Rachel McAdams & Abby Ryder Fortson to Star in Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

Oscar nominee Rachel McAdams (Spotlight, Sherlock Holmes, True Detective) and Abby Ryder Fortson (Ant-Man and the Wasp, Tales from the Loop, Rated) are set to star in Lionsgate’s Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret feature adaptation, according to Collider. The movie is based on the novel written by Judy Blume.

RELATED: Lionsgate Unveils New Chaos Walking Clip as Tickets Go On Sale!

A sixth-grader who moves from the city to the suburbs, Margaret (Fortson) prays to God to watch over her and help her through her anxieties, including puberty and its changes to her body and her emotions. Blume’s frank, loving narrative has struck a chord with generations of readers, and the book was on Time’s list of the top 100 works of fiction since 1923. Its legion of fans have also beaten back several attempts to ban it from libraries over the years.

Pick up your copy of the book here!

The movie will be written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen). Blume granted rights and approved Craig and James L. Brooks after the duo visited her in Key West, Florida. Julie Ansell, Richard Sakai, Amy Brooks, Craig, and Blume will produce alongside James L. Brooks’ Gracie Films.

RELATED: Kravitz, Marin, Carden & More Join Shotgun Wedding

Meredith Wieck and Chelsea Kujawa will oversee production for Lionsgate.

(Photo by D Dipasupil/WireImage via Getty Images & Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

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Disappointment Blvd.: Joaquin Phoenix to Star in A24 & Ari Aster’s New Film

Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joker, Gladiator, The Master) is on board to star in Disappointment Blvd. from director Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) and producers A24, who will also finance the project, according to Deadline.

RELATED: Kitbag: Apple Studios Commits to Ridley Scott & Joaquin Phoenix’s Napoleon Bonaparte Epic

Details are being kept under wraps on the film, which will be written and directed by Aster. The outlet notes, however, that the plot is described as “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.”

Aster and Lars Knudsen will also produce alongside A24 via their Square Peg production company. A start date on filming has not yet officially been set, though it is possible Phoenix will shoot Disappointment Blvd. before production begins on Ridley Scott’s (The Martian, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) Kitbag as Scott is currently in pre-production on his crime drama mystery Gucci starring Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Adam Driver, and Jack Huston.

RELATED: Amy Adams & A24 Teaming for TV Adaptation of Outlawed

In Kitbag, Phoenix will play the 19th-century French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. As previously reported, the film’s title stems from the saying, “There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag.” David Scarpa (All the Money in the World) is penning the script that is being produced by Scott and Kevin Walsh for Scott Free. Apple Studios will finance and produce the biopic epic.

(Photo by Terence Patrick/Getty Images for Turner)

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Timo Tjahjanto in talks to helm New Line’s Train to Busan remake

It has been more than two years since New Line Cinema successfully won the rights to the American remake of 2016’s hit South Korean zombie film Train to Busan in a competitive bidding war against major studios, and now it looks like the project is finally making some progress. According to Deadline, acclaimed Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto (May the Devil Take You, The Night Comes for Us) is currently in negotiations to direct producer James Wan’s long-in-development Train to Busan remake.

RELATED: Universal, James Wan & Julius Avery Team for New Van Helsing

Train to Busan was directed by Yeon Sang-ho. It follows the story of a workaholic businessman and father who accompanies his doe-eyed daughter on the titular train ride to see her mother at the very same time that a malevolent virus breaks out, turning the populace into ravenous, milk-eyed ghouls. When one of those blood-sucking zombies gets on the train, Hell is unleashed and the father must team up with a gaggle of survivors to fight the dead and protect his child.

The 2016 film set the box office ablaze across Asia, smashed box office records in South Korea and became the biggest Korean film of all time. It starred Gong Yoo (The Age of Shadows), Jung Yu-mi (Manhole), Ma Dong-seok (Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days ), Choi Woo-sik (Big Match. Okja), An So-hee (Hellcats), Kim Eui-sung (Assassination), and Kim Su-an (The Battleship Island, Along With the Gods: Two Worlds).

Last year, director Yeon debuted its second installment titled Train to Busan: Peninsula which featured an entirely new cast led by Gang Dong-won and Lee Jung-hyun.

RELATED: Train to Busan Director Talks Potential Sequels Following Peninsula

The American remake of Train to Busan will be written by Gary Dauberman (Annabelle, The Nun), who is also producing through his Coin Operated banner along with James Wan via his Atomic Monster and Gaumont’s Nicolas Atlan and Terry Kalagian. It is also executive produced by Judson Scott, Sidonie Dumas, Christophe Riandee, and Johanna Byer.

(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Sundance)

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Wash Me in the River: Migos’ Quavo to Make Feature-Film Debut

Quavo (Atlanta, Narcos: Mexico), a member of the Atlanta hip-hop trio Migos whose real name is Quavious Keyate Marshall, is set to make his feature-film debut with Wash Me in the River, starring alongside Robert De Niro, John Malkovich, and Jack Huston (via Variety).

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Directed by Randall Emmett (Midnight in the Switchgrass), Quavo will play Coyote, “a ruthless and heartless drug lord.” The film is described as being in the same vein as No Country for Old Men, and is written by Adam Taylor Barker. The story focuses on a recovering opioid addict who seeks revenge on the dealer (Coyote) responsible for selling the drugs that resulted in his lover’s death.

“I honestly think this movie is going to be one of the greatest to come of this time,” Quavo says. “The experience was unbelievable for me, with Robert De Niro and Jack Huston being so down to earth and making me feel like family. Gonna see me doing some stunts and a lot of what you hear from me in my raps! This is one of my biggest debuts I’ve ever had, and so proud of what we did and to get to work with Randall who’s such an amazing guy — I can’t wait to do more films with him.”

“Quavo is a superstar and a real actor,” added Emmett. “Getting to see him bring the Coyote character to life is very exciting, and I think he is going to have a film career equally as big as his music.”

RELATED: Valley of the Gods Trailer Starring John Malkovich & Josh Hartnett

Emmett/Furla’s Emmett, George Furla, and Tim Sullivan will produce with Nicholas D’Angelo and Lydia Hull executive producing. Wash Me in the River is currently filming in Puerto Rico.

(Photo by Morgan Lieberman/FilmMagic via Getty Images)

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Sulwe: Netflix to adapt Lupita Nyong’o children’s book into animated musical film

Netflix has announced that they’re in the process of developing a new animated musical film adaptation of Sulwe, based on Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o’s best-selling children’s book of the same name. Nyong’o has also boarded the project as a producer.

“The story of Sulwe is one that is very close to my heart,” Nyong’o said in a statement (via Deadline). “Growing up, I was uncomfortable in my dark skin. I rarely saw anyone who looked like me in the aspirational pages of books and magazines, or even on TV. It was a long journey for me to arrive at self-love. Sulwe is a mirror for dark-skinned children to see themselves, a window for those who may not be familiar with colorism, to have understanding and empathy, and an invitation for all who feel different and unseen to recognize their innate beauty and value. I am thrilled that the book is being adapted into an animated musical that we hope inspires children all around the world to celebrate their uniqueness.”

RELATED: Netflix Acquires Brian Jacques’ Redwall for Film & TV Adaptations

Sulwe is the story of a girl named Sulwe with skin the color of midnight. She is darker than everyone she knows, but all she wants is to be beautiful and bright. One night, Sulwe is visited by a shooting star sent by the Night, and embarks on a magical journey where she learns the eye-opening story of the sisters Night and Day. It is a story about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within.

Pick up a copy of the book here!

Written by Lupita Nyong’o and illustrated by Vashti Harrison, the children’s book was published in 2019 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Soon after its debut, it became a New York Times bestseller and was honored with a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Literary Work.

RELATED: The Mitchells vs. The Machines: Netflix Nabs Global Rights to Lord-Miller’s New Animated Film

The film adaptation currently has no director, cast and composer attached to it. Sulwe will be part of Netflix’s upcoming animated feature slate which includes Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Adventure.

(Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

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The Marsh King’s Daughter: Daisy Ridley to Star in Neil Burger’s New Thriller

Daisy Ridley (Star Wars franchise, Chaos Walking, Murder on the Orient Express) is attached to star in The Marsh King’s Daughter, a movie adaptation of the psychological-thriller written by Karen Dionne. Neil Burger (Limitless, Divergent, Voyagers) is set to direct, according to Deadline.

RELATED: Lionsgate Unveils New Chaos Walking Clip as Tickets Go On Sale!

Ridley will play Helena in the film, a woman living a seemingly ordinary life, but hiding a dark secret: her father is the infamous “Marsh King,” the man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After a lifetime of trying to escape her past, Helena is forced to face her demons when her father unexpectedly escapes from prison.

Pick up your copy of the novel here!

Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Overlord, The Midnight Sky) and Elle Smith are adapting the screenplay. Principal photography is expected to begin this summer in Canada.

RELATED: Neil Burger’s Voyagers Lands Ensemble Cast Led By Colin Farrell

The Marsh King’s Daughter hails from Black Bear Pictures, Anonymous Content, and STX International. Black Bear’s Teddy Schwarzman, Anonymous Content’s Keith Redmon, and Mark L. Smith will produce the project. Black Bear Pictures will finance with STX distributing in the UK, Ireland, and India.

(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

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STXfilms acquires Chris Pine-led thriller Violence of Action

It’s been nearly a year and a half since we last heard word on the development of the project and now STXfilms has announced that it has acquired the domestic distribution rights to the Chris Pine-starring thriller Violence of Action.

RELATED: Sydney Sweeney Joins STXfilms Dramedy American Sole

The film, helmed by Tarik Saleh (The Nine Hilton Incident) on a script from JP Davis, centers on James Harper (Pine) who, after being involuntarily discharged from the Green Berets, joins a paramilitary organization in order to support his family in the only way he knows how. Harper travels to Berlin with his elite team on a black ops mission to investigate a mysterious threat. Barely into his first assignment, he finds himself alone and hunted across Europe, where he must fight to stay alive long enough to get home and uncover the true motives of those who betrayed him.

“We’re incredibly impressed by what we’ve seen so far of Violence of Action,” Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STXfilms Motion Picture Group, said in a statement. :Chris gives the kind of unforgettable performance that will resonate with audiences everywhere. It’s an elevated action film that has real franchise potential and we are tremendously excited to be working with Chris, Tarik, and the teams at Thunder Road and 30WEST.”

Alongside Pine, the cast for the thriller includes Ben Foster (Hell or High Water), Gillian Jacobs (Community, Come Play), Eddie Marsan (Hobbs & Shaw), Fares Fares (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Nina Hoss (A Most Wanted Man) and Amira Casar (Call Me By Your Name).

RELATED: Chris Pine in Talks for Goldstein & Daley’s Dungeons & Dragons

Violence of Action, which was shot on location in the U.S., Germany, and Romania, is produced by Thunder Road Film’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (John Wick franchise, Greenland, Sicario) with 30WEST fully financing the film. 30WEST’s Dan Friedkin, Micah Green and Dan Steinman are executive producing along with Pine, Jonathan Fuhrman, Tom Lassally and Josh Bratman and Esther Hornstein of Thunder Road Films. It was previously announced that STXinternational acquired international rights to the film and will directly distribute in the UK, and Ireland.

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Netflix making The Trial of the Chicago 7 free on YouTube for limited time

To celebrate the forthcoming anniversary of the verdict for the titular court case, Netflix has announced that Aaron Sorkin’s five-time Golden Globe nominated The Trial of the Chicago 7 will be hitting Netflix’s YouTube channel free for 48 hours.

RELATED: The Trial of the Chicago 7 Review: Energetic, Stylish & Powerfully Acted

On February 18, 1970 the verdict in The Trial Of The Chicago 7 was announced — to mark the anniversary, starting at midnight tonight, the film will be available for free for 48 hours on Netflix’s YouTube pic.twitter.com/nu7PxdLEjZ

— Netflix (@netflix) February 18, 2021

Based on a true story, The Trial of the Chicago 7  follows protesters who disrupted the 1968 Democrat party convention with an anti-Vietnam war “carnival” that turned nasty. Demonstrators threw bricks, police responded with tear gas and the center of Chicago was engulfed in flames. Curfews only escalated the violence.

After the clashes, independent investigators blamed eight police officers and eight protesters including Abbie Hoffman, who had already disrupted the New York Stock Exchange with showers of fake money. The police were not charged but the protesters were accused of inciting a riot. One was jailed for contempt, leaving the seven to fight the charges.

Sorkin’s second directorial effort features Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald) as Tom Hayden, Oscar-nominee Sacha Baron Cohen (Who is America?) as Abbie Hoffman, Jeremy Strong (Succession) as as Jerry Rubin, Golden Globe-nominee Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Snowden) as Richard Schultz, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen) as Bobby Seale, Alex Sharp (The Hustle) as Rennie Davis and Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Luce, Waves) as Fred Hamptom. It will also star Michael Keaton, William Hurt, Thomas Middleditch, John Carroll Lynch, Daniel Flaherty, Noah Robbins, Mark Rylance, J.C. MacKenzie and Max Adler, who also serves as an executive producer.

RELATED: CS Video: The Trial of the Chicago 7 Interview With Aaron Sorkin

The film will also be executive produced by Matt Jackson. Marc Butan and Anthony Katagas. The Trial of the Chicago 7 will be produced by Oscar nominee Marc Platt (Bridge of Spies, La La Land), Stuart Besser, and Tyler Thompson.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is currently available to stream on Netflix and will hit the platform’s YouTube channel on midnight tonight!

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Exclusive Five Trailers: 5 Women-Directed Short Films About Inspiring Women Around the World

ComingSoon.net is debuting Five exclusive trailers on the upcoming series of five short documentaries, each directed by women, with focuses on five women entrepreneurs from around the globe who have successfully created a purpose-driven business to improve and uplift their communities. You can view the trailers for each documentary short in the players below, as well as view the posters in the gallery!

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The businesses each address global challenges we are faced with today, including the topics of food insecurity in America, discrimination in hiring practices, sustainable farming, employment opportunities to women, and specialized education for children with disabilities. Each film is set in the subject’s respective country – the United States, Brazil, India, Lebanon, and Croatia – and are directed by a woman from or connected to each of the regions.

The series titled Five was commissioned by Mastercard in the hopes that these stories will bring further awareness to some of the world’s most critical issues, but these films are not branded content. As more and more companies are saying they want to put money into areas of doing good, Mastercard has done so already by commissioning these films, in order to shine a spotlight on real women entrepreneurs, making a real difference in their communities.

The documentaries include Harfa (Croatia) directed by Ella Mische; Justice of the Pies (USA) directed by Michelle Marrion; ONganic Foods (India) directed by Lisa Madison; Sarah’s Bag (Lebanon) directed by Nadia Naffa; and Talento Incluir (Brazil) directed by Renata Sette.

RELATED: Exclusive The Arbors Trailer Promises a Creepy Crawly Nightmare

All Five will be distributed by ShortsTV and will premiere on demand and digital on March 6th, as well as virtual cinemas, ahead of International Women’s Day.

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Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman to score Raimi’s Doctor Strange 2

In a recent interview with Inverse, award-winning composer Danny Elfman has finally confirmed that he is indeed reuniting with Sam Raimi for Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated MCU sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Elfman also revealed he has already started doing some preliminary work on the Benedict Cumberbatch-led film.

“I am starting to do bits of pre-work for Doctor Strange 2 that Sam Raimi’s directing,” he said. “Even though I don’t start it for some months, there’s bits of recorded music they need for the sets.”

This marks the sixth collaboration between Elfman and Raimi, who have worked together on 1990’s Darkman, 1998’s A Simple Plan, 2002’s Spider-Man, 2004’s Spider-Man 2, and 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful. However, this isn’t his first project with Marvel Studios as he previously scored 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.

RELATED: Doctor Strange 2: Feige Confirms Spider-Man 3 Ties Into Multiverse of Madness 

Cumberbatch will next be reprising his role as Dr. Stephen Strange in the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man 3 in addition to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The sequel is being described as the first horror film in the MCU with Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch returning as the titular sorcerer supreme and Elizabeth Olsen also appearing as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch. According to Kevin Feige, the upcoming Disney+ shows WandaVision and Loki will both directly impact the events the Doctor Strange sequel.

Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch appeared in Avengers: Endgame, where they were both last seen attending Tony Stark’s funeral. Loki also appeared in Endgame and was last seen after the events of the Avengers’ first battle in New York, where he escapes with the Tesseract cube.

Originally set to be directed by Scott Derrickson, the sequel will now be helm by Spider-Man‘s Sam Raimi with Loki head writer Michael Waldron set to rewrite the script that was first written by The Turning scribe Jade Bartlett. Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong will be reprising their roles, with Rachel McAdams recently confirmed to make her return as Dr. Christine Palmer.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will hit theaters on March 25, 2022.

RELATED: CS Soapbox: Why Daredevil in Spider-Man 3 is More Exciting Than Tobey

The first Doctor Strange movie was released in 2016 with Benedict Cumberbatch starring in the titular role. Joining him in the film were Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, and Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West. It also featured the MCU debut of critical characters from the pages of Marvel Comics, including Benedict Wong as Wong, plus Mads Mikkelsen as villain Kaecilius, and Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One (who is of Celtic origin in the film instead of East Asian origin). Doctor Strange was directed by Scott Derrickson, whose previous credits were primarily horror films like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and Deliver Us from Evil.

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