Join 4 films 2019

EXCLUSIVE : Good Deed Entertainment has acquired North American and UK rights to the indie drama Midday Black Midnight Blue , starring 2x Emmy winner Merritt Wever ( Godless ), slating it for a day-and-date release in June. The first feature from writer-directors Samantha Soule and Daniel Talbott, also starring Chris Stack (AMC’s Interview with the Vampire ) and Soule ( Godless ), follows Ian (Stack) as he grapples with his shifting memories of Liv (Soule), a woman he once loved. For Ian, it’s a chance run-in with Liv’s sister (Wever) that sparks a journey in which he has a chance to reconnect to the light and fight his way back to life. The film, which world premiered at last year’s Seattle Film Festival, is produced by Soule, Talbott and Stack, as well as Lovell Holder and Addie Johnson Talbott. Exec producers are Timothy Farrell, Conner Marx and Will Pullen. GDE’s EVP of Acquisitions Erik Donley negotiated Midday Black ‘s deal for the company, with … [Read more...] about Merritt Wever-Led ‘Midday Black Midnight Blue’ Acquired By Good Deed; Coral Peña, Nicole Byer Board ‘Thelma’; More – Film Briefs

More than 300 leading figures from the French film and TV world have gotten behind a petition decrying controversial pension reforms spearheaded by the government of President Emmanuel Macron . French stars Juliette Binoche , Audrey Fleurot, Camille Cottin , Swann Arlaud, Jeanne Balibar, Bérenice Béjo, Laure Calamy, Camille Cottin, Pierre Deladonchamps and Noémie Merlant; directors Michel Hazanavicius , Alice Diop , Kim Chapiron, Maimouna Doucouré, Robert Guédiguian and Alain Guiraudie, as well as producer Saïd Ben Saïd were among the signatories. “It is high time to make our voices heard, because cinema, theater, culture, even if they sometimes offer dreams and a means of escape, above all speak of our world,” read an open letter to Macron accompanying the petition. The petition was launched under the banner of the Cinema Entertainment Collective on the Liberation newspaper website on Thursday afternoon, as a national strike brought public services to a … [Read more...] about French Film & TV Stars Get Behind Petition Decrying Macron Pension Reforms; King Charles State Visit Postponed Due To Unrest

Motherland , a “dark and monumental” film about neo-nationalism in Belarus, earned the top prize tonight at the prestigious CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen. Belorussian directors Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka accepted the Dox:Award honor at a ceremony at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in the Danish capital. Jurors praised Motherland as “a cinematic and meaningful film that took its time unfolding the complexity of living within an oppressive and unjust system. It poses questions about the idea of an individual choice within a cornered society. The title of the film is a way to give back the power to the women who are at the forefront of this fight.” [See the full list of CPH:DOX winners below]. The world premiere of Motherland at CPH:DOX comes at a particularly timely moment, just over a year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine with key assistance from the Kremlin-allied Belorussian government. Russian forces trained in Belarus in advance of the … [Read more...] about ‘Motherland,’ Belorussian Film That Challenges Country’s Nationalist Push, Takes Top Prize At CPH:DOX; See Full Winners List

Neon has taken the North American rights to the Anne Hathaway -starring Sundance Film Festival premiere Eileen , from director William Oldroyd ( Lady Macbeth ). The distributor is eyeing a fall theatrical release. Oldroyd’s connection to Sundance began in 2013 when his short film Best won the Short Film Competition. Eilee has already notched 87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics since its Park City debut in January. The pic, based on the 2015 debut novel by Otessa Moshfegh, is set during a bitter 1964 Massachusetts winter, when young secretary Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) becomes enchanted by the glamorous new counselor Rebecca (Hathaway) at the prison where she works. Their budding friendship takes a twisted turn when Rebecca reveals a dark secret — throwing Eileen onto a sinister path. Shea Whigham, Marin Ireland and Owen Teague also star in the pic, which was adapted for the screen by Moshfegh with Luke Goebel. The pic was produced by Fifth Season, … [Read more...] about Neon Acquires Domestic Rights To Anne Hathaway Sundance Movie ‘Eileen’

EXCLUSIVE : Freestyle Digital Media has acquired North American VOD rights to the documentary Grandpa Was An Emperor from director Constance Marks , whose last feature, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey , won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance. The new film, which premiered to rave reviews at the DOC NYC Festival in 2021, is set for theatrical engagement in Los Angeles from April 7-13 at Laemmles Town Center in Encino, with evening showings on the 7th and 8th to be followed by Q&As with Marks, as well as her fellow producers and talent. It’s set for release on digital on May 30. Exec produced by 2x Academy Award nominee Cynthia Erivo , Grandpa Was An Emperor follows Yeshi Kassa, great-granddaughter of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, as she embarks on a personal quest to discover what happened to her closest relatives during the coup of 1974. While Yeshi and her older sister were thousands of miles away in a British boarding school, her … [Read more...] about ‘Grandpa Was An Emperor’ Documentary Exec Produced By Cynthia Erivo Sets Freestyle Release

EXCLUSIVE: Kumail Nanjiani , Patton Oswalt , comedian James Acaster and Emily Alyn Lind have joined the cast of the live-action sequel to Sony Pictures’ hit film, Ghostbusters : Afterlife . Gil Kenan is directing, and the previous pic’s cast including Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon will return as the setting shifts to the original films’ New York City and firehouse. Jason Reitman , who directed the 2021 pic, will move into the writer-producer role alongside co-scribe Kenan and Jason Blumenfeld. Not much is known about the sequel, but sources say the plan is to return to New York City and the iconic firehouse made famous in the original Ghostbusters films. It is slated for a December 2023 release . It’s been a high priority for Sony to get a sequel in production after Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the latest sequel to the iconic 1984 film, became a hit with its November 2021 opening . Directed and co-written by Reitman, and executive produced and co-written by … [Read more...] about Kumail Nanjiani And Patton Oswalt Among Newest Additions To Cast Of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Sequel

World class climber Jimmy Chin met his future wife, filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi , over a mountain – of footage. He had been working for a number of years on the documentary that would become Meru , the story of an attempt by Chin and his fellow alpinists and friends Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk to become the first to summit the perilous Shark’s Fin peak in the Himalayas. Perhaps because he was so close to the subject matter, the film wasn’t quite cohering. “I had submitted it to a few film festivals and got turned down,” Chin explained during an Artists & Auteurs conversation at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. He told moderator Thom Powers, TIFF’s documentary programmer and host of the Pure Nonfiction podcast, that while struggling over the film he crossed paths with Vasarhelyi at a conference. “I knew that she had quite an accomplished career as a filmmaker,” Chin said. “So, I asked her to screen what I had cut so far. She didn’t call me back for three months, but it … [Read more...] about Oscar-Winning Filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin On Love Stories – Their Own, And They One They Tell In ‘Wild Life’ – CPH:DOX

Detective John Luther’s movie debut helped lock up millions of UK viewers for Netflix , but the feature fell well short of other film offerings on Netflix. Luther: The Fallen Sun was watched by 3M people on TV sets, according to Barb, the official audience research group. It has also occupied first place in Netflix’s top-10 movies in the UK for two weeks. Luther was only sixth in the list of Netflix’s most-watched movies since Barb began reporting viewing figures for streamers in November 2021, according to a Deadline analysis. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery spent two weeks in Barb’s list of the top 50 shows and films in the UK, amassing a total of 18.5M viewers in that time. Don’t Look Up also spent two weeks in Barb’s list, meaning it was watched by 15M people. The Adam Project (11.1M), The Gray Man (6.9M), and Enola Holmes 2 (4.6M) also performed well. The figures only include people watching on television sets, meaning that viewing on mobile … [Read more...] about ‘Luther: The Fallen Sun’ Arrests 3M UK Viewers, But Struggles To Match Other Netflix Movies

Motion Picture Corporation of America , the Brad Krevoy -led producer of shows like Hallmark Channel’s When Calls The Heart , has hired two senior executives and re-upped a third. Jennifer Provencher , a former Netflix exec, has been named SVP of Business Affairs. She will focus on business and legal affairs for MPCA films and series. In addition to her post as Director of Business & Legal Affairs at Netflix, Provencher was previously VP, Business and Legal Affairs for Shine America, now known Endemol Shine North America. Courtney Colman has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. She has been CFO at multiple companies, among them XPRIZE Foundation, Mob Scene and Gold Circle Films and before that was SVP Finance & Business Development at CBS Films and VP Participations at Sony Pictures Entertainment. As CFO of MPCA, she will oversee strategic planning, accounting, finance, budgeting and forecasting, Veteran producer Amy Krell has also re-upped at MPCA … [Read more...] about ‘When Calls The Heart’ Producer Motion Picture Corporation Of America Hires Two Senior Execs, Re-Ups A Third

Our Boys creator Hagai Levi has said he was arrested briefly during a protest in Tel Aviv on Thursday. Following his return from the Series Mania confab, Levi attended a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s planned overhaul of the Israeli judicial system during what was dubbed “rage day.” Many such protests have broken out across the country over the past few weeks. Levi said people started being arrested for standing in the road instead of sidewalks and he was stopped by police after stepping down from the sidewalk onto the street. According to Levi, he was grabbed by police and walked into a prisoners truck where he was detained in an arrest cell for a couple of hours and had his rights read to him. Levi and the other prisoners were driven to an unknown location and told to exit the vehicle on condition of leaving the area, he said. “I saw some violent arrests, was filming them with my iPhone and the police noticed and didn’t like it,” added … [Read more...] about ‘Our Boys’ Creator Hagai Levi Arrested Briefly At Israeli Protest