Scandinavian Company Nordisk Film Bows Advanced LED Virtual Production Stage (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Tony Award-winning director Anna D.Shapiro (August: Osage County), Oscar-nominated producer Leelai Demoz (On Tip-Toe), Tony-nominated actor/writer Ian Barford (Linda Vista) and entrepreneur Brad Keywell (Groupon, WNDR Museum) have teamed up to create multimedia venture Highwire Media, an artist-first production company that is developing and producing projects across film, theater, and television.

EXCLUSIVE: Prime Video Nordics is pushing heavily into the Scandinavian unscripted originals market, unveiling a handful of reality shows at a splashy event in Sweden today. The streamer has also struck a multi-territory movie output deal with Nordisk Film for the likes of John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Hunger Games prequel, we can reveal.

Technicolor Creative Studios has teamed with state-of-the-art virtual production company NantStudios on the creation of a new virtual production stage, which will open as part of its 60,000 square-foot Creative Hub in Culver City in 2023.

is no stranger to reinvention, and for her October 24 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the singer-songwriter seems to have reinvented herself as . Swift's three-piece black-and-white chevron Dorothee Schumacher suit pairs boot-cut trousers with a tailored blazer over a mock-neck turtleneck. She paired the look with a cherry-red lip (natch), hoops, and chunky black boots. Swift's ‘fit is a note-perfect exemplar of a look Keaton perfected in the 1970s and has maintained throughout every decade since.

MRC said Monday that it was not moving forward with its recently completed documentary about Kanye West, the news coming amid growing criticism of the rapper/entrepreneur’s recent anti-Semitic statements.

K.J. Yossman Amber Anderson, Greta Bellamacina and Tamsin Egerton can be seen bonding in wedding dresses alongside co-stars Jessica Plummer, Josette Simon and Bebe Cave in first look images from upcoming feature “Tell That to the Winter Sea.” Anderson (“Peaky Blinders”) and Bellamacina (“This England”) star in the film as Scarlett and Jo, two teenage dance students whose intense friendship blossoms into a romantic one before running its course. But when the duo reconvene decades later on the eve of Jo’s wedding – to a man – it turns out deep feelings still remain. In another scene from the film the group, still clad in wedding dresses, enjoy a candle-lit dinner.

Oprah Winfrey is the latest big name to join Stacey Abrams on the campaign trail. Winfrey will host a virtual event with the Democratic Georgia gubernatorial nominee titled "A Thriving Life!" on Thursday night.  "I’m excited to join an extraordinary storyteller and my friend,@Oprah, for a conversation about this historic election, the #UnfinishedBusiness we have here in Georgia, and how we can write the next greatest chapter in our state's history," Abrams, 48, wrote on Twitter.

Brent Lang Executive Editor UFC Strawweight Champion Rose Namajunas’s life story will be the subject of “Thug Rose: Mixed Martial Artist,” a new documentary that will debut at the Austin Film Festival before premiering on Fight Pass, the combat sport’s official streaming service. The film was produced by UFC, which hopes it will be the first of many such projects. “We want to do as many these as we possibly can,” Crowley Sullivan, vice president and general manager of Fight Pass, told Variety. “Throughout the history of this sport there are all kinds of personalities and accomplishments that we want to highlight. There are so many stories of athletes rising from modest beginnings to become iconic figures that we want to tell.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Schitt’s Creek” co-creator Dan Levy is making his feature film directing debut with “Good Grief,” a bittersweet comedy set at Netflix. The movie will star Levy, Ruth Negga (“Passing”), Himesh Patel (“Station Eleven”), Luke Evans (“Beauty and the Beast”), Celia Imrie (“Better Things”), Arnaud Valois (“Spring Blossom”), David Bradley (“Game of Thrones”) and Jamael Westman (West End’s “Hamilton”). In addition to directing and starring in the film, Levy also wrote the screenplay. “Good Grief” centers on Marc Dreyfus, who chose to distract himself from the loss of his mom with a comfortable marriage. But when his husband also dies unexpectedly, Marc is forced to finally confront the grief he’s tried so hard to avoid, sending him and his two closest friends on a Parisian weekend of self discovery.  

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s storied Titanus studio, producers of myriad golden era Cinema Italiano works, is getting a reboot and reviving its production side with several projects in development, including a contemporary sequel of Dario Argento’s supernatural chiller “Phenomena.”  Established in 1904 by Gustavo Lombardo, Titanus was a true Italian major, which during the 1960s forged a partnership with MGM. They slowed down considerably from the mid-1960s onwards after Luchino Visconti’s lavish Sicily-set costumer “The Leopard” (1963), starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon, went way over budget. Since the mid-1980s the studio’s output has been on a much smaller scale, and primarily for TV.

EXCLUSIVE: Sophia Bush (Good Sam) and Jeremie Harris (Fargo) will star alongside Simona Brown in MPI Original Films’ drama Freedom Hair from Oscar nominee Dianne Houston, which is currently in production in Atlanta.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Streaming soon on Roku devices: your front door? Roku is expanding beyond its streaming-media players, Roku-branded TVs and home-entertainment speakers with the launch of an array of new smart-home products. The smart-home products include security cameras, video doorbells, smart lightbulbs and smart plugs. Walmart is the exclusive bricks-and-mortar retailer for the Roku Smart Home line, which will be available in nearly 3,500 Walmart stores in the U.S. beginning Oct. 17. The smart-home products also will be sold via roku.com and walmart.com. At launch, customers with Roku devices will be able see who is at their door with their the Roku video doorbell. Users will also be able to view live streams from their Roku cameras or use a Roku voice remote to bring up video feeds.

The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) will present AAFCA Salutes Broadway on Monday, October 17th at the Lamb’s Club in the heart of New York’s theater district.

Angela Lansbury, one of the most beloved and acclaimed actors of stage, film and television, died at her Los Angeles home today in her sleep, just five days short of her 97th birthday.

Italian producer Lorenzo Mieli gave a spirited and often humorous rundown of his career as a producer working with directors such as Luca Guadagnino and Paolo Sorrentino during a keynote talk at the London Film Festival Monday.

Vanessa Hudgens will be sharing her spiritual journey on film.

Angelique Jackson World-renowned ballerina Misty Copeland will star in and produce “Flower,” a short film that tells a powerful story through dance and movement, with a mission to highlight “intergenerational equity” and bring critical attention to the housing crisis in the San Francisco Bay area. The project marks the first independently produced endeavor from Life in Motion Productions, the company founded by Copeland and writer-producer Leyla Fayyaz. “’Flower’ represents the evolution of all my work as a performer, storyteller and activist,” Copeland said in a statement announcing the project. “As someone whose family experienced the instability of not always having a safe place to call home as a child, the issues of homelessness and not having access to basic life needs have always been important to me.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) today announced the establishment of its first LED virtual production stage, located at Sony Innovation Studios in Culver City. With LED virtual production transforming the way film and television are made, the new stage is the world’s largest using Sony’s high brightness and wide color gamut Crystal LED display panels. The panels were created in collaboration with top engineers at SPE for use in virtual production. The establishment of this LED stage allows Sony Innovation Studios (SIS) to expand its virtual production workflow across various entertainment platforms and seamlessly merge the real and virtual worlds with its Atom View technology and proprietary stage-integration software.

The long-in-the-works feature adaptation of the hit video game Five Nights at Freddy’s has found a director and is headed toward “an early 2023 production start,” according to an announcement from Blumhouse, which is producing.