Josh Gordon Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Following a bidding war, TriStar Pictures has beaten out a number of suitors and pre-emptively acquired rights to AlisonEspach’s forthcoming novel The Wedding People. Will Speck and Josh Gordon, who have a first-look deal with Sony Pictures, are set to direct, with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicole Holofcener writing.

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor Prominent entertainment attorney Ken Deutsch has switched from one powerful firm to another, leaving Latham & Watkins to join Paul Hastings as a partner and global co-chair of the entertainment and media practice. At Latham & Watkins, Deutsch was global co-chair of the firm’s entertainment, sports, and media group.    Deutsch’s move boosts the already impressive Paul Hastings entertainment and media team. On the transactions side it includes Craig Emanuel (who was named Variety’s Power of Law Honoree this year), David Hernand, Mickey Mayerson, Susan Williams and Sean A. Monroe. In litigation, it boasts the services of Steven Marenberg, Tamerlin Godley, James (Bo) Pearl and Josh Gordon. Like Deutsch, all have been featured in Variety’s Legal Impact Report.

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Gordon and Will Speck have signed a first look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to develop and produce feature films. The news comes in the wake of their feature take of children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile grossing over $104M WW.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief American musical comedy film “Lyle Lyle Crocodile,” is set to release in mainland China cinemas, having received approvals for import and distribution from Chinese authorities. It will play in China from April 15, 2023. The film was released in North America in early October last year and many other territories at the end of 2022. Parts of Asia have been later to receive the title with Korea and Taiwan play it from January and Japan set to open it from March 24. The film has grossed $108 million worldwide, with $60.9 million of that coming from international markets and $46.8 million from the North American domestic market, studio backer Sony Pictures reported.

The snow monkey’s work is not over yet: Hulu has renewed Hit-Monkey for a second season.

“Lyle, Lyle Crocodile” star what film he was obsessed with as a kid.“Let me pick one. Well, let me pick a children’s movie.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The creative mandate for the VFX team on “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” was to deliver a premium film with a singing and dancing CG character that both adults and children could believe was real. Based on the children’s book by Bernard Weber, the film follows Josh (Winslow Fegley), a young boy struggling to fit in, his dad (Scoot McNairy) and stepmother (Constance Wu). Upon moving to the city, the family finds out their new home is inhabited by a singing crocodile named Lyle, voiced by Shawn Mendes. Josh Gordon, who co-directed the film with Will Speck, says it was important that Lyle didn’t come off mean or menacing. Gordon explains, “That’s part of the character — he scares people — but Lyle is somebody who people judge by his cover. They don’t understand that underneath he is incredibly soulful and sweet.”

“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” book series is now a major motion picture. The live action/CGI musical comedy stars a whole host of names, including one Canadian singer as the voice of a talented crocodile. The film will feature songs performed by star Shawn Mendes and written by the songwriting team behind “The Greatest Showman” — Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — with an ensemble cast that includes Javier Bardem and Constance Wu.For “Lyle,” Pasek and Paul are joined by Ari Afsar, Emily Gardner, Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick and Joriah Kwamé.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Josh Gordon and Will Speck’s live-action musical “Lyle Lyle Crocodile” lives up to it name. The story, about a crocodile named Lyle voiced by Shawn Mendes that can dance and sing, features songs penned by the award-winning Justin Paul and Benj Pasek. The dup then brought in a team of songwriters to carve out toe-tapping, infectious earworms. From the get-go songwriting and composing duo Pasek and Paul knew Lyle would be a singing crocodile which made the project all the more exciting for them. “But when the voice actor became Shawn Mendes, that really informed a lot of the style and what we were going to write for,” explains Pasek. 

The classic computer game The Oregon Trail is currently being adapted into a musical from the same team who are bringing “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” to the big screen.

J. Kim Murphy Do-re-mi-fa dys-en-ter-y! A musical adaptation of the classic computer game “The Oregon Trail” is in the works from the team behind “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.” In an interview with Collider, filmmakers Will Speck and Josh Gordon shared that they have been collaborating with their “Lyle, Lyle” songwriting team Pasek and Paul (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), working to crack a darkly comedic musical version of the video game. Although no studio is currently attached, the group shared that it has obtained the rights to “The Oregon Trail.” The report states that the project is in “active development.”

Don’t underestimate the second weekend of Paramount’s horror movie Smile. The Parker Finn directed and written title, which has provided many in town that horror remains a bankable genre for the big screen after a $22.6M opening, has a shot of possibly upsetting Sony’s family movie Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and 20th Century Studios/New Regency/Disney’s upscale David O. Russell comedy Amsterdam for No. 1 with around an $11M+ take.

Antonio Ferme editor Almost 60 years after famous children’s author Bernard Waber published “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” the story is finally getting a live-action adaptation. The 1965 picture book, a sequel to “The House on East 88th Street,” follows a saltwater crocodile navigating the streets of New York City. At the worldwide red carpet premiere on Sunday, the cast and crew discussed the process of threshing out a grander narrative based on the ten books in the “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” series. “It’s like a 17-page book, so the room for growth and expansion is tenfold,” producer Kevin Vafi told Variety at AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York. “It’s finding those homage points that you really want to do, like the note in the attic or meeting Lyle in the bathtub with Mrs. Primm — all these little callbacks to the book.”

Shawn Mendes hits the red carpet for his new movie premiere, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile!

Thania Garcia Shawn Mendes, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and more are on the soundtrack to the upcoming animated movie “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile!” Mendes, as the voice of the titular character, also revealed that he will be sharing one of the original tracks he wrote for the set titled “Heartbeat,” next Friday (Sept. 30). He is credited on eight tracks on the list and is also joined by co-stars Constance Wu and Javier Bardem, as well as Anthony Ramos. The full soundtrack will be available for streaming on Oct. 7, the same day as the film’s official premiere. A post shared by Shawn Mendes (@shawnmendes) Based on Bernard Waber’s 1965 children’s book, the Will Speck and Josh Gordon film follows Lyle the crocodile as he navigates New York. After the Primm family moves into their house on 88th Street, Mrs. Primm, played by Wu, is shocked to find the singing crocodile in her bathtub. Eventually, the croc makes friends with her son Josh (Winslow Fegley) and his owner Héctor P. Valenti, played by Bardem.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterAward winning actor Scoot McNairy will star opposite Amy Adams in the forthcoming adaptation of the best-selling book “Nightbitch.”Mounted by Searchlight Pictures and Annapurna, the film will tell of a suburban mom thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler. As she embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.McNairy will star as Adams’ oft-traveling husband in the project.

You’ve definitely never heard Shawn Mendes like this.

Among studios, Sony was first up with its presentation here at CineEurope in Barcelona which kicked off on Monday. “As an industry, we are anything but done,” declared Sony Pictures International Releasing’s President Steven O’Dell at the top of the show. The studio is coming off of its most ambitious six-month slate ever, which it began rolling out in the fall and wrapped up with the $1.9B worldwide smash Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the January hit Uncharted.

UPDATED, 10:09 AM: DreamWorks Pictures’ sci-fi film Distant is heading from Sept. 16 to Jan. 27, 2023.

Hulu is bidding farewell to another one of its Marvel properties. M.O.D.O.K., the streamer’s adult animated show from Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt, has been canceled after one season.

Sony’s animated sequel to the Oscar winning movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is moving from Oct. 7 this year to June 2, 2023. The news is breaking just before the studio’s presentation at CinemaCon next week.

EXCLUSIVE: Scoot McNairy (C’mon C’mon, Narcos: Mexico) is the latest addition to the cast of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Will Speck and Josh Gordon’s film for Sony Pictures, based on the bestselling children’s book by Bernard Waber.

On paper, an R-rated animated series about a monkey assassin taking on the Yakuza in the world of the Marvel Universe sounds like a 14-year-old’s Mountain Dew-induced fever dream. Shockingly, “Hit-Monkey” is a real thing and is the latest Marvel animated series hitting Hulu, after the successful launch of “M.O.D.O.K.” earlier this year.

Universal is transporting next year’s DreamWorks Pictures’ sci-fi movie Distant from March 11 to Sept. 16.

EXCLUSIVE: Brett Gelman has joined the ensemble cast of Will Speck & Josh Gordon’s Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile for Sony Pictures. Javier Bardem, Constance Wu and Winslow Fegley are also on board. Speck & Gordon will direct, with the script being adapted by Will Davies. The film is based on the bestselling children’s book by Bernard Waber.

EXCLUSIVE: Lyric Hurd is set to join the cast of Will Speck & Josh Gordon’s Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile for Sony Pictures. Javier Bardem, Constance Wu and Winslow Fegley are also on board. Speck & Gordon will direct, with the script being adapted by Will Davies. The film is based on the bestselling children’s book by Bernard Waber.

Following the cancelation of Hulu‘s Marvel shows “The Runaways” and “Helstrom,” and Kevin Feige taking over Marvel TV (shuttering it in favor of a new slate of Marvel Studios-produced shows at Disney+), it’s been thought, well that’s the end of that, right? Lest you forget “M.O.D.O.K.,” and what appears to be one avenue of Marvel that Feige seems ok with Hulu still-running with: R-Rated, adult-oriented Marvel animation.

EXCLUSIVE: Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu is set to co-star opposite Javier Bardem and Winslow Fegley in Will Speck & Josh Gordon’s Lyle, Lyle Crocodile for Sony Pictures. Speck & Gordon will direct with the script being adapted by Will Davies. The film is based on the best-selling children’s book by Bernard Waber.

EXCLUSIVE: Winslow Fegley is set to join Javier Bardem in Will Speck & Josh Gordon’s Lyle, Lyle Crocodile for Sony Pictures. Sources also tell Deadline that Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, the Oscar winning songwriting team behind the music of La La Land and upcoming Dear Evan Hansen movie, will write original songs for the film. Speck & Gordon will direct with the script will be adapted by Will Davies and is based on the best-selling children’s book by Bernard Waber.