Vertical, Roadside Attractions Acquire Domestic Rights to Naomi Watts Thriller ‘Lakewood’

EXCLUSIVE: Mel Gibson is back in hero mode in Hot Seat, a thriller he’ll star in with Chad Michael Murray which will begin production November 1 in New Mexico. Lionsgate will release through its Grindstone label and HIghland Entertainment is handling foreign sales. James Cullen Bressack will direct. He just helmed Fortress with Murray and Bruce Willis, which is in post.

EXCLUSIVE: Roadside Attractions has snapped up North American rights to Terence Davies’ well-received TIFF and London Film Festival drama Benediction.

NEW YORK -- Author Shannon Messenger can now see the end for her telepathic heroine Sophie and the million-selling middle-grade series “Keeper of the Lost Cities.”Aladdin Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, announced Wednesday that a tenth and final volume is scheduled for 2023. The book is currently untitled.“I knew from the very beginning that Sophie’s story was huge.

Ann-Marie Corvin London-based doc specialist Taskovski Films has acquired the world sales rights to Irish director Pat Collins’ feature doc “The Dance,” which is running in the Documentary Competition at this week’s London Film Festival.Produced through Irish prod cos Harvest Films and South Wind Blows with support from Screen Ireland and RTE, the observation documentary claims to give an insight into the creative mind of choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan as he stages a new international dance

A day of celebration! Naomi Watts honored Liev Schreiber with a special message highlighting how important he is on his 54th birthday.

Christopher Vourlias Well Go USA has nabbed North American rights to “Row 19,” a thriller from director Alexander Babaev, which is being sold by Central Partnership.The film centers on a young female doctor and her 6-year-old daughter, who board an overnight flight in a violent storm. When passengers on the half-empty plane inexplicably begin to die, the woman’s grip on reality weakens and she is forced to relive her worst childhood nightmare.

Annika Pham Paris-based APC (About Premium Content) has acquired world sales rights on the six-part Finnish thriller “A Good Family,” currently filming in Estonia before moving back to Finland.The high-end drama about love, marriage and parenthood is based on Finnish author and screenwriter Petri Karra’s 2019 novel “The Dark Light” (“Musta Valo”).

EXCLUSIVE: Apple Studios has landed yet another high-caliber movie package, making a deal for an untitled film that Spider-Man director Jon Watts will write and direct, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt starring. The film will get a robust theatrical release as part of this.

In the film, Watts plays Amy Carr, a woman racing against time to save her child Noah (Colton Gobbo) as authorities place her small town on lockdown due to an active shooter incident. Noyce directed the film from a script by Chris Sparling, who produced with David Bois, Andrew Corkin, Alex Lalonde, Chris Parker, Zack Schiller and Dylan Sellers.

Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts.The director, who also helmed the 2019 sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home, will write, direct and produce the untitled film, with Clooney and Pitt on board to star and produce.The two actors have previously starred together on numerous projects, including the Ocean’s trilogy and 2008’s Burn After Reading helmed by the Coen Brothers.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony, Lionsgate, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Annapurna, Universal, MGM and Warner Bros are

made waves at last summer’s Cannes Film Festival for its campy approach to telling Dion’s story, and American audiences will now get the chance to see it only in theaters with a rollout beginning in early 2022. Gaumont is first releasing the film in French theaters on November 10.

EXCLUSIVE:  One of the few titles up for sale at TIFF this year was Phillip Noyce’s thriller Lakewood starring Naomi Watts, and Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions have landed North American rights to the the female-driven thriller.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Aline,” the biopic loosely based on French Canadian hitmaker Celine Dion, has been acquired by Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films for U.S. distribution.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt will once again grace the screen together.

Deadline has confirmed that a Jon Watts directed thriller starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt is being bid upon by an array of studios including Sony, Lionsgate, Annapurna, MGM, Universal, Warner Bros on the theatrical side and streamers Apple and Netflix.

Shot in rural northern Ontario during the pandemic, “Lakewood” follows Watts as a mother who risks her life to save her child after her small town is placed on lockdown over a school shooting. Much of the film shows Watts running through forest roads to get to the school, which Noyce says became very physically grueling for her.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentLeading Japanese distributor Gaga has acquired international sales rights for three early documentaries by Cannes Palme d’Or winner Kore-eda Hirokazu.  All three titles are available for theatrical rights only.After joining the TV Man Union production company in 1987, Kore-eda worked as an assistant director on its signature documentary programming, winning promotion to director in 1991.

Naomi Watts is opening up about her next project with Ryan Murphy.