As De Noche is revived following the casting of a new leading man, Christine Vachon is happy with the new version of the film.

The producer of Todd Haynes‘ upcoming queer romance recently praised Pedro Pascal as “born to play” the lead, a year after the Golden Globe nominee stepped in for original star Joaquin Phoenix, who exited the set in 2024 and seemingly doomed the project at the time.

“If you take the Pollyanna, glass-half-full version of everything happens for a reason, maybe the reason was that this was a role Pedro was born to play. So was Danny [Ramirez],” said Vachon in an Edinburgh International Film Festival talk with Screen Daily. “Both of them are a revelation.”

Although she admitted it wasn’t “an easy situation” when Phoenix departed the project, and “it was devastating” Haynes wasn’t able to complete the film that year, the “do-over” was ultimately a benefit to the movie.

“Todd was working on some other things, and he met Pedro on the awards circuit when he was doing May December,” she recalled. “People always say to me, ‘Is Pedro as nice as he seems?’ And he is. People are so invested in him.”

Vachon added, “We’ve worked together on Materialists. It started to be one of those things that was like ‘I wonder if [Pascal would do De Noche],’ and it worked out.”

In addition to the casting change, Vachon noted that they’ve updated the film’s locale from Guadalajara to Mexico City, “which ended up being better creatively.”

Since producing Haynes’ 1991 “new queer cinema” directorial debut Poison, Vachon has since worked with the auteur on Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002), I’m Not There (2007) and Carol (2015). She has also produced such films as Stonewall (1995), Kids (1995), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Camp (2003) and Party Monster (2003).

Phoenix reportedly stormed off the set of Haynes’ movie in July 2024 in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was set to star alongside Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick) as two men in the 1930s who develop an intense romantic relationship and leave Los Angeles for Mexico. Vachon was producing alongside Pam Koffler.

The project was rescued last August when Pascal took over the leading role, with production planned for earlier this year.

Haynes previously told Deadline that he and partner Jon Raymond “wrote the script with Phoenix” and would “all be sharing story credit on it together,” adding, “The earliest ideas around the story and the setting were things he came to me with a couple of years ago. We started to talk and share these conversations.”

At a smaller, more exclusive and intimate event hosted at LAYA Restaurant Thursday evening, Netflix took the opportunity to remind viewers of its roots in the YA genre by gathering talent from projects past, present and future that have become hits in the space.

Attendees were greeted by a tunnel plastered with posters from Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever, Heartstopper, Ginny & Georgia, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, XO, Kitty, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, On My Block, Forever, My Life With The Walter Boys The Kissing Booth, Élite, Outer Banks, Young Royals, Sex Education and newer releases like Don’t Say Good Luck interspersed with placeholder title cards for shows and films not yet released like The Sticks, Poster, Just Picture It starring Millie Bobby Brown, The Body and Crew Girl. Not all posters or stills that made up the collage had talent present to represent them, though.

In what could be looked at as a response to Prime Video’s Obsessed Fest at the end of June at Nya Studios, the streamer trotted out talent from films dating as early as 2018 like Sierra Burgess Is A Loser and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before alongside the main trio of stars of My Life With the Walter Boys on a small red carpet of which Deadline was not a part beyond filming arrivals. Not only were talent mingling up close, but various stations set up throughout the venue offered custom goodies to take home.

A perfume station mixed various scents with bases inspired by Outer Banks, Ginny & Georgia, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Kissing Booth, Never Have I Ever, and On My Block to top off with other notes along the lines of empowering, graceful, creative, spontaneous and more. A charm bracelet station had wristlets with charm options of ice skates, hockey sticks, cowboy boots, books, evil eyes, hearts and more to create combinations to string onto phones or wear as jewelry. And last, but certainly not least, there were tattoo stations offering permanent smaller flash tattoos as well as temporary ones. Talent visited tall stations.

A curious note that the playlist soundtracking the event contained needle drops from films like To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and XO, Kitty (Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” & “Anna of the North – Lovers”), People We Meet On Vacation (Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl”) and Voicemails for Isabelle (Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own”), but other songs that stood out were Audrey Hobert’s “Sue Me” which features in Off Campus and Tame Impala’s “Dracula,” which features in a club scene in Megan Park’s Sterling Point, both Prime Video shows.

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With the splash that Prime Video made this summer in terms of young adult and new adult series and films, many based on beloved books, it is worth noting that Netflix had a moment like this about a decade ago, but it started more with book to film adaptations like the previously mentioned To All The Boys I’ve Loved before movie trilogy based on the books by Jenny Han. Han then took The Summer I Turned Pretty to Prime Video as a trilogy adaptation of three seasons as well, and a movie conclusion is on the way.

As Deadline noted, a similar wrap-up is in talks for XO, Kitty, the spinoff series of the To All The Boys films starring Lara Jean Song-Covey’s (Lana Condor) younger sister Katherine ‘Kitty’ (Anna Cathcart). Cathcart was in attendance, but no sign of Condor, who did just star in Prime Video’s The Devil’s Mouth.

Emma Pasarow, co-star of another notable Netflix film adaptation of Sarah Dessen’s Along for the Ride (2022), which also starred Off Campus’ Season 1 lead Belmont Cameli, was in attendance. Leah Lewis, who starred in Alice Wu’s The Half Of It (2020), also provided a bit of a blast from the past.

Some overlap could be seen with Isaac Arellanes, who features in My Life With the Walter Boys, promoting the upcoming show The Sticks alongside castmates and teammates Costa D’Angelo (East of Eden, Tell Me Lies, Season 2 of We Were Liars), Josh Macqueen (Motorheads), Shai Chase and more. Note here that We Were Liars and Motorheads are Prime Video shows.

A quick tangent to remind that some of Prime Video’s recent YA endeavors have ended up being canceled after their first seasons like Motorheads starring Michael Cimino, Melissa Collazom, Uriah Shelton, Josh Macqueen — who has transitioned to The Sticks — as well as The Runarounds from Outer Banks creator Jonas Pate. And on the Outer Banks wave, Madelyn Cline appeared in The Map That Leads To You for Prime Video, a book adaptation of sorts from Temple Hill who have a presence in the YA book adaptations world as well.

RELATED: Expanding The Book Adaptation Pipeline: How Production Companies Like Temple Hill & Alloy Entertainment Are Turning The Page To Develop New IP

Taking a step back from specific talent crossover and returning to Netflix’s lengthier timeline in the coming-of-age category, still more shows that premiered a while ago — Chilling Adventures, Young Royals, Élite and On My Block — felt like a bit of a stretch to include in the current zeitgeist, though Esther Expósito of Élite will soon appear in Prime Video’s Drawn Together based on the book by Mercedes Ron and Edvin Ryding of Young Royals has just been cast in Season 2 of Heated Rivalry.

As the scoreboard stands, Neflix has more experience in the space, both with original content and book adaptations, and they have branched out into various other genres like horror, science fiction, thrillers, Western, sports and comedy while Prime Video’s entry into the arena this summer, which has proven strong, focuses on specific summery settings, love stories and book adaptations with heavy fanbases. For example, Lizzy Greene from Ransom Canyon, which definitely skews more adult compared to a show like My Life With the Walter Boys, was in attendance last night, and she will also appear in Netflix’s upcoming The 99’ers film adaptation about the 1999 U.S. Women’s National Team that won the World Cup.

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The cast of A Different World, coming Sept. 24, walked the carpet as well, but Netflix reboots and remakes are a conversation for another time.

Prime Video’s sample size of offerings is much smaller and therefore seems more cohesive right now, but here I will note that Netflix has the next Carley Fortune adaptation following Every Year After at Prime Video: they’ve just entered production on the This Summer Will Be Different show. They also have Elle Kennedy’s Girl Abroad in the adaptation process in the wake of Off Campus, signaling that they want pieces of both pies so far only served up by Prime Video. It’s worth remembering too that Netflix has a significant chunk of the Emily Henry adaptations with People We Meet On Vacation leading the bunch, though these stories feel more new adult in ways. As many creators have recently told Deadline, coming of age takes place across one’s lifetime.

Zooming back in on Netflix’s upcoming slate, Crew Girl out Sept. 10 might offer a love triangle to rival that of My Life With the Walter Boys. The drama series watches 16-year-old Teagan Tao become the coxswain of the all-boys rowing team at her new prestigious high school while she deals with family drama and fallout. Created by showrunner Vivian Lin, the frothy series has more Netflix YA power behind it in Jeff Norton (Geek Girl, Finding Her Edge). The Sticks will make its debut in the hockey rink to compete with Off Campus and Heated Rivalry sometime next year. Quinn Shephard’s The Body will likely scare up an audience of some sort starting Nov. 11 with its combination of Catholic high school drama and horror as well as stars like Sofia Wyle (High School Musical, The School for Good and Evil) and Gabby Windey making her acting debut.

A standout pairing in attendance on the red carpet yesterday evening was Beatrice Kitsos (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jurassic World Rebirth) who will helm the upcoming film adaptation of Lynn Painter’s YA romance novel Better Than The Movies, directed by Julia Hart (Don’t Say Good Luck). Iacono marks another notable Prime Video and now Netflix crossover.

RELATED: Everything We Know About Netflix’s ‘Better Than The Movies’ Feature Adaptation So Far

Prime Video’s summer of obsession is nearly over after The Last Sunrise and Drawn Together, both film adaptations, arrive on the streamer this month, with The Love Hypothesis on the horizon in September and likely Clashing Through The Snow in December. Netflix will have more seasonal offerings from Crew Girl to The Body to the newly announced Sunshine Girls coming in December. Forever Season 2 is currently in production, and Finding Her Edge Season 2 will enter production later this month.

It will be interesting to see how both Netflix and Prime Video, and even HBO Max to a lesser degree, move forward in the YA genre as time goes on. With a slate as big as Netflix’s, it becomes simultaneously easy to connect the dots of youth, coming of age, first-time romance and more between their shows and films, but also unwieldy or diluted at times with such a large load. Again, as Prime Video moves forward with its considerably smaller menu thus far — though sequel seasons are in the works for shows like Off Campus, Every Year After and We Were Liars, the challenge the streamer may face lies between deciding to diversify or double down on certain subgenres of the YA — and New Adult in the likes of Off Campus and Every Year After — landscape.

The question is whether any one network or streamer has claim to talent or the YA genre, and how this flag-planting will shape trajectories of the actors at the height of this resurgence of sorts, especially those who don’t want to be defined by certain roles. But, one big takeaway — that is not new — is that YA does, undeniably, factor into stardom, aside from any streaming brand.

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A magnetic Matthew McConaughey fiddles, sings and tends bees until things take a dark turn in The Rivals Of Amziah King from Black Bear opening at 500+ theaters. Nimrods, a Green Day-inspired, R-rated road trip comedy starring Mason Thames and Mckenna Grace debuts on 1,000+ screens. Neon’s The Wrong Girls with Kristin Stewart and Alia Shawcat; Angel Studios’ latest The Brink Of War; Will Poulter-starring Union County and nonfiction American Doctor and The Bend In the River are setting up another solid indie weekend.

The Rivals Of Amziah King, the second feature from Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night), is a crime thriller with a phenomenal soundtrack set in the backwoods of rural Oklahoma. Angelina LookingGlass, Kurt Russell, Cole Sprouse, Jake Horowitz, Scott Shepherd, Rob Morgan and Tony Revolori also star in this dive into the unexpectedly cutthroat world of honey that world premiered to a rare standing ovation at SXSW. The film was written by James Montague, produced by Black Bear, Heyday Films, G.E.D Media.

Critics are calling it McConaughey’s career best (see Deadline review) as the head of a small-town honey-producing operation, and leader of a band that frequently erupts into T Bone Burnett-produced bluegrass musical numbers. Quill, a song from the film performed by McConaughey, Ben Hardesty, Miranda Zickler, LookingGlass and Andrea Pister, was officially released as part of the soundtrack on August 7.

Synopsis: Deep within the backwoods of rural Oklahoma, charismatic and musically gifted Amziah King herds a bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, he leaps at the possibility to renew connection and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless and Amziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built.

Inaugural Entertainment and Live Nation Studios are launching Green Day-inspired comedy film Nimrods by Lee Kirk starring starring Mason Thames, Mckenna Grace, Kylr Coffman, Ryan Foust, Ignacio Diaz- Silverio, Keen Ruffalo, Jenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey, Fred Armisen, Bobby Lee and Sean Gunn.

When Tommy (Thames) receives a phone call inviting his band to open for Green Day on New Years Eve, he doesn’t realize it’s an elaborate prank by his older brother, Wayne. Desperate to believe his life is about to change, Tommy steals Wayne’s car and begins driving his band from Kansas City to Los Angeles, hell bent on getting there in three days. What follows is a rowdy and uproarious road trip across America, inspired by Green Day’s early days of touring in a van, years before the release of their breakout record, Dookie.

Green Day Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong teamed with Kirk on the movie and appears with bandmates Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool. His son Jakob wrote songs for the film’s fictional band, Analog Dogs. Premiered at TIFF. See Deadline’s Q&A with Billie Joe Armstrong.

The distributor is eyeing a built-in cross-generational pop-punk fanbase leveraging the global IP and music catalog of Green Day to bridge Gen X/Millennial nostalgia with Gen Z moviegoers through young leads Thames and Grace.

The Nimrods campaign was launched by surprising hardcore Green Day fans, cast, and select press with a branded mailer that included limited edition VHS tapes loaded with the trailer days before it went live online. The Nimrods made a stop at San Diego Comic-Con with an activation at Petco Park where Green Day performed on top of an ice cream truck to a crowd of thousands and threw out merch (including branded ice cream), with Kirk and his wife Jenna Fischer (The Office) and star Mason Thames standing by. The Nimrods original soundtrack was released on July 31, 2026, featuring 22 Green Day songs, four unreleased live tracks, a new studio song (I’m Never Gonna R.I.P”), and contributions from Analog Dogs, Mckenna Grace, The Paradox, and Ultra.

Neon stoner comedy The Wrong Girls, Dylan Meyer’s directorial debut, opens on 510 screens. Stars Kristen Stewart, Alia Shawkat, LaKeith Stanfield, Tony Hale and Zack Fox, with Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Kate McKinnon and Geena Davis.

Two codependent best friends (Stewart and Shawkat) living paycheck to paycheck, and bong rip to bong rip, get caught in a case of mistaken identity that throws their lives into chaos. 

Neon and American Cinematheque partnered on the official premiere August 5 with a full takeover of all three screens at the Los Feliz 3 theater. See Deadline review. It’s offering merch including t-shirts, caps and limited edition posters.

Neon produced and financed the film as well as handling U.S. distribution and international sales. It noted the project was shot in Los Angeles after the devastating wildfires, the production employed about 100 people a day across its 29-day production, 90% locals.

This is the company’s second collaboration with Stewart after Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, which nabbed her a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

GKids is rereleasing Your Name on about 650 screens in the U.S. and Canada on its 10^th anniversary. It’s seeing strong presales for the anime landmark by Makoto Shinkai that was the highest grossing film of all time in Japan (since surpassed) and earned over $358 million worldwide. 

Funimation originally released the title in the U.S. in 2017.  GKids acquired it earlier this year. The distributor reps most of the director’s past catalog including Your Name, 5 Centimeters per Second and Weathering With You. Crunchyroll handled his last film, Suzume, in 2023 and was just confirmed as global distributor for his next.

In Your Name, rural schoolgirl Mitsuha and city kid Taki awaken one morning to discover that they’ve switched bodies. The total strangers struggle to navigate each other’s lives, walking tightropes of intimacy and distance. But when they finally resolve to meet, the true nature of their connection threatens to seal their fate.

The last installment of Robb Moss’ generational portrait, The Bend In The River, opens at the Film Forum in NYC. Executive produced by Frances McDormand and Joel Coen, it world premiered at Telluride.

The director filmed five of his close friends — Barry, Danny, Cathy, Jeff and Jim — for nearly 50 years starting with a 1978 clothing-optional rafting trip through the Grand Canyon that resulted in his short documentary, Riverdogs (1982). He resumed shooting as they came to terms with middle age for his 2003 follow-up, The Same River Twice. The Bend In The River, the final leg of the trilogy, finds the group in their seventies and grappling with the choices they’ve made as individuals and as a generation. See Deadline’s interview with Moss.

Watermelon Pictures deubts American Doctor the Angelika in New York. Directed by Poh Si Teng, this is a vérité non-fiction film following three prominent American physicians from different backgrounds –Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian — bound by their shared oath to save lives.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad is measured and strategic, Dr. Mark Perlmutter is blunt and wears his heart on his sleeve, and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is media-savvy and prolific. Filmed in unfolding, on-the-ground scenes, the story follows them from a Gazan hospital under siege to the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C. where they fight to keep a promise to their Palestinian colleagues and patients to continue the struggle.

Adds the Laemmle Royal in LA next week followed by San Francisco, Chicago and Toronto. The distributor has set aside one free screening in each market for healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, physician assistants, EMTs and medical students.

The Brink Of War from Angel Studios opens wide on 2,073 screens. By Michael Russell Gunn, starring Jeff Daniels, Jared Harris, Guy Burnet and Aya Cash. The politically charged drama is set at the 1986 Reykjavik Summit, where Ronald Reagan (Daniels) and Mikhail Gorbachev (Harris) met to discuss the future of the nuclear arms race. The U.S. president races against time to salvage a deal with Soviet leader that could dismantle nuclear arsenals or risk disaster.

Oscilloscope Laboratories debuts Union County, written and directed by Adam Meeks in his feature debut, on ten screens. Will Poulter and  Noah Centineo star as brothers Cody and Jack Parsons, each navigating a court-mandated drug rehabilitation program in a pocket of rural Ohio hit hard by the opioid epidemic. Provided with hope for the first time since their struggles began and with the support of a tireless counselor (Annette Deao), the brothers work toward a brighter, sober future. Premiered at Sundance, see Deadline’s Q&A with Meeks and Poulter.

Event: Dark Sky Films and Fathom Entertainment are celebrating another Texas Chain Saw Day next Tuesday (Aug 18) for one night only. Over 1,000 theaters in the U.S. and 50 in Canada are on board to screen the Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Dread Central, Be Afraid Media and the Creepy podcast produced a four-minute audio experience that will play before the film. Cinematographer Daniel Pearl will participate in a live Q&A at Regal LA Live in LA after the screening. In Austin. Cast members Teri McMinn and Allen Danziger will chat after a show at AMC Barton Creek.

Theaters are welcome to add additional screenings.

Dark Sky and Exurbia Films have also released the first official still from the hand-animated rotoscoped version of the film, currently in production for a planned 2027 debut. It’s Leatherface, below.