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Created by Jeff & Jackie Schaffer, one of FX's most popular comedy series was "The League," which ran for seven seasons from 2009 to 2015. The raucous sitcom follows a group of friends in Chicago who run a highly competitive fantasy football league every year, creating their own challenges, rewards, and penalties. Along the way, the ensemble endures their own hilarious highs and lows involving romance and family life in between planning their fantasy teams. Throughout the show's run, the group is joined by several memorable guest stars and recurring characters, including the occasional real-life football player getting in on the fun.

Led by a solid ensemble cast of talented comedians, "The League" introduced beloved, crass characters framed against the backdrop of fantasy sports. Since the show's ending in 2015, many of the cast members have gone on to continue their film and television careers, while others haven't reached the same level of success.

Exclusive: More than a decade after his last feature directorial outing with The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, Jay Duplass is back behind the camera for See You When I See You, a comedic family drama to star Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth), David Duchovny (Californication), Hope Davis (Succession), Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart), Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody), and Ariela Barer (How to Blow Up a Pipeline).

An exploration of the intricacies of grief and healing, currently in production in Atlanta, See You When I See You is scripted by actor, comedian and writer Adam Cayton-Holland (Those Who Can’t). The film is inspired by Cayton-Holland’s acclaimed memoir Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir, the winner of the 2019 Colorado Book Award for Creative Non-Fiction, which examines the impact of his younger sister Lydia’s suicide on him and his family.

Jay Duplass called the project “the kind of deeply personal dramatic comedy that I grew up on,...

This week’s 20 Questions on Deadline guest is Mark Duplass.

Fans of The Morning Show will be delighted to hear Duplass confirm his return “in some shape or form” for the upcoming Season 4, as put-upon producer Chip Black. Duplass also reveals that Season 4 will begin shooting a month from now.

With Season 3 showrunner Charlotte Stoudt in place once again for Season 4, how the upcoming election will be worked into the show remains to be seen. Previous seasons included rewrites to incorporate the pandemic and the #MeToo movement. Shooting this summer, Season 4 is slated to air sometime next year.

“My assumption is that we’re going to airing the show well after that election has happened,” Duplass said. “So my instinct is that while The Morning Show does chase current events, and we have historically, in the past, with the #MeToo movement and Covid, and everything that happened with women’s...

The Duplasses are starting miniature with their first full-fledged family affair on all sides of the camera: the short film “Oh, Christmas Tree,” a bittersweet 10-minute ode to a father and daughter reliving their favorite holiday traditions.

It’s written by Mark Duplass, directed by his wife Katie Aselton (“Mack and Rita“), and stars their 16-year-old daughter Ora opposite her dad in roles that aren’t exactly autobiographical despite the onscreen, lived-in rapport. Here, the mother is dead, and the daughter, Claire, is now the one doing the parenting as her father grapples with mental health struggles. The short, currently seeking buyers out of Tribeca Festival, packs a lot into its brief running time, and for this trio, it also marks Ora’s entry into filmmaking as she readies to follow in her parents’ footsteps.

“Oh, Christmas Tree” is close to home in other ways: The Duplass family brain factory...

Can television have its own New Hollywood moment?

Much like movies such as Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby and Easy Rider took the late 1960s by storm, a group of writers and directors are hoping that their own independent TV projects can break through and find their way to the small screen amidst the current Hollywood contraction.

After a number of web series such as Issa Rae’s The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl, Broad City and High Maintenance were turned into TV series over the past decade, writers and directors hoped that this would lead to more.

However, the rise of streaming originals saw the business go the other way, with incredibly expensive dramas and comedies, often led by movie stars, taking over. This trend is now waning and a new generation of creators hopes that cost-conscious companies will now pay more attention to their projects instead.

Mark Duplass, star of The Morning Show, is to be handed the Excellence in Acting Award at the upcoming SeriesFest event.

The event is held in Denver between May 1 and 5 and features the likes of Minnie Driver and the cast of Grey’s Anatomy across its lineup.

Duplass, who also co-created HBO series Togetherness, is giving an Innovation Talk, where he will be handed the award. Duplass has also starred in The League, Goliath and The Mindy Project as well as being behind films such as The Puffy Chair and Cyrus as well as HBO’s anthology series Room 104 and a raft of documentaries including Evil Genius, Wild Wild Country and Sasquatch.

Also joining the lineup are Shark Tank’s Daymond John, who will be in conversation with Emil Pinnock and SAG-AFTRA Leadership, including Linda Powell, Shari Belafonte and Jodi Long.

There will be a screening and a panel...

Mark Duplass is an actor, producer and filmmaker who has featured in a plethora of television and film projects, with one of his notable roles being in Apple+’s The Morning Show. His performance in the series earned him an Emmy nomination in 2020 and a Golden Globe nom in 2022.

Mark also starred in the praised HBO series Togetherness, which he and his brother Jay co-created. His extensive filmography includes The Puffy Chair, a film he co-wrote and co-directed, along with Zero Dark Thirty and sci-fi pic Safety Not Guaranteed. His other roles include Bombshell and the Creep horror series.

His newest venture, A Long Long Night, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival this week. It’s a six-episode series written by Duplass and award-winning actor, playwright, Barret O’Brien. The story follows childhood friends Pete and Carroll, who reminisce about a disastrous incident that happened in a motel room six months before,...

Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass and Andy Garcia will join the cast of “The Pain Hustlers,” teaming up with Emily Blunt and Chris Evans in the Netflix movie.

Brian d’Arcy James and Chloe Coleman are rounding out the ensemble.

David Yates, best known for directing several “Harry Potter” movies, is helming “The Pain Hustlers,” which is said to be tonally similar to American Dream-esque crime dramas like “The Big Short,” “American Hustle” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” According to the official logline, the film follows an unemployed “blue-collar woman struggling to raise her daughter [who] takes a job at a failing pharmaceutical start-up, only to get involved in a dangerous racketeering scheme.”

It’s not clear who O’Hara, Duplass, Garcia, James or Coleman will play in the movie, which was written by Wells Tower (“The True American”). Netflix shelled out 50 million to land rights to “The Pain Hustlers” during this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Let’s talk about the tiny movies in America.

Not the streamer productions around $20 million that benefit from Hollywood resources, nor the dwindling middle class of features lucky enough to secure independent financing for $5 million-$10 million. This is about the bootstrapped, maxed-out-credit-card moviemaking that exists through the sheer will of its creators. The ones with the microscopic cast and crew (and often the cast is the crew), the minimalist narratives mandated by minuscule resources — the personal and potentially alienating visions of singular moving-image artists who somehow manage to bring their movie dreams to life. What happens to them?

As SXSW convenes for its first in-person edition in two years, that question is particularly apt. It describes many of the films that will premiere at this festival, and they arrive with a reality check: Major streamer entities aren’t invested in these tiny movies at a time when said streamers have...

Exclusive: Katie Aselton (The Morning Show) has signed on to star alongside Bill Burr, Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine in the comedy Old Dads, which Burr wrote and is directing for Miramax and his company All Things Comedy.

The comedian’s feature directorial debut centers on a middle-aged father, Jack (Burr), and his two best friends (Cannavale and Woodbine), who after selling their company to a millennial, find themselves out of step and behind the times as they hilariously struggle to navigate a changing world of culture, career and fatherhood.

Aselton is playing Jack’s wife, Leah. Burr and Ben Tishler penned the script and are producing alongside Bill Block, Monica Levinson and Mike Bertolina, with production underway in Los Angeles.

Aselton is an actor and filmmaker perhaps best known for her starring role as Jenny on FX’s comedy The League. She...

Multi-faceted filmmaker Mark Duplass discusses the movies he wishes more people knew about with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Duck Butter (2018)

The Puffy Chair (2005)

Prince Of Broadway (2008)

Tangerine (2015)

The Florida Project (2017) – Dennis Cozzalio’s review

Red Rocket (2021)

Starlet (2012)

Take Out (2004)

Mack & Rita (Tbd)

Old Joy (2006)

First Cow (2020)

Wendy And Lucy (2008) – Dennis Cozzalio’s favorite movie of 2020

Henry Fool (1997)

Trust (1990)

Amateur (1994)

Medicine For Melancholy (2008)

Shang-Chi (2021)

Your Sister’s Sister (2011)

My Effortless Brilliance (2008)

What the Funny (2008)

Humpday (2009)

True Adolescents (2009)

Man Push Cart (2005)

The White Tiger (2021)

Baghead (2008)

The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012)

Language Lessons (2021)

Stevie (2002)

Hoop Dreams (1994)

American Movie (1999)

What Happened Was… (1994) – Ti West’s trailer commentary

Manhunter (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

My Dinner With Andre (1981)

Creep (2014)

Grown-Ups (1980)

Abigail’s Party (1977)

Nuts In May (1976)

Secrets And Lies (1996) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Naked (1993)

Parallel Mothers (2021)

The Freebie (2010)

East Of Eden (1955) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary

Strange...

Emmy winners Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass have teamed up for a new sci-fi movie titled “Biosphere,” directed by Mel Eslyn.

The mysterious movie marks Eslyn’s feature directorial debut. Production on “Biosphere” — written by Eslyn and Duplass — has wrapped, with details of the project’s plot being kept secret.

The new movie is produced by Duplass Brothers Productions and Zackary Drucker, who previously co-directed the Duplass Brothers-produced docuseries “The Lady and the Dale.” ICM Partners is handling worldwide sales for the project.

Eslyn, who was named president of Duplass Brothers Productions in 2017, is the veteran producer behind movies and television series that include “The One I Love,” “Outside In” and “Paddleton.” She also directed three episode of the HBO anthology show “Room 104” and produced the series in its entirety.

Brown is a two-time Emmy winner, best known for his work on NBC’s “This Is Us,” for...

The latest in a series of writers highlighting underseen streaming films singles out an affecting comedy drama about an unusual scenario

The opening credits of Paddleton play over images of its dual protagonists, Michael (Mark Duplass) and Andy (Ray Romano), hitting a tennis ball against the back of an expansive drive-in movie screen, with the goal of bouncing it into a garbage can situated between them. It’s the invented sport the film is named after, and an apt metaphor for the artistic goals of Mark and his brother Jay Duplass, who have been producing low-budget intimate dramas for the last 15 years. Their films, which include The Puffy Chair, Jeff Who Lives at Home and Cyrus, occasionally play on the big screen, but that’s not where they belong, and neither does Paddleton, their first in a four-picture production deal with Netflix. It should be watched in your living room,...

Channeling both his debut feature The Lie and Humpday, his mumblecore outing with director Lynn Shelton, Joshua Leonard’s Fully Realized Humans is an emotionally honest yet minor comedy about a couple aspiring to find themselves before bringing life into this world. Elliot (Leonard) and Jackie (Jess Weixler) are the kind of upper middle class white couple that would annoy the hell out of you in Target and Trader Joe’s, obsessing over the quality of infant car seats and hummus, while wondering what their consumption choices say about themselves as people.

They themselves are works in progress, turning to their doula (Erica Chidi Cohen) for advice in the film’s funny opening moments. Jackie and Elliot soak up the new age insight on childbirth and orgasms while in the room. In private, they take things to a toxic new level. A send-up of insecurity and narcissism, Fully Realized Humans...

Stars: Edie Falco, Jay Duplass, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben Schwartz, Charles Leggett, Jay Duplass | Written by Lynn Shelton, Jay Duplass | Directed by Lynn Shelton

Lynn Shelton is a director I’ve been a fan of for a while. I’m a fan of her 2011 film, Your Sister’s Sister. I like her 2014 film, Say When (aka Laggies) and she’s directed episodes of some of my favourite shows, such as Glow and New Girl. I have no earthly idea why it’s taken me so long to see this, her 2017 indie-drama, Outside In. There’s a tone to Shelton’s films, and along with co-writer, Jay Duplass, who I’m also very fond of as a director and writer (Table 19), they’ve created a down-to-earth movie that has that realistic and subtle energy going on, a feel that I’ve always been attracted to.

Duplass himself played ex-con Chris, a...

Lawrence Jay Duplass is an American director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for his films Jeff, Who Lives at Home; The Puffy Chair and Cyrus and Amazon series Transparent. Jay Duplass Bio: Early Life, Family, Education Jay Duplass was born on March 7, 1973 in New Orleans, Louisiana (Jay Duplass current age: […]

The post Jay Duplass Bio: In His Own Words – Video Exclusive, News, Photos appeared first on uInterview.

Hulu has released its list of content arriving at the streaming service this June, as well as everything that will no longer be available to watch there after June 30.

At the top of the must-watch list is season three of Hulu Original “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which was notably pushed back to a June premiere date in order to ensure it would “maintain the quality it has,” Craig Erwich, Hulu’s Senior Vice President of Originals, said at the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in February. The first three episodes of the new season premiere on Hulu June 5, after which new episodes will be released every Wednesday.

Another Hulu Original of note is “The Weekly” series from The New York Times, coming June 3. Each half-hour episode will feature a Times journalist investigating one of today’s most pressing issues, with new issues being explored each week.

Also Read: Elisabeth Moss...

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled everything coming to the streaming service in May, and highlights include new series “Good Omens” on May 31 and the second and final season of “Fleabag” coming May 17.

“Sneaky Pete,” a Prime original series about a con man who pretends to be a family’s long-lost grandson, arrives for its third season on May 10. Prime subscribers can also watch the horrors of 2018’s “Suspiria” unfold in their own home. The Prime original film starring Dakota Johnson comes to the streaming service May 3.

Other highlights include existing films like “Reservoir Dogs,” seven installments of the “Friday the 13th” franchise, and the first “Mission: Impossible” movie. Licensed TV series coming to the streamer include Season 3 of ITV’s British comedy “The Durrells,” and Season 4 of the BBC’s drama “Poldark.”

Also Read: 'Fleabag' Season 2: Phoebe Waller-Bridge Goes to Battle With God in New Trailer (Video...

In the mid-2000s, Mark Duplass made a name for himself with a low-budget indie called The Puffy Chair and helped introduce the burgeoning “mumblecore” movement to cinephiles. Now, after a decade of near-constant movie appearances and starring on television shows like Togetherness and The League, Duplass is still embracing his low-budget roots by starring in a new […]

The post ‘Paddleton’ Trailer: Mark Duplass and Ray Romano Laugh in the Face of Death appeared first on /Film.

From his melancholic Oscar-nominated turn in “Chicago” to feuding with Will Ferrell in “Step Brothers,” John C. Reilly is the rare American actor to oscillate from dramatic roles to broad comedies. His wife, Alison Dickey, has always hoped to unite those two modes. “We’ve been together a long time,” said Dickey. An independent producer, she met Reilly when she was working as Sean Penn’s assistant on the set of “Casualties of War” in 1989. “I’ve seen the whole trajectory of his career. I’m so well aware of what he’s capable of doing. I always feel somewhat satisfied and somewhat unsatisfied after I watch a film of his, just in terms of wanting to get the whole palette.”

Eventually, she decided to do something about it. While developing her own projects, Dickey scouted for talent on the festival circuit. It was her enthusiasm for Mark and Jay Duplass...

The streamer gets worldwide rights to projects including a Ray Romano bromance.

Longtime independent Us filmmakers Jay and Mark Duplass have signed a deal giving Netflix worldwide rights to four of their upcoming projects.

The deal will kick off with the release later this year of an as yet untitled project starring Ray Romano and Mark Duplass. Described by Netflix as “a bittersweet bromance about friendship, mortality and made-up sports,” the film recently finished production.

Alex Lehman directed from a script he wrote with the Duplass brothers. Mel Eslyn, president of the Duplass Brothers company, is producing with Alana Carithers and Sean Bradley.

The Duplass’ relationship with Netflix goes back to 2005, when the brothers’ first feature, The Puffy Chair, was acquired and co-distributed by Netflix’s Red Envelope Entertainment operation.

In 2015 the brothers signed an Svod deal with Netflix covering Lehman’s first feature Blue Jay, Take Me, Creep 2 and the upcoming Duck Butter and [link=tt...

Jay and Mark Duplass have signed a new four-picture deal with Netflix, which will start with an untitled film starring Ray Romano, Netflix announced Wednesday.

Netflix’s relationship with the Duplass brothers goes back to their first feature film, “The Puffy Chair,” which Netflix’s Red Envelope Entertainment co-distributed in 2005. In 2015, Netflix signed an Svod deal with the brothers that included “Blue Jay,” “Take Me” and “Creep 2,” as well as the upcoming “Duck Butter” and “Outside In.”

The previous agreement gave Netflix exclusive worldwide SVOD distribution rights after a short theatrical window.

“Creep 2” barely gets to the end of the first act before Mark Duplass stands naked in front of the camera with a dopey grin on his face. It’s not the actor-director’s first rodeo (he also bared all on HBO’s “Togetherness”), but it’s an unusual decision in the context of goofy found footage horror-comedy, not to mention a sequel to one. That should give you an indication of the peculiar ambitions of this microbudget franchise, which takes the familiar mold of privileged white guy problems and turns them into a nightmare.

Patrick Brice’s 2014 Blumhouse-produced “Creep” stood out from the Paranormal Activities of the world in that the monster was essentially a variation on the Duplassian doofus he’s played in countless freewheeling comedies since he and his brother Jay’s breakthrough directorial debut “The Puffy Chair.” In “Creep,” he spent most of the movie as...

Snap and NBCUniversal are joining forces to bring original programming, including short-form comedies and dramas, to mobile screens. The first deal is with the Duplass Brothers, the siblings behind the HBO shows “Togetherness” and “Room 104.” Mark and Jay Duplass have also directed “The Puffy Chair,” “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” and “The Do-Deca-Pentathlon” under their Duplass Brothers Production banner. “We see scripted as the next exciting chapter to dive into, and are thrilled to be charting this path with NBCUniversal,” said Sean Mills, Snap’s head of Original Content, in a statement. “We’re huge fans of Mark and Jay,...

Looking back on this still-young century makes clear that 2007 was a major time for cinematic happenings — and, on the basis of this retrospective, one we’re not quite through with ten years on. One’s mind might quickly flash to a few big titles that will be represented, but it is the plurality of both festival and theatrical premieres that truly surprises: late works from old masters, debuts from filmmakers who’ve since become some of our most-respected artists, and mid-career turning points that didn’t necessarily announce themselves as such at the time. Join us as an assembled team, many of whom were coming of age that year, takes on their favorites.

Declaring 2007 to be the year mumblecore came of age would be equally as fair as labeling it the year mumblecore collapsed. The signs of ascendance and coalescence—group coverage in high-profile publications, series programmed at art houses,...

[Editor’s Note: This article is presented in partnership with HBO in support of Room 104, which premieres onJuly 28 at 11:30 p.m. Et.]

“Room 104” isn’t like anything else you’ll see on television this year. The new half-hour, genre-bending HBO series features a number of unique facets, but they all relate back, in one way or another, to the creative minds of Mark and Jay Duplass.

The writers, producers, directors, and actors known for breakout independent films like “The Puffy Chair” and “Cyrus” as well as award-winning television like “Togetherness” and “Transparent” have come together to create the latest exciting original series on the Home Box Office network.

Set in a single room in your typical American motel chain, each week tells a different story and all 12 episodes of Season 1 were produced by the Duplass Brothers. The tone, characters, and era can all change week-to-week, and viewers should be ready for drama, comedy, horror, and at the start of each new entry. What unites each story is the common search for...

Hulu has announced the new titles that will be available to stream on the platform during the month of April. Leading the pack is the new original series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” based on Margaret Atwood’s classic novel of the same name and starring Elisabeth Moss. The series premieres April 26.

Read More: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Trailer: New Teaser Reminds Us Elisabeth Moss’ Story Is Ours

Also available to stream next month are a handful of modern classics, such as “Robocop,” “Days of Thunder,” “Thelma & Louise,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Election,” “JFK,” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” as well as indie favorites like “Short Term 12,” “The Babadook,” “In a World,” and “Hello, My Name is Doris.”

Find the list of all titles coming to Hulu in April below.

April 1

1408 (2007) (*Showtime)

A Horse Tale (2015)

Agent Cody Banks (2003)

Affliction (1998)

Almost Famous (2000)

America’s Sweethearts (2001) (*Showtime)

Bad Company (1995) (*Showtime)

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) (*Showtime...

Mark Duplass has found his happy place. At a time when many independent filmmakers are struggling to get movies made, the 39-year-old is enjoying the kind of artistic freedom most filmmakers only dream about, churning out low budget movies that afford him virtually complete creative control.

Watch: ‘Blue Jay’ Trailer: Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson Rekindle a Former Romance in Alex Lehmann’s Drama

His latest film, the romantic drama “Blue Jay,” was financed by Netflix without the company even seeing a script. Instead, Duplass wrote a 10-page outline that allowed for significant improvisation during shooting. Shot in just a few locations in and around the small town of Blue Jay, California, the entire shoot lasted just seven days.

The first project from Duplass Brothers Productions’ four-picture deal with Netflix, “Blue Jay” is the kind of movie that eschews nearly all of the qualities of conventional Hollywood movies. Shot in...

Three years before Jay and Mark Duplass burst onto the independent film scene with their 2005 Sundance hit “The Puffy Chair,” the brothers collaborated on an astonishingly simple short film “This is John,” which may hold the record for lowest production budget of all time. The Duplasses once told The New York Times that the seven-minute short they shot on their parents’ video camera had a total production budget of $3 — the cost of the blank tape they purchased to shoot it.

Read More: Jay Duplass Reveals How New Show ‘Room 104’ Spins ‘Magic’ Tales in a ‘Mundane’ Room

Directed by Jay and starring Mark, the short features just one character in one location doing one thing — over and over. While that’s not exactly a spoiler, giving away anything more wouldn’t leave much left in terms of surprises. Despite its simplicity and low production value, the Sundance Film Festival accepted the...

Read More: Watch: Amanda Peet and Steve Zissis Try 'Togetherness' in This Exclusive Deleted Scene Remember that time you fell in love with Mark Duplass? Some audiences first discovered the comedic mastermind in 2005 with his independent film, "The Puffy Chair," where he drove cross-country to deliver a gigantic purple La-z-Boy to his father on his birthday. Although the film only grossed a total $194,523, domestically, it was enough to launch Mark and Jay Duplass into a writing-directing frenzy that would include "Mumblecore," "Baghead," "Cyrus," and "Jeff Who Lives at Home" — and now "Togetherness," their HBO comedy set to start its second season this Sunday. The two Duplass' have reached the point where they have mega production deals with Netflix and multiple shows on HBO, thanks to their executive producer credits (and voice work) on the animated comedy "Animals." But before they moved from indie...

From the title alone, you wouldn't guess that "Manson Family Vacation" is a comedy, albeit a dark one. The story of Nick (Jay Duplass) and his adopted brother Conrad (Linas Phillips) who embark on a pilgrimage to the sites of the Manson Family murders, the film taps into the larger issue of what makes a family. Read More: Jay & Mark Duplass on Selling TV at Sundance When it premiered at SXSW to favorable reviews, Netflix nabbed distribution rights to the film, which was executive produced by Jay and Mark Duplass. It is now streaming on Netflix, along with "6 Years," another SXSW acquisition that was executive produced by the Duplass duo. The brothers, who have had a relationship with Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos since the service distributed their first film, "The Puffy Chair," signed a four-movie deal with the streaming service in January. The Duplass imprimatur bestows immediate...

Meet some of the best directors working today, who haven't gone down the blockbuster movie route...

Ever find it a bit lame when the same big name directors get kicked around for every high profile project? Christopher Nolan, Jj Abrams, maybe the Russo Brothers? With so much focus on blockbuster films these days, getting a major franchise job seems like the main acknowledgement of success for a filmmaker. And yes, both the financial and creative rewards can be great. But there are plenty of other directors out there, doing their own thing, from art house auteurs to Dtv action specialists.

Here are 25 examples.

Lee Hardcastle

Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve probably seen Lee Hardcastle’s ultraviolent claymations shared on social media. He first started getting noticed for his two-minute remake of The Thing, starring the famous stop motion penguin Pingu. Far from just a cheap one-joke mash-up,...

© 2015 Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced its fall programming slate, beginning with “This Is Duplass: An Evening with Jay and Mark” and “In the Labyrinth: A Conversation with Guillermo del Toro” hosted by Academy Museum Director Kerry Brougher.

Other events to be presented from October through early December include a conversation with Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, a screening of Fellini’s “Amarcord,” a look back at the first days of Disneyland with “Hollywood Home Movies,” a new restoration of 1943’s “Heaven Can Wait,” an Academy Film Scholars Lecture highlighting prolific director Lois Weber, and an anniversary screening of the holiday classic “Remember the Night.”

This Is Duplass: An Evening With Jay And Mark Tuesday, October 6, at 7:30 p.m. Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills Jay and Mark Duplass will take the stage to discuss their smart, off-center and comedic cinematic style,...

This interview was conducted for the Comedy/Drama Series issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine. Mark and Jay Duplass made their names in independent film, directing movies like “The Puffy Chair” and “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” and producing and acting in a variety of other projects. But the two are now making their mark in television as well. Jay has a recurring role on “Transparent,” Mark is a regular on “The League,” and together they write, direct and produce the HBO series “Togetherness,” on which Mark also appears. The story of a thirtysomething married couple (Mark and Melanie Lynskey) and two of.

Read More: Guy Pearce and Cobie Smulders Take Center Stage in Posters for Sundance Hit 'Results' Almost exactly 10 years ago, Andrew Bujalski was being interviewed by Indiewire contributor Michael Koresky when the filmmaker made an off-the-cuff remark that would haunt him. Shortly after the premiere of Bujalski's sophomore feature "Mutual Appreciation" at the South by Southwest Film Festival, the same week that his debut "Funny Ha Ha" landed on DVD, Bujalski was asked about other contemporary filmmakers whose work — as Koresky put it — "harmonized" with his own. Bujalski recalled rumblings of a "movement" at SXSW, the same year that Joe Swanberg's debut "Kissing on the Mouth" premiered and the Duplass brothers' "The Puffy Chair" won an audience prize. "My sound mixer named the movement 'mumblecore,'" Bujalski said, "which is pretty catchy." In short order, Bujalski wouldn't think so. Two years...

April showers bring May flowers, and May will also bring more than 30 new movies and a ton of spring TV finales to Amazon Prime Instant Video (Piv) and Amazon Instant Video (Aiv). Here's Amazon's complete list of what's being added in May 2015.

Piv: New in May - Available for Streaming on Prime

Big Trouble In Little China

5/1/15

Ghoulies: Ghoulies Go To College

5/1/15

Grizzly Man

5/1/15

Liberty Stands Still

5/1/15

Men in Black II

5/1/15

Payback

5/1/15

Ravenous

5/1/15

The Big Empty (2003)

5/1/15

The People vs. George Lucas

5/1/15

The Puffy Chair

5/1/15

The Real Blonde

5/1/15

What's The Worst That Could Happen

5/1/15

The Professional (1994)

5/1/15

The Words

5/1/15

Let's Kill Ward's Wife [Exclusive]

5/2/15

Art And Craft [Exclusive]

5/8/15

Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas

5/8/15

Slugterra- Slug Fu Showdown

5/9/15

Defiance - S2

5/13/15

The Aviator

5/18/15

Laggies

5/20/15

Struck by Lightning

5/21/15

Manny

5/23/15

The Prince (2014)

5/23/15

Suits - S4

5/25/15

Low Down

5/29/15

Aiv: New in May - Available for Purchase

Movies

Fifty Shades of Grey

5/1/15

Jupiter Ascending

5/5/15

Mortdecai

5/5/15

Seventh Sun

5/12/15

Kingsman: The Secret Service...

"The cavalry isn't coming." With those words, actor-director-producer Mark Duplass launched into a rousing keynote at the SXSW Film Festival on Sunday. Currently writing a second season of HBO's "Togetherness" with his brother Jay, Mark continues to act in a wide variety of projects, while he and his brother produce several movies a year and recently signed a four-picture deal with Netflix. A decade ago, their feature-length debut "The Puffy Chair" became a sleeper hit on the festival circuit, which led the pair to Los Angeles, direct two studio projects ("Cyrus" and "Jeff, Who Lives at Home") and continue building momentum. These days, both brothers also act on television (Mark on "The League" and Jay on "Transparent"). The Duplass brothers' brand has never been stronger — but it hasn't always been that way. Read More: This Is How You Do It: 10 Filmmaking Tips from Mark and Jay Duplass Despite all their.

This afternoon, indie mainstay Mark Duplass took to Twitter to announce the availability of the film that started it all for his career. "The Puffy Chair," written and directed by Duplass and his brother and frequent partner Jay, follows Josh (Mark) as he takes a cross-country road-trip to visit his father, along with his girlfriend (Kathryn Aselton), brother (Rhett Wilkins) and a giant, purple chair tagging along for the ride. The film premiered at Sundance in 2005, and if you have a spare 81 minutes, can watch it in full right here.  Read More: Actor/Writer/Director/Cool Dad Mark Duplass Talks to T Magazine About His Influences and Interests    ...

Netflix came to this year’s Sundance Film Festival as the digital spoiler, ready to spend more than traditional studios to lure the top indie movies away from theatrical distribution – but so far they haven’t spoiled a thing, as the big acquisitions in a healthy market have mainly gone to the usual distribution suspects.

Multiple dealmakers have told TheWrap that Netflix came to Sundance with a specific strategy to outbid the other studios for movies in an attempt to build a track record as a buyer of major festival titles. A longtime supporter of independent film, Netflix has been...

If you have more than a passing interesting in independent film, you've undoubtedly heard of filmmakers Jay and Mark Duplass. The two have been responsible for indies such as The Puffy Chair, Baghead, Cyrus and Jeff Who Lives at Home, and now they're bringing their film talents to Netflix as THR reports the duo have just struck a four-movie deal with the streaming media provider. They will be small-budget films that will be exclusively release on Netflix, and there's no timetable for them to start releasing them as the Duplass brothers are also busy on the TV side with their outstanding new HBO series "Togetherness." While Jay Duplass has remained mostly behind the scenes of filmmaking, Mark Duplass has become quite the popular character actor. In the indie world, he stars in fantastic films like The One I Love (on our list of the 19 Best Movies You Didn't See from 2014) and Safety Not Guaranteed,...

The first real question I have for you guys is, and I know it sounds simple, but why did you decide to do TV now? What made you make the leap from film? Mark: It really wasn’t a conscious decision, per say, to move from film to television. It sort of started with the genesis of this story. We wanted to make a more deeply personal project. Just as “The Puffy Chair” was very personal to us in our 20s, “Togetherness” is the same way for us in our 30s. Once we started hatching the story it just got big, and it felt like something that could keep going and something that we didn’t want to define to the 90-minute form. We had this long-standing friendship with HBO, and we were thinking about doing a show with them, but we were nervous that it might suck up our whole lives.

“Bessie,” an HBO Films production directed by Dee Rees (whose “Pariah” premiered at Sundance in 2011), “Togetherness,” a comedy series from filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass (“The Puffy Chair,” “Baghead”) and “Sinatra,” a two-part documentary from Alex Gibney (“Taxi to the Dark Side”) are new examples, joining hit series “Girls,” from Lena Dunham (“Tiny Furniture”), about to launch its fourth season and just renewed for a fifth. Also introduced was a six-part documentary series from Andrew Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans” “Catfish”), called “Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” based on the incredible true-life murder cases involving Durst, scion of a family that made a fortune in New York real estate development. The network also announced that “Citizenfour,” the documentary about Edward Snowden and his revelations about the National Security Agency, considered a front-runner for the Oscar, will air exclusively on HBO beginning Feb. 23. And the lines...

Fans of Mark and Jay Duplass’ quirky indie favorites Cyrus, The Puffy Chair and Jeff, Who Lives at Home understand just how well the brothers know their way around a family-centric, struggling-suburbanite tale. So it’s no surprise that the trailer for the pair’s first ever TV series, Togetherness (premiering Sunday, Jan. 11, at 9:30pm Et/Pt on HBO), features two simple lines of text: “Some people have it all figured out. These are not those people.” If your immediate reaction is “Amen, brother, er, brothers!” — and if it isn’t, who Are you? — well, that’s the foundation on which this … Continue reading →

The post “Some people have it all figured out. These are not those people.” HBO’s Togetherness appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.

If dying is easy, and comedy is hard, then what Jay and Mark Duplass have been doing for the past decade is damn near miraculous. From their breakout Sundance sensation "The Puffy Chair," through "Cyrus" and "The Do-Deca-Pentathlon," the writer/director brothers continue to craft magical stories blending deep dramatic moments with outrageous comedic quips — and all out of everyday events. Aided by actors who subscribe to and thrive with their ad-lib friendly mumblecore movement, the Duplass brothers have established themselves as Regular Joe storytellers — the champion of the ordinary, oft-overlooked instants many people pass off as unimportant. The Duplass brothers have chosen the "normal" as their focus now more than ever with their first television program, "Togetherness." Though both Jay and Mark have acted on other comedies — "Transparent" and "The League," respectively — the new half-hour HBO sitcom is the...

Writer-director-producer-actor Mark Duplass has an unusual career plan, to say the least. As far as he's concerned, he gets more pleasure and satisfaction out of collaborating as a writer-producer-actor on various micro-budget projects than he does getting funding from the studios for bigger-budgeted projects. With time, he has become more militant about this. Duplass can afford to be, thanks to his hit TV series "The League."  A workaholic to rival Steven Soderbergh, Duplass writes and directs movies with his brother Jay ("The Puffy Chair," "Baghead," "Cyrus"), writes and acts with director Lynn Shelton ("Humpday" and "Your Sister's Sister") and Colin Trevorrow ("Safety Not Guaranteed"), produces with his wife, actress Katie Aselton, and other up-and-coming directors ("Black Rock," "Creep") and sometimes functions as an actor-for-hire on such films as "Zero Dark Thirty,"...

Mark and Jay Duplass—the brothers who brought you indie films such as The Puffy Chair, Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home—are turning their writer-director skills to TV for Togetherness. Debuting Jan. 11, the HBO comedy chronicles the struggles of a Los Angeles couple with kids, Brett and Michelle (Mark Duplass and Melanie Lynskey), and Michelle's sister Tina (Amanda Peet) and Brett's best pal/actor Alex (Steve Zissis), who are both crashing at their place. We gave you a peek at the show last month, and now HBO has released the first trailer for Togetherness. Check it out below...

The writer-director brother team of Mark and Jay Duplass (Cyrus, The Puffy Chair) shift their attention to the small screen for a moment of Togetherness. Debuting in January, the HBO comedy series focuses on Brett and Michelle (Mark and Melanie Lynskey)—a weighed-down L.A. couple with kids—and the unlikely friendship formed between Michelle’s sister (Amanda Peet) and Brett’s best friend (Steve Zissis). In the exclusive photo above, you can see the herculean effort it takes for a simple day in the sand. “When you have kids, it takes several outings to the beach to realize that...

Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives At Home filmmaker Mark Duplass will return to South by Southwest to keynote the 2015 edition of the annual Austin film conference, organizers announced today. Like 2014’s popular keynote speaker Lena Dunham, Duplass is making a homecoming of sorts to SXSW where he launched his career in 2005 by winning the SXSW Audience Award with brother Jay for The Puffy Chair. Last year at SXSW he and director/co-writer/co-star Patrick Brice debuted their microbudget horror Creep which Radius-twc and Blumhouse Tilt jointly acquired.

Also stopping by the Austin fest held from March 13-21, 2015 will be Bollywood actor and director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, The Four Feathers), who will lead a Conversation session. Over 150 keynotes, conversations, panels, and mentor sessions are in the works for the annual confab, which has yet to announce its full lineup.

As for film panels, I’ll be talking shop at “So You...

Writer-director-producer-actor Mark Duplass has an unusual career plan, to say the least. As far as he's concerned, he gets more pleasure and satisfaction out of collaborating as a writer-producer-actor on various micro-budget projects than he does getting funding from the studios for bigger-budgeted projects. With time, he has become more militant about this. Duplass can afford to be, thanks to his hit TV series "The League."  A workaholic to rival Steven Soderbergh, Duplass writes and directs movies with his brother Jay ("The Puffy Chair," "Baghead," "Cyrus"), writes and acts with director Lynn Shelton ("Humpday" and "Your Sister's Sister") and Colin Trevorrow ("Safety Not Guaranteed"), produces with his wife, actress Katie Aselton, and other up-and-coming directors ("Black Rock," "Creep") and sometimes functions as an actor-for-hire on such films as "Zero Dark Thirty,"...

No rest for the wicked: we've barely gotten over our Oscar-night hangovers, and yet already the next major event of the movie calendar is upon us. After a few quiet weeks on the film festival circuit, Friday sees the kick off of Austin's all-encompassing, multi-platform mega-party SXSW Film Festival, which kicks off this evening with Jon Favreau's "Chef" and runs until March 15th. The fest has become increasingly important over the last few years thanks to some high-profile premieres ("Bridesmaids," "Cabin In The Woods"), and key discoveries ("The Puffy Chair," "Tiny Furniture," "Attack The Block," "Monsters," "Short Term 12"), and we're hopeful that this year'll be no different—just from glimpsing the line-up, you can see plenty of promise. If you're heading Austin-wards, or just if you're keen to keep your finger on the pulse from afar, we've picked out some of the films we're most looking forward to: take a look below,...