Latest news with #TheThreesome
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Vertical Acquires Chad Hartigan Rom-Com ‘The Threesome' Starring Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King & Ruby Cruz
EXCLUSIVE: Vertical has acquired North American rights to director Chad Hartigan's romantic comedy The Threesome, starring Zoey Deutch (Juror #2), Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid), and Ruby Cruz (Bottoms), slating the film for release in theaters on September 5. World premiering recently at SXSW, the film takes place one fateful night, as the stars appear to align for Connor (Hauer-King), a kind and unassuming young man, as his irreverent long-time crush Olivia (Deutch) steers them into a threesome with alluring stranger Jenny (Cruz). The encounter sparks a relationship between Connor and Olivia and their love grows quickly, all the way toward planning a life together. But their happy romance is soon demolished when Jenny reappears in their lives, thrusting all three into a difficult and messy journey towards true accountability and adulthood. More from Deadline 'The Threesome' Review: Zoey Deutch Shines In Rom-Com With Complications – SXSW 'The Threesome' Director Chad Hartigan Wanted To Make A 'Grounded' And 'Truly Tender' Romantic Comedy — SXSW Studio Netflix Sets Zoey Deutch & Nick Robinson For Leah McKendrick-Helmed 'Voicemails For Isabelle' Pic was produced from the debut screenplay of Ethan Ogilby. Jaboukie Young-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, and Julia Sweeney also star. Tim White, Trevor White, Vince Jolivette and Steve Shapiro produced, alongside EPs Deutch, Liz & Ken Whitney of Jupiter Peak, Anthony & Angie Sanfilippo, David Garrett of Filmopoly, and Allan Mandelbaum. Rick Rickertsen, Mary Solomon, Laena Carroll, and Richie Hill co-produced. In a statement to Deadline, filmmaker Hartigan said, 'We are thrilled to have Vertical as a partner on the film. They are as passionate as I am about getting romantic comedies back on the big screen where they belong!' Vertical Partner Peter Jarowey added, 'We are so glad to be working with Star Thrower again. We love this film. Chad and Ethan have created a wholly unique and electrifying romantic comedy. As sweet as it is subversive, we're excited to release this winner to North American audiences this September.' Jarowey and SVP of Acquisitions Tony Piantedosi negotiated for Vertical, with CAA Media Finance representing the filmmakers.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Matthew McConaughey on Returning to Acting After a Six-Year Hiatus With ‘The Rivals of Amziah King' and Why His Season of ‘True Detective' Is the Best
On the first day shooting 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' Matthew McConaughey, his right eye swollen from a bee sting, walked onto the set, raised his hand and asked, 'Is anybody else nervous except for me?' The cast and crew let out a collective laugh. 'Alright, alright, alright, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one,' the actor said, sounding like a mixture of a preacher and a surfer with his signature drawl. More from Variety 'The Threesome' Review: Charming Rom-Com Chases Something More as Zoey Deutch Irons Out an Awkward Situation 'The Accountant 2' Review: Ben Affleck's Autistic Action Savant Makes a Winning Return in a Thriller That Improves on the First Film's Messiness 'It Ends' Review: A Brilliant, Existential Road Thriller for and by Gen Z But McConaughey wasn't joking. He admits he felt creaky returning to the screen after a six-year hiatus, during which he wrote a memoir, 'Greenlights,' recorded a few voice roles in films like 'Sing 2,' spent time with his family and kept a lower profile. 'I needed to write my own story, direct my own story on the page,' McConaughey says of his time away from being in front of the camera. But when he came across Andrew Patterson's script, which focused on the charismatic owner of a honey operation in Oklahoma and his relationship with his foster child, he was drawn to its originality and strong sense of place. The part fit like a worn-in pair of jeans. 'It's not where I grew up, but I know of these kind of people and these places and these kind of characters that live in the middle of the country,' McConaughey says. 'This group of people in southeast Oklahoma where the film takes place know the Constitution, they know the rules they are living by, and they're not looking for or getting approval from the rest of the world. I understand them.' Patterson had labored on the project for years, enlarging it at one point into a seven episode mini-series, before shrinking it back down again. He always felt that McConaughey possessed the free-wheeling charm that he needed for Amziah, who has a roving band of bee-keepers and musicians who follow him like a caravan of apostles. 'I wanted an actor with the type of personality where he could just hang out with them for hours,' he says. 'It had to be somebody so disarming, who would just do their thing inside this world I was trying to evoke, and who could be comedic in a dramatic movie. There aren't many people like that.' Even on the phone, McConaughey, with his tendency to monologue, exhibits that kind of magnetism. He likes to digress, looping away from a question, before somehow gliding back toward an answer with an easy-going assurance that leaves you more interested in the journey than the destination. And McConaughey doesn't want this to be a one-sided conversation, asking me what I thought the meaning was behind a certain scene or for my take on the film's rural backdrop. 'Well there you go,' he says encouragingly after I tell him my (not very original) thought that what I like about movies like 'The Rivals of Amziah King' is that they take you to places that are different from your reality. 'I guess for a New Yorker, you are pretty far removed from that world,' he says. 'So you might see a people and place like this and go, 'Oh, I didn't really know that existed, right?' Which absolutely is the best thing about movies.' McConaughey says that making 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' which opens at SXSW on March 10, helped him rediscover his love for his profession. 'I remembered a couple of things,' he says. 'One, how much I truly enjoy performing. Two, I remembered, hey, McConaughey, you're pretty damn good at this. And three, I remembered that acting is a vacation for me, and what I mean by vacation is that when when I'm performing, it's my singular focus. When I walk out the door in the morning, my wife says, 'go kick some ass. I got the kiddos. We're good.' That's vacation. Because I'm not multitasking. I'm not compartmentalizing. I'm fully focused on finding the truth of my character.' He thinks that writing the book, which saw him comb through pages of diary entries to assemble something that combined poems, prayers and remembrances, also improved his acting. 'The memoir was extremely honest and it forced me to be honest with myself,' McConaughey says. 'It cleared up things you've been thinking about for 35 years. And it makes you realize that's kind of who you are, Matthew. Let's admit that and shake hands. Bravo. That gave me even more trust in myself, because, you know, there was less to maybe hide about myself. I had shared it. So that's made it easier for me to be honest as an actor.' That honesty extends to his thoughts on the state of 'True Detective,' the twisty anthology series that helped kick off 'The McConaissance' when it debuted on HBO in 2014. After teasing the mystery of the Yellow King, it's continued for three more, intermittently successful seasons, the most of recent of which, 'True Detective: North Country,' aired in 2024 and starred Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. 'I watched, I saw it. Yeah, there's a lot about it that I appreciated,' McConaughey says, haltingly. 'My favorite season — and I feel like I can say this objectively — is Season 1.' He's picking up steam here, sounding tickled by his own admission. 'I happen to be in that one, so I thought that was incredible, incredible television and a great series. I watched it weekly, like everyone else, on Sunday night, and that was an event for me. And I got to sit back and enjoy that. I loved the water cooler talk on Monday morning. Even though I made it, I sort of forgot what was going to happen next. It was one of the great events in TV.' 'True Detective,' which found McConaughey sharing the screen with his good buddy Woody Harrelson, was a two-hander, one that required its stars to have an easy chemistry. The same is true of 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' with McConaughey sharing the task of carrying the movie with newcomer Angelina LookingGlass. She plays Kateri, Amziah's long-lost foster daughter who he brings back into the family business. LookingGlass got the part after an extensive nationwide search with the production testing more than 200 indigenous actors. 'Angelina had the most infectious smile, but she can turn it on a dime and just stare a hole through a person,' Patterson raves. 'We knew the second she read with Matthew that the part was hers.' McConaughey can't heap enough praise on LookingGlass, enthusing about her abilities several times during our interview. 'She only knows how to do what so many of us actors forget to do when we learn to quote, unquote, act, which is listen and respond honestly to the truth of a situation,' McConaughey says. 'That's it. That's the secret. An actor doesn't want to get caught acting. Every actor worth their salt knows what I'm talking about.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Matthew McConaughey on Returning to Acting After a Six-Year Hiatus With ‘The Rivals of Amziah King' and Why His Season of ‘True Detective' Is the Best
On the first day shooting 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' Matthew McConaughey, his right eye swollen from a bee sting, walked onto the set, raised his hand and asked, 'Is anybody else nervous except for me?' The cast and crew let out a collective laugh. 'Alright, alright, alright, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one,' the actor said, sounding like a mixture of a preacher and a surfer with his signature drawl. More from Variety 'The Threesome' Review: Charming Rom-Com Chases Something More as Zoey Deutch Irons Out an Awkward Situation 'The Accountant 2' Review: Ben Affleck's Autistic Action Savant Makes a Winning Return in a Thriller That Improves on the First Film's Messiness 'It Ends' Review: A Brilliant, Existential Road Thriller for and by Gen Z But McConaughey wasn't joking. He admits he felt creaky returning to the screen after a six-year hiatus, during which he wrote a memoir, 'Greenlights,' recorded a few voice roles in films like 'Sing 2,' spent time with his family and kept a lower profile. 'I needed to write my own story, direct my own story on the page,' McConaughey says of his time away from being in front of the camera. But when he came across Andrew Patterson's script, which focused on the charismatic owner of a honey operation in Oklahoma and his relationship with his foster child, he was drawn to its originality and strong sense of place. The part fit like a worn-in pair of jeans. 'It's not where I grew up, but I know of these kind of people and these places and these kind of characters that live in the middle of the country,' McConaughey says. 'This group of people in southeast Oklahoma where the film takes place know the Constitution, they know the rules they are living by, and they're not looking for or getting approval from the rest of the world. I understand them.' Patterson had labored on the project for years, enlarging it at one point into a seven episode mini-series, before shrinking it back down again. He always felt that McConaughey possessed the free-wheeling charm that he needed for Amziah, who has a roving band of bee-keepers and musicians who follow him like a caravan of apostles. 'I wanted an actor with the type of personality where he could just hang out with them for hours,' he says. 'It had to be somebody so disarming, who would just do their thing inside this world I was trying to evoke, and who could be comedic in a dramatic movie. There aren't many people like that.' Even on the phone, McConaughey, with his tendency to monologue, exhibits that kind of magnetism. He likes to digress, looping away from a question, before somehow gliding back toward an answer with an easy-going assurance that leaves you more interested in the journey than the destination. And McConaughey doesn't want this to be a one-sided conversation, asking me what I thought the meaning was behind a certain scene or for my take on the film's rural backdrop. 'Well there you go,' he says encouragingly after I tell him my (not very original) thought that what I like about movies like 'The Rivals of Amziah King' is that they take you to places that are different from your reality. 'I guess for a New Yorker, you are pretty far removed from that world,' he says. 'So you might see a people and place like this and go, 'Oh, I didn't really know that existed, right?' Which absolutely is the best thing about movies.' McConaughey says that making 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' which opens at SXSW on March 10, helped him rediscover his love for his profession. 'I remembered a couple of things,' he says. 'One, how much I truly enjoy performing. Two, I remembered, hey, McConaughey, you're pretty damn good at this. And three, I remembered that acting is a vacation for me, and what I mean by vacation is that when when I'm performing, it's my singular focus. When I walk out the door in the morning, my wife says, 'go kick some ass. I got the kiddos. We're good.' That's vacation. Because I'm not multitasking. I'm not compartmentalizing. I'm fully focused on finding the truth of my character.' He thinks that writing the book, which saw him comb through pages of diary entries to assemble something that combined poems, prayers and remembrances, also improved his acting. 'The memoir was extremely honest and it forced me to be honest with myself,' McConaughey says. 'It cleared up things you've been thinking about for 35 years. And it makes you realize that's kind of who you are, Matthew. Let's admit that and shake hands. Bravo. That gave me even more trust in myself, because, you know, there was less to maybe hide about myself. I had shared it. So that's made it easier for me to be honest as an actor.' That honesty extends to his thoughts on the state of 'True Detective,' the twisty anthology series that helped kick off 'The McConaissance' when it debuted on HBO in 2014. After teasing the mystery of the Yellow King, it's continued for three more, intermittently successful seasons, the most of recent of which, 'True Detective: North Country,' aired in 2024 and starred Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. 'I watched, I saw it. Yeah, there's a lot about it that I appreciated,' McConaughey says, haltingly. 'My favorite season — and I feel like I can say this objectively — is Season 1.' He's picking up steam here, sounding tickled by his own admission. 'I happen to be in that one, so I thought that was incredible, incredible television and a great series. I watched it weekly, like everyone else, on Sunday night, and that was an event for me. And I got to sit back and enjoy that. I loved the water cooler talk on Monday morning. Even though I made it, I sort of forgot what was going to happen next. It was one of the great events in TV.' 'True Detective,' which found McConaughey sharing the screen with his good buddy Woody Harrelson, was a two-hander, one that required its stars to have an easy chemistry. The same is true of 'The Rivals of Amziah King,' with McConaughey sharing the task of carrying the movie with newcomer Angelina LookingGlass. She plays Kateri, Amziah's long-lost foster daughter who he brings back into the family business. LookingGlass got the part after an extensive nationwide search with the production testing more than 200 indigenous actors. 'Angelina had the most infectious smile, but she can turn it on a dime and just stare a hole through a person,' Patterson raves. 'We knew the second she read with Matthew that the part was hers.' McConaughey can't heap enough praise on LookingGlass, enthusing about her abilities several times during our interview. 'She only knows how to do what so many of us actors forget to do when we learn to quote, unquote, act, which is listen and respond honestly to the truth of a situation,' McConaughey says. 'That's it. That's the secret. An actor doesn't want to get caught acting. Every actor worth their salt knows what I'm talking about.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
SXSW 2025: All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews
The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival kicked off Friday, March 7 in Austin with world and North American premieres of movies in 11 sections, TV shows in three sections and several short film and virtual reality programs. This year's festival kicks off with opening-night film Another Simple Favor reteaming Paul Feig, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, with other notable world premiere titles including Chad Hartigan's The Threesome, Kate Mara's double entries The Astronaut and The Dutchman (the latter also starring André Holland), the Ben Affleck-Jon Bernthal sequel The Accountant 2, the Nicole Kidman-starring Holland and Death of a Unicorn starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega. More from Deadline SXSW Preview + Hot List: Blake Lively, Jenna Ortega, Michelle Obama, Matthew McConaughey & More Coming To Austin Deadline Studio at SXSW Film Festival 2025 – Day 1 – Daveed Diggs, Lili Reinhart, Dave Franco, Allison Brie, Kevin Bacon & More 'Another Simple Favor' Review: Blake Lively & Anna Kendrick Reunite In Paul Feig's Italian Murder Mystery Sequel - SXSW Check out Deadline's reviews recaps below as films premiere at the fest, which runs through March 15, and click on the titles for the full reviews. Section: HeadlinerDirector: Paul FeigCast: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Elizabeth Perkins, Michele Morrone, Alex Newell, Henry Golding, Allison Janney Deadline's takeaway: While some might argue that Feig and writers Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis are too reliant on obvious nods to the original film — bringing back familiar plot devices like the mommy vlog teaser opening and an act-three twist that felt a little too recycled — the references ultimately add a playful wink to a fun and exciting film that stands on its own. — GG Section: Narrative SpotlightDirector: Jess VarleyCast: Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Milicevic, Macy GrayDeadline's takeaway: Ultimately, The Astronaut doesn't soar quite as high as some of the better entries in this universe, notably Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, which I kept thinking about watching this unfold. Its climax just feels a bit rushed and a little incomplete for this to be more than a minor addition to an overly ripe genre. — PH Section: Narrative SpotlightDirector: Chad HartiganCast: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Young-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, Julia SweeneyDeadline's takeaway: The soap-opera turns The Threesome takes are in the hands of talented indie filmmakers who devise a complex tale of three young singles simply looking for love but find complications pulling them apart and keeping them together in ways they never could have imagined. — PH Best of Deadline The Best 7 New Movies On Netflix In March 2025 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys & More
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Blake Lively Brings Down House At SXSW Premiere Of ‘Another Simple Favor', Says Pic 'Was Uncomfortable To Watch In This Theater'. Here's What She Meant…
Blake Lively said that Another Simple Favor director Paul Feig 'upped the ante' in the Amazon Studios MGM/Lionsgate sequel — and that's keeping the spoiler at bay. However, watching herself — a lot of herself on screen at the Paramount Theatre, the actress said, 'It was uncomfortable to watch in this theater.' That's not a ding. You gotta see the movie on May 1 on Prime to see what she's talking about. More from Deadline 'The Astronaut' Review: Kate Mara's Close Encounters Come Back To Haunt In Modest Sci-Fi Psychological Thriller - SXSW Amazon MGM Will Release 12-14 Films Theatrically In 2026 As Studio Commits "Financially And Philosophically" To The Big Screen - SXSW 'The Threesome' Review: Zoey Deutch Shines In Rom-Com With Complications - SXSW In Another Simple Favor, Lively's Emily Nelson is not dead. She returns to visit Anna Kendrick's Stephanie Smothers, who is making a name for herself as an author of the calamities that ensued in A Simple Favor. Emily is getting married in Capri, Italy to mob-tied glamorous guy. She insists that Stephanie be her maid of honor, or else she'll sue her for not clearing her name and likeness which was used in her book. Chaos ensues. Lively said on the first movie, A Simple Favor, Anna Kendrick and her were 'nervous' — they didn't know if Feig was making a drama or comedy. He would tell the actresses it was both. On part duo, Feig wanted to shoot in Capri. After watching the movie, Lively says, 'Now, I want to live there! They serve ice cream in lemons!' Feig's inspiration for setting the sequel in Capri came from the Paris Vogue editor's opulent wedding there. Kendrick enjoyed reprising the earnest Stephanie. Her convo with the costume designer was that her character 'is addicted to not serving. Can I just not be very well dressed, but comfortable?' One of her signature wears in the film is a striped sweater. Amazon MGM Studios once again is a force to be reckon with at SXSW, for in addition to this year's Another Simple Favor, they have The Accountant 2 tomorrow night. That Ben Affleck movie is getting a theatrical release on April 25. Feig is also a frequent denizen of SXSW having world premiered his movies Bridesmaids and Spy down here in the past. In regards to whether this audience has any idea of what the Lively-Justin Baldoni situation is — it doesn't seem to faze them in Austin. It's clear they loved the movie. Best of Deadline The Best 7 New Movies On Netflix In March 2025 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys & More
