In Brief: Stars lining up to salute Adam Sandler for Mark Twain prize, and more

Variety reports Julianne Moore and Euphoria‘s Sydney Sweeney have been tapped to star in Echo Valley, the dramatic feature from Apple Original Films. Written by Mare of Easttown creator Brad Inglesby, Echo Valley follows Moore as a Pennsylvania woman whose wayward daughter — played by Sweeney — shows up at her doorstep “frightened, trembling and covered with someone else’s blood,” per Apple. “From there, Echo Valley becomes a heart-pounding thriller about just how far a mother will go to save her child.” Production is expected to begin this summer…

Morgan Freeman and Bridgerton breakout star Regé-Jean Page are both on board to executive-produce an eight-part series for Peacock on boxing legend Muhammad Ali, titled Excellence: 8 Fights, according to Deadline. The series, based on Jonathan Eig‘s biography Ali: A Life, will chronicle eight definitive moments from Ali’s life, each framed by one of his fights, though the essence of the episode will be his struggles outside the ring. There’s no deal as yet for either Freeman or Page to star in the series…

Mary Tyler Moore will be the subject of an upcoming HBO Original documentary from Soul of a Nation filmmaker James Adolphus and Master of None writer Lena Waithe. Being Mary Tyler Moore chronicles the late movie and TV icon’s 60-year-long career. The film gives us a glimpse of Moore’s comedic roles as Laura Petrie in the 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, a single career woman Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the ‘70s, and her Oscar-nominated turn as a grieving mother in the 1970 film Ordinary People, as well as a peek into her personal life, in which she dealt privately with tragedy. Lending their voices to the film will be Waithe, Rob Reiner, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phylicia Rashad and Norman Lear, among others. Being Mary Tyler Moore debuts in May…

Jennifer Aniston, Judd Apatow, Drew Barrymore, Steve Buscemi, Dana Carvey, Luis Guzmán, Tim Herlihy, Idina Menzel, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade and Ben Stiller are among the performers who will salute Adam Sandler at the 24th annual Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday, March 19. The event will be taped for worldwide broadcast on CNN, airing March 26, 2023 at 8 p.m. ET. Previous winners of the prize include Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Jay Leno and, most recently, Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart…