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The U.S. government is using one of Hollywood’s most memebable moments of the past decade to save animals! Finally, a story about the nation’s vampires-in-charge that gives you the warm and fuzzies instead of dry heaves! In a stroke of genius, the United States Department of Agriculture is using Noah Baumbach‘s iconic scene of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver screaming at one another in the 2019 drama Marriage Story to save livestock on farms across America.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the ultimately uncomfortable custody battle scene discourages wolves from attacking cattle and livestock, a process called wolf hazing. Before using the climactic scene from Marriage Story, farmers used the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC, giving an alternative to Brian Johnson’s intense, screeching vocals and Angus Young’s masterful guitar licks.

“Riding to the rescue are drone cowhands, whose quadcopters have thermal cameras that can reveal...

I typically love scenarios where one character, or multiple, has a bad day or week. This setup makes the rest of the story exciting since we know things can only look up from there. Notice to Quit is very much this kind of film, as Andy Singers (Michael Zegen) day goes from bad to worse to only slightly better. Writer-director Simon Hacker has a good grasp on his characters and story, but while Notice to Quit has a spark, it lacks any true heartwarming moments, which are buried beneath a surface-level premise that refuses to engage with vulnerability.

Notice to Quit (2024)

Director Simon HackerRelease Date September 27, 2024Writers Simon HackerCast Dan Domingues, Jeff Mantel, Jason Liebman, Chakeefe Gordon, Katie Kuang, Cliff Samara, Andrus Nichols, Leah Loftin, Victor Verhaeghe, Kasey Bella Suarez, Robert Klein, Jaime Zevallos, Rose Jackson Smith, Demosthenes Chrysan, Nell Verlaque, Eric Berryman, Isabel Arraiza, Michael Angelo Covino, Michael ZegenCharacter(s) Andy Singer,...

Searchlight Pictures on Friday unveiled a new poster for its Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as the iconic singer-songwriter, which you can view below.

Slated for release on Christmas Day, A Complete Unknown is set in New York in the early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide.

Directed by James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari), the film’s starry ensemble also includes Edward Norton (Asteroid City), Elle Fanning (The Great), Monica Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick), Boyd Holbrook (The Bikeriders), Norbert Leo Butz (Justified: City Primeval...

"I am so glad you showed up this morning!" Whiskey Creek has debuted the trailer for Notice to Quit, an indie dramedy marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Simon Hacker. This film is being given a big nationwide release in theaters in late September. A failing father attempts to salvage some semblance of paternal standing while being fully exposed for the fraud that he is. Michael Zegen (from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) stars as Andy Singer, a struggling New York City realtor caught in the cycle of renting rundown apartments, who finds his world crashing down around him when his estranged 10-year-old daughter, Anna, shows up unannounced on his doorstep while he's being evicted. Shot on 35mm around the city, the film unfolds as a poignant comedy of misadventures amidst the oppressive heat of a single summer day. Kasey Bella Suarez, Isabel Arraiza, Eric Berryman, & Michael Angelo Covino also...

Exclusive: Searchlight has set five more for major roles in its Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet: Boyd Holbrook (The Bikeriders), Scoot McNairy (Argo), Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Will Harrison (Daisy Jones & The Six) and Charlie Tahan (Ozark).

Character details are under wraps. Pic is now in production in New Jersey.

Other new additions include P.J. Byrne (Babylon), Eli Brown (Gossip Girl), Nick Pupo (Halt and Catch Fire), Big Bill Morganfield, Laura Kariuki, Eric Berryman (Atlanta), David Alan Basche (Egg), Joe Tippett (Monarch) and James Austin Johnson (Saturday Night Live).

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early ’60s, A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts — his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Emmy Predictions:

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Luke Kirby in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

Weekly Commentary: Commentary to be added.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Primetime Emmy predictions in the major categories.

The rankings for the category are below.

The final Emmy voting rounds open on Aug.

March is coming to an end and while Screambox‘s April line-up is absolutely jam-packed – stay tuned! – we’re first ending this month with a bang.

Now streaming on Screambox are several Dark Star Pictures classics, including the completely gonzo Bloody Disgusting collaboration Dementia: Part II, which delivers absurd gross-out humor and nonstop mayhem.

Here are some of the titles in addition to new Screambox arrivals Evil Little Things, Crispy’s Curse, Clownface, Clownado, and the previously released Killer Sofa and FeardotCom.

Achoura

Also called “Children’s Night,” Achoura is a religious celebration. In Morocco, children splash water on each other and gather around a bonfire.

In the film, four friends reconnect when one of them, who disappeared 25 years ago, suddenly comes back into their lives. Together, they will have to confront the terrifying events of their youth and fight a monstrous creature born of a horrible legend.

Patrick Bromley...

A review of this week’s Atlanta, “The Goof Who Sat By the Door,” coming up just as soon as I draw a pair of gloves dapping over 5,000 times…

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

Late in the first season of Atlanta, we got “B.A.N.,” an episode that — excuse me, I have something in my throat—

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

Sorry. Can’t promise it won’t happen again, but “The Goof Who Sat By the Door” was just that ridiculous, just that audacious, just that wonderful. Now, where were we?

Oh, yes. Late in the first season of Atlanta,...

Exclusive: Michael Zegen (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and newcomer Kasey Bella Suarez will topline writer-director Simon Hacker’s debut feature Zoo, which recently wrapped production in New York City, starring alongside Robert Klein, Michael Covino, Isabel Arraiza, and Eric Berryman.

In the film, Zegen plays Andy Singer, a failing father and floundering realtor on the verge of eviction, who is drowning in the sweat of a New York City summer. When Andy’s daughter Anna (Suarez), a feisty 10-year-old already outfitted with a moral compass that far surpasses her dad’s, shows up unannounced on his doorstep and informs him of her imminent departure from the city, his get-rich-quick schemes and threadbare employment are thrown into a tenuous high gear, as he attempts to salvage some semblance of...

Exclusive: Moonlight’s André Holland is the latest A-list figure to turn to the world of scripted podcasting.

Holland, who starred as Kevin in the Oscar-winning film, will feature in mordant comedy The Ms Phoenix Rising alongside Anthony Arkin (Succession), Susan Blommaert (The Blacklist), Estelle Parsons (The Conners) and Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play).

Created by Trish Harnetiaux, the playwright behind Tin Cat Shoes and How to Get into Buildings, the six-part series comes from Playwrights Horizons Soundstage.

The show follows cruise ship The Ms Phoenix Rising, which sets sail in six weeks, marking the relaunch of the cruise ship industry after a prolonged shutdown. Urgent, budget-driven planning makes for a tense front office at Dane Cruising while they race to secure their place in history with fast marketing ideas and a reckless social campaign. Whose idea was it again to hype the “Christopher Columbus Route” through the Bahamas? Whatever.

Savage twist on 19th century voyeur tourism.

Timothy O’Brien’s Los Angeles-based sales company Oration Films has signed all-rights deals on Yedidya Gorsetman’s black and white sci-fi thriller Empathy, Inc for Turkey and the UK.

Arrow Films will release the film in the UK in 2020, and the Turkish release will be through Fabula Films.

Empathy Inc tells of Joel, a tech-sector venture capitalist, who is presented with a ground-breaking but morally challenging Vr proposal soon after one of his ventures has collapsed in disgrace.

In a twist on the 19th century’s voyeuristic tourism of mental hospitals and slums,...

Chicago – A film that made its world premiere in Chicago – at the 2018 Cinepocalypse Film Festival – is making its way into the national consciousness. “Empathy, Inc.,” directed by Yedidya “Jed” Gorsetman, has a theatrical run in the first half of September, (including Chicago) before the release with Video-On-Demand on 9/24.

Jed Gorsetman collaborates with screenwriter Mark Leidner for the second time, after they debuted with “Jammed” in 2014. “Empathy, Inc.” came out of their workshopping of ideas, and combines science fiction, ambition and relationships in a skewered black and white world. The tone of the film is dark and funny, as a start-up company called Empathy, Inc. goes a bit farther with their product than anyone can imagine.

‘Empathy, Inc.’ in Theatres and VOD in September

Photo credit: Dark Star Pictures

In the following podtalk with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com from 2018, director Jed Gorsetman goes into detail on the origins of “Empathy,...

Director Yedidya Gorsetman and scenarist Mark Leidner’s first feature “Jammed” was a well-reviewed (if little-seen) comedy set in the twirlydancing stoner universe of a jam-band festival. Their sophomore effort does an about-face from that rainbow tie-dye milieu to the monochrome severity of a black-and-white neo-noir. But surface aesthetics are hardly the only factor that shifts in “Empathy, Inc.,” a clever indie suspense that draws on fantasy-tinged notions of virtual reality and identity exchange to create an ingenious tale more in the realm of an intimately-scaled thriller than sci-fi. Opening on a single Los Angeles screen on Sept. 6, with more cities added Sept. 13 and VOD launch on the 24th, this arresting tale should not only prove a career leg-up for all involved, it might also attract remake offers.

Venture capitalist Joel (Paul Rudd-looking Zack Robidas) begins the film at a serious low ebb: He’s had to take the fall for a high-profile,...

"Walk a mile in the shoes of the less fortunate, and when you wake up, no matter what problems you have in your real life – feel that much better." Dark Star Pictures has debuted an official trailer for a rad indie sci-fi thriller titled Empathy, Inc., from writer/director Yedidya Gorsetman (of Jammed previously). This first premiered at Cinepocalypse last year, and also played at the Brooklyn Horror Festival, plus Austin and Philadelphia Film Festivals. Empathy, Inc. is about an investor in a Vr startup – using a technology called "Xtreme Virtual Reality" – who discovers that the reality the company provides isn't so virtual. Not entirely original, but a cool idea anyway. Starring Zack Robidas, Kathy Searle, Jay Klaitz, Eric Berryman, Aj Cedeno, Charmaine Reedy, Fenton Lawless, Anthony Mangano, and Karen Lynn Gorney. This has such a nifty, lo-fi look and feel – like Pi or Primer, mashed up together with virtual reality and startups.

Autumn theatrical roll-out planned for Us.

Los Angeles-based Oration Films has bulked up its Cannes slate and acquired international rights to Yedidya Gorsetman’s sci-fi thriller Empathy, Inc, which Dark Star Pictures has picked up for North America.

Oration will launch international sales and festival promotion on the Croisette next week on the story of Joel, a tech venture capitalist presented with a ground-breaking virtual reality proposal shortly after one of his ventures collapses in disgrace.

The proposed technology would allow the wealthy elite to spend time in the shoes of those less fortunate than themselves. As Joel leans more about the Vr,...

Netflix has picked up Bonding, the seven-episode short-form dark comedy series from Rightor Doyle (Barry). Originally announced as blackpills original to run on the digital platform, the series starring Zoe Levin (Palo Alto) and Brendan Scannell (Heathers) will instead be distributed by Netflix next year as a global original series.

Filmed on location in New York last fall with backspills and Anonymous Content producing, Bonding had its premiere at Outfest this past summer and was screened at other festivals. According to sources, blackpills had an option to put it on their platform but instead producers brought it to Netflix, which bought the series fully produced and there will be no editing on it.

Written, directed and executive produced/showrun by Doyle, Bonding, whose episodes are 12-18 min in length, is loosely based on his life experiences. It centers on the relationship between former high-school BFFs, Pete (Scannell), a recently out gay man,...

Chicago – The buzz of the Chicago film week is the 2018 Cinepocalypse Film Festival at the Music Box Theatre. And there is no better excitement than a World Premiere, and director Yedidya “Jed” Gorsetman is doing just that with his new film, “Empathy, Inc.” For complete information about the screening, click here.

World Premiere of Jed Gorsetman’s ‘Empathy, Inc.’ at Cinepocalypse

Photo credit: Rigel Films

Jed Gorsetman is working with screenwriter Mark Leidner for the second time, after they debuted with “Jammed” in 2014. “Empathy, Inc.” came out of their workshopping of ideas, and combines science fiction, ambition and relationships in a skewered black and white world. The tone of the film is dark and funny, as a start-up company called Empathy, Inc. goes a bit farther with their product than anyone can imagine.

In the following podtalk with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, director Jed Gorsetman goes into detail on the origins of “Empathy,...

Coming courtesy of a Bloody Disgusting exclusive, the first trailer has premiered for Yedidya Gorsetman's micro-budget techno-thriller, Empathy, Inc., which will have its World Premiere at Cinepocalypse on June 24, 2018. The film, which was shot in and around new York on a shoestring budget, follows an investor in a Vr startup who discovers that the reality the company provides may not be as virtual as advertised. Starring Zack Robidas, Kathy Searle, Eric Berryman, and Jay Klaitz, it features a wonderfully unique, black and white aesthetic that feels nostalgic and haunting all at once. Empathy, Inc. is the second film from Yedidya Gorsetman, writer Mark Leidner, and producer Josh Itzkowitz. Check out the trailer below:...

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