News

Nick Frost, Alicia Silverstone & Kevin Connolly To Star In Dark Comedy ‘Krazy House’

Nick Frost, Alicia Silverstone, and Kevin Connolly have signed on to star in the dark comedy Krazy House from writer-directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil. Production on the pic has just been completed in Amsterdam. The cast is rounded out by Gaite Jansen, Walt Klink, Jan Bijvoet, Chris Peters, and Matti Stooker. Maarten Swart will produce the film for Kaap Holland Film, in a co-production with Haars and van der Kuil. Kaap Holland Film’s Jorn Baars and XYZ’s Todd Brown are executive producers. Splendid Films is handling distribution in the Benelux. XYZ has North American sales rights.

Related: Deadline’s Berlin Film Festival Coverage

TIFF Title ‘The Young Arsonists’ Picked Up By Game Theory

Exclusive: Game Theory Films has acquired US and Canadian rights to The Young Arsonists from filmmaker and artist Sheila Pye.

Small town rural living tends to instill a sense of malaise in youth and neither Nicole (Maddy Martin) nor Veronica (Jenna Warren) are exceptions to that rule. They’ve already made a pact to eventually get out of here for no other reason than to aspire towards something that didn’t seem like a dead-end. Because that’s what life is like now—a purgatory of hardship, tragedy, and sorrow. Nicole’s family mourns the loss of her older brother Seamus (Kyle Meagher) in a farming accident that ultimately left them without a farm. Now Dad is unemployed (Aaron Poole), and Mom (Miranda Calderon) frustrated at their lack of options. Veronica struggles with the loss of her innocence at the hands of an abusive guardian. And neither can fully share their pain.

So they attempt to deal with it through distraction. Nicole continues writing in her journal as though she...

Malcolm McDowell-Narrated Wine Doc

Exclusive: Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) is narrating observational documentary A Wonderful Kingdom, about Portugal’s Douro Valley’s wine region. Set in the mountains of Portugal, the film is a homage to those who take part in the annual harvesting of the season’s grapes, generations-old families who pick, carry and stomp their way through September with blood-red feet, stained by grape juice. The film is set to prose by the poet Miguel Torga. A digital release is coming via Giant Pictures on September 1. Carlos Carneiro directs for Vacationland Studio.

Canadian Indie Pic Begins

Exclusive: Principal photography has begun on Sheila Pye’s directorial debut The Young Arsonists. The film will shoot through to the first week of September on location in Caledonia, Ontario. Pic follows four teenage girls during a 1980s summer of discovery, arson, friendship and death. Set amongst the sparse landscape of an isolated farming community,...