The Essentials: The Films Of Adam McKay

CNN Films and HBO Max are partnering for a documentary on anti-corruption Russian government opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.

The Grateful Dead offshoot Dead & Company has canceled scheduled resort shows in Cancun, Mexico this weekend. Frontman John Mayer tested positive for Covid-19 shortly before departing.

This year has been the biggest yet for the Scottish film industry as more and more Hollywood productions have chosen our country to film.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!! No, it’s a … comet heading right toward us!!!

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet seen “Don’t Look Up.”At the beginning of Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” Michigan State astronomy grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers that a comet is heading toward Earth, and will cause an extinction-level-event for the entire planet in a little over six months: something she duly reports to her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio).

It’s less than 48 hours to go until the big day and the majority of us have probably already secured everything we need for the big Christmas Day dinner.

David Wallace-Wells Guest ColumnistFor Variety‘s Writers on Writers, David Wallace-Wells pens a tribute to “Don’t Look Up” (screenplay Adam McKay).Parables are hard, which is why the best ones tend not to play like parables at all. Light comedy about the end of the world isn’t exactly easy, either, but “Don’t Look Up” delivers that, too.In retrospect, at least, we now know Adam McKay’s early movies were about much more than they seemed to be about at first.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been an outspoken environmental advocate for as long as he’s been famous. But while he’s produced documentaries, contributed millions to the cause through his foundation, sat on several relevant boards and even used his Oscar speech to talk about climate change, the topic has never overlapped with his acting work.It wasn’t for lack of trying: He just couldn’t find the right fit.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorJoe Wright — the director of serious period pieces such as “Atonement,” “Anna Karenina” and “Darkest Hour” — would like to set the record straight. He loves Adam McKay’s comedies.

Leonardo DiCaprio did a scary stunt in real life.

The 15-strong shortlist for the Oscars’ International Feature Film category is due on Tuesday, so it’s time to run down my annual preview of titles that have a good shot at making the cut. Films from a total 93 countries are eligible in the race this year, and below we take a close look at a selection of them.

Are filmgoers ready for Don’t Look Up? It’s a star-laden satire dealing with hot topics of the moment – everything from the climate crisis to media disarray and the firings of news anchors.

Charles Randolph is reteaming with Adam McKay for his latest project.

Charles Randolph is reuniting with Adam McKay, with whom he won a 2016 Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for “The Big Short,” for an HBO limited series about the global coronavirus vaccine race.Randolph is joining the untitled project — which has been in the development stage at the pay TV channel since July 2020, when the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine was still ongoing — as its writer and will executive produce alongside McKay.Based on the books, “The First Shot” by Brendan Borrell and

Mattel Films is developing a live-action family drama titled “Christmas Balloon,” based on a real-life story involving Mattel toys, the company announced Thursday.Gabriela Revilla-Lugo (“A Million Little Things”) will write the original screenplay.“Christmas Balloon” centers on a young girl, Dáyami, living in a Mexican border town who tries to send her Christmas list to Santa tied to a balloon.

Kate Aurthur editorFor Variety’s FYC Fest, screenwriters Aaron Sorkin (“Being the Ricardos”), Paolo Sorrentino (“The Hand of God”), Adam McKay (“Don’t Look Up”), Tracey Scott Wilson (“Respect”) and Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”) gathered virtually to discuss their own individual movies, as well as the state of the film business.McKay kicked off the conversation by talking about how he’d adjusted “Don’t Look Up” — his Netflix comedy-tragedy about a comet hurtling toward Earth — because of COVID-19,

Leonardo DiCaprio was NOT a fan of Meryl Streep’s nude scene in their new film, Don’t Look Up, but it’s not for the reason you might think!