By Matt Grobar
August 26, 2021 2:44pm

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Black Label Media’s Reptile, setting Oscar nominee Justin Timberlake (Palmer, The Social Network) to star opposite Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro (Sicario, Traffic), whose casting had already been announced.

The film picks up following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, following a hardened detective (Del Toro) as he attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems. In doing so, he finds himself dismantling the illusions in his own life.

Prolific music video director Grant Singer is helming the pic in his feature directorial debut. He wrote the script with Benjamin Brewer (The Trust, Beneath Contempt).

Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill and Thad Luckinbill are producing for Black Label Media, with Black Label’s Seth Spector co-producing. Del Toro and Rachel Smith are exec producing.

Timberlake most recently played the title role in the Apple Original Film Palmer. He’s also appeared on the film side in DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls films, the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, Clint Eastwood-starrer Trouble with the Curve, Andrew Niccol’s action thriller In Time, Will Gluck’s Friends with Benefits, Jake Kasdan’s Bad Teacher and David Fincher’s The Social Network among other titles.

Timberlake is repped by WME, LBI and Ziffren Brittenham. Singer is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Ziffren Brittenham. Del Toro is repped by LBI, Range Media and Hansen Jacobson.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

By Pete Hammond
July 20, 2021 4:15pm

If there was any question Ben Platt is the real deal, the Dear Evan Hansen Tony winner and star of Netflix’s quirky The Politician, proves he has the acting chops to stand next to the best of his generation in the new indie dramedy, Broken Diamonds.

In the film inspired by the real-life experience of its screenwriter Steve Waverly, Platt plays Scott Weaver, who, like Waverly, was an aspiring writer moving to Paris to live out his dreams. With the day quickly coming for his trip, we meet Scott as he intently listens to French lessons in his car. Unfortunately, life gets in the way when he gets word from his stepmother, Cookie (Yvette Nicole Brown), that his father has died. Before removing the body she wants to give Scott and his sister, Cindy (Lola Kirke), the opportunity to say goodbye.

After picking up his sister, we see that she isn’t not exactly a normal sibling but more than a little “off.” She suffers from schizophrenia, and that mental illness always has been something her brother has tried to put in the background. But now with his dad’s death, it is up to Scott to look after her well-being, and that includes moving into his apartment and away from the not-so-cool housing she has been living in.

As he is determined not to let all this crash his dreams and his sojourn to the City of Lights, he quickly tries to get her settled and even find a job so she can take care of herself. Not an easy task, as her mental state keeps getting in the way of filling out job applications and going on interviews, which is why her brother makes sure he is there for support, and to assure potential employers she is the right one for them. In another key scene she runs into an old high school rival (Debs Howard) and ends up taking Scott with her to a party she is having, one with some other old friends. As the evening goes on, Cindy freaks out — it doesn’t go well. But through all these ordeals for him, Scott proves he is a good soul and a guy who is going to help her find her way even before he can start to find his.

Directed by Peter Sattler, Broken Diamonds walks a tightrope of tonal shifts but never makes light of mental illness or what Cindy suffers from. In fact, they have put real-life families dealing with this in the focus group Scott joins. One big reason this works as well as it does is the exceptional casting of Platt and Kirke, who are wholly believable as siblings. Platt runs the gamut from a guy wanting to get to a new life to someone who knows he can’t abandon family responsibilities. Kirke, best known as Hailey on Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, is exceptional in a role that could be a real breakout for her. She never takes the easy path but is never less than authentic. Brown also is a welcome presence.

The film comes from Black Label Media, which was responsible for the likes of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Only the Brave, Demolition and was a key financier on La La Land. Producers are Molly Smith, Thad Luckinbill, Trent Luckinbill, Rachel Smith and Trina Wyatt. FilmRise opens it Friday in theaters.

Source: DEADLINE

By Justin Kroll
Senior Film Reporter
May 17, 2021 11:30am

EXCLUSIVE: The Bleav Podcast Network is launching the new dark comedy podcast The Bystanders starring Jane Lynch and Emmy and Tony Winner Kristin Chenoweth. It will also mark the first scripted podcast from Black Label Media. Heather Morris will also co-star and produce the show with Jaclyn Hales and Ash Lendzion writing, directing and producing the show.

The star-studded cast also includes Oscar Nunez, Ed Westwick, Ki Hong Lee, Michael Hitchcock, Karen Huie, Matt Mattson and Jim Lau.

The Bystanders is the twisted tale about a group of neighbors who witness one of their own get brutally murdered in the courtyard of their apartment complex and do absolutely nothing to stop it, or so we think. As the tenants become suspects themselves, the whodunnit will keep audiences guessing the identity of the real murderer until the very end.

The series also takes a closer look at The Bystander Effect, which states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present.

“We’re thrilled to be teaming with Bleav Podcast Network and Kristin Chenoweth to bring The Bystanders to life. The Bystanders is a hilarious and timely cautionary tale about what can happen when we ignore those around us and resort to our worst selves. Jaclyn, Ash, and Heather are a talented trio who have assembled a stellar cast and crafted a series to remind us that sometimes the worst thing you can do is nothing,” said Black Label Media.

The first two episodes of the eight-episode series will debut May 25th. One show per week will follow until the stunning conclusion on June 29th. In addition to the eight episodes, each week an after show featuring interviews with the cast will premiere on the RSS feed. The Bystanders will be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

By Anthony D’Alessandro
April 29, 2021 12:15pm

Filmmaker Siân Heder, whose Sundance hit CODA was recently sold to Apple for a festival record of $25M, is set to direct and write a feature take of Sarah Lotz’s upcoming 2022 novel Impossible.

The Penguin Group Berkley Books novel tells the story of Nick, a ghostwriter who is a disappointment to himself and his soon-to-be-ex-wife, and Bee, a commitment-phobe content on repurposing wedding dresses rather than finding a reason to wear one herself. The two are meant to be together, but fate has other plans. They have an instant connection after a misdirected email lands in Bee’s inbox, and over time they develop real feelings for each other. Eventually, Nick and Bee come to the conclusion that they have to meet in person, yet when they both arrive at their planned destination, they discover it’s love at the right time, but in the completely wrong place.

“I am pleased to once again work with the incredibly talented Siân Heder, one of the world’s most promising writer-directors,” said Wachsberger. “Along with Ashley, we look forward to developing and producing a romantic comedy for our time with Molly, Trent, and Thad of Black Label as well as Sherry on board to produce.”

In a joint statement, the producers of Black Label Media added, “We are so excited to re-team with Patrick Wachsberger who we have worked with for many years and collaborated with on such films as Sicario and La La Land. Impossible is an incredible novel and we are thrilled to be working with the wonderfully talented Sian Heder on the adaptation.”

Heder added, “Impossible takes an inventive and surprising look at the choices we make and how they have a butterfly effect in shaping who we are. It’s a funny, captivating novel and I’m thrilled to be working with this team to adapt it.”

Heder wrote and directed CODA which follows Ruby who is a child of deaf adults (CODA) and the only hearing person in her family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. Wachsberger produced CODA with Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, and Jérôme Seydoux. Heder also directed Tallulah, starring Elliot Page and Allison Janney, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and was picked up by Netflix. Her other credits include serving as showrunner on Apple’s Little America and writing on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black.

Impossible will also be published by HarperCollins in the UK, and Rowholt in Germany. Lotz is the author of five thrillers including The Three and The White Road.

Heder is represented by ICM Partners. Alan Grodin of Weintraub Tobin and Suzanne Rosencrans represented the deal on behalf Picture Perfect Federation and Black Label Media, respectively. Lotz is repped by APA and Blake Friedmann Literary Agency / A.M. Heath Literary Agency.

Source: DEADLINE

By Andreas Wiseman
International Editor
March 31, 2021 9:20am

EXCLUSIVE: New York-based firm FilmRise has picked up global distribution rights to drama Broken Diamonds, starring Tony and Grammy-winner Benjamin Platt (Dear Evan Hansen), Lola Kirke (Mozart In The Jungle) and Yvette Nicole Brown (Community).

Produced by La La Land and Sicario backers Black Label Media, the film will get its world premiere tomorrow at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Pitch Perfect and Dear Evan Hansen star Platt plays a twenty-something writer who, in the wake of his father’s death, sees his dream of moving to Paris put on hold when he must temporarily take care of his mentally ill sister. Above, we can reveal an image from the film.

Written by Steve Waverly, the movie is based on his true-life story about taking care of his older sister who suffers from schizophrenia. Director is Peter Sattler (Camp X-Ray).

FilmRise will handle all broadcast and digital distribution, both domestically and internationally. The deal was negotiated by Katie Carroll, Manager, Independent Film Acquisitions at FilmRise with Joseph Cohen at American Entertainment Investors and Suzanne Rosencrans and Molly Smith at Black Label Media.

Trina Wyatt produced the film with Black Label Media. For Black Label, producers are Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbill and Trent Luckinbill.

FilmRise CEO Danny Fisher said: “Written with humor and irony, Broken Diamonds shines a light on a mental illness that affects millions of people and their families. The film presents schizophrenia in a real and tangible way without being too heavy. We hope it opens up a national dialogue about how we as a community can be more sensitive to those who are affected by it and struggling with it.”

Black Label is in production on JD Dillard’s Devotion starring Glen Powell and Jonathan Majors, and has Derek Kolstad’s Time Agent and Grant Singer’s Reptile, starring Benicio Del Toro, in the pipeline.

FilmRise’s recent acquisitions include TIFF and Berlin title Beans, 2020 Spirit Award-nominee Driveways and 2020 SXSW comedy Drunk Bus.

Source: DEADLINE

By Andreas Wiseman
February 1, 2021 7:36am

Five years ago, filmmaker J.D. Dillard launched his debut movie, the low-budget sci-fi-thriller Sleight, at the Sundance Film Festival. Five years before that, he had been working on the reception desk at Bad Robot.

Dillard’s star has been on the rise ever-since and today the 32-year old filmmaker is starting production in Savannah, Georgia, on one of the biggest-budget non-franchise movies of recent years.

War epic Devotion, the in-demand filmmaker’s third feature following 2019 horror Sweetheart, follows a pair of U.S. Navy pilots – including pioneering African American aviator Jesse Brown – who risked their lives during the Korean War and became some of the Navy’s most celebrated wingmen. Da 5 Bloods and Lovecraft Country actor Jonathan Majors stars alongside Hidden Figures and Top Gun: Maverick actor Glen Powell with supporting cast including pop star Joe Jonas. La La Land and Sicario outfit Black Label Media is producing and financing.

“This weekend will be about calming and re-setting before we embark on the next step of the process,” an excited but busy Dillard told me on Friday evening. “Prep is very loud.”

How does a young director wind down on the weekend before cameras roll on a big-budget war movie?

“A slug of Tequila, a link to Sundance [2019] movie Minari and the poetry of Mary Oliver,” he says.

There will also be a chat with his dad.

“I’m sure we’ll be speaking Sunday night and I’m sure one of us will get all emotional once we kick this whole thing off. I’m gonna need some warm words from him before we get started.”

That emotion derives from the film’s personal resonance for Dillard and his family, something relatively unusual for a director on a big-canvas project such as this. It starts from the fact that his father was also an African American naval aviator.

“My dad had certainly heard of Jesse,” he explains. “There hadn’t been an enormous lineage of black aviators. Of course there had been a number by the time my father was flying, but you’ve certainly heard of the first if you are one of them.”

Jesse LeRoy Brown’s story is a remarkable one. He overcame poverty and entrenched racial segregation in the pre-War south to attend university, earn his pilot wings and become a skilled aviator all by the time he was 23. He was the first Black man to be trained by the U.S. Navy as a naval aviator and became the first Black aviator to see combat.

Brown had flown 20 combat missions before his F4U Corsair aircraft came under fire and crashed on a remote mountaintop on 4 December 1950 while supporting ground troops at the Battle Of Chosin Reservoir. He died of his wounds despite the efforts of wingman Thomas J. Hudner Jr., who intentionally crashed his own aircraft in a rescue attempt.

Like the Korean War – which is sometimes called ‘The Forgotten War’ – Brown and Hudner’s narrative is little known outside of military circles.

This was a story that hit home for Dillard, however.

“Growing up, military service was certainly something I was interested in,” says the filmmaker. “I went through the application process for both the Naval Academy and West Point. It was certainly a path I was interested in, and obviously by way of my dad, I have always been fascinated by aviation.”

Years later, after two successful Sundance movies, Dillard asked his reps to be on the lookout for anything with a connection to fighter pilots or naval aviation.

As luck would have it, the script for Devotion would come his way via Black Label, who had been developing the project since 2016 after actor Glen Powell had flagged it to them. Jonathan Stewart and Jake Crane’s screenplay is based on the book by Adam Makos.

“I thought ‘what an incredibly opportunity to honor the story of these men and the many more people who were involved in this conflict that really hasn’t found its way to screen very often’. On top of that, as I’m reading through the script, on a personal level, I saw an opportunity to also kind of tell my dad’s story: even though he and Jesse were separated by 40 years, the parallels were uncanny. I have a lifetime of my dad elbowing me in the ribs while we’re watching aviation movies and telling me, ‘that’s not what it looks like, that’s not what they say, that’s not what they do’. I’ve never had a consultant I could so easily call in the middle of reading the script and ask, ‘by the way, can you give me more background on this detail or that’.

Jesse Brown’s journey, and his friendship with wingman Tom Hudner, speaks volumes at a time when America is going through yet another reckoning with race.

But it is the internal conflict within Brown that fascinates Dillard even more.

“Psychologically, it takes incredible grit and perseverance to do what Jesse did,” muses Dillard about his protagonist. “But it also takes…”

He pauses, searching for the word.

“It takes…discernment to do what Jesse did. I was taken by his ability to trust others and be able to discern who to bring into his world, who to trust and who not to trust. That discernment is so much of why he got to where he got to. Jesse got to being a naval aviator against all the odds. It was 1950 and he was still dealing with racism in a wide number of ways, but at the same time he was working within a team. The discernment that got him to where he was, is also partly at odds with what it means to be a wingman to others. I thought that was a very interesting dynamic.”

The director is keen to highlight the life-affirming element of Brown’s story as well as his struggle.

“It’s true that the sky was one of very few places where Jesse could fully be free,” he explains. “At 15,000 feet, his decisions are his own and he controls the vessel in which he moves through the world. But I think it’s really important for a movie like this to also fully represent the joy and wish fulfillment of Blackness. You never want to negate or diminish the incredible grit and resilience required to get to that point, but at the same time, on screen, I also want to watch the joy of Jesse having made his dreams come true. That’s also a really important thing to honor in a movie like this.”

Brown’s journey is an easy one to sympathise with. But what about the Korean war itself? Did America’s complex motivation for entering the conflict ever give Dillard pause when taking on the project?

“The experiences of the guys in Jesse’s squadron to some extent reflect what the country was experiencing, I think. There was a very specific type of growing pain coming off the back of WWII, which was so big, so loud, and so consuming. It was about trying to figure out who you are. Many of these men had signed up during the Second World War when the enemy was very clear. But things changed to an extent. Not every direction is the right direction, not every decision is the right one. The enemies were greyer, the morality was greyer. But like the men in the squadron, America was trying to figure out its place in the world.”

Black Label has assembled a strong team of established and emerging talent for the movie, including DoP Erik Messerschmidt (there’s no connection to the German WWII plane, the Messerschmitt), who has worked his way up through the camera department over two decades. After working with him on Gone Girl and Mindhunter, Messerschmidt most recently served as DoP on David Fincher’s acclaimed period drama Mank.

“I was really excited by the story and by the approach that J.D. was taking with the film by trying to do as much in-camera work as we can,” he says.

The DoP references The Right Stuff as a movie that he and Dillard looked at in their prep.

“Our principal camera in the movie is the Panavision DXL, which is a large format camera with large format lenses that have been heavily modified. J.D. and I went to Panavision months ago looking for a very specific type of lens that had a vintage feel but had elements of modernism to them, so they built these lenses specifically for us. It’s very exciting. We’ll also have a new camera called the Red Komodo, which is a tiny 6K camera, which has just landed on the market. We were fortunate to get a couple of the early prototypes, and we’ll be mounting that camera all over the airplanes in places you could never put a motion picture camera before.”

The team is discussing Imax potential for the movie. “We’re certainly looking for some spectacle,” Messerschmidt adds.

Key to that spectacle will be the film’s pilots and a fleet of vintage aircraft. In-demand aerial co-ordinator and helicopter pilot Kevin LaRosa Jr, known for his daring work on a string of blockbusters including Captain Marvel and Spider Man: Homecoming, was coming off Top Gun: Maverick when he got the call.

“Black Label came to me and said, Kev, we want what you did on Top Gun, but you know, 10 times more. Can you do that for us?”

LaRosa and his team have sourced 11 planes for the film, including Bearcats, Corsairs, Skyraiders and MiGs. They’ve been prepping and shooting some of the aerial scenes in Washington State, whose wintery terrain more closely approximates Korea at the time.

Today, we can reveal the first images of the movie taken from the ground and air last week during prep, including shots of the fighter planes taken by aerial DoP Michael FitzMaurice who also worked on the Top Gun sequel, and leads Majors and Powell in the cockpits of their Corsairs.

“We’ve sourced original planes from the period from across America and we’ve painted them to match the squadrons in the script,” explains LaRosa. “We’re being very ambitious. Every project we do, we look to set the bar and raise the limits for what’s possible.”

The team will use drones, camera mounts, helicopters and jetcams as well as ground cameras to capture the dog fights.

LaRosa Jr is another member of the team who has taken inspiration from his father. LaRosa Sr is a veteran movie pilot known for films including Independence Day and Godzilla and whose career stretches back to John Carpenter’s 1984 sci-fi Starman.

“My whole life has been growing up in the warbird community,” explains LaRosa Jr. “My father used to own a P-51 Mustang, a T-6 and a T-28, which were all World War II era aircraft. I grew up with these aircraft, with the smell and the sound of them, flying them with my dad. They feel kind of like home.”

Devotion co-star Powell worked closely with LaRosa and FitzMaurice on Top Gun: Maverick, on which the actor developed a head for heights.

“Glen used Top Gun to get his pilot’s license,” says LaRosa. “He’s an aviator now. We’ve been building back up his G tolerance again in the warbird so that when he gets in these aircraft he’s ready to go, physically and psychologically.”

Devotion marks the latest production for Sicario and La La Land producer-financier Black Label Media, founded in 2013 by Molly Smith, the daughter of billionaire Fedex founder Fred Smith, and former Young And The Restless actor Thad Luckinbill and his twin brother Trent.

Little expense is being spared on the film, which we understand is costing in the region of $90M.

Black Label is contributing a fair slug of that, but the film has also sold well internationally via STX who boarded last fall and Sony who came on for domestic and will be putting up P&A. There will also be tax rebates from Georgia and Canada, where DNEG will be handling the VFX.

Smith tells us: “From the minute Glen brought us the book we’ve been really passionate about getting this story right. These are the kind of movies that we all grew up on. You used to see a lot of these kind of big, epic dramas even in the late-’80s and ’90s and then they’ve had a harder run as the franchise films and the Marvel movies have taken over. Meeting J.D. excited us because he’s a young, super-talented filmmaker who was really more of a genre guy [Dillard’s sophomore film Sweetheart was produced by Blumhouse and he was attached to a remake of The Fly) and is bringing some of that approach to the visual style of this movie. That was one of the steps that went into us betting on this film.”

The plan had been to shoot early last year but the onset of the pandemic nixed that. The producers will now spend millions on protocols to ensure the 12-week shoot can go ahead even in the eye of the Covid storm. They’re expecting to carry out more than 10,000 Covid tests and will act as insurers if the movie encounters Covid-related delays. The movie is truly a devotion for Black Label.

An interesting contemporary wrinkle in the financing of the feature comes in the fact that Netflix and Amazon are among key distribution partners. The former will handle the film in Germany, Australia and Asia excluding China while Amazon will release the film in France under its overall deal with STX, which also sold the film to output partners and third party indies.

We’ve seen a number of big-ticket movies flip entirely to streamers since the pandemic took hold. Is that a possibility on this movie?

“I think anybody making movies today has to consider what the landscape will look like by the time the movie comes out,” says Trent Luckinbill. “There is a really limited theatrical play for most movies being made right now, so the possibility is always there.”

Smith interjects.

“The intention is obviously for the film to be made for the big screen. Tom Rothman at Sony was one of the first people who really fell in love with this with us and supports that vision. Any true cinema and film lover is going to be wowed by this film, I can assure you. We have to hope that people will see movies however they see movies going forward and that’s a great thing. Eyeballs are eyeballs and you want as many people as possible to enjoy it, but we’re certainly making this movie for as-big-a-screen as possible.”

The addition of pop star Joe Jonas in his first dramatic role should help generate eyeballs. The casting has echoes of Harry Styles making his big screen debut in WWII epic Dunkirk.

Smith reveals how the casting came about: “His agents called early on about the screenplay. We’ve had a lot of fans of this script. There were some great supporting characters so we had a ton of people audition for the roles. But we were very excited to see his tape and were blown away by it.”

“The short answer is he was a great read,” adds Trent. “Joe auditioned like everybody else and we looked at his audition in the same way that we would have anybody else and he really was great in the role and great for the part.”

Supporting cast also includes Thomas Sadoski, Daren Kagasoff, Nick Hargrove, Christina Jackson and Spencer Neville.

Next up for Black Label will be Benicio Del Toro thriller Reptile in the summer or second half of 2021. “Then, hopefully shortly after that we’ll roll right into Sicario 3 also with Benicio,” says Smith. The sought-after producer-financiers are also readying a typically-impressive TV slate.

Next up for Dillard could be a movie set at an even greater height than Devotion: a Star Wars project he has been developing with Matt Owens, a writer on the Marvel shows Luke Cage and Agents of SHIELD. The filmmaker has been mentored for the best part of a decade by J.J. Abrams and worked for Bad Robot on The Force Awakens and played a stormtrooper in The Rise Of Skywalker.

Dillard laughs knowingly when asked about Devotion being good prep for a date with a galaxy far far away. “You know, I hope so. I hope so. I’m super excited to be able to play in that world. Devotion is at the top of the to-do list right now, but you know, fingers crossed for something to do in outer space at some point soon after.”

Source: DEADLINE