Sundance-Winning Director Cutter Hodierne’s SXSW-Bound ‘Cold Wallet’ Boarded by Blue Finch Films (EXCLUSIVE)

Katcy Stephan Ming-Na Wen has joined the cast of Sony’s new “Karate Kid” film. Previously announced cast members include “American Born Chinese” star Ben Wang in the titular role, plus Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, who will reprise their characters from previous entries in the franchise. Joshua Jackson and Sadie Stanley will also star.

Emiliano De Pablos Madrid-based Begin Again Films has picked up Spanish distribution and international sales rights to Juan Gautier’s psychological thriller “El aspirante” (“The Aspirant”), about initiation into a masculine universe revolving around hazing of a university residence. “El aspirante” plays at this year’s Málaga Work in Progress’ WIP España sidebar, an industry centerpiece at the Málaga Film Festival, now in its 27th edition. The film toplines Jorge Motos, star of 2021’s “Lucas,” a film which earned him a Málaga Silver Biznaga for best actor and a Goya best new actor nomination; Lucas Nabor (“All the Names of God”), Eduardo Rosa (“La casa de las flores”) and Catalina Sopelana (“Sky Rojo”) complete the main cast.

Adam Sandler reportedly suffered for his art while filming Netflix’s “Spaceman.” Director Johan Renck, 57, claimed Sandler, also 57, was in “significant pain” while shooting scenes in zero gravity for the sci-fi movie, which is now available on the streamer.Sandler “was on wires, which means that he’s kind of fixed to the set, he can’t piss off when he wants to at all,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “He can’t move, he can’t do anything, and also under significant pain, because that’s what happens with this harness and these rigs — they start digging into your flesh, and after 24 days of shooting, that pain is real, I will tell you.”The Post has contacted reps for Sandler for comment.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood star Yami Gautam reveals her process in making “Article 370” and has addressed the issue of the film being banned in the Middle East. A political action thriller, the film deals with the events leading to the 2019 revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted special status to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, some parts of which are under dispute between India, Pakistan and China since independence from the British Empire in 1947. Gautam plays Kashmiri Indian National Intelligence Agency officer Zooni Haksar who is sent back to Kashmir by Prime Minister’s Office official Rajeshwari Swaminathan (Priyamani, “Jawan”) on a mission to achieve the revocation with minimal bloodshed.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Shannon Walsh’s documentary “Adrianne & The Castle,” which will make its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 9, tells the love story of Alan St. George and his late wife, Adrianne, via fantastical musical re-enactments. Before her death, St.

Emiliano De Pablos “Professor T,” the crime series produced by Eagle Eye Drama, and starring Ben Miller (“Bridgerton”), has been greenlit for a fourth season by ITV and PBS Distribution. Attracting audiences of over four million viewers on ITV and making a successful debut on France 3, the highly acclaimed drama has been sold to almost 120 territories worldwide. Most recently, Telekom acquired rights in Germany, TV3 bought the series for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova 1 for Moldova, and BBC and TVP for Poland.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent European giant Beta Film, known for ambitious titles such as “Babylon Berlin” and “The Swarm,” has shared with Variety in exclusivity a first-look picture of 1o-part series “Rise of the Raven,” which it hails as “one of the most epic European TV productions of all time.” “Rise of the Raven” weighs in as a passion project of Hungarian-born and Canada-based producer Robert Lantos, behind “Sunshine,” “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Barney’s Version,” “Eastern Promises” and “Crimes of the Future.” A highlight at Beta Film’s showcase this Tuesday at the London TV Screenings, “Rise of the Raven” turns on the extraordinary feat of Hungarian army commander Janos Hunyadi, played by discovery Gellért L. Kádár, who in 1456 won a bloody, brutal Battle of Belgrade against a vast Ottoman force twice the size of his troops who were often farm labourers armed with just slings and patriotic fervor. Hunyadi largely halted a full Ottoman expansion in Europe for the next 70 years, allowing its Renaissance to lift off in Italy.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Black Bear has hired Courtney L. Cunniff as senior vice president of film.

a resurfaced clip produced by Sundance in which she describes the movie, Malia dropped her globally recognized last name and is credited on the project as Malia Ann.Malia described “The Heart” as “an odd little story, somewhat of fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will.”She studied filmmaking at Harvard University as a visual and environmental studies major and landed a job as a writer on Janine Nabers and Donald Glover’s Amazon Prime series “Swarm,” which premiered in March 2023.Still, fans on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, were conflicted about Malia, who lived in the White House during her dad’s two presidential terms from 2009 to 2017, seemingly trying to distance herself from her famous moniker. “Nepo baby strikes again,” one hater tweeted on Wednesday.

Concept art and pitches are generally not our bag, but what if some of the team members behind Sony’s dynamic and visually arresting “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” franchise could do for Batman, what the ‘Spider-Verse’ team did for Spider-Man? That’s kind of the pitch, it seems. Yuhki Demers, a production designer at Netflix and visual development member on both ‘Spider-Verse’ films, revealed that he and director Patrick Harpin (“My Dad The Bounty Hunter”) pitched a “Batman Beyond” animated movie to Warner Bros.

Holly Jones Yasuo Nakajima and Mariona Carrera’s Barcelona and Tokyo-based b-mount have boarded “Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us,’ (“Quizás Es Cierto Lo Que Dicen De Nosotras”) from Chilean filmmaking duo Camilo Becerra (“El último sacramento”) and Sofía Paloma Gómez (“Quiero morirme dentro de un tiburón”), seen at San Sebastian’s San Sebastián WIP Latam competition. b-mount join a co-production between Carlos Núñez and Gabriela Sandoval at Chile’s Storyboard Media (“The Sky Is Red”), Cecilia Salim at Argentina’s Murillo Cine (“Chaco”) and Lucía van Gelderen at Argentina’s Morocha Films (“El Cinco”) alongside Becerra’s production venture La Jauría Comunicaciones.

Alex Ritman Saban Films has acquired North American rights to the British thriller “Kill,” starring Paul Higgins (“Slow Horses,” “Line of Duty”), Brian Vernel (“Star Wars: Episode VII – the Force Awakens,” “Dunkirk”), Daniel Portman (“Game of Thrones, The Angel’s Share”), Calum Ross (“Wednesday”), Anita Vettesse (“Outlander,” “Guilt”), James Harkness (“Darkest Hour,” “Phantom Thread”) and Joanne Thomson (“The Victim”). The film, which explores the history of violence, the power of family and the dangers of revenge, marks the feature directorial debut of Rodger Griffiths, who devised the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Rob Drummond. “Kill” follows a hunting trip that turns deadly when three brothers plot to murder their violent, abusive father.

EXCLUSIVE: Alpha Violet has acquired world sales rights for Uruguayan filmmaking duo Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge’s new drama Don’t You Let Me Go, exploring themes of friendship and death.

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. Today we’re talking to Stephen Kelliher, co-founder and MD of established London-based sales and film finance outfit Bankside Films. The company played a key role in getting Australian horror hit Talk to Me off the ground and Kelliher walks us through how that project came together as well as Bankside’s hefty EFM slate this year.

Alexei Navalny, who has led the main opposition to Vladimir Putin for years and was the subject of an Oscar-winning doc, has died, according to state reports citing the Russian prison service. He was 47.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mk2 Films, the Paris-based outfit behind Justine Triet’s Oscar-nominated “Anatomy of a Fall,” is set to restore Robert Bresson’s “Four Nights of a Dreamer,” a romantic drama which competed at the Berlinale in 1971 and disappeared from screens in 1985. MK2 Films, the division of a major arthouse cinema chain in France, will digitize “Four Nights of a Dreamer” in 4K and will bring it to global theatres in 2024. “Four Nights of a Dreamer” is the 10th film directed by Bresson and the only one which wasn’t restored.

Annika Pham Copenhagen-based TrustNordisk has inked multiple deals on the Danish thriller “Boundless,” based on Jussi Adler-Olsen’s “Department Q” novel, which is currently dominating the Danish box office. Ahead of the pic’s market screening Feb 17 at the Berlin European Film Market, the title, helmed by Ole Christian Madsen (“Banshee,” “Flame & Citron”) has sold to Wild Bunch Distribution for France, Vértigo Films for Spain, Frenetic Films for Switzerland, Film Europe Slovakia for Czech Republic, Vertigo Media for Hungary and Contents Panda for Korea.

Naman Ramachandran Blue Finch Films have sold North American rights to thriller “Last Straw” to Shout! Studios at the Berlin European Film Market. Written by Taylor Sardoni, “Last Straw” pays homage to the pressure- cooker genre films of the past and aims to present a raw and unrelenting twist on the home-invasion thriller. The story revolves around a young waitress working the late shift alone at a rural roadside diner.

EXCLUSIVE: Production has wrapped on indie feature Bad Man, starring Seann William Scott (American Pie) alongside Johnny Simmons (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street), Chance Perdomo (After We Fell), Andre Hyland (Barry), and Lovi Poe (Chelsea Cowboy).

Addie Morfoot Contributor Sheila Nevins has produced documentaries for most of her professional life. But at 84, she’s still notching career firsts.