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Exclusive: Wagner Moura (Narcos), Sofia Carson (Purple Hearts), Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway), and Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) have been set to star in comedy-drama Last Night At The Lobster, which Moura will direct.

Bankside Films is launching international sales on the project ahead of the American Film Market. WME Independent is handling North American rights.

Based on the well-received novel by Stewart O’Nan with a screenplay written by Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro, Jane Anderson and Eboni Booth, the film is currently in pre-production and is due to shoot early next year.

Pic will be Moura’s second feature following Marighella in 2019 and having directed episodes of Narcos: Mexico, and an acting career with credits including Civil War, Narcos and Elite Squad.

The synopsis reads: “Manny, manager of a chain seafood restaurant, arrives to work a week before Christmas to discover that the restaurant is...

Beloved indie film “Safety Not Guaranteed” — which took Sundance by storm over a decade ago and instantly catapulted director Colin Trevorrow up several rungs in the Hollywood stratosphere — may not have been the most obvious choice when it comes to refashioning IP for other mediums. There’s no superheroes, for one. And while there is some very fantastical time travel, it’s all a bit more metaphor than metaphysical.

But the charming 2012 movie, which follows a man (Mark Duplass in the film) who places a newspaper ad looking for someone to go back in time with, gets a new life in Brooklyn this month as a 100-minute stage musical with a book by Nick Blaemire and music and lyrics by Ryan Miller of Guster.

Creatives love to say things were serendipitous but, well, the film’s journey to the stage was pretty serendipitous: Blaemire loved the movie when he saw it a decade ago.

Disney’s Out of My Mind, based on Sharon M. Draper’s bestselling novel, released a touching trailer ahead of World Cerebral Palsy Day (October 6th). The two-minute trailer introduces newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor as Melody, a teen with cerebral palsy who just wants to be heard.

The cast also includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Luke Kirby, Michael Chernus, Courtney Taylor, and Judith Light. Jennifer Aniston is Melody’s inner voice.

“Melody Brooks, a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates,” reads Disney’s synopsis. “When a young educator notices her student’s untapped potential and Melody starts to participate in mainstream education, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.”

No Man of God‘s Amber Sealey directs and...

Today, Disney+ revealed the trailer and key art for Out of My Mind in partnership with World Cerebral Palsy Day, a global movement celebrated on Oct. 6. Out of My Mind, a Disney Original movie based on the bestselling novel by Sharon M. Draper, premiered earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival and arrives Nov. 22 on Disney+.

Melody Brooks, a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates.

When a young educator notices her student’s untapped potential and Melody starts to participate in mainstream education, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.

The film stars newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor as Melody, alongside acclaimed actors Rosemarie DeWitt, Luke Kirby, Michael Chernus, Courtney Taylor, and Judith Light. Jennifer Aniston portrays Melody’s inner voice.

Exclusive: Vertical has acquired North American rights to Susanna Fogel’s Winner, a political dramedy based on the true story of Nsa whistleblower Reality Winner (Emilia Jones), which world premiered at Sundance 2024. Also starring Connie Britton (Nashville), Zach Galifianakis (A Wrinkle in Time), Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) and Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick), the film is slated to hit theaters later this year.

Written by Fogel and Kerry Howley, Winner adapts a 2017 New York magazine feature from the latter. This is the coming-of-age story of Reality Winner, a brilliant young misfit from Texas who finds her morals challenged while serving in the U.S. Air Force and working as an Nsa contractor. A sarcastic, gun-lovin’, vegan, yogi, and CrossFit fanatic, Reality is an unconventional hero who ends up being prosecuted for telling the truth, after she’s arrested on suspicion of leaking a classified intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Amber Sealey’s Out of My Mind had a Sundance Film Festival audience feeling all the feels Friday as the Disney+ title had its world premiere at the Library Center Theatre.

The film casts first-time performer Phoebe-Ray Taylor as Melody Brooks, a sixth grader navigating school as a nonverbal wheelchair user with cerebral palsy. With the help of assistive technology and her devoted allies, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it in a fight to be put in a mainstream classroom.

Taylor stars alongside Luke Kirby, Rosemarie DeWitt, Judith Light, Michael Chernus, Courtney Taylor and others. Jennifer Aniston, who offers her voiceover talents through narration, took to Instagram Stories to praise the film on the occasion of its world premiere. (Aniston was not present in Park City but her history with Sundance dates back to The Good Girl and Friends with Money.

Exclusive: Producers Peter Saraf and Eddie Rubin, who are in Park City to premiere the Sundance buzz titles Out of My Mind and Winner, have joined forces to create Optimistic Pictures, to develop and produce film and TV properties with an independent sensibility.

Saraf is the co-founder of Big Beach, the producer/financier responsible for one of the greatest successes to break at Sundance, the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine. After a massive bidding battle that was won by Fox Searchlight ($10.5 million and 10% gross), the film got four Oscar noms including Best Picture, won two Oscars and grossed $101 million, on an $8 million production budget.

After their first teaming on The Farewell, Saraf and Rubin are reuniting with that indie hit’s star Awkwafina. She’ll produce and star in an adaptation of G, the Ling Ma short story which is included in her National Book Critics Circle Award winning collection, Bliss Montage.

A petition by the Producers Union asking the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to drop “producers” from their official name was delivered to AMPTP president Carol Lombardini on Tuesday.

As of noon, 2,353 producers, including Blumhouse founder Jason Blum, Women in Film president Cathy Schulman and “Fast and the Furious” producer Neil Moritz have signed the Change.org petition.

“The AMPTP primarily represents major studios, networks and streaming platforms, and the inclusion of ‘Producers’ in their name inaccurately implies that all producers are part of this organization. The ‘P’ in AMPTP stands for ‘producers’ but is left over from a long-gone era when all film producers were employed by the studios,” reads the petition, which was first posted to Change.org in July.

The petition says that referring to AMPTP as “producers” during the WGA and SAG strikes “continues to cause misconceptions within the industry and in the public,...

Exclusive, Updated with PGA statement: More than 2,300 film and TV producers on Tuesday are delivering a message to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers: leave us out. The group delivered a petition to AMPTP President Carol Lombardini this morning demanding the dropping of the “P” from the acronym of the organization that just concluded a brutal negotiation with the WGA, and hopefully is in the final stages of a SAG-AFTRA deal after one of the longest strikes in Hollywood history.

Taking them out of a labor fight they were never part of is just the first step in what producers hope will lead to a redrawing of rules that leave them without health care, and being the last to be paid despite them being the early catalysts for film and TV projects.

The producers have amassed 2,338 signatures since June, when they first posted a petition on Change.

Exclusive: The Wilds star Shannon Berry has joined the cast of Susanna Fogel’s Canadian feature Winner.

Berry is appearing opposite Emilia Jones, Zach Galifianakis, Kathryn Newton, Danny Ramirez and Connie Britton in the darkly comedic biopic. The casting reunites the emerging Australian actress with The Spy Who Dumped Me director Fogel, who directed her in the pilot of Prime Video drama series The Wilds.

Winner is a biopic of Reality Winner (Jones), a brilliant misfit U.S. Air Force member and Nsa consultant who in 2018 was given the longest prison sentence in American history for the unauthorized release of government information to the media — five years, three months — after leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

We first told you about the film last October, as the film went into principal photography. The feature is set to take on the traditional whistleblower thriller — a coming-of-age story about...

Exclusive: Emilia Jones (Coda) is set to lead director Susanna Fogel’s darkly comedic biopic Winner, which has started principal photography.

After exposing Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Reality Winner was sentenced to five and a half years in prison — the longest sentence ever given to someone charged under the Espionage Act — for leaking a government document.

Connie Britton has been cast to play Reality’s mother and Galifianakis Reality’s father. Danny Ramirez and Kathryn Newton also will star.

The story follows Winner (Jones), a brilliant young misfit from Texas who finds her morals challenged while serving in the U.S. Air Force and working as an Nsa contractor. The film will offer a fresh take on the traditional whistleblower thriller; the coming-of-age story follows an idealistic young woman persecuted for standing by her principles.

The film is written by Kerry Howley and based on Howley...

“Coda” star Emilia Jones will portray whistleblower Reality Winner in “Winner,” a dark-comedy biopic from director Susanna Fogel.

Winner, a former U.S. Air Force member and Nsa contractor, served in prison after she leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Her five and a half years behind bars is the longest sentence ever given to someone charged under the Espionage Act for leaking a government document.

Described as a “fresh take on the traditional whistleblower thriller,” the coming-of-age story “Winner” is based on Kerry Howley’s 2017 New York Magazine feature that portrays a brilliant and young misfit from Texas who finds her morals challenged while serving in the U.S. Air Force and working as a Nsa contractor.

“As a filmmaker, I strive to tell stories that interrogate the world we live in and the systems that are broken in it. But in a fun way,...

It's hard not to love "Little Miss Sunshine." Sure, some aspects might not have aged as well as others, but you can't deny the earnestness and genuine love felt throughout every second of the movie. Made right in the middle of indie filmmaking's mumblecore movement, it seems like a time capsule of a very special time in American film, where you didn't necessarily need a big star producer or director to make your movie; just a good story.

However, it definitely took a while for the movie as we know it to take shape. According to the introduction of the published shooting script, screenwriter Michael Arndt started the first draft of the script all the way back in 2000, finally completing it in 2001. After he abandoned the idea of shooting it himself on a microbudget, he teamed up with Deep River Productions to find a director that would work for the project.

Disney+ announced Monday that Rosemarie DeWitt (“The Staircase”), Luke Kirby (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Judith Light (“American Crime Story”) have been added to the cast of “Out of My Mind,” a Disney+ original movie adaptation of Sharon Draper’s award-winning novel of the same name. Also joining the ensemble cast, from director Amber Sealey,” are Michael Chernus (“Severance”) and Courtney Taylor “Insecure.” Production on the streaming exclusive film is underway in Toronto.

“Out of My Mind” follows Melody Brooks (newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor), a girl with cerebral palsy. Melody has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but due to her being non-verbal and using a wheelchair, she is not given the same academic opportunities as her classmates. However, when Katherine, a young educator notices her student’s untapped potential, she encourages Melody to participate in mainstream education, where greater successes – and challenges – await.

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‘Turning Red’ Is the...

Exclusive: Rosemarie DeWitt (The Staircase), Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Judith Light (American Crime Story) are set as leads joining Phoebe-Rae Taylor in Out Of My Mind, Disney+’s film adaptation of Sharon Draper’s award-winning novel, from Big Beach, Participant, Everywhere Studios LLC and Disney Branded Television. Also joining the ensemble cast are Michael Chernus (Severance) and Courtney Taylor (Insecure). Production is currently underway in Toronto.

Directed by Amber Sealey (No Man of God) from an adapted screenplay by Daniel Stiepleman (On the Basis of Sex), Out of My Mind follows Melody Brooks (Taylor), a girl with cerebral palsy. Melody has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but due to her being non-verbal and using a wheelchair, she is not given the same academic opportunities as her classmates. However, when Katherine, a young educator notices her student’s untapped potential, she encourages Melody to participate in mainstream education,...

Click here to read the full article.

Writer-director Hannah Marks, who got her start acting in projects like Accepted, Weeds, Necessary Roughness and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, made her feature directorial debut with After Everything, which she also wrote. And she directed another film that she wrote, Mark, Mary & Some Other People, before she directed Don’t Make Me Go, which is currently streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.

For Marks, directing a film she didn’t write was something she “really enjoyed.”

“It was a great experience, because I got to have an outside perspective on the material, and it was really fun to get to riff on the material that already existed,” Marks tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We did some improv and played around a bit because everyone was so collaborative that was involved.”

But that doesn’t mean making Don’t Make Me Go wasn’t without its challenges.

Exclusive: Big Beach has announced that it will produce the upcoming feature Tropical Gothic from Lingua Franca‘s Isabel Sandoval.

Set in the 16th-century Philippines, Tropical Gothic is an allegory on Western colonialism about a Native Priestess who convinces her Spanish master that she is possessed by the spirit of his dead bride, in order to manipulate him into returning the farmland that the Spaniards seized from the native community.

Sandoval and producer Carlo Velayo launched the project in 2020 at the Locarno Open Doors Hub—an international platform for feature projects within Latin America and the Caribbean looking for international collaborations. The pair received the Vff Talent Highlight Award at the Berlinale Talent Project Market in March, with the associated prize money going toward the film’s development. Sandoval will direct from her script and star, with Michael B. Clark and Alex Turtletaub producing for Big Beach, alongside Velayo. Production kicks off later this year.

Click here to read the full article.

John Cho is a father on a mission in the first trailer for Amazon Studios’ Don’t Make Me Go.

Directed by Hannah Marks (After Everything, Mark, Mary and Some Other People) and written by Vera Herbert (This Is Us), the film follows Cho’s single father Max and his daughter Wally, played by Mia Isaac, as the duo goes on the road trip of a lifetime from California to New York.

They’re going under the premise of driving lessons for Wally and Max’s 20-year college reunion, where he also hopes to reunite with her mother after she left the family years ago. But there’s another reason the father-daughter team is going on the long drive: Max has a terminal disease and is hoping to use their days together during the cross-country trip to cram in the time, experiences and love...

Everyone with a license remembers how they learned to drive. But for teen Wally (Mia Isaac), that lesson comes with a heartbreaking truth: Her father Max (John Cho) is dying, and she will need to be in the driver’s seat as he battles a terminal illness.

Hannah Marks directs the road trip dramedy “Don’t Make Me Go,” set for a world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. The film will debut on Prime Video from Amazon Studios on July 15. Check out the trailer below.

Director Marks returns to Tribeca after last year’s “Mark, Mary, and Some Other People,” while “This Is Us” screenwriter Vera Herbert pens the script, which is centered on Max dragging Wally on a cross-country road trip for his 20th college reunion.

The official “Don’t Make Me Go” synopsis reads: “When single father Max discovers he has a terminal disease, he decides to try and...

Disney+ will adapt Sharon M. Draper’s Out of My Mind from page to screen as an upcoming movie. The project comes from Big Beach, Participant, EveryWhere Studios LLC and Disney Branded Television. Amber Sealey (No Man of God) will direct from an adapted screenplay written by Daniel Siepleman (Humanitas Prize winner for On the Basis of Sex).

Disney Branded Television’s take on the award-winning novel follows multitalented 12-year-old Melody Brooks, a girl with cerebral palsy, played by newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor who was cast in the lead role following a worldwide search.

Melody has a quick wit and sharp mind, but due to her being non-verbal and using a wheelchair, she is not given the same academic opportunities as her classmates. However, when a young educator notices her student’s untapped potential, she encourages Melody to participate in mainstream education, where greater successes – and challenges – await.

The production team...

Sharon M. Draper’s best-seller “Out of My Mind” is being adapted into a TV movie, Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, announced on Wednesday.

Big Beach, Participant, EveryWhere Studios LLC and Disney Branded Television are behind the adaptation for the Disney+ streaming service.

After a worldwide search, newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor has been cast as the lead in the film, which is being directed by Amber Sealey (“No Man of God”).

Taylor will star as 12-year-old Melody Brooks, a girl with cerebral palsy, who has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but who is not given the same academic opportunities as her classmates due to her being non-verbal and using a wheelchair.

“There’s a sense of exhilaration here as we embark with this very well-regarded creative team in adapting Sharon Draper’s candid, beautiful and powerful book that tells a universally relatable story about both following your...

Big Beach, the production label behind Awkwafina starrer “The Farewell” and Tom Hanks’ “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” has abruptly closed its New York headquarters and parted ways with a significant number of staff, sources tell Variety.

The cuts are a sign of the increasingly difficult challenges facing independent film shops, even those with awards pedigree and decades of survival in the industry.

Though an exact number is unknown, staffers from the assistant level up to heads of film and TV verticals have been served pink slips, two insiders familiar with the company said. Many Los Angeles-based employees have been dismissed as well. The cuts come almost a year after one of the company’s principals, “Little Miss Sunshine” producer Peter Saraf, quietly exited the company.

A representative for Big Beach declined to comment on the matter. Another source close to the operation said new heads of film and TV will be announced imminently,...

The Gotham Awards were handed out on November 29 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. So who won at these annual indie film kudos from The Gotham Film and Media Institute, which streamed on YouTube and Facebook? Scroll down for the complete list of winners in all categories.

Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” and “Passing” went in as the two most nominated films with five apiece, but that didn’t automatically mean they were the front-runners. Categories at these awards are judged by panels of just a handful of industry insiders, often leading to unexpected, under-the-radar winners. You can’t count anyone out at an event where unique juries review all the nominated material.

Seersvp now for November 30: Film producers panel with ‘Being the Ricardos,’ ‘Belfast,’ ‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘tick, tick… Boom!’

That means these awards can be quite idiosyncratic — they’re independent thinkers, and not...

Sales to commence at next week’s AFM.

Viggo Mortensen and Caleb Landry Jones will star in Alex Gibney’s UK-us thriller Two Wolves, which Altitude is producing and will introduce at next week’s virtual American Film Market.

Altitude is handling international sales on the title, which is written by four-time Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten and Matt Cook. The domestic sale is being co-repped by UTA Independent Film Group and ICM.

Two Wolves is the story of helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson who turned against his fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War to halt the My Lai massacre; but was...

Alex Gibney, best known for documentaries such as “Taxi to the Dark Side” and “Going Clear,” is helming a new feature starring Viggo Mortensen (“Captain Fantastic”) and Cannes best actor winner Caleb Landry Jones (“Nitram”).

Produced and sold internationally by Altitude, thriller “Two Wolves” will be introduced to buyers at the virtual American Film Market next week. All rights are currently available.

Here’s the official description: The film tells the story of helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson who, during the Vietnam War, turned against his fellow soldiers to halt the massacre of unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai, and rescued survivors of the atrocities. But far from being treated as a hero, Thompson was branded a traitor and threatened with court-martial, while the actual perpetrators of the war crimes were lionized by supporters and pardoned by President Nixon. It came down to General William ‘Ray’ Peers to investigate...

Viggo Mortensen and Caleb Landry Jones will lead the cast of Two Wolves, a Vietnam War-set thriller being helmed by Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney.

The pic tells the story of helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson who, during the Wwr, turned against his fellow soldiers to halt the massacre of unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai, and rescued survivors of the atrocities.

Instead of being treated as a hero, Thompson was branded a traitor and threatened with court-martial. It came down to General William ‘Ray’ Peers to investigate what really happened at My Lai and to corroborate the truth of Hugh Thompson’s story.

Anthony McCarten (The Theory Of Everything) has written the screenplay with Matt Cook (The Informer). Producers are Paul Higgins for Fields Park, Peter Saraf, Will Clarke for Altitude Film Entertainment, Alex Gibney for Jigsaw Pictures along with Big Beach..

Altitude is handling international sales and will...

Exclusive: The Maze Runner and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Kaya Scodelario has joined Amazon Studios’ father-daughter adventure dramedy Don’t Make Me Go.

Scodelario joins John Cho, Mia Isaac and Jade Harlow. Hannah Marks directed the film from a script penned by Vera Herbert.

Currently in post-production, Don’t Make Me Go follows a single father who takes his teenage daughter on a road trip to find her estranged mother as he tries to teach her everything she might need to know for the rest of her life along the way.

Producers include De Line Pictures’ Donald De Line and Big Beach Films’ Leah Holzer and Peter Saraf.

Brit actress Scodelario next will be seen in the origin film Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City, which Sony is releasing in November. Best known for the Maze Runner franchise, she got her break on cult UK series Skins. She...

The Woodstock Film Festival will resume indoor screenings at its 22nd annual edition this fall, and also will recognize Neon founder and CEO Tom Quinn with a career honor.

This year’s festival will run from September 30 to October 3. It has carved out a notable place in the fall fest circuit because of its location, which is 110 miles north of New York City and also close to a number of film industry figures in the Hudson Valley. The surrounding region has also become more active in terms of film and TV production in recent years, adding multiple new soundstages.

Quinn will receive the festival’s 2021 Honorary Trailblazer Award. Before Covid-19 turned the 2020 edition into a hybrid affair with drive-ins and online screenings, Quinn had been scheduled to get the award last year, on the heels of Neon’s triumph with Parasite. The film, which had its world premiere in Cannes...

Exclusive: Newcomer Mia Isaac has landed the lead role opposite John Cho in Don’t Make Me Go, the father-daughter adventure dramedy from Amazon Studios. Hannah Marks is directing the film, which follows a single father who takes his teenage daughter on a road trip to find her estranged mother, as he tries to teach her everything she might need to know for the rest of her life along the way.

Vera Herbert penned the screenplay, which is being produced by Donald De Line, Leah Holzer, and Peter Saraf.

Filming is slated to commence next month in New Zealand.

Isaac’s credits include an unaired Lovestruck pilot for Fox and Fuller/Tedder pilot for Nickelodeon. She is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, The Osbrink Agency, and J Pervis Talent Agency.

Amazon Studios has signed on to finance and distribute “Don’t Make Me Go,” a father-daughter road trip dramedy that will star John Cho.

Hannah Marks, an actress, writer and director, is directing the film from a screenplay by “This is Us” writer Vera Herbert. The script first appeared on the Black List in 2012, and Herbert is also executive producing the film.

“Don’t Make Me Go” follows a single father who takes his teenage daughter on a road trip to find her estranged mother. Along the way, he tries to teach her everything she might need to know for the rest of her life.

“Don’t Make Me Go” will be produced by Donald De Line of De Line Pictures alongside Big Beach’s Peter Saraf and Leah Holzer (“Land”).

Cho recently wrapped production on the first season of the live-action series “Cowboy Bebop” for Netflix, and he also...

Exclusive: Amazon Studios has signed on to finance and distribute the Hannah Marks-directed father-daughter adventure dramedy Don’t Make Me Go starring John Cho.

The script for Don’t Make Me Go was written by Vera Herbert (This Is Us) and originated as a spec script that landed on the 2012 Black List. Herbert will also executive produce.

Don’t Make Me Go follows a single father who takes his teenage daughter on a road trip to find her estranged mother, as he tries to teach her everything she might need to know for the rest of her life along the way.

Cho recently wrapped production on the first season of the live-action series Cowboy Bebop for Netflix. Based on the popular original Japanese animated series from 1997, Cho will star as the impossibly cool bounty hunter Spike Spiegel. He also lent his voice to the Oscar-nominated...

In the last year Hollywood has attempted to showcase the world of Covid-19 in several ways, from the big screen to the small, from the perspective of the highly famous to the average person. The question remains: Do audiences want to see their current times replicated so quickly for consumption? It’s a concern that creator Adam Brooks and producer Peter Saraf certainly had while making the pilot for their series “These Days.”

“These Days” tells the story of Mae (Marianne Rendon), a dancer in New York City embarking on an internet relationship of some kind with Will (William Jackson Harper). The pilot hopes to find a home at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival and flesh out Mae’s story.

Brooks and Saraf started thinking of a story at the time the stay-at-home orders went into effect, hoping to create a universal plot that would touch on the times we’re living in.

From acclaimed actress Robin Wright comes her directorial debut Land, the poignant story of one woman’s search for meaning in the vast and harsh American wilderness. Edee (Wright), in the aftermath of an unfathomable event, finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face of that uncertainty, retreats to the magnificent, but unforgiving, wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter (Demián Bichir) brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again.

Wright directs and stars in the film written by Jesse Chatham and Erin Digman. Co-starring with Wright is Oscar and Alma nominee Demián Bichir. Also, joining these two talented actors in the cast is Kim Dickens.

About The Film Genre: Drama Director: Robin Wright Screenplay: Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam Producers: Allyn Stewart, Lora Kennedy, Leah Holzer, Peter Saraf Cast: Robin Wright, Demián Bichir,...

Robin Wright goes off the grid in the first trailer for “Land” from Focus Features, which also marks her directorial debut.

The film centers on Edee (Wright), a cosmopolitan lawyer who retreats to the wilderness after she faces a loss in life. “Land” also stars Demián Bichir and Kim Dickens.

“Land” will have its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31 before a wider release on Feb. 12, 2021.

The synopsis is as follows: “In the aftermath of an unfathomable event, Edee finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face of that uncertainty, retreats to the magnificent, but unforgiving, wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter (Demián Bichir) brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again.”

The film is based on the original screenplay by Jesse Chatham and Golden Globe nominee Liz Hannah...

Robin Wright’s directorial debut “Land” will debut in theaters next year.

The drama, which stars Wright and Demian Bichir, is set to release in the U.S. on Feb. 12, 2021.

“Land” centers on Wright’s character, who goes off the grid and retreats into the wilderness after suffering an unfathomable loss. When she crosses paths with a local hunter (Bichir), she begins to confront her demons.

Wright directed several “House of Cards” episodes, but “Land” represents her first time behind the camera on a feature film. She was named one of Variety’s 10 directors to watch in 2020.

Liz Hannah, best known for co-writing Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” and the Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron comedy “Long Shot,” wrote the screenplay with Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam.

“Land” is produced by Allyn Stewart, Lora Kennedy, Leah Holzer, and Peter Saraf. Wright also executive produced the film alongside Big Beach’s Marc Turletaub,...

Focus Features continues its steady rollout of movies into 2021 with the release of Robin Wright’s feature directorial debut drama Land on February 12, 2021, just in time for Oscar qualifications which have a cutoff date of February 28.

Land is scheduled on a weekend when the following movies are currently expected to open: 20th Century Studio’s The King’s Man and the Andy Garcia-Sharon Stone wide release What About Love.

The House of Cards Golden Globe-winning actress and episodic director stars in Land as Edee, who retreats to the wilds of the Rockies in the aftermath of an unfathomable event as she aims to stay connected to the world she once knew in the face of uncertainty. After a local hunter (Demián Bichir) brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again.

Wright directs from a screenplay by Jesse Chatham and Erin Digman.

Demián Bichir also star in drama about woman living off grid in aftermath of tragedy.

Focus Features has set a February 12, 2021, awards-qualifying US theatrical release for Robin Wright’s directorial debut Land.

Wright also stars in the drama about a woman who goes to live off the grid in the US wilderness in the aftermath of a tragic event.

When a local hunter (Demián Bichir) brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again. The cast includes Kim Dickens.

Wright directed Land from a screenplay by Jesse Chatham and Erin Digman.

Land is produced by Allyn Stewart,...

Heidi Schreck’s award-winning play “What the Constitution Means to Me” will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 16.

Marielle Heller directed the filmed version of the show, which was recorded in the final week of its Broadway run at the Helen Hayes Theater. It will debut in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Schreck also inked an overall deal with to create content that will premiere exclusively on Prime Video.

“I’m delighted with how beautifully Mari Heller has translated Constitution to the screen and I’m thankful to Big Beach and Amazon Studios for making it possible to share the show with more people — especially right now when we can’t gather together in theaters,” Schreck said in a statement. “In light of the moment we are living through, I am donating part of my proceeds from this film to the Broadway Cares Covid Relief Fund and to...

A filmed version of Heidi Schreck’s acclaimed, Tony-nominated Broadway play What the Constitution Means to Me will premiere Oct. 16 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, the streamer said today in announcing a new overall deal with the playwright-actress.

The Amazon Studios deal will have Schreck creating content that will premiere exclusively on Prime Video.

The 2019 Broadway production was filmed during its final week at the Helen Hayes Theater by director Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Can You Ever Forgive Me?). The Oct. 16 debut on Amazon Prime will be available in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

The play – not quite a one-woman show, but very nearly – features Schreck as she recounts her teenage, tuition-paying fascination with Constitutional debate competitions. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Constitution uses both comedy and intense personal reflection to chart the impact the founding document has had on four generations of women in Schreck’s family.

Actress-playwright Heidi Schreck’s acclaimed play “What the Constitution Means to Me,” which earned two Tony Award nominations during last year, is the latest Broadway hit to head to an online streaming service.

A filmed version of Schreck’s play, directed by Marielle Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) last summer during the final week of the show’s five-month run at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater, will premiere on Oct. 16 on Amazon Prime, the company announced Thursday. The show is expected to stream in more than 240 countries worldwide.

Amazon Studios has also signed a new overall deal with Schreck to create content that will premiere exclusively on Prime Video.

Schreck also stars in the play, relating how she earned her college tuition as a teenager by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. She resurrects her teenage self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of...

Exclusive: Big Beach, the company that brought us Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Lulu Wang’s Independent Spirit Award-winning The Farewell, has set an adaptation of the memoir Running A Thousand Miles For Freedom by William and Ellen Craft. The feature will be titled 1000 Miles and Hanelle M. Culpepper is set to direct with Selwyn Seyfu Hinds penning the script.

1000 Miles is the true story of the aforementioned William and Ellen Craft, an enslaved couple that go on a daring thousand-mile escape to freedom from Georgia to Boston by hiding in plain sight with Ellen disguised as a white male slave owner and her husband, William, passing as her slave. The story follows their journey as they fight the terror of discovery, the dangerous men on their tail and the complications the ruse brings to their relationship.

“It’s simply astounding to think about a...

Exclusive: Marielle Heller and Big Beach, the respective director and producers of last year’s Mister Rogers pic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, are reteaming for a limited series about a serial sexual harasser and his female employees.

Heller will direct Five Women, which is based on an episode of the National Public Radio show and podcast This American Life. She also serves as showrunner and executive producer through her new shingle Defiant by Nature, which is under a first-look deal with Big Beach that calls for her to develop new series and specials, some of which she will direct.

Reported and produced by Chana Joffe-Walt, Five Women follows the lives of several women who have little in common except for their boss, who sexually harasses them. Before those troubling encounters, though, how did their personal histories affect the way they dealt with his harassment? Who they were before...

In today’s TV news roundup, Bet Plus renewed “Bigger” for a second season, and Netflix announced premiere dates for “On My Block” Season 3 and “Feel Good.”

Casting

Josh Hartnett has been cast in Quibi’s upcoming series “Die Hart.“ Hartnett will play a fictionalized character of himself, an alumnus of the action school where Kevin Hart is training. Harnett’s character has returned to the school to participate in Hart’s training where he is trying to become an action star in a movie. The series follows Hart who no longer wants to be the comedic sidekick and tries to land his dream job as the leading man action star. However, he must train at the world’s greatest action star school where he is pushed to his limits by the action school coach (John Travolta) and a “tough-minded” student (Nathalie Emmanuel). Hartnett is represented by ICM, Management 360,...

Starz said Tuesday that Season 3 of its original series Vida will premiere on April 26 at 9 Pm. Six episodes of the East L.A.-set drama will air week-to-week on Starz in the U.S. and Canada and on StarzPlay across Europe and Latin America.

The show created by Tanya Saracho had been renewed for a third season less than a week after its Season 2 premiere in May 2019; the show has continued to boost Hispanic viewership numbers at the Lionsgate-owned network. The new season wrapped filming in Los Angeles in November, and was written by an all-Latinx writers room and helmed by Latina directors Jenée Lamarque and Saracho.

Vida stars Melissa Barrera, Mishel Prada, Ser Anzoategui, Chelsea Rendon, Carlos Miranda and Roberta Colindrez. The upcoming season returns with Emma (Prada) and Lyn (Barrera) riding on the heels of success. The bar is booming and their love lives are actually flourishing…...

The 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards were handed out Saturday in recognition of the best in indie films from 2019.

Willem Dafoe won the first award, Best Supporting Male, for his role in “The Lighthouse.” “Uncut Gems” won Best Editing, while the Best Documentary award went to “American Factory.” Best Cinematography went to Jarin Blaschke for “The Lighthouse.”

Kelly Reichardt was awarded The Bonnie Award, which recognizes a mid-career female director with a $50,000 unrestricted grant. The John Cassavetes Award, given to the best feature made for under $500,000, was given to “Give Me Liberty.”

Also Read: Independent Spirit Awards 2020: Aubrey Plaza's Best Jokes (So Far)

“Parasite” won Best International Film. Zhao Shuzhen won Best Supporting Female for her role in “The Farewell.” “Marriage Story” won Best Screenplay. Adam Sandler won Best Male Lead for his performance in “Uncut Gems” and Renée Zellweger received the Best Female Lead for her role in “Judy.

“Parasite” has emerged at the 18th Annual Gold Derby Film Awards as the big winner, prevailing 6 times out of its 11 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Bong Joon Ho), Best Original Screenplay (Bong and Han Jin Won), Best Ensemble Cast and Best Foreign Language Film. Scroll down to see the rest of this year’s winners in all 22 categories, and watch our complete winners announcement above.

These awards were decided by more than 2,400 registered Gold Derby users, and this is the second year in a row that those savvy movie fans — who probably see more movies every year than some Oscar voters — have picked a foreign-language film in the top category. Last year “Roma” won Best Picture along with three other awards. Now “Parasite’s” total now makes it the most honored foreign-language film in the history of our kudos.

Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions...

Culver City, Calif. – Put on your comfiest cardigan and spend some quality time with Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks when he takes on the role of a lifetime as childhood icon and broadcast legend Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, coming to digital February 4 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD February 18 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital releases are loaded with bonus features sure to please both longtime fans of Mister Rogers and newcomers to the Land of Make-Believe, including over 15 minutes of additional scenes, an adorable blooper reel, an all-new featurette starring Daniel Tiger, filmmaker commentary and a behind-the-scenes look at the work that went into bringing this heartwarming and inspiring story to life.

Tom Hanks portrays Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true...

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Parasite” are the top movies at the 2020 Gold Derby Film Awards with 11 nominations apiece including Best Picture. But who else made the cut? Watch our nominations announcement above, and scroll down for our complete list of contenders in 22 categories. You can vote for the winners right now here in our predictions center. You have until Midnight Eastern Time on February 1 to cast your votes. Feel free to jump right in because you can keep editing your votes as often as you like. No votes are final until polls close on February 1.

These nominations were decided by more than 2,700 registered Gold Derby users who voted for their favorites on a preferential ballot (you can register here if you’re not signed up already). The winners will now be determined by our users using a simple plurality vote. You’ll no longer rank your favorites...

Humanistic, life-affirming stories don’t sound like a Hollywood business plan, but for the last 15 years it’s worked for financier Big Beach. On paper, partners Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf produce titles that may not seem overtly commercial — but they have a knack for finding concepts that connect with audiences.

For 2019, they backed Lulu Wang’s 2019 Mandarin-language drama “The Farewell,” which is nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe as well as Best Actress Musical or Comedy for frontrunner Awkwafina, as well as Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” which has Tom Hanks vying for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Fred Rogers.

“We have very specific taste,” said Turtletaub. “People want to see stories that touch their heart. That’s hard to define.”

These have ranged from “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006) and “Safety Not Guaranteed” (2012) to “The Purists,” a 2019 play that Billy Porter directed in Boston,...

Humanistic, life-affirming stories don’t sound like a Hollywood business plan, but for the last 15 years it’s worked for financier Big Beach. On paper, partners Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf produce titles that may not seem overtly commercial — but they have a knack for finding concepts that connect with audiences.

For 2019, they backed Lulu Wang’s 2019 Mandarin-language drama “The Farewell,” which is nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe as well as Best Actress Musical or Comedy for frontrunner Awkwafina, as well as Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” which has Tom Hanks vying for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Fred Rogers.

“We have very specific taste,” said Turtletaub. “People want to see stories that touch their heart. That’s hard to define.”

These have ranged from “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006) and “Safety Not Guaranteed” (2012) to “The Purists,” a 2019 play that Billy Porter directed in Boston,...