Fresh off a surprise "work in progress" screening at SXSW, Robert Rodriguez’s action-thriller Hypnotic, starring Ben Affleck, has been set for a May 12 U.S. release. And what a journey it will have been when the movie finally reaches the big screen.
As Deadline revealed last month, Ketchup Entertainment will be launching the movie on more than 2,000 screens. The $70M feature, which El Mariachi and Sin City director Rodriguez has been wanting to make for two decades, was delayed by the pandemic, shut down three different times and involved in an insurance lawsuit. Its main financier and U.S. distributor Solstice imploded during production and the movie spent two years in post-production without a domestic buyer.
The film got a warm reception in Austin, which Rodriguez called "humbling and validating." The long-awaited release will face yet one more obstacle when it comes to Affleck's availability for promotion. He will be making the rounds for Amazon's major April theatrical Air, which Affleck also directed, and also potentially for The Flash in June. >>>"Otherworldly" Challenges |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Self-Taping Tales - When it comes to auditions, it’s as if the industry remains gripped by the pandemic. Actors are still expected to produce (and pay for) their own tapes and send them off to casting directors, who are expected to sift through hundreds of auditions for every role they are attempting to fill. >>>6 Actors Speak Out
Ben & Jen Ride Again - As Amazon Studios is set to debut Artists Equity’s first movie, Air, at SXSW’s closing night, the Ben Affleck-Matt Damon production company is in final talks to make its second feature, currently titled Unstoppable, starring Affleck's wife, Jennifer Lopez. >>>Deals Coming Together Fast
'Rust' Revival - No date has been set for Alec Baldwin’s criminal trial over the October 2021 fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, but the resurrected movie is moving ahead. It's now looking at a late April production start in Montana. Casting activities are moving ahead, with the production evaluating actors to play a boy who is hearing impaired, Deadline has learned. >>> Several Roles Being Cast
A Super-Sized 'Super Mario' Opening? - The Super Mario Bros Movie just landed on tracking this morning ahead of its Easter weekend release, and the animated film is shaping up to make at least $85M-$90M+ over its Wednesday-through-Sunday launch — and that’s on the conservative side. Given the fervent response to the trailers, it would not be shocking to see a triple-digit opening for Mario, Luigi and company. >>> Strong With Kids Under 12 & Gamer Guys Under 25
In Brief - Range Media Partners has signed Jack Kesy, star of Millennium’s Hellboy reboot...The criminologist docuseries The Lesson Is Murder is set at Hulu...The CW landed former HBO Max series FBoy Island and swiped right on spinoff FGirl Island. |
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The final scene in Episode 8 of Daisy Jones & The Six marks a turning point for main characters Billy (Sam Clafin) and Daisy (Riley Keough), who up until this point have tried to avoid the obvious collision course they’ve set each other on. The scene serves as a catalyst for Daisy to get her act together, but in the on screen adaptation it also has another purpose, creator Scott Neustadter said.
“For us, it was really getting to witness Daisy going overboard and having some of that behavior come back to haunt her, which it always does. And then on the other side of it, it was watching Billy see that maybe he’s going to lose her and what that would do to him — would it crystallize for him how important she is to him?” he explained. “Because… in that episode he’s like, ‘I don’t need her. She’s bad for me. She’s bad for us. I’m the Billy Dunne who can do it all by myself.’ And then he’s faced with the possibility that she wouldn’t be around anymore. I really loved seeing him realize that that wasn’t true.”
Keough remembered the scene to be “emotionally challenging,” with Claflin adding that “nothing was really scripted. I knew what the beats were, and knew where I had to get positionally for a camera, but like everything else was just organic. >>>Spoiler Alert |
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Exclusive Theo Rossi has been tapped for a key recurring role opposite Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti in the HBO Max original series The Penguin (working title) from Warner Bros Television and DC Studios. Exclusive Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon and Rick Hoffman are set to join the cast of TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s horror pic Thanksgiving, Eli Roth’s next feature film which is based on the fake trailer featured in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse. Exclusive John Cameron Mitchell will step in for the late Leslie Jordan as the lead for the beloved actor’s passion project, Ron. Two-time Tony Award winner Mitchell is now set to star opposite Margaret Cho in the film based on her personal experiences, which Ben Eisner will direct from his own script. The Banshees of Inisherin Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan is in negotiations to join the cast of Paramount’s sequel to Gladiator that has Ridley Scott returning to direct and Keoghan's fellow Oscar nominee Paul Mescal set to star. In Brief - Tyrese Gibson and Harvey Keitel will star in Art Camacho's action thriller The Wrecker... Lana Condor, Toni Collette, Jane Fonda, Colman Domingo and Annie Murphy are among the major names attached to DreamWorks Animation's latest feature, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken...ABC drama pilot Judgement has added Portia Doubleday, Christine Adams and Ken Kirby to its cast... Nancy Lenehan will star opposite Ellie Kemper in ABC's Drop-Off comedy pilot based on BBC series Motherland |
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More News
👀 Just days after being set adrift by Netflix, Nancy Meyers’ next movie may have found a new home. Sources tell Deadline that Warner Bros is eyeing the big-budget project. They stress that no deal is done and that talks are exploratory, but they add that discussions have begun on various details.
⭐ Demi Lovato is making her directorial debut with a Hulu original feature documentary about former child stars. The film, which currently has the working title Child Star, will “deconstruct the highs and lows of growing up in the spotlight through the lens of some of the world’s most famous former child stars, including Lovato."
💰 Banijay, the world’s largest independent television production group, has posted a 16.5% increase in revenue after a spending spree that ran to 15 companies. In its first full-year results since its $2.2B takeover of Endemol Shine Group and going public, Banijay revealed that its revenue was €3.2B ($3.4B) last year, compared with just under €2.8B in 2021.
🏗️ Fox Corp. is planning a major building overhaul and expansion of its Century City lot, including nine new soundstages as well as a media campus, office space and focus on related transportation infrastructure.
🎶 Stephen Sondheim’s final, long-awaited musical Here We Are will make its world premiere this September in a strictly limited Off-Broadway engagement to be directed by two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello. Formerly known as Square One, the final musical composed by Sondheim before his death in 2021 will be staged at The Shed, the Manhattan arts center that opened in 2019.
🎭 House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock will make her professional theater debut for London's National Theatre as the vengeful Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's powerful drama The Crucible. She'll tread the boards at Cameron Mackintosh's Gielgud Theatre for a strictly limited season from June 7-September 2.
In Brief - Room, the stage adaptation of the bestselling novel and 2015 film, will not come to Broadway this spring as planned due to a "shortfall in capitalization"...The Big Lebowski will return to the big screen on April 16 and 20 for the Coen Brothers comedy classic's 25th anniversary...BAFTA Film Awards presenter Alison Hammond has been named co-host of The Great British Bake Off to replace Matt Lucas. |
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Trending  Everything Everywhere All at Once can’t stop winning awards. After sweeping this weekend's Oscars the film won for best science fiction/fantasy movie as well as for Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan at the third annual Critics Choice Super Awards.
🔻 Ticketmaster fees more than doubled the list price for tickets to see the Cure on the band's upcoming tour. One fan who bought four $20 tickets for $80 ended up paying $172 after a service fee, facility charge and order processing fee were added. Ticketmaster later offered a $10 per ticket refund. |
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Obituaries
🕯 Brian Walsh, the popular Australian TV and film executive credited with a key role in Neighbours' success, died unexpectedly. Walsh helped launch the careers of Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue and Nicole Kidman and played a vital role in many of Australian TV's biggest moments. He was 68. 🕯 |
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On the Radar
Fri - St. Patrick's Day; Taylor Swift kicks off The Eras Tour; Series Mania begins
Sun - Lucky Hank premieres
Mon - WGA & AMPTP contract talks begin
Tue - Jennifer Aniston on Fallon
Wed - Brian Cox on Fallon
Thu - TikTok CEO testifies before Congress; Sweet Sixteen games begin; Lille Dialogues |
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"Deux Or Die" - Jennifer Aniston appeared at a very scenic photo call for Amazon's Murder Mystery 2, in which she again stars with Adam Sandler as a pair of sleuths on a high-stakes case that may give them everything they’ve ever dreamed of: a shot at their detective agency finally becoming successful…and a long-awaited trip to Paris. |
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