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"This spirit - she is determined, very powerful, rage surrounding her." Vertical Entertainment has unveiled an official trailer for an indie horror thriller titled Isabelle, which premiered at the Busan Film Festival last year. Isabelle is the latest horror from Canadian filmmaker Rob Heydon, and is hitting VOD + a few theaters in late May. After moving into the perfect New England neighborhood, an all-American couple's dream of starting a family is shattered when they encounter an evil spirit that wants nothing more than to take their lives. Amanda Crew stars with Adam Brody, and a full cast including Zoë Belkin, Sheila McCarthy, Booth Savage, Michael Miranda, Dayo Ade, David Tompa, Zoe Doyle, and Shanice Banton. This looks like your standard paranormal horror with the usual terrifying scenes and a freaky red-eyed ghost girl. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Robert Heydon's Isabelle, direct from YouTube (via B-d): After...

Exclusive: Sid Ganis, Sigurjon Sighvatsson executive producers on Cannes-bound sales title.

Lakeshore International will commence talks with buyers on the Croisette this week on the psychological thriller Wanting that stars previously announced Adam Brody and Amanda Crew.

Robert Heydon produces the project and Sid Ganis and Sigurjon Sighvatsson serve as executive producers with Donald Martin and Rey Cuerdo.

The project, now in post, centres on a couple who move into their dream all-American home in New England with high hopes of starting a family.

When they are shattered by a miscarriage, a malevolent presence begins to manipulate the wife’s fragile mind, causing her husband to doubt her sanity.

It is only after a local medium reveals the menacing supernatural cause that the couple release they must fight the evil spirit that wants to claim their lives.

Filipino genre filmmaker Yam Laranas, who served as cinematographer on The Road, directs.

Brody starred...

The director and Oscar-winning actress will receive the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film at this year’s Amd British Academy Britannia Awards presented by Jaguar Land Rover and American Airlines.

The annual BAFTA Los Angeles celebration will take place on October 28 in Beverly Hills.

Foster directed this year’s release Money Monster and recently directed episodes of House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black. Her last outing as feature director was 2011’s The Beaver starring Mel Gibson.

A24 has updated release information for 20th Century Women starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and Lucas Jade Zumann. The comedic drama will open in limited release on December 25 and expand wide on January 20, 2017. Mike Mills directs in his follow-up to Beginners.Shooting has begun in and around Toronto on psychological thriller The Wanting starring Adam Brody and Amanda Crew. Yam Laranas directs the story in the vein of Rosemary’s [link...

Casting the Runes

Director: Joe Dante

Writer: David Tully

Producers: Daniel Tully, Rob Heydon

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

Cast: Simon Pegg

So Joe Dante’s last film was the underrated 2009 3D film, The Hole, which sadly went direct to DVD even after being well received in Venice and Toronto that year. Now, he’s got a few projects brewing and 2014 will see the release of his film, Burying the Ex starring Anton Yelchin. But the project we are really interested in this project, which looks to be based on the same short story that inspired Jacques Tourneur’s classic 1957 film Night of the Demon, which starred Dana Andrews. While Sam Raimi did a sort of homage to the material already with his 2009 film Drag Me To Hell, Dante’s film seems more of a direct connection. And set to star Simon Pegg!

Gist: When up-and-coming actor Jake Harrington inexplicably...

Roger Spottiswoode directs the story about a young boy who attempts to reunite a polar bear cub with its mother in the Canadian wilderness. eOne holds Canadian rights and Hyde park International handles sales outside North America.

Dakota Goyo, Goran Visnjic and Bridgit Moynahan star in the production by Mediamax, Original Pictures and Ecstasy in Canada and HD Productions in Italy. Hugh Hudson and Bart Gavigan wrote the screenplay.

Producer Rob Heydon raised financing in Ontario, Canada, and oversaw the shoot.

“We are so pleased to be part of the team helping produce a film with such an important theme as the climate change and the effect of global warming on polar bears,” said Heydon.

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival – it takes place this year between July 18 and August 6 and has always been about more than just the films. They offer plenty of panel discussions and master classes every year, and last year’s edition introduced the Frontières International Co-Production Market, uniting North American, European, and Australasian talent and funders in an initiative focused specifically on fostering genre film productions and relationships. Noteworthy projects from the inaugural edition included new works from seasoned filmmakers such as Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) and Bruce McDonald (Pontypool), as well as up-and-coming talent like Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution), Paul Campion (The Devil’s Rock), Jason Eisener (Hobo With a Shotgun), and Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are). At the Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous – a sort of three-day industry cocktail party – professional introductions were made, and many of the projects found co-producers and/or international sales agents.

Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, widely acclaimed as one of the largest and most influential genre film festivals in the world, is proud to announce the official selections of the second edition of its Frontières International Co-Production Market.

Frontières is the first and only international co-production market to connect North America with Europe, in an environment focused specifically on genre film production. It was just announced last week that Frontières will become a circuit in-between Fantasia, in July, and the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, in April. This initiative was made possible by funding from the Media Mundus program of the European Commission. Frontières was the only new initiative to be funded by the program this year.

The projects to be presented in the market feature an exciting array of filmmakers, from gifted newcomers to world-renowned maestros, coupled with numerous established international producers. The second edition of the Frontières International...

For the unfamiliar, Montreal is a city which hosts at least one film festival each and every month of the year. Of the dozens of fests, Fantasia Film Festival is without a doubt our favourite, and is widely acclaimed as one of the largest and most influential genre film festivals in the world. They’ve just announced the official selection of the second edition of its Frontières International Co-Production Market, and the slate is looking good. Frontières is the first and only international co-production market to connect North America with Europe, in an environment focused specifically on genre film production. The projects to be presented in the market feature an exciting array of filmmakers, from gifted newcomers to world-renowned maestros, coupled with numerous established international producers. The selection of the second edition of the Frontières International Co-Production Market will consist of the following 12 projects:

Casting the Runes (Canada / Germany / USA)

Director: Joe Dante (The Hole,...

Do you feel like dancing? You will after watching the portrayal of Scotland's drug-fueled club scene provided by Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy, which is now available on VOD. Directed by Rob Heydon and featuring compelling performances from its lead actors, Adam Sinclair and Kristin Kreuk, the film follows two star-crossed lovers (he's a drug smuggler; she moonlights for Scotland Against Narcotics), as they attempt to kick their mutual habit. Going cold turkey and cutting ties with the drug world, Lloyd (Sinclair) makes the ultimate sacrifice for the woman he loves. Many of the love scenes between Sinclair and Kreuk take place against the backdrop of the UK's raging club scene. Inspired by the pulsing beats, flashing lights, and drug-filled milieu, we look back at the evolution of the club scene by highlighting 10 important cinematic scenes, some with which you will be familiar, and some that may surprise you... Did ...

Kristin Kreuk and Adam Sinclair in Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy

Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy

Directed by Rob Heydon

Written by Rob Heydon and Ben Tucker

Canada, 2011

Ecstasy is defined as an overpowering feeling of happiness or uncontrollable excitement, an ethereal and trancelike state of self-transcendence. So, if you really think about it, Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy is actually a bit of a misnomer because it’s nothing of the sort. A definitive structural mess with meandering and unfocused direction, coupled with unbelievably turgid and artificial dialogue, Ecstasy feels more like a synthetic compound than the real deal, a watered down and diluted facsimile of harder and more visceral films of the genre. In a sense, it’s the gateway drug to better drug films.

In it, Adam Sinclair is Lloyd, a pill-popping, rave-dancing, drug-smuggling hedonist who maintains his devil-may-care lifestyle in Edinburgh with his friends Woodsy and Ally (Billy Boyd...

Last week saw the release of a handful of new international films, with Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters topping the list, and this week brings with it a rather different line-up, with Peter Berg’s Battleship being the biggest name amongst the new arrivals, opposite Kevin Macdonald’s critically acclaimed documentary, Marley.

My picks of the week:

Kevin Macdonald’s Marley & Daniel Lee’s White Vengeance.

Marley Iframe Embed for Youtube

DVD and Blu-ray (inc. Digital and UltraViolet Copies)

Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) returned this year with Marley, a documentary following on from his Life in a Day project last year, bringing us a portrait of one of the most iconic figures in music of the last century.

And we’ve currently got three copies of the film on Blu-ray to give away – click here to enter the competition.

“Marley is the definitive film about one of...

★☆☆☆☆ Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy (2011) is an adaptation of the acclaimed Scottish writer's novel The Undefeated, the third in a trilogy. Perhaps director Rob Heydon thought that Welsh's name, coupled with the word 'Ecstasy', would kick-start an excitable response in fans of the cult smash Trainspotting, brought to the big screen in 1995 by Danny Boyle. But whilst Boyle has since moved on to bigger things, Heydon's furiously flogs this dead horse, resulting in a clichéd, tedious 100-minute effort.

Read more »...

Irvine Welsh is the mastermind behind the iconic book "Trainspotting," later made into the iconic movie of the same title, the poster of which was most certainly on your university roommate's wall. The prolific author is back on the scene with his new book "Skagboys," a prequel to "Trainspotting," almost 19 years after the original was published.

Moviefone caught up with Welsh to talk about movies vs. books, the strangeness of seeing your characters come to life before your eyes and that damn creepy baby crawling on the ceiling that haunted us all.

Do you ever write books thinking they're going to make great movies?

No, you can't really do that. You've got to keep your eye on the ball. They're two very different mediums so you can't start thinking cinematically when you're writing a book. I just don't think it's going to work out.

But for "Skagboys," having written it after Trainspotting was so popular,...

How could you not want to know more about a film festival where the acronym of it is Biff?!

We’ve just been sent the full line-up of movies that will be played at the third annual British Independent Film Festival which this year takes place 11th and 12th May. The festival is a great place to showcase new British talent and this year, the organisers (The Film Festival Guild) have arranged a fabulous line-up which includes three world premieres, which include Airborne (starring Mark Hamill), Jump which stars Glen Blackhall and Bashment which stars Ludvig Bonin.

We actually got to attend a couple of set visits for Airborne, both of which you can see here and here.

The event is set to take place around the UK with the fill location list below. Check it out and if you need more info, visit the official Festival website at www.

Marley (15)

(Kevin Macdonald, 2012, Us/UK) 145 mins

Authoritative to the point of exhausting, Macdonald's documentary compiles an awesome amount of footage, photos, interviews, etc – but then it's a big subject. Whether you really get to the man beyond the legend is debatable (this was made with Marley family backing), but there's much here you've never seen, from Bob's Rasta roots to his kick-around in London's Battersea Park.

Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (12A)

(Lasse Hallström, 2012, UK) Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt. 106 mins

An incongruous setting for a mushy fish-out-of-water romcom, with Blunt and her sheikh boss lured by McGregor's tackle.

Elles (18)

(Malgorzata Szumowska, 2011, Fra/Pol/Ger) Juliette Binoche, Anaïs Demoustier. 99 mins

Empowerment and eroticism mix uneasily when Binoche's enquiries into student prostitution affect her own life.

Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy (18)

(Rob Heydon, 2011, Can) Adam Sinclair, Kristin Kreuk, Billy Boyd. 99 mins

Rave-era yarn that's 15 years too late to be the Trainspotting of Mdma it wants to be.

Here’s a new trailer for Ecstasy which stars Billy Boyd who you’ll know from Lord of the Rings. He’s rather a long way from the Shire in this new movie though as you’ll see from the trailer. I’ve called it a red-band trailer in the title simply because it has the ‘C’ word written at the end of it and a split second of a sex scene but other than that, it won’t offend too much. Ecstasy is based on the book by Irvine Welsh (Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance) and will be with us April 20th.

Ecstasy stars Adam Sinclair, Kristin Kreuk, Billy Boyd, Carlo Rota, Stephen McHattie, Alex Lifeson and is directed by Rob Heydon.

Based on Irvine Welsh’s controversial book, Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, Ecstasy is a twisted tale that explores the euphoric highs and the devastating lows of a chemical romance.

Visit the official website for the Atlantic Film Festival

Senna

Directed by Asif Kapadia

Though Canadians as a whole tend not to be all that interested in F1 racing, it does continue to be an immensely popular sport in other parts of the world. Top drivers such as German Michael Schuhmacher enjoy immense fame in their countries of origin and are celebrated as heroes.

Ayrton Senna, one of the sport’s biggest and brightest names is the focus of Asif Kapadia’s aptly named documentary Senna. The film chronicles Senna’s first successes as a go-cart driver and eventual ascent into mega stardom as an inspired F1 driver as well as the events and backroom politics that lead to Senna’s untimely death on the racecar track (not a spoiler – it’s in the film’s official synopsis and also, it’s a documentary. You can’t spoil history). The...

Irvine Welsh & Director Rob Heydon Talk About Bringing The Adaptation To Life When Danny Boyle delivered the groundbreaking "Trainspotting" it proved that the unique language, tenor and prose of Scottish writer Irvine Welsh could be brought to the big screen with both style and substance. An adaptation of "The Acid House" soon followed and "Filth" is gearing up to shoot next year, and the next Welsh story to hit the big screen will be "Ecstasy." But it was no easy journey. The project has been in development for more than a decade, with financing coming and going before it…...

It's a long while since one of Irvine Welsh's scurrilous works has made it to the screen (the last one was The Acid House in 1998, only two years after Trainspotting), but that's about to change. Rob Heydon's version of Ecstacy is in post-production, and Welsh has just revealed that Filth is next, boasting a rock solid cast that includes James McAvoy, Jamie Bell and Alan Cumming.Like an Edinburgh version of Bad Lieutenant, Filth (first published in 1998) is about the monstrous copper Bruce Robertson, nominally investigating a race-related murder, angling for promotion and lots of overtime, steaming through a drug-fuelled week in Amsterdam, making sexually harrassing phonecalls to his friend's wife in the voice of Frank Sidebottom, and afflicted by a tapeworm that acts as his conscience. He's like Begbie, if Begbie was in the "polis". And like Begbie, the weird thing is that you sort of like him in spite of everything.

Moviemaker Rob Heydon has urged officials in Scotland to plough tax money into the country's film industry to boost arts in the region.

The director was tasked with helming the movie version of Scottish writer Irvine Welsh's book Ecstasy and planned to film it in its original setting of Edinburgh.

But Heydon was forced to decamp to his native Canada for the shoot, blaming red tape and a lack of support in the U.K. for his decision.

Now he has urged politicians in Scotland to divert tax money into the country's film industry instead of trying to prop it up with National Lottery cash.

He tells the Daily Record, "Scotland absolutely could have a successful film industry. The Hobbit (producers) had to look at if they could shoot in New Zealand and if the government would play ball - the Kiwis stepped up to the plate and the studios were happy.

"Does that happen in the U.K.? No. There are too many bureaucrats. They need to hire a successful film producer who knows how to create a sustainable film industry.

"If Scotland focused on spending some of their tax money, not just lottery money, on a film industry, there is a multiplication effect... The Scottish parliament have to look at it. They have to see what it is going to take to get a film industry off the ground and attract foreign companies to come in and spend their money."...