Days before Warner Bros. unleashes its behemoth $250M-budgeted Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the studio is giving some TLC to what is essentially an arthouse release: Jeff Nichols’ sci-fi chase pic Midnight Special. Rather than make the typical major studio mistake we’ve seen lately by taking a niche picture…

Focus Features has just announced that they will be opening Jeff Nichols’ Loving exclusively on Nov. 4 with a further expansion the following Friday on Nov. 11. Nichols has the Warner Bros. sci-fi drama Midnight Special opening this Friday in New York and Los Angeles. Focus launched its Oscar wniner The Theory of Every…

UPDATE: I’m now told that the deal was worth $9 million for North America and most international territories by Focus, which sees the Loving’s struggle through racism as a love story for the ages. EXCLUSIVE: In its first statement acquisition since Focus Features was overhauled, the Universal-based specialty label has…

Warner Bros had dated Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special for November 25 but has now pushed the pic to March 18, 2016. The pic stars Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Jaeden Lieberher and Sam Shepard and centers on a father and his 8-year old who go on the run when dad realizes the boy has some…

EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Nichols, the director of the acclaimed indies Mud and Take Shelter, has solidified his next film. Big Beach and Raindog Films are teaming on Loving, a drama that Nichols wrote and will direct for a September start in Virginia, with Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga starring as Mildred and Richard Loving…

EXCLUSIVE: The Emmys aren’t even over yet, but the  race to be the first movie awards DVD screener of 2013 to land in Oscar voters’ mailboxes is over. And the winner is…..Mud. The Roadside Attractions (with Lionsgate)  late April release starring Matthew McConaughey has been sent to all Academy members with some…

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has set Kirsten Dunst to play the female lead in Midnight Special. She will star opposite Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton in the Jeff Nichols-directed film. In the film, a father and his 8-year old go on the run when dad realizes the boy has some kind of special powers. Nichols, who last…

UPDATE: Took awhile, but I’ve gotten clarity on this Jeff Nichols Warner Bros project, and it was worth the wait. Michael Shannon, the Boardwalk Empire star who turned in a powerhouse performance in Nichols’ Take Shelter and appeared more recently in Mud, will star in Midnight Special, which Nichols wrote and will…

Writer-director Jeff Nichols’ third feature is screening at Sundance starting tomorrow. The tale which debuted last May at Cannes involves a pair of teenage boys who discover a boat wedged in a tree on an island in the Mississippi River. A drifter played by Matthew McConaughey intrudes and complications ensue. Tye…

Jeff Nichols‘ Mud premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions later jointly acquired it for the U.S. with a release coming this spring. Before that, it will premiere Stateside as part of the Spotlight section of Sundance which kicks off today. In the film, two…

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox has come up with a short list to replace Rupert Wyatt as the director of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. I’m hearing that Cloverfield’s Matt Reeves is atop the list, along with The Disappearance Of Alice Creed helmer J Blakeson, 28 Weeks Later helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Take Shelter…

EXCLUSIVE: Chernin Entertainment has acquired The Boy Who Played With Fusion, the true story of Taylor Wilson, a 14-year-old Arkansan who became the youngest ever to achieve nuclear fusion. They are negotiating with Take Shelter and Mud writer-director Jeff Nichols to develop the film as a helming vehicle. The film…