Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York Streaming Site Launches

Pat Saperstein Deputy EditorWarner Bros. has announced release dates for several films including DC’s “Blue Beetle,” directed by Angel Manuel Soto, which is now due Aug.

Tonight, Warner Bros. made certain what we first heard, that the New Line Train to Busan remake will now be titled The Last Train to New York, as well as dating the movie for April 21, 2023.

Stephen Karam’s 2016 Tony-winning play The Humans has been hailed by critics for holding a great mirror to New York City’s hard-scrabble inhabitants in the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. However, the A24 film version, Karam’s feature directorial debut, arrives in theaters and on Showtime at an intriguing time, taking on an additional level of significance during a global pandemic.

Stillwater director/co-writer Tom McCarthy and Matt Damon joined Deadline’s Contenders New York event today to discuss the film and what they were looking for in the Bill Baker character.

The Many Saints of Newark writer David Chase and stars Ray Liotta and Alessandro Nivola discussed the Sopranos prequel Saturday at Contenders Film: New York. Speaking with Deadline’s Mike Fleming, Chase and Nivola zeroed in on the explosive rage of Nivola’s character, Dickie Moltisanti, while Liotta had a different perspective on his role.

Oscar Isaac had been waiting a long time to work with filmmaker Paul Schrader, and in The Card Counter, he found a much-longed-for opportunity to portray an antihero directly in the mold of the writer-director’s signature works including Taxi Driver, Light Sleeper and First Reformed.

The Coen brothers’ longtime composer, Carter Burwell, said that scoring Joel Coen’s Shakespeare adaptation The Tragedy of Macbeth was much different from their other movies.

The heroine of Zola – the unique, Twitter-chain inspired pic about a hastily arranged raunchy road trip – was drawn in part from The Wizard of Oz, director Janicza Bravo told a panel at Deadline’s New York Contenders event. It’s a about  girl who craves adventure, leaves a boring pale life “and is transported into this deeply saturated world, and by the end has made three enemies” (Yes, the end is a twist from the classic.)

For her film CODA, filmmaker Siân Heder found that delving deep into the cultural differences between the deaf and hearing communities to be wildly informative in creating a fresh cinematic experience.

“It started with Ben, with the script being so well written, the characters having the same essence but needing different things,” said Swan Song star and producer Mahershala Ali said of playing two roles in the Apple Original Film.

Aunjanue Ellis, who plays Venus and Serena Williams’ mother, Oracene, in King Richard, said her character deserves more credit, including from herself.

Actress Olga Merediz stopped by Deadline’s Contenders: New York on Saturday to talk about reprising her role as Abuela Claudia from Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Broadway musical In the Heights for Jon M. Chu’s Warner Bros film of the same name.

Being the Ricardos writer-director Aaron Sorkin and stars Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York showcase to discuss the Amazon Studios biopic of sorts about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, played by Kidman and Bardem, respectively.

Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian filmmaker with two Best International Film Oscars to his name, has returned with another naturalistic immersion in his homeland: A Hero.

The Tender Bar stars Tye Sheridan and Lily Rabe joined a virtual panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York awards-season showcase to discuss the film and how they related to their characters.

Spencer director Pablo Larraín said Saturday that while he and screenwriter Steven Knight took different immersive paths when developing the film’s screenplay, the result was unlike any other he’d worked on: the finished script matched the final edit scene for scene.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York event Saturday to shed further light on the backstory to his lauded Sundance debut Flee, which is Denmark’s entry for the International Feature Oscar race. The animated documentary from Neon and Participant tells the true story of a man, Amin, on the verge of marriage that compels him to reveal his hidden past for the first time. Amin is also a childhood friend of the director.

Rebecca Hall said Saturday that her mother told her Hall’s directorial debut, Passing, liberated her family, as Hall’s grandfather was a Black man who decided to pass for White in Detroit.

Producer Tanya Seghatchian and cinematographer Ari Wegner took to the stage Saturday at Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York event to discuss how they put together Netflix’ The Power of the Dog.