News

Canadian film and TV production volume fell to pre-pandemic levels in the 2023/24 period as a commissioning slowdown and the U.S. labor strikes bit, a report from the country’s screen producers body shows.

Volume was down 18.5% to C$9.58B ($6.68B) in the 12 months between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, according to the Canadian Media Producers Association (Cmpa)’s ‘Profile 2024’ report. In 2019/2020, the figure was C$9.38B, with the following year seeing a fall as Covid-19 lockdowns hit production before a major spike over the next two years saw figures reach C$11.75B last year (2022/23).

The Cmpa says the figures reflect a “significant downturn” in both the domestic and foreign production segments, with the lengthy actors and writers strikes and a slowdown in commissioning, most notably in English-language television, blamed primarily for the fall. This was despite the sector employing nearly 180,000 people and contributing C$11.04B to Canada’s Gdp.

“The numbers...

The Americans are back shooting films and TV series in Canada, but the knock-on impacts of the dual Hollywood writers and actors strikes and reduced spending by major streamers will be felt north of the border for years to come.

So says the latest annual economic report from the Canadian Media Producers Association, representing local indie producers, which points to a post-pandemic high water mark for Hollywood production activity in Canada reached before last year’s labor disruption in Los Angeles, and which is now fast receding amid a sharp industry slowdown.

“The numbers released in Profile 2023 today are more of a happy memory, than a reflection of the current state of the sector,” warned Cmpa president and CEO Reynolds Mastin in a statement while releasing Profile 2023: An Economic Report on the Screen-based Media Production Industry in Canada, which measured overall Canadian film and TV production for the year...

Sixteen years after working together on Wanted, director Timur Bekmambetov and actor Chris Pratt are re-teaming for a sci-fi thriller called Mercy, which just started filming this week – and Bekmambetov has celebrated the start of filming by sharing a picture from the set! You can check it out right here:

Day 1 pic.twitter.com/MZ4AwbIzBp

— Timur Bekmambetov (@Bekmambetov) April 16, 2024

This image reveals that the film is taking advantage of the virtual production method known as The Volume, which uses LED panels as backdrops.

Sporting a screenplay written by Marco Van Belle (Arthur & Merlin), Mercy will be telling a story that is “set in the near future when capital crime has increased” and follows “a detective (Pratt] who is accused of a violent crime and forced to prove his innocence.”

Pratt is joined in the cast by Rebecca Ferguson (Dune), Annabelle Wallis (Malignant), and World Boxing Council middleweight champ Kali Reis,...

Fatal Seduction is a steamy thriller series with little to offer as a smart television series but a lot to offer as a guilty pleasure. The Netflix series follows a married woman who goes on a weekend trip where she cheats on her husband because they have been having trouble in their marriage for a long time. Add a murder mystery to that storyline and Fatal Seduction runs like any erotic thriller. So, if you liked Fatal Seduction here are some more shows you could watch while waiting for Season 2.

Fatal Attraction (Paramount+) Credit – Paramount+

Synopsis: Fatal Attraction is a deep-dive reimagining of the classic psychosexual thriller and ‘80s cultural touchstone. The new series will explore fatal attraction and the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes toward strong women, personality disorders and coercive control. The series stars Joshua Jackson as Dan Gallagher, Lizzy Caplan as Alex Forrest,...

The second season of original series “Almost Paradise” is set to premiere on Freevee on July 21. When hypertension forces DEA agent Alex Walker (played by Christian Kane) into early retirement, he moves to the Philippines in hopes of a quieter life. But unfortunately for him, he can’t avoid danger. Soon, the local police ask him to help solve a series of serious crimes.

Watch the “Almost Paradise” Season 2 trailer:

Also coming to Amazon’s free streaming service in July is the incredibly meta action series “Ze Network.” In the show, David Hasselhoff plays himself as he takes a gig at an English-language theater in Germany — and we all know that Germans love David Hasselhoff. However, once there, he is recruited into an elite society of super-spies, who must work together to prevent a dangerous plot from striking the nation.

Check out the trailer for “Ze Network”:

The Coen Bros.

To mark the release of What’s Love Got To Do With It? available on digital download from 12th May, and Blu-ray and DVD from 15th May we have Blu-Rays to give away to Two Lucky winners!

How do you find lasting love in today’s world? For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbour Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.

Directed by Shekhar Kapur...

Exclusive: Los Angeles-based Russian-Kazakh director and producer Timur Bekmambetov has secured Turkish backing for his animated feature about iconic Middle Eastern, Balkan and Asian folk hero Hodja Nasreddin.

Bekmambetov’s company Bazelevs has signed an agreement with Yeni Dusler Animation, a production company and content provider for the national public broadcaster of Turkey, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation.

The previously announced English-language production marks Bekmambetov’s first foray into animation and is underway for a planned 2024 release. The voice actors will be attached later this year.

Nasreddin is a wandering philosopher and prankster who gets into absurd situations, but ultimately always emerges victorious thanks to his wit, wisdom, and humor. He appears in thousands of folk tales across the Middle East and Asia, dating back to the 13th century.

“For people from the Middle East and Asia, he has superhero status. In this part of the world, he is known under different names,...

Updated, February 2: The below update to the Netflix help center is specifically for beta test countries Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, where the streaming platform also first launched the added member feature in March 2022, a Netflix spokesperson told IndieWire. It was listed briefly — and erroneously — on February 1 on the Netflix Faq page for U.S. users before being taken down.

“For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries,” a Netflix spokesperson told IndieWire. “We have since updated it.”

The streamer has previously stated it would “more broadly” rollout similar policies in this, the first quarter of 2023. It feels reasonable to consider this a template, at the very least, for what we may soon officially see here in the U.S.

Published February 1: Netflix is taking the term “home devices” quite literally for its password crackdown.

If you’ve seen the British satire “Toast of London,” chances are that voiceover engineer Clem Fandango’s name still rings in your ears. Now Shazad Latif, the man behind Fandango, Ash Tyler on “Star Trek: Discovery” and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde on “Penny Dreadful,” has nabbed his first romantic lead in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”

The Shekhar Kapur-helmed acquisition title, which has a Gala world premiere Sept. 10 in Toronto, “has slightly more depth than a normal rom-com because it tackles arranged marriage,” Latif said. Lily James plays his character’s childhood friend, and complications ensue when she decides to make a documentary about the nuptials.

“Lily is one of my closest friends,” Latif said. “She’s like a sister to me.” They met when she did a play with his old roommate, and co-starred in the 2021 BBC miniseries “The Pursuit of Love.” “I read [“What’s Love”] a while back,...

Ahmad’s Darkland (2017), also sold by TrustNordisk, was selected for Fantastic Fest and was a box office hit in Denmark.

TrustNordisk has boarded international sales for Fenar Ahmad’s action thriller sequel Darkland: Case Closed.

The film is shooting now in Copenhagen with Dar Salim again taking the lead role. He plays Zaid, a truth-seeking anti-hero, who after seven years in prison is forced to return to the criminal underworld in his attempt to see his estranged 7-year-old son.

Ahmad’s Darkland (2017), also sold by TrustNordisk, was selected for Fantastic Fest and was a box office hit in Denmark.

Ahmad...

Production anticpated for early 2023 shoot in London.

Daisy Ridley and Shazad Latif will star in the thriller Magpie which The Veterans and CAA Media Finance will introduce to Cannes buyers next week.

Matilda Lutz is also cast in the sexy noir based on an original idea from Ridley. Sam Yates, the Screen Star Of Tomorrow 2016 whose theatre directing credits include The Starry Messenger and Glengarry Glen Ross, will make his feature directorial debut from a screenplay by Tom Bateman.

Magpie follows a couple whose lives are thrown into disarray when their daughter is cast opposite a controversial major star. Ridley...

In “Turning Red,” director Domee Shi turned Pixar upside down in the pursuit of a 2D anime look for dorky 13-year-old Mei (Rosalie Chiang), who transforms into a giant red panda as part of her sexual awakening. The unconventional coming-of-age comedy set in Toronto streams March 11 on Disney+ and will screen at Hollywood’s El Capitan for a one-week Oscar-qualifying run.

“I grew up watching anime films as much as Disney and Pixar,” said Shi, who makes her directorial feature debut after her Oscar-winning “Bao” animated short. “I really wanted to bring this expressive style into the movie and convey how Mei was feeling at any given moment. She has such big emotions and we had to push the animation in a way, like in anime, where the character’s embarrassed or mad or sad or has stars in their eyes. So it felt like the perfect opportunity to explore...

Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian writer-director-producer behind such pics as 2004’s “Night Watch” and 2008’s “Wanted,” has just started shooting his latest production, the English-language sci-fi thriller “Resurrected” in L.A. with Dave Davis.

Up-and-coming Russian director Egor Baranov, whose credits include the Russian B.O. hit trilogy “Gogol” and Netflix’s “Sparta” series, is directing the film. Bekmanbetov is producing “Resurrected” with Maria Zatulovskaya through the banner Bazelevs, with David Meadeb at Logical Pictures, in association with Aleksandr Fomin at Pulsar Content, the sales banner launched by Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett.

The film is being made using Bekmanbetov’s pioneering Screenlife storytelling and technology, revolving solely around the screen activity of characters who are seen through their digital devices. Bekmanbetov previously delivered several hit films in this Screenlife format, notably “Searching” which was released worldwide by Sony, as well as the “Unfriended” franchise released by BlumHouse and Universal, and “Profile,...

In a week of mostly static VOD charts, something peculiar happened: “Spiral: From the Book of Saw,” the only major new premium VOD release, failed to dislodge “Wrath of Man” from its top overall position.

Both are genre thrillers, each released for $19.99 after their third weekend in theaters. “Spiral” is the more recent, has a 40 percent higher theatrical gross ($21.8 million to $15.6 million), and is part of a lucrative and long-running franchise. However, it’s “Wrath” that was #1 at three of the four lists below (#2 at Apple/iTunes), while “Spiral” lagged at #2 in the two charts that track by revenues and lower (#4 and #6) at Apple/iTunes and Google TV, both of which chart by number of rentals.

Why? “Wrath” had a much better Cinemascore, while the B- for “Spiral” was at the lower end for the franchise. “Wrath” has a proven action star in Statham at a time when a known star can create impulse buys.

Five new films, including “Spiral” (Lionsgate) from the lucrative “Saw” franchise, opened wide (at least 600 theaters) stateside. That is by far the biggest studio commitment to any week in a long time, with three at one time usually the most, and four rare.

Mid-May is normally prime for movie releases. This year, it’s Memorial Day when more prime titles will open. Optimism remains for then, but for now it’s treading water time. The expected much bigger “A Quiet Place Part II” (Paramount) along with “Cruella” (Disney) on May 28 will be a much better test of how close theaters are to providing grosses commensurate with their potential.

But a Top 10 of $24 million, with an overall take of perhaps $26 million, remains anemic considering the increased number of fresh films, combined with more theaters plus a general greater sense of safety in theaters. That sense is led above all by how “Spiral” did.

Angelina Jolie’s survival action thriller “Those Who Wish Me Dead” didn’t do much to revive the North American box office. The Warner Bros. film, which debuted simultaneously on the streaming service HBO Max, took in a paltry $2.8 million in its opening weekend.

The movie’s hybrid release on HBO Max likely isn’t the reason “Those Who Wish Me Dead” sold hardly any tickets; “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Mortal Kombat” were both recent Warner Bros. films that were able to generate decent box office revenues despite being offered concurrently on a streaming service.

As movie theaters attempt to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, family films and CGI spectacles have been popular options to see on the big screen. Gritty dramas geared toward adult audiences haven’t been performing as well, and mediocre reviews for “Those Who Wish Me Dead” didn’t help drum up interest.

The film played in 3,188 cinemas,...

Lionsgate’s “Spiral” is off to a decent start at the box office, with industry estimates reporting an $8.7 million opening weekend from 2,811 screens.

That result would give the “Saw” spinoff the lowest opening in the history of the gory horror franchise, falling below the previous low of $14.1 million earned in 2009 by “Saw VI,” the only film in the franchise to not gross over $100 million worldwide.

But this was to be expected, as “Spiral” has opened to roughly 200 fewer theaters than “Saw VI” and is still facing a market where 35% of theaters in the U.S. and Canada are still closed. With a $20 million production budget, the film is still on pace to turn a profit, though it falls short of independent projections of a $10 million-plus launch. It is also on course to push the lifetime gross total for the “Saw” series” to $1 billion this week, as the film also grossed $3.3 million from 16 overseas markets,...

British actor Shazad Latif is ready for his close-up.

After a decade of racking up impressive TV credits including “Spooks,” “Toast of London,” “Penny Dreadful,” “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Departure,” the actor is currently in the BBC’s “The Pursuit of Love,” Emily Mortimer’s adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s novel, where he stars alongside Lily James.

Latif also has some high-profile films rolling out. He has a featured role in opera-themed rom-com “Falling For Figaro” with Joanna Lumley and Danielle Macdonald, which was at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival as part of the festival’s ‘Industry Selects’ section and has sold around the world.

In Timur Bekmambetov’s “Profile,” Latif plays the male lead, a charming Isis recruiter with a core of steel. The film won audience awards at Berlin and SXSW in 2018 and Focus Features releases the film theatrically in the U.S. May 14. Revolving around the interaction between...

Ever since the release of Wanted, I have been deeply fascinated by the career of Timur Bekmambetov, who has directed projects like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and a reimagining of Ben-Hur, produced a wide variety of genre-spanning films including the animated movie 9, Apollo 18, and Hardcore Henry, and has spent the last several years carving out his own niche in Hollywood with a handful of Screenlife films that immerse viewers in their stories through the utilization of computer and other technologies.

Bekmambetov’s latest Screenlife project is Profile, which is set to be released in theaters tomorrow, May 14th, courtesy of Focus Features (you can read my review Here). Starring Valene Kane and Shazad Latif, Profile follows an intrepid journalist looking to expose a terrorist recruiter by going undercover, but she finds herself crossing some lines once she gets drawn in by his methods.

During the recent press day for Profile,...

On the May 13, 2021 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor-in-chief Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film managing editor Jacob Hall, weekend editor Brad Oman, senior writer Ben Pearson, and writers Hoai-Tran Bui and Chris Evangelista to discuss what they’ve been up to at the Water Cooler. At The Water Cooler: What we’ve been Doing: […]

The post Water Cooler: Army of the Dead, Spiral, Dark Side of the Ring, In the Heights, Profile, Columbo, West Side Story, Those Who Wish Me Dead appeared first on /Film.

A computer screen chimes to life. Windows proliferate. Notifications ping. Video-call boxes pop up, tabs multiply, messenger apps ticker endlessly, a stream of bite-size demands for attention. And in the middle of it all, an increasingly frantic, Extremely Online female freelance journalist with money worries and a deadline to meet, makes a series of very poor and deeply unprofessional decisions.

But enough about my average Wednesday evening — we’re here to talk about the newly released Profile, which is exactly like the above description except it also, in extremely dubious taste,...

Gemma Arterton (“Black Narcissus”) and Shazad Latif (“Star Trek: Discovery”) will join James Norton (“McMafia”) in the thriller “Chasing Agent Freegard.”

“Chasing Agent Freegard” is based on the story of British conman Robert Hendy-Freegard, who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people into going underground for fear of assassination by the Ira.

Arterton’s reps at CAA confirmed her casting to Variety.

The project is written by “The Mauritanian” writer and co-producer Michael Bronner, who also co-produced “Captain Phillips.” The film will be helmed by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, the duo who directed the hit BBC drama “The Salisbury Poisonings,” about the 2018 poisoning of a Russian agent and his daughter in Salisbury, U.K.

“Little Women” star Norton, who most recently appeared in Netflix chiller “Things Heard & Seen” and series “The Nevers,” will play Freegard and is also executive producing via his Rabbit Track Pictures outfit.

Arriving in theaters this Friday courtesy of Focus Features is Profile, the latest Screenlife endeavor from Timur Bekmambetov that follows an investigative journalist (played by Valene Kane) who finds herself caught up online with a charismatic and dangerous Isis recruiter (Shazad Latif), who believes that she’s a young woman looking to join his cause in Syria (you can read my review Here).

During the recent press day for Profile, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with Kane about taking on the role of the reporter who finds herself in very dangerous circumstances as she embarks on this hugely important story highlighting the horrifying reality of the online recruitment of young women by terrorists. During the interview, Kane discussed why she wanted to take on her challenging role in Profile, her experiences collaborating with Bekmambetov and other members of the project, and the weight that she felt tackling the...

Timur Bekmambetov’s portrait of a screen-to-screen relationship is timely, although it mostly scratches the surface

Expanding the digital-age subgenre of films entirely told on computer screens from the personal (“Searching”) and the supernatural (“Unfriended”) into the geopolitical, “Profile” is a tense on-camera thriller based on a real-life case dealing with international terrorism.

In 2014, French journalist Anna Erelle, using a fake identity, established a pretend romantic relationship with an Isis jihadist via Skype. The objective was to learn about their tactics to recruit and transport young European women into Syria. Her hazardous ordeal is documented in the book “In the Skin of a Jihadist.”

For its cinema transmutation, the online conceit of this high-stakes story is at once pertinent to how we regularly interact with others and, given the ongoing pandemic that’s led many to swear off video chats, also visually tedious. Watching a movie unfold in full on...

In 2015, French journalist Anna Érelle published In the Skin of a Jihadist: Inside Islamic State’s Recruitment Networks. In order to investigate Isis recruitment tactics, Érelle posed online as a teenager who had recently converted to Islam. She was courted by a man named Bilel, who claimed to be a high-up member of Isis living in Syria. Unexpectedly, in 2018, her story was turned into a feature film that takes place entirely on a computer screen, in the vein of Unfriended and Searching.

Three years after its Berlinale premiere, Profile is finally hitting cinemas and while it’s unclear why it took this gripping film took so long to see the light of day, it certainly feels particularly relevant now that we’re all living our lives on our desktops. As Profile director Timur Bekmambetov told Deadline a few years ago, “There is no way to tell a story about today...

Over the last few years, filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov has become synonymous with Screenlife cinema, producing projects like Unfriended and Searching, and now he’s at the helm of a tech-immersive film of his own: Profile. Something I’ve always appreciated about Bekmambetov’s films—whether it’s the ones that he’s producing or directing—is how he forward-thinking he is when it comes to utilizing technology in the world of film (one of my favorite examples is Hardcore Henry), and with Profile, he proves that there’s plenty of drama to be found online as he manages to crank up the tension throughout this engrossing and harrowing terrorism thriller.

Based on the novel In the Skin of a Jihadist by Anna Érelle, Profile is centered on a struggling journalist named Amy (Valene Kane), who’s barely keeping it together in her everyday life—she doesn’t seem particularly invested...

Timur Bekmambetov, the producer of Searching and director of films including Night Watch, Day Watch, Wanted and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is headed back to the world of “ScreenLife” with his new thriller Profile, which has been acquired by Focus Features. Focus will release Profile in theaters on May 14. Find the tense trailer below. The “Screenlife” sub-genre refers to films, like Searching and the horror […]...

On paper, the idea of Screenlife technology could be written off as a gimmick. Why would anyone want to see an entire film take place on a computer screen? However, when done in a clever way, as in the recent thriller “Searching,” the format is inventive and shocking. It appears that the upcoming film, “Profile,” is going to utilize the technology in another unique way.

Continue reading ‘Profile’ Trailer: Timur Bekmambetov Brings Back Screenlife Technology For A Terrorist Thriller at The Playlist.

Kazakh-Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov’s thriller “Profile” has been completed since 2018, when it was released at the Berlin International Film Festival. But the latest film from the director of “Night Watch,” “Wanted,” and the notorious 2016 remake of “Ben Hur” is only just now getting a theatrical release — on May 14 from Focus Features. Watch the U.S. trailer for the film below.

“Profile” follows an undercover British journalist in her quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter through social media, while trying not to be sucked in by her recruiter and lured into becoming a militant extremist herself. The thriller is co-led by Valene Kane (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) and Shazad Latif (“Star Trek: Discovery”). “Profile” is inspired by the 2015 nonfiction bestseller “In the Skin of a Jihadist” by a French journalist who now has round-the-clock police protection and has changed her name to Anna Érelle.

Much like the Bekmambetov-produced horror movie “Unfriended,...

After producing Unfriended, Unfriended: Dark Web, and Searching, filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) has directed the new computer screen Pov thriller Profile (using Bekmambetov's Screenlife filmmaking format), which has been acquired by Focus Features and slated for a May 14th release.

Press Release: Los Angeles, CA March 23, 2020 – Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to the thriller Profile, a Berlin Film Festival sensation from Timur Bekmambetov, the director behind the intense Angelina Jolie-led thriller Wanted. Focus Features will distribute the film domestically and has set a release date of Friday, May 14, 2021. Universal Pictures will distribute internationally, excluding Cis/Russia. The sale was negotiated by WME.

Profile follows an undercover British journalist in her quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter through social media, while trying not to be sucked in by her recruiter and lured into becoming a militant extremist herself. The thriller is co-led by Valene Kane (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story...

Focus Features has taken global rights to Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov’s thriller Profile, which made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2018 and won the Audience Award there. A theatrical release date of May 14 has been set. Universal Pictures will distribute internationally, excluding Cis/Russia.

Profile follows an undercover British journalist in her quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter through social media, while trying not to be sucked in by her recruiter and lured into becoming a militant extremist herself. Profile stars Valene Kane (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery) and is inspired by the 2015 nonfiction bestseller In the Skin of a Jihadist by a French journalist who now has round-the-clock police protection and has changed her name to Anna Érelle.

Profile plays out entirely on a computer screen in the Screenlife format, pioneered by Bekmambetov. It was written...

Timur Bekmambetov’s thriller “Profile,” which made waves at Berlin in 2018 for being seen entirely through a computer screen, has landed worldwide distribution from Focus Features.

Focus will release “Profile” in theaters domestically on May 14, 2021, while Universal Pictures will distribute internationally, excluding Cis/Russia.

“Profile” was shot using the Screenlife format, a platform pioneered by Bekmambetov that allows for the action to play out through webcams, computer screens, smartphones and social media windows. The technology has recently become more common in films like the horror movie “Unfriended” and the thriller “Searching” starring John Cho. Most recently, Bekmambetov was a producer on “R#J,” a new take on “Romeo & Juliet” for the TikTok era that also used Screenlife and premiered at Sundance.

The story of “Profile” follows an undercover British journalist in her quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter through social media, while trying not to be sucked in...

Thriller inspired by2015 non-fiction French bestseller In The Skin Of A Jihadist.

Focus Features has picked up worldwide rights to Timur Bekmambetov’s thriller Profile, the 2018 Berlinale Panorama selection about a UK journalist who infiltrates an Isis cell.

Focus negotiated the deal with Endeavor Content and will release the film in the US on May 14, with Universal Pictures distributing internationally outside Cis/Russia.

Valene Kane stars as the reporter and Shazad Latif plays the recruiter she tries to expose on social media while trying to avoid getting sucked into a life as a militant extremist.

The thriller was inspired by...

Focus Features has taken the worldwide rights for Timur Bekmambetov’s Profile, setting a May 14 release.

It’s the filmmaker’s latest movie in the “screenlife” format— a feature that looks as if it plays out entirely on a computer screen. Profile follows an undercover British journalist in her quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter through social media while trying not to be sucked in by her recruiter and lured into becoming a militant extremist herself.

Valene Kane (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery) star in the project that was written and ...

Focus Features has taken the worldwide rights for Timur Bekmambetov’s Profile, setting a May 14 release.

It’s the filmmaker’s latest movie in the “screenlife” format— a feature that looks as if it plays out entirely on a computer screen. Profile follows an undercover British journalist in her quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter through social media while trying not to be sucked in by her recruiter and lured into becoming a militant extremist herself.

Valene Kane (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery) star in the project that was written and ...

Exclusive: Russian director and producer Timur Bekmambetov, whose creation of the innovative Screenlife format has spawned hit movies such as Profile and Unfriended, is setting his sights on India by striking a partnership with local players Graphic India and Reliance Entertainment.

Bekmambetov and Graphic India founder Sharad Devarajan will team to develop a slate of original local-language films leveraging the Screenlife genre in India. The deal will commence with three films from up-and-coming Indian filmmakers, the first of which is aiming to go into production early next year.

Devarajan’s Graphic India is the company behind numerous Indian superhero IPs, spawning film and TV adaptations as well as a series of short motion comics which have been hugely successful on TikTok India. Devarajan is also the creator of Baahubali: The Lost Legends, the long-running web TV animated series which is part of the hugely successful Baahubali franchise.

Reliance Entertainment is...

In today’s film news roundup, Stephen Lighthill becomes president of the American Society of Cinematographers, Universal is teaming with Timur Bekmambetov and the DGA health plan is offering three months of free coverage to some members.

New President

The American Society of Cinematographers’ board of governors has elected Stephen Lighthill as president, replacing Kees van Oostrum.

The Asc noted that van Oostrum had served the maximum four terms and recently was appointed to lead Imago, the international federation of cinematographers. This is Lighthill’s second turn as Asc president, previously serving from 2012-2013. Most recently, he held the position of vice president. The board voted in three vice presidents — Amy Vincent, Bill Bennett and John Simmons. They elected Levie Isaacks as treasurer; Gregg Heschong as secretary; and David Darby as sergeant-at-arms

“This is a challenging moment for filmmaking in general and cinematography in particular,” Lighthill said. “As an organization,...

Russian film promotion body Roskino has unveiled the program for its digital Key Buyers Event, a virtual content market that will present over 300 projects from more than 120 leading Russian companies to international buyers.

Presented with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Moscow city government, the digital market will run from June 8-15. The program features a host of live presentations, panel discussions, and cultural events, along with pitching sessions for dozens of film, TV and animation projects looking for international co-production partners.

Buyers and producers from more than 40 countries are slated to take part, including Rtl Group, AMC Networks, Cgv Mars, Wild Bunch, Beta Film, and Chinese streaming service iQIYI.

“Such a national virtual market is unprecedented, and it is exciting to be the pioneers,” says Roskino CEO Evgenia Markova. “During these challenging times, we are adapting to champion our filmmakers to give them every opportunity to...

The Witcher is coming to Netflix just in time for Christmas.

The streamer has set a Friday, December 20 premiere date for the first season of the highly-anticipated series.

"Based on the best-selling fantasy series, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts," reads the official logline.

"But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together."

Related: Henry Cavill to Star in The Witcher

The cast also includes Freya Allan as Ciri, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, Jodhi May as Calanthe, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (Fortitude) as Eist, Adam Levy as Mousesack, MyAnna Buring as Tissaia), Mimi Ndiweni (Black Earth Rising) as Fringilla, Therica Wilson-Read (Profile) as Sabrina,...

“The Witcher” will hit Netflix on December 20, and the dark fantasy series’ new trailer promises that it won’t be lacking in intense, visceral action. The trailer for the eight-episode series was unveiled at the Lucca Comics and Games 2019 event in Italy on Thursday.

Netflix’s “The Witcher” series is based off the hit Polish fantasy novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, which center on monster hunter Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), who gets wrapped up in a continent-spanning tale of heroics and political intrigue. As a witcher, Geralt is ostracized for his supernatural abilities, but “The Witcher” isn’t a superhero tale in the vein of recent Marvel projects. Sapkowski’s world of monsters and magic is adult-oriented and morally grey, and “The Witcher” seems like it will be a fairly faithful recreation of the author’s fantasy setting.

Though the latest trailer for “The Witcher” is more focused on establishing...

Excited for Netflix’s upcoming series adaption of The Witcher?! Well, this new full trailer that has just dropped is going to rock your world and get you even more pumped up to watch the show! This trailer is awesome and it’s loaded with spectacular and stunning new footage! Damn! This show looks great!

Henry Cavill stars in the series as Geralt, and he is joined by Anya Chalotra as Yennefer and Freya Allan as Ciri. All of them seem like perfect choices for the roles that they play and I can’t wait to watch this show!

Here’s the synopsis for the series:

The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Be among the first to get the exclusive scoop on the highly anticipated new Netflix original series centering around famed monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia. Be introduced to the world of The Continent, where humans,...

"You can't outrun destiny... just because you're terrified of it."

There’s a new full trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher that is going to drop tomorrow, and in preparation for it, we’ve got a new promo to share with you teasing some cool new footage! Henry Cavill stars in the series as Geralt, and he is joined by Anya Chalotra as Yennefer and Freya Allan as Ciri.

Here’s the synopsis for the series:

The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Be among the first to get the exclusive scoop on the highly anticipated new Netflix original series centering around famed monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia. Be introduced to the world of The Continent, where humans, elves, witchers, gnomes, and monsters battle to survive and thrive, and where good and evil is not easily identified.

The promo came with the following note: “Oh little birds with tweets of sorrow,...

We’ve got a few new images to share with you from Netflix’s The Witcher. They feature Henry Cavill as Geralt riding a horse and intensely standing in what looks to be a tavern. There’s another photo that shows a clawed hand being held by a human hand, which is interesting, and then finally, there’s a fourth photo that features Anya Chalotra's Yennefer.

The first trailer that was released for The Witcher got fans super excited for the series. It looks great, and it looks like writer, producer, and showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and her team have created something special that fans of the property are going to love.

Here’s the synopsis for the series:

The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Be among the first to get the exclusive scoop on the highly anticipated new Netflix original series centering around famed monster hunter,...

We’ve got a new image to share with you from Netflix’s highly anticipated fantasy series The Witcher. The new photo features Henry Cavill as Geralt, and he’s looking like a badass who’s ready to run into battle.

The first trailer that was released for this series was awesome, and I can’t wait to see how the story actually plays out. The role of Geralt is a character that Cavil fought to play. He wanted it bad, and I think the fans are happy that he was ultimately cast.

Nueva foto de Geralt Cavill en la serie The Witcher de Netflix pic.twitter.com/Px9PultgnM

— Eduardo Marin (@Ed_Marin) September 24, 2019

Here’s the synopsis for the series:

The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Be among the first to get the exclusive scoop on the highly anticipated new Netflix original series centering around famed monster hunter,...

It looks like Netflix accidentally shared some information that revealed the release date of the highly anticipated fantasy series The Witcher.

Netflix shared a post on their Netherlands Twitter and Facebook accounts showing some of their upcoming shows and how many days there were before each of their release. Alongside titles like Atypical, The Crown, and Peaky Blinders there was The Witcher with 67 “nights sleep” until its release next to it. That would put the show being released on December 17th.

The Tweet has since been deleted, but not before Redanian Intelligence, a site dedicated to The Witcher series, snagged a screenshot.

Here’s the synopsis for the series:

The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Be among the first to get the exclusive scoop on the highly anticipated new Netflix original series centering around famed monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia. Be introduced to the world of The Continent,...

The first trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher series dropped at Comic-Con last week and fans seemed to love what it had to offer! This series is being adapted from the books written by Andrzej Sapkowski and not the video game franchise. But, that doesn’t mean fans of the game won’t like it!

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, the showrunner for The Witcher, has reassured fans of the game that they are going to “love the show” if you’ve enjoyed the characters and stories from the games. While talking to Cb about the series, she explained:

“You know, I've played the games, but really our stories are coming from the book, and what's cool to follow up to your follow up, is that I think there's a lot of concern, will the television show be for game fans as well? I absolutely think so. If you think about how adaptations work,...

“The worst monsters are the ones we create.”

Netflix brought The Witcher to Hall H in San Diego Comic-Con today, and that’s where they dropped the first awesome trailer and a few clips for the highly anticipated fantasy series. Henry Cavill (Geralt), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), Freya Allan (Ciri), and showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich all showed up to talk about the show, and I love what they are doing with the series!

The footage that was screened was spectacular! I think fans of the book series and video game are going to love what they show delivers. The trailer they shared at Comic-Con has been released online for the rest of the world to experience and I think it’s going to get the fans super pumped!

While on stage, Cavill talked about how big of a fan he is of the series and that when he found it it...

We’ve got a new photo to share with you from Netflix’s upcoming fantasy series The Witcher. The image features our first look at Henry Cavill’s Geralt riding his trusty steed, Roach. Roach has accompanied Geralt on his journey’s in both the novels and the video games so the fans know the horse well.

Based on the best-selling fantasy series of books, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.

The Witcher is coming to San Diego Comic-Con this week, and there will be a panel that you won’t want to miss if...

Updated with The Witcher photos: Netflix is heading down to San Diego Comic-Con with a pair of their highly anticipated new series The Witcher and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The streaming giant will take the stage at the coveted Hall H on July 19. Netflix also released first-look photos of The Witcher’s three lead characters, Geralt (Henry Cavill), Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan), and key art (see below).

The original series The Witcher will be the first to take the stage on Friday, July 19 from 2:15 pm to 3 pm. Based on the best-selling fantasy series of books, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Be among the first to get the exclusive scoop on the highly anticipated new Netflix original series centering around famed monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia. Be introduced to the world of The Continent, where humans, elves, witchers, gnomes, and...

Netflix has shared a few cool photos from their upcoming series adaptation of The Witcher. These photos give us our first real look at the highly anticipated fantasy series and they focus on the three main characters which include Geralt (Henry Cavill), Yennefer (Anya Cholatra), and Ciri (Freya Allan).

The actors all look awesome in their roles! We also have a first look at the series logo and a teaser poster that is sure to get the fans pumped up for the series.

It’s also been announced that Netflix is bringing The Witcher to San Diego Comic-Con, and they will have a big Hall H panel on July 19th and 2:15pm. The panel will be moderated by Yvette Nicole Brown, and it will include cast members Cavill, Chalotra, and Allan alongside showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.

I image they will be showing off some of the first footage from the series at the event,...