Author: SD

A busy weekend at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Prima Facie, Lee, Speak No Evil and The Critic all launch in 550+ cinemas. National Theatre Live’s re-release of Prima Facie is in 679 locations. The theatre production starring Jodie Comer first played in cinemas in July 2022 in 662 venues, making £1.5m in a single day.  It became the highest-grossing event cinema release at the time, ending just shy of £5m and overtaken only by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which made £12m on its run. Prima Facie opened in cinemas Thursday (September 12). The one-woman play surrounds…

Sundance Institute has selected the three finalists in its search for the festival’s long-term host starting in 2027 and expects to announce the winner in the first quarter of next year, after the 2025 edition in January. Salt Lake City/Park City in Utah, Boulder in Colorado, and Cincinnati in Ohio are the three final contenders after the Institute also considered Atlanta, Louisville, and Santa Fe. The search committee reviewed the three finalists’ ethos and equity values, infrastructure, and capabilities to host the festival. It is also looking to see how each location will continue to nurture the diverse Sundance community…

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is defending its selection of the Canada-France documentary Russians At War heading into Friday’s North American premiere, after Ukrainian-Canadian protesters branded the film Russian propaganda. “TIFF acknowledges and respects the concerns expressed and discussion taking place about the Canadian documentary Russians At War,” the TIFF statement read. “The film will make its North American premiere later this week, as scheduled.” The statement came on the same day that the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) said it was “profoundly alarmed” over the decision by TVOntario to withdraw its support for the film. Raja Pictures and CAPA Presse (Films…

Anthony Maras’ World War Two drama Pressure starring Andrew Scott has begun filming in the UK for Working Title and Studiocanal. The film is set during World War Two in the build-up to D-Day and the Allied landings in Normandy. Scott plays the chief meteorological officer responsible for monitoring the weather conditions that dictated when the operation could go ahead. Brendan Fraser plays President Dwight Eisenhower and Kerry Condon stars as a key aide to Eisenhower.  Locations include Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire.  Maras, best known for Hotel Mumbai, also co-wrote the screenplay with David Haig who wrote the stage play on…

The Walt Disney Studios will become the first studio in 2024 to cross the $4bn threshold this weekend, fuelled by five hits including Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine. The studio’s other major drivers are Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, Alien: Romulus, and The First Omen. This is the tenth time the studio has passed the milestone since 2010 and its third successive year to do so. Inside Out 2 will overtake Jurassic World on $1.671bn to become the eighth highest-grossing release of all time, the latest in a string of accolades that has seen the Pixar…

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. Almodóvar’s first English-language feature marks the first time he has won the top award at one of the three major film festivals (Cannes, Venice and Berlin). Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star in the story of a woman who makes the decision to end her life, and the friend who re-enters her world around this time. Scroll down for the full list of winners Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in the US on December 20; with Warner Bros handling…

The third season of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens is understood to be going ahead as planned at Amazon Prime Video, even though Disney has paused a feature adaptation of Gaiman’s novel, The Graveyard Book, following allegations of sexual assault against the UK author and screenwriter. On July 3, UK news platform Tortoise Media published a podcast with accounts of claims of sexual assault against Gaiman by two women, with three more women subsequently coming forward. The allegations span the period of 1986 to2022. Gaiman denies the allegations. Amazon officially greenlit the third season of fantasy drama Good Omens in December…

Full programme details have been revealed for Screen International’s ‘The Future Of Film’ Summit taking place in London on September 24 at BFI Southbank. Click here for the full schedule. The day will start with the latest news on the UK Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC). Insights will come from experts who are helping with the development of the IFTC and others who are cash-flowing it. They are Neon Films’ producer Nicky Bentham, Coutts’ executive director of media banking Judith Chan, BFI deputy CEO Harriet Finney, and partner, film and TV team, at Saffrey, Moses Nyachae. ‘State Of The Nation’ will see…

US buyers have not been in an adventurous mood as the last few markets will attest. However hope springs eternal and acquisitions teams will be on the hunt at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to bulk up pipelines following the Hollywood strikes of 2023. How theatrical buyers fare against streamers remains to be seen. Financiers and sales agents, many of whom are avowed fans of the theatrical experience, must recoup. The lure of a worldwide deal with a platform can be hard to resist, and while the North American summer box office rallied well and there are lucrative opportunities for…

Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey have described their preparation for the sex scenes in Luca Guadagnino’s Venice Competition title Queer. “There’s some choreography in the movie which is a very important part of the movie,” said Craig, speaking at the film’s Venice press conference. “Drew and I started rehearsals on that months before we started filming. Dancing with someone is a great ice-breaker. “There’s nothing intimate about filming a sex scene on a movie set,” continued Craig. “There’s a room full of people watching you. We just wanted to make it as touching and real and as natural as we…