Latest in John Lesher

The beleaguered Hollywood Foreign Press Association had a good piece of news this week with the announcement that the landmark 80th edition of its Golden Globe awards will return to primetime TV after a year off the air. Under a one-year deal with NBC and Peacock, the show will be broadcast and streamed across the…

A host of global independent producers attending the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival have voiced their concerns on the issue of IP retention when it comes to working with the streamers in their local territories and are urging more agreeable terms in partnerships. "You cannot run a company out of a producing…

EXCLUSIVE: John Lesher has hired John-Eric Capps to be Le Grisbi Productions’ new Head of Television, and he has promoted Dylan Weathered to become Head of Motion Picture Production. Capps was previously executive vice president of development & production for Tony Krantz’s Flame Ventures, where he developed series…

This year's 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 29 – July 7) will present a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema to actor and director Tim Robbins. Oscar-winner Robbins, known for a string of memorable performances including in Mystic River and The Shawshank Redemption and for…

EXCLUSIVE: Michelle Williams has been set by Amazon Studios to star in and produce This Is Jane, the true story of a Chicago woman who founded and ran the underground abortion service Jane. Kimberly Peirce is directing, and John Lesher, Williams and Peter Heller are producing. The drama penned by Dan Loflin is based…

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon has acquired the spec screenplay This is Jane written by Dan Loflin, in what we heard was a six-figure deal for John Lesher's Le Grisbi Productions to produce. The project, which provides strong roles across the board in a story about defying the law for the safety of women, will be looking for a…

Richie Merritt, a 15-year-old Baltimore kid with no previous acting experience, has landed the coveted role in the biopic White Boy Rick. He will play Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe Jr, who as a 14-year-old in mid-1980s Detroit became an undercover informant for law enforcement and established himself as a major drug…

EXCLUSIVE: Studio 8 and producers John Lesher and Scott Franklin are compiling one heck of an ensemble cast for their feature drama White Boy Rick. Bruce Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rory Cochrane have just joined Matthew McConaughey in the film being directed by Yann Demange. The film reunites Dern and Leigh who…

Christian Bale is in talks to board Scott Cooper’s next project, Hostiles. John Lesher will produce the Black Mass director’s new feature with Ken Kao financing. The film would reunite the director with his Out Of The Furnace leading man. That 2013 drama also starred Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson. Set in 1892, Host…

EXCLUSIVE:  Sarah Polley is adapting David Gilbert’s acclaimed novel & Sons for Brett Ratner and his RatPac Entertainment. John Lesher is also in talks to come aboard as a producer. The novel, which was showered with critical praise on its debut last year, follows a legendary – and reclusive- Great American writer…

Notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger came to Deadline’s big awards-season event, The Contenders Presented By Deadline, which took place last month at the DGA Theatre before a sold-out crowd of AMPAS and key guild members. OK, Bulger didn’t appear in person. He’s in prison. But some very key filmmakers who have…

EXCLUSIVE: Much-in-demand Brit director Yann Demange is set to direct a Rick Wershe Jr.-inspired project for Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8. The untitled feature is inspired by the true story of teenager Wershe, who became an undercover informant for the police during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for…