News

Sony Pictures Classics will open Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut Eleanor the Great on September 26 nationwide and in Canada.

The movie, which received a six-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival world premiere in May, follows Eleanor Morgenstein (Oscar nominee June Squibb), who is trying to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

Tory Kamen wrote the screenplay and the movie also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht and Erin Kellyman.

Partnering for the first time, TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics boarded the project in 2024. The film is produced by Johansson, Jonathan Lia, and Keenan Flynn for These Pictures, Kara Durrett and Jessamine Burgum for Pinky Promise, and Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler of Maven Screen Media. Steve Sarowitz, Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath and Andrew Calof are executive producing for Wayfarer Studios.

Eleanor the Great receives an official US release date as its star, 95 years old, gears up for an Oscar campaign. From Scarlett Johansson in her directorial debut, with a script written by Tory Kamen, the drama stars June Squibb as the titular Eleanor Morgenstein, a nonagenarian Floridian who, after losing her best friend, moves back to New York City and forms an unlikely friendship.

In addition to Squibb in the lead role, the film also stars the Oscar-nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Emmy-nominated Jessica Hecht, and Erin Kellyman.

Now, Sony Pictures Classics has announced that Eleanor the Great will be released in theaters in the United States and Canada on September 26. Another awards-season hopeful, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is also currently scheduled for that same date, as is The Strangers – Chapter 2.

What Eleanor The Great's Release Date Means For The Movie...

Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great,” is getting a theatrical release in September.

The heartwarming drama, starring June Squibb as a 90-year-old woman trying to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend, will premiere in theaters in the U.S. and Canada on Sept. 26 from Sony Pictures Classics.

“Eleanor the Great” debuted in May at Cannes Film Festival in its Un Certain Regard section, earning a five-minute standing ovation. Johansson called screening the film at Cannes a “dream come true” during its premiere.

“When you make a film that’s an independent film like this, no one’s doing it for the money — surprise, surprise,” she continued. “Really, everyone that came together for this film came together because they loved the story, the script so much. It’s a film about many things: it’s about friendship, it’s about grief, it’s about forgiveness.

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).

Deadline

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.

Deadline is launching a new writer-focused series Proper Presents: Deadline Dinners, an event designed to foster candid conversation, celebrate breakthrough storytelling and build community around the written word.

The first event will take place Tuesday, June 24 and be hosted by Tory Kamen, the screenwriter behind Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great that just had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Kamen will invite a roster of young female screenwriters to honor the fresh perspectives and powerful storytelling of women making their mark in the entertainment industry.

All events will take place at the Santa Monica Proper hotel and be curated under Proper Hotels’ cultural platform “Proper Presents,” with each gathering featuring a menu crafted by Proper’s award‑winning culinary teams, bespoke Diageo’s cocktail pairings, and a roundtable discussion.

The first event in the series will be in partnership with Diageo’s brand Don Julio.

Scarlett Johansson stunned the Cannes audience this week, not as an actor but as a filmmaker. Her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, earned a five-minute standing ovation at its world premiere. Based on the theme of identity, grief, and loss, the dramedy struck a chord with the audience, who stood in applause.

But while Johansson now basks in praise, she admitted she hadn’t always felt so confident. Before the release of her movie, she was worried that her debut might overlap a little too closely with Jesse Eisenberg’s debut. Turns out her fears were unfounded.

Scarlett Johansson was worried that her movie might overlap with Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut Scarlett Johansson in a still from Marriage Story | Credit: Netflix

In an exclusive interview with Collider, Scarlett Johansson recalled hearing about Jesse Eisenberg’s own directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World, which also explores Jewish identity and generational tension.

Scarlett Johansson’s cinematic dream came true when she took over the director’s seat and premiered her movie, Eleanor The Great, at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Jump to a Look:

1. Preppy Pinstripes: Prada Skirt Suit & White Pumps 2. Quiet Luxury: Black Midi Prada Dress & Slingbacks 3. Showstopping: Dusty Blue Gown & Metallic Prada Platforms 4. Retro Glamour: ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ Prada Promo Look 5. Elegant in Carolina Herrera: ‘Asteroid City’ Premiere 6. Timeless in White Armani: White House Correspondents’ Dinner 7. Chic in Michael Kors: God’s Love We Deliver Event 8. Radiant in Red: Saint Laurent at ‘Transformers One’ Premiere

She turned to the renowned fashion house Prada to commemorate this new milestone in her career. Considering her appointment as Prada ambassador in 2023, I wasn’t surprised Johansson chose to sport the luxury fashion house’s elegant and sophisticated pieces.

Scarlett Johansson showcases her evolving directorial-era style in three distinct Prada looks—white pointed-toe pumps,...

Time can be a bit of flat circle when you’re starring in a handful of Marvel films for over a decade, but thankfully things have come back around for Scarlett Johansson. After “Avengers: Endgame” and “Black Widow,” she went on to be featured in a number Wes Anderson films, including the upcoming “The Phoenician Scheme,” as well as Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and has now directed her feature debut “Eleanor the Great.” The dark dramedy had its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2025 and marks an important milestone in Johansson’s career. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Johansson explained how she always thought she’d be a director, but got lost in acting.

“When I was much younger, I thought I would end up doing that eventually,” Johansson said of directing. “In my early 20s, I became focused on understanding my job as an actor better.

Scarlett Johansson's feature directorial debut Eleanor the Greathad its world premiere during the Un Certain Regard section (which translates to "a certain look" and presents films with unusual styles or non-traditional stories) of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on May 20. The response to the movie proved just how great Eleanor is, as the screening earned rapturous applause and a five-minute standing ovation from the crowd for Johansson and her talented cast, which includes June Squibb, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Erin Kellyman.

MCU star Johansson called it "a dream come true" to premiere Eleanor the Great at Cannes, though she is also attending the festival as part of the star-studded cast of Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme. Per Variety, the actress-turned-filmmaker highlighted the themes of the story, which was penned by first-time feature writer Tory Kamen and follows 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein (Squibb) who moves to New York to live with...

Jennifer Lawrence isn’t the only Best Actress hopeful generating Oscar buzz at the Cannes Film Festival.

On Tuesday, Sony Pictures Classics premiered Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut with June Squibb in the lead role. Truth be told, the awards campaign for Squibb began months ago, when Thelma Star and Johansson presented together at the Academy Awards.

So while the reviews for Eleanor the Great were largely mixed, it comes as little surprise that Squibb has been deemed innocent of its flaws.

“June Squibb is a pure joy from start to finish, delivering the finest performance of her career, making audiences laugh out loud one moment and breaking their hearts the next,” Next Best Picture’s Matt Neglia wrote on social media.

“It’s not every day that a 95-year-old gets a standing ovation at Cannes. Here’s June Squibb, the lead of Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great,...

The 95-year-old actor gives an enjoyably twinkly performance in a film that misjudges how seriously its story should be taken

Scarlett Johansson’s directorial feature debut, from a screenplay by Tory Kamen, is honestly intentioned and sweetly acted – notably by the film’s 95-year-old star June Squibb, whose remarkable career renaissance began with her being nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for Alexander Payne’s 2013 film Nebraska. But this frankly odd film is misjudged and naive about the implications of its Holocaust theme. Its bland, TV-movie tone of sentimentality fails to accommodate the existential nightmare of the main plot strand, or indeed the subordinate question of when and whether to put your elderly parent in a care home.

Squibb plays Eleanor Morgenstein, a widowed Jewish lady with a waspish way of speaking her mind to condescending youngsters, including the blandly unhelpful teen working in a supermarket who presumes to...

At ninety-four, Eleanor Morgenstein uproots herself from sun-drenched Florida to the gray grid of New York City—an act that reads less like senile wanderlust and more like a defiant thesis on aging (she refuses to recede). Under Scarlett Johansson’s camera, directed with austere clarity, Eleanor is propelled by grief—a scholarly case study in how loss propels us into unfamiliar spaces, both physical and moral. Tory Kamen’s screenplay grants June Squibb a razor-sharp voice, one that snaps through polite small talk and lands squarely on the aching nerve of human loneliness.

There is laughter here, yes, but it rattles against a deeper disquiet: Eleanor’s chance stumble into a Holocaust survivors’ circle becomes a provocation about ownership of narrative. The cityscape—crowded delis, hushed community-center halls—serves as a crucible for her deception and eventual reckoning.

Squibb’s performance oscillates between bristling humor and raw vulnerability (her...

Scarlett Johansson has had a busy week after hosting the final Saturday Night Live of the season, the Jurassic World: Rebirth trailer just dropped online and now reactions are coming in for her directorial debut — Eleanor the Great. The film stars June Squibb as a 90-year-old Floridian woman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a 19-year-old student in New York City. The movie just screened at Cannes (and got June Quibb a five-minute standing ovation afterwards) and reactions have hit social media.

Matt Neglia had a lot of positive things to say in his reaction, “Eleanor The Great is as hilarious as it is moving. In her feature directorial debut, Scarlett Johansson brings a gentle, assured touch to this story about grief, connection, and the instinct to retreat inward in the face of loss. June Squibb is a pure joy from start to finish, delivering the finest performance of her career,...

Scarlett Johansson made an unheralded transition from screen star to filmmaker when her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2025. Walking the red carpet as director rather than actor marked a milestone in a career defined by both blockbuster and art‐house roles.

The film follows 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, played by June Squibb, who leaves her Florida home to forge an unlikely friendship with 19-year-old student Nina in New York City. Through gentle humor and quiet poignancy, it explores how stories “take on a life of their own,” a theme Johansson describes as central to her vision.

Johansson, who first aspired to direct at age 12 after observing Robert Redford on the set of The Horse Whisperer, was drawn to Tory Kamen’s script for its emotional depth and themes of forgiveness. In a recent Vanity Fair interview, she emphasized...

Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival today, where it received a six-minute ovation. She said afterward that her film is “very timely.”

Playing in the Un Certain Regard strand, Johansson’s feature directorial debut stars nonagenarian June Squibb as Eleanor, a woman grieving the loss of Bessie, her best friend and roommate.

Scarlett Johansson, Erin Kellyman and June Squibb get emotional after the ‘Eleanor the Great’ premiere #Cannes2025 pic.twitter.com/4I9OgmAaxq

— Deadline (@Deadline) May 20, 2025

When Eleanor moves to Manhattan to live with her daughter and grandson, she finds herself going on something of an odyssey in search of connection — with sometimes shocking results. When she inadvertently joins a Holocaust survivors group, Eleanor is reminded of her late friend Bessie’s harrowing experience growing up in Nazi-occupied Poland. But when journalism student Nina (Erin Kellyman) takes a vested interest in Eleanor,...

Don’t let the title fool you. Eleanor the Great is not some royal costume epic set in 1566. Instead Scarlett Johansson’s wonderful and richly textured feature directorial debut is a small but beautifully realized story of a 94-year-old woman named Eleanor Morgenstern who, at the point in life where most have just given up, instead packs her bags and moves from Florida to New York City to be closer to her daughter and grandkids.

Related: ‘Eleanor The Great’ Cannes Premiere Photos: Scarlett Johansson, Colin Jost, Adrien Brody & More

She is played by 95-year-old June Squibb, who has done the impossible: start a whole new career in her mid-90s as a leading motion picture star. After last season’s hit Thelma, in which she showed her action chops in the title role, now she finds a very different kind of title role as a woman who is determined to...

June Squibb has become the female Alan Arkin. She’s 95 years old, but onscreen she delivers her zingers with the crack timing of an old person whose perception of the world is ageless in its bombs-away, truth-telling joy. After years as a sneaky scene stealer, Squibb became a star in “Nebraska,” the 2013 Alexander Payne film that turned her combination of homespun grandmotherly demeanor and ruthless wit into a crowd-pleasing force. Last year, she had her first leading role, and now her perky moon face is front and center again in “Eleanor the Great,” the first film directed by Scarlett Johansson.

The movie is an awards-season wannabe in every sense. It totally plays up Squibb’s tart-tongued Arkin-adjacent antique brash aplomb. But in addition, it’s an attempt to tap into the poignant underside of a character who uses her wisecracks as weapons. Did I mention that it’s also a sentimental Holocaust weeper?...

Scarlett Johansson has wanted to direct since she was 12 years old. On the set of Robert Redford’s 1998 film The Horse Whisperer — her seventh movie as an actor — she saw the specific way he worked, the way he understood his actors, and she had a clear thought: I want to do that someday.

Related: ‘Eleanor The Great’ Cannes Premiere Photos: Scarlett Johansson, Colin Jost, Adrien Brody & More

Obviously, in the almost 30 years since Johansson made that private wish, it’s not as though she’s been waiting for something to happen. Oscar-nominated twice and a Tony winner for her work on Broadway, she serves as executive producer and stars as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She founded her production company These Pictures in 2017, and, along with Redford, her director collaborators over the years include Christopher Nolan, Sofia Coppola, Jonathan Glazer, the Coens, Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson. She...

Exclusive: Deadline can reveal the first clip of Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great, which will premiere in the Un Certain Regard lineup at the Cannes Film Festival, which begins next week.

The culmination of Johansson’s long-held dream to direct a feature, Eleanor the Great stars nonagenarian June Squibb as Eleanor, a woman grieving the loss of Bessie, her best friend and roommate. When she moves to Manhattan to live with her daughter and grandson, Eleanor finds herself going on something of an odyssey in search of connection — with sometimes shocking results. When she inadvertently joins a Holocaust survivors’ group, Eleanor is reminded of her late friend Bessie’s harrowing experience growing up in Nazi-occupied Poland. But, when Nina, a journalism student, takes a vested interest in Eleanor, the truth suddenly becomes a slippery subject.

The above first-look clip shows Squibb as Eleanor in feisty form. As...

Scarlett Johansson was behind the camera last year on her feature directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, fixated on the performance of title star June Squibb when she had a vision.

“I said to [one of my producing partners, Jonathan Lia], ‘If I do my job well and do what I’m supposed to do, I can imagine June walking the Croisette at age 95, starring in this incredible dramatic role that she’s so amazing in’ and I thought that would be my dream,” the veteran A-lister, 40, explains of being selected for the Cannes Film Festival. “To have it actually become a reality is amazing. I’m still processing it.”

Johansson has just days to wrap her head around what will be a milestone May with two films in the Cannes lineup. In addition to the Un Certain Regard world premiere of Eleanor the Great, Johansson will walk the Palais steps for Wes Anderson’s competition...

The Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively drama is not slowing down, and as weeks roll by, more revelations and shocking updates make their rounds on social media, just like Scarlett Johansson’s alleged part in the duo’s controversy. Did you know that the Marvel actress worked with Baldoni?

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in It Ends With Us / Credits: Sony Pictures

Before the release of It Ends With Us, the film Lively and Baldoni starred in, the filmmaker’s production company was said to be financing Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great. This was announced just a few weeks after Baldoni and Lively’s controversial meeting.

Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios helped finance Scarlett Johansson’s movie

The tension between former costars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively gets more intense following the hefty lawsuits that shook both parties. The Gossip Girl star accused the director of s*xual harassment and a smear campaign,...

Ever since her movie Thelma premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, June Squibb has gotten a kick out of the response that’s been repeated over and over again this year.

“People have really made a big deal about the fact that it was my first leading role,” says the veteran actress, who turned 95 in November, of Josh Margolin’s senior citizen dramedy. “Everybody has laughingly said it over and over. People are impressed with that, and as much as anything else, they’re impressed by the fact that I’m still going.”

Still going is one way to put it. Squibb has been churning out the work in 2024 with roles in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Velma, Inside Out 2, American Horror Stories and Lost & Found in Cleveland. There’s more to come in the new year.

“I do have some work that...

On Friday, Oct. 19, Variety partnered with the Santa Fe International Film festival to celebrate its 10 Screenwriters to Watch. All 10 recipients gathered at Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center for a lively conversation about their path to screenwriting and the work that earned them their place on Variety’s annual list of the most promising up-and-coming scribes in the entertainment industry.

The panel began with a conversation about the films that first made them want to be screenwriters — and in some cases, exposed them to the idea that writing for film and television was a job they could pursue. Among their responses, “Fancy Dance” co-screenwriter Miciana Alise named John Huston’s “Annie” (“Carol Burnett just takes up the whole screen”), while her partner Erica Tremblay remembered “The Last Emperor” making a lasting impression; Noah Pink (“Eden”) said “Jurassic Park;” Tory Kamen (“Eleanor the Great”) and Nora Garrett (“After the Hunt”) agreed that “Juno,...

Verve has hired longtime agent Valarie Phillips. The agency also recently hired Non-Fiction Agent Jacy Schleier.

Phillips, who brings more than two decades of agency experience to Verve, was most recently Co-Head of the Motion Picture Literary department at A3 Artists Agency, and prior to that, spent two decades at Paradigm Talent Agency where she started as an assistant, and worked her way up to Department Head.

Following Phillips to Verve are several of the busiest and highly sought after writers in town, including Guy Busick, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, and Tory Kamen. Also following Phillips to Verve, Charles Leavitt, Anthony Jaswinski, Shiwani Srivastava and directors Andy Tennant, Tom Dey, Sasie Sealy, Todd Robinson and Patrick Lussier.

Throughout her career, Phillips has consistently demonstrated her commitment to excellence and a keen eye for discovering and nurturing talent, previously working with Nzingha Stewart, Eric Tuchman, Ehren Kruger and Kenny Ortega.

Marvel vet Scarlett Johansson is officially making her feature directorial debut in the upcoming drama film titled, Eleanor the Great.

Per Variety, Johansson has finally found the first four actors who will be joining the cast of Eleanor the Great, with fellow Oscar nominee June Squibb set for the titular role of Eleanor Morgenstein. This marks the Nebraska actor’s latest movie project as the lead, since starring in the upcoming comedy movie Thelma, which had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange), Erin Kellyman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Jessica Hecht have also been cast in the project, which hails from TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics.

Related Marvel President Confirms New Scarlett Johansson Project Will Happen Marvel president Kevin Feige assures MCU fans that a new project produced by Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson is still in the works. Close

The...

Scarlett Johansson is assembling the cast of her directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great.”

June Squibb, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Nebraska” will be joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Broadway veteran Jessica Hecht and Erin Kellyman.

The movie, formerly titled “Eleanor, Invisible,” follows Eleanor Morgenstein (Squibb), a 90-year-old woman trying to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades. Tory Kamen wrote the screenplay.

TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics, partnering for the first time, will release “Eleanor the Great” in theaters on a yet-to-be-determined date.

Johansson is producing the film with Jonathan Lia, and Keenan Flynn for These Pictures, Kara Durrett and Jessamine Burgum for Pinky Promise, and Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler of Maven Screen Media.

Wayfarer Studios co-financed “Eleanor the Great” with Content Engineers, Pinky Promise and MacPac. Steve Sarowitz, Justin Baldoni,...

Exclusive: Brightburn producer The H Collective is to adapt the ancient Chinese book of myths and legends The Classic of Mountains and Seas into a feature, with a view to creating a film and TV universe inspired by the text.

Kent Huang, Chairman of the company, and Mark Rau, European Chief, will supervise the production, which will follow a group of kids who accidentally fall into a parallel world encountering exotic creatures and people. On their journey to find their way back, they will learn the importance of friendship.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas, also known as Shan Hai Jing, is largely a fabulous geographical and cultural account of pre-Qin China as well as a collection of Chinese mythology. The book recorded more than 40 countries, 550 mountains and 300 waterways along with the geographic and cultural information of the nearby realms. Some of the creatures from the work appeared in Warner...

Uli Edel will direct “Shadow Song,” the story of the bond between a Chinese music student and his Jewish classmate.

The film is a feature-length version of the 2017 short “A Children’s Song” and boasts a screenplay by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs (“Chocolat”). Edel is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker who previously directed “The Baader Meinhof Complex” and “Houdini.”

The feature film will be produced by Sid Ganis and Nancy Hult Ganis at Out of the Blue Entertainment, and The H Collective’s Kent Jianhui Huang and Mark Rau, who was recently named CEO of Thc Germany. Ganis, who is on the board of Thc, produced “A Children’s Song,” which won top awards at more than 20 film festivals worldwide.

“Shadow Song” was inspired by a true story and is set in contemporary times with flashbacks to World War II. It follows two music students who meet while attending a U.

Coming-of-age drama set to shoot in Italy with Mark Steven Johnson directing.

International production and distribution company The H Collective is teaming with producer Mark Johnson’s Gran Via on The Vineyard, a coming-of-age story set to shoot in Italy in mid-2021.

Mark Steven Johnson, whose previous projects include Ghost Rider and Daredevil, will direct from a screenplay by Tory Kamen.

The film will follow an American teenager whose life is uprooted when she unexpectedly moves to Italy to live with a grandfather she never knew existed. The project will The H Collective’s second collaboration with Gran Via, after thriller The Parts You Lose.

Monday, Nov. 23 HanWay Films Closes Sales on ‘Peggy Jo’

HanWay Films has closed multiple international sales for Phillip Noyce’s “Peggy Jo,” with Lily James attached to star as Peggy Jo Tallas, who robbed Texas banks in the early 1990s while posing as a man.

A deal with Universal Pictures Content Group includes Benelux, German speaking Europe, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia, and the UK. HanWay Films has also closed deals with DeAPlaneta (Spain), Tohokushinsha (Japan), Noori Pictures (South Korea), Shaw (Singapore), Odeon (Greece) and Front Row (Middle East). “Peggy Jo” is being adapted for the screen by “Appaloosa” writer Robert Knott and will be shot in the United States.

“Peggy Jo” is produced by Simon Brooks through his Canyon Creek Films. UTA Independent Film Group is handling the U.S. sale. James’ recent credits include “Rebecca,” “Yesterday,” “Baby Driver” and “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”

‘The Vineyard’ Scheduled for 2021 Shoot...

The H Collective (Brightburn) is teaming with Breaking Bad exec producer and Rain Man producer Mark Johnson on coming-of-age film The Vineyard, which will be directed by Mark Steven Johnson (Love Guaranteed) from Tory Kamen’s script.

“Foodie drama” The Vineyard will follow an American teenager whose life is uprooted when she unexpectedly moves to Italy to live with a grandfather she never knew existed. Pic is due to get underway in Italy in mid-2021.

Oscar-winner Johnson will produce with Tom Williams under their Gran Via Productions banner alongside The H Collective, who will also finance. Kent Jianhui Huang will produce for The H Collective with Tessie Groff overseeing the project for the company.

The Vineyard will be The H Collective’s second collaboration with Gran Via, following their partnership on Christopher Cantwell’s thriller The Parts You Lose starring Aaron Paul, Scoot McNairy and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Mark Steven...