won the category before.

Since Best Drama Writing was added at the 7th Primetime Emmys in 1955, undergoing various name changes, the category has almost exclusively been a boys’ club. It took 19 years before Joanna Lee became the first individual woman to win, prevailing for “The Waltons.” In 1979, Michele Gallery (“Lou Grant”) joined her, followed by Patricia Green (“Cagney & Lacey”) and Ann Biderman (“NYPD Blue”) in 1994. Twenty long years later, Moira Walley-Beckett ended the drought with a statuette for penning “Ozymandias,” the best episode of “Breaking Bad.”

There were female winners in between Biderman’s and Walley-Beckett’s triumphs, but they all co-wrote their winning scripts with men. Robin Green (“The Sopranos”) shared her 2001 win with Mitchell Burgess,...

Joanne Lee and Jr Smith have been promoted to director of acquisitions positions at Im Global and Weihan Zhang has been promoted to senior manager, sales and acquisitions Asia.

Lee and Smith are based at the company’s Los Angeles office working with president of production Matt Jackson Jackson and svp of production Glendon Palmer.

Zhang is headquartered at the company’s Beijing office.

Jackson and president of international sales and distribution Michael Rothstein made the announcements on Friday.

Joanne Lee and Jr Smith have been promoted to director of acquisitions positions at Im Global and Weihan Zhang has been promoted to senior manager, sales and acquisitions Asia.

Lee and Smith are based at the company’s Los Angeles office working with president of production Matt Jackson Jackson and svp of production Glendon Palmer.

Zhang is headquartered at the company’s Beijing office.

Jackson and president of international sales and distribution Michael Rothstein made the announcements on Friday.

Stuart Ford’s Im Global, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Ada, today announced it was promoting Joanne Lee and Jr Smith to Director, Acquisitions positions, and Weihan Zhang to Senior Manager, Sales and Acquisitions Asia. Lee and Smith are headquartered in the company's Los Angeles office working with Matt Jackson and Svp of Production Glendon Palmer, and Zhang is headquartered in the company's Beijing office. Prior to Im Global, Lee worked at Exclusive Media and at CAA…...