Mediawan Pictures CEO Elisabeth D’Arvieu Welcomes Brad Pitt’s Plan B To Fold & Explains Company’s Inclusive Approach

The burgeoning content group made headlines beyond Europe last December when it announced it was acquiring a significant stake in Brad Pitt’s company Plan B Entertainment.

Curiosity about the $300 million deal and how the production house behind The Departed, 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight will fit into the Mediawan fold is rife on both sides of the Atlantic.

“This partnership is an important step for us,” says d’Arvieu. “We’re a European studio, our DNA is European, but our vision is international. While our producers and talent are carrying projects that are local in nature, their international ambitions are growing.”

She continues: “The American market is an important one for European works, and we understood we needed a partner in situ. Until now, we’ve been working on a case-by-case basis, but we wanted a partner who could be the image of Mediawan in the U.S.”

Nicola Serra, managing director of Rome-based film and TV The Name Of The Rose production company Palomar which joined the Mediawan fold in 2019, thinks the partnership will be a game-changer.

Read more.

Brad Pitt Launches His New Gin ‘The Gardener’

Brad Pitt will premiere a new spirit at the Cannes Film Festival.

Having already established himself in the premium wine and champagne industry, the actor will launch The Gardener Gin at the annual film festival, PEOPLE can reveal exclusively. Cannes is the perfect venue as Pitt’s latest venture, billed as “the French Riviera Gin,” is a premium, dry London-style gin inspired by the south of France.

The Gardener has been quietly teased on social media for two months as “handcrafted by Brad, Tom and Perrin.” (The Perrin family are Pitt’s original partners in his Miraval wines and Tom Nichol is a master distiller.) It will hit U.S. shops in a limited edition in September.

For its formal presentation in Cannes, which kicks off on May 16, Nichol and bartenders at the iconic Carlton Cannes Hotel have concocted a “Secret Garden” cocktail made with gin, lemon juice, orange juice, strawberry syrup and an egg white.

Read more. Check the official website launched!

Gwyneth Paltrow Recalls Brad Pitt’s Proposal

Gwyneth Paltrow is reflecting on experiencing “love at first sight” with Brad Pitt.

“It was crazy,” Paltrow, 50, told Alex Cooper on the Wednesday, May 3, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

The Shakespeare in Love star and the Thelma & Louise actor, 59, met on the set of Se7en in 1994 and got engaged in 1996.

“One night we were on the balcony of this house we were renting in this little town in Argentina. … I wish I remembered exactly what he said, but he proposed, it was fantastic, I was thrilled,” Paltrow said, adding that they had “talked about” taking the next step but she was “surprised” in the moment.

Months later, however, they called off their engagement.

“I had a lot of development to do, looking back in hindsight. In a lot of ways, I didn’t really fully start to come into myself until I was 40 years old. And I had such a pleasing issue. I didn’t really even understand how to listen to my instincts and act from that place for what was right for me. I was always trying to adjudicate what was right for everyone else,” she told Cooper. “When I look back I really was a kid, really more than most 22, 24 years old I meet now. I really had not explored who I was, what was important to me, what my boundaries were.”

Paltrow confessed that she was “totally heartbroken” when the twosome “broke up” and cited their nine-year age difference as one of the causes for the split.

“It was the right thing at that time, but it was really hard,” she explained. “There were a number of things that had happened, he was nine years older than me so he was far more … he knew what he wanted, he was ready to do it and I was kind of all over the place.”

Paltrow continued: “So it was really one of those difficult things, where I felt like, ‘Oh, my God, not only am I not ready, I’m not living up to the standards again.’ It was a familiar refrain I felt about myself.”

The Goop founder concluded that the Babylon star — who went on to have high-profile marriages with ex-wives Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie – is a “great guy,” adding: “He’s wonderful, I really like him a lot.”

Read more.

Brad Pitt to Drive at British Grand Prix as Part of Production on Formula One Movie

Brad Pitt is getting in the cockpit of a real race car for his upcoming film on Formula One, according to director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

During a panel about the untitled film at the F1 Accelerate Summit in Miami, Kosinski and Bruckheimer shared production details of the Apple Studios movie, which stars Pitt and counts seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton among its producers.

Read more.

French Riviera Gin – The Gardener

This 42% London Dry Gin inspired by the French Riviera is 100% organic and 100% French, the result of a creation from Charente.

Its elegant, fresh and modern style revives the tradition of the great London Dry. The selection of plants and citrus fruits was meticulous and demanding, to create a product with an undeniable taste quality.

The base of this gin is juniper, angelica, liquorice and coriander.

The Gardener was born from the meeting of the craft, with the Perrin family and the artistic, with Brad Pitt. Both united around the beautiful, the good and a passion for the French Riviera, the Master Distiller Tom Nichol joined them, like an artist, to imagine these recipes.

For years, the French Riviera has been attracting artists and craftsmen from all over the world for its unique art of living, its rich biodiveristy and its good living. Today, it is at the heart of a fabulous creation.

Check the official website.

F1 film Brad Pitt and Hamilton will be ‘invasive’ at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton and Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 film will be fully integrated into the race weekend at Silverstone. Speaking to Formula 1 investors, chairman Stefano Domenicali announced that the sport is working closely with the film’s producers, although it may become “invasive” during the race weekend.

Besides Hamilton and Pitt, producer Jerry Bruckheimer is also involved in the project. The film will be directed by Joseph Kosinski, who also recently made Top Gun: Maverick. The team will have the full cooperation of Formula 1, Domenicali made clear, although the sport itself will of course take priority.

“We’re going to start the shooting in Silverstone very soon, and you will see it will be the first movie when basically, they will be within the racing event,” the F1 president explained, quoted by Racefans. “It will be quite invasive in terms of production, it’s something that we need to control in a way, but it will be another way of showing that F1 never stops.”

Read more.

Clooney Confirms Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Depp Rejected ‘Ocean’s Eleven’: ‘They Regret It Now. I Regret F—ing Batman’

TCM host Ben Mankiewicz asked both Soderbergh and Clooney about the possibility of revisiting the Ocean’s Eleven characters now, 15 years after the third film, Ocean’s Thirteen, premiered. Soderbergh responded there have been plenty of conversations about it, and he pointed to Ocean’s Eight as one result of such talks.

The director wouldn’t give a straight answer on whether he’d make another Ocean’s film, teasing the audience as he slowly parsed out each word, “I’m… thinking… about… tomorrow.”

Read more.

César Awards

Brad Pitt and David Fincher were first brought together in the mid 1990s on the set of Fincher’s movie, Seven. The gripping and deliciously sadistic thriller marked the beginning of their prolific collaboration. This Friday, February 24, 2023, the 48th César Awards ceremony honored the legendary career of David Fincher.

Brad Pitt’s speech was a touching one. “I love the man with all my heart,” said Pitt. He also shared a handful of anecdotes with guests, crediting him with introducing us to the concept of binge-watching. “With his first series, House of Cards, he was one of the decision-makers that decided to release the whole season at once, changing the way that we view our series.” The star further expressed his admiration for Fincher, stating : “We, who have been so fortunate to ride in his slip streams, will tell you that he is warm, a big softy, and that he is incredibly articulate and rigorously honest, and takes great care when explaining his vision. We will try to describe the pearls of wisdom that fall from his mouth, but we will fall short.”

Read more.



• x058 February 24 – Cesar Awards – Paris, France (02-24-23).