If it’s been a patchy few years for Errol Morris––one solid doc in-between a bad Steve Bannon portrait and iffy look at John le Carré––our interest in his thorough, startling oeuvre remains strong, and it’s naturally a thrill to hear word of two new features. On the documentary front he’s been adapting, for Netflix, Tom O’Neill’s Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, which quickly engendered great attention for challenging standard Manson Family narratives; and there’s a feature screenplay about Ed Gein, who Morris interviewed in 1975 for a never-completed documentary. If it doesn’t feature that footage and opts for a biopic / procedural path, it would make Morris’ first narrative since 1991’s The Dark Wind. [Screen Daily]
Meanwhile, Michael Almereyda has found his first feature since Tesla. Per Deadline, he and Courtney Stephens are developing an untitled documentary about John C. Lilly,...
Meanwhile, Michael Almereyda has found his first feature since Tesla. Per Deadline, he and Courtney Stephens are developing an untitled documentary about John C. Lilly,...
- 12/20/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Indie filmmakers Courtney Stephens and Michael Almereyda are teaming to direct a new documentary about controversial scientist John C. Lilly, Deadline has learned.
Funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the project will look at the countercultural figure’s work as the inventor of the isolation tank, as well as his pioneering studies of dolphin intelligence and support of psychedelics as a positive means for expanding consciousness. The storytelling will be supported by interviews with Lilly’s contemporaries and colleagues, as well as extensive archival records.
Stephens was drawn to Lilly, having grown up near Marine World in the Bay Area, where the scientist worked with trained dolphins and computers in the early 1980s, hoping to teach the animals an Esperanto-like language that would allow for interspecies communication. Apple donated equipment to the lab, which was visited by figures ranging from Ram Dass to Olivia Newton John.
Funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the project will look at the countercultural figure’s work as the inventor of the isolation tank, as well as his pioneering studies of dolphin intelligence and support of psychedelics as a positive means for expanding consciousness. The storytelling will be supported by interviews with Lilly’s contemporaries and colleagues, as well as extensive archival records.
Stephens was drawn to Lilly, having grown up near Marine World in the Bay Area, where the scientist worked with trained dolphins and computers in the early 1980s, hoping to teach the animals an Esperanto-like language that would allow for interspecies communication. Apple donated equipment to the lab, which was visited by figures ranging from Ram Dass to Olivia Newton John.
- 12/19/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Whenever you see a film that opens with the words “based on real events”, you can be sure of two things. One, you’re going to have a good time. Two, that this film will probably contain about as much factual material as I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! contains butter.
But we don’t care!
We’re not just talking about biopics or historical films here, we’re talking about crime movies like Pain & Gain, Catch Me If You Can, romances like It Could Happen to You, and crime romances like I Love You Phillip Morris. And of course the horror genre absolutely loves a “Based On A True Story” title card and poster slogan. The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and all The Conjuring movies have one (making the last the first ever Based On A True Cinematic Universe).
So the question is,...
But we don’t care!
We’re not just talking about biopics or historical films here, we’re talking about crime movies like Pain & Gain, Catch Me If You Can, romances like It Could Happen to You, and crime romances like I Love You Phillip Morris. And of course the horror genre absolutely loves a “Based On A True Story” title card and poster slogan. The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and all The Conjuring movies have one (making the last the first ever Based On A True Cinematic Universe).
So the question is,...
- 8/28/2023
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Sundance goes online in July, with a trio of buzzy, well-reviewed indie pictures from the festival surfacing on streaming sites. Meanwhile, Netflix drops a star-studded dramedy, a cult video-game series adaptation awash in blood and Jason Bateman breaking bad; Amazon presents both an original F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation; and Shudder offers a tour of the unhinged, psychotronic mind of Flying Lotus. You need a guide to July's streaming highlights? Boom. We've got your back.
Altered States (Hulu, July 1st)
During the Sixties, scientist John C. Lilly was a pioneer on the frontier of consciousness,...
Altered States (Hulu, July 1st)
During the Sixties, scientist John C. Lilly was a pioneer on the frontier of consciousness,...
- 6/29/2017
- Rollingstone.com
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