News

It’s shaping up to be a Huston family Christmas.

Siblings and Hollywood royalty Anjelica and Danny Huston are teaming on a new project, The Christmas Witch Trial of La Befana, a hybrid animated and live-action feature film that is currently shooting in Los Angeles and Ontario, Canada.

HighballTV confirmed the details of the film, which was written by David James Brock and HighballTV’s Melissa D’Agostino based on an idea they conceived with Matt Campagna who is also directing with D’Agostino, a frequent creative partner. Johnathan Sharp is producing.

The plot follows a peculiar court case that unspools after the children in a rural Italian village kidnap their legendary Christmas witch, played by Huston, and put her on trial in an attempt to stop her annual judgment from their lives. While casting a spell through witches, fantasy and Italian folklore, the project is said to touch on universal themes of grief,...

Gravitas Ventures has acquired U.S. rights to Caden Douglas’ dark comedy “Mother Father Sister Brother Frank.” The distributor will release the film on Tvod beginning Oct. 8. The film has also been sold for U.K., Australia and New Zealand distribution rights to Miracle Media Investments, which plans to release the film later this year.

The film follows a suburban family as their uncle crashes Sunday dinner with a nasty surprise, and murder winds up on the menu. It had its world premiere earlier this year at Panic Fest in the U.S.

The cast is led by Mindy Cohn as the mother, Enrico Colantoni as the father, Melanie Leishman as the sister, Iain Stewart (“Reign”) as the brother, Juan Chioran as Frank, and Sharron Matthews.

Producers include Matt Schichter and Micheal Lomenda, co-producer Johnathan Sharp, and executive producers at HighballTV.

The U.S. acquisition was negotiated by Jeffrey Cooper,...

HighballTV announced today that their upcoming monster-centered genre anthology film God of Frogs, which includes segments from several emerging film directors, has wrapped production in and around Trenton, Canada.

God of Frogs is a new genre anthology film that will include four segments surrounding the same monster, we’re told. Deep in the heart of the jungle exists an elemental creature with an eternal hunger, and every 25 years, it emerges: a woman is eaten alive in 1969, a film crew goes missing in 1994, a politician explodes live on television in 2019, and a multinational corporation goes up in flames in 2044.

The cast of the anthology includes Kate Vernon, Juan Chioran, Darius Rathe, Erika Prevost, Ilana Haley, Peter Fernandes, Alexander Eling, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Sabryn Rock, and Christian Lloyd.

Producers attached to the film include Johnathan Sharp and Elizabeth Fraser, along with Executive Producers Matt Campagna and Andre Rehal.

“It’s thrilling to be...

Exclusive: Enrico Colantoni and Mindy Cohn have been announced as key cast for Canadian dark comedy Mother Father Sister Brother Frank as it begins principal photography in Ontario.

The production revolves around a painfully suburban family as their dissolute uncle crashes a Sunday dinner with a nasty surprise, pushing them to contemplate murder.

It is among five original productions recently announced by Toronto-based indie streamer HighballTV as part of a slate, representing Can$21M ($15.6M) of investment.

The genre comedy is the first feature of actor and filmmaker Caden Douglas.

Colantoni, who is best known for Veronica Mars and Just Shoot Me! and was recently seen in HBO Max’s limited series Station Eleven, takes on the role of the father.

Cohn, best known for The Facts of Life and as the voice of Velma Dinkley in the Scooby Doo franchise for Warner Brothers and soon to be seen in AppleTV+’s Mrs. American Pie,...