News

Starline Entertainment will handle worldwide sales on “Penance,” the new movie from lauded Irish filmmaker Tom Collins.

“Penance” alternates between Ireland during the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule and the city of Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, during what became grimly known as “the Troubles.” A Catholic priest is forced to confront his past as a firebrand preacher promoting violence against British rule in Ireland when a former protege who fell under his influence reappears 50 years later as a hardened Ira gunman.

Shot in English and Gaelic, the film stars Peter Coonan (“Love/Hate”), Barry Barnes (“71”), and Gerard McSorley (“Omagh”).

“In these times of loudly debating nationalism, borders and Brexit, I hope this film, through the central character’s story, underlines that we are always a few heartbeats away from violence and we can live to regret ill-judged rhetoric,” Collins said.

Collins is acknowledged as Ireland’s leading director of Irish-language content.

Simon Brew Apr 9, 2017

Director Pete Travis chats to us about City Of Tiny Lights, television, politics and Dred..

City Of Tiny Lights, starring Riz Ahmed and Billie Piper, is the latest film from director Pete Travis, known particularly in this parish for helming Dredd. We met up with him in London to chat about the movie, about politics, and about Dredd…

I read an interview for City Of Tiny Lights where you were quoted as saying you wouldn’t make the film unless Riz Ahmed did it, and that he was the first choice for the lead role of Tommy. I can’t tell you the number of people I interview who say something like that and…

… mostly they’re lying when they say that!

Well, quite possibly!

There’s a rule about casting I learned a long time ago. The right person for the role is the person who...

If you didn’t see his break-out role in one of the century’s best comedies, Four Lions, then we imagine Riz Ahmed first landed on your radar as the doomed assistant to Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler. Along with his high-profile performances in The Night Of, Rogue One, and Jason Bourne this year, one of the two Tiff films he has is the starring vehicle City of Tiny Lights, as noted in our fall festival preview.

Directed by Dredd‘s Pete Travis, it follows Ahmed as a London detective who gets entangled in a missing-girl case as a complex web of lies bubble up. We now have the first clip thanks to THR, which shows Ahmed on the case as he visits his ex-girlfriend at a local bar. Check out the clip below for the film also starring Cush Jumbo, James Floyd, Billie Piper, and Roshan Seth.

Tiff Synopsis:

Later this year,...

Period drama stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike.

Principal photography has begun on A United Kingdom, directed by Amma Asante (Belle), and will shoot for seven weeks in Botswana and the UK.

Pathé will distribute the film in the UK and France and will handle sales throughout the rest of the world.

The cast is led by David Oyelowo (Selma) as Seretse Khama with Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) playing his future wife Ruth Williams.

Other cast include Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean), Terry Pheto (Mandela), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Arnold Oceng (Adulthood), Jack Lowden (‘71) and Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey).

Scripted by Guy Hibbert (Five Minutes of Heaven, Omagh), the film is based on the book Colour Bar by Susan Williams.

Described as an “epic love story”, A United Kingdom is based on true events. In 1947, Seretse Khama, the King of Botswana, fell in love with London office worker Ruth Williams.

Their marriage...

Sorry, Dredd-heads, but it doesn’t look like director Pete Travis is waiting around in hopes of a green-light for a follow-up to his beloved but low-grossing 2012 comic-book adaptation. The helmer is now lining up kidnap thriller Snatchback, with Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz in the lead role.

Weisz (The Constant Gardener) will take on the role of Maureen Dabbagh, a real Virginia woman whose ex-husband kidnapped their two-year-old daughter and fled to the Middle East back in 1992. Dabbagh spent over 10 years tracking the pair across the volatile region before she finally got her daughter back.

In Snatchback, which Travis also scribed, the true story will get a rather Hollywood twist, with Dabbagh becoming a mercenary of sorts, embarking on dangerous missions to help other families to recover their kidnapped children from the Middle East while continuing her own search.

Weisz co-developed and will produce the project, which is currently...

Exclusive: Rachel Weisz to star in and produce true story; Protagonist launches in Cannes.

Rachel Weisz is to star in and produce $15m kidnapping thriller Snatchback, from Dredd director Pete Travis.

Oscar-winner Weisz (The Constant Gardener) co-developed the project and will produce alongside Frida Torresblanco (Pan’s Labyrinth, Magic Magic) of New York-based Braven Films.

Travis, also known for making Omagh and Vantage Point, has written the script and will direct.

Snatchback is based on the true story of Maureen Dabbagh, a woman from Virginia whose ex-husband stole away their two year-old daughter and took her to the Middle East in 1992. Dabbagh spent more than a decade searching for her daughter, one of 1,000 children illegally abducted from the Us each year, before she finally found her.

In Travis’s script, Weisz’s character becomes a mercenary engaged in dangerous missions across the Middle East to help other families recover kidnapped children – while never giving up on her...

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Paul Greengrass has been selected by the Board of Directors of the American Cinema Editors (Ace) to be honored with the organization’s prestigious Ace Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award.

The award will be presented at the 64th Annual Ace Eddie Awards ceremony on Friday, February 7, 2014 in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, it was announced today by the Ace Board of Directors.

“Paul Greengrass is one of the most exciting filmmakers working in cinema today,” stated the Ace Board of Directors. “A Greengrass film simply has its own signature – from the magnificent hand-held camera work, to his ability to engage audiences with riveting storytelling, his canon of work is bold and iconic. His latest film, Captain Phillips, is a masterwork yielding some of the finest filmmaking of the year that has already been honored with four Golden Globe® nominations including Best Director,...

Exclusive: Conveying the kinetic energy of real-life events has become a signature for Paul Greengrass. He grew up making documentaries, and then television dramas like the Ira car bombing saga Omagh, which he produced and co-wrote. He turned that urgent cinematic style to features including 2002′s Bloody Sunday, the Oscar-nominated 2006 drama United 93, and fictional dramas including Green Zone, and the last two Bourne installments The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Here, he’s in the Oscar hunt again with Captain Phillips, and so are his dueling captains played by Tom Hanks and newcomer Barkhad Abdi. Deadline: We all watched the Somali pirate hijacking play out in real time not long ago. What did you see under the surface here that made this feature-worthy? Greengrass: There’s got to be something about the story that’s both accurately clear and dramatic, but also layered and complex. That was the...

Exclusive: Fresh from his turn in Lee Daniels’ The Butler, David Oyelowo has been set to star in and produce A United Kingdom, a love story based on the true tale of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams. The film is backed by UK-based Pathe, which is coming off Philomena and Mandela. They are out to directors and will film next year in London and Botswana. Oyelowo will play Seretse, heir to the African throne of Botswana, who created a sensation in 1948 by engaging in a whirlwind romance in London with Williams, a white English office worker he married. The interracial union was opposed by both their families, as well as the British government, the Tribal elders of Botswana and the apartheid government of South Africa. The couple would not be denied, overcoming huge obstacles to be together, including exile and the abdication of the throne. Their son, Ian Khama, is...

David Oyelowo earned solid reviews for his work on The Butler, and remains very much in demand. The actor has landed the lead in another film based on a true story, signing up to star in and produce A United Kingdom.Oyelowo is set to play Seretse Khama, heir to the African throne of Botswana, who created a sensation in 1948 by engaging in a whirlwind romance in London with a woman named Ruth Williams. Romancing a white English office worker was considered controversial enough, but then he married her. The interracial union was opposed by both their families, as well as the British government, the Tribal elders of Botswana and the apartheid government of South Africa.Still, the couple would not be denied, overcoming huge obstacles to be together, including exile and the abdication of the throne. Their son, Ian Khama, is currently the freely elected president of Botswana. Omagh...

Some UK TV news for next season... Of note in the below press release is the David Oyelowo MI5/Guantanamo Bay thriller titled Complicit, which centers on the moral dilemmas posed by the war on terror, as an MI5 agent (played by Oyelowo) becomes involved in the torture of a suspected terrorist to prevent an attack in the UK. We now have an official full synopsis for the drama which reads: In fighting the War on Terror is torture ever justified? David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Red Tail, The Help) stars in a compelling new single drama from acclaimed writer Guy Hibbert (Blood and Oil, Five Minutes of Heaven, Omagh) that explores the murky moral compromises that...

With his next starring project, Lee Daniels' The Paperboy, making its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Brit actor David Oyelowo (who we recently interviewed Here) will star in the Channel 4 (UK) drama titled Complicit. The project will be directed by Niall MacCormick (Albatross) from a script penned by Guy Hibbert (Omagh), and, per Oyelowo, is "about the politics of torture within MI5," adding further that it's "about that thin line that MI5 officers have to straddle in the wake of Guantanamo.” The "MI5" being the UK's internal counter-intelligence and security agency; and "Guantanamo" of course being the...

Ifta nominated writer Guy Hibbert's (Five Minutes of Heaven, Omagh) latest feature drama script has been commissioned by Channel 4. The feature length single drama called 'Complicit' will investigate the moral dilemmas facing MI5 officers involved in the war on terror and follows main character Edward in the Middle East as he wrestles with some of the key moral questions...

FilmNation Entertainment announced today that they have acquired Guy Hibbert's ( Omagh , Boy Soldier ) screenplay Eye in the Sky as a directing vehicle for Oliver Hirschbiegel ( Downfall , Das Experiment ). FilmNation are aggressively putting the film together with the aim of starting to prep later this year. Eye in the Sky is an international thriller that follows a group of characters around the globe as they are each impacted by the decision to drop a drone missile on a house in East Africa. This will be Hibbert and Hirschbiegel's second collaboration following Five Minutes of Heaven , starring Liam Neeson. FilmNation Evp Production Karen Lunder brought in the project to the company and will produce alongside FilmNation's President of Production Aaron Ryder. Stephen Wright...

At the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, actor Domhnall Gleeson filled us in a little more on the upcoming Judge Dredd movie...

Currently in post-production, Pete Travis’ take on the 2000Ad law enforcer, Dredd, is being described as a neo-noir action reboot, returning to the dark world of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s original stories. Not literally dark, we hope, since they’ve shot it in 3D.

At the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, we chatted to Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley in the Potter films) about his role working alongside Karl Urban, Lena Headey and Olivia Thirlby on Dredd.

Gleeson confirmed that he plays an entirely new character, created by screenwriter, Alex Garland, not based on anyone from the Judge Dredd comic book stories.

“I’m playing kind of a techie guy who might be a baddie or not, he’s an interesting guy,...

At the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, actor Domhnall Gleeson filled us in a little more on the upcoming Judge Dredd movie...

Currently in post-production, Pete Travis’ take on the 2000Ad law enforcer, Dredd, is being described as a neo-noir action reboot, returning to the dark world of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s original stories. Not literally dark, we hope, since they’ve shot it in 3D.

At the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, we chatted to Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley in the Potter films) about his role working alongside Keith Urban, Lena Headley and Olivia Thirlby on Dredd.

Gleeson confirmed that he plays an entirely new character, created by screenwriter, Alex Garland, not based on anyone from the Judge Dredd comic book stories.

“I’m playing kind of a techie guy who might be a baddie or not, he’s an interesting guy,...

The Irish Film Institute will pay tribute to the late Irish cinematographer, Donal Gilligan with a special screening of Kevin Liddy's award winning 2000 feature, 'Country', for which Gilligan was the director of photography. The screening will take place on May 30th at 6.10pm. The 46 year old two-time Ifta nominee made his feature director of photography debut in 1994 with Joe Comerford's 'High Boot Benny'. He went on to shoot many more Irish and international features including Conor McPherson's 'Endgame'; Pete Travis' 'Omagh'; Robert Quinn's 'Dead Bodies' and David Caffrey's 2010 'Love/Hate'.

A HBO spokesperson has confirmed that the group has re-commissioned the fantasy series, 'Game of Thrones' following audience figures of approximately 4.2.million in the Us for its April 17th premiere broadcast and a peak UK and Irish figure of 823,000 on April 18th. The show which features Irish actors Aidan Gillen (The Wire); Jack Gleeson (Batman Begins), Stephen Don (Omagh) and Michelle Fairley (Best: His Mother’s Son), opened to a gross Us audience on the main HBO channel of 4.2 million viewers and it enjoyed the biggest opener in the UK and Ireland on Sky Atlantic since the channel’s launch.

With only one week to go until the revitalized Hammer brand’s latest slice of terror arrives on DVD, we’ve managed to bag three copies to give away to lucky UK readers. Read on, and get your entry in for a chance to visit Wake Wood.

Directed by David Keating (The Last of the High Kings; KM64: Birth of a Skatepark) from a script by producer Brendan McCarthy (Outcast; Breakfast on Pluto; The Mighty Celt; Omagh), Wake Wood stars BAFTA nominated actors Aidan Gillen ("The Wire"), Eva Birthistle (Middletown; Breakfast on Pluto; Ae Fond Kiss) and Timothy Spall (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; The King’s Speech) in a contemporary story of the occult.

In an attempt to cope with the grief and despair of losing their only child, Alice (Ella Connolly), mauled to death by a savage dog, veterinarian Patrick Daly (Gillen) and his pharmacist wife...

HBO has released a new poster and trailer for "Game of Thrones," premiering on April 17 and April 18th on Sky Atlantic.

Based on the George R.R. Martin novels, "Game of Thrones" is set in the mythical land of Westeros. The story centers on the noble Stark family who become caught up in high court intrigue when patriarch Eddard (played by Sean Bean) becomes the king's new right-hand man.

The cast includes Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings), Lena Headey (300), Alfie Allen (Atonement), Mark Addy (The Full Monty), Peter Dinklage (Elf); Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Black Hawk Down) and Jerome Flynn (Soldier, Soldier), Aidan Gillen (The Wire); Jack Gleeson (Batman Begins), Stephen Don (Omagh) and Brian Fortune (The Bee Keeper’s Son), Michelle Fairley (Best: His Mother’s Son), Conleth Hill (Perrier’s Bounty), Ian McElhinney (Triage) and Derek Halligan (Fifty Dead Men Walking).

Update: New set of posters...

In a year full of dubious-looking comic-book adaptations ("Thor," "Captain America," "X-Men: First Class" and, most of all, "Green Lantern"), there's one property that looks a little more promising: Lionsgate and DNA Films' "Dredd." An adaptation of the semi-fascist, "Dirty Harry"-inspired future cop character "Judge Dredd," which serves as the flagship title for British comic house 2000Ad, and which previously saw itself on the big screen in watered down, incredibly shitty form in the mid-90s, as played by Sylvester Stallone, the new version looks to be far more encouraging. Paul Greengrass protege Pete Travis ("Omagh," "Vantage Point") is directing, there's…...

Irish actors Stephen Don (Wilderness, Omagh) and Brian Fortune (Marú, The Bee Keeper's Son) have joined the cast of HBO's epic 'Game of Thrones'. The actors will join other newly announced cast and crew members such as Oscar winning English composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love, Billy Elliot) who will write the original music and score for the film, Emmy nominated American director Tim Van Patten (The Sopranos, Rome) and English actor Ian Gelder (Torchwood, Robin Hood).

Irish cinematographer Donal Gilligan passed away on Sunday, 19 September 2010, he was 46. Much loved amongst his friends and colleagues within the Irish film and television industry, the two time Ifta nominee suffered a sudden heart attack on Sunday night. Donal began his career in the industry in the early nineties and worked on dozens of successful Irish projects throughout the years including 'Omagh', 'Dead Bodies', 'Mystics', 'Watermelon', 'John McGahern: A Private World' and 'Raw'. He is survived by his four children and wife Charlotte.

Olivia Thirlby ("Juno") has scored the role of Cassandra Anderson in the upcoming 3D reboot of "Judge Dredd" for DNA Films reports Variety.

The character is described as a 'telepathic rookie who shadows Dredd' in this $45 million futuristic neo-noir comic book adaptation starring Karl Urban as the enforcer delivering justice to the streets of Mega-City One.

Im Global has just released an official synopsis on the eve of the Toronto Film Festival where it will be selling the film rights next week and hints that Mega City One is "the lone oasis of quasi-civilization on Cursed Earth" while Dredd "is the most feared of elite Street Judges, with the power to enforce the law, sentence offenders and execute them on the spot - if necessary." Tone wise it says this will be a return to the "dark, visceral incarnation" of the character seen in the comic.

Pete Travis ("Vantage Point,...

Olivia Thirlby (Juno, The Wackness) has been cast as Cassandra Anderson in DNA Films’ 3D adaptation of Judge Dredd, Empire have confirmed.

Thirlby will join Karl Urban (Red, Star Trek), who was announced as the futuristic lawman Judge Dredd at San Diego’s Comic-Con event earlier this year.

Pete Travis (Vantage Point, Omagh) will direct from a script by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go).

Judge Dredd, which has been called a “very hard, R-rated, gritty, realistic movie”, will be a co-production between DNA Films, Reliance Big Entertainment and Im Global and be shot on a $45M budget.

Fabulous! Olivia Thirlby is one of my favorite up-and-coming actresses who's been in a lot of great indie films (Juno, The Wackness, Solitary Man) and is on the verge of breaking out very big. She has a lead role in Summit's upcoming alien invasion film The Darkest Hour, but Variety is reporting she has just been cast as Cassandra Anderson in DNA Films' 3D adaptation of Judge Dredd. It was revealed during Comic-Con, then confirmed later, that Karl Urban will star as the titular Judge Dredd, while Thirlby will be playing a telepathic rookie who shadows Dredd, as seen in the comics. Shooting begins in South Africa late this year. Judge Dredd is being directed by Vantage Point and Omagh director Pete Travis from a script written by Sunshine and 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland. The $45 million futuristic flick is financed by Reliance Big Entertainment and Stuart Ford's Im...

Reliance Big Pictures and Im Global, a Reliance international sales company, will finance DNA’s 3D production of "Judge Dredd", a $45 million live-action, film adaptation of the 2000 Ad comic-book character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.

"Judge Dredd" is being made by the writer/producer partnership behind "The Beach", "28 Days Later", "28 Weeks Later", and "Sunshine", with actor Karl Urban confirmed for the leading role by producers Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich.

“The main thing about 'Dredd' is that it’s a fantastic comic," said Macdonald.

"Our idea is to make a very hard, R-rated, gritty, realistic movie of 'Dredd' in 'Megacity', so we’ve got to get the tone right. He’s going to hit people and it’s going to feel real."

Screenplay is by Alex Garland, for Pete Travis, director of "Omagh", "Vantage Point" and "Endgame".

"Alex Garland’s script is faithful to the original concept that...

And so the 3D bandwagon keeps on rollin’…

Not long ago it was announced that an all-new, all-exciting all-3D version of classic British comic 2000Ad’s flagship character Judge Dredd would be returning in a film. The rights were being shipped around Cannes and had a hell of a lot of promise to them – attached director Pete Travis (Omagh, Vantage Point), attached screenwriter Alex Garland (novel The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine) and a pocket-sized budget of a mere $45 million.

Well, it’s a damn attractive proposition and now property owners DNA Films have inked a funding deal with Reliance Big Media and Im Global to bring Dredd back from Death (see what I did there? Anybody?) and reinvent the franchise with a new 3D flick.

Judge Dredd is a badass cop from the eighties who rules over Mega City One with an iron fist, permitted to act as judge,...

A Few days ago, we finally heard that the planned Judge Dredd movie was making progress, with funding and a director now in place.

The DNA Films project was then officially announced at the Cannes Film Festival, with further details revealed.

Reliance Big Pictures, together with Im Global, the international sales company that Reliance acquired only last week, says it will provide a $45million budget and adds that the film would be in 3D.

The film adaptation of the 2000Ad comic book character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra will take place in the fourth quarter of 2010 in Johannesburg. DNA has hired Michael Murphy (District 9) as South African co-producer.

Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich will produce a script written by Garland. Pete Travis, director of Omagh, Vantage Point and Endgame will direct. Wagner will be a creative consultant on the film.

Jason Kingsley and Chris Kingsley,...

We brought you a report this past Tuesday about the new Judge Dredd film that will be shot in 3D. Now, the production company Reliance Big Pictures has put out a new press release that gives us some more information on the film. Check it out below!

Reliance Big Pictures, together with Im Global, the international sales company that Reliance acquired only last week, will finance DNA’s 3D production of Judge Dredd, a $45 million film adaptation of the iconic 2000 Ad comic-book character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.

Filming will take place over the fourth quarter of 2010 in Johannesburg.

Judge Dredd is being made by the writer/producer partnership behind The Beach, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, and Never Let Me Go. Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich will produce a script written by Garland.

Pete Travis, director of Omagh, Vantage Point, and Endgame will direct. Wagner...

Earlier this week I reported that the long awaited Judge Dredd project (brought to you by DNA Films) was headed to Cannes in order to secure funding and hopefully move forward a step or two. Well since Dredd’s little holiday, things have moved forward leaps and bounds, with the film securing funding, a director and a production date!

As previously reported, DNA Films have secured funding with Reliance Big Pictures and Im Global to produce the film for a modest $50 million. The project has also landed itself a director in the shape of “Vantage Point” helmer, Pete Travis. Also thrown into the mix is the prospect for Dredd fans to see Mega City One for the first time in 3D!

What was not known at the time the story broke however, was the production date – set for an Autumn shoot. Take a look at the full press release below:

Reliance Big Pictures,...

Reliance Big Pictures and Im Global, a Reliance international sales company, will finance DNA’s 3D production of "Judge Dredd", a $45 million film adaptation of the 2000 Ad comic-book character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.

Filming will take place over the fourth quarter of 2010 in Johannesburg.

"Judge Dredd" is being made by the writer/producer partnership behind "The Beach", "28 Days Later", "28 Weeks Later", and "Sunshine".

Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich will produce a script written by Garland. Pete Travis, director of "Omagh", "Vantage Point" and "Endgame" will direct.

DNA has also signed Michael Murphy ("District 9") as a South African co-producer, along with Jason and Chris Kingsley, owners of Rebellion/2000 Ad.

"Alex Garland’s script is faithful to the original concept that made Judge Dredd a favourite bad-ass hero," said Wagner.

"I grew up reading 'Judge Dredd'", said Garland.

"The incredible writers and artists of...

An official press release has come to light with more details of the DNA cinematic version of Judge Dredd announced over a year ago the money seems finally to have joined up with the distribution:

Reliance Big Pictures, together with Im Global, the international sales company that Reliance acquired only last week, will finance DNA’s 3D production of Judge Dredd, a $45 million film adaptation of the iconic 2000 Ad comic-book character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.

Filming will take place over the fourth quarter of 2010 in Johannesburg.

Judge Dredd is being made by the writer/producer partnership behind The Beach, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, and Never Let Me Go. Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich will produce a script written by Garland.

Pete Travis, director of Omagh, Vantage Point, and Endgame will direct. Wagner will be a creative consultant on the film.

DNA has engaged Michael Murphy...

News broke yesterday that Reliance Big Pictures and DNA were in Cannes touting a brand new Judge Dredd movie, from writer Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later) and director Pete Travis (Vantage Point). This new iteration was also said to have the support and input from Judge Dredd creator John Wagner, as well as concept art from UK comic artist Jock (The Losers). The image above, by artist Tim Bradstreet, is also apparently being used at Cannes to sell the film

However, Reliance and DNA have now released an official statement on the matter, via 200Ad Online, an extract from which is below:

Judge Dredd Goes Into Production Fall 2010

Reliance Big Pictures To Finance

Reliance Big Pictures, together with Im Global, the international sales company that Reliance acquired only last week, will finance DNA’s 3D production of Judge Dredd, a $45 million film adaptation of the iconic 2000 Ad comic-book character...

English director Pete Travis (Omagh, Vantage Point) has been hired to direct a new big screen adaption of 2000 Ad character 'Judge Dredd'.

Producer Andrew Macdonald and screenwriter Alex Garland recently secured funding for the film to be made and will seek to find a distributor for the film during the Cannes festival. The reboot will also be made in 3D.

Judge Dredd will be on the prowl at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, according to Deadline Hollywood. The project, which is currently being developed by Danny Boyle’s production company, DNA films, will be looking for potential partners at the shindig.

Originally announced back in January last year, and with Boyle being less than thrilled at the prospect of a Judge Dredd picture, you can rule him out as director. However Alex Garland was pegged to write the script last September and it seems that since then he’s come up with a workable treatment. This from Deadline:

Andrew Macdonald’s DNA Films has made a deal with India-based Reliance Big Entertainment and Im Global to finance Judge Dredd, a 3D film that was scripted by Alex Garland, and will be directed by Pete Travis, best known for Vantage Point and Omagh. The film will be shopped at (Cannes Film Festival) by Im Global,...

There were numerous mistakes made in the 1995 Judge Dredd film, not least taking Sylvester Stallone’s lawman out of his iconic uniform early on in the film, but also ditching the decaying political undertones of the original concept, in effect neutering the movie and resigning it to lay strewn in amongst the hundreds of other Blade Runner-lite action films.

News of another Dredd movie has been doing the rounds for a while, and fans are hoping for a return to the characters roots. That hope may be realised as today Deadline announce that Reliance Big Entertainment have stepped up with Andrew MacDonald’s DNA Films to develop Dredd’s next big screen outing.

DNA, who were behind the 28 Days Later and Sunshine films are looking to the scribe of those films, Alex Garland, to write this new film, which is expected to be closer to the vision of John Wagner...

But not in the way you think. Andrew Macdonald’s DNA Films has made a deal with India-based Reliance Big Entertainment and Im Global to finance Judge Dredd, a 3D film that was scripted by Alex Garland, and will be directed by Pete Travis, best known for Vantage Point and Omagh. The film will be shopped at (Cannes Film Festival) by Im Global, in the first collaboration since Reliance bought a majority stake in Stuart Ford's foreign sales company.While Judge Dredd is perhaps best remembered for the forgettable 1995 action film that starred Sylvester Stallone, Macdonald went back to the franchise’s DNA to completely overhaul the film and bring it back to its origins as the UK comic created by John Wagner and illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra. Dredd is set in a futuristic world filled with violence, and the character is empowered to act as judge, jury and executioner.

It’s been a few months since we heard anything about the new version of Judge Dredd, which had been trundling along under the auspices of Andrew McDonald’s DNA Films with Alex Garland writing the script. Now it looks like Vantage Point/Omagh director Pete Travis is on board to direct.Deadline noted that the film is being shopped at this year’s Cannes festival and is boasting a thrifty, sub-$50 million budget, which does make us wonder whether that’ll be enough to bring a proper take on Dredd’s Mega City setting to life. But with funding from Reliance Big Entertainment, and assuming they lock in some decent studio backing, this one has a chance of being better than the awful 1995 Sylvester Stallone effort. But then, a film made with action figures by a kid in a garden has a shot at that.While DNA Films has a deal with Fox,...

Exclusive: The best way to get Cannes buyers hot and bothered is to come to market with a branded property that has potentially big commercial appeal, cool elements and a reasonable budget. Here's one that fits that bill: Andrew Macdonald’s DNA Films has made a deal with India-based Reliance Big Entertainment and Im Global to finance Judge Dredd, a 3D film that was scripted by Alex Garland, and will be directed by Pete Travis, best known for Vantage Point and Omagh. The film will be shopped at the festival by Im Global, in the first collaboration since Reliance bought a [...]...

Exclusive: The best way to get Cannes buyers hot and bothered is to come to market with a branded property that has potentially big commercial appeal, cool elements and a reasonable budget. Here's one that fits that bill: Andrew Macdonald’s DNA Films has made a deal with India-based Reliance Big Entertainment to finance Judge Dredd, a 3D film that was scripted by Alex Garland, and will be directed by Pete Travis, best known for Vantage Point and Omagh. The film will be shopped at the festival, I hear. While Judge Dredd is perhaps best remembered for the forgettable 1995 action [...]...

By Christopher Stipp

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Check out my new column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

Robin Hood - Free Passes

Who lives in Arizona and wants to see Russell Crowe dispatch dirty peasants with a bow and arrow?

I sure do. After loving every last morsel of the last Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott team-up this film at least gets an emotional buy-in simply because lighting may very well strike twice.

For those that would like to see this film Tuesday, May 11th, at 7:00 at Harkins Fashion Square please shoot me a line at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com and let me know you’re interested in winning some tickets. I don’t have many so get those entries in quick.

And, for those that need an explanation of what this movie has in store for you, read...

His new film about Iraq was made out of a sense of affront and anger

If this was a Paul Greengrass film, it would start like this. An aerial shot over central London. Digital letters flash up at the bottom of the screen saying: "London, 1400 GMT". A few cellos begin stirring ominously on the soundtrack. Then a hand-held camera tracks an oblivious reporter walking through Mayfair. Somewhere, a man with an earpiece looks at a flashing dot on a screen and says, "Subject proceeding east towards Claridges." Drums start up on the soundtrack. A short clip of Greengrass himself, perhaps finishing off his lunch. The shaky camera follows the reporter into Claridges, pitching through the revolving door to chase him up the stairs. The drums get heavier. The camera dashes down corridors after him. Greengrass strolls casually towards his suite. The drumming reaches a deafening frenzy, as if a tribal...

Shakespeare's "Macbeth" will get a modern-day makeover in Smuggler Films' "Come Like Shadows," which Pete Travis is set to direct.

Travis, whose political thriller "Endgame" premiered at Sundance in January, describes the project as a thriller "about personal and political corruption." Vincent Regan and Harvard literature scholars Jennifer Lee Carrell and Nick Saunders wrote the script.

Smuggler's Patrick Milling Smith and John Hart will produce along with Saunders.

Repped by Wme, Travis also directed the thriller "Vantage Point" and the terrorist study "Omagh."...

'Best: His Mother's Son', a fact-based drama telling the story of footballer George Best's relationship with his mother will screen on Sunday, April 26th on BBC Two Ni at 9pm. The 90 minute drama will be followed by a making of documentary entitled 'Best: Made in Belfast' at 10.30pm. The drama stars Michelle Fairley (A Short Stay In Switzerland) as George's mother Ann and Tom Payne (Waterloo Road) as George. Lorcan Cranitch (Omagh) takes on the role of Dickie Best. Filmed in the Paint Hall Studios in Belfast last year, the script is written by one of Northern Ireland's leading dramatists, Terry Cafolla, who was nominated for a BAFTA for 'Holy Cross'.

The Northern Irish shot feature 'Five Minutes of Heaven' has picked up two awards at the 25th Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The BBC/Big Fish Films/Ruby Films production, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall), won the World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic while BAFTA winning writer Guy Hibbert (Omagh) won the World Cinema Screenwriting Award. Shot in Belfast in June 2008, the film stars Liam Neeson (Michael Collins) and James Nesbitt (Omagh) as two men from the same town but different sides of the Irish political divide, who discover that the past is never dead.

Sundance Channel has nabbed home video and U.S. pay-TV rights to the Anglo-Irish drama Omagh, which examines the 1998 Real IRA bombing that killed 31 in the small town of Omagh, Ireland. The film, directed by Pete Travis and written by Guy Hibbert and Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday), will be released on DVD and VHS Oct. 11 by Sundance Channel Home Entertainment through Hart Sharp Video. The film made its U.S. premiere as the opening-night movie at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York City last night (June 9). It will make its U.S. television debut next year on the Sundance.

Screened

Edinburgh International Film Festival

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- It's Sept. 11, 2001, and a man whispers into a telephone: "I love you. I love you". But it's neither a victim of that dreadful day nor a survivor. It's one of the perpetrators. In Channel 4's riveting drama about the events leading up to the atrocities of Sept. 11, Ziad Jarrah and his cohorts are portrayed as ordinary mortals whose fanaticism emerges from everyday lives that are otherwise quite mundane.

The decision by director Antonia Bird and writers Ronan Bennett and Alice Perman not to demonize the men who committed the most heinous crime in recent memory is a brave one. Indeed the film's evenhandedness may offend some. It's unhelpful, however, to dismiss the men as monsters and instructive to be reminded that great evil may be rooted in heartfelt delusion. This is a film of great intensity and should find a wide audience for its considerable cinematic merit and worthwhile contribution to understanding the incomprehensible. It airs Thursday on the U.K.'s Channel 4.

As in Channel 4's previous docudramas Sunday, The Deal and Omagh, the script for The Hamburg Cell is based on "known facts and actual events" and strives to portray them objectively. It follows the development of a cell of Muslim revolutionaries established in the German city of Hamburg five years before the World Trade Center's twin towers were brought down.

At the center is Jarrah, a rich man's son from Lebanon who is studying dentistry. More secular than Muslim, Jarrah falls for Aysel (Agni Tsangaridou), an independent Turkish student who objects when an Islamic group targets him for induction.

Karim Saleh plays Jarrah with the soulful innocence that Al Pacino brought to the young Michael Corleone. Like the Godfather's son, Jarrah's bland features and timorous smile mask an inner turmoil hinted at only in his haunted eyes.

Gradually, he is drawn into the clutches of a mosque whose members espouse violence as the proper means to wage the jihad they see as a requirement of their interpretation of Islam. He remains ambivalent, seemingly earnest in his affection for Aysel and confessing that, having attended Catholic school, he was an indifferent Muslim. But the imam tells him sharply that he must say his prayers. He was in an infidel society, and he must not let himself be alone.

As he becomes closer to fellow initiates Mohamed Atta (Kamel) and Ramzi bin al Shibh (Omar Berdouni), the incessant radicalization begins to take hold. The modern world is a confusion. The modern world wants to take God from him. Every able-bodied man must train for the jihad.

Atta in particular is convinced. A Palestinian, he is a lonely and ascetic man who chides his friends for taking a beer or even wearing their shirts open. He longs to return to his homeland but when he visits, his cold and distant father scolds him for not pursuing a doctorate, having just obtained his master's degree, and his mother pines for grandchildren. Back in Germany, whatever drives his anger occupies him fully.

Soon the three students are in Afghanistan being trained by al-Qaida. When they return, the Hamburg cell leaders flatter and cajole them to join their violent plans. With growing and devastating suspense, the film shows the tragic path of fanatics who have lost sight of their objectives and redoubled their efforts to get there.

Throughout the building tension, the film offers reminders of how evidence of the impending assault was overlooked and how warnings of the dangers were not heeded. With the terrible Sept. 11 images seen only fleetingly at the beginning, the film ends with the perpetrators disappearing through an airport departure enclosure.

THE HAMBURG CELL

A Mentorn/Inner Circle Pictures GmbH/Simply Committed GmbH co-production for Channel 4 produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Credits:

Director: Antonia Bird

Co-writers: Ronan Bennett, Alice Perman

Producer: Finola Dwyer

Executive producers: David Aukin, George Carey

Cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister

Editor: St. John O'Rorke

Production designer: Richard Hoover, Phil Roberson

Art director: Ulrich Schroder

Nicholas Scott, Iris Trescher

Costume designer: Antje Gebauer

Cast:

Ziad Jarrah: Karim Saleh

Mohamed Atta: Kamel

Aysel: Agni Tsangaridou

Ramzi bin al Shibh: Omar Berdouni

Marwan Shehhi: Adnan Maral

Abdulrahman Al-Makhadi: Kammy Darweish

No MPAA rating...

TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday announced world premieres for U.S. filmmaker David Gordon Green's Undertow and U.K. helmer Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs and a North American premiere for Claire Denis' L'intrus. In all, 62 titles were announced as Toronto programmers unveiled film bookings for the Discovery sidebar for emerging talent, the Vision program for experimental film and the Wavelengths forum for video artists. Toronto's Discovery lineup will present 28 features from 23 countries, including German director Hendrik Holzemann's feature film debut, Off Beat; Xiao Jiang's Electric Shadows, from China; U.S. filmmakers Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik's On the Outs, which portrays three Latino girls in New Jersey; Oyster Farmer, an Australia/United Kingdom romantic comedy by Anna Reeves; French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic's coming-of-age tale Innocence; Saving Face, which stars Joan Chen and comes from U.S. filmmaker Alice Wu; Macedonian filmmaker Svetozar Ristovski's Mirage; Ra'up McGee's thriller Autumn, a French-American film; Pete Travis' Omagh, an Ireland-United Kingdom co-production looking at a tragic 1998 IRA bombing in Ireland; and from Germany, Marco Kreuzpaintner's Summer Storm.

MADRID -- Continuing with its tradition of seeking fresh faces for the international film stage, the 52nd San Sebastian International Film Festival announced on Friday that 18 films will compete this year for the $95,000 Altadis-New Director Award. Most of the films will be screened in the Zabaltegi, the Free Zone section, while three previously announced films -- Pete Travis' Omagh, Jinglei Xu's A Letter from an Unknown Woman and Il-gon Song's Spider Forest -- will unspool in the Official Section's main competition lineup.