Author: Deadline

Jerome Levy and David Atlan-Jackson – co-founders of growing pan-European theatrical feature film-focused Vuelta Group – hit the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet this evening with opening film The Electric Kiss. The group’s Paris-based subsidiary Playtime is handling international sales on Pierre Salvadori’s period romantic-comedy starring Pio Marmaï, Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche, and Vimala Pons, while Vuelta Germany has taken rights for its territory. It is among 15 films debuting in Official Selection and the parallel sections with Vuelta connections. Competition title A Woman’s Life is being sold by its Brussels-based company Be For Films. Rights for James Gray’s Paper…

Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (Dune franchise) is set to star in and produce fantasy drama The Midnight Library, which will be directed by Lion filmmaker Garth Davis, we can reveal. In the big-budget “love letter to life,” Pugh per the logline will play Nora Seed, who finds herself in a library between life and death with the chance to experience all the potential lives she could have lived. Studiocanal and Blueprint Pictures are behind the project, which the former is launching for the Cannes market. The regular collaborators optioned Matt Haig’s popular novel, which has a screenplay by Olivier Award…

The artistic director of Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Poland is offering a rebuttal to Wim Wenders after the German director said filmmakers should “stay out of politics.” “I’m not going to take issue with the person that said it, but with the sentiment,” Karol Piekarczyk said on the opening night of the international documentary festival in Warsaw, referring to remarks Wenders made as president of the Berlinale jury in February. “I don’t know since when the basic human rights have become political. We didn’t make them political.” Piekarczyk added, “I think there is a deep misunderstanding about how filmmakers…

The first weekend of Millennium Docs Against Gravity – the prestigious international film festival in Poland – is underway after opening with Closure, the new film directed by Warsaw native Michał Marczak. The wrenching documentary about a father’s desperate search for his missing teenage son won the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece in March and premiered in World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance. Marczak’s journey to make the film began as he spent time on the Vistula River in Warsaw. While on a raft with his family – the director was scouting locations for a…

EXCLUSIVE: Vertical has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the horror film Pendulum, the directorial debut of Mark Heyman, the BAFTA-nominated writer of Black Swan. Produced by Darren Aronofsky (The Whale) for Protozoa, Motel Mojave’s Jacob Jaffke (X trilogy), and C2’s Dave Caplan (Longlegs), the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Looper), Phoebe Dynevor (Fair Play), Norman Reedus (Ballerina), and two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook). Vertical is setting Pendulum for a wide release on January 1, 2027. Below is a first-look at the movie. In Heyman’s script, “married couple Patrick (Gordon-Levitt) and Abigail (Dynevor) journey to a new-age retreat in…

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a nice genre package. Allison Williams (M3gan) and Michelle Randolph (Scream 7) are set to star in sci-fi survival thriller Homewrecker from leading French genre filmmaker Xavier Gens, known for directing Netflix’s hit shark movie Under Paris and on series including Lupin and Gangs of London. The synopsis for the original screenplay by Elisa Bell (Vegas Vacation) and Travis Gordon reads: “During a heart-breaking domestic revelation, three star-crossed Americans are suddenly forced to work together to survive a terrifying unexplained global event that threatens to destroy life as they know it.” The project, which the producers have likened…

Asked whether Disney’s layoffs last month of about 1,000 workers could be followed by more cutbacks, executives said Wednesday the company is exploring all options as it builds “a culture of efficiency.” Newly minted CEO Josh D’Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston fielded questions about cost savings, staffing and artificial intelligence during the company’s quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts. D’Amaro largely focused on uses of AI to improve the creative process and the guest experience at theme parks, leaving Johnston to provide the primary outlook on the workforce. One analysts noted the April cuts, per a question read aloud…

Neon has taken U.S. rights to Jeff Nichols‘ next movie King Snake. A Southern gothic horror, King Snake follows a young couple (Margaret Qualley and Drew Starkey) who inherit an Arkansas farm where they face real-world problems and supernatural forces, battling physical and metaphysical demons while confronting the property’s dark legacy. Michael Shannon also stars. FilmNation Entertainment financed the film and is handling worldwide sales. Pic is produced by Nichols and his Tri-State Pictures partners Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Sarah Green, in association with Range Media Partners. FilmNation’s Stacey Snider and Glen Basner Executive Produce.The deal was negotiated by NEON and FilmNation Entertainment…

EXCLUSIVE: Patrick Schwarzenegger has joined the S. Craig Zahler movie, The Bookie & The Bruiser, where he will star in a dual role opposite Vince Vaughn and Theo James. The Bookie & The Bruiser is set in 1959 New York City and features a pensive, Jewish fellow named Rivner (James) and an oversized Italian American tough named Boscolo (Vaughn). Having served in World War II, the two return as changed men, no longer fitting into their old lives. Unwilling to take orders or play by the rules of polite society, the two partner up as a bookmaker and his enforcer and…

In Ioana Mischie’s film Catane, twin girls weave their long red hair together into a single braid and squeeze themselves into one sweater to make it appear they are conjoined. Why would they do such a thing? Well, it’s all part of a larger “conspiracy.” It seems the Romanian mountain village where they live has been pulling off a bit of a scheme. The handful of inhabitants all claim to live with physical or mental conditions of one kind or another – the better to enjoy government benefits. Back in Bucharest, a red flag is raised among government officials. “All…