News

The Vanderpump Rules spin-off The Valley will premiere on Bravo this spring. The cast includes Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, Kristen Doute, Luke Broderick, Danny and Nia Booko, Jesse and Michelle Lally, Janet and Jason Caperna, Jasmine Goode, and Zack Wickham. The show will follow the cast members as they navigate relationships, careers, and family life in the valley.

After years of waiting, the Vanderpump Rules spin-off, The Valley, is coming soon, and the cast is stacked. The brand-new series was confirmed on January 17 when a teaser trailer for the series was revealed during a Vanderpump Rules season 11 exclusive premiere party. The trailer featured Jax Taylor riding in a toy car and waving to his neighbors, including Kristen Doute and her new boyfriend, Luke Broderick. Towards the end of the trailer, Jax makes a stop in front of his wife, Brittany Cartwright, where she tells him to stop what he's doing and mow the lawn,...

Stassi Schroeder is explaining why she declined an appearance on a new Bravo show.

Days after the network announced The Valley, a spinoff of Vanderpump Rules, the 35-year-old former cast member revealed why she will not appear on the new installment.

“First of all, I was very excited about it [the spinoff]. But then I was like, ‘Where the f**k is Stassi?’ and then I was mad at Bravo, you know, just like secretly mad at Bravo that they didn’t have you and Beau on,” Jeff Lewis said on SiriusXM.

Keep reading to find out more…

“It’s not Bravo’s fault,” she clarified.

“Once this idea was brought up and they were like, ‘Ok, we’re going to film a sizzle with all the people that would be on it, will you be on it and film this sizzle?,’ every fiber of my being voted no,” she said.

“It...

Charley Crockett didn’t know how long he had to live when he recorded The Valley. Now that the Texas singer-songwriter has come out the other side, he’s preparing to release the 15-song LP this fall, previewing it with two new songs and a music video for “Borrowed Time.”

Cut last January at Fort Horton Studios in Wildwood, Texas, outside Beaumont, Crockett was one week away from the first of two life-saving heart surgeries when he entered the studio. That sense of life-or-death clarity is palpable on “Borrowed Time,...

Toronto–Hot Docs opening film “Nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up,” directed by Tasha Hubbard, won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at the annual festival’s awards ceremony May 13, where 14 awards and Can$75,000 in cash and prizes were handed out to Canadian and international films and filmmakers at the Isabel Bader Theater.

Hubbard was on hand to accept the award, which comes with a Can$10,000 cash prize, for her film about a family’s pursuit of justice from Saskatchewan to the U.N. after the killer of their son Colten Boushie is acquitted of murder. “I’d like to thank this courageous family who trusted me, and who never gave up,” Hubbard said upon accepting it.

“Hope Frozen,” about a grief-stricken Bangkok family and their decision to cryopreserve their deceased daughter, won the Best International Feature Documentary Award. Director and producer Pailin Wedel was on hand to accept the award,...

Framed by the French Alps, the border region between Italy and France has become an unlikely hot spot for countless migrants risking their lives to flee poverty, war, and political persecution. In the Roya and Durance Valleys, local communities have banded together to help the influx of refugees by offering them food, shelter and legal aid. But providing assistance to undocumented migrants is a criminal offense, and the charitable actions of those citizen groups have put them on the wrong side of the law.

Portuguese director Nuno Escudeiro decided to document these acts of civil disobedience in “The Valley,” which had its world premiere this week in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Film Festival. The film follows a group of volunteers trying to assist asylum seekers who have survived the trek across dangerous mountain routes, only to be ensnared by a system that denies them their basic rights.

Toronto – Just weeks after the Sundance premiere of “The Infiltrators,” Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera’s documentary about conditions inside a Florida immigration detention center, one of the film’s subjects, Claudio Rojas, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents and deported back to his native Argentina.

Rojas, who spent 19 years living in the U.S., had been an inside source for a documentary that exposed abuses inside the Broward Transitional Center, a for-profit institution that has detained hundreds of immigrants without trial. His ordeal served as a timely reminder of the countless lives still imperiled by the recent migrant crisis — a historical event that’s offered raw material for a number of documentaries screening at the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Film Festival this year.

“It’s an ongoing theme that’s more important than ever,” said Shane Smith, Hot Docs director of programming. “Filmmakers are...

In today’s roundup, HBO sets a premiere date for “Los Espookys,” a Spanish-language horror-comedy.

Dates

Produced by “Saturday Night Live’s” Fred Armisen and Lorne Michaels, “Los Espookys” premieres on HBO on June 14 at 11 p.m. Et/Pt. The six-episode, mostly Spanish-language series follows a group of friends who turn their love for horror into a business, giving out scares to people who need them. Co-creators Julio Torres and Ana Fabrega star alongside Cassandra Ciangherotti and Bernardo Velasco.

Following the release of the teen lifeguard comedy “Malibu Rescue,” Netflix will launch a series with the same characters. The film will premiere on May 13 and stars Ricardo Hurtado and Breanna Yde as junior lifeguards from The Valley competing against snobby locals for bragging rights and the highest lifeguard tower on the beach. “Malibu Rescue: The Series” keeps most of the same cast, including Alkoya Brunson, Abby Donnelly, Jackie R. Jacobsen,...

Pulse Films and Left Handed Films producing project.

Pulse Films and Left Handed Films have completed the cast on their UK drama Mughal Mowgli, which has now begun shooting in London.

Joining Riz Ahmed in the feature are this year’s Royal Television Society Breakthrough Award winner Nabhaan Rizwan, who won the prize for his work on BBC/Amazon series Informer.

Also newly added to the film are Aiysha Hart, whose credits include Colette and Line Of Duty, Sex Education actor Anjana Vasan, Mary Poppins Returns actor Sudha Bhuchar, and The Valley actor Alyy Khan.

The project is the feature directing debut of Bassam Tariq,...

Industry event featuring pitches, work in progress screenings, mentoring sessions and masterclasses wrapped on Wednesday.

The Doha Film Institute wrapped a successful fifth edition of its respected Qumra industry event on Wednesday.

The five-day meeting, running March 15-20, followed its tried and tested formula of pitches, work in progress screenings, mentoring sessions and masterclasses around 36 projects backed by the Dfi, in an informal, friendly atmosphere.

Industry professionals – spanning producers, directors, festival programmers and sales agents – heaped praise on the fifth edition as it came to an end with its traditional open-air party in the Qatari desert.

“To my knowledge, it...

Dujuan Hoosan and his mother in ‘In My Blood It Runs’. (Photo: Maya Newell)

Director Maya Newell’s feature documentary In My Blood It Runs will have its world premiere in competition at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

In My Blood It Runs (formerly Kids) is one of 12 films in Hot Doc’s competitive International Spectrum program, the others being: Amussu; Bhudda in Africa; Daymohk; For Sama; The Guardian of Memory; Hope Frozen; Life is a Belief; Marek Edelman… and There Was Love in the Ghetto; On the Inside of a Military Dictatorship and The Valley.

Other Aussie projects in the festival include Richard Lowenstein’s feature doc Mystify: Michael Hutchence, which will screen as part of the special presentation section; shorts Happy Android from Jaina Kalifa, Handout from Vedrana Music, and Dusty Devil from Poppy Walker; and Lynette Wallworth’s Vr project Awavena.

This year’s Hot Docs...

TBS is set to remake German comedy Arthur’s Law – the first original comedy from Turner’s German network TNT Comedy.

The U.S. cable network has secured the rights to the project, which is known locally as Arthurs Gesetz, from its parent company. It has picked up the format rights to the series as well as the rights to run the German version with subtitles.

The comedy follows unemployed Arthur Ahnepol, played by Jan Josef Liefers, who ekes out a bleak existence. Drawn from the strains of his unhappy marriage and bored to death, he makes a morbid plan: he wants his obnoxious wife to die. With the money from the life insurance there’s no obstacle for a restart with his beloved mistress. But an unwritten law dominates the life of the unlucky fellow: every problem solved by Arthur has a far worse effect. And so, he sets...

The Sundance Film Festival has added the world premiere of the documentary “Leaving Neverland,” which focuses on sexual abuse allegations against the late pop star Michael Jackson.

The movie, produced and directed by Dan Reed, describes how Jackson allegedly began long-running relationships with two boys, aged 7 and 10, and their families while at the peak of his fame. The two, now in their 30s, claim that they were sexually abused by Jackson, and reveal how they came to terms with it years later.

Representatives for the Jackson estate issued a one-sentence statement in response to Wednesday’s announcement: “This is yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on Michael Jackson.”

“Neverland” refers to the Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County, Calif., where Jackson lived between 1988 and 2003. The property was raided by law enforcement in 2003 in connection with molestation accusations against Jackson by a 13-year-old boy.

Updated Below. The Sundance Film Festival has announced two final additions to this year’s program, including the world premiere of Dan Reed’s four-hour-long “Leaving Neverland,” which focuses on the continued claims of sexual abuse and child molestation against Michael Jackson, told through the stories of a pair of alleged victims. Per the documentary’s official synopsis, “At the height of his stardom Michael Jackson began long-running relationships with two boys, aged 7 and 10, and their families. Now in their 30s, they tell the story of how they were sexually abused by Jackson, and how they came to terms with it years later.”

While the official synopses do not list the names of the participants, an official statement from the Estate of Michael Jackson (available below) claims that they are Wade Robson and James Safechuck, both of whom have spoken out against the deceased performer in the past.

Sundance’s...

Nickelodeon will produce Pinky Malinky, a new animated series for Netflix based on its character, as Viacom’s cable networks begin to develop shows for digital outlets and other third parties.

This new strategy, which Viacom dubs the “studio model,” marks an attempt to take advantage of streaming services and mobile carriers to capture audiences that can’t be found on pay TV. Viacom’s six flagship networks — MTV, Comedy Central, Bet among them — will begin identifying characters or shows that could be reinterpreted for new audiences.

MTV, under the banner of MTV Studios, has begun to pick through its 35-year archives of youth-centric content to re-imagine its shows for non-Viacom platforms. In addition to tapping its library, MTV will produce new shows, starting with The Valley, about a group of friends growing up in the Mexican border town of Nogales, TX.

Viacom CEO...

90s nostalgia and reboots are all the rage, but it won't help restore relevancy. You can try, though, MTV. The Viacom channel is launching a studio to focus specifically on reviving its 90s-born IP, from Daria to The Real World to Aeon Flux. According to a press release, MTV Studios will also be developing "The Valley, a coming of age docuseries in the vein of The Hills and Siesta Key, which follows a group of young friends in Nogales, Arizona [as well as] MTV’s Straight Up Ghosted, …...

MTV is getting into the studio game to capitalize on 35 years worth of built up content.

The Viacom-owned network announced Thursday it is launching MTV Studios, a new production arm it will utilize to reboot old series like “Daria” and the already-in-the-works return of “The Real World,” to sell to other networks and streaming platforms.

The initial slate includes those two series, along with a revival of coming of age unscripted series “Made” and the previously-announced live-action reboot of sci-fi series “Aeon Flux,” from “Teen Wolf” creator Jeff Davis.

Also Read: 'Aeon Flux' Live-Action Reboot Series in the Works at MTV

The new studio will also produce a pair of fresh series: “The Valley” (working title), a coming of age docuseries in the spirit of “The Hills” and “Siesta Key” which follows a group of young friends growing up in the valley town of Nogales, Arizona, a city split in half,...

MTV is ramping up production operations and getting into producing programming for other buyers with the launch of MTV Studios. It will be focused largely on developing and producing reboots, revivals and spin-offs of series from MTV’s library of more than 200 young adult titles in addition to new shows, predominantly unscripted.

MTV Studios’ initial slate includes animated comedy Daria & Jodie, a reimagining of MTV’s 1990s feminist series Daria, from writer Grace Edwards (Inside Amy Schumer); an update of the Emmy-winning coming-of-age unscripted series Made as well as recently reported live-action remake of MTV’s animated sci-fi series Aeon Flux, from Teen Wolf creator Jeff Davis; and a return of the network’s groundbreaking reality series The Real World with Bunim/Murray Productions.

On the original concept front, MTV Studios’ slate includes two new shows, The Valley (working title), a timely coming-of-age docuseries in the spirit of The Hills and...

MTV has launched a new production unit, MTV Studios — and with it put in the works a batch of new shows and revivals of properties from the Viacom-owned cable channel’s extensive content library.

Among the initial MTV Studios slate is a new iteration of the animated series “Daria” from “Inside Amy Schumer” writer Grace Edwards; “Teen Wolf” creator Jeff Davis’s reimagining of sci-fi animated series “Aeon Flux” with fellow exec producer Gale Anne Hurd; a revival with Bunim/Murray Productions of reality series “The Real World”; and a new version of unscripted series “Made.”

Also in the works are two new reality shows — “The Valley,” a coming of age docuseries in the vein of “The Hills” and “Siesta Key,” which follows a group of young friends in Nogales, Arizona; and “MTV’s Straight Up Ghosted,” in which young people attempt to confront lost friends, romantic partners, and family members about being ghosted.

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Red Sparrow [my review]

Jennifer Lawrence stars as a Russian spy who uses manipulation to get what she wants. (male writer and director)

Game Night [my review]

Rachel McAdams costars as one half of a game-nerd couple whose party goes awry. With Sharon Horgan and Kylie Bunbury in major supporting roles. (male writers and director)

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Erase and Forget [IMDb]

Andrea Luka Zimmerman directs and cowrites this documentary about toxic masculinity that fueled the rise of Donald Trump. Cowritten by Taina Galis.

The Valley [IMDb]

Saila Kariat writes and directs this drama about a man investigating his daughter’s suicide.

Psycho Vertical [IMDb]

Jen Randall directs this documentary about a (male) mountaineer. (male writer)

Monster Family [IMDb] pictured

Emily Watson, Jessica Brown Findlay, Celia Imrie, and Catherine Tate costar in the voice cast of this animated family fantasy comedy. Cowritten by Catharina Junk and Kirstie Falkous. (male director)

Hondros [IMDb]

Jenny Golden cowrites this documentary about a (male) war photojournalist.