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Former Saturday Night Live cast member Alex Moffat is joining the cast of Off Broadway’s The Big Gay Jamboree, the much-anticipated follow-up from Marla Mindelle, co-author and original star of the wildly popular musical comedy Titaníque.

Moffat will appear alongside the previously announced Mindelle, as well as newly announced Paris Nix, Constantine Rousouli (a Titaníque co-creator and original cast member), and Natalie Walker, with Jaden Dominique, Brad Greer, Jeremiah Ginn, Amanda Lee, Jillian Mueller, Olivia Puckett, Melvin Tunstall, Clyde Voce, Cortney Wolfson, and John Yi rounding out the ensemble.

The new casting was announced today by producers Sue Wagner, John Johnson, and LuckyChap. Directed and choreographed by Connor Gallagher, The Big Gay Jamboree, features a book by Mindelle and Jonathan Parks-Ramage, with music & lyrics by Mindelle and Philip Drennen.

Preview performances begin on September 14 at the Orpheum Theatre, with an opening night set for October 1.

The Big Gay Jamboree...

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Kiersey Clemons continues to rise up the ranks in Hollywood, after starring in a pair of DC films and the MonsterVerse series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and also standing out in crowd-pleasing indie flicks like Dope and Susie Searches. It's no surprise, then, that she's got her own starring vehicle that has finally reached the masses after stirring up buzz at SXSW.

From writer-director Tayarisha Poe, The Young Wife is now available on digital and is the perfect date-night flick for couples... who don't want a typical date-night flick. Just as 500 Days of Summer is self-described by its narrator as "not a love story, but a story about love," Clemons has gone on the record and called her artistic new drama an "anti-wedding wedding movie." Watch as her titular heroine Celestina navigates overbearing friends, family, and coworkers all the while trying not to spiral on emotional,...

The movie Bottoms features a talented cast of dynamic and hilarious characters, played by both veteran and newer actors. Rachel Sennott shines as Pj, a misfit with an unapologetically big personality, while Ayo Edebiri brings depth to the role of Josie, a shy high school student going along with Pj's antics. The supporting cast, including Kaia Gerber, Havana Rose Liu, Ruby Cruz, and Nicholas Galitzine, adds depth and diversity to the story.

The movie Bottoms includes a compelling cast of characters played by both veteran and newer actors. This raunchy teen comedy follows two lesbian best friends, Pj and Josie, who start a fight club to get the attention of their cheerleader crushes, even though they regard the pair as losers. The hilarious movie hit theaters on August 25, 2023. Ayo Edebiri's comedy Bottoms gained a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the best movies in 2023 right after its release.

Guy Ritchie project among first productions to get new ‘interim - casting’ agreement.

SAG-AFTRA has introduced a new category of limited interim agreement for independent productions allowing Guild members to audition and have casting discussions while the actors’ strike continues.

An untitled project from Guy Ritchie is among the five productions granted ‘interim – casting’ agreements. Under such agreements, according to a SAG-AFTRA web page, “members may audition and/or engage in negotiations regarding casting…but may not yet travel, rehearse, or otherwise begin rendering services for the production.”

On the 90-plus projects so far granted the Guild’s standard interim...

Guy Ritchie project among first productions to get new ‘interim - casting’ agreement.

SAG-AFTRA has introduced a new category of limited interim agreement for independent productions allowing Guild members to audition and have casting discussions while the actors strike continues.

An untitled project from Guy Ritchie is among the five productions granted ‘interim – casting’ agreements. Under such agreements, according to a SAG-AFTRA web page, “members may audition and/or engage in negotiations regarding casting…but may not yet travel, rehearse, or otherwise begin rendering services for the production.”

On the 90-plus projects so far granted the Guild’s standard interim...

A college student with a terminally ill mother and struggling podcast decides to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a popular classmate. Susie Searches is a dark comedy and borderline sinister thriller on the trappings of social media fixation. The need for belonging and a desperate desire for fame leads a seemingly sympathetic protagonist down a troubling path. The film makes clever use of voiceover narration, reaction shots, and deft camera placement to layer a narrative with twists aplenty. Some you can spot a mile away but the performances and directorial execution is very good.

Susie Wallace (Kiersey Clemons), sporting braces and a bright smile, sits at her desk for her true crime podcast. Susie Searches dives into unsolved crimes with unfettered passion. She tells her nonexistent audience of a special gift. Susie always had the ability to guess the ending before anyone else. A flashback shows a young Susie (Ellie Reine...

Susie Searches is a humorous and suspenseful film that combines elements of comedy, mystery, and paranoia, keeping viewers on edge while enjoying quirky characters. Kiersey Clemons delivers a fantastic performance as the lead character, showcasing her comedic and dramatic talents in the film. Clemons discusses her involvement in the project and the trust that director Sophie Kargman had in her to bring the character of Susie to life, despite not having a traditional audition process. Clemons also shares her dislike of braces and her love of comedy in this interview with Screen Rant.

Directed and co-written by Sophie Kargman, Susie Searches follows a young podcaster and wannabe detective as she solves a major crime and becomes something of a minor celebrity in her small town. The film, an expanded version of Kargman's 2020 short film, features a tap dancing mix of humor, mystery, and pulse-pounding paranoia. Viewers are put into a sense of dread,...

The Flash star Kiersey Clemons will take her the lead in Susie Searches, the story of unpopular college student Susie, who attempts to solve a local mystery in order to get more people to listen to her true crime podcast. However, as you may expect in this kind of story, things are never as simple as they seem, and soon Susie gets more than she bargained for as she looks for her moment in the spotlight. Check out a new clip below as your introduction to the world of Susie.

Susie Searches is a movie that asks the question that many young people find themselves asking themselves in this day and age of YouTube and TIkTok fame; if you could achieve your goals overnight through nothing but a small victimless crime, how far would you go to do it? According to the synopsis:

“Susie Searches is a darkly comedic psychological...

The morbid draw of true crime — vicariously experiencing other people’s tragedies by sifting through the elements that caused them — goes under the microscope in the kitschy whodunnit “Susie Searches.” Sophie Kargman’s feature debut, expanded from her short of the same name, plays on the dangers that come when voyeur becomes an interference, but the sort-of thriller doesn’t have the bite to investigate the provocative sympathy it has for its meddling antihero.

An aspiring gumshoe, Susie is first introduced as a precocious grade schooler, sitting beside her mother, Anne (Jammie Patton) as the two read a detective novel — the nice kind that encourages adolescent curiosity and ends with a virtuous sleuth catching a mustache-twirling menace. An affecting montage shows the pair continuing their shared hobby as the years pass. Anne falls ill as her daughter dutifully cares for her, growing into a wannabe wunderkind (Kiersey Clemons), now a...

The Flash has had a long and troubled journey to the big screen, including the Covid pandemic and falling in the middle of a transition period between the old and new DC universes. One of the people who feel like their time waiting for the movie’s arrival has been more painful than most is actress Kiersey Clemons, who plays Barry Allen’s love interest Iris West.

For some, Clemons appearance in The Flash may be the first time they have seen her in the role of Iris, and unless you have seen Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League, that that would not be surprising as she was originally cut from the theatrical release of the movie. Now with the entire Dcu being rebooted by James Gunn, it seems to the actress now feels free to tell how it has really been for her time in the franchise. She...

To say that actress Kiersey Clemons had a bad experience playing Iris West in the Dceu and The Flash movie would be an understatement. The actress recently broke her silence regarding her role and the problems she experienced behind the scenes. These ranged from fears that her role as Barry Allen's love interest would be reduced or recast to coping with the controversy centered around co-star Ezra Miller.

Kiersey Clemons was originally set to make her premiere as Iris West in the Justice League movie, but her role was cut for the theatrical release. Her scenes were later restored in Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League, making her one of many characters with larger roles in Zack Snyder's Justice League. The Flash movie was meant to further establish her presence in the Dceu. Unfortunately, the dream role quickly became a nightmare for the young actress.

Related: The Flash...

"More often than you think, the culprit is right under your nose." Vertical Entertainment has revealed an official trailer for an indie dark comedy called Susie Searches, opening in select theaters this July. The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival last year, and it also stopped by the Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, and Cleveland Film Festivals. An awkward college student with a failing true-crime podcast seizes the opportunity to bolster her popularity by solving the mysterious disappearance of the campus heartthrob. It's yet another riff on the "true crime" craze now, specifically a podcast, and how far people will go.T his trailer drops a big reveal - but I think it's necessary to bring more attention to it. The film stars Kiersey Clemons as Susie, Alex Wolff, Jim Gaffigan, Rachel Sennott, Ken Marino, and David Walton. I also recommend watching Bj Novak's Vengeance, about the pitfalls of chasing these kind of stories.

True-crime podcasts are a dime a dozen nowadays. There are just so many armchair detectives out there, thinking they can do the work of professionals. One such person is Susie, an awkward college girl in the new film “Susie Searches.”

Read More: Summer 2023 Movie Preview: 52 Must-See Films To Watch

As seen in the trailer for “Susie Searches,” the film follows the story of a college girl named Susie, who is desperately trying to raise the profile of her failing true-crime podcast.

Continue reading ‘Susie Searches’ Trailer: Kiersey Clemons & Alex Wolff Star In A Mystery Comedy About A True-Crime Podcaster at The Playlist.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Alex Moffat will make his Broadway debut in the upcoming comedy The Cottage, directed by Jason Alexander. Also joining the previously announced Eric McCormack, Laura Bell Bundy, and Lilli Cooper in the cast will be Nehal Joshi and Dana Steingold.

Sandy Rustin’s The Cottage, Alexander’s Broadway directorial debut, will play a limited run at The Hayes Theater from July 7 to October 29, with an opening night of July 24.

Additional casting and creatives are to be announced.

During his 2016-2022 stint on NBC’s SNL, Moffat was known for his impersonations of Joe Biden, Eric Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Anderson Cooper and Joe Scarborough, among others, as well as his original recurring Weekend Update character, Guy Who Just Bought a Boat. Film credits include Susie Searches and Christmas with the Campbells, and he can be seen on Apple’s Bad Monkey series, an adaptation of...

Exclusive: Vertical has secured North American rights to the mystery comedy Susie Searches which premiered at TIFF 2022. Based on her 2020 short film of the same name, Sophie Kargman makes her feature film directorial debut and shares story credit alongside the film’s writer William Day Frank. It stars Kiersey Clemons (Dope), Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Jim Gaffigan (Chappaquiddick), Ken Marino (Wanderlust), and Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies).

The film is slated for a day-and-date release later this year. Fortitude International will be launching international sales on the title at this week’s EFM.

The film follows Susie (Clemons), an awkward college student with a failing true-crime podcast, who seizes the opportunity to boost her campus and online popularity by solving the mysterious disappearance of Jesse (Wolff), the campus heart-throb. With her star on the rise, events take a dark turn as Susie digs out the truth and soon finds herself in over her head.

Filmmaking is a tricky endeavor. On the one hand, the art itself is of the utmost importance, a craft that not only demands a creator give a project an extensive amount of their time, but also maximum care and passion. But then, on the other hand, filmmaking is business, and if your movie isn’t seen, it can’t break even. Adding to that predicament, there’s more competition in this industry than ever right now. While it is wonderful that we’re getting such a significant amount of new content, in large part due to the rise of streaming services and social media platforms, that also makes it harder than ever to break through, even if you’ve made a stellar show or film. In fact, that’s something that Kiersey Clemons’ character deals with in her TIFF 2022 film, Susie Searches.

If movies that explore social media and insta-fame’s impact on society can be considered a rising sub-genre, consider it a new personal favorite. We just saw Not Okay excel with a story about a young woman desperate for followers who opts to flat-out lie about having lived through a bombing and now Sophia Kargman is making a big impression exploring similar themes through her feature directorial debut, Susie Searches.

Fans of “Only Murders in the Building” going into the comedy “Susie Searches,” which follows a college student with a true crime podcast taking a mystery into her own hands, may be in for a surprise at just how dark the film gets.

The film’s stars Kiersey Clemons and Alex Wolff told TheWrap following the movie’s premiere at TIFF that the movie is “way more disturbing” than even they expected it would be.

“It’s really unsettling,” Wolff said. “I think it’s fun to know that. It’s fun for people to know that they’re not going to feel comfortable watching this movie. They’re going to not know when they should laugh or if they can’t. It’s going to be a fun, thrilling, challenging, hilarious watch for people. It’s very important to have a movie that doesn’t tell you exactly how...

Click here to read the full article.

As the Toronto Film Festival marks a big post-pandemic return to the physical realm with something almost normal for its 47th edition, the biggest sighs of relief may well come from local Canadian filmmakers and premiere party organizers.

“You cannot launch a festival film digitally. You need to build up hype in person. You need to meet people in person to be able to forge relationships to launch your film,” Markhor Pictures producer Shehrezade Mian, who is launching Antoine Bourges’ Concrete Valley immigrant drama in Toronto as part of the Wavelengths sidebar, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Mian insists fellow filmmakers who screened their films at scaled-down Toronto festivals in 2020 and 2021 had their launch plans undermined by play on digital platforms. “The buzz this year is so much more hyped and so much more intense,” she added.

Director Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, who is bringing her...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Vertical releases the film in theaters on Friday, July 28.

The first 25 minutes of “Susie Searches” is so tight, so hilarious and original, beaming with a buoyant teenage energy that could kickoff an entire film series of adventures, that it’s shocking how unyielding, mismanaged and sappy the next hour of the movie becomes. The drop-off is steep, and unfortunate. An expansion by Sophie Kargman of her same-titled 2020 short, “Susie Searches” aims to be about loss and loneliness, and isolation and recognition. But spins its wheels toward mediocrity, instead.

Susie (Kiersey Clemons) is a college student, with braces strapped across her wide smile and an unquenchable love of whodunits. Every night she records a podcast showcasing her sleuthing skills to her moribund audience. Far from the popular girl at school, she languishes in obscurity, while taking care...

“Saturday Night Live” is now sans a few more stars.

After longtime cast members Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Kyle Mooney parted ways with the sketch comedy series earlier this year, “SNL” has now confirmed that Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor, and Aristotle Athari will not be returning for the upcoming season.

Moffat, who frequently plays Eric Trump on the series, joined the cast for Season 42 as a featured player from 2016 through 2018. He was brought on as a full-time cast member in 2018. He has since starred in “Holidate” and “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” with upcoming films “Susie Searches,” “Christmas with the Campbells,” “Jodie,” and series “Bad Monkey” in the works.

Villaseñor also became part of the “SNL” cast in Season 42, similarly starting as a featured player and along with Moffat, becoming a full time repertory player in 2018. Villaseñor started as a contestant on “America’s Got Talent” before booking “SNL.

Exclusive: Director Bill Oliver has rounded out the cast for his drama Our Son, with Andrew Rannells (Girls5eva), Robin Weigert (American Horror Story) and Kate Burton (Inventing Anna) signing on for roles, along with Phylicia Rashad (This Is Us), Cassandra Freeman (Bel-Air) and Isaac Powell (Dear Evan Hansen).

The recently-wrapped film starring Luke Evans and Billy Porter will follow a divorcing couple fighting for custody of their eight-year-old son. Oliver and Peter Nickowitz wrote the script, with Fernando Loureiro (Frances Ha) and Guilherme Coelho (Fala Tu) producing via their company Tigresa, along with Eric Binns (Lansky), Jennifer 8. Lee (The Price) and Christopher Lin. Alex Peace-Power is serving as co-producer, with CAA Media Finance representing the film’s distribution rights.

Rannells is a Grammy winner and Tony Award nominee whose recent credits include Peacock’s Girls5eva and Showtime’s Black Monday, along with such films as The Boys in the Band and The Prom.

Making it to the Toronto International Film Festival is a huge deal for filmmakers at any stage of their careers. The annual Canadian festival features everything from smaller movies by up-and-coming filmmakers to potential blockbusters from some of the biggest names in the business.

The selections for the 2022 festival, which runs Sept. 8 through Sept. 18, reflect some of the best and most creative minds in filmmaking today. TIFF 2022 has divided its presentations up into a few different categories. The marquee categories are the Gala Presentations and the Special Presentations, which are where some of the festival's most-anticipated movies will make their debuts.

Among the 2022 Gala lineup are "The Woman King," starring Viola Davis and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Tyler Perry's latest film, "A Jazzman's Blues." The Special Presentations, meanwhile, include buzzy films such as "My Policeman," starring Harry Styles and Emma Corrin; the "Knives Out" sequel "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery...

The WhaleWAVELENGTHS - FEATURESConcrete Valley (Antoine Bourges)De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor)Dry Ground BurningHorse Opera (Moyra Davey)Pacifiction (Albert Serra)Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie)Unrest (Cyril Schäublin)Will-o’-the-Wisp (João Pedro Rodrigues)Wavelenghths - SHORTSAfter Work (Céline Condorelli, Ben Rivers)Bigger on the Inside (Angelo Madsen Minax)Eventide (Sharon Lockhart)F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now (Fox Maxy)Fata Morgana (Tacita Dean)Hors-titre (Wiame Haddad)I Thought the World of You (Kurt Walker)Moonrise (Vincent Grenier)The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo)Puerta a Puerta (Jessica Sarah Rinland, Luis Arnías )The Time That Separates Us (Parastoo Anoushahpour)What Rules the Invisible (Tiffany Sia)Gala PRESENTATIONSAlice, Darling (Mary Nighy)Black Ice (Hubert Davis)The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly)Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky)The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories...

The Toronto International Film Festival lineup continues to unfold, with TIFF announcing the programs for its Midnight Madness, Discovery, and Wavelengths programs on Thursday. The festival runs September 8 through 18.

“For TIFF audiences in the know, the Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths programmes are where you’re rewarded for taking risks and being adventurous,” offered Anita Lee, TIFF’s chief programming officer. “Whether it’s the discovery of an audacious new auteur, a brilliant visionary work that reimagines storytelling or the most wicked cinematic experience you will ever have, this is where you will find it.”

Discovery

“TIFF’s Discovery program is a showcase of cinema and talent from around the world — a place to unearth work that is bold, distinctive, and, above all, passionate,” said Dorota Lech, Discovery lead and international programmer, TIFF. “This year’s robust program offers 24 films that shook us to the core, filled us with joy,...

New work from Benjamin Millepied, Kim Hongsun, Tim Story populate latest selections.

The Toronto International FiLm Festival has unveiled its Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths strands.

Midnight Madness returns to its 10-film format and will screen at new venue the Royal Alexandra Theatre. The section opens with Eric Appel’s US biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story featuring Daniel Radcliffe in the title role.

The section presents Finecut’s Project Wolf Hunting (South Korea) by Kim Hongsun, whose genre oeuvre includes Metamorphosis and The Chase. Finland has been stepping up its festival presence of late and Jalmari Helander will premiere...

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The Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness sidebar will open with Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, with Daniel Radcliffe playing the prolific musician behind humorous songs like “Eat It” and “Amish Paradise.”

Eric Appel directs the biopic for The Roku Channel that also stars Evan Rachel Wood and will have a world premiere Sept. 8 at TIFF at the Royal Alexandra Theater.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a more appropriate opening night film than Weird: The Al Yankovic Story — a beautifully deranged biopic made in the great Midnight movie tradition of challenging conventions and forging one’s own path, no matter how weird,” Midnight Madness curator Peter Kuplowsky said in a statement Thursday.

The latest additions to the Toronto Film Festival also include the lineups for the Discovery and Wavelengths programs unveiled Thursday.

The gore-filled Midnight Madness program has world bows for Tim Story...

Producers Adam Mirels and Robbie Mirels of 141 Entertainment, the team behind Ana Lily Amirpour’s hotly anticipated “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon,” which plays Sunday in competition at the Venice Film Festival, have signed an option to remake director-writer Sameh Zoabi’s 2018 Venice Horizons Award entry “Tel Aviv on Fire.” The adaptation will be set on the border between the Sonora region of Mexico and a small Arizona town.

Zoabi’s original film nabbed the best actor award in Venice Horizons and went on to receive a host of international kudos. The film uses comedy to explore the absurdity of everyday life under a militarized border force. The remake will utilize these themes and the universal romantic-comedy at its core.

141 Entertainment will attach a Spanish-speaking writer and director to adapt the work to its new U.S. border setting. Zoabi will remain involved creatively and will also serve...