News

New films arriving to Hulu in the month of December include those that came out in 2024 like Cuckoo, The Inheritance, Storm Crashers, Summer Camp, Flycatcher and more. Christmas favorite Elf arrived on the streamer at the end of November ahead of the holiday season, and Miracle on 34th Street (1994) started streaming on Hulu Dec. 1. Ben Stiller’s new film Nutcrackers also provides a more modern Christmas story.

Beloved classic films coming to Hulu this moth include Cheaper By the Dozen and Cheaper By the Dozen 2, Cast Away and all four Twilight films among others. Ridley Scott’s first Gladiator film will be available to stream starting Dec. 2.

Find the full list of what’s new on Hulu this December 2024 below:

Dec 1

Bunk’d Complete Seasons 1-7 (Disney) Ace of Cakes Season 9 Alaskan Bush People: Seasons 8-11 Bahamas Life: Complete Season 5 Buddy vs. Duff: Complete Season 4 Caribbean Life: Complete...

Five leading Swiss production companies including Elite Filmproduktion and Contrast Series have joined forces to found Swiss Studios Ag in Zurich.

Other shareholders in the new film and TV development and production alliance are Praesens-Film Production, Bavaria Fiction Switzerland and Kinescope Film.

Dr. Malte Probst, chief product officer fiction at Swisscom subsidiary blue Entertainment, has been appointed as the alliance’s chairman and CEO.

He described the founding of Swiss Studios as “a groundbreaking step for the Swiss and European creative industries” and “time to bring the new opportunities arising from the ‘Lex Netflix’ for Switzerland to life with exciting content.

Scandinavia’s leading sales outfit REinvent has boarded Norway’s true crime “Escaping Bolivia,” currently filming in Cape Town, South Africa, after an initial shoot in Oslo.

Fenomen (“Rod Knock”) and longstanding outfit 4 ½ (“Out Stealing Horses”) are producing for TV2 Norway, in co-production with Germany’s pubcaster Ndr and Oslo Film Fund.

Helmer Anna Gutto, behind Lionsgate’s “Paradise Highway” starring Juliette Binoche, is concept director, working next to creator and episodic director Emilie Beck, attached to Netflix’s “Royalteen.” Toplining the six-part series are Jakob Oftebro (“Agent Hamilton”), Ella Øverbye, from Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams,” Josephine Tetlie, Lisa Hovden and Danish actor Joachim Fjelstrup (“The Girl With the Needle”).

The show is inspired by the infamous drug case of three Norwegian girls aged 17, 18, 21, who were imprisoned in Bolivia after being caught in 2008, with 22kg cocaine in their bags. Two managed to escape – one with a child, helped by...

A new update for the Red Sonja reboot has been revealed.

Starring Matilda Lutz as Red Sonja, the new film is expected to premiere in theaters in 2024, arriving nearly four decades after the release of the original feature film. While promoting the premiere of her new film Magpie at South by Southwest (SXSW), Lutz shared an update on Red Sonja while speaking with Cbr's Tessa Smith on the red carpet. She teased how this adaptation is "very women-empowered," separating it from the previous adaptations and original comic books.

Related Pocari Sweat Once Cast Cindy Crawford as a Red Sonja-Esque Warrior A year after Brigitte Nielsen brought sword and sorcery heroine Red Sonja to theaters, supermodel Cindy Crawford emulated her in a TV commercial.

Lutz said, "So, what I can tell about Red Sonja, is that the first ones and the comics were [made] with a very male-gazed orientation.This is a completely different story,...

Exclusive: Tim Daly (Wings) and Veronica Ferres (Hector and the Search for Happiness) have been tapped for roles in Unholy Trinity, rounding out the ensemble for the Western helmed by Robert the Bruce‘s Richard Gray. The actors join an ensemble that also includes Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson, Brandon Lessard, and Q’orianka Kilcher, as previously announced.

Currently shooting under an Interim Agreement, the film written by Lee Zachariah is set against the turbulent backdrop of 1870s Montana. It picks up in the moments before the execution of Isaac Broadway, as he gives his estranged son, Henry (Lessard), an impossible task: murder the man who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Intent on fulfilling his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, where an unexpected turn of events traps him in town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove (Brosnan), the town’s upstanding new sheriff,...

Club

Pandemic-born initiative Female Film Club (Ffc), has developed a networking space, a new separate area in the online members club where members come together specifically to network. It will be open for existing members and it allows 100 additional filmmakers to join the space for free on a first come, first serve basis.

Interested applicants need a minimum of two years in the film industry or have worked on an award-winning short film or on a feature film.

Members will gain access to the Ffc app, online speed networking events, 20 discount on all Ffc courses, a 90-day Mubi membership and can watch to selected replays from masterclasses and Q&a’s.

Ffc offers film recommendations and streaming links from films made by a female director, female writer, or a film shown from the female gaze; connections with international female and non-binary filmmakers; and masterclasses, Q&As, film festival meet-ups, goal setting and inspiration sessions.

Yorkshire and London-based production company Tempo Productions today announced that Georgia Bayliff, former Head of Film at finance outfit Silver Reel, will join Tempo’s executive team, where she will co-produce company projects.

Bayliff will join Piers Tempest and Lauren Cox on the executive team at Tempo.

Bayliff exits Silver Reel after most recently producing Paradise Highway, starring Morgan Freeman, Juliette Binoche, and Frank Grillo. She worked across the company’s film & TV slate for over seven years, sourcing and steering projects from development and finance through production to release.

Tempo is gearing up to launch its 25th feature film into production. The company also has several films from its slate out in wide release, including Netflix’s Bank of Dave, Emily starring BAFTA 2023 Ee Rising Star nominee Emma Mackey and Jon Wright’s creature horror Unwelcome which Warner Brothers released in UK cinemas.

Announcing Bayliff’s new role, Tempest...

Georgia Bayliff was formerly head of film at Silver Reel

Georgia Bayliff has joined UK-based Tempo Productions as a co-producer.

Bayliff was formerly head of film at Silver Reel where she most recently produced Anna Gutto’s Paradise Highway.

As a co-producer, Bayliff will work with Tempo founder Piers Tempest and Lauren Cox on the executive team.

Tempo Productions is based in Yorkshire and London. Its previous projects include Netflix title Bank Of Dave, Frances O’Connor’s Emily, Jon Wright horror Unwelcome and Bjorn Runge’s The Wife.

UK awards campaigners react to 2023 Bafta nominations...

Every new Taylor Sheridan drama promises to be more star-studded than the last. The screenwriter and creator-showrunner of the "Yellowstone" universe (and a handful of other Paramount+ shows) has previously enticed stars like Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Sylvester Stallone, Jeremy Renner, and country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill to the small screen with juicy roles. Now, we can add Morgan Freeman to the list of acclaimed actors heading to streaming thanks to a Sheridan show. The Oscar-winning star of "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Shawshank Redemption" is poised to join Sheridan and Jill Wagner's upcoming Paramount+ series "Lioness," according to Deadline.

Freeman will be in good company with the CIA thriller: the cast list already includes Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, who both will also executive produce the show alongside Wagner and Sheridan. Freeman is reportedly set to play a character named Edwin Mullins, who is the U.

Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman has been added to the newest Sheridan film “Lioness,” which also stars Laysla De Oliveira and is executive produced by two of its stars, Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman.

Read More: Nicole Kidman To Feature In And Executive Produce Paramount+ Original Series ‘Lioness’

“Lioness” is based on a genuine CIA programme. Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira), a passionate but rough-around-the-edges young Marine, is followed, according to the official series description, as she joins the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to assist bring down a terrorist organization from within.

Freeman is one of Hollywood’s most successful and prolific actors, having appeared in well over 100 films.

Over the course of his career, Freeman has received five Oscar nominations, winning the award for Best Supporting Actor in 2004’s drama “Million Dollar Baby” for his memorable performance.

Morgan Freeman has joined "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan's new CIA/war series.

Lioness has tapped another Oscar winner for its cast.

Morgan Freeman has joined Nicole Kidman in Taylor Sheridan’s next Paramount+ series, a CIA drama from the Yellowstone creator. The series stars Zoe Saldaña, who is also an executive producer along with Kidman, and Laysla De Oliveira.

The show is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a “rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within.”

Freeman will play Edwin Mullins, the U.S. Secretary of State.

Saldaña plays Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives. And Kidman plays Kaitlyn Meade, the CIA’s senior supervisor who has had a long career of playing the politics game and who must “juggle the trappings of being a woman in the high-ranking intelligence community.

Exclusive: Oscar winner Morgan Freeman has joined the cast of Paramount+’s original series Lioness, headlined and executive produced by Zoe Saldaña and also starring Nicole Kidman, who executive produces, and Laysla De Oliveira.

Freeman will play Edwin Mullins, the United States Secretary of State in the show, from Taylor Sheridan, MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.

Lioness is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within. Saldaña will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives.

Lioness‘ series regular cast also includes Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, Lamonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Stephanie Nur and Hannah Love Lanier. The series is executive produced by Sheridan, David C. Glasser,...

Nearly a decade ago, Lucy surpassed expectations to become a massive box-office success, grossing over 463 million worldwide on a budget of just 39 million. With that sort of money on the table, it’s surprising that a sequel didn’t immediately pop up. Well, the time has finally come for the next stage of Lucy’s story. Variety has reported that EuropaCorp and Village Roadshow are now working to develop a Lucy TV series based on the Luc Besson film.

Not only that, but Morgan Freeman is in advanced negotiations to star in the Lucy TV series, reprising his role of Professor Samuel Norman. Plot details about the series are being kept under wraps at this point, but the original movie starred Scarlett Johansson as a woman who gained psychokinetic abilities after absorbing massive amounts of an experimental drug into her system. Lucy’s physical and mental abilities increase throughout the...

There's too much TV to choose from these days, but when it comes to deciding what to watch, some unspoken rules of TV are just plain obvious. For example: If there's a show with Morgan Freeman in it, you watch the show with Morgan Freeman in it. According to Variety, it might be time to employ that no-brainer rule, as Freeman is apparently finalizing negotiations to star in a TV spin-off of the 2014 film "Lucy."

You may remember "Lucy" as the movie in which Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who unlocks her full brain's potential after accidentally absorbing a powerful drug. This turns her into a super smart, psychokinetic superhero-type who is also prone to almost disintegrating every now and again. The high-concept film came courtesy of "Léon: The Professional" and "The Fifth Element" filmmaker Luc Besson, and earned an impressive 463 million at the worldwide box office against a reported 40 million budget.

EuropaCorp and Village Roadshow have partnered up to develop and produce a spinoff series based on “Lucy,” the hit action movie starring Scarlett Johansson. Morgan Freeman is in advanced negotiations to star in the series, the plot details of which are being kept under wraps.

The movie, which was directed by Luc Besson, earned over 460 million worldwide at the box office, ranking as the highest grossing French-produced film ever. Freeman was part of the cast of the original movie, which saw Johansson portraying a woman who gains psychokinetic skills when a drug is absorbed into her bloodstream. Freeman is expected to reprise his role as the wise Professor Norman in the spinoff series.

Both EuropaCorp and Village Roadshow are owned by the New York fund Vine Alternative Investments. The series is the second EuropaCorp project greenlit since the company was acquired by Vine in 2019. Besson recently wrapped the shoot of “DogMan,...

New Release Wall

“Elvis” (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment): Baz Luhrmann’s obsessions are piled on top of other obsessions that are themselves mashed up with ongoing tendencies toward spectacle, extravagance and emotional extremes — that whole “Moulin Rouge!” ethos of Truth Beauty Freedom Love — and this big loud biopic/love letter to Elvis Presley is a visual and sonic blast, with an uncanny Austin Butler as the King. You don’t even have to like the late legend’s music to enjoy this juggernaut of sensation, just find a friend with a giant-screen TV (this one’s already available in 4K) and very loud sound.

Also available:

“Batman: The Long Halloween” (Deluxe Edition) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment): The Caped Crusader has to hunt down a killer that strikes on various holidays in this two-part animated feature.

“The Black Phone” (Universal): A resourceful boy (with assistance from his visions-having...

Exclusive: Jimmi Simpson (Pachinko) and Clancy Brown (Dexter: New Blood) have boarded Audrey’s Children — the biopic that Ami Canaan Mann (Texas Killing Fields) is directing for Amasia Entertainment (Wild Mountain Thyme) and Resonate Entertainment (Sitting in Bars with Cake) — with Brandon Micheal Hall (Search Party), Julianna Layne (Prodigal Son), Ben Chase (The Thing About Pam) and Evelyn Giovine (The Crowded Room) also signing on for roles.

The film currently in production in Philadelphia tells the story of Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer), the revolutionary pediatric oncologist best known as the co-founder of Ronald McDonald House Charities — the world-famous organization that provides housing and support to millions of families in 62 countries around the world. Pic’s set in 1969 and follows her as she bursts onto the scene as the Chief of Pediatric Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, when the survival rate for children with cancer was less than 10. In...

FilmBookCast Ep. 191 — FilmBookCast is the official podcast of FilmBook. FilmBookCast is an entertainment news podcast on the latest movie and television show news. Each week, FilmBook contributor Chris Banks discusses that breaking Hollywood news. Shownotes Movie News (0:53) TV Show News (2:31) International News (4:57) Movie Trailers (6:15) TV Show Trailers (7:33) Movie Review (9:03) Credits and contact If you’d [...]

Continue reading: FilmBookCast Ep. 191 – Paradise Highway Review, The Mighty Ducks Season 2 Trailer, Megalopolis Rounds Out Cast, & More...

Click here to read the full article.

The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading fest for independent cinema, has announced its 2022 lineup.

The 29th Oldenburg Festival will kick off Sept. 14 with The Ordinaries, the first feature from German director Sophie Linnenbaum. The meta tragicomedy stars Fine Sendel as Paula, a simple Supporting Character in a repressive three class-society where there are Main Characters, Supporting Characters and the untouchable Outtakes. The Ordinaries premiered at the Munich festival this year, winning Linnebaum and her production team the German Cinema New Talent Award.

Also screening at Oldenburg this year will be Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo, which premiered in Cannes, Colin West’s SXSW sci-fi comedy Linoleum starring Jim Gaffigan and Better Caul Saul‘s Rhea Seehorn; TIFF 2022 title The Gravity from French director Cédric Ido; Andrea Bagney’s Spanish drama Ramona, which prmiered in Karlovy Vary this year; and Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s A Woman...

One of the most unnerving realizations people can have in life is that the links that are meant to physically and emotionally connect them with their communities can often times become the things that divide them. That’s certainly the case for actress Juliette Binoche‘s character of Sally in the new thriller, ‘Paradise Highway,’ in which […]

The post Interview: Anna Gutto Talks Paradise Highway (Exclusive) appeared first on Shockya.com.

(from left) Stephan James and Genelle Williams in Delia’s Gone. Photo: Vertical Entertainment In 1994, Johnny Cash’s black and white music video for “Delia’s Gone” debuted on MTV, introducing a generation of alterna-kids to classic-style country that was cool in an era of Garth Brooks’ pop version. It was a...

The Scene 2 Seen podcast is back in a major way!

This week I’ve already published conversations with actor Michael Greyeyes and Naturi Naughton. Today, I chat with legendary actress Juliette Binoche about her newest film that tackles a difficult subject.

Paradise Highway, directed by Anna Gutto, is a riveting thriller set in the trucking industry and underbelly of human trafficking. The film stars Binoche, ​​Morgan Freeman and Frank Grillo.

To save the life of her brother Dennis (Grillo), Sally (Binoche), a truck driver, reluctantly agrees to smuggle illicit cargo: a girl named Leila (Hala Finley). As Sally and Leila begin a danger-fraught journey across state lines, a dogged FBI operative (Freeman) sets out on their trail, determined to do whatever it takes to terminate a human-trafficking operation—and bring Sally and Leila to safety.

Binoche has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA award and multiple European Film Awards. An...

Universal is usually strong on VOD charts, but this week it dominates by holding 13 out of 30 possible slots with the just-released “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (19.99) leading the way.

At Netflix, “Uncharted” is #1 and leads several in-house productions including “The Gray Man.” Its 200 million investment stands at #5 in its third week. Despite (or because of?) six months of theatrical play (and 149 million gross), as well as extensive VOD availability, the early-year hit starring Tom Holland may have a longer stay at the top than Netflix originals.

Google Play, which tends to lag several days behind iTunes, still has Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” (19.99) at #1, with “Minions” second; elsewhere, it’s #1. Among Universal”s other releases, are high placements for “The Black Phone” (19.99) and two slots each for “The Bad Guys” (5.99) and new release “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” (19.99) from its Focus subsidiary.

“Mrs. Harris” is #10 on two charts, but PVOD...

Locarno kicked off its latest edition on Wednesday evening with the international festival premiere of David Leitch’s latest action-comedy Bullet Train and a surprise video call from Brad Pitt to celebrate the event’s 75th anniversary.

The packed opening night celebration in Locarno’s famed Piazza Grande square was a return to form for the festival after a full cancellation in 2020 and a slimmed-down version last year.

Bullet Train received hearty applause and cheers from festivalgoers as the screening was introduced with a surprise video call from the movie’s star Brad Pitt.

“Congratulations to the whole festival crew on your 75th anniversary. It’s a fantastic achievement and what an honor it is for us to be a part of this festival with our movie Bullet Train,” he said.

Pitt stars as an experienced assassin whose first day back at work is complicated by a series of other...

Easy to overlook in the looming shadow of the Venice, Telluride, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals (and all of the awards season hoopla they portend), Switzerland’s historic Locarno Film Festival has remained so distinct and essential precisely because of its refusal to concede to industry pressures or chase attention over artistry.

While the magical Piazza Grande has been home to its fair share of glitzy outdoor screenings over the years — the next few days will see the 8,000-seat town square transform into an impromptu “Bullet Train” station, for example — Locarno has always prided itself on providing a more curious and less hostile platform for elite auteurs whose work may not conform to the commercial demands of the international marketplace; recent winners of the festival’s prestigious Golden Leopard award include Pedro Costa (“Vitalina Varela”), Lav Diaz (“From What Is Before”), and the great Chinese documentarian Wang Bing (“Mrs.

After eight days, it’s over. That’s how long the Russo Bros.’ “The Gray Man” topped Netflix’s domestic chart for most-watched movies — only to be replaced by the new release of another Netflix Original, “Purple Hearts,” a low-budget military-immigrant romance starring singer-actress Sofia Carson (“Descendants”) and Nicholas Galitzine (“Cinderella”). “The Gray Man” didn’t disappear — it dropped to #2 — but that can’t have been the Netflix expectation for a 200 million action film from the directors of “Avengers: Endgame,” the biggest theatrical release in the last six years, starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas.

The streamer reported that “Gray” amassed over 88 million hours in worldwide viewing its initial weekend, the fifth highest for an original film. That’s 60 million fewer hours than last year’s “Red Notice” starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. “Red” spent 12 days as #1, including two full weekends, but more important...

Paradise Highway Review — Paradise Highway (2022) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Anna Gutto and starring Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo, Hala Finley, Cameron Monaghan, Christiane Seidel, Veronica Ferres, Jackie Dallas, Walker Babington, Tommie Earl Jenkins, Susan McPhail, Diva Tyler, Jwaundace Candece, Tracy Pfau, Raymond McAnally, Jim Dougherty, Jayden Hamilton [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Paradise Highway (2022): Solid Performers Can’t Get Problematic but Well Meaning Film on the Right Road...

Frank Grillo is the impetus of the narrative in the new drama thriller “Paradise Highway.” He stars as the imprisoned brother of Juliette Binoche’s character. In order to survive, he asks his sister to smuggle illicit cargo – a girl named Leila. Morgan Freeman is tasked as an FBI operative who

The post “Paradise Highway” appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.

Lena Dunham is back. Sharp Stick — the writer/director/actor’s follow to HBO series Girls and her first film since Tiny Furniture (2010) – opens in LA at Landmark’s renovated single-screen NuArt Theatre and at the Quad Cinema in NYC. It expands to 40 to 50 screens next weekend, heading to about 100 thereafter – a mix of AMC, Alamo, Laemmle and Harkins circuits and top U.S. arthouses.

Presales have been strong, said Utopia’s marketing and distribution VP Kyle Greenberg. A handful of showings with Dunham Q&As are sold out, natch. The film, which Utopia acquired out of Sundance, releases on PVOD August 16. Deadline review here.

Dunham writes directs, produces and stars with Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal, Luka Sabbat, Scott Speedman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Taylour Paige and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Sarah Jo (Froseth) is a sensitive and naive 26-year-old living on the fringes of Hollywood with her disillusioned mother (Leigh) and influencer...

Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro is gearing up for the lakeside event’s 75th-anniversary edition from August 3 to 13. In his second year in the job, he has pulled together an eclectic programme spanning mainstream Hollywood and experimental filmmaking.

David Leitch’s action-comedy Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt, makes its international festival premiere as the opening film on Locarno’s famed Piazza Grande square. Pitt will not be in attendance, but his co-star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is set for the Piazza and will receive the festival’s Excellence award alongside Daisy Edgar Jones, Jason Blum, and Matt Dillon who are also set to receive honors.

Other films set to screen in the festival’s famed 8,000-capacity open air venue include Laurie Anderson’s Home Of The Brave, Anna Gutto’s Paradise Highway, starring Juliette Binoche as a truck driver who traffics a young girl, and post-Bataclan terror attack drama...

For those of you who have always wanted to see Juliette Binoche play a foul-mouthed truck driver — and you know who you are — “Paradise Highway” delivers the goods, and then some. This counterintuitive casting is actually just one of the selling points for writer-director Anna Gutto’s solid and satisfying thriller, a shrewdly constructed melodrama that does not transcend cliches and conventions so much as show how useful and effective they can be in the right hands.

Offering a précis of the plot could arguably do the movie a disservice, since the narrative pivots on human trafficking — specifically, the trafficking of prepubescent girls. It’s a subject that often brings out the excessive worst in even the most well-intentioned directors, and more often elicits an understandable “thanks, but no thanks” response from many potential viewers. Throughout “Paradise Highway,” however, Gutto demonstrates welcome restraint and a meticulous avoidance of anything that resembles exploitation,...

Click here to read the full article.

On Aug. 23, 1946, just a few months after the inaugural Cannes Film Festival, the very first Locarno International Film Festival opened with a screening of Giacomo Gentilomo’s Italian neorealist classic O sole mio.

From the start, the festival aimed to represent the full spectrum of cinema, showcasing what current festival managing director Raphaël Brunschwig calls “a culture with a thousand facets.”

The 75th Locarno Festival, which runs Aug. 3-13, is sticking to those first principles. Perhaps more than any other major A-list fest, Locarno continues to straddle the gap between mainstream Hollywood and experimental avant-garde movie making.

Locarno 2022 will kick off with the world premiere of Brad Pitt action-thriller Bullet Train directed by the Deadpool 2 helmer David Leitch, who returns to Locarno after the 2017 screening of Atomic Blonde. This year’s event also includes gala screenings of Medusa Deluxe, a British murder...

Click here to read the full article.

The summer box office season is typically filled with milestones of the blockbuster variety but this July, Columbia University’s film program is toasting one of its own. Four international female filmmakers (and Mfa grads) have their first features hitting theaters this month.

The roster includes Nathalie Alvarez Mesen’s Clara Sola, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Murina, Mounia Akl’s Costa Brava, Lebanon, and Anna Gutto’s Paradise Highway. The latter film, about a truck driver who reluctantly agrees to smuggle illicit cargo (a little girl), is the most star-studded, with Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, Cameron Monaghan and Frank Grillo. Also of note: Columbia grad Ellie Foumbi’s debut feature Our Father, the Devil, picked up an audience award last month during the Tribeca Festival in New York.

Jack Lechner, chair of film at Columbia University School of the Arts, says that every...

Exclusive: Frank Grillo (Kingdom) has joined the action-thriller Black Lotus, starring eleven-time world kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven, which is in production in the Netherlands.

In the film from director Todor Chapkanov (Viking Quest), Verhoeven plays the role of special forces officer Matteo Donner. After his best friend died while on a joint mission, he roamed the world struggling with guilt. Back in Amsterdam he ends up in a one-man war in the streets and on the canals of the city. Between explosions, flying bullets and crashing cars, Donner has only one goal: to rescue the kidnapped daughter of his dead friend. Details as to the role that Grillo will be playing haven’t been disclosed. The film will also star Marie Dompnier (Black Box), Peter Franzén (Vikings), Rona-Lee Shim’on (Fauda), Magnus Samuelsson (The Last Kingdom), Simon Wan (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Kevin Janssens (Revenge) and Roland Møller (Atomic Blonde...

More than two decades after delivering an Oscar-winning performance in “The English Patient” and starring in “Chocolat,” Juliette Binoche still possesses that je ne sais quoi. It’s that certain something that seduces and beguiles. In many of her films, particularly those with French director Claire Denis, such as “Let The Sunshine In,” “High Life” and her latest collaboration, “Both Sides of the Blade,” the Binoche mystique has manifested itself in a kind of erotic boldness.

In addition to “Both Sides of the Blade,” a drama about a disintegrating relationship that IFC will release in the U.S. on July 8, Binoche recently appeared in HBO Max’s “The Staircase.” She’s now in Paris shooting Apple TV+’s period show “The New Look” in which she plays fashion designer Coco Chanel. We met her at the Loews Regency hotel in New York, where she appeared relaxed and stylish as ever,...

Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman).The lineup for the 75th-anniversary edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Helena Wittmann, João Pedro Rodrígues, Aleksandr Sokurov and others, alongside retrospectives, tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEAlles über Martin Suter. Ausser die Wahrheit. (Everything About Martin Suter. Everything but the Truth.) (André Schäfer)Annie Colère (Blandine Lenoir)Bullet Train (David Leitch)Compartiment tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murder) (Costa-Gavras)Delta (Michele Vannucci)Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson)Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)Last Dance (Delphine Lehericey)Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman)My Neighbor Adolf (Leon Prudovsky)Paradise Highway (Anna Gutto)Piano Piano (Nicola Prosatore)Printed Rainbow (Gitanjali Rao)Semret (Caterina Mona)Une femme de notre temps (Jean Paul Civeyrac)Vous n'aurez pas ma haine (You Will Not Have My Hate) (Kilian Riedhof)Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman)Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann).Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAriyippu (Declaration) (Mahesh Narayanan)Balıqlara xütbə...

Juliette Binoche as Sally and Hala Finley as Leila in Paradise Highway. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate

Lionsgate has dropped the trailer for director Anna Gutto’s film Paradise Highway.

Academy Award® winners Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman lead this riveting thriller set in the trucking industry and its seamy underbelly of human trafficking. To save the life of her brother (Frank Grillo), Sally (Binoche), a truck driver, reluctantly agrees to smuggle illicit cargo: a girl named Leila (Hala Finley). As Sally and Leila begin a danger-fraught journey across state lines, a dogged FBI operative (Freeman) sets out on their trail, determined to do whatever it takes to terminate a human-trafficking operation — and bring Sally and Leila to safety.

Paradise Highway is available on Digital, On Demand, and in Select Theaters July 29, 2022.

Rated R

Morgan Freeman and Juliette Binoche as Sally in Paradise Highway. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate Frank...

(Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage)

Frank Grillo (Kingdom, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, Copshop) is set to lead Liam O’Donnell’s (XYZ Films’ Skylines franchise) upcoming horror-thriller Merciless, according to Sentient Pictures International (Spi) who added the film to its Marche du Film slate.

Copshop, (aka Cop Shop), Frank Grillo, 2021. © Briarcliff Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

Tab, Morel and Tuffin will produce alongside Andy Schefter for Spi. Tuffin developed the story with The Cooler writer Frank Hannah, who wrote the script. Principal photography is set to commence on location in Alabama in August 2022.

In Merciless, when his wife is possessed by a malevolent spirit, the government’s top interrogator seeks vengeance on those who were closest to the entity in its previous life in order to drive it out of her body only to discover that everything is not what it appears to be.

Grillo is starring in the upcoming Lionsgate...

We’re learning that Vietnamese-born French filmmaker Tran Anh Hung is well into production on what is his seventh feature film. Entering his fourth decade, shooting on Le Pot-au-feu de Dodin Bouffant (The Pot Au Feu is the international title), Hung has set Juliette Binoche to star. She’ll next be seen in Antonio Campos’ The Staircase (Mini Series) completed Paradise Highway last year and just closed out Le Lycéen. We’re hoping see then moves onto Lance Hammer’s long awaited sophomore project sometime this year. Binoche will be joined by Benoit Magimel – who looks to have replaced Gilles Lellouche in the role.…...

Exclusive: Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Yellowstone star Cole Hauser and Blindspot and Thor actress Jaimie Alexander have been set to star in under-the-radar thriller The Minute You Wake Up Dead, which is now underway in Mississippi.

Milestone Studios is producing the film, which follows a stockbroker (Hauser) in a small southern town who gets embroiled in an insurance scam with a next-door neighbor (Alexander) that leads to multiple murders when a host of other people want in on the plot. Sheriff Thurmond Fowler (Freeman), the by-the-book town sheriff for over four decades, works earnestly to try and unravel the town’s mystery and winds up getting more than he bargained for.

Pic is an original screenplay by Timothy Holland, directed by Michael Mailer (Heart Of Champions) and produced by Hollywood vet Andrew Stevens (The Whole Nine Yards). Dawn Bursteen and Alan B. Bursteen of Milestone Studios are executive producers.

Soon to be premiering Berlin comp entry Both Sides of the Blade by Claire Denis, Juliette Binoche has been spending more time working in the United States filming a trucker narrative in Paradise Highway for Anna Gutto and Antonio Campos‘ series “The Staircase” in 2021. Now comes word (via a tiny blurb in Variety) that she is set to return to work on Lance Hammer‘s long awaited sophomore feature. We knew that there was a project secretly making the rounds several years back but this is the first mention of the film’s existence.

Hammer was a major break-out filmmaker when Ballast premiered at Sundance and Berlin in 2008 with several year-end mentions and accolades to what would be radio silence for a decade plus (we even logged a formal complaint in our Mia series).…...

Oscar-winning French actor Juliette Binoche has given her sprawling career a second wind with striking performances in Claire Denis’ comedy drama “Let The Sunshine In” and sci-fi “High Life” (opposite Robert Pattinson). Best known by American audiences for her romantic roles in Anthony Minghella’s “The English Patient” and Lasse Hallström’s “Chocolat,” Binoche has worked with some of the most revered filmmakers worldwide, including Abbas Kiarostami (“Copie Conforme”), Leos Carax (“Les amants du Pont-Neuf”), Michael Haneke (“Caché”) and Olivier Assayas (“Clouds of Sils Maria”).

In her latest film, “Between Two Worlds,” Binoche stars as a well-known author from Paris who goes undercover in Northern France for her new book on low-paid workers facing injustices. Hired as a cleaner, she experiences the brutal and precarious work conditions while bonding with other women. The movie, whose cast was primarily made up of non-professionals and locals, was adapted from Florence Aubenas’ bestseller “Le Quai de Ouistreham.

Exclusive: Producer and award-winning actress Veronica Ferres has signed with CAA and Fourward. Both entities will also represent Ferres’ film and TV production company, Construction Film, which she founded in 2013 as a female led label, and is dually based in Munich and Los Angeles.

The German-born Ferres can currently be seen opposite Anthony Hopkins in Zero Contact, the first feature film Nft, and has completed filming Paradise Highway opposite Morgan Freeman and Juliette Binoche for Lionsgate. Through her Construction Film banner, Ferres produced, alongside Sandra Bullock and Graham King, The Unforgivable, which stars Bullock and Viola Davis and premieres with a theatrical release in the US on November 24 and internationally on Netflix December 10.

She also recently produced Shattered for Lionsgate with John Malkovich, Lilly Krug and Frank Grillo, which will be released January 14, 2022.

Ferres began her career in the Academy Award and Golden-Globe nominated film Schtonk!, and went on to...

Exclusive: Here’s one that’s sure to heat up the impending AFM. Knives Out and No Time To Die star Ana de Armas is in talks to take the lead role in anticipated John Wick spinoff Ballerina, about a young female assassin who seeks revenge against the people who killed her family.

The character made a fleeting appearance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum as a ballerina who is also training to be an assassin.

As we previously revealed, Len Wiseman (Underworld) is aboard to direct the action-thriller, whose script comes from Shay Hatten, known for Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

The movie re-teams John Wick studio Lionsgate with producers Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski (the John Wick franchise director will instead be a producer on Ballerina). We hear budget would be somewhere in the $50-80M range. It...

Exclusive: Lionsgate has boarded Paradise Highway, a Silver Reel and Zdf thriller starring Oscar winners Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman, and Captain America actor Frank Grillo.

Lionsgate has taken North America distribution rights and will handle international sales. Zdf boards as co-producer and German distributor. Both deals were secured by Silver Reel’s Claudia Bluemhuber.

In Paradise Highway, written and directed by Anna Gutto, Sally (Binoche), a truck driver, has been forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother Dennis (Grillo) from a deadly prison gang. With FBI operative Gerick (Freeman) hot on her trail, Sally’s motivations and conscience are challenged when the final package turns out to be a teenage girl (Hala Finley).

Cameron Monaghan, Veronica Ferres, Christiane Seidel and Walker Babington also star in the feature.

Gutto (Netflix’s Home for Christmas) wrote her screenplay off of years of research and immersion in the trucking community.

Exclusive: We Can Be Heroes and Man With A Plan star Hala Finley is joining Oscar winner Ben Affleck and Alice Braga (Queen Of The South) in Robert Rodriguez action-thriller Hypnotic, which is due to get underway on Monday 27 September in Austin, Texas.

The movie will follow a detective (Affleck) who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter (Finley) and a secret government program.

Pic is written by Sin City and Alita: Battle Angel filmmaker Rodriguez and Max Borenstein. Rodriguez, Studio 8 CEO Jeff Robinov and his colleagues Guy Danella and John Graham are producing with Mark Gill’s Solstice Studios.

Fast-rising child star Finley will next be seen in Anna Gutto’s Paradise Highway with Morgan Freeman and Juliette Binoche and Shelter alongside Zazie Beetz and Melissa Leo. She is best known for playing Emme Burns on four seasons of Man With A Plan on CBS alongside Friends star Matt LeBlanc.