Jenni Rivera Biopic Greenlit At Vix; Annie Gonzalez To Star & Executive Produce

Angelique Jackson Christina Milian continues her streak of rom-coms at Netflix with the upcoming holiday movie “Meet Me Next Christmas.” The project marks the actor and musician’s third collaboration with Netflix following her popular destination romances, 2021’s “Resort to Love” — which spent four weeks on the streamer’s global top 10 film list — and 2019’s “Falling Inn Love.” Milian will executive produce and star in “Meet Me Next Christmas,” playing Layla, who, in pursuit of a fairytale romance with the man of her dreams, must race through New York City to get her hands on the hottest ticket in town: the sold out Pentatonix Christmas Eve Concert.

Martin Wiley, a veteran producer and executive whose credits include Acts of Violence, Never Talk to Strangers and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, died March 20, his son Cameron told Deadline. He was 65.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The newly launched independent music publishing, rights management, and catalog marketing company AMR Songs has acquired by catalogs of former Lovin’ Spoonful frontmany John Sebastian — including such songs as “Daydream,” “Summer in the City,” “Do You Believe in Magic” and “Wecome Back” — as well as Grammy-winning reggae group Soja. Founded by industry veteran/ CEO Tamara Conniff and private equity professional/ CFO Steve Reinstadlter, the Los Angeles and New York-based company has acquired an undisclosed interest in Sebastian’s entire catalog, including his publishing and artist royalties from the Lovin’ Spoonful, which also include “Younger Girl,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” and “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?,” among others.

William Earl Variety is pleased to announce additional speakers for its annual Entertainment Marketing Summit, presented by Deloitte, on April 19 in Los Angeles, including Christian Parkes, CMO, Neon; Catherine Halaby, head of entertainment, North America, TikTok; Deon Graham, chief brand officer, Combs Global; and Rachel Delphin, CMO, Twitch. Parkes and Halaby will join a Keynote Entertainment Marketing Leaders panel, also including Karen Bronzo, CMO, Warner Bros. Discovery; Dwight Caines, president, domestic marketing, Universal Pictures; and Marc Weinstock, president, worldwide marketing and distribution, Paramount Pictures. Graham, who oversees campaigns for Sean Combs’ businesses such as Revolt TV and Cîroc Vodka, will join a multicultural marketing conversation featuring Ellene V. Miles, SVP intersectional marketing, Sony Pictures Entertainment/ Motion Picture Group; Christine Benitez, SVP multicultural marketing, Paramount Pictures; and Claudia Chagui, SVP marketing and creative, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Halcyon Studios has brought on Phil Abraham to direct and executive produce the series “Beverly Hills Noir,” Variety has learned exclusively. Halcyon, a division of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, is producing the show, which is based on “Gemstone” by James Ellroy. Per the official logline, the show “follows two female detectives as they are sucked into the vortex of power, greed, and cold-blooded conspiracy in one of the most aspirational cities in the world, Beverly Hills.” Ed Decter is writing the series and will also serve as executive producer and showrunner. Along with Decter and Abraham, Ellroy, Stewart Till, and Richard Potter also executive produce. No network or streaming service is currently attached to the project.

John Travolta paid tribute to his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John during this year’s Oscars.The actor attended the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday (March 12) where he introduced the in-memoriam section to remember those from the industry who had died over the past year.While he didn’t name Newton-John, Travolta quoted her track ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ from the 1978 musical during his introduction.“In this industry, we have the rare luxury of getting to do what we love for a living,” an emotional Travolta said. “And sometimes getting to do it with people we come to love.

Baz Luhrmann says it would be “an amazing historical moment” if Elvis cinematographer Mandy Walker were to triumph at Sunday’s Academy Awards. To quote Lizzo, “It’s been too long,” the filmmaker tells me last night at the Australian Oscar nominees soirée held in the Chateau Marmont’s penthouse suite.

BreAnna Bell ABC has placed a pilot order for Ellie Kemper’s “Drop Off” (working title). “Julia (Ellie Kemper) is a working mom for whom nothing is working so she goes looking for her village. With the help of new friends Calvin and Liz, Julia discovers she just might succeed at balancing work and parenting from time to time. This is a comedy for anybody who’s dropped their kids at school, breathed a sigh of relief…then realized it’s Sunday,” reads the logline. Kemper executive produces alongside Sharon Horgan, Clelia Mountford, Stacy Greenberg, Kira Carstensen for Merman Television. Paul Feig, Dan Magnante through Feigco Entertainment. Holly Walsh and Helen Serafinowicz also executive produce. Michael Showalter serves as an executive producer and director. Julieanne Smolinski is attached to write and executive produce. Lionsgate and ABC Signature are the studios behind the production.

Annie Gonzalez has her next big project line up. The actress will star and produce in a biopic based on Jenni Rivera’s life. Rivera was one of the most iconic Latin artists, crossing over to a male dominated field and making hits that blurred the line between Mexican Regional and pop music.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Native filmmaker Billy Luther heads to SXSW this weekend to premiere his narrative feature debut, “Frybread Face and Me” on March 11. Set in the ‘90s, the coming-of-age story follows Benny (Keir Tallman), a young Native American boy who plays with dolls, sports a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and watches soap operas. Forced to spend his summer on the reservation with his grandmother, Benny finds himself impressed by his cousin “Frybread” (Charley Hogan) who opens his eyes to life on the rez. Featuring an entirely Native cast and predominantly Native crew, Luther says it was important to cast Navajo kids at the core of his film. He says, “With the help of Midthunder Casting, which also worked on FX ‘Reservation Dogs,’ we were able to find these incredible kids. The amount of Indigenous talent – Martin Sensmeier, MorningStar Angeline, and Jeremiah Bitsui came on. And we also brought on some amazing new faces from Indian country that are making their feature debut.”

Jason Clarke, Scott Eastwood and Chaske Spencer will star together in “Wind River: The Next Chapter,” the sequel to Taylor Sheridan’s “Wind River,” for Castle Rock Entertainment.Kari Skogland (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Americans”) will direct from a screenplay by writing partners Patrick Massett and John Zinman (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Friday Night Lights”).Starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, the 2017 Taylor Sheridan crime drama followed a seasoned hunter who helped an FBI agent investigate the killing of a young woman living on a Wyoming Native American reservation. The sequel also takes place on the Wind River resevation, where a series of ritualistic murders remain unsolved.

Jason Clarke (Winning Time), Scott Eastwood (The Outpost) and Chaske Spencer (The English) have signed on to star alongside Martin Sensmeier in Wind River: The Next Chapter — Castle Rock Entertainment’s sequel to the acclaimed 2017 crime drama Wind River, which is currently in production in Calgary.

EXCLUSIVE: John Boyega has been set to star in sci-fi romance The Freshening from director Cathy Yan (Birds Of Prey), we can reveal.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer “Michael,” the Lionsgate biopic about Michael Jackson, will receive more than $21 million in California tax credits, the state’s film commission announced Monday. The California Film Commission announced the latest round of credit allocations, totaling $81.7 million for 24 projects. The commission stated that “Michael” will generate $120 million in “qualified” in-state spending, which is more than any other project in the 14-year history of the tax credit program. The project was announced in January, with Jackson’s nephew Jaafar in the lead role. John Branca and John McClain, the executors of the Jackson estate, are producing with Graham King.

After suffering a brain aneurysm, Tom Sizemore has died, according to multiple reports.

Tom Sizemore has died, according to multiple reports. The actor, famous for his performances in blockbusters like ,  and Black Hawk Down, died on Friday at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 61 years old. Sizemore's death comes nearly two weeks after he collapsed at his Los Angeles home on Feb. 18 and was hospitalized with a brain aneurysm, which occurred as a result of a stroke.

Simu Liu and Awkwafina are gearing up for a reunion!

What’s next for Paul Feig after directing “The School For Good And Evil” last year? It’s “Grand Death Lotto,” an action-comedy for Prime Video with a pretty dark premise. In the near future, California starts a Grand Lottery to help with its economic challenges, albeit with a catch: if anyone kills the winner before sundown, they get to collect the massive multi-billion dollar prize.

In the very near future, the Grand Lottery has been established in economically challenged California. The only catch? Kill the winner before sundown and you can legally claim their prize. New LA transplant Katie (Awkwafina) accidentally finds herself with the winning ticket and must join forces with amateur jackpot protector Noel (Cena) to make it to sundown in order to claim her multi-billion dollar prize, all while dealing with Noel’s protection rival Louis Lewis (Liu), who also wants to get her to sundown in order to claim his rich protection commission.The Amazon Original Movie will be available to stream on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

EXCLUSIVE: Kat Coiro (Marry Me) has been tapped to direct and executive produce CBS’ Matlock pilot, a gender-swap reboot of the classic legal drama starring Kathy Bates, from Jennie Snyder Urman and Eric Christian Olsen.