Jenna Ortega & Robert De Niro Are Pool Hustlers in New David O. Russell Movie
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
Golden Globe nominee Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) and Oscar winner Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) have signed on for the leading roles in the upcoming pool hustling drama, Shutout. The project hails from acclaimed filmmaker David O. Russell (American Hustle, The Fighter). This marks De Niro's latest collaboration with Russell after working together in 2015's Jennifer Lawrence-led comedy-drama Joy.
What is the new David O. Russell movie about?
'The film follows Jake Kejeune (De Niro), one of the last masters of a vanishing craft — the pool hustler. Having lived and lost by the roll of a ball in smoky backroom halls, Jake encounters Mia (Ortega), a young prodigy whose raw, electrifying talent reignites a fire he thought long extinguished,' reads the official synopsis. 'Sensing a rare opportunity to shape a legend, Jake takes Mia under his wing, honing her instincts and sharpening her natural gift. Together, they plunge into the ruthless world of high-stakes pool, where the line between unimaginable fortune and devastating failure is razor-thin. As Mia's star ascends and her ambition grows, Jake must confront the ultimate question: can he steer her to greatness, or will her hunger for victory eclipse everything he has taught her?'
Shutout will be directed by Russell from a screenplay written by Alejandro Adams. The movie will be produced by Russell, Joe Roth, Jeff Kirschenbaum, and Mark Bomback. Meanwhile, Black Bear will officially introduce the project to international buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market, with CAA Media Finance handling its U.S. rights.
'We're delighted to be collaborating with the acclaimed director David O. Russell and the legendary Robert De Niro, and especially excited to see Jenna step into the spotlight alongside these two cinematic icons,' Kirschenbaum said in a statement. 'It's a rare and thrilling opportunity to support such a high-caliber team coming together to tell a compelling story — a lineup so precise, it feels like the perfect break.'
The post Jenna Ortega & Robert De Niro Are Pool Hustlers in New David O. Russell Movie appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'I Don't Understand You': Nick Kroll, Andrew Rannells movie based on adoption fraud story from filmmakers
While Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells voice some pretty hysterical characters in Big Mouth, they're now sharing the screen in the horror-comedy I Don't Understand You (now in theatres). Written and directed by married filmmakers David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano, the movie had a particularly interesting starting point. In I Don't Understand You Kroll and Rannells play a couple, Dom and Cole, who have just fallen victim to adoption fraud, but things are looking up. A pregnant woman named Candace (Amanda Seyfried) thinks they're the right fit for the family to adopt her child. But just before that happens, Dom and Cole take a romantic Italian vacation. Things take a turn when they get lost outside of Rome, trying to find a restaurant. As their stranded in an unknown location, the trip turns to bloody Italian chaos. As Craig and Crano identified, the first portion of the movie, up until the couple gets stuck going to the restaurant, is quite close to the real adoption experience the filmmakers had. "We were adopting a child. We had been through an adoption scam, which was heartbreaking, and then had a completely different experience when we matched with the birth mother of our son," Crano told Yahoo. "But we found out that we were going to have him literally like two days before we were going on our 10th anniversary trip." "And we were like, 'Shit, should we not go?' But we decided to do it, and you're so emotionally opened up and vulnerable in that moment that it felt like a very similar experience to being in a horror movie, even though it's a joyful kind of situation." A key element of I Don't Understand You is that feeling of shock once the story turns from a romance-comedy to something much bloodier. It feels abrupt, but it's that jolt of the contrast that also makes that moment feel particularly impactful to watch. "Our sense of filmmaker is so much based on surprise, Craig said. "As a cinephile, my main decade to go to are outlandish '90s movies, because they just take you to a different space, and as long as you have a reality to the characters that are already at hand, you can kind of take them wherever." "Personally, the situation of adoption was a constant jolt [from] one emotion to another that we felt like that was the right way to tell a story like this, which was literally, fall in love with a couple and then send them into a complete nightmare. And I think you can only get that way if you do it abruptly, and kind of manically." While Rannells and Kroll have that funny and sweet chemistry the story needs, these were roles that weren't written for them. But it works because Crano and Craig know how to write in each other's voices so well, that's where a lot of the dialogue is pulled from. Additionally, the filmmakers had the "creative trust" in each other to pitch any idea, as random as it may have seemed, to see if it could work for the film. "When you're with somebody you've lived with for 15 years, there is very little that I can do that would embarrass me in front of David," Crano said. "So that level of creative freedom is very generative." "We were able to screw up in front of each other a lot without it affecting the rest of our day," Craig added. Of course, with the language barrier between the filmmakers and the Italian cast, it was a real collaboration to help make the script feel authentic for those characters. "All of the Italian actors and crew were very helpful in terms of being like, 'Well I feel like my character is is from the south and wouldn't say it in this way.' And helped us build the language," Crano said. "And it was just a very trusting process, because neither of us are fluent enough to have that kind of dialectical specificity that you would in English." "It was super cool to just be watching an actor perform a scene that you've written in English that has been translated a couple of times, but you still completely understand it, just by the generosity of their performance." For Craig, he has an extensive resume of acting roles, including projects like Boy Erased and episodes of Dropout. Among the esteemed alumni of the Upright Citizens Brigade, he had a writing "itch" for a long time, and was "in awe" of Crano's work as a director. "Truthfully, in a weird way, it felt like such a far off, distang job, because everything felt really difficult, and I think with this project it just made me understand that it was just something I truly love and truly wanted to do," Craig said. "I love the idea of creative control and being in a really collaborative situation. Acting allows you to do that momentarily, but I think like every other job that you can do on a film is much longer lasting, and I think that's something I was truly seeking." For Crano, he also grew up as a theatre kid, moving on to writing plays in college. "The first time I got laughs for jokes I was like, 'Oh, this is it. Let's figure out how to do this,'" he said. "I was playwriting in London, my mom got sick in the States, so I came back, and I started writing a movie, because I was living in [Los Angeles] and I thought, well there are no playwrights in L.A., I better write a movie.'" That's when Crano found a mentor in Peter Friedlander, who's currently the head of scripted series, U.S. and Canada, at Netflix. "I had written this feature and ... we met with a bunch of directors, great directors, directors I truly admire, and they would be like, 'It should be like this.' And I'd be like, 'Yeah, that's fine, but maybe it's more like this.' And after about five of those Peter was like, 'You're going to direct it. We'll make some shorts. We'll see if you can do it.' He just sort of saw it," Crano recalled. "It's nice to be seen in any capacity for your ability, but [I started to realize] this is not so different from writing, it's just sort of writing and physical space and storytelling, and I love to do it. ... It is a very difficult job, because it requires so much money to test the theory, to even see if you can." But being able to work together on I Don't Understand You, the couple were able to learn things about and from each other through the filmmaking process. "David is lovely to everyone," Crano said. "He is much nicer than I am at a sort of base level, and makes everyone feel that they can perform at the best of their ability. And that's a really good lesson." "Brian literally doesn't take anything personally," Craig added. "Almost to a fault." "And it's very helpful in an environment where you're getting a lot of no's, to have a partner who's literally like, 'Oh, it's just no for now. Great, let's move on. Let's find somebody who's going to say yes, maybe we'll come back to that no later.' I'm the pessimist who's sitting in the corner going, 'Somebody just rejected me, I don't know what to do.' ... It just makes you move, and that's that's very helpful for me."
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ryan Gosling's ‘Star Wars: Starfighter': Everything to know as Mia Goth takes on the Mikey Madison role
This is as close as we're going to get a Barbie-MaXXXine crossover. Mia Goth is joining the new Ryan Gosling-powered Star Wars installment, Starfighter, taking over the role originally offered Anora Oscar winner Mikey Madison. The casting coup is the latest scrap of news about the anticipated project, which will be helmed by Shawn Levy and which had its coming-out party at Star Wars Celebration in April 2025. Here's everything we know so far about Star Wars: Starfighter. More from GoldDerby Danya Taymor could make Tony Awards history with a win for 'John Proctor Is the Villain' How 'Severance' creates Lumon's 'manufactured perfection' through VFX 'Say Nothing' star Anthony Boyle on playing IRA activist Brendan Hughes: We 'get to the humanity as opposed to the mythology' The are scant details about the plot, other than it is a one-off installment that involves Ryan Gosling's character and his young companion being pursued by villainous forces. Levy says that Starfighter will cover new territory in franchise storytelling and won't feature any of the major characters from prior releases. 'This is a standalone. It's not a prequel, not sequel. It's a new adventure. It's set in a period of time that we haven't seen explored yet,' the filmmaker said. 'The reality is that this script is just so good. It has such a great story with great and original characters,' said Gosling. 'It's filled with so much heart and adventure, and there just really is not a more perfect filmmaker for this particular story than Shawn.' Starfighter the movie is not related to the 2001 video game of the same name from LucasArts that was set on the planet of Naboo during the time period of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Starfighter takes place about five years after the events of the last Star Wars feature, 2019's Rise of Skywalker. READ: Levy, a four-time Emmy nominee for Stranger Things and whose credits also include Deadpool & Wolverine, Free Guy and Night at the Museum, has been developing the project for the past three years with screenwriter Jonathan Tropper. The two previously collaborated on The Adam Project and This Is Where I Leave You. Gosling, a three-time Oscar nominee, was formally introduced as the lead at Star Wars Celebration after weeks of speculation. "That rumor is true," Levy said as he brought out his star to the stage to massive cheers. "The rumors are true." According to Variety, Mikey Madison was initially offered the female lead one of the baddies hunting down Gosling and his young sidekick. Madion reportedly turned down the role due to a pay dispute. It was confirmed that Mia Goth had accepted the role in June 2025. The news was initially reported by The InSneider. No other casting has been announced. Starfighter is slated to begin production in fall 2025 in England. Starfighter is scheduled to open May 28, 2027. Best of GoldDerby Stephen King movies: 14 greatest films ranked worst to best 'The Life of Chuck' cast reveal their favorite Stephen King works, including Mark Hamill's love of the 'terrifying' 'Pet Sematary' From 'Hot Rod' to 'Eastbound' to 'Gemstones,' Danny McBride breaks down his most righteous roles: 'It's been an absolute blast' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Christian Bale Transforms Into Unrecognizable Look to Play Al Davis in John Madden Biopic
Christian Bale looks totally unrecognizable on the set of upcoming John Madden biopic Bale plays the late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis The biopic will chronicle the life and career of former Raiders head coach turned NFL commentator John Madden, who died in 2021 at 85Christian Bale looks unrecognizable on the Atlanta set of Madden. Bale, 51, was seen in a receding hairline wig with bleached eyebrows. He wore a white v-neck shirt paired with a leather jacket, black slacks, and dress shoes. The look was completed with a series of championship rings. The actor plays late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis in the upcoming Madden biopic, which will chronicle the life of John Madden. Nicholas Cage stars as the legendary NFL coach, who won Super Bowl XI in 1977 for the Raiders and later became a broadcaster. Earlier this week, Cage was similarly seen in an unrecognizable ensemble, complete with a wavy blonde wig and aqua blue tracksuit. "The film follows Madden's remarkable journey—from his Super Bowl-winning partnership with Al Davis and the Raiders, to creating Madden NFL, and becoming one of the most iconic voices in football history," Amazon MGM Studios said of the film when it was announced on May 13. Also joining the cast are John Mulaney as Trip Hawkins, Kathryn Hahn as Virginia Madden, and Sienna Miller as Carol Davis. David O. Russell, who previously directed Bale in The Fighter and American Hustle, is directing the film. Madden served as head coach of the Raiders from 1969 to 1978. He was one of the youngest head coaches in history when the Raiders hired him at 32. His biggest victory came in January 1977, when he led the Raiders to a 32-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. He went on to work as an expert commentator on NFL telecasts for CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC from 1979 to 2009, and won 16 Sports Emmy Awards. The long-running football video game franchise Madden carries his name. Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006. Madden died in 2021 in his home in Pleasanton, Calif., at 85. Davis was the principal owner of the Raiders from 1972 until his death in 2011 at 82. His widow, Carol Davis, and their son Mark Davis now own the team. Amazon MGM Studios has not announced a release date for Madden yet. Read the original article on People
