Exclusive: Political drama-thriller Words Of War, led by an ensemble including Maxine Peake, Ciarán Hinds, and Jason Isaacs, is heading to this month’s Cannes Market.
Rolling Pictures, Good Films Collective, and Concourse Media have partnered on the pic. Concourse Media has world rights and will present to buyers in Cannes. Check out first-look images from the film below and above.
Written by Eric Poppen and directed by James Strong (Broadchurch), the film is based on the real-life story of American-Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s pioneering, brave crusade, fighting for an independent voice in Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s. For seven years, she refused to give up reporting on the Second Chechen War despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence and was then assassinated in 2006. She gained widespread international renown for her criticisms of Russia and stands as a pillar of press freedom.
Peake plays Anna Politkovskaya,...
Rolling Pictures, Good Films Collective, and Concourse Media have partnered on the pic. Concourse Media has world rights and will present to buyers in Cannes. Check out first-look images from the film below and above.
Written by Eric Poppen and directed by James Strong (Broadchurch), the film is based on the real-life story of American-Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s pioneering, brave crusade, fighting for an independent voice in Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s. For seven years, she refused to give up reporting on the Second Chechen War despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence and was then assassinated in 2006. She gained widespread international renown for her criticisms of Russia and stands as a pillar of press freedom.
Peake plays Anna Politkovskaya,...
- 5/6/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The Exchange has picked up world sales rights to “The Islander,” starring Harry Connick Jr. Variety can share an exclusive first look of the romantic feature.
The Exchange will be introducing the title to buyers at AFM, which kicks off Oct. and runs through Nov. 5.
Stelana Kliris wrote directed her original screenplay and produced under her Cyprus-based Meraki Films banner. “The Islander” is produced by Jupiter Peak Prods., Steven Shapiro and Keith Arnold, with the support from the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, and the Cyprus Film Commission’s incentives program. It stars along with Connick Jr., Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney and Tony Demetriou. Film is in post-production.
The film features two original songs by Connick Jr.
”The Islander” is a romantic comedy about a down-on-his-luck rock star (Connick Jr.), who moves, sight unseen, to a remote cliffside house on an island, only to discover his new home has an unfortunate notoriety.
The Exchange will be introducing the title to buyers at AFM, which kicks off Oct. and runs through Nov. 5.
Stelana Kliris wrote directed her original screenplay and produced under her Cyprus-based Meraki Films banner. “The Islander” is produced by Jupiter Peak Prods., Steven Shapiro and Keith Arnold, with the support from the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, and the Cyprus Film Commission’s incentives program. It stars along with Connick Jr., Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney and Tony Demetriou. Film is in post-production.
The film features two original songs by Connick Jr.
”The Islander” is a romantic comedy about a down-on-his-luck rock star (Connick Jr.), who moves, sight unseen, to a remote cliffside house on an island, only to discover his new home has an unfortunate notoriety.
- 10/31/2023
- by Carole Horst
- Variety Film + TV
The Exchange has acquired the world sales rights for romantic comedy “The Islander,” starring Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning musician and actor Harry Connick Jr. The film features two original songs by Connick. The Exchange will introduce the title to buyers at next week’s American Film Market.
“The Islander” is about a down-on-his-luck rockstar, who moves to a remote cliffside house, sight unseen, on an island, only to discover his new home has an unfortunate notoriety. Through a series of charming mishaps, it turns out maybe love can be found right where he left it.
The film is written, directed and produced by Stelana Kliris under her Cyprus-based Meraki Films banner. It is also produced by Jupiter Peak Productions, Steven Shapiro, and Keith Arnold, with the support of the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, and the Cyprus Film Commission’s incentives scheme.
Alongside Connick, it stars Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney and Tony Demetriou.
“The Islander” is about a down-on-his-luck rockstar, who moves to a remote cliffside house, sight unseen, on an island, only to discover his new home has an unfortunate notoriety. Through a series of charming mishaps, it turns out maybe love can be found right where he left it.
The film is written, directed and produced by Stelana Kliris under her Cyprus-based Meraki Films banner. It is also produced by Jupiter Peak Productions, Steven Shapiro, and Keith Arnold, with the support of the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, and the Cyprus Film Commission’s incentives scheme.
Alongside Connick, it stars Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney and Tony Demetriou.
- 10/27/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Persuasion Review — Persuasion (2022) Film Review, a movie directed Carrie Cracknell, written by Ron Bass, Alice Victoria Winslow and Jane Austen and starring Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Henry Golding, Richard E. Grant, Ben Bailey Smith, Yolanda Kettle, Jordan Long, Simon Paisley Day, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Lydia Rose Bewley, Agni Scott, Stewart Scudamore, Mia McKenna-Bruce, [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Persuasion (2022): Dakota Johnson Stars in a Somewhat Clueless Jane Austen Adaptation...
Continue reading: Film Review: Persuasion (2022): Dakota Johnson Stars in a Somewhat Clueless Jane Austen Adaptation...
- 7/16/2022
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
Matthew Modine: Better Angels
By
Alex Simon
Matthew Modine has been something of an iconoclast most of his working life. After being groomed for ‘80s teen idol status in early films such as Private School and Vision Quest, Modine was also one of the first actors of his generation, along with Sean Penn, to take on riskier projects, such as Robert Altman's Streamers, Alan Parker’s Birdy, Gillian Armstrong’s Mrs. Soffel, and Alan J. Pakula’s Orphans. It was his lead role as the cynical Marine Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam epic Full Metal Jacket that put Modine into the pantheon of young actors who were more than just pretty faces and knowing winks at the camera. This, after all, was the young man who turned down the lead in Top Gun, arguably the prototypical ‘80s blockbuster, due to its cold war politics. From the beginning,...
By
Alex Simon
Matthew Modine has been something of an iconoclast most of his working life. After being groomed for ‘80s teen idol status in early films such as Private School and Vision Quest, Modine was also one of the first actors of his generation, along with Sean Penn, to take on riskier projects, such as Robert Altman's Streamers, Alan Parker’s Birdy, Gillian Armstrong’s Mrs. Soffel, and Alan J. Pakula’s Orphans. It was his lead role as the cynical Marine Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam epic Full Metal Jacket that put Modine into the pantheon of young actors who were more than just pretty faces and knowing winks at the camera. This, after all, was the young man who turned down the lead in Top Gun, arguably the prototypical ‘80s blockbuster, due to its cold war politics. From the beginning,...
- 11/2/2009
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Screened
Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- It's Sept. 11, 2001, and a man whispers into a telephone: "I love you. I love you". But it's neither a victim of that dreadful day nor a survivor. It's one of the perpetrators. In Channel 4's riveting drama about the events leading up to the atrocities of Sept. 11, Ziad Jarrah and his cohorts are portrayed as ordinary mortals whose fanaticism emerges from everyday lives that are otherwise quite mundane.
The decision by director Antonia Bird and writers Ronan Bennett and Alice Perman not to demonize the men who committed the most heinous crime in recent memory is a brave one. Indeed the film's evenhandedness may offend some. It's unhelpful, however, to dismiss the men as monsters and instructive to be reminded that great evil may be rooted in heartfelt delusion. This is a film of great intensity and should find a wide audience for its considerable cinematic merit and worthwhile contribution to understanding the incomprehensible. It airs Thursday on the U.K.'s Channel 4.
As in Channel 4's previous docudramas Sunday, The Deal and Omagh, the script for The Hamburg Cell is based on "known facts and actual events" and strives to portray them objectively. It follows the development of a cell of Muslim revolutionaries established in the German city of Hamburg five years before the World Trade Center's twin towers were brought down.
At the center is Jarrah, a rich man's son from Lebanon who is studying dentistry. More secular than Muslim, Jarrah falls for Aysel (Agni Tsangaridou), an independent Turkish student who objects when an Islamic group targets him for induction.
Karim Saleh plays Jarrah with the soulful innocence that Al Pacino brought to the young Michael Corleone. Like the Godfather's son, Jarrah's bland features and timorous smile mask an inner turmoil hinted at only in his haunted eyes.
Gradually, he is drawn into the clutches of a mosque whose members espouse violence as the proper means to wage the jihad they see as a requirement of their interpretation of Islam. He remains ambivalent, seemingly earnest in his affection for Aysel and confessing that, having attended Catholic school, he was an indifferent Muslim. But the imam tells him sharply that he must say his prayers. He was in an infidel society, and he must not let himself be alone.
As he becomes closer to fellow initiates Mohamed Atta (Kamel) and Ramzi bin al Shibh (Omar Berdouni), the incessant radicalization begins to take hold. The modern world is a confusion. The modern world wants to take God from him. Every able-bodied man must train for the jihad.
Atta in particular is convinced. A Palestinian, he is a lonely and ascetic man who chides his friends for taking a beer or even wearing their shirts open. He longs to return to his homeland but when he visits, his cold and distant father scolds him for not pursuing a doctorate, having just obtained his master's degree, and his mother pines for grandchildren. Back in Germany, whatever drives his anger occupies him fully.
Soon the three students are in Afghanistan being trained by al-Qaida. When they return, the Hamburg cell leaders flatter and cajole them to join their violent plans. With growing and devastating suspense, the film shows the tragic path of fanatics who have lost sight of their objectives and redoubled their efforts to get there.
Throughout the building tension, the film offers reminders of how evidence of the impending assault was overlooked and how warnings of the dangers were not heeded. With the terrible Sept. 11 images seen only fleetingly at the beginning, the film ends with the perpetrators disappearing through an airport departure enclosure.
THE HAMBURG CELL
A Mentorn/Inner Circle Pictures GmbH/Simply Committed GmbH co-production for Channel 4 produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Credits:
Director: Antonia Bird
Co-writers: Ronan Bennett, Alice Perman
Producer: Finola Dwyer
Executive producers: David Aukin, George Carey
Cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister
Editor: St. John O'Rorke
Production designer: Richard Hoover, Phil Roberson
Art director: Ulrich Schroder
Nicholas Scott, Iris Trescher
Costume designer: Antje Gebauer
Cast:
Ziad Jarrah: Karim Saleh
Mohamed Atta: Kamel
Aysel: Agni Tsangaridou
Ramzi bin al Shibh: Omar Berdouni
Marwan Shehhi: Adnan Maral
Abdulrahman Al-Makhadi: Kammy Darweish
No MPAA rating...
Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- It's Sept. 11, 2001, and a man whispers into a telephone: "I love you. I love you". But it's neither a victim of that dreadful day nor a survivor. It's one of the perpetrators. In Channel 4's riveting drama about the events leading up to the atrocities of Sept. 11, Ziad Jarrah and his cohorts are portrayed as ordinary mortals whose fanaticism emerges from everyday lives that are otherwise quite mundane.
The decision by director Antonia Bird and writers Ronan Bennett and Alice Perman not to demonize the men who committed the most heinous crime in recent memory is a brave one. Indeed the film's evenhandedness may offend some. It's unhelpful, however, to dismiss the men as monsters and instructive to be reminded that great evil may be rooted in heartfelt delusion. This is a film of great intensity and should find a wide audience for its considerable cinematic merit and worthwhile contribution to understanding the incomprehensible. It airs Thursday on the U.K.'s Channel 4.
As in Channel 4's previous docudramas Sunday, The Deal and Omagh, the script for The Hamburg Cell is based on "known facts and actual events" and strives to portray them objectively. It follows the development of a cell of Muslim revolutionaries established in the German city of Hamburg five years before the World Trade Center's twin towers were brought down.
At the center is Jarrah, a rich man's son from Lebanon who is studying dentistry. More secular than Muslim, Jarrah falls for Aysel (Agni Tsangaridou), an independent Turkish student who objects when an Islamic group targets him for induction.
Karim Saleh plays Jarrah with the soulful innocence that Al Pacino brought to the young Michael Corleone. Like the Godfather's son, Jarrah's bland features and timorous smile mask an inner turmoil hinted at only in his haunted eyes.
Gradually, he is drawn into the clutches of a mosque whose members espouse violence as the proper means to wage the jihad they see as a requirement of their interpretation of Islam. He remains ambivalent, seemingly earnest in his affection for Aysel and confessing that, having attended Catholic school, he was an indifferent Muslim. But the imam tells him sharply that he must say his prayers. He was in an infidel society, and he must not let himself be alone.
As he becomes closer to fellow initiates Mohamed Atta (Kamel) and Ramzi bin al Shibh (Omar Berdouni), the incessant radicalization begins to take hold. The modern world is a confusion. The modern world wants to take God from him. Every able-bodied man must train for the jihad.
Atta in particular is convinced. A Palestinian, he is a lonely and ascetic man who chides his friends for taking a beer or even wearing their shirts open. He longs to return to his homeland but when he visits, his cold and distant father scolds him for not pursuing a doctorate, having just obtained his master's degree, and his mother pines for grandchildren. Back in Germany, whatever drives his anger occupies him fully.
Soon the three students are in Afghanistan being trained by al-Qaida. When they return, the Hamburg cell leaders flatter and cajole them to join their violent plans. With growing and devastating suspense, the film shows the tragic path of fanatics who have lost sight of their objectives and redoubled their efforts to get there.
Throughout the building tension, the film offers reminders of how evidence of the impending assault was overlooked and how warnings of the dangers were not heeded. With the terrible Sept. 11 images seen only fleetingly at the beginning, the film ends with the perpetrators disappearing through an airport departure enclosure.
THE HAMBURG CELL
A Mentorn/Inner Circle Pictures GmbH/Simply Committed GmbH co-production for Channel 4 produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Credits:
Director: Antonia Bird
Co-writers: Ronan Bennett, Alice Perman
Producer: Finola Dwyer
Executive producers: David Aukin, George Carey
Cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister
Editor: St. John O'Rorke
Production designer: Richard Hoover, Phil Roberson
Art director: Ulrich Schroder
Nicholas Scott, Iris Trescher
Costume designer: Antje Gebauer
Cast:
Ziad Jarrah: Karim Saleh
Mohamed Atta: Kamel
Aysel: Agni Tsangaridou
Ramzi bin al Shibh: Omar Berdouni
Marwan Shehhi: Adnan Maral
Abdulrahman Al-Makhadi: Kammy Darweish
No MPAA rating...
- 8/30/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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