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Critically acclaimed writer and director Paul Schrader has defended the use of artificial intelligence when writing screenplays for movies. Schrader is best known for writing classic movies such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ. In recent years, Schrader has directed several movies. Some of Paul Schrader's best movies include First Reformed, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay, The Card Counter, and Master Gardener. Schrader's recent comments are surprising since many writers have criticized the use of AI for writing screenplays.

In a Facebook post, Schrader claims that AI is capable of coming up with great ideas. He explains that he asked ChatGPT to come up with ideas for films from several different filmmakers, including himself, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese. He believes the ideas that ChatGPT came up with were great, and doesn't understand why writers should waste...

Terrifier franchise heroine Lauren Lavera has the lead in the upcoming pregnancy horror film The Fetus – and while a specific release date hasn’t been announced for this one, a trailer for the film has made its way online, and you can check it out in the embed above. We previously saw a teaser trailer for The Fetus way back in March of last year.

Written and directed by Joe Lam, with Nathan Faudree and Yuke Li credited as story consultants, The Fetus tells the story of a couple struggling to learn the truth about the origins of their unborn child– a demonic entity that emerges from the body. Here’s an alternative synopsis: When Alessa becomes pregnant, it brings up Chris’ deep-rooted trauma surrounding fatherhood. Upon discovering that their fetus craves human blood, they visit his father, Maddox, for answers.

The Fetus marks the feature directorial debut of Lam,...

Tye Sheridan isn't sure if he'll be back as Cyclops in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor, who portrayed the younger version of James Marsden's X-Men leader, recently cast doubt on his return during an interview to promote his new thriller The Order.

Sheridan addressed his possible return as Scott Summers/Cyclops in the MCU while speaking with Screen Rant, sharing, "I don't know. I don't think there's a question if there's more stories to tell. I think there's probably always more stories to tell. The question is whether audiences have a desire for those stories and whether we feel like those types of films have been oversaturated or they're not, or if there's a new way to make those films. But yeah, I'm not real sure."

Related 'Never Say Never': Rogue One Star Addresses Possible Star Wars Return

One of the stars of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story...

Tye Sheridan might play a young, somewhat innocent character in the neo-Nazi-hunting thriller The Order, but he has deep wisdom about what the story truly means. "I don't think you can fix any problem without understanding what the root cause is," Sheridan told MovieWeb in a recent interview. The Order is based on a non-fiction book, The Silent Brotherhood, which details the story of an FBI agent who takes down a white supremacist terrorist group in the Pacific Northwest. This is a true story from 1983, but audiences and filmmakers alike can't help but see a lot of recent history in it. Director Justin Kurzel even explained how the January 6 storming of the US Capitol was a source of inspiration.

Tye Sheridan, so excellent in The Card Counter and The Mountain, did plenty of research for his role, both in the original text the film is based on and the text...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Kino Lorber opens “Oh Canada” in theaters on Friday, December 6.

“How can so much suffering have no meaning?”

That’s a question posed by decorated documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife in Paul Schrader’s meandering ode to death, dying, aging, and regret, “Oh, Canada.” It’s inevitably one also felt by audiences who will be left bewildered by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s most experimental and alienating work in some time, which loses itself in the process.

With “Oh, Canada,” Schrader splices timelines, color palettes, and aspect ratios to tell Fife’s story as a now-revered nonfiction movie-maker who fled the United States in the late 1960s for Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Schrader is a gifted filmmaker who has given us so much more than “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter,” the only movies audiences of...

Fifty years after his screenwriting debut via Sydney Pollack’s The Yakuza and a mere forty-six since his directorial debut with Blue Collar, Paul Schrader is still at it. And he’s operating at a higher level than most. A household name for his Scorsese screenplays––Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ chief among them––Schrader made a compelling industry name for himself with his own projects by the late ’70s, cementing himself as one of cinema’s most divisive, most original, and most consistent directors by the late ’80s and early ’90s.

After a series of popular and critical duds from 2003-2016, Schrader re-emerged in fresh creativity with First Reformed in 2017, beginning a phase in his career with the first entry in his “Man in a Room” trilogy that would soon be filled out by The Card Counter and Master Gardener. But not before several...

Paul Schrader wishes he hadn't made ‘Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist’.The 78-year-old director helmed the controversial 2005 horror flick - which takes place before the events of the 1973 original - and now Schrader has admitted he never should have tackled the project because he doesn’t think he was “really suited” for the film.In an interview with MovieWeb, ‘The Card Counter’ director said: “I shouldn't have done it. It was not something I was really suited for.”Schrader - who has written some of Hollywood’s best thrillers like ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Rolling Thunder’ - added if he was presented with the chance to direct ‘Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist’ today, he would have turned it down.He continued: “I thought I could pull it off, but if I had that opportunity again, I would say, 'I think I will stick to what I do best.'”Schrader was...

One of the strangest film and director pairings has been Paul Schrader and the Exorcist's prequel, aptly titled Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, and it was a decision he still regrets to this day. The Exorcist is regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and one of the many groundbreaking films of the 1970s that changed Hollywood. On paper, it makes sense to hire a writer and director who broke out during that period, like Schrader, thanks to his work on Taxi Driver, The Yakuza, and Rolling Thunder. The finished result was a massive struggle behind the scenes between Schrader and the studio, resulting in two different cuts of the movie being released in theaters.

MovieWeb sat down with Paul Schrader to discuss his upcoming film, Oh, Canada. The interview took place on Oct. 26, 2024, close to the Halloween season, so the topic of Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist came up.

When we speak of the people who shaped cinema in the New Hollywood era of the 1970s, it's impossible to avoid the names Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese. The duo's first collaboration, 1976's Taxi Driver, for which Scorsese directed Schrader's screenplay, became a critical and box office hit, but also helped shape the gritty antihero cinema of the era. The duo collaborated three more times on some of their most critically acclaimed films 1980's Raging Bull, 1988's The Last Temptation of Christ, and finally, 1999's Bringing Out the Dead.

MovieWeb sat down to speak with Schrader about his upcoming film, Oh, Canada. With Bringing Out the Dead celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, we asked if Schrader and Scorsese had any plans to work together again. Despite the duo's past working relationship and the fact that each of them has struggled to do their take on a Frank Sinatra biopic,...

UK sales, finance and production company Protagonist Pictures has made a suite of promotions and hires across its sales and marketing teams.

Joseph Hewitt has been tapped from fellow UK sales agent HanWay Films as senior marketing and distribution manager. At HanWay, Hewitt worked on films including Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio, Ron Howard’s Pavarotti and Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt.

Alexandra Da Silva has been promoted from sales executive to sales manager, looking after new title sales in Eastern Europe, Asia and select European territories. She reports to acting senior vice...

The upcoming Zoe Saldaña-starring and Martin Scorsese-exec produced thriller “The Absence of Eden” has been snapped up by Signature Entertainment in a multi-territory deal.

Signature bought U.K. and Irish, Australian and New Zealand and African rights to the feature, being sold by The Exchange.

“The Absence of Eden” — also starring Garrett Hedlund (“Tron,” “Mudbound”) and Adria Arjona (“Hitman,” “Father of the Bride”) —.is directed by first-time feature director Marco Perego from a script he co-wrote with Rick Rapoza (“Cactuses”). The screenplay was recently acquired by the AMPAS Library as part of their permanent core inclusion.

The thriller pivots around the dueling narratives of an Ice Agent (Hedlund) struggling with the moral dilemmas of border security and an undocumented woman (Saldaña) fighting to escape a ruthless cartel.

Producers include Oscar nominee Julie Yorn (“Hell or High Water”), Perego, Robert Kravis (“Lucky Number Slevin”), and Karl Herrmann (“Dinner in America...

Exclusive: Lil Rel Howery (Get Out) is set to direct and star in comedy-horror Haunted Heist, alongside Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip).

The Coven, fresh off the theatrical success of Terrifier 3, has signed on to represent the feature from a script by Carl Reid, writer of Hulu horror Mr. Crocket. It will mark Howery’s directorial debut.

In Haunted Heist, “four estranged friends reunite at what appears to be a typical house. But one friend has ulterior motives; he plans to rob the place and needs their help to find an antique worth a fortune. But the house is straight up haunted, and the group must squash their differences to survive the night and an insane pack of ghosts”.

Filming is being lined up for January 2025 with The Coven launching world sales at the American Film Market this week in Las Vegas.

Howery will produce Haunted Heist with Death Ground...

Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada premiered at Cannes this past spring, and although the subject matter, surrounding a dying filmmaker grappling with his own mortality, led to speculation that this was the final work from the aging filmmaker, Schrader is wasting little time setting up his next projects.

Schrader has just begun writing a script that is in the vein of his recent Man in a Room trilogy, but this one follows a philosophy professor who happens to be a pederast. Schrader has outlined the story and just begun writing. He envisions the voice-over a little differently than those previous Bresson-inspired films, he told The Film Stage this weekend at AFI Fest:

“He’s an American philosopher. He’s written a textbook on philosophy. Now he’s writing a book on Spinoza. So instead of having him write in a diary, my idea is have him quoting from his...

Paul Schrader was not a fan of Joker: Folie à Deux, to say the least, opting to leave the theater to buy something instead of screening the film in its entirety.

During a new sit-down conversation with Jeremy O. Harris for Interview Magazine, the filmmaker and screenwriter mentioned offhandedly that he had gone to watch the musical follow-up to the 2019 Joker, which stars Joaquin Phoenix as failed comedian Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn.

“I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it,” the Oscar-nominated director said. “I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough.”

The interview then drifted toward other topics before landing briefly on musicals, when Schrader revisited Joker 2, calling it a “really bad musical.” When questioned by Harris why he thought it was “so bad,” the Taxi Driver scribe laid out his grievances, no holds barred.

“I don’t like either of those people,...

One lucky cinephile will soon have the chance to work with Paul Schrader on his next film.

The Oscar-nominated writer and director is casting a wide net for his new assistant, sharing a rather frank posting Thursday on Facebook for what he describes as a “s— and ice cream” job while preparing to enter pre-production on a film in New York City.

“I am in need of an assistant. This is an entry level job,” started Schrader in the post. “In less polite terms, it’s a ‘s— and ice cream’ job. There will be days when you would be willing to pay me. Then there will be menial tasks. I hope to be in pre-production in December, shooting late January–at that point work would be on set and on demand 24/7. The job would commence on acceptance. It may involve travel. Applicant should have college education and knowledge of film history.

Few filmmakers have packaged their thematic sensibilities as clearly as Paul Schrader. Simply put, you know what to expect in Schrader's twisted cinematic world prepare for lonely men reckoning with their morality and the bleak future of humanity entirely. He has relied on a recurring set of ideas and motifs so much as of late that he created an unofficial trilogy of "Man in a Room" psychological dramas, beginning with First Reformed and ending last year with Master Gardner. In between these two curious and spellbinding character studies is The Card Counter, Schrader's most familiar and relatively conventional entry in the spiritual trilogy. But don't assume that the 2021 film pulls any punches. Elevated by an exceptional performance by Oscar Isaac, The Card Counter depicts a lonely man longing for redemption amid a state of hopelessness. Schrader may have been playing the hits, but sometimes, the hits are what the heart desires.

Exclusive: Ruby Rose (Orange Is the New Black) is attached to star in The Drowning Pool, a dark thriller from director David Hackl (Saw V), Deadline can reveal.

The Exchange is handling worldwide sales and will introduce the project to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival.

Set on location in the exotic Canary Islands, the film centers on the mysterious disappearance of American surfer Isabelle Gray. Although Isabelle is presumed drowned, her grief-stricken sister Katherine refuses to leave the country without answers, soon discovering that her sibling wasn’t the only woman to vanish into the ocean without a trace. With little help from local authorities, a stubborn and resourceful Katherine uncovers a string of progressively frightening clues, eventually leading her right into the jaws of an ancient ritualistic evil.

Colin McNeil and Daniel Minsky wrote the script. Joel Shapiro of magiCity Studios is producing along with Dimitri Logothetis of Acme Rocket Fuel, with Lee Broda serving as executive producer. Pre-production in the Canary Islands is underway.

Stated Nat McCormick, The Exchange’s President of Worldwide Sales & Distribution, “The Drowning Pool is a fresh and thrilling adventure story set in a dreamy vacation location, with a renowned international cast. We look forward to taking the plunge with our distribution partners around the world!”

An Australian actress who broke out stateside with a role in Netflix’s Emmy-winning series Orange Is the New Black, Rose has since then been seen starring in the first season of The CW’s Batwoman, also appearing on shows like Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Notable feature credits include Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, John Wick: Chapter 2, Pitch Perfect 3 and The Meg, to name just a few.

Best known for helming the fifth installment in the Saw horror franchise, Hackl also directed the action thriller Dangerous starring Scott Eastwood; the Gina Carano-led Daughter of the Wolf; Life on the Line, starring John Travolta, Kate Bosworth and Devon Sawa; and genre-bender Into the Grizzly Maze.

The Exchange’s TIFF lineup this year includes Special Presentation title The Cut, a thriller starring Orlando Bloom and John Turturro, as well as Pierce Brosnan’s Wolf Land, Dafne Keen’s Night Comes, and Jennifer Garner’s Fruitcake.

Rose is represented by Atlas Artists and Jackoway, Austen, Tyerman; Hackl by Independent Artist Group; and McNeil by Housefire Management and attorney Marios Rush.

The career path of Paul Schrader is an illustrative example of rise, fall from grace and redemption narrative structure. He established himself first as the talented scriptwriter, then as the potent filmmaker, enjoyed success during the Eighties and Nineties, after which he fell from the grace of Hollywood studios in the new millennium. The decade and half between Auto Focus (2002) and First Reformed (2017) was pretty tough for Schrader, as it was marked by disagreements with the producers, projects being taken away from him and re-cut and troubles financing his other films.

Almost miraculously, the filmmaker went back to his roots and re-emerged as the great auteur with his loosely connected (anti-)Calvinist trilogy consisting of First Reformed, The Card Counter (2021) and Master Gardener (2022). But after the underwhelming Oh Canada (premiered earlier this year at Cannes and caught at Sarajevo Film Festival where Schrader presided over the...

Paul Schrader has a busy few months ahead as he shares an update on two upcoming films.

The Oscar-nominated director revealed that he’s currently developing the new feature The Basics of Philosophy as he prepares to begin filming Non Compos Mentis (Latin for “an unsound mind”) in November.

He told Screen Daily that he’s completed an outline and plans to finish a draft in the next three months for The Basics of Philosophy, which is about “an intellectual university philosophy professor,” made in the style of his ‘Man in a Room’ spiritual trilogy, First Reformed (2017), The Card Counter (2021) and Master Gardener (2022).

“I’ve got to do a very quick rewrite on [Compos],” said Schrader. “I’m hoping before November to write the new one and have another bullet in the gun ready to go.”

Schrader previously announced Non Compos Mentis at Cannes Film Festival in May. “I’ve written a noir,...

Peacock has announced the lineup of movies, TV shows, and live sports that will be available on the streaming service in September. The Peacock September 2024 schedule includes Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, which tells the infamous story of how an armed robbery on the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight transformed Atlanta into the “Black Mecca”).

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Little House on the Prairie on September 11 (all nine seasons are currently streaming on Peacock). Plus, get a double dose of housewife realness with the two-part reunion of The Real Housewives of Dubai Season 2 uncensored on September 11 and 18, and the season five premiere of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City on September 19.

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist

September also brings the spooks! Peacock’s “Face Your Fears” horror collection starts to roll out on the 1st, with more than 75+ Halloween titles arriving in September alone,...

Paul Schrader has been up to a lot more than listening to Taylor Swift and writing TV reviews on Ambien recently. In a conversation with Screen at the Sarajevo Film Festival, where he's currently presiding over the feature competition jury, the First Reformed director and Taxi Driver screenwriter revealed that he has not one,...

Paul Schrader has shared that he’s got not one, but two new features in the works, though fans shouldn’t expect to see them on the streamers anytime soon. The director told Screen while at the Sarajevo Film Festival that he is currently working on films “Non Compos Mentis” and “The Basics of Philosophy.” Schrader is serving as the president of the features jury at the festival.

“Non Compos Mentis,” as Schrader previously teased, is “a noir [about] a kind of sexual obsession.” The title is Latin for “an unsound mind.” Schrader has begun casting for the feature, with production set to begin in November. The film centers on “two brothers, their demented mother, a younger girl they both fall in love with, and their wives.” The budget will be in the $5 to $6 million range, with Schrader saying the production is “one of the rare cases where I had the...

Paul Schrader might not be a Swiftie, but the veteran screenwriter-director admits that he’s in “awe” of the pop megastar.

“It’s not so much the music that entrances me, it’s the phenomenon. The Elvis-ness of it all,” Schrader told Variety. “You have to look in awe at how well she and her people have created this empire.”

The “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” scribe is at the Sarajevo Film Festival this week, where he’s the president of the features jury.

Schrader, who received a lifetime achievement award from the Bosnian fest in 2022, is also in town to promote his latest film, “Oh, Canada,” which reunites the “American Gigolo” writer-director with leading man Richard Gere after 40 years. The film competed for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Speaking about his prolific and lengthy career, Schrader looked back at the days of the...

Veteran director and screenwriter Paul Schrader will be honored at this year’s Lucaa Film Festival with a lifetime achievement award.

The Italian event, which runs Sept. 21-29, will also screen a retrospective of Schrader’s work, including Blue Collar, Hardcore, The Comfort of Strangers, Affliction, Auto Focus, The Walker, The Canyons, The Card Counter, Master Gardener, Mishima, and First Reformed.

On Sept. 26, Schrader will hold a public masterclass at the Cinema Astra, attended by film students from various Italian universities. The following day he will receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The director began his career as a screenwriter for Martin Scorsese with scripts to such classics as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver before stepping behind the camera for his 1978 directorial debut Blue Collar, a crime drama starring Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel. Schrader’s greatest commercial success came in the early 80s with films including American Gigolo (1980) starring Richard Gere,...

U.S. director-screenwriter Paul Schrader will serve as president of the features jury of the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 16 to 23.

Schrader will be joined on the jury by Swedish actor and producer Noomi Rapace, Finnish director-writer Juho Kuosmanen, Sarajevo-born, Paris-based director, writer and editor Una Gunjak, and Slovenian actor Sebastian Cavazza.

The jury will announce the winners of the Heart of Sarajevo awards on Aug. 23.

Schrader first made his mark as a screenwriter with “Taxi Driver” (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese, and his collaboration with Scorsese continued with films like “Raging Bull” (1980).

He made his directorial debut with “Blue Collar” (1978) and went on to direct critically acclaimed films such as “American Gigolo” (1980) and “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” (1985).

In 2017, he wrote and directed “First Reformed,” which earned him an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay.

Recent projects include “The Card Counter” (2021), “Master Gardener” (2022) and “Oh Canada...

Back in 2019, it was announced that Riverdale‘s Madelaine Petsch had signed on to star in a horror comedy called Clare at 16, which was going to be written and directed by Mark Pavia, the filmmaker behind the 1997 Stephen King adaptation The Night Flier, and based on a novel by Don Roff. That iteration of the project didn’t make it into production, and in 2022 Bella Thorne (Infamous) not only signed on to star in the title role of what was now being called Saint Clare, but she also brought Dying to Play (a.k.a. Braid) director Mitzi Peirone on board to write and direct the film. Saint Clare just had its premiere at the Taormina Film Festival, and during the event Thorne revealed to Deadline that she helped edit the serial killer movie.

The Don Roff novel told the following story: The small town of Pickman Flats offers a...

While “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” basically put Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader on the map as massive cinematic forces and “The Last Temptation of Christ” continues to have a strong cult following, as well as an early Criterion Collection release (Spine #70 to be exact), their final collaboration, 1999’s “Bringing Out the Dead,” starring Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette, still has yet to receive the praise and recognition of their previous works.

Paramount, the studio behind the film, seems to want to change that this upcoming September, as they plan on giving the psychological drama a 4K Uhd Blu-Ray release to coincide with its 25th anniversary. In reappraisal of this unfairly maligned capper to a multi-decade partnership, IndieWire lists our reasons for why “Bringing Out the Dead” is worth bringing out of the shadows.

‘Bringing Out The Dead,’ Martin Scorsese©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection A Spiritual Sequel to...

Paul Schrader hit Cannes this weekend with Competition title Oh, Canada, reuniting him with American Gigolo star Richard Gere in the role of a terminally ill documentarian who reveals secrets as his life nears its end.

Lead producer David Gonzales says the fact that the film was ready for a Cannes splash was a miracle on a number of fronts.

Development began just 18 months ago after Schrader learned that his good friend, writer Russell Banks, was suffering from cancer.

Schrader, who previously adapted Banks’ novel Affliction to the big screen, felt compelled to make a new film based on Banks’ penultimate 2021 book Foregone, which the writer had originally wanted to title ‘Oh, Canada.’

“He said, ‘This is my next film, I can see the film in my head.’ We’re going back to the end of 2022,” says Gonzales, who secured the rights.

Banks died in January 2023 as Schrader was mid-screenplay.

The Paul Schrader Renaissance began the moment “First Reformed” debuted to the director’s best reviews in at least 15 years, back in 2017. The spiritual trilogy formed around it — “The Card Counter” and “Master Gardener” — have fostered in a new generation’s mind this frankly narrow vision of what constitutes a Paul Schrader movie: men in rooms, pens across diaries, peculiar revenge plots.

It’s likely that audiences anticipating another drama in which a man’s profession comes dressed as the sick soul of America will be baffled by “Oh, Canada,” his newest feature now in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s based on Russell Banks’ 2021 novel “Foregone.” Those well-acquainted with Schrader’s half-century of cinema may find themselves on the edge of bafflement with this film, which uses the last will and testament of documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) as a trickle-down device for 55 years of guilt,...

Paul Schrader may have found a trick for cheating death: Just make more movies. Amid some serious health struggles over the past few years, the 77-year-old auteur and screenwriting legend has entered one of his most prolific phases.

“Every time I’m getting ready to die, I have a new idea,” Schrader says. “Then I think, ‘Oh well, I guess I can’t die yet. I have to write this.’ ”

Over a recent five-year stretch, Schrader wrote and directed what he describes as an accidental trilogy — First Reformed (2017) with Ethan Hawke, The Card Counter (2021) with Oscar Isaac and Master Gardener (2022) with Joel Edgerton — with each film involving a fresh spin on the “man alone in a room” archetype he invented nearly 50 years ago with his script for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). Schrader is now back again with a new feature, Oh, Canada, co-starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli,...

Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, the new drama that reunites the director with his American Gigalo star Richard Gere, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Friday night, where it was welcomed with a three-minute-plus standing ovation for Schrader and his team at the Grand Lumiere Theatre. With typical Canadian politeness, the crowd even applauded the film’s producers.

Before the premiere, Schrader and the cast of Oh, Canada, including Richard Gere, and Uma Thurman, but not Jacob Elordi, had climbed the red carpet steps up the Palais to the sounds of the Canadian national anthem. Among the famous faces in the audience at the theater was Nathalie Emmanuel.

While the creative team received a warm welcome, the film itself was less warmly received, with only polite applause and a perfunctory standing ovation for Schrader and his cast. But there was a collection of whoops and cheers, and at least one “bravo!

Hard to believe it has been 44 years since Paul Schrader and star Richard Gere last worked together on 1980’s seminal American Gigolo, a film that became not just a keystone in Gere’s celebrated career but also one for one Schrader’s as one of his earliest directorial credits. Of course he has written some of the great screenplays, particularly in his collaborations with Martin Scorsese on Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Taxi Driver. But it is what interests him now a half century later as a writer-director that continues to fascinate.

In recent years that has included insular works like The Card Counter, Master Gardener and the critically acclaimed First Reformed. Now he has returned to more of what he labels a “mosaic,” in this case a movie made up of pieces of a life put under a cinematic microscope at different periods, all moving in...

Exclusive: Vertical has acquired U.S. rights from AGC Studios to The Order, a dramatic thriller directed by Australia’s Justin Kurzel (Macbeth), on which we were first to report. Starring Jude Law (Firebrand), Nicholas Hoult (X-Men franchise), Tye Sheridan (The Card Counter), Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey) and more, the film will will have an exclusive release in theaters nationwide later this year.

Written by Oscar and BAFTA nominee Zach Baylin (King Richard), the film adapts Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s book The Silent Brotherhood, chronicling the escalating crimes of the titular white supremacist domestic terror group. It’s set in 1983, when a series of increasingly violent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations, and armored car heists frightened communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. As baffled law enforcement agents scrambled for answers, a lone FBI agent (Law), stationed in the sleepy, picturesque town of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, came to believe...

Kristen Stewart returns to the vampire world in Flesh of the Gods, and Oscar Isaac will join her exploration of LAs undead nightlife. The film comes from Panos Cosmatos in collaboration with Andrew Kevin Walker.

Per Deadline, Stewart and Isaac have been cast to play Alex and Raoul, the films leads. The official synopsis reads: "In glittering 80s LA, married couple, Raoul (Oscar Isaac) and Alex (Kristen Stewart), descend each evening from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into an electric nighttime realm of 80s Los Angeles. When they cross paths with the mysterious and enigmatic Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, Raoul and Alex are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills, and violence."

Related Ryan Gosling Dishes on Most Terrifying Stunt He's Done The reason I put on these sunglasses is because I had to hide my fear, explains Gosling.

Cosmatos, the director, is best known for his work on Mandy,...

French distributor Arp has picked up all French rights Paul Schrader’s new film Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in competition in Cannes next month.

The feature stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.

Oh, Canada reunites Schrader with Gere, more than 40 years after their first collaboration on American Gigolo. Adapted from the Russell Banks novel Foregone, Oh, Canada sees Gere playing Leonard Fife, a famed American documentary filmmaker who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Dying from cancer, he agrees to give a final interview where he promises to reveals his long-held secrets, speaking in front of his wife (Thurman), a devoted former student (Imperioli), and the film crew.

David Gonzales is the lead producer on Oh, Canada alongside Tiffany Boyle, Luisa Law, Scott Lastaiti and Meghan Hanlon. Arclight Films is handling international sales and WME Independent...

This year’s 77th Cannes Film Festival will mark a meeting of the New Hollywood minds in France. Not only is George Lucas receiving the festival’s Honorary Palme d’Or, but filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Paul Schrader are in the official Competition for the first time in decades.

While Schrader has gone the route of Venice for his “lonely man in a room” trilogy — “First Reformed,” “The Card Counter,” and “Master Gardener” all premiered in Italy — he’s at Cannes this year with “Oh, Canada.” The lineup was confirmed this morning by Cannes festival director Thierry Frémaux. The contemplative drama about a tortured writer looking back on his years as a leftist who fled to Canada to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War stars Jacob Elordi, Richard Gere, and Uma Thurman. Cue the flashbulbs for a buzzy Elordi red carpet moment. The “Euphoria” breakout was last seen...

Starring Barbara Crampton and Rachel Michiko Whitney, we have an exclusive clip from Snow Valley! The film is the directorial debut of the late Brandon Murphy, and is now available from Gravitas Ventures, who had recently acquired Snow Valley from Uinta Productions and Paper Street Pictures.

"Written and directed by Murphy (Hitman’S Wife’S Bodyguard), the film stars Barbara Crampton (Re-animator), Rachel Michiko Whitney (The Card Counter), Cooper van Grootel (One Of US Is Lying), Tom Williamson (All Cheerleaders Die), David Lambert (The Fosters), Paige Elkington (Relationship Status), and Ali Fumiko Whitney (The Road Dance).

In this psychological thriller, a newly engaged couple's swank ski weekend goes horribly awry, when an unexpected guest arrives and the house's dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.

Snow Valley was produced by Chris Abernathy, Aaron B. Koontz, Justice Laub, Rachel Michiko Whitney, and executive produced by Andrea Chung and Solco Schuit.

We’ll see Terrifier 2 star Lauren Lavera get her rematch with Art the Clown when Terrifier 3 reaches theatres this October, but sometime this year we’ll also have the chance to see Lavera take the lead in the pregnancy horror film The Fetus. A specific release date hasn’t yet been announced for this one, but a trailer for the film has made its way online, and you can check it out in the embed above.

Written and directed by Joe Lam, with Nathan Faudree and Yuke Li credited as story consultants, The Fetus tells the story of a couple struggling to learn the truth about the origins of their unborn child– a demonic entity that emerges from the body. Here’s an alternative synopsis: When Alessa becomes pregnant, it brings up Chris’ deep-rooted trauma surrounding fatherhood. Upon discovering that their fetus craves human blood, they visit his father,...

The 2024 Oscars are coming up and Poor Things is one contender that nominees have to watch out for. The film is nominated in a total of eleven categories, including Best Supporting Actor for Mark Ruffalo. Mark Ruffalo played the role of the film’s antagonist, Duncan Wedderburn, and we have never seen him quite like this ever before.

A still from Poor Things

Now, we all know that Mark Ruffalo is undoubtedly amongst the finest that Hollywood has to offer. However, Poor Things proved that there are times when someone of his caliber can too feel insecure. On one hand, there was Mark Ruffalo feeling insecure on the set of Poor Things, and on the other, there was his co-star Willem Dafoe using his insecurity to play a prank on him. He even enlisted an ex-co-star to make it seem all the more believable.

Willem Dafoe Plays a Prank on...

Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to Uinta Productions and Paper Street Pictures’ “Snow Valley,” the directorial debut from the late Brandon Murphy.

Murphy, who died in January 2022, was the screenwriter for “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.” He also wrote the script for “Snow Valley,” which was in post production at the time of his death.

The film stars Barbara Crampton (“Re-Animator”), Rachel Michiko Whitney (“The Card Counter”), Cooper van Grootel (“One Of Us Is Lying”), Tom Williamson (“All Cheerleaders Die”), David Lambert (“The Fosters”), Paige Elkington (“Relationship Status”), and Ali Fumiko Whitney (“The Road Dance”).

In the psychological thriller, a newly engaged couple’s swanky ski weekend goes horribly awry when an unexpected guest arrives and the house’s dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.

“Snow Valley” was produced by Chris Abernathy, Aaron B. Koontz, Justice Laub and Michiko Whitney. Andrea Chung and Solco Schuit executive produced.

The specter of death was all around Paul Schrader as he wrote and filmed “Oh Canada,” starring Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi. The new film, being sold by Arclight Films at the European Film Market, centers around the last days of documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife and is based on the Russell Banks’ novel “Foregone.” Schrader was a longtime pal of Banks since Schrader directed the adaptation of Banks’ acclaimed “Affliction” in 1989. Banks died in January 2023 as Schrader was working on the “Canada” screenplay. “We corresponded up to almost the end,” says Schrader. “My health was bad too.” He contracted Covid-19 and endured subsequent respiratory issues that led to hospitalization.

“We were all dealing with mortality issues as Leonard does in the film. You get to the point where you wonder how many bullets you have left in the gun,” the veteran filmmaker says.

Schrader and Banks’ Fife is an enigmatic...

Willa, Astrakan Film and Cold Iron Pictures are set to join Argonauts Productions to produce “The Boy With the Light Blue Eyes,” a coming-of-age queer Greek tragedy.

Written by Thanasis Neofotistos and Grigoris Skarakis, and to be directed by Neofotistos as his debut feature, “The Boy With the Light Blue Eyes” follows teenager Peter as he navigates the suffocating confines of his superstitious and traditional Greek village community.

Peter is born with light blue eyes in a village that considers them a threat, but only his mother knows. She decides to cover their color with a mask at all times, claiming a threatening eye condition. In this blissful ignorance, Peter and his best friend Aemon embark on an adventure through which Peter learns the painful truth about his eyes and the lies he has been told.

The project participated in Cannes Focus CoPro, and the script has been developed through the Mediterranean Film Institute,...

As we welcome in the New Year, we can reveal our annual (non-exhaustive) list of U.S. and international movies we think could grace the festival circuit in 2024. We’ve stuck to our criteria that the project must already be in production and have not already been announced for a festival. More than 70% of our selections last year went on to debut at a major festival. Those that didn’t were largely delayed by the strike or are still in post-production. If the titles below make the cut, it will be a thrilling year on the festival circuit once again.

Megalopolis

Expectations are high that Francis Ford Coppola will deliver his long-awaited $100+ million passion project in 2024. The sci-fi drama charts the story of an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster. The cast featuring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight,...

At 77 years young, Paul Schrader is really in a considerable renaissance period. He was undoubtedly in the wild and lost in the woods there for a few years, but he returned to his “Taxi Driver” roots and a style of minimalism he always professed to love but never actually attempted with “First Reformed” (2017), which paid off with huge dividends. Every film he’s directed since “The Card Counter” and “Master Gardener” has shown a filmmaker totally rejuvenated in his old age.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Calls Joaquin Phoenix “Bland” & Throws DiCaprio’s ‘Killers Of The Flower’ “Idiot” Character Under The Bus at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Harland Williams (Dumb and Dumber) has wrapped production on Wing Man, his sophomore feature behind the camera, in which he also stars opposite comics Russell Peters (The Opening Act) and Jamie Kennedy (Malibu’s Most Wanted).

Others rounding out the cast of the indie comedy, written and directed by Williams, include Evan Marsh (Workin’ Moms), Shiva Negar (The Cleaning Lady), Kayla Wallace (When Calls the Heart) and Dylan Flashner (The Card Counter).

The film watches as Bob (Marsh) loses his fiancée Terri (Negar) to the wealthy Kazeem (Peters), hiring the Wing Man, Turk (Williams), to help him get her back. Subsequently, though, the Wing Man faces off against his arch enemy — the other Wing Man, Eddie (Kennedy) — who has other plans for Bob. Through car races and bar hopping, this quest for love teaches Bob that true love is found right in front of him. Always there is his faithful assistant,...

Rotterdam Film Festival Sets ‘Head South’ As Opening Film

Jonathan Ogilvie’s post-punk, coming-of-age comedy Head South has been announced as the opening picture of the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), running from January 25 to February 4. The festival has also teased a handful of early selections. They include Indian filmmaker Ishan Shukla’s dystopian, sci-fi animation Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust and U.S. director Billy Woodberry’s biodoc Mário, about African independence activist Mário de Andrade, which will both world premiere. Further confirmations include European premieres for Amanda Kramer’s So Unreal and Ann Hui’s Elegies as well as Omar Hilal’s Voy! Voy! Voy!, which is Egypt’s Oscar entry this year. The festival will unveil its full line-up on December 18.

Paul Schrader To Be Feted At Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Avellino Festival

U.S. director and screenwriter Paul Schrader will be honored with a Lifetime...

Festival First For Darren Dale

Producer and screenwriter, Darren Dale has been named as the new board chair of the Sydney Film Festival, following the retirement of Dianne Weir. He is a leading advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and has been director of Blackfella Films since 2000. He has been involved with films including “The Dark Emu Story,” “Mabo” and TV’s “Redfern Now.” He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and has held board roles at Acmi, Sydney Film Festival, Screen Nsw and the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

“As the first Indigenous and industry practitioner to chair the Sydney Film Festival, Darren Dale’s appointment marks a significant and positive shift for the festival. With an impressive track record in storytelling spanning two decades, he brings valuable experience to lead this cultural organization,” said federal Minister for Arts John Graham.

In 1976, Paul Schrader's screenplay for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver catapulted him to new career heights, but the film also established a thematic thread Schrader would continue to pull at for decades. "God's lonely man," as Travis Bickle refers to himself, has become the key archetypal figure of Schrader's filmography, insular men who are struggling with masculinity and morality in what they view as a transgressive society. In 2017, Schrader released the critically acclaimed First Reformed which starred Ethan Hawke as Reverend Toller, a man struggling to reconcile his faith and his feelings about humanity's role in the climate crisis. Unbeknownst to Schrader at the time, this would be the first entry in an informal series which has been dubbed the "Man in a Room" trilogy. The second film, The Card Counter, released in 2021 and followed Oscar Isaac as William Tell, a veteran who served prison time due to his...

The upcoming film In the Hand of Dante adds Jason Momoa and Gerard Butler alongside Oscar Isaac and Gal Gadot, as reported by Deadline.

Momoa and Isaac had appeared together in Dune as allies. Momoa played swordmaster and mentor to Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), while Isaac was Leto Atreides, Paul's father. Famed film director Martin Scorsese will executively produce the film, which marks a continuation of Isaac and Scorsese's partnership from 2021's The Card Counter, directed by Paul Schrader. Julian Schnabel will direct In the Hand of Dante.

Related: Ocean's Eleven Prequel Producer Insists Barbie Stars Will 'Do Right' by the Film Series

Schnabel was described as a dear friend by Momoa in an interview with Cbr where he recounted his emotional ending to the Apple TV+ series, See. "I went out and called my mom, like any man does," Momoa says, "cried about it, and then I called Julian Schnabel,...

The Card Counter explores a dark past and the sins that haunt its characters. The ending takes a hard turn, leaving audiences shocked or confused. Cirk's plan for revenge against Maj. Gordo is fueled by fury, but Bill understands that they both participated in the torture at Abu Ghraib. Bill's final confrontation with Gordo leads to tragedy, but La Linda's understanding gesture suggests she forgives him and understands his darkness.

Paul Schrader's The Card Counter explores a dark storyline and its ending is even darker, and here is the Card Counter ending explained. The story revolves around William "Bill" Tell (Oscar Isaac), a gambler with a dark past. While on the casino circuit, he meets La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), who offers to front him money to be part of her stable. At first refusing, Bill soon meets Cirk (Tye Sheridan) a young, troubled man with ties to Bill's past,...