Variety LOS ANGELES: Vine stars
LOS ANGELES: Amy Smart, Burt Reynolds and Jack Griffo will star in the inspirational family drama “And Then There Was Light” Variety has learned exclusively.
Sweet Tomato Films and Character Brigade are producing the movie with Dori Rath and Joseph Restaino producing through Sweet Tomato Films. Castille Landon is directing from her own script.
The story centers on a young girl who loses her eyesight after a traumatic accident. Her parents seek out various options to help her adjust, including enrolling her in a program for seeing-eye dogs, but she is unable to connect until the head trainer of Southeastern Guide Dogs trains a miniature horse to be her companion.
Smart will play the mother of the girl and Reynolds will portray the trainer. (RTRS)
LOS ANGELES:
Continuing its trend of spinning animated classics into live-action movies, Disney is now developing a second installment of its first fully animated feature film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Sources confirmed to Variety that the studio is developing “Rose Red” which follows Snow White’s sister. Disney will use a pitch by Evan Daugherty to polish the original draft by Justin Merz. The latter’s script has been around for some time, but Disney recently picked it up after Daugherty came to execs with an updated pitch on the story.
Tripp Vinson is producing the pic via his Vinson Films banner.
Rose Red is a character that appeared in “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” in an adventure that had no relation to the more well-known “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” fairy tale that inspired the classic Disney animated film. (RTRS)
LOS ANGELES:
“Born to Be Blue” writer-director Robert Budreau has signed with Agency for the Performing Arts, Variety has learned exclusively.
Budreau broke into the entertainment business after attending the Vancouver Film School and making a series of award-winning short films. He wrote and directed his debut feature “That Beautiful Somewhere”, which garnered a Genie Award nomination. “Born to Be Blue”, starring
Ethan Hawke as trumpeter Chet Baker, premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival to strong critical reaction and is currently in its US release through IFC Films. Hawke told Variety’s Kristopher Tapley that Budreau’s film attempted to move past Baker’s iconography from photos, in which people are often trying to project an image. The aim was to capture the introverted, shy, funny and even fragile man he would observe in interviews. (RTRS)
Jason Nash and Brandon Calvillo have joined “FML” an upcoming road trip comedy film from Digital Riot Media, Variety has learned. “FML” will begin shooting in April with Nash starring and directing from his own screenplay. Nash and Calvillo together have more than 8 million followers on the Vine platform.
The cast includes T.J. Miller and Andy Daly of “Silicon Valley”, Patton Oswalt and
Ken Marino. Digital Riot
Media CEO John Baldecchi, producer of “Point Break”, will produce alongside Kevin
Herrera under Herrera’s new banner Moopsy.
LOS ANGELES:
In honor of the April 2016 release of “The Jungle Book,” Parisian fashion house Kenzo has designed a limited-edition capsule collection that’s inspired by Disney’s live-action rendition of the classic children’s tale.
To pay homage to the story’s animated origins, the luxury clothing label’s creative directors, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, sourced original drawings from the Disney archives’ late ’60s collection of “The Jungle Book” sketches to design the apparel.
Offering both men’s and women’s ready-to-wear pieces, the collection boasts vibrant jungle-esque prints and features designs based on classic “The Jungle Book” characters Mowgli, Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, King Louie the orangutan and more. To further commemorate its inaugural collaboration with Disney, Kenzo’s “The Jungle Book” collection will also feature sweaters and tees with the face of the story’s suave antagonist, Shere Khan the tiger — a nod to the brand’s signature tiger motif. Other pieces include silk shirts, dresses, jackets, trousers and shorts.
The collection launched April 1 at Kenzo brick-and-mortar locations and select department stores such as Bergdorf Goodman in NYC, Selfridges in London, Excelsior in Milan and the Corner in Berlin. Starting April 7, it’ll be available on Kenzo.com.
2016’s “The Jungle Book,” which stars Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and Hollywood newcomer Neel Sethi, hits theaters April 15. (RTRS)
NEW YORK:
Amazon has been making moves over the past few months to position itself as a force in the ready-to-wear fashion world.
The Seattle-based online retail titan has already revolutionized how consumers shop and has been selling clothes for more than a decade.
In 2006, it bought the site Shopbop and snapped up online footwear go-to Zappos three years later.
But its steps in recent months — some overt and others more under-the-radar — signal that Amazon is speeding up its foray into fashion.
For one, Amazon launched a daily, free halfhour online show on fashion in early March, its first-ever live-streaming program.
It also became the main partner of the fledgling New York Men’s Fashion Week, which held its second season of shows in January.
And the giant founded by US entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has also begun airing “The Fashion Fund,” a reality show during which young designers face off against each other in a competition sponsored by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) that organizes New York Fashion Week.
As for its more muted moves — these are visible on Amazon.com where new fashion labels have popped up that, it turns out, have been trademarked by the tech giant.
The labels Lark & Ro, North Eleven and Franklin Tailored have been registered by Amazon over the past few months, according to data accessed by AFP on the website of the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
After focusing on clothes designed, made and sold by others, Amazon — whose revenue in 2015 passed the $100 billion mark — is developing its own clothing lines. (AFP)
LOS ANGELES:
Paramount has picked up the movie rights to Greg Grunberg’s two-part graphic novel “Dream Jumper.” Grunberg will team up with long-time buddy JJ Abrams and his Bad Robot banner to produce the adaptation.
The story follows a boy who discovers he can jump into other people’s dreams. But that power turns into a nightmare, literally, when his friends begin falling into an endless sleep, and an inhabitant of the dream world wants the boy’s abilities for itself.
Grunberg co-wrote the book with Lucas Turnbloom, who also illustrated. Scholastic is publishing the first book June 28, 2016.
Lindsey Weber of Bad Robot will produce with Abrams. Abrams and Grunberg’s ties go back to Abrams’ TV show “Felicity,” which Abrams created and Grunberg co-starred in. Since then, Grunberg has been a staple in Abrams’ projects; he co-starred in Abrams’ “Alias”, and made cameos in “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible 3” and most recently “Star Wars: the Force Awakens.”
For his solo credits, Grunberg most recently finished his stint on “Heroes: Reborn,” where he reprised his role of Matt Parkman.
Turn-bloom is an awardwinning cartoonist and illustrator who’s best known for his comic strip Imagine THIS. (RTRS) LOS ANGELES: Simon Cowell is coming back to American television this summer, joining the judges on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” following Howard Stern’s departure of the hit summer series.
“It was worth the wait to come back to this,” Cowell said on a Friday panel promoting “America’s Got Talent” at NBC’s annual Summer Press Tour.
Cowell, the co-creator of “America’s Got Talent” and the creator of the global “Got Talent” franchise, revealed that he was offered a judging gig on “AGT” five years ago, but he wasn’t available — but it was a more recent event that made him realize he did in fact want to sit on the panel.
“When I came down to watch the show being filmed, I was sitting in the audience thinking, ‘They are very good, this panel.’ I was kind of hoping one of them would hurt themselves so I could go, ‘I’m here!’ because it really looks so much fun, this show,” Cowell joked, recalling a time when he watched Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Mel B and the “AGT” crew at a show at Radio City Music Hall.