“Priscilla” Star Jacob Elordi Reportedly Appearing at Upcoming Venice Film Festival

Jacob Elordi is bringing his blue suede shoes to Italy…

The 26-year-old half-Spanish Australian actor will reportedly make an appearance at this year’s Venice Film Festival despite the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, according to Deadline.com.

Jacob Elordi,Sources tell the entertainment sire that Elordi, who portrays Elvis Presley, and Cailee Spaeny, who portrays Priscilla Presley, will appear to promote their film Priscilla, directed by Sofia Coppola.

The film also has an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA, which would allow for the cast to promote the film. Priscilla Presley is also among the contingent.

Sofia Coppola is set to attend the festival alongside the following filmmakers: David Fincher, Michael Mann, Richard Linklater, Woody Allen, Yorgos Lanthimos and actor-turned-director Jack Huston. Some directors attending are WGA members but will be there “as directors.”

The landmark 80th Venice Film Festival kicks off next Wednesday and runs until September 9th. It opens with Italian WWII action film Comandante. The fest was due to open with the Zendaya starrer Challengers but that film backed out of the slot due to the strike.

Salma Hayek to Star in MGM & Scott Free Production’s Feature “House of Gucci”

Salma Hayek is House-bound…

The 54-year-old Mexican Oscar-nominated actress has joined the cast of House of Gucci, the feature film from MGM and Scott Free Productions currently in production.

Salma Hayek

Hayek joins an all-star cast that includes Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto and Jack Huston, with Ridley Scott directing.

“So happy to have my good buddy Salma join our wonderful cast,” said producer Giannina Scott. “I’ve been talking with her about this Gucci project for 20 years. Now it’s happening and she is a part of it. Rid and I are thrilled.”

Ridley and Giannina Scott will produce via their Scott Free Productions banner.

The film tells the story of how Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga), the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci (Driver), plotted to kill her husband, the grandson of renowned fashion designer Guccio Gucci. Hayek will play Pina Auriemma, who was a clairvoyant friend of “Black Widow” Reggiani, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison after her trial in 1998.

Roberto Bentivegna penned the script. House of Gucci will be released in the U.S. via MGM’s distribution joint venture United Artists Releasing on November 24. The film will be distributed internationally via Universal Pictures.

Hayek next can be seen in Lionsgate’s The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguardwhich will bow on June 16. She also has Marvel’s The Eternals coming out on November 5 and recently was seen in Amazon’s Bliss. 

Jared Leto In Talks to Star in Ridley Scott’s Next Project “Gucci”

It looks like Jared Leto could be landing a fashionable new role…

Ridley Scott is reportedly in talks with the 48-year-old part-Spanish American Oscar-winning actor/singer to star in his next project, MGM’s Gucci.

Jared Leto

Leto forms part of Scott’s all-star cast wish list that includes Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Huston and Reeve Carney

Lady Gaga is already attached to star as Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, who was tried and convicted of orchestrating his assassination on the steps of his office in 1995. She served 18 years in jail before being let out in 2016.

Maurizio had two daughters with Reggiani, but he left her for another woman. She’d had a brain tumor removed, and her children blamed it for her actions; the media took a darker view of her during a sensationalized affair, depicting her as a hot-blooded woman scorned and dubbing her “Black Widow.” She was originally handed a sentence of 29 years.

It’s Gaga’s first starring role since her Best Actress Oscar nomination in 2018’s A Star Is Born. She won an Academy Award for writing the song “Shallow.”

MGM landed the rights to the film back in April with plans to go into production after Scott finishes shooting his current project The Last Duel.

Scott’s partner Giannina Scott long has been passionate about the cinematic prospects for a film about the tumultuous Gucci family’s fashion dynasty and the murder of the grandson of founder Guccio Gucci.

The Gucci murder tale is scripted by Roberto Bentivegna, based on Sara Gay Forden’s book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed.

Leto, who won multiple awards, including an Oscar, for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, will next appear in Sony’s Morbius.

Diego Luna to Star in the Anthology Film “Berlin, I Love You”

Diego Luna is spreading a little Liebe to Germany…

The 37-year-old Mexican actor, producer and director will star in the anthology film Berlin, I Love You, the latest feature in the Cities of Love series launched by Emmanuel Benbihy in 2006 with the release of Paris, je t’aime, followed by New York, I Love You (2008) and Rio, I Love You (2014).

Diego Luna

Luna joins an ensemble cast that includes Jenna Dewan Tatum, Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Jim Sturgess, Mickey Rourke, Orlando Bloom, Sophie Turner, Jack Huston, Patrick Dempsey and Renee Zellweger.

Like the other films, Berlin, I Love You will feature short stories of romance, this time set in the German capital.

Written by Neil La Bute and David Vernon, the segments are being directed by Fernando Eimbcke, Dennis Gansel, Massy Tadjedin, Peter Chelsom, Til Schweiger, Justin Franklin, Dani Levy and Dianna Agron. Josef Rusnak will helm the transition sequence that ties all the episodes together.

Molina to Star in the War Drama “The Yellow Birds”

Daniel Jose Molina has yellow fever…

The Latino actor has landed a role in The Yellow Birds, the Cinelou-backed war drama about two young soldiers who become friends in boot camp.

Daniel Jose Molina

The elder (Alden Ehrenreich) promises to take care of his buddy (Tye Sheridan), but it becomes increasingly difficult in wartime.

Jack Huston and Jennifer Aniston co-star.

Newcomer Molina will play Vasquez, but no additional details about the character have been released.

He previously spent three seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, appearing in the productions of The Tempest; Water by the Spoonful; A Streetcar Named Desire; Cymbeline; Romeo and Juliet and Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella.

He was the recipient of the 2011 National Irene Ryan Acting Award.

Arias to Star in the Historial Epic “Ben-Hur”

It’s a (Hollywood) epic win for Moises Arias

The 20-year-old Colombian American actor and former Hannah Montana star has joined the cast of Ben-Hur, the historical epic Timur Bekmambetov is directing for MGM and Paramount Pictures.

Moises Arias

Arias will play Gestas, a teenage Jewish zealot whose family has been murdered by the Romans, who is desperate to fight for his people’s freedom.

Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman and Toby Kebbell star in the production, which will be shot in Europe ahead of a February 26, 2016 release.

In addition to be being a former Disney Channel star, having appeared on Hannah Montana and The Wizards of Waverly Place, starred in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-nominated film The Kings Of Summer. He also lent his voice recently to Despicable Me 2 and appeared in Summit’s sci-fi film Ender’s Game.

He’ll next appear in the Sundance 2015 drama Stanford Prison Experiment opposite Ezra Miller, Michael Angarano, and Billy Crudup, in which Arias will play one of several university students tapped for the real life role-play exercise that got dangerously out of hand.

Pascal In Talks to Star in “Ben Hur” Remake

Pedro Pascal may soon star in a massive remake…

The 39-year-old Chilean actor is in talks to portray Pontius Pilate in the remake of the 1959 epic historial drama Ben Hur, which earned 11 Academy Awards.

Pedro Pascal

The film, which will be directed by Timur Bekmambetov, centers on the blood feud between Judah Ben-Hur (Huston) and Messala (Kebbell), who grew up best friends before the Roman Empire took control of Jerusalem. Ben-Hur was a Jewish prince and Messala the son of a Roman tax collector. After the latter leaves to be educated in Rome for five years, the young man returns with a different attitude and mocks Judah and his religion. When a procession passes by Judah’s house and a roof tile accidentally falls and hits the governor, Messala betrays his childhood friend and manipulates the accident so that Judah is sold into slavery and certain death on a Roman warship, with his mother and sister thrown in prison for life. Judah vows revenge, culminating in the famed chariot races.

Pontius Pilate, best known for presiding over the trial of Jesus Christ and ordering his crucifixion, plays a significant role in this version of Ben-Hur, which hews closer to the 1880 Lew Wallace novel and its parallel storyline to Jesus than did the 1959 William Wyler-directed film.

The script is by Keith Clarke and 12 Years A Slave’s John Ridley did the rewrite.

Should he join the cast, Pascal will join Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Morgan Freeman and Gal Gadot in the film.

Production begins early next year in Europe for February 26, 2016 release.