Category: Articles

Feb
16

News: Sebastian Stan Pushes Back After Reporter Uses the Word ‘Beast’ to Describe ‘A Different Man’ Character With Facial Disfigurement: ‘I Have to Call You Out’

Variety – Sebastian Stan Pushes Back After Reporter Uses the Word ‘Beast’ to Describe ‘A Different Man’ Character With Facial Disfigurement: ‘I Have to Call You Out’

Sebastian Stan corrected a journalist at the Berlin Film Festival press conference for his new film, the psychological thriller “A Different Man,” when they used insensitive language to describe a character with facial disfigurement.

The film follows Edward (Stan), who, after undergoing facial surgery, becomes fixated on another man playing him in a stage production based on his former life. In the first act of the movie, Stan wears heavy makeup to portray a character with a facial disfigurement, and after the surgery, his face returns to its typical look.

At Friday’s press conference, a journalist asked, “What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?”

“I have to call you out a little bit on the choice of words there, because I think part of why the film is important is because we often don’t have the right vocabulary,” Stan responded. “I think it’s a little bit more complex than that, and obviously there are language barriers, but you know, ‘beast’ isn’t the word. And I think, ultimately, it’s just interesting to hear this word because I think that’s one of the things the film is saying — we have these preconceived ideas and we’re not really educated on how to understand this experience in particular.”

“That’s one of the things I love about the movie,” he continued. “He’s offering you a way to look at it, and hopefully, if you can have the same objective point of view while you’re experiencing the film, maybe you can kind of pick apart the initial instincts that you have, and maybe those aren’t always the right ones.”

Following its Sundance premiere, “A Different Man” is set to debut in competition at Berlin Film Festival on Friday night. Directed by Aaron Schimberg, the film also stars Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson.

The film was well-received at Sundance, where the audience was left laughing and gasping at the film’s twists and turns. Variety‘s Peter Debruge wrote in his review that the film “asks what it means to be ‘normal,’ and whether, if we could wave a magic wand and ‘correct’ those same aberrant qualities which set us apart, that’s really something we’d want.”

Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis, spoke at the Sundance premiere about how he was able to find common ground with Stan while discussing their characters.

“This was the hook that we gave to Sebastian,” he said. “‘You don’t know what it’s like to have a disfigurement, but you do know what it’s like to not have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded. You become public property.’”

Jan
22

News: Sebastian Stan recalls ‘honest’ reactions walking in NYC with A Different Man facial prosthetic

Entertainment Weekly – “The only people that really were the most honest were kids,” he said of the “limited” interactions.

Sebastian Stan had an enlightening experience walking around the streets of New York in facial prosthetics for A Different Man.

In director Aaron Schimberg’s upcoming psychological thriller about identity and obsession, Stan plays Edward, an actor who undergoes major facial reconstructive surgery to transform his disfigured appearance. When another actor who has the same features as his former self (Adam Pearson) is cast as him in a stage production based on his life, Edward becomes fixated on him.

Following the film’s premiere at Sundance over the weekend, Stan took the stage with costars Pearson, Renate Reinsve, and director Schimberg to share the “limited” reactions he experienced while wearing his prosthetics around town, noting that the “only people that really were the most honest were kids.”
Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan attend the “A Different Man” Premiere during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 21, 2024 in Park City, Utah.
Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan at the Sundance premiere of ‘A Different Man’.

“It was really interesting and sort of scary to see how limited the interaction is,” Stan observed. “It just really is limited between two extremes, which is either [people] won’t address it, or overcompensation. The only people that really were the most honest were kids.”

Recounting one interaction with a little girl, “Her mom was just being a parent and trying to do the right thing, but in doing the right thing, she was actually preventing the little girl from just simply having an experience,” Stan said. “She was just being inquisitive, and she was brave and courageous and that’s kids, right? It’s like they just want to know. They don’t have judgment. It was a learning lesson for me, really.”

Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis, inspired the film after having worked with Schimberg in 2018’s Chained for Life. The actor said of finding common ground with Stan, “This was the hook that we gave to Sebastian: you don’t know what it’s like to have a disfigurement, but you do know what it’s like to not have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded,” Pearson said. “You become public property.’”

In conversation with Variety at the festival, Stan said he spent between 1.5 and 2 hours in the makeup chair with Mike Marino, the prosthetic artist behind his transformation, calling him a “great” collaborator. Of that time spent on the chair, “Any time you have a bit of time to reflect on the day is good,” Stan said, noting that they filmed for just 22 days.

Jan
22

Photos/News: ‘A Different Man’ Sundance 2024: Interviews, Photos, Videos + Screen Captures

I’ve added 100+ photos of Sebastian at Sundance for various events and the premiere of ‘A Different Man’ to the gallery along with some professional photos. Thank you to Elizabeth-Olsen.com for the extra assistance. There’s also various video interviews and accompanying screen captures at the following links: Variety Studio, Deadline Studio, and THR Studio. There’s also the after film Q+A which may contain spoilers Sundance Film Q+A


Jan
22

News: Sundance: ‘A Different Man’ Premiere Reveals Surprising ‘Avengers’ Connection in Sebastian Stan’s “Provocative” New Film

THR – The Marvel star toplines Aaron Schimberg’s “psychological thriller” as an aspiring actor who undergoes a radical procedure to drastically transform his appearance.

The Sundance Film Festival on Sunday night hosted the world premiere of Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man starring Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson and The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve in her first American film.

Stan toplines the A24 release as an aspiring actor, Edward, who undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But a new face turns into a nightmare when it causes him to lose a dream role he was born to play when the playwright/object of his affections, Reinsve, replaces him with someone who looks nearly identical to his former self, Pearson, a man with a disfigured face.

As for Pearson, he lives with neurofibromatosis (type 1), a rare genetic condition that causes excess body tissue to grow predominantly on his face. The condition fuels the plot of A Different Man and the actor, Pearson, actually inspired the film after having worked with Schimberg on his most recent film, 2018’s Chained for Life. That indie explored similar themes as A Different Man as it centered on a beautiful actress who struggled to connect with a disfigured costar (Pearson) on the set of a European filmmaker’s English-language debut.

In Chained for Life, “he plays a shy, kind of quiet person more based on myself, and I felt that for that reason, his performance was a little underrated because people thought he was playing himself,” Schimberg explained during the post screening Q&A. “And if you know Adam, he’s quite gregarious so I wanted to show off his range and show something that was a little more inspired by him.”

Amusingly enough, Schimberg’s official Sundance bio states that “he made two commercial disastrous features, but the second one, Chained for Life, was well-received by critics.” It’s true and backed up by a 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter’s called it “bizarre and beautiful,” the New York Times’ Ben Kenigsberg wrote that the “film is odd, darkly funny and — when it means to be — a little frightening.” (A Different Man is sure to inspire some creative ink. The Hollywood Reporter’s Jordan Mintzer called it “provocative.”)

In the official Sundance literature, A Different Man is described as both “a surreal, singular tale” and “a unique psychological thriller.” Schimberg directed from his own script and Christine Vachon, Vanessa McDonnell and Gabriel Mayers produced.

Backing up a bit, Schimberg explained how he encountered the actor in the first place by seeing his feature film debut as “the deformed man” in Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. The 2013 critically acclaimed film, which made the rounds at film festivals including Telluride, Venice and Toronto, stars Stan’s MCU colleague Scarlett Johansson.

“Aaron first got in touch with me regarding Chained for Life. Under the Skin had come out stateside and had done quite well by all accounts,” Pearson detailed. “Then he went to see Under the Skin and saw me and he said, your words not mine, ‘acting circles around Scarlett Johansson.’”

The quip got laughs from the Eccles Theater audience, and from costars Stan and Reinsve. When it came time for the pair to field questions, Stan also looked back on his career to explain why he took on the role in A Different Man.

“I, Tonya, for me, was a very big moment in my realization of things, in terms of what I thought I wanted the process of this experience to be,” he said of Craig Gillespie’s 2017 film starring Margot Robbie and Oscar winner Allison Janney. “Ever since then, I’ve really tried my best to make it a point to seek out filmmakers that I feel like have visions and are not afraid to ask difficult questions and are really specific. They know what they want, they’re after something specific, whatever it may be. And that’s how I felt about Aaron when I read this.”

Though Stan achieved global fame thanks to a Marvel run in the Avengers as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier, he has regularly investigated more challenging arthouse fare in such films as I’m Not Here, Destroyer and Endings, Beginnings. He also played a cannibal killer in Fresh and earned raves as Tommy Lee in Pam & Tommy. He next stars as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice as well as Thunderbolts.

Stan said when his “great agent,” CAA’s Shauna Perlman, sent him Schimberg’s script, he was immediately blown away. “You can all see how great the writing is. It’s unbelievable,” praised the actor. “Obviously, it was something that doesn’t usually come my way.” Stan said he reached out to the filmmaker and “kind of courted him and fortunately he said yes.”

He went a step further and suggested who should play the female lead. “I told [Aaron], did you watch Worst Person in the World? And he said, yes. And I was like, OK, we got to get her.” Reinsve in turn received the script and had questions. “I was, like, what is this? But it was so much heart and it was so weird and it was so fun and I’m still shocked from seeing it again, those scenes,” said the actress who also has another film at Sundance this year with Handling the Undead. “It is my first American or international movie. I’m very proud that it’s this one.”

Stan, who wears extensive prosthetics created by Renaissance Prosthetics throughout the first chunk of the film, also revealed that he wore his disguise while walking around New York where they filmed. “It was really interesting and sort of scary to see how limited the interaction is,” he said. “It just really is limited between two extremes, which is either [people] won’t address it, or overcompensation. The only people that really were the most honest were kids.”

He continued by offering an anecdote of an encounter with a little girl and a protective mother. “Her mom was just being a parent and trying to do the right thing, but in doing the right thing, she was actually preventing the little girl from just simply having an experience. She was just being inquisitive, and she was brave and courageous and that’s kids, right? It’s like they just want to know. They don’t have judgment. It was a learning lesson for me, really.”

Nov
29

News: ‘The O.C.’ Oral History Book Revelations: Sebastian Stan’s Audition (and Other Casting Surprises), an Edited Kiss and That George Lucas Cameo

Hollywood Reporter – ‘The O.C.’ Oral History Book Revelations: Sebastian Stan’s Audition (and Other Casting Surprises), an Edited Kiss and That George Lucas Cameo

[…]

Sebastian Stan Was the Casting That Got Away

The oral history is full of casting tidbits, including an extensive rundown of how the core four were selected alongside guest and recurring characters like Chris Pratt and Olivia Wilde, the actors who didn’t get roles (including Chris Pine, who lost out over his acne) and even the show’s decision to recast certain characters. That includes Marissa’s (Barton) little sister Kaitlin — who went from Shailene Woodley to Willa Holland — and Ryan’s (McKenzie) brother Trey, who was originally portrayed by Bradley Stryker before Logan Marshall-Green was hired to play out a more extensive storyline.

But in one of the most interesting tidbits, the showrunners and casting head Patrick Rush reveal that actor Sebastian Stan — who would go on to appear in Schwartz and Savage’s sophomore hit Gossip Girl before becoming a screen staple of the MCU — was actually up for one of the show’s most controversial characters: Johnny — the public school version of Ryan in season three that Marissa meets after being kicked out of Harbor School. Sepinwall reveals that, in a group chat, Schwartz and Savage admitted to having zero memory of Stan’s audition, with Savage texting, “wtf is wrong with us?” after jogging their memory. “I had seen Sebastian Stan audition from New York for some role, and they weren’t testing him. And I sent it to Josh and Stephanie, like, ‘This kid’s really good.’ And they flew him out to test, and still didn’t hire him,” Rush recalls.
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Schwartz told Sepinwall, “I said to Patrick Rush, ‘This is the worst thing to come out of this book. I hate us.’ He goes, ‘You can just tell him not to put it in the book.’ And I said, ‘No, the shame must be publicly shared. We cannot hold this inside.’”

Jun
22

News: ‘Dumb Money’ First Look: The GameStop Stock Frenzy Is Now a Movie

Vanity Fair – Dumb Money First Look: The GameStop Stock Frenzy Is Now a Movie

From a 2023 perspective, the financial war depicted in Dumb Money may seem like a dimly remembered headline from a bygone time. The so-called GameStop short squeeze happened in January 2021, when the world was reeling from a multitude of far bigger problems: COVID lockdowns, vaccine shortages, the Capitol insurrection. In the shadow of such colossal events, a disparate group of small-time investors began driving up the stock price of a brick-and-mortar video game store that had previously been destined for oblivion.

The fluctuations of a single stock would hardly have garnered much attention—except that this vast group of small-scale investors, unifying mainly in Reddit groups and the comment threads of YouTube videos, managed to line their pockets (at least temporarily) while upending the balance sheets of a small cadre of ultrawealthy, politically connected millionaires and billionaires.

The GameStop buyers literally used a stock-buying app called Robinhood, which allowed them to take from the rich—like investment management firm Melvin Capital, which had placed large bets that the company would continue to collapse—and give to the poor (namely, themselves). Now their story is being told in the movie Dumb Money, featuring an all-star cast that includes Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, America Ferrera, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, and Sebastian Stan. The backstory of how it unfolded is like a cross between Caddyshack and Wall Street, with the nobodies outmaneuvering the somebodies—at least until the rules abruptly change.

Rogen, who plays one of the multi-millionaire hedge fund managers whose business goes topsy-turvy because of the GameStop rally, says Dumb Money illustrates how much of the financial system is rigged to benefit those who already dominate it. “It is purposely convoluted—you know what I mean?—in a way that is designed to keep people out of it,” he says. “The price of entry is understanding this completely bizarre system. It’s so hard! Could you explain to me, conceptually, what shorting of stock is and why that is a thing that exists? I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. And I think that’s the point.”

Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya and Cruella) saw the GameStop stock frenzy play out in his own household, telling Vanity Fair that a close member of his family was one of the millions of small-scale buyers who took part. “My son, who’s 24, was very involved in the whole run, and happened to be living at our house at the time,” the filmmaker says. “So through him, I got to experience the emotional roller coaster and the pain and the frustration and the outrage.”

The movie, set to debut on September 22, is based on the nonfiction book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich. The screenplay is by Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum, both Orange Is the New Black writers who previously worked as journalists. Gillespie added his son’s eyewitness experiences to the mix, although most of the smaller buyers are fictionalized amalgams. “We tried to cover the gamut of the various scenarios that happened,” Gillespie says. “There were the early traders that got in and made money. There were the traders that came in too late. They were the ones that didn’t sell, which sadly was quite a lot of people. So we tried to represent the various groups.”

The title refers to the derisive term Wall Street titans use for the smaller “retail” investors, who are frequently gambling with tinier amounts of money and an incomplete view of market forces. But this time, “Dumb Money” came back to bite these mega-investors when internet-driven hordes rallied enough support around a lackluster stock to dramatically redirect expectations. When that happens—as it also later did with other shaky so-called meme stocks, like AMC movie theaters, the Express clothing retailer, and electronics manufacturer Blackberry—massive hedge funds who bet big on the continued decline of such companies lose catastrophic amounts of capital. That was part of the appeal of such movements too.

“I think it’s definitely about fairness,” Gillespie says. “There is this real divide that’s happening in the country in terms of wealth, and it always feels like everything is rigged for the rich in a way. So this is one of those nice moments where it went the other way.”

At least, for a while.

While GameStop buyers saw their modest net worths multiply, those gains came at a cost to the big-money short sellers, who were blindsided by a reported $6 billion-plus in losses by the end of January 2021. It was not a cost they were willing to incur without fighting back.

Leading the sprawling ensemble of Dumb Money is Dano’s Keith Gill, a real-life YouTuber who posted under the name Roaring Kitty. He helped inspire the movement to drive up GameStop stock through a series of offbeat, at times amateurish, but always exceptionally earnest videos. With his grandma-friendly kitten T-shirts, his Rambo-style scarlet headband, and his actual basement-dweller backdrop, he looked ridiculous compared to the buttoned-up analysts who typically proffered investment wisdom on the financial news networks.

To his fellow online denizens, Gill’s silly style made him endearing and trustworthy. “I saw that as somebody who’s unafraid to say, ‘This is me,’” Dano says. “We all worry about what people think about us, and how we dress, and blah, blah, blah. When you see somebody who’s owning themself, I think it always has a natural charisma.”

Dano says Roaring Kitty gave him a playful, free-spirited escape after back-to-back heavy roles as The Riddler in The Batman and a dramatized version of Steven Spielberg’s father in The Fabelmans. Woodley costars as Gill’s wife and real-world confidant Caroline, while Davidson is Kevin, his madcap brother, a food-delivery dead-ender who marvels at Gill’s ability to manipulate a system not meant for people like them. With their life savings on the line, Woodley’s character tries to guide Roaring Kitty with careful counsel, while Davidson is more or less the devil on his shoulder.

“Shailene was such a wonderful scene partner. And I had such a great time with Pete,” Dano says. “I really felt like I was 16 again, and just with my friends in high school in the backseat of a car. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.”

Although the real-life absurdity of the GameStop rally is undeniable, it was a sometimes punishing experience for some of the everyday investors who took the ride. Ferrera’s character, Jenny Campbell, is one such example. The fictionalized amalgam is inspired by several real-life figures who invested everything they had.

Campbell is a nurse and single mother who is inspired by Roaring Kitty’s passion to put her nest egg into the video game store’s stock. As others like her join in, she sees her contribution growing into a small fortune. But she’s also such a true believer that she is reluctant to get out when the stock reaches its apparent peak.

“This is a character who seems like she’s living paycheck to paycheck,” Ferrera says. “She doesn’t have the privilege of losing it all and knowing that there is going to be a safety net there for her.”

Other buyers include Talia Ryder and Myha’la Herrold as Harmony and Riri, two college students who join the buy-in, and Ramos as an actual GameStop store clerk, who sees an opportunity to escape his minimum-wage gig—and his obnoxious boss (played by Dane DeHaan)—if his investment surges high enough.

Gillespie says Dumb Money also tries to capture the underlying and overwhelming dissatisfaction that rampaged through the culture during lockdown—and persists to today. “Obviously, with what was going on with COVID, the alienation, the wanting to connect with other people…there was also the Black Lives Matter movement going on. There were a lot of ways that people were trying to speak out or just be heard. This became a vehicle for that,” the filmmaker says. “They got to give the middle finger to the banking industry and also make some money along the way. It was a win-win.”

Ferrera believes her character represents those who took part in the GameStop run for reasons beyond financial profit. “Money was only one element of that,” Ferrera says. “In fact, she had far more to lose than to gain. There was this element of being a part of something big, something that felt like sticking it to the people on top. There was a real defiance in it.”

Dumb Money aims to complicate its story of Davids vs. Goliaths. While some characters are more naturally sympathetic than others, Ferrera’s nurse also finds herself guided by much less altruistic motives. “Throw in a little bit of greed,” she says. “In the movie, there’s the idea that wanting more because you can get more is not exclusive to billionaires. That’s a tension that we all experience in one way or another.”

On the less-than-sympathetic end of the spectrum is Dumb Money’s menagerie of money managers. Rogen plays real-life Melvin Capital founder Gabe Plotkin, whose hedge fund lost about half its value in the GameStop uprising. As the movie begins, he’s trying to buy a mansion next door to his current mansion so he can tear it down and put in a tennis court for his family’s amusement during the pandemic.

While his eventual desperation is palpable, he’s hardly the underdog. While performers frequently say they feel the need to connect with their character’s point of view, even when unsavory, Rogen is not one of them. “I don’t need to like the person in order to play them,” he says. “I feel a lot of actors feel, ‘Oh, yeah, you have to see the true humanity…’ And you should see the humanity in everybody, I guess. But he’s not someone I was particularly sympathetic towards.”

Rogen says he found it comical how mundane these supposed financial “masters of the universe” could be. “No one wants to lose billions of dollars, I’m sure. But at the end of the day, this guy is still very rich,” he says. “I think there’s an image in film of these finance guys, that they are very aggressive and it’s a very crass world. I think The Wolf of Wall Street has a level of intrigue and adrenaline to all of it, but from my experience with these guys, it’s like, yeah, they’ll make billions of dollars, or lose billions of dollars. None of it’s going to affect their life that much.
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May
19

News: Sebastian Stan to Produce ‘Blue Banks,’ Feature Debut of Rising Romanian Talent Andreea Cristina Bortun (EXCLUSIVE)

Deadline – Sebastian Stan to Produce ‘Blue Banks,’ Feature Debut of Rising Romanian Talent Andreea Cristina Bortun (EXCLUSIVE)

Actor Sebastian Stan has come on board to produce “Blue Banks,” the feature debut of Romanian director Andreea Cristina Bor?un, whose 2021 short film “When Night Meets Dawn” premiered in Directors’ Fortnight.

Pic follows Lavinia, a single mother trying to make a better life on her own terms for herself and her 13-year-old son, who live in a poor Romanian village. She is impulsive, prone to misreading situations, and not sure how to love. But her son, on the threshold between childhood and adolescence, needs his mother more than ever, and over the course of four seasons their relationship is put to the test.

Stan, who was born in Romania, will produce the film alongside Romanian producer Gabi Suciu, French co-producers Jean-Laurent Csinidis and Jerome Nunes and Slovenian co-producer Ales Pavlin. Shooting will take place in Romania throughout the year and is set to wrap in October.

Best known for playing Bucky Barnes in Marvel Cinematic Universe films and also starring in A24’s horror comedy “Fresh,” Stan — who first met Bor?un in Cannes in 2021 — said the film’s script hit close to home.

“Being that I was raised by a single mother, moved and lived in three different countries at an early age, with my mother determined to find me security and a better life out of communist Romania and my inability to grasp the sacrifice and the profound impact of all this at the time, this story really spoke to me on a deeply personal level,” said the actor.

“I’ve been an admirer of Romanian films for a long time, in awe of their rawness, authenticity and unfiltered, fearless lens on life. When Andreea talked to me about the story, I was immediately drawn in,” he continued. “I understood the characters, their journey, the inner struggle against the primal instinct we are born with, and especially the torn mother-son relationship at the core.”

To recreate the spirit of rural Romania as realistically as possible, Bor?un will work with a mix of professional screen and theatrer actors as well as amateurs, put together by casting director Florentina Bratfanof.

The producers are aiming for a mid-2024 release.

Apr
15

News: Sebastian Stan & Maria Bakalova Set For Spy Comedy In Works At Paramount; Paul Feig Eyeing To Direct From Jenny Bicks’ Script

Deadline – Sebastian Stan & Maria Bakalova Set For Spy Comedy In Works At Paramount; Paul Feig Eyeing To Direct From Jenny Bicks’ Script

EXCLUSIVE: Sebastian Stan (Pam & Tommy) and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) are attached to star in an untitled spy comedy in very early development at Paramount, Deadline has learned.

Jenny Bicks (Welcome to Flatch) is set to pen the script, which is said to involve a failed double agent who becomes an unlikely success, based off an original pitch. Paul Feig (The School for Good and Evil) is eyeing to direct and will also produce alongside Laura Allen Fischer for Feigco Entertainment, as well as Stan (A Different Man) and Emmy winner Emily Gerson Saines (Temple Grandin, Tokyo Vice).

Stan landed his first Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for his turn as Tommy Lee in Hulu’s acclaimed miniseries Pam & Tommy, also recently starring in Apple’s thriller Sharper opposite Julianne Moore, and in Mimi Cave’s horror-thriller Fresh with Daisy Edgar-Jones. The actor is otherwise best known for his MCU role as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Avengers films, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and more, as well as his starring turn opposite Margot Robbie in Neon’s I, Tonya. He exec produced and stars opposite The Worst Person in the World‘s Reinate Reinsve in the forthcoming A24 thriller A Different Man and will also soon return to the MCU with Thunderbolts.

Bakalova broke out with her Oscar-nominated turn opposite Sacha Baron Cohen in Prime Video’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and more recently starred in A24’s darkly comedic horror-thriller Bodies Bodies Bodies from filmmaker Halina Reijn. She can be seen opposite Emilia Jones and Scoot McNairy in the Sofia Coppola-produced drama Fairyland, which world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and plays the role of Cosmo the Spacedog in James Gunn’s Marvel franchise ender Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which hits theaters on May 5th.

A DGA Award winner, as well as a PGA Award and 5x Emmy nominee, Feig is currently in production on the Amazon action-comedy Grand Death Lotto led by John Cena, Awkwafina and Simu Liu. He previously co-wrote, directed and produced Netflix’s starry fantasy pic The School for Good and Evil, based on Soman Chainani’s novel, which debuted at #1 on the streamer in 88 countries. He’s a writer, EP and director of Fox’s Welcome to Flatch and also exec produces Minx, which has headed to Starz for its second season. Additional films directed by Feig that have grossed $1B+ worldwide include Bridesmaids, Last Christmas, The Heat, Ghostbusters, Spy and A Simple Favor. And a sequel to the latter is in the works, as we were first to tell you last summer, with Feig directing and producing. Other upcoming projects for the multi-hyphenate include an adaptation of Maureen Kilmer’s novel Suburban Hell for Legendary, on which he’s teamed with Sam Raimi; Netflix’s adaptation of the Riley Sager bestseller The House Across the Lake, which he’ll produce and potentially direct; and the ABC pilot Motherland, which he’s exec producing.

An Emmy winner, 2x PGA Award winner and 3x WGA Award nominee, Bicks co-created and exec produces Fox’s mockumentary series Welcome to Flatch, starring Holmes, Seann William Scott and more, which returned for its second season last fall. She also created and exec produced ABC’s Men in Trees starring the late Anne Heche, and wrote and exec produced HBO’s Divorce and Showtime’s Emmy winner The Big C. Additional writing credits for Bicks include The Greatest Showman, Rio 2, the original Sex and the City and Leap of Faith. She most recently adapted the Kevin Kwan bestseller Sex & Vanity for Sony.

Stan is represented by CAA, Brookside Artist Management and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Bakalova by CAA, Brookside Artist Management and Insight Management & Production; Bicks by UTA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; and Feig by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

Mar
21

News: Sony’s GameStop Short Squeeze Film ‘Dumb Money’ Sets Fall Release

Deadline – Sony announced on Friday that they will release the starry Craig Gillespie film Dumb Money on the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 on October 20.

The Black Bear Pictures title’s fall positioning suggests a return to the awards conversation may be in the cards for Gillespie — the creative behind Hulu’s Emmy winner Pam & Tommy and Neon & 30West’s I, Tonya, which brought Margot Robbie her first Academy Award nom in 2018.

The buzzy feature based on the Ben Mezrich book The Antisocial Network tells the story of fortunes made and lost overnight in the David-vs.-Goliath short squeeze that may have changed Wall Street forever. It’s said to offer a scathing, funny and emotional portrayal of how a loosely affiliated group of amateur investors and internet denizens crushed one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street and upended the establishment.

Dumb Money stars Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Dane DeHaan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Anthony Ramos, America Ferrera, Myha’la Herrold, Nick Offerman and Talia Ryder. Sony Pictures holds rights to the film in the U.S., Latin America, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, India and select Asian markets.

Rebecca Angelo & Lauren Schuker Blum adapted the screenplay, with Aaron Ryder, Teddy Schwarzman and Gillespie producing. Exec producers included Michael Heimler, John Friedberg, Andrew Swett, Angelo, Blum, Mezrich, Johnny Holland, Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss and Kevin Ulrich.

Sony today releases the sci-fi thriller 65 written and directed by the A Quiet Place duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, which stars Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman and Nika King. Other upcoming releases for the studio include the supernatural horror The Pope’s Exorcist (April 14) starring Russell Crowe and the boxing drama Big George Foreman (April 28).

Feb
15

Photo/Video/Article: ‘Sharper’ Promo Part IV – Yahoo UK & Metro UK Video, Screen Captures, and Corresponding Articles