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Hollywood has been borderline obsessed with Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal for over half a century. Plenty of presidents or watershed legislative decisions have gotten adaptations, but given the recency of his crimes, Nixon is on another level. There have been 24 feature films centered on Nixon and/or Watergate, and that's not including the recent influx of prestige miniseries like 2023's "The White House Plumbers" about Nixon's political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy or 2022's "Gaslit," the Julia Roberts-starring series about Martha Mitchell, the wife of Nixon's at-the-time United States Attorney General.

I was born in 1990, which means my understanding of Nixon until, say, my junior year of high school, was what I had absorbed from pop culture. My introduction to Nixon's resignation speech was when it played over the radio in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and I learned about all of his specific...

Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon star in ‘Death by Lightning’

Two-time Emmy Award winner Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) and two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals) have committed to star in Netflix’s Death by Lightning, a political drama based on Candice Millard’s Destiny Of The Republic. Matthew Macfadyen will star as Charles Guiteau and Michael Shannon will play James Garfield.

“Death by Lightning is a drama series that brings to life the epic and stranger-than-fiction true story of James Garfield, reluctant 20th president of the United States, and his greatest admirer Charles Guiteau — the man who would come to kill him,” reads Netflix’s synopsis.

The series was created by Mike Makowsky (Bad Education) who’ll serve as writer and executive producer. Game of Thrones and 3 Body Problem‘s David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Bernie Caulfield also executive produce along with director Matt Ross. (Ross will direct all episodes.

Chicago – Michael Shannon is also a film director. The distinctive actor, who has wowed cinema fans with his performances over the years, showcased his directorial debut at the 59th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) with “Eric Larue.” Shannon did a master class on directing, walked the Red Carpet and appeared at the film screening.

Janice Larue is (Judy Greer) a middle-aged mother coming to terms with a shooting spree perpetrated by her son. Adapted from Brett Neveu’s 2002 play — which debuted at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago — the film follows the shell-shocked Janice as she attempts to navigate the tragedy in her small town. While a local pastor tries to reconcile Janice with the victims’ mothers, Janice’s feeble husband (Alexander Skarsgård) finds refuge in an upstart church led by a motivational preacher (Tracy Letts). But Janice must find her own way. The film was a Special Presentation of the 59th Ciff.

In the sci-fi thriller Black Noise, Alex Pettyfer and his team of mercenaries face a dangerous unknown threat on an isolated island. The trailer reveals that the mysterious sound they encounter drives them to insanity as they battle opposing gunmen and terrifying hallucinations. Pettyfer's previous sci-fi projects, including the Netflix show The I-Land, indicate a trend in his career of starring in sci-fi-driven projects.

Alex Pettyfer and his team of mercenaries encounter a deadly hidden threat in the exclusive Black Noise trailer and poster. The sci-fi thriller centers on an elite team of security contractors hired to rescue a VIP from an isolated island estate, only to arrive and find a mostly empty island, save for opposing masked gunmen, and a mysterious siren sound that drives them all to the brink of insanity. Alongside Pettyfer, the cast for Black Noise includes The Island's Jackson Rathbone, Cypher's Eve Mauro, Big Shark's Ashton Leigh,...

The plot line for Passenger C reads like an “only in Hollywood” inspirational tale. Big-time Hollywood agent and producer Cassian is on a red-eye flight back to Los Angeles when he agrees to take the seat next to Marco, an ex-Marine with Ptsd. When Marco begins to flip out, physically assaulting Cassian and threatening the other passengers, Cassian tries to calm him down. After landing, when Marco is handed over to the police, Cassian promises he “won’t forget him.”

He never did. Cassian is the producer and big-time Hollywood agent Cassian Elwes, and the incident on the red-eye, more than a decade ago, changed his life. It altered the course of Elwes’ career, pushed him to back a project nobody in Hollywood believed in — a little Oscar winner called Dallas Buyers Club — and to set up programs like the Horizon program to help female filmmakers and, most importantly, to...

Production underway in Northern Ireland.

The Solution Entertainment Group is launching sales at EFM this week on the neo-noir Sunrise which stars Alex Pettyfer and Guy Pearce and has begun production in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Martin Brennan and Jib Polhemus are producing in association with Pettyfer’s Dark Dream Entertainment.

Pettyfer plays Fallon, a man who roams the land as a creature of the night while he comes to terms with the loss of his family at the hands of the brutal demagogue Reynolds.

Andrew Baird, who reunites with his Zone 414 star Pearce and directs from the screenplay by Ronan Blaney...

Exclusive: Emma Roberts, John Gallagher Jr. and two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon will topline Spencer Squire’s first feature, Abandoned, which is also the first to be fully financed through the partnership between Vertical Entertainment and Three Point Capital.

The recently wrapped thriller written by Squire, Jessica Scott, and Erik Patterson follows a mother, father, and infant son as they move into a remote farmhouse, which harbors a dark, tragic history. As their home’s past is revealed, the mother’s fragility escalates to a state of psychosis that jeopardizes her own safety and that of her newborn son.

Roberts is producing with Robert Ogden Barnum, Eric Binns, and Byron Wetzel, with Neal Dodson, Andrew Gans, David Gendron, Neil Gobioff, Rich Goldberg, Peter Jarowey, Ali Jazayeri, Shawn Paonessa, Oliver Ridge, Zachary Quinto, Viviana Zarragoitia, Michael Reiser, Delos Chang,...

Exclusive: Mike Pniewski (Hightown), Thad Luckinbill (12 Strong), Sky Ferreira (Lords of Chaos), James Devoti (The Walking Dead) and Michael Beasley (Escape at Dannemora) will round out the cast of Netflix’s crime thriller Reptile, appearing alongside previously announced cast members Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pitt, Ato Essandoh, Frances Fisher, Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi, Karl Glusman, Matilda Lutz, Owen Teague and Catherine Dyer.

The first feature from director Grant Singer picks up following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, following a hardened detective (Del Toro) as he attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems. In doing so, he finds himself dismantling the illusions in his own life.

Singer and Benjamin Brewer wrote the script for the film, which was acquired by Netflix back in August. It’s not yet clear what roles the newest cast members will play.

Hulu has ordered a comedy pilot from Steve Levitan and John Enbom with Keegan-Michael Key and Johnny Knoxville attached to star, Variety has learned.

In the pilot, titled “Reboot,” Hulu decides to reboot an early 2000’s family sitcom. Its dysfunctional cast is forced back together and now must deal with their unresolved issues in today’s fast-changing world.

Levitan is the creator, executive producer, and showrunner and also wrote the pilot story. Levitan and Enbom wrote the pilot teleplay. Enbom will serve as writer and executive producer on the series. Danielle Stokdyk will also executive produce. 20th Television, where Levitan is currently under an overall deal, will serve as the studio.

“Reboot” is the first announced project for Levitan since the ending of “Modern Family” in April 2020 after eleven seasons and 250 episodes. Levitan co-created the hit ABC single-cam sitcom, which won 22 Emmy Awards throughout its run, including five wins for best comedy series.

MGM has acquired one of the hot Cannes Film Festival acquisitions titles, director Sean Penn’s father-daughter coming-of-age drama “Flag Day,” marking the lead film debut of his daughter Dylan Penn (“Elvis & Nixon”), which will have its world premiere on the Croisette. (Check out our full list of 2021 Cannes acquisitions here.)

Thirty years ago, Cannes veteran Penn premiered his first film as a director, MGM’s “The Indian Runner,” in 1991, and has continued to bring his films to the festival throughout, from Best Actor-winning “She’s So Lovely” to eventual Oscar-winner “Mystic River” and “The Last Face.” He also served as the president of the jury in 2008.

Playwright and screenwriter Jez Butterworth (“Edge of Tomorrow”) adapted Jennifer Vogel’s 2005 memoir “Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life.” “Hearing the love and enthusiasm that Mike and his team at MGM have for bringing the movie to audiences...

MGM has acquired one of the hot Cannes Film Festival acquisitions titles, director Sean Penn’s father-daughter coming-of-age drama “Flag Day,” marking the lead film debut of his daughter Dylan Penn (“Elvis & Nixon”), which will have its world premiere on the Croisette. (Check out our full list of 2021 Cannes acquisitions here.)

Thirty years ago, Cannes veteran Penn premiered his first film as a director, MGM’s “The Indian Runner,” in 1991, and has continued to bring his films to the festival throughout, from Best Actor-winning “She’s So Lovely” to eventual Oscar-winner “Mystic River” and “The Last Face.” He also served as the president of the jury in 2008.

Playwright and screenwriter Jez Butterworth (“Edge of Tomorrow”) adapted Jennifer Vogel’s 2005 memoir “Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life.” “Hearing the love and enthusiasm that Mike and his team at MGM have for bringing the movie to audiences...

Even though James Cox is never expected to make the list when the best Hollywood directors are mentioned, the 45-year-old filmmaker's works have developed a cult following over the years. Cox can be compared to directors like Michael Bay, whose movies never get good reviews but feature a lot in discussions anyway.

Related: 10 Directors That Transformed The Way Movies Are Made

Cox has only directed a total of six movies in his career. Apart from his work in movies, he is also known for directing episodes of the supernatural TV series Dead Last. He has also served as a producer in movies such as Elvis & Nixon and Watercolor Postcards. The following is a ranking of all his six movies, according to IMDb.

Elvis Presley has been prominently featured in a number of films, ranging from the horror comedy of Bubba Ho-Tep to the meeting of Elvis and Tricky Dick in Elvis & Nixon. But there hasn’t been a definitive biopic about the man who was dubbed the King of Rock and Roll. That’s about to change with […]

The post Baz Luhrman’s ‘Elvis’ Biopic Adding Rufus Sewell as The King’s Father appeared first on /Film.

Exclusive: Marianna Palka, the Glow actress and filmmaker behind 2018 Tribeca title Egg and Sundance pics Bitch and Good Dick, has set cast on her next feature Collection.

Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four), Mike Vogel (The Help), Jacques Colimon (The Society) and Shakira Barrera (Glow) are onboard for the drama, which is set in the seedy world of high-stakes debt collecting and follows a grieving father who struggles to shed the tragedies of his past. Todd Friedman wrote the screenplay.

Producers on the project are the Warner Davis Company with Pettyfer’s Dark Dreams Entertainment.

Alongside her work as an actress in the likes of Netflix series Glow with Alison Brie, Marianna Palka has steadily established herself in the indie filmmaking space since her 2008 debut Good Dick, starring Palka with Jason Ritter that premiered at Sundance.

Her credits behind the camera also include the 2017 comedy-drama Bitch, which again featured Ritter...

Chicago – Season Three of “Stranger Things,” one of the hottest TV series in the last couple of years, is launching on Netflix on July 4th, 2019. The series is going back to the world of Indiana and the “Upside Down,” and joining the cast – which includes Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove – is veteran actor Cary Elwes.

Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s, the series – created by twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer – first focused (Season One) on the investigation into the 1983 disappearance of a young boy named Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) amid supernatural events occurring around the town, including the appearance of a girl (Millie Bobby Brown) with psychokinetic abilities who helps the missing boy’s friends in their own search.

Billy (Dacre Montgomery) & Mayor Kline (Cary Elwes) of ‘Stranger Things 3’

Photo credit: Netflix

The second season – which introduced Dacre Montgomery’s character of Billy Hargrove – was...

Sean Penn is set to direct and star in the conman drama “Flag Day” alongside his daughter Dylan Penn, his son Hopper Penn, Josh Brolin and Miles Teller.

The cast includes two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz (“Fosse/Verdon”), Dale Dickey, Eddie Marsan, Bailey Noble, and Katheryn Winnick (“Vikings”).

Jez Butterworth (“Edge of Tomorrow”) wrote the screenplay, which is based on Jennifer Vogel’s 2005 memoir “Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life.” “Flag Day” is described an illuminating portrait of a daughter struggling to overcome the loving yet dark legacy of her conman father.

Producers are William Horberg, Jon Kilik and Fernando Sulichin. Production companies are Wonderful Films, Rahway Road, New Element Films and Clyde Is Hungry Films.

Rocket Science and Wild Bunch will executive produce and are handling international sales, with CAA Media Finance, which arranged financing for the film, representing the U.S. and China rights.

You can take the filmmaker out of indie film, but you can’t take indie filmmaking out of Mark Duplass. The co-creator of “Room 104” has a niche at HBO: He makes the genre-shifting, episodic anthology series cheap and fast. So fast, in fact, the next season is already done.

“Here’s the scoop on Season 3 — we already shot it,” Duplass said in an interview, weeks before the Season 2 finale aired. “We have shot it, we have edited it, and we have delivered it. We did two seasons back-to-back because it was going to be so much cheaper.”

Duplass said that’s why the crew shot 24 episodes in a row; now the first 12 have aired, it’s up to HBO as to when the next set drops. Duplass is already hard at work writing Season 4.

It may not replace outgoing HBO juggernaut “Game of Thrones,” but Duplass is filling the...

While it may seem like Netflix is becoming a destination for endless original content, the latest three series ordered sound very interesting.

The streamer announced Friday that it has ordered The I-Land, October Faction, and Warrior Nun to series, and has even offered up some casting details for one of them.

"When ten people wake up on a treacherous island with no memory of who they are or how they got there, they set off on a trek to try to get back home," reads the official logline for The I-Land the seven-part drama.

"They soon discover this world is not as it seems. Faced with the island’s extreme psychological and physical challenges, they must rise to their better selves -- or die as their worst ones."

Related: No Good Nick Starring Melissa Joan Hart and Sean Astin Ordered at Netflix

It all sounds like a little bit Lost-like,...

Shia Labeouf just might have a future as a screenwriter if he ever gets tired of acting: The “Transformers” star has made it to the quarterfinals of the Page International Screenwriting Awards, a contest for up-and-coming screenwriters.

Labeouf has a bragging point most of his fellow quarterfinalists don’t: His feature film script, “Honey Boy,” is in production at Automatik Entertainment, where Brian Kavanaugh-Jones is a producing partner. Lucas Hedges will star alongside Labeouf.

That might seem like a built-in advantage, but Page executive director Kristin Overn said the contest, which has attracted some big names in the past, is judged anonymously so that no one benefits or is unfairly judged for having a famous name.

Also Read: Shia Labeouf, Lucas Hedges to Star as Father and Son in 'Honey Boy'

“Though it may appear that someone working in the industry would have no need to enter a...

Other new advisors are Fehmi Zeko, Scott Walker, Lauren Selig, and J.C. Oliver.

Peter Schlessel and Cassian Elwes are among six strategic advisors who have come on board MovieCoin, the entertainment financing platform based on blockchain technology that Christopher announced last month.

The other advisors announced on Tuesday (June 26) are Fehmi Zeko, Scott Walker, Lauren Selig, and J.C. Oliver.

Schlessel, the former Focus Features and FilmDistrict CEO, owns his own consulting business in addition to holding seats on corporate and venture fund advisory boards.

Elwes was the former co-head of William Morris Independent whose producer credits include Mudbound,...

“It was both exciting and daunting at the same time,” admits production designer Mara LePere-Schloop about her work on “The Alienist.” Produced by Cary Joji Fukunaga (“True Detective”), this TNT limited series focuses on a newspaper illustrator (Luke Evans) who teams up with a criminal psychologist (Daniel Brühl) and a headstrong NYPD secretary (Dakota Fanning) to investigate a serial killer in 19th century New York City. On one hand, LePere-Schloop was mesmerized by “this amazing world that we were going to have the potential to build.” But on the other hand, “it was also extremely horrifying because it’s this massive, sprawling story of 1890s New York” and “a showcase of the architecture of the city, both then and now.” Watch our exclusive video interview with LePere-Schloop above.

See Dakota Fanning (‘The Alienist’): ‘I tend to be drawn to darker subject matter’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Historical accuracy was important to LePere-Schloop, and...

Long dreaming of stepping behind the camera, actor Alex Pettyfer made his directorial debut recently with the Tribeca-premiering Back Roads, in which he also stars.

Based on a novel by Tawni O’Dell, Back Roads centers on Harley (Pettyfer), a young man living in backwoods Pennsylvania, who is forced to become the caretaker for his three sisters after his father is murdered and his mother (Juliette Lewis) is sent to prison.

Reading the script for the project years ago—when he was 18 years old—Pettyfer never consciously set out to make Back Roads his first directorial outing, only coming back to the project years later when he realized that it had never been made. “I approached Michael Ohoven, one of the producers, about ten years later, and it was just my pure love for the story and wanting to see it get made,” Pettyfer told Deadline yesterday, explaining his ultimate...

Four projects on company’s debut slate.

Cassian Elwes, the Us producer behind Mudbound, Elvis & Nixon and Lee Daniels’s The Butler, is launching a UK-based crowdfunding film and TV venture that will allow investors to buy equity in a slate of upcoming film projects.

Run through a new company dubbed Movie Collective, the venture is kicking off its activities with the drama Utopia Road, starring Garrett Hedlund, Rebecca Hall and Anjelica Huston, which is being lined up for a summer shoot.

Also on the debut slate are Cohen & Cohan, a six-part television series from writers Neil Brand and Michael Eaton,...

Disney's The Jungle Book delivers the third $100+ million opener of 2016, two more than 2015 had at this point in the year and Captain America: Civil War is just around the corner. The weekend's two other new wide releases saw WB and MGM's Barbershop: The Next Cut finish second while Lionsgate's Criminal settled for a sixth place finish. Altogether, the weekend top twelve finished up 50.2% compared to last year and up 76.6% from last weekend. With an estimated $103.5 million opening, The Jungle Book will be the talk of the town for the next couple weeks. It's an opening number that exceeds all expectations despite the pre-release buzz. Heading into the weekend the film had an impressive 95% rating at RottenTomatoes, a rating that was reflected in audience opinion as opening day moviegoers rewarded it with an "A" CinemaScore. The result is the second largest April opening weekend of all-time behind only last year's Furious 7.

Colin Hanks, Johnny Knoxville, Alex Pettyfer, Tracy Letts and Sky Ferreira have joined the cast of Liza Johnson’s upcoming drama “Elvis & Nixon,” an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

The group joins titular leads Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey, who will play rock icon Elvis Presley and President Richard Nixon, respectively. The film, inspired by a true meeting of the two vastly different personalities on the morning of Dec. 21, 1970, also co-stars Evan Peters (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”).

See Photos: TheWrap’s 25 Most Anticipated Movies of 2015: From ‘Fifty Shades’ to ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Spectre’

Cary Elwes penned the script,...

Eric Bana says he will no longer play Elvis Presley in Elvis & Nixon, the directorial debut of Cary Elwes. "I'm not doing that. I was attached for a while, but I'm no longer attached," Bana told The Hollywood Reporter at Sunday's screening of Deadfall at the Tribeca Film Festival. Last October, Bana was announced as the actor playing The King with Danny Huston taking on the equally iconic and oft-impersonated character of President Richard M. Nixon. Bana, as it happens, is known for a spot-on Elvis impersonation. Story: The Race to Make an Elvis Movie Heats Up

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