In today’s film news roundup, Allison Williams will star in the horror-thriller “The Perfection,” “The Last Chinese Chef” moves into development, and the WGA unionizes the staffs of Gothamist and DNAinfo.
CASTING
Allison Williams will star in the horror-thriller “The Perfection,” with “Girls” director Richard Shepard attached.
Shepard wrote the script with the team of Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder. “The Perfection” centers on a pair of cello prodigies and their sinister obsession.
Miramax will finance and CEO Bill Block will produce with Shepard and Stacey Reiss. The producers are aiming to start production in early 2018 in Shanghai and Vancouver.
Capstone Group is handling international sales for the film and will introduce it to buyers at the American Film Market, which opens Nov. 1 in Santa Monica, Calif. Williams starred in Jordan Peele’s horror-thriller “Get Out” and worked with Shepherd on several episodes of HBO’s “Girls.”
Williams will next be seen in Showtime’s “Patrick Melrose” opposite Benedict Cumberbatch. She’s repped by CAA and Untitled. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
PROJECT LAUNCH
Producer Florence Sloan has optioned Nicole Mones’ novel “The Last Chinese Chef,” which will be adapted by the writing team of Eddie and Chris Borey, Variety has learned exclusively.
Mones is the author of “Lost in Translation,” which was the basis of the film starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson and directed by Sofia Coppola. “Chef” takes place inside the hidden world of elite cuisine in modern China through the eyes of an American food writer in Beijing. When recently widowed Maggie McElroy is called to China to settle a claim against her late husband’s estate, she is blindsided by the discovery that her husband may have led a double life.
Production is planned for 2018 in China. Sloan is also part of the newly formed GoldenKaravan partnership to develop and finance content in Southeast Asia with industry veterans Jeff Sagansky and Aaron Kaplan. She previously produced the feature film “Snowflower and the Secret Fan.”
WGA UNIONIZATION
The editorial staffs at Gothamist and DNAinfo in New York City have voted to unionize with the Writers Guild of America East.
In an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, 25 of Gothamist/DNAinfo’s 27 editorial employees voted in favor of the WGA East as their representative in collective bargaining.
Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA East, said, “The people who write and produce content for digital news companies have made it crystal clear that they believe collective bargaining is essential to building sustainable careers. The employees at DNAinfo and Gothamist have joined more than 700 of their colleagues in winning a voice on the job. We will form a strong, engaged bargaining committee to negotiate a contract that addresses their concerns and meets their needs.”
The WGA East reps digital news staffs at Vice, HuffPost, the Intercept, Gizmodo Media Group (Splinter, Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, The Root, Lifehacker, Kotaku, io9, Jalopnik, and Earther), ThinkProgress, MTV News, Thrillist, and Salon.