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Emilia Clarke Fifty Shades Rejection (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Back when Game of Thrones was at its peak, Emilia Clarke was proffered the lead in Fifty Shades of Grey. And guess what? She seriously considered it. Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director, had a vision Clarke esteemed. However, the actress eventually refused the role. Her reasoning? She didn’t want to be typecast.

Clarke wasn’t against the idea of Fifty Shades. In fact, she thought Taylor-Johnson was brilliant. “Sam is a magician,” Em once said. But while she admired the director, she wasn’t about to sign up for another role that revolved around s*x and nudity. “And it’s annoying as hell and I’m sick and tired of it because I did it for the character,” Clarke explained on The Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actress roundtable.

I did a minimal amount and I’m pigeonholed for life, so me saying yes to that,...

This brash debut with Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher is slickly made but it’s not as clever or original as it thinks it is

Imagine, if you will, a skewed sci-fi reality that envisions a Black Mirror episode but for an entire movie? Can you even begin to grasp what that would look like? Maybe you can if in the last few years you’ve seen Foe or Fingernails or Don’t Worry Darling or Swan Song or Love Me or The Pod Generation or The Substance or Possessor or any one of the many attempts to recall the magic of at least some of the sci-fi anthology’s earlier episodes. It’s not as if the Charlie Brooker-created series was the first to spin “what if?” nightmares from the dangers of tech but its stickiness has had a noticeable effect on younger creators eager to Say Something about the times we live in.

A controversial romance movie with a Game of Thrones star has become a streaming success. The show was a launching point for many of its cast members. One such talent was Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen in the George R.R. Martin fantasy adaptation across all eight seasons. Clarke was 24 years old when she made her debut as part of the Game of Thrones cast in 2011. Prior to the HBO series, her only roles had been a single episode of the TV series Doctors, the short film Drop the Dog, and a part in the TV movie Triassic Attack.

Game of Thrones was life-changing for Clarke. She was nominated for four Emmys for the series, including three for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and one for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. After the conclusion of Game of Thrones in 2019, Clarke has gone on to have roles...

Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”), Edgar Ramirez (“Emilia Perez”) and Jack Farthing (“Spencer”) will star in “Next Life” from writer-director Drake Doremus (“Like Crazy”), L.A. and London-based production and management company 42, Mutressa and Fetisoff Illusion have announced.

“Next Life” tells the love story of Ivy (Emilia Clarke), who finds herself confronted with parallel universes in which her life unspools in very different ways set against the modern London jazz scene.

Mutressa’s Elika Portnoy, Gleb Fetisov of Fetisoff Illusion and 42’s Ben Pugh and Kate Buckley are producing alongside Doremus. John Palfery Smith will also produce. Production is currently underway in London and set to wrap in late December. CAA Media Finance is representing worldwide rights.

Clarke is best known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO award winning series “Game of Thrones,” for which she received four Emmy nominations and three Critics Choice Award nominations.

Content warning: This article discusses themes and subject matter that some readers may find triggering, including physician-assisted suicide.

In the midst of her tenure as Daenerys Targaryen on "Game of Thrones," Emilia Clarke found the time to shoot a heartfelt, weepy romance movie ... and years later, it's finding new life on Amazon Prime's streaming service. So what's the movie?

Released in 2016, "Me Before You" — based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Jojo Moyes, which came out four years prior — tells the story of Louisa "Lou" Clark (Clarke), a bubbly but unmotivated young woman who ends up working as an in-home carer for Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), who led an extremely active life as a banker and athlete before getting into a motorcycle accident. Will deeply struggles with his new life as a tetraplegic (meaning that he has a devastating spinal cord injury that affects his ability to...

Emilia Clarke played a fascinating character called Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones. Her role was arguably the most important one in the storyline that captured millions of hearts around the world between 2011 and 2019. Clarke earned herself numerous awards since debuting on Got over a decade ago. She was also named one of the most influential people in 2019 by Time.

Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones | Credits: HBO

Unfortunately, the award-winning television series came to an end in 2019 after its eighth and final season aired. Fans weren’t too happy about it back then and neither was Emilia Clarke, who had an issue with how writers chose to bring an end to her character’s story during the final season. Daenerys was killed by her own nephew on Got, Jon Snow (portrayed by Kit Harington).

What did Emilia Clarke say about Daenerys Targaryen...

Emilia Clarke will star in and serve as an executive producer for “Ponies,” a new espionage thriller coming to Peacock.

The series comes from Emmy Award-nominated director Susanna Fogel (“The Flight Attendant,” “The Spy Who Dumped Me”), who will serve as executive producer, director and co-writer alongside Emmy Award-nominated executive producer David Iserson (“Mr. Robot,” “New Girl”). Iserson will serve as co-writer and showrunner. Additionally, PGA Award winner Jessica Rhoades (“Black Mirror,” “Dirty John”) will executive produce via her Pacesetter Productions.

The upcoming series will be set in Moscow in 1977. During this time, two Ponies — “persons of no interest” in intelligence speak — are working anonymously in the American Embassy. That changes when their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the Ussr, causing the two to become CIA operatives. Together, they find themselves in the middle of a vast Cold War conspiracy as they try to solve the mystery that...

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke is adding another series to her schedule.

The multiple Emmy nominee will star in Ponies, a spy thriller that has landed a straight-to-series order at Peacock. The Cold War-era show comes from Universal Television and co-creators Susanna Fogel (Booksmart, The Flight Attendant) and David Iserson (Mr. Robot).

Clarke is currently filming another streaming series, Criminal, for Amazon’s Prime Video. She stars opposite Charlie Hunnam Richard Jenkins, John Hawkes and Adria Arjona (among others) in that drama, based on the graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Ponies is set in Moscow in 1977. It centers on two “Ponies”(persons of no interest) who work anonymously as secretaries at the American embassy — until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the Ussr and they become CIA operatives. Clarke will play Bea, an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. The other lead character, Twila...

Emilia Clarke is set for a lead role in the espionage thriller “Ponies,” which has been ordered straight to series at Peacock.

The series hails from co-creators Susanna Fogel and David Iserson, with Clarke set to executive produce in addition to starring.

The official description for the series states:

“Moscow, 1977. Two ‘Ponies’ (‘persons of no interest’ in intelligence speak) work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the Ussr, and the pair become CIA operatives. Bea (Clarke) is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her cohort, Twila, is a small-town girl who is as abrasive as she is fearless. Together, they work to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that made them widows in the first place.”

Fogel will also direct for the series, while Iserson will serve as showrunner. Jessica Rhoades executive produces under her Pacesetter Productions banner.

Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to 1970s espionage thriller Ponies, starring and executive produced by Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones). The project, co-created, co-written and executive produced by Susanna Fogel (The Flight Attendant) and David Iserson (Mr. Robot) and exec produced by Jessica Rhoades (Black Mirror), previously had a cast-contingent blinking green light, which Clarke’s casting turned into a firm order.

Set in Moscow in 1977, the series follows two “Ponies” (“persons of no interest” in intelligence speak) who work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the Ussr, and the pair become CIA operatives. Bea (Clarke) is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her cohort, Twila, is a small-town girl who is as abrasive as she is fearless. Together, they work to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that made them widows in the first place.

Emilia Clarke has been cast in Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming series adaptation of the “Criminal” graphic novels in a lead role, Variety has learned exclusively.

Clarke will star alongside previously announced cast members Charlie Hunnam, Richard Jenkins, John Hawkes, Adria Arjona, Logan Browning, Kadeem Hardison, Pat Healy, Taylor Sele, Gus Halper, Aliyah Camacho, Michael Mando, Marvin Jones III, Michael Xavier, and Dominic Burgess.

The graphic novels were created by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The official description states the series is “an interlocking universe of crime stories.”

Clarke will appear in the role of Mallory, described as “a slick and daring armed robber, as quick with a gun as she is with her wits. Part of a heist crew with Ricky Lawless (Halper), who she’s in a passionate Bonnie-and-Clyde-like affair with. Mallory is a woman on the edge, living on the wrong side of the law and hiding...

Liam Neeson crime thriller In the Land of Saints and Sinners opens on 896 screens this weekend, joined by Sean Penn in Asphalt City — the Godzilla vs. Kong of the specialty market?

Neeson reunites with The Marksman director Robert Lorenz as a newly retired assassin in a remote Irish village who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. Ciarán Hinds, Kerry Condon, Colm Meaney and Jack Gleeson also star in Land of Saints and Sinners, which premiered at Venice, and was shot in County Donegal, Ireland. Screenplay by Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane. Samuel Goldwyn Films’ widest release post-pandemic sits at 80% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Penn stars with Tye Sheridan in Asphalt City, Vertical’s co-release with Roadside Attractions that opens on 297 screens, also with a national footprint. Young paramedic Ollie Cross (Sheridan) is paired with seasoned partner Gene...

Roadside Attractions and Vertical have co-acquired U.S. rights To the WWII drama Lee, marking the feature directorial debut of veteran cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). which stars Academy Award winner Kate Winslet (The Regime) as famed American war correspondent and photographer, Lee Miller.

The film, written by Liz Hannah (The Post) and Marion Hume & John Collee, is slated to hit theaters September 20th, opening against Sony and Apple’s thriller Wolfs starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and Uni animation The Wild Robot.

World premiering at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, Lee begins in the late 1930s, as Hitler amasses power in Germany. Miller (Winslet) leaves her world and her artistic circle of friends behind in France and travels to London, having fallen wildly in love with the art dealer Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård). The two embark on a passionate relationship, and then war breaks out in Europe.

Roadside Attractions and Vertical have acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Lee,” the war biopic starring Kate Winslet as influential WWII photographer Lee Miller.

“Lee” is the narrative feature directorial debut of cinematographer Ellen Kuras (she was previously nominated for an Oscar for co-directing “The Betrayal”), who worked with Winslet on “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” The film earned buzz for Winslet’s performance following its premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, sparking some hope of an Oscar or awards campaign for Winslet, but the film took some time to find a domestic distributor in a market slowed by the strikes.

Roadside Attractions and Vertical will release “Lee” theatrically on September 20.

Lee Miller captured some of the most indelible images of war in the 20th century, including an iconic photo of Miller herself inside Hitler’s private bathtub. The film begins in the late 1930s and...

Exclusive: Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and White Lotus breakout Leo Woodall have signed for UK agency Hamilton Hodell.

The pair have signed in all areas for the UK market and retain multiple reps in the U.S.

Clarke and Woodall are two of the UK’s hottest stars right now. Best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, Clarke’s other roles include in movies The Pod Generation, Last Christmas and Solo: A Star Wars Story. She is currently gearing up to play Oscar Wilde’s wife in An Ideal Wife from Sophie Hyde. Late last year, she was given an MBE alongside mother Jenny after the pair set up a charity together supporting people with brain injuries.

Woodall broke out as ‘cheeky chappy’ Jack in the second season of HBO’s White Lotus. He is playing the lead in Netflix’s soon-to-launch limited series adaptation...

Sundance film festival: Captain Marvel directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have made a bizarrely misjudged hodgepodge of gore, needle drops and nostalgia

More often than not, the opening night slot at Sundance has become more curse than blessing, too many films living and dying in just one night, barely to be seen again. Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s sci-fi comedy The Pod Generation anyone? How about the Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore melodrama After the Wedding? Daisy Ridley’s suicide drama Sometimes I Think About Dying? Or maybe that sequel to An Inconvenient Truth that you didn’t even know existed? This year’s sacrificial lamb, the 80s-set anthology Freaky Tales, is nothing if not confident in its ability to make an impact, asserting itself as an experience that won’t easily be forgotten.

Acting as its own hype man, the film begins with a block of narrated...

Roadside Attractions and Vertical have acquired the U.S. rights to the historical thriller “Firebrand,” which will open in theaters on June 21. Based on the historical novel “Queen’s Gambit” by Elizabeth Fremantle, the film stars Alicia Vikander and Jude Law and is directed by Karim Aïnouz.

“Firebrand” follows “legendary Queen of England, Katherine Parr, and her quest to survive the perilous last months in the life of her ailing and abusive husband, Henry VIII,” per the release. The cast also includes Eddie Marsan, Sam Riley, Simon Russell Beale and Erin Doherty. Gabrielle Tana and Carolyn Marks Blackwood produce the film, which played competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

“I could not be more excited to be bringing ‘Firebrand’ to the screen and telling the story of Katherine Parr — a ferociously brilliant, enlightened, and emancipated woman who I am deeply inspired by — a woman who has been largely disregarded,...

Museum of the Moving Image and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have announced the winners of the 2023 Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize and 2023 Sloan Student Discovery Prize, who will each receive $20,000 to develop their science-themed screenplays.

Justine Beed of USC has won the Grand Jury Prize for her series pilot “La Forza,” while Lara Palmqvist of University of Texas at Austin was awarded the Discovery Prize for her feature script entitled “The Garden.”

Beed and Palmqvist were selected from a group of 10 nominees by a jury including Dr. Dwaipayan Banerjee (MIT), Dan Berger, writer/director Sophie Barthes (“The Pod Generation”), actor/writer/director Anna Konkle (“PEN15”), Dr. Reyhaneh Maktoufi (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and Dr. Katina Michael (Arizona State University).

Additionally, an honorable mention was awarded to Emma Zetterberg of NYU, who penned the feature script “The Light in Your Eyes.” The winners will be celebrated at an event held on Jan.

AFM slate also includes a blend of local drama, comedy and thriller titles.

Orange Studio will kick off sales at AFM for Like A Prince, the debut feature from actor Ali Marhyar about a star boxer attempting a career comeback in a French chateau after a bar fight gone wrong.

Like A Prince stars Ahmed Sylla as the titular athlete who is sentenced to community service at the prestigious Château de Chambord following a bar fight that injures him and threatens his career. There, amidst horses, strange bosses and knight-inspired stunts, he meets a foster child with a knack for...

This edition boasts the largest feature film selection programmed to-date at Emiff.

The Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival has unveiled its full line-up for the 12th edition of the Spanish festival, with a total of 140 projects, including German auteur Wim Wenders’ Cannes world premiere Perfect Days and a special spotlight screening of David Fincher’s Venice title The Killer.

This year boasts the largest feature film selection programmed to date at Emiff. Additional categories for long-form projects include the debut feature film competition, the Made In Baleares (Mib) feature film competition, Spotlight Screenings and the Drive In Cinema strand. Six...

The Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival, running from October 18 to 24 in the Spanish island’s capital of Palma, has unveiled its full line-up.

The festival will open with Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s new feature Un Amor, which recently world premiered at San Sebastian.

Coixet will also be feted with the festival’s Evolution Vision Award at the opening night ceremony.

Other honorees will include German-Spanish actor Daniel Brühl, best known for his roles in Goodbye Lenin, Rush and The Alienist, and Danish writer and director Susanne Bier, whose recent credits include The Night Manager and The First Lady.

They will both receive Evolution Icon awards while there will also be screenings of Brühl’s most recent film The Movie Teller, as the closing film, and Rush and Bier’s 2010 feature In A Better World, which won the Best International Feature Film Oscar.

The 12th edition marks the festival’s...

In a not-so-distant future where AI’s omnipresence rivals the air we breathe, director Sophie Barthes paints a thought-provoking canvas in The Pod Generation. Set in a world where technology has woven itself intricately into the fabric of life, the film spirals through the lives of Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a couple torn between the allure of technology and the grip of tradition. This sci-fi flick promises a mind-bending ride but ends up feeling like a futuristic roller coaster that forgot to pick up enough speed.

The Pod Generation offers a cinematic glimpse into a world overshadowed by technological advancement. With a backdrop reminiscent of Black Mirror and the theme of pregnancy and motherhood in The Handmaid’s Tale, the movie sets the stage for a dystopian drama that sends shivers down your spine while whispering eerie truths about our society’s trajectory. AI is boss, making our...

The central premise of writer-director Sophie Barthes' The Pod Generation is something that might only be a background detail in a different sci-fi movie: At an undetermined time in the future, people have the option of gestating babies in artificial wombs, known as "pods," rather than being pregnant and giving birth the natural way. There's potential in exploring how that option might affect society, particularly gender dynamics and the balance of power in relationships, but Barthes makes remarkably little out of it, despite centering almost the entire 110-minute movie around that single idea.

Once The Pod Generation establishes the existence of the Womb Center and the interest of career-minded main character Rachel (Emilia Clarke) in utilizing the company's services, the story doesn't progress much further or offer any surprises. Rachel works a vaguely defined job at a vaguely defined corporate monolith with a creepily ingratiating CEO (Jean-Marc Barr) who resembles Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

Where to Watch Powered by "The Pod Generation" explores the concept of artificial wombs and the impact of technology on pregnancy. The film features an all-star cast, including Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who bring both humor and seriousness to their roles. Director Sophie Barthes raises important questions about the consequences of rapid technological advancement and the need for regulation to balance it with nature and humanity.

The Pod Generation follows Rachel, an executive at a tech company, who is given a rare and coveted spot at the Womb Center. The newfangled opportunity offers couples an artificial womb, which allows the mother to continue her life without the side effects of pregnancy while still giving the parents the ability to share the pregnancy experience. Rachel's husband Alvy is a botanist and nature purist, who is skeptical, but he ultimately agrees. The couple faces the usual pregnancy challenges along with new ones,...

The Pod Generation Release Date: 2023-01-19 The Pod Generation is an exciting new sci-fi rom-com that explores the impact of technology on fertility and family planning in the future. The movie features a talented cast, including Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and has generated high anticipation with its impending release. The story follows a couple, Rachel and Alvy, as they navigate the conflicts and emotions that arise from their differing relationships with technology as they undergo a technologically advanced gestation process at the Womb Center.

Starring Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Pod Generation news has been coming in hot shortly before its scheduled release. The Pod Generation is an exciting new sci-fi rom-com, two genres not often blended, from the mind of writer/director Sophie Barthes (Madame Bovary). Filming for the futuristic movie took place in Belgium in March 2022 and The Pod Generation subsequently made its initial debut...

The Pod Generation, starring Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor, is a sci-fi movie about a couple who uses an artificial womb to experience pregnancy together. The film explores the clash between technology and nature in a world where AI dominates, as the couple's differing views on their nursery demonstrate. The Pod Generation highlights the relevance of the conflict between technology and nature in our society today.

Screen Rant is thrilled to present an exclusive clip from writer/director Sophie Barthes' new sci-fi movie The Pod Generation. Barthes' third feature film is set in a world where technology has overtaken nature and AI is everywhere. A couple in New York, Rachel and Alvy, want to start a family, and as an executive at a tech company, she is given a rare opportunity. Rachel gets a spot at the Womb Center, which gives couples the chance to experience pregnancy together as equals.

From conquering Westeros to preventing the Skrull invasion, Emilia Clarke’s characters have taken on many challenges, but it’s with her role in The Pod Generation that she’ll step into her most daunting task yet - that of an expectant mother. In a Collider exclusive, a new clip shows the very moment of the Sophie Barthes helmed film when Clarke and her co-star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, take the brave first step toward parenthood.

Cold Souls and Madame Bovary director Sophie Barthes returned to Sundance Film Festival earlier this year with her latest feature The Pod Generation. Led by Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film follows their characters living in a not-so-distant future in New York, taking a wild ride to parenthood after landing a coveted spot at the Womb Center, which offers couples a convenient and shareable pregnancy by way of detachable, artificial wombs, or pods. Ahead of an August 11 theatrical release, the first trailer has now arrived.

John Fink said in his review, “A sharp relationship satire that proves the more things change, the more they stay the same, Sophie Barthes’ The Pod Generation imagines a world of, to borrow Aaron Bastani’s idea, Fully Automated Luxury Communism. Are there poor people in this imagined futuristic world of the United States? (We can only identify the country because there’s a...

Sci-fi films have always been equally about commenting on today’s society as well as showing off new, fun futures. And it’s clear that “The Pod Generation,” though about a society with advanced technology and a seemingly futuristic way to experience a pregnancy, has plenty to say about our current human situation.

Read More: ‘The Pod Generation’ Review; Emilia Clarke & Chiwetel Ejiofor Are Having A Baby In A Thoughtful But Flat Comedy/Drama [Sundance]

As seen in the trailer for “The Pod Generation,” the film tells the story of a successful couple in a future New York City.

Continue reading ‘The Pod Generation’ Trailer: Emilia Clarke & Chiwetel Ejiofor Star In A Sci-Fi, Make-An-Artificial-Baby Dramedy at The Playlist.

Emilia Clarke is certainly no stranger to handling a dragon egg or two in her career, but in her latest upcoming film titled The Pod Generation, her and Chiwetel Ejiofor will be given one of a very different kind. A film that presents a charming yet very thought-provoking look at a future where humanity has given the entire process of childbirth over to technology, for convenience rather than necessity, and how that affects a human relationship. Ahead of its theatrical release, per a report from Collider, a new trailer for The Pod Generation has dropped, giving a firsthand look at what could be one of the most unique indie films in recent years.

The Pod Generation, set as a warm-toned sci-fi romantic comedy, is helmed by Sophie Barthes. She previously directed the riveting comedy-drama Cold Souls (2009), which starred Paul Giamatti (Billions), as well as historical romantic drama Madame Bovary (2014), which...

The future of technology and A.I. in human life is a bit scary to envision as more and more jobs and natural functions fall to machines. In the not-so-distant future, even childbirth, one of humanity's inherent gifts, can and likely will be changed forever by the presence of technology. Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor are set to explore that complicated future in The Pod Generation and a new trailer for the sci-fi rom-com sees the two as a couple who try to embrace technological pod birth despite how unnatural it seems.The Pod Generation envisions what a near future where A.I. is all the rage and technology has completely overtaken everything natural in the world would be like. Rachel (Clarke) and Alvy (Ejiofor) are a New York couple planning to have a baby, but their philosophies couldn't be more different. Alvy is a botanist and purist who wants...

"Maybe I'm just not ready to be a mother." "No one's a mother 'just like that'... You become one." Vertical + Roadside Attractions have revealed the trailer for the indie sci-fi film titled The Pod Generation, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It's arriving in theaters in August later this summer. Living in the not-so-distant future, a New York couple gets a wild ride to parenthood after landing a coveted spot at the Womb Center, which offers couples a convenient and shareable pregnancy by way of detachable, artificial wombs, or pods. This clever take on the near future world we're headed towards, with A.I. and digitized everything, is about what it would be like to grow a baby inside of a tech device. Emilia Clarke stars as the soon-to-be-mother Rachel, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as a her plant-loving husband, along with Rosalie Craig, Vinette Robinson, and Jean-Marc Barr.

Game of Thrones actor Emilia Clarke, who famously portrayed Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, opened up about her "sad" time on the HBO show that ran its eight-season course and garnered massive acclaim. While talking about her current work, she shares her experience on the show that ended in 2018 but is resurfacing in discussions in light of the spin-off series House of the Dragon.

In an interview with Los Angeles Times, the actor admitted that she is still processing the whole experience, years after the Game of Thrones finale. Handling fame while dealing with personal issues such as experiencing two aneurysms and the loss of her father took a toll on the young actor. On a positive note, Clarke is grateful for the experience and the fierce character she came to play.

"There were times when I was really sad on that show, just simply because I was a young woman in her 20s.

Most festivals don’t want protests. This one encouraged a picket line to form.

The Nantucket Film Festival, which took place June 21-26 on the foggy isle 30 miles off the Massachusetts coast, is uniquely oriented toward the craft of screenwriting. Stars certainly appear — Allison Williams brought the glamour this year — but pen and paper are more important here than primping and pompadours.

The WGA has been a longtime partner of the festival, and the biggest gala event was a Screenwriters Tribute honoring Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the “To All the Boys I Loved Before” scribe Jenny Han, and Nicole Holofcener, whose “You Hurt My Feelings” screened in the lineup. That film is literally about an author, and so were several others that showed, including Christian Petzold’s “Afire.” And the biggest competition isn’t built around established names at all, but a screenplay contest geared toward finding new talent.

Though its global reputation doesn’t compete with the nearby showcase in Busan, which is perhaps the most high-profile event of its kind in Asia, the Jeonjun International Film Festival continues to be every bit as exciting as its more celebrated South Korean counterpart. At this year’s edition, sold out theaters for even the more obscure or low-key films attested to the buzz that the Jiff generates in the region. Crowds here also seemed to skew a good couple of decades younger than those that you see at the average festival, which bodes well for the future of filmmaking and cinephilia in all its forms, in Korea and further afield.

As usual, the focus of this year’s Jiff was on emerging talent, but there were a few notable releases directed by established filmmakers dotted throughout the schedule. Debuting at Sundance back in January, The Pod Generation is Sophie Barthes...

Vertical has secured North American rights to “The Queen Mary,” a psychological horror film that was produced on the titular ship. It was made by “Dracula Untold” director Gary Shore and chronicles the mysterious and violent events surrounding one family’s voyage on Halloween night in 1938, and how their destinies link up with those of another family onboard the ocean liner into the present day.

The Queen Mary, now on anchored in Long Beach, Calif., was once a luxury ocean liner and a favored mode of transport for generations of the rich and famous. All that seaborne revelry has established a reputation for the Queen Mary as “One of the World’s Most Haunted Places,” or so sayeth Time Magazine.

Vertical has slated the film for release this summer. The cast includes Alice Eve (“Star Trek Into Darkness”), Joel Fry (“Game of Thrones”), Nell Hudson (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”), William Shockley...

Los Angeles, May 17 (Ians) After matching wits with Doctor Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor has found a new superhero to face off against.

Ejiofor has closed a deal to co-star opposite Tom Hardy in Sony and Marvel’s ‘Venom 3’, reports Deadline.

Hardy is set to return as the titular character with the franchise’s longtime writer Kelly Marcel taking over the directing reins. Juno Temple also is on board.

As per ‘Deadline’, Sony had no comment on Ejiofora¿s casting.

Marcel and Hardy also will produce, with Marcel writing the screenplay from a story she and Hardy wrote. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal and Hutch Parker also are producing.

Plot details are unknown other than Hardy is returning as the lethal protector Venom following the first two films grossing a combined $1.36 billion worldwide. It also is unknown who will be joining Hardy from previous films or whether any characters from...

Exclusive: After matching wits with Doctor Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor has found a new superhero to face off against as sources tell Deadline Ejiofor has closed a deal to co-star opposite Tom Hardy in in Sony and Marvel’s Venom 3. Hardy is set to return as the titular character with the franchise’s longtime writer Kelly Marcel taking over the directing reins. Juno Temple is also on board.

Sony had no comment on Ejiofor’s casting.

Marcel and Hardy also will produce, with Marcel writing the screenplay from a story she and Hardy wrote. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal and Hutch Parker also are producing.

Plot details are unknown other than Hardy is returning as the lethal protector Venom following the first two films grossing a combined $1.36 billion worldwide. It also is unknown who will be joining Hardy from previous films or whether any characters from the Sony Pictures...

Exclusive: Vertical on Wednesday announced their appointment of former Amazon Prime Video exec Jason Pecora to the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Distribution.

The L.A.-based Pecora will be responsible for overseeing Sales, Marketing and Operations. He begins immediately, reporting to Vertical Partners Peter Jarowey and Rich Goldberg.

Pecora spent more than four and a half years as Senior Content Acquisition Manager at Prime Video, during that time overseeing all title promotions with leading suppliers including Vertical, Paramount, Viacom, Lionsgate, MGM and AMC. Notably, he last year oversaw Amazon’s release of Top Gun: Maverick, which was the top-selling item on the platform in the U.S. across every category on the day of its release.

Pecora has, over his 14 years in entertainment, consistently succeeded in growing businesses and contributing significant returns on investment through strong industry relationships. He previously focused on the digital home entertainment space...

The 2023 Nantucket Film Festival, running June 21-26, with kick off with four films on its opening day lineup. For the 12th consecutive year, a Disney and Pixar movie will open the festival with “Elemental,” which premieres in May at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Also on Day 1 are Sophie Barthes’ “The Pod Generation,” coming off stops at Sundance and Sarasota — Barthes will also receive the inaugural Maria Mitchell Visionary Award for the film; SXSW-premiere documentary “Joan Baez I am a Noise,” with Baez herself in attendance; and Austrian documentary “Patrick and the Whale,” which premiered at TIFF 2022.

Recent Bleecker Street acquisition “Jules,” starring Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Jane Curtin, will be the closing-night film.

Guests announced to be in attendance include Michaela Watkins (“You Hurt My Feelings”), Allison Williams (“M3GAN”), Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Graham Greene (“Dances with Wolves”), and Julio Torres (“Problemista”).

Other films...

2023 Sundance is behind us, and mega deals for films like “Fair Play,” “Flora and Son,” and “Theater Camp” were back in a big way. And while the market was healthy, there still are a lot of films yet to find homes.

Here’s the latest deals we’re tracking after the festival.

Films Acquired After the Festival

Title: “Sometimes I Think About Dying”

Section: U.S. Dramatic

Distributor: Oscilloscope

“Sometimes I Think About Dying,” the Daisy Ridley drama that made its premiere in competition on the opening night of this year’s Sundance, was acquired by Oscilloscope for a theatrical release. O-Scope scooped up the U.S. rights to director Rachel Lambert’s film and will release it later this year.

The film is set on the dreary Oregon coast and follows a lonely woman who finds solace in her cubicle and the doldrums of office life. She is ghosting...

Roadside Attractions has nabbed North American rights to the drama Dreamin’ Wild, telling the true story of musician brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson, slating it for release in theaters nationwide on August 4th.

Related Story Venice Review: Casey Affleck In ‘Dreamin’ Wild’ Related Story Sundance Prize Winner 'The Pod Generation' Starring Emilia Clarke & Chiwetel Ejiofor Set For Release By Roadside Attractions & Vertical Related Story Michael Stuhlbarg Joins Matt Damon And Casey Affleck In 'The Instigators'

The film starring Academy Award winner Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Noah Jupe (Honey Boy) and Emmy and Golden Globe nom Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer) puts Oscar- and Emmy-nominated writer-director Bill Pohlad back in business with Roadside, which with Lionsgate released his last acclaimed film Love & Mercy on Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson.

Its central question is, what if a childhood dream suddenly came true — but 30 years later? That...

Summer exclusive theatrical release planned.

Roadside Attractions and Vertical have acquired North American rights to Sophie Barthes’ 2023 Sundance Alfred P. Sloan feature prize-winner The Pod Generation.

The distribution partners plan a summer exclusive theatrical release on for the film, which is set in a near future where A.I. is all the rage as a New York couple participate in an initiative involving mobile, artificial wombs.

Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Vinette Robinson, and Jean-Marc Barr star in Barthes’ third film after Cold Souls and Madame Bovary.

Geneviève Lemal, Yann Zenou, Nadia Kamlichi, and Martin Metz served as producers, while the executive producers are Clarke,...

Director Sophie Barthes (“Madame Bovary”) futuristic comedy/drama “The Pod Generation” has been acquired by Roadside Attractions and Vertical after the feature’s Sundance debut back in January.

The feature follows Emilia Clarke’s Rachel and her partner Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an upscale New York couple living in a future world where natural childbirth is considered passe. When Rachel gets a coveted position at the city’s Womb Center, where children are birthed in egg-like pods, the couple decides to go on a journey towards parenthood that asks the question of what “natural childbirth” truly is.

“Today, every filmmaker dreams to have a theatrical release. Roadside Attractions and Vertical have made this dream possible,” Barthes said in a statement. “The Pod Generation could not have found a better home, with such a dedicated, innovative and experienced team. I’m thrilled to start this adventure with a team truly in love...

Pod Generation — the sci-fi Sundance feature starring Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor — has landed at Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment in North America. It is palnned for a theatrical release this summer.

The feature, which won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Park City festival, is written and directed by Sophie Barthes and is set in the very near future world where AI has infiltrated all aspects of life.

The Pod Generation, according to the film’s synopsis, “follows Rachel (Clarke) and Alvy (Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to start a family. As a rising tech company executive, Rachel lands a coveted spot at the Womb Center, which offers couples the opportunity to share pregnancy on a more equal footing by way of mobile, artificial wombs, or pods. Alvy, a botanist and devoted purist about the natural environment, has doubts, but his love for...

Sundance documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated” and SXSW television premiere “I’m a Virgo” will open and close Sffilm, the 66th annual San Francisco International Film Festival.

Sffilm unveiled the full lineup for the fest along with the openers and closers. The Bay Area film festival, which screens in theaters across San Francisco as well as Oakland and Berkeley, will host 50 feature film programs (includes Workshop and “mid-lengths”), 46 shorts, and one TV screening (“I’m a Virgo”). Both directors behind “I’m a Virgo” and “Underrated” — Boots Riley and Peter Nicks — grew up in the Bay Area, more specifically in Oakland. Other films from Bay Area filmmakers whose projects will screen include W. Kamau Bell’s “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed,” Savanah Leaf’s “Earth Mama,” and Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.”

“It is Sffilm Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” Jessie Fairbanks, Sffilm’s director of programming,...

Sophie Barthes on the production design of The Pod Generation: 'The whole intention was to do feminine sci-fi' Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute The near-future is given a refreshingly feminist slant in Sophie Barthes Pod Generation. The comedy drama, which was one of the Day One films at this year’s Sundance, sees couple Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Eijiofor) grappling with whether to outsource their pregnancy. The latest technology means pods are available to make the whole process a lot less stressful - with the foetus kept safe at a pod centre - but while Rachel warms to the idea, with help from some pressure at work, retro-loving Alvy is less enthusiastic.

In the first part of our interview with Barthes, she told us about her influences and her concerns about what the near-future might bring. Beyond the philosophy of the film - which tackles everything from...

It’s the hardest thing to wait to see them after hearing about the movies that debuted at Sundance. But if you live in the Southeast, there’s no better way to cut that wait short than a trip to the Sarasota Film Festival, running this year from March 24 to April 2. Want to see the moving doc “A Still Small Voice”? Or the near-future pregnancy satire “The Pod Generation” with Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor? Not to mention the Alexandria Bombach Indigo Girls documentary “It’s Only Life After All,” “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World,” “Judy Blume Forever,” and “Fairyland”? This festival’s got you covered.

Some titles not yet available to the public from the fall festivals will screen as well, such as Paul Schrader’s “Master Gardener,” Daniel Goldhaber’s Neon title “How to Blow up a Pipeline,” and Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” as...

French schoolhouse-set comedy directed by Mélanie Auffret.

Other Angle has secured deals for French schoolhouse-set comedy Mélanie Auffret’s Sweet Little Things following its market premiere at the EFM.

The Paris and LA-based international sales and distribution company has sold the film – French title: Les Petites Victoires - to Twelve Oaks Pictures in Spain, Nos Lusomundo in Portugal, Pandora in Brazil, Vertigo in Benelux and Pathé in Switzerland.

The sales follow the crowd-pleasing film’s premiere at France’s comedy film fest the Festival l’Alpe d’Huez where it was awarded with the special jury prize and audience award.

The Pod Generation was one of the success stories of this year's Sundance Film Festival, having won the coveted Alfred P. Sloan Award before their premiere even took place. Written and directed by Sophie Barthes, who tackled the themes of technology and emotional detachment rather differently in Cold Souls, the satire envisions a world where women of a certain economic class can opt out of "natural" pregnancy and use the Womb Center's pods as a surrogate instead. But though it asks many interesting questions about the nature of parenthood, it is as much a romantic comedy as it is a philosophical exercise.

The Pod Generation stars Emilia Clarke (still beloved for Game of Thrones) as Rachel and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) as her husband Alvy. Their happy marriage in a somewhat futuristic New York City experiences some turbulence when Rachel decides to register for a...