Reliance Jio Studios Teams With Nagraj Manjule On Film About India’s First Olympic Medallist, K. D. Jadhav

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Debut feature “Tiger Stripes” has already amassed several firsts – it is the first Malaysian film in Cannes for several years and director Amanda Nell Eu is the country’s first female helmer selected for a festival appearance – and it is now releasing its first trailer. The film, which will play in the Cannes Critics’ Week section is the tale of an 11-year-old girl who starts to experience horrifying changes to her body. Eu says that the film is both a metaphor for issues of female identity and the arrival of puberty and also a body horror entertainer. “This comes from my dark sense of humor. People always label young girls as little monsters. They say that teenage girls are emotional or crazy or hysterical. So, my thinking was ‘why don’t I tell a story about a young girl who actually does turn into a monster’ and let me show you what a monster is. It is a metaphor and a genre film,” she told Variety.

Lionel Richie has revealed he has a joke with King Charles III about getting a ‘Hollywood’-style makeover to remain youthful. The pair are 73 and 74-years-old respectively, and became friends after Richie did some work with the Prince’s Trust.

The ups and downs of married life isn't lost on loved-up newlyweds Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash. The Essex lovely, Stacey took to her Instagram stories to share her annoyance and disgust with husband Joe's latest bad habit.The blonde beauty was seen in her bathroom getting ready for her day when she noticed something unsettling about her electric toothbrush.

EXCLUSIVE: On the third day of its first strike in 15 years, the Writers Guild of America closed down Wall Street drama Billions for several hours Thursday.

Mo Abudu, the CEO of EbonyLife Media, has stepped into the writing and directing spaces, having completed two short films – Iyawo Mi and Her Perfect Life – the former of which will screen at the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner this month. Both projects have also been selected for the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival in August. 

Heather Rae Young might regret sharing this mom tip because it did NOT go over well!

It appears Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan have discovered they have a pretty great working relationship. Reitman directed the popular “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” which he co-wrote with Kenan.

EXCLUSIVE: Trailer has dropped for Unsilenced, the latest Israeli drama picked up by Fauda and Shtisel producer Yes Studios.

J. Kim Murphy Jason Reitman has set another feature at Sony Pictures, with the studio ordering a film based on the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” in October 1975. Reitman and his “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” co-writer Gil Kenan penned the original screenplay for the project, drawing from the pair’s series of interviews with living cast, writers and crew members from the original production. The untitled “SNL” feature continues Reitman and Kenan’s partnership with Sony Pictures, where they are currently in production on a sequel to “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” due to release in theaters this December. Kenan is directing the follow-up to Reitman’s 2021 entry of the sci-fi comedy series. The two collaborators signed an overall producing deal with Sony after the release of “Afterlife,” which grossed $204 million at the global box office against a $75 million production budget.

Rumer Willis and her boyfriend, musician Derek Richard Thomas, have announced the birth of their daughter!

A.D. Amorosi The only thing America loves more than watching work imported from Great Britain is when that same British work goes wildly off the rails. What is “The Great British Bake Off” without toppling cakes, or romantic Ed Sheeran without goofy relationship misadventures, or “Dr. Who” without a confoundedly sputtering David Tennant? Targeting the dippier side of American Anglophilia are Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields — the co-founders and playwrights of Great Britain’s Mischief Theatre Company — and their imaginary Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society (Cornley U for the Yanks). Theirs is a team manically adept at creating adroitly bumbling, screwball comic twists on Anglo theatrical tropes. First they lampooned the Agatha Christie whodunnit with “The Play That Goes Wrong,” which was mounted in London in 2012 and has played Broadway and beyond.

Syndey Sweeney is already an it-actress for HBO, thanks to her turns on “The White Lotus” and Sam Levinson‘s “Euphoria.” Now add “Reality” to that list: Sweeney stars as American whistleblower Reality Winner in Tina Satter‘s “Reality,” fresh off its world premiere at the Berlinale in February.

Angelique Jackson “Cinnamon” — the inaugural project filmed under Village Roadshow Pictures’ Black Noir Cinema banner, co-founded by NBA all-star Kevin Garnett — has debuted its first trailer. Written, directed and executive produced by Bryian Keith Montgomery Jr., the Tubi original film was selected to make its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and stars Hailey Kilgore, Damon Wayans, Pam Grier, David Iacono and Jeremie Harris. The noir thriller follows a struggling small-town gas station attendant and aspiring singer, named Jodi Jackson, (Kilgore, who displays the singing chops that led to her 2018 Tony nomination for “Once on This Island” in the teaser below) whose life is sent into a tailspin after a fatal crime.

EXCLUSIVE: Jörg Winger and his Sam – A Saxon co-creator Tyron Ricketts believe the time is now right to tell the story of East Germany’s first Black policeman after a near-20-year period of shopping the project.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Radiohead guitarist and Academy Award-nominated composer Jonny Greenwood has long had an affinity for Israel. Radiohead first toured the country in the mid-1990s and Greenwood married Israeli visual artist, Sharona Katan. Now Greenwood is pairing with acclaimed Israeli singer Dudu Tassa for a collaborative album, “Jarak Qaribak,” which is due out June 9 from World Circuit Records. The album’s debut track, “Ashufak Shay,” which loosely translates to “Your Neighbor in Your Friend” and features Lebanese vocalist Rashid al-Najjar, dropped last week. Produced by Tassa and Greenwood and mixed by Nigel Godrich, “Jarak Qaribak,” is a celebration of multicultural talent, bringing together singers and musicians from across the Middle East, including Egyptian vocalist Ahmed Doma, Palestinian vocalist Nour Freteikh and Safae Essafi, a singer from Dubai. There are songs on the album from countries such as Algeria, Jordan and Morocco.

EXCLUSIVE: Details are emerging about Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary Anselm, which will gets its world premiere as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic If Lars von Trier hadn’t grown top-heavy with the mythology of his self-importance (I’d say that happened around the time of “Antichrist,” in 2009), he might have tossed off a movie like “Sick of Myself” — a social satire in the form of a queasy drama of body horror, and a movie whose disturbing bad-boy tastelessness recalls Von Trier’s “The Idiots,” with a touch of David Cronenberg. This is the second feature by Kristoffer Borgli, the Norwegian writer-director whose first film, “Drib” (2017), was a send-up of the marketing industry, and in a way the new movie is about marketing too. This one, though, takes a viscerally upsetting look at just how far an individual will go to gain attention in the new era of social-media addiction.

Jeanne du Barry starring Johnny Depp.Directed by French filmmaker Maïwenn, the biographical drama follows the life of Jeanne du Barry (played by Maïwenn), who climbed the social hierarchy to become the last royal mistress of King Louis XV (Depp).The film marks Depp’s first feature performance in three years, and comes after the actor won his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard last year.Asked by Variety about the “controversial choice” to open the festival with the actor’s comeback, Fremaux said: “I don’t see Maïwenn’s film as a controversial choice at all, because if Johnny Depp had been banned from working it would have been different, but that’s not the case.“We only know one thing, it’s the justice system and I think he won the legal case. But the movie isn’t about Johnny Depp.”Jeanne du Barry will open the festival on May 16, before it is released in cinemas in France on the same day.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Former Shudder chief Craig Engler and The Cartel, the production and finance company behind “Creepshow” have teamed up to launch Shiver Studios, a new genre company with plans to make and finance up to 10 horror films a year. Based in Los Angeles, Shiver Studios will focus on a theatrical-first approach, looking to ride the recent trend of indie horror hits such as Shudder’s release of micro-budget hit horror feature “Skinamarink,” directed by Kyle Edward Ball. Prior to his departure from Shudder Engler oversaw production of “Skinamarink” which has grossed $2 million in theaters on a budget of $15,000.  The overall plan is for Shiver to follow its theatrical releases with a TVOD, SVOD, AVOD, linear and physical windowing strategy, working with partners that include both streamers and traditional distributors, the nascent studio specified in a statement.

Tim McGraw, the country music star whose acting career has hit a new gear lately with roles in Yellowstone and prequel 1883, is launching his own media company with backing from Skydance Media.