Latest in Breakthrough

EXCLUSIVE: The talent contest is getting a new medium. Pop group The Chainsmokers, who are behind hits such as Closer featuring Halsey, are launching Breakthrough, which is thought to be the first ever singing competition developed and launched as a podcast. The series will launch on Amazon-owned Audible. Following a…

Universal Music Group Nashville said Monday that it has signed Chrissy Metz, a star on NBC’s ensemble smash TV series This Is Us. The news comes the same day that the Diane Warren-penned song “I’m Standing With You” sung by Metz in the film Breakthrough earned an Oscar nomination. “I am beyond excited. I was like…

Fox Television Stations has opted not to proceed with a RuPaul Charles daily syndicated talk show. Titled RuPaul, the project, produced by Telepictures, had a three-week test run this summer on select Fox TV stations, including WNYW in New York and KTTV in Los Angeles. It was one of four strips to get a limited run on…

At last, women are directing tentpole features, an arena in which they've historically been sidelined. The big comic book franchises are on board too, finally hiring from the plethora of talented women in the industry. Cathy Yan and Ava DuVernay are helming two of DC Films' upcoming blockbusters for Warner Bros., Birds…

4th Update, Sunday 10:17 AM Writethru: With chart As we were the first to say yesterday very early in the morning, it’s the lowest Easter weekend at the box office in well over a decade – actually, since 2003, per ComScore this morning (when it hit $107.1M), with the last three days totaling $110.8M in US/Canada…

Disney’s first Fox release under the combined regime, the faith-based DeVon Franklin produced Breakthrough notched second place in its opening day yesterday with an estimated $1.7M at 2,764 runs behind New Line/DC’s Shazam! which took No. 1 in his second Wednesday with $1.96M (-39% from Tuesday at 4,306) for a running…

For the first time since 2014, Easter won’t have a huge multi-quadrant event film opening and dominating this weekend, and as we explained last week, that’s due to Disney dating Avengers: Endgame on the calendar next Friday. The Russo Brothers-directed Marvel film is expected to be one of the five highest grossing…

EXCLUSIVE: In a time when cynicism and skeptics run rampant, Breakthrough looks to offer a moment of comfort and hope via the story of Jim Allison. Making its world premiere at SXSW on March 9, the documentary tells the tale of a stubborn man's visionary quest to find a cure for cancer. Directed by Bill Haney, the doc…

“He’s been underwater for more than 15 minutes,” one first responder says. “This is gonna be a recovery, not a rescue,” another frets. But then they find him. Joyce (Chrissy Metz) gets the kind of call every parent dreads in the first trailer for Breakthrough, a faith-based drama formerly titled The Impossible. Her…

EXCLUSIVE: Dennis Haysbert has been cast in Fox 2000’s Breakthrough (previously titled The Impossible), the faith-based drama based on the true story of Joyce Smith's account of her son's miraculous recovery detailed in her novel The Impossible: The Miraculous Story of a Mother's Faith and Her Child's Resurrection…

True Blood alum Sam Trammell is on the call sheet for Fox 2000’s Roxann Dawson-directed film, The Impossible, a faith-based true story of Joyce Smith’s account of how her faith and prayer led to her son’s recovery after he was proclaimed lifeless. Chrissy Metz stars as Smith, along with Josh Lucas, Mike Colter, and…

Josh Stamberg, who co-starred in Showtime’s The Affair, has been added to the cast of Stephanie Turner’s drama, Justine, along with Bridget Kallal and Ravi Cabot-Conyers.  Scandal‘s Darby Stanchfield, Glynn Turman, newcomer Daisy Prescott, and Turner also star in the film about a single mom who takes a job as a…