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SXSW DRAWS A STARRy CROWD, and not everyone is coming to promote films
as blake lively, jenna ortega, conan o'brien, matthew mcconaughey and several top studio execs hit the festival, a roster of intriguing indie titles will also look to attract buyers |
Usually, it’s the films that make the most noise at SXSW (rivaled, of course, by the event's fabled music program). This year, however, this year a parade of personalities coming through Austin should cause a clamor even without anything on the screen.
The guest list includes Blake Lively, Jenna Ortega, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, Amazon and MGM Studios Head Jennifer Salke, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Conan O’Brien, fresh from the Oscar Dolby Theatre stage. There are a number of intriguing sit-downs on the docket this year, approaching the number of sidebar conversations at San Diego Comic-Con and dwarfing the number at the most recent edition of Sundance, where the best chats were off-menu.
Along with Lively's A Simple Favor 2, the slate of fest premieres includes A24’s Death of a Unicorn, starring Ortega, Paul Rudd and Will Poulter; Amazon MGM Studios Ben Affleck sequel The Accountant 2; and Blumhouse/Universal’s The Drop.
Sales agents also continue to use SXSW as a launchpad for new talent, even if sales are historically slow out of this festival (even slower than this year’s Sundance). The Sydney Sweeney-Paul Walter Hauser movie Americana from the 2023 festival didn’t get pick up until SXSW 2024 when Lionsgate boarded. >>>Hot Titles For Sale |
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Charli XCX Headed To Narnia? - On the day she was announced for Glastonbury, we revealed that Charli XCX was being eyed to join Greta Gerwig and Netflix's anticipated Narnia film. The multiple Grammy winner is understood to be among top choices for a key role. >>>Talks Ongoing Brody In Talks For Post-Oscar Role - After taking home his second Best Actor Oscar on Sunday night, Adrien Brody quickly is becoming one of the town’s most popular stars, and what he might do next is slowly starting to take shape. While noting that discussions are extremely early, sources tell Deadline that Damien Chazelle and Brody have had discussions about a role in Evel Knievel on Tour, which has Leonardo DiCaprio in negotiations to star. No formal offer has gone out and DiCaprio’s deal remains in negotiations. >>> Linked To Several Other Projects
Rolling The Dice On Monopoly - A slew of broadcast networks and streamers are battling it out to pass Go on an unscripted TV adaptation of classic board game Monopoly. The project, which comes from Hasbro Entertainment, has been heating up the reality TV marketplace in recent weeks. >>>Large Scale Social Experiment
'Bridget Jones' Tops $100M - Universal/Working Title’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy has crossed the $100 million mark at the international box office. The return of Renée Zellweger as the titular heroine swept past the milestone with Wednesday’s numbers included, reaching $101.3M through yesterday. >>>Direct-To-Peacock Domestically |
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Okay no one expected this kind of trauma in the ER. On the latest episode of the medical drama The Pitt, some disturbing observations by Santos (Isa Briones) lead Robbie (Noah Wyle) to make a drastic change to his staff. He sends Patrick Ball’s Dr. Frank Langdon packing. Here, Ball talks about when he learned that his character was carrying some, ahem, excess baggage, along with who helped to inspire his character and what will happen next. >>> Read The Interview |
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Exclusive
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo has boarded Lionsgate’s action thriller Karoshi from 87Eleven. She will star alongside Teo Yoo (Past Lives) and Isabel May (1883).
Exclusive
Charlie B. Foster is set to recur in Scarpetta, Prime Video's upcoming thriller series starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis. The actor, who is Jodie Foster‘s son, has already filmed three of four episodes. He plays Wingo, an assistant in the morgue.
Clémence Poésy (The Essex Serpent) has been cast opposite leads Callum Turner and Briana Middleton in Neuromancer, Apple TV+‘s 10-episode drama series based on the landmark cyberpunk novel of the same name by William Gibson.
Exclusive
Following an extensive auditioning process, rising star Austin Abrams has landed the lead role in 20th Century’s adaptation of the Daniel Kraus novel Whalefall, with Brian Duffield directing. Duffield will co-write the script with Kraus. |
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More News ⚖️ In addition to sex trafficking, the U.S. Attorney’s office brought down a new charge against Sean “Diddy” Combs: forced labor.
✊ Some 17 months after unionizing, production management staffers at Walt Disney Animation Studios have ratified their first labor contract. The vote conducted by IATSE‘s Animation Guild was 93% in favor of sealing the deal, with 96% of eligible voters casting ballots. 🎬 British-Australian production powerhouse See-Saw Films has been bought by France’s Mediawan. The growing entertainment outfit, which also owns Brad Pitt’s Plan B, has taken a 51% majority in See-Saw, which makes the likes of Heartstopper, Slow Horses, Apple Cider Vinegar, The Power of the Dog and One Life. |
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Obituaries
🕯️ Pamela Bach, an actor whose 1985 guest appearance on the David Hasselhoff series Knight Rider led to their rocky 17-year marriage and headline-making contentious split in 2006, died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 61.🕯️ Herb Greene , whose iconic photographs of the 1960 San Francisco rock scene captured the era’s superstars — Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, among others — in their prime, died March 3, at his home in Maynard, Massachusetts, following a long illness. He was 82. 🕯️ 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Fri - SXSW begins
Sat - Lady Gaga hosts SNL
Sun - The Righteous Gemstones S4 premiere
Tue - Robert De Niro on Seth Meyers |
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True Blue (And Orange) - Longtime Knicks fan Timothée Chalamet and even-longer-time Knicks fan Spike Lee got to see their team battle the Lakers into overtime in L.A. on Thursday night. The home team prevailed, 113-109. |
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