Indie News

IFC Midnight has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to “Wilding,” Variety has learned. The deal comes in advance of its world premiere at this year’s South by Southwest.

The film follows Anna (Bel Powley), a woman who spent her entire childhood locked in the attic, under the care of a mysterious man she only knows as Daddy (Brad Dourif). Anna is scared to death of a creature he calls the Wildling, a child-eating monster that roams outside. After a small-town sheriff Ellen Cooper (Liv Tyler) frees Anna and helps her start a new life, her childhood nightmares of the Wildling return, disrupting the possibility of a normal life. “Wildling” will debut theatrically and on VOD on April 13.

The film was directed by Fritz Böhm, and written by Böhm and Florian Eder. James Le Gros, Collin Kelly-Sordelet, and Mike Faist round out the cast.

“I’m thrilled to be working with IFC who truly understands ‘Wildling

This year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festivals has announced the remainder of its film festival program, including the full run of their Midnighters, Shorts, Virtual Cinema, Music Video, Title Sequence, and the brand-new Independent Episodic lineup, along with a number of additions to their Features slate. Additionally, the festival has announced that the North American premiere of Wes Anderson’s highly anticipated new stop-motion feature, “Isle of Dogs,” will serve as the event’s Closing Night Film, following the film’s world premiere at Berlin. The festival has also added a number of Sundance favorites, including “Sorry to Bother You,” “Blindspotting,” and “Science Fair.”

This year’s Midnighter’s section — a long-time favorite of the genre-loving SXSW audiences — features 10 genre films, including six world premieres, with offerings that span dark comedies, thrillers, sci-fi, mystery, and slasher horror from a mix of established and first-time filmmakers.

Highlights include Ari Aster’s “Hereditary,

Kate Bosworth has joined the dark comedy The Devil Has a Name from director and co-star Edward James Olmos.

David Strathairn is already attached to the indie about a psychotic oil patriarch who exposes the industry as he attempts to outfight a bullish farmer whose water has been poisoned. Bosworth is to play an oil industry executive.

Bosworth most recently starred in the BBC miniseries SS-GB and Crackle's The Art of More. Her other credits include Superman Returns, Beyond the Sea, Still Alice, Blue Crush, 21 and Homefront.

Patrick Hibler, Robert McEveety, Stephen McEveety and Marty Eli Schwartz are producing...

Sharon Tate’s sister, Debra Tate, is calling Hilary Duff’s upcoming film about the late actress, titled “The Haunting of Sharon Tate,” “classless” and “exploitative.” “It doesn’t matter who it is acting in it — it’s just tasteless,” Tate told People. “It’s classless how everyone is rushing to release something for the 50th anniversary of this horrific event.” Debra Tate was 16 when her sister Sharon was murdered by Charles Manson’s cult followers in 1969, when she was two weeks away from giving birth. Debra Tate also said that the premise of the film — that her sister had a premonition that...

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival will open with an appropriately New York City-centric film: Lisa D’Apolito’s fully authorized Gilda Radner documentary “Love, Gilda,” billed as an “intimate portrait” of the beloved comedy legend and original “Saturday Night Live” star. The film’s world premiere will open the festival on Wednesday, April 18 with an opening night event at the Beacon Theatre. This year’s festival runs April 18 – 29.

The film is directed and produced by D’Apolito with the support of the Gilda Radner estate, and the festival touts it as “a true autobiography of a pioneering woman, told in her own words and in her own voice.” Radner passed away from cancer in 1989.

The new documentary includes audiotapes, rare home movies, and diary entries from Radner herself, along with interviews with her friends and those inspired by her, including Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Cecily Strong, Chevy Chase,

Despite the star power of Kobe Bryant’s “Dear Basketball” and the Pixar strength of “Lou,” “Negative Space” has emerged as the wild card in the race for animated short. It’s a poignant stop-motion work about a father and son bonding over the shared ritual of suitcase packing for his frequent business trips. It’s also the most acclaimed nominee, winning 52 awards throughout 137 festivals.

Appropriately enough, “Negative Space” became a case of life imitating art. Adapted from a poem by Ron Koertge, it was directed by the Baltimore-based duo, Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter (“Between Times”), who ventured to Vendôme, France, to make their short. They not only became expert packers but also efficient stop-motion craftspeople. They like the European vibe (they were previously artists-in-residence at the Netherlands Institute for Animation Film), and teamed with Ikki Films and Manuel Cam Studio.

Playing with Scale

The poem resonated with both directors,

When Timothée Chalamet’s name was called during the Oscar nominations announcement, the 22-year-old breakout star of “Call Me by Your Name” become the youngest Best Actor nominee in almost 80 years. The nomination followed numerous award wins from critic groups throughout the fall, and his role as Elio in Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age romance has put Chalamet on the radar of everyone in Hollywood and beyond. It turns out he’s also made big fans out of two of his idols: Frank Ocean and Xavier Dolan.

For the new edition of V Man magazine, Chalamet got to meet both Ocean and Dolan for two separate interviews in which he was asked about a variety of different topics, from his high school days in New York City to his movie career in “Call Me by Your Name

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the celebrated French director of “Delicatessen” and “Amélie,” has accused Guillermo del Toro of plagiarizing a scene from “Delicatessen” in his 13-time Oscar nominee “The Shape of Water.”

The scene in del Toro’s movie features the characters played by Sally Hawkins and Richard Jenkins performing a charming two-step dance while sitting on a sofa watching an old Hollywood movie. Jeunet thinks del Toro stole the moment from a similar one between two children in “Delicatessen.” The French director explained to Ouest-France (via The Playlist) that he confronted del Toro about the scene.

“I told [del Toro]: ‘You have a lot of imagination, a lot of talent. Why go and [steal] the ideas of others?'” Jeunet told the French publication. “[Del Toro] said, ‘We owe Terry Gilliam everything.’ According

For its 15th edition, the doc-centric, hybrid-friendly annual True/False Film Fest has unveiled a lineup of 40 features, with no less than six world premieres. Black Mother, Khalik Allah’s keenly-awaited follow-up to Field Niggas, is one, as is América, the feature debut from Chase Whiteside & Erick Stoll (profiled in last year’s 25 New Faces of Film). Here’s the lineup; shorts will be announced tomorrow, with the full schedule released on Saturday. For more information, visit the festival’s website. Adriana’s Pact (dir. Lissette Orozco; 2017) The director idolized her glamorous aunt, whose political past holds dark secrets. (Presented by the Kinder Institute on […]

Kazuhiro Tsuji is one of the movie’s most renowned special-effects makeup artists. His work has spanned “Men in Black,” “Hellboy,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and “Darkest Hour,” which has earned him his third Oscar nomination for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling, but it’s probably his time on Ron Howard’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” that he will never forget. Tsuji relived the nightmare that was The Grinch in a recent interview with Vulture (via The Playlist), and it turns out he checked into therapy soon after working with Jim Carrey.

“On set, [Carrey] was really mean to everybody and at the beginning of the production they couldn’t finish,” Tsuji said. “After two weeks we only could finish three days’ worth of shooting schedule, because suddenly he would just disappear and when he came back, everything was ripped apart. We couldn’t shoot anything.”

Carrey

Hollywood is currently in a nostalgic mood for the 1980s (with the 1990s creeping up not far behind). It’s the decade where consumers first experienced music videos, rented VHS tapes, and blockbusters became of a summer staple. But, what’s driving this obsession in Hollywood for the neon lit era?

In a new video essay, Now You See It dives in to the nostalgia for the ’80s. Over the past year, audiences were treated to 1980s inspired shows and films like “It,” “Stranger Things 2,” and Emmy Award winning “Black Mirror” episode, “San Junipero.” But this feeling of constant ’80s throwbackback is not new.

You’ve probably never heard of “Breakout,” Columbia Pictures’ 1975 prison-break movie starring Charles Bronson. That’s to be expected — it’s a ‘B’ movie at best — but its successful release was one of the most important in film distribution history. Why? Because “Breakout” was released on 1,300 screens simultaneously, with national TV advertising. At that time, TV ads for movies were all but unheard of, and releases tended to be either initially exclusive in downtown theaters, or shown in different territories at different times.

Despite predictions that it was a waste of money, “Breakout” was an immediate hit. That convinced Universal to do the same thing for “Jaws” less than a month later, and that film’s massive success remains the most significant change in exhibition history. By creating the notion of a shared experience for 2 million people, it created the template for how most studio features are released today.

Now,

Stepping into the shoes of Han Solo is no easy task, just ask Alden Ehrenreich. The 28-year-old actor best known for roles in Ya romance “Beautiful Creatures” and the Coen Brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!” is about to break into the blockbuster spotlight this May with the release of “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Ehrenreich plays a younger, more idealistic Han Solo in the prequel adventure, and he made sure to get Harrison Ford’s blessing before filming started.

Ford and Ehrenreich got lunch before production on “Solo” kicked off, and it’s during this essential meeting where Ford gave his advice for play “Solo.” Ehrenreich told Entertainment Weekly that Ford was a “real gentleman” during their sit-down chat.

“[Ford] said a great thing when I met him,” Ehrenreich said. “Tell them I told you everything you needed to know, and that you can’t tell anyone.”

Fortunately, Lucasfilm president and “Solo” producer

Howard Hawks famously said that the secret to a good movie was to have “three great scenes and no bad ones,” and several of this year’s Best Picture nominees live up to (or exceed) that standard. More impressively, all of the nine films that are currently in contention for Hollywood’s highest honor have at least one extraordinary moment, at least one indelible passage that indicates why so many people have been seduced by the project. Mileage will vary, but maybe we can agree on that. (No? Well, it was worth a shot.)

Here are the single best scenes from all nine of this year’s Best Picture nominees. Consider this your spoiler alert for all of them.

“Call Me by Your Name”

For the first 120 minutes or so of “Call Me by Your Name,” Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) is more of a peripheral character than anything else. He

When the first iteration of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” launched, George W. Bush was President, gay marriage wasn’t legal, and fighting for Lgbtq rights was a revolutionary act.

15 years later, things have gotten better on a basic, legal level, but society is still scary. Fortunately, here come the Fab Five, preaching their fierce desire to push society beyond tolerance to acceptance — not just for gay people, but for diversity of all kinds.

It feels fair to call the newest “Queer Eye” a reboot, if only because it does feature an entirely new cast. But the role breakdown echoes that of the original series: There’s Tan France (Fashion), Antoni Porowski (Food), Karamo Brown (Culture), Bobby Berk (Design), and Jonathan Van Ness (Style). The group dynamic is notably different, as all five guys bring a puppy-like enthusiasm to each challenge, literally bounding around at times in each subject’s house with gleeful energy.

When you look up “hustle” in the dictionary, there better to be a picture of Steven Soderbergh. With an app-turned-tv-show on HBO right now called “Mosaic,” Soderbergh is also set to premiere his horror film, shot completely on an iPhone, “Unsane” later this year. But if you thought that this meant that the filmmaker was going to slow down, you have another thing coming.

Full disclosure, there are two things this writer needs moving forward. One, a new laptop and, two, to double check quicktime is working before recording a phoner (both items may actually be connected to one another, but I digress…). There have simply been too many interviews this season, but Tuesday afternoon was an opportunity to talk to a true artist, Kazuhiro Tsuji, and even when it doesn’t properly record we are going to make sure he gets credit where credit is due.

If you’ve been looking for something in vein of John Cassavetes and Kenneth Lonergan, then you might want to put the drama “Love After Love” on your radar. The picture spend a good chunk of last year touring the festival circuit and now it’s headed to theaters, and it might be manna for those who prefer their cinema sans explosion.

Co-written and directed by Russell Harbaugh, and starring Chris O’Dowd, Andie MacDowell, James Adomian, Juliet Rylance, Dree Hemingway, and Gareth Williams, the story follows a family that starts falling apart when the husband and father of the clan passes away.

In what could be a big blow to independent filmmakers, Amazon Video Direct will change the way the company compensates filmmakers who use the service to make their shows and movies available for streaming on Amazon Prime. The revenue-sharing program currently pays content owners $0.15 for every hour their content is streamed domestically in the U.S., and $0.06 for every hour it is streamed internationally. Starting March 1, royalty rates will be tiered based on the total number of streaming hours per year.

Rates will only reach $0.15/hour in the U.S. after a movie or TV episode streams for 500,000 hours. For the first 100,000 hours, the rate drops 60 percent to $0.06/hour. Between 100,000 and 500,000 streaming hours, the rates are $0.10/hour (a 33 percent drop). After a million hours are streamed, or at the end of a 365-day cycle, the streamed hours reset to zero and earnings begin again at the lowest tier of $0.06.

To the content providers’ benefit,

Hey SXSW Film Festival, you’re burying the lede! Organizers have announced the latest additions to their 2018 lineup and the expected wave of titles are here: indies, arthouse and genre flicks. But a new Terrence Malick film? C’mon, you can’t just bury that near the bottom!

Yep, while we patiently await the director’s (probably pastoral) WWII movie “Radegund,” he’s ventured into the world of Vr to make “Together.” What’s it about?