Amazon Studios and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment are developing a limited series based on “The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America,” historian Eric Cervini’s New York Times bestseller. The book tells the story of Frank Kameny, a Department of Defense astronomer in the 1950s who became a leading figure in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights when he sued the federal government after being fired because he was gay.
Tony-winning playwright Matthew López (“The Inheritance”) is set to adapt, Variety has exclusively learned. “When I first read Eric’s book, I knew I wanted to adapt it for television. And when I first met Eric, I knew I had found the right creative partner to help me bring it to life,” López says. “So much of American queer history is told from a post-Stonewall perspective, but Eric’s book provides...
Tony-winning playwright Matthew López (“The Inheritance”) is set to adapt, Variety has exclusively learned. “When I first read Eric’s book, I knew I wanted to adapt it for television. And when I first met Eric, I knew I had found the right creative partner to help me bring it to life,” López says. “So much of American queer history is told from a post-Stonewall perspective, but Eric’s book provides...
- 5/31/2022
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
Matthew López, who made history on Sunday as the first Latiné playwright to win the Tony Award for best play, will have his feature directorial debut with the LGBTQ+ romantic comedy “Red, White & Royal Blue.” The Amazon Studios production is an adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s 2019 best-seller of the same name. It centers on a star-crossed power couple — the Latiné character of Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the president of the United States, and his relationship with Prince Henry, grandson of the Queen of England.
López rewrote a draft of the script by Ted Malawer (“Halston”) in addition to being tapped to direct the film. Here’s the official logline: “What happens when America’s Prince falls in love with an actual prince? The film follows Alex Claremont-Diaz who, upon his mother’s election as president, was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, brilliant...
López rewrote a draft of the script by Ted Malawer (“Halston”) in addition to being tapped to direct the film. Here’s the official logline: “What happens when America’s Prince falls in love with an actual prince? The film follows Alex Claremont-Diaz who, upon his mother’s election as president, was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, brilliant...
- 10/1/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Matthew López, the Tony-nominated playwright of “The Inheritance,” has been hired to write a reimagining of the iconic Whitney Houston film “The Bodyguard” at Warner Bros.
The new movie will be inspired by the 1992 romantic drama, which starred Houston and Kevin Costner. The original grossed more than $400 million at the worldwide box office and has what is considered the bestselling movie soundtrack of all time, with several chart-topping original songs from Houston.
Lawrence Kasdan of Kasdan Pictures, and Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of Rideback are producing the new film. Rideback’s Nick Reynolds will executive produce. Kasdan was the writer-producer of the original. Lin has been attached to the property since 2011, which has seen delirious speculation over the potential lead cast for years. Combos from Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson to Channing Tatum and Cardi B have been floated. No cast has been set for López’s script at this stage.
The new movie will be inspired by the 1992 romantic drama, which starred Houston and Kevin Costner. The original grossed more than $400 million at the worldwide box office and has what is considered the bestselling movie soundtrack of all time, with several chart-topping original songs from Houston.
Lawrence Kasdan of Kasdan Pictures, and Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of Rideback are producing the new film. Rideback’s Nick Reynolds will executive produce. Kasdan was the writer-producer of the original. Lin has been attached to the property since 2011, which has seen delirious speculation over the potential lead cast for years. Combos from Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson to Channing Tatum and Cardi B have been floated. No cast has been set for López’s script at this stage.
- 9/15/2021
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Searchlight Pictures is developing a drama based on a book about playwright Tennessee Williams called “Leading Men,” and the studio has set Matthew Lopez, the writer behind the Olivier Award-winning play “The Inheritance,” to write the screenplay.
Luca Guadagnino and “Nomadland” producer Peter Spears will produce “Leading Men,” though no director has been attached.
“Leading Men” is about the passionate and often tumultuous relationship between Tennessee Williams and his longtime partner Frank Merlo. The film is set amidst the glamorous literary circles of 1950s Italy and New York and explores the burden of fame and the complex negotiations of life in the shadows of greatness and ambition, all through the eyes of the muse who inspired one of America’s foremost playwrights.
“Leading Men” is based on a novel of historical fiction of the same name by Christopher Castellani, and the book was originally published in 2019.
Overseeing the project for...
Luca Guadagnino and “Nomadland” producer Peter Spears will produce “Leading Men,” though no director has been attached.
“Leading Men” is about the passionate and often tumultuous relationship between Tennessee Williams and his longtime partner Frank Merlo. The film is set amidst the glamorous literary circles of 1950s Italy and New York and explores the burden of fame and the complex negotiations of life in the shadows of greatness and ambition, all through the eyes of the muse who inspired one of America’s foremost playwrights.
“Leading Men” is based on a novel of historical fiction of the same name by Christopher Castellani, and the book was originally published in 2019.
Overseeing the project for...
- 11/23/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Matthew López, the acclaimed playwright behind “The Inheritance,” will bring the story of legendary dramatist Tennessee Williams to the big screen for Searchlight Pictures.
López will pen a feature film adaptation of the novel “Leading Men,” which centers on the “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” scribe and his longtime partner Frank Merlo. The film is produced by Luca Guadagnino and Peter Spears, who previously teamed for “Call Me By Your Name.” This is Spears’ second Searchlight project, after Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which won the Venice Golden Lion and TIFF’s people’s choice award. There is currently no director attached to the project.
The novel by Christopher Castellani tells the tale of the romantic partnership between Williams and Merlo, touted in a synopsis of the film as “one of the most creatively inspiring love stories of the twentieth century.”
Already famous for penning “The Glass Menagerie,...
López will pen a feature film adaptation of the novel “Leading Men,” which centers on the “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” scribe and his longtime partner Frank Merlo. The film is produced by Luca Guadagnino and Peter Spears, who previously teamed for “Call Me By Your Name.” This is Spears’ second Searchlight project, after Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which won the Venice Golden Lion and TIFF’s people’s choice award. There is currently no director attached to the project.
The novel by Christopher Castellani tells the tale of the romantic partnership between Williams and Merlo, touted in a synopsis of the film as “one of the most creatively inspiring love stories of the twentieth century.”
Already famous for penning “The Glass Menagerie,...
- 11/23/2020
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Two of the most engaging and beguiling talkers—and, oh yes, two of the better writers—of the last century share the spotlight in Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation. Good friends in real life—both were from the South and gay, had difficult upbringings, made it big with early works that were made into popular films and battled drink and drug issues—the two men make for easy and natural stablemates in Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s sympathetic and nicely shaped documentary, which takes their great talents as a given and happily refuses to sensationalize their struggles. The film world premiered at the recent Hamptons Film Festival.
Vreeland, whose previous documentaries over the past decade have focused upon Diana Vreeland (her husband’s grandmother), Peggy Guggenheim and Cecil Beaton, is right at home with fashionable greats of the past century. But in addition to the usual archival material, which includes significant...
Vreeland, whose previous documentaries over the past decade have focused upon Diana Vreeland (her husband’s grandmother), Peggy Guggenheim and Cecil Beaton, is right at home with fashionable greats of the past century. But in addition to the usual archival material, which includes significant...
- 10/19/2020
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Historical documentaries pose a unique challenge when it comes to dramatizing lives rarely captured on film. When it comes to literary figures, there’s no shortage of written records — whether by them or about them — to communicate the essence of a writer’s life. In the case of the new documentary “Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation,” filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland utilizes correspondence between the two monumental figures as well as public comments each made about the other to weave her tale. While the result is visually wooden, the friendship, rivalry, and musings on art and life in “Truman & Tennessee” coalesce into
Described in its opening shots as “an encounter between those lifelong friends in their own words,” “Truman & Tennessee” charts the parallel careers of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, contemporaries with similar backgrounds who faced many of the same personal and professional struggles. The film plays like a kind of...
Described in its opening shots as “an encounter between those lifelong friends in their own words,” “Truman & Tennessee” charts the parallel careers of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, contemporaries with similar backgrounds who faced many of the same personal and professional struggles. The film plays like a kind of...
- 10/10/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Obb Pictures partnered with the NYU Production Lab to discover and develop projects from the next generation of television writers in the NYU community. The program launched in April 2018 and the first batch of winners was announced this week, with five already having development deals.
The aim of the Obb Pictures x NYU Production Lab Episodic Development Studio was to bring fresh voices representing a wide array of perspectives from emerging talent at NYU to the fast-growing production company.
Obb founder and CEO Michael Ratner (pictured above) is an NYU alum, as is production executive Miranda Sherman, who headed up the initiative.
Also Read: Miranda Sherman Joins Michael D. Ratner's Obb Pictures as Production Executive
“With Miranda’s experience shepherding emerging talent, she was the clear choice to take the reins for the program, presenting emerging writers with opportunities to create a community of peers, supporting a cohort of diverse voices,...
The aim of the Obb Pictures x NYU Production Lab Episodic Development Studio was to bring fresh voices representing a wide array of perspectives from emerging talent at NYU to the fast-growing production company.
Obb founder and CEO Michael Ratner (pictured above) is an NYU alum, as is production executive Miranda Sherman, who headed up the initiative.
Also Read: Miranda Sherman Joins Michael D. Ratner's Obb Pictures as Production Executive
“With Miranda’s experience shepherding emerging talent, she was the clear choice to take the reins for the program, presenting emerging writers with opportunities to create a community of peers, supporting a cohort of diverse voices,...
- 6/21/2019
- by Debbie Emery
- The Wrap
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