Damien Chazelle Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Refresh for latest…: Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera is announcing the lineup for the event’s 80th edition this morning. We’ll be updating the list as the films are revealed, so check back for more below. You can also watch the livestream here.

So what film will win the coveted Golden Lion at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival this year? Well, there’s no front-runner right now because festival director Albert Barbera hasn’t even anvnounced the in-competition line-up yet. But now we know who will choose the winners alongside jury head Damien Chazelle.

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the names who will join Damien Chazelle on the main Competition jury of its 80th edition, running Aug 30 — Sep 9.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Jane Campion, Laura Poitras, Mia Hansen-Løve and Martin McDonagh are among high-caliber members of the Venice Film Festival’s main jury. The prominent directors, most of whom are Venice regulars – Poitras last year scored the Golden Lion with documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” – will be joined on the Venice jury panel by Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“Wajib”); Chinese star Shu Qi (“The Assassin”); Italian director Gabriele Mainetti, who was at Venice last year with “Freaks Out”; and Argentinian auteur Santiago Mitre whose “Argentina, 1985” also launched from the Lido last year. They will join Damien Chazelle who – as previously announced – will serve as president of the Venice competition jury. 

The Venice Film Festival will open with the world premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers.

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts (Babylon) has been set to star opposite Hutch Dano and Christopher Livingston in Down Below, a psychological horror film from director Spyder Dobrofsky that is currently in production.

EXCLUSIVE: Phoebe Tonkin (Babylon) is among the cast leading the indie crime drama And On The Eighth Day from debut feature filmmaker Alexandra Chando, which has just wrapped production in New Mexico.

Automatik, the production company behind “La La Land,” is merging with Range Media Players, TheWrap has confirmed. As part of the merger, Automatik executives Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger have been named partners and co-presidents of film and production at Range.

EXCLUSIVE: The prolific film/TV production company Automatik has completed a merger with Range Media Partners, a deal that will further expand Range’s production capabilities and slate ambitions.

T.J. Newman is living her wildest dreams – she went from making $35K as a flight attendant to fielding seven-figure deals for her two books, which will both be made into blockbuster films.

Barbie” showcased a candy-coated pink world that perfectly mimicked the aesthetic everyone associates with America’s favorite doll. Now, in a new interview for Vogue, the cast and director of the upcoming “Barbie” discussed how that look came together.

SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan led a market keynote at Cannes this afternoon, during which he shared the streamer’s forthcoming slate, including a series of original European-produced shows set to hit the streamer this year and into 2024.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian actor Caterina Murino, best known globally for playing Solange in James Bond movie “Casino Royale,” will be the master of ceremonies at the upcoming Venice Film Festival. Born in Cagliari, Sardegna, Murino made her big screen debut in 2002 in late Chilean writer/director Luis Sepulveda’s political drama “Nowhere” which played well in France. She returned to French film screens in 2004 in “L’Enquete Corse” opposite actors Christian Clavier and Jean Reno. In 2006 Murino gained global visibility as the new 007 Bond Girl alongside Daniel Craig with her role as the shady seductive Solange Dimitrios in “Casino Royale.” 

Damien Chazelle has been announced as the international jury president for the main competition of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, running Aug 30 — Sep 9.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Damien Chazelle will preside over the competition jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival. The U.S. director is a Venice regular, having opened the Lido event on two occasions, in 2016 with “La La Land” and in 2018 with “First Man.” Damien Chazelle, welcoming Venice’s proposal stated: “For ten days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury. I can’t wait to discover a new crop of great films at the 80th Venice Film Festival.”

Saturday Night Live.The filmmaker will reunite with Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-writer Gil Kenan to pen the script for the project, which will tell the behind-the-scenes story of the show’s premiere episode on October 11, 1975.According to Deadline, the film will be based on real-life accounts of Saturday Night Live’s opening night from an extensive series of interviews conducted by Reitman and Kenan with “all the living cast, writers and crew”.This is the second film Reitman is working on for Sony Pictures. He’s also serving as a co-writer and producer on the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed by Kenan.Aside from the 2021 reboot of Ghostbusters, Reitman is best known for directing films Juno, Up In The Air and Young Adult.

EXCLUSIVE: After helping relaunch the Ghostbusters franchise for Sony Pictures, Jason Reitman is reuniting with the studio to tell the behind the scenes story for the premiere of one of more iconic shows in TV history. Source tell Deadline, Reitman is set to direct an untitled original screenplay for Sony which is based on the real-life behind the scenes accounts of the opening night of Saturday Night Live. Reitman will also reteam with his Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-scribe, Gil Kenan, to co-write the script.

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates and United Agents have set former ITVS Creative Director Patrick Spence (Spy Among Friends) as Managing Director of their UK film and TV production joint venture.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Three years ago, T.J. Newman was handing out peanuts and pouring drinks for airplane passengers. Last month, she was hustling between Zoom calls with Nicole Kidman and Jerry Bruckheimer as they tried to outbid each other for the rights to “Drowning,” her upcoming novel about a jetliner that crashes into the ocean. It’s all part of an improbable Cinderella story that’s taken Newman, a flight attendant-turned-bestselling writer, from manning first-class cabins to becoming one of Hollywood’s most in-demand talents.  Newman admits she still hasn’t accepted her change in fortunes. “Any time I board a plane, I still want to get up and collect trash or help someone put their bag in an overhead bin,” she says. “I have to remind myself: You can sit and order a drink instead of serving it.” 

Bold Film’s longtime CEO Gary Michael Walters has stepped down to launch his own venture, Walters Media Group.Walters Media Group will focus on the development of studio-caliber film and television projects, independent film financing and production, and strategic consultancy to high-net-worth investors and media companies, Walters announced Thursday.“I am deeply appreciative of all the support Bold Films have given me over the past two decades,” Walters said in a statement. “I will miss my Bold family, but I have been yearning to create my own company for some time, and I am very excited to announce my upcoming slate shortly.”Walters, who has been with Bold Film since its founding in 2004, has produced as well as executive produced all of the company’s film and television projects, including “Whiplash” starring Miles Teller and JK Simmons, directed by Damien Chazelle; “Nightcrawler” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed, directed by Dan Gilroy; and “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Oscar Isaac and Albert Brooks, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.Bold’s commercial successes include action thriller “No Escape” starring Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan, and apocalyptic horror feature “Legion” with Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Bold Film’s longtime CEO Gary Michael Walters has stepped down to form Walters Media Group. Walters has been with Bold Film since its founding in 2004 and served as producer and executive producer all of the company’s film and television projects, including Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash” starring Miles Teller and JK Simmons; Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler,” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed; and “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston and Oscar Isaac. Other notable projects that Walter worked on at Bold Films include the action thriller “No Escape,” featuring Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan, and the apocalyptic thriller “Legion,” with Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid. More recently, Walters was Emmy-nominated for HBO’s “Oslo” and produced Netflix’s “The Guilty” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and directed by Antoine Fuqua.

Bold Films’ longtime CEO Gary Michael Walters has stepped down from his position to form Walters Media Group.

EXCLUSIVE: In one of the wildest book rights auctions the town has seen in some time, Warner Bros. production co-heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy tonight landed screen rights to the upcoming T.J. Newman novel Drowning: The Rescue Of Flight 1421. Studio paid $1.5 million against $3 million, and there were five seven-figure bids on the table, sources said.    

While “Babylon” has been available on digital since January, those of us who still prefer physical copies of films will now have the opportunity to bring home Damien Chazelle’s wild, audacious, and Oscar-nominated period spectacle films starting this week.  “Babylon,” set in 1920s Los Angeles, is a story of ambition and excess in early Hollywood. The film will be released on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD SteelBook and will have forty minutes of unique features.

While “Babylon” has been available on digital since January, those of us who still prefer physical copies of films will now have the opportunity to bring home Damien Chazelle’s wild, audacious, and Oscar-nominated period spectacle films starting this week.  “Babylon,” set in 1920s Los Angeles, is a story of ambition and excess in early Hollywood. The film will be released on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD SteelBook and will have forty minutes of unique features.

Paramount+ (née CBS All Access) has recently shot up as one of the streaming services with the most robust and up-to-date libraries full of hits, hidden gems and classics. Featuring some of the best Paramount movies, and beloved TV shows from CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET and more, Paramount+ is the home of hit film franchises like “Scream” and “Mission: Impossible,” TV hits including “Star Trek” and Taylor Sheridan shows including “The Tulsa King” and “Yellowstone” spinoffs “1883” and “1923” (though, somewhat confusingly, you won’t find “Yellowstone” itself on there — that’s on Peacock).

newly-minted Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan) words to heart: “The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please, be kind.

win Best Picture still seemed crazy. After all, nobody had seen any of the fall festival movies that often dominate the awards lineup.

Production designer Christian M. Goldbeck gave a shout-out to All Quiet on the Western Front‘s director Edward Berger and his team of APDs following the film’s Oscar win for Best Production Design.

Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz has found himself back in the awards race this season, having garnered both a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination for his lavish Babylon score. Creating music that complemented the decadence and destructive glamor of 1920s Hollywood found in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon required a lot of experimentation. From using “kazoos and slide whistles” to “wooden floorboards” and multicultural percussionists amongst other unique instruments, Hurwitz and his 98-piece orchestra managed to execute the larger-than-life sounds and eclectic mix of tunes throughout the score, especially that of soundtrack highlight “Voodoo Mama.” In the behind-the-scenes video featured above, Hurwitz provides an in-depth look at the rich and explosive ensemble of harmonies influenced by diverse and modern sounds. “Babylon mixes up a lot of influences,” he tells Deadline. “It has some jazz influences, rock ‘n’ roll, and contemporary dance music in the music. There’s a lot of Middle Eastern and Latin flavors, orchestral cues, and a lot of circus sounds in the score.”  

Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts announced today that Oscar-nominated director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Two Popes) will become its next Marion Knott Distinguished Artist.

Hacks co-star Hannah Einbinder has confirmed that the actress is “doing well” following a recent heart procedure.Last week, Smart confirmed that she had undergone a “successful heart procedure”, with production on season three of the acclaimed series paused for the meantime.“February is American Heart Month — a time when the nation spotlights heart health, so it feels important to share with all of you that I am recovering from a recent, successful heart procedure,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.“I am fortunate to have excellent professional care and support from family and friends while I continue to recuperate. Please listen to your body and talk to your doctor — I’m very glad I did!”A post shared by Jean Smart (@realjeansmart)Sharing an update, Einbinder – who plays Ava Daniels opposite Smart’s Deborah Vance on the show – spoke to Variety at last night’s (February 26) SAG Awards.“She’s doing well.

Ellise Shafer The Screen Actors Guild Awards are back to honor the year’s best acting performances, subsequently giving key insights into the Oscars race as awards season heats up. Before the televised ceremony, SAG announced that “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Stranger Things” had won outstanding action performance by a stunt ensemble in a motion picture and television series, respectively. “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” lead this year’s nominations with five nods each, including best ensemble, the ceremony’s highest honor. The two films will compete against Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” for the prize.

Julia MacCary editor The 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards, celebrating TV and film’s top performers, will take place Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. It will stream on Netflix’s YouTube channel at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT. The SAG Awards will hand out awards to actors across 13 categories in TV and film, voted on by SAG-AFTRA’s more than 122,000 members. Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” lead the nominations, with both films earning five nods, including the highest honor of best ensemble. Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” round out the best ensemble category. “Ozark” led the TV field with four nods, with “Barry,” “Better Call Saul” and “Only Murders in the Building” each receiving three.

Jon Burlingame It’s anybody’s game: this is a rare year when any of the five original-score nominees could win the Oscar. Two of the nominees are previous winners, two more are past nominees; only one is a newcomer, and it’s a three-man ensemble. Four films are period pieces: an admired German-language war film, a character study set against the Irish civil war, an epic of late 1920s Hollywood, and a coming-of-age story for a young filmmaker in the ‘50s and ‘60s; the fifth is a wild, anarchic tale of a Chinese American family that saves the universe. And the nominees are:

All the delights and debaucheries of old Hollywood are coming to people’s living rooms.