Adam Mackay: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Warren Littlefield’s production company, known for such acclaimed series as Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, Dopesick and The Old Man, has signed a first-look deal with reality producer Chad Gervich as it embarks on an unscripted expansion following its forays into the space with its first feature documentary, War Game, set for Aug. 2 debut at Film Forum in New York City.

EXCLUSIVE: Tony-nominated Lily Rabe has signed with Gersh for representation in all areas.

Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.Ballal was released by Israeli authorities on Tuesday (March 25) after his co-director Yuval Abraham wrote on X/Twitter the day before that he had gone missing after being attacked.On Wednesday (March 26), Abraham criticised the Academy in a post on X for not issuing their own statement of support for Ballal, writing: “Sadly, the U.S. Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, declined to publicly support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers.”Shortly afterwards, The Academy released a statement condemning “harming artists”, but did not name any specific person.In response, on Thursday (March 27), a letter began circulating among Academy members, criticising their failure to defend Ballal publicly.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned the Academy’s board of governors is meeting in extraordinary session this morning to confront a deepening crisis over its response to the beating and detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of No Other Land.

A new release date and title is lurking for Sony Pictures‘ shark thriller starring Bridgerton alum Phoebe Dynevor. The pic formally known as Beneath the Storm from director Tommy Wirkola now is titled Shiver and is set for summer 2026.

Jack Dunn In a series of changes to its slate of upcoming films, Sony has removed its “Street Fighter” film adaptation, originally set for a March 20, 2026 debut, from its release calendar and shifted Tommy Wirkola’s shark thriller “Beneath the Storm,” now titled “Shiver,” from August 2025 to July 2026. “Street Fighter” will be co-produced and developed by Capcom, the Japanese videogame developer who launched the original franchise in 1987, and Legendary, who scooped up the TV and film rights for the prolific game series in 2023. Further details about the film, such as plot, cast, director and writer, are all currently unknown.

EXCLUSIVE: Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole have named Tiffany Graddick, Stephanie Myer and Raymond Tambe to the firm’s partnership group. They join their colleagues Matt Johnson, P.J. Shapiro, Greg Slewett, Tara Kole, Wendy Kirk, Patrick Ragen, and Deb Lintz in the JSSK partnership.

Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to Seán Devlin’s docudrama Asog exposing a land grab by developers on the Philippines’ picturesque Sicogan Island in the wake of a devastating super-tycoon.

EXCLUSIVE: ITN Distribution has acquired North American rights to the thriller Joe Baby, starring Dichen Lachman, Willa Fitzgerald, Ron Perlman, and Harvey Keitel.

Matt Minton mminton@variety.com The American Civil Liberties Union is collaborating with the creative team behind the Oscar-nominated short “A Lien” on an impact campaign working to protect the rights of immigrants. The campaign will be led by the production company Willa, focusing on litigation and advocacy work to create empathetic conversations around border policies and the rights of asylum seekers.

J. Kim Murphy It’s been nearly six years since Bong Joon Ho‘s last feature “Parasite” debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, beginning a months-long rollout that ended with it becoming the first foreign language feature to win best picture at the Oscars.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy, SAG, and Tony-nominated actor Bill Camp has signed with UTA in all areas.

A Lien, written and directed by brothers David and Sam Cutler-Kreutz, brings audiences into the fraught and complex experience that a noncitizen can go through in the U.S. legalization process. Clocking in at just under 15 minutes, the story follows a young couple (Victoria Ratermanis and William Martinez) navigating their Green Card interview at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office. The appointment starts off simple enough, until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) takes a turn for the worse, putting the couple and their young daughter in unexpected danger. 

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Adam McKay said in an interview with NME that his satirical comedy “Don’t Look Up” was seen by an estimated “400 million to half a billion” people on Netflix despite being “hated” by “the critics and the cultural gatekeepers.” The director was talking about the L.A. fires and climate change when the topic of “Don’t Look Up” came up, as McKay and his star-studded cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, were outspoken during the film’s 2021 release about it being a metaphor for climate change. “In the face of these dramatic catastrophes that keep happening, a movie seems really small and ridiculous.

Netflix blockbuster comedy Don’t Look Up, says he’s devastated for the city of Los Angeles and its world-famous filmmaking community as emergency workers continue to battle a series of deadly wildfires.“We’re heartbroken. Afraid.

Wicked could be banned in three years’ time if the US “keeps going on the track it is”.The hit movie is an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name and stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo as Glinda and Elphaba, two classmates at Shiz University who are on the path to becoming Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West respectively.Towards its climax, the film depicts the moment that the two characters finally meet Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard of Oz, who is revealed to hold a tyrannical rule over the people of Oz.Now, Don’t Look Up and The Big Short director McKay has shared his thoughts on the film’s politics, writing on X on Tuesday (December 24): “On a pure storytelling level Wicked Part 1 is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made. I know Part 2 swings back to the center a bit but Part 1 is nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, propaganda.”On a pure storytelling level Wicked Part 1 is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made.I know Part 2 swings back to the center a bit but Part 1 is nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, propaganda.— Adam McKay (@ZombiePanther2) December 23, 2024“What’s really striking about Wicked Part 1 is that it’s coming out NOW when America has never been more right wing and propagandized,” he continued.

Wicked” earlier this week on social media but said that its “radical” subject matter could lead the movie musical to get banned.“On a pure storytelling level ‘Wicked Part 1’ is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made,” McKay wrote on X. “I know ‘Part 2’ swings back to the center a bit but ‘Part 1‘ is nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, propaganda.”He went on to compare the project, which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, to a slew of self-described “radical” films, including “Bridge on the River Kwai,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Hunger Games,” and “Citizen Kane.”“What’s really striking about ‘Wicked Part 1’ is that it’s coming out NOW when America has never been more right wing and propagandized,” continued McKay.

Don’t Look Up writer-director Adam McKay fears that movies such as Wicked could be banned in the U.S. in the future with the way the country is headed.

Jordan Moreau “Wicked” was briefly pulled from theaters in Kuwait, allegedly due to its LGBTQ cast, but could the blockbuster musical ever be fully banned in the United States? Filmmaker Adam McKay “wouldn’t be surprised” if the film was pulled in the next few years because of where America is headed politically. The “Don’t Look Up” director shared his “Wicked” thoughts on X on Tuesday, writing: “On a pure storytelling level ‘Wicked Part 1’ is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made.

EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed 3x Oscar nominated and Emmy winning Succession composer Nicholas Britell.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer One more, and it’s a trend. A second self-published author sued Netflix on Thursday for copyright infringement over “Don’t Look Up,” the 2021 Adam McKay film about a planet-destroying comet.

The Beatles.The Don’t Look Up director took to X last night to rant in number of posts ahead of the release of David Tedeschi’s Beatles ’64 documentary on Disney+today.“Nothing is lamer/funnier than white liberals’ never-ending fascination for The Beatles. It’s so Neo-liberal.