Lions Gate will host a contest for aspiring female directors to create short films based on characters from Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight saga. The participants will consult Meyers’ 2011 encyclopedic tome, The Twilight Saga: Official Illustrated Guide.
Deadline reports that five winners will be selected to receive production advances to finance their short films. The five installments of “The Storytellers — New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga’” series will be released exclusively on Facebook in 2015. From there, fans will vote on which filmmaker deserves a grand prize which includes cash and career opportunities.
Here’s more from The New York Times: ”A group of female panelists, including the Twilight actress Kristen Stewart and Ms. Meyer, will select the winning shorts and mentor participants, Lions Gate said. Other panelists include the actresses Kate Winslet, Octavia Spencer and Julie Bowen; Catherine Hardwicke, who directed the first Twilight movie; the film producer Cathy Schulman; and Jennifer Lee, who co-directed Frozen. Certain contest details, including the length of the shorts, are still being worked out and will be made available on Tongal.com, a crowdsourcing platform.”
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Academy Award-nominated actress Naomi Watts has joined the Divergent movie cast.
In the remaining three installments of this film franchise, Watts will play the Factionless group leader Evelyn. According to The Hollywood Reporter, shooting for the Insurgent adaptation has already commenced in Atlanta, GA.
Actors Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Kate Winslet and Miles Teller have returned to reprise their roles from Divergent. Earlier this year, Lionsgate announced that Oscar winner Octavia Spencer signed on to play Amity faction leader Johanna. Recently, author Veronica Roth sat with Vulture and confirmed that the filmmakers intend to cast an actor to play the character Uriah for Insurgent.
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Oscar winner Octavia Spencer has joined the cast of the Divergent film franchise. In the Insurgent film adaptation, Spencer will play Amity faction leader Johanna.
According to The Los Angeles Times, The Time Traveler's Wife director Robert Schwentke will helm this project. Screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and Brian Duffield will collaborate on the script.
This sequel film will showcase "Tris’ journey as war between the factions looms, and she and compatriot Four (Theo James) are fugitives fleeing from the ruthless Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet)." Summit Entertainment has set a release date for March 20, 2015.
(Photo Credit: Randee St. Nicholas)
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The Help star Octavia Spencer inked a book deal with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Spencer’s debut novel, Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit, is scheduled for release in fall 2013.
It is the first installment of a two-book middle grade series. Executive editor Zareen Jaffery negotiated the deal with William Morris Endeavor literary agent Andy McNichol. Jaffrey will edit the manuscript.
Here’s more from the release: “Randi Rhodes isn’t your average twelve-year-old. She’s a Brooklyn vigilante with a Tae Kwon Do black belt. But circumstances take a turn for the worse when Randi’s mother passes away and her father decides to move to the small and sleepy town of Deer Creek, Tennessee. Randi couldn’t be more unhappy—until a mystery arises: the town’s two-hundred-year-old time capsule, which is rumored to contain hidden treasure, inexplicably disappears. Randi must solve the case, as the town’s fate hangs in the balance.”
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The film adaptation of Katheryn Stockett‘s The Help took three awards at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards last night, including Best Ensemble Cast.
Follow this link for the full list of winners. Lead actress Viola Davis and supporting actress Octavia Spencer (both pictured, via) also won SAG Awards for their roles as Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson. Spencer recently received the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
Both Davis and Spencer have been nominated for Academy Awards. The Envelope had this quote from Spencer: “I love taking men home. I would be lying if I didn’t say to you I would love to win an Oscar. But we have a group of brilliantly talented actresses, and it’s not a foregone conclusion that because I’ve won these [awards] then I’ll win [the Oscar].” (Via The L.A. Times)
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