News

Laurence Fishburne (John Wick: Chapter 4) and Clifton Collins Jr. (Nightmare Alley) have signed on to star in the upcoming film Frank & Louis, which Petra Volpe is directing for Participant, Zodiac Pictures and Tyler Perry’s Peachtree & Vine Productions.

In Frank & Louis, a man serving a life sentence (Collins) takes an in-prison job caring for aging and infirm prisoners suffering from memory loss diseases—including one played by Fishburne. What starts as a self-serving mission for parole turns into a deep emotional and transformative relationship, offering a glimmer of redemption in an otherwise unforgiving place.

Volpe and Esther Bernstorff wrote the script. Participant will produce alongside Reto Schaerli and Lukas Hobi of Zodiac Pictures, and Perry and Tim Palen of Peachtree & Vine. Cora Olson is co-producing, with Jeff Skoll and Anikah McLaren of Participant serving as exec producers. McLaren, Elizabeth Haggard and Connor DeSha will oversee the project for Participant.

Tony Kaye is making a dramatic casting move for his upcoming feature “2nd Born.” According to Deadline, the “American History X” filmmaker is using an artificial intelligence robot to play one of the lead roles in his new movie. The idea to cast a real robot came from Kaye and producer Sam Khoze. The filmmaker does not want to cast a human actor in makeup or have to rely on computer-generated effects.

According to Deadline, the robot will be trained in different acting methods and techniques prior to filming. Kaye and Khoze are hoping to get the robot SAG recognition.

“2nd Born” is the sequel to Ali Atshani’s “1st Born,” an indie film starring Val Kilmer, Tom Berenger, Greg Grunberg, William Baldwin, and Denise Richards. The original film is being released this year by Lotus Entertainment and centers on a married couple whose first pregnancy forces their families to find common ground.

Exclusive: As the advancement of technology continues to replace the need for human labor, American History X director Tony Kaye is undertaking a new — and maybe controversial — step in filmmaking by employing an Artificial Intelligent (A.I.) actor as the lead in his next film, 2nd Born.

Unlike Robin Williams’ 1999 film Bicentennial Man or the Steven Spielberg-directed A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Kaye is aiming to cast a real robot, who will be trained in different acting methods and techniques. The idea, which originated from Kaye and producer Sam Khoze, is to forgo the use of computer-generated effects in favor of a physical A.I. robot as an actor, who they are hoping will get SAG recognition.

2nd Born is the sequel to 1st Born, an indie comedy directed by Ali Atshani and starring Val Kilmer, Tom Berenger, Greg Grunberg, Jay Abdo, Taylor Cole, Reza Sixo Safai, William Baldwin, Denise Richards and Robert Knepper.

In today’s film news roundup, Tony Kaye is attached to a crime drama, Brandon Sklenar gets a role in “Indigo Valley,” Orion Classics buys “Clara’s Ghost,” and romcom “Paper Friends” has started shooting in New York City.

Director Attachment

British director Tony Kaye has come on board to helm the independent crime drama “Honorable Men,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The film is being produced by Life Entertainment with producers Sam Khoze, Justin Steele, and Patrick McErlean along with the Film House and producer Ryan R. Johnson.

Kaye’s directing credits include “American History X,” “Black Water Transit,” and “Detachment.” He did not approve of the final cut of “American History X” and tried unsuccessfully to have his name removed as director of the movie, for which Edward Norton received an Oscar nomination.

Kaye also received six Grammy nominations for music videos such as Johnny Cash’s “God’s...

Ryan Lambie Sep 5, 2016

An often spectacular drama, American History X left its maker shunned by Hollywood. Ryan looks at a great film and its maverick director.

It should have been a proud moment for British director Tony Kaye. His first feature, American History X, had finally appeared in Us cinemas on the 30th October 1998, and was already earning deserved attention for the strength of its direction and its powerful performances - not least from Edward Norton, cast in the lead as a volcanically angry young neo-Nazi in Venice, California.

American History X might have marked the next phase in Kaye's career, which, like such directors as Ridley Scott and Alan Parker before him, had begun in advertising back in the 1980s. And yet post-production on the movie had been protracted and difficult, as Kaye engaged in an increasingly public battle for its final cut. That battle had become so heated,...

At 63, Tony Kaye is plotting another comeback. Although he’s always been an award-winning director of commercials and music videos, his feature career is a study in scorched earth. His last feature was five years ago; before that, he shot “Black Water Transit,” which was never finished. And then there’s his debut, a masterpiece riddled with production woes called “American History X.”

That track record leads to perceptions that it’s impossible to take Kaye seriously — but that would be a mistake.

Studios may view him as a flustered and frustrating eccentric, but Kaye remains a rare breed — an outlaw artist working through one hurdle after another, beaten but not broken, and always ready to rise again. While virtually every American studio movie reflects some kind of compromise, truly unfiltered creative visions are rare. At a time when we could use more committed independents, we don’t hear from Kaye nearly enough.

That’s about to change, and while his characteristic brashness is still evident, he said he’s learned a bit of restraint. “We’ve all got demons inside of us,” he explained in a recent phone interview. “I’ve gotten rid of mine — or got them under control.”

His chosen vehicle to showcase that rehabilitation is “Stranger Than the Wheel,” Kaye’s first feature-length project since 2011’s “Detachment.” Last fall, Kaye announced on Facebook that Shia Labeouf would star in the self-financed film.

He’s wanted to make this movie for decades. In the early ’90s, Kaye was a popular director of commercials and music videos (he won a Grammy for Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” video). But his goal was to make movies. “Stranger Than the Wheel” was one of three scripts he considered for his debut (another one was written by a newcomer named M. Night Shyamalan; the third was “American History X”).

Written by Joe Vinciguerra, “Stranger Than the Wheel” is the story of a young man who struggles to reconnect with his estranged father. “It’s a kind of serial drama about isolation, alienation, and alcoholism,” Kaye said recently, clearly relating — even if he hadn’t lost his father in recent years, Kaye would identify with the character’s alienated state.

In April, Kaye announced the departure of his lead via email, with the subject line “Shia Labeouf Qu!T.” (“Tony and I rolled around and wrestled an idea together,” Labeouf explained by email. “We shot a test. But in the end, we are not making a film together.”) Now the film will star Evan Ross (“The Hunger Games”). Kaye has been shooting test footage, and plans to begin production later this summer, with the stated (if unlikely) goal of finishing the picture in time for the fall festival circuit.

Or, all of this could be a preamble for more of the same. Eighteen years ago, “American History X” was also gearing up for a fall showcase — the Toronto International Film Festival offered it a prime slot — when Kaye flew across the country to meet with festival CEO and director Piers Handling. Claiming New Line Cinema had made changes to the film without his permission, Kaye asked Handling to refuse the studio’s version and show his cut instead.

“He was eccentric, opinionated, and had a very strong sense of what he wanted to do,” Handling recalled, noting that Kaye brought a small digital camera with him to their meeting and recorded the whole conversation. Handling talked to the studio about showing Kaye’s version, but instead, the company pulled the movie from the lineup.

While artistic temperaments are often part of the filmmaker package, Kaye is a breed apart. He’s the kind of Hollywood aberrant whom the corporate-overlord studio system has all but bred out of existence. “Tony doesn’t play that game,” Handling said. “He always wants to do things on his own terms.”

That’s an especially dicey proposition in 2016, an age in which every facet of the entertainment industry is deathly allergic to risk. Anyone concerned about the bottom line would be wary of Kaye’s track record when it comes to managing a responsible production.

During production on “American History X,” Kaye went to war with his star, Edward Norton, declaring him unfit for the part. (He later received his second Oscar nomination.) Kaye hired a priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk to join a meeting with New Line executive Michael De Luca. Editing was a protracted process and, after Kaye completed a cut the studio liked, he demanded eight more weeks to radically reimagine the film.

When New Line refused, Kaye began trashing the movie; he threatened to remove his credit and replace it with “Humpty Dumpty.” (That has since become the title of an unfinished documentary about the production that Kaye hopes to release.) Then came the Toronto showdown.

When it was all over, Kaye had earned the outright ire of New Line, the DGA, and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers; everyone else was confounded. After that, things didn’t get easier. While he won a lifetime achievement award for his advertising work in early 2001, that fall, Marlon Brando hired Kaye to direct a series of acting workshops. The filmmaker showed up dressed as Osama bin Laden, shortly after 9/11, infuriating everyone involved.

A year later, he confessed his major regret in an article for The Guardian. “I thought I was upholding the old movie industry traditions of strutting around, picking fights with the studio and being the fly in everyone’s ointment,” he wrote. “I had passion — you have to give me that. But I was, it has to be said, a spectacular pain in the ass.” These days, he describes his previous setbacks as the result of “desire for self alone.”

Whatever his current emotional state may be, his existing filmography speaks on its own terms. If there’s an overarching theme to Kaye’s work, it’s his ability to deliver achingly real portraits of America’s fractured communities.

Kaye’s antics make it almost too easy to dismiss his filmmaking outright — as this writer did initially, with “Detachment.” The vulgar tale of a disgruntled public high school instructor (Adrien Brody) struck me as a shrill riff on “Half Nelson.” At Kaye’s urging, I took a second look, and found that “Detachment” is more than theatrics surrounding student-teacher relationships: it’s a tender investigation into what it means to feel utterly helpless while battling institutional dysfunction.

But nothing in Kaye’s filmography demonstrates his vision more cohesively than “Lake of Fire,” the haunting black-and-white encapsulation of abortion debate in America that Kaye spent decades assembling. From its visceral imagery of abortion operations to the angry protestors, the film conveys an operatic vision of anger and frustration rendered in expressionistic terms.

Kaye realizes it’s his most coherent achievement to date. “I don’t know how I made that movie,” he said.

“There are some people who don’t really fit into the Hollywood structure,” said Handling. “Tony’s one of those guys. He’s a renegade, an outsider — not unlike Orson Welles.” And like Welles, Kaye’s sensibility extends beyond the fits of ambitious projects, some more polished than others. The man is indistinguishable from his movies.

Kaye has remained an accomplished commercial artist. The money he makes on ads enable him to self-finance his films. He also recently completed work for the virtual reality company Jaunt on a six-part series, “Pure McCartney,” which features McCartney at home discussing his relationship to five different songs. Kaye spoke emphatically about the possibilities of the new technology. “It’s this incredible process of carrying the viewer into a solitary experience,” he said.

Kaye described his current inspirations as ranging from Jackson Pollock to David Lean, whose “Lawrence of Arabia” epitomizes the kind of sprawling drama Kaye hopes to create. “I’ll get there,” he said, and hopes to do it with “Stranger Than the Wheel.”

His new star is thrilled at the prospect. “I’m generally just excited about anything Tony Kaye does,” said Ross, who has already been shooting footage for the project around Los Angeles. “I don’t think I’ve worked with a director like him who can just put incredible things together.”

Kaye shared his vision with IndieWire via multiple emails, showcasing photos of ink-blotted pages filled with fractured images from his planning sessions for the film: a raggedy school bus, some kind of giraffe-bird mashup, an impressionistic sketch of his leading man, the quixotically named Faunce Bartleby.

“I think I am real,” he wrote at one point. At another, he noted that he planned to turn “Stranger Than the Wheel” into a musical — “a dramuzical epic,” as he wrote in an email. At times, he sounded off about his resistance to industry standards, noting his frustration over a recent big studio film he attended with his kids. “These perpetrators of pollution people should not be allowed to work!” he wrote.

Will Kaye succeed in bringing his visions to the world? If not, it won’t be for lack of trying. While he has struggled with a stutter over the years, the impediment was barely discernible in recent conversations. Kaye has no trouble formulating the case for his latest efforts.

“I’ve got something marvelous here,” Kaye said of his new project. “Don’t worry: I want it to be a hit.”

Related storiesTony Kaye Returns With 'Stranger Than The Wheel' Starring Shia Labeouf'American History X' Director Tony Kaye Says He's Still In Director's JailDaily Reads: Going Deep on Mark Wahlberg, How Pop Culture's White Supremacists Validate Lone-Wolf Racism, and More...

“I am — excuse my French — fucked,” director Tony Kaye said last summer about the state of his career. It certainly hasn't been easy going for the filmmaker, who clashed with the star and studio of his debut picture, "American History X," in 1998, and ever since found himself working intermittently, completing the 2006 documentary “Lake Of Fire,” and the 2011 drama “Detachment,” while his thriller "Black Water Transit" is still stuck in legal limbo following Capitol Films going under. Read More: 'American History X' Director Tony Kaye Says He's Still In Director's Jail “I am in jail. I am totally in jail,” Kaye added. “I have this crazy reputation, which I nurtured. I thought you had to be arrogant and awful. I have learned a lot over the years about process, and how to conduct myself with collaborators within the collective of making a movie, and how to be caring about the pain of others,...

Exclusive: After more than four years of lawsuits, disputed loans, tattered reputations and tens of millions in fees, the vitriolic war between film financier David Bergstein and Aramid Entertainment looks to be almost over. And the victor might shock you. The parties have reached a settlement agreement, according to filings this week that, if approved, would see Bergstein paid $6 million from the bankruptcy protection-seeking hedge fund. The film financier and his former associate investor Ron Tutor also will acquire “100%” of the equity that longtime legal foe and Aramid exec David Molner has in the film financing fund, estimated to be nearly 5% of the total. Bringing movies back into it, the deal additionally gives Bergstein full rights to the Tony Kaye-directed 2009 pic Black Water Transit, which never was released Stateside due to the litigation.

The settlement deal goes before the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York on...

It's been 15 years since the release of "American History X" (on October 30, 1998), and to this day, the movie stands as a riveting and brutal drama about the persistence of white-supremacist racism in America. It cemented Edward Norton's reputation as the premier Method actor of his generation, and it included at least one scene (the infamous curb-stomp sequence) that's been copied by everyone from "The Sopranos" to "Family Guy."

Yet to this day, many viewers still don't know the often even more dramatic story that went on behind the scenes of the film, in which first-time feature director Tony Kaye fought with Norton and distributor New Line over the final cut of the film. He ultimately filed a $200 million lawsuit because he preferred to be credited as Humpty Dumpty rather than allow the studio's cut to be released under his name. Read on to learn more about Kaye's epic and...

A political sex satire from the director of Silver Linings Playbook and a cop film from Tony Kaye are among the casualties of the company's financial woes

If you went to the movies over the weekend, it is possible you saw Silver Linings Playbook, David O Russell's screwball romcom, tipped to repeat the Oscar success of his previous film, The Fighter. If you enjoyed Silver Linings – and it's likely you did – it's possible your interest has been piqued in the director's back catalogue. Perhaps you're eager to root out his other movies – caustic soap Flirting with Disaster, polarising comedy I Heart Huckabees, George Clooney war flick Three Kings, political sex satire Nailed.

What's that? Not heard of Nailed? Odd, given it boasts a top-drawer cast and a killer plot about a waitress without health insurance (Jessica Biel) who has a nail accidentally lodged in her brain, travels to Washington to...

Almost fifteen years on from his directorial debut American History X (his 2009 feature Black Water Transit has yet to see the light of day), British filmmaker and studio rebel Tony Kaye returns with Detachment. It’s a film which is certain to polarise viewers and critics (much like his previous feature did) yet Kaye can always be called on to provide the emotional fireworks, even when he makes some misjudgements with the material.

Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody) is a substitute English teacher who uses his temporary placements as a way of trying to instil in his students a sense of worth and ownership over their lives in a system which is on the brink of collapse. His latest assignment lands in a particular tough inner-city school, where many of the administration face a daily battle to maintain their sanity whilst trying to do their jobs. The embattled, impassioned head (Marcia Gay Harden...

Nearly 15 years after American History X made him a Hollywood pariah, Tony Kaye has returned to feature films with the star-studded Detachment. So what's changed?

Some are born great, some have greatness thrust upon them – and some do all they can to stop greatness happening to them. Such has been the fate of Tony Kaye, the wunderkind of 1980s British advertising whose grandiose cinematic ambitions have been repeatedly scuppered by his legendary eccentricities. This, after all, is the man who thought it was a good idea to wander the streets of New York wearing an Osama bin Laden costume straight after 9/11.

Consequently, the backstory of this charismatic film-maker is littered with lost projects, unfinished films and epic rows. He has only completed two feature-length films: 1998's American History X, a study of a skinhead racist that got Edward Norton an Oscar nomination; and 2006's Lake of Fire, an acclaimed two-and-a-half...

In the world of film there are few accolades higher than being considered a venerable director; be it a ‘genre master’, like John Ford with his westerns, or a jack of all trades such as Stanley Kubrick or Ridley Scott. If there’s one thing film history shows us it is that some directors have that knack for making great film after great film.

However, there is also a rich vein of historical one hit wonder directors, those who hit one film out of the park and then never repeat that success, whether due to self-indulgence, directing only a very small number of films, or having fluked their one triumph.

Here’s our top ten masters of that brief shining moment.

10. Tony Kaye

A truly interesting one, you could debate whether Tony Kaye deserves to be on the list on the basis of never truly having a hit. Having just...

I say this as someone who has fully respect for the guy — Tony Kaye is one odd bird. He left the filmmaking scene for eight years (following an editing fiasco on American History X), came back with a 2 1/2 hour abortion documentary, Lake of Fire, and will now follow-up his feature comeback, Detachment, with the fittingly-titled Attachment.

Oh, and he has two other projects — both of which were shot years and years ago — sitting in an editing room somewhere.

To be fair, this lengthy reprise from screens can be heavily attributed to the legal and creative troubles that have plagued these works, Black Water Transit and Lobby Lobster. The former of those, a Katrina-based drama that starred Laurence Fishburne, Stephen Dorff, Karl Urban, and Britanny Snow, played at Cannes in 2009, got caught in some court cases, and hasn’t been seen since.

A dire situation that Kenneth Lonergan knows all too well — and yet,...

Tony Kaye's first film this decade is "Detachment" -- and his follow-up is called "Attachment." Though they're not part of the same story, the two projects are related, the director told The Playlist.

"Both films are about love," Kaye explained. "It's the journey from detachment to attachment in 'Detachment,' and it's about the love of mankind. And 'Attachment' is about love for the self alone, with no interest in how the other person feels, and how that is damaging."

"Detachment" follows a substitute teacher as he learns to engage with his high school students as well as a fourteen-year-old runaway, while "Attachment" revolves around a college-age student (Tom Felton, who just joined the cast today) who is obsessed with and starts stalking an older woman (Sharon Stone) after they have a one-night stand. "It's a continuation of my exploration of love," Kaye said. "Maybe all my films are.

The following is a reprint of our review from the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011.

Though it had flown mostly under the radar, cinephiles were pretty thrilled a few weeks ago when the Tribeca Film Festival announced the addition of “Detachment” to its lineup. Not only was the cast top notch but behind the director's chair was British provocateur Tony Kaye, the filmmaker behind the controversial “American History X,” a picture made over 12 years ago. In the interim, things have been tough for the notoriously difficult director and "Detachment" is only his third feature and first narrative film since 1998. "American History X" had its own infamously troubled history when star Edward Norton essentially took over the film, edited it on his own without the director, and Kaye subsequently made a gigantic stink in Hollywood, putting ridiculous ads in Variety and eventually tried to take his name off the film and replace...

From racism ("American History X") to abortion ("Lake Of Fire") to post-Katrina New Orleans (the legally ensnared "Black Water Transit"), Tony Kaye has never shied away from tough subject matter. But his latest film finds him stepping into the most dangerous territory he's navigated yet: the classroom.

Rounding up an impressive ensemble including Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Cranston, James Caan, Marcia Gay Harden, Tim Blake Nelson, Blythe Danner and Lucy Liu, the film centers on substitute teacher Henry Barthe, whose latest experiences at a tough public school, begin to change his cynical view of the school system. Filmed documentary style, with flourishes and stylization from behind the camera, as various clips from the film have indicated, "Detachment" aims for a raw nerved exploration of the educational apparatus.

Budding filmmaker Armen Antranikian (check out his site here) sat down to chat with Kaye in December, and provided The Playlist with exclusive video from the conversation.

Ronald Tutor, a construction tycoon and Miramax co-owner, can't escape messy litigation emanating from his days working with former business partner David Bergstein, the embattled film financier. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has tentatively denied his argument that he was personally uninvolved in transactions that prompted Aramid Entertainment Fund to seek redress for tens of millions of dollars in loans and transactions made over films including Love Ranch, The Edge of Love, Black Water Transit, The Good, Incendiary and Bad Meat. Aramid filed the $17 million lawsuit in May 2010 against Tutor, Bergstein and a number of their

read more...

New clips from Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, William Petersen and Bryan Cranston. Tribeca Film's drama opens March 16th, under the direction of Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit), from the script by newcomer Carl Lund. There are 2 new clips below, which can also be viewed in high definition, for the film which also includes Tim Blake Nelson, Betty Kaye, Sami Gayle, with Lucy Liu, and Blythe Danner, and James Caan. Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues...

New clips from Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, William Petersen and Bryan Cranston. Tribeca Film's drama opens March 16th, under the direction of Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit), from the script by newcomer Carl Lund. There are 2 new clips below, which can also be viewed in high definition, for the film which also includes Tim Blake Nelson, Betty Kaye, Sami Gayle, with Lucy Liu, and Blythe Danner, and James Caan. Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues...

New clips from Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, William Petersen and Bryan Cranston. Tribeca Film's drama opens March 16th, under the direction of Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit), from the script by newcomer Carl Lund. There are 2 new clips below, which can also be viewed in high definition, for the film which also includes Tim Blake Nelson, Betty Kaye, Sami Gayle, with Lucy Liu, and Blythe Danner, and James Caan. Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues...

Capitol Films' attempts to recover $20 million in insurance money for having to replace Samuel L. Jackson on the 2009 film Black Water Transit has been rejected by a California appeals court. A month before shooting was to begin on the movie, Capitol learned that Jackson couldn't perform because of a back injury that required surgery. The film company was left with three options -- replace him, postpone the shoot or to abandon the project. Capitol wanted to go the latter course but was told by its insurer, Ussic, that because Jackson wasn't injured during principal photography, Capitol couldn't shut down

read more...

Adrien Brody starrer Detachment, directed by Tony Kaye gets an HD trailer, more photos. The Tribeca Films' drama opens March 16th, with a strong cast including Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, Marcia Gay Harden, William Petersen and Tim Blake Nelson. Tony Kaye (Black Water Transit, American History X) directs from the writing by Carl Lund, where Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry quickly becomes a role model as a teacher who actually cares about the...

Adrien Brody starrer Detachment, directed by Tony Kaye gets an HD trailer, more photos. The Tribeca Films' drama opens March 16th, with a strong cast including Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, Marcia Gay Harden, William Petersen and Tim Blake Nelson. Tony Kaye (Black Water Transit, American History X) directs from the writing by Carl Lund, where Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry quickly becomes a role model as a teacher who actually cares about the...

Adrien Brody starrer Detachment, directed by Tony Kaye gets an HD trailer, more photos. The Tribeca Films' drama opens March 16th, with a strong cast including Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, Marcia Gay Harden, William Petersen and Tim Blake Nelson. Tony Kaye (Black Water Transit, American History X) directs from the writing by Carl Lund, where Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry quickly becomes a role model as a teacher who actually cares about the...

Tony Kaye got a reputation for being hard-headed during the production of American History X, and though he released the incendiary abortion documentary Lake of Fire in 2006, the years since American History X haven't been easy for the director when it comes to narrative films. His movie Black Water Transit has been on the shelf for years now, and Kaye seemed like he might be a permanent resident of director jail. But his new film Detachment is finally getting a release. The film stars Adrien Brody as a substitute teacher who may have more problems than his studens do. The supporting cast is big: Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, William Petersen, Bryan Cranston, Tim Blake Nelson, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, and James Caan, and Brody's work seems like it might even be as good as the bold pullquotes that decorate the new trailer would suggest. Check out the trailer below and see for yourself.

Well, it's good to know that Tony Kaye is alive and well and still making movies.

Kaye was on his way to being an A-list Hollywood director after his stellar work on the intense 1998 drama about a rampaging racist skinhead who experiences a rude awakening, "American History X." However, his falling out with star Edward Norton during post-production kind of got him blacklisted, resulting in a post-"History" resume consisting of a great but little-seen documentary ("Lake of Fire") and a thriller that's been languishing in post production hell for almost three years now ("Black Water Transit"), according to The Playlist.

But Tony Kaye is back with "Detachment," a drama that premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival starring Adrien Brody as a troubled substitute teacher who's assigned to a struggling inner-city school. This is supposedly Brody's best work since "The Pianist," and he's got a great supporting cast backing him up,...

Director Tony Kaye’s luck seems to shift with every passing year. He looked like he was on to a winner with American History X, but had the film taken away in editing and made few friends afterwards. Then he crafted abortion documentary Lake Of Fire, which roused acclaim and controversy but not much in the way of wider notice. Then came action thriller Black Water Transit, which is sitting waiting to be released despite shooting in 2009. Now, however, he’s scored an impressive cast for his latest drama, Detachment, and is set to release the movie this year. after a run at last year's Tribeca Festival You can watch the trailer over at Apple.Detachment features Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, Marcia Gay Garden, Bryan "in everything" Cranston, William Petersen, James Caan, Lucy Liu and Tim Blake Nelson. It's the tale of Henry (Brody), a troubled substitute teacher. Arriving at a crumbling,...

Almost a year since it debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, a trailer has finally emerged on Apple for Tony Kaye’s (American History X) new film Detachment which hits iTunes next month, before a limited run in U.S. theaters from Tribeca Films in March.

The film chronicles a troubled substitute school teacher (Adrien Brody) who comes to an under-performing inner-city school. Christina Hendricks, Marcia Gay Harden, Bryan Cranston, Tim Blake Nelson, William Petersen, Lucy Liu and James Caan support in what almost sounds like a who’s who of indie fare ensemble.

You can watch the trailer below. For us we like the vibe, the interesting way Kaye has gone about shooting the documentary in a very naturalistic way and the power that Brody’s performance and the overall message of the film might hold.

This is only Kaye’s third feature film since 1998′s American History X,...

Tony Kaye could have had the world as his oyster. An award-winning commercial and music video director, he landed one of the hottest scripts around, with a fast-rising star, for his directorial debut, "American History X," with Edward Norton. But after falling out with his star in post-production when Norton recut the film, and unsuccessfully trying to have his name taken off and replaced with the credit 'Humpty Dumpty,' Kaye landed in director's jail, and any hope of a comeback has been squashed; he helmed the tremendous documentary "Lake of Fire," but the tough source material stopped it from reaching a wider audience, and his sophomore film, the thriller "Black Water Transit," languishes in post-production hell three years after filming.  But at long last, another feature film from the director arrived, with school-set drama "Detachment" arriving at the Tribeca Film Festival last spring. Starring Adrien Brody as a...

Best known for his hard-hitting debut feature, 1998′s American History X, music video director-turned-filmmaker Tony Kaye has only made a small number of films since his auspicious first. The 2006 black and white abortion documentary Lake of Fire garnered high praise from critics, while Black Water Transit — a Katrina drama starring Laurence Fishburne — never even got a theatrical release.

His next film, Detachment, which premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, is an examination of this country’s educational system told through the eyes of a vagabond substitute teacher — played by Adrien Brody — who avoids getting attached to his students. The trailer has some signature Kaye stylistic moves, and the cinematography looks fantastic. In any other directors hands this kind of a movie could play out like a bad Dangerous Minds remake, but hopefully Kaye‘s intensity hasn’t dulled and Detachment will deliver a compelling modern look at our seriously flawed education system.

Tony Kaye doesn.t work nearly as much as we.d prefer. His tremendous documehtary Laqke of Fire still lingers after its 2006 release, though I haven.t ben able to catch up with his last two efforts, Lobby Lobster or Black Water Transit. So I.m eagerly anticipating Kaye.s Detachment, a drama set in the education field that reaches theaters in 2012. An international trailer has been posted to Trailer Addict. We have it below: We haven.t had a commendable Stand And Deliver-type teaching drama in years. The closest we.ve come was the sobering Waiting For Superman documentary that shined a blinding light on the discrepancies plaguing our nation.s school system. Detachment looks like a gritty, art-house Dead Poet.s Society, with Adrien Brody playing a substitute teacher wrestling with his own demons that he tries to leave outside of the classroom (as long as he...

4 clips from Tony Kaye's Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks The Tribeca Films' release gets new video clips, which includes 2 restricted (age-gated clips). The drama helmed by Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit) opens in select cities in March, 2012. Prior to that, viewers can see it from February 24th, 2012, via iTunes, Movies On Demand from their local cable provider, Amazon Watch Instantly, Vudu and more. Newcomer Carl Lund wrote the script where Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body,...

4 clips from Tony Kaye's Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks The Tribeca Films' release gets new video clips, which includes 2 restricted (age-gated clips). The drama helmed by Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit) opens in select cities in March, 2012. Prior to that, viewers can see it from February 24th, 2012, via iTunes, Movies On Demand from their local cable provider, Amazon Watch Instantly, Vudu and more. Newcomer Carl Lund wrote the script where Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body,...

4 clips from Tony Kaye's Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks The Tribeca Films' release gets new video clips, which includes 2 restricted (age-gated clips). The drama helmed by Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit) opens in select cities in March, 2012. Prior to that, viewers can see it from February 24th, 2012, via iTunes, Movies On Demand from their local cable provider, Amazon Watch Instantly, Vudu and more. Newcomer Carl Lund wrote the script where Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body,...

New clip from Tony Kaye's Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks Detachment opens in select cities in March, 2012, but you can see it from February 24th, 2012, via iTunes, Movies On Demand from your local cable provider, Amazon Watch Instantly, Vudu and more. Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit) directs from the writing by newcomer Carl Lund. In Detachment, Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry quickly becomes a role model as a teacher...

New clip from Tony Kaye's Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks Detachment opens in select cities in March, 2012, but you can see it from February 24th, 2012, via iTunes, Movies On Demand from your local cable provider, Amazon Watch Instantly, Vudu and more. Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit) directs from the writing by newcomer Carl Lund. In Detachment, Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry quickly becomes a role model as a teacher...

New clip from Tony Kaye's Detachment, starring Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks Detachment opens in select cities in March, 2012, but you can see it from February 24th, 2012, via iTunes, Movies On Demand from your local cable provider, Amazon Watch Instantly, Vudu and more. Tony Kaye (American History X, Black Water Transit) directs from the writing by newcomer Carl Lund. In Detachment, Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry quickly becomes a role model as a teacher...

British director Tony Kaye has had relatively steady, non-mainstream work since famously trying to yank his name off of the powerful, Edward Norton-starring American History X in 1998. After a dispute with the studio, the star recut the film (either to give himself more screentime or to mold the film into more of a commercial feature), and Kaye tried to remove his name from the credits and replace it with the pseudonym ”Humpty-Dumpty.” But, according to unnamed sources, Mr. Dumpty objected, since he himself was trying to remove his name from every Rob Schneider movie ever made.

Now, Variety says that Kaye is circling Attachment, an indie thriller written by Christopher Denham that “centers on a married woman’s one night stand with a student coming back to haunt her when the lover begins to date her daughter and stalk her family.” It’s reported ed that the film will...

American History X director Tony Kaye could end up directing a new indie thriller  for W2 Media called Attachment. 

The script for the film was written Christopher Denham, and the story "centers on a married woman's one night stand with a student coming back to haunt her when the lover begins to date her daughter and stalk her family." Don't you hate it when that kind of crap goes down!? I'll just say the married woman should have known better. 

I love the film American History X, I think its one of the most powerful films ever made. Unfortunately I haven't seen any of Kayes other films. Such as Detachment with Adrien Brody, a crime drama called Black Water Transit with Laurence Fishburne. I still trust that Kaye is a solid director even though I haven't seen these other films. Maybe this new film will get some better exposure. 

This...

Tony Kaye ("American History X," "Black Water Transit") is in talks to direct the indie thriller "Attachment" at W2 Media says Variety.

Christopher Denham penned the story which centers on a married woman's one night stand with a student coming back to haunt her when the lover begins to date her daughter and stalk her family.

Shooting aims to kick off in the Spring. Kaye's latest film, the Adrien Brody-led "Detachment", will be released by Tribeca Films early next year.

We've said it before, but the post-"American History X" career of director Tony Kaye has been bumpy at best. Not counting the turmoil he went through on the Edward Norton movie, his next films were either ignored ("Lake Of Fire"), stuck in legal limbo ("Black Water Transit") or crucified by critics (his recent high school drama "Detachment"). So who knows what might befall his effort. Kaye is now set to take on "Attachment," a thriller penned by actor Christopher Denham (who wrote and directed the Pov horror flick "Home Movie"). We have to say, the premise sounds pretty rote if not somewhat teen soapy. The story will center on a married woman who has a one night stand with a student, but things get out of hand when he returns, dates her daughter and begins stalking her. We've seen variations on this kind of thing plenty of times before...

For a director who has only made one film that was seen by a reasonably wide audience-- and only after he attempted to take his own name off the film and be credited as 'Humpty Dumpty"-- Tony Kaye manages to loom large in the minds of independent film fans, mostly those hoping he'll come back and make something truly great. Since directing American History X and trying to have his name removed from it, Kaye has released the documentary Lake of Fire, and has two completed films still looking for their way to theaters-- the drama Black Water Transit and the teacher-centric film Detachment, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and will be distributed next year by Tribeca Films. Kaye is clearly a particular guy and chooses his projects on his own terms, but I wonder if he's picked his next project simply as a...

'Black Water Transit' Still Never Coming Out Tribeca Film, the distribution arm of the Tribeca Film Festival, has announced that Tony Kaye's typically controversial "Detachment," which debuted at this year's festival to a mixed response, will have a multi-city theatrical engagement complemented by a VOD and digital distribution release. The film, the famously antagonistic Kaye's third released feature after "American History X" and epic abortion documentary "Lake of Fire," was marred during its Tribeca premiere by a bizarre introduction by Kaye that saw him playing an acoustic guitar while "Detachment" star Adrien Brody muttered "I don't care," resulting in a…...

Says He Still Hasn't Seen 'Black Water Transit' & Is Prepping A Period Film Next Matthew Chapman made waves this year at Sundance, with the premiere of "The Ledge," his first time in the director's chair since 1988's "Heart of Midnight." "The Ledge" is a thriller that follows a dangerous affair between the atheist Gavin (Charlie Hunnam) and Shana (Liv Tyler), the wife of the fundamentalist Christian Joe (Patrick Wilson). When Joe learns of the affair, he goes to great lengths to punish Gavin and his wife, believing that he's well within the bounds of justice set down by the…...

Monday night was the world premiere of Tony Kaye’s “Detachment” at the Tribeca Film Festival. Our heads are still buzzing from the strange and experimental film--you can check out our review here (but this writer strong disagrees with the take). But, lost in the shuffle of “Detachment” finally reaching audiences is the fact that Kaye has another completed film on the shelf, the 2008-shot thriller, “Black Water Transit” starring Karl Urban, Laurence Fishburne, Brittany Snow, Stephen Dorff and more. The crime drama follows the divergent agendas of criminals, cops and lawyers as they collide over a shipment of illegal firearms…...

Believe us, we're rooting for director Tony Kaye if only because he's had an uphill battle in Hollywood ever since "American History X." With his last two efforts being either ignored (the powerful abortion documentary "Lake Of Fire") or mired in film studio bankruptcy woes (the New Orleans thriller “Black Water Transit” starring Laurence Fishburne, Karl Urban and Brittany Snow) the guy could use a break. It's just too bad that his latest, the star-studded "Detachment" doesn't look like it will fit the bill. THR has dropped a clip from the film it's... odd, to say the least. Shot on…...

Kings Of Leon Documentary Also Added Over a decade into his career, Tony Kaye is likely still wondering what it feels like to shoot a movie, edit it and then release it easily into theaters, no fuss no muss. "American History X" found him battling with Edward Norton over the cut of the film. He would return eight years later with "Lake Of Fire," a documentary about abortion that no one saw. Then there's the New Orleans thriller "Black Water Transit" starring Laurence Fishburne, Karl Urban and Brittany Snow that is still presumably being haggled over in the mess that…...

#30. Detachment Director: Tony KayeWriter(s): Carl Lund Producers: Bingo Gubelmann, Benji Kohn, Carl Lund, Chris Papavasiliou and Austin StarkDistributor: Rights Available. The Gist: This is a chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of a substitute teacher named Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody). Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment....(more) Cast: Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Marcia Gay Harden, Bryan Cranston, William Petersen, Blythe Danner and Tim Blake Nelson List Worthy Reasons...: It'd be great if this would be a double Tony Kaye film type of year. But ahead of the troubled Black Water Transit, we would much rather prefer to see this: a high school drama from the point of view of the teachers and principles. The cast is fine,...

#22. The Ledge - Matthew Chapman Will a festival that promotes new talent behind the camera be interested in a first-time veteran? Matthew Chapman, the author/writer of Consenting Adults, Color of Night, Runaway Jury, and Kaye's Black Water Transit, took to directing his debut film earlier this year and technically the dramatic thriller should be in the can...but admittedly, despite a cast that includes Patrick Wilson, Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler and Terrence Howard, if The Ledge were to be included in the line-up it would be somewhat of a small victory. Expect a Premieres screening if included. A young man, Gavin, stands on the ledge of a building and seems determined to take his own life. Enter a detective, Hollis, who has been sent to talk the "jumper" out of it - but discovers that Gavin is being forced to jump off the building before noon. We soon learn...