Category: Articles & Interviews

The Hollywood Reporter: Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa Join Amazon MGM Holiday Comedy ‘Oh. What. Fun.’ (Exclusive)

The Hollywood Reporter: Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa Join Amazon MGM Holiday Comedy ‘Oh. What. Fun.’ (Exclusive)

Michael Showalter, who is behind the studio’s upcoming romantic drama ‘The Idea of You,’ is directing, with Michelle Pfeiffer also starring.

Chloë Grace Moretz and Dominic Sessa are joining Michelle Pfeiffer for a little Christmas cheer.

The two actors will star alongside the screen icon in Oh. What. Fun., an Amazon MGM holiday comedy that hails from director Michael Showalter, who is behind the studio’s upcoming Anne Hathaway romantic drama The Idea of You.

Described as both a love letter to moms and tonally a cross between Home for the Holidays and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the story centers on a woman named Claire Clauster (Pfeiffer) who organizes a special Christmas outing, but her family forgets her in the shuffle. By the time they realize their mistake, she’s gone missing and their Christmas is in jeopardy. Luckily, nothing will stop Claire from giving her family the holiday they deserve.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Variety: Lupita Nyong’o, Chloe Grace Moretz to Play UFC Fighters in ‘Strawweight’ from ‘Hereditary’ Producers (EXCLUSIVE)

Oscar-winner and 2024 Berlinale jury president Lupita Nyong’o (“Black Panther,” “12 Years a Slave”) and Chloe Grace Moretz (“The Peripheral,” “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”) are set to enter the ring for the UFC-based mixed martial arts drama “Strawweight.”

The film — being launched at the European Film Market by WME Independent and CAA Media Finance — follows the journeys of two fighters who find themselves competing against each other in the Octagon. One is a young woman (Moretz) whose life is changed forever when she discovers her passion for the UFC, while the other is a former champion (Nyong’o) who is determined to reclaim her title by reinventing herself. Both want the same thing — respect — but only one can come out on top.

“Strawweight” will mark the feature directorial debut of James M. Johnston. A longtime collaborator of David Lowery, Johnston produced and directed second unit for “The Green Knight,” “The Old Man and the Gun” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” and the upcoming “Mother Mary” for A24 and is part of the Sailor Bear collective with Lowery and Toby Halbrooks. He also directed second unit for Disney’s “Peter Pan & Wendy” and Netflix’s “Last Letter From Your Lover.”

The “Strawweight” script was written by Paul Harrill from a story by Johnston and Harrill, and will be produced by Lars Knudsen of Square Peg (“Hereditary,” “The Northman,” “Dream Scenario”), Lowery and Halbrooks of Sailor Bear (“A Ghost Story,” “The Green Knight”), and Patrick Newall (“Extraction,” “The Gray Man”).

UFC superstar and former Strawweight Division champion Rose Namajunas will serve as a fight consultant and will also executive produce the film. WME Independent and CAA Media Finance will co-represent worldwide sales.

Nyong’o is repped by CAA and Del Shaw; Moretz is repped by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern; Lars Knudsen, David Lowery, Toby Halbrooks, Patrick Newall are repped by WME. Namajunas is repped by SuckerPunch Entertainment. Harrill is repped by CAA and Echo Lake. Johnston is repped by WME and Frankfurt Kurt Klein & Selz.

Source: Variety

WWD: Chloë Grace Moretz Talks Video Games and the Premiere of ‘Diablo Dungeon Crawl’

The actress discussed her love of video games and the debut episode of the new YouTube series “Diablo Dungeon Crawl” hosted by Khleo Thomas.

Chloë Grace Moretz has been acting since she was a child in films like “Big Momma’s House 2” and “The Amityville Horror.” While many of the Gen Z star’s fans truly grew up with her, what they might not know is that in addition to being a longtime actress, Moretz is a lover of video games.

With the launch of the new YouTube series “Diablo Dungeon Crawl,” fans now get a first-hand look at her video game skills. The new series, hosted by Khleo Thomas, will feature celebrities playing different games.

The first episode debuting on Monday features Moretz playing the recently launched “Diablo IV.” The actress will prove she’s no stranger to a game console.

“I grew up with four older brothers, and for me, video games were a way I could beat them without physically taking them on,” Moretz said. “Eventually I could beat my brother at any video game we played. It was how we found an even playing field as siblings.”

Moretz started playing video games on one of her brother’s GameCubes when she was just 4 years old. As she got older, she fell in love with PlayStation and PSP games. Some of her favorite video games growing up were “1080 Avalanche,” “GoldenEye 007” and “Mario Kart.” Later, she fell in love with big franchise video games like “Final Fantasy” and “Diablo.”

“I’ve been a longtime ‘Diablo’ fan, and it’s nice to have a new updated version of the video game,” Moretz said. “The graphics in the game are insane, and it’s so cool to have a new version with an updated storyline, seeing more depth of the characters and just getting to enjoy an awesome role-playing video game.”

The actress is also excited to be the first guest for “Diablo Dungeon Crawl.” “I already play video games with my friends and it’s an amazing way for us to keep in touch with each other, whether we’re doing a dungeon crawl or playing ‘Call of Duty,’ but this a new way to jump into an immersive world while playing ‘Diablo,’” she said.

Although Moretz has been in front of a camera most of her life, she said filming “Diablo Dungeon Crawl” was a unique experience, unlike anything she’d ever done before.

“Not a lot of people get to see my gamer side, so it was fun to just geek out,” Moretz said. “I loved getting to chat about all the reasons I love ‘Diablo IV.’ I was just there filming for a few hours and getting to play the game and I had so many amazing roleplay moments. At one point I forgot I was filming and was just open-mouthed and slack-jawed. I was so fully in the game I had to remind myself I was still on camera.”

She added, “Filming something like this was a very different experience from acting because with that I’m pretending to be someone else completely and I’m jumping into the skin of someone else. When you’re on camera as yourself it’s different and more vulnerable in a way because there isn’t a character I’m transforming into to hide behind.”

“It was great to game alongside Chloë,” Thomas said. “I’ve always known her as a gamer so getting the chance to jump into Sanctuary and play ‘Diablo IV’ together was amazing.”

Moretz revealed that her love of role-playing video games did help in the craft of acting. “Playing roleplaying video games and acting are two sides of the same coin,” she said. “For me, I always loved the role-play element of video games, getting into the mind of a character and becoming someone else.”

In addition to “Diablo Dungeon Crawl,” Moretz has a new animated Netflix film, “Nimona,” premiering on June 30. “The film has LGBTQ themes and is the perfect film to wrap up Pride Month,” Moretz said.

Source: WWD

New Animated Movie Project: Nimona

Deadline – Animated Film ‘Nimona’ Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed & Eugene Lee Yang Finds Home At Netflix Following Blue Sky Studios Shutdown; ND Stevenson, Who Penned Original Graphic Novel, Reacts

The animated film Nimona, scrapped following the shutdown of Blue Sky Studios amid Disney’s acquisition of Fox, has landed at Netflix, with Chloë Grace Moretz (Mother/Android), Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) and Eugene Lee Yang (Spring Bloom) set to star. The adaptation of ND Stevenson’s New York Times bestselling graphic novel—originally to have been directed by Patrick Osborne, but now being helmed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Spies in Disguise)—will debut on the streamer in 2023.
In the LGBTQ+-themed Nimona, Knight Ballister Boldheart (Ahmed) is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and the only person who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Moretz), a shape-shifting teen who might also be a monster he’s sworn to kill. Set in a techno-medieval world unlike anything animation has tackled before, this is an inclusive story about the labels we assign to people and the shapeshifter who refuses to be defined by anyone. Yang is playing a character named Ambrosius Goldenloin.

Netflix partnered with Annapurna Pictures on Nimona when production began early last year. Roy Lee, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary are producing, with Robert L. Baird, Megan Ellison and Andrew Millstein exec producing, and DNEG handling animation for the feature.

Taking to Twitter today to celebrate Nimona‘s revival was Stevenson, who wrote, “Nimona’s always been a spunky little story that just wouldn’t stop. She’s a fighter…but she’s also got some really awesome people fighting for her. I am excited out of my mind to announce that THE NIMONA MOVIE IS ALIVE…coming at you in 2023 from Annapurna and Netflix.”

Moretz was recently seen in the Hulu sci-fi thriller Mother/Android, and will next star in the Amazon sci-fi series The Peripheral, Anne Sewitsky’s thriller White Night with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Kike Maillo’s crime drama Love Is a Gun.

Ahmed recently shared an Oscar with Aneil Karia for the live-action short The Long Goodbye, which he co-wrote and starred in. The actor will next appear in Yann Demange’s sci-fi drama, Exit West. Other recent credits include the films Encounter, Mogul Mowgli and Sound of Metal, and the Netflix series The OA.

Yang will next be seen in Cole Evans’ romantic drama Spring Bloom, with Jack McDormand and Nora Zehetner. Additional credits include the podcast series Classified and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Stevenson’s reaction to today’s Nimona news, and a first-look still from the film unveiled by Netflix today, can be found below. Moretz is represented by WME, T Squared Entertainment and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Ahmed by WME; Yang by WME, Avalon Management and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Bruno by UTA and Newhouse / Porter / Hubbard; Quane by Verve and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols; and Stevenson by APA, Inkwell Management and Weintraub Tobin Chediak.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

Collider: From Kick-Ass To Tom & Jerry: 10 Essential Chloë Grace Moretz Performances

Everthing good about Chloë Moretz!

Chloë Grace Moretz has an impressive, chaotically long filmography. The twenty-five-year-old actress has been captivating us for over fifteen years, building up a remarkable list of films and characters during her early career. Known for her portrayal of darker roles and mature content from an early age, Moretz showcases time and time again why she remains an indie powerhouse.

With her latest release, Mother/Android centering on motherhood and the android apocalypse, it’s no surprise this list is chock-full of balls to the wall crazy cinematic experiences. Some good, some bad, and some downright ridiculous, Moretz has done it all, and we can’t wait for more.

Read more: here

Source: Collider

Deadline Hollywood: Chloë Grace Moretz & Joseph Gordon-Levitt Starring In Anne Sewitsky’s Jonestown Massacre Thriller ‘White Night’; FilmNation Launches Sales – EFM

Cast has been set for White Night, a thriller about one of the most infamous cult stories of all time – the Jonestown Massacre – which is being helmed by Anne Sewitsky (Happy, Happy).

Chloë Grace Moretz (Suspiria) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception) will star in the movie, which is based on Deborah Layton’s memoir Seductive Poison. William Wheeler (The Ghost In The Shell) penned the adaptation.

Grace Moretz is playing Layton in the pic, with the story recounting how she rose through the ranks of the People’s Temple cult, eventually entering the inner circle of Christian Socialist preacher Jim Jones (Gordon-Levitt). Jones established “Jonestown” in 1974 in Guyana as an extension of his San Francisco based cult. It was there where, on November 18, 1978, more than 900 people died in one of the largest mass murder-suicides on record.

The book was optioned by Amy Nauiokas and Anne Carey at Archer Gray, who will produce with FilmNation, which is also financing and will launch sales at the virtual European Film Market. Filming will begin this spring.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

Collider: Chloë Grace Moretz to Star In Amazon’s Series Adaptation of William Gibson’s ‘The Peripheral’

The story is a murder mystery thriller in a sci-fi dystopia with multiple futures and timelines.

Chloë Grace Moretz has been cast in a lead role in Amazon’s upcoming series adaptation of William Gibson’s The Peripheral. As reported by Variety, Moretz will play Flynne, a woman living in rural America in the near-future who witnesses what might be a murder while watching what she initially believed was a virtual reality feed.

Gibson’s 2014 novel is pretty dense science fiction. It involves multiple futures, alternate timelines, and two different main characters (Flynne and a man named Wilf Netherton, who lives over 70 years in Flynn’s future). The story jumps between these two, and they eventually end up interacting with each other, because this is sci-fi babaaay. Developing this story into a series is going to be a challenge, but it’ll be an interesting challenge to watch, and Moretz is a pretty strong lead. (She did amazing work in recent films Greta and Suspiria, and she’s had a career full of impressive roles in films like Kick-Ass and Carrie.)

Oscar-nominated writer Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) will write, produce, and serve as showrunner on the series. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are executive producing through their Kilter Films banner, after signing an enormous overall deal with Amazon last year. (It looks like they are nowhere near the writers room for The Peripheral, which to be frank is great news.) Vincenzo Natali, the director and co-writer of a little indie sci-fi horror movie called Cube, is set to direct. For more TV news, click here to read some casting news about the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series.

Source: Collider

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Robert De Niro coming to Philly to film crime drama ‘After Exile’

Philadelphia will get a whole lot of Robert De Niro come November.

When Netflix’s The Irishman, in which De Niro plays Philly area mobster Frank Sheeran, premieres, he’ll actually be in Philly to film another project.

De Niro will come to town for After Exile, which starts principal photography in Philly in early November, Greater Philadelphia Film Office executive director Sharon Pinkenson has confirmed. The film, another crime drama, puts De Niro alongside Shailene Woodley, and Chloë Grace Moretz. Joshua Michael Stern (Jobs) will direct.

Announced earlier this year, the film features De Niro as an ex-con Deadline reports. Variety previously reported that Shia LaBeouf would appear in the film as De Niro’s son, but Pinkenson said LaBeouf is not involved in the project.

De Niro has played a few Philly area-based characters over the years, most recently Sheeran, a reputed mobster from Darby who claimed to have killed Jimmy Hoffa — a story on which The Irishman will focus when it is released in theaters on Nov. 1 and on Netflix Nov. 27. One of De Niro’s most well known Philly characters is a tad softer than the mob-associated assassin: Pat Solitano Sr., otherwise known as the father of Bradley Cooper’s character in 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, which filmed in the Philly ‘burbs.

As Philly area native Cooper told David Letterman on the Late Show back in 2012, he actually volunteered his own Uncle Ernie, a heating and air-conditioning repairman from Delco, to teach De Niro the Philly accent. According to NBC, Cooper’s uncle did so by reading De Niro his own lines from the script.

After Exile will be the latest in a string of high-profile projects to film in Philadelphia this year. So far, we’ve seen stars like Jason Segel working on Dispatches from Elsewhere, Idris Elba making Concrete Cowboys, the Fab Five doing makeovers for Netflix’s Queer Eye, and Sterling K. Brown and Lyric Ross filming NBC’s This Is Us.

“It’s exciting,” Pinkenson said of After Exile’s upcoming trip to Philly. “It’s been quite a year.”

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Hollywood Reporter: Chloe Grace Moretz, Jack O’Connell to Play Bonnie and Clyde in ‘Love Is a Gun’

Kike Maillo’s upcoming biopic of the iconic crime couple is heading to AFM with Endeavor Content.
More than 50 years after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway turned them into cinematic icons, Bonnie and Clyde are heading back to the big screen.

Chloe Grace Moretz and Jack O’Connell are teaming up to play the notorious Depression-era criminal duo for Love Is a Gun, which will be directed by Kike Maillo, whose 2016 film Toro became a box-office hit in his native Spain.

Based on best-selling author Jeff Guinn’s Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde and written by Oscar-nominee Sheldon Turner (Up In the Air) with revisions by Johnny Newman (Narcos), Love Is a Gun is billed as the “thrilling, gritty and emotional story of two of history’s most famous lovers, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.”

Endeavor Content is handling international sales and will present the project to buyers at AFM. CAA is co-repping the film domestically with the producers.

Marissa McMahon and Ashley Schlaifer of Kamala Films (A Private War) are producing alongside Sean and Bryan Furst (Daybreakers, The Matador) of Skybound Entertainment.

“We are excited to reintroduce the iconic story of Bonnie and Clyde,” the producing team said in a joint statement. “Their story remains ubiquitous in popular culture across the globe, yet few in this generation know the details of their intimate love affair and the circumstances that led to their notorious crime spree that captured the imagination of the world in their time. Kike, Chloë and Jack are completely in sync about the character-driven approach we will be taking, and we feel lucky to have a creative team of this high caliber leading us forward,”

Added Alex Walton, executive vp international film sales and distribution at Endeavor Content: “Kiké Maillo brings a modern and edgy take on the universal story of star-crossed lovers, which is renowned around the world, and Chloë and Jack’s casting bring an authenticity to this tragic love story.”

Moretz is repped by WME and T Squared Entertainment; O’Connell is repped by CAA and Conway van Gelder Grant.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter