Alliance Cinema Backs David Mamet's Return to Directing With 'Speed The Plow,' Acquires Brazilian Bestseller for TV
Alliance Cinema, a Los Angeles and Germany-based producer-financier, has joined David Mamet's film Speed The Plow as an equity financier — putting capital directly into the production in exchange for a ownership stake in the finished film. The picture is in post-production as of August 2026 and marks the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's return to the director's chair. Deadline
The film adapts Mamet's own Broadway play, which audiences may remember from its 2008 revival — that production marked Elisabeth Moss's Broadway debut, playing Karen, a temporary secretary to a newly anointed studio head. Deadline On screen, the story's Hollywood setting gets a star-forward cast. Anthony Mackie plays Bob Grant, a junior executive elevated to head of production at the fictional American Prestige Studios. Ben Mendelsohn is Charlie Fox. Emily Alyn Lind takes the role of Karen — the part Moss originated on stage. Sharon Stone plays movie star Gemma Speed, with Chris Bauer and Rebecca Pidgeon rounding out the principal cast. Deadline
Tyler Payne and Douglas Riggs of Steak & Rosé produce alongside Jiarui Guo of Incandescent Productions, plus Vince Jolivette and Richie Hill of Filmopoly. The Solution Entertainment Group is handling international sales — the business of selling distribution rights territory by territory to buyers around the world — while Milestone Studios oversees U.S. sales. Deadline
Alliance Cinema's credits stretch across independent and studio-scale releases alike, including My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Dark Tide. Deadline
The company also moved on a second project this week. Jeanette B. Milio and her producing partner Iris Ramos secured exclusive worldwide adaptation rights to Diary Of A Weird Girl, a Brazilian bestseller by Thalita Rebouças published by HarperCollins Brazil. Alliance Cinema plans to develop the novel as a television series for global audiences, with the creative team yet to be named. The company's own announcement described the book as celebrating individuality, self-expression, friendship, and courage. Alliance Cinema
The novel follows Carol, a 13-year-old who feels "weird" as she navigates the turbulence of early adolescence: first crushes, school pressures, friendship conflicts, parental separation, and loneliness. It is Rebouças's work for young readers that has made her one of Brazil's most widely read contemporary authors. Deadline
For Mamet, Speed The Plow adds another title to a body of work that has shaped American theatre and film for nearly five decades. For Alliance Cinema, it pairs a name-driven theatrical property with a long-form television bet on a proven international bestseller — two projects aimed at very different audiences, both resting on pre-existing material with built-in recognition.
