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The North Fork TV Festival has unveiled that it is honoring “The West Wing” actor Richard Schiff as the Ambassador for the Arts. The organization has also revealed the full list of winners of the Independent Pilot competition, including Sue Zarco Kramer’s comedy “Swipe NYC,” which Schiff co-stars in. The festival will take place in Greenport, NY on Aug. 27 and Aug. 28.

Al Julian and Vince Eisenson’s drama “The Sessions,” Juliana Piscina’s comedy “The Ladies” and Scott Kruse, Josh Long and Kurt Quinn’s sketch pilot “Typical Dan Peterson Stuff” all have been chosen as winners for the competition.

“This year’s winners include a riveting therapy group for convicted killers, a coming-into-age comedy with a hilarious backdrop of online dating in Brooklyn, an off-the-wall sketch comedy, and the feel-good story of a high school girls basketball team,” said Mike Stern, artistic director of the festival and a...

The annual North Fork TV Festival has announced its 2024 lineup, full of beloved TV stars and recent Emmy nominees.

The ninth annual event will take place Tuesday, August 27th and Wednesday August 28th in Greenport, NY. This year, Emmy-nominated stars John Turturro (“Severance”) and Marcia Gay Harden (“The Morning Show”) will be among the honorees, as well as “Frasier” Emmy winner Kelsey Grammer and “The West Wing” Emmy-winning alum Richard Schiff.

Harden will be celebrated with the Canopy Award, while Schiff will be feted with the title of 2024 Ambassador for the Arts. Schiff also co-stars in the North Fork TV Festival comedy pilot winner “Swipe NYC,” which will screen.

“We are honored to present Richard Schiff with this year’s Ambassador for the Arts Award,” festival founder Noah Doyle said. “His remarkable talent and dedication across TV and film have inspired viewers worldwide. We look forward to celebrating his talent in Greenport.

Neil Patrick Harris and Mary Louise Parker will take part in Laramie: A Legacy, a one-night benefit reading in September of The Laramie Project, set to honor Matthew Shepard on the 20th anniversary of his murder.

Presented by Tectonic Theater Project, Laramie: A Legacy is scheduled for Monday, September 24, at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College in Manhattan.

Also confirmed for the event is Tony Award-winner Billy Porter (Kinky Boots). Harris, Parker and Porter will join the original company of The Laramie Project – Stephen Belber, Amanda Gronich, Mercedes Herrero, Andy Paris, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts McAdams and Kelli Simpkins – with Tectonic Theater Project founder and Artistic Director Moisés Kaufman directing.

Additional cast members will be announced at a later date.

In advance of the reading, The Matthew Shepard Foundation and Tectonic Theater Project are filming a PSA video featuring Parker, Porter, Kaufman, Michael Urie, Harvey Fierstein, Zachary Quinto,...

Vampire Academy and Beautiful Creatures' Zoey Deutch has joined Cover Girl.

Julie Plec of Vampire Diaries is producing the comedy.

Cover Girl follows Meg, a girl who finds herself outside of her comfort zone while attending Cambridge Business School.

Deutch's character will finance her studies in an unusual way.

Sue Kramer of Gray Matter's penned the script and is slated to direct.

Gren Wells (The Road Within) will serve as executive producer alongside Jill Footlick and Brent Emery.

Filming on Cover Girl is scheduled to begin next spring.

• Naomi Watts (The Impossible) is in talks to join Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe in Gus Van Sant’s Sea of Trees. Van Sant teased her potential casting at Cannes, where he hopes to shop the film. The drama follows an American ex-pat intent on taking his life in Japan’s Suicide Forest (or, the Sea of Trees) until he runs into Watanabe’s character — a fellow lost soul — and they both decide to find a way out of the forest together. Watts would play McConaughey’s wife in segments told in flashback. She currently has three movies in post including Birdman,...

Fresh off the announcement that she’ll be taking over Jane Levy’s role in “Good Kids”, Deadline reports that Zoey Deutch has been cast as the lead in rom-com “Cover Girl.” Deutch will be playing Meg, a fish out of water from NYC attending Cambridge Business School in England while “financing her studies in an unusual way”. Sue Kramer, who also did a rewrite on the script, will direct the film, originally penned by Gren Wells. Julie Plec, of “Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals” fame, is producing alongside Dignity Film Finance. Deutch is most known for her work on The CW’s [...]

The post Zoey Deutch is a ‘Cover Girl’ in New Rom Com appeared first on Up and Comers.

Recently, Fox released the new,official,synopsis/spoilers for their upcoming "Bones" episode 21 of season 9. The episode is entitled, "The Cold in the Case," and it sounds like things will get pretty interesting as the team discovers a cryogenically frozen dead body that leads them to other intel, and more. In the new, 21st episode press release: a murder victim will be found cryogenically frozen. Press release number 2: The Jeffersonian team will investigate the murder of a woman whose remains were found in a swamp. When the team realizes that her body was cryogenically frozen before it was disposed, it will lead them to a cryogenic preservation facility where they will learn more about the victim's personal life. In the meantime, Cam is going to be hesitant to meet Arastoo's father and mother (guest star Shohreh Aghdashloo) for the first time and Booth is going to be up for...

Amy Fine Collins, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, is taking her story about her lifelong fear of driving to Hollywood. Variety is reporting that Dignity Film Finance has picked up the rights to Collins' non-fiction book .The God of Driving: How I Overcame Fear and Put Myself in the Driver.s Seat (with the Help of a Good and Mysterious Man).. Sue Kramer, who wrote and directed the 2006 romantic comedy Gray Matters starring Heather Graham, is attached to helm. The God of Driving features Collins as a main character and begins with her being absolutely petrified by the idea of getting behind the wheel of an automobile. She eventually decides that she is sick of being scared, and after "becoming captivated by her instructor" she not only learned how to drive, but became "obsessed with the automotive world." The book was first published by Simon & Schuster in 2011. For ...

Veteran comedy and animation scribe Jon Vitti ("The Simpsons," "The Larry Sanders Show") has been hired to pen the script for the 3D animated feature based on the "Angry Birds" app at Rovio Entertainment and Sony Pictures.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" executive producer Catherine Winder has also joined the feature which has scheduled a July 1st 2016 release date.

Meanwhile, Dignity Film Finance has optioned Vanity Fair special correspondent Amy Fine Collins' novel "The God of Driving". Sue Kramer ("Gray Matters") is set to pen the script and direct the comedy which aims to start shooting in Spring 2014.

Source: Heat Vision...

Film production and finance company Dignity Film Finance (Dff) has optioned the novel "The God of Driving: How I Overcame Fear and Put Myself in the Driver's Seat (with the Help of a Good and Mysterious Man)," by Vanity Fair special correspondent Amy Fine Collins. The novel was published by Simon & Schuster in 2011. Dff, headed by President Maggie Monteith, is fully financing the feature film production based on the novel. Sue Kramer ( Gray Matters ) wrote and will direct the comedy. Jill Footlick ( Greetings From Tim Buckley ) will produce and Marina Grasic ( Crash ) is executive producing. Casting is currently underway with the project set to start shooting in Spring 2014. Sales will launch at Berlin 2014. .As a writer/director, I was completely captivated...

Here are a few interesting and/or noteworthy projects that were recently added to IMDbPro's database of development titles:

Cities of Refuge – Charlize Theron is set to produce and possibly topline this crime thriller from Benderspink, Tower Hill and Inferno Entertainment. Brandon Willer penned the project about an investigation of a brutal murder and kidnapping.

King of Heists – Jeremy Renner is producing and rumored to star in this bank robbery tale based on a true story of George Leslie, a dapper 19th Century dude who made off with $3,000,000 from a New York heist. He'll team up with Black Bear Pictures' Teddy Schwartzman for the project written by Will Staples.

Rocketman – Elton John's producing a musical biopic based on his own life with Billy Elliot scribe Lee Hall on board to write the script.

Rust and Bone – Oscar winner Marion Cotillard stars in Jacques Audiard's latest film, which he's adapted from Craig Davidson's collection of short stories. Belgium production house Les Films du Fleuve produces the film. Production is expected to begin soon.

The Locals – Vera Farminga, Alan Arkin and Shirley MacLaine star in Sue Kramer's romantic comedy about a culture clash between a Jewish family and an Italian one. Curious Pictures and Bella Films are producing.

Blood – The Awakening's Nick Murphy has nabbed Paul Bettany and Brian Cox for his next thriller about a pair of police officer brothers assigned to investigate a crime they've committed themselves.

If you know of something in the works, you can submit it via our online submission form.

[1] Oscar winner Colin Firth has just added another project to his slate: the epic drama The Railway Man. The film will be directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (Better Than Sex, Burning Man) from Andy Paterson and Frank Cottrell Boyce, adapted from Eric Lomax's memoir of the same title. Lomax's book focuses on the torture he experienced at the hands of the Japanese during his time working on the Burma-Siam Railroad (a.k.a. the bridge on the River Kwai) as a World War II Pow. Upon learning decades later that one of his torturers was still alive, Lomax arranged to meet with him. The story certainly sounds compelling and intense, and worthy of an actor of Firth's talent. The Railway Man is set to begin shooting February in Great Britain, Thailand, and Australia. [Variety [2]] After the jump, Shirley Maclaine, Alan Arkin, and Vera Farmiga team up for a spin on Romeo & Juliet,...

Just when you'd written your last letter to Juliet and cleaned up your star-crossed gnomes, in comes one more retooled Romeo and Juliet called The Locals. In the upcoming indie, director/writer Sue Kramer treats the Montagues and Capulets to "a Jewish/Italian twist." Shirley MacLaine, who just titillated us with fabulous anecdotes at the La Film Festival, is the first cast in the film, and Vera Farmiga and Alan Arkin are in talks to join her. But who will she play?...

It's time for another stab at that old tale of star-crossed lovers and squabbling families by way of New York City. No, not another "West Side Story."  Instead of singing teen gangs, "The Locals" will take a crack at updating the story of Romeo and Juliet "by injecting a Jewish/Italian twist."

So, kind of like "West Side Story" but with more guilt and food and less singing and knife fights.

Shirley MacLaine has already signed on to star in "The Locals," and Alan Arkin and Vera Farmiga are currently in talks. One might imagine MacLaine as the boisterous matriarch of one family and Arkin as the squabbly, perhaps heroin-addicted grandfather of the other, but where does Farmiga fit into this? Only time will tell. Farmiga has an especially busy schedule lately, and "The Locals" is set to start production soon in the boogie down Bronx.

Writer/director Sue Kramer's first film,...

Shirley MacLaine has signed on to star in the Sue Kramer-directed indie feature The Locals, which Alan Arkin and Vera Farmiga are in talks to also join.

The film is a contemporary take on the "Romeo and Juliet" tale told with a Jewish/Italian twist. Sue Kramer wrote the script.

"These two cultures have so much in common," Sue Kramer said. "Love of gab, love of food, they talk with their hands, and they feed you with guilt."

Production begins in the Bronx later this fall.

How many times can Hollywood re-adapt William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet? Sure, the story itself is timeless and successfully weaving drama around two star-crossed lovers is simple, but earlier this year we had a movie in which the Bard's play was reenacted with garden gnomes. So what will be the next on-screen representation of the Capulets and Montagues? Why, Jews and Italians, of course! Deadline has learned that Vera Farmiga and Alan Arkin are both in talks and Shirley MacLaine is attached to The Locals, a new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet with a "Jewish/Italian twist." Sue Kramer, who last wrote and directed the Heather Graham/Bridget Moynahan/Tom Cavenagh comedy Gray Matters in 2006, is both helming and scripting the project. When explaining why the two groups should work together in the film, Kramer said, "These two cultures have so much in common: love of gab, love of food,...

We have a few bits of casting news to bring your way this afternoon. First up, Shirley MacLaine has signed on to director Sue Kramer's (Gray Matters) indie The Locals which also has Alan Arkin and Vera Farmiga in talks to join. Per Deadline, The Locals will seek to place the timeless Romeo & Juliet tale in a contemporary setting and will feature a "Jewish/Italian twist." Kramer penned the script for the film which will be co-produced by her Bella Films moniker alongside Grow Pictures and Curious Pictures. Production on the pic is set to begin in the Bronx this fall. Next up, Variety reports that Prom's Nicholas Braun has been added to director Akiva Schaffer's (of The Lonely Island and Hot Rod fame) comedy Neighborhood Watch. Braun joins a cast that already includes Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Rosemarie DeWitt. Watch is written by...

Denzel Washington has a leading lady for Robert Zemeckis' Flight. It's Kelly Reilly, who we suggested to play Daisy Buchanan before Carey Mulligan snagged the role in Baz Luhrmann's 3-D The Great Gatsby. You'll recognize the British Reilly from Sherlock Holmes (the first and upcoming sequel, as Jude Law's lady love) and Pride & Prejudice (Caroline Bingley). She deserves to be showcased, and this should be a meaty role. Here are Flight plot details. Writer-director Sue Kramer (Grey Matters) will helm The Locals, with Shirley MacLaine and--should negotiations go through--Alan Arkin and Vera Farmiga. The Locals is a Romeo & Juliet with a Jewish-Italian twist, and will shoot in the Bronx later this fall. Says Kramer; “These two cultures have so much in common: Love ...

Resident Evil: Retribution

Colin Salmon, who starred in 2002's "Resident Evil", will return to the franchise in "Resident Evil: Retribution" which begins shooting in Toronto this month.

Salmon confirmed the news and claims "Paul Anderson has written an amazing script." How his character figures into the story is unknown presently. [Source: Twitter]

The Locals

Shirley MacLaine is set while Alan Arkin and Vera Farmiga are negotiating to star in Sue Kramer's indie feature "The Locals".

The Jewish/Italian contemporary spin on "Romeo and Juliet" begins shooting in the Bronx this Fall. [Source: Deadline]

Flight

Paramount Pictures is negotiating with Kelly Reilly ("Sherlock Holmes") to play the female lead opposite Denzel Washington in Robert Zemeckis' "Flight".

Reilly would play Nicole Devlin, a drug addict who is at rock bottom when she meets Washington's commercial airline pilot character. Both characters are wrestling to get control of their addiction demons. [Source: Deadline]...

Exclusive: Shirley MacLaine is set to star and Alan Arkin and Vera Farmiga are negotiating to star in the Sue Kramer-directed indie feature The Locals. The film puts a contemporary spin on the Romeo and Juliet tale by injecting a Jewish/Italian twist. Kramer wrote the script. eOne Entertainment is selling foreign territories, and production starts in the Bronx later this fall. “These two cultures have so much in common,” Kramer said. “Love of gab, love of food, they talk with their hands, and they feed you with guilt.” The film will be produced by Grow Pictures’ Jill Footlick, Curious Pictures’ Marina Grasic and Kramer through her Bella Films banner. Curious is co-financing with private-equity partners and Uas. John Hadity will be exec producer alongside Movie Package Company’s Shaun Redick and Ray Mansfield. Kramer is repped by Wme and Brillstein, MacLaine and Arkin by ICM, and Farmiga by CAA.