Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix franchise, Memento), Douglas Smith (Don’t Worry Darling, Big Little Lies) and Frank Grillo (The Purge: Anarchy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) are teaming up for post-apocalyptic feature Die Alone. 

Lowell Dean (WolfCop) is writing and directing the feature, for which Archstone has acquired international rights. The company has begun sales in Cannes. Principal photography will begin this June in Saskatchewan, Canada. Read More

EXCLUSIVE: Tom Hiddleston (Thor franchise) and Mark Hamill (Star Wars) are set to star in new Stephen King adaptation The Life Of Chuck, which will be a hot package at the upcoming Cannes market.

Doctor Sleep and The Haunting Of Hill House helmer Mike Flanagan is directing, scripting and producing for Intrepid Pictures alongside fellow producer Trevor Macy. Read More

EXCLUSIVE: Sony’s 3000 Pictures has acquired Delia Ephron’s New York Times best-selling memoir Left On Tenth. Ephron will adapt, with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Laurence Mark producing the feature. Daryl Roth is executive producing. Ephron will simultaneously write and develop the memoir as a play for Roth to produce and Susan Stroman to direct, marking the first time both a feature and play adaptation will be developed at the same time. Read More

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has signed a first-look deal with actor, writer, and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone and his company Balboa Productions. 

Under the multi-year pact, Stallone will write, direct, produce, and star in film and television projects — both scripted and unscripted — developed through Balboa Productions, which he founded with Braden Aftergood. They will stream on Prime Video, with movies likely to get a theatrical release first. The company already is working on the genre film Scavenger Hunt, written and directed by Elle Callahan (Witch Hunt) for MGM/Amazon. Read More

The powerful combination of composer Justin Hurwitz and film director Damien Chazelle was once again triumphant at Tuesday’s (Jan. 10) 2023 Golden Globes, where Hurwitz took home best original score for Chazelle’s Babylon.

This is hardly the duo’s first success story: Hurwitz is now four-for-four at the Globes working on Chazelle films exclusively, previously winning best original score and best original song (“City of Stars”) for La La Land in 2017 and best original score for First Man in 2019. Read More

The prequel series beat out the final seasons of Better Call Saul and Ozark, Netflix’s The Crown (a two-time past winner) and Apple TV+’s Severance for the award at the 2023 Golden Globes on Tuesday. House of the Dragon‘s win for its first season is also the first series win for the HBO franchise at the Golden Globes. Despite five nominations for best drama (and four Emmy wins), Game of Thrones ended its run on HBO without a series trophy at the awards. Read More

The Matthew Kennedy (Inheritance) script will see Beckinsale play top level CIA agent Avery Graves who is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive and help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want. Read More

Ken Kleinberg was recently quoted in Robert Marich’s Los Angeles Business Journal article “Streaming Services Are Upending Hollywood’s Business Culture.” The article discusses how streaming services have affected the landscape of Hollywood in recent years. Ken offered his insight on the topic.

“It’s dawning on a lot of people in the business that you can’t replace the avalanche of cash that is generated by a global box office smash…So there has to be a new way to share in the ‘upside’ of movies and, so far, what has happened is much of that upside has gone to streamers who are taking the risk with some very expensive projects. It hasn’t settled down yet, and I think we’ll see different paradigms emerge.”

The full article can be found below (subscription required).
Streaming Services Are Upending Hollywood’s Business Culture

Firm partner Jill Smith was recently profiled in the cover story of the 2021 edition of Southern California Super Lawyers Magazine, entitled “The Big Picture.” Introducing Jill as “the hip, sardonic attorney making deals for Lego, Rube Goldberg and Godzilla,” the feature spotlights Jill’s extensive career in entertainment law and her perspective on COVID-19’s impact on the industry.

“You have to be able to think about things in an expansive way,” Jill says of her approach towards dealmaking. “You certainly have to think about your client’s needs. But my goal is always to make a deal, not kill a deal, and that means thinking about what does the other side want to get out of a deal? What are they trying to do?”

To read the full feature, click here. 

The firm is pleased to announce that Jill Smith was included on Thomson Reuters’ exclusive list of 2021 Top 100 Southern California Super Lawyers. Christine Cuddy, Candace Carlo, and Jill Smith were also all recognized as 2021 Southern California Top 50 Women Super Lawyers.

Each year, “Super Lawyers” recognizes the top lawyers in Southern California via a patented multiphase selection process involving peer nomination, independent research and peer evaluation. The Southern California lawyers who receive the highest point totals during this selection process are further recognized in Southern California Super Lawyers Top Lists.

The full lists can be found below.
Top 100: 2021 Southern California Super Lawyers
Top 50: 2021 Women Southern California Super Lawyers