Hot Project: Cinco Paul To Make Directorial Debut On Imagine/Warner Music Group Animated Film ‘Winter Wonderland’

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterChildren’s and young adult literary juggernaut Judy Blume will be the subject of an untitled feature documentary from Amazon Prime Video and Imagine Documentaries, Variety has learned exclusively.Framed as a coming-of-age tale of Blume and the generations of readers who have sparked to her work, the film will cover 50 years and many of her bestselling titles including, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Blubber,” “Superfudge,” “Tiger Eyes,” “Wifey,” “Forever…,” “Summer Sisters” and more. It will also examine her impact on pop culture at large, and the occasional controversies over Blume’s frankness about puberty and sex.

Manori Ravindran International EditorAmar Chadha-Patel has been cast in Gareth Edwards’ forthcoming sci-fi pic “True Love.”The up-and-coming British actor will appear as multiple characters that are called “Simulants” in the movie, and include Satra, Sergeant Bui and Inspector Omni. Details about the film are still being kept under lock and key, and all that’s known is that it’s set in the near future.

Batman film in the future.The Spider-Man and Doctor Strange And The Multiverse of Madness director recently opened up about his love for the caped crusader.“I’ve always loved Batman,” Raimi told Empire in a new interview. “If I ever saw the Batsignal up in the air, I’d come running.“If I heard that deep, gurgling laugh of The Shadow coming from the darkness, I would also tentatively step outside.”Reflecting on other characters that he’d like to make more films for, he added: “And Spider-Man would be ahead of Doctor Strange, but I don’t want to put him down the list!”Matt Reeves most recently put a new spin on the character with The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano and more.In a four-star review of The Batman, NME wrote: “Director Matt Reeves has mixed up gritty mob drama with film-noir detective thriller – and thanks to Dano’s ultra-creepy villain, some psychological horror too.“Most of the time it comes off brilliantly.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKat McNamara (“Maze Runner,” “Shadowhunters”) has joined the cast of “Jade” the feature directorial debut of producer, director and stuntman James Bamford. The film began production on Thursday.The cast already includes Mickey Rourke “Sin City,” “The Expendables,” “The Wrester”) and Mark Dacascos (“John Wick 3,” “Crying Freeman,” “Brotherhood of the Wolf”) and Shaina West (“Black Widow”).“Jade” presents the story of a woman (West) who comes between a powerful businessman and a gang leader in their search for a hard drive that could damage the operations of Interpol.

Addie Morfoot ContributorRory Kennedy and Mark Bailey’s Moxie Films has partnered with Imagine Documentaries to develop and co-produce a slate of new nonfiction fare.The partnership with the nonfiction division of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment and Moxie Films is a multi-year agreement.Headed by Sara Bernstein and Justin Wilkes, Imagine Documentaries recently co-produced Kennedy’s “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,” which Bailey wrote and produced. The Netflix docu, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is an investigation of two Boeing 737 Max crashes that occurred within five months of each other in 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people.

EXCLUSIVE: Aimee Carrero and Shane Paul McGhie, who had been cast as leads of Prime Video’s college-set spinoff of , have departed the YA series. Carrero has joined another upcoming Prime Video series, dark comedy The Consultant, as a series regular opposite Christoph Waltz and Nat Wolff. She also has a recurring role in the upcoming Paramount+ limited series The Offer, about the making of The Godfather.

EXCLUSIVE: Audio Up, the podcast studio behind series from the likes of Anthony Anderson and James Ellroy, is ramping up its moves into TV and film.

Variety reports.“We are adhering to international sanctions and, along with our employees and artists, have been working with groups from a range of countries… to support humanitarian relief efforts to bring urgent aid to refugees in the region.”According to Variety, a source has revealed that while the company’s staffers will continue to receive their salaries for an indeterminate amount of time, artists will likely see their recording activity frozen.Universal are the latest business to announce their withdrawal from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with the attack drawing widespread condemnation around the globe.Earlier this month, Live Nation announced they would not be promoting shows in Russia or doing business with the country, saying in a statement they were joining “the world in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.Spotify, meanwhile, shuttered its Moscow office in response to the invasion, and said it would restrict the discoverability of content owned and operated by Russian state-affiliated media. They stopped short of shutting off service to Russian users, saying they believe it’s “critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information”.One company who has suspended their service in Russia is Netflix, who shut down streaming in the country last week.

Hulu has set an April premiere date for FX limited series Under the Banner of Heaven, from Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. Inspired by Jon Krakauer’s true crime bestseller, Under the Banner of Heaven, starring Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones, will launch April 28 exclusively on Hulu in the U.S. It will follow on Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ under the Star banner in all other territories. The premiere will feature the first two episodes, with a new episode available weekly for the next five weeks. FX also released a first-look photo above.

STAYC have shared a new medley, where they cover hits from various K-pop acts such as TWICE, Chung Ha and more.The K-pop group recently appeared on the Weekly Playlist series of the variety show Weekly Idol, where its guests cover a selection of popular songs as part of a medley. The six-piece split up in different configurations to take on a total of four tracks from various top K-pop acts.Main vocalist Sieun kicked off the medley with a brief, stirring rendition of ‘Still I Love You’, a single released by trio Toyote, comprising ex-Lovelyz‘s Mijoo with comedians HaHa and Yoo Jae-suk.

Michael Appler On Wednesday evening in New York City, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offered its return to the original movie musical with “Cyrano,” director Joe Wright’s musical adaptation of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” starring Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett.At the New York City premiere, held at the SVA Theater, cast and studio executives reflected on the film’s unusual journey from an off-Broadway musical to a $30 million MGM feature film.“The whole reason I set out to do this project was because I really, really wanted to be on Broadway,” Bennett, who plays the leading role of Roxanne, told Variety at the premiere. “We started out in this tiny room six or seven years ago, and in my imagination, we might have ended up on a Broadway stage together.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterAziz Ansari has been appointed to direct an untitled comedic-drama for Searchlight Pictures. He will co-star in the movie with Bill Murrary.Ansari, who created the Netflix series “Master of None,” is making his feature directorial debut.

Director Brad Bird is returning to animated feature films, but won’t be heading back to Pixar. Bird previously worked with the Disney-owned animation house leading two Best Animated Feature Oscars for his work on “Incredibles” and “Ratatouille.” According to Deadline, Bird is teaming up with disgraced former Pixar head John Lasseter and Skydance Animation for an original feature film, “Ray Gunn” that the filmmaker will direct from a script he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins.

If you’ve seen the trailer for the new Channing Tatum vehicle “Dog” – and if you’ve been in a movie theater over the past couple of months, you probably have – you might think you know what to expect: a big lug and a tough dog have a bunch of wacky road trip adventures, softening up to each other along the way. So it might surprise you to learn that the scene of a kind-hearted woman showing our hero how to be affectionate to the canine is carefully cut so as not to reveal that our hero is literally wielding an axe.

Award-winning director Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, Citizen Ashe) is helming an untitled doc about the life and legacy of NBA legend Bill Russell for Netflix, the streamer announced today.

EXCLUSIVE: Skydance Animation has scored a major coup by acquiring the rights to make Ray Gunn. That will be the next animated film by writer/director Brad Bird, the Oscar-winning Pixar fixture who made The Incredibles films, Ratatouille, and The Iron Giant, as well as the live action Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. He will direct and produce the film from an original story by him. Bird wrote the script with Matthew Robbins.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJeremy Vuernick has been promoted to president of A&R for Capitol Music Group (CMG), it was announced today by CMG chair & CEO Michelle Jubelirer.In his elevated role, he will lead the company’s A&R team, sign and develop artists for the company, as well as oversee recording projects for new and established artists spanning the company’s portfolio of labels. He also will work closely with Jubelirer as a key member of her executive team to set the creative direction of the company. He is based in the company’s Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood and reports to Jubelirer.Vuernick joined CMG’s Astralwerks label in 2013 after two years as an A&R executive at long-running electronic label Ultra Music.