Grant Heslov Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Wilson Chapman editorJulia Roberts is making her triumphant return to the rom-com. The iconic actor stars in the first trailer for “Ticket to Paradise,” a new film that reunites her with her “Ocean’s Eleven” co-star George Clooney.Directed by Ol Parker (“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”), “Ticket to Paradise” stars Roberts and Clooney as two long-divorced parents who impulsively married each other. When their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) heads on a post-graduation trip to Bali and decides to marry a local, the two fly out to Indonesia to talk her out of making the same mistake they once did.

EXCLUSIVE: Lumanity Productions announced that a feature film adaptation deal has been inked with Christine Mangan for her novel The Continental Affair.  

EXCLUSIVE: Drops of God creator Quoc Dang Tran is getting into business with HBO. The writer-producer has signed a two-year overall deal with the premium cable network to create and executive produce content exclusive to HBO. 

Last week, the trades revealed details about “The Department,” a new espionage political thriller series based on the critically acclaimed hit French drama “Le Bureau des Legendes.” Michael Fassbender was cast in the lead role, and the series came from George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures shingle. While early reports said Clooney would direct, a new Paramount+ announcement revealed that he’s just executive producing the project and Golden Globe and multi-BAFTA winner Joe Wright (“Pride and Prejudice,” “The Darkest Hour” and “Atonement”) will direct the series instead.

Joe Wright, director behind the Golden Globe and multi-BAFTA winning films Pride and Prejudice, The Darkest Hour and Atonement, is set to direct and executive produce The Department, based on the acclaimed French espionage political thriller The Bureau, from George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures, MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios. Wright replaces Clooney, who initially was slated to direct the series.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Director Joe Wright and writers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth have all boarded the upcoming Paramount+ series “The Department.” The Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios series, which was announced with a straight-to-series order in February 2023, is based on the French drama series “Le Bureau des Legendes” created by Eric Rochant. Wright will direct the first two episodes and executive produce, while the Butterworths will writer and executive produce all episodes.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Michael Fassbender is in negotiations to star in “The Department,” an espionage thriller series directed by George Clooney. Set to start shooting in London this spring, “The Department” is based on “The Bureau,” the hit French spy show created by Eric Rochant. It has already been given a straight-to-series order by Showtime.

A semi-exclusive before we fully enter the winter break (and yes, I knew the original story some time ago, but I’m admittedly bad at breaking news). As you’ve likely heard by now, George Clooney says he has a script for “Ocean’s 14” that he is excited about.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Sony has dated an untitled Apple Original Films production starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum for July 12. Formerly known as “Project Artemis,” it’s set to screen in premium large formats with Columbia Pictures distributing. Meanwhile, the George Clooney-Brad Pitt starrer “Wolfs,” also from Apple Original Films, will open Sept.

George Clooney has shared his belief that working on Friends didn’t bring Matthew Perry “joy or happiness”.The actor reflected on his friendship with Perry and working together in the TV industry while promoting his new film The Boys In The Boat.Perry died at the age of 54 in October of this year. Last week, his cause of death was ruled as the “acute effects of ketamine” in what was deemed an accident. Other contributing factors listed were drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, used to treat opioid use disorder.“We used to play paddle tennis together.

George Clooney has revealed that Matthew Perry really struggled to be happy during his time on Friends.

Deadline, Clooney, 62, recalled booking “ER” and Perry landing “Friends” at the same time. Both shows premiered in fall 1994 on NBC. “We were side by side on the soundstage,” Clooney remembered.

George Clooney and Amal Clooney hit the red carpet on a rainy Sunday (December 3) at the premiere of his new movie The Boys in the Boat held at Curzon Cinema Mayfair in London.

The biggest story of the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin was Black track and field star Jesse Owens winning four gold medals and putting the lie to Adolf Hitler’s theories of race supremacy. A less-heralded U.S. gold medal triumph over host country Nazi Germany glides onto screens this Christmas with The Boys in the Boat from MGM Amazon Studios, directed by George Clooney.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Air” director, producer and star Ben Affleck will receive the first-ever Gotham Visionary Icon and Creator Tribute at this year’s Gotham Awards ceremony. The tribute award was created for this year’s ceremony to recognize cultural icons and the filmmakers responsible for bringing those icon’s stories to life.

EXCLUSIVE: More than 2,300 film and TV producers on Tuesday are delivering a message to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers: leave us out. The group delivered a petition to AMPTP President Carol Lombardini this morning demanding the dropping of the “P” from the acronym of the organization that just concluded a brutal negotiation with the WGA, and hopefully is in the final stages of a SAG-AFTRA deal after one of the longest strikes in Hollywood history.

EXCLUSIVE: The Outlaws producer Big Talk Studios is developing its first TV thriller, a high-stakes series about a drug-smuggling submarine.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran executive and producer Nina Wolarsky, who helped put Netflix on the original series map, has joined Plan B Entertainment as the company’s first ever President of Television.

EXCLUSIVE: We hear that the George Clooney directed MGM title, The Boys in the Boat, is set to hit theaters on Monday, Dec. 25, as a wide release.

Sports Illustrated Studios & 101 Studios has partnered with future Hall of Famer Stephen Curry and his Unanimous Media to produce a narrative film and a documentary about the All Star Café. The projects will be based on Jon Wertheim’s 2020 Sports Illustrated article.

EXCLUSIVE: Smokehouse Pictures partner George Clooney and Grant Heslov have signed an overall film deal with the Warner Bros. Pictures Group and its Co-Chairs and CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. It amounts to a homecoming for the filmmakers, who named their company for the Smoke House steak joint right off the Warner Bros lot, where they used to eat all the time. Clooney’s history with the studio goes back to his breakthrough starring role in the Warner Bros Television drama ER. They made their first deal at Warner Bros when they formed Smokehouse in 2006.

EXCLUSIVE: My Name is Earl star Jason Lee has signed with Buchwald for representation in all areas.

EXCLUSIVE: Smokehouse TV and 101 Studios have made a multiyear overall deal for original scripted and unscripted content for television.

Poorna Jagannathan is teaming up with George Clooney and Brad Pitt in their latest Apple TV+ thriller “Wolves”.

EXCLUSIVE: Poorna Jagannathan (Never Have I Ever, Defending Jacob) has joined the cast of the untitled Apple Original Films thriller starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt from writer, producer, and director Jon Watts.

Showtime has given a straight-to-series order to The Department (w/t) based on the acclaimed French espionage political thriller The Bureau, from George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures, MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios. Clooney will direct the series and also executive produce with Heslov through their Smokehouse Pictures. Production is slated to begin later this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Following a lengthy audition process, sources tell Deadline that Austin Abrams has landed a highly-coveted role in the untitled Apple Original Films pic starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt with Jon Watts writing, producing and directing. Amy Ryan also recently joined the cast.

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award-nominee and SAG Award-winner Amy Ryan is set to star alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt in an Apple Original Films’ upcoming feature film written, directed and produced by Jon Watts.

It’s a shame George Clooney has yet to direct another film as great as 2005’s “Good Night, And Good Luck.” That film, about the 1953 conflict between journalist Edward R. Murrow and US Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare, was a coup for Clooney on every level.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios and George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse acquired in a six-against seven-figure deal screen rights to Hot Dog Money: Inside the Biggest Scandal in the History of College Sports. Book was written by Guy Lawson, whose Rolling Stone article “Arms and the Dudes” became the Todd Phillips’ movie War Dogs at Warner Bros, whose New York Times Magazine article “Ice Pack” has been adapted for Will Ferrell at Sony, his RS article Oxy-Gen is being adapted at MGM for Pete Davidson, and other true-crime reporting spread around town.

EJ Panaligan editor Disney, Amazon Studios, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and other major Hollywood players are pledging support for the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a major educational outreach initiative championed last year by George Clooney and others. Paramount and NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises are also signing on to become founding partners of the Los Angeles Unified School District magnet facility. These companies join previously announced founding partners History Channel/A+E Networks, Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The group has committed to providing more than $4 million in funding for the school, which opened in August with 150 students at the Edward G. Roybal Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles.

Amazon Studios, Disney, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed on as Founding Partners of the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund, which was established by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Creative Artists Agency’s Bryan Lourd, to support The Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a specialized academy created to drive transformational change across the industry by building a more inclusive pipeline of historically underrepresented college- and career-ready students pursuing below-the-line careers in film and television.

EJ Panaligan editorA+E Networks and The History Channel have partnered with the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund, which was established to support a specialized academy founded in 2021 by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Bryan Lourd of Creative Artists Agency, to provide educational resources for students from underserved communities in Los Angeles. The academy will welcome its inaugural class this fall.As part of the partnership, A+E Networks President and Chairman Paul Buccieri has joined the Roybal Advisory Board, whose members include Clooney, Heslov and Lourd alongside Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria, Mindy Kaling, Don Cheadle, Nicole Avant, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Jim Gianopulos.

The History Channel/A+E Networks has announced a multi-year partnership with the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund – a fund created by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and CAA’s Bryan Lourd – to support the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet school in Los Angeles.

Ticket To Paradise – check out the trailer below.Directed and co-written by Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Ticket To Paradise follows two divorced parents (Clooney, Roberts) who travel to Bali after learning their daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), is planning to marry a local she has just met.As shown in the trailer, they decide to work together to sabotage the wedding to stop Lily from making the same mistake they made 25 years ago.This is the first time Clooney and Roberts have starred in a rom-com together, after previously sharing the screen in Ocean’s Eleven and 2016’s Money Monster.Along with Clooney, Roberts and Dever, the cast includes Billie Lourd (Booksmart), Maxime Bouttier and Lucas Bravo (Emily In Paris).Roberts and Clooney are also producers on the film, alongside Deborah Balderstone, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Marisa Yeres Gill, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Sarah Harvey and Grant Heslov.Ticket To Paradise is scheduled to be released in cinemas on October 21, 2022.Roberts is known for starring in romantic comedies, including 1990’s Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill and Runaway Bride.

A trailer for the rom-com, which you can watch above, shows the former couple struggle to put their differences aside, even in light of their common cause. They go head-to-head at every turn, before eventually making peace with their daughter’s decision — and each other.“Ticket to Paradise” reunites Clooney and Roberts on screen for the first time since Jodie Foster’s “Money Monster” from 2011, and the “Ocean’s” franchise before that.Parker wrote the film with Daniel Pipski.