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Fear is the Rider, described as an ode to “gore-drenched Ozploitation slashers of the 1970s,” sees a woman pursued in the Australian Outback by a pack of ruthless serial killers. While that already has our attention, Deadline reports the nod to gory slashers has lined up an impressive cast so far.

Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One), Abbey Lee, Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) and Eliza Scanlen (Caddo Lake) have been cast in lead roles.

As for plot, the film follows “a lone woman, searching for her missing mother, who is pursued into the Australian Outback by a terrifying family of serial killers, with only an ex-con and a young girl willing to help her.”

Fear is the Rider is an adaptation of the novel The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser, written and directed by John Michael McDonagh‘s (The Guard).

Daniel Henshall (Mickey 17), Brenton Thwaites (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales...

Exclusive: Heading into the American Film Market, Film Constellation and CAA Media Finance will be looking to scare up deals on writer-director John Michael McDonagh’s (The Guard) Fear Is The Rider.

An adaptation of the novel The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser, the team has attached Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One) Abbey Lee (Horizons: An American Saga), Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) and Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth) in lead roles.

In a nod to the gore-drenched Ozploitation slashers of the 1970s, the film follows a lone woman, searching for her missing mother, who is pursued into the Australian Outback by a terrifying family of serial killers, with only an ex-con and a young girl willing to help her.

Pic is being produced by McDonagh and Elizabeth Eves’ House of Un-American Activities (The Forgiven), Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon of Brookstreet Pictures (The Brutalist) and Kate Glover (Foe). The film is set...

When Potterheads casually wonder about Harry Potter spinoff ideas, never in our worst nightmare do we ever think of a spinoff about Lord Voldemort. The psychotic antagonist screwed enough during his appearance in the Harry Potter franchise, to have another film or sequel dedicated to him. But, hold on, because, on a twisted note, Ralph Fiennes has cooked up a spellbinding spinoff idea for his character.

Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise | Warner Bros.

Coming up with the idea of offering a glimpse into Lord Voldemort’s dark world colliding with a sultry romance, Ralph Fiennes has planned a steamy spinoff. Further, announcing his plans to cast X-Men actress Jessica Chastain as his character’s new bride, Fiennes spoke about a scandalous saga of love, magic, and jealousy.

Ralph Fiennes Has a Steamy Harry Potter Spinoff Idea for Lord Voldemort

After the end of the Harry...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. And sometimes if we’re lucky we talk to movie stars about their B-Sides!

Today we talk to the great Eric Bana about Eric Bana B-Sides on the occasion of the release of his new film, Force of Nature: The Dry 2, now available in theaters and on VOD.

Our B-Sides today include: Lucky You, Romulus, My Father, and The Secret Scripture. Bana discusses why Lucky You maybe didn’t connect with audiences in 2007, how Romulus, My Father is actually quite the A-Side in Australia, and the need to be malleable when working with somebody like director Jim Sheridan.

We also talk about Bana’s detective influences for the Aaron Falk character in The Dry films, why...

Exclusive: Isabel J Kim’s debut novel Sublimation, which has been causing quite a stir in publishing and television circles, has landed at Universal International Studios.

The Usg-studio acquired the rights to the literary science fiction novel in a highly competitive situation and is planning a series adaptation.

Assemble Media, the IP creation and production company, brought the book to publishers before shopping the adaptation rights for television. Kim’s book scored her a seven-figure three-book deal for the North American publishing rights after a six-publishing house auction.

That deal was brokered between Macmillan’s Tor Publishing Group Senior Editor Carl Engle-Laird and Steven Salpeter at Assemble Media, which is behind movies including The Forgiven, starring Jessica Chastain, Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith, and Gia Coppola’s Mainstream.

Salpeter, who is President of Literary and IP, principal Jack Heller and Caitlin de Lisser-Ellen, VP of Production and Development, worked...

Paramount+ today revealed the official trailer for season two of the hit series Halo. The new season will premiere the first two episodes globally on Thursday, February 8, in all countries where Paramount+ is available.

In season two, Master Chief John-117 (Pablo Schreiber) leads his team of elite Spartans against the alien threat known as the Covenant. In the wake of a shocking event on a desolate planet, John cannot shake the feeling that his war is about to change and risks everything to prove what no one else will believe – that the Covenant is preparing to attack humanity’s greatest stronghold. With the galaxy on the brink, John embarks on a journey to find the key to humankind’s salvation, or its extinction: the Halo.

Led by showrunner and executive producer David Wiener (Brave New World), the series takes place in the universe that first debuted in 2001 with the launch...

Paramount+’s two-minute official trailer for the sci-fi thriller Halo teases that when events spiral out of control, we save what we can. “Looking at your faces, I do not see defeat and I do not see surrender,” says Captain Jacob Keyes (Danny Sapani). Master Chief and the Spartans have heroes on their side, while the Covenant does not.

Pablo Schreiber (American Gods) returns to lead the video game-inspired series as Master Chief, Spartan-117, with Natascha McElhone (Californication) back as Dr. Halsey. Returning cast members include Jen Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo), Shabana Azmi (Fire), Natasha Culzac (The Witcher), Olive Gray (Half Moon Investigations), and Yerin Ha (Reef Break). Also back for season two are Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe), Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders), Danny Sapani (Penny Dreadful), Fiona O’Shaughnessy (The Forgiven), and Tylan Bailey.

Halo newcomers include Joseph Morgan (The Originals), Cristina Rodlo (No One...

Daryl McCormack as Colman and Ruth Wilson as Lorna in ‘The Woman in the Wall’ (Photo Credit: Chris Barr / BBC / Showtime)

Paramount+’s January 2024 lineup includes the series premiere of Sexy Beast, a prequel to the critically acclaimed, award-winning drama released in 2000 and starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone. The streaming service’s also kicking off the new year with the debut of The Woman in the Wall, a six-episode series starring Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials) and Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters).

June Carter Cash is the focus of June, a feature-length documentary directed by Emmy Award-winner Kristen Vaurio (Going Clear: Scientology & The Prison of Belief) arriving on January 16. January 2024 also sees the return of SkyMed, a medical drama set in the world of medics and pilots who fly air ambulances in Canada, for its second season.

Coming to Paramount+ on January 1

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5 Card Stud

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Exclusive: Bluestone Entertainment has preemptively acquired rights to “Support Group for the Formerly Possessed,” an original horror short story written for Assemble Media by J. Preston Witt, with plans to produce a feature adaptation alongside Assemble.

Scribes set to adapt the pic are Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan, the duo behind Paramount’s found footage title Project Almanac, as well as Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.

In Support Group, a patient, charged with a murder they cannot remember, finds themselves subjected to a 5150 psychiatric hold in an institution. There, they uncover a chilling truth: the facility is dedicated to treating disorders that stem from supernatural causes.

The Assemble team came up with the original concept before developing it into a short story, featured in the third edition of its genre-focused quarterly short story magazine Assemble Artifacts, which is published through Blackstone Publishing. Producers of the adaptation will include Richard Saperstein for Bluestone,...

Exclusive: Vertical on Wednesday announced their appointment of former Amazon Prime Video exec Jason Pecora to the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Distribution.

The L.A.-based Pecora will be responsible for overseeing Sales, Marketing and Operations. He begins immediately, reporting to Vertical Partners Peter Jarowey and Rich Goldberg.

Pecora spent more than four and a half years as Senior Content Acquisition Manager at Prime Video, during that time overseeing all title promotions with leading suppliers including Vertical, Paramount, Viacom, Lionsgate, MGM and AMC. Notably, he last year oversaw Amazon’s release of Top Gun: Maverick, which was the top-selling item on the platform in the U.S. across every category on the day of its release.

Pecora has, over his 14 years in entertainment, consistently succeeded in growing businesses and contributing significant returns on investment through strong industry relationships. He previously focused on the digital home entertainment space...

Welcome to another edition of Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key execs and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week we’re talking with British indie film veteran Phil Hunt, who is the founder of a raft of companies including production outfit and film financier Head Gear, international sales business Bankside and, more recently, New Zealand and Australian distribution genre label (Yet) Another Monster Company.

Phil Hunt is not a conformist. From the moment he burst onto the British independent scene more than two decades ago with his microbudget productions Fast Food and Chunky Monkey – the former starring a young Gerard Butler and the latter an off-beat black comedy about a loner with a penchant for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Julie Andrews – it was clear that this was a guy who was not going to...

Exclusive: Roadside Attractions has acquired North American rights to The Last Rider, the story of cycling legend Greg LeMond, who came back from a near death experience to win his sport’s greatest race.

LeMond remains the only American man to win the Tour de France, a feat he accomplished three times – in 1986, 1989 and 1990 (Tour victories by Americans Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis were vacated after they admitted using banned performance-enhancing drugs). Remarkably, LeMond’s second and third Tour de France wins came after he was nearly killed in a hunting accident, in which his brother-in-law accidentally blasted him with a shotgun, hitting LeMond with 60 pellets. He lost 65 percent of his blood, but somehow survived.

The documentary directed by Alex Holmes will be released in theaters on June 23.

Greg LeMond races in the Tour du Pont in Washington, DC May 14, 1992.

“Deeply personal and raw,...

Vertical has acquired U.S. rights to Catherine Hardwicke’s “Prisoner’s Daughter,” a thriller with Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale that premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

The film is about a terminally ill father who is recently released from prison and struggles to connect with his daughter and grandson. Vertical will release “Prisoner’s Daughter” in theaters on June 30, 2023.

It’s a starry collection of talent. Cox is best known for playing the mephistophelean Logan Roy on “Succession,” while Beckinsale has starred in blockbusters and indie films such as “Underworld,” “Love and Friendship” and “Pearl Harbor.” Hardwicke has directed critical and commercial hits like “Twilight” and “Thirteen.”

In “Prisoner’s Daughter,” Cox stars as Max, who is diagnosed with cancer after 12-years in prison. Granted a compassionate release he goes to live with his daughter, Maxine (Beckinsale). She resents her father but is financially strapped and working multiple...

Exclusive: Sony‘s Screen Gems is in very early development on a Paradise Court film based on the horror comic book series from Zenescope Entertainment, and has enlisted Assemble Media to produce it, Deadline has learned.

Related Story Robin Thede Developing HBO Comedy Series ‘Disengagement’ Related Story Screen Gems Lands Package 'Border Patrol' With 'Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City's Johannes Roberts Directing Related Story 'Horrorscope': 'Pennyworth's Harriet Slater Latest To Join Horror Pic From Screen Gems, Alloy Entertainment

Created by Zenescope’s CEO Joe Brusha, Paradise Court takes its name from a luxurious and exclusive gated community where beneath an idyllic facade lies a deadly secret — all the residents are serial killers with unique proclivities and manicured lawns cut as sharp as the knives in their kitchens.

The project was brought to Screen Gems by Jack Heller and Assemble Media. Assemble principal Heller will produce,...

Summer exclusive theatrical release planned.

Roadside Attractions and Vertical have acquired North American rights to Sophie Barthes’ 2023 Sundance Alfred P. Sloan feature prize-winner The Pod Generation.

The distribution partners plan a summer exclusive theatrical release on for the film, which is set in a near future where A.I. is all the rage as a New York couple participate in an initiative involving mobile, artificial wombs.

Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Vinette Robinson, and Jean-Marc Barr star in Barthes’ third film after Cold Souls and Madame Bovary.

Geneviève Lemal, Yann Zenou, Nadia Kamlichi, and Martin Metz served as producers, while the executive producers are Clarke,...

Exclusive: Roadside Attractions and Vertical have nabbed North American rights to the futuristic fable The Pod Generation, starring 4x Emmy nominee Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave), which opened this year’s Sundance Film Festival and claimed its Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. It’s slated for release exclusively in theaters this summer.

The third feature written and directed by Barthes (Cold Souls) is set in the very near-future world where AI is all the rage and technology has trumped nature in nearly every aspect of life. Its protagonists are Rachel (Clarke) and Alvy (Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to start a family. As a rising tech company executive, Rachel lands a coveted spot at the Womb Center, which offers couples the opportunity to share pregnancy on a more equal footing by way of mobile, artificial wombs,...

Jessica Chastain at the ‘Dark Phoenix’ premiere (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)

Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain is teaming up with Apple TV+ for The Savant, the streaming service’s new limited series. Chastain is committed to starring in The Savant and is also on board as an executive producer on the series which is inspired by a true story.

Apple TV+ announced the eight-episode series but didn’t release any details on the plot. What’s known is that it’s inspired by a true story published by Cosmopolitan. The August 2019 article by Andrea Stanley and titled “Is It Possible to Stop a Mass Shooting Before It Happens?” focuses on a top secret investigator known as the Savant who infiltrates online hate groups to take down the most violent men in the country.

Stanley is involved in the series as a consultant.

Emmy Award nominee Melissa James Gibson (House of Cards...

In “Infinity Pool,” what happens in Li Tolqa stays in Li Tolqa, an impoverished country where, if they’re rich enough, foreign guests can literally get away with murder. But that’s not the half of it. Visitors hold grotesque, drug-addled orgies at which their genitalia appear to morph before your eyes. The locals host sick rituals, too, wherein miscreants are cloned and then forced to witness their own executions. And then there are the macabre Li Tolqan skin masks, which suggest generations of inbreeding, or maybe they’re just the half-salvaged faces of botched doubling experiments.

It would all be quite shocking were the film signed by anyone other than Brandon Cronenberg, the demented son of “Scanners” director David Cronenberg. I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy in real life, but hoo boy, if you’ve seen “Antiviral” or “Possessor,” you know: The kind of images Kid...

Vertical has secured North American rights to comedy “Who Invited Charlie?,” written by Nicholas Schutt and directed by Xavier Manrique (“Chronically Metropolitan”).

The film stars Adam Pally (“Sonic the Hedgehog 2”), Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious franchise), Reid Scott (“Veep”), Xosha Roquemore, (“The Mindy Project”) Dylan Penn (“Flag Day”), Peter Dager (“Insidious 5”), Peter Grosz (“Late Night with Seth Meyers”), Rhys Coiro (“Paradise City”) and more.

In the film, Phil Schreiber (Scott), a self-involved hedge fund manager, and his wife Rosie (Brewster) take refuge in the Hamptons with their son at the beginning of quarantine. Making an already fraught situation worse is the surprise arrival of Phil’s cocktail-swilling, pot-smoking college roommate Charlie (Pally). Charlie is also the keeper of some of Phil’s darkest secrets. To make matters worse for Phil, his wife and son love Charlie. As Charlie makes himself at home, secrets are revealed that threaten to do more harm than good.

Martin McDonagh’s tragicomedy The Banshees Of Inisherin leads this year’s London Film Critics Circle nominations with nine nods, followed by Charlotte Wells’ acclaimed debut Aftersun, which nabbed eight nominations.

Both films clocked nominations for Film of the Year, British/Irish Film of The Year, Director of the Year, and Screenwriter of the Year. The two films also clocked multiple acting noms, with Paul Mescal picking up a Best Actor nod for his role in Aftersun. Frankie Corio, who plays his daughter in the pic, is nominated for Young British/Irish performer. Banshees stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively.

Elsewhere, Todd Field’s high-art drama Tár and Everything Everywhere All at Once by The Daniels both scored six nominations. The Best Foreign Language category features five pics, including the Irish-language drama The Quiet Girl and Alice Diop’s fiction debut Saint Omer.

Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” led the nominations at the 43rd annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards with nine nods, with Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” close behind with eight.

Both films were nominated in the film of the year, director of the year and screenwriter of the year categories, as were Todd Field’s “Tár” and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” both of which achieved six nominations. Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wonder” also scored six nominations.

Competing in the foreign language category will be “The Quiet Girl,” “Decision to Leave,” “Saint Omer,” “Eo” and “Rrr.”

The awards are given by the 200-member film section of the Critics’ Circle, the U.K.’s longest-standing critics’ organization. The winners will be announced at London’s The May Fair Hotel on Feb. 5, 2023.

“As always, our nominees stand out from others because our members actually see all of...

The London Film Critics’ Circle, the oldest such organization on Planet Earth, announced the nominations for their forthcoming awards ceremony. As might be expected, they “led local,” with the highest number of nominations going to Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun.” The McDonagh film, which stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, is set on an island of tall tales off the west coast of Ireland. The Scottish Wells set her memoir-ish movie at a 2-star Turkish resort, which caters mostly to British tourists.

“Inisherin” has nine nominations, for Film of the Year, Director of the Year, Screenwriter of the Year, Actor of the Year (Farrell), two for Supporting Actor of the Year (Gleeson and Barry Keoghan), Supporting Actress of the Year (Kerry Condon), and a nomination for The Attenborough Award for Best British/Irish film. Farrell is also up for Best British/Irish Actor of...

Click here to read the full article.

Homegrown features lead the pack at the 43rd annual London Critics’ Circle film awards.

The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh’s Venice-bowing dark tragicomedy set on the West coast of Ireland, goes into the next year’s awards with nine nominations, while Aftersun, Scottish director Charlotte Wells’ acclaimed directorial debut, lurks just behind with eight noms.

Announced Wednesday following votes by the 200-member film section of the Critics’ Circle, the U.K.’s longest-standing critics’ organization, the nominations saw both Banshees and Aftersun land nods for film of the year, director of the year and screenwriter of the year alongside two features from across the Atlantic: Todd Field’s provocative culture-war drama Tár and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s fantastical family portrait Everything Everywhere All at Once, both of which scored six nominations. Banshees — the follow-up to McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,...

Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy has nine nominations, while Charlotte Wells’ ’Aftersun’ has eight.

Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy The Banshees Of Inisherin has received the most nominations for the 43rd London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, with nine, including film of the year, director of the year and screenwriter of the year.

McDonagh last triumphed at the 2018 awards, with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri winning three awards: best film, best actress for Frances McDormand and best screenwriter for McDonagh.

Scroll down for the full nominations list

The Banshees Of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and follows the unravelling...

Exclusive: Vertical has secured North American rights to the MPI Original Film Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, starring BAFTA- and Tony Award-nominated West Side Story breakout Mike Faist and Teen Wolf‘s Crystal Reed, slating it for a day-and-date release on March 17, 2023.

The film based on a true story centers on Roger Sharpe (Faist), a GQ journalist and real-life pinball wizard who, in 1976, helped overturn New York City’s 35-year ban on pinball.

An unsettled writer with a fantastic mustache, Sharpe finds solace and confidence in the one thing he has mastered: pinball. When a police raid destroys the only machines he can find in 1970s New York City, he learns the game is illegal in the state. Roger then reluctantly joins forces with the Music and Amusement Association to overturn the ban while falling in love with Ellen (Reed), an artist and single mother. Roger’s path...

To mark the release of The Forgiven, out now, we’ve been given a Blu-ray copy to give away to 1 winner.

Speeding through the Moroccan desert to attend an old friend’s lavish weekend party, wealthy Londoners David and Jo Henninger (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain) are involved in a tragic accident with a local teenage boy. Arriving late at the grand villa with the debauched party raging, the couple attempts to cover up the incident with the collusion of the local police. But when the boy’s father arrives seeking justice, the stage is set for a tension-filled culture clash in which David and Jo must come to terms with their fateful act and its shattering consequences.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

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The Forgiven is released on DVD & Blu-ray 12th December

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Open to UK residents only The competition...

The searing drama The Forgiven is being released on DVD & Blu-ray on 12th December and to celebrate we are giving away a Blu-ray. Written by John Michael McDonagh and based on the bestselling book by Lawrence Osborne, The Forgiven is an unflinching look at the perils of Great Gatsby-esque Western decadence that recalls the likes of White Mischief and The Sheltering Sky, and Variety describes as a “thorny modern parable”.

Award-winning director McDonagh has lined up a formidable cast for his powerful tale of tragedy and redemption set in Morocco. Leading actors Ralph Fiennes (BAFTA-winner for Schindler’s List) and Jessica Chastain (Oscar-winner for The Eyes of Tammy Faye) are joined by Matt Smith (House of the Dragon), Christopher Abbott (Possessor), Abby Lee (The Neon Demon), Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) and Saïd Taghmaoui (Wonder Woman) for a compulsive drama that plays out against a foreboding desert backdrop.

Speeding through the...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has secured North American rights to the horror feature Lullaby, directed by Annabelle‘s John R. Leonetti, from its financier Alcon Entertainment, slating it for release in select theaters and on VOD on December 16.

Pic follows a new mother who discovers a lullaby in an ancient book and regards the song as a blessing. But her world transforms into a nightmare when the lullaby brings forth the ancient demon Lilith. Oona Chaplin (Avatar franchise) and Ramón Rodríguez (The Affair) lead the cast, which also includes Liane Balaban (You Can Live Forever), Kira Guloien (Women Talking) and Moni Ogunsuyi (The Umbrella Academy).

Related Story ‘Candy Land’ Horror-Thriller From ‘Ida Red’ Team Acquired By Quiver Distribution Related Story Vertical Entertainment Acquires Shailene Woodley Thriller 'Misanthrope' Marking 'Wild Tales' Helmer Damián Szifron's First English-Language Feature Related Story Vertical Entertainment...

Hulu is ready for the holidays. New movies headed to the streaming service this November include “8 Mile,” “Aquamarine,” “Cast Away,” “I Am Number Four,” “Legends of the Fall,” “The Last Song,” “Julie & Julia” and many more. Christmas films galore will also make their way onto the platform before December even starts.

The seasonal selection includes “Deck the Halls,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas,” “Black Christmas,” “A Merry Friggin’ Christmas,” “All I Want for Christmas,” “Christmas Child,” “Santa Games,” “Saving Chrismas,” “My Christmas Fiancé,” “Menorah in the Middle,” “Christmas on Repeat,” “Noelle,” and more.

Original arrivals include “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” “Death in the Dorms,” “God Fobid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty,” “Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne” and “Welcome to Chippendales.”

Also Read:

The 55 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now

Here’s what’s new on Hulu in November 2022.

November 1

God Forbid: The Sex Scandal...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has picked up U.S. rights to Misanthrope, a psychological thriller marking the first English-feature from BAFTA-winning Argentinian director Damián Szifron (Wild Tales). The indie distributor has slated the film starring Emmy nominee Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies), Emmy winner Ben Mendelsohn (The Outsider) and Emmy nominee Jovan Adepo (Babylon) for release exclusively in theaters nationwide in the first half of 2023.

The film written by Szifron and Jonathan Wakeham picks up in Baltimore on New Year’s Eve, as a talented but troubled police officer (Woodley) is recruited by the FBI’s chief investigator (Mendelsohn) to help profile and track down a mass murderer.

Related Story Samuel Goldwyn Films Acquires Swedish Oscar Entry ‘Cairo Conspiracy’ For North America Related Story Vertical Entertainment Appoints Francois Martin To New Role Of Senior Vice President, Content Partnerships Related Story Vertical Entertainment Acquires Multi-Generational Rom-Com 'Maybe I Do' Starring Diane Keaton,...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has appointed former Aviron and The Weinstein Company executive Francois Martin to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Content Partnerships.

Martin will now be responsible for leading and expanding the indie distributor’s content sales presence across all platforms. He’s already assumed the post and will report going forward to Vertical Partners Peter Jarowey and Rich Goldberg.

Martin began his career in Miramax’s marketing department, transitioning to The Weinstein Company upon its founding in 2005. His decade-plus spent at that then-prestigious studio saw him rise through the ranks from Senior Director, Marketing to President, Marketing Strategy for both TWC and the Miramax label, Dimension Films.

The exec has previously worked on marketing campaigns for such notable films as Kill Bill, Chicago, Spy Kids, Scary Movie, Lee Daniel’s The Butler, Django Unchained, Inglorious Basterds, The King’s Speech, Paddington and Silver Linings Playbook, among others.

Exclusive: Saïd Taghmaoui (Wonder Woman) will appear alongside Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan in the action-comedy The Family Plan from Apple Original Films and Skydance.

The film written by David Coggeshall (Prey) tells the story of a suburban dad who must take his family on the run when his past catches up to him. Simon Cellan Jones (Arthur the King) is directing, with Municipal Pictures’ Stephen Levinson and Wahlberg producing alongside Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger.

Taghmaoui recently wrapped Brad Furman’s action-thriller Tin Soldier opposite Jamie Foxx, Robert De Niro and Scott Eastwood, most recently appearing opposite Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain in Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions’ drama The Forgiven. Past credits for the actor on the film side include both Wonder Woman titles with Gal Gadot, as well as John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, American Hustle, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and The Kite Runner.

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to the multi-generational romantic comedy Maybe I Do, starring Diane Keaton (Mack & Rita), Richard Gere (Arbitrage), Susan Sarandon (Monarch), William H. Macy (The Conners), Emma Roberts (About Fate) and Luke Bracey (Elvis), from the global film and television studio Fifth Season, formerly known as Endeavor Content.

The first feature written and directed by Oscar nominee Michael Jacobs (Quiz Show) will be released exclusively in theaters nationwide on January 27, 2023.

Maybe I Do follows Michelle (Roberts) and Allen (Bracey), who have reached the point in their relationship where they are considering the next steps and decide to invite their parents to finally meet. The parents already know each other well – really well – leading to distinct and defining opinions about the value of marriage.

Maybe I Do was financed and produced by Fifth Season and marks the latest in a line of successful collaborations between the studio and Vertical,...

“Bridgerton” star Phoebe Dynevor and “Aftersun” writer-director Charlotte Wells are among the emerging talents recognized at the British Independent Film Awards’ (BIFA) New Talent categories.

Dynevor has been longlisted in the Breakthrough Performance category for Sky film “The Colour Room” and Wells twice, in the Debut Director and Debut Screenwriter categories.

In all, 28 fiction and 14 documentary features have been longlisted, including in a new category for BIFA’s 25th year, Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary. Eleven first-time fiction feature directors, 16 first-time documentary feature directors, 14 first-time writers, 20 breakthrough producers and 15 new performers have been recognized by BIFA voters for their achievements.

BIFA’s Springboard scheme will provide a tailored program of continuing professional development, with seven of this year’s longlisted filmmakers joining the cohort of 30 filmmakers on the Film4 supported initiative.

The final five nominations in each category will be announced on Nov. 4 and winners will be revealed at the...

The final five nominations in each category will be announced November 4.

Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jean, Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun and Jono McLeod’s My Old School and are among the titles that have made the new talent longlists for the 2022 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas), with 28 fiction and 14 documentary features longlisted.

Blue Jean has taken the most nominated spots with five – the Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director, as well as best debut screenwriter for Oakley, best breakthrough performance for Lucy Halliday and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022 Rosy McEwen and best breakthrough producer for Hélène Sifre.

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In February of this year Hulu unleashed the true crime limited series “Pam & Tommy.” The Emmy-nominated series prompted audiences to look at the nature of celebrity culture, misogyny, and complicity in the wake of the infamous 1990s sex tape that shaped the internet. This month Robert Siegel, one-half of the creative team that brought “Pam & Tommy” to screens, returns with a similar true-life story: “Welcome to Chippendales.”

“Welcome to Chippendales” follows Somen “Steve” Banerjee’s (Kumail Nanjiani) rise and fall in the adult entertainment industry. Matt Shakman directs the series, with Nanjiani, his wife Emily V. Gordon, co-showrunner and writer Siegel, co-showrunner Jenni Konner, and writer Rajiv Joseph among the executive producers.

Per the official synopsis, the sprawling true crime saga “Welcome to Chippendales” tells the outrageous true story of Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who became the unlikely founder of the world’s greatest male-stripping empire. The series...

Exclusive: Kevin Costner’s civil war western at New Line, Horizon, continues to expand with a huge roster of actors including Tom Payne, Abbey Lee, Wasé Chief, Tim Guinee, Michael Angarano, Colin Cunningham, Scott Haze, Angus Macfadyen, Douglas Smith and Jon Beavers rounding out the ensemble.

They all join previously announced cast Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jamie Campbell Bower, Luke Wilson, Thomas Haden Church, Jena Malone, Alejandro Edda, Tatanka Means, Michael Rooker, Isabelle Fuhrman and Ella Hunt.

Horizon chronicles a multi-faceted 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west. Experienced through the eyes of many, the epic journey is fraught with peril and intrigue from the constant onslaught of natural elements, to the interactions with the indigenous peoples who lived on the land, and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it. It reps multi-Oscar winner Costner’s return...

Jessica Chastain has shared footage from her trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, as the country enters its seventh month of war with Russia.

Sharing a video that showed destroyed buildings and displaced children on Twitter on Thursday (1 September), the Molly’s Game star told fans that she had “needed a few weeks to process everything I saw from my trip to Kyiv”.

In one clip, she can be seen visiting a local children’s hospital where a child gives her a piece of art they made.

“One of the experiences from this life-changing trip was my visit to the children’s hospital: Ohmatdyt,” she wrote. “I had the opportunity to meet incredible children and the director, Volodymyr Zhovnir. The children amazed me with their hope and strength.

“Many had been displaced from their homes and spent months in the hospital. It is a huge humanitarian crisis going on in the Ukraine.

“We...

’The Forgiven’ and ‘Fall’ are also out this weekend.

After last weekend’s UK-Ireland box office results proved rather muted – no film reached the £1m mark for the first time since December 2020 – exhibitors and distributors will be anticipating a boost from this Saturday’s National Cinema Day (September 3), in which 560 venues across the UK will be offering tickets at just £3, for all screenings.

This weekend’s widest release comes from Entertainment Film Distributors’ Three Thousand Years Of Longing, playing in 545 cinemas. The Cannes 2022 premiere unites Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba and is George Miller’s first feature since 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

Fans of John Michael McDonagh should find much to love in the writer/director’s fourth feature, The Forgiven, but it lacks the refined structure, likeable characters and charred heart of his earlier work.

Based on a novel by Lawrence Osborne, The Forgiven tells the tale of stuck-up, married couple, David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (Jessica Chastain), who travel to Morocco to attend a lavish party thrown by wealthy friends, Richard (Matt Smith) and Dally (Caleb Landry Jones). En route, David accidentally runs over a teenage boy, Driss (Omar Ghazaoui), and is forced to face repercussions of the event while partying with pals. The police are convinced it was an accident but when the late boy’s father, Abdellah (Ismael Kanetar) arrives, David is forced to accompany him to help bury his son and face further consequences.

McDonagh’s latest is, for the most part, engrossing with striking performances from its A-list cast,...

Armie Hammer’s ex-girlfriend Courtney Vucekovich has claimed that she was left traumatised following a sexual incident with the actor, in a new documentary.

Last year, the Call Me by Your Name star stepped down from his role in the forthcoming film Shotgun Wedding, after being embroiled in a social-media scandal in which an anonymous account leaked illicit messages that Hammer allegedly sent to different women.

The messages, which were not verified, include graphic accounts of sexual acts and references to fetishes such as cannibalism.

Hammer and his family are now the subject of House of Hammer, a three-part documentary on Discovery+. You can read more of the allegations made against the family in the series here.

In the opening episode, titled “Love Bomb”, Dallas-based business owner Vucekovich discusses her relationship with the actor, who she has previously described as being “scary”.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Vucekovich recalls one incident...

Dir: John Michael McDonagh. Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee. 18, 117 minutes.

At what point does art’s stubborn (though not invalid) fascination with the inner mechanics of terrible people cross a line, and begin demanding we show mercy towards the truly irredeemable among us? It’s the problem that lies at the heart of The Forgiven, a somewhat on-the-nose title for a film that lines up for us a miniature troupe of the wealthy and perversely bigoted at leisure in Morocco, who feel free to say horrific things about the local population because they’re shielded behind the walls of a literal castle. The only Moroccans they speak to on a daily basis are the ones whose wages they pay. We watch these one-percenters scurry about like termites, spewing their awfulness, before one of their number undergoes a moral awakening and we...

Documentary specialist distributor Piece of Magic Entertainment’s “Andre Rieu’s 2022 Maastricht Summer Concert,” a concert film featuring Dutch violinist and conductor Andre Rieu, led a sluggish weekend at the U.K. and Ireland box office.

The film collected £799,474 in a weekend when no film crossed the £1 million mark, according to numbers provided by Comscore. It was a three-day bank holiday weekend in the U.K. Ten previous Rieu concerts have grossed more in their opening weekend, but none managed to top the charts, per Comscore.

The last event film to top the charts in the territory was “Michael Ball and Alfie Boe: Back Together” in Oct. 2020.

Universal’s “Beast,” featuring Idris Elba, debuted in second position with £600,259. In its fifth weekend, Warner Bros.’ “DC League Of Super-Pets” collected £598,985 in third place and now has a total of £12.2 million.

In fourth place, in its fourth weekend, Sony’s Brad Pitt...

Hulu will become the new post-theatrical pay one window for Roadside Attractions over the next couple of years. Under the terms of the deal, Hulu gets the exclusive U.S. streaming rights to upcoming Roadside Attractions films like “Call Jane” and “Gigi & Nate.”

Hulu, currently owned two-thirds by Disney and one-third by Comcast, has been a great friend to arthouse cinema and independent film. The streaming platform’s pre-existing output deals with Neon, IFC, and Magnolia, as well as its in-house relationship with Searchlight, keeps the distributors in business. The only other major entity with similar deals is Showtime, which carries A24 and Bleecker Street.

Find out much more about the “in flux” economics of such streaming indie-film distribution deals here from IndieWire’s Eric Kohn. Disney, by the way, is contractually obligated to buy out Comcast’s stake in Hulu in January 2024; the minimum valuation for the profitable streaming service (still a rarity!

10 films were competing for the Powell and Pressburger award.

Scottish animators Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson’s 60-minutes documentary A Cat Called Dom has won the inaugural Powell and Pressburger Award for best film at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Anderson and Henderson star in and co-direct the inventive documentary, which had its world premiere at Eiff. The film explores how Will deals with his mother’s cancer diagnosis and also the frustrations of trying to make a film.

The jury, comprised of president Gaylene Gould (founder of creative lab The Space to Come), producer Rosie Crerar and author Sarah Winman,...

Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson’s Rogue Agent star James Norton with Anne-Katrin Titze: “We didn’t want it to feel like a predictable charm, the kind of suave spies in the James Bond vein.”

In Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson’s percipient Rogue Agent we first encounter James Norton (the tutor John Brooke in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and Oliver Ashford in Amma Asante’s Belle) as Robert Freegard in the process of applying for a job as bartender in a rural English pub, located near a small agricultural college.

Robert Freegard (James Norton) with Alice Archer (Gemma Arterton) listen to The Cure (Just Like Heaven) and he does a “bad-dance” to George Michael’s Faith.” Photo: Nick Briggs, IFC Films

Shot by Larry Smith, the year is 1993, the Ira bombings flood the news and we learn that MI5 is recruiting freelance spies to inform on those suspected of plotting terrorist activities.

Photo: ‘The Forgiven’ The People of the Worlds ‘The Forgiven’ gets most of its juice from the tension between its two worlds: the sneering, hollow world of the Western elitists and the conservative culture of the Muslim Moroccans. It’s a familiar device, but the mileage writer/director John Michael McDonagh squeezes from it is noteworthy. These two worlds meet, unfortunately, with a bang, as the bickering Henniger couple speeds their way across the desert on the way to an old-school friend’s Moroccan compound. The friend, Richard (played by a wickedly good Matt Smith), is hosting a weekend of intemperance for him and all his sophisticated friends. David (a brilliant Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (a merely ornamental Jessica Chastain) are arguing about David’s alcoholism, in the routine sort of way indicative of a failed marriage, when they hit a boy selling fossils on the side of the road.

Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes in The Forgiven. Photo credit: Sife Elamine. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment

Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes star as a wealthy couple who travel to Morocco for a posh weekend party at a remote desert location but when driving to their destination, they hit a local teen-aged boy in a fatal accident, with unforeseen and devastating consequences, in The Forgiven.

White privilege, particularly of the variety afforded the rich, is at the center of this thoughtful, thriller-like drama, as it explores the clash of cultures between these affluent Brits and the boy’s impoverished Bedouin family, as well as the toll it takes on the couple’s already rocky marriage.

We first meet the wealthy couple on a luxury speed boat streaking towards the Moroccan coast. David Henninger is a successful British plastic surgeon and Jo Henninger is his American wife, who was...

A24’s Marcel The Shell With Shoes On hit the top ten in North America at no. 8 with an estimated 340k in week three at just 48 locations and a cume north of 963k – the latest hit for the distributor after powerhouse Everything Everywhere All At Once blasted off at the specialty box office. Marcel, based on a popular 2010 YouTube series, is on a much slower rollout than that, but in terms of specialized releases it’s one of the biggest since Covid.

The distributor acquired Dean Fleischer Camp’s stop-motion/live-action hybrid about an adorable snail, voiced by Jenny Slate, at Telluride last fall and screened it at SXSW – where Everything Everywhere made a splash. It’s a favorite with critics (99 Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), has strong word-of-mouth (92 Rt audience score) and corresponding stellar exit polls. It will expand to 130-150 screens next week setting up for a long summer run.

The nation’s fourth-largest cinema chain is testing a new subscription program called MovieFlex+ that includes a curated set of small and mid-sized films each week for no extra charge.

“We can’t live off just blockbusters,” chairman and CEO Greg Marcus tells Deadline. “We cannot just live off dinner. We need breakfast and lunch too.”

The launch of the 14.99 monthly service comes as the box office renaissance for wide-release studio franchises is clear, but whether that’s trickling down to smaller films less so. At issue is the long-term health of a theatrical ecosystem with breadth and depth of product.

Marcus began testing MovieFlex+ in two markets in January along with a general subscription plan, also new, called MovieFlex for 9.99 a month that offers one free film of choice. Both programs have deals on concessions and other perks. At two Columbus theaters, Crossroads and Pickering, where both programs are available,...