News

Margaret Riley, the agent, manager and Lighthouse Management & Media partner and producer on the 2019 film Bombshell, died Tuesday of ovarian cancer at her Brentwood home. She was 58.

Her friends Lainie Becky and Matthew Weinberg confirmed the news to Deadline.

Riley’s more than 30-year career in Hollywood began in production on commercials, features and documentaries. In 1992, she served as Director of Development for Tim Disney’s Virtual World Entertainment, a gaming/interactive company. While there, she developed sci-fi properties into films for New Line Cinema.

In 1995, she began working at production/management company Addis Wechsler and Associates, which later became Industry Entertainment, and was promoted from assistant to manager. In 2002, Riley founded Margaret Riley Management, which was acquired by Brillstein Entertainment Partners three years later. Riley left Brillstein in 2006 to join production/management company Lighthouse Management and Media, with her partners Aleen Keshishian and Zack Morgenroth.

Riley’s current...

Margaret Riley, the respected agent, manager and Lighthouse Management & Media partner who served as a producer on the Fox News drama Bombshell, has died. She was 58.

Riley died Tuesday at her home in Brentwood after a private battle with ovarian cancer, her friends Lainie Becky and Matthew Weinberg told The Hollywood Reporter.

Riley was a talent/literary manager at Brillstein Entertainment Partners from October 2006 through March 2016, when she joined Lighthouse Management & Media, which had just been launched by founder and CEO Aleen Keshishian.

“We are devastated by the loss of our colleague and friend Margaret Riley, who was a passionate advocate and champion for artists,” Keshishian said. “We share our deepest condolences and love with her family, friends and clients.”

Riley’s current and former clients over the years have included actors Mark Ruffalo and Bridget Moynahan; CSI creator Anthony Zuiker; directors Susanna Fogel, Stella Meghie and Rj Cutler...

Retiring ABC series “Black-ish” picked up one more honor on Friday, a Humanitas Prize for comedy teleplay, while Apple TV+’s “Pachinko” and ABC’s “Women of the Movement” also were recognized at the event.

Held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and hosted by comedian Larry Wilmore, the 46th annual Humanitas Prize event centered on awards and 10,000 cash prizes to screenwriters across ten categories. In addition, Humanitas board president Jenny Bicks presented Filmmakers for Ukraine with the Kieser Award “in recognition of their work to connect the Ukrainian film and TV community impacted by the Russo-Ukrainian War with resources, jobs, and funding to meet basic needs.”

And Jasmine Cephas Jones presented Starz with Voice for Change Award for its #TakeTheLead initiative. Starz president/CEO Jeffrey Hirsch accepted the prize on the network’s behalf. Nkechi Okoro Carroll oversaw the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Award presentations.

Here are this...

“Masterpiece,” the PBS staple behind past series such as “Downton Abbey,” has given a renewal to “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” and revealed the upcoming return date for popular drama “All Creatures Great and Small.” During the “Masterpiece” session at PBS’ second day of Television Critics Association virtual press tour panels, the franchise also revealed two new series: “Mrs. Churchill” and “Magpie Murders.”

“Miss Scarlet and the Duke,” which stars Kate Phillips as the first-ever female detective in Victorian London, will return for a third season on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 at 8 p.m. Et on PBS. Season 2 of the show is set to premiere on Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. Et.

Alongside “Miss Scarlet and the Duke,” “Masterpiece” has announced that the third season of “All Creatures Great and Small” will air seven episodes beginning Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Based on the bestselling memoirs by veterinarian James Herriot and

starring an ensemble cast led by Nicholas Ralph,...

Masterpiece/PBS and Maven Screen Media are developing a five-part series based on the public and private life of Clementine Churchill, the wife of the late prime minister Winston Churchill, alongside David Thomspon and Sayoko Teitelbaum’s Origin Pictures.

Emmy-nominated “Boardwalk Empire” writer Margaret Nagle will pen the script for the series (working title: “Mrs. Churchill”) and executive produce along with Thompson, Teitelbaum and Maven co-founders Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler, as well as Susanne Simpson for Masterpiece.

The show centers on the “untold story of a fiercely Independent and very modern heroine who risked everything to save her country and the world from fascism—and her husband from himself.” While several dramatized narratives have focused on Winston’s story, the series aims to highlight Clementine’s achievements.

“Winston has said that the Second World War would have been impossible without Clementine, and yet she has not been given the credit she deserves.

PBS is developing a drama series based on the public and private life of Clementine Churchill, wife of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

The U.S. public broadcaster is working with Maven Screen Media, the production company set up by Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler, Origin Pictures, the producer of HBO and Sky’s Catherine the Great, on five-part series Mrs. Churchill (w/t).

Margaret Nagle, who previously wrote on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, is writing.

The project was previously being developed as a feature film, as revealed by Deadline in 2018.

It is the story of a fiercely independent and very modern heroine who risked everything to save her country and the world from fascism–and her husband from himself. Clementine’s story has slipped through the cracks of history. The magnitude of her many achievements are only recently being recognized.

Each episode of the limited series will follow...

Humanitas has revealed the nominees for this year’s Humanitas Prizes, which recognize “television and film writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced way.” The award is given out in nine categories, including comedy, drama and limited series.

This year’s nominees include “Maid,” “This Is Us,” “Queen Sugar,” “Pachinko,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Somebody Somewhere” and “Black-ish.” Winners will be announced at an in-person awards luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on September 9, 2022.

“The Humanitas Prizes were created to recognize writers whose work explores the beauty and complexity of the human experience and the 2022 nominees do just that,” said Michelle Franke, Humanitas Executive Director. “Ranging in scope, style, and perspective, these stories underscore our bonds, our history and responsibility to each other in the present as well as possibilities for the future. Especially during challenging times, writers dedicate themselves to the stories that connect and entertain us.”

Here...

After a two-year hiatus, Humanitas has revealed the nominations for its 2022 Humanitas Prizes in nine categories

Winners will receive their trophies during a September 9 in-person ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

Launched in 1974, the Humanitas Prizes honor film and television writers whose work explores the human condition, with recipients receiving a trophy and a cash prize.

Here are the nominees for the 46th annual Humanitas Prize:

Children’s Teleplay

El Deafo: Written by Cece Bell and Will McRobb

Karma’s World: “Hair Comes Trouble” – Written by Kellie R. Griffin and Halcyon Person

Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), with Love: Written by Alex Galatis

The Babysitters Club: “Claudia and the Sad Goodbye” – Written by Sascha Rothchild

Comedy Feature Film

Don’t Look Up: Written by Adam McKay

Everything Everywhere All At Once: Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Queen Bees: Written by Donald Martin

tick, tick…Boom!:...

Click here to read the full article.

Humanitas has announced the nominees for the 46th annual Humanitas Prizes, which celebrates the craft of screenwriting. Across nine juried categories, which include both television and film, 45 writers are nominated for their work.

Among the nominees are Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson (comedy teleplay) and Academy Award-winning Coda writer-director Sian Heder (drama feature film). Adam McKay, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, also received a nom for comedy feature film, along with Everything Everywhere All At Once scribes and directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

“The Humanitas Prizes were created to recognize writers whose work explores the beauty and complexity of the human experience and the 2022 nominees do just that,” said Humanitas executive director Michelle Franke in a statement. “Ranging in scope, style, and perspective, these stories underscore our bonds, our history and...

Exclusive: Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, Sanaa Lathan, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper, Alessandro Nivola, Emily Mortimer, Rosie Perez and Debra Winger are among the all-star cast of innovative feature With/In, a made-at-home anthology film revolving around themes of confinement and isolation.

Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray’s newly rebranded Maven Screen Media (American Honey) is in production on the two-hour feature, which is a collection of short films made during lockdown by a slew of top actors and directors. Scroll down for the full list of participants.

The project was initiated when Maven and Emmy-winning writer-producer Margaret Nagle (Boardwalk Empire) asked actor-director families and friends to come up with stories about life stuck inside. Storylines include a couple stuck together after a one night stand, kids scheming to run away from their paranoid dad, a divorced couple isolating together for the sake of their dog, and a widow dealing with her grief.

Entertainment 360, the joint venture TV studio formed by Management 360’s television production arm and Media Rights Capital, has brought in Ucp’s Svp Development Kate Fenske as President.

Fenske, who has been at Entertainment 360 for more than three months, is overseeing development, production and distribution of premium content. Since joining the indie studio, she has has been putting together projects with Management 360 clients as well as outside auspices. Entertainment 360’s initial slate includes dramas with writers Gabriel Sherman (The Loudest Voice), Jay Carson, and Craig Gillespie.

The Loudest Voice in the Room author Sherman, who co-executive produced Showtime’s limited series adaptation of his book about Roger Ailes, is writing and producing an epic family drama set in the cutthroat world of New York City real estate developers. E360 in partnering on the project with The Loudest Voice producer Blumhouse.

A drama, written by Carson, created by Carson and Matt Bai,...

Exclusive: TriStar Television is developing Alpha Girls, a Silicon Valley drama series based on Julian Guthrie’s praised new book, Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley’s Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime.

The rights deal, orchestrated by producer Cathy Schulman, is said to be TriStar TV’s biggest since TriStar Pictures President Hannah Minghella added oversight of the TV unit in January. Margaret Nagle (The Good Lie) will pen the adaptation for what is being eyed as an ongoing TV series. Schulman executive produces; Guthrie serves as a co-producer.

Schulman’s Welle Entertainment originally landed the rights to the nonfiction book by Guthrie, a New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize nominee, in 2017 in a bidding war that included Amazon, Universal and Smokehouse, among others.

Alpha Girls, released in May by the Crown Publishing Group, tells the true story of four...

Adam McKay has been set to receive the WGA West’s Paul Selvin Award this year for outstanding achievement in writing Vice, his subversive comedy looking at the rise of Dick Cheney. They award will be presented February 17 at the WGA Awards in Los Angeles.

The news comes as Annapurna Pictures’ Vice is up for eight Oscars this year, including nominations for McKay’s original screenplay, his directing and Best Picture.

The Wgaw said the Selvin award is given for a script which “best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties that are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere.”

Last year, Josh Singer and Liz Hannah won the award for writing Steven Spielberg’s The Post. Previous recipients include Tony Kushner, Margaret Nagle, Dustin Lance Black, Eric Roth, Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, Alex Gibney, Tate Taylor, John McNamara and Susannah Grant.

“Vice is that...

Exclusive: Maven Pictures has optioned rights to a biography of Winston Churchill’s influential wife Clementine, written by the youngest of their five children Mary Soames, and have set Emmy-winning writer Margaret Nagle to adapt it into a feature film.

Maven principals Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray are partnering with producer Sayoko Teitelbaum on the project, which has the cooperation of the Soames estate. Nagle won one of her two Emmys for adapting the 2005 HBO movie Warm Springs about another influential statesman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his wife Eleanor.

Soames’ book, published in 1979, details her mother’s crucial role in Winston’s political; he often said England winning World War II would have been “impossible without her.” Fiercely independent, Clementine was known for her aid work across both world wars, organizing canteens for munitions workers during Wwi and serving as a chairman of the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund...

Chuck Lorre is developing a limited series adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities” at Amazon, TheWrap has learned. The series is described as a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics and greed in 1980s New York City. In the novel, there were three main characters: bond trader Sherman McCoy, assistant district attorney Larry Kramer and journalist Peter Fallow. The Tom Wolfe novel, “Bonfire of the Vanities,” was previously adapted into a feature film (pictured above) in 1990 starring Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis. Also Read: Chuck Lorre Pot Comedy 'Disjointed' Gets Series Order at Netflix Margaret Nagle,...

Chuck Lorre is going for a dramatic change of pace with his next small-screen project.

RelatedNetflix Orders Kathy Bates Pot Comedy Disjointed, From Chuck Lorre

The über producer (The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men) is developing an eight-episode drama series for Amazon, based on the 1987 Tom Wolfe novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A snapshot of New York City in the 1980s, Wolfe’s novel spins a tale of racism, politics and self-interest, as told from the perspective of three very different characters: a Jewish assistant district attorney, a British reporter and a Wasp-y bond trader.

Amazon has put in development a small screen version of The Bonfire of the Vanities, an event series based on Tom Wolfe’s 1987 book, from Chuck Lorre, Red Band Society creator Margaret Nagle, and Warner Bros. TV. for launch on Amazon Prime Video. Nagle will write and will also executive produce alongside Lorre. Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief David Corn is serving as a consultant. The project hails from Chuck Lorre Productions in association with Warner Bros. TV…...

Chuck Lorre is joining the reboot craze. The prolific producer behind CBS' The Big Bang Theory and Mom is teaming with Amazon to develop an event series based on Bonfire of the Vanities, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Sources say the project, which hails from Warner Bros. TV where Lorre is under a rich overall deal, is being eyed as an eight-episode series, though it is currently only in development. The drama, which has been in the works for months, was initially shopped to cable and streaming outlets.  Margaret Nagle (Boardwalk Empire, Red Band Society) is set to

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When 54 Sudanese refugees filed a lawsuit in February 2015 against the writers and producers of The Good Lie, a 2014 film starring Reese Witherspoon about those who survived starvation, disease and militia attacks in Darfur to make their way to America, we wrote at the time the dispute was "potentially groundbreaking." Behold now a remarkable decision on Wednesday that could impact the way that research is conducted for feature films based on true stories. The plaintiffs in the case came forward with edgy theories about why, when they sat down with screenwriter Margaret Nagle back in 2003 and shared

read more...

Director: Philippe Falardeau; Screenwriter: Margaret Nagle; Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Corey Stoll, Sarah Baker, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal; Running time: 110 mins; Certificate: 12A

You cannot fail to be moved by this story of young Sudanese refugees - and not just to tears either. Director Philippe Falardeau (working in similar territory to his Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar) deftly treads the boundaries between tragedy and comedy to depict major upheaval for three brothers who eventually look to Reese Witherspoon's brassy employment agent to settle them into the American way of life.

The changing tone is marked by bends in a very long road, first leading from a small Sudanese village to a refugee camp in Kenya. Mamere (Brixton-based actor Arnold Oceng), Jeremiah (Ger Duany) and Paul (Emmanuel Jal), along with their sister Abital (Kuoth Wiel) and the eldest, Theo (Femi Ogun), survive a massacre by soldiers in the country's second civil...

Update, 4:37 Pm: “These claims have no merit and will be addressed in due course by the Court,” said The Good Lie producer Molly Smith’s Black Label Media today about the lawsuit they were slapped with along with Imagine Entertainment, Alcorn Entertainment and screenwriter Margaret Nagle among others. Imagine and Alcorn haven’t said anything yet about the complaint, but financing and producing shingle Blm has a lot to say. “We are very proud of our film, The Good Lie…...

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) handed out top film honors to the screenplays of "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "The Imitation Game" Saturday night. On the television side, "Louie" and "True Detective" were favorites, winning two prizes each. Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" competed in the original category at the WGA Awards, while the Academy's Writers Branch, in a rare move outside of guild designation, deemed it adapted due to the fact that a scene from the feature script was the basis of a short film that screened at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. So if "The Imitation Game" is to go on to Oscar glory, it will have to compete with Chazelle's popular film for the first time this season at the Feb. 22 Academy Awards ceremony. Additionally, presumed Best Picture frontrunner "Birdman" was not eligible for WGA (making it still significant competition with "Grand Budapest" in the original category), nor was "The Theory of Everything,...

Frank Marshall will receive the American Cinema Editors’ Ace Golden Eddie Filmmaker Of The Year Award in Los Angeles on January 30.

Prior Ace Golden Eddie honournees including Steven Spielberg, Norman Jewison, Alexander Payne, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Saul Zaentz and Paul Greengrass.

Margaret Nagle has been chosen by the Writers Guild Of America, West to receive the 2015 Paul Selvin Award for her screenplay The Good Lie.

At a loss for what to watch this week? From new DVDs and Blu-rays, to what's streaming on Netflix, we've got you covered.

New on DVD and Blu-ray

"The Good Lie"

Although Reese Witherspoon's face is on all the posters, the real stars of "The Good Lie" are the actors who portray young survivors of the brutal civil war in Sudan. Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, and Emmanuel Jal star as the Sudanese "Lost Boys" who start a new life in Kansas City, Mo. Philippe Falardeau ("Monsieur Lazhar") directed the movie, based on a script by Margaret Nagle ("Boardwalk Empire").

"Pride"

Critics loved this crowd-pleasing film based on a true story about two disparate groups who come together in solidarity during Margaret Thatcher's term as Pm. Lgbt activists are trying to raise money to support the families of striking miners, but they're not having any success. Eventually, the group,...

Nominations for the 46th NAACP Image Awards have been revealed and "Belle," "Beyond the Lights," "Dear White People," "Get On Up," and "Selma" are duking it out for the Outstanding Motion Picture Award.

Winners will be announced on Friday, February 6, 2015 in a two-hour televised event on TV One.

The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.

Here's the complete list of nominees for the 46th NAACP Image Awards:

Television

Outstanding Comedy Series

. "black-ish" (ABC)

. "House of Lies" (Showtime)

. "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central)

. "Orange is the New Black" (Netflix)

. "Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Bet)

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series

. Andre Braugher - "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (Fox)

. Anthony Anderson - "'black-ish" (ABC)

. Don Cheadle - "House of Lies" (Showtime)

. Keegan-Michael Key - "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central)

. Kevin Hart...

Nominations for the 46th annual NAACP Image Awards were announced today across categories in film, television, music and the literary world. In the film arena, top nominees were Amma Asante's "Belle," Gina Prince-Bythewood's "Beyond the Lights," Justin Simien's "Dear White People," Tate Taylor's "Get On Up" and Ava DuVernay's "Selma." Check out the full list of nominees below. Winners will be announced on Feb. 6. And remember to keep track of the season via The Circuit! Film Outstanding Motion Picture "Belle" (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films) "Beyond The Lights" (Relativity Media) "Dear White People" (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions) "Get On Up" (Universal Pictures) "Selma" (Paramount Pictures) Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture Amma Asante, "Belle" (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films) Antoine Fuqua, "The Equalizer" (Columbia Pictures) Ava DuVernay, "Selma" (Paramount Pictures) John Ridley, "Jimi: All Is By My Side" (XLrator Media) Gina Prince-Bythewood, "Beyond The Lights...

Gearing up for another year of excitement, the 46th Annual NAACP Image Awards just unveiled the first round of hopefuls and there are plenty of worthy contenders.

In the television categories, Shonda Rhimes’ series “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” are among the most nominated, though “Black-ish” is also up there. Meanwhile, “Selma” and “Get on Up” are the top two movies on the docket, ahead of the big event on Friday, February 6th, 2015. Per the official website, “The NAACP Image Awards honors the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film, and honors those who promote social justice through creative endeavors.”

And the nominees are:

Outstanding Comedy Series

“Orange is the New Black” (Netflix)

“black-ish” (ABC)

“House of Lies” (Showtime)

“Key & Peele” (Comedy Central)

“Real Husbands of Hollywood” (Bet)

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series

Andre Braugher – “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox)

Anthony Anderson...

Paramount’s Selma, Universal’s Get On Up and Lionsgate’s Dear White People are among the Outstanding Motion Picture nominees for the NAACP’s Image Awards, which will be bestowed live on TVOne on February 6. On the TV side, Shonda Rhimes’ ABC trifecta of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder are all up for best drama. Here is the full list:

Film

Outstanding Motion Picture

“Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)

“Beyond The Lights” (Relativity Media)

“Dear White People” (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)

“Get On Up” (Universal Pictures)

“Selma” (Paramount Pictures)

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture

Chadwick Boseman – “Get On Up” (Universal Pictures)

David Oyelowo – “Selma” (Paramount Pictures)

Denzel Washington – “The Equalizer” (Columbia Pictures)

Idris Elba – “No Good Deed” (Screen Gems)

Nate Parker – “Beyond The Lights” (Relativity Media)

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture

Gugu Mbatha-Raw – “Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)

Quvenzhané Wallis...

The nominees for the 46th annual NAACP Image Awards were announced Tuesday, lauding the year's best films and television shows -- among other artforms -- featuring people of color.

"Selma" led the pack with eight nominations, including nods for best picture, best actor (David Oyelowo), three supporting actor nods (André Holland, Common, and Wendell Pierce), and two supporting actress nods (Carmen Ejogo and Oprah Winfrey). Director Ava DuVernay was also nominated for her work behind the camera.

On the television front, "Scandal" and "Orange Is the New Black" tied with six nominations apiece, while fellow freshman series "black-ish" and "How to Get Away with Murder" each received five nods.

A partial list of nominees in television and movies is below. For the full list -- including nominees in the music and literature categories -- click here.

The NAACP Image Awards, presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,...

Red Band Society, Season 1, Episodes 6-10

Airs Wednesdays at 9pm Et on Fox

Red Band Society‘s first season has been suffering from tonal problems and narrative inconsistency throughout most of its run, but with this final episode of the year, the show was able to find a way to unify the story, as well as develop the characters in a way that felt genuine, with promise for interesting growth. After a string of episodes that have felt disjointed from one another, emotionally contrived, and at times completely ridiculous and unremarkable, the fall finale shines. The episode effectively gives the kids an emotional story, having them react to the departure of two fellow red band-ers from the hospital, with the adults handling their own plot about interoffice dating. This episode not only offers a compelling story, but also ties in plot points from previous episodes that seemed random or unearned,...

The Good Lie

Written by Margaret Nagle

Directed by Philippe Falardeau

Kenya/India/USA, 2014

The Good Lie is an earnest, well-meaning film that overcomes its many flaws to tell a life-affirming story about survival and second chances. No work of fiction could ever convey the atrocities of the Second Sudanese Civil War, but this is an effective glimpse into the lives of a lucky few who escaped. It’s not looking to raise awareness or rabble-rouse. It only wants to show us that as long as there is life, there is hope. On that count, it most certainly succeeds.

Mamere (Arnold Oceng) and his older brother, Theo (Femi Oguns), are like any other young boys; they fight, they test each other’s limits, they play games reciting their familial names down through the generations. To the cattlemen of the Sudan, tribal connections are a source of both history and renewal.

Chicago – “The Good Lie” is a honorable film overview of the Sudanese “Lost Boys,” who were refugees from a horrific civil war in that African country. Many of those boys came to America, and producer Molly Smith (“The Blind Side”), with actors Ger Duany and Emmanuel Jal, were part of the team that brought the film to life.

Ger Duany, Arnold Oceng and Emmanuel Jal in ‘The Good Lie’

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

The feature film is inspired by many stories of survival, both in Sudan and America. Jal and Duany portray the adult refugees, trying to make it in America, where everything is different. Reese Witherspoon also stars as a facilitator for these newborns to the U.S., and gives a passionate performance without overshadowing the main story of the boy’s plight. Producer Molly Smith is used to interpreting these stories of inspiration, as she previously was Executive...

The Good Lie gets its title from a classroom discussion of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that takes place halfway through the narrative. Mamere (Arnold Oceng), a twenty-something Sudanese refugee at a Kansas City night school, raises his hand enthusiastically to explain the concept. A “good lie” is told with good intentions, such as when Huck fibs to protect Jim, so that the latter will not be sold back into slavery. Mamere knows all about good lies: many years earlier, during an 800-mile walk from war-ravaged South Sudan to a refugee camp in Kenya, his older brother, Theo, told a good lie. Theo stood up to a pair of soldiers approaching Mamere and his pals, and gave himself up, explaining that there was nobody else with him.

As a result of that “good lie,” the South Sudan orphans could evade capture and continue their walk. It is powerful, poignant moments...

The Good Lie Warner Bros Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes Grade: B+ Director: Philippe Falardeau Screenplay: Margaret Nagle Cast: Corey Stoll, Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, Corey Stoll, Kuoth Wiel, Femi Oguns, Lindsay Garrett Screened at: Lincoln Square, NYC, 10/1/14 Opens: October 3, 2014 You jumped the turnstile at the #4 train at Grand Central Station and the police are on your trail. You read about Riker’s Detention Center in a recent issue of New York magazine, and you’re not going to Rikers. You toss a dart at a map of the world. It lands on London. No good. Toss another and [ Read More ]

The post The Good Lie Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Don’t be fooled by The Good Lie’s poster, in which Reese Witherspoon appears to be at the center of the film. Director Philippe Falardeau and writer Margaret Nagle have managed to pull off something rather remarkable here, and that is that they’ve managed to tell the story of a group of South Sudanese refugees in the U.S. from their perspective rather than from a western one.

After making it out of their war-torn homeland, the four refugees (played by Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Kuoth Wiel) are given the chance to live in Kansas City and find work – with the help of Carrie (Witherspoon), an employment officer. Among those aiding there adjustment to their new lives are Carrie’s compassionate boss (Corey Stoll) and a spunky charity worker (Sarah Baker). In the end, two vastly different worlds come together to tell a single heartbreaking...

The cast of "The Good Lie" came by the HitFix studios this week so we could sit down to discuss the work they did in the film, and the way the movie manages to avoid some of Hollywood's most irritating bad habits. First up, I spoke with Arnold Oceng and Kuoth Wiel. Oceng is the film's ostensible lead, although I think it's a fairly balanced movie overall in terms of the way it treats its ensemble cast. He's also the one cast member of the four main refugees with the most acting experience, and unsurprisingly, he was fairly poised in our interview. Both Ger Duany and Emmanuel Jal have made documentaries about their experiences as Sudanese refugees, and they've built careers for themselves as artists as well. Jal is a rapper and musician, and Duany's been in other films, including "I Heart Huckabees." Anyone who can survive being a child...

The Good Lie is titled after the lies in Huckleberry Finn, the type of lie that is a lie for the greater good, even if lying is wrong. The Good Lie, the movie, has a small opening this weekend in under 500 theaters and will hopefully begin to slowly expand to more theaters with it’s poster of smiling Reese Witherspoon’s head miraculously floating over an African desert. The poster for The Good Lie and the trailer for The Good Lie are, themselves, actual good lies because what looks like The Blind Side but with Reese Witherspoon is not, instead it’s one of those movies that will be shown to our children in school.

You remember the type of movie I’m talking about: you have a substitute or your teacher got a little ahead in the lesson plan or you have a half-holiday day so the class gets...

The Good Lie discussion moderated by Pen American Center president Peter Godwin Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Joanna Coles, Peter Godwin, Dr. Amanda Foreman, Gayle King, Diane Sawyer, Mike Nichols, George Stephanopoulos, Fareed Zakaria, Tina Brown and Sir Harold Evans with the Us Fund for Unicef, and Samantha Power, Us Ambassador to the United Nations, hosted a special screening of Philippe Falardeau's The Good Lie starring Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Kuoth Wiel with a screenplay by Margaret Nagle.

Soon-Yi Previn, Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Karen Sherwood, Nile Rodgers, Lynn Stratford, John Prendergast, Chuck Scarborough, Ed Lloyd, Angelina Jacob, Jennifer Duneier, Felicia Taylor, Jill Martin, Bill Blakemore and Phyllis Lee were among those joining in with our hosts for the Warner Bros. screening at Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle near Central Park.

Screenwriter Margaret Nagle with The Good Lie star Kuoth Wiel: "And suddenly I hear,...

As the temps continue to fall, the studios inch closer to serious film time (and Oscar season) by releasing another movie with the nebulous ad line “inspired by true events”. That phrase has been attached to everything from the Nicholas Sparks adapted weeper The Vow to sports flicks such as Million Dollar Arm, often basing the story on just part of an incident. But for this new release the phrase could be amended to “inspired by ongoing true events”. Like 2011′s Machine Gun Preacher, this new film concerns the ongoing conflicts in the Sudan in North Africa. Now the title of this new film is somewhat ironic. It refers to a literary work read by one of the characters, but the title could also be a comment on the film’s marketing, which we’ll discuss a bit later. First let’s explore The Good Lie.

This begins a couple...

"The Good Lie" is one of those cases where the poster really does say it all: Reese Witherspoon’s large head, looking down benevolently on three faceless Sudanese boys, comparatively scaled to the size of ants. It’s like a kind of parody of the controversial Italian “12 Years A Slave” posters from last year, a misleading if unsurprising marketing tactic - Witherspoon is certainly the biggest name is this film, but she has one the smallest parts, first appearing forty minutes into the story. The real stars of the film, written by “Boardwalk Empire” scribe Margaret Nagle and helmed by Canadian director Philippe Falardeau, are first-time Sudanese actors Arnold Oceng,...

Director Philippe Falardeau makes his big studio debut with “The Good Lie,” a fictional film based on the many true-life experiences of the thousands of Sudanese “Lost Boy” refugees who came to America in the late '90s and early 2000s. While the posters and promotional material prominently feature Reese Witherspoon, it's also worth noting that Falardeau and screenwriter Margaret Nagle never make the film's Sudanese characters accessories or faceless symbols, and the end result makes for an uncommonly solid and smart take on material lesser directors would have milked for the cheapest kind of sympathy. Falardeau also gave us the superb.

Arnold Oceng (Mamere), scriptwriter Margaret Nagle, and Kuoth Wiel (Abital) were in high spirits for the press junket of .The Good Lie. in Nashville. They are all proud of the film starring Reese Witherspoon. In this interview, we talked about the inspiration in writing .The Good Lie,. how Oceng got the part, and Kuoth.s passion to helping refugees. .The Good Lie. opens nationwide on Friday, October 3rd.

Official Synopis:

.The Good Lie.

They were known simply as "The Lost Boys." Orphaned by the brutal Civil war in Sudan that began in 1983, these young victims traveled as many as a thousand miles on foot in search of safety. Fifteen years later, a humanitarian effort would bring 3600 lost boys and girls to America. In "The Good Lie," Philippe Falardeau, (writer and director of the Oscar(R)- nominated Foreign Language film "Monsieur Lazhar") brings the story of their survival and triumph to life.

Don't be fooled by basic premise: Fox's Red Band Society isn't your typical teen drama, nor is it your typical medical show. Hailing from writer and executive producer Margaret Nagle and executive producer Steven Spielberg, Red Band Society stars The Help's Oscar winner Octavia Spencer as Nurse Jackson—sometimes referred to as "Scary Bitch"—and Brothers and Sisters veteran Dave Annable as Dr. Jack McAndrew, the two "authority figures" in Ocean Park Hospital. But don't expect death, melodrama and tears every week—or at all. "Well, I can tell you this. When you tune into a show, you know you want to be entertained. We're definitely entertaining people, but...

Among the main characters of Fox's new drama "Red Band Society" (Wednesday at 9 p.m.), two suffer from cancer, one needs a heart transplant, and one is in a prolonged coma. All of them are 16 years old or younger. Fictional stories about seriously ill people are already fraught with emotion. When the ill people are kids, the inherent emotions are so overwhelming that a storyteller has to either address them head-on or work around them. You can heighten everything else to try to equal the feeling of tragedy and wasted potential, or you can underplay everything to keep the story from drowning in sadness. "Red Band Society," adapted by Margaret Nagle from the Spanish-language series “Polseres Vermelles," tries both approaches at once, with mixed but mostly promising results. If it can pull back on some of its excesses — if it can be the good version of "Glee," rather than the bad version,...

"The Good Lie" is one of those cases where the poster really does say it all: Reese Witherspoon’s large head, looking down benevolently on three faceless Sudanese boys, comparatively scaled to the size of ants. It’s like a kind of parody of the controversial Italian “12 Years A Slave” posters from last year, a misleading if unsurprising marketing tactic - Witherspoon is certainly the biggest name is this film, but she has one the smallest parts, first appearing forty minutes into the story. The real stars of the film, written by “Boardwalk Empire” scribe Margaret Nagle and helmed by Canadian director Philippe Falardeau, are first-time Sudanese actors Arnold Oceng,...

With two big films at the Toronto International Film Festival, it would be easy for that to get to your head, butReese Witherspoon was conscious that her film, The Good Lie, was bigger than herself: "This has nothing to do with you, Reese."

 

At the press conference for the film, French-Canadian director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) agreed, and Witherspoon recalled a conversation where the director said, "I really like you and respect you, Reese, but this movie has nothing to do with that."

It's about the Lost Boys and Girls of South Sudan.

In The Good Lie, Witherspoon plays an American who is assigned to help four young Sudanese refugees (Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Kuoth Wiel, and Emmanuel Jal) who are relocating to the United States. The film also stars Corey Stoll (Midnight In Paris, "House of Cards"), and is produced by Ron Howard and Brian Glazer -- both of...

It didn't take much to convince Reese Witherspoon to jump on board The Good Lie. "The producer sent me the script and I just wept and wept through it," the Oscar winner told me at the movie's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. "I thought it was so beautiful about family and it was funny and what does it mean to be a stranger in a strange land?" Based on real events, the film tells the story of an American woman (Witherspoon) who takes four Sudanese refugees under her wing when they win a lottery for relocation to the U.S. Screenwriter Margaret Nagle told me she always had Witherspoon in mind for the role while she was writing the script. Sudanese actors were hired...

The producers of The Good Lie have established the Good Lie Fund, named for the upcoming feature drama from Alcon Entertainment, Imagine Entertainment, Black Label Media and Warner Bros. Pictures. The film is based upon the harrowing and inspirational real-life experiences of thousands of children impacted by war in Sudan.

The Good Lie Fund (www.thegoodliefund.org) was created to support the humanitarian and educational needs of those who have come to be universally known as the Lost Boys and Girls, uprooted and orphaned by the Sudanese Civil War that began in 1983. Its initial focus will be the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, which came into being to meet the first wave of survivors of the conflict—the majority of them children, alone, and on foot—and which currently houses thousands of refugees fleeing from continuing violence and unrest.

The Fund will also seek to raise worldwide awareness of the...

In terms of Oscar watching, the most anticipated World Premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival debuted Sunday night and it did not disappoint. Focus Features, as expected, has a major contender in The Theory Of Everything, its Stephen Hawking biopic that turns out to be a touching and unusual love story between the young Hawking and his wife Jane. The film is based on her memoir, and Anthony McCarten’s adaptation and first-rate direction by Oscar winner James Marsh (Man On Wire) get it all right. Stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones will both be heading to the Oscars in the lead actor and actress categories, and if the buzz at the Patria afterparty is any indication, they could be going there with front-runner status (although the season is just getting rolling). To say the response here was rapturous would not be understating the enthusiasm I heard...

[In case you've Forgotten, and as I will continue to mention each and every one of these posts that I do: This is *not* a review. Pilots change. Sometimes a lot. Often for the better. Sometimes for the worse. But they change. Actual reviews will be coming in September and perhaps October (and maybe midseason in some cases). This is, however, a brief gut reaction to not-for-air pilots. I know some people will be all "These are reviews." If you've read me, you've read my reviews and you know this isn't what they look like.] Show: "Red Band Society" (Fox) The Pitch: "Teens who might have nothing in common otherwise are brought together in group that equalizes them and allows them to support each other... You might remember another recent Fox show like that." "Ah. Ampu-Glee." Quick Response: Yes, Margaret Nagle's "Red Band Society" is based on a format from Spain, but the comparisons to "Glee" are inevitable and unavoidable. And rather than even trying to avoid those associations, Fox and ABC Studios brought in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon to direct and since Gomez-Rejon is basically the in-house director for Ryan Murphy, you get a show that sounds and feels like "Glee" (minus the songs), but also looks and is paced like "Glee" (minus the songs). There's a lot of snarky, reference-based humor, but then there's also a lot of effective earnestness and it helps that so much of the young cast -- Charlie Rowe, Ciara Bravo...