News

The HBO Original documentary Time Bomb Y2K, directed by Brian Becker and Marley McDonald, and executive produced by award-winning filmmaker Penny Lane (HBO’s “Listening to Kenny G”), debuts Saturday, December 30 at 10:00 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. As the clock counts down to the dawn of the 21st century, the world faces the largest potential technological disaster to ever threaten humanity. The problem is comically simple yet incredibly complex – a bug that could cause computers to misinterpret the year 2000 as 1900, sowing chaos throughout the world as electronic systems failed. Crafted entirely through archival ... Read more...

Sandbox Films — the non-fiction studio behind Oscar nominee Fire of Love — has opened new New York City offices, featuring an Atmos theater.

In addition to the 22-seat theater, the studio, located in the Flatiron District, includes two edit suites and a multimedia facility designed to support a variety of production needs.

“We put a lot of thought into the design. We want our nerdy, indie doc filmmakers to feel as loved as A-list celebrities. Because, to us, they are A-list celebrities,” founder Greg Boustead tells The Hollywood Reporter. “These doc spaces don’t traditionally get the love or polish or fanfare.”

Sandbox Films Studio screening room

Boustead, who leads Sandbox with head of production and development, Jessica Harrop, notes that the goal is to bring the teams behind Sandbox productions, which focus on science-centric storytelling, under one roof. The facilities will soon be used by Sandbox production Nocturnes, which centers...

Despite the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, sales agents and distributors are convening in Santa Monica this week in the hopes of reconnecting with buyers and kicking off deal discussions at the American Film Market.

After an underwhelming Toronto Film Festival, which saw little deal activity, there’s hope that a few of the starry packages being shopped at AFM will get picked up. But given the climate in Hollywood, many projects won’t officially hit the market until February at the European Film Market in Berlin. The marketplace is not only strained by the strike but the shifting appetites and belt-tightening at the major studios and streamers. At the same time, the return of buyers from China to AFM after several years away is seen as a positive sign.

“Given the strikes and the tough global climate, many of the top international sales agents and talent agencies are holding back...

The 2023 Cinema Eye Honors have unveiled the 20 titles for its Audience Choice Prize Long List, with voting now open.

The 17th annual awards ceremony also recognized the best nonfiction and documentary films and series across five Broadcast categories and a Shorts List with 10 of the year’s top documentary short films, as well as the 20 films in the running for the Audience Choice Prize Long List.

This year’s list includes films from Cinema Eye Honors alumni including “The Eternal Memory,” “American Symphony,” “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” “Stamped from the Beginning,” “32 Sounds,” “A Compassionate Spy,” “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” “The Mission,” “The Pigeon Tunnel,” and “Stephen Curry: Underrated.”

Hulu series “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead the Broadcast Film and Series nominations with three nods each. The “1619 Project,” adapted from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s work with The New...

The 2023 Doc NYC lineup has officially been announced.

The program for the 14th annual festival includes opening night selection “The Contestant,” a real-life “Truman Show”-esque story of a Japanese comedian who was trapped alone and naked in an apartment for 15 months as part of a reality TV show. The only twist? The comedian had no idea he was being filmed. Clair Titley directs the stranger-than-fiction documentary which premiered at TIFF.

Doc NYC runs from November 8 through 26, featuring 30 world premieres and 26 U.S. premieres with more than 200 films programmed. New films from Wim Wenders, Penny Lane, Dawn Porter, and Jeff Zimbalist are among the lineup for America’s largest documentary festival, with screenings at New York City’s IFC Center, Sva Theatre, and Village East by Angelika. In-person screenings take place November 8 through 16, with online selections available through November 26.

The centerpiece screening is the world premiere of D.W. Young’s...

Tl;Dr:

The Beatles’ “Penny Lane” is about a district, not a single lane. Multiple members of The Beatles had connections to the real Penny Lane. One member of the band lived there with his parents as a child.

The Beatles‘ “Penny Lane” made the titular district a household name across the world. Despite this, only one member of The Beatles lived in Penny Lane. Reportedly, he was not the member of the band who penned the song.

The Beatles’ ‘Penny Lane’ was inspired by a place where John Lennon lived as a kid

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed Penny Lane. “Penny Lane is not only a street but it’s a district,” he said “It’s like Times Square or Columbus Avenue. When you say Columbus Avenue, you mean the whole area.

Tl;Dr:

The Beatles’ “Penny Lane” is similar to one of Hanson’s songs in an obvious way. A member of Hanson discussed the similarity. The Beatles’ “Penny Lane” was once the most popular song in the United States.

The Beatles‘ “Penny Lane” inspired one of Hanson’s songs. A member of Hanson said the tune was referencing the Fab Four on a subconscious level. Notably, the track in question appeared on one of Hanson’s successful albums.

The Beatles’ ‘Penny Lane’ inspired Hanson’s ‘Penny & Me’ in a subconscious way

During a 2004 interview with Songfacts, Hanson’s Zac Hanson said the members of his band became interested in the music of the 1960s at a young age. In addition, he was asked about his band’s song “Penny & Me.” “Penny was a reference to ‘Penny Lane,’ The Beatles,” he said. “It’s a great name, and also just referencing...

When the American Film Institute announced last year that it was merging AFI Docs, the organization’s annual Washington, D.C., documentary film festival, into the Los Angeles-based AFI Fest, Jamie Shor called Sky Sitney.

Shor, president of PR Collaborative, and Sitney, director of the film and media studies program at Georgetown, had both previously worked for AFI Docs. Shor’s publicity firm had done work for the former festival, previously known as Silverdocs, while Sitney served as AFI Docs festival director from 2005-2014.

“Sky and I were both thinking to ourselves that Washington, D.C., was not going to have a doc presence,” says Shor. “It collectively broke our hearts.”

So, the duo spent the last year and a half creating and building DC/Dox, a new nonfiction film festival based in the nation’s capital. The inaugural four-day festival kicks off on June 15 with the D.C. premiere of...

People nowadays have forgotten just how good Cameron Crowe was at his peak. For the writer-director, Almost Famous was his masterpiece, which told the story of a teenage rock journalist on tour with a mid-level rock band in the seventies. For many of us, it remains one of the greatest modern films and a masterpiece that, almost twenty-five years later, remains a cultural touchstone for many of us. In this episode of Revisited, we examine Crowe’s seminal film and how it holds up all these years later.

One of the reasons that Almost Famous was such an essential film for Crowe is that it’s autobiographical. Like Spielberg’s recent The Fabelmans, Crowe fictionalizes his story somewhat, but many of the formative events that occurred in his life happen here. Like his main character, William Miller, Crowe was a teenage rock journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine. Crowe had begun...

Tl;Dr:

A rock star said The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” complemented each other. He felt “Strawberry Fields Forever” came from the heart. He said “Penny Lane” made symbolic use of the trumpet. The Beatles’ Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr | Keystone-France / Contributor

A member of a 2000s rock band was asked to name his favorite Beatles songs. He explained why The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” were so culturally important. In addition, he discussed his unusual interpretation of “Penny Lane.”

A 2000s star said The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ paved the way for ‘Sgt. Pepper’

Guy Garvey is a member of the 2000s alternative rock band Elbow. During a 2012 interview with The Telegraph, Garvey said his two favorite Beatles songs were “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane.” Notably, the two tracks were released as a double A-side single in the United Kingdom.

“It...

Tl;Dr:

A rock star said The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” complemented each other. He felt “Strawberry Fields Forever” came from the heart. He said “Penny Lane” made symbolic use of the trumpet. The Beatles’ Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr | Keystone-France / Contributor

A member of a 2000s rock band was asked to name his favorite Beatles songs. He explained why The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” were so culturally important. In addition, he discussed his unusual interpretation of “Penny Lane.”

A 2000s star said The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ paved the way for ‘Sgt. Pepper’

Guy Garvey is a member of the 2000s alternative rock band Elbow. During a 2012 interview with The Telegraph, Garvey said his two favorite Beatles songs were “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane.” Notably, the two tracks were released as a double A-side single in the United Kingdom.

“It...

Paul McCartney has performed thousands of concerts throughout his career. Since he is still human, he is bound to make a few mistakes during these performances. With so many iconic songs from The Beatles, Wings, and his solo career, he was bound to mix up some lyrics or forget them altogether. McCartney admitted he made a mistake while performing “Penny Lane” and restarted the song.

Paul McCartney mixed up the verse order of ‘Penny Lane’ Paul McCartney | Jim Dyson/Getty Images

Paul McCartney constantly changes his setlist while on tour. He consistently plays only a few songs, like “Hey Jude” and “Live and Let Die”. When he decides to bring a song back, he has to perfect it once more, even after years of never playing it. “Penny Lane” is a Beatles classic but not one audiences clamor for.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, McCartney said he was performing...

The studio behind the Sundance documentary film, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Concordia Studio has named four new filmmakers to the 2023 class of The Concordia Fellowship.

Distinguished as a premiere artist acceleration program, The Concordia Fellowship strategically fosters the unique creative advancement of each filmmaker, providing generous financial backing alongside targeted guidance and robust creative incubation of Fellows’ individually conceived projects. The Studio-led program also supports its Fellows in building sustainable careers, offering foundational mentorshipswith industry talentandexecutives, as well as exclusive access toConcordia’s production facilities.

Concordia Fellows are the next generation of storytellers emerging from diverse racial, religious, and regional backgrounds across the United States. This year’s Fellows were selected for their singular voices, creative accomplishments, and storytelling ambition.The 2023 Concordia Fellows are Tracy Jarrett, Anayansi Prado, Jarrod Cann, and Cinque Northern. “Building on the momentum of The Concordia Fellowship’s unprecedented success, we’re incredibly...

The breakdown of the Writers Guild of America’s contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers could benefit the documentary industry. Especially those documentary filmmakers with projects seeking distribution.

At least that’s the hope.

Like film and television scribes worried about the survival of screenwriting as a viable profession, hundreds of nonfiction filmmakers with independently made docus are grappling with the streamers’ new distribution landscape, which, for the most part, no longer includes acquiring titles that aren’t commissioned.

If the writers strike lasts for several months, the thought is that not only broadcast networks but also streaming companies will begin to face holes in their narrative content, which could, in turn, lead to the purchase of indie docus to fill the void.

At the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, documentary producers, programmers and filmmakers are not only celebrating independently made fare but also...

The growing amount of homeless, independently made documentaries has made film festivals like Hot Docs, arguably more important than ever before. Many docus that premiered at Sundance 2023 but have yet to find distribution are part of the Toronto-based documentary festival’s lineup, which in turn allows those titles to stay on buyers’ radars.

But corporate consolidation, along with streamers’ current mandate for nonfiction content that fits into one of three boxes – celebrity, true crime, or sports – means that many docu filmmakers will eventually have to turn to non-traditional distribution to get their films seen outside the fest circuit.

Tracy Droz Tragos’ docu “Plan C” follows a grassroots organization fighting to expand access to abortion pills across the United States. The timely film premiered at Sundance in January, but despite good reviews, Tragos hasn’t found distribution for “Plan C.”

“We are hearing things from the big buyers like, ‘The subject matter is hugely important,...

It took Cameron Crowe and Tom Kitt a single word to hit off their friendship: “Yeah.” It was January 2018, and the filmmaker and the Broadway composer were co-writing songs for the musical adaptation of Crowe’s classic 2000 movie Almost Famous. “The conversation was like, ‘What are the great ‘yeahs’ in rock?'” Crowe recalls. “It just made me go home on a cloud every day after we would collaborate.”

Crowe cited some significant “yeah” moments from his heroes Tom Petty and Neil Young, while Kitt referenced “I Am the One,...

Chicago –The birthday gal today (April 19th) is movie star Kate Hudson, and Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com is celebrating with an Exclusive unpublished Portrait from a 2016 photo shoot. Hudson’s recent films include “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “A Little White Lie,” costarring Chicagoan Michael Shannon.

Kate Garry Hudson was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of actor Goldie Hawn and musician Bill Hudson (of the Hudson Brothers). After her parents divorced when she was a toddler, she was raised in a family with her mother’s long-time partner Kurt Russell. After high school, she decided to pursue an acting career.

Kate Hudson, circa 2016

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

She made her film debut in 1998 with “Desert Blue,” but her breakthrough was as the groupie Penny Lane in “Almost Famous” (2000), with her famous with-sunglasses image on the film poster. She then became...

Davis Guggenheim’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” will open the eighth edition of Chicago’s Doc10 documentary film festival on May 4.

About Fox’s life, career and work as a public advocate for Parkinson’s research, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” debuted at Sundance in January. Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “An Inconvenient Truth” will be at Doc10 to participate in a post-screening conversation.

Doc10, a four-day fest running May 4-7, features a selection of 10 of this year’s most acclaimed documentaries and a package of prestigious doc shorts. Dedicated to supporting social-impact documentary films, the fest is hosted by Chicago Media Project, a company that raises funds for and produces docus including “Crip Camp” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

In addition to “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” Doc10 will screen: Penny Lane’s “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” Nicole Newnham’s “The Disappearance of the Shere Hite,...

Investigating the nature of altruism, director Penny Lane turns the camera on herself in Confessions of a Good Samaritan, showing her process as an organ donor navigating the uncomfortable space of “gifting” a part of your body to a stranger. Single, in her early 40s, and financially secure after a decade of building her career, she decides its time to give back to the universe as a way of saying thank you for life ultimately working out.

For Lane, this is a rare work to proceed in a fairly straightforward manner. Extensive self-interviews frame her donation, which was made before Covid disrupted every industry, and Confessions unpacks the history of donations, including a 1984 decree that outlawed the exchange of money or anything of value for a body part. Though most donations are made to family members in need, online exchanges––similar to a dating website––are an option for those...

Sundance documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated” and SXSW television premiere “I’m a Virgo” will open and close Sffilm, the 66th annual San Francisco International Film Festival.

Sffilm unveiled the full lineup for the fest along with the openers and closers. The Bay Area film festival, which screens in theaters across San Francisco as well as Oakland and Berkeley, will host 50 feature film programs (includes Workshop and “mid-lengths”), 46 shorts, and one TV screening (“I’m a Virgo”). Both directors behind “I’m a Virgo” and “Underrated” — Boots Riley and Peter Nicks — grew up in the Bay Area, more specifically in Oakland. Other films from Bay Area filmmakers whose projects will screen include W. Kamau Bell’s “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed,” Savanah Leaf’s “Earth Mama,” and Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.”

“It is Sffilm Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” Jessie Fairbanks, Sffilm’s director of programming,...

Label launched at Cph:dox in Copenhagen.

UK-based production and distribution house Fremantle has launched Undeniable, a new label for feature and series documentaries.

Sitting within Fremantle’s Documentaries division, Undeniable will develop and produce ‘premium’ projects according to the company. It will make high end international projects that come to Fremantle directly without going through their local territories.

Fremantle’s first-look deal with US filmmaker Amy Berg, announced last week, will fall under the Undeniable banner; Berg is currently in Copenhagen shooting for a film under the partnership.

The brand was announced at Cph:dox today (March 21) in Copenhagen by Mandy Chang,...

Super indie Fremantle has unveiled plans to further expand into the documentary space with the launch of a new label, Undeniable, focused on the production of premium feature documentaries and series.

Mandy Chang, Fremantle’s Global Head of Documentaries, announced the move at documentary festival Cph:dox in Copenhagen on Tuesday. The new label will sit within Fremantle’s Documentaries division and appears designed to distinguish high-end feature docs and series produced in the group from Fremantle’s more conventional reality TV and non-scripted fare.

“The launch of Undeniable further underlines our commitment and ambition to build Fremantle’s documentary output on the premium side,” said Chang. “Working with the very best filmmakers and emerging talent, the label will provide editorial and production expertise and support in multiple genres. Importantly, it will provide a platform and freedom for creative talent to unlock and explore important issues and stories to be told.

Fremantle’s Documentaries division has launched Undeniable, a label dedicated to producing premium feature documentaries and series, in partnership with high-profile talent and international commissioners, Mandy Chang, Fremantle’s global head of documentaries, revealed Tuesday at Cph:dox in Copenhagen.

The label is already developing several international projects and partnerships with high-profile filmmakers, including Amy Berg, Chris Smith, and Penny Lane and Gabriel Sedgwick.

Chang said: “The launch of Undeniable further underlines our commitment and ambition to build Fremantle’s documentary output on the premium side. Working with the very best filmmakers and emerging talent, the label will provide editorial and production expertise and support in multiple genres. Importantly, it will provide a platform and freedom for creative talent to unlock and explore important issues and stories to be told.”

Undeniable’s ambition is to make “provocative, entertaining, diverse, and influential films and series that push the boundaries of storytelling and...

AC Independent, Anonymous Content’s new sales and finance division, is set to introduce Pippa Ehrlich’s anticipated follow-up to her Oscar-winning “My Octopus Teacher,” as well as Walter Salles’ “Sócrates,” to buyers at the Berlin Film Festival.

Ehrlich’s untitled new project and Salles’ “Sócrates” are part of AC Independent’s robust slate of documentary features from celebrated filmmakers.

In her upcoming project, Ehrlich will shed light on the secretive and endangered world of pangolins, a species viewed as mythological creatures. When Stevie, a baby pangolin, is rescued from death at the hands of poachers in Johannesburg, an investment manager pivots his life to become the animal’s caretaker, teaching him to trust the world again and, in doing so, rediscovers his own purpose. Hand-reared until his release back into the wild, Stevie takes Gareth into his dragon world and together they find freedom and healing in the wild.

Writer/director Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical 2000 film "Almost Famous" captures the magical allure of the music industry, complete with the diehard artists and fans who dedicate their lives to it. Kate Hudson stars in the movie as Penny Lane, a young blonde woman who bewitches the up-and-coming band Stillwater, along with the wide-eyed, impressionable young reporter covering their journey (Patrick Fugit's William Miller), while the band is on tour in 1973. In the film, she explains that she isn't a groupie. Lane clarifies, "Groupies sleep with rock stars because they want to be near someone famous. We are here because of the music, we inspire the music. We are band-aides." 

The traditionally judgmental perspective of what a groupie entails is explored through Lane's passion for the music, freedom of living on the road, and learning to love without commitment despite still facing heartbreak. She's a complicated character with complicated beliefs,...

From the moment we meet Kate Hudson's Birdie in the opening minutes of Rian Johnson's new whodunit "Glass Onion," there is something all too familiar about her. In order to fully explain, I have to circle back to the beginning of Hudson's career, when she was simply a nepo baby who may or may not make it in Hollywood despite being the child of Goldie Hawn. She had only done a couple of films before getting cast as the whimsical groupie goddess Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," and the part quite literally put her on the map.

The film premiered in 2000 after two years of Hudson putting her nose to the grindstone. It couldn't have paid off better. Though still relatively unknown at the time, Hudson garnered a Golden Globe for best supporting actress and even earned an Oscar nom in the same category. The...

New York’s legendary video rental store Kim’s Video is getting the feature documentary treatment.

“Kim’s Video,” which will open the Sundance Film Festival’s Next section, is produced by Fremantle and Carnivalesque Films, and will unearth the stranger-than-fiction story behind the New York cornerstone’s vast collection of movies.

The documentary is directed by award-winning filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin (“Girl Model”), and executive produced by Fremantle’s head of global documentaries Mandy Chang.

“Kim’s Video” follows modern-day cinephile and filmmaker David Redmon on a quixotic quest to track down the whereabouts of the massive video collection of the now-defunct Kim’s Video, an iconic NYC video rental store with more than 55,000 beloved and rare movies.

Playing with the forms and tropes of cinema, David’s bizarre and increasingly obsessive quest takes him to Sicily, where he becomes entangled in a web of local politics,...

Matt Hearn, producer of Wolf Creek, one of Australia’s biggest genre exports, is backing Penny Lane Is Dead, the feature debut of Australian writer-director and makeup artist Mia’kate Russell, reports Variety. “Penny Lane is set on a warm night as 17-year-old Penny Lane is celebrating getting into college with her longtime girlfriends Toni and Amy. The night, however, does not turn out […]

The post ‘Penny Lane Is Dead’ – ‘Wolf Creek’ Producer Spikes the Cupcakes appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s been four years since Cameron Crowe first teased an Almost Famous musical when he dropped a 20-second video of composer Tom Kitt playing piano, while William Miller’s signature yellow post-its displayed clues on the wall. Now, Crowe is officially bringing his beloved film to Broadway, slated to open at Manhattan’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Nov. 3.

Crowe first announced the adaptation in the fall of 2018, and it opened the following year in his hometown of San Diego, California (Joni Mitchell made a rare appearance at the...

Exclusive: HBO is turning up the volume of its music documentary slate. The network has renewed Music Box, its Bill Simmons-led collection of feature docs, for a second season.

It comes as the last of its initial six film collection – Juice Wrld: Into The Abyss – is set to air on December 16.

Simmons and HBO will now search for a new selection of films for the sophomore run with each film helmed by a different direction. Each will continue to explore essential moments in music for an artist or band, an iconic album, or the music industry as a whole.

The six films in the first slate were Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage, directed by Garret Price, which premiered in July, Alanis Morissette documentary Jagged, directed by Alison Klayman, Dmx: Don’t Try to Understand, directed by Christopher Frierson, Listening to Kenny G, directed by Penny Lane, Mr. Saturday Night,...

Exclusive: Led by Michael Cho and Tim Lee, Olive Hill Media has joined Sandbox Films and Impact Partners to support the Penny Lane helmed documentary entitled Confessions of A Good Samaritan. Olive Hill Media past projects include Hulu’s SXSW 2021 title We Work: Or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, MGM Studio’s Cannes 2021 title Flag Day, and Tribeca 2021 title Stockholm Syndrome among others coming down the pipeline.

Gabriel Sedgwick will produce the film. Tim Lee and Michael Cho are the executive producers for Olive Hill; Greg Boustead and Jessica Harrop are the executive producers for Sandbox Films.

“We are always looking to support visionary filmmakers with something important to share and couldn’t have found a more deserving project than Penny Lane’s Confessions Of A Good Samaritan,” said Mimi Rode, Olive Hill Media’s Acquisition Executive.“With Penny’s innovative approach to storytelling and our incredible partners,...

As with all of Penny Lane’s films, Listening to Kenny G, the idiosyncratic auteur’s TIFF-premiering, Doc NYC-opening, exploration of the beloved/reviled “smooth jazz” saxophonist and his globally ubiquitous sound (to this day “Going Home” signals closing time throughout China) turns a straightforward subject into an unexpected philosophical inquiry. In this case, Lane begins her journey down the G-hole with a simple question: Why does the bestselling instrumentalist of all time, our most famous living jazz musician, “make certain people really angry”? Using interviews with G as well as elite jazz critics and academics as well as archival footage, Lane arrives […]

The post “I Would Find Myself Wondering Why My Face Hurt So Much at the End of a Shoot Day, and It Was Because I’d Been Smiling the Whole Time”: Penny Lane on Listening to Kenny G first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In late 1972, a writer called Cameron Crowe rang the offices of Rolling Stone with a scoop about Bob Dylan. They ran the story. What no one in the office realised, though, was that the author was only 15. Within two years, this precocious teenager from San Diego had become the youngest person ever to write a cover feature for the magazine, and was following bands from The Who to Led Zeppelin on tour, a buoyant insider high on the fumes of their jet-set lifestyle.

If this sounds like the plot of a film, that’s because it is. Almost Famous, released on 13 September 2000, was written and directed by that same Cameron Crowe, by then a household name thanks to his Oscar-winning drama Jerry Maguire (1996). Loosely based on Crowe’s own teenage adventures in rock journalism, Almost Famous is set in 1973 and follows his alter ego William Miller, a cherubic young writer...

Lucien Greaves delivering a speech in front of the state capitol building in Little Rock, Ar in Hail Satan?, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

“We’re not what you think we are,” says a spokesman for the Satanic Temple near the start of the documentary Hail Satan? That question mark in the title is important, as neither director Penny Lane, nor we, are never quite sure how sincere the members of the Satanic Temple are about being a church. What we are sure of is their sincerity about championing the separation of church and state, and freedom of religion.

The question mark in the documentary’s title Hail Satan? is director Penny Lane’s, not the members of the Satanic Temple, who loudly and proudly use the phrase in their events. But they do not actually worship Satan, as spokesman/co-founder Lucien Greaves quickly makes clear.

Chicago – Religion, and the separation of those institutions from the “state,” is an ongoing controversy in the United States. One such religious group may have found the ultimate solution to keep that separation in place. The Satanic Temple is an anarchist religion whose goal is to get a place at the table with the other holy influencers. They are profiled in director Penny Lane’s new film, “Hail Satan?”

Lane followed the group through their development, as they continue to counter the arguments of Christian infiltration into government, such as posting the 10 Commandments on a courthouse grounds. By applying, for example, to put their own statue of Satan up next to those commandments, they force the “state” to examine what is the truth in justice. The sometimes reluctant participants of The Satanic Temple – many are interviewed with their faces hidden – are nonetheless warriors for social balance, simply by pointing out the absurdity of religious dogma.

Consider this perfect timing as The Satanic Temple, which is the focus of Penny Lane’s documentary Hail Satan? (now in theaters), has been officially recognized as a church by the IRS. This means that the church is qualified for tax exemption and, most importantly, allows it the same kind of access to public spaces as […] The post Hail Satan and Hallelujah! The Satanic Temple is Officially a Church! appeared first on Dread Central.

The Satanic Temple has been officially recognized as a church by the Internal Revenue Service, three months after taking Sundance by storm as the subject of the documentary “Hail Satan?” According to an announcement from “Hail Satan?” distributor Magnolia Pictures, the temple is now eligible for the tax-exempt status given to other religious institutions.

The latest documentary by Penny Lane, “Hail Satan?” follows the history of the Satanic Temple and its colorful protests in the name of religious freedom and separation of church and state, including a push to have a Baphomet statue placed on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol next to a proposed statue of The Ten Commandments.

Also Read: 'Hail Satan?' Documentary Scores at Indie Box Office on Easter Weekend

“In light of theocratic assaults upon the Separation of Church and State in the legislative efforts to establish a codified place of privilege for one religious viewpoint,...

Penny Lane forever! Kate Hudson opened up about her 2000 hit Almost Famous during her appearance on Tuesday night’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.

“It holds up,” she said of the beloved film which earned her an Oscar nomination. “I just watched it with Ryder not too long ago. It was really cool to watch that because I hadn’t seen that in so long and it’s still cool. Ryder, he’s 13, so to him it was like, he loved every second of that movie. It’s cool to be a part of a movie like that.”

But Hudson, 38, has no plans to make a sequel to the film, saying, “I would say a sequel to -- I got a couple. Almost Famous would be fun, but I wouldn't wanna touch that. But maybe How to Lose a Guy. That would be fun.”

“How to Get a Guy...” host Cohen suggested...

Update: Starbucks has confirmed that their Zombie Frappuccino is available now through Halloween (Oct. 31), or while supplies last, so make a beeline for the spooky drink like we all did for the short-lived Unicorn Frappuccino. A representative from the franchise confirmed it’s green body, apple and caramel flavor, and red mocha drizzle topping with pink whipped cream, which is, of course, brains.

Starbucks is rolling out a Zombie Frappuccino just in time for the spookiest day of the year.

According to photos leaked by baristas on social media, coffee lovers will be able to try the creepy beverage come...

Kate Hudson is famous for a lot of things: the iconic role of Penny Lane in Almost Famous, that yellow dress in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, her royal Hollywood roots. But she's also an important figure in the fitness world. The star is the co-founder of the fitness brand Fabletics, a total go-to for our trendiest workout needs. As the face of line, Kate is committed to inspiring others to lead healthier, more active lives. Simply scrolling through her Instagram feed proves that passion is real. Whether she's taking a group class, testing out pole dancing or doing Toddlerography with James Corden (our personal favorite), Kate keeps it interesting and keeps it real—which keeps us...

No single story, no single film can capture the phenomenon that was The Beatles. But collectively, these examinations offer insight into the band’s impact on music and culture.

Such is the challenge when it comes to The Beatles’ landmark album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band,” which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its release – and the 50th year that it has blown away music aficionados. Thinkpieces and tributes to the groundbreaking album have been in the news lately, trying to capture just how innovative and important it was to the music scene. Named No. 1 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, “Sgt. Pepper’s” topped the charts for 15 weeks in the U.S. and 27 in the U.K. In other words, it was and is still a big deal.

Read More: 10 Great Music Documentaries You Can Stream Right Now

The PBS documentary special “Sgt.

Imagine finding one of van Gogh’s early sketches for “Starry Night,” or a rough draft of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. For anyone who loves music, the mammoth 50th anniversary reissue of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is just as good—if not better. The expanded package includes nearly two hours worth of outtakes from the groundbreaking 1967 sessions, offering not only an alternate-universe look at some of the most beloved tracks in the rock canon, but also a fascinating fly-on-the-wall view of four young artists at the height of their power.

Stripped down, occasionally rough and always electrifying,...

In the battle for what will be the premier streaming home for current independent film, Amazon Prime is showing signs that it could top Netflix, FilmStruck, and Mubi. Between funding auteur-driven Amazon originals like Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson,” Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden,” Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester By the Sea,” and their exclusive deal with A24 (“American Honey,” “Lobster,” “Swiss Army Man,” and “Moonlight” which arrives 5/21), Prime has a good percentage of the best titles.

What often gets lost in Amazon’s suboptimal browsing interface is the number of recent lower-profile indies on the service that feature some of the most exciting filmmaking of the last year. Here are seven recent gems you shouldn’t miss.

“The Love Witch”

You have never seen anything like this film. Sure, it looks like a late-era technicolor film — shot on 35mm, with deliciously saturated production and costume design — but this isn’t nostalgic kitsch.

This article originally appeared on EW.com.

It’s been 70 years since Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play, and 50 since Paul McCartney first introduced Billy Shears to an adoring audience. To mark the 50th anniversary of perhaps their most famous album, the Beatles are releasing several anniversary edition packages of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band this spring.

The first of these will arrive on Record Store Day (April 22): a limited edition vinyl single of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane,” two of the first songs recorded during the Sgt. Pepper’s sessions but ultimately held off the album.

The recent wave of so-called bathroom bills, which seem to be predicated on the notion that transgender people either didn’t exist or weren’t using public restrooms until a few years ago, has made its way to Texas. In response, Legacy Community Health and the Aclu of Texas have partnered with one of the state’s best-known filmmakers to direct a PSA decrying the proposed law. Watch Richard Linklater’s minute-long “Taking a Seat, Making a Stand” below.

Read More: Richard Linklater, Sam Rockwell and More Join Ethan Hawke’s Music Biopic ‘Blaze’

Part of the I Pee with Lgbt campaign, the video features several people making the point that “this isn’t a privacy issue — it’s a discrimination issue.” “Lt. Gov. Patrick and other state lawmakers who support S.B. 6 portray the bill as a ‘common sense’ protection of ‘common decency,'” said, Terri Burke, executive director of the Aclu of Texas,...

Pj Vogt, co-host of the popular Gimlet Media podcast Reply All, went on vacation; when he got back, he had a movie deal. The January 19 program, “Man of the People,” had been optioned by Annapurna Pictures, with Richard Linklater directing and Robert Downey, Jr. as producer and star.

“It’s absolutely surreal,” Vogt said.

“Man of the People” profiled John Brinkley, the radio pioneer and medical salesman whose self-proclaimed miracle cures ranged from impotence to infertility. Vogt said he stumbled on the story after visiting his cousins in Texas.

“They were saying I should move there because they were a bunch of radio stations hidden in ranches,” he said. “For a while, we thought it was going to be a story about border blasters.”

Instead he found the strange tale of Brinkley, one that also encompasses a state governor’s race, the national popularization of country music, and the rise of the American Medical Association.

On this episode of Nashville, "Leap of Faith," finding himself constantly tempted by other men, Will reconsiders if Kevin is the "one," Zach Welles offers Rayna a deal, but she has reservations and Avery and Juliette's relationship reaches a tipping point.

Will may have asked Kevin to cohabitate, but it's only because he feels guilty about wanting to bone the smarmy fashion designer, Jakob Fine. He seems to be having second thoughts, and Kevin's increasing neediness isn't helping. After finding out Will had a gig and didn't invite him, Kevin does his best Penny Lane impression. Will is feeling smothered, and here comes Kevin, throwing a big old blanket on top of the hunky country star.

Exclusive: Documentary marks the 50th anniversary of the seminal album.

A new Beatles film marking the 50th anniversary of the iconic band’s seminal album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is in post-production.

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today…Sgt Pepper And Beyond, directed by Alan G. Parker (Hello Quo), will be sold internationally by former Im Global executive Tim Grohne’s Primal Screen.

The film picks up on The Beatles as they end their gruelling tour schedule in August 1966 (coincidentally following on from Ron Howard’s recent Beatles documentary Eight Days A Week) to return to the studio to record the landmark ‘Sgt. Pepper’ album.

As one of the biggest selling records of all time, described by Rolling Stone magazine simply as “The most important rock & roll album ever made…”, ‘Sgt Pepper’ (released in June 1967) marked a pivotal moment in the 60’s, cementing the advent of Psychedelia and the Summer of Love.

The album includes...

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.

From Afar (Lorenzo Vigas)

Proving yet again that festival juries don’t read the trades or pay attention to chatter, the Golden Lion of the 72nd Venice Film Festival was presented to the Venezuelan drama From Afar, a film that screened relatively late at the fest, when general opinion on the Lido seemed to have settled on this being a race between some other titles. In a discerning and gutsy move,...

The documentary Nuts!, directed by Penny Lane, screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood) September 9th though the 11th. The film starts each night at 7:30pm

Nuts! is a feature length documentary about Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, an eccentric genius who built an empire in Depression-era America with a goat testicle impotence cure and a million watt radio station. Using animated reenactments, interviews, archival footage, and a hilariously unreliable narrator, Nuts! traces Brinkley’s rise from poverty and obscurity to the heights of celebrity, wealth and influence. Along the way, he transplants tens of thousands of goat testicles; amasses an enormous fortune; is (sort of) elected Governor of Kansas; builds the world’s most powerful radio station; invents junk mail, the infomercial, the sound-truck and Border Radio; hosts some epic parties; and annoys the heck out of the establishment, until finally his audacious actions force the federal...