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“Deadpool 2” director David Leitch has set his sights on his next project, signing on to helm Ubisoft’s “The Division” movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain.

The news comes just months after it was announced that he’s also on board to direct the “Fast and Furious” spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Sources stress that the Universal spinoff will shoot first, as that film is already set to go into production this fall, and the hope is that Leitch would move on to prep “The Division” some time in 2019.

“Gold” director Stephen Gaghan was previously attached to helm the video game adaptation, but has since left the project.

Leitch’s producing partner, Kelly McCormick, will produce along with Leitch through their 8711 banner, as well as Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker of Nine Stories and Chastain and Kelly Carmichael of Freckle Films alongside Ubisoft Motion Pictures.

Based on the best-selling video game,

Michelle Williams will star opposite Julianne Moore in the remake of the Danish film “After the Wedding,” sources tell Variety.

Bart Freundlich is directing from his own script. Joel B. Michaels and Silvio Muraglia are producing the pic.

The film is based on the 2006 Oscar-nominated movie of the same name helmed by Susanne Bier and starring Mads Mikkelsen.

The remake follows the director of an Indian orphanage on the verge of bankruptcy, who discovers that her organization is in contention to receive a large charitable donation from a wealthy American businesswoman, forcing her to travel to New York City, where she is confronted by a past she tried to forget.

Moore will play the rich businesswoman who quickly proves that she is not one to be reckoned with, while Williams will portrayal the orphanage owner.

The movie was announced at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and will start production next month.

“The First Wives Club” reboot has been ordered to series at Paramount Network, Variety has learned.

The order comes less than two weeks after the network ordered the project to pilot. The half-hour comedy is based on the 1996 Paramount film of the same name, which was itself based on the 1992 book of the same name by Olivia Goldsmith. It will follow a group of New York women who band together after their marriages fall apart, and who find strength in their sisterhood and a little revenge. Paramount Network has ordered 10 half-hour episodes.

Tracy Oliver, who co-wrote the screenplay for the hit comedy film “Girls Trip,

The long-gestating American adaptation of “Utopia” has been ordered to series at Amazon, Variety has learned.

In addition, series creator Gillian Flynn has inked an overall deal with Amazon Studios, with “Utopia” being the first project under that deal. Based on the British series of the same name created by Dennis Kelly, “Utopia” follows group of young adults who meet online and are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come in to possession of a near mythical cult underground graphic novel. They discover the conspiracy theories in the comic’s pages may actually be real and

Terry Gilliam’s notoriously long-in-the-works “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” will close next month’s Cannes Film Festival, president Pierre Lescure announced Thursday.

In addition, festival organizers confirmed that Lars von Trier’s “The House That Jack Built,” a serial killer drama starring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman, would screen out of competition.

On Tuesday, festival general delegate Thierry Fremaux had signaled that the Danish director would be welcomed back to the festival seven years after he was declared “persona non grata” at the festival for comments he made about Adolf Hitler.

It's game on for F. Gary Gray and Hasbro's M.A.S.K. property.

The Fate of the Furious filmmaker will direct the project for Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

No writer is yet attached to the project, based on the 1980s property created by the now-defunct toy company Kenner. The premise, which revolves around the task force M.A.S.K. (which stands for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) and its battle against the evil V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem), has spawned a cartoon series and comics in addition to a number of toys. Gray is producing the film along with Hasbro.

Gray's Fast and Furious installment...

“Scandal” fans gather around, because we have the spoiler alert to end all spoiler alerts. Star Bellamy Young told TheWrap Wednesday she received an email telling her “Everything Is Changed'” in a new cut of the series finale that she has yet to see.

For those non-die hard TGIT fans who haven’t been following along, that last episode is set to air tomorrow.

As expected, Homeland will end with its upcoming eighth season.

Star Claire Danes has confirmed the news in an interview with Howard Stern on his Sirius Xm show. "Yeah, that’s it," she said when the host brought up the fact that the next season is rumored to be the CIA drama's last. A representative for Showtime said that the network has not made a decision beyond season eight. The drama is currently airing its seventh season, the finale for which is set to air on April 29.

Showtime renewed Homeland for a seventh and eighth season ahead of its sixth season premiere. Sources...

Jesse Plemons is setting sail with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney’s “The Jungle Cruise,” sources tell Variety.

Plemons will play one of the film’s villains. As previously announced, Edgar Ramirez and Jack Whitehall are also on board.

Jaume Collet-Serra is directing the movie based on the classic theme park attraction, which operates in several Disney Parks across the globe and takes guests on a guided tour through the rivers of the world. Michael Green (“Logan”) penned the most recent draft of the script, rewritten from screenplay by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.

Disney plans to develop the film as a possible franchise in the vein of its billion-dollar “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.

John Davis and John Fox will produce via Davis Entertainment; Beau Flynn will produce with his FlynnPictureCo. banner; and Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia will produce through Seven Bucks Productions. Scott Sheldon is co-producing the movie,

In a hearing late on Wednesday, a Moscow court extended house arrest for Kirill Serebrennikov, the director of Cannes official competition title Summer, through July 19, ending his chances of travelling to the festival.

In a move widely criticized in the Russian artistic community, the country's culture ministry sided with the prosecutors and supported their request for the extension of Serebrennikov's house arrest.

The director now won’t be making it to the festival, which runs May 8-19.

The case against Serebrennikov and several other people involved with the theater company Sedmaya Studia, which he used to head, was opened in...

Exclusive: Netflix and writer/director Wash Westmoreland have set Jack Huston to play the male lead in an adaptation of the Susanna Jones novel The Earthquake Bird. He stars alongside previously set Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough. The Earthquake Bird is a Tokyo-set female-driven noir thriller that tells the story of young female expat who is suspected of murder after her friend goes missing in the wake of a tumultuous love triangle with a handsome local photographer. Huston, best known for Boardwalk Empire, plays the photog. Pic shoots this May in Tokyo and Sado Island.

Scott Free’s Kevin Walsh and Michael Pruss will produce alongside Ann Ruark and Twenty First City’s Georgina Pope. Ridley Scott will be exec producer.

The Earthquake Bird won several awards including the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Crime Writers’ Association New Blood Dagger Award for newly published authors. Westmoreland seems a strong

Nestled in Iowa along the Mississippi River, not far from both Illinois and Wisconsin, exists a festival celebrating independent film and filmmakers that has already been named one of the Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World by MovieMaker Magazine. It’s the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, now entering its seventh year, taking place Apr. 26-29 in downtown Dubuque.

According to the festival’s executive director Susan Gorrell, that praise is matched by those who attend the festivities. “The best compliments we can get are what filmmakers say about us and the relationships we have with them,” she notes. “I truly believe Jdiff is the festival for the independent. A boutique, unique festival that brings back the importance of independent; the big big and the little guy. It’s about the art and what each individual filmmaker brings to it. When you come, you have such a great time,

Guillermo del Toro has signed a multi-year exclusive deal with DreamWorks Animation, the studio announced Thursday.

Del Toro will write, produce and direct animated family films for the studio, and as part of the arrangement, he has taken up offices at the Glendale campus.

Del Toro’s most recent collaborations with DreamWorks Animation Television was when he created and executive produced the Emmy Award-winning series “Trollhunters.” The series, part of del Toro’s “Tales of Arcadia” trilogy, will continue with “3 Below” and “Wizards,” set to debut on Netflix in 2018 and 2019.

Also Read: Guillermo del Toro Signs Overall Production Deal at Fox Searchlight

He also served as an executive producer on “Rise of the Guardians,” “Puss in Boots” and “Kung Fu Panda 3,” as well as a creative consultant for “Kung Fu 2” and “Megamind.”

During his agreement, he will work with DreamWorks Animation Film Group president Chris deFaria and the studio’s other artists and technologists on the pilot programs and other storytelling methods on multiple content platforms.

“We are thrilled that Guillermo is adding a film partnership to the already successful television relationship he has with DreamWorks Animation,” said deFaria in a statement. “He is truly a one- of-a- kind artist, and we are eager to see his imagination on full display in the family animated feature space. Guillermo has a unique talent for creating memorable worlds and characters, and we believe the films we create with him will resonate with animation audiences for many generations to come. I am personally very excited to extend the long working relationship I have enjoyed with Guillermo and look forward to him also collaborating with us on some of our breakthrough advancements in technology and innovation.”

Also Read: Oscars: Guillermo del Toro Gets Fourth Mexican-Born Best Director Win in 5 Years

Del Toro added, “Animation is an art form that has influenced my work greatly since childhood. To me, it’s the perfect medium to bring to life any and all ideas, no matter how outlandish or wild. I am eager to work with Chris and the talented artists at DreamWorks – some of the most talented people in the business – to make these images a reality. I have worked with DreamWorks for about a decade and the horizon just keeps getting wider.”

Del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” recently won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director after receiving 13 nominations. His other credits include “Hellboy,” “Pacific Rim,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Book of Life” and “Blade II.”

Read original story Guillermo del Toro Signs Multi-Year Exclusive Deal With DreamWorks Animation At TheWrap

“Scandal,” which ends its seven-season run on Thursday, April 19, is a benchmark in many ways. At the time of its April 2012 premiere, it was the first network drama series with an African-American female lead, Kerry Washington, since “Get Christie Love!” with Teresa Graves in 1974. It savvily used social media to turn itself into a red-hot hit. It was the last series Shonda Rhimes created before she signed her new deal with Netflix last year. It had some of the craziest twists that defied logic and storytelling. It gave us new vernacular, like “gladiator,” “it’s handled,” “jam,” “bitch baby,” “white hat” and yes, even “I want my bones!” It went to great lengths — with lamps, in particular — to hide a pregnancy. It showed that a woman could sustain herself on a diet of popcorn and red wine. And it ended a long drought at the Emmys.

Washington received two Best Drama Actress nominations,

David Frankel is in negotiations to direct the adaptation of Beautiful Ruins for Fox 2000.

The story centers on an American actress who travels to Italy in 1962 during the production of Cleopatra, considered the most expensive flop in Hollywood history. In a plotline spanning decades and locations, the actress' narrative intertwines with Elizabeth Taylor, who starred in the real-life version of Cleopatra, and the subsequent love affair between Taylor and Richard Burton.

Sam Mendes will produce the book adaptation via his Neal Street banner, along with Julia Pastor and Karen Rosenfelt. Author Jess Walter will exec produce with Pippa Harris.

Frankel,...

It’s been one full year since Bill O’Reilly’s abrupt exit from Fox News, and there’s good and bad news for Tucker Carlson, his successor in the 8 p.m. Et slot.

The bad news: Carlson can’t touch the ratings Bill O’Reilly scored during the 2016 election and the first days of the Trump administration. The good news is that Carlson is beating O’Reilly’s ratings from before all that drama broke out.

The other good news: Fox News continues to dominate its competitors, CNN and MSNBC, as the No. 1 network in cable news, including in the 8 o’clock hour.

Also Read: Bill O'Reilly Slams 'Powerful, Shadowy, Radical' Boycott Against Laura Ingraham

O’Reilly’s 2016 and 2017 ratings were spectacular, but they were also amplified by the 2016 presidential election and early weeks of President Donald Trump in the White House. In 2016, O’Reilly rode the Trump train to an average of more than 3.3 million total viewers, and about 573,000 viewers in the key 25-54-year-old demographic coveted by advertisers.

In the first quarter of 2017 — his last full quarter on air — O’Reilly averaged more than 4 million viewers overall and 740,000 in the key demo.

In the first quarter of 2018, his successor, Tucker Carlson, averaged just under 3 million viewers daily, and just over 600,000 viewers in the demo — down from the last two years but beating O’Reilly’s numbers for Q1 of the pre-Trump era 2013, 2014 and 2015.

And he was well ahead of his time-slot competitors. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes was just shy of 2 million viewers and 422,000 in the demo for the first quarter of 2018, while CNN’s Anderson Cooper drew 1.17 million viewers, with 394,000 in the demo for the first hour of “AC360.”

Fox News had no comment for this story.

Also Read: Fox News Employees Split Over Sean Hannity Disclosure: 'I'm F-ing Livid' to 'It's a Nothing Burger'

O’Reilly was fired from Fox News on April 19, 2017, weeks after the New York Times reported that he and Fox News had paid $13 million in settlements with numerous women who had accused the star of sexual harassment. The news prompted an advertiser boycott that led to his final episodes running almost commercial-free.

After his departure, the Times revealed the existence of an additional O’Reilly settlement totaling $32 million — a deal the New York Times said Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, was aware of.

O’Reilly was fired from Fox News before the broader awareness brought on by the #MeToo movement swept Hollywood and the news media last year.

The host has continued to remain in the public eye, both on Twitter, his own web show and occasionally as a contributor to Newsmax TV.

Read original story A Year After Bill O’Reilly Exit, Fox News’ 8 O’Clock Ratings Are Down – But Up From Pre-Trump Years At TheWrap

Cheddar TV, the self-described “post-cable” network with an emphasis on business and tech news, is set to hit Hulu later this month, the company announced on Thursday.

The new distribution deal will bring Cheddar’s live linear network, along with morning and afternoon news briefs, to Hulu with live TV customers — which runs $40 a month.

“Both Hulu and Cheddar are reinventing TV. We are thrilled to partner with Hulu and to bring our news to its 17 million subscribers. It’s amazing that anyone planning to watch season 2 of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ catching up on ‘Atlanta,’ watching some ‘Rick and Morty,’ or enjoying the NBA playoffs can tune to Cheddar for tech and business news, live or on demand, and on any Hulu-supported devices,” said Cheddar CEO Jon Steinberg in a statement.

Also Read: 'Post-Cable' Digital News Outlet Cheddar Raises $22 Million for International Expansion

The moves come a day after Cheddar inked a deal to bring its business and general news channels to YouTube TV, as the video giant looks to beef up its live content offerings. It also comes a month after Cheddar raised $22 million to expand its international reach and launch its Snapchat channel. The network is valued at $160 million.

Founded by Steinberg, the former Buzzfeed president and COO , in 2016, Cheddar has built its following through live streaming on social media — particularly Facebook and Twitter. Cheddar’s investors include Raine Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Liberty Global, Comcast Ventures, At&T, Amazon, Antenna Group, Ribbit Capital, The New York Stock Exchange, Altice USA, 7 Global Capital, Goldman Sachs,and Denstu Ventures.

Read original story Cheddar TV Inks Distribution Deal With Hulu At TheWrap

Guillermo del Toro has signed a multi-year exclusive deal with DreamWorks Animation to write, produce and direct animated family films for the studio.

The Oscar-winning director of “The Shape of Water” is taking an offices at the DreamWorks campus in Glendale, Calif., as part of the deal.

The filmmaker, who won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for “The Shape of Water,” signed an overall deal earlier this month with Fox Searchlight to write, produce and direct live-action feature projects.

“Animation is an art form that has influenced my work greatly since childhood,” said del Toro in a statement. “To me, it’s the perfect medium to bring to life any and all ideas, no matter how outlandish or wild. I am eager to work with Chris and the talented artists at DreamWorks – some of the most talented people in the business – to make these images a reality. I have

Hulu has given a straight-to-series order for the middle school comedy “PEN15.”

Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle star in the series, playing versions of themselves as thirteen-year-old outcasts in the year 2000, surrounded by actual thirteen-year-olds, where the best day of your life can turn into your worst with the stroke of a gel pen. Hulu has given the show a 10-episode first season order.

Erskine and Konkle co-created the series with Sam Zvibleman. All three will serve as writers and executive produce, with Zvibleman also set to direct multiple episodes. Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone–a.k.a.

Deadpool 2 director David Leitch is getting into the video game business.

The filmmaker will helm The Division, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The film is an adaptation of the Ubisoft game and is to star Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal. Previously, Stephen Gaghan was attached to direct.

The third-person shooter is set in dystopian New York City after a smallpox pandemic. The player is an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division (The Division) and searches for the cause of the outbreak. Following the game's release in 2016, Ubisoft declared the online-only title broke the studio's record for highest number of first-day sales. It...