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Jackrabbit Media is heading to Cannes with five new sales projects led by Aimee Kuge’s festival winner Cannibal Mukbang.

The film takes audiences into the bizarre world of mukbanging, where people broadcast themselves eating huge amounts of food, as an introverted nerd finds himself out of his depth after falling for a mysterious woman.

Horror sci-fi Peripheral from Sulayman Tahir explores the unsettling events that unfold when a woman’s husband goes missing, only to return with strange and paranormal occurrences.

The Bunker stars Tobin Bell from the Saw franchise and Tony Todd from Candyman. The sci-fi horror thriller...

Exclusive: Venk Potula has been confirmed for The Black List fellow Nerris Nevarez-Nassiri’s upcoming indie musical Key Change.

The announcement follows the securing of an SAG-AFTRA interim agreement for the project, which has allowed the producers to push on with casting.

Potula previously made waves with his lead performance in Ravi Kapoor’s buzzy Tribeca 2022 selection and IFC and Hulu-acquired comedy Four Samosas.

The new project is described as a semi-autobiographical tale taking inspiration from the Mexican and Indian heritage of creators and writers Nassiri and Potula.

Potula will play a struggling, ambitious music producer who finds himself juggling dreams and newfound responsibilities when a long-lost half-sister walks into his life as he prepares a career-defining showcase.

The film will feature four original songs written by Nassiri, who makes his directorial debut.

Producers are Briana Frapart, Arjun Yadav for Rsa Endeavors, Potula for Khrisp Entertainment, and Nassiri.

We might be entering the dog days of summer but Hulu isn’t slowing down. The streamer’s list of new releases for August 2023 is a pretty impressive collection of content.

The biggest Hulu original this month is season 3 of true crime comedy Only Murders in the Building on Aug. 8. This time around Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd are joining the already-stacked cast that features Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. This season’s central murder appears to take place at a theater (outside the building) but I think we’ll let it slide.

That’s far from the only worthwhile original in August as Aug. 2 sees the premiere of the third and final season of superb comedy Reservation Dogs. That will be followed by South Korean sci-fi series Moving on Aug. 9, Solar Opposites season 4 on Aug. 14, and A Murder at the End of the World on Aug. 29. Of course,...

The Casting Society announced its winners in film, television, and theater on Wednesday night, honoring Best Picture front-runner “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” as well as Oscar nominees “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “The Fabelmans,” and “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.”

The casting branch of the academy is a year shy of a decade old and still doesn’t have an Oscar category of its own. However, the Casting Society has been handing out the Artios Awards for 38 years (“Artios” is from the ancient Greek meaning “perfectly fitted.”).

Nominees for feature films were announced on January 10 (two days before Oscar nominations voting begins). Many of the leading Academy Awards contenders reaped bids across the various categories according to production cost. Winners were revealed at a ceremony on March 9 (two days after the close of final Oscar voting).

Last year’s big budget winners were the comedy “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and...

ABC is in negotiations with Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) to headline Motherland, a comedy pilot based on the British series. Karan Soni (Deadpool franchise) has been tapped for a lead in the project, from writer Julieanne Smolinski, Sharon Horgan and Clelia Mountford’s Merman Television, Paul Feig’s Feigco Entertainment, Lionsgate and ABC Signature. Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) has come on board to direct.

Written by Smolinski, Motherland centers on Julia (the role Kemper has been in talks for over the past several weeks), a working mom for whom nothing is working so she goes looking for her village. With the help of new friends Calvin (Soni) and Liz, Julia discovers she just might succeed at balancing work and parenting from time to time. This is a comedy for anybody who’s dropped their kids at school, breathed a sigh of relief…then realized it’s Sunday.

Showalter...

Karan Soni (Deadpool franchise) has been tapped to play Spider-Man India in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Deadline can confirm.

The actor joins a stacked voice ensemble led by Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld, which also includes Oscar Isaac, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Greta Lee, Issa Rae, Rachel Dratch, Jorma Taccone, Shea Whigham, Jason Schwartzman and Daniel Kaluuya, as previously announced.

Across the Spider-Verse is Sony’s follow-up to its experimental feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which grossed over $384M worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2019.

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, Into the Spider-Verse watches as the teenage Miles Morales (Moore) becomes the Spider-Man of his universe, then joining with five spider-powered individuals from other dimensions to stop a threat to all realities.

Across the Spider-Verse will transport Brooklyn’s friendly neighborhood full-time webslinger across the Multiverse. He’ll again...

Indian-American film ‘Four Samosas’ has been acquired by IFC Films after it premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. “Four Samosas,” a romantic comedy set in the Little India neighborhood of Los Angeles. IFC will release it in theaters and on demand on December 2, 2022, reports variety.com.

Ravi Kapoor directs and Venk Potula (“Veep”) leads an ensemble cast that includes Sonal Shah, Sharmita Bhattacharya, Nirvan Patnaik, Karan Soni, Summer Bishil, and Meera Simhan.

The film centers on wanna-be South Asian American rapper, Vinny (Potula), who along with three friends – all of them first-time thieves – plans to rob a grocery store owned by his ex-girlfriend’s father, in order to steal her wedding diamonds and disrupt her pending engagement.

“Ravi has made a hilarious film that is part comedy and part heist movie with a spirit and style reminiscent of Wes Anderson,” Arianna Bocco, president of IFC Films said.

“It...

IFC Films has acquired North American rights to “Four Samosas,” a romantic comedy set in the Little India neighborhood of Los Angeles. The film premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

IFC will release “Four Samosas” in theaters and on demand on Dec. 2, 2022.

Ravi Kapoor directs and Venk Potula (“Veep”) leads an ensemble cast that includes Sonal Shah, Sharmita Bhattacharya, Nirvan Patnaik, Karan Soni, Summer Bishil, and Meera Simhan. The film centers on wanna-be South Asian American rapper, Vinny (Potula), who along with three friends — all of them first-time thieves — plans to rob a grocery store owned by his ex-girlfriend’s father, in order to steal her wedding diamonds and disrupt her pending engagement.

“Ravi has made a hilarious film that is part comedy and part heist movie with a spirit and style reminiscent of Wes Anderson,” Arianna Bocco, president of IFC Films said. “It features an incredible ensemble...

Exclusive: Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman), Darrell Britt-Gibson (We Own This City) and Taissa Farmiga (The Gilded Age) will star in the upcoming romance She Taught Love, which music video helmer Nate Edwards is directing for Marginal Mediaworks, in his feature debut.

The film written by Britt-Gibson—in his feature screenwriting debut—is billed as the love story of this generation, between a guy on a self-destructive path and a girl with an expiration date. What a perfect time to meet and fall in love…

Marginal MediaWorks’ founder Sanjay Sharma and Head of Film Milan Chakraborty will produce alongside Hadley Klein and Pete Van Auker, with Britt-Gibson and Howell-Baptiste serving as executive producers.

“Making a film like She Taught Love feels like a revolutionary act, but it shouldn’t. Hollywood loves to turn out stories of Black trauma, but we’re so much more than that. In fact, we are everything,...

Exclusive: Utkarsh Ambudkar, who stars as Jay on CBS’ breakout comedy Ghosts, has boarded the Tribeca-bound indie Four Samosas as an executive producer, with Verve Ventures coming aboard to handle sales.

The comedy from writer-director Ravi Kapoor (Miss India America) centers on a wannabe rapper in L.A.’s Little India, who concocts a backwards plan to disrupt his ex-girlfriend’s wedding by stealing her wedding diamonds. It will be one of just 10 feature films in US Narrative Competition at Tribeca in June—premiering in New York on June 10th, with several other screenings to follow throughout the festival week. Venk Potula leads the cast, which also includes Karan Soni, Sonal Shah, Sharmita Bhattacharya, Nirvan Patnaik, Summer Bishil, Meera Simhan, Sujata Day, Samrat Chakrabarti and Tony Mirrcandani.

Kapoor produced Four Samosas alongside Potula for Khrisp Entertainment, and Rajiv Maikhuri and Craig Stovel for Creative Rebel Productions. Additional executive producers on...

Taking place in its newly minted summer slot of June 8-19, the 2022 edition of Tribeca Festival has now unveiled its film lined up. First, some stats: The features program spans ten categories and showcases 110 feature films and 16 online premieres from 151 filmmakers across 40 countries. The lineup includes 88 world premieres, 2 international premieres, 7 North American premieres, 2 U.S. premieres, and 11 New York premieres. There are 32 directors returning to Tribeca with their latest projects, and 50 first-time directors. More than 64 (81) of the feature films are directed by female, Bipoc, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers––46 (58) female directors, 34 (43) Bipoc directors, 8 (10) LGBTQ+ directors.

As for the films, highlights include Andrew Bujalski’s new feature There There, Ray Romano’s directorial debut Somewhere in Queens, Hannah Marks’ Don’t Make Me Go (pictured above), the Jon Hamm-led Corner Office, Andrew Dosunmu’s Beauty, Alexandre O. Philippe’s Lynch / Oz, which explores Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic through David Lynch’s ouevre,...