News

If, like me, one of your favorite things to do each fall is to find and visit your local Spirit Halloween store, then you also might be excited to hear that Strike Back Studios and Hideout Pictures have finished principal photography on a Spirit Halloween movie written by Billie Bates, directed by David Poag, and featuring a cast that includes Christopher Lloyd and Rachael Leigh Cook.

The Spirit Halloween film is slated for an October release, and we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on further details. In the meantime, we have the official press release, including the film's synopsis:

Press Release: Strike Back Studios and Hideout Pictures continue their busy production schedule in 2022 having wrapped principal photography of “Spirit Halloween.” When a new Spirit Halloween store appears in a deserted strip mall, three middle school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick or treating make a dare to spend the...

Exclusive: Famke Janssen (X-Men franchise), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Sharlto Copley (District 9), Quinn Copeland (Peacock’s Punky Brewster) and twins Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Little Lies) have joined the cast of Boy Kills World, an upcoming action-thriller produced by Sam Raimi and more.

They’re set to star alongside previously announced cast members including Bill Skarsgård, Yayan Ruhian, Jessica Rothe, Andrew Koji and Isaiah Mustafa.

Based on an original idea by German filmmaker Moritz Mohr, who here makes his feature directorial debut, Boy Kills World is billed as a one-of-a-kind action spectacle set in a dystopian fever dream reality. It centers on Boy (Skarsgård), a deaf mute with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, Boy escapes to the jungle and is trained by a mysterious shaman (Ruhian) to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death. Portraying the film’s antagonists—the Van Der Koy...

“The Batman” will open in two weeks to $150 million or more, but this weekend may be even more important to box-office recovery: “Uncharted” (Sony) and “Dog” (United Artists) both opened to over $15 million. For the last two years, there have been just six weekends in which two new releases grossed even $10 million. What makes this even more extraordinary is both are original, non-franchise titles.

Studios and producers need signs that the public can respond to standalone titles that show some degree of originality. That is what happened here and it’s a big deal.

“Uncharted,” based on a well-known video game and starring Tom Holland, while his most recent “Spider-Man” is still #3, will gross and estimated $44 million for the three-day weekend; $51 million, with Presidents Day added. That’s as much as 50 percent above conservative estimates and a third better than the more realistic ones.

It is the best result for...

Learning to skin a bunny, actor Sharlto Copley says, is “not pleasant.”

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and now living in Los Angeles, the longtime character actor considers himself a city dweller. Six-foot-tall and bearded, he has a gentle, mountain man–like presence, but Zooming out of his L.A. home in the hills, he’s a far cry from Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, whom he plays in the new film “Ted K.” For director Tony Stone’s imagining of the Harvard-educated math prodigy who ran afoul of civilized life to live off the land in the 1970s and meticulously carry out a string of executions and bombings, Copley had to learn how to do things like skin rabbits, chop wood, and survive in freezing, hypothermia-approaching temperatures.

“I grew up in South Africa where we used to go out in the bush quite a lot, in my generation.

A risky experiment with a striking payoff, “Ted K” is an impressionistic attempt to personalize the most unrelatable experience imaginable: life as a killer.

Prolific serial killers are often introduced with media-minded nicknames, making it easier for us simultaneously to separate from them and to connect with them. We look upon them as Other, but remain interested, reading and worrying and wondering until — and well after — they’re caught.

The Unabomber is among the most notable examples, with 26 victims spanning nearly two decades. His incomprehensible violence spurred the largest manhunt in FBI history, and as it went on, we all kept reading, and worrying, and wondering.

Director Tony Stone (“Peter and the Farm”) and his cowriters, John Rosenthal and Gaddy Davis, strip most of the rest away in an attempt to address the incomprehensibility. Certainly, the film’s generically ordinary title is no coincidence. Stone wants us to see Ted...

"My motive: I want to change the world." Super Ltd has debuted the full-length official trailer for the film Ted K, from filmmaker Tony Stone. This originally premiered last year at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, and it played at Camerimage and the Stockholm Film Festival. Sharlto Copley stars as the infamous madman bomber. The film is an exploration of Ted Kaczynksi's life in Lincoln, Montana in the years leading up to his arrest as The Unabomber. Based on Kaczynski's diaries and writings, it's a kaleidoscopic true crime journey into the life of one of America's most complex and eccentric killers. It features a tour-de-force performance by Copley who portrays the complexity of this unique outsider, raging at the forces of both the inescapable technological society that plagues him and his inner demons. Also with Drew Powell, Travis W Bruyer, and Wayne Pyle. Both trailers are superb, not only gripping but...

From the mind of acclaimed director and cinematographer. Tony Stone comes “Ted K,” a bracing, cinematic journey into the tortured mind of The Unabomber. And of course, that Unabomber is played by South African actor Sharlto Copley, known for his work with Neill Blomkamp in films like “District 9,” “Elysium,” “Chappie” and more.

Continue reading ‘Ted K’ Red-Band Trailer: Sharlto Copley Plays The Unabomber Out For Revenge at The Playlist.

Ted K Trailer — Tony Stone‘s Ted K (2021) movie trailer has been released by Super Ltd. The Ted K trailer stars Sharlto Copley, Drew Powell, Travis W Bruyer, Wayne Pyle, Tahmus Rounds, Samantha Jones, Sal Rendino, Bob Jennings, Amber Rose Mason, Christian Calloway, and Keith Barber. Crew Tony Stone, Gaddy Davis, and John Rosenthal [...]

Continue reading: Ted K (2021) Teaser Trailer: Sharlto Copley is Notorious & Reclusive Terrorist Ted Kaczynsk...

District 9 star Sharlto Copley is Ted Kaczynski in upcoming “Unabomber” movie Ted K, a true crime thriller that has received an official teaser trailer ahead of its February release. Ted K was directed by Tony Stone. The film is said to feature “a tour-de-force performance from Sharlto Copley, who portrays the complexity of this […]

The post Trailer for Unabomber Movie ‘Ted K’ Turns Sharlto Copley into the Real Life Madman appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deals struck for UK, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

HanWay Films has closed a raft of deals on Tony Stone’s Unabomber drama Ted K, ahead of the Cannes Pre-Screenings.

The US feature, which premiered in Berlin’s Panorama strand in March, has been picked up for distribution in the UK and Ireland (Altitude), Italy (Movies Inspired), Scandinavia (NonStop), Portugal (Films4You), Greece (Odeon), Cis & Baltics (Paradise), Middle East (Front Row), ships and airlines (Horizon), Singapore (Shaw) and Latin America (CDC).

Cinetic Media previously negotiated a North America deal with Super Ltd, Neon’s boutique distribution label.

The third feature of...

Think of it as the boutique label’s boutique label.

Super Ltd., the distributor of the Oscar-nominated “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” is an offshoot of “Parasite” producer Neon, and was launched to handle more experimental work. It’s not that Neon, which has made a name for itself with indie hits like “I, Tonya” and “Border,” is in the business of backing franchise fare, but Darcy Heusel and Dan O’Meara, Super Ltd.’s founders, say the label’s small size has helped them provide a personalized touch for movies that might struggle to find an audience. In the case of “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” a searing drama about a U.N. translator who works to save a family during the Bosnian war, that meant conceiving a distribution plan and launching an awards season strategy within six weeks of the film being acquired.

“We’re lean and mean,” says O’Meara. “Because...

Exclusive: Sharlto Copley has joined the upcoming second season of Netflix’s Russian Doll. He is the latest high-profile new cast addition to the award-winning comedy-drama, joining previously announced Annie Murphy and Carolyn Michelle Smith.

No details about the Season 2 storyline or the new characters have been released. The first season followed a young woman named Nadia, played by Natasha Lyonne, who repeatedly dies during a New York party, reliving the same night in an ongoing time loop. Greta Lee, Yul Vazquez, Elizabeth Ashley and Charlie Barnett also starred.

The first season of Russian Doll was released in February 2019. The series, renewed by Netflix in June 2019, was created by Lyonne who executive produces alongside Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland. Filming on Season 2 is currently underway for a premiere eyed for this summer.

Russian Doll is produced by Universal Television, Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions, Jax Media and 3 Arts Entertainment.

The true crime drama recently premiered in the Berlin festival’s Panorama section.

Berlin festival entry Ted K has been acquired for North America by Super Ltd, distributor Neon’s boutique label.

Written and directed by Tony Stone, the true crime drama had its premiere in the Panorama section of the recent Berlin International Film Festival. Based on the diaries and writings of Ted Kaczynski, the film tracks the life of the so-called Unabomber, played by Sharlto Copley, while he was in hiding in Montana.

Ted K is presented by Heathen Films in association with Verisimilitude, Hideout Pictures, In Your Face Entertainment and Cameron Brodie.

Ted K, the true crime drama that premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, has been snapped up for North American distribution by Neon’s boutique label Super Ltd.

The pics stars Sharlto Copley in the title role – Ted Kaczynski, the ‘Unabomber’ – and the movie is based on Kaczynski’s own diaries and writings, offering a window into one of America’s most eccentric killers.

Tony Stone wrote and directed the pic. It was produced by Heathen Films in association with Verisimilitude, Hideout Pictures, In Your Face Entertainment and Cameron Brodie.

Cinetic Media negotiated the North America deal. Hanway Films is handling international rights.

“We are very excited to be working with Neon and Super Ltd to release this wild and nuanced story of the Unabomber,” commented Stone. “Ted Kaczynski is one of the more enigmatic violent figures in the history of American terror, living a primitive and isolated...

Director Tony Stone delves into the world of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski in Ted K, premiering in the Panorama strand of the Berlin Film Festival. More of a mood piece than a biopic, it stars an understated Sharlto Copley as the former math professor, who’s living off grid in the Montana mountains, fostering a burgeoning grudge against technology. We drop in on him over the decades as he gathers materials to experiment with bombs, targeting people he believes are harming the environment. We watch him write coded rants against industrialization, and about the invasive noise of airplanes.

Sound is key to communicating Ted’s point of view. In the wilderness, we hear the ripple of a stream, the crackle of a fire, the clank of his spoon on a tin — he is alone and uninterrupted. When an airplane flies over, he’s visibly distressed. When he takes a trip into the city,...

The underseen but arresting 2016 documentary feature Peter and the Farm is a warts-and-all portrait of a flinty Vermont loner and his volatile relationship to the land that has consumed him for more than three decades. Its director, Tony Stone, now blurs the line between nonfiction and narrative filmmaking to depict another solitary man inseparable from his natural environment in Ted K, a piercing psychological probe into the domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber. Played by Sharlto Copley in a febrile performance so wired it’s almost uncomfortable to watch, Ted Kaczynski is revealed here in his own words, lifted from 25,...

The story of Ted Kaczynski, better known to many as the Unabomber, has played out on-screen several times since his 1996 arrest following the most expensive FBI manhunt in bureau history.

However, the former math prodigy-turned-terrorist’s years of isolation living in a small cabin in the Montana wilderness have never been tackled with the commitment to detail and accuracy on display in “Ted K,” a new feature from Tony Stone (“Peter and the Farm”), which stars Sharlto Copley (“District 9”) as Kaczynski.

Variety caught up with Stone ahead of the film’s debut in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale to talk about throwing conventional biopic tropes out the window, and his hopes for a potential theatrical release.

What compelled you to make a film about the Unabomber, about Ted Kaczynski?

We felt like there was a void of Ted’s reality. There’s so much about the manhunt,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Hanway Films and Cinetic Media give a first look at Tony Stone’s “Ted K,” Amazon Prime Video orders a second season of “El Internado: Las Cumbres,” Greenlit goes global, Abundantia Entertainment plans for a “Keepers of the Kalachakra” adaptation, Brigid O’Shea steps down from Dok Leipzig and BMG Production Music hires Deb Oh as senior director of creative licensing.

First Look

Hanway Films and Cinetic Media have dropped the first clip from Tony Stone’s (“Peter and the Farm”) “Ted K,” starring Sharlto Copley (“District 9”) as the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. The film is produced by Heathen Films in association with Verisimilitude, Hideout Pictures, In Your Face Entertainment and Cameron Brodie, and will screen in the Panorama section at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Drawing from Kaczynski’s own personal diaries and the accounts of those who knew him during his time spent in the Montana wilderness,...

Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian and his programming team were forced to think of this year’s official selection in “different terms” when what they had to offer the film industry changed due to the pandemic.

Faced with worsening Covid-19 conditions in Germany, the festival quickly pivoted in December to a two-step formula — an industry and press-focused event March 1-5 and a public Summer Special from June 9-20. Chatrian is proud of the result, which he calls “a good mix of new voices and established filmmakers” with many titles “carrying the marks of the pandemic in their images.” He spoke to Variety about the challenges and goals of assembling this unprecedented edition. Excerpts below.

Simply put: how much did being forced to split the festival impact the makeup of this year’s lineup?

We had to think of the selection in different terms because the festival was changing...

The duo have overseen projects including Jane Campion’s ’Top Of The Lake’ series at See-Saw.

Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta, who have spearheaded See-Saw Films’ TV productions for the past eight years, are stepping down to launch their own outfit, 60Forty Films.

Laurenson joined See-Saw in 2012, from BBC Films, to head its newly-formed television department and Kousetta was appointed chief operating officer in 2014, to co-run the division.

During their tenure, the duo oversaw several series out of the company’s UK and Australian offices including Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake: China Girl, the short-form comedy series State...

HanWay Films and Cinetic have boarded Berlin Film Festival entry Ted K for international and North American sales, respectively. The companies have also released a first look image.

Writer-director Tony Stone’s true crime drama, starring Sharlto Copley (District 9) as the ‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski, will play in the Panorama section of this year’s largely digital Berlinale.

The film tracks a period in the life of Kaczynski, more widely known as the Unabomber, and draws from his personal diaries and accounts from those who knew him during his life in hiding in a simple wooden cabin in the mountains of Montana.

According to the producers, a number of the film’s supporting cast are non-professional locals, some of whom knew Kaczynski, and the production worked closely with his former neighbors and employers to corroborate research and paint an authentic picture of the man.

Stone built a recreation of Kaczynski...

Cinetic Media and HanWay Films have launched sales on writer/director Tony Stone’s Berlin Panorama selection “Ted K,” starring Sharlto Copley (“District 9”).

The film tracks a period in the life of Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, and draws from his personal diaries and accounts from those who knew him during his life in hiding. Kaczynski, a former university professor who despises modern society and its faith in technology, becomes radicalized and commits local acts of sabotage, ultimately leading to deadly bomb attacks.

HanWay is in charge of international sales, while Cinetic is handling North America.

“As filmmakers we wanted to revisit and abolish the usual tropes of the biopic to create an experiential cinematic journey, depicting what Ted’s day to day life was like through extreme subjectivity,” said Stone. “Since 1996 when a man covered in filth was dragged out of his cabin, the public has...

Sharlto Copley stars as Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in the true crime drama directed by Tony Stone.

HanWay Films has secured international sales rights to Tony Stone’s Unabomber drama Ted K, which is set to premiere in the Panorama strand of the industry-focused, online-only Berlin International Film Festival (March 1-5).

Cinetic Media will handle North America sales on the US feature, which stars Sharlto Copley as Ted Kaczynski, who is serving eight life sentences for waging a bomb campaign against individuals for nearly 20 years.

London-based sales outfit HanWay will begin discussing the feature with buyers during the virtual European Film...

New features from ‘Thunder Road’ director Jim Cummings and Denis Cote among line-up.

The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the features that will comprise its Encounters and Panorama strands, which will first be seen at the industry-focused, online-only event from March 1-5.

Panorama will include 19 titles, of which 16 are world premieres, while Encounters includes 12 features, all world premieres.

Like other strands that have been slimmed down for this year’s first virtual edition, Panorama is nearly half of the 36 titles that were selected last year. However, the Encounters competition, now in its second year, is just three titles fewer...

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed 12 titles from 16 countries that will compete in the festival’s Encounters strand, including Denis Côté’s “Social Hygiene” from Canada, Alice Diop’s “We” from France, and Fern Silva’s “Rock Bottom Riser” from the U.S.

The selections also take in “As I Want” (Egypt/France/Norway/Palestine) by Samaher Alqadi; “Azor” (Switzerland/France/Argentina) by Andreas Fontana; “The Beta Test” (U.S./U.K.) by Jim Cummings, Pj McCabe; and “Bloodsuckers (Germany) by Julian Radlmaier.

Also competing will be “The Girl and the Spider” (Switzerland) by Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher; “District Terminal” (Iran/Germany) by Bardia Yadegari, Ehsan Mirhosseini; “Moon, 66 Questions” (Greece/France) by Jacqueline Lentzou; “The Scary of Sixty-First” (U.S.) by Dasha Nekrasova; and “Taste” (Vietnam/Singapore/France/Thailand/Germany/Taiwan) by Lê Bảo.

The Encounters strand supports new or innovative voices in cinema. A jury will choose winners for best film,...