Mike Fleming-Junior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Upstart Solstice Studios has won an auction for the Toronto buzz title Good Joe Bell, the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed drama scripted by the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain team of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. The film stars Mark Wahlberg as the title character.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmAuthor and occasional Deadline columnist Don Winslow has announced on Twitter that he’ll have Bruce Springsteen as a cohort in the next of his long series of caustic videos that reflect his intense dislike for President Donald Trump and the job he has done in the White House. Winslow was not specific about how Springsteen or his music will factor into the video, but he Tweeted that he is “Thrilled to be working with Bruce @springsteen on our next video.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Netflix has acquired a potential franchise property in The Hunt For Atlantis, an adaptation of the Andy McDermott bestseller. The project has been in the works for a bit with Aaron Berg writing and producing.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Entertainment One is soon taking out a package, an adaptation of the Sylvain Neuvel novella The Test. John Boyega and Payman Maadi star in the Gavin Hood-drama about a soft-spoken immigrant (Maadi) taking a citizen evaluation test, and a brilliant young behavioral psychologist (Boyega) supervising “the test” confront a terrorist group lead by a far-right fanatic.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed Kurt Russell, repping the prolific actor for worldwide representation in all areas.Russell is coming off memorable turns in the Quentin Tarantino-directed Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood and before that The Hateful Eight, and the James Gunn-directed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Vertical Entertainment and Redbox Entertainment have just closed a deal to acquire the North American distribution rights to Shadow In The Cloud, the raucous Midnight Madness Toronto Film Festival title which might hold the distinction of being the first drive-in theater movie acquisition ever.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, who signed on to do the popular Talking Sopranos podcast on a lark, have just signed a big deal with the HarperCollins book imprint William Morrow to write an oral history of the iconic HBO show.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Foundry Literary + Media co-founder Yfat Reiss Gendell has left the New York book agency to form YRG Partners.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmBREAKING: Ouch. Paradigm held a conference call this morning where its head of HR told the agency that upwards of 180 employees — mostly operation and administrative, we’re told — had gone from temporarily laid off to permanently exited from the company.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmThrough the Clooney Foundation for Justice, and the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, George and Amal Clooney have made a pledge to closely monitor the upcoming trial of Paul Rusesabagina in Rwanda, as part of CFJ’s TrialWatch initiative. Rusesabagina’s actions to save lives during the Rwandan genocide were dramatized in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: After blazing on the London art scene with work that won him the Turner Prize, Steve McQueen established himself as an important filmmaker who showed the unbreakable spirit of an Irish hunger strike in Hunger, and the horrors of antebellum slavery in 12 Years A Slave.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Academy Award-winning actor, director, producer and screenwriter Mel Gibson has signed with APA.Gibson had been at CAA, but left after the exit of his primary agents Jack Whigham and Michael Cooper. They went to Range Media Partners.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmIFC Films announced today that it is acquiring North American rights to MLK/FBI, directed by Emmy® Award-winner and Oscar® nominee Sam Pollard. MLK/FBI was part of the Official Selection for the 2020 edition of the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmUniversal Pictures has signed on to be the home for a biopic of iconic singer Madonna, who will direct her own story from a script she is writing with Oscar-winning Juno scribe Diablo Cody. Madonna will produce the film with Pascal Pictures’ Amy Pascal.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Jake Gyllenhaal will star and Antoine Fuqua will direct The Guilty, a thriller that is based on the Gustav Moller-directed Danish drama Den Skyldige that premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.It takes place over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center.

Mike Fleming Jr, Nellie Andreeva Deadline is hearing that CAA has reached agreement with the WGA that will end its stalemate and allow writers to return to the fold.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: In a dazzling double deal, Simon & Schuster Children’s UK and Simon & Schuster US have made a seven-figure worldwide rights deal — a precedent for a debut fantasy novel — and Sony Pictures in turn has made a preemptive seven-figure screen rights deal for Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, the first of a much anticipated fantasy adventure novel series by A. F.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Netflix continues to set the tone for the 2020 Toronto Film Festival Market. Deadline hears that the streamer is wrapping up a deal near $30 million for worldwide rights to Malcolm & Marie, a Sam Levinson-directed romantic drama that stars Zendaya and John David Washington.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmNetflix has closed a worldwide rights deal for the Kornél Mundruczó-directed drama Pieces Of A Woman. The film made its World Premiere at Venice and its Toronto premiere comes today at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmFaced with the most adversity since this exact day 19 years ago when the 2001 Toronto Film Festival was upended by the tragic terrorist attack on 9/11 that left nearly 3,000 dead, organizers and buyers and sellers of films head into the weekend with uncertainty over a mostly virtual TIFF 2020 that is severely hobbled by a coronavirus pandemic that has left nearly 200,000 dead just in the U.S.How will this year’s market play out? Who knows? Toronto doesn’t

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Netflix is getting the Toronto International Film Festival off to a strong start with a figurative and literal punch in the face. Deadline hears the streamer is firming an 8-figure sum for world rights to Bruised, the mixed martial arts drama that marks the directorial debut of Halle Berry.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmParamount Pictures president of production Elizabeth Raposo has exited the studio. This has been a rumor around town ever since Wyck Godfrey exited after Emma Watts became president of the Paramount Motion Picture Group in late June.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Producer/financier QC Entertainment has sealed a multi-year first look deal with Paramount. The company — QC stand for Quality Control — has credits highlighted by  the Jordan Peele-directed Get Out and the Spike Lee-directed BlackKklansman, both of which were Best Picture nominees.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmRange Media Partners has set as a co-founding partner Matt Graham. The founder/president of LA-based music management company BRND MGMT, becomes Head of Music and will launch Range’s music touring business.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show), Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men) and Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse are attached to star in Blood Ties, a drama based on a Nathan Heller article in The New Yorker.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: As a most unusual Toronto International Film Festival in memory gets underway today with the usual acquisitions and media crowd unable to make it across the Canadian border for gala premieres, Endeavor Content has come up with an inventive alternative for three acquisitions titles its agents will attempt to sell over the next week.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: While Doug Liman plots directing a blockbuster-size movie in outer space with Tom Cruise, his next mission will be on a lot more modest budget in London. Liman is set next to direct Lockdown, and Anne Hathaway is in final talks to star.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures has set Will Gluck and Chris Bremner to script End of the World, a buddy action comedy that Gluck will direct.Gluck and Jodi Hildebrand are producing through their company Olive Bridge Entertainment, which has a first look deal with the studio. Plot is under wraps.Gluck directed Peter Rabbit from the script he wrote with Rob Lieber, and he recently wrapped the sequel to that hit, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road Films has teamed with Redbox Entertainment to form Asbury Park Pictures, a production label created to leverage the global appetite for moderately-budgeted high-concept action and thriller films. The venture will produce a dozen films over three years with budgets in the $10 million to $12 million range.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Robert De Niro, Colson ‘Machine Gun Kelly’ Baker, and John Malkovich are set to star in Wash Me In The River, a drama that will mark the second directorial outing of Randall Emmett. Emmett, who just re-started production on Midnight in the Switchgrass after halting five days in because of the pandemic last March, has a week left to go.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmWhen UTA boasted it was first agency to restore paycuts even as it eliminated 50 positions earlier this week, ICM Partners cried foul, pressing the case it has not cut salaries through the pandemic. It seems small consolation, though, because over the past week, the agency cut around 15 positions involving junior agents and coordinators.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmA major shakeup is in the works at APA, the boutique talent agency.Investor Ron Burkle’s investment firm The Yucaipa Companies has made a major non-equity investment in APA, one of the largest diversified talent agencies in the industry with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Atlanta, Toronto and London.While specific financials are being kept under wraps, Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies will provide a non-equity financial investment in the privately

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: James Ponsoldt is in negotiations to direct 3000 Pictures’ Nothing To See Here, based on Kevin Wilson’s New York Times best-selling novel. Ponsoldt will reteam with Scott Neustadter and Michael H.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmFrancis Coppola has long wanted another crack at The Godfather Part III, looking to shorten it in places, and strengthen it in others, and change the title. He has been tinkering with that for awhile, as he re-cut versions of other films including Cotton Club.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmGood news and bad news today at UTA. Agency chief Jeremy Zimmer sent an internal email to employees notifying them that UTA is the first major agency to reinstate full pay for employees.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmThe upstart management company that Deadline revealed on August 23 would be launched by Pete Micelli with principal backing from hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, now has a name — Range Media Partners — additional new backing through Microsoft CMO Mich Matthews-Spradlin and Grubhub founder/CEO Matt Maloney.