In today’s film news roundup, three-time Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki will shoot David O. Russell’s movie, “The Woman Who Ran” finds a home, Entertainment Partners buys We Got POP and Clark Backo is starring in “Confession.”
DEVELOPMENT
Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki has boarded David O. Russell’s untitled New Regency movie, starring Christian Bale, Michael B. Jordan and Margot Robbie.
Lubezki, best known by his nickname “Chivo,” won the Academy Award in three consecutive years starting in 2013 for “Gravity,” “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” all directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Russell will direct the movie from his own script. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Executives are hoping to start production in the spring.
Matthew Budman (“Joy,” “American Hustle”) is producing. New Regency will produce and distribute through its deal with 20th Century Studios — formerly known as Fox. The news was first reported by Deadline.
ACQUISITIONS
Cinema Guild has bought U.S. distribution rights for Hong Sangsoo’s “The Woman Who Ran.”
The South Korean drama made its world premiere last week in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for best director. The film marks the director’s 24th feature.
Kim Minhee portrays a woman who has three separate encounters with friends (played by Seo Younghwa, Song Seonmi and Kim Saebyuk) while her husband is on a business trip.
Popular on Variety
“With characteristic humor and grace, Hong takes a simple premise and spins a web of interconnecting philosophies and coincidences,” Cinema Guild said. “‘The Woman Who Ran’ is a subtle, powerful look at dramas small and large faced by women everywhere.”
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Entertainment Partners has bought London-based We Got POP, a workforce and production management platform, for an undisclosed price.
CEO Kate McLaughlin will continue to lead POP’s operations and will join the Entertainment Partners executive team.
“Bringing together Central Casting with POP naturally complements our strategy to modernize and integrate the production process,” said president and CEO Mark Goldstein.
The deal will also allow Entertainment Partners to expand Central Casting’s reach across the United States, and into Europe and Canada.
CASTINGS
Clark Backo, Nolan Gerard Funk, Sarah Hay, Sterling Beaumon and Michael Ironside will star in the crime thriller “Confession,” Variety has learned exclusively.
The film is directed by Dayna Hanson and written by Gregory Mulligan. “Confession” is produced by Hay, along with Yale Productions’ Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman and Michael J. Rothstein.
Backo stars an up-and-coming assistant district attorney who takes on the case of a young woman, played by Hay, who has accused three men of a sexual assault. Backo’s character must put her career on the line in order to uncover a much deeper web of mystery, murder and deception.
Hanson’s debut feature film, “Improvement Club,” premiered at the 2013 South by Southwest Film Festival. Backo starred in the backdoor pilot of CW’s “Supernatural” and was a series regular on the Netflix show “21 Thunder.”