Tom Hanks is in negotiations to portray Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Clint Eastwood’s film on the true-life heroism dubbed Miracle on the Hudson.
Warner Bros. is behind the movie, which is being produced by Eastwood, Tim Moore and veteran producers Allyn Stewart and Frank Marshall.
The story of Sullenberg made national headlines in January 2009. Sullenberger and his crew had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport when both engines were knocked out by a flock of Canada geese.
The veteran pilot quickly realized there was no time to return to LaGuardia or reach another airport, so he made the decision to attempt a water landing on the Hudson. The plan worked, and all 155 people on board survived. He instantaneously achieved hero status and was dubbed “Captain Cool” by then-New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Hanks was Eastwood and the studio’s first choice but also the most popular choice, going by reader polls that sprung up after THR first broke the news of Eastwood’s latest project. (Hanks, 58, is basically the same as Sullenberger was when he made his heroic landing.)
One thing that needs to be worked out is scheduling. Hanks is currently shooting Inferno with Ron Howard for Sony. Eastwood wants to begin shooting in September. Also, Hanks will need to spend time this fall promoting Bridge of Spies, the Cold War thriller directed by Steven Spielberg that hits theaters Oct. 14 in hopes of an awards run.
Members include Belle director Amma Asante and Lionsgate UK CEO Zygi Kamasa.The British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) has announced that a new board of directors has been appointed.
Laurence Green will act as Chairman with other members including Amma Asante, Claire Jones and Zygi Kamasa. BIFA co-founder Elliot Grove will have a permanent seat.
The 2015 ceremony will be held at Old Billingsgate in London on Dec 6.Board members will serve fixed terms, with the distributor role rotated regularly. Lionsgate CEO Zygi Kamasa takes that place in 2015 alongside Belle director Asante, Kill List producer Jones and brand expert Laurence Green.
Sakharov has directed episodes of Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and Marco Polo.
The Weinstein Company (TWC) has closed a first look deal with director Alik Sakharov. Under the first look agreement Sakharov will develop original ideas for television to both direct and produce. He will also continue to be involved in The Weinstein Company and Netflix series Marco Polo, returning to direct additional episodes in the second season.
Sakharov has most recently directed episodes of Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and Marco Polo. He was also the co-executive producer on Black Sails for Starz.“I spent a great deal of time with Alik on the set of Marco Polo and watched him work closely with the actors,” said Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman The Weinstein Company.“He is incredibly talented, has a unique vision and we are thrilled to keep him in the TWC family for both our television division and potentially for feature films.”
Sakharov said: “Having been lucky enough to work with some of the greatest television directors and producers of my generation, the opportunity to collaborate with Harvey Weinstein and his team is very gratifying.”Sakharov served as director of photography on feature films including the 2011 Straw Dogs remake, as well as a number of TV series, most notably for HBO with such projects as The Sopranos, Rome, Sex and The City, and Game of Thrones.
Actor John Turturro to visit Jerusalem and take part in opening ceremony
Nanni Moretti’s film My Mother (Mia Madre) is to open the 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival (July 9-19). The movie’s premiere in Israel will be screened at the Sultan’s Pool on July 9, following its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival last month. The opening ceremony will be attended by John Turturro, who stars in the movie.
Italian maverick Moretti’s latest film, which stars Margherita Buy alongside the director, is a return to the family drama he explored in 2001 Palme d’Or winner The Son’s Room. This time it’s a mother’s slow decline that sparks the melodrama, leavened by comic touches courtesy of a film within the film featuring a US actor played by Turturro. Moretti’s previous film in Cannes Competition was 2011 papal dramedy We Have A Pope (Habemus Papam).JFF director Noa Regev said the selection of the film paid tribute to “the inspiring Lia van Leer, the Cinematheque’s founder who passed away this year”.
Closing ceremony
The festival’s closing ceremony, to be held at the Sultan’s Pool on July 18, will be The Godfather Live, a cinematic musical event in which Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary film will be projected on a giant screen with live music.The famous soundtrack, composed by Nino Rota, will be performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra conducted by Justin Freer. This year’s JFF will comprise more than 200 films, including both Israeli and international films.
Director Miguel Gomes and his three-volume 383-minute film Arabian Nights has awarded the $48,000 (A$62,000) Sydney Film Prize, it was announced on Sunday, the closing night of the 62nd Sydney Film Festival.
Journalist Michael Ware has won the $7,730 (A$10,000) Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary for Only the Dead. The work is about his experiences in Afghanistan and was co-directed with Bill Guttentag.
Director Andrew Lancaster’s The Lost Aviator received a special mention for a family story of murder, love and aviation.
Jury president and Australian producer Liz Watts said Arabian Nights, which had its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, was a film of ambition and political vision which confronts, frustrates, and spellbinds – and ultimately reminds us that cinema continues to be a powerful vehicle to examine the human condition.
“A subject that is so timely – oppression and exploitation are at the heart of the film in its examination of a nation and people under extreme austerity measures,” she said. “Ultimately the film reminds us that hope and endurance are fundamental to the human spirit”.
The film is an adaptaion of One Thousand and One Nights, the collection of stories and folk tales dating back centuries to pain a vivid portrait of contemporary Portugal.
Clearly Miguel Gomes made something that impressed the Sydney Film Prize jury though, and those jury members, in addition to Watts, were Japanese program consultant Hiromi Aihara, Australian screenwriter Andrew Bovell, Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang and the Australian Film Commission’s Martin Schweighofer.
It is the second time the Portuguese director has been in the running for the prize, which is now in its eighth year: Tabu was in competition in 2012. Gomes attended that year but not this.
The previous Sydney Film Prize winners are: Two Days, One Night (2014); Only God Forgives (2013); Alps (2012); A Separation (2011), which went on to win an Academy Award; Heartbeats (2010); Bronson (2009); and Hunger (2008).
The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films were also announced just before the world premiere of closing night film Holding The Man, directed by Australia’s Neil Armfield and out of the Goalpost Films stable.
A Single Body, directed and written by Sotiris Dounoukos, won the live action short category; Grace Under Water, directed and produced by Anthony Lawrence, won the Yoram Gross animation award; and Brooke Goldfinch won the Rouben Mamoulian Award for best director for her work on Red Rover, with Ryan Griffen getting a special mention for You Turn. The Event Cinema Australian Short Screenplay Award was awarded to Bluey, written and directed by Darlene Johnson.
Hungary has selected Laszlo Nemes’ Son of Saul (Saul fia) as its official entry in the Foreign-Language Film category of the Academy Awards.
The film,which has been awarded Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival last month, is considered to be the first to be selected for next year’s foreign category.
The unanimous decision was made at a meeting of the Hungarian Oscar Selection Committee, consists of director Krisztina Deak, director Kriszta Goda, Agnes Havas, CEO of the Hungarian National Film Fund, university lecturer Andras Balint Kovacs, cinematographer Tibor Mate, film distribution expert Andras Kalman and Andrew G. Vajna, the government film commissioner.
The film Son Of Saul is set during the Second World War and centres on a Hungarian Jewish prisoner forced to work in one of the crematoria of Auschwitz. There he finds a body which he believes is his son, sets out to find a rabbi to bury him.
The Holocaust drama was considered a frontrunner for the Palme d’Or after being named ‘Best film in Cannes’ Competition by Fipresci, the International Federation of Film Critics.
But Laszlo Nemes directorial debut – the only debut in this year’s Competition line-up – instead won the Grand Prix.
Nemes, the directer was given a respectful silence at the press conference after collecting his award and said: “Europe is still haunted by the deportation during the Second World War. In Hungary, 450,000 people were deported, 100,000 of those being children. And many went straight to gas chambers. It still haunts us. It is not just a piece of history.
“I wanted to approach this issue in a different way. It was important to talk to this generation. There are less and less survivors who can talk to us.”
It was the only film in this year’s Cannes Competition to be shot on 35mm. Nemes added: “We believe in film – so to shoot on film was important to us.”
Sold by Films Distribution, Son Of Saul was acquired during the festival by Curzon Artificial Eye for the UK, Sony Pictures Classics for the US and several other territories.
It will be released in Hungarian theatres by June 11. The film, spoken in Hungarian, Yiddish, German, Russian and Polish, was supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund.
Son Of Saul ranked joint second on Screen’s Cannes Jury Grid. Nemes previously worked as assistant director to Bela Tarr on The Man From London (2007).
Sean McAllister’s A Syrian Love Story has awarded the Grand Jury prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 5-10).
Acclaimed British documentary filmmaker McAllister, whose credits include The Liberace in Baghdad and The Reluctant Revolutionary. McAllister took four years to complete the shoot of this project.
It follows the plight of a Syrian family as they are forced to leave the war torn country, the political unrest affects it and the family’s relationships face hurdles . During the filming process, the film maker McAllister himself spent time in a Syrian jail when the authorities seized his camera.
On behalf of the jury, Ruby Chen of CNEX China said: “The jury were enamoured by this Bergmanesque portrait of a relationship and love, taking place against an ever-changing and tumultuous backdrop.
“Delivering unusual gender portraits it explores vulnerabilities, looking at the concept of belonging, providing a unique and intimate portrait of disillusionment.”
The award was announced yesterday and presented by comedian Jeremy Hardy at Crucible Theatre.
UK actress Wendy Glenn is starring in Indian filmmaker Onir’s Veda, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The shooting is progressing in UK. Produced by Bhavna Talwar of India’s WSG Pictures, the film is shooting in Manchester and Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford Upon Avon, before moving on to India.
Glenn, who is playing Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, has previously starred in US films such as Patrick Hoelk’s Mercy and Adam Wingard’s You’re Next as well as TV shows CSI, CSI Miami and Reunion.
The renouned play Hamlet was also recently adapted by Indian filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj for his film Haider. The film in which the title role was played by Shahid Kapoor was a noted one with its Kashmir backdrop.
Onir’s directing credits include Nikhil, My Brother and I Am, which both tackled social and gender/sexuality issues. Along with Sanjay Suri, he also produced Bikas Mishra’s Chauranga, which won best film in the India Gold section at last year’s Mumbai Film Festival.
Veteran actor cum activist film maker Edward Norton will receive this year’s Locarno Film Festival Excellence Award Moet and Chandon.
The Swiss festival will present a retrospective of the popular actor’s work, organizers announced on Monday. An Exclusive interface with Norton has set up for the festival delegates. The interaction is reported to be a special onstage conversation.
Locarno seems to be extremely happy to welcome Edward Norton. “He is someone who has shown immense talent in giving shape to characters as fascinating and complex as the times in which we live. I’m certain that his presence will leave its mark on the 2015 edition, giving the public a chance to better get to know one of the most interesting figures of 21st century Hollywood, “ Festival director Carlo Chatrian said.
Norton is a three-time Oscar nominee for Primal Fear (1996), American History X (1998) and last year’s Birdman. He is also a very public environmental activist, serving as a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity since 2010.Past winners of Locarno’s Excellence Award include Gael Garcia Bernal, Juliette Binoche, Giancarlo Giannini, Isabelle Huppert, John Malkovich, Michel Piccoli and Susan Sarandon.
The Locarno Film Festival takes place Aug. 5-15.
Recognitions seem to galore on DAM999 directed by Sohan Roy the most controversial movie of the year 2011 which also made its place in the Oscar race of 2011. The movie has won Best Screen Play award and special jury award in the 8th Kosovo International Film Festival. The special jury award is given to the film tackling global issues.
With immense praise and appreciations pouring in from various film circuits DAM999 has, no doubt, made a special place in the hearts of people across the world.
Kosovo International Film Festival ‘ The Godess on the Throne’ encouraged young and experienced film makers from around the globe to compete on a multicultural stage for an opportunity of distribution and nearly 8 awards aiming to get films seen, marketed and ultimately sold. The 5 day film festival was held at Kosovo Railway station from 1-7 June 2015.
DAM999’ in recent times have headed to many film festivals and garnered huge accolades worldwide. It’s array of awards and appreciations includes 5 Oscar selections in 3 categories (original score, original song and best picture), the only official selection from India at the Golden Rooster Award, Award of excellence for the Motion Picture Sound Track and Award of Merit for Original Score by Global Music Awards 2012, Best International Feature Film, Special Jury Award, Best Movie of the Festival at International Film Festival for Environment, Health, and Culture 2013, declared Best English Film at Sangli Film Festival and adjudged as ‘Judges Favorite’ at International Film Festival – Antigua Barbuda.
Apart from these, ‘DAM 999’ has also been selected for screening at various global film festivals such as Tehran Film Festival, 10th Anuual Salento Film Festival, Jaipur International Film Festival, Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival, Malaysia, Chain NYC Film Festival, USA, Louisville’s International Festival of Film, USA and Trinity International Film Festival, USA.