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Exclusive: Picture Tree International (Pti) has acquired international sales rights for Icelandic box office hit Grand Finale (Fullt hús) for an EFM launch.

The Nordic comedy is the debut feature of Icelandic actor, writer and producer Sigurjon Kjartansson who is best known internationally as the showrunner of hit series Trapped and co-creator of Netflix’s Katia.

Have premiered domestically on January 26, Grand Finale is currently at the top of Iceland’s box office charts with a ticket share of 28% on the opening weekend.

The dark comedy revolves around a chamber orchestra working out of a rundown theatre in Reykjavik on a shoe-string budget.

When the annual grant from the city comes is to an end the orchestra hires a world-renowned cellist in order to secure their future. The media goes wild and money starts to flow back in.

The cellist turns out to be an execrable character but it’s...

Picture Tree Intl. has boarded international sales rights of “Unsinkable” (Synkefri), written and directed by Christian Andersen, and has debuted the trailer (below).

The film is set in the small fishing town of Hirtshals, Denmark, where life is intricately intertwined with the sea, as it both takes and gives. It is based on a true event in northern Denmark in 1981, the sinking of the rescue boat RF2 during one of its initial missions resulting in the loss of nine lives.

Mainly shot on location and with local extras and witnesses of the 1981 accident, the film is also a personal project of the director, whose mother lost her husband, the father of his older brothers.

“Unsinkable” is Andersen’s second feature after “None Shall Sleep” (2019). Co-writer Martin Strange-Hansen won an Oscar as director and writer for “This Charming Man” (2003) for best live action short film and was again nominated for the...

A few years before directing Dracula and Freaks, Tod Browning made a silent horror film titled London After Midnight. Starring Lon Chaney as “The Hypnotist,” the 65-minute film was distributed by MGM in December of 1927; though audiences saw it upon release, it’s likely that everyone who did is no longer with us. Sadly, the last known copy was destroyed in the infamous MGM vault fire of 1967, which tragically resulted in the loss of many classic films.

We may never lay eyes on Tod Browning’s London After Midnight, but those who’ve been salivating to experience it may be excited to hear that a full-cast audio drama is on the way.

Scripted Audio Drama producers Lance Roger Axt, Jack Bowman and Kenton Hall have meticulously adapted the original screenplay by Waldemar Young and Tod Browning as an immersive Dolby Atmos aural experience, with the recording taking place over two...

Exclusive: Former The Magicians star Jason Ralph and Blair Redford (Satisfaction) have booked heavily recurring roles opposite Gabrielle Creevey in Showtime’s upcoming drama series Three Women, an hourlong series based on the nonfiction bestseller by Lisa Taddeo. Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise and Betty Gilpin star along with Blair Underwood.

In Three Women, adapted by Taddeo, a group of women are on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. Lina, a homemaker in suburban Indiana, is a decade into a passionless marriage when she embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming and transforms her life. Sloane, a glamorous entrepreneur in the Northeast, played by Wise, has a committed open marriage with Richard, until two sexy new strangers threaten their aspirational love story. Maggie (Creevey), a student in North Dakota, weathers an intense storm after accusing her married English teacher, Aaron Knodel, (Ralph) of an inappropriate relationship. Gia (Woodley...

Rotterdam Winners

This year’s virtual International Film Festival Rotterdam has crowned the winners from its film program. Southern India-set Pebbles by Vinothraj P.S won the Tiger Award, while I Comete – A Corsican Summer by French filmmaker Pascal Tagnati and Looking for Venera by Norika Sefa from Kosovo both won Special Jury Awards. The Vpro Big Screen Award went to El perro que no calla by Ana Katz from Argentina and Quo Vadis, Aida? by Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić won the BankGiro Loterij Audience Award. The festival named its industry winners last week. “In these most challenging of times, we are incredibly proud to have brought an outstanding selection of titles in our reimagined festival format,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.

Goteborg Fest Awards

Tigers, directed by Ronnie Sandahl, won the 2021 Dragon Award Best Nordic Film as this year’s Goteborg Film Festival came to a close over the weekend.

Invasion, Unsinkable, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Film Casting News — Invasion, Unsinkable, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent have made recent film casting, screenwriting, and director news. These films come from movie studios primarily based in the United States (and abroad). The castings, screenwriters, and directors are [...]

Continue reading: Film Casting: Invasion, Unsinkable, Neil Patrick Harris in The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent...

Exclusive: Brian Cox (Succession), John Malkovich (The New Pope), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen’s Gambit) and Harry Hamlin (L.A. Law) are joining the “audio movie event” Unsinkable alongside Blair Redford (The Gifted) and Paul Telfer (Days of Our Lives).

This year marks the 80th anniversary of one of the most extraordinary maritime events of World War II: the story of the cargo ship San Demetrio, which was severely damaged in battle, abandoned by its crewmembers and then later retrieved. To mark the occasion, Datura Studios and North Atlantic Ridge in association with B7 Media and AudioMarvels assembled an impressive team for the audio production of Unsinkable to capture this epic journey of the ship that would not die.

Datura partnered with John Mawson’s North Atlantic Ridge to adapt his screenplay, The San Demetrio, into an audio movie.

“It’s such an unusual story,” said Cox. He added of...