European giant Beta Film, known for ambitious titles such as “Babylon Berlin” and “The Swarm,” has shared with Variety in exclusivity a first-look picture of 1o-part series “Rise of the Raven,” which it hails as “one of the most epic European TV productions of all time.”
“Rise of the Raven” weighs in as a passion project of Hungarian-born and Canada-based producer Robert Lantos, behind “Sunshine,” “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Barney’s Version,” “Eastern Promises” and “Crimes of the Future.”
A highlight at Beta Film’s showcase this Tuesday at the London TV Screenings, “Rise of the Raven” turns on the extraordinary feat of Hungarian army commander Janos Hunyadi, played by discovery Gellért L. Kádár, who in 1456 won a bloody, brutal Battle of Belgrade against a vast Ottoman force twice the size of his troops who were often farm labourers armed with just slings and patriotic fervor.
Hunyadi largely halted a full Ottoman...
“Rise of the Raven” weighs in as a passion project of Hungarian-born and Canada-based producer Robert Lantos, behind “Sunshine,” “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Barney’s Version,” “Eastern Promises” and “Crimes of the Future.”
A highlight at Beta Film’s showcase this Tuesday at the London TV Screenings, “Rise of the Raven” turns on the extraordinary feat of Hungarian army commander Janos Hunyadi, played by discovery Gellért L. Kádár, who in 1456 won a bloody, brutal Battle of Belgrade against a vast Ottoman force twice the size of his troops who were often farm labourers armed with just slings and patriotic fervor.
Hunyadi largely halted a full Ottoman...
- 2/27/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
It’s been more than 15 years since Oscar-nominated cinematographer and director Lajos Koltai helmed his last film, “Evening” (2007), a poignant meditation on mortality, regret and womanhood that featured a star-studded ensemble cast, including Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close, Eileen Atkins and Meryl Streep, and was released domestically by Focus Features.
For his return to the director’s chair, the Hungarian-born filmmaker also returns closer to home with “Semmelweis,” a period biopic drama about a Hungarian doctor who turns the medical establishment on its head in 19th-century Vienna. The film opens the 21st Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs Oct. 27 to Nov. 2 at the Laemmle Monica Film Center.
“Semmelweis” is set in 1847, as a mysterious epidemic is raging in a maternity clinic in Vienna. The film follows the Hungarian-born doctor Ignác Semmelweis, played by rising Hungarian actor Miklos H. Vecsei, in a race against the clock to solve the mystery...
For his return to the director’s chair, the Hungarian-born filmmaker also returns closer to home with “Semmelweis,” a period biopic drama about a Hungarian doctor who turns the medical establishment on its head in 19th-century Vienna. The film opens the 21st Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs Oct. 27 to Nov. 2 at the Laemmle Monica Film Center.
“Semmelweis” is set in 1847, as a mysterious epidemic is raging in a maternity clinic in Vienna. The film follows the Hungarian-born doctor Ignác Semmelweis, played by rising Hungarian actor Miklos H. Vecsei, in a race against the clock to solve the mystery...
- 10/22/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
As a young boy growing up in Budapest, a town that would come to be known as “Hollywood on the Danube,” Béla Bunyik dreamed of being in the pictures. “I fell in love with movies in Hungary back in the ’50s,” Bunyik tells Variety. “When I was 12 years old, I started to work as an extra in a few movies…. In 1953, I spent a whole summer with a bunch of kids and some of the best Hungarian actors at the time.”
He recalls being picked up after school by talent scouts and cutting his teeth on the sets of films like Viktor Gertler’s 1954 adventure-comedy “Me and My Grandfather.” “Seeing how a movie was done was very exciting for me and I was sad when the summer ended, and the film was shut,” he says. But those formative years sparked a lifelong obsession. “I got hooked.”
Bunyik would later emigrate to the U.
He recalls being picked up after school by talent scouts and cutting his teeth on the sets of films like Viktor Gertler’s 1954 adventure-comedy “Me and My Grandfather.” “Seeing how a movie was done was very exciting for me and I was sad when the summer ended, and the film was shut,” he says. But those formative years sparked a lifelong obsession. “I got hooked.”
Bunyik would later emigrate to the U.
- 10/22/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Principal photography is underway near Budapest on “Rise of the Raven,” an epic drama series produced by veteran Canadian producer Robert Lantos’ Serendipity Point Films (“Crimes of the Future”) and Beta Film (“Gomorrah”) that marks the most lavish TV production in Hungary’s history.
Adapted from author Bán Mór’s bestselling novels, the 10-episode series tells the story of the Hungarian warrior Janos Hunyadi, who defeated the Ottoman army in 1456 at the Battle of Belgrade, halting its march across Europe.
Lantos, whose producing credits include “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Johnny Mnemonic” and “Eastern Promises,” spoke exclusively with Variety about a passion project more than a decade in the making. He was joined by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director Robert Dornhelm and Hungarian directors Attila Szász and Orsi Nagypal, who joined the conversation fresh off shooting an epic battle sequence outside Budapest.
The Hungarian-born Lantos, who was in Cannes this year with David Cronenberg...
Adapted from author Bán Mór’s bestselling novels, the 10-episode series tells the story of the Hungarian warrior Janos Hunyadi, who defeated the Ottoman army in 1456 at the Battle of Belgrade, halting its march across Europe.
Lantos, whose producing credits include “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Johnny Mnemonic” and “Eastern Promises,” spoke exclusively with Variety about a passion project more than a decade in the making. He was joined by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director Robert Dornhelm and Hungarian directors Attila Szász and Orsi Nagypal, who joined the conversation fresh off shooting an epic battle sequence outside Budapest.
The Hungarian-born Lantos, who was in Cannes this year with David Cronenberg...
- 8/9/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Hungarian helmer Kristóf Deák, who won an Oscar for best live-action short film for “Sing,” has made his first feature-length movie, the Communist-era drama “Captives.”
Based on real events, the picture is set in Budapest, Hungary, during the Communist era, in 1951. It turns on the story of a family and the secret police who show up at their door, move in, and lock the family members up in their own home, along with anyone else who comes knocking. Days go by without any explanation and the situation grows more and more absurd as secrets, lies and paranoia begin to unravel the growing number of captives in the apartment.
The movie was predominantly shot in a single location in Budapest. It premiered in competition at the International Film Festival of India, which was held last month in Goa.
Deák has worked in short films and TV, directing episodes of popular Hungarian series “Hacktion.
Based on real events, the picture is set in Budapest, Hungary, during the Communist era, in 1951. It turns on the story of a family and the secret police who show up at their door, move in, and lock the family members up in their own home, along with anyone else who comes knocking. Days go by without any explanation and the situation grows more and more absurd as secrets, lies and paranoia begin to unravel the growing number of captives in the apartment.
The movie was predominantly shot in a single location in Budapest. It premiered in competition at the International Film Festival of India, which was held last month in Goa.
Deák has worked in short films and TV, directing episodes of popular Hungarian series “Hacktion.
- 12/10/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Uncomfortable as it is to admit, there have been so many mediocre Holocaust movies post-Schindler's List that a certain fatigue has set in.
Exceptions exist, of course — films like Roman Polanski's The Pianist or Lajos Koltai's Fateless, which, through their clarity of vision and lack of sentimentality, force us to see the horror with fresh eyes. But most screen depictions of this defining 20th-century atrocity, no matter their angle, rely on predictable emotional, visual and musical cues to coax the audience toward weepy catharsis (see: Life is Beautiful, Jakob the Liar, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Book Thief, Woman in...
Exceptions exist, of course — films like Roman Polanski's The Pianist or Lajos Koltai's Fateless, which, through their clarity of vision and lack of sentimentality, force us to see the horror with fresh eyes. But most screen depictions of this defining 20th-century atrocity, no matter their angle, rely on predictable emotional, visual and musical cues to coax the audience toward weepy catharsis (see: Life is Beautiful, Jakob the Liar, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Book Thief, Woman in...
- 3/20/2017
- by Jon Frosch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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Diverse, awe-inspiring and memorable treasures that have sadly fallen off the radar
The noughties were a tough decade for film music fans. Not only was there the unprecedented loss of four great masters in the form of Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Michael Kamen and Basil Poledouris; the nature of the industry itself began to go through some seismic changes, not all of them for the better.
With the art of film scoring becoming ever more processed, driven increasingly by ghost writers, electronic augmentation and temp tracks, prospects looked bleak. However, this shouldn’t shield the fact that there were some blindingly brilliant scores composed during this period. Here’s but a small sampling of them.
25. The Departed (Howard Shore, 2006)
When it came to the sound of his Oscar-winning crime thriller, director Martin Scorsese hit on the inspired notion of having composer Howard Shore base it around a tango,...
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Diverse, awe-inspiring and memorable treasures that have sadly fallen off the radar
The noughties were a tough decade for film music fans. Not only was there the unprecedented loss of four great masters in the form of Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Michael Kamen and Basil Poledouris; the nature of the industry itself began to go through some seismic changes, not all of them for the better.
With the art of film scoring becoming ever more processed, driven increasingly by ghost writers, electronic augmentation and temp tracks, prospects looked bleak. However, this shouldn’t shield the fact that there were some blindingly brilliant scores composed during this period. Here’s but a small sampling of them.
25. The Departed (Howard Shore, 2006)
When it came to the sound of his Oscar-winning crime thriller, director Martin Scorsese hit on the inspired notion of having composer Howard Shore base it around a tango,...
- 3/3/2016
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
Ennio Morricone accepts an Honorary Academy Award during the 79th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA, on Sunday, February 25, 2007.
The Weinstein Company has released a 7-minute video from the actual recording session of L’Ultima Diligenza per Red Rock (versione integrale) from The Hateful Eight.
Featuring the legendary composer, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight is nominated for 3 Academy Awards this year, including Best Original Score.
In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter,...
The Weinstein Company has released a 7-minute video from the actual recording session of L’Ultima Diligenza per Red Rock (versione integrale) from The Hateful Eight.
Featuring the legendary composer, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight is nominated for 3 Academy Awards this year, including Best Original Score.
In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter,...
- 2/17/2016
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Laszlo Nemes's debut feature, Son of Saul, "is as grim and unyielding a depiction of the Holocaust as has yet been made," declares Variety's Justin Chang. "Boldly courting the kind of debate about how (or whether) the Nazi death camps should be depicted that dates back at least as far as Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985), Son of Saul is likely to draw admiration and outrage alike." For the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw this is "a film with the power of Elem Klimov’s Come and See and perhaps also Lajos Koltai’s Hungarian film Fateless. It also has the severity of Béla Tarr, to whom director Làszlò Nemes was for two years an assistant, but notably without Tarr’s glacial pace: Nemes is clearly concerned at some level to exert the conventional sort of narrative grip which does not interest Tarr." » - David Hudson...
- 5/15/2015
- Keyframe
Laszlo Nemes's debut feature, Son of Saul, "is as grim and unyielding a depiction of the Holocaust as has yet been made," declares Variety's Justin Chang. "Boldly courting the kind of debate about how (or whether) the Nazi death camps should be depicted that dates back at least as far as Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985), Son of Saul is likely to draw admiration and outrage alike." For the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw this is "a film with the power of Elem Klimov’s Come and See and perhaps also Lajos Koltai’s Hungarian film Fateless. It also has the severity of Béla Tarr, to whom director Làszlò Nemes was for two years an assistant, but notably without Tarr’s glacial pace: Nemes is clearly concerned at some level to exert the conventional sort of narrative grip which does not interest Tarr." » - David Hudson...
- 5/15/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
This astonishing debut film, about a prisoner in the concentration camp employed in the industrial processes of body disposal, is a horror movie of extraordinary focus and courage
A season in hell is what this devastating and terrifying film offers – as well as an occasion for meditating on representations of the Holocaust, on Wittgenstein’s dictum about matters whereof we cannot speak, and on whether these unimaginable and unthinkable horrors can or even should be made imaginable and thinkable in a drama. There is an argument that any such work, however serious its moral intentions, risks looking obtuse or diminishing its subject, although this is not a charge that can be levelled at Son of Saul.
By any standards, this would be an outstanding film, but for a debut it is remarkable. Director László Nemes’s film has the power of Elem Klimov’s Come and See – which surely inspired...
A season in hell is what this devastating and terrifying film offers – as well as an occasion for meditating on representations of the Holocaust, on Wittgenstein’s dictum about matters whereof we cannot speak, and on whether these unimaginable and unthinkable horrors can or even should be made imaginable and thinkable in a drama. There is an argument that any such work, however serious its moral intentions, risks looking obtuse or diminishing its subject, although this is not a charge that can be levelled at Son of Saul.
By any standards, this would be an outstanding film, but for a debut it is remarkable. Director László Nemes’s film has the power of Elem Klimov’s Come and See – which surely inspired...
- 5/15/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Berlin -- Bernd Hellthaler has resigned from EuroArts Medien, the Berlin company he founded in 1994 and built into one of the world’s leading producers of classic music and fine arts programming.
Some of the company’s best known work was done as co-productions, including the Grammy-nominated documentary “Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz (1997)”.
EuroArts also co-produced several feature films, including Kenneth Glenaan’s “Yasmin” (2004), “Don’t Come Knocking” (2005) from Wim Wenders and Lajos Koltai’s “Fateless” (2005).
Hellthaler cited unspecified “personal reasons” for his exit. He will continue to advise the company and its corporate parent Medici Arts, which acquired EuroArts in 2004.
Some of the company’s best known work was done as co-productions, including the Grammy-nominated documentary “Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz (1997)”.
EuroArts also co-produced several feature films, including Kenneth Glenaan’s “Yasmin” (2004), “Don’t Come Knocking” (2005) from Wim Wenders and Lajos Koltai’s “Fateless” (2005).
Hellthaler cited unspecified “personal reasons” for his exit. He will continue to advise the company and its corporate parent Medici Arts, which acquired EuroArts in 2004.
- 12/20/2008
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lajos Koltai is in final negotiations to direct the screen adaptation of Susan Minot's best-selling novel Evening for Focus Features and Hart Sharp Entertainment. Minot and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (The Hours) adapted the story of a woman, reflecting back on one weekend in her youth when she met the love of her life, as her two daughters try to come to terms with the mother's impending death while struggling with their own personal issues. Evening is the first English-language film to be directed by Hungarian filmmaker Koltai. The former cinematographer -- Oscar-nominated in 2001 for lensing Malena -- most recently directed Fateless, a historical drama based on Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz's novel about Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. Fateless was Hungary's submission to this year's Academy Awards.
- 2/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Natasha McElhone, Mimi Rogers and Maury Chaykin have joined the cast of Jean-Baptiste Andrea's Big Nothing backers Pathe Pictures said Friday. The three join previously announced David Schwimmer and Simon Pegg ahead of the movie's production start on Dec. 4, Pathe said. Producers have also cast newcomer Alice Eve (Stage Beauty) as the movie's ex-beauty queen turned con artist. Written by Andrea and Billy Asher and produced by Andras Hamori (Fateless) and Gabriella Stollenwerck (Dead End), the movie centers on a frustrated, unemployed teacher who decides to take revenge on life by joining forces with an unpredictable scammer and his ambitious girlfriend (Eve) in a "fool-proof" blackmailing scheme. Backed by French-owned, London-based Pathe Pictures and Ingenious Films, Big Nothing is produced by H2O Motion Pictures Production with the support of the Isle of Man Film and Television Fund and Finance Wales Investment. Pathe Distribution will release the film in the U.K. and France with Pathe Pictures International handling worldwide sales.
- 11/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
David Schwimmer and Simon Pegg have joined the cast of Jean-Baptiste Andrea's Big Nothing, Pathe Pictures said Friday at the American Film Market. Billed as a fast-paced and tightly plotted black comedy, Andrea and William Asher penned the screenplay, the film is being produced by Andras Hamori (Fateless) and Gabriella Stollenwerck (Dead End) under production banner H2O Motion Pictures.
- 11/5/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- David Cronenberg, who is in Cannes with his In Competition film A History of Violence, will next direct Painkillers, a futuristic thriller that reteams him with producer Robert Lantos, who is repped at the festival by Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies. The producer and director on Friday confirmed the project, which has been in development for several years. Based on Cronenberg's first original screenplay in eight years, Painkillers is budgeted at $35 million and is being readied for release in late 2006. Andras Hamori (Fateless) will produce with Lantos. ThinkFilm's newly formed international sales division, headed by Mark Horowitz, will offer presales at the market.
- 5/13/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Indie distributor THINKFilm announced Tuesday that it has acquired all North American rights to Fateless, the adaptation of the novel by Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz that premiered in competition at the recent Berlin Film Festival. The film marks the directorial debut of Oscar-nominated cinematographer Lajos Koltai, and comes from a screenplay by Kertesz. The film, a semi-autobiographical tale of a 14-year old Jewish boy from Budapest who finds himself swept up in Hitler's Final Solution policy, has become a boxoffice sensation in its native Hungary.
- 4/20/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- Fateless, the directorial debut of Hungarian cinematographer Lajos Koltai (Malena) was added as a last-minute Competition entry at this year's Berlin International Film Festival Wednesday. The film is based on the life of Hungarian Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz and portrays his experience of the Holocaust as an adolescent. Kertesz wrote the screenplay for Fateless, adapting his autobiography of the same name. The film stars Marcell Nagy, Aron Dimeny and Andras M. Kecskes and features music composed by Ennio Morricone. "We are happy that we could still include the film at this very last moment," Berlin festival director Dieter Kosslick said in a statement. Fateless will have its international premiere at the fest on Feb.15. It will replace Chris Terrio's drama Heights which has been withdrawn from the Berlin Competition lineup. The 55th Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 10-20.
- 2/10/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
MOSCOW -- The Holocaust-themed novel Fateless, by Imre Kertesz, winner of this year's Nobel Prize for literature, will be made into an $8 million film by Budapest-based Magic Media Entertainment, the company said Tuesday. Magic Media, which five years ago bought the rights to Kertesz's story of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, plans to begin production on the Hungarian-language film within a year, producer Peter Barbalics said. He said Magic Media is looking for additional co-producers to fund the film and that it hopes the Hungarian government will contribute to a project that would "act as an advertisement for Hungarian culture."...
- 10/16/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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