News

Fans wanting to see the Oprah Winfrey documentary being made for Apple TV have gotten some bad news. The documentary, which was created based on her life, will not be released at all. Oprah ended up paying to buy back her rights to the documentary and will not release it.

Here is what you need to know about the Oprah documentary.

Oprah Winfrey Blocks Release Of Documentary

Oprah Winfrey has blocked the release of a documentary about her life. In 2021, Apple TV announced that acclaimed Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald would direct the film about Oprah’s life story. This was a big deal at the time and Macdonald worked on the film over the last few years.

[Source: YouTube]However, problems reportedly arose when Winfrey and Macdonald clashed over what was in the documentary. Since their disagreement, the documentary has been on hold. Kevin finished the movie, but when Oprah didn’t like it,...

A rumor had been going around that Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope was being developed into a remake. And World of Reel is now confirming that the project is indeed happening and the film may be securing David Fincher to direct. Fincher was recently trying to develop a remake of another Alfred Hitchcock classic, Strangers on a Train, which was said to be eyeing Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck to star. However, now it seems as though Fincher is instead opting to remake Rope as, according to Netflix’s Kasey Moore, the film is moving forward. Denzel Washington and/or Charlize Theron may be up for roles in the film.

The plot synopsis for the Alfred Hitchcock original reads,

“Just before hosting a dinner party, Philip Morgan (Farley Granger) and Brandon Shaw (John Dall) strangle a mutual friend to death with a piece of rope, purely as a Nietzsche-inspired philosophical exercise.

Squid Game fans will be eating good this Christmas, as last month, a teaser trailer was released for season 2 of the hit Korean show. The first season was a juggernaut for Netflix and the streaming platform is understandably eager to continue in the Squid Game franchise. Hwang Dong-hyuk recently let it be known that Squid Game will be wrapping up with season 3, so we have more episodes to look forward to beyond season 2. In addition, Netflix is also moving forward with a second season of Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality series in which 456 players compete for a US$4.56 million cash prize by competing in challenges based on those in the series.

What’s On Netflix is now reporting that Netflix is extremely interested in hiring David Fincher to be heavily involved with an English-language spin-off, tentatively titled Squid Game: America. While there hasn’t been confirmation whether Squid Game:...

Exclusive: Metrograph Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to The Black Sea, the offbeat comedy from Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden which debuted at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Metrograph will release the pic theatrically later this year.

Inspired by Harden’s travels to Bulgaria, and improvised by Harden and its Bulgarian cast, The Black Sea traces the journey of a charismatic dreamer from Brooklyn who inadvertently ends up as the only Black person in a small town on the Black Sea in Eastern Europe. While initially, all he wants is to get home, he becomes increasingly drawn to the unorthodox characters and unexpected connections he finds.

UTA Independent Film Group negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers. The film was produced by Izabella Tzenkova, Kotva Films, and GiveThanks. Executive producers include Andrea Leibof, Cameron Brody, Dana Høegh, Jonas Carpignano, Josh Peters, Robina Riccitiello, Ted Hope, and Ted Wright.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as an Army Sergeant who makes it his mission to rescue the Afghan interpreter who saved his life in Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. STX Films and MGM’s official trailer sets up their relationship and teases that Gyllenhaal will be facing extraordinary odds if he wants to save his friend.

In addition to Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, the cast includes Dar Salim (Game of Thrones), Antony Starr (The Boys), Alexander Ludwig (Heels), Bobby Schofield (Black Sea), Emily Beecham (1899), and Jonny Lee Miller (The Crown).

Guy Ritchie directed, produced, and co-wrote the screenplay with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. Ivan Atkinson, John Friedberg, and Josh Berger produced, and Samantha Waite, Olga Filipuk, Robert Simonds, and Adam Fogelson executive produced.

The R-rated thriller opens in theaters on April 21, 2023.

The Covenant Plot:

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant follows US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Gyllenhaal) and Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Salim). After an ambush,...

I’ve seen and reviewed many of Kevin Macdonald’s narrative feature films but can hardly remember any of them. State of Play, The Last King of Scotland, Black Sea, and The Eagle––these are movies that exist. But they do so as hazy memories floating around in the “2-star” grey area of my reviewing mind. His best documentaries are only slightly more memorable.

This general lack of impact feels relevant because many of Macdonald’s films are about big topics and themes, including important social justice issues, historical events, iconic figures, and real life tragedies. But his visual style and directorial approach are the epitome of pedestrian, making him one of the industry’s most reliable middlebrow guns for hire.

Unfortunately, The Mauritanian is more of the same, tepid political cinema with a bit of award season legs. Why change a winning formula, huh? Based on the memoir Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi,...

Kevin Macdonald is setting his sights on the American justice system via “The Mauritanian,” the director’s upcoming legal drama that centers on a Guantánamo Bay detainee. Distributor STXfilms unveiled the trailer for the upcoming film on Tuesday.

Per STXfilms, the synopsis reads: Captured by the U.S. Government, Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim) languishes in prison for years without charge or trial. Losing all hope, Slahi finds allies in defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley). Together they face countless obstacles in a desperate pursuit for justice. Their controversial advocacy, along with evidence uncovered by formidable military prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), eventually reveals a shocking and far reaching conspiracy.

The film is slated to premiere in the United States on February 19, 2021. “The Mauritanian” is based on Mohamedou Ould Salahi 2015 “Guantánamo Diary” memoir, which centered on the author’s detainment in the...

London-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has come on board Cathy Brady’s debut feature “Wildfire,” which world premieres in the Discovery section at next month’s Toronto Film Festival.

The film centers on sisters Lauren and Kelly, an inseparable pair brought up in a small town by the Irish border. Their lives fell apart with the mysterious death of their mother. Left to pick up the pieces, Lauren is confronted with their dark past when Kelly returns home having been missing for a year. “An intense sisterhood reignited, Kelly’s desire to unearth their history is not welcomed by all, and the town is rife with rumors and malice that threaten to overwhelm them,” according to a statement from Film Constellation.

The film’s press and industry screening at Toronto is on Sept. 14 at 11 A.M. via digital access. The festival world premiere is at 9 P.M.

‘When somebody decides to call a character Brock Blennerhassett,’ says Michael Smiley, ‘you think, well, that hasn’t just come off the top of your head, there must be something going on there!’ What’s going on with Blennerhassett, his lead role in new darkly comic Victorian drama Dead Still, is strange, timely and layered, says Smiley.

Dead Still, available in the UK now to stream on Acorn TV, is ‘a dark, funny, proper period drama set in Dublin in Victorian times’ Smiley explains. His character Blennerhassett is part of the Anglo-Irish landed gentry who’s broken away to work in the experimental field of memorial photography, taking pictures of posed corpses for bereaved families. ‘That was a big thing in Victorian times because of the British Empire being in mourning after Prince Albert died.’

The series blends a murder mystery with gallows humour and colonial Irish politics. ‘All of...

Imagine that the world has blacked out for a snap. When everything comes back, you find yourself in a timeline where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hadn’t come together to form the Beatles? You could try to find this quartet of Liverpudlians and hope that lightning strikes again. Or: You could use this alt-history reboot to write the complete catalog of the Fab Four and claim it as your own, earning fame, fortune and the chance to be named the greatest songwriter of all time.

Submarine movies are not usually a dime a dozen, probably because they cost more than a dime to make. But the past few years have seen a handful of submersible flicks hitting screens both big and small, including the flag-waving Gerard Butler starrer Hunter Killer and Thomas Vinterberg’s Kursk (both out in 2018), the submarine-as-pirate ship saga Black Sea, and the Shawn Ryan series Last Resort, which was a sort of Mutiny on the Bounty centered on a sub carrying ballistic warheads.

The French now enter the game with The Wolf’s Call (Le Chant du loup), tackling the genre from the highly specific angle ...

Submarine movies are not usually a dime a dozen, probably because they cost more than a dime to make. But the past few years have seen a handful of submersible flicks hitting screens both big and small, including the flag-waving Gerard Butler starrer Hunter Killer and Thomas Vinterberg’s Kursk (both out in 2018), the submarine-as-pirate ship saga Black Sea, and the Shawn Ryan series Last Resort, which was a sort of Mutiny on the Bounty centered on a sub carrying ballistic warheads.

The French now enter the game with The Wolf’s Call (Le Chant du loup), tackling the genre from the highly specific angle ...

Netflix has confirmed that 38 new original series, movies and specials will be debuting on the streaming service in February, including Dan Gilroy‘s thriller “Velvet Buzzsaw,” which reunites him with Jake Gyllenhaal who appeared in his first film “Nightcrawler.” Also on hand is Gilroy’s wife, the far too seldom seen Rene Russo.

On a slightly lighter note, Amy Poehler brings us the surreal comedy series “Russian Doll.” Ray Romano headlines both the cancer comedy “Paddleton” and the stand-up special “Ray Romano: Right Here, Around the Corner.” And Oscar nominee Ellen Page headlines “The Umbrella Academy,” based on the comic book series of the same name by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá.

Below is the full schedule of everything that is coming and leaving Netflix in February 2019.

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Available February 1

About a Boy

American Pie

American Pie 2

American Wedding

As...

Netflix is offering a mix of classics and new titles to watch from the comforts of your home. Starting in February, subscribers can laugh with a few “American Pie” movies, enjoy a scare with the “Jaws” franchise, and sing along to “Hairspray.”

Several original shows and movies are debuting in February as well, including Dan Gilroy’s horrifying “Velvet Buzzsaw,” toplined by Jake Gyllenhaal. New series “Russian Doll,” executive produced by Amy Poehler and starring Natasha Lyonne, also premieres on Feb. 1. Ray Romano has a big month ahead with his dark comedy “Paddleton” and stand-up special “Ray Romano: Right Here, Around the Corner.” Fans can also look forward to more episodes of “Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj” and the third season of “One Day at a Time” later in the month.

See the full list of titles below:

Feb. 1

About a Boy

American Pie

American Pie 2

American Wedding

As Good...

Lionsgate’s submarine movie “Hunter Killer,” which is being released through its Summit Entertainment label, earned $420,000 in Thursday previews from 2,200 screens. It will open on 2,728 screens this weekend.

The Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman-led thriller face off against “Halloween” as it moves into its second weekend, which should dominate through Oct. 31. “Hunter Killer” is projected for a $6-8 million opening behind a 38 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Comparisons aren’t easy for “Hunter Killer” considering that it’s going up against “Halloween.” But Gerard Butler’s “Geostorm,” which opened this time last year and skipped Thursday previews, ended up earning only $13.7 million in its opening weekend against a $120 million budget. Butler’s “Den of Thieves” opened in January of this year and took in $950,000 in previews leading up to a $15 million open.

Also Read: 'Halloween' Is a Hit, But How Big Will It Be Outside America?

The...

Usually when a documentary filmmaker decides on a project, it’s a subject that they’re passionate about or they feel that an injustice needs to be put right. But in the case of Kevin Macdonald and Whitney Houston, the subject of his newest film, Whitney, it began with what can probably best be described as… indifference. “It was kind of an unusual process,” admits Kevin in an exclusive interview, whose credits include the Academy Award-winning documentary One Day in September (1999) and the disaster thriller Black Sea (2014), “because I wasn’t a massive Whitney Houston fan before. I liked some of her songs. I guess like a lot of people of my generation, if you thought you were cool in the ‘80s, you weren’t listening to Whitney Houston, but maybe you sneakily liked it and listened to it when nobody was around, you know?” (Photo Credit: Getty Images) He...

Usually when a documentary filmmaker decides on a project, it’s a subject that they’re passionate about or they feel that an injustice needs to be put right. But in the case of Kevin Macdonald and Whitney Houston, the subject of his newest film, Whitney, it began with what can probably best be described as… indifference. “It was kind of an unusual process,” admits Kevin in an exclusive interview, whose credits include the Academy Award-winning documentary One Day in September (1999) and the disaster thriller Black Sea (2014), “because I wasn’t a massive Whitney Houston fan before. I liked some of her songs. I guess like a lot of people of my generation, if you thought you were cool in the ‘80s, you weren’t listening to Whitney Houston, but maybe you sneakily liked it and listened to it when nobody was around, you know?” (Photo Credit: Getty Images) He...

Exclusive: Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, The Last King of Scotland) is on board to direct the politically-charged Guantanamo Diary for Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam Ackland and their company SunnyMarch and ZeroGravity’s Mark Holder and Christine Holder.

Michael Bronner is scripting the project which follows the tribulations of 45 year-old Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a man who was a suspected terrorist and had been incarcerated at Guantanamo bay for 15 years without ever being charged with a crime or having the opportunity to defend himself in court. He was let out only last year, quietly and without media fanfare. Also producing is Lloyd Levin and Beatriz Levin.

Bronner is a former 60 Minutes producer who has covered the Guantanamo story extensively. He was previously involved with and provided expertise and research for Paul Greengrass’s United 93 and also the Tom Hanks-starring Captain Phillips.

Slahi is the son of a nomadic...

Joseph Baxter Feb 22, 2018

Consider Phlebas, the acclaimed sci-fi novel series by Iain M. Banks, is getting a prestigious TV adaptation...

Amazon’s interminable project backlog of genre-driven peak television offerings just added a major mythology. Amazon Video, the streaming service of the online retail leviathan, has acquired the global rights to a TV adaptation of Consider Phlebas, which was the canonical starting point of author Iain M. Banks’s celebrated books, collectively known as the 'Culture' series.

Consider Phlebas, a sprawling 10-book, epoch-spanning, space-set sci-fi novel series, will serve as the launching point for Amazon’s Culture series TV endeavor. The project has been put into development, arriving as a production of Plan B Entertainment, with the estate of author Iain M. Banks serving as executive producer. The creative stewardship of the project has been placed in the hands of Dennis Kelly, the screenwriter behind the 2013-2014 cult favourite sci-fi series,...

Caroline Champetier shot Kevin Macdonald's (seen here with his Black Sea star Jude Law) Howard Hawks: American Artist and Adam Simon's Sam Fuller documentary, produced by Tim Robbins and Colin MacCabe, The Typewriter, The Rifle And The Movie Camera for the British Film Institute Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Caroline Champetier told me that she understood the "language of cinematography" after seeing the way Vilmos Zsigmond "lit" Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, starring Elliott Gould. In our conversation the importance of a Robert Bresson ending, Ingmar Bergman's influence, and lessons from Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini and Jean-Luc Godard come to light.

On Benoît Jacquot's La Désenchantée, La Fille Seule and À Tout De Suite: "Each time he was in love with the girl. It's a good way to make a good movie, to be in love." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Caroline's work with Arnaud Desplechin (La Sentinelle); Anne Fontaine (The Innocents,...

Scary is not exactly the word for this horror of a woman. Expecting something like a Japanese horror film, I was taken by surprise to learn that the scary part of this mother was her imagination. And to realize further that our imagination is shaped by the traumas of our childhood as ways of coping impacts powerfully on the psyche of whoever is watching it.

What begins as a happy family whose mother has taken time to write ends with the discovery that one’s imagination is more than mere images conjured up by a creative mind. Scary Mother develops this thesis into

A 50-year-old housewife struggles with her dilemma — to choose between her family life and her passion, writing, which she had repressed for years — and decides to follow her passion thus plunging herself into writing, sacrificing to it mentally and physically.

It takes a brave woman to depict...

Reaction to this month’s announcement that Jodie Whittaker will serve as the first female Doctor on “Doctor Who” and the 13th overall has been largely positive, though some have objected for totally-not-sexist reasons. Adding to the praise is Christopher Eccleston, who played the Ninth Doctor and more recently starred on “The Leftovers.” In a BBC Radio 4 interview, the actor responded with praise: “She’s working class, she’s northern, what can go wrong?”

Read More‘Doctor Who’: Why Jodie Whittaker Is Such an Exciting Choice for the 13th Doctor

Whittaker has also appeared on “Broadchurch” for the entirety of its three-season run and been seen in such films as “Attack the Block,” “One Day,” and “Black Sea.” Peter Capaldi, the current Doctor whose tenure will officially come to an end on this year’s Christmas special, has called Whittaker “a wonderful actress of great individuality and charm”; David Tennant,...

Summer 1993 and My Happy Family also take home prizes from Ukrainian festival.

Peter Brosen and Jessica Woodworth’s fourth feature King Of The Belgians received the Golden Duke Grand Prix - based on voting by festival-goers - at the eighth Odesa International Film Festival (Oiff, July 14 - 22), which came to a close on Saturday evening.

The International Competition jury, headed up by German director Christian Petzold and including actress Sibel Kekilli and Romanian producer-director-festival organiser Tudor Giurgiu, awarded the prize for best international feature film to Catalan director Carla Simón’s autobiographical film Summer 1993.

Handled internationally by New Europe Film Sales, Simón’s film had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus sidebar where it won the international jury’s grand prix and the Gwff best first feature award.

Meanwhile, My Happy Family by the directorial duo Nana & Simon continued its successful international festival career by picking up the jury’s awards for best director...

Today is a big day for Doctor Who fans, as actress Jodie Whittaker has officially been announced as the Thirteenth Time Lord on the long-running BBC series, with Peter Capaldi making his bow as the 12th Doctor during this year's Christmas special:

Press Release (via The Futon Critic): New York - July 16, 2017 - The BBC and BBC America today announced to the world that Jodie Whittaker will be the new Doctor Who. She will be the Thirteenth Time Lord and take over from Peter Capaldi who leaves the global hit show at Christmas.

New head writer and executive producer Chris Chibnall who takes over from Steven Moffat on the next series made the decision to cast the first ever woman in the iconic role.

Jodie Whittaker says: "I'm beyond excited to begin this epic journey - with Chris and with every Whovian on this planet. It's more than an honor to play the Doctor.

The history of the world’s oldest primate research institute, in Abkhazia on the Black Sea, takes on a more metaphorical dimension in the provocatively but also rather misleadingly titled Tarzan’s Testicles (Ouale lui Tarzan), the latest documentary from Romanian director Alexandru Solomon (Cold Waves). At times creepy and uncomfortable in all the wrong ways and then gorgeously poetic or piercingly lucid in all the right ones, this highly unusual feature explores both a very specific location that has been used for medical testing on monkeys for decades and a much larger place: the country in which it is situated, Abkhazia,...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Jude Law, who’s always been hard to pin down, and his title role in HBO Emmy Contender “The Young Pope” is no exception.

Bottom Line: As he embraces his mid-40s, Jude Law has morphed from British golden boy to globally bankable character actor. His range is wide, from tragic robot Gigolo Joe in Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.” to Robert Downey, Jr.’s comedy sidekick Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie’s blockbuster “Sherlock Holmes” franchise. Still stunningly handsome, Law is gaining grit and gravitas as he gets older. But there’s a sense he’s still holding back.

Latest Misfires: Law took on evil power-monger Vortigern opposite Charlie Hunnam as Arthur in Ritchie’s attempt to similarly update “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Jude Law, who’s always been hard to pin down, and his title role in HBO Emmy Contender “The Young Pope” is no exception.

Bottom Line: As he embraces his mid-40s, Jude Law has morphed from British golden boy to globally bankable character actor. His range is wide, from tragic robot Gigolo Joe in Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.” to Robert Downey, Jr.’s comedy sidekick Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie’s blockbuster “Sherlock Holmes” franchise. Still stunningly handsome, Law is gaining grit and gravitas as he gets older. But there’s a sense he’s still holding back.

Latest Misfires: Law took on evil power-monger Vortigern opposite Charlie Hunnam as Arthur in Ritchie’s attempt to similarly update “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,...

Boris Khlebnikov’s Aritmiya (Arrhythmia) took home the Grand Prix at Russia’s main national film festival Kinotavr, which drew to a close Wednesday in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.

Focused on the breakdown of a marriage between two doctors, the drama will have its international premiere later this month in the official selection of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

Rezo Gigineishvili was named best director for Zalozhniki (Hostages), a retro thriller which premiered in the Panorama Special section of this year's Berlinale. The film's director of photography, Vladislav Opelyants, received best cinematography honors.

Kantemir Balagov's Tesnota (Closeness), which premiered...

MaryAnn’s quick take… Derivative, rote, devoid of heart and hope. Guy Ritchie has found no reason to retell Arthur’s story, or to render a mythic hero as a self-serving thug. I’m “biast” (pro): big fantasy fan

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

There are no heroes anymore. There are self-centered bastards who accidentally stumble into heroics. There are sociopaths who abuse women and are lauded for it. There are criminals who receive official sanction for their antisocial behavior. And we’re meant to cheer for them all. But true heroes in the more traditional meaning of the word? Difficult to find onscreen at the moment.

There are no heroes anymore, just criminals and sociopaths we’re meant to cheer.

And now Guy Ritchie has engaged in an egregious de-heroing of cinema with his King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Steven Seagal is under siege in the Ukraine.

The tough-guy actor, known for his ’90s action flicks like Hard to Kill and Under Siege, has been blacklisted from the Ukraine for the next five years as a national security threat, according to several reports.

Seagal, 65, has been banned from entering the country because he has allegedly “committed socially dangerous actions … that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine’s security,” according to a Ukrainian security service letter published on Apostrophe and first reported by The Guardian.

While the Ukrainian security letter does not mention specific infractions that led to the ban,...

April 21 to 23 will see an unprecedented collaboration between Acropolis Cinema, the Locarno Festival, and the Swiss Consulate General of Los Angeles at the Downtown Independent cinema. Curated by Acropolis founder Jordan Cronk and co-artistic director Robert Koehler, the festival’s main program is comprised of a hand-selected group of films from the 69th Locarno Festival’s Competition, Signs of Life, and Filmmakers of the Present programs, with ten features, all Los Angeles premieres, representing no less than nine different countries.Locarno in Los Angeles

Co-organized with the Swiss Consulate General in Los Angeles, the festival will also host two daytime panel discussions featuring a variety of local critics, programmers, and representatives from Acropolis and the Locarno Festival. Along with three evening receptions featuring a selection of Ticino wine and beer, the first Locarno in Los Angeles promises to bring a tantalizing taste of one of the world’s best film...

MaryAnn’s quick take… A 90-minute shootout that never makes us care who lives and who dies. In attempting to send up a cinematic cliché, this only becomes a tedious example of same. I’m “biast” (pro): love the cast

I’m “biast” (con): increasingly not a fan of Ben Wheatley

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Eight people walk into an abandoned warehouse in Boston in 1978. There’s Chris (Cillian Murphy: Anthropoid, In the Heart of the Sea), whom we can presume is Ira because he has an Irish accent and he’s there to buy enough guns to supply a small army. There’s Justine (Brie Larson: Kong: Skull Island, Room), who has brokered the deal with Ord (Armie Hammer: The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Entourage)… or is it Ord who has brokered the deal with seller Vernon (Sharlto Copley: Chappie,...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Fox Searchlight has bought the rights to “The Spy With No Name,” an ebook written by Jeff Maysh and published by Amazon Kindle Single, Deadline reports. Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert of Emjag Productions will produce alongside “Argo” executive producer David Klawans.

Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: Grasshopper Film Gets ‘Escapes,’ Amazon and IFC Films Date ‘City of Ghosts’ and More

The true story centers on Erwin van Haarlem, a Cold War secret agent who stole the identity of a Dutch man whose mother had given him up for adoption. The Communist spy pretended to be Johanna van Haarlem’s long lost son for 11 years before being caught.

– FilmRise has acquired the U.S. rights to Michael Almereyda’s “Marjorie Prime,...

This post originally appeared on Time.

Washington — President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests.

Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and...

Ukraine is launching the country's first-ever national film awards organized along the lines of world-class events such as the Britain's BAFTAs or Hollywood's Academy Awards.

The first edition of the Ukrainian National Film Awards — organized under the auspices of a new Ukrainian Film Academy that was announced in February — is designed to "celebrate the achievements of Ukrainian filmmakers."

Both the awards and the national academy have been founded by Ukraine's leading annual film showcase, the Odessa International Film Festival, the eighth edition of which is due to take place in Ukraine's Black Sea port city July 14-22, 2017.

Nominees...

With stunning cinematography shot in seemingly death defying locations high in the Black Sea mountains, Cold of Kalandar looks as visually powerful as it seems emotionally dense.   The film, which Turkey is pushing as its nominee for the category of "Best Foreign Film" at the 2016 Oscars, follows a poor animal breeder, Mehmet, who dreams of one day finding minerals to better support his his family. Directed by Mustafa Kara and co-written by Bilal Sert, the film seems to captures the complex, often punishing relationship between man, his own nature and the harsh elements of our world. A must watch, I say. You will be intrigued....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Exclusive: Trio join recently launched House Productions to work across film and TV slate.

Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell’s recently launched film and TV indie House Productions has hired three executives to its development team.

Tom Leggett and writer-producer Polly Buckle have joined as development producers and Ann Phillips as development executive, all based in London.

Leggett joins from Playground Television where he was director of development and where he developed high end drama series for the BBC, Channel 4, Sky & Starz. Prior to Playground, Leggett was senior development editor at Film4 working on films such as 71’, The Riot Club, Macbeth, 12 Years a Slave, High-Rise, Room and Black Sea.

Buckle most recently produced You, Me and the Apocalypse for Sky One/Working Title. She has also produced on Rev for BBC2/Big Talk, Being Human for BBC3/Touchpaper and worked extensively in script development for Working Title Television and Shine Drama, including developing...

There is great irony that Ukraine’s most cosmopolitan city should host the cinematic forum which explores, amongst other things, Ukraine’s national conflicts and aspirations. Odessa may be a Ukrainian municipality, yet this renowned Black Sea port-city is famed as a city of travelers and nomads—a town composed not of sedentary peasants but of merchant marines, oil workers, Jewish merchants, gypsy wanders, in which the lingua franca (Russian) debunks in itself myths of any purity.Nation is, as a series of documentary films in the Odessa International Film Festival exhibit, little more than mythos—one which obliterates evident differences of language, ethnicity, blood, and community, to privilege illusions of nonexistent homogeneity.What better place to examine ‘nation’ than to put the most basic unit of its composition—the family—under microscope? Close RelationsHere is exactly where Vitaly Mansky commences in Close Relations (first irony: a Russian documentarist making...

Ten projects from South-East Europe, Middle East and North Africa comprise Sarajevo’s Work in Progress section.

Sarajevo Film Festival’s (Aug 12-20) Works in Progress strand is set to present the line-up of projects, which will compete for three awards during the festival’s Industry Days on Aug 17-18.

Ten projects in post-production - from Southeast Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caucasus region - will be screened to about 40 industry decision-makers who are active on the supply end of the chain: funders, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers.

Prizes will include the traditional post-production in-kind awards from Slovenia’s Restart (€20,000) and Berlin-based The Post Republic (€50,000), as well as a newly established €30,000 cash prize from Turkish broadcaster Trt.

The jury is comprised of Jan Naszewski of New Europe Film Sales, Giona A. Nazzaro from the Venice Film Festival Critics’ Week, Michael Reuter of The Post Republic and a representative from the Trt.[p...

Beginning in 1937 — the opening credits take us through a series of period photos and alert us to expect something with a potentially greater scope than simply the biopic of one man — Scarred Hearts is still inspired by the life of one figure: writer and intellectual Max Blecher, in the case of this film reconfigured as Emanuel (Lucius Rus), suffering from bone tuberculosis and put in a hospital on the edge of the Black Sea. A 20-year-old man with his life ahead of him, there’s the belief within him that this is all to pass, though, as history will attest, that’s unfortunately not true.

Like another two-and-a-half-hour Romanian dry comedy about the medical process, Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Scarred Hearts plays up the control doctors hold over us in a critical state for maximum absurdity, of course the joke of antiquated health care emphasized in director Radu Jude’s case.

Directors Chanya Button, Adrian Sitaru, Xavier Seron scoop prizes; festival reveals works in progress winners.

UK filmmaker Chanya Button’s debut feature as director and producer, Burn Burn Burn, was voted by the audience at the Odessa International Film Festival (Oiff) as the winner of this year’s Grand Prix.

Producer Daniel-Konrad Cooper accepted the Golden Duke statuette on behalf of the production team from Oiff’s festival president Victoria Tigipko during the gala closing ceremony in the Black Sea city’s historic National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet.

Button’s melancholic comedy had premiered at last year’s London Film Festival and is being handled internationally by Urban Distribution International.

International Competition

Meanwhile, the International Competition jury - headed by the UK writer Christopher Hampton and also including Oiff 2015 winner Eva Neymann, Us writer-director-actor Alex Ross Perry, producer Rebecca O’Brien and producer-director Uberto Pasolini - gave the Golden Duke statuette for Best Film to...

For years, it seemed the History Channel was lost in the weeds. Despite changing their name to History, their shows were more “mindless reality TV binge watch” and less “did I just accidentally learn something?” An intellectual wasteland, Ancient Aliens was the closest you could find to an edutainment series on the channel from 2010 to 2013. Then along came Vikings, and everything changed. Vikings premiered to 6 million viewers — and while not 100% historically accurate, it was head and shoulders above History’S other offerings at the time. The success opened the door to programming like the limited-series Barbarians Rising and the recent remake of Roots. But until now, Vikings has been the lone History historical series, adrift in a sea of Mountain Men and Swamp People. This solitude ends when Knightfall joins the line-up. A new series from Jeremy Renner’s (yes, Hawkeye) and Don Handfield’s production company The Combine and Midnight Radio, Knightfall will follow the Vikings model of blending history and drama, only this time during the fall of the Knights Templar. One of the most mysterious and powerful orders of the Middle Ages, the Knights Templar were a military group entrusted with the keeping of the Holy Grail and — according to legend — knew secrets about the Church that could bring it to its knees. But they were also an order of men, with all the messy politicking and “mean-girling” that entails. Knightfall promises to go deep into the inner circle of the Knights Templar’s clandestine world. Not just the battles in the Holy Land, but the battles on the home front. Not everyone loved the Templars, leading to clashes with both the King of France and Pope Boniface VIII. The latter of which would end in the disbanding the order on Friday the 13th, which is why the date is considered unlucky even now. Oh, look! The show hasn’t even started, and you’re already learning something. Production for Knightfall begins this summer in Croatia and the Czech Republic. Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey) was previously announced to star as Landry, a former warrior and current leader of the Knights Templar. But now the cast is fully in place and ready to return to the 12th century. From the press release: [Starring] Bobby Schofield (Black Sea, Our World War) as Parsifal, a young man of ordinary birth who will join the Knights Templar seeking revenge, but ultimately finds a higher purpose; Sabrina Bartlett (DaVinci’s Demons, Poldark) as Princess Isabella, Queen Joan and King Philip's daughter, her upcoming wedding stands to forge a powerful political alliance for France; Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey, Person of Interest, The Colony) as De Nogaret, King Philip’s Machiavellian lawyer and right hand man; Sarah-Sofie Boussnina (The Bridge, The Absent One) as Adelina, as a child she was rescued in the Holy Land by the Templar Knights, but now in her early 20s, she lives on the streets of Paris as a thief; Padraic Delaney (The Wind That Shakes the Barley, The Tudors) as Gawain, once the greatest swordsman of the Templar Order whose role with them is at a crossroads; Simon Merrells (Spartacus, Dominion ) as Tancrede, a veteran sergeant fanatically devoted to the Templar Knight cause and Olivia Ross (War and Peace, Blowing Louder than the Wind , Father of My Children) as Queen Joan of Navarre, Queen of France and Queen Regnant of Navarre, a devoted mother, warrior, and a formidable diplomat and strategist. We’re entering a new era. One in which History retakes the torch. It was up to Comedy Central, of all places, to keep the learning fires alive with Drunk History and Another Period. But now the original is back, and hopefully better than ever.

To mark the release of Battle for Sevastopol on 16th May, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD. On 22 June 1941 the German war Axis launches ‘Operation Barbarossa’, with four million troops invading the Soviet Union. By the late autumn Sevastopol, a strategic port in the Crimea on the Black Sea, […]

The post Win Battle For Sevastopol on DVD appeared first on HeyUGuys.

This one will get to you. Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven takes on a difficult subject -- the terrible treatment of young girls by relatives enforcing conservative moral prerogatives. Sidestepping issues of religion, she makes a powerful case for the rights of women, with the help of five marvelous young actresses; her show is funny, scary and thoroughly compelling. Mustang Blu-ray The Cohen Media Group-Entertainment One 2015 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date May 10, 2016 / 39.98 Starring Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Elit Iscan . Cinematography David Chizallet, Ersin Gok Film Editor Mathilde Van de Moortel Original Music Warren Ellis Written by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Alice Winocour Produced by Charles Gillibert Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Perhaps this is a "Little Women" for the millennium. I can't say that Turkish filmmaking is better than ever because that this is the first film I've seen by a Turkish director. Deniz Gamze Ergüven...

Try as you might, you can't pin down director Kevin Macdonald. As a documentary filmmaker, he won an Oscar for "One Day In September," and has also helmed "Life In A Day" and "Marley" among others. And in features, he's bounced between true life tales ("The Last King Of Scotland"), swords and sandals epics ("The Eagle"), submarine thrillers ("Black Sea"), and political potboilers ("State Of Play"). And once again, he's got his hands in a few different pots. First up, Macdonald will be helming an officially authorized documentary about Whitney Houston. Folks who were involved with "Searching For Sugar Man" and "Amy" will be backing the project, which promises not to sugercoat the legendary singer's life, which had more than it's fair share of controversy and tabloid worthy headlines. And crucially, Clive Davis, who discovered Houston and propelled her to fame, will be part of those...

• only 22% of 2015’s movies had female protagonists

• best and worst representations of women on film in 2015 (and the average Watw score for the year)

• critics are slightly more likely to rate a film highly if it represents women well

• mainstream moviegoers are not turned off by films with female protagonists

• movies that represent women well are just as likely to be profitable as movies that don’t, and are less risky as business propositions

The Where Are the Women? project was designed to drill deep down into the films of 2015 in order to determine how well — or how poorly — they represented women. The project has now come to its end, and you can examine the final ranking here. The ranking includes 270 films released in the Us, Canada, and the UK, in both limited and wide release (including every wide-release North American film and most of the UK wide-release films). The...

Exclusive: Jodie Whittaker comedy gets international sales company and deal with new UK distributor.

Tribeca-bound UK comedy Adult Life Skills (formerly known as How To Live Yours) has secured an international sales deal with Independent and a UK distribution deal with fledgling London-based outfit Lorton Distribution, which will make the film its first release.

Broadchurch actress Jodie Whittaker (Black Sea) stars in writer-director Rachel Tunnard’s Tribeca world-premiere about a young woman experiencing an early ‘mid-life crisis’ who lives in a shed at the bottom of her mum’s garden and makes videos using her thumbs as characters.

Supporting cast include Lorraine Ashbourne (The Selfish Giant), Brett Goldstein (SuperBob), Alice Lowe (Sightseers), Eileen Davies (Sightseers) Rachael Deering (The Last Hours Of Laura K), Edward Hogg (Jupiter Ascending) and newcomer Ozzy Myers.

The film is the feature adaptation of Tunnard’s 2015 BAFTA-nominated short Emotional Fusebox, which starred much of the same cast.

Former Screen...

By Hank Reineke

Though the 1966 space-age vampire flick Queen of Blood is not new to home video, it has been one of the more elusive science-fiction titles of the 1960s. Issued on VHS as Planet of Blood back in the early 1980s on the budget “Star Classics” label and later in 1990 on a much improved laser disc from Image (paired with Mario Bava’s similarly-themed Planet of the Vampires), Queen of Blood has been mostly unavailable to collectors for nearly twenty-five years. In March 2011 MGM finally re-issued the title as part of its Limited Edition Collection, but only as a made-on-demand release. In 2015, Kino Lorber has – very happily for genre fans and collectors - rescued this title from the wasteland of cult-film marginalia with their superb Blu-Ray release of this Roger Corman-Curtis Harrington classic.

Queen of Blood (for reasons we’ll get into a little later on) more...

In a shocking turn of events, Deadline is reporting that due to scheduling conflicts, director Juan Antonio Bayona (The Impossible) has exited Paramount Pictures' & Plan B Entertainment's upcoming World War Z sequel, which stars Academy Award-winner Brad Pitt and has a script from Steven Knight (Pawn Sacrifice) & Dennis Kelly (Black Sea). Paramount is eagerly trying to kick off production on World War Z 2 this summer in order to get it ready for its wide release in Summer 2017. Bayona is currently deep into post-production on his latest directorial venture A Monster Calls, which stars Liam Neeson (Taken) & Felicity Jones (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), and felt that he couldn't finish his commitments on that film before this summer when he would have had to shift gears to World War Z 2. The studio released this statement to confirm his departure: “Bayona is no longer able to make...

Hulu has released a new full trailer for their adaption of Stephen King’s time travel adventure story called 11.22.63. The limited series stars James Franco, who goes back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

I loved this story, and this thrilling series looks like it’s going to be awesome. The story follows a high school English teacher named Jake Epping (Franco) who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, “but his mission is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald, falling in love and the past itself, which doesn’t want to be changed.”

The series have a talented cast of actors that also includes Chris Cooper, Josh Duhamel, T.R. Knight, Cherry Jones, Sarah Gadon, Lucy Fry, George MacKay, and Daniel Webber.

The eight-part event series will premiere on February 15th, 2016, and the first two episodes were directed by Academy Award-winning...