News

Cathy Tyson (“Criminal Record”) and Stephen Fry (“The Dropout”) have boarded upcoming folk-horror feature “Black Samphire.”

They will star alongside Cathy Wippell and Ishtar Currie-Wilson, who play couple Mari and Isla.

The film, a horror film told through the lens of a queer toxic relationship with themes of water pollution, is directed by Cat White from a screenplay by Wippell. It is currently in pre-production with principal photography set to kick off in early 2025. Further casting will be announced in due course.

“After Isla eats a plant poisoned by polluted water, Mari witnesses horrifying changes in her partner, revealing a dark truth about the village and their relationship,” reads the logline.

White is known for “Fifty-Four Days” and the upcoming “To My Daughter,” which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and is produced by Lupus Films.

“’Black Samphire’ is a clarion call to every single one of us to confront the profound impact...

Mandy Patinkin, Janet McTeer and Danny Huston will star in a Gilded Age murder mystery limited series titled “The Artist.”

From the free, ad-supported streamer and studio The Network, the series follows “an ensemble of the era’s celebrities including Thomas Edison, Edgar Degas and Evelyn Nesbit” as they meet at the home of “an eccentric and failing tycoon,” per the logline. By the end of the night, the mogul is found dead, spurring a historical fiction-themed murder mystery.

The seven-episode series, which is currently entering production and filming on location in Connecticut, will premiere in March 2025.

The Network founder Aram Rappaport serves as creator, executive producer, writer and director of “The Artist.” Hilary Shor is a producer.

“The way we make television has changed. I believe it is a fundamental truth that artists should hold the keys to their craft and creativity,” Rappaport said in a statement. “This series...

Martin Freeman (The Responder), Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Jess Weixler (Monsters), Craig Roberts (Submarine) have been confirmed in the cast of Jamie Adams’ Let’s Love as shooting is underway in Wales.

Written by Adams, with contributions from the cast, the improvised comedy is filming across Cardiff, the Brecon Beacons, Porthcrawl and at Dragon Studios in Bridgend. Postproduction be completed by early 2025.

The relationship comedy is produced by Bristol-based Happy Hour Productions and Manchester-based Boudica Entertainment in association with Principal Film Finance. Further cast members include Chloe Jouannet and Richard Elis.

Freeman co-stars as screenwriter Nigel alongside Akerman as film director Andrea, Hutcherson as her lead actor husband Jackson and Weixler as his on-screen romantic lead Jess. The quartet reunite in Wales for a 10-year anniversary fan convention of their last hit film, only to discover the hapless studio rep has booked the wrong month.

Full of disappointment,...

Dev Patel will star in “The Journeyman,” a crime thriller directed by Tarsem Singh from a script by husband-wife duo Bryan and Alexis Roberts (aka The Roberts). Patel plays a down-on-his-luck tennis pro who is drawn into the dark world of match-fixing to make ends meet for his family.

AGC Studios will fully finance and produce the film with Academy Award nominee Scott Franklin, Patel’s Minor Realm and Lbi Entertainment.

Joining Franklin as producers are AGC Studios chairman and CEO Stuart Ford and Mason Eways for Lbi Entertainment. Shamier Anderson and Stephan James will executive produce for Bay Mills.

AGC Intl. represents the film’s international distribution rights and will introduce the film to buyers at the AFM next week; CAA Media Finance is handling domestic with AGC. Production is set to commence next year.

“The Journeyman” is the story of a struggling pro tennis player who is lured...

Oscar nominee Dev Patel (The Green Knight) is set to star in The Journeyman, a new crime thriller fro director Tarsem Singh (The Fall) and Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, which will produce and fully finance the project.

AGC International reps the film’s international distribution rights and will introduce it to buyers at AFM.

Scripted by the husband-and-wife duo of Bryan and Alexis Roberts, aka The Roberts, The Journeyman is the story of a struggling pro tennis player who is lured into an illegal match-fixing ring to support his family and finds himself trapped in a ruthless world of corruption and violence he may never escape.

Oscar nominee Scott Franklin is producing alongside Ford for AGC, Mason Eways for Lbi Entertainment, and Patel’s Minor Realm, with Shamier Anderson and Stephan James exec producing for Bay Mills. CAA Media Finance is handling domestic alongside AGC, with EVP of Legal...

Exclusive: Heading into the American Film Market, Film Constellation and CAA Media Finance will be looking to scare up deals on writer-director John Michael McDonagh’s (The Guard) Fear Is The Rider.

An adaptation of the novel The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser, the team has attached Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One) Abbey Lee (Horizons: An American Saga), Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) and Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth) in lead roles.

In a nod to the gore-drenched Ozploitation slashers of the 1970s, the film follows a lone woman, searching for her missing mother, who is pursued into the Australian Outback by a terrifying family of serial killers, with only an ex-con and a young girl willing to help her.

Pic is being produced by McDonagh and Elizabeth Eves’ House of Un-American Activities (The Forgiven), Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon of Brookstreet Pictures (The Brutalist) and Kate Glover (Foe). The film is set...

“West Side Story” actor Ansel Elgort is set to star in “Faster Than Horses,” a survival thriller directed by Emmy nominee James Erskine (“Shooting for Socrates “) and produced by survival expert Bear Grylls.

Inspired by a true story and based on an article by Hampton Sides, “Faster Than Horses” follows a former Olympic runner who attempts a return to glory in the world’s toughest footrace, the Marathon des Sables, a series of back-to-back marathons across the Sahara Desert. But when a devastating sandstorm engulfs the race, he finds himself lost in the Sahara Desert, locked in a 10-day battle not for victory, but for survival.

The film is currently in pre-production and will be unveiled to international distributors at the AFM which kicks on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas. Upgrade will handle international sales, with CAA Media Finance repping North American rights.

The script of “Faster Than Horses” was penned...

Baby Driver and Tokyo Vice actor Ansel Elgort has signed on to star as a marathon runner caught in a battle for his life in in Faster Than Horses, a survival thriller from documentary filmmaker James Erskine (Billie, The End of the Storm) and produced by survival expert Bear Grylls.

The feature, inspired by a true story and based on an article by Hampton Sides, follows a former Olympic runner who attempts a return to glory in the world’s toughest footrace, the Marathon des Sables, a series of back-to-back marathons across the Sahara Desert. When a devastating sandstorm engulfs the race, he finds himself lost in the Sahara Desert and locked in a ten-day battle for survival.

Faster Than Horses is currently in pre-production. Upgrade Productions, which is handling international sales, will pitch the project to international buyers at the American Film Market in Las Vegas next week. CAA Media Finance...

Exclusive: Crystal City Entertainment and Moonshot Films have partnered to acquire the rights for Lisa Jewell’s bestselling novel Then She Was Gone for a feature film adaptation.

Jewell’s books, which have sold some 10 million copies worldwide, are hot properties in the adaptation market at the moment. Over the summer, Deadline revealed that Netflix is working on an adaptation of the UK writer’s 2023 book None of This Is True.

Her 2017 thriller Then She Was Gone tells the story of Laurel Mack and the aftermath of her youngest daughter’s unexplained disappearance.

Ten years on, a still grieving Laurel meets a seemingly perfect man, but his nine-year-old daughter’s resemblance to her own lost child soon becomes an obsession, leaving her no choice but to dig deeper into the past…whatever she might find.

Crystal City Entertainment’s Jonathan Rubenstein and Ari Pinchot and Moonshot Films’ Louis Paltnoi and...

Exclusive: Nine Perfect Strangers maker Made Up Stories has optioned Australian writer Zoë Foster Blake’s novel about modern entrepreneurship and motherhood ‘Things Will Calm Down Soon.’

The book is billed as “a vibrant, candid look at what it means to be ‘successful’ in today’s world.” It follows 30-year-old A-list stylist Kit Cooper who is restless despite her success.

Per the synopsis: “When she decides to launch her own product, we go with her as she builds a brand, team and multimillion-dollar business while single parenting, managing an unreliable partner and a dysfunctional wider family, and far too many school WhatsApp messages. When Kit finds herself in the alien world of investors, suits and mergers and acquisitions her relentless anxiety, imposter syndrome and head-spinning busyness begs the question: will things ever calm down? “

Made Up Stories said is “riddled with real life business advice and reassurance while providing a genuinely entertaining read.

Exclusive: M.K. Oliver’s debut novel A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage is making a splash years before its release, landing high-profile TV and publishing deals. Hulu has put in development a series adaptation of the darkly comedic crime mystery. It will be written by Liz Tigelaar (Little Fires Everywhere) who will serve as showrunner.

Tigelaar and her producing partner Stacey Silverman will executive produce through their Best Day Ever company alongside Oliver. 20th Television, where Tigelaar is based, is the studio.

The TV sale follows a competitive action for the U.S. rights to the manuscript, won by Simon & Schuster, and a preemptive deal with Hemlock Press, Harper Collins in the UK. Translation rights are being handled by Curtis Brown, with a Brazilian deal confirmed with Faro Editorial and other markets in negotiations ahead of this week’s Frankfurt Book fair.

A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage,...

“Industry” co-creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay are staying in business with HBO, Variety has confirmed. Down and Kay have inked a new three-year overall deal with the premium cabler that begins in January 2025. Their current overall deal runs through the end of 2024. The news comes on the heels of “Industry” wrapping up its third season, with HBO already renewing the show for Season 4. Down and Kay made their directorial debut with the final two episodes of the third season. They serve as writers, showrunners, and executive producers on the series. Down and Kay are repped by UTA, Curtis Brown, and Independent. It was recently reported that the Season 3 finale of “Industry” nabbed 260,000 viewers in its initial airing on Sunday night immediately following episode two of the DC Studios show “The Penguin.” The season is now averaging 1.6 million viewers, putting it ahead of Season 2, which was averaging 1.2 million viewers in the same amount of time.

Exclusive: Industry creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay have signed a new three-year overall exclusive TV deal with HBO that begins in January 2025. They are currently under an overall deal with HBO through the end of 2024.

Down and Kay premiered Industry in 2020, serving as creators, writers and executive producers. They made their directorial debut with the final two episodes of Season 3.

A Bad Wolf Production for HBO/BBC, Industry gives an insider’s view of the blackbox of high finance, following a group of young bankers as they forge their identities within the pressure-cooker environment and sex- and drug-fueled blitz of international bank Pierpoint & Co’s London office.

The drama series has been renewed for Season 4 by HBO, and the Season 3 finale aired September 29. At the time, the pair released the following statement, “We are beyond thrilled and grateful to HBO, the incredible team at Bad Wolf and our phenomenal...

Exclusive: Sony Pictures International Productions and Mucho Mas Media are in development on The Pet Nup, an original rom-com to be directed by Elaine del Valle (Midnight Hustle). Cast for the pic will include Emeraude Toubia (With Love), Gregg Sulkin (Runaways), Halston Sage (Dark Phoenix) and Emmy winner Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl).

Scripted by Tate Hanyok (Sex Appeal), the film’s logline is as follows: While a recently divorced couple navigates new life and love apart, the arrangement in their “Pet-Nup” forces them to extremes as they fight for custody of the one thing in their life that can’t be split in two: their dog.

Javier Chapa will produce for Mucho Mas Media (The Long Game). Phillip Braun will exec produce for Mucho Mas, along with Sherrese Clarke Soares for Harbourview Equity.

Previously starring in Gloria Calderón Kellett’s Prime Video series With Love and Freeform’s Shadowhunters,...

Exclusive: After Kenneth Branagh set Jodie Comer to star in his next director outing The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde, the Oscar winner has rounded out the rest of his ensemble. Patricia Arquette, Michael Sheen, Tom Bateman, Vicky McClure, Michael Balogun, Kristina Tonteri-Young and Karla Crome have joined a cast that also includes Aiysha Hart and Gemma Whelan. Production is underway in the UK.

The independently financed film is being described as a contemporary psychological thriller, but the logline is being kept under wraps. Branagh reunites with his Belfast producers Tamar Thomas, Laura Berwick and Becca Kovacik, along with Matthew Jenkins and Maximum Effort’s Ashley Fox and Johnny Pariseau.

Branagh most recently co-starred in Christopher Nolan’s Oscar Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer. He recently wrapped production starring in Mayday opposite Ryan Reynolds for Apple Original Films and Skydance, and later this year will return to the stage for King Lear...

Exclusive: British radio DJ, TV presenter and podcast host Clara Amfo has signed with the Curtis Brown Group.

Amfo is one of a number to have left Simon Cowell’s agency Ymu over the past few months. UTA-owned Curtis Brown will represent her in all areas.

She will be repped within the new unscripted entertainment division helmed by ex-ymu agent Martha Atack, which launched earlier this year. Curtis Brown Group Unscripted and Entertainment has a roster featuring the likes of Bradley Walsh, Richard E Grant, Sue Perkins, Zoe Ball, Carol Vorderman, Cat Deeley, London Hughes, Lenny Rush, Grayson Perry, Stacey Dooley, Asim Chaudhry, Layton Williams and Mae Martin.

Amfo is a household name on British radio and TV. She hosts a number of shows on BBC Radio 1 and has interviewed the likes of Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Elton John. She also fronts the BAFTA TV red carpet, BBC’s Glastonbury coverage,...

Fast-rising and BAFTA-nominated Irish star Éanna Hardwicke is set to play Manchester United and Ireland soccer legend Roy Keane in upcoming Irish feature “Saipan,” Variety can reveal. Hardwicke will be joined by two-time Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, who will star as Mick McCarthy, the former Ireland soccer manager with whom Keane had an infamous falling out.

“Saipan” is being directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa — the duo behind the critically-lauded 2013 Irish comedy-drama “Good Vibrations” and the 2019 romance “Ordinary Love,” starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville — working from an original script by Paul Fraser (“Dead Man’s Shoes”), with production set to start this summer.

The film’s title comes from the infamous so-called “Saipan Incident” in 2002, when Keane was captaining the Irish national side ahead of the FIFA World Cup finals in Japan. While preparing on the tiny island of Saipan, the soccer star — known for his hot-headed temperament...

Exclusive: Nicola Coughlan has signed with CAA for representation.

Coughlan currently stars as Penelope Featherington in Netflix’s Bridgerton.

In 2018, she starred as Claire Devlin in the hit Channel 4/Netflix sitcom, Derry Girls.

Earlier this year, Coughlan starred in the Channel 4 and Tubi original comedy series Big Mood opposite Lydia West, and in the feature comedy Seize Them! with Aimee Lou Wood, Nick Frost, and Lolly Adefope.

She is currently filming the independent feature The Magic Faraway Tree opposite Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. She’s also lined up an appearance in Doctor Who.

Last summer, Coughlan played Diplomat Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.

In the brand space, Coughlan is the face of the Kim Kardashian’s latest Skims campaign.

She continues to be represented by Curtis Brown, Goodman Genow Schenkman Smelkinson & Christopher, Llp.

Exclusive: Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley mysteries are being given a new lease of life.

More than 15 years on from the closer of the BBC’s mid-noughties adaptation, BritBox International, Wolf Hall producer Playground and Salt Films are developing Lynley, a new version, which is being penned by Sherlock writer Steve Thompson and directed by Ed Bazalgette.

Leo Suter (Vikings: Valhalla) and Sofia Barclay (Ted Lasso) are leading the adaptation, playing Di Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers, an aristocratic police detective and maverick sergeant from a working class background. Together, the mismatched duo become a formidable team, bonded by their desire to see justice done, while the series tackles issues around personality, gender and class.

BBC Studios is deficit financing and selling and Deadline is told deal terms with BritBox are still being figured out. We understand the BBC may acquire in the UK. Cameras will roll on four...

A short film fund aimed at championing female and non-binary filmmakers led by “Doctor Who” star Jodie Whittaker has unveiled its first project winner at the Cannes Film Festival.

At Cannes 2023, women’s and non-binary visibility platform Primetime and Bournemouth Film School’s Funding Futures unveiled an initiative to spotlight women and non-binary filmmakers. After some 100 global submissions, a longlist emerged, chosen by a jury of industry heavyweights, including BAFTA nominees Ella Glendining and Ameenah Ayub Allen, Curtis Brown agent Cynthia Okoye, Funding Futures executive producer William Shutt, actor and Primetime founder Victoria Emslie, and “Doctor Who” actors Mandip Gill and Whittaker.

The winning project is “Truckload,” a comedy-drama inspired by real events. Writer-musician Evie Jones, who endured a life-altering accident, channels her experience into the story of Lizzie, a woman navigating life post-accident. Jones said: “Since becoming disabled it became quickly and startlingly clear that I no longer saw my experiences depicted on screen,...

Exclusive: Radhika Apte (Sister Midnight), Naveen Andrews (The Dropout) and Ken Leung (Avatar: The Last Airbender) have signed on to star opposite the previously announced Sky Yang in Last Days, the next film from the Fast & Furious franchise’s Justin Lin.

Based on the Outside Magazine article The Last Days of John Allen Chau by journalist Alex Perry, this is the story of John Allen Chau, who believes he has been chosen to save the souls of the uncontacted tribe of North Sentinel Island. Designated as a protected site by the Indian government, John sets on a harrowing journey to proselytize the Sentinelese in his desperate search for identity, purpose, and belonging.

Written by Ben Ripley (Source Code), and marking Lin’s return to his indie roots, the film has just kicked off production in Thailand. In addition to directing, Lin is producing through his Perfect Storm Entertainment, overseen...

Jodie Whittaker Short Film Fund Raises Value To $50,000

Exclusive: The Empower Fund, an initiative that champions female and non-binary filmmakers, has seen its value rise to £40,000 after post-production house Picture Shop came onboard to support the Empower Fund with in-kind post services up to a value of £15k. Film equipment company Hawk London had already provided access to a camera kit shooting package worth £15,000 on top of a minimum £10,000 for the winning team, who will see former Doctor Who lead Jodie Whittaker attached to their project. Founded by actress Victoria Emslie’s Primetime, a global platform for women and non-binary people working behind the camera, in partnership with Funding Futures, the fun launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and has received almost 100 submissions from around the world. A jury of consisting of Whittaker, another former Doctor Who star, Mandip Gill; Emslie; director Ella Glendining; producer Ameenah Ayub Allen; Curtis Brown...

Exclusive: The starry packages keep on coming at the Cannes market.

The latest is comedy The Temptation Of Gracie, starring Celia Imrie (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers), Andie MacDowell (Maid), Rupert Everett (My Policeman), Franco Nero (John Wick Chapter 2), Viola Prettejohn (The Crown), and Isabella Rossellini (La Chimera). More cast are set to join the ensemble.

Imrie will play Gracie Burton, an ordinary widow who lives quietly in Devon, but who splashes out on a week’s cookery course at a beautiful castello in Italy. Unbeknownst to everyone, she is hiding an extraordinary secret. With her estranged workaholic daughter Carina (Fisher) and teenage granddaughter Anastasia (tbc) reluctantly in tow, the three women rediscover each other and the sensual delights of Italy. And Gracie starts to peel back the secret past she has not faced in over 40 years.

WestEnd Films has acquired international rights and is launching...

Exclusive: Kaya Scodelario (The Gentlemen) and Billie Lourd (Booksmart) have signed on to star alongside Josh Gad, Anthony Carrigan and Alex Winter in Winter’s darkly comic modern noir Adulthood.

Details as to their roles are under wraps.

Currently shooting in Ottawa, Canada, Adulthood is about a sister and brother, Megan and Noah, who are barely hanging on in present-day America, like all of us. When they discover a dead body, long buried in their parents’ basement, the siblings are pulled back to the hometown they ran away from and into a rabbit hole of crime and murder.

Novelist Michael M.B. Galvin wrote the script. In addition to Winter, producers on the project include Scott Kroopf (Limitless), Lisa Wolofsky (Tow) and Russell Hollander (Flight Risk), as well as Olive Hill Media’s Michael Cho and Tim Lee, and Fresh Fish Films’ Danny Roberts, H.S. Naji and Jackie Langelier. Connie Tavel is exec producing alongside Mimi Rode for Olive Hill Media and Thorsten Schumacher for Rocket Science. Olive Hill Media and Fresh Fish Films are financing, with Rocket Science arranging finance for international sales.

Currently starring as Susie Glass in Guy Ritchie’s acclaimed Netflix crime drama The Gentlemen, based on his same-name film, Scodelario is otherwise best known for roles in films like Crawl, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, The Maze Runner franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Moon and more. Up next, she’ll be seen in Netflix’s limited series Senna on the Formula 1 champion of the same name.

Most recently seen in numerous seasons of American Horror Story, Lourd’s other notable credits include the rom-com Ticket to Paradise, Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart, three Star Wars films and Fox’s Scream Queens. Among her other upcoming projects is Gia Coppola’s film The Last Showgirl with Pamela Anderson.

Scodelario is repped by CAA, Curtis Brown, Group, Anonymous Content and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; Lourd by CAA.

The UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts) has selected 20 executives for the 2024 edition of Inside Pictures, the film and television business training and development programme.

Participants include Swedish producer Erik Hemmendorff, who has made all of Ruben Ostlund’s feature films including Palme d’Or winners The Square and Triangle Of Sadness, through the duo’s Plattform Produktion.

Scroll down for the full list of participants

Also selected are Alex Gardener-Smith, head of commercial planning at Lionsgate UK; Charlotte Lopez, VP international sales at Studiocanal; and David Swetman, SVP content and commercial strategy at All3Media International.

Inside Pictures...

Alexander Skarsgård has signed on to co-star alongside Harry Melling (The Pale Blue Eye) in Pillion, a new feature from Poor Things producers Element Pictures being pitched as a “fun and filthy romance with heart.”

Harry Lighton, who directed the BAFTA-nominated short Wren Boys, will direct Pillion from his own script, which is inspired by Adam Mars-Jones’ 2019 novel Box Hill. Cornerstone is handling worldwide sales on the films and will pitch the project to buyers at the Cannes film market next week.

Melling plays Colin, a weedy wallflower who is letting life pass him by until he meets Ray (Skarsgård), an impossibly handsome leader of a motorbike club, who him on as his submissive. Ray uproots Colin from his dreary suburban life and introduces him to a community of kinky, queer bikers, but as Colin dives deeper into Ray’s world, he begins to question whether the life of a 24/7 submissive is really for him.

Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling are set to lead the cast of “Pillion,” described as a “fun and filthy romance with heart” and being produced by multi-Oscar-winning powerhouse Element Pictures.

The film — to be launched in Cannes by Cornerstone, which is handling worldwide sales — marks the feature debut of Harry Lighton, whose short “Wren Boys” was nominated for best British short at the 2018 BAFTAs, was nominated for a BIFA and had its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

“Pillion” follows Colin (Melling), a weedy wallflower letting life pass him by. That is until Ray (Skarsgård), the impossibly handsome leader of a motorbike club, takes him on as his submissive. Ray uproots Colin from his dreary suburban life, introducing him to a community of kinky, queer bikers and taking all sorts of virginities along the way. But as Colin steps deeper into Ray’s world of rules and mysteries,...

Exclusive: James McAvoy’s directorial debut, which we revealed last fall, has set lead cast and is heading to the Cannes market with Bankside and UTA Independent Film Group.

BAFTA winner McAvoy will take on a supporting role in the movie, which will be led by BAFTA-nominated How To Have Sex breakout Samuel Bottomley and newcomer Séamus McLean Ross, who is currently filming on Outlander: Blood of My Blood.

Currently titled California Schemin’ (working title), the film will chart the true story of two Scottish lads from Dundee who conned the international music industry by adopting American accents and pretending to be established Californian rap duo, Silibil N’ Brains.

In the late 90’s, Gavin Bain (McLean Ross) and Billy Boyd (Bottomley) had their musical ambitions consistently ridiculed for having the ‘wrong’ accents so they went for broke and reinvented themselves as Californian rappers. McAvoy’s movie will show how the...

Netflix has announced the ensemble cast for the next installment of the “Fear Street” franchise, “Prom Queen.”

The “Fear Street: Prom Queen” cast includes India Fowler (“The Nevers”, “Insomnia”), Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza (“Paper Girls,” “Above the Shadows”), David Iacono, Ella Rubin (“The Idea of You”), Chris Klein with Lili Taylor (“Outer Range,” “Manhunt”) and Katherine Waterston.

The upcoming teenage horror film is based on R.L. Stine’s 1992 “Fear Street” novel “The Prom Queen.” Per the official logline, “Prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider is unexpectedly nominated to the court, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.”

Yvonne Bernard, Joan Waricha, Jane Stine will serve as executive producers alongside Caroline Pitofsky,...

Universal International Studios has jumped back into the UK books market for another TV development.

In another “highly competitive situation,” the Universal Studio Group subsidiary has acquired rights to develop British author Christie Watson’s novel Moral Injuries as a television series.

Parent Usg was instrumental in securing the rights, just as it was when Uis swooped to buy adaptation rights to Lucy Foley’s upcoming book The Midnight Feast, as we reported on Friday.

Set in the UK, the series will be produced by Uis, with execs from ITV Studios-owned Monumental Television attached as executive producer. Alison Owen, Debra Hayward and Katie Kelly will serve as executive producers for Monumental, working in partnership with the Global Scripted Series team at Uis.

Psychological thriller Moral Injuries was released in the UK on March 14. Logline for the books bills it as a “glossy thriller that follows three best friends since...

The hunt for book IP continues to drive business.

Following what’s been described as a “highly competitive situation,” Universal International Studios (Uis) has bought the rights to author Lucy Foley’s latest novel, The Midnight Feast.

The Universal Studio Group (Usg)-owned Uis will develop a TV series adaptation of book, which publishes on June 6 and was among the highest profile titles on offer at the recent London Book Fair.

Foley will be an executive producer alongside former HBO Entertainment boss Sue Naegle and Ali Krug, who took over Annapurna’s TV development slate when Naegle exited her Chief Content Officer role at Meg Ellison’s studio back in 2022.

Usg’s Creative Acquisitions and IP Management played a significant role in the Midnight Feast acquisition, we hear. Several sources in the literary IP world have noted the increased U.S. presence at the London Book Fair last week, with Foley’s UK and U.

Exclusive: Isaach De Bankolé (Godfather of Harlem), Phoebe Fox (The Great), Silvia Dionicio (Wu-Tang: An American Saga), and Coral Peña (For All Mankind) are the newest recurring cast members set for HBO’s Untitled Brad Ingelsby Task Force Project (working title).

De Bankolé will play Father Daniel Georges, the oldest and best friend of lead Mark Ruffalo’s FBI Agent Tom, who went to seminary with him. Fox portrays Tom’s biological daughter, Sara, who is deep in grief, with Dionicio as his adopted daughter, grappling with a family tragedy. Peña portrays Meg Coyle, the guidance counselor who works at Emily’s high school.

Others previously cast in the crime drama from the creator of Mare of Easttown include Tom Pelphrey as Robbie; Emilia Jones as Maeve; Thuso Mbedu as Aleah; Raúl Castillo as Cliff; Jamie McShane as Perry; Sam Keeley as Jayson; Fabien Frankel as Anthony; Alison Oliver as...

Exclusive: “Quite a can of worms,” observed a British casting director of a scandal that, until February, was unknown to his profession. The 30-year industry veteran was talking about the practice of agents sending clients fake invitations to record self-tape auditions.

Deadline first exposed the issue in an investigation on Bodhi Talent, a boutique agency based in Manchester. Founder Archie Purnell was accused of copying legitimate self-tape invites and pasting them in emails to clients who had not been called to audition. One actor rumbled the ruse when an audition landed in her inbox 30 minutes after the deadline for submissions had passed.

Twisting open the Bodhi-shaped Russian doll revealed similar concerns about a larger agency: International Artists Management (Iam). The London-based company claims to have 400 clients on its books and is run by Luc Chaudhary, a reported millionaire once engaged to Silent Witness star Emilia Fox.

Iam went further...

Exclusive: Doctor Who director Jamie Magnus Stone is helming a sci-fi series adaptation of Brian W. Aldiss’ debut Non-Stop for Aircraft Pictures.

Set in a distant future, Non-Stop tells the tale of Roy Complain, a man born into a primitive society only to discover his tribe is one of many aboard a colossal spaceship. This knowledge sets Complain and his band of intrepid explorers on a perilous journey through uncharted territories to find the ship’s bridge, as they unravel the mysteries of their new world and confront the looming threat of their own annihilation.

Casting is yet to be announced and Aircraft will begin shopping the project at Series Mania next week.

“We’re excited to bring this science-fiction classic to the screen as part of Aircraft’s continued expansion into scripted drama,” said Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen, co-founders of Aircraft. “We’re fortunate to be working with...

The Curtis Brown Group is pushing into the UK unscripted space.

The UTA-owned agency, best known for its literary department, has created Curtis Brown Group Unscripted and Entertainment (Cbg U&e). Former Ymu agent Marta Atack has been hired to run the unit, which launches with several signings.

Cbg U&e will house clients from the entertainment, comedy, factual and digital spaces. At launch, they include Bradley Walsh, Richard E Grant, Sue Perkins, Zoe Ball, Carol Vorderman, Cat Deeley, London Hughes, Lenny Rush, Grayson Perry, Stacey Dooley, Asim Chaudhry, Layton Williams and Mae Martin.

New signings include actor and comedian Emily Atack, sister of Martha, plus Mercury-nominated musician Kojey Radical and radio broadcasters Yasmin Evans and Greg James.

Atack built a strong reputation in the unscripted space while at Ymu before exiting last year. Her new company already has numerous entertainment, presenting, comedy and cultural thought leader clients in the...

This year’s Oscars were as much a celebration of books as they were cinema. Five of the 10 best picture nominees were based on books, and three of those – “Oppenheimer,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest” – took home the most statues overall. Even the winner for best animated picture, Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron,” was loosely inspired by a 1937 novel Miyazaki had read as a child.

Which is why many of those partying in L.A. on Sunday night boarded planes across the Atlantic days later bound for the London Book Fair, which kicked off yesterday and runs through the end of the week, in search of their next Oscar-contending project. “It feels like there’s an influx of film and television executives, studio executives, producers etc., all coming into town,” Jason Richman, co-head of media rights at UTA, tells Variety.

With TV also wild about...

Exclusive: Continuing to expand its cast, HBO’s Untitled Brad Ingelsby Task Force Project (working title) has added five as recurring: Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time), Mickey Sumner (Snowpiercer), Brian Goodman (Fatal Attraction), Elvis Nolasco (Godfather of Harlem), and Colin Bates (American Rust).

Sbarge plays Police Chief Dorsey, who oversees a multi-unit operation to assist FBI Agent Tom (Ruffalo) and the team in their search. Sumner portrays Shelley Driscoll, who is desperate to escape her husband Ray, with Goodman as Vincent Hawkes, one of the 13 National Leaders of a dangerous biker gang. Nolasco plays Freddy Frias, the savvy and ruthless captain of Philadelphia’s largest drug trafficking organization, while Bates portrays Shane McReynolds, the Sergeant-At-Arms of a dangerous biker gang and a member of Jayson’s inner circle.

Others previously cast include Tom Pelphrey as Robbie; Emilia Jones as Maeve; Thuso Mbedu as Aleah; Raúl Castillo as Cliff...

Actor, comedian and activist Emily Atack has signed with Curtis Brown for representation, Variety has learned exclusively. She will be repped by the agency in all areas.

Atack shot to public attention as the break-out star of award-winning sitcom “The Inbetweeners” and has since appeared in projects including “Dad’s Army” with Catherine Zeta Jones and Bill Nighy, “Lies We Tell” alongside Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel and “Alright Now” starring Cobie Smulders.

She wrote and starred in her own sketch/comedy series “The Emily Atack Show” for ITV, which has run for three seasons, and has also appeared on other comedy and panel shows including “The Keith Lemon Sketch Show,” “Tracey Ullman’s Show” and “Celebrity Juice.”

Atack will next be seen in Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s best-selling novel “Rivals,” which drops this fall. She plays ambitious politician’s wife Sarah Stratton opposite “W1A’s” Rufus Jones as deputy Prime Minister Paul Stratton.

Exclusive: United Talent Agency (UTA) has revealed it paid more than £43M ($55M) to acquire UK agent Curtis Brown in 2022, with its revenue surging on the back of the deal.

UTA acquired Curtis Brown’s parent company Original Talent Limited in June 2022, but did not disclose financial terms. Sources told Deadline at the time that the deal was worth $45M-$55M.

A financial filing from United Talent Agency UK Limited on Companies House has revealed that it paid £43.3M for 100% of the agency that reps stars including Ncuti Gatwa and Robert Pattinson.

UTA’s UK earnings unsurprisingly rocketed. The company’s sales stood at £46.3M for the 14 months to the end of February 2023, a 12-fold increase on £3.7M in 2021.

UTA’s loss before tax widened to £14.4M last year, compared with £5.7M in 2021, though this is understood to be a result of debt structuring.

Original Talent was profitable over the...

A biography on the rise and fall of Steve Wynn, the longtime Las Vegas casino owner and billionaire, is being developed for a small or big screen treatment.

Scott Jay Kaplan and Emmet McDermott’s CoverStory producer banner optioned Christina Binkley’s Winner Takes All book about Wynn’s meteoric rise from scrappy bingo parlor operator to casino billionaire for a film or TV adaptation. Wynn resigned from his corporate empire in 2018 amid sexual misconduct allegations.

CoverStory’s McDermott produced White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, Alison Klayman’s documentary for Netflix about the popularity and ruin of the once coveted “all-American” retail brand.

Binkley will co-produce the Winner Takes All adaptation, which will be set mainly in the 1990s as Wynn’s drive for power set up his ultimate corporate demise. That created a vacuum of power filled by his ex-wife Elaine, on whom Wynn blamed his downfall.

Exclusive: Having successfully adapted The Summer I Turned Pretty books into the popular Prime Video YA series, Wiip is aiming to do the same with another YA title. The independent studio has acquired Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ novel Little White Lies, to develop for television.

Like the breakout first season of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, Little White Lies takes place over a debutante season.

It is a mystery series about a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks who agrees to move in with her estranged maternal grandmother and do a debutante year, but only because she’s determined to figure out which scion of Southern high society is her biological father.

Wiip’s Paul Lee, Mark Roybal, and Nate Winslow will executive produce alongside Barnes and A Star Is Born executive producer Heather Parry, who brought the project to the studio.

“Heather and I grew...

Exclusive: Even as it continues to develop the final chapter in its main Star Trek series, Paramount is looking to further explore the IP. The studio has tapped Toby Haynes to direct a new film that expands on the Star Trek universe, with Seth Grahame-Smith penning the script. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot is producing.

Sources tell Deadline that while plot details are being kept under wraps, the project is an origin story that takes place decades before the 2009 Star Trek film that rebooted the franchise. Insiders add that the final chapter in that main series, Star Trek 4, remains in active development.

Although there hasn’t been a film since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, the brand remains as strong as its ever been behind popular Paramount+ shows like Picard and Strange New Worlds earning strong reviews and solid ratings. The Brian Robbins led-Paramount saw an opportunity to build on...

Exclusive: We are hearing that DC Studios is planning to test actresses soon to star in Supergirl, and that Milly Alcock, Emilia Jones and Meg Donnelly are in the mix.

There is a chance the studio could make a straight offer to a star, but all things are pointing toward screen tests for actresses, which will go down within the next month or so, we hear.

Deadline understands that natch, DC Studios co-boss James Gunn is definitely part of the process, as this is a character who likely will make its debut via a cameo in a DC project that isn’t Supergirl. The search is ongoing for a director.

Alcock is best known for her lead role on HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon, playing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. She is repped by CAA, Shanahan Management, Entertainment 360 and Curtis Brown.

Jones, repped by CAA and Brillstein,...

Exclusive: Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures has entered production on Hedda, its reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s famed 1891 stage play Hedda Gabler, announcing the addition of six to its cast. Newcomers include Imogen Poots (Baltimore), Tom Bateman (Thirteen Lives), Finbar Lynch (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan), Mirren Mack (The Witcher: Blood Origins), Jamael Westman (Hamilton), and Saffron Hocking (Top Boy).

The actors join an ensemble that also includes Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss, and Nicholas Pinnock, as previously announced.

Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler revolves around Hedda Tesman, a newlywed stifled by societal norms. Frustrated and trapped, she resorts to manipulation and destructive actions. As secrets unravel, the play explores themes of power, gender roles, and the tragic consequences of societal expectations in the late 19th century.

Directing from her own script is Nia DaCosta, the filmmaker behind Uni’s newest Candyman horror pic and the acclaimed crime drama Little Woods. Producers include Plan B,...

Russell Brand’s upcoming book releases will be paused by his U.K. publisher Bluebird following allegations of sexual assault and rape. The Pan Macmillan imprint revealed on Monday that all plans related to the actor and comedian’s publishing have been terminated for the time being. His upcoming release, Recovery: The Workbook, was scheduled to be published in December.

“These are very serious allegations and in the light of them, Bluebird has taken the decision to pause all future publishing with Russell Brand,” Bluebird shared in a statement, according to The Bookseller.

“Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” star Morfydd Clark is set to headline a biopic “Making Noise,” about Evelyn Glennie, a deaf woman who became the world’s premier solo percussionist.

Multi-Grammy winner Glennie, who hails from Scotland, experienced profound hearing loss as a child. But instead of giving up on her dream of making music, she instead went on to become a global star, performing with artists including Bjork, Underworld and Mark Knopfler. She has also released more than 40 albums and performed over 2,500 concerts worldwide.

Embankment is launching global pre-sales on the project at the Toronto Film Festival. Directed by “The Levelling” helmer Hope Dickson Leach, “Making Noise” is described as a “vibrant, exhilarating story of how the world fell in love with a woman who broke all the rules.”

Clark, who has also appeared in “Saint Maud” (earning her a BAFTA Rising Star nom) and will...

Exclusive: The Veterans is launching international sales on upcoming UK period comedy Fackham Hall at Toronto and has unveiled first members of the ensemble cast.

In the first significant deal announced during TIFF, Bleecker Street has acquired U.S. rights for the film.

First signings include Hero Fiennes Tiffin (The Woman King), Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night in Soho), Emma Laird (A Haunting In Venice) and Katherine Waterston, who appears in this year’s TIFF title The End We Start From alongside Jodie Comer and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Written by comedian Jimmy Carr in his screenwriting feature debut with Patrick Carr and the Dawson Brothers (The Bubble), Fackham Hall pokes fun at traditional period dramas like Downton Abbey and Gosford Park. The production is described as being “in the tradition of classic joke-a-minute spoof comedies like The Naked Gun series and Airplane!”.

Fiennes Tiffin will play a new porter who embarks on...

Option

Genesius Pictures has optioned Emmett de Monterey’s acclaimed memoir “Go the Way Your Blood Beats” – about growing up gay and disabled in 1980s London – for TV adaptation.

Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, earlier this month, the memoir details how when de Monterey is 18 months old, a doctor diagnoses him with cerebral palsy. Growing up in southeast London in the 1980s, de Monterey is spat at on the street and prayed over at church. At his mainstream school, teachers refuse to schedule his classes on the ground floor, and at his college for disabled students, he’s told he will be expelled if the rumors are true, if he’s gay.

He is then chosen for a first-of-its-kind surgery in America which he hopes will ‘cure’ him and enable him to walk unaided. But the miracle doesn’t occur, and he must reckon with a...

“Silk” screenwriter Peter Moffat is adapting Jonathan Freedland’s non-fiction book “The Escape Artist,” which tells the true story of two Jews who escaped from Auschwitz.

Margery Bone’s Bonafide Films has secured the rights to Freedland’s book, which is set to be made into a high-end limited series. Bonafide, who have a development and distribution deal with BBC Studios, recently produced Nicôle Lecky’s BAFTA-winning “Mood.”

“The Escape Artist” centers around nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba, a Slovakian Jew who manages to escape Auschwitz alongside fellow internee Fred Wetzler, and warn the world about what was happening. Their actions saved the lives of at least 200,000 Jews who were facing immediate deportation from Budapest to the world’s most notorious death camp.

“This is a story of how human beings can be pushed to the outer limits, and yet still somehow endure,” said Freeland. “How the actions of one individual, even a teenage boy,...

Peter Moffat is forging a TV adaptation of UK journalist Jonathan Freedland’s The Escape Artist with Mood production outfit Bonafide Films.

The Your Honor and Criminal Justice BAFTA winner is onboard to write the show telling the astonishing, true-life story of how Rudolf Vrba, a 19-year-old Slovakian Jew, along with fellow inmate Fred Wetzler, escaped from Auschwitz to warn the world about the Holocaust. The pair’s report led to the saving of 200,000 Budapest Jews from immediate deportation to Auschwitz. The project is not yet attached to a network and Bonafide has secured rights for TV.

Freedland is a highly-regarded British journalist who mainly writes on politics and international affairs for The Guardian but has also penned numerous works of fiction, some of which are under the pseudonym Sam Bourne.

Margery Bone’s London-based Bonafide has previously worked with Moffat on BBC drama The Last Post, which starred Jessie Buckley...