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Warning: This article contains Spoilers for Before!

Apple TV+'s Before includes very few songs in the soundtrack, making them all the more impactful and meaningful when they do appear. The psychological thriller follows the mysterious connection between a child psychologist and widower named Eli and a troubled young boy in the foster care system named Noah. After its release, the Billy Crystal show received extremely divided responses, with critics almost unilaterally debasing the show as boring, slow, and repetitive. The only part of the show they appreciate is Billy Crystal, the lead member of the cast in Before.

However, viewers were much more positive about Before, praising the slow-burn pacing and central mystery. One element that wasnt been discussed much by either group is the soundtrack of Before. The reason this has been all but ignored is because there are almost no songs in the Apple TV+ original show,...

Amazon Studios’ feature film “Crime 101” is rounding out its cast.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Tate Donovan, Babak Tafti, Payman Maadi, Deborah Hedwall, Devon Bostick, Paul Adelstein, Drew Powell and Matthew Del Negro have boarded the upcoming crime thriller, which will be released in theaters.

They join previously announced cast members Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins and Halle Berry. Bart Layton wrote the script, which is based on a novella by Don Winslow, and will direct.

Per the logline, Winslow’s original story follows a series of high level jewelry thefts up and down the Pacific Coast Highway that have gone unsolved for years, mostly because the perpetrator has lived by a strict code he calls ‘Crime 101.’ Police attribute the thefts to the Colombian cartels, but Detective Lou Lubesnick’s gut says it’s the work of just one man. Now the lone-wolf jewel...

Kelly Marcel makes her directorial debut with this months Venom: The Last Dance, and the writer and filmmaker has recently been rumored to be on the list of directors being eyed to take the helm of the next James Bond movie. Now, speaking with THR, Marcel has revealed if there was any truth to these rumors, and how she may have snuck some 007 hints into the latest Venom outing on the sly.

(Laughs.) Yeah, thats an extraordinary list to be on. I was flabbergasted. Theres never been a female Bond director, and of course, when you see something like that, its just incredibly humbling. So Im grateful to be mentioned alongside any of those brilliant, brilliant directors. [Writers Note: The rumored list is as follows: Marcel, Edward Berger, David Michod, Yann Demange and Bart Layton.]

Of course, Venom star Tom Hardy has long been a fan-favorite for the role of James Bond, and while we await an official...

Chris Hemsworth is headed to the steps of the palace.

The “Thor” actor is in talks to play the iconic fairy tale love interest in Disney’s upcoming “Prince Charming” film. Plot details for the picture are under wraps, and it’s not clear yet if the film will be live-action or animated. “Wonka” filmmaker Paul King will direct. King, Simon Farnaby and Jon Croker are co-writing the screenplay.

Aussie actor Hemsworth most recently voiced Optimus Prime in the animated sci-fi film “Transformers One” and earlier this year appeared as deranged warlord Dementus in George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” opposite Anya Taylor-Joy.

He’s next set to star in Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming thriller “Crime 101,” also featuring Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan” and his “Avengers” pal Mark Ruffalo. The film is based on a short story by Don Winslow, with Bart Layton directing. Winslow’s original story...

A new favorite has now emerged for the iconic role of James Bond...and its actually a long-running fan-favorite. Man of Steel and The Witcher star Henry Cavill has now taken the top spot from Kraven the Hunter and Kick-Ass star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, according to new data from Betway Casino (via The Express). Cavill has long been a top contender for the role of 007, with many Bond fans still hoping that the 41-year-old former Superman actor will take over from Daniel Craig in the beloved franchise.

New research reveals that, based on analysis of Google searches, articles, article engagement and Reddit mentions for 31 potential actors reportedly being considered or discussed for the role, Cavill takes the #1 spot from Taylor-Johnson. The report also says that MCU actor and Luthor star Idris Elba takes the third spot, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson in second, Venom star Tom Hardy in fourth, and Peaky Blinders Cillian Murphy in fifth.

The new thriller movie Crime 101 adds a major actor. Crime 101 is about a detective named Lou Lubesnick who is trying to track down a jewel thief attempting the perfect heist. It is directed by Bart Layton and so far has an announced cast including Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Barry Keoghan. The film is based on a short story by Don Winslow, and its script is written by Layton.

As per Variety, Crime 101 has now added a new cast member. Said new cast member is Halle Berry. Berry's specific role in the film has not been confirmed. According to the source, Berry is in final negotiations for the part. The source also revealed that Crime 101 is set to begin filming in two weeks.

What This Casting Means For Crime 101 Crime 101 Has An Exciting Mixture Of Cast Members

Berry's role in Crime 101 continues...

Halle Berry is final negations to join Amazon MGM Studios upcoming thriller “Crime 101,” adding some additional star power to a feature that already boasts a cast of Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Barry Keoghan.

The film — which Variety understands is due to start shooting in two weeks — is based on the short story by Don Winslow, with Bart Layton directing. Layton — who also exec produced “The Tinder Swindler” alongside numerous other unscripted series — wrote the script.

Winslow’s original story follows a series of high level jewellery thefts up and down the Pacific Coast Highway that have gone unsolved for years, mostly because the perpetrator has lived by a strict code he calls “Crime 101.” Police attribute the thefts to the Colombian cartels. But Detective Lou Lubesnick’s gut says it’s the work of just one man. Now the lone-wolf jewel thief is looking for that fabled final...

Daniel Craig’s stellar run as James Bond came to an end with the 2021 movie, No Time To Die. Starting from 2006’s Casino Royale, Craig has established himself as one of the best iterations of the character seen to date. Now, with Eon Productions looking for a replacement, all eyes are on the studio as they attempt to finalize the creatives that will be behind the upcoming movie.

Daniel Craig stars as James Bond in Skyfall I Columbia Pictures

For a long while, legendary director Christopher Nolan had been earmarked as the ideal choice. However, that seems to have changed for the time being, with the producers reportedly looking for a more traditional approach, and a “safe and seasoned pair of hands” to ensure the franchise’s continuity without overshadowing Bond’s character with a distinct directorial style.

Christopher Nolan no longer in the running for the upcoming James Bond...

The studio behind the James Bond franchise, Eon Productions, is reportedly getting close to finding the right director to bring the iconic adventures of 007 back to the big screen following the departure of Daniel Craig in 2021s No Time to Die. While much of the speculation has been around who will be cast as Bond, the filmmaker chosen to take the helm is equally important and will indicate the kind of approach (comedic/action-based/gritty?) the studio will take as the beloved franchise heads into its latest era.

According to The Telegraph, Eon has now started meeting with potential directors, with the Academy Award-winning Edward Berger top of the list. Berger is best known for 2022s All Quiet on the Western Front, which won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, among others. His next project is the psychological thriller Conclave starring No Time to Dies Ralph Fiennes alongside Stanley Tucci,...

A list of potential directors for James Bond 26 has reportedly been revealed as the search for the franchise's next filmmaker continues.

According to The Telegraph, Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), Kelly Marcel, David Michd (Animal Kingdom), Bart Layton (The Imposter), and Yann Demange ('71) are among the potential directors for Bond 26.

More to come...

Source: The Telegraph...

UK film and TV outift Raw has bolstered its features and scripted department with the addition of former Brouhaha Entertainment development producer and BBC Film exec Sam Gordon as producer/executive producer.

Gordon will work with Raw’s head of scripted TV Sara Murray, filmmakers Bart Layton and Tim Wardle and its senior creative team. He will report to chief exec Joely Fether and chief creative officer Dimitry Doganis.

Raw, backed by All3Media, has series credits including The Tinder Swindler for Netflix, features docs Three Identical Strangers and The Imposter, as well as fiction features Telluride premiere Encounter, directed by Michael Pearce and Dream Horse,...

‘Tinder Swindler’ Indie Builds Features Team

All3Media’s Raw, the company behind The Tinder Swindler, Three Identical Strangers and upcoming Amazon MGM Studios doc Crime 101, has hired Sam Gordon as producer/executive producer for its features team. Gordon is an experienced film and TV producer, with spells at Baby Cow, Calamity Films and BBC Films on his CV. Most recently, he was a development producer for Brouhaha Entertainment, where he worked on Firebrand and co-produced Karim Ainouz’s Motel Destino, which launched in Official Competition at Cannes this year. He also worked on Philomena and Stan & Ollie while at Baby Cow. At Raw, he’ll report into Cco Dimitri Doganis and CEO Joely Father, working with filmmakers Bart Layton and Tim Wardle, as well as Head of Scripted TV Sara Murray and other senior creative execs. Raw’s features to date have included American Animals, Three Identical Strangers, The Imposter,...

Raw has bolstered its features and scripted department with the addition of former Brouhaha Entertainment development producer and BBC Film exec Sam Gordon as producer/executive producer.

Gordon joins the UK The Tinder Swindler production company at a time of growth in its scripted and features output, with upcoming feature film Crime 101 for Amazon MGM Studios being co-produced with Working Title. The indie was also behind feature docs Three Identical Strangers and The Imposter plus Michael Pearce’s Telluride premiere Encounter and Euros Lyn’s Sundance title Dream Horse.

He moves from his role as development producer at Brouhaha Entertainment,...

“Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme” centers on an immensely interesting subject — financial fraudster and D-List actor Zach Horwitz, a.k.a. Zach Avery — but ends up telling his tale in uninteresting ways. The film draws its various techniques from far better and more accomplished documentaries, resulting in a multifaceted, mixed-bag approach that never clicks, thanks in large part to how the movie chooses to reveal information.

Director Joslyn Jensen appears on-screen early into the runtime and becomes a primary character in the film. She’s as much a subject as Avery and his various victims — people he befriended over the years and scammed out of millions of dollars. But Jensen is also a deeply uninteresting focal point who takes up far too much of the screentime. By centering her to the degree that it does, “Bad Actor” becomes a film about process on multiple fronts.

On one hand, the...

Last year, a bidding war was going down between Netflix and Amazon for a lucrative package deal. The two streaming giants were in a fight to acquire the film rights to the novella by Don Winslow called Crime 101. The package deal had included two attached stars — Chris Hemsworth and Pedro Pascal. Although, Pascal has now reportedly been replaced by Mark Ruffalo. It also has a director set to helm the project with Bart Layton, whose credits include the documentary The Imposter from 2012 and American Animals from 2018. Amazon had come out as the victor and according to Deadline, Saltburn and Masters of the Air star Barry Keoghan will now join the heist film.

Crime 101 is said to be a crime drama in the vein of Michael Mann’s Heat. The plot of the film has yet to be released; however, Deadline’s summary of the novel reads that “the...

Exclusive: Claudia Rosencrantz, the British television executive who first greenlit the Got Talent and Idol franchises for ITV, has left production outfit Studio 1.

Rosencrantz co-founded Studio 1 in 2018 with Adrian Woolfe after they previously worked together to turn Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? into a global phenomenon.

Woolfe said Rosencrantz was “pursuing other opportunities” but would continue to collaborate on Studio 1 shows if they are taken to series.

Studio 1’s development slate has included Kevin Bacon-fronted quiz show Lucky 13 and The Imposter, a game show fronted by British presenter Rob Rinder.

Studio 1 was also behind Lit, a CNN-style entertainment news network that streamed across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Rosencrantz and Woolfe met more than 20 years ago through the development of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. Rosencrantz commissioned the show for ITV, while Woolfe was instrumental in growing the format into a global brand as...

E. Duke Vincent, an Emmy-winning TV producer, died on Feb. 10 in Montecito, Calif. He was 91.

With Aaron Spelling, the duo worked on 43 TV series, such as “Dynasty,” “Hotel,” “Vegas,” “Matt Houston,” “The Colbys,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place,” in addition to seven miniseries including Jackie Collins’ “Hollywood Wives” and James Micheners’ “Texas.” They also hold 39 TV movie credits, including Emmy winners “Day One” and “And the Band Played On.”

Additionally, Duke and Spelling served as executive producers on Warner Bros. Network’s long-running series “Charmed” and “7th Heaven,” the network’s highest rated and longest running drama. Duke wrote or produced over 2,300 hours of programming over the course of his 40-year career in Hollywood, with 1,600 hours of primetime and 750 hours of daytime TV.

The only child of Margaret and Egizio Ventimiglia, he was born Edward Ventimiglia in Jersey City, N.J. on April 30, 1932. After graduating from Seton Hall University,...

A third "Orphan" film is already in the works, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and it's set to have a wild twist on par with the first two bonkers horror movies. THR caught up with William Brent Bell, who directed "Orphan: First Kill," to discuss his new movie "Lord of Misrule." Along the way, the filmmaker spilled the beans about the future of "Orphan," saying, "As long as we get excited about the stories, there are so many directions to go, and we're developing a third one now."

Details about the threequel are scarce at this point, and Bell didn't note exactly who's returning for the next installment of the killer "kid" franchise, but he did imply that certain major story moments have already been dreamed up. "David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who created the first one, was very much involved in the second one, and he was like, 'The 'Orphan...

Netflix and Amazon are currently competing for a lucrative package deal. The two streaming giants are in a bidding war over a novella by Don Winslow called Crime 101. The package includes two attached stars — Chris Hemsworth and Pedro Pascal. It also has a director set to helm the project with Bart Layton, whose credits include the documentary The Imposter from 2012 and American Animals from 2018. The bidding war for the property may have been narrowed down to Netflix and Amazon, but Deadline is reporting that Amazon currently has the edge in the fight.

Although the actors and directors are attached, there is currently no deal in place, according to sources. Prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, both Hemsworth and Pascal were showing interest and, presumably, both had been forbidden to do any official business once the strike had taken place. At this point, it is reportedly more of a rights deal...

Pedro Pascal and Chris Hemsworth are teaming up for the crime thriller Crime 101, and both Netflix and Amazon Studios are vying for the rights to the project. Bart Layton, known for American Animals and The Imposter, will be directing Crime 101. Crime 101 is based on a novella by Don Winslow and has been compared to the acclaimed film Heat.

The Mandalorian and The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal will team up with Thor and Extraction star Chris Hemsworth for the Heat-style crime thriller Crime 101. And the idea of the two A-listers uniting for an action outing clearly has studios in a frenzy, as reports have revealed that both Netflix and Amazon Studios are currently fighting for the rights to the project.

As per a report by Deadline, Netflix and Amazon are now doing battle for Crime 101 in a deal that the publication describes as “whopping,” with Amazon reportedly having “the edge.

Documentaries have the power to captivate audiences with real-life stories, revealing the most thrilling and jaw-dropping moments. From shocking confessions to disturbing crimes, these fifteen documentaries offer real-life plot twists that will surprise, disturb, and uplift viewers. Whether it's uncovering a fraudulent identity in "The Imposter" or questioning the limits of nature vs. nurture in "Three Identical Strangers," these documentaries showcase the variety and complexity of true stories.

The truth is definitely stranger than fiction in these fifteen documentaries with real-life plot twists. From catching a killer’s confession in The Jinx to unraveling the dark underbelly of tickling competitions in Tickled, documentaries remind audiences that the most thrilling moments in cinema can come from other people’s real lives. Sometimes the most jaw-dropping scenes are not in the latest blockbuster but in someone’s decade-old story being documented for the first time. Viewers searching to be swept away by...

Exclusive: After a 15-year tenure, Piers Vellacott is standing down from his role as UK indie Raw’s Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Producer.

He will stay across a number of Raw’s scripted projects as an Executive Producer and leaves “to pursue new opportunities”.

He won’t be replaced at the company, which is one of the UK’s leading indies and part of All3Media.

Vellacott, who had previously served as Managing Director and Head Of Production, worked on hit series including Gold Rush and Locked Up Abroad, and well-received docs including The Tindler Swindler, The Imposter and Three Identical Strangers. He was also an exec producer on Sundance pic American Animals.

Raw told us: “We are incredibly grateful for everything that Piers has contributed to Raw over a decade and a half of extraordinary growth: he has helped guide the company through some the of the most complex...

Exclusive: Audible has greenlit two Audible Original documentary podcasts from the UK’s Raw, producer of The Imposter, Three Identical Strangers and The Tinder Swindler.

The first of the podcasts, launching later this year, tells the story of a milestone case following a transracially adopted woman, who after finding out that she had been conceived through an act of child rape, begins a lifelong journey to discover the real identity of her birth father and seek justice for his crime.

The pod will explore the woman’s trauma as a black child growing up in a predominantly white environment and the complexities of navigating the adoption system as young adult at a time when child psychology wasn’t as prevalent as it is today.

The second, which will be released in 2024 is presented by Femi Oke, the British Nigerian journalist and TV presenter. It will follow an international investigation into...

It’s slightly ironic that Tinder has chosen London’s creative neighborhood of Shoreditch as a key target for its first global ad campaign, splashing some major spend on scores of bold, brightly colored billboards asserting that it all “starts with a swipe.” Although the area’s demographic — hectic, switched-on 20- and 30-somethings forever glued to their phones and laptops — would seem the perfect audience, it’s unlikely that many realize that just around the corner from the hoardings sits the company responsible for making the dating app’s most notorious swiper globally famous.

Raw, the production banner that now sits over three busy floors of an otherwise unremarkable office block on Curtain Road — once home to the U.K.’s earliest theaters (Shakespeare would perform many of his plays nearby) — had had numerous hits before The Tinder Swindler dropped on Netflix in February 2022. But the feature documentary — unraveling the...

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Halpern returns with season three of his hit investigative podcast series Deep Cover – the show about people with secret identities, double lives, and how far people are willing to go in the pursuit of a greater cause. This season starts with the story of Brooke Henson, who disappeared from her home in South Carolina and is never seen again. Seven years later, detectives receive a tip that Brooke Henson is a Columbia University student living in New York City. However when the police come knocking, “Brooke Henson” disappears again. In Deep Cover: Never Seen Again, Halpern unravels a case of identity fraud that led local police, federal investigators, and even the U.S. army on a nationwide manhunt for one woman – Esther Reed.

Told through first-hand interviewers with South Carolina detectives, federal investigators, family members, and Esther herself, Deep Cover: Never Seen Again unravels the lives of two missing young women,...

With more than 80 years of history as one of the world's most iconic superheroes, Batman has enjoyed countless great comic book series in DC Comics' mainline continuity. Yet as the likes of the ongoing Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo proves, there are plenty of excellent Elseworlds stories a well.

Decades ago, DC designated the Elseworlds imprint for series that took place outside of canon continuity, but the current Black Label has effectively replaced it. Even so, in and out of labels, the former term has been used to refer to any story with such a premise, and from White Knight to The Dark Knight Returns, DC Universe Infinite makes these easier to read than ever digitally.

White Knight

Writer/artist Sean Murphy's White Knight universe is one of the most gripping alternative iterations on established Batman canon. It's currently a maxiseries comprised of three main series (with the...

Exclusive: Showmax content chief Yolisa Phahle has revealed how co-producing with international partners has helped the South Africa-based streamer compete with fierce SVoD competition, as a first trailer for its epic fantasy drama Blood Psalms is today unveiled. You can watch it here below.

Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.

The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...

Jaume Collet-Serra's "Orphan" is one of my all-time favorite horror movies, and damn it, I am not ashamed to admit it! Collet-Serra took what was an admittedly silly premise and worked it into a stylish, amusing, creepy little slice of fun. The filmmaker, responsible for titles like "The Shallows," "Non-Stop," and the upcoming "Black Adam," is adept at a style I like to call art-trash — he blends artistic flourishes with pulpy, trashy premises to great effect. In Collet-Serra's hands, "Orphan" worked, and worked exceedingly well. The film focused on a little girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) adopted by a nice Connecticut couple (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard). On the outside, Esther seemed sweet and almost unbelievably polite. But she was actually a murderous psychopath!

Killer kids are a dime a dozen in the horror genre, but "Orphan" threw in a whopper of a twist: Esther wasn't a child at all.

In 1993, six years after Johnny Depp and company were deemed too old to keep up the charade on “21 Jump Street,” Brandon Lee went back to Bearsden Academy. At least he said his name was Brandon Lee. Some people thought that was weird, since another Brandon Lee had just died a few months earlier. They also found it strange that this fifth-year transfer student — who claimed to be from Canada, the same country where countless teenage con men swear that their long-distance girlfriends live — looked so much older than everyone else.

If you grew up in Scotland, you probably (think you) know this story. If you’re from the relatively posh Glasgow suburb of Bearsden, the Brandon Lee saga is the stuff of local legend. But if you’re stumbling into “My Old School” unawares, as most of the film’s virtual Sundance audience did, then you have a lot...

Netflix has picked up global rights to the documentary “Tinder Swindler,” about a notorious con man who lured women using the popular dating app and tricked them out of millions of dollars.

Produced by “Three Identical Strangers” and “Don’t F*** With Cats” makers Raw TV, alongside AGC Studios, the doc tells the story of Israeli fraudster Shimon Hayut, who conned Scandinavian women into parting with hundreds of thousands of dollars by pretending to be a Russian oligarch named Simon Leviev on the dating app Tinder.

The documentary, directed by Felicity Morris (“Don’t F*** With Cats”), follows the women who were conned by Hayut as they uncover his true identity and bring him to justice.

Hayut, who was imprisoned in Israel in December 2019 on a 15-month jail sentence (of which he served just over five months), conned his victims by asking them, after a period of largely digital courtship,...

Another new streaming service has launched, this one a niche platform called Documentary+ dedicated solely to nonfiction films.

The free, ad-supported streaming platform is available on Thursday and was launched as a joint venture between the nonfiction studio Xtr and the late former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

Documentary+ currently has a library of over 200 feature-length and short documentary films, including classics, cult favorites, true crime stories, sports films and rock docs. Some of the films in the initial catalog include “The Imposter,” “Life, Animated,” “Born Into Brothels,” “Cartel Land” and more. The service also features docs by filmmakers such as Spike Jonze, Kathryn Bigelow, Terrence Malick, Brett Morgen, Roger Ross Williams, Davis Guggenheim and Werner Herzog, including his “My Best Fiend” and “Little Dieter Learns to Fly.”

Other up-and-coming filmmakers with movies on the platform include Lana Wilson, Ramona S. Diaz, Nanfu Wang, Clay Tweel, Kareem Tabsch and Laura Gabbert.

Documentary+, the non-fiction streamer from You Cannot Kill David Arquette studio Xtr, has unveiled its launch slate.

The service, which launches today, will include feature-length and short documentary films from the likes of Spike Jonze, Kathryn Bigelow, Terrence Malick, Brett Morgen, Andrea Nevins, Roger Ross Williams, Zana Briski, Davis Guggenheim, and Werner Herzog.

Titles include The Imposter, Life, Animated, Born into Brothels, Cartel Land, Dior and I and Being Evel. There are political films such as Cory Booker film Street Fight, Elian Gonzalez story Elian and Lee Atwater’s Boogie Man as well as music documentaries including Seattle grunge doc Hype!, Colin Hanks’ Tower Records doc All Things Must Pass and The Other F Word as well as sports doc One Man and His Shoes about Michael Jordan.

It will also feature the work of up-and-coming filmmakers from the likes of Lana Wilson (Miss Americana), Ramona S. Diaz (A Thousand Cuts...

CNN Films and Raw are producing a new documentary titled “The Lost Sons,” directed by award-winning filmmaker Ursula Macfarlane (“Untouchable”).

Production began in 2019 for the documentary, which will be distributed by CNN Films. Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, and Courtney Sexton, senior vice president for CNN Films, will executive produce alongside Liesel Evans, creative director of U.K. Factual at Raw, and Ross Dinerstein, Campfire founder and CEO.

“The Lost Sons” will chronicle the story of Paul Fronczak, who at age 10 unearthed newspaper clippings about his parents grieving a kidnapped baby and then finding the baby two years later. Decades later, he goes hunting for answers as questions arise about whether he was the kidnapped child.

The story is told through reenactments, testimonies of close family and first-hand witnesses, news footage and family archives.

“I’m thrilled and proud to work with...

Whoopi Goldberg has followed in the footsteps of Joaquin Phoenix and collaborated with environmental movement Extinction Rebellion on a short film.

The Gigantic Change is a three-minute animation — voiced by Goldberg — that looks back from the year 2050 to show how people came together to save Earth from the climate crisis. The film goes live across Extinction Rebellion's social media platforms June 5 to mark World Environment Day.

The team behind The Gigantic Change — together with Passion Pictures, the London-based animation and documentary specialists whose credits include The Imposter and The Final Year — said they knew Goldberg's ...

Whoopi Goldberg has followed in the footsteps of Joaquin Phoenix and collaborated with environmental movement Extinction Rebellion on a short film.

The Gigantic Change is a three-minute animation — voiced by Goldberg — that looks back from the year 2050 to show how people came together to save Earth from the climate crisis. The film goes live across Extinction Rebellion's social media platforms June 5 to mark World Environment Day.

The team behind The Gigantic Change — together with Passion Pictures, the London-based animation and documentary specialists whose credits include The Imposter and The Final Year — said they knew Goldberg's ...

Exclusive: Acclaimed documentary producer John Battsek, whose credits include Oscar-winner One Day In September and Emmy-winner Manhunt: The Inside Story Of The Hunt for Bin Laden, is making his first foray into podcasts with Audible series Deepcut.

The investigative six part non-fiction series will see Battsek and his new production company Ventureland tackle the complex and controversial cases of four deaths at the Deepcut army barracks in the UK.

The series will examine the deaths of the four young soldiers, found shot dead at the Princes Royal Barracks (Aka Deepcut) in Surrey, England between 1995 and 2002. As their families searched for answers, allegations of bullying, sexual abuse and violence begin to surface and suspicions mounted that evidence had been withheld or destroyed. The incidents led to lengthy legal contests.

Battsek’s team for the series includes investigative journalist Jane MacSorley and former detective chief inspector Colin Sutton who join forces to...

Joe Exotic, Tiger King and the mullet that launched a thousand memes has become an instant megastar thanks to the Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness which arrived on the streaming service at the end of March and has become the internet’s new obsession.

It’s a very weird doc that seems to have captured people’s imaginations and left them wanting more. The great news is that there are loads of totally off the wall documentaries out there to stream. We’ve rounded up some of the craziest to be your next-watch post Tiger King.

Finders Keepers

This 2015 documentary is so bonkers and also such an obvious companion piece to Tiger King we dedicated a whole article to it. It’s about two men engaged in a long feud about the ownership of a mummified human leg. One guy inadvertently bought the leg which was hidden...

The Night Manager producer The Ink Factory has hired UK producer Katherine Butler (American Animals) in the newly-created role of Creative Director.

Butler joins from Raw, where she was Creative Director for scripted. She was previously Deputy Head of Film at UK public funder Film4.

At Raw, this year Butler wrapped feature Dream Horse with Toni Collette and Damian Lewis. The pic will be released in the UK by Warner Bros and in the Us by Bleecker St in the spring of 2020.

She will now oversee the film and TV slate for the John le Carré producing outfit and will report to co-founders and co-CEOs Stephen and Simon Cornwell.

Alongside its work on the le Carré estate, which has also included series The Little Drummer Girl and feature A Most Wanted Man, The Ink Factory has produced projects including Fighting With My Family and Message From The King.

Butler was at Film4 for nine years,...

Exclusive: Following the November 1 launch of Apple TV+, the streamer is realigning its executive ranks under toppers Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, combining development and current into a single-executive structure.

Kim Rozenfeld is leaving as head of current scripted programming and docu/unscripted content. He will return to his producing roots with a first-look deal at Apple for his company Half Full Productions.

Apple TV+ head of scripted development Matt Cherniss will now also oversee current scripted series. Molly Thompson, who joined Apple as Head of Documentaries in April, reporting to Rozenfeld, will continue to oversee documentary film and series programming, development and current.

Former Sony TV head of current programming Rozenfeld was one of the first executive hires after Van Amburg and Erlicht left Sony TV in 2017 to lead worldwide video programming for Apple.

Before joining Sony TV as Evp Current Programming in 2011, Rozenfeld was a scripted series producer based at ABC Studios,...

John Farrar, whose credits include “The Imposter,” has joined U.K. producer and digital content specialist Barcroft Studios. The company has also upped two senior staffers, with Alex Morris elevated to chief creative officer and Caspar Norman to chief operating officer.

The new recruit joins Barcroft from Nerd TV, the U.K. shingle he co-founded with Jago Lee and Charlie Parsons in 2010, and which was bought by Red Arrow Studios in 2012.

At Barcroft, Farrar will be creative director. The indie has a strong track record in short and mid-form content which it plays on its own Barcroft TV, and third-party online channels and platforms, attracting hundreds of millions of views. It has also moved into long-form content and Farrar is tasked with maximizing the company’s long form output and growing the number of external commissions.

As Nerd TV’s creative director, Farrar was behind shows including “12-Year-Old Lifer” for U.

Thompson founded A&E IndieFilms and has a string of documentary producing credits.

Molly Thompson, the founder of A&E IndieFilms and executive producer of documentary films including Jesus Camp, Life, Animated and City of Ghosts, has joined Apple as the tech giant’s head of documentaries.

Thompson founded A&E IndieFilms, feature production arm of Us cable channel company A+E Networks, where she also served as head of documentary films.

A&E IndieFilms releases have included the Watergate docuseries, Sundance entry Studio 54, Cartel Land and Murderball. Thompson also served as executive producer on The Tillman Story and The Imposter...

Thompson founded A&E IndieFilms and has a string of documentary producing credits.

Molly Thompson, the founder of A&E IndieFilms and executive producer of documentary films including Jesus Camp, Life, Animated and City of Ghosts, has joined Apple as the tech giant’s head of documentaries.

Thompson founded A&E IndieFilms, feature production arm of Us cable channel company A+E Networks, where she also served as head of documentary films.

A&E IndieFilms releases have included the Watergate docuseries, Sundance entry Studio 54, Cartel Land and Murderball. Thompson also served as executive producer on The Tillman Story and The Imposter...

Apple snagged a big fish to run their documentary content division. New York-based A&E Networks documentary veteran Molly Thompson will bring her expertise in supervising documentary films and TV series to Apple, which has recently ramped up its content production, mostly on the television side. As demand for documentaries grows, A&E is losing a valuable player.

Of course, Apple has not yet announced exactly how it plans to release its content, documentary and otherwise. At Apple’s recent presentation, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she’s prepping documentary projects for Apple TV+, including investigations of poisonous work environments and the mental health industry. Apple also acquired the documentary “Elephant Queen” at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. At Sundance, the filmmakers told me that the film has an ambitious and proactive social-action global release plan that could include theaters. One strategic Apple partnership with indie distributor A24, which will produce films for Apple,...

Apple snagged a big fish to run their documentary content division. New York-based A&E Networks documentary veteran Molly Thompson will bring her expertise in supervising documentary films and TV series to Apple, which has recently ramped up its content production, mostly on the television side. As demand for documentaries grows, A&E is losing a valuable player.

Of course, Apple has not yet announced exactly how it plans to release its content, documentary and otherwise. At Apple’s recent presentation, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she’s prepping documentary projects for Apple TV+, including investigations of poisonous work environments and the mental health industry. Apple also acquired the documentary “Elephant Queen” at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. At Sundance, the filmmakers told me that the film has an ambitious and proactive social-action global release plan that could include theaters. One strategic Apple partnership with indie distributor A24, which will produce films for Apple,...

Molly Thompson has joined Apple’s upcoming streaming service as its head of documentaries.

Thompson previously founded A&E Indie Films, the feature film production unit of A+E Networks. She was also previously the head of documentary films for A+E Networks. Recent documentaries she has executive produced include “The Clinton Affair,” Charles Ferguson’s “Watergate” docuseries, “Studio 54,” and “City of Ghosts.” She was also an executive producer on celebrated documentaries like “Life, Animated,” “Cartel Land,” “Murderball,” and “Jesus Camp.”

She also executive produced Amir Bar-Lev’s “The Tillman Story” and Bart Layton’s “The Imposter,” as well as two narrative features for Lifetime Films. Those were “Lila & Eve,” starring Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez, and “Paris Can Wait,” starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin.

Additionally, Thompson served as executive producer on all feature films produced under the History Films banner, including Werner Herzog’s “Meeting Gorbachev” and “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,...

Apple has hired A&E IndieFilms founder Molly Thompson as Head of Documentaries.

Thompson, who also served as Head of Documentary films for A+E Networks, has executive produced such projects as The Clinton Affair; the docuseries Watergate; City of Ghosts; Life, Animated; Cartel Land; Murderball; and Jesus Camp.

Thompson served as executive producer on all feature films produced under the History Films banner, including Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev — which will have its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival — and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Janet Tobias’ No Place on Earth, Errol Morris’ The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Tirola’s Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon and the Johnny Knoxville-produced Being Evel.

Among other projects, Thompson also Ep’d Amir Bar-Lev’s Emmy-winning The Tillman Story, Bart Layton’s BAFTA-winning The Imposter and two narrative features for Lifetime Films: Lila & Eve,...

When a young man found wandering the streets of Newport, Kentucky identified himself to police as missing child Timmothy Pitzen, many were hopeful that the sad story of Pitzen, a six-year-old boy who disappeared in 2011 after being kidnapped by his mother, would have a happy ending. But in a heartbreaking turn of events, DNA testing determined that the man was not Pitzen, leaving the Pitzen family shattered and still searching for answers.

On Friday morning, it was reported that the man who claimed to be Pitzen was actually Brian Michael Rini,...

Rosie Fletcher Mar 12, 2019

Lords of Chaos is a story about a Norwegian black metal band which morphs into a horrifying true crime tale.

Warning: this review contains some spoilers for Lords Of Chaos and discusses possibly triggering subject matter.

Norwegian Black Metal, friendship, murder and the sheer joys of shouting "Haaaaiiiilllll saaaaaattttaaaann" at unsuspecting passersby are at the heart of Lords of Chaos, a highly unusual true-crime biopic wearing the satanic garb of a horror movie. Far funnier than you’d expect, it’s the incredible true story of the band Mayhem, created by a guy calling himself Euronymous, in Oslo in the 1980s and how his hubris and desire to generate a mythology around the band led to super dark times for all involved.

Directed by Swede Jonas Åkerlund, who made Netflix’s recent disappointing crime thriller Polar and is best known for making music videos (he did Madonna...

The unbelievable strangeness inherent in truth has made for some incredibly destabilizing documentaries about the blurred lines of fact and fiction. Films like “Dear Zachary,” “Catfish,” “Exit Through The Gift Shop”’ and “The Imposter” all blow themselves up in the middle all featuring “oh shit!”-like twists so disarming, so surprising they make one question the very reality and existence of what you’ve been watching.

Continue reading ‘Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary’ Is A Riveting, Twisted Examination Of Non-Fiction Filmmaking [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

If there’s a takeaway from this awards season, it’s that true stories are back with a vengeance. For proof, look no further than Rosamund Pike as war reporter Marie Colvin in A Private War, Sam Rockwell as President George W. Bush in Vice, Mahershala Ali as Don Shirley in Green Book, Melissa McCarthy as forger Lee Israel in Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.

’Authenticity’ is hot right now too, as evidenced by Bradley Cooper’s approach to press for A Star is Born – a film seemed to be a shoo-in for awards glory. In all the vast swathes of publicity that accompanied its release, Cooper stressed all the ‘realistic’ elements in his otherwise fictional tale, from literally taking away Lady Gaga’s glam-pop image with a wet-wipe to playing live at the Glastonbury festival in the UK as a...