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Olga Merediz, who won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway production of “In the Heights,” will reprise her role as Abuela Claudia in the upcoming film adaptation of the musical, producer Lin-Manuel Miranda announced in a tweet on Monday.

Merediz won the Best Featured Actress in a Musical Tony in 2008 for her work in “In the Heights.” She’s since been a series regular on the U.K. Sky1 series “Bounty Hunters” and has also had recurring roles on “Orange is the New Black,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Shades of Blue” and “Law & Order: SVU.”

Jon M. Chu is directing the feature based on Miranda’s musical that he created with Quiara Alegría Hudes. “In the Heights” follows a bodega owner in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood who has mixed feelings about closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic after inheriting his grandmother’s fortune.

Jimmy Smits, Olga Merediz and Gregory Diaz have joined In The Heights, the Jon M. Chu-directed Warner Bros film adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical.

Miranda tweeted the news (see the tweet below), announcing that Merediz will play Abuela Claudia, Diaz will be Sonny and Smits has been cast ast Kevin Rosario.

The three new castings join the previously announced Corey Hawkins (Benny), Anthony Ramos (Usnavi), Leslie Grace (Nina), and Melissa Barrera (Vanessa).

Anthony Bregman, Mara Jacobs, Scott Sanders, and Miranda are producing. Marc Klein is penning the script, with the musical book by Quiara Alegría Hudes.

Merediz played Abuela, the matriarch of the barrio who takes care of Usnavi after his parents die, for In the Heights‘ entire Broadway run and even picked up a Tony Award nomination for her performance. Her other credits include recurring stints on Orange is the New Black, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Shades of Blue.

Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook is headed to Broadway as a musical, with playwright and This Is Us supervising producer Bekah Brunstetter writing the book and “Girls Chase Boys” hit-maker Ingrid Michaelson handling music and lyrics.

“I am thrilled to work with Bekah and Ingrid in order to make The Notebook a reality on Broadway,” said author Sparks, whose 1996 book was turned into a 2004 film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. “They are amazingly talented, and obviously, the story is near and dear to my heart.”

The announcement was made today by Kevin McCollum and Kurt Deutsch, who will produce in association with Sparks. McCollum’s producing credits include, among many others, In the Heights, Avenue Q, Rent and the current The Play That Goes Wrong and Mike Birbiglia’s The New One.

Deutsch is the founder of Sh-k-Boom & Ghostlight Records, a leading Broadway cast album imprint. Sh-k-Boom/Ghostlight has won...

Jemaine Clement comedy Humor Me sells to several territories.

UK sales outfit Reason8 has scored a raft of deals on three of the films on its Afm slate.

Humor Me, the comedy starring Jemaine Clement (Flight Of The Conchords) and Elliott Gould (Ocean’s Eleven), has now sold to Australia/New Zealand (Madman), Scandinavia (Smile Ent), Central and Eastern Europe premium pay (HBO Cee), and the Middle East (Front Row Entertainment).

Written and directed by Sam Hoffman, the film premiered at last year’s Los Angeles Film Festival and played Edinburgh in the UK this year. Shout! Factory handled the Us release.

Ingrid Michaelson is making her film debut in Humor Me, directed by Sam Hoffman. The pair joined uInterview to speak about their time on set. “Humor Me was inspired a little bit by a project I did a couple years ago called Oh Just Telling Jokes, but it was essentially an original story about a struggling playwright named […]

Source: uInterview

The post Ingrid Michaelson & Sam Hoffman On ‘Humor Me’ & Working On An Indie Film [Video Exclusive] appeared first on uInterview.

"A warm, witty response to dark times." Shout! Studios has debuted an official trailer for an indie comedy titled Humor Me, from first-time director Sam Hoffman. The film stars Jemaine Clement as a struggling New York playwright who is forced to move in with his eccentric dad in a New Jersey retirement community after his wife decides to leave him. Elliot Gould stars as his father, and the two find awkward ways to bond in this predicament while figuring out how best to enjoy life. The cast includes Ingrid Michaelson, Annie Potts, Bebe Neuwirth, Priscilla Lopez, Erich Bergen, and Maria Dizzia. I haven't heard of this film before, but I'm always down for anything with Jemaine Clement in it, and this looks like it will be enjoyable. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Sam Hoffman's Humor Me, in high def on Apple: Humor Me is a heartfelt father-son...

Exclusive: Shout! Factory has announced the creation of a filmed entertainment, production and distribution arm that will specialize in content development. And the company just pegged three films for a 2018 release: Sam Hoffman’s Humor Me, which will be released January 12; The House of Tomorrow for April; and Izzy Gets the F Across Town for March. Danny Baron's Basmati Blues, starring Brie Larson and Donald Sutherland, also will bow from the label. Sam Hoffman's Humor Me…...

Writer-director Sam Hoffman has had enormous success with Old Jews Telling Jokes, which started out as a web series, then became a best-selling book as well as a popular play. Now, Hoffman makes his feature directorial debut with Humor Me, which is not exactly a spinoff of that material but does incorporate scenes with old Jews telling jokes. They are a group who congregate in the dining room of a New Jersey retirement community called Cranberry Bog. (No kidding!)

One of these wisecracking retirees, Bob, played by Elliott Gould, is the father of our main character, Nate (Jemaine Clement), a...

Exclusive: Here’s the first look at Humor Me, the film from writer-director Sam Hoffman that toplines Elliott Gould and Jemaine Clement. It’s having its world premiere tonight at the Los Angeles Film Festival in the Premieres section. Inspired by Hoffman’s web series Old Jews Telling Jokes, the pic centers on an aging father who refuses to engage emotionally with his son, who is desperate for approval. Ingrid Michaelson, Annie Potts, Bebe Neuwirth, Priscilla Lopez and…...

Premiere and Buzz Categories are also revealed for the festival that runs June 14-22.

The La Film Festival has announced that the closing night film will be Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West.

Neon acquired the film following its world premiere in Sundance. It stars Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, Billy Magnussen and Pom Klementieff and joins the previously announced opening night film The Book Of Henry.

The Buzz showcase will feature the La premieres of eight films including The Big Sick from Michael Showalter, My Friend Dahmer from Marc Meyers and Keep the Change from Rachel Israel.

The Premieres category features 10 world premieres including Sam Hoffman’s Humor Me, The Song of Sway Lake from Ari Gold and Jay Bulger’s CounterPunch.

The festival will also feature a world premiere gala screening of Ric Roman Waugh’s Shot Caller starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Omari Hardwick, Lake Bell, [link...

Certain sexual awakenings in the 1950s seem to be taboo to society.

Set in the backdrop of the 1950s, Indignation is a story of a butcher’s son who left the big city to attend a small college in Ohio. He loses his virginity to beautiful, sexual female student, but has confrontations with the school’s dean and friends over religion, academics and student life.

The novel is based off a Philip Roth’s book of the same title.

The film stars Logan Lerman, Sara Gadon and Tracy Letts.

Lrm had an exclusive phone interview with costume designer Amy Roth (no relation to book's author) last week to discuss the wonderful period costumes from the film. We talked about the inspiration, Philip Roth’s descriptions, colors and the development of the clothes.

In addition, there is an exclusive behind-the-scenes video clip at the end of the article.

Indignation is currently available on Blu-ray,...