Matt Donnelly-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer I’m balancing on a tightrope, 3,000 feet above the Nordic fjords. As I glance down into the watery abyss, my stomach churns. Then, with a few flicks of my index finger, I’ve ditched Scandinavia for Pangea, where I’m frolicking with velociraptors who come within centimeters of my face to sniff and size me up.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Participant, the 20-year-old film and television production company whose mission was to inspire social justice and humanitarian action, is shutting down. Founder Jeff Skoll broke the news to a staff of roughly 100 on Tuesday.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Ryan Reynolds’ potty-mouthed superhero Deadpool made a Las Vegas convention hall blush on Thursday, unveiling nine minutes of vulgar and hilarious footage from the upcoming sequel “Deadpool and Wolverine” at CinemaCon. Stacked with meta jokes about Disney’s Marvel Studios finally making an R-rated film – and just how unprepared the company’s executives are for this kind of release – the annual gathering of global movie theater owners ate up all the raunch. They also cheered for the briefest look at Hugh Jackman‘s return as Wolverine, the X-Men character he’s played on and off for years.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The venerable “Alien” franchise has nearly 10 films under its belt and, somehow, every time a space crew member’s chest bursts open and a horrifying little creature crawls out we’re still terrified. Such was the case on Thursday at CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners in Las Vegas, where Disney showed off an extended look at its latest entry “Alien: Romulus.” Directed by Fede Álvarez (“Don’t Breathe,” “Evil Dead”), the movie follows a group of solar explorers who stumble on an abandoned space station. Guess what’s on board? Cailee Spaeny leads a next-gen cast of unfortunate souls that must contend with creatures with fun names like facehuggers and Xenomorphs.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer For a film in the “Quiet Place” universe, the decibel level was near deafening at the film’s CinemaCon presentation on Thursday in Las Vegas. John Krasinski’s horror franchise is now in its third outing, the latest being a prequel of sorts starring Lupita Nyong’o and titled “A Quiet Place: Day One.” The film takes viewers back to the inciting incident, when faceless alien beasts invaded the planet and revealed an extreme sensitivity to sound — using it to track and find terrified humans and, well, kill them. Nyong’o and costar Joseph Quinn (breakout star of the last season of “Stranger Things”) teed up an extended version of a “Day One” trailer released earlier this year.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins got cheeky about the sales talks surrounding his corporate parent Paramount Global. In a presentation to worldwide theater owners at the annual Las Vegas convention CinemaCon, Robbins got right to the point in his opening remarks about what’s next for his team.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Glenn Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones have somehow found a way to make relentless natural destruction sexy. The leads of “Twisters,” along with costar Anthony Ramos, showed at the annual movie theater owners convention CinemaCon to show case a first look at the sequel to 1996 adventure film “Twister,” starring Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for “Megalopolis“ Francis Ford Coppola has made quite the return to directing. Industry chatter about his new film “Megalopolis,” a passion project more than 20 years in the making, has been churning since a late March screening for prospective buyers.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Many in show business share a feeling that “Furiosa” will be big — but at Warner Bros.’ presentation to global movie theater owners on Tuesday, attendees got a taste of just how colossal the “Mad Max” entry might be. Director George Miller and his stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth made the trek to Las Vegas’ CinemaCon to show an extended look at the new film.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Netflix has taken worldwide rights on the horror-thriller “Don’t Move,” a new genre entry from producer Sam Raimi (“The Evil Dead,” “Drag Me to Hell”). The project is led by Kelsey Asbille, breakout on the FX anthology series “Fargo” and “Yellowstone,” alongside frequent Ryan Murphy player and “The Big Short’ star Finn Wittrock. It follows a seasoned serial killer who injects a grieving woman with a paralytic agent while the two of them are isolated deep in the forest.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Not many would consider it hard labor to stand in the shadow of Jennifer Lopez. Few, perhaps, could stand as still and as long as documentary filmmaker Jason Bergh. For nearly a decade, Bergh has recorded the multi-hyphenate star behind the scenes as she has charted new paths as a content producer and beauty mogul, and danced her way onto America’s biggest stage — the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer One or more individuals have been fraudulently posing as officials from “The Drew Barrymore Show” in attempts to scam talent and other guests involved with the star’s talk show, Variety can report exclusively. The ruse, which did not originate from the syndicated series or its producer CBS Media Ventures and Paramount Global, has been flaunting “paid opportunities” for prospective guests and attempting to arrange social media efforts like Facebook broadcasts.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Heatseeking filmmaker Olmo Schnabel has signed for representation with WME, and with Black Bear for management. Schnabel’s breakout directorial effort “Pet Shop Days” played both the Venice International Film Festival and SXSW this cycle, scoring distribution from Utopia for a 2024 theatrical release. Starring Darío Yazbek Bernal, Willem Dafoe and Peter Sarsgaard, the film tells of a drug lord scion on the run from his powerful family.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Scandal at a film festival is usually generated by provocative auteurs or loose-lipped actors stirring up drama at press conferences. Last weekend’s laid-back Sonoma International Film Festival, held in the heart of California wine country, was a different story. Numerous indie film players spotted Sundance Film Festival director Eugene Hernandez at the event, alongside his two predecessors in the role: John Cooper, who left in 2020, and Tabitha Jackson, who stepped down in 2022.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre will host a special screening series to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the podcast “You Must Remember This,” created and hosted by Karina Longworth. Longworth has now spent a decade examining the untold histories of show business — including watercooler seasons spent revisiting the Manson murders, the Star Wars franchise and the life and career of Joan Crawford. The Egyptian, owned by Netflix, has curated a three-day screening series featuring the films of Hollywood bombshell Kim Novak.Novak was the subject of the “lost” and first-ever recorded episode of “You Must Remember This.” Longworth has previously said a corrupted audio file and “large swaths” of copyrighted music led to the shelving of the episode, which will finally be released [Editor’s note: In the TV series that launched and catapulted Ryan Murphy to stardom, “Popular,” a fictional girl’s room at a Southern California high school was named for Novak after a donation from the star.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “Strange Darling,” the acclaimed horror film from director JT Mollner, has landed a major U.S. distribution deal at veteran producer Bob Yari’s new company Magenta Light Studios. Premiering at the genre event Fantastic Fest in 2023, the Miramax-produced thriller has been universally praised (it currently sits at 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 14 reviews) for its inventive narrative structure and lead performances.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer United Talent Agency has amended its lawsuit against former MediaLink chief Michael Kassan — striking its initial claims against its former partner to move those grievances to arbitration. The amended complaint offers new details of allegations of financial mismanagement against the advertising industry’s famous matchmaker and fixer, who blasts the litigation in a statement to Variety as a “smear” effort.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Joana Vicente has stepped down as CEO of the Sundance Institute. The news will come as a shock to the global independent film community, as Vicente served under three years in a plum role she took after years in leadership at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Rounding out the lead cast for David Robert Mitchell’s mysterious new feature film with Bad Robot is Christian Convery, the star of Netflix’s top-rated “Sweet Tooth.” Convery joins Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor and Sundance breakout Maisy Stella in the family adventure from the “It Follows” director. Plot details are still under wraps for the project from J.J. Abrams and Warner Bros.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Maisy Stella, who delivered a star-making turn in this year’s Sundance hit “My Old Ass,” has booked the third lead in a mysterious new project from Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Pictures. Stella joins Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in the untitled feature from director David Robert Mitchell (“It Follows,” “Under the Silver Lake”).

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Popeye is coasting back to the big screen. The iconic sailor man and spinach chugger, who first appeared in comic strips in the late 1920s, will be the subject of a new live-action feature film from Chernin Entertainment and King Features.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer United Talent Agency has been accused of breach of contract and fraud in relation to its 2021 acquisition of the consultancy firm MediaLink. MediaLink founder and UTA partner Michael Kassan, whose exit from the company nearly a week ago has not yet been reported, claims that UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer and two other top executives engaged in bad faith in the absorption and management of his company, according to documents filed with mediation service JAMS which Variety reviewed. This led Kassan to resign last week, the filing says.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “Michael,” the splashy forthcoming biopic about Michael Jackson from director Antoine Fuqua, has added actor Laura Harrier in a key role. Harrier, of “BlacKkKlansman” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming” fame, will portray pioneering female music executive Suzanne de Passe in the Lionsgate project. De Passe was a creative assistant to Motown founder Berry Gordy, and is credited with convincing Gordy to sign The Jackson 5 to his label.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Netflix stuck the landing on a star-studded exhibition match between tennis superstars Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz this weekend. Stakes were high on the court, but the Las Vegas showdown was most effective as a lush advertisement for the streamer as a fledgling live sports destination. Taking over the Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena, the inaugural Netflix Slam pit legend Nadal against 20-year-old Alcaraz.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Jacob Scipio is headed back to the “Bad Boys” universe. Actor Scipio, who most recently starred opposite Pedro Pascal and Nicolas Cage in the meta adventure “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” will reprise his role as Armando Aretas – the estranged son of Will Smith’s Miami-Dade police detective character Mike Lowery. Scipio is getting a narrative upgrade from his debut in 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life,” we hear, as the script will see him play the main antagonist in the action film led by Smith and Martin Lawrence.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “The Last Animal,” the award-winning bestselling novel from Ramona Ausubel, has been snatched up for film adaptation by production companies Walden Media and Big Beach. Ry Russo-Young has been set to direct the feature based on the emotionally resonant story.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Paramount Pictures has boarded the new horror film “Vicious,” led by Dakota Fanning and directed by Bryan Bertino. Fanning will star as a young woman who is left a strange present by a late-night visitor, and quickly realizes she is fighting for her life after slipping down a disturbing rabbit hole contained inside the gift.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer 101 Studios, the film and TV production entity run by David Glasser, has named Gray Krakower as executive vice president of brand partnerships. Karkower joins the company behind “Yellowstone” and many spinoffs in the lucrative Taylor Sheridan universe from Endeavor/IMG. There he served clients as a VP of global licensing and branding, working on accounts like Lionsgate Films (“John Wick,” “Saw,” “The Hunger Games”), gaming giant Fortnite and on country legend Dolly Parton’s consumer products.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Overpriced cosmetics were put on trial this Sunday, as makeup brand e.l.f. recruited top scripted and unscripted legal stars for its 2024 Super Bowl ad.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer A3 Artists Agency, a talent representation business whose majority owner Adam Bold was recently sued by his partners, will cease operations next week, multiple sources told Variety. The shop — which counts clients like Lorraine Bracco and Anthony Michael Hall, and represented late stars like Carl Weathers and Angus Cloud — will shut down at close of business on Monday, per a memo obtained by Variety and written by A3 chief operating officer Todd Quinn. Employees will be issued final paychecks on Feb.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The 2024 Sundance Film Festival Awards are underway in Park City, Utah, where a new crop of indies will do battle across multiple categories, including the coveted U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The Sundance Film Festival prides itself on being a place of innovation and discovery, and this year’s 40th anniversary celebration has an entry that could well check both boxes – “Ponyboi,” a genre-blending road movie featuring writer and star River Gallo. Gallo plays the titular Ponyboi, an intersex sex worker hustling to survive in New Jersey. His days are spent with pregnant best friend Angel (Victoria Pedretti) working a strip mall laundromat; his nights with his secret lover and aspiring pimp, Angel’s baby’s father Vinnie (Dylan O’Brien).

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Pro-Palestinian supporters will march through the center of the Sundance Film Festival this weekend. While details have not been widely publicized, organizers behind the “Let Gaza Live” protest have asked participants to gather for a demonstration on Sunday regarding the Israel-Hamas war on Main Street in Park City, Utah.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “Veni Vidi Vici” — a jaw-dropping Austrian shocker that’s part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival – came, saw and conquered at its Thursday premiere. The film follows a ruthless and charismatic billionaire family whose patriarch guns down innocent citizens in his free time, and left many speechless at the Egyptian Theater in Park City. Directed by Daniel Hoesl and Julia Niemann, the movie features intensely provocative moments including infanticide and brutal public shootings.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Eugene Hernandez has reached the top of the mountain. The journalist turned nonprofit executive has spent decades rising through the ranks of the American independent film scene. This January he assumes his seat at its apex: as the director of the Sundance Film Festival.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Christopher Nolan has begun his healing journey with fitness brand Peloton after one of the acclaimed director’s instructors dissed his movie “Tenet” during a workout class. “Nothing but love for Peloton,” Nolan told Variety backstage at Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, when asked if he saw instructor Jenn Sherman’s apology for taking issue his 2020 the sci-fi film’s byzantine plot. “But I did not climb on it today.