News

Russia knows our weaknesses, but do you?

Today, Sky News and Tortoise Media announce The Wargame, a gripping five-part original documentary podcast series that simulates a Russian attack on the UK, with former ministers and military and security chiefs playing the part of the British government. The scenario is designed to test Britain’s defences and national resilience as well as the reliability of the country’s key allies like the United States.

Launching on 10 June, this ambitious and innovative podcast gives listeners the chance to experience the kind of wargame that is genuinely tested inside government. The only difference with this version is that nothing discussed is classified.

Written and presented by Sky News Security and Defence Editor Deborah Haynes, The Wargame pitches the British side against an imagined Kremlin in a high-stakes contest that draws on the real-life knowledge and experience of a stellar cast. The series’ fictional...

Russia knows our weaknesses, but do you?

Today, Sky News and Tortoise Media announce The Wargame, a gripping five-part original documentary podcast series that simulates a Russian attack on the UK, with former ministers and military and security chiefs playing the part of the British government. The scenario is designed to test Britain’s defences and national resilience as well as the reliability of the country’s key allies like the United States.

Launching on 10 June, this ambitious and innovative podcast gives listeners the chance to experience the kind of wargame that is genuinely tested inside government. The only difference with this version is that nothing discussed is classified.

Written and presented by Sky News Security and Defence Editor Deborah Haynes, The Wargame pitches the British side against an imagined Kremlin in a high-stakes contest that draws on the real-life knowledge and experience of a stellar cast. The series’ fictional...

Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown confirmed he Was reading a book on the sidelines during the NFL wild card playoff game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday (January 12).

Fox cameras zoomed in on the 27-year-old athlete on the sidelines, and fans noticed he was reading the book “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy. The book’s author says it’s aim is to “train your mind for extraordinary performance and live the best possible life.”

After the game, reporters asked A.J. about the book, and he confirmed he actually has that book with him every game.

Keep reading to find out more…

A.J. explained, “Man, it gives me a sense of peace. That’s a book that I bring every single game. My teammates call it the recipe. That’s the first time I heard that y’all got me on camera. But, it’s not the first game.

Western TV shows like Yellowstone and 1883 are reigniting interest in the genre and preserving its legacy. The Western genre's characters, setting, and themes reflect America's history, highlighting struggles and corruption, making for interesting TV shows. TV adaptations of real-life cowboys and outlaws like Sam Bass, Heck Thomas, and John Wesley Hardin would tell their stories in a more comprehensive and engaging way.

The Western genre has seen many live-action depictions of some of history's most famous and infamous lawmen and outlaws, but there are plenty of historical figures on both sides who haven't received a live-action TV show adaptation. While there are numerous Western movies everyone should watch at least once, Western TV shows such as Yellowstone and 1883 have made great strides in preserving the genre's legacy and, more importantly, reigniting interest in Westerns. Although the lives and careers of many legendary lawmen and outlaws have been depicted in live-action TV shows before,...

The World Cup only happens every four years, and each tournament brings with it its own ups, downs, trials, tribulations, surprise contenders, and thrilling finales. The 2019 Women's World Cup saw the USA win the trophy for a second consecutive tournament; Qatar 2022 gave Lionel Messi a fairy tale ending at last.

Almost sounds like something out of a movie, doesn't it?

Luckily, soccer has been the topic of many films through the years. In this article, we will detail 14 of the best-known, including comedies, biopics, romance, murder mysteries, and documents of real-life tragedies. Along the way, you'll find everyone from the legends of the sport, including the sadly departed Pelé and Diego Maradona, to Hollywood superstars such as Sylvester Stallone and Will Ferrell. Within the bounds of "The Beautiful Game," almost anything is possible.

Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001)

Our first movie, "Mike Bassett: England Manager," is a mockumentary that stars Ricky Tomlinson...

Dance rock sensation LCD Soundsystem hasn’t released an album since 2017, but the band more than made up for lost time with a single track that gave one of the year’s most ambitious new American movies its greatest sequence.

At the very end of “White Noise,” writer/director Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, the main characters walk into a supermarket as the entire room breaks into dance. “New Body Rhumba,” the latest composition by LCD frontman James Murphy, provides yet another example of the energizing synths and bass combo that the band has done so well since they first dominated the New York indie rock scene two decades ago. Set to a dizzying arrangement of dances across aisles and checkout counters, it transforms the entire movie into a surreal modernist musical of the highest order.

Murphy’s eccentric lyrics are at once satirical and sincere,...

Noah Baumbach with The New York Times culture reporter Reggie Ugwu at Live from Nypl on the final scene in White Noise: “I reached out to James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem), a close friend of mine. We worked together on Greenberg …” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Noah Baumbach’s firm grip on White Noise, Don DeLillo’s masterpiece, starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig with Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola and May Nivola (Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola’s children), Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lars Eidinger, and Barbara Sukowa, with costumes by Oscar-winner (for Anthony Minghella's The English Patient) Ann Roth (Baumbach ’s While We're Young), is vibrantly disturbing and joyously faithful to the source. The uproarious finale, an all-encompassing supermarket dance number, visually part Stepford Wives and Jacques Demy musical, is set to new body rhumba, a new song by LCD Soundsystem, all ready to show the Grim Reaper what we humans are up to.

The best scene in Meet Me In the Bathroom, the excellent new documentary on the rock & roll scene that slouched into New York in the beginning of the 21st century: a parking lot under the Williamsburg Bridge, Brooklyn, Labor Day weekend, 2002. An afternoon punk show, maybe semi-quasi-not-illegal. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing; so are the Liars and Oneida and the Rogers Sisters. The parking lot is packed with kids, crammed onto roofs, balconies, the nearby bridge. Neighbors stare out of apartment windows. I’m down in the crowd. In the footage here,...

Was the last rock renaissance really in New York City in the aughts? That’s the claim filmmakers Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace make with their documentary adaptation of music journalist Lizzie Goodman’s book “Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011.”

This scuzzy, dreamy nonfiction greatest hits compilation prefers lyricism to reportage, with testimony told entirely in voiceover instead of talking heads. It’s also entirely a montage of on-the-fly found footage — of concerts, early interviews, Courtney Love flashing her boobs to a crowd of frothing onlookers during her 24-hour MTV takeover — and . The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Moldy Peaches, James Murphy, and Interpol all get significant play here, with the film going back to their DIY roots in Lower Manhattan — but leaves us hanging from there. In other ones, “Meet Me” is music to the ears of their...

New York, a city responsible for bands such as The Velvet Underground, Blondie and Ramones, was a cultural wasteland by the late 90s and the wider music scene was pumping out shlock like Limp Bizkit and Hoobastank.

As Adam Green says in the opening scenes of Meet Me In The Bathroom, a documentary based on Lizzy Goodman’s oral history of nYc’s musical rebirth, “Maybe New York wasn’t the kind of city anymore that produces iconic bands”.

Then came The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, LCD Soundsystem and many more over the next ten years, turning the Lower East Side and Brooklyn into hipster havens.

I remember the excitement when The Strokes, a gang of good-looking skinny boys with filthy hair and a filthier attitude, broke, in part thanks to the British music press, as I hustled for a copy of their Rough Trade debut...

Loosely based on the oral history by journalist Lizzy Goodman, Meet Me In The Bathroom attempts to chronicle indie rock at the turn of the century when bands like The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs gave New York a new lease of life. Goodman’s book is an epic tome but Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace pare it down to a few, easily digestible strands, also spending time on TV On The Radio, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem, whose mouthpiece James Murphy proves the biggest personality here, a raconteur in the classic New York scenester mould.

As with Goodman’s book, the New York setting is inseparable from these artists. An early sequence flashes on the city’s earlier luminaries, from Lou Reed to Wu Tang Clan’s Odb, a history these bands were overtly familiar with. But where Goodman offered...

Noah Baumbach’s White Noise kicked off the 60th New York Film Festival Friday night with a heartfelt paean by the writer/director to an event that he said shaped his love of movies and his career path.

The Netflix film, based on Don DeLillo’s post-modernist 1985 novel, that premiered in Venice in August (Deadline review), stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lars Eidinger. Cast, co-producer David Heyman, composer Danny Elfman and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (behind the closing credits song set to an extravagant supermarket dance sequence) joined Baumbach onstage in a jam packed Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

“I grew up in Brooklyn and my parents [and I] would drive into the city or take the subway to go into the festival. They were very into movies, and this festival was very much a part of my movie education growing up,” he said. In 1995, at NYFF’s 33rd edition,...

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The 60th New York Film Festival kicked off Friday night with the North American premiere of the film that had previously opened the Venice Film Festival, Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s allegedly “unadaptable” 1985 novel White Noise.

The satire about existential angst, which stars Baumbach’s two most frequent muses, Adam Driver (Frances Ha, While We’re Young, The Meyerowitz Stories, Marriage Story) and Greta Gerwig (Greenberg, Frances Ha, Mistress America), was warmly received at both its press and public screenings. (It’s currently at 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.) And in a year in which the Oscar race seems wide open, Netflix — which was behind the opening night film and Tavern on the Green after-party for the second time, three years after The Irishman, with co-ceo Ted Sarandos on hand for the festivities — hopes that there may be a path to...

LCD Soundsystem has released their first single in over five years, “New Body Rhumba.”

The song features on the soundtrack of Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” which will be wide released in theaters on Nov. 25. The Brooklyn dance-rock band is hoping the song will be a major player in the Oscar race for best original song.

Released via Columbia Records and Dfa Records, James Murphy, Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang wrote the single, which was produced by Murphy for Dfa Productions.

“White Noise” will open the New York Film Festival. The film is an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name and tells the story of a contemporary American family attempting to deal with everyday life’s mundane conflicts amid an airborne toxic event.

The film stars Oscar nominees Adam Driver (“BlacKkKlansman” and “Marriage Story”), Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird” and “Little Women”) and Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda...

LCD Soundsystem’s first new song in five years, “New Body Rhumba, from the upcoming film adaptation of White Noise, has arrived.

The band’s first new music since their 2017 comeback album American Dream was penned by frontman James Murphy along with LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Wang and Pat Mahoney and produced by Murphy for Dfa Productions.

In the context of the Noah Baumbach-directed film — which premiered at the Venice Film Festival ahead of its theatrical (Nov. 25) and Netflix (Dec. 30) release — the seven-minute dancefloor-ready “New Body Rhumba” soundtracks a...

While Noah Baumbach‘s latest, “White Noise,” already had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, it won’t reach audiences until later this year. But the build-up to the upcoming film commences today with the release of LCD Soundsystem‘s new single “new body rhumba,” the band’s first new material in five years.

Read More: ‘White Noise’: Noah Baumbach’s New Film Will Feature LCD Soundsystem’s First New Song In Five Years

The new single marks the latest collaboration between Baumbach and LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy.

Continue reading ‘White Noise’: LCD Soundsystem Releases ‘New Body Rhumba’ In Lead-Up To Noah Baumbach’s Upcoming Film at The Playlist.

Reteaming with his While We’re Young composer James Murphy, Noah Baumbach recruited LCD Soundsystem to craft their first new song in five years for his Don DeLillo adaptation White Noise. The result is the seven-minute dance anthem “new body rhumba,” which closes out the film in quite an entertaining fashion. Ahead of tonight’s 60th New York Film Festival premiere, Columbia Records/Dfa has released the track in full as well as announced a new 20-show residency at Brooklyn Steel kicking off this November.

David Katz said in his review of White Noise, “Even in light of their well-publicized financial troubles, Netflix is a platform where these heretofore unrealizable projects can find their home and wide global audience, insulated from having to perform well in theaters. Adapted from the novel and directed by urbane New Yorker Noah Baumbach, this is a half-successful swing for modish relevance and connoisseurship of the contemporary social zeitgeist,...

Welsh actor Michael Sheen has been praised for a thunderous rallying call he gave on the panel of sports quiz programme A League of Their Own.

The Damned United star was asked to deliver a motivational speech for Robert Page’s Wales national football team, ahead of their World Cup clash with England.

Few were expecting what followed, however, with Sheen throwing himself completely into the task.

“I hear the voices singing. Speed your journey, bois bach [good heavens],” he said. “One nation, singing with one voice, a song of hope, a song of courage. A victory song that floats through the valleys, like a red mist, rolls over the mountain tops, like crimson thunder.

“A red storm is coming to the gates of Qatar. It crackles, with the spirit of ‘58 and Jimmy Murphy’s boys. It turns the pages of the history books and finds Rob’s page, waiting, still to be written.

Performing his best blend of Knute Rockne and William Wallace, prolific Welsh actor and BBC stalwart Michael Sheen launched into a locker-room speech for the ages Thursday night on the UK’s Sky network.

Tasked by the host of the sports comedy show “A League of Their Own” with pumping up the Wales national soccer team ahead of November’s World Cup, Sheen wasn’t addressing the Gareth Bale-led squad to their faces.

But he might as well have been.

Also Read:

Why J.R.R. Tolkien Is Really Turning in His Grave – Over the Racist Backlash to ‘The Rings of Power’

“I have to get in the right head space now,” Sheen said before launching into the rousing speech. “Ok.”

Sheen, spreading his arms with his palms open and fingers spread, then delivers a monologue to end all monologues, which you can watch and read below.

Volume up and watch this.

Click here to read the full article.

The world premiere of Noah Baumbach’s White Noise received a warm reception as the opening-night film of the Venice Film Festival.

The Venice gala audience gave the film a three-minute standing ovation, with big cheers for lead Adam Driver in particular. The first-ever Netflix film to open the world’s oldest festival appeared to amuse and amaze in equal measure.

The film — adapted from Don DeLillo’s breakout novel (the first film from Baumbach not based on his own original idea) — tells the colorful and eccentric tale of university professor and well-respected expert in Hitler studies, Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), and his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig). The two grapple with worries about death, fears only exacerbated following a catastrophic nearby chemical explosion that pollutes the air.

Alongside Driver and Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy, André Benjamin, Jodie Turner-Smith and Don Cheadle also star in the Netflix feature,...

Catherine Deneuve “very proud” with honorary award; emphasises ongoing work.

A three-minute video message from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a harrowing tribute to the children killed in Ukraine formed part of the opening ceremony of the 79th Venice Film Festival this evening.

The story of the war “is beyond the limits of humanity and common sense,” said Zelenskyy, in his latest address to the film community, having previously spoken at events including the opening of Cannes Film Festival this year.

Scroll down to read Zelenskyy’s message in full

“It is a drama based on real-life events,” continued the president,...

Click here to read the full article.

The 79th Venice Film Festival kicked off Wednesday night with the world premiere of White Noise, Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don Delillo’s “unfilmable” 1985 novel and a video cameo by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, and with a cast that includes Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith, May Nivola, Raffey Cassidy and Sam Nivola — all of whom attended Venice’s red carpet premiere, White Noise is the first Netflix film to open the world’s oldest film festival.

Baumbach’s last feature, Marriage Story, also starring Driver, alongside Scarlett Johansson, premiered in Venice in 2019, launching a successful awards season run for the divorce drama, which ended with six Oscar nominations and one win, a best supporting actress nod for Laura Dern. Netflix will be hoping for a similar reception for White Noise on the Lido this year.

The film...

“Everything is extra!” blurts out Don Cheadle at the press conference for “White Noise” at the Venice Film Festival.

The Noah Baumbach-directed film, an adaptation of the 1985 Don DeLillo novel, opens the Italian festival on Wednesday night, and is nothing if not theatrical, as its cast members explained at length before the screening.

“When [Baumbach] started re-reading the book, I did too,” said Greta Gerwig, who is Baumbach’s real-life partner. “[The writing] has this quality that makes you want to say, ‘Listen to this!’ and read sections out loud. There’s a performative quality to it; you want to share with other people. It seemed to be both emotionally and intellectually exciting.”

When asked whether the film was trying to convey DeLillo’s language or Baumbach’s, Adam Driver noted that he “didn’t define it as one or the other.”

“A lot of material in the book was curated by...

Click here to read the full article.

Filmmaker Noah Baumbach and the cast of his delightfully eccentric Don DeLillo adaptation White Noise met the international press in Venice Wednesday just hours ahead of the film’s festival-opening world premiere.

White Noise centers on university professor Jack Gladney (Driver) and his wife, Babette (Gerwig), as they grapple with fears of death and family life after a nearby chemical explosion pollutes the air. Raffey Cassidy, André Benjamin, Jodie Turner-Smith and Don Cheadle also star. The film, which Baumbach wrote, is the first project he has released that wasn’t based on his own original idea.

In the press conference, Baumbach reflected on the poignancy of the novel’s story and DeLillo’s language, which he said he by chance he was re-reading at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I both couldn’t believe how relevant it felt and how relevant it felt to the moment,...

Noah Baumbach’s extremely wild looking adaptation of Don DeLillo’s (arguably un-adaptable) classic White Noise will include the first new bit of music from LCD Soundsystem in five years, Variety reports.

All that’s known about the song at the moment is that it’s called “New Body Rhumba” and that it will be released later this year. How exactly it will fit into the film — which stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Andre 3000 — remains a mystery. (Also, we hope the Airborne Toxic Event,...

Netflix’s upcoming film “White Noise” could find itself in the Oscar race for best original song with a new track from long-running Brooklyn dance-rock band LCD Soundsystem, Variety has learned exclusively.

The new film from writer, director and producer Noah Baumbach, will feature the track “New Body Rhumba,” the band’s first new original recording in five years. The single will be released later in 2022.

Formed in Brooklyn, New York, in 2002 by DJ-producer-frontman James Murphy, the group issued a strong run of albums before disbanding in 2011 amid great fanfare, including a big farewell concert at Madison Square Garden, documented in the concert film “Shut Up and Play the Hits.” However, just five years later, the group reformed for a headlining slot at the Coachella festival, a new tour and a new studio album, provoking so much grumbling from fans that Murphy apologized. The album, “American Dream,” was released in...

LCD Soundsystem will join Rosalía, James Blake, and Flume for III Points Festivals, set for October 21-22 in Miami. Orbital, Freddie Gibbs, Kenny Beats, A.G. Cook, and Shygirl are also on the bill.

Miiiami has entered the chat. Your 2022 lineup is officially here...

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By John M. Whalen

Kino Lorber, in its relentless effort to make forgotten, hard-to-find films available in superior, like-new condition, has released a Blu-Ray edition of the 1959 Weird Western, “Curse of the Undead,” the first movie ever to mix cowboys and vampires. The Weird Western, in case you’re not aware, is a sub-genre that combines the traditional western with elements of the supernatural, horror, or science fiction. They’ve been around for about 90 years, first appearing in print in the 1930s when Robert E. Howard, a pulp fiction writer from Texas, best known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian, wrote several short stories for Weird Tales and Argosy magazine that combined the traditional western with supernatural horror. Today a number of authors including Joe Lansdale, Heath Lowrance, Jonathan Mayberry, David West and even yours truly, have turned out Weird Western novels and short stories,...

Ride ’em, rope ’em, bite ’em? Is this ‘Dracula Goes West,’ or ‘Fangs of the High Chapparal?’ The fading Universal-International house of horrors squeaks out a bizarre horror item that one sits through just out of curiosity… are these people serious? We respect the professionalism of Michael Pate, Kathleen Crowley and Bruce Gordon as they give their all to a dead horse of a concept. A threadbare production stages us vampiric action so tame that it’s toothless, figuratively and literally. Critical snipers suggest that the whole thing might have been some kind of in-house joke — if so, where are the laughs?

Curse of the Undead

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 /B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date October 6, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Eric Fleming, Michael Pate, Kathleen Crowley, John Hoyt, Bruce Gordon, Edward Binns, Jimmy Murphy, Helen Kleeb, Jay Adler, Eddie Parker, Don Sullivan.

Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter

Film...

Unbridled Passion by Howard Hughes

Following the release in March of ‘A Man Called Gannon’ (1968), Simply Media in the UK continue to release more Universal-International westerns, this time of 1940s and ‘50s vintage. The new releases, out on 18 April, are ‘Calamity Jane & Sam Bass’ (1949), ‘Cattle Drive’ (1951) and ‘Black Horse Canyon’ (1954). This trio of films are literally ‘Horse Operas’, with the accent on thoroughbred steeds and their importance and role in the working west. Be they cattle drovers, stock breeders or outlaws, where would any of them be without the horse? The answer, of course, is walking.

I’ll review the DVDs in the order I watched them. First up is ‘Cattle Drive’, a 1951 western directed by Kurt Neumann. Chester Graham Jnr (Dean Stockwell), the spoilt, arrogant son of railroad magnet Chester Graham Snr (Leon Ames), is accidentally left behind when the train he is travelling on makes a water stop.

When Sundance announced the films in competition for the 2014 festival yesterday, its organizers noted that they were impressed by the caliber of cinematic artistry — mostly due to technology — that freed up filmmakers to experiment with different genres. No category of the festival is more rooted in genre than Park City at Midnight, the late-night section that specializes in horror and the supernatural, and this year’s slate has several potential breakouts. “The Midnight lineup came together in a way that is about the strongest group we’ve ever had, top to bottom,” says Trevor Groth, Sundance’s director of programming.

Sundance Institute executives announced on December 5 that the festival will feature new work from artist Doug Aitken as well as Klip Collective’s external projections on the Egyptian Theatre.

An expanded New Frontier will showcase installations, performance, transmedia and panel discussion section. Most of the installations will be housed at a new, 5,000-square-foot location at the Gateway in Park City adjacent to Main Street.

Doug Aitken’s The Source (Evolving) will occur at a nearby location along Main Street.

“As human and machine, biological and media experiences blur and hybridise, the distinctions between them are also becoming irrelevant,” said curator of the exhibition and Sundance Film Festival senior programmer Shari Frilot.

“The digital and the organic integrally constitute a new primordial pool. What does creativity and storytelling look like if we revel in this new way of being?”

“This year’s expanded New Frontier allows artists to continue pushing the boundaries in telling their stories,” said Sundance...

On TV this Wednesday: Arrow‘s pal does his (very dangerous) own thing, Svu restores law and order at a shady college, Felicia Day returns for another Supernatural stint and Duck Dynasty says aloha. Here are nine eve-of-Sweeps programs to keep on your radar.

8 pm Arrow (The CW) | Deadshot is back in town, and Oliver, Diggle and Felicity learn that A.R.G.U.S. is planning a sting to capture the baddie alive. Too bad Dig’s determined to see his brother’s killer dead, no matter what Ollie says or does. J. August Richards (Angel) guest-stars as the mysterious Mr.

Samantha Morton reveals two sequels to The Unloved, while Alice Lowe pitches a film cross between Madame Bovary and Trainspotting

Morton on the move

How good to be back after a long summer gathering nuggets. Venice was interesting – Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master is a mighty piece and Susanne Bier's romcom Love Is All You Need a surprise charmer that, handled right, could be a big hit. But the lack of a British film presence was lamentable - all the Brits have gone to Toronto hoping for distribution deals and Oscar buzz. I'd have thought Joe Wright's Anna Karenina would have been well received there, just as Atonement was in 2007.

Between you and me, I hear the British industry has decreed Venice too expensive now, although I think Shame and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy did pretty well out of it last year. It was left to the...

Netflix is bringing a bit of the UK back across the pond by pickcing up the streaming rights to BBC’s soccer drama United, staring former Doctor Who headliner David Tennant.

United, the 90 minute telefilm, tells the true and tragic story of British European Airways Flight 609 which crashed in Munich on February 6, 1958 following its third attempt at takeoff. Caused by a slush covered runway, the crash took the lives of eight of Manchester United’s football stars and also left two so badly injured they never played again.

Tennant portrays Coach Jimmy Murphy, who is charged with the herculean task of rebuilding the broken team, nicknamed the “Busby Babes” after the club’s legendary manager Matt Busby, who also nearly died in the disaster.

Outside of the climatic air tragedy, the drama ...

Click to continue reading Netflix Picks Up David Tennant TV Miniseries ‘United’...

Few thought that when Beastie Boy Adam Yauch set up distribution label Oscilloscope Laboratories to put out his 2008 directorial debut "Gunning For That #1 Spot," it would turn out to be anything other than a vanity side-project. But in fact, the company has evolved over the past four years to become one of the most forward-thinking indie distributors around, having released films like "Dear Zachary," "Wendy And Lucy," "Treeless Mountain," "The Exploding Girl," "Howl," "The Unloved," "We Need To Talk About Kevin," "Bellflower," "The Messenger," "Exit Through The Gift Shop" and "If A Tree Falls," the latter three all turning out to win Oscar nominations for their trouble.

They've got some promising films coming up, including Andrea Arnold's superb "Wuthering Heights" and the Melanie Lynskey vehicle "Hello, I Must Be Going," and they've just added one more to their slate, one that seems to be close to Yauch's heart. The...

Sound On Sight will once again be covering the SXSW Film Festival this year, making it our second time attending. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas fest taking place March 9-17, including 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. As previously announced, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods will have the honours of opening the festival, and now they have released the full list of films – and it’s looking pretty amazing. Enjoy!

Narrative Feature Competition

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin

When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.

Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)

Eden

Director: Megan Griffiths,...

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the features lineup for this year's Festival, March 9 - 17, 2012 in Austin, Texas. We are also pleased to reveal the world premiere of Emmett Malloy's documentary Big Easy Express as our Closing Night Film, which follows a train ride unlike any other with Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show. Big Easy Express will screen on Saturday, March 17. The program will also include the world premiere of Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures' 21 Jump Street, screening in the Centerpiece slot on Monday, March 12. The 2012 lineup continues the SXSW tradition of celebrating ambitious experimentation with risk takers both in front of and behind the camera, and a deep immersion into cultural touchstones. The Midnighters feature section and the Short Film program will be announced on February 8.

"SXSW has long been a haven for bold...

Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, shot by Bob Gruen in 1977

Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen

screens as part of 24 Beats per Second

SXSW Film has just announced its features lineup for the 2012 edition, running March 9 through 17. We already knew that the Opening Night Film would be Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods. For its Closing Night Film, the festival will host the world premiere of of Emmett Malloy’s documentary Big Easy Express (more below). The lineup, with descriptions from the festival:

Narrative Feature Competition

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin. When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted. Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail. (World Premiere)

Eden

Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan Griffiths, Story by: Richard B. Phillips & Chong Kim.

With Sundance 2012 Film Festival over, the next big one on the horizon is South by Southwest, which we’ll be heavily covering. The biggest chunk of the line-up has been announced today, which has some great premieres including 21 Jump Street, Tiff and Sundance hit The Raid, Will Ferrell‘s Casa de mi Padre, the documentary Girl Model (which we liked at Tiff), as well as the next from Broken Lizard, The Babymakers. There are many other promising titles included and you can see them all below. Check back for our coverage for the fest, kicking off March 9th.

Narrative Feature Competition

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin

When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.

Attendees of South by Southwest 2012 are in for a treat. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas festival taking place March 9-17. Among them are 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. The organization already announced [1] Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods would open the festival (the movie is phenomenal [2]) and today the majority of the remaining line up has been revealed. One of the highlights is the unbelievably smart and hilarious 21 Jump Street, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Both of those are World Premieres. Other highlights include The Hunter, Killer Joe, The Babymakers, frankie goes boom, God Bless America, The Imposter, The Raid, Bernie and Casa de mi Padre just to name a few. After the jump, read descriptions of all the films that have been announced so far. Before I copy and paste the rest of the list, a few minor notes.

The annual Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off this weekend, is one of the most renowned film festivals on the circuit and has been known to launch the careers of many a rising talent. The Festival has changed over the decades from a low-profile venue for small-budget, independent creators outside the Hollywood system to a now media extravaganza for the Hollywood industry. One thing that hasn’t changed is the number of great movies which premiere each and every year. It’s a true haven for creativity and this year has one of the best line-ups in recent memory. From niche horror to promising indie debuts, the festival is screening 110 feature-length films from 31 countries, so I’ve decided to narrow it down for everyone. Some movies are already getting buzz, whether for star power, the directors behind the camera or because of an intriguing premise. Here are the movies you...

Blue Earth, Minnesota: Meg (Nicki Aycox) goes after Pastor Jim (Richard Sali) telling him she's done bad things. She had a chat with a man and slit his throat and removed his heart from his chest. Her eyes change. Jim tells her it's hallowed ground and she can't be here. She wants the Winchesters. Then she slits his throat. Leaving Salvation: The heartland of America. Are you ready for Judgement Day Jw 2:27 Sam (Jared Padalecki) has a flash to a baby in a crib and the mother. He has another vision of the map and the mother dressed in white. Monica (Erin Karplunk) talks to her baby, Rosie. "Sometimes she looks at you and it's just like she's reading your mind." She's six months old. Sam has a vision of the demon standing over her and she's on fire like their Mom. The camera pans in on the clown mobile hanging from the crib.

We have a couple casting stories to report to you this morning. First up, Angela Bassett has joined the cast of McG’s action-romantic-comedy This Means War. The film centers on a couple of best friends/international spies (played by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) who wage black-ops warfare on each other when they both fall in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon). According to Variety, “Bassett will play the boss to Pine and Hardy’s characters who has dedicated her entire life to the spy business and has no life outside the CIA.” Bassett will next be seen in the wedding comedy Jumping the Broom on May 6th and as Amanda Waller in Green Lantern on June 17th.

Hit the jump for casting news regarding Dougray Scott signing on to star in the sports drama United.

We have received a press release announcing that Dougray Scott (Hitman) will...

We have two quick pieces of casting news for you this morning. First up, David Tennant (Doctor Who) has joined the cast of the real-life soccer drama United. The film, directed by James Strong, centers on “Manchester United’s Busby Babes, the youngest team to win the English soccer league before eight players died in the Munich air crash of 1958.” According to Variety, Tennant will play the team’s coach, Jimmy Murphy. Jack O’Connell (Skins) and Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) will also star. Filming is set to begin this month.

Hit the jump for more casting news.

Variety reports that Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married) has replaced Rachel Weisz in an untitled film from Lynn Shelton (Humpday). As we previously reported, Weisz and Emily Blunt were set to play sisters in the semi-improvised film. According to Variety, Mark Duplass will play a man who comes between the sisters.

David Tennant has signed up to star in a new BBC drama about Manchester United. United is expected to focus on the football club's side the 'Busby Babes', the youngest team to win the Football League, and the 1958 Munich air crash. Tennant has signed up to play the team's coach Jimmy Murphy. The cast also includes Jack O'Connell, who played Cook in Skins. He will take on the role of Bobby Charlton, while Pirates Of The Caribbean actor Sam Claflin will appear as Duncan Edwards. (more)...

Skins star Jack O’Connell will portray Bobby Charlton in a film about the Munich air disaster that killed several of Manchester United’s young players, known as the Busby Babes.

The film, called United, is based on the true story of Manchester United's legendary "Busby Babes", the youngest side ever to win the Football League, the 1958 Munich Air Crash that claimed eight of the their number and the extraordinary spirit of a city that rebuilt the team in the wake of the disaster. It will also star David Tennant as Manchester United trainer Jimmy Murphy. The tragic events of that day will be seen through the eyes of Charlton (O'Connell), who was on the plane that crashed that February day in 1958.

The drama, written by Chris Chibnall for BBC Television, will show the tragedy of the air crash, but also explore how Busby and Murphy had built their team...

Lt. Col. James H. Champion, the father of Good Morning America's weather anchor Sam Champion, died Monday night in Houston, Texas, at the age of 75. "Sam tells me his tight knit military family is strong and hanging together to face their time of grief," Good Morning America senior executive producer Jim Murphy wrote in an e-mail to the show's staff Tuesday that was posted to the show's Web site. "Please give your thoughts and prayers to Sam and his family." Added Murphy in the note, "He was better known to us as Sam Champion's dad. Sam, his sister Teresa and his mom,...

Filed under: TV News

Update: Sam Champion has tweeted that his father, Lt. Col. James H. Champion, passed away last night, Oct. 25.

Sam Champion, the 'Good Morning America' (weekdays, 7Am on ABC) weather anchor, will take a leave of absence following his father's death.

"After a life of service to his country and his family, Lt. Col. James H. Champion, U.S. Marine Corps (retired), passed away last night in Houston, Texas," 'Good Morning America' senior executive producer Jim Murphy wrote in an e-mail to the show's staff. "He was better known to us as Sam Champion's dad. Sam, his sister Teresa and his mom, Sylvia, were all together with the Lt. Col. at the end."

Champion took to Twitter to thank fans for their support. "Thank You! I feel your thots and prayer LtCol Jh Champion Usmc Ret..passed last night..Worlds Best Dad.

There's a double helping of the Dane, Wall Street returns, Wallace and Gromit take up presenting – and Robyn goes for broke. Our critics pick this autumn's hottest shows

Theatre

Hamlet

Prepare for the latest battle of the princes. John Simm is first in the field at the Sheffield Crucible; then Rory Kinnear enters the running in a Nicholas Hytner production for the National Theatre. It's not, of course, a contest – but comparisons will be inevitable. Crucible, Sheffield (0114-249 6000), from 16 September; and Olivier, London SE1 (020-7452 3000), from 7 October.

The Thrill of it All

Forced Entertainment continues the British experimental tradition with an evening of vaudevillian capers, Japanese lounge music and tarnished sequins. Nuffield, Lancaster (01524 594151), 12-13 October. Then touring.

Tribes

Nina Raine follows her impressive debut play, Rabbits, with a drama about an unconventional family that has its own private language and rules. At its centre is Billy, who is deaf and...