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Exclusive: Paramount Pictures has preemptively purchased Hit the Gas, a spec script from Chris McCoy for Neal Moritz to produce.

Described as a propulsive thriller, the film’s logline is under wraps. Tania Landau will oversee for Moritz’s Original Film, with Vanessa Joyce overseeing for Paramount. We’re told the script when out last week to studio-based producers, with no attachments. Moritz immediately sparked to the material and got the studio to preempt the script in 24 hours.

A celebrated author named to the Black List of the year’s best unproduced screenplays three times, with Get Back, Good Looking and Good Kids, McCoy wound up directing the latter dramedy starring Nicholas Braun and Zoey Deutch. He’s written for Paramount, Marvel, Disney, Amazon, DreamWorks and Fox and seen his work as an author appear in both The Believer and McSweeney’s. Most recently, McCoy wrote Beast Leave for Anonymous Content and Paramount Television,...

There are 30 projects in first physical event since 2019.

New works from One Child Nation director Jialing Zhang and Chuck Norris vs. Communism filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu are among the 30 projects participating in Cph:forum, the financing and co-production market of Cph:dox film festival.

The Forum will run from March 28-31, and will be the first in-person edition since 2019.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Massachusetts-based Chinese filmmaker Zhang is participating with German-Dutch co-production The Total Trust (working title), produced by Knut Jager through Germany’s Filmtank. The documentary will examine the growth of surveillance culture in China, from cameras to AI profiling.

Paradigm on Thursday said it has hired Babacar Diene, the veteran film financing, sales and production executive who had been a VP at Voltage Pictures. He will become a Content Agent at Paradigm, which also said today it has promoted four staffers to agents.

Diene, based in Los Angeles, was most recently VP Acquisitions & Development at Voltage, the international finance, production and distribution company he joined in 2012. During his tenure he co-produced titles including Ava, starring Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, John Malkovich, Common and Geena Davis; Good Kids starring Nicholas Braun, Zoey Deutch and Julia Garner; Fathers & Daughters, starring Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried and Aaron Paul; and Pay the Ghost starring Nicolas Cage. His executive producer credits at Voltage include Time Is Up, Archenemy, Safer at Home, Redemption Day, Follow Me and Drive Hard.

Previously, he was VP Acquisitions & Apsara Distribution at Im Global and had roles at Icon Entertainment International...

Paradigm Talent Agency announced that Babacar Diene has been hired as a content agent. Additionally, Sam Benfey, Josh Cohen, Natalie Handelsman and Wilson Rubinoff have been promoted to agent.

Diene is a longtime film financing, sales and production executive joining Paradigm from his previous position as vice president of acquisitions and development at Voltage Pictures. During his tenure at Voltage, which began in 2012, he served as an executive producer on films such as “Time Is Up,” “Archenemy,” “Safer at Home,” “Redemption Day,” “Follow Me” and “Drive Hard.” He co-produced movies including “Ava,” “Good Kids,” “Fathers & Daughters,” “Pay the Ghost” and “I.T.” He also previously served as vice president of acquisitions at Im Global’s Apsara Distribution, and worked for Icon Entertainment International and GreeneStreet Films International. Diene is based in Los Angeles.

Benfey enters his new position as digital and brand partnerships agent after first joining Paradigm in 2016. He...

Paradigm has hired Babacar Diene, a veteran film financing, sales and production executive formerly of Voltage Pictures, to join the agency as a content agent, the agency announced Thursday.

Paradigm also promoted four employees to agents across its departments, including Sam Benfey, Josh Cohen, Natalie Handelsman and Wilson Rubinoff.

Diene’s role as a content agent will see him handling film and series content packaging, financing, and sales. Benfey has been promoted to a digital and brand partnerships agent, Cohen and Handelsman are each talent agents, and Rubinoff is a literary agent.

“We are proud to congratulate these four exceptional and dedicated members of our team on their promotions, and look forward to their bright future at Paradigm,” Paradigm partner Andrew Ruf said on behalf of the company’s department leaders. “We welcome Babacar Diene to the company, a colleague we have long admired, who brings his extensive expertise as we redefine our content business,...

“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” co-creator and star Rachel Bloom talked frankly about the experience of losing her good friend Adam Schlesinger and giving birth to her daughter at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in an upcoming episode of Lemonade Media’s “Good Kids” podcast.

Despite the sad subject matter, Bloom takes a hopeful tone, noting that the amount of time she’s spent thinking about “the life cycle and the death cycle, and how they’re linked” had profoundly changed her.

“I gave birth in the middle of Covid and then my daughter was also in the Nicu, and then a week later, my friend died of Covid,” Bloom says in the podcast, which drops with the new season Sept. 29 on Apple podcasts. “The second she came into the world, I found out my friend Adam was on a ventilator. And actually, they were on a ventilator at the same time,...

Disney Channel has already given a second season order to “Gabby Duran & the Unsittables,” its new single-camera comedy that doesn’t premiere its first season until this Friday, Oct. 11.

“Gabby Duran” stars young singer and actress Kylie Cantrall as a 13-year-old who moves to a new town and winds up with an unusual babysitting job, looking after a group of extraterrestrial children hiding out on earth and posing as everyday kids.

Production on Season 2 of the show starts next February in Vancouver. “‘Gabby Duran & The Unsittables’ gives us a bold new heroine, brought to life by the incredibly talented Kylie Cantrall and our top-notch creative team led by showrunners Mike Alber and Gabe Snyder,” said Kory Lunsford, Disney Channel’s vice president of current series.

Alber and Snyder (“Kirby Buckets”) executive produce with Joe Nussbaum (“Just Add Water”).

“We like to do comedy with a high-concept hook to it,” Alber said.

Megan Ellison’s fledgling division teams up with creator Chris McCoy and Sausage Party co-director Conrad Vernon on adult CG-animated series.

Annapurna TV is developing Amberville based on Tim Davys’ ‘Mollisan Town’ book series for Amazon Studios’ Prime Video platform.

Amberville is set in a city populated by living stuffed animals. The dark comedy centres on a reformed Teddy Bear who is pulled back into the criminal underworld when his former boss enlists him for an impossible new job.

McCoy wrote the pilot based on a story he co-wrote with Vernon, whose directing credits include Shrek 2 and Madagascar 3 and is attached to direct the pilot.

The project reunites Vernon with Annapurna who produced his film Sausage Party, which Sony Pictures released last year. McCoy wrote and directed last year’s Good Kids and has authored two novels.

Annapurna founder Megan Ellison serves as executive producer with Annapurna TV head Sue Naegle, David Distenfeld, McCoy...

The beauty of being a high school senior in your second semester is that it can seem like nothing matters for a minute. Friendships have been sealed, college applications have been submitted, and everyone is fully aware that the end of summer is going to shake things up like an etch-a-sketch, forcing them to start over from (what feels like) scratch. For a lot of teens — particularly the privileged ones — that brief period of time is a perfect storm of personal agency and emotional recklessness. Never again will they have so little responsibility, either to themselves or to each other.

It’s enough to make someone feel invincible, enough to make them feel like things are going to be this way forever.

Ry Russo-Young’s smart and sensitively told “Before I Fall” takes that idea as literally as possible, but it’s for that reason that her film is ultimately...

Next month, Netflix offers up a giant selection of films — modern to classic, animated to live action, Oscar winners and indie favorites — and we’ve picked seven that you should watch as soon as they’re available on the streaming service, either for the first time or as part of a nostalgic binge. Enjoy.

1. “Boogie Nights” (available January 1)

Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 comedy about a young man who gets into the California porn industry in the late 1970’s and ‘80s. The film was nominated for three Oscars: Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay.

2. “Braveheart” (available January 1)

Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Director, the Mel Gibson-starring drama follows William Wallace’s revolt against King Edward I of England after his secret bride is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her.

Probably the funniest thing about David E. Talbert’s ensemble comedy Almost Christmas are the two amazing comedians he and producer Will Packer got to play two key characters in the movie: Mo’Nique and Jb Smoove.

Smoove has been on the stand-up comedy circuit since the ‘90s, but in 2007, he was cast as Larry David’s friend Leon in his HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm, and his acting career exploded with roles in Chris Rock’s Top Five, Barbershop: The Next Cut and other comedies.

In Almost Christmas, Smoove plays Lonnie, husband to Kimberly Elise’s Cheryl, who is still trying to get attention for his past as a basketball player, and after he hooks up with a young woman at the grocery store that leads to a hilarious confrontation over Christmas dinner.

The movie is extremely funny but also quite moving as the ensemble cast, which includes Danny Glover,...

The third weekend in October is starting to become the new home for the most crowded frame of the year. Last year, four new movies opened in wide release (The Last Witch Hunter, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, Rock the Kasbah and Jem and the Holograms, although none could beat The Martian, and two (Rock the Kasbah and Jem and the Holograms) didn't even crack the top 10. This year, four more new movies opened in wide release, Lionsgate's new Madea movie Boo! A Madea Halloween, Paramount's Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Universal's Ouija: Origin of Evil and 20th Century Fox's Keeping Up With the Joneses. While all four new releases did crack the top 10, Boo! A Madea Halloween took the top spot with $27.6 million.

Box Office Mojo reports that, despite opening in the fewest theaters among new releases this weekend (2,260), it easily had the best per-screen average with $12,212. However, this...

Coming-of-age films, especially those about transitioning from the goldfish bowl of high school to the unchecked freedom of college, are a genre unto themselves. Some of the best, such as Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” and James Pondsolt’s “The Spectacular Now,” capture the bittersweet evolution of young life, frozen in a moment of time. Chris McCoy’s “Good Kids,” examines this specific point of change by following the misadventures a group of straight-and-narrow teens who decide to cram four years worth of partying, sex and drugs into one summer before heading off to college.

Continue reading ‘Good Kids’ Is An Uneven Coming-Of-Age Film About The Joy Of Having One Last Hurrah [Review] at The Playlist.

No one will argue that putting your head down, and doing your best in high school won’t set you on a path to a bright future. But is the cost of missing out on key adolescent experiences worth it? Can you recapture that feeling after the moment has gone? The well-meaning characters of the upcoming indie “Good Kids” are about to find out.

Read More: Party With ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ Star Zoey Deutch In Nsfw Trailer For ‘Good Kids’

Starring “Everybody Wants Some!!

Continue reading Exclusive: It’s Time To Party In Clip From ‘Good Kids’ at The Playlist.

This weekend is shaping up to be the busiest of the year so far at the box office, with four new movies hitting theaters in wide release. At one point, it was even supposed to be five new movies arriving wide, until Focus Features pushed its highly-anticipated A Monster Calls to an awards season friendly date of December 23. Last weekend's winner The Accountant will now square off against Paramount's Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Universal's Ouija: Origin of Evil, 20th Century Fox's Keeping Up With the Joneses and Lionsgate's Boo! A Madea Halloween. We're predicting that the action-packed sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back will come out on top with $20.2 million.

Box Office Mojo reports that Jack Reacher: Never Go Back will debut in approximately 3,500 theaters, the highest roll-out of any other new release, with Ouija: Origins of Evil arriving in 3,100 theaters, Keeping Up With the Joneses debuting in 3,000 theaters and Boo!

The summer movie season always brings huge tentpole movies aimed at youngsters on summer vacation, which leads to a slew of box office blockbusters. The fall season doesn't always have the big exciting numbers of the summer season each weekend, but it is when we start to see a lot more adult fare, and potential awards season favorites. While we don't know how it may fare in the Oscar race, Ben Affleck's The Accountant ran away with an easy win this weekend with $24.7 million. This thriller easily beat out fellow newcomers Kevin Hart: What Now? and Max Steel, the latter of which couldn't even crack the top 10.

Box Office Mojo reports that The Accountant earned $24.7 million from 3,332 theaters for a solid $7,417 per-screen average. The movie had the nation's critics almost equally divided, with a 51% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With a $44 million budget, Ben Affleck's The Accountant has...

Last weekend, The Girl On the Train steamrolled its competition with a box office win of $24.5 million in its first frame in theaters. This weekend, it will face a diverse trio of newcomers, Warner Bros.' thriller The Accountant, starring Ben Affleck, Open Road Films' Max Steel starring newcomer Ben Winchell and the stand up concert film Kevin Hart: What Now? arriving in wide release. We're predicting that it should be a runaway victory for The Accountant, which should win with a projected $26.3 million.

Box Office Mojo reports that The Accountant will debut in approximately 3,200 theaters this weekend, while Kevin Hart: What Now? is slated to arrive in 2,500 theaters and Max Steel debuts in 2,000 theaters. Surprisingly, none of these have enough movie reviews posted yet to warrant a score on Rotten Tomatoes, but that will surely change soon. We're predicting that last weekend's winner The Girl On the Train...

"It should be us together!" Vertical Entertainment has released a trailer for the ensemble comedy Good Kids, about four high school kids looking to redefine themselves after graduation. This cheesy sex comedy is about a bunch of kids trying to figure out what to do with themselves after they get out of school, mostly who to hook up with. Starring Zoey Deutch, Nicholas Braun, Israel Broussard, Mateo Arias, Julia Garner, Ashley Judd and Demián Bichir. I'm sure we all know this, but Zoey Deutch looks a lot like Isla Fisher, though doesn't seem nearly as funny. This doesn't look that good, but if you're curious give it a shot. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Chris McCoy's Good Kids, direct from YouTube: Good Kids follows four overachieving high school students who, upon graduating, realize that they’ve missed out on key life experiences by always following the rules.

From RedBand.Ca, take a look @ the restricted international 'red band' trailer supporting the new comedy feature "Good Kids", written and directed by Chris McCoy, starring Nicholas Braun, Zoey Deutch, Israel Broussard, Mateo Arias, Ashley Judd and Julia Garner:

"...four high school students, after graduating from high school, realize that they’ve missed out on life experiences by always being the 'good kids'.

"They decide to completely reinvent themselves in order to enjoy their last time together before heading off to college..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Good Kids"...

Zoey Deutch has spend 2016 partying pretty hard. She kicked off the year in "Dirty Grandpa," is currently in cinemas showing the dudes how it's done in "Everybody Wants Some!!" and on the horizon is the sex-com "Good Kids," and a naughty trailer has landed for the flick. Read More: SXSW Review: Richard Linklater's 'Everybody Wants Some!!' With Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Zoey Deutch & More Nicholas Braun, Israel Broussard, Demián Bichir, and Ashley Judd all feature in this one, about some buttoned-down high school kids who decide to finally let their freak flag fly and indulge in the wild partying they've been missing out on. Boobs and alcohol ensue. Here's the synopsis: From the team that brought you American Pie and About A Boy, Good Kids follows four overachieving high school students on Cape Cod the summer after graduation. After realizing that they missed out on some key...

Teen sensation Bella Thorne is in talks to star in the coming-of-age movie “Be Here Now” for Voltage Pictures and The Audience, TheWrap has exclusively learned. Vineet Dewan will direct from a script he co-wrote with Samantha Taylor Pickett. The project was previously known as “X.O.” Voltage’s Zev Foreman (“Dallas Buyers Club”) and Dominic Rustam (“Good Kids”) will produce with Brian Levy (“30 Minutes or Less”) and Pickett. Voltage’s Nicolas Chartier (“The Hurt Locker”) will executive produce with Rami Perlman, Stephen Curtis and Oliver Luckett. Also Read: Bella Thorne, Halston Sage to Star in 'You Get Me'...

Showtime's Twin Peaks revival is easily one of the most highly-anticipated shows that's currently in production, although fans will still have to wait until sometime next year for the show to debut. As production continues on the series, Deadline has word that yet another new cast member has been added, Ashley Judd. While no details were given regarding the character she's playing, the site also reports that another familiar face from the original Twin Peaks will be returning as well.

Warren Frost, the 90-year-old father of series co-creator Mark Frost, will reprise his role as Dr. Will Haywood in a cameo appearance. Mark Frost is also set to have a cameo on the series, with David Lynch also reprising his role from the original show as Gordon Cole. David Lynch is directing and he co-wrote the TV series with Mark Frost, with the writers creating one massive script that will...

Screen Producers Australia has confirmed its international executive lineup for the Screen Forever 2015 International Partnership Market.

This year's lineup will include International Drama Commissioner, UK broadcaster Channel 4, Simon Maxwell; Voltage Pictures. Vice President, Acquisitions and Development, Babacar Diene (Us); A24 Chief Operating Officer Matthew Bires (Us); All3 Media International Head of Acquisitions, Maartje Horchner (UK); and Acquisitions Executive Emily Gotto from international sales company Protagonist (Us).

The Screen Forever International Partnership Market takes place during Screen Forever 2015 conference, which runs from November 17-19 at the Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne.

Screen Producers Australia Chief Executive Matthew Deaner said he was delighted to have such highly regarded executives participating.

"Each brings with them outstanding experience in developing and overseeing critically and commercially successful productions for film and television around the world," he said..

.Through Screen Forever and the International Partnership Market, the international participants, along with those still to be announced,...

Fledgling content creator Compadre has teamed up with Nicolas Chartier’s Voltage Pictures to co-finance the coming-of-age comedy.

Chris McCoy directs Good Kids starring Nicholas Braun and Zoey Deutch and Voltage is producing alongside Depth Of Field. Production in Massachusetts is scheduled to wrap on October 15.

Gerard Barba and Emmanuel Paintendre are behind the new Compadre Entertainment, which is based in Los Angeles and Miami and aims to co-finance and produce up to five features a year in the $5m-$30m range.

“We’re excited to help launch this venture with Gerard and Emmanuel,” said Chartier (pictured). “It’s great to find like-minded people who share our passion for great stories and that’s what this business really needs.”

“We’ve been talking to Voltage for some time now and can’t think of a better partner or project on which to launch this exciting new venture,” said Barba. “We’re hoping this will be the first...

Ashley Judd and Demián Bichir have signed up for coming-of-age comedy Good Kids, according to Variety.

The film follows four overachieving high school students, who decide that they have missed out on key experiences by always behaving and decide to reinvent themselves before college.

Good Kids, which will be produced by Voltage Pictures and Depth of Field, also stars Nicholas Braun (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Vampire Academy's Zoey Deutch and The Bling Ring's Israel Broussard.

Dayo Okeniyi, Julia Garner and Ginny Gardner have also joined the cast.

Chris McCoy will direct and write, while Justin Bursch executive produces.

That's What I'm Talking About

Tyler Hoechlin ("Teen Wolf"), Blake Jenner ("Glee") and Wyatt Russell ("22 Jump Street") have reportedly been offered the leading roles in "Boyhood" director Richard Linklater's baseball-themed next film "That’s What I’m Talking About".

Set in 1980, the story follows a college freshman who moves into the baseball house at his college and experiences a fraternity like lifestyle with his hard partying teammates. Each of the trio has an offer to play one of the lead baseball players in the film which is said to have the same tone as Linklater's classic "Dazed and Confused". [Source: Deadline]

Andron - The Black Labyrinth

Alec Baldwin and Danny Glover have joined the cast of Francesco Cinquemani's sci-fi/action film "Andron - The Black Labyrinth" for Ambi Pictures. Michelle Ryan, Jon Kortajarena, Gale Harold and Leo Howard also star. Filming begins this month in Malta.

The story follows a...

• Jag star David James Elliott has been cast opposite Martin Freeman and Brian Cox in the indie thriller American Hangman. Elliot will play Detective James Steptoe in the kidnapping film from writer/director Wilson Coneybeare, who worked with Elliot on the movie A Ted Named Gooby. [THR]

• Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men), Timothée Chalamet (Homeland), Grant Bowler (Defiance), and Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight) will star as a family with dark secrets in One & Two. Director Andrew Droz Palermo is directing the film about the family of four living in peaceful isolation in a mysterious farmhouse. Palermo, who made his feature debut co-directing the...

Jena Malone (The Hunger Games sequels, Hatfields & McCoys) and Douglas Smith (Terminator: Genisys, Ouija) have landed lead roles the indie horror pic Bottom Of The World for director Richard Sears. Malone and Smith play Scarlett and Alex, a young couple who stop at a desert motel on their way to start a new life in L.A. When she vanishes, Alex desperately tries to find her but is plunged into a nightmarish world where he finally realizes that he must be in a dream — but he is not the dreamer. Ted Levine also has joined the cast as a sinister preacher who taunts Alex at every turn. Brian Gottlieb wrote the pic, which starts shooting September 1 in Ottawa. Malone is repped by Gersh and Hirsch Wallerstein; Smyth is with Paradigm, More/Medavoy Management and Morris Yorn.

Nicholas Braun (The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, At Middleton) has begun filming The Stanford Prison Experiment.

Fresh off the announcement that she’ll be taking over Jane Levy’s role in “Good Kids”, Deadline reports that Zoey Deutch has been cast as the lead in rom-com “Cover Girl.” Deutch will be playing Meg, a fish out of water from NYC attending Cambridge Business School in England while “financing her studies in an unusual way”. Sue Kramer, who also did a rewrite on the script, will direct the film, originally penned by Gren Wells. Julie Plec, of “Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals” fame, is producing alongside Dignity Film Finance. Deutch is most known for her work on The CW’s [...]

The post Zoey Deutch is a ‘Cover Girl’ in New Rom Com appeared first on Up and Comers.

• Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) is in talks to star opposite Will Smith in the sci-fi thriller Brilliance. The Marcus Sakey adaptation imagines a world where 1 percent of humans (the brilliants) are born with supernatural powers. Federal agent Nick Cooper (Smith) is a 1 percenter who specialized in hunting terrorists. He meets his match in a fellow brilliant intent on starting a civil war. Rapace will play yet another of these special beings who the government also determines is a terrorist. Julius Onah (The Girl Is in Trouble) is set to direct. [Deadline]

• Ken Jeong, of the recently canceled Community, is nearing a deal to join The Duff,...

And so it goes for these tiny, indie films. Jane Levy is out of coming-of-age comedy “Good Kids,” and according to Deadline, “Vampire Academy” star Zoey Deutch is in in her place. Nicholas Braun, who signed on to star alongside Levy last summer, is still in, and the film has also added Craig Roberts and Israel Broussad to round out the lead quartet of characters. As the title suggests, the film will follow four overachieving Cape Cod high school graduates who realize that they’ve missed out on a lot of crucial teenage benchmarks by being the “good kids” for so [...]

The post Zoey Deutch Replaces Jane Levy in ‘Good Kids,’ Craig Roberts, Isreal Broussard Also In appeared first on Up and Comers.

Good Kids, the teen coming-of-age comedy on which writer Chris McCoy will make his directorial debut, has rounded up a cast that includes Nicholas Braun (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Zoey Deutch (Beautiful Creatures), Craig Roberts (Neighbors) and Israel Broussard (The Bling Ring). Nicolas Chartier’s Voltage Pictures will be handling international sales at the Cannes Film Market on the movie, which is being produced by Depth of Field’s Chris and Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano. Voltage Pictures’ Dominic Rustam is onboard as executive producer. Babacar Diene will oversee the project for Voltage. Photos: See 1950s Brigitte Bardot

read more...

Nicolas Chartier’s Voltage Pictures has set Nicholas Braun, Zoey Deutch, Craig Roberts and Israel Broussard for Good Kids. It’s the story of four overachieving high school students living on Cape Cod who, upon graduating from high school, realize that they’ve missed out on key life experiences by always being the “good kids”, and decide to completely reinvent themselves when the summer kids show up, in order to truly enjoy their last time together before college. The Black List script was penned by Chris McCoy, who makes his directing debut. Voltage will sell at Cannes, with Wme repping domestic rights. McCoy is represented by Wme and Gotham Group.

Midnight Special

Kirsten Dunst is set to play the female lead in "Take Shelter" director Jeff Nichols' "Midnight Special" at Warner Bros. Pictures.

The story follows a father and his 8-year old son who go on the run when the dad realizes the boy has some kind of special powers. Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton also star. [Source: Deadline]

The Expendables 3

24-year-old newcomer Glen Powell has been cast in a major role in the upcoming action sequel "The Expendables 3" at Nu Image/Millennium Films.

Powell will play a highly trained combat veteran who is also an expert hacker and drone pilot. Patrick Hughes is directing from a screenplay by Stallone and Richard Wenk. [Source: ]

Good Kids

Nicholas Braun and Jane Levy are set to star in Chris McCoy's "Good Kids". McCoy makes his directorial debut on the project from a Black List script he wrote.

The story follows four...

Call this three for three for screenwriter Chris McCoy. His screenplay for Get Back, about two obsessive Beatles fans that travel through time to stop John Lennon from ever meeting Yoko Ono, hit the Black List and was then optioned by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. Then in 2009, another Black List script – Good Looking, about a futuristic dating service that finds a foolproof, perfect match for every person on Earth – that was then picked up by Dreamworks and Double Feature Films. Now McCoy’s third Black List screenplay, 2011′s Good Kids, may be the first one to actually be made into a feature film. Deadline reports that McCoy will be helming the film as a first-time director, and that Nicholas Braun (of the upcoming zombie/vampire/alien mash-up The Kitchen Sink) will star alongside Jane Levy (Evil Dead). Good Kids will be about four unpopular high school overachievers (two of which, we can assume are Braun and Levy) who...

Nicholas Braun (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Jane Levy (Evil Dead) have signed on to star in Good Kids for Depth of Field and writer-director Chris McCoy (Guardians of the Galaxy).

The story centers on four overachieving high school kids from Cape Cod who decide to reinvent themselves after graduation, when the summer tourism season begins. No details were given for Nicholas Braun and Jane Levy's characters, and the other two primary roles have not been cast yet.

Chris McCoy is making his directorial debut, working from his own screenplay, which landed on The Black List in 2011. Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz and Andrew Milano are producing for Depth of Field. The producers are currently seeking financing for the project.

Aside from working on the Guardians of the Galaxy screenplay, Chris McCoy has had two other scripts land on the Black List, with Get Back in 2007 and Good Looking...

The Black List, the annually published list of the most popular unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, appears to have produced a new success story. Good Kids, the script by newcomer Chris McCoy that was part of the 2011 rankings, is starting to get some legs and has added a couple stars to play two of the movie's the lead roles. Deadline has learned that Nicholas Braun and Jane Levy have signed on for the film and that McCoy is now attached to helm - which will make it his feature directorial debut. Good Kids is actually one of three scripts that McCoy has landed on The Black List, but as of yet none of them have actually been turned into films (in 2007 he landed a screenplay called Get Back and in 2009 it was one titled Good Looking). There aren't too many plot details available about Good Kids, but it's reported that the...

The 2011 Black List script Good Kids looks like it’s moving forward. Deadline reports that Chris McCoy will make his feature directorial debut on the pic based off his own script, and Jane Levy (Evil Dead) and Nicholas Braun (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) have signed on to star. The story centers on “four overachieving high school students in Cape Cod who reinvent themselves after graduation when the summer people come to town.” McCoy, who has three scripts on the Black List, also worked on the screenplay for Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. Chris and Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano will be producing Good Kids through the Depth of Field banner, and they’re currently out for financing. Braun appears in the upcoming Get a Job and is currently filming The Kitchen Sink. Levy currently stars on the ABC comedy series Suburgatory.

Chris McCoy is getting ready to direct his Black List script “Good Kids”, and he’s set rising stars Nicholas Braun and Jane Levy to star in it, according to Deadline. The film, which is out to financiers, follows four overachieving high school kids who reinvent themselves over the summer after graduation when the “summer people” [...]

The post Nicholas Braun and Jane Levy Are “Good Kids” in Indie Comedy appeared first on Up and Comers.

Exclusive: Chris McCoy, who worked on the Guardians Of The Galaxy script, has his own movie to direct. McCoy wrote and will make his feature helming debut on Good Kids, his script that made the 2011 Black List script. Nicholas Braun, who is starring in the Sony genre mash up movie Kitchen Sink will star with Jane Levy, the Suburgatory star who’s coming off the Evil Dead remake. The film is about four overachieving high school students on Cape Cod who reinvent themselves after graduation when the summer people come to town. Depth of Field’s Chris and Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano are producing, and they are out for financing. McCoy seems poised to pop. He has had three scripts on the Black List. Aside from Good Kids, he landed Good Looking on the 2009 list, and it got optioned by Double Feature Films and DreamWorks, and Get Back, which...

Following its appearance on the "Black List" of unproduced screenplays in 2011, screenwriter Chris McCoy's Good Kids has found a director and Deadline is reporting that it will be none other than McCoy himself. The film's official logline indicates that the action follows, "four overachieving high school students in Cape Cod who reinvent themselves during the summer after graduation." McCoy, who went on to work on the screenplay to James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy , will be making his directorial debut with Nicholas Braun ( The Perks of Being a Wallflower ) and Jane Levy ( Evil Dead ) starring. Andrew Miano is attached to produce alongside Chris and Paul Weitz for Depth of Field. (Photo Credit: Alberto Reyes / WENN.com)...

Marvel studios has hired Chris McCoy to write the script for Guardians of the Galaxy. So who's this McCoy guy? You wouldn't recognize anything he's done because none of his scripts have been developed into a movie. But! Apparently he's a solid writer who has had three of his spec scripts land on the Black List. Those specs include Get Back in 2007, Good Looking in 2009, and Good Kids in 2011. According to THR, "his scripts have been praised for their quirky comedic bent." 

This is the second screenwriter to take a crack at the script. The first one came from Nicole Perlman, who was a part of Marvel's writing program. McCoy must have had a good idea for the story, otherwise he wouldn't have been hired. It will be fun to watch this movie go through the development process. 

The Guardians of the Galaxy comic has gone through several different phases over the years,...

We're just under two years to the day until "Guardians of the Galaxy" blasts off into theaters. There's a whole lot of work to be done on that front, from finding a director to casting the thing. Before any of that, however, Marvel needs to get the script right.

To that end, three-time Black List writer Chris McCoy has been hired by Marvel Studios to tackle the latest draft of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" screenplay. The Hollywood Reporter reports that McCoy will handle the rewrite following the first draft written by Nicole Perlman, a "graduate of Marvel's now-defunct writing program."

McCoy's previous credits include Black List scripts "Get Back" in 2007, "Good Looking" in 2009 and "Good Kids" in 2011, with his work "praised for [its] quirky comedic bent," or so says THR. Sounds like a good fit for the guy who needs to put quips in Rocket Raccoon's mouth, at the very least,...

Marvel Studios has hired screenwriter Chris McCoy, a fixture on The Black List, to write the screenplay for Guardians of the Galaxy, the studio's Phase II superhero ensemble.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding the exact lineup of this new superhero team, although now we know exactly who will be featured. The team members include Drax the Destroyer, a green warrior who is driven to kill Thanos, Groot, a man-tree hybrid, Star-Lord, a half-human/half-alien renegade, Rocket Raccoon, a genetically-engineered animal with a penchant for explosives, and Gamora, who was saved by Thanos but now wants to do battle with the villain. Thanos was revealed as the primary villain in the mid-credit scene of Marvel's The Avengers.

We reported a month ago that Nicole Perlman wrote the original draft of the screenplay. That report also revealed Marvel Studios will release this new adventure on August 1, 2014.

Chris McCoy's...

Marvel Studios seemed very confident in announcing a Guardians of the Galaxy movie at Comic-Con last month, but that doesn’t mean its plans for “Phase 2″ involve just adding water. THR has learned that three-time Black List writer Chris McCoy has been hired for rewrites on the 2014 intergalactic ensemble movie.

The report also confirms the lineup of Guardians who will appear in the film. They are as follows:

Drax the Destroyer, a human resurrected as a green warrior with the sole purpose of killing Thanos (the villain in the Avengers final-scene tease); Groot, a giant tree-man; Star-Lord, a gun-toting half-human/half-alien intergalactic vigilante; Rocket Raccoon, a genetically engineered animal with a knack for guns and explosives; and Gamora, the last survivor of her species who was saved by Thanos to be his assassin but now battles him.

We can probably assume that The Avengers 2 villain Thanos will also appear considering...

After making the Black List three times — Get Back (2007), Good Looking (2009) and Good Kids (2011) – Chris McCoy is finally getting his hands on a big time project coming in the form of some superheroes for Marvel Studios. According to THR, McCoy has been hired to rewrite Guardians of the Galaxy, which was revealed in late June and then later affirmed at Comic-Con last month.

After hitting shelves back in 1969, the comic book has gone under the rebooting knife, which resulted in a modern update of the series back in 2008 (which will act as the main source material for this feature). Like The Avengers, Guardians has a group of superheroes fighting a greater evil. The line-up includes Drax the Destroyer, “a human resurrected as a green warrior with the sole purpose of killing Thanos” (who we saw in the final sequences of Avengers); Groot, “a giant tree-man”; Star-Lord, “a gun-toting half-human/half-alien intergalactic vigilante”; Rocket Raccoon,...

Progress marches on for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy as the superheroic studio has tapped three-time Black List scribe Chris McCoy for a script rewrite.  The first pass on the space adventure film was turned in by Nicole Perlman, a graduate of Marvel's writing program (which no longer exists).  Perlman's previous projects included Challenger, a draft about the 1986 shuttle disaster and an untitled project centering on Neil Armstrong.  While she clearly has the space angle down, McCoy's efforts have been positively singled out for their "quirky comedic bents."  More on McCoy and Guardians of the Galaxy after the jump. Heat Vision reports that McCoy will do a rewrite on the Guardians of the Galaxy script, the first film of Marvel's second wave that is an original, non-sequel. McCoy had previously had three of his films selected for the Black List: 2007's Get Back, 2009's Good Looking and 2011's Good Kids.

Though the news leaked before the event, the Marvel team still managed to create waves with their announcement at Comic-Con that one of the studio’s big new movies would be Guardians Of The Galaxy. The development process is continuing on the film, with Chris McCoy drafted in to rewrite the script. McCoy is taking over from Marvel writing graduate Nicole Perlman, who wrote the initial draft bringing Drax The Destroyer (a human brought back from the dead to battle Thanos), Groot (a living tree creature), Star-Lord (a half-human / half-alien vigilante), Rocket Raccoon (a… racoon who likes to use heavy weaponry), Gamora (the last of her species who Thanos thought would work for him as an assassin, but who turned against him) and more to the big screen.Though he hasn’t actually had a script produced yet, McCoy's work has cropped up no less than three times on the...

Exclusive: Chris McCoy, who has landed three scripts on The Black List, has just made a deal for a high-concept romantic comedy pitch at Disney with Mandeville partners David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman producing. The plot is under wraps, but it involves iconic fairy tales, something that has been a preoccupation for the studio. McCoy’s Black List scripts are Get Back, which has Don Scardino attached to direct; Good Looking, the Double Features-produced pic that has Randall Einhorn directing and Allison Brie to star; and Good Kids, the Depth of Field-produced film on which McCoy is attached to make his directorial debut. He’s repped by Wme and Gotham Group. Related: Disney Pays Seven Figures For Scott Rosenberg Pitch...