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While other shows fight tooth and nail for viewers’ attention, the world always stops when news about the return of HBO‘s Euphoria is at hand. After a lengthy delay, confusion, and scheduling gymnastics, Euphoria is waking from its 4-year slumber with an eight-episode season that takes the characters out of high school for a strategic time jump. According to Deadline, Grammy Award winner Rosalía, Super Bowl Champion Marshawn Lynch, and beloved A Different World and White Man Can’t Jump actor Kadeem Hardison will join Zendaya, Jacob Elodi, Sydney Sweeney, and more for Euphoria Season 3.

The third season of Euphoria will air on HBO in 2026, giving fans time to speculate about where their favorite characters are after waving goodbye to high school and stepping into a world waiting to swallow them whole. Returning for Euphoria Season 3 are Zendaya, Haunter Schaefer, Eric Dane, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, and Maude Apatow as series regulars.

Stars: David Margetts, Jasmine Hope, Jack Pearson, Michael Paré, Lauren Koopowitz, Michelle Bauer, Bix Krieger, Nate Charles Karagiannis-Troisi | Written by Dan Telfer | Directed by Anthony Frith

Originally published in 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot has inspired multiple adaptations, most notably Kevin Connor’s 1974 film. Now, the story returns to the screen courtesy of The Asylum, who previously tackled the tale in 2009. Can this new adaptation deliver a mix of nostalgia and modern sensibilities, while staying true to the spirit of the original novel?

The movie opens with a tense and chaotic sequence as the crew of a Russian submarine launches a surprise attack on an Australian naval vessel in the Bering Sea. The reasons behind the attack as well as the Aussie’s presence so far from home remain unclear, but the ship is destroyed.

Among the survivors are Lt. Tim Olson, Bradley, and Tyler. They manage...

Horror streaming giant Shudder is pulling out all the stops this October with an unmissable lineup for UK and Irish viewers. From terrifying new original films to the return of the Emmy-nominated The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, Shudder’s October releases will leave horror fans shivering well into the spooky season.

Kicking off the horror fest on 1 October, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Season 666 makes its dramatic return, promising to be the most twisted and ambitious season yet. Expect iconic drag superstars facing off in intense physical challenges, backed by world-renowned directors and actors sitting on the judge’s panel. Every episode of this 10-part season will push boundaries, blending extreme drag and heart-pounding horror like never before.

The chills continue with V/H/S/Beyond, a Shudder Original anthology film streaming from 4 October. This instalment brings together six new twisted tapes, each taking viewers on a terrifying sci-fi-inspired ride. Highlights include “Fur Babies,” a...

The concept of death can be confusing at any age. Even adults have a hard time processing this unavoidable part of life. For young people, though, death should be the last thing on their minds. And for a long time, the two main characters of Crazy Fun Park didn’t have to consider their mortality. Best friends Chester and Mapplethorpe were more concerned with finishing their graphic novel and making it to school on time each morning than the possibility of never seeing each other again. Yet in this Australian teen-drama series, death catches these boys completely off guard and puts their friendship to the test.

Death is typically the conclusion of relationships in other stories, but here it’s just the beginning for these two soulmates. Chester and Mapplethorpe (neatly played by Henry Strand and Stacy Clausen) are the embodiment of the word “inseparable.” Drawing from real life, series...

Halloween movies are typically dominated by horror films, but there are a few non-horror films set on the holiday that provide a refreshing change of pace. Movies like Song of the Sea, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Boys in the Trees offer creative and compelling stories that take place on Halloween night without relying on horror elements. While Halloween is often associated with scary movies, there are some enjoyable non-horror films set on the holiday that are worth watching, such as Grow Up Tony Philips and A Perfect World.

While Halloween is the perfect time for scary movies, there are a few classic non-horror films that are also set on the holiday. Halloween is a time for the spooky and supernatural. The holiday is one of the few times of the year when it is acceptable to focus on ghoulish, macabre, and downright frightening subjects. This prompts many movie buffs...

Susan Sarandon, playing the U.S. Secretary of State Alaska Adams, gets the better of Bryan Brown, as the Australian prime minister, in a fast-paced verbal duel that represents the first footage from the Sean Penn-produced satirical comedy series “C*A*U*G*H*T.”

An elite team of Aussie soldiers is sent to an island nation to retrieve a secret file that has gone astray. Mistaken for Americans, they are captured by freedom fighters and produce a hostage video that goes viral. When the soldiers achieve celebrity status on social media, they realize that being caught might just be the best thing that could’ve happened to them.

“C*A*U*G*H*T” explores themes of identity, fame, and the absurdity of the viral age. “Why can’t we comedically deconstruct the intellectual ideas that humanity is facing right now?” says Kick Gurry who directs, produces and stars in the six-part series.

Carly Simon has faced her fear of flying before. In 1971, she forced herself to board a plane to Los Angeles for her first-ever show at the Troubadour, where she opened for Cat Stevens. In 1989, she made another momentous trip there, this time to attend the Academy Awards, where “Let the River Run,” from Working Girl, won her a Best Original Song trophy. And this fall, she’ll return to L.A. for the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where she’s finally being inducted after being eligible since 1996.

“There’s that first thought of,...

Trace and I are closing in on the end of our “underrated or underseen” theme. After spending February looking at films from 2016 – 2018, including Aussie coming-of-age film Boys in the Trees, Darren Aronofsky’s allegory-heavy mother! and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s controversial Assassination Nation, we’re now up to 2019. And we’ve <gulp> decided to […]

The post ‘Climax’s Mad Dancing Descent Into Hell [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Shortly after the release of her 1971 self-titled debut, Carly Simon received an unexpected opportunity: a five-night stint opening for Cat Stevens at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

The singer-songwriter was hesitant for several reasons, including the fact that she had never performed solo or been to Los Angeles and had an extreme fear of flying. The shows were also three weeks away, and she needed to hire a band. She managed to secure drummer Russ Kunkel, who had suddenly become available after James Taylor suffered a motorcycle accident and delayed his tour.

Michael Gudinski, founder and chairman of the Mushroom Group, died overnight at home in Melbourne. He was 68.

One of the key figures in the Australian music industry, Gudinski started Mushroom Records in 1972 at just 20 years old.

Over the decades, the label worked with some the biggest names in Australian music, such as Jimmy Barnes, Kylie Minogue, Archie Roach, Hunters & Collectors, Paul Kelly, The Angels and Yothu Yindi.

The Mushroom Group also grew to become an entertainment empire, with brands across touring, record labels, publishing, merchandising, booking agencies, film and television production and creative services.

Mushroom Pictures, its production and distribution arm, was formed in 1993.

Gudinski was the executive producer on feature films such as Chopper, Horseplay, Gettin’ Square, Wolf Creek, Macbeth, Storm Warning, Cedar Boys, Mad Bastards, Killing Ground and Boys in the Trees, as well as Seven miniseries Molly.

His most recent project was Stan’s eight-part series The Gloaming,...

Starz has acquired the US and Canadian rights to The Gloaming, with the eight-episode drama to premiere across each of the cable network’s platforms next month.

Filmed in Tasmania, The Gloaming stars Emma Booth and Ewen Leslie as two detectives with a tragic past that investigate a brutal murder.

In a journey to find the truth, their fate is coerced by the ghosts of the unsettled dead that linger in the liminal space between life and death — known as “The Gloaming.”

The series also features Martin Henderson (Grey’s Anatomy), Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road), Rena Owen (The Orville), Josephine Blazier (True History of the Kelly Gang), and Matt Testro (Nowhere Boys).

Written and created by Victoria Madden, who also serves as showrunner, The Gloaming is a co-production between Sweet Potato Films and John Molloy’s 2 Johns Productions and ABC Signature, a division of Disney Television Studios.

There are directorial contributions from including Greg McLean,...

With Boys in the Trees, director Nicholas Verso spun a coming-of-age tale steeped in dark fantasy and Halloween. The festival favorite captured the ‘90s, but more importantly, it showcased Verso’s sentimentality. That continues with Toys of Terror, a feature written by Stan Against Evil and The Simpsons’ Dana Gould. Gould’s sense of horror-laced humor combined with Verso’s distinct feel for nostalgia-induced sweetness makes […]...

Veteran Australian talent agent Mark Morrissey is capitalizing on the global demand for content and is launching production company First Option Pictures.

TV drama series, “Radicals” is the first project to emerge from a slate intended to span film, television internet, social media and podcasts.

“Radicals” is an anthology series with the pilot script by Los Angeles-based screenwriter and producer Jonathan Shapiro. The story follows Harry Bridges, a little-known yet historic figure who became the champion of the U.S. labor movement in San Francisco in the 1930s and for decades thereafter was the target of anti-unionist politics, prosecution and deportation for his efforts.

“Bridges was born in Melbourne, Australia and never lost his accent,” Morrissey notes. “Discovering and bringing to life these kinds of stories – at once intimate and global – is at the heart of First Option Pictures.”

The company is also developing an Audibles Original 10-part drama series audiobook,...

Mark Morrissey.

Morrissey Management’s First Option Pictures expects to announce its first three projects – all TV series – in the next few weeks.

Two are international series and the other is local but all have Australian elements, Mark Morrissey told Screen Producers Australia CEO Matt Deaner in a webinar on Monday.

Morrissey said he launched the film and TV production company – his second following a joint venture with Michael Gudinski’s Mushroom Pictures – 18 months ago with a Melbourne-based partner, whom he did not name.

One series is based on a book about a Melbourne-born trade unionist who went to San Francisco in the 1930s and was the target of five court cases. “He changed the face of unionism but no one in Australia knows about this man,” he said.

Morrissey commissioned a pilot script from an international writer who in turn introduced him to his CAA agent, who is packaging the project.

Holden Sheppard.

Feisty Dame Productions’ Tania Chambers and writer-director Nick Verso have optioned Invisible Boys, Holden Sheppard’s debut novel which follows three 16-year-olds as they come to terms with their homosexuality in a small town in Western Australia.

The protagonists are Charlie, a hardcore rocker who’s not as tough as he looks, Hammer, a footy jock with big Afl dreams and an even bigger ego, and Zeke, a shy over-achiever who is never macho enough for his family.

All three boys hide who they really are. According to the publishers, the novel “depicts the complexities and trauma of rural gay identity with painful honesty, devastating consequence and, ultimately, hope.”

Sheppard fielded a number of offers for the screen rights. “Nick and I clicked really well. Nick is also a gay man, and we spent time over the phone and on Skype discovering that we both have very similar...

Exclusive: Veteran TV and film writer Dana Stevens has signed with UTA for worldwide representation in all areas.

Most recently, Stevens wrote the upcoming Sony Pictures drama Fatherhood, directed by Paul Weitz and starring Kevin Hart. The film is an adaptation of Matt Logelin’s memoir which details Logelin’s life after his high school sweetheart passed away after giving birth to their daughter. Sony will release Fatherhood in April 2021.

Stevens is also writing two films for TriStar Pictures: The Nightingale, a World War II drama starring Dakota and Elle Fanning; and drama The Woman King, starring Viola Davis and directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood. Additionally, she is writing a project about Carly Simon based on Simon’s memoir Boys In The Trees for eOne, which Simon Curtis will direct. She is also in talks to write the Netflix movie The Girls of Summer, which follows the 1999 U.S. Women...

Although born in the U.S., Toby Wallace grew up in Australia. He’s made a splash in films such as the critically acclaimed “Boys in the Trees” and TV series “Romper Stomper.” He can been seen on Netflix’s hit supernatural thriller series “The Society,” playing the evil teen Campbell Eliot. He will be seen June 19 in IFC release “Babyteeth,” from director Shannon Murphy and writer Rita Kalnejais. In the coming-of-age drama, Wallace plays Moses, a charismatic druggie who nevertheless finds a soulmate in Milla, a teenager fighting a terminal disease. Eliza Scanlen, Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis round out the dream cast. The film debuted in competition at the Venice Film Festival last year, where it won raves and Wallace earned the Marcello Mastrioanni Award for best young actor: “It was totally and completely fucking surprising. … But it felt really great on the day because it seemed like it was for the film,...

Mitzi Ruhlmann.

Mitzi Ruhlmann was five years old when she saw Phillip Noyce’s Stolen Generation drama Rabbit-Proof Fence, perhaps not an ideal experience for someone so young, but it had a profound impact.

From that moment on she was determined to become an actor, not a far-fetched ambition for a girl who spent a lot of time on film and TV sets watching her dad, cinematographer Danny Ruhlmann, at work.

(Ruhlmann Senior’s credits include the features The Nugget, The Night We Called It a Day and Little Fish and, most recently, the Netflix series Messiah, created by Aussie Michael Petroni and co-directed by Kate Woods, and Jupiter’s Legacy.)

Last month the 21-year-old came home after seven months in La auditioning for numerous roles. She’ll go back in February for pilot season.

Since she was 12 she has had a manager in the Us, Jennifer Gabler Rawlings, whom she...

Welcome to this week’s Ring Of Honor review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have one damn match, but it is a good one. Carly Simon likes to beat “Boys In The Trees”. There is a time and a place to eat a man’s face, but now is not that time. We’ve got wrestling to get to, so no eating a man’s face…with A1 dribbled on the jaw meat as it grilled for twenty minutes with red onions and filets of juicy pineapple sauntering above the smooth, curled skin clinging to the moist, tender strip of upper lip. Mmmmmm…cannibalism. Augygchlkhlggkc! This TalkTech system sure does make it easier to say bizarre $#!@.

Match #1: (Main Event) Shane Taylor beat Joe Hendry – Ring Of Honor World Television Title Match The following is courtesy of rohwrestling.com:

After several minutes of hard-hitting action inside and outside the ring,...

Toby Wallace.

Toby Wallace’s turn as a small-time drug dealer in Shannon Murphy’s debut feature Babyteeth has won him the Venice Film Festival’s Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor.

It is the second year in a row that the prize has been won by an Australian, with last year’s gong going to Baykali Ganambarr for his debut performance in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale.

In Babyteeth, Wallace stars as Moses, the love interest of Eliza Scanlen’s Milla, a terminally ill teenager. Their relationship is a nightmare for Milla’s parents, played by Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis, but Milla teaches those in her orbit how to live like there is nothing to lose.

Produced by Alex White and based on Rita Kalnejais’ Belvoir Theatre play of the same name, the film was critically lauded after its debut in competition at Venice last week.

Variety...

Kate Croser. (Photo: Claudio Raschella)

Producer Kate Croser has been appointed the CEO of the South Australian Film Corporation (Safc), succeeding Courtney Gibson.

Croser was most recently the head of production and development at Kojo Entertainment. Prior to this, she ran Hedone Productions with partner Sandy Cameron, and was a co-founder of Cyan Films with Julie Ryan. Her credits include Top End Wedding, The Infinite Man, Boys in the Trees, Danger 5 and My Tehran for Sale. She has sat on the Safc board since 2016.

Croser’s term will span three years from September.

“Having produced numerous film and television projects and run several production companies in South Australia I am deeply plugged into the fantastic wealth of talent, businesses, crews, and advantages within the South Australian screen industry,” she said.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the team at the South Australian Film Corporation to...

Nicholas Verso (l) and Samuel Ireland on the ‘Itch’ set (Photo credit: David Dare Parker).

Nicholas Verso has worked with children so often since his 2016 debut feature Boys in the Trees the writer-director says it’s a blessing whenever an adult appears on set.

Not that he is complaining: Verso has relished nurturing young talent in Matchbox Pictures’ Nowhere Boys, Magpie Pictures’ Grace Beside Me, Aquarius Films’ The Unlisted and the ABC Me-commissioned action-adventure Itch.

However he looks forward to getting into adult territory with horror movie The Ice Cream Man, The Lairdbalor adapted from Kathleen Kaufman’s dark fantasy novel, and psychological thriller Sleep to Dream.

In addition he is developing with producer Joanna Werner Crazy Fun Park, a TV series set in an abandoned amusement park populated by the corpses of kids who died there. That isn’t as dark as it sounds, he explains, observing: “It’s...

Young adult, action-adventure TV series “Itch” has begun shooting in Western Australia through indie film and TV producer Komixx Entertainment. The show, to be delivered next year, will be broadcast in Australia by ABC Me, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and distributed worldwide by ABC Commercial.

The 10-part series is a TV adaptation of former BBC 2 Radio broadcaster Simon Mayo’s best-selling teen novel of the same name, after Komixx acquired the rights in 2013. “Itch” tells the tale of a science obsessed teenager who discovers a new chemical element with extraordinary powers and is forced to go on the run to protect it from a sinister organization which wants it for its own ends.

It was developed for television by Komixx’s head of development, Melanie Halsall and writer Dan Berlinka. Other writing credits go to Ron Elliott, Heather Wilson, Jessica Brookman and Roger Monk. The producers are Amanda Morrison...

Charles Russell, Samuel Ireland, Melanie Wozniak and Kylah Day in ‘Itch’ (Photo credit – Nic Duncan).

When BBC announcer Simon Mayo wrote a short story for Joe, his then 10-year-old son, he had no agent or publisher and he could not imagine the book turning into a TV series set halfway across the world in Australia.

Mayo’s tome Itch was published in 2012 and optioned the following year by Komixx Entertainment, the film and TV production company with headquarters in London and offices in Los Angeles.

Melanie Halsall, Komixx’s head of development, laboured for years on the project, which chronicles the adventures of Itchingham Lofte, a science-obsessed teenager who pursues the unusual and sometimes dangerous hobby of collecting all the elements on the periodic table.

When he discovers a new element with extraordinary powers he is forced to go on the run to protect it from sinister organisations who want it for their own ends.

Winta McGrath.

At the ripe old age of 13 Winta McGrath has scored his second role in an international production: a sci-fi drama series which marks Ridley Scott’s TV directing debut.

McGrath joins fellow Aussie Travis Fimmel in Raised by Wolves, which revolves around two androids who are tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet.

As the colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is both treacherous and difficult.

Commissioned by the Us network TNT, which is available in 89 million homes, and written by the showrunner Aaron Guzikowski, the series is in pre-production in Cape Town.

McGrath will play Campion, a scrappy and soulful 12-year-old who was raised from birth by Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim). When a ship of humans arrives from Earth, Campion is exposed to followers of religion for...

Tegan Higginbotham.

Screen Australia is providing more than $400,000 in story development funding for 16 projects including feature films, television and online series, featuring such talent as Bruna Papandrea, Nick Verso, Priscilla Cameron, Lisa Shaunessy, Anthony Mullins, Kodie Bedford and Tegan Higginbotham.

The slate includes The Agency, a musical comedy about moral corruption in the advertising industry, comedic horror Gnomes centered on grudge-bearing garden gnomes in a fictional regional town, and the feature Misfit, which looks at a woman who suffers from an identity disorder.

Eleven projects were funded through the Generate fund, two via the Premium fund and three through the legacy development program which has been discontinued.

Head of development Nerida Moore said: “The new development guidelines have now been in action for five months. We drastically reduced eligibility barriers and will now fund projects for any screen platform. We’ve had a fantastic response from the industry and the...

Happy Monday, boils and ghouls! Sure, it’s everyone’s least favorite day of the week, but it also means that we’re just a little bit closer to October 31st, and I think that’s something to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than by enjoying some of the brilliant horror movies that have come out over the last 20 years?

So, for this installment of “From Streams to Screams,” I wanted to celebrate 31 excellent genre offerings that have come out over the last two decades that are currently streaming on various platforms, including a few very recent titles such as Gareth Evans’ Apostle and Terrified (which destroyed me this weekend).

So, if you’re in the mood for some modern horrors this Halloween season, this curated list might provide you with some inspiration and help you get into the spirit over the next few weeks.

Terrified (Available on...

Exclusive: Kathleen Kaufman’s dark fantasy novel The Lairdbalor has been optioned by Echo Lake Entertainment with Aussie Nicholas Verso (Boys in the Trees) has been attached to direct. The novel from Turner Publishing follows the journey of a boy who desperately tries to escape a nightmare shadow world with strange creatures, fears, and his own personal—and very real—nightmare, the Lairdbalor. The book crosses over genres of folklore, horror, fantasy, and magical realism and examines the early origins of anxiety and fear for children growing up in a world in which they don’t conform. The producers are currently circling writers to adapt for the big screen.

Echo Lake’s Dave Brown is producing with John Powers Middleton and Alex Foster from The Middleton Media Group. Helena Vilaplana is the exec producer.

“We are passionate about bringing this haunting vision of psychological development to the screen” said Brown.

Hnn | Horrornews.net

Award winning director and artist Nicholas Verso (Boys in the Trees, The Last Time I Saw Richard) has signed on to direct the high concept horror feature film The Ice Cream Man, it was announced today by Covert Media’s CEO Paul Hanson (Ophelia, Naked) who is producing the film alongside Broken Road Productions’ Todd Garner …

The post Director Nicholas Verso To Capture Horror Project The Ice Cream Man For Covert Media And Broken Road Productions first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net...

“’Tis the night, the night of the grave’s delight.” So begins Nicholas Verso’s latest feature film, a phantasmal, surreal poem set during one youth’s Halloween night. Viewers who recall his remarkable short film The Last Time I Saw Richard will anticipate the dreamlike atmosphere and dark fantasy at play here, but this story goes beyond fable. Verso evokes an immersive spirit realm through which emerges a tale of lost youth, lost hope, and a boy seeking to reclaim his soul.

The film begins with Corey celebrating a final Halloween with his reckless high school companions. When their crude antics become too much for him, he wanders the night alone, eventually running into Jonah, his long-lost childhood friend. Jonah convinces him to enter the imaginary world that they created in their youth, and leads him on a journey through their old haunts—a creepy mansion, night-shrouded school halls—but the farther they go,...

'Despicable Me 3'..

Universal/Illumination Entertainment.s Despicable Me 3 was an emphatic No. 1 at Australian cinemas last weekend, easily beating Sony.s bawdy buddy comedy Rough Night.

Illustrating the challenges facing Australian and other small independent films, director Pete Gleeson.s confronting observational documentary Hotel Coolgardie struggled to find audiences.

None of the other limited new releases including The Promise, Punjab comedy Super Singh and documentaries Whitney: Can I Be Me? and Risk made an impression.

The top 20 titles collected $17.4 million, up by 1.9 per cent over the previous weekend, according to Numero.

Co-directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda and featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig and Trey Parker, Despicable Me 3 rang up a terrific $5.9 million on 456 screens, 20 per cent bigger than the second edition's debut and the third best in June for an animated title behind Toy Story 3 and Finding Dory.

Warner...

'Despicable Me 3'..

Universal/Illumination Entertainment.s Despicable Me 3 was an emphatic No. 1 at Australian cinemas last weekend, easily beating Sony.s bawdy buddy comedy Rough Night.

Illustrating the challenges facing Australian and other small independent films, director Pete Gleeson.s confronting observational documentary Hotel Coolgardie struggled to find audiences.

None of the other limited new releases including The Promise, Punjab comedy Super Singh and documentaries Whitney: Can I Be Me? and Risk made an impression.

The top 20 titles collected $17.4 million, up by 1.9 per cent over the previous weekend, according to Numero.

Co-directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda and featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig and Trey Parker, Despicable Me 3 rang up a terrific $5.8 million on 286 screens.

Warner Bros. superhit Wonder Woman fell by 41 per cent in its third weekend but fetched a hearty $3.3 million on 292, propelling its total to $20.4 million.

Lionsgate/Roadshow...

Coming-of-age films with a ‘genre’ twist were all the rage in 2016. From Slash’s delightfully off-kilter fusing of softcore eroticism and sci-fi fantasy to Teenage Cocktail’s high school romance that flirted with thriller conventions and the graphic strand of realism that provided shocks in Raw and chills in urban horror-drama The Transfiguration, young protagonists were prime and center amid peril and dread, plenty of which was emanating from within, borne of specific fears or confusions. With Super Dark Times on the horizon, this rich vein of true-to-life horror and angst has hardly run dry. Cast in the same mold yet curiously eluding (or eschewing) the genre fest circuit in 2016 was Nicholas Verso’s debut Boys in the Trees. Leave it to Overlook to bring the...

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

California festival’s 18th edition ran from April 20-27.

Moon Dogs was named best film in the juried awards as the 18th Newport Beach Film Festival came to a close at the weekend.

Jack Parry-Jones of Moon Dogs took the best actor award and Olivia Cooke was named best actress for Katie Says Goodbye (pictured).

City Of Joy claimed best documentary honours, as the best director prize went to Len Collin for Sanctuary, and Marden Dean claimed the cinematography award for Boys In The Trees.

In the audience awards, Don’t Tell won best film, Sami Blood (Sameblod) won best foreign film, and I’ll Push You took documentary honours.

The 18th annual Newport Beach Film Festival ran from April 20-April 27 and screened more than 350 films.

For further details of prize-winners, click here.

Oregon’s newest film festival offers up a world premiere and a whole lot of other goodies.‘Boys in the Trees’ features clowns on the bikes.

The Timberline Lodge located at Mt. Hood, Oregon is set to be home for The Overlook Film Festival — a brand-new horror film festival stuffed with 39 films (22 features and 17 shorts from 16 countries). Naturally this is the perfect setting for horror hounds to gather as the Timberline was famously used as the exterior setting in Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, The Shining.

The festival is scheduled to kick off in a little over a week on April 27th (and run through the 30th) and we now know that the Opening Night Selection will be the world premiere of Stephanie, the new supernatural thriller from director Akiva Goldsman and Blumhouse Productions. Stephanie was written by the dynamic duo of Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski and stars Frank Grillo, Anna Torv...

The newly formed Overlook Film Festival has announced it inaugural year programming lineup, including 37 films (20 features and 17 short films from 16 countries), along with a bevy of location-appropriate genre-themed parties, interactive events, and live experiences. This year, the festival will also fete director Roger Corman with their Master of Horror Award. The award “was established to honor a living legend who has contributed lasting innovations to the genre throughout a long career, inspiring new filmmakers for years to come.”

The fest is styled a 4-day celebration of horror that runs from April 24 – 30 at the historic Timberline Lodge located in Mt. Hood, Oregon, featured in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” as the location of the infamous Overlook Hotel. The new festival comes from some of the same minds behind the now-defunct Stanley Film Festival, a similar horror-themed gathering based in a hotel in Estes Park, Colorado that inspired Stephen King to write his 1977 “Shining” novel.

Leah Purcell at Sydney's Belvoir Theatre. (Photo credit: Anthony Johnson).

Projects from the likes of Jocelyn Moorhouse, Leah Purcell, Vicki Madden, Rachel Perkins, Luke Davies, Sophie Hyde, Nicholas Verso, Abe Forsythe, Craig Silvey and Corrie Chen have received development funding from Screen Australia.

.This round of development funding reflects the vibrancy of the story landscape in Australia with thrillers and romance, crime and comedies, sports dramas and musicals,. said Screen Australia's Senior Development Manager Nerida Moore..

.We have projects from both seasoned storytellers and an exciting group of up-and-coming talents. And we are also seeing a greater mix of platforms from traditional features and high-end television to the ever-growing online drama and narrative Vr spaces..

Among the projects funded, which include 24 features, five online series and two "high-end" television projects, are:

Tasmanian-set gothic crime show The Gloaming, created and written by The Kettering Incident's Vicki Madden, who will produce...

(L-r: Kate Butler, Dale Roberts, Kate Croser).

Kojo has announced plans to team with Hedone Productions to create a new film and television production business under the Kojo Entertainment brand.

Hedone producer Kate Croser will join Kojo as head of production and development, bringing Hedone.s existing slate of projects over to Kojo..

Croser.s credits include The Infinite Man; Sbs comedy series Danger 5; ABC doco Michelle.s Story, and My Tehran for Sale. Croser also sits on the board of Safc, and is.a feature film representative on Spa.s council.

Fellow Hedone principal Sandy Cameron (The Infinite Man, Boys in the Trees, Sam Klemke's Time Machine) will also produce Hedone's slate at Kojo and continue to work as a freelance screenwriter.

Kojo CEO Dale Roberts said this was an important step in the expansion of Kojo.s development and production strategy.

.I am excited to have Kate Croser...

Australian born director and screenwriter Nicholas Verso has signed with Echo Lake Entertainment. His recent directorial debut feature Boys In The Trees screened at this year's Venice and Toronto Film Festival and won Best Narrative Feature at the Austin Film Festival. The coming-of-age film, which recently opened in Australian theaters, is set on Halloween night in 1997 and stars Toby Wallace and Gulliver McGrath as two former friends who reconnect and go on a surreal…...

Doctor Strange..

Disney's Doctor Strange has left its competitors in the dust, raking in $6.4 million over its opening weekend. The Marvel film bowed on 278 screens; an average of $23,200 per location.

Next best was eOne's Girl on the Train, now in its fourth week, which made $1.3 million, taking its overall cume to $13.1 million.

Last week's number one, Paramount's Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,.slipped 54 per cent to earn $1.2 million, taking its cume to $4.6 million after two weeks on screens.

No other films managed to crack the $1 million mark this week..Keeping up with Joneses, now in its second week, fell 47 per cent to make $578,123. The Fox action comedy, starring Isla Fisher, has made just over $2 million so far.

Sony's Inferno.rung up $483,440 in its third week, taking its cume to $4.8 million. Close behind was Universal.s Ouija: Origin of Evil, which made $467,688 over its second weekend. The Mike Flanagan horror sits on $1.6 million so far.

The Santa Monica-based sales, production and financing company has boarded international rights to Mushroom Pictures’ coming-of-age horror film following its world premiere in Venice Horizons.

Toby Wallace, Gulliver McGrath and Mitzi Ruhlmann star in the Australian director Nicholas Verso’s debut about teenage friends who embark on a precarious all-night trek on Halloween.

Mushroom’s John Molloy produced Boys In The Trees and released the film theatrically in Australia. The company’s production credits include the iconic Australian drama Chopper.

“Nicholas Verso has made a stylish, smart and frightening film which perfectly captures the feat that lurks in our imagination,” said Myriad president Kirk D’Amico. “We are very proud to be able to bring this extraordinary film to international distributors.”

Myriad senior vice-president of marketing and acquisitions Audrey Delaney negotiated international sales rights with Mushroom’s Molloy and Bethany Jones.

The company’s slate roster includes Penelope Cruz in The Queen Of Spain directed by [link...

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

Paramount's Jack Reacher: Never Go Back has debuted on top of the box office, bowing on 250 screens for $2.6 million.

The Edward Zwick-directed sequel, starring Tom Cruise, knocked off eOne's The Girl On the Train, which.rang up $1.9 million over its third weekend.—.a fall of 28 per cent. Tate Taylor's adaptation of Paula Hawkins's 2015 novel has amassed $11.2 million so far.

Fox's action comedy Keeping up with the Joneses debuted in third, opening on 235 screens to take $1.09 million.

Just behind was Sony's Inferno, which brought in $1.07 million over its second weekend.—.a fall of 52 per cent. The third film in the series that began with 2006's.The Da Vinci Code has made $4 million so far.

Universal's Ouija: Origin of Evil has debuted on $915,402 from 167 screens.—.a screen average of $5,481, higher than both Keeping Up With The Joneses and Inferno.

Now in its fourth week,...

At its best, Nicholas Verso’s tale of estranged teens feels like an attempt to reinvent The Babadook by way of Heartbreak High

Boys in the Trees is no walk in the park; more like a stroll home on a dark spooky night. That’s the literal journey undertaken in the debut feature film of writer/director Nicholas Verso, a tale of two estranged teenage buddies walking the streets and creeping each other out at Halloween circa 1997. Underneath the bonnet, it’s a film exploring childhood regret: in particular, how petty schoolyard games can fracture friendships.

Corey (Toby Wallace) hangs out with the cool boys. They swig vodka straight from the bottle, check porn sites (on rather slow dial-up connections), hang out at the skate park and pash girls. Ringleader Jango (Justin Holborow) is the leader of the pack: a self-entitled and violent sleazeball who considers himself something of a demigod.

Boys in the Trees.

Nicholas Verso.s Boys in the Trees has won the award for Best Narrative Feature at the Austin Film Festival. "I first attended the Austin Film Festival back in 2013 to attend the Writers Conference clutching my own script, desperately wanting to turn it into a film,. said Verso on accepting the award. .So it was incredibly exciting to return to Austin, not just for the Us premiere but to also receive this award.. Being acknowledged among their industry greats and emerging talents that have given me so much inspiration is truly an honour. .I especially wanted to thank John August and Craig Mazin at Scriptnotes for their wise tips and wisecracks at my accent as well as Rick Dugdale and Dan Petrie Jnr at Enderby Entertainment for their ongoing support and introducing me to this festival.. . The film.s producer, Mushroom Pictures. John Molloy said the...

John Molloy is the head of production at Mushroom Pictures, working out of the company's Melbourne office. After boffo success with 'Molly' earlier in the year, he's now gearing up for the release of his latest project as producer: Nicholas Verso's fantasy-tinged teen drama 'Boys in the Trees'.

When did you meet the director, Nicholas Verso? I know you produced his short..

That was the first time we worked together, on The Last Time I Saw Richard (2014), but I'd seen some of Nicholas's short films before that. Nic and I started working on Boys in the Trees and then decided to make The Last Time I Saw Richard as a way of helping us put the feature together. A proof of our relationship and also showing Nicholas' style, so that when we were out talking about the feature we had something very concrete that people could hold on to.

Anyone who spends more than a few days at a major festival like the Toronto International Film Festival gets used to hearing the same question: “What’s the best thing you’ve seen?”

For this year’s edition of the Tiff Critics Poll, we asked a variety of writers covering the festival exactly that. The results, culled from 45 ballots, point to a particularly interesting mixture of awards season hopefuls and some of the festival’s standout international offerings.

Read More: ‘La La Land’ Review: A Lively Supercut of Classic Musicals Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone

The quartet at the top? Fan favorite “La La Land” (which was named by seven different critics), followed closely by Barry Jenkins’ tender coming-of-age story “Moonlight” (six), Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann” (five) and Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (four). However, there were many other votes cast for under-the-radar titles.

The close race partly reflects...

When a few hundred films stop by the 41st Toronto International Film Festival, it’s certainly impossible to cover everything, but we were able to catch over 120 features — and, with that, it’s time to conclude our experience, following the festival’s own award winners. We’ve rounded up our top 20 films seen during the festival, followed by a list of the complete coverage.

Stay tuned over the next months (or years) as we bring updates on films as they make their way to screens. Note that we didn’t include films screened at other festivals in our “best of” round-up, but you can see Venice, Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance wrap-ups at those links, which feature some of the most-praised films of the festival, including La La Land, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, Certain Women, Elle, Things to Come, Nocturnal Animals, and many more.

One can also click here for...

We’ve all lost friends whether from naturally parting ways or an avoidable blow-up proving petty in hindsight. Age advances and tastes evolve — we don’t often think much of the phenomenon because they find peers more attuned to who they’ve become just like you. But sometimes the severed relationship carries with it pangs of guilt. Maybe the fracture was triggered by lame excuses like the concept of survival of the fittest, you joining your oppressors in order to stop being oppressed. Perhaps you cut loose the person you once said you’d do anything for in a way that transforms them into your enemy. And as graduation approaches with a clean break from the immaturity you’ve grown to resent, that guilt eats away at your conscience in search of relief.

This is the state in which we meet Corey (Toby Wallace) on Halloween 1997. His crossroads between present...

Boys in the Trees.

Tiff's Discovery program is where first and second time feature directors from around the world can strut their stuff.

.Toronto audiences first found Christopher Nolan, Lynne Ramsay and Steve McQueen in our Discovery section,. said the Artistic Director of Tiff, Cameron Bailey. .We can't wait to introduce a new generation of vibrant, original voices in cinema..

This year the Discovery line-up includes two Aussie titles: Joe Cinque.s Consolation, directed by Sotiris Dounoukos, and Boys in the Trees, directed by Nicholas Verso.

Joe Cinque.s Consolation, which.Titan View will release in cinemas across Australia on October 13, comes to Tiff after premiering at this month's Melbourne International Film Festival.

Based on Helen Garner's book about the headline-grabbing 1997 murder case, the drama chronicles how the romantic relationship between two Australian law students turns deadly.

The film's selection marks Dounoukos. return to the festival. In 2014, he was...

Writer-director Nicholas Verso makes his feature debut with the dark Halloween themed coming of age fable Boys In The Trees and if the freshly released trailer for the film is any indication it would appear that it marks the arrival of a truly significant new talent. It’s Halloween 1997 - the last night of high school for Corey, Jango and their skater gang, The Gromits. Childhood is over and adult life beckons. But for Corey, his past has some unfinished business. When he encounters Jonah, a former childhood friend but now victimised by Jango’s cruel streak, Corey takes pity on him and agrees to walk him home for old time’s sake. What starts off as a normal walk through empty suburban streets descends into something...

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