LIFESTYLE

Sony Pictures is close to a deal with bestselling author Michael Lewis to bring his latest book, a Wall Street drama and detective story, to the silver screen. “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,” recounts how a group of misfit stock brokers and techies worked to expose, and then fight back, against the tactics of high-frequency traders, or HFTs. The HFTs were able to exploit computer technology and millisecond advantages to make huge profits at the expense of regular investors. Scott Rudin will produce the film, along with Eli Bush, according to Deadline and Variety. Lewis also wrote the books on which the films "The Blind Side" and "Moneyball" were based. Both films were nominated for best picture. “Hollywood loves Lewis, who specializes in taking complex subjects and breaking them down in most relatable ways by telling the stories through the perspective of intriguing characters,” Deadline wrote. “Flash Boys” was released March 31 by publisher W.W. Norton. The fol

"This is the day when lives change, fates are decided, dynasties born," Berman intones. If you are expecting a plot that deals with locker room harassment and the life-changing effects of concussions, you have come to the wrong place. Berman is not the only real-life figure playing himself: "Draft Day's" cast includes more than two dozen of these folks, including legendary players like Jim Brown and even Commissioner Roger Goodell himself. And the film features enough lovingly burnished in-flight photography of NFL stadiums to occupy a six-person aerial unit, including four pilots. The team names and stadiums may be real in "Draft Day," but the characters who work for them are all fictitious, starting with Costner in his most successful big-screen role since his portrayal of "Devil" Anse Hatfield in TV's feud-centric "Hatfields and McCoys" revived his career. Costner is not the athlete he played in "Bull Durham" and &q

Stephen Colbert's "Colbert Report" has never been the most comfortable place for Hollywood stars to promote their movies, given the somewhat niche audience and Colbert's own purposefully bombastic, playfully antagonistic persona. But now that Colbert is stepping up to succeed David Letterman as the host of "The Late Show" in 2015 and dropping his conservative blowhard character, audiences could see a different side of him. Time will tell how Colbert gets along with Hollywood's A-list stars in his new role, and how much of his trademark quirk carries over, but it will certainly be an adjustment both for him and the studios that want their stars on the show. In the meantime, here's a look at how Colbert has handled some memorable movie guests in the past. Darren Aronofsky Colbert regularly welcomes directors on his show, with recent guests including Alexander Payne, Errol Morris and Godfrey Reggio. Last month, Darren Aronofsky stopped by to promote his

China Film Co. Ltd., the largest film distributor in China, has invested in two forthcoming movies from Legendary Entertainment, the Burbank-based film finance and production company. Legendary East, an affiliated company of Legendary Entertainment, said on Monday afternoon that China Film Co. made "an over eight figure equity investment" in the films "Seventh Son" and "Warcraft." If the pictures are approved for release in China, China Film Co. will distribute them there. Universal Pictures, with whom Legendary Entertainment has a distribution and marketing pact, will release the movies in the U.S.; "Seventh Son" is slated to come out Feb. 6, 2015, and "Warcraft" on March 11, 2016. Legendary Entertainment's credits include the "Dark Knight" and "Hangover" trilogies, and last summer's "Man of Steel." Legendary East, which has offices in Beijing and Hong Kong, was formed in 2011. Legendary East and C

Considered deeply uncool at one point, music from animated movies is back — and singing along is now not only OK for kids, it's something adults record themselves doing on their phones and share on YouTube. The boom in popular songs from animated movies comes after a long fallow period when the form yielded few hits in the music world, despite box-office juggernauts like the "Toy Story," "Shrek" and "Ice Age" franchises. Though all incorporated music in their films, it was rarely the kind that had come to define the genre at Disney Animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was making music-driven hits like "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid." "You had this shift ... where there were very successful animated movies but their soundtracks weren't," said Ken Bunt, president of Disney Music Group. "Their scores were important, but they weren't musicals and the music

Over a 20-year career making stylized, often genre-tinged films, Danny Boyle has been known to look at a well-worn area in new and dynamic ways. With a potential Steve Jobs movie, he could be taking on a worthy subject. The British auteur is in talks to helm Sony Pictures' much-buzzed, sometimes-bumpy Jobs biopic that "The Social Network" scribe Aaron Sorkin has adapted from Walter Isaacson's comprehensive biography, The Times has confirmed. Boyle would replace David Fincher, the "Social Network" director who appears to have moved off the project. According to the Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the Boyle news, the director has also approached Leonardo DiCaprio, whom he directed in "The Beach," to portray Jobs. Unlike a traditional biopic, the Sorkin script is said to look at a few key moments in the iconoclast's career rather than a more cradle-to-grave approach. A Sony Pictures spokesman declined to comment on any director or actor t