News

Exclusive: The Alliance of Women Directors has set its Rising Director Fellowship class of 2025: Mora Carew, Robin Cloud, Lisa Cole, Saray Bravo Guidetti, Dana Nachman, Jenn Shaw, and Allex Tarr.

Awd’s mission advocates to increase opportunities for women and nonbinary directors working in the screened content industry through robust advocacy, craft development programs, and mentorship.

The year-long intensive fosters directors who have achieved substantial success in the short-form space and are attached to direct their first narrative feature film. The program supports these directors through educational and networking opportunities, mentorship, and the opportunity to create a Proof of Concept for their feature projects. The journey concludes with an Industry Screening of the shorts.

Each candidate underwent rigorous vetting and was chosen from a pool of 18 finalists who were interviewed by Awd Icon Members Mary Lou Belli, Kelly Park, Rachel Ramist, Aida Rodriguez, Rosemary Rodriguez, and Bethany Rooney, Advisory Board Members Jonathan Frank,...

Adria Arjona and Wagner Moura will star in the feature film adaptation of Francisco Goldman’s bestselling book “Say Her Name.” The film, which will be directed by Gerardo Naranjo, will feature a script by Goldman, while Arjona and Moura will executive produce. UTA Independent Film Group is representing worldwide rights and will be launching sales at EFM.

Naranjo is best known for directing “Miss Bala,” which premiered in Cannes in 2011, and was the Mexican entry for the Oscars and Goya awards that year. He has directed episodes of acclaimed series such as “The Walking Dead” and “Narcos,” and his latest film “Kokoloko” won Best Mexican Film at Guadalajara in 2020.

Goldman is the author of six books, including the 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist “Monkey Boy.” He wrote the screen adaptation for HBO’s 2020 crime documentary “The Art of Political Murder,” based on his 2007 nonfiction book by the same name. “Say Her...

Exclusive: Emmy-Award winning producer and director Daniel Minahan and Oscar winning producer Peter Spears are teaming with Ley Line Entertainment to develop the feature film On Swift Horses based on the Shannon Pufahl novel of the same name.

On Swift Horses follows Muriel and her husband Lee who are beginning a bright new life when he returns from the Korean war. However, this newfound stability is upended by the arrival of Lee’s charismatic younger brother, Julius, a wayward gambler with a secret past. A dangerous love triangle is quickly formed. When Julius then takes off in search of the young card cheat he’s fallen for, restless Muriel embarks on a secret life of her own, gambling on racehorses and discovering a love she never thought possible.

Minahan will direct off Bryce Kass’ adapted screenplay. Minahan and Spears will produce the project, joined by Ley Line’s Tim Headington. Ley Line’s Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya will serve as EP.

Kass is the screenwriter of Lizzie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart and was released by Roadside Attractions. He is currently writing the film Alone for HBO/Max with Laura Bickford producing, based on Leslie Kean’s best-selling non-fiction book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record, and is also at work on a five-episode limited series with Gus Van Sant who is set to direct. He recently completed writing an updated Saturday Night Fever feature for Daft Punk. Other screenplays by Kass include Dark Star for director Scott Cooper and Oscar-winning producer John Lesher, The Real All Americans for producers Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger and two for George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures: Pioneer and Monster of Florence. His television project Lights, is set up at Working Title/ Universal TV with Andrew Stearn producing.

Minahan most recently directed and executive produced the entirety of Netflix’s limited series Halston. He made his feature directorial debut with Series 7: The Contenders, which screened in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and in the Panorama at the Berlin Film Festival. For his work on the film Minahan was nominated for the Gotham Award’s Open Palm Award for Outstanding Directorial Debut and the film won the Audience Award at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival. On the television side, Minahan won an Emmy Award as an EP of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace for which he also directed several episodes. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for directing and executive producing Deadwood: The Movie and has directed multiple episodes of Game of Thrones, True Blood, Six Feet Under and The Newsroom.

Spears recent shared an Oscar Best Picture win for Nomadland. The Searchlight pic also won Academy Awards for director Chloé Zhao and star Frances McDormand and won the Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, BAFTA, PGA and Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture. Spears produced Luca Guadagnino’s film Call Me By Your Name, for which he was also nominated for the Oscar in 2017. He is currently in production on Bones and All, reuniting with Guadagnino and star Timothée Chalamet.

Ley Line Entertainment is a content development, production, and financing company with projects spanning film, television, stage, and music. Highlights include a documentary on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Long Promised Road which premiered at Tribeca; David Lowery’s upcoming The Green Knight; Everything Everywhere All At Once from The Daniels; the original West End musical & Juliet (featuring the international megahits of Max Martin and writer David West Read (Schitt’s Creek); Miss Juneteenth - a TV series (and the original film) from Channing Godfrey Peoples; and Sundance’s Strawberry Mansion from Albert Birney and Kentucky Audley.

Minahan is represented by UTA and Circle of Confusion. Kass is repped by Circle of Confusion. Pufahl is repped by UTA.

Exclusive: New Line and HBO Max and producer Laura Bickford have teamed up to frame a movie around fact-based modern government investigations into UFO’s. Bryce Kass has penned the script.

Based on investigative reporter Leslie Kean’s journey while investigating and covering unexplained aerial phenomena for over many years, the movie will also tell the story of Luis Elizondo while he was the head of the Pentagon Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (Aatip) and Christopher Mellon, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, who helped bring the previously secret Pentagon program and its official UFO videos to light in 2017.

Recent coverage by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Politico, Fox News and CNN have brought the U.S. Defense Department’s long secret UFO program into the public eye.

Bickford originally optioned Kean’s 2010 New York Times bestseller UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government...

Pierce Brosnan has signed up to star in the feature-length adaptation of Brett Marty’s short film ‘Youth’.

Brosnan will play an engineer in the near future who’s about to retire at age 70 when his company pays him to undergo a procedure to rewind his body’s biological clock back to its prime. The process goes tragically wrong and his ageing begins accelerating rapidly, so he attempts a more dangerous treatment.

Marty will direct from a script he co-wrote with Josh Izenberg and Amelia Whitcomb. Jib Polhemus, Paul Schiff and Martin Brennan will produce alongside executive producers Laura Bickford and Hannah Leader.

Also in news – Odeon Cinemas across the UK to open in July

The original 2016 sci-fi short starred Jessica Stroup & George Maguire and won numerous awards on the festival circuit including Best Screenplay at the Las Vegas Film Festival.

Brosnan got his big break in the 1982 series ‘Remington...

In today’s film news roundup, Pierce Brosnan will play an engineer who tries to rewind his biological clock, a film about the 1964 Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake is in the works and a Hire Her Back initiative is underway.

Casting

Pierce Brosnan has signed on to star in writer/director Brett Marty’s feature-film adaptation of “Youth,” a short film he directed and co-wrote in 2016.

Highland Film Group is handling the international rights for the science-fiction thriller, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic. Sales will launch at this month’s Marché du Film Online.

Brosnan, who’s 67, will portray an engineer in the near future who’s about to retire at age 70 when his company pays him to undergo a procedure to rewind his body’s biological clock back to its prime. The process goes tragically wrong and his aging begins accelerating rapidly, so he attempts a more dangerous treatment.

“Youth” is co-written by Marty,...

Pierce Brosnan will star in Brett Marty’s sci-fi thriller “Youth,” an adaptation of a short film Marty directed and co-wrote in 2016, the Highland Film Group announced on Wednesday.

Sales for the film will launch at next month’s Marché du Film Online. Highland Film Group is handling international rights while CAA Media Finance is handling domestic sales. The sci-fi thriller is co-written by Marty, Josh Izenberg, and Amelia Whitcomb. Jib Polhemus, Paul Schiff and Martin Brennan will produce alongside executive producers Laura Bickford and Hannah Leader, and co-producer Joshua Izenberg.

In the near future, “Renewal’ is the world’s hottest commodity, a procedure to remind your body’s biological clock. Joel (Brosnan) is an ad-tech engineer who is about to retire at age 70, but his company doesn’t want to lose him and pays for him and his wife to Renew. His wife returns in her twenties, but Joel’s procedure goes wrong,...

Pierce Brosnan is set to star in Youth, the feature film directorial debut from writer/director Brett Marty based on his 2016 short of the same name. Marty, Josh Izenberg and Amelia Whitcomb co-wrote the film adaptation, which is being produced by Jib Polhemus, Paul Schiff, and Martin Brennan.

The pic is set in a future not far from now, where “Renewal” has become the world’s hottest (and most expensive) commodity — a procedure to rewind your body’s biological clock back to its prime. Joel (Brosnan), an ad-tech engineer, is about to retire at age 70, after a lengthy career. Not wanting to lose him, his company pays for him and his wife Alice to Renew — a luxury promising a second chance. Alice emerges from the operation in her 20s, but for Joel, the procedure goes tragically wrong. Rather than make him younger, his aging begins accelerating rapidly, and his remaining years evaporate into mere weeks.

Project based on writer/director Brett Marty’s 2016 short film.

Pierce Brosnan will star in the the thriller Youth, which Highland Film Group will introduce to buyers at the Cannes virtual market later this month.

Writer/director Brett Marty’s feature adaptation of his 2016 short film of the same name stars Brosnan as Joel, an ad-tech engineer approaching retirement who takes part with his wife in a procedure that reverses the body clock.

While his wife emerges looking like she is in her 20s, the procedure leaves Joel ageing rapidly. In his desperation to reverse that process, Joel uncovers dark...

Project based on writer/director Brett Marty’s 2016 short film.

Pierce Brosnan will star in the the thriller Youth, which Highland Film Group will introduce to buyers at the Cannes virtual market later this month.

Writer/director Brett Marty’s feature adaptation of his 2016 short film of the same name stars Brosnan as Joel, an ad-tech engineer approaching retirement who takes part with his wife in a procedure that reverses the body clock.

While his wife emerges looking like she is in her 20s, the procedure leaves Joel ageing rapidly. In his desperation to reverse that process, Joel uncovers dark...

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has taken U.S. rights to 2019 Toronto premiere Sweetness In The Belly, which stars Dakota Fanning in the story of an English child abandoned in Africa.

The distributor will release the film digitally May 8, with theaters set to be closed beyond that date due to the coronavirus pandemic.

More from DeadlineGravitas To Release 'Braking For Whales'; Cinema Guild Sets Date For 'Liberté' - Film BriefsGravitas Ventures Picks Up North American Rights To Documentaries 'Gamemaster' & 'Find Your Groove'Vertical Entertainment Nabs U.S. Rights To 'Run With The Hunted'; Gravitas Lands 'End of Sentence' - Film Briefs

Based on the novel by Camilla Gibb, the film was directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari from a script by Laura Phillips. It follows Lilly, who is forced to flee Ethiopia for England when civil war breaks out. She befriends Amina (Wunmi Mosaku), an Ethiopian refugee who has fled the same war.

Exclusive: Shailene Woodley is set to star in the title role of Girl Named Sue, the true story of DEA agent Sue Webber-Brown and her role in creating the Drug Endangered Child (Dec) protocol. Fernando Coimbra is directing and Crazyrose partners Jean-Marc Vallée and Nathan Ross (Dallas Buyers Club) are producing with Laura Bickford (Traffic and Beasts of No Nation), whose Flora Films partner Fiona Druckenmiller is exec producer.

The film was written by Lisa Cole and Mark Monroe, the husband & wife team. Mark Monroe wrote the Oscar-winning documentaries The Cove and Icarus. Set in the central California farmland in the ’90s at the height of the crystal meth crisis, Webber-Brown fights her way into the boys’ club of law enforcement where she takes it upon herself to help the small children overlooked during raids. It is a decision that will change her life forever. Risking her career and the safety of her family,...

Komasa’s previous films include Suicide Room and Venice Days title Corpus Christi.

Fast-rising young Polish filmmaker Jan Komasa is planning a Rosemary’s Baby-style horror as his next film.

The new English-language project, Sara, is a psychological horror film set in Berlin. The script is completed. The film follows an American couple who fly into Berlin to work on a new startup tech company. The woman is pregnant but has a miscarriage. She can’t accept the loss of the baby and convinces herself the baby was kidnapped. This leads her into the city’s criminal underworld.

“We are now reaching out to actresses.

Howard A. Rodman’s upcoming book will be getting the big-screen treatment.

“The Great Eastern,” set to be published in early June by Melville House Books, has been acquired by Great Point Media — a London-based content and media company. Rodman, the former Writers Guild of America West president, will also write the screenplay for the film.

“Howard Rodman is a literary master whose long list of screenwriting credits speak for themselves. Great Point Media is thrilled to be bringing his vision onto the big screen,” said Great Point director Jim Reeve.

The adventure story follows two of literature’s iconic anti-heroes, Captain Nemo and Captain Ahab, as they battle through the latter half of the 19th century. After Nemo kidnaps real-life civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel to build a submarine — one that would link the U.S. and England, two opposing colonial forces — the three men find themselves at battle with each other.

London-based sales agency HanWay Films has released the first-look image of Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s “Sweetness in the Belly,” which Variety has exclusively. The shot shows the film’s stars Dakota Fanning and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

The cast also features Wunmi Mosaku, best-known for British crime series “Luther,” and a BAFTA winner for “Damilola, Our Loved Boy,” and “The Big Bang Theory” star Kunal Nayyar.

Fanning plays Lilly Abdal, a woman caught between two worlds. Orphaned in Africa as a child, she escapes to England as a refugee, fleeing civil war.

“Lost in this cold new world, Lilly embraces the immigrant community in London, attempting to reunite people with their scattered families,” according to HanWay. “But as her friend Amina (Mosaku) discovers, Lilly’s mission isn’t purely selfless: A passionate lost love affair is revealed between Lilly and Aziz, an idealistic doctor. But can Lilly let go of the past?...

Exclusive: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is set to star opposite Dakota Fanning in the Zeresenay Berhane Mehari-directed Sweetness In The Belly based on the bestselling novel by Camilla Gibb.

Adapted for the screen by Laura Phillips, the film is a powerful love story that explores an immigrant’s life from a unique perspective. In a story that is relevant to today’s cultural landscape, Fanning stars Lilly Abdal (a role which Saoirse Ronan was originally attached), who was orphaned in Africa as a child and escaped to England as a refugee, fleeing civil war. Lost in this cold new world, Lilly embraces the immigrant community in London, attempting to reunite people with their scattered families. However, Lilly’s mission isn’t purely selfless: A passionate lost love affair is revealed between Lilly and Aziz (Abdul-Mateen II), an idealistic doctor. But can Lilly let go of the past?...

Dakota Fanning is starring in the immigrant drama “Sweetness in the Belly,” which has begun shooting in Ireland and will continue in Ethiopia.

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari is directing from a script by Laura Phillips, adapted from Camilla Gibb’s bestselling novel that explores an immigrant’s life from the unique perspective of being orphaned in Africa as a child, escaping to England as a refugee, embracing the immigrant community in London, and attempting to reunite people with their scattered families — while dealing with a passionate lost love affair with a doctor.

Other cast members include Wunmi Mosaku and Kunal Nayyar (“The Big Bang Theory”). The project was unveiled at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival with Saoirse Ronan initially attached.

Berhane Mehari’s first feature film, “Difret,” was executive produced by Angelina Jolie and won the audience awards at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and in the panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival.

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari directing project. Entertainment One takes Canada rights.

Dakota Fanning has signed up to play the lead in refugee story Sweetness In The Belly for director Zeresenay Berhane Mehari.

Principal photography gets underway this week in Dublin and will continue in Ethiopia including the Unesco world heritage site Harar Jugol. Further cast include Wunmi Mosaku and Kunal Nayyar.

The film will tell the story of a woman caught between two worlds. Orphaned in Africa as a child, and raised Muslim, Lilly Abdal (Fanning) escapes to England as a refugee, fleeing civil war. Lost in a cold new world,...

Exclusive: Director Lasse Hallstrom and producer Laura Bickford are teaming to make a movie based on investigative reporter Leslie Kean's bestselling book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record. Kean is one of three reporters who broke the widely-covered, recent story on the front page of the New York Times about the existence of a Pentagon UFO program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program which has secretly been in…...

Just because you’re a well-established director with award-winning hits and/or commercial successes doesn’t mean you can make any movie you want. Just ask Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, Darren Aronofsky, and more. All these auteurs have had passion projects over the years they’ve had to kill or put on indefinite hiatus for a variety of reasons, which is a shame given how incredible all of them sound on paper.

Read More30 Essential Directing Tips From 30 Master Filmmakers

Christopher Nolan taking on Howard Hughes. Spike Lee making a boxing epic around Joe Louis. Kathryn Bigelow resurrecting Joan of Arc for a female warrior saga unlike any the big screen had ever really seen in the 1990s. We’d buy a ticket for all them years in advance if we knew they were definitely happening.

With many of our favorite auteurs currently in production on new movies,...

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation star Rebecca Ferguson has come attached to Ruth Harkness biopic The Lady and the Panda.

Billed as a UK/Chinese co-production, we understand that filming is due to commence next month in China, with locations including the foothills of the Himalayas. Justin Chadwick will direct from a script penned by Laura Bickford and Holly Gent Palmo.

A 1930s New York socialite, Ruth Harkness stole headlines left, right, and center after becoming the first person to transport a live panda from China to the United States. Doing so wasn’t easy, of course. Soon after the passing of her wealthy husband, Harkness took over his planned expedition to China and, after partnering with local guide Quentin Young, the two travelled down the famous Yangtze river before coming across an orphaned baby panda that they later called Su Lin.

It’s a story that went on to become a nationwide sensation (“Pandamonium!

Rebecca Ferguson is attached to star as Ruth Harkness, the first person ever to bring a live giant panda out of China, in the Justin Chadwick-directed film The Lady And The Panda. Chadwick co-wrote the script with Laura Bickford and Holly Gent Palmo, and the film is set to being production in the foothills of the Himalayas in China next month. The film is based on Ruth Harkness' original detailed correspondence. When the 1930's New York socialite loses her wealthy husband…...

The Exchange CEO Brian O’Shea has announced casting on the UK-China co-production ahead of the Santa Monica market next week.

Ferguson will play the lead Ruth Harkness In The Lady And The Panda as a 1930s New York socialite who ventured into the Chinese interior and became the first person to bring a live giant panda out of the wild.

Justin Chadwick will direct and co-wrote the original screenplay with producer Laura Bickford and Holly Gent Palmo based on Harkness’s original detailed correspondence.

Bickford produces with Michelle Qi of Europe China Picture Group, while executive producers are Joe Simpson of Miscellaneous Entertainment, Andrew Mann, Fiona Druckenmiller, Justin Brodle and Christopher Brough of Pandamotion Picture Company.

Production is scheduled to begin in the Sichuan region in the foothills of the Himalayas in China in November.

Ferguson will soon be seen in Sony’s Life starring Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal and co-stars alongside Michael Fassbender in Universal...

CEO Brian O’Shea announced the new signing on Monday ahead of next week’s Afm in Santa Monica.

Justin Chadwick will direct The Lady And The Panda, a UK-China co-production that Laura Bickford and Europe China Picture Group CEO Michelle Qi are producing.

The story centres on 1930s New York socialite Ruth Harkness, who ventured into the Chinese interior after the death of her explorer husband and rescued an orphan panda.

Production is scheduled to begin in November all over the Sichuan region in the foothills of the Himalayas in China.

Chadwick, Bickford and Holly Gent Palmo wrote the screenplay based on Harkness’ detailed correspondence.

Joe Simpson of Miscellaneous Entertainment, Andrew Mann and Fiona Druckenmiller serve as executive producers.

Chadwick directed the upcoming Tulip Fever, as well as Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, The First Grader and The Other Boleyn Girl.

The Exchange’s sales line-up includes documentary Gleason, A Street...

Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.

NYC’s IFC Center has plans to expand, and they could use your help to let city officials know you support it.

Watch Don Cheadle analyze a scene from Miles Ahead:

Xavier Dolan‘s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan begins shooting on July 9th, Le Journal de Quebec reports.

Cinematographer Jeff Cutter discusses shooting 10 Cloverfield Lane with Filmmaker Magazine:

Anamorphic lenses just have a feeling that reminded Dan and I of what it used to be like watching these great widescreen movies when we were kids that were shot anamorphic. It just makes it feel like a big movie and that was something that we really,...

The Santa Monica-based sales, production and financing company will start talks with international buyers in Berlin on the historical drama starring Antonio Banderas.

Myriad holds sales rights to Altamira excluding Spain/Andorra, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Latin America – where Fox International will distribute – to the true story about an archaeologist and his daughter whose discovery of historic cave paintings sparks a firestorm.

Hugh Hudson (Chariots Of Fire) directed and Rupert Everett, Golshifteh Farahani, and Pierre Niney also star.

Olivia Hetreed and José Luis López-Linares wrote the screenplay about the father and daughter, whose achievement earns academic plaudits but scandalises their family for its empirical contradiction of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Myriad Pictures will be showing exclusive first-look footage from the English-language film that shot on location in Spain.

Lucrecia Botín and Alvaro Longoria from Spain’s Morena Films produced Altamira with Andy Paterson from the UK’s Sympathetic Ink.

Alexandra Lebret of France...

John Erick Dowdle ("No Escape," "Devil") has been set to direct the action thriller "Six Minutes to Freedom" based on the 1989 rescue of American citizen Kurt Muse in Panama.

Muse was imprisoned for broadcasting from a pirate radio station which dissented against then dictator Manuel Noriega. He was the first American rescued from prison by the U.S. Delta Force.

Dowdle and his brother Drew Dowdle will adapt the script from John Gilstrap novel of the same name. Marc Butan, Drew Dowdle, Sam Franco and Laura Bickford will produce.

Source: Variety...

John Erick Dowdle will direct Six Minutes To Freedom and is writing the script with brother Drew Dowdle. Adaptation of the John Gilstrap novel has been set up by MadRiver Pictures’ Marc Butan, who’ll produce with Drew Dowdle, Sam Franco, and Laura Bickford. Ed Fee will be executive producing. It’s an action thriller based on the true story of Kurt Muse, an American, who in 1989 was imprisoned for broadcasting a pirate radio station that propagated dissent against…...

With their surprisingly solid action movie “No Escape” still in theaters, brothers John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle have signed on to tackle the action-thriller “Six Minutes to Freedom” for MadRiver Pictures, it was announced Wednesday. John Erick Dowdle will direct the adaptation of John Gilstrap’s novel and co-write the script with Drew Dowdle, who will also produce with Marc Butan, Sam Franco and Laura Bickford. Ed Fee will serve as executive producer. “Six Minutes to Freedom” is based on the true story of American Kurt Muse, who was imprisoned in 1989 for broadcasting a pirate radio station that propagated dissent.

The powerful new Netflix film Beasts of No Nation, starring Idris Elba, recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will screen at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and London Film Festival. Before this upcoming drama debuts in limited theaters and on Netflix October 16, the streaming service has released the first trailer. Given the buzz surrounding this film, don't be surprised if you start hearing about its Oscar prospects by the end of the year.

Written and directed by Emmy Award winner Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Sin Nombre) and starring Golden Globe winner Idris Elba (Luther, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Beasts of No Nation will debut Friday, October 16, 2015, the same day in Landmark theatres in the U.S. and worldwide on Netflix in all territories where the world's leading Internet TV network is available. If the film is received well, it could be the...

Netflix, Bleecker Street and Landmark announced a partnership on Thursday that will put Netflix’s first original film in 19 of the Us exhibitor’s markets.

Beasts Of No Nation, which will screen in competition in Venice and go on to play in Toronto after a possible Telluride world premiere, will debut on October 16 in Landmark theatres day-and-date with global streaming in all active Netflix territories.

Landmark theatre markets include New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, St Louis, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego.

Cary Fukunaga directs Idris Elba as Commandant, an African warlord who trains a child to become a soldier in his country’s civil war. The film is based on the novel by Nigerian author Uzodinma Iweala.

Amy Kaufman and Fukunaga, collaborators on Sin Nombre, will produce with Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Riva Marker and Dan Crown for Red Crown Productions, along with Elba...

Exclusive: Netflix has firmed plans to release its first batch of theatrical-quality films. The streaming service’s feature film initiative begins with the October 16 release of Beasts Of No Nation, the drama about a child soldier torn from his family and pressed into fighting a civil war in an African country. The film is directed by True Detective‘s Cary Fukunaga and stars Idris Elba as a warlord who mentors the young man (played by Abraham Attah). Based on the novel by Nigerian author Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts will be released on Netflix in all territories, and on the same day it will be released in select U.S. theaters by distributor Bleecker Street. That will qualify the film for awards-season consideration. Amy Kaufman and Fukunaga produced with Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Riva Marker, Dan Crown and Elba. Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Laura Bickford and Donna Guiliatti are executive producers.

The second...

Altamira

Director: Hugh Hudson // Writers: Olivia Hetreed, José Luis López-Linares

Hudson, notably the director of 1981 Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire, hasn’t helmed a feature since the lambasted 2000 Kim Basinger film I Dreamed of Africa, a noted passion project for the actress. His latest, Altamira, looks to be a historical reenactment, and will hopefully prove to be Hudson’s welcome return to feature films, which is why it makes our list. Banderas will play Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a Spanish jurist and amateur archeologist who made the discovery of the Altamira Cave with his nine-year-old daughter Maria. Featuring painting of bison, horses, a doe and human hands, made with charcoal and ochre, these were the first Paleolithic cave paintings of their type to be discovered.

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Golshifteh Farahani, Rupert Everett.

Producers: Morena Films’ Lucrecia Botín and Alvaro Longoria (7 Days in Havana), Sympathetic Ink’s Andy Paterson (The Railway Man...

HBO has announced that is developing "Cortes," a high-profile drama series about Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes who brought the Aztec empire to its knees.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is set to direct the pilot and executive produce the series alongside "Mississippi Burning" scribe Chris Gerolmo and actor Benicio Del Toro. Del Toro himself is said to be interested in starring as Cortes.

The series will have three leads, the other two being Mayan woman Malinche who helped Cortes, and Aztec leader Montezuma whom Cortes befriended and ultimately had executed.

The series will explore his legacy and actions which, whilst extending the power of the Spanish Empire and winning Mexico for Spain, also saw him committing mass murder and wiping out one of the most famous civilizations in history.

Laura Bickford, Rick Yorn and Emma Tillinger Koskoff will also executive produce.

Source: Deadline...

While everyone is busy labeling Marco Polo as Netflix’s answer to Game of Thrones, HBO is looking for their own new project big enough and worthy enough of inspiring copycats, and they may have found it with a new series now in development from Executive Producers Martin Scorsese and Benicio Del Toro.

Deadline reported Tuesday that Cortes, created by Chris Gerolmo (Mississippi Burning), is a high profile drama about Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador who came to the Aztec empire and eventually brought it to ruin, claiming Mexico for Spain in the process. Here’s Deadline’s full plot summary:

Cortes will tell the sweeping story of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, who brought down the Aztec empire; Malinche, the Mayan girl who helped him do it; and Montezuma, the Aztec leader he befriended and finally put in chains.

Deadline has Scorsese billed as both a producer and director, and...

HBO’s successful track record for period dramas looks set to continue if this latest piece of industry chatter comes to fruition. This time, they are taking a step into the history of Latin America. As of today, the premium cable network are setting the wheels in motion for a drama series inspired by the life of the Spanish conquistador, Cortes.

While still in the early stages of development, the show has already acquired a slew of big hitters. Martin Scorsese is attached to direct, Mississippi Burning writer Chris Gerolmo is poised at the keys to pen the episodes, and Benicio Del Toro is reportedly keen to tackle the leading role. All three will executive produce along with Laura Bickford, Rick Yorn and Emma Tillinger Koskoff.

According to Deadline, who nabbed the exclusive, Cortes “will tell the story of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, who brought down the Aztec empire; Malinche,...

First image released of period drama from Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson.

Principal photography has begun on period drama Altamira, directed by Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire, Greystoke) and starring Antonio Banderas.

Production will take place on location in Northern Spain.

The English-language production also stars Golshifteh Farahani, Nicholas Farrell, Henry Goodman, Pierre Niney, Clément Sibony, Tristan Ulloa, Irene Escolar and Rupert Everett. British actress Allegra Allen makes her film debut.

The screenplay is by Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring; Wuthering Heights) and Jose Luis Lopez-Linares. José Luis Alcaine (The Skin I Live In) is the cinematographer.

Producers are Lucrecia Botín, Alvaro Longoria from Spain’s Morena Films and Andy Paterson from the UK’s Sympathetic Ink. Alexandra Lebret, of France’s Mare Nostrum co-produces with Laura Bickford as executive producer.

The film tells the true story of nine-year old Maria (Allen) and her father Marcelino (Banderas) who, in 1879, found...

Thor is going country.

TheWrap reports that Chris Hemsworth will produce and star in the movie based on Steve Earle's book, I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive. The 2011 novel by the Grammy-winning country star tells a fictional tale of Toby "Doc" Ebersole, the physician accused of giving Hank Williams a fatal dose of morphine. Ten years after the country music pioneer's death, his doctor is without a license and is supporting his own morphine habit by performing illegal abortions. Feeding his addiction further, Ebersole is haunted by Williams' ghost.

Exclusive: Spain shoot for period drama from Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson.

Antonio Banderas is to star in English-language period drama Altamira, which begins shooting in Cantabria, Spain, on Monday (Sept 29).

The Desperado star confirmed his casting at the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 25 - Oct 5), where he is promoting sci-fi film Automata.

The previously announced project has now found its director in Hugh Hudson, the British film-maker best known for 1981 Oscar-winner Chariots of Fire.

The film, based on a script from Girl With a Pearl Earring writer Olivia Hetreed, is being produced by Lucretia Botin and Alvaro Longoria (Che) for Morena Films and Andy Paterson (The Railway Man) for Sympathetic Ink. Laura Bickford is exec producer.

Set in 1879, Altamira charts the story of an amateur archaeologist (Banderas) and his daughter who discover early cave art.

At first celebrated, the family is thrown into crisis following a backlash against them and the prehistoric art, led by the...

• Chris Hemsworth has optioned the film rights to Steve Earle’s novel I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, which he will star in. Benjamin Grayson adapted the novel for the screen, and will be making his directional debut with the indie. The story follows Toby “Doc” Ebersole, who is haunted by Hank Williams’ ghost after his hand in the country singer’s death in 1953. Doc subsequently has his medical license revoked. Ten years later, now in the red-light district of San Antonio, Texas, Doc performs illegal medical procedures in order to purchase morphine, while still experiencing visits from Williams.

Chris Hemsworth has optioned the rights to Steve Earle's novel I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, with the actor both starring in and producing the adaptation.

The novel tells the fictitious tale of Toby "Doc" Ebersole, who is haunted by the ghost of country music legend Hank Williams, after he was involved in the singer's death in 1953, which lead to his medical license being revoked. The story picks up 10 years later in the red light district of San Antonio, Texas, where Toby supports his morphine habit by performing illegal medical procedures, while still being visited by Hank's ghost. The project's title is spawned from a 1952 song that Hank Williams co-wrote, which was the last single to be released while he was alive.

Benjamin Grayson wrote the screenplay and will make his feature directorial debut, with Chris Hemsworth producing alongside Laura Bickford (Arbitrage). No production schedule was given.

Actor Chris Hemsworth has optioned the film rights to Steve Earle's novel "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" and is slated to both star in and produce the indie film along with Laura Bickford ("Traffic").

Benjamin Grayson adapted the script and will make his directorial debut on the project about Toby 'Doc' Ebersole who is haunted by the ghost of Hank Williams following his involvement in the country singer's mysterious death in 1953.

The story picks up a decade later in the red-light district of San Antonio where Doc supports his morphine habit by performing illegal medical procedures. Hank's ghost visits Doc frequently to offer unwanted advice.

Source: The Wrap...

Now that he's wrapped Michael Mann‘s “Blackhat,” Chris Hemsworth is trying on another hat — movie producer. Hemsworth has optioned the film rights to Steve Earle's novel “I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive” to star in and produce along with Laura Bickford (“Traffic”). Benjamin Grayson wrote the script and will make his directorial debut with the indie film. Also read: Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Day in Talks to Join ‘Vacation’ Reboot “I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive” is a dark, fictitious tale that follows Toby “Doc” Ebersole, who's haunted by the ghost of Hank Williams following his involvement in the country.

Colin Firth is teaming up with director Christopher McQuarrie on the adaptation Three to Kill, which is being financed by Andrew Lauren Productions.

The novel, written by Jean-Patrick Manchette, follows a businessman who is hunted down by a pair of sociopaths after witnessing a murder on the coast of France. The book was previously adapted into a graphic novel by Jacques Tardi, which was nominated for two Eisner Awards. Another Jean-Patrick Manchette adaptation, The Gunman, is set for release next year, starring Sean Penn, Idris Elba and Javier Bardem.

Howard A. Rodman (Savage Grace, August) is on board to write the screenplay adaptation, with Andrew Lauren and Laura Bickford producing. No production schedule was given at this time.

Colin Firth will next be seen in Devil's Knot and The Secret Service.

Christopher McQuarrie has signed on to direct and Colin Firth is set to star in an adaptation of French author Jean-Patrick Manchette's thriller novel "Three To Kill" at Andrew Lauren Productions.

Set on the French coast, Firth will play a disillusioned businessman witnesses a murder and finds himself being hunted by two relentless sociopaths.

Howard Rodman will write the script and Lauren will produce with Laura Bickford. Jacques Tardi previously adapted the novel into the acclaimed 2010 comic "West Coast Blues".

Source: Deadline...

Exclusive: Andrew Lauren Productions has committed to finance Three To Kill, an adaptation of the novel by French author Jean-Patrick Manchette. Christopher McQuarrie has signed on to direct and Colin Firth will star. Howard Rodman will write the script and Lauren will produce with Laura Bickford. Pic is a thriller set on the coast of France. A disillusioned businessman witnesses a murder and finds himself being hunted by two relentless sociopaths. The novel was adapted by Jacques Tardi into the graphic novel West Coast Blues, and that was nominated for two Eisner Awards in 2010. Manchette’s The Prone Gunman was separately turned into The Gunman, a Studio Canal Silver Pictures co-production that was directed by Pierre Morel with Sean Penn, Javier Bardem and Idris Elba starring. Related: Chris McQuarrie To Direct ‘Star Blazers’ From ’70s Anime Series Lauren most recently financed and co-produced The Spectacular Now, the Tim Tharp novel...

Pen Center USA's 23rd annual Literary Awards Festival at the Beverly Hills Hotel was a dazzling mix of literary Los Angeles and Hollywood, as Joan Didion was winning the Lifetime Achievement Award. Many of the 400 or so attendees, from producer Laura Bickford to authors Bret Easton Ellis, A.M. Homes, Janet Fitch, Cari Beauchamp and Michael Tolkin, were disappointed that the diminutive and frail New York writer was not able to attend, after a recent fall.  Governor Jerry Brown and Harrison Ford had been friends with Didion for some 40 years, and valued her friendship--and sophisticated dinner parties. Ford used to do carpentry for Didion and her late husband John Gregory Dunne, and worked on their Malibu house, before his acting took off. "To be part of Joan Didion's world gave me a sense of support and validation," Ford said. Anjelica Huston read Didion's acceptance speech, in which the writer thanked...

Exclusive: ICM Partners has signed Tod ‘Kip’ Williams, the Gotham-based director who last helmed the found footage sequel horror hit Paranormal Activity 2. He’s next directing Tangier, a Tom Pabst-scripted indie that will be produced by Traffic‘s Laura Bickford. I’ll always remember Williams for having the stones to take it upon himself to charm author John Irving into giving him a free option on his bestselling novel A Widow For One Year. Irving had never heard of Williams, who had only directed the festival film The Adventures Of Sebastian Cole. His producer, Ted Hope, had an in with Irving in that the author was briefly his wrestling coach at Exeter. That got Williams a foot in the door, and he sold Irving on his pitch to take only a portion of a sprawling tale (most of Irving’s books are sprawling tales), and make that the focus of the film.

If you are among the people fascinated by this controversial gangster – his extravagant lifestyle – the ingenuity and severity of his crimes – and who in 1987 was the 7th richest man in the world, then you’re glad to hear Pablo Escobar drama Paradise Lost will soon be shot. Additionally, Brady Corbet, who stars in the upcoming Simon Killer has signed on to star opposite Josh Hutcherson and Benicio Del Toro in the new feature about a famous Colombian drug lord, who was shot dead on December 2nd, 1993 and his final resting place is at a cemetery on the outskirts of Medellín. The...

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Twas the night before Oscars and all through the town, everyone was stirring and no one was down. Indeed, Hollywood seemed ebullient on Saturday night as limos careened back and forth up and down Sunset Blvd. from the Chateau Marmont to Soho House and up to the Beverly Hills Hotel carrying actors, actresses, and celebrities. Meanwhile, at the Dolby Theater, in rehearsal, you could hear the cast of “Les Miserables” and a 48 person strong chorus belting out show tunes, and Dame Shirley Bassey polishing up her “Goldfinger” for the big event. At Madeo’s on Beverly Boulevard, Charles Finch held his annual pre Oscar dinner, sponsored by Chanel, and featuring Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain. Finch, the British impresario, is also the son of late great actor Peter Finch, and he knows a thing or two about theater. The result is that his parties are like little presentations, cozily lit, super-salons.