News

Issa Rae is driving toward her next feature project.

The Emmy-nominated actress is set to produce and star in director Ninian Doff’s comedic thriller Good People, Bad Things. MRC is financing the movie that counts Rae’s Hoorae banner and Present Company Inc. as producers.

Good People, Bad Things focuses on Rae as a stressed-out woman who finds herself lost in an apparently infinite parking garage and soon realizes she is not alone. The film marks Rae’s third MRC project following 2020’s The Lovebirds and 2023’s American Fiction.

Doff is helming the movie from his own script. His previous credits include the horror-comedy feature Get Duked! and the Grammy-nominated video for the Chemical Brothers’ “We’ve Got to Try.”

Producers for Good People, Bad Things include Rae, Laura Tunstall, Stephanie Wilcox and Montrel McKay. Executive producing is Sara Rastogi for Hoorae, along with Michelle Craig and Piero Frescobaldi.

Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Issa Rae is set to star in and produce comedic thriller Good People, Bad Things from Get Duked! filmmaker Ninian Doff, per Deadline.

Rae stars as “an overwhelmed woman who gets lost in a seemingly infinite parking garage and soon discovers she is not alone.”

It’s that intriguing liminal tidbit about the setting, combined with Doff’s attachment, that suggests another fun genre-bender on the way.

Get Duked! won the Audience Award in the Midnighters section of SXSW before debuting on Prime Video, which is still available to stream, and was nominated for Best Debut Director at the British Independent Film Awards.

I wrote in my review for Doff’s debut that it’s “a silly stoner comedy about teen delinquents bumbling their way across the Highlands contains every bit of the stupidity and hijinks you’d expect. All with major style. What you don’t expect going in,...

Exclusive: MRC is set to finance Good People, Bad Things, a new comedic thriller produced by and starring Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Issa Rae (Insecure).

Written and directed by Scottish filmmaker Ninian Doff (Get Duked!), the film follows an overwhelmed woman (Rae) who gets lost in a seemingly infinite parking garage and soon discovers she is not alone. The project will be Rae’s third with the studio, following Cord Jefferson’s recent Oscar winner American Fiction and Netflix comedy The Lovebirds.

Laura Tunstall and Stephanie Wilcox will produce under their and Doff’s new banner Present Company Inc., along with Rae and Montrel McKay for Hoorae. Hoorae’s Sara Rastogi is exec producing alongside Michelle Craig and Piero Frescobaldi.

Best known for creating and starring in HBO’s Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-nominated comedy Insecure, Rae has most recently been seen starring opposite Emma Corrin and Awkwafina in “Hotel Reverie,...

Between Slotherhouse arriving on Hulu, buddy comedy Shaky Shivers arriving on Screambox, and the theatrical release of Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, this week belongs to the horror comedy. Horror comedies also happen to make for perfect Halloween viewing, as they frequently offer tricks and treats in the form of laughs and scares. Naturally, this week’s streaming picks are dedicated to horror comedies, emphasizing lesser-seen titles.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein – Prime Video

This is the first of many movies in which the comedic pair encounter Universal Monsters, and it’s a delightful mashup all ages can enjoy. Here, Lon Chaney Jr.’s Larry Talbot tries to warn Chick (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur (Lou Costello) that Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) has arrived in their town with nefarious plans to...

“Lord of the Rings” star Elijah Wood is to return to New Zealand in the leading role of “Bookworm,” a family adventure-comedy to be directed by Ant Timpson. The project is being launched next week at the American Film Market by sales agent Mister Smith Entertainment.

The film’s story sees 12-year-old Mildred’s life turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise (Wood), comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness. There the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding – a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.

Considering that Mildred has read every book on camping, but never been into the wilds, and that Strawn is more at home on the Las Vegas strip than in the Southern Alps, the potential for mishap is significant.

Saving the world one robot at a time! This is just a commercial for Ikea, but it's so much fun and the robot is so adorable, we can't help sharing it anyway. The 60-second ad spot is called "Change a Bit for Good" and it follows a robot around a futuristic world. He/she/it sees a banner for a movie about defender droids with the tagline "save the planet!" So it decides to become a hero and start cleaning up pollution to actually save our planet. The idea is meant to inspire individual action. Ikea explains: "We've set the ambitious goal of becoming fully circular and climate positive by 2030. It's not just about how we do business, but also about wanting to inspire and support customers in taking action too." Made by Pulse Films director Ninian Doff and a VFX studio called "nineteentwenty". I'd honestly watch a series about this friendly robot family.

Get Duked! picked up the Midnighters Audience at SXSW 2019 (under its original title Boyz In The Wood) and its brand of dark comedy and satire really resonated with those that watched it. During these times we need some good and silly laughs and Scottish filmmaker Ninian Doff gives us just that. Want a good laugh? Check out this extended clip from the movie which features one of the film's funniest moments. In the film, while deep in the Scottish Highlands on a camping…...

This past weekend, we had a trio of films that were released on a variety of platforms and streaming services: the survival horror film Centigrade, Mj Bassett’s latest action-centric project, Rogue, and Get Duked!, a wonderfully off-beat horror comedy from first-time feature director Ninian Doff. Here’s a look at my thoughts on this diverse trio of films that you can currently check out for yourself, all from the comfort of your own home (Centigrade is also currently playing in select drive-in theaters).

Centigrade: As a huge fan of tales of survival horror, Brendan Walsh’s Centigrade turned me into a tension-filled mess, and as the film progressed, I only got increasingly more and more stressed out for the film’s characters and their terrifying predicament. Walsh immediately throws viewers right into the thick of things, as the film opens with Naomi (Genesis Rodriguez) and Matt (Vincent Piazza...

It seems only natural that filmmaker Ninian Doff recruited music supervisors Sophie Urquhart and producer-turned-supe Bobby Perman, aka S-Type, for his off-kilter feature debut “Get Duked!” (previously known as “Boyz in the Wood”), since it marries horror and satire.

Doff didn’t want a traditional horror sound; he sought a score and soundtrack that were reflective of his characters. And with S-Type’s background in hip-hop and electronica, and Urquhart’s diverse repertoire as a creative at the U.K.’s Tin Drum Music consultancy, they were the perfect pair to create that environment.

“Get Duked” (streaming on Amazon Prime) follows four teenagers — Dean (Rian Gordon), Duncan (Lewis Gribben), Ian (Samuel Bottomley) and the self-proclaimed rapper DJ “Beatroot” (Viraj Juneja) — as they arrive in the Scottish Highlands to complete a hike as part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. They soon find themselves the target of hunters who cull teenagers,...

Get Duked's premise is a hilarious one in that the Duke of Edinburgh aka Prince Philip is secretly killing off slackers in the Scottish Highlands. CineMovie talked to director Ninian Doff and the cast about this black comedy that's a cross between Trainspotting, The Purge and Beavis And Butthead. CineMovie zoomed with the writer/director and stars Samuel Bottomley, Lewis Gribben and Viraj Juneja to talk about the wild movie, and whether they need to watch their backs with the British royals. ...

The influential power of Danny Boyle’s drug-freakout cult classic “Trainspotting” is alive and well for a generation of filmmakers even 25 years later, and its legacy as an Add-addled dark comedy is most recently apparent in “Get Duked!” The feature directorial debut of music video and short filmmaker Ninian Doff, originally going by the vexing title of “Boyz in the Wood,” is a high-energy four-hander about a group of teens who set out into the Scottish Highlands on a camping competition trip. And its energy is perhaps too high, bouncing from one set piece to another so much that it becomes almost dizzying. But that’s fitting for a movie about a quartet of Generation Zers stuck in the wilderness and deprived of their smartphones. Still, Patient, slow cinema this is not.

“Get Duked!” gets off to an immediately overcaffeinated start, and pretty much maintains that level of energy, as...

A drunk and stoned group of young dudes don’t make for the stealthiest cat-burgling team, but they’re definitely fun to watch. In the new video for Run the Jewels’ “Out of Sight,” four friends traipse through a palatial estate, while dodging laser beams and trying not to trip over their own feet. They eventually find what they’re looking for: a set of golden gloves — just like the ones pictured on the RTJ4 album cover — and a case of glowing jewels that trigger a psychedelic experience when eaten.

Ninian Doff’s comedy Get Duked! wasn’t really on my radar earlier this year (back when it was called Boyz in the Wood), but I decided to give it a go, and I’m glad I did. It has the gleeful anarchy I enjoy in films like Hot Fuzz, Attack the Block, and Sightseers where domestic tranquility is shattered by violence, and that violence is greeted by silly dark comedy. It’s a unique mixture that’s more common to British comedy than it is for the U.S., and that combination gives Get Duked! its pop. You should …...

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.

Bad Vacations

I imagine your summer plans didn’t go as expected, but in at least a few films in a new Criterion Channel series, some characters have it worse off than having to quarantine inside. Titled Bad Vacations, the collection includes Bonjour tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958), La collectionneuse (Éric Rohmer, 1967), The Deep (Peter Yates, 1977), House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977), Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978), The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer, 1986), The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990), The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990), Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997), Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001), La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001), Unrelated (Joanna Hogg, 2007), and Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012).

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Epicentro (Hubert Sauper)

“This is utopia, bright and burning.

Arriving on Amazon Prime this Friday, August 28th, is writer/director Ninian Doff’s genre-bending comedy Get Duked! The film follows four students who set out for a skills-building excursion in the Scottish Highlands, but the quartet get more than they bargained for when they realize they’re being hunted for sport, and must find a way to survive.

Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with Doff about Get Duked!, and he discussed how his experiences working in the realm of music videos helped him while making this project, his experiences working with his stellar ensemble, the challenges of shooting in the Highlands in August, and more.

With your background, working in music videos served you extremely well for this. And I was wondering if you could go back to the beginning for the genesis of this film and discussed what inspired the story and your approach. And...

To celebrate the release of Get Duked, the new comedy satire that streams on Amazon Prime Video this week, we sat down the film’s creator and its cast to chat about the film’s long-awaited release.

Set in the blush countrysides of Scotland, Get Duked is an anarchic satire of generational politics, hip-hop loving farmers, and hallucinogenic rabbit shites that pits the youth of tomorrow against the status quo of yesterday.

Related: Our 4-star review for the film.

Chatting to Doff about the film’s genesis, he told us about the difficulties of getting the film made, the influence of The Goonies (a film we have some affection for here at the site), and how Spider-Man Tobey Maguire helped get the film seen. With the guys, they spoke about the friendships they had made, how they are now ready for any new film challenges after working in the biting...

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a real and very British phenomenon; a perplexing mix of activities to challenge, empower and mildly endanger teenagers which concludes by setting them loose in the countryside with a map, a compass and a pat on the back. Get Duked! wisely focuses on the weirdness of the expedition portion and exploits its eccentricities to delightful effect.

The dreadful behaviour of a trio of toilet-detonating mates – Duncan, Dean and DJ Beatroot – finds them ‘volunteered’ for the DofE scheme as a final chance to straighten up. Baffled by both the welcome video and the very concept of orienteering the boys reluctantly hit the Highlands-bound minibus armed with all their survival essentials: sick beats, jelly sweets and box-fresh trainers.

Making the journey alongside them, easily overlooked but better prepared, is homeschooled DofE enthusiast Ian (Samuel Bottomley) and his laminated checklists. New teacher Mr Carlyle (Jonathan Aris) provides maps,...

Based on the title alone, you’d be forgiven for dismissing formerly titled Boyz in the Wood as a non-genre riff on 1991’s acclaimed Boyz n the Hood. Even the limited marketing for the film points toward a comedic Highlands set spoof, far removed from horror. The truth is that director/writer Ninian Doff’s feature debut is a little […]...

The peaceful Scottish highlands hide a bloody secret in writer/director Ninian Doff's hilarious rural nightmare Get Duked! (originally titled Boyz in the Wood). A trio of teenage miscreants are given one last chance to turn their lives around by completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award trek across the highlands. Along for ride is one little overachiever who is in this for the opportunity to pad his CV. They don't have anything in common, but the ragtag quartet are dropped in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a map and they have to work together to reach their campsite before dark. However, they aren't as alone as they think, and soon they are being stalked by wealthy aristocrats playing The Most Dangerous Game, and they...

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

Teamwork. Orienteering. Foraging. Three tasks that shouldn’t be too difficult to complete when bolstered by your best friends on a hiking trip en route to earning the Duke of Edinburgh Award. It’s going to be a challenge, but most who seek it do so with open eyes because of what the accolade means on their university applications. They want to be their best, will follow the map to the letter, and meet their chaperone at the midway campsite and coastal finish line with smiles on their faces. But as years passed, fewer teens actually still cared about a stuffy award forcing them to put their phones in their pockets and traverse the Scottish Highlands. It became a punishment teachers used to escape their troublemakers for a couple of days.

That’s exactly why Dean (Rian Gordon), Duncan (Lewis Gribben), and DJ (Viraj Juneja) find themselves in the middle of nowhere without reception.

What surely would have made a good reality-tv series — three juvenile delinquents from the big city, plus an awkward kid with no friends, are dropped in the Scottish Highlands and left to find their way back to civilization — works even better as a dark comedy goof when a couple of lunatics start shooting at them from afar. The stakes are high, but so are half the characters in Ninian Doff’s irreverent survivalist satire, which makes this deranged camping trip — with its phallocentric hip-hop jams, improvised pyrotechnics and hallucinogenic rabbit droppings — all the more unforgettable.

As debut features go, “Get Duked!” — or “Boyz in the Wood,” as this future cult classic was called when it won an audience award at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival — serves as. Music-video director Doff’s as wicked as Ben Wheatley and as wacky as Guy Ritchie in the style department, bringing urban attitude to this totally unexpected setting.

"You won't get away with this!" Amazon Prime Video has released an official trailer for an indie highlands comedy titled Get Duked!, which won the Midnighters Audience Award at last year's SXSW Film Festival. Formerly known as Boyz in the Wood, it has been given a new title for its US release this month. Set deep in the Scottish Highlands, the film follows wild teenage friends out on a character-building camping trip. With plans to do nothing but get high in the woods, the boys must face a shadowy force hell-bent on extinguishing their futures. From writer-director Ninian Doff comes an anarchic satire of generational politics, hip-hop loving farmers and hallucinogenic rabbit droppings that pits the youth of tomorrow against the status quo of yesterday. Starring Samuel Bottomley, Rian Gordon, Lewis Gribben, Viraj Juneja, Kate Dickie, Kevin Guthrie, Jonathan Aris, Georgia Glen, Alice Lowe, Brian Pettifer, with James Cosmo and Eddie Izzard.

Amazon Studios has launched the first red band trailer for the anarchic satire ‘Get Duked’.

Dean, Duncan and DJ Beatroot are teenage pals from Glasgow who embark on the character-building camping trip — based on a real-life program — known as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, where foraging, teamwork and orienteering are the order of the day.

Eager to cut loose and smoke weed in the Scottish Highlands, the trio finds themselves paired with straight-laced Ian, a fellow camper determined to play by the rules. After veering off-path into remote farmland that’s worlds away from their urban comfort zone, the boys find themselves hunted down by a shadowy force hell-bent on extinguishing their futures.

Written and directed by Ninian Doff — making his feature debut after a slew of award-winning music videos and short films – the film stars Samuel Bottomley, Rian Gordon, Lewis Gribben, Viraj Juneja, Kate Dickie, Kevin Guthrie, Jonathan Aris,...

Formerly titled Boyz in the Wood, we have the trailer for Get Duked!, which will be making its way to Amazon Prime on August 28th:

Synopsis: "Dean, Duncan and DJ Beatroot are teenage pals from Glasgow who embark on the character-building camping trip — based on a real-life program — known as the Duke of Edinburgh Award, where foraging, teamwork and orienteering are the order of the day. Eager to cut loose and smoke weed in the Scottish Highlands, the trio finds themselves paired with straight-laced Ian, a fellow camper determined to play by the rules. After veering off-path into remote farmland that's worlds away from their urban comfort zone, the boys find themselves hunted down by a shadowy force hell-bent on extinguishing their futures. From writer-director Ninian Doff — making his feature debut after a slew of award-winning music videos and short films for artists including Run the Jewels, Miike Snow, Migos,...

After blowing folks' minds on the genre festival circuit, the genre-breaking, very British freakout known as Get Duked! is coming to Amazon on August 28. If you're looking for a film that offers the class-satire hunting people horrors of Ready or Not with the English youth culture of Attack the Block, you may have just found your new favorite movie. The directorial debut of famed music video director Ninian Doff, Get Duked! follows a group of young British children who love hip-hop, talking shit, and absolutely not going through a youth program that makes them camp …...

After a career collaborating on music videos for Run the Jewels, Miike Snow, Migos, Mykki Blanco, and more, Ninian Doff has made his directorial debut with Get Duked!, formerly titled Boyz in the Wood. An Audience Award winner in the Midnights section at SXSW last year, the adventure features a camping trip in the Scottish Highlands that gets wild as a group of boys who get hunted down. The new U.S. trailer has now landed ahead of a late August release on Amazon Prime, which shows the anarchic spirit and hallucinogenic fun on display.

In our forthcoming review, Jared Mobarak was a fan, saying, “Writer/director Ninian Doff knows that his film Get Duked! can’t just be about dropping three flunkies down on a perilous hilltop since they’ll end up accidentally killing themselves after five minutes. He needs someone present who at least knows the definition of...

Amazon Studios has acquired worldwide rights to writer/director Ninian Doff’s feature film debut Boyz In The Wood exclusively for Amazon Prime Video. The film stars Eddie Izzard, Kate Dickie, Georgie Glen, James Cosmo and a dynamic young cast of discoveries featuring Samuel […]

The post Amazon Studios Snags Horror Comedy/Festival Darling Boyz In The Wood appeared first on Dread Central.

Exclusive: Amazon Studios has acquired the worldwide rights to Ninian Doff’s debut feature Boyz In The Wood which stars Izzard, Kate Dickie, Georgie Glen, James Cosmo and a up-and-comers Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja, Rian Gordon and Lewis Gribben. The horror-comedy made its world premiere as the opening Midnight Movie at SXSW and received rave reviews before moving on to a noteworthy festival run.

Written and directed by Doff and produced by Tobey Maguire and Matthew Plouffe’s Material Pictures, Boyz In The Wood is set deep in the Scottish Highlands and gives an irreverent take on generational politics, hip-hop loving farmers, and hallucinogenic rabbit shites. The satirical story, which features a playlist of tone-appropriate rappers including Danny Brown, Vince Staples, Run The Jewels, and original music from Scottish producer S-Type, follows four city boys trying to escape a mysterious huntsman (Izzard). The Scottish Highlands’ police unit trails behind, failing spectacularly to provide assistance.

Music videos have long been a proving ground for some of the most innovative filmmaking ideas. Sometimes those breakthroughs come as stylistic flourishes. Other times, it means breaking down a simple story to its purest form.

If the 2000s were the decade when music videos embraced the internet, the 2010s were left to reckon with what the internet became. Over 10 years when viral moments were valuable cultural currency, some videos seemed perfectly tailor-made to create them. Whether manufactured to become a sensation or becoming so by pure chance, music videos embraced the weird spirit and sobering reality of the overall trajectory of the decade.

So, acknowledging that winnowing down all that time and creativity to 25 picks is going to inevitably leave out some worthy contributions, here’s our attempt at highlighting the best of what the art form had to offer:

25. Rob Cantor — “Shia Labeouf (Live)” (dir. Scott Uhlfelder)

The 2010s were absurd,...

The nominations for the 2019 British Independent Film Awards have been revealed, and it was a huge morning for Armando Iannucci’s Charles Dickens adaptation “The Personal History of David Copperfield” and Tom Harper’s musical drama “Wild Rose.” “Copperfield” led all movies with 11 nominations, including Best British Indie Film, Best Actor for Dev Patel, and Best Screenplay for Iannucci and co-writer Simon Blackwell. Fox Searchlight has U.S. distribution rights to the movie and has announced a 2020 theatrical release.

“Wild Rose,” which earned a second-best 10 nominations, will also compete for Best British Indie Film against “Bait,” “For Sama,” and “The Souvenir.” “Wild Rose” breakout Jessie Buckley landed a Best Actress nomination opposite Renee Zellweger for “Judy,” which Buckley just so happens to have a supporting role in.

While Zellweger landed in the Best Actress field (which she is widely expected to do all awards season thanks to her acclaimed leading...

Armando Iannucci’s take on the Charles Dickens classic “David Copperfield” is a strong front-runner in the British Independent Film Awards, scoring 11 nominations.

Dev Patel is up for best actor for his starring role in “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” and his co-stars, Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie, compete in their respective supporting categories.

“Wild Rose,” featuring Jessie Buckley as a rising singer, is also a major contender, with 10 nominations. Horror thriller “In Fabric” follows with nine, and Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir” with eight. Dance music feature “Beats,” biopic “Judy,” and documentaries “For Sama” and “Diego Maradona” landed five nods apiece.

British actors Naomi Ackie and Joe Cole unveiled the 2019 nominations in London on Wednesday.

Renee Zellweger gets a best actress nom for her turn as late-career Judy Garland. She will vie with Buckley, Holliday Grainger, Sally Hawkins and Vicky Knight for the award.

For the best actor prize,...

The /slash Film Festival 2019 will celebrate its 10th anniversary and clearly plans on doing so in style! Descending on the Filmcasino, Metro Kinokulturhaus, and Gartenbaukino from September 19 up to and including the 29th, the 2019 edition seems to be its biggest one yet. With a mammoth lineup of 70 films (!) /slash underscores its reputation as Austria’s premiere fantastic film festival. Other than the previously announced Female Terror retrospective and opening night film, The Lodge, this is truly a program full of eyecatchers both big and small. Ninian Doff's Boyz in the Wood - a class satire that winningly mixes hip hop, disaffected youth and a manhunt set in the Scottish highlands - is a well-chosen slice of crowdpleasing entertainment with plenty of heart for...

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

Exclusive: Tango Entertainment has acquired and will produce Joshua Giuliano’s spec script River, a project which the AFI graduate will direct.

River is a contained horror-thriller following three siblings who, after being stranded in a boat on a country river, are stalked by a masked killer. Giuliano wrote and directed the short film In Sound We Live Forever which played on the festival circuit earlier this year and recently received a special mention from Fantasia International Film Festival. The short served as a director’s sample for River and was circulated around town. Giuliano wrote the spec while working as a Postmates delivery driver in Hollywood. He is repped by Good Fear Content, Paradigm and attorney Marios Rush.

Nick Antosca and Alex Hedlund are producing through their Eat the Cat banner. Antosca most recently co-created and showran the Emmy-nominated limited series The Act for Hulu, and is currently posting Antlers,...

The festival has assembled a strong programme for local audiences.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), proudly proclaiming its status as the world’s longest continually-running film festival (running since 1947) wrapped on Sunday with the world premiere of Adrian Noble’s Mrs Lowry & Son, starring Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave.

The festival opened 10 days earlier with the scrappily entertaining Boyz In The Wood by Scottish director Ninian Dorff, setting the tone for the fifth edition under artistic director Mark Adams.

An eclectic range of features was dotted with the UK premieres of significant homegrown films in 2019 so far – Joanna Hogg’s Sundance-winner The Souvenir,...

Edinburgh International Film Festival kicked off last night with director Ninian Doff bringing the blackly comic Boyz in the Hood back to his home city for its European Premiere (you can watch a clip for the film here). The festival, the longest continually running film festival in the world, will run until 30th June and present a rich selection of new and retrospectives titles from around the globe. Taking place in the centre of Edinburgh in the shadow of the historic castle, and with an ever-present buzz around the main festival hub at the Filmhouse cinema, the festival makes for a fantastic place for movie watching (and whisky drinking). As always, this year features a huge selection of films across a number of programme strands....

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

Facing expulsion, three city youths are offered an ultimatum: complete their Duke of Edinburgh Award in the Scottish Highlands and retain their places at school. While their teacher (Jonathan Aris) takes the minibus to the first night’s campsite, Dean (Rian Gordon), Duncan (Lewis Gribben) and DJ Beetroot (Viraj Juneja) are left to their own devices — or rather, to those of Ian (Samuel Bottomley), the only member of the troupe who actually volunteered to be there or who is prepared accordingly. Just miles into the journey however, the boys find themselves off piste and at the mercy of a pair of masked psychopaths — one of them disguised as the Duke of Edinburgh himself.

Part Slaughterhouse Rulez, part Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Boyz in the Wood pits millennial snowflakes against the monsters of yesteryear in what might reasonably be described as this year’s Anna and the Apocalypse, another...

A group of youngsters stuck in the Scottish countryside become the hunted in Ninian Doff’s wacky mashup

Music video director Ninian Doff makes his feature debut with this cheerfully macabre folk horror-comedy set in the rural wilderness. Very often, comedy-horror is a tricky style with each of the two notional genres being alibis for the other’s absence: ie, neither funny nor scary. Not here, though. Boyz in the Wood isn’t perfect (there isn’t really a wood in it as such and the title is a bit strained), but there’s likable wackiness and weirdness, one or two sizable laughs and a very bizarre deus ex machina moment. Doff has mashed up bits of Trainspotting with The League of Gentlemen and some grisly imaginings of his own.

After burning down their school toilet block during an ill-advised attempt to investigate whether human faeces is flammable, three teenagers...

Edinburgh International Film Festival is set to begin, kicking off 2019 with Opening Gala title Boyz in the Wood on 19 June (today). The film received its World Premiere at SXSW this year, where our own J Hurtado praised the film as "one of the highlights" of the festival in his very positive review here, and now the film is heading home. Director Ninian Doff may have made his name making music videos for the likes of Run the Jewels, JJ Doom, and Miike Snow, but he was born and raised in Edinburgh, and is bringing his debut feature back for its first European screening. The film finds three troubled youths, and one bookish tag-along, getting lost in the Scottish Highlands. The situation goes from...

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

must Line-up include sessions on casting, ethical documentary filmmaking and Spain focus.

The industry programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff, June 19-30) has been revealed.

The highlights include a session titled ‘Casting Light on Casting Directors’, featuring members of the Casting Society of America’s European chapter.

‘Minding Non-Fiction’, co-hosted by the Scottish Documentary Institute, will look at ethical documentary filmmaking and best practices for the mental health and wellbeing of both filmmaker and subject.

In the animation section, ‘Women In Animation: The State of the Art’ will feature women working in the sector, looking at...

Eddie Izzard in ‘The Flip Side.’

Five Australian films have been invited to the 73rd edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs from June 19–30.

Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding, Thomas M Wright’s Acute Misfortune, Marion Pilowsky’s The Flip Side and Miranda Nation’s Undertow will screen in the World Perspectives strand.

Tony D’Aquino’s debut feature The Furies, a female-driven survival thriller, will be showcased in the Night Moves strand.

The festival describes D’Aquino’s film, which stars Airlie Dodds, Danielle Horvat, Linda Ngo and Taylor Ferguson, as a “gripping modern take on the 1980s slasher film, full of gore.”

Acute Misfortune is a “striking, brilliant and unconventional portrait” of one of Australia’s most acclaimed and idiosyncratic painters Adam Cullen; The Flip Side is a breezy rom-com about a budding chef and a British actor; Undertow is a tense and moving female-led...

New titles include ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’ and Emily Harris’ ‘Carmilla’.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has launched its full programme with 18 world premieres, 12 international premieres, eight European premieres and 78 UK premieres for its 73rd edition of the festival (June 19-30).

Jamie Adams’ Balance, Not Symmetry, a drama about a Glasgow art student, which has a soundtrack written by Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro, will have its world premiere as the People’s Gala screening at the event. It stars Laura Harrier, Bria Vinaite and Lily Newmark. Biffy Cyro lead singer Simon Neil co-wrote the screenplay with Welsh writer-director Adams.

Edinburgh International Film Festival is set to return for its 73rd year, having recently announced its Opening and Closing Films. As usual the festival, the longest continually running film festival in the world, is shining a spotlight on UK talent with a pair of homegrown film choices to bookend the event. Opening proceedings on 19th June, dark Scottish comedy Boyz in the Wood is the debut feature of music video director Ninian Doff. Billed as a wild and offbeat journey into the Scottish Highlands with doses of drugs, violence and pagan horror, the film features a young cast of up-and-comers, supported by Scottish screen stars James Cosmo (Highlander) and Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones) with Brit favourites Eddie Izzard (Valkyrie) and Alice Lowe (Prevenge) “Four...

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Film stars Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave.

The world premiere of Mrs Lowry & Son will close this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (June 19-30).

The film is directed by Adrian Noble, a former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and depicts the relationship between iconic British artist L.S. Lowry, played by Timothy Spall, and his mother Elizabeth, played by Vanessa Redgrave, with whom he lived until her death.

Mrs Lowry & Son is produced by Genesius Pictures, whose credits include Norhtern Soul and The Railway Children and will be released by Vertigo in the UK and Ireland this summer.

Spall...

Vertigo Releasing has picked up UK and Ireland rights to Orion Pictures’ horror reboot Child’s Play.

Mark Hamill stars as the voice of Chucky, along with Aubrey Plaza (Parks And Recreation), Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta) and Gabriel Bateman (Playmobil The Movie). Lars Klevberg directs from a script by Tyler Burton Smith.

Plaza stars as a single mother who buys her son Andy (Bateman) a Buddi doll, unaware of its more sinister nature. David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith produce under their KatzSmith banner, whose film adaptation of Stephen King’s It earned more than $700M worldwide. Aaron Schmidt and Chris Ferguson executive produced the project, which is set for UK release on June 21, 2019.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival will open on June 19, 2019, with the European premiere of Ninian Doff’s comedy debut Boyz In The Wood. The film, which debuted at SXSW, follows four city boys trying to escape a mysterious huntsman,...

Boyz In The Wood Photo: Courtesy of Eiff Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced it will open its 73rd edition with Boyz In The Wood, on 19 June.

The social satire, directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ninian Doff, stars Eddie Izzard who plays a mysterious Highland hunter who four city boys are trying to escape, as the police force trails behind.

The cast includes established stars Kate Dicke and James Cosmo, alongside newer names Rian Gordon, Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja and Lewis Gribben.

Music video director Doff, who also wrote the script for the film, was one of the first graduates of film group Skamm (Scottish Kids Are Making Movies), held at Edinburgh Filmhouse and run by Shiona Wood, to whom Doff dedicates the film to in the closing credits.

Doff said: “It's hard to put into words what a huge honour it is for me to have Boyz In The Wood...

Ninian Doff’s debut feature is set in the Highlands.

The European premiere of UK director Ninian Doff’s debut feature Boyz In The Wood will open the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) on June 19.

The film made its world premiere at SXSW in March.

Boyz In The Wood is set in the Scottish Highlands and is about four city boys who try to escape a mysterious huntsman. Newcomers Rian Gordon, Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja and Lewis Gribben play the four boys and the supporting cast includes Eddie Izzard, Kate Dickie, James Cosmo and Kevin Guthrie.

The film is produced...

Social satire “Boyz in the Wood,” starring Eddie Izzard, will open the 73rd edition of the Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival on June 19.

Set in the Scottish Highlands, the film follows four city boys trying to escape a mysterious huntsman, played by Izzard, as the Highlands’ police force trails behind. Rian Gordon, Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja and Lewis Gribben lead the cast, which includes Kate Dickie, James Cosmo and Kevin Guthrie.

The film is the debut feature of music video director Ninian Doff, who also penned the script.

Doff said: “I’m from Edinburgh and for my debut film I really wanted to make a film that captured a very particular Scottish joy, madness and humor; and that was also modern, political and forward looking.”

Mark Adams, the festival’s artistic director, described the film as “vibrant, energetic and wonderfully raucous,” adding that it was “a blast from start to finish.

Ninian Doff Goes Brogue While Delinquents Go Scot-Free

Scottish music video-director Ninian Doff offers an uneven but hilarious debut with Boyz in the Wood: a bonkers action-comedy in the style of Edgar Wright, disguised as a full-tilt horror fest. In keeping with its chuckle-worthy title, Doff’s film is hit-or-miss silly, but when you swing for the fences, the hits are all home runs. Just when you think vapid jokes are all this genre-bender has to offer, it veers into uproarious territory, with inter-generational, inter-class profundity lurking under the surface: pious Baby Boomer villains are pitted against hapless Gen Zs; landed gentry are out to annihilate jobless street punks.…...

Much of the buzz at this year’s SXSW Film Festival originated with the starry, studio-driven Headliners category, where Jordan Peele’s “Us” and work-in-progress action-comedy “Stuber” played to enthusiastic audiences. Night after night for nearly the entire nine-day festival, SXSW unveiled such high-profile titles to enthusiastic audiences at Paramount Theater — a major coup for an event that’s proven to Hollywood marketing strategists that it can serve as an ideal launchpad for horror (“A Quiet Place”), action (“Atomic Blonde”), and comedies (“Sausage Party”).

SXSW had a record nine Headliners this year, plus a handful of high-impact political docs, including “Running With Beto” and “Knock Down the House” (the latter one of a dozen films selected to play Austin so soon after Sundance). But such movies make up less than 10% of a festival that’s still first and foremost about discovering and sharing outside-the-box new independent films: SXSW boasts more...

The peaceful Scottish highlands hide a bloody secret in writer/director Ninian Doff's hilarious rural nightmare Boyz in the Wood.  A trio of teenage miscreants are given one last chance to turn their lives around by completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award trek across the highlands. Along for ride is one little overachiever who is in this for the opportunity to pad his CV. They don't have anything in common, but the ragtag quartet are dropped in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a map and they have to work together to reach their campsite before dark. However, they aren't as alone as they think, and soon they are being stalked by wealthy aristocrats playing The Most Dangerous Game, and they only have their wits...

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