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Exclusive: SpectreVision, the genre-focused production company led by Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah, and Lawrence Inglee, on Monday announced the launch of SpectreVision Artists, a management arm headed by Antonio D’Intino and Christina Campagnola.

The intention behind the new division is to extend the company’s ethos of supporting creators who think outside the box. SpectreVision’s client roster will include directors such as Brendan Bellomo, DGA Award winner for the recently Oscar-nominated documentary The Porcelain War; Bryn Chainey, whose feature debut Rabbit Trap, starring Dev Patel, just premiered at Sundance; Sean Price Williams, the veteran Dp whose directorial debut The Sweet East premiered at Cannes in 2023; Alex Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, the creatives behind Save Yourselves! and the upcoming Wicker; Rod Blackhurst; Jodi Wille; Carolina Markowicz; Keith Thomas; Rachel Wolther (The French Italian...

Writer/director Sophie Kargman has an auspicious feature debut with Susie Searches. The film stars Kiersey Clemons as Susie Wallace, a small-town college student with a terminally ill mother and failing true-crime podcast. Susie works a minimum wage job at a café with an obnoxious co-worker (Rachel Sennott) and demanding boss (Ken Marino). She also volunteers at the police station where the sheriff (Jim Gafffigan) has a big problem. Jesse (Alex Wolff), a wealthy classmate with a popular YouTube channel, has mysteriously vanished. Susie resolves to find Jesse and boost her social media fame.

Kargman explains that Susie Searches started with "a proof concept short film and screenplay." She wanted to prove that could "toe the line between satire, dark comedy, and thriller." Kiersey Clemons, in our interview for the film, heaped praise on Kargman for her extensive preparation and confidence during the shoot. Kargman had a "look-book" with everything...

Note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.An intrepid college student with a true-crime podcast decides to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a popular classmate. Susie Searches stars Kiersey Clemons as a complex young woman whose quest for social media stardom and recognition leads to an avalanche of bad choices. The directorial debut from actress and writer Sophie Kargman takes an unexpected turn for a seemingly sympathetic protagonist. A venerated supporting cast of Alex Wolff, Ken Marino, and Jim Gaffigan helps to thread the needle between dark comedy and sinister thriller.

Clemons was suffering from a cold but was kind enough to proceed with our interview prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. She was thoughtful and lucid on the thorny issue of her character's true motivation. Clemons recognized that while Susie has significant faults, she had "to empathize with her in some capacity." She believes Susie's "desire...

Susie Searches is a humorous and suspenseful film that combines elements of comedy, mystery, and paranoia, keeping viewers on edge while enjoying quirky characters. Kiersey Clemons delivers a fantastic performance as the lead character, showcasing her comedic and dramatic talents in the film. Clemons discusses her involvement in the project and the trust that director Sophie Kargman had in her to bring the character of Susie to life, despite not having a traditional audition process. Clemons also shares her dislike of braces and her love of comedy in this interview with Screen Rant.

Directed and co-written by Sophie Kargman, Susie Searches follows a young podcaster and wannabe detective as she solves a major crime and becomes something of a minor celebrity in her small town. The film, an expanded version of Kargman's 2020 short film, features a tap dancing mix of humor, mystery, and pulse-pounding paranoia. Viewers are put into a sense of dread,...

The Flash star Kiersey Clemons will take her the lead in Susie Searches, the story of unpopular college student Susie, who attempts to solve a local mystery in order to get more people to listen to her true crime podcast. However, as you may expect in this kind of story, things are never as simple as they seem, and soon Susie gets more than she bargained for as she looks for her moment in the spotlight. Check out a new clip below as your introduction to the world of Susie.

Susie Searches is a movie that asks the question that many young people find themselves asking themselves in this day and age of YouTube and TIkTok fame; if you could achieve your goals overnight through nothing but a small victimless crime, how far would you go to do it? According to the synopsis:

“Susie Searches is a darkly comedic psychological...

The morbid draw of true crime — vicariously experiencing other people’s tragedies by sifting through the elements that caused them — goes under the microscope in the kitschy whodunnit “Susie Searches.” Sophie Kargman’s feature debut, expanded from her short of the same name, plays on the dangers that come when voyeur becomes an interference, but the sort-of thriller doesn’t have the bite to investigate the provocative sympathy it has for its meddling antihero.

An aspiring gumshoe, Susie is first introduced as a precocious grade schooler, sitting beside her mother, Anne (Jammie Patton) as the two read a detective novel — the nice kind that encourages adolescent curiosity and ends with a virtuous sleuth catching a mustache-twirling menace. An affecting montage shows the pair continuing their shared hobby as the years pass. Anne falls ill as her daughter dutifully cares for her, growing into a wannabe wunderkind (Kiersey Clemons), now a...

The Flash has had a long and troubled journey to the big screen, including the Covid pandemic and falling in the middle of a transition period between the old and new DC universes. One of the people who feel like their time waiting for the movie’s arrival has been more painful than most is actress Kiersey Clemons, who plays Barry Allen’s love interest Iris West.

For some, Clemons appearance in The Flash may be the first time they have seen her in the role of Iris, and unless you have seen Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League, that that would not be surprising as she was originally cut from the theatrical release of the movie. Now with the entire Dcu being rebooted by James Gunn, it seems to the actress now feels free to tell how it has really been for her time in the franchise. She...

Exclusive: Vertical has secured North American rights to the mystery comedy Susie Searches which premiered at TIFF 2022. Based on her 2020 short film of the same name, Sophie Kargman makes her feature film directorial debut and shares story credit alongside the film’s writer William Day Frank. It stars Kiersey Clemons (Dope), Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Jim Gaffigan (Chappaquiddick), Ken Marino (Wanderlust), and Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies).

The film is slated for a day-and-date release later this year. Fortitude International will be launching international sales on the title at this week’s EFM.

The film follows Susie (Clemons), an awkward college student with a failing true-crime podcast, who seizes the opportunity to boost her campus and online popularity by solving the mysterious disappearance of Jesse (Wolff), the campus heart-throb. With her star on the rise, events take a dark turn as Susie digs out the truth and soon finds herself in over her head.

Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field star in ’80 For Brady’ from Paramount Pictures.

The world premiere of 80 for Brady starring Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin will open the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Festival on Friday, January 6, 2023, and The Lost King from director Stephen Frears will close the festival on Sunday, January 15th. In between, Psiff will screen 132 films including the world premiere of the documentary Shot in the Arm.

“We are beyond excited to welcome back our beloved audience and filmmakers in Palm Springs. We’re especially thrilled to be joined by all four leads of 80 For Brady. The film is brimming with joy and heart, and it’s a perfect film to kick off our 34th edition,” said Artistic Director Lili Rodriguez. “Our programmers have dedicated almost a year to scouting the world for the films that make up this edition.

Exclusive: Longtime APA literary agent Adam Perry has been promoted to Partner.

Perry began his career in the APA mailroom in 2011 and was promoted to agent in 2013. Since then, he has grown his roster of clients to represent such writers and directors as filmmakers Justin Chon (Gook, Blue Bayou, Pachinko) and Akin Omotoso (Rise, Vaya), director Alejandra Marquez Abella (The Good Girls, A Million Miles Away), screenwriters Julia Cox (Nyad), Pat Casey & Josh Miller (Sonic The Hedgehog 1&2, Violent Night), Black List scribe Elyse Hollander (Blond Ambition, Guys and Dolls remake), creator-showrunner Ben Ketai (StartUp), screenwriters Steve Desmond & Michael Sherman (Knock at the Cabin, Harry’s All Night Hamburgers), Amos Vernon & Nunzio Randazzo (Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, Fudged), Co-ep’s Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt (Sweet Tooth, Star Trek Discovery), Co-ep Chuck Hayward (Ted Lasso), SuP Bobak Esfarjani (Alien, Kindred), writing trio Murder Ink. (Black Don’t Camp, Homecoming), screenwriters Cornelius Uliano & Bryan Schulz (Peanuts,...

Fans of “Only Murders in the Building” going into the comedy “Susie Searches,” which follows a college student with a true crime podcast taking a mystery into her own hands, may be in for a surprise at just how dark the film gets.

The film’s stars Kiersey Clemons and Alex Wolff told TheWrap following the movie’s premiere at TIFF that the movie is “way more disturbing” than even they expected it would be.

“It’s really unsettling,” Wolff said. “I think it’s fun to know that. It’s fun for people to know that they’re not going to feel comfortable watching this movie. They’re going to not know when they should laugh or if they can’t. It’s going to be a fun, thrilling, challenging, hilarious watch for people. It’s very important to have a movie that doesn’t tell you exactly how...

Susie Wallis (Kiersey Clemons) has never met a mystery she couldn’t solve. At least not when it comes to those that populate the crime books her mother (Jammie Patton’s Anne) read to her as a child. It got to the point where she wondered if they should stop reading them altogether, but Susie refused. She didn’t care that she always guessed the culprit. All she cared about was spending time with Mom. So when Anne’s Ms diagnosis advanced enough to take away her speech, Susie took over reading duties to keep the tradition alive. And she even took things one step further by choosing to make her mother’s wish come true: using her knack for literary detective work to do good in the world and become famous.

Unlike her college’s quasi-celebrity Jessie (Alex Wolff), however, you can’t just post something online and become an overnight sensation.

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Vertical releases the film in theaters on Friday, July 28.

The first 25 minutes of “Susie Searches” is so tight, so hilarious and original, beaming with a buoyant teenage energy that could kickoff an entire film series of adventures, that it’s shocking how unyielding, mismanaged and sappy the next hour of the movie becomes. The drop-off is steep, and unfortunate. An expansion by Sophie Kargman of her same-titled 2020 short, “Susie Searches” aims to be about loss and loneliness, and isolation and recognition. But spins its wheels toward mediocrity, instead.

Susie (Kiersey Clemons) is a college student, with braces strapped across her wide smile and an unquenchable love of whodunits. Every night she records a podcast showcasing her sleuthing skills to her moribund audience. Far from the popular girl at school, she languishes in obscurity, while taking care...

Exclusive: Director Bill Oliver has rounded out the cast for his drama Our Son, with Andrew Rannells (Girls5eva), Robin Weigert (American Horror Story) and Kate Burton (Inventing Anna) signing on for roles, along with Phylicia Rashad (This Is Us), Cassandra Freeman (Bel-Air) and Isaac Powell (Dear Evan Hansen).

The recently-wrapped film starring Luke Evans and Billy Porter will follow a divorcing couple fighting for custody of their eight-year-old son. Oliver and Peter Nickowitz wrote the script, with Fernando Loureiro (Frances Ha) and Guilherme Coelho (Fala Tu) producing via their company Tigresa, along with Eric Binns (Lansky), Jennifer 8. Lee (The Price) and Christopher Lin. Alex Peace-Power is serving as co-producer, with CAA Media Finance representing the film’s distribution rights.

Rannells is a Grammy winner and Tony Award nominee whose recent credits include Peacock’s Girls5eva and Showtime’s Black Monday, along with such films as The Boys in the Band and The Prom.

The WhaleWAVELENGTHS - FEATURESConcrete Valley (Antoine Bourges)De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor)Dry Ground BurningHorse Opera (Moyra Davey)Pacifiction (Albert Serra)Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie)Unrest (Cyril Schäublin)Will-o’-the-Wisp (João Pedro Rodrigues)Wavelenghths - SHORTSAfter Work (Céline Condorelli, Ben Rivers)Bigger on the Inside (Angelo Madsen Minax)Eventide (Sharon Lockhart)F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now (Fox Maxy)Fata Morgana (Tacita Dean)Hors-titre (Wiame Haddad)I Thought the World of You (Kurt Walker)Moonrise (Vincent Grenier)The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo)Puerta a Puerta (Jessica Sarah Rinland, Luis Arnías )The Time That Separates Us (Parastoo Anoushahpour)What Rules the Invisible (Tiffany Sia)Gala PRESENTATIONSAlice, Darling (Mary Nighy)Black Ice (Hubert Davis)The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly)Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky)The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories...

The Toronto International Film Festival lineup continues to unfold, with TIFF announcing the programs for its Midnight Madness, Discovery, and Wavelengths programs on Thursday. The festival runs September 8 through 18.

“For TIFF audiences in the know, the Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths programmes are where you’re rewarded for taking risks and being adventurous,” offered Anita Lee, TIFF’s chief programming officer. “Whether it’s the discovery of an audacious new auteur, a brilliant visionary work that reimagines storytelling or the most wicked cinematic experience you will ever have, this is where you will find it.”

Discovery

“TIFF’s Discovery program is a showcase of cinema and talent from around the world — a place to unearth work that is bold, distinctive, and, above all, passionate,” said Dorota Lech, Discovery lead and international programmer, TIFF. “This year’s robust program offers 24 films that shook us to the core, filled us with joy,...

New work from Benjamin Millepied, Kim Hongsun, Tim Story populate latest selections.

The Toronto International FiLm Festival has unveiled its Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths strands.

Midnight Madness returns to its 10-film format and will screen at new venue the Royal Alexandra Theatre. The section opens with Eric Appel’s US biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story featuring Daniel Radcliffe in the title role.

The section presents Finecut’s Project Wolf Hunting (South Korea) by Kim Hongsun, whose genre oeuvre includes Metamorphosis and The Chase. Finland has been stepping up its festival presence of late and Jalmari Helander will premiere...

Click here to read the full article.

The Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness sidebar will open with Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, with Daniel Radcliffe playing the prolific musician behind humorous songs like “Eat It” and “Amish Paradise.”

Eric Appel directs the biopic for The Roku Channel that also stars Evan Rachel Wood and will have a world premiere Sept. 8 at TIFF at the Royal Alexandra Theater.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a more appropriate opening night film than Weird: The Al Yankovic Story — a beautifully deranged biopic made in the great Midnight movie tradition of challenging conventions and forging one’s own path, no matter how weird,” Midnight Madness curator Peter Kuplowsky said in a statement Thursday.

The latest additions to the Toronto Film Festival also include the lineups for the Discovery and Wavelengths programs unveiled Thursday.

The gore-filled Midnight Madness program has world bows for Tim Story...

Exclusive: Alex Wolff has signed on to star opposite the previously announced Kiersey Clemons in Sophie Kargman’s thriller, Susie Searches.

Kargman’s feature directorial debut is based on her 2020 short of the same name, in which she starred alongside Delon de Metz, Sam Lerner, Gabriel Notarangelo and Alison Rich. The darkly comic thriller follows Susie (Clemons), an awkward college student who seizes the opportunity to bolster her popularity—and her overlooked true-crime podcast—by solving the disappearance of a classmate. But as her investigation proceeds, we realize that the truth and Susie aren’t at all what they seem.

Wolff will play Jesse, the charismatic college kid whose disappearance sparks Susie’s investigation. While Jesse has become a campus celebrity thanks to his positivity-themed social media platform, it turns out his private life is much more complicated than his online persona suggests.

Kargman wrote the script with William Day Frank.

Producers Adam Mirels and Robbie Mirels of 141 Entertainment, the team behind Ana Lily Amirpour’s hotly anticipated “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon,” which plays Sunday in competition at the Venice Film Festival, have signed an option to remake director-writer Sameh Zoabi’s 2018 Venice Horizons Award entry “Tel Aviv on Fire.” The adaptation will be set on the border between the Sonora region of Mexico and a small Arizona town.

Zoabi’s original film nabbed the best actor award in Venice Horizons and went on to receive a host of international kudos. The film uses comedy to explore the absurdity of everyday life under a militarized border force. The remake will utilize these themes and the universal romantic-comedy at its core.

141 Entertainment will attach a Spanish-speaking writer and director to adapt the work to its new U.S. border setting. Zoabi will remain involved creatively and will also serve...

Aidan Bristow revealed the story behind his new psychological thriller, The Believer, in a new uInterview. “I play Lucas who’s married to Violet, played by Sophie Kargman, and when you meet this couple at the very beginning you see them trying to see if they can salvage their marriage,” Bristow told uInterview’s Erik Meers exclusively. […]

The post Video Exclusive: Aidan Bristow Reveals Story Behind His Thriller ‘The Believer’ appeared first on uInterview.

Available on the following platforms: iTunes, Amazon, AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV, Dish Network and Sling TV, iN Demand, Vubiquity, Hoopla, Vudu, Xbox, Google Play, Youtube Movies and FandangNOW Starring: Sophie Kargman, Aidan Bristow, & Billy Zane Written & Directed By: Shan Serafin Run Time: 91 minutes Synopsis: The Believer is the story of an out-of-work …

The post Horror-thriller The Believer featuring Billy Zane / Releasing appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Fragmented narratives with an unreliable narrator at their heart can make for an interesting puzzle box for viewers but in the case of Shan Serafin's latest, it results in a scattered set-up making it hard to know even where to begin piecing things together let alone bring things together satisfactorily at the end.

But let's start with the basics, which are nice and tight for a low budget - with most of the action taking place within the walls of the home owned by Lucas (Aidan Bristow) and Violet (Sophie Kargman), a young married couple whose relationship is already on the rocks when we meet them. "I don't like all this back and forth," one of them says as they exchange verbal blows over dinner - a sentiment with which the viewer is likely to sympathise as the conversation is not only off-kilter but also so removed from any sort of 'normal' discourse that.

Arriving on Digital platforms today courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media is The Believer from writer/director Shan Serafin. Starring Aidan Bristow, Sophie Kargman, and Billy Zane, the psychological thriller introduces us to an out-of-work scientist (Bristow) suffering from mental degeneration, who struggles with whether or not the strange occurrences happening in his life are real or are all in his head, culminating in a shockingly visceral finale that pushes all the characters into some very dark places.

Recently, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with Bristow about his involvement in The Believer and he discussed his longtime working relationship with Serafin, how he juggled his responsibilities on the film both onscreen and off, his experiences collaborating with his co-stars, and more.

Great to speak with you today, Aiden. Let’s start off at the beginning and chat about how you came aboard The Believer. Had you known Shan before...

Writer-director Emma Seligman brings her feature Shiva Baby to theaters and Tvod starting today — and it is quite a comedic ride.

Released by Utopia, Shiva Baby follows a young woman who is trying to keep the different versions of herself in order when she runs into her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend at a shiva with her parents.

Let’s elaborate on all of that.

Danielle (Rachel Sennott) is a college student on the verge of graduation. She has a sugar daddy Max (Danny Deferrari) that pays her on a regular basis. One day, after rushing from her sugar daddy to her neurotic parents’ family shiva, she is given the third degree by various estranged relatives about her appearance and lack of post-grad plans. Meanwhile, her ex-girlfriend, Maya (Molly Gordon) is getting all the praise because she got into law school.

Things take even more of a turn when her...

Distrust between a husband and wife gradually grows into something sinister in the new movie The Believer, and ahead of its April 2nd release on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Cable, and Satellite On Demand, we've been provided with an exclusive clip to share with Daily Dead readers!

Below, you can watch our exclusive "Held Captive" clip from The Believer, and to learn more, visit:

https://www.facebook.com/Believer.Movie https://www.instagram.com/believer.movie/

Written and directed by Shan Serafin, The Believer stars Sophie Kargman, Aidan Bristow, and Billy Zane.

Synopsis: "The Believer is the story of an out-of-work scientist facing mental deterioration finds he may be battling his wife's obsession with demonic activity. Lucas is an out-of-work nuclear scientist, struggles with tension in his marriage after his wife Violet mysteriously terminates her pregnancy without his consent. As Lucas’ physical health begins to inexplicably deteriorate, Violet...

"If my child were evil, would you kill it?" Freestyle Digital Media has released an official trailer for an indie film titled The Believer, from filmmaker Shan Serafin. This horror-thriller hasn't shown up at any festivals or elsewhere and is getting a VOD release next month. Not to be confused with the 2001 skinheads film also titled The Believer, this indie isn't getting much of a big opening. Serafin's The Believer is a psychological thriller involving demonology within the context of marital strife. A scientist attempts to consult a therapist for help with his wife's increasingly bizarre and erratic behavior. But they eventually discover she might be possessed, or something like that. Gaslighting: The Movie, anyone? The cast includes Sophie Kargman as Violet, with Aidan Bristow, Susan Wilder, Lindsey Ginter, and Billy Zane. So many strange things going on in this trailer, but there's not enough Billy Zane in here to...

Kiersey Clemons will star in 141 Entertainment’s “Susie Searches,” a darkly comic thriller from Sophie Kargman.

“Susie Searches” centers on Susie (Clemons), an awkward college student who seizes the opportunity to bolster her popularity and her under-the-radar true-crime podcast by solving the disappearance of a classmate. Her investigation reveals that the truth and Susie aren’t at all what they seem to be.

Kargman will direct from a script by William Day Frank — the feature is based on a short film that the two previously made. Clemons will also serve as an executive producer on the project. Production on the film is set to start in London early next year.

“I’m so excited to be working with Sophie Kargman on such a dark and witty film,” said Clemons in a statement. “I fell in love with the heart and peculiarity of Susie right away. Stories like this, starring...