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Werner Herzog has his next narrative feature since 2019’s “Family Romance, LLC” lined up, and it’ll star two sister actresses who have never worked together onscreen before.

Deadline reports Kate and Rooney Mara will star in “Bucking Fastard,” Herzog’s upcoming film about two inseparable twin sisters who live on the fringes of society. Herzog will write and direct the film, with Ariel Leon Isacovitch and Agnes Chu producing, along with Andrea Bucko and Emanuele Moretti via Cobalt Sky Motion Picture Group.

Continue reading Rooney & Kate Mara Will Star In ‘Bucking Fastard’ For Werner Herzog at The Playlist.

Werner Herzog has reportedly once said that his documentary and fiction protagonists are, if not same persons, than at least closely related and inhabiting the same world. The brilliant German filmmaker has done his best to blur the lines between the two worlds, focusing on the documentary side lately in his career, but with his newest, Japan-set American-produced film “Family Romance, LLC” he has taken the most determined step in that direction. The film premiered as a special screening at the last year’s edition of Cannes before the festival tour, some niche theatrical distribution and finally hitting the streaming service Mubi this summer.

The film opens with Ishii Yuichi sitting and waiting for someone on a bench in the park before he approaches the 12-year old girl Mahiro, admitting to her that he is her long-absent father. As he says, he had left Mahiro and her mother while the...

Don’t label Werner Herzog’s new film “Family Romance, LLC” as minor or slight. Though Herzog shot the under 90-minute film himself and utilized non-professional actors, the German auteur calls “Family Romance, LLC” one of his “essential films,” saying it is as important to understanding the human experience as is his masterpiece “Aguirre, The Wrath of God.”

“I think we should be very cautious with trying to find categories and squeeze it into it,” Herzog said. “One thing is clear. It is one of my essential films out of a handful of very essential things that look deep into our human condition.”

Herzog’s “Family Romance, LLC,” which premiered at Cannes last year and will land on Mubi on Saturday, examines a business in Japan in which patrons can rent stand-in actors to pose as family members for any occasion. If you’re embarrassed about your father’s drunkenness,...

London-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation and the global curated streaming service Mubi have partnered to host an exclusive premiere of Werner Herzog’s “Family Romance, LLC” on July 3 in the U.S., featuring an exclusive introduction and interview with Herzog.

In other international territories, the company is collaborating with the local theatrical distributor, including U.K. distributor Modern Films, Artplex in Brazil, PVR in India, I Wonder in Italy, who will participate in the preview event for their local release.

Herzog, who not only directed but also served as writer and cinematographer, will introduce the virtual premiere and conclude with an exclusive 15 minute Q&a.

The special preview will be hosted on Mubi and will be available to stream for free for 24-hours in more than 150 countries, including the U.S. and Canada.

“Family Romance, LLC” is the latest feature from Herzog. Receiving its premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival,...

Within the ranks of the great masters of cinema, the works of German director Werner Herzog stand out as perhaps one of the boldest body of work of a filmmaker. While still largely known for his collaborations with actors Klaus Kinski, Herzog’s work has moved far beyond masterpieces like “Fitzcarraldo” or “Nosferatu”, focusing on works of great thematic variety as feature films as well as documentaries. In his new work, “Family Romance, LLC” blends both feature film and documentary while telling the story of the real existing agency Family Romance, managed by Yuichi Ishii, who is also the star of the film. Through its various stories, some comedic, some more dramatic, Herzog explores the issue of modern relationships and lonesomeness in the 21st century.

“Family Romance, LLC” is screening at Nippon Connection 2020

For many years now “Family Romance, LLC” has been in business, offering the service of renting out...

“Stardust,” the drama about David Bowie’s early days, has scored a raft of key pre-sales for London-based Film Constellation.

The movie, written by Christopher Bell, charts the moments that inspired Bowie to create his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust. It follows the singer, played by British actor-musician Johnny Flynn, as he embarks on his first road trip to America in 1971. Marc Maron (“Joker”) co-stars as publicist Ron Oberman, who worked for Bowie’s label, Mercury Records, on the tour. Jena Malone also stars.

“Stardust” is directed by Gabriel Range and produced by Salon Pictures and Wildling Pictures.

Since unveiling the movie at the European Film Market in Berlin earlier this year, Film Constellation has sold it to Elevation Pictures (Canada), Nfp, Icon (Australia/New Zealand), Culture Entertainment Co. (Japan), Falcon (Middle East), Russian World Vision (Cis/Baltics), Outsider (Portugal), Noori Pictures (Hong Kong/Taiwan), PVR (India) and Captive Entertainment (Airlines). Film Constellation...

Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival, part of the late-summer trifecta of such cinematic binges — including those in Venice and Toronto– that officially kick off awards season each year, has revealed its slate of titles. The festival’s 46th year officially starts on Friday Aug. 20 and ends Monday Sept. 2.

Among the the must-see movies is “Marriage Story,” filmmaker Noah Baumbach‘s portrait of a broken marriage and the bitter and twisted process of dissolving such a union. The film already premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to passionate raves for both its writer/director as well as stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.

The much-anticipated high-altitude world premieres include director Rupert Goold‘s “Judy,” with Renee Zellweger (see above) bringing to life Judy Garland in the last few weeks of her life while doing a run of sold-out concerts in London in 1969 — the year of her death from an accidental...

Italy’s Biografilm Festival, an event billed as a cinematic celebration of human lives, will pay tribute to Werner Herzog, whose Japanese-language film “Family Romance, LLC” will launch locally following its Cannes premiere, as will “Meeting Gorbachev,” his sit-down conversation with the former Soviet leader.

The prolific Herzog, 76, whose long career comprises feature films such as “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” and “Fitzcarraldo” and a slew of docs, including, more recently Netflix’s “Into the Inferno,” is expected to be on hand at the Bologna-based fest to receive its Celebration of Lives Award on June 10.

As previously announced, Biografilm, which will run June 7-17, is also celebrating Participant Media this year, in particular Diane Weyermann, head of the U.S. company’s documentary film and television unit, who will receive the fest’s Making it Real Award, honoring excellence in producing. The tribute to Participant will include the European premiere...

As it now stands, virtual reality technology is clunky and unconvincing, offering little more than the illusion of interactivity. Someday, Vr will make good on its potential, but until then, French writer-director Nicolas Bedos has conceived something better: a service whereby wealthy clients can pay a high-end reenactment service to stage a carefully orchestrated and totally convincing visit to a previous time of their choosing. Want to spend an evening as Marie Antoinette? Or pretend that you’re drinking buddies with Ernest Hemingway? In “La Belle Époque,” Bedos invents a way for that to happen — like “Westworld,” with actors in place of robots — with the ulterior motive that such a service might offer real-world audiences a uniquely satisfying emotional experience if we were to follow the right kind of character.

And that it does: Where so many high-concept romantic comedies squander their one big idea, “La Belle Époque” leverages its...

Werner Herzog surprised fans when in December 2018 Lucasfilm announced the prolific German director would be joining the cast of its first “Star Wars” series, “The Mandalorian.” Herzog rarely takes on acting gigs or projects that aren’t his own (a recent example being his villainous turn opposite Tom Cruise in 2012’s “Jack Reacher”), so many were left wondering what it is that lured the filmmaker to the “Star Wars” universe. As reported by Vanity Fair, Herzog’s decision came down to money, but not because the director was selling out. Quite the contrary, as Herzog needed to get funds to make what would become his new Cannes drama “Family Romance, LLC.”

Herzog’s latest is set in Japan and centers around a man who is hired to impersonate the missing father of a young girl. Similar to Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” the foreign-language movie features no major stars and thus...

For most of his career, Werner Herzog has oscillated between narrative and documentary features, injecting his idiosyncratic worldview into both of them. With the odd microbudget “Family Romance, LLC,” he brings those two modes together for his strangest movie of the decade, and that’s saying something for a guy whose 3D documentary on cave paintings ended with albino alligators.

A scrappy drama shot on the fly during a stopover in Japan, Herzog’s minor-key story revolves around Japan’s bizarre rent-a-family business, a concept so Herzogian it’s a wonder the filmmaker didn’t dream it up on his own. While the movie’s rough production values and meandering plot never quite gel, “Family Romance, LLC” is a fascinating convergence of filmmaker and subject, providing the rare opportunity for Herzog to bury his observations in the material at hand.

To some degree, however, the movie is a hybrid narrative...

It wasn’t hard to figure out who the guest of honor was when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences threw a Cannes Film Festival cocktail party on Friday night. Sure, the guests included studio heads and a number of notable filmmakers from the indie and documentary worlds — but the guy everybody wanted to talk to or be photographed with was Dexter Fletcher, who the night before had premiered his Elton John musical “Rocketman” at the festival to a lengthy standing ovation.

Mainstream commercial movies aren’t guaranteed winners at Cannes, which can be a snobbish place and has turned up its nose at the likes of “Robin Hood,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “The Bfg” in the past. But the thoroughly pleasing “Rocketman” was a home run for Fletcher and for Paramount Pictures, and a love fest for its subject. As the festival comes...

In the opening scene of Werner Herzog’s new feature “Family Romance, LLC,” a well-dressed, slightly nervous-looking man stops a 12-year old girl in Tokyo and explains that he’s her father, who left the family when she was only 16 months old and would now like the rekindle the relationship. The man, Yuichi, and the girl, Mahiro, then have a lovely interlude looking at the cherry blossoms in Yoyogi Park.

It’s all very bucolic until the next scene, which reveals that he’s actually been hired by Mahiro’s mother to impersonate her real father, who is deceased.

And “Family Romance, LLC” just gets odder from there — especially if you realize that the guy playing the “dad,” Yuichi Ishii, actually runs a real Japanese company called Family Romance, and he’s playing himself doing what he actually does for a living. A curious little meditation on the extent to...

For those raised on a diet of hot dogs and hamburgers, think back to the first time you ever heard of sushi, and the idea of eating raw fish. Werner Herzog’s “Family Romance, LLC” extends a comparably otherizing attitude to Japan’s niche rent-a-relative phenomenon, exposing for Western eyes a peculiar Tokyo-based company that caters to fulfilling nonsexual but undeniably intimate fantasies for its clientele. Weird? Yes, but so is the way Americans convince their kids to climb into the laps of white-bearded strangers in Santa costumes.

Homo sapiens are a strange species, and few capture that more satisfyingly than Herzog, even if this is clearly one of his minor works. Not quite 90 minutes, the film might actually be more effective at half the length. As is, it feels padded with slow-motion footage, long shots in which characters stare out in wordless contemplation, and an awkward dream sequence involving a gang of swordless samurai.

Werner Herzog’s “Family Romance, LLC” is almost a meta-movie, about a world of artifice within the world of artifice of a film. Playing in the special screenings section in Cannes, the picture follows a man who is hired to impersonate the missing father of a 12-year-old girl. The film was shot in Japan with non-professional actors and is in Japanese. The famed director tells Variety about the genesis of the project, his rogue approach to filmmaking, and how not speaking Japanese wasn’t a hindrance.

How is it to be at Cannes with a movie?

I haven’t been here for 25 years. I had quite a few films in the ’70s and early ’80s here. I always like it because it had a serious side to it, and that’s a market.

Did “Family Romance” come together quickly?

It came very quickly; it was instantly there. I knew it...

When he isn’t meeting Gorbachev or acting in “The Mandalorian,” Werner Herzog is still crafting fictional narratives that no one else could — or would. The latest of these is “Family Romance, LLC,” which the one-of-a-kind filmmaker shot in Japan. Ahead of its Cannes premiere as an out-of-competition special screening, the film now has a teaser trailer courtesy of Film Constellation. Avail yourself of it below.

Here’s the synopsis, which is fittingly brief and vague: “Romance is a business. Family, friends, followers. All available for hire. A man is hired to impersonate the missing father of a twelve year old girl.” That premise may sound familiar to anyone who’s seen Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Alps,” but one imagines that Herzog’s film will offer an altogether different take on this phenomenon.

“People say I’m a bit of a chameleon,” the impersonator in question says. “Every day I must play many different roles.

Werner Herzog has been a very busy man. The acclaimed filmmaker has two documentaries set to release this year (“Meeting Gorbachev” and “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin”). He’s also got a starring role in the upcoming “Star Wars” live-action TV series, “The Mandalorian.” And if that wasn’t eclectic enough, later this month, the director will premiere his Japanese-language feature “Family Romance, LLC” at the Cannes Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Family Romance, LLC’ Trailer: Werner Herzog’s New Feature Is A Japanese-Language Drama Debuting At Cannes at The Playlist.

Film Constellation has unveiled the trailer for Werner Herzog’s Japanese-language narrative film “Family Romance, LLC” ahead of the movie’s world premiere in the special screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written and directed by Herzog, the movie follows a man who is hired to impersonate the missing father of a 12-year-old girl. Herzog, who shot the film last spring and summer in Tokyo and Aomori, Japan, with non-professional actors, is keeping the plot details under wraps.

“Family Romance, LLC” was produced by Roc Morin at Skellig Rock and features music by Ernst Reijseger. The movie marks Herzog’s comeback to the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival after many years. His last entry in the official selection dates back to 2002 with the omnibus feature “Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet,” which he co-directed.

Herzog last attended Cannes in 2017 to receive the Carrosse d’Or award from the...

Actress Zhang Ziyi has been named “Godmother” of the 19th annual Trophée Chopard 2019 at Cannes Film Festival.

As godmother, Zhang will present the award to both a male and female young actor on the rise. She follows “Godmother” Diane Kruger, who presented the award to Joe Alwyn and Elizabeth Debicki at Cannes film Festival 2018.

Charlize Theron, Elton John, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Helen Mirren are among previous presenters. Previous recipients also include Marion Cotillard, Ezra Miller, Shailene Woodley, Logan Lerman, James McAvoy, John Boyega and Gael García Bernal.

Zhang, who gained international fame for her role in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” is the second ever Chinese presenter, after Gong Li. Zhang and Ghong appeared together in the 2005 film “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

President of the festival Pierre Lescure, general delegate Thierry Frémaux and co-president and artistic director of Chopard Caroline Scheufele...

London-based Film Constellation has boarded American director Annie Silverstein’s feature debut “Bull” in the run up to the Cannes Film Festival where the movie will have its world premiere in Un Certain Regard.

Film Constellation, which also reps Werner Herzog’s Cannes’ special screening title “Family Romance, LLC,” has acquired international sales rights to “Bull;” 30West, which helped source the financing for the film, is handling North American rights. “Bull” is Film Constellation’s second film in the official selection. which will have its world premiere in the special screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Set on the outskirts of Houston, “Bull” follows Kris, a headstrong and troubled 14-year old-girl whose mother is in the state penitentiary, and Abe, an ex-bull rider past-his-prime who is making his living working the rodeo circuit each week. Both at a crossroad in their lives, the pair forms an unlikely bond and...