The Tracking Board’s Daily Debrief (05.16.17)

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost Announce New Film Slaughterhouse Rulez to Launch Production Banner

British funnymen Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are launching their new film and TV production company Stolen Picture with the comedy-horror flick Slaughterhouse Rulez.

Upfronts: ABC Taps Jimmy Kimmel For Oscars, Sets The Little Mermaid Live!

While ABC was presenting its fall schedule at its upfront presentation, some of the biggest news at their event was regarding the lineup for 2018. Furthest out are the Academy Awards, which will again be hosted by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Jonah Hill to Star in Diamond District Drama Uncut Gems as A24 Unveils Trailer For Robert Pattinson’s Good Time

Scott Rudin and Eli Bush will produce Uncut Gems with Sebastian Bear-McClard and Oscar Boyson from Elara Pictures, while Hill’s Wolf of Wall Street collaborators Martin Scorsese and Emma Tillinger Koskoff will serve as executive producers.

More News From Around the Web

• Annapurna has partnered with Pastel, the production company behind this year’s Best Picture winner Moonlight. The two-year film production deal includes a feature project to be directed by Barry Jenkins which is already in development at Pastel. (Deadline)

• Rosamund Pike is attached to star as Marie Curie in Radioactive, a Working Title production directed by France’s Marjane Satrapi and fully-financed by StudioCanal. (Variety)

• American Honey star Sasha Lane has boarded Freak Shift, the upcoming project from hot Brit director Ben Wheatley. She joins Alicia Vikander and Armie Hammer in the sci-fi thriller in which squads of lawbreakers and misfits go on the hunt for lethal nocturnal monsters. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• David Arquette and Luke Wilson have joined in Alex Keledjian’s super-natural thriller Hollow Body about a struggling rock band led by Arquette who makes a deal with Wilson’s shady record executive. (Deadline)

• Emmy-nominated actor Peter Krause has joined Michelle Monaghan for the indie drama Saint Judy which tells the story of Judy Wood, a public defender from New Mexico who moves to LA with her 9-year-old son. (Deadline)

• HBO has ordered The New Pope, a new limited series created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. This marks Sorrentino’s second limited series with the cable network set in the world of the modern papacy. (The Hollywood Reporter)