News

Exclusive: London and Paris-based production and sales company Film Constellation has unveiled a first teaser trailer for Charlie Chaplin doc Chaplin: Spirit Of The Tramp, directed by his granddaughter, Carmen Chaplin.

The film, an intimate portrait of the comic icon from inside the family circle, will get its world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival next month.

Th feature tells the story of Chaplin’s family as they embark on a journey into the Gypsy heritage that helped inspire his infamous and beloved character, The Tramp.

It marks the first time the Chaplin family has collaborated so extensively on a documentary about their famed relative, with narration by Michael J. Chaplin, and interviews with Geraldine Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin, Jane Chaplin and Christopher Chaplin.

Also among talking heads are filmmakers, actors and performers including Johnny Depp, Emir Kusturica, Tony Gatlif, Stochelo Rosenberg, Lita Cabellut, and Farruquito.

BTeam will release the film in Spain,...

Film Constellation has taken international sales rights to “Chaplin, Spirit of the Tramp,” a feature documentary directed by Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Carmen Chaplin, and set to world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

The documentary delivers an intimate portrait of the iconic English-born Hollywood filmmaker and comedian from within his family, and explores his Romani roots, which inspired the creation of his beloved character the Tramp. The doc boasts interviews, film extracts, home movies and contributions from renowned contemporary Roma artists including Tony Gatlif, Stochelo Rosenberg, Lita Cabellut and Farruquito, among others.

Carmen Chaplin’s directorial feature debut benefits from unprecedented access to the Chaplin estate, thanks to the participation of the Chaplin Office, the Chaplin family and MK2 films. The director spoke to many relatives, including Michael J. Chaplin, Geraldine Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin, Jane Chaplin and Christopher Chaplin.

“The story of my grandfather, Charlie Chaplin, has been told many times,...

Vikings TV series aired from 2013 to 2020, focusing on the historical saga of the Lodbrok family. The show centered on Ragnar Lothbrok's rise to power as a Viking warrior and king with a focus on his sons. Actors like Travis Fimmel, Katheryn Winnick, and Gustaf Skarsgård brought these characters to life with extensive training.

The cast of Vikings was in charge of bringing to life some of the most notable characters from history and legends, and many of these actors have become well-known names. In 2013, Michael Hirst brought the historical drama Vikings, which, even though wasn’t entirely historically accurate, gave the audience an idea of what some of the biggest names in Viking history did and their impact. Vikings aired from 2013 to 2020 for a total of six seasons, and though the final seasons weren’t as popular as the first ones, Vikings maintained its popularity until its final episode.

Inspired...

Chris Huvane, a partner and manager at Hollywood firm Management 360 and former magazine editor and PR executive, died Sunday night. He was 47.

The cause was an apparent suicide, according to Deadline. Huvane had been open about his battles with depression. He is survived by two brothers: Slate PR partner Stephen Huvane and CAA managing partner Kevin Huvane.

His clients at Management 360 included Margot Robbie, Julianne Moore, Zoey Deutch, Zach Braff, the late Chadwick Boseman and Margaret Qualley.

“We are devastated beyond words this morning, Chris was simply ‘the best of the best,” Huvane’s partners said in a statement. “A brilliant manager, consummate colleague and friend, a rock of our company and our culture, beloved by every single person who ever met him. It’s an incalculable loss and our hearts go out to his family and friends. We are all better for having known Chris, and we commit...

Raymond Ablack, Laura Hopper, Sean Amsing and Emilio Solfrizzi have joined the cast of Netflix’s new rom-com “Love in the Villa.”

Starring Kat Graham and Tom Hopper, “Love in the Villa” follows a young woman who takes a romantic trip to Verona, Italy after a break up. When she arrives to find that that villa she reserved was double-booked, she has to share her vacation with a cynical (yet very good-looking) British man. Ablack plays the woman’s ex-boyfriend.

Set to be released on the streamer in 2022, the rom-com is written, directed and produced by Mark Steven Johnson, with Margret Huddleston and Stephanie Slack producing for Off Camera Entertainment.

The new movie marks a continuation of Ablack’s relationship with the streamer after appearing in “Maid,” “Ginny & Georgia” and “Narcos.” In “Ginny & Georgia,” Ablack plays Joe, the owner of the local farm-to-table restaurant who can’t help...

Chicago – The “caper” film, Aka the heist film, is one of the old reliable genres in the movies, and usually involves a gang of mismatched thieves. “Finding Steve McQueen” goes all the way back to the 1970s to spotlight a based-on-truth burglary that involves Tricky Dick himself, President Richard M. Nixon.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The gang is led by the underrated character actor William Fichtner (probably best known as the gun-waving astronaut in ‘Armageddon”), who depends on a dim-but-reliable car enthusiast played by Travis Fimmel, whose story is the focus of the film. The title is a reference to the Fimmel character’s love for the King of Cool, movie star Steve McQueen, and many of the film’s incidences either alludes to or directly comments upon McQueen’s films. Director Mark Steven Johnson (“Ghost Rider”) also does some fancy timeline jumping, as the film begins in 1980, but tells the story of...

“Finding Steve McQueen” is a ramshackle indie heist drama that has a little bit (but not much) to do with Steve McQueen. The film’s central figure, a green-behind-the-ears thief named Harry Barber (Travis Fimmel), idolizes the squinty star of “Bullitt,” for all the reasons one might have back in 1972, when most of the movie is set. McQueen was then at the height of his popularity, but his star cachet, going back to films like “The Great Escape” and “The Cincinnati Kid,” predated the counterculture, and that was the mark of his mystique. In a New Hollywood overrun with shaggy idols like Warren Beatty and Elliott Gould, McQueen, with his baby-faced scowl, was the last neo-’50s maverick romantic stud, a guy too square to be hip and, for that reason, too hip to be square.

“Bullitt,” the movie that launched a thousand car chases, was the rubber-meets-the-road apex of the McQueen swagger,...

The fast-paced, somewhat goofy Finding Steve McQueen trailer makes this heist comedy look like a weird hybrid of Baby Driver, The Old Man and the Gun and The Nice Guys. Except…it doesn’t look as good as any of those films. But any movie with William Fichtner can’t be all bad! Despite the title, this doesn’t have anything to do with […]

The post ‘Finding Steve McQueen’ Trailer: It’s Like ‘Baby Driver’, But With Richard Nixon appeared first on /Film.

"That's when it all started to go sideways." Momentum Pictures has debuted an official trailer for a crime comedy titled Finding Steve McQueen, a new film directed by Mark Steven Johnson. Not to be confused with the biopic film about actor Steve McQueen, titled Chasing Bullitt, this film is about some thieves from Ohio and it doesn't really involve the iconic actor. Set in 1972, a gang of close-knit thieves based in Youngstown, Ohio attempt to steal $30 million in illegal contributions and blackmail money from President Richard Nixon's secret fund. All based on a true story, of course. Travis Fimmel (from Warcraft) stars, along with Rachael Taylor, William Fichtner, Forest Whitaker, Lily Rabe, Jake Weary, Rhys Coiro, and Louis Lombardi. This really looks quite boring. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Mark Steven Johnson's Finding Steve McQueen, from YouTube: When an unlikely gang of thieves from Youngstown, Ohio attempt to...

Joseph Baxter Oct 29, 2019

HBO Max will now be home to the series Raised by Wolves, an interplanetary TV series developed by Ridley Scott.

HBO Max is boosting its lineup of genre television with the help of the legendary Ridley Scott for a TV offering called Raised by Wolves. Originally slated for TNT, the series has moved to HBO Max, which is set to launch in Spring 2020. The 10-episode series recently wrapped shooting. No release date has been set.

The show is the creation of Aaron Guzikowski, writer of director Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed Hugh Jackman/Jake Gyllenhaal crime drama, Prisoners, Jason Momoa TV series The Red Road and the Rami Malek-starring remake of Papillon. Indeed, Guzikowski will serve as writer, executive producer and showrunner. Scott serves as an executive producer via Scott Free alongside David W. Zucker, Jordan Sheehan, and Madhouse Entertainment’s Adam Kolbrenner and Robyn Meisinger.

Raised...

Exclusive: Identity Films, Hyperion Media Group and Sea Change Media set Black List writer Rosalind Ross to script Black Sam, the true-life story of vigilante pirate Samuel Bellamy. Casey Affleck will produce under his Sea Change Media banner, along with Anthony Mastromauro for Identity Films and Hyperion’s Michael Mailis. Sea Change’s head of development and production, Whitaker Lader, will be exec producer.

Black Sam is the true story of Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy, an impoverished colonist turned pirate who waged a year-long war against British oppression in the early 18th century. Dubbed “Sam the Good,” Bellamy was considered the Robin Hood of pirates; he ruled his fleet democratically, freed slaves, and stole from wealthy, British merchants to give to the poor. Despite his short career, Sam remains the wealthiest pirate in recorded history.

Ross scripted the WWII drama Destroyer, which Mel Gibson will direct, and Barbie and Ruth...

In today’s film news roundup, Amy Adams’ “The Woman in the Window” is dated, Jim Gaffigan’s comedy special gets a theatrical release and Andrea Iervolino gets an award.

Release Dates

Fox has given an awards-season release date of Oct. 4, 2019 to Amy Adams’ psychological thriller “The Woman In The Window,” with Joe Wright directing.

Tracy Letts wrote the screenplay with Scott Rudin and Eli Bush producing. “The Woman in the Window” is based on A.J. Finn’s best-selling novel, which debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and remains the biggest-selling adult fiction title of 2018.

The story centers on a woman who’s a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine, watching old movies, recalling happier times and spying on her neighbors.

Adams has been nominated for five Academy Awards for best supporting actress for “Junebug...

Cornerstone Films and German production company X Filme are teaming up with producer Joel Michaels on a remake of Michaels’ 1980 supernatural horror “The Changeling,” Cornerstone announced Wednesday in Cannes.

The film marks the first joint film production under the partnership between German’s Beta Cinema and Cornerstone, which was announced in February when Beta bought a minority stake in the London and L.A. based international sales company. The two company’s are partnering to produce, finance, distribute and sell distinctive, commercially driven English-language features for contemporary audiences. Beta acquired a strategic stake in X Filme in February last year. Cornerstone was set up in April 2015 by Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder (pictured).

Mark Steven Johnson will write and direct the update of “The Changeling,” which follows a musician who returns to his childhood home following the death of his young daughter where, after a series of terrifying events, he...

Ambi Media Group co-founder and CEO Andrea Iervolino is launching TaTaTu, a blockchain-based platform intertwining social media activity with entertainment viewing.

TaTaTu rewards users to watch movies, television episodes and other forms of content. Users receive additional rewards from their friends’ viewing by offering digital tokens for views generated both by themselves and

from their friends. The token will reward users and allow advertisers to pay for advertising on the platform.

Ambi made the announcement Monday, the day before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.

The company said the TaTaTu platform allows users to invite their friends via their social media to join, watch and create videos that can be shared with friends, chat with other members, and share the content they like. Select titles from the Ambi Media Group library will be among the first content offerings through TaTaTu.

“Social networks and entertainment platforms are making huge profit...

Saboteur Media handles sales. Australian production to commence principal photography this month.

Travis Fimmel and Luke Bracey will star in Vietnam War film Danger Close, one of the marquee titles on a New York-based Saboteur Media slate that president of distribution Mark Lindsay will introduce in Cannes next week.

Richard Roxburgh and Daniel Webber also star in the Australian production that Kriv Stenders (Red Dog) will direct from a screenplay by Stuart Beattie.

Danger Close chronicles the events of August 18 1966 in south Vietnam, where for three-and-a-half hours in torrential rain a largely inexperienced company of Australian and New Zealand soldiers...

Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Ambi Group will finance and produce the comedy “The Devil May Care,” with Argentinian director Gabriela Tagliavini helming, Variety has learned exclusively.

Tagliavini directed the Mexican comedy “Como cortar a tu patán” (“How to Break Up With Your Douchebag”); “Border Run,” starring Sharon Stone; “Without Men,” with Eva Longoria, Kate del Castillo, and Christian Slater; and the 2003 Spanish-language breakout “Ladies’ Night.” She exec produced Ambi’s “Beyond the Sun.”

“The Devil May Care” is a comedic love story between the devil (in the body of a man) and a kindhearted woman. Written by Tagliavini and Octavio Marin, the story finds a listless Lucifer, bored with the ease at which humans can be tempted in these modern times, until he discovers a woman who could be the last remaining pure soul on earth. He sets off to tempt, corrupt, and capture her soul by borrowing...

The Badlands can be a very dangerous place nowadays.

Rhys Coiro stars in this intense thriller Valley of Bones about a paleontologist discovering a T-rex bone in the Badlands of North Dakota. She enlists the help of a recovering meth addict, but eventually their shady pasts caught up with them.

The film also stars Autumn Reeser, Steven Molony, Mason Mahay, Alexandra Billings, Bill Smitrovich and Mark Margolis. It is directed by Dan Glaser.

Lrm got a chance to sit-down to speak with Rhys Coiro one-on-one in Los Angeles about his role in Valley of Bones. He plays the brother to Autumn Reeser’s character in the film. It was a refreshing role, in which he was known playing bad boys or bad guys for most of his career. He also discussed about North Dakota film production, which is a rarity for any films to be produced there due to distance,...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

-Sony Pictures is acquiring the worldwide rights to “Greyhound,” the World War II drama written by Tom Hanks, Deadline reports. Hanks will also star in the film, which will be directed by Aaron Schneider (“Get Low”), and produce with his Playtone partner Gary Goetzman.

In the film, Hanks plays George Krause, the commander of a Navy destroyer called the Greyhound. Sony acquired the rights to the film at the Berlin International Film Festival’s European Film Market.

Read More: Shia Labeouf, Rooney Mara and More: 10 Hot Projects at Berlin’s European Film Market

-Lionsgate has acquired U.S. rights to action film “Rally Car,” starring Keanu Reeves. The film will be directed by Olivier Megaton (“Taken 2,...

Open Road Films has acquired all U.S. distribution rights to the heist movie “Finding Steve McQueen,” directed by Mark Steven Johnson (“Ghost Rider,” “Daredevil,” “Elektra”) and staring Forest Whitaker, Travis Fimmel (“Warcraft,” “Vikings”), William Fichtner (“The Dark Night,” “Armageddon”) and… Continue Reading →...

Finding Steve McQueen is being sold at the Efm by Ambi.

Open Road Films has acquired Us distribution rights to heist film Finding Steve McQueen, directed by Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider, Daredevil).

The cast includes Vikings star Travis Fimmel, Forest Whitaker, William Fichtner and Rachael Taylor.

Open Road is set to release the film wide in 2018 for Ambi Distribution, the worldwide sales arm of Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Ambi Media Group, which is handling international sales and will introduce the project to foreign distributors at the Efm in Berlin.

The deal was negotiated on behalf of Open Road Films by CEO Tom Ortenberg, chief operating officer and general counsel, Elliott Kleinberg and svp acquisitions, Lejo Pet and by Andrea Iervolino , Silvio Muraglia and Joseph Cohen on behalf of Ambi Media Group and Paradox Studios.

The film is based on a true story about the biggest bank heist in American history, when a gang...

As the European Film Market kicks off in Berlin, Open Road Films has acquired all U.S. distribution rights to the heist movie Finding Steve McQueen, starring Travis Fimmel, Forest Whitaker, William Fichtner and Rachael Taylor.

Mark Steven Johnson directed the project, which is based on the true story of the biggest bank heist in U.S. history. In 1972 a gang of close-knit thieves from Youngstown, Ohio, attempt to steal $30 million in illegal contributions and blackmail money from President Richard Nixon's secret fund. Keith Sharon and Ken Hixon wrote the screenplay.

Open Road is planning a wide release in 2018.

...

Open Road has picked up U.S. rights to heist movie Finding Steve McQueen, directed by Mark Steven Johnson and starring Travis Fimmel, Forest Whitaker, William Fichtner and Rachael Taylor. The deal was announced as the European Film Market gets underway in Berlin. Open Road is planning a wide release in 2018. The movie is based on the true story of the biggest bank heist in U.S. history. In 1972, a gang of close-knit thieves from Youngstown, Ohio, attempted to steal $30M…...