Eric Fellner Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Manori Ravindran International Editor With a week to go before kicking off the London Film Festival, the British Film Institute gathered the U.K.’s titans of cinema to toast the return of moviegoing and celebrate the next generation of filmmakers. The BFI’s Luminous gala took place at the swanky Londoner hotel in Leicester Square on Thursday evening (Sept. 29), where Variety had exclusive access. The event, which also featured the BFI and Chanel’s inaugural Filmmaker Awards, used to be a biannual bash, but was the first of its kind since the pandemic. The starry dinner convened around 400 guests, including actors Daisy Ridley, Ncuti Gatwa, Morfydd Clark, Rebel Wilson, Lily James, Malachi Kirby, Dame Joan Collins and Eddie Redmayne; directors Edgar Wright, Gurinder Chadha, Steve McQueen and Terry Gilliam; and producers including Working Title co-founder Eric Fellner, screenwriter Jemima Khan, and former BBC drama commissioner-turned-A24 international boss Piers Wenger.

Shalini Dore Features News Editor As with so many other organizations these past couple of years, the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation had been unable to meet in person. But on Wednesday, the charity, which provides assistance to theater workers, gathered at the Beverly Hilton to honor producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson as pioneers of the year. Presenting the award to the producers most famous for the James Bond franchise were Michelle Yeoh (“Tomorrow Never Dies”) and Daniel Craig, who starred as 007 in five of the films since 2006’s “Casino Royale.” “They just give and give, quietly and generously,” Craig said of Broccoli and Wilson’s philanthropic work. “They are like giving first responders. They see a problem and march right in.”

Apple beat the competition for rights to the film in June. The shoot is expected to begin later this year.McQueen’s Lammas Park produces alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films, and Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan, and Michael Schaefer from New Regency, with independent producer, Anita Overland.  “Blitz” was developed and packaged by New Regency under McQueen’s first look deal with the company; they previously collaborated on “12 Years a Slave” and 2018’s “Widows.”“Lady Bird,” “Little Women” and “Brooklyn” actress Ronan most recently starred in “See How They Run” opposite Sam Rockwell.

Four-time Oscar nominee Saorise Ronan is set join the ensemble of Steve McQueen’s next film Blitz from Apple Original Films. McQueen will write, direct and produce the film, which tells the stories of Londoners during the Blitz of World War II. It is set to begin filming later this year.

EJ Panaligan editor Disney, Amazon Studios, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and other major Hollywood players are pledging support for the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a major educational outreach initiative championed last year by George Clooney and others. Paramount and NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises are also signing on to become founding partners of the Los Angeles Unified School District magnet facility. These companies join previously announced founding partners History Channel/A+E Networks, Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The group has committed to providing more than $4 million in funding for the school, which opened in August with 150 students at the Edward G. Roybal Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles.

Amazon Studios, Disney, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery have signed on as Founding Partners of the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund, which was established by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Creative Artists Agency’s Bryan Lourd, to support The Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a specialized academy created to drive transformational change across the industry by building a more inclusive pipeline of historically underrepresented college- and career-ready students pursuing below-the-line careers in film and television.

Beanie Feldstein is heading back to the big screen.

EXCLUSIVE: Five days before filmmaker Sally El Hosaini (My Brother the Devil) was ready to declare “Action, background action” on the set of The Swimmers, the film fell apart due to the pandemic. “We just thought it was curtains for the film, which was heartbreaking,” the director recalled. “It just came to a halt, and there could be no promises of anything for anyone.”

untitled film for Working Title and Focus Features, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap.The “Booksmart” actress joins Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan, who were announced to star in the film last month.No plot or character details have been revealed yet. Coen will produce and write the screenplay with his wife, Tricia Cooke.

EXCLUSIVE: Beanie Feldstein is set to join Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan in Ethan Coen’s untitled pic at Working Title and Focus Features. This is Coen’s first time directing a film on his own after having spent his movie career co-directing and writing with his brother Joel.

Naman Ramachandran Studiocanal and Working Title have unveiled the official trailer for Shekhar Kapur’s keenly anticipated cross-cultural British romantic comedy “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” The film will have its world premiere as a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10. It follows documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), for whom swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr. Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to Maymouna (Sajal Aly), a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films Kaz’s journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.

EXCLUSIVE: Ethan Coen looks to have found his leading ladies for his untitled pic at Working Title and Focus as sources tell Deadline Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan are set to star in the pic. The film marks Ethan’s first time directing a film on his own having spent his entire career co-directing and writing films with his brother, Joel. Coen co-wrote the script with his wife Tricia Cooke and as of right now, plot and character details are being kept under wraps.

Sally El Hosaini’s Netflix movie The Swimmers will be making its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival as the opening-night film on September 8 at Roy Thomson Hall.

Sally El Hosaini’s “The Swimmers” has been chosen as the Opening Night Gala Presentation for the 47th Toronto International Film Festival.Based on the true story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini, “The Swimmers” chronicles the journey of two sisters who flee Syria in the midst of war and eventually make it to the 2016 Rio Olympics. In August 2015, the Mardini sisters were on the third leg of their journey, a boat trip from Turkey to Greece, when the overcrowded vessel began to sink.

Naman Ramachandran Sally El Hosaini’s refugee drama “The Swimmers” will open the 47th Toronto International Film Festival.The film follows the journey made by swimming sisters Yusra and Sarah Mardini who fled as refugees from war-torn Syria all the way to the 2016 Rio Olympics.In 2015, after their house was destroyed in the Syrian Civil War, the Mardini sisters decided to flee the country. They made their way to Lebanon and then Turkey, where they arranged to be smuggled into Greece by dinghy.

EXCLUSIVE: We have learned that filmmaker Sally El Hosaini has signed with CAA.

Wilson Chapman editorLena Dunham’s medieval kids comedy film “Catherine Called Birdy” is set to make its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival this September.Based on the 1994 children’s novel by Karen Cushman, “Catherine Called Birdy” is set in England during the year 1290, and focuses on Lady Catherine (Bella Ramsey), the youngest child of Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott) and Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper). When Catherine’s parents attempt to fix their financial woes by marrying her off to a wealthy man, she counteracts by scaring off her potentials suitors, resulting in tension between the spirited and independent young woman and her traditional parents.The cast also includes Lesley Sharp, Sophie Okonedo, Joe Alwyn, Isis Hainsworth, Dean-Charles Chapman and Paul Kaye, with Dunham appearing in a supporting role.

EJ Panaligan editorA+E Networks and The History Channel have partnered with the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund, which was established to support a specialized academy founded in 2021 by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Bryan Lourd of Creative Artists Agency, to provide educational resources for students from underserved communities in Los Angeles. The academy will welcome its inaugural class this fall.As part of the partnership, A+E Networks President and Chairman Paul Buccieri has joined the Roybal Advisory Board, whose members include Clooney, Heslov and Lourd alongside Kerry Washington, Eva Longoria, Mindy Kaling, Don Cheadle, Nicole Avant, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Jim Gianopulos.

The History Channel/A+E Networks has announced a multi-year partnership with the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund – a fund created by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and CAA’s Bryan Lourd – to support the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet school in Los Angeles.

Ticket To Paradise – check out the trailer below.Directed and co-written by Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Ticket To Paradise follows two divorced parents (Clooney, Roberts) who travel to Bali after learning their daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), is planning to marry a local she has just met.As shown in the trailer, they decide to work together to sabotage the wedding to stop Lily from making the same mistake they made 25 years ago.This is the first time Clooney and Roberts have starred in a rom-com together, after previously sharing the screen in Ocean’s Eleven and 2016’s Money Monster.Along with Clooney, Roberts and Dever, the cast includes Billie Lourd (Booksmart), Maxime Bouttier and Lucas Bravo (Emily In Paris).Roberts and Clooney are also producers on the film, alongside Deborah Balderstone, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Marisa Yeres Gill, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Sarah Harvey and Grant Heslov.Ticket To Paradise is scheduled to be released in cinemas on October 21, 2022.Roberts is known for starring in romantic comedies, including 1990’s Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill and Runaway Bride.

Naman Ramachandran The world premiere of “Matilda the Musical” will open the 66th BFI London Film Festival.The Netflix adaptation stars Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough and Sindhu Vee and introduces Alisha Weir as Matilda.Screenwriter Dennis Kelly adapted the Tony and Olivier award-winning Royal Shakespeare Company theater production for the big screen, with original music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. Directed by Tony award-winning director Matthew Warchus, who also developed and directed the stage show for both London’s West End and Broadway, the film is produced by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title and Jon Finn and Luke Kelly of The Roald Dahl Story Company.

A trailer for the rom-com, which you can watch above, shows the former couple struggle to put their differences aside, even in light of their common cause. They go head-to-head at every turn, before eventually making peace with their daughter’s decision — and each other.“Ticket to Paradise” reunites Clooney and Roberts on screen for the first time since Jodie Foster’s “Money Monster” from 2011, and the “Ocean’s” franchise before that.Parker wrote the film with Daniel Pipski.

Wilson Chapman editorJulia Roberts is making her triumphant return to the rom-com. The iconic actor stars in the first trailer for “Ticket to Paradise,” a new film that reunites her with her “Ocean’s Eleven” co-star George Clooney.Directed by Ol Parker (“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”), “Ticket to Paradise” stars Roberts and Clooney as two long-divorced parents who impulsively married each other. When their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) heads on a post-graduation trip to Bali and decides to marry a local, the two fly out to Indonesia to talk her out of making the same mistake they once did.

Wilson Chapman editorOne of Roald Dahl’s most beloved characters is heading back to film. Netflix has released the first teaser for “Matilda the Musical,” set to debut on the streamer this December.“Matilda the Musical” is based on the stage musical from Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly, which premiered on the West End in London in 2011 and received 12 Olivier Awards.

Netflix released a first-look teaser for its upcoming holiday season special Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical, with Alisha Weir as the title character, a little girl with an extraordinarily vivid imagination. The film adaptation, written by Dennis Kelly, adapted from the Tony and Olivier award-winning Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of the stage’s Matilda The Musical, also stars Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull), and Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough and Sindhu Vee.

EXCLUSIVE: In a highly competitive situation, Apple has landed Blitz, the sought-after new feature from Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen featuring the stories of Londoners during World War II’s Blitz, which he will write, direct and produce. The film is is set to begin filming later this year. 

K.J. Yossman The BBC has set a release date for “Everything I Know About Love,” the adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s book of the same name.The full season will debut on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on June 7.The seven episode season, which was written and created by Alderton, was directed by China Moo-Young (“Pennyworth”).

Amazon today unveiled the first clip from its Lena Dunham film, Catherine Called Birdy, also announcing that it will hit theaters on September 23, in advance of its Prime Video debut on October 7.