Ron Halpern Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

K.J. Yossman He’s no doubt still pinching himself after his tea with Queen Elizabeth II a few weeks ago but there’s no time to rest for Paddington Bear.

EXCLUSIVE: Coming off two-time Oscar nominee and Netflix hit Society Of The Snow, J.A. Bayona is producing and presenting psychological horror Crazy Old Lady (Vieja Loca), which will star Goya, Cesar and Cannes best actress winner Carmen Maura (Volver) and Berlinale Silver Bear winner Daniel Hendler (Lost Embrace).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Studiocanal, the European powerhouse behind “Paddington,” has created a genre label dedicated to the development, production and distribution of horror, thriller, sci fi and action films and TV series. The company has hired Jed Benedict, a well-known executive who previously worked for the U.K. distribution banner Elysian Film Group, to run the new label.

Valerie Wu Intern “Back to Black,” a new biopic about the late Amy Winehouse, has debuted its first footage. Starring “Industry” actor Marisa Abela as Winehouse and directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (“Nowhere Boy,” “Fifty Shades of Grey”), “Back to Black” is executive produced by Nicky Kentish-Barnes, Ron Halpern and Joe Naftalin for Studiocanal and Alison Owen and Debra Hayward for Monumental Pictures from a screenplay written by Matt Greenhalgh (“Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool”).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hollywood’s role in Asian TV has changed in the streaming era and age of hyper-local content. A top-down sales and distribution position has eased into one of co-production, co-financing and acquisition. A high-powered array of western executives offered experienced views and discussed their current positions at a panel session Thursday within the Asia Television Forum & Market in Singapore. “We want to be an additive partner on shows that cannot be created locally, said Georgina Gonzalez, director of scripted series and global series at Universal Int’l Studios, NBCU.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief France-based multinational Studiocanal has launched Cultivator Films to facilitate local co-productions in Australia and will kick off with book-to-film adaptation “Kangaroo.” “Kangaroo” is scripted by Harry Cripps (“The Dry,” “Penguin Bloom”) and directed by Kate Woods (“The Lincoln Lawyer,” “The Umbrella Academy,” “The Good Lord Bird,” “Looking for Alibrandi”). Eastern Arrernte emerging director Samantha Laughton is set as a director’s attachment. Slated to start production in Alice Springs in the first half of 2024, “Kangaroo” is a Northern Territory-inspired story based on Chris Barnes, aka ‘Brolga,’ who is the founder of the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs. Cultivator Films Australia is led by Studiocanal’s Australia and New Zealand CEO Elizabeth Trotman.

EXCLUSIVE: Aislinn Clarke is set to direct Hellish Nell, the genre thriller for Studiocanal and The Picture Company.  

EXCLUSIVE: Mohamed Diab is set to direct Leap, a high concept action thriller script by Source Code writer Ben Ripley and produced by The Picture Company.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights in North America and China to mystery-comedy Wicked Little Letters from Studiocanal, for a 2024 theatrical release.

Paddington in Peru will hit U.S. cinemas on Jan. 17, 2025 MLK Weekend, but will debut in the UK about two months prior on Nov. 8, 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures has snapped up U.S., Canada and key international for Studiocanal and Heyday Films’ threequel Paddington in Peru.

EXCLUSIVE: James McAvoy is set to star in Control, a high-concept action/thriller that will be directed by Red helmer Robert Schwentke and backed by Studiocanal and The Picture Company.  Shooting will begin in Berlin this summer.

EXCLUSIVE: Make that a triple marmalade sandwich. Long-awaited movie threequel Paddington In Peru is on course to start production on July 24, we can reveal.

Angelique Jackson After presenting at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield have begun formulating plans to share the screen again, as co-stars in the upcoming film “We Live in Time.” The two Academy Award-nominated actors are in talks to star in the StudioCanal project, which is described as a “funny, deeply moving and immersive love story.” John Crowley, best known for the BAFTA-winning film “Brooklyn,” is on board to direct, from a script by Nick Payne (“The Last Letter from Your Lover,””Wanderlust”). In addition to developing the script, StudioCanal will produce the project with Sunny March. Further plot details are being kept under wraps, but if the deals with Pugh and Garfield close, the intention is to begin production later this year. StudioCanal executives Ron Halpern, EVP global production, and Joe Naftalin, SVP global production, are overseeing the project on behalf of the studio.

Olive Stone voiced support for Saudi Arabia at the opening on Thursday of the second edition of country’s Red Sea International Film Festival, which he is attending as president of the international jury.

EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal and The Picture Company have preemptively acquired the rights to Honey Trapped, a spec script by April Wolfe.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate just landed a solid thriller for its slate. In competition with other distributors, the company has acquired U.S., Canada and India distribution rights to Retribution, an action thriller from Studiocanal and The Picture Company that stars Liam Neeson. The Nimród Antal-directed film is a remake of the Spanish movie El Desconocido, which received eight Goya Award noms when it was released in Spain in 2015.

EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal, Entertainment 360 and The Picture Company have made deals to turn the 2021 documentary film The Lost Leonardo into a limited series. Gillian Weeks will write the script.

Naman Ramachandran Studiocanal and Working Title have unveiled the official trailer for Shekhar Kapur’s keenly anticipated cross-cultural British romantic comedy “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” The film will have its world premiere as a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10. It follows documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), for whom swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr. Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to Maymouna (Sajal Aly), a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films Kaz’s journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.

EXCLUSIVE: C.J. Cooke’s supernatural family novel The Lighthouse Witches is set to be adapted into a television series after Studiocanal and The Picture Company landed the rights to the book.

K.J. Yossman Studiocanal has boarded Thomas Vinterberg’s TV debut ‘Families Like Ours’ as a co-producer and distributor.Varety first broke the news last April that Oscar-winning Danish director Vinterberg (“Another Round”) was re-teaming with Danish production outfit Zentropa on his first television drama.Studiocanal previously distributed “Another Round” in the U.K.“I have worked with Studiocanal in the past and greatly enjoyed the process,” said Vinterberg.