A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit. In the waning days of 2022 we are taking one last deep breath before the insanity begins and the dispensing of actual awards shifts into high gear. Right off the bat on January 5, the Palm Springs Film Festival Awards Gala returns for the first […]
Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race. When writer-director Nikyatu Jusu began hatching her first feature Nanny a little less than a decade ago, she worried that the story at hand might be “too singular” or “specific” to resonate widely. “When you’re this close […]
Actor Kirk Cameron went on Fox News Channel on Friday to discuss his fight against libraries who have been turning down story-hour book-reading pitches from the publisher of Cameron’s new children’s book As You Grow. The sit-down came after a reading Thursday a the Indianapolis Public Library drew a sizable crowd — though the library […]
Specialty film closes the book on a mixed 2022 this weekend with the limited release by Sony of Tom Hanks-starring A Man Called Otto; a literary doc by Lizzie Gottlieb from Sony Pictures Classics and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest from Neon via Cannes. Otto, by Mark Forster, is a remake of a Swedish film based on […]
Individuals confronting the might of powerful institutions. That thematic focus unites much of the work of documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. The Oath, from 2010, revolved around two men — one Yemeni, the other Saudi — entangled in the Bush administration’s war on terror. The 2015 Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour centered on cyber intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, […]
It was another $20M day for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, so big that it was the biggest regular box office Thursday of the year after the sequel’s Dec. 22 take of $14.6M and Top Gun: Maverick‘s June 2 gross. The movie’s running total is $358M stateside with a 3-day expected to be […]
New Year’s Eve festivities are being broadcast across the country Saturday, from Miami to Los Angeles to the famous Times Square ball drop in New York City. The official Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration will kick off at 6 p.m. ET with the lighting and raising of the New Year’s Eve Ball atop One […]
Bob Penny, a poet and professor who after retirement appeared in small parts in movies including Forrest Gump, Sweet Home Alabama and My Cousin Vinny and in the TV series In the Heat of the Night, died December 25 in Huntsville, AL. He was 87. His death was announced on the website of Huntsville’s Laughlin […]
EXCLUSIVE: Peter Capaldi, the former Doctor Who star, is to direct a comedy-drama pilot for Sky Studios about a mother who adopts five children. Capaldi will helm They F**k You Up, which is based on Sarah Naish’s memoir But He Looks So Normal: A Bad-Tempered Parenting Guide for Adopters and Foster Parents. The non-broadcast pilot […]
Six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns were released in one of the final acts of House Democrats before they lose control of the chamber. The House Ways and Means Committee said the returns were made public Friday, posting them on their website, downloadable as Attachment E here. The public release of the returns follows […]
Love Island contestants will have their social media accounts taken away for the duration of the upcoming winter season and receive “guidance and training around mutually respectful behavior in relationships” following thousands of complaints earlier this year. For the first time in the show’s history, the ninth winter season will oblige the contestants to pause […]
Controversial internet personality Andrew Tate has been detained in Romania by prosecutors on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group. Along with his brother Tristan Tate and two Romanian suspects, Tate was detained for 24 hours late last night (afternoon PST) following a raid of properties in Bucharest, according to Reuters, […]
EXCLUSIVE: South Asian-focused streamer ZEE5 Global will roll out Sooraj R. Barjatya’s first feature in seven years on January 6, 2023. ZEE5 snapped up streaming rights to the film, which stars Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan among others, in November. It is already in cinemas in India and will roll out in 190+ territories on ZEE5 Global […]
A woman who says she had a sexual relationship with Steven Tyler in 1973 when she was 16 has filed a lawsuit against the Aerosmith frontman, Rolling Stone reports. The suit, filed under the California Child Victims Act, accuses Tyler of sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Under the act, the statute of limitations was temporarily […]
The year is nearly up and ZEE5 Global Chief Business Officer Archana Anand is headed into 2023 in bullish mood. The South Asian streamer, which operates in 190+ territories including the U.S. and offers about 200,000 hours of content, is coming off “our best year yet, and we’re ending it on a high,” she says. […]
Covid numbers in Los Angeles County have risen across the board in the days since Christmas, with cases, hospitalizations and deaths all nearing or exceeding recent highs. The county Department of Public Health reported 3,968 new cases, along with 1,269 additional virus-related hospitalizations and 25 more Covid-related deaths. The actual number of cases is thought […]
A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has offered yet another update on the status of future Game of Thrones projects, sharing that the franchise’s path ahead will “certainly” be shaped to one degree or another by current tumult at HBO Max. Martin says that beyond the prequel House of the Dragon, […]
A Texas man facing the death penalty claims a Comedy Central roast conducted during his imprisonment unfairly influenced his sentencing. Convicted murderer Gabriel Hall is shown making light of his role in a murder and stabbing of a wheelchair-bound woman when questioned by comedian Jeff Ross during the filming of Jeff Ross Roasts Criminals: Live […]
AMC Entertainment has rejiggered is board, announcing the election of two new directors and one who is exiting. The former Sundance Institute chief and Miramax production president Keri Putman, a big advocate for independent film, as well as Dee Clark, who has worked in information technology at Hasbro, Mattel, Warner Music and Apple, will join […]
British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, who was a key part of bringing punk fashion into the mainstream, has died at 81. No cause was given, but a tweet from her fashion house said she passed “peacefully and surrounded” by her family in Clapham, South London. Westwood was a sometimes-controversial punk and new wave designer […]
Courtney Love is airing out old grievances involving Fight Club star Brad Pitt. The actress and Grammy-nominated musician has asserted that she was set for the David Fincher film’s key role of Marla Singer — eventually to be played by Helena Bonham Carter — before Pitt intervened and got her “fired.” Love says that this […]
Maybe Andy Cohen is now looking to follow the latest trend of being “sober curious.” The Watch What Happens Live host clarified to Page Six that he won’t be partying in his typical fashion when he and Anderson Cooper host CNN’s annual New Year’s Eve broadcast. “We aren’t drinking, but we’re going to have a […]
Peter Sealey, a former Columbia Pictures president of global marketing during the studio’s release of Ghostbusters, Tootsie, Stand By Me and The Karate Kid, died Dec. 15 from complications following a fall. He was 82 and passed in Palm Springs, Calif. Before his studio days, Sealey was the global chief marketing officer of The Coca-Cola […]
Shares in Netflix, Warner Bros Discovery and AMC Networks were among the top gainers in a so-called “Santa Claus rally” at the end of a rough year for media and tech stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq finished the day up 2.6% to finish at 10,478.09, but it remains on track for its worst year since 2008. […]
A brilliant negotiator, Lew Wasserman was the ex-agent who presided over the vast MCA Universal media empire from his black tower. He favored black suits and austere offices and seemed to convey stress as he strolled about his kingdom. Wasserman seemed always in a state of negotiation: He not only hammered out deals for new […]
