Sarah Shahi to Star Opposite Dwayne Johnson in New Line & DC Films’ “Black Adam” 

Sarah Shahi has been paired up with a Rock-in’ co-star…

The 40-year-old part-Spanish actress has joined the cast of New Line and DC Films’ highly anticipated Black Adam starring Dwayne Johnson in the title role. Aldis Hodge is also on board to play Hawkman with Noah Centineo set to play Atom Smasher.

Sarah Shahi

Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Johnson alongside Emily Blunt in Disney’s Jungle Cruise, will helm. Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions are producing with Beau Flynn of FlynnPictureCo.

The character is one of DC’s most popular anti-heroes and plot details are being kept tightly under wraps. It is the second New Line/DC film following 2019’s critical and commercial smash hit Shazam!. The two characters, Shazam and Black Adam, are arch rivals in the DC Universe.

In the film, Shahi will play a university professor and freedom fighter leading the resistance in Kahndaq.

Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani wrote the latest draft. Adam Sztykiel wrote the previous draft.

Shahi is currently shooting the Netflix series Sex/Life and received critical acclaim for her performance in the Showtime series City On A Hill. Her TV credits include The Rookie, Reverie, Person of Interest, The L Word and Fairly Legal.

Jaume Collet-Serra In Talks to Direct “Black Adam”

 Jaume Collet-Serra may have found the Adam’s apple of his eye…

The 45-year-old Spanish film director and producer is in negotiations to direct Black AdamWarner Bros. and New Line’s spinoff of their DC Comics hit Shazam!

 Jaume Collet-Serra

Adam Sztykielwrote the latest draft of the film, which will star Dwayne Johnson

Collet-Serra and Johnson just finished collaborating on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, so they look to be sailing off together again on another tentpole project.

Collet-Serra’s past credits include the Liam Neesonthrillers Non-StopRun All Nightand The Commuter

He also helmed the Blake Livelyfilm The Shallows.

Black Adam is Shazam’s arch-nemesis and a complex antihero with a rich history of his own. Johnson was to play the character in the first movie before in the parties decided he warranted his own pic, and he came aboard in January 2017.

Shazam! was a hit when it bowed in April, grossing $362.7 million worldwide, with a sequel already in the works.

Patricia Velasquez’s “The Curse of La Llorona” Added to SXSW Film Festival Lineup

Patricia Velasquez will be tearing-up theSXSW Film Festival

The SXSW Film Festival has added the horror film The Curse of La Llorona, starring the 48-year-old Venezuelan actress and model, to its robust lineup.

Patricia Velasquez

The film, from New Line, is directed by Michael Chavesand written by Mikki Daughtryand Tobias Iaconis.

In addition to Velasquez, the film stars Linda Cardellini and Raymond Cruz and is based on the real-life Mexican folklore of the ghost of a weeping woman who essentially terrorizes and attempts to take children and scares the hell out of anyone who comes in her way.

The 26th edition of the South by Southwest Conference and Festivalruns March 8-17 in Austin.

Demian Bichir’s “The Nun” Becomes Highest-Grossing Title in “The Conjuring” Universe

Demian Bichir is conjuring up a massive haul at the box office…

New Line’s The Nun, starring the 55-year-old Mexican actor, has officially become the highest-grossing title in The Conjuring universe with a running global total of $330Mafter this weekend, besting the $320M worldwide haul of The Conjuring 2 which previously owned that record.

Demian Bichir

With a net production cost of $22M, The Nun is bound for at least a $100M-plus profit after all ancillaries when you consider that The Conjuring 2 minted close to that figure off a production cost that was close to double that plus $100M P&A costs.

Annabelle: Creation last year with a combined P&A and production cost of $115M saw $306.5M in global ticket sales which ultimately yielded $108.7M in black ink.

Much of The Nun‘s success has been driven by Spanish-speaking markets abroad with Mexico being the top with $21.5M followed by Brazil second with $17M. Spain is up in the top territories as well with $10.5M while Columbia has grossed $6.2M. In the U.S., Hispanic audiences have accounted for close to a third of Nun‘s $109M business where it was a key film for sending the September domestic B.O.  to its second-best level yet with $659.6M.

While the Corin Hardy-directed pic didn’t open in any new markets this weekend, it was the top title at the overseas box office this weekend with $16.2M in its fourth go-round in 80 overseas territories and 9,987 screens and running total of $221M; that’s also the best international take for a Conjuring movie ever. France was the top territory for Nun in weekend dos with $2.3M, the No. 1 film in the country with $7.4M running cume. Russia was the second-best market over the last three days with $1.7M in its second weekend at 1,795 screens for a running total of $7.2M.

Murciano to Star in Sony Pictures’ Comedy “Rock That Body”

Enrique Murciano has a new Body of work…

The 43-year-old Latino actor has joined the cast of Sony PicturesRock That Body, the R-rated comedy about a bachelorette party in Miami that goes wrong and ends with a male stripper dead.

Enrique Murciano

Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer and Zoe Kravitz star with Demi Moore, Ty Burrell, Dean Winters and Colton Haynes.

The film has a June 23 release date with Lucia Aniello direcing a script she co-wrote with Paul W. Downs.

Murciano starred on Netflix’s Bloodline series. He currently has roles on Starz’s Power and SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard, also has New Line’s Will Smith starrer Collateral Beauty coming out this year and just finished shooting the TNT pilot Civil.

Amazon Picks Up del Toro’s “Carnival Row” Pilot

Guillermo del Toro may soon be bringing the big top to the small screen…

Amazon has picked up Carnival Row, the pilot from the 51-year-old Mexican film and television producer, director and screenwriter.

Guillermo del Toro

Carnival Row stems from a major development deal Amazon Studios inked in early 2015 for the project, a television series version of Travis Beacham’s cult 11-year-old supernatural feature spec script A Killing on Carnival Row 

Amazon at the time ordered three scripts from the project, to be co-written by The 4400 co-creator Rene Echeverria, del Toro, Beacham and Peter Cameron.

Echevarria wrote the pilot script, which is going to production, and serves as showrunner. del Toro, Beacham and Echevarria executive produce alongside Gary Ungar.

A Killing on Carnival Row is set in the future in a city called the Burgue, which looks a lot like 18th Century London. It is inhabited by humans and other creatures, and a serial killer is on the loose.

The Amazon pilot order caps an 11-year journey for Beacham, who originally sold his feature script to New Line and Koppelson Entertainment as a spec in 2005.

del Toro and Neil Jordan flirted with the project while it was at New Line and then, following New Line’s absorption by Warner Bros., Arnold and Anne Kopelson tried shopping it to studios with Immortals helmer Tarsem Singh attached.

The project stems from Amazon Studios; Carnival Row is co-produced with Legendary Television.

Carey In Talks to Voice Commissioner Gordon in “The Lego Batman Movie”

Mariah Carey may be going Bat-ty…

The 45-year-old half-Venezuelan American singer/actress is in talks to take on the role of Commissioner Gordon in The Lego Batman Movie, the spinoff of The Lego Movie from Warner Bros.

Mariah Carey

The studio is trying to keep everything under lock and key, but sources tell Deadline.com that Carey will join Ralph Fiennes (Alfred the Butler), Will Arnett (Batman), Michael Cera (Robin), Rosario Dawson (Batgirl) and Zach Galifianakis (The Joker).

Earlier this year, the Grammy-winning songstress aligned herself to a Christmas-themed movie pitch that New Line pre-emptively bought from RatPac Entertainment, writers David Diamond and David Weissman and producer Jon Shestack.

Carey will star in the yuletide themed pic., a natural for the woman who wrote and performed All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the insta-Christmas classic released in 1994 tune that has sold more than 14 million copies globally to become the biggest holiday perennial in recent memory and the biggest international hit of Carey’s career.

Her past screen credits include the Lee Daniels-directed Precious and the box office miss Glitter.