Brent Lang Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Brent Lang Executive Editor David Slade, the director of the Emmy and BAFTA-award winning “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” has signed with 42, the Los Angeles and London-based management and production company. The company will manage the filmmaker, who also joins 42’s commercials offering OB42 for representation in the U.K.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Vornado Realty Trust has lined up partners in both the private and public sector for its plans to redevelop Pier 94 on Manhattan’s West Side as a film and TV studio. The company announced that Hudson Pacific Properties and Blackstone will back the project, as well as the City of New York, and New York City Economic Development Corporation. Vornado, which has struggled for years to demolish the old pier and to transform it into various different venues such as a giant trade show facility, contributed its long-term leasehold to the venture.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Barbie” and “Gran Turismo” are both claiming victory at the box office in a showdown that has a lot to do with movie accounting and shifting definitions of the meaning of an opening weekend. Warner Bros., which backed “Barbie,” is claiming that the film won the weekend for the fifth time, earning $15.1 million over last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, Sony, which produced “Gran Turismo,” is claiming that its film topped box office charts with $17.4 million.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It’s a nail-biter at the box office. Sony’s “Gran Turismo” is projected to narrowly outrace the competition with $17.3 million at the box office. But “Barbie” is close behind with $17.1 million, so it’s possible that when the final tally is revealed, the summer blockbuster will have reclaimed its crown and “Gran Turismo” will have the settle for second place.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Bob Trevino Likes It” has wrapped production in Louisville, Ky. and has unveiled its first official photo. Myriad Pictures has acquired worldwide sales rights and will launch sales out of Toronto in September.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Rachel Allen has joined Bleecker Street as senior vice president of publicity. She begins her job at the indie studio this week after more than a decade in the public relations industry, including a five year stint at Cinetic Media, where she served as a director of publicity and led campaigns from festival launch to theatrical release and through awards season.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Shia LaBeouf will make his stage debut in the world premiere of “Henry Johnson,” a new play from David Mamet. The production will be mounted at the Electric Lodge venue in Venice, Calif. and will be directed by “The L Word: Generation Q” showrunner Marja-Lewis Ryan.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Producer Erik Feig could have been describing “SuperBad” or “Good Boys” when he outlined his new movie to Universal, pitching them on backing his mid-budget film with a detailed slideshow that included everything from ideas for TikTok promotions to potential merchandising. “This is a raunchy, cinematic comedy with heart, about finding your people and your purpose,” a slideshow for the Picturestart founder’s new project, “Strays,” read.

William Earl Variety has promoted Elsa Keslassy to Executive Editor of International, according to an announcement from Variety‘s co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. In her new role, Keslassy will lead the magazine’s global team of award-winning correspondents, while helping guide its reporting at the leading international film and television festivals and markets.

Brent Lang Executive Editor RLJE announced today it has acquired North American rights to “Muzzle,” an action thriller starring Aaron Eckhart,from Highland Film Group. Directed by John Stalberg Jr. (“Crypto”) and based on a script by Carlyle Eubank (“The Signal”) from a story byEubank and Stalberg Jr., the film is set to debut in theaters and will be made available on all rental platforms on Sept.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Barbie” continues to shatter records nearly a month after the Malibu icon first graced the big screen. The Greta Gerwig comedy has earned $1.18 billion at the worldwide box office and now ranks as the second highest-grossing release in the history of Warner Bros. Internationally, the film earned $45.1 million from 75 markets to bring its foreign gross to a sizzling $657.6 million.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” sank without a trace over its opening weekend, going to a watery grave with just $6.5 million. The period horror film, which centers on one chapter of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” namely the bit where his coffin gets transported from Transylvania to England, was distributed by Universal. It’s the studio’s second stab at reviving the world’s most famous vampire, with last spring’s “Renfield,” a campy take on the bloodsucker, also collapsing at the box office.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” set sail with $750,000 in previews on Thursday. The horror film, which is derived from a transit-heavy chapter of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” screened in 2,350 theaters with showings beginning at 5:00 p.m. It tells the story of the merchant ship that ferried fifty unmarked wooden crates from Carpathia to London.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad” will be the opening night film of the Hamptons International Film Festival. The event will take place on Oct. 5, according to HamptonsFilm, which runs the festival.

Brent Lang Executive Editor William Petersen was a theater actor from Chicago when William Friedkin changed the course of his life. In 1984, the Oscar-winning director tapped the then-unknown performer to play Richard Chance, a Secret Service agent willing to bend rules and break laws in order to capture a shadowy counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe) in “To Live and Die in L.A.” The crime thriller was a return to form for Friedkin, who had summited the heights of the movie business with “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” only to suffer a string of disappointments. Petersen and Friedkin would later collaborate on a Showtime remake of “12 Angry Men” and two episodes of “CSI.” Friedkin died on Aug.

Brent Lang Executive Editor After one major cast change and a lot of off-stage drama, “Funny Girl” has recouped its $16.5 million capitalization, the producers of the Broadway revival announced on Monday. At one point, that kind of news would have seemed very unlikely. When “Funny Girl” opened in April 2022 at the August Wilson Theatre, Beanie Feldstein had the starring role of Vaudeville legend Fanny Brice, a part that had originally been filled by Barbra Streisand.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Meg 2: The Trench” sunk its pearly whites into $3.2 million in Thursday previews, as the followup to the 2018 Jason Statham hit is hoping to premiere to $30 million. Critics have feasted on the film, giving it a dreadful 28% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the pulverizing reviews may not have much impact on audiences who don’t turn up to these type of movies out of a desire to see a pioneering work of cinema. Instead, they’ll get a chance to witness a 75-foot-long megalodon, and other sea creatures who prefer human flesh to plankton, make short work of a group of scientists.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Juliet Stevenson seems almost ashamed. There was a moment a few weeks ago when the boundaries between Ruth Wolff, the gifted but abrasive physician whose downfall drives the action of “The Doctor,” and Stevenson became too porous. “I crossed this line and didn’t know who I was,” Stevenson says on a recent afternoon at the Park Avenue Armory, where she has been performing in the play since June.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It seemed like the end of the road for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” The popular kids franchise had inspired a half-dozen movies of declining quality, with the live-action 2016 adventure “Out of the Shadows” suffering from the kind of withering reviews and bad box office returns that derail a film series. But Paramount and Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins and Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation president Ramsey Naito had an offbeat idea for how they could make the Turtles cool again. That involved tapping Seth Rogen and his producing partner Evan Goldberg, the duo behind “Superbad” and “This is the End,” to give the characters an adolescent flair.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Colin Tilley, the acclaimed director of music videos for Cardi B, Justin Bieber, and Nicki Minaj, will make his feature debut with “Somewhere in Dreamland.” Production recently wrapped on the project, which stars Whitney Peak, from “Gossip Girl” and “Hocus Pocus 2,” as well as S. Epatha Merkerson (“Law & Order”), Golda Rosheuvel (“Bridgerton”), Finn Bennett (“True Detective”) and newcomer Laken Giles. Elisa Victoria penned the original graphic novel and the screenplay with Michael Tully.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines who became notorious for the way she used her position to fund a lavish lifestyle, will be at the center of a new limited series that is being developed by producer Lisa Saltzman. “Chasing Imelda” is inspired by journalist Katherine Ellison’s biography, “Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines.” The announcement comes in a moment of, I guess, rediscovery for Imelda. After all, Marcos is the central figure in a new Broadway musical “Here Lies Love” from David Byrne and Fatboy Slim (there’s just something about all those shoes).

Brent Lang Executive Editor Two labor strikes may be upending Hollywood’s awards season and the film festivals that serve as launching pads for many Oscar contenders, but the Toronto International Film Festival signaled Monday that it still plans to showcase the best in cinema, unveiling its 2023 slate of movies. Alexander Payne, Richard Linklater, Kore-eda Hirokazu and Justine Triet are among the auteurs who will be screening their latest works at the festival. Payne will be on hand with “The Holdovers,” a comedy set in a boarding school that reunites him with “Sideways” star PaulGiamatti, while Linklater is showing “Hitman,” an action-comedy with Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. Kore-eda and Triet will screen “Monster” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” both of which premiered at Cannes, where the latter won the Palme d’Or.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Most people know that social media has become a cesspool of disinformation, a digital hydra that feeds off toxicity and conspiracy theories. But somehow YouTube, the second-most-popular site in the world, has avoided the scrutiny that’s come Twitter and Facebook’s way. “The YouTube Effect,” a new documentary from Alex Winter, could change that. It takes a tough look at the role that the Google-owned service played in everything from the Jan. 6 riot to the 2019 New Zealand mosque shooting by promoting election denialism and white supremacy. “People don’t know that YouTube and Google are the biggest purveyors of disinformation,” Winter says. “One reason is people don’t understand what YouTube is. Is it just a place to watch cat videos, or is it something else? And the second reason you hear about it less is because Google is so deep-pocketed that it has some of the strongest lobbyists in the world working for them. That’s made them less likely to be legislated against.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Abramorama has acquired North American distribution rights for the feature-length documentary “Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids” from NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and Believe Entertainment Group. The film is directed by Andrew Jenks (“The Zen of Bobby V”) and charts the meteoric rise of the dolls that set in motion the modern day Black Friday craze. It is narrated and executive produced by Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris.  “Billion Dollar Babies” includes the first interview with Cabbage Patch Kids’ creator Xavier Roberts in over 20 years, as well as sit-downs with journalistConnie Chung,and former Coleco marketing head Al Kahan. The film world premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. Abramorama is planning a theatrical release for this fall.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Joshua Zeman’s latest feature documentary “Checkpoint Zoo,” an inspiring story that unfolds in a war-torn part of the world, has wrapped principal photography. The film tells the story of the daring rescue of over 5,000 animals that were trapped in a wildlife park behind enemy lines during the early days of the Russian-Ukrainian War.  “Checkpoint Zoo” was produced by Zeman and Zach Mortensen for Ghost Robot, with Ian Davies and Torquil Jones for Noah Media Group, which is also financing the project.  UTA Independent Film Group has signed on to lead worldwide sales of the picture. In the early days of the war, a beloved animal refuge known as Feldman Ecopark, located in Ukraine’s second largest city, was in a precarious position. On one side of the park was the invading Russian army; on the other sat the Ukrainian front line. With thousands of animals trapped with little food and water, a group of men and women risked their lives to bring them to safety.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Cindy Holland has been named the CEO of Sister, the production company started by media mogul Elisabeth Murdoch and “Chernobyl” producer Jane Featherstone. The veteran executive oversaw Netflix’s move into producing its own in-house content until she left the streamer in 2020. At Sister, she will oversee the company’s strategic direction and production output. “I am delighted to join Sister at this exciting stage. The future is bright for well-positioned independent companies, and I love to build and support successful teams,” said Holland. “For years I’ve admired Jane Featherstone, and I am passionate about the artist-forward ethos that Liz has fostered at the Sister entertainment group.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” netted $8.3 million at the box office on Thursday, pushing the action sequel’s North American gross to $23.8 million after two days of release. The film, which finds Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt hurtling off cliffs, fighting knife-wielding bad guys on trains and evading pursuers while driving a Fiat through the streets of Rome, was incredibly expensive to produce. Shot during the pandemic (with all the attendant shutdowns, delays and health protocols that were a staple of the COVID era), the budget on the film ballooned to $290 million. So “Mission: Impossible” will need to generate a lot of repeat business if it’s going to turn a profit, and it needs to boom at the global box office.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Abramorama has acquired North American distribution rights to “Uncharitable,” a documentary about the roles that charities and non-profits play in society. The indie distributor will open the film on Sept. 22 in New York at Angelika’s Village East and Sept. 29 in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Royale before beginning its North American rollout. “Uncharitable” was directed and produced by Stephen Gyllenhaal, the director of “Waterland” and “Dangerous Woman.” It features the humanitarian activist Dan Pallotta, whose Ted Talk “The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong” was viewed more than 17 million times and has inspired conversations about how charities can be more effective and how we can support them.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Imax announced Wednesday that it plans to spend $124 million to get full ownership of Imax China. The subsidiary was listed on the Hong Kong exchange and was established in 2011 by Imax to oversee its business in Greater China, which has become a key market for the exhibition company. Imax creates wide-screen technology that enables theater owners to charge premium prices — it is also a favorite with big-budget filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan and Michael Bay, who use the company’s proprietary cameras to produce their movies. Since COVID, Hollywood films have struggled to attract the same level of business as they did pre-pandemic, but local-language titles such as “The Wandering Earth 2” and “Lost in the Stars” have been huge hits when they have screened in Imax.

Brent Lang Executive Editor The American Theatre Wing has unveiled the panel of judges and eligibility details for the 2023 edition of the Obie Awards. The annual celebration of the best of Off and Off Off Broadway is now in its 67th year. The jury will be co-chaired by Obie-winning director David Mendizábal (“Sanctuary City”) and veteran theater critic Melissa Rose Bernardo.  New 2023 Obie judges are Dede Ayite, an Obie-winning and Tony-nominated costume designer who has worked on “Topdog Underdog” and “American Buffalo”; Ty Defoe, writer and Grammy Award winner; Ann C. James, Broadway’s first Black intimacy coordinator for Antoinette Nwandu’s “Pass Over”; Florencia Lozano, actor, writer, performance artist who has appeared in “Rinse, Repeat” and “Devil of Choice”; Dael Orlandersmith, playwright of “Stoop Stories” and “Yellowman”; and Carmelita Tropicana, an Obie-winning downtown performance artist.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners and Universal Pictures have changed the terms of their partnership as part of a new multi-year deal. Under the new pact, Amblin will no longer fully finance its own films, as it has in the past. Instead, Universal will provide backing for any Amblin movie it opts to produce. There will be a handful of job cuts through a mix of layoffs and some contracts not being renewed associated with the transition. The new relationship seems to be an acknowledgment of the challenges of finding financial partners for movies aimed at adults or that don’t fit into pre-existing franchises — in short, the kind of movies that Amblin, which produced the likes of “Green Book,” “The Post” and “First Man,” tends to make. Compounding issues, some of Amblin’s more recent releases such as “Easter Sunday” with Jo Koy and Spielberg’s autobiographical “The Fabelmans” stumbled at the box office.

Brent Lang Executive Editor James Ashcroft will direct the feature film adaptation of “Old Haunts.” The “Coming Home In the Dark” filmmaker was tapped for the gig by AWA Studios, the film and television division of Artists, Writers & Artisans (AWA), which published the popular graphic novel that is inspiring the movie. Ashcroft will direct the “Old Haunts” adaptation from a script by in-demand scribe Aaron Rabin, who is hot off of the newly launched Marvel series, “Secret Invasion.” Zach Studin, president of AWA Studios, will produce the movie. Since the world premiere of “Coming Home In The Dark” at Sundance, where the psychological thriller made a stir, Ashcroft has become an in-demand filmmaker, lining up projects with AGBO, Legendary, and Netflix.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Amplify Pictures, the independent television studio behind HBO’s Emmy-winning “100 Foot Wave,” has made a pair of hires. It has tapped Rachel Eggebeen as its chief content officer and Colin King Miller as its chief operating officer. The veteran executives will take founding partnership roles alongside Amplify Pictures CEO Joe Lewis. “It’s a time of expansion,” Lewis told Variety in an interview. “We’re growing our team and becoming more global.” At the same time, Amplify has sold a minority stake to Great Mountain Partners. The sale values Amplify at $50 million. The funding will be used to back more production of original series of both the unscripted and scripted variety. Great Mountain Partners previous investments include the Oscar-winning film studio A24, branded content producer Rise Studios and the Vuelta Group, a European film studio.   

Brent Lang Executive Editor Ladj Ly, the French filmmaker behind “Les Misérables,” will return to the Toronto International Film Festival with his latest drama, “Les Indésirables.” The film will have its world premiere at the fall festival, where it is selling distribution rights. Buyers, particularly those looking to land the rare foreign language film that could appeal to U.S. audiences, will certainly be keen to see what Ly has brought to Toronto. “Les Misérables,” with its searing depiction of police violence and roiling tensions in an immigrant community on the outskirts of Paris electrified critics when it debuted in Cannes in 2019. It won Cannes’ Jury Prize and went on to pick up Oscar and BAFTA nominations after it sold to Amazon.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Sound of Freedom,” a faith-based film about child sex trafficking, is shaping up to be an unlikely box office hit. Angel Studios, the streaming and distribution company behind the low-budget drama, claims that the film has generated more than $10 million in pre-sales ahead of its theatrical release on July 4. That’s an impressive number for a movie that isn’t relying on a glossy big studio marketing campaign. It’s also another sign of the buying power of religious moviegoers, who helped propel this spring’s “Jesus Revolution” to an improbable $53 million at the global box despite the fact that the biggest star in that movie was Kelsey Grammar.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Alan Arkin etched many indelible performances over his long career in movies. From heroin-snorting grandfathers (“Little Miss Sunshine”) to ornery movie producers (“Argo”) to harried dentists (“The In-Laws”), Arkin, who died on June 29 at the age of 89, played an extraordinary range of roles with great gusto. But it’s fair to say that none of it would have been possible were it not for 1966’s “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” a Cold War comedy that marked Arkin’s first major screen role. It’s the film that earned him the first of four Oscar nominations (he’d win for 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine”) and a part that launched his career as a shape-shifting character actor.