News

The Forge has acquired North American rights to Guan Hu’s Cannes award winner “Black Dog,” and worldwide distribution rights to Alison Tavel’s “Resynator,” which won the best documentary audience award at South by Southwest.

The Forge also recently acquired North American rights for French horror-comedy “The Balconettes,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and plays the American French Film Festival in Hollywood next week.

“Black Dog,” which won Un Certain Regard’s prize at Cannes 2024, follows ex-offender Lang (Eddie Peng) who “returns to his hometown where he forms an unexpected bond with a stray black dog. Both outcasts, they embark on a transformative journey together,” according to an official logline. The film grossed more than $2.4 million after just two days at the Chinese Box office.

“Resynator,” which serves as Tavel’s feature directorial debut, “follows the legacy of inventor Don Tavel through the eyes of his daughter Alison,...

Fledgling US distributor and international sales agency The Forge, led by longtime producer and Vashon Island Film Festival director Mark Mathias Sayre, is heading to Cannes with a slate including Civil War epic Freedom’s Path.

Brett Smith’s drama stars Gerran Howell, Rj Cyler, and Ewen Bremner and centres on a Union solider who flees battle and is rescued by a free Black man operating a section of the Underground Railroad.

The roster includes Matthew Mishory’s documentary Fioretta, which will open in the US through Gravitas Ventures and profiles lawyer and philanthropist Randy Schoenberg’s search for his oldest recorded ancestor.

Exclusive: A documentary about legendary Pacific Northwest band The Sonics, who influenced the likes of Nirvana, Mudhoney and The White Stripes, has been picked up by nascent distributor The Forge.

Jordan Albertsen’s Boom: A Film About the Sonics will get a limited theatrical release across North America in the first quarter of next year after local premieres in Seattle and LA and The Forge will represent worldwide sales and start looking for international deals at AFM next week.

The Forge was set up by producer and Vashon Island Film Festival director Mark Mathias Sayre and recently released Brett Smith’s directorial debut and Civil War-epic Freedom’s Path.

The Sonics were formed in 1960 in Tacoma and had a large roster of members, who have reunited regularly over the years. The band also influenced the likes of The Stooges and The Cramps. Kurt Cobain once said that The Sonics’ drum sound...

David Halls, the assistant director on “Rust,” has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent or unsafe use of a deadly weapon, pending a court review of the plea proposal.

A judge approved the plea agreement to resolve the weapons-related charge against a codefendant in the case against Alec Baldwin concerning the 2021 on-set shooting death of the film’s cinematographer.

Prosecutors announced in January a proposed plea agreement with Halls concerning his responsibilities in the death of Halyna Hutchins.

Halls, who as first Ad was the film’s safety coordinator, appeared remotely for the plea hearing before a Santa Fe judge. Asked how he wished to plea, he answered, “No contest, your honor.” He will, in lieu of jail time, serve six months of unsupervised probation.

He is also expected to testify at a preliminary hearing in May, as prosecutors pursue involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin and the film’s armorer,...

Animated fairy tale The Amazing Maurice voiced by Emilia Clarke, Hugh Laurie, David Thewlish, Gemma Arterton and Himesh Patel, jumps from Sundance to 1,700 screens via Viva Pictures, the distributor’s widest release to date and a big one for any independently produced animated film.

And Civil War drama Freedom’s Path starring Gerran Howell, Rj Cyler, and Ewen Bremner, debuts at 128 AMC and Regal Cinemas. In limited release, Let It Be Morning by the director of The Band’s Visit resurfaces, Kit Harrington is back in Baby Ruby and Call My Agent’s Laure Calamy stars in Full Time.

Maurice, directed by Toby Genken and written by Terry Rossio, a family action/comedy from the U.K., follows a streetwise cat and his gang of rats who come up with a perfect moneymaking scheme. Based on the novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Sir Terry Pratchett, it’s produced by Emely Christians,...

Jeremy Strong as Irving Graff and Anne Hathaway as Esther Graff in ‘Armageddon Time’ (Photo Courtesy of Focus Features)

Writer/director James Gray’s Armageddon Time will open the 2022 San Diego International Film Festival on October 19th and writer/director Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light has been selected as the festival’s closing night film. The 21st annual SDiFF’s lineup will also include the San Diego premiere of Taurus as well as screenings of Close, Good Night Oppy, and The Banshees of Inisherin.

This year’s festival will honor Taurus star Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) with the Spotlight Award. Baker, who made his acting debut in the Showtime series Roadies, will be presented with the honor following a special Spotlight Screening of Taurus from writer/director Tim Sutton on October 23rd.

“This year, our slate has been curated from over 3000 film submissions from 82 countries with compelling Social...

“The Harder They Fall” actor Rj Cyler has signed with CAA and Management 360 for representation.

Ronald “Rj” Cyler II was most recently seen in the Sundance selection “Emergency,” which is set to hit theaters and begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video in May. He also portrayed real-life cowboy Jim Beckwourth in Jeymes Samuel’s Netflix western “The Harder They Fall,” stealing scenes amid the star-studded ensemble of Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Lakeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, Edi Gathegi, Danielle Deadwyler and Delroy Lindo.

Cyler will next be seen in the HBO Max comedy series “Rap Sh*t,” created by Issa Rae, and will play a leading role in “Freedom’s Path,” an upcoming film set in and around the Underground Railroad, written and directed by Brett Smith. Cyler serves as an executive producer on the project.

The actor’s breakthrough role came with the critically acclaimed 2015 film “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,...

Exclusive: Dave Halls, the first assistant director of Rust, is not a DGA member, even though the film was being produced in New Mexico under a DGA contract.

Halls, who the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department has identified as the person who handed Alec Baldwin the gun that shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set last week, is what’s commonly known as a “financial core” non-member – or an “agency fee paying non-member” – meaning that he either chose not to join the DGA or had resigned his membership. Joel Souza, who was wounded by the same bullet that killed Hutchins, is a DGA member.

DGA rules require that “If you are an Assistant Director, Unit Production Manager, Associate Director, or Stage Manager, you must take Safety Pass Training.” And though Halls is not a DGA member, safety records show that he has completed both “Mandatory...

A crew member told Variety that he warned the producers of “Rust” that Dave Halls, the first assistant director, was cavalier about set safety during a previous production.

Halls has admitted to investigators that he failed to properly check a gun before handing it to Alec Baldwin on the set of “Rust” on Oct. 21. Baldwin fired that gun while rehearsing a scene, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding the director.

The production companies credited on “Rust” include Thomasville Pictures, led by Ryan Smith and Allen Cheney, as well as Short Porch Pictures, run by Nathan Klingher and Ryan Winterstern, among others. The same two companies also produced “One Way,” another independent film that shot in Georgia in February. Halls served as first assistant director on that project as well.

During filming, the crew member said he witnessed an unsafe situation in which cars were being driven in an open field...

The crew member responsible for overall safety on the set of Rust has admitted he didn’t properly check the gun that Alec Baldwin fired on October 21 and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

“During an interview with David Halls, when Affiant asked David about the safety protocol on set in regards to firearms, he advised, ‘I check the barrel for obstructions, most of the time there’s no live fire, she [Hannah] opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say cold gun on set,’” reveals an affidavit successfully submitted by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office for a new search warrant issued today (read the search warrant here).

“David advised when Hannah showed him the firearm before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds,” the filing adds, noting the interaction that afternoon last week between the First Ad and armorer Hannah Gutierrez.

“He advised he should have checked all of them,...

The possibility of criminal charges resulting from the tragic death on the set of “Rust” is coming into focus as the industry grapples with the fallout from the Oct. 21 gun accident that left 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead.

The investigations by authorities in Santa Fe, N.M., are looking deeper into what went wrong on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set outside the city where the Alec Baldwin indie Western was in the midst of a 21-day shoot.

Santa Fe County authorities, including Sheriff Adan Mendoza and District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, are expected to fill in some details about the incident in a news conference on the case set for today at 9 a.m. Pt. But Carmack-Altwies has also warned the probe will still take weeks.

Authorities have issued two search warrants to retrieve items from the ranch, including spent casings from the blanks used in guns on the set and swabs of blood.

Three crew members who had worked alongside “Rust” assistant director David Halls have given details about the A.D.’s behavior on a previous project, where he is alleged to have created unsafe conditions on a set in 2019.

“I can confirm that Dave Halls was fired from the set of ‘Freedom’s Path’ in 2019 after a crew member incurred a minor and temporary injury when a gun was unexpectedly discharged,” a producer on the film confirmed to Variety. “Halls was removed from set immediately after the prop gun discharged. Production did not resume filming until Dave was off-site. An incident report was taken and filed at that time.”

The anonymous crew members gave their comments to CNN on Monday, detailing an incident where an 1800s-style muzzle-loading rifle “unexpectedly discharged” during production during the production of “Freedom’s Path.” A boom operator incurred inner ear injuries requiring medical attention from the sound of the discharge.

The fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by Alec Baldwin last week on the Santa Fe set of Rust wasn’t the first time First Assistant Director David Hills worked on a film where a weapon discharged unexpectedly.

Back in late 2019, a gun went off on the Arkansas set of Freedom’s Path, where Halls was an Ad. The incident caused a member of the Rocket Soul Studios-produced movie’s sound department to jump back from the close-by blast.

“First of all, our condolences go out to everyone affected by the recent tragic event in New Mexico,” said one of the producers of Freedom’s Path to Deadline today.

“I can confirm that Dave Halls was fired from the set of Freedom’s Path in 2019 after a crew member incurred a minor and temporary injury when a gun was unexpectedly discharged,” he added. “Halls was removed from set immediately after the prop gun discharged.

An assistant director who is cited in a search warrant as having unknowingly given actor Alec Baldwin a loaded prop gun before a fatal shooting on the set of Rust was previously fired from another film following an accident involving a weapon, a producer confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

The producer on the film Freedom’s Path, who asked to remain anonymous, said that during production in 2019 “a crew member incurred a minor and temporary injury when a gun was unexpectedly discharged.” After the prop gun incident, Rust assistant director Dave Halls “was removed from set,” after which production continued....

An assistant director who is cited in a search warrant as having unknowingly given actor Alec Baldwin a loaded prop gun before a fatal shooting on the set of Rust was previously fired from another film following an accident involving a weapon, a producer confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

The producer on the film Freedom’s Path, who asked to remain anonymous, said that during production in 2019 “a crew member incurred a minor and temporary injury when a gun was unexpectedly discharged.” After the prop gun incident, Rust assistant director Dave Halls “was removed from set,” after which production continued....

Warrants reveal more about timeline of fateful day.

The producers on Rust have confirmed that production will remain halted until the investigation into the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on set in New Mexico is complete.

A letter to crew sent on Sunday said the move was a “pause rather than an end”. The producers also expressed their sadness over Hutchins’s death and added they were supporting director Joel Souza, who was standing behind the cinematographer and injured in the shoulder. He has been released from hospital.

Meanwhile reports emerged on Monday evening (October 25) that according to an anonymous producer from 2019 production Freedom’s Path,...

Back in October 2019, before the pandemic, we brought you news about American Civil War movie Freedom’s Path.

The feature, which charts the friendship between a Union soldier and a runaway slave who is helping facilitate the Underground Railroad, stars Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting), Rj Cyler (Me And Earl And The Dying Girl) and Gerran Howell (Catch 22). Post-production has just wrapped.

As it turned out, the project would mark the final stops on the journey of two veteran actors who died while the movie was in post-production: Thomas Jefferson Byrd, a frequent Spike Lee collaborator, and New Orleans native Carol Sutton, both of whom had supporting roles.

Both actors died in sad circumstances. Tony-nominee Byrd was murdered in Atlanta and Sutton died of complications from Covid.

Today, the production has chosen to release two images of the admired actors in their final film, marking the first official stills from the movie.

Trainspotting alum Ewen Bremner, David Fane, Joel Fry, Guz Khan and Matt Maher have joined the cast of HBO Max’s period comedy Our Flag Means Death. They join stars Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi in the series from writer David Jenkins (People of Earth), Garrett Basch (What We Do in the Shadows) and Dan Halsted.

Created by Jenkins, who also serves as showrunner, Our Flag Means Death is based loosely on the true adventures of Stede Bonnet (Darby), a pampered aristocrat who abandoned his life of privilege to become a pirate.

Bremner plays Buttons. Fane portrays Fang. Fry is Frenchie. Khan plays Ivan. Maher is Black Pete.

2020-21 HBO Max Pilots & Series Orders

The ensemble cast also includes Kristian Nairn, Nathan Foad, Samson Kayo, Rory Kinnear, Con O’Neill and Vico Ortiz.

Exclusive: Shoot is underway in the U.S. on American Civil War-set film Freedom’s Path, starring Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting), Rj Cyler (Me And Earl And The Dying Girl) and Gerran Howell (Catch 22).

The story follows the friendship forged between a Union soldier and runaway slave William who is helping facilitate the Underground Railroad. The feature marks the feature directorial debut of writer-director Brett Smith and is based on his short of the same name.

Supporting cast includes Harrison Gilbertson (Picnic At Hanging Rock) as William’s best friend; Afemo Omiliami (Poms) as Ellis Freeman, a leader of the underground railroad who has decided to stay in the south and help runaway slaves move North; Carol Sutton (Poms) as Caddy, a compassionate matriarch of a group of slaves facilitating the underground network; and Thomas J Byrd (Chi-Raq) as Abner, the tough adopted father of a group of former slaves running the railroad.