News

Feature in production with stars of Saw, Insidious franchises.

Voltage Pictures arrives at the Efm with international sales rights to upcoming horror feature The Call, which stars the Saw franchise’s Tobin Bell and Lin Shaye from the Insidious films.

Timothy Woodward Jr. directs from a screenplay by Patrick Stibbs about a group of friends who tormented an elderly woman suspected to be a witch. After the old woman dies, the friends are forced to call a phone installed in her casket. To their horror, someone on the other end picks up.

The feature, currently in production, is being produced...

Drama will premiere in Toronto, followed by a theatrical release in early 2018.

The Orchard has acquired worldwide rights to Lynn Shelton’s drama Outside In, starring Jay Duplass and Edie Falco.

The Orchard has worldwide theatrical, digital rental and sales, cable/satellite VOD, airline, DVD and soundtrack rights to Outside In.

Following The Orchard’s theatrical and digital release, Netflix will be releasing the film on its worldwide streaming platform.

Outside In, written by Lynn Shelton and Jay Duplass, centres on Carol (Falco), a high school teacher, and Chris (Duplass), her ex-student, as they explore a relationship after his release from a 20-year prison sentence. While Chris navigates his re-entry into the world, Carol works to rebuild her family, and reconnect with her teenage daughter.

Kaitlyn Dever and Ben Schwartz star alongside Falco and Duplass in the film produced by Mel Eslyn and Lacey Leavitt.

The film features an original score from singer-songwriter Andrew Bird and was...

The Orchard has today announced its acquisition of the worldwide rights to Lynn Shelton’s new drama “Outside In,” starring Jay Duplass, Edie Falco, Kaitlyn Dever, and Ben Schwartz. The Orchard has worldwide theatrical, digital rental, and sales, cable/satellite VOD, airline, DVD and soundtrack rights to the new feature. Following The Orchard’s theatrical and digital release, Netflix will be releasing the film on its worldwide streaming platform.

The film will premiere next month at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and The Orchard is planning a release in early 2018.

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Shelton and Duplass wrote the screenplay together, which “follows Carol (Falco), a high school teacher, and Chris (Duplass), her ex-student, as they explore a relationship after his release from a 20-year prison sentence. While Chris navigates his re-entry into the world,...

“Saw” star Tobin Bell and child actor Noah Jupe will star in the drama “My Pretty Pony,” a short film set to start shooting in Michigan this spring. The story follows an elderly man on his deathbed who gives his young grandson a pocket watch and warns the boy against the dangers of letting time slip away.

Luke Jaden is directing the from a script he adapted based on a short story by Stephen King. Phil Wurtzel of Friel Films is producing. Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (“Loving,” “Midnight Special”) and Josh Boone (“The Fault in Our Stars”) are executive producing.

Read More: ‘It’ Trailer Breakdown: The 6 Best Parts That Perfectly Capture the Novel’s Brilliance

Bell is best known to horror fans as the demented John Kramer/Jigsaw character from all seven “Saw” films, but his acting credits date back to 1988’s “Mississippi Burning,” and he had small roles in “Goodfellas” and “The Firm.

In Rainbow Time, writer/director Linas Phillips tackles more than just romantic unrest. Throughout his relationship dramedy, characters wallow in post-divorce uncertainty, but also tussle with the bonds of family and mental disability. An idealistic reality of perfection floats loftily out of reach in Phillips’ world, as characters valiantly strive for their “best” – a situational imprisonment that shuns individuality.

Or, Rainbow Time is about two brothers coming to terms with their more one-sided connection, where Todd (Timm Sharp) stops brushing his brother Shonzi (Linas Phillips) off as his “slower” brother. There is love between the two, buried under Todd’s more pertinent desire to keep girlfriend Lindsay (Melanie Lynskey) happy. But where Todd plays bad cop to Shonzi’s short-sighted take on life, Lindsay sees minunderstanding. She tries to transform his obsession with making home movies into a learning experience about treating women with respect, not as sexual objects. Shonzi...

While the film industry still has quite a distance to go in the production of films that do not feature Caucasian, male, straight, developmentally typical protagonists, there has been incremental progress over the past thirty years. However, more often people who would have been relegated to one-bit stock characters or stereotypes are now multifaceted subjects and protagonists in their own films, creating a larger diaspora of representation in film. Linas Phillips’ sophomore feature “Rainbow Time,” centers around an immature, developmentally delayed man and leaves me cautiously optimistic that the industry has at the very least improved depictions of developmentally challenged individuals since the days of “I Am Sam” and “Rain Man.”

Read More: Exclusive: Poster & Clip For Duplass Brothers Produced Indie Comedy ‘Rainbow Time’ Starring Melanie Lynskey

The film begins with Todd (Timm Sharp) introducing his girlfriend of six months Lindsay (Melanie Lynskey) to his family, including his developmentally challenged...

Surveying Melanie Lynskey’s diverse body of work, from her impressive debut in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures” 20 years ago to the Duplass Brothers’ “Togetherness,” one thing is clear: Lynskey takes her project choices as seriously as she does her performances.

Over the last few years, Lynskey has appeared in a robust offering of indie films: Joe Swanberg’s “Happy Christmas,” Todd Louiso’s “Hello I Must Be Going,” and her friend Clea Duvall’s directorial debut, “The Intervention,” for which she received a special jury award from the Sundance Film Festival. She continues her winning streak with Linus Phillips’ “Rainbow Time,” an offbeat comedy that explores sensitive territory without devolving into cliche.

The film stars Phillips as Shonzi, a developmentally delayed jokester with a fondness for women, filmmaking, and his brother Todd (Timm Sharp). Lynskey plays Lyndsay, Todd’s idealistic girlfriend, who coddles Shonzi during trying moments when Todd would rather punch him.

It’s November – a time for Thanksgiving, feasts, and the presence of relatives. If you have some time off (or are trying to grab some much-needed alone time), here is a list of films opening throughout the coming weeks, separated into categories of wide and limited runs. (Synopses are provided by festivals and distributors.)

Each week we will have more updates and information, so be sure to keep coming back. You can also check our calendar page, which has releases for the rest of the year. Eat well and keep watching!

Week of November 4 Wide

Trolls

Director: Mike Mitchell, Walt Dohrn

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Christine Baranski, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Gwen Stefani, Icona Pop, James Corden, Jeffrey Tambor, John Cleese, Justin Timberlake, Kunal Nayyar, Quvenzhané Wallis, Ron Funches, Russell Brand, Zooey Deschanel

Synopsis: After the Bergens invade Troll Village, Poppy, the happiest Troll ever born, and the overly-cautious curmudgeonly Branch set off...

“It’s a fucked up mess, but I’m pretty used to it.” Peter Dunning is talking about the mangled hand that he nearly lost in a sawmill accident during his twenties, but he might as well be talking about his life.

A grizzled 68-year-old alcoholic who lives on a patchy piece of land in the earthy interior of Vermont with a flock of sheep, some bales of hay, and several decades worth of festering regrets, Dunning is constantly weighing the value of this mortal coil against the oblivion that waits for him on the other side. He’s a man pulled between primordial rage and cosmic acceptance, the sort of modern-day Hemingway character you might find at your local farmer’s market. Sometimes he’s at peace — at others, he asks a farmhand to hide his rifle so he doesn’t kill himself. In other words, Dunning is in dire need of some perspective.

Jeff Nichols' Loving, which chronicles the couple behind the landmark 1967 Supreme Court Case Loving v. Virginia, begins its theatrical run via Focus Features today, just a day after an opening night screening at the Virginia Film Festival, the state where Mildred and Richard Loving were thrust to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Also opening this weekend is The Orchard's Rainbow Time, directed, written and starring Lina Phillips along with Melanie Lynskey and…...

The Duplass enerothers have become so synonymous with a certain strain of warmed over indie dramedy that it’s easy to overlook just how twisted they can be, and often are. Directorial efforts like “Baghead” and “Cyrus” have been sliced through with genuinely disturbing behavior, and many of the movies they’ve produced or presented (e.g. “Tangerine” or “The Overnight”) have pushed boundaries of one kind or another, albeit it with such a gentle touch that these transgressions seem as natural as breathing. It’s a helpful way of reframing the modesty of their work and the speed at which they churn it out — it’s not that the Duplai prioritize quantity over quality, but rather that their kooky ideas (and those of the filmmakers they’re eager to support) are too dangerously delicate to support anything bigger than a micro-budget project that’s shot in nine days and destined for VOD.

Paul Schrader has made no secret of his frustrations about interference from the studios or moneymen that fund his films, going so far as to openly protest the release of 2014’s “The Dying of the Light” with a Facebook post in which he declared that the project “Was taken away from me, reedited, scored, and mixed without my input.” Of course, that was hardly Schrader’s first rodeo. A pugnacious poet-warrior whose screenwriting credits includes the likes of “Taxi Driver” and “The Last Temptation of Christ” (and whose occasionally transcendent directorial efforts make those movies look commercial by comparison), he’s never been a big fan of playing things safe. With the bawdy and intoxicatingly batshit “Dog Eat Dog,” Schrader is off the leash once and for all.

And, um, he doesn’t waste any time making that clear. “Dog Eat Dog,” which might be most coherently interpreted as a...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Anthropoid (Sean Ellis)

Throw a dart at a map, and you can make a World War II movie set in whatever place you hit. Of course, pretty much any film about the Good War that doesn’t focus on the American (sometimes British) point of view of the conflict will probably seem “random” to the mainstream; one odd side-effect of Hollywood’s Oscar-baity love of the era. But there...

Jason from Mnpp here -- with most holidays I think it would suck to share a birthday - who wants their birthday on Thanksgiving? Or even worse, Christmas? Everyone else getting presents on your day? What a nightmare. But Halloween is the exception - I would love my birthday to be on Halloween. Costume parties every year! A cake shaped like Frankenstein's head! Or even better - a cake shaped like the Bride of Frankenstein's head! (Because more cake.) 

And you wanna know who I bet has the best Halloween Birthday Parties? Peter Jackson, that's who. I bet he dresses up like the Std-riddled rabbit from Meet the Feebles or like the Mouth of Sauron every year. Damn you, Peter Jackson. 

Oh well - we'll go ahead and wish him a happy day today with this week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" anyway, and since we're going to be...

"I'm jealous of what you have." The Orchard has debuted a trailer for an odd indie comedy titled Rainbow Time, written, directed by and starring Linas Phillips. The film is about a mentally challenged man named Shonzi, played by Linas Phillips, who moves in with his brother Todd, played by Timm Sharp. He now lives with his girlfriend Lindsay, played by the always wonderful Melanie Lynskey, and things become awkward when Shonzi wants to get more involved in their relationship, threatening to reveal secrets about Todd's past. As weird as this sounds, the trailer actually promises a charming, quirky, enjoyably unique film. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Linas Phillips' Rainbow Time, direct from YouTube: A developmentally delayed 40 year old man named Shonzi is sent to live with his brother Todd. But when Shonzi develops a crush on Todd's new girlfriend Lindsay, he threatens to reveal past secrets...

The bond between siblings can be as complicated as it is strongly knit, and as time passes, in certain situations, that relationship can only grow more fraught. And in the upcoming “Rainbow Time,” two brothers are forced to face their past when a woman enter their lives. And today we have an exclusive poster and clip from the film to give you a taste of what it’s all about.

Read More: Exclusive: Sarah Paulson & Mark Duplass Step Into A Time Capsule In Clip From ‘Blue Jay’

Produced by the Duplass Brothers, and starring Melanie Lynskey, Timm Sharp, and Linas Phillips (who also wrote and directed the movie), “Rainbow Time” follows Todd, who grew up under the strange shadow of his older mentally challenged brother Shonzi.

Continue reading Exclusive: Poster & Clip For Duplass Brothers Produced Indie Comedy ‘Rainbow Time’ Starring Melanie Lynskey at The Playlist.

Plus: The Orchard acquires Rainbow Time; FilmRise takes My Father Die; and more…

Open Road will open Bleed For This, the Miles Teller starrer about boxing champion Vinny ‘The Pazmanian Devil’ Pazienza, in limited release on November 4 and expand wide on November 23.

Pazienza famously recovered from a near-fatal car accident to reclaim his world title belt. Aaron Eckhart also stars. Ben Younger directs.

Open Road paid $4m for Us rights after watching the promo last year in Cannes, when the Solution Entertainment Group cut a multiple-territory del with Sony.

The Orchard has acquired worldwide rights to Linas Phillips’ SXSW comedy Rainbow Time starring Phillips, Melanie Lynskey, Timm Sharp, Artemis Pebdani, Jay Duplass, and Tobin Bell. ICM Partners and Submarine Entertainment represented the film-makers.FilmRise has picked up exclusive worldwide distribution rights from CAA to Sean Brosnan’s debut feature My Father Die. The revenge thriller premiered at SXSW and will receive a theatrical release this winter. Brosnan...

The Orchard has acquired worldwide theatrical and ancillary distribution rights to Linas Phillips' Rainbow Time, the drama executive produced by the Duplass brothers that bowed in March at SXSW. Phillips, Melanie Lynskey, Timm Sharp, Artemis Pebdani, Jay Duplass and Tobin Bell starred in the pic, about a mentally challenged 40-year-old man named Shonzi (Phillips) who is sent to live with his brother Todd ( Sharp). When Shonzi develops a crush on Todd’s new girlfriend…...

For several years, Linas Phillips worked as a babysitter for kids with special needs. He says experience with those kids is what inspired him to make a film about the day-to-day challenges of having someone developmentally delayed in your family. The result is “Rainbow Time,” a dramedy written, directed by and starring Phillips. The film premiered at SXSW in Austin earlier this month. Phillips plays Shonzi, a developmentally delayed 40-year-old sent to live with his brother Todd (Timm Sharp). An odd love triangle develops when Shonzi encounters Todd’s girlfriend, Lindsay (Melanie Lynskey), and conflict isn’t far for the three.

Linas Phillips' Rainbow Time is a film that designed to challenge the audience's perception of Shawn, by way of comparing Lindsay and Todd's treatment of him. Does Shawn need to be treated with kid gloves or like an adult? How cognizant of his thoughts and actions is he? Are Shawn's sexist tendencies genetic, learned, or part of his developmental disorder?...