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Actor Idris Elba made his feature directorial debut with the 2018 crime drama Yardie, and earlier this year we heard that he would be following that up with an action thriller called Infernus. That movie was supposed to get started filming in October, but appears to have been disrupted by the strikes. So while we wait to hear what’s going to happen with Infernus, The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Elba is teaming up with Martin Owen (The Loneliest Boy in the World) to co-direct a survival thriller called Above the Below… and this one is already in production!

Above the Below started filming last week at Pinewood Studios, using two separate stages – including the studio’s underwater stage. In addition to co-directing, Elba also stars in the movie alongside Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (the After franchise).

Owen came up with the initial idea for the film,...

Idris Elba is set to star in the survival thriller Above the Below for Lionsgate after earlier boarding the U.K. indie as director.

Lionsgate picked up the worldwide rights to the project, which started filming last week at Pinewood Studios on two stages, including the studio’s underwater stage. Elba will helm Above the Below with Martin Owen (The Loneliest Boy in The World), and will star alongside actress and filmmaker Caitlin FitzGerald and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who earlier worked with Owen on The Loneliest Boy in the World.

Above the Below sees a tight-knit trio of astronauts survive a chaotic and destructive re-entry to Earth, only to find themselves off course and completely cut off from the world. As their capsule begins to sink into the unknown depths of the ocean, their battle for survival kicks off.

Elba plays Jackson, the mission commander leading the team. FitzGerald is Brooks,...

Following his feature film directorial debut with the 2018 drama ‘Yardie,’ Idris Elba will co-direct with Martin Owen on the British indie survival thriller ‘Above The Beyond.’

The story follows a tight-knit trio of astronauts who survive a chaotic and destructive re-entry to Earth, only to find themselves off course and completely cut off from the world. As their capsule begins to sink into the unknown depths of the ocean, their battle for survival has only just begun.

The script has been developed by Future Artists Entertainment, from an original idea by Martin Owen, written by screenwriters Elizabeth Morris, Matt Mitchell and Vicki Sargent. Cast will be announced soon.

Also in news – First look images drop for ‘William Tell’

The film is produced by Future Artists Entertainment’s Matt Williams (Bank Of Dave, PokerFace) and Gina Carter (See How They Run, Yardie) Former Managing Director of Goldcrest Films Pascal Degove will Executive Produce.

Elba’s second feature as director after 2018’s ‘Yardie’.

Idris Elba will direct his second feature film, co-directing UK independent survival thriller Above The Below with Martin Owen.

The film will shoot at the UK’s Pinewood Studios under Pact/Equity contracts. Lionsgate will launch sales on the film at the upcoming American Film Market.

Above The Below is based on an original idea by Owen, with a script written by Elizabeth Morris, Matt Mitchell and Vicki Sargent, developed by Owen’s Future Artists Entertainment.

Matt Williams produces for Future Artists Entertainment with Gina Carter; Pascal Degove is executive producer.

Delroy Lindo to star in, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje to direct ‘Last Meals’.

Sentient Entertainment founder and CEO Renee Tab and producer Christopher Tuffin have launched sales, production and finance company Sentient Pictures International (Spi) and will oversee alongside former Relativity COO Andrew Marcus and Taken director Pierre Morel.

Boutique management and production company Sentient and Spi will function as separately owned and operated entities. Spi announced on Thursday (10) an inaugural sales slate led by Sentient productions Last Meals with Delroy Lindo and Boyd Holbrook and sci-fi thriller D.O.A. which Morel will direct, and produce with Tab and Tuffin.

Adewale...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment inks deal with Goldcrest.

Vertical Entertainment has acquired all Us rights to supernatural thriller Slumber, starring Maggie Q (Divergent).

Director Jonathan Hopkins’ movie is being lined up for a theatrical release in the Us in Q4, 2017.

Richard Hobley and Hopkins’ screenplay charts the story of Alice (Maggie Q), a rationally minded sleep doctor, who is forced to abandon scientific reason and accept a family is being terrorised by a parasitic demon which paralyses victims as they sleep.

The film is produced by The Tea Shop & Film Company’s Mark Lane and James Harris and by Pascal Degove for Goldcrest Films, which handles sales on the project.

Vertical’s 2016 releases included Other People and Under The Shadow.

The 2017 slate includes Blind, starring Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore, and Dylan McDermott; Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome starring Teresa Palmer and Max Riemelt; and Toa Fraser’s 6 Days, starring Abbie Cornish, Jamie Bell, and Mark Strong...

Untitled project will chronicle the author’s marriage to actress Patricia Neal.

Hugh Bonneville will play Roald Dahl in a new film exploring the novelist’s marriage to Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal.

London-based outfit Goldcrest Films are financing and will introduce the project to the market at Cannes.

Set at the beginning of the 1960s, the film explores Dahl’s struggles to write some of his most famous works and Neal’s return to acting with Hud (for which she won an Oscar).

An acclaimed British children’s author, Dahl’s works included James And The Giant Peach, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Matilda.

John Hay will direct from his own screenplay which he co-wrote with David Logan. The pair previously collaborated on the Emmy-winning TV drama Lost Christmas.

Currently untitled, their new project is based on Stephen Michael Shearer’s novel An Unquiet Life.

Elliot Jenkins is producing for Atticus Pictures and Pascal Degove will produce...

Exclusive: Redford, Chan to narrate English and Mandarin versions of BBC documentary sequel; Goldcrest handles sales.

Robert Redford and Jackie Chan have been set to narrate the English and Mandarin versions of documentary Earth: One Amazing Day, the sequel to 2007 box office hit Earth.

Directed by Peter Webber (The Girl With The Pearl Earring) and Richard Dale (The Human Body) the film is currently in post-production at the BBC Earth Films’ studio.

Script comes from Frank Cottrell-Boyce (The Railway Man) while score is overseen by Alex Heffes (The Last King Of Scotland).

The Mandarin-language version will be co-directed by Lixin Fan (Last Train); screenwriter Geling Yan (Flowers of War) and music producer Roc Chen (Chinese music consultant on Kung Fu Panda 3) are also on board.

The film will tell the story of one day in the life of the planet, “celebrating the billions of real-life dramas that occur in the natural world every day”.

A co-production between...

Exclusive: Goldcrest boards sequel to doc which took more than $110m worldwide; film is first under UK-China co-pro treaty.

Goldcrest Films has boarded world sales rights (excluding China, Germany, Hk, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and UK) to BBC Earth Films and Smg Pictures’ nature documentary Earth: One Amazing Day, the sequel to Earth, the 2007 box-office hit that grossed more than $110m worldwide.

Goldcrest cut the all-rights deal with BBC Worldwide and while some key territories are off the table Goldcrest will crucially handle sales in Us, where the original made more than $30m, and France, where it scored more than $11m.

BBC Worldwide will retain rights in all excluded territories to the standalone feature.

The film is directed by Oscar-nominated Peter Webber (The Girl With The Pearl Earing) and BAFTA nominee Richard Dale (The Human Body). The film will tell the story of one day in the life of the planet, “celebrating the billions...

Exclusive: The Riot Club duo join Charlotte Rampling in upcoming comedy sold by Goldcrest.

Holliday Grainger (Cinderella) and Max Irons (Woman In Gold) are to join Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) in Jane Austen adaptation Sanditon, which is due to shoot in the UK in June.

The adaptation of Jane Austen’s never-before dramatised final novel will be directed by Jim O’Hanlon (A Hundred Streets), director of the 2009 BBC TV adaptation of Austen’s Emma.

Script comes from British playwright Simon Reade who produces with Guy de Beaujeu for Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful). Goldcrest Films will finance and handle sales.

In Sanditon, when Charlotte Heywood (Holliday Grainger) is invited by eternal optimist and entrepreneur Tom Parker to spend the summer season at Sanditon she accepts immediately, intrigued to see (not so) polite society at play in the newly fashionable sea bathing resort.

There she meets a host of classic Austen characters from the imperious nouveau-riche Lady Denham (Rampling...

Exclusive: Divergent and Stalker star leads thriller now underway in UK, will also executive-produce; Goldcrest to sell.

The Divergent Series star Maggie Q will lead cast in supernatural thriller Slumber, which has begun principal photography in the UK.

Will Kemp (Van Helsing), Sylvester McCoy (The Hobbit) and William Hope (Sherlock Holmes) co-star in the feature, which marks the feature debut of commercials director Jonathan Hopkins, who has worked on ads for ebay, McDonald’s and Sony.

Goldcrest is shopping at the Efm and will co-finance.

Q will play Alice, a rationally minded sleep doctor, who is forced to abandon scientific reason when she meets a family being terrorised by a parasitic demon known as the ‘Night hag’ which paralyses victims as they sleep.

The rising actress, who made her feature splash in Mission Impossible 3, starred in the Kevin Williamson CBS series Stalker between 2014 and 2015 and was this week announced in new ABC series Designated Survivor with [link=nm...

Exclusive: Goldcrest boards sales on adaptation of Austen’s final novel.

Oscar-nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) is to star in a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s never-before dramatised final novel Sanditon.

Jim O’Hanlon (A Hundred Streets), director of the 2009 BBC TV adaptation of Austen’s Emma, will direct from a script by British playwright Simon Reade who produces with Guy de Beaujeu for Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful).

Goldcrest Film has boarded sales and finance on the project on the verge of the Efm. Goldcrest’s Nick Quested and Pascal Degove will serve as executive producers.

Production is anticipated to begin in summer 2016 in the UK with additional casting underway.

Austen died in July, 1817 having written the first eleven chapters of Sanditon. The unfinished manuscript, which blends the writer’s hallmark coruscating satire and romantic comedy, was bequeathed to her niece.

Rampling is due to play the imperious nouveau-riche Lady Denham in the feature which charts the story...

Exclusive: Cabin In The Woods star joins supernatural thriller.

Cabin In The Woods and House Of Cards star Kristen Connolly is to topline supernatural thriller Slumber, which Goldcrest will be selling at the American Film Market (Afm) (Nov 4-11).

Shooting is due to start at the end of January 2016 on the feature debut of well-known commercials director Jonathan Hopkins with additional casting currently underway.

Slumber tells the story of Alice (Connolly), a rationally-minded sleep doctor, who is forced to abandon scientific reason when confronted by a family that being terrorised by a parasitic demon.

Slumber is written by Hopkins and 2013 Blood List screenwriter Richard Hobley. It will be produced by Mark Lane and James Harris of The Tea Shop & Film Company, who are also producing claustrophobic thriller 47 Meters Down for eOne and Dimension.

Executive producers are Nick Quested and Pascal Degove for Goldcrest Films.

Goldcrest first introduced the project last year and has been showing distributors a teaser...

Goldcrest boards thriller from iconic comedy-horror director.

Joe Dante (Gremlins) is set to direct Labirintus, a supernatural-thriller set in the catacombs beneath Buda Castle in Hungary.

Goldcrest Films International has boarded sales on the project and will launch the project at the Afm (Nov 4-11).

Production is due to begin early next spring with casting underway on the story of a paranormal investigator and psychiatric researcher who join forces to explore an abandoned subterranean Soviet research facility, hidden within the Budapest Labyrinth.

When supernatural forces confound and torment the group they begin to question their own sanity. To escape they must quash their fears and lead their team to find and destroy the dark heart of the maze.

Dante described the script as “compelling” and “chilling” and expressed excitement to be working with the team behind the new thriller.

Producers are Fabrice Lambot of France’s Metaluna Productions, Lucy Mukerjee-Brown of Mukerjee-Brown Productions, Elizabeth Stanley of [link...

Exclusive: UK sales outfit boards international rights to directorial debut of Zack Whedon.

Goldcrest Films has boarded international sales rights to the feature debut of writer-director Zack Whedon (Deadwood), Come And Find Me, starring Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle).

Currently shooting in Vancouver, Come and Find Me, which appeared on the 2012 Black List, follows the character of David (Paul) who must track down his missing girlfriend after he realizes she is not who she claimed to be.

Producers are Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Sinister) for Automatik Entertainment, Leon Clarance (Sense8) for Motion Picture Capital and Chris Ferguson for Oddfellows Entertainment.

Executive producers are Laure Vaysse and Jo Monk.

Goldcrest Films MD Pascal Degove will launch sales at Toronto. Wme will handle domestic sales.

Degove said: “Come and Find Me is a truly compelling script – a real edge-of-your-seat thriller, which, in the hands of such established and emerging talent, both in front of and behind the camera...

Exclusive: Pulp Fiction star boards in-demand thriller remake.

Samuel L. Jackson has signed on to play in Simon West’s (Con Air) remake of 1958 cult classic The Blob, which is due to shoot this fall with additional casting due to be announced shortly.

The sci-fi thriller follows the mayhem caused by an alien life form that threatens a small town.

Jackson will play a biochemistry professor attempting to thwart the other-worldly predator discovered deep within the earth.

Goldcrest, which is shopping the film in Cannes, has reportedly seen strong demand for the film in key territories.

Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten will produce along with Jack Harris, the 96-year-old producer of the original 1958 film, Judith Parker Harris, and Tae Won Chung.

Goldcrest Post will be providing picture and sound post production services and visual effects under supervisor Chris Haney (Avatar).

Director West said: “I have been waiting to work with Samuel L. Jackson my whole career. He is...

Exclusive: Cast rounds on Goldcrest’s Liz Garbus-Galt Niederhoffer comedy.

Alan Rickman, Katie Holmes, Evan Rachel Wood and Zosia Mamet have joined Liz Garbus comedy Taxonomy ahead of the Efm.

Goldcrest will be tempting buyers with the hot indie package, which is based on Galt Niederhoffer’s novel A Taxonomy of Barnacles.

Holmes, Wood and Mamet will star as the New York-raised Barnacle sisters who share a gigantic apartment overlooking Central Park with their self-made and Darwin obsessed father Barry.

Rickman will play Barry Barnacle who is increasingly frustrated by the unending chaos of being surrounded by beautiful, teenage daughters and their adventures in love and life.

Robot & Frank producer Niederhoffer will produce with Amy Hobby (Secretary) for Tangerine Entertainment.

Production is due to get underway in New York this spring.

Acclaimed documentary director Garbus (Bobby Fischer Against the World) will direct Amy Lippman’s (Masters of Sex) script.

Goldcrest’s [link...

According to Deadline, director Simon West (Expendables 2) will helm the remake of the 1958 campy horror film, The Blob. Co-produced by Goldcrest Films, Taewon Entertainment and A-List Corporation, the film is expected to start shooting in the summer.

The original film, which starred Steve McQueen, tells the story of an alien gelatinous form that wrecks havoc in Downingtown, Pa by eating the people that live there. The film had a sequel in 1972 called Beware! The Blob and was first remade in 1988. Regarding the new film, director

Simon West said the following:

“With modern CGI we can now fully realize the potential of The Blob. The world I create will be totally believable, immersive and emotionally satisfying. It’s a thrill to introduce an enduring icon to a wider audience and a whole new era of fans.”

Meanwhile, Pascal Degove, Managing Director of Goldcrest said:

“Simon West has a unique gift for blending cutting edge effects,...

B-movie classic The Blob is getting another remake. Why? I couldn’t tell you, but here we are. Goldcrest Films is moving forward with the project, which the studio has set The Expendables 2 helmer Simon West to direct.

The 1958 cult classic, directed by Irvin Yeaworth, starred a young Steve McQueen as a teenager whose small Pennsylvania hometown is unexpectedly threatened when a gelatinous alien life-form emerges from a meteor and begins to consume the townfolk, growing larger in size with every new victim and oozing forward with no indication of stopping.

The Blob, though received with mixed reviews at the time of its release, is now held up as a prime example of B-movie entertainment. It birthed a sequel, Larry Hagman’s 1972 Beware! The Blob, and was previously remade in 1988 by Chuck Russell. Producers on this remake are Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten.

West said of his new take:...

Once you’re absorbed by its terror, you can’t even scream. The slimy mass that is the Blob first thrilled audiences when it took on Steve McQueen on the big screen in 1958. It next oozed into cinemas via the 1972 sequel, Beware! The Blob, before being reborn in a 1988 remake directed by Chuck Russell and co-written by Frank Darabont. Proving that it’s still a relentless alien amoeba, 1958’s The Blob is being remade once again.

Goldcrest Films is moving forward with a remake of The Blob, with Simon West (The Expendables 2, Con Air) lined up for the director’s chair and shooting slated to begin this summer. Modern-day special effects capabilities are expected to bring the Blob to life like never before, and Chris Haney (Avatar, Avengers Assemble) will oversee the VFX in post-production.

Linking the upcoming remake to the original, Jack Harris, the producer of 1958’s The Blob,...

Golcrest to launch sci-fi remake at Efm; UTA rep Us.

Con Air director Simon West is to direct a remake of sci-fi classic The Blob.

Goldcrest will launch sales on the title at the Efm and will co-produce alongside Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten and co-financiers Taewon Entertainment & A-List Corporation.

Production on the remake of the 1958 sci-fi classic about an alien life-form that threatens a small town is due to get underway this summer.

Taewon Entertainment & A-List Corporation, based in Korea, will co-finance as their first major English-language project.

Jack Harris, the 96-year-old producer of the original 1958 film, will executive produce along with Judith Parker Harris, Shara Kay, and Laurence Freed.

Pascal Degove and Nick Quested will executive producer for Goldcrest; Tae Won Chung will executive produce for Taewon Entertainment and Ju Young You for A-List Corporation. Michael Roban, Michael Harpster, Kyu C. Lee, Armen Aghaeian, Edward Mokhtarian, Geno Tazioli, Holly Kobzina...

Exclusive: It crawls! It creeps! It’s getting a remake. Goldcrest Films is set to co-produce an update of 1958 horror/sci-fi classic The Blob. Simon West (Wild Card, The Mechanic, Expendables 2) is directing with principal photography eyed for this summer. Producers are Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten (Cell). Korea’s Taewon Entertainment and A-List Corporation are co-financing with Goldcrest.

The original film, which was released by Paramount, starred a young Steve McQueen. The story sees a gelatinous alien life-form emerge from a crashed meteor and begin to ooze through Downingtown, Pa, eating the townsfolk as it goes. Check out the original trailer below.

Goldcrest is also handling international sales and distribution and will launch the film at next month’s European Film Market in Berlin. UTA is brokering U.S. distribution rights; the agency reps West.

A 1972 sequel, Beware! The Blob, was helmed by Larry Hagman, and in 1988, Chuck Russell...

Exclusive: Goldcrest nabs rights to Stonewall starring Jeremy Irvine ahead of Efm.

UK sales outfit Goldcrest Films has nabbed international rights to Roland Emmerich’s gay rights drama Stonewall, starring Jeremy Irvine, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ron Perlman and Joey King.

Warner Bros previously acquired rights in Germany while a Us deal is understood to be in the works.

Currently in post-production, Stonewall recreates the events that culminated in the riots outside the Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, in June 1969. The events are considered by many as a turning point in the gay rights movement.

Irvine plays Danny Winters, a young man who is kicked out of his home by his parents and flees to New York where, homeless and destitute, he befriends a group of street kids who soon introduce him to the watering hole of local drag queens, gays, lesbians and everything in between: the Mafia-run Stonewall Inn.

There he meets the suave Trevor (Meyers), but catches...

PARIS -- French production and distribution powerhouse EuropaCorp. is adding a pair of new vps international sales, the company said Wednesday.

Joining the company are Tele Images/Marathon head of international Marie-Laure Montironi and London-based Odyssey Entertainment's head of sales, Pascal Degove.

The additions are part of a general restructuring of the company's international sales department.