Sam Taylor-Johnson’s upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” may have access to the late singer’s globally recognized back catalog, but another legendary musician is lending his talents to the project.
Nick Cave, alongside his long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, is scoring the StudioCanal and Focus Features film, which sees “Industry” star Marisa Abela play Winehouse. Abela is joined by a cast including Jack O’Connell (playing Blake Fielder-Civil), Eddie Marsan (Mitch Winehouse), Juliet Cowan (Janis Winehouse) and Lesley Manville.
Variety has been given an exclusive photo taken of Cave, Ellis and Taylor-Johnson recording in the studio earlier this week.
While Winehouse’s own songs, such as “Back to Black” (which featured in the recent trailer), “Valerie” and “Rehab” will undoubtedly take center stage in the film (with most recorded and performed by Abela), Cave and Ellis are understood to have composed about 20-30 minutes of music.
“Nick and Warren...
Nick Cave, alongside his long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, is scoring the StudioCanal and Focus Features film, which sees “Industry” star Marisa Abela play Winehouse. Abela is joined by a cast including Jack O’Connell (playing Blake Fielder-Civil), Eddie Marsan (Mitch Winehouse), Juliet Cowan (Janis Winehouse) and Lesley Manville.
Variety has been given an exclusive photo taken of Cave, Ellis and Taylor-Johnson recording in the studio earlier this week.
While Winehouse’s own songs, such as “Back to Black” (which featured in the recent trailer), “Valerie” and “Rehab” will undoubtedly take center stage in the film (with most recorded and performed by Abela), Cave and Ellis are understood to have composed about 20-30 minutes of music.
“Nick and Warren...
- 2/7/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
I don’t know of many Christmas horror adaptations. Sure, I could probably look at the history of Krampus and piece something together but other than that I’m hard pressed so let me know in the comments what I could cover next holiday season. Winter in general has all sorts of movies and stories that they are based off of. The very first episode of this show was all about The Thing and its source material Who Goes There and now in the middle of winter, at least in Colorado, I think it’s time to look at one of the better vampire properties of the 2000s and a great limited series comic. 30 Days of Night was originally pitched as a movie but when it was turned down, the comic came out and put the author’s name on the map. As is the nature of Hollywood, it...
- 1/22/2024
- by Andrew Hatfield
- JoBlo.com
Nick Cave’s 2009 novel The Death of Bunny Munro is being adapted for a limited television series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Matt Smith, best known for his roles in House of the Dragon, Doctor Who, and The Crown, is set to star in and produce the series.
“Finally, someone with the courage to take on this unholy tale,” Cave said in a statement. “I am thrilled that Sky and Clerkenwell Films are bringing Bunny to life, in all his flawed glory, and I can think of nobody better than Matt Smith to play him.”
The TV series will follow Smith as Munro, a traveling beauty product salesman and sex addict in Brighton, England. Faced with the aftermath of his wife’s unexpected suicide, Munro sets out on the road with his son — who idolizes him. Their trip holds severe roadblocks, as Munro faces his mortality and Munro Junior reckons...
“Finally, someone with the courage to take on this unholy tale,” Cave said in a statement. “I am thrilled that Sky and Clerkenwell Films are bringing Bunny to life, in all his flawed glory, and I can think of nobody better than Matt Smith to play him.”
The TV series will follow Smith as Munro, a traveling beauty product salesman and sex addict in Brighton, England. Faced with the aftermath of his wife’s unexpected suicide, Munro sets out on the road with his son — who idolizes him. Their trip holds severe roadblocks, as Munro faces his mortality and Munro Junior reckons...
- 11/28/2023
- by Emma Carey
- Consequence - Music
Another one of those titles that felt more than ready for a 2023 drop, that could be plopped a bit anywhere next year — we guess it depends on how they want to push the Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway two-hander. After being a cinematographer dating back to The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) and then films such as The Proposition (2005) and At Eternity’s Gate (2018), Benoît Delhomme switched hats for this debut film. Mother’s Instinct based on Barbara Abel’s novel “Derrière la Haine” and went into production in June of last year in NYC. Josh Charles and Anders Danielsen Lie also star.…...
- 11/14/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Kevin Turen, a producer on “Euphoria,” “The Idol,” and Ti West’s “X” trilogy,” died over the weekend. He was 44. A cause of death is not yet known.
Jay Penske, CEO of Variety‘s parent company Penske Media Corporation, was a close friend of Turen’s and released a statement on his passing.
“Despite his many achievements in Hollywood, Kevin’s greatest passion was his family and friends,” Penske said. “He was so proud of his children. He and his wife, Evelina, were resolved that their children grow up with great values and ensured they make a difference in the broader world. Our collective heart breaks for them, and we all feel such a profound sense of loss. We will miss Kevin so much, and this town lost one of its brightest rising stars today.”
Turen was known for working alongside Sam Levinson and Ashley Levinson, having co-founded Little Lamb Productions...
Jay Penske, CEO of Variety‘s parent company Penske Media Corporation, was a close friend of Turen’s and released a statement on his passing.
“Despite his many achievements in Hollywood, Kevin’s greatest passion was his family and friends,” Penske said. “He was so proud of his children. He and his wife, Evelina, were resolved that their children grow up with great values and ensured they make a difference in the broader world. Our collective heart breaks for them, and we all feel such a profound sense of loss. We will miss Kevin so much, and this town lost one of its brightest rising stars today.”
Turen was known for working alongside Sam Levinson and Ashley Levinson, having co-founded Little Lamb Productions...
- 11/13/2023
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
Kevin Turen, a producer on HBO’s Euphoria and The Idol and Ti West’s X, Pearl and MaXXXine, has died. He was 44.
A spokesperson for Penske Media Corp., the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter, confirmed Turen’s death. No other details were immediately available.
“Despite his many achievements in Hollywood, Kevin’s greatest passion was his family and friends,” Jay Penske, CEO of Pmc and a close friend of Turen, said in a statement. “He was so proud of his children. He and his wife, Evelina, were resolved that their children grow up with great values and ensured they make a difference in the broader world. Our collective heart breaks for them, and we all feel such a profound sense of loss. We will miss Kevin so much, and this town lost one of its brightest rising stars.”
Turen was closely associated with Sam and Ashley Levinson. The trio co-founded Little Lamb Productions,...
A spokesperson for Penske Media Corp., the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter, confirmed Turen’s death. No other details were immediately available.
“Despite his many achievements in Hollywood, Kevin’s greatest passion was his family and friends,” Jay Penske, CEO of Pmc and a close friend of Turen, said in a statement. “He was so proud of his children. He and his wife, Evelina, were resolved that their children grow up with great values and ensured they make a difference in the broader world. Our collective heart breaks for them, and we all feel such a profound sense of loss. We will miss Kevin so much, and this town lost one of its brightest rising stars.”
Turen was closely associated with Sam and Ashley Levinson. The trio co-founded Little Lamb Productions,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Abid Rahman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lesli Linka Glatter has been elected to a second term as president of the Directors Guild of America.
The veteran helmer known for her work on “Homeland,” “Mad Men” and numerous other TV series, was re-elected during the DGA’s biennial national convention held Saturday at the DGA Theatre in Los Angeles. The guild reported that 164 delegates representing about 19,500 members took part in the convention to authorize a new slate of officers and members of the national board of directors.
“I am honored to once again accept the responsibility of serving as President of the Directors Guild of America,” Glatter said in a statement. “At this critical time for our industry, I am more committed than ever to our Guild’s mission of protecting the creative and economic rights of our members and working collaboratively both internally and externally on the issues affecting us all. As we embark on the next chapter of our Guild,...
The veteran helmer known for her work on “Homeland,” “Mad Men” and numerous other TV series, was re-elected during the DGA’s biennial national convention held Saturday at the DGA Theatre in Los Angeles. The guild reported that 164 delegates representing about 19,500 members took part in the convention to authorize a new slate of officers and members of the national board of directors.
“I am honored to once again accept the responsibility of serving as President of the Directors Guild of America,” Glatter said in a statement. “At this critical time for our industry, I am more committed than ever to our Guild’s mission of protecting the creative and economic rights of our members and working collaboratively both internally and externally on the issues affecting us all. As we embark on the next chapter of our Guild,...
- 8/6/2023
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
Plot: Inspired by an actual U.S. Military program, Special Ops: Lioness follows the life of Joe (Saldaña) while she attempts to balance her personal and professional life as the tip of the CIA’s spear in the war on terror. The Lioness Program, overseen by Kaitlyn Meade (Kidman) and Donald Westfield (Kelly), enlists an aggressive Marine Raider named Cruz (De Oliveira) to operate undercover alongside Joe among the power brokers of State terrorism in the CIA’s efforts to thwart the next 9/11.
Review: With Yellowstone wrapping at the end of the current season, Taylor Sheridan’s oeuvre of series on Paramount Network and Paramount+ continues to grow. Unlike Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, and the various Yellowstone spin-offs, Sheridan’s latest series leaves the wild world of small-town politics and crime for a larger scale. Focused instead on covert operations conducted by the CIA, Taylor Sheridan’s Special Ops: Lioness...
Review: With Yellowstone wrapping at the end of the current season, Taylor Sheridan’s oeuvre of series on Paramount Network and Paramount+ continues to grow. Unlike Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, and the various Yellowstone spin-offs, Sheridan’s latest series leaves the wild world of small-town politics and crime for a larger scale. Focused instead on covert operations conducted by the CIA, Taylor Sheridan’s Special Ops: Lioness...
- 7/21/2023
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
Now that Taylor Sheridan has won the TV Western revival with “Yellowstone” and its universe of prequels, he’s pivoting to the Middle East. “Special Ops: Lioness” is a female-driven contemporary espionage thriller where the white hats are CIA special forces, and the black hats are Middle Eastern terrorists. Helicopters and heavy artillery have replaced horses and shotguns.
Setting aside Sheridan’s recent inexplicable Emmy nomination snubs, the multi-hyphenate can tell an engrossing story that entwines flat-out action and interpersonal drama. Here, as showrunner and sole writer, he’s created an eight-part series that recalls movies like Kathryn Bigelow’s breathless yet intimate “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Hurt Locker.” We’ve got the fog of war, and the way that warps reality when the warrior returns stateside.
At its center is the athletic beauty Zoe Saldaña. She plays Joe, a kickass CIA special ops team leader accustomed to, if not entirely comfortable with,...
Setting aside Sheridan’s recent inexplicable Emmy nomination snubs, the multi-hyphenate can tell an engrossing story that entwines flat-out action and interpersonal drama. Here, as showrunner and sole writer, he’s created an eight-part series that recalls movies like Kathryn Bigelow’s breathless yet intimate “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Hurt Locker.” We’ve got the fog of war, and the way that warps reality when the warrior returns stateside.
At its center is the athletic beauty Zoe Saldaña. She plays Joe, a kickass CIA special ops team leader accustomed to, if not entirely comfortable with,...
- 7/21/2023
- by Thelma Adams
- The Wrap
According to a recent report from the Playlist, author Cormac McCarthy is currently in the midst of adapting his acclaimed and notoriously bleak 1985 novel "Blood Meridian; or, the Evening Redness in the West" into a screenplay for director John Hillcoat. Hillcoat was announced as the director of a "Blood Meridian" feature film in late April. The filmmaker also directed the 2009 McCarthy film adaptation "The Road" as well as the nihilistic Western "The Proposition" and the 2016 heist movie "Triple 9." McCarthy will not only write "Blood Meridian," but will serve as executive producer alongside his son, John Francis McCarthy.
McCarthy himself, the author of the celebrated novels "Suttree," "All the Pretty Horses," and "No Country for Old Men," has written several screenplays in his career, although only one -- the script for Ridley Scott's "The Counselor" -- has been produced to date. McCarthy wrote several unpublished screenplays for movies called "Cities of the Plain,...
McCarthy himself, the author of the celebrated novels "Suttree," "All the Pretty Horses," and "No Country for Old Men," has written several screenplays in his career, although only one -- the script for Ridley Scott's "The Counselor" -- has been produced to date. McCarthy wrote several unpublished screenplays for movies called "Cities of the Plain,...
- 6/2/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
At the turn of the millennium, Gladiator revived Ridley Scott_. But despite constant rumours, he’s never returned to the world of his greatest hit… until now.
Here’s what you need to know.
1) It’s a Ridley Scott joint
Scott might have ceded the director’s chair for Blade Runner 2049 to Denis Villeneuve, but rather than delegate the Gladiator sequel, he’s kept it for himself. Production is set to get underway when he finishes his quiet, intimate drama (read: massive battle-tastic historical epic) Napoleon, which is currently in post-production.
It’s funny to see him taking on back-to-back sword-swinging behemoths – back in the early 2000s, Scott nearly turned down the offer from super-producer Dino De Laurentiis to direct Hannibal, because he thought it was about the Carthaginian general and his elephants, and couldn’t face climbing another Gladiator-sized mountain straight away.Apparently he has even more energy today,...
Here’s what you need to know.
1) It’s a Ridley Scott joint
Scott might have ceded the director’s chair for Blade Runner 2049 to Denis Villeneuve, but rather than delegate the Gladiator sequel, he’s kept it for himself. Production is set to get underway when he finishes his quiet, intimate drama (read: massive battle-tastic historical epic) Napoleon, which is currently in post-production.
It’s funny to see him taking on back-to-back sword-swinging behemoths – back in the early 2000s, Scott nearly turned down the offer from super-producer Dino De Laurentiis to direct Hannibal, because he thought it was about the Carthaginian general and his elephants, and couldn’t face climbing another Gladiator-sized mountain straight away.Apparently he has even more energy today,...
- 5/9/2023
- by Owen Williams
- Empire - Movies
This post contains spoilers for "The Road."
Before the whole concept of TV zombies really took off, the cinematic end of the world looked a lot grayer and more human, courtesy of "The Road." For anyone familiar with author Cormac McCarthy's work, it should come as no surprise that the film adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel wasn't exactly the feel-good movie of 2009. Boosted by its selection for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club in 2007, "The Road" was already a literary sensation before director John Hillcoat set out to adapt it as the first follow-up to his critically acclaimed Australian Western "The Proposition."
The year after "The Road" hit theaters, viewers embraced a similar post-apocalyptic scenario on the small screen with AMC's "The Walking Dead." McCarthy wouldn't publish another book until late 2022, by which time there was a new zombie trailer in town—for HBO's "The Last of Us.
Before the whole concept of TV zombies really took off, the cinematic end of the world looked a lot grayer and more human, courtesy of "The Road." For anyone familiar with author Cormac McCarthy's work, it should come as no surprise that the film adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel wasn't exactly the feel-good movie of 2009. Boosted by its selection for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club in 2007, "The Road" was already a literary sensation before director John Hillcoat set out to adapt it as the first follow-up to his critically acclaimed Australian Western "The Proposition."
The year after "The Road" hit theaters, viewers embraced a similar post-apocalyptic scenario on the small screen with AMC's "The Walking Dead." McCarthy wouldn't publish another book until late 2022, by which time there was a new zombie trailer in town—for HBO's "The Last of Us.
- 2/26/2023
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Plot: After the alleged suicide of her priest brother, Grace travels to the remote Scottish convent where he fell to his death. Distrusting the Church’s account, she uncovers murder, sacrilege, and a disturbing truth about herself.
Review: Hailing from Scotland, Consecration provides a look at grief and identity. Jena Malone stars as Grace, a woman who’s struggling through life, even more so now that her brother has supposedly killed himself. She journeys to Scotland in order to take care of his affairs. But there’s clearly more to his death than it appears and sends Grace on a journey of discovery. What she finds may be surprising to her, but if you’ve seen any sort of horror movie, will be old hat to you. Because unfortunately, while Consecration looks good, there’s not much more beneath the surface.
I really love Jena Malone and could watch her in just about anything.
Review: Hailing from Scotland, Consecration provides a look at grief and identity. Jena Malone stars as Grace, a woman who’s struggling through life, even more so now that her brother has supposedly killed himself. She journeys to Scotland in order to take care of his affairs. But there’s clearly more to his death than it appears and sends Grace on a journey of discovery. What she finds may be surprising to her, but if you’ve seen any sort of horror movie, will be old hat to you. Because unfortunately, while Consecration looks good, there’s not much more beneath the surface.
I really love Jena Malone and could watch her in just about anything.
- 2/7/2023
- by Tyler Nichols
- JoBlo.com
Sam Humphrey and Nick Boshier in ‘Jeremy The Dud’.
Screen Australia has announced the final round of story development funding for the 2018-19 financial year, backing five television series, six online projects and six feature films with $675,000.
The project include Musquito, an adventure film about an Aboriginal warrior from director Dylan River; Jane Campion’s revenge western Power of the Dog; Princess Pictures’ Jeremy The Dud, a TV comedy exploring the moments of challenge and levity when living with a disability; and Afro Sistahs, an online series about a group of twenty-somethings who connect at an Afro hair salon.
It has now been over 12 months since Screen Australia introduced new development funding guidelines, that are platform neutral and have broadened eligibility criteria. The new funds include Generate, for lower budget projects with an emphasis on new and emerging talent, or experienced talent wanting to take creative risks, and the Premium...
Screen Australia has announced the final round of story development funding for the 2018-19 financial year, backing five television series, six online projects and six feature films with $675,000.
The project include Musquito, an adventure film about an Aboriginal warrior from director Dylan River; Jane Campion’s revenge western Power of the Dog; Princess Pictures’ Jeremy The Dud, a TV comedy exploring the moments of challenge and levity when living with a disability; and Afro Sistahs, an online series about a group of twenty-somethings who connect at an Afro hair salon.
It has now been over 12 months since Screen Australia introduced new development funding guidelines, that are platform neutral and have broadened eligibility criteria. The new funds include Generate, for lower budget projects with an emphasis on new and emerging talent, or experienced talent wanting to take creative risks, and the Premium...
- 8/6/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
John Hillcoat, director of dark, disturbing movies like The Proposition and The Road, is teaming with master of neon-sleaze Nicolas Winding Refn for a Witchfinder General remake. Based on the 1968 Vincent Price movie of the same name, Witchfinder General is a historical horror film about real-life figure Matthew Hopkins, and the terrible, torturous deeds he performed in the name […]
The post ‘Witchfinder General’ Remake Coming From John Hillcoat and Nicolas Winding Refn appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Witchfinder General’ Remake Coming From John Hillcoat and Nicolas Winding Refn appeared first on /Film.
- 5/21/2019
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
After Nicolas Winding Refn came on board a few years ago to a remake of the 1968 historical horror classic Witchfinder General, originally directed by Michael Reeves, a new director has been found. Deadline reports John Hillcoat will now be helming the project and Winding Refn will be producing.
The original movie starred Vincent Price in the lead role of Matthew Hopkins who is a witch hunter with some intense violence and scenes of torture unspooling, set during the English Civil War. The project will be developed through Hillcoat’s production company Blank Films, and with additional help from Bynwr.com and Sunrise Films.
Ahead of a shoot beginning later this year, Hillcoat says, “I am excited to work with fellow filmmaker Nic Refn, a maverick auteur and who, together with Rupert Preston, have been fully committed to independent cinema over the years. I’m drawn to the dynamic departures behind this remake.
The original movie starred Vincent Price in the lead role of Matthew Hopkins who is a witch hunter with some intense violence and scenes of torture unspooling, set during the English Civil War. The project will be developed through Hillcoat’s production company Blank Films, and with additional help from Bynwr.com and Sunrise Films.
Ahead of a shoot beginning later this year, Hillcoat says, “I am excited to work with fellow filmmaker Nic Refn, a maverick auteur and who, together with Rupert Preston, have been fully committed to independent cinema over the years. I’m drawn to the dynamic departures behind this remake.
- 5/20/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Food Bank For New York City, the city’s leading hunger-relief organization working to end food poverty throughout the five boroughs, will host its annual Can Do Awards Dinner on Tuesday, April 16th, at Cipriani Wall Street.
This year’s event will honor Chef José Andrés; David Burtka & Neil Patrick Harris; Hildy Simmons; and Stop & Shop for their commitment to hunger relief in New York City. The evening is instrumental in raising funds and awareness to provide support for the 1.5 million New Yorkers who rely on the charity’s vital programs and services.
Sponsored by Bank of America and chaired by Lee Brian Schrager and Jodisue Rosen & Scott R. Feldman, the evening event will feature a live performance and auction.
“Our honorees this year exemplify what it means to create lasting, positive change in our city and the world. Each has created a powerful legacy that any New Yorker or NYC brand could replicate.
This year’s event will honor Chef José Andrés; David Burtka & Neil Patrick Harris; Hildy Simmons; and Stop & Shop for their commitment to hunger relief in New York City. The evening is instrumental in raising funds and awareness to provide support for the 1.5 million New Yorkers who rely on the charity’s vital programs and services.
Sponsored by Bank of America and chaired by Lee Brian Schrager and Jodisue Rosen & Scott R. Feldman, the evening event will feature a live performance and auction.
“Our honorees this year exemplify what it means to create lasting, positive change in our city and the world. Each has created a powerful legacy that any New Yorker or NYC brand could replicate.
- 3/28/2019
- Look to the Stars
A star-studded cast pulls off one of the biggest bank heists in history when King of Thieves arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital), DVD, and Digital March 26 from Lionsgate. This film is currently available On Demand. Based on the unbelievable true story of the Hatton Garden Heist, this hilarious and thrilling crime caper stars two-time Oscar® winner Michael Caine, Oscar® winner Jim Broadbent, two-time Oscar® nominee Tom Courtenay, Charlie Cox, with Golden Globe® nominee Michael Gambon, and Ray Winstone. From director James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) and from producer Michelle Wright (Baby Driver), the King of Thieves Blu-ray and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $21.99 and $19.98, respectively.
Check out this trailer:
A famous thief in his younger years, widower Brian Reader, 77 years of age, pulls together a band of misfit criminals to plot an unprecedented burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. The thieves, all in...
Check out this trailer:
A famous thief in his younger years, widower Brian Reader, 77 years of age, pulls together a band of misfit criminals to plot an unprecedented burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. The thieves, all in...
- 3/6/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Exclusive: Producer Al Uzielli has optioned Brian McDonald’s memoir Last Call at Elaine‘s which Stigmata and The Proposition screenwriter Rick Ramage will adapt for television. McDonald was a bartender of 11 years at the former famed New York restaurant and had a prime first person Pov of the establishment’s crossroads of show business personalities and notable literary figures which included Woody Allen, Kurt Vonnegut Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, George Plimpton, Kirk Douglas, Michael Caine, Jackie Onassis, and Mick Jagger to name a few.
The project in particular is a personal one for Uzielli whose father was in the Manhattan restaurant business during the 1980s and a close associate of late restauranter Elaine Kaufman. Uzielli had many meals and celebrations at Elaine’s; its focus being an Italian menu. If you were a plebeian, it was a challenge to get a table at the venue. After Kaufman...
The project in particular is a personal one for Uzielli whose father was in the Manhattan restaurant business during the 1980s and a close associate of late restauranter Elaine Kaufman. Uzielli had many meals and celebrations at Elaine’s; its focus being an Italian menu. If you were a plebeian, it was a challenge to get a table at the venue. After Kaufman...
- 3/4/2019
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Andy Gruenberg, a longtime film-distribution executive who most recently oversaw theatrical distribution for Netflix, died suddenly on January 18. He was 68.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 10, 1950, Gruenberg spent his childhood in Milwaukee and his working life in the film industry; his tenure included stints at Warner Bros., Columbia, MGM, and Miramax, where he helped bring everything from “Ghostbusters” and “The Karate Kid” to “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Life Is Beautiful” to theaters. Gruenberg was Miramax’s President of Distribution when “Shakespeare in Love” won Best Picture and Executive Vice President of Distribution at MGM when “Leaving Las Vegas” won Nicolas Cage the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Other titles whose theatrical releases he oversaw include “Get Shorty,” “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “The Proposition,” and “Bernie.”
“I loved working with Andy and enjoyed our friendship over many years,” said Ted Mundorff, who co-founded the Film Arcade with him in 2011. “Andy was...
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 10, 1950, Gruenberg spent his childhood in Milwaukee and his working life in the film industry; his tenure included stints at Warner Bros., Columbia, MGM, and Miramax, where he helped bring everything from “Ghostbusters” and “The Karate Kid” to “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Life Is Beautiful” to theaters. Gruenberg was Miramax’s President of Distribution when “Shakespeare in Love” won Best Picture and Executive Vice President of Distribution at MGM when “Leaving Las Vegas” won Nicolas Cage the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Other titles whose theatrical releases he oversaw include “Get Shorty,” “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “The Proposition,” and “Bernie.”
“I loved working with Andy and enjoyed our friendship over many years,” said Ted Mundorff, who co-founded the Film Arcade with him in 2011. “Andy was...
- 1/20/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Andy Gruenberg, who had a long career in studio film distribution and most recently was the overseer of theatrical distribution for Netflix, died yesterday at age 68, according to his family.
Gruenberg started his career in distribution at Warner Bros., moving to Columbia Pictures as senior VP and assistant sales manager, working on such films as Ghostbusters, Karate Kid and Silverado.
He then moved to MGM, serving as executive VP from 1991 to 1998. During that time, he managed the releases of Get Shorty, Tomorrow Never Dies, Leaving Las Vegas and Birdcage.
He became president of distribution at Miramax in 1998, where he oversaw the distribution of the Oscar- winning and box office hits Shakespeare in Love and Life is Beautiful.
He later joined First Look Studios as executive VP of distribution in 2005. There, he released The Proposition and Paris, Je t’aime, and Millennium Entertainment, where he successfully executed the release of Richard Linklater’s indie sensation,...
Gruenberg started his career in distribution at Warner Bros., moving to Columbia Pictures as senior VP and assistant sales manager, working on such films as Ghostbusters, Karate Kid and Silverado.
He then moved to MGM, serving as executive VP from 1991 to 1998. During that time, he managed the releases of Get Shorty, Tomorrow Never Dies, Leaving Las Vegas and Birdcage.
He became president of distribution at Miramax in 1998, where he oversaw the distribution of the Oscar- winning and box office hits Shakespeare in Love and Life is Beautiful.
He later joined First Look Studios as executive VP of distribution in 2005. There, he released The Proposition and Paris, Je t’aime, and Millennium Entertainment, where he successfully executed the release of Richard Linklater’s indie sensation,...
- 1/20/2019
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Marking the first collaboration between the Tribeca Film Festival and a health organization, a new John Hillcoat- directed short Corazon, fully financed by the Montefiore Health System , has its World Premiere Friday at the fest where it is a finalist in the Tribeca X section which is a juried award for storytelling supported by a brand recognizing the intersection of advertising and entertainment. Attracting top talent like director Hillcoat, Oscar nominated actor Demian Bechir and Blade Runner 2049’s Ana de Armas, cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma) , and Oscar winning composer Atticus Ross (The Social Network), the film which promotes organ donation as part of its plot hits right in the heart of April’s official National Donate Life Month and the Tribeca fest which opens tonight and runs through April 29th.
Based on a real life doctor patient story this was the one unanimously chosen by the production...
Based on a real life doctor patient story this was the one unanimously chosen by the production...
- 4/19/2018
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
At the very end of Sweet Country, director Warwick Thornton’s stunning, somber outback western, an emotionally devastated cattle rancher played by the great Sam Neill offers two questions to the clouds: “What chance have we got? What chance has this country got?” It’s the sorrowful capper to a powerfully upsetting film. And it’s entirely fitting. Sweet Country is many things — a stark western, a gripping chase story, a tale of slavery and self-defense, and a searing drama in which the stakes are horrifically high.
Set in Australia’s Northern Territory in the late 1920s, the film is anchored by Hamilton Morris, a non-professional actor who gives a simple, tremendously engaging performance. Morris plays Sam Kelly, an aboriginal stockman who works for Neill’s Fred Smith. The latter is a vocal Christian and one of the few onscreen whites who does not openly discriminate. Thus he is the...
Set in Australia’s Northern Territory in the late 1920s, the film is anchored by Hamilton Morris, a non-professional actor who gives a simple, tremendously engaging performance. Morris plays Sam Kelly, an aboriginal stockman who works for Neill’s Fred Smith. The latter is a vocal Christian and one of the few onscreen whites who does not openly discriminate. Thus he is the...
- 1/20/2018
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
Louisa Mellor Dec 29, 2017
Spoilers ahead in our review of Black Mirror season 4’s brilliantly nasty Nordic noir Crocodile, starring Andrea Riseborough…
This review contains spoilers.
See related The End Of The F***ing World: exclusive clip The End of The F***ing World: first clips arrive New on Netflix UK: what's added in January 2018?
4.3 Crocodile
Stay extremely quiet during an episode of Black Mirror and it’s sometimes possible to hear the exact moment that writer Charlie Brooker, hunched over his laptop, fingers frenziedly attacking the keys, throws back his head and shouts Ha!
The Ha! moment of relish doesn’t come when his brain arrives at a particularly horrible turn of events—a woman smothering a baby, say. It comes after that, when he lands upon an irresistible dollop of agonising irony to drop on top. A woman, say, who gives speeches about building a better tomorrow, smothering a...
Spoilers ahead in our review of Black Mirror season 4’s brilliantly nasty Nordic noir Crocodile, starring Andrea Riseborough…
This review contains spoilers.
See related The End Of The F***ing World: exclusive clip The End of The F***ing World: first clips arrive New on Netflix UK: what's added in January 2018?
4.3 Crocodile
Stay extremely quiet during an episode of Black Mirror and it’s sometimes possible to hear the exact moment that writer Charlie Brooker, hunched over his laptop, fingers frenziedly attacking the keys, throws back his head and shouts Ha!
The Ha! moment of relish doesn’t come when his brain arrives at a particularly horrible turn of events—a woman smothering a baby, say. It comes after that, when he lands upon an irresistible dollop of agonising irony to drop on top. A woman, say, who gives speeches about building a better tomorrow, smothering a...
- 12/21/2017
- Den of Geek
With each season of “Black Mirror,” Charlie Brooker‘s anthology show has only grown more ambitious, attracting bigger names and bigger budgets. Now, with a new home on Netflix, the series which takes a skewed look at the future can attempt even greater feats of storytelling.
The streaming service continues with their episode-by-episode trailer for season 4, with a new look landing for “Crocodile.” The episode comes from director John Hillcoat (“The Proposition,” “The Road,” “Triple 9“), stars Andrea Riseborough, Andrew Gower, and Kiran Sonia Sawar, and as for the story, it involves delving into memories to find out the truth behind an accident.
Continue reading ‘Black Mirror’ Season 4 Trailer: John Hillcoat Takes A Bite With ‘Crocodile’ at The Playlist.
The streaming service continues with their episode-by-episode trailer for season 4, with a new look landing for “Crocodile.” The episode comes from director John Hillcoat (“The Proposition,” “The Road,” “Triple 9“), stars Andrea Riseborough, Andrew Gower, and Kiran Sonia Sawar, and as for the story, it involves delving into memories to find out the truth behind an accident.
Continue reading ‘Black Mirror’ Season 4 Trailer: John Hillcoat Takes A Bite With ‘Crocodile’ at The Playlist.
- 11/27/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
In an age where special effects reign supreme, there’s one aspect of the filmmaking process that hasn’t gone through a radical transformation — music. Some of the best movies in any given year would be sorely lacking without their memorable scores, and this has remained true well into the first two decades of the 21st century.
Read More‘Logan’ Composer Marco Beltrami on R-Rated Wolverine Minimalist Score
Film composers play an integral part in the filmmaking process, and there are a handful whose bodies of work stand out in recent years. Of course, this list of 12 major composers only begins to scratch the surface of the talent out there. There are plenty of other worthy contributors to the medium who didn’t make the cut — Danny Elfman and John Williams, we’re looking at you — but rest assured that this top dozen represent the cream of the crop.
Hans Zimmer...
Read More‘Logan’ Composer Marco Beltrami on R-Rated Wolverine Minimalist Score
Film composers play an integral part in the filmmaking process, and there are a handful whose bodies of work stand out in recent years. Of course, this list of 12 major composers only begins to scratch the surface of the talent out there. There are plenty of other worthy contributors to the medium who didn’t make the cut — Danny Elfman and John Williams, we’re looking at you — but rest assured that this top dozen represent the cream of the crop.
Hans Zimmer...
- 8/7/2017
- by Gabrielle Kiss
- Indiewire
Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out….but mostly movies.
This Past Weekend:
It was absolutely no surprise that Hugh Jackman’s last Wolverine movie Logan would top the box office, but it actually ended up doing even better than my prediction when actual numbers came in, grossing $88.3 million over the weekend. That makes it the fourth highest X-Movie opening (including Deadpool) but also the biggest R-rated opening for March, defeating 300’s once-impressive $70 million opening. It’s also the fourth highest R-rated opening of all time after Deadpool, The Matrix Reloaded and American Sniper.
The bigger surprise was how well Jordan Peele’s thriller Get Out held up in its second weekend, not only because it was going up against Logan, but also because high-profile horror films tend...
This Past Weekend:
It was absolutely no surprise that Hugh Jackman’s last Wolverine movie Logan would top the box office, but it actually ended up doing even better than my prediction when actual numbers came in, grossing $88.3 million over the weekend. That makes it the fourth highest X-Movie opening (including Deadpool) but also the biggest R-rated opening for March, defeating 300’s once-impressive $70 million opening. It’s also the fourth highest R-rated opening of all time after Deadpool, The Matrix Reloaded and American Sniper.
The bigger surprise was how well Jordan Peele’s thriller Get Out held up in its second weekend, not only because it was going up against Logan, but also because high-profile horror films tend...
- 3/8/2017
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Kirsten Howard Dec 6, 2017
Black Mirror season 4 will land on Netflix on Friday the 29th of December. Watch the trailer for 'U.S.S. Callister' and more here...
It's official: Black Mirror will be heading back to Netflix on Friday the 29th of December for its fourth season, and ahead of the show's no doubt grim-but-triumphant return, trailers are being released teasing each episode.
See related James Cameron talks about his Battle Angel adaptation
Here's the sixth and final episode trailer for "U.S.S. Callister"...
Here's one for 'Hang The DJ'...
And another new one for 'Metalhead'...
Then there's a creepy trailer for Black Museum, a multi-story episode including plenty of references to previous instalments...
We got a poster for that one, too...
Next, here's a peek at the unsettling season 4 episode directed by Jodie Foster, Arkangel...
John Hillcoat (Triple 9, Lawless) directed the next episode, Crocodile. Here's the trailer for that.
Black Mirror season 4 will land on Netflix on Friday the 29th of December. Watch the trailer for 'U.S.S. Callister' and more here...
It's official: Black Mirror will be heading back to Netflix on Friday the 29th of December for its fourth season, and ahead of the show's no doubt grim-but-triumphant return, trailers are being released teasing each episode.
See related James Cameron talks about his Battle Angel adaptation
Here's the sixth and final episode trailer for "U.S.S. Callister"...
Here's one for 'Hang The DJ'...
And another new one for 'Metalhead'...
Then there's a creepy trailer for Black Museum, a multi-story episode including plenty of references to previous instalments...
We got a poster for that one, too...
Next, here's a peek at the unsettling season 4 episode directed by Jodie Foster, Arkangel...
John Hillcoat (Triple 9, Lawless) directed the next episode, Crocodile. Here's the trailer for that.
- 3/8/2017
- Den of Geek
Ever since his breakout role in L.A. Confidential twenty years ago, Australian actor Guy Pearce has been able to create prestige for himself with memorable roles in Christopher Nolan’s early film Memento and others. (For instance, he appeared in two recent Best Picture winners in The Hurt Locker and The King’s Speech). More importantly, he's been able to star in a series of fantastic genre films from The Proposition and Animal Kingdom to the Guillermo del Toro-produced Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Ridley Scott's Prometheus.
Brimstone, from Dutch filmmaker Martin Koolhoven (Winter in Watime), puts Pearce back in familiar Western territory as The Proposition, playing a very different character, an ultra-pious Dutch preacher known only as “The Reverend” who spends the movie chasing after a young woman, played by Dakota Fanning. There’s a lot more to the story, which is told...
Brimstone, from Dutch filmmaker Martin Koolhoven (Winter in Watime), puts Pearce back in familiar Western territory as The Proposition, playing a very different character, an ultra-pious Dutch preacher known only as “The Reverend” who spends the movie chasing after a young woman, played by Dakota Fanning. There’s a lot more to the story, which is told...
- 3/7/2017
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
According to The Tracking Board, Netflix has tapped John Hillcoat to direct an episode of the upcoming fourth season of Charlie Brooker's tech-horror series Black Mirror. Hillcoat, who directed The Proposition, The Road, Lawless, and Triple 9, is the latest high-profile director to get behind the camera for this series, following people like Joe Wright (Pan) and Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) last season.
Hillcoat's episode will be titled "Crocodile," and although no one knows what it will be about yet, word is that it'll center on two female characters and actress Andrea Riseborough (Birdman, Oblivion) is mulling an offer for one of those roles.
In any case, Hillcoat can handle big action set-pieces and totally bleak storytelling with the best of them, so it seems like he'd be a great fit for this great-but-often-extremely-depressing show. We'll keep you posted with more info when we get it.
Hillcoat's episode will be titled "Crocodile," and although no one knows what it will be about yet, word is that it'll center on two female characters and actress Andrea Riseborough (Birdman, Oblivion) is mulling an offer for one of those roles.
In any case, Hillcoat can handle big action set-pieces and totally bleak storytelling with the best of them, so it seems like he'd be a great fit for this great-but-often-extremely-depressing show. We'll keep you posted with more info when we get it.
- 2/22/2017
- by Ben Pearson
- GeekTyrant
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question:
Last Friday saw the release of Garth Davis’ “Lion,” the musical score for which is the gorgeous result of a collaboration between two giants of the neo-classical movement, Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka. It’s just the latest indication that we’re living in a fascinating, vibrant time for movie music, and December boasts a number of films that will only add more fuel to that fire. With that in mind, we asked our panel of critics to name their favorite film score of the 21st Century.
Tasha Robinson (@TashaRobinson), The Verge
There are some really striking contenders out there, topped by Susumu Hirasawa’s manic,...
This week’s question:
Last Friday saw the release of Garth Davis’ “Lion,” the musical score for which is the gorgeous result of a collaboration between two giants of the neo-classical movement, Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka. It’s just the latest indication that we’re living in a fascinating, vibrant time for movie music, and December boasts a number of films that will only add more fuel to that fire. With that in mind, we asked our panel of critics to name their favorite film score of the 21st Century.
Tasha Robinson (@TashaRobinson), The Verge
There are some really striking contenders out there, topped by Susumu Hirasawa’s manic,...
- 11/28/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Last year Nick Cave and Warren Ellis reunited to score David Mackenzie’s “Hell or High Water,” which premiered at Cannes in May ahead of its theatrical release. The duo released the official soundtrack to the critically acclaimed film this past August, and have now shared the music video for the song “Comancheria.”
The two-minute clip doesn’t feature the artists, instead we are shown slow-moving shots from the movie starring Chris Pine and Ben Foster.
Read More: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Share Emotional Trailer For ‘Skeleton Tree’ Album & Film – Watch
“Hell or High Water,” which was previously titled “Comancheria,” follows two brothers who team up to rob a bank to save their family’s farm. Jeff Bridges plays an “almost retired” Texas ranger in pursuit of the crime doers.
Cave and Ellis have previously worked together on the soundtracks to the 2005 film “The Proposition” and 2007’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford...
The two-minute clip doesn’t feature the artists, instead we are shown slow-moving shots from the movie starring Chris Pine and Ben Foster.
Read More: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Share Emotional Trailer For ‘Skeleton Tree’ Album & Film – Watch
“Hell or High Water,” which was previously titled “Comancheria,” follows two brothers who team up to rob a bank to save their family’s farm. Jeff Bridges plays an “almost retired” Texas ranger in pursuit of the crime doers.
Cave and Ellis have previously worked together on the soundtracks to the 2005 film “The Proposition” and 2007’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford...
- 9/23/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Soundtracks don’t get much better or more distinct than Nick Cave and Warren Ellis‘ work as such. The duo has contributed music to films like “Lawless,” “The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford,” “The Road,” “The Proposition,” among others. Their work is often evocatively haunting, gritty and intimate, and they bring those qualities […]
The post Exclusive: Hear 2 Tracks By Nick Cave & Warren Ellis From The ‘Hell Or High Water’ Soundtrack appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Exclusive: Hear 2 Tracks By Nick Cave & Warren Ellis From The ‘Hell Or High Water’ Soundtrack appeared first on The Playlist.
- 7/28/2016
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Xenia Goodwin.
StudioCanal has dated Dance Academy: The Movie.
The film, directed by Jeffrey Walker and starring Xenia Goodwin, Keiynan Lonsdale, Jordan Rodrigues, Dena Kaplan, Thomas Lacey, Alicia Banit and Tara Morice, will hit Australian cinemas on March 23, 2017.
International sales are being handled by Zdf Enterprises Germany.
The show was created by writer Samantha Strauss (Mary: The Making of a Princess) with producer Joanna Werner (Secret City, Ready For This).
The film.s Ep's are Louise Smith (The Square, The Rage in Placid Lake), Bernadette O.Mahony (Worst Year of My Life Again, Mortified), Vicki O.Neil, Arne Lohmann and Nicole Keebe.
Dop Martin McGrath Acs (Muriel.s Wedding), who shot all 65 episodes of the show.s three seasons, is lensing the feature..
Also on board is production designer Chris Kennedy (The Water Diviner, The Proposition, Cosi), costume designer Tess Schofield (The Water Diviner, The Sapphires, Bootmen), hair and...
StudioCanal has dated Dance Academy: The Movie.
The film, directed by Jeffrey Walker and starring Xenia Goodwin, Keiynan Lonsdale, Jordan Rodrigues, Dena Kaplan, Thomas Lacey, Alicia Banit and Tara Morice, will hit Australian cinemas on March 23, 2017.
International sales are being handled by Zdf Enterprises Germany.
The show was created by writer Samantha Strauss (Mary: The Making of a Princess) with producer Joanna Werner (Secret City, Ready For This).
The film.s Ep's are Louise Smith (The Square, The Rage in Placid Lake), Bernadette O.Mahony (Worst Year of My Life Again, Mortified), Vicki O.Neil, Arne Lohmann and Nicole Keebe.
Dop Martin McGrath Acs (Muriel.s Wedding), who shot all 65 episodes of the show.s three seasons, is lensing the feature..
Also on board is production designer Chris Kennedy (The Water Diviner, The Proposition, Cosi), costume designer Tess Schofield (The Water Diviner, The Sapphires, Bootmen), hair and...
- 6/28/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
Ryan Lambie Jun 30, 2016
Jessica Rabbit kidnapped by Nazis. Costner rescuing Princess Diana. We look back at a few strange movie sequels that were never made…
The multi-million dollar success of any movie will inevitably leave Hollywood executives clamouring for a sequel. And while there are plenty of movies whose stories are open-ended enough to warrant a return to the creative well, there are many times when coming up with a follow-up idea requires all sorts of imaginative leaps. Just look at something like Alien: Resurrection, which had to come up an elaborate reason why Ripley had (spoiler alert) managed to survive a swan-dive into a lead foundry in Alien 3.
Which brings us to this list, which is devoted to a few of the weirder sequel ideas that never made it to the big screen. An E.T. sequel in which little Elliott gets tortured by aliens? Forrest Gump dancing with Princess Diana?...
Jessica Rabbit kidnapped by Nazis. Costner rescuing Princess Diana. We look back at a few strange movie sequels that were never made…
The multi-million dollar success of any movie will inevitably leave Hollywood executives clamouring for a sequel. And while there are plenty of movies whose stories are open-ended enough to warrant a return to the creative well, there are many times when coming up with a follow-up idea requires all sorts of imaginative leaps. Just look at something like Alien: Resurrection, which had to come up an elaborate reason why Ripley had (spoiler alert) managed to survive a swan-dive into a lead foundry in Alien 3.
Which brings us to this list, which is devoted to a few of the weirder sequel ideas that never made it to the big screen. An E.T. sequel in which little Elliott gets tortured by aliens? Forrest Gump dancing with Princess Diana?...
- 6/27/2016
- Den of Geek
Following on from "The Knick" and the recently premiered "Outcast," Cinemax has set a September 9th premiere date for its original series "Quarry" which boast a pilot by John Hillcoat ("The Proposition," "The Road").
Based on the novel by Max Allan Collins ("Road to Perdition"), Logan Marshall-Green stars in the series as a Marine who returns home to Memphis from Vietnam in 1972 and finds himself shunned by those he loves and demonized by the public
As he struggles to cope with his experiences at war, he is drawn into a network of killing and corruption that spans the length of the Mississippi River. Peter Mullan, Damon Herriman, Jodi Balfour, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Jamie Hector also star. Check out the first trailer below:
Source: TV Line...
Based on the novel by Max Allan Collins ("Road to Perdition"), Logan Marshall-Green stars in the series as a Marine who returns home to Memphis from Vietnam in 1972 and finds himself shunned by those he loves and demonized by the public
As he struggles to cope with his experiences at war, he is drawn into a network of killing and corruption that spans the length of the Mississippi River. Peter Mullan, Damon Herriman, Jodi Balfour, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Jamie Hector also star. Check out the first trailer below:
Source: TV Line...
- 6/24/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
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They’ve made some of the best thrillers of the past six years. We list some of the best modern thriller directors currently working...
Director Guillermo del Toro once described suspense as being about the withholding of information: either a character knows something the audience doesn’t know, or the audience knows something the character doesn’t. That’s a deliciously simple way of describing something that some filmmakers often find difficult to achieve: keeping viewers on the edges of their seats.
The best thrillers leave us scanning the screen with anticipation. They invite us to guess what happens next, but then delight in thwarting expectations. We can all name the great thriller filmmakers of the past - Alfred Hitchcock, Carol Reed, Brian De Palma - but what about the current crop of directors? Here’s our pick of the filmmakers who’ve made some great modern thrillers over the past six years - that is, between the year 2010 and the present.
Jeremy Saulnier - Blue Ruin, Green Room
To think there was once a time when Jeremy Saulnier was seriously quitting the film business.
“To be honest," Saulner told us back in 2014, “Macon and I had really given up on our quest to break into the industry and become legitimate filmmakers. So what we were trying to do with Blue Ruin was archive our 20 year arc and bring it to a close. Really just revisit our stomping grounds and use locations that were near and dear to us and build a narrative out of that.”
Maybe this personal touch explains at least partly why Blue Ruin wound up getting so much attention in Cannes in 2013, signalling not the end of Saulnier and his star Macon Blair’s career, but a brand new chapter. But then again, there’s more than just hand-crafted intimacy in Saulnier’s revenge tale; there’s also its lean, minimal storytelling and the brilliance of its characterisation. Blue Ruin is such an effective thriller because its protagonist is so atypical: sad-eyed, inexperienced with guns, somewhat soft around the edges, Macon Blair’s central character is far from your typical righteous avenger.
Green Room, which emerged in the UK this year, explores a similar clash between very ordinary people and extraordinary violence. A young punk band shout about anarchy and aggression on stage, but they quickly find themselves out of their depth when they’re cornered by a group of bloodthirsty neo-Nazis. In Saulnier’s films, grubby, unseemly locations are matched by often beautiful locked-off shots. Familiar thriller trappings are contrasted by twists of fortune that are often shocking.
Denis Villeneuve - Sicario, Prisoners
Here’s one of those directors who can pack an overwhelming sense of dread in a single image: in Sicario, his searing drug-war thriller from last year, it was the sight of tiny specks of dust falling in the light scything through a window. That single shot proved to be the calm before the storm, as Villeneuve unleashed a salvo of blood-curdling events: an attempted FBI raid on a building gone horribly awry. And this, I think, is the brilliance of Villeneuve’s direction, and why he’s so good at directing thrillers like Sicario or 2013’s superb Prisoners - he understands the rhythm of storytelling, and how scenes of quiet can generate almost unbearable tension.
Another case in point: the highway sequence in Sicario, where Emily Blunt’s FBI agent is stuck in a traffic jam outside one of the most violent cities in the world. Villeneueve makes us feel the stifling heat and the claustrophobia; something nasty’s going to happen, we know that - but it’s the sense of anticipation which makes for such an unforgettable scene.
Prisoners hews closely to the template of a modern mystery thriller, but it’s once again enriched by Villeneuve’s expert pacing and the performances he gets out of his actors. Hugh Jackman’s seldom been better as a father on the hunt for his missing child, while Jake Gyllenhaal mesmerises as a cop scarred by his own private traumas.
Lynne Ramsay - We Need To Talk About Kevin
Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin may be the most effective psychological thriller of recent years. About the difficult relationship between a mother (Tilda Swinton) and her distant, possibly sociopathic son (Ezra Miller), Ramsay’s film is masterfully told from beginning to end - which is impressive, given that the source novel by Lionel Shriver is told via a series of letters. Ramsay takes the raw material from the book and crafts something cinematic and highly disturbing: a study of guilt, sorrow and recrimination. Tension bubbles even in casual conversations around the dinner table. Miller is an eerie, cold-eyed blank. Swinton is peerless. One scene, in which Swinton’s mother comes home in the dead of night, is unforgettable. Here’s hoping Ramsay returns with another feature film very soon.
Morten Tyldum - Headhunters
All kinds of thrillers have emerged from Scandinavia over the past few years, whether on the large or small screen or in book form. Morten Tyldum’s Headhunters is among the very best of them. The fast-paced and deliriously funny story of an art thief who steals a painting from the wrong guy, Headhunters launched Tyldum on an international stage - Alan Turing drama The Imitation Game followed, and the Sony sci-fi film Passengers is up next. It isn’t hard to see why, either: Headhunters shows off Tyldum’s mastery of pace and tone, as his pulp tale hurtles from intense chase scenes to laugh-out-loud black comedy.
Joel Edgerton - The Gift
Granted, Joel Edgerton’s better known as an actor, having turned in some superb performances in the likes of Warrior, Zero Dark Thirty and Warror. But with a single film - The Gift, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in - Edgerton established himself as a thriller filmmaker of real promise. About a successful, happily married couple whose lives are greatly affected by an old face from the husband’s past, The Gift is an engrossing, unsettling movie with superb performances from Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall as well as Edgerton.
A riff on the ‘killer in our midst’ thrillers of the 80s and 90s - The Stepfather, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and so on - The Gift is all the more effective because of its restraint. We’re never quite sure who the villain of the piece is, at least at first - and Edgerton’s use of the camera leaves us wrong-footed at every turn. The world arguably needs more thrillers from Joel Edgerton.
If you haven’t seen The Gift yet, we’d urge you to track it down.
David Michod - Animal Kingdom
The criminals at play in this true-life crime thriller are all the more chilling because they’re so mundane - a bunch of low-level thieves, murderers and gangsters who prowl around the rougher parts of Melbourne, Australia. Writer-director David Michod spent years developing Animal Kingdom, and it was worth the effort: it’s an intense, engrossing film, for sure, but it’s also a believable glimpse of the worst of human nature. Ben Mendelsohn and Jacki Weaver play villains of different kinds; the latter a manipulative grandmother who looks over her brood of criminals, the former a spiteful thief. Crafting moments of incredible tension from simple exchanges, Michod launched himself as a formidable talent with this feature debut.
Ben Affleck - The Town, Argo
Affleck’s period drama-thriller Argo won all kinds of awards, but we’d argue his earlier thrillers were equally well made. Gone Baby Gone was a confident debut and an economical adaptation of Dennis LeHane’s novel. The Town, released in 2010, was a heist thriller that made the most of its Boston setting. One of its key scenes - a bank robbery in which the thieves wear a range of bizarre outfits, including a nun’s habit - is masterfully staged. With Affleck capable of teasing out great performances from his actors and staging effective set-pieces, it’s hardly surprising he’s so heavily involved in making at least one Batman movie for Warner - as well as playing the hero behind the mask.
Anton Corbijn - The American, A Most Wanted Man
The quiet, almost meditative tone of Anton Corbijn’s movies mean they aren’t necessarily to everyone’s taste, but they’re visually arresting and almost seductive in their rhythm and attention to detail. Already a celebrated photographer, Corbijn successfully crossed over into filmmaking with Control, an exquisitely-made drama about Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. Corbijn took a markedly different direction with The American, a thriller about an ageing contract killer (George Clooney) who hides out in a small Italian town west of Rome. Inevitably, trouble eventually comes calling.
Corbijn’s direction remains gripping because he doesn’t give us huge action scenes to puncture the tension. We can sense the capacity for violence coiled up beneath the hitman’s calm exterior, and Corbijn makes sure we only see rare flashes of that toughness - right up until the superbly-staged climax.
A Most Wanted Man, based on the novel by John le Carre, is a similarly astute study of an isolated yet fascinating character - in this instance, the world-weary German intelligence agent Gunther Bachmann, brilliantly played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Tragically, the film proved to be one of the last before Hoffman’s death in 2014.
Paul Greengrass - Green Zone, Captain Phillips
Mention Greengrass’ name, and the director’s frequent use of handheld cameras might immediately spring to mind. But time and again, Greengrass has proved a master of his own personal approach - you only have to look at the muddled, migraine-inducing films of his imitators to see how good a director Greengrass is. Part of the filmmakers’ visual language rather than a gimmick, Greengrass’ camera placement puts the viewer in the middle of the story, whether it’s an amnesiac agent on the run (his Bourne films) or on a hijacked aircraft (the harrowing United 93). While not a huge hit, Green Zone was an intense and intelligent thriller set in occupied Iraq. The acclaimed Captain Phillips, meanwhile, was a perfect showcase for Greengrass’ ability to fuse realism and suspense; the true story of a merchant vessel hijacked by Somali pirates, it is, to quote Greengrass himself, “a contemporary crime story.”
John Hillcoat - Lawless, Triple 9
We can’t help thinking that, with a better marketing push behind it, Triple 9 could have been a much bigger hit when it appeared in cinemas earlier this year. It has a great cast - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Anthony Mackie and Aaron Paul as a group of seasoned thieves, Kate Winslet cast against type as a gangland boss - and its heist plot rattles along like an express train.
Hillcoat seems to have the western genre pulsing through his veins, and he excels at creating worlds that are desolate and all-enveloping, whether his subjects are period pieces (The Proposition, Lawless) or post-apocalyptic dramas (The Road). Triple 9 sees Hillcoat make an urban western that is both classic noir and entirely contemporary; his use of real cops and residents around the film’s Atlanta location give his heightened story a grounding that is believable in the moment. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the scene in which Casey Affleck’s cop breaches a building while hunkered down behind a bullet-proof shield. Hillcoat places us right there in the scene with Affleck and the cops sneaking into the building behind him; we sense the claustrophobia and vulnerability.
Hillcoat explained to us in February that this sequence wasn’t initially written this way in the original script; it changed when the director and his team discovered how real-world cops protect themselves in real-world situations. In Triple 9, research and great filmmaking combine to make an unforgettably intense thriller.
Jim Mickel - Cold In July
Seemingly inspired by such neo-Noir thrillers as Red Rock West and Blood Simple, 2014‘s Cold In July is a genre gem from director Jim Mickle (Stake Land, We Are What We Are). Michael C Hall plays an ordinary guy in 80s America who shoots an intruder who breaks into his home, and becomes drawn into a moody conspiracy that takes in crooked cops, porn and a private eye (who's also keen pig-rearer) played by Don Johnson. Constantly shifting between tones, Mickel’s thriller refuses to stick to genre expectations. In one scene, after Hall shoots the burglar dead, Mickel’s camera lingers over the protagonist as he cleans up the blood and glass. It’s touches like these that make Cold In July far more than a typical thriller.
Mickel’s teaming up with Sylvester Stallone next; we’re intrigued to see what that partnership produces.
Martin Scorsese - Shutter Island
As a filmmaker, Scorsese needs no introduction. As a director of thrillers, he’s in a class of his own: from Taxi Driver via the febrile remake of Cape Fear to the sorely underrated Bringing Out The Dead, his films are full of suspense and the threat of violence. Shutter Island, based on the Dennis LeHane novel of the same name, saw Scorsese plunge eagerly into neo-noir territory. A murder mystery set in a mental institution on the titular Shutter Island, its atmosphere is thick with menace. Like a combination of Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man and Adrian Lyne’s cult classic Jacob’s Ladder, Shutter Island’s one of those stories where we never know who we can trust - even the protagonist, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
David Fincher - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl
After the trial by fire that was Alien 3, David Fincher found his footing in the 90s with such hits as Seven and The Game. In an era where thrillers were in much greater abundance, from the middling to the very good, Seven in particular stood out as a genre classic: smartly written, disturbing, repulsive and yet captivating to look at all at once. Fincher’s affinity for weaving atmospheric thrillers continued into the 2010s, first with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a superb retelling of Stieg Larsson’s book which didn’t quite find the appreciative audience deserved, and Gone Girl, an even better movie which - thankfully - became a hit.
Based on Gillian Flynn’s novel (and adapted by the author herself), Gone Girl is both a gripping thriller and a thoroughly twisted relationship drama. Fincher’s mastery of the genre is all here: his millimetre-perfect composition, seamless touches of CGI and subtle yet effective uses of colour and shadow. While not a straight-up masterpiece like the period thriller Zodiac, Gone Girl is still a glossy, smart and blackly funny yarn in the Hitchcock tradition. If there’s one master of the modern thriller currently working, it has to be Fincher.
See related John Hillcoat interview: Triple 9, crime, fear of comic geniuses Jim Mickle interview: Cold In July, thrillers, Argento Jeremy Saulnier interview: Green Room, John Carpenter Jeremy Saulnier interview: making Blue Ruin & good thrillers Denis Villeneuve interview: Sicario, Kurosawa, sci-fi, ugly poetry Morten Tyldum interview: The Imitation Game, Cumberbatch, Headhunters Paul Greengrass interview: Captain Phillips & crime stories Movies Feature Ryan Lambie thrillers 15 Jun 2016 - 06:11 Cold In July Triple 9 Shutter Island Gone Girl David Fincher Martin Scorsese John Hillcoat Directors thrillers movies...
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They’ve made some of the best thrillers of the past six years. We list some of the best modern thriller directors currently working...
Director Guillermo del Toro once described suspense as being about the withholding of information: either a character knows something the audience doesn’t know, or the audience knows something the character doesn’t. That’s a deliciously simple way of describing something that some filmmakers often find difficult to achieve: keeping viewers on the edges of their seats.
The best thrillers leave us scanning the screen with anticipation. They invite us to guess what happens next, but then delight in thwarting expectations. We can all name the great thriller filmmakers of the past - Alfred Hitchcock, Carol Reed, Brian De Palma - but what about the current crop of directors? Here’s our pick of the filmmakers who’ve made some great modern thrillers over the past six years - that is, between the year 2010 and the present.
Jeremy Saulnier - Blue Ruin, Green Room
To think there was once a time when Jeremy Saulnier was seriously quitting the film business.
“To be honest," Saulner told us back in 2014, “Macon and I had really given up on our quest to break into the industry and become legitimate filmmakers. So what we were trying to do with Blue Ruin was archive our 20 year arc and bring it to a close. Really just revisit our stomping grounds and use locations that were near and dear to us and build a narrative out of that.”
Maybe this personal touch explains at least partly why Blue Ruin wound up getting so much attention in Cannes in 2013, signalling not the end of Saulnier and his star Macon Blair’s career, but a brand new chapter. But then again, there’s more than just hand-crafted intimacy in Saulnier’s revenge tale; there’s also its lean, minimal storytelling and the brilliance of its characterisation. Blue Ruin is such an effective thriller because its protagonist is so atypical: sad-eyed, inexperienced with guns, somewhat soft around the edges, Macon Blair’s central character is far from your typical righteous avenger.
Green Room, which emerged in the UK this year, explores a similar clash between very ordinary people and extraordinary violence. A young punk band shout about anarchy and aggression on stage, but they quickly find themselves out of their depth when they’re cornered by a group of bloodthirsty neo-Nazis. In Saulnier’s films, grubby, unseemly locations are matched by often beautiful locked-off shots. Familiar thriller trappings are contrasted by twists of fortune that are often shocking.
Denis Villeneuve - Sicario, Prisoners
Here’s one of those directors who can pack an overwhelming sense of dread in a single image: in Sicario, his searing drug-war thriller from last year, it was the sight of tiny specks of dust falling in the light scything through a window. That single shot proved to be the calm before the storm, as Villeneuve unleashed a salvo of blood-curdling events: an attempted FBI raid on a building gone horribly awry. And this, I think, is the brilliance of Villeneuve’s direction, and why he’s so good at directing thrillers like Sicario or 2013’s superb Prisoners - he understands the rhythm of storytelling, and how scenes of quiet can generate almost unbearable tension.
Another case in point: the highway sequence in Sicario, where Emily Blunt’s FBI agent is stuck in a traffic jam outside one of the most violent cities in the world. Villeneueve makes us feel the stifling heat and the claustrophobia; something nasty’s going to happen, we know that - but it’s the sense of anticipation which makes for such an unforgettable scene.
Prisoners hews closely to the template of a modern mystery thriller, but it’s once again enriched by Villeneuve’s expert pacing and the performances he gets out of his actors. Hugh Jackman’s seldom been better as a father on the hunt for his missing child, while Jake Gyllenhaal mesmerises as a cop scarred by his own private traumas.
Lynne Ramsay - We Need To Talk About Kevin
Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin may be the most effective psychological thriller of recent years. About the difficult relationship between a mother (Tilda Swinton) and her distant, possibly sociopathic son (Ezra Miller), Ramsay’s film is masterfully told from beginning to end - which is impressive, given that the source novel by Lionel Shriver is told via a series of letters. Ramsay takes the raw material from the book and crafts something cinematic and highly disturbing: a study of guilt, sorrow and recrimination. Tension bubbles even in casual conversations around the dinner table. Miller is an eerie, cold-eyed blank. Swinton is peerless. One scene, in which Swinton’s mother comes home in the dead of night, is unforgettable. Here’s hoping Ramsay returns with another feature film very soon.
Morten Tyldum - Headhunters
All kinds of thrillers have emerged from Scandinavia over the past few years, whether on the large or small screen or in book form. Morten Tyldum’s Headhunters is among the very best of them. The fast-paced and deliriously funny story of an art thief who steals a painting from the wrong guy, Headhunters launched Tyldum on an international stage - Alan Turing drama The Imitation Game followed, and the Sony sci-fi film Passengers is up next. It isn’t hard to see why, either: Headhunters shows off Tyldum’s mastery of pace and tone, as his pulp tale hurtles from intense chase scenes to laugh-out-loud black comedy.
Joel Edgerton - The Gift
Granted, Joel Edgerton’s better known as an actor, having turned in some superb performances in the likes of Warrior, Zero Dark Thirty and Warror. But with a single film - The Gift, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in - Edgerton established himself as a thriller filmmaker of real promise. About a successful, happily married couple whose lives are greatly affected by an old face from the husband’s past, The Gift is an engrossing, unsettling movie with superb performances from Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall as well as Edgerton.
A riff on the ‘killer in our midst’ thrillers of the 80s and 90s - The Stepfather, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and so on - The Gift is all the more effective because of its restraint. We’re never quite sure who the villain of the piece is, at least at first - and Edgerton’s use of the camera leaves us wrong-footed at every turn. The world arguably needs more thrillers from Joel Edgerton.
If you haven’t seen The Gift yet, we’d urge you to track it down.
David Michod - Animal Kingdom
The criminals at play in this true-life crime thriller are all the more chilling because they’re so mundane - a bunch of low-level thieves, murderers and gangsters who prowl around the rougher parts of Melbourne, Australia. Writer-director David Michod spent years developing Animal Kingdom, and it was worth the effort: it’s an intense, engrossing film, for sure, but it’s also a believable glimpse of the worst of human nature. Ben Mendelsohn and Jacki Weaver play villains of different kinds; the latter a manipulative grandmother who looks over her brood of criminals, the former a spiteful thief. Crafting moments of incredible tension from simple exchanges, Michod launched himself as a formidable talent with this feature debut.
Ben Affleck - The Town, Argo
Affleck’s period drama-thriller Argo won all kinds of awards, but we’d argue his earlier thrillers were equally well made. Gone Baby Gone was a confident debut and an economical adaptation of Dennis LeHane’s novel. The Town, released in 2010, was a heist thriller that made the most of its Boston setting. One of its key scenes - a bank robbery in which the thieves wear a range of bizarre outfits, including a nun’s habit - is masterfully staged. With Affleck capable of teasing out great performances from his actors and staging effective set-pieces, it’s hardly surprising he’s so heavily involved in making at least one Batman movie for Warner - as well as playing the hero behind the mask.
Anton Corbijn - The American, A Most Wanted Man
The quiet, almost meditative tone of Anton Corbijn’s movies mean they aren’t necessarily to everyone’s taste, but they’re visually arresting and almost seductive in their rhythm and attention to detail. Already a celebrated photographer, Corbijn successfully crossed over into filmmaking with Control, an exquisitely-made drama about Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. Corbijn took a markedly different direction with The American, a thriller about an ageing contract killer (George Clooney) who hides out in a small Italian town west of Rome. Inevitably, trouble eventually comes calling.
Corbijn’s direction remains gripping because he doesn’t give us huge action scenes to puncture the tension. We can sense the capacity for violence coiled up beneath the hitman’s calm exterior, and Corbijn makes sure we only see rare flashes of that toughness - right up until the superbly-staged climax.
A Most Wanted Man, based on the novel by John le Carre, is a similarly astute study of an isolated yet fascinating character - in this instance, the world-weary German intelligence agent Gunther Bachmann, brilliantly played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Tragically, the film proved to be one of the last before Hoffman’s death in 2014.
Paul Greengrass - Green Zone, Captain Phillips
Mention Greengrass’ name, and the director’s frequent use of handheld cameras might immediately spring to mind. But time and again, Greengrass has proved a master of his own personal approach - you only have to look at the muddled, migraine-inducing films of his imitators to see how good a director Greengrass is. Part of the filmmakers’ visual language rather than a gimmick, Greengrass’ camera placement puts the viewer in the middle of the story, whether it’s an amnesiac agent on the run (his Bourne films) or on a hijacked aircraft (the harrowing United 93). While not a huge hit, Green Zone was an intense and intelligent thriller set in occupied Iraq. The acclaimed Captain Phillips, meanwhile, was a perfect showcase for Greengrass’ ability to fuse realism and suspense; the true story of a merchant vessel hijacked by Somali pirates, it is, to quote Greengrass himself, “a contemporary crime story.”
John Hillcoat - Lawless, Triple 9
We can’t help thinking that, with a better marketing push behind it, Triple 9 could have been a much bigger hit when it appeared in cinemas earlier this year. It has a great cast - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Anthony Mackie and Aaron Paul as a group of seasoned thieves, Kate Winslet cast against type as a gangland boss - and its heist plot rattles along like an express train.
Hillcoat seems to have the western genre pulsing through his veins, and he excels at creating worlds that are desolate and all-enveloping, whether his subjects are period pieces (The Proposition, Lawless) or post-apocalyptic dramas (The Road). Triple 9 sees Hillcoat make an urban western that is both classic noir and entirely contemporary; his use of real cops and residents around the film’s Atlanta location give his heightened story a grounding that is believable in the moment. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the scene in which Casey Affleck’s cop breaches a building while hunkered down behind a bullet-proof shield. Hillcoat places us right there in the scene with Affleck and the cops sneaking into the building behind him; we sense the claustrophobia and vulnerability.
Hillcoat explained to us in February that this sequence wasn’t initially written this way in the original script; it changed when the director and his team discovered how real-world cops protect themselves in real-world situations. In Triple 9, research and great filmmaking combine to make an unforgettably intense thriller.
Jim Mickel - Cold In July
Seemingly inspired by such neo-Noir thrillers as Red Rock West and Blood Simple, 2014‘s Cold In July is a genre gem from director Jim Mickle (Stake Land, We Are What We Are). Michael C Hall plays an ordinary guy in 80s America who shoots an intruder who breaks into his home, and becomes drawn into a moody conspiracy that takes in crooked cops, porn and a private eye (who's also keen pig-rearer) played by Don Johnson. Constantly shifting between tones, Mickel’s thriller refuses to stick to genre expectations. In one scene, after Hall shoots the burglar dead, Mickel’s camera lingers over the protagonist as he cleans up the blood and glass. It’s touches like these that make Cold In July far more than a typical thriller.
Mickel’s teaming up with Sylvester Stallone next; we’re intrigued to see what that partnership produces.
Martin Scorsese - Shutter Island
As a filmmaker, Scorsese needs no introduction. As a director of thrillers, he’s in a class of his own: from Taxi Driver via the febrile remake of Cape Fear to the sorely underrated Bringing Out The Dead, his films are full of suspense and the threat of violence. Shutter Island, based on the Dennis LeHane novel of the same name, saw Scorsese plunge eagerly into neo-noir territory. A murder mystery set in a mental institution on the titular Shutter Island, its atmosphere is thick with menace. Like a combination of Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man and Adrian Lyne’s cult classic Jacob’s Ladder, Shutter Island’s one of those stories where we never know who we can trust - even the protagonist, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
David Fincher - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl
After the trial by fire that was Alien 3, David Fincher found his footing in the 90s with such hits as Seven and The Game. In an era where thrillers were in much greater abundance, from the middling to the very good, Seven in particular stood out as a genre classic: smartly written, disturbing, repulsive and yet captivating to look at all at once. Fincher’s affinity for weaving atmospheric thrillers continued into the 2010s, first with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a superb retelling of Stieg Larsson’s book which didn’t quite find the appreciative audience deserved, and Gone Girl, an even better movie which - thankfully - became a hit.
Based on Gillian Flynn’s novel (and adapted by the author herself), Gone Girl is both a gripping thriller and a thoroughly twisted relationship drama. Fincher’s mastery of the genre is all here: his millimetre-perfect composition, seamless touches of CGI and subtle yet effective uses of colour and shadow. While not a straight-up masterpiece like the period thriller Zodiac, Gone Girl is still a glossy, smart and blackly funny yarn in the Hitchcock tradition. If there’s one master of the modern thriller currently working, it has to be Fincher.
See related John Hillcoat interview: Triple 9, crime, fear of comic geniuses Jim Mickle interview: Cold In July, thrillers, Argento Jeremy Saulnier interview: Green Room, John Carpenter Jeremy Saulnier interview: making Blue Ruin & good thrillers Denis Villeneuve interview: Sicario, Kurosawa, sci-fi, ugly poetry Morten Tyldum interview: The Imitation Game, Cumberbatch, Headhunters Paul Greengrass interview: Captain Phillips & crime stories Movies Feature Ryan Lambie thrillers 15 Jun 2016 - 06:11 Cold In July Triple 9 Shutter Island Gone Girl David Fincher Martin Scorsese John Hillcoat Directors thrillers movies...
- 6/14/2016
- Den of Geek
Xenia Goodwin on the set of Dance Academy: The Movie.
Dance Academy: The Movie has begun shooting in Sydney, almost six years to the day since the premiere of Dance Academy season one in 2010.
The series began with country girl Tara Webster (Xenia Goodwin) travelling to Sydney to audition for a place at the National Academy of Dance, the top ballet school in Australia..
Returning alongside Goodwin in the feature film is Dena Kaplan, Alicia Banit, Thomas Lacey (Winners and Losers), Jordan Rodrigues (The Fosters), Keiynan Lonsdale (Insurgent) and Strictly Ballroom's Tara Morice.
The show was created by writer Samantha Strauss (Mary: The Making of a Princess) with producer Joanna Werner (Secret City, Ready For This).
The film.s Ep's are Louise Smith (The Square, The Rage in Placid Lake), Bernadette O.Mahony (Worst Year of My Life Again, Mortified), Vicki O.Neil, Arne Lohmann and Nicole Keebe,...
Dance Academy: The Movie has begun shooting in Sydney, almost six years to the day since the premiere of Dance Academy season one in 2010.
The series began with country girl Tara Webster (Xenia Goodwin) travelling to Sydney to audition for a place at the National Academy of Dance, the top ballet school in Australia..
Returning alongside Goodwin in the feature film is Dena Kaplan, Alicia Banit, Thomas Lacey (Winners and Losers), Jordan Rodrigues (The Fosters), Keiynan Lonsdale (Insurgent) and Strictly Ballroom's Tara Morice.
The show was created by writer Samantha Strauss (Mary: The Making of a Princess) with producer Joanna Werner (Secret City, Ready For This).
The film.s Ep's are Louise Smith (The Square, The Rage in Placid Lake), Bernadette O.Mahony (Worst Year of My Life Again, Mortified), Vicki O.Neil, Arne Lohmann and Nicole Keebe,...
- 5/30/2016
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
With its focus on the effects of exploration by white men on foreign lands, Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent will inevitably be compared to Werner Herzog’s stories of savage nature, and while Guerra is investigating some of Herzog’s most well trodden themes, the chaos of man exists in the background, while the unspoiled sit front and center here.
Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
With its focus on the effects of exploration by white men on foreign lands, Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent will inevitably be compared to Werner Herzog’s stories of savage nature, and while Guerra is investigating some of Herzog’s most well trodden themes, the chaos of man exists in the background, while the unspoiled sit front and center here.
- 5/20/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
John Hillcoat isn’t done with the crime genre yet. The director behind The Proposition, Lawless, and Triple 9 will direct Honor for Sale, a true story about corruption and drugs that takes place between 1969 to 1976. In the 1970s, a total of 500 pounds of narcotics were stolen from the NYPD’s Property Clerk Office, and Hillcoat is going to show […]
The post John Hillcoat Is Returning to the Crime Genre Again With ‘Honor for Sale’ appeared first on /Film.
The post John Hillcoat Is Returning to the Crime Genre Again With ‘Honor for Sale’ appeared first on /Film.
- 5/11/2016
- by Jack Giroux
- Slash Film
As Marvel and Netflix's Iron Fist series prepares to kick off production, the cast announcements are coming in more frequently. Earlier today we had word that Arleo Dordar may have signed on in an undisclosed role (though that's still just a rumor for the time being) and now Marvel has officially announced that David Wenham (the last two Lord Of The Rings movies, 300, The Proposition) will be playing the villainous role of Harold Meachum. A ruthless corporate leader, Harold Meachum was partners with Danny Rand’s parents at the time of their deaths. What role he plays in Danny’s past and future will be revealed over the course of the series. “I’m very excited to have David as our Harold Meachum. David is capable of displaying raw, visceral strength as well as extremely keen intelligence,” said Executive Producer and Showrunner, Scott Buck. “This will add up to a...
- 4/11/2016
- ComicBookMovie.com
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.News"Once upon a time, two people met.A woman, a man… Their memory has almost been erased.All that’s left is a picture… torn, faded, almost gone.Cinema is not eternal but it does sometimes escape oblivion. And it is possible to restore a picture.And what will there be then between these two characters who perhaps stepped out of an English or Italian comedy or an Éric Rohmer film?When you see a poster like this, your imagination fills in the blanks, just like it does at the movies."—Édouard Waintrop, Artistic Director of the Directors’ Fortnight, about its 2016 posterSpeaking of Cannes, the festival has revealed its Opening Night Film, Woody Allen's Café Society, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, and shot by the great Vittorio Storaro.
- 3/30/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Four of author Cormac McCarthy's novels have seen screen adaptations such as "No Country for Old Men" and "All the Pretty Horses," but arguably his most famous work "Blood Meridian" has yet to make it to film.
The book follows a teenagers experience with a group of scalp hunters who massacred Native Americans and others in the United States–Mexico borderlands for bounty, pleasure, and eventually out of compulsion. It was infamous for its sheer brutality and has since gone on to be recognised as one of the greatest works of modern American literature.
Various directors have expressed interest in doing an adaptation including Ridley Scott, Michael Haneke, Todd Field and James Franco. One other name that has put up there hand is, like Franco, a helmer who has tackled McCarthy onscreen before - in this case Aussie filmmaker John Hillcoat who adapted McCarthy's "The Road".
Hillcoat has familiarity with the subject matter,...
The book follows a teenagers experience with a group of scalp hunters who massacred Native Americans and others in the United States–Mexico borderlands for bounty, pleasure, and eventually out of compulsion. It was infamous for its sheer brutality and has since gone on to be recognised as one of the greatest works of modern American literature.
Various directors have expressed interest in doing an adaptation including Ridley Scott, Michael Haneke, Todd Field and James Franco. One other name that has put up there hand is, like Franco, a helmer who has tackled McCarthy onscreen before - in this case Aussie filmmaker John Hillcoat who adapted McCarthy's "The Road".
Hillcoat has familiarity with the subject matter,...
- 2/29/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
I recently had the opportunity to attend the press junket for Triple 9, the new crime thriller from director John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition, Lawless). I joined a small group of journalists to talk about the project with its director and stars, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Clifton Collins Jr., Norman Reedus, and Aaron Paul. I've condensed the interview into the most interesting segments, which you can read below.
Ejiofor on his preparation for playing a soldier-turned-criminal:
Ejiofor: The research aspect of the film, for me, was about the physicality of the character and getting into the weapons, really. Because I actually hadn’t done a film with a lot of gunplay before. Little bits in some stuff, but not like a large amount. So for months beforehand, when I first spoke to John about the film, it was important to me and important to him to develop a...
Ejiofor on his preparation for playing a soldier-turned-criminal:
Ejiofor: The research aspect of the film, for me, was about the physicality of the character and getting into the weapons, really. Because I actually hadn’t done a film with a lot of gunplay before. Little bits in some stuff, but not like a large amount. So for months beforehand, when I first spoke to John about the film, it was important to me and important to him to develop a...
- 2/26/2016
- by Ben Pearson
- GeekTyrant
Australian director John Hillcoat has made a name for himself with unforgiving characters committing brutal violence amid some pretty bleak environments. With The Proposition and Lawless, he brought period-set grit to the screen and made the future even less appealing in The Road. The latest from Hillcoat is Triple 9, and it's the director's first opus of violence set in modern day. This fact doesn't keep the violence from being as cold-blooded as the director can make it nor the characters from being their typical, Hillcoat shade of gray. Triple 9 is a relentless look at the lengths to which evil men and women will go, and, though it never fulfills the hope of transcending the action genre, it satisfies the hunger for adult-driven entertainment with an edge. Just don't get attached to anyone. Working from a screenplay by Matt Cook, Triple 9 centers on those doing good and bad in Atlanta,...
- 2/26/2016
- by Jeremy Kirk
- firstshowing.net
John Hillcoat is going to make a great film someday. Each of his last three films (Lawless, The Road, The Proposition) have skirted this quality to various degrees, bringing together top-tier casts, evocatively oppressive atmospheres, and muddied, morally-compromised perspectives, but they’ve never quite coalesced into something spectacular. Triple 9 is Hillcoat’s latest trip into the gray, and despite a pedigree of able performers in front of the camera, it’s an exhaustively cynical, morally-empty crime film that has neither the pacing to work as a B-film or the loftier ideas in place to work as a serious investigation of corruption.
Triple 9 centers on a group of various law enforcement members – detectives, police officers, special operations, etc. – who have been backed into a pact with the sadistic Russian Jewish mafia to rob federal banks. They orchestrate these heists with an exacting set of rules and nonlethal force (sort...
Triple 9 centers on a group of various law enforcement members – detectives, police officers, special operations, etc. – who have been backed into a pact with the sadistic Russian Jewish mafia to rob federal banks. They orchestrate these heists with an exacting set of rules and nonlethal force (sort...
- 2/26/2016
- by Michael Snydel
- The Film Stage
Australian director John Hillcoat’s got four features under his belt now, and I’m a massive fan of the previous three. All four of them share a few things, most prominently brutality and the darker side of humanity. What his latest film Triple 9 is noticeably different for is a modern setting; both The Proposition and Lawless are tales of the past and The Road is set in the bleak, bleak future. I wasn’t sure how his style would translate to a current story, but the short version is that it’s gritty, dark, and intense in ways his other films couldn’t capture. This is where Heat and Training Day meets The Town, and all of those films are better as a whole. Don’t count it out though.
The cast is…insane. So many great actors tossed into one story with an equal many characters is bound to be complex,...
The cast is…insane. So many great actors tossed into one story with an equal many characters is bound to be complex,...
- 2/26/2016
- by Mike Hassler
- Destroy the Brain
The Russians Are Coming: Hillcoat Juggles Strands in Sprawling Heist Thriller
About half way into John Hillcoat’s impressively staged heist thriller Triple 9, it becomes apparent the audience won’t be allowed to develop any sort of sympathy for any of its various characters, a pity considering the potentially rich subtext. Rather than lob gobs of exposition our way, Matt Cook’s screenplay attempts to streamline characterization into the full-tilt madness of criminal legacies and the corresponding demise gilding the future of the powerful and greedy. At times, this congeals into intoxicatingly energetic and disturbingly violent moments of survival play, but whenever the narrative returns to moments of static calm the film has a nagging sense of perfunctory ornamentation, it’s more important elements given short shrift in an effort to balance a variety of odds and ends.
Five masked men storm an Atlanta bank, successfully removing the contents...
About half way into John Hillcoat’s impressively staged heist thriller Triple 9, it becomes apparent the audience won’t be allowed to develop any sort of sympathy for any of its various characters, a pity considering the potentially rich subtext. Rather than lob gobs of exposition our way, Matt Cook’s screenplay attempts to streamline characterization into the full-tilt madness of criminal legacies and the corresponding demise gilding the future of the powerful and greedy. At times, this congeals into intoxicatingly energetic and disturbingly violent moments of survival play, but whenever the narrative returns to moments of static calm the film has a nagging sense of perfunctory ornamentation, it’s more important elements given short shrift in an effort to balance a variety of odds and ends.
Five masked men storm an Atlanta bank, successfully removing the contents...
- 2/25/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
This Friday, director John Hillcoat's new crime thriller Triple 9 hits theaters, so check back here on that day for my review and interview with the director and cast. Meanwhile, the folks at Mondo have commissioned a series of new posters to commemorate the release and pay tribute to the director's filmography. They've reached out to some of the best artists in the business to create some superb posters for The Proposition, The Road, Lawless, and Triple 9, all of which will go on sale tomorrow (February 24, 2016).
Before we get to the artwork, here's a quick statement from Hillcoat himself:
"I’ve always loved film posters from the past because they had a bold graphic flair to them, they gave films a unique and richer identity. Mondo posters and their impressive roster of artists updates and restores that honor to the movies.”
Let's get to it.
The Proposition by Ken Taylor.
Before we get to the artwork, here's a quick statement from Hillcoat himself:
"I’ve always loved film posters from the past because they had a bold graphic flair to them, they gave films a unique and richer identity. Mondo posters and their impressive roster of artists updates and restores that honor to the movies.”
Let's get to it.
The Proposition by Ken Taylor.
- 2/24/2016
- by Ben Pearson
- GeekTyrant
It’s not too often John Hillcoat steps behind the camera to direct, but when he does, it’s worth standing up and taking notice. Over the past decade the Australian writer-director has helmed The Proposition, transformed Cormac McCarthy’s The Road into a cinematic gem, and directed a star-studded cast in Lawless.
Fast forward to 2016 and Hillcoat is serving up an exercise in nerve-shredding tension with Triple 9, the ensemble crime caper that’s barreling down on a theatrical release. To celebrate the occasion, We Got This Covered has one t-shirt and a signed poster to give away to one lucky reader. The poster itself has been signed by both the director and his enviable cast, including Casey Affleck, Norman Reedus, Aaron Paul, Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Clifton Collins Jr..
To be in with a chance of winning our Triple 9 prize pack, simply subscribe to We Got...
Fast forward to 2016 and Hillcoat is serving up an exercise in nerve-shredding tension with Triple 9, the ensemble crime caper that’s barreling down on a theatrical release. To celebrate the occasion, We Got This Covered has one t-shirt and a signed poster to give away to one lucky reader. The poster itself has been signed by both the director and his enviable cast, including Casey Affleck, Norman Reedus, Aaron Paul, Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Clifton Collins Jr..
To be in with a chance of winning our Triple 9 prize pack, simply subscribe to We Got...
- 2/24/2016
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
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