Brent Lang Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Brent Lang Executive Editor Lionsgate has acquired domestic rights to the Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lily James and Himesh Patel comedy “Greedy People.” The film explores what happens when the eccentric residents of a small, picturesque island town are faced with a sensational murder and the discovery of $1 million next to the body. This sparks a series of increasingly bad decisions that do a number on the peace and tranquility of the community.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Without Valentine’s Day date nights to bolster grosses, ticket sales for “Bob Marley: One Love” fell sharply on Thursday. The drama about the reggae legend earned $3.8 million in its second day of release, a 73% drop from its debut that brings its stateside total to $17.9 million. The Paramount release is hoping to hit the right notes over Presidents Day.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Alex Cox is getting back behind the wheel. The “Repo Man” director is revisiting the off-kilter world of extraterrestrials and car repossession that he mined so memorably in the 1984 cult classic in a new sequel that is being introduced to buyers at the Berlin Film Festival and European Film Market. Entitled “Repo Man 2: The Wages of Beer,” the film is being backed by Buffalo 8 Productions, a film and media company best known for the critically acclaimed work on Netflix series “The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes.” Cox wrote the script along with directing the film.

William Earl Katcy Stephan has been promoted to film reporter for Variety. Stephan joined Variety in 2021 as social media editor. Under her leadership, Variety’s cumulative social footprint across major platforms has nearly doubled, reaching 12 million total followers as of this month across TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Metrograph Pictures has acquired North American rights to “Good One,” one of the breakouts of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The indie film had its world premiere in the U.S. Narrative Competition section.

Brent Lang Executive Editor LaKeith Stanfield, the Oscar-nominated star of “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Atlanta,” has joined Raoul Peck’s “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found.” The upcoming documentary chronicles the life and work of Ernest Cole, one of the first Black freelance photographers in South Africa, whose early pictures showed Black life under apartheid. They were images that shocked the world. Stanfield will be the voice of Cole, helping to bring his words to life on screen.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights worldwide to “Between the Temples,” a comedy with Jason Schwartzman and  Carol Kane that earned strong reviews when it debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Nathan Silver, the film follows a forty-something cantor who is at a personal and professional crossroads. That’s when his grade-school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student, prompting the pair to form an unusual connection.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Presence,” a twisty new thriller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has sold to Neon. The movie, which is directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, puts an inventive spin on the haunted house genre. It unfolds from the perspective of the spectral entity and is primarily interested in dramatizing the issues of the people living in the home, who seem to be grappling with a lot of interpersonal problems.

Jaden Thompson DJ Drama, the Grammy-winning “King of the Mixtape,” is known for his “Gangsta Grillz” series, which has featured a myriad of prominent hip-hop artists over the years from Lil Wayne to Tyler the Creator. On the new Audible original “DJ Drama’s Gangsta Grillz Podcast,” presented by Kenya Barris‘ Khalabo Ink Society, Drama sits down with some of the notable musicians he’s worked with to unpack his iconic mixtape series. “He was arrested in a sting for mixtapes.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Mavis Beacon taught the world to type. Starting in the late 1980s, a software program featuring the eponymous instructor drilled computer users on their keyboard skills, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. But it often comes as a shock to find out that Beacon never really existed.

Brent Lang Executive Editor The title alone was enough to convince Aubrey Plaza to appear in “My Old Ass,” an offbeat coming-of-age story that was warmly received during its premiere Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival. “It all just made sense to me,” Plaza told the sold-out crowd at the Eccles Theater in Park City, Utah. “‘My Old Ass,’ I was like, ‘Oh man.'” And when Plaza spent time with Megan Park, the film’s writer and director, and discovered her affinity for unusual means of transportation, Aubrey knew she had signed on to the perfect project.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Not much is funny about those terrifying early days of COVID, when the world was cloaked in an apocalyptic doom and the president was telling us to drink bleach. But in “Stress Positions,” Theda Hammel miraculously finds the funny side of lockdown, mining the masks, Purell and social distancing that defined that unhappy era for physical comedy. “Those gestures are like balloons, and they’re filled with the sense of danger and a sense of peril,” Hammel says of the Sundance-bound film that she directed and co-wrote.

Brent Lang Executive Editor WhatsApp and Giannis Antetokounmpo are teaming up to release“Ugo: A Homecoming Story,” an original documentary that takes fans along as the Greek-Nigerian NBA superstar returns to Nigeria for the first time. The film is directed by Rick Famuyiwa, the filmmaker behind “Dope” and “The Mandalorian,” and will be available to view on YouTube and in select markets on Prime Video starting Jan. 16.

Brent Lang Executive Editor On a January day in 1989, Steven Soderbergh, a novice filmmaker whose previous gigs included holding cue cards on variety shows and directing a concert film for the rock group Yes, made his way to the front of a makeshift theater in Park City, Utah. He was at Sundance — or the U.S.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” a buzzy revival of one of John Patrick Shanley’s early plays, has recouped its initial investment. The show features Aubrey Plaza of “White Lotus” and “Parks and Rec” fame and Christopher Abbott, the star of “James White” and “Girls.” Producers Sam Rockwell and Mark Berger’s Play Hooky Productions, Seaview, Sue Wagner and John Johnson made the announcement that the production, which began performances at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Oct.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Paul Thomas Anderson has assembled an all-star cast for his next movie, which will likely be the most expensive of his career. Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio, long rumored to be in the movie, and Sean Penn, who recently popped up in Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” will appear in the untitled film. They join Regina Hall, the “Girls Trip” and “The Hate U Give” standout.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Despite the box office success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear,” female directors are not getting the same opportunities in Hollywood as their male counterparts. At the same time, major studios, which pledged to reexamine their employment practices in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, fail to produce many films from people of color. That’s the stark findings of a new report by USC Annenberg’s Inclusion Initiative, which calls the entertainment industry’s pledges to support inclusion “performative acts” and “not real steps towards fostering change.” It’s the second report in as many days to find that despite some important box office milestones for female filmmakers — “Barbie” was both the year’s most successful film and the highest-grossing movie ever directed by a woman — studios still give their highest-profile gigs to male directors.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie” wasn’t just the year’s biggest box office winner. It also made history as the highest-grossing movie directed by a woman. Despite the film’s outsized success, major studios gave most of their biggest gigs to male filmmakers.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Wonka,” a musical fantasy that has been the biggest hit of the holiday season, topped the box office on New Year’s Eve, closing 2023 on a sweet note. The film, which stars Timothée Chalamet as a more youthful Willy Wonka, grossed $22.7 million for the weekend and a projected $29.5 million for the four-day holiday. That brings the domestic gross to $140.2 million, a strong result for the $125 million production.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Timothée Chalamet retained his holiday season crown as “Wonka” topped the box office on Thursday. The family film, which looks at chocolatier Willy Wonka and his quest to open the world’s most fantastical candy company, earned $8 million, pushing its domestic gross to $110.6 million. “Wonka” carries an $125 million budget and has been a success overseas, where it has earned more than $180 million.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Wonka,” a family-friendly look at how Willy Wonka broke into the confection game, topped the box office on Wednesday, adding $8 million to push the film past the $100 million mark domestically. The movie’s stateside gross stands at a delicious $102.5 million. “Wonka” is also performing well overseas — its global haul of more than $270 million is a strong result for Warner Bros.

Brent Lang Executive Editor The entertainment industry is wrapping up one of the most chaotic and costly years in its history. From striking writers and actors to swooning stock prices, 2023 didn’t lack for drama. But even as Hollywood looks to put all that in the rearview mirror and get back to business as usual, the landscape remains treacherous.

Brent Lang Executive Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the Season 2 finale of HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” now streaming on Max. Bertha Russell, who never really cared for opera, can now watch Verdi from the best seat in the house. Polite society’s battle royale ended with the New Money triumphing over the Old Guard, as “The Gilded Age” wrapped up its second season on Sunday. Mrs.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Winterstone Pictures has secured the rights to “The Dark Between Stars” and “Love Her Wild,” by the bestselling author Atticus, who is also known as the world’s most “mysterious poet.” Ashley Avis, director of Disney’s “Black Beauty” and the upcoming film “City of Angels” for Warner Bros., is set to write, direct and produce under her own banner. The feature film will draw inspiration from the true story of the enigmatic author, who chose to remain anonymous after the death of a close friend.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Adam McKay won’t move forward with “Average Height, Average Build,” a comedy about a serial killer that was set to star Robert Pattinson, Amy Adams and Robert Downey Jr. Netflix was supposed to produce the star-studded film, but the streamer won’t make the project without McKay’s involvement behind the camera, sources confirmed to Variety.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Saban Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Knox Goes Away,” a thriller about a contract killer with dementia that wasdirected by and stars Michael Keaton.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It’s a dramatic way to sell a new Broadway show. The Longacre Theatre is getting a high art overhaul as the home of “Lempicka,” a new musical about Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Hollywood might not be feeling so festive this Thanksgiving. The holiday period is traditionally a busy time for moviegoing, but audiences aren’t turning out in force over Turkey Day, leaving the box office suffering from too much tryptophan. In this drowsy state of play, Disney’s “Wish” earned a lackluster $8.3 million on Wednesday.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Fans of “The Gilded Age” know that Carrie Coon provides the social-climbing spark to a costume drama where most of the characters are seething or scheming underneath their polite veneers. As Bertha Russell, Coon is always one step ahead of the old money elites attempting to thwart the rise of her and her railroad baron husband, George, and their family. But the impeccably tailored outfits that Bertha wears like armor to do battle with the gatekeepers of late 19th-century New York society canbe hazardous.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Steve Carell will make his Broadway debut playing the title character in a revival of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” The production, which will be performed at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, will begin previews April 2, 2024, and open on April 24, 2024. It promises to be a starry affair. The cast boasts William Jackson Harper (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”) as Astrov and Alfred Molina (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”) as Alexander Serabryakov.