Matthew Helderman Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Pierce Brosnan And Amir El-Masry have signed on to star in the sports drama Giant from AGC Studios about the life of British-Yemeni boxer Prince Naseem “Naz” Hamed and his rags-to-riches ascent to a world championship under the tutelage of his Irish-born boxing trainer Brendan Ingle.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Pierce Brosnan will star with Amir El-Masry in the sports drama “Giant,” based on the true-life story of British-Yemeni boxer Prince Naseem “Naz” Hamed and his rags to riches ascent to a world championship under the tutelage of his Irish-born boxing trainer Brendan Ingle. El-Masry will play Naz and Brosnan is set to portray Ingle. The film will be written and directed by Rowan Athale (“The Rise,” “Gangs of London,” “Strange But True”), and produced by Mark Lane of Tea Shop Productions and Kevin Sampson of White Star Productions.

EXCLUSIVE: Grady Craig has been promoted to President of Buffalo 8 and Senior Vice President of Business Development at BondIt Media Capital, Deadline has learned.

EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to writer-director Heidi Weitzer’s comedy My Divorce Party, starring Rumer Willis, slating it for release on digital and cable VOD on April 30.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Alex Cox is getting back behind the wheel. The “Repo Man” director is revisiting the off-kilter world of extraterrestrials and car repossession that he mined so memorably in the 1984 cult classic in a new sequel that is being introduced to buyers at the Berlin Film Festival and European Film Market. Entitled “Repo Man 2: The Wages of Beer,” the film is being backed by Buffalo 8 Productions, a film and media company best known for the critically acclaimed work on Netflix series “The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes.” Cox wrote the script along with directing the film.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first look at Anna Nicole Smith biopic Hurricana, which is now filming.

EXCLUSIVE: Twilight actors Kellan Lutz and Cam Gigandet are reuniting on screen for the first time in action crime-thriller Desert Dawn.

EXCLUSIVE: Screen Media has announced its acquisition of all North American rights to Helen’s Dead, a mystery comedy starring Dylan Gelula (Dream Scenario), Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild), Tyrese Gibson (Fast X), Annabelle Dexter-Jones (Succession), and Oliver Cooper (Red Oaks). Set to hit theaters in at least the top 10 markets, the film will open day-and-date on November 3.

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Studios has set a September 28th nationwide theatrical release date for The Kill Room, the darkly comedic thriller from Yale Entertainment (Bucky F*cking Dent, Parachute) that marks the first reteam for Pulp Fiction stars Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson in decades.

EXCLUSIVE: Tubi has picked up Underdeveloped, a mockumentary from Brian A. Metcalf, starring Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tom Arnold and Mark Pellegrino. It will premiere globally September 8 on Fox Entertainment’s free streaming service Tubi. As an independent production with no direct ties to members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television, it also is one of the latest projects to receive a waiver from SAG-AFTRA amid the actors strike, so filming can move forward.

EXCLUSIVE: After hitting 300 North American theaters via The Avenue last fall, the action thriller The System, starring Tyrese Gibson, Terrence Howard, Jeremy Piven and Lil Yachty, has been set to premiere on Starz on July 1st. The film will have its linear premiere there at 12:00 p.m. ET on July 6th, also airing that night at 11:30 p.m. ET.

Naman Ramachandran Actor and producer Jonathan Lipnicki has joined production, post-production and distribution company Buffalo 8 as an executive producer. Lipnicki made a mark with his performance alongside Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire,” before becoming the lead in the family franchise “Stuart Little.” He will soon be seen in the upcoming TBS show “The Joe Schmo Show,” Peter Pardini’s film “Man Goes on Rant” and Britt Robertson-led film “The Re-Education of Molly Singer.” Lipnicki will play a key role in packaging and project development within Buffalo 8’s EP services division, identifying storytelling opportunities and bringing together top-tier talent based on his extensive relationships spanning Hollywood studio films through to the independent sector.

EXCLUSIVE: Quiver Distribution has boarded recently wrapped holiday film Christmas Actually, starring Malin Akerman (Billions), Ryan Hansen (Party Down) and Amy Smart (Stargirl).

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first look at Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Vincent Cassel (La Haine) in action-thriller Damaged, which wrapped this spring in Scotland.

EXCLUSIVE: Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Aporia, a previously unannounced sci-fi thriller from Armian Pictures starring Judy Greer (Halloween Kills), Edi Gathegi (The Harder They Fall), Payman Maadi (A Separation) and Faithe Herman (Shazam!). The film, written and directed by Jared Moshé (The Ballad of Lefty Brown), is slated for release in theaters in August. (Check out the first still from it above.)

Todd Longwell Back in 2017, Kevin King was looking to retire from ABS Payroll, the company he founded in 1985 to service independent productions, and hand the business off to his son Kris. He invited BondIt Media Capital co-founders Matthew Helderman (above, left) and Luke Taylor (above, right) to lunch. Their production company Buffalo8 had been an ABS client, and when the duo launched BondIt in 2013, the King family participated in its first round of financing. Now, King was offering BondIt the opportunity to return the favor and invest in ABS. “Kris was running the day-to-day, and his father wanted him to be surrounded with executive-level or MBA-minded support, as opposed to a scenario where he hired an investment bank and sold the business, and his son would likely be pushed out,” says Helderman.

Todd Longwell By the mid-2010s, BondIt Media Capital was thriving, funding 50 projects a year, as well as producing its own slate through its Buffalo8 division. But its post-production pipeline was a chaotic tangle, employing an uncoordinated mix of talent working at facilities spread across the map. Simply put, “it was unsustainable,” says BondIt CEO and co-founder Matthew Helderman. Then, in 2017, an opportunity presented itself: a post-production house was exiting its lease on a 10,000-square-foot space in Hollywood, leaving both the building and an impressive amount of equipment and personnel up for grabs. Helderman and BondIt COO and co-founder Luke Taylor stepped in and Buffalo8 Post Production was born.

EXCLUSIVE: Screen greats Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent Cassel have been set to lead cast in action thriller Damaged, about a Chicago detective who goes to Scotland after an emerging serial killer’s crimes match those that he investigated five years earlier, one of which was the crime scene of his murdered girlfriend. 

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Saban Films has acquired the U.S., U.K. and other international rights to Jean-Claude Van Damme action-spy thriller “Darkness of Man.” Directed by James Cullen Bressack, the film sees Van Damme playing Interpol operative Russell Hatch, who witnesses the death of his last informant in a routine raid gone wrong. Years later, he takes on a father figure role to the son of the informant, and finds himself protecting the boy from a group of merciless gangs in an all-out turf war. Alongside the U.S. and U.K., Saban Films has picked up Australian/New Zealand, African, Spanish and Scandinavian territory rights to the film, which also stars Kristanna Loken (“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”), Peter Jae (“Blackhat”), Spencer Breslin (“The Kid”), Emerson Min (“Black-ish”) and rapper Sticky Fingaz.

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Studios has secured all North American rights to Showdown at the Odessa — a new action-comedy toplined by Oscar nominee Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow) and Dolph Lundgren (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom) — slating it for a strategic launch, beginning with major film festivals, in 2023. (View a pair of first-look stills from the film below.)

EXCLUSIVE: IFC Films has picked up worldwide rights to writer and director Nicole Riegel’s sophomore feature and romantic drama Dandelion. A theatrical release is planned for next year.

EXCLUSIVE: Buffalo 8 has set a November 4 release date on Prime Video for James Hemings: Ghost In America’s Kitchen. The historical documentary follows the profound life of James Hemings, the first American to train as a chef in France, who at 8 years old was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson.

EXCLUSIVE: Dominic Purcell (DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow), Nick Stahl (Let The Right One In), Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns), and Mel Gibson (Braveheart) are set to lead thriller Informant.

Bondit’s Buffalo 8 has hired Adam Harris Engelhard as head of production and B8 Services.

EXCLUSIVE: Courtney Eaton (Yellowjackets) and Thomas Mann (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) will lead actor Brittany Snow’s feature directorial debut, September 17th, for Yale Entertainment. Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) and Joel McHale (Community) are also set, joining the previously announced Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi) as part of the supporting cast.

EXCLUSIVE: Vertical Entertainment has locked down worldwide rights to the comedy The Donor Party, toplined by Malin Åkerman (Chick Fight), Rob Corddry (The Unicorn), Erinn Hayes (Gaslit) and Jerry O’Connell (Billions). The company’s plans for the recently-wrapped pic’s release have not yet been disclosed.

EXCLUSIVE: WWE Superstar Liv Morgan will make her film debut in Yale Entertainment’s darkly comic thriller, The Kill Room. She joins an ensemble that also includes Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello, Maya Hawke, Debi Mazar, Larry Pine, Dree Hemingway and Leah McSweeney, as previously announced.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWestEnd Films has closed a series of new deals on “Out of the Blue,” an upcoming thriller that brings together Neil LaBute and Diane Kruger.Rights for the film, which LaBute writes and directs, have gone to Australia and New Zealand (Kismet Movies), France (Metropolitan Filmexport), Germany (Koch Films), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Eagle Pictures), Middle East (Phoenicia Pictures) Israel (Forum Film), Poland (Galapagos Films), Greece (Spentzos Film), former Yugoslavia (Investacommerce) and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo). WestEnd is also sharing a moody first-look image.Kruger, best known for her performances in “Inglourious Basterds” and “Troy,” leads an ensemble that also includes Ray Nicholson (“Promising Young Woman”), Hank Azaria (“Love & Other Drugs”) and Chase Sui Wonders (“Genera+ion”).

EXCLUSIVE: Emile Hirsch (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood) will exec produce and star in My Time’s Up, an upcoming indie drama from writer-director Michael MacRae (Fishbowl California).

Paramount Worldwide Acquisition Group has locked down worldwide distribution rights to the action-thriller Sheroes, starring Sasha Luss (Anna), Wallis Day (Infinite), Isabelle Furhman (The Novice), Skai Jackson (Jesse) and Jack Kesy (Without Remorse), which recently wrapped production in Thailand. Plans for its release have not yet been disclosed.

Redbox Entertainment and Red Sea Media have signed world rights to the action-adventure film King Of Killers, based on the graphic novel of the same name.

EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Grevioux, the screenwriter and comic book creator behind the Underworld franchise, has partnered with filmmaker Erik Bernard to launch Gemini Filmworks, a production company backed by BondIt Media Capital. Their shingle focused on creating high-quality, low-budget genre films will also work within the mediums of television, comics and video games, among others.

Diane Kruger and Ray Nicholson have been set to star in Out of the Blue, the next film from Neil LaBute, who has written and will direct the drama that begins principal photography this week in Rhode Island.

The first projects heading to Cannes' inaugural digital market have started rolling in, with an Alec Baldwin Western among those saddling up for buyers. The Oscar nominee and 30 Rock star is set to take the lead in Rust, which he is also producing under his El Dorado Pictures banner alongside Anjul Nigam (Never Have I Ever) and executive producer Matthew Helderman.

Alec Baldwin is set to star in Joel Souza’s “Rust,” which he will also produce under his El Dorado Pictures banner, the Highland Film Group announced on Friday.