County Ashland Showbiz Latest News and Updates

EXCLUSIVE: Vertical has acquired U.S. rights to spy thriller Chief of Station starring Aaron Eckhart, Olga Kurylenko and Alex Pettyfer.

Alex Ritman “SAS: Red Notice,” the action thriller from director Laurence Malkin that became a hit for U.K. platform Sky Cinema in 2021, is getting a sequel. Creative details are currently under wraps, but development funding for the sequel was provided by Sky Original Films and the film will be executive produced by Sky’s director of original film, Julia Stuart.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor The Jim Henson Company‘s live-action monster tale “Grendel” has rounded out its cast with Jeff Bridges in the role of Grendel, as well as Dave Bautista as Beowulf and Bryan Cranston as King Hrothgar. Also joining the cast are Thomasin McKenzie as Queen Wealhtheow, Aidan Turner as Unferth and, as the Shaper, T Bone Burnett, who will also provide original songs for the film. Robert D.

Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) will play the title role in Grendel, a live-action monster flick from The Jim Henson Company, for which Palisades Park Pictures is launching international sales ahead of Cannes.

Enid Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree has found key cast in the shape of two-time Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider Man) and two-time Emmy winner Claire Foy (All of Us Strangers).

Alex Ritman Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy have joined the cast of magical family adventure feature “The Magic Faraway Tree,” based on Enid Blyton’s beloved children’s classic. The film — from Neal Street Productions, Elysian Film Group and Ashland Hill Media Finance — has been adapted by BAFTA winner Simon Farnaby (“Wonka” and “Paddington 2”) and will be directed by Ben Gregor (“Britannia,” “Cuckoo”). Palisades Park Pictures are handling sales in Cannes.

Dave Bautista action pic Trap House has added Jack Champion (Avatar: The Way of Water), Sophia Lillis (It, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Kate del Castillo (La Reina del Sur), Tony Dalton (Better Call Saul), Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl) and Bobby Cannavale (The Irishman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) to it’s cast.

Rhys Ifans (The King’s Man), Olivia Cooke (House of Dragon), Paapa Essiedu (The Lazarus Project), Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex) and Antonia Thomas (The Good Doctor) have all joined new comedy-horror feature The Scurry from Eternal Beauty helmer Craig Roberts. 

EXCLUSIVE: James Caan‘s final film, the action thriller Fast Charlie, has been snapped up for U.S. distribution by Vertical ahead of its October 7th world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Jaden Thompson The Newport Beach Film Festival, which will run from Oct. 12-19 this year, has announced their opening and closing night films. Marco Perego’s “The Absence of Eden,” which stars Zoë Saldana, will open the festival on Oct.

Italian artist Marco Perego’s debut feature The Absence of Eden has set a picturesque world premiere at the upcoming edition of Italy’s 69th Taormina Film Festival, running from June 23 to July 1.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Douglas Booth, Alison Pill and Iris Apatow have joined an adaptation of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe classic “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” The film, simply titled “Young Werther,” is produced by Toronto-based film and TV outfit Wildling Pictures, which describes the project as a modern retelling of the book. Booth (“That Dirty Black Bag”) and Pill (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) will take lead roles, with Apatow (“The Bubble”) also set to star along Patrick J. Adams (“Suits”). Production will begin this month in Toronto. Drawing from Goethe’s passionate personal accounts, which were first published in letter form in 1774, “Young Werther” is the story of a charmingly irresponsible and enthusiastic young man named Werther (Booth) who finds himself at the mercy of Charlotte (Pill), whose allure and commitment to her impressive fiancé Albert turns Werther’s life upside down.

EXCLUSIVE: Palisades Park Pictures (PPP) will be representing global sales for action-thriller Duchess from director Neil Marshall (Hellboy).

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Ashland Hill Media Finance has launched a global sales company headed by industry veteran Tamara Birkemoe. Palisades Park Pictures is launching ahead of next month’s Cannes Film Festival, with operations in Los Angeles and London. The venture, which will soon unveil its inaugural slate of projects, comes a year after the launch of Ashland Hill, which was set up last May by Joe Simpson, Simon Williams and Jonathan Bross. Ashland Hill will continue its operations financing films, while PPP will board sales on a handful of Ashland Hill Media Finance titles in addition to a slate of third-party titles.

A man who bagged a $27million lottery jackpot ended up blowing all the money in just five years and living in a shed covered in human faeces. David Lee Edwards was a convicted felon from Ashland, Kentucky whose life should have been changed forever when he won a quarter-share of the Powerball $280m jackpot in August 2001.

pic.twitter.com/OiNpT3IneAJackson appeared in the episode titled, “You Can’t Fix Ugly,” where he opened up about living with lupus. After undergoing a makeover, Jackson went on to reconcile with his ex-wife Abby Parr. The two went on to get engaged and married for a second time but later divorced in 2019, according to Jackson’s Twitter.According to a local obituary, the 63-year-old died on March 3 at 11:49 p.m.

EXCLUSIVE: Ashland Hill Media Finance is to co-finance a slate of four films at various stages of production, including Christophe Gans’ horror reboot Return To Silent Hill, based on the hit Konami video game.

EXCLUSIVE: After launching in Cannes, financier Ashland Hill Media Finance has come aboard to co-finance Rupert Sanders’ reboot of The Crow, starring Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs and Danny Houston. 

EXCLUSIVE: AMC Networks’ business unit RLJE Films and its genre streaming service Shudder have acquired North American rights to the Neil Marshall-directed horror film The Lair from Highland Film Group, with the latter also picking up the rights for UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. RLJE Films will release the pic in theaters and on digital and VOD on October 28, with Shudder bringing it to streaming early next year.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaA trio of veteran film financiers and producers are launching a new venture.Joe Simpson, Simon Williams and Jonathan Bross are teaming up on Ashland Hill Media Finance, a film and TV financing venture, backed by an alternative investment fund with assets under management of $1.85 billion. From its offices in Santa Monica and London, Ashland Hill expects to close upwards of 25 deals in the next 12 months, with plans to further expand its operations beyond the U.S.

Associated Press. She was 76.“Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” the daughters said in a statement.

Naomi Judd, the Kentucky-born singer of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds and mother of Wynonna and Ashley Judd, has died. She was 76.