Month: April 2020

“We Summon the Darkness” is a psycho thriller that pulls the bloody rug out from under you, and does it in a shivery sly way. The movie, set in 1988, opens with three young women driving to a heavy-metal show in their red Jeep Cherokee along a country highway; for a short spell, it feels
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Tribeca Film Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced on Thursday the four winners of this year’s TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, which will be awarded grants of $150,000 with mentorship. The Fund, which champions fiction films and series that feature themes of science, math and technology, has selected “Mabel,” “The Mushroomers,” “Neon Tilapia” and
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AMC Theatres — whose business has effectively shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic — looks increasingly likely to file for bankruptcy with its cash reserves dwindling, according to Wall Street analysts. In a report Thursday, MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler wrote, “Based on our view that theatres will be closed until at least August
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France Televisions Distribution, the commercial arm of the French public broadcaster, has launched international sales on “Parliament,” the anticipated half-hour satirical series which is debuting on Thursday on the pubcaster’s streaming platform France.tv. The first original series commissioned by France.tv, “Parliament” is a comedy series about the European Parliament created by Noé Debré, whose screenwriting
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Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to British-Cambodian filmmaker Hong Khaou’s “Monsoon,” a drama headlined by “Crazy Rich Asians” star Henry Golding and Parker Sawyers. Sold by Protagonist Pictures, “Monsoon” had its world premiere at Karlovy Vary last year and stars Golding as Kit, a young British man of Vietnamese decent who returns
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MADRID — Cecilia Roth starrer “Alice,” Ana Piterbarg’s “La Habitación Blanca,” Brazil’s sure-to-be controversial “Princesa,” and Mexico’s “Intersex” look like potential standouts in the just-announced movie project pitching platform MAFF Online by Filmarket Hub, part of the biggest push by far into a virtual marketplace made by any festival in the Spanish-speaking world. Launched by
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While families are stuck at home and looking for ways to entertain children, Disney Plus is offering audiences a new short film based on “The Simpsons.” “Maggie Simpson in ‘Playdate with Destiny,’” which releases Friday, will follow the 1-year-old, pacifier-sucking daughter of the Simpsons family as she finds friendship with a baby on the playground
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When Universal’s “Trolls World Tour” lands on home entertainment platforms on Friday, it’ll mark the first major studio movie to skip its planned traditional theatrical release since the coronavirus outbreak forced cinemas to close. The unprecedented move, going against perennial protocol in exhibition, has many in the entertainment industry wondering: is the bold bet a
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E-sports and gaming company FaZe Clan today announced an exclusive partnership with e-commerce and culture platform Ntwrk. Ntwrk, known for its limited-edition product drops from LeBron James, Billie Eilish, 88rising and others, led the latest round of funding for FaZe Clan, and has secured the global direct-to-consumer product rights for the company. The collaboration will
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Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment, Fremantle and Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Media Group have teamed up to produce “The Magnificent Dancer,” a talent show for China. Adapted from Syco’s “The Greatest Dancer” format, the new show will be launched on SMG’s Dragon TV later this spring. The primetime series will involve auditions, challenges and live performances. Dance
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Juliette Schrameck, the managing director of French film group MK2 (“Portrait of a Young Lady on Fire”), has stepped down. During Schrameck’s decade-long tenure, MK2 had five movies playing in competition at the Cannes Film Festival two years in a row, in 2018 and 2019. Last year’s competition titles included Mati Diop’s Grand Prize winner
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Australia-based film distributor and multi-territory cinema-on-demand platform Fanforce, this week launched Fanforce TV. It is a streaming service which it positions as a community-led platform, and ideal for use by populations under coronavirus-enforced lockdowns. Fanforce TV consists of a pay-per-view model combined with live-streamed discussions and live chat to enable global audiences to connect films
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The prosecution in the Lori Loughlin case on Wednesday denied defense claims that the FBI had entrapped her and other unwitting parents into participating in the college admissions bribery scheme. Last month, attorneys representing Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, argued that the case should be thrown out due to government misconduct. They cited the
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