News

The Dcu has numerous projects underway, all under the careful guidance of James Gunn and Peter Safran. The most immediate releases include the animated series Creature Commandos and a new Superman film set for a 2025 release, along with several live-action shows centered on prominent DC characters.

Recently, there have been multiple updates regarding the Lanterns series, which will be a cosmic detective story featuring three notable Green Lanterns. It has been confirmed that Nathan Fillion will portray Guy Gardner.

Hal Jordan will be portrayed by Kyle Chandler, despite fan concerns regarding the actor’s age. The only remaining uncertainty is the casting of John Stewart, which is crucial since the show will reportedly focus on Stewart, with Jordan taking on a mentor role. Given that the studio has cast an older Hal Jordan (Josh Brolin was also considered), it’s likely that Jordan may either retire or meet his end by the series’ conclusion.

Dcu has plenty of projects in the works under the watchful eyes of James Gunn and Peter Safran. The projects closest to us are the ‘Creature Commandos’ animated series and ‘Superman’ scheduled for a 2025 release, still plenty of live-action shows focusing on the most notable DC characters are in the works.

In recent weeks, we’ve got plenty of updates related to a ‘Lanterns’ show, a cosmic-detective story focusing on three notable Green Lanterns. We know that Guy Gardner will be portrayed by Nathan Fillion.

Hal Jordan will be played by Kyle Chandler, despite numerous protests from fans due to the actor’s age. So far, the only unknown in the equation is the role of John Stewart.

This is the most important role overall since the show will apparently focus on Stewart with Jordan serving more like a mentor-type figure. Considering that the studio did indeed cast an older...

‘Liaison’ Producer Ringside Studios Hires ‘Industry’ Exec

British drama house Ringside Studios has hired Industry and No Escape exec Lee Thomas. He’ll work alongside company founder Gub Neal and Kate Bennetts on Ringside Studios projects and others from investment arm Ringside Media. He’ll also continue to develop his own projects, with Ringside set to produce. Thomas is coming off of No Escape, the Paramount+ thriller series shot in Thailand. His credits also include season one of HBO and BBC drama Industry and ITV true crime series White House Farm. He has produced Shola Amoo’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize-nominated drama feature The Last Tree through his Prodigal label and produced an Oscar-nominated short, The Voorman Problem, which is based on an extract from David Mitchell novel Number9Dream. Ringside Studios, a joint venture between Neal and Newen Content, recently produced Apple TV+ series Liaison, a UK-France co-production starring Eva Green and Vincent Cassel.

Coyote, the British sci-fi feature film debut from American filmmaker Dustin Curtis Murphy, has been acquired by Gravitas Ventures and is set for release in North America on June 20th, 2023. The film, which was recently nominated for a National Film Award, stars The Witcher actress Therica Wilson-Read and Absentia actress Borislava Stratieva.

Coyote is a story of forbidden love in a dystopian future where teleportation technology enables two refugees to escape genocide. When they trust the wrong back-alley teleporter, Ekaterina (Wilson-Read) and Anya (Stratieva) are separated. In a desperate attempt to be reunited, our heroines are entwined in an insidious human trafficking ring involving corrupt politicians.

The cast also features BIFA winner Ruhtxjiaih Bellenea (The Last Tree) and Ailish Symons (The Importance of Being Earnest), Tian Chaudry (You Were Never Really Here), Beruce Khan (RSC Live: Twelfth Night) and Richard Glover. The film had its international premiere on March 24th...

Onyx Collective has boarded Candice Carty-Williams’ buzzy British drama series Queenie.

Disney Entertainment’s brand has joined Channel 4 in the UK on the show, which the British network ordered back in August 2021. Onyx Collective curates global stories from artists of color with a culturally specific point of view, which aligns with Carty-Williams’ story.

Queenie will air in the UK and Ireland on Channel 4 and stream exclusively on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories. Steve November’s Further South Productions is attached to produce in association with Lionsgate TV, which has international sales rights, and cast has also been set. Shooting began in late April.

Writer Carty-Williams is emerging as one of the UK’s most sought after new scribes. Netflix last year boarded her BBC series Champion, which is billed as “a love letter to Black British music.”

Newcomer Dionne Brown...

Amarna Karan as Indira Mare, Joe Manganiello as Tomm, Ayelet Zurer as Maite Voss and Yazzmin Newell as Sonda Crux – Moonhaven _ Season 1, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Szymon Lazewski/AMC+ In advance of its season one finale next week, AMC Networks has renewed the popular and critically acclaimed suspense thriller Moonhaven for a second season of six episodes coming to on AMC+ in 2023. Since its premiere earlier this month, Moonhaven has become the #1 most watched exclusive series and the #2 most watched new series in the streamer’s history, behind only the breakout Western noir crime drama Dark Winds. Created by Peter Ocko (Lodge 49, Black Sails, Elementary, Pushing Daisies), who is also showrunner, the series is focused on a utopian colony on the Moon that may hold the keys to preserving life on Earth. Moonhaven features an acclaimed ensemble cast including Emma McDonald (Queens of Mystery), Dominic Monaghan (Lost), Amara Karan (Doctor Who...

PBS NewsHour‘s Judy Woodruff is reportedly stepping away from her anchor seat after the 2022 midterms this fall.

The broadcast journalist commented on her future at the news program tweeting, “As I’ve planned for a while, I’ll transition to reporting longer pieces, doing projects and specials for Weta, and maintaining a regular presence on the NewsHour, at least through the 2024 presidential election. Bottom line, I’m thrilled to be part of this vibrant, most extraordinary news organization, and to help the NewsHour remain that way well into the future.”

More from TVLineAllison Janney Joins Kristen Wiig and Laura Dern in Apple's Mrs.

Six top TV casting directors will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Emmy Awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Tuesday, May 17, at 4:00 p.m. Pt; 7:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Joyce Eng and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing Emmy contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 contenders:

As We See It (Amazon Prime)

Synopsis: Three autistic roommates find a way to live together and strive for similar things in life.

Bio: Cami Patton is an Emmy winner for “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” Other...

AMC+ is taking viewers to the moon with the upcoming new suspense thriller, Moonhaven from creator/showrunner Peter Ocko.

The streaming service dropped a first-look teaser Monday, offering a first look at the series set in a utopian colony on the moon that may hold the keys to preserving life on Earth, which has become increasingly perilous.

Moonhaven features an impressive ensemble cast including Emma McDonald (Queens of Mystery), Dominic Monaghan (Lost), Amara Karan (Doctor Who), Ayelet Zurer (Losing Alice), Joe Manganiello (True Blood), Kadeem Hardison (Black Monday), and Yazzmin Newell (The Last Tree).

The six-episode series will debut Thursday, June 30, exclusively on AMC+.

"Moonhaven centers on Bella Sway (McDonald), a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler 100 years in the future who finds herself accused of a crime and marooned on Moonhaven, a utopian community set on a 500 square mile Garden of Eden built on the Moon to find solutions to...

“Doctor Who” star Peter Capaldi and Raindance founder Elliot Grove have been honored at the first ever British Short Film Awards.

Capaldi was given the Icon Award while Grove was handed the Impact Award

The British Short Film Awards, in partnership with the HearArt Project, were hosted by presenter Alex Zane on Friday evening. The event streamed on YouTube due to pandemic restrictions.

The jury, who deliberated across 35 categories, were made up of Aimee Lou Wood (“Sex Education”), Samuel Adewumni (“The Last Tree”), Tom Rhys Harries (“White Lines”) and Elizabeth Lail (“You”) as well as Oscar-winning patron Rachel Shenton (“The Silent Child”).

Awards founder and short-film director Tommy Clark said in a statement: “Short films have been an incredible launchpad for some of the industry’s biggest actors and filmmakers today, yet there is no standalone awards ceremony in their honour. The British Short Film Awards aim to recognise, inspire...

To mark the release of Angela Black on 15th November, we’ve been given 2 copies to give away on DVD.

From the outside, Angela Black’s life seems perfect. She lives in a beautiful London home, spends her days volunteering at a dogs’ shelter, has a handsome, hard-working – and seemingly charming – husband, Olivier, and a beautiful family. But behind the closed doors of blissful domesticity, lies a very different, much darker story: Angela has been a victim of domestic abuse for years and is trapped in a marriage that she can’t escape.

That is, until a private investigator, Ed, approaches her unannounced to reveal some shocking and sinister information about her husband, and her life is about to change forever. Angela must decide whether it’s time to fight for her freedom or take flight: but who can she trust?

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents...

The second edition of the showcase will take place on October 9.

The second edition of the BFI London Film Festival (Lff)’s Work-in-Progress showcase has selected seven projects from emerging British talent, to present to an invited audience of international buyers and festival programmers at the event on October 9.

The in-person showcase will include extracts screened from each project, followed by a Q&a with the director and producer. Projects include cinema, television and immersive works; all are recently completed or in production or post-production.

The works include Dionne Edwards’ debut feature Pretty Red Dress, backed by BBC Film and the BFI,...

Exclusive: Yazzmin Newell (The Last Tree) is set as a series regular opposite Emma McDonald, Dominic Monaghan and Ayelet Zurer in AMC’s utopian drama series Moonhaven.

Created, written and executive produced by Peter Ocko, Moonhaven is about a utopian colony on the moon that might hold the keys to preserving life on Earth, which has become increasingly perilous. The series, produced by AMC Studios, is set to debut on AMC and AMC+ next year.

The suspense thriller focuses on Bella Sway (McDonald), a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler 100 years in the future who finds herself accused of a crime and marooned on Moonhaven, a utopian community set on a 500 square mile Garden of Eden built on the moon to find solutions to the problems that will soon end civilization on Mother Earth. A skeptic in Paradise, Bella is sucked into a conspiracy to gain control of the artificial intelligence...

Noomi Rapace and Nicholas Pinnock are joining Matthias Schoenaerts in the star cast of “Django,” an English-language reimagining of Sergio Corbucci’s classic 1966 Western. Set in the Wild West of the 1860s and ’70s, the project marks one of the biggest high-end European series of 2021.

Star of “Prometheus,” “Sherlock Holmes” and “What Happened to Monday,” Sweden’s Rapace will play Elizabeth, who is described as a powerful and merciless enemy of John Ellis. Along with his fiancee Sarah, John Ellis is the founder of New Babylon, a city of outcasts which welcomes everyone from any background, race or creed.

British actor Pinnock — whose credits include movies such as “The Last Tree” and “Dark Encounter” as well as popular TV dramas “Counterpart,”“Fortitude,” “Marcella and “For Life” — takes the key role of John Ellis. Schoenaerts (“Bullhead”) plays the titular role of Django.

German on-the-rise star Lisa Vicari, Martha Nielsen in “Dark,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Amazon Prime Video commissions “Celebrity Bake Off España”; BBC Three sets launch date for “Dreaming Whilst Black”; HBO Max boards “Lucy the Human Chimp”; Banijay Iberia shakes up its executive team; and Beyond Rights acquires “Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death” ahead of MipTV.

Format

Amazon Prime Video is bringing Love Productions and the BBC’s popular cooking format “Celebrity Bake Off” to Spanish cocinas with “Celebrity Bake Off España,” a local version of the program set to feature big names from Spanish sports, music and entertainment.

Sticking with what has worked so well for the franchise thus far, “Celebrity Bake Off España” will pit 12 celebs in a weekly culinary competition to be judged by experts, with one contestant sent home each week.

Trans-Atlantic production house Boxfish TV, producers of the current Spanish remake of the original “Bake Off” for Cuatro, will also produce the...

Home Team, the UK indie production house founded by Dominic Buchanan and Bennett McGhee, has hired Jessica Hill as Senior Development Executive.

Hill joins from Sister where she spent three years working in roles including script executive on HBO/Sky’s upcoming drama Landscapers, and script editor for BBC and Netflix’s international series Giri/Haji.

The company said Hill’s role will support its founders’ ambition to bring under-represented talent into the mainstream through the development and production of high-end, wholly inclusive international feature films and television series.

Home Team was launched in September 2020 with backing from Calculus Capital and Stargrove Pictures’ Calculus Creative Content Eis Fund. It is run by The End of The F***ing World exec producer Buchanan and Mogul Mowgli producer McGhee. The company’s slate includes Shola Amoo’s follow-up to The Last Tree; a new BFI-backed film project directed by Destiny Ekaragha and Danielle...

Jessica Hill will oversee development.

Dominic Buchanan and Bennett McGhee’s film and TV outfit Home Team has hired Sister Pictures executive Jessica Hill to oversee its development slate.

Hill joins the company as senior development executive. Working across development and production on film and TV projects, she will support Buchanan and McGhee in their ambition to bring under-represented talent into the mainstream.

During three years at Sister, Hill worked as script editor on BBC thriller series Giri/Haji, and was script executive on upcoming HBO/Sky drama Landscapers starring Olivia Colman.

“Jess joins us at this early and vital stage of the company,...

Jessica Hill will oversee development.

Dominic Buchanan and Bennett McGhee’s film and TV outfit Home Team has hired Sister Pictures executive Jessica Hill to oversee its development slate.

Hill joins the company as senior development executive. Working across development and production on film and TV projects, she will support Buchanan and McGhee in their ambition to bring under-represented talent into the mainstream.

During three years at Sister, Hill worked as script editor on BBC thriller series Giri/Haji, and was script executive on upcoming HBO/Sky drama Landscapers starring Olivia Colman.

“Jess joins us at this early and vital stage of the company,...

The Criterion Channel has unveiled their March 2021 lineup, which includes no shortage of remarkable programming. Highlights from the slate include eight gems from Preston Sturges, Elaine May’s brilliant A New Leaf, a series featuring Black Westerns, Ann Hui’s Boat People, the new restoration of Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi.

They will also add films from their Essential Fellini boxset, series on Dirk Bogarde and Nelly Kaplan, and Luchino Visconti’s The Damned and Death in Venice, and more. In terms of recent releases, there’s also Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century and Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In.

Check out the lineup below, along with the teaser for the Black Westerns series. For weekly streaming updates across all services, bookmark this page.

The Adventurer, Charles Chaplin, 1917

Bandini, Bimal Roy, 1963

Behind the Screen, Charles Chaplin, 1916

Black Jack, Ken Loach, 1979

Black Rodeo, Jeff Kanew, 1972

Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan Coen,...

D-Nice, Viola Davis, Regina King, Trevor Noah and Tyler Perry are nominated for entertainer of the year at the 2021 NAACP Image Awards.

The nominations were virtually announced Tuesday on the NAACP Image Awards’ Instagram by Anika Noni-Rose (“Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey”), Chloe Bailey (“Grown-ish”), Erika Alexander (“John Lewis: Good Trouble”), Nicco Annan (“P-Valley”), and Tc Carson (“Living Single”).

This is King’s third consecutive nomination for the top award and Perry’s second since 2014. Davis was previously nominated consecutively from 2015-2017. All of them have never won the top category. This is the first nominations for D-Nice and Noah in the category.

Davis also picked up nominations for best actress in a drama series for “How to Get Away with Murder” and best actress in a motion picture for her work in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” while King was among the nominees for directing her debut feature “One Night in Miami.

HBO is developing the third season of the hit podcast “Serial” as a limited series, with LeBron James onboard the project as an executive producer.

The potential series will examine the criminal justice system at work in Cleveland, Ohio. Following a young cop and the man he’s accused of beating, it dives into the inner workings of a middle-American courthouse and how the system impacts every person it touches: cop, lawyer, and citizens accused of and victimized by crimes.

Shola Amoo is attached to write, direct, and executive produce. James will executive produce under his SpringHill Company banner along with Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, and Eric Oberland. Sarah Koenig, Emmanuel Dzotsi, and Alissa Shipp of Serial Productions will also executive produce alongside Kary Antholis for Crime Story Media, LLC.

Should the project go to series, it would not be the first time that “Serial” has been brought to HBO.

The podcast-to-tv boom continues with HBO adapting the third season of Serial as a limited series.

The network is developing the remake with rising writer/director Shola Amoo and exec produced by Lebron James and former HBO exec Kary Antholis.

The third season of the award-winning podcast, which arguably set in motion the current boom for non-fiction audio series, was set in the Cleveland justice system. Unlike the first two seasons, which featured one case, it looked at the system overall with focuses on cases before the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas such as a woman who accidentally hits a police officer after being assaulted in a bar and a young African American man who is assaulted by police officers for being in possession of marijuana.

The television adaptation will follow a young cop and the man he’s accused of beating, it illuminates the deeply flawed inner workings...

Jury members include ‘Animals’ producer Sarah Brocklehurst.

Wild Rose director Tom Harper and Animals producer Sarah Brocklehurst are among the jurors of this year’s British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).

Brocklehurst will preside over the main jury that includes The Last Tree actor Samuel Adewunmi; Daphne and Rialto director Peter Mackie Burns; writer and actor Mark O’Halloran; Blue Story producer Joy Gharoro Akpojotor; Only You filmmaker Harry Wootliff; writer-director Reggie Yates; Anthony Andrews, co-founder of exhibitor We Are Parable; and broadcaster Yinka Bokinni

The new talent jury will be chaired by film critic Amon Warmann and includes Harper, whose Wild Rose...

The life and times of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali are rife with stories worthy of cinematic depiction, and now Searchlight is developing a movie centered on Ali's refusal to be drafted into the military during the Vietnam War. Up and coming director Shola Amoo has signed on to helm the project from a script by Phillip Howze, whose previous credits include the Netflix true crime series Mindhunter and the musical drama series The Eddy.

While director Shola Amoo does not have many credits to his name, he has already demonstrated an adept hand at emotion and insight with last year's critically acclaimed drama The Last Tree.

The movie is based on the book Sting Like a Bee: Muhammad Ali vs. The United States of America by Leigh Montville, which provides a perceptive look at the sports legend and centers on the cultural and political implications of his refusal of service...

Searchlight is developing a feature film centered on Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army in 1967 during the Vietnam War, Variety has learned exclusively.

The project is based on Leigh Montville’s “Sting Like a Bee: Muhammad Ali vs. The United States of America.” The book centers on the cultural and political implications of Ali’s refusal of service in the military on the basis of his Islamic beliefs. It also shows the key moments in a life in exile from the ring as he risks losing everything — his boxing license, his career, even his freedom as he’s forced to take a stand in a battle for racial equality.

“The Last Tree” director Shola Amoo has been signed to direct the film from a script by Phillip Howze, whose credits include Netflix’s “Mindhunter” and “The Eddy.” Alix Madigan (Amazon’s “The Lie”) is producing.

In today’s Mipcom Roundup, the English Premier League announces a pay-per-view plan for games, while Spanish-language producers Ánima and Touché Films team up, the BBC and Prince William back new Silverback Films series and ITV partners with Charter Spectrum to order a new Two Brothers Pictures series.

Sports

Britain’s English Premier League (Epl), the world’s most lucrative domestic soccer league, came under fire yesterday after announcing that games not selected for open broadcast by Sky Sports or BT Sport will be made available on a pay-per-view basis for a per-match fee of £14.95 ($19.51) after Oct. 17 via BT Sport Box Office and Sky Sports Box Office platforms.

The change will see half of each round of fixture’s games taken off of Sky, BT and the BBC, where they had been available since the league returned to action in June, and made only available via pay-per-view.

With fans not...

Former Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt has signed on to lead a thriller called Angela Black for Spectrum Originals and ITV.

The six-episode drama comes from Harry and Jack Williams, via their Two Brothers Pictures (an All3Media company). The duo were executive producers of Fleabag and created ITV’s Liar, which also starred Froggatt.

The series will also star Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones) and Samuel Adewunmi (The Watch, The Last Tree). Craig Viveiros will direct.

“I am honored to be working with Two Brothers Pictures again and this important and timely story from the brilliant Harry and Jack Williams is like nothing I’...

Former Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt has signed on to lead a thriller called Angela Black for Spectrum Originals and ITV.

The six-episode drama comes from Harry and Jack Williams, via their Two Brothers Pictures (an All3Media company). The duo were executive producers of Fleabag and created ITV’s Liar, which also starred Froggatt.

The series will also star Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones) and Samuel Adewunmi (The Watch, The Last Tree). Craig Viveiros will direct.

“I am honored to be working with Two Brothers Pictures again and this important and timely story from the brilliant Harry and Jack Williams is like nothing I’...

Ah, when we could meet people in person. This interview is from London Film Festival 2019, and we sat down – in person – with Monsoon director Hong Khaou to discuss his latest project.

We speak to Khaou about the film’s semi-autobiographical edge, and on his own childhood memories of Cambodia. He also looks back on his preceding endeavour Lilting, starring Ben Whishaw, and talks about the exploration of duality on screen, as the film was shown in close proximity to other movies The Last Tree and The Farewell, which also tackled a similar area. And of course we speak in length about his leading man Henry Golding, as Khaou comments on rumours linking the actor with the soon-to-be vacant James Bond post…

Watch the full interview with Hong Khaou below:

Synopsis

Kit returns to Ho Chi Minh City for the first time since he was six years old when his family...

The firm will focus on under-represented creatives.

UK producers Dominic Buchanan, whose credits include The End Of The F***ing World, and Bennett McGhee, who produced Mogul Mowgli, have launched Home Team, a new production company focusing on under-represented creative voices.

The company has recieved backing from the Calculus Creative Content Eis Fund, which was launched in June 2019 in association with the BFI to help generate a new wave of investors in the UK screen industries. Finance specialists Stargrove Pictures acts as adviser to the fund, and sourced the Home Team investment opportunity.

The company will develop and produce feature films and high-end television series,...

Two of the U.K.’s top producers, Dominic Buchanan and Bennett McGhee (left), have teamed up to launch a new film and TV production company.

Home Team will focus on high-end, inclusive projects that champion underrepresented creatives and new voices, including filmmakers of color and female filmmakers from all backgrounds.

Buchanan is executive producer on Netflix/Channel 4 drama “The End of the F***ing World,” while McGhee’s recent film “Mogul Mowgli,” starring Riz Ahmed, recently picked up the 2020 Fipresci prize at the Berlin Film Festival, and will soon play the London Film Festival. The film was recently acquired by BFI Distribution.

The company’s development slate includes a collaboration with BBC Films on Shola Amoo’s follow-up to the critically-acclaimed “The Last Tree”; a new BFI-backed film project directed by Destiny Ekaragha (“The End of the F***ing World”) and Danielle Ward (“In the Long Run”); and Nadia Latif...

UK producers Dominic Buchanan (The End of The F***ing World) and Bennett McGhee (Mogul Mowgli) are launching film and TV firm Home Team with a focus on development and production of high-end features and TV series.

The company is aiming to identify and develop under-represented creatives and new voices – primarily, but not restricted to, filmmakers of color and women filmmakers of all ethnicities, through interactive as well as traditional film and TV platforms.

Projects on the development slate include a collaboration with BBC Films on Shola Amoo’s follow-up to feature The Last Tree; a new BFI-backed film project directed by Destiny Ekaragha (The End of the F***ing World) and Danielle Ward (In the Long Run); Nadia Latif and Omar El-Khairy’s (White Girl) feature debut, which is the upcoming horror film Welcome, currently being developed with Film4 and the BFI; Rohan Blair-Mangat’s (Centrepiece) docu-series The Boombox Project, adapted...

Dominic Buchanan, best known as the BAFTA-winning producer of Netflix/Channel 4 series The End of the F***ing World, and Bennett McGhee, producer of the Riz Ahmed-starring Berlinale 2020 Fipresci winner Mogul Mowgli, have launched a new film and TV production company, Home Team.

The central aim of Home Team, announced Wednesday, is to identity and develop underrepresented creatives, primarily — but not restricted — filmmakers of colour and women filmmakers of all ethnicities.

The banner’s initial development slate includes a collaboration with BBC Films of Shola Amoo’s follow-up to the critically-acclaimed feature, The Last Tree; a new BFI-backed film project directed by Destiny ...

Dominic Buchanan, best known as the BAFTA-winning producer of Netflix/Channel 4 series The End of the F***ing World, and Bennett McGhee, producer of the Riz Ahmed-starring Berlinale 2020 Fipresci winner Mogul Mowgli, have launched a new film and TV production company, Home Team.

The central aim of Home Team, announced Wednesday, is to identity and develop underrepresented creatives, primarily — but not restricted — filmmakers of colour and women filmmakers of all ethnicities.

The banner’s initial development slate includes a collaboration with BBC Films of Shola Amoo’s follow-up to the critically-acclaimed feature, The Last Tree; a new BFI-backed film project directed by Destiny ...

Here’s a daunting editing assignment: Take more than 300,000 videos and boil them down into one 90-minute documentary film.

For YouTube’s forthcoming “Life In A Day 2020,” the video platform says it received more than 300,000 submissions from 191 countries in more than 65 languages, representing thousands of hours of footage, all recorded on the same day: July 25, 2020.

The film project, “Life in a Day 2020,” comes 10 years after the original YouTube-commissioned documentary, which garnered 80,000 submissions back in 2010 from the same day. Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald is returning as director, reteaming with executive producer Ridley Scott. Rsa Films managing director Kai-Lu Hsiung also is an executive producer on the film.

The final film will be composed entirely of selected contributions from participants, winnowed down by a team of editors before Macdonald makes the final picks. “Life In A Day 2020” will premiere as part of the Sundance Film Festival next January and on YouTube in...

A fashion student kicks back against misogyny and religious extremism in Mounia Meddour’s ambitious directorial debut

The title is Algerian slang for “cool girl” or “rebel girl” and Algerian film-maker Mounia Meddour brings a lot of empowering energy to this autobiographical debut feature, set in the 1990s during her country’s civil war, between government and Islamist militants. It is a sufficiently controversial subject for the film to be denied a release in Algeria last year, although it was the country’s entry for best foreign film Oscar, not nominated but selected for the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and winning two French Césars.

Related: From Pressure to The Last Tree: 10 of the best black British films...

Documentary to premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2021.

Ten years after Life In A Day, Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald are reuniting for YouTube Originals documentary Life In A Day 2020.

The upcoming production from Rsa Films in association with Flying Object will premiere at Sundance Film Festival and on YouTube in 2021 and sees MacDonald and Scott reprise their roles as director and executive producer.

The filmmakers are encouraging people around the world to film themselves on July 25 with the ambition of editing together the selected submissions to tell the story of a single day on Earth in 2020. Participants will have until...

Ten years after the original film, YouTube has ordered a sequel to “Life in a Day,” reuniting executive producer Ridley Scott and director Kevin Macdonald for a new documentary that will stitch together hundreds of user-submitted videos from across the globe on a single date.

“Life in a Day 2020” is slated to premiere at next year’s Sundance Film Festival and on YouTube in 2021. The project marks one of the first titles to be confirmed for Sundance, which doesn’t normally reveal selections until early December.

The film will be compiled from video clips submitted by people on the same day — Saturday, July 25, 2020 — to tell the story of a single day on Earth, following the conceit of the original.

“Making the first ‘Life in a Day’ was one of the most joyful and eye-opening experiences of my life,” Macdonald said in a statement. “I am thrilled, 10 years later, that we...

The Last Tree ArtMattan Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Shola Amoo Screenwriter: Shola Amoo Cast: Sam Adewunmi, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Denise Black, Tai Golding, Nicholas Pinnock, Ruthxjiah Bellenea Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 6/23/20 Opens: June 26, 2020 Distributed by Artmattan Films which boasts” films about the […]

The post The Last Tree Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Exclusive: Enlightened Kingdom is producing the John Stephenson Obe-directed feature Lady of Heaven about Lady Fatima, the daughter of the prophet Muhammad.

Separated by 1400 years, an Iraqi child, in the midst of a war-torn country, learns the importance and power of patience. After losing his mother, the child finds himself in a new home, where a loving grandmother narrates the historical story of The Lady and how her suffering as the first victim of terrorism spun out of control into the 21st century.

Sheikh Al-Habib wrote the screenplay and Husaain Ashmere executive produced with Matthew Kuipers producing. Sarah Trevis (Mary Poppins Returns) oversaw casting which includes Ray Fearon, Mark Anthony Brighton (Doctor Strange), Denise Black (The Last Tree), Oscar Garland, Chris Jarman, Alex Lanipekun, Arman Mantella, Hannah Rose Caton and Andrew Harrison.

“There are 250 films on Jesus Christ, 120 films on Moses,...

In what has been one hell of an election year, Jon Stewart is cutting through all of it with his biting political comedy Irresistible starring Steve Carell, Rose Byrne and Chris Cooper. The Focus Features film was originally set to hit theaters on May 29, but like all films impacted by the pandemic, it pivoted to PVOD and drops today.

Written by Stewart, Irresistible follows a Democrat political consultant (Carell) who helps a retired Marine colonel (Cooper) run for mayor against a Republican rival (Byrne) in a small Wisconsin town. This marks a reunion of sorts for Stewart and Carell, who was a recurring correspondent on The Daily Show between 1999 and 2005. The film is also Stewart’s latest outing as a feature film director. His first pic, Rosewater, was released in 2014 and told the story of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari who was accused and brutally interrogated by Iranian forces for being a spy.

A Tree Grows in London: Amoo Charts Familiar Coming of Age Drama Through Urban Pitfalls

Cycles of violence and heartache in disenfranchised urban communities are certainly not new subjects in cinema, and director Shola Amoo puts his own intimate spin on a coming-of-age drama with his sophomore effort The Last Tree. Like his 2016 debut, A Moving Image, Amoo revisits the notion of returning to one’s community following absence or removal. Unlike the gentrification issues at the heart of his last feature, however, Amoo focuses on class and economic disparity with a tale of young Nigerian immigrant boy removed from his white foster mother in Lincolnshire and returned to his biological mother in the less than desirable climes of inner London.…...

The BBC has declared its commitment to being the “primary incubator of story-telling talent in the UK”.

The BBC has declared its commitment to being the “primary incubator of story-telling talent in the UK” by commissioning a quartet of first-time TV writers, along with another Sally Rooney adaptation.

Drama controller Piers Wenger revealed a single film adaptation of Kit de Waal’s My Name Is Leon written by The Last Tree director Shola Amoo, revolving around a mixed-race boy growing up in 1980s Britain. It is directed by Kibwe Tavares (a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2012) and is being produced...

Variety’s “10 Europeans to Watch” were feted Saturday night at a party held by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg at Berlin’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Co-hosting the evening were Kirsten Niehuus and Helge Jürgens, managing directors of Medienboard, the regional film, TV and digital-media funding body.

Pictured above are U.K. filmmaker and rapper Andrew Onwubolu, known by his alias Rapman, Irish producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Italian director Carlo Sironi (“Sole”), German director Leonie Krippendorff (“Cocoon”), Estonian director Tanel Toom, Germany-based Kosovan director Visar Morina (“Exile”), and Hungarian actor Abigél Szõke (“Those Who Remained”).

Before welcoming to the stage some of Europe’s most promising stars of tomorrow, Variety executive VP of content Steven Gaydos noted: “Variety is celebrating our 115th year covering international entertainment, before people were watching movies.”

He also shared the story of local producer Sol Bondy, who met Russian producers Ilya Stewart and Murad Osmann at Variety’s “10 Producers to...

Ahead of tonight’s BAFTA Awards in London, Amy Gustin and Deena Wallace, co-directors of the British Independent Film Awards (Bifa), discuss how they shook up their awards’ voting mechanisms to become more inclusive of a wider variety of films and filmmakers.

Bifa is different from other awards bodies in its process as well as its purpose. We’re here to champion British independent film and new filmmakers. To do that well, it’s vital that we give every film and filmmaker a fair shot.

Tempting as it may be, we aren’t going to join the chorus of BAFTA-bashing: the public and industry outcry over the lack of diversity in their nominations has already illuminated problems that need to be addressed.

However, we do admit to having a little fun on social at their expense: it was too good an opportunity to pass up to highlight some of the...

Here’s the latest episode of the The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the ever-growing podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar, with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro budget indie films to bigger budget studio films and everything in-between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their film making experiences from directors, writers, producers, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers and distributors. They also shoot the breeze about their new films, The Dare, World of Darkness,...

Carey Mulligan and Himesh Patel among talent spotlighting issue.

British filmmakers and actors have named the women and people of colour they believe should have nominated for a Bafta in the wake of a recent diversity row.

Time’s Up UK has called on talent including Carey Mulligan and Yesterday star Himesh Patel to suggest who they believe should have been recognised in the Bafta Film Awards nominations, in which the four acting categories were all white and no female filmmakers were selected for best director.

The organisation has launched a social media campaign today to celebrate those who they feel should have been nominated,...

Variety has unveiled its sixth edition of 10 Europeans to Watch, spotlighting 10 rising talents from across the continent who are poised for breakthroughs in 2020. The selection includes emerging actors, directors, writers and producers. The group will be feted at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. They are:

U.K. actor Sam Adewunmi, star of Sundance film “The Last Tree” who was nominated at the British Independent Film Awards and won the most promising newcomer prize from the org. He’s filming the BBC adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s “The Watch” in South Africa.

Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly produced William Oldroyd’s “Lady Macbeth,” Florence Pugh’s powerful film debut. She’s got Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” with Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, on her docket.

German writer-director Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” debuted at the Berlin Film Festival last year and repped Germany in the international film race. She is now helming Sandra Bullock...

London-based firm lands investment from Us-based Mc Credit Partners.

The UK’s Great Point Media has secured $100m from Us-based institutional investor Mc Credit Partners (McCp) to launch a film and TV content fund.

The first projects to benefit from the investment are set to be announced early next year with an aim to finance larger independent films and TV productions.

London-based Great Point Media is the financing, sales and distribution outfit behind Shola Amoo’s Sundance title The Last Tree, Lady Macbeth, starring Florence Pugh, and BBC/Amazon TV project King Lear.

Funds managed by McCp will invest up...

UK sales and finance outfit Great Point Media has partnered with U.S. fund manager Mc Credit Partners on a new initiative to finance film and TV projects.

According to the two firms, funds managed by McCp will invest up to $100M in the partnership and Great Point has already committed a minimum of $80M. The commitment marks the first institutional investment for Great Point’s global project finance fund and will be used to back larger-scale media projects.

In September, Great Point Capital partnered with Lionsgate to develop a $100M+ studio complex in Yonkers, New York. Great Point says it is currently assessing seven additional sites for studio development in the UK, U.S. and Europe.

Commenting on the investment, Robert Halmi, Chairman of Great Point Media said, “Since 2013, Great Point Media has produced, financed and distributed more than $600M of content and financed over 170 projects. This commitment from...