Journalist Jessica Wapner was researching body heat when she first came across the mention of 2,4-dinitrophenol, known as DNP. The chemical had been linked to several deaths during World War I; it changes how cells expel energy, spikes body temperature, and, essentially, cooks people from the inside out. Wapner continued looking into the drug, and what she learned was as fascinating to her as it was disturbing. DNP’s toxicity had been well-established for a century, and yet it was sold online, and a small but significant number of young people continued to experiment with — and die from — it.

Why, then, would anyone take DNP? Before killing people, the drug could help them lose weight.

Wapner wrote an article about DNP for The Daily Beast, entitled “The Deadly Internet Diet Drug That Cooks People Alive.” Soon after, Elle Fanning was sent the article. The actor had recently launched her production company, Lewellen Pictures, alongside her sister Dakota. The pair wanted to experiment with podcasts in addition to movies and TV projects, and Wapner’s article seemed like a perfect fit.

“It just struck me. It’s also so well-written,” Fanning tells Refinery29. “So I came on, and Jessica and I and everyone involved had such amazing talks — we all kind of opened up about all of our struggles that we have with body image.” Because ultimately, the podcast, called One Click (as in: one click on the internet can change your life forever), has as much to do with society’s uneasy relationship to weight and unhealthy fixation on weight loss as it does with DNP. “Obviously there are so many drugs like this out there that are so harmful. People were preying on other people’s insecurities — that’s really what’s happening here,” Fanning says. “The internet or whoever wants to keep us insecure and hating ourselves so they can profit off of it. And I think that was such a chilling idea.”

To create the podcast, Wapner expanded her original article, which she now calls “an overture,” by re-investigating DNP’s past and present. “We’ve done so much more investigating about how DNP entered the world in the first place — and repeatedly over time. Like, how did a banned substance come back again? Those stories have been very surprising and I feel very excited about the reporting that we did to that end,” Wapner says. Continue reading  »

Gucci also taps Morgan Presley, the creator behind TikTok’s viral Gucci Model Challenge to promote the series, procured by Dazed.

Gucci is releasing a series of short films in partnership with Dazed Media.

The series, titled “AbsoluteBeginners,” invites nine friends of the brand and Dazed collaborators to direct a film each for the first time and to “celebrates the potency of pop culture and naïveté, the beauty in amateurism, and exposes the power and vulnerability of the creative impulse,” while incorporating the Gucci Jackie 1961 bag into the narrative.

The first set of five films available to watch beginning Wednesday have been created by Elle Fanning, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jodie Turner-Smith, Benedetta Porcaroli and Emma Corrin, who plays the late Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, in the upcoming season four of the Netflix hit show “The Crown.”

The campaign also aims to go viral on social media. Morgan Presley, the creator behind TikTok’s viral Gucci Model Challenge, will promote the series with her “#GucciAbsoluteBeginners guide to living a Gucci life” video, which follows a Gucci-fied day in her life, in her Gucci-inspired look, with audio that other TikTok creators can use to re-create their very own Gucci day.

“My film is about captivating the nature of Gucci,” said Fanning, who has been wearing Alessandro Michele’s gowns at major film festivals. “Even a dog can be hypnotized by its beauty. One night while drifting off to sleep, I thought of this western showdown between a dog and dog owner with a scoreboard keeping tallies of how Gucci always wins. Since I am an absolute beginner to directing, I wanted to make a statement with the tone. Yes, this is a fashion film, but why not tell a funny story while looking at sparkling garments?” [Source]

Production has begun in Spain on Sally Potter’s untitled family drama, starring Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, and Laura Linney.

The story is described as a chronicle of a wild day in the life of a man on the edge, held together by the unconditional love of his daughter with Bardem and Fanning in those roles. Hayek will portray Bardem’s spouse and childhood sweetheart. The film will also shoot on location in New York in January.

HanWay Films and Bleecker Street have partnered to jointly acquire worldwide rights. HanWay Films will handle the international sales and distribution and will commence sales at the upcoming European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival. Bleecker Street will distribute the film in the U.S.

Potter’s long-time collaborator Christopher Sheppard — whose credits include “The Party,” “Ginger & Rosa,” and “Orlando” — is producing through Adventure Pictures. The film was co-developed by BBC Films and the BFI and is funded by HanWay Films, Bleecker Street, Ingenious Media, BBC Films, the BFI (awarding National Lottery funding), Chimney Pot Sverige AB and Film i Väst.

HanWay Films vice chairman Peter Watson said, “We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with Sally Potter and to help her realise this mesmerizing story of one man’s life distilled into a day in New York. We’re also particularly excited to be partnering under a worldwide deal with our colleagues at Bleecker Street who share our taste in cinema.”

Bardem is represented by WME and Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal Laviolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman; Fanning by WME, Echo Lake Entertainment and Hansen Jacobsen Teller Hoberman Newman Warren and Richman; Hayek by Management 360, CAA and Edelstein, Laird & Sobel; Rock by ICM Partners, Untitled and Morris Yorn Barnes and Linney by ICM Partners, Lighthouse Management + Media and Morris Yorn Barnes. [Source]

Elle Fanning is set to star in “Teen Spirit,” the directorial debut of actor Max Minghella, it was announced Friday. Fanning will play a shy teenager, living in a small European town, who dreams of pop stardom as a means of escaping her dismal surroundings and shattered family life. Minghella also wrote the screenplay.

The film, which was first announced at the end of January, is being introduced to buyers by international sales agent Mister Smith Ent. at the European Film Market during the Berlin Film Festival. CAA is arranging financing for the film and will represent North American distribution rights.

“It’s an absolute thrill to be collaborating with Elle on this project. Along with an extraordinary singing voice, she brings an emotional complexity to this character which is invaluable,” said Minghella.

Fanning, currently on screen in Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women” and Ben Affleck’s “Live by Night,” recently finished shooting Sofia Coppola’s remake of “The Beguiled.” She most recently starred alongside Logan Lerman in Shawn Christensen’s “Sidney Hall,” which saw its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last month.

Other upcoming films include John Cameron Mitchell’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” alongside “Beguiled” co-star Nicole Kidman, and the title role in Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “Mary Shelley,” opposite Douglas Booth. She is currently shooting crime thriller “Galveston,” directed by French actress-turned-director Melanie Laurent.

Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones serve as producers on the film with Jamie Bell, who developed the screenplay with Minghella, acting as executive producer. It is a co-production of Interscope Records, Automatik, and Blank Tape. [Source]

Melanie Laurent will direct the crime thriller.

Elle Fanning and Ben Foster will star in Galveston, adapted from the 2010 novel by True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto.

Melanie Laurent will direct the moody crime thriller from Pizzolatto’s screenplay.

Galveston follows two hard-luck outsiders on the run. Barely surviving an assassination attempt from his loan-sharking boss, debt-collector Roy “Big Country” Cady (Foster) flees to the Texas town to lie low, but in rescuing Raquel “Rocky” Arceneaux (Fanning), a vulnerable young prostitute, from the shoot-out, any hope of a safe haven vanishes. Rocky is a girl with secrets to hide, including one that will forever haunt Roy in a powerful story of sacrifice and redemption.

Low Spark Films’ Tyler Davidson will serve as producer. Jean Doumanian, Patrick Daly, Kevin Flanigan and Sean O’Brien will executive produce. Production will begin in January.

Embankment is handling international rights at the AFM.

Fanning, seen next in Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women, adds the project to a packed slate of upcoming films: Ben Affleck’s crime drama Live by Night, Shawn Christensen’s drama Sidney Hall, John Cameron Mitchell’s musical How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Mary Shelley biopic A Storm in the Stars, Sofia Coppola’s Western The Beguiled, Miguel Arteta’s romantic drama All the Bright Places, and Reed Morano’s drama I Think We’re Alone Now. She is repped by WME and Echo Lake Entertainment.

Foster, recently featured in Hell or High Water and Inferno, will be seen next in Scott Cooper’s drama Hostiles. He is repped by UTA.

Laurent is repped by WME and UBBA. [Source]