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Los Angeles, July 23 (Ians) British pop star and actress Rita Ora has reflected on what it was like to work with the late Carrie Fisher, her co-star in ‘Wonderwell’ that was finally released in June.

In an interview with People magazine, Ora termed the experience of working with the beloved Star Wars actress as “an amazing experience.”

Carrie Fisher died in 2016. ‘Wonderwell’ was released seven years after her passing. Fisher had completed her work on the movie just weeks before her death, but post-production work, as well as Covid lockdowns, delayed the release.

Ora, whose new album ‘You & I’ is out, said she’ll forever treasure those memories of working with Fisher.

“I’m really actually surprised and happy that this film’s finally getting the light that it deserves. To say I’ve been in scenes with Carrie Fisher, it’s insane. She’s an icon — a legend,...

Rita Ora is opening up about working with Carrie Fisher on her final movie before she died in 2016 after suffering from a heart attack.

Fisher’s final project, Wonderwell, was released in June. The magical coming-of-age story set in Italy follows a young girl named Violet (newcomer Kiera Milward) after she becomes the face of a world-renowned designer’s (Ora) fashion label. When Violet wanders into a forest near the village she and her family are staying in, she meets the “fabled” witch of the forest, Hazel, portrayed by the Star Wars actress.

Ora recalled working with Fisher as “an amazing experience,” adding, “I’m really actually surprised and happy that this film’s finally getting the light that it deserves,” the singer told People. “To say I’ve been in scenes with Carrie Fisher, it’s insane. She’s an icon — a legend.”

Wonderwell wrapped production shortly before Fisher...

Carrie Fisher’s last movie — a magical coming-of-age tale set in Italy — has released its first trailer.

Wonderwell sees a young girl named Violet (portrayed by newcomer Kiera Milward) and her American family — including sister Savannah (Tiger Free) — move to Italy after she becomes the face of a world-renowned designer’s (Rita Ora) fashion label. When Violet wanders into a forest near the enchanting medieval village her family has come to stay in, she meets a “fabled” witch of the forest, Fisher’s Hazel.

Guided by the witch into a mysterious portal, Violet glimpses what her future holds, while discovering she may be facing a journey from which there is no return. The film’s logline describes it as “a thrilling, humorous and often terrifying voyage.” Within an imaginary and enchanting realm, the inquisitive tween will have an experience that transforms her — and her world — forever.

The minute-and-a-half trailer teases...

Exclusive: Carrie Fisher’s last movie Wonderwell is finally getting released after a “perilous” seven-year journey to screen.

The Star Wars icon, who passed away in late 2016 just six weeks after wrapping on the fantasy movie, leads cast alongside singer and actress Rita Ora (Fifty Shades of Grey), Nell Tiger Free (Servant), Sebastian Croft (Heartstopper) and newcomer Kiera Milward.

Vertical has acquired North America and UK/Ire rights to Vlad Marsavin’s under-the-radar directorial debut and is lining up a limited theatrical run via AMC in the U.S. from June 23, 2023, followed by a digital release.

“The journey we have taken as filmmakers with this movie, has been as perilous as that of the movie itself,” explained director Marsavin about the delayed release. “From filming to screen it has taken us seven years. The visual effects on a movie of this magnitude takes time, but we were challenged with Covid...

Uruguay’s Coral Cine is closing Spanish distribution rights with Barcelona-based A Contracorriente Films for its documentary “Benedetti, 60 Años con Luz,” which chronicles the 60-year love story of renowned Uruguayan author-poet Mario Benedetti and his wife Luz López Alegre, helmed by Coral Cine’s Andres Varela and shot by Oscar-nominated DoP Cesar Charlone (“City of God”).

Charlone is the sole juror of the ongoing 2nd Arca International Festival of Films on Art (Jan. 2-7).

Mexico’s Vendo Cine is snagging Mexican rights while Buenos Aires and L.A.-based international sales company Punctum, which focuses exclusively on Latin American documentaries, has grabbed worldwide sales rights.

A Contracorriente first eyed the doc at the Iberseries & Platino Iberoamerican film-tv event last September in Madrid. Doc has since opened in Uruguay where it played for an unprecedented 12 weeks, said Varela.

In other exclusive news, Fernando Meirelles’ O2 Filmes has boarded Coral Cine...

Yes, your first assumption is correct – Kidnapping Mr. Heineken details the imprisonment of Amsterdam’s most iconic beer entrepreneur, and even more shocking is that it’s based on a true crime. Back in 1983, Freddy Heineken and his driver Ab Doderer were kidnapped by local scoundrels and then released some three weeks later for 35 million Dutch guilders – the largest ransom ever paid for one individual. As an avid beer drinker and alcohol culture snob, my complete ignorance of the real event is surprising and shameful, but Daniel Alfredson does an amicable job of filling in the blanks. Peter R. de Vries’s source novelization serves as a proper jumping point for writer William Brookfield, as he and Alfredson find a tense balance between historical recreation and cinematic embellishment – either of which can easily sink a true story when handled clumsily.

This is typically the point where I explain a film’s central plot,...

Kidnapping Mr. Heineken Alchemy Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade:  B Director:  Daniel Alfredson   Screenwriter:  William Brookfield, based on the journalistic reports of Peter de Vries Cast:  Anthony Hopkins, Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten Screened at:  Review 1, NYC, 2/5/15 Opens:  March 6, 2015 Did you ever wonder how rich guys have to be before they will hire bodyguards?  When Bill Gates is shown on TV, his bodyguards must be at a discreet distance away.  Surely he has a couple of them with him at all times, perhaps even more than President Obama enjoys.  Kidnapping becomes far too tempting for a rich or  [ Read More ]

The post Kidnapping Mr. Heineken Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Check out the brand new trailer for Kidnapping Mr. Heineken.

Based on a true story, Kidnapping Mr. Heineken stars Anthony Hopkins, Sam Worthington, Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten.

In 1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one of the richest men in the world, the heir of the Heineken beer empire (Anthony Hopkins). The shocking capture–by gunpoint in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam–resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for a kidnapped individual.

It was truly the perfect crime…until they got away with it.

The film is adapted by William Brookfield from the best-selling book by Peter R. de Vries.

Directed by Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest), Kidnapping Mr. Heineken is set for a release on iTunes/VOD and in theaters March 6 by Alchemy (formerly Millennium Entertainment).

Visit the...

There's a chance you might remember a foreign film called The Heineken Kidnapping starring Rutger Hauer, about the abduction of Alfred Heineken, the heir to the beer empire of the same name. Well, there was another film about the same event, but Kidnapping Mr. Heineken puts more of a focus on the thriller nature of the story with Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten and Jim Sturgess attempting to pull of what would become one of the biggest crimes of the decade. But rather than the plan going wrong, the kidnapping of Mr. Heineken (Anthony Hopkins) actually works, but that's just the beginning. Watch! Here's the first trailer for Daniel Alfredson's Kidnapping Mr. Heineken, originally from Yahoo: Kidnapping Mr. Heineken is directed by Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played with Fire) and written by William Brookfield. In 1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one...

Crime doesn’t pay. Except, apparently, when it does. The kidnapping case of Alfred "Freddy" Heineken in the 1980s became famous for resulting in the biggest ransom for one person in history. And now the incident has been brought to the screen, with the first trailer for Kidnapping Mr. Heineken arriving via Yahoo.Daniel Alfredson, who worked two of the original Millennium Trilogy TV movies, has directed this one, with Anthony Hopkins suiting up to play the target himself, Freddy Heineken.Sam Worthington, Jim Sturgess, Ryan Kwanten, Mark van Eeuwen and Thomas Cocquerel are playing the men who hatched the scheme to swipe Freddy and hold him hostage. But despite a carefully crafted plan, things didn’t exactly go their way: while Heineken and his driver Ab Doderer were eventually released after payment of a 35 million guilder ransom, the criminals were eventually caught and served prison terms.One version of...

The crime thriller is the first acquisition to be announced by the company formerly known as Millennium Entertainment.

Anthony Hopkins stars in Kidnapping Mr. Heineken, which will open theatrically and on VOD on March 6 and is expected to be the first of several deals with producers Informant Media.

Daniel Alfredson directed the film, which also stars Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten, Mark van Eeuwen, Tom Cocquerel and Jemima West.

Kidnapping Mr. Heineken is based on real events and takes place in the 1980s when a gang abducted the beer magnate, resulting in the largest ransom ever paid for an individual.

William Brookfield adapted the screenplay from the book by Peter R de Vries.

“Judy Cairo and Michael A Simpson have a taste level and track record that exemplify the kind of producers Alchemy is cultivating creative partnerships with,” said Alchemy CEO Bill Lee “In Kidnapping Mr. Heineken they bring us an elevated caper film that’s...

Informant Media’s true-tale thriller Kidnapping Mr. Heineken has been acquired by Alchemy, the company formerly known as Millennium Entertainment, which has set a March release in theaters and on VOD. Anthony Hopkins stars as the titular beer baron Alfred “Freddy” Heineken, who was kidnapped in Amsterdam in 1983 by five boyhood friends, resulting in the largest ransom ever paid.

Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten, Mark van Eeuwen, Tom Cocquerel and Jemima West also star in the Daniel Alfredson-directed film, adapted by William Brookfield from the best-selling book by Peter R. de Vries.

Alchemy will release the film March 6.

At 3 minutes and 26 seconds, this seems to be more of a showreel than a trailer – but it certainly whets the appetite for Kidnapping Freddy Heineken, regardless. Directed by Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played With Fire), and written by William Brookfield (Doctor Sleep), the film is based on the work of Dutch investigative journalist and crime reporter, Peter R de Vries, who wrote ‘The Heineken Case’ in 1983, and ‘The Kidnapping of Alfred Heineken’ in 1987.

Heineken was Chairman and CEO of the brewing company, Heineken International, and was known to be one of the richest people in the Netherlands when he was kidnapped in 1983. His captors – Cor van Hout, William Holleeder, Jan Boelaard, Frans Meijer and Martin Erkamps – demanded a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders which, when received, made it the highest ransom ever paid for one person.

The film details the planning and execution of the kidnapping, as well as...

Across his long and illustrious career, Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins has portrayed a great many colorful real-life characters, from Us President Richard Nixon to horror legend Alfred Hitchcock. Now, he’s set to play another figure from history, in the second of two biopics currently in his pipeline. After playing Ernest Hemingway in Andy Garcia’s Hemingway and Fuentes, Hopkins will portray Dutch brewery magnate Freddy Heineken for director Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played With Fire), in Informant Media’s true-history action thriller Kidnapping Freddy Heineken.

Though most people are familiar with the Heineken brand, very few are aware of the ordeal faced by the late businessman in 1983 when he, along with his driver Ab Doderer, were abducted at gunpoint by five amateur Dutch gangsters. A huge ransom of $35 million Dutch guilders ($16 million euros) was eventually paid for the hostages by Heineken’s family. The kidnappers were eventually captured,...

Sam Worthington ("Avatar"), Ryan Kwanten ("True Blood"), Jim Sturgess ("Upside Down"), and Dutch actor Mark van Eeuwen are set to join Anthony Hopkins in the action-thriller "Kidnapping Freddy Heineken" from Informant Media.

The story chronicles the 1983 kidnapping of Dutch beer magnate Freddy Heineken and his driver Ab Doderer. The two were released after payment of a record ransom of around $50 million.

Daniel Alfredson ("The Girl Who Played with Fire") directs from a script by William Brookfield ("Rough Magic") based on a book by Peter R. de Vries.

Howard Meltzer, Judy Cairo and Michael A. Simpson will produce. Filming begins late October in Belgium.

Source: Variety...

“Avatar” star Sam Worthington, “Cloud Atlas” actor Jim Sturgess and “True Blood” stud Ryan Kwanten will join Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in Informant Media’s international action-thriller “Kidnapping Freddy Heineken,” the company announced Tuesday. Daniel Alfredson, who directed both sequels to the original Swedish adaptation of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” will direct from a script by UK-based writer William Brookfield, who adapted the bestselling book by Netherlands crime journalist Peter R. de Vries. Also read: ‘True Blood’ Star Ryan Kwanten Plays Marvel Villain in New Short Film Story follows one of the most notorious kidnappings of the 21st Century,...

Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington and Ryan Kwanten have joined the cast of Kidnapping Freddy Heineken. Embankment Films handles pre-sales.

As previously announced by ScreenDaily, Anthony Hopkins will star in Daniel Alfredson’s action thriller. Alfredson is best known for directing two of the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

Dutch actor Mark van Eeuwen and Australian newcomer Tom Cocquerel have also joined the production, set to begin shooting later this month in Belgium before moving on to Amsterdam and New Orleans.

Hopkins will portray brewery magnate Freddy Heineken, who was kidnapped along with his chauffeur in 1983 and eventually released for a 35 million Dutch guilder ransom, roughly equivalent to $50m by today’s standards.

William Brookfield adapted the screenplay from Dutch investigative reporter Peter de Vries’ bestseller.

Informant Media partners Judy Cairo and Michael A Simpson produce alongside Howard Meltzer under the Informant Europe label.

Informant partner...

Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten and Anthony Hopkins have joined the cast of Kidnapping Freddy Heineken. Embankment Films handles pre-sales.

Daniel Alfredson of The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest fame will direct the action thriller.

Dutch actor Mark van Eeuwen and Australian newcomer Tom Cocquerel have also joined the production, set to begin shooting later this month in Belgium before moving on to Amsterdam and New Orleans.

Hopkins will portray the brewery magnate Freddy Heineken who was kidnapped along with his chauffeur in 1983 and eventually released for a 35mn Dutch guilder ransom, roughly equivalent to $50m by today’s standards. William Brookfield adapted the screenplay from Dutch investigative reporter Peter de Vries’ bestseller.

Informant Media partners Judy Cairo and Michael A Simpson produce alongside Howard Meltzer under the Informant Europe label.

Informant partner Eric Brenner serves as one of the executive producers and the project financiers are [link...

Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten and Anthony Hopkins have joined the cast of Kidnapping Freddy Heineken. Embankment Films handles pre-sales.

Daniel Alfredson of The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest fame will direct the action thriller.

Dutch actor Mark van Eeuwen and Australian newcomer Tom Cocquerel have also joined the production, set to begin shooting later this month in Belgium before moving on to Amsterdam and New Orleans.

Hopkins will portray the brewery magnate Freddy Heineken who was kidnapped along with his chauffeur in 1983 and eventually released for a 35mn Dutch guilder ransom, roughly equivalent to $50m by today’s standards. William Brookfield adapted the screenplay from Dutch investigative reporter Peter de Vries’ bestseller.

Informant Media partners Judy Cairo and Michael A Simpson produce alongside Howard Meltzer under the Informant Europe label.

Informant partner Eric Brenner serves as one of the executive producers and the project financiers are [link...

Ryan Kwanten ("True Blood"), Jim Sturgess ( Cloud Atlas ) and Sam Worthington ( Avatar ) are set to star opposite the previously-announced Anthony Hopkins in Kidnapping Freddy Heineken , Variety reports. Daniel Alfredson ( The Girl Who Played with Fire ) is directing from a script by William Brookfield, in turn based on Peter R. de Vries. book of the same name. The true crime thriller, which, as the title implies, details the 1983 kidnapping of the beer magnate, Alfred Henry "Freddy" Heineken and his driver. Kidnapping Freddy Heineken is set to shoot this month in Belgium with additional production planned for both Amsterdam and New Orleans. Judy Cairo and Michael A. Simpson are producing through Informant Media, as is Howard Meltzer for Informant...

“Tracking Shot” is a monthly featurette here on Ioncinema.com that looks at a dozen or so projects that are moments away from lensing and this October we see a couple of items that we could certainly circle as potential Cannes 2014 bait. Thanks to our friends at Production Weekly for the helping hand in curating our list of future must see items.

Among the top foreign film productions, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover‘s Peter Greenaway is looking at a late October, possible November start to begin filming a fragment of the great Soviet master filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s bio timeline. Eisenstein In Guanajuato will cover the portion of the filmmaker’s post Battleship Potemkin career, with Eisenstein landing in Mexico after Hollywood studios balked at the idea of working with him and in its place finds romance. The Girl Who Played with Fire‘s Daniel Alfredson...

AMC is developing a slate of miniseries with an eye toward following up on the success of its first effort in the genre, Broken Trail.

The Rainbow Media Holdings-owned cable channel is looking to try its hand at a war epic, with projects in consideration from such scribes as Michael Blake (Dances With Wolves), Michael Nankin (Battlestar Galactica) and John Leckley (Spawn).

AMC is looking to have its next miniseries in production by year's end for broadcast in 2008. The goal is to get the audience and acclaim that followed Trail, a Western starring Robert Duvall that was the highest-rated longform program on cable in 2006.

"Viewers really noticed projects of intelligence and high quality, and we are focused on producing only those for AMC," said Rob Sorcher, executive vp programming and production.

Among the projects in development include the Civil War drama Against the Guns of Quantrill, from Blake and executive producer Lou Morheim (The Magnificent Seven); Berlin Mesa, a drama about Nazis attempting to steal nuclear secrets, from Michael Frost Beckner (Spygame) and executive producer John Baldecchi (The Mexican); L-19, a fact-based drama on a German Zeppelin crash during World War I, from William Brookfield (Close Your Eyes) and executive producers Gub Neal and Justin Thompson (Case of Evil); and White Rose, revolving around a youth uprising in Nazi Germany, from Leekley, who would also executive produce.

In the effectively creepy "Close Your Eyes", "ER" regular Goran Visnjic retains his medical license as a psychic hypnotherapist who's recruited by British police to uncover the identity of a traumatized young girl's twisted kidnapper.

Based on the novel "Doctor Sleep" by Madison Smartt Bell, the atmospheric psychological thriller weaves a compelling web thanks to dense, stylized direction by Nick Willing and a smartly assembled cast.

The First Look release, shot in 2001, is certainly worth a look, though it's done no favors by a title that can be too easily confused with Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes", not to mention "Close My Eyes", a 1991 Alan Rickman-Clive Owen film.

In his first lead feature role,

Visnjic carries a soft-spoken authority as Dr. Michael Strother, who has relocated to London with his very pregnant wife (Miranda Otto) and daughter Lauren Gabrielle Volpert) after leaving behind some unpleasant business back home in America.

Hoping to start again with a small practice helping patients to quit smoking, he's sidetracked by a detective (dark-eyed Shirley Henderson) who has been working on the case of a girl (Sophie Stuckey) rendered speechless after being kidnapped by a presumed ritual killer.

The pair embark on a rather unorthodox procedural that leads them down an eerie path filled with spooky old churches and the liturgies of 16th century religious fanatics.

Director Willing, who also adapted the script with William Brookfield, knows a thing or two about mood-setting, having helmed the lavish NBC miniseries "Alice in Wonderland" and "Jason and the Argonauts".

Here, he allows the intrigue to unfold against a bleak contemporary London backdrop that appears to be in a constant state of transition, from the dusty construction sites that surround Strother's working environment to those imposing houses of worship that have been converted to everything from theaters to luxury apartment complexes.

Given the Gothic window dressing, all Vijsnic, Henderson and company (also including Paddy Considine, Fiona Shaw and Corin Redgrave) are required to do is to act naturally, and they admirably resist the temptation to nibble on all that tasty scenery.

It's not exactly a great mystery to see why Clare Peploe's "Rough Magic" has been floating around in release limbo for the past couple of years.

One of those steeped-in-magic-and-mysticism pictures, this deliberate confusion of screen conventions quickly wears out its overly perky welcome.

Like "Wilder Napalm" and "The Linguini Incident" before it, "Rough Magic" should serve as a handy example of "now you see it, now you don't" at the boxoffice.

Bridget Fonda is Myra Shumway, a magician's assistant in 1950s Los Angeles. She hightails it to Mexico in her shiny Buick convertible when her aspiring politician fiance, Cliff (D.W. Moffett), inadvertently shoots and kills the fatherly illusionist, played by Kenneth Mars.

There she meets up with Doc Ansell (Jim Broadbent), a street huckster who sells Miracle Elixir to the townsfolk; as well as Alex Ross Russell Crowe), a world-weary newspaperman who has been dispatched by Cliff to retrieve a roll of film from Myra that implicates him in the murder.

Of course, Alex ends up falling for the unwitting Myra, but not before she encounters a powerful Mayan sorceress (Euva Anderson), who endows her with the ability to lay giant tarantula eggs, turn annoying men into sausages and bestow on dogs the gift of speech, among other talents.

Peploe, who based her fractured fable on James Hadley Chase's "Miss Shumway Waves a Wand" (with an assist from William Brookfield and Robert Mundy), is obviously a big fan of the novel, but it would have been better left unfilmed. The story's flights of fancy work more effectively on the printed page, where the reader's imagination can take over. On the screen, they're self-consciously precious and grow rapidly tiresome.

The leads are similarly out of kilter. Dressed and coiffed to resemble, say, Veronica Lake and Joseph Cotten, Fonda and Crowe have the looks down but little of the substance or pulp. Old pro Jim Broadbent fares better as the Sydney Greenstreet-esque quack, while funnyman Paul Rodriguez scores some character points as a slimy thug who gets his just deserts.

Visually, the picture hits its requisite marks with some strong period production design from Waldemar Kalinowski and costume design from Richard

Hornung. DP John J. Campbell does some nice things with bright light that help conjure the magical realism.

ROUGH MAGIC

Goldwyn distributed through Metromedia Entertainment Group

UGC Images and Recorded Picture Company

present

in association with Martin Scorsese

A UGC Images production

A Clare Peploe film

Director:Clare Peploe

Producers:Laurie Parker and Declan Baldwin

Screenwriters:Robert Mundy and William Brookfield & Clare Peploe

Based on the novel "Miss Shumway Waves a Wand" by: James Hadley Chase

Executive producers:Yves Attal, Jonathan Taplin, Andrew Karsch

Director of photography:John J. Campbell

Production designer:Waldemar Kalinowski

Editor:Suzanne Fenn

Music:Richard Hartley

Costume designer:Richard Hornung

Color/stereo

Cast:

Myra Shumway:Bridget Fonda

Alex Ross:Russell Crowe

Doc Ansell:Jim Broadbent

Cliff Wyatt:D.W. Moffett

Magician:Kenneth Mars

Diego:Paul Rodriguez

Diego's Wife/Tojola:Euva Anderson

Running time -- 104 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13...