Author: SD

Kaleem Aftab has left his role as director of international programming at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival. Aftab departed after the festival’s fourth edition, which ran from December 6-14, 2024. “When I first started working for Red Sea, everyone said it would be impossible to put on a successful film festival in Saudi Arabia,” said Aftab. “I’m deeply proud of the work that I did there, and the progressive programming, including showing content that people never believed would be shown publicly in Saudi Arabia. “Having seen the journey all the way to last year’s hugely successful edition at…

In a coup for Bleecker Street, the distributor has acquired US rights to Rob Reiner’s mockumentary sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and the original 1984 cult classic This Is Spinal Tap. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer reprise their roles as the legendary and inept British heavy metal band and Reiner once again adopts the character of documentarian Martin “Marty” DiBergi. There are cameos from Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. Bleecker Street plans a nationwide US theatrical release of a newly restored version of This Is Spinal Tap in the summer before making the…

Noel Clarke was told the #MeToo movement “began to catch up” with him, as he took the stand for the first time in his libel trial against the Guardian newspaper on March 10, according to BBC News and the Guardian’s own reporting.  “In 2019, the #MeToo movement began to catch up with you and women began talking about your sexual misconduct,” said Gavin Millar KC, cross-examining Clarke for the Guardian News and Media (GNM)  The trial began at the London High Court on Friday, March 7, with Clarke taking to the witness box for the first time yesterday (Monday 10). The…

UK-Ireland top five Mar 7-9  Rank Film (origin)Distributor Mar 7-9 gross  Total Week 1 Mickey 17  (US)   Warner Bros  £2.13m  £2.1m 1 2  Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy  (UK-Fr-US)  Universal  £2.05m  £40.4m 4  3  Marching Powder  (UK)  True Brit  £1.1m  £1.1m 1 4  Captain America: Brave New World  (US)  Disney  £614,000  £16.8m 4 5  Dog Man  (US)  Universal  £373,654  £12.5m  5 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.29 Fantasy adventure Mickey 17 topped the UK-Ireland box office on its opening weekend, ending the three-week run atop the chart of Bridget…

Rank Film (origin) DistributorFeb 7-9 gross  Total  Week 1 Dog Man  (US) Universal  £3.2m £3.2m 1 2  A Complete Unknown  (US)   Disney  £831,546 £10m 4 3  Mufasa: The Lion King  (US) Disney  £700,071 £30.3m 8 4 Macbeth: David Tennant And Cush Jumbo (UK) Trafalgar  £680,840 £1.5m 1 5  September 5 (Ger-US)                                           Paramount £517,000 £639,000 1 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.24 Universal animation Dog Man topped the UK-Ireland…

Black Bear’s horror comedy The Monkey leads the new titles in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as Oscar best picture contender I’m Still Here also makes its bow. Osgood Perkins follows up last year’s horror hit Longlegs with The Monkey launching in 544 cinemas. It is up on Longlegs which opened in 475 locations, also for Black Bear, with that title debuting on £1.4m and enjoying a healthy run ending on £8.1m.  Based on the Stephen King short story, The Monkey stars Theo James, playing two estranged twin brothers who are brought back together by a childhood curse that is wreaking…

Responsibility, a comedy about an ex-convict in need of some quick cash, won the audience vote at the inaugural Funny Features pitching session at the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) this week.  The Glasgow-set feature follows a 25-year-old Sikh man whose desperate decisions have led to a stint in prison, and now is stuck working as a dishwasher at his family’s restaurant. Kaljeven Lally has written the script and plans to direct, with Isabella Bassett and Jena Hunter producing. The pitching session, which took place on March 6, was the culmination of a comedy lab backed by the BFI Creative Challenge Fund,…

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is enjoying bigger advance sales a week ahead of release in UK and Ireland than was the case in summer 2023 with Barbie, according to two cinema chains that shared data with Screen. At Odeon, by yesterday morning – one week ahead of the film’s February 13 UK and Ireland release – the multiplex chain said it had sold around 70,000 tickets, outselling Barbie in the comparative pre-sale period. Around 20% of tickets had been sold for the Thursday preview day, and around a third for Valentine’s Day (February 14). At boutique chain Curzon,…

Japan’s highest grossing cinema release of 2025 to date isn’t a feature film. It is Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-, a compilation of episodes from an upcoming TV series. After five weeks in cinemas, -Beginning- has earned more than $16.5m (¥2.5bn) from 1.55 million admissions, according to the site Cinema Ranking Tsushin. Distributed by Toho and Bandai Namco Filmworks, the 81-minute collection of re-edited episodes precedes a series that is set to air on Nippon Television in April. It is due for release in the US through Gkids on February 28, when several territories across Asia are also set to…

Robert “Bobby” Meyers, the industry veteran and champion of independent film who was a founding member of the American Film Market, has died. He was 90. Meyers passed away at his home in New Jersey on March 2. He began his career in the 1950s and worked in various roles before joining Columbia Pictures International, where he served in Paris and Brussels, eventually becoming the European sales manager. He later held executive positions at National General Pictures, Lorimar Motion Pictures, Filmways Productions, Orion Pictures, and Village Roadshow, playing a pivotal role in international film sales and distribution. During his career…