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Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to After Class, the family comedy starring Justin Long and Fran Drescher that had its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival under the title Safe Spaces.

Daniel Schechter wrote and directed the pic, which co-stars Richard Schiff, Lynn Cohen, Kate Berlant and Michael Godere. The distributor will release the pic in theaters day-and-date December 6.

Long plays a New York college professor who aims for his classroom to be a safe space for students, but a lesson plan pushes students to share more than they wish, forcing him take a deeper look at whether safe spaces live up to their name. He escapes from the college controversy to reconnect with his own unique family, who are navigating how to deal with the

emotions of having an ailing grandmother.

Courtenay Johnson, Lawrence Greenberg and Jordan Kessler are producers.

Roadside Attractions has released three new images and trailer for their upcoming film, Life Of Crime.

When a pair of low-level criminals kidnap the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer, they get both more and less than they bargained for in Life Of Crime, a dark caper comedy based on legendary author Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch.

In their 2013 Toronto International Film Festival review, Sound on Sight said, “Life Of Crime is a reasonable addition to the world of Leonard adaptations.”

Starring Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, yasiin bey, Mark Boone Junior, Isla Fisher, Will Forte, and Tim Robbins, Life Of Crime is packed with the outrageously eccentric characters, black comedy and unexpected twists that earned Leonard a reputation as one of America’s sharpest and funniest crime writers.

Mickey Dawson (Jennifer Aniston), the wife of crooked real-estate developer Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins), is kidnapped by two common criminals (yasiin...

That's right — "Lee Daniels' The Butler" has 39 credited producers to its name, and it isn't just Lee Daniels 39 times. We're not sure if this is a record, but we are sure that it's a lot of f**king producers.

So what, exactly, did each producer do for the movie? In a NextMovie exclusive, we've obtained a verified* list of the various roles each producer filled during the production of the film. Needless to say, each was wholly necessary to the quality of the end result.

*Note: By "verified" we mean "not verified."

Horatio Bacon: Responsible for convincing director Lee Daniels to not film the movie in 3D.

Julia Barry: Responsible with supplying the production office with the proper Nerf guns for anticipated downtime.

Len Blavatnik: Responsible for assaulting any "nerd" who insists on putting another "s" after the apostrophe in the film's title.

Charles Sauveur Bonan:...

“Tracking Shot” is a monthly featurette here on Ioncinema.com that looks at a dozen or so projects that are moments away from lensing. This February we’ve got a slew of projects that we feel are worth signaling out: we start with a sequel (and pictured above) we find The Raid 2 (also known as Berandal) which has set up shop with the same producing team, star player and writer/director Gareth Huw Evans. Sony Pictures Classics backed the film prior to production. This picks up two hours after the first installment ends.

We have the highly touted Black List screenplay that could very well place itself in the fall festival releases in David O. Russell’s adaptation of American Bullshit – a film we imagine will be much talked about because of its cast (Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Louis C.K.) and the plotline (an FBI sting...

The Weinstein Company has picked up distribution rights to his star-studded period drama The Butler, directed by Precious helmer Lee Daniels.

Based on the screenplay by Danny Strong (who just won an Emmy last night for Game Change) and Daniels, The Butler is inspired by Wil Haygood’s Washington Post article about an African-American man who served as a butler (Forest Whitaker) to eight Presidents such as Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in the White House for over thirty years.

Obviously, Harvey Weinstein has liked what he’s seen of the footage. The film, which has been shooting down in New Orleans for weeks, also stars Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Minka Kelly, Lenny Kravitz, Melissa Leo, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber and Robin Williams.

Hit the jump to check out the...

#15. Cherry - Stephen Elliott After James Franco picked up Stephen Elliott's memoir The Adderall Diaries for a screen adaptation, somewhere along the way the author got to go behind the camera and cast Franco along with Heather Graham, Lili Taylor and Dev Patel in Cherry, an indie pic about the porn biz that was shot last May. Fest programmers are already warm to Franco's work, and if they take kindly to the film then a little sizzle might go a long way in the crisp month of January. A Premieres showing seems likely. Gist: Scripted by Elliott and adult film star Lorelei Lee, the story centers on a troubled 18-year-old who moves to San Francisco, where she enters the porn industry and becomes involved with a cocaine-addicted lawyer, to be played by Franco. Graham will play a former porn star-turned-director who becomes mildly obsessed with the young starlet, who has yet to be cast.

In Trance, sexy girls at a rave turn into blood thirsty killers after taking a mysterious new drug. Dancing, drugs, music and killings? Sounds like one hell of a party! 

Trance stars former teen Lolita Dominique Swain, Kirk Kepper, Jeremy London, Madeline Zima, Brea Grant and Jessica Heap.

The film was recently given an R rating by the MPAA for:

Bloody violence, language, sexual content and drug use.

Additional credits include:

Brad Malone - Director

John Fallon - Writer

Kirk Kepper, Jordan Kessler, Todd Williams - Producer

Andy Sparaco - Cinematographer

Beau Chaney - Production Designer

Andrew Drazek, Jennifer Godin - Editor

The film is currently complete and is awaiting release.

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Amber Benson and Adam Busch are true multihyphenates. Both boast a long list of acting credits, including stints on the TV cult classic "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Both channel their creative energy into other mediums: He's part of the successful folk-rock trio Common Rotation; she's the author of popular urban fantasy series "Death's Daughter." In addition, both are as comfortable behind the camera as they are in front of it, producing and directing their own work. Recently, the real-life couple teamed up to co-helm "Drones," a screwball sci-fi comedy set in a seemingly mundane cubicle farm. The film, which bowed at Slamdance earlier this year, stars such diverse talents as horror queen Angela Bettis ("May," "Girl, Interrupted"), Obie winner and cartoon superstar James Urbaniak ("The Venture Bros.," "American Splendor"), and "Freaks and Geeks" alum Samm Levine ("Inglourious Basterds").Back Stage: How did this project come together?Adam Busch:...

Funny things happen on the way to an orgy.  Three young couples, in various levels of committment, decide to have an orgy over a weekend getaway at Cummings Farm. Why, it's not clear, but what what happens up to the moment of truth reveals more about the intended participants than anyone ever expected.

Alan and Yasmine are dating, Tina and Todd are married with children, and Rachel and Gordon are living together. Even before everyone arrives at the farm, it's clear that no one really thought out the consequences of a sexual free-for-all. Rachel (Aimee-Lynn Chadwick) is supportive of Gordon (Jordan Kessler), but he's an alcoholic. Alan (Adam Busch) is uptight, and Yasmine (Yasmine Kittles) is demanding. Tina (Laura Silverman) is the devoted wife and mother, and how the crude and selfish Todd (Ted Beck) managed to win her is a mystery. These are three very different relationships, none of...

Director: Andrew Drazek Writer(s): Ted Beck Starring: Laura Silverman, Yasmine Kittles, Jordan Kessler, Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, Adam Busch, Edrick Browne, Ted Beck What better place to meet for a first orgy amongst friends than Cummings Farm, right? It is as if the place was named not to be a strawberry farm at all, but specifically for orgies… We first meet a young Jewish couple, Yasmine (Yasmine Kittles) and Alan (Adam Busch), as they bicker about which wine would be better suited for the orgy: Beaver or Platypus? (The sexual innuendoes abound in Cummings Farm.) Their sexual relationship has been on the rocks, and Yasmine hopes that this orgy is going to kick-start their sex life again. Alan is a quirky tight-wad who is only going for the ride in the hopes of a chance to get with Yasmine’s friend Rachel. Next, we are introduced to Rachel (Aimee-Lynn Chadwick...

NEW YORK -- Cuba Gooding Jr. has signed to star in John Carter's action thriller "The Way of War", playing a paramilitary operative who goes on a rampage after discovering a war conspiracy.

Principal photography begins this week in Baton Rouge, La. Richie Salvatore of Two Sticks Prods., Dave Pomier and Scott Schafer will produce from Schafer's script. Nick Thurlow, Jordan Kessler and David Orenstein will executive produce.

"With his intensity and ability to take a character to the edge, the part is tailor-made for Cuba, and we're excited to have him aboard," Thurlow said. "John Carter and Scott Schafer have crafted a political thriller with deep resonance for our times."

"War" was packaged by the Paradigm Motion Picture Finance Group in conjunction with Upload Media and Salvatore/Orenstein Prods. Upload is financing in conjunction with Capital City Entertainment.

Production services will be provided by Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Media Production, which also partnered with Upload on "Mama, I Want to Sing" and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", set for release through Jeff Clanagan's Codeblack Entertainment.