News

Sean McNamara’s biopic Reagan moves well beyond hero worship, as it paints the 40th U.S. president as a saint among men. The film opens with Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid) quoting his mother via voiceover—“Everything, even seemingly random twists of fate, is all a part of the divine plan”—just as it cuts to a vision of John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 attempted assassination of the president. The mix of slow-mo re-enactment and archival footage is the first of many bizarre, unintentionally funny moments in a film that’s determined not only to position Reagan as the great man of the second half of the 20th century, but as a man ordained by God to defeat the colossal, religion- and freedom-hating villain of our times: communism.

In an especially strange decision, the story of Reagan’s life is told from the perspective of a fictionalized Kgb agent, Victor Novikov...

Jason Statham gears up for another action-packed adventure with an untitled thriller set in a remote Scottish island facing his violent past. Statham impresses with his explosive action skills as he teams up with director Baltasar Kormkur for a new high-octane franchise. The action star has more in store, including reuniting with David Ayer for Levon's Trade and joining Jean-Franois Richet for Mutiny.

Following the huge success of The Beekeeper, Jason Statham has set his sights on his next action outing. And the currently untitled project finds the action hero on familiar, but no less exciting, ground. Set to be presented by Black Bear at Cannes market, the action movie will be helmed by 2 Guns and Everest director Baltasar Kormkur, with the movie finding The Stath once again using his particular set of skills when his violent past catches up with him.

You can check out the synopsis for the...

Exclusive: Jason Statham (Fast & Furious) has been set to lead a new action-thriller from director Baltasar Kormákur (Everest), which Black Bear is launching this week for the Cannes market.

In the currently untitled pic, Statham will play Mason who lives in isolation in a remote Scottish island. When he rescues a young girl from the ocean in a terrible storm, he sets a chain of events in motion that brings a violent attack to his hideaway, forcing him back into the world to confront the ghosts of his past.

Principal photography is scheduled to commence in November in the UK and Iceland with production services and filming to take place at Kormákur’s Rvk Studios facility in Reykjavik. Script comes from Ward Parry.

Producers include Statham (Levon’s Trade) for Punch Palace Productions, Kormákur for Rvk Studios, John Friedberg (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) for Black Bear, and Jon Berg...

Essentially the “Why We Fight” series for The War on Christmas, the “God’s Not Dead” franchise has — with its first two installments — asserted itself as the chintziest and most intellectually counterfeit branch of the lucrative faith-based film wave that it’s helped to define. Whereas other recent offerings like “Heaven Is for Real” and last week’s “I Can Only Imagine” are largely harmless in how they preach to the choir and prostrate themselves before Evangelical audiences, Pure Flix’s “God’s Not Dead” saga has been defined by a persecution complex large enough to crucify Christ the Redeemer.

These movies are fundamentalist propaganda aimed at people who are convinced their religion is under attack in this country just because it doesn’t exempt them from the Constitution. At a time when antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise and America is openly hostile towards its own Muslim community...

Berlin sales roster includes latest instalment in God’s Not Dead franchise.

Pure Flix/Quality Flix arrives at the Efm in Berlin with four new titles led by the imminent release Samson.

Vice-president of international sales Ron Gell will kick off talks at the market on Samson, which Pure Flix launches in the Us on Friday (February 12) on 1,000 screens.

The film is styled as the story of the world’s first superhero and follows the life of the child born with supernatural strength in ancient times who grows up to lead his oppressed tribe against the mighty empire of his day.

Taylor James, Billy Zane, Jackson Rathbone, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner and Caitlin Leahy star in Samson, which screens in the market on February 16 and 18.

Pure Flix/Quality Flix will also screen the latest instalment in the God’s Not Dead franchise, God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, featuring a cast of...