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15 UK films to tempt festival directors in 2017

12 January 2017 in Films, Press, Screen Daily

11 January, 2017 | By Screen staff From Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here to Asif Kapadia’s Maradona doc, Screen profiles a selection of hot UK projects in 2017. Beast Dir Michael Pearce Former Screen International Star of Tomorrow Pearce makes his feature debut with Beast (working title), described as “a love story trapped inside of a horror film”. Jessie Buckley stars as a young woman who starts to suspect her new boyfriend could be involved in a spate of killings on the island of Jersey. Contact: Stray Bear Productions lauren@straybearfilms.co.uk Dark River Dir Clio Barnard Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley and Sean Bean star in Barnard’s Yorkshire-set drama...

BFI boards Saul Dibb-Sam Claflin war-drama ‘Journey’s End’

28 November 2016 in Films, News, Press, Screen Daily, Uncategorized

EXCLUSIVE: Shoot underway on adaptation of WWI classic; Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany, Toby Jones co-star. The BFI has boarded production finance on director Saul Dibb’s (Suite Française) adaptation of the classic British stage play Journey’s End. Principal photography is underway in Cardiff and Ipswich on the feature which stars Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games) in the lead role alongside Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd). Simon Reade’s adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 play also draw’s on the latter’s...

AFM: Metro International heads ‘Into The Rainbow’

03 November 2016 in Films, News, Press, Screen Daily

EXCLUSIVE: UK sales outfit boards 3D family fantasy with Willow Shields. Metro International has boarded sales on completed UK-China-New Zealand family adventure movie Into The Rainbow (formerly The Wonder). The Hunger Games’ Willow Shields, Chinese star Leo Wu, Taiwanese actress Joe Chen, Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Archie Kao star in the story of two teenagers who travel inside a super-powered rainbow to China. Norman Stone (Shadowlands) and Gary Wing-Lun Mak (My Beautiful Kingdom) direct the 3D feature written by Ashley Sidaway, Robert Sidaway and Lindsay Edmonds. Producers include Richard Fletcher (Boy) and Iain Brown (Indian Summer). The English-language production is part-financed by Tien Ran...

Filming of ‘Elephant angel’ film Zoo starts on Belfast streets

21 September 2016 in Films, News, Press

STREETS around Belfast city centre were transformed into the Blitz era on Tuesday as filming took place for a movie about a Belfast zoo keeper. The cameras were rolling in Union Street and Little Donegall Street for the film Zoo, a new movie based on one of Northern Ireland's most famous wartime stories. Zoo is based on the true story of Denise Austin, a keeper at Belfast Zoo during the Blitz in 1941 known as the 'elephant angel'. Denise secretly walked Sheila from the zoo each evening to the backyard of her terraced home on the Whitewell Road in the north of the...

Christina Hendricks, Gillian Anderson Join Max Irons & Glenn Close For Agatha Christie’s ‘Crooked House’

13 September 2016 in Films, Press

EXCLUSIVE: Agatha Christie is finally headed back to the big screen. Christina Hendricks, Gillian Anderson, Stefanie Martini, Terence Stamp and Honor Kneafsey are joining Max Irons and Glenn Close to star in an upcoming adaptation of Christie’s whodunit Crooked House, which has started shooting in and around London. Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Sarah’s Key) will direct the ensemble cast from a script written by Downton Abbey and Gosford Park writer Julian Fellowes, Tim Rose Price and Brenner. Joe Abrams at Brilliant Films, James Spring at Fred Films and Sally Wood produce. Crooked House, one of the few of Christie’s books that hasn’t been adapted for...

Zoe Saldana on Nina Simone backlash: ‘There is no one way to be black’

20 June 2016 in Films, News, Press

The actor has responded to critics who claim that she performed in ‘blackface’ for her role in biopic of the legendary singer. Zoe Saldana has responded to criticism over her performance in the Nina Simone biopic, saying there is “no one way to be black”. The casting of the Guardians of the Galaxy actor in musical drama Nina led to anger from some who believed she had performed in “blackface”, including the singer’s daughter who said “appearance-wise this is not the best choice”. “There’s no one way to be black,” Saldana told Allure. “I’m black the way I know how to be. You...

Michael Caton Jones’s ‘Urban Hymn’ scores UK deal

15 May 2016 in News, Press, Screen Daily

EXCLUSIVE: Metro International inks UK deal for coming-of-age drama. Metro International has secured an all rights deal for Michael Caton Jones’s (The Jackal) Urban Hymn with UK distributor Bull Dog for UK and Ireland. The redemptive, coming of age drama stars Shirley Henderson (Trainspotting), Screen International Star of Tomorrow Letitia Wright (My Brother The Devil) and Isabella Laughland (Chubby Funny). The story follows a neglected, wayward teen whose singing talent offers her an escape to a better life until she finds her loyalties torn between her inspiring, unconventional care worker and her possessive and volatile best friend. Bull Dog is planning a theatrical release this autumn with a...

‘Game Of Thrones’ star to lead family-adventure ‘Zoo’

11 May 2016 in Films, News, Press, Screen Daily

EXCLUSIVE: Art Parkinson, Toby Jones, Penelope Wilton lead feature based on true story. Art Parkinson (San Andreas), who plays Rickon Stark in HBO’s Game Of Thrones, is set to star in family-adventure Zoo, which Metro International will launch in Cannes. Parkinson will be joined by Toby Jones (Dad’s Army) and Penelope Wilton (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) in the feature, which is based on a true story of a 12-year old and his misfit friends who enlist an older woman in the fight to save Buster the baby elephant during the air raids on Belfast in 1941. Shoot is due to get underway mid-July. Producers...

The Banksy Job will receive it’s World Premiere at Tribeca 2016

08 March 2016 in Documentary, News, Press

The historical satire Elvis & Nixon, the street art documentary The Banksy Job, and the drama A Hologram For The King starring Tom Hanks are among the titles announced today that round out the Tribeca Film Festival’s 2016 slate. The organization unveiled 58 films total as part of the festival’s Spotlight and Midnight selections, the Centerpiece Film, special screenings, and works in progress selections as well as the 10th annual Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. RelatedTribeca Film Festival Releases Competition Slate Elvis & NixonElvis & Nixon has been selected as Tribeca’s Centerpiece Film. Set in 1970, it details the near-legendary meeting between President...

‘The Banksy Job’ to get Berlin art gallery screening

10 February 2016 in Documentary, Films, Press, Screen Daily

EXCLUSIVE: Art heist documentary to be sold by Metro International. Metro International will give a premiere screening in Berlin to long-in-the-works art heist documentary The Banksy Job, which is due to be shown at one of the city’s art galleries. The film charts the story behind an incident in London in 2004 when a sculpture by street artist Banksy was stolen by a group of eccentric ‘art terrorists’. Ian Roderick Gray and Dylan Harvey direct, Christine Alderson (Snow In Paradise) and Alex Hurle of Ipso Facto Productions produce. Will Machin, CEO of Metro International said: “We are really excited to be part of this...