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Exclusive: Mckenna Grace (A Friend of the Family) and Asher Angel (Shazam! films) are set to star in Alloy Entertainment’s teen romance 99 Days, based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by Katie Cotugno, which we were first to tell you was in development.

Martha Stephens is attached to direct from a script she co-wrote with Shannon Bradley-Colleary, her screenwriter for the 2019 drama To the Stars. Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Koplovitz Dutton will produce through Alloy Entertainment, which also produced the book, with Architect to launch worldwide sales at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

99 Days marks Alloy’s follow-up to Purple Hearts, the smash hit YA romance, starring Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine, which remains in the Global Top 10 of the most-watched movies ever on Netflix. The film tells the story of Molly (Grace), who is facing one long, hot summer vacation back at Star...

Exclusive: Hot off the success of its record-breaking Netflix film Purple Hearts, Alloy Entertainment has unveiled four new features in development, three of which are based on books that the company has developed in-house.

The first film, Getting Rid of Matthew, based on the bestselling novel by Jane Fallon, follows Helen, who finally gets her wish after years of begging her lover Matthew to leave his wife. And immediately comes to regret it. Hernán Jiménez will direct from his own script.

The second feature, to be written and directed by Chris Hazzard & Michael Fontana, is an adaptation of Chris Archer’s book series Pyrates, which watches as a group of kids searches for Captain Kidd’s lost treasure in contemporary Manhattan.

Third on the docket is Kisses & Croissants, which writer-producer Elspeth Keller (Catching Babies) will adapt from the same-name Alloy novel by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau. That title follows 16-year-old American Mia,...

Ben Platt, Tracee Ellis Ross, Daniel Dae Kim, Lola Kirke, Soko, Jermaine Fowler, Ayo Edebiri and Eric Lange have joined B.J. Novak’s new series, now titled “The Premise.”

Premiering on Sept. 16 on FX on Hulu, the half-hour anthology comes from executive producers Novak and Josh Lesher. The first installment’s five episodes — titled “Social Justice Sex Tape,” “Moment of Silence,” “The Ballad of Jesse Wheeler,” “The Commenter” and “Butt Plug” — cover police brutality, sex, gun violence, social media and more.

Previously announced cast include Lucas Hedges, Kaitlyn Dever, Jon Bernthal, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ed Asner, George Wallace, Boyd Holbrook and Beau Bridges.

View first look images below.

Also in today’s TV news roundup:

Dates

Fuse announced that Season 3 of “Made From Scratch” will premiere on Sept. 15. The unscripted series takes viewers into the homes of artists as they cook their favorite childhood dishes with their families. Season 3 stars Becky G,...

Exclusive: Lifetime has given a green light to new original movie Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story (working title), with Heather Locklear (Melrose Place) set to star in the title role, and Meghan McCain executive producing. This is McCain’s first project since she announced her departure as co-host of ABC’s Emmy-winning daytime talk show The View at the end of the month.

The film tells the emotional and inspiring true story of Kristine Carlson, co-author of the best-selling book series Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with her husband, Dr. Richard Carlson, who finds her world crashing down around her after Richard unexpectedly passes away. Faced with unsurmountable grief, Kristine finds her voice and the strength to navigate and rebuild her family in the midst of profound loss. The film also stars Natasha Bure (Fuller House) as daughter Jazzy, Jason MacDonald (Vampire Diaries) as...

In Oklahoma in 1960, 18 year old Maggie (Liana Liberato) moves from the city to a sparsely populated rural town. On her first day, she defends and becomes friends with class outcast Iris (Kara Hayward). The film chronicles the ups and downs of their friendship.

To The Stars had an unusual production, with director Martha Stephens and cinematographer Andrew Reed shooting for colour and black and white at the same time, with Stephens using a monitor that allowed her to switch between viewing the two different formats. This must have been a huge challenge for the production, necessitating clever choices with both lighting and colour palette to ensure that the film looked right, as if it was intended to be seen in this form, whichever version you watch. To my knowledge only the colour version is being made available at the moment, but I am very curious to see the black and white,...

Melodrama has somewhat become a relic of cinema’s past. To be sure, we get melodramatic movies still being released, but true melodrama has largely gone away. The new movie To the Stars seeks to bring melodramas back, and up until the tail end of the third act, it succeeds. Some solid cinematography, a really strong turn from Liana Liberato, and even a small sense of mystery buoys it for a good long while. Then, as it comes in for a landing, the wheels fall off and it crashes in a big way. It’s a shame, too, as it prevents the flick from earning a recommendation that it had in the bag, moments before. The film is a drama, set in 1960’s Oklahoma, and specifically a very small town. It’s the sort of town where everyone is under scrutiny, the folks consider themselves god fearing, and judgment comes quick.

A-line skirts, jukebox tunes, and diner milkshakes. The 1960s, especially the 1960s Oklahoma of the film “To the Stars,” were simpler times. But beneath the face powder lay unrest, and a hunger for an alternative. But so do John Hughes, and Peter Bogdanovich’s Larry McMurtry adaptation “The Last Picture Show.”

Iris Deerborne (Kara Hayward of “Moonrise Kingdom”) is the lonely kid in high school, usually picked on for her dark glasses and the apparently well-known fact that she struggles, or struggled, with incontinence. Her father, played by Shea Whigham, is a mild soul, the kind of dad who flips through the pages of the newspaper while in the La-z-Boy, the TV playing fuzzy cable in the background, can of beer in the armrest.

More from IndieWire'To the Stars' Trailer: 'Moonrise Kingdom' Favorite Kara Hayward in Sundance Hit'Elephant' Review: Meghan Markle Narrates Another Emotional, Educational Disneynature Doc

Her...

The story of the notorious outlaw Ned Kelly is dropping on digital and on-demand today with the Justin Kurzel-directed True History of the Kelly Gang starring George MacKay, Russell Crowe and Nicholas Hoult.

The grimy western crime drama, which was adapted by Kurzel from the novel of the same name by Peter Carey, features MacKay as the titular Aussie outlaw Ned Kelly and has a foundation of a love story between a mother and a son. The film was acquired by IFC Films ahead of its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.

More from DeadlineComing-Of-Age Foodie Comedy 'Abe' Fires Up, 'The Booksellers' Makes Virtual Premiere - Specialty Streaming PreviewCrime Thriller 'Stray Dolls' With Cynthia Nixon Debuts, Deepak Chopra Brings Peace With 'The Mindfulness Movement' - Specialty Streaming PreviewRom-Com 'Almost Love' Makes Debut, IFC Serves Horror...

You may recognize Kara Hayward from Wes Anderson’s 2012 film “Moonrise Kingdom,” where she charmed as one half of the film’s star-crossed couple, Suzy Bishop. Since making her debut with one of the best filmmakers of the day, Hayward has kept the pedigree of her collaborators similarly high, landing roles in films by Kenneth Lonergan, Jim Jarmusch, and Jordan Peele. Now, she once again steps into the lead to lend her talents to Martha Stephens’ latest feature “To the Stars,” which was a crowd favorite at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and recently debuted an absorbing first trailer.

The synopsis from Sundance reads: “In a God fearing small town in 1960s Oklahoma, bespectacled and reclusive teen Iris endures the booze-induced antics of her mother and daily doses of bullying from her classmates. She finds solace in Maggie, the charismatic and enigmatic new girl at school, who hones in on Iris...

Exclusive: Samuel Goldwyn Films has taken North American rights to Martha Stephens’ feature film To the Stars, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.

Set in a god-fearing 1960s small town in Oklahoma, To the Stars follows bespectacled and reclusive teen Iris as she endures the booze-induced antics of her mother and daily doses of bullying from her classmates. She finds solace in Maggie, the charismatic and enigmatic new girl at school, who hones in on Iris’ untapped potential and coaxes her out of her shell. When Maggie’s mysterious past can no longer be suppressed, the tiny community is thrown into a state of panic, leaving Maggie to take potentially drastic measures and inciting Iris to stand up for her friend and herself.

Manchester by the Sea‘s Kara Hayward stars along with Liana Liberato (The Best of Me), two-time Veep Emmy winner Tony Hale,...

The bible belt of early 1960s rural Oklahoma wasn’t a great time and place in America for outsiders. And this god-fearing country is certainly no place for two girls that may be slowly falling in love and calling too much public attention to all the time they’re spending together. Director Martha Stephens (co-director of 2014 Sundance film “Land Ho!” with Aaron Katz) adapts Shannon Bradley-Colleary‘s screenplay on intolerance and class-warfare in pre-sexual revolution America into an artfully visual feast, but one that unfortunately plods along at an uneven pace into heavy-handedness as the drama intensifies.

Continue reading ‘To The Stars’ Is A Beautiful, But Familiar, Coming Of Age Tale [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

If today’s political landscape is any indication, much of the world is living in a conservative past, seething with disgust for another perspective they fail to empathize with, and emboldened by leadership that encourages such viewpoints. In her striking new drama To the Stars, Martha Stephens takes a character-focused look at such a small-town community full of repression, but rather than setting it in the present day, we’re placed in 1960s Oklahoma, a decision that speaks volumes for the ways we have and haven’t evolved as a country.

The timid Iris (Kaya Hayward) hides behind her glasses, enduring the bullying of jocks and exclusion from the circle of popular girls. When the mysterious, charming Maggie (Liana Liberato) moves to the town of Wakita, this perception begins to shift as their friendship blossoms. “I’ve got a mouth like a gutter. I’m from the city,” Maggie gleefully exclaims upon her arrival.

Deadline kicks off this year’s Stella Artois & Deadline Sundance Series at the Sundance Film Festival with a panel discussion with the team behind To the Stars, director Martha Stephens’ 1960s-set coming-of-age drama that is having its world premiere later tonight.

The film, in the fest’s U.S. Dramatic Competition, is set in the 1960s Oklahoma, where Iris (Kara Hayward) must deal with her alcoholic mother and bullying classmates. Enter Maggie (Liana Liberato), the charismatic and enigmatic new girl at school, who sees Iris’ untapped potential and helps her come out of her shell. When Maggie’s past comes to light it rocks the god-fearing community and Maggie is forced to consider drastic measures that could involve Iris. Shannon Bradley-Colleary penned the script.

The live Q&A panel at Stella’s Film Lounge this afternoon features Stephens (previously at Sundance with Land Ho! in 2014) alongside Hayward and Liberato and fellow stars Malin Akerman,...

To the Stars

Moving from the lopapeysa fitted, John Cassavetes Award winning Land Ho! to an Oklahoma Land Rush, Martha Stephens (profiled in our Sundance Trading Card) confidently steps into her fourth feature film, To the Stars. In what could be black & white splendor, after Passenger Pigeons, Pilgrim Song and her bonafide hit (a tandem with Aaron Katz) from Sundance 2014, Stephens shot in Oklahoma last May on a coming-of-ager project. The first project that she has not penned (cred goes to Shannon Bradley-Colleary), this sees Moonrise Kingdom actress Kara Hayward in perhaps her loftiest role to date.…...

Kara Hayward, Liana Liberato, Malin Akerman, Shea Whigham and Tony Hale are starring in the independent coming-of-age story “To the Stars.”

Producers announced Wednesday that production has wrapped in Oklahoma for “To The Stars,” with “Land Ho!” director Martha Stephens helming from a script by Shannon Bradley-Colleary. The story, set in the 1960s, centers on the powerful friendship forged between a shy farmer’s daughter (played by Hayward) and Liberato’s reckless new girl.

Lucas Zumann (“20th Century Women”), Jordana Spiro (“Ozark”), and Adelaide Clemens (“Rectify”) round out the cast.

“Land Ho!” premiered at Sundance, was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, and won the John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

“To the Stars” is produced by Kristin Mann (“Midnight Special”) and Laura D. Smith (“It Follows”) in partnership with Erik Rommesmo of Northern Lights Films, Carlos Cuscó and Emerson Machtus of Foton Pictures and Kerri Elder and Blake Elder of Rockhill Media.