EXCLUSIVE: Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Oscar-winning filmmaker Brian Helgeland’s Outside Man. Deadline first told you about the Teton Ridge Entertainment production back in April which stars Ice Cube and Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones. Cameras will roll on the movie in November.

The project reteams Oscar winning L.A. Confidential co-scribe Helgeland with his Finestkind actor Jones.

Helgeland wrote and directs Outside Man which follows former Chicago mob enforcer Ruben Bowman (Ice Cube). After Ruben is released from prison, he is a man intent on changing his life. Disappearing into rural Texas, he finds work under a skilled furniture craftsman and retired Texas Ranger Gus Wanamaker (Jones). As Ruben and Gus form an unlikely friendship, that bond is jeopardized when both men’s pasts threaten to catch up with them.

Pic is produced by Jillian Share and Jen Gorton of Teton Ridge Entertainment; Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz of Cube Vision; Bill Gerber; and executive produced by Helgeland; Justin Bursch; Madeleine Moore for Teton Ridge Entertainment; and Ben Hurwitz for Cube Vision.

Focus notched their highest grossing movie ever this year in Curry Barker’s Obsession which grossed in excess of a half billion at the global box office. Upcoming is Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on Christmas Day; Elsinore from Simon Stone starring Andrew Scott, Georgia Oakley’s fresh take on Jane Austen’s beloved classic, Sense and Sensibility; Sarah Polley’s The Bell Jar starring Billie Eilish in her debut feature role; as well as Barker’s next big screen horror feature, Anything But Ghosts in early May 2027.

Teton Ridge Entertainment’s mission is creating TV and film projects celebrating the spirit of the American West. Teton Ridge Entertainment recently received a full-series order from Netflix for Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic, with East of Eden’s Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart set to adapt. Other high-profile iconic Western IP acquisitions for the production label include High Noon, from filmmaker Stanley Kramer; Louis L’Amour’s beloved bestseller Fallon; and the life rights of Oscar-winning actor John Wayne.

CubeVision has produced the Oscar-nominated and box office hit Straight Outta Compton ($201.6M WW), along with many franchises that include Friday, Barbershop, Are We There Yet? and Ride Along, and many other films. Upcoming projects include Ride Along 3 at Universal, Are They Gone Yet? at Skydance Sports, Sony’s upcoming 24 Jump Street and Last Friday at Skydance. In total, Ice Cube and CubeVision films have grossed over a billion dollars at the box office.

Helgeland is represented by WME and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Ice Cube is represented by Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole and UTA. Jones is represented by CAA and Jacobson, Russell, Saltz, Nassim & De La Torre.

Freddie Jackson, the soulful, Grammy-nominated singer who racked up 10 No. 1 R&B hits including “Rock Me Tonight” and “You Are My Lady” and had eight other Top 10s in just six years, died October 5, days after his 70th birthday.

The news was announced Tuesday on Jackson’s social media accounts, but no cause of death was listed.

After recording three albums with the Los Angeles band Mystic Merlin, Jackson went solo and returned to his native New York. With his emotive crooning style, he became a dominant force on R&B radio from his 1985 debut into the early 1990s, scoring back-to-back No. 1 hits right off the bat with “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)” and “You Are My Lady.” Both also made the Top 20 on Billboard’s pop singles chart.

That success earned Jackson a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist — he lost to “Smooth Operator” group Sade — and another, Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male, for “You Are My Lady.” Watch the video for that song here and for “Rock Me Tonight” below:

The hits would keep comin’. Jackson topped the R&B chart eight more times with such ’80s songs as “Tasty Love,” “Jam Tonight,” “Hey Lover,” “Nice ‘N’ Slow” and the Melba Moore duet “A Little Bit Moore.” He also had a pair of No. 1s in the early 1990s with “Love Me Down” and “Do It Again.” Three others reached No. 2. “Nice ‘N’ Slow” won an American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Single in 1988.

Born on October 2, 1956, in Harlem, Jackson released more than a dozen solo albums from 1985-2018, with his first two — Rock Me Tonight (1985) and Just Like the First Time (1987) — going platinum and his debut making the pop Top 10. They began a string of four consecutive No. 1s on Billboard‘s R&B albums chart, followed by 1988’s Don’t Let Love Slip Away and 1990’s Do Me Again, both of which went gold.

His fifth album, Time for Love, would be Jackson’s last for Capitol Records, his label since the start of his solo career. It peaked at No. 7 on the R&B LPs chart, becoming his final Top 10 record. Switching to RCA as R&B radio tastes evolved, his 1994 album Here It Is would be Jackson’s last big commercial success, reaching No. 11 and spawning the No. 2 R&B hit “I Could Use a Little Love (Right Now).” He continued to record for various labels through 2018, reaching the Top 50 on the R&B chart with most of them.

Jackson’s songs have been featured in dozens of films and TV shows over the decades, ranging from One Life to Live, The Golden Girls and All Dogs Go to Heaven to Family Matters, Ally McBeal, Love & Basketball and most recently the Chris Rock-directed Top Five. He performed three times on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and made more than a half-dozen appearances on Soul Train.

After being off the road for nearly a quarter-century, Jackson returned to touring in 2014 and again in 2017. He received the Legend Award at the 2019 Black Music Honors ceremony.

Information on survivors or a memorial service was not immediately available.

Other Desert Cities, the starry Broadway revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s Tony Award-winning play featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Joe Keery and Lily Rabe, grossed a smashing $1,879,441 in its first week of previews. All seven performances at the Hudson were sold out for the week ending October 4.

The $1.8M gross puts Other Desert Cities, directed by John Benjamin Hickey, at #2 on this week’s Broadway grosses chart, second only to Hamilton‘s $2,704,838 (enjoying a boost with the return of Christopher Jackson to the cast). Other Desert Cities‘ average ticket price of $275.66 edged out usual front-runner Hamilton ($251.78) as the week’s costliest seat. (Average paid admission for all 28 shows was $122.51.)

Those two shows were the week’s only sell-outs, though Chicago, Hadestown, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Just in Time, MJ, Paranormal Activity, Schmigadoon!, and School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play all came close with attendance at 95% of capacity or more.

Overall it was a fairly strong week on Broadway, with all but five of the 28 productions reporting box office gains over the previous week. Most of the five bucking the upward trend showed only minor slips, with the exceptions of Oh, Mary!, which was down $241,332 to a still-healthy $1,216,930, and The Lion King, which had a cancelled Saturday matinee and accordingly dropped $202,402 from the previous week to $1,498,471.

In addition to Other Desert Cities, two productions were new to the roster: Billy Crystal’s solo show 860, which filled 83% of seats at the Imperial for five previews and a take of $854,574; and non-prof The Imaginary Invalid, starring Bill Irwin, doing 92% for seven previews at the Haimes for a gross of $352,824. Opening night for 860 is October 21, and October 22 for Invalid.

Going strong was recent non-prof arrival School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, filling 96% of seats at the Friedman and grossing $351,072.

Chicago, with Reece Weaver as Roxie, continued its strong run with 98% of seats at the Ambassador filled and a gross of $1,030,366. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, with Tom Felton as Draco, was an impressive 96% and $1,671,543.

On the lower end of the spectrum, Six and Stranger Things: The First Shadow were each at about 68% of capacity, with grosses of $562,105 and $571,076, respectively. Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) was at 65% and $503,692. All three productions have posted closing dates: November 29 for Two Strangers, and January 3, 2027, for both Six and Stranger Things.

Rounding out the Top Five Earners for the week, after Hamilton, Other Desert Cities and Harry Potter, were MJ, $1,588,467; and The Lion King.

In all, the 28 Broadway productions grossed $27,735,569 for the week ending October 4, a jump of 15% over the previous week but down 12% over last year at this time. Total attendance was 226,390, up 8% from the previous week and down 3% year-to-year.

In the 19th week of the 2026-27 season, Broadway has grossed $593,216,158 season-to-date, down about 7% from last year at this time, with total attendance of 4,906,881 down 2% year-to-year.

All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For more box office information visit the League’s website.