Focus Features Buys Sundance Comedy ‘Brian and Charles’ (EXCLUSIVE)

The final step. Christine Brown and Kody Brown have officially spiritually divorced after their November 2021 split, which they shed more light on in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek of Sister Wives.

Me time! Christine Brown leaned on her loved ones — and celebrated herself — on her first Valentine’s Day since splitting from husband Kody Brown.

Focus Features has pushed Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris from May 6 to July 15.

Katy Perry may have an unexpected rival for her fiancé’s affection.

Focus Features, Peacock and Jordan Peele’s MonkeyPaw Productions have acquired worldwide rights to the megachurch satire starring Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall.

previously snagged the rights to the next film by Nikyata Jusu, the director of “Nanny” whose film won the Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance. “Honk for Jesus” is a comedy and satire filmed partially as a faux-documentary, and it follows Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Brown) and his wife, First Lady Trinitie Childs (Hall), as the heads of a Southern Baptist mega church as they try and bounce back from a scandal that’s forced them to shut their doors and led their congregation to leave in a mass exodus. The film picks up in the aftermath as the Childs, still insanely wealthy, try and host an Easter service and drum up attention for the community with a feeble attempt telling passers by on the highway to “Honk for Jesus.” The movie satirizes the culture of for-profit religion and the corruption, back biting and ego that goes on behind the scenes.

Focus Features, Peacock, and Monkeypaw Productions have acquired global rights to Sundance Film Festival premiere Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul which will receive a theatrical day-and-date release in theaters and on Peacock later this year.

Utopia has acquired the U.S. rights to writer-director-producer Lena Dunham’s Sundance comedy “Sharp Stick,” which follows a young woman’s unexpected quest of sexual exploration and self-discovery, Utopia announced on Monday.Utopia will release the film theatrically in the U.S.

ISLESFORD, Maine -- Ashley Bryan, a prolific and prize-winning children’s author and illustrator who told stories of Black life, culture and folklore in such acclaimed works as “Freedom Over Me,” “Beautiful Blackbird” and “Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum,” has died at age 98.Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing announced that the longtime Maine resident died “peacefully” Friday in Texas, where he had been staying with relatives.“An early, quiet, and potent force in bringing children of color and issues of racial diversity into the canon of children’s literature, he was committed to opening the eyes of children of all backgrounds to a wide range of themes through poetry, folktales, spirituals, and biblical narratives,” the publisher’s statement reads.Bryan was a Harlem native who showed an early talent for drawing and for a time was the only Black student at the art school at Cooper Union in Manhattan. He served in a segregated military unit for two years during World World II, an experience he recounted in his memoir “Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey from World War II to Peace,” and resumed his art studies after the war.Bryan worked on more than 70 books and received numerous honors, including Coretta Scott King Awards — given for the year’s best work by a Black author or illustrator — for the folktales “Beautiful Blackbird” and “Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum.” He also received two lifetime achievement prizes: the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award) and the Virginia Hamilton award.Survivors include his brother Ernest, and “many cherished” nieces and nephews, according to Simon & Schuster.“I am deeply saddened to learn of Ashley’s passing,” Gov.

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival may have already passed, but let’s not forget about 2021. Some films take a minute to find their feet, find their distributor, and or find a window that best suits that film’s release.

Vivienne Chow Leading Hollywood screenwriters Bruce McKenna and John Fusco have been tapped by U.S-based Inspire Studios to write two Asian-themed war features. One will go into production this year, the other in 2023, Variety has learned.McKenna, who co-wrote and co-produced the Emmy-winning mini-series “The Pacific,” and wrote part of “Band of Brothers,” is attached to the company’s debut release, Filipino-Hollywood feature “Angel Warrior” as scriptwriter.

Lucifer alum Tom Ellis is set as a series regular in Washington Black, the Sterling K. Brown-fronted adaptation of Esi Edugyan’s novel, which received a straight-to-series order at Hulu. Twilight Zone writer Selwyn Seyfu Hinds is adapting the limited series for 20th Television.

Focus Features and Gold Circle have partnered on Bobby Farrelly’s (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary”) next feature “Champions,” both companies announced on Monday.“Champions” is centered around a stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach who is sentenced to community service and forced to coach a Special Olympics team. The film is based on the Goya Award winning Spanish film “Campeones” from 2018, which was released by Universal Pictures International.The film stars Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Cheech Marin and Matt Cook.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Woody Harrelson (True Detective, Zombieland), Emmy nominee Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Hacks), Grammy nominee Cheech Marin (Born in East L.A, From Dusk Till Dawn) and Matt Cook (Man With a Plan, The Comeback) will lead Champions, a recently-wrapped film that Bobby Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) directed for Focus Features and Gold Circle Entertainment.

EXCLUSIVE: IFC is closing a deal on the Sundance buzz title Watcher, Deadline hears. The Chloe Okuno-directed thriller stars Maika Monroe, Burn Gorman and Karl Glusman.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterWarner Bros. and HBO Max has nabbed “Am I OK?,” a romantic comedy starring Dakota Johnson as a woman grappling with her sexuality.

Focus Features has taken global rights to Jim Archer’s feature directorial debut Brian and Charles.

Focus Features has pushed back the release date for its crime thriller The Outfit—starring Academy Award winner Mark Rylance (Dunkirk,Bridge of Spies)—by three weeks, from February 25 to March 18.

The original voice of character Charlie Brown in the early animated “Peanuts” specials, actor Peter Robbins, died last week at the age of 65.