Actor Laurel Marsden is joining the cast of The Fisherwoman as a teenager who gets kidnapped. Starring Judy Greer and Emma Thompson in lead roles, The Fisherwoman is an actioner that Brian Kirk directs based on a script by Dalton Leeb and Nicholas Jacobson-Larson. It is about how Thompson's fisherwoman character interrupts the teenager's kidnapping while dealing with a blizzard and realises that her hopes of a future lie only in her hands. The film also stars Marc Menchaca along with Marsden's daughter Gaia Wise.

Stampede Ventures and Augenschein Filmproduktion are producing the film, which will also have a release in the German-speaking population of Europe. Meanwhile, North.five.six. is not only co-representing the film's domestic rights with Augenschein and CAA Media Finance but also handling its international sales. Thompson is also executive producing the film after her critically acclaimed performance in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.

Production is underway in locations such as Finland's Koli and Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia.

Marsden's breakthrough role came in the series Ms. Marvel on Disney+, and her most popular appearance in a feature-length filme was in the recent Russell Crowe-starrer The Pope’s Exorcist.

Chrissy Metz, popularly known as Kate Pearson from her character in This Is Us, has joined the cast of Bank of Dave: The Sequel. The film is a sequel to Chris Foggins' 2023 film Bank of Dave, a British feel-good comedy based on a true story.

Rory Kinnear and Jo Hartley will be reprising their roles in the sequel as well. The makers are yet to make further announcements regarding casting. 

The first Bank of Dave is adapted from the real-life story of the self-made millionaire from Burnley, Dave Fishwick (Kinnear). The film portrays his goal to promote local businesses, and the obstacles he faces as he tries to establish a community bank for the same.   

The sequel will begin two years after the happenings of the first film. This time, Dave takes on Payday Loan Companies. He hires Jessica (Metz), an investigative journalist, and another local Citizen's Advice counsellor, Oliver, for his cause. As a group, they take on a journey to help bring down an industry of predatory corporations in the United States. 

Jessica, Metz's character, is described to be a workaholic, brilliant investigative journalist working on the economics beat. She travels with reluctance to Burnley, as her life in New York is restricted to her office and her home. She makes a visit to Burnley only to write a piece on the victims of payday lenders. 

Bank of Dave: The Sequel went on floors in the UK on Sunday. The film is written by Piers Ashworth and is backed by Piers Tempest. 
 

Barbie may have been out-awarded by Oppenheimer, but Ryan Gosling, according to 'Variety', ended months of speculation to say he will officially perform 'I'm Just Ken' live at the Oscars.

Sources told Variety that Ryan Gosling will sing the Oscar-nominated song during the annual ceremony, which will take place on March 10, 2024. However, neither the actor nor the Academy are yet to share their official statement about it.

In an interview with Variety in early February, Gosling insisted the Academy hadn't yet asked him to perform. "It might be too much of a risk to have me do it," said Gosling, who is up for an acting Oscar for his work as Ken. "I don't know how that would work. But I’m open to it."

'I’m Just Ken' is one of two Barbie tracks that earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The other is 'What Was I Made For?' by Billie Eilish and Finneas, which won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media over 'I’m Just Ken' and fellow Barbie hit 'Dance the Night' by Dua Lipa.

Meanwhile, the presenters for this year's Oscars were officially announced yesterday. The 96th Academy Awards boasts a star-studded lineup of presenters. Last year’s big acting winners are all coming back to present at the show, including Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis. The academy also announced that Scarface‘ co-stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino are set to hand out awards as well.

Other celebrities set to grace the Dolby stage include Zendaya, Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Lange, Nicolas Cage, Mahershala Ali, Sam Rockwell and Luptia Nyong’o. More names will be revealed as show day gets closer.  

The Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 10, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 7 p.m. EDT — one hour earlier than usual — and be broadcast live on ABC. 

Naomi Watts and Bill Murray are all set to reunite for a dramedy The Friend, from writer-director duo Scott McGehee and David Seigel. This collaboration between Watts and Murray comes after their previous work together in Ted Melfi's St Vincent.

The Friend is an adaptation of the eponymous New York Times bestselling novel by Sigrid Nunez.  The extended cast of the film includes Sarah Pidgeon, Constance Wu, Ann Do, and Noma Dumezweni.

A New York-based writer is the protagonist of The Friend, as she is left to deal with the unexpected demise of her close friend and mentor. In the aftermath, she is forced to face his complicated literary legacy, a massive Great Dane named Apollo who is brokenhearted, and three eccentric ex-wives. The book won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2018. 

The Friend is currently in production in New York. Siegel and McGehee are also backing the project under their Big Creek Projects banner.  3dot Productions is also bankrolling the upcoming dramedy. 

A drama series based on the comic book El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez is in the pipeline.

As per Variety, the series, currently titled 'El Gato' will be shot in both English and Spanish. Diego Boneta is attached to star, with Eric Carrasco of Foundation and Supergirl fame adapting the comic book for the screen.

Boneta was previously attached to a project based on the same comic book titled El Gato Negro: Nocturnal Warrior from MGM Television and Mark Burnett in 2019 that stalled.

In the series, Boneta is set to portray the role of Frank Guerrero, the black sheep of his family, who finds himself at the centre of a vast conspiracy when he discovers his father was the titular ‘70s vigilante. Frank, returns home to Mexico after the death of his father and finds himself neck-deep in a nest of vipers – his estranged family – who are vying for control of his father’s business empire.

After realizing his father’s true identity and legacy, Frank is forced to “solve mysteries decades in the making and unravel the truth about his father’s connections to a modern-day terror plot,” as per the logline.

Production for the "pulp-thriller" is slated to begin on the show this spring in Mexico. The series is set to air on Prime Video.

“It’s a family drama, it’s everything I love about spies and masks and secret identities. A lot of us on this team – Diego, Andrew Mittman, Steve Stark and Carla Gonzalez Vargas, and I – have been at this for a long time now, and it’s a genuine thrill to finally make the show with MGM Television and Prime Video,” said Carrasco in a statement.

Eric Carrasco is set to serve as showrunner and executive produce alongside co-showrunners Turi Meyer and Alfredo Septién, who most recently served as co-EPs for Netflix’s Griselda.

Boneta is known for his roles in films like Rock of Ages, Terminator: Dark Fate and the recent Father of the Bride reboot.

The latest addition to the Josh Webber directorial Break The Cycle is DC Young Fly. Ameer Abdullah has also been added to the cast of the upcoming urban thriller. 

The previously announced cast members of Break The Cycle include Cuba Gooding Jr., Vivica . Fox, Vernon Davis, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Loretta Devine, and Kym Whitley

The film is gearing up to go on floors in Memphis, next month. Break The Cycle will revolve around two brothers with a traumatic childhood, thanks to a horribly tragic incident. The brothers, who are raised by their strict yet caring grandmother, go polarizingly different ways as they come of age. Jay is the family's only hope, as tries to make it into the NBA with his gift in Basketball. However, the reputation of his brother Eddie, who is into the dark underworlds of street crime, makes Jay's dream a question mark. 

Young Fly will feature as 4-Fingaz, a youngster indulging in theft in Break The Cycle. The script for the film has been penned by former NBA player Jarnell Strokes, who will also produce alongside Rob Goodrich and Jason Armstrong of Walk Like A Duck Entertainment.

A day after Priyanka Chopra joined the team of the Oscar-nominated documentary, To Kill A Tiger, as an executive producer, the actor shared the trailer for the documentary on her Instagram handle.

It gives a glimpse of the tale of a father fighting for justice for his daughter. Sharing the trailer, Priyanka wrote, “Trailer. Truly remarkable.”

To Kill A Tiger, directed by Nisha Pahuja, revolves around the story of a middle-aged farmer named Ranjit, who fights for justice against the gang rape of his 13-year-old daughter. Pressured by his village to drop charges against the three young men accused of the attack, Ranjit and his wife Jiganti refused. The narrative unfolds in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand (where Priyanka Chopra Jonas was born).

According to Deadline, Nisha spent eight years working on the film. She is a New Delhi-born Canadian director who was previously in the news about her Emmy nomination for the documentary feature 'The World Before Her', which is about the complex and conflicting environment in which young girls grow up in India.

The documentary has won two dozen prizes throughout the world, including Best Documentary at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Amplify Voices Award at TIFF, and Best Feature Documentary at the Canadian Screen prizes.

Apart from Priyanka Chopra, Mindy Kaling and Dev Patel are also executive producing the feature. Netflix has bought the rights to the documentary and will launch the film globally on its platform.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Priyanka (@priyankachopra)

A special 28-minute episode of the award-winning kids' show Bluey, titled The Sign, is all set to premiere on Disney+ on April 14. This special comes along with a fresh episode from the series, titled Ghostbasket, which is set to premiere a week before, on April 7. 

The episodes will first premiere on ABC Kids in Australia, before its global rollout on Disney+, Disney Junior and Disney Channel in all other available regions. While Ghostbasket is set to be of the usual runtime as other Bluey episodes, The Sign will be the longest episode in the series that revolves around a blue Heeler dog. 

Joe Brumm, the creator of the series has written both episodes, which are in turn directed by Richard Jeffery and produced by Ludo Studio. Bluey, which first premiered in Australia in 2018, has received several acclaims including awards from AACTA, The International Kids Emmy, the Television Critics Association, BAFTA and the Critics’ Choice Awards.

Kenneth Mitchell, known for his portrayal of several characters in Star Trek: Discovery as well as roles in Captain Marvel and Jericho has passed away following complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. He was 49.

The news of his death was confirmed by his family. “With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of Kenneth Alexander Mitchell, beloved father, husband, brother, uncle, son and dear friend,” the family’s statement read.

"He's portrayed an Olympic hopeful, an apocalypse survivor, an astronaut, a superhero's dad, and four unique Star Trekkers. But to those close to him, he was known as a hope seeker, daydreamer, dream believer, soccer player, beach walker, bear hugger, landscape designer, garden grower, canoe paddler, happy camper, nature explorer, cat lover, infectious laugher, gift giver, note sender, movie goer, art maker, music listener, sports connoisseur, detailed particular, Leaf's supporter, world traveller, uncle joker, younger brother, Susan's partner, and more than anything else, a proud father," they added on Instagram.

Mitchell was diagnosed with ALS in 2018. He and his family shared periodic updates about his health in recent years. Speaking about his diagnosis in an interview with People in 2020, he said, "The moment that they told us it was [ALS], it was like I was in my own movie. That’s what it felt like, like I was watching that scene where someone is being told that they have a terminal illness. It was just a complete disbelief, a shock."

Born in Toronto on Nov. 25, 1974, Mitchell booked his first studio film portraying professional ice hockey player Ralph Cox in Disney’s 2004 Miracle. He later played mayor-turned-sheriff Eric Green on CBS’ Jericho, his first series regular role, starting in 2006. Most recently, he played Joe in FX/Hulu’s The Old Man in 2022.

The Star Trek franchise and the cast and crew mourned the death of the actor who played multiple roles in Star Trek: Discovery including Klingons Kol, Kol-Sha, and Tenavik, as well as Aurellio.

Mitchell is survived by his wife, Susan, and their two young children.

Juno Temple, Ted Lasso star, has confirmed to Variety that the filming for Venom 3 is coming close to an end. A continuation of Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the upcoming third part is directed by Kelly Marcel, who has written the scripts for the previous parts. 

Venom 3 will be led by Tom Hardy, the lead of the first two films of the franchise. Apart from Hardy and Temple, the film will also star  Chiwetel Ejiofor and Clark Backo in pivotal roles that are currently kept under wraps. 

Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, were successes at the box office. Both the films saw Tom Hardy playing Eddie Brock, the journalist who comes in contact with an alien symbiote.

The filming for Venom 3 was halted during the SAG-AFTRA strikes and was restarted only in late November. The film is backed by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal and Hutch Parker.

Venom 3 is currently slated to hit theatres on November 8.