Notizie

On the morning of August 13th, Afghan-American actress and filmmaker Fereshta Kazemi was in her production office in Kabul, working on the trailer for her upcoming film, when she saw “Kandahar” trending on Twitter. The Taliban had just taken Afghanistan’s second-largest city, she learned; two more cities would fall later that day. Suddenly, the future Kazemi had imagined only moments before — “planning a screening, planning who’s going to come, which embassies” — began to dissolve, replaced with fear and uncertainty.

The news of the Taliban’s advance was devastating to millions of Afghans,...

Upcoming thriller from Thunder Road Films, G-Base to shoot in Middle East.

Capstone Group has closed major territories led by France and Germany on the hot Cannes virtual market sales title Kandahar starring Gerard Butler.

The upcoming action thriller from Thunder Road Films and G-Base has sold in France (Metropolitan), Germany (Leonine), Italy (Leone), Spain (Dea Planeta), Middle East (Eagle), Scandinavia (Nordisk), and Benelux (Dfw).

Audiences will also get to see Butler in action in Latin America (Sun), Japan (Klockworx), South Korea (Joy N Contents), Taiwan (Movie Cloud), Portugal (Lusomundo), Switzerland (Impuls), Singapore and Vietnam (Encore), Israel (United King), and...

Deals were done, buzz was built, and the tech could create a new future for markets.

Despite global economic downturn and an impenetrable fog shrouding the immediate future of the film industry, participants in the Us agency-led side of the virtual Cannes market reported the customary appetite for content and a willingness to do business.

International deals – such as those that AGC Studios closed on Pierre Morel’s action thriller The Blacksmith – took place during the official five days of technology-enabled presentations and video conferences, as well-prepared buyers looked to fill pipelines for 2021 and 2022.

More sales are expected to emerge...

Deals were done, buzz was built, and the tech could create a new future for markets.

Despite global economic downturn and an impenetrable fog shrouding the immediate future of the film industry, participants in the Us agency-led side of the virtual Cannes market reported the customary appetite for content and a willingness to do business.

International deals – such as those that AGC Studios closed on Pierre Morel’s action thriller The Blacksmith – took place during the official five days of technology-enabled presentations and video conferences, as well-prepared buyers looked to fill pipelines for 2021 and 2022.

More sales are expected to emerge...

Roeg Sutherland and Benjamin Kramer, who co-lead CAA Media Finance, have been working on the agency-led virtual market in Cannes, and spoke to Variety about the prospects for the independent film scene.

CAA Media Finance’s projects in the market include Antoine Fuqua’s “Emancipation,” starring Will Smith; Dan Gilroy’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper”; Ric Roman Waugh’s “Kandahar,” starring Gerard Butler; “Rebel,” directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah; and Michael Mann’s “Ferrari.”

What was the thinking behind having a uniform, united market rather than every company just doing their own thing?

Roeg Sutherland: In a time where everything seems a little decentralized and complicated, it was important to have the agencies and foreign sales agents band together to present product in an organized manner and not have buyers being pulled in 15 different directions.

The best part about what has happened is that you’ve seen buyers...

Gerard Butler is set to re-team with his director from “Angel Has Fallen” and “Greenland” on a new action film called “Kandahar” that is launching sales at the Cannes Virtual Market.

Ric Roman Waugh will direct the film from a script he co-wrote with Mitchell Lafortune, a former military intelligence officer, based on Lafortune’s own experiences at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan at the time of the Edward Snowden leaks.

In “Kandahar,” Butler stars as an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East who is stuck in the region after an intelligence leak exposes his identity and his classified mission. He must fight his way out of Kandahar all while elite special forces pursue him. The film plans to shoot on location in the Middle East.

Also Read: Gerard Butler Disaster Movie 'Greenland' to Hit Theaters Late July for Stx

Thunder Road Films’ Basil Iwanyk...

Eternal badass Gerard Butler is something of a one-man army, and now he's set to star in the action thriller Kandahar, which will reunite him with Ric Roman Waugh, the director of Angel Has Fallen and Butler's upcoming movie Greenland. Waugh will direct from a script he co-wrote with former military intelligence officer Mitchell Lafortune, and the story is based on Lafortune’s experiences at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan during the time of the Edward Snowden leaks. Butler will star as Tom Harris, an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East when his …...

The unprecedented Cannes virtual market is underway and there are a surprisingly large number of pre-sale titles on offer.

Big-canvas projects such as Will Smith starrer Emancipation and Michael Mann movie Ferrari will be on sale alongside action-thrillers like Gerard Butler movie Kandahar and Nick Jonas title The Blacksmith, adventure pics like Arthur The King, dramas such as James Gray’s starry Armageddon Time and genre fare like Elisabeth Moss movie Run Rabbit Run. There are a handful of intriguing prospects still to be announced and we’re also seeing recent deals being revealed for Cannes Official Selection movies.

The large volume of pre-sale titles seems counter-intuitive amid coronavirus uncertainty and has taken many by surprise but the pandemic has meant talent have had time to read material and with schedules in flux, there may be opportunities for more nimble productions to get underway ahead of larger movies or stage plays.

Gerard Butler is set to reteam with “Greenland” and “Angel Has Fallen” director Ric Roman Waugh on action thriller “Kandahar.” CAA Media Finance is representing the film’s U.S. rights, and Capstone is handling international, and will present the project to buyers at the virtual Cannes Market.

Waugh will direct from a screenplay he wrote with former military intelligence officer Mitchell Lafortune, based on the latter’s experiences at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan at the time of the Snowden leaks.

Butler stars as Tom Harris, an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East. An intelligence leak dangerously exposes his classified mission and reveals his covert identity. Stuck in the heart of hostile territory, Harris and his translator must fight their way out of the desert to an extraction point in Kandahar, while eluding the elite special forces hunting them.

The film is being produced by Basil Iwanyk...

Exclusive: Gerard Butler is set to star in action pic Kandahar, which Capstone and CAA will launch sales for at the Cannes virtual market.

John Wick and Sicario firm Thunder Road is among producers with Ric Roman Waugh directing. Butler and Waugh teamed up last year on hit action pic Angel Has Fallen.

Waugh will direct from a screenplay he wrote with former military intelligence officer Mitchell Lafortune.

In the film, Butler will play Tom Harris, an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East. An intelligence leak dangerously exposes his classified mission and reveals his covert identity. Stuck in the heart of hostile territory, Harris and his translator must fight their way out of the desert to an extraction point in Kandahar, Afghanistan, while eluding the elite special forces hunting them.

The film is being produced by Thunder Road Films’ Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, G-base’s Alan Siegel and Gerard Butler,...

Gerard Butler is adding another action thriller to his belt, reuniting with his Angel Has Fallen and Greenland director Ric Roman Waugh on Kandahar.

Waugh will direct from a screenplay he wrote with former military intelligence officer Mitchell Lafortune.

Based on Lafortune’s experiences at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan at the time of the Edward Snowden leaks, the film will see Butler star as an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East whose classified mission and covert identity are exposed. Stuck in the heart of hostile territory, he must fight his way out of the desert alongside his translator ...

NEW YORK -- Art house distribution banner Avatar Films has zeroed in on a deal to acquire domestic rights to the feature Zero Day by first-time feature helmer Ben Coccio. Also penned and produced by Coccio, Zero revolves around two alienated teens -- calling themselves the Army of Two -- who are determined to carry out a violent attack on their high school. The project features a cast of nonprofessional actors. Avatar has targeted Sept. 3 as the launch date for Zero's platform rollout. The film was executive produced by Adam Brightman and Richard Abramowitz. Zero won top honors at various film festivals this year, including the inaugural Las Vegas-based Had to Be Made Film Festival, the Florida Film Festival and Park City's Slamdunk Film Festival. The Zero deal was brokered for Avatar by co-presidents Keith Icove and Jason Leaf. Brightman and Abramowitz repped the film. Avatar's releases include last year's Kandahar, by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

One of the stars of the highly-rated movie Kandahar has been unmasked as an assassin, according to a county prosector in Maryland, America. Hassan Tantai, who plays a doctor in the esteemed film, is actually 51-year-old killer Daoud Salahuddin, born David Belfield, reports Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler. The legal man says Tantai murdered an Iranian dissident in suburban Washington in 1980 and then fled to Iran, as he explains, "We are very confident that they are one in the same. He's a terrorist, he's a fugitive and he's a confessed assassin." The attorney claims that he has "conclusive" information which proves Tantai is actually Salahuddin, but he refuses to comment further because the case is still technically open. Kandahar, directed by Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, has been shown at film festivals worldwide and won two awards at the prestigious Cannes festival. With its suddenly timely theme of the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, it opened in New York theatres on 14 December and debuted in the rest of America on December 28th. Director Makhmalbaf meanwhile, claims that since he just selects his actors from "crowded streets and barren deserts," he does not know if Salahuddin and Tantai are the same person.