2021 – Page 25 – Movie Retakes

Exclusive: Richard Kelly Talks Donnie Darko Sequel & Rod Serling Biopic

Exclusive: Richard Kelly talks Donnie Darko sequel & Rod Serling biopic

While chatting with the writer/director for the release of the new Blu-ray edition of Southland Tales with the Cannes cut included, ComingSoon.net talked with Richard Kelly a bit about his work on his long-in-development Rod Serling biopic and a potential new film set in the world of his debut hit, Donnie Darko.

ComingSoon.net: To look away from Southland for a minute, we know that you’ve been attached to a Rod Serling biopic for a while now and I’m curious, has there been any sort of progress on it?

Richard Kelly: Well, that is a very special project. It’s a very ambitious project and we want to get it right. We want to make sure we have the right talent and the right budget and all the elements need to be just perfect for that project to get made and we have such respect for Rod Serling’s legacy and the enormous footprint that he left in our business and in our culture. So, we’ve been working on that for several years. We’ve been working closely with Anne Serling, Rod’s daughter. I’ve adapted her memoir that she published about her father and his life and it’s a very ambitious approach to a biopic and it involves a lot of fantasy elements. There is a big fantasy science fiction concept in the sort of approach that we’re taking to try and tell the story of his life. So, that’s a really complicated, difficult needle to thread, we are definitely working on it and hopefully at some point, we’ll get that project off the ground and it’s really just about getting all of the elements to work. So fingers crossed that we’ll get there and we can really pay a tribute to Rod’s life in the best possible way.

CS: Have you taken any inspiration from the graphic novel The Twilight Man in your work on it?

RK: I’m not familiar with that graphic novel, I have not read it. We have poured through all of Rod’s archives. We have done a massive deep dive into every aspect of his life and his writing in the research for the project, but that is not a book that I have read, no.

CS: A few years ago when Donnie Darko got its reissue, you had floated the concept that you were developing another story set in that universe, has there been progress on it? Are we getting closer to seeing a proper follow-up?

RK: Well, I’m probably not allowed to say anything more than there has been an enormous amount of work completed. I’m hopeful that we might get to explore that world in a very big and exciting way. But we’ll see what happens. But there has been a lot of work done. A lot of work has been done.

Written and directed by Kelly and released in 2001, Donnie Darko is centered on the titular troubled teenager as he seeks to find the meaning behind his doomsday-related visions and the appearance of a demented bunny named Frank, who saved him from being crushed by a falling jet engine.

The acclaimed sci-fi psychological thriller featured an ensemble cast that included Jake Gyllenhaal (Spider-Man: Far From Home) in the titular role alongside Jena Malone (Antebellum), Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Kindergarten Teacher), Patrick Swayze (Point Break), Mary McDonnell (Fargo), Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet), Katharine Ross (The Stepford Wives), Noah Wyle (Falling Skies) and James Duval (Independence Day).

The post Exclusive: Richard Kelly Talks Donnie Darko Sequel & Rod Serling Biopic appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Amazon Prime Video February 2021 Movie and TV Titles Announced

Amazon Prime Video has released its schedule for the movie and TV titles coming to the streamer in February 2021, including new Amazon Original Movies and Series like Bliss, a mind-bending love story starring Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson; The Map of Tiny Perfect Things from Lev Grossman; The Boarding School: Las Cumbres, a Spanish teen drama thriller series; the premiere of Tell Me Your Secrets starring Lily Rabe and Amy Brenneman; new episodes of Clifford the Big Red Dog, and much more. You can check out the full lineup below!

Starting February 1, Amazon Prime Video’s Amplify Black Voices page will feature a curated collection of titles to honor Black History Month. The collection will rotate themes each week and will feature titles that celebrate the voices of Black actors, producers, writers, and filmmakers.

New Originals and Exclusives:

● Bliss (2021) is a mind-bending love story following Greg (Owen Wilson) who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets the mysterious Isabel (Salma Hayek), a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is just a computer simulation. Doubtful at first, Greg eventually discovers there may be some truth to Isabel’s wild conspiracy. Available in HDR. Streaming February 5

● The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021) tells the story of quick-witted teen Mark (Kyle Allen), contentedly living the same day in an endless loop whose world is turned upside-down when he meets mysterious Margaret (Kathryn Newton) also stuck in the time loop. Mark and Margaret form a magnetic partnership, setting out to find all the tiny things that make that one day perfect. What follows is a love story with a fantastical twist, as the two struggle to figure out how – and whether – to escape their never-ending day. Available in HDR. Streaming February 12

● There’s lots to celebrate in this season of Clifford the Big Red Dog! Emily Elizabeth, Clifford and all of Birdwell Island join together for Clifford’s birthday, share the love on Valentine’s Day and haunt the island on Halloween. From welcoming a new baby to the Flores family to helping the town through an extraordinary snow day, the friends share life’s special moments while learning the importance of family and celebrating true friendship. New episodes streaming February 12

● The Boarding School: Las Cumbres is set in the fictional boarding school Las Cumbres, an impenetrable fortress. Its students dream of fleeing far from there. But the surrounding forest is even more dangerous because a satanic medieval lodge spreads terror in the area. Streaming February 19

● Tell Me Your Secrets is an intense, morally complex thriller. It revolves around a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past: Emma (Lily Rabe) is a young woman who once looked into the eyes of a dangerous killer; John (Hamish Linklater) is a former serial predator desperate to find redemption; and Mary (Amy Brenneman) is a grieving mother obsessed with finding her missing daughter, Theresa (Stella Baker). As each of them is pushed to the edge, the truth about their pasts and motives grows ever murkier, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator. Streaming February 2021

New IMDb TV Original:

*IMDb TV is Amazon’s free streaming video service with thousands of premium movies and TV shows available anytime

● Executive produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers is a coming of age docu-series, following a new mecca of high school athletics, nestled just outside of Los Angeles. The series captures the team as they exploded onto basketball’s national stage with one of the highest-profile classes in history, including some of the nation’s highest-ranking players – Amari Bailey, BJ Boston, Bronny James, Shy Odom, Zaire Wade, and Ziaire Williams. Streaming February 26.

Can’t Miss Movies:

● Get ready for Coming 2 America (streaming on March 5, 2021) and join Eddie Murphy on his unforgettable comic quest to the New World in Coming to America (1988). As an African Prince, it’s time for him to find a princess. The mission leads him and his most loyal friend (Arsenio Hall) to New York. Streaming February 1

● What if your daughter’s imagination was the secret to your success? In Imagine That (2009), when a businessman (Eddie Murphy) finds his financial kingdom slipping, he turns to his daughter (Yara Shahidi) and her fantasy world for help. Streaming February 1

● The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (2019) tells the true story of the legendary Rani (translation: Queen) of Jhansi, a feminist icon in India and a fearless freedom fighter. Streaming February 16

● The world needed a hero, we got a hedgehog. Superpowered with speed, Sonic The Hedgehog (2020) races to save the world and stop evil genius Dr. Robotnik from world domination. Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter star in the adventure the whole family will enjoy. Streaming February 18

● The Informer (2020), starring Joel Kinnamen, Rosamund Pike, Common, Ana de Armas, and Clive Owen, follows an ex-convict working undercover who intentionally gets himself incarcerated again in order to infiltrate the mob at a maximum security prison. Streaming February 26

Prime Video Channels Sampling:

Prime members have access to the first season of select shows and select movies on Prime Video Channels at no additional cost to their membership. This list will be refreshed with titles each month and will only be available for a limited time. Shows and movies streaming February 1 include:

● African American Lives: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)
● Be My Valentine (2013) (Hallmark Movies Now)
● Black in Latin America: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)
● Burn Motherf**ker, Burn! (2017) (Showtime)
● City on a Hill: Season 1 (Showtime)
● Finding Your Roots: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries/PBS Living)
● For the Love of Jason: Season 1 (Urban Movie Channel)
● Hitsville: The Making of Motown (2019) (Showtime)
● I Killed My BFF: Season 1 (A&E Crime Central)
● Love by the 10th Date (2017) (Lifetime Movie Club)
● Mercy Street: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)
● Safe House: Season 1 (Sundance Now)
● SMOOCH (2011) (Hallmark Movies Now)
● The Last Appeal (2016) (UP Faith & Family)
● The White Princess: Season 1 (STARZ)
● Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017) (Showtime)
● WuTang Clan: Of Mics and Men: Season 1 (Showtime)

New in February – Available to Prime members at no additional cost to their membership

February 2021

Series

*Tell Me Your Secrets – Amazon Original Series: Season 1

February 1

Movies

Antz (1998)
Australia (2008)
Be My Valentine (2013) (Hallmark Movies Now)
Burn Motherf**ker, Burn! (2017) (Showtime)
Coming To America (1988)
Courageous (2011)
Dazed And Confused (1993)
Down To Earth (2001)
Hitsville: The Making of Motown (2019) (Showtime)
How She Move (2008)
Imagine That (2009)
Just Wright (2010)
Kiki (2017) (IFC Films Unlimited)
Love by Accident (2020) (UP Faith & Family)
Love by the 10th Date (2017) (Lifetime Movie Club)
Moulin Rouge (2001)
Notes On A Scandal (2006)
Shanghai Noon (2000)
SMOOCH (2011) (Hallmark Movies Now)
Spy Next Door (2010)
The Haunting In Connecticut (2009)
The Ides Of March (2011)
The Last Appeal (2016) (UP Faith & Family)
The Prestige (2006)
There’s Something About Mary (1998)
The Village (2004)
Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017) (Showtime)

Series

19-2: Season 1 (Acorn TV)
African American Lives: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)
Billions: Seasons 1-3
Black in Latin America: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries)
Butter and Brown: Season 1 (UP Faith & Family)
City on a Hill: Season 1 (Showtime)
Civil War Journal: Season 1 (History Vault)
Faster With Finnegan: Season 1 (MotorTrend)
Finding Your Roots: Season 1 (PBS Documentaries/PBS Living)
For the Love of Jason: Season 1 (Urban Movie Channel)
Genealogy Roadshow: Season 1 (PBS Living)
I Killed My BFF: Season 1 (A&E Crime Central)
I Married Joan: Season 1 (Best TV Ever)
Mercy Street: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)
One On One: Season 1-5
Raiders of Ghost City: Season 1 (Best Westerns Ever)
Safe House: Season 1 (Sundance Now)
The Game: Seasons 1-3
The White Princess: Season 1 (STARZ)
What’s New Scooby-Doo?: Season 1 (Boomerang)
WuTang Clan: Of Mics and Men: Season 1 (Showtime)

February 5

Movies

*Bliss – Amazon Original Movie (2021)

Series

Little Coincidences (Pequeñas Coincidencias): Season 3

February 12

Movies

*Map Of Tiny Perfect Things – Amazon Original Movie (2021)

Series

*Clifford – Amazon Original Series: New Episodes

February 16

Movies

Catfish (2010)
The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi (2019)

February 18

Movies

Sonic The Hedgehog (2020)

February 19

Series

*The Boarding School: Las Cumbres – Amazon Exclusive: Season 1

February 26

Movies

The Informer (2020)

Series

*Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers – IMDb TV Original: Limited Series

Prime Video Valentine’s Day 2021 Collection – Available to Prime members at no additional cost to their membership

Valentine’s Day Sample List

● 35 & Ticking (2011)
● Aaron Loves Angela (1975)
● Australia (2008)
● Breathe (2017)
● Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)
● Brokeback Mountain (2005)
● Catastrophe: Seasons 1-4 (2015-2019)
● Chemical Hearts (2020)
● Fleabag: Seasons 1-2 (2016-2017)
● Guava Island (2019)
● Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
● Just Wright (2010)
● Life in a Year (2020)
● Lost in Translation (2003)
● Love Roise (2015)
● Modern Love: Limited Series (2019)
● Moulin Rouge (2001)
● Sense and Sensibility (1995)
● Sylvie’s Love (2020)
● The Big Sick (2017)
● The Handmaiden (2016)
● The Love Letter (2013)
● The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)
● The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
● There’s Something About Mary (1998)
● The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
● The Weekend (2019)
● The Wood (2020)
● Time (2020)
● Two Night Stand (2015)
● Uncle Frank (2020)
● Upload: Season 1 (2020)
● Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
● What If (2014)
● What Men Want (2019)
● When A Man Loves a Woman (1994)
● Where’s The Love (2014)

The post Amazon Prime Video February 2021 Movie and TV Titles Announced appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Palmer Featurette Offers Deeper Look at Timberlake-Led Apple Drama

Palmer featurette offers deeper look at Timberlake-led Apple drama

With just a few days left before the film’s premiere on the streaming platform, Apple TV+ has unveiled a new featurette for the Justin Timberlake-starring drama Palmer offering a deeper look at the film’s story of redemption, acceptance, and love. The featurette can be viewed below!

A story of redemption, acceptance, and love.

Get a first look at the new original film Palmer, starring @jtimberlake, coming this Friday on Apple TV+ https://t.co/ejqt68ESqg pic.twitter.com/3Tbr0hhRvr

— Apple TV (@AppleTV) January 25, 2021

In the moving drama, Timberlake stars as former high school football star Eddie Palmer as he returns home to put his life back together after serving a 12-year prison sentence and forms an unlikely bond with Sam, an outcast boy from a troubled home. But Eddie’s past threatens to ruin his new life and family.

The film stars Justin Timberlake (The Social Network, Trolls World Tour), Juno Temple (Killer Joe, The Other Boleyn Girl), Alisha Wainwright (Raising Dion, Shadowhunters), Oscar nominee June Squibb (Nebraska, Hubie Halloween) and newcomer Ryder Allen. This marks Timberlake’s first live-action feature and streaming platform project in three years since starring in Woody Allen’s period drama flop Wonder Wheel in 2017.

Palmer is directed by Fisher Stevens from a screenplay written by Cheryl Guerriero. It is produced by Charlie Corwin, Daniel Nadler, Charles B. Wessler, Sidney Kimmel and John Penotti, and is set to hit Apple TV+ on Friday.

The post Palmer Featurette Offers Deeper Look at Timberlake-Led Apple Drama appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Delevingne, Longoria & More Join Ensemble Anthology Women’s Stories

Delevingne, Longoria & more join ensemble anthology Women’s Stories

A project five years in the making, the anthology feature Women’s Stories is finally making forward progress as it begins building its ensemble roster with the additions of Cara Delevingne (Carnival Row), Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives) and more, according to Deadline.

The film, which will feature seven segments helmed by female directors from all over the world and shot in Italy, India and the U.S. and range in genres from drama to comedy to docu-drama and animation, will feature an entirely-female cast. In addition to Delevingne and Longoria, the ensemble will also include Margherita Buy (Me, Myself and Her), Marcia Gay Harden (The Morning Show), Leonor Varela (Lethal Weapon), Jacqueline Fernandez (Mrs. Serial Killer), Jasmine Luv (Starter Pack) and Anjali Lama.

The first four segments have already been planned out and are as follows: Unspoken will be helmed by Maria Sole Tognazzi as she reunites with Me, Myself and Her star Buy, Lagonegro will be directed by Lucia Puenzo (La Jauria) and be led by Golden Globe nominee Longoria, Elbows Deep will be helmed by Catherine Hardwicke (Don’t Look Deeper, Twilight) and star Delevingne, Oscar winner Harden and Luv and Sharing a Ride will be directed by Leena Yadav (Three Cards) and star Fernandez and Lama.

“At We Do It Together, our mission is to enhance and change the image of women in films and media, from object to subject,” Chiara Tilesi, Founder and President of We Do It Together, said in a statement. “We are dedicated to telling stories of women, both in front of and behind the camera. That’s why Women’s Stories is so important to us – we have brought together female directors, from all over the world, who collaborate and share personal stories from their own point of view. We are telling the stories of these heroines and their aspirations: from health workers to mothers, artists and business women, to name a few. We also want to be inclusive and have as many different perspectives as possible, which is why connecting globally is so important to us. Now more than ever, especially after the latest UN policy brief The Impact of Covid-19 On Women, it has emerged that gender inequality is still a very present reality and, unfortunately, we remain far from a solution. Some of the achievements that were made, are at risk of being erased once again. This is why it is so important for us to continue to tell stories about women, by women, but for everyone. Only together can men and women finally change these paradigms.”

The anthology pic will be produced by Iervolino Entertainment (Waiting for the Barbarians) and We Do It Together, a non-profit production company that campaigns for gender equality, with Tilesi, Andrea Iervolino, Lucas Asoskin and Monika Bacardi attached as producers and Carol Polakoff set to executive produce.

(Photo Credits: Getty Images)

The post Delevingne, Longoria & More Join Ensemble Anthology Women’s Stories appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Mark Wahlberg-Led Drama Joe Bell Gets Pushed Back

According to Deadline, Solstice Studios has officially decided to temporarily remove their Mark Wahlberg-led drama film Joe Bell from their theatrical release schedule. Originally scheduled for a February 19, 2021 release, the film is currently undated due to the ongoing pandemic that continues to affect the film industry. This new release delay comes after a number of high-profile films were shifted to brand new release dates again last week.

Joe Bell tells the true story of Oregonian father Joe Bell who sets out on a walk across America to raise awareness for bullying after his 15-year-old son, Jadin, commits suicide after being subjected to torment by his peers for being gay. The film stars Mark Wahlberg (The Departed), Connie Britton (American Horror Story), Reid Miller, Maxwell Jenkins (Lost in Space) and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Truman).

Following its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, where it received generally mixed reviews from critics though praise was showered onto Miller’s performance, Solstice acquired the rights to the film for $20 million, with the studio working with the filmmakers and Wahlberg to develop a new cut of the film.

Joe Bell hails from Academy-Award winning Brokeback Mountain screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry, with Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) in the director’s chair; and will be produced by Daniela Taplin Lundberg (Honey Boy) of Stay Gold, Riva Marker and Jake Gyllenhaal of Nine Stories, Eva Maria Daniels of Vision Chaos, Cary Fukunaga of Parliament of Owls, Ryan Ahrens of Argent Pictures (Hacksaw Ridge), Wahlberg, and Stephen Levinson. Argent Pictures and Hercules Film are co-financing the film.

Jill Ahrens, Ben Renzo, Tony Parker, Derick Brooks, Michael Finley, and Drew Brees are executive producing for Argent Pictures. Good Joe Bell will also be executive produced by Ossan McMurtry along with Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis, Terry Dougas and Jean-Luc De Fanti for Hercules and Rhea Films.

The post Mark Wahlberg-Led Drama Joe Bell Gets Pushed Back appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

The Formula: John Boyega & Robert De Niro to Star in Gerard McMurray’s Netflix Feature

The Formula: John Boyega & Robert De Niro to Star in Gerard McMurray's Netflix Feature

The Formula: John Boyega & Robert De Niro to Star in Gerard McMurray’s Netflix Feature

John Boyega (Star Wars franchise, Small Axe, Pacific Rim: Uprising) and Oscar winner Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, The Godfather: Part II, The Irishman) are attached to star in The Formula, a Netflix feature written, directed, and produced by Gerard McMurray (The First Purge) who also helmed the Netflix original feature Burning Sands, according to Deadline.

The story will follow a Formula One racing prodigy is forced to become a getaway driver to save the only family he has left.

McMurray will produce under his recently formed production company Buppie Productions with De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Berry Welsh also producing. Jason Michael Berman will executive produce with Sam Shaw and Buppie Productions’ Ephraim Walker serving as co-producers. The project was developed under Rosenthal and Welsh’s overall deal with Netflix.

After starring in Amazon Prime Video’s anthology film series Small Axe, created and directed by Steve McQueen, Boyega’s upcoming slate also includes Juel Taylor’s They Cloned Tyrone, starring alongside Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx, and Chase Palmer’s Naked Singularity.

De Niro is currently filming Randall Emmett’s thriller Wash me in the River, also starring Jack Huston and John Malkovich, as well as David O. Russell’s upcoming untitled comedy project starring alongside Anya Taylor-Joy, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Christian Bale, Timothy Olyphant, Rami Malek, Zoe Saldana, and more.

(Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images & Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

The post The Formula: John Boyega & Robert De Niro to Star in Gerard McMurray’s Netflix Feature appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Hulu Unveils Palm Springs Commentary Cut With Stars, Director & Writer

BEGIN SLIDESHOW

Hulu unveils Palm Springs commentary cut with stars, director & writer

In a rare move for a streaming platform debut, the Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti-led sci-fi rom com Palm Springs is getting a new cut at Hulu featuring commentary from the stars as well as director Max Barbakow and writer Andy Siara, according to Variety.

Back in the #PalmSprings loop, but this time with commentary #HuluFYC pic.twitter.com/b5O5ECucmz

— Hulu (@hulu) January 25, 2021

“As far as I know we’re the first,” Samberg said in a statement. “We realized that Palm Springs will always be on Hulu, which is great, but there are elements of the DVD experience that just don’t exist anymore. They were very amenable in talking about ways to get some fun stuff in there.”

When carefree Nyles (Samberg) and reluctant maid of honor Sarah (Milioti) have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated when they find themselves unable to escape the venue, themselves, of each other.

Alongside Golden Globe winner Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, SNL), the film also stars Milioti (The Wolf of Wall Street), Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Meredith Hagner (Search Party), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), Tyler Hoechlin (Superman and Lois), and Peter Gallagher (Grace and Frankie).

The film is directed by Max Barbakow and written by Andy Siara. The film is produced by Andy Samberg, Becky Sloviter, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Dylan Sellers, and Chris Parker, and Gabby Revilla Lugo serves as executive producer. The film is produced by Limelight and Lonely Island Classics with Neon.

Both cuts of the acclaimed time-looping rom-com is now available to stream on Hulu!

The post Hulu Unveils Palm Springs Commentary Cut With Stars, Director & Writer appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

New to Stream: OVID’s February 2021 Movie Lineup

OVID.tv, the curated streaming destination for documentaries and art-house films, has announced its February streaming lineup! OVID exclusives next month include Rogier Kappers’ Emmy nominated documentary Lomax the Songhunter, two films by Romanian director Radu Jude titled I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians and Aferim!, as well as Tsai Ming-liang’s Rebels of the Neon God, The Hole, and much more. You can learn more about these films and check out the full February slate below!

Monday, February 1st

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Lomax the Songhunter (2005)

Directed by Rogier Kappers; Icarus Films, Documentary

Netherlands

Alan Lomax (1915-2002) devoted his life to recording the world’s folk tunes before they would permanently disappear with the rise of the modern music industry. In Lomax the Songhunter, filmmaker Rogier Kappers follows the route that Lomax took across America and beyond its borders-traveling to remote villages in Spain and Italy, hearing memories and music from the farmers, shepherds, and weavers whose songs Lomax recorded decades earlier.

The film also tells Lomax’s story by interviewing friends such as Pete Seeger, using archival recordings of music greats Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, and gathering footage of the cotton fields, rock quarries, and prisons where Alan Lomax captured America’s quintessential music.

Tuesday, February 2nd

Ezra (2007)

Directed by Newton Aduaka; California Newsreel, Feature

Nigeria/France/Austria

Ezra stands out among other African films because it is a complex psychological study of a child soldier, not just about the trauma, healing, and reintegration into society, but also as a key for reconstructing these societies themselves. This drama was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2007 Festival Panafricain du Cinema à Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Africa’s largest and most prestigious film event, and selected for the International Critics Week at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Karmen Gei (2001)

Directed by Joseph Gai Ramaka; California Newsreel, Feature

Senegal

Director Joseph Gaï Ramaka writes: “Carmen is a myth but what does Carmen represent today? Where do Carmen’s love and freedom stand at the onset of the 21st Century? Therein lies my film’s intent, a black Carmen, plunged in the magical and chaotic urbanity of an African city.”

Karmen Geï is the first African Carmen and, arguably, the first African filmed “musical.” Accordingly, Gaï Ramaka has completely replaced Bizet’s score and the usual staging with indigenous Senegalese music and choreography: Doudou N’Diaye Rose’s sabar drummers, Julien Jouga’s choir, El Hadj Ndiaye’s songs and Yandé Coudou Sène’s prophetic voice. Saxophonist David Murray’s contemporary jazz score runs like a thread of unfulfilled desire through the film.

Karmen Gei may convince viewers that this African ambience is what the Carmen legend, perhaps leading back through Andalusia to its African roots, has been waiting for all these years.

Wednesday, February 3rd

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

In the Last Days of the City (2016)

Directed by Tamer El Said; Big World Pictures, Feature

Egypt/Germany/Great Britain/United Arab Emirates

Tamer El Said’s ambitious debut feature tells the fictional story of a filmmaker from downtown Cairo played by Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner, United 93, Green Zone) as he struggles to capture the soul of a city on edge while facing loss in his own life. Shot in Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad, and Berlin during the two years before the outbreak of revolution in Egypt, the film’s multi-layered stories are a visually rich exploration of friendship, loneliness, and life in cities shaped by the shadows of war and adversity.

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Tahrir: Liberation Square (2011)

Directed by Stefano Savona; Icarus Films, Documentary

Egypt

Soon after the first reports came about the occupation of Tahrir Square, filmmaker Stefano Savona headed for Cairo, where he stayed, amidst the ever-growing masses in the Square, for weeks. His film introduces us to young Egyptians such as Elsayed, Noha, and Ahmed, spending all day and night talking, shouting, singing, finally expressing everything they were forbidden to say out loud until now.

Thursday, February 4th

Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (2017)

Directed by Bruno Dumont; KimStim, Feature

Canada

France, 1425. In the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, the young Jeannette, at the still tender age of 8, looks after her sheep in the small village of Domremy.

One day, she tells her friend Hauviette how she cannot bear to see the suffering caused by the English. Madame Gervaise, a nun, tries to reason with the young girl, but Jeannette is ready to take up arms for the salvation of souls and the liberation of the Kingdom of France. Carried by her faith, she will become Joan of Arc.

Friday, February 5th

OVID EXCLUSIVE

False Confessions (2016)

Directed by Luc Bondy; Big World Pictures, Feature

Starring Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Bulle Ogier

France

Luc Bondy’s final feature film as director draws talent from both stage and screen to bring Marivaux’s play into 21st century Paris. Isabelle Huppert commands the screen as Araminte, the wealthy widow who unwittingly hires the smitten Dorante (Garrel) as her accountant. Secrets and lies accumulate as Dorante and his accomplice, Araminte’s manservant Dubois (Yves Jacques), manipulate not only the good-hearted Araminte, but also her friend and confidante, Marton (Manon Combes).

Dorante, by turns pitiable and proficient, but always deferential to his social better, walks a fine line in his quest to arouse an equal desire in the object of his affections. Bulle Ogier delivers a memorable turn as Araminte’s mother, who suspects the young man’s intentions, but wants to push her daughter into the arms of an aged, hard-up Count (Jean-Pierre Malo). Filmed in part on-site at the Théâtre de l’Odéon, the film blurs the distinction between stage and screen, offering a new turn on this classic take on the psychology of love.

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Marie Curie (2016)

Directed by Marie Noëlle; Big World Pictures, Feature

Germany/France/Poland

Working alone after the premature death of her husband and colleague, physicist and chemist Marie Curie struggles for recognition in the male-dominated science community in early 20th-century France.

Monday, February 8th

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (2008)

Directed by Kimberlee Bassford; Women Make Movies, Documentary

U.S.

In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink became the first woman of color in the United States Congress. Seven years later, she ran for the US presidency and was the driving force behind Title IX, the landmark legislation that transformed women’s opportunities in higher education and athletics.

Winning Girl (2014)

Directed by Kimberlee Bassford; Women Make Movies, Documentary

U.S.

From award-winning Hawaiian filmmaker Kimberlee Bassford (Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority) comes Winning Girl, an inspirational film that follows the four-year journey of Teshya Alo, a part-Polynesian, teenage judo, and wrestling phenomenon from Hawaii. Teshya is only 16 years old and 125 pounds, but on the judo and wrestling mats, she dominates women twice her age and pounds heavier!

Now Alo has her sights set on taking the Olympic gold at both the judo and wrestling world championships – and in doing so would be the first to accomplish that feat. Winning Girl tells the dynamic story of an elite athlete on her ascent, a girl facing the challenges of puberty and growing up with an entire family dedicated to a single dream. A great companion piece to any discussion on Title IX and gender.

Tuesday, February 9th

This is Nollywood (2007)

Directed by Franco Sacchi; California Newsreel, Documentary

Nigeria

First came Hollywood, then Bollywood, and now Nollywood — Nigeria’s booming film industry, which released two thousand features in 2006 alone. Where else can you shoot a full-length dramatic film for $10,000 in 7 days? Until recently, it was rarely known outside its own country. This is Nollywood explains why Nigerian video production is becoming recognized as a phenomenon with broad implications for the cultural and economic development of Africa. The most intimate and accurate portrait of the technical, economic, and social infrastructure of the industry.

Thunderbolt (2000)

Directed by Tunde Kelani; California Newsreel, Feature

Nigeria

A story from the burgeoning video industry of Nigeria combines melodrama and issues of ethnicity, gender, culture, and identity in post-colonial Africa.

Thunderbolt will come as a bolt out of the blue to most Americans, even aficionados of African cinema. The new Nigerian video industry is without doubt one of the most vibrant new developments in the world cinema today.

The first half of the film is in a sense a retelling of the Othello story – except the protagonists are not Abyssinian and Venetian but Yoruba and Ibo. In the second half of the film, a distinctly West African emphasis on the supernatural comes to the fore; curses and ritual cleansing take the place of psychological explanations.

Wednesday, February 10th

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Althusser: an Intellectual Adventure (2016)

Directed by Bruno Oliviero; Icarus Films, Documentary

France

Althusser: an Intellectual Adventure traces the development of Althusser’s thought, which influenced a who’s who of French philosophers, including Lacan, Foucault, Derrida, and Barthes. His most enduring contribution may be the concept of ideological state apparatuses: institutions and social structures including schools, churches, and families, that serve to reinforce the capitalist state.

The film also delves into Althusser’s little-understood struggles with the mental illness that would see him hospitalized numerous times throughout his life. In intimate letters to his wife, Helene Rytmann, and mistress, Franca Madonia, Althusser describes his treatment and mental states. As Yves Duroux says, in order to understand the man, one must look not only at his philosophy and relationship with the Communist Party, but to “his own madness” which in some ways linked the two.

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Foucault Against Himself (2014)

Directed by François Caillat; Icarus Films, Documentary

France

Divided into four chapters, Foucault Against Himself focuses on Foucault’s critique of psychiatry, his work on the history of sexuality, the growth of his radicalism arising from his research into the French penal system, the nature of knowledge and underlying structures of human behavior, and his immersion in American counter-cultural movements-in particular the resistance to current social structures that he found among sexual minority communities in San Francisco.

Thursday, February 11th

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians (2018)

Directed by Radu Jude; Big World Pictures, Feature

Romania/Germany/ Bulgaria/ France/Czech Republic

A young artist reconstructs a historical event from 1941, in which the Romanian Army carried out ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Aferim! (2015)

Directed by Radu Jude; Big World Pictures, Feature

Romania/Bulgaria/Czech Republic

Radu Jude’s third feature has been aptly compared to films as diverse as The Searchers, The Last Detail, and Pulp Fiction (the latter for its rambling, coarse, and endlessly entertaining dialogues), but the film is ultimately a moving parable about late-feudal Europe developed from historical documents and songs: its power structures and hierarchies, people’s ideas of themselves and others, interaction with minorities and the resulting conflicts. A Balkan Western in black-and-white that brings the cacophony of the times strikingly to life and explores the thematic arcs that stretch into the present.

Friday, February 12th

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Rebels of the Neon God (1992)

Directed by Tsai Ming-liang; Big World Pictures, Feature

Taiwan

Tsai Ming-liang’s debut feature Rebels of the Neon God already includes a handful of elements familiar to fans of his subsequent work: a deceptively spare style often branded “minimalist”; actor Lee Kang-sheng as the silent and sullen Hsiao-kang; copious amounts of water, whether pouring from the sky or bubbling up from a clogged drain; and enough urban anomie to ensure that even the subtle humor in evidence is tinged with pathos.

The loosely structured plot involves Hsiao-kang, a despondent cram school student, who becomes obsessed with young petty thief Ah-tze, after Ah-tze smashes the rearview mirror of a taxi driven by Hsiao-kang’s father. Hsiao-kang stalks Ah-tze and his buddy Ah-ping as they hang out in the film’s iconic arcade (featuring a telling poster of James Dean on the wall) and other locales around Taipei, and ultimately takes his revenge.

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

The Hole (1998)

Directed by Tsai Ming-liang; Big World Pictures, Feature

Taiwan

Set just prior to the start of the 21st century, this vaguely futuristic story follows two residents of a quickly crumbling building who refuse to leave their homes in spite of a virus that has forced the evacuation of the area. As rain pours down relentlessly, a single man is stuck with an unfinished plumbing job and a hole in his floor. This results in a very odd relationship with the woman who lives below him.

Wednesday, February 17th

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Colette (1951)

Directed by Yannick Bellon; Icarus Films, Documentary

France

French writer Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) was both a popular and literary sensation. Known simply as Colette, she scandalized French society with her three marriages and her career as a racy music-hall performer and mime artist. She was also one of the finest prose stylists of her era, and a legendary figure in Paris. Her work often explored the struggle between independent identity and passionate love, and asserted female sexuality in a male-dominated world.

Thursday, February 18th

I Was A Teenage Feminist (2005)

Directed by Therese Shechter; Women Make Movies, Documentary

Canada/US

Why is it that some young, independent, progressive women in today’s society feel uncomfortable identifying with the F-word? Join filmmaker Therese Shechter as she takes a funny, moving, and very personal journey into the heart of feminism. Armed with a video camera and an irreverent sense of humor, Shechter talks with feminist superstars, rowdy frat boys, liberated Cosmo girls, and Radical Cheerleaders, all in her quest to find out whether feminism can still be a source of personal and political power.

Tokyo Idols (2017)

Directed by Kyoko Miyake; KimStim, Documentary

Japan

A fascinating exploration of Japan’s girl bands and their music, delving into the cultural obsession with young female sexuality and the growing disconnect between men and women in hyper-modern societies.

Friday, February 19th

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

The Children of 209 Saint-Maur Street (2017)

Directed by Ruth Zylberman; Icarus Films, Documentary

France

209 Saint-Maur Street is a classic Haussmann building in the 10th arrondissement of Paris: Stone, built around a courtyard, shops on the bottom floor. In the first decades of the 20th century, it was home to some 300 working-class people, about a third of them Jewish.

And then came the Nazi occupation. Parents rounded up and deported. Children left on their own. Neighbors hiding Jewish kids under the blankets.

The Children of 209 Saint-Maur Street is filmmaker Ruth Zylberman’s painstakingly researched reconstruction of life in the building before and during the Second World War. (At one point she wrote to every single person in France with a particular last name trying to find a resident of the building.) There’s the small grocer whose husband is deported and who loses her business when it is “Aryanized.” The deaf woman who eagerly writes down the names and locations of Jews so the Nazis can find them. The girl whose father hid Jews in the apartment and threatened to murder his collaborator son if anything should happen to them. And the Jewish children themselves, now elderly, many living abroad, who recall the rumors of roundups, the hiding, and the friends they played with. “I wonder if all of this was real,” one of them, the son of Polish immigrants, says.

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

A German Youth (2015)

Directed by Jean-Gabriel Périot; Big World Pictures, Documentary

France/Switzerland/Germany

A German Youth (Une Jeunesse Allemande) chronicles the political radicalization of some German youth in the late 1960s that gave birth to the Red Army Faction (RAF), a German revolutionary terrorist group founded notably by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, as well as the images generated by this story. The film is entirely produced by editing preexisting visual and sound archives and aims to question viewers on the significance of this revolutionary movement during its time, as well as its resonance for today’s society.

Tuesday, February 23rd

The Rest I Make Up (2018)

Directed by Michelle Memran; Women Make Movies, Documentary

Maria Irene Fornes was one of America’s greatest playwrights and most influential teachers, but many know her only as the ex-lover of writer and social critic Susan Sontag. The visionary Cuban-American dramatist constructed astonishing worlds onstage, writing over 40 plays and winning nine Obie Awards. At the vanguard of the nascent Off-Off Broadway experimental theater movement in NYC, Fornes is often referred to as American theater’s “Mother Avant-Garde.” When she gradually stops writing due to dementia, an unexpected friendship with filmmaker Michelle Memran reignites her spontaneous creative spirit and triggers a decade-long collaboration that picks up where the pen left off.

The duo travels from New York to Havana, Miami to Seattle, exploring the playwright’s remembered past and their shared present. Theater luminaries such as Edward Albee, Ellen Stewart, Lanford Wilson, and others weigh in on Fornes’s important contributions. What began as an accidental collaboration becomes a story of love, creativity, and connection that persists even in the face of forgetting.

Service: When Women Come Marching Home (2012)

Directed by Marcia Rock & Patricia Lee Stotter; Women Make Movies, Documentary

Women make up 15 percent of today’s military. That number is expected to double in 10 years. Service highlights the resourcefulness of seven amazing women who represent the first wave of mothers, daughters, and sisters returning home from the frontless wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. Portraying the courage of women veterans as they transition from active duty to their civilian lives, this powerful film describes the horrific traumas they have faced, the inadequate care they often receive on return, and the large and small accomplishments they work mightily to achieve.

The Heretics (2009)

Directed by Joan Braderman; Women Make Movies, Documentary

Tracing the influence of the Women’s Movement’s Second Wave on art and life, The Heretics is the exhilarating inside story of the New York feminist art collective that produced “Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics” (1977-92). In this feature-length documentary, cutting-edge video artist/writer/director Joan Braderman, who joined the group in 1975 as an aspiring filmmaker, charts the collective’s challenges to terms of gender and power and its history as a microcosm of the period’s broader transformations.

Thursday, February 25th

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Suspension (2019)

Directed by Simón Uribe; Icarus Films, Documentary

Colombia

A car and mini-bus meet on the highway connecting the cities of Mocoa and Pasto, in southern Colombia. The road, opened in 1944, is the main link between the two centers, but it’s not exactly a superhighway. In fact, it’s barely a highway at all. As the bus advances, the car backs up, seeking a place wide enough for the vehicles to pass each other.

For decades, Colombian authorities have talked of building a bypass, a road that will replace the one currently known as “the springboard of death.” With more than two dozen curves per mile, it may be the most dangerous stretch of road in the world. Shrines dot the route, marking the spots where so many have died. Landslides and washouts have killed dozens more.

Suspension brilliantly captures some of the absurdities and contradictions that come with the decades-long effort to try and build a road through this part of the Amazon—an effort one engineer calls “political madness.”

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Winter Nomads (2013)

Directed by Manuel von Sturler; Icarus Films, Documentary

Switzerland

Pascal, 53, and Carole, 28, are shepherds. In the month of November 2010, they embark on their long winter transhumance: four months during which they will have to cover 600 km in the Swiss region, accompanied by three donkeys, four dogs, and eight hundred sheep.

An exceptional adventure is about to begin: They brave the cold and the bad weather day in and day out, with a canvas cover and animal skins as their only shelter at night. This saga reveals a tough and exacting profession requiring constant improvisation and unflinching attention to nature, the animals, and the cosmos.

Friday, February 26th

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Ága (2017)

Directed by Milko Lazarov; Big World Pictures, Feature

Bulgaria

In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth.

Nanook and Sedna’s traditional way of life starts changing – slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable causes, and the ice has been melting earlier every year.

Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world – and to their daughter Ága, who left the icy tundra long ago due to a family feud.

When Sedna’s health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfill her wish. He embarks on a long journey in order to find Ága.

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD Premiere

Viktoria (2014)

Directed by Maya Vitkova; Big World Pictures, Feature

Bulgaria/Romania

Maya Vitkova’s stunning debut feature Viktoria, which had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, follows three generations of women in the final years of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the early years of the transition to democracy. The film focuses on reluctant mother Boryana and her daughter, Viktoria, who, in one of the film’s surreal, magical touches is born without an umbilical cord. Though unwanted by her mother, Viktoria is named the country’s Baby of the Decade, and is showered with gifts and attention until the disintegration of the East Bloc.

Despite throwing their worlds off balance, the resulting political changes also allow for the possibility of reconciliation. Vitkova wrote, produced, and directed Viktoria, making it both personal and universal, and demonstrating a precocious command of all elements of the filmmaking process. Especially impressive is the film’s visual sensibility and its command of a range of shifting tones, from absurdist humor to political allegory to deeply moving familial drama.

With the help of an unprecedented collaborative effort by eight of the most noteworthy, independent film distribution companies in the U.S., Docuseek, LLC launched an innovative, new, subscription video-on-demand service, OVID.tv. OVID is available in the U.S. and Canada. New subscribers can sign-up for a free 14-day trial. After that, subscriptions are just $6.99/mo or $69.99 for an annual subscription.

The post New to Stream: OVID’s February 2021 Movie Lineup appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Paramount+ Promos Brings Star Trek, Beavis & Butthead, and More to Paramount Mountain

Paramount+ Promos Bring Star Trek, Beavis & Butthead, and More to Paramount Mountain

The first Paramount+ promo teasers for the upcoming rebranding of CBS All Access have been released, offering us a preview of the amount of content that subscribers will be getting. The video features Star Trek characters Spock and Captain Pike along with animated characters Dora and Beavis & Butthead as they begin their journey towards Paramount Mountain. Also featuring hosts James Corden, Gayle King and Jeff Probst, you can check out the videos below!

Roll call! @JeffProbst, @GayleKing, @JKCorden, and… @snooki?!
The journey to the peak of Paramount Mountain begins! #ParamountPlus https://t.co/8k6D3B1VpN pic.twitter.com/480MHopziN

— Paramount+ (@Paramount_Plus) January 25, 2021

On Paramount Mountain, a leader emerges… and she carries a talking map. Vámonos to the peak! #ParamountPlus https://t.co/8k6D3B1VpN pic.twitter.com/lVPKYFOwBt

— Paramount+ (@Paramount_Plus) January 25, 2021

Set to launch in the U.S. and Canada on March 4, Paramount+ will feature original content as well as shows from CBS and other broadcast networks such as MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount Network and Nickelodeon. Showtime, the sister streaming service to CBS All Access, will continue to operate separately from Paramount+. Some Showtime-branded originals will be ticketed for the new service and some form of bundling is likely down the line.

In addition, the company has also revealed the new slate of original series that are currently being in development under Paramount+. This includes: a new spy drama series titled Lioness which hails from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan: a miniseries titled The Offer which centers around the making of the iconic crime drama The Godfather; and iCarly revival series.

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish told Wall Street analysts last May that the streaming platform would be getting a rebranding that will also expand internationally over the next 12 months. After the quarterly earnings call, the service began its updating by adding over 100 films from the Paramount vault including the Star Trek franchise, The Godfather, Terms of Endearment and An Inconvenient Truth.

Other networks set to have programming debut on the platform include Smithsonian and the Paramount Network and a select number of specials and series from BET, which launched its own streaming service in September entitled BET+.

As of the end of March, CBS All Access and Showtime together had 13.5 million subscribers, which was a 50% increase from the same quarter last year, with general streaming revenue also rising 50% in the quarter to $471 million, estimated to stem from more viewers quarantining and looking for a variety of programming.

The post Paramount+ Promos Brings Star Trek, Beavis & Butthead, and More to Paramount Mountain appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Godzilla vs. Kong Trailer Pits Two Titans Against Each Other!

BEGIN SLIDESHOW

Godzilla vs. Kong trailer pits two titans against each other!

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary have released the first trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong, the blockbuster sequel to Godzilla: King of the Monsters and third installment in the latter’s MonsterVerse franchise! Check out the trailer below!

Legends will collide. Watch the long-awaited official trailer for #GodzillaVsKong, coming to theaters and streaming exclusively on @HBOMax*.

*Available on @HBOMax in the US only, for 31 days, at no extra cost to subscribers. pic.twitter.com/ygUDjoXwT8

— Godzilla vs. Kong (@GodzillaVsKong) January 24, 2021

The epic action-adventure Godzilla vs. Kong will pit two of the greatest icons in motion picture history against one another — the fearsome Godzilla and the mighty Kong — with humanity caught in the balance.

The film stars Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies, The Little Drummer Girl), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), Rebecca Hall (Christine, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women), Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, Widows), Shun Oguri (Gintama), Eiza González (Baby Driver), Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist), and Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2). Also starring in the highly-anticipated movie are Kyle Chandler (The Wolf of Wall Street, Manchester by the Sea) and Demián Bichir (The Nun, The Hateful Eight).

The fourth installment in Warner Bros.’ Pictures and Legendary’s Monsterverse is directed by Adam Wingard from a script written by Oscar nominee Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean, Deja Vu, Shrek). The film is being produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, and Brian Rogers, with Kenji Okuhira, Yoshimitsu Banno, Jon Jashni and Thomas Tull serving as executive producers. Jay Ashenfelter, Jen Conroy and Tamara Kent are co-producers.

The most recent film in Legendary’s MonsterVerse, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, hit theaters in summer 2019. It ended with Godzilla taking his rightful place as the ruler of all Titans. Unfortunately, the movie was a financial disappointment, grossing only $385.9 million against a budget estimated to be as high as $200 million.

Godzilla vs. Kong is set to arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on March 26, 2021.

What do you think of the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer? Let us know in the comments below!