News

After 20 years Mia, the D.E.B.S. are back together again and teasing a potential (not-so-secret) mission.

Meagan Good and Sara Foster, who starred together in 2004’s D.E.B.S., reunited Saturday night with writer and director Angela Robinson to celebrate the sapphic cult classic’s 20th anniversary with a Cinespia screening at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in partnership with LA Pride.

“This film, for me, was an opportunity to do something different,” said Good as they introduced the screening, which was sponsored by Amazon Studios and Wondery. “And then it became something where, now when people come up to me and they say, ‘Oh, I loved this movie’ or ‘this movie really inspired me’ or ‘made me feel seen,’ it wasn’t just an opportunity to do something different. It was an opportunity to be a part of something that’s important and fantastic.

Sony film division Screen Gems, best known for its lower-budgeted genre and comedy fare, is getting a shake-up.

Steve Bersch, the division’s president, is stepping down and retiring after a 16-year stint at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Scott Strauss, executive vp of production and development, is taking the moment to exit as well.

Sony Motion Picture Group chair Tom Rothman made the announcement in an email Friday, writing, “Despite my best efforts to persuade him otherwise, Steve Bersch has decided to step down from his role as President, Screen Gems, when his contract ends on December 1st. After nearly 16 years of distinguished service to Spe, and decades more in the business overall, Steve wants to pursue other life adventures – the lucky son of a gun!”

It is unclear who will be named to lead the division or if it will be merged with Sony’s other film divisions.

Bersch joined...

Exclusive: After nearly 16 years on the Culver City, CA lot, Steve Bersch, President of Screen Gems, is departing Sony when his contract ends on Dec. 1.

We understand it’s a very amicable exit, and that the executive, who is going out on a high note with the highest grossing horror movie of the year, Insidious: The Red Door ($188.5M), is eyeing other pursuits after a long career in the motion picture business. As Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group CEO and Chairman Tom Rothman says in his note to staff below, he tried to convince Bersch to stay.

Deadline also understands that Scott Strauss, EVP of Production for Screen Gems, will also be exiting when Bersch departs.

That box office result for Insidious: Red Door also repped the record for the $730M grossing franchise, one which Bersch has been with since Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group bought North American rights...

At Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch panel, held March 31 at the Sun Valley Film Festival, the first order of business was defining what it means to be a producer, a title — and a role — that encapsulates a number of responsibilities on a film.

“The way that I describe it is you’ve got to know a little bit about a lot of things in filmmaking,” said Rachael Fung, whose film “Fremont” later won best narrative film in the festival’s One in a Million category, recognizing features made for less than $1 million. “You’ve got to be able to understand and talk to every single person that touches the film at every single stage. And also it’s about finding those directors and filmmakers and understanding their vision and figuring out the best way to get that to screen.”

“There are practical things like getting money for the movie, casting,...

The 2010 musical Burlesque features powerhouse voices like Christina Aguilera and Cher, but there may be some truth behind the story. Though Aguilera and Cher were praised for their performances, Burlesque’s story fell flat and did not meet expectations. Still, the movie spawned a following and even a stage musical.

Burlesque stars Aguilera as a small-town girl who moves to Los Angeles, hoping to make it big in show business when she discovers a struggling burlesque club. Between Kristen Bell performing before singing in Frozen and Cher, Aguilera isn’t the only strong voice featured. Though the characters are fictional, there’s a surprising inspiration for Burlesque.

Related: The Ridiculous Reason Cher Turned Down A Great Episode Of The X-Files

Burlesque's Story Has A Connection To The Pussycat Dolls

Burlesque is connected to the Pussycat Dolls through Robin Antin, the burlesque group's founder and choreographer. Before becoming a musical group...

Walt Disney-owned 20th Century Studios has added four new creative executives to its roster under production president Steve Asbell.

Asbell, who succeeded Emma Watts in the top job last March, welcomes a slew of pedigreed creatives to his team including Sarah Shepard, Brian Dukes, Rashonda Joplin and Catherine Hughes.

“They are all stellar executives, and we’re fortunate to have them on board at a pivotal moment in our studio’s history, as we prepare to greatly expand our streaming output alongside our slate of theatrical films,” Asbell told Variety.

The upcoming 20th slate includes the Ryan Reynolds comedy action film “Free Guy,” the ensemble murder mystery “Death on the Nile,” “The King’s Man” and Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” The four new hires complement a creative team that includes Scott Aversano, J. R. Young and Colin Greten.

Shepard joins 20th as senior vice president of production, moving over...

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign got a big boost in the latest quarter that brought it into closer parity with Donald Trump’s fundraising juggernaut, as the former vice president saw major contributions from a number of industry moguls and media titans.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, who hosted an event for Biden last month, gave $617,800 to the Biden Victory Fund, the joint fund-raising committee set up for the campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties. Also giving was Steven Spielberg, who chipped in $250,000, along with his wife, Kate Capshaw, who gave the same amount.

James Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch, and his wife Kathryn each donated $615,000 to the victory fund.

Other contributors included Bob Iger, the executive chairman of The Walt Disney Co., who gave $250,000. Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy E. Disney who is a documentary filmmaker and social activist, gave $50,000 to the Biden fund.

Biden’s fundraising accelerated...

Just two years after Sony Pictures got slimed with $719 million in losses thanks to misfires like “Ghostbusters,” the studio has recovered with a banner $1.2 billion year at the domestic box office.

Due to the end-of-2017 hit “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and the Spider-Man spinoff “Venom,” the studio leapfrogged ahead of 20th Century Fox in market share to 10.7 percent, its biggest slice of the North American box office since 2014.

That’s the best performance under chairman Tom Rothman since he took over in 2015 and among the studio’s best annual results since 2012, when it had a trifecta of franchise hits with the James Bond entry “Skyfall,” “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “MiB 3.”

Also Read: Despite 'Deadpool 2,' Disney-Bound 20th Century Fox Exits Without a Roar

“Sony has a knack for aligning with the right stars and picking the perfect franchises to draw huge crowds, and they hit the jackpot...

Sony Pictures has elevated two executives, Michael Helfand and Joe Matukewicz, as co-heads of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and its low-budget label Studio 6. Helfand and Matukewicz will report to Steve Bersch, who remains president of the unit and was tapped to lead Sony label Screen Gems in February after longtime executive Clint Culpepper stepped down. The pair will handle day-to-day in addition to producing indie titles and rolling out international films. “Together, Michael and Joe have been driving forces behind the divisions’ most successful and anticipated titles including: Fede Alvarez’s hit thriller ‘Don’t Breathe,’ the ‘Insidious’ franchise Angela Robinson’s...

It’s an impressive stat that comes with a small asterisk: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions president Steve Bersch, 61, runs the most profitable division within the studio. The caveat is that with just 20 employees, Spwa doesn’t carry the same overhead as, say, Columbia Pictures, given that it is not a releasing entity. Still, during his 10-year stint, Spwa boasts films such as Arrival, the Insidious franchise, Spotlight, Whiplash, Foxcatcher, Don’t Breathe and the upcoming Tom Hanks-starring Greyhound. On Jan. 19, Bersch’s purview expanded even further when he took the reins of Screen Gems following the announcement that Clint Culpepper was...

Clint Culpepper has stepped down as the head of Screen Gems, Sony announced on Friday. Culpepper spent 28 years with the studio. He will now segue to a producer role in a deal at the Sony Pictures division that specializes in lower-budget genre films. “Clint has had an extraordinary career at Spe. Under his leadership, Screen Gems is one of the most prolific and diverse genre labels in the industry,” Sony Chief Tom Rothman in an internal memo. “Clint and his excellent team drove box office hits including the ‘Resident Evil’ and the ‘Underworld’ franchises, and groundbreaking successes like ‘Easy A,’...

Clint Culpepper, the longtime head of Sony’s Screen Gems division, is stepping down.

The move comes after the disappointing opening of Screen Gems’ latest low-budget offering, Proud Mary, and caps a string of losses for the arm, which specializes in lower-budgeted thrillers, comedies and urban dramas. The division was also behind the wildly successful Resident Evil and Underworld franchises.

Steve Bersch, the head of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisition, will take over the division, sources say. Sony had no comment.

Culpepper had a 28-year run at Screen Gems, an astounding number in modern executive tenures. He will now segue to...

Sony Pictures has just announced that Clint Culpepper is out at Screen Gems, and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions chief Steve Bersch will now head both divisions and become head of the genre arm. Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman announced it internally (see the email below). The exit comes after underwhelming results on the Taraji P. Henson-action film Proud Mary, but it had been in the works for a while as Culpepper’s contract was expiring. It…...

By John M. Whalen

In 1988 Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (“In the Heat of the Night”, “The Poseidon Adventure”) got fed up with what he called “the eel pit of Hollywood,” and moved to Thailand to start a new life. According to the La Times, he’d grown tired of the power plays, the egos, the hypocrisy and the dictum that homage must be paid to the box office. He left and never came back.

Hollywood has always had its dark side-- just read “Hollywood Babylon.” Silliphant’s “eel pit” was never a more apt description than when, a few years later in 2015, the film industry was rocked by WikiLeaks release of some really nasty Sony emails that gave a glimpse into what powerful producers and studio execs really thought of some of their stars. Scott Rudin called Angelina Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat.” Clint Culpepper called Kevin Hart “a whore,...

The New York Comic-Con has been over for a couple days now, but one of the panels that really drew a huge boisterous crowd was Screen Gems’ panel for Underworld: Blood Wars and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, both opening in January.

As the title says, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is meant to end the series of six movies that began with Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil in 2002. From the very beginning, Milla Jovovich has played the films’ enigmatic kick-butt heroine Alice, and The Final Chapter is meant to put a close to her story.

Jovovich and Anderson came to the Theater at Madison Square Garden, along with Ali Larter, William Levy and Eoin Macken, to present the amazing new trailer for the movie, which you can watch below:

Right before the panel and trailer debut, Lrm had a chance to sit down and chat with Anderson.

Lrm:...

Exclusive: Screen Gems is developing a remake of See No Evil, the 1971 Columbia Pictures horror movie starring Mia Farrow. Mike Scannell will write the new script, and Unbroken Pictures’ Bryan Bertino and Adrienne Biddle will produce. Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper and Evp Production Scott Strauss will oversee for the studio. The original See No Evil starred Farrow as a young blind woman returns to her uncle’s English country home where she’s visiting to discover…...

Exclusive: James F. Lopez is leaving his senior vice president post at Screen Gems to become Head of Motion Pictures for Will Packer Productions. He will steer development and oversee production on films Packer produces through his first look deal with Universal Pictures. At Screen Gems, Lopez worked on the Packer-produced films for Clint Culpepper’s Sony-based genre label that included Think Like A Man and its sequel, About Last Night, The Wedding Ringer and the upcoming…...

Danielle Misher has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Marketing for Screen Gems. The move is being made by Josh Greenstein, Sony Entertainment president of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution. She will report to Dwight Caines, president of Domestic Theatrical Marketing for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Misher will spearhead the marketing for Clint Culpepper’s division, overseeing the creation of campaigns that will encompass trailers, posters, television ads, and…...

Ever wonder what Hollywood studio executives think of talent agents? So did we. The contents of Wikileaks’ archive of hacked Sony emails continues to provide fodder for Hollywood, and one email thread is especially revealing – and hilarious – on the subject of agents. In an April 2014 email to Sony’s former co-chairman Amy Pascal, Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper vents about a client of CAA agent Chris Andrews languishing over a script. “Chris Andrews told me that an actor was still reading the script every week for 7 weeks. Finally I said, ‘What page is he on?'” Culpepper wrote. The note.

The news that Amy Pascal will step down as chairwoman of Sony Pictures is not shocking. In fact, it was expected.* This is how Hollywood works. You spend years running a studio or acting as president of production and then something goes wrong and you segue to a “producing” deal. That’s the way it’s been for almost 30 years and that’s the way it will be for the foreseeable future. Surviving any controversy, even one outside of your own control, is simply impossible. *Although forgive our surprise this wasn’t left to a late Friday afternoon announcement to quell reaction from the cable news talking heads. Pascal’s fate was sealed when numerous E-mail conversations she was a part of were leaked after a massive security breach credited to North Korean hackers took place on Nov. 24. Her E-mail exchange with producer Scott Rudin about the President of the...

It's safe to say Kevin Hart will go pretty far for a laugh.

Case in point?

This outrageous The Hollywood Reporter cover in which the 35-year-old comedian goes shirtless while rocking a giant Marie Antoinette afro.

Video: Apparently, It's 'All About' Kevin Hart

Some things you just have to see to believe.

The Hollywood Reporter

But in the revealing new interview, the popular comedian -- who's enjoyed a string of hits like Ride Along, Think Like a Man Too and About Last Night, which all hit number one at the box office -- gets serious to chat about his particular style of comedy, getting called a "whore" by Sony and still idolizing Bill Cosby.

"Once I realized that I had a voice and didn't have to pretend to be a different version of myself, I stopped forcing the situation, stopped being a character. .... My point of view is my reality," Hart says about...

One of the most outrageous leaks from the already-infamous Sony hacking last month was the revelation of an email written by Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper calling Kevin Hart a "whore." That drama hung in the air for a while, but now Kevin Hart has now admitted that Culpepper instantly apologized to the comedian for the remarks as soon as they became public. That being said, he insists that Culpepper.s apology wasn.t actually necessary. During an extensive chat with The Hollywood Reporter to promote The Wedding Ringer, Kevin Hart touched upon a number of subjects, however, with the Sony hacking scandal still so fresh in the public consciousness, he took this opportunity to diffuse the furor. It.s been over a month since Clint Culpepper.s comments were released, and Hart admitted that his alleged adversary phoned him and apologized immediately. he also added, though, that he never...

Comedian and The Wedding Ringer star Kevin Hart was hit hard by the Sony hacking scandal when an email was leaked showing a senior film exec degrading him for asking to be paid more. He talked on camera about the incident for the first time in a sit-down with Et's Kevin Frazier.

News: The Sony Hacking Scandal Takes Another Embarrassing Turn

"I don't think about it, man," Hart told Frazier. "I don't get into all that stuff. I am a comedian. I get paid to make people laugh. Know how many serious moments there are in my life right now? None, because I'm happy. I avoid all that stuff man."

Hart seems to have moved past the note from Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper, saying, "I'm not saying he's a whore, but he's a whore."

Hart had a succinct message for North Korea following the hack.

"I don't want no problems," he said with...

Kevin Hart is heading back to Saturday Night Live. The show announced during its latest episode that the comedic star will host Jan. 17. It will be the first new episode of the year. Read more Sony Postpones Kevin Hart 'Wedding Ringer' Press Junket Amid Hack This will mark the Ride Along star's second time hosting. He previously fronted a March 2013 episode, when Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were the musical guests. Hart, who recently defended himself after Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper referred to him as a "whore" in a leaked email, will host the show on the day after

read more...

Seth Rogen and James Franco's The Interview is now much more than just a movie.

The comedy, about an assassination attempt on North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, has been pulled from release after hackers issued a terror threat against cinemas planning to show the film.

The massive security breach at Sony Pictures Entertainment (The Interview's backers) has seen personal emails and data combed over and made public, ripping back the curtain on one of Hollywood's biggest studios and exposing the inner workings of a multinational corporation.

Digital Spy presents a timeline of events below...

June 20: North Korea criticises Sony Pictures over their forthcoming film The Interview. The Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy centres on a TV host and his producer as they head to North Korea on a stealth mission to assassinate leader Kim Jong-un.

In a letter to the Un, the country describes it as "undisguised sponsoring of terrorism,...

Sony has been taking hit after hit ever since anonymous hackers breached the company’s systems on November 24. The culprits, who may or may not be tied to North Korea, a country enraged about Sony’s upcoming Kim Jong Un assassination comedy The Interview, have not only leaked dozens of the company’s latest films, including this year’s Fury, but also hundreds of private internal emails. Mega producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal came out looking the worst, with exchanges between two the spitting vitriol at Angelina Jolie, Kevin Hart, and Aaron Sorkin, among others.

However, regardless of how clear their messages seem to be, plenty of them were completely misunderstood. So, we’re here to clear up any confusion by placing the misinterpreted emails in the right context.

*Completely fictional context that we’ve made up to hopefully make this entire situation a little easier to laugh at.

Sony has been taking hit after hit ever since anonymous hackers breached the company’s systems on November 24. The culprits, who may or may not be tied to North Korea, a country enraged about Sony’s upcoming Kim Jong Un assassination comedy The Interview, have not only leaked dozens of the company’s latest films, including this year’s Fury, but also hundreds of private internal emails. Mega producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal came out looking the worst, with exchanges between two the spitting vitriol at Angelina Jolie, Kevin Hart, and Aaron Sorkin, among others.

However, regardless of how clear their messages seem to be, plenty of them were completely misunderstood. So, we’re here to clear up any confusion by placing the misinterpreted emails in the right context.

*Completely fictional context that we’ve made up to hopefully make this entire situation a little easier to laugh at.

The Sony Pictures hack has been a trending topic for weeks now, with headlines getting juicier and juicier as reporters comb through material. (Even Saturday Night Live has taken note - James Franco and Seth Rogen made light of the scandal in a recent episode.) While some information poses threats to Sony's stars and products, other pieces provide a window into the inner workings of Hollywood. Read on to find out what we've learned about Jennifer Lawrence, Beyoncé, Angelina Jolie, Kanye West, and more stars affected by the massive hack. Kanye West will reportedly appear in a holiday movie costarring Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, which is expected to hit theaters next year. In 2013, Beyoncé's dad, Matthew Knowles, reportedly approached Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper about a Destiny's Child biopic. "Do we think it would be a successful film? They're on Sony label. I'm just not sure that it's not too soon,...

Sony has postponed a press junket for Kevin Hart's The Wedding Ringer following the hacking scandal.

Interviews with Hart were originally planned to take place in Los Angeles this weekend (December 13, 14) but Sony's Screen Gems decided to reschedule them for a later date.

The New York Daily News reports that it was scheduled to take part in the junket, but was told by Sony that the studio cancelled the event because it wanted to "focus on the movie" and not the email hacking.

The cancelled junket follows several leaked emails, one of which involves the Screen Gems president allegedly calling Hart a "whore".

The email chain in question is between Clint Culpepper and Sony executives Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton, with the trio unhappy that Hart wanted more money for advertising The Wedding Ringer using social media.

"I'm not saying he's a [money] whore, but he's a whore," Culpepper apparently wrote.

This Sony email hack-attack story has certainly fed the media well, since the initial leak. For our part, we shared news of the studio's plans for a "Men in Black"/"Jump Street" crossover movie (revealed via email exchanges), which I couldn't quite make sense of; and now there's this... According to a Daily Beast exclusive, Sony also has (or maybe I should say "had") interest in a Destiny's Child biopic. In a December 2013 group email from Screen Gems chief Clint Culpepper to Sony Co-Chairman Amy Pascal and other Sony execs, they discussed Beyoncé’s father, Matthew Knowles' attempts to set up a Destiny’s Child biopic at the studio. Although there seemed...

On the heels of the Sony hacking scandal, Access Hollywood has learned the press junket with Kevin Hart for "The Wedding Ringer" has been postponed.

Sony's Screen Gems – the studio behind the new big screen comedy – has decided to reschedule the interviews for a later date. The junket was originally set to take place on Saturday in Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, Gawker released a thread of leaked emails discussing Kevin, allegedly from Sony Pictures execs Amy Pascal, Clint Culpepper and Michael Lynton, which were originally sent on March 7.

Watch: Kevin Hart & Cast Talk ...

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Source: Getty / Lisa Lake Kevin Hart has spoken out about the uncomfortable emails leaked in the Sony hack. One email chain included statements by Sony Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper criticizing Hart over a dispute involving marketing a new movie. Clint wanted Kevin to promote one of his movies on his popular social media accounts, but Kevin and his agent felt that since extra social media marketing was outside the scope of their stated contract, he should be compensated for the extra promotion. Clint wrote of Kevin's demands for more money, "I'm not saying he's a whore, but he's a whore." In response, Kevin shared an impassioned message on both his Instagram and his Facebook pages encouraging others to remember their self-worth. He touched on his personal career and brand, stating, "I worked very hard to get where I am today. I look at myself as a brand and because...

Kevin Hart responds to Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper‘s unflattering comments, Ashton Kutcher hints at Charlie Sheen‘s return to Two and a Half Men, Best Buy apologizes for an insensitive tweet regarding Serial, and more First Dibs.

Kevin Hart responds to comments made about him by Sony execs in a leaked email: “I will never allow myself to be taken advantage of.” [THR]

#KnowYourselfWorth #HustleHart #MogulMindset

A photo posted by kevinhart4real (@kevinhart4real) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:33am Pst

When asked ifCharlie Sheen would return to Two and a Half Men for the series finale, Ashton Kutcher said, “I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it. I’m scared.” So is that a yes? [Uproxx] After getting backlash for the tweet: “We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial,” Best Buy later apologized with the tweet below. [NY Daily News]

We deeply apologize for our earlier tweet about Serial.

Kevin Hart responds to Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper‘s unflattering comments, Ashton Kutcher hints at Charlie Sheen‘s return to Two and a Half Men, Best Buy apologizes for an insensitive tweet regarding Serial, and more First Dibs.

Kevin Hart responds to comments made about him by Sony execs in a leaked email: “I will never allow myself to be taken advantage of.” [THR]

#KnowYourselfWorth #HustleHart #MogulMindset

A photo posted by kevinhart4real (@kevinhart4real) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:33am Pst

When asked ifCharlie Sheen would return to Two and a Half Men for the series finale, Ashton Kutcher said, “I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it. I’m scared.” So is that a yes? [Uproxx] After getting backlash for the tweet: “We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial,” Best Buy later apologized with the tweet below. [NY Daily News]

We deeply apologize for our earlier tweet about Serial.

Kevin Hart let his 10 million Instagram followers know where he stood today on becoming part of the Sony Pictures hacking attack headlines currently ripping through Hollywood. His post comes in response to the publication yesterday of leaked emails written by Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper about UTA agent Jeremy Zimmer, who asked for money beyond Hart’s $3 million paycheck when the studio asked if the actor-comedian would tap his vast social media following to promote a film.

In the missives, Culpepper writes in what is believed to be a reference to Hart, “I’m not saying he’s a whore, but he’s a whore.”

Hart’s response today:

As Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr reported yesterday, Hart and Culpepper spoke and laughed off the emails, writing that it’s not uncommon for them to talk to each other like that — or for Culpepper to talk to most people in Hollywood like that.

Updated Thursday, 5:30 Am, adding more context and information below.

Exclusive: How long is Sony Pictures going to silently endure this full-on assault, in which cyber-terrorists are using media outlets to deliver salvos of hacked private e-mails to embarrass and sabotage the regime of Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton?

Wednesday night was particularly bad. Tabloid-style reports hit both trades, focusing on hacked documents about a racially tinged e-mail exchange between Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin. In a lame attempt at humor, they speculated what films President Barack Obama might like, as they discussed an Obama fundraiser held by Jeffrey Katzenberg in 2013. All of the offerings they came up with were black-themed films.

Is it possible their track records for quality, thoughtful films and collaborations with top talent can be set aside and that Rudin and Pascal could be tarred and defined by momentary lapses and...

Exclusive: Morris Chestnut, who made his film debut in John Singleton’s seminal 1991 drama Boyz N The Hood, has signed a three-picture deal with Sony’s Screen Gems as an actor and producer. The first of the pics is upcoming thriller The Perfect Guy, which stars Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy, and Chestnut. The next film to follow will be When The Bough Breaks, a psychological thriller that will star Chestnut and Regina Hall.

Bough, directed by Jon Cassar, tracks a professional couple who hire a blue-collar surrogate who develops a violent obsession with the husband. The pic is being produced by New Line founders and Lord of the Rings EPs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, and Chestnut will exec produce.

Chestnut’s third Screen Gems project will be The Syndicate, from writer Cliff Dorfman (Entourage, Warrior). Chestnut is producing that project, which is exec produced by Jeff Waters and James Farrell.

The Strangers director Bryan Bertino will produce Scarecrow alongside Adrienne Biddle for Sony's Screen Gems.

Newcomer Mike Scannell sold his spec script to Sony, which follows a mother and her two daughters living at a remote lake house. They must fight for their survival when they are targeted by a psychopath who drags them into a terrifying nightmare.

Bryan Bertino and Adrienne Biddle are producing Scarecrow through their Unbroken Pictures banner, with Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper and Scott Strauss overseeing the horror thriller for the company.

Bryan Bertino recently wrote and directed Mockingbird for Blumhouse with Adrienne Biddle producing. It will be in theaters October 6, and follows a young couple who receive a mysterious camera and instructions on how to use it. Bryan Bertino will next direct There are Monsters from his own screenplay for Unbroken.

No director for Scarecrow has been announced.

Scarecrow comes to theaters in 2016.

5th Update, Monday, 3:18 Pm: Screen Gems’ thriller No Good Deed fell right in line with other distribs’ estimates over the weekend to end the three-day at $24.2M, while Warner Bros./Alcon Entertainment’s Dolphin Tale 2 just fell short of $16M to gross a total cume of $15.8M; it was a softer-than-hoped-for opening for the sequel to the 2011 family film, which bowed to $19M on its way for a $95M worldwide haul). Chernin Entertainment’s crime drama The Drop ended the weekend at No. 6 for a $4.1M take or a respectable $5,000+ per screen for Fox Searchlight; it is James Gandolfini’s last film in release. The Identical dropped like a bomb in its second weekend (-75%) falling out of the Top 20 after a dismal opening. In fact, it’s even behind Woody Allen’s Magic In The Moonlight which is its eighth week of release. It was a very soft box office weekend overall,...

Rutina Wesley (Sookie Stackhouse's best friend, Tara, on HBO's "True Blood") has joined Michael Ealy, Sanaa Lathan and Morris Chestnut in Sony/Screen Gems thriller titled "The Perfect Guy," which will be directed by David Rosenthal. The film follows a woman (Lathan) who meets an It expert (Ealy), who seems to be the perfect guy. But after a sexually-charged courtship, she sees a violent side of him and dissolves the budding relationship. In a jealous rage and fueled by insane revenge, he disrupts her life. James Lopez and Clint Culpepper are executive producing for Screen Gems. It does remind me a bit...

When the Friday Comic-Con schedule was announced earlier this month, one of the biggest question marks was a mysterious Hall H panel that didn't release any information about what studio or movie would be presented. Just minutes ago, the Hall H crowd was greeted by none other than Sam Raimi, who arrived to promote his Screen Gems video game adaptation The Last of Us, which may star Bruce Campbell and Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams.

The crowd was shown footage of the video game, with the tag "soon to be a major motion picture" at the end, before Sam Raimi and Neil Druckman from the video game company Naughty Dog hit the stage. Neil Druckman will be writing the script for The Last of Us, which we first reported on back in November, when it was speculated that Sony Pictures picked up the rights to this popular game after...

Screen Gems today trotted out a Comic-Con god in Sam Raimi, who dealt the kind of catnip that fanboys love. Raimi was there with Neil Druckmann, creator of the Naughty Dog game The Last Of Us, to talk about how that PlayStation 3 survival horror action game is being turned into a feature with Raimi producing and Druckmann now writing the screenplay. Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper, whose previous big vidgame-to-movie transfer was Resident Evil, basically has given over big creative controls to Druckmann in the movie transfer. That includes casting, and choice of director. At this point, Hugh Jackman […]...

Scott Derrickson, as evidenced by this interview, is one of the most thoughtful, sure-handed American directors the genre has working in the field today. If you’re not convinced of that after Sinister alone, then Deliver Us From Evil just might make you a believer.

Inspired by the true events of officer Ralph Sarchie and his dealings with the occult and assistance with actual exorcisms in some of the darkest corners of New York City, Derrickson and company will do their worst in trying to convince us that these occurrences are based in fact.

In doing so, Derrickson will also probably wind up scaring the crap out of you.

When we spoke to Derrickson on set in the South Bronx back in July of 2013, his usual soft, inviting demeanor was still on full display even though he was neck deep in the minute-to-minute stress of shooting a nuanced film that...

On the eve of the debut of “Think Like a Man Too,” Tim Story sits in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton, sipping a martini with a big smile on his face. He is more comfortable, and wields more control, than at any time in his career. He shouts at Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper and producer Will Packer as they pass by — confident without being cocky, driven but not desperate. For the first time in his career, Story is not going to surprise Hollywood. Agents, executives and even the press know his latest movie, “Think Like a Man Too,...

Last July, Screen Gems invited us on the Bronx, New York set of their supernatural horror film Deliver Us from Evil. Originally titled "Beware the Night", the film is based on a book by former NYPD Detective Ralph Sarchie. Sarchie was a sixteen year veteran of the forty-sixth precinct in the South Bronx, one of the most virulently crime-ridden areas in the seventies and eighties. Sarchie was a chronicler of the occult, participating in numerous exorcisms and cases of demonic possessions. Deliver Us from Evil takes place in modern times with Eric Bana starring as Sarchie. The film is written and directed by Scott Derrickson, who has had tremendous success in the horror genre with his previous films, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister. Deliver Us from Evil costars &#201dgar Ram&#237rez as Mendoza - a Catholic priest, and Joel McHale as Butler, Sarchie's NYPD partner.

We arrive on...

Anatomy director Stefan Ruzowitzky has come about Patient Zero (previously reported as "Patient Z"), reports Deadline. It's the latest project from Screen Gems and, apparently, there have been some changes since we last told you about the film - they've removed the zombie element. Perhaps because Clint Culpepper at Screen Gems didn't want to get overloaded on undead fare considering he'll be overseeing another Resident Evil ​film soon.

The post Director Found for Screen Gems’ Patient Zero, Zombies Dropped appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Exclusive: Screen Gems has set Stefan Ruzowitzky to direct Patient Zero, a Mike Le-scripted thriller that puts a new spin on the genre film. In the film, an unprecedented global pandemic has resulted in the evolution of a new species. An aggressive form of rabies turns the infected into predators, addicted to violence. An inexplicably gifted human survivor with the ability to speak their new language spearheads a hunt for Patient Zero in order to find a cure to save his infected wife and humanity. Vincent Newman is producing. Production will begin in the summer. When the script was originally sold, there was a zombie element to it, but that has been completely removed in the rewrites, I’m told. Related: Screen Gems Takes On Vidgame Adaptation ‘The Last Of Us’ The Austrian helmer directed the 2008 Oscar-winning Best Foreign-Language Film The Counterfeiters. It was that project that caught the...

Jamie Foxx and Kevin Hart are in talks to star in The Black Phantom for Screen Gems, with Tim Story (Ride Along) in negotiations to direct.

The story follows a hitman who was double-crossed by his employer, forcing him to seek out the African-American assassin hired for the job, known only as The Black Phantom. The comedy has been in development at Screen Gems since 2009, when the studio picked up the script from first-time writers Dave Lease and Megan Hinds.

William Packer is producing for the studio, reuniting with his Ride Along director Tim Story and star Kevin Hart. Jamie Foxx was reportedly interested in working with Kevin Hart, and William Packer had wanted to make this project for several years. Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper is overseeing the project for the studio.

Jamie Foxx will next be seen in Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Annie, while Kevin Hart...

Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx are in talks to star in Screen Gems' Black Phantom, THR has confirmed. The project, about a double-crossed mob hitman who enlists the help of the so-called Black Phantom, the same hitman who had been sent to kill him, would reteam Hart with his Ride Along director Tim Story, who is in talks to helm. Dave Lease and Megan Hinds wrote the script. Ride Along producer Will Packer is poised to produce alongside Will Gluck. Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper will oversee Black Phantom for the genre label. Hart has strong ties with

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First announced back in 2009 , Screen Gems' Black Phantom appears to have found two headliners. Variety reports that Jamie Foxx and Kevin Hart are in negotiations to star with Tim Story ( Fantastic Four , Ride Along ) in talks to direct. In the film, which has been scripted by Megan Hinds and Dave Lease, a double-crossed mob hitman turns for help to an unlikely source: the title character, another hitman who was hired to kill him. Will Gluck and Will Packer will produce with Clint Culpepper overseeing for Screen Gems. (Photo Credit: Jln Photography / Pnp / WENN.com)...