News

Connie Britton is embracing her inner-producer.

The Friday Night Lights fan favorite and her Deep Blue production company has signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios. Under the terms of the pact, the actress will create and develop new projects for the retail giant/streamer.

The news arrives as Britton has pushed farther into producing after the ABC turned Cmt drama Nashville and Bravo turned USA Network anthology Dirty John. (Britton starred in and executive produced season one of the anthology and is not expected back for a second, completely new season.)

"Connie Britton is a multi-talented actress who has ...

Cannes — Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Luc Jacquet (“March of the Penguins”) and producer Sophokles Tasioulis are partnering to launch Icebreaker, a new production company that uses blockchain technology to create innovative ways to produce and finance films.

“We saw that we’re coming to a dead end for the kind of movies we do, and how we used to do them,” said Tasioulis. “We cannot finance our movies any longer in the way we used to.”

Icebreaker is in advanced negotiations with Extended Monaco, an initiative recently launched by the principality that uses blockchain technology to offer investors an opportunity to support sustainable, environmentally minded businesses. Icebreaker will be based out of Monaco.

The company will also raise financing through an initial security token offering, as well as the sale of additional tokens through a secure, blockchain-enabled platform. Corporate sponsorship alliances will also play a role.

The new funding model will...

Remember Deep Blue Sea? The 1999 movie starring Samuel L. Jackson and some super-smart sharks? Well, there is now a Deep Blue Sea 2, with even more super-smart shark action to sink your jaws into, courtesy of Syfy. If you think this is a joke, check out the Deep Blue Sea 2 trailer below. In 1999, the film Deep Blue […]

The post ‘Deep Blue Sea 2’ Trailer Unleashes Remote Control Sharks appeared first on /Film.

San Sebastian International Film Festival

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- Alistair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, two veterans of the BBC school of natural history docus (Deep Blue, about life under the waves, and the BAFTA-nominated Life of Mammals), tell the story of global warming with state-of-the-art high def cameras and spell-binding photography yet spare us a storm of statistics. Earth does not relate anything not already known about how the globe is heating up, but the ingenuity of the filmmaking should connect with global audiences.

Earth goes through a year on the planet, examining how global warming affects the migration patterns of humpback whales, the hunting abilities of polar bears, the migration of cranes over the Himalayas and the long march the elephants across a parched Africa to reach a seasonal flood in the south.

Fothergill and Linfield follow the stories of a family of polar bears, a mother humpback whale and her offspring and an elephant and her calf. If the krill that feed the humpback die off, so will the whales. If the Polar Bear has no ice to hunt upon, it will die too. Even the great white shark is important at the top of the feeding chain yet, according to the filmmakers, merciless hunting has their numbers in "freefall".

Fothergill and Linfield make an unabashed appeal to audience weakness for cute animals. They delight at watching duck chicks launch their maiden flights in slow motion or baboons churlishly crossing a marsh in Africa. The birds of paradise in New Guinea preen better than any Hollywood star on the red carpet.

Patrick Stewart in an informative but friendly tone provides the narration. The statistics involved in the filmmaking are mind-boggling: 4,500 days of shooting with 30 camera teams in more than 200 locations around the world at a budget of $47 million.

EARTH

Lionsgate

Greenlight Media AG, BBC Worldwide

Credits:

Director: Alistair Fothergill, Mark Linfield

Writers: Lelsie Megahey, Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield

Producers: Alix Tidmarsh, Sophokles Tasiouslis

Directors of photography: Andrew Anderson, Doug Anderson, Doug Allan, Paul Atkins, Barrie Britton, Richard Burton, Simon Carroll, Rod Clarke, Martyn Colbeck, Justin Evans, Wade Fairley, Ted Giffords, Mike Holding, Mike Kelem, Simon King, Toshihiro Muta, Justin Maguire, Didier Noiret, Andrew Penniket, Rick Rosenthal, Adam Ravetch, Tim Shepherd, Andrew Shillabeer, Peter Scoones, Warwick Sloss, Paul Stewart, Gavin Thurston, Jeff Turner, Nick Turner, Jon Waters

Voiceover: Patrick Stewart

Music: George Fenton

Editing: Mark Elsbury

Running time -- 99 minutes

No MPAA rating...

MADRID -- A pair of thrillers from two internationally acclaimed directors, David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" and Michael Radford's "Flawless", will bookend the 55th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival, festival organizers announced Tuesday.

Cronenberg's "Promises", his follow-up to "A History of Violence", will open the festival's main competition. Set in London's organized crime world, "Promises'" tale of a Mafioso and an innocent but determined woman stars Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts.

"Flawless", starring Demi Moore and Michael Caine, will close the festival in an out of competition slot. Radford's heist pic centers on the attempted robbery of the world's biggest diamond corporation.

Natural history documentary "Earth", from the makers of the documentary hit "Deep Blue" (BBC and Germany's Greenlight Media), will screen out of competition as part of San Sebastian's Official Section.

Directed by Alasair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the film follows the seasonal migration of certain animals, highlighting contrasts between different parts of the planet. Lionsgate holds U.S., U.K. and Australian rights.

Previously announced out of competition title "The Inner Life of Martin Frost", directed by jury member and novelist Paul Auster, will screen in the festival's Official Section.

The 2005 Maui Film Festival opens Wednesday and runs through Sunday at the Wailea Resort and the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. As an opening-night double feature, the fest is presenting The Perfect Man, a family film starring Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear, and the underwater documentary Deep Blue. Films will screen al fresco at the Wailea Golf Club, which during the course of the festival is turned into the trademarked Celestial Cinema, which accommodates 3,000 moviegoers in an outdoor, amphitheaterlike setting with film playing on a 48-by-22 screen accompanied by Dolby Digital Sound.

The 2005 Maui Film Festival opens today and runs through Sunday at the Wailea Resort and the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. As an opening-night double feature, the fest is presenting The Perfect Man, a family film starring Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear, and the underwater documentary Deep Blue. Films will screen al fresco at the Wailea Golf Club, which during the course of the festival is turned into the trademarked Celestial Cinema, which accommodates 3,000 moviegoers in an outdoor, amphitheaterlike setting with film playing on a 48-by-22 screen accompanied by Dolby Digital Sound.

NEW YORK -- Miramax Films has acquired North American distribution rights to the feature-length documentary Deep Blue, from BBC Worldwide and Germany's Greenlight Media. The film is narrated by U.K. thespian Michael Gambon. Inspired by the BBC and Discovery Channel's series The Blue Planet, Deep sets out to explore life "above, below and far beneath the ocean's surface," according to the filmmakers. The project was co-directed by Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt and produced by Alix Tidmarsh and Sophokles Tasioulis. Nikolaus Weil, Stefan Beiten, Andre Sikojev and Mike Phillips executive produced. Miramax director of acquisitions Chiara Trento brought Deep into the mini-major.