Apple Original Films & Nike Team For Multi Year First Look On Sports Films; Brad Weston’s Makeready & Nike’s Waffle Iron To Produce

The 2018 story of a boys’ soccer team trapped in a cave in northern Thailand made headlines around the world. Now, the harrowing true story gets the Hollywood treatment with director Ron Howard at the helm and an ensemble cast, featuring Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen, and Joel Edgerton.

EXCLUSIVE: Alessandro Nivola is set to co-star alongside André  Holland in Apple TV+’s The Big Cigar, a new, six episode limited series that will chronicle the story of Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton’s escape to Cuba. The new series will be showrun and executive produced by NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrois , with Holland starring as Newton, and Don Cheadle on board to direct and executive produce the first two episodes. The growing ensemble cast also includes Tiffany Boone.

Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed has spoken on the possibility of the show ending with the upcoming third season.Earlier this month, star Brett Goldstein claimed that they were “writing” the season as if it will be the last, admitting the show was always “planned as three”.Speaking about the longevity of the show and whether it could last multiple more seasons, Mohammed – who plays Nathan Shelley on the Apple TV+ show – admitted he didn’t know where things were going, though could see the “appeal” of ending it at three.“I don’t know, that’s the honest answer,” he told Discussing Film. “Not trying to be teasing, I don’t know whether it’s the end or not.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe barrage of TV launches over the past several months has further blurred the sense of time. Although series like “Ted Lasso,” “Succession” and “Dopesick” remain front-runners in their respective comedy, drama and limited-series categories, they all aired last fall. Are they vulnerable when it comes time for Phase 2 final voting?Maybe, or perhaps not, as they’ve been consistently at the top of most pundits’ prediction pages.

told GQ magazine that he was told gold worth millions of dollars was known to be buried under Château Miraval, his 1,000-acre estate in Provence.“I got obsessed,” Pitt, 58, told the mag.“Like for a year, this was all I could think about, just the excitement of it all,” said the Missouri-raised actor.“Maybe it has something to do with where I grew up, because in the Ozark Mountains there were always stories of hidden caches of gold.”Pitt said he even brought radar equipment during his year scouring the vast estate, which is now part of a bitter lawsuit with his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, whom he bought it with in 2008 and married there in 2014.He never found any gold — and later realized that the man who told him the initial tall tale had been seeking investments for a radar company. It was not clear if it was the same equipment that he bought for the dig.It proved to be “pretty foolish in the end,” Pitt admitted.“It was just the hunt that was exciting,” said the star who makes up to $20 million a movie, according to the GQ profile.The Miraval estate is located in the village of Correns in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentSony made a splash at the CineEurope conference in Barcelona with British star Aaron Taylor-Johnson on the ground to tease David Leitch’s “Bullet Train,” in which Taylor-Johnson stars opposite Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock and Karen Fukuhara. Taylor-Johnson, who just wrapped the shoot of “Kraven the Hunter,” introduced 15 minutes of footage of the action-packed comedy thriller “Bullet Train,” which was also shown at CinemaCon.“I watched (the movie) last week and I was literally howling with laughter to the point that I almost peed on my seat a little.

Netflix just dropped the first look at Blonde, and what an uncanny look it is. In this new teaser trailer for the Andrew Dominik-directed film starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, the  Hollywood icon is initially depicted as a tearful bundle of nerves, praying that some mysterious “she” won’t abandon her. As her make-up is applied and Monroe transforms into a smiling, radiant star, we realize exactly who she’s has been waiting for.

EXCLUSIVE: For years I sat right by a U.K. national newspaper sports desk. Few things excited me more than when, if I happened to be in the office of an evening, a rare thing, and there was a big soccer game showing on the giant screens located where the sports writers lived, then I’d dive right in and watch.

Playing Roy Kent on Ted Lasso hasn’t just given Brett Goldstein the biggest success of his career, with an Emmy award and tons of acclaim to boot; the hot-tempered but bookish star-player-turned-coach role has given TV viewers one of the most indelible characters of our time. As a co-producer, writer and executive story editor on the show, Goldstein is a major part of its international success. His next project sees him re-teaming as EP and writer with Ted Lasso co-producer Bill Lawrence for Shrinking, another Apple TV+ series, about a grieving therapist played by Jason Segel, co-starring Harrison Ford.

EXCLUSIVE: Prolific film and television producer Liza Chasin (Made For Love, The Lost City) has signed a first look deal with Endeavor Content to develop and produce premium, talent-driven television series through her 3dot Productions.

Based on a character Jason Sudeikis originally created for NBC promos, Ted Lasso the guy evolved into Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ comedy series. It quickly became a hit, securing 20 Emmy nominations and seven wins in its first season including for Outstanding Comedy Series. The second season premiered in July 2021, and a third season recently began filming.

“Spiderhead” (out next week), TheWrap asked about the new movie and the release strategy.“We’ve got an interesting distribution plan that includes a guaranteed worldwide large-format theatrical experience that then rolls into an exclusive streaming arrangement on Apple TV+,” Kosinski said. It should be noted this is the first time large-format theaters have been discussed.

Brad Pitt wants his day in court!

Battle of the exes. Brad Pitt filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife Angelina Jolie in February 2022, claiming that she illegally sold her shares of Miraval, a French company including a chateau and vineyard that the former couple purchased together in the south of France.

“Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski is making some moves. Coming off the hit Tom Cruise sequel and already earning a hefty $557 million worldwide after two weekends, the ‘Top Gun’ filmmaker is looking to helm another fast-moving movie with a massive A-list star.

UPDATED, 1:00 p.m.: Apple Studios has locked in its deal to acquire Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski’s Formula One racing film, starring Academy Award winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood). The streamer entered exclusive negotiations to pick up the project back in January, as we told you first.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterApple Original Films has emerged as the highest bidder for Brad Pitt’s upcoming movie about Formula One racing.Joseph Kosinski, who just steered “Top Gun: Maverick” to blockbuster success, is directing the yet-to-be-titled film, which will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton.Brad Pitt is playing a driver who comes out of retirement to compete alongside a rookie driver and the titans of the sport. Ehren Kruger, one of the three screenwriters on “Top Gun: Maverick,” is responsible for penning the screenplay.Additional producers are Kosinski and Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s legal battle is far from over, now that the actor has accused his ex of seeking to intentionally harm the wine business they co-owned together since 2008 in the South of France, as she is selling her part of the business and he is not happy about it.The Hollywood actor is suing Angelina for selling her stake in Château Miraval, which was previously bought for 25 million euros, detailing that they previously agreed they would not sell their half without permission of the other, making it a “violation of the parties’ agreement.”Pitt described Jolie’s buyer, who is Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler, as “a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions,” stating that he does not approve of her actions.He also explains that the actress has “contributed nothing” to the business he “carefully built,” growing it into a “multimillion-dollar international success story,” and he claims that the sale has launched a “hostile” takeover.The legal documents also state that “Through the purported sale, Jolie sought to inflict harm on Pitt,” adding that “Jolie knew and intended that Shefler and his affiliates would try to control the business Pitt had built and to undermine Pitt’s investment in Miraval.”The lawsuit states that the new buyer “has gained notoriety through cut-throat business tactics and dubious professional associations” and making the sale would jeopardize “the reputation of the brand Pitt so carefully built.”And while Angeline has yet to respond, Pitt described the success of the business in the lawsuit, declaring that “though she benefited from Miraval’s success, Jolie had no involvement in these efforts.”