Reese Witherspoon & Nicole Kidman Reteam On Deal For Liane Moriarty Novel ‘Truly Madly Guilty’
Reese Witherspoon and her Pacific Standard production banner have re-teamed with Nicole Kidman and her Blossom Films to option the film rights to best-selling novelist Liane Moriarty’s Truly Madly Guilty. Witherspoon and Kidman will produce with Pacific Standard’s Bruna Papandrea and Blossom’s Per Saari. The novel has topped the New York Times bestseller lists, and Witherspoon and Kidman’s companies are in postproduction on a limited series based on Moriarty’s Big Little Lies for HBO. The series was adapted by David E. Kelley and directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and stars Witherspoon, Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz and Alexander Skaarsgard.
Through one fateful event, Truly Madly Guilty explores the most fundamental relationships —marriage, sex, parenthood and friendship — and how too often we don’t appreciate how extraordinary our ordinary lives are until it’s too late. The tale takes place over a weekend, among six adults and three cute kids. The Australian author wrote What Alice Forgot, Three Wishes, The Hypnotist’s Love Story and The Husband’s Secret, as well as a line of children’s books.
Both companies have proved good at identifying and acquiring tastemaker material. Pacific Standard produced Wild, Gone Girl and Hot Pursuit and is percolating Jessica Knoll’s Luckiest Girl Alive at Lionsgate and Ashley’s War at Fox 2000. Blossom produced Rabbit Hole, The Family Fang and Monte Carlo and is adapting The Silent Wife, Reconstructing Amelia, and the off-Broadway vampire hit Cuddles.
The author is repped by Jerry Kalajian of Intellectual Property Group and attorney Matt Sugarman on behalf of Fiona Inglis at Curtis Brown Australia and Faye Bender in the US. CAA reps both production companies, and Hansen, Jacobson reps Pacific Standard and attorney Alan Wertheimer reps Blossom.
Reese Witherspoon in Talks to Star in ‘Home Again’
Reese Witherspoon is in talks to star in the indie comedy “Home Again,” Variety has learned.
Hallie Meyers-Shyer, the daughter of director Nancy Meyers, is writing and directing the film.
Meyers is producing alongside Black Bicycle Entertainment’s Erika Olde, who is also financing the movie. Nancy Meyers played a major part in getting the script in Witherspoon’s hands.
Based on a script by Meyers-Shyer, “Home Again” follows a recently separated mother of two whose new life in Los Angeles is overturned when she decides to take in three young, charismatic guys.
Although no distributor is attached at this time, insiders say production is eyed for the fall. The film has been in the works for some time with Rose Byrne attached to star at one point.
Witherspoon has recently focused on producing more material for herself like the upcoming HBO limited series “Big Little Lies,” which also stars Nicole Kidman and is expected to be released next year on HBO. As of now, Witherspoon is only on board to star in “Home Again,” and will not be producing.
Witherspoon is repped by CAA and LBI Entertainment.
MadRiver Pictures introduced the film to international buyers in Cannes. CAA is representing the North American rights and also reps Black Bicycle and Nancy Meyers.
Modern Family actress Julie Bowen spoke about Reese’s wise words in a new interview with US Weekly:
Julie Bowen: Fellow Mom Reese Witherspoon ‘Saved My Life’
Us Weekly: Do you have a mom philosophy?
Julie Bowen: I read some article where Reese Witherspoon said, “If you’re not yelling at your kids, you’re not spending enough time with them.” It made me feel so much better. I was like, “Oh, this must mean I’m a good mom!” Reese Witherspoon, who I’ve only met once, saved my life with one quote.
Reese’s episode on her friend Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show ‘Chelsea’ is now streaming – watch it online HERE. Watch a couple of clips from the show further down this post.
We’ll have more details and screencaps for you soon…
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Aussie actress and comedienne Rose Byrne spoke to the Aussie Daily Telegraph about her venture into producing, saying that Reese has been a big inspiration to her in doing this:
Byrne reckons there’s been a subtle change in the roles she’s being offered now as compared to five years ago. “Obviously I’m less likely to be playing the ingenue, so you’re offered more parts of the wife or the mother or friend,” she says. “I still read most scripts and go, ‘You know, I’d really rather play the guy part.’”
Indeed, it was this frustration over the work available for women, both in front of and behind the camera, that led Byrne and four Sydney mates – actor Krew Boylan, director Shannon Murphy, writer-director Gracie Otto, and publicist-producer Jessica Carrera – to found collective The Dollhouse Pictures.
“We started to reach out to one another and say, ‘We’re stronger as a team than we are separately, so let’s try to come up with a think tank where we can bandy ideas around,’” she says. “It was really about gearing roles towards women, and developing projects for and by women.”
Byrne concedes the group is inspired by what actors, including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Drew Barrymore, are doing with their own production companies. “Reese is probably my biggest inspiration,” she says of Witherspoon’s production company, Pacific Standard, which has produced massive hits including Gone Girl and Wild.
The learning curve, however, has been steep. “It’s definitely been challenging,” says Byrne. “Being on the other side of things and discovering how projects are developed, and how difficult it is to find funding – it’s a whole different way of working for me, but I’m learning a lot.”
Venice Film Festival: Lido To Launch Pics From Ford, Gibson, Malick & More As Awards Season Starts To Buzz – Full List
The roster for the 73rd Venice Film Festival is being unveiled this morning in Rome. At a press conference just getting underway, Artistic Director Alberto Barbera will announce the titles that make up this year’s edition of the world’s oldest fest which takes place on the Lido beginning August 31. Venice kicks off the early fall triumvirate which also includes Toronto and Telluride, and which roundly offers up awards season contenders.
An In Conversation event will be held with a screening of footage from Sing which is world premiering in Toronto the next week.
Venice runs August 31-September 10.
(Deadline)
Sing director explains why Matthew McConaughey was the perfect choice to play a koala
Illumination Entertainment has had a string of successes with two Despicable Me films, their spin-off Minions, and The Secret Life of Pets, which is currently dominating the box office. Now, the production company is hoping to continue its hot streak with its next film, Sing.
The animated movie, which hits theaters in December, sees Matthew McConaughey voice a koala struggling to save his theater. He decides his best option is to stage a singing competition. Rounding out the all-star cast is Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Taron Edgerton, Seth MacFarlane, and Tori Kelly.
EW talked to the film’s writer and director, Garth Jennings (A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) about making his first animated film, creating a made-up world from scratch, and why McConaughey was the perfect choice to voice a koala.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How much work do you have left on the film?
GARTH JENNINGS: We’re finally emerging from the end of the movie-making process. I just walked back from having approved the last shot of animation, which is a big deal for me — it’s a milestone. You literally have called within 30 seconds of being done, so this is fun.During your career you’ve done a number of music videos and a few live-action films, so why did you now want to do an animated film?
It wasn’t so much the case of wanting to do an animated film, it was just when I sat down and met with Chris Meledandri (Illumination’s CEO) and we talked about a story [that] I just wanted to do, and of course it happened to be animated. I use to do a lot of animated films when I was at art school. That was an easy way of making a short film, because you could make it on a table top with plastering, and you didn’t need to rent a car or any of the stuff, so it was a pretty convenient way of telling stories. I was writing it for Illumination, and then Chris asked me if I’d like to come and direct it, by which time I had fallen in love with the whole world, the characters, the story, everything, so it was very, very easy decision to make.Continue reading this entry »
The Morning Show (2019)
