Noticias

It has been announced that David Cronenberg’s first feature film, Shivers, is in the process of being remade:

‘Toronto — September 6, 2013 — Producers Jeff Sackman and Michael Baker today announced that they will remake the horror classic Shivers, David Cronenberg’s first feature film. That film, highlighted with a special screening at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, broke ground with its boundary-pushing sexuality and violence in its original release, nearly 40 years ago.

Shivers will be directed by award-winning Danish filmmaker Rie Rasmussen from a screenplay written by Ian Driscoll. Sackman and Baker will produce through their respective companies, Tajj Media and Bunk 11 Pictures. Working with them as executive producer is the film’s original executive producer, André Link. Shivers will begin shooting in February 2014, with casting currently underway.

In Shivers, a genetically-engineered strain of parasites that turn people into violent, compulsive sex-addicts is released into a self-contained luxury apartment complex.

Move over, "Melrose Place" -- there's a new, er, place to be.

But unlike the small apartment building in West Hollywood that housed a doctor, a social worker and a bad-boy handyman, the dwellers of The Lux in new MuchMusic series "The L.A. Complex" are more like aspiring actress Sandy and struggling writer Billy.

The new original scripted drama is from the producers of classic teen opus "Degrassi," and centres on a group of people with stars in their eyes as they deal with the "real" reality of showbiz.

"The L.A. Complex," created and executive-produced by Martin Gero ("Bored to Death," "Young People Fucking"), stars Jonathan Patrick Moore ("Neighbours") as Connor, a breakout Australian with a dark past; Cassie Steele ("Degrassi") as Abby, a Toronto girl ready to fight to get to the top in Tinseltown (eerily similar to her real-life experience); Joe Dinicol ("Life With Derek") as Nick, a...

Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard’s Autoerotic reaches new heights in depravity, especially in its closing moments. A skillful director with comedic chops such as Will Gluck might have pulled it off. Unfortunately, this film is just a few awkward scenes tonally out of place, making up what is a narrative tsunami.

Swanberg (the film’s co-writer and co-star) has made a name for himself based on sheer volume. He’s been the most active of the “Mumblecore” filmmakers, a movement that sprung up organically throughout the country from Boston to Austin and beyond to Portland, Or. As the legend goes, all met up at South by Southwest where the term was coined likely after a few beers and some great indie rock on 6th Street. Nevertheless, the name “Mumblecore” stuck. The filmmaker’s career spans at least 7 films now with two more on the way, not forgetting 3 films that...

Diora Baird GQ Magazine Italy Photos for February 2011 have premiered. Like many Hollywood actresses, Diora Baird has graced many magazines, GQ Magazine being the latest. Diora Baird has been showing up in more and more films in recent years: 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, Hot Tub Time Machine, Star Trek (2009), Young People Fucking, etc. being a few of them. I hope she gets more high-end roles where her acting and what she can bring to a role are at the fore-front of the casting decision. Check out the Diora Baird GQ Magazine Italy photos for February 2011 below and leave your thoughts on them. Click to enlarge.

Diora Baird GQ Magazine Italy February 2011...

Diora Baird is considered one of the hottest models/actresses right now, and she has appeared in three horror films: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Night of the Demons and 30 Days of Night: Dark Days. You can see her naked in Hot Tamale (2006) and Wedding Crashers (2005). Bra and panty scenes include TCM (2004) and Young People Fucking (2007)... And don't forget her recreation of Linnea Quigley's famous lipstick in the boob scene from Notd.

Wtf ???... According to reports, Fox Searchlight has acquired the comedy pitch "Motherfucker", representing the latest trend in 'expletive-laden' movie titles to make their way into development. In addition to "Motherfucker", the studio is currently prepping the romantic comedy "The F Word" starring Casey Affleck.

Following the 2007 Canadian feature "Young People Fucking", Paramount purchased screen rights in 2008 to "I Wanna' Fuck Your Sister" from writer Melissa Stack and in 2009, bought writer Lewis Meriweather's screenplay "Fuckbuddies", that recently wrapped filming, starring Natalie Portman.

The IMDb also lists a number of mainstream films with the word 'fuck' in the title.

Unfortunately, a movie title containing the 'F-word' is difficult to get past the Motion Picture Association of America that doles out film ratings, with or without censoring asterisks, as the MPAA will not register a film that contains 'offensive language' in the title.

"Any title where stand-in symbols can be interpreted as meaning something obscene,...

I don't know what Canadian filmmakers eat for breakfast, but they seem to excel in making romantic comedies. These are the first ones that come to my mind: Young People Fucking, Love and Magnets and Dodging the Clock. Now, comes Kris Booth's At Home by Myself... with You, a smart film that combines comedy and drama.

Meet Romy Scott (Kristin Booth), a woman who has developed some phobias because of traumatic events in childhood and adolescence. She's afraid of the storm, getting outside, kissing, lobsters and opening boxes. As a result of that, she's never left her apartment since she was 24 years old. In order to pay her bills, this woman from Toronto works in her apartment as a self-employed travel agent. Moreover, Romy seeks the help of either of her neighbours - Erin (Shauna MacDonald) and Bessie (Rosemary Dunsmore) - to perform tasks like opening boxes for her.

CBC, Canada's public TV network, announced that it ordered 13 episodes of the action comedy InSecurity (formerly known as The B Team). The production on the show's first season will begin principal photography in July 2010 in Regina, Sakastchewan, with additional shooting in Ottawa, Ontario.

The series star Natalie Lisinska (Young People Fucking, Chloe) as Alex Cranston, a rookie agent of the fictional National Intelligence and Security Agency (Nisa).

Each week, Alex and her team of espionage misfits take on a mission vital to Canada's national security. As Canadian spies, they get to go where others can't go thanks to the Nisa's budget. Besides, they do what others don't want to do. However, even though Alex and her team always screw up, they always manage to get the bad guys and make the world safer in the end.

Joining Lisinska will be William deVry (The Bold and the Beautiful) as the political-savvy...

Yesterday, the ceremony of the Writers Guild of Canada Awards was hosted by comedian Debra Digiovanni. During that night, the winners, who work either in the film or television industry, were revealed.

Dishing out the awards were special guest presenters including Yannick Bisson (Murdoch Mysteries), Kristin Booth (Crackie, Young People Fucking), Inga Cadranel (The Bridge, Rent-a-Goalie), Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint), and screenwriters Mark Farrell (Corner Gas, Dan for Mayor), Michael McGowan (Saint Ralph, One Week), Jennifer Pertsch (6Teen, Total Drama Island), Christin Simms (Captain Flamingo, Dino Dan), Shelley Eriksen (ReGenesis) and Leila Basen & David Preston (Heartland).

Now, without further ado, let's present the winners.

Animation:

Total Drama Action - “The Sand Witch Project”

Written by Shelley Scarrow

Children & Preschool:

Max and Ruby - “Max Says Goodbye”

Written by Kate Barris

Documentary:

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet – 40 Years of One Night Stands

Narration written by Robert Lower

Episodic half-hour:

Less Than Kind -...

Given that Defendor has Woody Harrelson (a Hollywood star, I might add) as the lead, I was extremely infuriated that this film didn't get a theatrical release in Montreal. On another note, let's have in mind that Defendor will come on DVD and Blu-Ray in Canada and the USA on April 13.

The film tells the story of Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), your typical average guy. However, Arthur is also a delusional man who believes he's a superhero named Defendor. This is why he sees a psychiatrist (Sandra Oh). At night, he fights crime in the streets of Hammer Town (Hamilton, Ontario?) and searches for Captain Industry, a drug and weapon dealer who he mistakingly blames for the death of his mother. Besides, Defendor also takes the time to protect Kat (Kat Dennings), a young prostitute.

The film also star Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line), Lisa Ray (Water), Michael Kelly...

• Lots of glossy business cards will be exchanged during the 4th edition of International Financing Forum (Iff) (which takes place during Tiff). In what I imagine is like a speed dating between producers looking for coin and those looking to finance the next hot film project. There are a slew of names/projects from established filmmakers (Hany Abu-Assad, Terrence Davies and Kevin Macdonald) and some first-time directors among the 43 listed below that have caught over attention. Hany Abu-Assad is taking on what I imagine would be a controversial biopic - attaching himself to Arafat with his Paradise Now producer, Roman Paul. Paul produced Waltz with Bashir, and the upcoming (we'll be talking about this one in 2010), Womb. I'd be surprised if Tony Grisoni took a day off in the past 24 months, he has penned a truck load of projects and would embark on his feature filmmaking debut with Kingsland.

...

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television had announced the winners of the 2009 Genie Awards on Saturday night, April 4, and "Passchendaele" came up victorious. On the awards ceremony held at Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, the World War I drama was announced this year's Best Motion Picture in addition to receiving five other nods.

Being the one which collected the most prizes on the special night, this Paul Gross-directed war movie also won kudos for Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design, Achievement in Costume Design, Achievement in Overall Sound and Achievement in Sound Editing. It brought home the Golden Reel Award as well for being the biggest box office gross of the year.

"The Necessities of Life" was another big winner as the movie about an Inuit hunter stranded in a Quebec hospital grabbed four kudos at the awards. It collected Best Director title for Benoit Pilon and Best Leading Actor for Natar Ungalaaq.

Toronto -- Canadian actress Kristin Booth on Saturday night managed to bypass efforts by the Genies, Canada's film awards, to bleep out the infamous homegrown film title "Young People Fucking" from the nationwide telecast.

 

"I'm so fucking excited," Booth blurted out as she accepted the Genie trophy for best supporting actress for her role in the indie comedy after Global Television edited the swear word when listing the nominees, and presenter Jayne Eastwood only said "Young People ..." when announcing Booth as the winner.

Martin Gero's "Young People Fucking" last year led Canada's Conservative government to introduce a film censorship bill that it later withdrew after a public backlash.

Also on Saturday night, Paul Gross' war epic "Passchendaele" picked up six Genies, including best film and a slew of craft awards.

"Passchendaele" also earned the Golden Reel Award as Canadian film's top boxoffice earner in 2008.

And Quebec director Benoit...

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (Acct) have announced the nominees for the 29th Annual Genie Awards. Leading the pack for the awards honoring the best in Canadian film was "The Necessities of Life". The movie about an Inuit hunter stranded in a Quebec hospital collected eight gongs, including best picture, best director for Benoit Pilon and best original screenplay for Bernard Emond.

In the category of best pictures, Pilon's film will be up against "Amal", "Normal", "Passchendaele" and "Everything Is Fine". Meanwhile, for the best original screenplay title, it placed Bernard Emond in competition with Deepa Mehta of "Heaven on Earth", Travis McDonald of "Normal", Randall Cole of "Real Time" and Guillaume Vigneault of "Everything Is Fine".

While "The Necessities of Life" took the most nominations, "Fugitive Pieces", the Samuel Goldwyn Films drama based on best-selling novel by Canadian poet Anne Michaels grabbed six nods. Some of the...

If this is meant to be representative of “modern relationships,” count me out. The title is a shy abbrevation for Young People Fucking, and the film is as blunt as that, giving us four pairs -- the best friends, the couple, the first-daters, the exes -- and one threesome as they go about their lovemaking of an evening. Frank but tiresome in their mechanical flayings of sexual gameplaying, dishonesty, and other crimes of the bedroom, the cast of young unknown Canadian actors is not up to a task that demands a great deal more sensitivity than they can muster: these tedious characters might as well be dissecting their dining habits, or discussing in which order they don their shoes in the morning. They’re not very naked, in other words, for all the nudity onscreen, and no one brings much insight beyond the zingy one-liners of the Seinfeldian script. (“Isn’t it funny,...

By Neil Pedley

This week's new films include the Western going Eastern, a couple of exotic music docs, Cinderella stories for girls and for boys and Vin Diesel attempting to walk, chew gum and shoot people -- all at the same time.

"Babylon A.D."

Second chances all around in this stylish cyberpunk romp that sees "La Haine" director Mathieu Kassovitz take another bite at the mainstream cherry after stumbling with his last detour into Hollywood, the Halle Berry clunker "Gothika." Vin Diesel, who passed on "Hitman" for this, also gets another shot at a potential franchise after eliciting a collective yawn with his Neo-lite performance in "The Chronicles of Riddick." After a troubled shoot fraught with budget overruns and uncooperative weather, Diesel has the bigger challenge on his hands as Toorop, a mercenary charged with trying to save the world with a snowboard while escorting a genetically altered young woman...

View image Ennis Ermer and Peter Oldring are roommates who co-star with Natalie Lisinska in "Young People F***ing."

In my previous blog entry, I told of receiving a message from a reader in Montreal who wanted know how I would deal with reviewing a new Canadian film with the f-word in its title. Would my paper print the title? What were my thoughts? I now have an opportunity to deal directly with those questions, because Steve Hoban, the film's producer, has sent me a DVD, along with a bulletin about its June 13 opening date in Canada, and a U.S. release later this summer.

Having seen the film and been pleasantly surprised by it, I now have more thoughts about the title, which is "Young People Fucking" on the print itself, and "Young People F***ing" in the advertising. I'm not convinced the title does the film any favors.

• The Toronto International Film Festival Group (Tiffg) announced this year's top ten Canadian feature films including higher-profile pics and items from a set of new-comers. In addition, this year's group of 10 is actually a group of 20 - they've included a ten-list of short films as well. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski's Madame Tutli-putli (whom we featured here on Ioncinema.com - read our Q and A with the pair of filmmakers here) is the short film that has fairly great chances at making an appearance at this year's Acamdey Awards. The top ten list is part of a series of Q&As by filmmakers and panel discussions to be held in Canada's cap - from January 25 to February 5 at Cinematheque Ontario in Toronto. In alphabetical order:l’ÂGE Des TÉNÈBRES – Denys Arcand (Alliance Odeon Films)Amal – Richie Mehta (Seville Pictures)Continental, Un Film Sans Fusil – Stéphane Lafleur (Christal Films

...

TORONTO -- Denys Arcand's The Age of Darkness and David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises on Tuesday landed on the Toronto International Film Festival's top 10 list of Canadian films for 2007.

Other titles making the Toronto festival cut include Peter Raymont's A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, Richie Mehta's Amal, Martin Gero's Young People Fucking and Yung Chang's Up the Yangtze.

Also turning up on the annual list, which is chosen by a 10-member panel of industry professionals, is Stephane Lafleur's Continental, Un Film Sans Fusil, Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces, Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg and Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments.

The Toronto festival list encompasses home-grown films that opened in 2007, or appeared in a Canadian festival.

Toronto also released for the first time a top 10 list of home-grown short films, which includes works by Canadian directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szcerzerbowski, Jeff Barnaby and Cam Christiansen.

"Both the top 10 features and shorts demonstrate the exceptional vitality and the cinematic achievements of our industry," said Piers Handling, director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

Carly Pope has landed a recurring role on Fox's 24.

On the Imagine TV/20th Century Fox TV-produced thriller, which will be set in Washington this season, she will play Samantha Roth, the girlfriend of the president's (Cherry Jones) son who might be connected to his disappearance.

Popular alumna Pope co-stars on FX's drama Dirt as Garbo. On the big screen, she recently appeared in the indie Itty Bitty Titty Committee and Young People Fu**king, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Pope is repped by the Gersh Agency and Kritzer Levine Wilkins.