Apichatpong Weerasethakul To Shoot Film In Sri Lanka Inspired By Arthur C. Clarke

Before “Yellowstone” became a huge phenomenon on the small screen, Academy Award-nominated writer Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario,” “Hell or High Water”) made waves with his feature film screenwriting and directorial effort on “Wind River.” A murder mystery revenge thriller set in a rural community in Wyoming, the drama starred Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene, Jon Bernthal, and Martin Senmeier (“Magnificent Seven”).

Jason Clarke, Scott Eastwood and Chaske Spencer will star together in “Wind River: The Next Chapter,” the sequel to Taylor Sheridan’s “Wind River,” for Castle Rock Entertainment.Kari Skogland (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Americans”) will direct from a screenplay by writing partners Patrick Massett and John Zinman (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Friday Night Lights”).Starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, the 2017 Taylor Sheridan crime drama followed a seasoned hunter who helped an FBI agent investigate the killing of a young woman living on a Wyoming Native American reservation. The sequel also takes place on the Wind River resevation, where a series of ritualistic murders remain unsolved.

Jason Clarke (Winning Time), Scott Eastwood (The Outpost) and Chaske Spencer (The English) have signed on to star alongside Martin Sensmeier in Wind River: The Next Chapter — Castle Rock Entertainment’s sequel to the acclaimed 2017 crime drama Wind River, which is currently in production in Calgary.

K.J. Yossman Freida Pinto is lending her voice to a new animated film project in honor of International Women’s Day. She Creates Change is a new nonprofit-led animation and live action film project from global education organization Room to Read produced by Nexus Studios. The multi-media initiative, which spans a six-episode film series as well as books and audio stories, aims to promote gender equality through telling the stories of young women across the planet. It will initially be available in English, Hindi and Spanish with plans to translate it into dozens more languages and will be distributed across the world via Room to Read and educational partnerships. The project will also be released to general audiences in October.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Georgia lawmakers will take a close look at all of the state’s tax incentives — including its TV and film production program — with an eye toward reforming the ones that don’t work. Gov. Brian Kemp joined Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and House Speaker Jon Burns on Thursday to announce that a “thorough review” of tax credits will take place after the current legislative session. The announcement specifically included the $1.3 billion film credit, the state’s largest tax incentive, which has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support. Jones, who was elected in November, campaigned eliminating the state income tax, which would require either eliminating tax credits entirely or turning them into cash grants. Other lawmakers have also sought to reduce income taxes for all taxpayers by eliminating business tax credits.

Avalon Emerson has announced the release of her debut album for her new musical project, as well as sharing new single ‘Hot Evening’.The self-titled record ‘Avalon Emerson & The Charm’ will be released on April 28 via her Another Dove label. Upon announcement, the US producer and songwriter has also shared the latest single, the shimmering ‘Hot Evening’.“The sonic inspiration comes from somewhere between Todd Edwards, the Magnetic Fields, and the Chordettes,” she said of the track.

EXCLUSIVE: Clock, a timely horror feature from 20th Digital Studio and Hulu Originals has dropped new images.

Clock, a timely horror feature from 20th Digital Studio and Hulu Originals will have its World Premiere at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana before debuting exclusively on Hulu on April 28. The film will be available on Disney+ internationally at a later date.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After securing major distribution deals at the EFM, Luc Besson’s next film “Dogman” starring Caleb Landry Jones, is now eyeing a launch in the festival circuit this fall, Variety has learned. The movie’s French release, initially planned for April 19, has been pushed to the fall to allow distributors to prepare a coordinated global release after a launch at an A-category festival. It would mark the first Besson-directed movie to open at a festival in decades. His wild space opera movie “The Fifth Element” was the opening night movie of the 50th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. Besson’s first film since his 2019 actioner “Anna,” “Dogman” is rumored to mark a return to form for the French director. Based on the trailer which we saw before the Berlinale, the film will be closer to some of his early work, notably “Subway,” “Nikita” and “The Professional” which were character-driven movies with a darker edge.

Pet Shop Boys‘ Neil Tennant wrote and sent to the late Janice Long in the ’80s has been discovered at a record shop in Altrincham, Trafford.As BBC News reports, the frontman thanked the Radio 1 DJ for playing the synth-pop duo’s debut single ‘West End Girls’ in the note, which was found in a 12-inch vinyl edition of the track.The letter is dated “12 April, 1984” – three days after the song was released.Tennant, who worked as a journalist at Smash Hits at the time, provided some information on how he and bandmate Chris Lowe had recorded ‘West End Girls’ with producer Bobby Orlando after meeting him in New York.“We’ve now recorded over half an album and are due to go back to New York quite soon to finish it,” he continued in the unearthed letter.“Anyway, hope you like the 12″ I’ve enclosed and thanks for playing ‘West End Girls’ on Thursday. As far as I’m concerned, you’re now an honorary Pet Shop Girl!” See an image in the tweet below.A letter written by Pet Shop Boys star Neil Tennant, thanking Radio 1's Janice Long for playing the band's debut single (“West End Girls”) in 1984.

EXCLUSIVE: Jesse Garcia (Flamin’ Hot) will star opposite Eva Longoria and George Lopez in the Disney+ film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Angelique Jackson Launch Releasing, the independent film distribution and production company, has announced its 2023 development slate following last year’s releases, Lionsgate’s “The Black String,” starring Frankie Muniz, and “The Translator,” which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Highlights include the action-comedy “Andy Somebody” and two sequels to the animated franchise “Riki Rhino,” which the company will executive produce. “At Launch Releasing, our passion and mandate is really simple – we want to find movies that we love and share them with audiences. When we saw ‘Andy Somebody,’ we instantly fell in love with its underdog story and its quirky comedic characters and we’re looking forward to audiences joining us on this really fun ride,” stated Sheldon Brigman, the company’s CEO. “Whether it’s genre titles such as ‘Mr. Sleep’ or captivating human interest films such as ‘The Translator’ where complex characters make life and death decisions in war torn Syria, Launch Releasing is proud to have curated a diverse and distinct slate.”

EXCLUSIVE: 2x Emmy nominee Matt Walsh (Veep) has signed on to star alongside Alejandro De Hoyos (The Man from Toronto), Chelsea Rendon (Vida), Francisco Ramos (Gentefied), John Kaler (The Wrong Guy) and Jason Konopisos-Alvarez (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) in the action-comedy The Unexpecteds from writer-director Alejandro Montoya Marín.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Apple has given a series order to the drama “The Last Frontier” with Jason Clarke set to play the lead role, Variety has learned. The series hails from creators Jon Bokenkamp, who previously created the hit NBC series “The Blacklist,” and Richard D’Ovidio, who previously worked with Bokenkamp on the 2013 film “The Call” as well as on “The Blacklist” and “The Blacklist: Redemption.” In the 10-episode series, Clarke will star as US Marshal Frank Remnick, the lone Marshal in the barrens of Alaska. Per the official logline, “Frank’ s jurisdiction is turned upside-down when a prison transport plane crashes in the remote wilderness, setting free dozens of violent inmates. Tasked with protecting the town he’s vowed to keep safe, he begins to suspect the crash wasn’t an accident, but the first step of a well-crafted plan with international political implications.”

Apple Studios has greenlit the new original drama series The Last Frontier from Jon Bokenkamp (The Blacklist) and Richard D’Ovidio (The Call) with Jason Clarke (Winning Time, Zero Dark Thirty ) set to lead.

Rebecca Lenkiewicz will be this year’s recipient of the WGA West’s Paul Selvin Award in recognition of her adapted screenplay for She Said, the Universal film about the New York Times reporters who broke the story that exposed disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. The guild said Thursday that she will be honored at the WGA Awards’ Los Angeles ceremony March 5 at the Fairmont Century Plaza.

Naman Ramachandran A galaxy of A-list talent will participate in SXSW’s inaugural South Asian House initiative. Panel discussion Creating South Asian Content for a Global Audience, will feature actor Rizwan Manji (“Schitt’s Creek”), Emmy-winning producer/writer for Vice, Falguni Adams (“Dateline NBC”) and Apoorva Bakshi, producer of International Emmy-winning series “Delhi Crime,” moderated by CEO of Jingo Media and producer of South Asian House Jitin Hingorani. Another panel, Investing in the Future of Our South Asian Stories, will feature CEO and co-founder of URL Media S. Mitra Kalita and actor Kausar Mohammed (“The Flash”), moderated by co-founder of Box Office Guru Media Gitesh Pandya.

James Arthur has responded to Busted‘s Charlie Simpson being revealed as ‘Rhino’ on The Masked Singer, following fan speculation that he was behind the disguise.The final of the ITV show – which sees famous musicians perform in costumes and masks to make their identity a mystery – aired on Saturday (February 18), where it was revealed that the Busted singer was the season four winner and had been performing behind the Rhino mask.However, fans of the show had spent several weeks speculating that it was actually Arthur in the costume.“Fuck me I can’t wait till everybody stops blowing my phone up every Saturday thinking I’m on telly singing dressed as a rhino,” the X Factor winner responded on Twitter.“@CharlieSimpson id know that voice anywhere,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet. “One of the best out there #maskedsinger now everyone piss off and leave me alone.”“Honoured to be compared to @CharlieSimpson by the way.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Coming of age thriller “The Gymnasts,” one of the most recent titles from Europe’s public broadcaster partnership The Alliance, has been licensed to over 30 territories, London-based super indie All3Media International confirmed on Monday at the Berlinale Series Market.     Based on Ilaria Bernardini’s bestselling novel “Corpo Libero” (“The Girls Are Good”), the six-part series is produced by the Oscar-winning team at Indigo Film, behind “The Great Beauty,” in co-production with ZDF Neo’s German company Network Movie.  The series has been made in collaboration with Rai Fiction and Paramount+, and in association with All3Media International.

EXCLUSIVE: South African director John Trengove’s crisis of masculinity drama Mandrome, which world premieres in Competition at the Berlinale this weekend, is one of the most topical Golden Bear contenders this year.