News

A luxury ocean-liner graced by generations of the rich and famous, Hms Queen Mary is now celebrated – and feared – as “One of the World’s Most Haunted Places” (Time Magazine).

Vertigo Releasing is delighted to announce that Haunting Of The Queen Mary will be released on Digital Platforms on 9th October 2023. Written and directed by Gary Shore (Dracula Untold) and from the producers of The Woman in Black, this is an ornate and deeply disturbing tale of the haunted Queen Mary ocean liner.

Synopsis:

When photographers Erin (Alice Eve) and Patrick (Joel Fry) are brought aboard the ship with their young son Lukas (Lenny Rush), they unleash a series of events that entwines their family with the ship’s dark past. As the terror unfolds around them they begin to realise there is more to this sumptuous ocean liner than meets the eye: its remarkable legacy masking violent secrets. As...

Option

Genesius Pictures has optioned Emmett de Monterey’s acclaimed memoir “Go the Way Your Blood Beats” – about growing up gay and disabled in 1980s London – for TV adaptation.

Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, earlier this month, the memoir details how when de Monterey is 18 months old, a doctor diagnoses him with cerebral palsy. Growing up in southeast London in the 1980s, de Monterey is spat at on the street and prayed over at church. At his mainstream school, teachers refuse to schedule his classes on the ground floor, and at his college for disabled students, he’s told he will be expelled if the rumors are true, if he’s gay.

He is then chosen for a first-of-its-kind surgery in America which he hopes will ‘cure’ him and enable him to walk unaided. But the miracle doesn’t occur, and he must reckon with a...

Though the CW is beginning to pivot much more heavily to reality fare, with “All American” as the only original scripted series on its fall 2023 lineup, the network has added three new scripted projects to its slate for 2024: “Joan,” “The Librarians: The Next Chapter” and “The Swarm.” Additionally, 2024 will see the premieres of unscripted series “Patti Stanger: Millionaire Matchmaking,” “The Force” and “The Great American Bakeover” (all working titles).

All newly announced series are currently in production.

“Joan” stars Sophie Turner (“Game of Thrones”) as Joan Hannington, the notorious real-life jewel thief. Set in 1980s London, the series sees Joan as a devoted mother to her six-year-old daughter, Kelly, while trapped in a disastrous marriage with a violent criminal named Gary. When Gary goes on the run, Joan seizes the opportunity to adopt new identities and embark on a high-stakes journey to create a new life for herself and Kelly.

Exclusive: Cleopatra Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Argentinian director and producer Nicolas Onetti’s slasher picture What The Waters Left Behind: Scars.

The picture is the sequel to Onetti’s 2017 horror hit What The Waters Left Behind about a group of youngsters whose plan to shoot a documentary about the real-life, abandoned, lakeside spa resort of Epecuén takes a terrifying turn.

The new film revisits Epecuén and follows an Anglo-American indie rock band that ends up stranded in the desolate city. Their internal conflicts and the bad luck of their tour quickly fade, when they begin to discover the bloody hell that awaits them.

Camilio Zaffora wrote the screenplays for the original and its sequel.

The drama stars social media influencer David Michigan, Mario Alarcón (The Secret In Their Eyes), Magui Bravi (The 100 Candles Game) and German Baudino (History of The Occult).

The rights deal was brokered...

Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne are teaming up for Four Letters of Love, based on Niall Williams’ international bestselling novel. Polly Steele (Let Me Go, Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras) is set to direct.

Described as a “lyrical and deeply romantic Irish story,” the film will see the trio play parents of two lovers, portrayed by rising stars Fionn O’Shea (Dance First, Dating Amber, Normal People) and Ann Skelly (The Nevers, Kissing Candice, Rose Plays Julie). Cornerstone will handle worldwide sales and distribution, and will commence sales at the European Film Market. The Reset Collective will handle the release in Australia and New Zealand.

The description: Nicholas Coughlan (O’Shea) and Isabel Gore (Skelly) are fated to be together. That is as sure as the sky is blue and the sea is ever-changing. The question is whether or not they will ever find out. As ghosts, fate and...

Spin-off

BBC Three series “Munya and Filly Get Chilly,” a spin-off from BBC One‘s “Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof” produced by Hungry Bear Media, is set to offer a light-hearted take on the challenges of the main show, which will follow a group of celebrities facing a test of mental strength under the guidance of extreme athlete Wim Hof. In the spin-off, presenters, comedy stars Munya and Filly, will immerse themselves in sub-zero temperatures and take on Hof’s challenges, from breathing exercises to ice baths and beyond. It will be filmed within the tented village that the celebrities are inhabiting, alongside the filming of the BBC One series, with behind-the-scenes content and exclusive access to the celebrities and hosts.

“Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof” will be fronted by Holly Willoughby and Lee Mack and celebrities participating include musical theater practitioner Alfie Boe, songwriter and soccer player Chelcee Grimes,...

Distribution

Wendy Morgan‘s animal welfare docu-drama “Mercy” has been picked up by Los Angeles-based distributor All Channel Films, Inc. All Channel Films will represent the film, which premiered at the Awareness Film Festival in October, in the U.S. and Canada across pay and basic cable, video/DVD, VOD/SVOD, PPV and other distribution platforms.

With humans standing in for animals, “Mercy” lifts the lid on the more unpalatable side of the meat industry as told though the eyes of a pig named Mercy as she goes from a factory farm to a slaughterhouse. Maria Austin (“The Reverend and Mrs. Simpson”) plays Mercy alongside Annette Badland (“Ted Lasso”), Mark Wingett (“Quadrophenia”) and Morgan (“Mrs. Lowry and Son”), who wrote and directed the film.

“One of my goals was to bring ‘Mercy’ to North American audiences to raise awareness about the film’s disturbing but important subject matter,” said Morgan.

Exclusive: Ahead of the virtual Cannes market, Metro International is launching sales on WWII drama Late In Summer, which will star BAFTA winner Emily Watson (Chernobyl) and Farming and Suicide Squad actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.

Set in rural Cornwall, the romantic drama will chart a brief encounter between a lonely farmer’s wife and a Black American GI that leads to first love in middle life and an impossible choice.

Genesius’s Debbie Gray (Good Luck to You Leo Grande) is producing with Mr. Turner star Timothy Spall aboard as executive-producer.

Novelist Talitha Stevenson will make her directorial debut from her own script. Production is scheduled for autumn, 2021.

Also aboard are Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road); Oscar-winning composer Dario Marianelli (Atonement); production designer Jennifer Williams (Christopher Robin); and editor Helle Le Hevre (The Souvenir).

Metro International Head of Sales, Natalie Brenner said: “It’s a rare thing...

Star of Mr Turner created 20 works over six-month period after gallery owner saw his talent

He is one of Britain’s most revered actors and has portrayed Jmw Turner and Ls Lowry on screen – and now Timothy Spall is having his own paintings hung in a solo show at a London gallery.

The gallery owner Domenic Pontone asked Spall to create a show after seeing his work at the Lowry Gallery in Salford, where 14 of Spall’s paintings were displayed in an exhibition to celebrate the release of the 2019 film Mrs Lowry & Son. “Talk about being a bit stunned,” Spall said. “I’ve always liked a challenge but I thought: Jesus, can I do this?”...

Count Orlok lives on as the Nosferatu Festival gears up for another run in Austin, Texas from March 6th until March 9th. Also in today's Horror Highlights: release details for Dreamkatcher, Game of Death, and Weird Fiction. Our readers can also look forward to a trailer for Weird Fiction at the bottom of that story.

Nosferatu Festival 2020: "Once again, Austin Texas is host to the Nosferatu Festival. The festival will be held on Saturday, March 7th and Sunday, March 8th at Come and Take It Live with a kick-off party on March 6th at Kick Butt Coffee. What better way to Keep Austin Weird than to honor one of the greatest works of cinematic horror with its very own festival? Nosferatu Festival is thrown in honor of the vampire Nosferatu and all things vampire! And, this year’s Nosferatu Festival is bigger featuring more performances, more bands, more vendors,...

Welcome back to another edition of “Which is Better” here on Nerdly. I tend to, in past articles focus on specific movies or series’ or television shows, but I thought, for the pure hell of it, to pit two big streaming services against each other and decide which is the better of the two.

Now, streaming has become a huge deal. Everyone and their grandmother has some sort of media streaming in their home, be it Spotify for their music needs, Game Pass or Ps Now for their video game desires, or the aforementioned Netflix or Amazon Prime Video for their film and television binging. Some of us nerds even have all of the above, but the less said about us the better.

Netflix is the big-boy in town and has the largest subscriber base of any media streaming service going, with over 167 million paying customers worldwide and growing. When...

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.

The TV-to-film adaptation dropped a moderate 36 per cent on its first session.

Rank Film (Distributor) Three-day gross (Sept 20-22) Total gross to date Week 1 Downton Abbey (Universal) £3.3m £13.2m 2 2 Ad Astra (20th Century Fox) £1.7m £2.7m 1 3 It: Chapter Two (Warner Bros) £1.4m £16.2m 3 4 Hustlers (Stx) £1.1m £3.3m 2 5 Rambo: Last Blood (Lionsgate) £878,360 £1.1m 1

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.24

Universal

Period drama Downton Abbey held its UK box office crown for a second weekend, falling a moderate 36% in taking £3.3m.

The film has £13.2m after two weekends. This is the eighth-highest total after two weekends in the UK this year,...

New releases include ‘The Souvenir’, ’Mrs Lowry & Son’, and ‘Bait’.

There is a flurry of intriguing indie title releases in the UK this weekend, while the top end of the chart looks like to be largely dominated by holdovers Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and Angel Has Fallen.

In the indie space, Curzon is handling the release of Joanna Hogg’s fourth feature, The Souvenir, which stars Honor Swinton Byrne and Tom Burke in the story of a young film student who becomes romantically involved with a complicated man in 1980s London. Martin Scorsese was an executive producer...

Charles Martin Smith (Dolphin Tale) to direct.

The Exchange CEO Brian O’Shea and his team are preparing to kick off pre-sales in Toronto next week on family title A Gift From Bob from A Dog’s Way Home director Charles Martin Smith.

The follow-up to 2017 international theatrical release A Street Cat Named Bob is based on A Gift From Bob: How A Street Cat Helped One Man Learn The Meaning Of Christmas, James Bowen’s memoir about a busker who gains news insights into life through his cat. Garry Jenkins helped Bowen write the Bob books and adapted the screenplay.

The 2019 Eiff closed with Mrs Lowry & Son yesterday (June 30).

Dave Mclean’s Schemers, about his early days in the music business in 1980s Scotland, has won this year’s audience award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which came to a close last night (June 30) with the premiere of Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Spall drama Mrs Lowry & Son.

Schemers follows a concert promoter who tries to stage an Iron Maiden gig in 1980s Dundee. It comes from debut feature filmmaker Dave Mclean and is based on his own experiences.

Newcomer Conor Berry leads the cast, alongside Tara Lee, Sean Connor,...

The festival has assembled a strong programme for local audiences.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), proudly proclaiming its status as the world’s longest continually-running film festival (running since 1947) wrapped on Sunday with the world premiere of Adrian Noble’s Mrs Lowry & Son, starring Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave.

The festival opened 10 days earlier with the scrappily entertaining Boyz In The Wood by Scottish director Ninian Dorff, setting the tone for the fifth edition under artistic director Mark Adams.

An eclectic range of features was dotted with the UK premieres of significant homegrown films in 2019 so far – Joanna Hogg’s Sundance-winner The Souvenir,...

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s “Farming” has scooped the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s acting credits include “The Bourne Identity,” and “Suicide Squad.” “Farming,” about a black member of a white skinhead gang in 1980s Essex, is his directorial debut.

The winner was chosen by jury members Antonia Campbell-Hughes, David Hayman and Philip John. “The unanimous decision of the Michael Powell Jury goes to an important, powerful and disturbing film from Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje,” they said. “This story forces us to confront an unfamiliar, uncomfortable reality. Farming keeps you invested in its brutal world. Culturally adrenalising. Visceral. Inspirational.”

The same jury awarded the Best Performance in a British Feature Film accolade to Damson Idris for his role in “Farming.”

“I am absolutely thrilled to have received this prestigious award, named after one of my cinematic heroes, for my first film,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje said.

must Line-up include sessions on casting, ethical documentary filmmaking and Spain focus.

The industry programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff, June 19-30) has been revealed.

The highlights include a session titled ‘Casting Light on Casting Directors’, featuring members of the Casting Society of America’s European chapter.

‘Minding Non-Fiction’, co-hosted by the Scottish Documentary Institute, will look at ethical documentary filmmaking and best practices for the mental health and wellbeing of both filmmaker and subject.

In the animation section, ‘Women In Animation: The State of the Art’ will feature women working in the sector, looking at...

Eddie Izzard in ‘The Flip Side.’

Five Australian films have been invited to the 73rd edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs from June 19–30.

Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding, Thomas M Wright’s Acute Misfortune, Marion Pilowsky’s The Flip Side and Miranda Nation’s Undertow will screen in the World Perspectives strand.

Tony D’Aquino’s debut feature The Furies, a female-driven survival thriller, will be showcased in the Night Moves strand.

The festival describes D’Aquino’s film, which stars Airlie Dodds, Danielle Horvat, Linda Ngo and Taylor Ferguson, as a “gripping modern take on the 1980s slasher film, full of gore.”

Acute Misfortune is a “striking, brilliant and unconventional portrait” of one of Australia’s most acclaimed and idiosyncratic painters Adam Cullen; The Flip Side is a breezy rom-com about a budding chef and a British actor; Undertow is a tense and moving female-led...

New titles include ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’ and Emily Harris’ ‘Carmilla’.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has launched its full programme with 18 world premieres, 12 international premieres, eight European premieres and 78 UK premieres for its 73rd edition of the festival (June 19-30).

Jamie Adams’ Balance, Not Symmetry, a drama about a Glasgow art student, which has a soundtrack written by Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro, will have its world premiere as the People’s Gala screening at the event. It stars Laura Harrier, Bria Vinaite and Lily Newmark. Biffy Cyro lead singer Simon Neil co-wrote the screenplay with Welsh writer-director Adams.

Film is an adaptation of Matt Haig’s modern vampire novel.

Chris Foggin, who directed the recent UK box office hit Fisherman’s Friends, has been attached to a feature adaptation of Matt Haig’s modern vampire novel The Radleys.

Comedian Jo Brand, a TV Bafta winner for her writing work, has adapted the book for screen. Debbie Gray is producing through her UK company Genesius Pictures and has backed the development of the project with in-house funds.

Brand previously wrote 2018 UK comedy feature The More You Ignore Me, which Keith English directed and Gray produced through Genesius.

The Radleys...

Joe Carnahan, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Frank Grillo producing.

The Exchange has come on board to handle international sales at the Afm on Latino superhero film El Chicano featuring a powerhouse Latino cast led by Raúl Castillo and Kate del Castillo and based on a screenplay co-written by The A-Team director Joe Carnahan.

Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment will handle Us distribution on the feature, which also stars George Lopez, Aimee Garcia (Dexter), and Emilio Rivera.

Ben Hernandez Bray will direct El Chicano, about a police officer (Castillo) in East Los Angeles drawn into events surrounding the death of his ex-con...

Film explores global TV phenomenon.

The Exchange has added worldwide sales rights to Sesame Street documentary Street Gang from Mad Hot Ballroom director Marilyn Agrelo, and will launch sales at the Afm next week.

CEO Brian O’Shea announced the acquisition on Monday (22) and said, “This is a story for all of us. Sesame Street has served as a cultural touchstone for multiple generations of children, in the U.S. and around the globe.”

Street Gang goes inside the hearts and minds of the Sesame Street creators to understand how they produced the show, and what it was like to...

Robbie Little, a familiar and well-loved figure at film markets who founded the Little Film Company with his wife Ellen, has died.

“Thank you, Sydney, for this loving tribute. You know, I remembered at some point that Robbie had called me around 1 am my time to say that he was up and getting ready to leave (and he sounded fine). So I realized he must have been awake and not asleep when he died so I e-mailed the police officer who found him and he confirmed to me that Robbie was on the floor and not in bed. It must have happened very fast because he didn’t have time to call for help. Love, Ellen”

Ellen Little became concerned when she had not heard from him four hours after he was to arrive in Cannes and called the hotel where he was staying in London. When they said he had checked out,...

Industry veteran Robbie Little, co-president of The Little Film Company, has died unexpectedly en route to the Cannes Film Festival. Little passed away in London of a suspected heart attack, his colleagues and friends have confirmed to Deadline.

Little launched his well-known sales and marketing outfit with his wife Ellen, and executive produced the company’s first film, Tsotsi, which won the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language film.

Previously, the well-traveled and well-liked exec established First Look Media to package finance and distribute movies in the domestic market. As President and Co-Chairman of First Look Media, he created First Look Home Entertainment, the company’s own video/DVD distribution division, which grew into a well known indie label.

Over the span of his career, he worked on movies including Waking Ned Devine, An American Haunting, Before Night Falls, Titus, Illuminata, The Prophecy film franchise, and Antonia’s Line (winner of...