Author: SD

Paramount Pictures and Temple Hill’s Smile 2 scored an estimated $23m bow to lead the North American box office in a weekend that saw a good hold by Terrifier 3, while Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora scored the highest per-screen average of 2024 so far. Smile 2 writer-director Parker Finn ­recorded his second number one debut for his horror franchise after the original opened top in 2022 on $22.6m, which will have pleased Paramount executives, who said on average horror sequels open 26% behind the original. Naomi Scott stars as a global pop icon who confronts her past after she is…

Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap has crossed £2m at the UK-Ireland box office, as of Thursday, September 26, in a strong result for distributors Wildcard and Curzon. The film has made almost £1.2m across seven weeks of release in Ireland and Northern Ireland, through Wildcard Distribution. Curzon Film is distributing the title in England, Scotland and Wales, where it has been on release for five weeks and made £806,851. The film has particularly flourished at leading UK-Ireland independent venues, with Glasgow Film Theatre, Dublin’s Light House, Watershed Bristol and London’s Curzon Soho making up the top four in order. A Sundance 2024…

Luca Guadagnino is in final talks with Lionsgate to direct a new version of American Psycho based on Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial 1991 satirical novel. Scott Z. Burns, whose writing credits include The Bourne Ultimatum and Contagion, will write the screenplay to what is conceived as a new adaptation of the novel, rather than a remake of the 2000 version directed by Mary Harron from a screenplay by Harron and Guinevere Turner. That film starred Christian Bale as the titular character and Lionsgate distributed in North America.  In the novel, Patrick Bateman is a mentally unstable Manhattan-based banker who hails from…

Actors from Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap and Andrea Arnold’s Bird are among the 12 names on the longlist for the breakthrough performance award at the British Independent Film Awards (Bifas). JJ Ó Dochartaigh, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh and Naoise Ó Cairealláin – members of Irish rap group Kneecap, who play fictionalised versions of themselves in the film of the same name – are all on the list, as are Bird actors Nykiya Adams and Jason Buda. Scroll down for the full list Screen 2024 Stars of Tomorrow Saura Lightfoot Leon and Jason Patel are selected for their performances in Luna Carmoon’s Venice…

Jay Hunt, AppleTV+ European creative director, praised the US streamer for “investing literally millions and millions of pounds in British creativity” in first public speech as chair of the British Film Institute (BFI).  “When you have American investment in this country, people get anxious about what that’s going to look like,” she said, during an industry talk at the BFI London FIlm Festival.  She pointed towards AppleTV+ series including See-Saw’s Slow Horses, which the BBC turned down, and London-set thriller Criminal Record as “achingly British in terms of their tonality, and they have without exception travelled with audiences around the world. “That’s…

Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner say there is “a real opportunity” in the sub-$15m budget feature film space, but that “films need to cost less money, and they need to be bolder in that space.” Speaking in their Screen Talk at the 68th BFI London Film Festival, Bevan cited – without naming – a film Working Title has just made up in Manchester “that completely falls into that – one of the most energetic and fun movies we’ve done.” Working Title shot Alicia MacDonald’s romantic comedy CC: Emily, starring Spike Fearn and Angourie Rice, in Manchester this…

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Oct 11-13) Total gross to date Week  1. Transformers One (Paramount) £1.6m £1.6m 1  2. Joker: Folie à Deux  (Warner Bros) £1.4m £8.7m 2  3. Terrifier 3 (Signature) £1m £1m 1  4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros) £769,143 £23.9m 6  5. The Outrun  (Studiocanal) £359,911 £359,911 1 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.31 Paramount animation Transformers One dethroned Joker: Folie À Deux at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, as the Warner Bros blockbuster suffered a significant 75% drop. Transformers One opened to £1.6m in 583 sites…

Steve McQueen said he prefers a collaborative style of filmmaking, saying that “being a director is not about being an arsehole”. “Once you have a situation where everyone’s together – I’ll take a good idea from anybody,” said UK filmmaker McQueen, at a Screen Talk ahead of the world premiere of his new film Blitz, opening the 68th BFI London Film Festival this evening (Wednesday, October 9). “A director is not about being an arsehole. A director is about listening and feeling and smelling and tasting…There are too many arseholes, trust me,” said the director, who did not name names. …

Ventana Sur organisers have unveiled 12 projects selected to participate in this year’s market, which for the first time is taking place in Montevideo, Uruguay from December 2-6. Nine of the chosen projects seeking additional funding and new partners for their first or second features originate from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, and three are European with ties to Latin America. Two of the European projects bring Spanish production involvement, and one, Tropical Malaise (Malestar Tropical), represents Switzerland and participated in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in San Sebastián last month. Five already have European co-productions, notably with France…

UPDATE: Joker: Folie à Deux earned $37m in its North American debut, considerably lower than the $40m estimate provided by Warner Bros on Sunday. Studio executives will be highly disappointed by the underwhelming number one debut given the reported $200m price tag and the box office heroics of its 2019 predecessor. Todd Phillips’ musical drama sequel earned muted reviews straight out of the gate at its world premiere in Venice one month ago and carries a D CinemaScore, the lowest for a superhero film. Even last year’s much-maligned The Marvels from Marvel Studios scored a “B” and opened on $46.1m. The R-rated…