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Ahhh, fall. It’s finally here. The leaves are dropping, pumpkin spice is in the air (and everyone’s coffee), and the holidays are close enough where we’re all either rushing to get our work done before the end of the year or starting to wind down in hopes that people will soon stop bothering us. It’s a magical time, especially with new awards contenders like “Anora” and “Conclave” finally releasing to wide audiences, but let’s not forget that older films deserve some love too. Especially around Thanksgiving, a holiday specifically designed for reflection. What better way to celebrate than looking back on some classics of cinema, both the widely seen and the obscure.

While October may have provided the spooks in New York and Los Angeles repertory theaters, November aims to calm things down with light offerings for youngsters like “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,...

Legendary Television has acquired the rights to the Anna Dorn novel “Perfume & Pain” with Clea DuVall set to write and direct, Variety has learned exclusively.

The book is described as a “a sexy and twisted character drama following a hopelessly romantic and equally reckless sapphic novelist on the verge of superstardom and simultaneously total self-destruction – depending which way the wind blows and what pill she pops next. Astrid will need to write her own deliverance into healing, true love, and success… before she succumbs to the vices that threaten to tear her apart.”

The book was originally published in the U.S. on May 21 by Simon & Schuster. Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler will produce under their Killer Films banner.

Dorn’s other works include “Exalted,” “Bad Lawyer,” and “Vagablonde.” Her next novel, “American Spirits,” is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster. She is repped by Gersh and Sanford J. Greenburger Associates for publishing.

Joaquin Phoenix departed Todd Haynes‘ planned Nc-17 gay romance, and now one of the film’s producers is speaking out.

Christine Vachon of Killer Films shared an article to Facebook about the 49-year-old actor dropping out five days before production, and addressed speculation that his sudden departure had to do with the film’s LGBTQ content.

“A version of this did happen. It has been a nightmare,” she began, via People.

Keep reading to find out more…

“And Please — if you are tempted to finger wag or admonish us that ‘that’s what you get for casting a straight actor’ — Don’T,” she went on to say. “This was His project that he brought to US– and Killer’s record on working with LGBTQ actors/crew/directors speaks for itself. (and for those of you who Have — know that you are making a terrible situation even worse).”

The producer worked...

After Joaquin Phoenix‘s abrupt exit from Todd Haynes‘ gay romance resulted in the film’s unraveling, one of its producers has addressed the fallout.

Christine Vachon of Killer Films shared an article to Facebook about the actor dropping out five days before production, while responding to speculation that Phoenix’s sudden departure had to do with the film’s LGBTQ content and planned Nc-17 rating.

“A version of this did happen. It has been a nightmare,” she started in the post, according to People.

“And Please — if you are tempted to finger wag or admonish us that ‘that’s what you get for casting a straight actor’ — Don’T,” wrote Vachon in part. “This was His project that he brought to US– and Killer’s record on working with LGBTQ actors/crew/directors speaks for itself. (and for those of you who Have — know that you are making a...

Mark Margolis, the longtime character actor whose career pinnacled with unforgettable arcs on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has died at the age of 83.

Margolis’ son announced the actor’s death Friday, noting that Margolis died at New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital on August 3 following a short illness.

“He was one of a kind. We won’t see his likes again. He was a treasured client and a lifelong friend. I was lucky to know him,” his manager Robert Kolker said in a statement.

View this post on...

One of independent film’s key players, Ray Price, died July 16 at the age of 75 from heart failure after a long battle with cancer, his long-term partner Meg Madison confirmed.

Talking to Price about movies, past and present, was an exhilarating sport that could take a while. He knew his stuff — no one loved movies more — but more than anyone during the great indie decades of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, he was a respected innovator who thought outside the box. He began as an exhibitor in San Francisco and moved on to marketing, releasing, and distributing movies, leaning toward the outrageous in how he lured audiences to sample challenging fare.

“Ray, while being a defiantly singular individual, was also emblematic of a bygone age of independent film,” Magnolia Pictures co-ceo Eamonn Bowles wrote me in an email. “From theatre chain owner to distributor, exquisite marketer, and production exec, he...

Ray Price, a respected producer of indie filmmaking, died July 16 from heart failure after a long battle with cancer. The news was confirmed by his long-term partner Meg Madison. He was 75 years old.

Price launched his film career in 1972, managing the Berkeley storefront theater the Rialto, and went on to build with Allen Michaan Renaissance Theaters, an independent art film chain that became one of the largest (33 at its peak) in the Bay Area and was later sold to the Landmark Theatre circuit.

A tough negotiator and exacting exhibitor, under Price’s stewardship, Renaissance Theaters were renowned for redesigning marketing materials, from posters to press books — designs that fledgling distributors often adopted when the films hadn’t found success in other markets.

At a time when most top arthouse distributors focused on established auteurs from Europe and Asia, Renaissance Theaters exploded those norms by programming new American directors like Martin Scorsese and John Cassavetes.

Ray Price, an indie film producer and marketing veteran, died on July 16 of heart failure after battling cancer, his longterm partner Meg Madison confirmed. He was 75.

During his career in film, Price was president of Francis Ford Coppola’s production company American Zoetrope and First Look Pictures and a marketing and distribution exec for Landmark Theatres, Trimark Pictures and 2929 Entertainment. He also supported up-and-coming filmmakers like Tran Anh Hung (“The Scent of Green Papaya”), Gurinder Chadha (“Bhaji on The Beach”), Carl Franklin (“One False Move”), Allison Anders (“Gas Food Lodging”) and John Sayles (“The Secret of Roan Inish”).

“Ray, while being a defiantly singular individual, was also emblematic of a bygone age of independent film,” said Magnolia Pictures co-ceo Eamonn Bowles in a statement. “From theatre chain owner to distributor, exquisite marketer, and production exec, he always sought out novel ways of approaching things. He truly was a rebel...

Ray Price, the respected indie film innovator who served as president of American Zoetrope and First Look Pictures and as a marketing and distribution executive for companies including Landmark Theatres and Trimark Pictures, has died. He was 75.

Price died Sunday at Whittier Hospital Medical Center from heart failure after a long battle with cancer, his longtime partner, Meg Madison, said.

Throughout his career, Price displayed an encyclopedic knowledge of film, mentored generations of executives and leaned toward the outrageous in the ways he lured audiences to sample challenging movies.

Along the way, he championed filmmakers including Carl Franklin (1992’s One False Move), Allison Anders (1992’s Gas Food Lodging), Tran Anh Hung (1993’s The Scent of Green Papaya), Gurinder Chadha (1993’s Bhaji on the Beach) and John Sayles (1994’s The Secret of Roan Inish).

“Ray, while being a defiantly singular individual, was also emblematic of a bygone age of independent film,...

Producer Christine Vachon: 'Producing in many ways is like childbirth and you forget how difficult it is' Photo: Film Servis Karlovy Vary In her 30-year career of helping diverse voices from outside the mainstream reach the screen , producer Christine Vachon has accumulated a roll call of honour including Todd Haynes (Carol), Todd Solondz (Happiness), Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol), Kimberly Pierce (Boys Don’t Cry), and John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig And The Angry Inch).

Reflecting on her achievements at the Karlovy International Film Festival where two of her most recent titles Celine Song’s romantic drama Past Lives, and Emma Westenberg’s I Sing Loud, You Sing Louder (with Ewan and Clara McGregor) were screened, she said: “Producing in many ways is like child birth and you forget how difficult it is.”

Vachon co-founded with Pamela Koffler her production company Killer Films in 1995. She agrees that most people have...

TheWrap is proud to present the 12 finalist films in the 2023 ShortList Film Festival, chosen from award-winning shorts from across the world in the past year. This year’s films tell personal stories that captivate and inspire — including a film about two Chinese grandmothers, a film about scuba diving in the ruins of a tsunami and one film about the LAPD blowing up a neighborhood.

The films – which include narrative, documentaries and animation - are available to watch and vote on from June 28 through July 12, exclusively on TheWrap.

The award-winning short film that is chosen by TheWrap’s Industry Jury will be honored with the prestigious Industry Prize. This year’s jury comprises award-winning producer Christine Vachon, director Elegance Bratton, veteran producer Amy Baer and PR veteran Joshua Jackson. The Shortlist is programmed by respected short film programmer Landon Zakheim.

The top-ranking short film that receives the most online votes will...

With “I Shot Andy Warhol” in 1996, Mary Harron launched her filmmaking career by depicting an artist with a complicated legacy, and that fixation never left her. Her latest effort, “Dalíland,” follows that trajectory with a trenchant look at the later years of Salvador Dalí. While the legacies of many legendary creators have been reevaluated in modern times, Harron’s own fixations haven’t kept from appreciating her troubled subjects.

“There are a lot of artists’ work that I do not want people to cut themselves off from,” the director told IndieWire in a recent interview. “I love reading Dostoyevsky, who was anti-Semitic and had crazy political ideas. I was very influenced as a young person by Polanski, who did terrible things and really should’ve been in prison for them. But that doesn’t mean his films didn’t continue to inspire.”

As for Dalí: The Surrealist may have been...

The American Psycho episode of Wtf Happened to This Adaptation? was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian. Here is the text of Hatfield’s script:

Horror can take many forms and its high time we talked about something firmly in the psychological realm. Author Brett Easton Ellis is known to broach subjects that are uncomfortable or outright horrifying, but it is with his 3rd book that he went for the throat so to speak and tackle a more traditional genre topic in a thoroughly nontraditional way. American Psycho was quite controversial upon its release in 1991 and the film based on it in 2000 (watch it Here) was divisive then and it’s divisive now.

Take a look at the craftsmanship on that card as we find out what the f*ck happened to this adaptation.

Ezra Miller and Ben Kingsley are two sides of the same Dalí.

Both actors transform into artist Salvador Dalí for Magnolia Pictures’ “Dalíland,” directed by Mary Harron.

The film focuses on Salvador Dalí, one of the most world-renowned artists of the 20th century, and centers on the later years of the strange and fascinating marriage between Dalí and his wife, Gala (Barbara Sukowa), as their seemingly unshakable bond begins to stress and fracture, per an official synopsis. Set in New York and Spain in 1974, the film is told through the eyes of James (Christopher Briney), a young assistant keen to make his name in the art world, who helps the eccentric and mercurial Dalí prepare for a big gallery show. “Daisy Jones & the Six” breakout Suki Waterhouse, Andreja Pejic, and Rupert Graves also star.

“Dalíland” debuted closing night at 2022 TIFF and is produced by Daniel Brunt, Chris Curling, Edward R. Pressman,...

Daisy-Edgar Jones, Jacob Elordi, Diego Calva, Will Poulter and Sasha Calle are on board for a star-studded adaptation of the historical drama “On Swift Horses.”

Based on Shannon Pufahl’s novel of the same name, the film centers on couple Muriel (Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Poulter), who look to rebuild their life together after he returns from the Korean War. A love triangle emerges after Lee’s brother, Julius (Elordi), a charismatic gambler with a secret, joins their plan to move to California. When Julius decamps for Las Vegas instead, Muriel embarks on her own secret life of gambling on racehorses. Calva will play a character named Henry, while Calle will play Sandra.

Daniel Minahan will helm from a script by Bryce Kass (“Lizzie”). Production is underway in Los Angeles.

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First Trailer for Disney’s ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ Promises a Very David Lowery Fairy Tale (Video)

Ley Line Entertainment...

There’s a genre I like so much I can never get enough of it — I call it the Biopic About Someone You Wouldn’t Make a Biopic About. The form came into existence, in a certain way, with “Sid and Nancy,” but it was all but patented by the screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who planted it on the map, in 1994, with “Ed Wood” (still the “Citizen Kane” of the genre), then went on to script “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” “Man on the Moon” (about Andy Kaufman), “Big Eyes”, and “Dolemite Is My Name” (about the fluky hustler-comedian Ray Moore). There have been films in the genre from other quarters, like Paul Schrader’s superb “Auto Focus” (about the TV star Bob Crane and his video-fetish sex life), going right up through the recent Toronto Film Festival sensation “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

But there’s one...

Twenty-six years after making “I Shot Andy Warhol,” filmmaker Mary Harron returns to the late ’60s/early ’70s New York art world with “Dalíland,” this time with greater mastery and style. Ben Kingsley stars as Salvador Dalí, the eccentric Spanish surrealist artist who paraded around sporting a handlebar mustache and dressed like a 16th-century conquistador in the glam-rock era.

Harron dabbles in her own take on surrealism by converging Dalí’s romantic headspace and the ever-present decadent party scene. Her invocation of surrealism isn’t at all in Dalí’s style, which would be one way to approach the subject. But this definitely feels like her most layered and fully realized vision.

Like “I Shot Andy Warhol,” “Dalíland,” which premiered as the closing-night attraction at the Toronto International Film Festival, centers not on the artist himself but rather on someone peripheral in his circle. The film opens in 1985, as James...

Over 20 years ago, "American Psycho" changed the way we looked at Phil Collins, Huey Lewis and the News, plastic rain macs, and business cards. Is it even possible now to hear "Sussudio" on the radio without picturing Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) giving himself a gun show in the mirror while engaged in a threesome?

Canadian director Mary Harron ("I Shot Andy Warhol"), who also co-wrote the screenplay, toned down the gut-churning violence of Bret Easton Ellis's controversial novel to create a black comedy takedown of hollow consumerism. It served as an astute companion piece to "Fight Club" from the previous year, with both...

The post Why Sourcing Props For American Psycho Was a Major Struggle appeared first on /Film.

Showtime has formally greenlit the limited series “Fellow Travelers” starring Matt Bomer.

Showtime has given the series an eight episode order. Variety exclusively reported the show was in the works at the premium cabler in September 2021.

Based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon, the series is described as an epic love story and political thriller, chronicling the volatile romance of two very different men who meet in the shadow of McCarthy-era Washington. Bomer will play handsome, charismatic Hawkins Fuller, who maintains a financially rewarding, behind-the scenes career in politics. Hawkins avoids emotional entanglements – until he meets Tim Laughlin, a young man brimming with idealism and religious faith. They begin a romance just as Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn declare war on “subversives and sexual deviants,” initiating one of the darkest periods in 20th-century American history. Over the course of four decades, Hawk and Tim cross paths...

The Cannes Film Market’s Fantastic 7 sidebar returned this year for a pitching session showcasing some of the best genre film projects from emerging talent around the world.

Mònica Garcia Massagué, the general manager of Sitges Intl. Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, and the lead organizer of Fantastic 7, noted that “folk horror” was a recurrent theme in this year’s seven selected projects. The subgenre, which has gained wider popularity in recent years through the success of Ari Aster’s films “Midsommar” and “Hereditary,” typically involves stories inspired from traditional tales and set in natural or rural settings.

In Cannes, the Fantastic 7 initiative connects representatives from seven film festivals around the world who each select a project from their region that befits the Fantastic 7 frame; the project is then pitched to industry members, and the talent is able to connect with potential business partners for funding or co-production purposes.

“The...

Ewan McGregor had never heard of legendary fashion designer Roy Halston before playing him in the Netflix limited series “Halston,” but that didn’t stop the actor from going all in for the role. Having been in development on the project for over 20 years, which was initially conceived as a feature film, series creator Dan Minahan handed over decades of research to McGregor, who drew on the photos and archival footage to deliver his charismatic, edgy, and occasionally R-rated performance. Under Ryan Murphy’s producer guidance at Netflix, alongside Killer Films’ Christine Vachon, “Halston” isn’t afraid to swing big in the opening episode, showing some very cheeky and primal gay sex within the first 10 minutes.

“Ewan and I talked about that. I said — ‘How do you feel about the sex scenes?’ And he said — ‘Well, that’s a part of this character,” Minahan said during during an event at...

Netflix has released the first official trailer for “Halston,” a limited series starring Ewan McGregor as the iconic fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, known by the single name Halston. The series is the first collaboration between Ryan Murphy and Killer Films’ Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, marking a merging of the minds of some of queer cinema’s most prolific and influential producers — albeit in very different arenas. If their previous work is any indication, “Halston” will combine the visual sumptuousness of “Carol” with the campy intrigue of “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

Here’s the official description from Netflix: “The limited series ‘Halston’ follows the legendary fashion designer (Ewan McGregor), as he leverages his single, invented name into a worldwide fashion empire that’s synonymous with luxury, sex, status and fame, literally defining the era he lives in, 1970’s and ‘80’s New York — until a hostile...

FX’s upcoming docuseries about the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights in America, “Pride,” has set its full director slate and lined up a May premiere date at the cable network.

The six-part series, which will begin with the 1950s and work forward through the decades, will see six LGBTQ+ directors explore stories ranging from the FBI surveillance of homosexuals during the 1950s Lavender Scare to the “Culture Wars” of the 1990s and beyond. Civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin, writer Audre Lord and Senators Tammy Baldwin and Lester Hunt are among those interviewed for the series.

Directors include Tom Kalin (“Swoon”), Andrew Ahn (“Driveways”), Cheryl Dunye (“The Watermelon Woman”), Anthony Caronna and Alex Smith (“Susanne Bartsch: On Top”), Yance Ford (“Strong Island”) and Ro Haber (“Pose”).

The series will premiere with its first three episodes airing back-to-back on May 14. The second half of the series will air the following week...

Orion Pictures has set its first feature film project since its relaunch, securing Emmy-winning Pose star Billy Porter to direct What If?, a high school coming-of-age drama penned by Alvaro García Lecuona.

Pic, billed as a cross between coming-of-age features Booksmart and Love Simon, follows high school senior Khal who posts on r/relationships about his crush on Kelsa, a trans girl at his school. The internet encourages him to go for it and the two navigate a high school senior year relationship that neither could have expected.”

What If? is produced by Christine Vachon and David Hinojosa on behalf of Killer Films along with Andrew Lauren and D.J. Gugenheim on behalf of Andrew Lauren Productions. The project marks the first film under MGM and Killer Films recently announced first-look deal.

Alana Mayo, President of Orion Pictures said, “We...

The much-loved star of Mystic Pizza, Say Anything and I Shot Andy Warhol discusses acting, alcoholism, friendship and the Scum manifesto

Lili Taylor is one of those rare actors who makes whatever project she is in feel classier, no matter how small her part. She would always rather take an interesting minor role over a bland major one, and she then plays it with such punch and personality that she nearly steals the show. In 1989’s Say Anything, she took what could have been a thankless side role – John Cusack’s platonic best friend – and made it the joyful moral centre of the film. In Six Feet Under she darkened the mood yet further when she turned up in the second series as the fretful and furtive Lisa. Only occasionally has a starring role good enough to deserve her come along, such as her extraordinary turn as Valerie Solanas in 1996’s I Shot Andy Warhol,...

Harry Clein, 82, co-founder of Hollywood PR agencies Clein + Feldman and Clein + White, died June 18 in Atlanta. He suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

I first met Clein in Manhattan in 1978 when I worked in the United Artists publicity bullpen at 729 Seventh Ave. He represented Alan J. Pakula on the western “Comes a Horseman,” starring James Caan and Jane Fonda. He admired my Annie Hall vests and fedoras; we bonded over his encyclopedic knowledge of film and Broadway musicals, and remained friends as he founded bicoastal press agency Clein + Feldman in 1981 with Bruce Feldman. Their first client, Pakula’s “Sophie’s Choice,” won Meryl Streep her second acting Oscar.

When I first moved to Los Angeles as the West Coast Editor of Film Comment, Clein + Feldman hired me to be the unit publicist on what would turn out to be Sam Peckinpah’s last movie, “The Osterman Weekend” (1983), starring Rutger Hauer, Dennis Hopper,...

Harry Clein, 82, co-founder of Hollywood PR agencies Clein + Feldman and Clein + White, died June 18 in Atlanta. He suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

I first met Clein in Manhattan in 1978 when I worked in the United Artists publicity bullpen at 729 Seventh Ave. He represented Alan J. Pakula on the western “Comes a Horseman,” starring James Caan and Jane Fonda. He admired my Annie Hall vests and fedoras; we bonded over his encyclopedic knowledge of film and Broadway musicals, and remained friends as he founded bicoastal press agency Clein + Feldman in 1981 with Bruce Feldman. Their first client, Pakula’s “Sophie’s Choice,” won Meryl Streep her second Best Actress Oscar.

When I first moved to Los Angeles as the West Coast Editor of Film Comment, Clein + Feldman hired me to be the unit publicist on what would turn out to be Sam Peckinpah’s last movie, “The Osterman Weekend” (1983), starring Rutger Hauer,...

Harry Clein, a veteran film publicist who wrote the original press notes for Star Wars and helped develop the innovative internet campaign for The Blair Witch Project, died June 18 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder in Atlanta. He was 82.

His death was announced by spokesperson Mark Pogachefsky.

Clein, along with Bruce Feldman, cofounded the Clein + Feldman agency in 1981. Their first client was director Alan J. Pakula and his film Sophie’s Choice.

With offices on both coasts and quickly developing a reputation as an innovative shop for independent distributors, producers and filmmakers, the agency became Clein + White in 1989, with the addition of Cara White as a partner and the departure of Feldman for a studio career. Clein + White closed in 2000, with Clein focusing on producing and marketing consultation. He also taught at the Los Angeles Film School.

Earlier in his career, Clein was a unit publicist on such films as All the President’s Men,...

Exclusive: Actor Stephen Dorff has signed with ICM Partners, returning to the agency he has had a long association with.

Dorff is coming off starring turns on the most recent installment of HBO’s True Detective opposite Mahershala Ali and as the title character in the drama series Deputy, which aired on Fox for one season, with Dorff cast in one of the biggest talent deals of the 2019 pilot season.

Dorff’s feature credits include Blade, Public Enemies, World Trade Center, Cold Creek Manor, The Power Of One, Cecil B. Demented, I Shot Andy Warhol and Somewhere. He will next star as Mma fighter Cash Boykins in the David McKenna-penned Embattled, which is finalizing a distribution deal.

Multiple projects are in various stages of development through his La Costa Productions including a Twa Flight 800 miniseries in the works at eOne TV from David McKenna, with Dorff executive producing.

Dorff,...

MGM has signed first-look deals with Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler’s Killer Films, which cover both film and TV.

Under the two-year agreements, the company will work closely with Vachon, Koffler and their partner David Hinojosa to develop and produce feature films and original scripted series together across a variety of genres and platforms.

Killer Films is behind many independent films including “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Still Alice,” “Carol,” “Far From Heaven,” “I’m Not There,” “One Hour Photo,” “Kids,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Happiness,” “Velvet Goldmine,” “Safe,” “I Shot Andy Warhol,” “Swoon” and “Kill Your Darlings.” Additionally, Killer Films executive produced Todd Haynes’ five-episode HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce.”

Also Read: James Bond's Box Office History Shows Why a 'No Time to Die' Release Move Was Necessary

“I had one of the best experiences of my career with Christine Vachon and Killer Films on ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...

It is April, in the year of our Lord 2000. I am sighing with relief that the whole Y2K thing had turned out to be just a lot of techno-paranoia. I am discussing the recent political primaries, as both Albert Arnold Gore Jr. and George Walker Bush had secured their parties’ nominations the month before. I need to go return some videotapes. I am sitting in a movie theater, listening to a man — wow, is that the kid from Empire of the Sun? How did he get so jacked? — talk...

Lynn Cohen, a veteran stage and screen actor who played Magda on “Sex and the City,” died Friday. She was 86.

Magda was Miranda Hobbe’s (Cynthia Nixon) housekeeper and eventually her nanny, and Cohen also appeared in both film adaptations of the show.

She talked to Cosmopolitan about her role in 2018. “It showed a woman of a different age who was smart as the devil, very bossy, and also understood sexuality, and they needed that. It enlarged the canvas on which they were working, that they would not have a typical old lady molding away in some retirement home somewhere, but a woman who worked, and didn’t suffer fools,” she said.

On the big screen, Cohen played Golda Meir in in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and Mags in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” She also appeared in “Eagle Eye,” “Across the Universe,” “Vanya on 42nd Street,” “The Station Agent,...

Once again, a new documentary tops the specialized top 10 with “The Biggest Little Farm.” And, once again, a high-profile narrative film from a major director and well-known cast — “All Is True” — struggled in its opening weekend.

It’s a pattern we’ve seen repeatedly, most recently with Aretha Franklin documentary “Amazing Grace” and Judi Dench drama “Red Joan.” And where “Tolkien” might have been a platform release in the past, it opened in over 1,400 theaters. The emphasis on wider play shifts from the conventional paradigm, as well as a lack of faith given its mediocre reviews.

Opening

The Biggest Little Farm (Neon) – Metacritic: 72; Festivals include: Telluride, Toronto, Hamptons 2018

$101,012 in 5 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $20,002

It’s an impressive initial response in five major New York/Los Angeles venues for this documentary about a Southern California farm that uses biodiversity and ecologically friendly methods. This is a topic that receives significant interest in social media,...

Mary Harron speaks about Charles Manson with the detached empathy of a psychiatrist. In discussions with Matt Smith, who transforms wildly from the Prince Philip we know and love to hate on “The Crown” into the famed cult leader in “Charlie Says,” Harron’s new film, the director emphasized Manson’s tough upbringing. Manson was institutionalized from a young age, having “grown up in prison” from the age of 12. He was raped and beaten up due to the fact that he was “small and weedy.” Her insights about him are intensely precise, displaying an almost intimate knowledge of this larger than life figure’s innermost psyche.

“[Manson] learned to survive by manipulating others,” said Harron. “He was, in some ways, completely feral. He was animal in his instincts, because he’d grown up, for the vast majority of his life, in a place of danger. And so, like a wild animal,...

IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Charlie Says,” the Manson Family drama that recently world premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The movie is directed by “American Psycho” helmer Mary Harron and stars Matt Smith as the infamous killer Charles Manson.

In a deal believed to be in the seven figures, IFC beat out bidders such as A24, Momentum and Rlj Entertainment.

Written by Guinevere Turner and based on Ed Sanders’ 1971 bestselling book “The Family,” “Charlie Says” focuses on the three young women who fell under Manson’s spell and carried out a series of savage murders on his orders in 1969, including that of Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife. The women were given death sentences, later changed to life in prison. “Charlie Says” depicts their psychological rehabilitation as they faced the reality of their crimes.

The movie is headlined by Smith, Suki Waterhouse, Hannah Murray, Sosie Bacon,...

Tony Sokol Jan 17, 2018

Former Doctor Who Matt Smith's next project will team him with American Psycho's Mary Harron...

The creative team behind the film American Psycho will be taking on another psychotic episode of Americana, the aftermath of the Charles Manson family murders. Former punk rock journalist Mary Harron, who directed and co-wrote American Psycho and the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol, is reteaming with screenwriter Guinevere Turner for the film adaptation of Ed Sanders’s best-selling 1971 Charles Manson novel, The Family.

Former Doctor Who Matt Smith is reportedly in talks to star as Manson, according to the Tracking Board.

The upcoming film will also add elements from the book The Long Prison Journey Of Leslie van Houten: Life Beyond The Cult, which gave a first hand account of Karlene Faith, who was appointed as van Houten’s social worker at the women’s prison she was incarcerated at.

For two decades, Sarah Polley has been desperately trying to adapt Margaret Atwood's book about a young woman who was abused, mistreated and silenced in the mid-1800s. By the time the 38-year-old actor-turned-writer/director brought the author's 1996 historical novel Alias Grace to the small screen – the six-hour miniseries began streaming on Netflix in early November – she had no idea she'd end up discussing the very same issues taking place in the 21st century. "I was imagining when I did press for [this], I would be introducing this as a conversation,...

Brace yourself: You’re going to want to binge “Alias Grace.” The six-episode limited series — streaming now on Netflix following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and subsequent broadcasting in Canada on the CBC — is downright hypnotic, rapturous, and engrossing.

Watching evokes the sense of sinking into a great novel, which seems only fitting, given that it’s based on the 1996 book by Margaret Atwood, one of our greatest living novelists. But everything in the execution is owed to the detail-rich writing of Sarah Polley and direction of Mary Harron, who take this real-life tale of murder and give it rich depths, digging into the harm done to a human soul by a lifetime of oppression.

At the center of “Grace” is Grace Marks (played by Sarah Gadon in a star-making turn), a 19th-century Irish immigrant convicted of a notorious double murder, whose mental state comes...

Mary Harron's long Hollywood career as a director, from I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho to The Notorious Bettie Page and Netflix's upcoming series Alias Grace, has inspired women filmmakers following her lead.

But Harron doesn't expect men to be especially sensitive, either as actors in her movies or offscreen. "Men should be as unsensitive as they want," she said Wednesday while in conversation at the Toronto International  Film Festival. "I'd rather know what they think, or what their imaginations are all about. I'm kind of libertarian that way. I want to hear what everyone thinks."

She called her...

It’s been two decades since Lili Taylor’s first and last appearance on Broadway — in a production of “The Three Sisters” featuring Amy Irving, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Calista Flockhart and Billy Crudup — and how we’ve missed her. Taylor has done solid, understated work in movies like “I Shot Andy Warhol” and “Brooklyn’s Finest” and TV shows like ABC’s canceled-too-soon “American Crime.” And she brings that almost visceral sense of empathy to a heartfelt revival of “Marvin’s Room,” Scott McPherson’s elegiac 1991 drama that opened Thursday at Roundabout’s American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. Taylor plays Bessie,...

We chat with the show’s production designer about everything from ‘The Leftovers’ to Andy Warhol.

Brian Yorkey’s 13 Reasons Why begins in a high school hallway but doesn’t stay there. Its branches can be felt in every inch of the Northern California suburban town. Adapting Jay Asher’s bestselling Thirteen Reasons Why into a 13-episode series that Netflix dropped last weekend, the series explores the world surrounding Hannah, a teenager (Katherine Langford) who kills herself, and Clay (Dylan Minnette), a friend whose relationship to the deceased is among the show’s central ambiguities.

To some, framing what feels like a Twin Peaks-esque murder-mystery around an issue like suicide comes off as dangerous. Hank Stuever, of the Washington Post, called it “an especially cruel experience.” But suicide, the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 24, has long been a fixture in teen literature, from Sharon Draper’s award-winner Tears of a Tiger...

A lot of things were lost in the shuffle when those Trump tapes hit the internet on Friday afternoon, but one of them was a story that would undoubtedly have made bigger waves in the film community if not for the unfortunate timing of its announcement: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is being turned into a television show. That’s right, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s wickedly creative and widely beloved modern classic is being developed for the small screen, and — unsurprisingly — neither of them will be involved in this new take on their high-concept romantic drama. In fact, very little is known about the project, which will be produced by Anonymous Content and written by “Chuck” scribe Zev Borow.

Needless to say, we’re a bit trepidatious about the whole idea — it worked out well for “Fargo” (and potentially “Westworld”), but not every movie can be so easily distilled,...

2016 had Jared Leto step into the oversized clown shoes of one of the most iconic villains in comic book history – not for the last time, but more on that later – however, artnet News brings word that the Oscar-winning actor has agreed terms to play the illustrious pop culture artist for an upcoming Andy Warhol biopic.

An adaptation of Victor Bockris’ book Warhol: The Biography – itself a 2003 reissue of his The Life and Death of Andy Warhol from ’89 – it’s understood Terrence Winter (Boardwalk Empire, The Wolf of Wall Street) is attached to write the script, with Leto himself producing alongside the prolific Michael De Luca, who is currently overseeing erotic sequel Fifty Shades Darker for Universal.

In terms of Andy Warhol, much like the Joker, Jared Leto is by no means the first actor to portray the legendary artist on the big screen, with today’s news confirming that...

Subverting the Unexpected

At the end of the 20th century, Bobcat Goldthwait’s legacy read like a cheap joke: He was a screaming comedian from the eighties best known as Zed in the “Police Academy” franchise who once tried at his hand at directing a movie (“Shakes the Clown”). Those achievements barely skimmed the surface of Goldthwait’s ability, as the ensuing years made clear, when Goldthwait completely transformed his career into one of the most provocative American filmmakers working today. With the microbudget “Sleeping Dogs Lie” (aka “Stay”), Goldthwait showed his potential to funnel taboo subject matters into oddly touching, relatable human dramas, a proclivity he kicked up to a whole new level with the subversive black comedy “World’s Greatest Dad,” which features Robin Williams in one of his all-time great roles.

Goldthwait has kept innovating, with each new movie offering a fresh perspective on the naive assumptions...

Picture the ending of the standard-issue based-on-a-true-story film. Once the picture fades on a family’s final teary goodbye or the camera pans up from our hero(ine) in a moment of triumph, there’s a postscript. And then, the inevitable grainy home video or candid photo of the “real” main character, proof that someone in the casting office (or the hair/make-up department) did their job and brought you the closest facsimile of the real thing.

This may be the most common approach, but it doesn’t produce the best biopics. Good biographies recreate a moment; great ones evoke a sprit that reverberates through the current time.

Read More: Director Debuts: The 20 Best First Films of the Last 20 Years

The standout biographical films from the past two decades reflect the different ways that we commemorate figures of fame or infamy. Sometimes we devote three hours of our lives to...

Fans of crime drama, prepare to get excited. Netflix continues on its streak of original productions with a mini-series adaptation of Alias Grace, the best-selling novel by world-renowned author Margaret Atwood. Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Stories We Tell) will write and produce, and Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) is set to direct. The novel is based on the 19th century true story of Grace Marks, a poor Irish immigrant who worked in Upper Canada (now Ontario) as a domestic servant. She and another servant, James McDermott, were convicted of the murders of of their employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery. McDermott was hanged for the crime, while Marks spent 30 years in prison. It was one of the most...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Canadian director and actress Sarah Polley, along with Noreen Halpern’s Halfire Entertainment, will adapt Margaret Atwood’s novel “Alias Grace” into a six-hour miniseries for Netflix. Deadline reports that Polley will write and produce the series while Mary Harron will direct the project.

Read More: Watch: Sarah Polley Interviews Greta Gerwig About Noah Baumbach’s ‘Frances Ha’ In 17-Minute Criterion Feature

“Alias Grace” follows the true story of poor Irish immigrant Grace Marks who, along with domestic servant James McDermott, was convicted of murdering her employer Thomas Kinnear and housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in 1843. While James was hanged, Grace received life imprisonment for her role in the crime. The conviction was highly controversial and Grace’s role in the murder was up for strong debate as to whether she took an active part in the crime or if she was simply an accessory. She was later exonerated after 30 years in jail.

Tony Sokol Joseph Baxter Mar 14, 2019

Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith plays Charles Manson in the crime drama, Charlie Says.

Charlie Says is one of two upcoming films to chronicle the historical homicidal Manson Family and its namesake, Charles Manson – whether or not that’s a good thing remains to be seen. While the oxygen in the proverbial Manson movie room will be hogged this summer by Quentin Tarantino’s star-studded cinematic release, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, another offering is getting the jump on things, this May’s Charlie Says, in which the former bow-tie-brandishing wielder of all things timey-wimey, former Eleventh Doctor Who, Matt Smith, will play the stabby Svengali.

The creative team behind American Psycho takes on another psychotic episode of Americana, the aftermath of the Charles Manson family murders. Charlie Says was directed by former punk rock journalist Mary Harron, who also directed the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol.

Other titles include Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan, starring Greta Gerwig, and David Farr’s The Ones Below, starring David Morrissey.Scroll down for full lists

The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has announced the first titles in Panorama – its strand that comprises new independent and arthouse films that deal with controversial subjects or unconventional aesthetic styles.

The initial features include three from the UK, with John Michael McDonagh returning to Berlin for the world premiere of War On Everyone.

The film, a satire centred on two corrupt cops in New Mexico, stars Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Peña, Theo James and Tessa Thompson.

McDonagh was previously in Panorama in 2011 with The Guard and 2013 with Calvary.

Also from the UK is David Farr’s The Ones Below, which revolves around a couple expecting their first child who discover an unnerving difference between themselves and the couple living in the flat below. Receiving its European...

The Panorama program has not only announced a first round of titles for the 66th Berlinale, including Rebecca Miller's Maggie's Plan with Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph, it's also unveiled revival screenings celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Award, the "only official Lgbtiq (in short, queer) film prize at an A-festival in the world." Among the highlights are Chantal Akerman's Je, tu, il, elle and Toute une nuit, Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol, Isaac Julien's Looking for Langston, Barbara Hammer's Nitrate Kisses, Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman and Marlon Riggs's Tongues Untied. » - David Hudson...