Author: Deadline

While discussing actors he considers his peers on a podcast recently, Oscar-winner Sean Penn took the conversation in a somewhat unexpected direction. He didn’t mention fellow Oscar-winner Daniel Day Lewis, to whom many often compare him. He reached back to a very long ago co-star with whom he says he still has a very friendly relationship. “Tom Cruise…he is a guy who pursues excellence on a very high level,” Penn replied. Penn quickly addressed the apples-to-oranges questions some might raise about the differences between the kind of indie films he makes and the blockbusters that Cruise does. “Now, I understand…

Amélie Bonnin’s romantic dramedy Leave One Day (Partir un Jour) made history at the Cannes Film Festival this evening, becoming the first debut feature to ever open the event.  It also got a five-minute-plus ovation from the crowd. Leave One Day builds on Bonnin’s 2023 César-winning short film of the same name. The romantic musical revolves around rising chef Cécile (Juliette Armanet), who is about to fulfill a lifelong ambition of opening her own signature gourmet restaurant in Paris. Cécile is forced to put the project on hold when her father suffers a heart attack and she is called back to her small…

EXCLUSIVE: Upgrade is launching international sales in Cannes on comedy The Escort from Wedding Crashers and Shanghai Knights helmer David Dobkin, and starring in-demand stand-up comedian Matt Rife. Written by Justin Adler with revisions by David Dobkin, the Black List script is a character-driven feature that follows “a reckless, flirtatious flight attendant on the brink of losing everything, who is unexpectedly tasked with minding a neurotic 14-year-old on his solo flight to boarding school. When a hurricane diverts their flight and strands them in the wrong city, the two opposites embark on a disastrous road trip that forces them to confront their fears, flaws, and what it…

Here’s a wonderful Mother’s Day story as Warner Bros./Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie flies past $900M: The entire movie started with a mother’s love for her son, noticing his passion for the create-your-own-world game. Around 2011, former Miramax and Lorne Michaels Entertainment executive Jill Messick was in between producing gigs (she was an EP on Baby Mama, Mean Girls, Hot Rod and the Oscar-winning Frida), and like many parents with millennial young children, recognized her 11-year old son Jackson’s obsession with the pixelated brick-building universe. Jill Messick REX/Shutturstock Seeing Jackson’s affinity for the game, Messick was promptly moved to cold-call Stockholm,…

More than six years into the journey of bringing Candy Darling‘s life story to the big screen, Hari Nef has taken matters into her own hands. After Deadline reported in 2022 that the actress signed on to portray the LGBTQ pioneer and Andy Warhol superstar, Nef recently gave an update on the project, which she has penned after screenwriter Stephanie Kornick was originally attached in 2019. “I want to preface everything I say about the film by saying we have zero dollars and zero cents,” she told Vogue. “We are in the very early stages of fundraising and casting.” Nef…

Limited opening per screen averages remain challenged even as the studio wide release landscape surges, but there’s a promising new entrant this week in Friendship, the A24 comedy opening on six screens. The directorial debut of writer-director Andrew DeYoung stars I Think You Should Leave comedian Tim Robinson in his first major on-screen appearance. Early screenings in New York and L.A. have sold out, along with thousands of hats reading ‘Male Friendship’, the latest merch to hit the distributor’s shopping vertical and sell out. The former SNL performer and writer’s cringey cult hit has had three seasons on Netflix. Friendship,…

As the Trump administration’s tariffs wreak havoc on Hollywood and other industries, at least one blockbuster franchise is off the hook. While discussing a new U.K. trade deal on Thursday in the Oval Office, President Trump attempted a Sean Connery impression and assured that “James Bond has nothing to worry about” with his planned 100% tariffs on foreign-made films. “As you know, we’re putting tariffs on that particular—film … the moviemakers,” he said in a clip from the press conference. “And we’re going to be doing some tariffs to get them, because a lot of them have left this country.…

As Alan Cumming makes his long-overdue return to the X-Men, it appears he’s avoided the notoriously scary MCU media training. The 3x Emmy winner might have recently let a detail slip about the upcoming Phase Six installment Avengers: Doomsday, which premieres May 1, 2026 in theaters, involving his reprised role Nightcrawler and Pedro Pascal‘s Mister Fantastic. “I was learning stunts yesterday for some fight scene and I just think, I’m 60 years old. 23 years ago, I played that superhero,” he told Buzzfeed UK. “I was kind of old for a superhero even then. And now I’m back doing it.…

EXCLUSIVE: Producer-writer-director Collin Curtis has officially launched Beverly Hills-based production company Caravanserai Pictures and revealed it is partnering with Buffalo 8.  Under the partnership, Caravanserai Pictures and distribution and production outfit Buffalo 8, a BondIt Media Capital company, will develop and package a slate of seven feature films, with in-house screenwriting and IP under Curtis’s creative direction. “We are more than excited about our launch and partnership with Buffalo 8,” said Curtis. “We are inspired by their commitment to emerging talent, which aligns well with our culture.”  “Supporting independent filmmaking at this level is what Buffalo 8 is all about, and…

Details on Donald Trump‘s desire to use tariffs to have “MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” have been thin since POTUS let loose the missive on social media late Sunday. Now it looks like Jon Voight may have given Trump partial roadmap that may provide insight into where the White House is going with all this. One of Trump’s Special Ambassadors to Hollywood, Voight and members of his team met with the president over the weekend on a proposal to revive film & TV production in the home of Hollywood. That proposal, which Deadline first told you about last week, has…