Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney Buy Stake in Mexico’s Club Necaxa Soccer Team After Wrexham Success (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the Cannes market, Lionsgate has taken North American rights off the table on one of the bigger-budget new packages that’ll be on sale next week: that’s action-thriller Mutiny, which will star action evergreen Jason Statham (Fast & Furious) and be directed by Jean-François Richet (Plane).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian-born Texas-based director Roberto Minervini is known for a distinguished career making documentaries including his so-called Texas trilogy comprising “The Passage,” “Low Tide” and “Stop the Pounding Heart.” His most recent doc “What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?” about a community of Black people in New Orleans during the summer of 2017, when a string of brutal killings of Black men sent shockwaves throughout the country, launched from the Venice competition in 2018. “The Damned,” which is Minervini’s first feature film, is set during the American Civil War in the winter of 1862.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor TKO, the parent company of UFC and WWE, is on the upswing, delivering solid Q1 results and enough momentum for both franchises that the company opted to boost its full-year revenue and earnings guidance for Wall Street. TKO disclosed that it has reached a $25 million deal with NBCUniversal to allow WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” wrestling franchise to remain on USA Network through the end of this year. In January, TKO struck a massive 10-year deal with Netflix to bring “Raw” and other WWE content to the streamer’s platform as of next year.

Olivia Colman and John Lithgow are leading Jimpa, a movie about a trans non-binary teenager visiting their gay grandfather from Sophie Hyde (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), with Protagonist Pictures launching international sales at Cannes.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator Rob McElhenney has responded to Jerry Seinfeld’s recent comments about what he perceives to be the “death” of comedy.Seinfeld claimed in a recent interview with The New Yorker that comedy in television has been impacted by developing political correctness in society.As reported by The Independent, Seinfeld blamed “the extreme left [and] PC crap and people worrying so much about offending other people” for the “death” of comedy.The Seinfeld creator and star also claimed that jokes from his series wouldn’t be allowed to air today.“[One would be] Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, ‘They’re outside anyway’,” said Seinfeld as an example. “Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?”McElhenney has now responded to Seinfeld’s comments, making a reference to a character in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.The actor responded to Seinfeld’s comments via X, with the one-word reply: “Probably.”Probably.

Vin Diesel is set to enter production on Riddick: Furya, the anticipated fourth installment of the Riddick franchise, on August 26.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sandra Hüller, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Anatomy of a Fall,” and four-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe (“At Eternity’s Gate”) are set to co-star in Kent Jones’ “Late Fame,” reteaming “May December” co-screenwriter Samy Burch and producer Killer Films. One of the hottest packages set for a Cannes Launch, “Late Fame” has been boarded by MK2 Films which is hot off an Oscar win for “Anatomy of a Fall” and will represent worldwide sales outside of North America.

After debuting early last weekend, Universal’s The Fall Guy expanded to 78 overseas markets during its sophomore session, adding $25.4M for a running total of $36.9M at the international box office. That’s in line with Bullet Train and above The Lost City at the same point in release. Globally, the David Leitch-directed action romance is at $65.4M. 

The UK sports media have got excited this weekend with reports that Will Ferrell is the latest movie star to bring his celebrity, and his wallet, to English football.

Olivia Cooke (Sound of Metal) and BAFTA Award winner Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers) have signed on to lead Italian filmmaker Nathalie Biancheri’s latest pic Takes One To Know One. 

The Visa Cash App RB F1 Team is bringing a couple of very colorful cars to the Miami Grand Prix this weekend!

Welcome To Wrexham returns for a third season in May this year.Created by FX, the sports documentary series charts the ups and downs of Welsh football team Wrexham AFC after Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club in 2021.The show’s first season spanned the 2021/2022 season, which saw Wrexham narrowly miss out on promotion to the EFL League Two after being knocked out in the playoffs. In season two, which covered the 2022/2023 season, Wrexham were promoted after finishing top of the National League, in a closely fought race against Notts County.As you might expect, the 2023/2024 season is covered in season three, which debuts on Disney+ in the UK on Friday May 3.In the 2023/2024 season, covered in season three, Wrexham compete in EFL League Two for the first time in 15 years after securing promotion from the National League.By the end of the season, Wrexham finished second in the table below Stockport County and landed its second straight promotion.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The Samsung TV Plus platform has logged steady growth as a distribution platform for entertainment and lifestyle content during the past five years. Now, the South Korean electronics giant is putting a bigger spotlight on the potential of its device-based footprint, which encompasses more than 630 million TV sets, smartphones and other devices sold across 24 countries.

Eva Longoria and her husband, Pepe Bastón, are gearing up to move to Spain, as reported by Page Six. The 49-year-old Latina actress and her 56-year-old Mexican businessman husband are planning a temporary relocation to Spain with their five-year-old son, Santiago. A source told the publication, “she’ll be spending a ton of time there working for the second half of this year.” The source also commented that the Flamin’ Hot director is a Spanish resident and recently purchased a home.

Refresh for latest…: Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 has topped the half-century mark globally, now with $503.5M worldwide. Of that, $318.5M is from the international box office. Passing $500M makes KFP4, directed by Mike Mitchell (and co-directed by Stephanie Ma Stine), only the fourth animated title to the benchmark since 2020, joining Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.4B) and Minions: The Rise of Gru ($943M), and Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($691M).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Cinephil has sold Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó’s feature documentary “Agent of Happiness” to a wide range of key international territories ahead of the film’s Hot Docs debut this weekend. Deals are confirmed in the U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: Nina Lederman, Sony Pictures Television’s (SPT) global scripted boss, is exiting amid the slowdown.

EXCLUSIVE: Sunrise Films and Vertigo Releasing have acquired North American and UK distribution rights on the Danish horror-thriller The Girl in the Trunk. The film will be released on digital download across both territories on May 28. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights from sales company Films Boutique to tender coming-of-age drama “Young Hearts” by Belgian newcomer Anthony Schatteman, which recently launched from the Berlin Film Festival. Schatteman’s standout debut follows a 13-year-old boy named Elias, who feels attracted to his new neighbor, Alexander, and must overcome his conflicted feelings about being attracted to another boy.

EXCLUSIVE: June Zero, the latest from writer-director Jake Paltrow (Young Ones, The Good Night, De Palma) and producers Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Bad Education), Miranda Bailey (Swiss Army Man, The Diary of a Teenage Girl) and David Silber (Incitement, Junction 48), is set for theatrical release in New York on June 28, Los Angeles July 5 and nationwide July 12 by Cohen Media Group.