AWARDS HEADLINES
On the Importance Of the Moving Picture: ‘Spotlight’ Kicks Off Vatican Clerical Sex Abuse Commission
As the Tom McCarthy-directed film heads toward $40 million U.S. gross and rolls out overseas, the Best Picture nominee continues to have an impact on the disclosure of predator priests. Today, a Vatican commission on clerical sex abuse started the proceedings with a private screening of the film to kick off a weekend meting by the commission as they prepared to meet on reforms. (AL)
Yesterday Was a Look At Animated Short Film Nominees, Today It’s Documentary Short Subject
The throughline connecting the documentary short nominees is physical and mental sufferings of fellow human beings. The filmmakers follow those who recover the bodies of Ebola patients, a disabled Asian teen, Claude Lanzmann who made the documentary Shoah, a brave girl who confronted her own relatives out to kill her for their “honor” and a man who turned in his own brother, a veteran suffering from PTSD, to the police. (IC)
OTHER HEADLINES
SSN Box Office Trending Report for 2/5/16: ‘Deadpool’ Killing It While ‘The Revenant’ Holds Steady
In our latest weekly series, SSN Insider will take a deep dive into the film ticket sales of the week leveraging data from the powerhouse ticketing website, MovieTickets.com. Not only will the infographic pinpoint which movies are claiming the largest piece of the pie from day to day in terms of sales but also which film had the biggest uptick in terms of a percentage variance surge and which had the biggest downtick or steepest dive between any two points. (SSN)
On the Set for 2/5/16: Vin Diesel & Nina Dobrev Start Shooting ‘xXx’ Sequel, Ben Affleck Wraps Production on ‘Live by Night’
A whole bunch of projects get up and running this week, including a new film starring Shirley MacLaine and Amanda Seyfried, and another featuring David Tennant, Elisabeth Moss, Michael Gambon and Gabriel Byrne, while Tate Taylor’s Girl On the Train also wraps principal photography. Click the link for more. (SSN)
Cinematic Dream Team: Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt Sign On for R-Rated Musical
Duo is attached to star as two pilots in an untitled musical comedy for Universal Pictures that is designed to be R-rated in nature. Marc Platt, who produced the Broadway musical Wicked, is producing the project alongside Adam Siegel, with Tatum, Gordon-Levitt, Tatum’s partner Reid Carolin, and Peter Kiernan also onboard as producers. Story is unknown, but comes from an original idea that Gordon-Levitt hatched with Michael Bacall, who will write the script. (COL)
Ethan Hawke to Headline Undead Assassin Thriller ’24 Hours to Live’
Fundamental Films and Thunder Road Pictures have snagged the actor to star in their upcoming thriller, with Brian Smrz tapped to direct. Penned by Zachary Dean based on an original script from Ron Mita & Jim McClain, film follows a career assassin who is given a chance at redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily, just after being killed on the job. (CS)
‘Fifty Shades Darker’ Just Added Another Key Component, as Bella Heathcote Joins the Cast
The Dark Shadows actress will play Leila, a former relationship of Jamie Dornan’s Christian, who is scarred both emotionally and psychically. This casting follows the announcement that Kim Basinger will play Grey’s Mrs. Robinson-esque first lover. James Foley is set to direct the next two installments of the E.L. James adaptation Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed from screenplays by Niall Leonard. (THR)
Fox Orders Pilots for Female Buddy Cop Comedy & Interracial Family Sitcom
Network is continuing to beef up its pilot slate of comedies, ordering two more projects. The Enforcers hails from writers Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer and centers around two wildly different single mothers with dreams of being police officers. The second is an untitled comedy pilot from writer Chris Case about an African-American, ex-NFL lineman who recently moved in with his white wife and her two oddball sons. (VAR)
ABC Fills Out Keifer Sutherland Conspiracy Drama With an Impressive Cast
House alum Kal Penn, Nikita leading lady Maggie Q, Californication‘s Natascha McElhone and Chasing Life star Italia Ricci are set to co-star opposite Kiefer Sutherland in Designated Survivor, Alphabet’s straight-to-series conspiracy thriller drama about a low-ranking Cabinet member becoming President of the U.S. (DH)
As ‘Trainspotting’ Turns 20 and a Sequel Finally Moves Forward, a Look At the Film’s Complete History
What do you do after a big indie hit like Shallow Grave? In the case of Danny Boyle, Andrew MacDonald and John Hodge, the directing/producing/writing trio behind the 1994 hit, you take £1.5 million and some up-and-coming talent, and head north of the border to film Irvine Welsh’s cult Scottish novel Trainspotting, a series of vignettes concentrating on heroin-hooked anti-hero Mark Renton and his attempts to kick the habit. (EMP)