Author: Deadline

Filmmakers Chris and Justin Copeland, aka The Copeland Brothers, have been tapped to develop new animated feature projects for the award-winning Oregon studio Laika. No further details on the pair’s work for Laika has been disclosed. Their work for the studios comes on the heels of a five-year period in which the Copelands have been developing for both the feature and television divisions of DreamWorks. Previously, Chris has directed on DreamWorks’ Emmy, GLAAD and NAACP-nominated series Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, with Justin directing on the DC original films Wonder Woman: Bloodlines and Batman: Hush. Together, the pair have…

Eva Mendes says the only movie project that would persuade her to return to acting is one alongside her husband Ryan Gosling.  The couple have appeared in two films together, Drunk History Christmas (2011) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) Mendes, whose other hits include Training Day (2001), Hitch (2005) and The Other Guys (2010), walked away from the industry in 2014, and she explained in an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper that it wasn’t a challenge for her to leave the profession:  “I was never in love with acting. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way,…

Pedro Almodóvar believes that both his two latest leading actresses should be Oscar-nominated for their performances in his latest film The Room Next Door – and he adds he wouldn’t mind one for himself.  The Spanish director’s first full-length film in the English language, it received an 18-minute standing ovation when it screened at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as two old friends, war correspondent Martha and her friend Ingrid. They stay together in a country mansion while Swinton’s terminally ill character prepares to take her own life in the room next…

Dutch drama series The Night Watch has prevailed in the MIA Market drama development category in Rome, as the tenth edition of the Italian fest drew to a close. The show, written by Steven Friedman and produced by Edvard van’t Wout for Continent Studios, was a winner of the MIA Development Awards at the Co-Production Market and Pitching Forum, along with the Guillermo de Oliveira-directed Death in Your Eyes, which landed the film project award. Reborn-Perfect Love took the doc prize and Belgian-Polish-French co-produced animation Big Bang Parade won in the kids category. Over 600 projects were received this year in…

EXCLUSIVE: China Lion Film Distribution has acquired all rights from Hong Kong outfit Universe Films to the Andy Lau-starrer High Forces for release in North America. China Lion has set an October 25, 2024, release for the film throughout Canada and the United States. The action-thriller, recently released in mainland China and throughout Asia, has been a popular title during the Chinese Golden Week holiday. Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau leads the cast as Gao Haojun, a professional bodyguard by trade. Distanced from his family after a car accident takes the sight of his daughter, he is pulled back into their circle when a flight they’re…

The events leading up to July 1978 and the birth in Manchester of the world’s first “test tube baby” — the tabloid term for the process known more soberly as I.V.F. (in vitro fertilization) — are fascinating by any metric. It’s a story of determination, skill and genuine genius, focusing on three modest and largely unsung heroes driven in the main by a spirit of pure human kindness. Fascinating as that is, however, Ben Taylor’s warm, intelligent and never less than respectful movie, which received its world premiere at the London Film Festival this week, struggles to harness the same…

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the AFM, LA-based Great Escape is launching sales on horror film Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, the first project on the Terror Town genre slate from producer Joe Swanberg and Yale Productions. Michael Gilio, whose screenwriting credits include MGM’s Dark Harvest and Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, stars in the movie. From first-time feature director Aidan Leary, the film will get its world premiere next month at the Leeds International Film Festival in the UK. The synopsis reads: “Something really bad happened to James Jensen when he was a kid.  While hosting the latest episode of his…

‘The Crown’s Jason Watkins Leading Channel 5 Cat-And-Mouse Thriller The Crown star Jason Watkins is leading his second Channel 5 drama of 2024, a cat-and-mouse thriller about a policeman haunted by a case he failed to solve. Catch You Later [working title] also stars Robson Green and Sunetra Sarker. Watkins leads as Huw Miller, a detective haunted by a stalker who taunted his town, mercilessly toying with his victims before eventually killing them. As Huw attempts to settle into retirement, the case is never far from his mind – and when new neighbor, Patrick Harbottle (Green) moves in and utters…

Anne Hathaway sent a personal email of apology to a journalist after a 12-year-old interview resurfaced in which she gave monosyllabic answers. Kjersti Flaa, a Norwegian journalist who has built a career interviewing Hollywood stars, posted a YouTube video this week in which she reflected on the Les Misérables press junket. Flaa came up with the idea of singing her questions in the hope that actors would respond with a tuneful answer. As the video shows, most played ball. Hathaway had other ideas. The Princess Diaries actress declined to participate in the sing-song and proceeded to give brusque answers to…

ITV/BritBox Series ‘Code Of Silence’ Rounds Out Cast EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing star Rose Ayling-Ellis will be joined by the likes of Kieron Moore (Vampire Academy, Masters of the Air, The Corps), Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts, You)and and Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch, The Honourable Woman) in upcoming ITV and BritBox International crime drama Code of Silence. Nathan Armarkwei Laryea (The Witcher), Joe Absolom (Doc Martin), Beth Goddard (The Serpent Queen), Andrew Scarborough (Wolfblood), Fifi Garfield (Coffee Morning Club) and presenter Rolf Choutan in his acting debut have also been cast in the six-part show, which commenced shooting today. Code of Silence is told through the point…