Sony Pictures TV’s Gemstone Studios Launches Inaugural Rising Storytellers Search For Female-Led Narratives

Dave McNary Film ReporterAdam Driver has signed to star in Sony Pictures’ science-fiction thriller “65,” to be written and directed by “A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.Beck and Woods are also producing with Sam Raimi and Zainab Azizi for Raimi Productions along with Debbie Liebling.

Peter White Television EditorEXCLUSIVE: Marisol Nichols, over the last few years, has been juggling the demands of being an actor on series including Riverdale with a side gig as an undercover agent in the fight against sex trafficking.The latter is now being turned into a television series after Sony Pictures Television optioned rights to her story.Nichols, who plays Hermione Lodge on the CW series, revealed her unusual side hustle in a long-form story in May’s Marie Claire.In the article,

Ed Meza @edmezavarSony Pictures Television Latin America is developing a new Colombian drama series inspired by popular hip hop band ChocQuibTown that will examine racism in Latin America and what it means to be Afro-Latino.Announced Sunday during the American Black Film Festival, series “Somos Los Prietos” (“We Are the Black Ones”) marks the first cross-company collaboration – referred to internally as “One Sony” – between SPT’s international production arm and Sony Music Latin, which counts

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorSony Pictures Classics will release Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s The Truffle Hunters on Christmas Day, Dec. 25.It was announced this week that the documentary will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, capping off a string of previous acceptances into the Cannes, Telluride, and New York Film Festivals.

Dino-Ray Ramos Associate Editor/ReporterGold House, which helped bolster inclusive films such as Parasite, The Farewell, Crazy Rich Asians and Just Mercy with its #GoldOpen movement, has set its first #GoldOpen Premier Access event for Disney’s forthcoming live-action Mulan, which drops on Disney+ on September 4.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterEXCLUSIVE: Mexican superstar Omar Chaparro (No Manches Frida series & Pokemon Detective Pikachu) has been set for the lead role in Tequila Re-Pasado, an original comedy from Sony Pictures International Productions.Spanish director María Ripoll is helming the pic, re-teaming with Sony after recently wrapping Guerra de Likes in Mexico for the studio. The new film is adapted from an original script by Judd Pillot and Gerald B.

Peter White Television EditorEXCLUSIVE: Dennis Quaid recently saved a cat, named Dennis Quaid, from an animal shelter in Lynchburg, Virginia.The actor, who starred in Amazon’s Goliath and has upcoming feature Reagan, is to turn the story into a non-scripted TV project after teaming with ITV America’s Leftfield Pictures, producer of History’s Alone and Forged In Fire.Saving Dennis Quaid will follow the actor, who also recently starred in feature films A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey, and his

“The Equalizer” screenwriter Richard Wenk is writing the script. Palak Patel is overseeing for Sony.Born into Russian aristocracy, Sergei Kravinoff a.k.a.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorVeteran industry executive and producer Alana Mayo has joined MGM as the President of the newly relaunched Orion Pictures.The division will concentrate exclusively on underrepresented voices and authentic storytelling in film with a focus on developing, producing and acquiring feature films that amplify underserved voices, both in front of and behind the camera.

MGM’s Orion Pictures is relaunching its brand as a studio label for underrepresented voices and has named veteran industry executive and producer Alana Mayo as the new Orion Pictures president, Michael De Luca, MGM’s film group chairman and Pam Abdy, MGM’s film group president.In an internal memo from De Luca and Abdy shared with TheWrap, John Hegeman will be stepping down from his role at Orion in early October after three years with the label, as will his team, following the opening of the

Denise Petski Senior Managing EditorEXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures TV has put in development National Enquirer: The Untold Story!, a limited series inspired by the 2019 feature documentary Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer, produced and directed by Mark Landsman.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: Joker and The Matrix co-producer Village Roadshow Pictures has optioned and is looking to fast-track The Prize, a spec feature written by Buried and Greenland scribe Chris Sparling with Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales co-helmer Espen Sandberg aboard to direct.The conspiracy thriller follows an American private investigator who travels to Stockholm after the suspicious death of an old friend, a ranking member of the Nobel Prize

Still hot off the heels of her tremendous directing debut, “Booksmart”—one of the most accomplished first films in recent memory—actor/director Olivia Wilde has been tapped to direct a Marvel film over at Sony Pictures, meaning one of the characters within Spider-Man’s Spiderverse, or as it’s officially known as, Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. Update: Deadline now retroactively says, Spider-Woman is believed to be the character, but none of that is official.

Dave McNary Film ReporterOlivia Wilde has signed a deal with Sony Pictures to develop and direct an untitled, female-centric Marvel film project for the studio, sources have told Variety.Representatives for Sony and Marvel had no comment about the project.

Denise Petski Senior Managing EditorEXCLUSIVE: For Life writer/producer Sonay Hoffman is expanding her relationship with Sony Pictures TV, signing a multi-year overall deal with the studio behind the praised and timely legal drama. Under the pact, Hoffman will develop dramas across all platforms.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired the worldwide rights, excluding Canada, to Lance Oppenheim’s documentary feature debut “Some Kind of Heaven.”The film, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, was produced by Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa and Los Angeles Media Fund, which also financed the film.“Some Kind of Heaven” profiles The Villages, the nation’s largest retirement community, located in Central Florida.

With cinemas shut down or operating with reduced capacity during the coronavirus pandemic, Sony Pictures plans to host socially distant drive-in screenings of classic titles like Ghostbusters and The Karate Kid on its studio lot in Culver City. The makeshift drive-in will be erected in the Thalberg parking lot on the historic studio lot, and will start showcasing library titles on Aug.

Nellie Andreeva Co-Editor-in-Chief, TVEXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Television is expanding its relationship with Hank Steinberg in a big way. The studio has signed a big five-year overall deal with the creator of the praised — and timely — Sony TV legal drama series For Life, which has been renewed for a second season by ABC.Under the pact, Steinberg will continue as executive producer and showrunner on For Life.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorEXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures will be hosting a high-end dual big screen drive-in experience on the Culver City, CA lot starting this Friday, Aug. 14.