‘Heart Of The Beast’: David Ayer To Helm Survival Drama At Paramount, Damien Chazelle Producing

After “Babylon” bombed in theaters in late 2022, many wondered what the future would hold for director Damien Chazelle, if he had any future in Hollywood left. Well, sorry to disappoint, Chazelle haters: his “poison pen letter” to Tinsel Town didn’t oust him from the industry after all, and he’s ready to make his sixth feature over at Paramount.   READ MORE: Damien Chazelle Says After ‘Babylon’ Flop, He Won’t Get That “Kind Of Budget Anytime Soon” News of Chazelle’s next project comes out of CinemaCon courtesy of The Playlist’s Gregory Ellwood.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins got cheeky about the sales talks surrounding his corporate parent Paramount Global. In a presentation to worldwide theater owners at the annual Las Vegas convention CinemaCon, Robbins got right to the point in his opening remarks about what’s next for his team.

Carolyn Giardina Three-time Oscar-nominated director Chris Sandlers and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o previewed unfinished footage of DreamWorks Animation‘s “The Wild Robot” at CinemaCon — what Sandlers says took inspiration from Disney classics and Hayao Miyazaki’s work, resulting in an original virtual style that he described as “a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest.” Based on Peter Brown’s book, the story follows Roz, a robot voiced by Nyong’o, who is accidentally marooned on an uninhabited island. There, the city robot meets and learns from the animals in her new environment. In this rich world, a fox meets and advises Roz.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent CANNES — 3CAT, the newly reset Barcelona-based Catalan public broadcaster, and one of the driving forces behind Canneseries highlight “This Is Not Sweden,” is bringing onto the market a new docuseries “Aitana” as the Catalan-language service seeks to cut through the crowd with some of the biggest IPs a territory has: Its soccer stars. Sold as both a 90-minute movie and also a three-part 40-minute episode mini, “Aitana” is an inside-track on Barcelona soccer club’s Aitana Bonmatí, winner of the 2023 Women’s Ballon d’Or for best female soccer player in the world.

EXCLUSIVE: David Ayer’s Levon’s Trade has started principal photography on location in London with Jason Statham (Fast & Furious franchise) joined in the cast by David Harbour (Stranger Things), Michael Peña (Narcos: Mexico), Jason Flemyng (Boiling Point) and Arianna Rivas (The Harvest).

Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, best known for his 2023 feature The Beasts, has been announced as jury president for this year’s edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken,” a docuseries focusing on bonds the singer forms with incarcerated women over addiction issues that have affected their lives, will hit Paramount+ later this year, the network announced Thursday. The two-part series will follow Etheridge as she writes a new song inspired by her communication with five women locked up at a prison in her Kansas hometown, the Topeka Correctional Facility.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO has given the green light to The Chair Company, a half-hour comedy pilot starring Tim Robinson. The project, from Robinson and his writing partner Zach Kanin, is also executive produced by Adam McKay and Todd Schulman for Hyperobject Industries.

Claire Danes has lined up her next television series and she’ll be reuniting with a former co-worker!

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy and Academy Award nominated producer David Permut and Safdie Brothers producer Oscar Boyson are teaming up with author/filmmaker Mathew Klickstein to bring the San Diego Comic-Con origin story to life for the first time on screen in a new documentary based on the latter’s book See You at San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture.

Netflix has given the green light to The Beast In Me, a limited series headlined and executive produced by Claire Danes. In addition to Danes, the mystery thriller project, created, written and executive produced by Gabe Rotter, is executive produced by Jodie Foster, Conan O’Brien via Conaco and Homeland co-creator/executive producer Howard Gordon who will serve as showrunner, reuniting with the acclaimed series’ star/executive producer Danes. 20th Television is the studio.

The Wire producer and longtime Baltimore chronicler David Simon ripped into conspiracists spreading unfounded theories that today’s tragic and deadly collapse of the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge could be a terrorist attack.

Batman fans have shared their reactions to the new trailer for The Penguin TV series, with some calling it “peak crime drama”.The new teaser for the HBO series, which focuses on Colin Farrell‘s The Batman villain (aka Oswald Cobblepot), was released last week.The clip sees the titular character tell the story of gangster Rex Calabrese, a “big deal” in the neighbourhood when he was a kid.Speaking of the gangster’s death, Cobblepot tells an unseen person: “In my neighbourhood, they throw a parade in his honour. A friggin’ parade.”“And it wasn’t fancy, but it was the gesture.

Good Morning Britain's Sean Fletcher has opened up about his son's long battle with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), a struggle he kept hidden from the public and his co-hosts. Before appearing on Good Morning Britain, Sean would give himself a pep talk just moments before going live. He shared his struggle on the Mirror's Outdoors in Mind podcast, which supports the Hats On For Mind campaign.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Disney Channel has given an official series order to its “Wizards of Waverly Place” sequel, this time with the working title “Wizards.” Original stars Selena Gomez and David Henrie are set to exec produce, while Gomez will appear in a guest role and Henrie will be back full time as a series regular. Production will begin next month in Los Angeles on “Wizards,” which is aimed for a premiere later this year on both Disney Channel and Disney+.

EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off the success of his action pic The Beekeeper, David Ayer is continuing to stay busy. The director has signed on to helm Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast. Damien Chazelle and Olivia Hamilton are producing under their Wild Chickens Productions banner as part of their first-look deal with the studio. Ayer and Chris Long will also produce under their Cedar Park Entertainment banner.

EXCLUSIVE: Depp v. Heard producer Empress Films has hired in the U.S. and UK following its deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio (UTAS).

EXCLUSIVE: Ethan Embry (Blindspotting) and Li Jun Li (Babylon) have signed on to star in Alma and the Wolf, a new feature from director Michael Patrick Jann (Drop Dead Gorgeous) and writer Abigail Miller.

EXCLUSIVE: In a Sopranos re-team, David Chase and Terence Winter have set up an untitled horror feature at New Line Cinema. Deal falls under David Chase’s first look deal at Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Longtime TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will be returning for more in-depth tête-à-têtes with noted filmmakers. Mankiewicz’s “Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast” has been renewed for Season 2 by TCM and Max. He announced the renewal on the Season 1 finale featuring guest Bill Hader, star, co-creator and director of HBO’s “Barry” and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member.