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An estranged brother and sister reunite while hiding from the police in a remote barn that holds a secret procedure to transport people into the future

Writer-director Michael Felker makes his feature debut with this trudgingly downbeat sci-fi, an uncanny-realist time travel movie about a couple of criminals hiding out in the future; it’s a little in the style of Shane Carruth’s Primer or Rian Johnson’s Looper – though without the thrills, and without the cerebral frissons and ingenious plot contrivances where those thrills would otherwise go. It is produced by film-makers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who established a kind of authorial stamp on this kind of indie hipster-cosmic fantasy with their own (more interesting) film The Endless.

Things Will Be Different is about a dour and bearded drug dealer called Joseph (Adam David Thompson) who reconnects with his sister, single-mom Sidney (Riley Dandy), from whom he...

The other night, I had a hankering to watch a good high-concept movie I'd never seen before. I saw 2014's "Coherence" on a few lists, and being almost wholly unfamiliar with it, I decided to fire it up and give it a shot. Thankfully, this film gave me exactly what I was looking for.

Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen, Alex Manugian, Lauren Maher, Hugo Armstrong, and eventual "Hustlers" director Lorene Scafaria star in this ultra-low budget brain melter about a group of friends gathering for a dinner party while a comet passes by overhead. When the power goes out, a couple of them trek up the street to a neighboring house with the lights on -- only to discover something that shakes them to their core. I won't get into the specifics here, but the film has an incredible conceit, and director James Ward Byrkit, who shot...

This post contains spoilers for "Primer."

It is tempting to describe "Primer" as a time travel film — which it very much is — but the sheer headiness of the subject matter morphs it into something undefinable and elusive, eclipsing the metaphor of a puzzle box by the time the credits roll. Crafted with a shoestring budget of roughly $7,000, Shane Carruth's debut feature demands a certain sense of discipline and meticulous attention to detail, where seemingly innocuous dialogue or subtle character expressions often prove crucial to unraveling its wildly complicated plot. To call "Primer" confusing is an understatement: it is a film that absolutely requires repeat viewings simply to be understood, but engaging intimately with it does not guarantee comprehension of every facet.

Although Carruth peppers enough clues and red herrings to help us arrive at a sound conclusion, "Primer" does not encourage the tying up of every loose end, or...

I love a twisted party-horror flick like Talk to Me, Bodies Bodies Bodies, or the incredibly underrated +1 (aka Plus One but not the Jack Quaid and Maya Erskine movie), which might explain my adoration of Greg Jardin’s It’s What’s Inside. You might recognize the title for its astounding $17 million sale to Netflix out of Utah’s Sundance Film Festival, which is money well spent for the streamer. Jardin writes, directs, and edits a shifty yet cleanly conveyed science fiction thriller that feels akin to the functional simplicity of Shane Carruth’s Primer meets a boozy [redacted as per filmmaker and studio wishes]. Filmmakers who’ve tackled similarly fantastical concepts have stumbled over needlessly complicated narratives, while Jardin focuses on digital-age comedics and dire consequences that entertain with ease.

We first meet struggling couple Shelby (Brittany O'Grady) and Cyrus “The Virus” (James Morosini): stagnant, physically starved "lovers" who get into heated arguments about when to have sex.

The mystical and the industrial cross paths in this haunting debut from India, screening at this year’s Locarno Film Festival in the event’s parallel competition for first and second movies. It begins in an almost documentary style, showing the harsh, eerie beauty of Jharia, a once-proud mining community that’s now an apocalyptic ruin of a city, where toxic waste is dumped 24/7 and noxious fires burn just as endlessly. Midway through, however, Lubdhak Chatterjee’s film begins to change direction, as its passive hero becomes attuned to the natural mysteries lurking in the adjacent woods.

The set-up is a clear-cut juxtaposition of ancient and modern, as sound artist Shiva (Sagnik Mukherjee) arrives in Jharia with a boom mic and recording apparatus to find material for use in an art installation back home in Kolkata. At first these are simply ambient sounds, like kids playing football or, more ominously,...

Have you heard of a new movie about a team of quantum physicists who build a revolutionary device that, once it’s set off, may change the course of the world forever?

In the case that you have, you’re probably not thinking of Aporia, a cleverly crafted sci-fi indie whose budget was only an infinitesimal fraction of the one used for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, but whose emotional repercussions are just as palpable, if not more so at times.

Written and directed by Jared Moshé (The Ballad of Lefty Brown), the high-concept and extremely low-fi feature follows a trio of Angelenos who utilize a homemade particle accelerator to kill people in the past, causing unpredictable fallout in the present. Subtly acted and deftly scripted, if a bit generic in its execution, the Well Go USA release should find a few cult followers in theaters and a bigger audience on streaming platforms.

If we lived in an alternate universe where Bill Nye never got his big break, relegated to shooting his lo-fi children’s show from his garage and submitting tapes to a local affiliate in hopes he’d advance to a prime Sunday morning slot, it would look something like the one Cameron Edwin (Jim Gaffigan) occupies. As his marriage is also on the brink of collapse, his midlife crisis conveniently dovetails with an old Russian rocket falling in his backyard. Edwin decides to make the most of the opportunity and attempt to fulfill his dreams of being an astronaut. An effective concoction of cosmic mystery and earnest emotion to elevate its small-scale, homespun design, Colin West’s Linoleum evolves into a nifty, heartfelt sci-drama.

Though initially drawing, liberally, from Donnie Darko, with its aerial disaster phenomenon and dreamy slow-motion introduction to a sunny high school recalling the “Head Over Heels” montage,...

First-time directors have to start somewhere when making their first project and have to cut their teeth in film on a no-budget or micro-budget production. They take on multiple roles of producer, writer, costume designer, production and craft services to save money as there is no budget to hire professionals.

This can spark creative outcomes as the crew and their director have to focus on how to spend the budget, creating a standout indie film that can go on to rake it in at the box office and become a cult classic.

Director Robert Rodriguez’s breakthrough 1993 feature film, El Mariachi, was created on a shoestring budget of only $7,000, launching his career. It still holds the Guinness World Record for the lowest-budget film to gross $1 million at the box office.

Other first-time directors include Kevin Smith, who made Clerks on a $27,000 budget in 1994; David Lynch who created the cult classic...

Forget flux capacitors and sports almanacs. Where these underrated time travel movies are going, you don't need mainstream references. This year-hopping corner of cinema may be predominantly dominated by Marty and the Doc's souped-up DeLorean and emotionless machines sent back in time to kill us, but take a deeper look and you'll find a range of stories that take time travel to some pretty unexpected places.

If we were to have our way, this list wouldn't be quite as brief. After all, with the entire space-time continuum at their fingertips, you'd think filmmakers would've put a little more effort into mining time travel for the full mind-bending potential the genre contains. However, as it stands, truly left-field adventures can often seem few and far between.

That said, we're lucky to have a handful of movies that use time and space as a jumping-off point to tell tales that are wild,...

Shane Carruth, the director of independent films “Upstream Color” and “Primer,” was arrested last week at the home of his ex-girlfriend on allegations of domestic assault.

Carruth was arrested by Santa Monica police officers on Thursday morning. Police were called to the woman’s home around 4:50 a.m. to investigate the alleged assault, said Lt. Rudy Flores. By the time officers arrived, Carruth had left the area. The ex-girlfriend — whose name was not disclosed — provided the officers with information about the incident.

She then called back around 6:50 a.m., saying Carruth had returned. Police came back to the scene, found him nearby, and arrested him on suspicion of domestic violence and vandalism, according to Flores.

According to booking records, Carruth was released on $50,000 bond on Monday afternoon.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has declined to file felony charges, and instead referred the case to the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office,...

A particular type of mind-bending genre pulp seems to arise from the wounded psyche of a freshman filmmaker. Often, these transfixing head-trips feel constructed to play better on repeat viewings by design — one thinks of Christopher Nolan’s “Following,” or Shane Carruth’s close to impenetrable “Primer.” As part of Tribeca’s Midnight Movie selection, Rob Schroeder’s hypnotic debut “Ultrasound,” falls into this category.

Continue reading ‘Ultrasound’: A Low-Budget Christopher Nolan Is A Mesmerizing Head-Trip [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.

While the concept of a science fiction movie seems out of reach for a small independent production, at least in with regard to the budget you would have to secure before you can even think about the actual filming, there have been many directors who have ventured into the genre, despite its financial challenges. Especially the idea of time travel has been at the core of many independent productions that have made quite an impact with international audiences, such as Shane Carruth’s “Primer” or James Ward Byrkit’s “Coherence”. For his feature debut, editor and DVD producer Junta Yamaguchi also decided to explore the theme of time travel, utilizing his experience as part of a theater group for many years, in “Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes”, telling the story of a Tokyo coffee shop owner who notices something quite strange going on with his PC monitor showing the inside of his business.

The following contains major spoilers for The Nevers episode 6.

The star of HBO sci-fi series The Nevers has never shied away from the fact that the show’s sixth episode would be a big one.

“Six is an extraordinary episode,” Donnelly (who plays Amalia True) told Den of Geek prior to the series premiere. “It provides a lot of the answers to the questions that the audience might have. It seemed like a very natural cut-off point.”

Whether episode 6, titled “True”, is a natural cut-off point remains to be seen. Due to the coronavirus pandemic suspending production, the show’s initial 10-episode first season order was shortened to six and “Part 2” (containing six more episodes for a total of 12) is set to arrive at a later date. It’s hard to argue though that episode 6 is anything but extraordinary.

Read more TV How HBO’s The Nevers Explores a Very...

Florian Zeller, writer/director of The Father (which has been nominated for six Oscars this year!), joins Josh and Joe to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Father (2020)

Rain Man (1988)

Slipstream (2007)

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Interstellar (2014)

Memento (2000)

Primer (2004)

Birdman (2014)

The Hours (2002)

Shame (2011)

Manchester By The Sea (2016)

Hamilton (2020)

Other Notable Items

The 93rd Academy Awards

Anthony Hopkins

Olivia Coleman

Le Père play by Florian Zeller (2012)

Christopher Hampton

Tom Cruise

Hans Zimmer

Krzysztof Kieślowski

David Lynch

Twin Peaks TV series

Studiocanal

Roman Polanski

Christopher Nolan

Shane Carruth

Michael Keaton

Alejandro González Iñárritu

The Lieutenant Of Inishmore play by Martin McDonagh (2007)

Philip Glass

Stephen Daldry

Julianne Moore

Steve McQueen

Small Axe anthology film series (2020)

Kenneth Lonergan

This list is also available on Letterboxd.

The post Florian Zeller appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

For decades, time travel movies have remained one of Hollywood’s favorite sub-genres and fans can’t seem to get enough of them. The core concept is incredibly malleable and can be applied to almost every type of filmmaking. Inevitably, though, any time a new title arrives that features a heavy time travel element, the science will always end up being picked apart by both eagle-eyed viewers or pedants with nothing better to do.

Shane Carruth’s Primer is lauded as the most scientifically accurate time travel movie, but most people are in agreement that Back to the Future is the best. That being said, Avengers: Endgame, the Bill & Ted franchise, The Terminator and sequel Judgment Day, Edge of Tomorrow, 12 Monkeys, Looper and About Time are all fantastic in their own way despite each one putting an entirely different spin on the central premise, while the ‘stuck in a...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Bisbee’ 17, Kate Plays Christine, and Actress (Robert Greene)

Every two years or so, there comes a new Robert Greene film whose beautiful images, fascinating subjects, and thorough investigation of both immediate and surrounding concepts become overrun by the true-false question––what control Greene wields, where the spontaneous and constructed do or don’t collide. His latest, Bisbee ’17, sometimes plays like a provocation towards those assumptions, heavily relying on the reenactment of a horrific, little-known strike against working-class citizens (as our admiring review handily summarizes), parlaying the filmmaker’s strengths for documentary portrait and narrative whats-it into what may be his densest work to date. – Nick N. (full interview)

Where...

After moving into a new house, a young woman becomes convinced her life is about to end in an eerie drama about mortality and contagious panic

Back in March, I wrote that Natsuka Kusano’s Domains was the first film that really spoke to the Covid-19 era. Well, here is the second, from actor-turned-auteur Amy Seimetz: a haunting drama of what happens when despair goes viral, and the R number governing shivery existential panic gets above 1. It’s an eerie essay in creeping dread and collective hysteria, about the fear of something awful just outside your field of vision.

She Dies Tomorrow is a scary movie that behaves non-generically but by no means non-scarily, more like an indie-stonewashed realist American picture than a psychological horror. There’s an obvious influence. It resembles the eerily atmospheric work of director Shane Carruth – Seimetz’s ex-boyfriend.

After it was revealed that actress, writer and director Amy Seimetz had filed an open restraining order against ex-boyfriend and director Shane Carruth, members of the film community took to social media to side with Seimetz after she cited both mental and physical abuse as the reason for the order. Carruth and Seimetz met on […]

The post Amy Seimetz Gets Support From Film Industry After Ex-Boyfriend Shane Carruth Exposes Restraining Order appeared first on uInterview.

Film journalists, critics, directors, and more are showing support for writer-actress-filmmaker Amy Seimetz on social media after news surfaced she has an open restraining order against “Primer” and “Upstream Color” director Shane Carruth. Seimetz starred opposite Carruth in “Upstream Color” and the two had a relationship that ended in 2018. Seimetz filed for the restraining order against Carruth on June 12, citing years of emotional and physical abuse. One alleged incident that occurred at a hotel in 2016 found Carruth strangling Seimetz until it was hard for her to breathe.

Seimetz’s restraining order gained visibility on social media after Carruth tweeted an image of the “Upstream Color” soundtrack on vinyl with part of the restraining order document sticking out from underneath it. The photo’s timing has led many people in the film community to wonder if Carruth is trying to take attention away from the release of Seimetz’s acclaimed new film “She Dies Tomorrow,...

Actress and director Amy Seimetz accused her ex-boyfriend, director Shane Carruth, of years of emotional and physical abuse that include an attempt to strangle her on a bed, according to court documents obtained by TheWrap.

Seimetz, who directed the TV series “The Girlfriend Experience” and starred in “Pet Sematary,” filed a request for a domestic violence restraining order with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on June 12. In it, she described several instances during their relationship, which she said began around December 2011 and officially ended in January 2018, where she says Carruth had “fits of rage and angry outbursts that led to him becoming emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive.”

Seimetz says that in October 2016, Carruth strangled her on a hotel room bed in New York, where she was staying while working on a film. She says that Carruth “was upset that I had gone to a dinner meeting with co-workers.

Actress and director Amy Seimetz has obtained a temporary restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, director Shane Carruth, accusing him of years of mental, emotional and physical abuse.

On one occasion in 2016, Seimetz alleges that Carruth jumped on her in a hotel room and strangled her until she struggled to breathe, according to filings attached to her application for the order. She also alleges that Carruth has continued to harass and abuse her since she broke up with him in 2018.

Both directors are prominent in the independent film world. Carruth’s first feature film, “Primer,” won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. Seimetz starred in his second feature, “Upstream Color,” directed the anthology TV series “The Girlfriend Experience” and starred in “Pet Sematary.” More recently, she directed the film “She Dies Tomorrow,” which is due out this week from indie distributor Neon.

The restraining order came to...

Setting a record for most expensive acquisition in Sundance history, Max Barbakow’s debut feature, Palm Springs, sold jointly to Neon (theatrical) and Hulu (streaming) for a reported $17.5 mil and 69 cents (it broke the previous record by 69 cents). Early press described the film as a sci-fi twist on the 1993 comedy, Groundhog Day; trading in SNL’s Bill Murray for another alum, Andy Samberg, Barbakow welcomes the comparison. With the marketable hook firmly established (Harold Ramis meets Shane Carruth!), Palm Springs ultimately becomes a film about two strangers brought together by an agonizing event: a cringeworthy wedding in Palm Springs. […]...

Setting a record for most expensive acquisition in Sundance history, Max Barbakow’s debut feature, Palm Springs, sold jointly to Neon (theatrical) and Hulu (streaming) for a reported $17.5 mil and 69 cents (it broke the previous record by 69 cents). Early press described the film as a sci-fi twist on the 1993 comedy, Groundhog Day; trading in SNL’s Bill Murray for another alum, Andy Samberg, Barbakow welcomes the comparison. With the marketable hook firmly established (Harold Ramis meets Shane Carruth!), Palm Springs ultimately becomes a film about two strangers brought together by an agonizing event: a cringeworthy wedding in Palm Springs. […]...

When the filmmaking team behind “Palm Springs” wanted to bring a sci-fi element to a premise similar to “Groundhog Day,” they needed help. The movie finds a pair of wedding guests, Nyles and Sarah (Andy Samberg and Cristin Milotti) stuck in a time loop, forced to live through the same day again and again. To explain that, they needed some science — or, at least, a scientific advisor. Turns out, there’s a toll-free number for that.

Dialing 1-844-need-sci leads to the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a program run by the United States National Academy of Science, which helps connect storytellers with the brainiacs they need. In the case of “Palm Springs,” the answer was swift: Oh, it’s about space-time stuff? You want to talk to Clifford.

That would be Clifford V. Johnson, the British theoretical physicist and USC professor whose input has helped everything from “Avengers: Endgame” to...

It’s been a year of change for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has responded not only to the pandemic, pushing back the global ABC Oscars telecast from February 28 to April 25, 2021 — setting a new award season calendar as other award shows have followed suit — but the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In its continuing push to swell the Academy membership ranks, 819 artists and executives from 68 countries have been invited to join this year. The branches have increasingly actively sought eligible people to become Academy members, but the Board of Governors makes the final call. People from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities (36 percent) and women (45 percent) are among the many invites, as the Academy continues to address its long-term white-male dominance. As always, actors make up the largest branch of the Academy, but many new members (49 percent) also come from overseas.

In 2019, the Academy invited 842 new members,...

It’s been a year of change for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has responded not only to the pandemic, pushing back the global ABC Oscars telecast from February 28 to April 25, 2021 — setting a new award season calendar as other award shows have followed suit — but the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In its continuing push to swell the Academy membership ranks, 819 artists and executives from 68 countries have been invited to join this year. The branches have increasingly actively sought eligible people to become Academy members, but the Board of Governors makes the final call. People from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities (36 percent) and women (45 percent) are among the many invites, as the Academy continues to address its long-term white-male dominance. As always, actors make up the largest branch of the Academy, but many new members (49 percent) also come from overseas.

In 2019, the Academy invited 842 new members,...

The first thought most will have after a read-through of Shane Carruth’s monstrous, 181-page screenplay for his unproduced film, “The Modern Ocean,” recently posted to Twitter by Carruth himself, is a no-brainer: No wonder Carruth couldn’t secure funding for this sucker. But the follow-up thought most will have after that read-through is also a no-brainer: What a damn shame Carruth inhabits an industry overseen by leagues and leagues of incurious minds with no vision and no sense of adventure.

Continue reading Shane Carruth’s ‘The Modern Ocean’ Is A Deeply Complex Wonder & Shows The Industry’s Lack Of Curiosity at The Playlist.

Shane Carruth is apparently at a crossroads in his career. After his first two features, “Primer” and “Upstream Color,” were able to garner him a fairly loyal fanbase, the filmmaker hasn’t been able to get a new film financed. Unfortunately, that has forced the writer-director to alter his original plans, perhaps leaving behind projects that he’s worked years on to get made, including his feature “The Modern Ocean.” And it appears that Carruth has decided to officially move on from that project with a recent tweet.

Continue reading Shane Carruth Releases ‘The Modern Ocean’ Script & Music Because “It Might Be Fun” at The Playlist.

It was a little less than five years ago, after the success of Upstream Color, that what was to be Shane Carruth’s next project, The Modern Ocean, was unveiled. Set to star Jeff Goldblum, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Radcliffe, Anne Hathaway, Chloe Grace Moretz, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Abraham Attah, and Carruth himself, the film was a drama about shipping routes, hidden treasure, and the insanity that it inspires among dozens of people–a conflict that the writer-director has claimed involves “full-scale naval battles using these improvised weapons on these cargo ships.”

With a shoot spanning the globe, including New York, Mumbai, Western Africa, Israel, Greece, Mediterranean, and the Suez Canal, it was described as an “epic tale, fraught with danger and intrigue, takes us from the ancient trading houses of Algeria to the darkest depths of the ocean floor.” Well, as you may have figured, it never got off the ground.

If you’re a fan of Shane Carruth‘s directorial efforts, then you’re probably one of the many diehards that love every frame of his features. He’s the type of filmmaker, even with only a relatively small filmography featuring two feature films, that is able to engender such fanatical support. And that’s not a bad thing. Well, it’s not always a bad thing, as it also means that his fans are forever discussing films that may or may not ever get made, such as “A Topiary.”

We’ve been talking about “A Topiary” for nearly a decade now, after the release of his second (and most recent) feature film, “Upstream Color” back in 2013.

Continue reading ‘A Topiary’: Shane Carruth Releases His Pitch Trailer For The Unproduced Sci-Fi Epic at The Playlist.

Writer/director Shane Carruth has only directed two films in the past sixteen years: his breakout time travel movie Primer in 2004, and the cerebral drama Upstream Color in 2013. He’s previously teased other projects that never came to pass, and now he’s shared a pitch trailer for one of those potential features, titled A Topiary. But Carruth […]

The post ‘Primer’ Director Shane Carruth Shares Pitch Trailer for His Unmade Movie, ‘A Topiary’ appeared first on /Film.

Surprise! This isn't an official trailer, but it is certainly worth watching. And you better hurry...! Filmmaker Shane Carruth posted a trailer online for his long, lost project called A Topiary, an original sci-fi film he was working on for years. But he doesn't know if it will be removed by Vimeo. "This will probably get taken down because I lifted a bunch of shots from films." We first heard about the film around 2013, when Carruth was finishing his other film Upstream Color. It's an intriguing concept involving a group of young pre-teen boys who discover some machine that creates funnels which form various shapes and objects. This trailer does a much better job of visualizing it. This is a "mock-up" or "pitch" trailer, where a filmmaker uses clips & footage from other films to create a "what my film would look like" version of a trailer to sell to studios / financiers.

Shane Carruth has been making headlines these last few weeks, but it has nothing to do with a new film from the Primer and Upstream Color director. Rather, he’s executive produced The Wanting Mare, the bold directorial debut of Nicholas Ashe Bateman, which we recently reviewed. Having done a handful of interviews tied to the film’s premiere, Carruth spoke briefly about his two epic, unmade passion projects: A Topiary and The Modern Ocean.

“It’s hard to explain what A Topiary and The Modern Ocean mean to me,” the director told The Playlist. “It would be like saying that I have a daughter or two daughters and now I don’t have them anymore. So the question is, ‘Hey, do you want to revive your daughter?’ Of course, I do. Of course, I do. I love her. I love her. But… I don’t know what I would do with a reanimated corpse.

In Shane Carruth’s 2004 debut feature Primer, two colleagues go down a physics rabbit hole to build a time machine. In the early stages of masterminding this scientifically-driven and disorienting experience, one character suggests to the other that the best mathematician is the lazy one—that those who excel usually find ways to solve problems quickly, easily and efficiently. The theory might also apply to watching Carruth’s own movies, which don’t tether themselves to linear, coherent narratives. It’s tempting to get bogged down in the details and timelines of his feverish approach, but far more enjoyable—and yes, easier—to let his imagery and ideas overwhelm you, to process them later in reflection or on repeat viewings.

Despite his current hiatus from directing and impending retirement from the artform, Carruth has returned to champion a young filmmaker and a movie that might best be consumed under the same set of recommendations.

Shane Carruth remains a rare figure in the cinematic landscape. His major achievements: “Primer” and “Upstream Color”—are idiosyncratic and unique in their execution and deconstruction of the sci-fi genre. He has been hailed and admired by filmmakers like Rian Johnson, and Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher were so enamored with his prodigious talents they once tried to help produce his legendary “A Topiary” screenplay before Carruth eventually abandoned the project.

Continue reading Shane Carruth Talks Ambitions Beyond Film, ‘Ad Astra,’ Frustrations With Hollywood, Tribalism & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

You’ve likely already heard the rumors: 47-year-old filmmaker Shane Carruth has suggested he’s going to retire. The creator of the surreal and mind-bendingly ambitious sci-fi films, “Primer”(2004) and “Upstream Color” (2013), Carruth hasn’t been able to get many of his films off the ground and there was already a long, almost-ten-year gap between the two features he’s been able to bring to the screen.

Read More: ‘The Wanting Mare’ Trailer: Experience The Mind-Bending New Fable Produced By Shane Carruth

This week, Playlist contributor Robert Daniels spoke to Carruth about “The Wanting Mare,” an ambitious, dreamy sci-fi debut he executive produced and is directed by his friend and colleague Nicholas Ashe Bateman.

Continue reading Shane Carruth Says Retirement Is Coming In 3 Years; Suggests ‘Modern Ocean’ Is Dead at The Playlist.

Over the course of the last two decades, Shane Carruth has made two movies, and it remains unclear whether he’ll make another one. Last fall, while promoting his performance in “The Dead Center,” the “Primer” and “Upstream Color” director said that he was finished with filmmaking after he finished up one more project. The reclusive sci-fi director may be serious, but in the meantime, he’s finding a way to pass the torch. As executive producer on “The Wanting Mare,” the distinctive fantasy-drama that marks the directorial debut of Nicholas Ashe Batemen, Carruth is lending his name to raise the profile of a filmmaker who — like Carruth himself with his two movies — has crafted an otherworldly vision on his own terms.

The movie unfolds across decades, as several generations of women in a dark, dystopian world grapple with the same dream of a magical age that predates their existence.

Shane Carruth rarely plays it safe. An actor, director, screenwriter, composer, and producer, his major achievements—“Primer” and “Upstream Color”—remain idiosyncratic and unique in their execution and deconstruction of science-fiction. Steven Soderbergh and Rian Johnson have both spoken glowingly of his work, with the former describing him as, “the illegitimate offspring of David Lynch and James Cameron.”

Read More: ‘The Wanting Mare’ Trailer: Experience The Mind-Bending New Fable Produced By Shane Carruth

Soon to make its World Premiere with the online iteration of the Chattanooga Film Festival, Carruth returns as Executive Producer of Nicholas Ashe Bateman’s debut feature “The Wanting Mare”—a dark indie fable set in the mythical world of Anmaere: where horses are the most valuable export, and generational strife and dreams inhabit the minds of a few women hoping to leave their dead-end circumstances.

Continue reading Shane Carruth Discusses The World-Building In The New Indie Fable,...

Anytime Shane Carruth lends his name and talents to a project, it’s worth paying attention to. The Primer and Upstream Color director serves as executive producer on The Wanting Mare, a film written and directed by Nicholas Ashe Bateman. Shot almost entirely in a storage unit in New Jersey, the film employs digital backgrounds to create a fantasy […]

The post ‘The Wanting Mare’ Trailer: A Digital Dream Produced by Shane Carruth appeared first on /Film.

Though Shane Carruth didn’t write or direct the upcoming feature, “The Wanting Mare,” the fact that he lends his name as an executive producer should be proof enough that the new feature is going to present a unique vision. And that’s exactly what writer-director Nicholas Ashe Bateman delivers in the first teaser for the film.

Sure, the teaser doesn’t do much more than tease, as it should, the story of “The Wanting Mare” sounds like it’ll be just as interesting as the stylish, mind-bending visuals.

Continue reading ‘The Wanting Mare’ Trailer: Experience The Mind-Bending New Fable Produced By Shane Carruth at The Playlist.

I'm a big fan of non-traditional fantasy; what might be instead called fantastical tales, those that blend fantasy and sci fi in a weird and esoteric blend that never quite explains itself. But that's usually for the better, allowing for themes, philosophical musings, and a certain poetry to permeate. That seems to be what we're getting with The Wanting Mare. The directorial debut of Nicholas Ashe Bateman, with Shane Carruth serving as an Executive Director (Carruth's name is always a good sign), the film will have its world premiere this weekend at the Chattanooga Film Festival, and we've got the trailer and a few choice stills. In the world of Anmaere, north of the city of Whithren, wild horses run through the moorlands and up...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

It was only a few months ago we learned that Primer and Upstream Color director Shane Carruth would be retiring from filmmaking after his next directorial effort, and while we don’t know what that project may be yet, he’s still working on other films. One project that certainly has a Carruthian touch is The Wanting Mare, a dark fantasy fable he executive produced that is set to make its world premiere at the Chattanooga Film Festival this weekend, which is being presented digitally.

Directed by Nicholas Ashe Bateman, who is making his feature debut but has worked on the visual effects of Wendy and the forthcoming The Green Knight, the story follows a line of women who pass a single dream through multiple generations. Having remarkably been shot almost entirely in a storage unit in New Jersey (!), the first trailer shows off some deeply impressive atmosphere for what was certainly a shoestring budget.

While the Covid-19 pandemic will prevent an in-person Chattanooga Film Festival this year, a virtual edition of the fest will move forward with plenty of screenings and special events to look forward to, including a Lifetime Achievement Award for filmmaker Joe Dante.

You can check out the full lineup for Chattanooga Film Festival 2020 below, and to learn more, visit:

https://www.chattfilmfest.org/

Press Release: Chattanooga, Tn - The Chattanooga Film Festival (Cff) along with its presenting sponsor Gunpowder & Sky’s Alter and media partner Bloody-Disgusting.com, are thrilled to announce their innovative lineup of features, panels and live events set for May 22 to May 25. In unprecedented times, the festival is offering a full-access badge price of $30 and divvying up a portion of the proceeds back to participating filmmakers.

A mix of iconic guests are taking part in the festival, including Law & Order: Svu star, hip-hop visionary, and frontman...

The director behind Room and new Sally Rooney series Normal People stays sane with a diet of sitcoms and sci-fi chillers

Read the rest of our Lockdown watch seriesThe best arts and entertainment during self-isolation

We recently signed up to Mubi, which has a daily updated set of 20, usually pretty interesting, films, and I like that it shrinks the otherwise terrifying range of possibilities. Over the last week or two I’ve seen Primer, Shane Carruth’s rather brilliant debut, made for $7,000. It’s a sort of naturalistic sci-fi, brilliantly conceived and made with such an unfussy, assured tone.

We watched a couple of Joseph Losey films – I thought I might warm to him more but haven’t. I liked the Brazilian film Bacurau a lot. Kleber Filho’s other film, Neighbouring Sounds, is good too.

The two-film deal was negotiated between Njutafilms CEO Nicolas Debot and Arrow Films head of international sales Cameron Waaler.

British outfit Arrow Films has sold two of its genre titles to Swedish distributor Njutafilms

The features comprise Us horror The Dead Center, directed by Billy Senese, and UK genre comedy A Serial Killer’s Guide To Life, directed by Staten Cousins Roe.

The two-film deal was negotiated between Njutafilms CEO Nicolas Debot and Arrow Films head of international sales Cameron Waaler. Arrow is at the Efm as part of a move to increase its activity in the international sales market.

Recent...

Despite helming just two features this century thus far, any new update when it comes to the work of Shane Carruth results in deserved anticipation and fervor. With it being seven years since his radical sci-fi feature Upstream Color, we now have such an update, but those hoping for concrete news on his next potential film (and beyond) will be disappointed.

“I’ve got a massive thing that I’m doing, and after that I’m gonna get out of this, I’m gonna get out of film after this,” the Primer director told Hot Corn in an interview last fall (and recently dug up by The Playlist). He added, “I’ve got another half of my life to live and I want to think about charities and finding a way to help people, not doing this bullshit, caring about box office, distribution and all this.”

In the years after Primer,...

Shane Carruth isn’t what you’d call a prolific filmmaker, but the two films he’s delivered – Primer and Upstream Color – are held in high regard. Fans have been hoping for a new Carruth-directed film for almost seven years now, and the good news is that their wish might soon be granted. The bad news is that […]

The post ‘Primer’ and ‘Upstream Color’ Director Shane Carruth Retiring After Next Film appeared first on /Film.

This is a little old, from late last year, but we just noticed this and damn, if Shane Carruth means what he said, this would be a crying shame. When you look at some of the most unique film directors of the past couple of decades, it’s hard not to consider Carruth as part of that list. With only two feature films to his credit, “Primer” and “Upstream Color,” the writer-director-producer-actor-composer has left such a mark on indie cinema that it would be a shame to know that he’s never going to do it again.

Continue reading ‘Upstream Color’ Director Shane Carruth Says He’s Done With The Film Industry After His Next Project at The Playlist.

Kiri Hart, Stephen Feder and Ben LeClair have been named producers at T-Street, the indie studio launched by the Knives Out tandem of Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman with funding from Valence Media.

Hart, Feder and LeClair bring a wide range of experience across all genres, and will spearhead films of all sizes and scales, championing storytellers with distinct voices, and building long-term partnerships with filmmakers. Producers at T-Street will oversee film projects from the earliest stages of inception all the way through production and release.

“We wanted T-Street to be a place where filmmakers would feel supported throughout the entire process. That thinking led us to Kiri, Stephen, and Ben, who we’ve been lucky enough to work with in different capacities over the years,” said Johnson and Bergman. “They are not only experienced producers committed to taking the best possible care of filmmakers and their projects, they...

A potent blend of It Follows and Jacob's Ladder, The Black String follows convenience store clerk Jonathan (Frankie Muniz), who is plagued by a vicious rash and disturbing visions following a one-night stand with a mysterious woman from a singles hotline.

The Black String is easily one of my favorite films of the year, and with the movie now on DVD, Digital, and On Demand from Lionsgate, Daily Dead had the great pleasure of catching up with co-writer/director Brian Hanson to discuss working with Frankie Muniz on his feature film debut, keeping the movie's horror ambiguous, teaming up with fellow military veteran Richard Handley to help bring the film to life, and the many cinematic influences behind The Black String.

Thanks for taking the time to catch up with us, Brian, and congratulations on The Black String! It’s one of my favorite films I’ve seen this year...