Al Pacino, Charlie Heaton, Diana Silvers to Star in Drama ‘Billy Knight’

Taylor Russell and Diana Silvers showed off some skin in daring looks at the second annual Academy Museum Gala on Saturday (October 15) in Los Angeles.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky and his longtime creative partner, Ari Handel, are on a mission. At their production company, Protozoa Pictures, the two want to use movies and television to make science cool at a time when it’s under attack. “There’s a lens that we look at things through,” says Handel. “A lot of our work is pro-science or involves technology or the environment. Morally, we think the world can use that right now.” Some of that has to do with the backgrounds of the pair — Aronofsky did field research as a student at Harvard, and Handel has a Ph.D. in neuroscience. But that embrace of empiricism was also something the two felt had become important during the Trump era, when the government was often at odds with experts.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Both Brendan Fraser and Darren Aronofsky have had some high-profile setbacks when it comes to the comic book genre. The two men, who are collaborating on the acclaimed indie drama “The Whale,” opened up about their struggles during recent interviews with Variety. Fraser spent months in Glasgow, Scotland portraying Firefly, a pyromaniac who faces off against Leslie Grace’s costumed heroine in “Batgirl.” That film was supposed to debut on HBO Max, but it was scrapped, a victim of the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia, the streaming service’s parent company. “It’s tragic,” Fraser told Variety as part of a cover story on “The Whale.” “It doesn’t engender trust among filmmakers and the studio. Leslie Grace was fantastic. She’s a dynamo, just a spot-on performer. Everything that we shot was real and exciting and just the antithesis of doing a straightforward digital all green screen thing. They ran firetrucks around downtown Glasgow at 3 in the morning and they had flamethrowers. It was a big-budget movie, but one that was just stripped down to the essentials.”   

Brent Lang Executive Editor Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights to “Sweetwater,” a recently completed feature about Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the first African American to land an NBA contract. The drama is written and directed by Martín Guigui and stars newcomer Everett Osborne as Clifton. The ensemble includes veteran actors such as Kevin Pollak, Cary Elwes, Jeremy Piven, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Ri’chard. There are also special appearances by Gary Clark Jr., Jim Caviezel and NBA champion Bobby Portis Jr.  The film follows Clifton (Osborn), who is the star attraction of the Harlem Globetrotters, led by owner/coach Abe Saperstein (Pollak). When New York Knicks executive Ned Irish (Elwes) and Knicks coach Joe Lapchick (Piven) decide it is time for the Knicks to integrate, with the support of NBA President Maurice Podoloff (Dreyfuss), they come together with the other team owners of the league to make history. Briarcliff will give the film a wide theatrical release on April 14, 2023. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor 101 Studios has made a series of key executive hires. Eliot Goldberg has joined as the company’s head of unscripted and documentary programming, while Ellie Duque has been tapped as exec VP of brand partnerships. Both executives will work out of the company’s Beverly Hills office. Joanna Balin has been tapped as director of unscripted and documentary programming, with Brannan Goetschius named as head of audio. Both executives will become part of 101 Studios’ New York team. They join Dani Weinstein, who was announced as the new chief communications officer in July. “We are thrilled to welcome these very accomplished, well-respected executives into our 101 Studios Family. We are always looking for ways to expand our reach and expertise and we are lucky to have Dani, Eliot, Ellie, Joanna and Brannan join our ranks,” said 101 Studios CEO David Glasser

It’s a mini “Glee” reunion.

Darren Criss watched her former co-star, Lea Michele, perform “Don’t Rain On My Parade’ … again.  On Wednesday, the actress, who currently plays Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of, shared a picture of her, Criss and his wife, Mia, backstage after the show and joked about the amount of times her former co-star has seen her perform the song.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Devotion,” a drama about a group of elite fighter pilots during the Korean War, will screen at the opening night of the Urbanworld Film Festival. The Sony Pictures and Black Label Media production was directed by J.D. Dillard and stars Jonathan Majors, who will serve as the festival’s official ambassador. HBO will return as a founding partner of the Urbanworld Film Festival, and Visa will serve as presenting partner. The festival will take place from Oct. 26 to Oct. 30. “This year’s slate is incredibly impressive,” said Karen McMullen, head of programming. “We have some of the top artists in the industry as well as exciting new voices premiering their films at Urbanworld. It has been a privilege working alongside this organization as we move into our 26th year as a festival. We can’t wait to see everyone in person in New York City to help us celebrate our dynamic films and filmmakers.”

The popular YouTube star known as Dream has finally revealed his face and his real name to the world after years of being anonymous!

Brent Lang Executive Editor Nicole Kidman’s AMC ad has achieved a new level of pop culture prominence. The so campy, you have to love it ode to the power of cinema has been meme’d, made into t-shirts and inspired audiences to stand and salute since it first started airing over a year ago. And now, “Saturday Night Live” has weighed in with its own take, one that perfectly satirizes the cultish response to the 60-second spot. In it, Chloe Fineman channels Kidman’s Australian accent, runway strut as she finds her seat in the auditorium, and the kind of dramatic hand gestures that exist in movies, but not on Earth. Fineman largely sticks to the original script (which can’t really be improved upon), and repeats the same observations that “somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” Only this time, Kenan Thompson’s regular moviegoer isn’t entirely sold on Kidman’s gilded aphorisms or the audience’s rapturous embrace of her message.

One of the stars of the Charlie’s Angels franchise is ready to suit up for another movie!

Brent Lang Executive Editor Centricus has acquired a majority stake in SK Global Entertainment, the independent film and television production and finance company behind “Crazy Rich Asians.” The pact is in in the low to mid nine figures, according to a source with knowledge of the transaction. The deal will provide SK Global with capital to grow its company, potentially through mergers and acquisitions, a well as provide more financing to expand its slate of content. The company plans to double its output, producing four to five movies annually and at least five series. Earlier this year, SK Global acquired Critical Content, a production company focused on unscripted television series such as MTV’s “Catfish” and Netflix’s “Get Organized with The Home Edit.”

EXCLUSIVE: Neal McDonough (The Flash), D.B. Woodside (Lucifer) and Amanda Schull (Suits) are set for key recurring roles opposite Rob Lowe on the fourth season of Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Al Pacino, “Stranger Things” star Charlie Heaton and “Booksmart” actress Diana Silvers will all lead the cast of upcoming indie drama “Billy Knight,” which kicks off production this week in Los Angeles. Alec Griffin Roth wrote the film and is making his directorial debut on the project, which is described as a love letter to Hollywood and cinema.“Billy Knight” follows grad school students, Alex (Heaton) and Emily (Silvers), as they traverse their aspiring careers as filmmakers.

Al Pacino has been set to star in Billy Knight, an indie drama that will mark the feature film debut of writer-director Alec Griffen Roth. Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton and Diana Silvers (Space Force, Booksmart) will also topline the pic, which begins shooting this week in Los Angeles.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Bros” is another R-rated, envelope-pushing look at a man in a state of arrested development from Nicholas Stoller. It’s the kind of look at male neurosis, usually the kind of mania the pops up a decade shy of mid-life crisis time, that has been the director’s stock in trade in comedies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek” and “Neighbors.” But this film has an important twist. It has an entirely LGBTQ cast and centers on two gay men with serious commitment issues — a stretch for Stoller, who is heterosexual. So he turned to Billy Eichner, who he knew from working together on “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” and “Friends From College,” to help him fashion an authentically queer “meet cute.” “Bros,” the culmination of a multi-year writing process that Stoller likens to therapy (“making a movie like this is a lot like ‘Prince of Tides,’ he says). When it debuts on Friday, “Bros” will make history as the first major studio LGBTQ rom-com to open exclusively in theaters.