Latest in Alexander Payne

EXCLUSIVE: Will Sharpe, who starred in Netflix and BBC drama Giri/Haji and directed quirky British comedy Flowers, is taking over directing Olivia Colman drama series Landscapers. Sharpe replaces Alexander Payne, who was initially set as the director of the HBO and Sky co-production, which is produced by Chernobyl…

In a recent social media post, Rose McGowan wrote that filmmaker Alexander Payne engaged in a sexual act with her while she was 15 years old. Payne today responds with a firm denial in this guest column. He will have no further comment on the matter, he said. *** Rose McGowan and I have always had very cordial…

(Updated with more information) Rose McGowan has accused The Descendants and Sideways director Alexander Payne of predatory behavior. The actress shared her alleged experience with Payne in a chain of tweets Sunday and Monday, recounting spending time with the two-time Oscar winner when she was 15 years old. “You sat…

EXCLUSIVE: Alexander Payne has attached to direct a re-imagining of Babette’s Feast, the 1988 Oscar-winning Danish Film which Gabriel Axel wrote and directed from a story by Karen Blixen. The project was set up by Unique Features, the production shingle that former New Line founder Bob Shaye created with his late…

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has abruptly halted an imminent production start on an untitled Alexander Payne-directed drama that was to star Mads Mikkelsen. Sources said filming was set to begin next week, until a rights issue brought the whole thing to a screeching halt. I’m trying to get to the bottom of this — sounds like…

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has made a deal to finance and release the next film by director Alexander Payne. Sources said the film doesn’t yet have a title, but that it is going to star Mads Mikkelsen, who is finalizing his deal. It was described to me as a father/daughter story about a Danish journalist who takes a road-trip…

Sideways novelist Rex Pickett has formed a joint venture with EFG-Renascence Productions to develop a stage musical based on the book adapted by Alexander Payne into the hit 2004 film. The project was announced today by EFG-Renascence founder Solomon J. LeFlore and partner Susan Gee. Pickett will write the musical in…

EXCLUSIVE: The hot project du jour: The Menu, a dark satirical comedy that Alexander Payne will direct. So far, Emma Stone and Ralph Fiennes have signed on to star, and it’s anticipated that other swell names will enlist. Scripted by Will Tracy & Seth Reiss, the pic focuses on an eccentric culinary event that is…

EXCLUSIVE: Months after becoming the Oscars’ oldest winner for adapting Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory has found a follow-up. He’ll adapt for director Alexander Payne and Fox Searchlight The Judge’s Will, based on an article in the New Yorker. It is a special assignment, given that the article was written by Ruth…

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios is in early talks with director Alexander Payne to come aboard and helm The Burial. Scripted by Doug Wright, the drama is based on the true legal exploits of Willie Gary, a successful personal-injury lawyer from Mississippi. He takes on the case of Jeremiah O’Keefe, the owner of a local chain…

There is no smarter director of wry and human comedy than Alexander Payne, whose filmography includes gems like Election, Nebraska,  About Schmidt and Oscar-winning scripts like Sideways and The Descendants. As I say in my video review above, his latest, Downsizing, fits right in but also might be his most ambitious…

When visual effects supervisor James E. Price met with Alexander Payne regarding Downsizing—his first film in which visual effects play a major role—Price expressed his desire to work on the film, calling it a dream job. “Why?” Payne inquired. “It doesn’t have a lot of the traditional things maybe associated with…