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Exclusive: Jeff Dye (Better Late Than Never), Carlos “HaHa” Davis (The Come Up), Dustin Ybarra (Home Economics) and Ryu Go Eun (WeCrashed) have signed on to star in Stealing Jokes, an action-comedy from writer-director Mike Young (A Stand Up Guy), which is heading into production this week in Detroit.

The film follows three comics who hit the road, turn the tables on shady club owners and pull off a major heist, setting off a chain of events that go horribly south. Dan Gilbert, who owns Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers, is serving as the project’s financier and producing alongside Eddie Rubin, Michael Manasseri and Detroit’s Woodward Original.

Stealing Jokes is Young’s first feature under his Red Leaf Entertainment banner, and his third overall. He previously wrote and directed the comedy My Man Is a Loser, starring Michael Rapaport, John Stamos and Tika Sumpter, and the Netflix comedy A Stand Up Guy,...

Matthew A. Cherry won an Oscar for his 2019 short film Hair Love, which he wrote, produced, and directed, and now he’s lined up his first feature film since taking home his Academy Award. He’ll direct The Come Up, a heist comedy starring Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), the Lucas Brothers (22 Jump Street), and […]

The post ‘Hair Love’ Director Recruits Lil Rel Howery For Heist Comedy ‘The Come Up’ appeared first on /Film.

Exclusive: Oscar-winning filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry will be directing the New Line original comedy The Come Up as his next feature project, we can tell you first.

New Line’s deal expands Cherry’s footprint at Warner Bros in his second deal with the Burbank, CA lot in a matter of days. Last week, Warner Bros Television said Cherry had signed a multi-year, first-look deal where he will create, develop and produce new material for a variety of platforms.

Michael Starrbury, the Emmy-nominated scribe of the Netflix miniseries When They See Us, wrote the screenplay for The Come Up, which is described as Friday meets Oceans 11 from an original story idea by Coming 2 America, Sorry to Bother You actor and CBS Superior Donuts scribe Jermaine Fowler, who will also star and executive produce. Already attached to star is Get Out‘s Lil Rel Howery and Keith Lucas and Kenneth Lucas from 22 Jump Street.

Exclusive: HBO Max has won a spec auction for The Ancestor, a psychological thriller script by Kay Oyegun that will be developed as a star vehicle for Tika Sumpter, produced by Michael B. Jordan and Alana Mayo’s Outlier Society. I’ve heard the deal was high six figures.

Several suitors were in the mix for the spec which Oyegun wrote from a story she hatched with Sumpter, who’ll play an African American female med student who finds herself in a timely psychological thriller premise in the tradition of Get Out. Sumpter has co-starred in the Ride Along films and played the future First Lady Michelle Robinson Obama in Southside With You. She most recently co-starred in Sonic The Hedgehog.

Oyegun is the This Is Us writer/producer who just made an overall deal at 20th Century Fox Television who wrote the Angela Davis movie at Lionsgate, BPI at...

Raja Kumari was not born in New Delhi or Mumbai or Kolkata — rather, 8,000 miles away, in Claremont, California. But Kumari and her record label have a huge ambition this year: to smash down doors for Indian rappers all over the world.

Kumari, whose parents emigrated from India to the U.S. in the 1970s, proudly describes herself as Indian American, a designation that could be applied equally to her music — which sees her rap in both English and bursts of Hindi, while mixing bold elements of modern U.S. hip-hop...

Film drops 0% to move above Venom and Johnny English Strikes Again.

Rank Film / Distributor Three-day gross (Oct 12-14) Running gross Week 1 A Star Is Born (Warner Bros) £3.1m £9.6m 2 2 Venom (Sony Pictures) £3m £13.7m 2 3 Johnny English Strikes Again (Universal) £2.9m £8.3m 2 4 First Man (Universal) £2.4m £2.4m 1 5. Smallfoot (Warner Bros) £2.3m £2.3m 1

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate - 1.30

Warner Bros

A Star Is Born posted a sensational second weekend hold, repeating its £3.1m opening with a 0% drop. Including midweek takings and previews, the film has moved to £9.6m.

While the film has been boosted by strong word-of-mouth and critical reaction,...

Vertigo’s ’The Intent 2: The Come Up’ is a hit in the indie space.

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate - 1.32

RankFilm / DistributorThree-day gross (Sept 21-23) Running gross Week 1 The House With A Clock In Its Walls (eOne) £2.3m £3.4m 1 2 A Simple Favour (Lionsgate) £1.3m £1.6m 1 3 Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros) £1.1m £3.6m 2 4 King Of Thieves (Studiocanal) £1.1m £3.7m 2 5. The Nun (Warner Bros) £1m £9.5m 3 Entertainment One

The House With A Clock In Its Walls, the family feature starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett in the story of a young orphan who has a magical uncle, topped the...

Back in 2016, Femi Oyeniran and Nicky Slimting Walker’s The Intent become a surprising hit, none more surprising than the film’s own filmmakers. The underground hit burst onto the scene selling out all cinemas on its independent release, climbing to number 3 on the iTunes movie chart before eventually being sold to Netflix.

Fast forward 2 years and Femi and Nicky are back with the film’s follow-up. The prequel, The Intent 2: The Come Up reintroduces old characters and brings along a few new faces to go back to 1997 to follow the gang as their pasts and journey’s give us an insight into what made them into the callous gangsters we all came to know. The story centres on Jay (Ghetts) who has big dreams; but his ambitions are crippled by his allegiance to both his crew and Hackney crime boss Beverley (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Jay sets about laying the...

‘Climax’, ‘Mile 22’, ‘Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.’ also opening.

This week’s new openers in the UK include several titles that will be jostling for a space in the top five.

Entertainment One has The House With A Clock In Its Walls, the family feature starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett in the story of a young orphan who has a magical uncle. Eli Roth directed the feature, a change of pace for a filmmaker whose credits include Death Wish and Hostel. The film previewed in more than 500 sites last weekend, grossing £1.1m ahead of its official launch.

Also out...

Following the underground 2016 hit, The Intent, the brand new prequel, The Intent 2: The Come Up will release in cinemas on September 21. To celebrate the release, we are giving you the chance to win a pair of tickets to the World Premiere.

Starring Bet nominee Ghetts, Mobo and Bet winners Krept & Konan, rap star Fekky, dancehall artist Popcaan, BAFTA winner Adam Deacon, Ashley Chin, Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Dylan Duffus, takes the crew to Jamaica.

The Intent 2: The Come Up centres on Jay (Ghetts) who has big dreams; but his ambitions are crippled by his allegiance to both his crew and Hackney crime boss Beverley (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Jay sets about laying the foundations for his own organised crime ring with the help of Mustafa (Adam Deacon). Things are going well until Beverley discovers his disloyalty, and an ill-fated robbery in North London and a trip to Jamaica tears the crew apart.

The First trailer for Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner has been released. The film, which will feature in the 62nd BFI London Film Festival marks Reitman’s return with the dark comedy.

Hugh Jackman stars as Hart who was a front-runner in 1988 until accusations of an extramarital affair hobbled his campaign. He famously challenged the media to follow him around and see how boring his life was, only for tabloid photographs to emerge of him having an affair.

Based on Matt Bai’s 2014 novel All the Truth Is Out, the film stars Vera Farmiga, J.K. Simmons, Kaitlyn Dever, Sara Paxton, Mamoudou Athie, Molly Ephraim, Josh Brener, and Mike Judge alongside Jackman.

Also in trailers – The boys head to Jamaica in new trailer for The Intent 2: The Come Up

The film is released in Us cinemas November 7th

The post Hugh Jackman in the running for President in first...

The second trailer for Damien Chazelle’s biopic on the first man on the moon, First Man has arrived with Ryan Gosling as Armstrong taking that first trip to the moon.

The biopic/”mission movie” follows Neil Armstrong, played by Gosling, as he becomes the first man to walk on the moon in 1969. Gosling teams up once again with Damien Chazelle after the pair worked together on the award-winning La La Land.

Directed by Damien Chazelle from a script written by Nicole Perlman and Josh Singer, the film is based on the book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen. The cast also consists of Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, Patrick Fugit, Christopher Abbott, Ciaran Hinds, Ethan Embry, Shea Whigham, Corey Stoll and Pablo Schreiber.

Steven Spielberg, Adam Merims and Josh Singer executive produce, while DreamWorks Pictures co-financed the film.

Also in trailers – The boys head...

Vertigo Releasing has debuted a new poster and trailer for British crime thriller sequel, The Intent 2: The Come Up.

Written by and starring both Nicky Slimting Walker and Femi Oyeniran who helmed The Intent. The film stars Nicki Slimting Walker, Femi Oyeniran, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. It also includes Bet nominee Ghetts, Mobo and Bet winners Krept & Konan, rap star Fekky, dancehall artist Popcaan, BAFTA winner Adam Deacon, Ashley Chin, Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Dylan Duffus.

Also in trailers – Rowan Atkinson fails to get the hang of virtual reality in new trailer for Johnny English Strikes Again

The film is released on September 21.

The Intent 2: The Come Up Synopsis

The Intent 2: The Come Up centres on Jay (Ghetts) who has big dreams, but his ambitions are crippled by his allegiance to both his crew and Hackney crime boss Beverley (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Jay sets about laying the foundations for his own...

New Line has purchased a comedy pitch, “The Come Up,” an original story from “Sorry to Bother You” co-star Jermaine Fowler, Variety has learned. Fowler, who also stars in “Superior Donuts,” will star and also serve as executive producer.

The project will also feature Lil Rel Howery and brothers Keith Lucas and Kenneth Lucas as co-stars. The screenplay will be written by Michael Starrbury (“The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete” and “Central Park Five”).

“I am excited to be collaborating with New Line Cinema, Wrigley Pictures and our screenwriter Michael Starburry on ‘The Come Up’ – a project I have been passionate about for years now,” Fowler said in a statement. “Since bringing the concept to them it’s been nothing but synergy and raw excitement. As an actor, it is a dream come true to be working opposite my comedy brothers, Lil Rel Howery and The Lucas Brothers. I...