“Maame” hits U.S. bookstores today and author Jessica George is celebrating the release of her debut novel by making a splash in another medium. Deadline reports Jenna Bush Hager’s Thousand Voices and Universal International Studios are developing the book into a TV series. George is onboard to write the small screen adaptation with “What I Know About Love” writer Yemi Oyefuwa.

“The novel centers on Maddie, whose life in London involves being primary caretaker for her father, who has advanced stage Parkinson’s, and dealing with her nightmare boss. When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, the self-acknowledged late bloomer leaps at the chance to get out of

Melissa Barrera is switching gears from squaring off against Ghostface to fighting personal demons. The “Scream” actress leads “All the World is Sleeping,” an addiction drama that just scored North American distribution from Gravitas Ventures. Deadline broke the news. 

Set to hit theaters and on demand March 17, the pic follows Chama (Barrera), “who as a young girl in New Mexico, strived to be different from her mother. Now in her twenties, she’s found herself falling into a similar cycle of generational addiction. This struggle then threatens her balance as a mother to her own daughter. As Chama tries to keep it all together, a harrowing accident will spiral her

Two of Hollywood’s biggest stars are joining forces. Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston will star in and produce a body swap comedy. The untitled project was, unsurprisingly, a hot commodity. According to Deadline, Amazon Studios “won a heated auction among four other studios and streamers” for it. Another A-lister is  involved behind the scenes as well: Margot Robbie’s production label, LuckyChap Entertainment, is producing.

A four-time Oscar nominee, Roberts took home the Best Actress honor for “Erin Brockovich” in 2001. She’s received Emmy nods for “The Normal Heart” and “Law & Order.” Her recent credits include “Gaslit” and “Ticket to Paradise.”

Aniston won an Emmy for her role as Rachel

Ellen Pompeo is bidding farewell to “Grey’s Anatomy” in less than a month and now she’s sto a new project. Deadline reports that she’ll lead the Untitled Orphan Project, a limited series in the works at Hulu. Two-time Oscar nominee Liz Garbus is on board to direct.

Created and written by Katie Robbins (“The Affair”), the ABC Signature drama is “inspired by the true story of a Midwestern couple who adopts who they believe is an eight-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, they slowly start to believe she may not be who she says she is.

Lifetime is partnering with the Black and Missing Foundation on a project that will highlight disparity among missing persons cases. A press release announced that the network has greenlit “Black Girl Missing” from exec producer and star Garcelle Beauvais (“Spider-Man: Homecoming”). Inspired by “actual stories of missing women of color,” it “tells the story of a mother whose daughter is missing, only for authorities and media to dismiss her as a runaway while focusing heavily on another missing girl who is white.”

“When Cheryl (Beauvais) gets into an argument with her daughter Lauren (Iyana Halley) over her desire to drop out of college, she initially thinks Lauren is simply ignoring

The Academy Awards aren’t the only prestigious awards ceremony with an all-male best director race. The César awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, announced nominees on Wednesday, and zero women are up for Best Director. As is the case with the Oscars, just one title helmed by a woman is in the running for Best Picture, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s “Forever Young,” a portrait of a young actress in the ’80s. (Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” is up for Best Picture at the Oscars.)

Deadline reports that “action tank” Le Collectif 50/50, which is dedicated to promoting equality and diversity in the entertainment industry, has launched a campaign in response to the snubs, #CesarSoMale.

Sierra Urich rew up in a small town nestled in the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountains. Raised by her Persian mother and American-born
father, she grew up speaking English, never learning her mother’s native language. Her connection to her Iranian identity was limited to food, holidays, and old family photographs. She was four years old when she met her grandparents for the first time. She has never been to Iran.

“Joonam”is screening at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 19-29.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

SU: Only knowing Iran through family stories, food, and holidays, and with the prospect of travel to the country

“I know that I said that I would tell you everything, but how much of everything do you really want to know?” Riley Keough asks a journalist in a new teaser for “Daisy Jones & the Six.” An adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel of the same name, the Prime Video series charts the epic rise and fall of “Daisy Jones & the Six,” a rock band that shot to international fame in the ’70s. Keough plays Daisy, the band’s frontwoman.

The series revisits why the band broke up following a sold-out show in 1977. The spot sees them performing to adoring audiences, working in the recording studio, and marking

Rebecca Landsberry-Baker is a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program grantee, Ford Foundation JustFilms grantee, and a 2022 NBC Original Voices Fellow. She is a 2022 Gotham Documentary Feature Lab Fellow and was selected to the Harvard Shorenstein News Leaders Fall 2022 cohort. She is an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Nation and the executive director of the Native American Journalists Association, a nonprofit organization advocating for accurate coverage and representation of Indigenous people in media. Landsberry-Baker is a 2018 recipient of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s Native American 40 Under 40 award.

“Bad Press” is screening at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 19-29.

Caroline Monnet is this year’s recipient of the 2023 Merata Mita Fellowship. A press release announced that the Anishinaabe/French multidisciplinary artist from Outaouais, Quebec has been selected for the annual Sundance Institute fellowship named in honor of late Māori filmmaker Merata Mita, which was “created for Indigenous women-identified artists poised to direct their first feature film.” Monnet’s work has been programmed in exhibitions and festivals such as Sundance, TIFF, and Cannes, and in 2016 she was selected for the Cinéfondation residency in Paris.

“After years of watching her work evolve across many mediums, selecting Caroline Monnet as this year’s Merata Mita Fellow not only made sense, but her oeuvre also