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Paris Has Fallen boasts an impressive cast of international stars, bringing humanity to the action-packed show. The series is the latest entry in the "Has Fallen" franchise. The show builds on the tone established by the Gerald Butler-led Olympus Has Fallen. Paris Has Fallen focuses on a series of attacks carried out in the French capital by an embittered former member of the French Foreign Legion named Jacob Pearce. Struggling to prevent further bloodshed are Vincent Taleb and Zara Taylor, a bodyguard and an Mi:6 agent both operating within the city.

Paris Has Fallen has plenty of intense action, but the real draw of the series is the compelling conspiracy that Pearce seeks to expose and how it impacts the people connected to it. The stars of the show hail from across Europe, bringing a natural diversity to a story that highlights the crimes and mistakes of the recent past.

July Jung made one of the best recent debuts of recent times in Korean cinema back in 2014 with her “A Girl at My Door”, a gritty and superbly acted social drama which screened in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes Film Festival. It went on to receive much critical acclaim and multiple awards at film festivals, with both the director and lead actress Bae Doona receiving praise and accolades for their work. Jung instantly became a director to watch out for but little did we know that it would take eight years before she would step behind the camera again for “Next Sohee”, which closed the International Critics' Week at Cannes this year.

Next Sohee will be released in cinemas in the UK, starting June 14, courtesy of day for night

Bright, cheerful and feisty Sohee is like any other high schooler who wants to be a dancer, loves hanging...

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nicole Newnham (“Crip Camp”) is at work on her next documentary — “Tunnel 29,” about a secret escape tunnel built under the Berlin Wall in 1962.

The film, co-produced by NBC News Studios and Story Force Entertainment, will chronicle the story of a group of students who risked their lives and defied the Iron Curtain by digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall, enabling 29 East Germans to escape to the West.

“‘Tunnel 29’ will cinematically immerse the audience in the fraught and tense time when the world grappled with the trauma and consequences of the Wall and the Cold War — a time that bears an astonishing resemblance to today,” says Newnham.

In the early 1960s, German students began digging a tunnel more than the length of a football field from West to East Berlin. As danger and setbacks mounted, they sought funding to continue the dig and help ensure their safety. In...

Exclusive: Harry Potter star Tom Felton has boarded Gandhi, the Hansal Mehta-directed streaming series about the iconic Indian nonviolent resistance leader from Applause Entertainment.

Felton will play Josiah Oldfield, Gandhi’s first and best friend during a period he spent in London while studying law. Pratik Gandhi (no relation) is playing Gandhi, as we reported back in May 2022, and we can reveal his real-life partner, Bhamini Oza, will play Kasturba Gandhi, the Mahatma’s wife.

The period drama series has been billed as India’s answer to The Crown, and several scenes are being shot in London this month. As such, British actors James Murray, Jonno Davies, Molly Wright (Apostasy), Simon Lennon, Ralph Adeniyi, Libby Mai and Lindon Alexander are joining Felton in the cast.

To celebrate the home entertainment release of Black Sails: Season 4, available on DVD and Blu-ray 28th August, we have a copy of Black Sails: The Complete Collection: Series 1 – 4 on Blu-ray up for grabs. The Complete Collection: Series 1- 4 Includes Over 100 Mins Of New Bonus Material – Available Exclusively On Blu-ray And Steelbook.

Watch the multiple Emmy Award-winning hit pirate series, from legendary Hollywood producer and director Michael Bay, from start to finish. A thrillingly addictive prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic book Treasure Island, Black Sails follows Captain Flint (the brilliant Toby Stephens) and his notorious crew of pirates, in this treasure trove of a boxset containing all Xxxviii (that’ll be 38 me hearties!) episodes, guaranteed to provide hours of swashbuckling entertainment. For those with an eye on the really prized booty, there is a stunningly-designed limited edition SteelBook of seasons 1 – 4.

The thrilling, big-budget series from legendary producer...

Vr project Buried.

Screen Australia has announced its latest funding round, with $3 million in production and development funding split between two Indigenous TV projects, eight multiplatform projects, eight feature films, and two individuals and two companies.

The two Indigenous television projects to have received production investment are:

–... ABC TV.s previously announced Indigenous comedy drama series The Warriors. From Robert Connolly's Arenamedia, the show is set in the competitive world of Australian Rules Football, and has major production investment from Screen Australia and funding support from Film Victoria;

–... Nitv documentary Carry The Flag,.which delves into the story behind the Torres Strait Island flag designed by Bernard Namok, from Tamarind Tree Pictures with Screen Queensland and Screen Territory support.

The eight multiplatform projects to have received production investment are:

–... Vr project The Buried, a 3D experience that plunges the viewer into a magical Dreamtime world, from Indigenous writer/director Tyson Mowarin,...

Dp Terry Zumalt with director Emma Bell.

Australian producers Tessa Saville and Bel Deliá have teamed up with The Walking Dead star Emma Bell for her directorial debut on short film Scratch..

Bell has appeared in The Walking Dead, Dallas, Arrow, Supernatural, Dollhouse and Final Destination 5. In keeping with her CV, Bell's debut short is a horror film.

Saville has previously developed a range of television formats including Picture This and NBC Universal's E! Host Australia Search, while producer-actress Deliá previously played Natasha Warner in the Australian online horror film The Tunnel.

Scratch is about a repressed 1950.s housewife left alone by her philandering husband who makes a horrifying discovery, and was written by Helen Shang (NBC.s Hannibal)..

The film, lensed by DoP Terry Zumalt, recently wrapped principal photography.

Also on the production are Australians Valentino del Toro (The Slap, Terra Nova) and editor Geoff Saville.

www.facebook.

That Start Up Show..

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An Australian variety show created for the internet is released today on BitTorrent Bundle in an experiment to test consumers. willingness to pay for content.

The 6-episode That Start Up Show features budding entrepreneurs filmed in front of an audience at the Savoy Tavern in Melbourne, mixed with pre-recorded footage.

The first two pilot episodes are being offered free as an enticement to persuade users to fork out $US2.99 to buy the series. The producers will get 90% of the revenues.

Launched in 2013, the direct-to-fan publishing platform is used by more than 30,000 creators, mostly in the fields of music and documentaries, and has a global reach of 170 million people.

.It.s a bit of an experiment as we try out a new avenue for content creators,. the show.s creator, co-producer and showrunner Anna Reeves tells If.

Hosted by Dan Ilic (Studio Ten, Can of Worms, Hungry Beast...

The Tunnel producer Enzo Tedeschi is launching a global online distribution platform for genre movies and series.

Monikered Deadhouse Films, the site will offer content to rent or download-to-own, starting with the 3-part sci-fi web series Airlock produced by Tedeschi.s Distracted Media.

The producer tells If he is in final negotiations to handle two third-party titles. He aims to tap into Distracted Media.s sizable database of genre fans built from The Tunnel and the web series Event Zero.

Funded by Screen Australia and. Distracted Media and directed by Marc Furmie, Airlock stars Dan Mor, Mark Coles Smith, Zoe Carides, Dwaine Stevenson, Brendan Clearkin, Dean Kyrwood and Branden Christine.

The plot follows a derelict space ship which docks with the remote Dakota space station. Lieutenant Jonah Ashbrook (Coles Smith) is charged with leading an investigation into the mysterious deaths of the crew. The discovery of a group of hidden...

The Tunnel producer Enzo Tedeschi is launching a global online distribution platform for genre movies and series.

Monikered Deadhouse Films, the site will offer content to rent or download-to-own, starting with the 3-part sci-fi web series Airlock produced by Tedeschi.s Distracted Media.

The producer tells If he is in final negotiations to handle two third-party titles. He aims to tap into Distracted Media.s sizable database of genre fans built from The Tunnel and the web series Event Zero.

Funded by Screen Australia and. Distracted Media and directed by Marc Furmie, Airlock stars Dan Mor, Mark Coles Smith, Zoe Carides, Dwaine Stevenson, Brendan Clearkin, Dean Kyrwood and Branden Christine.

The plot follows a derelict space ship which docks with the remote Dakota space station. Lieutenant Jonah Ashbrook (Mor) is charged with leading an investigation into the mysterious deaths of the crew. The discovery of a group of hidden refugees...

Projects depicting a fight between Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker, a terrorism attack in Sydney and encounters between renowned Australians and international figures were among the winners of the inaugural Online Video Awards (OVAs). Danny Philippou.s Harry Potter vs Star Wars, which cost just $200 and has been viewed more than 11 million times, took out the top prize at the awards presented during the Open Channel.s Generation Next conference at Docklands on Tuesday night. Philippou wins a trip to YouTube.s Creator Space in Los Angeles to learn from world leaders in online video production and marketing, supported by YouTube. Event Zero, seven interconnected stories about people caught up in a terrorism event at Circular Quay, from Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, creators of The Tunnel, was named best drama series. Alex Light.s Knapsack Bartender, a three-part documentary series that explores weird and wonderful drinking cultures across the world,...

Reps from YouTube, the ABC, the Seven Network, Matchbox Pictures, Princess Pictures and FremantleMedia Australia will address the opportunities for financing and producing online content at a conference in Melbourne next month. Now in its fourth year, the Generation Next: Online Video conference will be staged in tandem with the inaugural Australian Online Video Awards (OVAs) on October 14-15 at the Docklands Studios.

The conference is run by the Open Channel, the not-for-profit, membership based organisation which assists the professional development of emerging and early career filmmakers. The conference producer, Redman Entertainment.s David Redman said, .With the YouTube generation increasingly consuming online content and advertisers starting to following them, never before has there been more opportunity for creators to develop an audience online and build a career.

"This conference will bring together experts from both traditional and online media with creators who are already working between the two to...

Gravitas Ventures brings the horror film Love of My Life to VOD on April 29th. The Tunnel's Bel Delia stars. Directed by Michael Budd, the film follows the story of a young man being held captive by a deranged surgeon and given the choice of surviving five days of torture to save the life of the woman he loves, or to order her killed and be set free. Delia stars alongside Diarmid Heidenreich (Underbelly) as the tortured couple with Peter O’Brien (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as their tormentor. Check out the trailer here.

The post Torture Genre Going Strong in Love of My Life appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Feature Ryan Lambie 22 Nov 2013 - 06:39

This week's crowdfunding selection includes a miniature sculpting tutorial, a sci-fi web series and a horror videogame documentary...

The sheer number of projects that appear on crowdfunding websites each week means that, inevitably, some great ones slip through the net on occasion. One recent example is The Squidder, artist Ben Templesmith's graphic novel project about an ancient war among tentacled creatures.

Described as Mad Max meets Cthulhu, it's full of Templesmith's typically detailed artwork, and it's been met with a hugely positive response. So positive, in fact, that it's already made more than four times its $18,000 minimum funding goal with 15 days left to run. Nevertheless, we thought we'd mention it here, since it's well worth a look if you enjoyed Templesmith's other work, such as the excellent 30 Days Of Night.

Now, here's this week's selection of other projects, starting with a documentary dedicated...

It was all the way back in June of 2010 that we first came across producers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey and their Distracted Media. the young Australian duo were determined to mess with established means of distribution with their feature film The Tunnel, a horror film which they funded by selling individual frames to backers in advance with the stated goal of releasing the completed film for free on BitTorrent when complete. And not only did they do it, but the film was quite good.The Tunnel was followed up by award winning web series Event Zero and they're moving along again now with upcoming scifi series Airlock. When a derelict ship docks with an isolated space station, Security Officer Jonah Wright is tasked with...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter launched in Australia today and one of the first local projects is Airlock, an online science-fiction/thriller series.

The writers/producers, Distracted Media.s Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, aim to raise $100,000 via Kickstarter to supplement Screen Australia.s $350,000 investment.

The 3 x 30 minute series is set in deep space where a derelict ship docks with an isolated space station. The ship isn.t answering radio calls and the scanners show no life forms. Security officer Jonah is sent to investigate and finds the crew murdered and a destitute group of stow-away asylum seekers who have a secret that may threaten humanity. Jonah battles intergalactic racism and prejudices to try to save those he can and warn humanity of the impending alien threat.

Kickstarter.s arrival is not perceived as a threat to Pozible, the Australian crowdfunding platform that launched in 2010. .Pozible was one of the first platforms...

An award winning Sydney based content and social media agency has gone into liquidation owing creditors an estimated $65,000.

Dlshs (pronounced Delicious) won best social media campaign at last year’s Aimia awards for its work on promoting independent film The Tunnel.

Dlshs Pty has called in liquidator Murray Godfrey from Rmg Partners. The company’s shareholders voted on September 27 to voluntarily wind up the company. It appear to have changed its name to Forward Digital Media Agency Pacific Pty in recent days.

Documents covering the liquidation

It is unclear whether somebody has bought the Dlshs name or other assets. (Update: A statement to Mumbrella states: “The acquisition of the Dlshs name is currently under negotiation.”)

The Dlshs website is still live, although the telephone today remained unanswered.

Agency boss Ahmed Salama did not return Mumbrella’s calls. At the time of posting, Rmg partners had not responded to Mumbrella’s questions.

Australian distributor Titan View has picked up the distribution rights to a new documentary Stand in My Shoes.

The film is from Australian co-creators and producers Anna Reeves, Vivienne Somers and co-produced by Ahmed Salama, executive producer on The Tunnel. The film will be directed by Kurt Engfehr, who co-produced Michael Moore films Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 as well as directing Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.

The announcement:

The global social change film to be directed by Kurt Engfehr “Stand in My Shoes” has today secured an Australian and New Zealand distribution deal with Titan View, the innovative Australian distribution house responsible for the release of international smash hits “The Jammed”, “33 Postcards” and most recently, the gutsy documentary “This is Roller Derby”.

Stand In My Shoes is a crowd-fuelled social change film that exposes what President Barack Obama has coined as the “empathy deficit” in our world. The film will...

It seems a week doesn't go by at the moment without news that an Australian indie genre flick is about to start shooting. Seriously, there must be growth hormones in the water out here.Now comes news that body-horror love story Love Of My Life, is preparing a whiplash quick shoot in December this year to turnaround the film for release in March 2013! Now that's fast. To kick things off and show they mean business, the production has cast Bel Deliá - last seen going into meltdown as the lead in viral horror The Tunnel. The film also stars Diarmid Heidenreich and Brendan Clearkin. Love Of My Life is written by Liam Barrett and will be co-directed by Barrett and Michael Budd. Here's the synopsis: Inside one of the many operating theatres...

Bel Deliá, star of the indie horror hit The Tunnel, is returning to the genre with the psychological thriller Love of My Life.  She'll star opposite Diarmid Heidenreich; Liam Barrett will direct with Michael Budd who also co-stars.

Love Of My Life follows the story of a young man who is held captive by a deranged surgeon and given the choice of surviving five days of torture to save the life of the woman he loves, or to order her killed and be set free.

Shooting is expected to begin this December.

Read more...

The creators of viral horror film The Tunnel have been busy, and while they have plenty more horror in development, their next project will see them stretch their legs and prove they can do far more than scare the living crap out of audiences. This next project is called The Crossing, a new adventure documentary that follows follows two young Aussie adventurers, Clark Carter and Chris Bray, as they set off on an expedition in the wilds of the Canadian Arctic. Now comes news that a 25-minute excerpt from the doc will screen as part of the prestigious European Outdoor Film Tour, premiering in Munich on October 10. The tour will play in 200 locations around Europe including Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and the UK. If there was ever a film festival I wanted to attend...

Don’t be afraid, owners of intellectual property. Remakes are a win-win situation for the creators of cult film classics says producer Enzo Tedeschi.

Remakes. They’re everywhere. They’re a constant and no intellectual property is safe. Robocop, Dirty Dancing, Total Recall, Mad Max, even Hitchcock’s The Birds hasn’t escaped the talons of the remake or reboot.

As a film buff, I pitch my tent firmly in the camp of fans who see their much-loved movies as sacred ground. After all, did Spiderman honestly need a reboot just five years after its last sequel?

And will it really be Total Recall without Arnie, or Mad Max without Mel?

As a producer, though, I can totally see why these sorts of remakes, generally of cult classics, are rife. They simply make good business sense: find an intellectual property that could do with some ‘rejuvenation’, plug in the original fanbase and hey presto.

The recent phenomenon of ‘crowd funding’ film projects through sites like Kick-starter has not really borne any real fruit yet.

With projects like the upcoming prequel to Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon being solely funded through Kickstarter donations it’s only a matter of time before one of these projects hits big and changes the system forever. In the meantime after the recent Absentia showed what you can do with performance, atmosphere and a low budget made up of donations, now we have the Australian internet funded movie The Tunnel.

The Tunnel is presented in the faux documentary format and follows the misfortune of a journalist Natasha Warner (Bel Delia) and her crew (Andy Rodoreda, Steve Davis and Luke Arnold) who find an intriguing piece of footage on YouTube that leads then to believe that there may be a story lurking in the sewers below Sydney. They...

★☆☆☆☆ Australian director Carlo Ledesma's latest film The Tunnel (2011) wins the gold medal for the most misleading advertising campaign so far this year, due to its promotion as a horror - ironically, the main element that is lacking. In 2007, the New South Wales government abandoned plans to alleviate a sever drought by recycling vast quantities of water found in a series of disused train tunnels beneath Sydney. A year later, journalist Natasha (Bel Deliá) and her team venture into the tunnels to find out why - a decision they may not live to regret.

Read more »...

Welcome to issue 15 of Trailer Trash our series showcasing the latest trailer releases – this issue once again features our all-new “excitement-o-meter” where we rate (in exclamation marks on a scale of 1 to 5) each and every trailer by how excited we are to see the film after watching it. This issue of Trailer Trash includes new trailers for The House at the End of the Street, Killing Them Softly, The Paperboy, The Tunnel, another UK trailer for The Watch, and a new international trailer for Taken 2.

The House at the End of the Street

Seeking a fresh start, newly divorced Sarah (Oscar®-nominee Elisabeth Shue; “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Piranha 3D”) and her daughter Elissa (Oscar®-nominee Jennifer Lawrence; ‘X-Men: First Class,’ ‘Winter’s Bone,’ ‘The Hunger Games’) find the house of their dreams in a small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin to happen, Sarah and...

Whether you immediately discard the notion of a documentary-style horror film as a bandwagon leaper you can’t deny that, in the right hands, the recently-revived genre is capabale of worrying the trousers of many of us.

The key point here, among the Paranormal Activities, the Grave Encounters and the [Rec]s of recent years, is to be true to the story you’re telling and not to dash mindlessly through a scary location waving your camera around like a butterlfy net and screaming Wtf and Omg and Btaboag* in the darkness.

This preamble is not to denigrate the work done by Aussie director Carlo Ledesma and his writer/producers Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi as I’ve yet to see their film, The Tunnel, instead I wanted to intorduce this exclusive clip with a modicum of restraint on finding out the method of filmmaking.

The DVD is out on the...

Michael Moore collaborator Kurt Engfehr has teamed with a crew of Australian film-makers to create a new feature documentary, Stand In My Shoes.

The ‘social change’ film is based on the ‘empathy deficit’, a term coined by President Obama, cautioning against the dangers of a world without empathy.

Australian co-creators and producers Anna Reeves, Vivienne Somers with producer Elizabeth Nakano and creative director/executive producer Ahmed Salama who was Ep on The Tunnel have teamed with Engfehr, co-producer of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 and director of The Yes Men Save The World.

Craig Davis, chief creative officer of Publicis Mojo and co-founder of Brand Karma will be among the interviewees of the film. He will be joined by Google’s Chade-Meng Tan, spiritual author and lecturer Marianne Williamson, voted as one of Time Magazine’s 50 Most Influential Babyboomers and William Mobley, head of Neuroscience at Uscd.

The film also follows Reeves,...

Here's something really exciting. After years of working on a series of awesome and award-winning documentaries, from co-producing and editing Farenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, to co-directing Yes Men Fix the World, and Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, filmmaker Kurt Engfehr has chosen a solo directing project, examining what he terms the "empathy deficit" in society today. Apparently Obama coined the term "empathy deficit" in a 2006 speech, and now Engfehr wants to dig deeper into this concept, through his new doc Stand In My Shoes. Alongside filmmakers Anna Reeves, Elizabeth Nakano and Vivienne Somers, he will examine everything from internet trolling to sterile corporate culture to find out exactly what is behind this noted decline in social empathy. Ahmed Salama, who executive produced last year's viral hit The Tunnel,...

If the recent glut of low quality found footage flicks has been leaving a rather sour taste in your mouth, then get ready for a bit of refreshment as director Carlo Ledesma’s Australian faux-documentary The Tunnel will be putting the frighteners on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on August 6th, courtesy of Arrow Films.

Delve in here for the dark details...

Directed by Carlo Ledesma (The Last One, Food Matters, Locked, The Haircut), and produced by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, The Tunnel is part of the 135k Project, a crowd-funding initiative that invites film fans to buy individual digital frames from films in pre-production to fund the costs of production. The aim of 135k Films is to make movies unencumbered by box office constraints.

No info as of yet regarding special features, but trust us -- this one’s creepy enough to warrant a look regardless!

Check...

“The Tunnel”, out shortly on region 2 UK DVD via Arrow Films, is an Australian horror of the found footage variety, following a journalist and her camera crew poking around in the old rail tunnels beneath Sydney. The film has an interesting history, having been part of the ‘135k Project’, a scheme which aims to fund films by getting audience members to pay money in advance to buy digital frames from the finished production – in theory allowing directors to make films without having to worry too much about potential box office returns. Directed by Carlo Ledesma (helmer of the shorts “The Last One”, “Locked” and “The Haircut”), the film won a variety of awards, including Best Australian Director at the A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Best Use of Social Media at the 17th Annual Aimia Awards. The film revolves around a fictional 2007 decision the by the New South...

The local release of Cabin In The Woods on only two screens leads Enzo Tedeschi to ask why audiences are being ignored.

The producer in me knows the value of a film is in its audience. Without an audience, there is no revenue, and with no revenue no profit, which makes it a damn sight harder to get another go-around on the carousel.

It therefore puzzles me when I see decisions being made by filmmakers or distributors which seem at odds with finding their audience, or giving it what it wants. The most recent example, Roadshow’s decision to not release Joss Whedon’s film Cabin In The Woods into Australian cinemas.

After premiering as one of the buzziest films at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, reviews have been mixed for the film, but two things seem certain – Aussie punters want to see it in cinemas,...

The winning webseries in the 2011 Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 competition, Event Zero, has now been released in its entirety.The first episode launched on May 22 as a teaser to the rest of the series, and has received over 9000 views, many of which were from you, our readers! So if you enjoyed Episode 1, check out the rest of the webseries below. About Event Zero: Created by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey (producers of The Tunnel), Event Zero stars a host of Australian actors including Zoe Carides (Crownies, Out of the Blue), Valentino Del Toro (Gabriel, Underbelly: Infiltration), Harry Pavlidis (Gabriel, East West 101, All Saints) and Steve Davis (The Tunnel). As well as collaborations with several directors including Carlo Ledesma (The Tunnel), Andrew Traucki...

Coming off the success of The Tunnel, production partners Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey have released the first episode of their seven part web series, Event Zero.

.We wanted The Tunnel to appear real in every way., says Harvey, producer and co-creator of the hit Australian horror film, .but for Event Zero, we.re going for a hugely cinematic feel. Hopefully people will be caught off guard by what we accomplished with the money we had. We wanted to show people that we could tackle the big scenes..

Event Zero is a collection of seven stories all centered on a train derailment near Circular Quay. When the emergency services arrive at the scene, seemingly unaffected people begin to die. The story is loosely based on the 1995 Sarin gas attacks in Tokyo.

Tedeschi and Harvey received funding for Event Zero through Screen Australia and Movie Extra after their concept won the 2012 Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 competition.

The first episode of a new web series funded by an Australian TV network and the national screen agency premiered on YouTube yesterday.

Originating from the film trailer competition Movie Extra Webfest, Event Zero is produced by the creative team behind 2011 horror film The Tunnel.

Movie Extra Webfest, an initiative of Movie Network Channels, now in its second year, has also seen Screen Australia put $50,000 behind the project, doubling the production budget to $100,000.

Producer Enzo Tedeschi said: “For an Australian web-series, the $100,000 was a fair whack of cash.”

Despite the investment Tedeschi said that web-series as a platform isn’t far off from being recognised as a competitive screen platform to film and TV: “I don’t know if web-series are being treated seriously just yet but there is something happening around the industry with well-timed, well-placed series, like the Bondi Hipsters, which actually they already proved with Beached Az.

Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 winning web-series, Event Zero, has just premiered on Movie Extra's YouTube Channel. The first episode of the seven-part series has been embedded below for your viewing pleasure. It looks fantastic. About Event Zero: Created by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey (producers of The Tunnel), Event Zero stars a host of Australian actors including Zoe Carides (Crownies, Out of the Blue), Valentino Del Toro (Gabriel, Underbelly: Infiltration), Harry Pavlidis (Gabriel, East West 101, All Saints) and Steve Davis (The Tunnel). As well as collaborations with several directors including Carlo Ledesma (The Tunnel), Andrew Traucki (The Reef) and Shane Abbess (Gabriel).Event Zero tells seven interconnected stories of people caught up in an event much bigger than they are. A report comes in of a...

The production company behind horror film The Tunnel, Distracted Media, is to bring the story of Australian explorers Clark Carter and Chris Bray to cinemas.

The Crossing follows Carter and Bray as they attempt to cross the Canadian Arctic’s Victoria Island.

Shot by the explorers, Distracted’s Julian Harvey has directed and produced a feature film out of more than 100 hours of footage.

Harvey said: “As someone who has done a fair bit of mountaineering, I’ve come across quite a lot of adventure stories, but this one stood out straight away. Not only because of the quality of the footage they captured but the incredible determination Clark and Chris showed to reach their goal. It is a truly inspiring story.”

Of the adventure, Carter said: “Nothing comes easy with Victoria Island so to finally finish the expedition after four years of blood, sweat and tears was really an amazing feeling.

The highly anticipated web-series Event Zero, by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey (The Tunnel producers and winners of the 2011 Movie Extra Webfest 2.0 competition), will be commencing production on March 19. The suspenseful new web-series will see Tedeschi and Harvey collaborate once again with The Tunnel director, Carlo Ledesma. Set and filmed in Sydney, the seven part web-series carries an Australian $100,000 production budget. A report comes in of a train derailment near Circular Quay. Smoke billows from the wreckage and victims pour onto the streets. As the emergency workers arrive at the chaotic scene, they realise the biggest threat is only just emerging. People without a scratch are collapsing on the ground and dying - and it is spreading. Unless someone can work out...

Written and produced by Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi and directed by Carlo Ledesma, Australian horror The Tunnel was a grand experiment in alternative distribution. Funded largely by 'selling' individual frames in the film for a dollar to a rabid fan base and then distributed for free online via BitTorrent, The Tunnel has proven to be successful enough that Harvey and Tedeschi are gearing up to do it all again. Twice. In slightly different ways.First, there is the upcoming sequel The Tunnel: Dead End. Following a more traditional funding model - i.e. it is backed by Screen Australia rather than crowd funded and, thus, not bloody likely to be given away free - the story will pick up after the first, following the sister...

The nifty little flick The Tunnel is getting itself a sequel, and we have the very first details of what's coming for you this time should you venture out into the dark.

According to Screen Daily the team behind the Australian horror film is now in development on the sequel The Tunnel: Dead-End. The project has just received funding from Screen Australia.

"The story will pick up years later as Tangles' sister tries to find out what happened to her brother in the tunnels."

From there Distracted Media’s Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey are also going to use The Tunnel’s crowdfunding model (a 135k Project) to help finance sci-fi thriller Airlock, which it says is in the vein of Alien.

Look for more on both of these soon.

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The team behind the super bland Australian horror film The Tunnel is now in development on sequel The Tunnel: Dead-End. The project has just received funding from Screen Australia. "The story will pick up the story years later as Tangles' sister tries to find out what happened to her brother in the tunnels." Too bad the viewers of the first film don't even know as everything happens offscreen. I can only hope they truly delve into what actually happened down in those tunnels. Distracted Medias Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey are also going to use The Tunnels crowdfunding model (a 135k Project) to help finance sci-fi thriller Airlock, which it says is the vein of Alien. Hopefully this time they'll give investors more than a ridiculous DVD...

Wolf Creek director Greg McLean has received development support from Screen Australia for a new film set in Vietnam.

McLean’s project Black Echoes is among 13 projects to have been selected in the latest round of funding from the national screen agency.

Set in in the Vietnamese countryside, the film is about a group of tourists who go on an adventure into Viet Cong tunnels more claustrophic and scary than the famous Cu Chi tunnels.

Other projects to receive funding include The Outrageous Barry Rush, directed by Red Dog’s Kriv Stenders, written by Andy Cox and produced by Alan Harris, The Dressmaker by written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and produced by Sue Maslin and the sequel to last year’s online hit, The Tunnel, called The Tunnel: Dead End by Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey.

Single-project Development: Feature Development

Addition

Genre Romantic Comedy

Producers Bruna Papandrea, Cristina Pozzan...

The creative team behind last year’s Australian horror film The Tunnel has announced it’s working on a new project with a similar funding model.

The Tunnel was created with the 135K Project, which tried to raise $135,000 by selling frames to the movie at a dollar a frame.

Based on the success of the scheme, the team, Distracted Media will produce a new film. Airlock is a claustrophobic science fiction film in the vein of Alien.

The team have also received funding from Screen Australia to produce a sequel to The Tunnel, called The Tunnel: Dead End.

Filmmakers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey said: “The Tunnel: Dead End is a great opportunity to take Distracted Media into a different playing field but as producers we still very much believe in the basic principles of the 135k Project. Having a more mainstream film in The Tunnel: Dead End...

A sequel to last year.s successful low-budget horror film The Tunnel is currently in the works.

The sequel . titled The Tunnel: Dead End . received development funding from Screen Australia earlier this month and will pick up the story years down the track. No shoot date has been set for the horror flick.

It.s a sequel creators Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey weren.t planning on. .Initially, we weren.t anticipating doing another Tunnel film but the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the original . as well as our fans clamouring for another on an almost daily basis . made us go back and give it a second thought,. Tedeschi and Harvey, of Distracted Media, said in a joint statement.

.We weren't going to go ahead unless we could find a story we were 100 per cent behind, which we now have, and are thrilled to have the support of Screen Australia.

A sequel to last year.s successful low-budget horror film The Tunnel is currently in the works. The sequel . titled The Tunnel: Dead End . received development funding from Screen Australia earlier this month and will pick up the story years down the track. No shoot date has been set for the horror flick. It.s a sequel creators Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey weren.t planning on. .Initially, we weren.t anticipating doing another Tunnel film but the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the original . as well as our fans clamouring for another on an almost daily basis . made us go back and give it a second thought,. Tedeschi and Harvey, of Distracted Media, said in a joint statement. .We weren't going to go ahead...

Two prestigious Australian independent production companies have joined forces.

Sydney companies Cordell Jigsaw . established by Michael Cordell and Nick Murray . and Zapruder.s Other Films . led by Andrew Denton, Anita Jacoby and Peter Thompson . have formed Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder (Cjz).

The combined company, touted as the biggest privately-owned production company in Australia, currently has 10 shows in the works for ABC, Nine, Ten, Sbs and Foxtel. Such series include quiz show Randling (ABC), telemovie The Great Mint Swindle (Nine), Mega Truckers (Foxtel) and Country Town Rescue (ABC). The first show goes to air this Wednesday morning on ABC3 . You're Skitting Me . which was previously known as Lol. The children's sketch show is a first for Australia.

Established in 2005, Cordell Jigsaw has been responsible for such productions as Bondi Rescue, Hardliners, Recruits, O.Loughlin and the popular Go Back To Where You Came From. The latter . Sbs. highest-rated show of 2011 . saw Cordell...

An Australian film and theatre veteran will release his latest film online tonight at precisely 10:21pm.

Jim Sharman, director and producer of musical hit The Rocky Horror Show, also writer and director of its film version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is set to release Andy X, at 10:21pm, or 6:21am New York time, precisely 25 years after Andy Warhol’s death.

The 40 minute film is inspired by the life and death of the artist and explores his life through song and verse as he is at his death-bed in a New York hospital on February 22, 1987.

Adapted for the screen by Sharman from the original text by Stephan Sewell (The Boys).

Sharman said: “I essentially want people to experience this journey on whatever technology platform they prefer without restriction. Online movies are a new art form and their potential is evolving, yet cyberspace seems the perfect place to explore the Warhol enigma.

Boy, The Tunnel really opened doors for some filmmakers. Last week we had news the executive producers were launching an online portal to distribute indie films. Now this week we hear that producer extraordinaire Enzo Tedeschi has made the final round of a competition to win $100,000 to make a seven-part webseries -- another mystery set in the heart of Sydney.His pitch, for a high-concept thriller called Event Zero, takes place in the bustling transport hub of Circular Quay in Sydney, where trains, ferries, buses and cars intersect and a major disaster takes place. I love how these guys are redefining Sydney on screen.A report comes in of a train derailment near Circular Quay. Smoke billows from the wreckage and victims pour onto the streets. As the emergency workers arrive at the...

Well it had to happen eventually. After the creative marketing team behind viral smash The Tunnel had their collective geniuses unleashed to promote that movie to horror fans worldwide, they couldn't just re-bottle it and stay quiet. Instead they plan to launch an online movie viewing platform in 2012. Called eCut, this platform will allow filmmakers to connect with their audiences directly. As the press release enthuses: eCut is the brainchild of digital innovators Ahmed Salama and Valeria Petrenko, following the success of their crowd funded film project "The Tunnel" [which they executive produced and marketed].The Tunnel gained worldwide recognition for its innovative crowd funding approach and its ground breaking release via BitTorrent, iPad, VOD, Cable and DVD through Transmission Films which saw it downloaded and watched by over 3 million people since its debut...

The executive producers of the film The Tunnel have announced they will launch an online film platform for independent filmmakers.

Dlshs, the digital agency who helped create the innovative marketing and distribution campaign of The Tunnel, will launch eCut in 2012.

Ahmed Salama, co-creator of eCut with Valeria Petrenko, told Encore: “Ecut is many things – firstly, it is an independent film distribution platform. What we’re trying to do is give the power to the filmmakers and get their films out there the right way. I think there’s a whole generation of filmmakers evolving who don’t have the right tools to get their films out there.”

There will be three possible monetisation methods. Firstly, a filmmaker can set a price they like as pay-per-view.

The second is that eCut is ad supportive, where the filmmaker receives a share of the ads placed alongside their project.

The third method of...

Helen Bowden and Helen Panckhurst, photo: Cynthia Sciberras

Matchbox Pictures has been named Independent Producer of the Year at the 2011 Spaa Independent Producers Awards.

The production company is behind adult drama series The Slap, children’s show My Place and the upcoming crime series The Straits. Matchbox Pictures was formed by executives Helen Bowden and Helen Panckhurst, and producers Penny Chapman, Tony Ayres and Michael McMahon.

Winners were announced across a number of categories at the awards night on Monday night as part of the Spaa Conference.

See-Saw Films won best feature film for The Kings Speech. The production company run by Emile Sherman and Iain Canning also produced Oranges and Sunshine.

Breakthrough award went to the producers of The Tunnel, Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi with their innovative business model to maximise viewership through an agreement with BitTorrent.

Essential Media and Entertainment won best television drama for their series Rake starring Richard Roxburgh.