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Joseph Baxter Dec 5, 2017

The Please Stand By trailer depicts Dakota Fanning as an autistic Trekkie, who embarks on a quest submit her script.

Upcoming indie comedy drama Please Stand By will fly a flag of fandom that Star Trek enthusiasts should appreciate. The film depicts the travails of a young woman (Dakota Fanning) in a trek of a different nature – on the road to Hollywood – to enter her original script in a contest.

To anyone unacquainted, the opening moments of the Please Stand By trailer - depicting environmental-suit-donning Kirk and Spock stuck in an alien dust storm – might briefly make you think that this was teaser for the untitled Star Trek 3. Of course, it’s really just insight into the creative mind of young Wendy (Fanning), an autistic Trekkie who’s put her creative output into a Star Trek script for a contest.

However, submitting said script requires the...

Star Geraldine Hakewill on set.

In 2010, filmmaker Tony Prescott studied directing at Aftrs, where "the education was based on making a feature, but we made short films"..

"I don't think I'm very good at making short films", Prescott told If.

In 2011 he started developing an idea for a feature that he developed over five years - and forty drafts - with fellow Aftrs student James Raue (whose own first film, Psychoanalysis, is currently touring festivals).

The Pretend One is about a young woman (Wanted's Geraldine Hakewill) and her imaginary friend (Michael Whalley).

Their relationship becomes complicated when a suitor comes to town and Whalley's character becomes jealous.

Talking to people about the kind of Australian film he wanted to make, Prescott "struggled to find a reference".

"One of the closest I could think of was Paperback Romance. [Generally] We don't do magic and we don't do romance".

One influence the...

Toni Collette.

Toni Collette has joined the cast of Please Stand By, the next film from Australian director Ben Lewin (Seachange, Paperback Romance) after his critically-acclaimed The Sessions in 2012..

Collette joins River Alexander, her The Way Way Back co-star, as well as Dakota Fanning and Alice Eve..

Fanning plays .a brilliant young woman with autism who escapes her care home and embarks on a road trip of a lifetime: to enter her script into a Hollywood competition...

Collette will play her caregiver.

Embankment FIlms is handling international sales.

John Hawkes has no interest in money, being famous or giving interviews. Sadly for him, the success of Winter's Bone and his latest role as a disabled man trying to lose his virginity mean he'd better get used to all three

If you haven't heard of John Hawkes, or don't recognise him from the photo, that's the way he likes it. He values anonymity in a way that is – how to put this delicately? – inconvenient, for someone who happens to be the leading man in a film that's this year's Little Miss Sunshine, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: the feelgood festival hit that is set to bring home a decent haul this awards season.

The film is The Sessions and it's just another everyday Hollywood love story involving a man, a woman… and an iron lung. It's based on the true life of Mark O'Brien, who was...

In The Sessions, John Hawkes plays true character Mark O’Brien, a man with polio who spends much of his life isolated from human touch in his iron lung. In hopes of feeling something remarkable, he hires a sex surrogate (played by Helen Hunt) to help him lose his virginity. William H. Macy plays Father Brendan, a spiritual consultant for Mark during this life-changing event.

Though The Sessions might arguably be his biggest film yet, Lewin has directed three narrative films before – Georgia, Paperback Romance, and The Favour, The Watch, and the Very Big Fish.

I sat down with Lewin in a roundtable interview to discuss the film, why he chose John Hawkes over disabled actors, the points he wants to make about physical sensation, and more.

The Sessions opens in Chicago on October 26.

What have preview audience reactions been like so far?

I find them really fascinating. In most cases,...

After coming away from Sundance this year with two awards, taking the Audience Award and jointly winning the Special Jury Prize alongside Smashed, the film has continued its festival circuit over the past month, and will be released in Us theatres next Friday.

Heading into the coming awards season as a contender, we saw the UK trailer for the film last week, followed yesterday by two new UK posters, and now have a few more images to share.

“Academy Award® nominee John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) stars in this funny and touching comedy-drama about a childhood polio survivor — now in his thirties and permanently confined to an iron lung — who hires a professional sex surrogate (Academy Award® winner Helen Hunt) to help him lose his virginity.”

Led by John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, the film is based on the autobiographical writings of journalist-poet Mark O’Brien.

Ben Lewin (Lucky Break) is behind the camera,...

Previously titled The Surrogate, The Sessions debuted at Sundance to very positive early reviews, and is now set for release in the Us next weekend.

We saw the UK trailer for the film last week, and now we’ve been sent two new posters for its release on our shores, which will be coming a little later in the New Year.

“Academy Award® nominee John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) stars in this funny and touching comedy-drama about a childhood polio survivor — now in his thirties and permanently confined to an iron lung — who hires a professional sex surrogate (Academy Award® winner Helen Hunt) to help him lose his virginity.”

Led by John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, the film is based on the autobiographical writings of journalist-poet Mark O’Brien.

Ben Lewin (Lucky Break) is behind the camera, directing from his own script, with William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Annika Marks,...

Making its debut at Sundance this year to brilliant first reviews, The Sessions (previously titled The Surrogate) is set for release later this year, and if its first reception is anything to go by, it could well be an awards contender in the months to come.

The film is heading to the Toronto International Film Festival early next month, and ahead of its screening there, Yahoo Movies have debuted a new clip from the film, giving us a look at its leading stars, John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.

“Academy Award® nominee John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) stars in this funny and touching comedy-drama about a childhood polio survivor — now in his thirties and permanently confined to an iron lung — who hires a professional sex surrogate (Academy Award® winner Helen Hunt) to help him lose his virginity.”

The film is based on the autobiographical writings of journalist-poet Mark O’Brien, and...

Strictly speaking figures, The Surrogate has been the big Sundance winner thus far. Scooped up by Fox Searchlight for a massive $6 million, the film is already reportedly being groomed for next year’s Oscar race. The first narrative feature from filmmaker Ben Lewin since 1994′s Paperback Romance, The Surrogate tells the true story of journalist Mark O’Brien, a polio stricken man who, after living most of his life in an iron lung, decides to try to lose his virginity. Starring John Hawkes as O’Brien, The Surrogate received a standing ovation at it’s premiere, and it’s already being praised by critics as a light-hearted, accessible crowd-pleaser.

Filmmaker: How did you first come across Mark O’Brien’s story. What inspired you to adapt it?

Lewin: I stumbled across Mark’s article “On Seeing a Sex Surrogate” on the internet. I felt that if I could do on...

Ben Lewin.s comeback flick The Surrogate has been acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures following its screening at the Sundance Film Festival.

Fox Searchlight reportedly spent $US6 million for worldwide rights to the film that was also penned by the former Australian. Lewin now resides in Los Angeles after moving in 1994.

The La times said the film sparked a bidding war between key distributors at Sundance, which involved The Weinstein Company and Lionsgate.

The indie drama boasts an all-star cast including Helen Hunt, John Hawkes and William H. Macy and is based on poet/journalist Mark O.Brien. O.Brien was stricken with polio at the age of six, and was left paralysed from the neck down. He spent the remainder of life in an iron lung. The flick centres on his journey to lose his virginity - something he achieves with the help of his therapist and even his priest.

This year at the Oscar’s a little-known character actor, who had been creating strong performances in independent films and television for years, finally got some well-deserved recognition when he was nominated alongside some major stars in the Best Supporting Actor category. John Hawkes, nominated for the gritty Ozarks noir Winter’s Bone, was the category’s clear underdog, running against academy favorite Geoffrey Rush and a trio of famous leading men, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, and Christian Bale. And while Hawkes (my personal pick for the award) did not win the Oscar, his deliciously menacing performance has earned accolades and taken Hawkes to a new level of fame. The kind of fame that has Variety reporting on his next move.

The perennial supporting player is set to star in an upcoming independent about heralded poet and journalist Mark O’Brien, a man whose brush with polio left him to...

Oscar-nominated John Hawkes is attached to star in Ben Lewin’s indie drama Surrogate for Rhino Films. Lewin is also on board to write the pic, with Stephen Nemeth producing.

The film is based on the true-life story of journalist and poet Mark O’Brien. Suffering from polio he was left paralyzed from the neck down. That did little to stop O’Brien’s aspirations and he going on to become a published journalist and poet. His story was documented in the 1996 Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien which won an Oscar for documentary short.

This film will center on a more peculiar chapter in O’Brien’s life: his engaging a sex surrogate to help him explore his sexuality. By the way, this practice was introduced by gynecologist Masters and psychologist Johnson. O’Brien, as well, published the essay On Seeing a Sex Surrogate...