Updated: The Night Shift star Eoin Macken has been tapped as the male lead opposite Natalie Zea in NBC’s drama pilot La Brea. Another NBC series star, Chicago P.D.‘s Jon Seda, is one of three actors, originally cast in the project a year ago and released in June, who have been brought back to reprise their roles, along with Veronica St. Clair and Chiké Okonkwo.
Jack Martin and Lily Santiago also have been newly cast in the pilot, joining Zyra Gorecki.
In La Brea, written by David Appelbaum, when a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens in Los Angeles, it tears a family in half, separating mother (Zea) and son (Martin) from father (Macken) and daughter (Gorecki). When part of the family find themselves in an unexplainable primeval world, alongside a disparate group of strangers, they must work to survive and uncover the mystery of where they are and...
Jack Martin and Lily Santiago also have been newly cast in the pilot, joining Zyra Gorecki.
In La Brea, written by David Appelbaum, when a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens in Los Angeles, it tears a family in half, separating mother (Zea) and son (Martin) from father (Macken) and daughter (Gorecki). When part of the family find themselves in an unexplainable primeval world, alongside a disparate group of strangers, they must work to survive and uncover the mystery of where they are and...
- 3/4/2021
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
One of Canada’s most revered filmmakers, known for The Red Violin and Silk, François Girard stopped by Deadline’s Toronto Studio to discuss his latest epic project, Hochelaga, Land of Souls, alongside actor Vincent Perez. Spanning 750 years of Montreal’s history, the film pays tribute to the filmmaker’s homeland, which he had somehow shot little of on prior projects. “I do have a tremendous affection for Montreal. I lived most of my life in Montreal, that's my hometown…...
- 9/14/2017
- Deadline
Academy invitee Eddie Redmayne in 'The Theory of Everything.' Academy invites 322 new members: 'More diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before' The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has offered membership to 322 individuals "who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures." According to the Academy's press release, "those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2015." In case all 322 potential new members say an enthusiastic Yes, that means an injection of new blood representing about 5 percent of the Academy's current membership. In the words of Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs (as quoted in the press release), in 2015 "our branches have recognized a more diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before, and we look forward to adding their creativity, ideas and experience to our organization." In recent years, the Academy membership has...
- 7/1/2015
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
©Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©Studio Pali Fekete architects/©A.M.P.A.S.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that the Los Angeles City Council, in a unanimous vote, approved plans for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Construction will begin this summer, and ceremonial groundbreaking festivities will occur this fall.
“I am thrilled that Los Angeles is gaining another architectural and cultural icon,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “My office of economic development has worked directly with the museum’s development team to ensure that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will create jobs, support tourism, and pay homage to the industry that helped define our identity as the creative capital of the world.”
“We are grateful to our incredible community of supporters who have helped make this museum a reality,” said Dawn Hudson, the Academy’s CEO. “Building this museum has been an Academy...
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that the Los Angeles City Council, in a unanimous vote, approved plans for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Construction will begin this summer, and ceremonial groundbreaking festivities will occur this fall.
“I am thrilled that Los Angeles is gaining another architectural and cultural icon,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “My office of economic development has worked directly with the museum’s development team to ensure that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will create jobs, support tourism, and pay homage to the industry that helped define our identity as the creative capital of the world.”
“We are grateful to our incredible community of supporters who have helped make this museum a reality,” said Dawn Hudson, the Academy’s CEO. “Building this museum has been an Academy...
- 6/27/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Strangely dropping a press release on a historic day where the nation's attention is elsewhere, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their annual list of new member invitees this morning. For those who criticize the makeup of the Academy there was some good news and the stark realization the organization still has a long way to go. The Academy has spent the last eight to 10 years attempting to diversify its membership and this year's class mostly reflects that. There are significantly more invitees of Asian and African-American descent, but the male to female disparity is still depressing. Out of the 25 potential new members of the Actor's Branch only seven are women. And, no, there isn't really an acceptable way for the Academy to spin that sad fact. Additionally, It's important to realize the 322 people noted in the release have only been invited to join Hollywood's most exclusive club.
- 6/26/2015
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
Cast your minds back to 2002 - a time when Pop Idols didn't need to have The X Factor, Fifty Shades of Grey were just colours on a paint sampler chart and David Beckham was a mere international superstar rather than global megastar.
Bend It Like Beckham, with a modest estimated budget of £3.7 million, opened that same year and became a critical and commercial success - breaking box office records and scoring BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, as well as making household names of many of its stars.
As the cast continues preparing for the West End stage adaptation of Gurinder Chadha's screen hit ahead of previews on May 15, find out what the movie's ensemble cast went on to achieve - including who is coming back for the musical...
Parminder Nagra (Jess Bhamra)
Nominated for Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards on the back of the movie's success, Parminder went...
Bend It Like Beckham, with a modest estimated budget of £3.7 million, opened that same year and became a critical and commercial success - breaking box office records and scoring BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, as well as making household names of many of its stars.
As the cast continues preparing for the West End stage adaptation of Gurinder Chadha's screen hit ahead of previews on May 15, find out what the movie's ensemble cast went on to achieve - including who is coming back for the musical...
Parminder Nagra (Jess Bhamra)
Nominated for Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards on the back of the movie's success, Parminder went...
- 3/22/2015
- Digital Spy
A movie based on the Tony-winning Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone is being developed as a Canadian-Australian co-production.
Geoffrey Rush, who played the character known as Man in the Chair in the Australian stage production, is set to reprise the role in the film, which will be directed by Fred Schepisi.
A tongue-in-cheek tribute to the golden era of Broadway musicals, Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin, the plot sees a musical literally bursting to life in the man.s living room, telling the rambunctious tale of a brazen Broadway starlet trying to find, and keep, her true love.
The lead Canadian producer is Rhombus Media.s Niv Fichman, whose credits include Silk, Enemy, Blindness, The Red Violin and Antiviral.
Aussie producer Antonia Barnard has confirmed her involvement .in the early stages.. Also aboard is producer Raquelle David, who spent six months with Fichman in Toronto last year developing the project,...
Geoffrey Rush, who played the character known as Man in the Chair in the Australian stage production, is set to reprise the role in the film, which will be directed by Fred Schepisi.
A tongue-in-cheek tribute to the golden era of Broadway musicals, Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin, the plot sees a musical literally bursting to life in the man.s living room, telling the rambunctious tale of a brazen Broadway starlet trying to find, and keep, her true love.
The lead Canadian producer is Rhombus Media.s Niv Fichman, whose credits include Silk, Enemy, Blindness, The Red Violin and Antiviral.
Aussie producer Antonia Barnard has confirmed her involvement .in the early stages.. Also aboard is producer Raquelle David, who spent six months with Fichman in Toronto last year developing the project,...
- 4/14/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Remember Michael Pitt's big screen career? No? Well, okay, we forgive you. It seems like a distant memory since we last saw him in "Silk" and "Funny Games U.S.," and that's kinda because it really was a long time ago. A whole five years in fact. Since then Pitt has only appeared in a couple of shorts, and some TV show that you may or may not have heard of -- it goes by the name of "Boardwalk Empire."
Of course we joke, that show's a pretty big deal, but that's still only accounted for two seasons of television (24 episodes) since 2010, and doesn't really explain his complete absence from cinema over the last five years. Who knows what he's been doing to keep himself so busy off-screen (and if you do know, please let us know), but all that's about to change as Pitt has managed to put some...
Of course we joke, that show's a pretty big deal, but that's still only accounted for two seasons of television (24 episodes) since 2010, and doesn't really explain his complete absence from cinema over the last five years. Who knows what he's been doing to keep himself so busy off-screen (and if you do know, please let us know), but all that's about to change as Pitt has managed to put some...
- 4/20/2012
- by Joe Cunningham
- The Playlist
Full listing of Game of Thrones Season 2 New Characters and Actors. Major and minor characters for Game of Thrones: Season 2 have been casting for months now. We have compiled a list of them all from different sources so that you will know what characters will be in Season 2 of HBO‘s Game of Thrones and who would be playing them. There are major spoilers below, especially if you have not read the A Song of Ice and Fire books so be warned. I personally have only shimmed over the detailed information below as I want characters and their motivations kept in shadow as much as possible. The list will be updated when new characters are cast so you might want to bookmark this page.
We previously posted on casting for Season 2 of Game of Thrones here: Game of Thrones: Season 2 Casts Liam Cunningham, Carice van Houten, Stephen Dillane,...
We previously posted on casting for Season 2 of Game of Thrones here: Game of Thrones: Season 2 Casts Liam Cunningham, Carice van Houten, Stephen Dillane,...
- 10/16/2011
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
Craig here with Take Three. Today: Michael Pitt
Take One: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Pitt’s weedy teenage wannabe rock imp Tommy Gnosis (The Jesus freak army brat formerly known as Tommy Speck – then, very nearly, Tommy Ache) got to grapple with Hedwig’s Angry Inch in unconventionally inventive ways back in 2001. John Cameron Mitchell’s slip-up-operation rock opera, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, was like nothing else on screen at the time. If you could avert your eyes from internationally ignored “icon” Hedwig’s shining beacon of starlight, then hidden in the flared remnants, and on the sidelines, was Pitt’s Tommy. He was initially willing to dote on her every word but eventually reluctant to acknowledge his own sneaky appropriation of her back catalogue. He became the big star; Hedwig toured the fish restaurants of America.
Pitt does the naive, overtly adoring rock moppet well. He also does the non-committal,...
Take One: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Pitt’s weedy teenage wannabe rock imp Tommy Gnosis (The Jesus freak army brat formerly known as Tommy Speck – then, very nearly, Tommy Ache) got to grapple with Hedwig’s Angry Inch in unconventionally inventive ways back in 2001. John Cameron Mitchell’s slip-up-operation rock opera, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, was like nothing else on screen at the time. If you could avert your eyes from internationally ignored “icon” Hedwig’s shining beacon of starlight, then hidden in the flared remnants, and on the sidelines, was Pitt’s Tommy. He was initially willing to dote on her every word but eventually reluctant to acknowledge his own sneaky appropriation of her back catalogue. He became the big star; Hedwig toured the fish restaurants of America.
Pitt does the naive, overtly adoring rock moppet well. He also does the non-committal,...
- 3/27/2011
- by Craig Bloomfield
- FilmExperience
Industry blighted by ignorance and lack of female working class roles, says Bolton-born actor
Actor Maxine Peake has complained about the lack of working class female film roles and the enduring class barriers that exists in Britain.
In an interview with Radio Times magazine, the Bolton-born actor, who is best known for playing Veronica in Channel 4's Shameless, said: "It's still rife. We're still obsessed with accent and class in this country. If you look at actors, loads are working class. But look at women and there's only Samantha Morton, really. All the others - Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Emily Blunt, Rebecca Hall - they're all brilliant, but there's no female working class.
"I remember feeling at drama school that if you were male and working class you were a bit of a poet, a working class hero, but if you were female you were just a bit gobby...
Actor Maxine Peake has complained about the lack of working class female film roles and the enduring class barriers that exists in Britain.
In an interview with Radio Times magazine, the Bolton-born actor, who is best known for playing Veronica in Channel 4's Shameless, said: "It's still rife. We're still obsessed with accent and class in this country. If you look at actors, loads are working class. But look at women and there's only Samantha Morton, really. All the others - Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Emily Blunt, Rebecca Hall - they're all brilliant, but there's no female working class.
"I remember feeling at drama school that if you were male and working class you were a bit of a poet, a working class hero, but if you were female you were just a bit gobby...
- 2/15/2011
- by Helen Carter
- The Guardian - Film News
MIchael Pitt has admitted that he finds working on a television series difficult. Pitt, who plays Jimmy in new HBO series Boardwalk Empire, has previously appeared in movies including The Dreamers, The Village, Silk and Funny Games. Speaking to Martin Scorsese for Interview magazine, Pitt explained that he was concerned about how to develop his Boardwalk Empire character over the series. "It's definitely difficult," he said. "I think I approached it as though I was making a film, for better or for worse... The hardest part is that your performance is spread out over a long period of time, so you're working with this character in a different way. And then the flux in the directors can be difficult." He added: "It's definitely an interesting medium. The challenge that I face is (more)...
- 9/1/2010
- by By Catriona Wightman
- Digital Spy
DVD Playhouse—November 2009
By
Allen Gardner
Watchmen—The Ultimate Cut (Warner Bros.) Director Zack Snyder’s film of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel is as worthy an adaptation of a great book that has ever been filmed. In an alternative version of the year 1985, Richard Nixon is serving his third term as President and super heroes have been outlawed by a congressional act, in spite of the fact that two of the most high-profile “masks,” Dr. Manhattan (Billy Cruddup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) helped the U.S. win the Vietnam War. When The Comedian is found murdered, many former heroes become concerned that a conspiracy is afoot to assassinate retired costumed crime fighters. Former masks Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and still-operating Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in an Oscar-worthy turn) launch an investigation of their own, all while the Pentagon’s “Doomsday...
By
Allen Gardner
Watchmen—The Ultimate Cut (Warner Bros.) Director Zack Snyder’s film of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel is as worthy an adaptation of a great book that has ever been filmed. In an alternative version of the year 1985, Richard Nixon is serving his third term as President and super heroes have been outlawed by a congressional act, in spite of the fact that two of the most high-profile “masks,” Dr. Manhattan (Billy Cruddup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) helped the U.S. win the Vietnam War. When The Comedian is found murdered, many former heroes become concerned that a conspiracy is afoot to assassinate retired costumed crime fighters. Former masks Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and still-operating Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in an Oscar-worthy turn) launch an investigation of their own, all while the Pentagon’s “Doomsday...
- 11/15/2009
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
tMF is currently asking its viewers: Who is your favorite leading lady? Early results show Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley grabbing the top 3 spots. Michelle Williams, Scarlett Johnasson and Rachel McAdams are not far behind. This poll (just look at the right side of the website and proceed further down) will run until Friday, and the early results gave us the opportunity to see what Natalie, Anne and Keira have been doing lately - new movies, appearances, interviews and much more! - - -
- - - Currently ranked # 1 - Natalie Portman
Favorite Movies: Closer, Leon (The Professional), Garden State, Where The Heart Is, V for Vendetta.
Upcoming Movies: Brothers, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Black Swan and Thor
Natalie Portman is currently on the spotlight for her movie, New York I Love You. The La Times' Rebecca Ascher-Walsh has just written a profile of the actress:...
- - - Currently ranked # 1 - Natalie Portman
Favorite Movies: Closer, Leon (The Professional), Garden State, Where The Heart Is, V for Vendetta.
Upcoming Movies: Brothers, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Black Swan and Thor
Natalie Portman is currently on the spotlight for her movie, New York I Love You. The La Times' Rebecca Ascher-Walsh has just written a profile of the actress:...
- 10/27/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
tMF is currently asking its viewers: Who is your favorite leading lady? Early results show Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley grabbing the top 3 spots. Michelle Williams, Scarlett Johnasson and Rachel McAdams are not far behind. This poll (just look at the right side of the website and proceed further down) will run until Friday, and the early results gave us the opportunity to see what Natalie, Anne and Keira have been doing lately - new movies, appearances, interviews and much more! - - -
- - - Currently ranked # 1 - Natalie Portman
Favorite Movies: Closer, Leon (The Professional), Garden State, Where The Heart Is, V for Vendetta.
Upcoming Movies: Brothers, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Black Swan and Thor
Natalie Portman is currently on the spotlight for her movie, New York I Love You. The La Times' Rebecca Ascher-Walsh has just written a profile of the actress:...
- - - Currently ranked # 1 - Natalie Portman
Favorite Movies: Closer, Leon (The Professional), Garden State, Where The Heart Is, V for Vendetta.
Upcoming Movies: Brothers, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Black Swan and Thor
Natalie Portman is currently on the spotlight for her movie, New York I Love You. The La Times' Rebecca Ascher-Walsh has just written a profile of the actress:...
- 10/27/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
tMF is currently asking its viewers: Who is your favorite leading lady? Early results show Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley grabbing the top 3 spots. Michelle Williams, Scarlett Johnasson and Rachel McAdams are not far behind. This poll (just look at the right side of the website and proceed further down) will run until Friday, and the early results gave us the opportunity to see what Natalie, Anne and Keira have been doing lately - new movies, appearances, interviews and much more! - - -
- - - Currently ranked # 1 - Natalie Portman
Favorite Movies: Closer, Leon (The Professional), Garden State, Where The Heart Is, V for Vendetta.
Upcoming Movies: Brothers, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Black Swan and Thor
Natalie Portman is currently on the spotlight for her movie, New York I Love You. The La Times' Rebecca Ascher-Walsh has just written a profile of the actress:...
- - - Currently ranked # 1 - Natalie Portman
Favorite Movies: Closer, Leon (The Professional), Garden State, Where The Heart Is, V for Vendetta.
Upcoming Movies: Brothers, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Black Swan and Thor
Natalie Portman is currently on the spotlight for her movie, New York I Love You. The La Times' Rebecca Ascher-Walsh has just written a profile of the actress:...
- 10/27/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
We've listed down our top 50 hottest young actors and would be coming up with the latest updates very soon. Yesterday, we discussed about actors we believed to be quite underrated. How about the young actors we consider overrated? That's what this article is for...
- - -
- - -
Who qualifies as overrated? Guys who seem to be getting lots of buzz, but has no real talent at all, or perhaps just a small amount of it. I have no issue if an actor gets the cover of GQ or Details or L'Uomo Vogue every month. They can even strut their stuff on the catwalks of Milan and Paris and gain additional media mileage. But to be considered the hottest actor on the planet with nothing to show yet? That is something totally absurd.
Anyway, here's our list of ten just after the jump!
- - -
Updates! To...
- - -
- - -
Who qualifies as overrated? Guys who seem to be getting lots of buzz, but has no real talent at all, or perhaps just a small amount of it. I have no issue if an actor gets the cover of GQ or Details or L'Uomo Vogue every month. They can even strut their stuff on the catwalks of Milan and Paris and gain additional media mileage. But to be considered the hottest actor on the planet with nothing to show yet? That is something totally absurd.
Anyway, here's our list of ten just after the jump!
- - -
Updates! To...
- 10/14/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
After watching the pilot episode HBO has ordered 11 episodes of the Martin Scorsese produced series Boardwalk Empire. Scorsese also directed the pilot which kicks the story off.
Set in 1920 at the start of the era of America's Prohibition, Boardwalk Empire follows the life of Atlantic City crime businessman Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi). Kelly MacDonald (No Country For Old Men), Michael Pitt (Silk), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), Vincent Piazza (Assassination of a High School President) and Dabney Coleman (Stuart Little) also star in the series.
HBO is eyeing a 2010 broadcast date for the show. Production on the series will commence this fall.
Set in 1920 at the start of the era of America's Prohibition, Boardwalk Empire follows the life of Atlantic City crime businessman Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi). Kelly MacDonald (No Country For Old Men), Michael Pitt (Silk), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), Vincent Piazza (Assassination of a High School President) and Dabney Coleman (Stuart Little) also star in the series.
HBO is eyeing a 2010 broadcast date for the show. Production on the series will commence this fall.
- 9/2/2009
- by Patrick Sauriol
- Corona's Coming Attractions
Post Oscars the the crowds are smaller but red carpets never stopped being walked on. So here we go with this week's sampling.
Maribel Verdú would like to know what it is with French actresses and The Film Experience. How about some attention for the Spanish ladies? Rupert Friend and Keira Knightley attended the opening of his film The Young Victoria (previous post). Rupert will be the love of Michelle Pfeiffer and Emily Blunt's lives this year onscreen. Offscreen he's still Keira's. They make such a beautiful couple but they're both so angular one wonders if they keep gauze and surgical tape on their nightstands just as a precaution. Cheekbones that kill.
Breaking news: Charlize Theron still hot, still knows it. Can we please have more Carla Gugino and Miranda Richardson onscreen? Come on agents, casting directors, producers etcetera. Use them (We discussed Miranda earlier). More on Carla next week since Watchmen opens today.
Maribel Verdú would like to know what it is with French actresses and The Film Experience. How about some attention for the Spanish ladies? Rupert Friend and Keira Knightley attended the opening of his film The Young Victoria (previous post). Rupert will be the love of Michelle Pfeiffer and Emily Blunt's lives this year onscreen. Offscreen he's still Keira's. They make such a beautiful couple but they're both so angular one wonders if they keep gauze and surgical tape on their nightstands just as a precaution. Cheekbones that kill.
Breaking news: Charlize Theron still hot, still knows it. Can we please have more Carla Gugino and Miranda Richardson onscreen? Come on agents, casting directors, producers etcetera. Use them (We discussed Miranda earlier). More on Carla next week since Watchmen opens today.
- 3/8/2009
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
I would've expected Keira Knightley to learn her lesson by now. After Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Silk, and The Duchess this year, I was hoping she'd stop making such dull period pieces -- apparently not. Knightley has been cast in The Beautiful and the Damned, the next project from filmmaker John Curran. Curran last directed the period film The Painted Veil as well as We Don't Live Here Anymore before that. The Beautiful and the Damned concerns the turbulent marriage of alcoholic writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his schizophrenic wife Zelda Sayre. Something to get excited about? I highly doubt it. The Beautiful and the Damned will begin production in March. The story takes place in the high society of the roaring '20s, which was when Fitzgerald wrote some of his greatest novels, including This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned (for which this movie is named), and The...
- 1/5/2009
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Michael Pitt is closing in on a deal to star opposite Steve Buscemi in HBO’s new drama Boardwalk Empire, report the trades. Martin Scorsese is attached to direct the pilot. Written by Terrence Winter, Empire is based on Nelson Johnson's book of the same name, which chronicles the 1920s origins of Atlantic City, N.J. The story centers on Nucky Johnson (Buscemi), a cunning businessman who runs a liquor distribution ring at the onset of Prohibition, and Jimmy Darmody (Pitt), a young, highly intelligent and ruthless Wwi veteran, a low-level flunky for Nucky who wants to quickly climb the ladder. Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men) is also starring in the pilot. Pitt, who had a recurring role on Dawson's Creek, has hit the big screen in Bully, The Dreamers, Murder by Numbers, The Village, Last Days, Silk and most recently Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. Winter...
- 12/31/2008
- by James Cook
- TheMovingPicture.net
While DOMINO wasn't exactly a fantastic movie, it's certainly the kind of movie I'd rather see Keira Knightley doing. Kick some ass KK! But instead of seeing bad-ass Keira, we'll get period drama Keira as she's signed on to her fifth period piece in a row. Knightley has signed on to star in THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED, which is based on a love story between writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. Following period turns in ATONEMENT, SILK, THE EDGE OF LOVE and THE DUCHESS, Knightley...
- 9/23/2008
- by Mike Sampson
- JoBlo.com
Words are Keira Knightley's new film project, after her portrayal of controversial Duchess of Devonshire in "The Duchess", will be another period piece romance, "The Beautiful and the Damned". According to Hollywood Reporter, the English starlet is encircling the leading lady role as tempestuous Zelda Sayre by involving in a negotiation for the part.
If Knightley indeed took the role of Sayre, this would continue her entanglement with period movies. She has recently starred in "Duchess", which came out on September 19, in World War I drama epic with James McAvoy "Atonement" and in Alessandro Baricco's adapted novel "Silk". Before those, she has also played Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen's adaptation "Pride and Prejudice".
Having "The Notebook" director Nick Cassavetes attached to helm the project, "Damned" is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel of the same name. The story is believed to be revolving around Fitzgerald and his lover Sayre.
If Knightley indeed took the role of Sayre, this would continue her entanglement with period movies. She has recently starred in "Duchess", which came out on September 19, in World War I drama epic with James McAvoy "Atonement" and in Alessandro Baricco's adapted novel "Silk". Before those, she has also played Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen's adaptation "Pride and Prejudice".
Having "The Notebook" director Nick Cassavetes attached to helm the project, "Damned" is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel of the same name. The story is believed to be revolving around Fitzgerald and his lover Sayre.
- 9/23/2008
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Nick Cassavetes has signed on to direct "The Beautiful and the Damned," the Film Department's period love story about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayme. The helmer already has circled his Zelda: Keira Knightley is in discussions to play the tempestuous lover.
"Damned" revolves around Zelda Sayre (Knightley) and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who became Jazz Age icons known for living large, soaring high and crashing hard. Although toasts of town in the 1920s, their courtship and marriage was festooned with jealousy and acrimony. Fitzgerald used their relationship as material for his novels, and Sayre -- who tried hard to find an artistic identity of her own and ended up being admitted to a sanitarium -- did the same.
Hanna Weg wrote the screenplay.
Lance Sloane and Devin Sloane producing with Film Department's Mark Gill and Robert Katz.
Neil Sacker of the Film Department and Michael Goguen are exec producing,...
"Damned" revolves around Zelda Sayre (Knightley) and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who became Jazz Age icons known for living large, soaring high and crashing hard. Although toasts of town in the 1920s, their courtship and marriage was festooned with jealousy and acrimony. Fitzgerald used their relationship as material for his novels, and Sayre -- who tried hard to find an artistic identity of her own and ended up being admitted to a sanitarium -- did the same.
Hanna Weg wrote the screenplay.
Lance Sloane and Devin Sloane producing with Film Department's Mark Gill and Robert Katz.
Neil Sacker of the Film Department and Michael Goguen are exec producing,...
- 9/23/2008
- by By Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When it was announced that Keira Knightley would be starring in the new film The Duchess, complete with all kinds of period dresses, folds, furbelows, corsets, bodices, hoops, ringlets, hats, big hair and heaven knows what else, the general response was: "what, again?" We can only guess whether Keira herself said the same thing, or if she simply took to the new costume like a beautiful, slender swan to water. Here's a rundown of Keira's other period, costume epics, ranging from worst to best:
7. Silk (2007)
Keira's most snore-inducing movie, though it's a close call. She plays Hélène Joncour, who has virtually nothing to do while her hubby is off having adventures in exotic lands. Her costumes are merely plain, with the occasional straw hat. If I remember correctly, she sometimes wears gardening gloves. Yawn.
6. Doctor Zhivago (2002)
Playing the bourgeois-born Lara, Keira got to wear ultra-romantic big fur hats and headscarves in this TV movie.
7. Silk (2007)
Keira's most snore-inducing movie, though it's a close call. She plays Hélène Joncour, who has virtually nothing to do while her hubby is off having adventures in exotic lands. Her costumes are merely plain, with the occasional straw hat. If I remember correctly, she sometimes wears gardening gloves. Yawn.
6. Doctor Zhivago (2002)
Playing the bourgeois-born Lara, Keira got to wear ultra-romantic big fur hats and headscarves in this TV movie.
- 9/19/2008
- by Jeffrey M. Anderson
- Cinematical
Lafleur's Continental Is A Multiple Winner At The Jutra Awards
Drama Continental: Un Film Sans Fusil (a Film Without Guns) emerged the big winner at the Jutra Awards in Quebec, Canada on Sunday, after winning four prizes including the coveted prize for Best Picture.
The movie also took home awards for Best Screenplay, Best Director for Stephane Lafleur and Best Supporting Actor for Real Bosse.
It wasn't the only quadruple-winner of the night - the Keira Knightley-starring period drama Silk claimed honours for technical skill, including Best Cinematography and Best Costume.
But the Jutra Awards proved to be less fruitful for comedy/drama Les 3 p'tits cochones (The 3 Little Pigs), which won just one of the 13 gongs it was nominated for. It was recognised for the Billet d'or (Golden ticket) trophy, which is handed to the most successful domestic film at the Quebec box office after scooping profits of $4.5 million (GBP2.25 million) in 2007.
Meanwhile, Roy Dupuis was named Best Actor for his role in Shake Hands With the Devil, and Best Actress went to Guylaine Tremblay for her part in Contre toute esperance.
The movie also took home awards for Best Screenplay, Best Director for Stephane Lafleur and Best Supporting Actor for Real Bosse.
It wasn't the only quadruple-winner of the night - the Keira Knightley-starring period drama Silk claimed honours for technical skill, including Best Cinematography and Best Costume.
But the Jutra Awards proved to be less fruitful for comedy/drama Les 3 p'tits cochones (The 3 Little Pigs), which won just one of the 13 gongs it was nominated for. It was recognised for the Billet d'or (Golden ticket) trophy, which is handed to the most successful domestic film at the Quebec box office after scooping profits of $4.5 million (GBP2.25 million) in 2007.
Meanwhile, Roy Dupuis was named Best Actor for his role in Shake Hands With the Devil, and Best Actress went to Guylaine Tremblay for her part in Contre toute esperance.
- 3/10/2008
- WENN
- The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television have announced the nominees for the 28th annual Genie Awards and leading the pack with 12 noms each is David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises and Roger Spottiswoode's Shake Hands with the Devil. The real applause goes to films like Away From Her (7 noms), The Tracey Fragments (6 noms) and Continental, a Film without Guns (5 noms). Two highly promising films that fizzled this year are veteran directors François Girard's Silk (it garnered many technical noms) and Denys Arcand's Days of Darkness who got some sympathy votes. Interesting side note: Ellen Page is going up against Julie Christie not with Juno but with Canadian made Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments. Awards will be handed out just after the Oscars on March 3rd. Best Motion Picturedays Of Darkness - Denise Robert, Daniel LouisAWAY From Her - Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl, Jennifer WeissCONTINENTAL, A
- 1/29/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
'Elizabeth,' Loren big draws at Rome festival
ROME -- The European premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age was the big event on the first full day of the RomaCinemaFest, with star Cate Blanchett and director Shekhar Kapur attracting applause from a red carpet crowd noticeably fuller than the one from opening night a day earlier.
Earlier, Sophia Loren received a standing ovation at the Sistine Theater when she was awarded a lifetime achievement award.
The festival, which concludes Oct. 27, got under way Thursday with a limited schedule. But Friday featured a full lineup, with Elizabeth and several events related to the Focus India sidebar dominating the day.
Brad Isaacs' Have Dreams Will Travel and Un Chateau en Espagne (My Very Best Friend) from Isabelle Doval also premiered Friday, both in the Alice in the City sidebar for young moviegoers. And, after a 30-minute documentary on her career, Loren charmed a standing-room-only crowd with anecdotes from her early years in the film business.
The weekend schedule in Rome is expected to attract even more attention, with the world premiere of Francis Ford Coppola's first film in a decade -- Youth Without Youth -- and the European premiere of Francois Girard's Silk, starring Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt, on tap.
Earlier, Sophia Loren received a standing ovation at the Sistine Theater when she was awarded a lifetime achievement award.
The festival, which concludes Oct. 27, got under way Thursday with a limited schedule. But Friday featured a full lineup, with Elizabeth and several events related to the Focus India sidebar dominating the day.
Brad Isaacs' Have Dreams Will Travel and Un Chateau en Espagne (My Very Best Friend) from Isabelle Doval also premiered Friday, both in the Alice in the City sidebar for young moviegoers. And, after a 30-minute documentary on her career, Loren charmed a standing-room-only crowd with anecdotes from her early years in the film business.
The weekend schedule in Rome is expected to attract even more attention, with the world premiere of Francis Ford Coppola's first film in a decade -- Youth Without Youth -- and the European premiere of Francois Girard's Silk, starring Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt, on tap.
- 10/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Knightley Says No to Hollywood Blockbusters
British actress Keira Knightley has turned her back on major Hollywood roles - because they do not challenge her emotionally. The Atonement star, 22, says she "cannot imagine" doing another big-budget Pirates Of The Caribbean-style movie. Instead she wants to concentrate on quirky small-budget films which stretch her acting skills. She says, "I can't imagine ever doing another one. I had five months off from Pirates during the summer last year, when I made Silk and Atonement, and it was so great - I want to be able to explore emotions in smaller projects. That's not to say I won't suddenly read a big Hollywood blockbuster and go 'oooh, that might be good...' But I haven't yet."...
- 9/21/2007
- WENN
Silk
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- The arresting European and Japanese locales, period costumes, sets and props all seem poised for a much richer and more significant movie than Silk has to offer. You search its images, which seems to have more to do with mid-19th century methods of international travel than characters or events, for any sort of action to glom on to. Few movies ever have gone to such a length to tell so slight -- and, worse, unengaging -- a story.
Based on Alessandro Baricco's 1996 best-selling novel, this film by Francois Girard (who made the splendid The Red Violin) stages a love story with an O. Henry ending against the world of the silk trade in the 1860s. It's an exotic world that requires a man to make a dangerous journey from France to Japan -- prior to the Suez Canal -- no less than three times, estranging him from his wife back home but creating a romantic obsession with a Japanese girl who lives "at the end of the world."
Stars Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley are ill-suited to this period. They are modern actors who feel out of time and place despite their costumes, and their talents are poorly used by this moody tone poem of far-flung loves. Audiences will find the whole thing an alien puzzle, filled with wondrous images that are little more than postcards from the past. Knightley's current popularity and the book's admirers may create enough buzz for a solid opening. After that, boxoffice looks to be light.
Pitt's Herve Joncour appears headed for a run-of-the-mill military career until a trader named Baldabiou (Alfred Molina) plucks him from the army to journey to Africa to buy silkworm eggs to replace those ruined by a mysterious disease in Europe. However, the epidemic reaches Africa before Herve does. So the only hope for the silk mills that has caused Herve's hometown to prosper is for him to journey to Japan, a country entirely closed to foreigners, to buy pristine eggs.
His three trips to Japan, each increasingly more dangerous, drives an unspoken wedge between him and his wife, Helene (Knightley), who remains childless. Meanwhile, in a snowy mountain village in Japan, where he is led each time blindfolded, for whatever reason, he falls under the protection of a powerful baron, Hara Jubei (Koji Yakusho).
The baron's concubine intrigues him. On his second visit he is gifted with his own girl of ethereal beauty (Sei Ashina). Their lovemaking is as photogenic as Girard can make it.
Even Baldabiou warns him against a third visit. A rebellion has broken out in Japan. Yet Herve's obsession with The Girl forces him to return. So again, for a third time, the film treats the viewer to the train trip from Vienna to Moravia, a caravan to cross 3,000 miles of Russian steppes, a boat ride in a smuggler's ship and that blindfolded horse trip up the mountain. It's a long way to go to get laid.
You learn little about the silk trade or these characters or the political tumult and war that make the journeys so tricky. All Girard and co-writer Michael Golding seek out are gorgeous shots of travel, exotic lands, the picturesque French village (actually shot in Italian towns), the silk factory, steaming bathing pools in Japan surrounded by snow and lovemaking at each end of the earth.
What a gorgeous coffee table book these images would make. But what a dull movie.
SILK
Picturehouse
Picturehouse presents in association with Alliance Atlantis/Asmik Ace Entertainment/Mesuda Film a Rhombus Media/Fandango/Bee Vine Pidctures presentation
Credits:
Director: Francois Girard
Writers: Francois Girard, Michael Golding
Based on the novel by: Alessandro Baricco
Producers: Niv Fichman, Nandine Luque, Domenico Procacci, Sonoko Sakai
Executive producers: Tom Yoda, Yashshi Shina, Akira Ishii, Camela Galano, Jonathan Debin, Patrice Theroux, Alessandro Baricco
Director of photography: Alain Dostie
Production designer: Francois Seguin
Costume designers: Carlo Poggioli, Kazuko Kurosawa
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Editor: Pia Di Ciaula
Cast:
Herve Joncour: Michael Pitt
Helene Joncour: Keira Knightley
Baldabiou: Alfred Molina
Hara Jubei: Koji Yakusho
Madame Blanche: Miki Nakatani
Ludovic: Mark Rendall
Girl: Sei Ashina
Running time -- 109 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
TORONTO -- The arresting European and Japanese locales, period costumes, sets and props all seem poised for a much richer and more significant movie than Silk has to offer. You search its images, which seems to have more to do with mid-19th century methods of international travel than characters or events, for any sort of action to glom on to. Few movies ever have gone to such a length to tell so slight -- and, worse, unengaging -- a story.
Based on Alessandro Baricco's 1996 best-selling novel, this film by Francois Girard (who made the splendid The Red Violin) stages a love story with an O. Henry ending against the world of the silk trade in the 1860s. It's an exotic world that requires a man to make a dangerous journey from France to Japan -- prior to the Suez Canal -- no less than three times, estranging him from his wife back home but creating a romantic obsession with a Japanese girl who lives "at the end of the world."
Stars Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley are ill-suited to this period. They are modern actors who feel out of time and place despite their costumes, and their talents are poorly used by this moody tone poem of far-flung loves. Audiences will find the whole thing an alien puzzle, filled with wondrous images that are little more than postcards from the past. Knightley's current popularity and the book's admirers may create enough buzz for a solid opening. After that, boxoffice looks to be light.
Pitt's Herve Joncour appears headed for a run-of-the-mill military career until a trader named Baldabiou (Alfred Molina) plucks him from the army to journey to Africa to buy silkworm eggs to replace those ruined by a mysterious disease in Europe. However, the epidemic reaches Africa before Herve does. So the only hope for the silk mills that has caused Herve's hometown to prosper is for him to journey to Japan, a country entirely closed to foreigners, to buy pristine eggs.
His three trips to Japan, each increasingly more dangerous, drives an unspoken wedge between him and his wife, Helene (Knightley), who remains childless. Meanwhile, in a snowy mountain village in Japan, where he is led each time blindfolded, for whatever reason, he falls under the protection of a powerful baron, Hara Jubei (Koji Yakusho).
The baron's concubine intrigues him. On his second visit he is gifted with his own girl of ethereal beauty (Sei Ashina). Their lovemaking is as photogenic as Girard can make it.
Even Baldabiou warns him against a third visit. A rebellion has broken out in Japan. Yet Herve's obsession with The Girl forces him to return. So again, for a third time, the film treats the viewer to the train trip from Vienna to Moravia, a caravan to cross 3,000 miles of Russian steppes, a boat ride in a smuggler's ship and that blindfolded horse trip up the mountain. It's a long way to go to get laid.
You learn little about the silk trade or these characters or the political tumult and war that make the journeys so tricky. All Girard and co-writer Michael Golding seek out are gorgeous shots of travel, exotic lands, the picturesque French village (actually shot in Italian towns), the silk factory, steaming bathing pools in Japan surrounded by snow and lovemaking at each end of the earth.
What a gorgeous coffee table book these images would make. But what a dull movie.
SILK
Picturehouse
Picturehouse presents in association with Alliance Atlantis/Asmik Ace Entertainment/Mesuda Film a Rhombus Media/Fandango/Bee Vine Pidctures presentation
Credits:
Director: Francois Girard
Writers: Francois Girard, Michael Golding
Based on the novel by: Alessandro Baricco
Producers: Niv Fichman, Nandine Luque, Domenico Procacci, Sonoko Sakai
Executive producers: Tom Yoda, Yashshi Shina, Akira Ishii, Camela Galano, Jonathan Debin, Patrice Theroux, Alessandro Baricco
Director of photography: Alain Dostie
Production designer: Francois Seguin
Costume designers: Carlo Poggioli, Kazuko Kurosawa
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Editor: Pia Di Ciaula
Cast:
Herve Joncour: Michael Pitt
Helene Joncour: Keira Knightley
Baldabiou: Alfred Molina
Hara Jubei: Koji Yakusho
Madame Blanche: Miki Nakatani
Ludovic: Mark Rendall
Girl: Sei Ashina
Running time -- 109 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Judging by the title translation - many of you folks will see that this is not the official Picturehouse Films' U.S one sheet, but you might learn that this production benefited from lots of co-production money from different parts of the world including Canada.Canadian distributor Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm have provided us with the poster image - clearly they are prepping up for the Toronto Film Festival world premiere of Silk. The highly anticipated François Girard picture will get much media coverage and Ioncinema.com will be in the thick of things at this year's Tiff. Young thesps Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt will be featured with vetsAlfred Molina and Babel's Koji Yakusho. Based on the Alessandro Baricco's novel, this is the story of a married silkworm smuggler, Herve Joncour, in 19th Century France who travels to Japan to collect his clandestine cargo. While there he spots a beautiful European woman,
- 8/8/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
- Sometimes there is very little surprise to what’s under the tree (think wrapped up tennis racquets and hockey sticks). When Canada’s premiere film event announces their Canadian film selections it may be somewhat anti-climatic but, like today’s picks, it’s a pleasurable announcement just the same. Another strong year for Canadian content – the likes of Arcand, Cronenberg, Maddin and Girard will be presenting their latest works unspooling in the showcase categories. Among the higher profile picks, there are two noteworthy selections (that will most likely showcase at Venice just prior). David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises and François Girard’s Silk are prime picks for Ioncinema coverage. Here is a quick run-thru of the titles named today. Among the duo of films added to the Gala Presentations we have one French language and one English language. Sadly, if Denys Arcand hasn’t edited his Cannes presented The
- 7/18/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
Toronto to fete Arcand, Cronenberg pics
TORONTO -- David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, starring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen, and Denys Arcand's Days of Darkness will get the red-carpet treatment at the Toronto International Film Festival, organizers said Tuesday.
The latest work from veteran Canadian directors Cronenberg and Arcand -- whose film closed Cannes this year -- will receive galas at Roy Thomson Hall.
Unveiling the Canadian contingent in Toronto, festival organizers said they have booked Francois Girard's Keira Knightley starrer Silk from Picturehouse and New Line International, Roger Spottiswoode's Rwandan drama Shake Hands With the Devil and Clement Virgo's boxing tale Poor Boy's Game, starring Danny Glover, for Special Presentations slots.
Also joining the Special Presentations program is Adam Vollick's Here Is What Is, a portrait of famed record producer Daniel Lanois, and Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, billed as a "docu-fantasia" about the filmmaker's hometown.
Canadian films unspooling as part of Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema section include Leonard Farlinger's All Hat; Bruce Sweeney's American Venus, starring Rebecca De Mornay; Bernard Emond's Contre Toute Esperance, which will also screen in Locarno; and Carl Bessai's Carrie-Anne Moss starrer Normal.
Also joining the CWC party is Laurie Lynd's Breakfast With Scot, Denis Cote's Nos Vies Privees and Kari Skogland's The Stone Angel, the big-screen adaptation of the classic Margaret Laurence novel, starring Ellen Burstyn.
The latest work from veteran Canadian directors Cronenberg and Arcand -- whose film closed Cannes this year -- will receive galas at Roy Thomson Hall.
Unveiling the Canadian contingent in Toronto, festival organizers said they have booked Francois Girard's Keira Knightley starrer Silk from Picturehouse and New Line International, Roger Spottiswoode's Rwandan drama Shake Hands With the Devil and Clement Virgo's boxing tale Poor Boy's Game, starring Danny Glover, for Special Presentations slots.
Also joining the Special Presentations program is Adam Vollick's Here Is What Is, a portrait of famed record producer Daniel Lanois, and Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, billed as a "docu-fantasia" about the filmmaker's hometown.
Canadian films unspooling as part of Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema section include Leonard Farlinger's All Hat; Bruce Sweeney's American Venus, starring Rebecca De Mornay; Bernard Emond's Contre Toute Esperance, which will also screen in Locarno; and Carl Bessai's Carrie-Anne Moss starrer Normal.
Also joining the CWC party is Laurie Lynd's Breakfast With Scot, Denis Cote's Nos Vies Privees and Kari Skogland's The Stone Angel, the big-screen adaptation of the classic Margaret Laurence novel, starring Ellen Burstyn.
- 7/18/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Blindness' gains Focus for int'l sales
Focus Features is boarding director Fernando Meirelles' next film, Blindness. Focus Features International announced Tuesday that it will handle international sales on the film. Focus also is expected to serve as the film's domestic distributor, though the company would not comment on that possibility.
Focus International, headed by London-based Alison Thompson, handled international sales for Meirelles' latest film, The Constant Gardener, which Focus released in North America. That film grossed more than $85 million in its worldwide release and won Rachel Weisz an Academy Award for best supporting actress.
Blindness, adapted by Don McKellar from the novel by Jose Saramago, is a dramatic thriller about a sudden outbreak of blindness that envelops a city. An accelerated government quarantine spurs a small group of people to fight back.
Niv Fichman of Toronto's Rhombus Media, Sonoko Sakai of Tokyo's Bee Vine Pictures and Andrea Barata Ribeiro of Sao Paulo, Brazil's O2 Filmes will produce. London-based Potboiler Prods. principals Simon Channing Williams and Gail Egan will executive produce. Bel Berlinck of O2 Filmes will co-produce. Production is to begin next summer in Brazil and Canada.
Potboiler also served as a producer of Gardener. Meirelles and Ribeiro's O2 Filmes recently signed a three-year first-look deal with Universal Pictures and Focus to produce films by Brazilian directors. Rhombus developed the screenplay for Blindness and, along with Bee Vine, produced the upcoming feature Silk, directed by Francois Girard and starring Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley.
Focus International, headed by London-based Alison Thompson, handled international sales for Meirelles' latest film, The Constant Gardener, which Focus released in North America. That film grossed more than $85 million in its worldwide release and won Rachel Weisz an Academy Award for best supporting actress.
Blindness, adapted by Don McKellar from the novel by Jose Saramago, is a dramatic thriller about a sudden outbreak of blindness that envelops a city. An accelerated government quarantine spurs a small group of people to fight back.
Niv Fichman of Toronto's Rhombus Media, Sonoko Sakai of Tokyo's Bee Vine Pictures and Andrea Barata Ribeiro of Sao Paulo, Brazil's O2 Filmes will produce. London-based Potboiler Prods. principals Simon Channing Williams and Gail Egan will executive produce. Bel Berlinck of O2 Filmes will co-produce. Production is to begin next summer in Brazil and Canada.
Potboiler also served as a producer of Gardener. Meirelles and Ribeiro's O2 Filmes recently signed a three-year first-look deal with Universal Pictures and Focus to produce films by Brazilian directors. Rhombus developed the screenplay for Blindness and, along with Bee Vine, produced the upcoming feature Silk, directed by Francois Girard and starring Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley.
- 11/1/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Taiwan film seeing resurgence
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Still think Taiwan cinema is all about dark, existential auteur pieces with stationary camera and almost no dialogue as embodied by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang and Edward Yang? Think again. After years of industry and public debate, many of Taiwan's new production companies and directors are diving into commercial filmmaking to resuscitate Taiwan's comatose film industry. CMC Entertainment, a new film giant formed a year ago in Taiwan, is making big splashes. CMC is co-financing director John Woo's highly anticipated historic drama Battle of Red Cliff, starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung and Taiwan supermodel Lin Chi-ling. Also in preproduction is Blood Brothers, Woo's first gangster film since his return to Asia. The project stars Taiwan superstar Shu Qi, Chang Chen and Hong Kong star Daniel Wu. CMC's first film, Silk, a supernatural horror film in the vein of Columbia Asia's 2002 horror blockbuster Double Vision, is due for release in October. The film, starring Taiwan superstar Barbie Hsu, Japanese superstar Yosuke Eguchi and Taiwan star Chang Chen, boasts a megabudget (for a domestic film) of $192 million Taiwan ($6 million).
- 8/28/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Taiwan film seeing resurgence
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Still think Taiwan cinema is all about dark, existential auteur pieces with stationary camera and almost no dialogue as embodied by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang and Edward Yang? Think again. After years of industry and public debate, many of Taiwan's new production companies and directors are diving into commercial filmmaking to resuscitate Taiwan's comatose film industry. CMC Entertainment, a new film giant formed a year ago in Taiwan, is making big splashes. CMC is co-financing director John Woo's highly anticipated historic drama Battle of Red Cliff, starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung and Taiwan supermodel Lin Chi-ling. Also in preproduction is Blood Brothers, Woo's first gangster film since his return to Asia. The project stars Taiwan superstar Shu Qi, Chang Chen and Hong Kong star Daniel Wu. CMC's first film, Silk, a supernatural horror film in the vein of Columbia Asia's 2002 horror blockbuster Double Vision, is due for release in October. The film, starring Taiwan superstar Barbie Hsu, Japanese superstar Yosuke Eguchi and Taiwan star Chang Chen, boasts a megabudget (for a domestic film) of $192 million Taiwan ($6 million).
- 8/28/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- A rock star, a soccer player, a feudal warrior, and a post-‘Chocolat’ Alfred Molina walk into a bar… stop me if you’ve heard this one… Silk, an Alessandro Baricco novel whose rights for the movie were acquired by Picturehouse and New Line. It tells the story of Herve Joncour, a 19th Century France married silkworm smuggler who travels to Japan to procure his surreptitious cargo. He begins a torrid love affair with a European woman, a concubine of a local baron, with whom he becomes obsessed. Without speaking the same language they communicate through letters, and even through the war their unrequited passion endures, and then the fit hits the proverbial shan as Herve’s wife becomes suspicious. The film will star a melting pot cast including Michael Pitt (Last Days), Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice), Koji Yakusho (Memoirs of a Geisha), and Alfred Molina (Raiders of the Lost Ark…
- 1/23/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.