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Stars: Peter Davison, Nicola Posener, Julie Graham, David Bamber, Ronald Pickup, Ben Lamb, Ivan Kaye, Chelsea Edge | Written by John Paul Chapple | Directed by Mat Menony

Told in flashback, End of Term opens with a young student, Melissa (Chelsea Edge), being interviewed by DS Stacy Harcourt (Julie Graham) and Di Jim Burman (David Bamber) who are investigating the death of a teacher Damian Self at the Ford Barrington School of Art. Only this school has a history and that history is coming back to haunt this year’s graduating class. Literally.

You see some 50 years earlier artist Garth Stroman, had a disturbing vision for his art – a vision which hangs over the current crop of students, in particular Melissa’s sister who is infatuated with Stroman’s obsession with Bdsm in his art. In fact, Stroman torments the school and in this case, the graduating class who are embarking on a journey of artistic exploration…...

UK and Argentine companies join forces to co-produce and finance a slate of six features over the next two years.

UK company 369 Productions is moving into international co-production in a partnership with Argentine company Jempsa.

Headed by Victor Glynn and David Burgess, 369 Productions co-produced The Unbeatables [pictured] with Jempsa’s Jorge Estrada Mora, who has worked with Glynn on a number of films since 1991.

Under the deal, the two companies have agreed to co-produce and finance a slate of six features over the next two years starting with End of Term, written by John Paul Chapple, which is scheduled to begin pre-production in October and will be shot in Argentina.

Costing $22m to produce, The Unbeatables is the biggest-grossing Argentine film in history and the most successful Latin American animated feature ever.

It opens nationwide in the UK from this Friday [Aug 15] through Vertigo Films, having come out in Scotland on Aug 8.

Bathory

Guest review by Dog Ate My Wookie

Stars: Anna Friel, Hans Matheson, Karel Roden, Vincent Regan | Written by Juraj Jakubisko, John Paul Chapple | Directed by Juraj Jakubisko

The history of Countess Bathory is world renowned, the story of her dastardly deeds in the search for youth has been told thousands of times around the world and with each telling the grisly affair becomes more sordid and gruesome. My favourite telling so far has to be the Hammer Horror classic, the old Bathory on her quest for pure blood to bathe in so that her youthful looks may return.

Bathory (2008) not to be confused with The Countess (2009) which I totally thought this film was, tells the story from a whole new perspective. Countess Erzsébet Báthory may be a name of legend, she may have even made the Guiness Book of world records for the number of lives she took but...

Pretty boy Ian Somerhalder, perhaps best known for his work in The Vampire Diaries and Lost, has joined the cast of the “romantic gothic fairy tale” Cradlewood.

According to THR:

“The movie centers on an Australian woman living in Boston with the heir (Somerhalder) to an incredible fortune whose family history is swirled in a legend that tells of a pact made with a demon which ensures that whenever a boy is born into the family, the father is killed.

The heir suspects his girlfriend is pregnant, and after strange events occur, he comes to believe he will die if he continues to fall in love.”

The film will be directed by Harry Weinmann, who did the visual effects for Spaceballs and was on the art department for Race to Witch Mountain. In other words, he’s relatively unproven, even after more than 20 years in the field. Weinmann created the...

Ian Somerhalder ( The Vampire Diaries , Lost ) will play the lead role in the romantic gothic fairy tale Cradlewood , according to The Hollywood Reporter. Harry Weinmann is directing the independent project based on a script by Stephen Sewell and John Paul Chapple. The movie is about an Australian (Emma Lung) woman living in Boston with the heir (Somerhalder) to an incredible fortune whose family history is swirled in a legend that tells of a pact made with a demon which ensures that whenever a boy is born into the family, the father is killed. The heir suspects his girlfriend is pregnant, and after strange events occur, he comes to believe he will die if he continues to fall in love.

Ian Somerhalder ("The Vampire Diaries," "Lost") will play the lead role in the romantic gothic fairy tale Cradlewood , according to The Hollywood Reporter . Harry Weinmann is directing the independent project based on a script by Stephen Sewell and John Paul Chapple. The movie is about an Australian (Emma Lung) woman living in Boston with the heir (Somerhalder) to an incredible fortune whose family history is swirled in a legend that tells of a pact made with a demon which ensures that whenever a boy is born into the family, the father is killed. The heir suspects his girlfriend is pregnant, and after strange events occur, he comes to believe he will die if he continues to fall in love.

There's a rising market in fantasy/horror films with a strong romance backdriop to them. Bare witness to the Twilight craze and that's your answer for where the craze began. Whether the streak of hor-rom movies will turn into a genuine sub-genre with lasting legs remains to be seen, but for the moment Hollywood is getting the projects moving in the pipeline.

An indie project called Cradlewood is the latest film of this type to be announced. The Hollywood Reporter breaks the story about this new project and reveals that it's nabbed Ian Somerhalder, once of Lost and now of The Vampire Diaries, to play the lead male role. Somerhalder will play a rich man who is heir to a considerable fortune. He's in a relationship with an Australian woman (to be played by Emma Lung) and holding steady in life until he suspects that his partner is pregnant. That's...

Ian Somerhalder, star of the CW's "The Vampire Diaries," has signed to topline an extremely cheesy sounding romantic gothic fairy tale Cradlewood. Harry Weinmann will direct the movie that centers on an Australian woman living in Boston with the heir (Somerhalder) to an incredible fortune whose family history is swirled in a legend that tells of a pact made with a demon which ensures that whenever a boy is born into the family, the father is killed. The heir suspects his girlfriend is pregnant, and after strange events occur, he comes to believe he will die if he continues to fall in love. Emma Lung will play the Australian woman. Cradlewood is based on original story by Weinmann. Stephen Sewell and John Paul Chapple (Bathroy) wrote the script.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Vampire Diaries’ Ian Somerhalder will star in Cradlewood, a Gothic fantasy being produced by Hand Picked Films and Instinct Entertainment. He’ll co-star opposite Australian actress Emma Lung (soon to be seen in Christopher Smith’s Triangle) for director Harry Weinmann, who was previously an FX artist on films ranging from Lifeforce to Race To Witch Mountain.

Scripted by Lost Things’ Stephen Sewell and Bathory’s John Paul Chapple from a story by Weinmann, Cradlewood casts Somerhalder as the heir to a great fortune who also believes he has inherited a legendary family curse thanks to a pact with a demon: Whenever a boy is born into the bloodline, the father dies—and the man suspects his girlfriend (Lung) is pregnant. Though set in Boston, the film will lens in Melbourne, Australia, with Michel Shane and David Redman producing. “We see this is as...

Ian Somerhalder, star of the CW's "The Vampire Diaries," has signed to topline the romantic gothic fairy tale "Cradlewood." Hand Picked Films and Instinct Entertainment are behind the indie being directed by Harry Weinmann.

The movie centers on an Australian woman living in Boston with the heir (Somerhalder) to an incredible fortune whose family history is swirled in a legend that tells of a pact made with a demon which ensures that whenever a boy is born into the family, the father is killed.

The heir suspects his girlfriend is pregnant, and after strange events occur, he comes to believe he will die if he continues to fall in love.

Emma Lung ("The Boys Are Back") will play the Australian woman.

"Cradlewood" is based on original story by Weinmann. Stephen Sewell ("The Boys") and John Paul Chapple ("Bathroy") wrote the script.

Michel Shane ("Catch Me If You Can") and David Redman ("Strange Bedfellows") will produce.

LONDON -- Under the glare of a glacier, Jason Biggs joined Natascha McElhone and Jeremy Northam, as Guy X began shooting in Iceland on Monday. The black comedy is set against the backdrop of a secret Arctic military base in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Produced by the U.K.'s Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME), Spice Factory and Movision with the Film Consortium and international sale house the Works, Guy X is an adaptation by Steve Attridge and John Paul Chapple of John Griesemer's debut novel, No One Thinks of Greenland.