EXCLUSIVE: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial has rounded out its cast with Monica Raymund ( Hightown ), Lance Reddick ( Bosch ), Griffin Dunne ( This Is Us ), Elizabeth Anweis ( Batwoman ), Lewis Pullman ( Top Gun: Maverick ), Francois Battiste ( Ten Days in the Valley ), and Gabe Kessler ( Hightown ). They join previously announced leads Keifer Sutherland, Jake Lacy, and Jason Clarke. Raymund will portray Challee, a Lieutenant with a sharp legal mind and eye for detail who serves as the prosecuting attorney during the court-martial, doing their best to argue that Commander Queeg was wrongfully relieved of his duties. Reddick portrays Captain Blakely, chief judge of the court-martial. Blakely maintains an even tone, and a commanding presence over the courtroom; Dunne plays Dr. Bird, a lieutenant and member of the psychiatric staff for the Naval Hospital. A person of high intellect, he is more of a new-age psychiatrist than a military-looking … [Read more...] about ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’ Rounds Out Cast With 7 Including Monica Raymund, Lance Reddick & Griffin Dunne
Billion on showtime
WME Signs ‘Yellowjackets’ EP Karyn Kusama
EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-winning writer/director/producer Karyn Kusama has signed with WME . Kusama currently serves as executive producer on Showtime’s Yellowjackets . The show garnered seven Emmy nominations in 2022, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Kusama’s direction of the pilot episode. Kusama previously helmed the Golden Globe-nominated film Destroyer starring Nicole Kidman that was written by her frequent collaborators, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. The trio’s banner, Familystyle Film, is currently under a first-look deal with MRC. Her feature credits include indie thriller The Invitation , as well as Jennifer’s Body , Aeon Flux , and her Cannes and Sundance-award winning debut, Girlfight. On the TV side, Kusama has directed episodes for such series as Billions, The Man in the High Castle , Dead Ringers, The Outsider , and The Mysterious Benedict Society, for which she won a Children’s and Family … [Read more...] about WME Signs ‘Yellowjackets’ EP Karyn Kusama
‘Bass Reeves’: Joaquina Kalukango, Lonnie Chavis Among 5 Cast In Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ Series
EXCLUSIVE: Joaquina Kalukango ( Lovecraft Country ), Lonnie Chavis ( This is Us ), Rob Morgan ( Mudbou nd) , Ryan O’Nan ( Queen of the South ) and Justin Hurtt-Dunkley ( Mare of Easttown ) have been tapped for key recurring roles opposite David Oyelowo and Dennis Quaid in Bass Reeves , from Yellowstone co-creator/showrunner Taylor Sheridan . Bass Reeves , which is in production in Texas, brings the legendary lawman of the Wild West to life. Reeves (Oyelowo), known as the greatest frontier hero in American history, worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing more than 3,000 of dangerous criminals without ever being wounded. RELATED: 2023 Paramount+ Pilots & Series Orders Kalukango will play Esme, a former enslaved woman who is as good as family with the Reeves’ and also has some different ideas about the future. Chavis will play Arthur Mayberry, a sweet young boy with eyes … [Read more...] about ‘Bass Reeves’: Joaquina Kalukango, Lonnie Chavis Among 5 Cast In Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ Series
‘Drug Spies’ Drama Series From Noah Pink, Kirk Wallace Johnson, Kari Skogland & Sister In The Works At FX
EXCLUSIVE : FX is getting back into espionage. Deadline understands that the network is developing drama series Drug Spies , from Noah Pink , who wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Tetris movie at Apple, author Kirk Wallace Johnson and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland . We hear that the original series, which is inspired by true events, tells the stories of spies who work on behalf of multinational drug companies. FX is understood to have beaten out a number of rivals to land the project, which is in the early stages of development, in a competitive bidding process. Sister , the company run by Liz Murdoch, Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone, which was behind hit HBO series Chernobyl , is producing in association with Oil & Cattle. Sister is also behind Netflix’s upcoming six-parter Eric , starring Benedict Cumberbatch playing a puppeteer whose son goes missing in 1980s Manhattan from Abi Morgan, and Amazon’s … [Read more...] about ‘Drug Spies’ Drama Series From Noah Pink, Kirk Wallace Johnson, Kari Skogland & Sister In The Works At FX
‘Shazam! Fury Of The Gods’ Seeing $30M Opening – Friday Box Office
Friday afternoon : We’re hearing that New Line’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently on its way to an $11M Friday, inclusive of last night’s $3.4M , for what’s looking like a $30M opening at 4,071 theaters. The pic cost $125M before P&A, $25M more than the first Shazam! While that’s nothing to scream “Shazam!” about in regards to that projected 3-day, note that we have to see how family matinees impact the pic’s ticket sales, given how younger skewing it is. Meaning, Batman fans aren’t making their way to this movie. According to Comscore, this Friday in March boasts the most for the month when it comes to K-12 schools (34% out) and colleges (42%) on break. Social media analytics firm RelishMix measured a social media universe across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok of 385.5M, +4% over Shazam!, but 27% off superhero genre norms. However, the campaign made ground on TikTok with over 80M views for studio-owned materials. Says … [Read more...] about ‘Shazam! Fury Of The Gods’ Seeing $30M Opening – Friday Box Office
‘The Last of Us’ Had Jason Ritter As An Undercover Clicker In Wife’s Episodes
Like a fungus, the truth eventually has come out. It seems actor Jason Ritter made a quiet cameo as a clicker (the nickname for those infected with the mutated cordyceps fungus) on HBO’s “ The Last of Us .” Ritter, known for shows Joan of Arcadia, The Event, Gravity Falls and Parenthood , appeared in the two episodes his wife, Melanie Lynskey , starred in. She played the role of Kathleen Coghlan, the leader of the Kansas City resistance A viewer caught Ritter in The Last of Us behind-the-scenes mini documentary. She joked that it was “Take Your Husband to Work Day,” to which Ritter responded, “Just the best day.” The Ritter/Lynskey team will next appear together in her Showtime series, Yellowjackets. … [Read more...] about ‘The Last of Us’ Had Jason Ritter As An Undercover Clicker In Wife’s Episodes
Willem Dafoe And Robert Eggers Eye Reunion On The Director’s ‘Nosferatu’
EXCLUSIVE: Robert Eggers and his The Lighthouse star Willem Dafoe have found their next project on which to collaborate, with Dafoe in talks to join Eggers’ Nosferatu at Focus Features. Lily Rose-Depp, Bill Skarsgard and Nicholas Hoult already are on board, with Eggers writing and directing. Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Eggers, Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus are producing. In the new reimagining, Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgard) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him. Focus had no comment on the project. It is unknown who Dafoe will be playing. Not only does the project reunite Eggers and Dafoe, who worked together on The Lighthouse and The Northman, the project is a full-circle moment for Dafoe, who earned an Oscar nomination playing the Nosferatu creature in Shadow of the Vampire. Dafoe’s upcoming projects include two … [Read more...] about Willem Dafoe And Robert Eggers Eye Reunion On The Director’s ‘Nosferatu’
M. Night Shyamalan Signs Multi-Year First-Look Deal at Warner Bros, Sets ‘Trap’ At Studio
EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros Pictures Group has inked a multi-year first-look directing and producing agreement with two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan , whose movies have grossed $3.3 billion at the box office. In a career spanning four decades, Shyamalan has the rare distinction of having film open at No. 1 in each of those decades. Most recently, he saw his seventh No. 1 opening at the box office with Universal’s Knock at the Cabin, which currently counts $40 million worldwide off a $20M production cost. The pact with Shyamalan comes amid a string of talent deals made recently by Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy; previous first looks include with Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road as well as two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Baz Luhrmann , both first reported by Deadline. Under the new agreement, Shyamalan and his Philadelphia-based production company Blinding Edge Pictures, run by president of production … [Read more...] about M. Night Shyamalan Signs Multi-Year First-Look Deal at Warner Bros, Sets ‘Trap’ At Studio
John Oliver Guts SVB & Signature Bank Collapses, & Yes, There’s Another Fox News Shiv Too
It looked like a good week for Fox News on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver today as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and uncertainty in the financial world replaced the searing revelations resulting from Dominion Voting’s lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned cable newser on the HBO series. Well, at least for a while. Promising “not to bore you with every little detail,” Oliver proceeded to rip and tear into the intricacies of investing in long term Treasury bonds and the losses piled up by the now failed Santa Clara, CA based bank as interest rates have risen over the past year or so. “It’s essentially a classic story of a bank doing a lousy job of judging and hedging against risk,” the multi-Emmy winner stated. And then, while that prickly lawsuit and embarrassing text chains by Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity weren’t in the spotlight, Oliver went right back to taking a whack at the Fox News piñata. “That is so stupid, I’m almost … [Read more...] about John Oliver Guts SVB & Signature Bank Collapses, & Yes, There’s Another Fox News Shiv Too
WGA Negotiations Impasse: Why Options & Exclusivity Issue Is So Important To Writers
Issues faced by TV writers again are the sticking point in the WGA negotiations with the studios. In 2007, when the impasse led to a writers strike, it was residuals from series distributed online. This time around, it is the restrictive contracts for writers working in cable and on digital platforms. Under pattern bargaining, the deal between the WGA and AMPTP was expected to be similar to the recent DGA agreement with the studios with two writer-specific issues brought to the table by WGA — parity between cable and broadcast pay and the notion of exclusively and options. One of the two seem to have been resolved. “Every aspect of our contract has been negotiated and agreed upon with two exceptions — options and exclusivity — which remain points of contention between us,” negotiating committee co-chairs Chip Johannessen and Billy Ray wrote to their constituency last night . What are options and exclusivity, why are they so important to writers and what do writers seek to … [Read more...] about WGA Negotiations Impasse: Why Options & Exclusivity Issue Is So Important To Writers