Film Development For 3/10/16: A24 Scoops Up Brie Larson Starrer ‘Free Fire’, J.K. Simmons Onboard for ‘Justice League’
Meanwhile, Natalie Portman’s directorial debut gets a distributor, Michael Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Lizzy Caplan and Rosamund Pike get new jobs, Morten Tyldum gets to remake his own movie and plenty more. For the full skinny, click on the link and see it all. (SSN)
Warner Bros. Takes Big Step To Address Diversity Issue With Directors Workshop
Studio is continuing its efforts to tackle Hollywood’s diversity problem by launching an emerging film directors workshop, a talent incubator designed to give access and voice to new and underrepresented talent. The studio is accepting applications now and hopes to have the workshop up and running by the end of the third quarter. (VAR)
Fox’s ‘Lethal Weapon’ Pilot Finds the Man To Fill Mel Gibson’s Shoes
Rectify and 24 alum Clayne Crawford has been tapped to star opposite Damon Wayans Sr. in the drama pilot. Based on the feature film, the pilot kicks off when Texas cop and former Navy SEAL Martin Riggs (originally played by Gibson) suffers the loss of his family, he moves to Los Angeles to start anew. There, he gets partnered with LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh (Wayans Sr.), who, having recently suffered a “minor” heart attack, must avoid any stress in his life. (LF)
Contractual Complexities Abound: New ‘Star Trek’ TV Show Has To Wait a While Before It Can Air
Despite being produced by Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, the new TV series is not connected in any way to Justin Lin’s upcoming film. The good news is that audiences will be able to keep their TV and movie versions of the massively influential science fiction series separate; the bad news is that apparently six months of breathing room is now contractually required to occur between them. (COL)
MGM Has Its Eye On Someone Special To Play Lara Croft In Its ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot
Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley is among those being considered to topline the film, though no word on who else is in the mix, or even who is writing the project, but it seems getting the star locked is the important first step. Of course, Ridley will be busy with Star Wars for the next few years, so there’s that. Roar Uthaug, the helmer behind the Norwegian disaster movie The Wave, will helm the new film. (TP)
The ‘Dark Tower’ Film Keeps Casting, Adds Young Tom Taylor To Play Jake Chambers
The big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s series continues to move forward with the addition of relative newcomer Taylor. He joins a Dark Tower cast that includes Idris Elba as Roland Deschain (The Gunslinger), Matthew McConaughey as Randall Flag (The Man in Black) and Abbey Lee as the film’s female lead, Tirana. Nikolaj Arcel is directing. (CS)
How Netflix, Amazon & Indie Money Created Sellers’ Market For ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon,’ ‘Bright’ And Festival Films
The emergence of Netflix, Amazon and outside financiers in the auction process has transformed films and even books into an absolute sellers’ market. We’re seeing the outsider influence in two big auctions going on right now. There is the Will Smith action film Bright, and the David Grann book Killers of the Flower Moon: An American Crime and the Birth of the FBI. In the latter case, at least one bidder surpassed $2M for an outright buy and word is this is headed for a $3M+ deal, because it hasn’t finished yet. (DH)
Want To Be Really Successful as a Creative Person? The Most Successful Constantly Say “No”
A Hungarian psychology professor once wrote to famous creators asking them to be interviewed for a book he was writing. One of the most interesting things about his project was how many people said “no.” The professor contacted 275 creative people. A third of them said “no.” Their reason was lack of time. A third said nothing. We can assume their reason for not even saying “no” was also lack of time and possibly lack of a secretary. (BI)
Trailer Buzz, Part One: ‘Captain America: Civil War’
Disney and Marvel have released the latest full-length trailer of the highly anticipated latest chapter in the MCCU. Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, William Hurt, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany, and Chadwick Boseman, the film hits theaters May 6th. Helpful hint: watch the trailer to the very end. (YT)
Trailer Buzz, Part Two: ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
Twentieth Century Fox and BBC Films have released a new look at the upcoming biopic starring Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Rebecca Ferguson and Nina Arianda. The movie does not yet have a U.S. release date, but will hit theaters in the U.K. May 6th. (WAH)