Author: Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Ketchup Entertainment, hot off giving Warner Bros Animation’s Coyote Vs. Acme a theatrical release, has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Norwegian animated movie ViQueens from director Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid, The 12th Man, Agent Cody Banks).  The U.S. campaign for ViQueens will begin this weekend, with the launch of a teaser only in theaters on Coyote vs. Acme; that movie barreling toward $37M at the domestic box office by Labor Day Monday. ViQueens continues Ketchup’s streak in the family entertainment space after Coyote vs. Acme notched their best domestic opening ($15.9M) and overall title cume ever. A theatrical date is…

Iraq has selected Norwegian-Kurdish director Halkawt Mustafa’s drama No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman as its Best International Feature Film entry to the 99th Academy Awards. News of the choice came ahead of the film’s world premiere Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival early next week. Avan Jamal stars as female Peshmerga sniper Vyan who heads to Mosul to rescue her younger sister from ISIS, forcing her to confront the violence she survived and the shadows of the person she has become. The cast also features Thorbjørn Harr, Kanar Sarchl and Kader Jalal. The film…

After several Oscar nominations and BAFTA wins for his first four films, it is nice to report that writer-director Martin McDonagh is, with his latest Wild Horse Nine, five for five. And though it is hard to rank a group that includes In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, there is something about this one that keeps hanging on in my head and I can’t get it out. It is easily one of the year’s best films, and in its own peculiar way the most spiritual. It premiered in competition Thursday at the…

Lights go up on the Lido di Venezia tonight as the 83rd Venice Film Festival kicks off its Opening Ceremony amidst the city’s timeless canals and historic piazzas. Danny Boyle will present his world premiere Ink, starring Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch, Jack O’Connell as Larry Lamb, and Claire Foy as Jules Davies. The red carpet event was attended by stars of the film, including guests Werner Herzog, Chase Sui Wonders, Laura Dern, Zazie Beetz, Jonathan Bailey, and Nicholas Galitzine. The film follows media tycoon Rupert Murdoch as he acquires The Sun in 1969. Alongside editor Larry Lamb, Murdoch turns…

The Santa Barbara Film Festival on Monday said that Emily Blunt will receive the 19th annual Kirk Douglas Award For Excellence in Film in December, ahead of the fest’s 2027 edition. The award benefits the festival’s year-round educational programs and will be bestowed December 10 at a gala at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara in Santa Barbara. The honor comes after a busy summer for Blunt, who was nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar in 2024 for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. This year, she was in more biggies, reprising her breakout role for The Devil Wears Prada 2 in April, then starring opposite…

EXCLUSIVE: Black Label Media has added four to the cast of its thriller Copperhead starring Miles Teller: Jason Momoa, Tenoch Huerta, Adria Arjona and Kiefer Sutherland. Character details are being kept under wraps. The casting news comes ahead of this year’s Toronto Film Festival, where Black Bear is launching sales. In Copperhead, when an undercover drug deal explodes into violence, a veteran detective is forced to team with a young federal agent to unravel the conspiracy within their elite task force. Venice prize-winner John Swab is set to direct from a script by Chad Feehan and J. Todd Scott, with production kicking off in September. The…

A year after the loss of their Bernadette Bassenger, Priscilla is tuning up for another fabulous adventure across the Australian Outback. Guy Pearce recently gave an update on the production timeline for the sequel to 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, following co-star Terence Stamp’s death at age 87 last August. “Well, the sequel, which is going to be—what are we now, ’26?” Pearce told Good Morning America. “We’ll probably shoot it ’27, it’ll come out ’28.” Written and directed by Stephan Elliott, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert stars Hugo Weaving, Stamp and Pearce…

Paramount Pictures is really revving its engines on the upcoming Days of Thunder 2 starring Tom Cruise as Anne Hathaway is set to join Cruise in the sequel. Cruise announced the news on his social platforms featuring a picture of the two A-listers leaning against a Nascar race car in Daytona. The picture also announced that the film would be released June 2, 2028. The movie will be filmed for iMax and also available in Dolby cinemas, 4DX and premium large formats. Hathaway’s addition comes after Paramount tapped Jonathan Levine to direct hence fast-tracking the pic as Cruise’s next project.…

EXCLUSIVE: Dubai’s reputation as a travel and entertainment destination has taken a battering in recent months as the emirate got caught in the crosshairs of the U.S.-Iran war but this has not put a stop to the fledgeling Golden Dunes Festival. Ali and Zeus Zamani, the L.A.-based filmmaking duo behind AZ Filmz, are pushing on with a second edition of the event they spearheaded last year in partnership with Ben Coen, Scott Carlson and Don Worley. After an inaugural edition revolving around an awards ceremony, the second edition has been expanded to three days and will feature a program of…

EXCLUSIVE: Jamie Dornan, star of Apple‘s upcoming crime thriller series 12 12 12, is set to star opposite Zoë Kravitz and Adèle Exarchopoulos in their mystery movie from My Old Ass helmer Megan Park. Character details are being kept under wraps, as is the logline for the as-yet-untitled film. Park is directing from her own script and exec producing, with Apple Studios and LuckyChap to produce in association with FilmNation. Tom Ackerley, Bronte Payne and Kelly McRedmond are overseeing the project for LuckyChap. Dornan is best known for his work in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, which brought him Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominations, along…