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Time is ticking, and the days are flying by. In only a week, the much-anticipated second season of The Recruit will finally land on Netflix, bringing more thrilling espionage, intense action, and unexpected twists. We can't wait to see CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) return to our screens, diving into even more dangerous missions and high-stakes scenarios!

However, there’s still a bit of a wait before the new season is released. That makes it the perfect opportunity to revisit the first season and refresh your memory on all the key moments before the new episodes arrive on Jan. 30. In the meantime, we also suggest checking out a similar show to fill the gap. And we’ve got just the right one to recommend.

If you really enjoyed the first season of The Recruit and are looking forward to the second season, then you absolutely must check out Prime...

Radio Hall of Famer Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has signed a new three-year agreement to remain the face and voice of Mad Dog Sports Radio (Ch. 82).

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Chris Russo — who originally joined SiriusXM to launch the Mad Dog Sports Radio channel in 2008 — hosts his daily show, “Mad Dog Unleashed,” every weekday. His entertaining and candid commentary, skill as an interviewer, and encyclopedic knowledge of sports produce some of the most compelling conversations in audio. “Mad Dog Unleashed” guests include league commissioners, owners, current and former athletes, journalists, authors, and more.

“SiriusXM is my radio home,” Russo said. “I’m proud of what we’ve built here over these last 16 years. I love the platform and the freedom to be me and do the kind of show my audience and I enjoy. Four decades into my...

Maryam Keshavarz’s semi-autobiographical film uses flashbacks to revel in the 80s and examine the different world of 1960s Iran

Energetic, funny and unashamedly sentimental, this is a warm-hearted comedy written and directed by Iranian-American film-maker Maryam Keshavarz, even if her semi-autobiographical story about life in a traditional Iranian family in New Jersey feels more than a little familiar from past movies about second-generation growing pains. But Keshavarz cranks up the charm, and the feelgood factor makes it an easy watch – despite some of the gags feeling more suited to a TV sitcom.

New York in the 00s; Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is a film-maker in her 20s, dressed up for a Halloween party in a “burqa-kini”. Leila is a lesbian but has a one night stand with a man in drag (Tom Byrne) at the party, and ends up pregnant. In lovingly recreated flashbacks to the 80s, Leila is a smart cheeky kid,...

The only daughter in the family, with eight brothers, Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is used to being spoiled. She’s also used to her mother Shireen (Niousha Noor) being overprotective and trying to change the way she lives, but much as she likes to complain about this, she’s never really asked itself why it’s the case. Growing up as part of an immigrant Persian community in Brooklyn, she’s taken a lot of things for granted. It takes a pair of unexpected events to prompt her to examine their relationship more deeply, and to become curious about the life her parents left behind.

The first of these is a crisis of her own making. Attending a fancy dress party as ‘Miss Burkatini’, in a swimsuit and hijab with a surfboard under her arm, she meets Max (Tom Byrne), whom she takes for a drag queen. He tries to explain...

Sony Pictures has debuted the trailer for the upcoming comedy ‘The Persian Version,’ which won both the Audience Award and the Best Screenplay Award at this years Sundance Film Festival.

Coming from two countries at odds with each other, Iranian-American Leila (Layla Mohammadi) strives to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures, while boldly challenging the labels society is so quick to project upon her. When her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant, Leila navigates her relationships from arms length to keep her “real” life separate from her family life. However, when her secret is unceremoniously revealed, so are the distinct parallels between her life and that of her mother Shireen (Niousha Noor).

The story delivers an honest portrayal of a woman who remains unapologetically herself, blended seamlessly into a heartfelt story about family, belonging, and the undeniable influence of pop music.

Written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz,...

London hosted The Crown finale gala red carpet at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Tuesday, December 5.

Stars of the series who attended included Imelda Staunton, Elizabeth Debicki, Khalid Abdalla, Dominic West, Meg Bellamy, Ed McVey, Jonathan Pryce, Salim Daw, Claudia Harrison, Lesley Manville, Emma Corrin, Tom Byrne and more.

The Netflix series wraps up in Season 6, Part 2, as Prince William attempts to reintegrate into Eton life following the death of his mother, Princess Diana. Meanwhile, the monarchy grapples with public opinion, and as the Queen commemorates her Golden Jubilee, she reflects on the monarchy’s future amid Charles and Camilla’s marriage and the emergence of a new Royal fairytale in William and Kate.

Peter Morgan’s groundbreaking Netflix series comes to an end with its upcoming final six episodes on Dec. 14.

An Iranian American woman navigating culture clash, an Argentine bank heist and an animated ghost story voiced by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie debut this weekend with a handful of docs and some notable expansion, vying with Apple wide release Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Sony Pictures Classics The Persian Version opens on eight screens in NY, LA, Toronto and Vancouver today. The film by writer-director Maryam Keshavarz won both the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance where it premiered (Deadline review here). Her previous film Circumstance, about two teenage Iranian girls who fall in love, won the Audience Award too, in 2011, but the filmmaker hasn’t been able to return to Iran since.

The Persian Version stars Layla Mohammadi as Leila, Iranian-American like Keshavarz, and bisexual, striving to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures. When her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant,...

Editors note: This review was originally published after its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It hits theaters Friday via Sony Pictures Classics.

The Persian Version, directed and written by Maryam Keshavarz, stars Layla Mohammadi and Niousha Noor as a mother and daughter at odds with one another.

The Persian Version starts with Lelia (Mohammadi) at a costume party in a self-made Burkini. This is where she meets Maximillian (Tom Byrne), a Broadway actor-singer dressed as Hedwig, and they have sex. When she wakes up the next morning, she starts with voice-over about her Persian upbringing, and Iran’s relationship with the United States. She details how she grew up in Brooklyn, but her parents are from Iran, and the country forbid everything with American influence, thought on her childhood trips back to the country, she smuggled Cyndi Lauper cassettes (cut to a young Lelia dancing with her mother...

“The Persian Version,” in line with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Moonstruck,” sets out to capture the conflicting cultures of being a first-generation American, especially through the perspective of a coming-of-age story. And while the Sundance Award-winning film has a certain early 2000s charm to it, it tries to do too much too fast in terms of educating audiences about Iranian politics through the personal history of rising matriarch (yet current angsty outsider) Leila (Layla Mohammadi).

The “sort of” true story opens with Leila donning a burqa over a bikini (a “burq-ini”), hooking up with a “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” Broadway performer (Tom Byrne), and breaking the fourth wall to explain just how complicated her life as a queer Iranian-American woman is. It’s the kind of “Fleabag” commentary that feels too trendy and too convenient for a film with this amount of tonal shifts, zinging between Leila...

"The Persian Version" tells the story of a mother and daughter, celebrating Iranian-American culture and exploring familial dysfunction through fresh eyes. The movie's fearless narrator, Layla Mohammadi, brings a buoyant energy to the story, despite the fractured bonds between her and her Iranian immigrant parents. The strength of the film lies in its empowering portrayal of three generations of Iranian women, although some may find that the growth of the daughter's character feels truncated compared to her mother's.

Filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz dips a toe into her own history in The Persian Version, which is finally seeing a limited theatrical release after its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It won the Audience Award for the US Dramatic Competition there, and for good reason. The movie weaves a mother and daughter's parallel narratives together with ease, celebrating Iranian-American culture through fresh eyes and exploring familial dysfunction from a place of love.

A rebellious Iranian-American woman clashes with her strict and unforgiving mother but comes to understand they are very much alike. The Persian Version, winner of the Audience and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival, uses fantasy elements and highly stylized filmmaking techniques to tell a powerful narrative. It is a clash of culture, values, and identity for immigrants trying to find their place in two vastly different countries over several decades. The bells and whistles gimmicks, meant to add a humorous element, grows somewhat tedious. The message delivered does not. Sacrifice and hardships don't last but love and compassion always do.

In present day New York City, Leila Jamshidpour (Layla Mohammadi) bedazzles a burka's headdress with sequins. She then dons a skimpy bikini, grabs a surfboard, and stridently walks to a costume party as jaws drop around her. Punk music blares as the revelers congratulate her on a bold look.

“The Persian Version” captures the split between two worlds in a coming-of-age drama, complete with dance numbers and top pop hits.

The film, written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz, debuted at 2023 Sundance, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.

Layla Mohammadi stars as an Iran-American woman who tries to find balance in her opposing cultures. Yet things become more complicated with her family travels from Iran to New York City and her family and friends collide.

Per the official synopsis, when her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant, Leila navigates her relationships from arm’s length in an effort to keep her “real” life separate from her family life. However, when her secret is unceremoniously revealed, so are the distinct parallels between her life and that of her mother Shireen (Niousha Noor).

The film also stars Kamand Shafieisabet,...

Maryam Keshavarz’s semi-autobiographical feature The Persian Version is an energetic family comedy chronicling three generations of Iranian women in the US. An often hilarious and spirited film with a deceptively complicated plot structure, it unpacks family secrets that ultimately inform the present. The only sister in her large family of successful brothers, Leila (Layla Mohammadi) has never quite fit in, opting to take the creative route. Living in Brooklyn, she’s just broken up with her girlfriend and, at a costume party, randomly hooks up with Max (Tom Byrne), who is playing Hedwig on Broadway. The hook-up leads to motherhood, setting Leila down a path of discovery when a family secret is hinted at by her grandma Mamanjoon (Bella Warda).

Spending time in both New Jersey and Iran, Leila has never found a sense of identity, which naturally forces her to become a writer and filmmaker. She’s Western and independent,...

Sony Pictures Classics has nabbed the North American rights to the Sundance award-winning film The Persian Version, a mother-daughter dramedy written, directed and produced by Maryam Keshavarz.

The film’s critical acclaim at Sundance, where it earned the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the same sidebar, brought buyer attention to the film and a subsequent bidding war where Sony Pictures Classics prevailed.

Keshavarz’s film about Iranian immigrants in New York and New Jersey feeling neither at home in America or Iran stars Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noor, Kamand Shafieisabet, Bijan Daneshmand, Bella Warda, Chiara Stella, Tom Byrne and Shervin Alenabi.

The film centers on Iranian-American Leila, played by Mohammadi, who comes from two countries at odds with each other, and strives to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures, while boldly challenging the labels society is so quick to project upon her.

Sony Pictures Releasing International to release the film internationally.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American distribution rights to Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version, which won two awards on its debut at Sundance Film Festival last month.

SPC will release the film in partnership with Sony production label Stage 6 Films. Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute the film internationally.

The third feature from US filmmaker Keshavarz, The Persian Version won the US Dramatic Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance last month.

The film centres on an Iranian-American woman who strives to find balance between her opposing cultures,...

Sundance hit “The Persian Version” is going to Sony Pictures Classics. The distributor has landed North American rights to the film in a competitive situation, SPC announced on Friday, adding the winner of the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic category to its slate. The film also picked up the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) at the 2023 festival.

Written, directed and produced by Maryam Keshavarz, “The Persian Version” follows an Iranian-American girl named Leila who struggles to balance her opposing cultures while visiting New York City for her father’s heart transplant.

“After two plus years of watching everything at home and in our PJs, I am excited to bring ‘The Persian Version’ to theaters where we can experience the joy and humor of this big rowdy immigrant American family together in a communal setting,” Keshavarz said in a statement. “Having grown up watching and loving SPC films,...

Sundance has been over for a week, but the market for many of the films that premiered at the festival is still chugging along.

On Friday, Sony Pictures Classics announced that it landed North American rights to the Sundance award-winning film “The Persian Version.” The film was written, directed and produced by Maryam Keshavarz and went on to win the Audience Award and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award after debuting in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition category.

It’s the second deal out of the festival for Sony Pictures Classics, which also bought the family drama “A Little Prayer.”

“The Persian Version” was produced by Keshavarz for Marakesh Films, Anne Carey for Archer Gray Productions, Ben Howe and Luca Borghese for Agx, and Peter Block and Cory Neal for A Bigger Boat. It stars Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noor, Kamand Shafieisabet, Bijan Daneshmand, Bella Warda, Chiara Stella, Tom Byrne and Shervin Alenabi.

Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American on Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version which won the Audience Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) at this year’s Sundance. Keshavarz is the first filmmaker to have two films win the Sundance Audience Award in the Dramatic Competition category.

Logline: Coming from two countries at odds with each other, Iranian-American Leila (Layla Mohammadi) strives to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures, while boldly challenging the labels society is so quick to project upon her. When her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant, Leila navigates her relationships from arm’s length in an effort to keep her “real” life separate from her family life. However, when her secret is unceremoniously revealed, so are the distinct parallels between her life and that of her mother, Shireen (Niousha Noor...

Returning to Sundance, where her debut feature Circumstance premiered in 2011, Iranian-American writer-director Maryam Keshavarz enters the festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition with a crowd-pleasing quasi-autobiographical comedy-drama, The Persian Version.

A multi-generational family tale that spans roughly 60 years, two continents and assorted cultures from traditional Muslim families to queer New Yorkers, this lively, likable, if somewhat on-the-nose work grabs viewer attention with fourth-wall-breaking monologues, jocular explanatory graphics, and tightly choreographed dance numbers to vintage American and Iranian pop songs. The expansive ensemble is led by Layla Mohammadi playing the director’s alter ego Leila and Niousha Noor as her immigrant mother Shirin, who, in the manner of classic melodrama, clash but learn to respect one another by the end after secrets are revealed in extended flashbacks.

The film’s present tense is somewhere in the early 2000s, its locus Brooklyn, downtown Manhattan and Jersey City, where protagonist and sometime narrator...

With her tart direct address, Leila makes a cheeky protagonist in “The Persian Version,” a Sundance-blessed dramatic comedy about the wide rift between an immigrant mother and her Iranian American daughter. Layla Mohammadi and Niousha Noor portray Leila and her mother, Shirin. They also carry the weight of writer-director Maryam Kesharvarz’s third feature, which braids comedy and tragedy, vibrant aplomb and thoughtful soberness.

In 2011, Kesharvarz made her directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival with “Circumstance,” winner of that year’s audience award for dramatic feature. Set in Tehran, that LGBTQ-hued film focused on a well-to-do Iranian family dealing with their sexually rebellious daughter (and Daddy’s girl) and a son who recovers from drug addiction by replacing it with a fresh mania for fundamentalist ideology. “The Persian Version” moves between the present and the past and shuttles from New York to New Jersey to a rural outpost in Iran,...

Rep for Netflix’s British Royal Family drama says there is “absolutely no struggle” to cast any role

Netflix’s “The Crown” is denying reports that it’s “struggling” to cast an actor to play controversial royal Prince Andrew, who became notoriously unpopular after his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was revealed.

“There is absolutely no struggle to cast any role for season 5 of ‘The Crown’ and it is normal practice for productions to advertise in Spotlight,” a spokesperson for “The Crown” told TheWrap on Tuesday.

The rep’s statement comes as British media outlets have reported that production has struggled to fill the part of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s youngest son, Prince Andrew for Seasons 5 and 6, which will be the show’s final years. Actor Tom Byrne played Prince Andrew during Season 4.

U.K. press pointed to an advertisement placed on the casting website Spotlight...

A Netflix representative for The Crown has denied a report that the lavish royal drama is struggling to cast an actor to play Prince Andrew in the final two seasons.

British tabloid The Sun claimed that producers at Left Bank Pictures have advertised for the role on casting website Spotlight. “Stars aren’t exactly queuing up to play him,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying, amid controversy surrounding Prince Andrew’s links to dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But a spokeswoman for The Crown said: “There is absolutely no struggle to cast any role for season 5 of The Crown and it is normal practice for productions to advertise in Spotlight.”

As first revealed by Deadline, Season 5 of The Crown will go into production in June. A whole new cast is joining the series, including Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II and Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip. Prince Andrew was...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Amazon Prime Video commissions “Celebrity Bake Off España”; BBC Three sets launch date for “Dreaming Whilst Black”; HBO Max boards “Lucy the Human Chimp”; Banijay Iberia shakes up its executive team; and Beyond Rights acquires “Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death” ahead of MipTV.

Format

Amazon Prime Video is bringing Love Productions and the BBC’s popular cooking format “Celebrity Bake Off” to Spanish cocinas with “Celebrity Bake Off España,” a local version of the program set to feature big names from Spanish sports, music and entertainment.

Sticking with what has worked so well for the franchise thus far, “Celebrity Bake Off España” will pit 12 celebs in a weekly culinary competition to be judged by experts, with one contestant sent home each week.

Trans-Atlantic production house Boxfish TV, producers of the current Spanish remake of the original “Bake Off” for Cuatro, will also produce the...

Warning: This post contains spoilers about Season 4, Episode 4 of Netflix’s “The Crown.”

“The Crown” is set in the 1980s in its fourth season, but a conversation between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Andrew in Episode 4 will sound eerily familiar to anyone who has read about the Prince’s resignation from his royal duties in the wake of his alleged involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal last year.

The Duke of York came under public scrutiny in 2019 when details of his friendship with deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein — a convicted sex offender who was arrested that year for sex-trafficking involving underage girls — raised questions about the Prince’s possible participation in Epstein’s illicit affairs. One of Epstein’s most outspoken victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said that he forced her to have sex with several of his friends, including Prince Andrew, who has repeatedly denied the accusations.

In the episode,...

With its recently launched fourth season, “The Crown” reached the British royal family’s Princess Diana-era, a tumultuous time that many viewers of the Netflix drama remember playing out in the news in real-life. But for those who aren’t familiar with the facts, Britain’s culture minister wants a clear warning label that “The Crown” is fiction.

“It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction. So as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that,” Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said in a story published by U.K. newspaper the Mail on Sunday. “Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact.”

Dowden told the paper he plans to write to Netflix this week regarding the addition of a fiction label.

A spokesperson for Netflix did not immediately respond to...