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Acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger is hoping that his new Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBent Ramsey will clear the Ramsey family name. Berlinger's series focuses on the unsolved murder of child beauty pageant queen JonBent Ramsey. On December 26, 1996, JonBent was reported missing by her parents, and her body was later found in the family's basement. The infamous case drew plenty of media and public speculation, with many believing that JonBent's parents, John and Patsy, were complicit in her murder.

Patsy and John were never tried for their daughter's death and were formally cleared in 2008 by then-Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy, who issued a letter exonerating them based on new DNA evidence. But that hasn't stopped public scrutiny. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Berlinger shares that, through the new series, he wants "to give that family a measure of justice."

"Obviously, the Ramseys are not wrongfully convicted they were never tried.

The star, Alexandra Daddario, the writer, Alan Trezza, and the director, Marc Meyers, of the terrific new film We Summon The Darkness walk us through some of their favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

We Summon The Darkness (2020)

Burying The Ex (2015)

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

American Beauty (1999)

Strictly Ballroom (1992)

Ghostbusters (1984)

The Sound of Music (1965)

L.A. Story (1991)

Ghost Dad (1990)

Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)

Roxanne (1987)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Fargo (1996)

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Psycho (1960)

Psycho (1998)

Defending Your Life (1991)

Modern Romance (1981)

The Jerk (1979)

Jaws (1975)

Notting Hill (1999)

Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994)

When Harry Met Sally… (1989)

Love Actually (2003)

Marley & Me (2008)

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

World’s Greatest Dad (2009)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Raging Bull (1980)

Mandy (2018)

Heathers (1988)

Ed Wood (1994)

Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Fletch (1985)

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Batman Returns (1992)

Warlock (1989)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Star Wars (1977)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

The Swimmer (1968)

Sherman’s March (1985)

Amadeus (1984)

Amarcord (1974)

Hugo Pool (1997)

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills...

Alec Bojalad Mar 4, 2019

Put that Amazon Prime subscription to use and learn a thing or two with this list of the streaming service's best documentaries

Editor's Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back every month to see what other excellent Sci-Fi movies get added to Amazon Prime.

Updated for March 2019. 

You can see a complete list of Amazon new releases here.

We watch movies to escape. We watch documentaries to stay. 

Ok, that's a massive oversimplification. But documentaries fill a much different role in the culture than films or television. A good documentary is ideally both entertaining and a learning experience. All the streaming services have a documentary presence on their servers to some extent and here we break down what Amazon has to offer.

The documentaries of Amazon Prime are as entertaining and informative as any other source. Notice, however, that Mr. Bezos seems...

When filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky arrived in West Memphis, Arkansas in June 1993, they came with an agenda: to document what looked like a new wave of alienated youth-turned-murderers. A few months earlier, two 10-year-olds in the U.K. had made headlines when they abducted, tortured and murdered a two-year-old, and now the filmmakers had read about the brutal murders of three eight-year-old boys ostensibly committed by teenage Satanists. It seemed like a trend. "We went down to make a film about guilty teenagers, like a real Rivers Edge,...

Bruce Sinofsky, one-half of the Emmy Award-winning documentarian team behind films like Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and the West Memphis Three trilogy Paradise Lost, passed away in his sleep Saturday morning following complications from diabetes, his filmmaking partner Joe Berlinger told Variety. He was 58.

"[Sinofsky's] unique combination of courage and empathy made that possible, as well as everything that came after for us," Berlinger told Variety. "The extraordinary adventures we had on the road and the deeply stimulating experiences we had in the editing room were life-changing for all of...

Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga and Evan Rachel Wood have signed on to star in Facing the Wind, the first narrative crime drama from celebrated documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills).

The plot is based on the best-selling book of the same name by New York Times reporter Julie Salomon, which tells the true story of Bob Rowe (Alessandro Nivola), a seemingly ordinary family man whose psyche begins to unravel, leading him to kill his entire family. Rowe's 1978 case was one of the first successful uses of the insanity plea, although this historic case has never been featured in a movie before.

Vera Farmiga is playing Rowe's first wife, Mary, with Evan Rachel Wood playing his second wife Colleen whom he tries to start a new life with after avoiding a prison sentence. Rita Wilson and Jennifer Beals also star in unspecified supporting roles.

Sundance Channel's new drama "Rectify," which premieres Monday April 22nd at 9pm, is about a man named Daniel Holden (Aden Young) who is released from death row after almost 20 years when his conviction is vacated due to DNA evidence. It's a situation that Damien Echols knows all too well. As one of the West Memphis Three, Echols was sentenced to death for the 1993 murders of three boys in Arkansas. He, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin served 18 years and 78 days in prison before being released under Alford pleas following a deal with the prosecutors in 2011. The case and the way it was handled attracted considerable attention and criticism due in large part to the efforts of filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, who documented the trials of the West Memphis Three in 1996's "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," following up in 2000 sequel "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations...

By Joey Magidson

Film Contributor

***

All good documentaries want to make an impact in the world. Ideally, they’d like to change lives, too. It doesn’t happen too often, but once in a while a documentary comes along that truly does bring about change. The ‘Paradise Lost’ trilogy of films falls into that category — it marked the start of a movement.

Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky didn’t set out to make three movies about the same subject matter, but when they first began to look into the case of the West Memphis Three they found something that they simply couldn’t shake.

What began in 1996 with Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills was just the beginning. The year 2000 brought Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, and finally last year Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory completed the job while also resulting in the release of the accused.

The...

An appalling and heinous crime occurred in 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three eight year-old boys were murdered and their bodies left in a creek bed, naked and hog-tied. The murder shook the local residents and the police force, everyone unable to comprehend how this happened and who could have done such a thing.

Influenced by the, mostly erroneous, belief that satanic cults were on the rise in America the police decided that this was the work of one such cult and began looking for possible culprits. Seemingly top of their list were three local teenagers, Damian Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, with Echols positioned as the ring leader of the group. Echols was a fan of heavy metal, although actually relatively tame bands such as Metallica were the ones most often cited, a reader of writers such as Aleister Crowley and someone who often wrote rather dark poems in his journal.

True Blood star Stephen Moyer has signed on for director Atom Egoyan's Devil's Knot for Dimension Films.

The drama is based on the wrongfully-convicted West Memphis 3, who were exonerated and released from prison last year after spending nearly two decades in prison for a triple homicide they didn't commit. Stephen Moyer will play John Fogelman, the prosecutor who tried and convicted Damien Wayne Echols, Jessie Miskelly, and Jason Baldwin. He joins a cast that already includes Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon, Alessandro Nivola, Kristoffer Polaha, Collette Wolfe, Justin Castor, and Kevin Durand.

Atom Egoyan is directing from a screenplay by Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman, based on the 2003 book Devil's Knot: The True Story Of The West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt.

Production will begin later this summer in Louisiana. The West Memphis 3's story was also chronicled in a trio of documentaries, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills,...

The bizarre criminal case of the West Memphis Three, who were falsely convicted for the grisly murder of three children, has fueled numerous documentaries, including West of Memphis, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory which ended with the eventual release of its subjects, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, after 18 years in prison. In the wake of their release, a pair of narrative dramas have rolled into development. One produced by Johnny Depp is to be based on Echols' yet-to-be published memoir; the other helmed by Atom Egoyan, is inspired by Mara Leveritt's true crime novel Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. The latter of these is now gearing up for production, having landed Oscar-winners Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth to star. Deadline reports Alessandro Nivola (Face/Off, Laurel Canyon) has...

Veteran director Atom Egoyan continued to prep the start of production on a dramatic film based on Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Deadline reported that Mireille Enos, star of the acclaimed AMC crime drama The Killing joined the film as Vicki Hutcheson, the mother on an 8-year-old boy who lives in West Memphis and becomes a witness in the murder trial of Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley, tried and convicted for the murders of three eight-year-old boys discovered in a muddy creek in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis, Ark. Known as the Memphis 3 and the subjects of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentaries Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the three men were finally released last year after 18 years in prison and cleared of the 1993 murders of three...

Veteran director Atom Egoyan continued to prep the start of production on a dramatic film based on Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Deadline reported that Mireille Enos, star of the acclaimed AMC crime drama The Killing joined the film as Vicki Hutcheson, the mother on an 8-year-old boy who lives in West Memphis and becomes a witness in the murder trial of Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley, tried and convicted for the murders of three eight-year-old boys discovered in a muddy creek in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis, Ark. Known as the Memphis 3 and the subjects of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentaries Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the three men were finally released last year after 18 years in prison and cleared of the 1993 murders of three...

Colin Firth has joined the cast of Atom Egoyan's The Devil's Knot , Deadline reports. He'll star opposite the previously announced Reese Witherspoon in the narrative take on the West Memphis Three. Released from prison earlier this year after nearly two decades, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin were convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in 1993. Their trial was the subject of the Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky documentary, Paradise Lost that brought national media attention to the trial and its outcome. Believing the conviction to be in error, Berlinger and Sinofsky fought for the release of the three with a sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations . A third film, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory , has incorporated details of the recent release...

The case of the West Memphis Three is one of the longest-running cases of legal injustice in modern American history. In 1993, three teenagers from White Trash Central, aka West Memphis, Arkansas – Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin – were convicted of the brutal rape, torture and murder of three little boys, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers. As depicted in the unforgettable, made-for-hbo documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills, the West Memphis Three were found guilty of murder mostly because they were black-clad, heavy-metal kids in the middle of a deeply disturbed community desperate to pin such a heartbreaking crime on the a group of obvious misfits. The story continues in Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory and now producer Peter Jackson‘s West of Memphis, which premiered at Sundance, introduces three new witnesses to corroborate the Three’s innocence. /Film]

Ever since the first film,...

Update: The film’s first screening is still going on, but a release has just been sent out from Echols’ legal team about the new revelations that are in the Amy Berg-directed Peter Jackson produced film and came from a WM3 tipline arranged by the legal team fighting to get the three defendants exonerated. Here is the release:

(Mountain Home, Arkansas – January 20, 2012) Terry Hobbs’ nephew, Michael Hobbs Jr., allegedly told his friends “my uncle Terry murdered those three little boys,” according to declarations under penalty of perjury recently given to Damien Echols’ defense team. The three new witnesses were polygraphed about what they stated Michael Hobbs, Jr. told them.

“One day Michael picked us up in his truck. He was very quiet and upset. Michael then said to us, ‘you are not going to believe what my dad told me today. My Uncle Terry murdered the three little boys.

When "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" premiered on HBO in 1996, it documented the Arkansas judicial system's corrupt handling of the West Memphis Three, a trio of teens wrongfully convicted of murdering three boys in their Christian hometown.

The TV movie's sequel, "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations," premiered in 2000 and left little doubt that the convicted trio, the West Memphis Three -- Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin -- were innocent.

More than a decade later, in August 2011, "Paradise Lost" filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky had just finished editing the third film in the franchise, when they learned that the West Memphis Three had been released, thanks in part to the Alford plea, which allowed them to walk free even though they're still convicted murderers.

Now re-edited, "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," premieres on HBO on Thurs., Jan. 12 at 9 p.m. Est, and HuffPost TV has some...

When "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" premiered on HBO in 1996, it documented the Arkansas judicial system's corrupt handling of the West Memphis Three, a trio of teens wrongfully convicted of murdering three boys in their Christian hometown.

The TV movie's sequel, "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations," premiered in 2000 and left little doubt that the convicted trio, the West Memphis Three -- Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin -- were innocent.

More than a decade later, in August 2011, "Paradise Lost" filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky had just finished editing the third film in the franchise, when they learned that the West Memphis Three had been released, thanks in part to the Alford plea, which allowed them to walk free even though they're still convicted murderers.

Now re-edited, "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," premieres on HBO on Thurs., Jan. 12 at 9 p.m. Est, and HuffPost TV has some...

Chicago – If Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky hadn’t been in West Memphis, Arkansas to track the case of the young men who would become known as the “West Memphis Three,” one of them would almost certainly be dead and the other two would still be in jail. The powerful 1996 HBO doc “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills” put the controversial case in a spotlight that burned brightly until the now-not-so-young men were finally released at the end of 2010. No one could have predicted that there would be enough twists and turns to this case that it would take over fifteen years, involve hundreds of people, and support three long feature documentaries, the last of which debuts Thursday, January 12th, 2012 on HBO and has been shortlisted for the Academy Award (and is predicted by most pundits to be a nominee). See one of the best documentaries of...

Reese Witherspoon is the first cast member to sign on to Atom Egoyan's narrative take on the story of the West Memphis Three, Deadline reports. Released from prison earlier this year after nearly two decades, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin were convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in 1993. Their trial was the subject of the Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky documentary, Paradise Lost that brought national media attention to the trial and its outcome. Believing the conviction to be in error, Berlinger and Sinofsky fought for the release of the three with a sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations . A third film, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory , has incorporated details of the recent release and is currently touring festivals. Egoyan ( The...

The award-winning HBO documentary series Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000) spawned a worldwide movement to free the West Memphis 3 for wrongful murder convictions. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory tells the entire story, from the arrests in 1993 to the growing movement, through the entire appeals process and the uncovering of new evidence, concluding with their release. We have the second trailer, which you can check out below.

Click to watch Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory Trailer!

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory comes to theaters December 2011.

You probably know by now that the West Memphis 3 (Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin) were released from prison after giving an Alford plea — a guilty plea but not admitting to the act and asserting innocence — in August. At the time directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were locking up their third film on the WM3, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, when they heard the news of the surprise development and raced down to Arkansas. Unable to put the footage of the three being freed in the film before screening it at the Toronto International Film Festival, Berlinger and Sinofsky unveiled the new ending tonight at the New York Film Festival.

And adding to the excitement, Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin were on hand in their first public appearance since being freed.

For Berlinger and Sinofsky, screening at Nyff brings things full circle. As Berlinger noted before the screening, their...

With its third entry, the documentary series "Paradise Lost" earns its title: these films now constitute an epic tragedy of American injustice. The first film, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," premiered in 1996; the second, "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations," debuted in 2000. Now "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" returns to the aftermath of the same horrific crime fifteen years later. Characters from all sides of the case -- investigators and prosecutors, victims and the accused -- reflect on who they were then and who they are now. Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky cut back and forth between the past and the present. The addition of time adds scope, insight and poignancy to everything we see.

Berlinger and Sinofsky have been chronicling the case against Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley -- collectively known as the West Memphis Three -- since they were first arrested for the murders...

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory Directed by: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky Back in 1995, documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky flew down to West Memphis, Arkansas, to cover a murder trial that they thought would represent the callousness of today's youth and the total deterioration of American values. Three teenagers had apparently decided to kill and decapitate three eight-year old boys on a whim. What they found, however, was something entirely different: a small town witch hunt, an incompetent justice system and mass hysteria. Despite a complete lack of physical evidence, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelly were convicted and thrown behind bars before they could scarcely comprehend what had happened to them. The resulting documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills was a landmark film, not just because it told a story that was both gripping and shocking, but also because it started a movement.

In the mid ’90s filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky traveled to West Memphis, Arkansas for a documentary they were making for HBO on the gruesome murders of three boys and the trial of the three teens who were charged. The film, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, gave the trail nationwide interest as Berlinger and Sinofsky revelaed a case that was hardly open and shut. Coerced confessions as well as questionable evidence and testimony made viewers uncertain if the three defendants — Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin — were guilty and the fight to free the West Memphis 3 was born. The 18 year journey for the filmmakers that has led to the sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and support from celebrities like Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Johnny Depp was to conclude with Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. But weeks before finishing the cut for Tiff news...

There have already been three films about the West Memphis Three - Damien Echols, 36, Jason Baldwin, 34, and Jessie Misskelley, 36 - and now HBO is considering a fourth film. Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky directed the 1996 documentary called Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, and a sequel follow-up film made in 2000 called Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. The third film is called Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. and is slated to premiere at Tiff and the New York Film Festival before airing on HBO. The fourth film would focus on the manner in which the WM3 had to plead guilty in order to become free.

Here is what HBO documentary president Sheila Nevins, had to say about the case and the situation surrounding the recent release:

…there’s still an irony. Under the law, they’re now “innocent but guilty.” Guilty but innocent? What the hell is that all about?...

There are a couple of reasons for revisiting the Toronto International Film Festival's lineup for its documentary program, Real to Reel. One of them is Aj Schnack's interview with Thom Powers, Tiff's Documentary and Mavericks Programmer, posted just hours after the Mavericks lineup was announced on Tuesday. Discussing the highlights of both programs, they touch on another reason: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is making all sorts of headlines. Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's third film chronicling the odyssey of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr, aka the West Memphis Three, through the labyrinth of the Us legal system, follows Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000). All three films deal with what Powers calls in his Programmer's Note "an 18-year-old murder case that has become an iconic example of a legal witch hunt." In 1993, when all three men were still teens,...

It was a funny week to be vacationing in Memphis.

I was down in Tennessee last weekend basking in some Southern hospitality and gorging myself on a variety of smoked meats when my jaw absolutely hit the floor as I walked past a kiosk for the local newspaper, The Commercial Appeal. "West Memphis Three Walk Free," the headline read. Incredible.

Having watched -- and been riveted and horrified by -- two stellar documentaries about the West Memphis Three entitled "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations," I was very familiar with their story, a disgraceful miscarriage of justice brought to life in vivid and tragic detail by directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. It began when three teenagers -- Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. -- were accused of the murders of three boys in West Memphis in 1993. The evidence was tenuous at best, but that didn't seem...

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentary about the recently freed West Memphis Three, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, will premiere a new ending at the New York Film Festival. The festival runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 16. Berlinger and Sinofsky, who were in Arkansas with their cameras last week when the West Memphis Three — Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols — were released from prison after 18 years, have been busy editing their footage into the film. The new ending, however, will not be finished in time for the film’s world premiere at the Toronto film festival next month.

It...

Earlier this month, we brought you news of Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers, Kinsey) cast in Legendary Pictures’ adaptation of John Milton’s epic 17th-century poem, Paradise Lost. Walker will play the archangel Michael opposite Bradley Cooper’s Lucifer in the Alex Proyas-helmed flim.

Now, Variety reports that the angel of death has found a rather handsome face. Male model turned actor Djimon Hounsou (The Tempest, Blood Diamond) has been cast as Abdiel, the angel of death. You might remember him as the statuesque man in Janet Jackson’s 1992 music video for “Love Will Never Do Without You.” Hounsou was nominated for two Oscars in 2004 and 2007 for In America and Blood Diamond respectively.

Synopsis:

Lucifer and Michael, God’s greatest archangels, share the bond of extraordinary friendship until God produces his greatest creation: Man. Unable to remain subservient to God if it means bowing down to humanity, Lucifer...

After the West Memphis Three--Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelly--were freed last Friday, Joe Berlinger and Burce Sinofsky's documentaries that helped publicize the three's probable innocence, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" and "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations," will be re-aired on HBO Monday August 29 at 5Pm and Tuesday August 30 at 5:45, respectively. Both films will be available streaming on HBO Go (HBO's mobile streaming ...

Well that was fast! It was announced earlier today the the West Memphis 3 have been released from prison after 18 years. back in 1993 Damien Echols, 36, Jason Baldwin, 34, and Jessie Misskelley, 36 were wrongly convicted for the May 1993 killings of three 8-year-old boys from West Memphis, Ark.

Hollywood didn't spend any time putting together a feature film production based on the true story of the West Memphis 3. The movie already has a screenplay written by Scott Derrickson and Paul Boardman (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), a major director Atom Egoyan (Chloe), and the film is ready to start production by spring.

It's not like all of this came together today, the timing was just right. Derrickson and Boardman started writing the script back in 2006 when the film first was first set up at Dimension Films. 

According to Deadline, "The script is based on investigative reporter Mara Leveritt's 2003 book Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three,...

The West Memphis Three, whose case has been documented in the award-winning films Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, as well as the soon to be released Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, were set free today after having served jail time since 1993.

Damien Wayne Echols, who'd been on death row, and Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelly, Jr., both serving life sentences, were convicted of brutally slaying three cub scouts in what was believed to be a Satanic sacrifice. Today, they have been granted their freedom, and will maintain their innocence while acknowledging prosecutors had sufficient evidence against them. All three men, who have been behind bars for more than eighteen years for crimes they did not commit, have been placed on probation and face twenty-one years in prison if they are caught doing anything that goes against their probation.

Damien Wayne Echols released...

Los Angeles (Reuters) - Premium cable TV network HBO plans to re-tool the ending of the third in a series of documentaries it has backed on the "West Memphis Three," reflecting Friday's decision to free the men previously convicted of murder.

Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. pleaded guilty in an Arkansas courtroom on Friday to the gruesome, 1993 murders of three young boys, but in an unusual bargain with prosecutors, the men were allowed to maintain their claims of innocence in the case and were set free.

The case -- and the question of their guilt or innocence -- had become a cause celebre, attracting attention from actor Johnny Depp, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines, among others.

It is also the subject of 1996 Emmy-winning documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" by directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky that aired on HBO.

The West Memphis Three have been released, and Hollywood couldn't be happier, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The trio was released after being incarcerated for 18 years for the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys who were found next to a creek in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis, Arkansas.

During the initial trial, the prosecution put forth the idea that the only purported motive in the case was that the slayings were part of a Satanic ritual. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences and Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The West Memphis Three have been the subject of much speculation and outrage from various organizations and individuals over the years, many referring to it as a "mockery of justice." One of the most popular and credible attacks on the investigation and trial is the pair...

The West Memphis Three, three men who’ve been imprisoned since 1993 for the murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Ark., despite a lack of forensic evidence, have reached a plea deal. According to the AP, a judge today accepted the plea bargain that will allow Damien Echols, who’d been on death row, and Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr., both serving life sentences, to maintain their innocence while acknowledging prosecutors had sufficient evidence against them. Prosecutor Scott Ellington told the AP the men had been placed on 10 years’ probation and could face 21 years in prison if they re-offend.

Damien Echols, 36, Jason Baldwin, 34, and Jessie Misskelley, 36, known as the West Memphis Three were finally released from prison on Friday after being wrong convicted for the May 1993 killings of three 8-year-old boys from West Memphis, Ark.

I know this isn't really geek related, but the men were the subject of two Documentary films when they were teenagers, from Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. There is the 1996 documentary called Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, and a sequel follow-up film made in 2000 called Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, both of which cast doubt on their part in the murders. It's these documentaries that sparked interest for me and got me involved with what was going on. I recommend you watch the documentaries if you haven't already. There is actually a third one on the way called Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory.

The HBO docs sparked a nationwide movement urging authorities to re-examine the convictions.

Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maine also on hand to see three men plead guilty and walk free.

By Gil Kaufman

Eddie Vedder (file)

Photo: Getty Images

Eighteen years after they were sent to prison for the murders of three 8-year-old Cub Scouts in 1993, the men known as the West Memphis 3 were unexpectedly freed from jail Friday (August 19) when their lawyers reached an unusual deal with prosecutors.

With such celebrity supporters as Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder and the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines on hand to watch the proceedings, Damien Echols (36), Jason Baldwin (34) and Jessie Misskelley Jr. (36) were set free thanks to a legal maneuver called an "Alford Plea" in which the three men pleaded guilty while still maintaining their innocence as they acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict them.

"The gag order has been lifted, so now I can tell you, I'm sitting in a holding room...

As reported in indieWire and Deadline, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelly, subjects of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofksy's Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and its 2000 follow-up, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations-were  released from an Arkansas prison today, after serving 18 years for the 1993 murders of three children. The Arkansas District Attorney made the announcement.  The three defendants registered an Alford plea--admitting guilt, while maintaining their innocence. Berlinger and Sinosky were readying Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory for its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival ...

Filed under: Movie News

What do you do if you're a pair of filmmakers who have taken up a cause for 15 years, made two films defending a trio of men you felt had been wrongly convicted of murder, have a third film almost in the can, and events catch up with you? Well, you race to add a new ending -- a happy one, you hope.

That's the scenario facing Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, who co-directed 'Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills' (1996) and 'Paradise Lost 2: Revelations' (2000), which documented the trial and controversial convictions of three teenagers for the grisly murders of three 8-year-old boys in 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas. Just before the third film, 'Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,' was set to unspool at the Toronto International and New York Film Festivals -- before a premiere on HBO in November --...

There are Famous Monsters…and then there are famous monsters.

Both Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were inspired by the real-life crimes of mass murderer Ed Gein; The Silence of the Lambs, book and film, incorporated character traits of multiple serial killers in the depiction of Jame Gumb, the psychopath hunted by FBI agent Clarice Starling — with a little help from the imprisoned Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, himself a (still-mysterious) amalgam of stranger-than-fiction monsters of past and present.

While the profoundly disturbing thriller Se7en reeked with authentic nihilism, and films like Dawn of the Dead and Hostel took blood-soaked pains to offer satiric commentaries on the sorry state of humanity, there’s an entire genre of films that bypass the more commercial goals of “escapism” in favor of more directly dramatizing the horrific tales we’ve read about in the newspapers, pored over in paperback, or seen described...

You may or may not have heard about Johnny Depp's crusade. He has long been the most private of movie stars, but this Saturday night, he will break character when he appears on the CBS investigative news show 48 Hours Mystery to defend the West Memphis Three, who as teenagers were found guilty of the hideous 1993 murder of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Depp joins a handful of other entertainers -- Eddie Vedder, Winona Ryder, the Dixie Chicks -- who claim that the convicted killers are innocent, and that they were railroaded for the crime because of their associations with heavy-metal music,...

'We thought the story was going to come to an end a lot longer ago,' co-director Joe Berlinger tells MTV News.

By Ryan J. Downey

"Paradise Lost" director, Joe Berlinger

Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images

Many filmmakers dream of turning one movie into a sequel-spawning franchise. But the news that there will be not only a third but likely a fourth "Paradise Lost" documentary is bittersweet to all involved.

"We thought the story was going to come to an end a lot longer ago," co-director Joe Berlinger told MTV News by phone.

Berlinger, together with Bruce Sinofsky, co-directed "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" (1996) and "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations" (2000), which documented the trial and controversial convictions of three teenagers for the grisly murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.

"Originally, we had envisioned 'Paradise Lost 3' not being over until the story comes to its conclusion,...

It has been a couple of weeks now since we unveiled our full list of the Top 20 Movies of the Decade [1], and I know you're probably sick of hearing about it, but we did promise that we would also post our individual lists to round out the whole process. After some tweaking, re-ordering, and last minute additions, we are now ready to give you the Top 50 Films of the Decade from the four of us who took part in making the list. Hopefully this will make it a little more clear how our combined lists came together, and will also shed some light on why certain films were omitted while others were ranked very high. I'm sure there are probably still some important movies that none of us managed to see, but nevertheless, I feel like we covered a lot of ground here. Check out the full lists after the jump.

It's no secret that Film Junk has a few documentary fans on staff and every year we try and highlight some of the stand out non-fiction films. Although The Cove and Anvil! The Story of Anvil made some appearances on our year end lists -- along with a few others on our end of decade list -- we didn't really get a chance to write up any doc specific lists, so I figured I'd share some of the love The Documentary Blog has been spreading over the past week. Below you'll find my top 10 docs of 2009 followed by my top 50 documentaries of the decade. Also, I put together a collection of some acclaimed non-fiction filmmakers (including Joe Berlinger, Sarah Price and Jeff Feuerzeig among others) who have shared their picks for best of the decade as well! You can check that list out here [1]. Until then, have a look below...

No one online knows the world of documentary films as well as the aptly named "The Documentary Blog". It was only appropriate then that Tdb should assemble a list of what they consider to be the best documentary films over the last decade.

Instead of a measly top 10... they give us a top 50.

50. Rize (Lachapelle, 2005) — Trailer

49. The Smashing Machine (Hyams, 2002) — Trailer

48. Lost in La Mancha (Fulton & Pepe, 2002) — Trailer

47. Dig! (Timoner, 2004) — Trailer

46. Protagonist (Yu, 2007) — Trailer

45. Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story (Berger & Klores, 2005) — Trailer

44. Bowling for Columbine (Moore, 2002)

43. Rank (Hyams, 2006) — Trailer

42. Our Daily Bread (Geyrhalter, 2005) — Trailer

41. Helvetica (Hustwit, 2007) — Trailer

40. New World Order (Meyer & Neel, 2009) — Trailer

39. Best Worst Movie (Stephenson, 2009) — Trailer

38. The Cove (Psihoyos, 2009) — Trailer

37. Kurt Cobain: About a Son (Schnack, 2006) — Trailer

36. Tyson (Toback, 2008) — Trailer

35. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Gervasi, 2008) — Trailer

34. When the Levee’s Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Lee, 2006)

33. Bus 174 (Padilha & Lacerda, 2002)

32. God Grew Tired of Us (Quinn & Walker,...

Due to the unending nature of real life, sequels to non-fiction films should be more common than they are. Documentary sequels do occasionally exist though, and the most necessary of these are the follow-ups to films involving inconclusive or controversial legal cases. Must-see examples include Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations" and Nick Broomfield's "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer."

We may have another to add to that group now that Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski ("Chinatown") has been arrested and faces extradition on 32-year-old statutory rape charges. Filmmaker Marina Zenovich, whose brilliantly constructed 2008 film "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," shed new light on the 1977 trial, has reportedly gone to Switzerland to further document the case. It's not clear if she is interested in making another feature doc or simply looking to supplement "Wanted and Desired" with new footage in the form of an epilogue.

Jay Cheel of The Documentary Blog gives us his top five documentary recommendations.

1. Salesman (1969) – Directors: David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin

The Maysles Brothers are considered by many to be pioneers in the Cinema Verite movement, or as they prefer to say…their own ’Direct Cinema’ style. Saleman is a prime example of their knack at remaining almost completely un-intrusive while still capturing beautiful images and honest moments. The film follows a small group of Boston bible salesman as they try to meet their quotas by any means necessary. When the main subject, Paul ‘The Badger’ Brennan starts to lose his touch, he struggles to remain on top of his sales while sharing stories on the road with his salesmen buddies.

Also check out: John Landis’ Slasher. A documentary about a rambunctious used car salesmen.

2. Grizzly Man (2005) - Director: Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog’s ‘Grizzly Man’ compiles recorded video of...