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Ready for a bit of Swiss bliss on the big screen? The 78th edition of Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival has you covered, once again showcasing a range of Swiss movies worth audiences’ attention.

Taking place Aug. 6-16, various sections at the fest will offer up homemade fare, in addition to its broad lineup of world and other premieres from around the world. And of course, the popular “Panorama Suisse” section will put the spotlight on “Swiss films that have enjoyed success at festivals, found an audience in cinemas, or are currently released in the country,” Locarno organizers highlight. “Film lovers from all over the world can thus find a taste of contemporary Swiss cinema.”

Will Locarno serve up more Swiss delicacies than you can likely catch, even if Bern-ing the midnight oil? Alps-solutely!

But if you want to avoid having Swiss cheese-like holes in your Locarno schedule, check out...

Exclusive: Khobe Clarke has been tapped for a major recurring role on Amazon MGM Studios’ college-set romantic drama Off Campus, based on the best-selling book series by Elle Kennedy.

There are 5 books in the series, which depicts the elite ice hockey team, and the women in their lives, as they grapple with love, heartbreak, and self-discovery — forging deep friendships and enduring bonds while navigating the complexities that come with transitioning into adulthood.

Each of the first four novels tells the love story of a hockey player, with the fifth being a novella collection of all four couples. Season 1 of the TV series, based on the first book, The Deal, follows the unlikely romance between Hannah Wells (Ella Bright), a wry, hockey-hating music major, and Briar University’s playboy star center Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli).

Clarke will play Beau Maxwell, Briar’s star quarterback on their not...

"Seinfeld" wouldn't be the same without Julia Louis-Dreyfus among the core ensemble of New York troublemakers. You only have to go back to the pilot episode ("The Seinfeld Chronicles") to see what a version of the revered NBC sitcom looks like without a notable female presence to co-exist alongside Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander) and Kramer (Michael Richards). It's the only episode Louis-Dreyfus refuses to watch. Thankfully, she was brought into the fold with the following episode ("The Stake Out"), where the world was first introduced to Elaine Benes.

Throughout her nine season run, Elaine proved she couldn't dance to save her life, instigated a war with the Soup Nazi, and had an on-again, off-again relationship with a man who would rawdog his flights. The character was introduced onto the show as a former flame of Jerry's. Despite their relationship issues, the pair were able to remain friends throughout the series,...

Back in October 2024, a series adaptation of Elle Kennedy's bestselling Off-Campus book series was announced to be in the works at Amazon Prime Video. Now, we've just learned who will be stepping into the roles of the beloved Briar University students, and you just might recognize some of them from your favorite teen dramas or hit streaming shows.

Louisa Levy, a TV producer and writer known for working on shows like Death and Other Details and The Flight Attendant, is signed on as co-showrunner. Gina Fattore is also a co-showrunner. They will both executive produce the Off Campus series, along with Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Leanna Billings, James Seidman, Neal Flaherty, and Silver Tree. Additionally, Kennedy and Amazon MGM Studios will produce.

Kennedy's book series consists of five novels. They are The Deal (2015), The Mistake (2015), The Score (2016), The Goal (2016) and The Legacy (2021). The first season of the Prime Video...

Off Campus: Amazon Prime’s Adaptation Of Elle Kennedy’s Book Series Of The Same Name(Photo Credit –Instagram)

A new series titled Off Campus, based on Elle Kennedy’s famous book series with the same name, is set to premiere soon on Amazon Prime. Here’s a sneak peek at the cast set to bring novel characters to life. In October 2024, it was announced that Elle Kennedy’s popular book series Off Campus would be adapted into an exciting series for Amazon Prime Video. The series has five novels, with the first four focusing on a couple each and the fifth a novella featuring all the couples.

The books feature love stories between an ice hockey player and their love interest, and the cast for the first season has officially been released. Seven names have been announced as series regulars, and here’s a look at who has...

The Amazon series adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s “Off Campus” books has added seven series regulars to its cast, Variety has learned.

The show, which was originally announced in October, has cast the following actors: Ella Bright as Hannah, Belmont Camelli as Garrett, Mika Abdalla as Allie, Antonio Cipriano as Logan, Jalen Thomas Brooks as Tucker, Josh Heuston as Justin, and Stephen Kalyn as Dean.

The official description of the show states that it “follows the unlikely romance between a wry, hockey-hating music major (Bright) and Briar University’s playboy star center (Camelli). The series depicts the elite ice hockey team, and the women in their lives, as they grapple with love, heartbreak, and self-discovery—forging deep friendships and enduring bonds while navigating the complexities that come with transitioning into adulthood.”

The first season of the show will be based on the first book, titled “The Deal,” which was published...

LL Cool J is seemingly in the mood to stir things up in the music industry with the latest take on himself.

In a recent interview, the rapper said that people would recognize his greatness and his contributions to rap and hip-hop culture.

“I’m [going to] say this humbly, but I really mean this,” he said while making an appearance on Apple Music’s Le Code. “I think one day people are going to wake up and realize that LL Cool J is the most important rapper that ever existed. I truly believe one day people are going to say that.”

He continued, “They’re gonna look and say, ‘Wow, when it comes to the jewelry, this is the guy that introduced all the diamonds, and the ice and the jewelry and the champagne. They’re gonna say when it comes to the love songs, they’re gonna say, ‘This is...

The British Urban Film Festival (Buff) has unveiled the winners of the 2024 edition, with Marcus Flemmings’ White Guilt taking home the best feature award.

The festival took place across Halifax and east London, and drew to a close with the awards ceremony on October 25 at London’s Genesis Cinema.

Flemmings’ film follows 11 affluent white individuals who go off in search of a pay-to-play service with the aim of relieving themselves of ‘white guilt’, by experiencing reverse slavery.

Uche Aguh’s Dyanmite took home two awards – best soundtrack and best script supervision. The film tells the story of a musician in an unhappy marriage,...

Survivor 47 has been an interesting journey thus far, and we are only a few weeks into it.

Among the new castaways in Fiji is one Jerome “Rome” Cooney.

Rome believes in making big moves and controlling the narrative within his tribe.

His strategy has been, at times, abrasive, turning many Survivor fans against him.

Rome also has fans who love that he has brought energy to the game.

Will Rome’s approach to the game end with success? Or is he on a path to burnout or be targeted before the tribes merge?

One thing is known: Rome has many critics who aren’t shy about sharing their opinions.

Rome becomes the villain of Survivor 47

During the fourth episode of Survivor 47, Rome did everything he could to keep Solomon “Sol” Yi from finding a Hidden Immunity Idol.

Rome had found the first Idol at Lavo but used it during the...

The Deal or No Deal Island Season 2 cast has been released.

Many rumors floated around about who would play this season, and now we have answers.

Survivor winner Boston Rob Mariano had success during the first season, and it has now translated to more reality TV people for Season 2.

Survivor fans are in luck, as former winner Parvati Shallow heads to the island for Season 2.

Parvati was also seen during the second season of The Traitors US, where she tried to scheme her way to a big cash prize.

Big Brother 2 winner Dr. Will Kirby is also along for this journey, where he could manipulate his way to millions of dollars.

Parvati and Dr. Will are each known for their strategic way of playing reality competition shows and have proved mentally strong in the format.

The Deal or No Deal Season 2 cast

Below is the cast list for Deal...

Prime Video is getting in on the sports romance trend, ordering a series based on author Elle Kennedy’s popular Off Campus romance novels.

The first season will be based on the first book, The Deal, and is described as a college-set romantic drama that “follows the unlikely romance between a wry, hockey-hating music major and Briar University’s playboy star center. The series depicts the elite ice hockey team, and the women in their lives, as they grapple with love, heartbreak, and self-discovery—forging deep friendships and enduring bonds while navigating the complexities that come with transitioning into adulthood.

Elle Kennedy’s “Off-Campus” books are getting the screen treatment from Amazon Prime Video, which has ordered a series adaptation of the romance novels.

Louisa Levy will serve as showrunner of the series.

The first season of the show will be based on the first book, titled “The Deal,” which was published in 2015. There are five “Off-Campus” books in total.

Per Prime Video, “A college-set romantic drama based on the bestselling book series, ‘Off Campus’ follows the unlikely romance between a wry, hockey-hating music major and Briar University’s playboy star center. The series depicts the elite ice hockey team, and the women in their lives, as they grapple with love, heartbreak, and self-discovery — forging deep friendships and enduring bonds while navigating the complexities that come with transitioning into adulthood.”

Levy will executive produce the series alongside Temple Hill’s Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, Leanna Billings via Billings Productions and Neal Flaherty.

Exclusive: Following the outsized success of Prime Video’s YA drama The Summer I Turned Pretty, Amazon is bringing another popular romantic book series to the screen. The streamer has given a series order to Off Campus, a college-set romantic drama based on the international best-selling novels by Elle Kennedy, with Louisa Levy (Death and Other Details) serving as showrunner.

The TV adaptation, produced by Amazon MGM Studios, is starting the way the book series does, with the first season based on the first novel, the 2015 The Deal, following the unlikely romance between a wry, hockey-hating music major and Briar University’s playboy star center.

There are 5 books in Kennedy’s Off-Campus series, which depicts the elite ice hockey team, and the women in their lives, as they grapple with love, heartbreak, and self-discovery—forging deep friendships and enduring bonds while navigating the complexities that come with transitioning into adulthood.

Peter Morgan is a playwright, screenwriter and TV series creator and showrunner who has been described by The Guardian as “Britain’s leading contemporary screen dramatist,” and about whom the publication wrote, “There is no one who works quite like him. Actually, there might be nobody who has worked quite like him in British drama since Shakespeare. He specializes in taking the lives of public figures, mingling the events and words of their lives with his own imaginings, and recasting it as drama that is as close to documentary as possible without actually being a docudrama.”

Morgan wrote the theatrical productions Frost/Nixon, which was on the West End in 2006 and Broadway in 2007; The Audience, which was on the West End in 2013 and Broadway in 2015; and Patriots, which was on the West End in 2023 and Broadway in 2024. He was also the screenwriter of TV films including 2003’s The Deal, 2006’s Longford...

Broadcast

The BBC has acquired U.K. free-to-air rights of high profile crime drama “Tokyo Vice” (8 x 60’), which has a pilot episode directed by Michael Mann, from Endeavor Content. The BBC has second window rights for the U.K. and will air it later this year. The series will stream in the U.K. on Starzplay from May 15. Endeavor has sold the series, currently streaming on HBO Max in the U.S., wide.

Co-produced by HBO Max, Endeavor and Japanese broadcaster Wowow, the series is based on American journalist Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. The series, filmed on location in Tokyo, captures Adelstein’s (Ansel Elgort) daily descent into the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo, where nothing and no one is truly what or who they seem. “Tokyo Vice” was created and written by Tony-winning playwright J.T. Rogers, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer.

Exclusive: Doctor Who star Pearl Mackie is joining Solly McLeod (The Rising) and Sophie Wilde (You Don’t Know Me) in the cast of Tom Jones, the four-part period TV series reimagining Henry Fielding’s classic novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.

The project heralds from Mammoth Screen (Poldark), PBS’ Masterpiece and ITV. Masterpiece was previously the U.S. home of ITV’s hit period show Downton Abbey.

First published in 1749, Tom Jones is the scandalous tale of a young man’s attempt to find a place in the world. It is widely regarded as a British classic and has been adapted previously, most notably in the 1963 feature film version starring Albert Finney as the titular character.

Gwyneth Hughes (Vanity Fair) wrote the series. Georgia Parris (Mari) is directing, Benjamin Greenacre is producing. Executive producers are James Gandhi, Gwyneth Hughes, Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen,...

Exclusive: Universal Television, a division of NBCUniversal Content Studios, has optioned Peter Lefcourt’s novel, The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story, for development as a high-end television series.

Oscar and Emmy winner David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) is attached to direct and will co-write the pilot with Lefcourt. Frankel and Lefcourt are executive producers.

The acclaimed seriocomic novel, Lefcourt’s self-proclaimed “darkly comic look at homophobia in baseball,” is about a happily married, father of two, star shortstop Randy Dreyfus, who falls in love with his second baseman in the middle of a pennant race. Dreyfus’ affair creates reverberations for the World Series. In today’s world of sexual identity issues, that make headlines even on sports pages, the storyline is particularly relevant.

The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story was initially published in 1992 by Random House in hardcover, then in 1993 by Harper Perennial as a paperback (14 printings).

A prolific...

A couple of weeks ago, “Saturday Night Live” returned — sort of — with a special “SNL at Home” episode. For obvious reasons, the episode was uneven and it was clear everyone involved was just trying to figure it all out. This week marks the return of that format, and what a difference a couple of weeks has made. Notably, in terms of production quality and adjusting to the lack of a live audience. Sure, this second “SNL at Home” loses some of the disheveled charm of the first. But it feels familiar, and now like anything can happen.

Host: Brad Pitt

More from IndieWire'Homeland' Review: Series Finale Sticks to Its Guns and Gives Two Spies a Fitting Send-Off'Outlander' Review: A Female Character Stays Afloat in a Sea of Masculine Energy in Episode 10

Unlike the first “SNL at Home” episode, no official host or musical guest was announced during Darrell Hammond’s cast introductions.

Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment said Wednesday that it has closed a $60 million syndicated corporate credit facility, which will help finance the upcoming Season 3 of the CW’s summer fantasy adventure series The Outpost as well as Almost Paradise, Wgn America’s 10-episode drama series staring Electric’s The Librarians alum Christian Kane which is aiming for a spring 2020 bow.

The move further bolsters the growth of Dean Devlin’s indie production, sales and distribution outfit. It recently acquired international sales rights for the FilmRise library and is currently selling titles including Just Noise, a historical war drama starring Harvey Keitel and Malcolm McDowell, which it acquired at Toronto; the Bella Thorne-starring Penthouse A; and dystopian pic The Deal.

SunTrust Robinson Humphrey served as the sole lead arranger of the facility, with SunTrust Bank as the administrative agent.

“The Electric library has grown substantially since it produced the first season of Leverage 12 years ago,...

Producer of Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Athiya Shetty starrer Motichoor Chaknachoor, Kiran Zaveri Bhatia, is now turning writer and director with?Haveli Mai Hungama and she has said that her forthcoming film aims to expose double standards, hypocrisy and suppression of women in Indian households.

Kiran Zaveri Bhatia was interacting with the media to promote Haveli Mai Hungama on Friday in Mumbai.

Kiran said, "The film is a whacky entertainer and it revolves around two Marwari families. It aims to expose the double standards, hypocrisy and suppression of women in Indian households, at the same time, we have been careful not to hurt anybody's sensibilities or sentiments. Since I grew up in a Marwari family, I have added my observations to give the realistic touch to the film."

Kiran has also featured in Shah Rukh starrer Badshah?and in Roshni.?He?also talked about acting in Haveli Mai Hungama.?"Acting is...

Michael Sheen is one of those under-sung actors who rarely disappoints. The curly-haired Welshman who brought TV interviewer David Frost to life opposite Frank Langella‘s Tricky Dick in 2008’s “Frost/Nixon” and played Prime Minister Tony Blair — his second of three times — in 2006’s “The Queen” alongside Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II. But despite solid notices, he was mostly overlooked for his performances when it came to awards. He did land an Emmy nomination for his repeat portrayal of Blair in the 2010 TV movie, “The Special Relationship.” And 2003’s “The Deal,” which featured his first depiction of the British Pm, at least won a BAFTA TV award for Best Single Drama.

Anyone who saw him as volatile English football coach Brian Clough in 2009’s “The Damned United” couldn’t help but think he was cheated out of an Oscar nomination. But he also scored high-profile roles in such horror-tinged big-screen...

Exclusive: Emma Cooper, Global President of Non-Fiction at Pulse Films, has left the Xy Chelsea and Shut Up And Play The Hits producer as it restructures its TV arm.

I hear that she recently departed the Vice-owned company, having joined in 2015.

Cooper is responsible for a raft of UK and U.S. series including 10-part rock doc series Rock and Roll for Sky, BBC Two series The Deal and BBC Three series United States of Hate: Muslims Under Attack and The Last Days of Legal Highs. She has also overseen a number of projects for the global streaming services as well as A&E Indie Films feature doc No Greater Law, which is set in the American West.

I understand that Cooper resigned from the company after three and a half years and is expected to launch her own production venture later this year that will focus on working with U.

South korea’s film distribution market is in the midst of such rapid change that it’s likely to soon face a new chapter in its existence.

There are multiple factors behind this shakeup, not the least being the agreement between Disney and 21st Century Fox for the Walt Disney Co.’s $52.4 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox. One result will probably be for the two studios’ Korean offices to be merged by this summer.

That will clearly impact the releasing patterns of their lineups. Also, according to the Korean Film Council’s annual report, the two companies together accounted for 15.9% of the total box office revenue in 2017, which exceeds Cj Entertainment’s 15%.

At the same time, traditional market leaders including Cj Entertainment and Next Entertainment World have been losing their grip. The Kofic data shows that Cj Entertainment has been the top local distributor in the country since 2003. It remained on top last year,...

Exclusive: Marigo Kehoe, Co-Founder of The Crown producer Left Bank has left the company as it is on the verge of re-upping its deal with Sony Pictures Television. Kehoe established the drama firm in 2007 with Andy Harries, who she worked with Granada overseeing shows such as The Street and The Deal as well as the return of Cracker and Prime Suspect. She was Managing Director of Left Bank, which also produces series such as Cinemax and Sky's Strike Back and Starz' Outlande…...

The 2014 Sundance Film Festival will be a reunion of sorts, with several of the featured actors and filmmakers returning alums. Aubrey Plaza, who made headlines at the festival in 2012 with the time-travel comedy “Safety Not Guaranteed,” returns next year with the zombie movie “Life After Beth.” Aaron Paul, also at the festival in 2012 with the feature “Smashed,” is back with the motocross/heavy-metal drama “Hellion,” which is based on a short of the same name that previously screened at the festival. William H. Macy, who co-wrote the screenplay to “The Deal” which debuted at Sundance in 2008, is back as a first-time director with “Rudderless,” about a grieving father who forms a band to play his deceased son’s music. Meanwhile, David and Nathan Zellner also return with “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter,” about a Japanese woman, played by Rinko Kikuchi, who comes to America in search of the money Steve Buscemi’s character buries in “Fargo.

Return with us again to Movieline's One-Page Screenplay project, which aims to transform Hollywood by producing scripts so brief, even a studio executive might finish them. The latest contributor to the series is the Emmy-winning Peter Lefcourt, who's currently a co-executive producer on Desperate Housewives and also has written for Cagney & Lacey, Remington Steele, Scarecrow & Mrs. King, and Showtime's Hollywood satire Beggars & Choosers, which he created.

In addition to his TV credits, Lefcourt recently wrote the William H. Macy film The Deal, and his comic novel The Dreyfus Affair (about a love affair between two Major League Baseball players) inspired one of Hollywood's most storied development histories. A revival of his play La Ronde de Lunch opens October 9 at the Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles; for now, though, we have his one-page screenplay, Sunrise/Sunset.

Jody Kielbasa has joined the University of Virginia's College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences as the new director of the Virginia Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 5-8 in Charlottesville, Va.

He succeeds Richard Herskowitz, who stepped down in November after 15 years as artistic director.

"We're thrilled to have Jody on board in this capacity," said Arts & Sciences associate dean Bruce Holsinger, who chaired the search committee. "The Film Festival plays a significant role in the College's arts community, and Jody Kielbasa is the ideal leader at this exciting time for arts at U.Va. more broadly."

For the past decade, Kielbasa served as the founding executive director of the Sarasota Film Festival in Sarasota, Fla. He also recently co-produced the independent film "The Deal," starring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan and directed by Steven Schachter.

Despite their very nature as shape-shifters, actors are constantly typecast. They spend their careers convincing an unimaginative industry that they can play the kinds of roles they've never attempted before. As Fred Durst discovered, it's no different for rock stars who decide to become serious filmmakers. "I get judged all the time [being] Fred from Limp Bizkit. My biggest obstacle in life is that I'm me," admits the frontman for the controversial nu metal band that has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, boasting songs like "Break Stuff," "Get Naked," and "Nookie."He continues, "I've always wanted to make a film since I was very young. And I never had a dream of being a rock star, so to have that come along the way and that lead me into being able to make a film was great. I don't want to waste anyone's time. I don't want to do it...

Rapper/actor Jj Cool J will star in an offshoot of CBS's "NCIS" where he'll apparently play a tough and charming former Navy Seal who works undercover for the NCIS Unit in La and is an expert on the Middle East.   This will air as one half of a two-part episode of "NCIS" later this season. "NCIS" showrunner Shane Brennan created the show which yet has to be titled and will serve as an and executive producer for CBS Paramount Network TV.   LL Cool J was last seen in Steven Schachter's comedy "The Deal" alongside William H. Macy, Meg Ryan, Elliot Gould and Jason Ritter.  ...

By Michael Atkinson

The DVD era has been very generous to low-grade biodocs focused on culty, semi-obscure pop wonders -- everyone from the Holy Moly Rounders to Roky Erickson, Benjamin Smoke, Townes Van Zandt, Gary Wilson, Joy Division, They Might Be Giants, Scott Walker, et cetera, have received their official, devotional, feature-length eulogy. Graveside homilies they are, too, there's little point in denying it -- for the aging musicians of the '60s, '70s and '80s as well as for our long-lost younger selves, now only faint traces of remembered élan, hope and indestructibility. Of course, Patti Smith, like Leonard Cohen and the Ramones (so nicely requiem-ed in 2003's "End of the Century"), is far from little known, but she still occupies that musty corner of pop legend-dom: more admired than listened to, known for her history more than her songs, aging into a kind of marginal retro-hipness...

What better way to get in the mood for the double-barrelled shotgun blast of Sundance and Slamdance than by entering to win one of five copies of The Deal on DVD. Here's what the movie is all about: A struggling film producer (William H. Macy) teams up with a beleaguered studio executive (Meg Ryan) who is forced to make a doomed action movie with him in which their mercurial star (LL Cool J) seems determined to finish their careers. When their action hero is kidnapped and the studio abruptly shuts down the movie, the mismatched pair conspire to keep the cameras rolling at the studio’s expense – and reluctantly fall in love in the process. Visit the mov ...

What better way to get in the mood for the double-barrelled shotgun blast of Sundance and Slamdance than by entering to win one of five copies of The Deal on DVD. Here's what the movie is all about: A struggling film producer (William H. Macy) teams up with a beleaguered studio executive (Meg Ryan) who is forced to make a doomed action movie with him in which their mercurial star (LL Cool J) seems determined to finish their careers. When their action hero is kidnapped and the studio abruptly shuts down the movie, the mismatched pair conspire to keep the cameras rolling at the studio’s expense – and reluctantly fall in love in the process. Visit the movie's < ...

• Born from a festival that had everything to do with laughs and nothing to do with cinema, now in their 12th edition, the Just For Laughs Film Fest have pretty much developed their identity, attracted name films and talent. This year's fest will begin with a Bang! or I should say a Bong! with David Gordon Green and the Apatow team (Seth Rogen, co-writer Evan Goldberg, co-star Danny McBride) coming down with one of the rare advance premieres of Pineapple Express and a Q&A. Other special guests and accompanying films include: Father and son team of the Reitmans (Ivan and Jason for those coming out of a coma) presenting a Master Class on filmmaking on July 18. Sundance hit Baghead from Jay & Mark Duplass gets a screening on July 14th and the 20th studio fair with Rainn Wilson (The Office) starring in The Rocker. The Deal – a film adapted

...

Several films at this year's festival are focused on the movie business itself. Shootout recently spoke with William H. Macy about his film The Deal, in which he plays a Hollywood producer trying to make a film about Benjamin Disraeli. Then there's The Great Buck Howard, Sean McGinly's plucky comedy about a law school dropout (Colin Hanks) who gets a job as personal assistant to a has-been celebrity (John...

Jason Ritter, Jess Weixler, Jesse L. Martin and Tracie Thoms are starring in Jay DiPietro's romantic drama Peter and Vandy.

Ritter and Weixler will play the title roles in a love story about the ups and downs of a young Manhattan couple. The film shifts back and forth in time from their romantic beginnings and increasingly manipulative behavior to their ultimate reconciliation.

Martin plays Peter's best friend, Paul, and Thoms plays his wife, Marissa.

DiPietro adapted his 2002 Drama Desk Award-nominated play, which he also starred in and directed, for his feature helming debut. Peter Sterling and Austin Stark are producing the project for Cook Street Prods. Matt Parker and Carly Hugo are co-producers. The film is shooting in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Weixler won a special dramatic acting jury prize for Roadside Attractions' Teeth at January's Sundance Film Festival. She is repped by Gersh.

Ritter appears in The Education of Charlie Banks and two upcoming Sundance selections, The Deal and Good Dick. He is repped by Endeavor and manager Joannie Burstein.

At the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the gala Premieres, which used to take place in the chilly nighttime, will begin as early as 3 p.m. And there will be more Premieres than ever.

As the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening out of competition at its 2008 edition, organizers said that the Premieres section has significantly expanded. This year, 24 films will play as galas, occupying the 3, 6 and 9:30 p.m. slots at the Eccles Theater in Park City, the festival's largest venue. By contrast, there were 17 Premieres at this year's Sundance.

Although he admitted he was tempted, festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said the size of Sundance has not expanded. The festival will again screen 121 feature films, which includes 81 world premieres. What organizers have done, director of programming John Cooper said, is to reposition films in the Spectrum category, which previously played in the 3 p.m. slot, into the Premiere section.

"These are films that deserve that (Premiere) position inside the Eccles," Cooper said.

The announcement rounds out the rest of the 2008 program, which includes Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Park City at Midnight sections. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

The Premieres section showcases highly anticipated films from the American indie world and from international filmmakers. Perhaps the two most highly anticipated films are music related.

Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington's 3-D film of U2's Vertigo world tour -- snippets of which were shown in May at the Festival de Cannes -- will be presented in its entirety. The only question is: What 3-D glasses will be used?

Gilmore said the festival must decide between two different kinds of glasses or goggles. "Either way, there will be a single projector putting a split film image on the screen that are read by the (3-D) goggles," he said.

This year's closing-night film will be the world premiere of Bernard Shakey's CSNY Deja Vu, which looks at the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young reunion tour and the musicians' connection to its audience in political and musical terms. Young is credited as a co-writer on the project.

Pellington performs a twofer this year as his Henry Poole Is Here also is in the Premieres section. After discovering he has a mere six weeks to live, Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) retreats from his everyday life for the comfort of booze, junk food and solitude until a "miracle" and his oddball neighbors intervene.

Another person who will be doing Q&As more than once will be actress-director Amy Redford, daughter of Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford. As an actress, she stars in Sunshine Cleaning, an irreverent comedy that will play in Dramatic Competition. As a first-time director, she will present The Guitar, which like Henry Poole, centers on a person diagnosed with a terminal illness. Amos Poe's Guitar screenplay is about a woman (Saffron Burrows) without long to live who blows her savings to pursue her dreams.

Michel Gondry came to Sundance two years ago with his mind-blowing The Science of Sleep. He now returns with his Be Kind Rewind, in which Jack Black plays a man whose brain has become magnetized, leading to the unintentional destruction of all the movies in a friend's video store. In order to keep the store's one loyal customer, the pair re-create a long line of films including The Lion King, Rush Hour and Ghostbusters.

" 'Be Kind Rewind' will tax people's patience but has a wonderful payoff," Gilmore said.

As previously announced, the festival opens Jan. 17 in Park City with the world premiere of In Bruges, written and directed by first-time filmmaker and award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh. The film, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, revolves around two hitmen ordered to take a forced holiday in Bruges, Belgium.

Two films about filmmaking should amuse the in-crowd. In Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? Robert De Niro plays a desperate producer struggling with a desperate film shoot. In Steven Schachter's The Deal, William H. Macy co-writes and stars in a tale about another similarly desperate producer who cons a studio into financing a film that actually has no script.

The tongue-in-cheek latter film "brings back Meg Ryan to the kind of romantic roles she plays so well," Gilmore said.

Premieres also is the section containing several films seen at earlier festivals such as writer-director Tom McCarthy's The Visitor and Alan Ball's Nothing Is Private -- movies that deal with immigrants in America -- which debuted at Toronto, and Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, which rocked Cannes with its themes of dynastic decline, incest, madness and death.

Sundance 2008 will throw an even brighter spotlight on documentaries by creating a sidebar within the Spectrum category for seven docus.

"The professional career of documentarians has changed dramatically," Gilmore said. "Documentaries were once a small world. Now it's a much broader spectrum of professionals and of people who move back and forth between features and documentaries, making films on subjects they are passionate about."

The Spectrum section also is where returning Sundance alums are to be found. To wit, Made in America by Stacy Peralta, who enjoyed a hit at the 2001 festival with Dogtown and Z-Boys; Blind Date from Stanley Tucci, who has come to Sundance with such interesting films as Big Night (1996) and Joe Gould's Secret (2000); August from Austin Chick, who made 2002's "XX/XY"; Baghead by writer-directors Mark and Jay Duplass, who brought Scrapple in 2004; and Bottle Shock, a retelling of the famous 1976 blind wine tasting in Paris that rocketed California wines to fame and glory, from Randall Miller, whose Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School played in 2005.

Park City at Midnight usually is the repository of the strange and the bloody. This year, though, Gilmore insisted, "the genre films are very fresh with a strong quality of execution."

Quentin Tarantino, absent from Park City for a few years, returns to "present" Larry Bishop's modern-day take on 1960s biker flicks, Hell Ride. A German-Canadian Midnight entry, Otto (Up With Dead People), is described by Gilmore as "an incredibly odd but interesting mix of gay zombies and a European setting."

The British Donkey Punch, named after a risky sexual practice, is a thriller that takes place aboard a luxury yacht. And Michael Haneke will bring Funny Games, an almost shot-by-shot remake of his 1997 Austrian chiller, only this time in English and in a Long Island setting.

• I expect my last day at the 08' edition of the Sundance film festival to end in the wee hours of the morning as the fest organizers have announced the make up of the Premieres section and have chosen documentary (Csny DÉJÀ Vu) on gray-haired legends of folk music (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) as the fest's closing feature.As predicted by yours truly, Michel Gondry will show up once again in Park City this time with the geek comedy preem Be Kind Rewind, while a number of high profile pics such as The Great Buck Howard, What Just Happened? and Diminished Capacity will have buyers lining up the block - the upcoming actors' strike is a reality and this has many mid level indie distributors looking to add to their slate. Up for grabs we also find films littered with talent: Irish import The Escapist, The Deal (a

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Production Weekly reports that William H. Macy and Lisa Kudrow are set to star in the romantic comedy The Deal. Macy reunites with Door to Door director Steven Schacter to adapt Peter Lefcourt's tome about a Hollywood production in Europe that gose horribly wrong. Macy portrays a washed-up film producer who hooks up with a struggling creative exec (Kudrow) to save his plagued-riddled film. Shooting starts October 9 in Romania.