Justin Simien’s four-part documentary series “Hollywood Black” spotlights the impacts, challenges and triumphs of Black pioneers in Hollywood. And the doc’s first episode tackles the industry’s earliest portrayals of Black people in media, including minstrels and stereotypical characters — but also the Black leaders who set out to change the narrative.
“Cinema is not really possible without Blackness. For starters, Black is literally the thing that all cinema fades in from and fades out to,” Simien narrates in the series. “From its very beginnings, Hollywood has been fascinated with Blackness. Not only are we the first subjects in early motion pictures, but we are also the subject of the first blockbusters, early animation and of course, the first talkie.”
“In fact, every time Hollywood is looking to reinvent itself or expand its reach, it tends to do so with Black bodies,” Simien adds. “Consciously or not, Black faces make money,...
“Cinema is not really possible without Blackness. For starters, Black is literally the thing that all cinema fades in from and fades out to,” Simien narrates in the series. “From its very beginnings, Hollywood has been fascinated with Blackness. Not only are we the first subjects in early motion pictures, but we are also the subject of the first blockbusters, early animation and of course, the first talkie.”
“In fact, every time Hollywood is looking to reinvent itself or expand its reach, it tends to do so with Black bodies,” Simien adds. “Consciously or not, Black faces make money,...
- 8/12/2024
- by Raquel 'Rocky' Harris
- The Wrap
This week offered little new on VOD. Did anticipation of “The Little Things” debuting on HBO Max as well as in theaters make others avoid the week? It left room for two titles to continue flying high with “Tenet” at $5.99, and “News of the World” at $19.99. Like last week, each placed #1 on two of the four charts we track.
Ongoing interest in Christopher Nolan’s film may seem ironic as it was the last major Warners release to see a traditional rollout. The studio reportedly recoups 70 percent of VOD rental; if there were 1 million rentals in a week, at the current price of $5.99, it would generate nearly $4.2 million. That would justify delaying a move to HBO Max.
As a PVOD, Universal sees a more generous revenue share of 80 percent on “News of the World” rentals. For a $4 million return — a nice bounty for a film with a reported $38 million budget...
Ongoing interest in Christopher Nolan’s film may seem ironic as it was the last major Warners release to see a traditional rollout. The studio reportedly recoups 70 percent of VOD rental; if there were 1 million rentals in a week, at the current price of $5.99, it would generate nearly $4.2 million. That would justify delaying a move to HBO Max.
As a PVOD, Universal sees a more generous revenue share of 80 percent on “News of the World” rentals. For a $4 million return — a nice bounty for a film with a reported $38 million budget...
- 2/1/2021
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
“Coda,” the coming-of-age drama that premiered Thursday to raves, has sold to Apple for around $25 million, smashing the sales record set last year when Neon and Hulu teamed up to buy “Palm Springs.” Deadline first reported the news.
It’s as sure a sign as ever that this year’s virtual program won’t equal sluggish market activity. Sources say Apple and Amazon were among the buyers engaged in a bidding war for the film shortly after it premiered on day one.
Written and directed by “Orange is the New Black” writer and “Tallulah” helmer Sian Heder, “Coda” offers a fresh perspective on a coming-of-age family drama: Emilia Jones stars as the teenage child of deaf parents (Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) caught between her love of singing and the expectations she faces as the only hearing person in her family, who run a fishing business.
The online response was rapturous,...
It’s as sure a sign as ever that this year’s virtual program won’t equal sluggish market activity. Sources say Apple and Amazon were among the buyers engaged in a bidding war for the film shortly after it premiered on day one.
Written and directed by “Orange is the New Black” writer and “Tallulah” helmer Sian Heder, “Coda” offers a fresh perspective on a coming-of-age family drama: Emilia Jones stars as the teenage child of deaf parents (Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) caught between her love of singing and the expectations she faces as the only hearing person in her family, who run a fishing business.
The online response was rapturous,...
- 1/30/2021
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
What kind of market will a pandemic-slimmed virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival bring?
There are half as many films as last year, with lower than usual star wattage. The two most titles most often mentioned that could spark eight-figure deals are Passing — the Rebecca Hall-directed adaptation of the Nella Larsen novella that stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga as two light skinned Black women who can ‘pass’ as white, and who reunite after choosing to live on opposite sides of the color line in 1929 New York — and Coda — the Sian Heder-drama about the daughter of deaf parents who is the lifeline to the family fishing business, wants to leave to pursue a study music, but fears abandoning her parents. Most buyers are hoping this festival will lead to reasonably priced discoveries of new voices, as much a Sundance tradition as the megabuck deals that have happened in the past few years.
There are half as many films as last year, with lower than usual star wattage. The two most titles most often mentioned that could spark eight-figure deals are Passing — the Rebecca Hall-directed adaptation of the Nella Larsen novella that stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga as two light skinned Black women who can ‘pass’ as white, and who reunite after choosing to live on opposite sides of the color line in 1929 New York — and Coda — the Sian Heder-drama about the daughter of deaf parents who is the lifeline to the family fishing business, wants to leave to pursue a study music, but fears abandoning her parents. Most buyers are hoping this festival will lead to reasonably priced discoveries of new voices, as much a Sundance tradition as the megabuck deals that have happened in the past few years.
- 1/28/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Following a long theatrical run and a month at $19.99, “Tenet” is now thriving at $5.99 and holds the top spot at all three lists that rank by purchases. At FandangoNow, which ranks by revenue, it is #6, the highest among standard-price entries. Best of all for Warner Bros., its normal share of a VOD release is around 70 percent. That compares to the 63 percent it demanded from theaters.
“Tenet” held off two significant new PVOD entries from Universal and Focus, “News of the World” and “Promising Young Woman.” Paul Greengrass’ Tom Hanks western led Apple TV for three days and placed second to “Tenet” at Google Play over the weekend. This comes as Universal’s “The Croods: A New Age” continues its strong presence at $19.99. “News” is #1 at FandangoNow, with “Promising” at #3 on their PVOD-dominated list.
“American Skin,” the first film from Nate Parker after “The Birth of a Nation,” priced at $6.99, placed...
“Tenet” held off two significant new PVOD entries from Universal and Focus, “News of the World” and “Promising Young Woman.” Paul Greengrass’ Tom Hanks western led Apple TV for three days and placed second to “Tenet” at Google Play over the weekend. This comes as Universal’s “The Croods: A New Age” continues its strong presence at $19.99. “News” is #1 at FandangoNow, with “Promising” at #3 on their PVOD-dominated list.
“American Skin,” the first film from Nate Parker after “The Birth of a Nation,” priced at $6.99, placed...
- 1/19/2021
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
The title of Sam Pollard’s MLK/FBI should be taken literally. This is a two-pronged investigation into a conspicuously fraught and, for the FBI, embarrassing moment in the American political establishment’s too-recent past. The documentary is primarily a study of the public and private selves of the men it names up top: Martin Luther King Jr., the enduring image of black Americans’ struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and beyond, and King contemporary J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI and — notoriously, with little real discretion — one of King’s most ardent,...
- 1/19/2021
- by K. Austin Collins
- Rollingstone.com
Several years ago, after his success debuting “The Birth of a Nation” at film festivals, it seemed that Nate Parker was bound to become one of the most exciting filmmakers in America. However, when past sexual assault charges resurfaced from his days in college, the buzz seemed to dissipate from ‘Birth.’ Now, years later, writer-director-star Nate Parker returns with a new film, “American Skin.”
Read More: Nate Parker Calls ‘American Skin’ A “Call To Action” & Defends Film Against Negative Reviews
As seen in the trailer for “American Skin,” the film tells a story that feels like it could be ripped from the headlines, as a Black man is pulled over by white cops and witnesses one of them shooting his teenage son for seemingly no reason.
Continue reading ‘American Skin’ Trailer: Nate Parker Returns With A Drama About Police Brutality at The Playlist.
Read More: Nate Parker Calls ‘American Skin’ A “Call To Action” & Defends Film Against Negative Reviews
As seen in the trailer for “American Skin,” the film tells a story that feels like it could be ripped from the headlines, as a Black man is pulled over by white cops and witnesses one of them shooting his teenage son for seemingly no reason.
Continue reading ‘American Skin’ Trailer: Nate Parker Returns With A Drama About Police Brutality at The Playlist.
- 12/9/2020
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Nate Parker’s police brutality drama “American Skin,” which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and won the Sconfini section’s best film award.
Vertical is planning a theatrical and digital release for January 2021, which would make the movie eligible for the Oscars. Parker directed, wrote and stars in the film as an Iraq War vet who seeks justice after his only son is killed by a white police officer. Omari Hardwick, Theo Rossi and Beau Knapp complete the cast.
The film was independently financed by Mark Burg and Tarak Ben Ammar’s Eagle Pictures, and is being presented by Spike Lee.
“American Skin” earned a warm critical response and standing ovation at Venice, but its inclusion in the festival’s lineup stirred controversy. Parker was accused and acquitted of raping a woman in 2001. The scandal resurfaced four years ago after his feature debut,...
Vertical is planning a theatrical and digital release for January 2021, which would make the movie eligible for the Oscars. Parker directed, wrote and stars in the film as an Iraq War vet who seeks justice after his only son is killed by a white police officer. Omari Hardwick, Theo Rossi and Beau Knapp complete the cast.
The film was independently financed by Mark Burg and Tarak Ben Ammar’s Eagle Pictures, and is being presented by Spike Lee.
“American Skin” earned a warm critical response and standing ovation at Venice, but its inclusion in the festival’s lineup stirred controversy. Parker was accused and acquitted of raping a woman in 2001. The scandal resurfaced four years ago after his feature debut,...
- 12/8/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
"Why are we the only people in this country that are expected to do things without violence?" Vertical Ent. has released an official trailer for American Skin, a new film written & directed by Nate Parker (of The Birth of a Nation). After a controversy surrounding his behavior, Parker quietly went out and filmed this feature and brought it to the Venice Film Festival last year. It will now open on VOD in January coming up soon. A Spike Lee presentation, from director Nate Parker, American Skin is a story about an Iraq War Vet named Lincoln 'Linc' Jefferson who decides to take matters into his own hands when his son is killed by a police officer. He decides to take over a police station and hold a trial right there in hopes of getting justice for his son's murder. This stars Omari Hardwick, Theo Rossi, Beau Knapp, AnnaLynne McCord, and Nate Parker.
- 12/7/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Cordial yet reserved, the man seated across from me seemed well cast as a CEO. We had just attended a board meeting as “outside” directors, and he was mulling the big question: “How much disruption and cost cutting can you apply to a company, yet still keep it functional?”
With a shrug of resignation, he dug an envelope from his pocket. “The chairman told me this was a great problem-solver,” he said. Opening it, the scent announced weed; robust weed.
More about him later, but his question resonates today, as virtually every Hollywood company seems intent on restructuring itself. A scorecard is needed to understand the new reporting lines at Disney. WarnerMedia has fired respected figures like Bob Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly, along with echelons of marketing mavens. The latter is all in keeping with Jason Kilar’s determination to build a “consumer mind-set,” but a “survival mind-set” seems more in demand.
With a shrug of resignation, he dug an envelope from his pocket. “The chairman told me this was a great problem-solver,” he said. Opening it, the scent announced weed; robust weed.
More about him later, but his question resonates today, as virtually every Hollywood company seems intent on restructuring itself. A scorecard is needed to understand the new reporting lines at Disney. WarnerMedia has fired respected figures like Bob Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly, along with echelons of marketing mavens. The latter is all in keeping with Jason Kilar’s determination to build a “consumer mind-set,” but a “survival mind-set” seems more in demand.
- 11/27/2020
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has snatched up the U.S. distribution rights to Akilla’s Escape, Charles Officer’s crime drama which had its world premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and now has a planned release for Q2 of next year.
Saul Williams (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) stars as Akilla Brown, an urban child-soldier who captures a fifteen-year-old Jamaican boy in the aftermath of an armed robbery. Over one grueling night, Akilla confronts a cycle of generational violence he thought he had escaped.
Thamela Mpumlwana (Star Trek: Discovery), Donisha Rita Claire Prendergast (Marathon + Black Bodies), and Vic Mensa (The Birth of a Nation) co-star.
Officer, who co-wrote the screenplay with Wendy “Motion” Brathwaite, also produced the pic with Jake Yanowski. Executive producers are Martin F. Katz, Karen Wookey, and Michael A. Levine.
“Charles Officer’s daring vision and the thoroughly affecting performances from the entire cast make Akilla’s Escape a boldly entertaining film.
Saul Williams (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) stars as Akilla Brown, an urban child-soldier who captures a fifteen-year-old Jamaican boy in the aftermath of an armed robbery. Over one grueling night, Akilla confronts a cycle of generational violence he thought he had escaped.
Thamela Mpumlwana (Star Trek: Discovery), Donisha Rita Claire Prendergast (Marathon + Black Bodies), and Vic Mensa (The Birth of a Nation) co-star.
Officer, who co-wrote the screenplay with Wendy “Motion” Brathwaite, also produced the pic with Jake Yanowski. Executive producers are Martin F. Katz, Karen Wookey, and Michael A. Levine.
“Charles Officer’s daring vision and the thoroughly affecting performances from the entire cast make Akilla’s Escape a boldly entertaining film.
- 11/19/2020
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Iron Maiden played a high adrenaline, career-spanning setlist on their last tour and documented it for a new live album, Nights of the Living Dead: Legacy of the Beast: Live in Mexico City. The material comes from the three nights the group played at a Mexico City arena last September.
A limited-edition triple-lp will feature vinyl colored to match the Mexican flag; the collection will also be available in a limited-edition two-cd book format, as well as conventional two-cd, three-lp and digital releases. The record, in all its formats, will come out on November 20th.
A limited-edition triple-lp will feature vinyl colored to match the Mexican flag; the collection will also be available in a limited-edition two-cd book format, as well as conventional two-cd, three-lp and digital releases. The record, in all its formats, will come out on November 20th.
- 10/1/2020
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Albert Hughes takes us on a wild journey through the movies that made him, then explains why he’s not a cinephile (Spoiler: He is). Heads up – you’re going to hear some words you’ve never heard on our show before, and only one of them is Metropolis.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Gremlins (1984)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Candidate (1972)
Menace II Society (1993)
Die Hard (1988)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Scarface (1983)
Goodfellas (1990)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Raging Bull (1980)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Alpha (2018)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
True Romance (1993)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
The Matrix (1999)
Man Bites Dog (1992)
Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)
A Serbian Film (2010)
Scarface (1932)
The Book of Eli (2010)
The Departed (2006)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
The Godfather (1972)
Casino (1995)
JFK (1991)
Dead Presidents (1996)
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Psycho (1960)
The Cremator (1969)
The Firemen’s Ball (1967)
Halloween (2018)
From Hell (2001)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Hoffa (1992)
V For Vendetta (2005)
Spartacus (1960)
You Were Never Really Here...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Gremlins (1984)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Candidate (1972)
Menace II Society (1993)
Die Hard (1988)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Scarface (1983)
Goodfellas (1990)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Raging Bull (1980)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Alpha (2018)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
True Romance (1993)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
The Matrix (1999)
Man Bites Dog (1992)
Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)
A Serbian Film (2010)
Scarface (1932)
The Book of Eli (2010)
The Departed (2006)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
The Godfather (1972)
Casino (1995)
JFK (1991)
Dead Presidents (1996)
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Psycho (1960)
The Cremator (1969)
The Firemen’s Ball (1967)
Halloween (2018)
From Hell (2001)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Hoffa (1992)
V For Vendetta (2005)
Spartacus (1960)
You Were Never Really Here...
- 9/29/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
The coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted Hollywood companies big and small, yet the industry is heading to Toronto — at least, virtually — to screen new films and acquire content that is so desperately lacking due to production shutdowns and theater closures. Even though there have been financial hardships throughout the film industry, many distributors — including those focused on traditional theatrical releases — expect to pull out their wallets at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, producers and acquisitions executives told TheWrap. They just might not shell out $17.5 million, as distributors have done in the past for Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” in 2016 and the Andy Samberg-Cristin Milioti rom-com “Palm Springs” earlier this year. “We’ve made a lot of sales over the pandemic, and we’ve been hearing from distributors that they need content because of the lack of production,” said Deb McIntosh, SVP of Endeavor Content’s film group,...
- 9/9/2020
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
There’s an accepted story we tell ourselves about the history of the movies, which goes something like this: Technological inventions in the late 1800s lead to a new type of mass entertainment and a burgeoning art form in the early part of the 20th century. Though the epicenter and main exporter of moviemaking is earmarked by many to be Hollywood, USA, this “moving pictures” phenomenon spreads far and wide outside of America’s borders — not just in France (who’ve been making films since the very beginning and is...
- 9/1/2020
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
The New York Times put prestigious specialty home-video distributor The Criterion Collection under a microscope late last week, and the headline said it all: “How the Criterion Collection Crops Out African-American Directors.” The report looked at all 22 years and more than 1,000 titles in the Criterion’s revered selection of Blu-rays and DVDs of films, finding that only four African Americans are represented: Oscar Micheaux (“Body and Soul”); William Greaves; Charles Burnett (“To Sleep With Anger”); and Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing” and “Bamboozled”).
It’s a glaring omission for a company that prides itself on licensing and releasing what it describes as “important classic and contemporary films,” but also reflective of an industry-wide practice of shutting out Black filmmakers.
Despite America’s changing demographics, the industry’s most powerful leaders have been slow to respond to a demand for films that reflect cultural and racial shifts that have long been underway.
It’s a glaring omission for a company that prides itself on licensing and releasing what it describes as “important classic and contemporary films,” but also reflective of an industry-wide practice of shutting out Black filmmakers.
Despite America’s changing demographics, the industry’s most powerful leaders have been slow to respond to a demand for films that reflect cultural and racial shifts that have long been underway.
- 8/25/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Just in case it wasn’t obvious before, the recent demonstrations over the death of George Floyd have done much to lay bare just how spotty and incomplete much of America’s understanding of its own racial history has often been. While any schoolkid can rattle off facts about the March on Washington and the 13th Amendment, the complicated, messy, often horrifyingly violent timeline of racism and social justice in this country has long been oversimplified in school curricula and popular discourse, to the extent that some seismic events within that history — from Nat Turner’s rebellion to the Black Wall Street massacre — were largely unknown to large swaths of the country until very recently.
Both of those moments, however, have been dragged to the forefront by film and television over the past few years — “The Birth of a Nation” for the former, and HBO’s “Watchmen” with the latter...
Both of those moments, however, have been dragged to the forefront by film and television over the past few years — “The Birth of a Nation” for the former, and HBO’s “Watchmen” with the latter...
- 8/20/2020
- by Andrew Barker
- Variety Film + TV
‘Emperor’ Review: A Runaway Slave Joins the Raid on Harpers Ferry in Forgotten Tale of Black Heroism
As statues to Confederate heroes are torn down around the country, the question of whom to honor in their place poses an intriguing challenge — one that writer-director Mark Amin seems to have anticipated with his abolitionist adventure movie “Emperor.” Essentially a filmic monument to a scarcely documented American hero, “Emperor” tells the virtually unknown story of Shields Green, a descendant of African royalty who was born into slavery and later escaped, making it to freedom before risking his life in the attack on Harpers Ferry.
When history books speak of that famous raid, they tend to focus on John Brown, the white militant who planned the action hoping it would incite a slave uprising in the South — which gives an accurate but incomplete picture. “Emperor” re-centers the telling, broadening this early “white savior” story to include the Black men who joined the cause — or, in the case of Frederick Douglass,...
When history books speak of that famous raid, they tend to focus on John Brown, the white militant who planned the action hoping it would incite a slave uprising in the South — which gives an accurate but incomplete picture. “Emperor” re-centers the telling, broadening this early “white savior” story to include the Black men who joined the cause — or, in the case of Frederick Douglass,...
- 8/15/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
“Palm Springs” broke records on Hulu this weekend, with the Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti rom-com recording the streamer’s biggest opening weekend ever, a Hulu spokesperson told TheWrap.
The film was viewed more times than any other movie in its first three days after launching on July 10. It was also the most discussed Hulu film on Twitter in its first three days.
This comes after “Palm Springs” broke its first record when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and Hulu and Neon scooped it up for a record $17.5 million and change. That price tag effectively tied the amount spent on Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” by Fox Searchlight back in 2016.
Also Read: 'Palm Springs' Film Review: Andy Samberg Puts an Indie Rom-Com Spin on 'Groundhog Day'
“Palm Springs” also surpassed another record set by another Neon film, Bong Joon Ho’s Best Picture winner “Parasite.
The film was viewed more times than any other movie in its first three days after launching on July 10. It was also the most discussed Hulu film on Twitter in its first three days.
This comes after “Palm Springs” broke its first record when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and Hulu and Neon scooped it up for a record $17.5 million and change. That price tag effectively tied the amount spent on Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” by Fox Searchlight back in 2016.
Also Read: 'Palm Springs' Film Review: Andy Samberg Puts an Indie Rom-Com Spin on 'Groundhog Day'
“Palm Springs” also surpassed another record set by another Neon film, Bong Joon Ho’s Best Picture winner “Parasite.
- 7/14/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
The records keep on coming for Max Barbakow’s time loop romantic-comedy “Palm Springs.” A spokesperson for Hulu confirms with IndieWire the film broke the streaming platform’s opening weekend record by netting more hours watched over its first three days than any other film on Hulu during the same period. “Palm Springs” launched July 10 on Hulu.
The film also generated the highest amount of social interest for any Hulu original film to date over its premiere weekend, and was the most discussed Hulu original film on Twitter over its first three days.
The “Palm Springs” Hulu record is the latest history-making moment for the acclaimed comedy, which stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and sold to Hulu and Neon for just over $17.5 million, making it the biggest deal in the history of the Park City-set festival. “Palm Springs” beat...
The film also generated the highest amount of social interest for any Hulu original film to date over its premiere weekend, and was the most discussed Hulu original film on Twitter over its first three days.
The “Palm Springs” Hulu record is the latest history-making moment for the acclaimed comedy, which stars Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and sold to Hulu and Neon for just over $17.5 million, making it the biggest deal in the history of the Park City-set festival. “Palm Springs” beat...
- 7/14/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
With its sun-kissed energy and oasis vibes, it’s appropriate that the Max Barbakow-directed comedy Palm Springs be released during the summer. The time-hopping comedy made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year and drops on Hulu today.
The film written by Andy Siara follows carefree Nyles (Andy Samberg), who meets Sarah (Cristin Milioti) a reluctant maid of honor who is in Palm Springs for a wedding. Trapped at this venue, things take a very interesting turn and they go on an existential time-loop journey of getting to know each other and themselves. During Sundance, Siara told Deadline that the movie was kind of based on the experience that Barbakow had at his wedding.
“All those thoughts that go into making those major life decisions, commitment and all that stuff — it’s kind of just all injected into this movie,” said Siara. “It’s just wrestling with those...
The film written by Andy Siara follows carefree Nyles (Andy Samberg), who meets Sarah (Cristin Milioti) a reluctant maid of honor who is in Palm Springs for a wedding. Trapped at this venue, things take a very interesting turn and they go on an existential time-loop journey of getting to know each other and themselves. During Sundance, Siara told Deadline that the movie was kind of based on the experience that Barbakow had at his wedding.
“All those thoughts that go into making those major life decisions, commitment and all that stuff — it’s kind of just all injected into this movie,” said Siara. “It’s just wrestling with those...
- 7/10/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
If the coronavirus had never come along and “Palm Springs” was being released into a few hundred (or a couple thousand) theaters this week, the pressure would have been intense on the Max Barbakow comedy. After all, back in January the movie landed the largest deal in the history of the Sundance Film Festival at more than $17.5 million, which put it at risk of joining other recent eight-figure Sundance deals that didn’t result in box-office gold: “Late Night,” “Brittany Runs a Marathon,” “Blinded by the Light,” “The Birth of a Nation” and, really, the majority of the big-money Sundance deals since “Little Miss Sunshine” in 2006.
But with theaters closed, “Palm Springs” will be debuting in scattered drive-in theaters but mostly on Hulu, where the expectations won’t be so high and the return on Hulu and Neon’s investment can’t be so easily quantified. And maybe that will...
But with theaters closed, “Palm Springs” will be debuting in scattered drive-in theaters but mostly on Hulu, where the expectations won’t be so high and the return on Hulu and Neon’s investment can’t be so easily quantified. And maybe that will...
- 7/8/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Former “Glee” star Amber Riley remembers the time early in her career when a producer told her that she and other actors of color were “a little more disposable, because that’s the way the world is.” As her professional trajectory continued, she witnessed her fair share of bad behavior, and knew who would — or would not — be held accountable.
“Being told that the white girls are not fireable is being told that you’re disposable,” she tells Variety. Riley internalized that message to the point that she was “distraught” going into auditions in her post-”Glee” career, dealing with anxiety and a loss of confidence.
“I just felt like, there’s a million Black actors that want this — what is special about me? … That’s what that feels like [when] nobody cares,” says Riley. “They don’t care that you’re being abused on set, whether that’s verbally or otherwise.
“Being told that the white girls are not fireable is being told that you’re disposable,” she tells Variety. Riley internalized that message to the point that she was “distraught” going into auditions in her post-”Glee” career, dealing with anxiety and a loss of confidence.
“I just felt like, there’s a million Black actors that want this — what is special about me? … That’s what that feels like [when] nobody cares,” says Riley. “They don’t care that you’re being abused on set, whether that’s verbally or otherwise.
- 6/30/2020
- by Elaine Low and Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
The span of time between two linked films “The Birth of a Nation” and “BlacKkKlansman”—103 years—may serve as the bluntest example of how essential it is for generations of individuals to be taught inclusivity and not exclusivity. A film like “Planet of the Apes” sought to convey the same lesson but took greater creative license with how to present it—unlike the more direct approach of the two previous films.
Continue reading ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ Trailer: Ciro Guerra Tells A Timely Adaptation Of Colonial Oppression With Robert Pattinson, Johnny Depp & More at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ Trailer: Ciro Guerra Tells A Timely Adaptation Of Colonial Oppression With Robert Pattinson, Johnny Depp & More at The Playlist.
- 6/24/2020
- by Andrew Hrip
- The Playlist
Bron Studios’ non-scripted division Bron Life is partnering with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and his Brooklyn Media to develop and produce Homicide or Justified. The docuseries, hosted by Crump, takes viewers step by step through questionable murder cases like the ones involving George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Aubery, whose families he currently represents.
In In Homicide or Justified, Crump — whose clients have also included the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Nakia Jones — will bring in investigators, family members and celebrities to examine the details of crimes. The result aims to be suspenseful and impactful and will help to give victims the closure that often eludes them. The series has yet to go out to networks.
The new comes as Crump signed today with UTA which will rep him across TV, podcasting, film and speaking opportunities.
“While writing my book Open Season and meeting with...
In In Homicide or Justified, Crump — whose clients have also included the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Nakia Jones — will bring in investigators, family members and celebrities to examine the details of crimes. The result aims to be suspenseful and impactful and will help to give victims the closure that often eludes them. The series has yet to go out to networks.
The new comes as Crump signed today with UTA which will rep him across TV, podcasting, film and speaking opportunities.
“While writing my book Open Season and meeting with...
- 6/19/2020
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Images have immense power. As the currency of Hollywood, they can be potent weapons against the ugly realities of racism, hate and intolerance in America. They have the power to inspire, to humanize and to dehumanize, as we saw in the video of George Floyd’s slow, violent death at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
Images have historically played a leading role in galvanizing America to fight for racial justice and equality. In the 1800s, when ugly caricatures of Black people filled the pages of newspapers and popular magazines, Frederick Douglass sat for more than 100 photographic portraits — a purposeful strategy to show the world images of a serious, dignified Black man. In 1915, the six-year-old NAACP launched a national campaign against the racist film “The Birth of a Nation,” which portrayed Black characters as violent criminals and the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. Recognizing the power of cinema, the NAACP...
Images have historically played a leading role in galvanizing America to fight for racial justice and equality. In the 1800s, when ugly caricatures of Black people filled the pages of newspapers and popular magazines, Frederick Douglass sat for more than 100 photographic portraits — a purposeful strategy to show the world images of a serious, dignified Black man. In 1915, the six-year-old NAACP launched a national campaign against the racist film “The Birth of a Nation,” which portrayed Black characters as violent criminals and the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. Recognizing the power of cinema, the NAACP...
- 6/17/2020
- by Darrell D. Miller and Derrick Johnson
- Variety Film + TV
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates is showing June 17 - July 17, 2020.Oscar Micheaux has been hailed as many things: The first Black auteur, a modernist “Czar of Black Hollywood,” and a pioneering independent director whose distinctive style forged new ways of telling stories about the complexities of the Black experience. He was also—quite literally—a pioneer. Born in 1884 as the fifth child of former slaves, Micheaux moved to Chicago as a teenager, where he worked in stockyards and steel mills before setting up a series of small businesses. He lived an itinerant life as a Pullman porter, saving enough money to buy a plot of land in South Dakota. There he set up a thriving homestead, where he lived off the prairie land and wrote novels. Droughts and the break-up of his marriage brought an end to this chapter,...
- 6/17/2020
- MUBI
The vast majority of Hollywood films over the past hundred years were made by, about and for white people. The industry’s first blockbuster — 1915’s The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith — was a Ku Klux Klan propaganda film featuring white actors in blackface.
It’s also true that until very recently, the vast majority of white viewers simply have not had to develop the skill that Black people (and members of many other under-represented groups) have practiced from birth: the ability to identify with a character who doesn’t look like you in an ...
It’s also true that until very recently, the vast majority of white viewers simply have not had to develop the skill that Black people (and members of many other under-represented groups) have practiced from birth: the ability to identify with a character who doesn’t look like you in an ...
- 6/14/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The vast majority of Hollywood films over the past hundred years were made by, about and for white people. The industry’s first blockbuster — 1915’s The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith — was a Ku Klux Klan propaganda film featuring white actors in blackface.
It’s also true that until very recently, the vast majority of white viewers simply have not had to develop the skill that Black people (and members of many other under-represented groups) have practiced from birth: the ability to identify with a character who doesn’t look like you in an ...
It’s also true that until very recently, the vast majority of white viewers simply have not had to develop the skill that Black people (and members of many other under-represented groups) have practiced from birth: the ability to identify with a character who doesn’t look like you in an ...
- 6/14/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Writer-director John Ridley has been writing and directing film and TV projects about racial conflict his whole career. And despite winning the Oscar for scripting 12 Years a Slave, he has always found it a tough sell, the idea of forcing people to confront their own feelings about race and prejudice. He is in an unusual place in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder that prompted protests in major cities across the country. Right after writing a brief op-ed in the Los Angeles Times suggesting it wasn’t Ok for HBO Max to continue airing the cinematic classic Gone With The Wind without a qualifier that it wrongly celebrates the South and diminishes the horrors of slavery, WarnerMedia announced it would pull the film until it can provide some historical context for viewers. And Warner Bros just scrapped a Grand Rex theater showing in Paris to commemorate the...
- 6/12/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
In an open letter to Hollywood, the co-chairs of the WGA West’s Committee of Black Writers said today that they are grieving, angry and “unapologetically demanding systemic change” throughout the industry in the wake of nationwide protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We need to revolutionize the way our industry hires writers,” – Michelle Amor, Hilliard Guess and Bianca Sams wrote. “The entertainment industry needs to implement forward-looking project development and staffing practices, including attracting, developing, mentoring, hiring, and retaining the next generations of diverse writers, directors, producers and executives, at all levels.”
Calling for action, not words, they told industry leaders that “either you commit to a new, institutionalized system of accountability with and to Black writers, or you prove that you’re putting on just another strategic, virtue-signaling performance deemed necessary to survive the times.”
Here is the letter in its entirety:
Dear Hollywood,
As Black Americans,...
“We need to revolutionize the way our industry hires writers,” – Michelle Amor, Hilliard Guess and Bianca Sams wrote. “The entertainment industry needs to implement forward-looking project development and staffing practices, including attracting, developing, mentoring, hiring, and retaining the next generations of diverse writers, directors, producers and executives, at all levels.”
Calling for action, not words, they told industry leaders that “either you commit to a new, institutionalized system of accountability with and to Black writers, or you prove that you’re putting on just another strategic, virtue-signaling performance deemed necessary to survive the times.”
Here is the letter in its entirety:
Dear Hollywood,
As Black Americans,...
- 6/12/2020
- by David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
The rage and anger at police violence and systemic racism is not just a week, a year, or even decades old. It is centuries in the making. And in order to understand and meaningfully contribute to the movement, audiences will need to educate themselves on the racist and socioeconomic inequities that nurture the environment that allows these injustices to thrive.
From Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), to Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” filmmakers have tackled this subject with tense and angry films made in reaction to the status quo. They unpack the onscreen racist ideology that began with D.W. Griffith’s incendiary “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), and highlight the realities of a society in which racial disparities permeate and undermine an entire system’s effectiveness.
These are bold and provocative films that serve as overdue tonic for a society that has long been saturated with incomplete depictions of black people,...
From Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), to Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” filmmakers have tackled this subject with tense and angry films made in reaction to the status quo. They unpack the onscreen racist ideology that began with D.W. Griffith’s incendiary “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), and highlight the realities of a society in which racial disparities permeate and undermine an entire system’s effectiveness.
These are bold and provocative films that serve as overdue tonic for a society that has long been saturated with incomplete depictions of black people,...
- 6/3/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
This article contains Hollywood spoilers. You can find our spoiler-free review here.
It’s a beautiful fantasy. On Oscar night 1948, the same evening that in real-life Walt Disney’s troubling Song of the South received an honorary Oscar for James Baskett’s performance, Rock Hudson came out of the closet in front of the entire world. Standing on the red carpet with his hand in Archie Coleman’s, a black man who was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, Rock announces his love to the world and says he is not afraid. But like many sparkling things in Ryan Murphy shows, it’s still only a fantasy. In real life, there was no Archie Coleman, no Meg to catapult Rock Hudson’s career into liberal advocacy, and no coming out of the closet.
In recent years, Rock Hudson is likely most remembered, whether he would’ve liked it or not,...
It’s a beautiful fantasy. On Oscar night 1948, the same evening that in real-life Walt Disney’s troubling Song of the South received an honorary Oscar for James Baskett’s performance, Rock Hudson came out of the closet in front of the entire world. Standing on the red carpet with his hand in Archie Coleman’s, a black man who was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, Rock announces his love to the world and says he is not afraid. But like many sparkling things in Ryan Murphy shows, it’s still only a fantasy. In real life, there was no Archie Coleman, no Meg to catapult Rock Hudson’s career into liberal advocacy, and no coming out of the closet.
In recent years, Rock Hudson is likely most remembered, whether he would’ve liked it or not,...
- 5/5/2020
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Charles Laughton’s sole directorial effort, the 1955 suspense classic The Night of the Hunter is getting a modern remake from Universal Pictures, according to Variety. Amy Pascal’s (Spider-Man: Far From Home) Universal Pictures-based banner Pascal Pictures will produce along with Peter Gethers. The screenplay will be written by Matt Orton, best known for the Nazi-hunter film Operation Finale, based on Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel.
The original film is iconic, and Robert Mitchum’s portrayal of newly released prison convict Harry Powell is one of the greatest villains of the silver screen. This is the film which introduced the hand tattoos Love and Hate and the biblical battle fought just below the knuckles. It is the story of good and evil that goes back to when “Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low.” The inked-fingers had “veins that run straight to the soul of man.”
The book and...
The original film is iconic, and Robert Mitchum’s portrayal of newly released prison convict Harry Powell is one of the greatest villains of the silver screen. This is the film which introduced the hand tattoos Love and Hate and the biblical battle fought just below the knuckles. It is the story of good and evil that goes back to when “Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low.” The inked-fingers had “veins that run straight to the soul of man.”
The book and...
- 4/8/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Our 75th guest! The legendary filmmaker John Sayles joins Josh and Joe to explore some of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Ulzana’s Raid (1972)
Django (1966)
The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
City Of Hope (1991)
Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)
The Challenge (1982)
Avalanche (1978)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Piranha (1978)
The Howling (1981)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
The Killers (1964)
The King And I (1956)
Time Without Pity (1957)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
Ben-Hur (1957)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Two Women (1960)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Spartacus (1960)
Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Merrill’s Marauders (1962)
Targets (1968)
Touch Of Evil (1958)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Woodstock (1970)
Crime In The Streets (1956)
The Bad Seed (1956)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Fedora (1978)
Dune (1984)
The Cotton Club (1984)
Choose Me (1984)
Raising Arizona (1987)
El Norte (1983)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Irishman (2019)
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)
The Thing (1982)
Chinatown (1974)
Manhattan (1979)
Duck Amuck (1953)
Goodfellas (1990)
Humanoids Of The Deep (1980)
Cockfighter (1974)
Dynamite Women a.k.a. The Great Texas Dynamite Chase...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Ulzana’s Raid (1972)
Django (1966)
The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
City Of Hope (1991)
Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)
The Challenge (1982)
Avalanche (1978)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Piranha (1978)
The Howling (1981)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
The Killers (1964)
The King And I (1956)
Time Without Pity (1957)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
Ben-Hur (1957)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Two Women (1960)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Spartacus (1960)
Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Merrill’s Marauders (1962)
Targets (1968)
Touch Of Evil (1958)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Woodstock (1970)
Crime In The Streets (1956)
The Bad Seed (1956)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Fedora (1978)
Dune (1984)
The Cotton Club (1984)
Choose Me (1984)
Raising Arizona (1987)
El Norte (1983)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Irishman (2019)
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (2019)
The Thing (1982)
Chinatown (1974)
Manhattan (1979)
Duck Amuck (1953)
Goodfellas (1990)
Humanoids Of The Deep (1980)
Cockfighter (1974)
Dynamite Women a.k.a. The Great Texas Dynamite Chase...
- 4/7/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple” celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. The film remains a cultural touchstone for African American women, due in large part to its depiction of female relationships as a form of sanctuary, in a patriarchal world filled with violence. When it was released, it shattered the widespread cultural resistance to talking openly about domestic abuse.
“The Color Purple” draws from Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, which spans 40 years in the turbulent life of Celie, a young black woman in the early 20th-century American South. The film chronicles her abuse at the hands of her stepfather and equally cruel husband, her struggles with poverty, racism, and sexual savagery, and her perseverance as she forges intimate relationships with other women. And despite controversy around its depictions of the black family, especially black men, and criticism that Spielberg turned Walker’s complex novel into simplified broad entertainment,...
“The Color Purple” draws from Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, which spans 40 years in the turbulent life of Celie, a young black woman in the early 20th-century American South. The film chronicles her abuse at the hands of her stepfather and equally cruel husband, her struggles with poverty, racism, and sexual savagery, and her perseverance as she forges intimate relationships with other women. And despite controversy around its depictions of the black family, especially black men, and criticism that Spielberg turned Walker’s complex novel into simplified broad entertainment,...
- 4/3/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
“Let it be the feelings that bring about the events. Not the other way.”—Robert Bresson, Notes on the CinematographThe work of experimental filmmaker and visual artist Christopher Harris generates bounties from the historical and cultural vestiges of the African-American experience. Consider his 2004 short film, Reckless Eyeballing, an amalgam of black and white images and footage chopped and screwed to the sound of ominous, Hitchcockian violin crescendos. Glimpses of Pam Grier and Angela Davis and scenes from D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation collide, evoking a pop culture iconography that draws Black women as illicit, dangerous objects of desire, while the title makes reference to Jim Crow-era vernacular of Black men looking at white women with presumably lusty intent. Halimuhfack (2016), one of Harris’ most recent shorts, similarly achieves a provocative density of signification in its critique of anthropological documentation. A performer who assumes the posture of an interview...
- 3/26/2020
- MUBI
Movie Theaters Endured Every Threat for Over a Century, Until Coronavirus Shut Them Down: A Timeline
Hester Ford of South Carolina is the oldest living American. She was born in 1905, the same year that nickelodeons, the first form of movie exhibition, were born. Large and mid-sized theaters soon followed. For Ford, movies have been available in theaters non-stop, with no interruption. Now for the first time in Hollywood’s 115-year-history, movie theaters are on pause.
Cinemas were widespread by 1915. And the movies’ centrality to American life and culture — leading to weekly tracking of the weekend grosses by major media — continues to this day. On Monday, as CNBC’s talking heads reviewed the stock market collapse amid the coronavirus pandemic, they broke out a news bulletin: the closing of the national movie chain Regal Theaters. Movie exhibition may be a small industry, a tiny sliver of the economy, but closing theaters was a sign of how dire the coronavirus threat really is.
More from IndieWireChina Is Relying on 'Green Book,...
Cinemas were widespread by 1915. And the movies’ centrality to American life and culture — leading to weekly tracking of the weekend grosses by major media — continues to this day. On Monday, as CNBC’s talking heads reviewed the stock market collapse amid the coronavirus pandemic, they broke out a news bulletin: the closing of the national movie chain Regal Theaters. Movie exhibition may be a small industry, a tiny sliver of the economy, but closing theaters was a sign of how dire the coronavirus threat really is.
More from IndieWireChina Is Relying on 'Green Book,...
- 3/18/2020
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***The coming of sound cost the American film industry plenty: it forced them to soundproof their stages, refit their theaters, and it rendered a fair few actors unemployable, by reason of heavy accents or lack of facility with the English language. In fact, one of the founders of 20th Century Fox was the comedy star Raymond Griffith, whose damaged vocal cords prevented him speaking above a croak, and who made the transition to writing and producing when he saw the writing on the wall. But on the other hand,...
- 3/18/2020
- MUBI
Suddenly, 2020 is a year of imponderables.
Will there be a Cannes Film Festival? Given the coronavirus-induced cancellation of SXSW, MipTV, and the AFI Life Achievement Gala, who knows?
Is Marvel’s Black Widow the big spring-summer hit, now that No Time To Die is bumped to November? Maybe, if an April/May release still looks wise after parent company Disney babies Onward and Mulan through a virus-bitten global box office.
Can Joe Biden really power past Bernie Sanders to grab the Democratic nomination in July, and perhaps the Presidency in November? It’s possible, if he can avoid damage from too many Hollywood endorsements, and finds enough sanitizer to survive the hazards of a hugging, squeezing, hand-shaking political campaign.
A much smaller imponderable, but one that could stand for a hundred similar conundrums that...
Will there be a Cannes Film Festival? Given the coronavirus-induced cancellation of SXSW, MipTV, and the AFI Life Achievement Gala, who knows?
Is Marvel’s Black Widow the big spring-summer hit, now that No Time To Die is bumped to November? Maybe, if an April/May release still looks wise after parent company Disney babies Onward and Mulan through a virus-bitten global box office.
Can Joe Biden really power past Bernie Sanders to grab the Democratic nomination in July, and perhaps the Presidency in November? It’s possible, if he can avoid damage from too many Hollywood endorsements, and finds enough sanitizer to survive the hazards of a hugging, squeezing, hand-shaking political campaign.
A much smaller imponderable, but one that could stand for a hundred similar conundrums that...
- 3/8/2020
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
Amazon Studios has picked up worldwide rights to “Sylvie’s Love,” a period romance starring Tessa Thompson, according to an individual with knowledge of the deal.
The film, which Amazon acquired the worldwide rights to for a high seven-figure price tag, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, “Sylvie’s Love” is a lush love story set in the cool jazz era of New York City that spans several years in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Thompson gives a powerful performance in the film as Ashe, melds music into his romance for a rich period piece. “Sylvie’s Love” played in competition in the U.S. Dramatic section.
Also Read: Sundance 2020: Streamers Spent Big and Documentaries Are All the Rage
The film follows Sylvie (Thompson) who meets aspiring saxophonist Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) when he takes a job at her father’s record store in Harlem. After...
The film, which Amazon acquired the worldwide rights to for a high seven-figure price tag, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, “Sylvie’s Love” is a lush love story set in the cool jazz era of New York City that spans several years in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Thompson gives a powerful performance in the film as Ashe, melds music into his romance for a rich period piece. “Sylvie’s Love” played in competition in the U.S. Dramatic section.
Also Read: Sundance 2020: Streamers Spent Big and Documentaries Are All the Rage
The film follows Sylvie (Thompson) who meets aspiring saxophonist Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) when he takes a job at her father’s record store in Harlem. After...
- 2/5/2020
- by Trey Williams
- The Wrap
Andy Samberg reflected on the sale of his comedy Palm Springs at the Sundance Film Festival while visiting NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night.
Following the film's recent premiere at the fest, Neon and Hulu landed worldwide rights to Palm Springs for $17,500,000.69. That figure breaks the previous record for the biggest sale ever at Sundance — by 69 cents — which was held by 2016's The Birth of a Nation.
"When you get offers on a movie, you stay up until five in the morning negotiating and stuff," Samberg explained ...
Following the film's recent premiere at the fest, Neon and Hulu landed worldwide rights to Palm Springs for $17,500,000.69. That figure breaks the previous record for the biggest sale ever at Sundance — by 69 cents — which was held by 2016's The Birth of a Nation.
"When you get offers on a movie, you stay up until five in the morning negotiating and stuff," Samberg explained ...
Andy Samberg reflected on the sale of his comedy Palm Springs at the Sundance Film Festival while visiting NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night.
Following the film's recent premiere at the fest, Neon and Hulu landed worldwide rights to Palm Springs for $17,500,000.69. That figure breaks the previous record for the biggest sale ever at Sundance — by 69 cents — which was held by 2016's The Birth of a Nation.
"When you get offers on a movie, you stay up until five in the morning negotiating and stuff," Samberg explained ...
Following the film's recent premiere at the fest, Neon and Hulu landed worldwide rights to Palm Springs for $17,500,000.69. That figure breaks the previous record for the biggest sale ever at Sundance — by 69 cents — which was held by 2016's The Birth of a Nation.
"When you get offers on a movie, you stay up until five in the morning negotiating and stuff," Samberg explained ...
Theatrical components no longer critical in calculation.
A handful of major deals at Sundance 2020 including a record acquisition asserted the primacy of streamers, who in each case were either the prime mover in the transaction or a major factor in the calculation.
The star of the show was arguably Hulu, and at time of writing buyers of all shapes and sizes had laid out in the region of $80m all told.
Hulu teamed up with Neon for a record on-site Sundance acquisition, getting its wallet out for worldwide rights on Adam Samberg comedy Palm Springs in a deal that eclipsed...
A handful of major deals at Sundance 2020 including a record acquisition asserted the primacy of streamers, who in each case were either the prime mover in the transaction or a major factor in the calculation.
The star of the show was arguably Hulu, and at time of writing buyers of all shapes and sizes had laid out in the region of $80m all told.
Hulu teamed up with Neon for a record on-site Sundance acquisition, getting its wallet out for worldwide rights on Adam Samberg comedy Palm Springs in a deal that eclipsed...
- 2/2/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Theatrical components no longer critical in calculation.
A handful of major deals at Sundance 2020 including a record acquisition asserted the primacy of streamers, who in each case were either the prime mover in the transaction or a major factor in the calculation.
The star of the show was arguably Hulu, and at time of writing buyers of all shapes and sizes had laid out in the region of $80m all told.
Hulu teamed up with Neon for a record on-site Sundance acquisition, getting its wallet out for worldwide rights on Adam Samberg comedy Palm Springs in a deal that eclipsed...
A handful of major deals at Sundance 2020 including a record acquisition asserted the primacy of streamers, who in each case were either the prime mover in the transaction or a major factor in the calculation.
The star of the show was arguably Hulu, and at time of writing buyers of all shapes and sizes had laid out in the region of $80m all told.
Hulu teamed up with Neon for a record on-site Sundance acquisition, getting its wallet out for worldwide rights on Adam Samberg comedy Palm Springs in a deal that eclipsed...
- 2/2/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Theatrical components no longer critical in calculation.
A handful of major deals at Sundance 2020 including a record acquisition asserted the primacy of streamers, who in each case were either the prime mover in the transaction or a major factor in the calculation.
Hulu was arguably the star of the show. Amazon Studios was involved in two notable trades that made a splash yet otherwise behaved modestly compared to its $46m-plus spending spree in 2019.
Apple and A24 snapped up the documentary Boys State for around $10m, and Netflix was circling drama The 40-Year-Old Version in what would be a late on-site...
A handful of major deals at Sundance 2020 including a record acquisition asserted the primacy of streamers, who in each case were either the prime mover in the transaction or a major factor in the calculation.
Hulu was arguably the star of the show. Amazon Studios was involved in two notable trades that made a splash yet otherwise behaved modestly compared to its $46m-plus spending spree in 2019.
Apple and A24 snapped up the documentary Boys State for around $10m, and Netflix was circling drama The 40-Year-Old Version in what would be a late on-site...
- 2/2/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Hulu is nearing a deal for worldwide distribution rights for Justin Simien’s “Bad Hair,” an individual with knowledge told TheWrap. No deal has been closed.
The film, written and directed by Simien, premiered in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival last Thursday. The cast includes Elle Lorraine, Vanessa Williams, Jay Pharaoh, Lena Waithe, Blair Underwood and Laverne Cox.
“Bad Hair,” set in 1989, follows a young woman who gets a weave in order to succeed in the image-obsessed world of music television. However, the weave starts to take on a mind of its own.
Also Read: 'Bad Hair' Film Review: Justin Simien Puts Thoughtful Twists in a Creepy Horror Movie
Producers are Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez and Eddie Vaisman. Oren Moverman and Alex G. Scott executive produced.
Hulu has been quite active at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Teaming up with Neon, the distributor picked...
The film, written and directed by Simien, premiered in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival last Thursday. The cast includes Elle Lorraine, Vanessa Williams, Jay Pharaoh, Lena Waithe, Blair Underwood and Laverne Cox.
“Bad Hair,” set in 1989, follows a young woman who gets a weave in order to succeed in the image-obsessed world of music television. However, the weave starts to take on a mind of its own.
Also Read: 'Bad Hair' Film Review: Justin Simien Puts Thoughtful Twists in a Creepy Horror Movie
Producers are Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez and Eddie Vaisman. Oren Moverman and Alex G. Scott executive produced.
Hulu has been quite active at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Teaming up with Neon, the distributor picked...
- 1/31/2020
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
Acquisition beats previous record set by The Birth Of A Nation in 2016.
Hulu and Neon confirmed on Monday evening (27) that the worldwide deal for Sundance drama Palm Springs is a record-breaker, eclipsing the $17.5m Fox Searchlight paid for The Birth Of A Nation in 2016 by 69 cents.
The partners negotiated the acquisition with UTA Independent Film Group after the wedding celebration romp premiered in U.S Dramatic Competition on Sunday. It screens again late on Monday night, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Neon plans a theatrical release on the feature, which stars Andy Samberg as the jaded date of a bridesmaid and...
Hulu and Neon confirmed on Monday evening (27) that the worldwide deal for Sundance drama Palm Springs is a record-breaker, eclipsing the $17.5m Fox Searchlight paid for The Birth Of A Nation in 2016 by 69 cents.
The partners negotiated the acquisition with UTA Independent Film Group after the wedding celebration romp premiered in U.S Dramatic Competition on Sunday. It screens again late on Monday night, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Neon plans a theatrical release on the feature, which stars Andy Samberg as the jaded date of a bridesmaid and...
- 1/28/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Acquisition beats previous record set by The Birth Of A Nation in 2016.
Hulu and Neon confirmed on Monday evening (27) that the worldwide deal for Sundance drama Palm Springs is a record-breaker, eclipsing the $17.5m Fox Searchlight paid for The Birth Of A Nation in 2016 by 69 cents.
The partners negotiated the acquisition with UTA Independent Film Group after the wedding celebration romp premiered in U.S Dramatic Competition on Sunday. It screens again late on Monday night, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Neon plans a theatrical release on the feature, which stars Andy Samberg as the jaded date of a bridesmaid and...
Hulu and Neon confirmed on Monday evening (27) that the worldwide deal for Sundance drama Palm Springs is a record-breaker, eclipsing the $17.5m Fox Searchlight paid for The Birth Of A Nation in 2016 by 69 cents.
The partners negotiated the acquisition with UTA Independent Film Group after the wedding celebration romp premiered in U.S Dramatic Competition on Sunday. It screens again late on Monday night, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Neon plans a theatrical release on the feature, which stars Andy Samberg as the jaded date of a bridesmaid and...
- 1/28/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Update: Deadline today broke that Hulu and Neon set the high bar for deals at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival with a $15 million world rights deal for the Andy Samberg-starrer Palm Springs. At the time, we heard it might be a bit higher, and waited for a definitive number. The deal at that price was certainly a premium for a modest budget comedy. They just confirmed the deal but announced a number of $17,500,000.69. That would put it 69 cents past The Birth of A Nation, the Nate Parker-directed film that was purchased at 2016 Sundance by Fox Searchlight. Let’s hope this investment works out better than that one, which Deadline also broke.
Usually buyers don’t cop to such huge sums — and this one reads like a prank — but here is the announcement. In a statement, the producers said: “We spent over 85 million dollars of our own money on this movie,...
Usually buyers don’t cop to such huge sums — and this one reads like a prank — but here is the announcement. In a statement, the producers said: “We spent over 85 million dollars of our own money on this movie,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
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