How ‘Strays’ Used ‘Stand by Me,’ ‘A Dog’s Purpose’ and a D— Protector to Convince Universal to Make the R-Rated Comedy

Brent Lang Executive Editor Before cameras ever start rolling on a RadicalMedia movie, staffers are already busy strategizing about where it should eventually premiere. The company, which boasts “The Fog of War” and “Summer of Soul” among its many credits, routinely consults an exhaustive chart that lays out the deadlines to submit a movie to major festivals like Cannes, Sundance and Toronto.

Jaden Thompson Everyone remembers their first R-rated movie. Maybe you snuck into a theater trying to pass as 17, or maybe your parents didn’t care for censorship. Either way — whether it’s a movie with gore, expletives or nudity — that first experience leaves an impression.

Brent Lang Executive Editor David Slade, the director of the Emmy and BAFTA-award winning “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” has signed with 42, the Los Angeles and London-based management and production company. The company will manage the filmmaker, who also joins 42’s commercials offering OB42 for representation in the U.K.

It’s hard to believe that it’s now over 60 years since Roman Polanski teamed up with Jerzy Skolimowski for the landmark 1962 Polish thriller Knife in the Water. But it’s even harder to believe that these two giants of international cinema reunited more recently to pool their braincells and come up with the most terrible, joyless farce since the heyday of the ’70s British sex comedy. Forget for a moment, if you can, the furor surrounding Polanski’s controversial status as a fugitive from justice and concentrate instead on the fact that the Venice Film Festival, in its infinite wisdom, went ahead and booked this entirely dreadful offering anyway, deeming it somehow worthy of a prestigious Out of Competition slot.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Barbie” and “Gran Turismo” are both claiming victory at the box office in a showdown that has a lot to do with movie accounting and shifting definitions of the meaning of an opening weekend. Warner Bros., which backed “Barbie,” is claiming that the film won the weekend for the fifth time, earning $15.1 million over last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, Sony, which produced “Gran Turismo,” is claiming that its film topped box office charts with $17.4 million.

published in WSJ Magazine.The Post reached out to Aniston and Sandler for comment. In November 2022, the “Friends” alum got candid about her struggles with In vitro fertilization (IVF) and her infertility.“If it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be,” Aniston told Allure mag for their December cover story. “That’s why I have such gratitude for all those sh- – -y things.”“I was throwing everything at it.

Pregnant former Love Island star Laura Anderson and her ex, Gary Lucy, have sparked rumours that they are back together. Laura, 34, announced that she was expecting a baby in February, however, the same day it emerged that she and ex-EastEnders star Gary, 41, had broken up.

Todd Gilchrist editor The new film “Strays” may enlist Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park to “fill in” the personality of its four canine lead characters, but it’s real-life dogs — and an army of trainers — who work hard to deliver a convincing performance on screen that matches their voice work. Director Josh Greenbaum not only cast the pups with as much thought and detail as when he recruited their human counterparts, but worked closely with head animal trainer Mark Forbes to make sure that they learned the various activities, and behaviors to believably tell the story written by Dan Perrault about a discarded pet who travels cross country with three pals to exact revenge on his owner.

Todd Gilchrist editor “Strays” follows in the hallowed tradition of stories of animals separated from their loved ones — from “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey” to “Finding Nemo” — with a few new twists, and a lot of four-letter words. Even more than offering an uncensored window into the perspective of humankind’s four-legged pals, director Josh Greenbaum and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller wanted to examine how a closer look at dogs could shed light on some truths about the people who love (and in the case of the movie, loathe) them.

Catherine Bray Dondo’s dad is dead. That’s one of the first things we learn in writer-director Johnny Barrington’s spry, offbeat debut feature “Silent Roar” — this year’s Edinburgh fest opener.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s been a few years since Rhiannon Giddens did anything remotely in the ballpark of a “pop” album, and it’s not hard to come up with reasons for that: Besides her having a full dance card, you could almost argue she’s overqualified for the job. The recipient of both a MacArthur “genius grant” and a Pulitzer, the banjo-wielding balladeer has sustained herself for a while at the intersection of earthy and highbrow, most recently winning acclaim for her opera, “Omar,” and she looks at least at much at home fronting the LA Phil as she used to leading the old-fashioned string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Shia LaBeouf will make his stage debut in the world premiere of “Henry Johnson,” a new play from David Mamet. The production will be mounted at the Electric Lodge venue in Venice, Calif. and will be directed by “The L Word: Generation Q” showrunner Marja-Lewis Ryan.

William Earl Variety has promoted Elsa Keslassy to Executive Editor of International, according to an announcement from Variety‘s co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. In her new role, Keslassy will lead the magazine’s global team of award-winning correspondents, while helping guide its reporting at the leading international film and television festivals and markets.

Todd Gilchrist editor Pet owners spend an inordinate amount of time imagining, ascribing, even acting out the behaviors of their animals. “Strays” feels like the natural — if comically exaggerated — extension of that impulse, chronicling the personality of a border terrier named Reggie as he and three canine pals make an arduous trek back to Reggie’s owner, along with all of the attendant misunderstandings and misinterpretations about the human world around them.

In what is poised to be a case of Warner Bros beating itself for the No. 1 spot at the box office this coming weekend, the studio’s new DC superhero title, Blue Beetle, is poised to halt Barbie‘s three-weekend streak with a $28M-$32M opening. Barbie, meanwhile per industry sources, is looking at a $22M-$24M fourth weekend, -30%. Through Monday, the Greta Gerwig directed Mattel doll feature counts $531.2M.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” sank without a trace over its opening weekend, going to a watery grave with just $6.5 million. The period horror film, which centers on one chapter of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” namely the bit where his coffin gets transported from Transylvania to England, was distributed by Universal. It’s the studio’s second stab at reviving the world’s most famous vampire, with last spring’s “Renfield,” a campy take on the bloodsucker, also collapsing at the box office.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” set sail with $750,000 in previews on Thursday. The horror film, which is derived from a transit-heavy chapter of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” screened in 2,350 theaters with showings beginning at 5:00 p.m. It tells the story of the merchant ship that ferried fifty unmarked wooden crates from Carpathia to London.

The relationship may be over, but the living arrangements stay the same. That’s been the case for a number of celebrity exes — including Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval, Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson and more.

Sandra Bullock and her late partner Bryan Randall learned about the photographer’s diagnosis three years before his passing and decided to battle in private. Randall died on August 5, 2023, from ALS at 57.

The View have announced an Ayrshire gig as part of a Scottish tour.