Latest in Deadline Contenders

Deadline’s Contenders Film kicked off at the inaugural Los Angeles Capital of Creativity and Culture (LA3C), a two-day music, art and food festival. The in-person and hybrid event took place in downtown L.A. where the talent and creatives behind some of the buzziest films discussed their art amid awards season. Films…

When Olivia Wilde went in to pitch herself to Annapurna to direct Booksmart, she didn’t refer to other teenage movies of yore, i..e the John Hughes or Amy Heckerling canon, rather the Denzel Washington LA noir Training Day.  The reference spoke to the intensity she aimed to incorporate in what could be seen on its…

Deadline's ninth annual The Contenders Los Angeles kicked off at the Director’s Guild of America on Saturday by hosting studios showcasing their top contending films, from Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story among the other great films on the…

Deadline's ninth annual The Contenders Los Angeles kicked off at the Director’s Guild of America on Saturday by hosting panel guests including Awkwafina of The Farewell, Jamie Foxx of Just Mercy and Laura Dern of Marriage Story among many others. Click on the photo above to launch the gallery. Stay tuned for more…

Deadline's ninth annual The Contenders Los Angeles kicked off at the Director’s Guild of America on Saturday by hosting panel guests including Jordan Peele of Us, Margot Robbie of Bombshell and Mark Ruffalo of Dark Waters among many others. Click on the photo above to launch the gallery. Stay tuned for more galleries…

Bradley Cooper had a shot some years ago to play the tortured country rock singer, Jack, in A Star Is Born. Clint Eastwood was then attached to direct. But being a young actor, Cooper said, “I knew, deep down, I hadn’t lived enough and wouldn’t play that character.” But then he did – he played hardened NAVY S.E.A.L…

Green Book follows the story of American pianist Don Shirley and his music road tour in the 1960s South with his Italian-American driver and bodyguard Tony the Lip. The real Tony went on to be a character actor in an array of movies such as The Pope of Greenwich Village. But it was his son Nick Vallelonga who would…

Mary Poppins was the first film that Chicago filmmaker Rob Marshall saw as a child, so when the opportunity arose to direct the sequel, he stepped up, not just because of fandom, but “to protect the first film”. Another draw for him? The fact that a family musical is an oasis “in these dark times we live in. It’s so…