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After the Succession series finale in 2023, creator Jesse Armstrong was happy to step away from the high-pressure world of producing award-winning TV (75 Emmy nominations, 19 wins). He passed his time noodling at a novel and penning the occasional book review for The Times of London. But, as he explains to The Hollywood Reporter, one of those book reviews sent him down a tech-world rabbit hole — and out the other end, in record time, came Mountainhead.

Emmy-nominated for outstanding TV movie, the 2024 HBO feature follows a boys-will-be-boys ski weekend. Only these boys — played by Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef — are the richest men in Silicon Valley. The results are dark, nasty and wincingly hilarious; in other words, everything you’d expect from an Armstrong production.

The screenwriter and producer who hails from Shropshire, England, spoke to THR from his current home in London about Mountainhead‘s inspirations,...

Luigi: the Musical – a new comedy inspired by the reality of Luigi Mangione, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Diddy all being incarcerated in the same federal facility—has become a sold-out hit that’s now headed to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The musical is the result of four comedians from San Francisco’s comedy scene—Nova Bradford, Caleb Zeringue, Arielle Johnson, and Andre Margatini—deciding to combine their comedic chops with musical talent with a shared desire to create something socially resonant. The show is a darkly funny one-act musical where healthcare, tech, and celebrity collide in a Brooklyn prison cell. Inspired by the true fact that Luigi Mangione, Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried, three high-profile public figures were held simultaneously at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, the show is set in a prison cell shared...

Julia Garner got her start in movies at 17 with a role in Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene opposite Elizabeth Olsen. She ultimately found major success on the small screen for versatile work in Ozark, The Americans, Dirty John, Waco and Inventing Anna.

She’s long said that the role that changed her life (complete with three Emmy Awards in the process) was playing Ruth Langmore opposite Jason Bateman and Laura Linney until the Netflix series ended its 44-episode run in 2022.

After moving on from the career-defining performance, the star has booked herself a busy summer, which has included back-to-back No. 1 films.

Garner is riding high with the breakout success of Weapons, which surpassed expectations to hit the top of the box office last weekend with a $42.5 million opening for filmmaker Zach Cregger, Warner Bros. and New Line. The critical and commercial hit followed hot on the heels of...

Dave Franco isn’t entirely shutting down the opportunity to play Luigi Mangione in a potential future biopic.

During the Together star’s Tuesday night appearance on Watch What Happens Live, a fan asked if he’d take up the role if it was offered to him. The actor confirmed that he hasn’t been approached about a project centered around Manigone yet, though that hasn’t stopped fans from asking.

“Oh, how do I answer this. Um, no one has approached me about it yet, I’ll say that,” Franco said. “This is something that more people in my life reached out about this exact thing than anything else that has ever happened!”

However, Franco didn’t rule out playing the alleged gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December. “So let’s just say I’m open if it’s the right people, and let’s leave it at that,...

Luigi: The Musical, the dark comedic musical, is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe for 5 shows at Just the Tonic/ Just the Club. “We’re thrilled to be making our international debut at the legendary Edinburgh Fringe Festival! We just hope the hash brown humor translates across the pond,” said co-writer and one of the stars of the show, Caleb Zeringue. The show is a darkly funny one-act musical where healthcare, tech, and celebrity collide in a Brooklyn prison cell. Inspired by the true fact that Luigi Mangione, Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried, three high-profile public figures were held simultaneously at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, the show is set in a prison cell shared by the disgraced crypto mogul, infamous media executive, and the viral Italian sensation and accused...

For Lena Dunham, there’s no such thing as “too much” reality TV. The beloved filmmaker even wanted to adapt the viral “Vanderpump Rules” for the big screen, especially after the “Scandoval” of it all.

“Vanderpump Rules” Season 10 revealed the explosive affair between co-stars Tom Sandoval and Rachel Leviss; Sandoval’s ex Ariana Madix confronted both cast members during the Season 10 reunion in 2023. The episode was Emmy-nominated.

While the scandal shocked audiences at the time, Dunham was looking to add a high(er)brow twist with the help of her fellow Bravo bingers, Andrew Scott and Jennifer Lawrence.

“We should basically create like a mini movie in which actors treat this as canon and get up and perform it with all the passion and virtuosity of Shakespeare,” Dunham said during the “Shut Up Evan” podcast. “I went so far as to abuse Andy Cohen‘s contact information to pitch him the idea.

Luigi Mangione, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried have found a new (fictional) life on the stage.

The new fringe production Luigi: The Musical, has been selling out shows in San Francisco, as it satirizes the real-life circumstances of Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare CEO, being housed in the same Brooklyn jail as Diddy and Bankman-Fried, who were charged with sex trafficking and crypto fraud, respectively.

While it keeps extending its current run, the show’s creators are also aiming for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August and exploring possible future productions in New York and Los Angeles.

It’s a comedy that was created by four stand-up comedians after seeing the headlines about the bunkmates, and pokes fun at actual details of the alleged crimes, such as Mangione’s stop for hashbrowns at McDonald’s, which led to his arrest and is told here through a ballad.

Disrupt the blood. Hack the hate. In Mountainhead, written, directed, and produced by Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, these are just a few of the technocratisms bandied about by the four tech bros (played by Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith) who have gathered at a mountaintop redoubt for a good old-fashioned weekend of ketamine and contempt. Offstage, the world is literally burning, thanks to AI launched by one of the characters’ companies. Inside the compound, the chaos is construed as a scalable opportunity (“That’s why...

One Queer Eye guy already has his next gig lined up.

Bobby Berk, a co-host on the soon-to-end Netflix reality series, will host a new HGTV series tentatively titled Junk or Jackpot? Per the official logline, the six-episode season will “follow collectors as they discover the true monetary value of their massive and unusual collections.” But there’s more: The enthusiasts featured have collections that are overwhelming their homes, and “the collectors must decide whether they are willing to sell some of their items to pay for the much-needed renovation,” the synopsis continues.

More from TVLineSave the Dates: Squid Game: The Challenge...

“The Altruists,” Netflix’s upcoming limited series about the Sam Bankman-Fried-founded cryptocurrency exchange Ftx, has added 10 cast members.

The upcoming series will star Eugene Young as Ftx co-founder Gary Wang, Madison Hu (“The Brothers Sun”) as Ftx COO Constance Wang, Karan Soni (“Deadpool”) as Ftx’s head of engineering Nishad Singh, comedian Matt Rife as CEO of Ftx Digital Markets Ryan Salame, Alex Lawther as co-ceo of Alameda Research Sam Trabucco and Naomi Okada (“Q Train”) as Ftx senior executive Claire Watanabe. All will be series regulars.

Additionally, Maddie Hasson (“Malignant”) will star as Ftx head of global luxury partnerships Lauren Platt and Paul Reiser (“Mad About You”) and Robin Weigert (“Deadwood”) will star as Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, the father and mother of Sam Bankman-Fried. Platt, Reiser and Weigert will appear in recurring roles.

These actors will join previously announced cast members Julia Garner and Anthony Boyle,...

Netflix has a limited series in the works, The Altruists, about the real life cryptocurrency exchange Ftx, and comedian Matt Rife will be one of the series regulars!

He’ll be playing the real life businessman Ryan Salame, who is currently serving 90 months in prison after pleading guilty to violating campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business. Julia Garner and Anthony Boyle are starring as the leads, Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried.

Here’s the official logline, per Variety: “The story of Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye – and then seduced, coaxed, and teased each other into stealing $8 billion.”

Keep reading to find out who else joined the cast…

Joining as series regulars are Veep‘s Eugene Young as Gary Wang, The Brothers Sun‘s Madison Hu as Constance Wang,...

Netflix’s Sam Bankman-Fried limited series The Altruists is rounding out its cast with 10.

Eugene Young, Madison Hu (The Brothers Sun), Karan Soni, Matt Rife, Alex Lawther (Andor) and Naomi Okada will take on series regular roles working alongside leads Julia Garner and Anthony Boyle.

Maddie Hasson (The Recruit), Marianna Phung (Y: The Last Man), Paul Reiser and Robin Weigert will appear in recurring roles.

The story of Sam Bankman-Fried (Boyle) and Caroline Ellison (Garner), two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye – and then seduced, coaxed, and teased each other into stealing $8 billion.

“I’m moved beyond measure to get to assemble so many of my favorite actors in the world to explore the many lives caught up in this grand and heartbreaking tragedy,...

Kicking off with the wave of ‘No Kings’ protests last weekend, Luigi the Musical premiered on June 13 at the Taylor Street Theatre in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.

The play was announced in April, and the 49-seat theater sold out its initial run instantly. With a story in The New York Post and a mention on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, among other national headlines, the musical received a level of publicity few plays can nab, and shortly before the show began, it was announced that an additional date in July had been added.

Luigi The Musical – based on the actions of Luigi Mangione, the suspect who allegedly gunned down the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December – emphasizes the public’s fury over the for-profit healthcare system through its cheery and cheeky take on murder.

The play, written by Nova Bradford, Arielle Johnson, André Margatini and Caleb Zeringue, reportedly...

The Senate is set to pass the Genius Act early next week, a controversial piece of cryptocurrency legislation that critics say will hand an undue amount of financial power to the tech industry. On its face the bill, which has advanced with bipartisan support, purports to offer a regulatory framework for the expansion of “stablecoins,” a form of crypto pegged to an existing, recognized asset — in many cases the U.S. dollar. In reality, it could enable corruption, screw over taxpayers, and potentially destabilize the economy.

The Genius Act would...

[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for the HBO movie “Mountainhead.”]

In “Succession,” the cutthroat Roy family proved capable of covering up even manslaughter to protect their business, but Logan Roy (Brian Cox) himself might blush at the extremes of his tech-mogul counterparts in creator Jesse Armstrong’s HBO follow-up “Mountainhead.”

While Armstrong was on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, he talked about not wanting to do another story of the uber-rich and powerful following “Succession,” but after reviewing Michael Lewis’ book about crypto-crook Sam Bankman-Fried, and then listening to tech moguls on the “All In” and Lex Fridman podcasts, he couldn’t get the Silicon Valley voices shaping our world out of his head.

But it was more than the way tech moguls talked, it was the way they saw the world and justified their increasingly powerful place in it that led Armstrong to the “Mountainhead” story of four tech bros’ weekend getaway and its surprising (murderous) plot twist.

“What...

If you still think of actor Ben McKenzie only as a guy who knows his way around the beautiful people of The O.C. or mainly as the star of Fox series Gotham, think again. Since the pandemic, he has become a vocal critic of cryptocurrency. His New York Times bestseller Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, co-authored with journalist Jacob Silverman, raised eyebrows in 2023. And this week, McKenzie is likely to again cause debate when he world premieres his feature film directorial debut, Everyone Is Lying to You for Money, at SXSW London on Friday.

McKenzie wrote and directed the cinematic exposé on the world of cryptocurrency and produced it with Giorgio Angelini. Three years of filming took the star to New York, Austin, Miami, London, and El Salvador.

The documentary includes interviews with crypto poster boy Sam Bankman-Fried, conducted just months before the...

It was late November, just after the election, and Jesse Armstrong was trying to resist telling another story about unfathomably rich tycoons. It’d been less than two years since “Succession” — his Emmy-winning, culture-defining series about the corrosive family behind a massive media empire — had aired its note-perfect finale on HBO, and it seemed foolhardy to return to the world of extreme wealth again. But after reviewing a book about crypto con artist Sam Bankman-Fried for the Times Literary Supplement in late 2023, Armstrong found himself falling down a rabbit hole of research into the peculiar universe of tech bro billionaires.

“People are impossible to write until I can hear their voice,” he says. “There’s an ease of entry to this world because the tech people are often going on each other’s podcasts, so you can directly hear how CEOs of these corporations talk. It was a tone of...

What became Jesse Armstrong’s first script since Succession started with a book review.

In November 2023, the Succession creator wrote a review for the Times Literary Supplement of Going Infinite, Michael Lewis’ book about disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried. The assignment led to “a bunch of reading … about tech, AI, social media and ownership,” Armstrong told The Hollywood Reporter, and that in turn took him to the world of Silicon Valley podcasting.

“I started getting the tone of voice of Silicon Valley and the broader tech world in my ear,” he said, “and the incredible confidence of pronouncements — not just about tech, but starting to shade over into pronouncements about all sorts of different areas” stuck with him. “That voice became so persistent that it was like, I want to do this voice. And in a way, the voice came first, then the frame of this movie became apparent.”

The movie is Mountainhead,...

If you think crypto is a bit of a messy subject, just wait until you see The Altruists. It will be a bit before you can see the story unfold as a limited series on Netflix, but we are learning a bit more about who will make up the cast.

The leads, who will play Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, will be Anthony Boyle and Julia Garner, respectively. The streaming giant announced they will join the cast on Thursday.

The story follows the real-life events of the ironically named Bankman-Fried and Ellison, who tried to remake the international financial system. In the process, the two stole as much as $8 billion. Bankman-Fried was the CEO of Ftx, and Ellison was his girlfriend and worked with Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund.

Leads for Netflix's The Altruists have been cast

Of course, a story involving anything crypto is quite timely now due...

Fantastic Four: First Steps and Masters of the Air stars are set to lead a Netflix miniseries about an $8 billion crypto scam that happened in 2022. Netflix has multiple crime dramas that have become successful, with the platform being a central hub for a number of shows based on true stories. Some of the platform's true-story crime dramas include ones that are dramatized and inspired by reality, like The Watcher, and others that try to be more accurate despite dramatizing certain events, like Narcos. This wide array shows the diverse nature of the platform's crime series.

Now, Netflix has announced that Julia Garner of Fantastic Four: First Steps and Anthony Boyle of Masters of the Air will be starring in The Altruists, a miniseries based on the 2022 Ftx crypto scam. The show will focus on Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, the former being the founder of Ftx, a cryptocurrency exchange platform...

Netflix is moving fast on its dramatization of the crypto scandal that shook Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The streamer has officially greenlit The Altruists, a limited series centered on the rise and implosion of Ftx founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his on-again-off-again partner and Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison. Julia Garner, fresh off her Emmy-winning turns […]

Julia Garner, Anthony Boyle To Star In Netflix’s ‘The Altruists’ From Graham Moore & Jacqueline Hoyt...

Anthony Boyle (“Masters of the Air”) and Julia Garner (“Ozark”) have signed on to play the leads in “The Altruists,” a new Netflix limited series that will chart the real-life rise and fall of the Ftx cryptocurrency exchange.

Boyle will play Ftx founder Sam Bankman-Fried, while Garner will star opposite him as Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency trading firm co-founded by Bankman-Fried. For their roles in Ftx’s implosion, both Ellison and Bankman-Fried were indicted on, among other crimes, counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Ellison is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for her crimes, while Bankman-Fried was sentenced in 2024 to 25 years in prison.

Netflix’s logline for “The Altruists” promises that the series will tell the story of how Bankman-Fried and Ellison, a pair of hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists, tried to remake the global...

You do not want to throw away your shot… to see the original Broadway cast of Hamilton perform at the 2025 Tony Awards.

CBS on Thursday announced that the ensemble will reunite as part of Broadway’s biggest night to celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary. In addition to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the performance will feature Carleigh Bettiol, Andrew Chappelle, Ariana DeBose, Alysha Deslorieux, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Sydney James Harcourt, Neil Haskell, Sasha Hutchings, Christopher Jackson, Thayne Jasperson, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Stephanie Klemons, Morgan Marcell, Javier Muñoz, Leslie Odom, Jr., Okieriete Onaodowan, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Jon Rua, Austin Smith,...

Netflix has greenlit a series about the rise and fall of cryptocurrency exchange Ftx and the two central figures involved — Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison.

The streamer has formally ordered The Altruists, which will chronicle how Bankman-Fried and Ellison “two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye — and then seduced, coaxed, and teased each other into stealing $8 billion.” Julia Garner, who had been in talks to star in the drama, and Anthony Boyle will play Ellison and Bankman-Fried, respectively.

Graham Moore (The Imitation Game, The Outfit) and Jacqueline Hoyt (The Leftovers, The Underground Railroad) will serve as co-showrunners on the series. James Ponsoldt (Shrinking) is set to direct. The Altruists comes from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, which has an overall deal at Netflix.

“For nearly three years now, Sam and Caroline’s story has been my daily obsession,...

Anthony Boyle is set to star opposite Julia Garner in a Netflix limited series about the rise and fall of Ftx, Variety has learned.

Boyle will star as Sam Bankman-Fried in the series, which is titled “The Altruists,” while Garner will play Caroline Ellison. It was reported earlier in May that Garner was negotiating for the role, with the casting now official. As previously reported, Netflix has picked up eight episodes of the series.

The official logline for “The Altruists” states, “The story of Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye – and then seduced, coaxed, and teased each other into stealing $8 billion.”

Graham Moore and Jacqueline Hoyt serve as executive producers and co-showrunners. Garner will executive produce in addition to starring. James Ponsoldt will direct the first episode and executive produce. Vinnie Malhotra...

Julia Garner has closed her deal and will star opposite Anthony Boyle in a new Netflix series about Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison and the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange Ftx, titled The Altruists. Graham Moore and Jacqueline Hoyt will co-showrun and executive produce.

The series follows Sam Bankman-Fried and his girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye – and then seduced, coaxed, and teased each other into stealing $8 billion. The series is described as the wild romance of Gen Z’s own Bonnie and Clyde.

James Ponsoldt will direct the first episode and executive produce alongside Vinnie Malhotra and Jessie Dicovitsky for Higher Ground Productions, Scoop Wasserstein for New York Magazine/Vox Media Studios,...

Are you ready to learn about crypto?

Julia Garner and Anthony Boyle are set to star in The Altruists, a new eight-episode limited series about Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison.

Graham Moore and Jacqueline Hoyt will co-showrun and executive produce the series, which tells the story of Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye — and then seduced, coaxed, and teased each other into stealing $8 billion.

“For nearly three years now, Sam and Caroline’s story has been my daily obsession,” Moore tells Tudum. “I’m so grateful to my friends at Netflix and Higher Ground for loving this story not only as much as I do,...

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is continuing to use his distinctive satirical tone to explore how the 1 percent wields power over the world. In his directorial debut Mountainhead, Armstrong hones in on the oversized influence of a group of tech bro billionaires played by Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith.

The HBO film, which will premiere on HBO and Max on May 31, finds the four friends tucked away in a modern mansion in the snowy Utah mountains as one of their social media apps spurs global unrest and violence due to unrestricted generative AI.

At the Mountainhead premiere held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on Thursday, Carell spoke to reporters on the red carpet about the "overwhelming" experience of slipping into the identity of a billionaire. Early in the film, his character Randall, who ranks highest in the group in terms of seniority,...

Madonna might be appearing on the small screen soon. The iconic singer will be at the center of a Netflix limited series about her life and music, according to a new Deadline report. Netflix did not confirm the project to IndieWire.

Per Deadline, Madonna will executive produce alongside “Stranger Things” EP Shawn Levy, whose 21 Laps banner has an exclusive TV overall deal at Netflix. Madonna is repped by CAA, Maverick Management, Untitled Entertainment, and Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. Levy and 21 Laps are repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.

As Deadline noted, the slated series is not affiliated with the long-gestating film biopic about the “Like a Virgin” icon; that film was previously in development at Universal with Emmy winner Julia Garner set to portray Madonna as of June 2022.

Yet, Deadline cited the rumor that despite the project being separate from the feature, Garner could still be cast in the lead,...

Have you ever been told you’re just “Too Much,” especially from an ex? Well, leave it to the “voice of a generation” Lena Dunham to capture that feeling all too well with her aptly titled Netflix rom-com series.

Megan Stalter leads “Too Much” as a Dunham-esque character. The “Hacks” breakout star plays Jessica, who relocates from New York to London while reeling from a breakup. Despite planning on being alone forever, Jessica soon meets Felix (“The White Lotus” star Will Sharpe), who challenges her to reevaluate her thirty-something crisis.

Dunham co-created the series with her real-life husband, Luis Felber, who also serves as an executive producer and provides original music. The 10-episode show was announced in 2023. Dunham is the creator, writer, director and executive producer.

The official synopsis of “Too Much” reads: Jessica (Stalter) is “a New York workaholic in her mid-30s, reeling from a broken relationship that...

The series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm found Larry David beating the charges against him in a highly-publicized court case, unlike the Seinfeld crew. And while Larry was on trial for handing out bottled water to Georgia voters, and not for taking large sums of money to hawk a dodgy crypto company, David’s real life took a somewhat similar turn this week.

As we’ve mentioned before, back in 2022, David starred in a Super Bowl commercial for the cryptocurrency exchange Ftx. The ad showed Larry casually dismissing Ftx, the “safe and easy way to get into crypto” after we’ve just witnessed generations of Larrys doing the same to important historical inventions, including the wheel, the light bulb and the toilet.

Unfortunately, the toilet turned out to be a more apt comparison than everyone realized at the time. Later that year, Ftx collapsed, costing its customers billions of dollars.

Julia Garner is in final negotiations to portray Caroline Ellison in a Netflix limited series that will chronicle the dramatic unraveling of cryptocurrency exchange Ftx. The project comes from Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, and is based on reporting from New York Magazine.

The untitled series will follow the rise and collapse of Ftx and explore the connection between founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Ellison, who served as CEO of Alameda Research. Garner is also attached to executive produce.

Graham Moore, best known for writing The Imitation Game, is writing the series and will serve as co-showrunner alongside Jacqueline Hoyt. James Ponsoldt (Shrinking) is attached to direct. All three are executive producers on the series.

The project, described by sources as a drama centered on two young figures with outsized ambitions, will depict the internal dynamics and rapid collapse of a crypto empire that once sought to reshape global finance.

Julia Garner is nearing a deal to play the lead role in a new Netflix show!

The 31-year-old actress is currently in negotiations to star in an untitled eight episode Netflix series that tells the story of now defunct cryptocurrency exchange company Ftx.

The show will center around the love story of Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried, with Julia in talks to play Caroline, Variety has reported.

Keep reading to find out more…

Shooting for the show is set to begin this summer, and it will be executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama via their media company Higher Ground.

As for Julia, she rose to fame by playing Ruth in the Netflix crime drama series Ozark, and played the titular role in the Netflix miniseries Inventing Anna.

If you didn’t see, last week, Julia talked about her upcoming role in Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Emmy winner Julia Garner is eyeing her next project at Netflix.

The Ozark and Inventing Anna star is in talks to play Caroline Ellison in a series about the rise and fall of cryptocurrency exchange Ftx. Garner would also be an executive producer on the limited series, which comes from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground.

Graham Moore (The Imitation Game, The Outfit) is writing and will serve as co-showrunner alongside Jacqueline Hoyt (The Leftovers, The Underground Railroad). James Ponsoldt (Shrinking) is set to direct.

Netflix reps hadn’t replied to a request for comment as of publication time.

The Ftx series is described as a wild romance centered on Ftx founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Ellison, who tried to remake the global financial system — and then seduced, coaxed and teased one another into stealing billions.

Ftx collapsed in late 2022 after a run on customer withdrawals at the crypto exchange...

Julia Garner is currently negotiating for a lead role in a Netflix limited series that would explore the rise and fall of Ftx, Variety has learned from sources.

The untitled series would explore the story of the infamous cryptocurrency exchange through the lens of the love story of Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried, with Garner nearing a deal to play Ellison and serve as an executive producer. According to sources, Netflix has commissioned eight episodes with plans to begin shooting over the summer.

Reps for Netflix declined to comment.

Graham Moore is the writer, executive producer, and co-showrunner on the project, with Jacqueline Hoyt attached to serve as executive producer and co-showrunner. Barack and Michelle Obama will executive produce under their Higher Ground banner along with Vinnie Malhotra. Scoop Wasserstein of Scoop Productions is also an executive producer, with Lauren Morelli executive producing as well. James Ponsoldt will direct the first episode and executive produce.

Julia Garner, whose roles on Netflix’s Ozark and Inventing Anna earned her three Emmy awards and another nomination, is returning to the streamer. She is in final negotiations to play the female lead and executive produce a limited series about the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange Ftx and the relationship between Ftx co-founder and chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried and his girlfriend and business associate Caroline Ellison (Garner), sources tell Deadline.

The project, from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Netflix-based Higher Ground, is written/executive produced by Oscar winner Graham Moore, with James Ponsoldt as director/exec producer and Jackie Hoyt as showrunner/exec producer, I hear. A rep for Netflix declined comment.

Described as the wild romance of Gen Z’s own Bonnie and Clyde, the untitled Ftx series centers on two hyper smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye – and then seduced,...

The Tony Award nominations are out, but that isn’t the week’s most exciting theater headline. The big news: The entire run of Luigi: The Musical, a new comedy about Luigi Magione that’s premiering next month in San Francisco, is completely sold out, according to People.

Here’s the official synopsis from the production’s website: “Luigi: the Musical is a comedy that imagines the surreal scenario of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, sharing a prison with real-life inmates Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.”

If that set-up sounds like opportunistic playwrights trying to cash in on multiple contemporary scandals, you wouldn’t be wrong. But as the show’s producers point out, the premise is also “rooted in a strange truth”: Mangione, Bankman-Fried and Diddy were all incarcerated in the same prison. Whoa!

“​​These three people represent these big...

A new original musical will make its debut this summer with a storyline that combines viral infamy, true crime, and sharp social satire. Luigi The Musical opens June 13, 2025, at the Taylor Street Theatre (formerly the Exit on Taylor) in San Francisco. Written by Nova Bradford and Arielle Johnson, with original music and lyrics by Johnson, the show is directed by Bradford and produced by Caleb Zeringue. Performances will run June 13–28. The musical follows Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, as he shares a prison cell with disgraced tech executive Sam Bankman-Fried and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. All three are portrayed as heightened versions of themselves, representing what the creators describe as symbolic failures in healthcare, tech, and Hollywood. “Luigi...

Most of Shakespeare’s most famous plays have made it to Broadway. Othello is currently running with Denzel Washington at the helm and a production of Romeo & Juliet starring Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor recently wrapped, though the pop-inspired reimagining &Juliet is still playing. Another Shakespeare classic, The Taming of the Shrew, is heading to Broadway in the form of a musical inspired by the classic 1999 film, 10 Things I Hate About You.

The adaptation of the film has musician Carly Rae Jepsen attached to co-write the score with producer Ethan Gruska.

Just more than a month away from the start of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial, the defense told a federal court Monday that they may file for an adjournment of their much-accused client’s case.

Speaking before Judge Arun Subramanian, the Marc Agnifilo- and Teny Geragos-led legal team took control of the latest arraignment hearing by asking that the May 12 starting trial be pushed back at least two more weeks.

The lawyers say the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has not been fully sharing material such as emails from a former Combs employee. In fact, the defense isn’t even sure the prosecution has the WhatsApp material in question. To that they said the “extremely important witness” Victim-4 seems to have been “cherry picking messages.”

Outside court after today’s one-hour hearing concluded, Agnifilo said Combs’ team won’t ask for...

As he courted cryptocurrency investors last year, Donald Trump promised to fire Gary Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair who had scrutinized the industry, and install a new crypto-friendly regulator in his place.

Trump, who launched his own crypto meme coin days before he took office, didn’t just select an industry ally to lead the SEC — he chose one of its biggest boosters in Washington, Paul Atkins. According to his new financial disclosure, Atkins co-chaired a crypto advocacy group, consulted for crypto interests, and has significant crypto holdings.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange Ftx who is serving a 110-year prison sentence for fraud, declared during an interview with Tucker Carlson that he has a closer relationship with Republicans and reiterated that he is not a criminal.

In November 2022, Ftx lost billions of dollars and filed for bankruptcy. Subsequent reports showed that Bankman-Fried and his trading firm borrowed and traded billions of dollars from Ftx users’ accounts.

>Read More: Sam Bankman-fried Found Guilty Of Stealing Billions Of Dollars

In the following year, the cryptocurrency’s founder was named in a class-action lawsuit asserting that Ftx’s customers lost nearly $11 billion. On Nov. 2, 2023, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 110 years in prison.

“In May 2020, I was – I was center-left, and I gave to [Joe Biden‘s] campaign,” he told Carlson. “I was optimistically the sort of solid center-left president.

Sam Bankman, the man behind one of the largest ever financial frauds in history, has been lodged in the same jail as the infamous rapper Sean P Diddy Combs. While Bankman is serving his 25-year prison sentence after being found guilty on multiple counts, Diddy is awaiting trial for federal charges of s*x trafficking, racketeering, and more. And apparently, the two have become friends of sorts.

Sam Bankman | Credit: ABC News

In a rare, unusual interview, Bankman talked about the outsed rapper and revealed details about their interaction. Stating that Diddy had been kind to him, Bankman’s now-viral comments led to some hilarious fan reactions.

Sam Bankman on being friends with Diddy in prison Sam Bankman-Fried in his interview with Tucker Carlson | Credit: YouTube

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the Ftx cryptocurrency exchange, has been in jail for the past two years. He has been serving his 25-year...

Netflix has emerged victorious in the bidding war for Lena Dunham’s new rom-com “Good Sex,” starring Natalie Portman.

The film was revealed to buyers at last month’s European Film Market by CAA Media Finance and FilmNation, and Netflix is now closing a worldwide deal around the $55 million mark — one of the largest to ever emerge from EFM.

“Girls” creator Dunham is set to write and direct “Good Sex,” which stars Portman as couple’s therapist Ally, who rejoins New York’s dating scene in her 40s after a decade-long relationship. “But Ally finds her life pulled in opposing directions as she falls into a steamy fling with a 20-something Brooklyn hipster just as she begins a promising, more conventional relationship with Alan, a successful 50-something in Manhattan,” the film’s synopsis reads. “As a romantic crossroads blossoms into a full-blown identity crisis, Ally juggles to keep these two...

In Cold Wallet, a trio of scammed Redditors take a crypto billionaire hostage to recover their money, but face tragic consequences when their ill-conceived plan goes predictably awry. Cold Wallet'spertinent themes and interesting premise unfortunately fall apart in a brainless narrative. The lure of easy digital money has baited countless people and left the desperate penniless. Just look at the fallout from the Hawk Tuah meme coin debacle (or our own President's). It's entirely plausible that irate investors would seek retribution. The problem here is that any suspension of disbelief evaporates with rank ineptitudeand plot holes you could drive a truck through.

On a snowy Christmas Eve, Billy (Raúl Castillo) gets drunk at a bar with his best friend. Dom (Tony Cavalero), a deeply spiritual Mma trainer, listens to Billy's boasts of a guaranteed fortune with "Jingle Bell Rock" blasting in the background. He's got a surefire bet that will solve their financial woes,...

Kevin O’Leary is famous for always asking tough questions and making big business deals. But even the best investors can make bad decisions—sometimes very expensive ones. One of his worst mistakes wasn’t just a small loss; it was part of a huge $8 billion disaster. At first, everything looked perfect and it was a deal that seemed too good to pass up.

Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank | Credits: ABC Network

O’Leary was even paid $16 million to be part of it. But then, almost overnight, the whole thing collapsed, and he lost everything. Let’s take a closer look at how Kevin O’Leary got caught in one of the biggest financial scandals in recent history.

Kevin O’Leary’s worst investment mistake ever

Kevin O’Leary has made a fortune by spotting promising businesses and investing in them. But even experienced investors make mistakes, and one of...

Exclusive: Propagate Content has promoted four across key divisions.

Jack Katkavich has been promoted to Head of Sports Programming and Nonfiction, with Grant McCall being promoted to Director of Scripted Development and Partnerships. Noah Nusinow will continue in his current role as Head of Finance, while adding oversight of Corporate Development and M&a to his responsibilities, with Belle Raymundo elevating to Vice President, Finance & Accounting.

A pivotal member of the unscripted and documentary development teams since joining Propagate in 2018, Katkavich now reports directly to Co-CEO Howard T. Owens and continue to oversee a diverse slate of sports programming, including projects in production with Amazon Sports, History Channel, Netflix, Apple, and Discovery ID. Already, he’s worked on the Netflix sports franchise Untold, which is set to release its fourth volume later this year, as well as the Emmy-nominated sports documentary Lfg (HBO Max), Jackie Robinson: Get to the Bag (Fox Sports), and God. Family. Football.

The Alexander brothers, the Miami luxury realtors indicted on sex-trafficking charges, have arrived at and are being held in the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center (Mdc) in Brooklyn, New York, where Sean “Diddy” Combs and the alleged gunman in the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare now await their own trials.

Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander were earlier indicted by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for operating a sex-trafficking scheme that led to dozens of sexual assaults of women between 2010 and 2021. The three Alexander brothers, who have pleaded not guilty to the charges, were earlier denied bail in Miami and have now been extradited to New York City.

They are now locked up in Brooklyn Mdc, a Federal Bureau of Prisons’ spokesperson has told The Hollywood Reporter. The Metropolitan Detention Center is also holding rap world star Sean “Diddy” Combs,...

Elon Musk has long sought to augment his Silicon Valley celebrity with gamer cred, professing both skill and passion for a medium favored by tech geeks. A couple of years ago, he went so far as to explain why strategy video games are superior to chess. Yet his latest attempts to demonstrate his mettle in virtual worlds have other gamers crying fraud — and challenging him to prove his bona fides.

In an interview for Joe Rogan‘s podcast right before the 2024 election, Musk, who besides leading a suite of major...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSQueer.Mubi has canceled its annual Turkish film festival—Mubi Fest Istanbul—after the Kadıköy District Governorate of Istanbul barred a screening of the opening film, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer (2024), citing its “provocative content.”During Warner Bros. Discovery’s quarterly earnings call, CEO David Zaslav waxes optimistic about Donald Trump’s reelection, arguing that it “may offer a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that…would provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that’s needed.” Meanwhile, other industry execs share concerns about the impact of high tariffs on the international film market.Multiple cinematography organizations have condemned an op-ed penned by Marek Żydowicz, the founder and CEO of Camerimage, the Polish film festival.