Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey are boarding the podcasting bus. The duo are moving into the audio medium with an investigative audio series about the Synanon cult. The Sunshine Place tells the story of the former California-based experimental drug rehab facility and community that morphed into a dangerous and violent cult, led by its messianic founder Charles E. Diedrich. The series comes from Team Downey and Wink Pictures for Audacy-owned Cadence13. The Sunshine Place will tell the story of Synanon from the inside out, and by the people who lived it, charting its rise and exploring its decade-long reign over 1960s and ‘70s counterculture through the recollections of members, survivors and dedicated chroniclers. The series will be narrated by Sari Crawford, daughter of a former Synanon leader Bill Crawford. The eight-part series will launch August 10. Listen to a trailer below. Synanon was called “the miracle on the beach” in Santa Monica, CA … [Read more...] about Robert Downey Jr. & Susan Downey Move Into Podcasting With Cult Series ‘The Sunshine Place’ For Cadence13
Chris pratt
Anonymous Content Hires Former Bron Studios TV Prez David Davoli As President Of International
EXCLUSIVE : Anonymous Content has hired former Bron executive David Davoli as President of International, based in New York. Davoli will oversee Anonymous Content’s international division including its various global joint ventures — Anonymous /Federation, AC Nordic, AC Brazil and Chapter One in the UK. He will be tasked with continuing to build out the international expansion. He starts in the new role in early September and will be a member of the senior leadership team, reporting to Anonymous Content CEO, Dawn Olmstead. Most recently, Davoli was President of Television at Bron Studios where he oversaw development, production, co-productions, financing and sales, and was the key dealmaker across all TV efforts. Among the projects he worked on were Irish family crime drama, Kin , on AMC+ and RTÉ, starring Charlie Cox and Aidan Gillen; Ten Percent , the English-language remake to the hit French series, Call My Agent! , which aired on Amazon Prime in the UK, and … [Read more...] about Anonymous Content Hires Former Bron Studios TV Prez David Davoli As President Of International
Toronto Film Festival Closing-Night Film Is ‘Dalíland’: Where Is Ezra Miller?
The 47th Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday selected the Mary Harron-directed Dalíland as its closing-night movie. The pic stars Ben Kingsley as the older Salvador Dalí and Ezra Miller as the younger Dalí. However, the TIFF press release left Miller’s name off the cast credits. It’s been public knowledge that Miller is in the film. The Flash star this week was charged with felony burglary in Vermont in addition to several other run-ins with the law this year. Deadline learned this morning that Miller has not been cut out of Dalíland . In a 2021 Cannes Market interview with Deadline , Harron told us: “We started looking at Dalí in the 1970s, the older Dalí, with flashbacks to the younger Dalí, which are rendered like an old movie. That format really excited me. Ezra had like three days between finishing Fantastic Beasts and starting The Flash, and insisted on coming and doing our film. The story is all played out through this kind of Nick Carraway figure … [Read more...] about Toronto Film Festival Closing-Night Film Is ‘Dalíland’: Where Is Ezra Miller?
Yvonne Orji To Star In Drama ‘Stronger’ In Works At Netflix From Sheldon Turner, Vendetta & A+E Studios
EXCLUSIVE : Netflix is developing Stronger (working title), a female empowerment bodybuilding drama series starring and executive produced by Insecure standout Yvonne Orji , sources tell Deadline. The project is created and written by Sheldon Turner ( Up In the Air ) and comes from A+E Studios where Turner and Jennifer Klein’s Vendetta Productions has a first-look deal. No one would comment but Stronger (wt) is believed to follow Toni Winslow (Orji), a single mom who feels unseen and unimportant. She becomes obsessed with bodybuilding as she explores the surprisingly tenuous line separating self-empowerment from self-destruction, and will undergo not only a physical transformation but also an emotional one. Turner and Klein executive produce via their Vendetta Productions alongside Orji and her manager DC Wade of Odenkirk Provissiero. A+E Studios is the studio. Orji is coming off her role as Issa Dee’s (Issa Rae) best friend Molly on the HBO comedy … [Read more...] about Yvonne Orji To Star In Drama ‘Stronger’ In Works At Netflix From Sheldon Turner, Vendetta & A+E Studios
AGBO’s ‘The Gray Man’ Closes On ‘Extraction’ As 6th Most Viewed Netflix Film
AGBO’s The Gray Man is climbing the ladder toward becoming one of Netflix’s most watched movies ever over its first 28 days. The one it will eclipse next is AGBO’s Extraction , with The Adam Project and Birdbox within hailing distance on the streamer’s all-time list. “The goal was to provide audiences with some fun and heart. Clearly they’re responding,” Russo said. He and Anthony Russo are directing Millie Bobby Brown in The Electric State for Netflix, and they’re thinking about the sequel to The Gray Man , which will have Ryan Gosling back as the covert government agent/assassin. “Moving forward, the struggle for Sierra Six will be about whether he can forge a new destiny away from the CIA, or is forever fated to be an agent of death,” Russo told Deadline. The Gray Man has been one of several satisfying streamer films, the others being the Predator i nstallment Prey and the Thai cave thriller rescue film Thirteen Lives , any of which could have … [Read more...] about AGBO’s ‘The Gray Man’ Closes On ‘Extraction’ As 6th Most Viewed Netflix Film
Black Bear Hires Longtime ICM Partner Joanne Roberts Wiles To Management Division
EXCLUSIVE : The Imitation Game outfit Black Bear Pictures is bolstering the senior ranks of its fledgling management division with the hire of respected former ICM Partners and William Morris agent Joanne Roberts Wiles . While a partner at ICM, Wiles represented filmmakers including Cooper Raiff ( Cha Cha Real Smooth ), the Duplass Brothers ( Cyrus ), Karyn Kusama ( Yellowjackets ), Duke Johnson ( Anomalisa ), Charlie McDowell and Justin Lader ( Windfall ), Gregg Araki ( Now Apocalypse ), Jamie Dack ( Palm Trees and Power Lines ), Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley ( Jockey ), So Yong Kim ( Lovesong ), David Siegel and Scott McGehee ( Montana Story ), and David LaChapelle ( Rize ). She also represented talent in front of the camera including Oscar nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee ( The Power of The Dog ), Hannah Gross ( Mindhunter ), Garance Marillier ( Titane ), Théodore Pellerin ( Never Rarely Sometimes Always ), Dree Hemingway ( Starlet ), … [Read more...] about Black Bear Hires Longtime ICM Partner Joanne Roberts Wiles To Management Division
Theresa Rebeck Joins Broadway-Bound ‘Working Girl’ Musical Adaptation As Book Writer
EXCLUSIVE: Playwright Theresa Rebeck , who created the stage musical-themed NBC series Smash , has joined the real-life Broadway -bound musical adaptation of the 1988 film comedy Working Girl , producers announced today. Rebeck will write the book of the musical, said producers Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler of Aged In Wood Productions and Kumiko Yoshii. While Rebeck has had four plays produced on Broadway ( Bernhardt/Hamlet, Dead Accounts, Seminar, Mauritius ), Working Girl would mark her Broadway debut as a book writer for a musical. As previously announced, Cyndi Lauper is writing the music and lyrics, and Christopher Ashley will direct. “ Smash ignited my love of musical theater and I’ve been eager to find the right musical project since then,” Rebeck said in a statement. “I couldn’t have dreamed up a better fit than Working Girl , or better collaborators than Cyndi, Chris and this team. I can’t wait for audiences to discover how we’ve reimagined this … [Read more...] about Theresa Rebeck Joins Broadway-Bound ‘Working Girl’ Musical Adaptation As Book Writer
‘Voodoo Macbeth’ Becomes First USC Originals Pic To Secure Theatrical Release As Lightyear Entertainment Picks Up Rights
EXCLUSIVE : USC Originals has scored its first theatrical release, in association with Warner Bros., following Lightyear Entertainment ’s acquisition of its film, Voodoo Macbeth . The company behind the Oscar-nominated Australian feature Tanna has slated the pic for release across the U.S. and Canada in October. Based on a true story, Voodoo Macbeth follows a young Orson Welles (Jewell Wilson Bridges) and a group of committed artists as they set out to create what is now considered a landmark event in African-American theater history—the Negro Theatre Unit’s revolutionary 1936 production of Macbeth . With FDR’s New Deal providing funding for the Federal Theatre Project, director Rose McClendon (Inger Tudor) convinces co-director John Houseman (Daniel Kuhlman) to help her bring Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the Harlem community at the Lafayette Theater — with an all-Black cast. Well before Citizen Kane and War of the Worlds , they choose for their … [Read more...] about ‘Voodoo Macbeth’ Becomes First USC Originals Pic To Secure Theatrical Release As Lightyear Entertainment Picks Up Rights
Jockey Taiki Yanagida Dead At 28 After Horrific Horse Racing Accident
loveracing.nz Awful news in horse racing ... jockey Taiki Yanagida -- known as "Tiger" -- has passed away days after he fell and was trampled during a race in New Zealand. Taiki was only 28. The accident occurred last Wednesday during the last race at Cambridge Jockey Club ... when the Japanese jockey fell off his horse, Te Atatu Pash, about 250 meters from the post, where the race begins, according to the NZ Herald . Yanagida -- who lost his helmet in the fall -- was rolled on by his own horse and then trampled by another following closely behind. The jockey suffered serious brain and spinal injuries and was transferred to the Waikato Hospital where he was placed into an induced coma. Very sad to hear the news Taiki Yanagida passed away at Waikato Hospital from a race fall at Cambridge last Wed. pic.twitter.com/3OODjJJyqn — Mark Nowell Racing (@MarkANowell) August 9, 2022 @MarkANowell Unfortunately, Yanagida never recovered ... he died on … [Read more...] about Jockey Taiki Yanagida Dead At 28 After Horrific Horse Racing Accident
Inside RNC’s Hottest Ticket: The Big Gay Islamophobia Party
“A jihadi walks into a gay bar, and the bartender says, ‘What’ll you have?’ The jihadi says, ‘Shots for everyone!'” …is not the joke you expect to hear at a gay rights fundraiser one month after a very high-profile massacre at a gay club. And Pam Geller — organizer of last year’s infamous “Draw Mohammed” contest in Garland, Texas — isn’t the person you expect to be telling it. But it plays here Tuesday night, on the fourth floor of Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, at Wake Up!, the gay Islamophobia party. It’s fitting that this is the hottest party of Donald Trump ’s Republican National Convention. According to organizers GOProud and LGBTrump, the event sold out within 24 hours, and the waiting list was “several hundred” people deep. The line to get in is long, security’s tight, and there’s a thick gaggle of dudes hovering to one side of the entrance, hoping to get in. “The left wants us to believe that this election is going to be about bathrooms or who … [Read more...] about Inside RNC’s Hottest Ticket: The Big Gay Islamophobia Party