Exclusive: Sunrise Pictures and Pitbull Pictures are getting underway with The Trials of Cate McCall, with Kate Beckinsale, Nick Nolte and James Cromwell starring. Karen Moncrieff is directing her script and production has just started in Los Angeles with Sunrise Pictures’ Peter Schafer and Pitbull Pictures’ Moncrieff and Eric Karten producing and financing. Jim Klock and Joe Dain of Sunrise Pictures will act as executive producers. Wme Global will be managing domestic sales. “Cate McCall is a labor of love for us,” Karten said. “We’re thrilled to have partners who contribute not only their tremendous resources and expertise, but a level of passion that matches our own. Sunrise just plain rocks.” Beckinsale plays a former hotshot prosecutor who threw her career away when she became an addict. Hoping to regain credibility and win custody of her estranged daughter, the lawyer takes on the appeal of a wrongly convicted murderess.
- 5/16/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
- It comes as no surprise that leading this year’s pack of nominees are Little Miss Sunshine and Half Nelson, but this year’s mix of contenders are a mixed breed coming from films that were showcased a little everywhere – including this year’s Sundance. And the 2007 Independent Spirit nominees are...Feature (Award given to the Producer)"American Gun," Ted Kroeber, producer"The Dead Girl," Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright, Eric Karten, Kevin Turen, producers"Half Nelson," Jamie Patricof, Alex Orlovsky, Lynette Howell, Anna Boden, Rosanne Korenberg, producers"Little Miss Sunshine," Marc Turtletaub, David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, producers"Pan's Labyrinth," Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuaron, Frida Torresblanco, Alvaro Augustin, Guillermo Del Toro, producersFIRST Feature (Award given to the director and producer)"Day Night Day Night," Julia Loktev, director; Julia Loktev, Melanie Judd, Jessica Levin, producers"Man Push Cart," Ramin Bahrani, director; Ramin Bahrani,
- 11/29/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
The Dead Girl
This review was written for the festival screening of "The Dead Girl".AFI Fest
By the movie's end, writer-director Karen Moncrieff's "The Dead Girl" delivers considerable emotional impact. But that doesn't mean you've enjoyed the journey. Moncrieff chooses to scrutinize highly unpleasant material but, fortunately, she never takes an exploitative or sensationalistic approach. The movie has its integrity. Her female characters are deeply troubled individuals, and there is little to comfort viewers that any of these lives might turn around or improve. Yet Moncrieff views these people, these victims, with compassionate understanding.
While Moncrieff spares you gruesome details, she demands that you look at what happens to people seemingly out of control of their lives and obsessions, who get caught up in fateful chain of events that can come to no good. The First Look release, which debuted at AFI Fest, opens Dec. 29 in Los Angeles and New York before a January national rollout. Despite an impressive cast, only adventurous adult viewers will head to art houses for "Dead Girl".
The movie unfolds in five vignettes about seemingly unrelated people. It soon is clear enough that these lives are connected to a dead girl discovered in a vacant field. You further suspect the murder to be the work of a serial killer.
Serial killers are an old staple in crime novels and movie thrillers, but such Hannibal Lecters are fictional monsters, good for quick chills and a laugh. Moncrieff will have none of this; she is after the horrifyingly mundane reality of victims, killers and those tragically connected to either or both.
Each vignette focuses on a central female character. Arden (Toni Collette) discovers the body, but her lonely life as a caretaker to her ill, abusive mother (Piper Laurie) is turned upside down by reporting her discovery to police. Her mother is furious, and she attracts unwanted attention from strangers, including a grocery store clerk (Giovanni Ribisi) who confuses his sexual desire with an obsession with serial killers. Arden is just lonely enough in life to give herself to this man.
Leah (Rose Byrne) is a forensics grad student who, when confronted with the mutilated body of the dead girl, thinks that perhaps she might be her young sister who went missing so many years before. Gruesome as it would be, this discovery would at least bring closure for her and her parents (Mary Steenburgen, Bruce Davison), who still wallow in denial.
An aging couple, Ruth Mary Beth Hurt) and her husband Carl (Nick Searcy), quarrel constantly over Carl's constant absences at night. Then she discovers one unit in the storage facility Carl runs contains ominous personal effects belonging to young women.
Melora Marcia Gay Harden) comes to Los Angeles searching for answers about the dead girl, who was her runaway daughter. She meets the daughter's roommate, Rosetta (Kerry Washington), a battered hooker, and learns a piece of news that changes her life. Finally, in a flashback, the movie shows the last day in the life of Krista (Brittany Murphy), a woman riven by violence, drug use and severe psychological issues yet desperate to reclaim her innocence.
The story is set in Los Angeles, but Moncrieff has selected the most desolate, almost barren urban landscape imaginable. Here people lead hopeless, angry lives, never certain what went wrong or, worse, how to repair them. There is a suggestion of hope in the mother-roommate vignette. In this sequence alone, people are lead to understand what happened and how they might salvage their lives.
Cinematographer Michael Grady and designer Kristan Andrews subtly depict this world of isolation with just the right tones, details and compositions that that link environment to character.
THE DEAD GIRL
First Look Pictures
Lakeshow Entertainment/Pitbull Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Karen Moncrieff
Producers: Richard Wright, Eric Karten, Kevin Turen, Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi
Director of photography: Michael Grady
Production designer: Kristan Andrews
Music: Adam Gorgoni
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Editor: Toby Yates
Cast:
Krista: Brittany Murphy
Arden: Toni Collette
Rudy: Giovanni Ribisi
Mother: Piper Laurie
Leah: Rose Byrne
Beverly: Mary Steenburgen
Bill: Bruce Davison
Ruth: Mary Beth Hurt
Carl: Nick Searcy
Melora: Marcia Gay Harden
Rosetta: Kerry Washington
Tarlow: Josh Brolin
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
By the movie's end, writer-director Karen Moncrieff's "The Dead Girl" delivers considerable emotional impact. But that doesn't mean you've enjoyed the journey. Moncrieff chooses to scrutinize highly unpleasant material but, fortunately, she never takes an exploitative or sensationalistic approach. The movie has its integrity. Her female characters are deeply troubled individuals, and there is little to comfort viewers that any of these lives might turn around or improve. Yet Moncrieff views these people, these victims, with compassionate understanding.
While Moncrieff spares you gruesome details, she demands that you look at what happens to people seemingly out of control of their lives and obsessions, who get caught up in fateful chain of events that can come to no good. The First Look release, which debuted at AFI Fest, opens Dec. 29 in Los Angeles and New York before a January national rollout. Despite an impressive cast, only adventurous adult viewers will head to art houses for "Dead Girl".
The movie unfolds in five vignettes about seemingly unrelated people. It soon is clear enough that these lives are connected to a dead girl discovered in a vacant field. You further suspect the murder to be the work of a serial killer.
Serial killers are an old staple in crime novels and movie thrillers, but such Hannibal Lecters are fictional monsters, good for quick chills and a laugh. Moncrieff will have none of this; she is after the horrifyingly mundane reality of victims, killers and those tragically connected to either or both.
Each vignette focuses on a central female character. Arden (Toni Collette) discovers the body, but her lonely life as a caretaker to her ill, abusive mother (Piper Laurie) is turned upside down by reporting her discovery to police. Her mother is furious, and she attracts unwanted attention from strangers, including a grocery store clerk (Giovanni Ribisi) who confuses his sexual desire with an obsession with serial killers. Arden is just lonely enough in life to give herself to this man.
Leah (Rose Byrne) is a forensics grad student who, when confronted with the mutilated body of the dead girl, thinks that perhaps she might be her young sister who went missing so many years before. Gruesome as it would be, this discovery would at least bring closure for her and her parents (Mary Steenburgen, Bruce Davison), who still wallow in denial.
An aging couple, Ruth Mary Beth Hurt) and her husband Carl (Nick Searcy), quarrel constantly over Carl's constant absences at night. Then she discovers one unit in the storage facility Carl runs contains ominous personal effects belonging to young women.
Melora Marcia Gay Harden) comes to Los Angeles searching for answers about the dead girl, who was her runaway daughter. She meets the daughter's roommate, Rosetta (Kerry Washington), a battered hooker, and learns a piece of news that changes her life. Finally, in a flashback, the movie shows the last day in the life of Krista (Brittany Murphy), a woman riven by violence, drug use and severe psychological issues yet desperate to reclaim her innocence.
The story is set in Los Angeles, but Moncrieff has selected the most desolate, almost barren urban landscape imaginable. Here people lead hopeless, angry lives, never certain what went wrong or, worse, how to repair them. There is a suggestion of hope in the mother-roommate vignette. In this sequence alone, people are lead to understand what happened and how they might salvage their lives.
Cinematographer Michael Grady and designer Kristan Andrews subtly depict this world of isolation with just the right tones, details and compositions that that link environment to character.
THE DEAD GIRL
First Look Pictures
Lakeshow Entertainment/Pitbull Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Karen Moncrieff
Producers: Richard Wright, Eric Karten, Kevin Turen, Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi
Director of photography: Michael Grady
Production designer: Kristan Andrews
Music: Adam Gorgoni
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Editor: Toby Yates
Cast:
Krista: Brittany Murphy
Arden: Toni Collette
Rudy: Giovanni Ribisi
Mother: Piper Laurie
Leah: Rose Byrne
Beverly: Mary Steenburgen
Bill: Bruce Davison
Ruth: Mary Beth Hurt
Carl: Nick Searcy
Melora: Marcia Gay Harden
Rosetta: Kerry Washington
Tarlow: Josh Brolin
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/8/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Dead Girl
AFI Fest
By the movie's end, writer-director Karen Moncrieff's "The Dead Girl" delivers considerable emotional impact. But that doesn't mean you've enjoyed the journey. Moncrieff chooses to scrutinize highly unpleasant material but, fortunately, she never takes an exploitative or sensationalistic approach. The movie has its integrity. Her female characters are deeply troubled individuals, and there is little to comfort viewers that any of these lives might turn around or improve. Yet Moncrieff views these people, these victims, with compassionate understanding.
While Moncrieff spares you gruesome details, she demands that you look at what happens to people seemingly out of control of their lives and obsessions, who get caught up in fateful chain of events that can come to no good. The First Look release, which debuted at AFI Fest, opens Dec. 29 in Los Angeles and New York before a January national rollout. Despite an impressive cast, only adventurous adult viewers will head to art houses for "Dead Girl".
The movie unfolds in five vignettes about seemingly unrelated people. It soon is clear enough that these lives are connected to a dead girl discovered in a vacant field. You further suspect the murder to be the work of a serial killer.
Serial killers are an old staple in crime novels and movie thrillers, but such Hannibal Lecters are fictional monsters, good for quick chills and a laugh. Moncrieff will have none of this; she is after the horrifyingly mundane reality of victims, killers and those tragically connected to either or both.
Each vignette focuses on a central female character. Arden (Toni Collette) discovers the body, but her lonely life as a caretaker to her ill, abusive mother (Piper Laurie) is turned upside down by reporting her discovery to police. Her mother is furious, and she attracts unwanted attention from strangers, including a grocery store clerk (Giovanni Ribisi) who confuses his sexual desire with an obsession with serial killers. Arden is just lonely enough in life to give herself to this man.
Leah (Rose Byrne) is a forensics grad student who, when confronted with the mutilated body of the dead girl, thinks that perhaps she might be her young sister who went missing so many years before. Gruesome as it would be, this discovery would at least bring closure for her and her parents (Mary Steenburgen, Bruce Davison), who still wallow in denial.
An aging couple, Ruth Mary Beth Hurt) and her husband Carl (Nick Searcy), quarrel constantly over Carl's constant absences at night. Then she discovers one unit in the storage facility Carl runs contains ominous personal effects belonging to young women.
Melora Marcia Gay Harden) comes to Los Angeles searching for answers about the dead girl, who was her runaway daughter. She meets the daughter's roommate, Rosetta (Kerry Washington), a battered hooker, and learns a piece of news that changes her life. Finally, in a flashback, the movie shows the last day in the life of Krista (Brittany Murphy), a woman riven by violence, drug use and severe psychological issues yet desperate to reclaim her innocence.
The story is set in Los Angeles, but Moncrieff has selected the most desolate, almost barren urban landscape imaginable. Here people lead hopeless, angry lives, never certain what went wrong or, worse, how to repair them. There is a suggestion of hope in the mother-roommate vignette. In this sequence alone, people are lead to understand what happened and how they might salvage their lives.
Cinematographer Michael Grady and designer Kristan Andrews subtly depict this world of isolation with just the right tones, details and compositions that that link environment to character.
THE DEAD GIRL
First Look Pictures
Lakeshow Entertainment/Pitbull Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Karen Moncrieff
Producers: Richard Wright, Eric Karten, Kevin Turen, Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi
Director of photography: Michael Grady
Production designer: Kristan Andrews
Music: Adam Gorgoni
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Editor: Toby Yates
Cast:
Krista: Brittany Murphy
Arden: Toni Collette
Rudy: Giovanni Ribisi
Mother: Piper Laurie
Leah: Rose Byrne
Beverly: Mary Steenburgen
Bill: Bruce Davison
Ruth: Mary Beth Hurt
Carl: Nick Searcy
Melora: Marcia Gay Harden
Rosetta: Kerry Washington
Tarlow: Josh Brolin
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
By the movie's end, writer-director Karen Moncrieff's "The Dead Girl" delivers considerable emotional impact. But that doesn't mean you've enjoyed the journey. Moncrieff chooses to scrutinize highly unpleasant material but, fortunately, she never takes an exploitative or sensationalistic approach. The movie has its integrity. Her female characters are deeply troubled individuals, and there is little to comfort viewers that any of these lives might turn around or improve. Yet Moncrieff views these people, these victims, with compassionate understanding.
While Moncrieff spares you gruesome details, she demands that you look at what happens to people seemingly out of control of their lives and obsessions, who get caught up in fateful chain of events that can come to no good. The First Look release, which debuted at AFI Fest, opens Dec. 29 in Los Angeles and New York before a January national rollout. Despite an impressive cast, only adventurous adult viewers will head to art houses for "Dead Girl".
The movie unfolds in five vignettes about seemingly unrelated people. It soon is clear enough that these lives are connected to a dead girl discovered in a vacant field. You further suspect the murder to be the work of a serial killer.
Serial killers are an old staple in crime novels and movie thrillers, but such Hannibal Lecters are fictional monsters, good for quick chills and a laugh. Moncrieff will have none of this; she is after the horrifyingly mundane reality of victims, killers and those tragically connected to either or both.
Each vignette focuses on a central female character. Arden (Toni Collette) discovers the body, but her lonely life as a caretaker to her ill, abusive mother (Piper Laurie) is turned upside down by reporting her discovery to police. Her mother is furious, and she attracts unwanted attention from strangers, including a grocery store clerk (Giovanni Ribisi) who confuses his sexual desire with an obsession with serial killers. Arden is just lonely enough in life to give herself to this man.
Leah (Rose Byrne) is a forensics grad student who, when confronted with the mutilated body of the dead girl, thinks that perhaps she might be her young sister who went missing so many years before. Gruesome as it would be, this discovery would at least bring closure for her and her parents (Mary Steenburgen, Bruce Davison), who still wallow in denial.
An aging couple, Ruth Mary Beth Hurt) and her husband Carl (Nick Searcy), quarrel constantly over Carl's constant absences at night. Then she discovers one unit in the storage facility Carl runs contains ominous personal effects belonging to young women.
Melora Marcia Gay Harden) comes to Los Angeles searching for answers about the dead girl, who was her runaway daughter. She meets the daughter's roommate, Rosetta (Kerry Washington), a battered hooker, and learns a piece of news that changes her life. Finally, in a flashback, the movie shows the last day in the life of Krista (Brittany Murphy), a woman riven by violence, drug use and severe psychological issues yet desperate to reclaim her innocence.
The story is set in Los Angeles, but Moncrieff has selected the most desolate, almost barren urban landscape imaginable. Here people lead hopeless, angry lives, never certain what went wrong or, worse, how to repair them. There is a suggestion of hope in the mother-roommate vignette. In this sequence alone, people are lead to understand what happened and how they might salvage their lives.
Cinematographer Michael Grady and designer Kristan Andrews subtly depict this world of isolation with just the right tones, details and compositions that that link environment to character.
THE DEAD GIRL
First Look Pictures
Lakeshow Entertainment/Pitbull Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Karen Moncrieff
Producers: Richard Wright, Eric Karten, Kevin Turen, Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi
Director of photography: Michael Grady
Production designer: Kristan Andrews
Music: Adam Gorgoni
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Editor: Toby Yates
Cast:
Krista: Brittany Murphy
Arden: Toni Collette
Rudy: Giovanni Ribisi
Mother: Piper Laurie
Leah: Rose Byrne
Beverly: Mary Steenburgen
Bill: Bruce Davison
Ruth: Mary Beth Hurt
Carl: Nick Searcy
Melora: Marcia Gay Harden
Rosetta: Kerry Washington
Tarlow: Josh Brolin
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/8/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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