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Jack Nicholson has built his reputation off of doing only what he wanted and capturing souls in turmoil at the hands of a cruel society. His manic passion served as an inspiring lightning bolt that made audience members feel in touch with their inner wild child. The surprise is that some of the best work of his career was actually in the latter half, when he was older and wiser, with a more refined touch on just how much of his inner wild child needed to be let out. By the 21st century, he'd formed a new niche in playing sad and defeated men grasping for an identity, men whose unique fire had long since burned out or were on the brink of being snuffed, like in the underseen The Pledge. Sean Penn's strongest directorial effort came out with a whimper upon release, but Nicholson's performance was so powerful...

With the Film Independent Spirit Awards just announcing our nominees, we thought it was a good time to focus our Member Lens series on a Member who is a past winner as well.

Dale Dickey is a has always loved acting. She started at age 9 in a university sponsored performance of The Sound of Music, then went on to New York, then eventually working on films like Sean Penn’s The Pledge and TV shows like My Name Is Earl.

In 2010, Debra Granik’s Winters Bone was a smash hit and indie darling. It was nominated for seven Spirit Awards and won two, including Best Supporting Female for Dickey’s performance as the dangerous Merab.

Since then, she’s been a staple in both indie films, TV shows and everything in between. In the last few years, she’s shifted from playing supporting roles to leading films, with her first lead performance,...

Sean Penn, the Oscar-winning star of Mystic River, Milk, and Dead Man Walking, has decided to play some hardball before awards season officially begins. The outspoken actor had some choice words for the Academy and Hollywood, the latter of which he called "afraid" of acknowledging the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice.

Penn appeared at the Marrakech Film Festival where he received an honorary award for his decades-long career. Per Variety, Penn used the opportunity to slam the Academy for looking down on Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, a film about Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn during his early years as a real estate mogul in New York City. At first, Penn blasted the organization for having such biased criteria:

“The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination...

Prime Video has announced that the Australian Original The Office will premiere on October 18. The comedy series is the thirteenth version of the global hit juggernaut franchise and has the first-ever female lead in the iconic role, comedian and actor Felicity Ward who plays Hannah Howard, Managing Director of Flinley Craddick.

All eight episodes of The Office Australia will be available on October 18 exclusively on Prime Video in 240 countries and territories worldwide (excluding the U.S.) in the Prime membership.

Prime Video also released a first-look image from the series, which features an ensemble of Australian and New Zealand comedy talent. Starring alongside Felicity Ward is Edith Poor, Steen Raskopoulos, Shari Sebbens, and Josh Thomson.

Jonny Brugh, Susan Ling Young, Raj Labade (Appetite), Lucy Schmidt (The Pledge), Zoe Terakes, Pallavi Sharda (The Twelve), and Claude Jabbour round out the regular cast.

Susie Youssef, Justin Rosniiak, Carlo Ritchie (Mikki vs the World), Rick Donald,...

The Australian edition of “The Office” — the 13th global incarnation of the iconic comedy series — is taking shape, with Prime Video setting a release date and releasing a first-look at its lead, Felicity Ward.

The “Time Bandits” and “Wakefield” star will play Hannah Howard, managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick and the first female lead of “The Office” franchise. All eight episodes will become available globally on Oct. 18 via Prime Video (excluding the U.S.).

Starring alongside Ward is an ensemble of Australian and New Zealand comedy talent. The cast includes Edith Poor (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”), Steen Raskopoulos (“The Duchess”), Shari Sebbens (“The Sapphires”), Josh Thomson (“How to Please a Woman”), Jonny Brugh (“Thor: Love and Thunder”), Susan Ling Young (“Reckoning”, “Hungry Ghosts”), Raj Labade (“Appetite”), Lucy Schmidt (“The Pledge”), Zoe Terakes (“Talk to Me”), Pallavi Sharda (“The Twelve”) and Claude Jabbour (“Last King of the Cross”). Meanwhile,...

Two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn has excelled in a number of fields, including acting, writing and directing. But it’s his career as a performer that has brought him the most acclaim. Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films as an actor, ranked worst to best.

Penn entered the Oscar race for the first time with his performance as a death row inmate in Tim Robbins’s “Dead Man Walking” (1995), for which he competed in Best Actor. Subsequent lead nominations as a jazz guitarist in Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown” (1999) and a mentally handicapped father in “I Am Sam” (2001) quickly followed.

He hit the Oscar jackpot with Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” (2003), which cast him as a criminal grieving the murder of his daughter. Just five years later, he returned to the winner’s circle with his lead role in “Milk” (2008), Gus Van Sant’s...

Sean Penn rarely grants interviews — he and the press haven’t always gotten along, to say the least — but last week, at his home in Malibu, the venerated actor and filmmaker sat down with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast for an in-depth conversation about his life, career and most recent project, Daddio, an indie, released last Friday, of which he is particularly proud.

Seated in a small, light-filled room that he recently re-designed himself, the walls of which are covered with photos of his late parents, his two children and himself alongside many of world figures he has encountered in his travels as an activist, Penn, sporting a shock of white hair, puffed on cigarettes, spoke softly and was far warmer than his reputation would suggest he’d be. At 63, thrice divorced and currently single, he seems to have found a measure of peace — at least when one...

Exclusive: Leviathan Productions has enlisted Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, creators of the hit Israeli series Fauda, to script October 7th, a narrative feature telling the harrowing true story of Noam Tibon.

A grandfather and retired Israeli general, Tibon garnered international attention when he rescued his family from the hands of Hamas terrorists who had invaded their kibbutz — with his story, capturing the Israeli spirit of resilience in the face of adversity.

Noam Tibon, the subject of Leviathan’s October 7th

Ben Cosgrove will produce the film telling that story for Leviathan Productions, with Jessica Kasmer-Jacobs and Talia Harris Ram exec producing. Noam Tibon and his son, Amir Tibon, will serve as consultants on the project.

October 7, 2023 was of course the shocking and tragic day when Hamas launched a coordinated land, sea, and air assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip, resulting in nearly 1,200 deaths, primarily of Israeli citizens. Marking...

Exclusive: Leviathan Productions has acquired the remake rights to L’Homme de la Cave (The Man in the Basement), the French psychological thriller from director Philippe Le Guay, which was released just last year.

Inspired by a true story, the film is about a Jewish couple who sell their basement to a history professor, only to discover his secret life as an antisemitic conspiracy theorist. As the couple struggles to unwind the sale, the professor starts to indoctrinate their impressionable teenaged daughter.

Marc Weitzmann, Le Guay and Gilles Taurand wrote the script for the original film, with Anne Dominique Toussaint producing. Rights were acquired from Tournellovision and the remake will be produced by Ben Cosgrove, Frederic Golchan and Neal Israel.

Founded by veteran film producer Cosgrove and bestselling author Josh Foer, Leviathan Productions is an independent production company focused on acquiring and developing mass-market films and television content based on Jewish history,...

Though based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1958 crime novella The Pledge (which was also the source for Sean Penn’s 2001 film of the same name), György Fehér’s Twilight plays more like an existential horror film than a noir or police procedural. Indeed, the ins and outs of the investigation into the mysterious murder of a child are of little concern to Fehér, who crafts a mood piece that’s keyed to the aura of dread and despair that grips a community in the wake of this and other similar murders.

Set in a small, remote Hungarian town surrounded by vast hills and dense thickets of trees, Twilight exists in a sort of metaphorical purgatory. Throughout, the film’s spare black-and-white images, deliberate pacing, and glacial camera movements, coupled with the near-constant rumbling ambiance that dominates the soundtrack, brilliantly conjure how an unseen but ubiquitous evil haunts the townsfolk. Long tracking...

Benedict Fitzgerald, the co-writer of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, has died. He was 74.

Fitzgerald died Jan. 17 after a long illness at his home in Marsala, Sicily, his cousin Nancy Morgan Ritter told The Hollywood Reporter.

Best known for his work on Gibson’s 2004 Biblical epic, the highest-grossing Christian film, as well as the highest-grossing independent film of all time, Fitzgerald’s other credits include co-writing the screenplay for John Huston’s Wise Blood (1979), the adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s novel.

Born on March 9, 1949, in New York, Fitzgerald was born into a literary household. His deeply Catholic mother, Sally, was a writer and editor and his father, Robert, was a poet, United States Poet Laureate (1984-1985), critic, and famed translator of classic ancient Greek and Latin texts, who was responsible for perhaps the most well-known translation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

In the late 1950s, Fitzgerald’s family...

M3GAN (Universal Pictures), Taken 3 (20th Century Studios), Paddington 2 (Warner Bros.), Cloverfield (Paramount Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club (AP)

Historically and annually speaking, January is a bad month for Hollywood movies. It’s a “dump month,” that time of year when the major studios offload the projects in which they have no faith.

Exclusive: Leviathan Productions has hired Jared Sleisenger as Vice President of Production, Deadline has learned. In his new role, focused on Leviathan’s TV slate, Sleisenger will work across development and production.

The entertainment veteran joins from CrossCheck Studios, a Gen Z focused production company with a development deal at Prime Video. During his time at that company, he led film and TV development efforts across their scripted and unscripted slates, working with distribution partners including Amazon, Paramount, Peacock, and STXFilms. Prior to that, he worked as a development executive at Paramount Television Studios.

Most recently, Sleisenger served as a co-producer on Alex Edelman’s acclaimed one-man show Just For Us during its Broadway run at the Hudson Theatre.

“I’m incredibly excited to welcome Jared to our team here Leviathan,” said CEO Ben Cosgrove. “His deep knowledge about the TV industry, thoughtful creative instincts, and tireless work ethic have...

Exclusive: Amidst the continuing tragedy of the Israel-Hamas war, Leviathan Production has entered development on a feature adaptation of Henry Ford’s War on Jews and the Legal Battles Against Hate Speech, a historical work penned by Victoria Saker Woeste.

The film will tell the story of the campaign of antisemitism waged by automotive pioneer Henry Ford throughout the 1920s. It was in 1925 that Aaron Sapiro, a self-made lawyer and activist, sued Ford for libel. After a dramatic court case that gripped the nation, Sapiro forced Ford to shut down his antisemitic newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, and apologize publicly to the Jewish people.

Stanford University Press published Henry Ford’s War on Jews in 2012. Jackie Krentzman brought the project to Leviathan and will be involved as a producer.

A titan of industry who made automobiles accessible to the middle-class American through his Ford Motor Company, Ford purchased his hometown paper,...

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn star in Christy Hall's Daddio, a film about two strangers having a deep conversation during a cab ride in New York City. Hall believes that opening up to a taxi driver is a common occurrence in the Big Apple because people feel comfortable baring their souls to someone they will never see again. Hall praises Penn's multidimensional performance as the cab driver, who is both deeply charming and wildly offensive, while Johnson brings a remarkable complexity to her character in the film.

In Christy Hall's Daddio, Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn star as two strangers who dive into a deep conversation during a cab ride. Initially written as a play, the one location film stars just Penn and Johnson, as cab driver and passenger, respectively, and follows their commute from New York City's JFK Airport to midtown Manhattan. According to Entertainment Weekly, who shared...

Rob Young, a Canadian sound mixer whose 40-year career in the industry included an Oscar nomination for his work on the Clint Eastwood best picture winner Unforgiven, has died. He was 76.

Young died June 11 in Albi, France, of complications from a fall in Morocco while on a food tour, his wife, Yvonne Young, announced.

Young also was nominated for BAFTA awards for Unforgiven (1992) and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), for a Cinema Audio Society prize for Joe Johnston’s Jumanji (1995), for a Genie Award for Phillip Borsos’ The Grey Fox (1983) and for a Golden Reel Award for Bryan Singer’s X2 (2003).

The New Brunswick native mixed Roxanne (1987) and The Russia House (1990) for director Fred Schepisi, the first two First Blood films in 1982 and ’85 for Ted Kotcheff and George P. Cosmatos, respectively, and the first two Night at the Museum movies for Shawn Levy in 2006 and ’09 (not to mention The Pink Panther...

Though based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1958 crime novella The Pledge (which was also the source for Sean Penn’s 2001 film of the same name), György Fehér’s Twilight plays more like an existential horror film than a noir or police procedural. Indeed, the ins and outs of the investigation into the mysterious murder of a child are of little concern to Fehér, who crafts a mood piece that’s keyed to the aura of dread and despair that grips a community in the wake of this and other similar murders.

Set in a small, remote Hungarian town surrounded by vast hills and dense thickets of trees, Twilight exists in a sort of metaphorical purgatory. Throughout, the film’s spare black-and-white images, deliberate pacing, and glacial camera movements, coupled with the near-constant rumbling ambiance that dominates the soundtrack, brilliantly conjure how an unseen but ubiquitous evil haunts the townsfolk. Long tracking...

U.S. actor Robin Wright will be awarded the President’s Award at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s closing ceremony. In honor of Wright, it will screen “The Princess Bride.”

Wright is best known for her performance in Netflix series “House of Cards.” She earned three Golden Globe nominations and a win in 2014. She earned five Screen Actors Guild award nominations for the show, and received five consecutive Emmy nominations.

In 2017, Wright played Lieutenant Joshi in “Blade Runner 2049,” and Amazon warrior General Antiope in “Justice League” and Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman.” The following year, she reprised her role as Antiope in “Wonder Woman 1984.” She will be seen this Fall starring opposite Millie Bobby Brown in the fantasy film “Damsel,” and co-starring with Tom Hanks in “Here,” directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Her first two nominations, a Golden Globe and a SAG, came as early as 1995 for her...

“Imbalances of power are dangerous and we care about them,” BBC Director General Tim Davie said today, as he was questioned on the Phillip Schofield debate and accusations of toxicity on This Morning.

Speaking to the influential Culture, Media & Sport Committee (Cmsc), Davie acknowledged there are “imbalances” in the “strange TV industry, where you have people earning talent salaries verses producer salaries.”

“Your concerns are well placed,” he told Committee Chair Caroline Dinenage. “Imbalances of power are dangerous and we care about them. Culturally I am very direct about that not being something I want to see at this organization.”

Davie said he speaks from experience. As Acting Director General 10 years ago, he shepherded the BBC through the first few months of the Jimmy Savile scandal. More recently, he has appointed an independent Kc to probe the conduct of former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood following accusations about misconduct taking...

Finally, an all-but-lost masterpiece lives again.

Hungarian filmmaker György Fehér, a protégé of his fellow countryman and master director Béla Tarr, died in 2002, but more than two decades later, his strange and stirring anti-mystery “Twilight” has been restored for the world to see.

You might recognize the story of a retiring detective pulled back in for One Last Job as he’s pushed to obsessive ends over a dead girl found missing in an ominous forest. “Twilight” is based on a 1955 novella by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt that itself was adapted by Sean Penn into the 2001 film “The Pledge,” starring Jack Nicholson as the wizened alcoholic private eye chasing a serial killer who may or may not exist.

In Feher’s “Twilight,” the detective is played by Péter Haumann, and he’s looking for a murderer known only as The Giant and who only seems to exist in scratch drawings...

The cast of the political thriller miniseries Gaslit boasts two Oscar winners alongside other talented actors with varied film and TV experience. Ranking among the best television adaptations of podcasts, Gaslit takes inspiration from the first season of Slow Burn. The narrative focuses on Martha Mitchell, the real-life socialite whose frank and revealing interviews played a major role in President Richard Nixon’s downfall during the Watergate scandal. Gaslit also incorporates the stories of other chief figures of the era such as White House attorney John Dean, Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and G. Gordon Liddy, the leader of the Democratic National Committee burglary at the Watergate Complex.

Like many other fact-based stories that explore the Watergate scandal, the Gaslit cast largely includes actors playing real-life personalities. Even though Nixon is kept in the shadows, Gaslit puts the spotlight on its central figure as well as the lawyers, FBI agents,...

Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1958 novel “The Pledge” has proven to be especially durable to adaptations over the years. More well-known of these is Sean Penn’s 2000 film “The Pledge,” a grisly Jack Nicholson starrer that, if anything, is perhaps remembered of the promise that Penn held as director in the early aughts before tumbling down the rabbit hole of political melodrama. Penn’s film provides a fascinating counterpoint to György Fehér’s recently rediscovered “Twilight,” a 1990 Hungarian reimagining of Dürrenmatt’s critique of detective fiction.

Continue reading ‘Twilight’ Review: Newly Restored György Fehér 1990s Film Is A Classic, Hypnotic Noir at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Ben Cosgrove and Josh Foer’s Leviathan Productions has tapped Daniel Handler, the visionary behind the hit children’s book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, to pen a contemporary horror film based on the Golem legend from Jewish folklore, which Cosgrove will produce.

Considered the Jewish Frankenstein, the Golem’s story is one of the most enduring legends from Jewish tradition, and has been the subject of numerous books and plays. The film updates the story, which first appeared in 15th century Prague, to the present day, where a young woman on a college campus finds herself terrorized by a creature with a mysterious past.

Handler wrote the A Series of Unfortunate Events books under the pen name Lemony Snicket, seeing them be adapted into both a hit movie from Paramount, as well as a Peabody Award-winning Netflix series. He’s also written books including The Basic Eight,...

With the great auteur Béla Tarr no longer directing movies, the newly restored Twilight, by one of his compatriots in the small Hungarian moviemaking community, arrives as the next best thing. Restored and taking its first stateside theatrical bow (beginning with a run in New York) 33 years after it first hit festivals, György Fehér’s existentialist crime drama is drawn from the same cinematic DNA as Tarr’s distinct body of work. This is not pre-chewed, easily digestible entertainment but patience-testing and austere, built with long takes and pared-down dialogue. Twilight is a procedural with little procedure and, by design, no satisfying answers. The mood it builds is soul-shaking.

Call it Twin Peaks without the jokes or the colorful characters — or the color. Shot in gripping black-and-white, the film unfolds in remote towns in thickly forested mountains where evil hangs in the air, and its narrative revolves around a murdered 8-year-old girl.

Upon completing duties as a debut screenwriter, Friedrich Dürrenmatt celebrated a job well done by promptly rewriting the whole thing. The Swiss playwright and novelist had bent to studio demands and relinquished control of his script, It Happened in Broad Daylight, to Hans Jacoby, a veteran Hollywood writer who knew what studios wanted and gave it to them. Dürrenmatt collaborated with Jacoby and turned in a by-the-numbers detective story where clues lead to the perp and justice was served. But he didn’t believe in it. He had come from the traditions of Brecht’s epic theater and German philosophy, neither of which promise happy endings. So he rewrote his screenplay into a short novel, The Pledge, the new opening of which introduces a crime writer who’s instantly berated for his predictable, unrealistic garbage. Now the characters reenact It Happened in Broad Daylight‘s story only to discover even...

Jack Nicholson has had one of the more varied careers in Hollywood. He has appeared in smaller, intense independent dramas, broad comedies, Oscar-bait films, surreal experimental movies, and several well-moneyed Hollywood blockbusters. Indeed, Nicholson was involved in one of the more notable blockbusters of all time, Tim Burton's 1989 film "Batman," where he played the Joker. Famously, Nicholson managed to negotiate a cut of the film's merchandising profits into his salary, making him a very, very rich man.

Nicholson has a talent for playing intense types of characters. He can be friendly or threatening, but he is an expert in taking up a room. In a way, his performance in Alexander Payne's 2002 dramedy "About Schmidt" might be his best, as it's the one notable time he's played a deliberately dull, buttoned-down character.

Given Nicholson's stature as a celebrity, one might think the actor had free reign to select whatever projects he wanted.

Before Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s romance for the ages––and before there was Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman, and Reese Witherspoon’s 1998 neo-noir––there was Béla Tarr collaborator György Fehér’s gem Twilight. The Hungarian drama, virtually unseen since its 1990 premiere at Locarno Film Festival, has now received a 4K restoration and will begin its first-ever U.S. run at Film at Lincoln Center starting April 21. Ahead of the Arbelos release, the new trailer has arrived.

Shot by Miklós Gurbán (Werckmeister Harmonies), who supervised the restoration by National Film Institute – Hungarian Film Archive and FilmLab, supervised by Gurbán, here’s the synopsis:” After discovering the murdered body of a young girl deep in a mountainous forest, a hardened homicide detective pushes himself to increasingly obsessive ends in his quest to catch the serial killer – known only as “the Giant”—responsible for the crime.”

“I want to show...

It’s transfer time for Phil Dunster, who has played AFC Richmond’s star striker Jamie Tartt on the Emmy-winning comedy drama Ted Lasso for three seasons. The actor is joining Gugu Mbatha-Raw on Season 2 of her psychological thriller Surface, Breaking Baz can reveal.

Both Ted Lasso and Surface are part of the Apple TV+ universe.

Surface launched on the streamer last summer and audiences were intrigued with the tale created by Veronica West (High Fidelity) about a woman called Sophie (played by Mbatha-Raw) who has amnesia after a suicide attempt in San Francisco.

Sophie is a medical professional and resides in a swanky house in a tony district of San Francisco. The Hitchcockian mystery of it all is: If Sophie’s life was so seemingly perfect, why did she try to end it by jumping from a boat into the ocean?

“It’s like I’ve woken up in someone else’s life,...

Back in 2001, Sean Penn found himself next to Jack Nicholson in a speeding car on the way to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two actors were in Russia for the world premiere of “The Pledge” at the Moscow Film Festival. The Penn-directed psychological drama starred Nicholson as a retiring police detective who vows to catch the killer of a young child. Penn recently spoke to The Independent about his anxiety-inducing journey to meet Putin.

“We were put in a convoy,” Penn said. “We knew that Putin was going to be the honored guest. In the nature of that time and space, we accepted the invitation. We got in this convoy, and we were going as fast as they wanted to drive, with no care for whether it might have presented danger in the villages we drove through.”

“When farmers with pony-driven carts were trying to come across, the security...

Sean Penn is opening up about what he really thinks of Russian leader Vladimir Putin after meeting the dictator in 2001.

Penn detailed driving with Putin over 20 years ago after the Moscow Film Festival premiere of his neo-noir film “The Pledge.” Actor Jack Nicholson was also in attendance and the duo traveled with Putin to Oscar-winning Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov’s estate.

“We were put in a convoy. We knew that Putin was going to be the honored guest,” Penn told The Independent. “In the nature of that time and space, we accepted the invitation. We got in this convoy. And we were going as fast as they wanted to drive, with no care for whether it might have presented danger in the villages we drove through. When farmers with pony-driven carts were trying to come across, the security people in our vehicles would lean out the window to baton them away.

Arbelos, a Los Angeles-based boutique film distribution company, has acquired North American rights to the new 4K restoration of Béla Tarr collaborator György Fehér’s landmark but long unseen Hungarian masterpiece “Twilight” (“Szürkület”). The restored version of the film world premiered in the Berlinale’s Classics strand on Monday. Hungary’s National Film Institute handled the sale.

Fehér, who made only two theatrical features, shot the black-and-white film at the end of the 1980s. Based on the crime novella “The Pledge” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, it is the story of a retired detective who uses a girl as bait to try to catch a serial killer.

The 4K restoration, using the original 35mm camera negative and magnetic sound tapes, was carried out at Hungary’s National Film Institute. The color grading was supervised by the film’s cinematographer, Miklós Gurbán.

The film premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival in...

Sean Penn once met Vladimir Putin. Back in 2001, when he and Jack Nicholson went to the Moscow Film Festival for the Russian premiere of Penn’s film, The Pledge, the president turned up to meet them. Even then, more than 20 years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Penn had a very bad feeling about the politician he now calls a “creepy little bully”.

During their time in Russia, Penn and Nicholson were driven to the dacha (or country house) belonging to Oscar-winning Russian filmmaker and Putin cheerleader, Nikita Mikhalkov.

“We were put in a convoy,” Penn remembers. “We knew that Putin was going to be the honoured guest. In the nature of that time and space, we accepted the invitation. We got in this convoy. And we were going as fast as they wanted to drive, with no care for whether it might have presented danger in the villages we drove through.

Very few personalities in Hollywood are as controversial as Sean Penn. One of the most gifted actors of his generation, Penn’s also been a lightning rod for controversy, with his often antagonistic relationship with the press and sometimes misguided moves, such as his now infamous interview with drug baron El Chapo. Yet, he’s also a noted humanitarian, participating in rescue efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and being a tireless advocate for Haiti following the 2010 Earthquake. He’s also been an outspoken supporter of Ukrainian president Zelensky.

In this episode of Wtf Happened to this Celebrity, we look at the scope of Sean Penn’s career. We chart his earlier days as perhaps the most talented young actor to emerge in the early eighties, stealing scenes in Taps and later becoming a star thanks to turns in movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, At Close Range,...

Christopher Nolan’s movies share themes, narrative and visual styles, and these and more have made way for a wild theory that explains how Nolan planned his career and divided it into three parts. Christopher Nolan’s career as a filmmaker began with short films in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with his feature directorial arriving in 1998 with the crime thriller Following. Nolan’s big break happened two years later with the psychological thriller Memento, which established three of his most frequently used themes: memory, time, and identity.

Following the release of Insomnia, Nolan explored the superhero genre with his Dark Knight trilogy, with The Dark Knight considered one of the best superhero movies ever made. Nolan has continued to leave his mark in film history with movies like Inception, Interstellar, and The Prestige, all of them addressing the aforementioned themes plus others like dreams and usually in non-linear...

Exclusive: Isaac Katz has been appointed as Vice President of Production at Leviathan Productions, the independent production company launched last fall that focuses on creating premium film and TV content based on Jewish stories.

Katz joins from Provenance Media, where he’d been since 2018, spearheading the development of film and TV projects with such partners as HBO, Anonymous Content and Tribeca Productions, among others. Prior to that, he worked as Creative Executive at Tribeca Productions, and in his new role, will oversee all content production activities for Leviathan.

“Isaac is an incredibly bright, passionate and resourceful executive,” said Leviathan’s co-founder Ben Cosgrove, “and we could not be more excited to have him join our team to help us bring the most engaging Jewish stories to life through film and television.”

Founded by veteran film producer Cosgrove and bestselling author Josh Foer, Leviathan has several projects in development for both film and TV.

John Dartigue, a 22-year Warner Bros executive who rose to VP Publicity and supervised campaigns for such hits as The Fugitive and The Dark Knight and after starting his career at United Artists and working on the first 10 James Bonds pics, has died. He was 82.

A family spokesperson told Deadline that Dartigue died November 9 in Los Angeles after a sudden illness.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story Ezra Miller Pleads Not Guilty To Felony Burglary Charges; 'Flash' Star Faces 26 Years In Vermont Prison If Convicted Related Story Carl Samrock Dies: Former Warners Publicity & Home Video Exec, New York Times Photographer Was 81

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dartigue’s family moved to the U.S. when he was 5 and would become a U.S. citizen in 1973. He launched his career in 1965 at United Artists through Robert Benjamin, the company’s co-chairman and a family friend.

Rihanna is asking Johnny Depp to take a bow at her upcoming Savage X Fenty runway show.

TMZ first reported that Depp will be a featured surprise guest in the Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 fashion show, streaming on Prime Video November 9. IndieWire has confirmed that Depp will be featured in the show’s “star” moments, similar to Cindy Crawford’s appearance in the 2021 showcase, via Depp’s representatives.

A source told TMZ that Depp has already filmed his “cool and chic” cameo and will mark the first man in Savage X Fenty history to be a featured “star” modeling the brand’s men’s collection.

Other stars slated to appear in the fashion show are models Cara Delevingne and Irina Shayk, plus “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” star Winston Duke, “Abbott Elementary” Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph, Marsai Martin, Taraji P. Henson, and more. The Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 show will...

Eileen Ryan has died at the age of 94, just a few days ahead of her 95th birthday.

The actor and mother of Sean, Chris and Michael Penn died on Sunday (9 October) at her Malibu, California home, according to her publicist.

On Monday 10 October, singer Michael tweeted a photo of his mother with the caption: “We lost mom yesterday.”

Born in New York on 16 October 1927, Ryan met fellow actor Leo Penn in 1975 at rehearsals for the production of The Iceman Cometh. They got married within months and were together for 41 years until Leo’s death in 1998.

Ryan made her TV debut in 1955’s Goodyear Televisions Playhouse and later became known for her roles in films such as 1989’s Parenthood, alongside Steve Martin, and 2001’s The Pledge, starring Jack Nicholson.

During her nearly six-decade-long screen career, some of her highlights included playing Sean and Chris’ grandmother in 1986’s crime drama At Close...

Eileen Ryan, the actor and mother of composer Michael Penn and actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn, died at her home on Oct. 9. She was 94.

Ryan’s acting work included portraying Sean and Chris’ grandmother in 1986’s “At Close Range,” as well as appearing in 1995’s “The Crossing Guard,” directed and written by Sean.

Ryan was born on Oct. 16, 1927, in New York, the daughter of nurse Rose Isabel and dentist Amerigo Giuseppe Annucci. In 1957, Ryan met director and actor Leo Penn at rehearsals for the play “Iceman Cometh.” They married a few months later, and remained together for 41 years until Leo’s death in 1998.

During her screen career, which spanned nearly six decades, Ryan guest starred on series such as “Goodyear Playhouse,” “Studio One,” “The Detectives,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Outlaws,” “Bonanza,” “Matlock,” “NYPD Blue” and “Men of a Certain Age.”

In addition to “At Close Range” and “The Crossing Guard,...

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Eileen Ryan, an actress who appeared on Broadway and in films and TV shows in collaborations with her late husband, actor-director Leo Penn, and her two-time Oscar-winning son, Sean Penn, died Sunday at her home in Malibu, a publicist announced. She was 94.

Survivors also include another son, composer-songwriter Michael Penn. Her youngest boy, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006.

Ryan gave up her acting career — once turning down the lead in a John Frankenheimer-directed film — to become a full-time mother. However, she returned to take small parts in such projects as At Close Range (1986), where she played the grandmother of characters portrayed by Sean and Christopher.

One of three sisters, Eileen Annucci was born in New York on Oct. 16, 1927. She made her Broadway debut in 1953 in Sing Till Tomorrow, then worked alongside Judith Anderson, George C. Scott and Larry Hagman in 1958 in Comes a Day.

Exclusive: Veteran film producer Ben Cosgrove and bestselling author Josh Foer have founded independent production company Leviathan Productions which will focus on creating premium film and television content based on Jewish stories.

Back by private funding, Leviathan has a plan to acquire and develop mass-market films and TV content based on Jewish history, folklore, and literature, as well as stories about Israel.

Already Leviathan has acquired a number of projects including the Leonard Slater book The Pledge, which centers around the true story of the men and women who led the underground effort in the United States to acquire and transport planes to Israel in advance of the War of Independence.

There’s also The Secret Chord, a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks about the rise and reign of King David.

Playwright Anna Ziegler will also adapt her award-winning play Photograph 51 which starred Nicole Kidman during its run in the West End,...

Exclusive: BBC Studios is rolling out an initiative to prevent bullying and stop “inappropriate behaviour” to all of its productions.

The BBC’s commercial arm has been using what it has titled The Pledge on select shows this year including Strictly Come Dancing, EastEnders and Good Omens and, on its anniversary, the move will become mandatory for all programs, which comprises thousands of hours of shows per year.

BBC Studios is also mulling using The Pledge for all of its owned indies such as Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow and Gentleman Jack producer Lookout Point.

Read at the start of production by a senior exec, The Pledge stresses respectful and inclusive behavior on set and says that the exec will fully support colleagues who raise “legitimate concerns about inappropriate behavior.” It is used prominently on call sheets and offers up free services such as the Bullying and Harassment Helpline and...

In the aftermath of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation case, Mads Mikkelsen is pondering whether Depp might return to the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise.

Mikkelsen took over the role of Gellert Grindelwald for “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” the third “Harry Potter” prequel film, after Depp lost a UK libel trial in November 2020 relating to abuse allegations from Amber Heard. (The film was released in March 2022.)

“Obviously, well, now the course has changed — he won the suit, the court [case] — so let’s see if he comes back,” Mikkelsen told Deadline about Depp’s possible return. “He might. I’m a big fan of Johnny. I think he’s an amazing actor, I think he did a fantastic job.”

Mikkelsen has been open about how “very intimidating” it was to put his spin on the franchise character Depp originated.

“I could not copy it,” Mikkelsen continued. “There was no...

Johnny Depp is returning both in front of and behind the camera.

After a first look image of Depp transforming into King Louis Xv for “Jeanne du Barry,” The Hollywood Reporter announced the Oscar winner will be helming his second feature film, 25 years after Depp directed himself and Marlon Brando in 1997’s “The Brave.”

Depp directs upcoming biopic “Modigliani” inspired by the life of painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, with the film co-produced by fellow Academy Award winner Al Pacino and Barry Navidi. Based on a play by Dennis McIntyre and adapted for the screen by Jerzy and Mary Kromolowski (“The Pledge”), “Modigliani” focuses on two days in Paris that marked a watershed moment for Modigliani’s career in 1916.

Production will begin in Europe in Spring 2023, with casting to be announced shortly.

“The saga of Mr. Modigliani’s life is one that I’m incredibly honored, and truly humbled, to bring to the screen,...

ReviewThe film is a good old chase, with a dogged policeman who’s after a crafty criminal. In fact, it felt very much like Dulquer of 'Salute' chasing after Dulquer of 'Kurup'. Sowmya RajendranA film where the hero plays the role of a police officer is usually cue for bombastic action scenes glorifying the power of the khaki uniform, with several sequences justifying custodial violence and extrajudicial killings. Dulquer Salmaan’s Salute, directed by Rosshan Andrrews and written by Bobby-Sanjay, stands out in this respect. The thriller is centered around a policeman whose conscience comes in the way of doing what is necessary to keep his job. The film begins with Aravind Karunakaran (Dulquer Salmaan), an Si who is on long leave, going to a police station to get the details of a case that he had investigated three years ago. The double murders of Martin and Sheeba had rocked...

Casting director and producer Don Phillips, who helped launch the careers of such actors as Sean Penn, Matthew McConaughey and Mary Steenburgen, passed away on Thanksgiving Day from natural causes. He would have turned 81 on Dec. 21.

Phillips received his first break when he landed an entry-level job in the casting department of filmmaker Otto Preminger’s 1971 movie Such Good Friends. Impressed by Phillips, Preminger took an ad in Variety and Backstage to praise the novice’s work on the film.

The acknowledgement led to Phillips getting hired to do extras casting on Sidney Lumet’s Serpico starring Al Pacino with his job subsequently expanding to casting the entire film. Lumet then tapped him as casting director on his next film, Dog Day Afternoon, also starring Pacino. Phillips is credited with holding out for actor John Cazale to be cast opposite Pacino as Sal.

Phillips went on to cast the cult...

Afternoon International Insiders, Max Goldbart here. It’s been another busy week but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with all the latest news and analysis. To get this sent to your inbox every Friday, sign up here.

American Film Market Trends

Solid packages: It’s hard to recall an AFM that had as many solid packages as this one. The emergence from Covid lockdowns and the lack of a market in Toronto this year have helped boost the offering. Since we were last in your inbox, we’ve also broken news of buzzy new projects from Martin McDonagh, Daisy Ridley (pictured) and Mathieu Kassovitz, and Guy Ritchie and Jake Gyllenhaal. Yesterday, we announced a new UK road trip from arthouse director Carol Morley which has Jane Campion aboard as an exec-producer. AFM has traditionally been known for its brawn, and while that is available this market, what stands out is the number of prestige dramas. Buyers we’ve spoken to have been particularly high on the scripts for movies like Firebrand and Lee.

Who runs the world?: As the market draws to a close, that leads us to another interesting – and positive – trend, which also counters the AFM norm: the number of strong female-fronted packages. Between Lee, Firebrand, MindFall, Ballerina, Role Play, Beth And Don, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Mamma Mafia, rarely can there have been as many female-fronted projects leading the slates of the major sellers. Now we wait for the deals to drop.

Climate Content Pledge

Cop-in: David Attenborough may have been appearing on TV screens for nigh on seven decades, but until now the question of what television can do to help combat global warming was on the fringes. That all changed at this week’s Cop 26 in Glasgow, as 12 UK networks signed up to a Climate Content Pledge, which includes an uprooting of commissioning processes to consider climate themes and a doubling down on shows that help audiences understand how the world can reach net zero.

‘Collective responsibility’: Signatories to the pledge include the heads of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 along with Discovery and Sky in the UK. Speaking at Cop, C4 CEO Alex Mahon said broadcasters have a “collective responsibility” and can use their different programming strengths to reach more audiences. Those strengths equate to quiz shows and entertainment for ITV, sport for Sky and, according to former scientist Mahon, Celebrity Trash Monsters for C4. UK TV truly is the home of plurality.

Middle Eastern In The Spotlight

Strike while the Irons is hot: Andreas had the exclusive on production wrapping on Cello this week, a Jeremy Irons and Tobin Bell horror that is the first in a new wave of English-language projects looking to film in Saudi Arabia, which has been ramping up its film and TV ambitions. Only a handful of sizable English-language movies have shot in the country in recent decades. The Russo Brothers’ Cherry was the biggest back in 2019 but the number of productions is growing as investment increasingly flows in and out of the controversial state, which remains a lightning rod for debate due to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and human rights abuses. Oh and something about a UK football team.

Growing interest: Among productions to shoot in the country recently are a Discovery Channel documentary on the AlUla region, narrated by Irons, and an AlUla brand campaign commercial directed by Bruno Aveillan. National Geographic is due to film two programs on the region and the area has seen multiple travel programs. This month, production is due to get underway on the Gerard Butler action-thriller Kandahar from Thunder Road, which will be one of, if not the biggest, English-language movies to shoot in the country. It’s all happening. At the Cannes Film Festival this year, Saudi officials were touting the striking AlUla valley, new production facilities and the country’s film and TV tax rebate of 35%. The nation is due to host its first major film festival next month, the Red Sea International Film Festival. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Midas Man on ice

Help!: Another hot one from Andreas this week, who had the scoop on one of the most talked about films of the moment, Midas Man, pausing production, with director Jonas Åkerlund unlikely to continue. Åkerlund is “taking a break”, according to the production, with sources indicating he is unlikely to return. More likely to come on this one as the Brian Epstein biopic seeks a new director.

New Look BBC Comedy Team

Petrie Dish: BBC Comedy Director Jon Petrie (pictured), the most powerful person in UK comedy commissioning, unveiled his new-look team this week, picking producers from some of the nation’s biggest shows in his first major intervention since taking over from Shane Allen in September. In comes Trying’s Emma Lawson, E4’s Navi Lamba and Stath Lets Flats producer Seb Barwell (temporarily), as the seven-strong team is firmed up. Petrie’s move reassembles a team that was decimated last year with a spate of departures, as his predecessor Allen, Head of Comedy Kate Daughton and Commissioning Editors Sarah Asante and Alex Moody all departed within a few weeks of each other.

Russian Out Of Space

The Challenge: Don’t miss Diana Lodderhose’s exclusive sit-down with Russian director Klim Shipenko and actor Yuliya Peresild, who last month became the first film crew to shoot scenes in Outer Space for upcoming film The Challenge. Well worth your time.

Essentials...

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Exclusive: One of Hollywood’s most colorful characters of recent decades, Elie Samaha, is making a comeback with L.A.-based Luminosity Entertainment.

Samaha, entrepreneur and producer of movies including The Whole Nine Yards, Battlefield Earth and The Pledge, is joining forces with fellow industry vets Daniel Diamond and Geno Taylor at Luminosity, which will look to finance, produce and distribute movies in the U.S., as well as handle international sales.

The company tells us it plans to develop and produce 15 films over the next two years, with budgets up to $50M per title. Genres will include action, thriller, urban, faith-based, comedy, family, fantasy and sci-fi with an eye toward diversity and global appeal.

Financing for the company includes investments by Samaha, Steven Markoff, Sherwin Jarol and Dr. David Wood. The Board of Advisors includes former Warner Bros Domestic Distribution President Dan Fellman, former William Morris Chairman Jim Wiatt...

Jefferson Richard, a line producer, production manager and assistant director with credits including The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Driven, 3000 Miles to Graceland and the rebooted Get Carter, has died. He was 74.

Richard died July 10 in his home in Johnson Canyon, Utah, his wife, Sheila Richard, announced.

Richard served as second-unit director on Maniac Cop (1988), production supervisor on Another 9 1/2 Weeks (1997), unit manager on In Too Deep (1999), production manager on Jack Nicholson’s The Pledge (2001) and executive producer of Daddy Day Camp (2007).

He also was a line producer in Mexico on the 1990s syndicated television series Acapulco H....