Neill Blomkamp to Direct Joel Kinnaman in Alien Abduction Thriller ‘They Found Us’ for AGC Studios

EXCLUSIVE: Actor Esai Morales is in negotiations to star in the action thriller Shadow, which XYZ Films has boarded and will introduce to buyers this week in Cannes.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Vertical has acquired U.S. rights to the sci-fi comedy “Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out” from Visit Films. The film world premiered at Sundance in January and was presented to international buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin. Vertical has slated a summer release for the pic. “Aliens” centers on Itsy Levan, who is devastated by her parents’ decision to leave the city and buy a fixer upper in the middle of nowhere. Her life seems over until she meets her space-obsessed neighbor Calvin Kipler, who has spent most of his life awaiting the next arrival of Jesper’s Comet— partly because of his obsession with astronomy, but mostly because the last time it came, aliens abducted his parents. Calvin is now preparing to finally get abducted with them.

Amid fickle Riviera skies and the looming potential that the WGA strike and France’s own heightened tensions over pension reforms could simmer to a boil here, the red carpet is partially rolled out and technicians have been milling up and down the Croisette today as preparations continue for the start of the Cannes Film Festival which officially kicks off on Tuesday.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s some neat casting. Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) and Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace) are set to lead psychological horror film Self-Portrait which Mona Fastvold (The World To Come) will direct from a script she co-wrote with Brady Corbet (Vox Lux).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief To this day, Stuart Ford’s mother would prefer that her son had used his Oxford University degrees to build a career as a top lawyer or as a member of the U.K. parliament, representing the left-leaning Labour Party.  But if the career choice of the founder of indie powerhouse AGC Studios is a source of regret to his mom, her son’s approach to life and business has every chance of making her proud.  Variety will be feting Ford with the Billion Dollar Producer honor at a May 19 cocktail receptionin Cannes.  Ford has built AGC on policies of calculated risk-taking, diversity, diversification and integrity. He’s betting that these qualities position the company well for the globalized streaming era.

Drake is selling the last U.S. property that he owns.

EXCLUSIVE: Alison Oliver (Saltburn), Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country), Marc Maron (To Leslie) and Odessa Young (The Staircase) have closed deals to join The Order, the crime thriller to be directed for Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios by Justin Kurzel, which is heading into production on Wednesday.

Jamie Redknapp says Liverpool FC’s recent form has put pressure on Manchester United’s pursuit of a top-four finish. Jurgen Klopp saw his side beat Brentford 1-0 on Saturday to go within a point of United, who have played two games fewer - a sixth consecutive win for Liverpool who have just three games remaining.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Watching a police-procedural homicide drama, whether it’s the grungiest of VOD potboilers or the most visionary film of the genre, Michael Mann’s silvery, dread-drenched “Manhunter,” we more or less know one thing: At the end of two hours, the grisly mystery we’ve been dunked in will have its catharsis and its resolution. We will know who the killer is, and in knowing that a kind of order will have been restored. David Fincher’s “Zodiac,” with its tantalizing ambiguities, might stand as an exception to the form — a singular winding creep-out, without the closure we’re thirsting for — yet even there you feel, by the end, that you’ve glimpsed the face of evil. But “The Night of the 12th,” the French thriller that was nominated for 10 César Awards and won six of them, including best picture (it opens here on May 19), throws the audience a slow-motion curveball that’s intended to tinker with our dreams. And to a degree, it does. Based on a true-crime book by Pauline Guéna, the movie turns into one of the most casually authentic of investigative murder mysteries. Each time we think we’re seeing a classic suspense arc, it unravels into a dead end, and we think to ourselves: Of course. Crime in real life doesn’t necessarily happen so neatly. “The Night of the 12th” is a mostly compelling sit, though what lends the film its singular texture is that it keeps tricking us into thinking it’s a more conventional thriller than it is.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ed Sheeran was found not liable Thursday in Manhattan federal court on a copyright claim alleging that he lifted key elements from the Marvin Gaye ’70s hit “Let’s Get It On” for his own “Thinking Out Loud.” The verdict that found him not liable for copyright infringement came after just a few hours of deliberation Thursday. Standing outside the courtroom, Sheeran read a statement for reporters that made it clear how frustrated he felt at being accused of plagiarism and having the case reach trial. “It looks like I’m not going to have to give up my day job after all,” Sheeran said, alluding to a statement he’d made on the stand earlier this week suggesting that he would feel compelled to quit music if the verdict went against him.

Todd Gilchrist editor There are very few movie genres in which Emma Thompson hasn’t left her mark, but she’s established a special pedigree in romantic comedies: from “The Tall Guy” to “Sense and Sensibility” to “Love Actually” to “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” she’s explored love in more ways on screen than most people get to experience in real life. In the romantic entanglements of writer-producer Jemima Khan’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?,” Thompson’s more of a well-meaning instigator than an active participant, playing a divorcee named Cath who clumsily tries to make a match for her serially-single filmmaker daughter Zoe, played by Lily James. Zoe, meanwhile, is more interested in documenting the arranged (or “assisted,” they rebrand it) marriage agreed to by her childhood friend Kazim (Shazad Latif), not realizing the complicated feelings that his impending nuptials are igniting in her about relationships past, present and future.

The New York Times on Tuesday, finally reveals the beginning of the chain of events that led to him being fired the right-wing network last month. The text, written the day after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, was filled with racist vitriol, violent language and introspection over his own lack of morality, with the host confessing to a desire to support those who “surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living s— out of him.”The text read: “Suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him.

EXCLUSIVE: Tye Sheridan (The Tender Bar) has closed a deal to star alongside Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult in AGC Studios‘ crime thriller The Order from director Justin Kurzel (Assassin’s Creed, Macbeth), which is heading into production in Alberta, Canada on May 11th.

Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, The Neon Demon) has signed on to lead the psychological thriller Reckoner, written and directed by Nissar Modi (Z for Zachariah) in his feature directorial debut.

Hollywood is reeving-up it’s engines for video game adaptations as “The Last of Us” is doing well for HBO as a second season is already in the works and Universal‘s “Super Mario Bros. Movie” is inching closer to crossing the billion-dollar mark at the global box office.

A body has been found in the search for a teenage boy who was reported missing after playing in a river.

Police have formally identified the body of a man pulled from Mugdock Reservoir during the search for the 'killer' of pregnant teacher Marelle Sturrock.

EXCLUSIVE: Signature Entertainment has acquired UK & Irish rights to J.K. Simmons thriller You Can’t Run Forever from Voltage Pictures.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Harrison Ford is returning to the “Indiana Jones” franchise in the upcoming “Dial of Destiny,” marking a return to the character he’s now played for 42 years. It’s been 44 years since Sigourney Weaver first played Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” but don’t expect her to pull a Ford/”Dial of Destiny” and return to the role that made her an action movie icon. In a new interview with Total Film magazine, Ripley said her days as Ripley are over. “There are all kinds of younger actors taking this kind of role,” Weaver said. “And there was an ‘Alien’ [film] that I really wanted to do with Neill Blomkamp and we didn’t get to do that, but, you know, that ship has sailed. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. I put in my time in space!”