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Alec Baldwin is opening up about his own negative behavior toward women in the past, as part of a call to action against the pervasive culture of sexism and sexual harassment in Hollywood.

The actor received an honor from the The Paley Center for Media on Thursday, which included a discussion with Tonight Show announcer Steve Higgins, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Baldwin addressed the spate of sexual misconduct scandals that have been rocking Hollywood in recent weeks, and admitted to having treated women badly at various points in his career.

"I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way. I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women. I’ve underestimated women," Baldwin said. "Not as a rule, [but] from time to time, I’ve done what a lot of men do, which is … when you don’t treat women the same way you treat men."

"I'm from a...

Alec Baldwin is admitting to his own past mistreatment of women while calling for a change in Hollywood and beyond.

The Emmy Award winner made the remarks while receiving a career honor from The Paley Center for Media on Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Speaking about the sexual misconduct allegations that have permeated the film industry this month, Baldwin reportedly said, “I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way.”

He added, “I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women. I’ve underestimated women. Not as a rule, from time to time I’ve done what a lot of men do,...

James Toback Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri

James Toback, director of Tyson and Black And White, has been accused of sexual harassment by 38 women, according to an article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. The claims are remarkably similar in nature and allege that the director approached women in New York, persuaded them to accompany him to secluded places for auditions, then asked them explicit sexual questions and proceeded to masturbate in front of them.

Toback, 72, denies all the claims, saying that he doesn't remember meeting any of the women. He asserted that health issues would have made it impossible for him to behave as described.

Toback was proud of his flirtatiousness and titled a film based on his own life The Pick-Up Artist. He also directed 2013 documentary Seduced And Abandoned, which sets out to expose the way films are made and is rife with casual sexism, including a deeply uncomfortable...

"The Most Beautiful Wife"   The 'double standard' between men and women reveals its roots in paternalistic barbarism, as demonstrated by this quality Italo crime picture about a young woman claimed against her will by a Mafia thug. The gorgeous star Ornella Muti makes her debut; the sinister Mafia punk is Alessio Orano. It's strong stuff, but not exploitative. La moglie più bella Blu-ray Twilight Time 1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 109 min. / Street Date September 6, 2016 / The Most Beautiful Wife / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store24.95 Starring Ornella Muti, Alessio Orano, Tano Cimarosa, Pierluigi Aprà Cinematography Franco di Giacomo Production Design Umberto Turco Film Editor Antonio Siciliano Original Music Ennio Morricone Written by Damiano Damiani, Sofia Scandurra, Enrico Ribulisi Directed by Damiano Damiani

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

One doesn't expect an Italian crime film to help bring about social change, but this show may be an exception. Frankly, its dark them fits right...

She's beautiful, desired and enjoys a social mobility in the improving Italian economy... but she's also a pawn of cruel materialist values. Stefania Sandrelli personifies a liberated spirit who lives for the moment, but who can't form the relationships we call 'living.' Antonio Pietrangeli and Ettore Scola slip an insightful drama into the young Sandrelli's lineup of comedy roles. I Knew Her Well Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 801 1965 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Io la conoscevo bene / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 23, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Stefania Sandrelli, Mario Adorf, Jean-Claude Brialy, Joachim Fuchsberger, Nino Manfredi, Enrico Maria Salerno, Ugo Tognazzi, Karin Dor, Franco Nero. Cinematography Armando Nannuzzi Production design Maurizio Chiari Film Editor Franco Fraticelli Original Music Piero Picconi Written by Antonio Pietrangeli, Ruggero Maccari, Etore Scola Produced by Turi Vasile Directed by Antonio Pietrangeli

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Did a new kind of woman emerge in the 1960s?...

'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...

'Cop Show,' an eight-episode Web series written by and starring comedian and Saturday Night Live SNL alum Colin Quinn, has been ordered by LStudio LStudio.com for the series debut season tonight, February 18th. The comedy is executive produced by Morris S. Levy of Mega Films HBO's 'Seduced and Abandoned', Brian Stern Comedy Central's 'Big Time in Hollywood, Fl' and Colin Quinn and directed by J.D. Amato 'The Chris Gethard Show'. Shooting began last month in New York City.

'Cop Show,' an eight-episode Web series written by and starring comedian and Saturday Night Live SNL alum Colin Quinn, has been ordered by LStudio LStudio.com for the series debut season on February 18th. The comedy is executive produced by Morris S. Levy of Mega Films HBO's 'Seduced and Abandoned', Brian Stern Comedy Central's 'Big Time in Hollywood, Fl' and Colin Quinn and directed by J.D. Amato 'The Chris Gethard Show'. Shooting began last month in New York City.

The 1974 film scripted by James Toback is relocated to Los Angeles, and turned into something pretty preposterous in the process

Writer and film-maker James Toback has had a mini-resurgence lately: his documentary Seduced and Abandoned was widely enjoyed, and Jacques Audiard remade his 1978 movie Fingers as The Beat My Heart Skipped. Now 1974’s Toback-scripted The Gambler has had a modern – rather sanitised – makeover, transposed from New York to La. It’s another tellingly personal tale of a highbrow guy with a lowlife secret.

Mark Wahlberg plays the part that James Caan had in the original. He is Jim Bennett, a university professor and novelist with an addiction to gambling. Wahlberg is, sad to say, uncharismatic and unconvincing in a tiresome role in which he has to harangue his students on the subject of true genius. On his personal time, he loses a fortune at blackjack, and finally stakes everything on...

I'll say this much for him: Alec Baldwin is keeping pretty busy these days. Not only is the "30 Rock" actor in talks to join the Christopher McQuarrie-directed "Mission: Impossible 5" as the head of the CIA, he's also circling the previously-announced football concussion movie starring Will Smith, according to a report today over at Deadline. His prospective role in the latter film is unknown at this time. On the TV side, meanwhile, Baldwin is currently developing a show in which he'd play a Rob Ford-esque mayor of New York City (Ford of course being the infamous Toronto mayor whose erratic public behavior set off a media firestorm last year). Written by Wells Tower and executive-produced by Baldwin, the budding project is an NBC Productions property but will be developed as a one-hour cable series. Though his frequent public outbursts have tended to obscure his career endeavors as of late,...

Hollywood comedy Bad Neighbours ruled for the second consecutive weekend at the Australian box-office while two Australian films struggled to find audiences.

Despite favourable reviews and copious publicity, Craig Monahan.s redemptive drama Healing had a modest debut, taking $81,000 at 38 screens.

Including previews, the film starring Don Hany and Hugo Weaving has grossed $96,000. Hany plays a criminal serving a long stretch for murder who is rehabilitated by a program caring for wounded eagles and other big birds in a minimum-security prison farm.

Sophie Hyde.s 52 Tuesdays fell by 26%, fetching $17,500 in its second weekend on 10 screens and $80,000 thus far. Both films generated positive reviews and wide media coverage, underlining that sometimes that isn't enough to attract cinemagoers.

B.O. takings totalled a shade over $11 million, down from the previous weekend.s $11.4 million, according to Rentrak, but only two titles clocked more than $1 million.

Neighbours, which stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne...

Star of Only God Forgives is proving himself a contemplative actor who is not afraid to take risks behind the camera

Ryan Gosling did not come to Cannes last year. But he was still the talk of the town. He starred in the most controversial film of the festival: Nicolas Winding Refn's blood-soaked revenge drama Only God Forgives (five stars from Peter Bradshaw, outrage from almost everyone else).

And he impressed as himself in Seduced and Abandoned, a documentary shot at the festival the previous year and seeking to explode myths surrounding the movie business. In a series of interviews, Gosling punctured the puff and cogently exposed the truth. The earnest hunk proved himself an expert sceptic.

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Over the past couple years, HBO has been a quiet-but-steady presence at the Cannes Film Festival, where they unspool their movies out of competition (with Steven Soderbergh's "Behind The Candelabra" an exception in 2013). "Hemingway & Gellhorn," "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight," "Seduced And Abandoned"—those are the movies that have joined Soderbergh's in walking the red carpet in the south of France. And while nothing is official, we'd lay down some good money that the same will happen for "The Normal Heart." But even if not, you won't have to wait long to see this one for yourself. From "Glee" and "American Horror Story"-creator Ryan Murphy, based on the acclaimed play by Larry Kramer and starring Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts, the drama tells the story of the onset of the HIV-aids crisis in New York City in the early 1980s. It will highlight...

Major Captain America: Winter Soldier spoiler, Matt Ryan is Constantine, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer noncommittal on right to discriminate law

As the Olympics in Sochi prepare to draw to a close, Bob Costas took a moment to reflect on the games and their impact of the world’s view of Russia. “While in many significant ways, Russian citizens have better lives than Soviet citizens of a generation ago, there’s is still a government which imprisons dissidents, is hostile to gay rights, sponsors and supports a vicious regime in Syria – and that’s just a partial list. The Sochi games are Vladimir Putin’s games, from their inception to their conclusion, and all points in between. And if they are successful on their own terms, as appears to be the case, then at least in some corners it will help to burnish the image of a regime with which...

The lyrics to the torch song New York, New York leap to mind while listening to Ryan Gosling reflect on his earliest days breaking into acting. "If I can make it there, I.ll make it anywhere" the classic anthem goes. "There," in this instance, just happens to be West Hollywood. Also, if I listened to Gosling and entertained the notion of possibly becoming a professional actor, I.d probably pull a complete 180-degrees and possibly apply for a job in a safe profession. So, who.s hiring? The above clip, shared by The Wrap, is from James Toback and Alec Baldwin.s industry documentary Seduced and Abandoned. Released on HBO back in October, the film follows the 30 Rock star and the director of The Pick-Up Artist and Two Girls and a Guy as they shop a project around Cannes. It.s meant to be a scathing commentary on the...

Ryan Gosling finally levels with us about how absurd the dream of becoming an actor is — and why it’s a dream worth chasing. “Everyone’s left their families, their homes, their friends, their jobs, to pursue a dream where they know that the percentage of them achieving that dream is never, and they do it anyway,” Gosling says in a new clip from James Toback and Alec Baldwin’s documentary, “Seduced and Abandoned.” Also read: Obama Asked HBO Chief for ‘True Detective,’ ‘Game of Thrones’ Advance Episodes But that’s what makes Los Angeles great, the “Place Beyond the...

Cate Blanchett shines as a woman on the verge in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, while elsewhere Alec Baldwin disappoints

With apologies to Dylan Farrow, who would attach sterner moral implications to this question than those I intend: what's your favourite Woody Allen movie of the 21st century? It's been a slightly painful question for a while now, usually drawing less-than-ringing endorsements along the lines of: "Midnight in Paris was harmless enough", or: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona, if you mute the voiceover bits." At last, however, there's an easy answer: Blue Jasmine (Warner, 12), imperfect as it is in fractious and interesting ways, is something genuinely remarkable.

Much of that comes down to Cate Blanchett's daring, last-nerve performance as the title character, a spoilt society wife experiencing the mother of all Xanax comedowns after her husband is jailed for tax fraud – a tragicomic turn of Gena Rowlands proportions that is all...

Ryan Gosling has been out of the spotlight for a while now, so if you're anything like us, you'll be thrilled to see Ryan smirk his way through a scene in James Toback's documentary Seduced and Abandoned. The film, directed by James and Alec Baldwin, takes place at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and it captures the roller coaster of finding the money to make a movie. In it, they interview famous faces like Martin Scorsese, Jessica Chastain, and Ryan, who lends his trademark charm to insights about Hollywood, the awkward auditioning process, and the agony of being an actor. Opening up about La culture, he says, "Everybody's left their families, their homes, their friends, their jobs to pursue a dream where they know that the percentage of them achieving that dream is never. And they do it anyway." The film premiered at Cannes in 2013, and this past Fall, it aired on HBO,...

It was clear that 2013 stood a strong chance of being an exceptionally good year for films -- especially American films -- by the time the Cannes Film Festival wrapped up in late May. For the first time I could remember, I liked all the U.S. features in the main competition: Inside Llewyn Davis, Behind the Candelabra, Nebraska, The Immigrant and Only Lovers Left Alive. Out of competition or in special slots were All Is Lost, The Great Gatsby and Seduced and Abandoned. Photos: Todd McCarthy's 10 Best Films of 2013 And this came on the heels of a Sundance that

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The Hollywood Reporter held its first ever documentary directors roundtable which included Alex Gibney ("The Armstrong Lie"), Errol Morris ("The Unknown Known"), Morgan Neville ("20 Feet From Stardom"), Teller (" Tim's Vermeer"), James Toback ("Seduced and Abandoned"), and Lucy Walker ("The Crash Reel"). Each documentarian explored the truths of documentary shooting. Many overlook the fact that documentary storytelling is different than storytelling consisting of scripts that directors can follow from the beginning until the ending of the filming process. All six documentary directors explained what lies at the core of their respective documentary. For more on the innovative documentarians of today, visit The Hollywood Reporter here. Read More: For the Year's Best Documentaries, It All Began with the Casting Read some of the highlights from the round table discussion below: "It ('The Armstrong Lie') started out as a comeback story...it went from 'Breaking Away' to 'Breaking Bad' so...

Well, here's something that will sit nicely alongside our 15 Best Documentaries Of 2013—a one hour THR roundtable with some of the filmmakers who brought forth some of biggest highlights of the year: Errol Morris ("The Unknown Known"), Lucy Walker ("The Crash Reel"), Alex Gibney ("The Armstrong Lie," "We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks"), Morgan Neville ("20 Feet From Stardom"), Teller ("Tim's Vermeer") and James Toback ("Seduced and Abandoned"). And as always, the talk is fascinating. For example, Morris—who managed to get the controversial and divisive Donald Rumsfeld to be the subject of his documentary—reveals that the politician wasn't even a fan of his work. "He told me that he had seen 'The Fog of War,' my film about a former secretary of defense like himself, Robert McNamara. And he told me he hated the movie," he explained. But perhaps more fascinating is Morris' anecdote about voting...

Decadence, violence, love and space – Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw shares his fantasy award nomination list for 2013

• The 2012 Braddies

Awards season is now upon us and here, as every year, is my personal fantasy award nomination list for 2013, whimsically called the Braddies, which covers the period running from the beginning of the calendar year to the present. There are 10 nominations in eight categories: film, director, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, screenplay and documentary.

The reader is invited to nominate the winner in the comments section below, and perhaps to note omissions and evidence that the list betrays suggestions of sociocultural bias.

I like to think that these awards will one day evolve into an actual ceremony with chrome-and-glass statuettes, sponsorship from Sky Atlantic and a televised evening presided over by Dara Ó Briain or Mariella Frostrup. But until then, it exists in a world of fantasy only. And so,...

Gravity | How To Survive A Plague | Seduced & Abandoned | Love Tomorrow | Behzat C: Ankara Yaniyor

Gravity (12A)

(Alfonso Cuarón, 2013, Us) Sandra Bullock, George Clooney. 91 mins

A movie to restore your faith in special effects, 3D and cinema in general, Cuarón's space movie arrives here already heaped with well-earned adulation. Like, say, Avatar or Toy Story, it really does expand the frontiers of what cinema can do; unlike them, Gravity is set in, or at least around, the real world. The story is admirably minimalist: two astronauts get stranded in space and try to get home. The visuals are out of this world but there's much more: riveting tension, sympathetic performances, and a spiritual undertone that only adds to the movie's transcendent nature.

How To Survive A Plague (15)

(David France, 2012, Us) 110 mins

A true story with all the elements of a mythic struggle, this bracing documentary recounts how Aids activists – many potential...

The art vs. commerce dichotomy of the world’s most famous film festival is explored and analysed in a thoroughly entertaining fashion in the form of behind-the-scenes industry documentary, Seduced and Abandoned. Much like Behind the Candelabra this summer, UK cinema-goers are once again in the enviable position of watching yet another excellent HBO made-for-tv film on the big screen.

Seduced and Abandoned begins as a study of the Cannes experience with guides James Toback and Alec Baldwin (project director and producer, respectively) as they hit the pitching circuit with an hypothetical film. They are seeking financial backing for an intended reworking for the Bernardo Bertolucci classic Last Tango in Paris, this time set in contemporary Iraq and with Baldwin in the lead. The duo spin ideas of including challenging sexual material to try and motivate potential financiers, but there is little interest, particularly when the name of the agreed co-star of the project,...

Short Term 12 | Philomena | Thor: The Dark World | Milius | Gloria | Nosferatu The Vampyre | Drinking Buddies | Cutie And The Boxer | Child's Pose | The Nun | The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia | A Nightmare On Elm Stret

Short Term 12 (15)

(Destin Cretton, 2013, Us) Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield, Rami Malek. 97 mins

A film that makes you care about people who care about people, this compact indie doesn't have to look hard for drama in a foster care home, whose young workers need help as much as the damaged teens in their charge. The storylines are a little convenient, but it's an emotional watch, and Larson is outstanding.

Philomena (12A)

(Stephen Frears, 2013, UK/Us/Fra) Judi Dench, Steve Coogan. 98 mins

Faith issues, "human interest" and even buddy comedy blend smoothly in this true-life tale of a retired Irish woman's search for her adult son, aided by a sceptical English hack.

November 1

Drinking Buddies

Director Joe Swanberg

Starring Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson, Olivia Wilde

Running Time 90 mins

Certificate 15

Milius

Director Zak Knutson, Joey Figueroa

Starring John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood

Running Time 101 mins

Certificate 15

Philomena

Director Stephen Frears

Starring Steve Coogan, Judi Dench, Charlie Murphy

Running Time 98 mins

Certificate 12A

Short Term 12

Director Destin Daniel Cretton

Starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jnr, Kaitlyn Dever

Running Time 97 mins

Certificate 15

November 8

Gravity

Director Alfonso Cuarón

Starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Running Time 92 mins

Certificate 12A

Seduced and Abandoned

Director James Toback

Starring Ryan Gosling, Alec Baldwin, Diane Kruger

Running Time 98 mins

Certificate 15

November 15

The Butler

Director Lee Daniels

Starring Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker, Vanessa Redgrave

Running Time 132 mins

Certificate 12A

The Counsellor

Director Ridley Scott

Starring Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender

Running Time 117 mins

Certificate 18

Dom Hemingway

Director Richard Shepard

Starring Jude Law, Richard E Grant, Emilia Clarke

Running...

Title: Seduced and Abandoned Director: James Toback Starring: Alec Baldwin, James Toback, Martin Scorsese, Ryan Gosling, Roman Polanski, Jessica Chastain, James Caan, Diane Kruger, Francis Ford Coppola, Diabo Cody, Neve Campbell, Brett Ratner For a week-and-a-half last year, writer-director James Toback and Alec Baldwin glad-handed their way through the Cannes Film Festival, trying to secure financing for a proposed film — a Middle Eastern-set political/erotic thriller they envisioned as a type of spiritual cousin of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris.” “Seduced and Abandoned,” then, premiering on HBO tonight and playing deep into the next month on its affiliated channels, is their travelogue-cum-pitch-video, wherein they talk high-minded cinema with fellow creatives while facing [ Read More ]

The post Seduced and Abandoned Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Sure, Sunday tends to be overcrowded with high-end TV, including "Boardwalk Empire," "Eastbound and Down," "Homeland," "Masters of Sex," "The Walking Dead" and more, but what to watch the rest of the time? Every Monday, we bring you five noteworthy highlights from the other six days of the week. "Seduced and Abandoned" Monday, October 28th at 9pm on HBO Alec Baldwin and director James Toback went to Cannes last year to half-jokingly attempt to raise money for a "Last Tango in Paris"-inspired drama for which they didn't yet have a script. What came from this exercise is a playful, rueful and very enjoyable reflection on the film industry as an intersection between art and business, as the pair meet with billionaires, legends like Bernardo Bertolucci and Roman Polanski and stars like Jessica Chastain and Ryan Gosling to talk about cinema. "Independent Lens": "The Graduates" Monday, October 28th at...

Looking good, Robert Pattinson. The 27-year-old Twilight star stepped out in L.A. last night sporting a giant smile. Dressed in a gray shirt and black jacket, the scruffy hunk hit a local screening of the new documentary film Seduced and Abandoned at the Clarity Theater in Beverly Hills. The movie features real celeb like Jessica Chastain, Alec Baldwin, Ryan Gosling, Diane Kruger, Martin Scorsese and many more discussing the subjects of the Cannes Film Festival, cinema, art, money, glamor and death. Judging by Pattinson's smiley sighting, he sure looked excited to watch the film! Earlier today, romance reports surfaced claiming that Pattinson was secretly hooking up with his ex Kristen Stewart....

When last we caught up with him, Alec Baldwin was in Cannes promoting his brilliantly off-the-wall James Toback doc Seduced And Abandoned. He rocked that particular show - watch him in action here - and is now looking to do likewise with a part in the new and so-far untitled Cameron Crowe project.Deadline's scoop has Baldwin as the latest to join Crowe's new one, following in the footsteps of Rachel McAdams, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Danny McBride. An intriguing and versatile cast with the comic chops to carry either a full-blown comedy or something with more dramatic substance - or, as Crowe has pulled off on more than one previous occasion, both at the same time. The project is well underway at Sony, with Crowe and producer Scott Rudin masterminding its journey to the screen. They're keeping things under wraps and we don't have access to the mixtape...

Exclusive: When I saw him in Cannes while he and Jim Toback were unveiling their hilarious documentary Seduced And Abandoned, Alec Baldwin made it clear that any roles he takes in the near future would have to square with his commitment to being a new dad. His wife Hilaria was close by, looking adorably pregnant. It looks like the Cameron Crowe-directed untitled film for Sony fits that bill because I hear that Baldwin is negotiating. Crowe and producer Scott Rudin have been discreet about the movie, but it looks like Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams and Danny McBride are all part of it. Look for Baldwin to lock his role shortly. By the way, that documentary, which showed Baldwin and Toback shopping a movie package to foreign sales moguls like Avi Lerner, will make its debut on HBO. Baldwin’s repped by CAA.

James Toback was on hand to talk about his HBO documentary "Seduced and Abandoned" at the TCA press tour yesterday, a film about the film biz which was shot at Cannes 2012 and premiered at the festival this year. Alec Baldwin, his collaborator on the film, was not, instead popping in via satellite from a vineyard, rows of grapevines stretching out in the window behind him. The film, which will premiere on HBO on October 28, follows Baldwin and Toback as they try to raise money for their version of "Last Tango in Paris," in the process speaking with Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain about the industry. The film provided the opportunity for Baldwin and Toback to reflect on the business themselves and its shift toward giant blockbusters and franchises. "If you don't find some way to work in films that are going to make some money,...

Around 200 European and international distributors and festival programmers are expected in London next week for the 10th edition of the London UK Film Focus (Luff), running June 24-27.

Premieres include Exclusive Media’s Formula 1 doc 1, StudioCanal’s horror thriller In Fear, the Damian Jones-produced Powder Room starring Sheridan Smith, Metro International’s raucous comedy The Stag and Altitude Film Sales’ The Hooligan Factory.

uConnect, the London-based sales outfit run by Peter Rogers, will be screening Summer In February, starring Dominic Cooper and Dan Stevens.

“The timing is very good for us. We did think it would stand out at Luff,” said Rogers. The love triangle tale was released in the UK earlier this month by Metrodome.

Luff will return to the BFI Southbank to showcase features.

Natalie Brenner, Evp of international sales at Metro International, said: “You have the best screening rooms in London. You have an invited list of really good distributors who sit and...

Check out this clip from James Toback's Cannes documentary "Seduced and Abandoned," which follows the director and buddy Alec Baldwin as they adventure through the wilds of the Croisette, looking for funding for a new project. In the clip, Toback speaks with big names like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Bernardo Bertolucci and Roman Polanski on the state of film and the industry. HBO recently acquired North American rights to the film. As the studios cede ground to HBO, the Cannes Film Festival has embraced the cabler as well. Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic "Behind the Candelabra," with juicy roles for stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, is entered in the main competition. "Seduced and Abandoned" makes its world premiere as a Special Screening in the Cannes Official Selection, and also includes portraits of stars Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastain, Berenice Bejo, Diane Kruger and James Caan. “The film idea...

HBO has snagged the North American television rights to the documentary "Seduced and Abandoned" ahead of its premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it'll play as a special screening. Directed by James Toback ("Fingers," "Black and White," "Tyson"), "Seduced and Abandoned" was actually shot during last year's Cannes festival, and explores, according to HBO, "cinema art, money, glamor and death." Toback and Alec Baldwin, who produced the film alongside Michael Mailer, serve as the film's onscreen guides as it offers up profiles of Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese, Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastain, Berenice Bejo, Diane Kruger and James Caan. According to HBO's Michael Lombardo, "When James and Alec set out to make this documentary, it took a different turn. What resulted is something uniquely special and wonderfully entertaining." The deal for the film was negotiated with HBO by Jeff Berg at Resolution on behalf of the.

Focus Features International will begin shopping Woody Allen's next film to foreign buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival and continue at the American Film Market in November. The untitled comedy stars Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Michael Emerson, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, Max Casella and Alden Ehrenreich.

Principal photography begins in San Francisco and New York this month. Focus International also handled foreign sales on Allen's To Rome With Love, which has grossed a stellar

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