City Beirut Showbiz Latest News and Updates

BreAnna Bell Showtime has announced its forthcoming spy drama, “Ghosts of Beirut,” will make its debut on Friday, May 19, on Showtime’s streaming site and will air on linear on May 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The four-part limited series tells the origin story of 21-year old Mughniyeh (who is also referred to as “The Ghost”), an elusive Lebanese terrorist who evaded capture from the CIA and Mossad for two decades. He was responsible for more American deaths than any other individual prior to 9/11. “Told from the American, Israeli and Lebanese perspectives, the series traces Mughniyeh’s origins from the Shiite slums of South Beirut to his masterminding of the concept of suicide bombers, a deadly tactic that led to his swift rise as the world’s most dangerous terrorist. Based on extensive research of still-classified events, the drama spans decades and weaves in first-hand, real-life interviews with prominent officials from the CIA and Mossad, connecting the turmoil of 1980s Beirut with the spy games of the modern Middle East,” reads Showtime’s official description.

EXCLUSIVE: Showtime has set Ghosts Of Beirut, a four-part spy drama based on the real-life espionage story of the manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, the elusive Lebanese terrorist who outwitted his adversaries in the CIA and Mossad for over two decades. The limited series, from Fauda creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, features an international cast led by Dina Shihabi (Jack Ryan), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), Garret Dillahunt (12 Years a Slave), Iddo Goldberg (Snowpiercer), Hisham Suleiman (Fauda), Amir Khoury (Image of Victory) and Rafi Gavron (A Star is Born).

Facebook: 'So sad seeing him [Michael Owen] and all his staff in tears today after such a shock to them - such a young age, no health problems. . .

If you are beginning to think about jetting off for some summer sun, then leading low-cost carrier, Pegasus Airlines, strives to make travelling abroad as smooth as possible.

The internet’s favorite action star! Keanu Reeves has been famous for more than 30 years, but his fans have never stopped loving him — and their adoration keeps growing every year.

The “Mean Girls” musical has cast “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm as Coach Carr. The Emmy-winning actor and star of “Confess, Fletch” and “Beirut” will play the school’s gym teacher and sex-ed instructor.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent U.S.-Lebanese actor Tony Shalhoub, who played the “defective detective” on “Monk,” is set to star as former auto mogul-turned-fugitive Carlos Ghosn in a high-profile TV series directed by Michael Winterbottom. Ghosn is the French-Lebanese-Brazilian former CEO of automakers Nissan and Renault who in 2020 jumped bail and absconded to Beirut hidden in a music case on a private jet while on trial in Japan for alleged financial misconduct. Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with Japan. The six-part series titled “Fall of the God of Cars” is written by Winterbottom, the prolific British director of “Welcome to Sarajevo,” whose TV work comprises hit sitcom series “The Trip” and, more recently, “This is England” starring Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson.

A dramatization of the life of Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan/Renault CEO who escaped from arrest hidden in a music case, is in the works from Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón and This England’s Michael Winterbottom.

EXCLUSIVE: OneGate Media has picked up worldwide distribution rights for German crime series Asbestos from Pantaleon Films.

EXCLUSIVE: Laura San Giacomo, recently seen in NCIS & Barry, has signed with Stewart Talent for representation.

Gene Perret, who began a decades-long comedy writing career contributing jokes to stand-ups Slappy White and Phyllis Diller before joining the Emmy-winning writing staff of The Carol Burnett Show, launching a 28-year tenure with Bob Hope and serving as a producer on Three’s Company and Welcome Back, Kotter, died Nov. 15 of liver failure at his home in Westlake Village, CA. He was 85.

Lebanese actress and director Nadine Labaki enjoyed breakout success with Oscar-nominated and Cannes Jury Prize-winning third feature Capernaum in 2018 and there is now anticipation over what will be her next directorial feature project

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cinemed, the Mediterranean Cinema Film Festival, is partnering up with Lebanese film org Aflamuna / Beirut DC to launch a new co-production and co-financing initiative aimed at high-profile projects from the Arab world. The new program, which is also backed by France’s National Film Board and is part of the festival’s industry showcase Cinemed Meetings, will present seven projects involving 22 Arab countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Liban, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Syria, among others. All selected projects are currently in development and are being brought by filmmakers who have previously directed at least one short film.

, Najimy’s impact in Hollywood goes beyond the beloved witch. From her groundbreaking HBO comedy specials in the late eighties to her on-the-ground activism, Najimy has been building a legacy for herself founded on feminism and natural-born comedic genius.A proud, “full-blooded” Lebanese actor (“I don’t know what full-blooded means, but I say it with gusto,” she jokes), she’s also an advocate for leisurely Beirut holidays and challenging Western notions of what the country is actually like (“the best food, the most beautiful people, the most friendly people”).

Jon Hamm is setting the record straight! After years of chatter, the actor finally cleared the air on the rumor that he goes commando.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Iranian action drama “World War III,” which won two awards at the recent Venice festival, will feature among the main competition titles at next month’s Tokyo International Film Festival. The festival will operate as an in-person event with foreign filmmakers, media and other guests in attendance from Oct. 24-Nov. 2, 2022. “World War III” is joined in the competition section by the world premiere of Milcho Manchevski’s “Kaymak,” Spanish director Carlos Vermut’s “Manticore” and Roberta Torre’s “The Fabulous Ones,” Michale Boganim’s “Tel Aviv Beirut,” and Youssef Chebbi’s debut film “Ashkal.”

Manal Issa and Nathalie Issa, real life sisters who play a pair of Olympic swimming hopefuls, also sisters, said they weren’t at all aquatic when cast in the Sally El Hosaini film ‘The Swimmers’ that opened TIFF last night.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Hilary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s HiddenLight Productions is co-producing a new feature documentary with the team behind Sundance 2019 title “Gaza.” “In the Shadow of Beirut” is a cinematic portrait of modern-day Lebanon as seen through the eyes of four families living in the impoverished Sabra and Shatila neighbourhoods of the city, the scene of an infamous massacre in 1982. The film will be executive produced by Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Siobhan Sinnerton for HiddenLight. The doc is filmed over four years with unique access to the families within these largely restricted areas and co-directed by Stephen Gerard Kelly, in his debut, and Garry Keane (“Gaza,” 2019). Kelly built up his relationship with the families over a six-year period.

Naman Ramachandran British journalist and author Nicholas Evans, best known for writing “The Horse Whisperer,” which was adapted as a film by Robert Redford, has died of a heart attack, according to United Agents. He was 72. In a statement, United Agents said the “much-loved” author had died following a heart attack on Aug.

A Manchester University graduate who was helping refugees in Lebanon was brutally raped, murdered then dumped at the roadside by an Uber driver on the way home from a night out, an inquest has heard. Rebecca Dykes, 30, who was described as a 'devoted humanitarian', had been travelling back from a night out in the Gemmayzeh district of Beirut when she was picked up by Uber driver Tariq Houshieh in December 2017.

Dubai-based producer and distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired pan-Middle East and North Africa rights to Sundance 2022 titles Warsha and Sirens.

Abel Ferrara, Shia LaBeouf And Steve Buscemi Head To Venice Sidebar Giornate Degli Autori

Animal Pictures, the production company founded by Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne, has signed a first-look deal with Apple TV+.

Naman Ramachandran Shailaja Padindala’s Kannada-language film “Naanu Ladies” won best narrative feature and Pedro Peira’s English and Spanish-language film “LA QueenCianera” best documentary feature at the 2022 Kashish LGBTQ+ film festival in Mumbai.Gujarati-language shorts “Muhafiz” by Pradipta Ray and “Dal Bhat” by Nemil Shah” won best Indian narrative short and the Riyad Wadia Award for best emerging Indian filmmaker respectively. “Muhafiz” also won best screenplay for Ray and Ashutosh Pathak.Padindala said: “ ‘Naanu Ladies’ is a film attempting to identify cis-het culture [as it] weaves itself into the queerness of everyday life.

Spanish native José Andrés became one of the most celebrated chefs in the world, popularizing tapas – small plate dining – in America. But of late he’s been focusing on comfort food. Comfort food in the truest sense, the kind the nonprofit he founded, World Central Kitchen, makes for people in times of disaster.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to first-time Lebanese director Mounia Akl’s timely drama “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which launched positively last year from Venice.“Costa Brava” provides an acerbic take on Lebanon’s waste management crisis and its turbulent political landscape and combines the country’s strife with the global climate crisis. The darkly comic drama pairs Oscar-nominated Lebanese star and filmmaker Nadine Labaki (“Capernaum”) and Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“The Band’s Visit”) as a couple who has moved from Beirut to live idyllically in the mountains, until one day the government decides to build a garbage landfill right beside their house.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSinger Elissa, soprano Hiba Tawaji, composer Oussama Rahbani, trumpetist Ibrahim Maalouf and more than 50 musicians performed at the “Night of Hope” at Lebanon’s Forum de Beirut on Sunday night in the largest concert to be held in the country’s capital since the devastating explosion in August of 2020 that killed more than 200 people, left an estimated 300,000 homeless and caused more than $15 billion in damage. The Forum de Beirut was also destroyed by the blast, but has been rebuilt.The concert paid tribute to the families of the explosion’s victims in a brief video, and patriotic songs were performed as part of a broader call to unite the country, which has seen its economy devasted in recent years.

Manori Ravindran International EditorRocket Science has boarded the biopic “The Good Spy,” about CIA operative Robert Ames, from Oscar-nominated “Paradise Now” and “Omar” director Hany Abu-Assad.The pic is based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird’s biography of Ames. Scott Frazier (“Berliner”) is adapting for screen.“Free Solo” and “Everest” producer Evan Hayes will produce under his ACE (Anomaly Content & Entertainment) production company.

EXCLUSIVE: Brad Anderson, the multi-hyphenate behind the iconic Christian Bale thriller The Machinist, has signed with Paradigm for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: LA-based Tricycle Logic has set a U.S. theatrical release for Lebanese director Oualid Mouaness’ debut feature, 1982. The coming-of-age drama premiered at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival where it won the NETPAC Award. It will release domestically beginning June 10 at the Quad Cinema in New York and on June 24 will expand to Los Angeles with a national rollout to follow throughout the summer. 
The New York date coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Lebanon war on June 6. (Check out the trailer below.)

Downton Abbey: A New Era premiere was a glamorous affair that brought all the stars of the beloved TV show back together on the red carpet for the first time in years – and the actresses and their stylists pulled out all the stops. This was certainly the case for Elizabeth McGovern, who worked together with her stylist Mary Fellowes on a very unique look, one which championed sustainability.

EXCLUSIVE: Sirens, a rock doc about Beirut all-female thrash metal band Slave to Sirens, will get a theatrical run after Oscilloscope Laboratories bought the North American rights.

The unmitigated boredom and lackluster unoriginality “All the Old Knives” prides itself on shouldn’t shock anyone. After a long line of dreary espionage flicks — “The 355,” “Red Sparrow,” “Wasp Network,” “Beirut” and so forth — Hollywood, outside of the dependable action franchises like “James Bond” and “Mission Impossible,” has been inconsistent at best, producing spy thrillers that possess an enthralling mix of explosions and romance.

If you were worried about the hole Trigger Point was going to leave in your Sunday night viewing, fear not.

EXCLUSIVE: James Moses Black (Queenpins, Lansky) is the latest addition to the cast of Renfield, the Universal monster movie from director Chris McKay.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentDubai-based independent film distributor and producer Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired global rights – excluding theatrical, which is limited to the MENA region – for Lebanese drama “Death of a Virgin and the Sin of Not Living” that launched last year from Berlin’s Panorama section.Produced by Beirut-based Bee On Set Productions, “Death of a Virgin” marks director George Peter Barbari’s feature debut. It stars newcomers Etienne Assal, Adnan Khabbaz, Jean-Paul Franjieh and Elie Dankoura Saad.