Entertainment
Taye Diggs to Launch His Own Microdramas Platform
Taye Diggs was one of the first traditional entertainment stars to enter the microdramas space. Now, he’s launching his own verticals venture.
His new platform Microhouse Films will launch this spring, the company announced Thursday. Diggs partnered to create the vertical storytelling app alongside Hallmark producer Autumn Federici, Emmy Award-winning producer Shelby Stone, former NFL player James Black and actor Troy Brookins.
The platform will be the first verticals hub to allow filmmakers to distribute their content directly. Microhouse will enables creators to produce, distribute and monetize their work within a single platform, more similar to platforms like YouTube than the vertical apps competitors like ReelShort and MyDrama.
“When we thought about how to meaningfully impact the vertical space, we immediately focused on the creators and storytellers whose livelihoods depend on where this industry is headed,” Diggs said. “Microhouse Films is about creating a model that supports them in this next phase and allows them to keep telling stories that move us.”
Microhouse Films will have subscription fee required for creators or audiences. There will be no fee to upload or host content on the platform. Creators will have the choice of which episodes to offer for free and which they will put behind a token-based paywall, allowing creators to control pricing, release strategy and revenue.
The platform will use an in-app purchases similar to the monetization system of the other leading verticals apps.
“The industry is rapidly changing, and we have an opportunity to redefine who benefits in this new ecosystem that puts control directly in the hands of filmmakers,” Federici, Stone, Black and Brookins said in a joint statement. “We’re excited to introduce a model for vertical storytelling with Microhouse Films that places a premium on both the quality of the work and the storyteller behind the content.”
Diggs appeared in his first microdrama “Off Limits & All Mine” for CandyJar as both the star and executive producer earlier this year. He also developed a microdrama spinoff of his upcoming Lifetime network movie “Presents: Paradise With You.”
This partnership began after Diggs, Brookins, Stone and Federici’s collaboration on the microdrama spinoff titled “Tides of Temptation,” starring Swag Boy Q.
>
movies
Brad Pitt Says He’s Drinking Again After 7 Years of Sobriety
After seven years of sobriety, Brad Pitt says he’s drinking again — in moderation.
The F1 and Fight Club star told Esquire that he’s off the wagon.
The topic came up after Pitt offered the interviewer a glass of wine, prompting him to wonder whether the wine was only for guests.
“No, I got—I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,” Pitt said with a “little laugh,” before holding a finger up to emphasize this next part: “In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, ‘Yep, nope, not good for me.’ Not in big quantities.”
Asked what that meant in practice, the 62-year-old star explained, “ I can have a few [glasses of wine]. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.”
In a 2017 GQ interview, Pitt talked about getting sober and said he couldn’t remember a day since leaving college when he wasn’t drinking, smoking pot, or using something. He also noted he loved wine and had taken it too far. In 2019, Pitt told The New York Times he spent a year and a half in an all-male recovery group in Alcoholics Anonymous. In 2020, Pitt publicly thanked Bradley Cooper at the National Board of Review gala for helping him get sober.
Given the timeline, and Pitt saying he’d been sober for seven years, it sounds like the actor has been off the wagon for at least a couple years.
Pitt was also asked about reprising the role of stuntman Cliff Booth in Netflix’s upcoming The Adventures of Cliff Booth movie at Netflix (which is directed by David Fincher and written by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood writer-director Quentin Tarantino).
The interviewer was shown the film’s first 24 minutes, and described the footage as “a movie lover’s dream … Fincher’s kill-shot direction of Tarantino’s ace script and Pitt carrying the whole thing with a smirk? Make another one.”
Pitt described the film as playing more like a series of episodic TV segments strung together than a sequel per se.
The Cliff Booth film is scheduled to be released Nov. 25 as an Imax exclusive for two weeks before debuting on Netflix on Dec. 23.
>
movies
‘The Sticks’: Scott Bakula, Logan Marshall-Green Cast, First Look
A couple of months after production wrapped on the untitled high-school hockey drama series headlined by Michelle Monaghan, Netflix is revealing more cast members — and a title, The Sticks. NCIS: New Orleans alum Scott Bakula, in his return to television, and Logan Marshall-Green, currently filming Season 2 of his hit CBS series Marshalls, are series regulars, alongside young actress Alex MacIsaac (The Social Reckoning, When Calls The Heart).
Bryan Greenberg (Suits LA, Emily in Paris) and Patrick Gallagher (Big Sky, Night at the Museum) are among seven recurring cast members that had not been officially announced.
Netflix also has released behind-the-scenes first-look images from the set of The Sticks, part of a wave of hockey-themed series that includes hits Crave/HBO Max’s Heated Rivalry and Prime Video’s Off Campus.
The Sticks’ previously unveiled cast includes Monaghan (as Harper Sullivan), Emilie Bierre (as Riley Sullivan), Shai Chase (as Henry Sullivan), Josh Macqueen (as Rhett Nelson), Costa D’Angelo (as Owen Boone), Carter Shimp (as Austin Ryder), Ethan Holder (as Cooper Cunningham), Isaac Arellanes (as Manny Rodriguez), Chloe Avakian (as Izzy Miller), Caleb Baumann (as Elu), River Codack (as Tyler Walker), Angus Albinati (as Jack McGrath) and Callum Orchison (as Derek Marchbanks).
In The Sticks, from Nick Naveda, Bridget Bedard and 21 Laps, after tragedy shatters a small Minnesota hockey town, a grieving wife (Monaghan) steps behind the bench of the team her husband built, guiding a found family of wounded young athletes through a season of loss, love, and rivalry that will decide whether South Dorothy has anything left to believe in, and who will lead it into its next chapter.

Bakula (Quantum Leap) plays Coach Brody; Marshall-Green, currently seen in The Odyssey, plays Coach Sully; MacIsaac, who guest stars on Netflix’s upcoming Hollywood Arts, plays Emma Boone.
Here are more details about the newly announced recurring cast additions:
○ Bryan Greenberg plays Cliff Barnes.
○ Chelsea Field (NCIS: New Orleans, The Last Boy Scout) plays Alice Hansen.
○ Patrick Gallagher plays Principal Montgomery.
○ Alison Araya (Peacemaker, Riverdale, Family Law) plays Joan Garcia.
○ Aman Smardon (Allegiance) plays Kai Becker.
○ Krista Bridges (Narc, Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy) plays Frankie Ryder.
○ Ben Cotton (Trinity, The Night Agent, Resident Alien) plays Mr. Marchbanks.

Creator Naveda and showrunner Bedard executive produce the eight-episode series alongside Shawn Levy, Dan Levine and Robert Atwood for 21 Laps and director Trey Edward Shults (101, 102).
>
movies
UTA Signs ‘Tangles’ Director an Giant Ant Founder Leah Nelson
EXCLUSIVE: United Talent Agency (UTA) has signed writer and director Leah Nelson for representation in all areas as her profile continues to rise thanks to her well received directorial debut Tangles.
The moving animated feature – about a young woman who puts her burgeoning graphic art career in San Francisco on hold to return home to Maine to care for her beloved, feisty mother after she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, world premiered to an emotional ovation and critical acclaim in Cannes in May.
The animation features an all-star voice cast led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen, Abbi Jacobson, Sarah Silverman, Bowen Yang, Pamela Adlon, Wanda Sykes, Samira Wiley and Beanie Feldstein.
Nelson co-adapted the screenplay for Tangles alongside Sarah Leavitt and Trev Renney, based on Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me. Drawing from deeply personal experiences with Alzheimer’s disease, the film marks Nelson’s first feature and first screenplay, bringing an intimate, deeply human perspective to a story about memory, family and caregiving.
Prior to Tangles, Nelson built a successful career as a commercial director and animation filmmaker, known for her emotionally resonant storytelling and distinctive visual style.
After earning a film degree from Emily Carr University, she co-founded the multiple Emmy Award-winning Vancouver animation studio Giant Ant, helping establish it as an internationally recognized creative force across film, television, advertising and branded entertainment.
In 2018, she expanded her creative pursuits by co-founding Kiddo Films, a roster-based commercial production company specializing in live-action comedy and documentary content. As she transitions into long-form filmmaking, Nelson is focused on telling stories that elevate female voices while exploring human behavior and the complexities of family dynamics.
Since Cannes, Tangles has continued its festival run in France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June and will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Centrepiece sidebar.
Nelson continues to be represented by Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
>
-
movies3 months agoSearch For Canadian TV Actor Stewart McLean Now Homicide Investigation
-
Fashion9 years agoThese ’90s fashion trends are making a comeback in 2017
-
Fashion9 years agoAccording to Dior Couture, this taboo fashion accessory is back
-
Fashion9 years agoModel Jocelyn Chew’s Instagram is the best vacation you’ve ever had
-
Fashion9 years agoYour comprehensive guide to this fall’s biggest trends
-
Fashion9 years ago9 Celebrities who have spoken out about being photoshopped
-
Fashion9 years agoEmily Ratajkowski channels back-to-school style
-
Fashion9 years agoA photo diary of the nightlife scene from LA To Ibiza
