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Exclusive: Filmmaker Kelly Reichardt has rounded out an impressive cast for The Mastermind, her period art heist film for Mubi. Today’s nine additions include Hope Davis (Succession), Bill Camp (Joker), Gaby Hoffmann (Transparent), Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction), Eli Gelb (Broadway’s Stereophonic), Cole Doman (Gossip Girl), Javion Allen (Gray Matter), Matthew Maher (Air), and The Penguin breakout Rhenzy Feliz.

The actors join an ensemble led by Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, and John Magaro. While all roles are under wraps, the film centers on an audacious art heist in New England in 1970. Production is underway and will conclude by end of year.

Known for films like First Cow and Old Joy, Reichardt is directing from her own script. Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani, and Vincent Savino are producing for filmscience, with Mubi financing the film and distributing in select territories, including North America, the UK, Ireland, Latam, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Turkey,...

Vince Gilligan brought the remarkable crime drama Breaking Bad on the AMC screens in 2008 and completely transformed the genre. Along with the intriguing storyline, Bryan Cranston got on board to play Walter White, who’s life takes a completely different turn when he gets diagnosed with stage three lung cancer.

Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad | Credits: Netflix

From his honest yet underpaid high school chemistry teacher gig to one of television’s most ruthless antagonists, fans loved Cranston’s portrayal. But for one fan, this show was much more than a fictional world, and he played a huge role in completely changing one aspect of Breaking Bad.

Major Impact That a Young Fan With Cancer Had on Breaking Bad A still of Gretchen, Elliott and Walter White from Breaking Bad | Credits: Netflix

When it debuted in 2008, Breaking Bad undoubtedly ranked among the top three shows for fans of crime dramas.

Meet Isabella Ferreira, Who Plays Bailey in Netflix's Incoming - Main Image

Netflix's newest teenage raunchy flick just arrived on the streamer, and among the cast, Isabella Ferreira rises to the spotlight. Here's who she plays on the Netflix flick and where fans may recognize her.

Isabella Ferreira Shines Among the Rest in Netflix's Incoming

As far as the common freshmen story goes, Isabella Ferreira stars as the popular sophomore named Bailey, whom Benj Nielsen (played by Mason Thames) fantasizes about confessing to despite being a freshman.

Benj essentially wants to hold up Bailey's promise of getting a beer together over the summer. In other words, Benji is the typical nerdy kid who wants to make his move on Bailey.

The question Incoming asks is whether or not they'll end up together (and we all know how that goes).

Well, needless to say, despite being the stereotypical sophomore dream girl of the main guy,...

Exclusive: Kristian Ventura, star of Paramount+’s supernatural drama School Spirits, has signed with Arise Artists Agency and Untitled Entertainment.

Created by Megan Trinrud and Nate Trinrud, School Spirits centers on Maddie Nears (Peyton List), a Wisconsin high school student who dies under mysterious circumstances and suddenly finds herself trapped in the afterlife. As she navigates her new existence, she teams up with other spirits to solve the mystery of her death.

Ventura plays Simon Elroy, one of Maddie’s best friends, who is is the only living person who can see and communicate with her, as she goes about her quest.

The show premiered on Paramount+ in March 2023 and is set to return for its second season this fall. Boasting a second streaming home at Netflix, it last year spent a month on the service’s Top 10 TV list, as well as a week in the Global Top 10 TV...

Garret Dillahunt is set to recur in the new ABC drama High Potential. The series is set to premiere this fall.

Created by Drew Goddard based on the French format, the series stars Kaitlin Olson as Morgan, a single mom with three kids and an exceptional mind, who helps solve an unsolvable crime when she rearranges some evidence during her shift as a cleaner for the police department.

When they discover she has a knack for putting things in order because of her high intellectual potential, she is brought on as a consultant to work with a by-the-book seasoned detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), and together they form an unusual and unstoppable team.

Related: ABC’s ‘High Potential’ Sets Todd Harthan As New Showrunner

Dillahunt will portray Lieutenant Melon, a bit of a jerk who heads up the Robbery Division of the LAPD Precinct, but he...

Issa Rae’s production company Hoorae Film and TV has named industry veteran Nichole T. Roberts as head of unscripted.

In her new role, Roberts will oversee the company’s unscripted department strategy as well as the development and production of unscripted content.

“Nichole is a trailblazer with a keen eye for clever content that pushes boundaries and drives cultural conversation,” said Montrel McKay, president of development and production at Hoorae. “Her dedication is unmatched, and with her track-record as a thoughtful storyteller and skilled strategist, Nichole is the perfect fit to spearhead our unscripted division as we work to bring more premium and authentic stories to viewers in unexpected ways.”

Formerly known as Issa Rae Productions, Hoorae Media was reestablished and consolidated in 2020 to represent the multimedia reach of the company, which also includes Raedio, the record label, music supervision and “audio everywhere” arm; sister company ColorCreative management and Fête,...

Exclusive: Meko Winbush, the Season 1 winner of Project Greenlight: A New Generation, has signed with Magnolia Entertainment for management.

A Max revival of HBO’s 2000s reality series that had up-and-coming filmmakers compete for the chance to helm their first feature, A New Generation specifically focused at launch on diverse, female filmmakers, having been shepherded by Miramax and Issa Rae’s production company Hoorae, with Kumail Nanjiani and Gina Prince-Bythewood joining Rae as mentors.

Winbush’s victory on the series led to her directing Gray Matter, a supernatural thriller scripted by Phil Gelatt, which debuted on Max in July. Pic centers on Aurora (Mia Isaac), who all her life has been told that she and her mother possess dangerous superhuman abilities. Shen then discovers, one fateful and fatal night, whether her mother has been speaking the truth.

An award-winning trailer editor and short film director, Winbush...

Eight years after the last controversy-flanked season of “Project Greenlight,” the show still thrives on movie magic and the drama that follows.

Max debuted a revamped version of the docuseries on July 12, this time led by Issa Rae’s production company Hoorae. Rae, Kumail Nanjiani and Gina Prince-Bythewood act as the official mentors, meeting up to select a female first-time feature filmmaker to direct a script they’ve commissioned by an outside writer. They land on Meko Winbush, a writer, director and editor with extensive experience making trailers and short films.

Notably, after the selection process is complete, Rae jets to London to shoot “Barbie” and Nanjiani enters production on “Welcome to Chippendales.” Their screentime drops dramatically after the first episode. Prince-Bythewood remains more involved thoughout, regularly making time to call Winbush while editing her own film, 2022’s “The Woman King.”

It’s mainly a group of development execs from Hoorae,...

“No one sets out to make a bad movie,” Gina Prince-Blythewood said directly on a Zoom with IndieWire.

She’s speaking for everyone in Hollywood, but especially for herself, Issa Rae, and Kumail Nanjiani; the three executive producers and mentors on Season 4 of “Project Greenlight,” which Max recently rebooted with fresh new talent. This time, “Greenlight” will focus on a first-time filmmaker Meko Winbush, on a time crunch to make her debut feature, “Gray Matter.”

“I know ultimately I could, but doing the film in 18 days with three weeks prep and a script that still needed work — it’s insane,” Prince-Blythewood said. “The fact that Meko came through it and she’s still mentally stable is testament to her.”

Throughout the series, Winbush deals with familiar filmmaker struggles: creative clashes, moving schedules, and an uncertain script — all with the documentary crew of “Project Greenlight” hot on her heels and her crew’s.

In Issa Rae’s reboot of “Project Greenlight,” filmmaker Meko Winbush was chosen to direct the film “Gray Matter,” which launched alongside the docuseries on Max July 13. In addition to producing through HooRae Media, Rae served as a mentor alongside actor Kumail Nanjiani and director Gina Prince-Bythewood. “Project Greenlight” previously aired on HBO from 2001-2005, and the mentors discussed how this newest iteration reflected 20 years of change in cinema.

Rae, Nanjiani and Prince-Bythewood sat down with TheWrap in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike to dissect the structure of the show, particularly how having the finished film launch simultaneously would naturally drive audiences to see how it came together.

“I’m really curious about what the audience’s reaction is going to be to watching it,” Prince-Bythewood said. “I know there’s going to be some pretty strong opinions about it.”

Rae stands by the competition show format through with “Gray Matter” was produced.

If she could do “Project Greenlight” again, executive producer Issa Rae told IndieWire, she wouldn’t do a genre film.

On the same day that Max dropped the 10-episode reality series about a first-time filmmaker’s journey to the screen, the streamer also dropped “Gray Matter,” the sci-fi thriller that director Meko Winbush shot in 18 days while “Greenlight” documented the process. At a tight 86 minutes, the film is visually compelling and makes sound use of its lead actors — a solid debut for Winbush and ultimate victory for “Greenlight.”

“Gray Matter” is primarily the story of mother Ayla (Jessica Frances Dukes) and daughter Aurora (Mia Isaac), two superpowered beings living in isolation while Ayla hounds her daughter to control and conceal what she can do. Her fears are substantiated but concealed from Aurora, prompting the lonely teen to sneak out of the house to disastrous effect. Aurora wakes up in the...

Director Meko Winbush’s debut feature film comes in the form of the sci-fi thriller Gray Matter. Interestingly, the film debuted on streaming giant Max on the same day as the docuseries Project Greenlight, which shows us the production of this film from start to finish. It is a product of the show that allows budding directors to create a film with the help of mentors and everything else they need. This year, it reboots with the likes of producer Issa Rae alongside Kumail Nanjiani and Gina Prince-Bythewood. While the show may be something that piques interest because of the premise and the nature of reality TV, the movie is rather lackluster and has nothing new to offer its audience. In a time when the sci-fi genre has grown tremendously, there’s really nothing original about Gray Matter. The film follows a young girl named Aurora who dreams of normalcy...

"Gray Matter", directed by Meko Winbush, stars Mia Isaac, Jessica Frances Dukes, Garret Dillahunt, Andrew Liner, Isabella Ferreira, Kristian Flores, Ezri Walker and Allison Ye, streaming July 13, 2023 on Max:

"... 'Aurora' has known all her life from her mother 'Ayla' that the superhuman abilities they have also makes them dangerous. 

"As Ayla attempts to train Aurora how to navigate these abilities, a tragic incident finds Aurora in control of her fate and forces Ayla to confront the truth of her past. Now, Aurora will discover if her mother was speaking the truth on that one fateful and fatal night..."

Click the images to enlarge...

Young children with supernatural abilities that allow them to move both metaphorical and literal mountains have an entire sub-genre in Hollywood, going as far back as Haley Joel Osment’s character claiming, “I see dead people.” In more recent times, Professor X of the mutant school harnessed the power of the mutant kids who had similar powers, while his own powers were those of the mind. Thus, abilities that allow a person to move objects, read thoughts, and perform astral projections aren’t a new concept in Hollywood, so you’d think Meko Winbush would bring a movie that can keep pace with its predecessors. Instead, his 2023 supernatural thriller Gray Matter falls embarrassingly short of the mark, and the single biggest culprit behind the disaster is the script. Starting out strong on a serious note, the movie quickly begins stumbling and fumbling before falling flat at a predictable finish. Honestly,...

The same day the new Max reboot of “Project Greenlight” is set to premiere on the streamer, “Gray Matter,” the first feature film developed and produced by the new series, will also make its debut. The sci-fi thriller, starring Mia Isaac and Jessica Frances Dukes, will be available to watch on Max starting this Thursday, July 13, with filmmaker Meko Winbush making her feature directorial debut as part of “Greenlight.” Plan your double-feature accordingly: You can watch Gray Matter with a 7-Day Free Trial of Max.

How to Watch ‘Gray Matter’ When: Thursday, July 13, 2023 Where: Max Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Max. 7-Day Free Trial$9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com

Get 20% Off Your Next Year of Max When Pre-Paid Annually

About ‘Gray Matter’

Directed by Meko Winbush and written by Philip Gelatt, “Gray Matter” follows Aurora (played by Mia Isaac), who has known her whole life that she and her mother,...

Nearly eight years after it called wrap, “Project Greenlight” is back! Newly named “Project Greenlight: New Generation,” the documentary series will premiere on Max this Thursday, July 13, 2023. Now under the producing power and tutelage of multihyphenate Issa Rae (“Insecure”), audiences will get a look at the filmmaking process as first-time filmmakers get a chance to bring their dreams to feature-length reality. “Project Greenlight: New Generation” will debut its eight-episode Season 1 on July 13. You can watch Project Greenlight: Season 1 with a 7-Day Free Trial of Max.

How to Watch ‘Project Greenlight’ 2023 Reboot Premiere When: Thursday, July 13, 2023 Where: Max Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Max. 7-Day Free Trial$9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com

Get 20% Off Your Next Year of Max When Pre-Paid Annually

About ‘Project Greenlight’ 2023 Reboot Premiere

Now produced by “Insecure” creator/star Issa Rae, the reboot of “Project Greenlit” will offer a window into the filmmaking process...

I love HBO’s Project Greenlight because it’s one of the few reality shows designed to document inevitable failure.

Sure, that’s not the spoken aspiration of the series, which launched on the names and star presence of producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Project Greenlight was created to give an opportunity for an unproven filmmaker to direct a low-budget feature with guaranteed distribution, and for viewers to learn about the filmmaking process through their behind-the-scenes misadventures. Those things, as audiences immediately learned, have absolutely nothing to do with making a good movie. Like the bear playing the violin, it’s entertaining enough that he’s doing it at all, and complaining about his bow posture is almost petty.

As Issa Rae, executive producer on Max’s new Project Greenlight reboot, diplomatically puts it, “The films of Project Greenlight past have… been Ok? You know? So we want to...

For aspiring filmmakers, appreciators of how the sausage is made and lovers of atypically blunt reality messiness, “Project Greenlight: A New Generation” is essential viewing. From the Max reboot’s welcome focus on inclusive expansion, its gutsy willingness to show its subjects’ warts in extreme close-up and ultimate promise for a better tomorrow, this is easily the best season of the reality show, which first aired in 2001, and will easily be the best reality show of the year.

Gone are original producers and sometimes on-camera superstars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. In their place are new producers and mentors Kumail Nanjiani, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Issa Rae (who even makes a joke about Damon and Affleck “rolling in their graves”). Their goal is simple on paper, and borderline Sisyphean in execution: Give a first-time feature filmmaker a low-budget genre film to make, and document the entire process from pre-production to premiere.

Max is following DC’s lead with its list of new releases for July 2023.

The two big ticket items this month are of the superhero variety. My Adventures with Superman arrives to Max on July 7 after making its Adult Swim premiere the night before. The end of the month sees Harley Quinn season 4 making its long-awaited debut on July 27. Other original TV titles of note are the Steven Soderbergh-directed Full Circle (July 13) and the third and final season of How To With John Wilson on July 28.

On the movie side of things, documentary Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia premieres on July 20. Before that on July 13 is both a fresh reboot of filmmaking competition Project Greenlight and the movie that came of it, Gray Matter. Library movies in July include Pulp Fiction, V for Vendetta, Lethal Weapon, and more on July 1.

Here is everything else coming to HBO and Max this month.

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

It’s a big season at the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max. June 2023 marked Max’s first full month as “Max,” after changing its name from HBO Max on May 23, a little over three years after it first launched. (Get a Max 7-day free trial through Prime Video Here.)

So how does Max look so far? So far it looks a lot like HBO Max but...

Timothy Olyphant, Claire Danes, and Dennis Quaid in ‘Full Circle’ (Photograph by Sarah Shatz)

Max’s July 2023 schedule includes the premiere of the drama Full Circle and the return of Shark Week. The hot summer month’s lineup also includes the final season of How To With John Wilson, the premiere of Project Greenlight, and the final episodes of the popular comedy The Righteous Gemstones.

The two-part documentary The Golden Boy about the life and career of Oscar De La Hoya joins the streaming service’s lineup on July 24th. Shaun White: The Last Run, a docuseries about the Olympian, is set to premiere on July 6th.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In July 2023:

July 1

300 (2006)

17 Again (2009)

20th Century Women (2016)

A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

A Walk in the Woods (2015)

American Sniper (2014)

Angels Sing (2013)

Ballet 422 (2014)

Barbershop (2002)

Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004)

Beauty Shop (2005)

Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)

Brandi Carlile: In the...

"Gray Matter", directed by Meko Winbush, stars stars Mia Isaac, Jessica Frances Dukes, Garret Dillahunt, Andrew Liner, Isabella Ferreira, Kristian Flores, Ezri Walker and Allison Ye, streaming July 13, 2023 on Max:

"... 'Aurora' has known all her life from her mother 'Ayla' that the superhuman abilities they have also makes them dangerous. 

"As Ayla attempts to train Aurora how to navigate these abilities, a tragic incident finds Aurora in control of her fate and forces Ayla to confront the truth of her past. Now, Aurora will discover if her mother was speaking the truth on that one fateful and fatal night..."

Click the images to enlarge...

Max announces programming coming to the platform this July, including the debut of the Max Original limited series Full Circle (7/13), from director Steven Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon, which tells the story of an investigation into a botched kidnapping that uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present day New York City. The six-episode limited series stars Zazie Beetz, Claire Danes, Jim Gaffigan, Jharrel Jerome, Timothy Olyphant, Cch Pounder, Phaldut Sharma, Adia, Sheyi Cole, Gerald Jones, Suzanne Savoy, Ethan Stoddard, Lucian Zanes and Dennis Quaid.

The third and final season of the HBO Original docu-comedy series How To With John Wilson (7/28) follows documentary filmmaker and self-described “anxious New Yorker” John Wilson as he continues his heartfelt mission of self-discovery, exploration, and observation as he films the lives of his fellow New Yorkers while attempting to give everyday advice on six new deceptively simple and wildly random topics. Building upon season two,...

The HBO original concert special “Brandi Carlile in the Canyon Haze – Live from Laurel Canyon” will arrive on Max on July 1. Filmed last year at the Ross House in Los Angeles, the nine-time Grammy winner performs songs from her album “In These Silent Days,” as well as tunes that highlight the incredible music born in the Hollywood Hills, including David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” Carlile puts her unique talents on display, while providing nods to the artists who shaped her voice.

Watch the trailer for “Brandi Carlile in the Canyon Haze – Live from Laurel Canyon”: 7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com

Get 20% Off Your Next Year of Max When Pre-Paid Annually

This week, it was announced that Season 5 of “Love Island USA” is set to debut on Peacock on July 18. Filmed in Fiji, the latest season of the reality show features a new group of sexy singles searching...

The reboot of Project Greenlight has its premiere date, and the docuseries series will arrive alongside the film created during the competition. The series was originally given an eight-episode order. but 10 installments have been produced.

The original Project Greenlight series aired for two seasons on HBO from 2001-03, moved to Bravo for season three in 2005, and then returned to HBO for a fourth run in 2015. Alex Keledjian created the show, and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were among its executive producers.

Featuring Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gina Prince-Bythewood, this version of the series will follow a group of talented female filmmakers as they compete to direct their first featured film. Meko Winbush and her film Gray Matter won the competition.

Read More…...

"These abilities - they're complicated, they're transformative, and they can be dangerous." (HBO) Max has revealed an official trailer for the film Gray Matter, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Meko Winbush. Some of you will remember a show called Project Greenlight on HBO, about first-time filmmakers who were pitching & developing projects. The show is back (new trailer below) and Gray Matter is the feature film project they greenlit - following it through the production and post- process. It's ready to debut in July. Aurora has known all her life from her mother that the superhuman abilities they have also make them dangerous. Now, Aurora will discover if her mother was speaking the truth on one fateful and fatal night. Gray Matter stars Mia Isaac as Aurora, with Jessica Frances Dukes, Garret Dillahunt, Andrew Liner, Isabella Ferreira, Kristian Flores, Ezri Walker, and Allison Ye. This reminds me of Fast Color,...

Exclusive: Zoe Colletti (Only Murders in the Building, Boo), Regan Aliyah (Marvel’s Ironheart, Xo Kitty) and Andrew Liner have joined Michelle Dockery in Destry Allyn Spielberg’s feature directorial debut Please Don’t Feed the Children, as Altitude launches the genre film at the Cannes Market.

In Please Don’t Feed the Children, after a viral outbreak ravages the country’s adult population, a group of orphans heads south in search of a new life, only to find themselves at the mercy of a deranged woman harboring a dangerous secret.

Jason Dubin is producing through his Perry Street Films imprint, along with Josh Kesselman and Michael Hagerty (Old Henry). Principal photography begins in Santa Fe, Nm, next month on a script from Paul Bertino.

Related: Cannes Film Festival Full Coverage

In March, we brought you news of Dockery’s casting as the lead,...