DEADLINE – Gravitas Ventures has taken U.S. rights to 2019 Toronto premiere “Sweetness In The Belly“, which stars Dakota Fanning in the story of an English child abandoned in Africa.

The distributor will release the film digitally on May 8, with theaters set to be closed beyond that date due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Based on the novel by Camilla Gibb, the film was directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari from a script by Laura Phillips. It follows Lilly, who is forced to flee Ethiopia for England when civil war breaks out. She befriends Amina (Wunmi Mosaku), an Ethiopian refugee who has fled the same war. Together they begin a mission to reunite people with their scattered families. Kunal Nayyar and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II also star.

HanWay Films is handling world sales and brokered the deal with Gravitas. The film was produced by Sienna Films and Parallel Films with the support of Telefilm Canada, Eurimages, eOne, Ontario Creates, and Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland. Executive producers include Laura Bickford and Fiona Druckenmiller.

“Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s follow up to Difret is another moving testament to the willful preservation of humanity and decency in the midst of crisis. We look forward to unveiling the film to U.S. audiences,” said Tony Piantedosi, Vice President of Acquisitions at Gravitas Ventures.

SYFY WIRE – Divergent series creator Veronica Roth has been busy churning out YA books since the success of her bestselling dystopian debut trilogy — which saw its socially-separated teens revolt against the government and its structure — but now she’s moving on to a new audience: adults. Thankfully, however, Roth’s adult debut hasn’t ditched her love of the genre. It’s even inspired enough industry confidence that the movie rights have already been picked up. And now SYFY WIRE can give fans an exclusive sneak preview of the upcoming book, Chosen Ones.

The story is one of prophecy, apocalypse, magic, and their various aftermaths. A decade has gone by since five teens (AKA Chosen Ones) teamed up to take down the Dark One — a malicious entity that used Drains to demolish America. The teens are now adults, they’ve got PTSD, and they’re gathered at one of their own’s funeral. They’re down to four when they find out the Dark One’s plotting wasn’t as small-scale as they’d thought (which has to be saying something, since how does anyone underestimate someone named “the Dark One?”). Sloane, one of the surviving Chosen Ones, leads the novel and keeps plenty of secrets from the rest of the team.

Putting fans into Sloane’s shoes is actress Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds, The Twilight Saga), who performs the Audible exclusive version of Chosen Ones.

Once again set in Chicago (like Divergent), Chosen Ones brings magic and otherworldliness to its alternate America. High-tech taxis, impossible skyscrapers, and lost friends permeate the picture Fanning paints. And Roth was pleased with the selection.

“I love audiobooks, so I had my fingers crossed that Audible would do something special with Chosen Ones — and I am definitely not disappointed!” Roth said when the casting was first announced. “Sloane is a complex character who needs a strong voice to come alive in audio form, and I think Dakota Fanning is going to knock it out of the park. I’ve been a fan of hers for her entire career, so I’m beyond thrilled.”

Roth will also make a cameo appearance in the audiobook alongside Fanning.

Chosen Ones is out today, April 7.

Dakota Fanning was seen out and about in Los Angeles, California amid the Coronavirus outbreak wearing pink latex gloves. She was also spotted taking things to her new home. Be sure to head over to the gallery for the latest candids!

Variety – Sony’s “The Nightingale,” starring Dakota and Elle Fanning, and an adaptation of Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” fantasy series, produced by Sony and Amazon Studios, and starring Rosamund Pike, are the latest projects to be hit by the growing spread of coronavirus, with both productions’ European shoots disrupted this week.
Pre-production on “The Nightingale,” from Sony label TriStar Pictures, has been suspended for two weeks in Budapest, while the Prague shoot of “Wheel of Time” was halted, as Central Europe’s biggest production hubs scramble to deal with the fallout of the global pandemic.
Amazon Studios film “Birds of Paradise” has also suspended production in Budapest.
“This is obviously a spanner in the works,” said Matthew Stillman of Stillking Films, who said both Hungary and the Czech Republic were “operating at capacity” before coronavirus began sweeping across Europe. “This is effectively a temporary interruption, but we don’t know how long it’s going to go on for. We’re all a little bit in the dark.”
Just hours after Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis declared a 30-day state of emergency on Thursday, shuttering cinemas, theaters, gyms and other venues, canceling public gatherings of more than 30 people, and banning foreign nationals from 15 countries, his government stepped up its measures Friday afternoon, announcing that it was effectively sealing the country’s borders as of March 16, barring all foreign nationals from entering the country and residents from leaving.
Hungary’s government meanwhile declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, shutting university campuses and banning large gatherings to combat the spread of the virus, which has been confirmed in 19 people in the Central European nation as of Friday.
The Hungarian government has banned incoming travel from Italy, China, South Korea and Iran, and tightened controls along the borders with Austria and Slovenia. The ban on public gatherings affects outdoor events with more than 500 participants and indoor events with more than 100, including cinemas, theaters and nightclubs.

“They want to get ahead of it as much as they can, rather than find themselves in a position like Italy,” said Adam Goodman, of Mid Atlantic Films in Budapest, referring to the country as the hardest hit by the pandemic outside of China.
Hungary is the second biggest production hub in Europe, after the U.K., and in the past year has hosted such high-profile productions as Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ sci-fi tent-pole “Dune,” and the Netflix fantasy series “The Witcher” and “Shadow and Bone.” Recent shoots in the Czech Republic include the TBS comedy series “Miracle Workers,” the ABC drama “Whiskey Cavalier” and the Netflix series “Freud.”
Earlier in the week, Disney announced it was halting the Prague shoot of the upcoming Disney Plus series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” an “Avengers” spin-off starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, over coronavirus fears.
On Thursday, Orlando Bloom took to Instagram to announce that production in the Czech capital on the second season of Amazon’s “Carnival Row” was also on hiatus, with the star telling his followers in a video, “It’s farewell from us as we’re going home to be quarantined.”
The reaction by the Czech government to the escalating threat posed by the coronavirus has been “quick and efficient” in recent days, according to Stillman, though he added that “where they go from here is not clear.
“There’s lots of short-term measures that are in place,” he said. “But they’re national solutions to an international problem. The issues are much bigger than we can deal with. They’re international medical and geopolitical issues that you can’t deal with in the local sector. We’re subject to greater forces, and we’ll just have to see how they play out.”
The reaction from Hollywood has also been swift. “The U.S. studios are taking an appropriate risk-averse position…to protect both the local crew and the foreign crew,” said Goodman. “It’s our hope that those shows will return in a few weeks, or in a few months, depending on the geopolitical climate…. But there is so much uncertainty that no one can say, ‘We’re going to re-up on this date at this time.’”
For the time being, studios and crews in both countries will remain in a holding pattern. “In principle, the local infrastructure is all there and ready to go. That can restart within a few days,” said Stillman. “We’ve had interruptions before. Crews and production are pragmatic by nature. There’s no problem on that level.
“On the macro level, and how long it’s going to take to deal with these issues, restore confidence, restore travel confidence, restore corporate confidence and people allowing their [employees] to do things in different places, that is more significant…. However long it’s going to be, we don’t know.”

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Dakota Fanning was seen with her sister Elle Fanning and their mother out and about in London, England. Be sure to head over to the gallery for the latest candids!

Back in January, Dakota Fanning was seen shopping in Beverly Hills, California. Be sure to head over to the gallery for these candids!