News

Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance, starring Tom Hardy, grossed $2.2m, roughly a third of all ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, at the South Korean box office on its second weekend on release, November 1-3, according to Kobis.

The third instalment in the franchise now has a total gross of $6.6m as of November 4. This is less than its predecessor Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which opened during the pandemic but took $8.8m over its first two weekends.

After debuting in first place on Wednesday (October 30), Cj Enm’s local comedy title Amazon Bullseye fell to second over the weekend with $1.4m.

“Venom: The Last Dance” held on for a second weekend win at the South Korea theatrical box office. It fended off a decent challenge from local comedy “Amazon Bullseye.”

“Venom” earned $2.21 million in its second full weekend of release, down 48% from (a steeply revised figure of) $4.45 million reported by Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. Since releasing on Oct 23., “Venom” has built a cumulative total of $9.34 million.

Newly released “Amazon Bullseye” shot $1.45 million over the weekend and $2.37 million over its five-day opening run. Directed by Kim Chang-ju, the film is a comedy about a Korean archery champion who has to learn some humility when a plane crash lands him in the South American jungle and puts him among tribesmen with better bow and arrow skills. The laughs begin when he takes a trio back to Korea.

Third place belonged to Hur Jin-ho’s “A Normal Family...

Venom: The Last Dance topped the Korean box office on its first weekend, capturing more than 60% of ticket sales.

The third instalment in the Sony franchise took $4.2m from Friday to Sunday (October 25-27) for a cume of $5.7m since opening on October 23, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking system.

It may struggle to match the $15.2 taken by predecessor Venom: Let There Be Carnage in 2021 let alone the $24.6m taken by 2018’s Venom.

In second place was mystery drama A Normal Family, which took $730,000 on its second weekend – half of the $1.45m claimed on its opening weekend,...

Song Kang-ho, star of Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” will headline a series adaptation of hit film “Inside Men.”

The project was revealed on Thursday by producer Hive Media Corp. which said that the show is in the early stages of pre-production. Cameras are expected to roll in 2025.

No broadcaster or streamer has yet been attached.

The 2015 film was a political thriller that was adapted from an incomplete webtoon, penned by Yoon Tae-ho called “The Insiders” and which was published 2010-2012 in the Hankyoreh newspaper.

The webtoon featured a political bruiser, played by Lee Byung-hun in the film, who seeks revenge after being ruined by politicians and the media. Directed and written by Woo Min-ho, the film added other elements including a prosecutor (portrayed by Cho Sueng-woo), a presidential candidate Portrayed by Lee Gyeong-young) and a newspaper editor (portrayed by Baek Yoon-sik).

The series, which will be directed by Mo Wan-il (“The World of the Married...

Korea’s Finecut has landed pre-sales of upcoming action-comedy The Desperate Chase and secured further deals for black comedy A Normal Family in the US and Asia.

The Desperate Chase, which marks the second feature of Devils director Kim Jae-hoon, has been snapped up for Japan (Rights Cube), Taiwan (Apex Success Global), and Vietnam (Mockingbird Pictures) ahead of its market premiere in Cannes, where a rough cut will be screened for buyers.

Starring Kwak Si-yang (The Battle Of Jangsari), Park Sung-woong (Hunt) and Yoon Kyung-ho (Alienoid), the caper centres on a detective on the case of a Chinese triad boss...

Stories about moral conundrums and the slippery side of justice and integrity are universally attractive and tent to travel well from one side to the other of the world. It's what happened to Herman Koch's novel “The Dinner”, an international bestseller translated in many languages and adapted into four films, Dutch, Italian, American and finally a Korean version directed by Hur Jin-ho with a different title, “A Normal Family”.

A Normal Family is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

The film's tone of voice is immediately established when we witness a horrific road rage between two cars, ending in one of the drivers being killed and his 6-yer-old daughter left critically injured. The culprit, a rich and arrogant kid with a powerful father, will likely get away with it, as his case is given to the capable hands of rampant and expensive attorney Jae-wan (Suo Kyung-gu). Coincidentally, the...

Top Brazilian titles at the Berlin Festival and EFM:

“Betânia,” (Marcelo Botta)

Botta’s feature debut, produced by Salvatore Filmes, associate produced by Ventre Studio, selected for Berlin’s Panorama. Set in stunning but barren Brazilian sand dunes, Betânia, 65, rebuilds amid global collapse. After losing her husband to a salty diet common in electricity-deprived areas, she seeks solace in a new village, cherishing its traditions. Sales: MPM Premium

“The Best Friend,” (Allan Deberton)

By Deberton, director of award-winning “Pacarrete,” co-produced by Ceara-based Deberton Filmes and Telecine. During a quiet beach trip to Canoa Quebrada, Lucas reunites with his old college friend Felipe, whose free-spirited nature sparks feelings of nostalgia. Sales: Deberton Filmes

“Carnival is Over,” (Fernando Coimbra)

A much awaited title from helmer-scribe, now in post. Winner of a Sundance Institute global filmmaking award, the thriller centers on Regina and Valerio who live an opulent lifestyle in Rio as heirs...

Following the announcement of the London Korean Film Festival’s (Lkff) upcoming 18th edition which gives special commemoration to the 40th Anniversary of the Korean Academy of Film Arts (Kafa), the festival is delighted to reveal its 2023 programme. At the BFI Southbank, the London Korean Film Festival will host the Opening and Closing ceremonies in celebration of the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UK and Korea.

The Festival runs from 2 November – 16 November 2023 with a programme of 40 films comprising the following strands: Cinema Now, Special Focus : 40th Anniversary of Kafa, Women’s Voices, Special Screenings and Korea Season.

A Normal Family by Hur Jin-ho will open the festival on the 2nd November at BFI Southbank with the director in attendance. The story is based on the celebrated Dutch novel Het Diner (The Dinner) by Herman Koch, which has sold over a million copies. The latest...

Four years ago, before Covid turned everything upside down, a new Asian masterpiece world premiered virtually unnoticed at the Toronto Film Festival. That film was “A Sun,” a multifaceted Taiwanese family saga from director Chung Mong-Hong that seemed to shift and evolve as it unfolded, challenging what audiences thought they knew about the characters. Tucked away in TIFF’s overcrowded (and under-promoted) Contemporary World Cinema section, the film easily slid under the radar.

Toronto programmers weren’t about to make the same mistake with “A Normal Family,” a film of similar force from South Korea, giving it a coveted Gala spot. Director Hur Jin-ho’s complex, complacency-shattering moral study boasts a heightened yet easily relatable premise, and strong potential to play well around the globe. Like “A Sun,” the movie comes roaring out of the gate with a shocker of an opening scene: An aggro jerk in a blood-red Maserati...

Hur Jin-Ho’s intense family drama is an adaptation of Herman Koch’s ‘The Dinner’.

South Korean sales firm Finecut has closed key distribution deals for Hur Jin-ho’s A Normal Family, which is set to receive its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival.

The family drama has been sold to key territories including France and French-speaking Switzerland (Diaphana Distribution), Vietnam (Lumix Media) and worldwide Inflight excluding South Korea and Taiwan (Encore Inflight), just based on the screening of a promo reel.

The film will debut in the Special Presentations section of TIFF and is an adaptation of Dutch...

Casting

A stellar cast has been revealed by the BBC and House Productions for Season 2 of James Graham’s BAFTA-winning hit crime drama “Sherwood.”

Directed by Clio Barnard (“Ali & Ava”) the news cast included David Harewood (“The Night Manager”), Robert Lindsay (“My Family”), Monica Dolan (“Black Mirror”), Sharlene Whyte (“Small Axe”), Stephen Dillane (“Vigil”), Ria Zmitrowicz (“The Power”), Aisling Loftus (“The Midwich Cuckoos”), Robert Emms (“Andor”), Michael Balogun (“Top Boy”), Christine Bottomley (“Domina”), Oliver Huntingdon (“Happy Valley”) Jorden Myrie (“Mood”), Conor Deane (“All Creatures Great & Small”) and Bethany Asher (“Wild Bill”).

The returning cast includes David Morrissey (“Red Riding”), Lesley Manville (“Mrs Harris Goes to Paris”), Lorraine Ashbourne (“Alma’s Not Normal”), Philip Jackson (“Raised by Wolves”), Perry Fitzpatrick (“Line of Duty”), Bill Jones (“The Village”) and Adam Hugill (“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”).

Season 2 introduces two new families entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries,...

South Korean drama A Normal Family, directed by Hur Jin-ho, has inked a raft of international distribution deals ahead of its upcoming world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Based on just a showreel, leading Korean sales outfit Finecut has sold the film to key territories including France and French-speaking Switzerland (Diaphana Distribution), Vietnam (Lumix Media Co.) and worldwide inflight, excluding South Korea and Taiwan (Encore Inflight Limited).

A Normal Family marks the third time that Hur, one of Korea’s leading auteurs, will premiere a film in Toronto, following Dangerous Liaisons (2012) and April Snow (2005). A Normal Family is an adaptation of Herman Koch’s best-selling Dutch novel, The Dinner, which has been translated into English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Portuguese.

A Normal Family follows the intense dilemma of two families facing a crime committed by their children, leading to a shocking and ironic ending. Sul Kyung-gu (seen recently...

Finecut, the leading Korean independent film sales agent, is to represent international rights on “In Water,” the latest film by auteur Hong Sang-soo.

The film will have its world premiere in Berlin as part of the festival’s Encounters section. Its sales launch is set for the accompanying European Film Market.

This follows three successive years in which Hong has appeared in Berlin’s main competition, with: “The Woman Who Ran,” which earned Berlin’s silver bear for best director; 2021 title “Introduction” which won another silver bear, for best screenplay, at that year’s delayed festival; and “The Novelist’s Film” which won a Grand Jury Prize in 2022.

Hong, who works on low budgets, controls much of the production process and makes repeated use of a small pool of actors, is one of the most prolific feature directors in the world. In addition to the four recent Berlin titles, his “In Front of Your Face...

‘Next Sohee’ closed this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week.

South Korean sales agency Finecut has closed a raft of deals on titles including Next Sohee and Project Wolf Hunting ahead of this week’s American Film Market (AFM).

July Jung’s Korean crime thriller Next Sohee, which closed this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week, has sold to France and French-speaking Switzerland (Arizona Films Distribution), India and Indian subcontinent (Pictureworks), Japan (Rights Cube), Switzerland (Trigon) and Taiwan (Sky Films Entertainment).

Produced by Twinplus Partners Inc. and Crank Up Film, Next Sohee is set for release in Korea in the first half...

‘Next Sohee,’ the Jung July-directed drama, that premiered in Critics’ Week in Cannes, has notched up a raft of rights sales deals for Korean agency Finecut.

The film was licensed for France and French-speaking Switzerland, by Arizona Films Distribution and by Trigon for the rest of Switzerland. In India and the Indian Subcontinent it was acquired by Pictureworks, by Rights Cube in Japan, and by Sky Films Entertainment in TTaiwan. Produced by Twinplus Partners and Crank Up Filmthe film will have its Korean commercial release in the first half of 2023.

Two genre films represented by Finecurt and directed by rookie directors, “The Other Child” and “Next Door” have attracted deals and secured Korean releases this month and in November. “The Other Child,” produced by Engine Studio, a psychological thriller drama about an adopted boy who sees the invisible, has sold to Cis (Kinoland), Japan (New Select Co.), Vietnam (Lotte Entertainment...

Korean sales agent Finecut has added “Secret: Untold Melody” and “The Dinner” to its burgeoning Asian Contents & Film Market slate. Both titles are sourced from a deal with Hive Media Corp..

An adaptation of 2007 Taiwan hit “Secret,” “Secret: Untold Melody” is a romance film about pianist and a student. While the original film starred Jay Chou and Gwei Lun-mei, the Korean retread stars Doh Kyung-soo (a.k.a D.O. from celebrated K-pop group Exo) who has acting credits including “Swing Kids” and the “Along With The Gods” franchise, and rising star Won Jin-a (“Netflix’s “Hellbound”). Now in post-production, the film is directed by Seo You-min (“Recalled”).

Black comedy, “The Dinner” is the first Asian adaptation of the Herman Koch bestselling novel of the same name that skewers the middle classes in a tale of two families whose children have committed crimes. It has previously been produced as films in the U.

A US version of ‘The Dinner’ starring Richard Gere played in competition at the Berlinale.

Korea’s Finecut is launching international sales on two Korean remakes at the Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm): Secret: Untold Melody, based on Jay Chou’s Taiwanese hit Secret, and The Dinner, an adaptation of Herman Koch’s bestselling novel.

The Dinner has been adapted in three other countries, including Oren Moverman’s US version, which premiered in competition at the Berlinale in 2017 and starred Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan and Rebecca Hall. This will be its first adaptation in Asia.

Both Secret:...

Korean Oscar-winner “Parasite” gleefully poked fun at South Korea’s bourgeoisie. Hur Jin-ho’s “The Dinner” is set to give the middle classes another skewering.

The project is an adaptation of Dutch novel ‘Het Diner’ (“The Dinner”) written by Herman Koch. With the setting transposed to Asia, Hur will peek under the tablecloth to uncover another dirty side to Korean society.

Two brothers a materially-motivated lawyer, and an idealistic surgeon, meet once a month for dinner. During one such meal the two couples must discuss how to deal with the worst nightmare they have faced as parents, their children’s criminal assault on a vagrant. In the incongruous fancy setting, the couples must confront their differences in morals, long-harbored secrets and a victim mentality that has been brewing for years.

“Director Hur likes to observe the irony and dilemmas of the people who are confronted with ethical choice,” Ted Jeong Ho Shin,...

How far will the new American aristocracy go to protect its privileges? Oren Moverman’s intense four-way war of wills is sourced from a novel but shapes up as an intense stage piece in a chi-chi restaurant interrupted by flashbacks and other stylistic flourishes. The acting foursome is excellent, with Steve Coogan a standout as a truly disturbed character. Four adults debate their sons’ high crimes and misdemeanors over designer cuisine.

The Dinner

Blu-ray + Digital HD

Lionsgate

2017 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 24.99

Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye, Michael Chernus, Taylor Rae Almonte, Joel Bissonnette.

Cinematography: Bobby Bukowski

Film Editor: Alex Hall

Written by Owen Moverman from the novel by Herman Koch

Produced by Caldecott Chub, Lawrence Inglee, Julia Lebedev, Eddie Valsman

Directed by Oren Moverman

Herman Koch’s novel The Dinner comes to America after two successful European versions,...

The Dinner The Orchard Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: A- Director: Oren Moverman Written by: Oren Moverman, based on the novel by the Dutch author Herman Koch Cast: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloë Sevigny Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 4/6/17 Opens: May 5, 2017 Fans of Edward Albee’s shattering play […]

The post The Dinner Review: Brings out all the complexities of the novel appeared first on Shockya.com.

Chicago – The 16th Tribeca Film Festival wrapped last Sunday (April 30, 2017) and the award-winning films of the festival have been named. Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com was there for the first week of Tribeca and files his personal best of the films he experienced.

This is Patrick switching to first person, and I was able to see 13 media and film works, and took a turn in the “Immersive” or Virtual Reality arcade (there will a separate article on that experience). I sampled TV, short films, documentaries and narrative films, and rank them from first preferred on down, but honestly I didn’t see anything that I didn’t like, which is a testament to the programmers of this iconic film festival.

The following are the prime 13, and an indication of when they are scheduled to release…

“Flower”

’Flower,’ Directed by Max Winkler

Photo credit: Tribeca Film Festival

What seems like a “Juno” rip-off,...

Principles of Privilege: Moverman Dresses Morality Drama in American Clothes

Susan Sontag once famously wrote, “The white race is the cancer of human history,” an epithet which dangles like a deadly albatross throughout the fourth film by Oren Moverman, The Dinner, a drama about morality based on the novel by Dutch writer Herman Koch. Once meant as a property for the directorial debut of Cate Blanchett, Moverman swoops in for a heady, Pinteresque examination of WASPish mentality one would expect from A.R. Gurney if he were searching for an infinitely fouler disposition of his favored subject. However, Moverman elevates and refines this material for his own particular purposes of skewering white affluent folks intent on wielding their inherent privilege to protect the virtuous futures of their troubled broods in what stands as the third cinematic treatment of the novel (following a 2013 Dutch version and a 2014 Italian adaptation).

The Lohmans are a tense bunch as of late. Ex-high school teacher Paul (Steve Coogan) and wife Claire (Laura Linney) have opposing feelings about meeting Paul’s brother Stan (Richard Gere) and his second wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) for dinner. With Stan in the middle of a troubled run for governor, the importance of the dinner seems odd during such a touchy period. Until we learn both sets of parents have come together to decide what to do about their kids, who recently committed a monstrous act, something which could go unpunished…as long as no one says anything.

Moverman expands upon the stagey theatricality of the narrative scope, beginning with its troubling, lavish opening credits, highlighting frivolousness amidst colorful splashes of gourmet cuisine, as the credits of a high profile cast and crew (including Moverman’s reunion with Dp Bobby Bukowski) march over them. This time around, we become manipulated to sympathize with several of these characters’ perspectives only to be flayed by dismay when it sinks in—the quartet of well-bred, wealthy, emotionally stagnant white people we have been watching, are without a doubt, highly flawed, incredibly unlikeable beings. But how Moverman manages to trick us into making them seem compelling is where the absolute power of his version of The Dinner lies.

Initially, we gravitate towards Steve Coogan’s withering, Civil war enthusiast, who sets a tone of trenchant sides, one against the other. Breaking the fourth wall in narration, he’s the snide, withering voice of reason, or so we assume, leading up to the eponymous, cryptic meal he will be sharing with his brother, a suave smooth talker (or as he’s described, a “deal maker”). Until we get a clearer composite of his psychological background, and Moverman’s film takes pains (and delights) in stomping on our initial understandings of each of these surely good people. Gere is as exceptionally believable as Coogan is superbly dour, and there’s a definite switch at a certain point, where we’re led to abandon the side of one and root for the other.

Their wives are defined in more troubling, murky terms, particularly Laura Linney (who steals a handful of sequences with resplendent facial expression). Rebecca Hall, looking fantastic, has the less dynamic role as a trophy wife who desires to be rewarded for her saintly efforts by becoming the wife of a governor. But what exactly happened to Barbara, the socially conscious first wife of Stan, who fled the marriage and her children for an ashram in India? Chloe Sevigny delights in her two flashback sequences as the opinionated, arguably ideal character. The audience becomes complicit in this game of shifting alliances, where family becomes collapsed as another ideation of the political arena.

And Moverman perhaps spends a bit too much time in these flashbacks, revolving between past periods of the adults’ lives, while reenacting the terrible act committed by two insensitive young white boys against a homeless, racial other. Although these continual snippets of the heinous act are there for a purpose, meant to slowly inform us of what kind of people we’re spending an unusually expensive dining experience with, they are also greatly at odds with the formal hustling and bustling of the dinner, to the degree where these Bunelian interruptions from the topic at hand take on a tone of artificial comedy. At one point, a teary Hall gets an aside where she clutches at Linney and Coogan, informing them they’re all blessed (she doesn’t have to spell out she means white and wealthy by such a statement), but these devoted moments eventually seem like a belabored way to cement the callousness of all.

Although not about race, per se, the trio of racial others on the periphery of this narrative irrevocably inform and trouble the proceedings. The black son Beau (Miles J. Harvey), whom Barbara adopted with Stan (before she abandons him) is particularly interesting, because it is both Paul and his son Michael’s relationship with the boy which explain their hardwired disdain for the current state of affairs. Coogan gets a particularly telling tirade when he accuses the eight-year old Beau of playing the ‘race card’ when he’s terrorized by his son, claiming his views are not racist because he’s a teacher who sometimes educates black students.

When the boys are teenagers and on the eve of their defining moment, Moverman pads an exchange pertaining to Michael’s internalized racism a bit too directly just prior to what they do to their unfortunate victim. And then, there’s a curious role for Adepero Oduye (Pariah, 2011) as Gere’s valiantly tireless assistant, a character who likely informs is own approach to the scenario, but only to a point. Moverman’s dinner is certainly barbed, and often venomous, but in spending two solid hours with such unlikeable company is an ordeal in itself, even one as handsomely crafted and executed as this.

Reviewed on February 10 at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival – Competition. 120 Mins.

★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆

The post The Dinner | Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.

(l-r) Steve Coogan, Laura Linney, Richard Gere and Rebecca Hall in Oren Moverman’s The Dinner. Photo courtesy of The Orchard (c)

Richard Gere stars as Stan Lohman, a congressman running for governor, who invites his brother Paul (Steve Coogan) and wife Claire (Laura Linney) to dine with him and his wife Kate (Rebecca Hall) at a very upscale restaurant. The brothers don’t get along and Paul does not want to go but his wife Claire is relishing the chance to have dinner at one of the town’s most exclusive restaurants. While the brothers are estranged, their 16-year-old sons Michael (Charlie Plummer) and Rick (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) are friends. It is something the boys did together, something awful, that Stan wants to talk about at this tense family dinner.

The Dinner is a dramatic examination of how far one might go for family, as well as explorations of mental illness,...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 Kicks Off the Summer With a Sci-Fi Action-Comedy

After three weeks of dominating the box office, Universal’s The Fate of the Furious is going to have to give way to a new movie, and that’s because the first weekend of May means that it’s officially...The Summer Movie Season!!!!

Just like the last couple years, the summer movie season is kicking off with a new movie from Marvel Studios, and their sequel Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 (Marvel Studios/Disney), reunites Chris Pratt as Starlord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista’s Drax, Michael Rooker’s Yondu with the voices of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper as Groot and Rocket Racoon, for the next...

Based on Herman Koch’s international bestselling novel, Oren Moverman’s latest feature, “The Dinner,” is a twisted psychological thriller that unspools during the course of one particularly memorable meal. Packing an all-star cast, including Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Steve Coogan, the Berlin premiere is heavy on the talent — and the seriously screwed up family secrets. Bon appetit!

Centered around the fraught relationship between a pair of mismatched brothers — Gere as popular congressman Stan and Coogan as his seemingly troubled younger brother Paul — the film picks up once the long-estranged pair are forced together for a meal at a very fancy restaurant. Turns out, while Stan and Paul haven’t been close in years, their teen sons are tight, and the cousins have very recently committed a heinous crime together.

Read More: ‘The Dinner’ Review: Steve Coogan and Richard Gere Are Enraged Siblings in Oren Moverman’s Intense Family...

Oren Moverman doesn't make movies so much as set traps. His films as writer and director – the military-vet drama The Messenger, the bad-cop character study Rampart, the incredible portrait-of-a-homeless-man Time Out of Mind – are built to detonate. And when the explosion comes, the dust never really clears; you're left with shards that keep digging in, provocations you can't get out of your head. The Dinner, the latest missile from this brilliant Israeli-American filmmaker, is no exception. Based on the 2009 global bestseller by Dutch author Herman Koch, the movie follows the...

“Apes.” It is high school teacher and avid history scholar Paul Lohman’s preferred term of abuse for his congressman brother Stan (Richard Gere) and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall). And it is spat out by him, as played by a revelatory Steve Coogan, several times over, often to his wife Claire (Laura Linney) in Oren Moverman‘s unfeasibly compelling “The Dinner,” based on Herman Koch‘s bestselling novel.

Continue reading ‘The Dinner’ Is A Savage Satire With Stand-Out Performances From Steve Coogan & Richard Gere [Review] at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Oren Moverman has never shied away from tackling difficult, seemingly impossible material to adapt to film with some of his writing work including the screenplays for Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There and the equally intriguing Brian Wilson biopic, Love and Mercy.

As a director and producer he’s followed suit with his 2nd film Rampart starring Woody Harrelson as an L.A. police officer with questionable motives, followed by a meditative look at homelessness with Richard Gere in Time Out of Mind.

For his latest movie, The Dinner, Moverman adapts Dutch author Herman Koch’s novel, which on the surface is about a dinner between two related couples with all the requisite food porn. As it progresses, it explores a variety of topics including mental illness and the battle of Gettysburg.

At the core of the film is Steve Coogan and Richard Gere playing brothers, the former a history professor,...

The Dinner Director: Oren Moverman Written by: Oren Moverman, based on The Dinner by Herman Koch Cast: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloë Sevigny Release Date: May 5th, 2017 Reactions of people invited to a dinner may vary: excitement, anticipation, nonchalance, dread or desire to skip the event. When Stan Lohman (Richard […]

The post The Dinner Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

This is the story of how two Israeli filmmakers transformed a Buddhist movie star into Bob Dylan, a New York homeless man, a Manhattan Jewish fixer, and a politician with family issues. It started when Oren Moverman wrote “I’m Not There” with director Todd Haynes, who cast Richard Gere as one of six versions of Bob Dylan.

Several years later, Gere spotted Moverman across a crowded room. “It was an Academy event in New York,” Gere said. “It was a cocktail thing for new members.” Moverman introduced him to Oscar-nominated Joseph Cedar (”Footnote”). They wound up talking Middle East politics. “The three of us were getting along great,” said Gere, who told the men, “If you want to do something that has to do with the Middle East, even in a tangential way, talk to me.”

Read More: ‘Arbitrage’: Richard Gere Talks Indie Filmmaking and VOD

Before they parted ways,...

This is the story of how two Israeli filmmakers transformed a Buddhist movie star into Bob Dylan, a New York homeless man, a Manhattan Jewish fixer, and a politician with family issues. It started when Oren Moverman wrote “I’m Not There” with director Todd Haynes, who cast Richard Gere as one of six versions of Bob Dylan.

Several years later, Gere spotted Moverman across a crowded room. “It was an Academy event in New York,” Gere said. “It was a cocktail thing for new members.” Moverman introduced him to Oscar-nominated Joseph Cedar (”Footnote”). They wound up talking Middle East politics. “The three of us were getting along great,” said Gere, who told the men, “If you want to do something that has to do with the Middle East, even in a tangential way, talk to me.”

Read More: ‘Arbitrage’: Richard Gere Talks Indie Filmmaking and VOD

Before they parted ways,...

May 5th sees the release of Oren Moverman’s The Dinner, a dark family drama starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan and Rebecca Hall. To get the ball rolling, The Orchard have now served up a fresh trailer to give audiences an idea of what to expect, and it certainly looks interesting.

Gere plays Stan Lohman, a popular congressman embroiled in an election campaign. He invites Steve Coogan’s estranged little brother Paul and Laura Linney’s Claire to join for dinner with his wife in one of the hottest haute-cuisine restaurants in town. But this isn’t some polite soiree, and things rapidly go south as it’s revealed that the sons of the two couples have committed an awful crime that’s shocked America.

Paranoid that their identities will be revealed, the parents debate over what course of action to take. As the meal is served, the...

“The Dinner” premiered a couple of weeks ago at the Berlin International Film Festival. Now, The Orchard has released a new trailer for Oren Moverman’s dark psychological thriller ahead of its May 5 release.

Read More: ‘The Dinner’ Review: Steve Coogan and Richard Gere Are Enraged Siblings in Oren Moverman’s Intense Family Drama

Based on Herman Koch’s international bestselling novel of the same name, “The Dinner” stars Richard Gere as Stan Lohman, a prominent politician running for governor, who invites his estranged brother Paul (Steve Coogan) and wife Claire (Laura Linney) to join him and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) for dinner at a hip restaurant. The purpose of the gathering is to discuss a violent crime committed by their teenage sons, which was filmed by a security camera and shown on TV, but, so far, the boys have not been identified. Now the parents must decide how to handle the situation.

The Orchard has released to new trailer to its upcoming film The Dinner, a dark psychological thriller family drama film written and directed by Oren Moverman, based on Herman Koch's novel. In theaters May 5, the pic stars Richard Gere, Steve Coogan, Laura Linney, and Rebecca Hall in a fierce showdown between two couples during the course of a meal at a fancy restaurant. “This is long overdue. We’re going to talk tonight. Put it all on the table,” Gere’s character…...

As the film-business-crowds move through meetings designed to meet all sorts of movie-related objectives in this vast mix of people, and the movie-going public lines up for films in the Competition, Out-of-Competition, Panorama, Forum and Retrospectives; and families attend the Generation series, some for kindergarteners and others for preteens and some for those 14 and up, and as the constant exchange of ideas continues, there is lots of buzz, mostly positive about the Hungarian Competition film “On Body and Soul”.“On Body and Soul” by Ildikó Enyedi

Buzz continues the next day both pro and con about Oren Moverman’s Competition film, “The Dinner” which is definitely a must-see for each to decide on one’s own response to it. As Scott Roxborough in The Hollywood Reporter says, it “looks like just the political dish the times demand.” Produced by Caldecot Chubb, the script was originally to be written by Moverman for Cate Blanchett to direct.

Occidental. © Bad MANNERSHas there ever been a film in which members of an upper class family get together—for a meal, an anniversary, a vacation, anything—and, like, have a pleasant time? That’s certainly not the case in Oren Moverman’s Competition entry The Dinner, which is based on the best-selling novel by Dutch author Herman Koch and joins the long tradition of films wherein a family gathering brings decades’ worth of pent-up resentments to the surface, precipitating an eruption of histrionics. The family in question, made up entirely of self-regarding, immoral monsters, are the Lohmans: estranged brothers Stan and Paul and their respective wives Claire and Katelyn, who go out for dinner at one of those ludicrously fancy restaurants where the waiter gives you a five-minute recital as prelude to each of the half dozen courses. The reason for their meeting, not fully given away until the final reel,...

There’s much to talk about over The Dinner, a rather cold and over-flowing plate of black comedy and moral conundrums that leaves one with a certain sinking feeling. It’s the first English-language adaptation of Herman Koch’s 2009 best-selling novel of the same name and the latest film from Israeli-American writer-director Oren Moverman. Unraveling in the confined locations — aside from a number of extended flashbacks — of a laughably swank eatery, Moverman’s adaptation of the text has the feeling of a pressure-cooker stage play, the type where everybody shouts and few people listen. Indeed, it’s the type of unpleasantness that might cause the viewer to recall Roman Polanski’s Carnage (or perhaps Yasmina Reza’s stage play upon which Carnage was based), a film that boasted equally detestable characters although, perhaps, played with slightly more subtlety and restraint.

Indeed, simply mentioning Carnage and “subtlety” in the same sentence...

Author: Stefan Pape

With the third season of The Trip soon upon us, before witnessing Steve Coogan dine with Rob Brydon across a beautiful Spanish landscape, we can see the British actor indulging in fine cuisine of another kind, this time with a somewhat more bitter aftertaste, for he takes the lead role in Oren Moverman’s dark and disturbing thriller The Dinner, based on Herman Koch’s novel of the same name, which proves to be a film stifled by its very own sense of ambition.

Coogan plays Paul Lohman, a school teacher doing all he can to avoid going out for dinner with older brother, and congressman Stan (Richard Gere), and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall). But Paul is persuaded by his own wife Claire (Laura Linney) who is rather insistent they make the trip, and as they set food in the grandiose, pretentious restaurant, it becomes clear why,...

“Apes.” It is high school teacher and avid history scholar Paul Lohman’s preferred term of abuse for his congressman brother Stan (Richard Gere) and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall). And it is spat out by him, as played by a revelatory Steve Coogan, several times over, often to his wife Claire (Laura Linney) in Oren Moverman‘s unfeasibly compelling “The Dinner,” based on Herman Koch‘s bestselling novel.

Continue reading Everyone Is Eaten Alive In Savage ‘The Dinner’ With Steve Coogan, Laura Linney, Richard Gere & Rebecca Hall [Berlin Review] at The Playlist.

Oren Moverman is responsible for two of the most impressive American screenplays of the past 10 years, “I’m Not There.” and “Love & Mercy,” both of which turn ambitious approaches to personal stories into surprisingly accessible dramas. As a director, Moverman has shown a rougher edge.

His first two features, “The Messenger” and “Rampart,” were gritty, intimate stories of angry men screwed by the system that employs them (the military and the police force, respectively), while 2014’s “Time Out of Mind” took a similar approach to a man rejected by the system altogether (Richard Gere, playing a decrepit homeless man in New York). Moverman assembles these rickety dramas in piecemeal, gradually developing psychological tension out from the moments that form their lives, like a series of sparklers ignited one by one until they form a blazing whole.

His latest effort, “The Dinner,” is a firecracker from the start. While hobbled by...

Two couples worry about themselves, their kids and, at times, their sanity while being plied with ridiculously styled, ridiculously tiny amounts of food in The Dinner, writer-director Oren Moverman’s U.S.-set adaptation of the bestseller by Dutch author Herman Koch. This is already the third adaptation of the popular novel for the big screen, after Dutch- and Italian-language versions directed by Menno Meyjes and Ivano de Matteo, respectively. And like those films, The Dinner maintains the central conceit of the extended family meal in a chichi eatery, but the writer-director liberally adapts the material to suit his...

Richard Gere, Steve Coogan and Laura Linney are here today at the Berlin Film Festival for the competition world premiere of Oren Moverman’s The Dinner. Gere plays a politician in the four-hander thriller that’s based on the Herman Koch novel. Inevitably this morning, the press conference conversation turned to real-life politics. Gere was asked if he were to host a dinner with four people and one of the other guests was Donald Trump, who else would he invite. The fast…...

Starting today at 8:15Am Et/5:15 Am Pt, you can watch a live stream of the Berlinale press conference featuring the cast and crew of “The Dinner.” Filmmaker Oren Moverman is expected to attend the conference, as well as cast members including Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Chloe Sevigny and Rebecca Hall.

Based on Herman Koch’s book of the same name, the film follows a connected family during a very uncomfortable meal out.

Read More: Paul Verhoeven to Serve as Berlin Film Festival Jury President

Per the film’s official synopsis, “Paul has no desire to go out to dinner with his brother Stan, a well-known politician, and his sister-in-law Barbara. But his wife Claire insists on him accompanying her. The couples meet at a hip restaurant but, in between each exquisite course, dark family secrets are brought out onto the table. The couples’ sons are responsible...

What is the line between family and business? How far would you go to protect your child? These seem to be some of the questions boiling at the surface in the first trailer for the mystery thriller, The Dinner. An adaptation of the international best-selling novel by Herman Koch, the film focuses on the titular event wherein things get messy fast (no, sadly, it’s not a food fight).

Starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, and Rebecca Hall as the four diners, they all must debate the morality of the mysterious situation at hand. Helmed by acclaimed director Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Rampart), The Dinner looks to weave a tangled web of cover-ups and hard truths. See the trailer below, with a nod to Entertainment Weekly, for the film that also stars Chloë Sevigny and will premiere at Berlinale shortly.

A look at how far parents will go to protect their children.

This year’s Berlin International Film Festival bows in Germany later this week and with it, one of Europe’s most exciting and singular film festivals. As ever, the annual fest is playing home to dozens of feature films and short offerings, with picks aplenty from both modern masters and fresh faces. The Berlinale often breeds some of indie film’s most unexpected and unique standouts, so if it’s at the fest, it’s likely worth a look.

Read More: 5 Exciting Films in the 2017 Berlin Film Festival Competition Lineup

Ahead, check out the 8 titles we are most excited to check out at this year’s festival.

“Have a Nice Day”

Expectations are high for this Chinese animated feature that marks the sophomore effort from director Liu Jiang, whose surreal debut “Piercing” offered an inventive look at modern day city life in China’s capital. If the gorgeous stills from...

The Orchard has revealed the first official trailer for an indie drama titled The Dinner, which is premiering at the Berlin Film Festival starting this week. The Dinner is the latest film from director Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Rampart, Time Out of Mind), adapted from the novel by Herman Koch. The film is about two couples that meet at a restaurant for dinner, discussing a situation involving their children. It's a look at how far parents will go to protect their children. The two couples are: Richard Gere & Rebecca Hall and Steve Coogan & Laura Linney. Also featuring Chloë Sevigny, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye and Joel Bissonnette. There is obviously more going on here than just a dinner, I'm curious to see this. Here's the first official trailer for Oren Moverman's The Dinner, originally from EW (on YouTube): While dining together at a restaurant, two couples (Richard Gere & Rebecca Hall...

Actress Cate Blanchett was originally going to make her feature directorial debut with The Dinner. Back in 2013, she signed on to direct screenwriter Oren Moverman (Love & Mercy) adaptation of Herman Koch‘s novel, “The Dinner.” Blanchett has directed in the theater, but never a film. She ultimately left the director’s chair, which then went to Moverman, who’s made some passionate […]

The post ‘The Dinner’ Trailer: Richard Gere and Steve Coogan Aren’t the World’s Best Brothers appeared first on /Film.

Comfortably wedged between Sundance and Cannes in every respect, the Berlin Film Festival is a massive orgy of world cinema that’s come to be known for the unrivaled variety of its programming. Best illustrated by its adventurous sidebars, the festival’s exotic tastes — unusual for such a glitzy and commercialized culture event — often spill over into the more prestigious Competition section, which has served as a launching pad for several of the current decade’s very best films (many of which, like Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Things to Come,” might have slipped through the cracks if not for such a prominent spotlight). And, in stark contrast to Cannes, the festival’s recent winners have been as worthy as they have been unexpected, ranging from a frigid Chinese neo-noir (“Black Coal, Thin Ice”) to a crushingly intimate documentary about Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis (“Fire at Sea”).

The first portion of...

Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Sally Potter among Competition lineup.

The first 14 films have been announced for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Among directors with movies in competition are Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Andres Veiel, Sebastián Lelio and Sally Potter.

Festival veteran Kaurismäki will debut new film The Other Side Of Hope about a Finnish travelling salesman who meets a Syrian refugee.

Moverman’s (The Messenger) mystery-drama The Dinner stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall and Chloë Sevigny. Based on the novel by Herman Koch, the film looks at at how far parents will go to protect their children.

Oscar-nominated Holland, who was nominated for the Golden Bear in 1981, will be at the Berlinale with crime-drama Pokot.

Potter returns to Berlin with ensemble comedy-drama The Party starring Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas and [link...

For many distributors, producers and sales agents, the American Film Market is the movie business equivalent of the Super Bowl. Billed as “Hollywood’s global deal-making event” and “the film industry’s largest international conference,” this year’s Afm will draw more than 1,500 film buyers from 80 countries, all of whom will converge upon Santa Monica hoping to close deals for projects in every stage of development and production.

But how important is Afm to the independent film ecosystem? Unlike Sundance, Cannes or Berlin, Afm has no festival, and therefore no flashy premieres to start bidding wars among distributors. While this year’s event will include more than 70 world premiere screenings and roughly 250 market premieres, Afm is known more for pre-sales and getting projects off the ground than finding homes for theatrical titles.

Here are four ways this year’s Afm could have an impact on the independent film world.

1. Hot new projects.