News

Glenda Jackson BIFA Honor

British actress and former politician Glenda Jackson is receiving the British Independent Film Awards’s honorary Richard Harris Award for outstanding contribution by an actor to the British film industry. Prize has previously been won by Kristin Scott Thomas, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and more. Jackson won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1971 for Ken Russell’s Women in Love. Recently she won the BAFTA TV Leading Actress award for Elizabeth Is Missing. “Glenda Jackson is a pioneer of stage and screen whose choice of roles has often challenged and changed the narrative around both class and female representation. Her incredible body of work has spanned many genres and generations and she remains, to this day, one of the UK’s most talented and beloved thespians,” said BIFA in a statement.

Fremantle Swoops For ‘The Masked Dancer’ Rights

Fremantle has secured production rights for The Masked...

A new TV series, featuring recognized stars from both the film and fight industry, is in the works from Painted Creek Productions and Lakeview Pictures. Harley Wallen, the multi-award-winning filmmaker behind such features as Agramon’s Gate and Bennett’s Song, will direct. Tale of Tails is set in a “borderline” legal bar where anything goes – for the right price. Nick, the owner keeps Tails afloat by taking advantage of desperate women who dance for money and the desperate men who pay for female attention. But when a dead dancer is found in the bathroom, trouble ensues for the establishment and its morally-challenged occupants and staff. Harley Wallen, Tevis Marcum, Kaiti Wallen, Jovie Lyn, Grover McCants and Jimmie Chiapelli head up the cast. Wallen produces alongside Kaiti Wallen, Steve Kopera, and Tevis Marcum. Marcus, Wallen, and Marcum also wrote. Blanca Blanco, genre staple Yan Birch, and Mma Professional Fighter and Ufc...

*full disclosure: a DVD screener of this film was provided by Lakeview Pictures. Director: Steve Kopera. Writers: Mike Kopera, Steve Kopera and David Silverman. Cast: Mike Kopera, Bo Keister, Angela Relucio and Melissa Mars. The Cabining is an indie slasher film and mystery from first time feature film director Steve Kopera. This feature brings a writing duo to an isolated creative retreat. Here, horror cliches are played upon as one writer searches for inspiration. The Cabining is a small production and occasionally a simple one, but the film offers some charm in its eighty-three minutes. The film begins with the characters Todd (Mike Kopera) and Bruce (Bo Keister). These two are putting together a script, for an upcoming horror feature. They have two weeks to get the words on paper. So, they seek out a writing retreat called Shangri-La. At this new setting, Todd and Bruce meet some fellow writers,...

Michigan-based writer/director Steve Kopera, along with his La-based actor/producer brother Mike Kopera, have just completed their first collaborative feature film, a comedy/horror entitled “The Cabining.”

When Todd and Bruce, a pair of wannabe-horror screenwriters, head to a remote artists’ retreat seeking inspiration, they find death and deception instead. One by one, the other artists get knocked off, each in a more gruesome way than the last.

The morbid atmosphere proves perfect for … Continue reading →...

We return with another edition of the Indie Spotlight, highlighting recent independent horror news sent our way. This week’s feature includes a trailer for The Cabining, details on All Hallows’ Eve, and much more:

The Cabining: “Todd and Bruce, a hapless screenwriting team, get one last shot at success thanks to Todd’s wealthy stepdad, Serge. If they pen a worthy horror script, Serge will fund the entire project. But there is one condition – the script must be complete in two weeks. With the deadline looming and no fresh ideas, Todd and Bruce head to Shangri-La, a serene artist’s retreat, with the hope that the peace and company of fellow artists will inspire greatness… or, failing greatness, at least enough for straight-to-dvd. Shangri-La proves to be anything but serene, as the artists die off one by one, seemingly by accident. Bruce convinces Todd to soak in this...

Vanguard will release the 2010 glam rock-filled independent comedy Starlight & Superfish on DVD on October 25 for the list price of $19.95.

Glam rock comes swings by purgatory in Starlight & Superfish.

Written by Robb Hess and directed by Steve Kopera, the movie introduces us to a fella named Nick (Hayes Hargrove, Beyond the Pale), who discovers one day that he’s stuck in his apartment and can’t move anything, be it a door or cabinet or even his guppies’ fish food. It’s only when a British glam-rock band bursts through the door and informs him that he is dead that Nick begins to understand what’s going on. Nick also learns that in order to escape his purgatory of abandoned dreams, he must learn the life lessons he ignored while he was still living. Then, he’ll be judged and sent to either Heaven or Hell, a fairly jarring concept for an atheist like Nick!