Antonio Campos to Direct “The Staircase” Remake as Drama Series Starring Colin Firth

Antonio Campos is onto his next (stair)case

The 37-year-old half-Brazilian American director is set to helm the remake of The Staircase, one of the first true-crime documentaries to break out into mainstream culture when it was released in 2004.

Campos’ remake will be a drama limited series for HBO Max with Colin Firth playing Michael Peterson, the man convicted of murdering his wife, Kathleen Peterson.

There previously were rumors that Harrison Ford had been attached to the project.

The Staircase is written and executive-produced by Campos and Cohn, and Campos will direct six of the eight episodes of the show, which is produced by Annapurna Television and HBO Max.

The Staircase started out as a documentary from director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. It told the story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home, and the 16-year judicial battle that followed. De Lestrade was granted unusual access to the case immediately following Kathleen’s death in 2001 in Durham, NC. Her husband, Michael, a local public figure and successful novelist, quickly became the prime suspect and was convicted.

The original series aired on France’s Canal+ and BBC 4 in the UK as well as on Sundance Channel in the United States.

Lestrade returned to the case a few years later for a three-part follow-up to the case, which aired on Netflix.

“This has been a project I have been working on in one way or another since 2008,” says Campos. “It’s been a long and winding road, but well worth the wait to be able to find partners like HBO Max, Annapurna, co-showrunner Maggie Cohn and the incredible Colin Firth to dramatize such a complex true-life story.”

Campos previously directed the Rebecca Hall-fronted feature Christine.

First Trailer Released for Andy Garcia’s “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”

It’s all Greek to Andy Garcia

Universal Pictures has released the first trailer for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the sequel to Mamma Mia! The Movie, starring the 61-year-old Cuban actor.

Andy Garcia,

The sequel shifts back and forth in time to show how relationships forged in the past resonate in the present.

Ten years after Mamma Mia! The Movie grossed $610M worldwide, everybody’s back on the Greek island of Kalokairi for an all-new original musical based on the songs of the Swedish pop sensations.

All of the original cast returns including Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard.

Garcia is new to the island, along with Lily James showing off some pipes as Young Donna, Alexa Davies, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Jeremy Irvine, Josh Dylan and Hugh Skinner.

Cher also turns up in the trailer above as grandmother Ruby Sheridan.

Ol Parker writes and directs the sequel from a story by Catherine Johnson, Richard Curtis and Parker.

The musical comedy will open domestically in the U.S. on July 20, 2018.

Lopez to Serve as a Presenter at the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards

Jennifer Lopez has a golden responsibility this weekend…

The 45-year-old Puerto Rican actress/singer and American Idol judge is among the second batch of presenters announced today by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards.

Jennifer Lopez

Lopez, who received a Golden Globe nomination in 1998 for her breakout role in Selena, joins a list of presenters that includes Jennifer Aniston, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston, Jamie Dornan, Colin Firth, Jane Fonda, Harrison Ford, Bill Hader, Katherine Heigl, Dakota Johnson, Adam Levine, Matthew McConaughey, Seth Meyers, Lupita Nyong’o, Jeremy Renner, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Vince Vaughn, and Kerry Washington.

They will join previously announced presenters; Amy Adams, Adrien Brody, Robert Downey Jr., Anna Farris, Ricky Gervais, Kevin Hart, Salma Hayek, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Channing Tatum, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The ceremony, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for the third year in a row, will air on Sunday, January 11 live coast-to-coast on NBC with the pre-show from 4-5 PM (PST)/7-8 PM (EST), and main telecast from 5-8 PM (PST)/8-11 PM (EST) from the Beverly Hilton.

First Look: Diaz’s Co-Starring Role in “Gambit”

Cameron Diaz is running the gambit with an Oscar-winning actor…

Cameron Diaz in Gambit

The 40-year-old half-Cuban American actress is starring as a cowgirl opposite Colin Firth in the comedy Gambit, which saw the release this week of the film’s first trailer on the United Kingdom’s ITV.

Gambit sees Firth playing a long-suffering employee who grows tired of being intimidated by his eccentric boss, played by Harry Potter’s Alan Rickman, and decides to seek revenge.

Cameron Diaz's Gambit Poster
It’s a remake of the 1966 movie of the same name; it follows Firth’s character Harry Dean who plans to steal a statue from one of the world’s richest men. His master plan, however, is missing one major component: the involvement of a beautiful woman to act as his gambit.

Dean then meets PJ Puznowski (Diaz), someone who appears to be the perfect candidate. But Dean himself becomes enraptured with her, causing his plan to take a series of wrong turns.

Directed by Michael Hoffman, Gambit—which co-stars Tom Courtenay, Stanley Tucci and Cloris Leachman—doesn’t have a U.S. release date in the U.S. yet.