Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, says Cookie Queens is “more than just a cookie movie.”

At an advanced Los Angeles screening of the documentary, Meghan Markle joined director Alysa Nahmias to discuss the heart behind the film, which follows four young Girl Scouts as they navigate the highs and lows of cookie-selling season. 

The project originally premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, earning an Audience Award and putting itself on the map. Markle and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, jumped on as executive producers under their Archewell Productions banner.

The screening took place at AMC The Grove on Tuesday, with an audience packed with Girl Scouts dressed in their green vests ready to follow the story of Olive, Shannon, Ara and Nikki. Once the film concluded, Nahmias and Markle joined moderator Jessica Radloff to speak about the ins and outs of the film, and what Cookie Queens means.

“We have an amazing team at Archewell Productions, and a lot of things come across the desk, but the team has such a good eye,” Markle said of signing onto the doc. “We saw a very small teaser, but there was a clear inkling that this was going to be different — cinematic but also real and vulnerable. When we first met, I baked some cookies and brought them to the team, and we were all so enthusiastic. We were happy to join forces and support this project.”

For Nahmias, the project started from a challenge from her children: “My kids dared me to make a film that was for all ages,” she said. “I remember someone told me a story about a Girl Scout they met who was the best salesperson. He had all these cookies and his wallet was empty! I was so interested in thinking about how girls learn about the economy and our values. That was the impetus: girlhood, capitalism, the good, the bad, the ugly — and the delicious.”

While Cookie Queens may focus on the beloved Girl Scout cookie season, Nahmias said she always envisioned it as a coming-of-age story.

“It’s such a brilliant portrayal of Americana and the global tradition of the Girl Scouts,” Markle added. “When I describe it to people, I say, ‘I know you think it’s just going to be a cute film about cookies,’ and yes, it’s very cute — but every time we’ve seen it, there’s not a dry eye in the house. There are so many meaningful, grounding moments that make it much more resonant, and that’s a testament to Alysa, the crew and how hard they’ve worked on the film.”

To capture that story, Nahmias said she interviewed dozens of Girl Scouts before choosing four families whose stories extended far beyond selling cookies. “What I was looking for were families for whom it wasn’t really going to be about just the cookies. Instead, there would be an inner journey,” she continued. “I knew I wanted an ensemble where the girls were different ages, backgrounds and socioeconomic situations to create a true cross-section.”

For both Nahmias and Markle, one of the documentary’s most meaningful themes became the parents’ unwavering commitment to their children.

“People say when you become a parent, you just don’t understand a love like that, and it’s so true,” Markle said. “I see myself in all these different parents in the film, doing anything for their child, and it’s really beautiful storytelling.”

Markle also said she was struck by how naturally the girls approached entrepreneurship, using social media and other tools to maximize their cookie sales. “I was really impressed with how these girls understand microfinance at such a young age,” she said. “They really understand sales targets and goals. That is so inspiring when you think about this next generation of women who can really help shape our country because they are owning their knowledge, autonomy and financial independence.”

As the conversation came to a close, Radloff asked Nahmias and Markle what keeps them motivated through setbacks, as Nahmias reflected on making her first feature, a process that took more than a decade.

“Staying true to my North Star and bringing yourself back to that is what keeps me going,” she said. “Even if it fails, you’ve still done something important, and you can’t take that away.”

Markle turned to a piece of advice husband Prince Harry once shared with her from his time serving as a pilot in the British Army. “Sometimes on very hard days, I remember he once said, ‘Even if there’s a storm happening, above that storm, the sun’s always shining,’” she said.

“That’s a perspective that only comes when you zoom out a little bit and think, ‘How many things have I gone through that felt hard, and still got through them?’” she continued. “It’s so important to maintain perspective that no matter what feels insurmountable, there’s always that sun shining above it.”

Cookie Queens hits theaters on Aug. 7.

After seven years, Gregg Araki recently explained the case of art imitating life that ended his and Karley Sciortino‘s Now Apocalypse.

While discussing their new movie I Want Your Sex, premiering Friday, July 31 in theaters, Araki revealed to Deadline that Season 2 of the 2019 erotic sci-fi series was “actually written,” and “the cast was paid” to return, but a change in leadership halted their plans.

When I tell the New Queer Cinema filmmaker that I was hoping for a sophomore season, he assured me I’m “not the only one,” adding, “The second season is actually written. We wrote the second season, the cast was paid for the second season, we were prepping the second season.”

Araki continued, “And it’s funny because in the second season of Now Apocalypse, the character Carly [played by Kelli Berglund], she gets paid to do a TV show, or develop a show, and so she has a development executive. Her whole storyline is working on the show, and then in episode 9, her executive gets fired, and her show gets put in a turnaround, and that’s literally what happened to us. Literally, our executive got fired, and the whole network changed. It was so prophetic.” 

Co-written by Araki and Vogue.com sex columnist Sciortino, Now Apocalypse followed disillusioned Angeleno, Ulysses (Avan Jogia) and his friends as they navigated love, sex and fame in LA, all while he is plagued with premonitions about the end of the world. All episodes were directed by Araki.

The 10-episode Season 1 ran from March to May, 2019, made with executive producers Steven Soderbergh and Gregory Jacobs under Soderbergh’s deal at Starz. The network canceled the show after one season that July. Starz COO Jeff Hirsch called it “a great show” and “a great experiment for us” at the time.

Taylor Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch Productions and David Glasser’s 101 Studios have teamed up acquire two feature scripts from Andrew Lauren, one of the producers of The Brutralist.

The projects, titles Visalia and Capture the Flag, are original concepts by Lauren, and written in part by Sheridan, the creator of the Yellowstone TV empire. The features are to be produced by Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch, 101 Studios, and Lauren.

Lauren originated the concept for the two projects many years ago, and had other writers work on the drafts of scripts. Sheridan was among the scribes, hired before he became one of the biggest names in television, and the concepts clearly stuck with him.

With the acquisition, Sheridan will take a more direct hand in their development and presumably in their writing.

Per the companies, Visalia “follows a determined young Cuban woman who escapes the only life she’s ever known, braving treacherous waters and relentless danger in pursuit of freedom in America. But when a historic political shift pulls her back to Cuba, she must confront the uncertain promises of a homeland transformed — and the price she’s paid to survive it.” The project was previously titled Mojito.

Capture the Flag, per the logline, “throws a NASA engineer into a desperate race to build the first reusable spacecraft capable of traveling to the moon and back, testing his limits, loyalties, and morals when a tech tycoon offers him the chance to make history — if he’s willing to pay for it.”

“These two projects have been years in the making, ideas I believed in deeply, never anticipating that advances in science and shifts in the political landscape would accelerate their path to realization,” said Lauren in a statement. “I worked on developing them with Taylor long before his emergence as one of the industry’s most distinctive, visionary voices. It’s incredibly rewarding to see his continued passion and commitment to bringing these stories to the screen.”

Lauren, the son of fashion designer icon Ralph Lauren, has worked on key films in the independent movie world, earning credits on Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now and Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux. Lauren was a producer on Corbet’s Brutalist, which earned 10 Oscar nominations and three wins. He is executive producing The Statement, Tom McCarthy’s upcoming fall dramedy that stars Paul Rudd, Tatiana Maslani, and Paul Giamatti.

Even as Sheridan’s TV empire continues to dominate, the creator has slowly been making a return to the film world, where he first made his impact. Warner Bros’s upcoming action movie F.A.S.T. is based on one of his older scripts, which he returned to work on, and will hit theatres in April 2027.