Gus Van-Sant: Last News

FINNEAS has shared a brand new song and video titled ‘Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa’ – check it out below, along with exclusive artwork by Gus Van Sant.The track follows the singer and producer’s debut solo album ‘Optimist’ and recent single ‘Naked’. He also recently shared ‘Nobody Like U’, a song written by Finneas and sister Billie Eilish for the new Pixar movie Turning Red, performed by the the fictional boyband 4*Town.‘Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa’ comes complete with a video featuring footage from Eilish’s recent UK and European headline tour, and artwork from lauded director Gus Van Sant.Revealing that the artwork is a painting based on Leonardo DaVinci’s legendary Mona Lisa and gifted to Finneas by Van Sant, he wrote on Instagram: “The artwork is a painting by the incredible Gus Van Sant that he gave me before he even knew I had a song named after the Mona Lisa.“So cool and such an honour to have this piece of art as the cover for my song.”See the artwork and watch the track’s video below.A post shared by FINNEAS (@finneas)Reviewing Finneas’ debut solo album ‘Optimist’ upon its release last year, NME said: “He made his name producing and writing for his megastar sister Billie Eilish, and now it’s Finneas’ turn to step into the spotlight.

Matt Dillon To Receive Locarno Award

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Locarno Film Festival will be honoring Matt Dillon with a lifetime achievement award, a mini-retro of his films, and an onstage chat.Dillon’s career as an actor and director will be celebrated by the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema during a ceremony on Aug. 4  in the 8,000-seat Piazza Grande outdoor screening venue, followed by an onstage conversation the next day.Tribute screenings will comprise  Gus Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989) featuring Dillon’s powerful performance as a “dope fiend,” as he calls himself, who steals pharmaceuticals in Portland drugstores, and “City of Ghosts” (2003) which Dillon co-wrote, directed, and starred in alongside James Caan, Gerard Depardieu, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, FeaturesIt was the late 1990s and future Oscar-winning “CODA” filmmaker Siân Heder was ambling across Harvard Square, close to the home in which she grew up in Cambridge, Mass. There, near the Au Bon Pain sandwich shop on Brattle Street, Heder spotted two buddies from Cambridge Ringe and Latin School, then-unknowns Ben and Casey Affleck, shooting a scene for “Good Will Hunting,” the 1997 film that would score two Academy Awards, help usher in the era of Big Screen Boston and turn the Affleck brothers and Matt Damon, all actors in the movie and Massachusetts natives (“Massholes” in the local vernacular), into giant Hollywood stars.“I knew Ben and Casey from high school — their mom was my teacher in third and fifth grade,” Heder says.

EXCLUSIVE: Boardwalk Empire actor Michael Pitt has joined Open Road and Sculptor Media’s drama-thriller Black Flies opposite Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan and Katherine Waterston.

Zack Sharf Minnie Driver was only 26 years old when she auditioned for the role of Skylar in Gus Van Sant’s “Good Will Hunting.” It’s a performance that would earn Driver an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, but it’s one she recently told The Telegraph almost never happened because producer Harvey Weinstein believed “nobody would want to fuck her.” Driver said Weinstein sent this sexist note along to the film’s casting director.“I remember feeling so devastated until I realized, ‘Hold on, just consider the source for a minute. That is an unutterable pig – why on earth are you worried about this fuck saying that you are not sexy?’” Driver said.

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content has promoted Joe Bello, Austin Hegedus, Julia Mok and Ali Lefkowitz—four assistants and coordinators working across its Media Rights and Talent divisions—to Manager. Bello, Hegedus and Mok will be working within the Talent division, with Lefkowitz joining the previously promoted Ryan Wilson as a Manager in Media Rights. In their new roles, Bello, Hegedus, Mok and Lefkowitz will continue to work with and expand Anonymous’ client roster.

Minnie Driver takes a trip down memory lane in her new book, Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays. ET's Rachel Smith spoke with the British actress about the collection of essays, which details everything from her late mother's death to the making of  and her relationship with her co-star, Matt Damon.«The filmmaker, Gus Van Sant, and Matt and Ben [Affleck], I think they were really left alone to make the film that they wanted to make,» Driver said of why she thinks the Oscar-winning film has such lasting power 25 years later.Having the studio's attention elsewhere didn't hurt either.«It was an interesting moment.

EXCLUSIVE: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), Lenny Kravitz (Lee Daniels’ The Butler), Beverly D’Angelo (Violent Night), Colleen Camp (Back on the Strip) and Gavin Rossdale (The Bling Ring) have signed on to star alongside Vito Schnabel in the dark comedy The Trainer, which Tony Kaye (American History X) is directing from Schnabel and Jeff Solomon’s script.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are reteaming for a Nike drama that Affleck will direct for Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures, Deadline can confirm.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s final days are being turned into an opera by the Royal Opera House in London.The production, called Last Days, will be a production adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film of the same name.The film, which was centred on a young musician called Blake, was loosely based on Cobain’s last days. Cobain died by suicide in 1994 aged 27.A description from the Royal Opera House says that the opera “plunges into the torment that created a modern myth” and that “Blake” is “haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose – self-destruction”.The opera has been composed by Oliver Leith, the Royal Opera House’s composer-in-residence.

Naomi Watts has just joined the next season of Feud!

Naomi Watts has signed up to be part of Ryan Murphy's hit anthology series Feud.Following on from the success of FEUD: Bette and Joan on FX, a new project has been greenlit titled Capote's Women, where Watts is set to play American socialite Babe Paley, according to Deadline.Paley - a friend of Truman Capote - ruled the glamorous world of New York society around 1960s and 1970s.Two-time Oscar nominated director Gus Van Sant will direct all eight episodes of the series, with Pulitzer-nominated writer Jon Robin Baitz serving as showrunner and will be writing all eight episodes. New role:Naomi Watts joins Ryan Murphy's latest Feud miniseries playing American socialite Babe Paley...

Ryan Murphy’s anthology series,, is reportedly returning to FX with an all-new installment starring Naomi Watts, ET has confirmed. The second season, which follows 2017’s , will be called and focus on the falling out between author Truman Capote and several of his female friends. The eight-part season will be adapted from Laurence Leamer’s  by showrunner Joan Robin Baitz and directed by Gus Van Sant. Watts, who most recently portrayed Gretchen Carlson in Showtime’s, will star as Babe Paley, a New York City socialite who kept a circle of high-society friends that included Slim Keith.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNaomi Watts has signed on to star in the long-gestating second season of “Feud” at FX, Variety has confirmed with sources.The second season of the Ryan Murphy anthology series will be based on the book “Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era” by Laurence Leamer. Watts will play famed socialite Barbara “Babe” Paley.

EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Murphy and Plan B have set a second installment of their FX anthology series Feud. Titled Capote’s Women, the project will star two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts as Babe Paley who ruled the glamorous world of New York society in the 1960s and 70s. Two-time Oscar nominee Gus Van Sant is set to direct all eight episodes, with Tony and Pulitzer-nominated Jon Robin Baitz, who put together the high-profile package, writing all episodes and serving as showrunner.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBruce Tuchmann-backed Rialto International has launched a branded on-demand streaming service in Japan, focused on independent film, and housed on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films.

EXCLUSIVE: Vito Schnabel (Before Night Falls), Julia Fox (Uncut Gems) and Steven Van Zandt (The Sopranos) have signed on to star in the dark comedy The Trainer, which Tony Kaye (American History X) is directing from a script by Schnabel and Jeff Solomon.

Ed Meza @edmezavarInternational feature film and commercial content group Iconoclast and Berlin-based StickUp Films have established a new joint venture to produce feature films and series for the domestic and international markets.Represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the new shingle, Iconoclast Films Germany, is aiming to produce a minimum of three film or series projects annually within a five-year ramp-up period.The company is headed by Luis Singer and Dennis Schanz of StickUp Films – the creators and co-producers of Netflix’s award-winning series “Skylines” — as well as Iconoclast executive producer Swantje Rummel.Iconoclast sees the new venture as part of its international content strategy and a logical extension of its brand. In addition to producing recent works by the likes of Gus Van Sant (“Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot”), Julian Schnabel (“At Eternity’s Gate”), Harmony Korine (“The Beach Bum”) and Romain Gavras (“The World Is Yours”) through its companies in the U.S.

Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’ have surged following its inclusion in The Batman.The deep cut from Nirvana’s classic 1991 album ‘Nevermind’ has surged on steaming platforms according to initial reports from MRC Data (via Billboard).The song appears twice in the film and also appeared in trailers leading up to the film’s release.According to the figures from MRC, ‘Something In The Way’ earned 3.1million on-demand official US streams in the first four days following the film’s release on March 4, an increase of 372,000 from the previous four days – or a 734 per cent increase.Between March 6-7, the song racked up 880,000 streams and then rose to 1.5million the following day. By March 8, the song had tallied 1.6million streams.The Batman director and writer Matt Reeves has explained how Robert Pattinson’s character was inspired by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain last year.Speaking about the inclusion of the song to Empire back in December, Reeves said: “That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse.“So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalised version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.” He then discussed how he believed Robert Pattinson was perfect for the part after witnessing his performance in 2017 film Good Time.He said: “In that movie you could really feel his vulnerability and desperation, but you could also feel his power.

John Frusciante has spoken about the circumstances around his 2009 departure from Red Hot Chili Peppers, revealing that he was “deep into the occult” at the time.The guitarist has been in and out of the band since the late ’80s and last appeared on 2006’s ‘Stadium Arcadium’. Former tour understudy Josh Klinghoffer replaced Frusciante in 2009, appearing on 2011’s ‘I’m With You’ and 2016’s ‘The Getaway’.Frusciante has been writing and recording with the band for their new album ‘Unlimited Love’, and he’s now spoken to Classic Rock about why he left the band over a decade ago.“I became quite off-balance mentally those last couple of years we toured,” he said. “As the tour went on, I got deep into the occult, which became a way of escaping the mindset of tour life.”He added: “The occult tends to magnify whatever you are, and I was an imbalanced mess.”Speaking to NME in an exclusive interview photographed by Oscar-winning director Gus Van Sant earlier this year, the band spoke about their new album (due out April 1 via Warner) and how reuniting with Frusciante “pushed each other in a positive way”.“The biggest event, honestly, was John returning to the band.