News

Lionsgate has extended its deal with Grindstone Entertainment Group through 2027.

Lionsgate and Grindstone count a near 17-year working relationship in what is a 700-title content library.

Among Grindstone’s recent releases are the thriller Fall, Damaged, with Sam Jackson and Vincent Cassell; How the Gringo Stole Christmas, starring George Lopez, Desperation Road, Manadrome with Jesse Eisenberg; and Lamborghini with Frank Grillo, Mira Sorvino and Gabriel Byrne.

The new agreement includes such upcoming releases as action-thriller Alarum, starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by Mike Polish; Riff Raff from director Dito Montiel starring Bill Murray, Jennifer Coolidge, Pete Davidson, Ed Harris, and Gabriel Union; Wish You Were Here, Julia Stiles’ directorial debut, starring Isabelle Fuhrman, Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Grey, and Mena Massoud; The Gunslingers, starring Stephen Dorff, Nicolas Cage, and Heather Graham; and Fall 2 from the Spierig brothers. Other future titles are Hotel Tehran with Zachary Levy and Liam Neeson, The Beast in Me...

The latest box office numbers are in and, much to the surprise of pretty much no one, Deadpool & Wolverine grossed a record-breaking $18 million on Thursday to set a new R-Rated record for a non-preview movie.

M. Night Shyamalan's Trap wasn't much of a threat, grossing a respectable $2.2 million during its preview screenings. As for Harold and the Purple Crayon starring Shazam!'s Zachary Levy, that debuted to a dismal $725,000.

Deadpool & Wolverine ends its first week in theaters with $298.5 million, putting it 35% ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($220.6 million) and 29% ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($230.8 million) at the same point in their respective runs.

As for the threequel's second weekend, projections are all over the place and it's currently eyeing anywhere from $84 million - $100 million in North America.

Deadpool & Wolverine is expected to pass $700 million worldwide tonight, $800 million at some point over the weekend,...

Harold and the Purple Crayon, directed by Carlos Saldanha, is a charming live-action adaptation of the beloved children’s book by Crockett Johnson. Starring Zachary Levy, Zooey Deschanel and up-and-coming teen actor Benjamin Bottani, the film also features a hilarious turn by Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement as the villain of the piece.

Adventurous Harold (Zachary Levi) possesses a magical ability: within the confines of his book, he can bring anything to life with a simple stroke of his crayon. As he grows older, Harold yearns for the real world, so one day he decides to draw himself out of the pages and into reality.

Harold soon discovers that life outside the book is far more complicated than he’d imagined. His trusty purple crayon, once a source of endless wonder, is now now threatening to unleash chaos onto an unsuspecting world. When the power of imagination falls into the wrong hands,...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Ben Thompson on Wbgr-fm on December 14th, 2023, reviewing “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” the animated sequel to 2000’s “Chicken Run.” Steaming on Netflix beginning December 15th, 2023.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

It’s the same gang from “Chicken Run,” this time residing in an island paradise after the events from that film. Ginger (voice of Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levy) welcome daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey), and the girl’s curiosity about her parent’s past leads to her to find a way out of chicken island. After hitching a ride on a transport truck, Molly lands in what seems like chicken paradise … all of the fowl running free and enjoying an amusement park. But it’s all part of a plan … a happy chicken is a tastier chicken, in an experiment run by old nemesis Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson). Can...

There are movies for children, and then there are childish movies. The latest directorial venture of American director Robert Rodriguez titled Spy Kids: Armageddon seems to be way more tilted towards the latter type. Rodriguez has his own niche in filmmaking. He started with the Mexican milieu that he knew so well and made films such as El Mariachi and Desperado, and later went on to direct cult classics such as From Dusk Till Dawn and his masterpiece Sin City. His films are so different from one another that one look at his IMDb page will tell us that he isn’t interested in telling similar stories. Yet he seems to have a strong affinity with the Spy Kids universe. He directed the first one in 2001 and then made three more sequels in the coming years, with the last one being released in 2011. He has now returned with the fifth installment,...

Netflix has released the first teaser for Spy Kids: Armageddon.

The teaser introduces a young pair of siblings, played by Everly Carganilla and Connor Esterson, who learn that their parents are actually world-class secret agents -- and they're in trouble. Armed with high-tech gear, the siblings set out to find their parents, stop the bad guys and save the world. The teaser concludes with the announcement that Armageddon arrives on Netflix on Sept. 22.

Related: Sdcc: Netflix Drops Full Trailer for Live-Action One Piece Series

The Spy Kids franchise began in 2001, described by creator Robert Rodriguez as "a fusion of Willy Wonka and James Bond." The series followed the Cortez family -- siblings Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara), their parents Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid (Carla Gugino) and their uncle Isador (Danny Trejo) -- as they use their espionage skills and advanced gadgets to battle supervillains and save the day.

Brenton Thwaites (pictured right) embarks on a mission to save his one true love (Jane Levy, center) from an office building full of psychotic coworkers who have been "weaponized" by a new energy drink designed for the military in Office Uprising. Karan Soni (left) co-stars in the film alongside Zachary Levy and Alan Ritchson. The Exchange is handling international sales.

Lin Oeding directed Office Uprising, which is currently in post-production, from a screenplay written by Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble Robinson. Giulia Prenna, Jim Steele, Sean Lydiard and Will Clevinger are producing.

This story first appeared...

Production wrapped recently on action spoof.

The Exchange has closed a raft of deals on action spoof Office Uprising starring Brenton Thwaites.

CEO Brian O’Shea and his team have licensed French rights to Ab Droits Audiovisuels, Latin America to Swen, the Middle East to Selim Ramia, China to DDDream International Media, Russia to Volga, and Thailand to SahaMongkol.

Office Uprising tells of an underachiever at a weapons firm who attempts to rescue his true love from a weapons manufacturer where the workers have been turned into psychopaths by a new energy drink.

Jane Levy, Karan Soni, Zachary Levy and Alan Ritchson round out the cast.

Production wrapped recently on the film that Lin Oeding directed from a screenplay by Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble Robinson.

Giulia Prenna, Jim Steele, Sean Lydiard and Will Clevinger serve as producers.

“The combination of the commercial concept, high production value and the established stars is allowing us to make aggressive...

Zachary Levy brought his film "Strongman" to the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, where it ended up taking home the award for Best Documentary.  From there, it had screenings at high profile fests like Hot Docs and SXSW, but never got a traditional distribution deal -- so Levy took it upon himself to get the film screened all over the country, at festivals and special one-off events.   "Strongman" tells the story of Stanless Steel, one of the only men in history who can bend a penny with his hands.  Shot cinema verite-style, the film follows Stan as he juggles his strongman show, his love, his spirituality, and the family around him. Four years later, "Strongman" is available via DVD and VOD through a distribution deal with The Orchard.  After years without a conventional release, Levy's digital release put him on the Sports and Documentary Top 10 charts on iTunes. Indiewire caught up with...

Marvel has finally landed its man for the leading role in Guardians Of The Galaxy, and as is often the way with these things, it’s none of the candidates that had previously been linked to the part! Instead, the role has gone to Chris Pratt, who will play Peter Quill, otherwise known as Star-Lord. A character born to a human mother and alien father, he pilots a psychically-connected spacecraft and is very much the hero of the series. With Zachary Levy and John Krasinski among the other names to be linked, it seems that director James...

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Zachary Levy ("Chuck") appeared on "The Tonight Show," where he confirmed that he will replace Josh Dallas as Fandral in the upcoming "Thor" sequel. Levy was supposed to play the character in the first movie, but was forced to turned down the role due to a scheduling conflict. He also hinted that he'll appear at Comic-Con with the rest of the "Thor 2" cast. Meanwhile, Anthony Hopkins revealed that his Odin character will share scenes with Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, which likely means that Foster will be transported to Asgard. "I haven't got a script yet but I believe Natalie and I have some scenes together this time," he said. "Thor 2" will be directed by Alan Taylor ("Game of Thrones") and will hit theaters on November 8th, 2013.

Chicago – Self-distributing an intimate, character-driven documentary may seem as daunting a task as bending a penny with your fingers. And yet, first-time feature director Zachary Levy is up to challenge (the former of the two, of course). His 2009 documentary, “Strongman” played to great acclaim at festivals, and is set to kick off a return engagement at the Facets Cinémathèque starting May 11.

Levy’s camera followed the self-touted “strongest man in the world,” Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun for a decade, observing the formidable physical specimen as he struggled with everyday issues—both personal and professional. Hollywood Chicago spoke with Levy about his approach to cinema verité filmmaking, his love of Albert and David Maysles’ 1968 classic “Salesman,” and his advice for filmmakers looking to distribute their own work.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did your experience in cinematography prepare you for your work as a documentarian?

Zachary Levy: Well, in some ways it...

Yesterday – we were too occupied with our Oscar 2011 “predictions.”

Today – we’re here for the real thing!

So, one last check before we start our Oscar chat – are you watching the ceremony? Ok, ok, I know you are, but then, what are you doing here, at Filmofilia? Oh, wait, I know that one, too! You’re watching a live stream right here! Nice decision.

So how does it look? I love these kids singing Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Really great, and that little girl is quite serious when she says that it’s not all about being famous, it’s about feeling special… Man, I love Oscar…sometimes…

Tom Hanks handed the first Oscar to Robert Stromberg and Karen O’Hara for Alice in Wonderland in Best Art Direction Category. It’s the second Oscar in the category for Stromberg, who won last year along with Rick Carter and Kim Sinclair for Avatar.

The one-year experiment in leaving song performances off the Oscar show has ended, with the show's producers announcing on Friday that the four nominated songs will be performed on the 83rd Academy Awards. Gwyneth Paltrow, Mandy Moore, Randy Newman, A.R. Rahman and Zachary Levy are among those who'll take the stage of the Kodak Theater to perform the songs. In all but one case, the performers on the Oscar show will be the same ones who were on the original versions of the songs.  1998 Best Actress winner Paltrow, who plays a...

Christian Simonds

Chuck‘s Sarah Lancaster has had a busy year already.

The actress, 30, married her boyfriend of two years, attorney Matthew Jacobs, Saturday in a small ceremony in Southern California, her rep tells People exclusively. But there’s more: She’s also pregnant!

“It’s a really happy time in our lives,” the couple say in a statement. “We are thrilled to be starting a family and our wedding weekend was simply perfect. “

Lancaster’s personal wedding touches included wearing her grandmother’s gold mesh heirloom bracelet — which Lancaster’s parents had engraved with her grandparents’ wedding date and...

Chuck's Sarah Lancaster has had a busy year already. The actress, 30, married her boyfriend of two years, attorney Matthew Jacobs, Saturday in a small ceremony in Southern California, her rep tells People exclusively. But there's more: She's also pregnant! "It's a really happy time in our lives," the couple say in a statement. "We are thrilled to be starting a family and our wedding weekend was simply perfect." Photos: Who's Due Next?Lancaster's personal wedding touches included wearing her grandmother's gold mesh heirloom bracelet - which Lancaster's parents had engraved with her grandparents' wedding date and gave her as...

If you're in the New York City area in the next few days, do yourself a favor and get over to the IFC Center and see the documentary Strongman from New York filmmaker Zachary Levy. The film is playing there through this Tuesday night, and it's sure to entertain! If you're not in NYC, the film is also playing in Chicago at Facets Cinematheque this week and will make its way soon to The Charles Theater in Baltimore, The Pickford in Bellingham, Real Art Ways in Hartford, and several other places.

Strongman follows Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, who is the strongest man in the world when it comes to bending steel and metal. The doc captures the aging strongman over several years' time in his normal life making a living wage at a scrap-metal yard in New Jersey, as well as the life he lives pursuing his passion as a heavy lifter and bender,...

Thanks to Kevin Smith’s decision to self-distribute his new film, Red State, filmmakers are taking a fresh look at the pros and cons of bypassing the studios altogether. But while Smith, with his 1.7 million Twitter followers, may find it easy to bring his vision to screens—and put butts in the seats—most would-be director-distributors face a considerably daunting task. Consider the case of Zachary Levy, who spent 10 years making his Slamdance-winning documentary Strongman, and then devoted the past two years to distributing it. Thanks to his hard work, the film—an alternately hilarious and heart-breaking account of the travails faced by veteran iron-bar-bender Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, whose career is hampered by his refusal to fake stunts, among other things—begins a five-night engagement at Manhattan’s IFC Center, on 6th Avenue, tonight. (For tickets, click here.) Over the summer, Zach brought Stanless Steel to our offices to teach Vf.

You may have noticed that I've been posting in our Web Exclusives a number of first-person pieces by filmmakers discussing their distribution saga. We have already had producer Jake Abraham on distributing his film, Lovely by Surprise, and then writer/director Rob Perez on making the transition from studio distribution to Diy distribution with his nobody. The latest in our informal series is from Zachary Levy, director of the documentary Strongman. His piece, "Making our Diy Moment Matter," is a refreshingly thoughtful take on what the trend towards alternative distribution should mean for our filmmaking. Check it out, and look for more of these first-person pieces in the coming weeks.

Zachary Levy's Strongman, comes to SXSW after recently having won the Grand Jury Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, but an earlier project, through which Levy partially funded the film got a bit more press. In between shooting and editing his documentary, which he calls "a real-life version of La Strada," Levy and some friends invented Bush Cards, decks of novelty playing cards, each emblazoned with an image of a different member of the George W. Bush adminis ...

SXSW is one of my favorite festivals of the year as it showcases some of the best and most innovative real independent films, and with this host of world premiers, it's also playing alot of Sundance material as well as genre fare from all over the world, many of which we've covered heavily in these pages.

From the Sundance lineup, we have films like Moon, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, You Won't Miss Me, Grace, and Humpday, among others.

For the world genre material we've covered, there's Lake Mungo, The Square, Zift, and Awaydays.

I think you get the point that lots of great looking film will be playing. I'll leave a bit of the exploration to you..

Lineup after the break.

Narrative Features Competition

Artois the Goat

Director: Kyle Bogart. Writer: Cliff and Kyle Bogart

Lab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest...

South By Southwest Film Festival has announced the complete line-up of films for the 2009 festival which takes place March 13th to 21st in Austin, Texas. The line-up includes previously announced comedies Observe and Report and opening night film I Love You, Man. Chuck star Zachary Levy’s directorial debut Strongman, the 10th Anniversary of Office Space celebration, Paul Solet’s horror film Grace, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, Sin Nombre, the product design documentary Objectified, the low-budget Space Sci-fi film Moon, the mumblecore Zack and Miri - Humpday, Goodbye Solo, Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, and Sundance documentaries: We Live in Public, The Yes Men Fix The World, When You’re Strange. I haven’t heard of many of the more indie/tech/music selections, but the known films are mostly the good movies that played at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival (which means I’ll be able to catch up...

Mo Perkins' "A Quiet Little Marriage" copped the grand jury award for best narrative feature at the 15th annual Slamdance Film Festival, which concluded Friday in Park City, Utah.

The indie-minded fest, which runs separate from but concurrently with Sundance gave its grand jury award for best documentary feature to Zachary Levy's "Strongman."

Gregory Viens' "Punching the Clown" earned both the audience award for best narrative feature and the IndieRoad Award.

Beth Toni Kruvant's "Heart of Stone" picked up the audience's documentary feature award. Audiences also voted Eva Flodstrom's "The Tides" best anarchy film, while Aaron Marshall and Erik Mauck's "Zombie Girl" and Frank Feldman's "Vapid Lovelies" tied for the Spirit of Slamdance Award.

Writers Awards went to Neil McGowan's "Numbered" for best screenplay and Mark Seidel's "Crybaby" for best short screenplay.

Richard Lopez was the recipient of the Kodak Vision Award for...