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Judd Apatow will produce a film adaptation of Nick Hornby's bestseller Juliet, Naked. Ethan Hawke, Rose Byrne, and Chris O'Dowd are in talks to star.
John August '94 will write the script for Disney's scheduled live-action adaptation of their animated feature Aladdin. Guy Ritchie is in talks to direct.
The Lost City of Z, edited by John Axelrad '90 and directed by James Gray '91, premiered closing night at the 2016 New York Film Festival. The film will be released in April 2017.
Amit Bhalla '06 is writing a half hour single-camera comedy pilot for FX, in his second sale for the network.
Steve Bloom's debut novel Stand-In was published by Carolrhoda Lab Books. The screenplay, which he also wrote, has been purchased by Awesomeness Films.
Matt Bosak '13 has been named Story Editor for NBC's The Blacklist: Redemption, the spinoff of The Blacklist that will air next spring. Spencer Hudnut '08 is the Supervising Producer, Jorge Ramirez-Martinez '12 is a Staff Writer, and Carly Woodworth '14 is the Writer's Assistant.
Xavier Burgin '15 is one of the top ten finalists for Project Greenlight.
Steven Caple Jr. '14 is set to write HBO's high-profile Emmett Till miniseries, which is being produced by Jay-Z, Will Smith, Casey Affleck, and Aaron Kaplan '90.
Debbie Chesebro '95 and Tyson FitzGerald '01 have had their teen comedy Prom Queen optioned by Jeremy Garelick's Classy Films.
Warner Bros. has acquired and fast-tracked Crazy Rich Asians, directed by Jon Chu '03 and written by Pete Chiarelli '99, for production.
Eddy Colloton '10 is now a National Digital Stewardship Resident (NDSR) at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.
Karen Croner '87 has been tapped to write for TNT's War Torn starring Julianna Margulies. She will also write the 10-part TV series The Displaced for Killer Film. The Tribes of Palos Verdes, which she wrote and produced, has just wrapped.
Sophia Dab '14 was named one of the top 100 “Writers on the Verge” in Tracking Board's 2016 Young & Hungry List.
Eleonore Dailly '07 produced Sister Cities, which was picked up for distribution by Lifetime and Netflix.
Rick Darge's '04 first feature Zen Dog won Raindance's Film of the Festival award.
Jeff Davis '00 will executive produce MTV's contemporary television adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds.
Ross Dinerstein '05 has acquired the rights to Chuck Klosterman's bestseller The Visible Man. Dinerstein will produce the screen adaptation.
Keith Dinielli '96 won his 3rd Emmy this year as Supervising Producer of NBC's The Voice.
Susan Downey '95 will produce the third installment of Warner Bros.' Sherlock Holmes franchise.
Bob Ducsay '86 is editing Star Wars: Episode VIII, directed by Rian Johnson '96.
Wasef El-Kharouf '15 has wrapped his first project as Associate Producer on “The Bohemian Rhapsody Experience,” a VR project in collaboration with Google and the band Queen that has been released for Google Cardboard. The project was created and released by Vangelis Lympouridis' newly-founded company Enosis VR.
David Ellison will executive produce the drama series Dietland, which has been bought by AMC for series consideration. The new series Snowfall, which he is also executive producing, has received a 10-episode order at FX. Ellison's Skydance has made an exclusive multi-year first-look agreement with Michael B. Jordan's new production company Outlier Productions.
Chris Fedak '98 has sold his FBI drama Deception to ABC.
Sarah Feeley '01 and Steven Kung '04 are among the 10 directors chosen by Disney-ABC Television Group for its 2016-17 Directing Program.
Gary Fleder '93 is set to direct and executive produce Lifetime's pilot A Midsummer's Nightmare, a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Glenn Gebhard's '82 latest documentary Cuba: The Forgotten Revolution won a regional Emmy for Best Documentary at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Lower Great Lakes chapter.
Hadi Ghandour's '03 debut feature film The Traveller, which he wrote and directed, will have its world premiere in November at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival as part of the “First Features” competition. The film was also officially selected as part of the “Arabian Nights” program at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Josh Goldsmith '95 and Cathy Yuspa '95 will pen the book to the Broadway musical adaptation of the film 13 Going on 30, which they also wrote.
Alfred Gough '94 and Miles Millar '94 have written the story for MGM's next Shanghai Noon installment.
Kevin Greutert '87 completed directing his fifth feature Jackals, a thriller about a family whose teen son joins a murderous cult. He also finished editing Lionsgate's Saw: Legacy.
Paul Haddad '91 published his fourth book, the sci-fi thriller Aramid. He is also currently an Executive Producer for AMC Networks, overseeing shows like Comic Book Men and Talking Dead.
Ron Howard is developing a Zelda Fitzgerald biopic, which will star Jennifer Lawrence as the Jazz Age icon.
Alicja Jasina '16 won the gold medal for her film Once Upon a Line at this year's Student Academy Awards.
Aaron Kaplan '90 is executive producing the drama Protect & Serve, which has been bought by ABC. The network has also bought his workplace comedy, which centers on a Berkeley grad who takes his first job teaching prison felons. The comedy Family Business, which Kaplan is also executive producing, has been bought by CBS.
Sam Karp's '04 film Healed: Music, Medicine and Life with MS is being nationally syndicated on PBS World. Narrated by Wynton Marsalis, the film chronicles a once-prominent cornet soloist and his impassioned struggle with multiple sclerosis.
NBC has bought a coming-of-age comedy executive produced by Nahnatchka Khan '94, which will follow a girl growing up in a mixed-race family in Philadelphia.
Lee Toland Krieger will direct the 2015 Black List comedy Blackfriars for Lakeshore Entertainment.
The CW is developing the supernatural drama Stick Man from Tim Kring '88 and Cameron Prosandeh.
Matt Kunitz '90 had his “Candy Crush” television series ordered by CBS. The show is based on the popular mobile game and will be a one-hour, live-action game show series.
Joe Lewis '00has been promoted to Head of Half Hour and Drama Series Development at Amazon Studios.
Shawn Levy '94 will direct Sony's big screen adaptation of the “Uncharted” video game.
Doug Liman will direct and executive produce the teleportation thriller drama Impulse, which has been given a pilot order from Youtube. His virtual reality scripted series Invisible has just been released on VR platforms.
Halima Lucas '16 was nominated for a Student Academy Award in the “Narrative” category for the MFA Production thesis project Amelia's Closet, which was produced by Liz Boston '15.
Neal Moritz '85 will executive produce NBC's The Last Policeman, a television adaptation of the sci-fi mystery novel of the same name. CBS has given S.W.A.T., executive produced by Moritz and Aaron Thomas ‘02, a pilot production commitment. Moritz's Original Film is teaming up with Korean game developer Smilegate for a film adaptation based on the popular online game “Crossfire,” which Moritz will produce.
Ruvin Orbach is set to direct the neo-classic noir The Glass Cage, which will be produced by Film Life. The television show Persona, executive produced by Orbach, is now partners with the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF).
Jonathan Pekar '06 is in pre-production with his first feature Sympathy for the Lawyer, which will start filming in 2017.
TruTV has ordered 12 episodes of Prentice Penny's '95 lifestyle reality series Upscale with Prentice Penny, which will premiere in 2017.
Charles Pratt '78 has been named the showrunner of Fox's new series Star, which is created by and executive produced by Lee Daniels.
Shonda Rhimes '94 was named “Personality of the Year 2016” at this year's MIPCOM. Rhimes is also producing an untitled legal drama as well as a Liz Tuccilo comedy at ABC.
Jay Roach '86 will rewrite and possibly direct the sci-fi romance Intelligent Life for Amblin Entertainment.
Bruce Rosenblum '79 has joined Disney-ABC TV Group as President of Business Operations.
James Sadwith '84 will direct the coming-of-age project Coming Through the Rye, which will be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Eammon Films.
Aaron Schneider '88 will direct the World War II drama Greyhound from a script by Tom Hanks.
Josh Schwartz is developing and will executive produce the CW's new Dynasty reboot with his fellow Gossip Girl co-creator Stephanie Savage. Schwartz is also set to co-write the limited drama series Toy Wars at Amazon, which will follow the real-life battle between Hasbro and Mattel in the 80's and 90's.
Ian Shorr '08 has written the genre epic Office Uprising. Lin Oeding is set to direct, and Brenton Thwaites will star.
Jason Shuman '96 and his writing/producing partner Eduardo Cisneros have signed a multi-picture development deal with Sony Pictures International Productions. In this partnership, they will write and produce three new features for Sony.
Josh Stolberg '97 will write the CW's television adaptation of the 1987 dark fantasy novel Weaveworld.
Tim Story '94 will return to direct Ride Along 3. He is teaming up with Aaron Kaplan '90 for the single-camera comedy Joe 2.0, which has been bought by ABC. The network has also bought Story's untitled comedy about two brothers who return to their gentrified Los Angeles neighborhood after their mother dies.
Adam Sztykiel '99 and Bill Lawrence's comedy Spaced Out has been given a pilot production commitment from NBC.
Jennifer Todd, along with Michael De Luca, will executive produce the 89th Oscar awards.
David Tolchinsky '88 and Debra Tolchinsky '88 were selected for New City's “Film 50 2015: Chicago's Screen Gems” list, ranking No. 8.
Matthew Weiner '90 will write and executive produce an eight-episode anthology series for Amazon.
John Wells '82 will executive produce Flight Risk, which has been given a put pilot commitment by NBC. TNT has ordered the suburban drama pilot Hinges from his production company John Wells Productions.
The History Channel is developing the alien drama Blue Book from Robert Zemeckis '73 and ImageMovers.
Xu Zhang '14 was selected as one of the first five participants for Warner Bros.' Emerging Film Directors Program.
New TV Shows on the Air
American Housewife
Aaron Kaplan '90, Executive Producer
Atlanta
Hiro Murai '06, Director
Divorce
Aaron Kaplan '90, Executive Producer
Insecure
Prentice Penny '95, Executive Producer
Pitch
Paul Maibaum '75, Cinematographer
Quarry
Greg Yaitanes, Executive Producer/Director
Queen Sugar
Tina Mabry '05, Writer/Producer/Director
Timeless
Eric Kripke '96, Writer/Executive Producer
Westworld
Bryan Burk '91, Executive Producer
Richard Lewis '87, Co-Executive Producer/Director
Athena Wickham '02, Producer
New Films in Release
31
Glenn Garland '88, Editor
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week
Ron Howard, Director/Producer
Brian Grazer, Producer
The Birth of a Nation
Jason Michael Berman '06, Producer
David Goyer '88, Executive Producer
Dancer
Steven Cantor '95, Director
Denial
Gary Foster, Producer
Harry and Snowman
Clay Westervelt '99, Producer/Cinematographer
Kevin Hart: What Now?
Tim Story '94, Director
Inferno
Brian Grazer, Producer
Ron Howard, Director/Producer
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Caleb Deschanel '69, Cinematographer
David Ellison, Executive Producer
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Evan Hayes '02, Executive Producer
Michael LeSieur '00, Writer/Producer
Riyoko Tanaka '00, Co-producer
The Magnificent Seven
Todd Black '82, Producer
Masterminds
Hubbel Palmer '05, Writer
Max Steel
Stewart Hendler '01, Director
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs '05, Writer
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Michael Fimognari '01, Cinematographer
David Ellison, Executive Producer