Anatomy of a Megadeal: How Flight Attendant-Turned-Novelist T.J. Newman Sparked a Hollywood Bidding War for ‘Drowning’

Brad Pitt is set to drive at the British Grand Prix as part of production for his upcoming Formula One movie.During a panel at the F1 Accelerate Summit in Miami, director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer shared details about the upcoming Apple Studios film.The currently untitled project stars Pitt as a driver who comes out of retirement to team up with a rookie and take on the titans of the sport.Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton is on board as a producer and will also be advising on the storyline and script, “to ensure is the most accurate racing film ever made”.Kosinski and Bruckheimer revealed that they are “creating an 11th team filming on track and on event from Silverstone to the end of the year.” This year, the British Grand Prix will take place at Silverstone on July 9.The duo confirmed that the film’s stars will actually be driving the race cars themselves, with audiences being able to enter the cockpit thanks to “the smallest moveable 6k camera ever designed”.However, Variety has since confirmed that Pitt will not be racing against other drivers on the track, and the vehicle he drives will most likely be a modified version of a junior F2 or F3 car.Panel moderator Will Buxton shared that the car being used for the film was designed by Mercedes.During a Q&A in April (via Sports Illustrated), F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said the film will be “quite invasive in terms of production. It’s something that we need to control, in a way, but it will be another way of showing that Formula 1 never stops.”British actor Damson Idris (Swarm) will star alongside Pitt.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Sebastián Lelio, the Oscar-winning auteur behind “A Fantastic Woman,” will direct Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones in “Voyagers,” the story of the romantic relationship between astronomer and “Contact” author Carl Sagan and documentary producer and director Ann Druyan. The feature is produced by Ben Browning for FilmNation Entertainment, Lynda Obst, who guided “Contact” to the big screen, and Druyan herself. FilmNation Entertainment is set to launch global sales at the upcoming Cannes Market “Voyagers” unfolds in 1977 as NASA prepared to launch humanity’s first interstellar probes. A team led by Sagan sets out to create a message to accompany them, known as the Golden Record, which included music and images, for possible alien civilizations.  But what starts out as a race-against-the-clock mission blossoms into a love story between Sagan and Druyan. FilmNation Entertianment paired Druyan, who married Sagan in 1981, with screenwriters Lelio and Jessica Goldberg. They then wrote the original screenplay based on interviews with Druyan and many others who worked on the Golden Record project.

Homeland co-creator Howard Gordon will receive the 62nd Monte-Carlo Television Festival’s Honorary Golden Nymph, an award that honors renowned professionals for their extraordinary contributions to the entertainment and television industry.

EXCLUSIVE: After helping relaunch the Ghostbusters franchise for Sony Pictures, Jason Reitman is reuniting with the studio to tell the behind the scenes story for the premiere of one of more iconic shows in TV history. Source tell Deadline, Reitman is set to direct an untitled original screenplay for Sony which is based on the real-life behind the scenes accounts of the opening night of Saturday Night Live. Reitman will also reteam with his Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-scribe, Gil Kenan, to co-write the script.

Total Film.“I had been ambitious to do this film for 10 years, and there finally came a time when we all committed to that,” he added. “It was a joyous moment for me.

Brent Lang Executive Editor When it came time to create the more than 200 mini-skirts, sequined dresses, elegant suits and other outfits that the cast of “Bob Fosse’s Dancin'” hoofs it in, costume designers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung faced a big dilemma. They needed to pay tribute to the legendary choreographer’s legacy while still making something of the moment. That meant combing through archival material from Fosse’s many shows, ranging from films like “Kiss Me Kate” and “Cabaret” to his late-period masterpieces such as “Big Deal.” But there was very little to consult when it came to the 1978 original “Dancin'” other than a few grainy videos of a Japanese production and some photos of Willa Kim’s costumes.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama joined Bruce Springsteen during his April 28 concert in Barcelona, belting out “Glory Days” while banging a tambourine.

regrets editing the guns out of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and digitally swapping them with walkie-talkies for the 20th anniversary re-release in 2002. “That was a mistake,” a repentant Spielberg said of his misguided attempt to reduce the ending’s peril.

Brent Lang Executive Editor To get the chance to make a movie of Judy Blume’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” producer James L. Brooks and writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig made the pilgrimage to the beloved author’s home in Key West, Fla. “I spent most of our time with Judy warning her about Hollywood and all the things it will do to you — basically, I warned her about folks like me,” says Brooks, the Oscar-winning director of “Terms of Endearment” and the co-creator of “The Simpsons” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Blume chose not to heed the admonition. By the end of their sit-down, Brooks, Craig and Blume’s husband George were all hugging. The film rights were theirs. It turns out Brooks and Craig had an ace up their sleeve: Blume had loved their collaboration “The Edge of Seventeen,” a sensitively drawn look at a teenager navigating the minefield of high school while processing her dad’s death. It’s a coming-of-age tale that’s similar to “Are You There God?,” which depicts the challenges and mortifications of being on the cusp of puberty. On April 28, fans of the book will get to see how successfully Craig, Brooks and their collaborators pulled it off when the Lionsgate release opens in theaters.

which first reported the news, “All that’s known about the sequel, in terms of plot, is that it will continue the story of Vaughn’s prize-winning gym owner. Serving as the basis for VanDina’a script is an idea from Vaughn.”Lionsgate has recently acquired VanDina’s original spec “Dennis Rodman’s 48 Hours in Vegas,” with Lord Miller and 3 Arts on board to produce.

Ke Huy Quan has some disappointing news for “Indiana Jones” fans.

Ke Huy Quan has some disappointing news for  fans.ET's Rachel Smith spoke to the Oscar-winner, who was being honored at the TIME 100 Gala Wednesday, about rumors that he may make a cameo in the saga's fifth installment,, alongside the film's reigning star, Harrison Ford.«I want to say [yes], but no,» Quan said when asked if he'd be making a cameo in the film. «Here's the thing. I don't want t to disappoint the fans.

Kim Kardashian flashed her toned midriff in a sheer two-piece as she arrived at the Lincoln Center in New York City on Tuesday. Kim, who earlier attended a Lakers basketball game alongside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, is no stranger when it comes to standout outfits from some of the biggest designers.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Steven Spielberg has seen “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the fifth installment in the long-running adventure franchise and, notably, the first entry not to be directed by Spielberg himself. “The Wolverine” and “Ford v Ferrari” director James Mangold took over filmmaking duties on “Dial of Destiny.” Anyone worried a Spielberg-less “Indiana Jones” movie might not deliver the goods can now rest easy, as Spielberg himself loved the latest sequel. “I just had that experience two nights ago,” Spielberg said at the Time 100 Summit when asked what it’s like watching an “Indiana Jones” movie he didn’t direct. “Bob Iger had a screening for a lot of the Disney executives and I came to the screening along with the director James Mangold. Everybody loved the movie. It’s really, really a good Indiana Jones film. I’m really proud of what Jim has done with it.”

hit 1982 film “E.T.” that showed government agents armed with guns.The scene ultimately didn’t make it into the 2002 re-release of the film and instead had the guns replaced with walkie talkies.“That was a mistake. That was a mistake,” he said at the Time 100 Summit Tuesday, adding, “I never should have done that because ‘E.T.’ was a product of its era.”“No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily or being forced to peer through.”“‘E.T.’ was a film that I was sensitive to the fact that the federal agents were approaching kids with firearms exposed and I thought I would change the guns into walkie talkies.

Brent Lang Executive Editor During the pandemic, studios experimented with shrinking the amount of time that their films screened exclusively in cinemas, while spending oceans of money to launch streaming services. But the debt they racked up has sent their share prices plummeting and, now, studios are making more movies for theaters and cutting back on their streaming budgets. CinemaCon, the annual exhibition industry showcase that is unfolding this week in Las Vegas, couldn’t be happier about the shift in strategy. John Fithian, the head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, the trade group behind the show, touted the new state of play during his speech to the convention, while praising Apple and Amazon for embracing the big screen with movies like “Air” and the upcoming “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Napoleon.” Both of these companies will reportedly spend more than $1 billion on theatrical films.

Jurassic Park has been announced, marking 30 years since the release of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster.‘Jurassic Park In Concert’ is due to tour the UK, with John Williams’ score performed live by a full orchestra. The tour begins at the Manchester AO Arena on October 18, before continuing to the Birmingham Resorts World, Leeds First Direct Arena, Nottingham Motorpoint, and concluding at the Liverpool M&S Bank Arena on October 29.The tour follows a long line of Hollywood classics that have received the orchestral treatment, with the HD screening accompanied by a performance of Williams’ seminal score by the Hallé Orchestra, one of the UK’s top symphonic ensembles.The plot of Jurassic Park follows a group of scientists, invited to a newly opened theme park set on a remote island, with exhibits featuring recently revived dinosaurs after a scientific breakthrough.You can see full dates for the tour below.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Warner Bros Discovery CEO and President, David Zaslav, will be teeing off Warner Bros studio presentation at CinemaCon on Tuesday AM, April 25.

Matthew McConaughey smoking a joint in Guy Ritchie’s new movie “The Covenant.” The prolific British director has, for the moment, left behind quirky crime and comedy for his Afghanistan War film — and it’s not hard to understand why. The story the movie is based on is a harrowing and special one. A US Army sergeant and an Afghan interpreter are on the run from the Taliban, when the American is knocked unconscious and his companion must go to extraordinary lengths to save him.Running time: 125 minutes.

Lary Simpson, who launched a career in entertainment law at Tri-Star Pictures before leaving legal practice to join older brother Don Simpson in motion picture production, died Jan. 25 of cancer at his home in Noank, Connecticut. He was 77.