Ted Melfi Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: UK director Jon Amiel has signed to direct upcoming feature Sands of Fortune which explores the story behind the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia and the birth of the country’s petroleum and natural gas giant Aramco.

EXCLUSIVE: Following their work together on Ted Melfi’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama St. Vincent, Naomi Watts (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) and Bill Murray (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) have been set to topline The Friend, an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s New York Times bestselling novel, from writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Montana Story).

EXCLUSIVE: Skydance has taken on the challenge of turning the bestselling YA fantasy novel series Ranger’s Apprentice into a live action film, with the hope it can become a franchise. Skydance has gotten control of the John Flanagan book series, and has closed a big deal with Hidden Figures helmer Ted Melfi to adapt, direct, and produce the film. Kim Quinn will also be producer.

EXCLUSIVE: Teton Ridge Entertainment has hired Jen Gorton as EVP Production and Development.

Naman Ramachandran Director Mike Newell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) has set an August shoot at U.K. locations for “China Court.” The film will be directed by Newell from a script by Brian Kinsey, based on the 1961 novel “China Court: The Hours of a Country House” by Rumer Godden.  The film centers around a house, China Court, and the family that inhabits it. The film follows generations of the family over a century, up to the death of the matriarch in 1961. Characters move seamlessly in and out of each other’s timelines as they grow up, fall in love, fall out with each other and – always – pass on to those who follow them the consequences of their actions.

The writers behind ABC’s Black-ish, Apple TV+’s Pachinko, Disney’s Oscar-winning Encanto and Adam McKay’s satire Don’t Look Up are among the winners of the 46th annual Humanitas Prizes. The honors were bestowed Friday afternoon in a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

Writer/Producer/Director Theodore Melfi has a different take than those who think independent filmmaking is becoming an endangered species, and in fact he tells me right now we are in “a golden age of independent film”. That may be one of the reasons he is bullish about both films he has at this week’s Tribeca Festival in New York City – independently produced movies he is helping shepherd along. On Corner Office which stars Jon Hamm he is an Executive Producer, and on American Dreamer he is the screenwriter as well as a producer of the comedy that stars Peter Dinklage, Shirley MacLaine, and Matt Dillon. Both are for sale and the bottom line is Melfi truly believes the audience will dictate whatever the perfect form of distribution is, whether it be theatrical, streaming, digital VOD, or a combination of all three.

“American Dreamer” is a mess of a movie, in which scenes of startling wit and emotional truth co-exist alongside entire subplots that are utterly inexplicable. It’s all over the damn place; its good ideas in near equal proportion to its bad ones, feeling less like a polished production than a filmed first draft, released as a rough assembly.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaProducer Uri Singer’s Passage Pictures is developing a series called “Enjoy Your Stay,” which the producer says will be based on true events surrounding AirBnB’s crisis response team and its attempts to deal with the aftermath of a crime. A former AirBnB security team member has joined the production as an anonymous source and consultant for the series, Passage Pictures says.

In the opening scene of “The Starling,” Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd play a married couple who are painting the nursery for their newborn daughter. You wouldn’t know it, but the two actors were actually across the globe from each other filming this over Zoom.

EXCLUSIVE: Ted Melfi, whose new film The Starling premiered last night at the Toronto Film Festival, has been set to adapt, direct and produce for Netflix Underworld, based on the seminal novel by Don DeLillo. The novel is a sprawling tapestry spread across decades that has a through line of the home run Bobby Thomson hit in 1951 to win the pennant for the New York Giants in 1951, breaking the hearts of crosstown fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

EXCLUSIVE: Among the world premieres being offered at the Toronto Film Festival this week is the latest from director Ted Melfi, The Starling, which reteams him with Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd. Both also appeared in Melfi’s much acclaimed St. Vincent that starred Bill Murray and which also had its world premiere at TIFF in 2014. Kevin Kline also joins them in a major role here.

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its first wave of films for its 2021 lineup, and new movies by Kenneth Branagh, Céline Sciamma, Ted Melfi and Edgar Wright are among the nine films announced on Wednesday.

Danny Glover, Matt Dillon, Danny Pudi and Michelle Mylett joined the cast of American Dreamer, the Paul Dektor-directed dark comedy that has just gotten underway in Vancouver. The actors join Peter Dinklage, Shirley MacLaine and Kim Quinn on the Ted Melfi scripted film. Dinklage, David Ginsberg, Quinn, Melfi and Dektor are producing along with Flying Firebird.

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Dinklage and Shirley MacLaine are set to star in American Dreamer, an indie which has been set to begin production March 15 in Vancouver. The film is written by Academy Award nominee Theodore Melfi, and will be directed by award winning commercial director Paul Dektor.

The Tender Bar.The Batman actor will play the lead role in Clooney’s next film as a director, based on J.R.

By Mike Fleming Jr

Netflix has landed the Ted Melfi-directed dramedy The Starling, which reteams the filmmaker with his St. Vincent starMelissa McCarthy.

By Mike Fleming Jr