Manchester Film Festival (March 15-24) has unveiled its industry talks line-up with Oscar-nominated director Waad Al-Kateab and executives from Curzon Film and Altitude Film Entertainment among the speakers.
Al-Kateab - a 2020 Oscar nominee, and Bafta and Bifa winner for her documentary For Sama - will close the programme with an in-conversation session before screening her latest film We Dare To Dream, which debuted at Tribeca Film Festival last year.
Discussing the current UK film landscape will be Curzon’s head of theatrical sales Jamie Mendonca; Bulldog’s head of distribution and acquisitions Philip Hoile; Altitude’s head of publicity Mark Jones...
Al-Kateab - a 2020 Oscar nominee, and Bafta and Bifa winner for her documentary For Sama - will close the programme with an in-conversation session before screening her latest film We Dare To Dream, which debuted at Tribeca Film Festival last year.
Discussing the current UK film landscape will be Curzon’s head of theatrical sales Jamie Mendonca; Bulldog’s head of distribution and acquisitions Philip Hoile; Altitude’s head of publicity Mark Jones...
- 2/23/2024
- ScreenDaily
Vertigo Releasing has snapped up UK and North American rights to action film Sunray, with a theatrical release planned for later this year. Vertigo will release in North America through recently launched US label Sunrise Pictures.
UK sales outfit Film Seekers has pre-sold further key territories including Australia/New Zealand (Rialto), Benelux (Premiere TV), Poland (Media Squad) and South Korea (Scene & Sound).
Sunray follows a war veteran who calls on friends from his military past to hunt down and take revenge on those responsible for his daughter’s death.
The film stars and was created by former Royal Marine Commandos.
UK sales outfit Film Seekers has pre-sold further key territories including Australia/New Zealand (Rialto), Benelux (Premiere TV), Poland (Media Squad) and South Korea (Scene & Sound).
Sunray follows a war veteran who calls on friends from his military past to hunt down and take revenge on those responsible for his daughter’s death.
The film stars and was created by former Royal Marine Commandos.
- 2/16/2024
- ScreenDaily
It is created by and stars former Royal Marines Commandos.
UK sales outfit Film Seekers has commenced sales on UK action film Sunray, created by and starring former Royal Marines Commandos.
The revenge story, currently in post-production, follows a war veteran who calls on his combat friends from the past to help him on a quest to hunt down those responsible for his daughter’s tragic death. Sunray also tackles the important issues surrounding post-traumatic stress disorder that many veterans face when assimilating back into civilian life.
James Clarke, Daniel Shepherd and Sam Seeley write, direct and produce, who were also Royal Marines.
UK sales outfit Film Seekers has commenced sales on UK action film Sunray, created by and starring former Royal Marines Commandos.
The revenge story, currently in post-production, follows a war veteran who calls on his combat friends from the past to help him on a quest to hunt down those responsible for his daughter’s tragic death. Sunray also tackles the important issues surrounding post-traumatic stress disorder that many veterans face when assimilating back into civilian life.
James Clarke, Daniel Shepherd and Sam Seeley write, direct and produce, who were also Royal Marines.
- 10/31/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Vision Films has acquired world rights to sci-fi romance feature Forever Young, starring Diana Quick (Brideshead Revisited), Bernard Hill (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), Amy Tyger (Foundation), Mark Jackson (The Orville), Stephanie Beacham (Dynasty), Anna Wolf (The Unfamiliar), and Julian Glover (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Written and directed by Henk Pretorius, Forever Young follows an aging woman who is given a chance to become young again with a secret formula. She sees this as an opportunity to right her past, but her husband declines because he has no regrets and wouldn’t change a thing about the life they’ve shared. She must decide if she will take this journey without him and what the consequences would be if she did.
Above is a first trailer for the movie.
Llewelynn Greeff negotiated the deal on behalf of Dark Matter Studios with Lise Romanoff,...
Written and directed by Henk Pretorius, Forever Young follows an aging woman who is given a chance to become young again with a secret formula. She sees this as an opportunity to right her past, but her husband declines because he has no regrets and wouldn’t change a thing about the life they’ve shared. She must decide if she will take this journey without him and what the consequences would be if she did.
Above is a first trailer for the movie.
Llewelynn Greeff negotiated the deal on behalf of Dark Matter Studios with Lise Romanoff,...
- 10/11/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Founded more than 25 years ago by Manuel Catteau, independent French producer and distributor Zed has become over the years a major player in the documentary field. At TV market Unifrance Rendez-vous in Biarritz, Zed revealed to Variety the acquisition of three ambitious history documentary projects, which are available for presales.
“Ukraine 1933: Seeds of Hunger,” a documentary by Guillaume Ribot, produced by Les Films Du Poisson for France Télévisions, recalls the tragedy experienced by Ukrainians between 1931 and 1933: the Holodomor, the great famine organized by Stalin to punish those who refused the collectivization of the countryside and communist ideology, resulted in the deaths of more than 4 million of them.
“The tragedy was disclosed to the world by an intrepid Welsh journalist, Gareth Jones, one of the bravest whistleblowers in history,” Zed states. The completion is scheduled for fall 2022.
Scheduled for fall 2023, “WWII: Operation Barbarossa” focuses on the German invasion of...
“Ukraine 1933: Seeds of Hunger,” a documentary by Guillaume Ribot, produced by Les Films Du Poisson for France Télévisions, recalls the tragedy experienced by Ukrainians between 1931 and 1933: the Holodomor, the great famine organized by Stalin to punish those who refused the collectivization of the countryside and communist ideology, resulted in the deaths of more than 4 million of them.
“The tragedy was disclosed to the world by an intrepid Welsh journalist, Gareth Jones, one of the bravest whistleblowers in history,” Zed states. The completion is scheduled for fall 2022.
Scheduled for fall 2023, “WWII: Operation Barbarossa” focuses on the German invasion of...
- 9/9/2022
- by Trinidad Barleycorn
- Variety Film + TV
International sales agency Bleiberg Entertainment is representing Shogun Films’ action revenge movie “Renegades” and will introduce it to buyers at the online American Film Market (Nov. 1-5).
Directed by action movie veteran Daniel Zirilli, the film recently wrapped in London and stars Nick Moran (“Avengement”), Lee Majors (“The Fall Guy”), Danny Trejo (“Machete”), Louis Mandylor (“Debt Collectors”) and Ian Ogilvy (“We Still Kill The Old Way”).
“Renegades” follows a group of Special Forces veterans who come together to avenge a fallen comrade – a former green beret, who is murdered in London by a ruthless drugs gang.
The cast also includes Patsy Kensit (“Lethal Weapon 2”), Billy Murray (“Rise of the Footsoldier”), Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott (“Nemesis”), Michael Paré (“Hollow Point”) Paul Barber (“The Full Monty”), Stephanie Beacham (“Dynasty”) and — in one of his last roles — Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister (“The Fifth Element”).
The film marks the first in a Zirilli-directed slate of action-based Shogun genre films.
Directed by action movie veteran Daniel Zirilli, the film recently wrapped in London and stars Nick Moran (“Avengement”), Lee Majors (“The Fall Guy”), Danny Trejo (“Machete”), Louis Mandylor (“Debt Collectors”) and Ian Ogilvy (“We Still Kill The Old Way”).
“Renegades” follows a group of Special Forces veterans who come together to avenge a fallen comrade – a former green beret, who is murdered in London by a ruthless drugs gang.
The cast also includes Patsy Kensit (“Lethal Weapon 2”), Billy Murray (“Rise of the Footsoldier”), Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott (“Nemesis”), Michael Paré (“Hollow Point”) Paul Barber (“The Full Monty”), Stephanie Beacham (“Dynasty”) and — in one of his last roles — Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister (“The Fifth Element”).
The film marks the first in a Zirilli-directed slate of action-based Shogun genre films.
- 10/18/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Masked men stormed a Moscow showing of Agnieszka Holland’s film Mr Jones yesterday night, chanting “Shame on the Motherland” as they took over the stage.
In footage posted on Twitter, the group of what appeared to be around 20 people took to the front of Moscow’s Memorial Human Rights Center, where the film was being shown.
The 20-second clip shows them repeatedly chanting “Shame on the Motherland” in Russian.
The Center’s lawyer Irina Sherbakova told The Guardian that police were called and the authorities handcuffed the entrance doors to its office, locking staff and attenders of the screening inside for hours.
“This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last attack on us,” she added.
Holland’s biographical thriller was released in 2019 and starred James Norton as Gareth Jones, a young journalist dispatched to the Ussr in the 1930s to discover evidence of the Holodomor...
In footage posted on Twitter, the group of what appeared to be around 20 people took to the front of Moscow’s Memorial Human Rights Center, where the film was being shown.
The 20-second clip shows them repeatedly chanting “Shame on the Motherland” in Russian.
The Center’s lawyer Irina Sherbakova told The Guardian that police were called and the authorities handcuffed the entrance doors to its office, locking staff and attenders of the screening inside for hours.
“This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last attack on us,” she added.
Holland’s biographical thriller was released in 2019 and starred James Norton as Gareth Jones, a young journalist dispatched to the Ussr in the 1930s to discover evidence of the Holodomor...
- 10/15/2021
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
This panel, part of Screen’s Restart conference (May 18-20) reveals innovative approaches to going cashless while filming that save both time and money.
This panel, part of Screen’s Restart conference (May 18-20), reveals innovative approaches to going cashless while filming that save both time and money, and protect your budget against the risk of currency fluctuations, and reducing paper for a more sustainable shoot.
Sponsored by Centtrip
Speakers:
Simon Liddell, Director of Film, Music and Entertainment - Centtrip
James Shannon, Business Development Manager - Moneypenny Services
Gareth Jones, Independent Production Accountant
Chairperson:
Michael Rosser, Contributing Editor - Screen International...
This panel, part of Screen’s Restart conference (May 18-20), reveals innovative approaches to going cashless while filming that save both time and money, and protect your budget against the risk of currency fluctuations, and reducing paper for a more sustainable shoot.
Sponsored by Centtrip
Speakers:
Simon Liddell, Director of Film, Music and Entertainment - Centtrip
James Shannon, Business Development Manager - Moneypenny Services
Gareth Jones, Independent Production Accountant
Chairperson:
Michael Rosser, Contributing Editor - Screen International...
- 5/19/2021
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
James Norton as Gareth Jones in Mr Jones. Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films
In the early ’30s, a young Welsh journalist named Jones uncovers a secret famine in Stalin’s Soviet Union, a revelation that helps inspire George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” The fact-based Mr Jones is a gripping biographical historical political thriller about the little-remembered courageous Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (James Norton), but in a way, it is also a haunting tale of the critical importance of independent investigative journalists committed to truth.
Acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland helms the English-language Mr Jones, a powerful portrait of courage in truth-telling, inspired by the real-life Welsh journalist Gareth Jones. The drama features a script by Andrea Chalupa and co-stars Peter Sargaard. Interestingly, this film is a reversal of the usual pattern of a men making a film about a courageous woman. Director Holland puts a spotlight on the now little-known Gareth Jones,...
In the early ’30s, a young Welsh journalist named Jones uncovers a secret famine in Stalin’s Soviet Union, a revelation that helps inspire George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” The fact-based Mr Jones is a gripping biographical historical political thriller about the little-remembered courageous Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (James Norton), but in a way, it is also a haunting tale of the critical importance of independent investigative journalists committed to truth.
Acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland helms the English-language Mr Jones, a powerful portrait of courage in truth-telling, inspired by the real-life Welsh journalist Gareth Jones. The drama features a script by Andrea Chalupa and co-stars Peter Sargaard. Interestingly, this film is a reversal of the usual pattern of a men making a film about a courageous woman. Director Holland puts a spotlight on the now little-known Gareth Jones,...
- 6/25/2020
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A good idea for a biopic doesn’t always find its ideal reflection on screen. Look what happened to Leonardo DiCaprio’s J. Edgar (as in Hoover), Hilary Swank’s Amelia (as in Earhart) and Colin Farrell’s Alexander (as in the Great). To that list of stymied ambition, add Mr. Jones, as in Gareth Jones (James Norton), the Welsh journalist whose exposé of Soviet atrocities leading up to World War II pissed off so many higher-ups that he never lived to see the age of 30.
On the surface, director...
On the surface, director...
- 6/19/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Truth Be Told: Holland Revisits the Horror of the Holodomor
Polish director Agnieszka Holland returns to a subject matter favored in her most memorable offerings—lost narratives from the WWII era. Her latest, Mr. Jones, recuperates the investigative journalism of British reporter Gareth Jones, who defied his superiors and his colleagues to uncover the secret behind Stalin’s economic surge despite the bankruptcy of the Kremlin during world economic collapse.
Eventually, the truth behind the genocide and desecration in the Ukraine at the hands of Stalin’s Soviets would come to be revealed as the Holodomor, a horrific extermination which became conveniently eclipsed by Germany’s Holocaust, which required the participation of Russia to overcome.…...
Polish director Agnieszka Holland returns to a subject matter favored in her most memorable offerings—lost narratives from the WWII era. Her latest, Mr. Jones, recuperates the investigative journalism of British reporter Gareth Jones, who defied his superiors and his colleagues to uncover the secret behind Stalin’s economic surge despite the bankruptcy of the Kremlin during world economic collapse.
Eventually, the truth behind the genocide and desecration in the Ukraine at the hands of Stalin’s Soviets would come to be revealed as the Holodomor, a horrific extermination which became conveniently eclipsed by Germany’s Holocaust, which required the participation of Russia to overcome.…...
- 6/18/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Polish director Agnieszka Holland is best known for epic films that explore the inhumanity of World War II, the Oscar-nominated “Europa, Europa” and “In Darkness,” both set in German-controlled areas during the war, among them. In a way, her new film, “Mr. Jones,” begins in similar territory, as a young Welsh journalist tries to warn British diplomats of the dangers posed by an ascendant Adolf Hitler in 1933.
But it doesn’t take long for “Mr. Jones” to turn away from Hitler and Nazi Germany and move to a different totalitarian regime and a different atrocity of the era. The “Mr. Jones” of the title is Gareth Jones, a real-life journalist who traveled to the Soviet Union in 1933 and found evidence of the Holodomor, a man-made famine that killed millions in Ukraine.
It feels as if the story would be a ripe subject for Holland. The filmmaker has not only made monumental films about historical tragedies,...
But it doesn’t take long for “Mr. Jones” to turn away from Hitler and Nazi Germany and move to a different totalitarian regime and a different atrocity of the era. The “Mr. Jones” of the title is Gareth Jones, a real-life journalist who traveled to the Soviet Union in 1933 and found evidence of the Holodomor, a man-made famine that killed millions in Ukraine.
It feels as if the story would be a ripe subject for Holland. The filmmaker has not only made monumental films about historical tragedies,...
- 6/17/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Agnieszka Holland once again proves she is the real deal with this austere biopic of a faith healer in 1930s Czechoslovakia
Only last year at Berlin, Agnieszka Holland presented Mr Jones: a big, brashly ambitious movie inspired by the life of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who proclaimed the truth about Stalin’s terror-famine in the Ukraine in the 1930s, when the liberal west had been content to overlook it.
Mr Jones has just been released in the UK and Holland’s work-rate is clearly prodigious, because she returns with another big period picture from Europe’s painful heart, torn apart by totalitarian ideology, this one scripted by Czech screenwriter Marek Epstein. It is intriguing, if a little frustrating: the lightly fictionalised story of Jan Mikolášek, the Czech herbalist and faith healer who became a cult figure in the 1930s. He treated rich and poor alike, accepting powerful Germans as his...
Only last year at Berlin, Agnieszka Holland presented Mr Jones: a big, brashly ambitious movie inspired by the life of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who proclaimed the truth about Stalin’s terror-famine in the Ukraine in the 1930s, when the liberal west had been content to overlook it.
Mr Jones has just been released in the UK and Holland’s work-rate is clearly prodigious, because she returns with another big period picture from Europe’s painful heart, torn apart by totalitarian ideology, this one scripted by Czech screenwriter Marek Epstein. It is intriguing, if a little frustrating: the lightly fictionalised story of Jan Mikolášek, the Czech herbalist and faith healer who became a cult figure in the 1930s. He treated rich and poor alike, accepting powerful Germans as his...
- 2/27/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Mr. Jones Trailer Agnieszka Holland‘s Mr. Jones (2019) U.K. movie trailer has been released by Signature Entertainment and stars James Norton, Vanessa Kirby, Peter Sarsgaard, Joseph Mawle, and Kenneth Cranham. Plot Synopsis Mr. Jones‘ plot synopsis: “1933. Gareth Jones (James Norton) is an ambitious Welsh journalist who gained fame after his report on being the first foreign [...]
Continue reading: Mr. Jones (2019) U.K. Movie Trailer: James Norton Travels to Ukraine to see Stalin’s Man-made Starvation...
Continue reading: Mr. Jones (2019) U.K. Movie Trailer: James Norton Travels to Ukraine to see Stalin’s Man-made Starvation...
- 9/28/2019
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
"What's being done here will transform mankind." Signature Ent. in the UK has debuted the first trailer for Mr. Jones, the latest film from Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland. This first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, and has stopped by many other international festivals, heading to the London and Zurich Film Festivals next this fall. Mr. Jones brings to the screen the extraordinary and powerful story of the real-life Welsh journalist who uncovered Stalin's genocidal famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, which killed almost 10 million. Before the start of WWII, he travels first into Russia, then down to Ukraine, becoming the first to break the news in the western media of the government-created famine in the Soviet Union. Starring James Norton as journalist Gareth Jones; also featuring Vanessa Kirby, Peter Sarsgaard, Joseph Mawle, Kenneth Cranham, Celyn Jones, Krzysztof Pieczynski, Fenella Woolgar, and Martin Bishop. It's a thrilling,...
- 9/27/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Agnieszka Holland’s film has won the top prize, while Icarus. The Legend of Mietek Kosz scooped the Silver Lions, and Corpus Christi snagged Best Director and Best Screenplay. Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones, which follows a mission undertaken by journalist Gareth Jones, who first reported on the Holodomor, a hunger genocide engineered by Stalin in Ukraine, has taken home the main award, the Golden Lions, from the 44th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. The Polish-British-Ukrainian co-production also won the gong for Best Production Design (courtesy of Grzegorz Piątkowski). The Silver Lions went to Icarus. The Legend of Mietek Kosz by Maciej Pieprzyca. The film is a biopic of the relatively unknown titular Polish jazz musician and composer (a contemporary of Krzysztof Komeda’s), and also won the Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (The Last Family’s Dawid Ogrodnik), Best Cinematography (Witold Płóciennik), Best Costume...
‘Little Monsters’.
The Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has unveiled the first 29 films on its line-up this year, including the world premiere of Good Thing Productions and Passion Pictures’ The Australian Dream which will open the festival August 1.
The documentary, written by Stan Grant and directed by Brit Daniel Gordon, looks at race, identity and belonging from the perspective of former Sydney Swans captain and Indigenous rights activist Adam Goodes, who in 2013 sparked a national conversation about racism after requesting a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter be removed from the ground after calling him an “ape”.
“The Australian Dream is a compelling kickstart both to our festival this year, and to a national conversation,” said Miff artistic director Al Cossar.
‘The Australian Dream’.
“It’s an accomplished piece of documentary filmmaking that tackles broader questions of who we are as a nation, together, in deeply affecting terms. It’s a film for all Australians,...
The Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has unveiled the first 29 films on its line-up this year, including the world premiere of Good Thing Productions and Passion Pictures’ The Australian Dream which will open the festival August 1.
The documentary, written by Stan Grant and directed by Brit Daniel Gordon, looks at race, identity and belonging from the perspective of former Sydney Swans captain and Indigenous rights activist Adam Goodes, who in 2013 sparked a national conversation about racism after requesting a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter be removed from the ground after calling him an “ape”.
“The Australian Dream is a compelling kickstart both to our festival this year, and to a national conversation,” said Miff artistic director Al Cossar.
‘The Australian Dream’.
“It’s an accomplished piece of documentary filmmaking that tackles broader questions of who we are as a nation, together, in deeply affecting terms. It’s a film for all Australians,...
- 5/29/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Agnieszka Holland’s powerful drama stars James Norton as the real-life Welsh journalist who uncovered Stalin’s genocidal famine in Ukraine
Agnieszka Holland’s Mr Jones is a bold and heartfelt movie with a real Lean-ian sweep. First-time screenwriter Andrea Chulupa has been inspired by her grandfather from eastern Ukraine to script this forthright, valuable drama about Stalin’s genocidal famine there, and the courageous Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who first brought it to the world’s attention in the 1930s. This was despite real personal danger in journeying there covertly – and the subsequent disparagement of Stalin’s lickspittle New York Times correspondent in Moscow, Walter Duranty, a man whom posterity has revealed to be a singularly useless idiot.
James Norton brings his A-game to this film, giving a muscular, sympathetic performance as Jones, the idealist intellectual and man of action from Barry in Wales, who has a liking for...
Agnieszka Holland’s Mr Jones is a bold and heartfelt movie with a real Lean-ian sweep. First-time screenwriter Andrea Chulupa has been inspired by her grandfather from eastern Ukraine to script this forthright, valuable drama about Stalin’s genocidal famine there, and the courageous Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who first brought it to the world’s attention in the 1930s. This was despite real personal danger in journeying there covertly – and the subsequent disparagement of Stalin’s lickspittle New York Times correspondent in Moscow, Walter Duranty, a man whom posterity has revealed to be a singularly useless idiot.
James Norton brings his A-game to this film, giving a muscular, sympathetic performance as Jones, the idealist intellectual and man of action from Barry in Wales, who has a liking for...
- 2/11/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Eight titles still to take their places.
Teona Strugar Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya and Agnieska Holland’s Mr Jones have entered Screen’s Berlin jury grid, with the former achieving the better scores of the two.
God Exists currently sits joint top of the grid alongide Wang Quan’an’s Öndög with a 2.8 average, although God Exists has two scores to come which are likely to separate the films. It achieved a mixture of twos and threes, with Paolo Bertolin of Segnocinema giving it top marks of four (excellent).
The film is a drama about a...
Teona Strugar Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya and Agnieska Holland’s Mr Jones have entered Screen’s Berlin jury grid, with the former achieving the better scores of the two.
God Exists currently sits joint top of the grid alongide Wang Quan’an’s Öndög with a 2.8 average, although God Exists has two scores to come which are likely to separate the films. It achieved a mixture of twos and threes, with Paolo Bertolin of Segnocinema giving it top marks of four (excellent).
The film is a drama about a...
- 2/11/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
It can be a terrible burden to be able to see the future, particularly when the rest of the world seems blind to the present. Seldom has that fact been more sobering than it is in Agnieszka Holland’s urgent but disjointed “Mr. Jones,” the true (and somewhat unknown) story of a young man who was cursed with the ability to see what was coming next, as well as the determination to recognize the full horror of what was already there.
An ill-conceived prologue notwithstanding, Holland’s well-intentioned and characteristically unsentimental thriller begins in a musty corner of 1933, where a wide-eyed young Welsh journalist named Gareth Jones is convinced that Adolf Hitler poses a serious threat to the rest of the world. Played by an earnest James Norton (who offsets his natural good looks with a pronounced streak of “do the right thing” dorkiness), Jones is laughed off by the other,...
An ill-conceived prologue notwithstanding, Holland’s well-intentioned and characteristically unsentimental thriller begins in a musty corner of 1933, where a wide-eyed young Welsh journalist named Gareth Jones is convinced that Adolf Hitler poses a serious threat to the rest of the world. Played by an earnest James Norton (who offsets his natural good looks with a pronounced streak of “do the right thing” dorkiness), Jones is laughed off by the other,...
- 2/10/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The story of Gareth Jones is such a fascinating one, built on such intrepid, one-man-against-the-system ideals, that it’s a wonder it hasn’t been filmed into oblivion over the past 80 years. A young Welsh journalist who blew the first public whistle on the Holodomor — the man-made famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine — only to be broadly discredited by his professional peers and murdered before his 30th birthday, he was the quintessential man who knew too much. “Mr. Jones,” Agnieszka Holland’s suitably absorbing but somewhat stuffy biopic, knows too much in a different sense: neophyte screenwriter Andrea Chalupa’s plainly well-researched script is at such pains to put all its fact-finding on the screen that what should be an urgent political thriller proceeds at a bit of a trudge, its human dimensions not always clear in the ultra-low lighting.
A far stricter edit of this baggy 140-minute film would...
A far stricter edit of this baggy 140-minute film would...
- 2/10/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In Berlin with her latest film, Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland gave an impassioned defense of a free press and warned that societies must remain vigilant against growing threats to democracy around the world.
At a press conference Sunday to promote “Mr. Jones,” which world premieres Sunday in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, the Polish director said freedom was “overrated” when people “can choose the darkness instead of the light.”
“Freedom is very difficult,” she said. “It means making choices. It means also to be defeated. It means also to make the mistakes.”
“Mr. Jones” is based on the true story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who struggled to bring to light the story of the Ukrainian famine wrought by the brutal policies of Joseph Stalin. The film stars James Norton, Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard.
Holland called it her “moral duty” to shine a spotlight on what she...
At a press conference Sunday to promote “Mr. Jones,” which world premieres Sunday in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, the Polish director said freedom was “overrated” when people “can choose the darkness instead of the light.”
“Freedom is very difficult,” she said. “It means making choices. It means also to be defeated. It means also to make the mistakes.”
“Mr. Jones” is based on the true story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who struggled to bring to light the story of the Ukrainian famine wrought by the brutal policies of Joseph Stalin. The film stars James Norton, Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard.
Holland called it her “moral duty” to shine a spotlight on what she...
- 2/10/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-nominated director Agnieszka Holland (In Darkness) on Sunday, after expressing puzzlement over Russian nostalgia for the Soviet past and Josef Stalin, added she feared Germany may similarly grow wistful about former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
"I'm afraid about if we come to the moment when the German nation will consider that Adolf Hitler was one of the greatest German leaders," Holland said during a politically charged press conference at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Polish director was in Berlin to talk about Mr. Jones, her drama about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, whose Stalin-era truth-telling about the 1930s ...
"I'm afraid about if we come to the moment when the German nation will consider that Adolf Hitler was one of the greatest German leaders," Holland said during a politically charged press conference at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Polish director was in Berlin to talk about Mr. Jones, her drama about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, whose Stalin-era truth-telling about the 1930s ...
- 2/10/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Oscar-nominated director Agnieszka Holland (In Darkness) on Sunday, after expressing puzzlement over Russian nostalgia for the Soviet past and Josef Stalin, added she feared Germany may similarly grow wistful about former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
"I'm afraid about if we come to the moment when the German nation will consider that Adolf Hitler was one of the greatest German leaders," Holland said during a politically charged press conference at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Polish director was in Berlin to talk about Mr. Jones, her drama about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, whose Stalin-era truth-telling about the 1930s ...
"I'm afraid about if we come to the moment when the German nation will consider that Adolf Hitler was one of the greatest German leaders," Holland said during a politically charged press conference at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Polish director was in Berlin to talk about Mr. Jones, her drama about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, whose Stalin-era truth-telling about the 1930s ...
- 2/10/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Variety has been given exclusive access to first-look footage from Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland’s “Mr. Jones,” which world premieres in Official Competition at the Berlin Film Festival. The film stars James Norton, Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard.
“Mr. Jones” tells the little-known story of Gareth Jones, an ambitious young Welsh journalist who travelled to the Soviet Union in 1933, and discovered the appalling reality behind the myth of a communist “utopia.” What started out as a regular news investigation, soon turned into a life-or-death quest to uncover the truth about a government-induced famine in Ukraine. His efforts are frustrated not just by Soviet censors but other Western journalists who enjoy the patronage of Stalin’s regime, most notably Walter Duranty, the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times. Jones’ story helped inspire George Orwell’s allegorical dystopian novel “Animal Farm.”
In a statement, Holland said: “We wanted to...
“Mr. Jones” tells the little-known story of Gareth Jones, an ambitious young Welsh journalist who travelled to the Soviet Union in 1933, and discovered the appalling reality behind the myth of a communist “utopia.” What started out as a regular news investigation, soon turned into a life-or-death quest to uncover the truth about a government-induced famine in Ukraine. His efforts are frustrated not just by Soviet censors but other Western journalists who enjoy the patronage of Stalin’s regime, most notably Walter Duranty, the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times. Jones’ story helped inspire George Orwell’s allegorical dystopian novel “Animal Farm.”
In a statement, Holland said: “We wanted to...
- 1/28/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Poland’s new generation of producers has been gearing up as the country’s films gain burnished profiles on the world stage — and they’re deeply invested in driving further advances, especially as the country’s parliament is poised to pass rich production incentives.
Building on the success at Cannes of Pawel Pawlikowski’s retro romance “Cold War,” the film’s producer, Ewa Puszczynska, recently joined forces with two other established talents in Poland, Klaudia Śmieja (producer of “High Life” and “Gareth Jones”) and sales agent Jan Naszewski of New Europe Film Sales to form production company Nem Corp.
Puszczynska (who also produced Pawlikowski’s “Ida”) has committed to embracing Poland’s new production incentives in addition to securing both public and private project financing, reflecting a strategy used by many colleagues.
Projects have been rolling into Poland or launching locally with international partners at a brisk pace even without incentives,...
Building on the success at Cannes of Pawel Pawlikowski’s retro romance “Cold War,” the film’s producer, Ewa Puszczynska, recently joined forces with two other established talents in Poland, Klaudia Śmieja (producer of “High Life” and “Gareth Jones”) and sales agent Jan Naszewski of New Europe Film Sales to form production company Nem Corp.
Puszczynska (who also produced Pawlikowski’s “Ida”) has committed to embracing Poland’s new production incentives in addition to securing both public and private project financing, reflecting a strategy used by many colleagues.
Projects have been rolling into Poland or launching locally with international partners at a brisk pace even without incentives,...
- 11/4/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Christopher Smith directing 1930s-set genre film.
Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey) and Sean Harris (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) will lead the cast of director Christopher Smith’s horror The Banishing.
WestEnd Films is producing the project and handling sales at Afm. Principal photography will begin on November 5 in the UK.
Set in the 1930s, The Banishing tells the story of a young reverend and his wife (Jessica Brown Findlay) and daughter who move into a manor with a horrifying secret. When a vengeful spirit haunts the little girl and threatens to tear the family apart, the reverend is forced to confront his beliefs.
Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey) and Sean Harris (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) will lead the cast of director Christopher Smith’s horror The Banishing.
WestEnd Films is producing the project and handling sales at Afm. Principal photography will begin on November 5 in the UK.
Set in the 1930s, The Banishing tells the story of a young reverend and his wife (Jessica Brown Findlay) and daughter who move into a manor with a horrifying secret. When a vengeful spirit haunts the little girl and threatens to tear the family apart, the reverend is forced to confront his beliefs.
- 10/31/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Philippe Tlokinski and Esther Garrel join production in casting reshuffle.
Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired world rights to German director Thorsten Klein’s upcoming English-language debut Adventures Of A Mathematician, inspired by the life of late legendary Polish-American scientist Stanislaw Ulam, whose work contributed to the development of the hydrogen bomb as well as computers.
In separate news for the production, the company also revealed that Polish-French actor Philippe Tlokinski has been cast in the role of the protagonist Stanislaw, or Stan, alongside French actress Esther Garrel. Tlokinski replaces Jakub Gierszal who was originally announced for the role.
Born...
Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired world rights to German director Thorsten Klein’s upcoming English-language debut Adventures Of A Mathematician, inspired by the life of late legendary Polish-American scientist Stanislaw Ulam, whose work contributed to the development of the hydrogen bomb as well as computers.
In separate news for the production, the company also revealed that Polish-French actor Philippe Tlokinski has been cast in the role of the protagonist Stanislaw, or Stan, alongside French actress Esther Garrel. Tlokinski replaces Jakub Gierszal who was originally announced for the role.
Born...
- 9/7/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
James Norton (“McMafia”) can be seen playing intrepid Welsh journalist Gareth Jones in this exclusive first-look image from the much-anticipated movie. “Gareth Jones” is Agnieszka Holland’s upcoming politically charged film about the journalist and his reporting of the Holodomor, a manmade famine in 1930s Ukraine, which claimed millions of lives.
Norton will star alongside Vanessa Kirby (“The Crown”) in the movie, which WestEnd Films is pre-selling at Cannes. He plays Jones as the writer finds evidence of the genocide and breaks the story. Kirby plays Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter who helps him uncover Russian government-led oppression. Having broken the story, Jones then has to fight subsequent attempts to cover up the horrors he saw in Ukraine, meeting a young George Orwell in the process.
Oscar-nominated Holland directs. The film is produced by Andrea Serdaru-Barbul, who also wrote the script, alongside Polish filmmaker Klaudia Smieja, Stanislaw Dziedzic of Film Produkcja,...
Norton will star alongside Vanessa Kirby (“The Crown”) in the movie, which WestEnd Films is pre-selling at Cannes. He plays Jones as the writer finds evidence of the genocide and breaks the story. Kirby plays Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter who helps him uncover Russian government-led oppression. Having broken the story, Jones then has to fight subsequent attempts to cover up the horrors he saw in Ukraine, meeting a young George Orwell in the process.
Oscar-nominated Holland directs. The film is produced by Andrea Serdaru-Barbul, who also wrote the script, alongside Polish filmmaker Klaudia Smieja, Stanislaw Dziedzic of Film Produkcja,...
- 5/10/2018
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
The film centres on an unhappy office worker whose life is taken over by his personal trainer.
Cavan Clerkin (The Last Kingdom) and Craig Fairbrass (Cliffhanger) will lead the cast of psychological thriller Muscle for director Gerard Johnson.
WestEnd Films is launching sales on the project at this week’s Cannes Film Festival and has already secured a deal with French distribution outfit The Jokers.
In the film, Clerkin plays Simon, an unhappy, unambitious office worker whose life is gradually taken over by Terry (Fairbrass), his new, very hands-on personal trainer who reveals himself to be more committed - and...
Cavan Clerkin (The Last Kingdom) and Craig Fairbrass (Cliffhanger) will lead the cast of psychological thriller Muscle for director Gerard Johnson.
WestEnd Films is launching sales on the project at this week’s Cannes Film Festival and has already secured a deal with French distribution outfit The Jokers.
In the film, Clerkin plays Simon, an unhappy, unambitious office worker whose life is gradually taken over by Terry (Fairbrass), his new, very hands-on personal trainer who reveals himself to be more committed - and...
- 5/9/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Green joins from WestEnd Films.
UK sales outfit Bankside Films has appointed Sophie Green as its head of acquisitions and development.
Green joins from WestEnd Films where she held the same position since 2016. Before then, she had roles at Studiocanal, literary agency David Higham Associates, and TV companies Tiger Aspect and Company Pictures.
During her time at WestEnd she worked on Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami, Vicky Jewson’s Close starring Noami Rapace which was recently picked up by Netflix, and Agnieszka Holland’s Gareth Jones starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby.
Green joined Bankside this week and...
UK sales outfit Bankside Films has appointed Sophie Green as its head of acquisitions and development.
Green joins from WestEnd Films where she held the same position since 2016. Before then, she had roles at Studiocanal, literary agency David Higham Associates, and TV companies Tiger Aspect and Company Pictures.
During her time at WestEnd she worked on Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami, Vicky Jewson’s Close starring Noami Rapace which was recently picked up by Netflix, and Agnieszka Holland’s Gareth Jones starring James Norton and Vanessa Kirby.
Green joined Bankside this week and...
- 4/27/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
UK sales outfit WestEnd Films has appointed former AI Film and Icon exec Toby Hill as Head Of Acquisitions And Development, effective immediately. Hill began his career at Icon acquiring titles for UK distribution including Drive, Paranormal Activity, Precious, A Single Man and Man On Wire. In 2012, he joined AI Film, the film-financing arm of Access Industries as Head of Global Acquisitions, building a slate including Oscar-winner I, Tonya and Sundance hit American Animals (Hill was exec producer on both), Lee Daniels’ The Butler and box office hit Hacksaw Ridge.
Maya Amsellem, WestEnd MD, said, “We are thrilled to have Toby join our team. His experience and commercial taste as well as his extensive understanding of the market will be very valuable to WestEnd. Toby has worked on a great number of films, including multiple Academy Award-winners and we are very happy to welcome him at WestEnd. We look forward...
Maya Amsellem, WestEnd MD, said, “We are thrilled to have Toby join our team. His experience and commercial taste as well as his extensive understanding of the market will be very valuable to WestEnd. Toby has worked on a great number of films, including multiple Academy Award-winners and we are very happy to welcome him at WestEnd. We look forward...
- 4/25/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Hill joins UK sales outfit as head of acquisitions and development.
Toby Hill, head of acquisitions at UK based financing outfit AI Film, has joined London-based sales outfit WestEnd Films as head of acquisitions and development.
Hill began his career at the now-closed Icon Film Distribution, acquiring titles for UK distribution including Drive and Paranormal Activity. In 2012 he joined AI Film, the financing arm of Access Industries, as head of global acquisitions. There, he backed a slate including I, Tonya and American Animals.
Hill takes up his WestEnd role immediately and will be with the company in Cannes.
“Toby’s...
Toby Hill, head of acquisitions at UK based financing outfit AI Film, has joined London-based sales outfit WestEnd Films as head of acquisitions and development.
Hill began his career at the now-closed Icon Film Distribution, acquiring titles for UK distribution including Drive and Paranormal Activity. In 2012 he joined AI Film, the financing arm of Access Industries, as head of global acquisitions. There, he backed a slate including I, Tonya and American Animals.
Hill takes up his WestEnd role immediately and will be with the company in Cannes.
“Toby’s...
- 4/25/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: The Victorian-era supernatural tale marks the second feature for Fizz and Ginger Films.
London-based production outfit Fizz and Ginger Films has begun shooting on horror feature The Isle, which stars Game Of Thrones’ Conleth Hill.
Early filming is taking place in Suffolk before moving to Eilean Shona, a remote island off the West coast of Scotland.
Set in 1856, the supernatural horror depicts three shipwrecked sailors who row to a nearby island with four isolated inhabitants. Once there, they discover a mysterious mass graveyard, leaving them desperate to return to the mainland.
Conleth Hill – who plays the eunuch Lord Varys in HBO’s Game Of Thrones – leads a cast that also features Alex Hassell (Cold Mountain), Tori Hart (Two Down), Fisayo Akinade (Lifesaver), Graham Butler (Two Down), Alix Wilton Regan (The Gatehouse), Dickon Tyrrell (The Trial Of Tony Blair), Emma King (Two Down), Joe Bannister (Endeavour) and Ben Lee (Two Down).
Matthew Butler Hart of Fizz and...
London-based production outfit Fizz and Ginger Films has begun shooting on horror feature The Isle, which stars Game Of Thrones’ Conleth Hill.
Early filming is taking place in Suffolk before moving to Eilean Shona, a remote island off the West coast of Scotland.
Set in 1856, the supernatural horror depicts three shipwrecked sailors who row to a nearby island with four isolated inhabitants. Once there, they discover a mysterious mass graveyard, leaving them desperate to return to the mainland.
Conleth Hill – who plays the eunuch Lord Varys in HBO’s Game Of Thrones – leads a cast that also features Alex Hassell (Cold Mountain), Tori Hart (Two Down), Fisayo Akinade (Lifesaver), Graham Butler (Two Down), Alix Wilton Regan (The Gatehouse), Dickon Tyrrell (The Trial Of Tony Blair), Emma King (Two Down), Joe Bannister (Endeavour) and Ben Lee (Two Down).
Matthew Butler Hart of Fizz and...
- 9/2/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Genesis selling astronaut story from Kirk Weddell and Chris Taylor.
Damian Lewis is attached to star in sci-fi thriller Alone, which Genesis Film Sales is selling internationally and presenting to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff).
The high-concept story is about a Us astronaut who has to save the planet when he is the sole occupant of an orbiting space station.
The project will shoot in London. Kirk Weddell wrote the script and will co-direct with Chris Taylor, a VFX veteran who has worked on films including The Dark Knight Rises and Les Miserables.
Weddell and Mark Shields will produce for London-based Atlantic Picture Company. Gareth Jones (Lock Stock, Secretary) will serve as executive producer.
The Homeland actor recently shot another UK production, The Silent Storm, opposite Andrea Riseborough.
Lewis is represented by Markham, Froggatt and Irwin and Wme. Weddell is represented by Intellectual Property Group.
Damian Lewis is attached to star in sci-fi thriller Alone, which Genesis Film Sales is selling internationally and presenting to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff).
The high-concept story is about a Us astronaut who has to save the planet when he is the sole occupant of an orbiting space station.
The project will shoot in London. Kirk Weddell wrote the script and will co-direct with Chris Taylor, a VFX veteran who has worked on films including The Dark Knight Rises and Les Miserables.
Weddell and Mark Shields will produce for London-based Atlantic Picture Company. Gareth Jones (Lock Stock, Secretary) will serve as executive producer.
The Homeland actor recently shot another UK production, The Silent Storm, opposite Andrea Riseborough.
Lewis is represented by Markham, Froggatt and Irwin and Wme. Weddell is represented by Intellectual Property Group.
- 9/6/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Justin Edgar’s teen comedy stars Michael Smiley and Jamie Blackley. Watch the first trailer here.
104 Films’ We Are The Freaks has been chosen as the opening film of the Bornshorts film festival in Denmark, which runs September 12-14.
Written and directed by Justin Edgar, the anarchic “anti-teen comedy” about three misfits on a disastrous night out, is set against the social and political turmoil of 1990.
Rosamund Hanson, Mike Bailey, Sean Teale, Adam Gillen, Hera Hilmar and Amber Anderson also star.
Profile: Justin Edgar and Alex Usborne, 104 Films
Metrodome will release the film in the UK later this year, following its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and market premiere at Luff.
The film is produced by Alex Usborne and Justin Edgar for their UK production company 104 Films, with Gareth Jones and Colin Pons as executive producers. Metfilm Post are co-financiers.
Edgar said: “I am delighted that We Are The Freaks has been invited...
104 Films’ We Are The Freaks has been chosen as the opening film of the Bornshorts film festival in Denmark, which runs September 12-14.
Written and directed by Justin Edgar, the anarchic “anti-teen comedy” about three misfits on a disastrous night out, is set against the social and political turmoil of 1990.
Rosamund Hanson, Mike Bailey, Sean Teale, Adam Gillen, Hera Hilmar and Amber Anderson also star.
Profile: Justin Edgar and Alex Usborne, 104 Films
Metrodome will release the film in the UK later this year, following its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and market premiere at Luff.
The film is produced by Alex Usborne and Justin Edgar for their UK production company 104 Films, with Gareth Jones and Colin Pons as executive producers. Metfilm Post are co-financiers.
Edgar said: “I am delighted that We Are The Freaks has been invited...
- 6/18/2013
- by sarah.cooper@screendaily.com (Sarah Cooper)
- ScreenDaily
While there aren't any horror releases by major studios this week, there is, however, one notable film that should make up for the drought we are having. It is a film that should be re-subtitled "Shock and Awe" as that was how our @Foywonder felt after viewing Birdemic: Shock and Terror.
Anyway, this avian midnight movie sensation is directed by James Nguyen and stars Alan Bagh, Whitney Moore, Janae Caster, Colton Osborne, and Adam Sessa plus five seconds of stock footage of Tippi Hedren from a previous film.
This week also brings us Psych: 9 from Ghost House Underground. This film is directed by Andrew Shortell and produced by Gareth Jones; it stars Sara Foster, Cary Elwes, Michael Biehn, and Gabriel Man. Rounding out the list are a wacky concept that has warrior creatures battling it out for our amusement and a fusion ghost story.
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (Review...
Anyway, this avian midnight movie sensation is directed by James Nguyen and stars Alan Bagh, Whitney Moore, Janae Caster, Colton Osborne, and Adam Sessa plus five seconds of stock footage of Tippi Hedren from a previous film.
This week also brings us Psych: 9 from Ghost House Underground. This film is directed by Andrew Shortell and produced by Gareth Jones; it stars Sara Foster, Cary Elwes, Michael Biehn, and Gabriel Man. Rounding out the list are a wacky concept that has warrior creatures battling it out for our amusement and a fusion ghost story.
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (Review...
- 2/22/2011
- by kwlow
- DreadCentral.com
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