DJ Qualls, Lydia Hearst To Star In ‘Turning Point’; Connor Paolo, Jonathan Bennett Topline ‘Fire Island’ – Film Briefs

Jonathan Bennett is proudly living his truth these days. He’s engaged to Jaymes Vaughan and the couple have teamed up with KAY Jewelers to design ‘Our Ring by Jaymes & Jonathan’, one of the first same-sex engagement / wedding ring offerings by a major retailer. But, for many years Jonathan lived in fear of coming out — and what it might do to his career as a Hollywood heartthrob. 

Edward Norton and Joss Stone have joined the voice cast of Paper Birds Pt. 2, the follow-up to the VR experience that hails from 3DAR, Baobab Studios and Oculus. Like its predecessor, it is bowing at the Tribeca Film Festival. It will be available on Oculus Quest beginning July 8.

Vision Film has acquired rights to I Love Us, a romantic drama from Danny A. Abeckaser’s 2B Films. Abeckaser stars with Jackie Cruz, Katie Cassidy, Harlow Jane, David James Elliott, Robert Davi, Jasper Polish, Greg Finley, James Madio, David James Elliott, Elya Baskin and Courtney Lopez in the ensemble, which wrapped production at the end of March after a shoot in Los Angeles. It will get a 10-city theatrical run along with VOD in September.

Angelique Jackson Victoria Pedretti, who stars as Love Quinn on Netflix’s “You,” has been tapped to play “The Lovely Bones” author Alice Sebold in the film adaptation of her 1999 memoir, “Lucky.”“Lucky” focuses on the 18-year-old Alice, then a burgeoning writer in her freshman year at Syracuse University.

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Jonathan Bennett is still close to his Mean Girls co-star Lindsay Lohan — so it’s no surprise he reached out to her after the news broke on May 24 that she landed a staring role in an upcoming Netflix Christmas movie, set to be released in 2022.

Daisy Head, who can currently be seen in the new Netflix series Shadow and Bone, has signed on for Paramount and eOne’s untitled Dungeons & Dragons film adaptation based on the popular Hasbro game franchise from Wizards of the Coast.

Kino Lorber has acquired distributor Artsploitation Films from its owner and president Ray Murray. Murray and his team will remain with the business as a Kino Lorber brand and division. The deal for Artsploitation, which releases international genre and cutting-edge specialty films, adds 100 titles to Kino Lorber’s library that now has more than 4,000.

Maitland Ward is not only returning to television after enjoying a second act in the world of adult filmmaking, but the former "Boy Meets World" actress is also penning a juicy memoir about her life post-Mickey Mouse and how she took control of her life after leaving Disney.

Chris Willman Music WriterThe late EDM star Avicii was not just an “arena act” — he’s now an arena namesake.

Gravitas Ventures has picked up North American distribution rights to Fully Realized Humans, an indie comedy from director Joshua Leonard. The film, which screened at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, will get a day-and-date release on July 30.

In a relatively short time since they made their directorial debut on the animated kids’ film “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” in 2009, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have established themselves as two of the most original and risky filmmakers on the planet. Having hit it big with kids films, including “The LEGO Movie,” the duo then went to reboot “21 Jump Street” as a comedy, which was a massive hit and then took that and turned it into a gig on a “Star Wars” film.

“Sparkles It’s confirmed, official, and it’s going to be hard to wait: #Benedetta by Paul Verhoeven with Virginie Efira joins the #Cannes2021 #Competition! Projected in World premiere in Cannes on July 9th, the film will be released in theatres in France on the same day,” and with that, the Cannes Film Festival finally announced the new Paul Verhoeven film, “Benedetta,” at their festival, a year after it was supposed to initially premiere.

The 31st Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival this week unveiled its full lineup for its virtual edition, which will run May 27-June 6. A total of 143 films including 33 features and five episodic series will unspool, according to new executive director Lauren Howes and director of programming Andrew Murphy. A total of 70% of this year’s selected films are by women/trans/non-binary directors