Author: Anthea

Deadline: The Arsema Thomas & Darrell Britt-Gibson-Led ‘She Taught Love’ Sets Hulu Premiere

EXCLUSIVE: The Arsema Thomas and Darrell Britt-Gibson-led romance feature She Taught Love from Andscape— the premiere Black-led content studio of Disney-ESPN—is set to debut on Hulu and in select theaters on September 27. Ahead of its wide release, the film will preview at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival on Sunday, August 4.

In She Taught Love, ever since getting off a prestigious cable television series, The Street, Frank Cooper (Britt-Gibson) has been coasting through life distracting himself with women, booze and blow, while auditioning to play stereotypical gang members and drug dealers. But the minute he meets Mali Waters (Thomas), a sports agent living for the present, his whole world changes. Despite their worst instincts, Mali and Frank are inescapably drawn to one another. As Mali is forced to face her mortality, the clock begins to tick. The two must learn to rely on each other, choosing to love and live for the moment, even if that’s all they get.

The ensemble cast also stars Taissa Farmiga, Alexander Hodge, D’Arcy Carden and Edwin Lee Gibson. Nate Edwards makes his feature directorial debut with the project and the writing debut of lead Britt-Gibson, who penned the original screenplay.

“We are thrilled to bring this wildly romantic film to audiences this fall and honored to have the opportunity to preview She Taught Love at Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival,” Jason Aidoo, Vice President and head of Andscape shared “She Taught Love is emblematic of the Andscape brand and mission in so many ways. It’s an unapologetically Black and universal story. It’s about joy and the impact of love, and it’s about elevating the next generation of Black talent in Hollywood.”

“She Taught Love is a celebration of life and love in their most complex and intimate forms, a contemporary love story so necessary for our current society. Darrell Britt-Gibson, the writer and co-star, has truly crafted a script that transcends the typical romantic drama. I’m immensely grateful to the cast and crew, some of the most influential cultural leaders in the game, for bringing their all to the project,” said Edwards. “I’m thrilled that Marginal and Andscape bet on my vision to create a sexy, elegant film that feels like a Wong Kar Wai masterpiece, and bring this story to global audiences at a time when love is more needed than ever.”

Marginal MediaWorks’ Sanjay Sharma and Milan Chakraborty produced the film alongside Hadley Klein and Pete Van Auker. Executive producers include Jason Aidoo and Britt-Gibson.

Source: Deadline

Gallery Update: Build Studios – “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”

I replaced the medium photos with the large-sized ones. Make sure you check them out by clicking the thumbnails below. Enjoy!


GALLERY LINK
Public Appearances from 2019 > May 9 | Build Studios – “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”

The Nun II | Official Trailer #1


On September 8th, the greatest evil in the conjuring universe returns #TheNun2

New Line Cinema brings you the horror thriller “The Nun II,” the next chapter in the story of “The Nun,” the highest grossing entry in the juggernaut $2 billion “The Conjuring” Universe.

1956 – France. A priest is murdered. An evil is spreading. The sequel to the worldwide smash hit follows Sister Irene as she once again comes face-to-face with Valak, the demon nun.

Taissa Farmiga (“The Nun,” “The Gilded Age”) returns as Sister Irene, joined by Jonas Bloquet (“Tirailleurs,” “The Nun”), Storm Reid (“The Last of Us,” “The Suicide Squad”), Anna Popplewell (“Fairytale,” “The Chronicles of Narnia” trilogy) and Bonnie Aarons (reprising her role from “The Nun”), surrounded by an ensemble cast of international talent.

Michael Chaves (“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It”) directs, from a screenplay by Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing (“Eli,” “The Autopsy of Jane Doe”) and Akela Cooper (“M3GAN,” “Malignant”),with a story by Cooper, based on characters created by James Wan & Gary Dauberman.

The Safran Company’s Peter Safran and Atomic Monster’s James Wan produce, continuing their collaboration as filmmakers on all of the previous “Conjuring” films. “The Nun II” is executive produced by Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Victoria Palmeri, Gary Dauberman, Michael Clear, Judson Scott and Michael Polaire.
Joining Chaves behind the camera are director of photography Tristan Nyby (“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” “The Dark and the Wicked”), production designer Stéphane Cressend (“Les Vedettes,” “The French Dispatch”), editor Gregory Plotkin (2022’s “Scream,” “Get Out”), visual effects producer Sophie A. Leclerc (“Finch,” “Lucy”) and costume designer Agnès Béziers (“Oxygen,” “The Breitner Commando”), with composer Marco Beltrami (2022’s “Scream,” ”Venom: Let There Be Carnage”) providing the score.

“The Conjuring” Universe is the highest grossing horror franchise in history with $2+ billion worldwide. Globally, four of “The Conjuring” Universe titles have earned more than $300 million worldwide each (“The Nun,” $366 million; “The Conjuring 2,” $322 million; “The Conjuring,” $320 million; “Annabelle: Creation,” $307 million), and all seven have each grossed more than $200 million. “The Nun” is the top-earning film in the franchise, with more than $366 million worldwide.

New Line Cinema presents an Atomic Monster / Safran Company production, “The Nun II,” distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is set to open in North America on September 8, 2023 and internationally beginning 6 September, 2023.

Collider: Taissa Farmiga to Team With ‘White Noise’ Producer for Ukrainian Film ‘Anna’

The film is written and will be directed by Dekel Berenson.

Taissa Farmiga has found her next project, as it was reported by Deadline that the actress is set to executive produce and star in the upcoming Ukrainian drama film Anna, a coming-of-age story revolving around the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The film will follow the titular Anna, played by Farmiga, a Ukrainian immigrant who moves to the United States to join the U.S. Army. However, as Russia gears up to invade Ukraine, Anna is sexually assaulted by an officer at the military base she is training at. Following the assault, Anna “struggles to complete her course as she reconsiders her values, identity and place in an American army and society that’s not fighting for her, too,” according to a summary of the film obtained by Deadline. No other plot details or additional cast members have been announced

The screenplay for Anna was written by Dekel Berenson, who is also onboard to direct the film. Anna will be based on Berenson’s 2019 short film of the same name, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival before making its way to the Toronto International Film Festival and others. Berenson has also directed award-winning shorts such as Ashmina and The Girls Were Doing Nothing. Anna will be his feature debut. However, while Farmiga will be executive producing, she will not be alone, as Uri Singer has also boarded as a producer. Singer recently made waves by producing Noah Baumbach’s well regarded comedy-drama White Noise, and is also attached to Universal Pictures’ in-the-works project The King of Oil alongside John Krasinski. He additionally produced the Ethan Hawke-led biopic Tesla, about the life of the titular scientist.

The 28-year-old Farmiga, the younger sister of Vera Farmiga, is best known for her role in Warner Bros.’ 2018 horror film The Nun, a spinoff of The Conjuring franchise in which her sister has a starring role. Farmiga’s additional film credits include The Mule starring Clint Eastwood and the psychological thriller John and the Hole. She is slated to reprise her role in The Nun 2 this September and she also has a main role as Gladys Russell on HBO’s historical drama The Gilded Age, the second season of which was greenlit last year but does not yet have a release date. Farmiga is also known for her roles in FX’s American Horror Story franchise, in which she appeared in numerous episodes from 2011 to 2018. She has additionally boarded the upcoming romance film She Taught Love.

No release window for Anna has been announced. Collider’s interview with Taissa Farmiga about The Gilded Age can be seen below:

Source: Collider

The Hollywood Reporter: Taissa Farmiga on ‘The Gilded Age’ and ‘The Nun’ Sequel Talks

The article was posted in February 2022.

The actor explains how being the youngest of seven Farmiga children prepared her for Gladys Russell on the HBO ‘Downton Abbey’ spinoff.

Taissa Farmiga grew up on Ryan Murphy and Brad Fulchak’s FX horror series American Horror Story, but because of its anthology nature, she never got the chance to play the same character over the course of a multi-season arc. Nearly 11 years after her first foray into television, the New Jersey native is finally in a position to play the same character for many seasons on Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey spinoff prequel, The Gilded Age. Set in 1880s New York City, Farmiga plays 17-year-old Gladys Russell, who’s ready to make her debut in society, but her “new money” family — namely her mother Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) — refuses to compromise on the matter until the circumstances are just right. For Farmiga, the chance to evolve with Gladys is something she couldn’t resist, especially in a world that is so far removed from her past work.

“I’ve never gone with one character to a subsequent season and lived out that arc,” Farmiga tells The Hollywood Reporter. “When I did American Horror Story, I did season one, and then I wasn’t there for season two. And then I went back for season three as a different character. So what I’m most excited for, right now, is to see how Gladys evolves in season two.”

Besides the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an argument can be made that the Conjuring franchise is the second-most successful cinematic universe at the moment. Farmiga’s older sister Vera, alongside James Wan and Patrick Wilson, set the franchise in motion with 2013’s The Conjuring, the first of eight films (and counting). But to many people’s surprise, the youngest Farmiga’s The Nun (2018), directed by Corin Hardy, actually has the franchise’s best outing at the box office with $363 million. While the development on a sequel seems to have slowed in recent years, Farmiga indicates that there’s been movement in the last year.

“There have definitely been whisperings and talks in the last year, but the pandemic has obviously affected everything including filming and such,” Farmiga shares. “So I heard mentions of it back in the fall, maybe, and there were talks of potentially trying to see what my availability was. But I also haven’t seen a script. So I haven’t heard anything definitive or anyone say, ‘Hey, this is going.’ So I don’t know, but I would love to go back and visit Sister Irene. It’s been years.”

In a recent conversation with THR, Farmiga also explains how being the youngest of seven Farmiga children prepared her for Gladys Russell. Then she looks back at her experience with Sofia Coppola on The Bling Ring set.

So The Gilded Age is a very different world and genre for you. Since actors are often categorized according to their past work, did you have to pursue this project at all?

I definitely had to audition and do my part and work for the opportunity. I was originally sent an old, old draft of the script and sides for the audition for the character of Marian [Louisa Jacobson]. So I was excited about the overall world and the idea of The Gilded Age being done by Julian Fellowes with HBO, and being set in a time period and a world that I’m not normally associated with. When I tried to do the audition for Marian, I didn’t really feel like I clicked with the character. I had a hard time in the self-tape audition. I just wasn’t feeling like I was doing a good job. I wasn’t feeling like I was understanding Marian. So I tried a couple of times, and I ended up getting something on tape and sent it off. I didn’t feel great about it, but it was alright. And then casting got back to my team and said, “Look, we really love her, but she just doesn’t feel right for Marian. Would you mind reading for Gladys?” And I was like, “Yeah, absolutely.” And immediately, I saw a lot of my young teenage self in Gladys and that desire to break free and find independence and experience the world through your own eyes, as opposed to the eyes of your family. So I auditioned for her, and I got the director session where I met up with [EP-Director] Michael Engler. And I remember being very, very nervous in the audition room, but Michael was very kind. And then he asked me, “Oh, do you have any sort of obsession with this time period? Do you love period dramas? You fall into it so easily.” So I kind of laughed and said, “No, I watch Rick and Morty and cartoons and comedies. It’s not really what I know.” But as an actor, it was a new opportunity, and I like to grow. It’s nice to push yourself, and this was a world that I wanted to push myself to experience.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter: Taissa Farmiga Returns to Star in New Line’s ‘The Nun 2’

Storm Reid has already been cast in a leading role in the sequel to the 2018 horror hit.

Taissa Farmiga is back in the habit.

The actress is returning to The Conjuring horror universe to star in The Nun 2, New Line’s sequel to its 2018 global hit.

Farmiga, who starred in the initial movie, will reprise her role as Sister Irene and joins Euphoria actress Storm Reid in the production, which will begin shooting later in October.

Michael Chaves will direct The Nun 2 following his outing helming The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the most recent entry in the Conjuring horror universe. That film opened at no. 1 at the box office in 2021 and pushed the collective gross of those movies over the $2 billion worldwide mark.

Nun was a prequel spinoff from The Conjuring 2 and featured Bonnie Aarons as a demonic nun. Set in a monastery in 1952, the story saw a priest and a young nun, played by Demian Bichir and Farmiga, respectively, attempting to fight the nun’s evil possessions. The movie surprisingly became the highest-grossing installment of any of the Conjuring movies.

Details for the new installment are being kept in the dark but the 1950s period setting will remain.

James Wan and Peter Safran are producing via their respective banners, Atomic Monster and The Safran Company. The duo have produced all eight of the Conjuring universe movies.

Judson Scott is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster, with Michael Clear and Gary Dauberman executive producing.

Nun 2 is set for release Sept. 8, 2023.

Farmiga, who is the sister of actress Vera Farmiga, is currently shooting season 2 of Julian Fellowes’ hit HBO series The Gilded Age with Cynthia Nixon and Carrie Coon.

She was last seen in Pascual Sisto’s thriller John and the Hole opposite Michael C. Hall, which premiered at Sundance 2021. Other recent credits include Clint Eastwood’s The Mule alongside Bradley Cooper and What They Had opposite Michael Shannon and Hilary Swank, which premiered at Sundance 2018.

She is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Peikoff Mahan Law.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Deadline: Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Darrell Britt-Gibson & Taissa Farmiga To Star In Romance ‘She Taught Love’; Nate Edwards Directing From Britt-Gibson’s Script

EXCLUSIVE: Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman), Darrell Britt-Gibson (We Own This City) and Taissa Farmiga (The Gilded Age) will star in the upcoming romance She Taught Love, which music video helmer Nate Edwards is directing for Marginal Mediaworks, in his feature debut.

The film written by Britt-Gibson—in his feature screenwriting debut—is billed as the love story of this generation, between a guy on a self-destructive path and a girl with an expiration date. What a perfect time to meet and fall in love…

Marginal MediaWorks’ founder Sanjay Sharma and Head of Film Milan Chakraborty will produce alongside Hadley Klein and Pete Van Auker, with Britt-Gibson and Howell-Baptiste serving as executive producers.

“Making a film like She Taught Love feels like a revolutionary act, but it shouldn’t. Hollywood loves to turn out stories of Black trauma, but we’re so much more than that. In fact, we are everything,” said Britt-Gibson. “A generational love story, this film is a snapshot of the world as it is, beautifully diverse and bursting with magic. It is a testament to the power and thrill of being young, Black, and in love. With the incredibly talented Nate Edwards at the helm, I couldn’t be more excited about our team’s shared vision for this culturally and commercially urgent film.”

“Hollywood’s next gen has arrived. The cultural impact of this team is unparalleled in the market, from buzzy music videos for Doja Cat, to hit HBO series such as Barry, We Own This City, and The Gilded Age, to major studio films like Judas and the Black Messiah, The Nun, and Cruella,” added the film’s producers in a statement. “While She Taught Love is a generational love story – equal parts Before Sunrise, Poetic Justice, Love & Basketball – in light of the recent years in America, it has also become more urgent than ever. Moral imperative aside, the audience demand and potential revenue left on the table by ignoring Black-led films has now been widely documented. This is a film that centers Blackness, but isn’t about it. It’s a timely and timeless, contemporary love story.”

Howell-Baptiste most recently starred in Queenpins alongside Kristen Bell. Prior to that, she co-starred in Disney’s Cruella, opposite Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. The actress rose to acclaim on hit series like Killing Eve, NBC’s The Good Place, and HBO’s Barry (opposite Britt-Gibson). She’ll also soon be seen in John Lee Hancock’s horror Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, based on the Stephen King short story, which Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy are producing for Netflix; Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series, premiering on Netflix August 5th; and the heist series Culprits for Disney+.

Britt-Gibson starred alongside Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield and Jesse Plemons in the Warner Bros. drama Judas and the Black Messiah, directed by Shaka King. He was recently in the ensemble cast of David Simon and George Pelecanos’ critically acclaimed HBO limited series, We Own This City. Additional credits include Netflix’s Fear Street films, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Just Mercy, and You’re the Worst on FX.

Farmiga can currently be seen in HBO’s starry period drama, The Gilded Age. She rose to prominence in the early seasons of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, and also starred in the horror The Nun, as we’ll as such acclaimed indies as Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, What They Had opposite Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon, and the psychological thriller John and the Hole, which was selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and later screened at Sundance.

Edwards is a Houston-based director who rose to prominence mounting music videos for such major recording artists as Tobe Nwigwe, Doja Cat, Summer Walker and Bryson Tiller. The graduate of Morehouse College and the Vancouver Film School has also directed commercial work for both Google and Amazon. He was recently nominated for an NAACP Image Award for his work with Nwigwe and also co-created the Instagram account and cultural movement known as “E.N.D.,” which has been celebrated for its work championing mental wellness for the Black community.

Marginal Mediaworks is a startup content studio focused on genre storytelling from underrepresented voices across film, series, audio, animation and new media. In just three years the company has helped produce six feature films, sold its first international feature (local language, India), sold its first TV series (to Amazon), sold its first series in scripted audio fiction, and sold its first animated series. The company has already received several awards and nominations for its projects The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (HBO Max), Madres (Blumhouse & Amazon) and The Obituary of Tunde Johnson (Hulu), including from The Gotham Awards, The Independent Spirit Awards, the NAACP Image Awards and the GLAAD Awards. Its most recent feature, Four Samosas, a South Asian American-rooted comedy shot entirely in LA’s Little India, premiered in competition at Tribeca in June.

Howell-Baptiste is represented by CAA, B-Side Management in the UK, Mosaic and Myman Greenspan Fox; Britt-Gibson by Industry Entertainment and Gang, Tyre, Ramer; and Farmiga by CAA, Anonymous Content and Peikoff Mahan Law Office.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

Collider | Taissa Farmiga Explains Why She Had a Hard Time with Her ‘Gilded Age’ Audition Until Something Special Clicked

Farmiga also reveals the project that solidified her passion for acting.



I’ve been lucky enough to cross paths with Taissa Farmiga quite a bit over the years for interviews, but a Collider Ladies Night conversation is different. Farmiga’s had a one-of-a-kind journey in this industry and during our 40-minute chat, we covered as much of it as possible leading up to her latest project, the HBO series, The Gilded Age.

From Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, The Gilded Age kicks off in the United States in 1882, a time that involved a significant conflict between old money and new ways of amassing enormous fortunes. In the Upper East Side of New York City, the former group includes the Van Rhijn household, led by Christine Baranski’s Agnes van Rhijn. Agnes holds tight to the past and keeps an eye out for newcomers who don’t belong, like her new neighbors the Russells.

That’s where we meet Farmiga’s character, Gladys Russell. She’s the teenage daughter of George (Morgan Spector) and Bertha (Carrie Coon). At this point, Gladys should have made her society debut, but Bertha refuses to let Gladys out of lockdown until she can fill her massive ballroom for the occasion. Trouble is, given that the Russells are new to the area, Bertha is finding it rather difficult to earn a place in the local elite social circle.

During our Collider Ladies Night chat, we went back to the beginning for Farmiga. Even though it’s quite clear she’s oozing with raw talent, Farmiga initially had minimal interest in acting. Even when her sister, Vera Farmiga, encouraged her to join the cast of her directorial debut, High Ground, she agreed to do so more for the experience, not necessarily for a passion for acting.

“For me I have such an interesting start with it because I don’t think the ‘aha moment’ of I need this in my life came until I was already working a bit. My older sister Vera’s obviously an actress and she directed her first film, this indie film called Higher Ground 10, 11 years ago, and it was my first job when I was 15, and it was to play the younger version of her character. I think I filmed the movie [in] eight days. She asked me to be in it and it was more just because I looked like her and she asked me to. I couldn’t say no. I was like, ‘Okay, this is a cool experience,’ and then after that I went back to my normal life.”

“Normal life” didn’t last much longer after that. Higher Ground made its way to the Sundance Film Festival and the industry took notice of Farmiga’s work. But even then, it’d take a little more time for Farmiga to come to the realization that she didn’t just enjoy acting, it was something she needed and she was determined to pour everything she had into her craft.

“I think it was the first time I worked with an acting coach, and it was for In the Valley of Violence. I was a little nervous because the character was a little bit bigger than anything I’ve done. In the Valley of Violence is done by Ti West who’s a great horror director, but it was kind of like a weird hipster Western movie, and it was the first time where I got to see how someone — not just going on natural instincts. You break down the scene, you break down the emotions and to me, the emotions started feeling like a mathematical equation. It was like, ‘Oh, if you had this and you’re feeling this and you add a little bit of this person’s response,’ you know? It kind of felt like an equation to me and I loved that. And it was after working with the coach and really building up my skills to do this job because, sure, you have natural instincts, but if you don’t work at it, if you don’t practice and if you don’t learn how to properly start approaching a scene, you can only run for so long. I had the natural part of it, but once I got the book smart part of it, it really just sort of cemented, ‘I’m so f*cking lucky. This is it! This is what I want to do!’ I don’t know what it was. By the end of the job I was like, ‘Oh, I want to hold onto this. I need to do everything I can to work hard and be able to keep moving forward.’”

A little over five years later, that drive and willingness to grow hasn’t changed. In fact, you can see Farmiga’s ability to learn from her experiences on full display in her story about her Gilded Age audition. Originally, Farmiga auditioned for the role of Marion Brook, now played by Louisa Jacobson. But there was absolutely no defeat in that for Farmiga, rather, an ability to recognize when something doesn’t quite click and make the necessary pivot for the better. She explained:

“When I was auditioning for it, I had a hard time. I remember I read once with my husband. I didn’t like the tape … I tried to make the self-tape twice and I wasn’t happy with it. I don’t know why I wasn’t clicking or responding to Marion. I sent in a tape and I was like, ‘I feel fine about it. It is what it is.’ And then casting, the producers they really liked it, but it was like, ‘It’s clearly not right for Marion, but we really, really like you. Will you read this character?’ And I was like, ‘Okay! Why not?’ I was down to try it because, again, perfectionist, I felt like, not that I failed at the other tape, but I was like, I didn’t fully connect. So I was happy to have a second shot with Gladys and that taped in two seconds and I was like, ‘Oh, I know this girl. She’s so many versions of 16, 17-year-old Taissa.’”

You can see Farmiga shining in the role of Gladys on The Gilded Age every Monday on HBO. If you’re looking for even more on Farmiga’s journey from thinking she wanted to be an accountant as a teenager to joining the American Horror Story ensemble and more, check out her episode of Collider Ladies Night at the top of this article or listen to our full 40-minute conversation uncut in podcast form below.

Source: Collider

The Gilded Age | Official Trailer #1


In a new world, a new age is about to begin. The Gilded Age begins in 1882 with young Marian Brook (Jacobson) moving from rural Pennsylvania to New York City after the death of her father to live with her thoroughly old money aunts Agnes van Rhijn (Baranski) and Ada Brook (Nixon). Exposed to a world on the brink of the modern age, will Marian follow the established rules of society, or forge her own path?

The Gilded Age debuts Monday January 24 on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

New Series Project: American Horror Stories

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