movies

The Girl in the River: Tiffany Haddish, Devon Sawa Movie Gets Release

Published

22 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

A crime feature starring Tiffany Haddish is set to make a splash in theaters.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired The Girl in the River and will release the thriller in theaters and on digital platforms Sept. 4, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Maggie Grace, Devon Sawa and Ralph Macchio round out the cast for writer-director Brando Benetton’s movie.

The Girl in the River centers on an experienced criminologist and a young psychologist who head to a small Mississippi town after a girl is murdered and her twin sister goes missing.

“I know you want to retire, but yesterday, two twin sisters disappeared,” Haddish says in the trailer. “Their father — his political authority is absolute. We’ve already found the body. If we don’t find her sister in the next 24 hours, she won’t be back at all.”

Later, Sawa laments the challenges inherent with the crime. “We have too many leads, no real suspects,” he says in the footage. He goes on to add, “Just because you think someone’s a killer doesn’t mean they are one.”

The trailer ends with Haddish declaring, “You’re not ready to confront what real evil looks like.”

Devon Sawa (left) and Maggie Grace in *The Girl in the River.*

Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

Brando Benetton helmed the project from his own script. Joe Lemmon and Andrew Stevens serve as producers for the indie film.

Executive producers include Hicham Benkirane, Alan B. Bursteen, Dawn Bursteen, Rick Moore, Alessandro Penazzi, Jeff Roschman and Sam Stevens.

Haddish’s latest feature credits include Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Haunted Mansion, Easter Sunday and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

The poster for *The Girl in the River.*

Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

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CAA Hires Elle Skinner For Creators Division In UK From Free Focus

Published

5 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: CAA has continued the rapid expansion of its UK-based creators division by swooping for the head of talent at Free Focus Management.

Elle Skinner joins as an agent in the London office, where she will rep digital-first talent and advise creators as they build businesses.

Skinner joins from creator agency Free Focus, where she rose from talent manager to head of talent during a seven-year stint.

Across her career, she has repped the likes of Helen Anderson, Hobbie Stuart, Beth Sandland, Francesca Perks, Emma Tamsin Hill, Gabriella Lindley, and BBC Radio 1 presenter Alyx Holcombe. She started out in TV production, working for Endemol.

CAA has been building out its creators team and Skinner joins recent hire Georgia Katz, who came from management firm Mokkingbird and brought across talent like Made in Chelsea star Sam Thompson.

CAA’s recent signings out of the UK unit include William Hanson, Fin Taylor, Max Klymenko (The Career Ladder), Fallow Chefs, Jordan North, Vick Hope and Polyester. In the U.S., CAA reps creators like KSI, Dharminder “Dhar” Mann and Jesser.

“Elle has built an outstanding reputation for developing long-term careers for creators while helping them evolve into successful businesses,” said CAA Agent Glen Miller. “Her experience across talent management, brand partnerships, content, and entrepreneurship makes her an exceptional addition to our growing Creators team. As the creator economy continues to mature across Europe, we’re excited to welcome her to CAA.”

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Rebecca Yarros’ ‘Peculiar Stars’ Heads To Apple TV For Adaptation

Published

13 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, with multiple studios and producers pursuing, Apple TV has stepped up to preemptively acquire the rights to Peculiar Stars, the upcoming romance novel from Rebecca Yarros, the bestselling author behind the Fourth Wing fantasy romance Empyrean book series.

Apple Studios will develop Peculiar Stars as a TV series, with Yarros serving as executive producer through her banner, Full Measures Productions. A search is underway for a writer to adapt the novel.

With Peculiar Stars — available for pre-order and set to publish November 17, 2026 — Apple TV is staking a claim in the romance series space, announcing its ambitions in the genre where the streamer has had limited presence so far that includes costume drama The Buccaneers and, to some extent, period drama Pachinko and limited series Lessons In Chemistry.

In Peculiar Stars, after a cyclone strands a young woman on a deserted island with a member of her fiancé’s family, survival upends everything she thought she knew about love. But when they’re finally rescued, and re-enter their world of privilege, expectation and secrets, homecoming proves far more dangerous than the island they left behind.

The slow-burn romance, which spans 543 days on an island, marks the latest in Yarros’ romance lineup outside of the romantasy Empyrean series which has sold over 30 million copies. Onyx Storm, the third book in the planned five-book saga, which came out January 21, 2025, has broken records as the fastest selling book in the last 20 years.

A Fourth Wing TV adaptation has been ordered to series at Amazon MGM Studios with Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society and Kilter Films producing, and Meredith Averill showrunning. Deadline broke the news that Yarros’ 2021 romance novel, The Things We Leave Unfinished, has been set up at Lionsgate with Yarros executive producing, Arash Amel adapting and Thea Sharrock attached to direct.

The author’s romance novel In the Unlikely Event, sold to Netflix preemptively with Dylan Clark Productions producing. Her 2024 romance novel Variation is set up at Amazon as a feature with Higher Ground and Misty Copeland producing. In 2025, her novel The Last Letter, sold to Amazon with Imagine producing, Anna Klassen adapting, and Yarros EP-ing.

Yarros, a #1  New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels, is repped by The Fury Agency, Weintraub Tobin, and Untitled Entertainment.

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Paul Sparks, Kate Burton & Xander Berkeley Lead ‘A Great Depression’

Published

29 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: Paul Sparks, Kate Burton, Xander Berkeley and Rhys Coiro lead the cast of Melissa Miller Costanzo’s A Great Depression, which has just wrapped in New Jersey.

The film follows Mark Turner (Sparks), the heir and chairman of his family’s billion-dollar company, as he struggles to reclaim his life after battling depression. As his world begins to fracture, the line between imagination, ambition and self-destruction becomes blurred, in what the filmmakers told Deadline will be an emotionally charged portrait of resilience, identity and recovery.

Costanzo’s previous films include Run, starring Sarah Levy, Phillipa Soo and Adam Pally, and her debut feature All These Small Moments, which premiered at Tribeca. She co-wrote A Great Depression with Jenny Halper.

“A Great Depression is one man’s true story about his journey through and beyond depression,” Costanzo said of her new film. “With its injection of magical realism and heightened reality, my hope is that this project will help reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness and treatments like ECT without ever feeling like a lecture.”

Alongside Sparks (The Night Of), Burton (Scandal), Berkeley (24) and Coiro (Entourage), the film will star Annie Parisse, Michael Oberholtzer, Megan Ferguson, Emily Tremaine, Sophia Bunnell, Malachi Weir, Jack Ball, Michael Gaston and Alysia Reiner, who round out the cast.

Curious Gremlin (The Testament Of Ann Lee) in association with MAP Creative Ventures are the production banners on the indie movie. It is produced by Scott Aharoni, Sinan Eczacibasi and Alihan Yalcindag of Curious Gremlin, alongside Matt Jensen, Alex Peace Power, Paul Steiner and Costanzo.

Eric Buttelman is co-producer. Executive producers are Mark Litzsinger, Britt Power and Ryan Asher.