Week of « Prev | Next »
1-20 of 23 items « Prev | Next »
Foundry Launches Nuke Studio Software
1 hour ago
Software developer The Foundry introduced a new product Monday evening: Nuke Studio
Nuke Studio offers multiple phases of post within a single application, including editorial, timeline, conform, color correction, visual effects, versioning, 4K playback and finishing. The new software is aimed at short-form content creators, such as those working on commercials and episodic.
The announcement was made a The Foundry’s booth at the Nab Show in Las Vegas.
Nuke Studio runs alongside Nuke, The Foundry‘s popular compositing program, so Nuke compositing can be used with anything in the Nuke Studio timeline. Nuke Studio combines features from Nuke and Hiero, The Foundry’s shot management, edit and review software.
“Nuke started as a tool for people doing film visual effects, but it has been adopted by people doing TV episodic and short-form commercials work,” said The Foundry’s chief scientist, Simon Robinson. “Nuke Studio lets an individual do everything at a desktop, »
- David S. Cohen
Santa Barbara Film Fest Intros Summer Showcase, Extends Dates for 2015
1 hour ago
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced Monday that its 30th anniversary edition will take place from Jan. 27 through Feb. 7, 2015, adding a 12th day to celebrate the fest’s entry into a third decade.
Sbiff will also host a new summer film showcase – The Wave Film Festival – in an effort to bring more year-round foreign and independent films to the Santa Barbara community. Sbiff will present a five-day film fest each summer, with this year’s inaugural event focusing solely on French cinema. From July 16 through July 20, over a dozen current French films will be shown at the Riviera Theatre.
“It’s fitting that as we approach the 30th anniversary Sbiff expands its programming and has more of a year-round presence with the Wave Film Festival,” Sbiff exec director Roger Durling (pictured at left) said in a statement. “In the future we hope to have several editions — or ‘waves’ — throughout the year, »
- Andrea Seikaly
Academy Taps Smithsonian Director to Run Movie Museum
1 hour ago
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tapped museum veteran Kerry Brougher as director of its new Academy Museum, sources told Variety.
Brougher, the current interim director and chief curator of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, will assume his new post in the summer.
Groundbreaking on the new museum is expected to take place later this year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus.
Brougher has a long resume. He’s has been at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., since 2000 and spent three years as director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England. Between 1982 through 1997, he served in several slots at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
He also graduated from UCLA with a master’s degree in the history of film and television.
LucasFilm chief Kathleen Kennedy headed the selection committee for the AMPAS Museum post.
AMPAS announced in 2012 that »
- Dave McNary
Film Review: ‘The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga’
1 hour ago
Nature and civilization square off in Jessica Oreck’s poetic meditation-cum-documentary “The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga.” Alternating between two complementary narratives (fairy-tale and cultural-anthropological) in two languages (Russian and Polish) and two formats (animation and live-action), Oreck spins a mesmerizing web that appropriates a wealth of disparate Eastern European images — of mushrooms, farmers, falling trees and war-destroyed buildings — to illustrate its lyrical discourse. Probably less accessible than Oreck’s feted entomological curio “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” “Baba Yaga” ventures closer to experimental film, breaking new ground with calls to the collective unconscious that should lure adventurous arthouse auds.
The story Oreck tells is simple: Man, fearing nature’s wildness, builds walls against it and demonizes it in folklore. But there is another, far more violent force within man himself that, once unleashed, sends him fleeing to a wilderness that now affords sanctuary. Eastern Europe, with its war-torn history »
- Ronnie Scheib
‘Major Crimes’ Actress Joins Horror-Thriller ‘Crawlspace’
2 hours ago
“Major Crimes” actress Nadine Velazquez has joined the cast of New Line’s horror-thriller “Crawlspace” alongside Michael Vartan and Erin Moriarty.
Phil Claydon is directing from a script by Gary Dauberman. Peter Safran (“The Conjuring”) is producing along with Rick Alvarez.
Story follows a family who discover their new house has a disturbing secret.
Velazquez will play the second wife of Vartan’s character and the stepmother to Moriarty’s character.
Velazquez played an airline flight attendant opposite Denzel Washington in “Flight.” She recently starred in the indie drama “Sister” alongside Reid Scott, Barbara Hershey and Illeana Douglas.
She is repped by Gersh and Klwgn.
»
- Dave McNary
Mickey Rooney Appreciation: Noir Films Showed He Was More Than a Teen Star
2 hours ago
From 1937 to 1946, Mickey Rooney played clean-cut, wide-eyed Midwestern teenager Andy Hardy 15 times in a series of films that proved instrumental (along with his Judy Garland musicals) in making him one of the most popular movie stars of his era. They also surely came to feel like a gilded prison around the actor. By the time the series ended, the Hardy character had been to WWII and back (as had Rooney), yet still seemed incapable of getting past first base with a girl (whereas Rooney was already on the second of his eight marriages).
The Mickster’s thirst for more adult roles was palpable, and Hollywood took a few different stabs at figuring out what to do with him. There was a series of sports films designed to show off the five-foot-two actor’s virile, athletic side: the boxing drama “Killer McCoy” (1947), in which he is a highly improbable light heavyweight »
- Scott Foundas
Film Review: ‘She’s Lost Control’
2 hours ago
As its title implies, “She’s Lost Control” tracks the gradual breakdown of its heroine (Brooke Bloom), a grad student working as a sexual surrogate in New York. A hundred eighty degrees away from the sentimentality of the similarly themed “The Sessions,” Anja Marquardt’s debut feature favors cold, clinical compositions, often showing characters from behind; this austerity, while mirroring the clients’ intimacy issues, also creates an uncomfortable tension with Bloom’s open, hopeful expressions. Whether Marquardt’s radically distanced style reflects a purely aesthetic choice or an attempt to downplay sensationalism, the absence of warmth may chill potential audience response.
Ronah (Bloom) operates in tandem with a psychiatrist (Dennis Boutsikaris) who refers patients to her services. She enjoys a friendly relationship with a few clients (Tobias Segal, Robert Longstreet) whose sessions the film samples — some in conversation, some in bed. When not working, she consults with her own shrink »
- Ronnie Scheib
‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff ‘Sinister Six’ Drawing Director Drew Goddard
3 hours ago
Drew Goddard is in negotiations to direct Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff “Sinister Six” from his own script.
The studio and Marvel Entertainment first revealed the “Sinister Six” and “Venom” projects in December, including Goddard’s attachment as a writer with an eye to direct.
Both projects are being produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach as part of Sony’s move to expand the Spider-Man universe by bringing in villains.
The “Sinister Six” supervillains first appeared in 1964 and were drawn from Spider-Man’s list of enemies. Led by Doctor Octopus, they included Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman and the Vulture.
Goddard, who made his feature directorial debut with “The Cabin in the Woods,” is one of five writers — along with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner and Ed Solomon — who will collaborate on overseeing the developing story over several films.
The five writers, along with the two producers and Marc Webb, »
- Dave McNary
Jacqueline Bisset Starring in ‘Peter and John’ (Exclusive)
6 hours ago
Jacqueline Bisset has been cast as the female lead in the independent period drama “Peter and John.”
Director Jay Craven begins filming later this month in Nantucket for Kingdom County Prods.
“Peter and John” is based on the 1887 Guy de Maupassant novel “Pierre et Jean,” which recounts the story of a French family whose lives are changed when a deceased family friend leaves his estate to one of the sons.
Bisset won the Golden Globe in January for best supporting actress in a TV miniseries for “Dancing on the Edge.” She will be seen next in director Abel Ferrara’s “Welcome to New York,” starring opposite Gerard Depardieu in the drama based on the rise and fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
»
- Dave McNary
‘Battlestar Galactica’ Movie Gets New Life at Universal (Exclusive)
6 hours ago
Universal is ramping up a movie version of the sci-fi franchise “Battlestar Galactica,” aiming to develop the film as a complete reimagining of the story.
“Transcendence” writer Jack Paglen has signed on to write the screenplay. Paglen has also committed to Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” sequel for Fox that will start production this fall.
Original series creator Glen Larson will produce the “Battlestar Galactica” film.
“Galactica” generated two TV series. The first, starring Lorne Greene and Richard Hatch, ran during 1978-79 season and was centered on humans engaged in a lengthy war against a cybernetic race known as the Cylons while searcing for Earth.
In 2003, a reimagined “Battlestar Galactica” miniseries aired on Sci Fi Channel. The second series, starring Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, went on to run for four seasons.
In 2009, speculation emerged that Bryan Singer was attached to direct a “Battlestar Galactica” movie.
Universal’s exec VP »
- Dave McNary
Film Review: ‘Sequoia’
6 hours ago
It’s a suggestion every filmmaker dreads reading while perusing notes from a producer: “Can’t you make your protagonist more likable?” But in the case of “Sequoia,” such a recommendation might have been well heeded. As Riley, an angry young woman bent on beating the reaper before she’s felled by cancer, Aly Michalka is much too convincing in her fingernails-on-chalkboard abrasiveness, making it difficult to develop a rooting interest in her character’s fate until the three-quarters mark of helmer Andy Landen’s road-movie dramedy. Long before that point, unfortunately, many if not most viewers will have switched off this VOD-bound indie.
To be fair, Michalka appears to be playing the role as it’s written by scripter Andrew Rothschild, who doesn’t stint on doling out annoying qualities to the supporting characters as well. But Landen and Michalka might have made the long journey more involving had »
- Joe Leydon
Michael C. Hall ‘Would Definitely Consider’ Playing Daredevil in Netflix Series
6 hours ago
Michael C. Hall would like to make the leap from antihero to hero.
Although talk of Netflix and writer-director Drew Goddard courting Hall to play the titular hero in the upcoming “Daredevil” series may be nothing but a rumor, Hall is still interested in portraying the man without fear.
“I would definitely consider it … but I can’t tell you any inside information because I think they’re nothing but rumors,” Hall told Vulture on Sunday at the premiere of his new Broadway play, “The Realistic Joneses.”
After eight seasons on Showtime’s dark drama “Dexter,” Hall said he’s seeking projects with short-term commitments.
“I really am enjoying mixing it up a little bit, and I’m committing to things that have a foreseeable end in sight when I start them, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of (a new series) happening at some point,” he told the site. »
- Maane Khatchatourian
Jaden Smith’s ‘Karate Kid’ Sequel Draws Breck Eisner to Direct
8 hours ago
Sony has signed Breck Eisner to direct its sequel to “The Karate Kid,” its hit 2010 actioner starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan.
The rebooted “Kid” grossed $343 million worldwide with Harald Zwart directing. Jerry Weintraub, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz produced.
Eisner’s credits include “Sahara” and “The Crazies.” He’s also attached to Summit’s fantasy-actioner “The Last Witch Hunter,” starring Vin Diesel.
Eisner is repped by CAA and Management 360.
News was first reported on Deadline.com.
»
- Dave McNary
V.K. Murthy, Bollywood Cinematographer, Dies at 90
8 hours ago
V.K. Murthy who lensed the legendary Guru Dutt’s films from “Pyaasa” to “Kaagaz ke phool,” the first Indian film in Cinemascope, died April 7 in his home in Bangalore, India. He was 90.
Murthy’s work in black and white included a beam shot in the “Waqt ne kiya” song sequence in “Pyaasa” that was achieved with mirrors.
Other films he collaborated with Dutt included “Baazi,” “Cid” “Jaal” and “Sahib bibi aur ghulam.” His intricate knowledge of how light fell helped in darker films as well as romantic comedies like “Mr. and Mrs. 1955.”
India bestowed its highest cinematic honor the Dadasaheb Phalke Award on him in 2008.
Born in Mysore, Murthy studied cinematography at the nascent Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic in that south Indian city. Later he went to Bombay to work in Bollywood where started as an assistant to V. Ratra on “Baazi,” which Dutt directed and where the helmer first noticed him. »
- Shalini Dore
Ricki Lake’s Documentary ‘Breastmilk’ Gets U.S. Distribution (Exclusive)
8 hours ago
Cavu Pictures has come on board to release the documentary “Breastmilk” in U.S. theaters — starting with a Mother’s Day weekend release on May 7 in New York.
Dana Ben-Ari directed “Breastmilk” with Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein executive producing. The film will open in Los Angeles on May 16 and expand into other markets during the summer.
The film explores the social debate over breastfeeding among those who want to breastfeed, those who can’t breastfeed and the cultural impact of breastfeeding choices. Subjects covered include work-place pumping, career moms, gay parents, wet nurses, sex practices, freaked-out fathers, impassioned “lactivists” and moms who halt breastfeeding before their infant is six months old.
“When we saw ‘Breastmilk’ at both the Woodstock Film Festival and the Doc NYC film festival, it was obvious how passionate audiences were for both the film and the subject of breastfeeding,” said Cavu co-persidents Michael Sergio and Isil Bagdadi. »
- Dave McNary
Radius-twc, Blumhouse Partner on SXSW ‘Creep,’ Plan Trilogy
9 hours ago
The Weinstein Brothers’ Radius-twc is partnering with the Duplass Brothers and Blumhouse Prods. on a “Creep” trilogy, a month after the film’s SXSW premiere.
Mark Duplass (“Safety Not Guaranteed”) stars in and co-wrote the psychological thriller “Creep” with director Patrick Brice. Horror-franchise maven Jason Blum produced with Duplass. The plan is to turn “Creep” into three films, with the second and third already in the works.
TWC-Radius is also distributing the Duplass Brothers’ “The One I Love,” which it acquired at Sundance and plans an Aug. 15 release.
“Creep” is set in a remote mountain town, where Brice’s character has gone in response to a cryptic Craigslist ad to film Duplass’ character for the day. TWC-Radius is planning to release the film later this year.
Tom Quinn and Jason Janego, co-presidents of Radius-twc, said, “The film played through the roof at SXSW and it was abundantly clear that audiences »
- Dave McNary
Film Review: ‘Alien Abduction’
10 hours ago
A sci-fi thriller as generic as its title, “Alien Abduction” generates only low-voltage shocks, taking a found-footage approach to its familiar scenario about hapless earthlings hunted by inquisitive extraterrestrials. Released simultaneously as theatrical and VOD fare, it’s bound to vanish as quickly as a fleetingly glimpsed UFO after a few close encounters with paying viewers.
Working from a run-of-the-mill script by Robert Lewis, helmer Matty Beckerman follows the misadventures of a family gradually decimated during an ill-timed camping trip. Parents Peter (Peter Holden) and Katie (Katie Sigismund) pay little heed to dark rumors about the true meaning of mysterious lights sighted in the Brown Mountain region of North Carolina — a real-life phenomenon, by the way — and drive deep into the woods to pitch tents and savor nature. Also along for the ride: Their two adolescent children (Jillian Clare, Corey Eid) and a third offspring, Riley (Riley Polanski), an 11-year-old »
- Joe Leydon
Captain America to Battle Superman, Batman at Box Office
11 hours ago
Disney and Marvel have officially dated “Captain America 3″ for May 6, 2016 — the same date as Warner Bros.’ untitled Superman-Batman movie.
Marvel made the announcement on its web site following a record-setting U.S. debut for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
The move comes three months after Warner Bros. had announced it would release its Superman-Batman movie on May 6, 2016 — moving it back from July 17, 2015 — meaning that Superman-Batman would square off against a Marvel film which Marvel had not yet announced.
At the time, Warners said the decision was made to “help fully realize the vision.”
Speculation had emerged since then that the third “Captain America” would be the Disney-Marvel title on the date.
Production is currently under way in Michigan on the Superman-Batman film starring Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck and Zach Snyder directing. The tentpole also stars Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane, in addition to »
- Dave McNary
Film Review: ‘Jinn’
11 hours ago
As an attention-grabbing opening installment for what’s obviously intended as an ongoing horror franchise, “Jinn” fizzles. This ponderously paced, needlessly convoluted and altogether unexceptional thriller will be fortunate to reach beyond a thin sliver of undiscriminating genre fans with its bogus mythos about ancient evil spirits bent on world domination. The promise of a sequel during the closing credits seems, at best, unduly optimistic.
After a less-than-promising prologue in 1901 India, writer-director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad moves his melodrama to contemporary Ann Arbor, Mich., where Shawn (Dominic Rains), a hunky auto designer, and Jasmine (Serinda Swan of TV’s “Graceland” and “Breakout Kings”), his beautiful wife, are unsettled by manifestations of, if not the supernatural, then extremely clumsy home invaders.
The secret behind the scattering of their furniture is revealed when the designer receives a decades-old message — so old, it’s on a VHS tape, not a DVD or flash drive — from his late father. »
- Joe Leydon
Sony Lands New Republic Article ‘Year of the Pigskin’ for Escape Artists
11 hours ago
In an aggressive bidding war, Sony has acquired the rights to the New Republic article “The Year of the Pigskin” with Escape Artists attached to produce.
The recently published story and had several studios — including Universal — after it before finally falling to Sony.
The article was written by Christopher Beam and follows one American’s struggle to form an American football league in China. It’s described as a Chinese football version of “The Bad News Bears.”
Todd Black will produce for Escape Artists.
Sony has been one of the more active buyers in 2014, having already acquired the spec “Winter’s Knight” for “Kon-Tiki” helmers Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg to direct, as well as the rights to Max Brook’s new graphic novel “The Harlem Hellfights,” with Overbrook Entertainment attached to produce.
»
- Justin Kroll
1-20 of 23 items « Prev | Next »