Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Pic Starring Mahershala Ali Pushes Production Start Date Due To Writers Strike

Lift, the forthcoming action comedy teaming Kevin Hart with director F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton), has pushed its Netflix premiere date to January 12, 2024, the streamer revealed on Monday. Also unveiled was a first look photo for the film, at one point set to open on August 25, 2023, which you can view above.

The last time a writers strike impacted the LA Screenings in 2008, the world was in recession and studios pared back their spend on glitzy marketing and all-singing, all-dancing parties and soirees. We are not quite at that stage, but, in 2023, these conditions have an air of familiarity.

Jimmy Buffett is focusing on his health. The 76-year-old musician shared on Thursday that he has been forced to reschedule his concert in Charleston, South Carolina, which was originally set to take place on Saturday, May 20 at the Credit One Stadium.The «Margaritaville» singer shared a note with his fans on his website about the reason for the delay to the show, writing, «I had a sudden change of plans this week that affected us all.

Jimmy Buffett is focusing on his health. The 76-year-old musician shared on Thursday that he has been forced to reschedule his concert in Charleston, South Carolina, which was originally set to take place on Saturday, May 20 at the Credit One Stadium.

Matt Reeves’ Max series The Penguin has become latest high-profile TV production to be disrupted by WGA-organized picketers.

The writers strike may bring about a disturbance in the force. The current work stoppage already has disrupted the production of several TV series; Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian may join the last.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Peabody Awards won’t be throwing a return celebration this year after all. The org has scrapped this years event, which would have been the first in-person Peabody ceremony since 2019 (before the pandemic), in the wake of the writers strike. Originally set to be held on Sunday, June 11, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, this also would have been the first Peabody Awards to be held in Southern California. “As an organization dedicated to honoring the most compelling and empowering stories in broadcasting and streaming media, we recognize and respect the position that many of this year’s Peabody Award winners find themselves in,” the org said in a statement. “Due to the ongoing uncertainty and meaningful challenges that exist industrywide, we have decided to cancel the 83rd annual Peabody Awards ceremony that was set to take place on June 11 in Los Angeles. Canceling the ceremony is extremely disappointing as this year’s 39 winners are immensely talented and have brought forth powerful stories that deserve to be celebrated.”

EXCLUSIVE: Password, the game show from Jimmy Fallon and hosted by Keke Palmer, is returning to NBC for a second season.

Cannes Film Festival rapidly approaches, workers have been racing to finish the job, with city officials confident that the Croisette will be back in glittering form in time for the red-carpet rollout on May 16. Other problems facing Cannes, though, won’t be as easily paved over. With the Writers Guild of America on strike, film and TV production is expected to taper off. If the Directors Guild or the Screen Actors Guild follow the WGA when their contracts expire in June, that slowdown could become a shutdown. And since Cannes doesn’t just highlight the latest films but is also a thriving marketplace where companies buy scripts, hawk finished movies for distribution and put together big deals, one wonders how that uncertainty will impact sales.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal has closed a deal for German distribution rights for “Let Me Go” with Alamode Film, ahead of the film’s world premiere as the opening film of Cannes ACID sidebar next week. “Let Me Go” (Laissez-Moi), the debut feature by Swiss director Maxime Rappaz, is set in a remote Swiss mountain village, where Claudine (Jeanne Balibar) lives a life dedicated to taking care of her son. Every Tuesday, however, she has an afternoon to herself and goes to a nearby hotel to meet men passing through. She pursues her desires in a carefully controlled way, so as not to interfere with her life, but when she meets Michael (Thomas Sarbacher) everything changes.

Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman will have to wait a little longer to receive her Life Achievement Award tribute from AFI, as the ceremony planned for June 10 has been postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing writers strike.

Icon alert! Jennifer Coolidge was awarded the Comedic Genius Award at the 2023 MTV Movie and TV Awards.

Writers Guild of America has notified studios that it will not be running FYC ads for the upcoming Emmy season on its website or in email communications to members, two insiders have told TheWrap.“After deliberation with our legal department, all FYC production is now suspended,” read an email from the guild to studio awards teams obtained by TheWrap. “We understand that this may be frustrating and that you have media already planned, but due to the strike rules, we cannot continue.”The guild is offering studios who have already bought ad space the choice between a full refund or credit towards future FYC ads after the strike concludes.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Judd Apatow thinks the studios and streamers already have an idea of when the writers strike may end. “I think they probably already know what they’re going to bend on,” Apatow told Variety Saturday at the Rock4EB benefit in Malibu. “I would assume they already know what date this is going to end. They’ve probably been planning this for years.” The writer-director reflected comments heard on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York after talks cratered between the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the writers union began to strike Tuesday. Apatow explained that he sees the strike as a calculated business move by Hollywood’s largest employers.

Fans of Netflix’s Stranger Things will have to wait longer for the fifth and final season, whose start of production is being delayed by the writers strike. Faced with the prospect of filming without writers on set, creators, executive producers and showrunners the Duffer Brothers have opted to instead postpone production.

Marvel Studios has paused production once again on the upcoming reboot of Blade due to the ongoing writers’ strike.The new delay comes after the film – set to star Mahershala Ali – was paused late last year following the departure of director Bassim Tariq, with filming scheduled to start in Atlanta in November.Production was then pushed back to May, but has now been shelved again due to action by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), according to The Hollywood ReporterThe film’s release date, which was originally scheduled for November 3, 2023, has since been pushed back to September 6, 2024.There’s no word yet on whether the new delay will push back the release date any further.According to The Hollywood Reporter, the initial pause in production last year came to give the studio time to search for a new director and “coagulate other aspects” of the project.Tariq’s exit as director was cited as being “due to continued shifts in our production schedule,” according to Marvel. “Bassam is no longer moving forward as director of Blade but will remain an executive producer on the film,” the statement added.In a separate statement, Tariq said: “It’s been an honour working with the wonderful folks at Marvel.

Day four of the writers strike and there’s no sign of slowing down for the writers marching in Hollywood.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Marvel Studios’ “Blade” is going back into hibernation. Due to the ongoing writers strike, Marvel has shut down pre-production on the vampire reboot, which is set to star Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire hunter alongside Aaron Pierre, Delroy Lindo and Mia Goth. Production was expected to start in Atlanta within the month for an anticipated Sept. 6, 2024 release. This isn’t the first time Disney has had to delay production on the film. Last October, Disney pushed “Blade” from a 2023 release to 2024 after the original director, Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli”), left the project two months before filming was set to begin. In November, Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) took over directing duties from a script by Michael Starrbury (“When They See Us”). In April, just weeks before the WGA contract deadline, Nic Pizzolatto (“True Detective”) joined the production, re-writing from Starrbury’s screenplay. He ran out of time to complete his work before the strike began.

Barely legal? Nick Viall was taken aback by how young his now-fiancée, Natalie Joy, was when they first met on social media.