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Industry creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay are taking inspiration from Tony Gilroy for the upcoming fourth season of the HBO series.

“We want to write a corporate thriller,” Down teased to an audience during a Deadline x HBO FYC event at The Times Center in New York City on Wednesday night. He said they’re looking to Gilroy’s Michael Clayton for guidance, joking that he “felt quite bad” meeting the director recently and admitting their plan, “when he directed and wrote the greatest corporate thriller of all time.”

As for whether their version will stack up, Down added: “You have to tell us in … not that long, actually, because we’re doing it very quickly this time.”

Down and Kay joined stars Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, Ken Leung and Sagar Radia following a screening of the Season 3 finale for the conversation on all things Industry.

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It's a testament to Disney's branding that mainstream audiences don't necessarily know who directed or starred in some of their better-known movies. Although many have seen the studio's 1950 animated feature "Cinderella," most audiences wouldn't be able to tell you that Ilene Woods played the title character, or that Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi directed the film. Disney's "Aladdin" changed that with the casting of Robin Williams as the Genie. And the trend of hiring known screen celebrities, often not voice actors, to sell an animated feature to a broad audience went to a whole other level in the wake of DreamWorks' "Shrek." The advent of the internet also helped certain actresses become known among Disney fans. Nowadays, many adults know the names of the actresses who played characters like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Ariel the Mermaid.

By Disney's own selection, there are thirteen "official" Disney Princesses: Snow White,...

Spoiler Alert: This interview contains spoilers from “The Blackening,” now streaming on Starz and available on VOD.

Tracy Oliver is best-known as the co-writer of “Girls Trip” and the creator of “Harlem” and “First Wives Club,” but she’s also quite proficient with numbers. And in terms of the success of her latest film, “The Blackening,” the numbers tell an important tale.

“I don’t think people understand the math of it all,” Oliver says, settling into a plush beige armchair in the lobby of the 1 Hotel South Beach in Miami Beach on a sweltering day in June. “Even my family thought I made more on “Girls Trip” than I actually did.”

Despite the 2017 comedy becoming a massive box office hit — earning more than $140 million worldwide — Oliver didn’t have any backend on the film. “It was considered such a risk when we made it that they weren’t going...

Utopia has landed the North American rights to “Drift,” an emotional drama starring Cynthia Erivo and Alia Shawkat. The sale comes a few months after its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

“Drift” is the English-language feature debut of Anthony Chen (“Ilo Ilo”). Based on Alexander Maksik’s 2013 novel “A Marker to Measure Drift,” the story follows a refugee (Erivo) who struggles to survive on a Greek Island as she is tormented by memories of the war-torn country she was able to flee. Through her friendship with an American tour-guide (Shawkat), she begins to find a way to move past the violence and trauma she has endured to forge a new life for herself.

“After our very emotional Sundance premiere, I’m so pleased to be working with Utopia to bring ‘Drift’ to audiences across the States,” Chen said. “I’m convinced our film’s message of hope...

Zach Braff's 2004 coming-of-quarter-age film "Garden State" was met with warm acceptance upon its release. The general critical consensus seemed to be that Braff took a lot of the insecurities and anxieties of being in your mid-20s, and spun it into a moody, soulful rendition for a new generation.

Shortly after its release, however, "Garden State" was held up as an ur example of an unfortunate emerging character type: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. The actual phrase was coined by critic Nathan Rabin in his description of Cameron Crowe's 2005 film "Elizabethtown," reviewed in his book "My Year of Flops." The Mpdg character was a seemingly perfect, often impish and energetic female, usually written specifically to drag a mopey male character out of the doldrums of their own personal drama. They were a therapist, a love object, and a prize all at once, and the character type was appearing with increasing ubiquity.

It’s Cynthia Erivo’s first time in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. It’s a remarkably short trip — about 48-hours, not including flying time, as she takes a quick break from filming “Wicked” in London. But it’s a particularly momentous occasion: Erivo is celebrating the debut of her latest movie “Drift,” the first film she’s ever produced.

“It’s really cool to go with a film that I’m in and producing — apparently that is a rare thing for your first film to do that — so I’m quite pleased,” Erivo tells Variety, sounding a bit like a proud parent.

“Drift” could be considered Erivo’s first child, as the inaugural film from her Edith’s Daughter production company, which she launched in 2020 and runs with Solome Williams.

Directed by Anthony Chen, “Drift” is based on Alexander Maksik’s critically acclaimed 2013 novel “A Marker to Measure Drift.