Week of « Prev | Next »
1-20 of 22 items « Prev | Next »
Stx Entertainment, Sylvester Stallone plot mystery film
6 hours ago
Sylvester Stallone has lined up a feature with Stx Entertainment, the studio announced during its CinemaCon presentation on Tuesday.
Neither party would reveal anything about the project, although Stx sources told Screendaily it is not the mob film Scarpa, which Stallone has been shopping around.
“I’ve joined their family,” Stallone told attendees at the Colosseum. “We have an incredible film coming up. I’m not going to give you the name right now because I don’t want you to all go crazy.”
The appearance of Stallone, who thanked attendees for their support of 2015 hit Creed, was one of several high-profile talent to take the stage in a pure statement of intent by Bob Simonds’ fledgling studio.
Chairman and CEO Simonds himself kicked off the session alongside Stx Entertainment president Sophie Watts.
They explained that the studio was well capitalised, backed by Tpg and China’s Hony Capital and a slate financing deal with Huayi Brothers »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Asghar Farhadi regular wraps UK-Iranian drama 'Gholam'
15 hours ago
Exclusive: A Separation and About Elly star leads Farsi-language drama.
Production is complete on UK-Iranian drama Gholam, starring Iranian leading man and Asghar Farhadi regular Shahab Hosseini (A Separation).
Iranian-born, London-based photographer and artist Mitra Tabrizian makes her feature debut on the predominantly Farsi-language drama which charts the story of an enigmatic cab driver who is haunted by his past.
The film brings together two of the most prominent Iranian actors from before and after the revolution, Behrouz Behnejad and Hosseini.
The latter shared a Best Actor Silver Bear in 2011 for his turn in Farhadi’s A Separation and will star in the director’s upcoming drama Forushande, which is currently in production. Hosseini also starred in Farhadi’s 2009 drama About Elly.
Gholam, which is among the first UK-Iranian productions to explore the UK-based Iranian diaspora, is understood to be stirring interest in sales outfits and festivals.
Inspiration for the privately-financed low-budget feature came from a real »
- andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
Simon Baker's directorial debut 'Breath' reveals cast
15 hours ago
Australian coming-of-age drama has begun filming; Elizabeth Debicki, Richard Roxburgh among those to join cast.
Filming has begun this week in Australia on Simon Baker’s feature film directorial debut, Breath, based on Tim Winton’s coming-of-age novel.
Baker, star of TV drama The Mentalist and features including The Devil Wears Prada, will be joined in the cast by Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby, The Night Manager), Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge!) and Rachael Blake (Sleeping Beauty).
Set in mid-70s coastal Australia, Breath follows two teenage boys that form an unlikely friendship with a mysterious older adventurer, who pushes them to take risks that will have a lasting and profound impact on their lives.
Newcomers Samson Coulter and Ben Spence will play teenagers Pikelet and Loonie respectively, while Roxburgh and Blake are Mr and Mrs Pike. Debicki is Eva and as previously announced, Baker will play Sando.
“Tim’s book viscerally captures the restless curiosity and yearning »
Ang Lee's war drama 'Billy Lynn' faces projection challenge
15 hours ago
Exclusive: Only a handful of exhibitors will be able to screen Ang Lee’s anticipated drama as the director intends.
When Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk goes on release in November only a handful of exhibitors will be able to screen it as the director intends.
The TriStar Pictures war comedy-drama, starring Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin and Screen Star of Tomorrow Joe Alwyn in the title role, is the first to be shot in a combination of 4K resolution in stereo 3D and at 120 frames a second (fps) - a bold specification that exceeds all Dci compliant presentation systems.
The Oscar-winning director, who previously pushed the boundaries of 3D with Life Of Pi, spoke last year at CinemaCon about shooting at 120fps, which was in part chosen as a means to immerse viewers in Billy Lynn’s combat scenes.
“What Ang Lee is aiming for cannot be done on any Dci-compliant »
Alicia Vikander-James McAvoy romance 'Submergence' underway
16 hours ago
Shoot has kicked off in Berlin on the Wim Wenders-directed romance-thriller.
Shoot is underway in Berlin on Wim Wenders’ romance-thriller Submergence starring Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy.
The shoot will take in France, Germany, Spain and Africa, before wrapping in July, and marks Vikander’s first acting role since she picked up her best supporting actress Oscar in February for The Danish Girl.
Based on the novel by Jm Ledgard and a screenplay by Eric Dignam (The Last Face), Submergence tells the story of a water engineer, (McAvoy) suspected to be a British spy who is captured and held captive by Jihadist fighters in Somalia. Thousands of miles away a biomathematician (Vikander) is working deep under the Greenland Sea.
A chance encounter months earlier saw them share a tumultuous love affair and in their time of need the two reminisce over their time together.
Producers are Cameron Lamb through Lila 9th Productions with Neue Road MovieDritte »
Warner Bros allays Screening Room fears
18 hours ago
CEO Kevin Tsujihara, whose studio has been bruised by poor reviews and flagging global box office for its costly Batman V Superman, played to the hearts of theatre owners in a presentation on Tuesday that reaffirmed its commitment to the theatrical experience.
“Now more than ever we’re finding that despite all the new technologies and platforms out there, people still want to go to the movies,” said Tsujihara in opening remarks at the Colosseum, in Caesars Palace.
He was clearly targeting the elephant in the room, namely Sean Parker and Prem Akkaraju‘s proposed distribution platform that has so shaken up the exhibition sector and continues to be the talk of the convention.
The Warner Bros chairman drew sustained applause from attendees when he added, “I know there’s been a lot of chatter about new players on the horizon. I assure you, we’re not going to let a third party or middleman come between »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Twitter, Buzzfeed execs to speak at Media Summit
22 hours ago
Twitter exec Bruce Daisley and BuzzFeed UK editor-in-chief Janine Gibson will be among the keynote speakers at this year’s Media Summit.
Organised by Screen publisher Media Business Insight, the two-day conference in June will gather leaders from across film, TV and advertising to debate the future of the creative industries.
Gibson will discuss the changing world of online content on a panel that will also include The Times’ head of digital strategy Alan Hunter and The Lad Bible marketing director Mimi Turner.
Twitter European vice-president Bruce Daisley will explore trends in social media and how they can be harnessed by content makers.
There will also be a separate panel discussion on the explosion in international drama, which will feature former Kudos boss Jane Featherstone and Neal Street Productions co-founder Pippa Harris.
A session on virtual reality will consider whether Vr will live up to the hype, with those discussing the anticipated ‘revolution’ including Alex Mahon, CEO of »
Rebecca Ferguson thriller gets new sales home
22 hours ago
Exclusive: Romance-thriller Despite The Falling Snow, also starring Charles Dance and Sam Reid, moves from 6 Sales to Parkland Pictures.
UK sales outfit Parkland Pictures has taken on sales of Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation) thriller Despite The Falling Snow from 6 Sales.
The completed Cold War-set romance-thriller follows a female spy who steals secrets from an idealistic politician but then falls in love with him with tragic consequences.
Burgeoning star Ferguson, who also stars in upcoming buzz titles Florence Foster Jenkins, The Girl On The Train and The Snowman, plays alongside Games Of Thrones star Charles Dance and The Riot Club and Belle actor Sam Reid.
The film is the third feature from producer Hanan Kattan and writer-director Shamim Sarif’s Enlightenment Productions (I Can’t Think Straight, The World Unseen) and is adapted from Sarif’s novel of the same name.
The score comes from Oscar-winner Rachel Portman (Emma) while DoP is Resident Evil cinematographer [link=nm »
- andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
Jj Abrams on Screening Room: 'We have to adapt'
22 hours ago
Jj Abrams on Monday evening hinted at his support for Screening Room as he collected the CinemaCon Showman Of The Year award from the very people who stand to lose the most should the disruptive distribution platform become reality.
The development at Caesars Palace during the Paramount Pictures presentation illustrated the relative impotence of the exhibition community faced with a tide of change that threatens to engulf the traditional releasing model.
Abrams had already made public his support for Sean Parker and Prem Akkaraju’s controversial proposal before CinemaCon and offered some insight when he took to the Colosseum stage.
“Much has been said of technologies that threaten the theatre experience — and I’m no expert, and I’m open to all points of view and good ideas to keep theatres thriving — but we need to do everything we can in this age of piracy, digital technology and disruption to be thoughtful partners in the evolution of this »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
CinemaCon: Fip chief hails local production hits
11 April 2016 4:59 PM, PDT
Fox International Productions president Tomas Jegeus on Monday identified the potential of local-language hits to succeed beyond their native borders in a broad presentation in Las Vegas.
Seven months after the former co-president of worldwide theatrical marketing and distribution filled the role vacated by Sanford Panitch, Jegeus spoke confidently about global production hubs and the complementary interplay between local and Hollywood releases.
“Local-language films are not confined to local borders,” said Jegeus during his seminar at Caesars Palace. “It doesn’t happen often but there’s great potential for these films to break out.”
One shining example was French smash The Intouchables, which grossed more than $400m worldwide and took 51% of that revenue outside France. The 2012 comedy remains the highest grossing French film outside its home country.
Jegeus noted that recent Fox Star release P.K. took 32% of its global haul outside India, where it grossed around $76m.
South Korean smash The Admiral was also cited as big »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Cinepolis chief in Screening Room warning
11 April 2016 12:47 PM, PDT
Update: Alejandro Ramirez Magaña struck an early blow for the theatrical lobby at the annual exhibitors convention on Monday when his comments on the controversial Screening Room proposal drew spontaneous applause.
The Mexican CEO and general director of Cinepolis (pictured) wasted little time making his thoughts known in the week that Prem Akkaraju, Napster co-founder Sean Parker’s business partner on the disruptive day-and-date distribution proposal, was reportedly heading to Las Vegas to introduce the model to select theatre owners in a series of discreet meetings.
The subject resurfaced in panels on the experience economy and collaboration between distribution and exhibition, and again during an on-stage conversation with award recipient and veteran producer Frank Marshall.
“We think that instead of experimenting on how to shorten the theatrical window we should work together to strengthen it and there are many ways to do that,” said Magaña in his keynote address during the International Day Breakfast at Caesars Palace »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Film Sales Company lines up three Tribeca premieres
11 April 2016 11:01 AM, PDT
New York-based president Andrew Herwitz heads to the Tribeca Film Festival with two world premieres and one international premiere on his sales slate.
Documentary All This Panic (pictured) from Jenny Gage and Tom Betterton chronicles the lives of a group of sisters over four years as they grow from teenagers to young women in Brooklyn
Hungarian-uk selection Keep Quiet asks what happens when the leader of an anti-semitic political party learns that he is Jewish.
Sam Blair and Joseph Martin direct the documentary and Nicole Stott and John Battsek of Passion Pictures produce with Alex Holder and Danielle Clark.
Eastern European crime drama Mother receives its international premiere and follows one woman’s quest to uncover who shot her son in a small town.
Director Kadri Kõusaar’s previous film Magnus premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2007 and Herwitz is in talks with buyers for English remake rights. »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Lytro debuts holographic video camera for cinema
11 April 2016 9:33 AM, PDT
The prototype is being revealed at the Future of Cinema conference (part of the Nab show) in Las Vegas this week.
Camera maker Lytro is launching a first of its kind light-field video system intended for feature film with significant implications for the future of production.
The system combines the highest resolution sensor ever developed with specialised software to enable frame rate, aperture and focal length to be determined in post-production.
The prototype is being unveiled at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’s Smpte Future of Cinema conference in Las Vegas on April 16, part of the Nab Show (Apr 16-21), along with a short film showcasing the technology, and will be launched commercially in Q3 this year.
While conventional cameras record light as a two dimensional image - a mechanism that hasn’t changed since the invention of photography - Lytro’s camera is able to capture multiple viewpoints on set in a single »
Us briefs: 'Visaaranai' and 'Parched' prevail at 14th Iffla
11 April 2016 6:44 AM, PDT
Plus: FilmRise to release White Girl; Jesse Eisenberg in CinemaCon honour; and more…
Visaaranai and Parched were awarded top feature film honours as the 14th Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles came to a close at the weekend.
Visaaranai (Interrogation) was awarded the grand jury prize for best feature and the corresponding short film award went to Playgrounds.
Sanjay Mishra was presented with the best actor award for his performance in Masaan, and the best actress award honoured the cast of Parched, namely Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla, and Lehar Khan.
Iffla Audience awards went to Parched, and Daaravtha (The Threshold). For more information click here.
FilmRise has acquired Us rights from CAA to Elizabeth Wood’s Sundance selection White Girl starring Morgan Saylor and Brian Marc. Killer Films’ Christine Vachon is executive producer and the film will open theatrically in late summer / early autumn.Italian opera promoter All’Opera has struck a Us distribution deal with »
Vivendi buys Mediaset Premium in move to rival Netflix
11 April 2016 6:15 AM, PDT
The French media giant has acquired Mediaset’s pay TV business as part of a wider alliance.
French media giant Vivendi, which owns a host of major media companies including Studiocanal operator Canal+ Group, has struck a deal with Italian broadcaster Mediaset SpA that includes it taking over the latter’s 89% stake in pay-tv unit Mediaset Premium.
Vivendi is also purchasing the remaining 11% of the company from Spanish communications giant Telefonica. Mediaset Premium, which also offers pay-per-view and video on demand, is valued at up to $1.02bn, according to the Wall Street Journal, despite not being profitable.
The deal between Vivendi and Mediaset, which also involves the companies swapping 3.5% stakes and placing a member on each other’s boards, comes as Vivendi chairman Vincent Bolloré [pictured] looks to build a European challenger to Us streaming giant Netflix, which launched in Italy, Spain and Portugal in autumn, as well as British pay-tv outfit Sky.
“The agreement »
'Room' sweeps Irish Academy awards
11 April 2016 5:31 AM, PDT
Leonardo Dicaprio and Spotlight also pick up prizes from the Irish Film and Television Academy.Scoll down for full list of winners
Lenny Abrahamson’s Room swept the Ifta Awards for Film and Drama at a ceremony in Dublin last night, winning seven trophies.
The film, about a mother and son kept captive in a bunker, won best film, best director, best screenplay, best score and best editing. It also picked up awards for best sound and best international actress for Brie Larson, who won the Oscar for best actress in February.
The award means that Room producer Element Pictures has won six best film awards in the 13 years the Ifta’s have been running.
Liam Neeson was in Dublin to receive the Ifta Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award – recognition for his celebrated 30 year career in cinema. Neeson was presented the award by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, with tributes »
- michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
Clooney, Spacey, McGregor titles get Swiss deals
11 April 2016 5:06 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Ascot Elite ties up deals with Bloom and Lakeshore.
Distributor Ascot Elite has acquired all Swiss rights to three buzzz titles out of the Efm.
From Bloom the distributor secured anticipated mystery-comedy Suburbicon and J.D.Salinger biopic Rebel In The Rye, while from Lakeshore the outfit picked up Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut American Pastoral.
George Clooney will direct Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Josh Brolin in Suburbicon, the story of a quiet 1950’s family town where the best and worst of humanity is reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people.
When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal. The Coen brothers have scripted the feature.
Also from Bloom, the company pre-bought all rights to J.D.Salinger biopic Rebel In The Rye.
Kevin Spacey will star alongside Nicholas Hoult who will play Catcher In The Rye author Salinger. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and Empire »
- andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
CinemaCon: Netflix in talks to acquire unfinished Orson Welles epic
11 April 2016 4:36 AM, PDT
The streaming giant is in negotiations to acquire The Other Side Of The Wind, veteran producer Frank Marshall told convention attendees on Monday.
Marshall made the remark during an on-stage interview in Las Vegas after he collected the International Filmmaker Of The Decade accolade at the International Day awards lunch.
Netflix would be the ideal home for Welles’ unfinished film, said the producer, who hoped it would debut by the end of the year.
He reminded attendees The Other Side Of The Wind stars John Huston as a director on the last night of his life as seen through the eyes of the paparazzi. The film shot between 1970 and 1976. Welles died in 1985.
Marshall weighed in on the Screening Room debate and reminisced about a career that has seen him rack up credits for the Indiana Jones and Jason Bourne franchises, Poltergeist, Jurassic World and the upcoming The Bfg, Jason Bourne, Assassin’s Creed »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Altitude, Pan-Européenne team on Cousteau story 'The Odyssey'
11 April 2016 2:54 AM, PDT
Film starring Lambert Wilson - as legendary oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau - and Audrey Tautou to hit UK screens at the end of 2016.
Altitude Film Entertainment and Pan-Européenne UK have entered a joint venture for the UK release of Jérôme Salle’s The Odyssey, capturing the life of legendary ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau aboard his ship the Calypso.
It will be the first UK release for London-based Pan-Européenne UK, since its creation last year by French producer and distributor team Philippe Godeau and Nathalie Gastaldo Godeau.
The pair are producers on The Odyssey through their Paris-based production and distribution house Pan-Européenne alongside Olivier Delbosc and Marc Missonnier at Fidélité Films
Shot over five months in South Africa, the Antarctic and across the Mediterranean, the picture stars Lambert Wilson as Cousteau alongside Audrey Tautou as the explorer’s first wife Simone and Pierre Niney as their youngest son Philippe. It is currently in post-production.
Altitude and Pan-Européenne »
Bona completes privatisation with Alibaba investment
10 April 2016 10:21 PM, PDT
Bona Film Group has finalised its delisting from the Nasdaq and subsequent privatisation process, following which Alibaba Pictures has an 8.94% stake in the Beijing-based studio.
Alibaba said in a statement that it has invested $86m into Bona and plans to develop a strong working relationship with the studio “on content production and distribution in a bid to enhance each other’s edge along the value chain of the entertainment industry”.
Alibaba Pictures CEO Zhang Qiang added: “Participation in the privatisation of Bona helps boost the development of the Chinese film and television industry. Sharing the same mission and vision with Bona, Alibaba Pictures wishes to create an ecosystem and platform covering the whole value chain of the film and TV industry.”
Bona founder and chairman Yu Dong, along with investors Sequoia Capital and Fosun International, submitted a privatisation offer to delist from the Nasdaq last June, based on an offer price of $13.70 in cash per American depositary »
- lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
1-20 of 22 items « Prev | Next »