EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Baena and Ludovica Frasca have joined the cast of Josh Webber’s family holiday film Athena Saves Christmas, which is currently shooting in California’s Lake Arrowhead area for a late 2023 release.
11.03.2023 - 21:11 / deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Drafthouse Films has acquired North American rights to the documentary Chop & Steele, about the creators of the Found Footage Festival, announcing plans to release the film in April at Alamo Drafthouse theaters as part of a double bill with another newly-acquired doc, A Life on the Farm.
Chop & Steele premiered at Tribeca in 2022 and went on to a robust North American festival run that encompassed Calgary, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Ala., and the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.
In Chop & Steele, Found Footage Festival principals Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, “lifelong friends who tour the country with their popular VHS oddities festival, are slapped with a federal lawsuit after pranking a local news station as ‘strong men’ Chop and Steele. Many notables are featured in the doc, including David Cross, Bobcat Goldthwait, Reggie Watts, and Howie Mandel.”
Ben Steinbauer (Winnebago Man) and Berndt Mader directed and produced the documentary. Fellow producers are Priest Batten, Greta Kovach, Mike Saenz, Katie Steinbauer, Don Swaynos, and Janice Woods. The executive producers are Wavelength’s Jenifer Westphal, Russell Wayne Groves, Joe Plummer, Bernt Mader, and Ben Steinbauer.
“We’re excited for the world to finally see the most stressful days of our lives,” Pickett and Prueher said in a statement. “Chop & Steele is an inspirational story about friendship and perseverance, and frankly it is no different than the doc that won the Oscar about the guy who climbed mountains without any rope. It’s self-inflicted misery of the highest order, and we can’t wait to hit the road with Drafthouse Films and start
EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Baena and Ludovica Frasca have joined the cast of Josh Webber’s family holiday film Athena Saves Christmas, which is currently shooting in California’s Lake Arrowhead area for a late 2023 release.
Nick Cave has shared his thoughts on the AI-based platform, ChatGPT, saying that it should “fuck off and leave songwriting alone”.The Bad Seeds frontman made headlines back in January after sharing his less-than-enthusiastic views on using AI platforms to write songs – stating that the process is a “grotesque mockery of what it means to be human”.The comments were initially raised after a fan contacted Cave via his Q&A site, The Red Hand Files, and shared some lyrics generated in his style, made by the AI computer program ChatGPT. “Thanks for the song,” he wrote in his initial response. “But with all the love and respect in the world, this song is bullshit, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”.Now, the rock icon has once again spoken out about the AI service being used to create lyrics, and said that he wants it to “fuck off and leave songwriting alone”.“My objection is not with A.I.
Addie Morfoot Contributor Three projects pitched at CPH:FORUM – the industry program of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen-based documentary festival – have been awarded cash prizes. They are Robin Petré’s “Only on Earth,” Iryna Tsilyk’s “Red Zone” and Yegor Troyanovsky’s “Cuba & Alaska.” The filmmakers were awarded at a ceremony in the Danish capital on Thursday. Petré’s “Only on Earth” garnered the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth €20,000 for best pitch. The docu, produced by Signe Skov Thomsen, and Malene Flindt Pedersen, depicts a journey deep into one of Europe’s hottest fire zones, Galicia, where wild horses roam the mountains under the watch of local cowboys. These horses are excellent at fire prevention, but now they are vanishing in the clash between humans and nature.
EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films have picked up North American rights to Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy — a new documentary on the making of the iconic John Schlesinger film, from acclaimed documentarian Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story).
Nick Cave has called late poet and novelist Charles Bukowski “the bukkake of bad poetry.”Cave was responding to a comment on his Red Hand Files blog, in which a fan wrote: “No question, a statement instead. In my opinion you are one of the bonzerist geezers around, like Bukowski with a geetar. Thank you Mr.
Charna Flam Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” (Spain), Lilo and Camilo Vilaplana’s “Plantadas” (U.S.), Hansel Porras Garcia’s “Febrero” (U.S., Cuba), Chandler Levack’s “I Like Movies” (Canada) and Pavel Giroud’s “The Padilla Affair” (Cuba, Spain) were among the winners at the 40th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival, which ran March 3-12. “The Beasts,” won the festival’s top awards, including the top jury prize, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas trophy and the Rene Rodriguez Critics nod. In addition to the two awards, “The Beasts” composer, Oliver Arson was recognized for his soundtrack and awarded the Alacran Music in Film Award, he was selected by Art of Light (Composer) Award honoree Nicholas Britell.
EXCLUSIVE: Cranked Up Films has acquired North American rights to the comedy The Country Club starring John Higgins of SNL trio Please Don’t Destroy, with Archstone Entertainment taking foreign rights. The film marking the directorial debut of Fiona Robert, who also stars, is set for release in June.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sales agency Taskovski Films has acquired “!Aitsa” and “Fighters,” which both have premieres at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival. Dane Dodds’ “!Aitsa” has its world premiere in the festival’s Science Program. The film focuses on the spiritual lives of the inhabitants of South Africa’s Great Karoo desert. This is the place where some of the first humans likely lived. Here, in the Blombos cave, an unearthed piece of engraved ochre represents perhaps the earliest ever example of abstract human thinking. At the other extreme of the Karoo, bordering the Kalahari in the North, the town of Carnarvon is home to one of the biggest science projects in the world, the so-called Square Kilometer Array. Still under construction, the SKA will consist of hundreds of satellite dishes the size of three-story buildings. Its stated objectives are to explore dark matter, dark energy and the beginning of the universe, and search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Scream VI and Wednesday, has revealed the music she’s had on repeat during her meteoric rise to fame.“I listen to a lot of ‘Discovery’ by Daft Punk or ‘Homework’ by Daft Punk. [Those two albums] have been heavy on my playlist recently,” Ortega told NME. “I don’t know why. I think I’m re-going through my Daft Punk phase.”Released in 1997, ‘Homework’ was the French electronic duo’s debut album, while ‘Discovery’ hit the charts in 2001.
The post-parade Cape Town Pride Mardi Gras was a colourful climax to the annual Cape Town Pride Festival with a spirited celebration of the rainbow community.
Instagram statement by his family. No cause of death was immediately announced.“Death has tragically knocked at our door.
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Pornography, as a visual medium, has long followed the lead of technology. First it was drawn by hand. Then it was photographed. Then it was shown in back rooms on 8mm one-reelers. Then it was shown in movie theaters. Then it moved to video cassettes and DVD. Then it arrived on the Internet. Then, in the age of Pornhub, it exploded on the Internet. That’s when porn-on-the-computer innovation became the all-porn-all-the-time revolution. “Money Shot: The Pornhub Story,” a documentary that drops March 15 on Netflix, is not a movie about the cultural prominence or significance of porn in our time. Someone should really make that documentary. It’s a story that, like so much else about pornography, is totally out there yet hidden in the shadows. “Money Shot,” directed by Suzanne Hillinger and produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, does touch on key aspects of how porn today is manufactured and consumed — notably how technology has helped to blur, if not obliterate, the distinction between the porn professional and the elevated “amateur.” But the movie explores this mostly in the service of telling the story of how Pornhub, the largest porn site in the world, became a lightning rod of controversy when it was accused of being a place that abetted sex trafficking and the sexual abuse of children.
The annual Cape Town Pride Parade took to the streets of the Mother City to celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community and the freedom to be our authentic selves.
Chip and Joanna Gaines may have been totally 'broke' when they first got married back in 2003, but in the last twenty years, not only have they built a massive home-renovation empire, Magnolia, but also a staggering net-worth to match it.The couple first delved into the business of flipping homes the year they got married, and the same year, they opened their very first store, Magnolia Market, which later became Magnolia Homes, in Waco, Texas, where they still live and work from today.After gaining popularity in their hometown, and a decade after they first ventured into the home renovation business, they were offered the opportunity of a lifetime at HGTV, and became an overnight sensation with their hit show, Fixer Upper.WATCH: Joanna Gaines reveals her unconventional Valentine's Day tradition with husband ChipMORE: Joanna and Chip Gaines' youngest son Crew's talent put on display in beautiful videoSince then, the two have left the network and started their own, Magnolia, and have amassed a whopping $50million net worth combined.However, they don't forget their humble beginnings. Back in 2020, speaking with People Magazine, Joanna recalled: "I remember when we first got married the only money we had was what was in Chip's pocket."MORE: Chip and Joanna Gaines' four-year-old son Crew shows off his green thumb in adorable photosShe added: "He always had a wad of cash, but we were broke.
Nick Cave is creating a new installation and shop at London’s Dover Street market.The Bad Seeds singer is launching the unique space in the capital on March 17, which will also feature a whole new range of products from his online store ‘Cave Things’. The range includes apparel, books, homeware, prints and limited edition recordings, as well as new ‘Cave Things’ products exclusive to Dover Street Market.The brand will also re-introduce several sellout items from their archive and very first collection from 2020, including limited edition Polaroids and four picture discs. You can view many of the products here and some exclusive to the unique space below.Cave is set to make an appearance himself at the installation on March 19, where he will sign copies of his 2021 children’s book The Little Thing Is Sad. According to a press release, the unique space was designed in close collaboration with Cave, with “personal touches throughout that reference Nick and his wife Susie’s home, including their inimitable use of playful pink.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sideshow and Janus Films have bought North American rights for “Orlando, My Political Biography,” Paul B. Preciado’s film which won four awards at the Berlinale. In “Orlando, My Political Biography,” Preciado sheds light on Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando,” the first novel in which the main character changes sex in the middle of the story. A century later, Preciado, who is a trans writer and activist, decides to send a film letter to Woolf, telling her that Orlando has come out of her fiction and is living a life she could have never imagined. Preciado organizes a casting and gathers 26 contemporary trans and non-binary people, from 8 to 70 years old, who embody Orlando.
Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival marks its 40th edition, running March 3-12, with a full-blown return to the in-person festival experience with a sidebar of only 10 titles available online. “We’re celebrating the human connection and getting back into cinemas again,” says programming head Lauren Cohen who in her first year flying solo at the helm, is putting her personal stamp on the festival with female-centric topics dominating the Master Classes. “It’s our 40th anniversary, which is such a milestone for us, we want it to be bigger and better than ever,” she continues.
EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) has joined the cast of director Josh Webber’s holiday pic Athena Saves Christmas, with Christina Cooper coming aboard as producer.
IDLES, Rina Sawayama, Hot Chip and more have backed a campaign urging the UK government to act on US visa charges.Last month, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it was planning to raise touring visa fees for foreign acts by 260 per cent.Under the DHS proposal, applications for a P visa – which allows acts arriving in the States to perform temporarily – would increase from the current rate of $460 (£375.23) to $1,615 (£1,317).The longer-term O work visa would also jump from $460 (£375.23) to $1,655 (£1,349).In response, the Music Managers Forum (MMF) and Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) boosted their #LetTheMusicMove campaign – originally created in June 2021 – to oppose the potential changes, emphasising that the move could result in “crippling costs for UK artists looking to tour North America”.Now, a number of touring artists have bolstered the campaign with their support.“After what we’ve been through with Brexit and the pandemic, the implications of these new visa proposals are incredibly worrying for all artists wanting to travel and perform in the US,” Sawayama said.“I travel with 15+ crew on a tight margin, and any increase in costs sadly gets passed onto concert goers through higher ticket prices, which is not fair. Live music should be democratic and accessible and this is just another blow to the arts sector and the experience of concert goers.”Adam Devonshire of IDLES added: “Britain is renowned for its hugely profitable musical exports, however with pointless and costly restrictions such as these, British artists will struggle to make a name for themselves in the US, which would be a huge shame.
Sideshow and Janus Films have picked up the North American rights to “Afire,” which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlinale 2023. A theatrical release is planned for Summer 2023.From writer-director Christian Petzold, the film follows four young people who convene at a holiday house by the Baltic Sea.