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After more than a decade of inspiring feature films, documentaries, books and podcasts, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht will tell his story in an upcoming documentary he participated in from prison.

The project arrives as Ulbricht enjoys an improbable Hollywood ending. He was freed from federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, on Tuesday after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump, a pledge Trump made in May at the Libertarian National Convention.

Ulbricht was sentenced to two life sentences, plus 40 years, after creating the illegal online drug market Silk Road, which was described as “the Amazon for Drugs.” According to the FBI, the site generated hundreds of millions in sales and made Ulbricht the subject of a dramatic manhunt, culminating in his arrest at a San Francisco library in 2013.

Despite the intense interest in his case, Ulbricht granted no interviews to the press following his 2015 conviction (he did send in a...

Ever since the blockchain was introduced to the public, there has been significant interest in movies that discuss the subject. Over the last few years, the entertainment sector has produced several films and documentaries about blockchain-based assets like cryptocurrencies and their effect on the global economy.

It’s understandable why people want to learn more about cryptocurrencies, considering that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and similar assets have revolutionized how people pay and invest. This category of assets has witnessed an explosion in popularity, and both beginner and seasoned investors have shown interest in adding them to their portfolios.

Filmmakers couldn’t miss the opportunity to deliver content that meets people’s interests, so they took the plunge and created shows that discuss the potential and implications of blockchain-based assets. While some of them show the reasons behind the rapid growth of Bitcoin price Usd, others discuss the stories behind the creation of famous cryptocurrencies.

The YouTube Effect is a fascinating documentary that explores the origins of one of the world’s most influential websites before diving into the dangers lurking beneath its friendly interface. The documentary features interviews from users and creators alike; YouTube founder Steve Chen, platform star Andrew Padilla, former alt-right extremist Caleb Cain, and more sat down to discuss the benefits and dangers of the site. The film is both timeless and incredibly relevant, as it both establishes the unlikely rise of a global institution and questions its culpability in recent tragedies like the Christchurch shootings and January 6th, 2021.

The documentary was directed and produced by Alex Winter, an established filmmaker whose previous efforts include Showbiz Kids, Trump’s Lobby, and Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and the Silk Road. Despite primarily working behind the camera in recent years, Winter is immediately recognizable to many thanks to his performances...

Evan Rachel Wood, Josh Gad and Anthony Carrigan will star in “The Adults,” a new crime drama from Alex Winter.

“The Adults” follows a sister and brother, Megan and Nathan (Wood and Gad), whose lives are completely upended when they discover a dead body, long buried in their parent’s basement. That revelation sends them on an odyssey of crime and murder.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Evan, Josh and Anthony on this darkly comic crime drama, which takes a sly look at the challenges we all face today, trying to survive in the modern world,” Winter said.

CAA Media Finance, which is arranging financing for the film, will represent the domestic sale, while Rocket Science will launch international sales at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin.

The film is being produced by Winter, Scott Kroopf of Many Rivers Productions, and Russell Hollander. It is executive produced by Connie Tavel.

Cast includes Anthony Carrigan.

Evan Rachel Wood, Josh Gad and Anthony Carrigan will star in Alex Winter’s The Adults, on which CAA Media Finance is arranging financing and Rocket Science will launch international sales at the EFM next week.

The feature follows a sister and brother who are barely hanging on in present-day America and whose lives are upended when they discover a body buried in their parent’s basement.

Winter, Scott Kroopf of Many Rivers Productions and Russell Hollander are producing and the executive producers are Connie Tavel. Novellist Michael M.B. Galvin wrote the screenplay.

CAA Media Finance represents US rights.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Alex Winter (Showbiz Kids) has set the murder mystery The Adults, starring Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld), Josh Gad (Avenue 5) and Anthony Carrigan (Barry), as his next project behind the camera, with plans to also act in the pic.

The film penned by novelist Michael M.B. Galvin — who has previously adapted his own works Fat Kid Rules the World and Freak Talks About Sex for the big screen — follows siblings Megan (Wood) and Nathan (Gad), who are barely hanging on in present-day America, like all of us. Their lives are completely upended when they discover a dead body, long buried in their parent’s basement, sending them down a rabbit hole of crime and murder.

Winter will produce alongside Scott Kroopf of Many Rivers Productions and Russell Hollander, with Connie Tavel serving as exec producer.

The programme will run from June 16-19.

Bill & Ted star and director Alex Winter and Hail Satan? filmmaker Penny Lane are among those set to join the 2021 Docs Ireland film festival, which will run online from June 16-19.

Winter, who has produced, written and directed documentaries including Deep Web, Showbiz Kids and Zappa, will be interviewed for the virtual, industry event. The actor-turned-filmmaker is currently working on documentary Mass Effect: The Story Of YouTube.

Lane, whose 2019 documentary Hail Satan? premiered in competition at Sundance, will also be interviewed for the documentary festival - an offshoot to the Belfast Film Festival,...

Alex Winter, who directed the documentary “Zappa” and recently reprised his role in the “Bill & Ted” franchise, has set his next project: a doc about the history of YouTube and the video platform’s impact on society.

“Mass Effect: The Story of YouTube” is Winter’s return to films about the tech space after he got his start in documentaries with 2013’s “Downloaded,” about the rise and fall of Napster, and 2015’s “Deep Web,” a look into the hidden dark web. His new documentary explores the humble beginnings of YouTube in the attic of a pizzeria to its explosion on the world stage; the platform brought in $5 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2020 alone, with more than 30 million music and premium paid subscribers.

The film will also examine YouTube’s role in shaping the cultural and political discourse, examining present issues such as radicalization, surveillance, algorithmic capitalism, the...

Ross Ulbricht (Nick Robinson) wanted to change the world. And he did. Whether you believe it was for the better (bringing the Dark Web and Tor into the mainstream via his anonymous marketplace Silk Road) or worse, the infrastructure he utilized coupled with the advantages afforded by Bitcoin ignited a firestorm of possibilities. Because at the center of it all was a desire to adhere to a Libertarian set of philosophies that shook the system and evaded the state. That the story has subsequently been reduced to “drugs-by-mail” is thus as much an in-road towards entertaining drama as a smokescreen away from governmental overreach.

It’s the latter that interested director Alex Winter enough to focus his documentary Deep Web on the whole issue rather than merely Ulbricht himself. The young man who went by “Dread Pirate Roberts” on his website was still a centerpiece being that he provided a...

Frank Zappa documentary to receive a theatrical release in 2021.

Piece of Magic Entertainment has acquired European distribution rights to Alex Winter’s music documentary Zappa from Great Point Media.

The film about the life of late maverick musician Frank Zappa will receive a theatrical release across Europe from March 2021, excluding the UK, Ireland, German-speaking territories and Poland, where deals have yet to be closed.

The documentary includes access to the Zappa family and archival footage, exploring the private life of the musician who died in 1993, and includes appearances by his widow Gail Zappa and several musical collaborators.

Winter is best...

Hello everybody, what’s up? You’re listening to I Was Just Wondering With Tom Salmon! The podcast that dives into music, film and games and everything else in between.

My guest on this week’s episode is Peter McCormack the host of the What Bitcoin Did podcast, twice-weekly Peter interviews the brightest, boldest and most influential voices in the Bitcoin community. Launched back in 2017, What Bitcoin Did has gained a huge global following over its two hundred and eighty three episodes so far, becoming the number one Bitcoin podcast in the world.

We jumped into Peter’s experience of buying Bitcoin for the first time, how Alex Winters’s 2015 documentary Deep Web explored the controversy around the trial of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, what are the major pit falls of the modern financial system and his love for Bedford Town Fc.

You can checkout the What Bitcoin Did podcast right now at www.

Alex Winter, the “Bill and Ted’s” actor who is himself a noted director and producer, saw in Frank Zappa’s story an icon who embodied everything about music and culture in the 1970s. At the same time, he wanted to capture the man behind the myth. With the blessing of Zappa’s wife, Gail, he and producer Glen Zipper set out to uncover the story of the famous envelope-pusher, with access to the late legend’s infamous vault. Winter spent years restoring the archive material that stood in front of him, working to preserve the material that Zappa himself had collected before his 1993 death.

Winter talked to Variety about the genesis of “Zappa,” out Nov. 27, as well as the private life and politics of one of America’s most eccentric artists.

What was your relationship with Frank Zappa growing up and how did the idea for a doc come about?...

Zappa is an intimate look into the innovative life and eclectic works of Frank Zappa, the composer. The Beatles, Brian Wilson, and Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd pushed boundaries of what rock could do in the mid-1960s, but Zappa ignored any preconceived compositional restraint. He mixed rock with classical, jazz with chamber, and twelve-tone with Spike Jones. From his 1966 proto-punk, garage band debut, Freak Out, through the immediate experimental turns he took on Lumpy Gravy, We’re Only In it for the Money, and continuing through his career, Zappa’s music sounds unlike any other sonic unit.

Not only was Zappa a unique composer and bandleader, he was a ground-breaking film director, an innovative theatrical presence, and a voice of rebellion in worlds beyond music and the arts. His politics were far ahead of their time, and his critiques of society resonate strongly to this day. A vast majority...

"We were loud, we were coarse, and we were strange." Magnolia Pictures has debuted an official trailer for Zappa, the definitive new documentary about guitar god Frank Zappa, made by talented docu filmmaker Alex Winter. The first film "made with the approval and cooperation of the Zappa estate." Zappa offers an exclusive look at the life of the innovative artist and musician through unfettered access to the Zappa family trust and with tons of never-seen-before archival footage. With an impressive score that combines Frank's well known songs with his later classical compositions, Zappa comprehensively chronicles the life and career of an eccentric musical genius. The film also looks at the many other areas where Zappa left a lasting mark, including his political involvement as an advocate against music censorship that even led him to the halls in congress. This is going to be damn good. Here's the first official trailer...

“Enemies of the State” burrows so deep into the perspectives of its unreliable narrators that it often becomes one. Director Sonia Kennebeck’s documentary tracks the bizarre saga of Anonymous hacktivist Matt DeHart, who was convicted of child pornography charges that he and his family denied. At the age of 25, the former Air National Guard serviceman claimed he had uncovered government secrets so damning the FBI invented other crimes to take him down. Kennebeck’s haunting, enigmatic approach to revisiting these claims borrows executive producer Errol Morris’ labyrinthine style to play up the peculiar nature of DeHart’s odyssey, only to find convincing evidence that he’s probably full of it. The movie walks a jagged line between conflicting sources, and overplays some of the more outrageous claims to the detriment of the trenchant investigation at its core. However, Kennebeck still musters

At first blush, the charges against DeHart are straightforward enough.

Fans have been waiting for the third installment in the Bill and Ted franchise for almost three decades. Now, after months of teasing, the first poster for Bill and Ted Face the Music is finally here, which arrived alongside the first Bill and Ted 3 trailer this morning.

The Bill & Ted Face the Music poster shows the titular characters Bill and Ted, played by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, once again heading back to their time-traveling phone booth, to embark on another universe-saving mission. Only this time, the radtastic duo are not youthful high schoolers, but middle-aged fathers. As the title suggests, the latest Bill and Ted movie takes place many decades in the future instead of trying to de-age Reeves and Winter. Here is what the official synopsis for the film has to say.

"Following 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and 1991's Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the stakes...

"All I want is for people to understand the human implications." Some may known him as Bill S. Preston, Esq. Others may known him as the director of the acclaimed technology documentaries Downloaded, Deep Web, The Panama Papers, and Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain. His name is Alex Winter (you can follow him on Twitter @Winter), and he's an actor, a writer, a filmmaker, a producer, a journalist, and much more. I have become a big fan of Winter's documentaries over the years, he's one of a few filmmakers who actually understands the internet, and presents it in an intelligent and digestible way. Last year, two of his new documentaries premiered - The Panama Papers, about all the journalists who reported on the Panama Papers leak; and Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain, about the origins and implications of blockchain (aka encrypted digital distributed ledgers), the latest technology fad that's sweeping the world.

Bill Simmons’ Ringer Films is partnering with HBO on “Showbiz Kids,” a documentary about children in the entertainment business.

The film will feature interviews and examinations of the lives and careers of the most famous former child actors in the world. It will be directed by Alex Winter, a former child actor himself. The film is executive produced by Bill Simmons, Winter and his Trouper Productions, as well as Glen Zipper of the Zippo Bros.

“I have been fascinated by this specific topic for an especially long time, so grabbing the chance to explore it with people as talented as Alex and Glen was one of the all-time no-brainers for me and everyone else at Ringer Films,” Simmons said. “There’s a high degree of difficulty for this one but I also think that’s what makes it so appealing.”

“This project is very close to my heart, born of...

Today, we’re pleased to announce a new, original web series coming this month to Dread Central: Dread: The Unsolved will explore strange, baffling and nightmarish mysteries from the domain of online viral media to the darkest recesses of the Deep Web. A modern spin on classic TV series like Unsolved Mysteries and In Search Of […] The post Dread: The Unsolved Will Explore Nightmarish Mysteries of the Web… & Beyond! appeared first on Dread Central.

Amsterdam — At 53, Alex Winter has worn many hats in the entertainment industry, moving from the stage to screen and then finally behind the camera, helming indie oddities such as “Freaked” in 1993 and “Fever” in 1999. Latterly, however, he has proven himself a capable hand with non-fiction, and he arrived at Idfa with his third feature-length doc “The Panama Papers”, following the film’s world premiere at The Hamptons Intl. Film Festival in October.

Shot on an almost as-it-happened basis by Winter and his team, the action starts in 2016, when a (still) anonymous whistle-blower codenamed “John Doe”, voiced in the film by Elijah Wood, contacted German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung with a cache of information relating to financial irregularities involving Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. From there, we see how Doe’s tip-off became a huge global scandal, as the Icij – the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – began chasing down Doe’s leads,...

Many actors have survived the intensity of Hollywood fame with second careers, but few have followed a trajectory as fascinating as Alex Winter’s. After skyrocketing to stardom as Bill S. Preston opposite Keanu Reeves in 1989’s “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and its 1991 sequel, Winter grew disillusioned with the movie business. He grew sick of the pressures of the spotlight and, as he would reveal decades later, still contended with trauma of sexual assault experienced in his childhood. But Winter escaped through twin obsessions that would form his career: filmmaking and the internet.

Nearly 25 years after Winter gave up on professional acting, he’s enjoying a new life as a serious documentarian, with movies that untangle some of the thorniest questions surrounding modern technology. Following the Napster-focused “Downloaded” and the dark web portrait “Deep Web,” Winter has completed two new documentaries that reveal the intensity of his obsessions.

Documentarian Alex Winter is solidifying his place within the tech world as a storyteller willing to look at modern systems stymying the old guard and exciting the new before helping to disseminate what they mean for the world at-large. He looked back at how Napster disrupted the music scene in Downloaded (something the movie and television industry faces today to the point where a sequel in the next five to ten years wouldn’t be far-fetched) and took us beneath the surface of buzzwords and indictments surrounding Tor and the dark web with Deep Web. Much like the latter’s central through line Ross Ulbricht, Winter’s latest Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain focuses on educating outsiders by humanizing a disruptor targeted by those working to maintain status quo.

He goes one further this time too by using his subject — blockchain technology — as the source of his art. The...

Actor Alex Winter isn't just sitting around, waiting for Bill & Ted 3 to get made. While he hopes for that hugely anticipated sequel to finally lift off, he's been busy making a new tech documentary. And it looks intense and somewhat scary. Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain has just delivered its first trailer, and it explores the strange new world of a future that is barreling at us at full speed.

Trust Machine is opening October 26 in New York, and November 16 in Los Angeles. And it looks like another enthralling tech dive by former Lost Boys star Alex Winter, who has made quite a name for himself in the world of documentaries this past decade.

In his newest film, Alex Winter drills down on blockchain, the decentralized technology that supports cryptocurrencies. Why are banks terrified while Unicef Ventures embraces it to help refugee children? Winter follows tech innovators striking a...

Epix is reteaming with Deep Web helmer Alex Winter for The Panama Papers, an investigative documentary feature from Bungalow Media + Entertainment, Trouper Productions and Zipper Bros. Films, for premiere Monday, November 26 at 9 Pm Et.

The Panama Papers details the unprecedented coordination of journalists from around the world working in secret, at great personal risk, to expose the largest data leak in history: a global corruption scandal involving corrupt power brokers, the uber rich, elected officials, dictators, cartel bosses, athletes and celebrities who had used the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca to hide their money. The story cracked open a hidden network of tax evasion, fraud, cronyism, bribing government officials, rigging elections, and murder.

Produced by Robert Friedman, Winter and Glen Zipper, The Panama Papers strikes at the heart of the biggest themes of our times; income inequality, whistleblowers and corrupt power-brokers manipulating world governments and big business. Oscar...

‘Bitcoin matters, but blockchain is really where the changes are going to come.’

SingularDTV has set an October 26 New York release for Alex Winter’s Trust Machine: The Story Of Blockchain its first feature-length documentary.

Kim Jackson of SingularDTV is producing alongside Geoff Clark of Futurism Studios, and Winter’s Trouper Productions. SingularDTV finances the feature and executive producers are Zach LeBeau, Arie Levy-Cohen, Alex Klokus and Joseph Lubin.

Trust Machine: The Story Of Blockchain explores blockchain, the decentralised technology that supports among other things cryptocurrencies.

The documentary asks why banks appears so wary of blockchain while it has been...

Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves will reprise their roles as time-trekking bandmates in a third installment of the “Bill & Ted” franchise. International sales for “Bill & Ted Face the Music” are underway courtesy of Bloom at the Cannes Film Festival, which launches Tuesday night. The film, now in pre-production, reunites the leads following “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989) and “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” (1991).

“We couldn’t be more excited to get the whole band back together again,” said Winter and Reeves in a statement. All three entries in the trilogy came from screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Soloman, and the stars describe this long-awaited script as “amazing.” “Galaxy Quest” and “Red 2” director Dean Parisot — winner of a 1988 Live Action Short Film Oscar for “The Appointments of Dennis Jennings” — will oversee production, rounding out the Winter- and Reeves-dubbed “dream team.” Fellow Academy Award recipient Steven Soderbergh is set to executive produce,...

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter will reprise their roles as “Ted” Theodore Logan and “Bill” S. Preston Esq. in “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” the third film in the franchise.

The first film, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” was released in 1989. The sequel “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” came out in 1991.

Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon have penned the script. Dean Parisot will direct. Steven Soderbergh is executive producing alongside Scott Fischer, John Ryan Jr., and John Santilli. Scott Kroopf will produce with Alex Lebovici and Steve Ponce of Hammerstone Studios.

Also Read: 'John Wick' TV Spinoff Coming to Starz; Keanu Reeves Expected to Guest

MGM is set to release the film domestically under its Orion Pictures banner. Endeavor Content negotiated the deal.

“Bill & Ted Face the Music,” which is currently in production, will follow the two men no longer the time-traveling teenagers we’ve come to know — they are now responsible adults. They’re writing dozens of songs but not one seems to stick, until someone from the future tells them that only their song can save the world. Soon, they embark on a time-traveling adventure to save the universe.

“We couldn’t be more excited to get the whole band back together again. Chris and Ed wrote an amazing script, and with Dean at the helm we’ve got a dream team!” Reeves and Winter said in a statement.

See Video: Keanu Reeves Addresses Those Immortality Rumors

Reeves is currently in production on the third installment of “John Wick: Chapter 3,” which will be released May 2019. He will also next star alongside Winona Ryder in “Destination Wedding.” His other notable credits include “Matrix Trilogy” and “Point Break.” He is represented by Wme.

Winter also starred in “The Lost Boys” and has transitioned to a writer and director with credits that include the Epix documentary “Deep Web” and the VH1 documentary “Downloaded.” Most recently, he directed and produced two shorts documentary films, “Relatively Free” and “Trump’s Lobby.” He is represented by CAA and Forward Entertainment.

Read original story Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter to Reprise Roles in Third ‘Bill & Ted’ Film At TheWrap...

‘Most Excellent!’ 27 years after we last saw the totally radical pairing of Ted “Theodore” Logan and Bill S. Preston Esq., Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are now confirmed to reprise their roles in a third Bill & Ted movie, I can reveal. Bloom is launching sales in Cannes on the long-gestating time-travel comedy, which is called Bill & Ted Face The Music. The movie is likely to be one of the hottest properties at the market.

Currently in pre-production, the movie has been written by the franchise’s original creators Chris Matheson (Imagine That) and Ed Solomon (Men in Black) with Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) confirmed to direct. Scott Kroopf (Limitless) will produce together with Alex Lebovici and Steve Ponce of Hammerstone Studios, with Steven Soderbergh serving as an executive producer alongside Scott Fischer, John Ryan Jr., and John Santilli.

When we last picked up with the most audacious dudes they were...

It's a good day for fans of Bill and Ted. Earlier today we learned of a reunion where Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, along with creators Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson talked about the original plans for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Now, the crew admit that they're only months away from hopefully getting Bill & Ted 3 officially off the ground. We've been getting teased about the third installment in the Bill and Ted franchise for years now, but it really feels like it's only a matter of time before the cameras start rolling on Bill and Ted 3.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have kept in touch over the years, even working together on Winter's 2015 documentary, Deep Web, which Reeves narrated. As the idea for Bill and Ted 3, the duo explain that Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon approached them back in 2007 about reprising their iconic roles. However, Reeves notes that there's...

A classic horror trope: Secure, private spaces can be infiltrated by dreadful forces and when danger lurks in showers, bedrooms, and suburban neighborhoods, nothing’s really safe. Filmmakers inevitably came for the computer screen and that was 2014’s “Unfriended,” a new-age found-footage horror movie unfolding exclusively on a desktop screen. The unexpected commercial hit found a group of friends dealing with a ghostly threat over frantic Skype conversations and Facebook chats, reinventing old chills for the social media age. Made on the cheap and plugged into a millennial vernacular, it was only a matter of time before there was a sequel.

See More:‘A Quiet Place’ Review: John Krasinki’s Monster Movie is a Riveting, Near-Silent Thriller — SXSW 2018

With the Blumhouse-branded “Unfriended: Dark Web” (previously titled “Unfriended: Game Night,” until that became the title of a studio comedy), the new screen-based chiller trades the earlier entry’s supernatural component for...

Deal comes as Film Movement aims to expand footprint in documentary arena.

New York-based distributor Film Movement and documentary specialist Bond/360 have struck an alliance to broaden their reach into festivals and the educational sales arena.

Through Film Movement, Bond/360 will enhance the reach of their titles into festivals, community screenings, home entertainment and digital platforms, airlines, and hotels.

Bond/360 will assist in expanding the representation of Film Movement’s catalogue of documentaries and narrative films to educational institutions.

Film Movement has recently moved more aggressively into the documentary space, acquiring more than two dozen features in the last two years, including such titles as My Love, Don’t Cross That River, Randall White’s Hockney, Jack Riccobono’s The Seventh Fire, and Tanja Cumming’s Lodz ghetto film Line 41.

Bond/360 has more than 40 documentary features that will join Film Movement’s library of more than 300 features and 150 short films.

“We are pleased...

Kirsten Howard Feb 17, 2017

Keanu Reeves, as much as any actor of his generation, has left a legacy to be proud of. We take a look back at his career.

Much like his character in the John Wick films, Keanu Reeves is a man with very little to lose.

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Often maligned for his lack of range as an actor, or dismissed as merely a vaguely goofy action star, every misstep that Reeves has taken throughout his career has come from an enviable ability to consistently take risks. Despite every effort to pigeonhole him, Keanu Reeves just won’t be told what he can and can’t do.

Born in Beirut to a showgirl and a geologist, Reeves is also a rabid...

A few decades ago, a show like “Mr. Robot” — which transforms modern fears of technological instability into suspense — might look like science fiction. These days, however, real life is almost as unsettling. Several recent documentaries on a growing community of hackers and acolytes focus on the developing momentum of a digitally enhanced landscape and the anarchistic tendencies that blossom within it: Laura Poitras’ “Citizenfour” and her yet-to-be-released “Risk” follow the twin struggles of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, while Alex Winter’s “Deep Web” captured the plight of incarcerated dark web pioneer Ross Ulbricht.

Adam Bhala Lough consolidates the focus of these projects with the restless, scattershot approach of “The New Radical,” a portrait of the founders of Dark Wallet, the bitcoin app that allows users to purchase materials without leaving a digital fingerprint. Lough gives these troublemakers a dense platform to voice their extremist perspectives, but the movie primarily...

Field of Vision has debuted a new short film about Donald Trump called “Trump’s Lobby” just in time for Friday’s presidential inauguration. The seven-minute short was produced and directed by Alex Winter (“Deep Web,” “Downloaded”).

Read More: Field of Vision Launches New Website and New Slate of Short-Form Documentaries

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Combining original photography captured at Trump Tower, and a trove of archival news coverage, Trump’s Lobby is a short film that explores the tense and surreal atmosphere around President-Elect Donald Trump. Ever since the election, there has been a continual flow of high-level visitors to Trump’s penthouse apartment in Trump Tower. This piece focuses solely on the extraordinary array of people on their way to and from Trump via his gold-plated elevator. The cast of characters are some of the most powerful and famous people in the world, and their expressions, given the nature of these meetings,...

Raising over $1.1 million on Kickstarter, Who the F*@% is Frank Zappa (working title) recently shattered the crowdfunding record for a documentary project, previously held by the Bill Nye film. Directed by Alex Winter (Deep Web), the film is an authorized exploration of the iconic musician’s life and work. Of course, the project benefited from Zappa’s name recognition and hardcore fan base. But that alone isn’t enough to carry a crowdfunding campaign. In order to drive engagement, the filmmakers extended the campaign far beyond Kickstarter itself with coordinated benefit screening events of Zappa’s concert film Roxy: The Movie around the world, additional “Add On Rewards” including […]...

The 2015 St. Louis International Film Festival, also known as Sliff, has begun. Even though Alex Winter couldn’t bring Freaked in town, he did bring his two great tech documentaries, Downloaded and Deep Web – in addition to being awesome to us and presenting Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Sliff has a robust schedule full of independent and foreign cinema along with some mainstream affair like Legend starring Tom Hardy and some possible future Oscar contenders like Carol. However, since we are a horror website, we are going to highlight some films that should definitely be on your radar!

Feature Films

The Nameless

Filmed in “The Exorcist House” here in St. Louis, which most of you might have seen last weekend during Discovery Channel’s laughable Exorcism: Live!, this thriller borrows from the premise that The Exorcist was based out of by having a main character, Amy, return to the house...

Perhaps you've heard the term Gamergate. But what does it mean, exactly? If you don't live inside the Internet, and are only a casual gamer, chancres are you might not know. Well, a new drama is going to spell out every ugly detail. And it might be told with a big name star at the center of this digital tsunami that quickly turned into a shit show.

Amy Pascal, who knowns her way around an Internet scandal after being the target of a massive Hack at Sony Studios, will be producing this upcoming drama. The Gamergate movie will be written by screenwriters Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum. They will be adapting the memoir of game designer Zoe Quinn titled 'Crash Override: How to Save the Internet From Itself.'

This won't be a small production. And sources close to the project claim that Avengers: Age of Ultron star Scarlett Johansson...

Director Alex Winter’s Deep Web screens at The St. Louis International Film Festival Thursday, November 5th at 7:30. Winter will be in attendance and will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. Ticket information for that event can be found Here. Alex Winter will also attend a screening of Bill And Ted’S Excellent Adventure, the 1989 comedy which he co-starred in along with Keanu Reeves and George Carlin at The Tivoli Theater Friday, November 6th at 9:30. Ticket information for that event can be found Here. Finally, Winter will attend a screening of his 2013 documentary Downloaded Saturday November 7th at 4:30 pm at The Tivoli Theater. Ticket information for that event can be found Here.

Winter is coming to St. Louis! The St. Louis International Film Festival honors former St. Louisan Alex Winter, whose varied career includes acting on stage and in film, and directing both narratives and documentaries. Winter’s new film Deep Web,...

The schedule for the 24th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff) has been announced and once again film goers will be offered the best in cutting edge features and shorts from around the globe.

The festival takes place November 5-15, 2015.

Sliff kicks off on November 5 with the opening-night selection, Deep Web, with director Alex Winter, who’s honored with the Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award. (Trailer)

Highlights from this year’s festival include:

The 33 Anomalisa The Assassin Brooklyn Carol I Saw the Light Krisha The Lady in the Van Legend Love the Coopers Remember Son of Saul Touched with Fire Youth

The 33

According to Sliff, the festival will feature more than 125 filmmaking guests, including honorees: actor/director Alex Winter, winner of the Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award; director Trent Harris, winner of the Contemporary Cinema Award; and director Rosemary Rodriguez, winner of the Women in Film Award.

Happy September everyone! Just a quick note that Alex Winter's cyber crime documentary Deep Web is available today on VOD. You can watch the latest trailer below. Deep Web will give the inside story of one of the the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the century -- the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the entrepreneur alleged to be "Dread Pirate Roberts," founder of online black market Silk Road. The film will explore how the brightest minds and thought leaders behind the Deep Web and Bitcoin are now caught in the crosshairs of the battle for control of a future inextricably linked to technology, with our digital rights hanging in the balance.You can peruse the Twitch archives for complete coverage of Deep Web. Below...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Read More: Alex Winter Kickstarts Doc About Bitcoin and Silk Road In October of 2013, a young man named Ross Ulbricht was arrested in San Francisco, accused of creating and running the Silk Road, a massive black market on the Dark Net. A few weeks later I launched a Kickstarter campaign for my documentary on the story of Ross and the Silk Road. Thus began an 18-month journey that would end on May 31st of 2015, the day of the film's release on Epix and only two days after Ross Ulbricht was sentenced. My previous documentary, "Downloaded," was about the rise and fall of Napster. While I had begun work on this project many years before, when Napster was still up and running, I did not make the film for over a dozen years after Napster closed its doors. "Downloaded" was a purely retrospective examination of the Napster saga, with full access to the core participants.

Beyond conventional routines like checking Gmail, getting sports updates, visiting The Playlist (of course) and watching the latest cat videos, there are corners of the web where technology is advancing faster than the law can keep up with it. This is territory that Alex Winter explores in his documentary "Deep Web." After premiering earlier this year at SXSW, hitting a string of festivals and launching on Epix, the film arrives this week on VOD ,and we've got an exclusive deleted scene. Read More: Hot Docs Review: Alex Winter's Silk Road Documentary 'Deep Web'  For his doc, Winter explores the people behind the black market site Silk Road and Bitcoin, the internet currency that enabled untraceable transactions to take place on the site, often involving drugs and other illegal material. In this scene, the debate unfolds about whether or not Bitcoin really would have taken off like it...

World premiere of Us spy thriller to open independent film festival.

Raindance Film Festival (Sept 23 - Oct 4) has unveiled the programme for its 23rd edition, with 90 features and nearly 200 short from 48 countries set to screen at London’s Vue Piccadilly.

The festival will open with the world premiere of Us spy thriller, Newcomer, starring Screen Star of Tomorrow James Floyd (My Brother The Devil) and Anthony Lapaglia, directed by Kai Barry.

Raindance’s international programme this year includes the world premiere of Rickie Lee Jones: The Other Side of Desire, a portrait of the poet-musician and rock star; the UK premiere of Mexican film Alice in Marialand, starring new Bond girl Stephanie Sigman; and new titles from upcoming British filmmaking talent.

Films dealing with the digital age feature prominently throughout the programme, with highlights including Alex Winter’s Deep Web, narrated by Keanu Reeves; Digital Dissisents, a documentary looking at the “warriors of the digital age” featuring...

In our last article, we went over the history and exciting things the Brooklyn Film Festival offers its contestants. And now it’s time to meet the films and the winners.

16Mmonster: directed by Jacob Kindlon; a 12 minute short from the Us.

20 Years Of Madness: directed by Jeremy Royce; a 90 minute documentary from the Us.

Abby Singer/Songwriter: Directed by Onur Tukel , a 75 minute film from the Us.

Abigail Deville’S Harlem Stories: Directed by Nick Ravich, a 7 minute American documentary.

After A Dream: Directed by Tobias Schmuecking, a 17 minute short from Germany.

And It Was Good: Directed by Graham Waterston, a 19 minute short from the Us.

Winner of the Short Narrative Spirit Award

Big Bag: Directed by Ricardo Martin Coloma, a 13 minute animation from Spain.

Block And Piled: Directed by Marc Riba & Anna Solanas, a 5 minute animation from Spain.

Blue-eyed Me: Directed by Alexey Marfin, a 7 minute short from England.

Before his death at age 52, Frank Zappa produced one of the most massive discographies in recorded music. The Mothers of Invention leader's music spanned rock & roll, doo-wop, jazz, classical and everything in between, usually accompanied with a lighthearted smirk, over the course of 100 albums released so far. No matter how well you know his music, though, you can't help but feel like you have a perspective somewhat akin to a flea's eye view of an elephant. The only thing more overwhelming than attempting to make sense of Zappa's life's...

Following his acclaimed work with Downloaded and Deep Web, Alex Winter is sticking with the documentary format for another upcoming project. He'll direct an as-yet untitled film about the legendary counter-culture musician Frank Zappa, with the full co-operation of the Zappa Family Trust.The absurdly prolific Zappa made almost 70 albums in less than 35 years, before his untimely death in 1993. His music is difficult to describe - and often just downright difficult - but takes in jazz, rock, electronica and even classical influences. Usually with a good dose of humour: sometimes wry, sometimes more caustic. Hs best known work is perhaps the stuff he did with his band, The Mothers Of Invention. He also gave early shots in the arm to the careers of contemporaries like Captain Beefheart, and up-and-comers like Alice Cooper.Winter's approval by the Zappa estate means he has unrivalled access to the Zappa vaults, which means he...

The Zappa Family Trust has given its approval to a new documentary about the original Mother of Invention, Frank Zappa. The film is in the early stages of development and will likely come out in 2017, according to Variety.

Director Alex Winter, whose early acting roles in the Bill and Ted movies and The Lost Boys have given way to directing tech-based documentaries (Deep Web, Downloaded), will helm the film based on his own script. "There has yet to be a definitive, authorized documentary on the extraordinary life and work of Frank Zappa,...

The star of Bill And Ted turned director is preparing to make a film about one of rock’s most iconoclastic figures with the full cooperation of the late musician’s family.

Winter will write and direct the film and produce alongside Glen Zipper, with whom he worked on Deep Web. The filmmaker has targetted a 2017 delivery date.

The director said he envisaged “an epic saga of a great American artist and thinker; a major event worthy of the scope of Zappa’s prodigious and varied creative output, and the breadth of his personal and political life.”

Winter added: “There has yet to be a definitive, authorized documentary on the extraordinary life and work of Frank Zappa. I am beyond thrilled to be embarking on this journey.”

The Zappa Family Trust has granted the filmmakers exclusive access to the Zappa Vault, containing unseen visual and audio recordings, interviews and concert recordings.

“We couldn...

Smosh Trailer. Alex Winter‘s Smosh (2015) movie trailer stars Anthony Padilla, Michael Ian Black, and Jenna Marbles. Smosh‘s plot synopsis: “An embarrassing video of Anthony surfaces online right before his fifth high school reunion. The Smosh dudes then race to pull down the clip before it blows Anthony’s chances of reconnecting with his teen crush Anna.”

We have entered a new era. This is the time of young, clean, well-kempt L.A. youths who make Vine clips and YouTube videos getting their own theatrical films. I have never heard of these people in my entire life. Somehow, this terrible premise for a movie has received funding for its own feature film outing. They’ve probably done the math – if the…Smosh…? channel has this amount of subscribers, at x dollars per ticket, they’ll make their money back. Most likely. I hope not.

This does not look funny.

On Friday, the convicted creator and operator of online illegal drug market Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison. Two days later, a documentary about Ulbricht's case, the emergence of the Silk Road and privacy and anonymity online is making its world television premiere on Epix. But even before Deep Web's Sunday Epix debut, Ulbricht's story was still going on, with him having yet to be sentenced following his February conviction and more information coming out, as Deep Web premiered at SXSW and played at several other film festivals this spring. And over the next year, people

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