News

Veteran documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner and her wife, Morgan Doctor, were working on a film in Rome on Jan. 7 when they got a late-night phone call. It was Timoner’s brother. He was calling to inform his sister that he and his family, and their 86-year-old mother, Lisa, had all evacuated to her home in Altadena.

“They all came to my house because the wind was barely even blowing there,” says Timoner. “They had all been evacuated from their Altadena homes. So, they got to my place, and my brother started making dinner. There was no evacuation order whatsoever, and then suddenly the power went off, and they saw flames, and everybody panicked and left.”

Timoner and Doctor were alarmed by the call on Jan. 7 but got on their scheduled flight to Budapest the following day. They were traveling to Hungary to interview a Holocaust survivor. When they arrived, Timoner...

Exclusive: The Broadway revival of Othello starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal has added to the cast with Andrew Burnap, Anthony Michael Lopez, Daniel Pearce (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and Kimber Elayne Sprawl (Girl from the North Country).

The four will play, respectively, Cassio, Roderigo, Brabantio and Emilia. They’ll join the previously announced Washington, who plays Othello, Gyllenhaal (Iago) and Molly Osborne (Desdemona).

The new castings were announced today by producer Brian Anthony Moreland. Complete casting will be announced soon.

Kenny Leon directs.

The production will begin previews Monday, February 24, 2025, at Broadway’s Barrymore Theatre, with an opening night on Sunday, March 23. The limited 15-week engagement runs through Sunday, June 8.

The production’s creative team will feature Derek McLane (scenic design), Dede Ayite (costume design), Natasha Katz (lighting design), Justin Ellington (sound design), Mia Neal...

Brandon Sklenar has a lot to say.

On a topic that has fascinated the Internet.

As you may have heard, It Ends With Us is a massive hit at the box office — as you also may have heard, there’s a lot of controversy surrounding this film.

Brandon Sklenar attends the “It Ends With Us” New York Premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on August 06, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

According to pretty much every outlet that exists, the cast of this movie isn’t speaking these days to actor and director Justin Baldoni.

There’s been chatter that Baldoni was abusive on set and that he clashed with fellow lead Blake Lively, who plays a character named Lily in this movie that starts up an abusive relationship with Baldoni’s Ryle.

Lively (a producer on the project) and Baldoni reportedly disagreed on the final...

Exclusive: Manager and producer Doreen Wilcox Little has joined Echo Lake Entertainment after more than a decade at Anonymous Content.

A protégé of Steve Golin, Wilcox Little executive produced Killer Joe during her run at Anonymous, the thrilling drama directed by her late client Oscar winner William Friedkin, starring Matthew McConaughey. She was also an EP on Mapplethorpe, the biopic about the iconic photographer, directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner. Wilcox Little’s film credits include the adaptation of Mason Deaver’s YA novel, I Wish You All The Best, written and directed by her client Tommy Dorfman. Alongside the Oscar-winning producers at Macro, Wilcox Little is currently producing I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter for Orion Pictures. The film adaptation of the popular novel is being directed by Oscar-nominated actress America Ferrera this year.

Wilcox Little’s client roster includes notable actors such as Sophie Thatcher, known for her roles in Yellowjackets,...

Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon - Part One” Trailer Gets Debut

Netflix wrapped up this year’s virtual Geeked Week with the debut of the official trailer for Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire.”

The epic space opera is centered on Kora, a stranger with a mysterious past who crash lands on a moon in the furthest reaches of the universe and begins a new life among the peaceful settlement of farmers. But soon, she becomes their only hope for survival against the tyrannical Regent Balisarius and the Imperium army.

Watch the trailer for “Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire” below:

Sofia Boutella leads the cast also made up of Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman, Staz Nair, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Cleopatra Coleman, E. Duffy, Anthony Hopkins, Jena Malone, Ed Skrein, Fra Fee, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Stuart Martin, Corey Stoll, Cary Elwes,...

Cast announced includes Marianne Rendón from Mapplethorpe, Charlie Says.

Principal photography has wrapped in Costa Rica on Los Angeles-based goPOP Films’ supernatural drama Bellyache starring Marianne Rendón from Mapplethorpe and Charlie Says.

Van Ditthavong is directing from his screenplay set in present day about a grieving witch who escapes to a cabin alone to give birth.

The filmmakers also announced that besides Rendón the cast includes Ben Michael Brown (East New York), Christine Kellog-Darrin, and Alex MacNicoll.

Bellyache is being financed through private equity and goPOP Films. Producer Brennan O’Donnell has been based in Costa Rica for more than 20 years...

The Dutton family tree sprouted another branch on Thursday when Paramount+ announced that Brandon Sklenar has been tapped to play Spencer Dutton in Yellowstone’s second spinoff, 1923.

How, exactly, does the character fit in with the Duttons of the early 20th century? Spencer, the streamer explains, is the nephew of Harrison Ford’s Jacob and the brother of Hightown vet James Badge Dale’s John Sr. He also comes with some heavy baggage, having borne witness to the horrors of World War I.

More from TVLineSchool Spirits First Look: See Who's Joining Peyton List in High School Purgatory on Paramount...

The “Yellowstone” prequel series “1923” at Paramount+ has added Brandon Sklenar to the cast, Variety has learned.

Sklenar is the latest addition the cast of the series, joining previously announced cast members Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as well as Darren Mann, Michelle Randolph, James Badge Dale, Marley Shelton, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, and Julia Schlaepfer.

Per the official description of the series, it will “introduce a new generation of the Dutton family and explore the early twentieth century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition, and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home.”

Sklenar will portray Spencer Dutton, “Jacob Dutton’s (Ford) nephew and John Dutton Sr.’s (Dale) brother, who has witnessed the horrors of World War I.”

Sklenar is no stranger to Paramount+, having recently portrayed legendary actor Burt Reynolds in the streamer’s limited series “The Offer.

MTV Documentary Films has boarded new projects about an all-girl Afghan robotics team, a #MeToo crime story, an imprisoned mural artist and a community of disabled children in Pakistan. The documentaries join a slate that includes Ondi Timoner’s Sundance title “Last Flight Home,” which will be screening at Telluride this week in a rare double festival act.

The fledgling division, which was Oscar-nominated for the film “Ascension” earlier this year, was set up in 2019 by legendary HBO Documentary Films boss Sheila Nevins, and ViacomCBS executives Liza Burnett Fefferman and Nina L. Diaz. Nevins was at HBO for 38 years and won 34 Emmys in that period. Her credits include “Citizenfour,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Paradise Lost.”

The slate spans four feature-length documentaries and six short films (full details below), with Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” serving as a centrepiece.

The “Dig!” director’s acclaimed film follows...

Exclusive: Roswell, New Mexico star Michael Vlamis is preparing to make his feature directorial debut with Crossword, a psychological thriller in which he’ll star alongside Aurora Perrineau (When They See Us), Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows), Nick Thune (Love Life), Sarah Ramos (Winning Time), Karan Oberoi (Counterpart), Andoni Gracia (Warner. Bros’ upcoming The Flash) and Spencer Waldner (5 Years Apart).

The indie heading into production this spring centers on James (Vlamis) and Tessa (Perrineau), a young married couple coping with the loss of their daughter. While Tessa trudges forward focused on her bestselling children’s book series inspired by their daughter, James tries to find solace in the daily crossword. As the crossword takes on a mind of its own, the seams of the couple’s reality begin to unravel, revealing that death is more than a five-letter word.

Vlamis wrote the script with Kyle Anderson,...

Hari Nef (And Just Like That…) is the latest addition to the cast of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Deadline has confirmed. She joins an ensemble led by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, which also includes America Ferrara, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu and Will Ferrell, as previously announced.

Details with regard to the Warner Bros. film’s plot have thus far been kept under wraps. While Robbie is playing the iconic doll, with Gosling as her counterpart Ken, specifics as to the character Nef is playing have not been disclosed.

Gerwig and Noah Baumbach scripted the project, which Robbie and Tom Ackerley are producing under their LuckyChap Entertainment production banner, alongside Mattel’s Robbie Brenner and Heyday Films’ David Heyman. LuckyChap’s Josey McNamara and Mattel’s Ynon Kreiz are serving as executive producers.

Nef will next appear in Kyle Newman’s comedy 1Up, the Johanna Block drama Who Am I?...

Exclusive: Deadline has the first exclusive tracks from Marcelo Zarvos’ A Journal for Jordan score, which is set for release tomorrow via Sony Music Masterworks—ahead of the Sony Pictures title’s release in theaters on December 25.

The latest film directed by two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington is based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Jordan), a soldier deployed to Iraq who begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son. Back at home, senior New York Times editor Dana Canedy (Chanté Adams) revisits the story of her unlikely, life-altering relationship with King and his enduring devotion to her and their child.

The romantic drama scripted by Virgil Williams marked Zarvos’ second collaboration with Washington, on the heels of his Oscar-winning August Wilson adaptation, Fences. The composer says that for this “story about love, sacrifice and family that spans 20 years,...

"I would've been a painter, but the camera was invented." Samuel Goldwyn Films has released an official trailer for Mapplethorpe - Director's Cut, an updated version of the narrative feature Mapplethorpe, telling the story of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This originally premiered in 2018, and opened in 2019, but it wasn't the cut that director Ondi Timoner preferred. Mapplethorpe is a renowned photographer who was also feted with a documentary a few years ago, titled Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures. This film is a look at the life of the gay photographer from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death from AIDS in 1989. Matt Smith stars as Robert, along with Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Brandon Sklenar, McKinley Belcher III, & Mark Moses. This new "Director's Cut portrays a nuanced portrait of an artist at the height of his craft, along with the self-destructive impulses that threatened to undermine everything he prized.

Corporate behemoths like Netflix and Disney Plus define the streaming world, but the pandemic inspired specialized distributors to invent a VOD niche with virtual cinema. Led by companies like Kino Lorber, Magnolia Films, and Film Movement, they offer films in partnership with art house theaters and split the revenues. What initially sounded like a long shot became common practice in the space of a year, and virtual cinema could be a permanent feature that runs in parallel to theatrical releases.

Using its website and membership lists to access target audiences, Kino Lorber began selling films through its Kino Lorber Marquee platform last March, starting with “Bacurau.” It also helped acclimate older viewers into seeing movies online.

A year later, Kino Lorber has released 30 films via virtual cinema. According to its self reporting, shared with IndieWire, the platform grossed $1.2 million, with $600,000 going to some 50 arthouse theaters. That’s down from the...

Kristin Scott Thomas (“Fleabag”), Daisy Ridley (the “Star Wars” franchise) and Nina Hoss (“My Little Sister”) will star in writer-director Jane Anderson’s “Women in the Castle.”

Adapted by Anderson from Jessica Shattuck’s 2017 New York Times bestseller, the film, set in the ruins of WW2 Germany, follows three women, bound by their past and clinging to each other for a future, who must grapple with the realities of liberation from the Nazis, and face the consequences of decisions they cannot undo.

The film is produced by Anonymous Content’s Rosalie Swedlin (“The Wife”), Doreen Wilcox Little (“Mapplethorpe”) and Michael Scheel (“Berlin Station”).

Jane Anderson previously adapted Meg Wolitzer’s “The Wife,” featuring an Academy Award and BAFTA nominated performance from Glenn Close. Anderson won two Emmys for her HBO miniseries “Olive Kitteridge,” starring Frances McDormand, and was also DGA nominated as writer-director of HBO’s “Normal,” starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson,...

In today’s film news roundup, “Indigo Valley” and “For They Know Not What They Do” get homes, the Method Fest Film Festival sets its dates and the Big Bear Film Summit unveils its lineup.

Acquisition

Giant Pictures has bought U.S. rights to Jaclyn Bethany’s indie drama “Indigo Valley,” starring Rosie Day (“Outlander”), Brandon Sklenar (“Mapplethorpe”), Atli Oskar Fjalarsson and Greta Bellamacina, Variety has learned exclusively.

Giant Pictures is eyeing a fall digital release for the film. It tells the story of a newlywed couple on a hiking trip through the Icelandic wilderness. The couple is unexpectedly joined by the woman’s estranged sister, an actress recently released from rehab. Jealousy, insecurity and sexual tension run high in the desolate landscape.

Mikhail Makeyev and Courtney Harmstone produced the film for Bke Productions in association with Garnet Girl and Red River Studios. “Indigo Valley” screened at the Garden State...

More than 5,000 people watched Curzon’s first in a new series of live-streamed Q&As.

Curzon has revealed that Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is now it’s most successful title to date on its streaming platform as UK audiences flock online in the wake of cinema closures.

Celine Sciamma’s romantic drama had been performing strongly in theatres for Curzon, grossing £557,000 at the UK box office, before theatres closed their doors amid the coronavirus crisis.

It has now become the most purchased title on Curzon Home Cinema (Chc), which overall recorded a 27% increase on premium VOD week-on-week from...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that 344 feature films are eligible for the 2019 Academy Awards.

To be eligible for the consideration, the films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by Dec. 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days. Academy rules also state that a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format.

Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. The ceremony takes place on Sunday, Feb. 9, airing live from Hollywood on ABC.

“Abominable”

“Ad Astra”

“Adam”

“The Addams Family”

“The Aeronauts”

“After the Wedding”

“The Aftermath”

“Aga”

“Aladdin”

“Alita: Battle Angel”

“Always Be My Maybe”

“The Amazing Johnathan”

“American Factory”

“American Woman”

“Angel Has Fallen”

“The Angry Birds Movie 2”

“Anna”

“Annabelle Comes Home...

The Crown‘s Claire Foy and Matt Smith will reprise their acclaimed London stage roles for a New York production of director Matthew Warchus’ staging of Duncan Macmillan’s play Lungs.

Following its sold-out run at London’s Old Vic, Lungs will be presented at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater for a limited run from March 25 – April 19, 2020, producers announced.

The production marks the three Old Vic staging set for a New York run this season, following the current Broadway production of A Christmas Carol and the upcoming Girl from the North Country.

The synopsis for Lungs, about a young couple wrestling with one of life’s biggest dilemmas, is as follows: “The ice caps are melting, there’s overpopulation, political unrest; everything’s going to hell in a handbasket – why on earth would someone bring a baby into this world?”

“The entire production, from the stellar cast to...

The first person we meet in “Ray & Liz” is elderly Ray (Patrick Romer). Alone in a tiny room, abandoned by his wife Liz (Deirdre Kelly), he has taken to his bed seemingly permanently, waking only long enough to drink as much as it takes to keep himself drunk. He keeps a photo of himself as a young man with his bride stuck to a mirror next to a religious pamphlet that delivers the only foreshadowing this film feels like giving: a Bible verse instructing children to “obey [their] parents in everything.”

“Ray & Liz,” Richard Billingham’s debut feature, punctuates its main action with visits to this room, with the rest of the quietly downcast story taking place during the 1980s, as Ray and Liz descend into poverty, despair, and alcoholism in a council flat outside of Birmingham, England. Their children — Richard and his younger brother Jason — are along for the ride,...

Some months in advance of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” a film about the Manson murders, comes Mary Harron’s “Charlie Says,” a very strained attempt to understand the motivations of the women who killed for Charles Manson.

“Charlie Says” is based on a book by Karlene Faith, a teacher who started working with three of Manson’s “girls” three years after they were put in prison for murder. The title comes from the constant refrain of these brainwashed young women, who still believe outlandish things that Manson told them about becoming winged elves after a race war.

The sound design is atmospheric and subjective in the first scenes, where we see Leslie Van Houten showering after the stabbing of Leno and Rosemary Labianca, but this subjectivity is abandoned once the film takes us to the Spahn Ranch where Manson holds sway.

Also Read: 'The Haunting...

Don’t tell cinematographer Nancy Schreiber that she’s having a renaissance. That would imply there’ve been slumps in her long career, and she won’t have any of that, even if for a time she was taking smaller jobs as the gaps widened between larger gigs.

“It’s never been about the money, for me,” says Schreiber over the phone as she preps to leave for five months to shoot a TV series in Atlanta. “It’s about the passion, the project, the director, the script and the actors attached. I would have been a banker if I were focused on money.”

Robert Mapplethorpe wasn’t focused on money either — at least not at first. The famed New York City artist, known for his sexually provocative photographs, is the subject of Schreiber’s latest film, “Mapplethorpe,” directed by Ondi Timoner, a two-time Sundance Grand Prize winner. The movie,...

Just shy of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, Neon’s Apollo 11 is taking one giant leap into well over a hundred Imax theaters this weekend. The feature film, by Todd Douglas Miller and compiled from extensive very rarely seen large format footage of the mission, is one of the first big 2019 Sundance Film Festival debuts to hit theaters. The title joins a decent number of new Specialty releases Friday, which follows an Oscar-weekend lull. The Crown and Doctor Who’s Matt Smith stars in Mapplethorpe, Ondi Timoner’s biopic being launched by Samuel Goldwyn Films. IFC Films is opening Michael Winterbottom’s latest, The Wedding Guest. The thriller stars Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel and is getting a traditional roll out beginning in New York this weekend. And Music Box Films is rolling out Christian Petzold’s French and German drama Transit also in New York Friday...

The major thing that “Mapplethorpe” has in its favor is that the film is afraid of neither the life nor the work of the notorious photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Documentary director Ondi Timoner (“We Live in Public”), making her narrative debut, has ensured that this movie acknowledges the many hard edges and unattractive qualities of this man while also celebrating and not looking away from his most explicit and scariest photographs, many of which rather surprisingly appear on screen.

Most mainstream films are afraid of showing the male penis, or anything having to do with sadomasochism, but Timoner’s attitude here seems to be, “Bring it on!” Timoner’s gutsiness is shared (and then some) by her star Matt Smith, a British actor who very convincingly played another gay male icon, writer Christopher Isherwood, in a TV movie of Isherwood’s memoir “Christopher and His Kind” in 2011.

Also Read: 'Mapplethorpe,...

Matt Smith and “Leave No Trace” star Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie are in negotiations to join Edgar Wright’s next film, “Last Night in Soho,” sources tell Variety.

Details are vague about the psychological horror movie, other than it being set in London’s Soho district. Anya Taylor Joy is also in the cast. Production is expected to start this summer in London.

Wright most recently directed Sony’s heist film “Baby Driver” starring Ansel Elgort, and is reportedly also working on its sequel. He is co-writing the script for “Last Night in Soho” with “Penny Dreadful” screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Focus Features and Film4 will co-finance the film.

Smith just scored an Emmy nomination for his role as Prince Philip in Netflix’s “The Crown.” He can be seen next in the biopic “Mapplethorpe,” which premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Smith is also in the New Regency movie...

As discussions of onscreen representation have become more common in recent years, actors have been forced to reckon with the implications of portraying members of groups to which they do not belong. Emma Stone made the Golden Globes highlight reel by yelling “I’m sorry!” for playing a woman of Chinese descent, Scarlett Johansson opted not to star in “Rub & Tug” following backlash over her playing a transgender man, and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” star Darren Criss has vowed to no longer play gay men.

Now there’s Matt Smith, who stars as Robert Mapplethorpe in “Mapplethorpe.” The actor was joined by producer Eliza Dushku to discuss the biopic on Valentine’s Day, eventually addressing the question of whether the homosexual photographer should have been played by a gay man.

“I think your sexual orientation, or your sex and your choices outside of work, shouldn’t influence — in either way,...

Thursday night’s New York premiere of the Matt Smith-led biopic “Mapplethorpe” took place at Cinépolis Chelsea, just steps from the Chelsea Hotel where the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe once lived — but director Ondi Timoner had no sense of that legacy when she first encountered him in a very different context.

“When I was ten years old, I had a calendar of his flowers. I had no idea what else was in the collection!” she told Variety, laughing. It was only after she decided to rewrite “Mapplethorpe” herself that Timoner found some of his earliest photos, taken “when he first discovered gay life,” which would become the backbone of the project. “Then he decided, ‘I’m going to make this into an undeniably collectable, museum-worthy art form.’ And that became the trajectory,” she said. “Showing that development from coming of age and coming into his sexuality through to the...

The Premio Maguey, the Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival’s Lgbtq sidebar, will pay tribute to late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Plans include the screening of “Mapplethorpe,” Ondi Timoner’s drama starring Matt Smith, on its March 9 opening night gala, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the death of the iconic artist.

Mexican photographers have also been invited to participate in a competition for the best Mapplethorpe-inspired photo. A selection of the entries will be exhibited alongside the winners during the inaugural fiesta.

This year’s 8th edition features a highly diverse lineup of international films from as far afield as Indonesia, Slovenia, Estonia and Singapore, director-programmer Pavel Cortes told Variety.

“Not only do some hail from remote parts of the world but also from territories that are not known for their queer-themed cinema,” he noted. In some cases, films come from largely-homophobic countries like Russia or Muslim-dominant Indonesia. “‘Memories...

Matt Smith is in final talks to join Jared Leto in “Morbius,” a film based on the Spider-Man villain of the same name.

“Safe House” director Daniel Espinosa will helm the movie. Exact details of who Smith would play are unknown at this time, other than it being a major role in the film.

Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who co-created the Netflix series “Lost in Space,” penned the script. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing “Morbius” with Lucas Foster. Palak Patel will oversee the pic for Sony.

Writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane created Morbius in 1971 for “The Amazing Spider-Man #101.” The character was a scientist who tried to cure himself of a blood disease, with tragic results. He became afflicted with vampiric traits such as fangs and a thirst for blood — and wound up battling Spider-Man.

Morbius appeared sporadically in Marvel Comics in the subsequent years and...

Drake and Altitude have launched a brand new trailer and poster for the Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award-winning picture for the outstanding first feature, ‘Monster’s and Men’.

Related: Monsters and Men Review | Tiff 2018

Written and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the film stars ‘BlackKlansman’s’ John David Washington, ‘A Star is Born’s’ Anthony Ramos and ‘Mudbound’sKelvin Harrison Jr.

Also in trailers – Matt Smith transforms into controversial artist in trailer for ‘Mapplethorpe’

The film is released in Cinemas and digital on January 18th, 2019.

Monsters and Men Official Synopsis

The film tells a ripple-effect narrative: from an eye-witness (Ramos) who captures a shooting on his phone, an African-American police officer (Washington) battling with his conscience to stand up against his fellow officers, to a local high school student (Harrison Jr) who transforms from passive bystander to vehement activist. With fluid cinematography that’s alert and expressive, the...

The first trailer for the biopic based on the early life of the controversial photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, has been released.

‘Doctor Who’ and ‘The Crown’ star, Matt Smith takes on the role of ‘Mapplethorpe’, a man who is arguably one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Mapplethorpe discovered himself both sexually and artistically in New York City throughout the ’70s and ’80s.

Also in trailers – Matthias Schoenaerts attempts to become a horse whisperer in trailer for ‘The Mustang’

The film is set for a Us release on March 1st.

Mapplethorpe Official Synopsis

The film explores Mapplethorpe’s life from moments before he and Patti Smith moved into the famed Chelsea Hotel, home to a world of bohemian chic. Here he begins photographing its inhabitants and his newfound circle of friends including artists and musicians, socialites, film stars, and members of the S&M underground Mapplethorpe’s work displayed...

The official trailer for director Ondi Timoner’s Mapplethorpe biopic is out, portraying the controversial artist as he ascends from nowhere to become one of the most talked-about media creators of the 20th Century.

Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith is Robert Mapplethorpe, with Marianne Rendon as punk poet/rocker Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe’s muse.

Mapplethorpe discovered himself both sexually and artistically in New York City throughout the 70’s and 80’s. The film depicts Mapplethorpe’s life from moments before he and Patti Smith moved into the famed Chelsea Hotel, home to a world of bohemian chic. There, he began photographing its inhabitants and his new circle of friends, including artists and musicians, socialites, film stars, and members of the Bds&M underground.

That work displayed eroticism in a way that had never been examined nor displayed before to the public. Much of it was derided or outright banned in certain locales during his lifetime,...

A new trailer for Mapplethorpe is here. "You may not know us yet, but we're going to be big stars." These are the words that rock icon Patti Smith (Marianne Rendon) kicks off the first trailer with. The upcoming biopic on artist Robert Mapplethorpe sees former Doctor Who star Matt Smith as the important and controversial figure. Indeed, both of these figures went on to achieve star status, but in very different ways and with very different outcomes. Whereas Smith would go on to craft some of the greatest music ever produced, Mapplethorpe would go on to push the boundaries of photography as art, given his use of eroticism and exploration of sexual themes in his work.

This first footage highlights both the work of the artist at hand and the performance of Matt Smith. For his part, Smith seems to have disappeared into the role and is nearly unrecognizable.

The story of legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe will be the subject of the upcoming biopic Mapplethorpe, which unveiled its first trailer Friday ahead of its 2019 release. Dr. Who and The Crown actor Matt Smith portrays the photographer in the Ondi Timoner-directed biopic that chronicles his sexual and artistic awakening in New York City of the Seventies and Eighties, as well as his friendship with rock legend Patti Smith.

“Photography, it’s about light, it’s about composition, it’s about the personality of the subject,” Smith’s Mapplethorpe says in voiceover.

Filmmaker Ondi Timoner is no stranger to making films about rock stars and celebrities. Having directed films about Russell Brand, The Dandy Warhols, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, the director is an expert on the private lives of those that seem larger than life. That makes her seemingly the perfect choice to co-write and direct “Mapplethorpe.”

As seen in the first trailer, “Mapplethorpe” chronicles the life and career of celebrated photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Continue reading ‘Mapplethorpe’ Trailer: Matt Smith Brings The Controversial Photographer’s Life To The Big Screen at The Playlist.

“I would’ve been a painter, but the camera was invented,” Matt Smith says in a stunning Long Island accent as Robert Mapplethorpe in the first trailer for Ondi Timoner’s upcoming biopic about the incendiary photographer. His performance here is mesmerizing, though a 105-second trailer, as good as this one is, is very different from a 102-minute film.

“Mapplethorpe” received almost entirely negative reviews when it debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last April — IndieWire’s David Ehrlich gave it a D+ — but most of the critics at least singled out Smith’s performance as worthy of higher regard than the film in which it finds itself.

Read More: Matt Dillon Says Lars von Trier Isn’t Evil and that ‘The House That Jack Built’ Is Art

The new trailer includes Mapplethorpe first connecting with Patti Smith — he’d take the photo of her that would end up on...

"Even that which we deem obscene, you make look more beautiful than I thought possible." Indeed. Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled the first official trailer for Mapplethorpe, the new feature film about famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This originally premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, and played at a few other fests and is opening in Us theaters next March. Mapplethorpe is a renowned photographer who was also feted with a fantastic documentary a few years back, titled Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures. The narrative film went under the working titled The Perfect Moment, before they settled on simply Mapplethorpe. It's a look at the life of the gay photographer from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death from AIDS in 1989. Matt Smith stars as Robert, along with Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Brandon Sklenar, McKinley Belcher III, and Mark Moses. I'm a very big fan of Mapplethorpe,...

Mapplethorpe screens Monday Nov 5th at 8:15pm at the Tivoli Theater as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here

Review by Stephen Tronicek

While Ondi Timonir’s Mapplethorpe fails among many, many, facets including depicting the lifestyle that Robert Mapplethorpe lead as some type of problem to be solved, chalking up a relationship straight out of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul or Get Out as something to be valued, or even so not providing an overall thesis on the man’s life itself, the film does manage to capture a certain excitement when it comes to the living of his life. There’s a sense of openness, of freedom, to stand in his shoes and think the way that he thought. A certain surface veneer to looking at a beautiful photograph of raw cathartic energy and luxuriating in it.

A...

Exclusive: Ondi Timoner, the documentary filmmaker who is making her narrative feature debut with the Matt Smith-starring biopic Mapplethorpe, has signed with Apa and Dialed-in Entertainment.

Timoner has won a pair of Sundance Film Festival grand jury prizes — first in 2004 for her feature documentary debut Dig!, then again in 2009 for We Live In Public. Her docu feature credits also include Join Us (2007), Cool It (2010), and Brand: A Second Coming (2015). Last year, Timoner and her Interloper Films banner produced Jungletown, a 10-hour docuseries for Viceland about an entrepreneur’s attempt to build a sustainable modern town in the Panamanian jungle.

She also has produced and hosted 300 episodes of the online interview show Byod (Bring Your Own Doc); is founder and CEO of the online network A Total Disruption; and is part of WeTalk, which features her traveling talk show celebrating the women shaping our culture across arts, entrepreneurship, government and technology.

The 27th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff) — held Nov. 1-11 — ​provides St. Louis filmgoers with the opportunity to view the finest in world cinema: international films, documentaries, American indies, and shorts that can only be seen on the big screen at the festival. ​Sliff will screen 413 films: 88 narrative features, 77 documentary features, and 248 shorts. The fest also will feature 14 special-event programs, including our closing-night awards presentation. This year’s festival has 63 countries represented.

Sliff will present our usual array of fest buzz films and Oscar contenders, including “3 Faces,” “Ash Is Purest White,” “Ben Is Back,” “Boy Erased,” “Capernaum,” “The Captain,” “The Chaperone,” “Cold War,” “Destroyer,” “Diane,” “Dogman,” “Everybody Knows,” “The Front Runner,” “Green Book,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “The Image Book,” “Little Woods,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “Mapplethorpe,” “Non-Fiction,” “Shoplifters,” “Support the Girls,” “Transit,” “Vox Lux,” “Widows,” “Wildlife,” and “Zama.”

The festival will honor...

Vertical Entertainment has set an Aug. 14 digital and VOD release for the pandemic thriller “Patient Zero,” starring Matt Smith, Natalie Dormer and Stanley Tucci.

The film, which was developed and produced at Sony’s Screen Gems, is also arriving in select theaters on Sept. 14.

The story takes place after a super-virus has turned humankind into highly intelligent, streamlined killers. Smith portrays an asymptomatic victim who can communicate with the infected and must lead the last survivors on a hunt for Patient Zero and a cure. Agyness Deyn and Clive Standen (“Vikings”) also star.

Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky from a screenplay by Mike Le, “Patient Zero” was produced by Vincent Newman and executive produced by Glenn S. Gainor and Steve Norris. The film was shot in 2015 in London.

Smith’s credits include “Dr. Who,” Netflix’s “The Crown,” and “Mapplethorpe,” which was bought this week by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Dormer stars in “Game of Thrones,...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has secured North American rights to Ondi Timoner’s biopic “Mapplethorpe,” starring Matt Smith as the controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

The film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, will be released in the late fall. Timoner directed from a script she co-wrote with Mikko Alanne. The film is produced by Eliza Dushku, Timoner, Nate Dushku, and Richard J Bosner. Executive producers are Peter Palandjian and Sam Maydew.

Marianne Rendón stars as singer Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe’s longtime roommate and partner. The cast also includes John Benjamin Hickey, Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Kerry Butler.

Mapplethorpe discovered himself both sexually and artistically in New York City throughout the 70’s and 80’s. The movie explores Mapplethorpe’s life from moments before he and Smith moved into the famed Chelsea hotel, where he began photographing its inhabitants and his new found circle of friends including artists and musicians,...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Mapplethorpe, Ondi Timoner’s biopic that stars Matt Smith as artist Robert Mapplethorpe. The company is eyeing a late fall release date.

The film, which bowed at the Tribeca Film Festival, explores Mapplethorpe’s life from moments before he and Patti Smith moved into the famed Chelsea hotel in the early ’70s, where he begins photographing its inhabitants and newfound circle of friends including artists and musicians, socialites, film stars and members of the S&M underground. The boundary-pushing work made him one arguably one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Kerry Butler co-star.

Eliza Dushku, Timoner, Nate Dushku and Richard J Bosner are producers. Peter Palandjian and Sam Maydew are executive producers of the pic, which Timoner co-wrote with Mikko Alanne.

The deal was negotiated...

Matt Smith starrer premiered in Tribeca.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Ondi Timoner’s Mapplethorpe, starring Matt Smith.

The feature premiered in Tribeca earlier this year and also stars Marianne Rendon, John Benjamin Hickey, Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Kerry Butler.

Samuel Goldwyn Films plans an autumn release for the film, which follows the life of artist Robert Mapplethorpe before he moved into the notorious Chelsea hotel with Patti Smith, where he photographed many of its inhabitants. The biopic shows the ways Mapplethorpe’s erotically charged, ground-breaking photography intersected with his sexuality.

Mikko Alanne...

Tuesday, July 10

– Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Ondi Timoner’s feature film “Mapplethorpe.” The film stars Matt Smith, Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Kerry Butler. The film will be released in late fall.

The film explores artist Robert Mapplethorpe’s “life from moments before he and Patti Smith moved into the famed Chelsea hotel,home to a world of bohemian chic. Here he begins photographing it’s inhabitants and his new found circle of friends including artists and musicians, socialites, film stars, and members of the S&M underground. Mapplethorpe’s work displayed erotisim in a way that had never been examined nor displayed before to the public. The film explores the intersection of his art and his sexuality and his struggle for mainstream recognition. The biopic offers a nuanced portrait of an artist at the height of his...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has picked up North American rights to Mapplethorpe, which sees The Crown star Matt Smith play the late controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

The movie follows the photographer in his early career as he photographs everyone from New York socialites to members of the city's S&M underground scene.

Marianne Rendon, John Benjamin Hickey and Mark Moses also star in Mapplethorpe, which screened at this year's Tribeca Film Festival and wis set to be released in late fall.

Ondi Timoner directed the film, which he co-wrote with Mikko Alanne. Eliza Dushku, Timoner, Nate Dushku and Richard J. Bosner ...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has picked up North American rights to Mapplethorpe, which sees The Crown star Matt Smith play the late controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

The movie follows the photographer in his early career as he photographs everyone from New York socialites to members of the city's S&M underground scene.

Marianne Rendon, John Benjamin Hickey and Mark Moses also star in Mapplethorpe, which screened at this year's Tribeca Film Festival and is set to be released in late fall.

Ondi Timoner directed the film, which he co-wrote with Mikko Alanne. Eliza Dushku, Timoner, Nate Dushku and Richard J. Bosner ...

In today’s film news roundup, Tony Kaye is attached to a crime drama, Brandon Sklenar gets a role in “Indigo Valley,” Orion Classics buys “Clara’s Ghost,” and romcom “Paper Friends” has started shooting in New York City.

Director Attachment

British director Tony Kaye has come on board to helm the independent crime drama “Honorable Men,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The film is being produced by Life Entertainment with producers Sam Khoze, Justin Steele, and Patrick McErlean along with the Film House and producer Ryan R. Johnson.

Kaye’s directing credits include “American History X,” “Black Water Transit,” and “Detachment.” He did not approve of the final cut of “American History X” and tried unsuccessfully to have his name removed as director of the movie, for which Edward Norton received an Oscar nomination.

Kaye also received six Grammy nominations for music videos such as Johnny Cash’s “God’s...

Wednesday, May 2

– The Seattle International Film Festival has announced today the complete lineup of films, guests, and events for the 44th annual 25-day festival that runs May 17 – June 10. This year, Siff will screen 433 films representing 90 countries and will include: 168 features (plus 4 secret films), 66 documentaries, 10 archival films, 164 shorts, and 21 Vr/360 works. The lineup includes 35 World premieres, 46 North American premieres, and 25 Us. premieres. You can see the full lineup right here.

– During this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the fest will play home to four masterclasses with directors and actors who were “invited to share their work and passion about cinema.” Those names include Ryan Coogler, Christopher Nolan, John Travolta, and Gary Oldman.

– Celebrating 20 years of “filmmaking on the edge,” the Provincetown International Film Festival (Piff) announced today its complete lineup of narrative, documentary and short films. Ondi Timoner’s “Mapplethorpe,” starring Matt Smith, has been selected as the Closing Night film.

Madeleine Olnek’s Wild Nights With Emily, starring Molly Shannon as Emily Dickinson, will open the 2018 Provincetown International Film Festival, while Ondi Timoner’s Mapplethorpe, starring Matt Smith as the influential photographer, will serve as the closing-night film.

The fest, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is set to run June 13-17 in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

“For our 20th anniversary festival, we are absolutely thrilled to present a lineup featuring new work by a group of extraordinarily talented filmmakers, and we are especially proud that all five of our Spotlight films are directed by women,” commented artistic director Lisa Viola in announcing...