News

Mark Shelmerdine, the veteran producer who revived London Films as an indie powerhouse and played a pivotal role in the development of the international TV distribution market, died October 26 in Santa Barbara surrounded by his family. He was 78.

Among his achievements, he was among the first UK indie TV producers to retain rights to a broadcast production and was a founder of the LA branch of BAFTA.

Shelmerdine’s death was confirmed to Deadline by his friend Brian Eastman. The producer had survived a rare and potentially deadly form of bile duct cancer by receiving a life-saving liver transplant in 2018 through a trial in Houston, and was one of the longest living survivors of the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital program.

Born on March 27, 1945, Shelmerdine spent part of his childhood in Singapore before moving to the UK. He was awarded a place to attend Sidney Sussex College...

Mark Shelmerdine, the Emmy-nominated producer who remade Alexander Korda’s dormant London Films label into an independent production powerhouse behind projects including I, Claudius, has died. He was 78.

Shelmerdine died Oct. 26 in Santa Barbara after a long illness, friend and fellow producer Brian Eastman told The Hollywood Reporter. After being diagnosed with a rare form of bile duct cancer in 2016, he had a life-saving liver transplant in 2018.

In the 1980s, Shelmerdine co-founded the Los Angeles branch of BAFTA and the Association of Independent Television Producers, which helped shape the sector that now dominates British TV production. He also published self-help books written by his late wife, Susan Jeffers.

The first of three children, Shelmerdine was born on March 27, 1945, in Buckinghamshire, England. His father, Dick, worked as a police office in Singapore and the Bahamas and as a postmaster in Gloucestershire, England.

Shelmerdine started out as an accountant at Coopers & Lybrand and Taylor Clark Ltd.

"What do you two really think of each other?" Trinity Creative has revealed the official US trailer for the dark comedy film Decrypted, a wacky crypto film made by filmmaker Tom Sands. After debuting last year in the UK, the film is now available to watch on VOD in the US if anyone is curious - "the feature film that is taking the crypto community by storm." An outrageous and provocative film about a mismatched Nsa team who kidnap Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, to get the info they need to destroy cryptocurrencies. The botched interrogation forces together a group of people who then get into all kinds of trouble. The cast includes Talisa Garcia, Sophia Myles, David Hoflin, Amanda Abbington, Kevin McNally, Clive Francis, Aki Kotabe, Don Gilet, and Sophie Barker. This looks too dumb and kooky to be any good. But I'm glad someone is willing to...

Stars: Sophia Myles, David Hoflin, Amanda Abbington, Kevin McNally, Clive Francis, Talisa Garcia, Akie Kotabe, Don Gilet, Sophie Barker | Written by Mick Sands | Directed by Tom Sands

When an extremely mismatched team of National Security Agency operatives take on a covert mission to kidnap the creator of Bitcoin – Satoshi Nakamoto – to extract, by any means necessary, the information they need to destroy cryptocurrencies, things go wildly wayward in this raucous romp. The botched Nsa interrogation forces together a homophobic field agent, a feminist technical adviser, a transgender asylum seeker, a crypto-anarchist, a racist Brexiteer and an inclusionist MI5 agent. Of course sparks start to fly when their opposing beliefs clash in major way. But a truth drug reveals a newfound honesty with riotous consequences…

Opening with spiel about how Donald Trump’s administration classed the inventor of Bitcoin as a terrorist Then showing a photo of him hung on a...

In today’s Global Bulletin, El Gouna announces CineGouna Platform finalists, “Decrypted” gets back to filming in the U.K. after a five-month layoff, Zdf boards a Danish co-production and Vice appoints a new VP for its U.K. non-fiction branch.

Festivals

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (Gff), rescheduled to take place in person Oct. 23-31, has announced the 18 finalist projects selected to participate in this year’s 4th edition of the CineGouna Platform for projects produced or co-produced by Mena countries, running Oct. 25-30.

Also in its fourth year, CineGouna SpringBoard, a co-production lab dedicated to supporting regional projects, will feature 65 projects in development and 34 films in post-production.

This year, 18 projects were selected to participate in CineGouna Platform, 12 in development and six in post. At the end of the Platform, a best project will be selected and receive the CineGounda Platform Certificate and a cash prize of $15,000.

“CineGouna...

Timothy Spall stars in a fascinating, surprisingly non-morbid look into the life of Albert Pierrepoint, England’s reluctant celebrity hangman who dispatched hundreds of convicted killers, including Ruth Ellis and John Christie, not to mention 47 Nazi war criminals, in a literal marathon of the gallows. The artist of the noose kept up a double life to separate his execution duties from his domestic marriage … until General Montgomery blew his cover of anonymity. Eddie Marsan and Juliet Stevenson provide terrific acting support in this undeservedly obscure gem from director Adrian Shergold.

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

Region B Blu-ray

Lionsgate (UK)

2005 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 91 95 min. / Pierrepoint; The Last Hangman / Available from Amazon UK or Amazon Us / Street Date December 7, 2009 /

Starring: Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan, Clive Francis, Tobias Menzies.

Cinematography: Danny Cohen

Film Editor: Tania Reddin

Original Music: Martin Phipps

Written by Bob Mills, Jeff Pope

Produced by Christine Langan

Directed...

They don’t make ’em like this any more, and the original TV spots for James Gray’s accurate retelling of history almost didn’t know how to sell it. Charlie Hunnam spends his life trying to solve a riddle of the Peruvian rainforest, in between fighting in WW1 and dealing with class prejudice. Yup, one could say the picture was filmed in a ‘classic’ style . . . can a show like that find an audience these days?

The Lost City of Z

Blu-ray

Broadgreen / Amazon Studios

2016 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 141 min. / Street Date July 11, 2017 / 34.99

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Edward Ashley, Angus Macfadyen, Ian McDiarmid, Clive Francis, Murray Melvin.

Cinematography: Darious Khondji

Film Editor:John Axelrad, Lee Haugen

Original Music: Christopher Spelman

From the book by David Grann

Produced by Dede Gardner, James Gray, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner

Written for the Screen and Directed by James Gray

More...

James Gray is a filmmaker who often seems to wind up having the worst luck. Whether it’s with a distributor or with his star acting up, Gray can’t seem to catch a break once his film is in the can. This time around, Brad Pitt and Plan B funded The Lost City of Z, with Amazon Studios picking it up for distribution. Aside from an initial 2016 release being pushed to this year, there weren’t any real hiccups. After premiering to a strong reception last year at The New York Film Festival, it hits theaters this week, hoping to finally give Gray the larger platform that he so deserves. The film, based on the book by David Grann, is a period piece about one explorer’s obsession. That individual is none other than British explorer Colonel Percival Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam). Percy Fawcett has long explored the Amazon, but...

Poldark

Kieran Kinsella

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On 31 January, Acorn media are releasing Poldark: The Complete Collection on DVD in the United States. For those of you who may not remember the series, Poldark was a swashbuckling period drama about a British soldier who had returned to Cornwall after fighting in the American war of independence.

It had been quite a while since I had seen the original series so I was wondering how well the show would shape up given that it was originally broadcast in the mid 1970s. As it turns out, the show held up very well indeed and is comparable with the best of the period pieces that are currently being aired on PBS. Unlike a lot of the classic shows from the era, the...