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It was moving to watch Denzel Washington lope up to the Lumière stage at Cannes and tear up as he accepted his Honorary Palme d’Or from Cannes veteran Spike Lee Monday night at the “Highest 2 Lowest” premiere. It was a surprise to the actor, as he watched a clip reel that ranged from his four prior roles with Lee to “Philadelphia,” “Flight,” “The Book of Eli,” “The Hurricane,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “Fences,” and more.

Festival director Thierry Frémaux knows how to make the most of a Hollywood movie star, who flew into France and out again on his one day off from doing eight sold-out shows a week as Shakespeare’s “Othello” on Broadway. If the man looked weary, it’s understandable. At 70, he’s at the peak of his powers, and if the Oscar gods are smiling, he’ll land his third Oscar (after “Training Day” and...

The sound system at the Carlton Beach was blasting out James Brown’s “The Boss” while, incongruously, Spike Lee was engaged in a Rodgers and Hammerstein sing-along.

“There’s a bright, golden haze on the meadow,” Lee crooned. “The corn is as high as a elephant’s eye,

an’ it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky.”

Lee cleared his throat and cried, “That’s juxtaposition, right there. That’s juxtaposition.’

I joined him on the “Oh, what a beautiful mornin’! Oh, what a beautiful day!” chorus. I jokingly suggested that we do “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” next, but Lee shrugged that off.

There was a point to the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein tribute.

Lee’s great movie Highest 2 Lowest opens with Matthew Libatique’s cameras taking in the Manhattan skyline as the city awakes. “The skyscrapers are the corn as high as an elephant’s eye,...

Returning for a 5th collaboration with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee’s upcoming movie Highest 2 Lowest, after almost two decades since Inside Man, is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. The movie is a modern-day version of High and Low from 1963 by Akira Kurosawa. It is set in current-day New York City and takes a deep dive into the moral ambiguities in the music industry.

Washington will be seen in the role of a famous music mogul who finds himself entangled in a life and death situation when he’s targeted for ransom. Viewers await this modern twist on a classic tale with bated breath, and you can expect nothing short of fireworks when the film makes its debut in Cannes on May 19th, 2025.

Stellar star-studded cast of Highest 2 Lowest

The film boasts a stellar cast that includes Ilfenesh Hadera, A$AP Rocky, Ice Spice, and Jeffery Wright.

Exclusive: Edward Norton has signed on to narrate Fasting And The Longevity Revolution, a health and wellness documentary directed by Barry Alexander Brown, best known as a longtime editor on projects directed by Spike Lee.

The doc, which is currently in production, is produced by Chiara Tilesi through her production outfit Frequency Production. Her most recent feature credit is the Oscar-nominated anthology Tell it like a Woman. She is also the founder of the non-profit We Do It Together.

Based on research by Italian-American biologist Dr. Valter Longo and other field experts, the film’s synopsis reads: Fasting and the Longevity Revolution travels from tiny villages in Calabria and Sardinia to cities like Milan, Genoa, and Los Angeles, and into the mountains of southern Ecuador to reveal that genetic mutations, fasting, or both can make simple organisms live 10 times longer and protect humans from cancer, diabetes, dementia and heart disease.

International producers can count on help from the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia to take advantage of an “extraordinary explosion” in culture and film, U.S Ambassador Michael Ratney told Variety during the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival. He said the ambition and drive of the Saudi film industry was an opportunity for international talent.

“These last five years have seen just an extraordinary explosion in the cultural space, using film, arts of all sorts,” Ratney said. Coupled with what he dubbed “a defining characteristic of Saudi Arabia, which is extraordinary ambition,” the development of a domestic film industry keen to attract international film productions was creating opportunities not seen before.

“For us, as the U.S. Embassy, as the U.S. government, it presents opportunities. There are film industries all over the world — and here [at the festival] we have a lot of Americans from the U.S. film industry,...

Exclusive: Lucas Till (MacGyver), Ruby Rose (Taurus), Tyrese Gibson (Morbius) and Don Johnson (Knives Out) will topline the action-thriller The Collective from Yale Entertainment, which has recently wrapped production.

In the film directed by Tom DeNucci, a group of righteous assassins called The Collective take aim at a highly sophisticated human trafficking ring backed by a network of untouchable billionaires. With their backs against the wall, The Collective has no choice but to put their most important mission in the hands of rookie assassin, Sam Alexander (Till). What he lacks in experience he makes up for in savvy, grit, and a keen ability to improvise in the most dangerous situations. He is aided on his journey by Hugo (Gibson) and Liam (Johnson), former CIA operatives turned rogue vigilantes. They face off against Daisy (Rose), the cunning general manager of this evil, clandestine organization. Sam must prove to himself, Liam and...

Do you feel the need? The need for ... another Blu-ray column? The biggest entry in this latest Blu-ray round-up is, of course, the mega-hit "Top Gun: Maverick." But there are a bunch of other major releases here, including a Criterion Collection edition of "Malcolm X," Mia Goth going crazy in "Pearl," a massive box set from Columbia Pictures, a 4K release of "Punisher: War Zone," the latest from George Miller, and a Brian De Palma classic. So keep spinning those discs.

Top Gun: Maverick

I wasn't as high on "Top Gun: Maverick" as most people, but I appreciate it as an old-school blockbuster. Tom Cruise is back, training a new generation of fighter pilots to pull off a move that really seems like the plan to blow up the Death Star at the end of "Star Wars." Blending practical effects with digital seamlessly, "Maverick" is a fist-pumping, action-packed adventure that...

Dressed in a red Fdny shirt and matching cap, Spike Lee recalls over Zoom his earliest memory of the World Trade Center: “My first thing was the bombing in 1993.” After a beat, he goes back further. “They were shooting ‘King Kong,’ and there was an ad in the Daily News. They needed extras for the final scene and I was there.” Lee appears in the Dino de Laurentiis-produced 1976 film as one of the 5,000 extras who see Kong fall to the ground from the towers.

Decades later, the director would shoot a documentary with his own vivid memories of the fateful day in 2001 when a terrorist attack brought down the twin towers, killing thousands.

The finale of Lee’s new four-part documentary series for HBO, “NYC Epicenters: 9/11 – 2021 1⁄2,” will air on Sept. 11, the 20-year remembrance of the World Trade Center attacks. (He doesn’t like to use the word “anniversary.”) The work...

Updated, 9:50 Am: HBO said today that Spike Lee’s four-part documentary series NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½ will premiere at 8 p.m. Sunday, August 22 on the premium cabler. Episodes 2 and 3 will air on subsequent Sundays leading up to the finale at 10 p.m. September 11 — the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The series also will stream on HBO Max. Read details of NYC Epicenters below.

Previously, March 1: Director Spike Lee and HBO Documentary Films are in production on NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½, a multi-part documentary described by the network as “an epic chronicle of life, loss and survival in the city of New York over the twenty years since the September 11th attacks.” The epicenters of the title refer to both 9/11 and Covid-19.

Promising an “unprecedented, sweeping portrait of New Yorkers as they rebuild and rebound, from a devastating terrorist attack through the ongoing global pandemic,” the film utilizes a “a...

Australian filmmaker and journalist Daizy Gedeon will be recognised at a Better World Fund (Bwf) gala event in Cannes on Monday, where she will be presented with the Movie That Matters Award.

Given annually by Filmfestivals.com, the prize is for her new feature documentary Enough! Lebanon’s Darkest Hour, which which will premiere in the Cannes Marche du Film next week.

The gala is one of a series of high-end advocacy events hosted by Bwf, which drives support for United Nations causes.

Gedeon, who was born in Lebanon and raised in Australia, said she was “speechless” that the foundation had chosen to honour her film.

“It is humbling that the humanitarian message of my film has been acknowledged by a body that identifies and rewards “cinematic art in the service of humanity,” she said.

“The serendipity of our two worlds colliding is awe-inspiring and provides me with great hope that...

Barry Alexander Brown, the filmmaker and editor long known for his association with Spike Lee, is to receive two lifetime achievement honors this year during the Cannes Film Festival.

Lee is present in Cannes as president of the competition jury.

The AFI World Peace Initiative and the Better World Forum will honor Brown and Lee as iconic pioneers for their body of work promoting inclusion, diversity and social justice, and laud Brown for race-relations drama “Son of the South,” which was released this year.

The prizes to Lee and Brown will be presented at the Better World Fund Gala on July 12 in Cannes. They will be handed over by Better World Forum founder and president Manuel Collas de Laroche and Forum ambassador H.R.H. Princess Angelique A. Monet.

Brown will additionally receive the Embrace Award at the AFI World Peace Initiative — World Peace and Tolerance awards ceremony the following day,...

Company to distribute roster of completed titles in US.

Vertical Entertainment continues to grow its international business and is in talks on a virtual Cannes market slate led by thriller Last Survivors starring Alicia Silverstone and civil rights drama Son Of The South executive produced by Spike Lee.

Head of international sales and distribution Ryan Keller and his team have been taking meetings this week on the international sales roster, which includes sci-fi thriller Risen, horror Shook, thriller Stalker, and The Resort. All titles are completed and Vertical will distribute in the US.

Drew Mylrea directed the thriller Last Survivors,...

Editor Alan Baumgarten’s work on Aaron Sorkin’s drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7″ topped the American Cinema Editors Awards in a virtual ceremony.

Baumgarten beat out competition from “Sound of Metal,” “Mank,” “Minari” and “Nomadland.”

In other categories, Pixar’s “Soul” continued to collect awards, winning best edited animated feature, while “Palm Springs” won best edited feature film comedy. The Oscar-nominated documentary “My Octopus Teacher” won best edited documentary feature.

Director Spike Lee was honored with the Ace Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, recognizing a filmmaker who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film. Editors and co-stars who had collaborated with Lee over the years including Barry Alexander Brown, Ace; Adam Gough, Ace; Nancy Novak, Ace, Jodie Foster, Riz Ahmed and Sam Pollard all celebrated Lee in a tribute video.

Double Oscar nominee Leslie Odom Jr. shared: “When I was a little boy,...

Updated with full list of winners: Netflix’s Aaron Sorkin drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 won the marquee Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) honor Saturday to cap the American Cinema Editors’ 71st annual Ace Eddie Awards.

Alan Baumgarten, Ace, edited the pic, about the unrest around the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It puts him and the film in frontrunner status in the Best Film Editing Oscar race, where it is competing against fellow Ace nominees Nomadland and Sound of Metal along with Promising Young Woman and The Father.

Baumgarten in his virtual acceptance speech thanked Sorkin for his “enthusiasm for editing — it was a pleasure to collaborate with you.” He also thanks his wife, with a nod to the pandemic: “I think myself, and as everybody understands, I brought the work home literally — thank you for your patience and understanding.”

Chicago 7 is up for six Oscars this year including Best Picture.

Editor Barry Alexander Brown had completed his film “The War at Home” and had returned to Atlanta to research a project when he was first introduced to Spike Lee through a mutual friend. At the time, Lee was at New York University working on a cable TV project.

The year was 1981, and later, Brown and Lee were back in New York. It was Brown who offered the aspiring filmmaker a part-time job at First Run Features to check prints. “I was making deliveries going to the post office with 35mm cans,” Lee recalls.

It marked the beginning of their 40-year and counting collaborative friendship and working partnership.

Lee with be presented with the Golden Eddie filmmaker of the year award on April 18 during the 71st American Cinema Editors (Ace) Eddie Awards.

Brown is Lee’s go-to editor. Together, they have worked on a number of the director’s most memorable...

Spike Lee is currently in production on a documentary film about New York City and the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Titled “NYC Epicenters 9/11 – 2021½,” it will premiere on HBO this year.

The multi-part documentary will be a sweeping portrait of how New Yorkers have rebuilt and rebounded not just from a terrorist attack but now an ongoing global pandemic. The film features over 200 interviews of citizens with firsthand accounts of 9/11.

“NYC Epicenters” will debut later this year on HBO and HBO Max and will be available in commemoration of 9/11.

“As a New Yawker who bleeds orange and blue (the colors of New York City), I’m proud to have a ‘Spike Lee Joint’ about how our/my city dealt with being the epicenters of 9/11 and Covid-19,” Lee said in a statement. “With over 200 interviews, we dig deep into what makes NYC the greatest city on this God’s earth...

HBO Documentary Films and Academy Award and Emmy-winning director and screenwriter Spike Lee are currently in production on “NYC Epicenters 9/11→ 2021½,” a film that will chronicle the life, loss and survival of New York City residents over the twenty years since the terrorist attacks on the original World Trade Center complex.

“As a New Yawker who bleeds orange and blue (the colors of New York City), I’m proud to have a ‘Spike Lee Joint’ about how our/my city dealt with being the epicenters of 9/11 and Covid-19. With over 200 interviews, we dig deep into what makes NYC the greatest city on this God’s earth and also the diverse citizens who make it so. Over centuries pundits and straight haters have proclaimed NYC was dead and stinkin’, only to be proved wrong. You will lose ya money betting against New York, New York. And dat’s da truth, Ruth. Be Safe.

“Da 5 Bloods” film editor Adam Gough is based in London, while director Spike Lee is based in New York City, “so when I got the call it wasn’t something I was expecting at all … I kind of felt in a completely different universe being invited in, but I jumped at the opportunity.” Watch our exclusive video interview with Gough above.

“Da 5 Bloods” tells the story of a group of African-American veterans of the Vietnam War who return to the country for the remains of their fallen squad leader (Chadwick Boseman) as well as hidden gold they left behind on the battlefield. It was Gough’s first collaboration with Lee, and it started when both of them were on the 2018 awards campaign trail: Gough as the editor of “Roma” and Lee as the writer-director of “BlacKkKlansman.” “Spike didn’t waste any time,” Gough remembers. “The morning of the...

February is shaping up to be something special. In response to a pandemic-extended awards season, the sort of films that used to crowd the release calendar just before New Year’s in an effort to Oscar-qualify while also still maintaining some measure of last-minute/latest-thing freshness are now arranging to come out over the coming weeks.

Think of that as a teaser of such upcoming films as “Minari” and “Nomadland” more than a reflection of this week’s lineup, although a couple of this week’s releases feature elements the marketing departments would be happy to hear described as “Oscar worthy.”

The first is Viggo Mortensen’s directorial debut, in which he plays a gay man dealing with his father’s dementia (featuring a raging performance by Lance Henriksen). The second is Sam Levinson’s resourceful two-hander “Malcolm & Marie,” made during the pandemic and featuring two terrific, on-fire performances...

Although he occasionally uses a broad brush dipped in primary colors while fashioning his admiring portrait of Bob Zellner, the grandson of a Ku Klux Klansman who improbably evolved into a civil rights activist during the early 1960s, filmmaker Barry Alexander Brown shrewdly and intelligently avoids most of the “white savior” clichés common to such scenarios in “Son of the South.” Based on Zellner’s memoir “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement,” and available starting Feb. 5 in limited theatrical runs and on digital platforms, Brown’s well-crafted and period-persuasive biopic strikes a dramatically sound and emotionally satisfying balance between the moral awakening of its white protagonist and his relationships with sometimes encouraging, sometimes skeptical Black leaders and foot soldiers.

The movie’s opening minutes indicate just how dangerous it could be for a white Southerner to be viewed as a “race traitor” in the days of segregation,...

To celebrate the release of Son of the South, the new historical drama set for release in US cinemas and on-demand, we sat down with the film’s cast and director to find out more about this important and timely film.

A grandson of a Klansman, Bob Zellner (Lucas Till) comes of age in the deep south and eventually joins the Civil Rights Movement. Based on Zellner’s autobiography “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek”, Son of the South features Till, Lex Scott Davis, Cedric The Entertainer, Lucy Hale, Brian Dennehy and Julia Orford in the ensemble, under the director of Barry Alexander Brown, Spike Lee’s frequent collaborator and editor and who is the film’s executive producer.

We chat to Till, Davis and Cedric The Entertainer about the importance of the film for modern audiences and in history and its echoes which are still being felt today within must unrest in the US.

Usually the annual American Cinematheque tribute puts a bunch of Hollywood folks in black tie in a hotel ballroom to ingest rubber chicken and champagne. This year’s Spike Lee award show was a streamlined virtual affair hosted by “Inside Man” star Jodie Foster, who conducted a charming interview with Lee over the course of an evening interspersed by films clips and memories from such collaborators as actors Delroy Lindo and Angela Bassett, cinematographers Ernest Dickerson and Ellen Kuras, costume designer Ruth E. Carter, and production designer Wynn Thomas.

Brooklyn-based Lee, who is 63, has directed 25 features and documentaries plus countless commercials, collecting Emmys, BAFTAs, Cannes and critics awards along the way, including last year’s Adapted Screenplay Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman.”

“If you love what you are doing you can delay father time,” Lee said. “I’ve got some more joints to make. This award is not just for me but...

Usually the annual American Cinematheque tribute puts a bunch of Hollywood folks in black tie in a hotel ballroom to ingest rubber chicken and champagne. This year’s Spike Lee award show was a streamlined virtual affair hosted by “Inside Man” star Jodie Foster, who conducted a charming interview with Lee over the course of an evening interspersed by films clips and memories from such collaborators as actors Delroy Lindo and Angela Bassett, cinematographers Ernest Dickerson and Ellen Kuras, costume designer Ruth E. Carter, and production designer Wynn Thomas.

Brooklyn-based Lee, who is 63, has directed 25 features and documentaries plus countless commercials, collecting Emmys, BAFTAs, Cannes and critics awards along the way, including last year’s Adapted Screenplay Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman.”

“If you love what you are doing you can delay father time,” Lee said. “I’ve got some more joints to make. This award is not just for me but...

Storied filmmaker Spike Lee is the latest in a long line of auteurs to be awarded honors by the American Cinematheque.

The ceremony celebrating Lee’s more than three decade-career was presented virtually due to the ongoing pandemic. A collage of images from some of his most iconic “joints”, as well as a few personal photos of Lee with his wife Tonya, and children Satchel and Jackson and at a basketball game (presumably the filmmaker’s beloved Knicks) with Denzel Washington, served as the backdrop for the 34th annual event.

Past American Cinematheque honors recipient Jodie Foster hosted the broadcast, asking her “Inside Man” director, “It’s gotta be crazy to be honored for lifetime achievement. Does it seem like it’s been that long? Do you feel like you’re 100 years old?”

“If you love what you’re doing, you can delay Father Time,” Lee replied, “So I’ve...

Spike Lee was honored by his peers and associates Thursday as he became the 34th recipient of the American Cinematheque Award, given to a filmmaker or star who has achieved, and continues to achieve, great success in their career.

The honor, usually presented during a glitzy tribute dinner, had to go virtual this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but that didn’t stop Lee’s wide swath of admirers and colleagues from participating via Zoom and other means in the slickly produced and nicely assembled show that went off without a hitch this evening. Hosted by Jodie Foster, who previously co-starred with Denzel Washington in 2006’s Inside Man — Lee tonight recalled it as one of his personal favorites — the tribute included an innovative feature showing virtual conversations between pairs of various past artists from all fields who have worked with Lee, focusing on a specific film on which they participated.

"You're gonna have to decide which side you're on." Vertical Entertainment has unveiled an official trailer for Son of the South, a coming-of-age drama set in the turbulent times of the 1960s. This premiered at the American Black Film Festival last year, and it arrives on VOD next month. Lucas Till stars as a grandson of a Klansman who comes of age during the early 60's in the deep south and eventually joins the Civil Rights Movement. Based on Bob Zellner's autobiography "The Wrong Side of Murder Creek". The film's ensemble cast also features Lex Scott Davis, Lucy Hale, Jake Abel, Shamier Anderson, Ludi Lin, Dexter Darden, Sienna Guillory, Chaka Forman, with Cedric the Entertainer. This looks like it's trying to confront racism head on, but it's also another white savior story we've seen many times before. Check it out. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Barry Alexander Brown's Son of the South,...

Exclusive: LA-based indie production and sales company Clear Horizon is expanding into domestic distribution with the acquisition of civil rights drama Son Of The South.

The film, which debuts tonight at the American Black Film Festival, is written and directed by Oscar-nominated editor Barry Alexander Brown (BlacKkKlansman), well known for his long-running collaboration with Spike Lee.

Brown has edited Spike Lee movies including Oscar-winner BlacKkKlansman, She’s Gotta Have It, Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X and Inside Man. He also co-directed Oscar-nominated documentary The War At Home.

Lee is an executive producer on Son Of The South, which stars Lucas Till, Lex Scott Davis, Lucy Hale, Cedrick the Entertainer, Julia Ormond and the late Brian Dennehy. Producers are Colin Bates, Eve Pomerance, Bill Black, Stan Erdreich, and River Bend Pictures.

Based on the Bob Zellner autobiography The Wrong Side Of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement,...

Lex Scott Davis and Shamier Anderson have been added to the cast of A Lot of Nothing, joining Y’lan Noel, who Davis co-starred alongside in The First Purge, as well as Cleopatra Coleman (The Last Man on Earth). Mo McRae is at the helm as a first-time feature director with Emmy and Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo on board as an executive producer.

The plot, written by McRae and Sarah Kelly Kaplan, follows a married couple living in a Los Angeles suburb who is compelled to take dangerous actions when they discover their next-door neighbor is the police officer that just murdered an unarmed motorist.

More from DeadlineLex Scott Davis Joins ABC's Erin Brockovich-Inspired Drama Pilot 'Rebel''The Last Man on Earth' Alum Cleopatra Coleman Set To Co-Lead 'A Lot Of Nothing' Movie'Insecure' & 'The First Purge's Y'lan Noel To Star In 'A Lot Of Nothing' Thriller

Davis will play Candy,...

Ex-NFL defensive end Jared Odrick and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri actor Michael Aaron Milligan have joined the Sylvester Stallone-starring thriller, Samaritan, which has Overlord director Julius Avery at the helm. Other cast includes Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, Pilou Asbæk, Dascha Polanco, Martin Starr, and Moises Arias. Currently shooting in Atlanta, the pic centers on a young boy (Walton) who is out to discover if a mythic superhero, who vanished 20 years earlier following a tragic event, is still alive. The film is based on an original idea by Bragi F. Schut, who penned the screenplay with additional writing from Mark L. Smith, Zak Penn, and Chuck MacLean. Stallone and Braden Aftergood of Balboa Productions are producing the film, the first for their company. Schut will serve as an executive producer. MGM is releasing the film on December 11 via their United Artists Releasing banner in the U.S. and outside the U.

All below-the-line artists are tasked with interpreting a director’s vision through their craft, but the editor’s contribution is often the hardest to separate. As Stanley Kubrick said, “Editing is the only unique aspect of filmmaking which does not resemble any other art form.” That ability to jump through time and space, to show the viewer an image, cut, and connect it to something entirely different to create new meaning, rhythm, and emotion is at the core of how a director guides the audience.

Further complicating the ability to measure their contribution is how our favorite auteurs often rely on the same editors, forming professional marriages that span decades. Where does Steven Spielberg’s visual efficiency end, and Michael Kahn’s precision start? Could Spike Lee boldly shift tonal gears, if Barry Alexander Brown wasn’t there to preserve internal consistency? How much of Sofia Coppola’s distinct pace...

Spike Lee is set to direct a big-screen adaptation of Ron Wimberly’s 2012 graphic novel, “Prince of Cats,” for Legendary Entertainment. Described as “the B-side to Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” the story focuses on Tybalt, the son of Lady Capulet’s brother, Juliet’s short-tempered cousin, Romeo’s rival, and a character from Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Lee confirmed the project with IndieWire.

Set in the 1980s, in “Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn,” Lee’s favorite domain, the official synopsis for the novel reads: “‘Prince of Cats’ is played at an eighties block party in a NY where underground sword dueling blossomed alongside hip-hop, punk, disco and no wave. It’s the story of the minor players with Tybalt at the center.”

After being out of print for four years, the novel was re-worked and re-released in 2016.

The adaptation has been in development since July 2018, when it was announced...

Spike Lee will direct a big-screen version of the hip-hop love story “Prince of Cats,” based on Ron Wimberly’s graphic novel.

Legendary has been developing the project with Janet and Kate Zucker of Zucker Productions. Lee, who won the Academy Award for adapted screenplay for “BlacKkKlansman,” will also re-write the “Prince of Cats” script with Wimberly and screenwriter Selwyn Seyfu Hinds.

“Prince of Cats” is told through characters in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” as seen through the eyes of Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. The story is set in Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn, where underground sword dueling abounds. Legendary’s Jon Silk and Ali Mendes are overseeing the project for the company.

Lee received Oscar nominations for best picture and director for “BlacKkKlansman.” He is in post-production on the thriller “Da 5 Bloods,” starring Chadwick Boseman, Paul Walter Hauser and Jonathan Majors. Lee grew up in Brooklyn, which...

Son of the South

Spike Lee’s longtime film editor Barry Alexander Brown has been in the director’s chair on more than one occasion, but this project about the grandson of a Klansman who comes of age in the deep south and eventually joins the Civil Rights Movement might help elevate his status as a director. Based on the Bob Zellner’s autobiography “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek,” this stars Lucas Till, Lucy Hale, Lex Scott Davis, Julia Ormond and Cedric the Entertainer.

Prediction: Premieres

Sound of Metal

The scribe of The Place Beyond the Pines moved behind the camera with the Tiff preemed Sound of Metal just this past September.…...

Collin Chou, best known for his role as Seraph from The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, will play Edwin Chiu in the Netflix film, The Half of It, written and directed by Alice Wu. The project, the follow up to Wu’s 2004 film, Saving Face, the pic navigates the struggles of an immigrant family against the backdrop of an Americana teenage angst romantic comedy. The plot is said to be a modern day Cyrano-meets-Pygmalion centered on a shy, introverted, Chinese-American, straight-a student who finds herself helping the school jock woo the girl they both secretly love. In the process, each teaches the other about the nature of love as they find a connection in the most unlikely of places. Chou’s Edwin Chiu is struggling immigrant father of Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) who was a highly educated engineer whose promising career was derailed by his poor English skills when he moved to America.

Exclusive: Shamier Anderson, most recently seen opposite Nicole Kidman in Destroyer, has boarded the cast of Stowaway, the Joe Penna-directed thriller that has Anna Kendrick and Toni Colette attached to star.

Anderson will play an unintended stowaway who, on a mission headed to Mars, accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially grim outcome, a medical researcher (Kendrick) emerges as the only dissenting voice against the clinical logic of both her commander (Collette) and the ship’s biologist.

Penna wrote the screenplay with Ryan Morrison, who will also serve as executive producer. Xyz Films will produce alongside augenschein Filmproduktion and Rise Pictures. Xyz and CAA Media Finance are financing for the film and handling worldwide sales, which continue during Cannes.

Anderson was also recently cast in Barry Alexander Brown’s civil rights drama, Son of the South, which has Spike Lee,...

Mike C. Manning is among the cast of Barry Alexander Brown’s Son of the South, joining Lucas Till, Lucy Hale, Lex Scott Davis, Julia Ormond, Cedric the Entertainer, Jake Abel, Dexter Darden, and Shamier Anderson. The pic, based on Bob Zellner’s autobiography The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, is about the true-life story of Zellner (Till), an Alabama native and grandson of a Birmingham Klansman who is pulled into the center of the civil rights movement. The spring and summer of 1961 challenged the 22-year old to rethink his beliefs as he witnessed the heroism of John Lewis during the Montgomery Freedom Riders riot in May of that year. Manning will play Townsend Ellis, best friend of Zellner who struggles to support his friend during his growing involvement with the civil rights movement. Producers are Colin Bates, Stan Erdreich, Eve Pomerance,...

In today’s film news roundup, Evangeline Lilly, Ike Barinholtz and Mike Manning get acting jobs, “Easy Rider” returns and Gravitas buys “Chasing Molly.”

Castings

Evangeline Lilly and Ike Barinholtz have joined the independent comedy “Happy Life” with David Stassen (“The Mindy Project”) set to write and direct his debut feature film.

Stassen and Barinholtz are also serving as producers alongside Andrew Robinson and Aperture Media Productions. Highland Film Group has come on board to handle international sales which will begin in Cannes this month. UTA Independent Film Group is handling the U.S. sale.

Lilly will portray a new mom who suspects her workaholic husband, played by Barinholtz, of having an affair with an Instagram star. One mistake after another leads her into the arms of a younger man as she struggles to come to terms with her life decisions and be the mother she aspires to be. Principal photography will commence this summer.

In today’s film news roundup, Will Ferrell’s sports comedy hires a director, Leonard Maltin launches a film festival and Spike Lee’s “Son of the South” fills out its cast.

Director Attachment

“Fist Fight” director Richie Keen has signed direct a previously announced eSports comedy at Legendary Pictures that has Will Ferrell attached to star.

Keen has directed segments of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The Goldbergs” and the Kathy Bates Netflix series “Disjointed.” He will direct from a script by Jordan Dunn and Michael Kvamme with Ferrell starring as a member of a professional eSports team, competing in a sport where players usually retire in their 20s due to slowing hand-eye coordination.

He most recently starred with John C. Reilly in “Holmes & Watson.” The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

Film Festival

Film critic Leonard Maltin is launching a three-day Maltinfest on May 10-...

In today’s film news roundup, Sabrina Carpenter gets a starring role, Spike Lee’s “Son of the South” adds to its cast and inspirational drama “Edie” gets North American distribution.

Castings

Singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter will star in Stx’s dance-themed comedy “Work It” from STXfilms and Alloy Entertainment.

Alicia Keys is producing with Elysa Koplovitz Dutton and Leslie Morgenstein from Alloy Entertainment.

Liza Koshy and Keiynan Lonsdale will co-star. Laura Terruso will direct and do a rewrite of the original script, which was penned by Alison Peck. Peck also wrote Stx’s upcoming “Uglydolls.”

Carpenter will portray an awkward teenager who, after being rejected from her high school’s dance team, assembles a crew of misfits to compete against them in a national dance championship. She is currently starring in “Short History of The Long Road,” and her credits include “The Hate U Give” and “Tall Girl.”

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American actor Matt William Knowles,...

Ludi Lin is set to join Barry Alexander Brown’s civil rights-era drama “Son of the South,” which has Spike Lee attached as an executive producer along with Brown.

Based on Bob Zellner’s autobiography “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek” and written by Brown, the civil rights era drama follows the true-life story of Zellner, an Alabama native and the grandson of a Birmingham Klansman who is pulled into the very center of the civil rights movement. The spring and summer of ’61 challenged the 22-year-old to rethink his beliefs as he witnessed the heroism of John Lewis during the Montgomery Freedom Riders riot in May of that year. Inspired by the people whose paths he crossed, invigorated by the courage of local black high school students marching to protest the murder of tenant farmer Herbert Lee, and outraged that a man could be killed with impunity for the crime...

Exclusive: Dexter Darden, who appeared in all three Maze Runner films, has booked a key role in Barry Alexander Brown’s civil rights-era drama Son of the South, which has Spike Lee attached as an executive producer along with Brown.

Based on Bob Zellner’s autobiography The Wrong Side of Murder Creek and written by Brown, the film follows the true-life story of Zellner, an Alabama native and grandson of a Birmingham Klansman who is pulled into the center of the civil rights movement. The spring and summer of 1961 challenged the 22-year old to rethink his beliefs as he witnessed the heroism of John Lewis during the Montgomery Freedom Riders riot in May of that year.

Darden will play Lewis, the well-known civil rights activist and now U.S. politician who was one of the original 13 members of the Freedom Riders. He joins the previously announced cast that includes Lucas Till,...

Lucy Hale and Lucas Till are starring in Spike Lee’s civil rights drama “Son of the South,” Variety has learned exclusively.

“Son of the South” is based on the Bob Zellner autobiography, “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement.” Zellner, an Alabama native and grandson of a Ku Klux Klan member, is pulled into the center of the civil rights movement in 1961.

Till (the “X-Men” franchise) is starring as Zellner and Hale as Carol Ann, Zellner’s college girlfriend. Lex Scott Davis (“Superfly”) is also starring along with Julia Ormond as Virginia Durr, Cedric the Entertainer as Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Sharonne Lanier as Rosa Parks. Brian Dennehy plays Zellner’s grandfather. Chaka Forman is portraying his activist father Jim Forman.

Lee is executive producing with his longtime editor Barry Alexander Brown directing from his own screenplay. Lee won the Academy Award for...

At this year’s Oscars, “Green Book” pulled off a shocking upset when it won Best Picture along with two other awards: Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Best Original Screenplay. It also ended up becoming the fifth film in Oscar history to win the top prize without a directing nomination, following in the footsteps of “Wings” (1927), “Grand Hotel” (1932), “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) and “Argo” (2012). Speaking of “Driving Miss Daisy,” the results of this year’s ceremony feel very reminiscent to 1989.

SEENeedless to say, Spike Lee was not happy about ‘Green Book’ winning the Best Picture Oscar: ‘The ref made a bad call’

“Green Book” tells the true story of Italian-American bouncer Frank Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), also known as “Tony Lip,” who searches for new employment after his nightclub closes for renovations. He eventually lands an interview to drive for famed African-American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley (Ali), and the...

Backstage during the live ABC telecast of the 91st Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 24, 2019.

The 91st Oscars were awarded at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 24. Green Book took home the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Below is the list of winners.

Performance by an actor in a leading role nominees:

Christian Bale in Vice

Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born

Willem Dafoe in At Eternity’S Gate

Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody – Winner!!

Viggo Mortensen in Green Book

Performance by an actor in a supporting role nominees:

Mahershala Ali in Green Book – Winner!!

Adam Driver in BLACKkKLANSMAN

Sam Elliott in A Star Is Born

Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Sam Rockwell in Vice

Performance by an actress in a leading role nominees:

Yalitza Aparicio in Roma

Glenn Close in The Wife

Olivia Colman in The Favourite – Winner!

The 91st annual Academy Awards (Oscars) was a night of incredibly well-deserved wins, first time wins, and shocking wins. See the full list of nominees and winners below.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role Regina King in “If Beale Street Could Talk” (Winner) Amy Adams in “Vice” Marina de Tavira in “Roma” Emma Stone in “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz in “The Favourite” Best documentary feature “Free Solo” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill (Winner) “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim “Minding the Gap” Bing Liu and Diane Quon “Of Fathers and Sons” Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert “Rbg” Betsy West and Julie Cohen Achievement in makeup and hairstyling “Vice” Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia DeHaney (Winner) “Border” Goran Lundstrom and Pamela Goldammer “Mary Queen of Scots” Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma began night on 10 nominations apiece.

Green Book won best picture in a night of several surprises at the 2019 Oscars, as Bohemian Rhapsody took the most awards with four.

Peter Farrelly’s road trip race drama Green Book beat contenders including Roma to the main prize, also picking up best original screenplay and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali.

Alfonso Cuarón won two individual awards for best director and best cinematography, with Roma also receiving best foreign language film.

Olivia Colman won best actress for The Favourite - the film’s only...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma lead the way with 10 nominations apiece.

Green Book won best picture in a night of several surprises at the 2019 Oscars, as Bohemian Rhapsody took the most awards with four.

Peter Farrelly’s road trip race drama Green Book beat contenders including Roma to the main prize, also picking up best original screenplay and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali.

Alfonso Cuarón won two individual awards for best director and best cinematography, with Roma also receiving best foreign language film.

Olivia Colman won best actress for The Favourite - the film’s...

The 91st Academy Awards were held on February 24, 2019. For the first time in three decades, the Oscars did not have a host. That reduced the running time of this ceremony, which has stretched to over four hours in the past. Scroll down for the full and complete list of winners.

Leading this year’s nominees with 10 bids apiece are the Spanish-language film “Roma” and the English period drama “The Favourite.” They both contend for Best Picture as do eight-time nominees “A Star is Born” and “Vice.” “Black Panther” made history as the first comic book movie to reap a Best Picture; it is nominated for seven awards in all. Rounding out the top category are six-time nominee “BlacKkKlansman” and a pair of pictures with five bids apiece: “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book.”

Refresh this page for the most up-to-date winners

See 2019 Oscars predictions: All 8 Best Picture nominees will win at...

Richard E. Grant, Daniel Battsek, Deborah Davis among attendees

Michael Howells, British Consul General in Los Angeles, and Screen International, hosted an afternoon tea to celebrate this year’s British Oscar nominees ahead of the Academy Awards on Sunday (24).

The We Are UK Film event was held at the British Consul General’s residence on Friday (22) with an illustrious guest list that included Richard E. Grant, Oscar-nominated for his performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (and an emotional best supporting actor winner at Saturday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards), Film4 chief Daniel Battsek, and The Favourite co-writer Deborah Davis.

“Roma” and “The Favourite” are the only films in contention at the 2019 Oscars to break the double digit barrier in the nominations count. Each reaped 10 bids and they both number among the eight nominees for Best Picture. Scroll down to see the full list of nominations in all 24 competitive categories at the 91st Academy Awards on February 24.

Two of the other contenders for the top prize — “A Star is Born” and “Vice” — earned eight nominations each. “Black Panther” made Oscar history by becoming the first comic book movie to break into the Best Picture line-up; it has seven nominations in total. Right behind at six is another of the Best Picture hopefuls, “BlacKkKlansman.” That race is rounded out by two five-time nominees “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book.”

See 2019 Oscars predictions: All 8 Best Picture nominees will win at 91st Academy Awards

Best Picture

“BlacKkKlansman”

“Black Panther”

“Bohemian Rhapsody”

“The Favourite”

“Green Book...