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In the late, great Larry Cohen's 1974 horror classic "It's Alive," Frank (John P. Ryan) and his wife Lenore (Sharon Farrell) have just had their second child ... and it's a monster. Their baby was born with fangs and claws, as well as increased dexterity and an unhuman lust for violence. As soon as the baby is born, it kills the nurses and scurries away through a skylight. The bulk of the film is a gruesome manhunt ... er, babyhunt ... wherein Frank and the local police track the killer baby through the streets, through a school, and eventually into the sewers. The baby murders people at each stop. It's posited along the way that the baby was mutated by the birth control pills still in Lenore's system when she was pregnant, and that the pharmaceutical company that made the pills is liable for any damage the mutant baby does. The Big Pharma...

James Gunn seemingly reached the nerd mountaintop upon becoming the co-chairman (with Peter Safran) of DC Studios in 2022. Nearly 30 years before that, however, he was just another struggling screenwriter slugging it out in the film industry trenches. Gunn earned his first screenplay credit as the co-writer of Troma Entertainment's "Tromeo and Juliet," which was not the calling-card effort that put him on Hollywood's radar. That would be his script for "The Specials," a superhero comedy that became a film under the direction of Craig Mazin in 2000.

Before that film was even made, though, Gunn found himself pitching projects to the major studios, one of which was a Silver Surfer movie at 20th Century Fox. Gunn knocked out a treatment that he once claimed was a "huge story, cosmic as hell," and he might've hung around to write the screenplay had another project not been dropped on his doorstep.

In 1999, filmmaker Jay Roach,...

Before James Gunn became the mastermind behind Guardians of the Galaxy and DC Studios, he had to face the cold, hard truth about Hollywood: making superhero movies isn’t all glitz and glam. His first crack at the genre, starring none other than Rob Lowe, was a wild ride that came with its own brutal wake-up call.

James Gunn | Image by Denniscabrams , licensed under Cc By-sa 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Long before he was juggling A-list actors and billion-dollar budgets, Gunn learned that Hollywood doesn’t always play fair.

James Gunn learned the hard way: Hollywood didn’t care about his vision for The Specials James Gunn offers some advice for the MCU | Image by Anthony Quintano, licensed under Cc By 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Gunn learned the hard way that Hollywood doesn’t always respect a writer’s vision. When he wrote The Specials — his first superhero film starring Rob...

Filmmaker James Gunn was one of the freshest voices to come out of the indie scene when he helmed the runaway MCU hit Guardians of the Galaxy. With his signature humor and unique vision for films, Gunn delivered blockbusters not just in the Marvel universe but also with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.

His work on the two films got him the job of co-chief of DC Studios with his producing partner Peter Safran. As the head of the Dcu, Gunn has been crafting the direction of the rebooted franchise, beginning with the Max animated show Creature Commandos, which he wrote, and the upcoming film Superman.

What is James Gunn’s net worth? James Gunn | Credits: YouTube/Screen Rant Plus

James Gunn’s tenure as a filmmaker reportedly began when he was 12 when he began making homemade films with his brother. Since then, Gunn has grown to be one of...

James Gunn is without a doubt one of the most famous current film directors in Hollywood, especially in the blockbuster realm. In the last few years, his superb and ingenious work with Guardians of the Galaxy confirmed his talent as a filmmaker as well as his flair for the superhero genre. Many of his fans are inevitably looking forward to July, when they will finally be able to see Gunn's latest movie, Superman.

Nevertheless, before dedicating himself to a career as a film director, Gunn started in the mid-1990s as a no less savvy screenwriter. The nowadays recognized artist of the superhero genre wrote cults like Scooby-Doo and the Dawn of The Dead, as well as some innovative TV shows. As a consequence, it is fair to remind fans that there are many unexplored gems that they might not know were written by James Gunn.

Tromeo And Juliet...

James Gunn is a curious figure in popular culture. As a young man, just rising in the film business, Gunn co-wrote the witty and disgusting Troma epic "Tromeo & Juliet" with Lloyd Kaufman, and it featured kinky sex, a bisexual Juliet, cow monsters, mutant penis creatures, and an opening narration by Lemmy from Motörhead. After that, Gunn took the piss out of the superhero genre with "The Specials," a low-low budget film about what superheroes — petty jerks, mostly — do on their day off. He stayed aloft in Hollywood writing the screenplays for two surreal "Scooby-Doo" movies, and Zack Snyder's remake of "Dawn of the Dead" before making his directorial debut in 2006 with "Slither," another gross movie about body-invading worm monsters and wacko mutants.

Gunn then deconstructed superheroes even further with "Super" in 2010, a film that hypothesizes that superheroes are mentally ill and addicted to extreme violence. "Super" is bleak,...

These days, James Gunn is known for giving us the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies and for heading up the new DC Studios over at Warner Bros. As the director gears up to unleash his "Superman" movie, we're all eager to see whether Gunn can finally make DC truly competitive in the superhero movie marketplace, even as audience interest may be waning.

Of course, "Superman" isn't Gunn's first foray into DC territory. Prior to helming DC Studios, his bloody, messy sequel "The Suicide Squad" was well-received even as a day-and-date pandemic release hampered its commercial performance. Meanwhile, his TV series "Peacemaker" was a vulgar, violent masterpiece, and will soon return for a second season that is set to meld DC animation and live-action. His "Guardians" movies for Marvel had been family-friendly affairs, and both of these DC projects allowed the director to embrace a more lurid, adult sensibility, and it...

Dick Pope is dead. The Oscar-nominated cinematographer best known for his 34-year collaboration with Mike Leigh was 77.

Pope's death was announced in a British Society of Cinematographers statement. "Dick had a reputation for being a wonderful collaborator and someone who was passionate about the artform of Cinematography," the Bsc wrote.

Here Are The 6 Hollywood Box Office Flops That Became Streaming Hits ( Photo Credit – Twitter )

Since the Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted Hollywood, the industry has been determined to recover by releasing blockbuster movies, particularly from major franchises. However, the box office landscape isn’t letting go easily as the industry demands movies to make money to get a foreseeable future, irrespective of their creativeness. Lately, one of the most unusual things happening in the realm of the box office is the increasing number of flops in theatres, which unexpectedly proved successful on streaming services. Here, we list the six movies that grossed poorly at the box office but demonstrated likeness on streaming services.

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

The Matrix Resurrections was budgeted at $190 million but sadly grossed only $159.2 million at the box office. In the series, nothing actually matched the action and creativity of the original 1999 classic. Still, the sequels remain notable...

Exclusive: Veteran animation producer Rick Mischel has formed a studio in Canada after acquiring Yeti Farm Creative Animation Studio.

Artists Animation Studio will be headquartered in Kelowna, British Columbia. Mischel, a Sony and Technicolor producer and exec, will be CEO of the venture and its founder. He completed the deal through his Reach Media vehicle. Financial details were not revealed.

The studio will be located the former Yeti Farm facility and will offer full-scale animation services and access to British Columbia’s Canadian tax credit incentives. It will primarily focus on 2D Harmony and hand-drawn animation for children’s and adult animation series, films, adverts and digital content.

Yeti Farm Creative Animation Studio’s co-founder Todd Ramsay (Hotel Transylvania: The Series, Angry Birds) will join Artists Animation Studio as Head of Animation, while another Yeti Farm co-founder, Ashley Ramsay, is departing “to pursue new opportunities.”

Dan Christman (Agent Elvis, Invincible) has joined as supervising producer,...

“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is one of Cyndi Lauper’s signature songs, but the iconic singer admits when she first recorded the track written by Robert Hazard, she thought: “It was like yawn and boring.”

“It wasn’t right for me. I sang his version. I sucked,” Lauper tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was written by a guy and he was writing, ‘Hey, we’re lucky. They want to have fun. Here I am.’ And it wasn’t that way for me because I’m a woman. I’m not a man. And that would be a problem.”

But the budding singer did what she does best — takes matters in her own hands and got creative — flipping the song so it fit for her persona. And it became an international hit — one that is still recognizable 40 years after its release.

The story of “Girls” is one of many the Grammy,...

With "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," actor Sean Gunn has arguably reached the zenith of his career after his motion capture performance as Rocket Raccoon and his role as Kraglin, the mowhawked Ravager with a heart who finally gets his long overdue hero moment in his brother James Gunn's surprisingly moving threequel. Professionally, both brothers have been working together since "Tromeo and Juliet," with Sean also going on to appear in "The Specials" and the R-rated vigilante superhero indie "Super" (before appearing in all three "Guardians" films and the "Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special").

Countless VFX artists have worked tireless hours to bring Rocket Raccoon to life, working in concert with Gunn's movements on set to deliver a fully realized character that has now become the beating heart of the franchise and one of the most unlikely heroes in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rocket's...

The film will be released in cinemas by Universal Pictures International in France in 2024.

Other Angle Pictures has partnered with Universal Pictures International France and Focus Features to board Reda Kateb’s debut feature On the Edge (Sur Un Fil) and will kick off sales in Cannes for the title that will be released in cinemas by Universal Pictures International in France in 2024.

Kateb is a familiar face on French screens, nominated for the 2018 and 2020 Best Actor Cesars and winner of the Best Supporting Actor in 2015 for Hippocrate. He currently stars in Elias Belkeddar’s Cannes Midnight Screening title The King of Algiers...

This article contains spoilers for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

The "Guardians of the Galaxy" films are without a doubt the most aesthetically diverse entries within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Far from being just another superhero saga, the films blend elements of comic-book-style derring-do, soap opera, space opera, action-adventure, and character-based melodrama.

But one particular element that writer/director James Gunn has continually brought to all three "Guardians" films is horror. For those not particularly well-versed in the genre, the horrific aspects of the "Guardians" movies may simply seem "edgy," but to those who are aware of Gunn's horror-soaked past as a filmmaker, these elements stick out like a big, fleshy tentacle.

The latest installment of the saga, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," is no exception to showcasing Gunn's horror roots. On the contrary; it may be the goopiest, most intense, upsetting, and transgressive of all the "Guardians" movies,...

In his career, James Gunn has written or directed eight superhero-based movies and TV shows. Early on, Gunn seemed eager to deconstruct the world of superheroes with their petty, human qualities (as in "The Specials") or the dark side of their devotion to violence (as in "Super"). As his career has continued, however, Gunn's work has become more earnest, and he has altered his focus toward quirky, violent characters who, now, possess a great deal of warmth and vulnerability. For example, his first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film from 2014 was presented as the "bad boy" off-shoot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring characters that were stranger and less brazenly heroic than their Earthbound counterparts. But, despite their oddness, the PG-13-rated film had little interest in glorifying their outsider status, instead presenting them as an ersatz family, each one marked by trauma and abuse. Many of the film's fans responded to the Guardians' unabashed sentimentality,...

The new movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is filled with Easter eggs, and that includes some interesting cameo appearances that many fans have missed. There's even one special appearance from someone who already has a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having appeared in two of the Ant-Man movies, but for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it's as an all-new character. That would be none other than Judy Greer, who previously played Maggie Lang, the estranged wife of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), in 2015's Ant-Man. She reprised the role for the 2018 sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Earlier this year, Marvel Studios released the third installment of the Ant-Man series, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Greer was not featured in the sequel as Maggie, and it isn't clear if the character will return in the MCU anytime soon. Meanwhile, James Gunn still had plans for Greer in the MCU,...

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 adds yet another comedic yet deeply emotional film into director and writer James Gunn's celebrated filmography, marking the end of an era for both the franchise and its creator. As Gunn prepares to launch his new DC Universe in the coming years, all eyes are on what the filmmaker's next moves will be.

Related: 10 Characters Who Can Lead The Next Guardians Of The Galaxy Team

With a filmmaking career that spans over twenty-five years, James Gunn has been at the helm of several beloved films that resonated with critics and audiences. Some of these films landed particularly well with users on the International Movie Database, ranking as the best projects in Gunn's career.

Scooby-Doo (2002) IMDb Rating – 5.2 (Rent/Purchase On Apple TV)

James Gunn may not have directed 2002's live-action Scooby-Doo film, but it was an integral part of his early filmmaking career. Gunn...

In October of 2022, it was announced that James Gunn -- the director of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films -- would be leaving the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take a prestigious job at Warner Bros. with his creative partner Peter Safran. The two of them have been tasked with inventing an entirely new interconnected cinematic universe of their own based on DC Comics, and Gunn has already announced his work on a Superman film he plans to call "Superman: Legacy." Gunn was already more or less facing the door when he directed "The Suicide Squad," a 2021 film based on DC Comics, and subsequently created a TV series, "Peacemaker," based on it.

"Vol. 3," as a result of Gunn's career shift, possesses an elegiac quality, with many established characters moving on to new careers at the film's conclusion. The mood is melancholic, as if audiences may not ever see these characters again.

It’s not everyday that a director becomes a CEO, but James Gunn has somehow become the dark avenger that DC needs. Along with his producing partner Peter Safran, Gunn was appointed to the co-ceo position at Warner Bros. Discovery’s DC Studios in October 2022, with the objective of crafting a new strategy for films based on the company’s stable of comic book icons like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

That’s a massive shift of Hollywood power players and a career boost for anyone, although Gunn evidently doesn’t plan to leave the director’s chair anytime soon. He’s all hands on deck for writing and directing the first film under his and Safran’s regime, “Superman: Legacy.” The forthcoming blockbuster — a reboot for the Superman franchise focusing on the early days of the Kyrptonian’s career — is set for release on June 11, 2025.

Considering Gunn’s career trajectory,...

Since taking on "Guardians of the Galaxy" in 2014, writer-director James Gunn has repeatedly expressed his deep ardor for each of these oddball characters who come together to form both a team and a family. They're misfits, and they look out for each other because the world plays rough with people of their offbeat ilk.

This is something Gunn knows firsthand. He cut his teeth as a screenwriter on Lloyd Kaufman's ultra-low-budget horror riff on the Bard, "Tromeo & Juliet," and found a small cult following thanks to his script for Craig Mazin's superhero comedy "The Specials." He stumbled commercially with his 2006 directorial debut, "Slither," and failed to find a wide-enough audience for his pitch-black superhero action comedy "Super." Though he had a solid reputation as a studio writer-for-hire via Raja Gosnell's "Scooby-Doo" movies and Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" remake, he was considered an acquired...

Someone once said that no matter what time of day you watch Ed Wood's legendary B-movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space," it always feels like three o'clock in the morning. The mere mention of Troma movies has a similar effect on me; suddenly it's a Friday night down Blockbuster Video in the early '90s all over again. Friends are coming over with beer and pizza and all I need is something with guns, boobs, car crashes, monsters, and cheap laughs for the perfect night in.

Headed by the cartoonish figure of Lloyd Kaufman, the studio has produced and distributed a steady stream of Z-grade trash for over 40 years now, and anyone who was around during the glory days of rental will be familiar with their sleazy back catalog. The world of Troma is both wacky and cynical, populated by dweebs, perverts, knuckleheads, psychos, bimbos, scumlords, and violent morons.

Making a dramatic feature about people who are autistic presents a steep challenge. How do you get an audience to connect with individuals whose defining trait is their inability to connect? “Rain Man,” a popular entertainment that I take utterly seriously, was structured almost entirely around the dramatic conundrum posed by that question. Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond was locked inside his head of numbers, his spasms of anxiety, the reflexive aphorisms (“I’m an excellent driver”) that defined his existence. The film never violated the self-contained unit that Raymond was. Yet it told the story of how he was, in the end, able to connect (sort of) without literally connecting. There was a beautiful conviction to that.

But in a context that isn’t so Hollywood, a movie that tries to deal honestly with far-end-of-the-spectrum autism faces a trap. If you make the characters “relatable,” you’re probably soft-pedaling the issue.

Two associations, one run by a Muslim and the other by a Jew, look after marginalized people, such as those with severe autism who have been rejected by the French system, in The Specials (Hors normes), a genre mishmash that’s as awkward as its name. Based on that one-sentence plot description, it would be hard to guess that this mainstream downer was directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the duo behind several hit comedies, including the box-office monster Intouchables and the hilarious 2017 Toronto International Film Festival closing film C’est la Vie. Their latest offering is more ...

BrightBurn may be the start of the James Gunn cinematic universe. We stress may, but there are some clues in the recently released horror-tinged superhero movie, which was produced by Gunn, that hint this movie could exist in a larger universe of characters that certain movie fans may already be familiar with. Whether or not that ever is explored in a future movie remains to be seen, but the seeds have seemingly been planted, that much is certain.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Brightburn. Those who haven't seen the movie may want to turn back now. The end of David Yarovesky's Brightburn is rather dark, as our protagonist Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn), kills his mother (Elizabeth Banks) by dropping her thousands of feet to the Earth heartlessly, then proceeds to take out an entire airplane's worth of people, before moving on to wreak havoc all across the world.

Cannes season sets in from May 14 this year and many new films are waiting to be unspooled. Film aficionados are converging in this seaside resort to watch, to sell, to acquire, to write about the films and the setting, to soak in the sun and sand with celebrities, to cut deals while they savour sea food or salads. We say, let the celebrations begin.

So, what?s in store for us in the 72e Festival de Cannes? Twenty-one films in competition vying for that glory called Palm d?Or ? Golden Palm from veterans like Jim Jarmusch whose The Dead Don?T Die will open the festival, Pedro Almodovar (Pain And Glory), Marco Bellocchio (The Traitor), Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (Young Ahmed), Arnaud Desplechin (Oh Merci!), Xavier Dolan (Matthias And Maxime), Abdellatif Kechiche, Ken Loach (Sorry We Missed You), Terrence Malick (A Hidden Life), Corneliu Porumboiu...

Veteran actor Jean Reno has been tapped to star in “Rogue City,” a thriller that sees director Olivier Marchal re-team with French studio Gaumont.

Budgeted at $13 million, the film is set in Marseille and follows an anti-gang cop (Reno) with unorthodox methods who investigates a shooting at a local nightclub along with his longtime rival.

Lannick Gautry, Stanislas Merhar and David Belle complete the cast. Alain Figlarz, who has previously worked on “Taken 3,” “The Bourne Identity” and “The Transporter,” will be handling the action scenes and stunts.

The movie is set to start shooting on location in the south of France in September. Gaumont will kick off pre-sales for “Rogue City” at Cannes with a fully story-boarded script, and expects to release “Rogue City” in France during the second quarter of 2020.

Marchal is himself a former cop who worked for both the police and French intelligence. Through films such...

France TV Distribution will launch sales on the film this Cannes.

Screen can reveal a first look image of Juliette Binoche in Emmanuel Carrère’s French-language drama Between Two Worlds (aka The Night Cleaner).

France TV Distribution will launch sales on the film this Cannes. It is produced by Olivier Delbosc at Curiosa Films and David Gauquié and Julien Deris at Ciné France Studios.

Binoche stars as a well-known author who decides to write a book on job insecurity by experiencing it first-hand. She gets work as a cleaning lady and discovers a life where each euro matters, finding herself invisible in society.

Cambodian director first appeared at the festival in 1994.

Cambodian director Rithy Panh will be president of the Caméra d’Or jury at next week’s Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25).

The filmmaker will be joined on the jury by director Alice Diop; director, author and critic Sandrine Marques; director of photography Benoît Delhomme; and president and director of post-production house Polyson Nicolas Naegelen. All four are from France.

The jury will award the Caméra d’Or prize at the May 25 closing ceremony, to one of 22 first features playing in the Official Selection, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week sections. Last year...

Benedict Cumberbatch and Elisabeth Moss are set to star in “The Power of the Dog,” the next film from Oscar-winner Jane Campion.

Campion has written and will direct the feature film adaptation of Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name. This is Campion’s eighth feature film, her first since 2009’s “Bright Star” and her first project since the second season of the “Top of the Lake miniseries, which starred Moss.

See-Saw Films’ in-house sales arm Cross City Films will be launching sales at Cannes and will go into pre-production at the end of the year.

Also Read: Jane Campion Endorses 'Leave No Trace' Director Debra Granik for Oscar Nomination

“‘The Power of the Dog’ is a sublime novel that deserves a life on the big screen,” Campion said in a statement. “I couldn’t stop thinking about the story, it really haunted me. The themes of masculinity,...

We are just about a week away from the kick off of the Cannes Film Festival, but yet the French event is still adding features to its lineup. And this time, the festival is announcing that one late addition to the event is going to be the closing film…err, “last screening.”

According to Variety, Cannes has added the new film, “The Specials,” to close out of the festival.

Continue reading Cannes Announces ‘The Specials’ From ‘Intouchables’ Directors As 2019 Closing Film at The Playlist.

Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano and the French poster for The Specials, which will close this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival The new film by the makers of Samba and C’est La Vie, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, entitled The Specials, will close this year’s 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival on 25 May following the awards ceremony.

The performance will be called the “Last Screening” with a nod to Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show which in French was known as “la Dernière Séance.”

The Specials, or Hors Normes in French, stars Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb. The festival organisers say they want to re-establish the last show as an occasion worth remembering such as the year that Steven Spielberg’s Et filled the slot.

Frequently the final screening has been a damp squib, especially after the fanfare of the prizes showcase.

Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s new film “The Specials” will close this month’s Cannes Film Festival, organizers announced on Monday.

The film, a social comedy starring Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb and a cast of nonprofessional actors and teens with autism, will play following the festival’s May 25 awards ceremony in what the festival now bills as Last Screening. Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu is leading this year’s jury of competition titles.

“The Specials,” which was submitted at the last minute to the selection committee, evokes social and contemporary issues, where the collective world is once again at the heart of everything: social workers, volunteers, health professionals all striving to take care of teens with autism.

“This film is more than contemporary and carries great promises for the future,” festival general delegate Thierry Frémaux said in a statement.

This year’s festival opens on May 14 with Jim Jarmusch...

The Specials, the latest feature from The Intouchables filmmaking duo Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, has been set to close out the 72nd Cannes Film Festival — just don’t call it the “Closing Film.” Cannes organizers said today that they’re doing away with the distinction, preferring to brand the final pic of the Riviera shindig as the “Last Screening.” There are a couple of pop culture winks in the switch: In French, the final movie will henceforth officially be referred to as “La Dernière Séance” which is the local title of Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 Oscar winner The Last Picture Show, as well as a tune by French actor/singer Eddy Mitchell.

The Specials, a social comedy that was submitted at the last minute to the selection committee, will screen in the Lumière Theater after the Closing ceremony on Saturday May 25.

Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb star alongside a cast...

Festival’s closing film re-badged as “last screening”.

The Specials directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano will close this year’s Cannes Film Festival on Saturday May 25, playing Out of Competition in the Official Selection.

This year the festival has renamed the ’closing film’ to the ’last Screening’. It will still screen during the closing ceremony at Grand Théâtre Lumière.

Explaining the name change, the festival said: “By renaming the closing film the ’last screening’, the Festival de Cannes wishes to reconnect with its tradition of final great screenings.”

Social comedy The Specials stars Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb...

Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s “The Specials,” a social comedy with Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb, is set to close the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The film will screen May 25 during the festival’s closing ceremony.

Produced and distributed by Gaumont, “The Specials” is the latest film from Nakache and Toledano, the French directing duo behind the hit “Intouchables.” Their new movie is an uplifting comedy about the true story of Stephane Benhamou and Daoud Tatou, two friends from different religious faiths who, 20 years ago, created a pair of nonprofit organizations for children with severe autism.

Cannes said the film “acutely evokes social and contemporary issues, where the collective world is once again at the heart of everything: social workers, volunteers, health professionals all striving to take care of autistic teens.”

The festival said that the film had been submitted for consideration “at the last minute.

Films from a number of big-name returning auteurs – including Xavier Dolan, Pedro Almodovar, Terrence Malick, Bong Joon-ho and Ken Loach – appear to have a lock on competing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, making for a stronger and starrier lineup than last year’s slate, sources tell Variety.

Dolan’s “Matthias & Maxime” (in which he stars), Almodovar’s self-reflective “Pain & Glory” and two-time Palme d’Or winner Loach’s “Sorry We Missed You” are set to join Jim Jarmusch’s previously announced opening film, “The Dead Don’t Die,” in competition, sources say. Other high-profile Cannes alumni who appear poised to return in competition include Malick, with his World War II drama “A Hidden Life” (previously titled “Radegund”); Bong, with “Parasite”; Marco Bellocchio, with his Mafia thriller “Traitor”; Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, with “Ahmed,” a look at religious fundamentalism in Europe; and Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho,...

Gaumont is reteaming with “The Intouchables” and “C’est La Vie” production banner Quad on Mohamed Hamidi (“One Man and His Cow”)’s concept company “Queens of The Field.”

The movie is set in a small rural town which is on the verge of losing its funding along with its field. The threat leads the town women to join forces and launch a football crew in order to defend their city. But in a community where football has always been considered a men’s sport, the women’s team turns the town upside down.

“Queens of The Field” is headlined by a strong French cast, including Kad Merad (“Little Nicholas”), Alban Ivanov (“Sink or Swim”), Sabrina Ouazani (“Taxi 5”) and Céline Sallette (“The Returned”).

Hamidi previously directed “One Man and His Cow,” which grossed over $10 million and was nominated for a European Film Award in 2016.

Gaumont described the film...

Following the widely successful “C’est La Vie,” Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s (“The Intouchables”) passion project “The Specials” (“Hors normes”) starring Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb, has already lured major buyers in key territories.

Gaumont, which delivered the largest number of French B.O. hits overseas in 2018, has pre-sold “The Specials” to Germany, Austria (Prokino), Greece (Seven), Italy (Videa), Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands (Cineart), Portugal (Lusomundo), Spain (A Contracorriente), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Israel (Lev), Canada, (MK2 Mile), Scandinavia (Scanbox), China (E Star), Taiwan (Moviecloud), Abania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro (McF Megacom) Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Mauris Films) and Poland (Kino Swiat).

“The Specials” is an uplifting drama about the true story of Stephane Benhamou and Daoud Tatou, two friends from different religious faiths who, 20 years ago, created a pair of non-profit organizations for children with severe autism.

Toledano and Nakache are best-known for directing “The Intouchables,” which scored $450 million worldwide.

French mini-major Gaumont is re-teaming with “The Intouchables” filmmakers Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache on their long-gestated passion project, “The Specials,” starring Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb.

“The Specials” is an uplifting drama about the true story of Stephane Benhamou and Daoud Tatou, two friends from different religious faiths who, 20 years ago, created a pair of non-profit organizations for children with severe autism.

Toledano and Nakache are best-known for directing “The Intouchables,” which scored $450 million worldwide. Their last film, “C’est la vie,” is the second-highest grossing French film worldwide this year so far, with $40 million .

“The Specials” is being produced by Toledano and Nakache’s regular partners at Paris-based production banner Quad. Gaumont is co-producing with Toledano and Nakache’s company Ten Films. Gaumont is also handling international sales and will release the movie in France on Oct. 23, 2019.

Budgeted at $15 million, “The Specials” brings back crew members from “The Intouchables,...

Brett Carducci and Stephen Laddin have acquired the film and television rights to Bill Brittain’s “The Wish Giver.” The two will produce a series project based on the young-adult novel through Carducci’s Aligned Entertainment.

Published in 1983, “The Wish Giver” tells the story of three children, each granted a wish that, when fulfilled, turns horribly wrong. The book won a Newbery Honor citation in 1984. Carducci and Laddin intend to develop the project as an anthology in the vein of “The Twilight Zone” or “Black Mirror,” but with a youth-oriented spin in the tradition of “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” Each episode will take viewers through the journey of a teenager wishing for something different in his or her own life, and having that wish come true — though not in the way intended. The teen must then learn a moral lesson that reverses the wish.

No network is yet attached to the project.

Visit concluded the deal with The Jokers Films at the Great 8 Showcase in Cannes.

Ryan Kampe’s New York-based Visit Films has closed a deal with The Jokers Films in France on Rubika Shah’s documentary White Riot.

Visit concluded the deal in Cannes at the Great 8 Showcase on May 9 organised by the BFI, BBC Films and Film4 in association with the British Concil and the British government’s ‘Great’ campaign. Visit launched pre-sales at the Efm.

White Riot explores how punk influenced politics in late-1970s Britain at a time of deep social unrest. The film follows three artists...

The film is based on Shah’s short White Riot: London that premiered at Sundance 2017.

Ryan Kampe’s New York-based Visit Films has added writer-director Rubika Shah’s documentary White Riot to its Efm slate.

The film is based on Shah’s short White Riot: London that premiered at Sundance 2017 and went on to screen at Berlin, Tel Aviv and Sheffield Doc/Fest, among others.

White Riot explores how punk influenced politics in late-1970s Britain, a time of deep social unrest. The film follows three artists and fanzine creators who fought the neo-Nazi National Front, and overcame death threats, physical attacks and police brutality to create the British civil rights movement Rock Against Racism.

The documentary features interviews and previously unseen archive footage of performers like The Clash, The Specials, Tom Robinson, Bob Geldof, Joy Division, Elvis Costello, Pete Townshend, Buzzcocks and Steel Pulse.

Ed Gibbs produces through Smoking Bear, the production company...

First a Miami Vice reboot, and now this? At least this time it's not 80's nostalgia, but 70's nostalgia. And, not only that, but none other than James Gunn - of Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Specials fame - will write the pilot, and possibly direct! He'll be sharing writing duties with his brother Brian and cousin Mark. Also like Miami Vice, Starsky And Hutch was a buddy-cop... Read More...

I can still remember going to see James Gunn’s debut feature Slither on opening night in March of 2006. It was to be my birthday movie, so myself and a group of friends all got together at the movie theater, ready to check out what Gunn had in store for us. I was the only one among us with an awareness of his work, having followed his career as a screenwriter during his days at Troma through The Specials, the two live-action Scooby-Doo movies, and, most notably, his 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Because I knew what to expect from a James Gunn movie, naturally I loved Slither. My friends did, too. The rest of the nearly empty theater seemed puzzled and disgusted by it, though, and I knew that night that the movie was going to die a quick death.

I was half right. Yes, Slither disappeared from...

Little known fact. James Gunn wrote the screenplay for Scooby-Doo: The Movie. A movie I quite enjoyed when I was growing up and still to this day. I was in California on vacation when I saw it with my family. I really thought it was clever to make Scrappy Doo the villain because so many people hated him in the original series. I also thought the casting was so enjoyable. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Freddie Prinze Jr, Isla Fisher, and Matthew Lillard were so great to watch re-enact my favorite cartoon characters. It was a kids movie sure, but at fifteen years old I still thought it was funny and cool in its own right. 

Well, James Gunn had a lot of fun being involved in writing it, and got to be on set with the actors during the filming and he has very fond memories. In honor of the 15th anniversary,...

Recently Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director James Gunn has dropped notes on Facebook regarding the Spider-Man: Homecoming casting controversy and to give updates on the status of Groot in the Guardians sequel. This week he wrote on his Facebook page once again with a Guardians-themed post that actually said a lot more. Women all over the world have been pushed to the sidelines in the interests of men, and their personhood is often forgotten or delegitimized. This is true in the realms of politics and education and religion. But it is also true in the realm of Stories. That is my personal area of expertise, and that is where I believe women – and girls – deserve the fullness of character that men have often received (I almost said “always received” but then remembered much character writing sucks, regardless of sex). "Now I know, in these weird times, just for writing this,...

Tuesday, October 11 marked International Day of the Girl, which Guardians of the Galaxy 2 director James Gunn decided to celebrate by speaking about the female roles in his superhero sequel. While his original 2014 blockbuster featured two prominent female roles, Zoe Saldana's Gamora and her sister, Karen Gillan's Nebula, those ladies will return, and be joined by newcomer Pom Klementieff's Mantis, with the director revealing in his note that he can't wait to see how fans react to these characters.

The director published this note on Facebook this past Tuesday, revealing how he has always tried to develop his female characters as full as he possibly could. He added that his sequel passes the "Bechdel Test," meaning the movie has at least two female characters talking to each other about something other than a man. Here's part of director James Gunn's lengthy statement below.

"Women all over...

There have been a couple of solid female roles in the Marvel Studios filmography, but there's always room for improvement, and it sounds like that's exactly what writer/director James Gunn has done from Guardians of the Galaxy to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I somehow missed this the other day (apologies for the delay), but the filmmaker took to Facebook a couple of days ago and spoke out about how he's written fully-rounded female roles in his upcoming sequel. Here are a few snippets of that post:

Women all over the world have been pushed to the sidelines in the interests of men, and their personhood is often forgotten or delegitimized. This is true in the realms of politics and education and religion. But it is also true in the realm of Stories. That is my personal area of expertise, and that is where I believe women – and...

The Bechdel Test. First coined by Alison Bechdel via Dykes to Watch Out For in ’85, the theory has been applied to countless works of fiction ever since as a means of measuring gender bias across any medium – or lack thereof, in some cases. Its premise is simple: in order to pass the test, said subject must contain at least two women in it, two women who talk to one another about something besides a man.

Sounds simple? You’d be surprised by how many films fail to meet even that most basic requirement. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is categorically not one of them.

Talking to Facebook to commemorate International Day of the Girl, director James Gunn posted an exhaustive post on the matter, before confidently stating that not only does Guardians 2 pass the Bechdel test, the sequel seemingly manages to “run over it and back up over it...

For the early part of 2014, most fans saw Guardians of the Galaxy as a giant gamble for Marvel. It was a sprawling space epic with little known characters and a director mostly beloved for his cool, hip cult movies such as The Specials, Slither and Super. But Marvel and Disney knew they had a hit earlier on, announcing a sequel at last year's Comic-Con before the movie even opened, confirming a May 5, 2017 release date. Thing is, they had no idea just how big of a blockbuster hit Guardians of the Galaxy would prove to be, or how prophetic that news was. Guardians of the Galaxy turned Chris Pratt into one of the biggest stars in the galaxy. And it excelled at giving us a group of characters who all 'stole' the show. Now, more than possibly any other Marvel movie planned to hit over the next five years, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2...