News

Exclusive: Peter Berg’s next film looks to be in a full-on sprint towards production as sources tell Deadline that Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis are set to star in the director’s next film The Mosquito Bowl for Netflix. They join Nicholas Galitzine and Bill Skarsgård in the pic, which falls under Berg’s deal with the studio that he recently reupped.

Based on Buzz Bissinger’s New York Times bestseller The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, the film is set after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when four of America’s top college football stars set their fame aside to enlist in the Marines. As they prepare for the brutal invasion of Okinawa, they play in a legendary game featuring some of the greatest players in history – a game that, for many, will be the last they ever play.

Berg penned...

Camila Morrone and Adam Dimarco are officially set to star in the upcoming Netflix horror series “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.”

It was reported in November that the pair was in talks for the lead roles in the series, which was itself ordered at Netflix back in July. The show hails from creator Haley Z. Boston and is executive produced by “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer brothers under their overall deal with Netflix.

In addition, Weronika Tofilska has boarded the series as an executive producer and will direct four episodes. Tofilska recently picked up an Emmy nomination for directing the hit Netflix series “Baby Reindeer.”

The official logline for “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” says the show is an “atmospheric horror series set at a wedding, following a bride (Morrone) and groom (Dimarco) in the week leading up to their ill-fated nuptials. That’s not a spoiler – just read the title…...

Rising actor Ray Nicholson is making his own mark in Hollywood, though that's not coming without a lot of inspiration from his famous father. Nicholson, whose latest role is in the horror sequel Smile 2, has shared how father Jack Nicholson is his "hero" as he follows in the Batman actor's footsteps.

Per Deadline, Ray Nicholson commented on how he's inspired by Jack while at the premiere for Smile 2. Fans may have surmised as much based on how the younger Nicholson smiles in Smile 2, as the actor's look has been compared to Jack's creepy smile he'd make with his role in The Shining. While Ray pointed out how he and his father are two "very different people," he also shared how he sees his father as his "hero," as they are "similar" in some ways as well.

Ray Nicholson on fans reactions to the similarities between his Smile 2...

Exclusive: Leila George, who is set to star in Alfonso Cuaron’s highly-anticipated Apple TV+ series Disclaimer, has signed with WME.

George will star opposite Cate Blanchett in the series, which will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August. It premieres on Apple TV on October 11th.

Prior to shooting on Disclaimer, George was a series regular on TNT’s Animal Kingdom. She can be seen in Patricia Arquette’s feature directorial debut, Gonzo Girl, which premiered at TIFF and as the lead in He Ain’t Heavy, which recently premiered at the Sydney Film Festival.

Other credits include the female lead of The Kid, also starring Chris Pratt, Dane DeHaan and Ethan Hawke and Peter Jackson’s fantasy epic Mortal Engines. She continues to be represented by manager Tarik Kanafani at Strand Entertainment, United Agents in the UK and United Management in Australia.

If you missed out on Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness in theaters, fear not! The off-kilter dramatic comedy, starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Willem Dafoe is getting Digital and Blu-ray release dates from Searchlight Pictures. Kinds of Kindness becomes available through digital retailers on August 27, with Blu-ray and DVD versions hitting shelves on October 8.

According to Searchlight’s press release, Kinds of Kindness is a triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life, a policeman who is alarmed that his wife, who was missing at sea, has returned and seems a different person, and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

Kinds of Kindness fans hoping to get more out of Lanthimos’s film’s home release can look forward to bonus features that take audiences behind the scenes.

“Daisy Jones & the Six” star Camila Morrone is set to join Tom Hiddleston in a new season of “The Night Manager.”

The hit show, based on John le Carré’s bestselling novel of the same name, is returning for two new seasons from BBC and Prime Video, which will see Hiddleston reprise his role as Jonathan Pine, who works in a hotel after leaving the army.

The new season, which is set to start shooting later this year, will pick up eight years after Season 1. “The Crown” star Elizabeth Debicki played Pine’s secret lover Jed Marshall in the first season. She is not expected to return.

Morrone’s character in the new season has not been revealed. Morrone previously played Camila Dunne in “Daisy Jones and the Six” alongside Riley Keough and Sam Claflin. She has also appeared in feature “Marmalade” and “Gonzo Girl,” opposite Willem Dafoe and Patricia Arquette.

Exclusive: Here’s some more intriguing casting for Luc Besson’s big-budget reimagining of the Dracula story, Dracula – A Love Tale.

Zoë Bleu (Gonzo Girl), daughter of actress Rosanna Arquette, is joining as Elisabeta/Mina, while rising Italian actress Matilda De Angelis, who plays the lead in Agbo and Amazon’s upcoming Citadel: Diana, will play Mina’s friend Maria. These are the roles played by Winona Ryder and Sadie Frost, respectively, in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version (though Mina’s friend in that film and the book is called Lucy).

As we revealed in February, Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri) is playing Dracula and two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) is understood to be playing the role of a priest.

Lucy and Leon filmmaker and Taken creator Besson is in pre-production on the movie, which will shoot next month in France. Additional casting is underway.

Exclusive: CBS’ Elsbeth will count on three additional guest stars for its Season 1 cast: Elizabeth Lail (Five Nights At Freddy’s), Arian Moayed (Succession) and Laura Benanti (The Gilded Age). Following a brief hiatus, the show returns April 4 with two episodes.

Elsbeth follows the titular Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), an astute but unconventional attorney who utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD following her successful career in Chicago. The character first appeared in The Good Wife and later in The Good Fight spinoff.

In addition to Preston, Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson round out the series regular cast as Captain Wagner and Kaya Blanke, respectively. Gloria Reuben recurs as Wagner’s wife, Claudia Payne. The cast is small as the police procedural dramedy depends on a healthy supply of guest stars like Stephen Moyer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Linda Lavin and Blair Underwood,...

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe is set to join the ensemble cast of of Sony Pictures’ SNL 1975 (working title), which will be directed by Jason Reitman and based on the real-life behind-the-scenes accounts of the opening episode of Saturday Night Live. Reitman and Gil Kenan penned the script.

Dafoe will play David Tebet, who was VP Talent Relations at NBC when SNL launched.

On October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. SNL 1975 is the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. It depicts the chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, counting down the minutes in real time to the infamous words, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

The screenplay is based on an extensive series of interviews conducted by...

The long wait is over: Patricia Arquette finally explained David Lynch’s “Lost Highway.” Kind of.

“I would ask David: ‘Am I playing two characters, am I playing a ghost?’ He would say: ‘What do you think, Patrish?’ It’s a woman looked at through the distorted view of a psychotic misogynist,” she said at Series Mania.

“He hates women, he doesn’t quite trust her, even though she is his wife. He kills her but can’t remember it, then he recreates himself as this virile young man and meets her again. And now, she actually wants to fuck him and she is in love with him. But even in this version, she is a dirty whore.”

“In this man’s mind, a woman is always the monster. No matter what. I thought about Jezebel and Salomé for this part, all these bad girls of the Bible.”

More explicit scenes in the cult classic,...

Patricia Arquette has been unveiled as this years Series Mania guest of honor and will deliver a masterclass.

The Oscar-winning Boyhood star will look back on her career during the Lille fest, which kicks off in just over two weeks.

Arquette is a decorated American actress who has won a multitude of awards including for Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, in which she played Mason’s mum Olivia. Other major past credits include True Romance, Stigmata and Medium.

More recently, Arquette has turned to TV and portrays Harmony Cobel in Apple TV+ hit drama Severance. She also starred in Apple dramedy High Desert, which she developed with Nancy Fichman, Katie Ford, and Jennifer Hoppe, 3 Arts Entertainment, Ben Stiller and Red Hour.

She recently made her directing debut with Gonzo Girl, a feature film based on the best-selling novel by Cheryl Della Pietra, which starred Willem Dafoe, Camila Morrone and Ray Nicholson.

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn headline single location drama Daddio, and the first trailer has landed: more here.

It would be fair to say that Dakota Johnson hasn’t had the best month. It began with a press tour that seemed to be doing more harm than good in trying to promote Sony’s Spiderman spin-off Madame Web, in which her comments during the tour generated a huge amount of press. This was swiftly followed by a slew of vitriolic reviews – we gave Madame Web a firm but fair one star.

Still, Johnson has many films in the pipeline, the next one to be released will be single location philosophical drama Daddio. For reference, this is the film Johnson was talking about when she described Hollywood as “heartbreaking” and “fucking bleak” – a conclusion she came to because Daddio took “a lot of fighting to get made.”

At any rate, Daddio...

Paul Thomas Anderson is lining up the cast for his latest film, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Regina Hall set for the feature.

The film is set up at Warner Bros., whose studio’s picture group heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy worked with Anderson on his last film, Licorice Pizza, during their time at MGM.

Anderson wrote the script and is set produce the film with Adam Somner and Sara Murphy, who worked with the director on Licorice Pizza.

The logline for this feature is being kept under wraps, but it is due to begin filming soon in California. An ensemble cast is expected for the feature.

Licorice Pizza was nominated for three Oscars, including writing and directing for Anderson, and grossed north of $33 million at the box office. Anderson’s career Oscar nominations now total 11.

DiCaprio was last seen in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon,...

Exclusive: Warner Bros has Paul Thomas Anderson set to direct Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn as well as Regina Hall in an untitled film that will begin production this year in California. Anderson wrote the script, and he will produce the film with Sara Murphy and Adam Somner.

The film is currently untitled and they’re keeping the logline under wraps. We have learned that it is a contemporary setting and it is the most commercial one PTA has attempted, with commensurate budget. It came out of a relationship that Warner Bros Picture Group co-chairs/CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy built making PTA’s last film, Licorice Pizza, while they ran MGM. That film got three Oscar noms for Best Picture, and Best Screenplay and Best Director for PTA.

While DiCaprio, Penn and Hall are the leads, the new film will have a big ensemble cast...

Willem Dafoe receives long-overdue Hollywood Walk of Fame star, with support from colleagues and family. Despite numerous nominations, Dafoe is yet to win an Oscar or Golden Globe, but values camaraderie among fellow actors. Colleagues praise Dafoe's talent, calling him the greatest American actor of our time, who always elevates material.

Willem Dafoe has been one of the most instantly recognizable faces on cinema screens for almost 50 years, and today the Poor Things star became the first recipient of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2024.

With support from some of his many collaborators, including filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, Mark Ruffalo, Pedro Pascal, Patricia Arquette, and Camila Morrone, along with his friends and family, Dafoe’s recognition on Hollywood’s most famous walkway is long overdue for an actor with one of the largest screen presences in the business. Among his many iconic roles, Dafoe has played Green Goblin in...

When Willem Dafoe receives his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Jan. 8, the distinction will commemorate more than just a four-time Oscar nominee, but an actor so versatile that he has embodied everything from a conflicted messiah in “The Last Temptation of Christ” to the tortured father figure of “Antichrist.” Is there an actor working today with greater range?

With his deep-set eyes, sharp nose and broad smile, Dafoe has depicted his share of devils, from creepy “Nosferatu” star Max Schreck in “Shadow of the Vampire” to comic-book villain the Green Goblin in “Spider-Man 2.” But he also excels at the other end of the spectrum, as when he plays God in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” a Frankensteinian surgeon charitably committed to reanimating dead creatures, like Emma Stone’s Bella.

“My character has this beautiful predicament, because he adores her so much and she adores him, but what she needs,...

Thirteen years after last appearing onscreen, and Jack Nicholson might still be open to working.

The Oscar winner most recently starred in 2010 rom-com “How Do You Know,” directed by his “Terms of Endearment” helmer James L. Brooks decades after first collaborating on the 1983 drama. Brooks told The Wrap that despite rumors, Nicholson is not retired.

“I don’t think he’s retired,” Brooks said. “I don’t buy that he’s retired.”

He continued, “I remember there was once a friend of mine who one of these raging, alcoholic-driven arguments [with me] about who was the greatest actor at the time. This was at Dustin Hoffman’s height and everything like that. I’m saying Jack Nicholson. He’s saying Dustin Hoffman. I went with [Nicholson] because I said Jack could play either in ‘The Odd Couple.'”

Brooks called it “miracle casting” that Nicholson starred in “Terms of Endearment,” thanks to actress...

With SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP reaching a tentative agreement on a new contract, our industry’s biggest stars, previously forbidden from participating in the promotion of movies distributed and made by struck studios and streamers, are finally joining the party.

The timing couldn’t have been better for Poland’s EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, which opened last night, and one of the buzzy names here on the ground in Torun is Willem Dafoe, who has stepped out to promote Poor Things, his wacky, darkly comic Golden Lion winner from Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos.

“I assume things will just go back to the way they were, but the terms will be different,” Dafoe told Deadline when quizzed on how he thinks the prolonged strike might shape the industry’s future, adding he didn’t hold all the details of the negotiations.

“I’m a worker bee. I work a lot. And I...

Exclusive: Emmy nominee Camila Morrone has signed with Brillstein Entertainment Partners for representation.

Morrone is coming off the hit Amazon limited series Daisy Jones & The Six, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Emmy nomination for her role as Camila Dunne, and the Patrica Arquette-directed Gonzo Girl, which recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Up next she can be seen starring opposite Joe Keery in the independent film Marmalade, directed and written by Keir O’Donnell.

She received critical praise for her starring role as a Montana teenager caring for her father, a veteran with a substance abuse problem, in Annabelle Attanasio’s indie film Mickey and the Bear. She also starred in A24 and Augustine Frizzell’s comedy Never Goin’ Back and in Death Wish, the Eli Roth-directed remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson film for MGM.

Morrone continues to be repped by WME, Nue Group, Hansen,...

Story Ave is a film that explores art, connection, and struggle, drawing from the director's own community and personal experiences. One of the film's leading characters was inspired by the director's grandfather, adding a personal touch to the story. Composer Pierre Charles created a beautiful score for Story Ave, incorporating lush tracks and classical textures to make the music unique and stand out.

Story Ave is a film about art, circumstance, and connection in the face of struggle. The feature film directorial debut of Aristotle Torres, based on the director’s 2018 short of the same name, Story Ave draws from Torres’ own community and life experience; one of the film’s leading characters was even inspired by his grandfather. The film stars Asante Blackk as teenage graffiti artist Kadir Grayson and Luis Guzmán as Mta worker Luis Torres, as Kadir’s attempted robbery of Torres sets them both on a...

Sly Exhibit. Courtesy of the author.Take the elevator to the fourth floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox theater and follow the sounds of proggy synthesizers. You’ll find a small gallery containing about a dozen neo-expressionist paintings; many depict solitary wanderers against backdrops of stormy neutrals. But before you have a chance to revel in these angsty brushstrokes, you’ll have to encounter the artist—it’s not optional. His image is plastered all over the elevators, lobby, and on an enormous cube in the center of this room: stare into the smirking visage of Sylvester Stallone, sequestered in an art-filled living room. “Sly Exhibit,” reads the text on the poster. A red “N”—the classier, minimalist version of the Netflix logo—is stamped at the bottom like a seal of approval.I wasn’t familiar with Stallone’s visual art before Netflix and TIFF shared it with me.

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The "Nightmare on Elm Street" film series was a hotbed for emerging talent. Many of the directors in the franchise would go on to prolific or interesting careers. Chuck Russell, director of "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" would go on to make Hollywood blockbusters like "The Mask," "Eraser," and "The Scorpion King." Renny Harlin, who directed "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master" would likewise enter the Hollywood mainstream with films like "Predator 2," "Die Hard 2," "Cliffhanger," and "Cutthroat Island." Jack Sholder, Stephen Hopkins, and Rachael Talalay also emerged from the series' directors pool. 

One can also find a few rising actors at the start of their careers throughout the Freddy Krueger movies. Famously, a young Johnny Depp starred in Wes Craven's 1984 original, and, for "Dream Warriors," Patricia Arquette made her cinematic debut.

Not everyone is charming, eloquent, or genius enough to be an icon. Yet, Willem Dafoe's Walker Reade has the right amount of rock star energy to make the cut. To be more specific, he is a washed-up, once-great author, who hasn't written anything meaningful for the past 15 years but is still raved about for his earlier work. In this adaptation of Cheryl Della Pietra's semi-autobiographical novel directed by Patricia Arquette, Walker Reade isn't the main character even though audiences can mistakenly think he is. The person who truly is front and center here is Camila Morrone's Ally Russo, a university grad who has just landed a job as Reade's nighttime assistant, expected to convince the author to write at least a page or two by 2 a.m. daily. Gonzo Girl is filled with LSD, gunshots, and journaling, but nothing substantial enough to make it more than a fun,...

The National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts is honoring three artists at its annual Visibility Awards in D.C. on Wednesday, at an event designed to advance Latino representation in film and television.

Ángel Manuel Soto, director-producer of the Latino superhero movie Blue Beetle, is being recognized with the organization’s Raul Julia Award for Excellence. “Ángel’s work advances the presence of Latinos in film and highlights studies demonstrating that Latino directors are more likely to bring Latino talent to their projects,” the foundation said.

Ramón Rodríguez, recipient of the Spotlight Award, produces and stars in the adaptation of the Karin Slaughter crime novel Will Trent. “Ramón has been a leading voice in continued efforts to open doors for Latino talent in the industry,” the foundation said.

Camila Morrone, honored with the Horizon Award, is starring with Willem Dafoe in Patricia Arquette’s, Gonzo Girl, based on Cheryl Della Pietra’s semi-autobiographical novel,...

The 48th Toronto International Film Festival, from which I just returned, technically runs through Sunday, but by this point, virtually every film in the lineup has screened at least once. So, I thought I’d seize this opportunity to share some impressions of this year’s fest and the awards hopefuls that played there and also offer some informed speculation about which film could pick up some wind behind its award season sails on Sunday when the fest announces the winner of its TIFF Audience Award.

What was the vibe at this year’s fest?

Given the ongoing strikes of actors and writers, red carpets and pre-screening introductions were far less star-studded than in other years. My concern was that this — and the fact that very few of the award season’s most highly anticipated films had elected to premiere at TIFF — could really depress attendance. That, in turn, might...

It’s been a Toronto Film Festival like few others. The writers and actors strikes meant that many A-listers opted not to touch down in Canada this year, depriving the gathering of film lovers of the star-studded red carpets and Q&As that make Toronto so memorable. Even if this year’s festival was starved for glamour, it was still a good opportunity to get a clearer picture of the awards race — and to check the pulse of Hollywood at a tumultuous time for the industry.

1. ) Venice and Telluride Stole Some Thunder

Toronto, which has the misfortune of appearing last on the calendar, is in danger of being seriously overshadowed by the other late summer and early fall festivals. Between them, Venice and Telluride played host to “Ferrari,” “Poor Things,” “The Bikeriders” and “Priscilla” — which emerged as likely Oscar contenders. But these films opted to skip Toronto, preventing it from...

Patricia Arquette's new movie has been inspired by Hunter S. Thompson.The 55-year-old actress is making her directorial debut with a film adaptation of 'Gonzo Girl', which is based on the novel by Cheryl Della Prieta, and Patricia has now revealed that the movie has actually been inspired by the legendary writer, who died in February 2005, aged 67.Patricia told Collider's Perri Nemiroff: "I always loved Hunter S. Thompson, and it's inspired by his spirit and him."It's different, also. It's fiction, it's based on a book. But I love Hunter S. Thompson, and I love that world, and I loved the ‘90s growing up as a young woman."The film centers on a young woman and the struggles that she faces as she begins her life after college.Patricia added: "I like this idea that it was some kind of a mix between a ‘90s movie and the ‘60s,...

Gonzo Girl is an upcoming film directed by Patricia Arquette, adapting the novel of the same name written by Cheryl Della Prieta. In the movie, Willem Dafoe is set to play Walker Reade, someone who could be a mentor to the protagonist of the story, but instead looks like he'll be yet another obstacle in her complicated journey. While the character could only seem to be a certain antagonist for the lead's journey, there was something peculiar about the story that made Dafoe interested in the role. During a recent interview with Perri Nemiroff at Collider’s TIFF media studio at the Cinema Center at Marbl, Dafoe spoke about what drew him to Arquette's film:...

Willem Dafoe thinks something “radical” like an industry “collapse” is possible if the negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP don’t get resolved.

The Poor Things and Pet Shop Days star spoke to Vanity Fair for a story published Monday promoting the new Patricia Arquette-directed Gonzo Girl, which was granted a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement and held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. During the conversation, Dafoe opened up about the experience of having four films running during the fall film festival season but only being able to promote one due to the ongoing actors strike, which began July 14 after the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA did not reach an agreement.

“To be in Venice with three films and not be able to go broke my heart. But then I thought, ‘Is it just because you want to have a good time?’ I live in Italy, and it’s exciting to see friends,...

Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee and Patricia Arquette were among those accepting honors at the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute awards Sunday night: George Pimentel photographed the red carpet and inside the show for TheWrap.

Thanks to SAG-AFTRA strike waivers, several actors including Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke, were also on hand. “Sing Sing” and “Rustin” actor Colman Domingo was also able to collect his Tribute Performer Award in person, as was “The Dead Don’t Die” star Vicky Krieps.

Enjoy these shots of Lee, who was there to receive the Ebert Director Award, and more awards recipients and presenters.

Photo by George Pimentel

Willem Dafoe plays a Hunter S. Thompson-esque writer in “Gonzo Girl” from director Patricia Arquette.

Photo by George Pimentel

“Daisy Jones & the Six” actress Camila Morrone co-stars with Willem Dafoe in “Gonzo Girl,” the directorial debut of Patricia Arquette.

Photo by George Pimentel

Patricia Arquette went...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film Poor Things has just been given the Golden Lion prize at the 80th Venice Film Festival. The dark fairy tale comedy beat out some pretty stiff competition this year, which included Michael Mann’s Ferrari, David Fincher’s The Killer and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. The reactions to the film have been glowing and they’ve been doing their best to prepare audiences for what’s to come. Additionally, many see this as an Oscar-winning performance for star Emma Stone, as she takes on the most ambitious role in her career.

Stone’s co-star, Willem Dafoe, has not only Poor Things, but also Pet Shop Boys and Finally Dawn that played at the festival. With multiple films being featured at one of the most prestigious film events, it’s certainly a bummer to not be able to celebrate them. IndieWire reports that Dafoe spoke with Vanity Fair during this time.

Willem Dafoe had Fomo on the fall festival circuit.

The star of Venice’s Golden Lion winner “Poor Things” led four films between Venice, Telluride, and TIFF but TIFF-premiering “Gonzo Girl” is the only film with a SAG-AFTRA strike waiver that allows for Dafoe to promote it; hence, TIFF is the only festival the actor was in attendance for.

Dafoe told Vanity Fair that it “broke” his heart to not be present for the premieres of all the respective films, including “Poor Things,” “Pet Shop Days,” and “Finally Dawn.”

“To be in Venice with three films and not be able to go broke my heart,” Dafoe said. “But then I thought, ‘Is it just because you want to have a good time?’ I live in Italy and it’s exciting to see friends, it’s exciting to dress up. ‘Does the film fly or not in real time?’ That’s fun.

At the 2023 TIFF Tribute Awards hosted at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto presenters Barry Jenkins and Chaz Ebert went off-script to emphasize how much it meant to hand the Ebert Director Award to Spike Lee.

The Oscar-winning “Moonlight” director went first, sharing how he was one of two Black men in his film program at a predominantly white college. While his peer would say he wanted to be the next Spike Lee, he said, “‘I want to be the first Barry Jenkins,’ and I would qualify that by saying I think that’s the way Spike would want it.” In town serving as one of the judges for the festival’s Platform programming block, Jenkins continued, “So Spike I just wanted to say you’ve carried so much weight for so many of us for so damn long that I’m on this jury and I’m tired as hell.

Toronto — When the crowd settles in, the lights go down and the movie starts, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is more or less business as usual.

The rest of the time, not so much.

This is a TIFF with fewer stars, fewer studio movies and more films up for sale but fewer buyers willing to commit during the writers’ and actors’ strikes. That’s a distinctly different beast from the TIFF that would normally host a parade of movie stars on an array of red carpets every day, particularly during the opening weekend that concludes on Sunday.

And yet, this year’s festival has had a familiar assortment of potential awards movies, crowd-pleasers, bold indies, star vehicles, international projects and weirdo midnight romps. And in the theaters when those movies play, the number of movie stars in the seats can be beside the point for at least a couple of hours.

Despite the first simultaneous strikes of actors and writers since 1960 — 16 years before the first edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, or, as it was known then, the Festival of Festivals — a host of big names came out to present and receive honors Sunday evening at the fifth annual TIFF Tribute Awards.The gala dinner fundraiser for the fest’s philanthropic efforts — and an occasional harbinger of Oscar recognition — is held each year at Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

This year’s highest-profile Tribute Award honoree, Spike Lee, has no ties to the ongoing awards season. Lee was presented with the Ebert Director Award by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, filmmaker Barry Jenkins (who called Lee “one of the best filmmakers of our time” and thanked him for carrying “so much weight for so many of us [Black filmmakers] for so damn long”) and the late film critic Roger Ebert‘s widow Chaz Ebert...

Spike Lee blasted critics who suggested that “Do The Right Thing” would spark riots when it opened in 1989, while honoring one of the reviewers who came to the film’s defense. The remarks came as Lee received the Ebert Director Award, named for the late film critic Roger Ebert, at the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Awards on Sunday.

“Your husband got behind me when those mother f–kers in the press were saying that ‘Do the Right Thing’ was going to incite Black people to riot,” Lee said, as he accepted his prize from Chaz Ebert, the late critic’s wife. “That this film should not be shown in the United States.”

Lee cited David Denby and Joe Klein as two of the most prominent critical voices against the film, which has gone to be considered one of the greatest films ever made. The pair wrote, Lee recalled, that...

The Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing with a bevy of titles competing both for global distribution and awards prestige. The festival has had its share of lumps in the last month, losing their 28-year-sponsor, Bell Telephone, back in August, as well as being enmeshed in the on-going SAG-AFTRA/WGA duel strike. It is that strike that is the most insurmountable goal for the event, as actors and writers are unable to attend and promote their films, though some have with a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.

And while the movie landscape is looking different, with movies switching release dates (in the wake of both the strike and Taylor Swift’s Eras tour), this year’s TIFF is showcasing what amazing movies are still being made. Here are 25 of the hottest titles to be excited for at this year’s TIFF.

Courtesy of TIFF

“Dumb Money” (Sony)

Craig Gillespie’s...

SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland says the Hollywood actors strike might well go into 2024 but insisted the major studios and streamers could push forward a resolution.

“We hope it doesn’t go into next year, but our members are standing strong. The union is secure and stable. We have emergency assistance funds available for our members and crew members in the industry,” Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director of the American actors union, told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday.

His comments came as SAG-AFTRA and Actra, the Canadian actors union, held a joint rally outside the Toronto headquarters of Amazon and Apple to rally support for labor action by performers on both sides of the border. Patricia Arquette, who is screening her directorial debut, Gonzo Girl, at TIFF was also at the rally.

Crabtree-Ireland insisted the prospect of an early resolution to the actors strike lay with the major studios and streamers...

SAG-AFTRA’s presence at TIFF continued into Saturday with a special picket outside Amazon offices here in Toronto with Canada’s commercial actors union Actra, who’ve been in a 501 day contract lockout with the country’s advertising agencies org.

Patricia Arquette, whose feature directorial debut Gonzo Girl, played on Friday night at the fest, showed up to show her support alongside SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who praised the Oscar winner for having a project under a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.

Arquette described the current standoff between actors and studios:

“What we got is a low-functioning dynamic, which is ‘I’m gonna get mine, and I don’t care what happens to you’ and have to shift to a high functioning dynamic which is ‘This is what I’d like, but I don’t want it, if it really hurts you.'”

“And this is really hurting people,...

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland says fate of US work stoppage lies in hands of Hollywood companies.

Representatives from SAG-AFTRA and Canadian actors union Acrta were joined by Patricia Arquette in a protest outside the Toronto headquarters of Amazon and Apple on Saturday morning.

Arquette, who is in Toronto to promote her feature directorial debut Gonzo Girl, which she was cleared to promote through a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement a week before TIFF kicked off, addressed the crowd in support of the work stoppage alongside the union’s executive national director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.

The SAG-AFTRA executive said the fate of the...

“It’s like asking a woman when she’s crowning, ‘Do you want to give birth, again?’ ” explains Patricia Arquette of being asked about future directing ambitions while still waiting to screen her debut. “You’re like, ‘Not now!’ ”

Arquette’s feature, Gonzo Girl, is an adaptation of the book by Cheryl Della Pietra, who drew on her time as Hunter S. Thompson’s assistant in the 1990s for a fictionalized story about an aspiring writer who is tasked with extracting the latest novel from a drug-addled iconoclast. The script first came to the Oscar-winning actress, who had begun talking to her agents about nascent directorial aspirations, as an offer to star. In reading it, she saw the chance to explore themes, according to Arquette, that included — but were not limited to — “celebrity distortion, co-dependence, addiction, unhealed wounds, art, joy, life, sexuality.”

Arquette was also drawn to the ’90s time period,...

Deadline launched its photo studio, hosting talent from Sept 8-11 at the Toronto Film Festival, as cast members of TIFF-premiering films stopped by including Harmony Korine for Aggro Dr1ft; Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard, Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn from Hell of a Summer; Viggo Mortensen, Vicky Krieps from The Dead Don’t Hurt; Kristoffer Borgli & Nicolas Cage for Dream Scenario; Neve Campbell, from Swan Song; Bowen Yang, Arron Jackson, Josh Sharp for Dicks The Musical; Camila Morrone, Patrica Arquette, Willem Dafoe for Gonzo Girl; Elliot Page for Backspot; Wim Wenders and Koji Yakusho from Perfect Days and many more.

Related: 2023 Toronto Film Festival Photos: Premieres, Red Carpet And Parties

Stay tuned for more photo galleries from the Deadline studio at TIFF 2023.

Willem Dafoe had nothing but praise for Patricia Arquette when speaking about her directorial debut, “Gonzo Girl”.

Dafoe — who stars as Walker Reade in the flick — chatted to Et Canada’s Morgan Hoffman at the movie’s TIFF premiere.

As the host asked about Arquette, Dafoe gushed, “She really took care of us. She’s great with actors.

“It was a film that wasn’t easy to make, not a big budget movie. A lot of actors with very important roles coming for very short periods of time. Good material but difficult to adapt. She did beautifully.”

“It was a film that wasn’t easy to make, not a big budget movie.”

Read More: Patricia Arquette Reveals Her Daughter Bought Her A Stuffed Animal Because She Was ‘Having A Rough Patch’ Ahead Of ‘Gonzo Girl’ TIFF Premiere

As Hoffman commented on Dafoe’s alleged “crazy experimental rehearsals,” the star laughed and said,...

When Patricia Arquette decided to make her feature film directing debut with “Gonzo Girl,” she made a promise to her cast.

“I told them that I would always edit everything for the acting — even if the camera work wasn’t the best in that take or some thing didn’t match from a continuity perspective,” she says a week before the movie’s big premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. “I don’t think someone has ever edited my performance directly for the acting, so I wanted to do this greedy, delicious thing for my ensemble. I wanted to create a space for great acting.”

It helps, of course, that the star of “Gonzo Girl” is none other than Willem Dafoe, a four-time Oscar nominee, as well as rising talents such as Camila Morrone of “Daisy Jones & the Six.” And that kind of creative freedom, and not big salaries,...

Patricia Arquette had a very special date for the TIFF 2023 premiere of her directorial debut, “Gonzo Girl”.

Arquette chatted to Et Canada’s Morgan Hoffman on the red carpet, gushing over how kind her daughter Harlow Jane — who accompanied her mom to the premiere — had been on her big day.

Arquette said of the 20-year-old, who she called her “superpower”, “She bought me a stuffed animal today, okay? That’s how sweet she is.

“I was having a little rough patch this morning. She brought me that stuffed animal, it changed the game.”

“I was having a little rough patch this morning. She brought me that stuffed animal, it changed the game.”

Harlow Jane confirmed she’d got her mom “a stuffed alpaca.”

Patricia Arquette and Harlow Jane at the “Gonzo Girl” screening at the 48th Annual Toronto International Film Festival held at the Roy Thomson Hall on September 7, 2023 in Toronto,...

Patricia Arquette used ‘Gonzo Girl’ to explore the “nebulous nature of addiction and co-dependency”.The actress made her directorial debut taking charge of the new film which is based on the book of the same name by Cheryl Della Pietra and is inspired by the story of the author’s time spent working as assistant to writer Hunter S. Thompson - and Arquette has insisted she wanted to use the movie to bring a fresh perspective to his life story.Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada, she said the movie questions “What is the commodity of beauty?” She added: “[It was] a look at the nebulous nature of addiction and co-dependency and how your move through your boundaries.”The director went on to say: “I thought it was interesting to be an artist and trapped in your own celebrity. The world wants to keep you in that box and doesn...

For a writer whose specialty was his mad rush of words — careening, excessive, gloriously offensive and thoroughly “gonzo,” to use a word he may well have coined — Hunter S. Thompson has long been an irresistible image to put on screen. He was played by Johnny Depp in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Bill Murray in “Where the Buffalo Roam” and a few others, and now it’s Willem Dafoe’s turn in Patricia Arquette’s directorial debut, “Gonzo Girl.”

Rather, it’s Dafoe’s turn to play somebody like Hunter S. Thompson. In the movie, which had its world premiere on Thursday night as one of the opening-night attractions of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, Dafoe is “Walker Reade,” a wild-eyed journalist and author who lives in Woody Creek, Colorado and loves guns, drugs, alcohol and messing with people — not necessarily in that order. The fact that all of...

The actor makes an underwhelming first feature as film-maker, a thinly etched adaptation of Cheryl Della Pietra’s semi-autobiographical book

There’s a certain image associated with gonzo journalism – daring, confessional, subversive, male. For all its successes and groundbreaking candor, it’s a style conflated with male ego and excess, the extremes of drugs, adventure and eccentricity that men could afford to pursue.

Gonzo Girl, the directorial debut of the actor Patricia Arquette, seems, at least on the surface, to be interested in complicating that image, or at least adding some footnotes. The 107-minute film, written by Rebecca Thomas and Jessica Caldwell and based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Cheryl Della Pietra, focuses on a young female assistant to a stand-in for Hunter S Thompson in the summer of 1992. Like her real-life counterpart, Alley Russo (Camila Morrone) is a bookish recent grad with literary aspirations who takes a gig assisting...

If you were looking for stars at opening night of the Toronto Film Festival at a time when there aren’t that many available, they were at the world premiere of Gonzo Girl, with four-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe and director-star Patricia Arquette receiving a standing ovation Thursday at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

Arquette was drawn to Cheryl Della Pietra’s novel about author’s tortured yet creative time as Hunter S. Thompson’s assistant because she was a die-hard fan of the gonzo journalist. But it was more than that.

Arquette was also fascinated with the ’90s backdrop, and the notion of one being lost in the celebrity. Also, themes of “what is the commodity of beauty? (It was) a look at the nebulous nature of addiction and co-dependency and how your move through your boundaries,” she said in introducing the film.

“This is theme of my life. Tada!

It is never a normal “opening night” when it comes to the Toronto Film Festival, which is offering numerous films including the much anticipated Hayao Miyizaki film The Boy and the Heron, which is the key opening-night gala. But there are others including two exceptional directorial debuts from celebrated veteran stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Patricia Arquette making it all a very memorable kickoff for TIFF on many fronts.

In fact this is a festival this year featuring numerous premieres of films either marking the first time an actor has gone behind the camera as Thomas and Arquette have done, respectively, with Special Presentation North Star, and the Discovery Section opener Gonzo Girl, or taking their latest shot as a director. In the coming days we will also have Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour; Viggo Mortensen’s sophomore feature The Dead Don’t Hurt; Ethan Hawke’s Wildcat; Chris Pine...