Brent Lang Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Brent Lang Executive Editor Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky and his longtime creative partner, Ari Handel, are on a mission. At their production company, Protozoa Pictures, the two want to use movies and television to make science cool at a time when it’s under attack. “There’s a lens that we look at things through,” says Handel. “A lot of our work is pro-science or involves technology or the environment. Morally, we think the world can use that right now.” Some of that has to do with the backgrounds of the pair — Aronofsky did field research as a student at Harvard, and Handel has a Ph.D. in neuroscience. But that embrace of empiricism was also something the two felt had become important during the Trump era, when the government was often at odds with experts.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Both Brendan Fraser and Darren Aronofsky have had some high-profile setbacks when it comes to the comic book genre. The two men, who are collaborating on the acclaimed indie drama “The Whale,” opened up about their struggles during recent interviews with Variety. Fraser spent months in Glasgow, Scotland portraying Firefly, a pyromaniac who faces off against Leslie Grace’s costumed heroine in “Batgirl.” That film was supposed to debut on HBO Max, but it was scrapped, a victim of the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia, the streaming service’s parent company. “It’s tragic,” Fraser told Variety as part of a cover story on “The Whale.” “It doesn’t engender trust among filmmakers and the studio. Leslie Grace was fantastic. She’s a dynamo, just a spot-on performer. Everything that we shot was real and exciting and just the antithesis of doing a straightforward digital all green screen thing. They ran firetrucks around downtown Glasgow at 3 in the morning and they had flamethrowers. It was a big-budget movie, but one that was just stripped down to the essentials.”   

Brent Lang Executive Editor Brendan Fraser landed on the A-list thanks to his roll as the rollicking adventurer Rick O’Connell in “The Mummy” and its two sequels. And he hasn’t returned to the land of the undead since 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” but Fraser says he’s open to revisiting the franchise that made him a megastar. “I don’t know how it would work,” he admits. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.” Fraser shared his thoughts on the film series as part of a Variety cover story on the making of “The Whale,” a drama about an obese man trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. That film has landed him in the thick of the Oscar race.

Variety Audio Honors, presented by Wondery, are the next generation of storytellers, and have been selected in recognition of their innovations in audio storytelling by a committee of distinguished audio industry professionals, chaired by award-winning podcast creator, producer and new host of NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute,” Brittany Luse. The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors are set to take place in person as a luncheon and a staged presentation in New York City on Oct. 14. “As an organization dedicated to celebrating and nurturing independent creators, we are proud to recognize these brilliant, innovative, and groundbreaking audio storytellers,” said Jeffrey Sharp, executive director of the Gotham Film & Media Institute. “As audio content reaches a pivotal point of engagement and innovation, it is crucial that we launch new platforms of recognition, such as The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors, to celebrate the most daring creators in our industry.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights to “Sweetwater,” a recently completed feature about Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the first African American to land an NBA contract. The drama is written and directed by Martín Guigui and stars newcomer Everett Osborne as Clifton. The ensemble includes veteran actors such as Kevin Pollak, Cary Elwes, Jeremy Piven, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Ri’chard. There are also special appearances by Gary Clark Jr., Jim Caviezel and NBA champion Bobby Portis Jr.  The film follows Clifton (Osborn), who is the star attraction of the Harlem Globetrotters, led by owner/coach Abe Saperstein (Pollak). When New York Knicks executive Ned Irish (Elwes) and Knicks coach Joe Lapchick (Piven) decide it is time for the Knicks to integrate, with the support of NBA President Maurice Podoloff (Dreyfuss), they come together with the other team owners of the league to make history. Briarcliff will give the film a wide theatrical release on April 14, 2023. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor 101 Studios has made a series of key executive hires. Eliot Goldberg has joined as the company’s head of unscripted and documentary programming, while Ellie Duque has been tapped as exec VP of brand partnerships. Both executives will work out of the company’s Beverly Hills office. Joanna Balin has been tapped as director of unscripted and documentary programming, with Brannan Goetschius named as head of audio. Both executives will become part of 101 Studios’ New York team. They join Dani Weinstein, who was announced as the new chief communications officer in July. “We are thrilled to welcome these very accomplished, well-respected executives into our 101 Studios Family. We are always looking for ways to expand our reach and expertise and we are lucky to have Dani, Eliot, Ellie, Joanna and Brannan join our ranks,” said 101 Studios CEO David Glasser

Brent Lang Executive Editor In one corner, a star-studded murder mystery from one of the most acclaimed directors in Hollywood. In the other, a family fable that features a CGI crocodile who sounds a lot like Shawn Mendes. As Hollywood heads into another quiet fall weekend at the box office, David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam” is squaring off against “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” and both new releases are facing strong competition from reigning champ “Smile.” Of the two new entrants, “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” seems to be in the stronger position. There haven’t been many movies geared toward kids — the last one was “DC League of Super-Pets” way back in July. The $50 million production will open in more than 4,300 locations, where it should make $15 million or more. Sony Pictures, the studio behind the film, is being more conservative and projecting an opening in the $11 million to $12 million range. That could be enough for a first-place finish, depending on how steeply “Smile,” which opened to $22.6 million, drops in its second weekend of release.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Devotion,” a drama about a group of elite fighter pilots during the Korean War, will screen at the opening night of the Urbanworld Film Festival. The Sony Pictures and Black Label Media production was directed by J.D. Dillard and stars Jonathan Majors, who will serve as the festival’s official ambassador. HBO will return as a founding partner of the Urbanworld Film Festival, and Visa will serve as presenting partner. The festival will take place from Oct. 26 to Oct. 30. “This year’s slate is incredibly impressive,” said Karen McMullen, head of programming. “We have some of the top artists in the industry as well as exciting new voices premiering their films at Urbanworld. It has been a privilege working alongside this organization as we move into our 26th year as a festival. We can’t wait to see everyone in person in New York City to help us celebrate our dynamic films and filmmakers.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Nicole Kidman’s AMC ad has achieved a new level of pop culture prominence. The so campy, you have to love it ode to the power of cinema has been meme’d, made into t-shirts and inspired audiences to stand and salute since it first started airing over a year ago. And now, “Saturday Night Live” has weighed in with its own take, one that perfectly satirizes the cultish response to the 60-second spot. In it, Chloe Fineman channels Kidman’s Australian accent, runway strut as she finds her seat in the auditorium, and the kind of dramatic hand gestures that exist in movies, but not on Earth. Fineman largely sticks to the original script (which can’t really be improved upon), and repeats the same observations that “somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” Only this time, Kenan Thompson’s regular moviegoer isn’t entirely sold on Kidman’s gilded aphorisms or the audience’s rapturous embrace of her message.

William Earl The Gotham Film & Media Institute (The Gotham) announced today the launch of The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors, presented by Wondery, a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to recognizing the boldest voices in the ever-expanding world of audio storytelling. The honorees have been selected in recognition of their innovations in audio storytelling by a committee of distinguished audio industry professionals, chaired by award-winning podcast creator, producer and new host of NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute,” Brittany Luse. The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors are set to take place in person as a luncheon and a staged presentation in New York City on Friday, Oct. 14. “As an organization dedicated to celebrating and nurturing independent creators, we are proud to recognize these brilliant, innovative, and groundbreaking audio storytellers,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute. “As audio content reaches a pivotal point of engagement and innovation, it is crucial that we launch new platforms of recognition, such as The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors, to celebrate the most daring creators in our industry.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Centricus has acquired a majority stake in SK Global Entertainment, the independent film and television production and finance company behind “Crazy Rich Asians.” The pact is in in the low to mid nine figures, according to a source with knowledge of the transaction. The deal will provide SK Global with capital to grow its company, potentially through mergers and acquisitions, a well as provide more financing to expand its slate of content. The company plans to double its output, producing four to five movies annually and at least five series. Earlier this year, SK Global acquired Critical Content, a production company focused on unscripted television series such as MTV’s “Catfish” and Netflix’s “Get Organized with The Home Edit.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Al Pacino will star in the upcoming drama “Billy Knight” opposite Charlie Heaton of “Stranger Things” fame. Diana Silvers, best known for her work in “Ma” and “Space Force,” rounds out the cast of writer and director Alec Griffen Roth’s debut feature film. “Billy Knight” follows grad school students Alex (Heaton) and Emily (Silvers) who dream of becoming filmmakers. In addition to wanting to make it in the movie business, Alex is also grappling with the death of his father, a failed screenwriter. The only thing Alex’s father left him was a box of unfinished scripts and a handkerchief with the name “Billy Knight” embroidered on it. Those clues send Alex on a quest to find the mysterious and reclusive Billy Knight. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Bros” is another R-rated, envelope-pushing look at a man in a state of arrested development from Nicholas Stoller. It’s the kind of look at male neurosis, usually the kind of mania the pops up a decade shy of mid-life crisis time, that has been the director’s stock in trade in comedies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek” and “Neighbors.” But this film has an important twist. It has an entirely LGBTQ cast and centers on two gay men with serious commitment issues — a stretch for Stoller, who is heterosexual. So he turned to Billy Eichner, who he knew from working together on “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” and “Friends From College,” to help him fashion an authentically queer “meet cute.” “Bros,” the culmination of a multi-year writing process that Stoller likens to therapy (“making a movie like this is a lot like ‘Prince of Tides,’ he says). When it debuts on Friday, “Bros” will make history as the first major studio LGBTQ rom-com to open exclusively in theaters.

Brent Lang Executive Editor For Bill Nighy, the road to a character’s heart runs through his tailor. “The clothes govern how you move, how you think and how you feel,” he says. In the case of “Living,” the story of Mr. Williams, a bureaucrat in 1953 London grappling with a fatal illness, the meant donning a bespoke pin-striped suit. But he struggled with the wide shoulders that were the fashion of that era. “I didn’t think I had the frame to pull it off,” Nighy says. And there was one feature that was particularly burdensome. “I had to wear a bowler hat, and they are absolutely bizarre,” muses Nighy. “How they caught on, I’ll never know. If a brick fell on your head from a very great height, you’d be fine. If you fell off a horse or a motorbike, you’d emerge unscathed. You could go to war with that hat on and be well protected.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Giorgia Meloni is poised to become the next prime minister of Italy. With her victory will come the country’s most far-right government since Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party ruled during World War II. If exit polls are correct, Meloni will become the first female prime minister of Italy. Her Brothers of Italy party is projected to win between 22% to 26% of the vote, which would allow her to outflank Enrico Letta, the centre left politician who is her nearest rival. Brothers of Italy are expected to form a coalition government with Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. Final results are expected on Monday morning.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Christina Anderson will receive the 2022 Horton Foote Prize for “the ripple, the wave that carried me home,” a play that examines racial justice, politics and family forgiveness. She will be honored at a private celebration at New York’s Lotos Club, where Anderson will be presented with $50,000 and a limited edition of Keith Carter’siconic photograph of Horton Foote, which is found in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Named after Foote, the writer of “Tender Mercies” and “The Trip to Bountiful,” the biennial prize recognizes excellence in American theater. It has been presented since 2010.

Brent Lang Executive Editor The independent film world remains male-dominated, but female filmmakers made modest improvements behind-the-scenes, at least on the movies that got screened and streamed at festivals in recent months. That’s the conclusion of a new report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, which found that between 2021 to 2022, women comprised 39% of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on independent films at high-profile film festivals in the U.S. That was an infinitesimal 1% increase from the previous year. Many of these film festivals played host to prominent movies from female auteurs such as Sian Heder’s “CODA,” which debuted at Sundance before capturing the Oscar for best picture, Rebecca Hall’s “Passing,” another Sundance entry that sold to Netflix, and Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” which screened at the New York Film Festival before winning an Academy Award for best director. But despite their success, the number of female directors at these gatherings only increased by a percentage point to 40%.

Brent Lang Executive Editor RLJE Films is partnering with Shudder on “Kids vs. Aliens,” which it will fully finance and premiere at Fantastic Fest later this month. Both companies are business units of AMC Networks. Shudder is a streaming service that focuses on horror, thriller and supernatural films. RLJE Films will release the alien invasion film in theaters, on demand and across digital platforms in early 2023. A Shudder release will follow later in the year.  “Kids vs. Aliens” centers on Gary, who wants to make awesome home movies with his best buds. All his older sister Samantha wants is to hang with the cool kids. When their parents head out of town one Halloween weekend, a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing the siblings to band together to survive the night. 

EJ Panaligan editor “Bros” co-writer and star Billy Eichner had sincere words to share about his upcoming romantic comedy at the Variety Cover Party at TIFF sponsored by Skyy. “I could have never imagined in a million years that we would have been able to premiere in such a spectacular way,” Eichner said about the buzz behind the film leading up to its release. “Thank you to everyone at Variety, this feature really was the most beautiful, accurate thing that’s ever been written about me.” In a lengthy interview with Variety, Eichner discussed the film’s entirely LGBTQ cast along with the many distinctive ways in which his personal life has influenced the development of the movie’s characters and plot lines. “I’ve worked so hard on it, I care so much about it, and I want it to do well for the sake of the LGBTQ stories getting greenlit,” he told Variety‘s Brent Lang. “So there’s a burden I feel, much as I want to sit here and just talk about how funny the movie is.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor RLJE Films has acquired “Nocebo,” a thriller starring Eva Green and Mark Strong. The film will open in theaters on Nov. 4 and on-demand and digitally on Nov. 22. Shudder will release the film in 2023. Both RLJE and Shudder are business units of AMC Networks Shudder focuses on streaming movies in the horror, thriller and supernatural genres. “Nocebo” centers on a fashion designer (Green), who suffers from a mysterious illness that confounds her doctors and frustrates her husband (Strong). Help arrives in the form of a Filipino nanny (Chai Fonacier) who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor It turns out Hugh Jackman is irreplaceable. “The Music Man” will end its run on Jan. 1, 2023 as the Tony-winning star of stage and screen finishes his lengthy commitment to the hot-selling Broadway revival. There had been some chatter that the producers were looking for another actor to take over for Jackman as Professor Henry Hill, but those kind of performers are few and far between. And, well, they don’t usually have the kind of commercial appeal to fill the Winter Garden. The revival, which also starred two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, will have played 358 regular and 46 preview performances by the time it takes its final bow. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor It was supposed to be all about the movies. But even here at the Toronto International Film Festival, an ocean away from the United Kingdom, the death of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has loomed large. It has provided an opportunity for festival organizers, filmmakers and talent to reflect on the life and legacy of a monarch whose 70-year reign ranks as the longest in her country’s history. That’s partly due to Canada’s status as a member of the British Commonwealth, but it’s also because the festival is such an international A-list affair, one that attracts movie stars and directors who have often had personal encounters with the queen.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Allelujah,” Richard Eyre’s latest film, unfolds in a Yorkshire geriatric hospital, following a group of patients as they make peace with or rage against the indignities of old age. It’s a story that resonates with Eyre, a legendary stage and screen director. “I’m about to be 80,” he says. “So old age isn’t my consuming passion, but it’s a subject that has been forced on me and that has become difficult to ignore. I’m acutely aware of having outlived both my parents and many of my friends.” Perhaps unwittingly, “Allelujah,” which premieres this weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival, also serves as a showcase for a generation of English actors such as Judi Dench, David Bradley, and Derek Jacobi, who have all entered their ninth decades.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “The Good Nurse” director Tobias Lindholm wasn’t interested in making a why-dunnit. The Netflix drama, which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, tells the horrifying true story of Charles Cullen, the serial killer who used his position as a nurse to murder up to 40 patients. But the film isn’t a psychological study. “I’m not that fascinated with the reasons that Charlie did this,” says Lindholm. “I was more interested in why we didn’t stop him sooner, because we could have.” Indeed, “The Good Nurse” is as much an indictment of the way that Cullen was able to maneuver through labyrinthine hospital systems, with executives and administrators covering his tracks as a way of skirting liability. That failure to fully acknowledge Cullen’s culpability in mysterious patient deaths, enabled him to go from one job to another, sowing destruction in his wake. Lindholm, who is Danish, says he wasn’t that aware of the particulars of the U.S. healthcare industry, but having overseen the political drama “Borgen,” he was very familiar with the way bureaucracies can lose touch with the people they are supposed to help.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Producers, studio executives and agents are hoping that when they touch down in Canada this week for the Toronto International Film Festival, things will look a lot like they did in 2019. That was the last time that the annual celebration of all things movies was at full capacity, with star-studded red carpets, packed premieres and the kind of late-night parties and boozy dinners that help grease the wheels for dealmaking. COVID changed all of that, leading to a nearly three-year hiatus for one of the major hubs of film sales and awards season launches. Last year, TIFF returned in-person, but at limited capacity, and most Hollywood players skipped it. But this time, the film industry is returning in force, hoping to sell movies, spot talent and make sense of a landscape that’s been altered by the global pandemic.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman will star in “Sympathy for the Devil,” a new psychological thriller from director Yuval Adler. Production on the film is underway in Las Vegas. Capstone Global is handling worldwide sales on the film, and will introduce it to buyers during the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.   Written by Luke Paradise (“Lost on a Mountain in Maine”), “Sympathy for the Devil” follows “The Driver” (Kinnaman) as he finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse after being forced to drive a mysterious man known as “The Passenger” (Cage). That sets things up for a white-knuckle ride. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor Taylor Swift is about to become the hottest ticket at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The singer and songwriting star will appear in conversation with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey and introduce her short film, “All Too Well,” at the annual celebration of movies. “In Conversation With… Taylor Swift” will take place on Friday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox, so start lining up now (only kind of joking). The event will mark the first-ever screening of “All Too Well” on 35mm. “We love the intersection of film and other art forms, and Taylor Swift is a brilliant visual thinker,” said Bailey. “We’re excited to hear Taylor’s version of how absorbing influences from cinema led to her creating ‘All Too Well: The Short Film.'”

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Causeway,” a new drama starring Jennifer Lawrence as a soldier adjusting to life after returning home to New Orleans, will premiere on Apple TV+ on Nov. 4. The streaming service also announced that “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” a documentary about one of the founding fathers of jazz, will hit Apple TV+ on Oct. 28. Both films are world premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the company is screening five features, the largest number of Apple Originals to debut at a single film festival. The Canada-bound Apple lineup also includes “Sidney,” a documentary about Oscar-winning actor and barrier-breaking star Sidney Poitier that is produced by Oprah Winfrey and directed by Reginald Hudlin; “Raymond & Ray,” which features Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke as half-brothers; and “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” with Zac Efron and Russel Crowe in a new dramedy from “Green Book” director Peter Farrelly.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media Brendan Gleeson, currently generating Oscar buzz for his work in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” is about to move from the west coast of Ireland to the seedy streets of Gotham City. The veteran character actor is set to appear in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Variety has confirmed, alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, who play the clown prince of chaos and his main squeeze, Harley Quinn. Todd Phillips, who directed Phoenix to an Oscar in 2019’s “Joker,” returns as director. But whereas the first film played like a comic book riff on Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” the follow-up is a musical, albeit more in the vein of “A Star is Born” than “West Side Story” or “Singing in the Rain.”

Causeway” (A24/Apple Original Films) Though Jennifer Lawrence had a juicy supporting role in Adam McKay’s disaster comedy “Don’t Look Up” last year, we have not seen the former Katniss Everdeen in the driver’s seat of a film since the one-two punch of “Mother!” and “Red Sparrow” (released in 2017 and 2018, respectively). She returns in earnest at TIFF with “Causeway,” about a soldier with a traumatic brain injury trying to readjust to normal life.