News

In a decision issued Thursday, a three-judge federal appeals panel upheld a lower court ruling that the confession of Brendan Dassey — whose case was the focus of Netflix’s hit true crime documentary series Making a Murderer — had been illegally obtained and that the 27-year-old should be retried for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach or freed from his confinement, People confirms.

Dassey is serving a life sentence for first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and sexual assault in connection with Halbach’s death in 2005.

The case drew national attention after the premiere of Netflix’s docuseries, which cast...

The fate of Brendan Dassey now rests with a trio of federal appeals judges.

During a brief hearing Tuesday in Chicago, Wisconsin prosecutors appeared before the panel to appeal a judge’s August decision overturning Dassey’s conviction for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. The convictions of Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were featured in Netflix’s true crime docuseries, Making a Murderer.

The lawyers fielded a number of questions from U.S. Circuit Judges Ilana Rovner, Ann Williams, and David Hamilton. Most of the judges’ questions centered around the techniques investigators used during Dassey’s controversial interrogation in...

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) is an obscure fantasia from the fading days of the Czech New Wave. One could argue that its obscurity was richly deserved and that it unfortunately may end now with the release of this new Criterion Blu-ray. The film is a bewildering, at times amateurish, amalgam of the very worst instincts of David Hamilton and Ken Russell mixed with a barrage of B movie horror cliches. And those are some of the best scenes. In between there’s much fret over some magic necklace or earrings or something, and Valerie’s grandparents and/or parents – it’s hard to tell them apart – and a cloaked figure who flits about looking like a hybrid of Nosferatu and Darth Vader. Sorry this synopsis is not more coherent, but this reviewer’s eyes had glazed over long before the film reached its conclusion.

On the other hand,...

Sam Strike's first TV role since leaving EastEnders has been revealed by BBC One.

The former soap star will appear in the upcoming 19th series of Silent Witness opposite Emilia Fox in a guest role.

He will play David Hamilton, the son of Tony (Dean Andrews) and Lydia (Geraldine Somerville). David has held his family together while his father was in prison, and has sacrificed going to university to look after his parents following a family tragedy.

Strike said of his role: 'I'm a fan of Silent Witness, so when the opportunity arose to be a part of it, I jumped at the chance.

"I really admire David Drury as a director, so to work with him is very exciting. It's always great to play a character outside of your comfort zone, especially on a platform as successful as Silent Witness."

The long-running crime drama returns to BBC One...

Former EastEnders actor Sam Strike will guest star in an upcoming episode of Silent Witness.

Strike played Johnny Carter in the BBC One soap for a year, leaving the role in December 2014.

His Spotlight page includes the casting, revealing that the actor will take on the role of David Hamilton in the crime drama. No other details about the part have been revealed, while his episode is likely to air in the new series next year.

Confirming the news on Twitter, Strike's management team revealed that he will begin filming scenes next week.

Great job @SamStrike Filming next week on #SilentWitness @BBCOne #RoleDavidHamilton, Huge thank you @AndyBCasting pic.twitter.com/mwl27dTvbL

— Lee Morgan (@leemorgan_mgnt) April 14, 2015

The 18th series of Silent Witness concluded in February, and was followed by confirmation that new episodes would air in 2016.

Since quitting the BBC One soap, Strike has gone on to land the...

Only French cinema could get away with Jeune & Jolie. Beneath its stylish, sexy glow lies an essential absurdity and obtuseness

François Ozon's fervent and well-acted drama about a 17-year-old girl exploring her sexuality by becoming a high-class call girl is very watchable … and entirely ridiculous. It has a stylish gloss and sexy glow, no doubt about it. Only French cinema could get away with it.

Yet once the credits roll, its essential absurdity and obtuseness become apparent: it's a solemn belle de jour tale with a touch of David Hamilton softcore, existing outside the grim reality of vulnerable women being abused and trafficked.

Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is the Warmest Colour was attacked as a movie for middle-aged men; that charge could be made far more powerfully against Jeune & Jolie.

Yet it has to be said that Marine Vacth is excellent as Isabelle, the schoolgirl with a secret life as a €500 prostitute,...

Academy Award-nominated director Deepa Mehta is all set to release her newest film Midnight’s Children in the United States on April 26 in New York City, opening exclusively at the Angelika and Beekman theaters. The film then releases on May 3 in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. followed by many additional cities on May 10. Midnight’s Children is an epic film based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Salman Rushdie. The film boasts an all star cast including Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Ronit Roy, Rahul Bose, Samrat Chakrabarti, Kulbushan Kharbanda, Anita Majumdar, Charles Dance, Soha Ali Khan, Zaib Shaikh, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher and Darsheel Safary.

“Born in the hour of India’s freedom. Handcuffed to history.” At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, as India proclaims independence from Great Britain, two newborn babies are switched by a nurse in a Bombay hospital.

New York, March 15: The 13th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff) will kick off April 10 with an exclusive screening of acclaimed director Deepa Mehta's "Midnight's Children" based on award-winning writer Salman Rushdie's novel.

Mehta and Rushdie, who also adapted the screenplay, producer David Hamilton, cast members Sarita Choudhury and Samrat Chakrabarti, too would be in attendance, according to festival organizers, the Indo-American Arts Council (Iaac).

Paladin and 108 Media will be officially releasing "Midnight's Children" in major Us cities starting in New York City on April 26.

Mehta, who returns to Nyiff.

(thanks to alan of montreal) Best Motion Picture “L’Affaire Dumont” Nicole Robert “Inch’Allah” Luc Déry, Kim McCraw “Laurence Anyways” Lyse Lafontaine “Midnight’s Children” David Hamilton “Rebelle / War Witch” Pierre Even,...

For many years Midnight’s Children, the Booker of Bookers and Salman Rushdie’s second-best known novel, stumbled uncertainly on the road to a cinematic adaptation. Through international storms and fatwa shaped holes in the world it was looking likely for a time that the promised land of a BBC mini-series would be journey’s end. Sadly permission to film was denied and more years lay ahead until Deepa Mehta and David Hamilton offered the film adaptation a home and so thirty-one years after it was published the story of Saleem Sinai, the wicked Shiva and Parvati the Witch is now retold on the big screen.

Rushdie adapted his own generation spanning tale of civil war, the fight for independence, days of darkness and the allure of a well made jar of pickles. The story is a feast of internal and external families, of occupation and exile, of magic and...

Sir Jimmy Savile allegedly groped Sophie, Countess of Wessex before she became a royal. The late broadcaster - who has been accused by many women of sexual abuse throughout the 1960s and 1970s - is said to have angered nm2610797 autoSophie Rhys-Jones[/link] when she worked as a PR at London's Capital Radio in 1990. Rhys-Jones - who later married Prince Edward in 1999 - was reportedly chosen to meet Savile when he joined the radio station. DJ David Hamilton alleged that the pair stood for photos when her skirt blew up, prompting Savile to "shower" her with kisses. "She greeted Jimmy with champagne, even though he was teetotal," Hamilton told the Daily Star. "The pictures were to be done outside Capital Radio on one of the (more)...

Exclusive: One of the last buzz titles at the Toronto Film Festival is about to find a distributor. I’m told that Mark Urman’s Paladin/108 Media is acquiring all U.S. rights to Midnight’s Children, the Deepa Mehta-directed adaptation of the 1981 Salman Rushdie novel. The film will get a platform theatrical release in April. Mehta helmed the Oscar-nominated Water and this film is based on one of Rushdie’s most famous Booker Prize-winning works. Rushdie wrote the script with Mehta and he attended the film’s gala premiere in Toronto. Midnight’s Children is a lavish period drama about India’s shift from British colonialism to independence. The story is about two infants born on midnight August 15, 1947, the moment India achieved independence. The infants are switched at birth — one rich being raised poor and the poor child is raised rich. The story contains some magical elements, but...

Oscar nominated director Deepa Mehta and multi-award-winning author Salman Rushdie's screen adaptation of his extraordinary multi award-winning international bestselling novel Midnight's Children will commence shooting in Sri Lanka in January 2011. Shabana Azmi, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Nandita Das, Chandan Roy Sanyal and Seema Biswas will star in the English language film. The film is being shot in Sri Lanka because Mehta has sworn off India following her nightmare experience shooting Water at Varanasi locations. Water was subsequently shot in Sri Lanka. But Midnight's Children could yet run into problems because in the late 1990s the BBC was planning to film a five-part mini-series of the novel with Rahul Bose in the lead, but due to pressure from the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, the filming permit was revoked and the project was cancelled. Mehta and Rushdie have been working together on the screenplay for the past two years.

Oscar nominated director Deepa Mehta and multi-award-winning author Salman Rushdie's screen adaptation of his extraordinary multi award-winning international bestselling novel Midnight's Children will commence shooting in Sri Lanka in January 2011. Shabana Azmi, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Nandita Das, Chandan Roy Sanyal and Seema Biswas will star in the English language film. The film is being shot in Sri Lanka because Mehta has sworn off India following her nightmare experience shooting Water at Varanasi locations. Water was subsequently shot in Sri Lanka. But Midnight's Children could yet run into problems because in the late 1990s the BBC was planning to film a five-part mini-series of the novel with Rahul Bose in the lead, but due to pressure from the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, the filming permit was revoked and the project was cancelled. Mehta and Rushdie have been working together on the screenplay for the past two years.

An exceptionally gory entry in the slasher movie genre, Nightmare was one of many films banned under the legendary 1984 Video Recording Act. Dave takes a look back…

Romano Scavolini's 1981 film Nightmare (also known as Nightmare In A Damaged Brain, Schizo and the much less scary sounding Blood Splash) follows a formula that would be (and had been) oft imitated: a killer escapes to return to his childhood home, leaving a trail of devastation behind him and laying waste to the current inhabitants.

The film focuses on a mental patient, George Tatum, who suffered a childhood trauma and whose doctors have been heavily dosing him with drugs to keep his dreams under control. Thankfully, the drugs do, indeed, work and the doctors are all pretty much excited about their success, turning a psychopath into a fully functioning member of society. However, George isn't fully functioning at all. In fact, he's...

Critics will not be able to see love story that features the king and queen of French cinema

The organisers of the Cannes festival have a habit each year of selecting one film with unusually explicit sexual or violent content. Last year Lars von Trier's Antichrist caused outrage with its portrayal of sadistic and masochistic acts, and in 2004 the British director Michael Winterbottom shocked audiences with his erotic romance, 9 Songs. Two years earlier Gaspar Noé pushed back the boundaries at the festival with Irréversible, which featured a prolonged rape scene. This year, in contrast, the festival is accused of deliberately keeping the most provocative French film of the season out of all its selected screenings.

Ça Commence par la Fin, which tells the story of the apparent disintegration of a couple's passionate physical and emotional relationship and which stars the husband and wife team Michaël Cohen and Emmanuelle Béart...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 28th annual "Contemporay Documentaries" series will screen two films, “The Final Inch” and “The Forgotten Woman”, on Indian themes on April 7th.

Following American survivors and Indian vaccinators, “The Final Inch” tracks the massive mission to eradicate polio. The stories of those working in the poorest corners of our planet challenge our most basic assumptions about disease, poverty and health as a human right. Directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky and produced by Brodsky and Tom Grant, “The Final Inch” earned an Academy Award® nomination for Documentary Short Subject.

Directed by Dilip Mehta and produced by David Hamilton and Noemi Weis, “The Forgotten Woman” aims to bring about an understanding of the destitution and marginalization of many of the millions of widows in India today, who are forced by age-old traditions to live out their remaining years isolated and shunned from society at large.

On September 18, when Dilip Mehta's Cooking With Stella had its public screening at the Toronto Film Festival, the show was on the spur of the moment, dedicated to Lisa Ray who plays one of the central characters. Says the film's director, "We decided to dedicate that particular screening to the strength and fortitude of Lisa Ray. The response was terrific." This is the first time in the history of film festivals that a show has been dedicated to one of the living actors whose part of a film. Says Dilip, "The second public screening of Cws took place and once again the theatre was brimming. It had sold out a week ago." There's no denying the fact that Lisa's presence in the film has created an added interest in it. Says Dilip, "The movie was thoroughly enjoyed and laughter permeated the entire film. It seems everyone got the premise of the film.

On September 18, when Dilip Mehta's Cooking With Stella had its public screening at the Toronto Film Festival, the show was on the spur of the moment, dedicated to Lisa Ray who plays one of the central characters. Says the film's director, "We decided to dedicate that particular screening to the strength and fortitude of Lisa Ray. The response was terrific." This is the first time in the history of film festivals that a show has been dedicated to one of the living actors whose part of a film. Says Dilip, "The second public screening of Cws took place and once again the theatre was brimming. It had sold out a week ago." There's no denying the fact that Lisa's presence in the film has created an added interest in it. Says Dilip, "The movie was thoroughly enjoyed and laughter permeated the entire film. It seems everyone got the premise of the film.

Boring limousines at celebrity events are out. At least for now. Lisa Ray and the rest of the cast of Dilip Mehta's Cooking With Stella rode up in a hand-driven rickshaws for the Gala premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Thursday night. Heads turned and jaws fall open at the august gathering. But Lisa couldn't care less. That was a bit of Indiana thrown into the Oriental cuisine. Delighted euphoric but exhausted after the event Lisa said, "Yes, we rolled up in rickshaws and the crowd was hugely supportive. I wore my 'Myeloma' bracelet, which matched my gown. My gown was designed by Nada, a Toronto designer, and India-inspired." Lisa rode up in the two-seater rickshaw with her co-star Don McKellar while the rest of the cast along with the director, his sister Deepa Mehta and producer David Hamilton were in other rickshaws. The entourage was arresting. The...

Boring limousines at celebrity events are out. At least for now. Lisa Ray and the rest of the cast of Dilip Mehta's Cooking With Stella rode up in a hand-driven rickshaws for the Gala premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Thursday night. Heads turned and jaws fall open at the august gathering. But Lisa couldn't care less. That was a bit of Indiana thrown into the Oriental cuisine. Delighted euphoric but exhausted after the event Lisa said, "Yes, we rolled up in rickshaws and the crowd was hugely supportive. I wore my 'Myeloma' bracelet, which matched my gown. My gown was designed by Nada, a Toronto designer, and India-inspired." Lisa rode up in the two-seater rickshaw with her co-star Don McKellar while the rest of the cast along with the director, his sister Deepa Mehta and producer David Hamilton were in other rickshaws. The entourage was arresting. The...

Lisa Ray, who is suffering from incurable cancer, is ecstatic after riding up in cycle-rickshaws for the premiere of Dilip Mehta.s .Cooking With Stella. at the just concluded Toronto International Film Festival.Heads turned when Lisa and the rest of the cast of the comedy rode up in cycle-rickshaws Thursday night..Yes, we rolled up in rickshaws and the crowd was hugely supportive. I wore my .Myeloma. bracelet, which matched my gown. My gown was designed by Nada, a Toronto designer, and India-inspired,. Lisa, who is euphoric but exhausted after the event, told Ians.Lisa rode up in the two-seater rickshaw with her co-star Don McKellar while the rest of the cast - including Dilip, his sister Deepa Mehta and producer David Hamilton - were in other rickshaws. The entourage was arresting. The ambience created was very rustic and Indian.The press at the Toronto Film Festival was naturally...

Broadcaster David Hamilton has accused Anne Robinson of making "ageist" remarks about him when he appeared on The Weakest Link recently. The former Radio 1 presenter, who was seen in a special DJ edition of the BBC One quiz show on Saturday, claimed that Robinson made constant comments about his appearance during filming. Speaking to the Daily Express, the 70-year-old admitted: "She was ruder to me than I thought she was going to be. When we recorded it, there were a lot of ageist remarks to me such as, 'Who are you broadcasting to now? Care homes?' I said, 'Yes, I'm their toyboy', to which Anne (more)...

After the furor that was raised over the apology of a beard that Akshay Kumar sported as a Sikh in Anees Bazmee's Singh Is Kinng, Akshay Kumar is taking no chances. For the role of the real-life Sardarji who sailed in the fateful ship named Kamagata Maru from Hong Kong to Vancouver in 1914, Akshay is taking no chances. He'll grow the beard to the size stipulated by the Sikh community before plunging into the role in January 2010. In fact the actor, smarting under the attack he faced for his improper beard length in Bazmee's bearded burlesque, has this time decided to set aside all his assignments for Kamagata Maru to avoid continuity clashes with other projects. Says Deepa, "Akshay is so amazing. Considering he has so much work on hand, I was surprised when he absolutely insisted on growing a full-length beard. One of the reasons I postponed Kamagata...

After the furor that was raised over the apology of a beard that Akshay Kumar sported as a Sikh in Anees Bazmee's Singh Is Kinng, Akshay Kumar is taking no chances. For the role of the real-life Sardarji who sailed in the fateful ship named Kamagata Maru from Hong Kong to Vancouver in 1914, Akshay is taking no chances. He'll grow the beard to the size stipulated by the Sikh community before plunging into the role in January 2010. In fact the actor, smarting under the attack he faced for his improper beard length in Bazmee's bearded burlesque, has this time decided to set aside all his assignments for Kamagata Maru to avoid continuity clashes with other projects. Says Deepa, "Akshay is so amazing. Considering he has so much work on hand, I was surprised when he absolutely insisted on growing a full-length beard. One of the reasons I postponed Kamagata...

Toronto -- Canadian director Deepa Mehta is collaborating with Salman Rushdie on a big-screen adaptation of the author's 1981 historical novel "Midnight's Children."

Toronto-based Mehta and Rushdie unveiled the project, which will see the duo co-write the screenplay and Mehta direct, at the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival in New York City. They hope to have cameras rolling in 2010.

Indian actors Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, who starred in two earlier Mehta films, "Fire" and "Earth," are on board to star in the project.

David Hamilton, who produces Mehta's films, including her latest, "Heaven on Earth," will co-produce the adaptation with Rushdie.

Both Mehta and Rushdie were born in India, with the filmmaker eventually moving to Canada and the novelist to Britain.

"Midnight's Children," which earned Rushdie the Booker literary prize, portrays the history of India from 1910 to a declared state of emergency in 1976 as told by a young man...