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March is set to be a big month for Hulu, with a packed lineup of movies and shows heading to the streaming service. Things kick off on March 1 with a huge drop of over 50 films, including some major fan favorites.

Sci-fi lovers have plenty to look forward to as Hulu adds nearly the entire Alien franchise to its catalog. Viewers will be able to stream Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, Alien vs. Predator, Alien: Covenant, and Prometheus. Prey and Alien: Romulus are already available, so this update brings the full saga together in one place.

For those more interested in award-winning dramas, March 1 also brings several critically acclaimed films, including American Hustle, Brooklyn, Jojo Rabbit, Good Will Hunting, The Social Network, and Sideways.

The Oscars will also be a major event on Hulu this month. The streaming service will air the live broadcast of the Academy Awards on March...

Stars: Kristoffer Polaha, Elizabeth Tabish, Neal McDonough, Sean Astin, Rose Reid, John Billingsley, Paras Patel, Emily Rose, Nolan North | Written and Directed by Brock Heasley

Whilst I don’t typically cover faith-based films, I was intrigued by The Shift‘s ambitious premise. A Christian science fiction thriller from writer/director Brock Heasley, A film that combines the high-concept appeal of multiverse storytelling with faith-based themes is certainly a bold endeavour, and Heasley deserves credit for taking such a creative risk.

The story follows Kevin Garner, played by Kristoffer Polaha, a man thrust into a dystopian web of parallel universes while trying to reunite with his wife, Molly, portrayed by Elizabeth Tabish. Neal McDonough delivers a menacing performance as “The Benefactor,” a mysterious and sinister figure who seems to control Kevin’s fate. The film’s biblical inspiration, particularly the story of Job, is evident in Kevin’s relentless struggle to...

Legal dramas have long been a staple of television, from the slick courtroom theatrics of Law & Order to the cutthroat maneuvers on The Good Wife.

But before we had Jack McCoy or Alicia Florrick, there was The Defenders, a 1960s legal drama that broke new ground — and taboos.

Unlike its contemporaries, The Defenders wasn’t just about winning cases or dramatic courtroom moments. It was a show with a conscience, unafraid to tackle the controversial issues of its time.

E.G. Marshall (CBS/Screenshot)

Abortion, civil rights, war crimes — no topic was off-limits.

At a time when TV often shied away from controversy, The Defenders leaned in, proving that television could not only entertain but also challenge its audience.

Let’s examine how this quiet revolution unfolded and why The Defenders remains a landmark in TV history.

Virgin River Finally Gets Jack and Preacher’s Brotherhood Rightby Jasmine Blu Censored Classics:...

Mark Cuban has currently taken a political hiatus from social media after Donald Trump won the 2024 Presidential elections, defeating Democratic party nominee Kamala Harris. Cuban, who was a big supporter of Harris, also deleted his pro-Harris tweets days after her defeat, raising everyone’s eyebrows. While the public is definitely entertained by all the latest happenings around Trump, his feud with the Shark Tank judge goes way back.

Mark Cuban in a still from Shark Tank | Credits: ABC

In 2016, when Trump was running for President for the first time, Cuban detailed that during the Presidential debate, one of his family members literally rolled their eyes.

Mark Cuban Spills The Tea On Donald Trump’s Family Member Rolling Their Eyes During His Debate

Apart from his stint on Shark Tank, Mark Cuban is also quite famous for feuding with fellow billionaire and president-elect Donald Trump. But the starting point of this...

Ontario Creates’ International Financing Forum (Iff) will feature 40 projects from Canadian and international teams bringing new work from Malcolm McDowell, Clement Virgo, and Rafael Kapelinski, director of 2017 Berlin Crystal Bear winner Butterfly Kisses.

The forum, now in its 19th year, runs September 8-9 in Toronto in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It brings together jury-selected producers looking to find co-producers and secure financing for upcoming projects.

Canadian projects include The Benefactor starring McDowell from A Clockwork Orange and Mozart In The Jungle in the story of a widower who believes his house is haunted.

Ontario’s Byron A. Martin of Byron A.

Out today is The Shift, which stars Neal McDonough, Sean Astin, Jason Marsden, John Billingsley, Kristoffer Polaha and Elizabeth Tabish. It was written & directed by Brock Heasley for Angel Studios, who have had such incredible success with Sound of Freedom. Heasley and the other interviewees talk about Angel’s way of producing films, and how Sound of Freedom and The Shift are perhaps signalling a turn in the road in how Hollywood makes its movies.

Linda Marric asks the questions. The Shift is released today.

The Shift Interviews

Plot:

In this modern-day retelling of Job, Kevin Garner (Kristoffer Polaha) embarks on a journey across worlds and dimensions to reunite with Molly (Elizabeth Tabish), his true love. The narrative unfolds as a dystopian drama and sci-fi thriller, where a mysterious adversary, The Benefactor (Neal McDonough), disrupts Kevin’s reality. Faced with infinite worlds and impossible choices, Kevin must navigate through an alternate reality,...

Hopefully, everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend, but now we head into December with what has regularly been a down weekend by comparison. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

In this case, December kicks off with “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” the latest concert doc released by AMC after the enormous success of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which has surpassed $175 million domestically. Beyoncé Knowles is an equally popular entertainer and pop icon, whose “Renaissance Tour” ended up bringing in $580 million over 56 shows – yeah, I did the math and that means she made $10 million per night?! Beyoncé’s fans have heard murmurings about this movie for some time, but now they’ll have a chance to see it with a release into thousands of theaters, including large format premium screens like IMAX.

Beyoncé might not have quite the social media presence and rapport as the one between Swift with her fans,...

From the eight-time Oscar nominee “The Imitation Game” to the Korean revenge thriller “I Saw the Devil,” free streaming service Plex is giving audiences new and varied reasons to keep coming back to its library of over 50,000 titles.

As we ring in October, check out The Streamable’s top picks and build your to-watch list from all of the titles coming to the streamer this month!

Watch Now $0+ / month plex.tv What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Plex in October 2023? “Experimenter” | Sunday, Oct. 1

The gripping biopic “Experimenter” arrives to Plex to start the month. Based on the true story of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, the film focuses on the 1961 behavior experiments at Yale University that tested the willingness of ordinary humans to obey an authority figure while administering electric shocks to strangers, as well as the aftermath of the experiments and the public outcry of their ethics.

Emily and Zooey Deschanel are Hollywood's quirkiest celebrity siblings and have become more famous than their showbiz parents. Emily is a philanthropist and animal rights activist, while Zooey is a singer, musician, and founder of the feminist website, HelloGiggles. The Deschanel sisters have had interesting personal experiences that have influenced their acting careers, such as Zooey being mistaken for a criminal and Emily being sued over a leased horse.

Emily and Zooey Deschanel just might be Hollywood’s quirkiest celebrity siblings. The celebrity sisters were born and raised in L.A. by showbiz parents Caleb (the cinematographer for Passion of the Christ) and Mary Jo (Eileen Hayward on Twin Peaks). They named their youngest daughter after one of the protagonists of the J.D. Salinger novella Franny and Zooey (via Slate). However, the sisters are known for starring in their own massively popular Fox TV shows and have become more famous than their parents.

Television drama matured in the early 1960s with gritty often controversial series shot on location including “The Naked City” and most notably “The Defenders,” which aired on CBS from 1961-65, winning 13 Emmys during its run including three consecutive Best Drama Series awards.

The legal drama starring E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son attorneys picked up its first four prizes at the 14th Primetime Emmy Awards on May 22, 1962. It also won for Marshall; helmer Franklin J. Schaffner (who went to pick up an Oscar for directing 1970 Best Picture Oscar champ “Patton); and Reginald Rose for writing.

Rose of “12 Angry Men” fame based the series on his two-part 1957 “Studio One” drama “The Defender” with Ralph Bellamy and William Shatner as the father-son attorneys and Steve McQueen as the defendant. For Rose, “The law is the subject of our programs, not crime, not mystery, not the courtroom for its own sake.

Exclusive: Veteran screen icon Malcolm McDowell is attached to lead cast in U.S. indie horror movie The Benefactor.

The A Clockwork Orange, Caligula and Mozart In The Jungle star is due to play a once-prolific painter who takes up an artist residency after the death of his wife. However, he soon fears that the house may be haunted and that its ghosts are driving him to madness.

David Carson, who directed McDowell in Paramount’s 1994 movie Star Trek: Generations, will helm and produce the feature from a script by feature debutants Mark and Anna Casadei who will also produce with manager Paul C.Escoll.

The production firms are LA-based Rowdy Rabbit Films and Center Mass Studios.

Golden Globe-nominee McDowell recently portrayed Rupert Murdoch in Oscar-winning drama Bombshell about the women who took on Roger Ailes and Fox News. Coming up he has Amazon comedy-horror series Truth Seekers with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost,...

Exclusive: Actor Theo James and producer Andrew D. Corkin are joining forces to produce theatrical and small-screen projects in the UK and U.S. with their new label Untapped.

“While our primary focus is genre and thriller, we are drawn to stories of conflicted humanity that force viewers to question how they would react when faced with real or existential threats,” said James. “These stories are often grounded in truth – literal or allegorical – encouraging us to confront and challenge the assumptions we make about ourselves and the world around us.”

Said Corkin: “We’re excited to solidify our partnership to tell complex, diverse stories across various mediums. Theo and I share a vision for how we want to build stories and worlds that both fit within the current marketplace and look beyond it.”

Already, James and Corkin have several film and TV projects in various stages of development, prep and post.

Could former Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito be heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Before even starting with this one, we're going to state that this is just a rumor for the time being, one that is also relying, in part, on some speculation, based on some other rumblings about potential future happenings within the McU. So, don't take any of this as the word of law. At least not yet. That said, let's dig into this possibly juicy info.

According to a new report from an McU fan site, Giancarlo Esposito, best known for his role as the evil Gus Fring on Breaking Bad, is up for a big role in a future McU movie. The site notes that there is no word on who Esposito could be playing, should this turn out to be true and should he be the one to actually land the role. However, this...

Bryan Cranston has long been a favorite choice for fans to join the McU as one major villain or another, maybe even as Spider-Man nemesis Norman Osborn. However, the latest rumor on the franchise’s future points to another alum of Breaking Bad who gave a standout performance on the show being eyed for a “big” role in the Marvel universe. Possibly as the aforementioned Oscorp founder.

McU Cosmic writes that there’s talk going around claiming that Giancarlo Esposito – most known as Gus Fring in Bb – is up for a significant character in the McU. Simply going by his terrific performance as a villain on the hit AMC series, it’s assumed that Marvel is looking at the actor for one of the big bads of Phase 4. And if there’s one thing that all of the various reports on Phase 4 agree on it’s that Osborn is going...

With Avengers: Endgame now in theaters and Spider-Man: Far From Home just around the corner, all eyes are on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What movies are we going to see? What characters from the pages of Marvel Comics are we going to see brought to life? And, perhaps most importantly, what big baddie is going to take the place of Thanos? We've been hearing rumors that none other than Norman Osborn could be that figure and we now have some potential evidence which, if true, could confirm that to be the case with Spider-Man 3 already pretty much confirmed to be happening.

We must caution, very heavily, that this just a rumor for the time being. Nothing more. So this shouldn't be regarded as any sort of truth until Marvel Studios weighs in. That said, a new alleged character breakdown from a casting call reveals that the studio...

You can add Common to the list of Beto O’Rourke supporters who thinks the young politician has what it takes for a possible presidential run in 2020.

“I want to look and see who’s running, but I’m glad that he potentially will be a candidate, because he seems like a good guy and great candidate,” the Oscar winner told told Variety on Wednesday at the Los Angeles premiere of “They Fight,” a film he co-produced with Freedom Road.

Common said he feels “positive about some of the progress that was made” after the midterm elections earlier this week. ”I definitely wish it more. I wish Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams had won, because I really felt they represent the progress of America.”

He added, “Overall, it’s beautiful to see the progress that was being made in America. The first openly gay governor [Colorado’s Jared Polis]; more women in the House.

New titles available to stream with your Amazon Prime membership next month include Season 5 of BBC’s “Orphan Black,” and several new Amazon Original series, including “Last Flag Flying,” “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” and “Diablo Guardian.”

Movies available include 2017’s “Baywatch,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” and “Rocky” I through V. Beginning May 1, you’ll also be able to rent “Annihilation,” “12 Strong,” James Corden’s “Peter Rabbit” and “Fifty Shades Freed.”

See the full list below. For our May Hulu roundup, head over here.

Also Read: 'Westworld' Creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's New Sci-Fi Series 'The Peripheral' Lands at Amazon

Available May 1

3 Ways to Get a Husband (2009)

40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)

A Very Brady Sequel (1996)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Baby Boom (1987)

Back to School (1986)

Bad News Bears (1976)

Barefoot (2014)

Beyond Borders (2003)

Blame (2017)

Brother Nature (2016)

Bull Durham (1988)

Cool World (1992)

Cyborg (1989)

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Dr. No (1962)

Eight Men Out (1988)

Elizabethtown (2005)

Evolution (2001)

Foxfire (1996)

Frailty (2001)

From Russia with Love (1964)

Gator (1976)

Ghost Town (2008)

Goat (2016)

Goldfinger (1964)

Holy Air (2017)

Hot Boyz (2000)

Immigration Tango (2011)

Insomnia (2002)

Iron Eagle IV: On the Attack (1999)

Kalifornia (1993)

Live and Let Die (1973)

Love Is A Gun (1994)

Also Read: Amazon in Talks to Develop Series About Young Moammar Gadhafi's Rise to Power in Libya

Manhunter (1986)

Men with Brooms (2002)

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Never Say Never Again (1983)

New Rose Hotel (1999)

Ninja Masters (2009)

Octopussy (1983)

Outcast (2014)

Perfect Score (2004)

Perfume: Story of a Murderer (2006)

Psychopaths (2017)

Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)

Rocky (1976)

Rocky II (1979)

Rocky III (1982)

Rocky IV (1985)

Rocky V (1990)

Sabrina (1995)

Saturday Church (2017)

School Ties (1992)

Set Up (2011)

Starting Out in the Evening (2007)

Strategic Air Command (1955)

The Benchwarmers (2006)

The Benefactor (2015)

The Box (2007)

The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)

The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)

The Crow (1994)

The Elephant Man (1980)

The Golden Compass (2007)

The Hangman (1959)

The House I Live In (2013)

The Hurt Locker (2008)

The Last Castle (2001)

Also Read: Amazon Studios Shakes Up Under Jennifer Salke: Albert Cheng Named Co-Head of TV

The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

The Saint (1997)

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Thief (1981)

Thirst Street (2017)

Thunderball (1965)

Twisted (2004)

Untamed Heart (1993)

Wild Thornberrys (2002)

Wish Upon a Star (1996)

Wonder Boys (2000)

You Only Live Twice (1967)

Aristocrats: Limited Series

Banished: Limited Series

Charles II – The Power and The Passion: Limited Series

Daniel Deronda: Limited Series

David Copperfield: Limited Series

Desperate Romantics: Limited Series

Ivanhoe: Limited Series

Jane Eyre (1983): Limited Series

Jane Erye (2006): Limited Series

Life in Squares: Limited Series

Little Dorrit: Limited Series

Lorna Doone: Limited Series

Love in A Cold Climate: Limited Series

Mansfield Park: Limited Series

Martin Chuzzlewit: Limited Series

Middlemarch: Limited Series

Oliver Twist (1985): Limited Series

Oliver Twist (2007): Limited Series

Our Mutual Friend: Limited Series

Pride and Prejudice: Limited Series

Sense and Sensibility (1981): Limited Series

Sense and Sensibility (2008): Limited Series

Sinbad: Limited Series

Tess of the D’Urbervilles: Limited Series

The Buccaneers: Limited Series

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Limited Series

The Lost World: Limited Series

The Office: Limited Series

The Pickwick Papers: Limited Series

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Limited Series

The Way We Live Now: Limited Series

Tom Jones: Limited Series

Vanity Fair (1998): Limited Series

Available May 4

Last Flag Flying

Available May 5

Warrior (2011)

Diablo Guardian (Prime Original series), Season 1

Available May 11

Rocky & Bullwinkle (Prime Original series), Season 1

Available May 12

Baywatch (2017)

Still Mine (2012)

Orphan Black, Season 5

Available May 15

How to Be a Latin Lover (2017)

Available May 18

You Are Wanted (Prime Original series), Season 2

Available May 19

Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

Shooters (2003)

Available May 22

Dino Dana (Prime Original series), Season 2

Available May 23

Beast of Burden (2018)

Available May 25

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Prime Original series), Season 1

Available May 27

Just Getting Started (2017)

The Wedding Plan (2016)

Available May 29

Howards End, Season 1

Read original story Here’s What You Can Stream With Your Amazon Prime Membership in May At TheWrap...

“Gallaghers are, generally, not normal humans.”

Well, that’s an understatement— and in a newly released trailer for Season 8 of Shameless, the clan proves just how much so.

For starters, the frequently drunk-and-high-beyond-words Frank St. Francis goes through a spiritual awakening after smoking his share of Monica’s meth. Speaking of drugs, it appears the Gallaghers’ last scheme-gone-awry requires the family to dig up Monica’s coffin, in which Fiona stashed her and Liam’s meth alongside her mother’s dead body.

Elsewhere in the preview:

* New landlord Fiona meets her tenant (played by Gossip Girl‘s Jessica Szohr) and...

Author: Stefan Pape

Quietly, Richard Gere is consistently making rather good movies, telling interesting stories and taking on nuanced, intriguing roles. From The Benefactor to Arbitrage (let’s just forget The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for now) – he’s tackling intimate character studies, and his latest, Joseph Cedar’s Norman, is no different.

Gere plays the eponymous protagonist, a professional chancer and over-enthused fixer – only problem is, nobody will actually let him get close enough to fix anything. Until he meets Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), an Israeli politician spending some time in New York, touched by Norman’s offer to buy him a pair of shoes. Three years pass, and Eshel is now an influential world leader, as the Prime Minister of his native country, and when he returns to the States to meet the President, Norman shows up at a function – and they remember each other well. To have...

Together, writer/director Joseph Cedar and lead actor Richard Gere craft a singularly memorable character in Norman Oppenheimer, a lonely New York “businessman” with loose connections and an insatiable drive for success. Cedar builds his film Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer as a modern adaptation of the “Court Jew” archetype, in which a Jewish figure befriends a man of power, only to be betrayed in the end.

It’s not really a spoiler if it’s all in the title. There’s to be only sadness at the end of this funny, bittersweet story. Norman sports white Apple headphones hanging from his ears as he makes phone call after phone call, bending the truths of his friendships and influences to whoever will listen. He’s got a nephew (Michael Sheen) who appeases him and a slew of Jewish men who wield power and...

In the new film “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer,” Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) will do anything to feel like he matters. A lonely man on the margins of New York City power and money, Norman dreams up financial schemes and tries to bring them to life by incessantly networking. Then one day, he buys an Israeli politician an expensive pair of shoes and soon he’s flush with respect and caught in the crossfires of a potential international catastrophe. The film co-stars Lior Ashkenazi (“Late Marriage”), Michael Sheen (“Frost/Nixon”), Steve Buscemi (“Mystery Train”), Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), Hank Azaria (“The Simpsons”) and more. Watch a teaser trailer below.

Read More: ‘Norman’ Finds Richard Gere in a Coen-Like Comedy With More Chutzpah Than Charm — Telluride Review

The film is written and directed by Joseph Cedar. He wrote and directed the 2011 film “Footnote,” which...

A kidnapper gets more than he bargained for in Pet. Starring Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, and Jennette McCurdy, the psychological horror film has been acquired by Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films, with Us theatrical, VOD, and DVD release dates slated for December.

Press Release: Los Angeles, CA (October 4, 2016) – Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films announced today that they have acquired the psychological thriller Pet, directed by Carles Torrens and written by Jeremy Slater. The film stars Dominic Monaghan (Lost, The Lord Of The Rings Series), Ksenia Solo (Black Swan, Lost Girl), and Jennette McCurdy (iCarly, Sam & Cat). Pet had its World Premiere at the 2016 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin. Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the film in U.S. theaters and on demand on December 2, 2016, and it will be available on DVD on December 27.

In the vein of Hard Candy and Gone Girl, Pet...

The actor gives a strong performance as a desperate social climber in this fractured drama that works best as a flawed character study

Quietly and usually without much of an audience, Richard Gere is having a bit of a moment. Unlike his similarly aged peers Liam Neeson and Bruce Willis, he’s rejected the senior stuntman route and instead made the decision to embrace his older self, taking on roles that are reliant on his age, often uncomfortably so. In Time Out of Mind, he played a homeless man struggling to reconnect with his estranged daughter, in The Benefactor he was an unhinged philanthropist making amends for his tortured past and, well, he even joined the cast of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Related: Wakefield review: two hours with Bryan Cranston in an attic is less fun than it sounds

Continue reading...

With over 30 assorted producing credits ranging from Martha Marcy May Marlene to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty to The Benefactor, Andrew Corkin is a constant figure in New York’s independent film scene. Uncorked, the production company he runs with partner Bryan Reisberg, has a filmography encompassing shorts, features, television and web, and the material ranges from auteur independent drama to so-called “elevated genre” pictures like Emelie, in theaters and on VOD platforms now from Dark Sky Films. Corkin’s most recent production, The Alchemist Cookbook, world premieres next week at SXSW. Last year I sat down Corkin for a public […]...

★★☆☆☆ At the heart of Andrew Renzi's directorial debut The Benefactor is a kernel of an intriguing character study about the price of love and forgiveness and the desire to buy both. Surrounding it is a tangled mass of loose narrative threads, none of which offer any real satisfaction and most of which fall somewhere on a scale from ham-fisted to half-baked. Not even Richard Gere can salvage proceedings, chewing the scenery in an ebullient central turn that channels recent-period Pacino a lot more than it was presumably intending. In some ways, this feels like a badly written cousin to Nicholas Jarecki's under-appreciated Arbitrage, but all the more damning is Oren Moverman's Time Out of Mind, which arrives in UK cinemas imminently and acts as a painful but timely reminder of what Gere is capable of.

A dense, believable drama about the plight of a drifter on the streets of New York

“I’m just a fuck up, and I need to sleep.” Last week, The Benefactor gave us Richard Gere as a millionaire philanthropist with homes to give away. This week, this 2014 movies finds him on altogether more convincing ground as an itinerant New Yorker who wakes up in a bath, gets thrown out onto the street, and gradually comes to the awful realisation that he is homeless. Wandering through the hospitals and homeless shelters of NYC, Gere’s George is consistently spied at a distance, cinematographer Bobby Bukowski’s long lenses viewing him through bars, through windows, across crowded streets, engulfed by his environment. Meanwhile, co-writer/director Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Rampart) and his sound team build up a heavily layered montage of other people talking, laughing, shouting, screaming and singing, a cacophony in...

Richard Gere gets creepy with Dakota Fanning in this uninspired drama about a philanthropist with a dark side

Even diehard Richard Gere completists will find their patience sorely tested by this sponge-pudding drama (originally entitled Franny) about a Philadelphia philanthropist with a hidden dark side, and his increasingly creepy relationship with Dakota Fanning’s “Poodles”, for whose parents’ death he feels responsible. Writer-director Andrew Renzi has cited the eccentric millionaire John du Pont as the inspiration for Franny’s character, but it’s hard to find any connection between the choking, privileged isolation that Steve Carell brilliantly essayed in the gripping Foxcatcher with the shambling Jerry Garcia figure that Gere cuts in this infuriatingly unfocused movie.

At best, The Benefactor has flashes of the madness of 1993’s Mr Jones, the severely compromised Mike Figgis film in which Gere played a charismatic manic-depressive. But as the narrative shifts from personal demons to drug dependence,...

Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning and Theo James star in The Benefactor – a dramatic and affecting thriller centring around one man’s downward spiral. Boasting an impressive A-list cast, grandiose cinematography, and moving performances across the board, this debut feature from Andrew Renzi firmly places him on the up and coming talent spectrum.

The Benefactor comes to select UK cinemas 26th February and DVD 29th February. Courtesy of Arrow Films we have a DVD copy to give away.

To win a copy of The Benefactor on DVD, just answer the following question:

Which of the following films does Not star Richard Gere? Is it:

a) No Mercy

b) Pretty Woman

c) Love & Mercy

Email your answer to NerdlyComps@gmail.com, making sure to include your name and address. You can also leave your answer on our Facebook page, just make sure to like us first or your entry will be invalid.

We all know people like Richard Gere’s Franny – the lead role in Andrew Renzi’s debut narrative feature, The Benefactor. The sort of eccentric, overbearing type you miss when they’re not around, and wish you were elsewhere when they are. It’s getting behind the facade of such an individual that makes for an absorbing watch,

The post The Benefactor Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.

With the Oscar nominations out of the way, we can momentarily take a look instead at what else movie theaters will have playing this month, besides Academy Award hopefuls. I do this every single month, as you all know, so I didn’t want to exclude January. Of course, this month gets a reputation as the worst for new releases, and while that’s often well founded, if you look closely enough you can find some worthwhile cinematic ventures. Consider this list a public service for those of you who have seen all of the Oscar contenders and nominees already. You might even find a gem amongst the rubble… Here now are what I think the ten best bets for movies are throughout the month of January: 10. Mojave – Getting to see Oscar Isaac chew scenery as a villain in a film noir of sorts is fairly appealing. I can’t...

Samuel Goldwyn Films today opens its first drama for 2016, The Benefactor, starring Richard Gere. The film is the feature directorial debut of Andrew Renzi, who took his script to the Sundance Labs, where the project found its initial momentum. IFC Films, which is celebrating the Oscar nomination for 45 Years star Charlotte Rampling, goes out this weekend with Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title A Perfect Day, starring Benicio Del…...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

The Benefactor (Andrew Renzi)

Seeking out substantial leading characters of complexity within independent dramas in recent years, Richard Gere has delivered accomplished performances in Arbitrage and Time Out of Mind. He’s now found another with the directorial debut of Andrew Renzi, which follows Gere as the title character, a profoundly rich philanthropist who enjoys helping out those close to him while he struggles with his own demons of addiction.

Few actors are as skilled as Richard Gere at making conspicuous privilege psychologically compelling, and in the indie drama “The Benefactor,” he once again shows that facility, playing a self-destructive philanthropist who inserts himself into a young couple’s lives. While writer-director Andrew Renzi’s feature narrative debut is problematic whenever Gere isn’t onscreen (and even sometimes when he is), the veteran star exudes a damaged magnetism reminiscent of the character studies that thrilled discerning moviegoers in the ’70s. As the movie opens, a hyper, excited Francis “Franny” Watts (Gere) is at the country estate of his dear married friends Bobby (Dylan Baker) and.

This is a reprint of our review from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Even if they hadn't both screened so close together at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, there would be little chance of avoiding comparisons between the debut feature from Andrew Renzi, "The Benefactor" and Oren Moverman's Tiff title "Time Out Of Mind" (our review here). Both films are singlemindedly focused on their central character, who appears in almost every scene, and both are key to the potential career renaissance narrative now circulating around Richard Gere. But where the Moverman film formally works toward a kind of deconstruction of the traditional showy star vehicle, "The Benefactor" stumbles into all the traps and snares of the late-career vanity project, and with Renzi's inexperience showing in his reluctance to rein Gere in, we get a performance that is a lot bigger than the film it's in. The stretchmarks show.

Plot: Following the death of her parents, a young woman (Dakota Fanning) and her doctor husband (Theo James) are taken under the wing of a family friend, a wealthy philanthropist (Richard Gere) with no family and more than a few secrets of his own. Review: Based on what little material I saw promoting The Benefactor, the premise and poster had me assuming that this would be a kind of white-collar thriller where... Read More...

Once you’ve caught up with our 50 favorite films of last year, it’s time to look towards 2016. While our comprehensive previews will be arriving shortly, today we’ll take a look at the month of January. This is usually a dumping ground for Hollywood, and although there are a few bigger titles that have our curiosity, it’s mostly festival hold-overs from 2015 that are the essential watches.

It should be noted that many of the best films of 2015 — including Carol, Anomalisa, 45 Years, Arabian Nights, Mustang, and Son of Saul — will be expanding throughout the month, so check your local theater listings. A restoration of Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight will also be touring the country, and there’s a limited NYC run of Studio Ghibli’s Only Yesterday; both should certainly take priority over anything below.

Matinees to See: Yosemite (1/1), Lamb (1/8), Anesthesia (1/8), A Perfect Day (1/15), 13 Hours (1/15), Band of Robbers...

Watch the new trailer for The Benefactor. Written and directed by Andrew Renzi, the dramatic thriller starring Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning and Theo James.

In The Benefactor, an iconoclastic philanthropist, Franny, survives a devastating accident that kills his two best friends, but four years later, he is still struggling with the guilt and pain.

When his late friends’ daughter Olivia resurfaces with a new husband and a baby on the way, Franny tries to overcome his emotional and physical suffering by inserting himself into their lives. Outrageously charming and limitlessly infuriating, Franny hands his young friends undreamt-of opportunities while attempting to micromanage their lives in ever more intrusive ways.

A bravura portrait of a larger-than-life personality in crisis, the film is writer-director Andrew Renzi’s debut feature film.

From Samuel Goldwyn Films, The Benefactor opens in theaters and on-demand this January 15, 2016.

The post Richard Gere Stars In The Intiguing New...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has released the first trailer for Andrew Renzi’s well-reviewed directorial debut “The Benefactor,” which features a dynamite performance from Richard Gere. Originally known as “Franny,” the indie drama stars Gere as a wealthy yet troubled philanthropist who enters the lives of a young married couple played by Dakota Fanning and rising star Theo James. Gere’s character, Franny, is wracked with guilt as he holds himself responsible for the deaths of Fanning’s parents. Five years later, after learning of her new beau, he reaches out to help them but gets a little too close, a little too quickly.

Formerly titled "Franny," Andrew Renzi's feature debut arrives with a new name and a new trailer today as "The Benefactor," which stars Richard Gere and Dakota Fanning in a wrenching drama centered around one man's downward spiral. Read More: Tribeca Review: Richard Gere as You've Never Seen Him Before in 'Franny' Five years after her life was turned upside down by the accidental death of her parents, orphaned Olivia (Fanning) turns to the sole man who survived the car accident that killed her parents for financial and emotional support, Franny (Gere). But when it becomes clear that Franny's charity goes deeper than casual altruism, he begins to crumble under the weight of his addictions and obligations. Watch the new trailer for the forthcoming film above, and catch "The Benefactor" in theaters January 26.  Read More: Meet the 2015 Tribeca Filmmaker #28 : Andrew Renzi Puts Richard Gere Front and...

What the hell does Richard Gere want? Usually he's a fairly mild-mannered guy, but, from time to time, he has the capacity to secretly be a prick and that's what The Benefactor looks to be going for. With a lot of money at his disposal and a secret past, Gere is pushing the buttons of a recently married couple (Dakota Fanning and Theo James) that he has some sort of connection with for reasons... Read More...

"All I want is what's best for your family." Samuel Goldwyn Films has released the trailer for a film called The Benefactor, formerly known as Franny when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. It stars veteran actor Richard Gere as an eccentric rich man who meddles with the life of a deceased friend's young daughter, played by Dakota Fanning, and her new husband, played by Theo James. It looks like there's some very mysterious things going on with Gere's character that we don't all see, but I'm curious for that reason - to find out what is happening and who he really is. The performances in this look impressive. Here's the first trailer for Andrew Renzi's The Benefactor, originally from IMDb (via The Film Stage): Description from Tribeca: "Richard Gere delivers a bravura performance as the title character, a rich eccentric man who worms his...

What's in a name? When it comes to the original title of the upcoming movie starring Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning, and Theo James, it seems that "Franny" didn't quite do the trick. So now as the film heads to cinemas, it has been given a new moniker, "The Benefactor," and a trailer to go with it. Read More: The Essentials: The 10 Best Richard Gere Performances Directed by Andrew Renzi, the film follows a rich, troubled philanthropist who comes into the lives of young married couple Olivia and Luke. The twist? He caused the deaths of Olivia's parents in a car accident and has been plagued by emotional turmoil ever since. The picture didn't quite work for us when we saw it at Karlovy Vary —Jessica Kiang wrote, "we get a character study of a character almost entirely composed of screenwriting conveniences and actorly flourishes —some sort of mythological beast that...

Seeking out substantial leading characters of complexity within independent dramas in recent years, Richard Gere has delivered accomplished performances in Arbitrage and Time Out of Mind. He’s now found another with The Benefactor (formerly known as Franny), the directorial debut of Andrew Renzi, which follows Gere as the title character, a profoundly rich philanthropist who enjoys helping out those close to him while he struggles with his own demons of addiction. Also starring Dakota Fanning, Theo James, Cheryl Hines, and Dylan Baker, the first trailer has now landed today ahead of a January release.

We said in our review, “Gorgeously shot on 35mm film by Joe Anderson (who has worked on Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Martha Marcy May Marlene), there’s a richness to the cinematography that, along with the central performance, hearkens back to a character study from a few decades prior. For a feature debut,...

Exclusive: UK distributor acquires The Benefactor, Backtrack, The Pack and Anguish.

UK distributor Arrow Films has announced a number of acquisitions for its 2016 slate as Afm kicks off.

Arrow has acquired thriller The Benefactor starring Richard Gere and Theo James; psychological horror Backtrack starring Adrien Brody and Sam Neill; and horror films The Pack and Anguish.

Andrew Renzi’s The Benefactor has already set a date for Feb 29, 2016 release. Gere stars as a Philadelphia businessman who tries to make amends for a tragic accident that killed his friends years ago.

Michael Petroni’s Backtrack [pictured] stars Brody as a psychologist who discovers his patients are ghosts who died 20 years before.

Nick Robertson’s The Pack is about an Australian farmer who has to fight a feral pack of dogs.

Sonny Mallhi’s Anguish is about a girl diagnosed with an identity disorder that may actually be channelling an evil spirit.

Arrow’s acquisitions director Tom Stewart said, “We are...

Exclusive: UK distributor acquires The Benefactor, Backtrack, The Pack and Anguish.

UK distributor Arrow Films has announced a number of acquisitions for its 2016 slate as Afm kicks off.

Arrow has acquired thriller The Benefactor starring Richard Gere and Theo James; psychological horror Backtrack starring Adrien Brody and Sam Neill; and horror films The Pack and Anguish.

Andrew Renzi’s The Benefactor has already set a date for Feb 29, 2016 release. Gere stars as a Philadelphia businessman who tries to make amends for a tragic accident that killed his friends years ago.

Michael Petroni’s Backtrack [pictured] stars Brody as a psychologist who discovers his patients are ghosts who died 20 years before.

Nick Robertson’s The Pack is about an Australian farmer who has to fight a feral pack of dogs.

Sonny Mallhi’s Anguish is about a girl diagnosed with an identity disorder that may actually be channelling an evil spirit.

Arrow’s acquisitions director Tom Stewart said, “We are...

Paul Hanson and Media Content Capital’s new finance, production and sales company has brought on the former Grosvenor Park and Sierra/Affinity sales executive as president of international.

Schwan will join Covert Media in Toronto as the new team meets potential distribution and production partners.

She most recently served in a business development role for Grosvenor Park Media and prior to that was executive vice-president at Sierra/Affinity where she oversaw the sales on titles like Drive and Ender’s Game.

Before that Schwan led the international division of The Film Department, which produced Law Abiding Citizen. As a sales executive at Lionsgate she worked on Monster’s Ball and Hotel Rwanda.

“Elizabeth is a consummate professional and highly regarded in our industry,” said Covert Media CEO Hanson. “She is a fantastic addition to our growing team and we are excited about the level of experience and poise she brings to this role and the organisation...

The co-founder and former COO of Qed International has teamed up with Media Content Capital on the production, financing and distribution company.

McC, run by Sasha Shapiro and Anton Lessine who also operate Qed Holdings, is fully funding the Los Angeles-based venture and Hanson will serve as CEO.

Covert Media’s initial mandate is to make three or four films a year in the $10-50m range before broadening the parameters and exploring episodic content.

Covert will service and support the library and upcoming projects for Qed, although details about sales personnel were not forthcoming at time of writing. Shapiro and Lessine engaged Fortitude International to oversee the slate prior to Cannes in a temporary arragement.

The Qed roster includes Barry Levinson’s comedy Rock The Kasbah starring Bill Murray, Jason Bateman’s The Family Fang with Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken, Franny starring Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning and Theo James, Time Out of Mind also with...

Even if they hadn't both screened so close together at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, there would be little chance of avoiding comparisons between the debut feature from Andrew Renzi, "Franny" and Oren Moverman's Tiff title "Time Out Of Mind" (our review here). Both films are singlemindedly focused on their central character, who appears in almost every scene, and both are key to the potential career renaissance narrative now circulating around Richard Gere. But where the Moverman film formally works toward a kind of deconstruction of the traditional showy star vehicle, "Franny" stumbles into all the traps and snares of the late-career vanity project, and with Renzi's inexperience showing in his reluctance to rein Gere in, we get a performance that is a lot bigger than the film it's in. The stretchmarks show. The problems are rooted in the script, which was developed as a Sundance Labs project.

Upcoming projects include a ‘reimagining’ of Billy Wilder classic Sunset Boulevard.

Us director Andrew Renzi, whose feature debut Franny is showing at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) (July 3-11), is lining up his next projects, including a ‘reimagining’ of Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard.

Richard Gere, Theo James and Dakota Fanning star in Renzi’s debut Franny, in which a philanthropist meddles in the lives of newly-married couples in an attempt to relive his past.

Samuel Goldwyn Films picked up the drama after its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The 30-year-old director, whose 2014 documentary Fishtail about Montana cowboys also premiered at Tribeca and was then picked up by Netflix, will next return to Montana to film another documentary, this time about miners.

Speaking to ScreenDaily following a Kv industry panel, director Renzi confirmed that he aims to shoot the documentary later this year or early next year with regular producing partner Andrew Corkin ([link...

The growing business opportunities afforded by China and the TV sector were among subjects discussed by Us finance heavyweights FilmNation and Endgame Entertainment during an industry panel at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff).

Sitting on the panel titled Understanding and Overcoming the Hurdles of Hollywood, were Milan Popelka, COO at sales and production outfit FilmNation Entertainment; Douglas E. Hansen, president of financier Endgame Entertainment Company and CEO of Endgame Releasing Company; and Us film director Andrew Renzi (Franny).

Kviff regular Popelka - who has been at sales giant FilmNation since its inception in 2008 - and finance veteran Hansen, both recognised that Hollywood is awash with funding opportunities today, but that industry face greater challenges when it comes to finding strong content.

“Everyone is so hungry for material right now in Hollywood,” said Popelka. “Money is a commodity, to an extent. When we put an interesting movie together, finding the money is not the problem; it’s the...