Week of « Prev | Next »
1-20 of 60 items « Prev | Next »
Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue to reunite on 'Flammable Children'
1 hour ago
Australian actors last appeared on screen together nearly 30 years ago in TV soap Neighbours.
Guy Pearce and Kylie Minogue have signed on to join Radha Mitchell in Flammable Children, the new comedy feature written and directed Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).
It marks the first time the two have appeared on screen together in nearly 30 years, having starred as Mike and Charlene in TV soap Neighbours in the 1980s.
As well as a successful pop career, Minogue has appeared in films including Moulin Rouge! and Holy Motors while Pearce is perhaps best known for roles in Memento, La Confidential and Iron Man 3.
Flammable Children will shoot in Australia this autumn. Three other leading roles are yet to be cast.
Taking place in 1975, the film is set in a sleepy beachside suburb where “an extraordinary event” sets in motion a revelatory week for a teenage boy and girl.
The feature »
- michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
Arturo Montenegro plots 'Male Mom'
12 hours ago
Exclusive: Panamanian director Arturo Montenegro is busy lining up his follow-up to feature directorial debut The Check (El Cheque) ahead of its world premiere at Iff Panama on Tuesday.
Montenegro’s in-the-works Male Mom is a timely drama about a man who will do whatever it takes to become a mother.
The project is styled as a PG-13 drama and has secured private Latin American backers. The film-maker is looking for additional capital investment ahead of a planned start in August.
Male Mom will shoot on location in Madrid and Panama City and stars Montenegro as Eliana, a man who is willing to transform his mind, soul and body to achieve his life’s desire.
Montenegro wrote the screenplay with Sandra I. Corrales and produces alongside Andry José Barrientos.
The Q Films production includes cast members Augusto Galíndez, Sócrates Serrano, Jirac Caro, Simón Tejeira, Guillermo García, and Natalia Londoño.
Tuesday’s premiere will be the first chance »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
UTA signs Roger Deakins
13 hours ago
The 13-time Oscar nominee has found a new agency, signing on with his partner James Ellis Deakins.
Deakins is a frequent Coen brothers collaborator and has worked on Hail, Caesar!, No Country For Old Men, Fargo, True Grit, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
He shot Skyfall and Jarhead for Sam Mendes, Unbroken for Angelina Jolie, and Kundun for Martin Scorsese.
Roger and James Deakins are currently in pre-production on Alcon Entertainment’s Blade Runner sequel starring Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, and Robin Wright.
This will mark the third time Deakins has collaborated with French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve after Sicario and Prisoners. »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Us Briefs: Patricio Guzman cancels Iff Panama attendance
13 hours ago
Plus: Jason Blum in CinemaCon honour
Chilean film-maker Patricio Guzman, who was due to attend Iff Panama to deliver a four-day documentary seminar, has had to return home suddenly to France.
Guzman was due to lead the seminar and conclude on the fifth day with a screening of his Berlinale 2015 Silver Bear winner The Pearl Button (El Botón de Nácar).
The festival, which kicks off on Thursday, is liaising with industry attendees who registered for the event.
Jason Blum will collect the CinemaCon Producer Of The Year Award in Las Vegas on April 14. The Blumhouse Productions founder’s credits include Paranormal Activity, Insidious and The Purge franchises, as well as Oscar winner Whiplash. The Purge: Election Year opens on July 1 and Ouija 2 on October 21, both through Universal. CinemaCon runs from April 11-14.Mary Steenburgen, Paul Reiser, Amber Heard, Wyatt Cenac, Dolly Wells, and Chace Crawford have joined Lake Bell and Ed Helms on comedy What’s »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Wendy Morgan signs on to direct 'Sugar Daddy'
17 hours ago
Exclusive: Producers Lauren Grant of Clique Pictures and Lori Lozinski of Violator Films announced on Thursday they had signed the music video director to helm their feature.
Morgan has directed top artists such as Janelle Monae, Gnarls Barkley, The Kills, and Laura Mvula. Her most recent dance film Etoiles, I See You was the opening film for The Paris Opera’s 3emé Scene.
Production is scheduled to begin this autumn on Sugar Daddy, which centres on a struggling musician who goes online to find a rich older man to fund her work.
Kelly McCormack will star and wrote the screenplay.
“Sugar Daddy is an honest, ruthless and sublime take on the female experience,” said Morgan. “Kelly McCormack can only be described as a fireball and her script is exactly the type of story I’m drawn too.
“The project felt so perfect for me with its balance of dramatic narrative and music. We are not »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Gary Hustwit launches Vr studio Scenic
20 hours ago
Brooklyn-based filmmaker has launched a Virtual Reality content studio focusing on non-fiction films and enlisted the support of world-class documentarians including Marshall Curry and Jessica Edwards.
Hustwit’s privately backed Scenic will fund and produce original Vr (virtual reality) documentary shorts and series made by a collective of renowned independent filmmakers and will also work with brands and organisations on commissioned projects.
The films will cover an array of subjects and debut on the company’s website and app and through exclusive distribution partners. They will also be viewable on Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear Vr, Oculus Rift, and other Vr platforms.
Besides Curry and Edwards, the initial stable of content creators includes Amir Bar-Lev, Curry, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Liz Garbus, Sam Green, Dawn Porter, and filmmaker-artist Lucy Raven.
“There’s so much focus on Virtual Reality as a technology, but Vr won’t achieve mass adoption without great content,” said Hustwit »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
'Mediterranea', 'Death In Sarajevo' to bookend Kosovo’s PriFest
20 hours ago
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo - which will close the festival with Tanovic »
'Mediterranea' to open Kosovo’s PriFest
20 hours ago
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo and the regional premiere of Mirjana Karanović »
Istanbul fest kicks off a year after censorship debacle
21 hours ago
Festival kicks off with double screening of Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special; new artistic director discusses security and censorship.
The 35th Istanbul Film Festival kicked off last night [Wed 6] with two screenings of Jeff Nichols’ drama sci-fi Midnight Special.
Fifteen films will compete for the International Golden Tulip including Berlin favourite United States of Love, Olmo Omerzu’s Family Film and Brady Corbet’s directorial debut The Childhood of a Leader.
Among 11 films competing in the National Golden Tulip competition, four are world premieres: Cemil Ağacıkoğlu’s The Field follows a man in a spiral of debt; Adnan Akdağ’s My Own Life sees a student trying to film his own life; Tayfur Aydın’s Black Crow about an Iranian actress forbidden from returning to Iran; and Seren Yüce’s Swaying Waterlily, which sees two fortysomething friends turn into writing rivals.
The popular and prestigious festival’s industry forum Meetings on The Bridge, the platform »
Tilda Swinton doc to close Sheffield Doc/Fest; David Puttnam to speak
23 hours ago
Documentary festival will also give audiences chance to “virtually” converse with a Holocaust survivor.
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15) has revealed that actress Tilda Swinton with co-director Bartek Dziadosz are to close this year’s festival with the UK premiere of The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits Of John Berger.
The documentary, which received its world premiere at the Berlinale in February, portrays John Berger, the UK writer, art critic, painter and poet whose novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize. The film is divided into four chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of his life and work.
It will close the festival on June 15 and the screening will be followed by a Q&A with Swinton and Dziadosz.
Holocaust survivor
Doc/Fest also announced a groundbreaking experience for its audience, offering a “virtual encounter” with a recorded image of a survivor of the Holocaust, who responds in real time, powered by complex »
- michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
Brett Ratner to head Beijing film festival jury
6 April 2016 10:13 PM, PDT
Director-producer Brett Ratner will head the competition jury of this year’s Beijing International Film Festival (Bjiff), which runs April 16-23.
Ratner will preside over the jury for the festival’s Tiantan Awards, along with German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic, Romania’s Corneliu Porumboiu, Japanese filmmaker Yojiro Takita, Hong Kong director Teddy Chen and Chinese actress Xu Qing.
Films selected for the Tiantan Awards include Spanish titles A Perfect Day and Tiempo Sin Aire, Canada’s Grand Unified Theory, Russia’s I Am A Teacher, Polish director Piotr Chrzan’s Klezmer, Danish director Martin Zandvliet’s Land Of Mine and Chinese titles The Master and Go Away, Mr Tumor.
Ratner was an executive producer on Oscar-winning movie The Revenant, which has grossed $55.55m in China after 17 days.
Guests expected at the festival include Natalie Portman, who is attending with her film A Tale Of Love And Darkness, and Oscar-winning »
- lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
Skydance, Alibaba team on 'Flying Tigers'
6 April 2016 8:06 PM, PDT
Skydance and China’s Alibaba Pictures will jointly finance and produce Flying Tigers, a World War II drama to be scripted by Braveheart writer Randall Wallace.
Skydance’s David Ellison and Dana Goldberg will produce the global release with a team from Alibaba Pictures.
Also known as the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, the Flying Tigers was a group of volunteer pilots from the Us Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps that fought alongside the Chinese during World War II.
There have previously been other attempts to make a feature film about the pilots, including a long-gestating project to be directed by John Woo and backed by China Film and Cyrte Investments.
“Flying Tigers carries with it a rich legacy and a movie about this subject matter has been highly anticipated for a very long time,” said Alibaba Pictures president Zhang Wei.
“It is an ideal piece of content in which to invest »
- lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
Breaking Glass acquires 'The Apostate'
6 April 2016 2:51 PM, PDT
The distributor has picked up Us rights from FiGa Films to Federico Veiroj’s comedy that premiered in Toronto last autumn.
The Apostate has gone on to play in San Sebastian, Rotterdam and Miami and stars Bárbara Lennie, Marta Larralde, and Vicky Peña.
The story centres on an immature young man in Madrid who struggles to take a grip on his life as he attempts to renounce his faith.
Breaking Glass plans an autumn theatrical release for the Spain-Uruguay-France coming-of-age tale from Ferdydurke Films and Cinekdoque.
“We are very excited to be working with FiGa again, bringing another unique international voice to a Us audience,” said Breaking Glass svp of distribution and sales Michael Repsch. »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Mark Gordon, Koch Company team with Chinese partners on 'Edge'
6 April 2016 2:34 PM, PDT
The Mark Gordon Company and The Koch Company are partnering with Chinese studio Pegasus Media Group and China Film Group on the English-language Edge Of The World.
David Seidler and Jacqueline Feather wrote the action-filled transcontinental love story based on events from the 1930s when New York socialite Ruth Harkness went to China in search of her missing fiancé.
Seidler won the Oscar in 2011 for writing The King’s Speech.
Pegasus and China Film Group will finance the project and Gordon, Hawk Koch, and Jianjun “Jay” Sun will serve as producers.
Jeff Aghassi is on board as executive producer. Production is anticipated to start in China later this year.
CAA’s Jonah Greenberg brokered the project. »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Warner Bros moves 'Jungle Book', 'Wonder Woman' release dates
6 April 2016 1:57 PM, PDT
The studio, reportedly exploring a leaner slate with greater emphasis on franchise-building feeders and beset by the critical mauling of Batman v Superman and its 69% second-weekend slide, unveiled an updated release schedule.
Andy Serkis’ Rudyard Kipling adaptation Jungle Book has been moved back a year from October 6, 2017, to October 19, 2018.
The shift places greater distance between that film and Disney’s The Jungle Book directed by Jon Favreau, which will be first out of the gate when it opens in North America on April 15.
Wonder Woman moves up from June 23, 2017, to June 2, 2017, while two untitled DC films arrive on October 5, 2018, and November 1, 2019 – both in 3D and on Imax.
Untitled WB Event Film will open on October 6, 2017.
Warner Bros’ upcoming DC Entertainment release Suicide Squad opens on August 5 and studio head Kevin Tsujihara and his cohorts will be hoping for a hit to get their ambitious DC universe back on track.
Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice director [link=nm »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Warner Bros shuffles release pack
6 April 2016 1:57 PM, PDT
The studio, reportedly exploring a leaner slate with greater emphasis on franchise-building feeders and beset by the critical mauling of Batman v Superman and its 69% second-weekend slide, on Tuesday unveiled an updated release schedule.
Andy Serkis’ Rudyard Kipling adaptation Jungle Book has been moved back by one year from October 6, 2017, to October 19, 2018.
The shift places greater distance between that film and Disney’s The Jungle Book directed by Jon Favreau, which will be first out of the gate when it opens in North America on April 15.
Wonder Woman moves up from June 23, 2017, to June 2, 2017, while two untitled DC films arrive on October 5, 2018, and November 1, 2019 – both in 3D and on Imax.
Untitled WB Event Film will open on October 6, 2017.
Warner Bros’ upcoming DC Entertainment release Suicide Squad opens on August 5 and studio head Kevin Tsujihara and his cohorts will be hoping for a hit to get their ambitious DC universe back on track.
Batman v Superman »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
'Gotham's Erin Richards joins 'That Good Night'
6 April 2016 9:59 AM, PDT
Principal photography on stage play adaptation starring John Hurt has begun.
Erin Richards (Gotham), Sofia Helin (The Bridge) and Max Brown (Agent Carter) have joined John Hurt in the cast of That Good Night, which has begun principal photography on the Algarve coastline of Portugal and will shoot for five weeks.
Gsp Studios is behind the film adaptation of the late N.J. Crisp’s 1996 stage play of the same name. Gsp Studios International is also handling worldwide sales.
That Good Night, which derives its name from the Dylan Thomas poem, follows Ralph (Hurt), a famed screenwriter coming to terms with his impending death. As he does so, he resolves to attempt two final missions in life; to be reconciled to his long-lost son (Brown), and to ensure he doesn’t become a burden to his wife Anna (Helin) with his slow decline, by hiring a mysterious “visitor” to help him pass painlessly.
Directed by [link »
- michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
Cannes Marché, Frontières launch genre partnership
6 April 2016 9:37 AM, PDT
Two markets will collaborate on a works-in-progress strand in Cannes this year and have sights set on a 2017 packaging and financing forum in Europe.
Cannes Marché and genre market Frontières are teaming up to launch series of genre events at this year’s market in May.
The series is a precursor to a potential packaging and financing forum for genre filmmakers in Europe next year. Cannes and Frontières are in discussion with potential partners on the forum.
At this year’s Marché, the duo will organise presentations of four work-in-progress genre films, a showcase examining the future of virtual reality in genre cinema and a networking mixer at the Plage des Palmes.
The duo plan to expand the offering at the 2017 Cannes market, with a slate of programming including pitching sessions and industry panels.
Frontières, the horror and sci-fi focused co-production market created in 2012, recently concluded its latest edition at the Brussels International Fantastic FilmFestvial. The market »
Tribeca title 'Perfect Strangers' picked up by Italy's True Colours
6 April 2016 8:37 AM, PDT
Fledgling sales outfit has acquired worldwide sales rights to Paolo Genovese’s comedy, a box office hit in Italy.
Italian sales outfit True Colours has taken worldwide rights to Tribeca competitor Perfect Strangers, directed by Paolo Genovese and produced by Marco Belardi.
The film is the only Italian competitor at Tribeca, where it will make its Us premiere later this month. The comedy has already grossed more than $18.2m (€16m) in its native Italy since its release on February 11.
Starring Alba Rohrwacher (I Am Love) and Kasia Smutniak (From Paris With Love), the story follows seven friends who, during a dinner party, decide to share all of their text messages, emails and calls with each other, unveiling a myriad of secrets.
Launched last year by Lucky Red and Indigo Film, this latest acquistion continues True Colours’ trend of picking up Italian films for international release. Other titles on the company’s slate include Roberto Ando’s Le Confessioni »
UK cinema advertising spend up 26% in Q1, 2016
6 April 2016 6:43 AM, PDT
Dcm is reporting strong sales of cinema advertising from sectors including retail, motors, finance and food.
Brands spent 26% more on cinema advertising in Q1, 2016 than in the same period last year, according to UK cinema advertising outfit Digital Cinema Media (Dcm).
Dcm, which represents 80% of the market following its acquisition of the Curzon contract earlier this year, has reported surges in bookings from the retail, motors, finance and food sectors, with the Easter period performing strongly, particularly for superhero blockbuster Batman v Superman.
New brands turning to the medium for their advertising included Gumtree, The History Channel and B&Q.
Gold Spots revenues, the premium 60-second position after film trailers and directly before the feature, were up 244% in Q1, 2016 versus Q1, 2015.
Earlier in 2016, UK broadcaster Sky signed a one-year deal with Pearl & Dean and Dcm to take every Gold Spot before a family film in 2016, which will see the releases of titles including The Jungle Book, Zootropolis »
1-20 of 60 items « Prev | Next »