Seven Bucks Productions Taps Scott Landsman As Head Of Television; Melissa Fried Joins As VP of Film Development & Production

Ridley Scott, director of sci-fi classics like “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” is terrified about AI technology running away with society.In an interview with Rolling Stone promoting his film “Napoleon,” Scott was asked if artificial intelligence worried him, and the answer was an emphatic yes.“We have to lock down AI. And I don’t know how you’re gonna lock it down,” he told the outlet. “They have these discussions in the government, ‘How are we gonna lock down AI?’ Are you f—ing kidding? You’re never gonna lock it down.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Though the Red Sea Film Festival will feature a slew of films from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – including 11 feature films from Saudi Arabia – there is a rich roster of international fare set to launch locally from Jeddah. Kaleem Aftab, the festival’s director of international programming, says they received lots more submissions for this year’s third edition.

BreAnna Bell An unscripted dating show based on author Candace Bushnell‘s “Sex and the City” book is in development at Bunim/Murray Productions, Variety has confirmed. Titled “Is There Still Sex in The City,” the program will follow four friends in their fifties as they navigate the immersive dating experience in a “love do-over” where they trade in their busy city lives for a “dating utopia.” “They’ll live together in a cozy country chateau where they’ll have their pick of a different group of men in each episode.

During this year’s Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm finally gave some definitive news about what to expect on the big screen with the galaxy far, far away. We have a movie from Dave Filoni, which is expected to be an “Avengers”-style convergence of all the live-action TV shows.

scream.Jenna Ortega has reportedly dropped out of “Scream VII,” according to Deadline. The star’s decision to exit the horror film is due to scheduling conflicts with Netflix’s “Wednesday” — and not related to the firing of Melissa Barrera, who played Ortega’s older sister in the franchise. The outlet claimed that Ortega, 21, decided to bow out prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, which prohibited actors from promoting their upcoming films or discussing any future projects.

Following the “Star Wars: Ahsoka” series created by writer/director/producer Dave Filoni, who wrote all eight episodes himself and directed two, Lucasfilm has named the filmmaker the Chief Creative Officer at the company. “Now I’m what’s called chief creative officer of Lucasfilm,” Filoni told Vanity Fair this week, and noting the role will place him in the early development process of all “Star Wars” projects and in a much more expansive capacity than his previous advisory duties.

“Party of Five” stars Lacey Chabert and Scott Wolf once played brother and sister on the hit Fox family drama, and now, they’re portraying siblings once again.Wolf, 55, and Chabert, 41, are starring in Hallmark’s newest holiday flick, “A Merry Scottish Christmas.”But the “Everwood” alum and the “Mean Girls” star claim they would never play romantic partners in future films. “We need to make it as clear as possible that never … were we going to be love interests,” Wolf chuckled to Fox News.“We knew it would be a sibling story, which really kind of set it apart a little bit from a lot of the Christmas holiday movies on Hallmark, where the central two characters are romantic love interests,” he explained of the upcoming festive flick.The “Nancy Drew” actor went on: “We knew this entire thing would be built around this sibling relationship.

Jaden Thompson Seven Bucks Productions, founded by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, has tapped Scott Landsman and Melissa Fried as head of television and VP of film development and production, respectively. These appointments come along as the multi-platform production company works to expand its film and television slate, following the success of the “Jumanji” franchise, “Hobbs and Shaw” and other titles produced under its banner.

Scott Wolf is heading back to the Hallmark Channel alongside former Party of Five costar Lacey Chabert!

The Peasants would already be a daunting project in the best of times. Like their previous film, Loving Vincent, directors Hugh and DK Welchman oversaw a team of animators painting each frame of the film based on live-action reference material. Hugh, who came to Los Angeles from Poland just for his 12-minute Contenders panel, said The Peasants also had to work around COVID and the Ukraine War.

McKinley Franklin editor Move over, Spider-Man, there’s some new web-slingers in town. Sony has released the first trailer for “Madame Web,” starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney in the next chapter of the live-action universe of Spider-Man characters. Johnson steps into the leading role of Cassandra Webb, a clairvoyant character who goes by the name Madame Web.

EXCLUSIVE: European toon Nate is Late is returning to class.

EXCLUSIVE: CODA and Source Code producer Vendôme Pictures has appointed Kathryn Thal as Senior Vice President of Development and Production.

Scarlett Moffatt has announced her engagement to boyfriend Scott Dobinson, saying she's "truly on cloud nine" after the romantic proposal. The former Gogglebox star, who welcomed her first child, a son named Jude, with Scott in June, took to Instagram to share the happy news, which featured the words "Marry Me" lit up surrounded by rose petals.

Are you a fan of The Office? Did you know that Steve Carell almost didn’t play the iconic role of Michael Scott?

K.J. Yossman “Game of Thrones” star Lena Headey has taken the lead in “Long Pork,” a short thriller from Madhouse Films set in a post-Roe v Wade America. Marking the directorial feature debut of Iris Dukatt, “Long Pork” sees Headey play Lily Williams, a chef at a renowned steakhouse whose daughter has died under forced birth laws.

Kit Harington is back to work!

Travis Scott has extended dates for his current Circus Maximus tour.The rapper announced his first headline tour back in August since the Astroworld tragedy. All new shows announced will take place in January 2024.

When creating a score to fit the nuanced humanity of the man on a brutal warpath, composer Martin Phipps had quite the challenge. It only became that much more complex when he reached out to director Ridley Scott, who offered him no specifics on a musical theme.

William Earl Netflix film chief Scott Stuber once ran Universal Studios – today he sometimes feels like the operator of “the AMC 6000” given the volume of movies that Netflix produces and acquires. From Greta Gerwig’s plans for Narnia adaptations to wooing Denzel Washington and Steven Spielberg, Stuber shared Netflix’s vision of film’s future in a wide-ranging Q&A with Variety executive editor Brent Lang that was held Nov. 8 as part of Variety’s Business Managers Elite Breakfast presented by City National Bank.