Mario Van Peebles’ Civil Rights Drama ‘The Price for Freedom’ Sets January Production Start (EXCLUSIVE)

Dick Van Dyke may have hit the gym before his 98th birthday, but the iconic actor admits he’s a “pretty lazy” person by nature.“As a businessman, I’m not much good. I would do a movie or something and come home and just sit down and wait for the phone to ring. I wasn’t aggressive, so I was out of work a lot because I didn’t go out and look for it,” Dyke said in a new interview on “CBS Sunday Morning.”“I didn’t mind it.

Video game company Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay nearly $55 million to settle a 2021 complaint by the California Civil Rights Department.

Naman Ramachandran Indo-British sports drama “A Game of Two Halves,” which tackles themes of identity crisis and racial dissonance, is set for a global bow in 2024. Directed by British Asian filmmaker Khayam Khan (“Bus Ride”), the film is set across the U.K. and India.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Michel Franco’s Memory, the thoughtful drama that won Peter Sarsgaard the Best Actor Volpi Cup in Venice earlier this year. Franco directs and wrote the movie that also stars Jessica Chastain.

Whiplash Oscar winner J.K. Simmons has joined the cast of Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 at Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: The gang is returning to Hawkins. After a delay due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, production on the final season of Netflix‘s Stranger Things is expected to get underway in early January, sources tell Deadline.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Apple Studios has emerged victorious in a bidding war for “Two For The Money,” a hot package that has attached Oscar-winner Charlize Theron and ex-007 Daniel Craig. Justin Lin, who oversaw several “Fast & Furious” films, is set to direct and produce.

At first sight, the film the French chose to represent them at the Oscars next year couldn’t be any more French. A chaste romantic drama starring Juliette Binoche as Eugénie, an unsung, genius-level private chef, The Taste of Things takes place in the kitchen at the sprawling rustic home of the famous restauranteur Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel), and features every culinary delight known to mankind. Food is braised, broiled, blanched, poached and sautéed, in carefully curated banquets that can take anything up to a waistline-busting 24 hours. Needless to say, audiences at the Cannes film festival savored every bite.

Naman Ramachandran Ena Sendijarević’s “Sweet Dreams,” Netherlands’ submission in the Academy Awards international feature category, has secured North American distribution via Dekanalog. The film had its world premiere at Locarno, where it won the Pardo for best performance for Renée Soutendijk (“Suspiria”) and the second prize of the junior jury. The film debuted in North America in Toronto’s Centrepiece section and won the Silver Hugo new directors award at Chicago.

Vanessa Hudgens and Cole Tucker married this past weekend. The couple, who’d been dating since 2020, had a destination wedding in Tulum, Mexico, filled with their closest family members and friends, with various events hosted over the weekend. Vanessa Hudgens and Cole Tucker got married in Tulum, MexicoVanessa Hudgens addresses pregnancy rumorsHudgens spoke to Vogue magazine, providing all manner of details into her special day.

Troye Sivan fans have shared their frustration at securing tickets during a pre-sale this morning for the singer’s show at the AO Arena next year.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Neon’s murder mystery Anatomy of a Fall. The Cannes Palme d’Or winner from French filmmaker Justine Triet (only the third woman ever to take that top prize) is co-written by Triet and Arthur Harari. Last week, it scooped Best International Feature and Best Screenplay at the Gotham Awards. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief France-based multinational Studiocanal has launched Cultivator Films to facilitate local co-productions in Australia and will kick off with book-to-film adaptation “Kangaroo.” “Kangaroo” is scripted by Harry Cripps (“The Dry,” “Penguin Bloom”) and directed by Kate Woods (“The Lincoln Lawyer,” “The Umbrella Academy,” “The Good Lord Bird,” “Looking for Alibrandi”). Eastern Arrernte emerging director Samantha Laughton is set as a director’s attachment. Slated to start production in Alice Springs in the first half of 2024, “Kangaroo” is a Northern Territory-inspired story based on Chris Barnes, aka ‘Brolga,’ who is the founder of the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs. Cultivator Films Australia is led by Studiocanal’s Australia and New Zealand CEO Elizabeth Trotman.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Rustin, Netflix‘s biopic of civil rights icon Bayard Rustin. Colman Domingo stars in the film, which is directed by Tony winner George C. Wolfe and hit theaters and the streamer in November after its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor R. Madhavan is soaking up the accolades for “The Railway Men,” the first production from YRF Entertainment, the streaming production arm of India’s Yash Raj Films. The four-part series deals with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and marks the first in a creative partnership between Netflix and Yash Raj.

EXCLUSIVE: Virgin River just completed its fifth season with a two-episode Christmas special. It followed a 10-episode Part 1, which was released in September. The upcoming sixth season won’t follow the same pattern.

EXCLUSIVE: The Walking Dead maker Skybound Entertainment is expanding to Japan.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that season 3 of FX/Hulu’s The Bear will commence production in late February-early March.

Six years ago, producer Ivana Mikovic was sitting with her production designer friend when the two discussed the lack of studio space in Serbia’s growing film and television sector. It was a year after the government had introduced its 25% – 30% cash rebate and Mikovic, a former BBC news producer, saw a gap in the market for such a studio facility. At the time there were only a handful of stages in the surrounding Belgrade area – including PFI Studios and Take 1 – but they consistently ran at capacity. 

Outlander actor Sam Heughan is set to appear in Channel 4 thriller The Couple Next Door, which is based on a Dutch show called 'New Neighbours'.