News

Exclusive: Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting) and Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy) are in talks to star in Emma-Kate Croghan’s dramedy The Household Guide to Dying, based on the book by Debra Adelaide.

The film marks Australian director Croghan’s return to features after a 25-year absence. The director first made waves in 1996 with debut Love And Other Catastrophes, which garnered five Australian Film Institute award nominations and was picked up by Fox Searchlight.

She followed that up in 1999 with Strange Planet, starring Naomi Watts, but has only returned since then to direct a segment of music documentary I’m Only Looking: The Best of Inxs back in 2004.

Ellen Wander of Film Bridge International is selling The Household Guide to Dying at this week’s American Film Market in Las Vegas. CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are co-repping domestic.

The plot reads: “Acerbic household influencer Delia Bennett decides to...

While Legendary’s MonsterVerse continues to expand with a new episode of “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” the King of the Monsters also returns to the big screen this week!

Here’s all the new horror releasing November 28 – December 3, 2023.

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

As the yuletide hour nears, a small-town sheriff finds out that the ghosts of the past do not always stay silent in Night of the Missing, which is now streaming on Screambox.

From award-winning filmmaker Samuel Gonzalez Jr. (The Retaliators) and the producers of The Gallows, Night of the Missing is a four-part holiday anthology that could best be described as a twisted take on “A Christmas Carol.”

“On a stormy Christmas Eve, a secretive sheriff gets a visit from a mysterious woman who recounts a series of bizarre stories involving missing persons. As her stories begin to unfold, the...

After an acclaimed festival run beginning with winning the 2023 SXSW Grand Jury Award earlier this year, writer/director Paris Zarcilla’s debut feature, Raging Grace, is set for theatrical release next month. A brand new trailer unveiled today highlights some of the bug-crawling nightmares unleashed in the “coming of rage” gothic horror story.

Brainstorm Media & Doppelgänger Releasing’s acclaimed horror film releases in select theaters on December 1 and will be available on demand December 8.

The film follows “Joy, an undocumented Filipino immigrant who is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter when she secures the perfect job: taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminal old man. The new position pays well and guarantees a roof over their heads. But very soon, Joy and her daughter Grace start to realize everything is not as it seems. Something is festering beneath the surface, threatening all they have worked for.

Writer/Director Paris Zarcilla’s debut feature, Raging Grace, earned the 2023 SXSW Grand Jury Award earlier this year and is currently winning over festival audiences at Fantasia International Film Festival. Ahead of the film’s second screening at Fantasia on August 1, Bloody Disgusting can reveal exclusive images highlighting this “coming of rage” horror story.

The film follows “Joy, an undocumented Filipino immigrant who is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter when she secures the perfect job: taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminal old man. The new position pays well and guarantees a roof over their heads. But very soon, Joy and her daughter Grace start to realize everything is not as it seems. Something is festering beneath the surface, threatening all they have worked for.”

Check out the exclusive images below that tease the gothic, potentially violent “coming of rage” story in store.

Raging Grace...

‘Finding Your Feet’ director Richard Loncraine will direct; Circus Studios selling in Cannes.

The late UK army captain and charity fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore will be the subject of a new biopic from the writers of Fisherman’s Friends and the director of Finding Your Feet.

Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard, who also wrote Finding Your Feet and Blithe Spirit, have written the script for the as-yet-untitled feature, which Richard Loncraine will direct.

The production is targeting an autumn shoot in the UK, Thailand and Barbados; UK firm Circus Studios is financing the project and has boarded sales, which it...

Film is lined up for production later this year.

Distributors Curzon, Cineart and Madman have united on a multi-territory deal for post-Second World War film The Offing starring Helena Bonham Carter.

The trio have joined forces to acquire all rights for UK-Ireland, Benelux and Australia-New Zealand, from Germany-based sales company Beta Cinema.

Beta has reported “severe competition” on the title and says further deals in major territories will be confirmed shortly.

The Offing will go into production later this year. It will be the debut feature for New Zealand filmmaker Jessica Hobbs, who has directed extensively for television including seven episodes of The Crown,...

Exclusive: Two time Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter is reteaming with The Crown director Jessica Hobbs on period drama The Offing, which Beta Cinema will launch sales on at next week’s EFM.

Emmy winner Hobbs, who is currently directing HBO drama The Palace with Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant, has directed the second-most episodes of Netflix’s smash series The Crown, including multiple eps with Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret.

Their new collaboration is an adaptation of Benjamin Myers’ well-received novel set in post war northern England. The film charts the intense and uplifting relationship between a teenage boy and a hard drinking, foul-mouthed, bohemian recluse called Dulcie (Bonham Carter).

Casting is underway for the 16 year-old Robert, a shy, nature-loving son of a miner who sets out to see a little more of the world before he follows his father down the pit. Under Dulcie’s eccentric tutelage, his life opens up to food,...

Jessica Barden has set her latest project in the shape of the sports drama An Unsuitable Game from the BAFTA-award-winning filmmaker Mandie Fletcher (Absolutely Fabulous), which will launch sales next month at TIFF.

Barden stars alongside Jessica Brown Findlay and Sian Clifford (Fleabag) in the flick, which is inspired by the true story of a group of female friends who form an amateur football team at the height of the first world war. Despite incredible opposition from the establishment, their male co-workers, and the press – they start to draw crowds and growing popularity. The film is described as a timely, uplifting story of women being disruptive, funny, and inspiring.

“This is a story that just has to be told, about the extraordinary women who forged the first steps on the road now trodden by the triumphant Lionesses,...

‘Orphan: First Kill’, ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ also out.

Entertainment Film Distributors’ seafaring sequel Fisherman’s Friends: One And All receives the widest opening of any title at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, starting in 645 locations.

Directed by Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft, One And All is a sequel to Chris Foggin’s Fisherman’s Friends, about 10 Cornish fisherman who gain a record deal with their album of sea shanties.

The sequel sees the group struggle with their second album after the highs of performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

Fisherman’s Friends opened to £1.2m from 506 locations in March...

Sales agency Beta Cinema has revealed the casting of further lead roles for action thriller “The Climb”: Hero Fiennes Tiffin, star of the global box office franchise series “After,” as well as the upcoming Sony/Tristar feature “The Woman King,” and IMDb break-out star Hannah John-Kamen, best known for her performances in “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Black Mirror,” will star alongside Cara Delevingne, who was announced earlier this year.

After Signature Entertainment picked up the project ahead of the Marché du Film in Cannes for U.K. and Ireland, Beta Cinema has closed further deals for Germany, Austria and Italy (Koch Films), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (Youplanet Pictures) and Middle East (Front Row). Further major territories are being negotiated.

Based on the true-life 2013 Greenpeace protest on top of London’s iconic skyscraper The Shard, and directed by experienced visual effects art director Hayley Easton-Street,...

Ooo, so what’s this “new era” coming for the denizens of Downton Abbey, 1920s-Yorkshire’s nicest feudal hangover? I never truly thought it would be the guillotines my reading of the prequel had inspired in my imagination, though a girl’s gotta dream. But it would not be anachronistic to hope for the Great Depression hitting the Earl of Grantham’s interests hard. Or perhaps soak-the-rich taxation has finally come for Downton, forcing them to open the house to *gasp* paying visitors?

Alas, that last is the closest to comeuppance that will descend upon the sprawling Crawley family and their impossibly happy-with-their-station servants. In the mildest sort of meta one could hope for from this franchise, the moving pictures have come to Downton Abbey! Film director Jack Barber and stars Guy Dexter and Myrna Dalgleish are making a glamorous romantic drama and they need a grand house for the shoot.

Exclusive: European streamer Viaplay has picked up Nordic, Baltic, Dutch and Polish rights to UK comedy Hapless, which was also picked up by Netflix in the UK last year.

The series, which heralds from veteran Brit director Gary Sinyor, revolves around an obsessive and gaffe-prone journalist for a fictitious Jewish newspaper. Brit comedy actor Tim Downie (Toast Of London) stars.

Blue Penguin, the TV production arm of James Spring’s Fred Films (Finding Your Feet), has joined forces with Sinyor’s Magnet Films for the second season which is set to begin filming next month.

The Viaplay deal also includes season two of the “cringe” comedy, which has been described as similar in its approach to U.S. hit Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Season two will comprises eight episodes and also stars Lucy Montgomery as Paul’s sweary sister, Mike Fenton Stevens as their impish dad and Josh Howie as Paul’s highly neurotic friend.

London-based role includes responsibility for identifying and acquiring local productions.

WarnerMedia has appointed Joel Kennedy as director of local film production and acquisitions for the UK and Ireland.

Based in London, the role includes responsibility for identifying and acquiring local productions as well as all aspects of the delivery process, including sourcing and script development, contract negotiation, and producer and sales agent liaison.

Kennedy joins WarnerMedia from independent film and TV financier Lorton Entertainment where he packaged titles, managed acquisitions, sales and distribution, and executive produced projects including Diego Maradona, Horrible Histories: The Movie and Bros: When The Screaming Stops.

Newly launched U.K. production outfit Flying Fish has signed a three-year multi-film distribution deal with U.K. theatrical distribution company Entertainment Film Distributors (Efd).

The deal will cover the upcoming slate of Flying Fish, a joint venture between Fred Films’ James Spring and filmmakers Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard. This includes a sequel to “Fisherman’s Friends” (2019), currently in pre-production, and an untitled biopic on the inspirational life of late British Covid-19 and WWII hero Captain Sir Tom Moore.

Flying Fish are also collaborating with award-winning playwright Roy Williams on a biopic of British-Jamaican reggae musician, celebrity chef, author and businessman, Levi Roots.

Spring, Moorcroft and Leonard first worked together on the successful St. Trinian’s franchise, backed and distributed by Efd. They also collaborated on “Finding Your Feet,” which won the audience award at the Palm Springs Film Festival and made some $8 million at the U.K. box office.

The multi-picture distribution deal will cover Flying Fish’s upcoming slate.

Entertainment Film Distributors (Efd) has signed a three-year UK output deal with new production company Flying Fish.

The deal covers Flying Fish’s upcoming slate, including the sequel to 2019 box office hit Fisherman’s Friends, which is in pre-production; and the recently announced untitled biopic on the life of the late Tom Moore, the former British Army officer who became a charity fundraiser during the pandemic.

Filmmakers Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard are co-writing the screenplays for the two titles. Flying Fish launched in 2020 as a joint venture between Moorcroft,...

Indie production company Flying Fish, the newly-launched joint venture from the writers and producers of Fisherman’s Friends, has signed a three-year, multi-picture distribution deal with theatrical releaser Entertainment Film Distributors (Efd).

Flying Fish has been set up by Fred Films’ James Spring and filmmakers Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard, whose comedy hit Fisherman’s Friends grossed $10M at the UK box office via Efd, as well as Finding Your Feet, which took close to $8M and was also released by Efd.

The deal will cover upcoming titles including a Fisherman’s Friends sequel, currently in pre-production, and the recently announced untitled biopic Captain Sir Tom Moore. Moorcroft and Leonard are co-writing original screenplays for both films. The company is also collaborating with Roy Williams on biopic Levi Roots.

“We are thrilled to have found a home at Efd. Not only is Nigel Green one of the most successful independent film distributors in the world,...

The film-makers behind Fisherman’s Friends will dramatise the former British army officer’s ‘unique and inspiring story’

Captain Sir Tom Moore is getting the big-screen treatment. The life story of the centenarian, who raised more than £32m for the NHS by walking laps of his Bedfordshire garden, will be shot next year.

The film will be made by Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures, whose credits include Fisherman’s Friends, about the Cornish fishermen who signed a record deal, and Finding Your Feet, starring Imelda Staunton.

Fred Films and Powder Keg to shoot feature in 2021.

UK production companies Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures have secured rights to the story of Tom Moore, the former British Army Captain who raised £38.9m for the National Health Service during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fred Films’ James Spring and Powder Keg’s Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard will produce a feature about Moore’s life, which will shoot in 2021. Moorcroft and Leonard are writing the screenplay.

The film will focus on Moore’s relationship with his family after he moved into their home in his 80s following the death of his wife.

Fred Films and Powder Keg to shoot feature in 2021.

UK production companies Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures have secured rights to the story of Tom Moore, the former British Army Captain who raised £38.9m for the National Health Service during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fred Films’ James Spring and Powder Keg’s Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard will produce a feature about Moore’s life, which will shoot in 2021. Moorcroft and Leonard are writing the screenplay.

The film will focus on Moore’s relationship with his family after he moved into their home in his 80s following the death of his wife.

Fred Films and Powder Keg (’Fisherman’s Friends’) to shoot feature in 2021.

UK production companies Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures have secured rights to the story of Tom Moore, the former British Army Captain who raised £38.9m for the National Health Service during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fred Films’ James Spring and Powder Keg’s Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard will produce a feature about Moore’s life, which will shoot in 2021. Moorcroft and Leonard are writing the screenplay.

The film will focus on Moore’s relationship with his family after he moved into their home in his 80s following the death of his wife.

The uplifting story of 100-year-old British hero Captain Tom Moore, who kept a nation in lockdown inspired, is being turned into a feature film, fast-tracked for production in 2021.

The U.K.’s Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures won a bidding war for the life rights to the former British Army captain and World War II hero, who raised £38.9 million ($49.4 million) for the U.K.’s National Health Service by walking laps around his garden in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Moore’s original aim was to raise £1000 by walking 100 laps around his garden with the aid of his walker. He also recorded a hit single, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” that hit No. 1 on the U.K. charts. In the process, he broke two Guinness World Records — for the oldest person to achieve a U.K. No. 1 track, displacing Tom Jones, and also for...

UK companies Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures have secured the sought-after rights to British national treasure and World War II veteran Captain Tom Moore’s inspirational story.

The former British Army Captain raised £39M ($50M) for the National Health Service by walking laps of his garden in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the pandemic. It was a feat that captured hearts and minds around the UK and beyond.

Moore also broke two Guinness World Records, achieved a number 1 hit single with You’ll Never Walk Alone, and was knighted by the Queen in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle.

Fred Films’ James Spring and Powder Keg Pictures’ Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard will produce. Moorcroft and Leonard are writing the original screenplay and the team is looking to shoot the project in 2021.

The untitled film will focus on Moore’s close relationship with his family and explore how his strength,...

Filming got underway this week in Paris on Alors, On Danse, the French remake of 2017 UK feature Finding Your Feet.

The French update is being directed by veteran French actress, director and comedian Michèle Laroque (Ma Vie En Rose) who will also star alongside well-known French faces Thierry Lhermitte (La Dîner De Cons), Isabelle Nanty (Amelie) and Jean-Hugues Anglade (Betty Blue) as well as Jeanne Balibar (Les Misérables) and Patrick Timsit (Le Cousin).

The film is being produced by Maxime Delauney and Romain Rousseau of Nolita Cinema and is among the first films to start shooting in the capital since the country came out of lockdown. The film’s original producers Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft, James Spring, Andrew Berg, John Sachs and Charlotte Walls all serve as executive producers on the film.

The French remake deal was brokered by Fred Films’ James Spring who told us that there are additional...

Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the heartwarming comedy/drama Fisherman’S Friends On Demand and Digital July 24, 2020. Check out the trailer:

Fisherman’S Friends is directed by Chris Foggin (Kids in Love) and co-written by Meg Leonard (Blithe Spirit, Finding Your Feet) and Nick Moorcroft (Blithe Spirit, Finding Your Feet). The film stars Daniel Mays (1917, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), James Purefoy (“The Following,” “Rome”), David Hayman (Blinded by the Light, Sid and Nancy) and Tuppence Middleton (“Sense8,” The Imitation Game).

A fast living, cynical London music executive (Daniel Mays) heads to a remote Cornish village on a stag weekend where he’s pranked by his boss (Noel Clarke) into trying to sign a group of shanty singing fishermen (led by James Purefoy). He becomes the ultimate “fish out of water” as he struggles to gain the respect or enthusiasm of the unlikely boy band and their families (including Tuppence Middleton...

Judi Dench, Leslie Mann and Dan Stevens are all set to lead the cast in an adaptation of Noel Coward’s play ‘Blithe Spirit’.

Directed by Edward Hall and written by Nick Moorcroft, Meg Leonard, Piers Ashworth, Isla Fisher (The Beach Bum, Confessions of a Shopaholic), Julian Rhind-Tut (Rush, Stardust), Emilia Fox, Dave Johns (I, Daniel Blake), James Fleet (Outlander, Four Weddings and a Funeral) all join Dench, Mann and Stevens on the reimaging of Coward’s classic comedy, about love that just won’t die…

The story follows Best-selling crime novelist Charles (Stevens), struggling with catastrophic writer’s block and a stressful deadline for his first screenplay. His picture-perfect second wife Ruth (Fisher) is doing her best to keep him focussed in the hope of fulfilling her dream of heading to Hollywood.

Charles’ desperate search for inspiration leads him to invite Madame Arcati (Dench), a medium recently exposed as a fraud,...

Exclusive: From Cornwall to the Croisette. the UK band Fisherman’s Friends, subject of the recent UK box office hit of the same name, was in Cannes today, where stops included the Deadline party. Next stop: Australia.

While at our annual Riviera bash, producers behind the breakout movie, which recently took close to $10M in the UK alone, revealed to us that a sequel is in the works. The comedy music pic will be called Fisherman’s Friends 2: Bound for South Australia and will follow the group from the highs of performing on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury to the lows of struggling with their second album. During a divisive tour of South Australia, they will trace their ancestors who were transported in the 1800s and embrace a new community and discover their musical DNA.

The sequel will again be produced by James Spring, Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft,...

Eclipse Films, Gospel teaming on doc Shane.

A feature documentary about Australian cricketing legend Shane Warne is being made by UK producers Eclipse Films (Finding Your Feet) and Gospel (Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story).

Dogwoof is representing global sales rights to the project, titled Shane, and is launching it to buyers here in Cannes.

Widely considered to be one of cricket’s greatest bowlers, spinner Warne took more than 1,000 wickets in his career, placing him behind onlu Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan in the all-time list. He also led a turbulent personal life, including a drug ban and a high-profile divorce.

Film project is based on an unpublished memoir written by Roots.

Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures, the producers behind recent UK box office hit Fisherman’s Friends, are working on a feature about Jamaica-born musician, chef and businessman Levi Roots.

Roots emigrated to London at the age of 11, unable to read or write, and went on to become a successful Reggae artist until his music career was cut short after he was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug offences.

While serving his time, Roots came up with the idea for creating ’Reggae Reggae Sauce’, inspired by his Grandmother’s Caribbean cooking.

Live-action remake falls short of The Jungle Book opening.

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.31

Rank Film (Distributor) Three-day gross (Mar 29-31) Total gross to date Week 1 Dumbo (Disney) £6.1m £6.1m 1 2 Captain Marvel (Disney) £1.8m £32.5m 4 3 Us (Universal) £1.7m £6.1m 2 4 Fisherman’s Friends (Entertainment) £629,301 £4.8m 3 5 What Men Want (Paramount) £300,000 £2.4m 3 Disney

Dumbo, Tim Burton’s live-action remake of Disney’s classic animation starring Colin Farrell and Eva Green, began its UK run with a £6.1m debut from 661 sites, an average of roughly £9,300.

In the canon of Disney’s recent spate of live-action remakes, the result falls short of the...

Amazon Prime Video has confirmed that several original shows will be debuting new episodes on the streaming service in April, including the fifth season of the crime drama “Bosch,” the sophomore season of the comedy “The Tick” and the first edition of the children’s animated show “Bug Diaries.”

Likewise, there will be plenty of movies making their first appearances on Amazon Prime Video in April including the Oscar-nominated horror film “A Quiet Place,” a slew of films in the Bond franchise and all three entries in the “Blade” trilogy.

Below is the full schedule of everything that is coming to Amazon Prime Video in April 2019. Unlike Netflix, Amazon does not disclose the shows and movies leaving the service in any given month. We’ve done some digging and unearthed a few titles that will be exiting Amazon Prime Video in the first week of April.

See Netflix schedule: Here...

Captain Marvel remains top with £3.5m weekend.

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.32

RankFilm (Distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 22-25) Total gross to date Week 1 Captain Marvel (Disney) £3.4m £29.5m 3 2 Us (Universal) £2.8m £2.8m 1 3 Fisherman’s Friends (Entertainment) £972,836 £3.4m 2 4 What Men Want (Paramount) £513,000 £1.9m 2 5 Fighting With My Family (Lionsgate) £387,779 £5.5m 4 Disney

Captain Marvel stayed top of the tree this weekend. The film dropped 49% in its third outing, adding £3.4m for £29.5m cume.

The film is now set to pass the lifetime gross of Thor: Ragnarok (£29.6m) and has its sights set on Spider-Man 3 (£33.6m) and Iron Man 3 (£37m).

Elsewhere for Disney,...

The White Crow and Sorry Angel are also opening.

Jordan Peele’s horror film Us, the director’s follow-up to his phenomenally successful debut Get Out, rolls out widely in the UK this weekend via Universal.

Us is also being released in the Us today, where the film’s opening is being forecast to top $40m (£30.6m) by various reports. That would eclipse the Us opening of Get Out, which started with $33.4m (£25.5m) and closed on a hugely impressive $176m (£134.3m).

In the UK, Get Out opened with £2.2m and closed on £10.4m. Based on those figures, Us is...

Amazon Prime Video has released its roster of new content coming to it April, and the list includes a new Prime Original along with new seasons of “Bosch,” “The Tick,” and “Diablo Guardián.”

The first season of “Bug Diaries,” a Prime Original animated series for preschoolers, follows Spider, Fly and Worm on their daily adventures recorded in their bug diaries. From riding on a dog’s back to dodging raindrops, the three bug buddies will appear on the streamer starting April 12.

Season 5 of “Bosch” picks up 15 months after Det. Harry Bosch caught his mother’s killer. Per the streamer’s description, new evidence in an old case leaves everyone wondering whether Bosch planted evidence to convict the wrong guy. And a murder at a Hollywood pharmacy exposes a sophisticated opioid pill mill, sending Bosch down a dark and perilous path in pursuit of the killers. It drops April 19.

Also Read:...

Hulu’s list of comings and goings for the month of April is out, and the roster for new content on the streaming service includes two Hulu Originals — the first season premiere of “Ramy,” and the seventh episode of “Into The Dark: I’m Just F*cking With You,” with other highlights including Season 3 of Freeform’s “The Bold Type” and John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place.”

“Ramy,” debuting April 19, tells the story of first generation Egyptian-American Ramy Hassan as he finds himself in his New Jersey neighborhood, stuck at a crossroads between the morals of his Muslim community and the moral ambiguity of his millennial generation. “Into The Dark: I’m Just F*cking With You,” coming April 1, finds two siblings in a secluded motel, where they become subject to practical jokes of an increasingly frightening nature.

Also Read: Oscar-Winning Documentary 'Free Solo' Now Available for Streaming on Hulu...

Miranda Tapsell in ‘Top End Wedding.’

In a further sign of consolidation in the independent film sector, Universal Pictures International will take over the theatrical marketing and distribution of Entertainment One (eOne) releases in Australia and New Zealand.

The new arrangement takes effect in April and will include Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding (which opens on May 2), Rachel Ward’s Palm Beach, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth and the Roache-Turner brothers’ Nekrotronic.

There was no immediate indication of layoffs among the eOne team headed by MD Sandie Don. Formerly head of distribution, Don was elevated to MD in November 2017 after Troy Lum stepped up to become executive vice president of international productions.

Lum departed eOne in November to focus on Hopscotch Features, his joint venture with writer John Collee and producer Andrew Mason, and was not replaced.

“Sandie is discussing roles with the team as they prepare for a transition...

Partners revisit beloved Oscar Wilde novella.

Cinema Management Group (Cmg) launches worldwide sales at Afm next week on an animated adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost in association with Robert Chandler’s Space Age Films and Gina Carter and Stephen Fry’s Sprout Pictures.

Veteran British performer, writer and raconteur Fry will voice Sir Simon de Canterville, a spirit that has scared off anybody who has dared to inhabit his stately home for several centuries.

All that changes when an American family move in and turns the tables on the spectral resident. The exhausted ghost rediscovers hope when...

Exclusive: Brit comedy Fisherman’s Friends, from the writing and producing team behind UK box office hit Finding Your Feet, has netted a UK deal with Entertainment Film Distributors.

The film, currently in post-production, has an ensemble cast featuring Daniel Mays (Atonement), Tuppence Middleton (The Imitation Game), James Purefoy (Solomon Kane), David Hayman (Finding Your Feet), Dave Johns Sam Swainsbury (Thor: The Dark World), Maggie Steed (Paddington 2) Christian Brassington (St Trinian’s 2) and Noel Clarke (Brotherhood). Here’s a first look at some of the team.

Directed by Chris Foggin (Kids In Love), the Cornwall-shot feature is inspired by the true story of the male singing group Fisherman’s Friends, who went from performing in their village harbour to securing a deal with Island Records, a top-ten album and performing on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury.

Producers are James Spring, Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft with Piers Ashworth (St Trinian’s), Leonard and Moorcroft writing the screenplay.

Legacy Rights, the sales label headed up by James Scott, has inked deals in Latin America and Spain (Sun Distribution), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Japan (New Select), Middle East (Phars) and Airlines (Jaguar). Scott will be showing a promo to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival next week.

Pic is a Head Gear Films and Metrol Technology presentation in association with Legacy Rights of a Fred Films and Powder Keg Production in association with Hindsight and Ipg Media. Post-Production is being handled by Lipsync.

U.K. film and television veterans Bob Benton and Hilary Strong have launched new U.K. and international production company The Anthology Group. The move is a reorganization of Benton’s Bob & Co. group, which he founded in 2010 and where Strong has served as CEO since September 2017. Both will continue in those roles in the new company, with former Lion Television founder Jeremy Mills serving as chairman.

The new company will be the parent of Anthology Studios, which comprises six film and television production companies, a theater production company, and an established licensing company. Bob Anthology Advisory will also come under the new banner, continuing to advise on investment opportunities.

Two of the production companies are newly formed scripted production companies Mischief Screen and Rockfleet. Mischief Screen has been created in partnership with Mischief Worldwide, the newly announced team-up of Mischief Theatre, Kenny Wax and Stage Presence, and will be headed by Strong.

Admissions up 1.5% between January-June 2018 but total box office takings down by 2%.

Admissions to UK cinemas hit 85.5m in the first half of 2018, up 1.5% on the same period in 2017, according to the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA).

However, box office receipts for the UK and Ireland fell by 2% to £665.8m between Jan 5 – July 5, 2018, compared to the same 26 play weeks in 2017, based on figures provided by comScore.

The six-month period of January to June ended just before the cinema-going slump of mid to early July caused by World Cup fever and warm summer weather.

Disney has the two-highest grossing films of the year...

Russell Brand and Paula Patton have joined Oscar-winner Michael Caine and The Crown star Matthew Goode in family adventure film Four Kids And It.

Shoot is under way in Ireland on the feature which is directed by Andy De Emmony (West Is West) and follows four children who are horrified to learn that their beach holiday is in fact a bonding trip with their potential future step siblings engineered by new couple Alice (Patton) and David (Goode). During an argument, the kids accidently find a Psammead, a magical, sandy, grumpy creature called It (voiced by Caine) who can grant them one wish a day.

Brand plays the local oddball villain Tristan bent on capturing the Psammead for his own gain. The children at the center of the family adventure are played by Ashley Aufderheide (Infinitely Polar Bear) and Teddie Malleson-Allen (Swallows And Amazons) alongside Billy Jenkins (The Crown) and newcomer...

To mark the release of Finding Your Feet on 25th June, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

When ‘Lady’ Sandra Abbott (Imelda Staunton) discovers that her husband of forty years is having an affair with her best friend, she seeks refuge with her estranged, older sister Bif (Celia Imrie). The two could not be more different – Sandra is a fish out of water next to her outspoken, serial dating, free-spirited sibling. But different is just what Sandra needs and she reluctantly lets Bif drag her along to her community dance class, where gradually she starts finding her feet… and romance. In this hilarious and heart-warming modern comedy, a colourful group of defiant and energetic ‘baby boomers’ show Sandra that retirement is only the beginning, and that divorce might just give her a whole new lease of life – and love.

Please note: This competition is open to...

Company is shifting its film model from traditional acquisitions to in-house productions.

Toronto-based Entertainment One has revealed its results for the 2018 financial year, which saw the company’s revenues from its family brands on the up, including flagship Peppa Pig, while its film business took a sizeable hit.

Overall profit for the group was up 116% to £78m before tax, while adjusted profit was up 11% to £144m. Revenues were at £1.45bn, slightly down on the previous year’s figure, while underlying Ebitda was up 11% to £177m.

Revenue from its family entertainment properties was £138.6m in 2018, up 56% on the previous period from £82.3m.

Shooting is underway on UK comedy Fisherman’s Friends, from the writing and producing team behind UK feature Finding Your Feet.

Shooting is underway on UK comedy Fisherman’s Friends, from the writing and producing team behind UK feature Finding Your Feet.

The film has an ensemble cast featuring Daniel Mays (Atonement), Tuppence Middleton (The Imitation Game), James Purefoy (Solomon Kane), David Hayman (Finding Your Feet), Dave Johns Sam Swainsbury (Thor: The Dark World), Maggie Steed (Paddington 2) and Noel Clarke (Brotherhood).

Chris Foggin (Kids In Love) is directing, his second feature after a trio of award-winning shorts including Friend...

 British actress Imelda Staunton doesn’t believe her character in the film Finding Your Feet is someone you’d want to be friends with. “She’s quite a snobbish sort of woman, and I love that she’s got this journey to make, so what I have to portray is this woman who you think, ‘Just lighten up,’ […]

Source: uInterview

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Kino Lorber documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami debuted to robust numbers over the weekend, grossing $60,442 in three locations, giving it an impressive $20,147 per theater average.

That’s the highest of the weekend and one of the best among all 2018 non-fiction openings. The same distributor also bowed Hitler’s Hollywood with an exclusive showing, taking in $10,177.

Sony Classics rode The Rider into a trio of runs starting Friday for a solid $45,268 start, averaging $15,089.

The weekend also saw a couple of semi-wide newcomers including Bleecker Street’s Sundance thriller Beirut with Rosamund Pike and Jon Hamm (which opened Wednesday), grossing an estimated $1.65M in the three-day span, while Fathom Events played The Met: Live in HD Luisa Miller in 900 locations, grossing $1.28M.

Amazon’s You Were Never Really Here expanded to 51 theaters in its second frame. The Joaquin Phoenix starrer grossed $324K Friday through Sunday. A24 also added locations for Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete,...

Updated at 11:45Am Pt with more numbers and analysis. Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, the first feature from the director since 2011, rocketed to a strong launch in its debut, grossing $129,911 in three theaters.

Searchlight’s Isle of Dogs added hundreds of runs for its third frame, taking in $4.6M to boost its cume to $12M. The weekend gross was enough to land it in the overall top 10 as of Sunday morning.

Released by Amazon Studios, You Were Never Really Here put up a hefty average of $43,304. The per-theater tally places it just behind the 2018 opening averages of Isle of Dogs ($60,011), Black Panther ($50,250) and The Death of Stalin ($46,201) for the year and well above the debut of her last feature, We Need To Talk About Kevin. That Tilda Swinton squirm-fest opened in a single location in 2011, grossing a healthy $24,587 en route to a $1.73M cume.

Ramsay and star Joaquin Phoenix,...

British actors tend to have more longevity than American ones, and Imelda Staunton is the perfect example. After a long and fruitful theater and television career in the UK, Staunton really broke out across the pond in Mike Leigh’s “Vera Drake,” which earned her an Oscar nomination. But it did more than that: According to Staunton, “Vera Drake: is the reason she got cast in what is now her most recognizable role: The universally loathed “Harry Potter” villainess in a pink dress, Dolores Umbridge.

“Dolores Umbridge is just part of a wonderful franchise, and I’m just one of the many characters who can hopefully frighten a couple of children on the street,” Staunton said in an interview with IndieWire. “It was wonderful to be part of that, but I wouldn’t have got that part without ‘Vera Drake,’ which absolutely upped my profile. ‘Vera Drake’ was the one that did it for me.

MaryAnn’s quick take… A tart, sharp, life-affirming dramedy, one that is slightly more edgy and far less predictable than it probably has any right to be. Celia Imrie and Imelda Staunton are magnificent. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m desperate for movies about women

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto) women’s participation in this film

(learn more about this)

When snooty, stick-up-her-butt Sandra discovers that her husband is cheating on her just as they were about to retire — something Sandra has been planning for the past 35 years — she escapes from her English countryside manor to London, to the cosy, cramped public-housing flat of the freespirited sister, Bif, she hasn’t seen in decades. Sandra seems pretty awful at first, just plain horrible and rude even as she busts her way into Bif’s life uninvited, and precisely as we’re about to grumble,...

Love After Love made a showing in its debut, outpacing other reporting openers in a weekend that was all about Isle of Dogs among the specialties.

Russell Harbaugh’s Tribeca ’17 debut Love After Love landed atop the weekend’s specialties when looking at per theater averages, though it was just in one New York location. The feature, starring Andie MacDowell and Chris O’Dowd, grossed $11,263, which gave it the second-highest PTA of the weekend as of Sunday morning, behind Searchlight’s Isle Of Dogs. IFC Films’ current star, however, continues to be comedy The Death of Stalin, which quadrupled its runs in its fourth weekend, grossing over $1.45M over the Easter/Passover weekend, averaging $3,004 (-60%). Last weekend, the feature grossed $1.06M in 141 locations. IFC said there was a 20% drop “or less” in holds with some screens “totally flat.”

Added the company Sunday: “We continue to be very happy with Stalin...

Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” (Fox Searchlight) showed crossover strength as it widened on its second weekend to more major markets. And “Death of Stalin” (IFC) continues strong on the arthouse circuit.

Both added a much-needed boost to the anemic specialty market. Only three holdovers after their third week grossed over $50,000, including the final dates for Oscar-winner “The Shape of Water.” This marks the lowest numbers in years, and exposes the feast-or-famine nature of the current specialized box office.

The widest new opener, Roadside Attraction’s British senior romance “Finding Your Feet,” drew a mixed response in multiple initial cities.

Of the three new U.S. indies arriving with past festival branding, only Gemini (Neon) has a chance at real theatrical legs; “Love After Love” (IFC) is already streaming, and “Outside In” (The Orchard) hits Svod on April 3 before Netflix availability on June 1. The theatrical business is shifting: only...