Strange and unsettling, Amanda Kramer’s depiction of a TV entertainer’s descent is intriguing and amusing, with Sophie von Haselberg the multi-tasking star
Musician turned film-maker Amanda Kramer gave us a retro campy reverie of queer longing in her previous feature Please Baby Please which, though interesting, was oddly unsatisfying and insubstantial. This works much better: a genuinely strange and unsettling creation whose meaning and form can’t quite be pinned down.
It appears to be an imaginary standalone primetime US TV special which went out in some alternative dream-universe between 1975 and 1985; it is centred on one particular star, a brassy, heart-on-sleeve song-and-dance performer called Sissy St Claire, played by Sophie von Haselberg. She does musical numbers, elaborate costume changes, dance routines, goofy comedy sketches, all in the cause of entertainment. Sissy looks like a cross between Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler (Von Haselberg is in fact Midler’s...
Musician turned film-maker Amanda Kramer gave us a retro campy reverie of queer longing in her previous feature Please Baby Please which, though interesting, was oddly unsatisfying and insubstantial. This works much better: a genuinely strange and unsettling creation whose meaning and form can’t quite be pinned down.
It appears to be an imaginary standalone primetime US TV special which went out in some alternative dream-universe between 1975 and 1985; it is centred on one particular star, a brassy, heart-on-sleeve song-and-dance performer called Sissy St Claire, played by Sophie von Haselberg. She does musical numbers, elaborate costume changes, dance routines, goofy comedy sketches, all in the cause of entertainment. Sissy looks like a cross between Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler (Von Haselberg is in fact Midler’s...
- 11/7/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Sophie von Haselberg stars in the film that has played at Rotterdam, Fantasia, Edinburgh and Fantastic Fest.
Amanda Kramer’s Give Me Pity! has sold to Bulldog for a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland from France-uk sales outfit Alief.
Sophie von Haselberg stars as a young performer who hits the small screen for her first ever television special, while desperation and unease looms.
Sarah Winshall and Jacob Agger produce the title, which has played at Rotterdam, Fantasia, Edinburgh and Fantastic Fest.
Universcine has French rights. It is currently on release in North America with Utopia and in Australia...
Amanda Kramer’s Give Me Pity! has sold to Bulldog for a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland from France-uk sales outfit Alief.
Sophie von Haselberg stars as a young performer who hits the small screen for her first ever television special, while desperation and unease looms.
Sarah Winshall and Jacob Agger produce the title, which has played at Rotterdam, Fantasia, Edinburgh and Fantastic Fest.
Universcine has French rights. It is currently on release in North America with Utopia and in Australia...
- 5/23/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Feature examines film as conduit for humanity’s end-of-millennium fear, anxiety, elation and obsession.
New York and LA-based genre arthouse specialists Yellow Veil Pictures have acquired worldwide rights to Amanda Kramer’s cyberspace cinema documentary So Unreal narrated by Blondie singer and pop icon Debbie Harry and will launch sales in Cannes.
So Unreal puts cyberspace cinema from 1981-2001 like The Matrix, Tron, Tetsuo and eXisTenz under the spotlight and examines film as a conduit for humanity’s fear, anxiety, elation and obsession over the emerging technology at the end of the millennium.
“What a deep honour that Debbie Harry lent her legendary,...
New York and LA-based genre arthouse specialists Yellow Veil Pictures have acquired worldwide rights to Amanda Kramer’s cyberspace cinema documentary So Unreal narrated by Blondie singer and pop icon Debbie Harry and will launch sales in Cannes.
So Unreal puts cyberspace cinema from 1981-2001 like The Matrix, Tron, Tetsuo and eXisTenz under the spotlight and examines film as a conduit for humanity’s fear, anxiety, elation and obsession over the emerging technology at the end of the millennium.
“What a deep honour that Debbie Harry lent her legendary,...
- 5/9/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Amanda Kramer's Please Baby Please is showing exclusively on Mubi starting March 3, 2023, in the United States, and March 31, 2023, in most countries in the series The New Auteurs.It says a lot that Amanda Kramer’s new film frequently features the tinkly strains of the Skyliners’ 1958 song “Since I Don’t Have You”: it has a woozily helpless romantic masochism that’s long since been discouraged by contemporary thinking about partnership. Although it may not actually take romantic suffering as its thesis, Please Baby Please—another title reminiscent of a yearning-filled doo-wop track—does embody that song’s aura of lyrical self-flagellation in a host of surprising and bold ways. Kramer’s film retools the gendered conventions around sacrifice and control in a partnership, allowing that audio cue to exemplify the paradox of power and sex in romantic love.
- 3/31/2023
- MUBI
It may feel like we’re heading into our sixth month of winter, but whatever the weather says, spring is technically here.
Ringing in April (hopefully sans showers), The Independent’s team of critics and culture editors have hand-selected the very best TV series, films, music, exhibitions, books and theatre to enjoy over the weekend.
Chief art critic Mark Hudson heads to Dundee to learn about the history of tartan in Scotland, while TV editor Ellie Harrison checks out comedy queen Daisy May Cooper’s most serious role to date in Rain Dogs. In the film arena, Adam White celebrates both artsy Mubi releases (Please Baby Please) and surprisingly good blockbusters (Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves). Music editor Roisin O’Connor sings the praises of indie supergroup boygenius’s edgily titled five-star album the record. Arts editor Jessie Thompson delves into pop music’s recent past with Michael Cragg’s...
Ringing in April (hopefully sans showers), The Independent’s team of critics and culture editors have hand-selected the very best TV series, films, music, exhibitions, books and theatre to enjoy over the weekend.
Chief art critic Mark Hudson heads to Dundee to learn about the history of tartan in Scotland, while TV editor Ellie Harrison checks out comedy queen Daisy May Cooper’s most serious role to date in Rain Dogs. In the film arena, Adam White celebrates both artsy Mubi releases (Please Baby Please) and surprisingly good blockbusters (Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves). Music editor Roisin O’Connor sings the praises of indie supergroup boygenius’s edgily titled five-star album the record. Arts editor Jessie Thompson delves into pop music’s recent past with Michael Cragg’s...
- 3/31/2023
- by Culture Staff,Mark Hudson,Jessie Thompson,Adam White,Ellie Harrison and Roisin O'Connor
- The Independent - TV
Amanda Kramer's Please Baby Please is showing exclusively on Mubi starting March 3, 2023, in the United States, and March 31, 2023, in most countries in the series The New Auteurs.I wrote a film set in the 1950s, but I’ve never been interested in the preciousness most filmmakers project as that era's faux aura. Those delicate costumes and unironically kitschy props, that eerie “perfect museum”-like quality; I find it all terribly dull. The mid-to-late 20th century's rockabilly subculture offered us a much hipper, grittier, grimier version of that decade. I prefer façade and theatricality because I'm not intrigued by reality and never feel compelled to portray it. My favorite cinema depicts worlds so unreal that they uncover profound meanings far beyond any "authentic" account of life.How to be profound and authentic about marriage. Marriage born from perverse societal pressure, marriage for the sake of traditional/religious imperative, marriage without a sense of possible ending,...
- 3/30/2023
- MUBI
Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” shot its way to the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £5.3 million ($6.5 million) opening weekend, according to numbers released by Comscore.
In its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” collected £1.09 million in second place for a total of £4.09 million. In third place, Warner Bros.’ “Creed III” earned £731,273 and now has a total of £12.8 million after four weekends.
Paramount’s “Scream VI” grossed £597,937 in fourth place in its third weekend for a total of £6.2 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Allelujah” that took £463,973 in its second weekend for a total of £2.02 million.
The other debut in the top 10 was Paramount’s “80 For Brady” that earned £158,937 in ninth place.
Mubi release “The Five Devils” collected £16,766, including previews.
This week, among speciality releases, Kaleidoscope Entertainment is releasing “Heathers: The Musical,” the filmed version of the hit stage musical,...
In its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” collected £1.09 million in second place for a total of £4.09 million. In third place, Warner Bros.’ “Creed III” earned £731,273 and now has a total of £12.8 million after four weekends.
Paramount’s “Scream VI” grossed £597,937 in fourth place in its third weekend for a total of £6.2 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Allelujah” that took £463,973 in its second weekend for a total of £2.02 million.
The other debut in the top 10 was Paramount’s “80 For Brady” that earned £158,937 in ninth place.
Mubi release “The Five Devils” collected £16,766, including previews.
This week, among speciality releases, Kaleidoscope Entertainment is releasing “Heathers: The Musical,” the filmed version of the hit stage musical,...
- 3/28/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The Casting Society announced its winners in film, television, and theater on Wednesday night, honoring Best Picture front-runner “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” as well as Oscar nominees “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “The Fabelmans,” and “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.”
The casting branch of the academy is a year shy of a decade old and still doesn’t have an Oscar category of its own. However, the Casting Society has been handing out the Artios Awards for 38 years (“Artios” is from the ancient Greek meaning “perfectly fitted.”).
Nominees for feature films were announced on January 10 (two days before Oscar nominations voting begins). Many of the leading Academy Awards contenders reaped bids across the various categories according to production cost. Winners were revealed at a ceremony on March 9 (two days after the close of final Oscar voting).
Last year’s big budget winners were the comedy “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and...
The casting branch of the academy is a year shy of a decade old and still doesn’t have an Oscar category of its own. However, the Casting Society has been handing out the Artios Awards for 38 years (“Artios” is from the ancient Greek meaning “perfectly fitted.”).
Nominees for feature films were announced on January 10 (two days before Oscar nominations voting begins). Many of the leading Academy Awards contenders reaped bids across the various categories according to production cost. Winners were revealed at a ceremony on March 9 (two days after the close of final Oscar voting).
Last year’s big budget winners were the comedy “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and...
- 3/10/2023
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
When the curtain rises on Sissy St. Clare's Saturday night television special — the one she has desperately coveted for so long now — she's frank with the audience about the realities of "making it." It's no easy feat, but a girl like her isn't going to stop for anything. As her wide-eyed, brightly smiling optimism bleeds through the show's catchy opening number "I'm Making It" — punctuated by the repeated lyric "Going straight to your heart on demand!" — she tells the audience that she has so much planned for them, including stakes that go "higher and higher and higher." It tapers off and she launches into a monologue that becomes a covenant with the audience, promising them that the special won't end until she's "bashed in" and "begging each and every one of you to set me free."
As she moves back into the happy-go-lucky world of dancing and singing and "making it,...
As she moves back into the happy-go-lucky world of dancing and singing and "making it,...
- 3/1/2023
- by Lex Briscuso
- Slash Film
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” continues its strong awards season performance by pulling off an impressive sweep at the 14th Annual Dorian Awards. The Dorians are bestowed by Galeca: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, a group of over 400 critics, journalists, and media icons. A24’s multiverse-jumping family drama scored seven wins, a victory in every category for which it was nominated.
“Everything Everywhere” snatched the coveted Film of the Year title, while creative duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert co-won both best director and best screenplay honors. In Galeca’s gender neutral acting races, Michelle Yeoh seized Performance of the Year and Ke Huy Quan edged out two of his costars for Supporting Performance. Though Stephanie Hsu lost the supporting race, the critics group did name her their Rising Star of the Year. The movie also won LGBTQ Film of the Year and Visually Striking Film of the Year.
“Everything Everywhere” snatched the coveted Film of the Year title, while creative duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert co-won both best director and best screenplay honors. In Galeca’s gender neutral acting races, Michelle Yeoh seized Performance of the Year and Ke Huy Quan edged out two of his costars for Supporting Performance. Though Stephanie Hsu lost the supporting race, the critics group did name her their Rising Star of the Year. The movie also won LGBTQ Film of the Year and Visually Striking Film of the Year.
- 2/23/2023
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including an epic six-film series dedicated to the brand new restorations of the films of Nina Menkes. The slate also includes a Brian De Palma double bill with Obsession and Body Double as well as Paul Schrader’s Hardcore.
Additional highlights include the Andrea Riseborough-led Please Baby Please, three films by Eugene Kotlyarenko, a Ghost in the Shell double bill, and, ahead of their release of Passages later this year, Ira Sach’s Little Men.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
March 1 – Glass Life, directed by Sara Cwynar | Brief Encounters
March 2 – The Great Sadness of Zohara, directed by Nina Menkes | Phantom Cinema: The Films of Nina Menkes
March 3 – Please Baby Please, directed by Amanda Kramer | Mubi Spotlight
March 4 – Hardcore, directed by Paul Schrader
March 5 – Kedi, directed by Ceyda Torun
March 6 – Magdalena Viraga, directed by...
Additional highlights include the Andrea Riseborough-led Please Baby Please, three films by Eugene Kotlyarenko, a Ghost in the Shell double bill, and, ahead of their release of Passages later this year, Ira Sach’s Little Men.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
March 1 – Glass Life, directed by Sara Cwynar | Brief Encounters
March 2 – The Great Sadness of Zohara, directed by Nina Menkes | Phantom Cinema: The Films of Nina Menkes
March 3 – Please Baby Please, directed by Amanda Kramer | Mubi Spotlight
March 4 – Hardcore, directed by Paul Schrader
March 5 – Kedi, directed by Ceyda Torun
March 6 – Magdalena Viraga, directed by...
- 2/21/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Throughout her screen career, Andrea Riseborough.
It’s the kind of recognition that’s set to not only boost Riseborough’s profile considerably, but will get To Leslie (and several of the actor’s other smaller projects) to far bigger audiences. “I love film and the most wonderful part of the process is sharing it,” she tells Empire in a major new career-spanning interview, taking place just days after her Oscar nomination was announced. “Usually [after release] you have a moment to look back and think, ‘Okay, that was that,’ and you close that chapter. But when the chapter feels nowhere near being closed and it’s only been seen by three people at the Angelika, you feel so despondent and you start really losing faith in the power that something very pure can break through all the noise. Sometimes you want to jump out of your own industry because that thing...
It’s the kind of recognition that’s set to not only boost Riseborough’s profile considerably, but will get To Leslie (and several of the actor’s other smaller projects) to far bigger audiences. “I love film and the most wonderful part of the process is sharing it,” she tells Empire in a major new career-spanning interview, taking place just days after her Oscar nomination was announced. “Usually [after release] you have a moment to look back and think, ‘Okay, that was that,’ and you close that chapter. But when the chapter feels nowhere near being closed and it’s only been seen by three people at the Angelika, you feel so despondent and you start really losing faith in the power that something very pure can break through all the noise. Sometimes you want to jump out of your own industry because that thing...
- 2/16/2023
- by Ben Travis
- Empire - Movies
Tonya Lewis Lee, co-director and producer of the buzzy documentary “Aftershock,” has signed with Artists First.
Agency co-president Brian Dobbins will represent her as a producer, director, writer, entrepreneur and women’s health advocate. A storyteller whose work has resonated with marginalized communities for over two decades, Lee intends to expand her advocacy and offer Black and Brown communities access to platforms that will share overlooked and undervalued stories.
“Aftershock” premiered in July on Hulu through the label Onyx Collective, a unit devoted to creators of color which was set up by Disney General Entertainment. It examined the maternal mortality crisis plaguing Black and Brown women in America, won the 2022 Sundance Film Festival special jury award for Impact for Change and is nominated for best documentary feature and best political documentary at this year’s Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.
Lee’s film and TV work spans from nonfiction to family-friendly...
Agency co-president Brian Dobbins will represent her as a producer, director, writer, entrepreneur and women’s health advocate. A storyteller whose work has resonated with marginalized communities for over two decades, Lee intends to expand her advocacy and offer Black and Brown communities access to platforms that will share overlooked and undervalued stories.
“Aftershock” premiered in July on Hulu through the label Onyx Collective, a unit devoted to creators of color which was set up by Disney General Entertainment. It examined the maternal mortality crisis plaguing Black and Brown women in America, won the 2022 Sundance Film Festival special jury award for Impact for Change and is nominated for best documentary feature and best political documentary at this year’s Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.
Lee’s film and TV work spans from nonfiction to family-friendly...
- 11/7/2022
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Who would’ve thought that ten years removed from the “Harry Potter” franchise, the most interesting and consistent actor to come out of that young ensemble would be the kid who played Dudley Dursley, of all people? Yet with “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Harry Melling has accumulated a pretty impressive CV.
Continue reading ‘Please Baby Please’ Review: Amanda Kramer’s ’50s Musical Is Visually Spectacular But Narratively Muddled at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Please Baby Please’ Review: Amanda Kramer’s ’50s Musical Is Visually Spectacular But Narratively Muddled at The Playlist.
- 10/31/2022
- by Christian Gallichio
- The Playlist
Five specialized films (broadly defined) are among the top 13 grossing titles this weekend, including three in the top 10: “Till”(United Artists) , “Terrifier 2” (Iconic), and “TÁR” (Focus). That’s the good news, with continued strong access to a large number of theaters to maximize the grosses.
Less good news: Most of the grosses run far below past comparable films.
James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” the week’s biggest new platform release, could manage only 72,000 in six theaters. Given decent reviews, its director, and a cast that includes Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins, that’s disappointing. The 1980s coming-of-age story had six top New York/Los Angeles theaters.
“Holy Spider” (Utopia), a Danish-produced film about an Iranian serial killer, had an impressive 17,000 opening at New York’s IFC Center. That shows (at least initially) a less-commercial title can success with niche/genre appeal.
At the other extreme, “Call Me” (Roadside...
Less good news: Most of the grosses run far below past comparable films.
James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” the week’s biggest new platform release, could manage only 72,000 in six theaters. Given decent reviews, its director, and a cast that includes Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins, that’s disappointing. The 1980s coming-of-age story had six top New York/Los Angeles theaters.
“Holy Spider” (Utopia), a Danish-produced film about an Iranian serial killer, had an impressive 17,000 opening at New York’s IFC Center. That shows (at least initially) a less-commercial title can success with niche/genre appeal.
At the other extreme, “Call Me” (Roadside...
- 10/30/2022
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Please Baby Please Trailer — Amanda Kramer‘s Please Baby Please (2022) movie trailer has been released by Music Box Films. The Please Baby Please trailer stars Andrea Riseborough, Harry Melling, Karl Glusman, Demi Moore, Cole Escola, and Ryan Simpkins. Crew Amanda Kramer and Noel David Taylor wrote the screenplay for Please Baby Please. Plot Synopsis Please Baby [...]
Continue reading: Please Baby Please (2022) Movie Trailer: Andrea Riseborough stars in a Melodrama with Romantic Songs and S&m Dance Routines...
Continue reading: Please Baby Please (2022) Movie Trailer: Andrea Riseborough stars in a Melodrama with Romantic Songs and S&m Dance Routines...
- 9/17/2022
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Demi Moore is in talks to join the cast of Feud: Capote’s Women, the second installment of FX’s anthology series from Ryan Murphy and Plan B, sources tell Deadline. Reps for FX and 20th Television, which is behind the Feud franchise, declined comment.
If the deal makes, Moore would join Tom Hollander, who stars as Capote, Calista Flockhart, Diane Lane, Naomi Watts and Chloë Sevigny in the cast.
An adaptation of Laurence Leamer’s bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, the miniseries is set in the 1970s and ends with Truman Capote’s death in 1984. It chronicles the tale of the famous wunderkind author as he stabs several of his female friends — whom he called his “swans” — in the back by publishing a roman à clef short story called “La Côte Basque 1965” in Esquire in 1975. The...
If the deal makes, Moore would join Tom Hollander, who stars as Capote, Calista Flockhart, Diane Lane, Naomi Watts and Chloë Sevigny in the cast.
An adaptation of Laurence Leamer’s bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, the miniseries is set in the 1970s and ends with Truman Capote’s death in 1984. It chronicles the tale of the famous wunderkind author as he stabs several of his female friends — whom he called his “swans” — in the back by publishing a roman à clef short story called “La Côte Basque 1965” in Esquire in 1975. The...
- 9/16/2022
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Camp’s an acquired taste, but when it’s good, it is oh so good. Case in point: Amanda Kramer‘s “Please Baby Please,” fresh off its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year.
The new film stars Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a couple in 1950s Manhattan who witness a murder and become the obsession of a local greaser gang.
Continue reading ‘Please Baby Please’ Trailer: Get Camp With Director Amanda Kramer On October 28 at The Playlist.
The new film stars Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a couple in 1950s Manhattan who witness a murder and become the obsession of a local greaser gang.
Continue reading ‘Please Baby Please’ Trailer: Get Camp With Director Amanda Kramer On October 28 at The Playlist.
- 9/16/2022
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
"What if… you just wanna get a little choked?" Music Box Films has revealed an official trailer for an indie art house film titled Please Baby Please, which will be out in limited US theaters later in October. This initially premiered at the 2022 Rotterdam Film Festival earlier this year, which is the right place for such a strange, quirky, kinky film to show up. Newlyweds Suse and Arthur become the dangerous obsession of a greaser gang that awakens a sleeping quandary into the couple's sexual identity. It's described as a "1950s campy romp" that acts as "a feverish queer manifesto on gender," and, from another review, it blends "camp melodrama with snappy dialogue, romantic songs, and S&m dance routines." Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling star as the main couple exploring their sexuality, with a cast including Karl Glusman, Demi Moore, Cole Escola, and Ryan Simpkins. This totally looks like...
- 9/16/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
‘Please Baby Please’ Trailer: Karl Glusman and Andrea Riseborough Turn Heads in Gay Musical Fantasia
One of the wildest, campiest, least apologetic films of the 2022 festival season is “Please Baby Please.” Amanda Kramer’s 1950s-set LGBT musical thriller tells the story of a straight-passing married couple who begin questioning their conceptions of gender, sexuality, and monogamy after witnessing a murder and becoming involved with a greaser gang known as the Young Gents. The movie premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival and was soon acquired by Music Box Films, who is giving it a theatrical release later this year.
“There are many things we love about this film, including Andrea Riseborough’s fierce and fearless performance,” said Music Box Films’ Brian Andreotti. “Director Amanda Kramer’s bold mise en scene and stylized 1950s iconography combine to give adventurous audiences a highly entertaining musing on gender roles and desire that is both timely and timeless,”
“Please Baby Please” is directed by Amanda Kramer, working from a script...
“There are many things we love about this film, including Andrea Riseborough’s fierce and fearless performance,” said Music Box Films’ Brian Andreotti. “Director Amanda Kramer’s bold mise en scene and stylized 1950s iconography combine to give adventurous audiences a highly entertaining musing on gender roles and desire that is both timely and timeless,”
“Please Baby Please” is directed by Amanda Kramer, working from a script...
- 9/15/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
From tragic deaths (Cobain, Cornell, Lanegan) to careers and bands that have wound down or evaporated, the landscape of alt-rock heroes is fairly bleak these days—which makes it all the more ironic that one of the last men standing is the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli. As the reigning cad of the Nineties alternative gold rush, Dulli was one of the genre’s most polarizing figures, the dude you loved to hate or hated to love. (Remember the Fat Greg Dulli fanzine?) He was never as iconic as Cobain, Cornell or Weiland,...
- 9/8/2022
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
10 films were competing for the Powell and Pressburger award.
Scottish animators Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson’s 60-minutes documentary A Cat Called Dom has won the inaugural Powell and Pressburger Award for best film at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Anderson and Henderson star in and co-direct the inventive documentary, which had its world premiere at Eiff. The film explores how Will deals with his mother’s cancer diagnosis and also the frustrations of trying to make a film.
The jury, comprised of president Gaylene Gould (founder of creative lab The Space to Come), producer Rosie Crerar and author Sarah Winman,...
Scottish animators Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson’s 60-minutes documentary A Cat Called Dom has won the inaugural Powell and Pressburger Award for best film at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Anderson and Henderson star in and co-direct the inventive documentary, which had its world premiere at Eiff. The film explores how Will deals with his mother’s cancer diagnosis and also the frustrations of trying to make a film.
The jury, comprised of president Gaylene Gould (founder of creative lab The Space to Come), producer Rosie Crerar and author Sarah Winman,...
- 8/23/2022
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Blue Finch Films has boarded international sales (excluding North America) to Mali Elfman’s sci-fi mystery Next Exit, which premiered at Tribeca earlier this year. North American distribution will be handled by Magnolia Pictures.
The film marks the directorial debut for Mali Elfman and stars Katie Parker (The Fall Of The House Of Usher) and Rahul Kohli (Midnight Mass), with Rose McIver (Ghosts) and Karen Gillan (Avengers: Endgame).
Next Exit follows a research scientist who makes headlines proving she can track people after death. Her radical scientific study is looking for volunteers for a pain-free passing to the afterlife and attracts two young misfit strangers who embark on a lengthy road trip into the unknown.
Written and directed by Mali Elfman, the film is presented by Helmstreet Productions’ Lindsay Helms and Joel Nevells and produced by Syzygy Adventures’ Derek Bishé and Narineh Hacopian. Blue Finch Films will be starting...
The film marks the directorial debut for Mali Elfman and stars Katie Parker (The Fall Of The House Of Usher) and Rahul Kohli (Midnight Mass), with Rose McIver (Ghosts) and Karen Gillan (Avengers: Endgame).
Next Exit follows a research scientist who makes headlines proving she can track people after death. Her radical scientific study is looking for volunteers for a pain-free passing to the afterlife and attracts two young misfit strangers who embark on a lengthy road trip into the unknown.
Written and directed by Mali Elfman, the film is presented by Helmstreet Productions’ Lindsay Helms and Joel Nevells and produced by Syzygy Adventures’ Derek Bishé and Narineh Hacopian. Blue Finch Films will be starting...
- 8/16/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Village Roadshow Pictures has partnered with fellow financier and movie producer Rivulet Films on a feature film sequel to 2009’s “Law Abiding Citizen.”
The original film, directed by F. Gary Gray, centered on assistant district attorney Nick Rice’s (Jamie Foxx) pursuit of Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), a frustrated father who implements an elaborate and twisted plan to bring down the entire judicial system in Philadelphia after a plea bargain sets free the man who murdered his wife and daughter.
It grossed 73.4 million in North America and 127 million worldwide. Recently made available on Netflix, the 2009 film was, for time, the platform’s third most watched film.
Plot details of the sequel have not been disclosed. Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer and the original producer Lucas Foster will both return, with Foster producing under his Warp Films banner. Rivulet Films’ Rob Paris and Mike Witherill are producing. Butler and his G-Base partner Alan Siegel will also produce.
The original film, directed by F. Gary Gray, centered on assistant district attorney Nick Rice’s (Jamie Foxx) pursuit of Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), a frustrated father who implements an elaborate and twisted plan to bring down the entire judicial system in Philadelphia after a plea bargain sets free the man who murdered his wife and daughter.
It grossed 73.4 million in North America and 127 million worldwide. Recently made available on Netflix, the 2009 film was, for time, the platform’s third most watched film.
Plot details of the sequel have not been disclosed. Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer and the original producer Lucas Foster will both return, with Foster producing under his Warp Films banner. Rivulet Films’ Rob Paris and Mike Witherill are producing. Butler and his G-Base partner Alan Siegel will also produce.
- 5/21/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
“Face Off” helmer John Woo will receive a Career Achievement Award during Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, about to celebrate its 26th edition. The Hong Kong filmmaker is currently working on “Silent Night,” starring Joel Kinnaman and Kid Cudi.
“I defy anyone to watch ‘Bullet in the Head,’ ‘Hard Boiled’ or ‘The Killer’ and not walk away wanting to break down the shots and make a movie. His use of camera movement, close-ups, the ways he would block and choreograph, it’s astonishing to look at,” Fantasia’s artistic director Mitch Davis told Variety, noting the “unexpected poetry” of Woo’s work.
“They are such unconventionally soulful films. I wish we could somehow unleash a flock of doves in the cinema when he steps onto the stage. Backlit.”
The festival, which will unspool July 14 – Aug. 3, has also unveiled its first wave of titles, starting with a selection of world...
“I defy anyone to watch ‘Bullet in the Head,’ ‘Hard Boiled’ or ‘The Killer’ and not walk away wanting to break down the shots and make a movie. His use of camera movement, close-ups, the ways he would block and choreograph, it’s astonishing to look at,” Fantasia’s artistic director Mitch Davis told Variety, noting the “unexpected poetry” of Woo’s work.
“They are such unconventionally soulful films. I wish we could somehow unleash a flock of doves in the cinema when he steps onto the stage. Backlit.”
The festival, which will unspool July 14 – Aug. 3, has also unveiled its first wave of titles, starting with a selection of world...
- 5/12/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Gullane Entretenimento presented film as work in progress at Ventana Sur in 2020.
Cinema Management Group (Cmg) has acquired international sales to Brazilian director Sergio Machado’s Island City in the run-up to the Cannes market in May.
The film was presented by Gullane Entretenimento as a work in progress at Ventana Sur in 2020, since when Cmg has tracked the project through production and post-production.
Based on an original story by contemporary Brazilian writer Milton Hatoum, Island City tells of three brothers who end up living under the same roof with the middle brother’s beautiful new wife
Anaira (Sophie Charlotte) is sensual,...
Cinema Management Group (Cmg) has acquired international sales to Brazilian director Sergio Machado’s Island City in the run-up to the Cannes market in May.
The film was presented by Gullane Entretenimento as a work in progress at Ventana Sur in 2020, since when Cmg has tracked the project through production and post-production.
Based on an original story by contemporary Brazilian writer Milton Hatoum, Island City tells of three brothers who end up living under the same roof with the middle brother’s beautiful new wife
Anaira (Sophie Charlotte) is sensual,...
- 4/27/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The debut feature from Riley Keough and Gina Gammell was previously known as ‘Beast’.
UK-based sales outfit Protagonist Pictures and CAA Media Finance are handling sales for Cannes Un Certain Regard title War Pony, the directorial debut of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, which was previously titled Beast.
Protagonist will introduce the title to international buyers at Cannes, while CAA Media Finance takes on North American sales.
Bill Reddy, Franklin Sioux Bob, Gammell, and Keough wrote the film, which was inspired by real events and tells the stories of two Lakota boys living in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota,...
UK-based sales outfit Protagonist Pictures and CAA Media Finance are handling sales for Cannes Un Certain Regard title War Pony, the directorial debut of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, which was previously titled Beast.
Protagonist will introduce the title to international buyers at Cannes, while CAA Media Finance takes on North American sales.
Bill Reddy, Franklin Sioux Bob, Gammell, and Keough wrote the film, which was inspired by real events and tells the stories of two Lakota boys living in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota,...
- 4/27/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The Rotterdam premiere stars Andrea Riseborough, Harry Melling and Demi Moore.
UK-based sales outfit Blue Finch Films has taken worldwide rights, excluding North America, to 1950s-set musical thriller Please Baby Please, directed by US filmmaker Amanda Kramer, ahead of Cannes.
The Rotterdam opening night film stars Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a 1950s bohemian Manhattan couple who become the obsession of a local greaser gang after they witness a grim murder, resulting in the couple questioning their own gender and sexual identities. Demi Moore stars as the couple’s upstairs neighbour.
Kramer’s credits include Ladyworld and Rotterdam premiere Give Me Pity!
UK-based sales outfit Blue Finch Films has taken worldwide rights, excluding North America, to 1950s-set musical thriller Please Baby Please, directed by US filmmaker Amanda Kramer, ahead of Cannes.
The Rotterdam opening night film stars Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a 1950s bohemian Manhattan couple who become the obsession of a local greaser gang after they witness a grim murder, resulting in the couple questioning their own gender and sexual identities. Demi Moore stars as the couple’s upstairs neighbour.
Kramer’s credits include Ladyworld and Rotterdam premiere Give Me Pity!
- 4/27/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The Rotterdam premiere stars Andrea Riseborough, Harry Melling and Demi Moore.
UK sales outfit Blue Finch Films has taken worldwide rights, excluding North America, to 1950s-set musical thriller Please Baby Please, directed by US filmmaker Amanda Kramer, ahead of Cannes.
The Rotterdam opening night film stars Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a 1950s bohemian Manhattan couple who become the obsession of a local greaser gang after they witness a grim murder, resulting in the couple questioning their own gender and sexual identities. Demi Moore stars as the couple’s upstairs neighbour.
Kramer’s credits include Ladyworld and Rotterdam premiere Give Me Pity!
UK sales outfit Blue Finch Films has taken worldwide rights, excluding North America, to 1950s-set musical thriller Please Baby Please, directed by US filmmaker Amanda Kramer, ahead of Cannes.
The Rotterdam opening night film stars Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a 1950s bohemian Manhattan couple who become the obsession of a local greaser gang after they witness a grim murder, resulting in the couple questioning their own gender and sexual identities. Demi Moore stars as the couple’s upstairs neighbour.
Kramer’s credits include Ladyworld and Rotterdam premiere Give Me Pity!
- 4/27/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Sydney Film Festival Returns to Regular Dates, Picks ‘The Forgiven,’ ‘Passengers’ for Initial Lineup
Charlotte Gainsbourg-starring “The Passengers of the Night” and Ralph Fiennes- and Jessica Chastain-starring “The Forgiven” are among the first batch of movies revealed by the Sydney Film Festival. The festival is planning an in-person event running 8-19 June, 2022.
Australian-produced titles include dance film “Keep Stepping”; “Sissy,” which mixes social media and horror; music title “Six Festivals”; and intimate portrait “The Plains,” which had its premiere in Rotterdam earlier this year.
The 22-film advanced lineup also leans heavily on other festival favorites. “Gentle” which premiered in Sundance; “Hinterland,” which won the audience award in Locarno last year; Peter Strickland’s “Flux Gourmet,” from the Berlinale; Kamila Andini’s “Yuni” winner of Toronto’s Platform award; “Private Desert,” audience award winner at Venice; documentary “Calendar Girls” from the recent Sundance and Cph:dox festivals; “Please Baby Please,” which opened the Rotterdam festival; “The Territory,” the documentary award-winner at Sundance; “Blue Moon,...
Australian-produced titles include dance film “Keep Stepping”; “Sissy,” which mixes social media and horror; music title “Six Festivals”; and intimate portrait “The Plains,” which had its premiere in Rotterdam earlier this year.
The 22-film advanced lineup also leans heavily on other festival favorites. “Gentle” which premiered in Sundance; “Hinterland,” which won the audience award in Locarno last year; Peter Strickland’s “Flux Gourmet,” from the Berlinale; Kamila Andini’s “Yuni” winner of Toronto’s Platform award; “Private Desert,” audience award winner at Venice; documentary “Calendar Girls” from the recent Sundance and Cph:dox festivals; “Please Baby Please,” which opened the Rotterdam festival; “The Territory,” the documentary award-winner at Sundance; “Blue Moon,...
- 4/6/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Anyone tracking Andrea Riseborough’s career will notice a certain tendency to tackle dark material. That was certainly the case for “Here Before,” an unsettling thriller about a woman who comes to believe the reincarnated spirit of her daughter has moved in next door.
“It’s a huge mountain to climb, the journey of knowing what it’s like to have a grown child pass away,” she told IndieWire during a recent interview. “Stepping into what that might be like for a couple of months while making the film was certainly very difficult. It’s actually quite a lonely experience.”
But she quickly moved on to the next project — and the next one after that, and the next one after that. In total, Riseborough has completed seven films since pandemic shutdowns started in 2020. She only stopped working for three months. “In some ways, I feel safer at work than anywhere else,...
“It’s a huge mountain to climb, the journey of knowing what it’s like to have a grown child pass away,” she told IndieWire during a recent interview. “Stepping into what that might be like for a couple of months while making the film was certainly very difficult. It’s actually quite a lonely experience.”
But she quickly moved on to the next project — and the next one after that, and the next one after that. In total, Riseborough has completed seven films since pandemic shutdowns started in 2020. She only stopped working for three months. “In some ways, I feel safer at work than anywhere else,...
- 2/16/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
EAMIThese days, as cinematic ingenuity strains to get screened in theaters, and perhaps even more so onto streaming services, film festivals are providing a most welcome ray of hope. In the film industry, many are continuing to struggle to work; many to get work made; and those lucky ones who’ve passed these hurdles, to see their work released and seen by audiences. The continued existence of a festival, despite the tremendous encumbrances of pandemic disruption and mostly undiscussed financial precarity, serves as a crucial vector of sustenance: Movies are being made; moreover they’re being shown and being seen. Even better: movies are great.That, anyway, was my take away from the second virtual International Film Festival Rotterdam, an event that had to be brought online—with one summertime in-person event for locals last June—twice already. Its most recent edition shifted virtually precariously close to its January event,...
- 2/6/2022
- MUBI
Exclusive: Universal Pictures and Working Title Films have set Demi Moore and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood‘s Margaret Qualley to star in The Substance, with Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) directing her script. She also is producing alongside Working Title partners Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan.
This will mark the French filmmaker’s first studio feature. She made her helming debut on Revenge, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto and played Sundance a few months later and was then released by Neon.
Specifics on The Substance are being kept under wraps, but Deadline hears it is Fargeat’s explosive feminist take on body horror. Production begins in Paris this May.
Moore most recently lent her voice to QCode’s podcast Dirty Diana, which is being adapted into an Amazon series that Moore will executive produce and star in. She next will be seen in the feature Please Baby Please, which kicked of the 2022 Rotterdam film festival.
This will mark the French filmmaker’s first studio feature. She made her helming debut on Revenge, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto and played Sundance a few months later and was then released by Neon.
Specifics on The Substance are being kept under wraps, but Deadline hears it is Fargeat’s explosive feminist take on body horror. Production begins in Paris this May.
Moore most recently lent her voice to QCode’s podcast Dirty Diana, which is being adapted into an Amazon series that Moore will executive produce and star in. She next will be seen in the feature Please Baby Please, which kicked of the 2022 Rotterdam film festival.
- 1/31/2022
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
The opening moments of Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby Please” play like an archly stylized “West Side Story” by way of Kenneth Anger. Only, instead of the Jets, we have the “Young Gents,” a group of leather-clad rascals who dance their way through the streets of a neon-tinged, foggy 1950s Manhattan before descending on an unsuspecting couple and, well, beating them to death. Looking like Marlon Brando circa “The Wild One” cosplayers, this ragtag group is interrupted by two stunned bystanders, Arthur and Suze (Harry Melling and Andrea Riseborough). The moment will change the bohemian couple forever. The lustful gazes exchanged between Arthur and Teddy, as well as the electrifying fear-turned-titillation Suze experiences, set them both on a conquest to undo the relationship they thought they wanted. In the process, Kramer sketches out a feverish queer manifesto on gender that feels both novel and familiar.
For by the time the...
For by the time the...
- 1/26/2022
- by Manuel Betancourt
- Variety Film + TV
The film had been set to open the festival before the online move.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will host in-person screenings of Mijke de Jong’s docudrama Along The Way on its closing weekend, with cinemas in the Netherlands set to reopen from today, January 26.
Along The Way was announced as the opening film on December 15, before being removed from that slot due to rights issues when the festival was moved online a week later due to Covid restrictions in the Netherlands.
The world premiere of the film will play in cinemas in Rotterdam, Groningen and Amsterdam on the...
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will host in-person screenings of Mijke de Jong’s docudrama Along The Way on its closing weekend, with cinemas in the Netherlands set to reopen from today, January 26.
Along The Way was announced as the opening film on December 15, before being removed from that slot due to rights issues when the festival was moved online a week later due to Covid restrictions in the Netherlands.
The world premiere of the film will play in cinemas in Rotterdam, Groningen and Amsterdam on the...
- 1/26/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Chosen as the protagonist of the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Focus section, Amanda Kramer will show eight films to the festival audience, ranging from her 2016 short “Bark” to “Give Me Pity!” and this year’s opener “Please Baby Please,” both set to celebrate their world premieres at the festival.
“It’s a funny thing, to be a relatively obscure artist given this very pronounced focus on your work,” Kramer tells Variety. “When Rotterdam was so keen to show it, I was just elated. It felt like I had done something right.”
In “Please Baby Please,” starring Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a couple suddenly faced with their long-dormant fantasies, as well as a violent greaser gang, Kramer turns her attention to the 1950s.
“When people talk about that time, they usually go for this cinched waist, poodle skirt, preppy aesthetic. What I am drawn to is the sleazier, more...
“It’s a funny thing, to be a relatively obscure artist given this very pronounced focus on your work,” Kramer tells Variety. “When Rotterdam was so keen to show it, I was just elated. It felt like I had done something right.”
In “Please Baby Please,” starring Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a couple suddenly faced with their long-dormant fantasies, as well as a violent greaser gang, Kramer turns her attention to the 1950s.
“When people talk about that time, they usually go for this cinched waist, poodle skirt, preppy aesthetic. What I am drawn to is the sleazier, more...
- 1/25/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Forced online once again – this time due to the Omicron wave – International Film Festival Rotterdam is still going to surprise the audience, assures festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, ready to celebrate its 51st edition. The event will open with Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby Please” on Jan. 26.
“That’s the idea. To surprise, but not just for the sake of surprising,” she says. “When I first started coming here, IFFR could always blow my mind like that; show me what cinema can be. Something that can feel like an unexpected choice for IFFR is, in fact, inspired by its freedom.”
Remembering the past is crucial for Kaludjercic, as she already pointed out when announcing this year’s streamlined lineup. “This is what these last three editions were very much about,” she notes, also mentioning “25 Encounters”: a new initiative comprising a selection of films, which will be available to the audience from Feb.
“That’s the idea. To surprise, but not just for the sake of surprising,” she says. “When I first started coming here, IFFR could always blow my mind like that; show me what cinema can be. Something that can feel like an unexpected choice for IFFR is, in fact, inspired by its freedom.”
Remembering the past is crucial for Kaludjercic, as she already pointed out when announcing this year’s streamlined lineup. “This is what these last three editions were very much about,” she notes, also mentioning “25 Encounters”: a new initiative comprising a selection of films, which will be available to the audience from Feb.
- 1/25/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the 14 films selected for its flagship Tiger Competition. Scroll down for the full list.
The selection is typically globe-trotting, with features ranging from Chile to China, Sweden to Israel, and Mexico to India. A jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, plus two special jury awards. On the jury are: Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Gust Van den Berghe, Tatiana Leite, Thekla Reuten and Farid Tabarki.
Last year’s winner of IFFR’s Tiger competition was Indian filmmaker Vinothraj P.S.’s Pebbles, which was the country’s contender for this year’s International Oscar race, though didn’t make the shortlist.
Today, the festival also confirmed the line-ups for its Big Screen Competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular and arthouse cinema. Titles selected range from Romania to France and South Africa. The Tiger Short Competition was also unveiled.
The selection is typically globe-trotting, with features ranging from Chile to China, Sweden to Israel, and Mexico to India. A jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, plus two special jury awards. On the jury are: Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Gust Van den Berghe, Tatiana Leite, Thekla Reuten and Farid Tabarki.
Last year’s winner of IFFR’s Tiger competition was Indian filmmaker Vinothraj P.S.’s Pebbles, which was the country’s contender for this year’s International Oscar race, though didn’t make the shortlist.
Today, the festival also confirmed the line-ups for its Big Screen Competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular and arthouse cinema. Titles selected range from Romania to France and South Africa. The Tiger Short Competition was also unveiled.
- 1/7/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s “Assault” and “Kung Fu Zohra” from Mabrouk El Mechri are among the lineup at International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) 51st edition.
The films were among 10 features selected for the Big Screen competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema.
IFFR also boasts the Tiger Competition for emerging talent and Ammodo Tiger Short competition for shorts.
Among the 14 titles selected for the Tiger Competition, Roberto Doveris will present “Proyecto Fantasma,” Morgane Dziurla-Petit will deliver “Excess Will Save Us” and David Easteal will show “The Plains.”
The festival, whose full lineup was announced on Friday, will run as a virtual festival on IFFR.com from Jan 26-Feb. 6 for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic revealed that the lockdown in the Netherlands had enforced some changes in previously announced elements of the program. For example,...
The films were among 10 features selected for the Big Screen competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema.
IFFR also boasts the Tiger Competition for emerging talent and Ammodo Tiger Short competition for shorts.
Among the 14 titles selected for the Tiger Competition, Roberto Doveris will present “Proyecto Fantasma,” Morgane Dziurla-Petit will deliver “Excess Will Save Us” and David Easteal will show “The Plains.”
The festival, whose full lineup was announced on Friday, will run as a virtual festival on IFFR.com from Jan 26-Feb. 6 for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic revealed that the lockdown in the Netherlands had enforced some changes in previously announced elements of the program. For example,...
- 1/7/2022
- by K.J. Yossman and Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Rivulet Media’s Colson Baker music saga feature Taurus has added Maddie Hasson, Scoot McNairy, Ruby Rose, Demetrius ‘Lil Meech’ Flenory (Euphoria), recording artist Lil Tjay, Megan Fox (Transformers) and musician Naomi Wild.
Taurus, formerly known as Good News, tells the story of a rising but troubled musician (Baker) as he spends his days and nights searching endlessly for the inspiration to record one last song. His sister-like assistant (Maddie Hasson) wants to save him, his collaborators want him in the studio, while his dealer (Ruby Rose) and his ex (Megan Fox) push him deeper into the void. The movie explores the darkness of fame, addiction, the artistic process and the music industry. Tim Sutton directed off his original screenplay.
Baker is working on several new songs.
Taurus, formerly known as Good News, tells the story of a rising but troubled musician (Baker) as he spends his days and nights searching endlessly for the inspiration to record one last song. His sister-like assistant (Maddie Hasson) wants to save him, his collaborators want him in the studio, while his dealer (Ruby Rose) and his ex (Megan Fox) push him deeper into the void. The movie explores the darkness of fame, addiction, the artistic process and the music industry. Tim Sutton directed off his original screenplay.
Baker is working on several new songs.
- 12/15/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
A first-look image has debuted of Andrea Riseborough, whose credits include “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” and Karl Glusman, who starred in Gaspar Noé’s Cannes entry “Love,” in Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby Please.” In the challenging image, Glusman is seen branding Riseborough with an iron.
The film also stars Harry Melling, who appeared as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise and in “The Queen’s Gambit,” and Demi Moore. It has its world premiere at next month’s Rotterdam Film Festival. CAA Media Finance is handling sales.
The movie follows bohemian couple Suze and Arthur who, after witnessing a murder in the gritty streets of a surreal 1950s Manhattan, become the dangerous obsession of a greaser gang that “awakens a sleeping quandary about the couple’s sexual identity,” according to press notes. Moore plays Suze’s glamorous upstairs neighbour, who has lovers and – even more impressively – a dishwasher.
The film also stars Harry Melling, who appeared as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise and in “The Queen’s Gambit,” and Demi Moore. It has its world premiere at next month’s Rotterdam Film Festival. CAA Media Finance is handling sales.
The movie follows bohemian couple Suze and Arthur who, after witnessing a murder in the gritty streets of a surreal 1950s Manhattan, become the dangerous obsession of a greaser gang that “awakens a sleeping quandary about the couple’s sexual identity,” according to press notes. Moore plays Suze’s glamorous upstairs neighbour, who has lovers and – even more impressively – a dishwasher.
- 12/13/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will be hosting its popular industry events, CineMart and Rotterdam Lab, online due to the surge of Covid-19 cases in The Netherlands.
The festival said on Wednesday that a dedicated announcement about the Pro Days, including the CineMart selection, will be unveiled on Dec. 16. The full IFFR 2022 lineup will be announced on Jan. 7.
While professional events will take place online, as of now, the festival is set to run as an in-person festival in Rotterdam Jan 26-Feb. 6 under strict health and safety rules with the guidance of the Netherlands’ Institute for Public Health and Environment.
“We are closely monitoring the developments in the Netherlands and already anticipate that the circumstances as well as the governmental restrictions put in place to combat the current wave of Covid-19 will impact the shape of IFFR 2022,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
“How exactly our festival will be adapted is...
The festival said on Wednesday that a dedicated announcement about the Pro Days, including the CineMart selection, will be unveiled on Dec. 16. The full IFFR 2022 lineup will be announced on Jan. 7.
While professional events will take place online, as of now, the festival is set to run as an in-person festival in Rotterdam Jan 26-Feb. 6 under strict health and safety rules with the guidance of the Netherlands’ Institute for Public Health and Environment.
“We are closely monitoring the developments in the Netherlands and already anticipate that the circumstances as well as the governmental restrictions put in place to combat the current wave of Covid-19 will impact the shape of IFFR 2022,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
“How exactly our festival will be adapted is...
- 12/8/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Currently on an amazing almost film per year streak, Amanda Kramer first landed onto the film festival scene with 2018’s Ladyworld (TIFF selection) and currently has a pair of features items in post – the one we’re focused on is the shot in October and in Montana project that netted Andrea Riseborough, Harry Melling, Demi Moore, Karl Glusman and Ryan Simpkins. Please Baby Please is about a couple’s honeymoon period that goes off the rails — a project set in the 50’s and Kramer reteams with scribe Noel David Taylor.
Gist: This follows newlyweds Suze and Arthur who, after witnessing a murder in the gritty streets of a surreal 1950s Manhattan, become the dangerous obsession of a greaser gang that awakens a sleeping quandary about the couple’s sexual identity.…...
Gist: This follows newlyweds Suze and Arthur who, after witnessing a murder in the gritty streets of a surreal 1950s Manhattan, become the dangerous obsession of a greaser gang that awakens a sleeping quandary about the couple’s sexual identity.…...
- 11/23/2021
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
‘Reptile’: Domenick Lombardozzi, Karl Glusman, Owen Teague & More Round Out Cast Of Netflix Thriller
Exclusive: Domenick Lombardozzi (The Irishman), Karl Glusman (Greyhound), Matilda Lutz (Revenge), Owen Teague (Montana Story) and Catherine Dyer (The Morning Show) round out the cast of Netflix’s Reptile.
They’ll appear in the crime thriller alongside previously announced cast members Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pitt, Ato Essandoh, Frances Fisher and Eric Bogosian.
The first feature from director Grant Singer picks up following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, following a hardened detective (Del Toro) as he attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems. In doing so, he finds himself dismantling the illusions in his own life.
Singer wrote the script for Reptile with Benjamin Brewer, with Netflix acquiring worldwide rights to the film from Black Label Media late last month. It’s not yet clear what roles the newest cast members will play.
Molly Smith,...
They’ll appear in the crime thriller alongside previously announced cast members Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pitt, Ato Essandoh, Frances Fisher and Eric Bogosian.
The first feature from director Grant Singer picks up following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, following a hardened detective (Del Toro) as he attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems. In doing so, he finds himself dismantling the illusions in his own life.
Singer wrote the script for Reptile with Benjamin Brewer, with Netflix acquiring worldwide rights to the film from Black Label Media late last month. It’s not yet clear what roles the newest cast members will play.
Molly Smith,...
- 9/30/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Former Avalon manager Olivia Wingate has launched the solo production company Wingate Media, bringing all her projects and team with her, we hear.
The company will be headquartered in New York, focused on developing, incubating and producing premium and cutting-edge projects aimed toward a worldwide audience, and committed to prioritizing unique and underrepresented artists and perspectives.
A London native, Wingate has been New York based, with a presence in Los Angeles and London, for more than 25 years. Her career has spanned theater, film, comedy, documentary and scripted drama. Wingate Media combines all her experience to incubate and elevate stories that will aim to inspire and provoke debate.
Prior to starting the company, Wingate was SVP Scripted Development at Left/Right, the studio that behind Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters, Joe Mande’s award-winning Standup Special (Netflix) and more. Before that, Wingate ran Avalon’s New York office and represented clients including Marc Maron,...
The company will be headquartered in New York, focused on developing, incubating and producing premium and cutting-edge projects aimed toward a worldwide audience, and committed to prioritizing unique and underrepresented artists and perspectives.
A London native, Wingate has been New York based, with a presence in Los Angeles and London, for more than 25 years. Her career has spanned theater, film, comedy, documentary and scripted drama. Wingate Media combines all her experience to incubate and elevate stories that will aim to inspire and provoke debate.
Prior to starting the company, Wingate was SVP Scripted Development at Left/Right, the studio that behind Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters, Joe Mande’s award-winning Standup Special (Netflix) and more. Before that, Wingate ran Avalon’s New York office and represented clients including Marc Maron,...
- 7/20/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Harry Melling, who played Dudley in the Harry Potter film franchise but also had a big role in Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit,” has signed on to another Netflix project to play famed poet Edgar Allan Poe.
Melling will star alongside Christian Bale in “The Pale Blue Eye,” a thriller that’s being directed by “Hostiles” director Scott Cooper. The Gothic horror story, based on a 2003 book by Louis Bayard, follows Bale as a veteran detective investigating a gruesome murder in 1830 at West Point Academy. However, the whole case surrounds a young cadet who the world will eventually come to know as Edgar Allan Poe (Melling).
Cooper also wrote the screenplay, and he’s been itching to take on the film for more than a decade. Netflix picked it up out of the European Film Market for a record $55 million in a worldwide deal, and it also reunites Cooper with...
Melling will star alongside Christian Bale in “The Pale Blue Eye,” a thriller that’s being directed by “Hostiles” director Scott Cooper. The Gothic horror story, based on a 2003 book by Louis Bayard, follows Bale as a veteran detective investigating a gruesome murder in 1830 at West Point Academy. However, the whole case surrounds a young cadet who the world will eventually come to know as Edgar Allan Poe (Melling).
Cooper also wrote the screenplay, and he’s been itching to take on the film for more than a decade. Netflix picked it up out of the European Film Market for a record $55 million in a worldwide deal, and it also reunites Cooper with...
- 6/9/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Harry Melling, best known as Dudley from the Harry Potter franchise, is headed from Hogwarts to West Point as is set to play one of the more iconic writers of our time. Sources tell Deadline, Melling is set to play a young Edgar Allan Poe in the Netflix and Scott Cooper murder mystery The Pale Blue Eye. The film is a passion project of Cooper, who has tried making it for more then a decade, and also stars Christian Bale as a veteran detective tasked with solving a series of murders that took place in 1830 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Bale’s detective partners with a detail-oriented young cadet (Melling), who will later become the world famous author the world knows today. Cross Creek is financing and producing.
Cooper will direct and adapt the screenplay from Louis Bayard’s novel of the same name. Bale will also produce joining Cooper,...
Cooper will direct and adapt the screenplay from Louis Bayard’s novel of the same name. Bale will also produce joining Cooper,...
- 6/9/2021
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
“Moonstruck” and “Wild Mountain Thyme” writer John Patrick Shanley is no stranger to complicated family dynamics.
The Oscar and Pulitzer-winning author will explore sibling rivalry with “The Twinkle Brothers.” The upcoming comedy, which Shanley will write and direct for Rivulet Media, recounts a story told by avuncular café owner Mordecai, who, when tasked with the responsibility of looking after his precocious six-year-old granddaughter Rita for an afternoon, spins her a yarn about Freddie and Miguel, two insanely competitive brothers from Puerto Rico. They move to New York and end up with rival restaurants directly across the street from one another. The brothers stop at nothing to be the best on the block, ratcheting up the competition to the delight of their neighbors who are treated to bizarrely spectacular light shows, dueling Santas, and seemingly endless plates of delicious and comforting food. Casting is underway with filming to begin in New York this fall.
The Oscar and Pulitzer-winning author will explore sibling rivalry with “The Twinkle Brothers.” The upcoming comedy, which Shanley will write and direct for Rivulet Media, recounts a story told by avuncular café owner Mordecai, who, when tasked with the responsibility of looking after his precocious six-year-old granddaughter Rita for an afternoon, spins her a yarn about Freddie and Miguel, two insanely competitive brothers from Puerto Rico. They move to New York and end up with rival restaurants directly across the street from one another. The brothers stop at nothing to be the best on the block, ratcheting up the competition to the delight of their neighbors who are treated to bizarrely spectacular light shows, dueling Santas, and seemingly endless plates of delicious and comforting food. Casting is underway with filming to begin in New York this fall.
- 2/17/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Fledgling U.S. production firm Rivulet Media has wrapped production today in LA on writer-director Greg Pritikin’s (The Last Laugh) feature The Mistress starring John Magaro (First Cow) and Chasten Harmon (Paterson).
The film was inspired by the history of Pritikin’s Angelino Heights home, and was shot almost entirely on the property.
The film follows newlyweds Parker (Magaro) and Madeline (Harmon) who move into their dream home – a 1892 Queen Ann Victorian in LA’s historic Angelino Heights neighborhood. Shortly after arriving they discover a collection of 100-year-old letters hidden in the walls – desperate and lovelorn correspondence from a young woman who committed suicide after being shunned and abandoned by the owner of the home – a married businessman with whom she was having an affair. While the tragedy of the mistress’s correspondence begins to manifest with disturbing spectral frequency, Maddie begins to suspect that Parker is hiding something dark from his past.
The film was inspired by the history of Pritikin’s Angelino Heights home, and was shot almost entirely on the property.
The film follows newlyweds Parker (Magaro) and Madeline (Harmon) who move into their dream home – a 1892 Queen Ann Victorian in LA’s historic Angelino Heights neighborhood. Shortly after arriving they discover a collection of 100-year-old letters hidden in the walls – desperate and lovelorn correspondence from a young woman who committed suicide after being shunned and abandoned by the owner of the home – a married businessman with whom she was having an affair. While the tragedy of the mistress’s correspondence begins to manifest with disturbing spectral frequency, Maddie begins to suspect that Parker is hiding something dark from his past.
- 12/21/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Ryan Simpkins (Fear Street 2 & 3), Karim Saleh (Transparent), Jake Choi (Single Parents), Matt D’Elia (American Animal), Jake Sidney Cohen (Homecoming), Cole Escola (At Home with Amy Sedaris, Search Party), Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Paper Towns) Dana Ashbrook (Twin Peaks), and Mary Lynn Rajskub (24) have joined the cast of feature Please Baby Please.
Starring are Andrea Riseborough, Demi Moore, Harry Melling and Karl Glusman. Amanda Kramer is directing from a script by Kramer and Noel David Taylor.
The film follows newlyweds Suze and Arthur who, after witnessing a murder in the gritty streets of a surreal 1950s Manhattan, become the dangerous obsession of a greaser gang that awakens a sleeping quandary about the couple’s sexual identity.
Principal photography commenced last week in Butte, Montana.
Please Baby Please is the first project from Rivulet Media, which recently launched as a publicly traded company with Mike Witherill and Arizona...
Starring are Andrea Riseborough, Demi Moore, Harry Melling and Karl Glusman. Amanda Kramer is directing from a script by Kramer and Noel David Taylor.
The film follows newlyweds Suze and Arthur who, after witnessing a murder in the gritty streets of a surreal 1950s Manhattan, become the dangerous obsession of a greaser gang that awakens a sleeping quandary about the couple’s sexual identity.
Principal photography commenced last week in Butte, Montana.
Please Baby Please is the first project from Rivulet Media, which recently launched as a publicly traded company with Mike Witherill and Arizona...
- 11/9/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
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