News

Ashley Benson, Emily Alyn Lind, Madelaine Petsch and Sadie Stanley have been tapped for the lead roles in “Pretty Babies,” an indie female friendship drama written and directed by Tyler-Marie Evans, who makes her feature debut.

Set to enter production later this summer, the film follows two teenage girls who run away to Hollywood, chasing stardom, but their dreams lead them into prostitution, trapping them in the dark underbelly of the sex work industry as they travel from Texas to California.

“’Pretty Babies’ is a love letter to Old Hollywood. We’re pushing into something new with this script, and

that excitement has been palpable from the start, and something felt by every collaborator,” said Evans.

Christine Vachon from Killer Films is producing, alongside Jordan Wagner from Wagner Entertainment. Benson will produce. Amanda Larney of Killer Films is associate producing.

“When I first met Tyler-Marie, I knew immediately there was something special about her.

Richard Gere starred in Paul Schrader’s 1980 movie American Gigolo, which is recognized as one of the movies that put Gere on the map. Fast-forward 44 years, and the duo reteams for the film Oh, Canada. The film is based on Russell Banks’s 2021 novel Foregone, and this is the second book Shrader has adapted a movie into (after 1997’s Affliction). The film was part of the 2024 AFI Film Festival.

Oh, Canada AFI Fest Review Richard Gere and Uma Thurman in Oh, Canada

Oh, Canada follows the story of Leonard Fife, a terminally ill writer and filmmaker who has agreed to have a documentary crew film his final testament. Schrader is one of the most interesting filmmakers when it comes to exploring characters. He does it again with Oh, Canada by examining the past while we are facing death.

Years after he became one of sixty thousand draft evaders who fled to Canada,...

Plot: The film follows Narvel Roth, the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, to pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill. When Mrs. Haverhill demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece Maya) as a new apprentice, chaos enters Narvel’s spartan existence, unlocking dark secrets from a buried violent past that threaten them all.

Review: Paul Schrader’s career has always been one of extreme highs and lows. While his writing and directing efforts are typically tagged with his credits on Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, Schrader’s output in the 2000s has been wildly inconsistent. But, since his 2017 masterpiece First Reformed, the filmmaker has delivered a solid follow-up in 2021’s The Card Counter and looks to complete a loose thematic trilogy with Master Gardener. With an exceptional lead performance by...

Whatever new could be said about Paul Schrader as an artist—curving around the extra-textual value in Kickstarter campaigns, Facebook posts, and tragic losses of final cut—is almost entirely on the back of First Reformed. A cultural smash first propelled by surprise of the he’s-still-got-it! variety that, as those things always do, faded, now denotes career reset—a generational shift for telling us his anxiety-ridden men of ‘70s and ‘80s landmarks stuck around to become the doom-scrolling generation whose problems are more global than personal. (Though obviously that too.) The catch of this conquest is a greedy fan (hello) alternately thrilled at the existence of another film and worried a final statement for the ages is rendered naught. A broken promise? Please; he owes us nothing. But Ernst Toller’s martyrdom is hard to sacrifice as a last note.

My fear of folly dissipated before The Card Counter‘s first shot.

Oscar Isaac

Focus Features has acquired Academy Award® nominee Paul Schrader’s revenge thriller The Card Counter out of Cannes’ virtual market.

Written and directed by Schrader, whose celebrated works include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and his Academy Award®-nominated First Reformed, The Card Counter brings together the talents of Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Emmy Award winner Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip), Tye Sheridan (Mud), and Academy Award® nominee Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate).

Tiffany Haddish

Producers are Braxton Pope, Lauren Mann (Swiss Army Man), and David Wulf with executive producer Martin Scorsese. Other executive producers include William Olsson, Lee Broda, Ruben Islas and Stanley Preschutti. This marks the fifth collaboration between Schrader and Scorsese who previously worked together on Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead. Focus Features will distribute the film in the U.S. and Universal Pictures International...

Focus Features has acquired out of the Cannes Virtual Market the U.S. rights to “The Card Counter,” the latest film from director Paul Schrader that stars Oscar Isaac, the studio announced Monday.

“The Card Counter” is Schrader’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated “First Reformed,” and the film co-stars Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe in what’s described as a revenge thriller executive produced by Martin Scorsese.

The film is a revenge thriller following Isaac as William Tell, a gambler and former serviceman who sets out to reform a young man seeking revenge on a mutual enemy from their past. Here’s the full synopsis:

Tell (Isaac) just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk (Sheridan), a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel (Dafoe). Tell...

Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, and Willem Dafoe have been cast in “The Card Counter,” a casino-set revenge thriller starring Oscar Isaac.

Paul Schrader is directing the movie from a screenplay he wrote. Martin Scorsese also joined the project as an executive producer. It’s the fifth collaboration between Schrader and Scorsese, who previously worked together on “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Bringing Out the Dead.”

In “The Card Counter,” Isaac portrays a card player on the casino trail who sees a chance at redemption when he’s approached by a young man (Sheridan), seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel (Dafoe.) With backing from a mysterious gambling financier (Haddish), the duo go from casino to casino and set their sights on winning a World Series of poker tournament.

“Scorsese and I liked the symmetry of it, the reflection of a...

Exclusive: Martin Scorsese is set to re-team with Paul Schrader on the First Reformed director’s next movie The Card Counter.

Fresh off his latest Oscar nominations for The Irishman, Scorsese will executive-produce the revenge thriller pic, marking his fifth collaboration with Schrader after Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation Of Christ and Bringing Out The Dead.

I can also confirm that Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe have all joined Oscar Isaac in the movie, which centers on card player Tell (Isaac) whose spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk (Sheridan), an angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel (Dafoe). Gaining backing from mysterious gambling financier La Linda (Haddish), Tell takes Cirk with him on the road, going from casino to casino until the unlikely trio set their sights on winning a World Series of poker tournament.

Oscar Isaac is set to star in a revenge thriller titled “The Card Counter,” the next film from Oscar-winner Paul Schrader that will be presented to buyers at the upcoming American Film Market.

Schrader wrote the original screenplay and will direct the film. Isaac will star as William Tell, a gambler and former serviceman who sets out to reform a young man seeking revenge on a mutual enemy from their past. Here’s the full synopsis of the film:

Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk. Gaining backing from mysterious gambling financier La Linda, Tell takes Cirk with him on the road, going from casino to casino...

Picture, if you can, a Paul Schrader film about a troubled man. No, actually: a Paul Schrader film about a troubled man, redemption, revenge, and a seedy underworld. Once your world is done being rocked, take note, via Variety, that the living legend’s First Reformed follow-up will be The Card Counter, starring Oscar Isaac as William Tell, a gambler, former serviceman, and card-player living a “spartan existence on the casino trail […] who sets out to reform a young man seeking revenge on a mutual enemy from their past.” The young man, Cirk, seeks to assassinate a military colonel; Tell, with “backing from mysterious gambling financier La Linda,” takes Cirk under his wing on the card-playing trail through America’s casinos, winding up at Las Vegas’ World Series of poker.

One could draw lines to, uh, many Schrader projects from pasts both recent and not-so, though First Reformed—our #1 film...

Oscar is set to star in revenge thriller “The Card Counter,” the next film from Oscar-nominee Paul Schrader.

The film, written and directed by Schrader, follows William Tell (Isaac), a gambler and former serviceman who sets out to reform a young man seeking revenge on a mutual enemy from their past. Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk. Gaining backing from mysterious gambling financier La Linda, Tell takes Cirk with him on the road, going from casino to casino until the unlikely trio set their sights on winning the World Series of poker in Las Vegas. But keeping Cirk on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible, dragging Tell back...

Paul Schrader’s austere, intense thriller is billed as a return to the director’s ‘transcendental’ roots, although we suspect he never really left them at all. Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried and Victoria Hall immerse us in a country pastor’s dreadful impulse to act on spiritual values and strike back against evil.

First Reformed

Blu-ray

Lionsgate

2017 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 108 min. / Street Date August 21, 2018 / 24.99

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric Antonio Kyles, Victoria Hill, Philip Ettinger, Michael Gaston, Bill Hoag.

Cinematography: Alexander Dynan

Film Editor: Benjamin Rodriguez Jr.

Original Music: Brian Williams

Produced by Jack Binder, Greg Clark, Gary Hamilton, Victoria Hill, David Hinojosa, Frank Murray, Deepak Sikka, Christine Vachon.

Written and Directed by Paul Schrader

No Spoilers.

Paul Schrader begins his commentary on the new Blu-ray of First Reformed practically spelling out my review criticism — he says his movie is made from pieces of other movies, a truth that...