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Zak Hilditch.

After trying to find ways to reconfigure Airborne, a thriller set during a mid-flight pandemic, Zak Hilditch has given up, conceding Covid-19 is far more lethal and scarier than the scenario he envisaged.

The filmmaker had been developing the project formerly known as Celestial Blue since 2017, initally with his These Final Hours producer Liz Kearney, later joined by US producer Ross Dinerstein.

Backed by XYZ Films, he planned to shoot in Bulgaria. At an Australians in Film webinar with Ben Young and Natalie Erika James in May, he said: “I’ve had to rewrite the entire film because the fantastical virus that happens on that flight is nothing compared to what has actually happened.”

Today, however, at a Director’s Spotlight session at CinefestOZ in Busselton, he said: “It’s too much of a minefield. The time is not right and I’m not interested in it any more.

Sir John Hurt, the two-time Academy Award nominee whose TV credits included episodes of Doctor Who and the voice of The Great Dragon on BBC One’s Merlin, died on Friday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.

Hurt’s TV roles also included Caligula in the BBC’s 1976 miniseries I, Claudius, the 2012 mini Labyrinth, the Kiefer Sutherland-created web-turned-Hulu series The Confession and, most recently, the European crime drama The Last Panthers (which aired Stateside on SundanceTV last spring).

The Brit was also originally cast as The Strain‘s Dr. Setrakian, but was replaced after the pilot was shot,...

Rebecca Clough Jan 20, 2017

As America gets its new President, we look at some excellent political drama films that may have slipped under your radar...

Political dramas can be entertaining, informative and even educational, opening up debates and offering new points of view. (When experiencing a year of tumultuous change like the one we’ve just had, they can also be a comforting reminder that, no matter what your situation, it could always be worse...) With the full whack of corruption, war, and conspiracy, here are 25 political dramas which deserve to be better known.

See related 25 underrated political thrillers 17 new TV shows to watch in 2017 Taboo episode 3 review The Girl On The Train review 25. The Marchers/La Marche (2013)

When teenager Mohamed (Tewfik Jallab) is shot by police, his friends want revenge, but he has a better idea: peaceful protest. Marching from Marseille to Paris, they band together with quite an assortment of characters along the way.

This week on ABC’s Designated Survivor, President Tom Kirkman dealt with assorted blindsides, while the discovery of a congressman alive amid the rubble raised new questions.

RelatedDesignated Survivor, Speechless Snag Full-Season Pickups at ABC

When last we tuned in, Tom demanded of General Cochrane and the FBI 100-percent certainty that Al-Sakar was behind the bombing. And this week he (seeeeemingly) got it, though through a most unusual channel, when during the course of preparing to eulogize the fallen President Richmond the White House computer system got hacked. And all the perpetrators left behind was a video deposited onto Kirkman’s computer,...

On Designated Survivor, President Kirkman (Keifer Sutherland) continues to face an uphill battle during his first days as President of the United States as he fights for the right to maintain his position of the highest office in the free world.

Titled "The Confession," episode 3 shows Kirkman facing tough questions from the press about his ability to be the president. He also finds that the American people might not be so ready to welcome him with open arms when a hidden secret comes to light.

The Doctor! Guillermo del Toro! Vampire pilot for FX! Who Wouldn’T be all over this story? We’ve actually already told you a little about the del Toro vampire pilot The Strain, based on the trilogy of books he co-authored with Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves). If picked up, the showrunner would be our beloved Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel).

So, as the headline blares, the newest cast member is (one of) the Doctor(s). This particular Doctor is the newest to us, though I suspect he’s one of the oldest. It’s John Hurt, reuniting with his Hellboy director del Toro. Hurt’s castmates in include Corey Stoll (The Bourne Legacy, Midnight in Paris), Mia Maestro (Nadia in Alias) and Kevin Durand (Keamy in Lost). Here’s the press release, which includes a synopsis of the show:

FX Casts Oscar(R)-Nominated Actor John Hurt In “The Strain...

The team behind Lisa Kudrow’s Internet hit Web Therapy is at it again with a new web series set in the dying world of daytime soaps. Glee’s Jane Lynch will star in the 10-episode comedy Dropping the Soap playing Olivia Vanderstein, the new Head of the Network, who’ll try anything to save the long-running soap opera Colliding Lives.

Lynch and Kudrow are exec producers, along with Kudrow’s Web Therapy co-creator Dan Bucatinsky, screenwriter Don Roos (Marley & Me) and Damon Bethel and Joseph Gomes of Digital Broadcasting Group (which recently produced the Webby Award-winning drama The Confession,...

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced the winners of its 16th Annual Webby Awards early Tuesday morning. The Academy (comprised of the likes of high-profile internet savvy individuals like Twitter co-Founder Biz Stone and The Huffington Post’s namesake Arianna Huffington) bestowed its highest honor of Webby Person of the Year upon Louis C.K., who recently made headlines and a lot of cash by self-distributing a video of his comedy special Live at the Beacon Theater (which soon inspired other comedians like Aziz Ansari to adopt a similar distribution tactic). Louis is accompanied by Juliette Lewis and Graydon Sheppard, who took home another special Iadas award of Webby Actresses of the Year for their role in the original Sh*t Girls Say video (despite, or perhaps because of the fact Sheppard is a dude in drag.) And the three of them are accompanied by a few dozen individuals,...

Will Ferrell and Ryan Gosling are among the big winners at this year's Webby Awards, which celebrate the cream of online entertainment.

Funnyman Ferrell, who co-founded the comedy website Funny Or Die, won the best individual performance award for his impersonation of former president George W. Bush reacting to Osama bin Laden's death.

Gosling was honoured alongside Jim Carrey and Eva Mendes in the best comedy entry for their work on Funny Or Die's Drunk History Christmas.

John Hurt and Kiefer Sutherland's web series The Confession won best drama, while rocker/actress Juliette Lewis and Graydon Sheppard were hailed for their S**t Girls Say internet series.

Singer Bjork landed the artist of the year award for her interactive album, Biophilia.

The prizes will be handed out on 21 May at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, and the winners will be restricted to five word acceptance speeches.

The online video industry’s answer to television’s yearly dog and pony show for the advertising community is underway in New York City. The Digital Content NewFronts debuted late last week with a stellar presentation party from Hulu where the premium on-demand streaming video service announced a handful of upcoming original series. Online video distributors and new media studios’ courtship of brands continues this week, starting with Digital Broradcasting Group’s (aka Dbg) NewFront this Monday evening. The studio that’s responsible for such successful online video programs as Kiefer Sutherland’s The Confession and Dentyne Gum’s The Single Life is set to show off a handful of its upcoming digital properties. Those include, but are not limited to: Spaces - A home a design channel launching May 7 that’s part of the $100 million YouTube Originals Initiative and “serves up the inspiration of top designers, eager celebrities and hands-on pros with fresh,...

The founding partners of the Digital Content NewFronts (aka the online video industry’s iteration of the television industry’s longstanding dog and pony show, which is produced with the intent to woo advertisers out of sizable portions of their yearly budgets) are starting to attract other notable new media studios and online video networks to the event. Hulu, Microsoft Advertising, AOL, Yahoo!, Digitas, and Google/YouTube will now be joined in evangelizing and selling original online video programming to brand marketers and their media and advertising agencies by Digital Broadcasting Group. The company behind online video hits (and sometimes major motion pictures), like the Kiefer Sutherland-starring The Confession and branded entertainment that’s actually good, like the Taryn Southern-starring The Single Life just announced it’s slated to present its upcoming slate of digital programming during Dcnf (aka Digital Content NewFronts) on April 23 in New York City.

There’s no question that online video has made great strides in 2011. Online video sites enjoyed record viewership and more ambitious programs than ever originated on the Web, garnering the kind of national media attention historically reserved for network TV. In its most recent Video Metrix report, comScore reported that during the month of November, 83 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content, or an average of 20.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 40.9 billion videos—a figure that speaks volumes to the prevalence of online video and the growing opportunities that lay ahead for both content creators and advertisers. This shift in consumer behavior and the emergence of short-form digital programming has enabled the development of innovative, talent-driven digital content such as Dbg’s The Confession starring Kiefer Sutherland and Christopher Kubasik’s Booth at the End—not to mention the announcement that Netflix is...

ComScore rated top 5 video network Digital Broadcasting Group (Dbg) was one of the nearly 100 Original YouTube Channels announced in the first slate of YouTube's $100 million premium content initiative. Bradley Werner, VP of Production & Series Development at Dbg, describes the new channel, Spaces, as "a younger, metropolitan-but-street-smart Home & Design channel that's more than just reveals and advice for people who want to flip turn-of-the-century Colonial-style homes—we want to bring a new personality to this type of content that is both fun and sophisticated." Spaces is scheduled to go live in April 2012, and will feature the inspiration of top designers, celebs, and professionals. The series will provide for a hands-off audience hands-on advice about how make welcome aesthetic changes to the places they live. "With the active YouTube community, we're going to be able to provide a platform for continuous project feedback and regular audience show and tells," Werner told Tubefilter.

Hulu’s been the premiere and exclusive distribution point for a growing number of online original series. Jon M. Chu’s The Lxd was the first web series to make its Hulu debut. Mattel’s Genuine Ken inked a deal with the premium on demand streaming video service late last year. Lionsgate’s Trailer Trash appeared first on Hulu at the beginning of 2011. And Digital Broadcasting Group and Kiefer Sutherland’s The Confession enticed the eyes of movie makers after it dropped on the site back in February. Now the online video viewing destination will be the premiere and exclusive distribution point for a growing number of foreign television shows, too. Hulu just announced it will exclusivley premiere three popular U.K. TV series to the web watching public on this side of the pond. Those series include the teenage superhero drama Misfits (“If you think life's tough for your average superhero,...

In its most recent agreement, Image Entertainment, Inc. is in final negotiations to obtain the rights to release the cutting-edge web series, The Confession starring Kiefer Sutherland.The series will be reformatted into a feature length film. Image Entertainment will have both the home entertainment and digital rights to The Confession.“This web series is truly unique and has gained a dedicated following since its debut in late March. We look forward to working with the producers and Digital Broadcasting Group to create an edge-of-your-seat ...

I have no doubt that Mel Gibson will put his foot in his mouth again in the future and say something ridiculously inappropriate.  But until that snafu comes, it appears starring in The Beaver is only the beginning of Gibson's second chance in Tinsel Town. 

Variety reports, one of the new projects Gibson is eyeing is an upcoming comedy heist movie called Sleight of Hand, where he would join the likes of 24 star Kiefer Sutherland, Thomas Jane and Gerard Depardieu.  The robbery film will be written and directed by Brad Mirman who recently created the series The Confession, which stars Sutherland as an assassin in search of redemption in the world of good vs evil. ...

The past few years haven't been kind to "Lethal Weapon" star and "Passion of the Christ" director Mel Gibson. Or, rather, he hasn't been so kind to them.

Either way, Gibson isn't letting personal problems or his public persona stand in the way of an acting career. He's garnered high praise for his latest film "The Beaver," which recently debuted in American theaters, and now he's riding the wave, already honing in on his next project: the heist comedy, "Sleight of Hand."

The crime flick will star Gibson alongside Kiefer Sutherland (who is racking up projects at Cannes like nobody's business), famed French actor Gerard Depardieu, Thomas Jane (HBO's "Hung") and "Saturday Night Live" alum Jon Lovitz. The movie revolves around a group of burglars in Paris who accidently steal a rare coin belonging to a local gangster. Hijinks inevitably ensue.

The deal for the film was made in France,...

Variety has learned that Mel Gibson is in talks to join the cast of "Sleight of Hand" heist comedy, opposite Kiefer Sutherland ("24"), Gerard Depardieu (My Father the Hero) and Thomas Jane ("The Punisher"). The new movie is about a bunch of bungling burglars in Paris who inadvertently steal a rare gold coin belonging to a gangster. Jon Lovitz, Giancarlo Giannini and Johnny Hallyday are also set to join cast. "Sleight of Hand" is set to be directed by Brad Mirman ("The Confession"), who is planning to begin filming in July.

You know that Kiefer Sutherland web series? The one that debuted on Hulu where the former CTU agent plays a God-fearing, Roman Catholic, repentant hit man alongside John Hurt, Michael Badalucco, and Sebastian Becaon? The one that’s directed by Brad Mirman and distributed by Digital Broadcasting Group? The one that’s called The Confession? Yeah, that one! It’s being turned into a movie. Dave McNary at Variety reports Image Entertainment made a non-live streamed announcement at Cannes that the “integrated home entertainment company” is in final negotiations to obtain the rights to title. Image plans to reformat the online original into a feature-length film, for which it will own the “home entertainment and digital rights.” If and when the film gets made, The Confession will be one of a very select group of original web series to make the jump from the computer to silver screens. Fred, a...

"Extra's" Aj Calloway caught up with Kiefer Sutherland in NYC, where they chatted about what should happen to Jack Bauer in the "24" movie.

Kiefer said, "I want to see Jack do a lot of things that are representative of the show. I want him to be able to take his life back, and I think that's going to be a large aspect of the film."

As for his current gig on Broadway, starring in "That Championship Season,...

Kiefer Sutherland, the legendary Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, is set to star in upcoming heist comedy, Sleight of Hand, Variety reports.

The film will start production this summer, and is set to be sold at Cannes this month.

Director Brad Mirman is will be taking the helm, and Sutherland has recently been working with him on a ten-part web series, The Confession, in which Sutherland stars as a hitman opposite John Hurt’s priest in a confessional, each episode about five to ten minutes long. Whilst I’m yet to see the series, the premise certainly has me intrigued, and a mental note has been made to see what Mirman’s writing and directing skills are like.

Sleight of Hand has also pulled a number of other big names, with the ensemble internationally cast, including Gérard Depardieu (Mesrine), Thomas Jane (TV’s Hung), Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds), comedian...

[1] We reported a few months ago that James Franco had optioned Michael Gregg Michaud's biography of Rebel Without a Cause star Sal Mineo, with the intention of writing and directing (but not acting in) a biopic about the actor. Now it looks like he's found his star. Val Lauren has been cast as the lead in the film, which is currently going by the title Sal. Michaud's book Sal Mineo: A Biography deals with Mineo's rise to fame, his conflicted sexuality, and his tragic murder at the age of 37. Lauren expressed his excitement about the role to The Hollywood Reporter: Sal Mineo himself was an extraordinary and super complex guy... People know him for Rebel Without a Cause, but he was technically the first actor who came out of the closet. He was very brave. Lauren's past credits include Dallas 362, The Salton Sea, and the short film Help,...

The only project Kiefer Sutherland fans want to hear the actor attached to needs to have 24 in the title. Unfortunately for them, news out of Cannes could put super-agent Jack Bauer.s planned feature-length adventure on hold for a little while longer. Sutherland, instead, will join the cast of Brad Mirman.s heist picture Sleight of Hand, according to Deadline. Gerard Depardieu, Til Schweiger, Thomas Jane, Johnny Hallyday, Jon Lovitz and Eric Cantona already have been cast in the film, which plans to shoot this summer in Paris. Mirman and Sutherland collaborated on the Hulu-based television series The Confession, which also starred John Hurt, but it will be interesting to see what they can do with a larger budget in an international setting. As for the rumored 24 film, there hasn.t been much to report as of late. Scripts have been traded back and forth, and Sutherland stated a while...

France's Cannes Film Festival has officially begun, and that means glamour, big premieres, gorgeous women in bikinis on yachts, and producers negotiating deals for oddball movies on said yachts.

One such cult-y sounding flick trying to come to life at the festival is a just-announced action-comedy starring none other than TV's Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland.

According to THR Sutherland will headline "Sleight of Hand," a caper film "which centers on a crew of small-time crooks in Paris who inadvertently end up possessing a rare gold coin belonging to a notorious French gangster."

If that doesn't sound wacky enough, wait 'til you meet the rest of the cast:

Gérard Depardieu ("Cyrano de Bergerac"), Til Schweiger (Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz in "Inglourious Basterds"), Thomas Jane ("The Punisher," "Hung"), Johnny Hallyday (the Elvis Presley of France!), Eric Cantona (Manchester United football star!), and Jon Lovitz (Jon Freakin' Lovitz! "Yeah! That's the ticket!").

Producing the film is Hannibal Classics,...

Former Guiding Light stars Rob Bogue and Mandy Bruno get married

"We got married!!" Indie Soap Award nominee Bogue tells Soaps In Depth of the March 26 nuptials. "On a beautiful beach in Playa del Carmen [Mexico], with lots of family and friends attending. The bride was stunning and the groom was blushing! And the weather was pristine."

Charmed creator sues, claiming she was cheated out of money

Constance M. Burge says in her suit that CBS studios shortchanged her.

Write Better Stories; Go "Inside Story"

It's not the type of book that tells you "on page 15, your protagonist must do this..." It's about going deeper into your stories beyond just the outer action to unify plot, character and theme into a whole. It's about your characters transforming within to ultimately satisfy the demands of the plot. It's about applying knowledge you already know in order to craft richer, more emotionally resonant...

Kiefer Sutherland's next series debuts in just a few days -- just not on traditional television.

Sutherland is the star and an executive producer of "The Confession," a web series that debuts Monday, March 28 on Hulu. He plays a hitman who's making a confession to a priest (John Hurt), which is interspersed with flashbacks to some of the bad deeds his character has done.

In the latest behind-the-scenes featurette from the show (which you can see only on Zap2it), Sutherland talks about the freedom and the challenges of trying to tell stories in five- to seven-minute episodes. ("The Confession" will run for 10 episodes.)

"What's exciting to me, and also frustrating, about doing something on the Internet, is you're truly limited [only] by your own imagination," he says. "And you don't have to pay for a thing. You just log on and watch it."

Sutherland and writer-director Brad Mirman ("Truth or Consequences,...

Filed under: Features

Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt are teaming up for what's sure to be an epic action thriller, 'The Confession.' Here's the catch -- it's a Web series!

"This experience that is 'The Confession' has taken everything I have learned over the last 25 years from storytelling to acting and challenged it in a way like no other experience that I've had," Sutherland said in a statement. "From five- to seven-minute episodes, to creating a character that I believe is edgy enough to stand out and make an impression in the vast Internet. In short, I'm having a blast."

The project is written and directed by Brad Mirman; Sutherland serves as an executive producer. Look for episodes to start on Hulu on March 28.

Check out an exclusive behind the scenes preview of Sutherland at work below.

 

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Before Kiefer Sutherland makes his way back to the small screen, the 24 alum will be seen in a new web series, The Confession — a project that very well may end up as one of his career favorites.

Check out photos of Kiefer Sutherland

"This is the first thing in my entire career that I've been involved in from the inception of the idea to the delivery of the product," Sutherland says in a behind-the-scenes look at the series. "My interest stemmed from ...

Read More >...

It's as if Jack Bauer finally came clean and admitted he's just a killer, none of that national security stuff to cloak his murderous instincts. In his new webseries The Confession, coming to Hulu later this month, Kiefer Sutherland plays a hit man confessing to a priest, played by John Hurt. First, take a look at the impressive preview, which plays like a real thriller for short attention spans: And here's the new behind the scenes feature. Everyone seems way too insistent on saying that yes, it's really, really is just like a movie or TV show even though it's…...

High-drama, low-runtime web series The Confession hits the web later this month. To drum up excitement, a new featurette has been added to the project’s Hulu page, giving us an in-depth look at the actors and premise.

The Confession is an oddity in the Hollywood TV landscape. It’s a story about a professional hit man (Kiefer Sutherland) who makes a series of confessions to a Catholic priest (John Hurt) detailing his murderous work. The two engage in a theological battle, debating religion and morality, with plenty of flashbacks to the actual assassinations for the audience.

What’s really interesting is that each episode is a mere five minutes – short even by web video standards. The actors and production team are all established TV veterans, making the low-budget ...

Click to continue reading New Featurette for Kiefer Sutherland’s Web-Drama ‘The Confession’...

Can’t keep Jack Bauer off your television – Kiefer Sutherland (The Confession, 24) has signed on to star in the Fox pilot for Heroes creator Tim Kring’s new series, Touch. Sutherland, pictured above at left, plays a man whose autistic and mute son has the gift to “predict events before they happen.”

Sutherland is currently starring in Jason Miller’s That Championship Season on Broadway and will begin working on Touch this summer after the play’s run.

The latest addition to NBC’s Grimm pilot cast is Prison Break alum Silas Weir Mitchell (My Name is Earl, Burn Notice). Grimm has been called “a dark but fantastical cop drama about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales exist.”

Mitchell, pictured above at right, will star opposite David Giuntoli, who plays Nick Burckhardt, a “good-looking detective who starts to see humans as beast/animals and discovered...

I once saw Kiefer Sutherland at Old Town Bar in New York City. He was wearing purple snakeskin boots. They were dangling from his feet and skimming the floor as he was shouting unintelligibly at two friends who were filling in for his lack of motor skills. Dude was wasted, but even in that state I imagine he could’ve MacGuyvered some kick ass if anyone on the terrorist watch list walked through the door. Maybe it’s because I can’t disassociate him from Jack Bauer, but when you see Sutherland you notice he’s oozing with a kind of rockstar swagger you don’t want to mess with. That’s why I’m looking forward to The Confession. In the ten-episode web series, Sutherland plays a God-fearing Roman Catholic hitman with a conscious. He’s accompanied by two-time Academy Award nominee, John Hurt, Michael Badalucco, and Sebastian Becaon.

The Oscar Shorts start at Alamo Ritz on Feb 11th!

You can get tickets for the Animated Shorts Here and the Live-Action Here.

The Oscar’s are coming, we’ve talked about it, we agree with some things, and we’re not having a Red Carpet Bash this year. These are all things we know. What we also know is that it’s hard to win in an Oscar betting pool if you haven’t seen all the things up for an award! We can help with that!

We can’t help with Everything, mind you — we don’t have anything slated for the best foreign film (although our pick, Greece’s Dogtooth, is now on Netflix instant watch) — but we can definitely hook you up with the live-action and animated shorts! These gems are hard to find unless you go to every festival ever for a full year and watch every shorts program.