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On Tuesday evening, Deadline launched its Deadline Dinners event series with Eleanor the Great screenwriter Tory Kamen as our first host. Proper Presents: Deadline Dinners is a new writer-focused event series designed to foster candid conversation, celebrate breakthrough storytelling and build community around the written word.

Kamen’s chosen theme for the evening was first-time female screenwriters, and she brought together a group of guests that included Ilana Wolpert (Anyone But You), Nora Garrett (After the Hunt), Rose Gilroy (Fly Me to the Moon), Amy Wang (Slanted), Jess Righthand (Grey’s Anatomy), Kale Futterman (Ginny & Georgia), Rebecca Rosenberg (The Librarians: The Next Chapter), Tracie Laymon (Bob Trevino Likes It) and Anna Greenfield (Late Bloomers).

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Kamen said of bringing the group together: “I really wanted a community of people that I could relate to, as somebody who’s trying to write features and really loves theatrical. What tonight’s about is celebrating future writers.

Karen Gillan has had a lot of faces throughout the course of her career. She has played many different characters and established just how talented she is as an actress. She has gone from horror movies to blue aliens and even got transported into a game. However, her fans may have never seen her in a film like 2023’s Late Bloomers.

Karen Gillan in Late Bloomers I Vertical Entertainment

Rather than playing a confident character like she usually does, the film places her in the shoes of Louise, a 28-year-old, who is trying to figure out her place in the world and with her family quite late in her life. The film adopts quite an awkward tone, and often, it can be almost impossible to watch because of how good it is at making audiences uncomfortable.

This feeling can perfectly be encompassed in one scene from the film, which happens...

Late Bloomers is a heartwarming comedy about unlikely friendships, starring Karen Gillan in a charming role of self-discovery. The film is based on writer Anna Greenfield's own life experiences, blending humor with the vulnerability of growing older. Director Lisa Steen captures the essence of New York City as a character, adding depth to the intergenerational tale of aging and acceptance.

Late Bloomers follows an aimless musician in her late twenties who breaks her hip while drunk. Through her physical therapy, Louise meets and befriends people twice her age, notably Antonina, a Polish woman who doesn't speak any English. Unexpectedly, Louise is hired as Antonina's caretaker and the unlikely pair help each other grow out of their comfort zones and rediscover what makes life beautiful.

Doctor Who's Karen Gillan stars as Louise, infusing the role with heart and endless comedy. Late Bloomers is written by Anna Greenfield, based on her own life,...

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You can't guard the galaxy from destruction if you can't guard your own well-being. Fan-favorite actress Karen Gillan has stepped into what she just described as one of her "favorite things to perform," and it's not a Marvel or Jumanji franchise installment. Late Bloomers, now in theaters, proves Gillan is captivating even when reduced to a hospital bed and/or crutches, as she hobbles across Brooklyn in search of true love, purpose, and the meaning of family.

We last spoke to Gillan amid the release of her film Sleeping Dogs, which also starred Oscar winner Russell Crowe. We recently caught up with her again, this time in Los Angeles alongside Late Bloomers' writer Anna Greenfield and director Lisa Steen for a hilarious group interview about their inspiration behind the film, real-life injuries, diapers and the "unsexy sex scene," and Gillan's highly anticipated...

Exclusive: Lisa Steen’s debut feature Late Bloomers, starring Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy franchise), is the latest starry festival indie to have secured North American distribution through Vertical.

Other recent pickups for Vertical include the Sundance genre-bender Your Monster starring Melissa Barrera, true crime doc The Speedway Murders, Brittany Snow’s SXSW-premiering directorial debut Parachute, and the Zoe Saldaña thriller The Absence of Eden co-acquired with Roadside Attractions, to name just a few.

Specifics as to the release plan for Late Bloomers haven’t been disclosed.

World premiering at SXSW 2023, the film centers on Louise (Gillan), an aimless and recently single 28-year-old Brooklynite, who drunkenly falls while stalking her ex and breaks her hip. This lands her in a physical therapy ward full of people twice her age. There, she meets Antonina (Margaret Sophie Stein), a cranky elderly Polish woman, who speaks no English. Through circumstances beyond her control,...

In this episode, we interviewed cinematographer and director John De Menil. John shares with us his insights about storytelling, making it into major film festivals, how to choose the right cameras and lenses for the project as an integral part of the pre-production process, and how to direct the characters. Read his thoughts below.

Dp John De Menil Cinematographer and director John De Menil

John de Menil is the Director of Photography of Late Bloomers, which premiered at SXSW and was directed by Lisa Steen, starring Karen Gillan (Nebula in the MCU). John as a Dp has become a film festival darling, with his films premiering at major festivals such as Sundance and SXSW. His most recent credits include Dp’ing the Sundance short Sundowners and the SXSW short Stepdaddy, both directed by Steen. John received a bachelor’s degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a...

Feeling as though one has screwed most everything up in their life — with a hope of no return or redemption — permeates throughout Late Bloomers. The film’s protagonist has hit rock bottom, and she’s floundering, but director Lisa Steen and writer Anna Greenfield have crafted a simple, but effective journey for her that allows her to regain her footing. Starring Karen Gillan, Late Bloomers is at once a buddy comedy involving two wildly different people and a story about growing up and facing the hardship and hurt of life.

Louise (Gillan) is struggling. The 28-year-old is still coping with her ex-boyfriend breaking up with her more than a year prior, and she refuses to go home to California to see her ailing mother, who no longer remembers who she is due to her dementia. When Louise, in an attempt to sneak into her ex’s home through a window,...

As Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 barrels the Marvel Studios’ franchise toward its conclusion, Karen Gillan, stopping in Deadline’s SXSW studio provided a glimpse as to how life is shaping up for Thanos’ adopted daughter and Gamora’s adopted sister, Nebula, in the threequel.

“Now we’re seeing Nebula post the death of the source of her trauma, Thanos. He’s been eliminated from the story, and now we’re seeing her character become a little bit of the person that she should have been had that not happened to her,” Gillan told Deadline.

Cranky and combative Nebula’s idea of bliss now is “her new family with the new Guardians and letting love in for the first time, rather than the defense mechanism always triggering. Allowing her to be loved and to love,” said the actress who was at SXSW for the world premiere of her movie...

Deadline launched Day 1 of its photo studio on Friday, March 10th, at the Deadline Studio at SXSW Film and Television Festival, as cast members of SXSW-premiering films and television stopped by including the Yellowjackets cast Tawny Cypress, Sophie Nélisse, Samantha Hanratty, Kevin Alves, Courtney Eaton; David Dastmalchian, Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes from Late Night with the Devil; Sara Bareilles and Daveed Diggs for Breakthrough; Chloe Bailey, Dominique Fishback, Jamal Olori and Janine Nabers for Swarm; Leah McKendricks from Scrambled; Karen Gillan, Anna Greenfield and Lisa Steen from Late Bloomers, Eric Andre, Matt Walsh & many more.

Related: SXSW Film & TV Festival 2023: Premieres & Parties Gallery

The Deadline Studio at SXSW runs March 10-13, where the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup sit down with Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Austin, Texas.

While Andrea Riseborough’s shock Oscar nomination for the SXSW 2022 sleeper To Leslie is still being processed, it’s too early to see whether it will have any effect on anything other than awards-season process. It would be nice, however, to think that it could also make it just that little bit harder for the success of smaller, more personal movies to be measured by box office returns alone. Late Bloomers doesn’t have that film’s dramatic intensity, and is way more schematic in its plotting, but Lisa Steen’s debut feature is still an intimate, defiantly female-fronted indie, showcasing an engaging and refreshingly vanity-free performance from Karen Gillan, a talented Scottish actress whose career to date is still something of a work in progress.

Gillan plays Louise, a woman in her late 20s whose life...

Late Bloomers is a new comedy film having its world premiere at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, on Friday. To discuss the making of the film, screenwriter Anna Greenfield, director Lisa Steen (her feature debut) and star Karen Gillan joined The Hollywood Reporter in its SXSW Studio.

Greenfield based the story on real-life experiences. The movie follows a Brooklyn woman, Louise, in her late 20s, who falls drunkenly and breaks her hip, prompting a stay at a physical therapy ward with the elderly. When Louise is assigned to care for an old Polish woman named Antonina, the pair are forced to face some painful truths.

Steen and Greenfield connected when they went to college together and were also friends with Gillan through her husband. Gillan, previously known for her roles in franchises including Guardians of the Galaxy and Jumanji, became obsessed with the script after reading it, studying Greenfield...

SXSW has announced the first wave of movie and television programming for its 2023 film festival, including its narrative, documentary, and television competition lineups.

While several sections of the complete film lineup, including this year’s Global and 24 Beats Per Minute programming, have yet to be announced, the lineup already features new work from many of the industry’s most exciting names. The festival will open with the world premiere of “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” John Francis Dailey and Jonathan Goldstein’s comedic adaptation of the beloved role-playing game. Other notable premieres include “Evil Dead Rise,” the latest entry in Sam Raimi’s camp horror franchise that hails from director Lee Cronin; Eva Longoria’s Frito-Lay origin story “Flamin’ Hot”; and the Season 2 premiere of “Blindspotting.”

“We are thrilled to announce the first wave of our incredible lineup for SXSW 2023,” SXSW VP of Film & TV Claudette Godfrey said in a statement.

SXSW has announced the first batch of titles in its 2023 film festival line-up, including opening night movie, Paramount’s big-budget adventure film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

“We are thrilled to announce the first wave of our incredible lineup for SXSW 2023,” said Claudette Godfrey, vp film & tv. “It’s an amazing collection of films, TV series and Xr experiences that promise to inspire, entertain and challenge our audiences. We’re also proud to open with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a raucous and engaging fantasy adventure, and look forward to welcoming everyone to Austin in March for what promises to be an unforgettable event.”

The other 2023 headliners are the Julio Torres A24 movie Problemista, the latest film in the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Rise, and Eva Longoria’s directorial debut Flamin’ Hot. Last year’s headliners included box office break out The Lost City and awards contender Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Exclusive: Karen Gillan (Thor: Love and Thunder) will star opposite Margaret Sophie Stein (Bullets Over Broadway), Jermaine Fowler (Sorry to Bother You), Kevin Nealon (SNL) and Talia Balsam (Divorce) in the Lisa Steen-directed comedy Late Bloomers from We’re Doin’ Great and Park Pictures, which has wrapped production in Brooklyn, NY.

The film written by Anna Greenfield is loosely based on her experience living in Brooklyn in her 20s. It centers on Louise (Gillan), an aimless millennial who drunkenly breaks her hip, landing her in physical therapy. There, she makes an elderly Polish Bff (Stein) who speaks no English. And it’s this unlikely friendship that gives her the courage to face what she’s been running from all along: Her mother’s early-onset Alzheimer’s. Fowler plays Louise’s Craigslist roommate/landlord Brick, with Nealon and Balsam as her parents.

Late Bloomers marks the feature directorial debut of Greenfield’s frequent collaborator,...

Creative advisors include Andrew Ahn, Derek Cianfrance, Javier Fuentes Leon, Ellen Shanman.

Film Independent on Wednesday (May 5) announced the five screenwriters selected for the 23rd annual Screenwriting Lab, with four coming from underrepresented communities and half being women.

Iesh Thapar with Alien Kulture; Jing Ai Ng (Forge); Anna Greenfield (h.g.o.p.), Alfonso Johnson (The Legend of) Man-Child Kenny); and Rochée Jeffrey (Not Your Average Queen) will take part in the programme designed to provide story and career development for emerging screenwriters with fiction feature screenplays.

Film Independent is also presenting the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and...

Creative advisors include Andrew Ahn, Derek Cianfrance, Javier Fuentes Leon, Ellen Shanman.

Film Independent on Wednesday (May 5) announced the five screenwriters selected for the 23rd annual Screenwriting Lab, with four coming from underrepresented communities and half being women.

Iesh Thapar with Alien Kulture; Jing Ai Ng (Forge); Anna Greenfield (h.g.o.p.), Alfonso Johnson (The Legend of) Man-Child Kenny); and Rochée Jeffrey (Not Your Average Queen) will take part in the programme designed to provide story and career development for emerging screenwriters with fiction feature screenplays.

Film Independent is also presenting the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and...