| SEVEN-FIGURE DEAL POSITIONS JOSH COOLEY TO DIRECT PROJECT |
In a sign that studios are willing to spend big on original ideas by proven hitmakers, Miramax has paid seven figures upfront for London Ghost Tour. That is a high price for a pitch, a four-quadrant film that will be written by Terry Rossio from a story he wrote with Jocelyn Stamat. Josh Cooley is attached to direct.
Cooley directed Transformers One and Toy Story 4, and his credits include Up, Inside Out and other animated hits. Rossio’s script work includes the blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, National Treasure, Shrek — for which he earned an Adapted Screenplay Oscar nom and a BAFTA and Annie Award — Aladdin and other tentpoles, culminating most recently with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The collective gross on films he’s either scripted or co-written is around $12 billion.
Miramax swooped in before other IP-hungry studios even heard this one. The logline is under wraps, but the comps are Night at the Museum and An American Werewolf in London. >>>Three-Film Story Arc |
Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
The Hartbeat Of AI - Kevin Hart's production company Hartbeat is teaming up with AI outfit Luma AI on Prompt Side Story, a “live AI film battle” which will see comedians and content creators pitted against each other to make short films in real time with the help of AI. >>>Happening This Weekend
Color Correction - Jon M. Chu tells Deadline's Baz Bamigboye that he “tweaked and tweaked” Wicked: For Good , the second part of his movie musical about Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West who fled Oz, and Glinda the Good who remained. Getting the film to gleam involved bringing back stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande to film new lines for the title song and persuading a major actor to voice the Cowardly Lion. It also involved a fanatic attention to color details. To wit, he said, “the yellows in the yellow brick road. It can’t be the honey brick road; it has to be the yellow brick road.” >>Second-Act Revamp
Christmas With Christina - Fathom Entertainment, Vertigo Live Productions and Roc Nation have set Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris (w/t) for a Dec. 14 and 21 theatrical release. The concert movie marks the 25th anniversary of the multi-Grammy winner’s holiday album My Kind of Christmas. >>>'Eras Tour' Connection |
The Last Class, the documentary about noted Trump critic, Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, has become a major hit, earning $700,000 at the box office to date.
As Reich brought his academic career to a close, his final semester in the classroom was documented in The Last Class, directed by Elliot Kirschner.
Reich tells Deadline when the director approached him about the project, he thought he was signing on to something relatively modest. “It’s bait and switch actually, because Elliot originally said to me it was going to be a video and he just wanted a video of my last class,” Reich explains. “And then... it became quite a, well — it’s hard for me; I’m kind of close to it — but it’s a very moving thing.”>>>Q&A |
ExclusiveOscar nominee Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) and Skyfall star Bérénice Marlohe have joined William H. Macy, Nolan Gerard Funk and Meadow Williams in the cast of the Untitled Eternity Project, which is currently filming in Europe. For Marlohe the project marks a screen comeback after a six-year hiatus.
exclusiveNia Long and Larenz Tate, stars of Love Jones, who have more recently worked together on Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael, are set to reteam once again on an untitled romantic drama from Sylvie’s Love helmer Eugene Ashe that has been greenlighted at Netflix. |
MORE NEWS
📺 After flopping in 2020 with a subscription streaming offering, CNN is making another go of it, announcing an October 28 launch for its “all access” service at a price of $6.99 per month.
🎥 Paramount Pictures is staying in business with genre producer Walter Hamada, renewing him and his 18Hz Productions with an exclusive, multi-year production deal.
🌏 Warner Bros. Discovery and CJ ENM have struck a major partnership deal. They will co-produce original Korean drama series to air on HBO Max as well as making the streaming service the home of CJ’s TVING in a number of markets across Asia-Pacific.
🚀 Jim Carrey is in talks to star in Warner Bros.’ live-action feature take on The Jetsons with Colin Trevorrow also eyed to direct. Trevorrow and Joe Epstein are in talks to write.
📆 The Daniels’ top-secret, untitled movie is back on the Universal schedule, now set for Friday, Nov. 19, 2027. That’s the Friday before Thanksgiving, which falls on Nov. 25 that year.
🤝 Fifth Season has locked a new multi-year partnership with Erik Feig’s Picturestart. As part of the deal, Picturestart will receive additional shared services, including business affairs, finance, production and strategic insight from Fifth Season.
🍿 Canal+ has signed an agreement for a 34% stake in French cinema operator UGC. The deal will see the Paris-based company make a “long-term commitment to French and European cinema and theatrical exhibition,” according to Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada. The pact includes an option to build to a controlling stake in 2028. |
OBITUARIES
🕯️ Yolonda E. Lawrence, a veteran television writer and producer who worked on such series as Empire, Riverdale, Bel-Air and The Good Wife among many others, has died. She was 56. 🕯️ 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery |
ON THE RADAR
Thu - All's Fair premiere
Fri - Daytime Emmys
Sat - Academy Museum Gala
Sun - Task season finale
Tue - Virginia Giuffre’s memoir released
Wed - AFI Fest begins; NBA regular season tips off |
Rock On - Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe at the L.A. premiere of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle on the Disney lot. |
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