Author: Deadline

It’s a big week for Barbie Ferreira, who delivers powerful leading performances in two drastically different new movies. With horror reimagining Faces of Death now in theaters, and music-driven romantic comedy Mile End Kicks premiering April 17, the actress spoke to Deadline about “spreading my wings” after leaving Euphoria back in 2022. “It just felt like for me, what I wanted to do is act and be able to do different roles, and if Euphoria was going to serve that for me, I would have happily done it forever, however long it would have been,” she explained. “But It wasn’t…

With the second season of Apple TV and Hello Sunshine’s The Last Thing He Told Me drama series drawing to a close today, it only made sense that Deadline got to chat via phone with Lauren Neustadter, President of Film & TV at Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine, about more upcoming shows — book adaptations and not — as well as films in the works, from production on The Nightingale set in Budapest earlier this week. The Tristar feature adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s best-selling novel is another project that took time to pull together with a deal first put…

Vertical has acquired U.S. rights in an early pre-sale deal to Oscar-nominee Andrew Niccol’s crime thriller Lords of War from Oscar-winning studio Vendôme Pictures (CODA), who produced and financed the film. Vertical will show off the pic’s footage at CinemaCon next week in Las Vegas, ahead of a planned 2027 theatrical release. The sequel to the 2005 movie, Lord of War, which starred Oscar winner Nicolas Cage, sees the actor reprising his role as Yuri Orlov, the world’s most notorious arms dealer. When Yuri discovers he has a son, Anton (Bill Skarsgård), a ruthless mercenary mastermind bent on surpassing his…

Paramount Skydance confirmed that its former president Jeff Shell exited the company on April 8 and outlined in a SEC filing how much he will be leaving with. His cash severance will equal the sum of his salary and target bonus, Par said, or about $5 million, according to his employment agreement unveiled last August when Skydance and Paramount merged. That contract set an annual base salary of $3.5 million and a $1.5 million bonus. Par said today the salary and bonus would be payable “in substantially equal installments in accordance with the Company’s regular payroll practices during the period…

EXCLUSIVE: Anthony Mackie (Captain America) and Dafne Keen (Deadpool & Wolverine) are starring in action-thriller Barracuda, which gets underway this week in New Mexico. Divergent, Limitless and The Illusionist filmmaker Neil Burger is directing the movie, which will also star Steven Bauer (Ray Donovan) and Anthony Del Negro (Running Point). Screenplay comes from Adam Mason and Simon Boyes. The synopsis reads: “When Karl (Mackie), a former smuggler with a haunted past, storms a nightclub in Mexico to rescue Jodie (Keen), a kidnapped teenage girl, he ignites a chain reaction of blood and bullets that burns across 100 miles of deadly…

EXCLUSIVE: Former Concourse executive Grant Mohrman has launched U.S. sales and production firm Gravel Lake Entertainment with Cannes regular Arnaud Desplechin’s upcoming film The Thing That Hurts as its debut sales title. Filming is due to begin later this month in France and Belgium on Desplechin’s feature, which has been described as “a Parisian psychodrama where grief, guilt, and love collide among strangers bound by a haunting secret”.  Casting is being kept under wraps for now but a number of high-profile talent have been speculated online. Among those to have been connected to the project over the years but won’t be in…

Paramount Skydance seems to be nearing a deal to secure funding from three Gulf nation sovereign wealth funds to back its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a Sunday report in the Wall Street Journal. Per the outlet, the corporation is seeking signed equity commitments of close to $24 billion, for which Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has agreed to contribute approximately $10 billion. The talks, which also involve Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co., may result in a signed agreement as soon as Monday. The move comes after Democratic lawmakers expressed national security concerns…

It’s officially official: The Writers Guild of America has agreed to a tentative new four-year contract with the studios and streamers, said the Greg Hessinger-led Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the guild tonight. The shocker deal, which was on very few people’s Holy Week and/or Passover bingo card, could prove transformative for how Hollywood labor works, literally and figuratively. “The AMPTP has reached a tentative agreement with the WGA,” a spokesperson for the group said tonight. “We look forward to building on this progress as we continue working toward agreements that support long-term industry stability.” Mum on…

Blake Lively made very clear today: the lady is not for turning. That’ seems especially true when it comes to taking Justin Baldoni to trial for what may have gone down on It Ends With Us and in the aftermath. “Don’t be distracted by the digital soap opera,” the actress proclaimed Friday. A day after seeing the sexual harassment claim dropped from her lawsuit against her IEWU co-star Baldoni and his inner circle, and six weeks before the trial starts, Lively said that she “will never stop doing my part in fighting to expose the systems and people who seek…

Although Miranda Priestley earned 20th Century Fox more than $326 million worldwide, The Devil Wears Prada had to fight for its budget. Meryl Streep recently recalled how the 2006 movie’s classification as a “chick flick” made it difficult to pull together a budget for the David Frankel-helmed adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s novel. “Twenty years ago, it was categorized as a ‘chick flick,’ and that designation has kind of not worn well after Barbie and Mamma Mia!—to throw that in—and other films that completely catch the studios by surprise that people want to see them, because they have girls in the…