Indie film Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The British producer of Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness has sounded the alarm on the state of the UK’s independent film industry.

The UK government has used its Autumn Statement to quell industry concerns around the new tax credit but declines to raise relief for indie film, while Equity has slammed the Conservatives for “undermining public service broadcasters and pursuing a culture war against marginalised groups.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Japanese indie film company Gaga Corporation has seen a controlling share stake sold to Genda Inc., a fast-moving entertainment conglomerate with its roots in arcade gaming. Genda is buying the 78% share holding owned by Gaga chairman Tom Yoda’s T.Y. Limited company.

Caroline Brew editor Doug Jones, a veteran film programmer, curator and exhibitor at several U.S. film festivals, has died. He was 53.

EXCLUSIVE: Steven Soderbergh has dedicated more than four decades to shaping his legacy in Hollywood as a director, cinematographer and producer. But instead of splurging on yachts or a home in the South of France, he is investing in the future of independent filmmaking by mentoring directors like Joe and Anthony Russo, Christopher Nolan and most recently Eddie Alcazar. He and Alcazar’s second collaboration (after 2018’s Perfect) is Divinity, which hits theaters nationwide Friday after debuting at the Sundance Film Festival.

“Are streamers scaling back?” and “Is this a renaissance period for indie financed films?” were two of the questions at the heart of a Zurich Summit panel this morning, featuring CAA‘s Roeg Sutherland, WME‘s Katie Irwin and Oscar-winning producer John Lesher (Birdman).

EXCLUSIVE: Creatives behind Alice & Jack, which stars Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough in the latter’s first role since the To Leslie controversy, have spotlighted how they wanted the Channel 4/Masterpiece TV series to feel like an indie film.

Jessica Chastain is attending the Venice International Film Festival to promote “Memory”, her new indie film directed by Michel Franco.

Fearing they won’t be able to set casts for film packages to sell at key festival markets, indie film producers are appealing to SAG-AFTRA to fast-track interim casting agreements that are holding things up.  

Veteran indie producer Ted Hope opened Locarno’s industry symposium Thursday afternoon with a provocative keynote during which he declared: “The indie film system is fucked.”

Ray Price, the respected indie movie producer who championed the likes of Tran Anh Hung, Gurinder Chadha and Carl Franklin, has died aged 75. Price’s death after a long battle with cancer was confirmed by his long-term partner, Meg Madison.

Jordan Moreau Ray Price, an indie film producer and marketing veteran, died on July 16 of heart failure after battling cancer, his longterm partner Meg Madison confirmed. He was 75. During his career in film, Price was president of Francis Ford Coppola’s production company American Zoetrope and First Look Pictures and a marketing and distribution exec for Landmark Theatres, Trimark Pictures and 2929 Entertainment. He also supported up-and-coming filmmakers like Tran Anh Hung (“The Scent of Green Papaya”), Gurinder Chadha (“Bhaji on The Beach”), Carl Franklin (“One False Move”), Allison Anders (“Gas Food Lodging”) and John Sayles (“The Secret of Roan Inish”).

Amidst a disrupted industry at the start of the Covid pandemic, the hope amongst producers Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler and David Hinojosa was simply to stay engaged. This, they accomplished by reading the best scripts at their disposal — among them Past Lives, which would mark the feature debut of playwright Celine Song.

Tim Gray Senior Vice President The indie film “Daruma” — which illustrates the importance of authentic casting with disabled actors — will hold its world premiere June 28, just a few days before the start of Disability Pride Month. The film is part of the Dances With Films Festival, which runs June 22-July 2 at the TCL Chinese theaters in Hollywood. The festival, in its 26th year, also will screen three documentaries about disabilities: “Abled,” directed by Einar Thorsteinsson about Paralympian Blake Leeper; “Baldy for the Blind” (producer-director Drea Castro), centering on a group of blind hikers attempting to climb Mt. Baldy; and “You Have No Idea” (director Alexander Jeffery), concerning a woman trying to get treatment for her autistic son.

EXCLUSIVE: It Ends with Us, the Justin Baldoni-directed film that stars Blake Lively and Baldoni, looks like its production shoot has ended until the resolution of the WGA strike. The decision was made Thursday, with less than half of the movie completed. The sole reason for the film halting was the picketing by WGA strikers.

Florence Pugh knows certain people weren’t impressed when she made her move into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amanda Nell Eu’s “Tiger Stripes,” which had its premiere this week in Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, is being celebrated as a punchy female-driven debut feature and as the first film by a Malaysian woman director in any section Cannes. The story focuses on a small group of 11 or 12-year-old girls. When one of the friends enters puberty she finds her body changing in unexpected ways. Relations with her friends and family start morphing too. Eu’s finished film straddles the metaphorical drama and body horror genres. “Tiger Stripes” is also a triumph for the now highly-developed global network of project markets, talent development programs, script and production workshops (often labelled as ‘labs’) and grant schemes. These are intended to encourage diversity and nurture film-making talent in countries where that is a rarity or where commercial films crowd out more experimental art-house titles.

Lamia Chraibi is one of Morocco’s best-known indie film producers whose credits include Mica, about a boy from the slums who is discovered to have a talent for tennis, and Sitges prize-winning horror Achoura as well as co-producing 2016 Cannes Critics’ Week winner Las Mimosas.

Naman Ramachandran Production has wrapped on TXL Films’ “Nomad,” featuring Leo Woodall, breakout star of HBO’s Emmy-winning series “The White Lotus,” and Sana’a Shaik (“2067”). The film tells the story of a mysterious loner (Woodall) with a bizarre condition that takes him inexplicably to the ends of the earth. When he crosses paths with a stifled city girl (Shaik), they are plunged into a fight for survival that takes them across every continent. “Nomad” is from writer-director Taron Lexton, known for “Searching for Fellini” (2017). The film is unique in that it is one of the few films that shot across all seven continents, like Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud and Michel Debats’ Oscar nominated documentary “Winged Migration” (2001).

Angelique Jackson Launch Releasing, the independent film distribution and production company, has announced its 2023 development slate following last year’s releases, Lionsgate’s “The Black String,” starring Frankie Muniz, and “The Translator,” which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Highlights include the action-comedy “Andy Somebody” and two sequels to the animated franchise “Riki Rhino,” which the company will executive produce. “At Launch Releasing, our passion and mandate is really simple – we want to find movies that we love and share them with audiences. When we saw ‘Andy Somebody,’ we instantly fell in love with its underdog story and its quirky comedic characters and we’re looking forward to audiences joining us on this really fun ride,” stated Sheldon Brigman, the company’s CEO. “Whether it’s genre titles such as ‘Mr. Sleep’ or captivating human interest films such as ‘The Translator’ where complex characters make life and death decisions in war torn Syria, Launch Releasing is proud to have curated a diverse and distinct slate.”

Production spend in the UK high-end TV (HETV) and film industries reached a record £6.3BN ($7.8BN) in 2022, BFI statistics released today reveal.

The Sundance Film Festival returns in-person beginning Thursday after being sidelined by Covid for two editions, and three years of struggle to climb out of an abyss. The indies have emerged from a time warp into a strange new place, one that’s still evolving.

A platoon of titles hits the specialty circuit this weekend, getting in ahead of steamroller Avatar: Way of Water and the year-end deadline for Oscar eligibility. This is a soul-searching, what-lies-ahead moment for a market still much too inconsistent for comfort, but that can be pondered later. At the moment, indie distributors are quite busy “with all these movies, and these plans to release theatrically. We are not going anywhere,” said one executive.

After more than a year and a half of development, eOne recently started shopping its Dungeons & Dragons live-action TV series. Shepherded by Red Notice filmmaker Rawson Marshall Thurber, it is based on Hasbro’s wildly popular fantasy role-playing game franchise.

a report from Puck.Murray, 72, had become “particularly friendly” with a much younger woman on the production staff — not actress Kate Palmer, as some speculated — and believed she was flirting with him, the report said. At one point, when they were near a bed that was used on the set, Murray started kissing her body and straddling her, Puck revealed.

Wilson Chapman editorJames Franco has been cast as Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro in the independent film “Alina of Cuba,” Variety has confirmed.Franco joins the previously announced Ana Villafañe, who portrays the title character Alina Fernandez, Castro’s daughter. In addition, Mía Maestro has also joined the cast as Alina’s mother Natalia Revuelta, the Cuban socialite who gave birth to her after an affair with Castro. The film will follow Alina’s life as Castro’s illegitimate daughter and a critic of his reign in Cuba before leaving the country and defecting to Spain in 1993.

EXCLUSIVE: One of the most prominent ex-ICM agents still in play, Jessica Lacy, has landed at Range Media Partners as Partner and head of management company’s newly minted division, Range Select. In her role, Lacy will oversee structuring and arranging financing, packaging, and securing distribution for select independent films. She is joined by her former ICM colleague Oliver Wheeler who also will work in the Range Select unit as a manager.

Angelique Jackson Producers of the indie film musical “Americana Dream” have tapped Nashville-based music artists Mary Sarah and Sam Varga to play the story’s central couple, Billie Carton and Lucky Fontana.Sarah and Varga nabbed the leading roles after an extensive nationwide search for singer-songwriters to act in the original musical written and directed by Ate de Jong and co-written by Variety’s Steven Gaydos.“Americana Dream” takes viewers behind the scenes of the film’s titular reality TV music competition program, where Lucky and Billie transition from imposters willing to do anything for money and fame, to a real couple, willing to sacrifice their dreams of success for real love and their real music. Sarah was a finalist on season 10 of NBC’s “The Voice” and is set to star in Justin Ward’s upcoming film comedy “Paradise: The Movie.” Sarah recorded her first album “Bridges,” when she was only 15; the project showcased her talent alongside country music legends including Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard and Tanya Tucker and was reissued through Time Life Records in 2020.Varga has also been performing since his early teens, releasing singles and performing regionally; his dynamic live act garnered significant attention in Austin, Texas before he relocated to Nashville in 2019.

EXCLUSIVE: Glass House Distribution President Tom Malloy, bitcoin veteran Charlie Shrem and producer Shyam S. Sengupta are unveiling a new digital finance company, Defiine, here at the Cannes Market.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNawazuddin Siddiqui, the Emmy-nominated Indian actor, is to take the lead role in U.S. indie film “Laxman Lopez.” The film is a Christmas-themed movie to be directed by Mexico’s Roberto Girault, director of local hits including 2017’s “La Leyenda Del Diamante,” 2015’s “Los Arboles Mueren de Pie” and “El Estudiante” from 2009. The project is led by New York-based Imagine Infinite Productions.