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Will Smith has been absent from the big screen since last summer when he reprised his role as Mike Lowrey in Bad Boys: Ride or Die, but one forgotten thriller from the star has returned to streaming charts nearly 20 years later. Smith stars alongside Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka) and Woody Harrelson (True Detective) in Seven Pounds, the tragic mystery following a man with a fateful secret who goes on a life-changing journey altered by seven strangers. Seven Pounds is streaming on Rakuten TV globally, where it’s become one of the most popular movies on the platform in several countries, including Estonia. The film was panned by critics who rated it a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it landed a respectable 75% on the audience-driven Popcornmeter. It also grossed $169 million at the box office against a $55 million budget.

Seven Pounds is not streaming anywhere in the U.S., but it is available to...

"Everything can change..." in an instant. Right? Voltage Pictures has unveiled an official US trailer for an Italian thriller film titled Here Now, set on Sicily in Italy. The original Italian title is Fino alla fine and it's made by the filmmaker Gabriele Muccino, best known for directing Seven Pounds and The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith years ago. Sophie is a young Californian traveling in Italy on her vacation with her sister. She meets Giulio and his group of friends with whom she spends the most terrifying night of her life. A young woman's vacation in Palermo turns into a deadly battle for survival in a 24-hour whirlwind crime spree. Starring Elena Kampouris as Sophie, Saul Nanni, Lorenzo Richelmy, Enrico Inserra, and Francesco Garilli. This looks like it's one of those passionate thrillers where a whirlwind romance leads to some crimes, but she goes along with it because why not.

Amid major movie market upheavals, Leone Film Group is still the main Italian distributor of top-notch English-language indie film fare, spanning all genres with titles from directors such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

But while in the past Leone Film Group relied on output deals with U.S. indies, such as Lionsgate and Spielberg’s Amblin, these days “we supply ourselves from whomever has worthy product,” says its head of acquisitions Francesco Polimanti. That includes titles such as recent hit “Civil War,” with Kirsten Dunst, “John Wick 4” with Keanu Reeves as the iconic assassin and the upcoming “Dumb Money.”

Polimanti went on a buying spree in May at Cannes, where he picked up a trio from Black Bear, including Guy Ritchie’s next film, “Wife and Dog,” set in the world of British aristocracy. It marks the fifth Ritchie-directed movie that will go out in Italy through Leone.

Italy’s Leone Film Group is taking the legacy of its founder, spaghetti Western master Sergio Leone, to the next level.

As the Rome-based company run by the maestro’s children, Raffaella and Andrea, celebrates its 35th anniversary, it continues to consolidate its standing as the preeminent supplier of U.S. indie product to Italy. The Leone’s film and TV production side has been recently growing with a robust slate of high-end content for the international market.

Having become the top distribution partner in Italy for U.S. indies such as Lionsgate, STX Entertainment, Voltage and Black Bear, the Leone Film Group is now focused on what Raffaella Leone calls the “more difficult task” of “laying the groundwork for our production side in the international arena.”

The group’s Lotus Production label, which is now run directly by Raffaella, has a slew of projects in various stages, with new films by James Gray,...