Author: Deadline

Mahershala Ali is ready to move on from being asked about Blade, the Marvel Studios reboot he was set to star in and suffered multiple setbacks. In a new interview, Ali opened up about being attached to the project that had been in development for years. “Not with me,” Ali told GQ when asked if the Blade reboot was closer to materializing. He continued, “No offense to them. I’ve been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I’ve learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever…

EXCLUSIVE: After receiving some of the best reviews of his career on The Odyssey, John Leguizamo and Matt Damon are ready for their next big voyage as sources tell Deadline Leguizamo is in negotiations to join Damon in the untitled event project from filmmaking duo Daniels.  Daniels, aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, will write and direct. Sandra Oh, Sean Kaufman, Michael Gandolfini and Charles Melton are also on board. Universal had no comment on the casting. Details on the project remain under wraps. Kwan, Scheinert and Jonathan Wang will produce through their company Playgrounds’ overall deal with Universal. Playgrounds’ Kwan…

EXCLUSIVE: Billy Zane (Titanic), John Billingsley (Unspeakable: The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey), Scottie Thompson (NCIS) and Bonnie Root (Don’t Let Them Out) have signed for writer-director-actor Philippe Caland’s neo noir thriller Milliseconds. The film is billed as a complex mystery about a reclusive former painter who becomes drawn into an investigation involving a suicide hotline, unraveling long-buried connections and hidden truths from the past.   The cast also includes Elijah Lynn Langston, making his feature film debut, and Kevin Ryan (Harry Wild, The Rainmaker), along with Don Wallace and Jason Lee Daniel. Caland will produce under his Junto House Films banner, alongside co-producers Root and Cynthia Bravo, with Zane serving as executive producer. Cinematographer Gonzalo Digenio is…

EXCLUSIVE: After reinventing the dinner party pic with The Invite, Olivia Wilde is looking to get into the holiday spirit for her next directorial outing. Sources tell Deadline Universal Pictures have greenlit her holiday comedy Naughty and tapped Jennifer Aniston and Peter Dinklage to star. The studio also dated the pic for Nov. 5, 2027. Wilde is on board to direct with LuckyChap producing. Naughty follows Mallory (Aniston), whose only hope of securing custody of her son from her gaslighting trash-bag ex is to find Santa Claus (Dinklage) and convince him to testify in her divorce hearing. The film feels like a…

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said he’s confident the combination with Warner Bros Discovery “does not pose any legal issues, and we will complete it and bring these two companies together.” “I know this additional uncertainty has been challenging, and I want to thank you for your continued patience, commitment and collective contributions,” he said in a memo to staff Monday obtained by Deadline (read it in full below). “For now, it remains business as usual. Paramount and WBD are separate companies operating independently, and our focus remains on serving our audiences, supporting one another and executing our strategy.” The…

Last weekend brought you the most-watched shows on Netflix, today we bring you the films. Netflix took a major transparency step in December 2023, when it went further than any competitor by releasing an extensive list of its most-watched films and shows. At the time, Netflix said that this would give creators and investors “deeper insights into our audiences,” allowing the industry to pore over its viewing data every six months. Until now. Netflix revealed this month that it will stop publishing its biannual What We Watched reports, replacing them with yearly insights. The streamer’s report for the first half…

Jim Carrey has paid tribute to his The Mask director Chuck Russell, who died Wednesday at the age of 74. “I consider it a privilege to have worked with Chuck Russell, who during the shooting of The Mask, created an ebullient, childlike atmosphere of wonder and camaraderie on his set,” Carrey said in a statement. “The entire cast and crew were touched and inspired by his playfulness. “Every one of us,” he continued, “has been many years blessed by that buoyant and timeless moment. I consider The Mask one of the jewels of my creative life. Thank you, Chuck.” The…

The Black List and the Athens Film Office are teaming to accept submissions starting today for the 2027 Owl Screenwriting Workshop, which is set for January 12-15 in the Greek capital. The workshop is an intensive, residential development program curated to accelerate bold, audience-driven feature films and television projects positioned for the international market. It is designed specifically for screenwriters with demonstrated early-career success who are prepared to scale their work to an international level. Submitting writers must have at least one professional, distributed credit in feature film or television, and the submitted script must be in English or translated…

The Brussels-based International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), representing exhibitors in 39 European territories, has said the European Commission’s conditions for its recent approval of Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery should have gone further. The body was reacting to the EC’s announcement Wednesday that it had approved Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) on the condition that divests its stake in United International Pictures (UIP), the film distribution venture it currently jointly owns with Universal Pictures.  “UNIC welcomes the Commission’s decision to require the divestment of Paramount’s stake in UIP and additional requirements. While it addresses an…

50/50 filmmaker Jonathan Levine is in talks to direct Paramount Tom Cruise Days of Thunder sequel. This is the first major sign of the highly anticipated project moving forward with the Melrose lot after producer Jerry Bruckheimer spoke about a follow-up to the NASCAR movie during the F1 press tour (that car movie an enormous hit, the biggest sports movie ever with over $634M WW). Also there was news about Tom Cruise being in talks with Paramount on a sequel two years ago. Will Staples wrote the screenplay. Cruise will produce with Bruckheimer. As everyone knows, the last time Paramount…