CAA Signs Theater Producer, Director, Writer Jonathan Rockefeller (EXCLUSIVE)

Live & Livid Tour, stays connected to younger perspectives, even if she’s just watching other people play. “I’m like, ‘How do you even figure this out?'” she says.

The Movie Academy has padded the presenter ranks for the 95th Oscars this weekend. Halle Bailey, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, John Cho, Andrew Garfield, Hugh Grant, Danai Gurira, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nicole Kidman, Florence Pugh and Sigourney Weaver will present statuettes Sunday.

EXCLUSIVE: Diane Ademu-John and Declan de Barra have signed with CAA for representation.

Angelique Jackson CAA has signed “Industry” and “Rye Lane” star David Jonsson for representation. News of Jonsson signing with CAA comes just hours after the actor was confirmed to be part of the cast of the yet-to-be-titled “Alien” movie, written and directed by Fede Alvarez. 20th Century Studios announced that Jonsson would be among the actors joining Cailee Spaeny in the sci-fi film — the ninth in the franchise started by Ridley Scott, who is returning to produce. According to a new plot synopsis provided by the studio, the film will follow “a group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.” Also officially joining the project are Archie Renaux (“Shadow and Bone”), Isabela Merced (“Rosaline”), Spike Fearn (“The Batman”) and Aileen Wu (“Away From Home”).

Jordan Moreau The “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” sequel has finally caught a director. Jonathan Krisel, co-creator of “Portlandia,” is in negotiations with Legendary Entertainment to direct the sequel to the live-action “Pokémon” movie from 2019. Chris Galletta will write the script. Krisel co-created, wrote and executive produced IFC’s sketch comedy show “Portlandia,” which starred fellow co-creators Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein in a multitude of oddball situations around Portland, Oregon. He also co-created, wrote and directed FX’s “Baskets,” starring Zach Galifianakis as a rodeo clown. Previously, Galletta wrote the 2013 coming-of-age comedy “The Kings of Summer.”

Angelique Jackson British actor Vivian Oparah has signed with CAA. Best known for playing Tanya Adeola in the “Doctor Who” spinoff “Class,” Oparah currently stars in the forthcoming rom-com “Rye Lane,” which premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. In the film, Oparah stars as Yas, while David Jonsson (“Industry”) plays Dom, two twenty-somethings reeling from bad break-ups who connect over the course of an eventful day in South London. (The film gets its title from the real-life Rye Lane in Peckham.) The rom-com follows the pair as they “help each other deal with their nightmare exes, potentially restoring their faith in romance.” The Searchlight Pictures movie is directed by Raine Allen Miller, in her feature debut, from a screenplay by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia. “Rye Lane” will be released on March 31 via Hulu in the U.S. and on Star internationally.

Deadline, which first reported the news, “While no deals are done at this time and nothing is confirmed, insiders believe Reynolds will have some part to play in the upcoming sequel though that is undetermined right now.”Pokémon has delighted fans of all ages around the world for more than 25 years.  With more than 440 million video games sold worldwide, 10s of billions of Pokémon TCG cards shipped, and an animated series licensed to broadcast in 177 countries spanning 25 seasons, Pokémon is one of the most successful entertainment properties in the world.Krisel’s credits include co-creating, writing, and executive producing “Portlandia,” as well as co-creating, directing and writing “Baskets” starring Zach Galifianakis for FX.

EXCLUSIVE: Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Krisel is in negotiations to direct the Pokemon Detective Pikachu live-action sequel based on the globally popular Pokémon franchise for Legendary Entertainment. Chris Galletta will write the script for the follow-up to Legendary’s 2019 box office hit. 

Katie Reul editor Sara Waisglass, Jonathan Kite and Thomas Lennon will star in an upcoming holiday feature from DeVan Clan Productions, entitled “Needle Little Christmas.” The Christmas tale centers around kindred spirits Maddie, Elizabeth and Trevor. When Maddie passes away before the holiday season in a sudden accident, she is given a second chance at life to convince Elizabeth and Trevor that magic exists. The one problem? To do so, Maddie’s spirit is transferred into her family’s Christmas tree. Lennon will portray Perry, an invasive neighbor with Grinch-like reservations about getting into the Christmas cheer. Maddie must thwart off Perry while reminding her family and friends of the power of love before the last needle of the tree drops, thereby erasing her from existence.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Legendary New York City drag queen Kevin Aviance has found new management following Beyoncé sampling him her album “Renaissance.” Aviance has signed with Voss Management. “Thank you, Beyoncé! I finally feel validated!,” he told me Thursday. “I never thought at 54 years of age that a Black, bald queen from the New York City underground scene would be offered an exclusive contract with a leading LGBTQ+ management firm. I’m so ready to make Kevin Aviance a household name!” Aviance’s vocals from his 1996 dance hit, “Cunty,” can be heard at the top of “Pure/Honey,” Track 15 on “Renaissance.”

Che Lingo has released new single ‘Out The Blue’ and shared details of his sophomore album ‘Coming Up For Air’.The album follows his critically acclaimed debut ‘The Worst Generation’, and will see the AIM Award-nominated south Londoner talk about mental health and anguish to the full extent“CUFA is an intimate and personal look at myself and the people like me who find it hard to see themselves sometimes,” said Che Lingo. “The CUFA album in my own way is to let people know that they aren’t alone in these trials”.In anticipation of his follow-up record, Lingo has released ‘Out The Blue’; a sombre track to help “break out of the cycle of pressures, inherited and personal, that he and so many suffer from”.Speaking of what inspired the song, Lingo talked of “Times where I felt like I was drowning, fighting things, emotionally and mentally I couldn’t even see and repeating that cycle…This is a story about times like that and how I sung and rapped my way through it.

Jonathan Majors seems like he's everywhere recently, that's because he is! The actor has starred in three feature films this year and we're only three months in. From playing an aspiring bodybuilder in January's  to the formidable Kang the Conqueror in February's , he's been making his mark. And now the 33-year-old is earning critical acclaim for his role in the highly anticipated third installment of the spinoff franchise, , which also serves as Michael B.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Ever since I broke the news that is playing Madame Morrible in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” movies, she has been saying that the films will mark her singing debut. However, Yeoh’s biggest fans have posted videos on social media of her showing off her vocal chops while singing the theme song of her 1993 movie “Butterfly and Sword.” Yeoh laughed when I brought it up at the Mandarin Oriental-hosted dinner in honor of her Oscar nomination for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” “That was so many years ago in Taiwan,” she said. At the time, she asked the song’s lyricist to make things simple for her. “I said to him, ‘I don’t sing, and I don’t speak Mandarin. Can you please not have many words?’” Yeoh recalled. “But then the first time he showed me, I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’”

Paul Mescal has clocked his first Olivier Award nomination for his leading performance in Rebecca Frecknall’s buzzy stage adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire. Scroll down for the full list of nominees.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar season used to boil down to one main thing for Condé Nast: Vanity Fair‘s party. While the famed bash is back this year, there’s also a more consequential reason for the company to feel festive: The New Yorker‘s record five nominations across all three short film categories.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Jennifer Nettles has joined the cast of “The Exorcist,” the first film in the new horror trilogy. Details of her part haven’t been revealed, but it’s described as a “primary role.” She joins a cast that includes Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Lidya Jewett and Ellen Burstyn, who is reprising her role as Chris MacNeil from the 1973 original. The new take on the possession story is being produced by Blumhouse and Morgan Creek for Universal and Peacock. The first film in the trilogy will be released theatrically on Oct. 13, 2023. Nettles is known for both her acting and her music. She most recently played Jenna Hunterson in the Broadway musical “Waitress.” Nettles also appears on HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones” and had a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated Harriet Tubman biopic, “Harriet.” She is a judge on TBS’ competition series “Go-Big Show” and will host Fox’s “The Farmer Wants a Wife.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Mexico’s Yalitza Aparicio, Oscar nominated for her career-launching turn in Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” and Infinity Hill, producers of the Oscar-nominated Argentine drama “Argentina 1985,” have boarded sweatshop thriller “Bonded” as executive producers. The drama features a stellar cast that includes Golden Globe nominee Diego Calva (“Babylon”), Chile’s Alfredo Castro (“From Afar”), Mexico’s Paulina Gaitán (“Narcos”) and Jason Patric (“The Lost Boys”). The directorial feature debut of helmer-scribe Mohit Ramchandani, “Bonded” is produced by Mexican filmmaker Luis Mandoki (“Innocent Voices), Jon Graham (“The Vault”) and Kyle Stroud (“In Full Bloom”).

Brent Lang Executive Editor Ahead of its world premiere at SXSW, RLJE Films and its sister brands under AMC Networks have acquired the North American rights to the horror/thriller, “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster.” Those brands include Shudder and AllBlk, all of which share a parent company. The horror-thriller is debuting in the Austin-based festival’s “Visions” category, a special program that “champions audacious, risk-taking artists in the new cinema landscape.” The movie follows a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, the teen embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life. It’s a journey inspired by Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brazilian animated feature “Perlimps,” Alê Abreu’s follow up to Oscar-nominated “Boy and the World,” has been sold in key territories by Best Friend Forever ahead of the European Film Market. “Perlimps” has been picked up for Japan (Child Film and New Deer), China (DDDream), CIS and baltics (Kinologistica), Sweden (Njutafilm) and Portugal (Films4you). BFF is in advanced discussions to close German Speaking territories, Benelux, Spain, Italy and North America. As previously announced, UFO Distribution will release the feature in France. “Perlimps” was just released last week in Brazil by leading independent outfit Vitrine Filmes and Sony Pictures, which holds Latin American rights.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Nick Lieberman, a writer and director on the breakout Sundance comedy “Theater Camp,” has signed with Range Media Partners for representation. Sold out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival to Searchlight for $8 million and guaranteed a theatrical release, the feature earned an ensemble prize from the U.S. Dramatic jury. Equal parts scathing satire and heartwarming camp adventure for child performers, “Theater Camp” stars Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Gavlin, Patti Harrison, Jimmy Tatro and Ayo Edebiri. Lieberman and Gordon directed from a script by Lieberman, Platt, Galvin and Gordon. Will Ferrell and Jessica Elbaum produced via Gloria Sanchez Productions along with Erik Feig’s Picturestart. The film will screen at the forthcoming South by Southwest film festival before hitting theaters later this year.