Aubrey Plaza to Star in the Romantic Comedy “Happiest Season”

Aubrey Plaza has found her Happiest place…

The 35-year-old Puerto Rican actress and Parks and Recreation alum has joined the cast of the TriStar Pictures and Entertainment One romantic comedy Happiest Season, starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis.

Aubrey Plaza

Plaza joins a list of newcomers that includes Mary SteenburgenVictor GarberAlison Brieand Dan Levy

Directed and co-written by Clea DuVall, and co-written by Mary HollandHappiest Season follows a young woman (Stewart) whose plan to propose to her girlfriend (Davis) while at her family’s annual holiday party is upended when she discovers her partner hasn’t yet come out to her conservative parents (played by Steenburgen and Garber). 

The film is set to hit theaters on November 20. eOne will distribute the film in UK and Canada.

Filming is currently underway in Pittsburgh, PA.

Plaza’s film credits include Scott Pilgrim vs. the WorldMonsters University,Dirty GrandpaIngrid Goes West and Child’s Play.

Derbez to Star in Sony Pictures’ “Miracles From Heaven”

Eugenio Derbez has landed a miracle role…

The 53-year-old Mexican actor and director has joined the cast of Sony PicturesMiracles From Heaven, which will be released via TriStar Pictures.

Eugenio Derbez

The film, starring Jennifer Garner, Martin Hendersen and Queen Latifah, will be directed by fellow Mexico compatriot Patricia Riggen.

Written by Randy Brown, adapting Cristy Beam’s same-titled book, the faith-based Miracles From Heaven centers on a young girl suffering from a rare digestive disorder who is miraculously cured after suffering a terrible accident.

Derbez will play an eminent but simpatico U.S.-based Mexican gastroenterologist-pediatrician, who plays games with his child patients to lighten their experience of hospital treatment.

Derbez’s character is inspired by Boston Children’s Hospital specialist Dr. Samuel Nurko, he said.

Derbez joins the Miracles From Heaven Atlanta shoot next week.

Miracles From Heaven reunites Riggen and Derbez, who co-starred in Riggen’s 2008 U.S. breakthrough Under the Same Moon, which grossed $12.6 million for the Weinstein Company.

This is a relatively rare drama outing for Derbez, who has carved out a career in comedy, breaking through with comedy-drama Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever in North America, with a $44.5 million box office trawl. It went on to become the biggest Mexican hit ever in Mexico, punching $46.1 million.

Derbez is currently advancing on three projects at his production label 3pas Studios, which has a first-look deal with Pantelion Films, the LionsgateTelevisa joint U.S. distribution venture.

“The projects have a lot to do with my personality,” Derbez said.

Derbez is set to direct and star in a remake of Argentine hit Chinese Take-Out, a cross-the-cultural-tracks buddy movie about a cantankerous Argentine hardware store owner and an adrift Chinese immigrant. Derbez regular co-scribe Eduardo Cisneros is writing the screenplay. The Argentine would become an American.

3pas Studios is also developing an English-language remake of 2006 French comedy Le Valet. Derbez’s next actor-director gig looks like one of these two projects. “Le Valet” is also at screenplay stage.

A third 3pas Studios project is an Untitled Latin Lover Project, from an original screenplay by Chris Spain and Jon Zack, about an aging Latin lover suddenly thrown out by his wife and forced to get a real job.

Derbez runs 3pas Studios with former Pantelion Films production chief Ben Odell.

Riggen to Direct the Faith-Based Drama “Miracles From Heaven”

It’s special miracle for Patricia Riggen

The 44-year-old Mexican film director has sealed a deal to direct Sony Pictures’ faith-based drama Miracles From Heaven. 

Patricia Riggen

Riggen’s project is an adaptation of Miracles From Heaven: A Sick Little Girl, Her Journey to Heaven, and the Lives Forever Changed, the book by Christy Beam that will go on sale April 14.

Beam’s memoir centers on her daughter, who miraculously overcame an incurable, life-threatening digestive disorder. After she was dramatically rescued from a near-death experience, a stunning series of miracles unfolded that left her family, her medical doctors and community baffled. Beam lived in Texas when the incidents occurred, and her family belongs to the Alsbury Baptist Church.

Randy Brown, who wrote Clint Eastwood‘s Trouble With the Curve, penned the script.

The studio is expected to release the film in spring 2016 through its TriStar Pictures releasing label, the same label that released the faith-based hit Heaven Is for Real.

Riggen directed the critically acclaimed film Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna), as well as the Disney Channel movie Lemonade Mouth.

She most recently helmed the upcoming film The 33, which tells of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days and is based on the book Deep Down Dark written by Hector Tobar.

Tri-Star Releases Trailer for the Alvarez-Directed “Evil Dead”

Death becomes Fede Alvarez

Following the release of Tuesday’s teaser trailer, TriStar Pictures has released the official trailer for The Evil Dead remake, which is being directed by the 34-year-old Uruguayan filmmaker.

Fede Alvarez

The red band trailer for Evil Dead, which stars Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas, Lou Taylor Pucci and Elizabeth Blackmore, centers on Mia, a young woman struggling with sobriety who heads to a remote cabin with her brother and a group of friends, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads to danger and horror.

Evil Dead is set to open in theaters on April 12, 2013.

Alvarez Teases His “The Evil Dead” Remake

Fede Alvarez is putting his spin on an Evil classic…

Fede Alvarez

The 34-year-old Uruguayan filmmaker is directing a remake of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead horror film, the first of the franchise’s three films. It’s Alvarez’s first full-length feature film. He’d previously directed the short films Panic Attack!, El cojonudo, El último Alevare and Los pocillos.

Sony‘s TriStar Pictures has released a teaser trailer in advance of the release of the updated film’s official trailer on Wednesday.

The original films revolve around the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, a fictional Sumerian text which wreaks havoc on a group of cabin inhabitants in a wooded area in Tennessee. The protagonist, Ashley J. “Ash” Williams, played by Bruce Campbell, is the only character left alive by the end of the series.

Alvarez’s re-do, starring Suburgatory’s Jane Levy and Shiloh Fernandez centers on Mia, a young woman struggling with sobriety who heads to a remote cabin with her brother and a group of friends, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads to danger and horror.

Raimi and Campbell are both involved in the reboot, serving as producers on the film.

Evil Dead will be released on April 12, 2013.