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The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee has selected the five winning fellows of the 2020 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, who were winnowed from ten finalists out of 7,831 scripts submitted for this year’s competition. Each winner takes home a $35,000 prize. Their scripts will be highlighted at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Virtual Table Read by an ensemble of actors on Thursday, December 3.

The 2020 winners are (listed alphabetically by author):

James Acker, “SadBoi”

Beth Curry, “Lemon”

Vanar Jaddou, “Goodbye, Iraq”

Kate Marks, “The Cow of Queens”

Jane Therese, “Sins of My Father”

The 2020 finalists are (listed alphabetically by author):

Kris A. Holmes, “The Seeds of Truth”

Fred Martenson, “Demons in America”

Robin Rose Singer, “The Lions of Mesopotamia”

David Harrison Turner, “Safe Haven”

Andrew Wankier, “Three Heavens”

The fellowships support each writer’s completion of a feature-length screenplay within the year. (The Academy neither acquires rights...

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee has selected the five winning fellows of the 2020 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, who were winnowed from ten finalists out of 7,831 scripts submitted for this year’s competition. Each winner takes home a $35,000 prize. Their scripts will be highlighted at the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Awards and Virtual Table Read by an ensemble of actors on Thursday, December 3.

The 2020 winners are (listed alphabetically by author):

James Acker, “SadBoi”

Beth Curry, “Lemon”

Vanar Jaddou, “Goodbye, Iraq”

Kate Marks, “The Cow of Queens”

Jane Therese, “Sins of My Father”

The 2020 finalists are (listed alphabetically by author):

Kris A. Holmes, “The Seeds of Truth”

Fred Martenson, “Demons in America”

Robin Rose Singer, “The Lions of Mesopotamia”

David Harrison Turner, “Safe Haven”

Andrew Wankier, “Three Heavens”

The fellowships support each writer’s completion of a feature-length screenplay within the year. (The Academy neither acquires rights...

Anna Faris is set to star in and produce a new comedy called Summer Madness and she will be taking on the roles of the two lead characters. Yes… she will be playing twins.

The story centers on” flat-broke and foul-mouthed Georgie Cole (Faris) and her successful, elegant twin sister (also Faris). Disowned by her wealthy and conniving mother, Georgie must rally her dysfunctional family to appear picture perfect in order to win a large cash prize at her mother’s annual gala.”

The film is being directed by James Mottern (Trucker) from a script that he wrote. Producer Brian O’Shea said in a statement:

“Anna Faris is a comedy icon with global value. We are thrilled to bring a studio-level actress to an indie marketplace.”

I like Anna Faris, she tends to make fun and amusing films and this seems like it’ll be a perfect project for her.

Anna Faris, who is currently appearing in CBS/Warner Bros series Mom, has signed for both lead roles in comedy feature Summer Madness, which the actress will also produce.

James Mottern (Trucker) is directing the project. Shoot is planned for spring 2020. The Exchange is handles world sales and will introduce at Afm.

From a screenplay written by Mottern, the story centres on flat-broke and foul-mouthed Georgie Cole (Faris) and her successful, elegant twin sister (also Faris). Disowned by her wealthy and conniving mother, Georgie must rally her dysfunctional family to appear picture perfect in order to win a large cash prize at her mother’s annual gala.

Producers are Faris with Michael Barrett, Emilio Mauro and Mottern.

“Anna Faris is a comedy icon with global value. We are thrilled to bring a studio-level actress to an indie marketplace,” said The Exchange’s Brian O’Shea.

The Exchange’s sales slate...

Anna Faris will produce and star in “Summer Madness,” an independent comedy from the Exchange.

The company is launching worldwide sales at the American Film Market, which opens Nov. 6 in Santa Monica, Calif.

Faris will be doing double-duty in “Summer Madness,” playing both leading roles as twins — one who is flat broke and foul-mouthed while the other is successful and elegant twin sister. Disowned by her wealthy and conniving mother, the unsuccessful twin must rally her dysfunctional family to appear picture perfect in order to win a large cash prize at her mother’s annual gala. Production is expected to commence in spring of 2020.

James Mottern will direct “Summer Madness” from an original screenplay. He and Faris will produce the movie along with Michael Barrett and Emilio Mauro.

Faris currently stars in the CBS/Warner Bros’ sitcom “Mom” alongside Allison Janney. Her film credits include “The House Bunny,” “Scary Movie,...

Producers earmarking spring 2020 start.

The Exchange launches worldwide sales at Afm next week on Summer Madness starring comedy superstar Anna Faris in a dual role as twins.

Faris, whose credits include Scary Movie, House Bunny, Overboard and current TV hit Mom, will play a broke and foul-mouthed sister to a successful and elegant twin who rallies her dysfunctional family in order to win a cash prize at her conniving mother’s annual gala event.

Faris will serve as producer alongside Kiss Kiss Bang Bang cinematographer Michael Barrett, Emilio Mauro (Beyond Skyline) and James Mottern, who will direct. The producers anticipated a spring 2020 start.

Anna Faris has joined the growing flock of stars with projects coming together in time for next week's American Film Market.

The actress — currently seen in CBS' Mom — is set to produce and star in the comedy feature Summer Madness.

James Mottern (Trucker) will direct from his original screenplay. Faris produces alongside Ted cinematographer Michael Barret, Emilio Mauro (By the Gun, Beyond Skyline) and Mottern.

Summer Madness centers on flat-broke and foul-mouthed Georgie Cole (Faris) and her successful, elegant twin sister (also Faris). Disowned by her wealthy and conniving mother, Georgie must rally her dysfunctional family to ...

Anna Faris has joined the growing flock of stars with projects coming together in time for next week's American Film Market.

The actress — currently seen in CBS' Mom — is set to produce and star in the comedy feature Summer Madness.

James Mottern (Trucker) will direct from his original screenplay. Faris produces alongside Ted cinematographer Michael Barret, Emilio Mauro (By the Gun, Beyond Skyline) and Mottern.

Summer Madness centers on flat-broke and foul-mouthed Georgie Cole (Faris) and her successful, elegant twin sister (also Faris). Disowned by her wealthy and conniving mother, Georgie must rally her dysfunctional family to ...

Stars: Tully Banta-Cain, Ben Barnes, Paul Ben-Victor, William Bloomfield, Bonnie Belle Skinner, Ritchie Coster, Damien Di Paola, Armen Garo, Jay Giannone, Toby Jones, Harvey Keitel, Leighton Meester | Written by Emilio Mauro | Directed by James Mottern

You know, Martin Scorsese has a lot to answer for. Years after the likes of Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino, budding filmmakers are still churning out New York set mobster-movies – to ever decreasing returns. And so to By the Gun, which stars Scorsese alum Harvey Keitel, and tells yet another story of a wannabe mafioso who finally becomes a made man for it all to fall apart. Remind you of another film? It should!

By the Gun tells the story of Nick Tortano (Barnes), a smooth-talking and ambitious criminal from the streets of Boston. After years spent working and idolizing the Italian gangsters higher up the chain, he has to find a way to prove...

Now available in select theaters and on VOD is By the Gun, director James Mottern's spin on the mafia crime drama. The film follows Nick Tortano (Ben Barnes) on his ambitious climb to the upper rungs of the North End's organized crime syndicate, despite his best friend and right-hand man (Slaine) constantly warning him against it. When Nick finally becomes a made man he finds it's not all it's cracked up to be and realizes the lives his friends, family, and the woman he loves (Leighton Meester) are in jeopardy. By the Gun also stars Harvey Keitel, Toby Jones, Paul Ben-Victor, and Ritchie Coster. I recently jumped on the phone with Barnes for an exclusive interview about By the Gun. He talked about why the story and character appealed to him, his research process for keying into the character, the closeness of the Boston community, and how this film...

Boston, with its prestigious academics and rich sense of culture, doesn’t seem completely deserving of its cinematic reputation as a decaying den of iniquity, but there’s no denying the gritty, gloomy atmosphere in which nearly every “Boston film” of the past five years has been cloaked. The Town, The Departed, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone – all of them paint the city with a devastating brush, populating it with characters who seem constantly at a breaking point, ready to bubble over from seething anger to vicious violence.

By the Gun shares most of its DNA with those aforementioned crime thrillers. Like them, its characters are of the rough-and-tumble variety, cursing like sailors in thick accents, and walking through the city streets with slightly stooped shoulders as if carrying unseen weight. Also like them, its story communicates timeless messages of masculinity, family, sacrifice and the “good life.” It’s a gangster movie,...

We have an exclusive By the Gun clip to premiere.  Ben Barnes stars as a mafia criminal whose life spirals out of control once he becomes a made man: "With Nick's girlfriend (Leighton Meester), family, and friend's lives at risk, he is faced with a difficult decision; continue to pursue his criminal ambitions or concentrate on the ones he loves." Hit the jump to watch the By the Gun clip.  Harvey Keitel, Toby Jones, Slaine, Kenny Wormald, Paul Ben-Victor, and Jay Giannone also star.  Directed by James Mottern, By the Gun opens December 5. [complextv contentid="dpNmp3cToxHRh0Vyj19lMrjmM9sjTAGi" sitename="collider" playerid="26aa5f02d93f4c05a4546f6d5ecb59b7" adsetid="67a3ff9d3a842ae818bb9de1badc5b0" width="600" height="360" keywords=""]   Official synopsis: Nick Tortano (Ben Barnes) is a young and ambitious mafia criminal whose life spirals out of control once he becomes a made man. With Nick's girlfriend (Leighton Meester), family, and friend's lives at risk, he is faced with a difficult decision; continue to pursue his criminal ambitions or concentrate on the ones he loves. He can't have both,...

"You want in this family, you gotta pay the price." After starring in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, actor Ben Barnes hasn't had the best luck with his film choices. He's the lead in the continuously delayed The Seventh Son, and he seems stuck in a rut if forgettable fantasy or sparsely seen films. Maybe there's a chance that could change with By the Gun, a gritty crime thriller set in Boston that sees Barnes entering the world of the Italian mafia. Leighton Meester doesn't seem to be offering much here though, especially with one particularly terrible line delivery on display that we hope is fixed in the final cut. Watch? Here's the first trailer for James Mottern's By the Gun, originally from Yahoo: By the Gun is directed by James Mottern (Trucker) and written by Emilio Mauro. Nick Tortano (Ben Barnes) is a smooth-talking, ambitious criminal from the streets of Boston.

Every now and then a bunch of people get together to make a movie and it lands on our doorstep with little to no warning, and such is the case with "By The Gun." We sorta didn't even know this existed, and frankly, given the names involved, we thought this would've appeared on our radar sooner. Guess not, but at any rate, the first trailer is here. Ben Barnes, Leighton Meester, Harvey Keitel, Toby Jones, and that guy from "The Town" all star in this French/Italian production of a Boston-based story about a young Italian American kid named Nick. He falls in with the aging Boston mafia and restores the organization to its former, fearsome glory. But of course, his rise to the top can only be followed by the inevitable fall, and he won't be able to escape his actions. The real question is whether or not "By The Gun...

By Scott Feinberg

The Hollywood Reporter

Michelle Monaghan, one of the most underappreciated actresses working today, has starred in two films — both tiny indies — in which she portrays a character employed in a stereotypically masculine job who is struggling to juggle her work responsibilities with the stereotypically feminine responsibility of raising a young child.

The first, which came out six years ago, was James Mottern‘s Trucker, and she deserved a best actress Oscar nomination for her work. (Don’t take my word for it; the late Roger Ebert wrote at the time, “Her performance clearly deserves an Oscar nomination.”) Unfortunately, though, despite the best efforts of the film’s tiny distributor, Monterey Media, the film never quite made it onto the radar of the Academy’s acting branch.

The second, which was released in New York over the weekend, is Claudia Myers‘ Fort Bliss, in which Monaghan is equally...

Entertainment One has picked up North American rights to fashion documentary "Dior And I" for a theatrical release later this year. Frederic Tcheng's behind-the-scenes dock looks at the creation of Raf Simons’ first Haute Couture collection for the House of Christian Dior.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights for Susanna Fogel's "Life Partners". Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs, Adam Brody and Gabourey Sidibe star in the story of a straight woman and a lesbian best friend who find their relationship dynamics changing after the former falls for a new man.

Lionsgate has acquired U.K. rights to Adam Smith's directorial debut "Trespass Against Us" which begins shooting this Summer. Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Lyndsey Marshal and Rory Kinnear star in the story of three generations of the rowdy outlaw Cutler family.

The Weinstein Company has payed an estimated $3 million for U.S. rights to the Irish filmmaker John Carney...

• Lionsgate has purchased the North American rights for Dark Blood, the last film starring River Phoenix (My Own Private Idaho) before he passed away in 1993. Directed and written by George Sluizer (The Vanishing), the upcoming thriller follows the story of Boy (Phoenix), a young widower living as a hermit on a nuclear testing site in the desert. While traveling solo on his “second” honeymoon, Boy discovers a stranded Hollywood couple. Desiring the woman, Boy decides to hold them captive because he finds himself under the impression that he can create a better world with her. The upcoming drama, set to be released via VOD,...

Millennium Entertainment's CEO Bill Lee announced today that the company has acquired all U.S. rights to James Mottern's (Trucker) crime-thriller God Only Knows starring Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia, The Words), Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl, The Judge), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant), Toby Jones (The Hunger Games), Kenny Wormald (Footloose), and Slaine (The Town). Written by Emilio Mauro (the upcoming Fox series The Middleman executive produced by Ben Affleck), God Only Knows was produced by Matthew E. Chausse and was shot in Rhode Island and Boston last fall.

Ben Barnes plays Nick, an ambitious young man running with the Boston crime syndicate. Once on the inside he realizes that the glory days of the Mafia are long gone. Behind his boss's (Keitel) back he decides to strike out on his own and expand the business. Seemingly on top of the world with more money than...

Millennium Entertainment has acquired all Us rights to James Mottern’s crime thriller God Only Knows starring Ben Barnes, Leighton Meester, Harvey Keitel, Toby Jones, Kenny Wormald and Slaine.

Emilio Mauro’s screenplay follows an ambitious youngster who tries to take on his Boston crime bosses. Matthew Chausse produced.

Millennium Entertainment’s Tristen Tuckfield negotiated the deal with Nate Bolotin of Xyz Films and Adam Davids.

Synchronicity Entertainment represents international rights.

Millennium Entertainment has acquired James Mottern's crime thriller "God Only Knows," starring Ben Barnes, Leighton Meester, Harvey Keitel, Toby Jones, Kenny Wormald, and Slaine, the company announced. "God Only Knows" was written by Emilio Mauro, produced by Matthew Chausse and filmed in Rhode Island and Boston last fall. Barnes stars as Nick, an ambitious young man involved with the Boston crime syndicate. Once on the inside he realizes that the glory days of the Mafia are long gone and decides to turn on his boss (Keitel) and strike out on his own. Seemingly on top of the world with more money than he could have dreamed of and a devoted girlfriend (Meester), Nick soon realizes that by making his own rules he has put himself and everyone he loves in danger."In the spirit of the great gangster films of the 1970's, James Mottern has created a compelling thriller with broad appeal,...

Millennium Entertainment's CEO Bill Lee announced today that the company has acquired all U.S. rights to James Mottern's crime-thriller God Only Knows, starring Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia, The Words), Leighton Meester ("Gossip Girl," The Judge), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant), Toby Jones (The Hunger Games), Kenny Wormald (Footloose), and Slaine (The Town). Written by Emilio Mauro (the upcoming Fox series "The Middleman" executive produced by Ben Affleck), God Only Knows was produced by Matthew Chausse and was shot in Rhode Island and Boston last fall.

Another terror tale is on its way courtesy of one of the driving forces behind the Paranormal Activity franchise, and it stars a young lady that none of us would ever mind haunting. Read on for details.

From the Press Release

Olga Kurylenko (pictured; Quantum Of Solace, Oblivion) will star in the supernatural horror film Mara, it was announced by The Solution Entertainment Group’s (The Solution) Myles Nestel and Room 101’s Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity, Insidious), who will produce with Mann Made Films’ Scott Mann and James Edward Barker.

Clive Tonge will direct his feature film debut from an original collaboration with Jonathan Frank (The Tournament), based on the mythology and true phenomenon of sleep paralysis, commonly known as Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome (Sunds). The film is scheduled to shoot in May next year. Synchronicity Entertainment, The Solution’s cutting edge vanguard division, is financing and selling the project.

Olga Kurylenko (Quantum Of Solace, Oblivion) will star in the supernatural horror film, Mara, it was announced today by The Solution Entertainment Group’s (The Solution) Myles Nestel and Room 101’s Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity, Insidious) who will produce with Mann Made Films’ Scott Mann and James Edward Barker.

Cult favorite Clive Tonge will direct his feature film debut from an original collaboration with Jonathan Frank (The Tournament), based on the mythology and true phenomena of sleep paralysis, commonly known as Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome (Sunds), which is scheduled to shoot in May next year.

Criminal psychologist Kate Fuller (Kurylenko) is assigned to the murder of a man who has seemingly been strangled in his sleep by his wife and the only witness is their eight-year-old daughter, Sophie. As Kate digs into the mystery of an ancient demon which kills people in their sleep, she experiences the same...

Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting 2013 finalists announced (photo: post-’Twilight’ Ashley Greene 2013 in ‘Random’) The finalists for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting 2013 competition, selected from a record 7,251 scripts, have been announced. Next, their scripts will be read and judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, which, according to the Academy’s press release, may award as many as five $35,000 fellowships. This year’s finalists, the majority of which hail from California, are the following (listed alphabetically by author): Scott Adams, Menlo Park, CA, "Slingshot" William Casey, Los Angeles, CA, "Smut" Frank DeJohn and David Alton Hedges, Santa Ynez, CA, "Legion" Brian Forrester, Studio City, CA, "Heart of the Monstyr" Noah Thomas Grossman, Los Angeles, CA, "The Cupid Code" Patty Jones, Vancouver, BC, Canada, "Joe Banks" Erin Klg, New York, NY, "Lost Children" Alan Roth, Suffern, NY, "Jersey City Story" Stephanie Shannon, Los Angeles,...

Synchronicity Entertainment, the genre film production and international sales label launched by Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel’s The Solution Entertainment Group, has acquired international rights to the mob thriller God Only Knows starring Ben Barnes and Harvey Keitel, it was announced today by Ruzanna Kegeyan, Synchronicity’s President of International Distribution. Check out this new photo from the movie.

Currently in post-production, God Only Knows stars Ben Barnes (The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Dorian Gray, The Words), Toby Jones (Hunger Games, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Red Lights), Leighton Meester (The CW’s “Gossip Girl”) and Harvey Keitel (Moonrise Kingdom, Reservoir Dogs). The film was directed by James Mottern (Trucker), written by newcomer Emilio Mauro, and produced by French production company, Mirabelle Pictures.

The film follows Nick, a smooth-talking, ambitious young man from the streets of Boston who has made some mistakes, and has found himself living a life of petty crime.

In recent years, Michelle Monaghan has really been an unsung hero of sorts. She excelled, perhaps most notably, in Ben Affleck‘s praised debut Gone Baby Gone, and hasn’t failed to maintain that level of quality in the years since. She was phenomenal in James Mottern‘s little-seen Trucker — she basically carried the whole film — and followed that up with equally good supporting turns in Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere (yeah, she was barely in it, but still) and Duncan Jones‘ recent Source Code.

Her next role, which she’s just signed on to, will be a leading part in Fort Bliss, which seems to bear plenty of similarities — a somewhat worn-down premise, a still up-and-coming writer-director (Claudia Myers), and, this probably goes without saying, firmly indie roots — to the aforementioned Trucker. The material, though, however used up it may sound — Monaghan will play “a female soldier transferred home after...

Here are a few interesting and/or noteworthy projects that were recently added to IMDbPro's database of development titles.

Untitled Blade Runner Prequel— Maybe you've heard of this one? After several re-cuts and replicants of the original, producers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove are re-visiting the 1980 sci-fi fave to make a prequel (and a sequel!). Maybe now, we'll find out for sure if Deckard is a robot once and for all.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame— Josh Brolin teams up with Tim Burton to adapt Victor Hugo's classic. Sherlock Holmes 2 scribes Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney will write the screenplay.

Untitled Quentin Tarantino Project— On the heels of announcing a re-release of Kill Bill (we were kinda hoping he'd start on vol. 3 by now), Tarantino's next film with be this spaghetti western starring Christoph Waltz. The project is set up at The Weinstein Company.

Happy Holidays, Katherine Sloane— Sigourney Weaver and Kate Beckinsale star in this indie drama from Trucker writer-director James Mottern about a woman reuniting with her mother after the untimely death of her father.

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie— Creators of Tim and Eric's Awesome Show Great Job are bringing their surreal form of comedy to the big screen with the help of some really big names: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Zach Galivianakis are among the all-star line-up. Filming is already underway.

If you know of something in the works, you can submit it via our online submission form.

Writer-director James Mottern’s Trucker is very much a mixed bag. Produced for around $1.5 million, the independent drama debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival back in April 2008 and stars Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Fillion, Benjamin Bratt, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jimmy Bennett. It centers on Diane Ford (Monaghan), a big-rig driver whose selfish way of life is thrown out-of-whack when, late one evening, she returns home from a bender with her pal Runner (Fillion) to find her estranged son, Peter (Bennett), on her doorstep; as it turns out, the boy’s father (Bratt) is in the hospital battling cancer and the decidedly un-motherly trucker is the only one available to care for her son while his dad recuperates. As the prickly would-be mom and her smart-mouthed 11-year-old lock horns, the stage is set for a journey of self-discovery that will force Ford to face up to the mistakes of her past...

Since Moses brought the tablets down from the mountain, lists have come in tens, not that we couldn't have done with several more commandments. Who says a year has Ten Best Films, anyway? Nobody but readers, editors, and most other movie critics. There was hell to pay last year when I published my list of Twenty Best. You'd have thought I belched at a funeral. So this year I have devoutly limited myself to exactly ten films.

On each of two lists.

The lists are divided into Mainstream Films and Independent Films. This neatly sidesteps two frequent complaints: (1) "You name all those little films most people have never heard of," and (2) "You pick all blockbusters and ignore the indie pictures." Which is is my official Top Ten? They both are equal, and every film here is entitled to name itself "One of the Year's 10 Best!"

Alphabetically:

¶ The Top 10 Mainstream Films

Bad Lieutenant.

A pretty good year.

George Clooney in .Up in the Air.

Photo: Dale Robinette/ Paramount

It seems to be a critical tradition to bewail the awfulness of each year's movies. But how often is this really true? With the annual caveat that it's impossible (and meaningless) to designate one movie or filmmaker as the "best," here are a number of 2009 pictures I liked a lot in various aspects, with one entrant in each category selected, fairly arbitrarily, as the "best," and equally worthy contenders noted below them.

Best Picture:

"Up in the Air" A mainstream film with a complex heart and a brain, too. Not exactly a comedy, not precisely a drama, but as close to a perfect movie as any other this year.

Also really good: "The Hurt Locker": Can it actually have been seven years since Kathryn Bigelow's last picture? This scrappy low-budget film, with a breakthrough performance by Jeremy Renner,...

When Michelle Monaghan was sent the script for "Trucker" by writer-director James Mottern, she knew she had found, in her words, "the role of a lifetime." The actor, whose credits include the action comedy "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and the thriller "Gone Baby Gone," is earning some of the best reviews of her career. No less than Roger Ebert called her work in the film a "career-changing performance" and stated, "Her performance clearly deserves an Oscar nomination."Monaghan was instantly drawn to the role of free-spirited truck driver Diane Ford, who is forced to reconnect with her 11-year-old son when his father becomes ill. "I was so shocked this was written by a man, that a man could tap into a female and have her play what is sort of a stereotypically man's role, professionally and personally, but also make her feminine," Monaghan says. "She's not a victim, which was a huge thing for me.

The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival is coming to a close and the award winners were announced Sunday night in a presentation hosted by Fliff president Gregory von Hausch.

Among the big winners was "Entre Nos," the new immigrant drama which picked up 4 awards, including The Seashell Award for Best Film of the festival, Best Actress in a Foreign Film for star Paola Mendoza, who also co-wrote and co-directed the film, The Special Jury Award for Debut by a Child, and The President's Award for Best Feature Film. "This film is close to our hearts and was a labor of love. We couldn't be more thrilled," said co-director and writer Gloria La Morte.

"Punching the Clown," a comedy about a satirical singer/songwriter, scored Best American Indie Film, Best Actor in an American Indie for star Henry Phillips and Best Director of an American Indie for Gregori Viens.

"Trucker," starring Michelle Monaghan and Nathan Fillion,...

Trucker

Directed by: James Mottern

Cast: Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Fillion, Benjamin Bratt, Jimmy Bennett

Running Time: 1 hr 30 min

Rating: R

Release Date: October 23, 2009

Plot: A truck driver (Monaghan) begins to re-evaluate her life after her ex-husband gets cancer and she’s reunited with her 11 year old son (Bennett).

Who’S It For? Any hardcore Michelle Monaghan fans out there? Otherwise, fans of first time feature filmmakers.

Expectations: Full disclosure: I’m a big Firefly fan so I’ll see pretty much any movie with Nathan Fillion in it.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Michelle Monaghan as Diane: Best known for mediocre thrillers (Eagle Eye) and romantic comedies (Made of Honor), Monaghan attempts to get out of her box in Trucker. As a woman with the titular job, she’s a tough chick. In her first scene she’s having sex with a man in a cheap motel room before walking away...

Oct 21, 2009

James Mottern's Trucker features spectacular performances but these excellent actors are required to do too much heavy lifting with a script that plays out too predictably to be effective. Anyone who has spent time with their TV sets tuned to The Sundance Chanel could practically write every scene and character arc in Trucker from the plot description alone. But if a film is predictable does that make it bad? Yes. There should have been a few more moments in Trucker that didn't feel cribbed from "Independent Drama 101," but it seems clear ...Read more at MovieRetriever.com...

Michelle Monaghan and Jimmy Bennett in Trucker

Photo: Monterey Media Picked up and added to the release schedule out of the blue, it seems the primary reason James Mottern's Trucker is making the rounds is an attempt by Monterey Media to score some award season attention for its lead star Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible III). Playing a big-rig truck driver leading a life on the road with a past that will soon come back into play, Monaghan performs well enough in the role, but to assume it's going to propel her into the Oscar race is a reach. Although it will make sure she isn't forgotten in the coming years should she continue down this path.

Monaghan plays Diane, a young and attractive truck driver we first meet in a cheap hotel room having sex with a man we don't see after the opening couple of minutes. This is the life...

To the uninformed, Michelle Monaghan might be little more than a recognizable face. Yet, the actress has had a strong start to her career, having appeared in several of the most successful recent movies. That’s her in The Bourne Supremacy, Mission: Impossible III, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Eagle Eye. Nothing she’s done to this point, to resurrect the age old cliché, will prepare you for her work in Trucker. A small, subtle character study set against the vast expanse of the American West and written and directed by James Mottern, it’s the story of a tough trucker named Diane (Monaghan) who finds her independence and isolation compromised when she’s reacquainted with the son (Jimmy Bennett) she abandoned as an infant. Film School Rejects spoke to Monaghan about the deeply personal project, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008 and is now in limited release. What...

Michelle Monaghan is one of those rare personalities who crosses genres and genders. She has kicked ass in action flicks like "Mission: Impossible III" and "Eagle Eye" and scored laughs in rom-coms like "The Heartbreak Kid" and "Made of Honor." Men love her for her girl-next-door sexiness and her uninhibited humor; women adore her for her down-to-earth accessibility and for being the kind of girl who can get on screen and hold her own against heavyweights like Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. In Hollywood, beauty can be a curse for young female actors looking for a role of substance. But Monaghan has already proven she's the real deal with stellar dramatic turns in films like "North Country," playing a coal miner harassed by her male co-workers, and "Gone Baby Gone," in which she was the headstrong partner to Casey Affleck's detective. Still, little could have prepared even her...

Even if Nathan Fillion weren't currently playing the eponymous mystery writer on the hit TV series "Castle," the genre fans out there would surely know the charming Canadian actor from his work with cult-beloved producer Joss Whedon. Fillion had a pivotal role as a serial-killing priest in the final episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," captained both the ship and ensemble cast of space western "Firefly" (and its spin-off feature "Serenity"), and goofily played Neil Patrick Harris' superhero nemesis in Whedon's web musical "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."

Fillion currently co-stars in writer-director James Mottern's terrific desert drama "Trucker," starring Michelle Monaghan in a career-launching performance as Diane Ford, a free-spirited (okay, promiscuous) big-rig driver who's forced to watch over the 11-year-old son she all but abandoned to her ex. Fillion plays Diane's drinking buddy Runner, one of the locals whose casual relationship with her proves complicated by the fact that he's married.

By Steve Pond

Oscar voters often love it when beautiful models, or starlets accustomed to playing the one-dimension girlfriend roles, reveal that they can actually be serious actresses when given a chance. The transformation has worked for the likes of Jessica Lange and Charlize Theron in the past – and this year, Michelle Monaghan looks to be shaking up the perceptions of people used to seeing her in the likes of “Made of Honor” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” with her tough, subtle work in James Mottern’s “Trucker.”

Yesterday, Roger Ebert gave the film f...

Michelle Monaghan breaks through into Oscar territory.

Michelle Monaghan and Jimmy Bennet in "Trucker"

Photo: Plum Pictures

After eight years of solid supporting work, and an especially memorable co-starring turn opposite Casey Affleck in the 2007 "Gone Baby Gone," Michelle Monaghan has finally been put at the center of a movie, where she belongs. She doesn't leap at the role — the picture is too modestly scaled to withstand a full-glow starburst — but she inhabits it completely.

In "Trucker," Monaghan plays Diane Ford, who makes her way in life as a long-distance truck driver. ("That's a weird job for a woman," someone tells her. "Why?" she asks.) Diane is serious about her work; it's a good fit for her no-strings lifestyle. Her sexual encounters are strictly one-nighters, over as quickly as she can hurry back into her jeans. Her house in a shabby California desert town is almost paid off, and between jobs hauling freight,...

Last year, ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk to actress Michelle Monaghan and writer/director James Mottern about the drama Trucker when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival , and the movie opened this week at the Village East Cinemas in New York as well as California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and other select cities. Being that Monaghan is getting a lot of attention for her performance, including more than a few mentions of the awards potential for that performance, we thought it would be a good time to revisit these interviews. **** One of the notable new movies premiering at this year's Tribeca Film Festival is James Mottern's filmmaking debut Trucker which stars Michelle Monaghan as Diane, a California truck driver going through a series of personal...

Trucker, which has its theatrical release today, is writen and directed by James Mottern and stars 33-year-old Michelle Monaghan, best known for her roles in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,Gone Baby Gone, and Mission Impossible III. With a budget under 1.5 millions dollars, it's mostly quiet, modestly-scaled film–all the better for Monaghan, a longtime supporting actress, to stand out. A former model from Iowa, Monaghan, who also acted as an executive producer on the project, plays a reckless long-haul trucker who is forced to consider settling down when her 11-year-old son (Jimmy Bennett) re-enters life after her ex-boyfriend (Benjamin Bratt) falls ill.

Nathan Fillion has a rakish, confident, real-man presence that is completely refreshing, partially due to the fact that manliness is an increasingly rare quality in actors. Joss Whedon put it to good use in the cowboy sci-fi cult series Firefly, its film adaptation Serenity, and the writer's strike online hit Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (where Fillion played 'Captain Hammer'), and ABC has been taking advantage of him lately with roles on Desperate Housewives and a lead on the show Castle. In James Mottern's Trucker, which premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, Fillion is in a supporting role as Runner, the best friend of Michelle Monaghan's titular trucker, Diane Ford. It's a relationship that takes turns both familiar and surprising, and Fillion and Monaghan have a chemistry not unlike his doctor/patient heat with Keri Russell in Waitress. We got Fillion to take a break from his presumably...

Former Slamdance Film fest producer James Mottern wrote and directed Trucker, an unpretentious, tough little movie that debuted at Tribeca in 2008 and is finally getting a modest release this week, starting in New York. The movie is about an independent young truck-driver (Michelle Monaghan) who is happiest when she’s in the cab of her semi. She married at 18, had a baby, and then left her family behind. Sure enough, …...

You may know Michelle Monaghan as the girl from The Heartbreak Kid, or Eagle Eye, or a half a dozen other studio movies in which she's good, but definitely not the main character or the focus of the story. Sadly, that's par for the course for a lot of Hollywood actresses, who frequently get stuck playing the girlfriend or the sidekick without ever getting a chance to show how talented they really are. But Michelle Monaghan has found a way to get the attention she deserves-- going independent. This weekend she stars in the teeny tiny indie Trucker, the debut feature from writer-director James Mottern, starring Monaghan as long-haul truck driver Diane. She's spent the last 10 years living a carefree life that involves a lot of drinking and a lot of different men, and barely stopping to think about the 11-year-old son (Jimmy Bennett) she's left to be raised by...

I’m stoked for my very early screening this week of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (opens in the U.K. on October 16, and in the U.S. on December 25), Terry Gilliam’s new movie and Heath Ledger’s last. I’m avoiding reading the reviews from Cannes, but I am intrigued to see how Gilliam manages to work Ledger’s “replacements” -- Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell -- into the story and still make it work. Knowing Gilliam’s peculiar talents, it’ll likely turn out bizarre indeed. I saw Trucker (opens in the U.S. on October 9; no U.K. release date has been announced yet) at the Tribeca Film Festival a year and a half ago, and I loved it: Michelle Monaghan’s performance is spectacular, and writer-director James Mottern has given us an uncompromising look at an uncompromising woman. So it’s hardly a...

James Mottern's film Trucker (Tff 2008) will be released in select cities this Friday. A truly independent film, Trucker was shot in just 19 days, and stars Michelle Monaghan, Benjamin Bratt, Joey Lauren Adams, and Nathan Fillion. Tribeca Film asked Mottern to give us his take on the state of independent film today. James Mottern: Filmmaking the Hard Way When you make an independent film, you wonder if anyone will go and see it. You wonder if anyone will like it. And people tell you why people will or won't go see it, and people tell you why people will or won't like it. They also tell you there is no money, no time, a bad economy, fewer distributors; they tell you how you should make your film so more people will go see it, or more people will like it; they tell you certain movies cannot be made anymore...

No doubt, some critics will pigeonhole James Mottern's Trucker, opening Friday (10.9.09) in limited release, as an overly familiar dramatic take on the footloose adult suddenly forced into unexpected parenthood. But a couple of things about this haunting little film argue against such an easy dismissal. For one thing, Trucker has the ring of emotional truth. For another, it approaches this formula with a difference: The person pressured into acting the parent is a woman, not a man. And, finally, the film is built around a strikingly tough-minded but beautifully drawn performance by Michelle Monaghan. Monaghan, stuck until now mostly playing girlfriends or damsels in distress, plays Diane, an independent over-the-road trucker who owns her own rig and enjoys the attachment-free lifestyle of here today, there tomorrow. She has a house in Barstow, Ca., and a drinking buddy there, the affable (and...

Michelle Monaghan in Trucker

Photo: Monterey Media Last night a press release arrived in what appears to be most everyone's inbox announcing the October 9 limited release of Monterey Media's Trucker starring Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible III, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) as Diane Ford, a young truck driver, who leads a carefree life of long-haul trucking, one night stands and all-night drinking until the evening her estranged 11-year-old son shows up at her door. Already Awards Daily and In Contention have grasped onto the film's potential to bring Monaghan an Oscar nomination as even the press release that was sent out says the October release puts "it right into the middle of the Fall awards season." Written and directed by James Mottern, the film co-stars Nathan Fillion, Benjamin Bratt, Jimmy Bennett and Joey Lauren Adams. Is it possible this film could come out of nowhere and earn a nomination? Your damn right it is.

By Stephen Saito

[For complete coverage of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, check out Ifc's Tribeca page.]

It's typical to assume when you sit down with a director that they have a love of film, but in James Mottern's case, his enthusiasm for the medium is infectious. When asked why he cast the perennially underrated Michelle Monaghan as the lead in his first film, "Trucker," he'll simply ask in return, "Did you see 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'?" That leads to a conversation about the little-seen 2005 drama "Winter Solstice" and the way Monaghan caught his eye in the background of a scene, and the next thing you know, you're talking about the way her eyes crossed in a segment for "North Country." That attention to detail is what might also be most impressive about Mottern's nuanced directorial debut, which premiered at this year's the Tribeca Film Festival. Though he'll rattle off his influences and the films he loves from the 1970s with reckless abandon,...