‘Migration’ Director, Composer On Facing Animation & Musical Challenges For Avian Pic – Contenders Film L.A.

Charles Melton is opening up about wearing a prosthetic for a scene in his new movie May December.

After the production team at Studio Ghibli disbanded, cinematographer Atsushi Okui worked as a freelance artist for a while. But when director Hayao Miyazaki began working on The Boy and the Heron, Okui was excited to be called back to the team.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Sara Bareilles has always spoken openly about the fact that her work on the musical “Waitress” changed her life. “My life is in two categories: It’s before and after ‘Waitress,’” she said on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Every few years, the Academy tweaks the rules for its animated feature category, with the net result that the nominees tend to skew ever more mainstream. That makes it tough for most of this year’s hopefuls: A record-setting number of animated features submitted (nearly three dozen, though the Academy is still finalizing its list).

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Growing up, Kris Bowers felt like he was an outsider trying to fit in. These days, he is anything but that in Hollywood. The Oscar-nominated composer has scored a wide array of projects in the past five years, ranging from “Green Book” to “When They See Us,” and worked with Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes repeatedly.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Rustin, Netflix‘s biopic of civil rights icon Bayard Rustin. Colman Domingo stars in the film, which is directed by Tony winner George C. Wolfe and hit theaters and the streamer in November after its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: Aislinn Clarke is set to direct Hellish Nell, the genre thriller for Studiocanal and The Picture Company.  

Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles on Saturday drew 28 of this season’s biggest and buzziest films for our annual panel showcase of cast and creatives, with a list of films that included everything from Barbie and Oppenheimer to John Wick: Chapter 4 and Trolls Band Together and every kind of movie in between.

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details from the plot of John Wick: Chapter 4. 

When Julianne Moore first was approached for May December, a dark dramedy that would have her star opposite Natalie Portman under the direction of frequent collaborator Todd Haynes, she said yes immediately. But only in looking more closely at the material and her Gracie character did she come to understand the complexity of what she’d just signed on for. 

Neon introduced the Michael Mann-directed Ferrari with a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film Los Angeles on Saturday that featured a discussion with Mann and stars Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley.

Maggie Betts, writer-director of The Burial, spoke about her film’s Oscar-winning stars Saturday at Deadline’s Contenders Film Los Angeles event. Jamie Foxx plays a lawyer representing a funeral home owner (Tommy Lee Jones) in a lawsuit against a big corporation. Betts learned she had to give Foxx space for his process.

Kelly Fremon Craig, the writer, director and producer of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, opened up about what inspired her to reach out to Judy Blume to adapt the beloved coming-of-age novel into a film.

By diving headlong into the title role for Flora and Son, Eve Hewson — the daughter of U2 frontman Bono — conquered her fear of singing, the actress said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles in a panel with co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the film’s composer and primary songwriter Gary Clark.

“I think I didn’t realize how lucky I got with this team,” franchise star Anna Kendrick said about DreamWorks Animation‘s Trolls Band Together.

Writer-producer team Phil Lord and Chris Miller, alongside director Kemp Powers, joined Deadline’s Contenders Film L.A. event on Saturday to discuss world-building, groundbreaking animation and the fun risk they took in creating a character inspired by Daniel Kaluuya for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Dumb Money producer Aaron Ryder talked Saturday about why he wanted to bring to screen the story of GameStop’s short squeeze of 2021, a financial fluke that has gone down in history as a triumph for the little guy against the behemoths of Wall Street.

Cillian Murphy had to “sit down for a moment” and gather his thoughts when he received the out-of-the-blue call from director and longtime collaborator Christopher Nolan about playing the lead in his epic biographical thriller Oppenheimer.

Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles kicks off Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. PT spotlighting 28 movies, with panel discussions featuring cast and creatives from this awards season’s most talked-about films, including actors scheduled to return to post-strike duty from Margot Robbie, Bradley Cooper, Cillian Murphy, Jeffrey Wright, Colman Domingo, Lily Gladstone, Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Annette Bening to Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Carey Mulligan, Anna Kendrick, Eve Hewson and America Ferrara.

Cillian Murphy is set to receive a special actor’s award for his “stunning” performance in this year’s summer blockbuster Oppenheimer.Murphy is set to receive the 2024 Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, from the Palm Springs International Film Festival.“Murphy gives a stunning portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer as a conflicted scientist leading the Manhattan Project to produce the world’s first atomic bomb,” said the festivals’ Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi (via Deadline).“For this career-best performance, we are honoured to present the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, to Cillian Murphy.”Palm Springs will be announcing its annual awards list leading up to the festival, which runs from January 4-15 Los Angeles.Earlier this week (November 14), Christopher Nolan shared his thoughts on Oppenheimer‘s upcoming release on Blu-ray and digital, urging fans to opt for the former of the two options.While introducing the film at a special screening in Los Angeles on Monday (November 13), Nolan took aim at streaming services while sharing more about his approach to releasing films on Blu-ray and other physical avenues.Nolan said: “Obviously Oppenheimer has been quite a ride for us and now it is time for me to release a home version of the film.