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Exclusive: Swedish director Amir Chamdin, whose drama Partisan won Best Series at the 2020 Canneseries market, has signed on to direct Corleone, an action-thriller set in the United States and Sicily.

Written by Sandro Lorino, Rich Ronat and Nate Adams, the film is based on a story by Sandro Lorino and and Antonio Lorino, and tells the story of a family man with a mysterious past, whose peaceful life is upended when he becomes entangled in a deathly cat-and-mouse game with the first female boss of the Cosa Nostra.

Production is being lined up for March, with casting currently underway. The film is being produced by Richard Salvatore (Stolen Girl), Nate Adams (Vanquish), and Sandro Lorino and Norbert Krott for Lorino Pictures. Executive producers include Fabio Costabile (Skincare) and Dirk Schweitzer (Operation Napoleon).

Chamdin most recently directed ballet Gustavia, which premiered at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm this past October.

Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jacqueline Fernandez, Andrei Lenart, Peter Stormare, Maria Conchita Alonso, Talia Asseraf | Written by Jim Agnew | Directed by Valeri Milev

Kill ‘Em All 2 picks up seven years after the events of the original, which makes sense since there’s seven years between the films, with Phillip reconnected with his daughter Vanessa and the two of them hiding out in southern Italy.

They obviously didn’t do a good job of it, as within the film’s first few minutes they’re attacked by goons working for Vlad Petrovic who is out to avenge the death of his brother Dimitri who was killed in the first film. This puts them on the run, trying to stay alive long enough to deal with Vlad and his crew, and the only way to do that is to kill ’em all.

I haven’t seen the original, and to be honest...

Stars: Melissa Leo, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ekaterina Baker, Swen Temmel, Antonio Banderas, Matthew Tompkins | Written by Matthew Rogers | Directed by Jon Keeyes

If you were part of the clean-up crew taking care of a murder scene, and you found a suitcase full of cash, what would you do? If you have an Iq that’s at least in the double digits or have seen more than a couple of action films, you probably know taking it won’t end well.

But that doesn’t stop Siobhan, the owner of Good Life Cleaners and her crew, Alex, his girlfriend Megan and Chuck from doing just that when they find a few million in cash stashed in the chimney of the house they’re cleaning up.

That money belongs to Gabriel and was meant to pay off some crooked cops until somebody else’s attempt to steal it resulted in a pile...

When I first moved to New York in 2017, I made a work friend who quickly became a close friend. One of the many things we bonded over was a shared love of John Travolta's lesser known movies. More specifically, I was impressed at how much joy my new friend was able to derive from the actor's career. I'd be lying if I said that joy stemmed from a genuine appreciation of the man's work, but I think he harbored a strange kind of respect for Travolta, as if any man who could put out "Look Who's Talking Now" or "Gotti" and still maintain some sort of career was deserving of admiration. As such, we planned a massive Travolta marathon which we sadly never got around to.

But if we ever did get around to taking a journey through the dregs of Travolta's career, Rotten Tomatoes might be a decent guide.

Imagine a constellation of stars—not in the sky but arrayed across the shimmering surface of a Vanity Fair cover. Who could outshine the radiant glamour of Matt Damon and Tom Hanks when gathered with their companions in this vintage picture of 13 iconic Hollywood A-listers in 2003?

2003’s Vanity Fair special on the ‘Kings of Hollywood’ showcased some of the most prominent faces in the industry, including Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, and Brad Pitt. However, it was not until you delved further into the magazine that you discovered the other eight actors in the picture.

A still from Ocean’s Eleven | Warner Bros.

That being said, the star-studded lineup featuring Cruise, Nicholson, Ford, and Pitt has left some aficionados pondering: How does one truly measure the magnitude of stardom in the glittering hierarchy of Tinseltown?

Iconic Hollywood Throwback: A-Listers Who (Still) Ruled the Silver Screen

Our dream came...

Exclusive: Actor-filmmaker Zach Braff has signed with Range Media Partners ahead of the MGM theatrical release of his newest directorial effort A Good Person, starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman.

Related Story Gersh Signs ‘The Boys In The Boat’ And ‘Ordinary Joe’ Actor James Wolk Related Story 'A Good Person' Review: Florence Pugh In Zach Braff's Blunt And Honest Drama Related Story 'John Wick: Chapter 4' Targeting Franchise Record $115M Global Opening – Box Office Preview

The film hitting screens this Friday, March 24th, which Braff also wrote and produced, tells the story of Allison (Pugh), whose life falls apart after her involvement in a fatal accident. In the following years, it is the unlikely relationship she forms with her would-be father-in-law (Freeman) that helps her inevitably live a life worth living.

Braff landed Emmy and DGA Award nominations for his directing on Ted Lasso Season 1 and also recently...

Exclusive: Veteran producer Richard Salvatore has been appointed Head of US Film Production and Distribution at Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment (Ilbe) as the Italian company looks to grow its stateside footprint.

Salvatore steps into the newly created post immediately and will report into CEO Andrea Iervolino. He will operate in LA and Rome and will be responsible for the development, cast selection, production, sales and distribution of Ilbe Group’s films for the U.S. and Canadian markets.

Production veteran Salvatore has worked on more than 60 features. Between 2020 and 2022, he was a producer or exec producer on Vanquish with Morgan Freeman, Ruby Rose for Capstone, Hard Matter with Tyrese Gibson and Harvey Keitel for WonderFilms, and Muti, to be released in the coming months, with Cole Hauser, Morgan Freeman and Peter Stormare for Ilbe. In 2020, he was a producer on Robert De Niro comedy The Comeback Trail.

Ilbe is currently...

Tony Goldwyn has set an all-star cast for his newest feature Inappropriate Behavior, with two-time Emmy winner Bobby Cannavale (Blonde), two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro (The Comeback Trail), two-time Emmy nom Rose Byrne (Physical), Oscar nom Vera Farmiga (Five Days at Memorial), three-time Emmy nominee Rainn Wilson (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), Egot winner Whoopi Goldberg (Till) and William Fitzgerald signing on for roles.

The film, in which Goldwyn also appears, follows Max Bernal (Cannavale), a formerly successful late-night comedy writer turned not-so-successful stand-up comic, and his brilliant, complicated 11-year-old son Ezra (Fitzgerald), who is autistic. Having recently blown up both his career and his marriage, Max is now living with his father, Stan (De Niro). Max, profoundly at odds with his ex-wife Jenna (Byrne) about how to address their son’s needs, decides to kidnap Ezra and take him on a cross-country odyssey, with hilariously disastrous results.

Tony Spiridakis scripted the film,...

Exclusive: Ryan Phillippe (The Locksmith) has signed on for a key role opposite Bella Thorne in Mitzi Peirone’s thriller Saint Clare, based on Don Roff’s hit novel Clare at 16. Rebecca De Mornay (Lucifer), Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction), Bart Johnson (High School Musical) and Dylan Flashner (The Card Counter) will co-star in the film, which Screen Media has slated for release in North American theaters in 2023.

Saint Clare follows Clare Bleecker (Thorne), a quiet catholic college student with a divine vocation for killing. Phillippe will play the role of Timmons, a police officer investigating the latest murder in the small town, with Clare as his prime suspect. Whaley will portray Mailman Bob, a ghost from Clare’s past, with Johnson pulling double duty as twin brothers Joe and Randall, and Flashner set for the supporting role of Wade.

Peirone scripted the indie with American Psycho‘s Guinevere Turner. David Chackler,...

Exclusive: Oscar-winning screenwriters Bobby Moresco (Crash) and Nick Vallelonga (Green Book) have partnered with Midnight Run scribe George Gallo and John Gotti Jr. to develop the series Betrayal examining John Gotti and the Fall of La Cosa Notra.

The New York gangster—otherwise known as the Teflon Don, the Dapper Don—was a Caesar, an Emperor… a King. His flamboyant lifestyle and frequent public trials as the head of the Gambino crime family, which controlled New York’s largest organized-crime syndicates, made him not only a prominent figure in the 1980s and ’90s, but also one of the most well-known organized crime bosses in American history. Gotti’s rise from a loyal soldier to Boss of Bosses, and ultimately to his sentencing to life imprisonment after being betrayed by his underboss, Sammy Gravano, is legendary.

The story being packaged as a limited series will differ from past incarnations of Gotti...

Exclusive: Emile Hirsch (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood) has signed on to star alongside actor-director Danny A. Abeckaser in his latest feature, The Engineer. The project is the pair’s second together, on the heels of the crime drama The Gemini Lounge—also starring Lucy Hale, Ashley Greene, Robert Davi and Vincent Laresca—which is set for release this fall.

Based on true events, The Engineer will tell the story of Yahya Ayyash—the mastermind bombmaker who led an army of suicidal soldiers in Israel during the mid ’90s. The story follows the biggest manhunt in the history of Israel to find him. Hirsch will play Etan, the head agent looking for ‘The Engineer,’ with Abeckaser as his superior agent, Yakov. Angel Bonanni and Omer Hazan will also star.

Kosta Kondilopoulos wrote the script. Danny A. Abeckaser will produce via his company 2B Films, along with Yoav Gross and his Yoav Gross Productions.

Veteran Hollywood multi-hyphenate George Gallo is attached to direct “Gambino,” a high-end biopic about organized crime boss Carlo Gambino that Gallo is co-writing with two-time Oscar winner Nick Vallelonga (“Green Book”).

The ambitious project, announced in Cannes, is being lead produced by Julius R. Nasso, also a Hollywood veteran, best known for his production partnership with Steven Seagal that went sour. Nasso more recently shepherded “Narc,” and is among producers of Susanne Rostock’s Harry Belafonte doc “Sing Your Song.”

Nasso has acquired rights to the novel “Gambino: The Rise” by Pierre James which delves into the U.S. story of Cosa Nostra starting from its roots in Italy and the role played by Carlo Gambino, who was its boss from 1957 until his death in 1976 of natural causes in his Massapequa, Long Island, home.

“I have known this story all my life,” Gallo told Variety, speaking from Los Angeles.

Gallo...

Exclusive: Emile Hirsch (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood) will exec produce and star in My Time’s Up, an upcoming indie drama from writer-director Michael MacRae (Fishbowl California).

The film is centered around fictional comedian Micky Hoffman, who faces backlash after a stand-up set—then returning to his hometown in the Midwest to mentor rising, ‘woke’ comics.

MacRae, Michael Nassau and Pritesh Shah will produce under their 290 West Productions banner, with Max Adler (The Trial of the Chicago 7) exec producing and taking on a role before the camera. Buffalo 8’s Nikki Stier Justice, Grady Justice, Luke Taylor and Matthew Helderman will also serve as executive producers on the project, which marks MacRae’s follow up to the 2018 dramedy Fishbowl California, starring Kate Flannery and Katrina Bowden. Thomas Sullivan is handling casting.

Hirsch is perhaps best known for his SAG Award-nominated turn as Chris McCandless in Sean Penn’s 2007 film Into the Wild.

Paramount+ has acquired the rights to “Finestkind,” a crime thriller that stars Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Foster.

Brian Helgeland, an Oscar-winner for “L.A. Confidential,” will both write and direct the film that will begin production later this month in Massachusetts. The film will also stars Toby Wallace and Jenna Ortega.

“Finestkind” will debut on Paramount+ in late 2022 in the United States. It will also be available on Paramount+ in Australia, Canada and Latin America as well as in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and South Korea when the service launches in those markets later this year.

Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff of Krasnoff/Foster Entertainment are producing “Finestkind” along with Taylor Sheridan for Bosque Ranch and David C. Glasser of 101 Studios, and in association with MTV Entertainment Studios. Paramount+ picked up the rights to “Finestkind” from 101 Studios, which will handle international sales rights to the film.

Exclusive: Jason Patric (Wayward Pines), Keli Price (The Hyperions), Jack Kesy (Sheroes), Penelope Ann Miller (Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Perrey Reeves (Paradise City), Tiffany Hines (Magnum P.I.), Casper Van Dien (All American) and Academy Award nominee Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) are set to star in Murder at Hollow Creek, a new action-thriller from director David Lipper (Wolf Mountain) that is on the cusp of wrapping production.

The film written by Keli Price (On Thin Ice) follows a disbarred lawyer (Price) and his eccentric brother (Kesy) who, with their little sister dying and no money left to pay the medical bills, attempt to pull off the robbery of a lifetime. Instead, they find themselves in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a disgruntled Serbian mobster (Rourke), with a local detective (Patric) trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together before it’s too late.

Lipper, Paul Ben-Victor...

Exclusive: Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) has signed on to star in the crime thriller Gemini Lounge, marking the first feature from producer Rush Hour producer Arthur Sarkissian’s new media and entertainment company Global Ascension Studios.

In the film directed by Danny A. Abeckaser (Mob Town), demoted detective Bobby Belucci (Hirsch) is given the opportunity to go undercover and take down the mob’s most ruthless killer, but his life and only chance at redemption spiral out of control as he loses himself in the role.

Global Ascension is producing in partnership with Abeckaser’s 2B Films and Kyle Stefanski’s Wild7 Films.

“My goal with Global Ascension is to create quality films that attract the top talent in the industry, and I’m thrilled that Emile has signed on to play in the lead role in Gemini Lounge, for which he is perfectly cast,” said Sarkissian, who heads...

Exclusive: Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment’s family film Dakota, starring Abbie Cornish, Lola Sultan (Netflix’s Yes Day), William Baldwin (Backdraft), Patrick Muldoon (The Comeback Trail) and Tim Rozon (Surreal Estate), for release in limited theaters beginning April 1, with a platformed theatrical rollout to follow.

In the action-adventure pic, recently widowed single mom Kate Sanders (Cornish) lives on her family’s farm in Georgia with her daughter Alex (Sultan). Life on the farm is a challenge and things only get more complicated when the combat dog Dakota, delivered by Sergeant Cj Malcolm (Rozon), arrives on their doorstep. Cj is fulling a promise made to Kate’s late husband, his friend and fellow Afghanistan veteran Marine Clay Sanders, to bring Dakota home to them, upon his death.

Kate spends her time between the farm and running the volunteer fire department,...

Exclusive: Abbie Cornish (Jack Ryan) and Laz Alonso (The Boys) have signed on to star in Detained, a psychological thriller from director Felipe Mucci (Two Deaths of Henry Baker), which counts Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy), John Patrick Amedori (Dear White People), Silas Weir Mitchell (Grimm), Moon Bloodgood (Falling Skies), Josefine Lindegaard (The Comeback Trail) and Breeda Wool (Mr. Mercedes) amongst its supporting cast.

The film follows a woman (Cornish) who wakes up in a police interrogation room with no memory of the night prior. The accusations against her may have life-altering implications. However, in this isolated police station, something is not quite right.

Mucci wrote the script with Jeremy Palmer. Kinogo Pictures’ Ryan Scaringe is producing, with Amy Lippens serving as co-producer. Cornish and Alonso are exec producing alongside Monica Sufar, who is also handling sales for the film.

Cornish is...

Exclusive: Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) and Yellowstone star Cole Hauser have been set to lead action-thriller Muti from writer-director George Gallo (Bad Boys) and producers Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment (Waiting for the Barbarians).

The film will follow Detective Boyd (Hauser), who, unable to process the death of his daughter, embarks on a hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti. The only person who can help Boyd is Professor Mackles (Freeman), an anthropologist who hides an unspeakable secret. The line between sanity and madness thins as Boyd goes deeper into the killer’s world.

The supporting cast will include Peter Stormare (Fargo) and former NFL tight end-turned-actor Vernon Davis, a Super Bowl winner and two-time Pro Bowler.

Filming is due to take place in Mississippi and Italy. The Exchange will introduce the project to international buyers during TIFF.

The screenplay was written by Bob Bowersox,...

22 distributors have lined-up more than 25 films for release tomorrow (July 1).

Cinemas throughout Germany will reopen tomorrow (July 1) after being closed for eight months due to the pandemic.

22 distributors have lined-up more than 25 films for release including the Oscar-winning Nomadland (Disney); Maria Schrader’s Berlinale prize-winner I’m Your Man (Majestic/Paramount) and Catweazle (Tobis Film), based on the cult UK TV series from the 1970s.

German cinemagoers will also finally get to see major US releases such Godzilla vs. Kong (Warner Bros); Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (Sony) and Nobody (Universal) as well as video game adaptation Monster Hunter and family...

It’s thrilling to watch Lionsgate make a run at the box office top spot with The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, a grown-up comedy.

Not a kiddie fantasy, like Peter Rabbit 2 or Cruella. Not a Covid-era placeholder, like The War With Grandpa, or a streaming event, like Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. But a rough, raucous, R-rated action comedy, not unlike Bad Boys For Life, which had three weekends atop the box office in January of last year before theaters closed and everyone stopped counting.

Breathe. Laugh. It almost feels like summer.

Through August, at least a dozen adult-leaning comedies are set for release in a recovery that has been initially dominated by horror and family fantasy. Maybe it’s too much to hope that two or three of them will raise momentum enough to smash through the cultural malaise that has soured life for a couple of years now.

But you never know.

The Munich-based independent has picked eight titles.

New films by Renny Harlin and Aisling Walsh are among eight titles acquired in all rights deals by German distributor SquareOne Entertainment.

The Munich-based independent picked up three titles from the Highland Film Group; action movie veteran Renny Harlin’s heist thriller Misfits, now in postproduction and starring Pierce Brosnan, Nick Cannon and Tim Roth, and two projects in pre-production The Lair and Not Without Hope.

Horror The Lair, directed by Neil Marshall, is about a fighter pilot shot down in Afghanistan who ends up in a disused bunker full of mutated monsters.

Kate Katzman (The Comeback Trail), Donna D’errico (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Swen Temmel (The Bay), and Zack Ward (Z Nation) will appear opposite Bruce Willis in the action thriller, Killing Field, a project that was part of the three-picture deal Willis sealed last year with Emmett/Furla Films.

James Cullen Bressack is directing the film from a script by Ross Peacock. In the film, a man (Chad Michael Murray)’s life on his serene farm is interrupted when a cop and a pair of dangerous criminals show up.

Alex Eckert, Tyler Olsen, Mark Steward, and Chad A. Verdi produced the pic.

Katzman is repped by Rugolo Entertainment; D’errico by Worldwide Artists Group; Ward by Vanguard Management Group.

MGM is in advanced negotiations to acquire the North American rights to “A Good Person,” the next film from director Zach Braff that will star Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.

MGM is also in talks to acquire a number of international territories, including Latin America, Scandinavia, Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, among other markets

Braff will write and direct “A Good Person,” which stars Pugh as a woman whose life falls apart after she’s involved in a fatal accident. Years later, she forms an unlikely friendship with Freeman, who plays her would-be father-in-law and helps her lead a life worth living.

MGM will release “A Good Person” domestically through MGM’s joint distribution and marketing label United Artists Releasing. Production hopes to begin this fall.

Braff’s previous film was 2017’s “Going Out in Style,...

Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman are set to star in the drama “A Good Person,” the next film from director Zach Braff.

Braff will write and direct “A Good Person,” which stars Pugh as a woman whose life falls apart after she’s involved in a fatal accident. Years later, she forms an unlikely friendship with Freeman, who plays her would-be father-in-law and helps her lead a life worth living.

“A Good Person” is being introduced to buyers at the virtual Berlin film market. Rocket Science is handling international sales, and CAA Media Finance is arranging financing and will represent the film’s domestic distribution rights.

Braff’s previous film was 2017’s “Going Out in Style,” which also starred Freeman, and he most recently directed an episode of the Apple TV+ comedy series “Ted Lasso.”

Pugh is an Oscar nominee for “Little Women” and is working on Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling.

Wine has famously inspired feature films and docs (Sideways, Somm). Add in entertainment-themed wines (The Walking Dead wine) and clubs (like TCM’s wine club), and even more celeb-backed bottles swirling around right now, and it’s clear that vino and film go hand in hand.

But it’s likely that no one has ever released a new wine brand alongside producing a wine-focused film. Enter producer Gene Kirkwood (Rocky, The Defiant Ones), writer-director George Gallo (The Comeback Trail, Bad Boys) and Broadway producer Kevin Kinsella (Jersey Boys), who are prepping a canned wine called Chasing Crush alongside a movie of the same name ...

Wine has famously inspired feature films and docs (Sideways, Somm). Add in entertainment-themed wines (The Walking Dead wine) and clubs (like TCM’s wine club), and even more celeb-backed bottles swirling around right now, and it’s clear that vino and film go hand in hand.

But it’s likely that no one has ever released a new wine brand alongside producing a wine-focused film. Enter producer Gene Kirkwood (Rocky, The Defiant Ones), writer-director George Gallo (The Comeback Trail, Bad Boys) and Broadway producer Kevin Kinsella (Jersey Boys), who are prepping a canned wine called Chasing Crush alongside a movie of the same name ...

Atlanta investment firm Bay Point Advisors is launching a film financing division for productions in state with its first project as senior lender to Andrew Baird’s crime thriller One Way with Kevin Bacon, Travis Fimmel and Colson Baker. One Way is shooting in the southwest Georgia city of Thomasville.

The new division, Bay Point Media, could finance three projects a year going forward with budgets ranging from “a couple of million” to $20 million, said Rob Moran, the actor/producer who oversees the newly launched division with Chandler Rierson. Moran is a an LA transplant with decades of Hollywood relationships including a career-long collaboration Peter and Bobby Farrelly. He said Bay Point’s broad goal is “to attract intellectual property creators to Georgia – writers, directors, TV show runners, studios and others.”

Moran told Deadline the firm currently has three to four projects in development.

Rierson cited Georgia’s state-of-the-art studios,...

Zach Braff is attached to join Gabrielle Union in the forthcoming Cheaper by the Dozen reimagining from Black-ish creator/executive producer Kenya Barris. The film is being developed for Disney+ and is slated to drop on the streamer in 2022.

Written by Barris and Grown-Ish executive producer Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry, the new version of the family comedy centers on a multiracial, blended family of 12, navigating a hectic home life while managing their family business. Braff is set to play the father. Gail Lerner will direct while Shawn Levy and Union will serve as executive producers.

The news of Union starring and Barris producing the reimagining was revealed during Disney Investor Day in December. This marks a third iteration of the family comedy as the first one was based on the real lives of Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and his sister Ernestine The 2003 iteration starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt was directed...

In 2021 Sky and Now TV are ramping up their slate of TV shows and films with a whopping 125 new Sky Originals.

For the first time ever, Sky will drop 30 new Sky Original films and 30 new

Sky Original documentaries, on top of new drama, comedy, entertainment and arts

series. Altogether that’s 50% more original TV and film than last year. Movie fans are in for a treat as Sky Cinema becomes the home of Sky Original film with at

least two new original films every month which will feature a host of A list actors from Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent to Janelle Monae.

Sky Original films will include ‘A Boy Called Christmas’, the origin story of Father

Christmas, re-imagined in Gil Keenan’s live-action adaptation of Matt Haig’s best-selling novel, and family favourites such as ‘Extinct’ and ‘Monster Family 2’. There are films inspired by true...

UK broadcaster Sky has landed rights to a host of upcoming features, packing its film slate for 2021 with titles including the Allison Janney-starring Breaking News in Yuba County and the Irvine Welsh-penned Creation Stories.

The company says it will release two ‘original’ films every month this year and one per week from next year. The full list of 14 newly-announced originals is below, they join previously announced pics on the slate such as Twist with Michael Caine, the animation Dragon Rider voiced Felicity Jones and Patrick Stewart, and To Olivia starring Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes.

In the past, Sky has released its original titles day-and-date with UK cinemas. Once venues are able to re-open post-lockdown this could once again come into play.

Asked if Sky is being opportunistic about its film slate in light of cinema closures and delayed movie releases, Zai Bennett, Sky’s managing director of...

Sky plans to broadcast one new film a week from 2022.

UK pay-tv broadcaster Sky is to launch 30 new Sky Original films this year and will increase this to one a week from 2022 in a bid to become “the best home cinema service in the world”.

It represents a major push into film for the UK pay-tv operator, taking on streaming giants Netflix and Amazon as well as Disney, whose channels were removed from Sky last October following the launch of Disney+.

The plan to launch one original film per week from next year echoes a similar commitment made by Netflix earlier this month.

If there was any question about the original content ambitions of Comcast-backed pay-tv operator Sky under its new leadership, a 125-title film and TV slate for 2021 reflects a company poised to build a distinct, autonomous service that can compete with its deep-pocketed SVOD rivals.

Sky in late 2019 renewed its output deal with HBO — which allows the business to offer the U.S. cabler’s top shows on its Sky Atlantic channel — for “multiple years,” but the company is clearly planning for a future where WarnerMedia pulls the plug on international licensing in favor of its own platform, HBO Max, which is now getting its house in order in Latin America and Europe.

The contract has “quite a few years to run,” says Zai Bennett, Sky U.K.’s managing director of content, “but you can put two and two together: where people are going direct-to-consumer, we have to have our own unique content…...

Exclusive: The Pope of Greenwich Village is headed to the small screen.

Hawk Koch and Gene Kirkwood, producers of the 1984 film, have teamed with Oscar-winning writer Nick Vallelonga (Green Book), writer/director George Gallo (Midnight Run), and Oscar-nominated actor/writer/playwright Chazz Palminteri, (A Bronx Tale) to develop an eight-hour miniseries based on Vincent Patrick’s best-selling 1979 book The Pope of Greenwich Village and its 1984 feature adaptation.

The Pope of Greenwich Village film starred Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts and Daryl Hanna. It revolved about two cousins, Charlie and Paulie, played by Roberts and Rourke respectively, who unknowingly rob the mob and face dangerous consequences.

Vallelonga, Gallo and Palminteri are all native New Yorkers, and Vallelonga has a personal connection to the film.

“My father, Tony Lip, who Green Book was about, played the role of Frankie Shy in the opening scene of the original film, and I was an extra in the stickball scene,...

Exclusive: Actress Kate Katzman has been cast in Panama, joining Cole Hauser and Mel Gibson in the action thriller, which is being directed by Mark Neveldine (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance).

Set to being shooting next month in Puerto Rico, the pic follows an ex-marine who is tasked to go undercover to complete an arms deal and becomes entangled in the U.S. invasion of Panama. Katzman will play Tatiana, sister-in-law to the ex-marine.

Daniel Adams and William R. Barber wrote the screenplay. Jordan Beckerman, Jordan Yale Levine, Michelle Chydzik Sowa, and Michelle Reihel are producing, while William R. Barber, Richard Switzer, Ian Niles, and Anne Clements serve as executive producers.

Katzman is also set to appear opposite Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Tommy Lee Jones in The Comeback Trail, due out next year.

She is repped by Rugolo Entertainment.

Company makes strategic investment in new non-theatrical rights buyer Horizon Distribution.

Vertical Entertainment is expanding into worldwide airline and non-theatrical rights distribution.

The company has made a strategic investment in Horizon Distribution and is helping the latter launch as a non-theatrical rights buyer, and has brought on former Entertainment In Motion executive James MacLean to head up Horizon’s sales and acquisitions.

Vertical and Horizon are looking to provide airlines with films from Vertical’s US slate

Horizon’s upcoming slate includes The Comeback Trail starring Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Tommy Lee Jones, body double comedy The Stand-In with Drew Barrymore,...

Universal/Blumhouse’s comedy horror Freaky may have opened on top of the box office last weekend, but reopened cinemas in Victoria saw Warner Bros.’ Tenet only a step behind.

Directed and co-written by Christopher Landon, Freaky is a play on Freaky Friday that sees a high school student unintentionally switch bodies with a serial killer.

Starring Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, the film has received positive reviews, boasting a 85 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Locally it posted $586,260 from some 266 screens, while global takings stand at $USD5.6 million.

Yet perhaps the most notable performer of the weekend was Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which jumped a whopping 496 per cent on the previous frame to ring up $578,999 from 149 screens; the largest screen average of the week.

That revival is attributable to Victorian cinemas, which were able to reopen last week after five months of lockdown.

Such a boost for the...

Amid a dearth of new major releases, exhibitors are pleased with the staying power of Roadshow Films’ Rams, which held onto the top spot at the box office over its second weekend, as well as Rialto’s Honest Thief and R & R Films’ Never Too Late.

The only major opener for the weekend was Studiocanal’s Radioactive, bowing in third on a middling $178,416 from 180 screens with previews.

Directed by Marjane Satrapi, the drama stars Rosamund Pike as Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie as she tries to explain to the world previously unknown radioactive elements. It soon becomes evident that her work could lead to applications in medicine that could save thousands of lives, or applications in warfare that could destroy them by the billions.

Premiering as the Closing Night Gala at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Radioactive has gone straight-to-streaming in other major markets such as the US and UK given the pandemic.

Bridgerton

Shonda Rhimes has arrived on Netflix. Leaving behind the ER and Amerian politics, her new show takes us to Regency-era England during the “social season” for those of high society. Young ladies are coming of age and entering the marriage market while suitors vie for their attention, promising plenty of drama. Only, their dramas and scandals are anything but private thanks to a new, mysterious gossip paper written by the unknowable Lady Whistledow. The writer says in a voiceover: “You may not know me, and you never shall, but be forewarned,...

“No Time to Die” was just the first domino to fall. When the 25th James Bond movie moved from its release in November and prompted Cineworld to announce the “temporary suspension” of over 600 locations in the U.S. and the U.K., it begged the question, just which films are still slated to open in theaters in 2020?

Honestly, not a ton, and the goalposts are moving so quickly that TheWrap just reported the sci-fi epic “Dune” from Warner Bros. would also no longer open on December 18 as planned.

Update 11/6: “Death on the Nile,” “Free Guy” and “The Comeback Trail” removed

We’ve already seen plenty of movies jump ship from 2020, with films like “Black Widow,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “West Side Story” and more pushing back by a few more months to summer 2021 or beyond. But we already played this game earlier this year, and already delayed movies like “Wonder Woman 1984...

Randy Rainbow, a comedic performer who has made President Donald Trump his primary parody target, has been selected to receive a top honor at the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival.

Rainbow, who just teamed with Patti Lupone on the viral duet “If Donald Got Fired,” will receive Psicf’s Pioneer in Comedy Award as part of an awards program that will honor Judy Tenuta with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Luenell with a Breakthrough Award, and filmmaker George Gallo’s The Comeback Trail with the Stanley Kramer Mad World Comedy Award.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Psicf is going virtual from Oct. 11-18. The schedule features ...

Randy Rainbow, a comedic performer who has made President Donald Trump his primary parody target, has been selected to receive a top honor at the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival.

Rainbow, who just teamed with Patti Lupone on the viral duet “If Donald Got Fired,” will receive Psicf’s Pioneer in Comedy Award as part of an awards program that will honor Judy Tenuta with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Luenell with a Breakthrough Award, and filmmaker George Gallo’s The Comeback Trail with the Stanley Kramer Mad World Comedy Award.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Psicf is going virtual from Oct. 11-18. The schedule features ...

October-November line-up includes The War With Grandpa, Freaky, Yellow Rose.

The world’s largest exhibitor AMC announced on Tuesday (October 6) that it will keep its cinemas in the US and around the world open and plans to reopen more in the US including the New York and Los Angeles markets when it is safe to do so.

The news comes after Cineworld said it will temporarily close its UK sites and its US-based Regal on Thursday (October 8) due to lack of tentpole product amid the pandemic.

At time of writing AMC said more than 80% of its AMC Theatres US footprint had reopened,...

In the wake of Cineworld’s decision to shutter its UK venues and Regal U.S. theaters, AMC, the No. 1 exhibitor in the world, will remain open. AMC joins No. 3 exhibitor Cinemark in staying open during the pandemic, despite Cineworld and Regal’s plans to close this Thursday.

More than 80% of AMC’s U.S. circuit is open and an even higher share of the chain’s international theatres across Europe and the Middle East are open, with more than 90% of its Odeon Cinemas Group across Europe and 100% of the chain’s locations in the Middle East in operation. In addition, AMC is actively planning to open more of its theatres, especially in New York and California, when authorized to do so by state and county officials.

Yes, business is tough for exhibition, especially as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo stands firm on not reopening cinemas, but AMC is planning to weather the storm,...

Just in time for Tuesday’s presidential debates, a new trailer has dropped for satire “Bad President” featuring Satan himself coaching Donald Trump, and adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Yes, the Stormy Daniels. Watch the trailer above. To check out the red-band trailer, click here.

The satire is set to be released on VOD on Oct. 12. “Bad President” stars Eddie Griffin as the devil, and Jeff Rector playing Donald Trump, along with Stormy Daniels as herself.

“Bad President” was directed, produced and co-written by Param Gill tells the true story of how Donald Trump (Rector) got elected as the President of the United States of America in 2015 by making a deal with the Devil himself (Griffin). The film follows President Trump on his electoral campaign highlighting his proudest moments; bragging about his sexual prowess, his “love” for Muslims and Mexican “rapists” and “encountering” the real Stormy Daniels. It is the...

In the wake of Covid-19’s continued grip on the box office, Disney made another round of release-date changes Wednesday, the good news for exhibition being: Nothing is headed to Disney+. That includes Pixar’s Soul, which is currently sticking to its November 20 release against MGM’s James Bond movie No Time to Die.

While we already knew Marvel’s Black Widow was set to move, it’s by far the biggest shift on Disney’s theatrical calendar, going from November 6 to May, 7 2021. That’s a complete annual delay of Black Widow from its original pre-pandemic release date of May 1 this year. Black Widow‘s shift kicks Marvel’s Eternals from February 12, 2021 to November 5, 2021, and moves Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings from May 7, 2021 to July 9, 2021 (a post-Independence Day release date that Disney had already reserved for an untitled feature). Trickling up into Eternals’ February spot is 20th Century Studios’ The King’s Man,...

Breaking: Don’t count on Sony Animation’s Lord & Miller movie Connected for this fall. The feature joins a number of other features fleeing the immediate fall calendar or delaying until later in the year, or even in 2021. Connected, last scheduled for Oct. 23, is now being moved by the studio to an unset future date this year.

Studios saw what Tenet‘s (and other films’) grosses were like without New York and Los Angeles, and both cities are required to be part of a tentpole’s marketing blitz; hence the meltdown of the immediate theatrical fall schedule. Connected joins Wonder Woman 1984 which was recently delayed from Oct. 2 to Christmas Day, STX’s Greenland, which moved to a Tbd 4Q date after stepping off of its Sept. 25 release, and Universal/MGM’s Candyman which jumped from Oct. 16 to next year Tbd as notable delayed releases. Also, we’re waiting to see...

Exclusive: Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman and The Meg and Batwoman star Ruby Rose are leading cast in George Gallo’s (The Comeback Trail) action-thriller Vanquish, which is currently filming on location in Biloxi, Mississippi.

In the movie, Freeman plays a retired police commissioner who blackmails his caretaker (Ruby Rose) by kidnapping her daughter, forcing her into helping him double cross his team of dirty detectives in an attempt to clean up the city.

Bad Boys and Midnight Run writer Gallo is directing from a screenplay he wrote alongside Samuel Bartlett from Bartlett’s original story. Capstone’s Blue Box International banner is launching world sales this week during the Toronto Film Festival.

The film, previously known as The Longest Night, is produced by March On Productions’ Richard Salvatore and David E Ornston, and Chassy Media’s Nate Adams. Christian Mercuri’s Capstone Group is co-financing alongside Gary Leff’s Southland Equity.

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions are planning a Nov. 13 theatrical release for “Freaky,” a horror take on the body-swap genre starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn.

The film, directed by Christopher Landon (“Happy Death Day”), follows 17-year-old Millie (Newton) who becomes the newest target of The Butcher (Vaughn), her town’s infamous serial killer.

Soon, The Butcher’s mystical ancient dagger causes him and Millie to switch bodies, and she learns that she has just 24 hours to switch back before the swap becomes permanent. With help from her friends, she races against the clock to lift the curse.

The film also stars Misha Osherovich, Celeste O’Connor, Uriah Shelton, Alan Ruck, Katie Finneran and Dana Drori.

Landon wrote “Freaky” alongside Michael Kennedy (Fox’s “Bordertown”). Jason Blum is producing, and the film is produced by Blumhouse Productions in association with Divide/Conquer. Couper Samuelson and Jeanette Volturno are executive producing.

“Freaky” will open on Nov.

Even though Robert De Niro is 77 years old, it doesn’t appear that the legendary actor is slowing down anytime soon. Of course, last year, he starred in the Martin Scorsese epic, “The Irishman” as well as “Joker.” But even in a Covid-19 world, where the film industry shut down, De Niro is prepping the release of “The War with Grandpa” and “The Comeback Trail.” Oh and let’s not forget, he’s about to begin production on Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Ridley Scott’s “Gucci.” Needless to say, De Niro is possibly busier now than ever before.

Continue reading Robert De Niro Joins John Malkovich & Machine Gun Kelly In New Thriller ‘Wash Me In The River’ at The Playlist.