Taika Waititi Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

“Star Wars” fans have received a lot of news coming out of Star Wars Celebration Europe, being held this weekend in London.

Star Wars Celebration in London, Variety spoke with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy about some of the franchise’s future installments. Kennedy was keen to talk about bringing back Daisy Ridley’s Rey for a new “Star Wars” film, which was announced during an April 7 panel. “It was a pretty straightforward phone call,” she said. “I started out by just saying, ‘Hey, I think we’re getting near being ready.’ We’ve been talking a lot about what we’re doing in the movie space and I said, ‘I think we’re getting close to being ready. How would you like to go to Celebration?’ That was really the beginning of it. She was out of her mind excited.”

starring Daisy Ridley as Rey.“We came up with an incredible story about the dawning of the force 25,000 years before,” Mangold said of his feature. The director — who most recently helmed “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” for Lucasfilm — was attached in the early days of Disney/Lucasfilm to a Boba Fett movie that never materialized.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Sydney Film Festival, which this year will celebrate its 70th edition, has unveiled its first dozen selections. Seven are feature films, five are documentaries. “The 2023 program will expand on this legacy, promising to ignite stimulating dialogues and present powerful ideas that will broaden audience perspectives,” said festival director Nashen Moodley. He noted that over the previous 69 editions the Sydney festival has showcased more than 10,000 films. Highlights among the documentaries are two Australian titles. “Rachel’s Farm” follows actor-director Rachel Ward as she revitalizes her beef farm using sustainable farming practices. In “The Last Daughter” Wiradjuri woman Brenda Matthews documents her search to uncover the truth about her government-ordered abduction as a child and to find her white foster family. Both Matthews and Ward will attend the festival in person.

Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament took a hiatus during the pandemic as movie theaters closed for the majority of 2020-2021 and theatrical day-and-date titles on both the big screen and studio’s respective streaming platforms became more prevalent. Coming back from that pandemical brink, the motion picture studios have largely returned to their theatrical release models and the downstream monies they can bring. Not to mention their power in launching IPs around the world with big global marketing campaigns. When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end of the equation, Deadline is repeating our Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament for 2022, using data culled by seasoned and trusted sources.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Filmmaker siblings Anthony Russo and Joe Russo are calling their deep-dish interview series, “Pizza Film School,” back into session after a nearly three-year break. In Season 2 of the video podcast, the Russo brothers sit down with fellow directors to talk about their favorite films, discuss the craft of making movies — and chow down on a couple slices of pies from local pizzerias. Guests for the second season include Zack Snyder, Nia DaCosta, Justin Chon, R.J. Cutler, Justin Lin and Emerald Fennell. The series is produced by their production company, AGBO. Season 2 will premiered April 11 with new two-part episodes dropping weekly exclusively on AGBO’s YouTube channel.

reboot any time soon. The sitcom's premise and humor were of their time (mid-90s to mid-00s), and may not have aged so well.

but died in development and the video game-based IP is now set for an Amazon television show.Since then, she has starred in Justin Chon’s “Blue Bayou” and Julie Taymor’s “The Glorias” (as Gloria Steinem) while popping up in small roles in “Beckett” (as John David Washington’s doomed girlfriend) and “The Green Knight.” She starred in Olivier Assayas’ well-received television incarnation of his own 1996 feature “Irma Vep.” She will next be seen in Karim Aïnouz’s “Firebrand.”Fassbender has not been onscreen since “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” in the summer of 2019, but he will star in Taika Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins” for Searchlight and David Fincher’s Netflix thriller “The Killer” later this year. He was pegged to star alongside Scarlett Johansson and Owen Wilson in Nancy Meyers’ “Paris Paramount” before Netflix canceled the pricey rom-com feature film.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Warner Chappell Music has renewed its global publishing deal with producer Marco “MAG” Borrero. A frequent Bad Bunny collaborator, MAG produced 15 of the 23 tracks on the blockbuster album “Un Verano Sin Ti,” which led to his 2022 Variety Hitmakers honor and his No. 1 position on Billboard’s Year-End Hot Latin Song Producers chart. “Un Verano Sin Ti” became the first all-Spanish album to top the year-end Billboard 200 chart as well as earn a nomination for Album of the Year Grammy award. The Brooklyn-born, Puerto Rican-Dominican producer was mentored by Max Martin — the most successful songwriter-producer of the past 25 years — and over the course of his career has also collaborated with Rauw Alejandro, Arcángel, Bebe Rexha, Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato.

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is set to write the screenplay for a new Star Wars film, according to reports.As reported by Variety, original screenwriters Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Justin Britt-Gibson have departed the project, with Knight on board as a replacement.The untitled film, which is expected to be among Lucasfilm’s first Star Wars films since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel).More information about the project is expected to be announced at Star Wars Celebration in London on April 7-10.Along with Peaky Blinders, Knight is known for writing and directing 2013 films Locke starring Tom Hardy and Hummingbird with Jason Statham.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Jimmy O. Yang and Amazon are back in the funny business: The “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Love Hard” and “Silicon Valley” star has lined up his second standup comedy special with streamer Prime Video, titled “Guess How Much?” Set to launch May 2, the event is a followup to Yang’s first Amazon comedy special, “Good Deal,” which launched in August 2020. In his new standup engagement, Yang will poke fun at “love languages, loser friends, and negotiating with his Asian parents,” per Prime Video. Aside from his memorable parts in “Crazy Rich Asians,” Netflix’s “Love Hard” and HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” Yang is best known as the author of “How to American: An Immigrant’s Guide to Disappointing Your Parents,” which chronicles his journey from life as a young Chinese immigrant to becoming a comedian and actor.

The next “Star Wars” movie, to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chino, has lost its screenwriters. TheWrap has confirmed that Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson (“Counterpart”) have left the untitled, unannounced project.“’Star Wars’ scripts are a lot like James Bond scripts or most tentpoles for that matter.

Hundreds of celebs were in attendance at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party, making it one of the most star-studded events of the year!

There are a lot of films based on personal experience at this year’s SXSW, and Billy Luther’s narrative feature debut is one of the few that actually makes you wish it could go on longer. Using his authentic experience as a rough map rather than a beat sheet, Luther hits on something very special here, exploring universal themes of childhood and family in ways that transcend the specificity of its setting. Taika Waititi’s involvement as executive producer is understandable, not because it reflects his recent success in bringing a more subversively silly strain of comedy to Marvel movies but because, in its lovely, understated it way, it has all the simple warmth and heart of the New Zealander’s earlier works.

Taika Waititi and Rita Ora share a kiss on the red carpet while arriving at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday night (March 12).

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Filmmaker Billy Luther makes his narrative feature debut at SXSW on Saturday with “Frybead Face and Me,” executive produced by Taika Waititi. Inspired by his childhood, the film follows a young boy, Benny (Keir Tallman), who has to spend the summer with his grandma on the reservation. Luther, whose past work includes the documentary “Miss Navajo” and AMC’s “Dark Winds,” feels Benny’s story of learning about rez life and bonding with his cousin Frybread (Charley Hogan) has universal appeal in that it’s ultimately about being somewhere new and feeling alone. “You don’t have to be Native to connect to the story because everyone remembers being dropped off somewhere, and the story brings that familiarity,” Luther says.

EXCLUSIVE: “I’ve told stories about my community and stuff, but this is, this is my story,” declares Frybread Face and Me director Billy Luther of his Taika Waititi executive produced feature debut.

style guide and wrote a whole damn book.On March 10, the attended Creative Artists Agency's pre-Oscars party in a head-to-toe lingerie-inspired look. Posing at the private event with , director Taika Waititi, Ora was photographed in a sheer black cropped bra top, which she paired with a pair of black underwear and an ultra high-slit maxi skirt, topping off the entire look with sheer black opera gloves, chunky silver jewelry, and what appears to be the same Hailey Bieber rocked on back in January.Though Waititi dressed his black suit down with a simple white t-shirt and gold chain, Ora went for a full-on Hollywood glamour moment with an eccentric bouffant hairstyle, a sultry winged eye look, and a '90s lip with brown liner. Rita Ora and Taika Waititi attend the CAA Pre-Oscar Party at Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles, California.This comes just one day after Rita Ora for a night out on the town.

CAA is kicking off Oscars weekend with a star-studded-party!

EXCLUSIVE: Gersh is continuing to expand its roster of notable on-screen talent, with the signing of actress Jaimie Alexander.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Native filmmaker Billy Luther heads to SXSW this weekend to premiere his narrative feature debut, “Frybread Face and Me” on March 11. Set in the ‘90s, the coming-of-age story follows Benny (Keir Tallman), a young Native American boy who plays with dolls, sports a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and watches soap operas. Forced to spend his summer on the reservation with his grandmother, Benny finds himself impressed by his cousin “Frybread” (Charley Hogan) who opens his eyes to life on the rez. Featuring an entirely Native cast and predominantly Native crew, Luther says it was important to cast Navajo kids at the core of his film. He says, “With the help of Midthunder Casting, which also worked on FX ‘Reservation Dogs,’ we were able to find these incredible kids. The amount of Indigenous talent – Martin Sensmeier, MorningStar Angeline, and Jeremiah Bitsui came on. And we also brought on some amazing new faces from Indian country that are making their feature debut.”

The Jojo Rabbit Oscar winner is in talks to potentially star in his own Star Wars movie, however, Taika Waititi is still working on the script. It’s very early days for his Star Wars movie, like several projects that Lucasfilm has in the works.

Two longtime Star Wars projects have been officially shelved.

Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Michael Fassbender and Owen Wilson are in talks to star in the big-budget Netflix comedy marking Nancy Meyers’ return to directing, Deadline can confirm.

Wednesday debuted on Netflix and of the streaming charts, along with it. From her to her , we can't get enough. But we won't have to wait until to see more of Ortega; she next stars in Paramount Picture's sixth installment of the Scream franchise, out this Friday, and then on Saturday, will take the SNL stage at 30 Rock as she makes her hosting debut.

K.J. Yossman Ryan Reynolds cast doubt on the long-hoped for “Free Guy” sequel during an appearance in the U.K. on Saturday evening. Headlining the four-day Just For Laughs comedy festival at the O2 Arena in London, Reynolds appeared in conversation with his “Deadpool 2” co-star Rob Delaney who asked whether he was planning a sequel to any of the films he has produced, which include “Free Guy.” “There is the potential to do a sequel to ‘Free Guy,’ which would be fun,” Reynolds replied. “I would love it. But also like, does everything fucking have to be a sequel? I don’t know. Sometimes it’s OK to just do a movie and have it kick ass and then everyone go home.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor ID PR vice president Alla Plotkin has left the company. Plotkin, whose clients have included Bette Midler, Sarah Paulson, Holland Taylor, Jake Gyllenhaal, Nicholas Braun, Michelle Williams, Titus Burgess and Jessica Williams, has not announced her next move. She had been with ID for almost 16 years. At the same time, ID PR announced that 20-year company veteran Rebecca Sides Capellan has been promoted to senior vice president. Her client list includes Lupita Nyong’o, Rachel Weisz, Natasha Lyonne, Lena Dunham, Cynthia Nixon and Broadway producer and theater owner Jordan Roth.

EXCLUSIVE: Lauren Tom (The Joy Luck Club) has joined the cast of Hulu’s Interior Chinatown from 20th Television and creator/executive producer Charles Yu, who wrote the 2020 bestseller of the same name.