The Japanese film and television star makes his English-language debut in Lava Bear Films’ supernatural thriller, currently in production in Japan.Good Universe continues international sales on the project. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions previously acquired rights in multiple territories including Australia, Spain, Eastern Europe and all of Asia excluding Japan.
Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney and Eoin Macken star in the film about a woman that goes in search of her missing sister in the notorious suicide site of Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mt Fuji.Ozawa will portray the forest guide Michi. His credits include the NHK historical drama Tokugawa Yoshinobu, The Pig’s Retribution, April Fools, The Hot Road and The Brain Man.
Jason Zada directs from an original idea by David S Goyer. Sarah Cornwell and Nick Antosca wrote the screenplay and Tory Metzger and David Linde of Lava Bear produce with Goyer via his Phantom Four.
Len Blavatnik, Aviv Giladi and Lawrence Bender serve as executive producers for co-financiers AI Film. Gramercy Pictures has scheduled a January 8, 2016 nationwide US release.
China’s Alibaba Pictures is making its first move into Hollywood, partnering with Paramount Pictures on Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation.
The film arm of the ecommerce giant is making an unspecified investment into the picture and cooperating with Paramount on online ticketing, merchandising and promotion.
Alibaba Pictures said earlier this month that it is raising $1.6bn through a share issue to fund acquisitions and investments.
Mission: Impossible 5 will be promoted through Alibaba’s Taobao Movie ticketing platform, while merchandising will be sold through its ecommerce channels. The last few films in the franchise were big hits in China and Mission: Impossible 3 was partly filmed in the country.
In a statement, Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore said Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Paramount chairman Brad Grey and Alibaba Pictures CEO Zhang Qiang had met in Los Angeles last autumn to discuss ways to cooperate.
“We hope today’s announcement is the first of many collaborations between us,” said Moore. “We are thrilled to be working with them to create a successful campaign for one of our studio’s most popular franchises.”
Alibaba Pictures CEO Zhang Qiang said: “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is our first step toward internationalisation, and Alibaba Pictures looks forward to collaborating with more international movie studios where we can consolidate resources, technologies and talents to establish a world class integrated entertainment platform for the film industry.”
The film is scheduled for US release on July 31, while the China release date hasn’t been confirmed.
AwesomenessTV is ramping up its film business in the wake of the 2014 social success of Expelled and has brought on the Chapter One Films founder as president of Awesomeness Films.
Kaplan brings Robyn Marshall and Max Siemers with him and will build operations alongside Brian Robbins, the founder and CEO of AwesomenessTV, the online network and content creator in which Dream Works Animation holds a 75% stake and Hearst a 25% stake.Awesomeness Films is lining up a pipeline of 12-15 films for theatrical and digital film distribution and is in production on the recently announced Shovel Buddies.
The company aims to produce and acquire “elevated young adult material” of varying budgets for wide and limited releases and will cast from established and digital talent.The development follows comments by AwesomenessTV chief digital officer Kelly Day at the Stream conference in Santa Monica earlier this month about the company’s desire to explore theatrical avenues and cater to an underserved younger audience.
Robbins echoed those sentiments when he welcome Kaplan and said, “Major Hollywood studios have largely ignored Generation Z. As we demonstrated with Expelled, which premiered in December and immediately shot to No.1 on iTunes, there is an enormous appetite for movies that speak to this audience.”
Kaplan said he was looking forward to championing material that fell beyond the remit of traditional studios and referred to the “formidable power” of digital creators and the “unrivalled ability to connect young adult audiences to feature films like never before.”Kaplan founded Chapter One Films in 2013 and signed a first-look deal with Blumhouse Productions. The company’s feature credits include The Lazarus Effect, Viral and 6 Miranda Drive and Kaplan also produced the Syfy mini-series Ascension.
Prior to Chapter One he served as svp of development and production at Lionsgate. He was also director of digital development at CBS.
Pierre Jolivet’s France-Belgium co-production The Night Watchman won best feature in the Golden Goblet competition of this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival (June 13-21), while Cao Baoping’s The Dead End won best director and actor.
The acting prize for The Dead End was split between Deng Chao, Duan Yihong and Guo Tao. The Jury Grand Prix went to Polish filmmaker Jacek Lusinski’s Carte Blanche, while best actress went to Krista Kosonen in Antti Jokinen’ Finland-Lithuania co-production The Midwife (see full list of winners below)
Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev headed the Golden Goblet jury, which also included Chinese director Cai Shangjun, Chinese actress Hao Lei, French filmmaker Philippe Muyl, Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi and US producer Ron Yerxa.
Last Thursday, Iranian filmmaker Hooman Seyedi’s 13 won best film and cinematography at the Asian New Talent Awards. Best director went to Japan’s Momoko Ando for 0.5mm, while best actress went to Tibet’s Yangchen Lhamo for River. Best actor went to Taiwan’s Sean Huang for (Sex) Appeal.
The festival, which had a special focus on “Asia, China and New Talent” this year, screened 391 films 1,275 times in 45 movie theaters across Shanghai, reaching an audience of more than 300,000. Ticket sales reached $2.9m (RMB18m).
SIFF 2015 GOLDEN GOBLET WINNERS:
Award for Best Feature Film – The Night Watchman (France/Belgium), directed by Pierre Jolivet
Jury Grand Prix – Carte Blanche (Poland), directed by Jacek Lusinski
Award for Best Director – Cao Baoping for The Dead End (China)
Award for Best Actor – Deng Chao, Duan Yihong and Guo Tao for The Dead End (China)
Award for Best Actress – Krista Kosonen in The Midwife (Finland/Lithuania), directed by Antti Jokinen
Award for Best Screenplay – Patrick Tobin for Cake (US), directed by Daniel Barnz
Award for Best Cinematography – Vladislav Opeliyants for Sunstroke (Russia), directed by Nikita Mikhalkov
Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement – The Shameless (Korea), directed by Oh Seung-uk
Award for Best Animated Film – Song Of The Sea (Ireland/Belgium/Denmark/France/Luxembourg), directed by Tomm Moore
Award for Best Documentary Film – The Verse Of Us (China) directed by Wu Feiyue and Qin Xiaoyu
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.
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).
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.