Denis Villeneuve’s “Very Old Secret” Is Directing An Adam McKay-Written “Dark Comedy”

Selome Hailu “You can’t do a story about the Lakers without the Lakers,” Magic Johnson says. “The real Lakers. You gotta have the guys.”In a new interview for this week’s cover story of Variety, the NBA legend shared his unfiltered thoughts about “Winning Time,” HBO’s scripted drama about the Showtime era of the Lakers, which has just been renewed for its second season.

Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi (Don’t Look Up) is the last addition to the cast of the action-thriller Silent Night, from iconic action director John Woo (Face/Off), John Wick producers Thunder Road Films and Capstone Studios. He’s set to star alongside Joel Kinnaman, Harold Torres and Catalina Sandino Moreno.

At the 94th Academy Awards, Dune‘s Greig Fraser landed his first Oscar for Best Cinematography, joking that he was happy his award was up early in the broadcast, so that he could “get out and get to the bar.”

Refresh for updates… The 94th annual Academy Awards are being handed out tonight in Hollywood, and Deadline will be updating the winners live as they are announced.

Adam McKay may be on a roll with his latest movie Don’t Look Up gunning for Oscar glory on Sunday evening, and his TV show Succession topping everyone’s list for the year’s must-watch, but it seems even he can admit to a mistake.

Denis Villeneuve is getting ready to celebrate the 10 Academy Award nominations his “Dune” has earned at the Oscars this Sunday, but the Canadian director reveals he’s already looking ahead to the sci-fi epic’s sequel.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentWith “Dune,” Denis Villeneuve confirms that he is a visionary director. Adapted from Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, “Dune” is set in the year 10191 and Villeneuve salutes his artisans who helped him create the look and sound of the film, which covers multiple interplanetary cultures and locations. Patrice Vermette, production design Patrice preps a lot.

For The Underground Railroad creator and director Barry Jenkins, the WGA honorary Paul Selvin Award served as an “affirmation to to keep working the way I am.”

Dune movie.A sequel to the hit 2021 film was officially announced last October after the new film earned over $40million at the US box office in its opening weekend. It will land in October 2023.Speaking to Deadline, Villeneuve described the follow up to his acclaimed sci-fi starring Zendaya and Tom Holland as “another beautiful journey in the desert again”.He continued: “It’s the journey where Paul Atreides and his mother, Lady Jessica, make contact with the Fremen culture and meet with the Fremen.

Dune director Denis Villeneuve has teased what to expect from the film’s sequel, including a more significant role for Zendaya.A sequel to the hit 2021 film was officially announced last October after the new film earned over $40million at the US box office in its opening weekend. It will land in October 2023.In a new interview on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, director Villeneuve discussed the follow-up to the film, and that Zendaya’s small role in the first Dune would be significantly expanded upon in the sequel.He said: “For Zendaya, I will say Part One was a promise.

Before Dune wins any one of its ten Oscars, filmmaker Denise Villeneuve is already in prep on the second half of the Frank Herbert classic.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, FeaturesAfter another politically and socially turbulent year, the Writers Guild of America is ready to celebrate the best that its members have to offer, while reflecting on the ever-changing social and entertainment landscape.The WGA’s annual awards event, a joint venture between WGAW and WGAWE, will be held on Sunday, March 20th, and similar to last year, will be handled as a virtual event. With COVID still firmly lingering in the space of the populace, the guild’s priorities have naturally shifted in ways that couldn’t have been anticipated, while still staying true to its collective core values.This year’s WGA film award nominees represent a roster of high-caliber talent.

Clayton Davis The most shocking snub of this year’s Oscar nominations was Denis Villeneuve’s omission from the best directing category for his science-fiction epic “Dune.” “It’s better to be in that position than the opposite,” Villeneuve tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “I prefer people say you should have been there instead of ‘what the hell are you doing there?’ I’m not making movies to get awards recognition. If you do that, you’re not walking the right path.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentDenis Villeneuve, the director, co-writer and a producer of WB/Legendary’s “Dune,” talked with Variety about the four creative stages of filming — scriptwriting, preproduction, production and post — as they related to his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. The film has been Oscar-nominated in each of those four stages, with 10 well-earned bids.“I’m very proud of my team.

Stuart Miller When Frank Herbert wrote his science-fiction epic “Dune” in the 1960s, he instinctively made the crucial character of Liet Kynes a white man. But Denis Villeneuve sought a modern, diverse cast and he saw Kynes — who must convey integrity and authority while delicately juggling competing diplomatic interests — differently than Herbert.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a hot one. Jodie Comer is to star in a series based on Jen Beagin’s upcoming book Big Swiss.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Killing Eve” star Jodie Comer is set to star in drama series “Big Swiss” from producer Adam McKay, which is currently in the development stage at HBO.The project is based on Jen Beagin’s upcoming book of the same name and will be produced by A24 and McKay’s Hyperobject Industries.Here’s the description for “Big Swiss”: After starting a new life anonymously transcribing sex therapy sessions in Hudson, NY, a woman becomes fixated with one of the patients, leading to an obsessive, explosive relationship between the two.Deadline first reported the news.More to come…

Under the new hours-watched weekly metric charts implemented by Netflix back in November, the Shawn Levy-Ryan Reynolds re-team, The Adam Project, exploded with 92.4 million hours watched by the streamer’s subscribers for the week ending March 13. The figure includes all hours watched for the movie, both those who’ve watched the movie once and multiple times.

Zack Sharf Denis Villeneuve is planning to go even bigger in “Dune: Part 2” than he did in the 2021 first installment. Speaking to Collider, the director confirmed that the screenplay for his anticipated “Dune” sequel is “mostly” finished. Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser shot several sequences in “Dune” using IMAX cameras, and they will do so again in “Dune: Part 2” to a hopefully even larger degree.“Greig Fraser and I, we fell in love with this format, and definitely there will be — even probably more — IMAX footage in this movie.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentOn top of being Netflix’s second most watched movie (according to Netflix) and racking up four Oscar nominations, Adam McKay’s star-studded political satire “Don’t Look Up” also inspired tens of thousands to march against climate change in France on Saturday.More than 80,000 people protested peacefully in multiple cities in France on Saturday, including 32,000 people in Paris. Many of whom were holding “Look Up” signs, according to France 24 news website, which attributed the participation figures to organizers.The annual protest for the climate was indeed named the “Look Up Day” by the non-profit org Alternatiba in reference to Adam McKay’s allegorical movie which stars two earnest astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) on a mission to warn a narcissistic U.S.