Bill Pohlad Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Love & Mercy, nobody understands the power of music to heal and transform lives better than Bill Pohlad.  We are so excited to bring his second film, the story of a family whose lives were changed by making one classic record, to theatrical audiences this summer,” said Eric d’Arbeloff, Roadside Attractions Co-President in an official statement. “Dreamin’ Wild” will open in theaters on August 4.

EXCLUSIVE: Zooey Deschanel has signed on to star in Merv, a romantic comedy that Jessica Swale will direct for Amazon MGM Studios.

Alex Ritman Signature Entertainment has acquired the U.K. and Irish rights to “Unicorns,” the romance drama co-directed by BAFTA nominee Sally El Hosaini (“The Swimmers”) and her long-standing collaborator James Krishna Floyd, who starred in both “The Swimmers” and her directorial debut “My Brother the Devil.” From a script written by Floyd, “Unicorns” is described as a “visually daring and heartfelt portrayal of modern masculinity” and follows a queer South Asian club performer living a double life who meets a straight, single-father mechanic, with whom unexpected sparks begin to fly.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Zurich Avenue, headed by producers and former Zurich Film Festival execs Karl Spoerri and Viviana Vezzani, has quickly amassed an impressive slate of projects since launching last year, including Annette Bening starrer “Nyad.” Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s film, which chronicles the attempt by 64-year-old swimmer Diana Nyad to swim from Cuba to Florida, unspools at the Zurich Film Festival. Zurich Avenue co-developed the Netflix film, which was produced by Black Bear Pictures and Mad Chance.

EXCLUSIVE: Bohemian Rhapsody actor Ben Hardy and newcomer Jason Patel were kept apart during the pre-production phase of Unicorns, a love story between an Essex car mechanic and a South Asian drag queen.

Oscar-nominated producer Bill Pohlad has a long history of aligning himself with auteurs on award-winning fare—from Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain to Terrence Malick on the Palme d’Or winning The Tree of Life to Steve McQueen’s Oscar Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave, and getting financially behind them with his River Road Entertainment banner. We talk with Pohlad on Crew Call today about his third career feature as director, Dreamin’ Wild, based on the New York Times Steven Kurutz article about the Fruitland, WA-based Emerson brothers whose dad literally bet the farm (mortgaging it to the tune of $100K) on the duo’s singing talents in the 1970s, and built them a studio. They didn’t make it initially — not until 2008 when the album they made some near 40 years prior, “Dreamin’ Wild,” was discovered by a record collector in Spokane, Jack Fleischer, and championed fervently. The record’s single “Baby” ultimately became a cult hit when it was covered by Ariel Pink in 2012. Casey Affleck plays Donnie Emerson, the aorta of the songwriting duo, who grapples with the mid-life crisis of finding some facet of fame, when all seemed forever lost.

Roadside Attractions has released the trailer for “Dreamin’ Wild”, the upcoming biographical music-drama that tells a moving story about prevailing against all odds.

The story of “Dreamin’ Wild” is a pretty damn fascinating one beyond its terrific filmmaker (Bill Pohlad) and its excellent cast (led by Casey Affleck and Zooey Deschanel, to name just a few). In short, Light In The Attic, a fantastic Seattle record label that unearths undiscovered gems, did just that with Donnie and Joe Emerson.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International After 15 years running the Zurich Film Festival, directors Viviana Vezzani and Karl Spoerri stepped down in late 2019 to take their expertise to the next level and launch a film financing outfit. And then the pandemic struck. The Los Angeles- and Zurich-based SPG3 Entertainment was formed in 2020 by Spoerri and Urs Wietlisbach and Alfred Gantner, the founders of international private equity outfit Partners Group, with Vezzani as COO. But gaining momentum amid the COVID crisis had its share of challenges, not to mention the creative detachment of being financiers as opposed to hands-on producers on a project. Last year, the duo launched production banner Zurich Avenue in a bid to become more active creatively on feature films, and leverage their strong talent relationships borne out of running the festival.

EXCLUSIVE: The Exchange has added Bill Pohlad’s Dreamin’ Wild starring Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe and Zooey Deschanel to its Cannes slate.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Roadside Attractions has acquired North American rights to “Dreamin’ Wild,” a drama about the rediscovery of singer and songwriter Donnie Emerson after years spent in obscurity. The film, which was directed by Bill Pohlad, a filmmaker who unearthed gold from another music industry saga with his 2014 Brian Wilson film “Love & Mercy,” premiered at Venice. “Dreamin’ Wild,” a reference to an album that Donnie released with his brother Joe Emerson, will open nationwide only in theaters on August 4, 2023. Roadside previously released “Love & Mercy,” making this a reunion for the filmmaker and distributor. The film centers on the critical reevaluation of “Dreamin’ Wild,” and the impact that second chance has on Donnie, his wife Nancy, brother Joe, and father Don Sr. as they must come to terms their new fame. Pohlad uses two different actors to explore the real-life characters in different time periods, just as he did in “Love & Mercy” with Paul Dano and John Cusack sharing the role of The Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson. This time, Oscar-winner Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”) plays the older Donnie Emerson and Noah Jupe, who appeared in “Honey Boy,” plays the younger. Walton Goggins (“Justified”) and Jack Dylan Grazer (“It”) take on Donnie’s brother Joe, while Beau Bridges plays the family patriarch. Zooey Deschanel plays Donnie’s wife Nancy.

Roadside Attractions has nabbed North American rights to the drama Dreamin’ Wild, telling the true story of musician brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson, slating it for release in theaters nationwide on August 4th.

EXCLUSIVE: 12 Years A Slave and Brokeback Mountain outfit River Road Entertainment has joined Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd’s feature Unicorns as producer and financier.

EXCLUSIVE: Participant has announced that it is producing Food, Inc. 2 — a sequel to its Academy Award-nominated documentary Food, Inc., to be released later this year.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Not many films hit an emotional crescendo around the publication of a Pitchfork review, but Bill Pohlad’s “Dreamin’ Wild” is sufficiently sincere and embedded in musical nerdery to make it work. As onetime brother act Donnie and Joe Emerson huddle with their family around a 30-years-late evaluation of the album they recorded as teenagers, one particular critical reference sends them giddily reeling: “To twist a Brian Wilson phrase,” it reads, “[the album] is a godlike symphony to teenhood.” For fortysomething Donnie, who has spent his whole adult life scrambling for anyone to listen to his music — let alone love it — the mere mention of his musical hero in relation to his work is a crowning triumph: Donnie, as played by a typically disheveled, downcast Casey Affleck, looks briefly, guardedly happy for a moment, and this often melancholic film is suddenly suffused with well-being.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “I see a lot of rich people here!” said Jodie Turner-Smith as she took to the stage to open the Venice Film Festival AmfAR gala and auction held Wednesday evening in the Arsenale, a former shipyard complex on the edge of the city’s Grand Canal. Urging guests to be generous, Turner-Smith, who looked stunning in a yellow corset top, reminded everyone that, “It’s easy to forget that AIDS still remains one of the world’s most serious health threats.”  Though undoubtedly lower key than the event held at Cannes, AmfAR Venice had its fair share of glamour and star power with Heather Graham, Patricia Clarckson, Marisa Tomei and Rachel Brosnahan among chairs. 

The Emersons are modest people. Running a farm, along with raising children to be decent, God-fearing and hard-working, is an all-day, all-week business; there isn’t much time for pretension. Even among the rustling pine trees in their little bit of Washington state, however, teenage boys may pick at guitars, noodle out a few songs that sound a bit like the Eagles, imagine rock stardom and dream of being discovered. The true story of the Emerson brothers would be like thousands of others, except for the fact that they were discovered. And that they were discovered, thanks to the internet, 30 years too late.

Lightning strikes twice for filmmaker Bill Pohlad in his sophomore feature “Dreamin’ Wild.” The producer-turned-writer-director follows up the promise of his bifurcated Brian Wilson biopic “Love & Mercy” with another moving tale of personal and artistic redemption. His recounting of Donnie and Joe Emerson’s resurgence over three decades after the release of their only album captures not just musicians but also something of the quality of the music itself.

Zooey Deschanel and Casey Affleck are stepping out to support their new movie.

Stalwart indie filmmaker Bill Pohlad today premeres in Venice Dreamin’ Wild. His directing follow up to the critically acclaimed Brian Wilson film Love & Mercy also follows a music story, though one far less familiar. Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe, Zooey Deschanel, Walton Goggins and Beau Bridges star. When Donnie Emerson (played by Affleck and Jupe) was a teenager growing up on his father’s farm in Fruitland, Washington (population 791) he spent his days writing music and dreaming of becoming a music star. And everyone in the family became invested in that dream, including his brother Joe (Goggins) who became his drummer, and especially his father, Don Sr (Bridges). He mortgaged his farm to build a $100,000 recording studio, and more to help Donnie make and release his first record. It went nowhere and the bulk of the farm had to be sold when the loan came due. But 30 years later, the overlooked album was rediscovered by the music scene. Suddenly Donnie, who continued to struggle and write and play his music, had gotten a taste of his childhood dreams. But it comes with the guilt of failure that haunted him for years, and involves having to play the songs that meant something as a teen, but not as a 50 year old man who has evolved as a musician. And it is all true.

EXCLUSIVE: Karl Spoerri, Viviana Vezzani and Tobias Gutzwiller are officially launching production label Zurich Avenue, which will sit under the banner of their finance company SPG3.

Th 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has selected its Industry Selects, a section of ten audience friendly films up for global acquisition. In addition it was announced that Jason Reitman’s Live Read is returning to the Festival for an all-star event featuring a surprise cast; the filmmaker presenting a surprise screenplay in honor of his late father, Ivan Reitman.

EXCLUSIVE: Zooey Deschanel has inked with Entertainment 360.

Walton Goggins is set as a lead in Fallout, Prime Video’s series adaptation of the bestselling game franchise, which comes from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films, with Nolan set to direct the premiere.

Bill Pohlad (“Love & Mercy“) is set to write/direct “Dreamin’ Wild,” the pic is based on the true story of instrumental and vocal duo Donnie & Joe Emerson and their family dynamic over the years. This comes as music biopics have primarily centered on more popular acts that are better known to the public, and focusing on lesser-known musicians should allow the film to get under the shadow of the musicians themselves and let the movie become its own thing.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterDirector Bill Pohlad has enlisted a starry ensemble for “Dreamin’ Wild,” his upcoming indie movie about musicians Donnie and Joe Emerson.Casey Affleck, Zooey Deschanel and Walton Goggins will lead the call sheet, with Beau Bridges, Jack Dylan Grazer, Noah Jupe and Chris Messina rounding out the cast.“Dreamin’ Wild” tells the true story of the Emerson family and the tumult that followed the success of their self-recorded pop-funk album of the same name, which

Oscar-winning actor Casey Affleck will lead the cast of writer/director Bill Pohlad’s next film “Dreamin’ Wild,” which charts the true story of musicians Donnie and Joe Emerson.

Oscar winner Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Emmy and Grammy winner Beau Bridges (One Night in Miami…), Emmy nominees Zooey Deschanel (New Girl) and Walton Goggins (The Righteous Gemstones), Jack Dylan Grazer (We Are Who We Are), Noah Jupe (Ford v Ferrari) and Chris Messina (I Care a Lot) have signed on to star in Dreamin’ Wild, a film from writer-director Bill Pohlad, which has entered production in Spokane, Washington.