Exclusive: Anonymous Content has hired longtime literary agent and former UTA partner Bec Smith as a partner and manager in their Los Angeles-based lit team. We revealed Smith’s impending exit from UTA last month.
The respected veteran has amassed a client roster including directors and writers such as Coline Abert, Levan Akin, Jane Anderson, Benedict Andrews, Emily Atef, Anthony Chen, Eva Husson, Ellen Kuras, Katrin Gebbe, Sebastian Junger, Julia Leigh, Phillip Noyce, Joshua Oppenheimer, Jennifer Peedom, Maria Schrader, Tali Shalom-Ezer, Dawn Shadforth, Kirsten Sheridan, Goran Stolevski, Warwick Thornton and Max Werner.
Related Story Shocker! Anonymous Content CEO Dawn Olmstead & COO Heather McCauley Resign; Protesting Settlement To Former Top Producer Keith Redmon? Related Story UTA Partner & Top Talent Agent Brian Swardstrom Leaving Agency For New Ventures; Will Produce With 'Nomadland's Peter Spears To Start Related Story UTA Signs Cecillia Aldarondo, Filmmaker Behind SXSW-Premiering Documentary 'You Were My First Boyfriend...
The respected veteran has amassed a client roster including directors and writers such as Coline Abert, Levan Akin, Jane Anderson, Benedict Andrews, Emily Atef, Anthony Chen, Eva Husson, Ellen Kuras, Katrin Gebbe, Sebastian Junger, Julia Leigh, Phillip Noyce, Joshua Oppenheimer, Jennifer Peedom, Maria Schrader, Tali Shalom-Ezer, Dawn Shadforth, Kirsten Sheridan, Goran Stolevski, Warwick Thornton and Max Werner.
Related Story Shocker! Anonymous Content CEO Dawn Olmstead & COO Heather McCauley Resign; Protesting Settlement To Former Top Producer Keith Redmon? Related Story UTA Partner & Top Talent Agent Brian Swardstrom Leaving Agency For New Ventures; Will Produce With 'Nomadland's Peter Spears To Start Related Story UTA Signs Cecillia Aldarondo, Filmmaker Behind SXSW-Premiering Documentary 'You Were My First Boyfriend...
- 3/22/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Justin Kurzel’s Nitram left an indelible impression on critics following its premiere at Cannes Film Festival on Friday, with many singling out the film’s tone and performances for praise.
The pre-Port Arthur massacre portrait of perpetrator Martin Bryant – who is not named in the film – is the first Australian feature to screen in competition at the French festival since Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty in 2011. In the same year, Kurzel’s debut Snowtown, about a series of murders committed in Adelaide between 1992-1999, screened in Critic’s Week.
Like Snowtown, Nitram is also based on true events and penned by Shaun Grant. However, the reviews that followed last week’s screening drew only broad stroke comparisons between the two films while commending Kurzel for his storytelling choices.
Writing for Variety, Jessica Kiang described Nitram as “ostensibly similar” to Snowtown, but noted the former represented “a far more mature...
The pre-Port Arthur massacre portrait of perpetrator Martin Bryant – who is not named in the film – is the first Australian feature to screen in competition at the French festival since Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty in 2011. In the same year, Kurzel’s debut Snowtown, about a series of murders committed in Adelaide between 1992-1999, screened in Critic’s Week.
Like Snowtown, Nitram is also based on true events and penned by Shaun Grant. However, the reviews that followed last week’s screening drew only broad stroke comparisons between the two films while commending Kurzel for his storytelling choices.
Writing for Variety, Jessica Kiang described Nitram as “ostensibly similar” to Snowtown, but noted the former represented “a far more mature...
- 7/19/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
Justin Kurzel’s Nitram will premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in July, the first Australian film to do so in a decade.
Scripted by Shaun Grant, the film stars Caleb Landry Jones as a loner who later goes on a shooting rampage.
It is understood to be based on the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, but depicts the events leading up to rather than the murders themselves. It does not mention the gunman’s name, though Nitram is ‘Martin’ backwards.
Judy Davis and Anthony Lapaglia play his parents, and Essie Davis a woman who befriends him.
Nitram was shot in Geelong, rather than Tasmania. The film’s initial announcement proved highly divisive, with many calling for it not to proceed.
Good Thing Productions’ Nick Batzias and Virginia Whitwell are the producers.
Cannes announced its first 61 titles today, 24 of which are in competition. Four of the competition films are from female directors,...
Scripted by Shaun Grant, the film stars Caleb Landry Jones as a loner who later goes on a shooting rampage.
It is understood to be based on the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, but depicts the events leading up to rather than the murders themselves. It does not mention the gunman’s name, though Nitram is ‘Martin’ backwards.
Judy Davis and Anthony Lapaglia play his parents, and Essie Davis a woman who befriends him.
Nitram was shot in Geelong, rather than Tasmania. The film’s initial announcement proved highly divisive, with many calling for it not to proceed.
Good Thing Productions’ Nick Batzias and Virginia Whitwell are the producers.
Cannes announced its first 61 titles today, 24 of which are in competition. Four of the competition films are from female directors,...
- 6/3/2021
- by Jackie Keast
- IF.com.au
Two young actors become involved with Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann’s letters in this intriguing study of a famous relationship
Austrian film-maker Ruth Beckermann has created a cerebral chamber piece from the love letters of postwar poet Paul Celan, whose parents perished in a Nazi concentration camp, and Ingeborg Bachmann, the author whose father had been a Nazi party member. Performers Laurence Rupp and Anja Plaschg play versions of themselves, reading out selections of the letters into studio microphones, apparently for a radio programme. We see them taking a thoughtful cigarette break together, or getting lunch. Maybe their own relationship is being influenced by Celan and Bachmann’s? Most of the film consists of their faces in closeup, reading the text. It is an intriguing exchange, like a controlled but dreamily unhappy dialogue which can’t represent the length and rhythm of the silences that existed between each letter:...
Austrian film-maker Ruth Beckermann has created a cerebral chamber piece from the love letters of postwar poet Paul Celan, whose parents perished in a Nazi concentration camp, and Ingeborg Bachmann, the author whose father had been a Nazi party member. Performers Laurence Rupp and Anja Plaschg play versions of themselves, reading out selections of the letters into studio microphones, apparently for a radio programme. We see them taking a thoughtful cigarette break together, or getting lunch. Maybe their own relationship is being influenced by Celan and Bachmann’s? Most of the film consists of their faces in closeup, reading the text. It is an intriguing exchange, like a controlled but dreamily unhappy dialogue which can’t represent the length and rhythm of the silences that existed between each letter:...
- 12/1/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Australia hasn.t had a film in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival since 2011 but Justin Kurzel will fly the flag with Macbeth at next month.s festival.
Michael Fassbender plays the troubled Scottish king and Marion Cotillard is Lady Macbeth in the Shakespearian drama produced by See-Saw Films. Iain Canning and Emile Sherman.
The UK production financed by Studiocanal and Film4 will be released in Oz by Transmission Films, probably in October.. Kurzel's Snowtown screened during Critics Week in Cannes in 2011, where it got a special mention and he was nominated for the Golden Camera award for best first feature.
Also among the 17 titles competing for the Palme d'Or is Carol, Todd Haynes. lesbian romance set in 1950s New York, which stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Sarah Paulson.
Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel about a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life and falls for an older,...
Michael Fassbender plays the troubled Scottish king and Marion Cotillard is Lady Macbeth in the Shakespearian drama produced by See-Saw Films. Iain Canning and Emile Sherman.
The UK production financed by Studiocanal and Film4 will be released in Oz by Transmission Films, probably in October.. Kurzel's Snowtown screened during Critics Week in Cannes in 2011, where it got a special mention and he was nominated for the Golden Camera award for best first feature.
Also among the 17 titles competing for the Palme d'Or is Carol, Todd Haynes. lesbian romance set in 1950s New York, which stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Sarah Paulson.
Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel about a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life and falls for an older,...
- 4/16/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Americans should probably get to know Sarah Snook. If you’re like me then you probably missed her in Julia Leigh’s unsettling Sleeping Beauty, but as recently as 2012 she was hailed as Australia’s Emma Stone (just google "sarah snook australia's emma stone") for her excessively charming performance in the (otherwise terrible) local rom-com Not Suitable for Children and last year impressed in a small role in the apocalyptic rave thriller These Final Hours. Her biggest role yet, however, came in the form of the Spierig Brothers' Predestination and at last night's “Australian Oscars”, the Aacta Awards, she won the coveted Best Lead Actress prize, stealing it from the grip of two mightily formidable contenders.
The big winners + Cate Blanchett without her shoes (!!!) after the jump...
Who me?...
The big winners + Cate Blanchett without her shoes (!!!) after the jump...
Who me?...
- 1/29/2015
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
This is a reprint of our review from the 2014 BFI London Festival. One of the most exciting movements in cinema in the last decade or two or so has come from Australia. Mostly (but not exclusively) tied to the production company Blue Tongue Films (which includes luminaries like Joel Edgerton, David Michod, and Spencer Susser), but also encompassing experienced figures like Andrew Dominik, Cate Shortland, Julia Leigh, Justin Kurzel, and John Hillcoat, the films are loosely tied together by the simple mark of quality, with great movies like "Animal Kingdom," "Snowtown Murders," "The Proposition" "Somersault," and "Chopper" emerging from the land down under since the dawn of the 21st century. Could the next name to join them be Julius Avery? The director won the Jury Prize at Cannes for his short "Jerrycan," and now makes his directorial debut with crime thriller "Son Of A Gun," which has managed to attract an.
- 1/20/2015
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
They didn’t make our final Top 100 cut, but here is a list of foreign film titles that are on our radar for 2015. We being with…
200. Remember – Dir. Atom Egoyan
199. Suffragette – Dir. Sarah Gavron
198. Kills on Wheels – Dir. Attila Till
197. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend – Dir. Yuen Woo-ping
196. The Go-Between – Dir. Pete Travis
195. Peur de Rien Dir. Danielle Arbid
194. Regular Boy – Dir. Michele Civetta
193. Flaskepost – Dir. Nikolaj Arcel
192. The Lady in the Van – Dir. Nicolas Hytner
191. Zoom – Dir. Pedro Morelli
190. Away from the Sea – Dir. Imanol Uribe
189. Tulip Fever – Dir. Justin Chadwick
188. Ulrike’s Brain – Dir. Bruce La Bruce
187. Tsunami – Dir. Jacques Deschamps
186. And Your Sister? – Dir. Marion Vernoux
185. There Was Las Vegas – Dir. Alexandre Castas
184. Prejudice – Dir. Antoine Cuypers
183. Stepne – Dir. Maryna Vroda
182. Irreplaceable – Dir. Olivier Masset-Depasse
181. Histoire de Judas Iscariot – Dir. Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche
180. The First, the Last – Dir. Bouli Lanners
179. Selection Officielle – Dir. Jacques Richard
178. Desierto – Dir.
200. Remember – Dir. Atom Egoyan
199. Suffragette – Dir. Sarah Gavron
198. Kills on Wheels – Dir. Attila Till
197. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend – Dir. Yuen Woo-ping
196. The Go-Between – Dir. Pete Travis
195. Peur de Rien Dir. Danielle Arbid
194. Regular Boy – Dir. Michele Civetta
193. Flaskepost – Dir. Nikolaj Arcel
192. The Lady in the Van – Dir. Nicolas Hytner
191. Zoom – Dir. Pedro Morelli
190. Away from the Sea – Dir. Imanol Uribe
189. Tulip Fever – Dir. Justin Chadwick
188. Ulrike’s Brain – Dir. Bruce La Bruce
187. Tsunami – Dir. Jacques Deschamps
186. And Your Sister? – Dir. Marion Vernoux
185. There Was Las Vegas – Dir. Alexandre Castas
184. Prejudice – Dir. Antoine Cuypers
183. Stepne – Dir. Maryna Vroda
182. Irreplaceable – Dir. Olivier Masset-Depasse
181. Histoire de Judas Iscariot – Dir. Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche
180. The First, the Last – Dir. Bouli Lanners
179. Selection Officielle – Dir. Jacques Richard
178. Desierto – Dir.
- 1/5/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
One of the most exciting movements in cinema in the last decade or two or so has come from Australia. Mostly (but not exclusively) tied to the production company Blue Tongue Films (which includes luminaries like Joel Edgerton, David Michod, and Spencer Susser), but also encompassing experienced figures like Andrew Dominik, Cate Shortland, Julia Leigh, Justin Kurzel, and John Hillcoat, the films are loosely tied together by the simple mark of quality, with great movies like "Animal Kingdom," "Snowtown Murders," "The Proposition" "Somersault," and "Chopper" emerging from the land down under since the dawn of the 21st century. Could the next name to join them be Julius Avery? The director won the Jury Prize at Cannes for his short "Jerrycan," and now makes his directorial debut with crime thriller "Son Of A Gun," which has managed to attract an A-list star and two of the business' busiest, fastest-rising young...
- 10/17/2014
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
The HeyUGuys Interview: Emily Browning on singing in God Help the Girl, and going cockney for Legend
It’s safe to say that Australian actress Emily Browning is no stranger to nudity in film, bearing all in the likes of Summer in February, to a brave, somewhat audacious performance in Julia Leigh’s uninhibited drama Sleeping Beauty. Yet for the 25-year-old, she admits that having to sing live in the quaint musical God Help the Girl was by far the more terrifying experience.
We had the great pleasure of sitting down with the talented actress to discuss her latest project – featuring songs from indie pop outfit Belle & Sebastian, having been written and directed by the band’s lead singer Stuart Murdoch, and when asked which she found more nerve-wracking, with little hesitation she replied, “ God Help the Girl for sure, absolutely. I guess you’re protected by your character, so when I did those scenes for Sleeping Beauty, it wasn’t me, especially because that character is...
We had the great pleasure of sitting down with the talented actress to discuss her latest project – featuring songs from indie pop outfit Belle & Sebastian, having been written and directed by the band’s lead singer Stuart Murdoch, and when asked which she found more nerve-wracking, with little hesitation she replied, “ God Help the Girl for sure, absolutely. I guess you’re protected by your character, so when I did those scenes for Sleeping Beauty, it wasn’t me, especially because that character is...
- 8/21/2014
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Dynamite - Vampirella Model: Julia Leigh * Photographer: Ben Britt Photography Vampirella debuted in 1969 in a black & white magazine titled simply Vampirella. With a stunning cover by legendary artist, Frank Frazetta, Vampirella #1 quickly made publishing history with its depiction of a vampire heroine, and its success prompted comics giants DC and Marvel to launch horror titles of their own. Vampirella appeared in this magazine format throughout the 1970's. Many of these classic stories were illustrated by the legendary artist Jose Gonzalez and have remained quite popular with comics fans to the present day. After a brief publishing hiatus, Vampirella returned in 1992 and quickly regained her reigning status as the queen of all female comics characters! In continuous publication since her early 90s comeback, Vampirella has been written by top talents including Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Grant Morrision, James Robinson, Jeph Loeb, Warren Ellis, and...
- 6/13/2014
- ComicBookMovie.com
Airy & banal, Ozon’s Latest is as Indistinct as its Title
Moving right along the trajectory we’re all well familiar with by now, François Ozon makes yet another sexed-up François Ozon film with this tale of a year in the life of a nubile seventeen year-old prostitute. With plenty of beautifully photographed flesh to prevent a heavy onset of boredom, Jeune et Jolie suffers from a sterile first half that feels just like any other erotic French drama; attempts at characterization are actively avoided, and it makes for a removed viewing experience – however intentional it may be – that does the film few favors. At times resembling a watered down Catherine Breillat film or a less idiosyncratic remake of Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, only a 2nd act tonal shift toward lighter Ozon territory livens things up, before fluttering to a landing (or two…or three…) that reveals Ozon’s...
Moving right along the trajectory we’re all well familiar with by now, François Ozon makes yet another sexed-up François Ozon film with this tale of a year in the life of a nubile seventeen year-old prostitute. With plenty of beautifully photographed flesh to prevent a heavy onset of boredom, Jeune et Jolie suffers from a sterile first half that feels just like any other erotic French drama; attempts at characterization are actively avoided, and it makes for a removed viewing experience – however intentional it may be – that does the film few favors. At times resembling a watered down Catherine Breillat film or a less idiosyncratic remake of Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, only a 2nd act tonal shift toward lighter Ozon territory livens things up, before fluttering to a landing (or two…or three…) that reveals Ozon’s...
- 4/23/2014
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
Australia hasn.t had a film selected for official competition at the Cannes Film Festival or the Un Certain Regard sidebar since 2011 and in the Directors. Fortnight section since 2009.
But the prospects are looking brighter this year. According to If.s straw poll among industry figures, David Michôd.s The Rover, Rolf de Heer.s Charlie.s Country and Zak Hilditch.s These Final Hours are promising candidates for one or more of the festival.s competitive sections.
The official competition line-up for the 67th Cannes festival and Un Certain Regard will be unveiled on Thursday night local time by fest director Thierry Frémaux.
Baz Luhrmann.s The Great Gatsby was the opening night film in Cannes last year, out of competition. Julia Leigh.s Sleeping Beauty was the last Australian film to screen in competition in 2011, the same year that Ivan Sen.s Toomelah was invited to Un Certain Regard.
But the prospects are looking brighter this year. According to If.s straw poll among industry figures, David Michôd.s The Rover, Rolf de Heer.s Charlie.s Country and Zak Hilditch.s These Final Hours are promising candidates for one or more of the festival.s competitive sections.
The official competition line-up for the 67th Cannes festival and Un Certain Regard will be unveiled on Thursday night local time by fest director Thierry Frémaux.
Baz Luhrmann.s The Great Gatsby was the opening night film in Cannes last year, out of competition. Julia Leigh.s Sleeping Beauty was the last Australian film to screen in competition in 2011, the same year that Ivan Sen.s Toomelah was invited to Un Certain Regard.
- 4/16/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
The past week or so has seen a number of notable actresses line up some choice projects, so here's a little recap of what's been going on around town.... Maggie Gyllenhaal will star in “The Honourable Woman,” an 8-part spy thriller miniseries set in the UK, the Middle East and America. Gyllenhaal will play the daughter of a zionist arm dealer who gets entangled in an international conspiracy linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The series is penned by Hugo Blick, who in addition to being a seasoned TV show writer in the UK (“Marion and Geoff,” “The Shadow Line”), played the young Jack Napier -- a.k.a. the Joker -- in Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman.” Filming will start mid-July for a 2014 broadcast, and it will air on The Sundance Channel. [Deadline]Australian actress Emily Browning (Zack Snyder’s CGI-fest “Sucker Punch” and Julia Leigh’s controversial “Sleeping Beauty”) will star...
- 7/3/2013
- by Jason Guimaron
- The Playlist
The Hunter was one of this writer’s favourite films of last year- at once thrilling and heartbreaking, mysterious and involving, it tells the tale of Willem Dafoe’s silent hunter, hired by a shady corporation to attempt to track down the legendary Tasmanian Tiger, thought to be extinct for years. But once he starts to get involved with the family whose house he is living in, and gets on the wrong side of the aggressive townspeople, things start to go terribly wrong. It is a well-acted, well-paced, poetic and original film of which we see little these days. I suggest you seek it out. Another factor to praise it for is its direction, and that is entirely down to Daniel Nettheim.
Having previously directed the likes of romantic comedy Angst and family dramas like K9 and Dance Academy, Daniel was able to realise what had been a long-brewing passion...
Having previously directed the likes of romantic comedy Angst and family dramas like K9 and Dance Academy, Daniel was able to realise what had been a long-brewing passion...
- 6/4/2013
- by Oscar Harding
- Obsessed with Film
It wouldn't seem like a real Cannes Film Festival without the question coming up: Where are all the women directors? One film directed by a woman, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's "A Castle in Italy" ("Un Chateau en Italie"), is screening in the main competition. That's one more than was chosen in 2010 or in 2012. Only once in the last four years did the Cannes competition have a significant female presence; that happened in 2011, when Naomi Kawase's "Hanezu," Julia Leigh's "Sleeping Beauty," Maiwenn's "Polisse" and Lynne Ramsay's "We Need to Talk About...
- 5/21/2013
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Just when it seemed that every single movie about teen girls coming to terms with their sexuality had already been made, here comes François Ozon's Young and Beautiful (Jeune et Jolie), a well-observed, often fascinating exploration of a 17-year-old girl's willful entry into the world of prostitution. In some ways, it treads similar territory to Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty, but whereas that film maintained a detached, ambiguous tone toward the material, Ozon (Swimming Pool) takes the situation into far more unexpected, emotionally challenging places, thanks in part to a spectacular performance by the, yes, young and beautiful, Marine Vacth.Vacth plays Isabelle, a 17-year-old girl in a well-off family, who, as the film begins is still a virgin. That doesn't last so long though, as she more or...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 5/16/2013
- Screen Anarchy
#91. Julia Leigh’s Disquiet
Gist: Like her feature debut – the 2011 Main Competition alum Sleeping Beauty – Julia Leigh is again directing her own screenplay, only this time it’ll be adapted from one of her own novels: 2008’s critically lauded Disquiet. (Her other novel, 1999’s The Hunter, was adapted to the screen in 2011 by Daniel Nettheim and starred Willem Dafoe.) This more recent novel, which has been described as “so spare that it seems as if the characters are deprived of some of their life,” concerns a mother of two young children who leaves her husband and goes to live with her own mother in rural France. Based on the cover of the book (see image above), her mother is ridiculously wealthy and has indulged herself with a massive mansion, so who can blame her?
Prediction: While Leigh was gifted with an exceedingly rare Competition berth for her debut feature, we...
Gist: Like her feature debut – the 2011 Main Competition alum Sleeping Beauty – Julia Leigh is again directing her own screenplay, only this time it’ll be adapted from one of her own novels: 2008’s critically lauded Disquiet. (Her other novel, 1999’s The Hunter, was adapted to the screen in 2011 by Daniel Nettheim and starred Willem Dafoe.) This more recent novel, which has been described as “so spare that it seems as if the characters are deprived of some of their life,” concerns a mother of two young children who leaves her husband and goes to live with her own mother in rural France. Based on the cover of the book (see image above), her mother is ridiculously wealthy and has indulged herself with a massive mansion, so who can blame her?
Prediction: While Leigh was gifted with an exceedingly rare Competition berth for her debut feature, we...
- 4/2/2013
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
Next year's flurry of fairytale film adaptations promises some sinister thrills – but fairy stories have always been dark at heart
Harry's long gone, but wands are still selling. 2013, comme 2012, promises a score of classic fairytale film adaptations – a legion of Pinocchios, Peter Pans, Cinderellas and Wizards of Oz. A cursory squint into the crystal ball that is the Imdb website confirms that most of the upcoming fairytale films will be tormented, adult-oriented affairs; expect the adjective "twisted' to appear with some frequency. The sort of films in which for every lie, Pinocchio has to wash blood off his hands. With sandpaper mittens. That sort of thing.
The Dark Heart of Fairy Tales, a season of older films currently playing at the Barbican, proves Hollywood isn't doing anything new. The screenings mark the bicentenary of the first publication of the Brothers Grimm stories, while acknowledging that popular fairy stories mainly derive...
Harry's long gone, but wands are still selling. 2013, comme 2012, promises a score of classic fairytale film adaptations – a legion of Pinocchios, Peter Pans, Cinderellas and Wizards of Oz. A cursory squint into the crystal ball that is the Imdb website confirms that most of the upcoming fairytale films will be tormented, adult-oriented affairs; expect the adjective "twisted' to appear with some frequency. The sort of films in which for every lie, Pinocchio has to wash blood off his hands. With sandpaper mittens. That sort of thing.
The Dark Heart of Fairy Tales, a season of older films currently playing at the Barbican, proves Hollywood isn't doing anything new. The screenings mark the bicentenary of the first publication of the Brothers Grimm stories, while acknowledging that popular fairy stories mainly derive...
- 11/9/2012
- by Rhik Samadder
- The Guardian - Film News
Based on the acclaimed 1999 novel from author Julia Leigh, Us star Willem Dafoe returned to screens earlier this year in Daniel Nettheim's The Hunter (2011), a powerful and beautifully shot psychological thriller that follows one man's search for the presumed extinct Tasmanian Tiger. To celebrate the film's home entertainment release on DVD and Blu-ray this Monday (29 October), we've kindly been given a whopping Five DVD copies of the film to give away to our avid readers, courtesy of our friends at Artificial Eye. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.
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- 11/1/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
After memorably portraying the villainous Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, Willem Dafoe goes to the other end of the spectrum for the stripped-back, slow-burning atmospherics of The Hunter.
He plays Martin, a mercenary sent by a biotech company to track down what is believed to be the last Tasmanian tiger (also called the Tasmanian wolf or thylacine), a striped marsupial predator declared extinct in 1982.
In the remote wilderness, staying with the family of a man who had gone missing the year before, Martin struggles with basic living conditions and suspicious locals who are less than welcoming to strangers.
Based on the novel by Julia Leigh and directed by Daniel Nettheim, the film presents the raw beauty of the Tasmanian wilderness. And it's raw and visceral in every sense, with unsparing scenes of hunting, killing and death as well as landscapes and wildlife.
There are excellent performances all round,...
He plays Martin, a mercenary sent by a biotech company to track down what is believed to be the last Tasmanian tiger (also called the Tasmanian wolf or thylacine), a striped marsupial predator declared extinct in 1982.
In the remote wilderness, staying with the family of a man who had gone missing the year before, Martin struggles with basic living conditions and suspicious locals who are less than welcoming to strangers.
Based on the novel by Julia Leigh and directed by Daniel Nettheim, the film presents the raw beauty of the Tasmanian wilderness. And it's raw and visceral in every sense, with unsparing scenes of hunting, killing and death as well as landscapes and wildlife.
There are excellent performances all round,...
- 11/1/2012
- by David Bentley
- The Geek Files
★★★★☆ Written by Sleeping Beauty (2011) director Julia Leigh and starring Willem Dafoe, Daniel Nettheim's The Hunter (2011) is a peculiar beast of a film; part introspective study on the human condition, part environmental thriller, culminating in a peculiar balancing act between its inherent mainstream sensibilities and meditative arthouse procedural. Hired gun Martin (Dafoe) arrives in Tasmania to traverse the island's difficult terrain in search of the elusive Tasmanian Tiger - a creature thought to have been extinct since the 1920s. It's a significant contract, financed by a surreptitious corporation with little or no room for mistakes.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 10/29/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
A Royal Affair; The Hunter; Your Sister's Sister; Cockneys vs Zombies; Silent Souls
While November and December are the months in which the studios traditionally roll out their most prized awards contenders, there'll have to be an extraordinary surge of great movies between now and the new year to knock A Royal Affair (2012, Metrodome, 15) out of my top 10 for 2012. Boasting yet another mesmerising performance from the mercurial Mads Mikkelsen, this handsome costume drama manages to wrap a complex discussion of power, corruption and censorship around an engrossing and increasingly passionate romance. Called to the court of his apparently unhinged ruler, altruistic doctor and Voltairian free-thinker Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mikkelsen) inveigles his way into the hearts of both the king and queen, with potentially world-changing results. Wresting power from the landed gentry whose brutal mistreatment of the poor he has witnessed first hand, Struensee spurs the king to invest in social...
While November and December are the months in which the studios traditionally roll out their most prized awards contenders, there'll have to be an extraordinary surge of great movies between now and the new year to knock A Royal Affair (2012, Metrodome, 15) out of my top 10 for 2012. Boasting yet another mesmerising performance from the mercurial Mads Mikkelsen, this handsome costume drama manages to wrap a complex discussion of power, corruption and censorship around an engrossing and increasingly passionate romance. Called to the court of his apparently unhinged ruler, altruistic doctor and Voltairian free-thinker Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mikkelsen) inveigles his way into the hearts of both the king and queen, with potentially world-changing results. Wresting power from the landed gentry whose brutal mistreatment of the poor he has witnessed first hand, Struensee spurs the king to invest in social...
- 10/27/2012
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Craig here with another Lff report. David & I have a chat about Brandon Cronenberg's striking debut feature Antiviral, showing today at the festival.
Craig: It’s all about celebrity skin in Antiviral as characters indulge in, ahem, the pleasures of the flesh in one form or another. This being the first feature from David Cronenberg’s son Brandon, I perhaps expected a plentiful supply of gratuitous bodily harm. Having no idea prior to seeing the film just what it was about – all I knew was that it was partially set in a mysterious clinic for the stars – the film came as a minor revelation: not only because, for a debut feature, the filmmaking was of an uncommonly high calibre, but also because the most interesting Cronenberg film this year wasn’t brought to us by the oldest member of the Cronenberg clan.
David: I always seem to begin these...
Craig: It’s all about celebrity skin in Antiviral as characters indulge in, ahem, the pleasures of the flesh in one form or another. This being the first feature from David Cronenberg’s son Brandon, I perhaps expected a plentiful supply of gratuitous bodily harm. Having no idea prior to seeing the film just what it was about – all I knew was that it was partially set in a mysterious clinic for the stars – the film came as a minor revelation: not only because, for a debut feature, the filmmaking was of an uncommonly high calibre, but also because the most interesting Cronenberg film this year wasn’t brought to us by the oldest member of the Cronenberg clan.
David: I always seem to begin these...
- 10/14/2012
- by Craig Bloomfield
- FilmExperience
Producer of “Star Wars” Gary Kurtz will preside over the ‘India Gold 2012’ jury. This jury will select the winners of two cash prizes of Inr 1 million and Inr 500,000.
Other members of India Gold Jury are:-
Geoffrey Gilmore, Chief Creative officer at Tribeca Enterprises of the Tribeca Film Festival
Christian Jeune, Head, Film Department at Cannes Film Festival
Declan Quinn, cinematographer of films such as ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’, ‘New York, I Love You’, ‘Vanity Fair’ and ‘Being Flynn’
Julia Leigh acclaimed author and director of ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
Celebrate Age Jury
The ‘Celebrate Age’ competition section jury will be presided by author and columnist Shobhaa De. Other members of the jury are:-
Bhavna Talwar, director
Sachin Kundalkar, Producer and director
Petrina D’Rozario, Founder-President, Wift Mumbai chapter
Ranvir Shorey, actor
Dimensions Mumbai Jury
Marathi Director Umesh Kulkarni is the president of the ‘Dimension Mumbai’ jury. Other members of the jury are
Sanjay Suri,...
Other members of India Gold Jury are:-
Geoffrey Gilmore, Chief Creative officer at Tribeca Enterprises of the Tribeca Film Festival
Christian Jeune, Head, Film Department at Cannes Film Festival
Declan Quinn, cinematographer of films such as ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’, ‘New York, I Love You’, ‘Vanity Fair’ and ‘Being Flynn’
Julia Leigh acclaimed author and director of ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
Celebrate Age Jury
The ‘Celebrate Age’ competition section jury will be presided by author and columnist Shobhaa De. Other members of the jury are:-
Bhavna Talwar, director
Sachin Kundalkar, Producer and director
Petrina D’Rozario, Founder-President, Wift Mumbai chapter
Ranvir Shorey, actor
Dimensions Mumbai Jury
Marathi Director Umesh Kulkarni is the president of the ‘Dimension Mumbai’ jury. Other members of the jury are
Sanjay Suri,...
- 9/24/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Michael Haneke’s Amour
Love (Amour) directed by Michael Haneke won the Best Feature Film award at the 33rd edition of the Durban International Film Festival that announced its award-winners on July 28, 2012.
The Best First Feature Film prize went to Julia Leigh for Sleeping Beauty (Australia).
The Best South African Feature Film was awarded to Adventures in Zambezia (South Africa), directed by Wayne Thornley.
The Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award went to Malika Zouhali-Worral and Katherine Fairfax Wright’s film Call Me Kuchu which focuses on attacks on gays in Uganda.
The full list of awards is:
Best Film: Love (Amour) (France, Austria, Germany), directed by Michael Haneke
Best South African Feature Film: Adventures in Zambezia (South Africa), directed by Wayne Thornley
Best First Feature Film: Sleeping Beauty (Australia), directed by Julia Leigh
Best Director: Benh Zeitlin for Beasts Of The Southern Wild (USA)
Best Actress: Deanie Ip in...
Love (Amour) directed by Michael Haneke won the Best Feature Film award at the 33rd edition of the Durban International Film Festival that announced its award-winners on July 28, 2012.
The Best First Feature Film prize went to Julia Leigh for Sleeping Beauty (Australia).
The Best South African Feature Film was awarded to Adventures in Zambezia (South Africa), directed by Wayne Thornley.
The Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award went to Malika Zouhali-Worral and Katherine Fairfax Wright’s film Call Me Kuchu which focuses on attacks on gays in Uganda.
The full list of awards is:
Best Film: Love (Amour) (France, Austria, Germany), directed by Michael Haneke
Best South African Feature Film: Adventures in Zambezia (South Africa), directed by Wayne Thornley
Best First Feature Film: Sleeping Beauty (Australia), directed by Julia Leigh
Best Director: Benh Zeitlin for Beasts Of The Southern Wild (USA)
Best Actress: Deanie Ip in...
- 7/29/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Sometimes great actors and promising material don’t always add up to cinematic excellence, and unfortunately this is the case for the Willem Dafoe vehicle, The Hunter, director Daniel Nettheim’s first feature in over a decade. Based on the novel by Julia Leigh, writer/director of the chilling Sleeping Beauty, Nettheim’s film favors a naturalistic Survivorman aesthetic and empathetic sensibility over Leigh’s subjective sterility, but while embracing a coarse lined with heartstrings, his big reveal lacks the pull necessary to make the film a real success.
The 2011 Tiff/2012 Rotterdam selected film features Dafoe as Martin, a hired mercenary posing as an embedded university biologist while actually a hired gun instructed to hunt down the fabled Tasmanian tiger, a species thought extinct, but also coveted by a biotech company named Red Leaf for their mysterious genetic properties. With help from a semi-sketchy local (Sam Neill), he takes up...
The 2011 Tiff/2012 Rotterdam selected film features Dafoe as Martin, a hired mercenary posing as an embedded university biologist while actually a hired gun instructed to hunt down the fabled Tasmanian tiger, a species thought extinct, but also coveted by a biotech company named Red Leaf for their mysterious genetic properties. With help from a semi-sketchy local (Sam Neill), he takes up...
- 7/10/2012
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Willem Dafoe is magnificent as a lone hunter in this gripping existential drama set in the wilds of Tasmania
Hunting is a longstanding metaphor in the movies. From the great explorer films of the early years such as The Lost World and King Kong, through to westerns, and later classics such as The Deer Hunter and White Hunter Black Heart, directors have used nature and the chase to depict man confronting his inner self, wrestling with his wild ego and his civilised id.
The latest of these is The Hunter, an Australian film set entirely in one of the last great wildernesses, Tasmania. Not to be confused with Steve McQueen's last film of the same name (although I'm sure echoes are intended), it's based on a book by Julia Leigh, the writer who made her own debut as a film-maker at Cannes in 2011 with the neo-feminist erotic curio Sleeping Beauty.
Hunting is a longstanding metaphor in the movies. From the great explorer films of the early years such as The Lost World and King Kong, through to westerns, and later classics such as The Deer Hunter and White Hunter Black Heart, directors have used nature and the chase to depict man confronting his inner self, wrestling with his wild ego and his civilised id.
The latest of these is The Hunter, an Australian film set entirely in one of the last great wildernesses, Tasmania. Not to be confused with Steve McQueen's last film of the same name (although I'm sure echoes are intended), it's based on a book by Julia Leigh, the writer who made her own debut as a film-maker at Cannes in 2011 with the neo-feminist erotic curio Sleeping Beauty.
- 7/7/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
Willem Dafoe is magnificent as a lone hunter in this gripping existential drama set in the wilds of Tasmania
Hunting is a longstanding metaphor in the movies. From the great explorer films of the early years such as The Lost World and King Kong, through to westerns, and later classics such as The Deer Hunter and White Hunter Black Heart, directors have used nature and the chase to depict man confronting his inner self, wrestling with his wild ego and his civilised id.
The latest of these is The Hunter, an Australian film set entirely in one of the last great wildernesses, Tasmania. Not to be confused with Steve McQueen's last film of the same name (although I'm sure echoes are intended), it's based on a book by Julia Leigh, the writer who made her own debut as a film-maker at Cannes in 2011 with the neo-feminist erotic curio Sleeping Beauty.
Hunting is a longstanding metaphor in the movies. From the great explorer films of the early years such as The Lost World and King Kong, through to westerns, and later classics such as The Deer Hunter and White Hunter Black Heart, directors have used nature and the chase to depict man confronting his inner self, wrestling with his wild ego and his civilised id.
The latest of these is The Hunter, an Australian film set entirely in one of the last great wildernesses, Tasmania. Not to be confused with Steve McQueen's last film of the same name (although I'm sure echoes are intended), it's based on a book by Julia Leigh, the writer who made her own debut as a film-maker at Cannes in 2011 with the neo-feminist erotic curio Sleeping Beauty.
- 7/7/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Willem Dafoe is as reliable and dependable as actors come, taking on ambitious projects that often hew away from the commercial, most notably the controversial horror Antichrist. Teaming with veteran TV director Daniel Nettheim, Dafoe unveils yet another facet of his skill set as a quiet, sensitive soul for Aussie indie thriller The Hunter.
Dafoe plays Martin David, an American mercenary who is hired by a military biotech company to hunt down the presumed-extinct yet recently-sighted Tasmanian Tiger and collect tissue samples from it. He has a few months to discover it before competition arrives if, in fact, they are not already there. While on his excursion, David lives with a local family, Lucy (Frances O’Connor) and her children, Sass (Morgana Davies) and Bike (Finn Woodlock). Slowly, he begins to bond with them, and upon learning that the children’s father, Jarrah (Marc Watson-Paul), disappeared...
Willem Dafoe is as reliable and dependable as actors come, taking on ambitious projects that often hew away from the commercial, most notably the controversial horror Antichrist. Teaming with veteran TV director Daniel Nettheim, Dafoe unveils yet another facet of his skill set as a quiet, sensitive soul for Aussie indie thriller The Hunter.
Dafoe plays Martin David, an American mercenary who is hired by a military biotech company to hunt down the presumed-extinct yet recently-sighted Tasmanian Tiger and collect tissue samples from it. He has a few months to discover it before competition arrives if, in fact, they are not already there. While on his excursion, David lives with a local family, Lucy (Frances O’Connor) and her children, Sass (Morgana Davies) and Bike (Finn Woodlock). Slowly, he begins to bond with them, and upon learning that the children’s father, Jarrah (Marc Watson-Paul), disappeared...
- 7/6/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
The title of Julia Leigh’s novel is a very appropriate double entendre for the main character of this haunting film adaptation, representing more one man’s fascinating and harrowing journey of self discovery that forever challenges expectations than the literal sense and job title of the protagonist. Director Daniel Nettheim only had one actor in mind and it’s clear why veteran actor Willem Dafoe was the only choice to encompass a mature soul needing self preservation by revisiting nature’s power over mankind.
Dafoe is Martin David, a loner and mercenary who is sent by a large corporation to the Tasmanian wilderness to hunt down the last Tasmanian Tiger. While on his travels Down Under, David lodges with a young family, deeply affected by their missing father who was said to know the whereabouts of the animal. As David gets to know them further and learns of the...
Dafoe is Martin David, a loner and mercenary who is sent by a large corporation to the Tasmanian wilderness to hunt down the last Tasmanian Tiger. While on his travels Down Under, David lodges with a young family, deeply affected by their missing father who was said to know the whereabouts of the animal. As David gets to know them further and learns of the...
- 7/6/2012
- by Lisa Giles-Keddie
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
★★★★☆ Australian director Daniel Nettheim adapts fellow countryman Julia Leigh's philosophical thriller The Hunter (2011), in what is a compelling, if flawed, debut feature. Gun-for-hire Martin (Willem Dafoe) is sent to the wilds of Tasmania by a mysterious European biotech firm to hunt the presumed-extinct thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. Taken in by a grieving widow and her two children, Martin begins to question his employer's motives, and also those of his local guide Jack (Sam Neill).
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 7/5/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
The Hunter Contest Giveaway Sweepstakes. This The Hunter Blu-ray contest, giveaway, sweepstakes illustrates The Hunter‘s release on DVD and 3D Blu-ray on July 3, 2012 and is co-sponsored by DragonBlogger. Daniel Nettheim‘s The Hunter stars Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Frances O’Connor, Sullivan Stapleton, and Dan Wyllie, Callan Mulvey, Jacek Koman, Morgana Davies, and Maia Thomas. The Hunter‘s plot synopsis: a based on the book by Julia Leigh, The Hunter [...]
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Continue reading: Contest: The Hunter (2011) Blu-ray: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill...
The post Contest: The Hunter (2011) Blu-ray: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill appeared first on Film-Book.com.
Continue reading: Contest: The Hunter (2011) Blu-ray: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill...
- 7/3/2012
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Martin David (Willem Dafoe) is a mercenary hired to fly to Tasmania and hunt down the mythical Tasmanian tiger – possibly the last of its kind. Once on location in a remote wilderness, Martin comes to meet the troubled Lucy Armstrong (Frances O’Connor) and her two children. Using the Armstrong household as a base of operations, Martin sets off on regular trips to find the target he has been hired to harvest. However, it soon becomes clear that what awaits Martin in the wilds of Tasmania is the last thing he ever expected – life.
‘The Hunter’ is one of those rare films which gain a strong enough reception to warrant international distribution, yet remain obscure enough to escape most people’s attention. Doing the rounds since autumn last year, Daniel Nettheim’s slow yet haunting adaptation of Julia Leigh’s novel has appeared at various festivals and events.
Martin David (Willem Dafoe) is a mercenary hired to fly to Tasmania and hunt down the mythical Tasmanian tiger – possibly the last of its kind. Once on location in a remote wilderness, Martin comes to meet the troubled Lucy Armstrong (Frances O’Connor) and her two children. Using the Armstrong household as a base of operations, Martin sets off on regular trips to find the target he has been hired to harvest. However, it soon becomes clear that what awaits Martin in the wilds of Tasmania is the last thing he ever expected – life.
‘The Hunter’ is one of those rare films which gain a strong enough reception to warrant international distribution, yet remain obscure enough to escape most people’s attention. Doing the rounds since autumn last year, Daniel Nettheim’s slow yet haunting adaptation of Julia Leigh’s novel has appeared at various festivals and events.
- 6/30/2012
- by Brad Williams
- Obsessed with Film
With projects under his belt including Back to The Future I and II, Twin Peaks, superhero film The Phantom and animated series The New Adventures of Batman - plus memorable maritime roles in Dead Calm and Titanic - Billy Zane is well known both to the geekosphere and the mainstream.
He next appears in the drama Electrick Children, released by Revolver Entertainment and Picturehouse Entertainment on July 13. A new UK trailer was released today and is included here with the poster.
Directed by Rebecca Thomas, Electrick Children stars upcoming actress Julia Garner - previously seen in Martha Marcy May Marlene - alongside Rory Culkin (Signs, Scream 4, You Can Count on Me), Liam Aiken (Road To Perdition, The Killer Inside Me) and Billy Zane (above right).
Electrick Children is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a sheltered childhood amongst the Mormon community.
The 26-year old first-time director grew...
He next appears in the drama Electrick Children, released by Revolver Entertainment and Picturehouse Entertainment on July 13. A new UK trailer was released today and is included here with the poster.
Directed by Rebecca Thomas, Electrick Children stars upcoming actress Julia Garner - previously seen in Martha Marcy May Marlene - alongside Rory Culkin (Signs, Scream 4, You Can Count on Me), Liam Aiken (Road To Perdition, The Killer Inside Me) and Billy Zane (above right).
Electrick Children is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a sheltered childhood amongst the Mormon community.
The 26-year old first-time director grew...
- 6/26/2012
- by David Bentley
- The Geek Files
Director: Daniel Nettheim. Writers: Julia Leigh, Alice Addison, and Wain Fimeri. Cast: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Frances O'Connor, Callan Mulvey, and Sullivan Stapleton. The Hunter is a film that will likely create some strong emotions in viewers. There is a haunting soundtrack that fills some of the painful scenes. Much of that pain is seen by Martin played by Willem Dafoe. He is a man in search of the last remaining Tasmanian Tiger. His dealings with bipedal creatures are perhaps more dangerous than hunting this elusive beast. The film begins with Martin contracted to find the tiger in the deep Tasmanian brush. A pharmaceutical company wants the creature's DNA for research and study. The clash between capitalism and preservation begins early. Martin then heads out on his hunting trip after meeting with the Armstrong family. The father of the clan is missing and the mother is too depressed from grief to wake.
- 6/15/2012
- by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 3, 2012
Price: DVD $26.98, Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
An official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival, 2011 adventure movie The Hunter stars Willem Dafoe (Platoon) in a search for an animal long considered extinct.
The R rated film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Julia Leigh. Dafoe stars as Martin David, a mercenary who’s sent to the Tasmanian wilderness by a mysterious biotech company to find the rumored last remaining Tasmanian tiger.
Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Frances O’Connor (A.I. Artificial Intelligence) also star in the acclaimed film, which was called “haunting, atmospheric and full of mystery” by The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hunter was directed by Australian filmmaker Daniel Nettheim, who’s better known for his work on TV series.
The movie was released in a handful of theaters after its premiere at the Toronto festival, but the DVD and...
Price: DVD $26.98, Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
An official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival, 2011 adventure movie The Hunter stars Willem Dafoe (Platoon) in a search for an animal long considered extinct.
The R rated film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Julia Leigh. Dafoe stars as Martin David, a mercenary who’s sent to the Tasmanian wilderness by a mysterious biotech company to find the rumored last remaining Tasmanian tiger.
Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Frances O’Connor (A.I. Artificial Intelligence) also star in the acclaimed film, which was called “haunting, atmospheric and full of mystery” by The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hunter was directed by Australian filmmaker Daniel Nettheim, who’s better known for his work on TV series.
The movie was released in a handful of theaters after its premiere at the Toronto festival, but the DVD and...
- 6/8/2012
- by Sam
- Disc Dish
When we got the news a few months ago that Evan Rachel Wood had agreed to re-team with writer-director Catherine Hardwicke on Plush, it was a fairly welcome announcement for those acquainted with Hardwicke‘s fierce, determined — if largely one-note — Wood-starring debut, Thirteen. In combination with the cryptically titillating logline — an “erotic thriller set in the L.A. music world” — there was little reason to speculate that Hardwicke was still stuck in the mud of her snoozy Twilight and Red Riding Hood days.
A new exclusive from Variety, however, mixes things up quite a bit — both for better and for worse. The revelation of Emily Browning‘s circling of the project is, to my mind, the better half of that token. The striking Australian up-and-comer had to dodge a lot of criticism for her work in Zack Snyder‘s disastrous Sucker Punch, even though the film’s failings were no fault of her own.
A new exclusive from Variety, however, mixes things up quite a bit — both for better and for worse. The revelation of Emily Browning‘s circling of the project is, to my mind, the better half of that token. The striking Australian up-and-comer had to dodge a lot of criticism for her work in Zack Snyder‘s disastrous Sucker Punch, even though the film’s failings were no fault of her own.
- 5/26/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Emily Browning proved to be one of the more eclectic actresses around with diverse roles from Zack Snyder's action fantasy Sucker Punch as an 18-year-old girl named Baby Doll (Browning) fighting her way out of a mental institution with the help of fellow inmates (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone) to Australian director Julia Leigh's smart, adult drama Sleeping Beauty, about a young woman (Browning) who takes a job at a unique brothel. According to Variety, the 23-year-old Australian maintained her artful focus by joining Catherine Hardwicke’s Plush, about a psychic psychologist who reads patient memories in order to unleash past demons. Browning looked to join the film as a teenage patient with powers equal to her psychic doctor. Hardwicke co-wrote the drama with Artie Nelson with I.M. Global busy selling distribution rights at Cannes.
- 5/25/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Emily Browning proved to be one of the more eclectic actresses around with diverse roles from Zack Snyder's action fantasy Sucker Punch as an 18-year-old girl named Baby Doll (Browning) fighting her way out of a mental institution with the help of fellow inmates (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone) to Australian director Julia Leigh's smart, adult drama Sleeping Beauty, about a young woman (Browning) who takes a job at a unique brothel. According to Variety, the 23-year-old Australian maintained her artful focus by joining Catherine Hardwicke’s Plush, about a psychic psychologist who reads patient memories in order to unleash past demons. Browning looked to join the film as a teenage patient with powers equal to her psychic doctor. Hardwicke co-wrote the drama with Artie Nelson with I.M. Global busy selling distribution rights at Cannes.
- 5/25/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Of the 22 films in contention for the prestigious Palme d'Or, not one has a female director. And while women's lives are getting more attention on screen, the struggle to break in to the rough and tough old boys' club of directing appears as hard as ever
Cannes' fabled Croisette promenade was dotted with the customary festival starlets in high heels and glamorous dresses yesterday afternoon.
But just behind them, a feminist uprising of sorts was in full swing. Inside a landmark hotel on the seafront strip in the South of France, loud calls for positive discrimination in favour of women's films were being voiced. The impact of British director Andrea Arnold's public anger about the failure to include a female director in the prestigious Palme D'Or line-up continues to stir controversy at the annual celebration of world cinema.
Speakers at a Beyond Borders diversity symposium echoed Arnold's complaint that...
Cannes' fabled Croisette promenade was dotted with the customary festival starlets in high heels and glamorous dresses yesterday afternoon.
But just behind them, a feminist uprising of sorts was in full swing. Inside a landmark hotel on the seafront strip in the South of France, loud calls for positive discrimination in favour of women's films were being voiced. The impact of British director Andrea Arnold's public anger about the failure to include a female director in the prestigious Palme D'Or line-up continues to stir controversy at the annual celebration of world cinema.
Speakers at a Beyond Borders diversity symposium echoed Arnold's complaint that...
- 5/19/2012
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
There is no doubt that no matter what Brandon Cronenberg decided to make as his first movie, the shadow of his father would loom large. So whether it just runs in the family, or if it was a calculated decision to do something audiences would expect from the Cronenberg mantle, full credit to Brandon for taking body horror to the next level with "Antiviral." While hardly perfect, it delivers the freak fest that fans of David have been missing for the past few years while establishing Brandon as a filmmaker with a bright future.
A constantly glowering, long haired Caleb Landry Jones leads the picture as Syd March, an employee of the Lucas Clinic who trade in a rather bizarre business. In the world of the film, celebrity obsession has jumped a few levels, and Lucas allows clients to inject themselves with the same virus or illness their favorite stars catch.
A constantly glowering, long haired Caleb Landry Jones leads the picture as Syd March, an employee of the Lucas Clinic who trade in a rather bizarre business. In the world of the film, celebrity obsession has jumped a few levels, and Lucas allows clients to inject themselves with the same virus or illness their favorite stars catch.
- 5/19/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Screen Australia are sinking $400,000 into sixteen Australian features currently in development reports Screen Daily
"The Hunter" author Julia Leigh is set to adapt one of her own novels for the big screen - the atmospheric gothic thriller "Disquiet" which follows a family reunion at a French chateau, one haunted by secrets.
The film would mark Leigh's second directorial effort following on from the recent "Sleeping Beauty" starring Emily Browning.
Others making the financial cut are the sequel "Nim’s Island: The Return Of The Pirates", Bruce Beresford’s action romance "Banjo & Matilda", and a Kriv Stenders-directed musical about a synchronised swimming champion that's set to Kylie Minogue's music.
"The Hunter" author Julia Leigh is set to adapt one of her own novels for the big screen - the atmospheric gothic thriller "Disquiet" which follows a family reunion at a French chateau, one haunted by secrets.
The film would mark Leigh's second directorial effort following on from the recent "Sleeping Beauty" starring Emily Browning.
Others making the financial cut are the sequel "Nim’s Island: The Return Of The Pirates", Bruce Beresford’s action romance "Banjo & Matilda", and a Kriv Stenders-directed musical about a synchronised swimming champion that's set to Kylie Minogue's music.
- 5/16/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
It never hurts to gain a little financial boost for your film, and in this case, the generous folks at Screen Australia have announced that they've lent a hand to two notable projects catching our eye: a re-teaming of Nash and Joel Edgerton for a feature that has the duo writing and Nash directing, as well as a return from "Sleeping Beauty" helmer Julia Leigh who is adapting one of her own works for the big screen.
While there's not too much detail on the Edgertons' project in the announcement -- other than it having a temporary title of "The Untitled Lucky Project," and that it's based on Nash's 2005 short "Lucky" -- an interview with him at Cannes last year does provide a little more color. Nash explained that "the thing [he's] writing now is one of my shorts that I'm expanding into a feature -- the world and the style of it.
While there's not too much detail on the Edgertons' project in the announcement -- other than it having a temporary title of "The Untitled Lucky Project," and that it's based on Nash's 2005 short "Lucky" -- an interview with him at Cannes last year does provide a little more color. Nash explained that "the thing [he's] writing now is one of my shorts that I'm expanding into a feature -- the world and the style of it.
- 5/15/2012
- by Simon Dang
- The Playlist
A musical from Red Dog director Kriv Stenders, a feature about the choir of hard knocks directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and an untitled project from Joel and Nash Edgerton are three of 16 features that have received a share of $400,000 in development support from Screen Australia. Of these 16 projects, ten are new additions to the development slate, while the remaining six have been receiving ongoing assistance. Screen Australia.s head of development Martha Coleman said in a statement that the calibre of features was outstanding. .There.s a general acknowledgement from the marketplace that our filmmakers have raised the bar and I think the next wave of films in the coming years will be really interesting..
Synchronicity, which is written by Marissa Goodhill,. produced by Leesa Kahn and Catriona Hughes and has Kriv Stenders attached as director, is a musical set to the songs of Kylie Minogue. It follows 17-year-old Kylie...
Synchronicity, which is written by Marissa Goodhill,. produced by Leesa Kahn and Catriona Hughes and has Kriv Stenders attached as director, is a musical set to the songs of Kylie Minogue. It follows 17-year-old Kylie...
- 5/15/2012
- by Amanda Diaz
- IF.com.au
Some of Australia’s biggest names in film-making have received funding for new projects in the latest round of Screen Australia’s single-project feature development.
The funding round for script development has supported 16 projects totalling $400,000, ten new projects and six which receive continued support.
Martha Coleman, Screen Australia’s head of development said: “The calibre of feature projects coming to the Development Department is outstanding. There’s a general acknowledgement from the marketplace that our film-makers have raised the bar and I think the next wave of films in the coming years will be really interesting.”
Film-makers include Julia Leigh, the Edgerton brothers, Abe Forsythe and Kriv Stenders.
Julia Leigh is to direct her second film, Disquiet following on from Sleeping Beauty, which won best direction in a feature film at the Australian Director’s Guild Awards on Friday night. The psychological horror will be adapted by Leigh from her book of the same name.
The funding round for script development has supported 16 projects totalling $400,000, ten new projects and six which receive continued support.
Martha Coleman, Screen Australia’s head of development said: “The calibre of feature projects coming to the Development Department is outstanding. There’s a general acknowledgement from the marketplace that our film-makers have raised the bar and I think the next wave of films in the coming years will be really interesting.”
Film-makers include Julia Leigh, the Edgerton brothers, Abe Forsythe and Kriv Stenders.
Julia Leigh is to direct her second film, Disquiet following on from Sleeping Beauty, which won best direction in a feature film at the Australian Director’s Guild Awards on Friday night. The psychological horror will be adapted by Leigh from her book of the same name.
- 5/14/2012
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
Matt Saville, Tony Krawitz and Jeffrey Walker won two awards each at the Australian Directors Guild Awards on Friday evening.
Saville won for the episode of The Slap that focused on Harry and for Cloudstreet in the drama series and mini-series categories respectively; Krawitz.s The Tall Man was voted best film in the feature documentary category and he was also chosen as the Finders Award recipient; and Jeffrey Walker was presented with both the inaugural Esben Storm Award for children.s TV for series three of H2O: Just Add Water and the award for TV comedy for Angry Boys.
Mrs Carey.s Concert, directed by Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond, was the joint winner of the documentary feature category, and Walker shared his comedy award with Stuart MacDonald and the show.s on-screen star, Chris Lilley.
One of the most touching moments of the night was when the audience...
Saville won for the episode of The Slap that focused on Harry and for Cloudstreet in the drama series and mini-series categories respectively; Krawitz.s The Tall Man was voted best film in the feature documentary category and he was also chosen as the Finders Award recipient; and Jeffrey Walker was presented with both the inaugural Esben Storm Award for children.s TV for series three of H2O: Just Add Water and the award for TV comedy for Angry Boys.
Mrs Carey.s Concert, directed by Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond, was the joint winner of the documentary feature category, and Walker shared his comedy award with Stuart MacDonald and the show.s on-screen star, Chris Lilley.
One of the most touching moments of the night was when the audience...
- 5/14/2012
- by Sandy George
- IF.com.au
Sleeping Beauty: won best direction in a feature
This evening’s Australian Directors’ Guild Awards saw Julia Leigh claim the best direction in a feature film gong for Sleeping Beauty.
Matthew Saville won two awards – for best direction in a TV mini series for Cloudstreet and best direction in a TV drama series for The Slap.
Sbs series Go Back To Where You Came From, which has just won international acclaim at the Rose d’Or Festival in Switzerland, took the best direction of a documentary series award for Ivan O’Mahoney.
Best direction of a TV ad went to Damien Toogood for Sydney Dogs and Cats Home.
The results in full:
Best Direction in a TV Drama Series: Matthew Saville for The Slap (Ep 3 – Harry) Best Direction in a TV Mini Series: Matthew Saville for Cloudstreet Best Direction in a Feature Film: Julia Leigh for Sleeping Beauty Best...
This evening’s Australian Directors’ Guild Awards saw Julia Leigh claim the best direction in a feature film gong for Sleeping Beauty.
Matthew Saville won two awards – for best direction in a TV mini series for Cloudstreet and best direction in a TV drama series for The Slap.
Sbs series Go Back To Where You Came From, which has just won international acclaim at the Rose d’Or Festival in Switzerland, took the best direction of a documentary series award for Ivan O’Mahoney.
Best direction of a TV ad went to Damien Toogood for Sydney Dogs and Cats Home.
The results in full:
Best Direction in a TV Drama Series: Matthew Saville for The Slap (Ep 3 – Harry) Best Direction in a TV Mini Series: Matthew Saville for Cloudstreet Best Direction in a Feature Film: Julia Leigh for Sleeping Beauty Best...
- 5/11/2012
- by Robin Hicks
- Encore Magazine
Though it shares its name with a wholesome fairy tale, writer and director Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty deals not in truths about love but of desperation and deeply rooted disaffection in youth. Emily Browning plays a young woman who takes on a job the exact nature of which she knows little about, save for the fact that it answers her financial woes. The newfound influx of cash alleviates the stress that previously dictated her schedule and kept her bouncing between any means necessary to get cash, classes, and casual sexual encounters that allowed her some semblance of control over her life. Does freeing oneself from financial strain matter more than knowing exactly what you’re being paid for? Perhaps more importantly, can life be lived as one long series of events and casual encounters that one can completely disconnect from while remaining sane?
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- 4/25/2012
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
Early this morning brought one of the most anticipated moments in the cinephile's calendar: the announcement of the line-up of this year's installment of the Cannes Film Festival. And while it reads in places like a parody of a Cannes line-up (Alain Resnais! Abbas Kiarostami! Michael Haneke! Ken Loach!) there's no doubt that we're excited about all of those films, as well as new ones from David Cronenberg, Jacques Audiard, Walter Salles and many, many others.
Much of the line-up had been widely predicted by Cannes-watchers (even that April Fool's Day prank ended up getting 18 films right), but nevertheless, there were a few surprises, as well as a few major absences, either expected ones or more eyebrow-raising ones. Some Cannes favorites we've known weren't coming for a while: Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" opens tomorrow in Italy and wasn't thought to be at Cannes, while neither Wong Kar-Wai...
Much of the line-up had been widely predicted by Cannes-watchers (even that April Fool's Day prank ended up getting 18 films right), but nevertheless, there were a few surprises, as well as a few major absences, either expected ones or more eyebrow-raising ones. Some Cannes favorites we've known weren't coming for a while: Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" opens tomorrow in Italy and wasn't thought to be at Cannes, while neither Wong Kar-Wai...
- 4/19/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
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