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The summer horror movie subgenre spoils us all with an embarrassment of riches, but this also means that whenever people come up with a list of recommendations, the same players make an appearance again and again. At this point, you shouldn't need an online list to tell you that "Jaws" is the ultimate July 4th viewing experience. And considering that "Midsommar," "Summer of '84," and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" have the season in the title of the movie, these are also no-brainer suggestions for summer horror movies. Summer is also the season for summer camp movies, so "Sleepaway Camp," the entire "Friday the 13th" franchise, parodies like "The Final Girls," homages like "Fear Street: 1978," and the entire roster of Cabin in the Woods horror movies are all easy picks.

Then there are the countless folk horror films in the vein of "The Wicker Man" that all scream "summer,...

Ahead of its launch in France, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max unveiled at Series Mania Festival its pipeline of ambitious local scripted projects, “Malditos” (working title), the adaptation of “Living with our deads,” the memoir of Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, and

“Malditos,” created by Jean Charles Hue (“Eat Your Bones”) and Olivier Prieur (“The Accident”), is an action-packed crime thriller revolving around the leader of a Gypsy community and her two sons who struggle to save their clan threatened with eviction by rising waters in Southern France. The series is produced by Eve Muller and Noor Sadar at Mediawan-owned White Lion Films, was penned by Hue, Prieur and Maya Haffar (“En thérapie”). Hue is directing the first five episode and Cécilia Verheyden (“Undercover”) is directing the remaining two.

Max has also boarded the series adaptation of the book “Living with our deads” (“Vivre avec nos morts”), which is...

Five upcoming Spanish TV fiction projects, involving top local production and distribution companies, feature in Coming Next from Spain, a showcase of series unspooling March 19 at Series Mania.

Atresmedia TV’s “Sanctuary,” Movistar+ Plus’ “Fine Arts,” Filmax’s “Dating in Barcelona” Season 2, The Good Mood-Mediawan’s “The Other Life” and Onza Distribution’s “Heartless” will be presented at the event, proving once more that Spanish fiction production is in good health.

Six years after high-end Spanish TV series lifted off on the global market, championed by hit series such as “Money Heist” and “Elite,” Spain has become one of the steadiest suppliers for worldwide platforms.

The successful trend continues as of today, with Mediaset España and Alea Media series “Wrong Side of the Tracks,” whose Seasons 1, 2 and 3 have reached the top 10 of most watched non -English TV fiction shows on Netflix for the period March 4-10, 2024, cumming 41.6 million hours viewed.

Directors Notes is delighted to present the inaugural edition of the WeAreDn Awards, a celebration of the best films from Dn’s 2023 official submissions. Taking place from 6:30pm on the 25th of April at Whirled Cinema London, the Dn team have selected 22 films over 8 categories – Drama, Comedy, Music, Documentary, Animation, Buckle Up, British & Student – for our industry jury members to vote on. We welcome all nominees, cast, crew, friends and film lovers to join us as we screen the winning films and present the WeAreDn Awards followed by celebratory networking drinks.

Our Jury

Ella Glendining is a BAFTA-nominated writer and director. Is There Anybody Out There? premiered at Sundance 2023, and has won the Silver Horn for the director of a film on social issues at Krakow Film Festival 2023, the prestigious Fipresci International Film Critics Prize, and the Bring the Change award at Biografilm Festival 2023. In 2024 Ella was nominated for...

The 2024 Slamdance Film Festival, which returned this year to its original home at the Doubletree Park City, announced the winners of its Sparky Awards on Friday. Giuseppe Garau’s The Accident, a 16mm-shot film about a newly separated woman finding employment within the tow-truck industry, won the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize. The Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize went to Matt Moyer’s and Amy Toensing’s Inheritance, an Appalachia-set film dealing with the opioid epidemic. Kiarash Dadgar, whose short film The Steak played the festival, was awarded the Agbo Fellowship, which comes with $25,000 in prize money and […]

The post Slamdance 2024 Announces Winners, The Accident and Inheritance Take Top Prizes first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The 30th Slamdance Film Festival announced its annual Sparky Awards on Thursday evening, with Giuseppe Garau’s The Accident from Italy taking narrative feature grand jury honours and Matt Moyer, Amy Toensing’s Inheritance prevailing in the documentary feature category.

The Breakouts Feature Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Zoe Eisenberg’s Chaperone and the Episodes Grand Jury Prize went to Restorage by E’an Verdugo.

Audience award winners included Omar Kamara’s African Giants for best narrative feature and Hadley Austin’s Demon Mineral for documentary feature.

The Agbo Fellowship was awarded to Kiarash Dadgar, whose short film The Steak...

The 2024 Slamdance Film Festival has announced its winners with Giuseppe Garau’s The Accident landing the narrative Grand Jury prize, and Matt Moyer and Amy Toensing’s Inheritance landing the top doc prize.

African Giants from director Omar Kamara took the audience award for best narrative feature, with Demon Mineral from Hadley Austin taking the prize for doc feature.

In the Unstoppable section, which feature projects by filmmakers with disabilities, Good Bad Things from director Shane Stanger took the top prize.

“This year’s award-winning films leave an indelible mark on the world of independent cinema. Each one delves into groundbreaking storytelling and the spirit of human resilience, highlighting the extreme filmmaking talent on show at Slamdance ‘24,” said Slamdance director Taylor Miller. “We thank our programmers, sponsors, industry partners, and everyone at The Yarrow for creating an inclusive environment in which the filmmakers have been discovered by record-breaking audiences.”

See...

“Inheritance,” “The Accident” and “Good Bad Things” are among the award winners at the 30th annual Slamdance Film Festival. The winners were announced Thursday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Park City – The Yarrow in Park City, Utah.

The three films feted the Feature Grand Jury Prizes, while the Audience Awards went to “African Giants,” “Demon Mineral,” “Good Bad Things” and “Night Drives.”

The festival also announced the recipient of their Agbo Fellowship from Slamdance alumni Joe and Anthony Russo. It went to Kiarash Dadgar, whose short film “The Steak” was programmed as a part of the Narrative Shorts competition and included a $25,000 prize with mentorship from the brothers.

“This year’s award-winning films leave an indelible mark on the world of independent cinema. Each one delves into groundbreaking storytelling and the spirit of human resilience, highlighting the extreme filmmaking talent on show at Slamdance ’24,” Taylor Miller, Slamdance director, said in a statement.

Amazon MGM Studios is in final negotiations for Sundance comedy hit My Old Ass starring Maddie Ziegler and Aubrey Plaza for a reported $15m.

The studio is targeting a wide North American theatrical release, with international territories to be determined. The film will end up on Prime Video.

My Old Ass marks the latest deal to trickle out of Sundance, where Netflix paid $17m for It’s What’s Inside, Neon acquired Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, and Searchlight Pictures paid $10m for Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain.

Documentaries Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and Skywalkers: A Love Story, as well as action comedy Thelma,...

Filmmaker Giuseppe Garau takes us into the bizarre seedy underbelly of the Italian tow truck industry in his slow paced yet captivating feature L’Incidente (The Accident). Previously featured on Dn with his mystery-laden short Seven Pizzas (Sette Pizze), Garau took a step back from big budgets and larger productions to re-asses his filmmaking practice and through experimentation with 16mm fulfilled a desire to widen his abilities and techniques, thus producing his first feature shot entirely on film. Garau found himself marvelling at the joys of not being beholden to a monitor on set, really allowing himself and the crew to live in each moment when shooting, a focus which flows through the slow cinema drama of L’Incidente. The film tells the story of Marcella a gentle-hearted mother going through a separation – captivatingly played by Giulia Mazzarino – who finding herself in a moment of need for money and work,...

It’s nice when a film chooses not to overstay its welcome, as writer-director Giuseppe Garau understands in The Accident. For 65 minutes, Garau drops viewers in on Marcella (Giulia Mazzarino), a single mother whose life is falling apart. Over the course of one day where she’s late picking her daughter up from school, she gets fired by her boss (who also happens to be the father of her ex and grandfather to her child), gets into a minor car crash with her daughter, and ends up losing custody. By using a clever formal gimmick that limits events to a single perspective, The Accident makes for a kinetic, creative, surprisingly funny experience as we watch Marcella not so much climb her way back to the top as drag herself through the mud, one humiliation to another, just to come out the other side.

That formal gimmick doesn’t take long...

Exclusive: Outlander star Lauren Lyle has boarded Netflix’s Corby Poisonings drama Toxic Town.

Lyle’s role is unconfirmed but she joins an all-star cast including Aimee Lou Wood, Jodie Whittaker, Robert Carlyle and Bridgerton’s Claudia Jessie. The series is being penned by Help and His Dark Materials scribe Jack Thorne and produced by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’ Netflix-backed Broke & Bones production outfit.

Lyle is probably best known for playing Marsali across three seasons of Starz smash Outlander opposite the likes of Sam Heughan. She has just won two BAFTA Scotland gongs for her titular lead performance in ITV’s Karen Pirie and is also starring alongside Saoirse Ronan in upcoming indie movie The Outrun from Nora Fingscheidt, which is premiering at Sundance. Other credits include Vigil and Broken, both for the BBC.

Revealed by Deadline in August, Toxic Town tells of the scandalous waste spillages in Corby,...

Exclusive: Netflix is to shine a spotlight on one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals, the Corby poisonings, via a drama series starring Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood, departing Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker and Robert Carlyle.

Rory Kinnear and Corby native Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey) have also boarded Toxic Town, which is being penned by His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne and tells of the scandalous toxic waste spillages in Corby and the ensuing legal battle that has been dubbed the ‘British Erin Brokovich.’ Production will commence later this month in the UK under an Equity contract, meaning the show will not fall foul of the U.S. labor strikes.

The four-part series comes from Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’ Netflix-backed Black Mirror producer Broke & Bones, with Jones set to EP alongside Thorne and director Minkie Spiro (Better Call Saul).

Toxic Town follows the tragic toxic...

Brazilian film editor, screenwriter and director Bruno Carboni tells a merged tale of human disconnection in “The Accident” (“O Acidente”), sharing an exclusive first-look trailer with Variety as the film begins to advance on the festival circuit.

Completed within the framework of the 2018 Torino Film Script Lab, Carboni’s reflective first feature has debuted in competition alongside seven other projects, including Eduardo Cassanova’s “La Piedad” and Carlos Lechuga’s “Vicenta B” at the 32nd Annual Cine Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil, which wraps today. It is also screening at the Festival do Rio and has just been selected for the Tallinn Black Nights First Feature Competition.

Shot in his hometown of Porto Alegre and co-written by Marcela Ilhar Bordin, the film analyzes the microscopic ways trauma unfolds under the surface and calls into question the hopeless nature of an ego-fueled society that espouses distrust rather than championing grace and communication.

Titles include Ivan Gergolet’s ‘The Man Without Guilt’ and Neil Maskell’s ’Klokkenluider’

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (November 11-27) has unveiled its first feature line-up which includes 10 world and 10 international premieres.

Scroll down for full line-up

Among the world premieres are Italian director Ivan Gergolet’s debut fiction feature The Man Without Guilt, a Slovenia-Italy-Croatia co-production that received €140,000 in Eurimages funding last year. Gergolet’s documentary feature Dancing With Maria screened at Venice’s Critics’ Week in 2014 and was nominated for a European Film Award.

Also premiering is Fisnik Maxville’s The Land Within, about the...

When His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne stepped up to the Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart podium last year in an audience-less room, he wanted to address an issue that had felt hopelessly ignored in the mainstream through past decades.

The prolific British scribe’s proclamation that UK TV had “utterly and totally” failed disabled people drew headlines across the country and moved the industry up a gear in solving deep-seated legacy issues both behind and in-front of the camera that impact a minority which makes up around 20 of the population.

“What Jack did so brilliantly was contextualize how the industry can conduct itself within a wider conversation around the country’s attitudes toward disability and treatment during the pandemic,” says Peter Bowker, acclaimed British TV writer of the BBC’s influential autism drama The A Word. “Presenting the wider context is smart as you challenge the industry by saying ‘Don...

Netflix’s new series “Human Resources” is the hilarious adult animated spinoff of the wildly popular series “Big Mouth,” a show about the raunchy rites of puberty that plague preteens in the form of Hormone Monsters and Shame Demons. “Human Resources” expands this universe by shifting the spotlight to the creatures while continuing the trend of sophomoric humor, expository musical numbers, and an impressive lineup of voiceover cameos that have made “Big Mouth” a fan-favorite. But the show really shines when the employees leave the office and spend time on Earth with their human clients, navigating all of the emotions college admissions, marriage, careers, parenthood, and adulting throw at them.

It just takes a while to get there.

“Human Resources” lures “Big Mouth” fans in with familiar characters like Hormone Monsters Maury (Nick Kroll) and Connie (Maya Rudolph), and Lionel the Shame Wizard (David Thewlis). Then, we’re introduced to...

The creative team behind Jack Thorne’s BBC/Netflix drama Then Barbara Met Alan has rewritten the rules on disability representation for the Crip Camp-esque drama about two UK trailblazers whose campaigning led to the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Producer Dragonfly TV compiled a report that has been passed to the BBC and super-indie Banijay after setting best practice standards in disability representation, with the production comprised of 17 disabled actors, 55 disabled supporting actors and 50% senior editorial team representation including in the key roles of co-writer (Genevieve Barr), producer (Bryony Arnold) and co-director (Amit Sharma). Arnold worked closely with disabled talent groups to fill other posts.

Thorne refused to do the show unless he could co-write with talented deaf actor-turned-scribe Genevieve Barr, who starred in his Channel 4 drama The Accident. Barr is now “so busy she is turning down commissions,” according to Thorne.

Airing on the BBC...

Celebrated Israeli filmmaker Matan Yair, whose “Scaffolding” has had festival play at Cannes, Zurich and Singapore, is nearly ready with his new film, coming-of-age drama “A Room of His Own.”

The film, which is in the work-in-progress strand of Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), follows 17-year-old Uri, who has botched his first army interview. Since Uri’s father moved out, his mother has been sleeping in Uri’s room. However, Uri is seeking his own path and his own room to deal with this world.

“A ‘Room of his Own’ has been accompanying me for many years as a personal story, almost autobiographical, over a period of time when my mother and I shared the same room. My father left home and my mother did not go back to the bedroom that they shared,” Yair told Variety.

“My mother and I continued to stay together and we didn’t...

Italy’s “The Impossible She,” Spain’s “Detective Touré,” South Africa’s “Paradys” and France’s “Hormones” feature among 15 drama series projects selected for the Series Mania Forum’s 2022 Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

One of Europe’s most prestigious TV competitions, with titles competing for a €50,000 grand prize, this year’s Sessions form part of the Forum, which runs March 22-24.

The lineup is rich in projects backed by top-tier producers and sales forces, while sluiced by large themes, such as racial and gender equality.

The latest from top Italian company Fandango, producer of “Gomorrah” and “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Impossible She” turns on young Neapolitan aristocrat Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first female Formula 1 driver.

Co-produced by Academy Award winner Tornasol (“The Secret in My Eyes”), “Detective Touré” features Touré a sub-Saharan immigrant settled in Bilbao who will become the best detective of the city, despite no badge, nor papers.

Series Mania unveiled the fifteen projects set to pitch at this year’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions with the hopes of scoring the €50,000 grand prize. Among the impressive list of participants is Israeli thriller “The Accident,” written by celebrated filmmaker Mata Yair and produced by Maya Fischer at his long-time collaborators Green Productions.

“The Accident” is the story of the Alegba family and their efforts to get away from their life in a downtrodden neighborhood dominated by criminals. Asher is a tow truck driver who hauls away totaled vehicles after accidents. He has a contentious relationship with his ex Miri, who works as a portal clerk. The two have one daughter, Tali, who is a bright and gifted young girl that both would do anything to protect.

Things in the neighborhood go from bad to worse when Asher witnesses a murder, initiating a chain of events that culminate in the series’ launch point,...

Series Mania has unveiled the nine shows from six countries competing for the prestigious International Competition along with revealing the lineup and Guests of Honor for this year’s edition, the first to take place in person for three years.

Scroll down for the full list. Shows competing for the Competition include Michael Hirst’s Billy the Kid, for Epix, MGM and Viaplay, Israel’s Fire Dance, France’s Le Monde De Demain and The UK’s The Birth of Daniel F. Harris, each of which are being handed a world premiere.

The president of the jury announced soon will be joined by German actor Christian Berkel, Franco-Belgian actress Cécile de France, Israeli actress Shira Haas (Unorthodox), Turkish creator and director Berkun Oya (Bir Baskadir) and French singer-songwriter and model Yseult.

The jury will award the Grand Prize for Best Series, the Prize for Best Actress,...

Exclusive: Jack Thorne has said the British TV and film industry could be a “world leader” on disability if “radical thinking” is implemented, while the Help writer has raised concerns over the death of social realist drama.

Ahead of the unveiling of a landmark report into disability in TV compiled by his Underlying Health Condition lobbying group, the 2021 Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart lecturer told Deadline that broadcasters are “well aware” of the problem but solving it will be “really really complicated.” The report will be unveiled later today at an event to mark International Day of People With Disabilities.

Thorne lit a fuse in August with a blistering MacTaggart address that slammed the sector for “utterly and totally failing disabled people.”

Underlying Health Condition has since surveyed industry stakeholders on how best to improve accessibility and representation, finding, for example, that there is only one accessible honey wagon in the whole country.

This Young Justice: Phantoms review contains spoilers.

Young Justice Season 4 Episode 6

It doesn’t take a lot to bring me back in, and Young Justice: Phantoms found the sweet spot this week with “Artemis Through the Looking Glass.” It turns out all they needed to do was toss me a couple of crumbs of Cassandra Cain content and everything would be better.

It helps that this week was actually animated. The story still feels rushed, but the kinetic energy of the show is back to its normal level. A huge chunk of the episode is dedicated to a fight between Black Spider (Young Justice’s Spectacular Spider-Man knockoff) and Rictus from the League of Shadows, and Tigress, Onyx, Scandal Savage, Orphan, and Cheshire on the other side. Tigress had brought in Cheshire last week to help her figure out which of Onyx and Scandal was a potential mole, and they...

Today, the Global Down Syndrome Foundation (Global) announced Grammy Award-winning artist, songwriter, actress, author, and philanthropist Sara Bareilles will perform at Global’s virtual Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show on Saturday, November 13, 2021.

Bareilles will perform her iconic hits including “Brave” and “The Light,” and share her personal connection to our Down syndrome community.

Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and current General Manager of the San Francisco 49ers John Lynch will receive the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award alongside Peruvian advocate and politician Bryan Russell Mujica. Lynch will receive the award for his commitment to athletes who are differently-abled and for the college scholarships he’s provided to young athletes with Down syndrome and other intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Global is offering exclusive $25 tickets that will provide an extraordinary opportunity for people from across the U.S. and the world to attend this award-winning, inspirational, and star-studded event.

An...

Netflix has handed a series order to a four-part limited series adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller All the Light We Cannot See from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight.

Stranger Things producer Levy has been developing the project for a couple of years through his company 21 Laps Entertainment at the streamer, where he has an overall deal. Peaky Blinders creator Knight is writing the adaptation, and Levy, who directed Ryan Reynolds comedy feature Free Guy, is directing all four episodes.

All the Light We Cannot See tells the story of Marie-Laure, a teenager who is blind, and Werner, a German soldier, whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Levy and producers have started a worldwide casting search for for the lead role of teenage Marie-Laure. and actresses who are blind or low vision are especially encouraged to apply.

Stars: Tsubasa Nakagawa, Itsuki Nagasawa, Rina Ikoma, Taro Suruga, Toshiro Yanagiba | Written by Yoichi Narita, Yu Sakudo | Directed by Yoichi Narita

Fantasia Festival has been helping me out this year with it’s range and variety of coming-of-age movies. Follow The Light adds some sci-fi to a terrifically written and original coming-of-age story.

Follow The Light starts off a bit slow but in truth this is a slow paced movie. I’d even use the word calm because that’s how I felt while watching much of the movie. It tackles several issues (more on those later) but in this kind of relaxed way. It’s not an experience I’ve had very often with films but it’s a welcome one.

Shy school kid Akira moves with his dad to the Japanese countryside and a school that is about to be closed for good. After seeing Maki, a mysterious...

Thorne was delivering the 46th MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

UK TV has “utterly and totally” failed disabled people, according to MacTaggart lecturer Jack Thorne, as he unveiled an accessibility pressure group designed to improve the situation.

The Virtues and The Accident writer pulled no punches when referring to disability as “the forgotten diversity”, as he became the 46th MacTaggart speaker and first to have had a disability.

“Disability is the issue everyone leaves out of speeches,” he said.

“Gender, race, sexuality all rightly get discussed at length but disability gets relegated out. In conversations about representation, it is confined to the corner,...

Let’s talk about anthologies. No fun discussion of horror should be without it; it’s always a challenge to successfully pull off a short story, as you’ll see when we dig into another batch of Severin Blu-rays, this time thematically tied together by a love of the format. These discs are for all the shorties out there.

Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America (2003):

I thought we’d start with the dark before we get to the light. Family Portraits is pretty much Bleak City, yet brought to life by writer/director Douglas Buck in ways that are surprising, and even touching. The film is actually three separate shorts shot at different points in his career, put together and released as a feature with the subtitle “A Trilogy of America”. Not since “You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly” has one been that apt.

“Cutting Moments” (the mid-...

Exclusive: Osy Ikhile (The Kill Team) and Caoilinn Springall (The Midnight Sky) are set as series regulars opposite Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in Citadel, Agbo’s upcoming global thriller multi-series for Amazon Studios. Additionally, Stanley Tucci, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Susan Lynch, Sara Martins, Leo Woodall, Gráinne Good and Leo Ashizawa will recur in the series, a co-production with Midnight Radio.

The epic Citadel is described as action-packed spy series with a compelling emotional center.

Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio serve as writers and executive producers. Patrick Moran, Mike Larocca, and Joe and Anthony Russo serve as executive producers. The Italian series will be co-produced with Amazon Studios and Cattleya (Gomorrah), part of ITV Studios, and the Indian series will be developed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. (The Family Man) and produced with Amazon Studios.

Ikhile’s recent credits include Donmar Warehouse’s Olivier-nominated production of Sweat,...

With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women, bred for intelligence and obedience, embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet. But when they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they’re consumed by fear, lust, and the insatiable hunger for power.

Written and directed by Neil Burger, the film stars Tye Sheridan (The X-Men franchise), Lily-Rose Depp (The King), Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk ), Chanté Adams, Isaac Hempstead Wright (“Game of Thrones”), Viveik Kalra (Blinded by the Light ), Archie Madekwe (Midsommar), Quintessa Swindell (“Trinkets”), Madison Hu (“Bizaardvark”), and Colin Farrell (The Gentlemen).

Burger promises Voyagers will be an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Check out the latest trailer.

The score is from composer Trevor Gureckis. He created a score that Burger calls both “monumental and unnerving,...

Lionsgate Movies has launched the first mind-bending trailer for the sci-fi feature ‘Voyagers’ featuring Colin Farrell and Ty Sheridan.

With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women, bred for intelligence and obedience, embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet. But when they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they’re consumed by fear, lust, and the insatiable hunger for power.

Written and directed by Neil Burger, the film stars Tye Sheridan (The X-Men franchise), Lily-Rose Depp (Savage), Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Chanté Adams, Isaac Hempstead Wright (“Game of Thrones”), Viveik Kalra (Blinded by the Light), Archie Madekwe (Midsommar), Quintessa Swindell (Trinkets), Madison Hu (“Bizaardvark”), and Colin Farrell (The Gentlemen).

Also in trailers – Aubrey Plaza stars in trailer for ‘Black Bear’

The...

When a fan told Jimmy Lavalle that a song he wrote about 18 years ago had become really popular with cats on TikTok, he was shocked. He wrote the track in Reykjavík, Iceland, gazing at the Esjan mountains across Kollafjörður bay — now, cats were prancing across their living rooms to the tune.

Last December, the ambient and electronic musician (also known as Album Leaf) received a video in which the serene opening strains of “Window” — the first song on 2004’s In a Safe Place — unexpectedly piqued the attention of a cat...

Exclusive: UK indie The Forge has secured TV adaptation rights to Barbara Taylor Bradford’s bestselling series of books known as The Emma Harte Saga.

The deal covers eight novels, including her latest work, A Man Of Honour, which is a prequel to her famed 1979 book A Woman Of Substance and is due to be published by HarperCollins in November.

A Woman Of Substance, the first in the series, has sold more than 30 million copies. The story follows a servant girl who through talent, true grit, hard graft, ambition, and drive becomes a huge success as a tycoon, founding a business empire and a family dynasty. The novel was previously adapted for TV back in 1984.

The other six books are: Hold The Dream; To Be The Best; Emma’s Secret; Unexpected Blessings; Just Rewards; and Breaking The Rules.

The deal was brokered by Barbara Taylor Bradford’s...

The initiative is a good pointer to next year’s festival favourites.

International festival directors, sales agents, distributors and producers tuned in online to the Coming Soon pitch event at the auspicious TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) this week.

Of the eight feature projects, six were unfinished, in post-production or never seen before.

Unusually for Coming Soon and due to unprecedented circumstances of this year, a further two had already played at festivals: El Father Plays Himself (Visions du Réel) and The Salt In Our Water (Busan and London).

Previous Coming Soon selections of recent years have included Massoud Bakhshi’s Yalda...

The initiative is a good pointer to next year’s festival favourites.

International festival directors, sales agents, distributors and producers tuned in online to the Coming Soon pitch event at the auspicious Torino Film Lab this week.

Of the eight feature projects, six were unfinished, in post-production or never seen before. Unusually for Coming Soon and due to unprecedented circumstances of this year, a further two had already played at festivals: El Father Plays Himself ( Visions du Réel) and The Salt in Our Water ( Busan and London).

Previous Coming Soon selections of recent years have included Massoud Bakhshi’s...

Exclusive: Here’s a hot one: Killing Eve star Jodie Comer and The Irishman actor Stephen Graham are on the brink of signing up for a Channel 4 drama that will be set in a UK care home during the coronavirus crisis, Deadline can reveal.

The four-part series is housed at All3Media-backed production outfit The Forge, which has reunited the stellar team behind the BAFTA-winning National Treasure to make the topical drama, including writer Jack Thorne and director Marc Munden.

Details on the plot are being closely guarded by those involved, but we hear that the action will be set in and around a British care home in 2020. The show was originally called Home, but producers are now rethinking this title.

UK care homes have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 19,000 residents dying because of the disease. As a result, they are now at...

British broadcaster Channel 4 and distributor All3Media Intl. picked up multiple prizes Tuesday at the Mipcom Diversify TV Excellence Awards, dedicated to championing and promoting diversity and inclusion across the international television industry. Variety was the awards’ official media partner.

U.K. series “Feel Good,” which follows recovering addict and comedian Mae, won the award for representation of LGBTQ+ in a scripted show. In the series we follow Mae as she tries to control the addictive behaviors and intense romanticism that permeate every facet of her life. It was produced by Objective Fiction and Objective Media Group Scotland. The show, distributed by All3Media Intl., was originally broadcast on Channel 4 and streamed on Netflix.

The award for representation of LGBTQ+ in a non-scripted show went to Japanese-Filipino series “Jake and Charice.” The show focuses on Charice, a renowned Filipina singer with a Billboard Top 10 album, who gave up her “miracle voice” to become Jake,...

Channel Four series dominated the virtual Diversify TV Excellence Awards during the MIPCOM Online+ market on Tuesday.

The fourth annual MIPCOM awards show that champions diversity and inclusion, held in Paris and live-streamed, saw the U.K. broadcaster’s Feel Good! series from Objective Productions win for best scripted representation of LGBTQ+ characters.

“It shows that really specific stories can resonate with audiences across all demographics,” Mae Martin, the star, co-creator and co-writer of Feel Good! said when accepting the trophy virtually.

Channel Four drama The Accident from indie producer The Forge won for best scripted representation of disability, while the ...

Channel Four series dominated the virtual Diversify TV Excellence Awards during the MIPCOM Online+ market on Tuesday.

The fourth annual MIPCOM awards show that champions diversity and inclusion, held in Paris and live streamed, saw the UK broadcaster’s Feel Good! series from Objective Productions win for best scripted representation of LGBTQ+ characters.

“It shows that really specific stories can resonate with audiences across all demographics,” Mae Martin, the star, co-creator and co-writer of Feel Good! said when accepting the trophy virtually.

The Channel Four drama The Accident from indie producer The Forge won for best scripted representation of disability, while ...

Robin Thede has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Variety Creative Change Award at Mipcom.

The Variety Creative Change Award is given to an individual who uses their platform in the arts to create inclusive stories. This year it will be presented to Thede during the 4th Annual Mipcom Diversify TV Excellence Awards, which will be held on Oct. 13.

Additionally, 21 programs have been selected as part of a shortlist for Mipcom’s Diversify TV Excellence Awards this year, Reed Midem announced Wednesday. See below for that list.

Thede is the creator, showrunner and star of HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which picked up an Emmy Award nomination for variety sketch series (as well as noms for director Dime Davis and guest actress Angela Bassett) and won the Television Critics Assn. (TCA) Award for variety/sketch series this year.

She also appeared in the fourth season...

The End, the British/Australian dark comedy drama starring The Crown and Succession star Harriet Walter and Mansfield Park’s Frances O’Connor, is heading to Showtime.

The ViacomCBS-owned network has acquired the 10-episode first season of the drama, which is produced by Top of the Lake producer See-Saw Films and was a co-production between Sky and Australia’s Foxtel. Endeavor Content handled the U.S. deal.

O’Connor plays Dr Kate Brennan, an Australian-based specialist in palliative care. Euthanasia is a hot-button topic in Kate’s field of work and she is passionate in her opposition. On the other side of the world, Kate’s mother Edie Henley, played by Walter, feels just as strongly about her right to die. Kate has little choice but to ship Edie out from England and deposit her in a nearby retirement village in the Gold Coast – Edie’s worst nightmare. While Kate struggles with her own problems,...

The South Asian Talent Incubator 1497 has unveiled its mentees for its inaugural writers lab focused on South Asian screenwriters.

1497 chiseled down 382 submissions to 11 finalists before working with a selection committee of 11 established writers and producers to choose the mentees for the organization’s first-ever writers lab. At first, only three mentees and projects were going to be selected, but there was just so much talent they made room for a fourth.

“We are thrilled to support such a dynamic group, all with wonderful projects in hand,” said 1497 Co-Founders in a joint statement. “Ware excited not only to see these projects further develop, but to help launch the careers of these talented filmmakers, whose voices are deeply important and relevant.”

Each writer will be paired with a mento after working with filmmaker and script veteran Adrienne Weiss to further develop their scripts. This year’s mentor include acclaimed filmmakers Gurinder Chadha...

The industry hopes Christopher Nolan’s spy thriller will bring customers flooding back to cinemas on August 26.

Since UK cinemas started reopening on July 4, UK and Ireland box office has risen from 2.22% of 2019 levels for the first week of operation to 5.77% for the week beginning August 7.

While it’s encouraging to see those numbers moving in the right direction, buoyed by releases including Russell Crowe road rage thriller Unhinged, box office remains massively down on a year ago. In countries such as Spain and South Korea, strong local titles have brought audiences flooding back but the UK and Ireland market...

Exclusive: Nabhaan Rizwan (1917) and Philippine Velge (Ete ’85) are set as series regulars in HBO Max’s Station Eleven, a 10-episode post-apocalyptic limited drama series based on the international bestseller by Emily St. John Mandel, from Maniac creator Patrick Somerville and Paramount TV Studios.

Written and executive produced by Somerville, Station Eleven is a post-apocalyptic saga spanning multiple timelines. It tells the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what’s been lost.

Rizwan will play Frank Chaudhary, a successful war correspondent, who is struggling with his own demons when the flu strikes.

Velge will portray Alexandra, a member of the Traveling Symphony too young to remember what the world was like before the Georgia Flu.

They join previously announced series regulars Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, David Wilmot and Matilda Lawler.

Somerville also will serve as showrunner.

Actor-writer-artist Toby Huss, who currently stars in Apple TV’s Dickinson opposite Hailee Steinfeld, has signed with Apa.

Huss plays Edward Dickinson, Emily’s (Steinfeld) father, on the half-hour comedy about 1800s poet Emily Dickinson.

Huss was a series regular on all four seasons of AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, as well as Facebook’s Sacred Lies and HBO’s Carnivale. He recently appeared in HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones, Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner, and the Universal/Blumhouse reboot of Halloween opposite Jamie Lee Curtis. Other television credits include a recurring on Glow, as well as appearances on Veep, Feud, King of the Hill, Reno 911!, and NewsRadio.

Huss recently wrapped shooting the Blumhouse feature In A Valley Of Violence. Other feature credits include Ghostbusters, Girlfriend’s Day, Enough Said, 42, Cowboys and Aliens, Bedazzled, and Jerry MacGuire.

Huss is also repped by Artists First.

Years and Years...

Robert Pattinson has donned the Batsuit. Shoot is officially underway on The Batman, the Warner Bros franchise reboot.

Matt Reeves is helming the pic, and the director tweeted an image of the film’s first clapperboard, which revealed that they are kicking things off with ‘scene 17’.

#DayOne #TheBatman cc: @GreigfraserD pic.twitter.com/kOgcsa6zX3

— Matt Reeves (@mattreevesLA) January 27, 2020

Reeves cc’ed DoP Greig Fraser in the tweet, and the film’s co-writer Mattson Tomlin retweeted the picture, adding, “You guys have no idea what kind of awesome you’re in for.”

J.A. Bayona, the filmmaker behind Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and the upcoming Lord Of The Rings series at Amazon, got in on the action, replying to Reeves’ post and adding “Good luck!!”

Cast member Jeffrey Wright, who is playing Commissioner Gordon, also commented, retweeting the pic and writing “Shine the light”.

Pattinson, whose recent works include The Lighthouse,...

The year 2019 was a particularly good year for Brits in Hollywood, culminating in half of the Primetime Emmys heading to the other side of the pond with the likes of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Succession creator Jesse Armstrong winning big.

British and Irish writers have always done well in the U.S. both in television and on the feature side, but the last few years have been particularly kind to those making the 6,000-mile trek to Tinseltown, from The Mentalist and Gotham’s Bruno Heller to Saving Mr Banks and Terra Nova writer Kelly Marcel and Catastrophe co-creator Sharon Horgan.

As such, Deadline is taking a look at the next generation of British and Irish writers who are making waves in the UK and stand a good chance of landing a hit U.S. series.

Kirstie Swain

After working on long-running British dramas including Holby City, Casualty and EastEnders via the BBC Writers Academy,...

It’s not that anyone is especially happy in the opening chapter of “The Accident,” but as the new four-part series progresses into a morass of dehumanizing corporate nightmares and horrific tales of physical and emotional trauma, it’s enough to make you appreciate the brighter prologue of this tale set in the fictional coastal Welsh town of Glyngolau.

As with many aspects of creator Jack Thorne’s latest gutting TV drama, premiering Friday on Hulu after airing on Channel 4 last month, longing for any sort of relief and finding precious little is largely the point. To tell a community-wide story of tragedy and malfeasance, Thorne and director Sandra Goldbacher offer a relentless portrait of crisis that’s oppressive by design. That emotional vice grip is extremely affecting at times, but the more the show relies on recreating a feeling of emptiness, the more it gets what it’s going for.

Fall is upon us, and so is Hulu’s list of every title coming and going from the streaming service in November.

Among the list of arriving titles is a new episode of Hulu’s original monthly anthology series, “Into the Dark.” November’s episode is called “Pilgrim,” and claims to be inspired by true events — in which a woman invites a bunch of Pilgrim re-enactors over for Thanksgiving dinner. But things get spooky when the “actors” refuse to break character.

Other new arrivals include Season 5 of “You’re the Worst,” described as a modern look at love, the complete first seasons of “Dollface,” about a young woman re-entering the world of women, “The Accident,” which begins with a deadly explosion at a construction site, and “Love Island: Australia,” an answer to the U.K. and U.S. versions of the beloved reality dating show.

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