Month: April 2021

Zero Gravity’s Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams nominated for the series.

Actress and musician Andy Allo has landed a spot in Lionsgate/CodeBlack Entertainment feature comedy, #Twominutesoffame, starring SNL alum Jay Pharoah, Katt Williams, and Keke Palmer. The film, which will be fused to Liongate’s Laugh Out Loud streaming network, follows an up-and-coming comedian who travels to L.A. after his impression of an Eddie Murphy-like stand up comic-turned-movie star goes viral. Leslie Small is directing the pic from a screenplay by Devon Shepard and Yamara Taylor. CodeBlack’s Jeff Clanagan will produce alongside Paul Hall. Allo can be seen next in Universal’s Pitch Perfect 3, in theaters December 22. She’s repped by ICM and managed by Zero Gravity Management.

From marches on Main Street on the day after his inauguration to films and TV shows on the big screens and more, Donald Trump was all over the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. As today’s unveiling of the U.S. Competition and World Cinema Competition Dramatic and Documentary categories plus the Midnight, Kids, NEXT, and Spotlight slates for the 2018 SFF reveals the now 45th POTUS is still a strong presence at the Robert Redford founded fest but other topics torn out of the headlines and a bevy of icons are flexing a lot of inclusive muscles too.

With Idris Elba’s directorial debut of the 1973 Jamaica set Yardie, the Sundance return of Oscar winner Morgan Neville and his Won’t You Be My Neighbor? documentary about Mr. Rogers, a look at how the 2016 election was covered through Russian eyes and the Lakeith Standfield, Omari Hardwicke and Steven Yeunstarring future based Sorry To Bother You among the offerings, SFF 2018 displays a revitalized variety.

A scope that is a clear intention, says the Executive Director of the Sundance Institute.

“We’re proud of the diversity of this year’s lineup; emboldening broader, more inclusive independent voices is a crucial part of our work at the Festival and throughout the year,” asserts Keri Putnam. “These stories might inspire or move us, even occasionally make us uncomfortable – but they can shift our perspectives, spark conversation and create change,” she adds of the January 18-28 running SFF.

In all, 110 features were picked for the 34th Sundance, with 47 first-time filmmakers among them, including 30 who are in the competition categories. The overall films are down three from 2017 with 13,468 submissions for the 2018 SFF, including 3,901 feature-length films and 8,740 short films. The overall submissions were 314 for 2018 from the 2017 festival.

The snowbound venues in and around Park City will see two films with Power‘s Hardwick, SFF directorial debuts from indie vet Ethan Hawke, Paul Dano and Rupert Everett’s Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince, and Gus Vant Sant will have a new flick screening too. Among the over 100 features playing in just a few weeks in Utah, there’s also a docu about fashion designer and Sex Pistols patron Vivienne Westwood, a look at the power and influence of the now Time magazine owning Koch Brothers and Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage is back for another year in Reed Mornano’s I Think We Are Alone Now with Elle Fanning.

Though participants in the new TV centric Indie Episodic section have yet to be announced, today’s voluminous slates certainly put Grace and Frankie in the spotlight. The doc Jane Fonda In Five Acts, looking at the career and life of the Oscar winner and co-star of the Emmy nominated Netflix comedy, is among the premieres divulged this afternoon.

Though the much accused and much investigated Harvey Weinstein will obviously not be at Sundance in January, a docu about one of his primary adversaries will be. From Grace & Frankie showrunner Marta Kaufman and her Okay Goodnight producing team, the U.S. Documentary competing Seeing Allred spotlights the work of attorney Gloria Allred and her efforts for women against the likes of the disgraced producer, Trump and Bill Cosby. In fact, during the opening day of Cosby’s Norristown, PA trial for an alleged 2004 rape, I watched a camera crew follow the lawyer around for this Sophie Sartain and Roberta Grossman directed film, which will debut on Netflix next year also.

From the six Day One films, dozens of World Premieres and more, the upcoming Sundance will see screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at the Sundance Mountain Resort.

A Boy, A Girl, A Dream. / U.S.A.

(Director: Qasim Basir, Screenwriters: Qasim Basir, Samantha Tanner, Producer: Datari Turner) — On the night of the 2016 Presidential election, Cass, an L.A. club promoter, takes a thrilling and emotional journey with Frida, a Midwestern visitor. She challenges him to revisit his broken dreams – while he pushes her to discover hers. Cast: Omari Hardwick, Meagan Good, Jay Ellis, Kenya Barris, Dijon Talton, Wesley Jonathan. World Premiere

The ‘Next’ category features pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling populate this program. Digital technology paired with unfettered creativity promises that the films in this section will shape a “greater” next wave in American cinema. Films that have premiered in this category in recent years include A Ghost Story, Tangerine and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Presented by Adobe.

Lost alumna Maggie Grace has signed on as a series regular for Season 4 of AMC’s The Walking Dead prequel Fear The Walking Dead. Details on her role will be announced at a later date.

She stars alongside returning Fear cast members Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo and Danay Garcia, new series regulars Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman and Lennie James who plays fan favorite Morgan Jones on The Walking Dead, and joins Fear as part of a series crossover.

Grace is best known for her roles as Shannon Rutherford on ABC’s Lost, Kim Mills in the Taken franchise and as Irina in The Twilight Saga. She’s repped by Zero Gravity Management, UTA and JTWAMM.

Season 4 of Fear The Walking Dead is expected to debut mid-2018.

NBC has put in development drama American Disaster from writer Michael McGrale(CSI: Miami, The Following), director Deran Sarafian (House, The Strain, Hell On Wheels), Muse Entertainment and Universal TV.

Written by McGrale, American Disaster centers around a Midwestern community that holds itself together in the wake of a catastrophic tornado. The project is envisioned as a potential anthology series tackling different natural disasters.

McGrale co-executive produces. Sarafian is set to direct the potential pilot and executive produce. Michael Prupas and Joel Rice executive produce for Muse Entertainment. Muse executives Lydia Storie and Meghan Mathes developed the project and serve as co-producers.

McGrale was a writer on the last six seasons of CSI: Miami and also served as a visual effects coordinator on the series. He most recently worked on Fox’s The Followingand also wrote on Rizzoli & Isles.

Canadian company Muse Entertainment has produced several limited event series, including Spike’s Tut, Reelz Channel’s The Kennedysand sequel After Camelot. The company’s mystery drama series Bellevue starring Anna Paquin, is set to debut on WGN America in January.

Sarafian was a director and co-executive producer on House M.D.from 2005-2009. He most recently served as director and executive producer on Rosewood and also directed episodes of The Exorcist and Wisdom of the Crowd.

Muse Entertainment and McGrale are repped by Paradigm. McGrale is also managed by Industry Entertainment. Sarafian is repped by Gersh and Zero Gravity Management.

Amy Pascal and her Pascal Pictures pre-emptively picked up the sci-fi thriller spec Envoy from screenwriter Kat Wood. The character-driven piece is said to be in the vein of Arrival and The Day The Earth Stood Still and is about an elite military intelligence specialist who jumps at the chance to take part in the selection process to become the first-ever human representative to alien life. The project was brought into Pascal Pictures by Eric Fineman.

This adds yet another project to Pascal’s coffers. Since leaving her post as chair of Sony, she has been producing and acquiring a number of projects. She is currently in development at Amazon on Mercury 13, which is being developed as a mini-series at Amazon and based on the Martha Ackmann book The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight. She is in collaboration with Bradley Whitford, Adena Chawke, and Tim and Trevor White’s Star Thrower Entertainment.

She also produced two pics, The Post and Molly’s Game, which are in contention for Oscar this year.

Wood first produced film Mr. Bojagi won the Best Short Film Award at the London Independent Film Festival. As a screenwriter, her first produced feature film, Arthur & Merlin which was released in the UK and U.S. on DVD/VOD in 2015. She also wrote and directed the short film Home which starred Maggie Gyllenhaal and was produced by Dana Brunetti and became the first UK winner of the Jameson First Shot Competition. That prompted Creative England to fund a proof of concept short film for one of these projects, Stine which Wood directed this past September; it stars Tuppence Middleton and currently in post-production.

She is repped by Verve, Zero Gravity Management and Eric Feig Ent & Media Law.

Sean Faris and Jamie-Lynn Sigler also star in the crime thriller.

Milo Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, battles for control of 1920s Chicago’s criminal underworld as Al Capone inThe Hollywood Reporter’s exclusive first-look image of Gangster Land.

Timothy Woodward Jr. (Traded, American Violence) directed the film, a true account of the crime boss and his right-hand man, in which Gibson stars alongside Sean Faris (Never Back Down, Pearl Harbor), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos) and Peter Facinelli (The Twilight Saga).

“Timothy has captured an accurate and remarkable time in the history of crime,” said Clay Epstein, president of Film Mode Entertainment, which has been screening Gangster Land to buyers at AFM in Santa Monica. “These real-life characters were smart, charming and incredibly dangerous, and we are thrilled with how the film balances this never-before-told story with the glamorous yet gruesome reality.”

Film Mode Entertainment reps international rights. Cinedigm will release Gangster Land in U.S. theaters in December.

Arrow Films has taken UK/Ireland rights to Unknown Soldier from Beta Cinema, to release both the feature film version and a new ’5×50’ TV series of the project.

Aku Louhimies’ war epic, the most expensive Finnish film ever made at an estimated €7m, recently broke the opening weekend record for a local-language film at the Finnish box office.

Adapted from one of Finland’s most popular books, Väinö Linna’s 1954 novel, Unknown Soldier is the story of a platoon of ordinary Finnish soldiers in the battlefield between Finland and the Soviet Union.

The film shot for 80 days, and its release ties into the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence.

In addition to directing the film as a longtime passion project, Louhimies is now creating five 50-minute episodes for TV from the material. Beta is also handling the series.

Tom Stewart, acquisitions director for Arrow Films, said, “We are absolutely delighted to be bringing both the feature and TV series to the UK & Ireland in 2018 and to be continuing our great relationship with Thorsten Ritter and all the team at Beta. Unknown Solider represents stunning work from Finland which showcases again the sheer quality from Scandinavia and in particular great to see Finland making a real mark internationally.”

Arrow has had past success with the UK release of Nordic TV hits including The Killing, The Bridge, Borgen and Trapped.

Ritter, Beta’s EVP acquisitions, sales & marketing, added, “We are thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with Tom Stewart and Arrow Films, who made Generation War such a success in the UK. I am confident they will thrive with Unknown Soldier. Tom has superb instincts and I‘m glad the first results prove this.“

Hulu is developing Unspeakable, a single camera half-hour dramedy starring Mary McCormack (When We Rise) and executive produced by Chelsea Handler, from Tell Me You Love Me creator Cynthia Mort and Working Title Television, Deadline has learned. Based on bestselling author Meghan Daum’s book, the project is being written by Mort, who will serve as showrunner, with McCormack’s husband and producing partner Michael Morris (Smash) attached direct.

Handler optioned the book, The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects Of Discussion, published by Picador in 2014, at Working Title Television, a joint venture between NBCUniversal International and UK-based Working Title Films’ Tim Bevanand Eric Fellner.

Based on Daum’s book, Unspeakable is about a 45-year-old woman (McCormack) who deals with life and its situations with radical honesty, raw humor, and an attitude that is hard not to fall in love with. It follows a woman trying to find her authentic self in a world where achieving an identity is never simple or complete, while simultaneously discussing subjects such as parental death, the decision not to have children, a harrowing near-death experience following a sudden illness, and many other thoughts that we might consider unspeakable in our culture.

Handler executive produces with Working Title’s Andrew Stearn and Liza Chasin. McCormack and Morris also are on board to produce.

Handler recently announced she was ending her Netflix talk show Chelsea after two seasons to focus on activism, write a book and partner with Netflix on an original documentary. In addition to Chelsea, her producing credits include Chelsea Does, Chelsea Lately, After Lately and drama I Hate the Internet, in development at TNT. Handler is with UTA and Irving Azoff.

Mort, who began her writing career on Roseanne and went on to create HBO’s drama series Tell Me You Love Me and co-create the comedy pilot Tilda, directed feature Nina starring Zoe Saldana, and has just submitted her film The Magnificent Roomstarring Shelby Lynne to Sundance. She’s repped by Zero Gravity Management and WME.

Former In Plain Sight star McCormack most recently was seen on AMC/Channel 4’s comedic drama series Loaded, in a recurring role on Angie Tribeca and as Roberta Kaplan in When We Rise. She is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.

Octane Entertainment has acquired worldwide sales rights to Darren Lynn Bousman’s St. Agatha, his female-driven psychological horror film now in postproduction. Written by Andy Demetrio, Shaun Fletcher, Sara Sometti Michaels and Clint Sears, the pic will be introduced at the now-underway American Film Market.

Set in the 1950s in small-town Georgia, the film centers on a pregnant con woman named Agatha is on the run and seeks refuge in a convent. What first starts out as the perfect place to have a child turns into a dark layer where silence is forced, ghastly secrets are masked, and every bit of will power Agatha has is tested as she learns the sick and twisted truth of the convent and the oddpeople that lurk inside its halls.

Sabrina Kern, Carolyn Hennesy, Courtney Halverson, Trin Miller and Seth Michaels star.

“This is exactly the type of project our clients have been looking for – a female-driven, elevated genre film with pedigree that is well-crafted throughout,” said Octane president Jack Campbell. “We’ve seen huge successes in this arena lately, most recently with Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. From the writing to the acting to the directing and execution – St. Agatha is a cut above anything that I’ve seen in a long time.”

Sara Sometti Michaels, Srdjan Stakic and Tara Ansley are producers and Kevin Traier, Rick Le

and Seth Michaels are exec producers.

Bousman is repped by Verve, Zero Gravity and attorney Tanya Mallean.