2023 Berlin Prize Winner ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Acquired By Sony Pictures Classics

Patti LuPone, 73, has nine huge shows remaining on her ongoing ‘Don’t Monkey With Broadway Tour’ all over the U.S.That includes two stops in the Garden State followed by a pair in New York.First, the three-time Tony winner will belt standards by Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and more at Englewood, NJ’s Bergen Performing Arts Center on Thursday, March 23.Then, on March 25, she’ll perform at New Brunswick’s State Theatre.Come summer time, the tour will drop into Poughkeepsie’s Bardavon Opera House on June 17.For those willing to wait over a year, you can see the show in Manhattan — ‘Don’t Monkey With Broadway’ is scheduled for a night at Carnegie Hall on April 8, 2024. And the best news of all is you won’t have to pay Broadway-like prices to see LuPone live on the road.At the time of publication, we found some seats going for as low as $58 before fees on Vivid Seats.So, if you want to see LuPone deliver what Front Row Reviewers called “autobiographical snippets (and) powerful song(s)” live, here’s everything you need to know.A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues and links to the cheapest tickets available for all remaining concerts can be found below.(Note: The New York Post confirmed all above prices at the publication time.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Roku Channel scripted series head Colin Davis has jumped to Sony Pictures Television Studios as the studio’s new exec VP of comedy development, Variety has confirmed. As part of the exec shuffle, back at Roku, Brian Tannenbaum has replaced Davis as head of scripted on an interim level. Davis will report to Sony Pictures TV Studios co-president Jason Clodfelter and oversee comedy development for all platforms. Davis’ team will include comedy development senior VP, animation VP Frank Ochoa and comedy development manager Jackie Wertheimer. He starts on May 1. At Roku, Davis oversaw the launch of series including the “Reno 911” reboot and Kevin Hart’s “Die Harter,” as well as the greenlight and release of the feature “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” Davis joined Roku as part of its acquisition of Quibi content; he had previously led scripted at that very brief short-form subscription service. Before Quibi, he handled comedy development at Turner, working on shows such as “Search Party.” His interim replacement, Tannenbaum, also joined Roku from Quibi..

EXCLUSIVE: Roku has quickly found its new scripted boss.

EXCLUSIVE: Colin Davis, Head of Scripted Originals for the Roku Channel, is leaving Roku’s free ad-supported streaming service to join Sony as EVP of Comedy Development at Sony Pictures Television Studios. Davis, who starts May 1, will oversee development of comedies for all platforms, reporting to Jason Clodfelter, Co-President of Sony Pictures Television Studios.

EXCLUSIVE: Jesús I. Valles’ play Bathhouse.pptx has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Yale Drama Series Prize, with the honor’s judge Jeremy O. Harris calling the new work an exploration of “a queer history that is quickly being erased.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian sales company True Colours has closed a raft of sales following Berlin’s European Film Market. Italy’s box office hit “La Stranezza” (“Strangeness”) got picked up for a dozen territories and queer romantic drama “Norwegian Dream” also sold widely, including to North America. Directed by Roberto Andò, “Strangeness” (pictured) toplines Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) as Nobel-prize-winning playwright Luigi Pirandello. This tragicomic period piece about how Pirandello found inspiration to write his masterpiece “Six Characters in Search of an Author” has been a sleeper hit at the Italian box office, coming from nowhere to pull more than €5.5 million ($5.8 million) and becoming the local 2022 box office champ.

filmmaking is a real honor. Thank you to Michael and Tom for embracing our story about flawed, complex human beings, who happen to be Asian American, just trying their best.

Sony Pictures Classics has taken global rights to Randall Park’s feature directorial Shortcomings. The pic starring Justin H. Min (After Yang), Sherry Cola (Joy Ride, Good Trouble), and Ally Maki (Big Door Prize), Tavi Gevinson (Gossip Girl), Debby Ryan (Insatiable), Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon), Timothy Simons (Veep), and Jacob Batalon (Reginald The Vampire) had its world premiere at Sundance back in January in the U.S. Dramatic Competition sector.

Ariana DeBose, Chloe Fineman, Amanda Seyfried, and Megan Stalter are teaming up for a very exciting new movie!

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Sony Pictures has won global distribution rights to the hot comedy package “My Ex-Friend’s Wedding,” a script co-written by buzzy author Taylor Jenkins Reid starring a murderers’ row of funny women. Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, “Saturday Night Live” breakout Chloe Fineman, Amanda Seyfried and Megan Stalter are set as the core ensemble. The film follows four childhood best friends who receive a drunken voicemail from a former BFF on the eve of her wedding day — confessing that she thinks she’s making a mistake. The group sets out to stop her wedding and rekindle the friendship they once shared. Comedy vet Kay Cannon, whose 2019 feature directorial debut “Blockers” over-performed at the box office, is directing. The script is from Ashley Rodger and Jenkins Reid. The latter could not be hotter at the moment, as the series adaptation of her novel “Daisy Jones & The Six” is about to hit Amazon Prime Video. Additional Jenkins Reed books are headed to the screen at Hulu (“Malibu Rising”) and Netflix (“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”).

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Alpha Violet has posted fresh sales on Mexican director Lila Avilés’s family drama Tótem, which world premiered in competition at the Berlinale to acclaim in February.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a bid to give more opportunities to women directors and boost the romcom genre, Sony Pictures International has teamed up with Maria Ripoll’s Cahuenga Filmmakers and transatlantic production shingle El Estudio to launch The Love Collection, a series of romantic comedy features to be written and helmed by women. Ripoll, best known for her romcom “Ahora o nunca,” the highest-grossing femme-directed film in Spain, will serve as executive producer on all the titles, and will direct the first in the collection, “Yo no soy esa,” (roughly translated to “I’m Not That One” or “I’m Not Her”) starring Verónica Echegui (“Trust,” “You’re Killing Me, Susana”). El Estudio’s Enrique López Lavigne will serve as producer on all the titles.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sony Pictures Classics has bought “The Teachers’ Lounge,” Ilker Çatak’s drama which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, for North America, Latin America and Eastern Europe (excluding Hungary). “The Teachers’ Lounge” marks the fourth feature from Çatak, who co-wrote the screenplay with Johannes Duncker. The movie played in the Panorama section and won the Europa Cinemas Label award for Best European film, as well as the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award. Produced by Ingo Fliess and shot by award-winning cinematographer Judith Kaufmann (“Corsage”), “The Teachers’ Lounge” stars Leonine Benesch (“The Crown”), Michael Klammer, Rafael Stachowiak, and Eva Löbau.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in the U.S., Latin America, and select territories in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe to “The Miracle Club.” Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan, the film stars Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Agnes O’Casey. The Dublin-shot film centers on four Dublin women who come together on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Lourdes in France, where they discover the solidarity in their friendship and unveil their own personal miracles. Produced by Chris Curling, Joshua Maurer and Larry Bass, the film was shot throughout 2022 and is currently in post-production. “The Miracle Club” reunites its leading actresses and Sony Pictures Classics, with all three having starred in previous films released by the distributor, including Linney in “Jindabyne” (2006) and “Driving Lessons” (2006), Smith in the titular role of “The Lady in the Van” (2015), and Bates in “Love Liza” (2002) and “Midnight in Paris” (2011).

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights for German director Christian Petzold’s new film Afire, following its award-winning world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: The Match Factory has unveiled a slew of deals for German director Christian Petzold’s Berlin Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner Afire.

Bill Murray and star Jeannie Berlin set foot on the red carpet of the 2023 SAG Awards holding hands.Murray and Berlin appeared quite close when they arrived together for Sunday's soiree at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The star wore a black tuxedo with a colorful bow tie, while Berlin sported an all-black suit and shades.Berlin, who portrayed Hadassah Fabelman in the Steven Spielberg film, was there for the film's nomination in the Best Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture category.

EXCLUSIVE: Blake Griffin and Ryan Kalil are getting into business with Sony Pictures Entertainment. The producing partners have signed a multi-year first-look development and production deal for film and TV via their Mortal Media production banner.

Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art have set Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama and Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s Sundance Special Jury Award winner Mutt, both debut features, as opening and closing film at the 52st edition of their collaboration, New Directors/New Films, running March 29–April 9 in NYC.

Fresh off its world premiere at Sundance last month, A.V. Rockwell‘s feature directorial debut, “A Thousand And One” hits theaters everywhere in March.