News

Exclusive: Eco-thriller Arctic 30 is getting a shot in the arm with new partners and the update that Arctic and Stowaway director Joe Penna is aboard to direct.

Based on actual events, the movie will chart the story of 30 Greenpeace activists who were detained by Russian commandos for months after a 2013 protest against Arctic drilling. They became pawns in a diplomatic game of chess that captured international attention.

Nadine Jolie Courtney (Silver Seas) has been hired to write and casting will begin shortly ahead of a planned 2025 shoot.

Producers are Corniche Media’s Hani Farsi and Nils Åstrand, Laura Rister (The Tale) under her Esme Grace banner, and Laura Lewis (Mr. Malcolm’s List) of Rebelle Media.

Based on the book Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg: The Extraordinary Story of the Arctic 30 by Ben Stewart, the project has been in the works for a while.

James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli was one of the guests at a gala dinner hosted by the Doha Film Institute (Dfi) and the Media City Qatar (McQ) on the fringes of the Venice Film Festival on Monday evening.

The veteran producer’s presence added fuel to recent reports that she is attempting to secure Qatari finance for ex-James Bond actor Daniel Craig’s big screen passion project Othello, with well-placed sources hinting on Monday night that talks were ongoing.

Related: ‘Russians At War’ Teaser: Anastasia Trofimova’s Doc Gives Rare Insight Into Life Of Russian Soldiers On The Frontline In Ukraine – Venice

Broccoli — who is co-head of James Bond producer Eon Productions with Michael G. Wilson — has reportedly been working with Craig for some time on the project, billed as a modern adaptation of the Shakespearean classic set in American army barracks in Iraq.

Related: ‘King Ivory’: Melissa Leo,...

Exclusive: Actor-comedians Ramy Youssef (Ramy) and Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj) have boarded Mustache, the 2023 SXSW Audience Award winner from first-time feature filmmaker Imran J. Khan, as executive producers.

The pair join a stellar producing team, which also includes Academy Award winner Riz Ahmed and Allie Moore exec producing for Left-Handed Films (The Long Goodbye), Good Movies Inc., and producers Christina Won (Birdman) and Jessica Sittig, among others.

Minhaj is now involved in a dual capacity, as he also has a comedic supporting role in the film.

An homage to John Hughes coming-of-age films, ’90s nostalgia, and awkward teenage transitions, Mustache is a Northern California story revolving around 13-year-old Ilyas, a Pakistani American portrayed by new discovery Atharv Verma, whose world is turned upside down when his parents abruptly transfer him from his familiar Islamic private school to the challenges of public education.

Struggling with the mash-up of...

When Shabana Azmi Was Jealous Of Rekha After Getting A Small Role In Mira Nair’s Film: “What Does She Have That I Don’t?” ( Photo Credit – Wikimedia )

Shabana Azmi is a force to be reckoned with. The Actress, who has a celebrated career of decades, continues to charm and surprise her fans with her work and dedication. But while things may seem all rosy now, Azmi is opening up about a time when she fought with dear friend Mira Nair. And it was because she was jealous of Rekha. Shabana revealed that she was pissed when she got a minor role in Mira Nair’s film, and this is what she said to Mira Nair next.

Mira Nair is well-known for her acclaimed films, including 1996’s Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, which starred Rekha. The movie received international acclaim despite being banned in India. After playing a small...

For women making their movies and especially making their mark in a male-dominated industry like Bollywood it is not easy. However, Guneet Monga, Mira Nair, Prerna Arora, Ashwini Iyer Tiwary, Kiran Ral, and Zoya Akhtar have proven that everyone has space to exist and excel. To celebrate International Women’s Day today, we want to shine the spotlight on influential women filmmakers who have succeeded and redefined the narrative of Indian cinema with their impactful films.

Mira Nair

A pioneer in film the world over, Mira Nair needs no introduction. The filmmaker was one of the first female filmmakers who put India on the global map. Her filmography boasts epics such as Salaam Bombay!, Golden Globe winner Hysterical Blindness, Vanity Fair, The Namesake, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and the series ‘The Suitable Boy’. This powerhouse of talent also has numerous documentaries and loves to showcase her Indian roots and heritage on...

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival was essentially one giant reunion for the flyboys of “Top Gun: Maverick,” with Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell and Jay Ellis all starring in films playing the festival.

The trio trekked to Park City, Ut just days after news broke that a third “Top Gun” movie was in the works at Paramount, and Ramirez told Variety that the cast’s group text — fittingly named with the emojis “up” and “gun” — had been “buzzing” with questions about what’s going on with the developing project.

“Obviously, it’d be amazing to be able to do a third film in this beautiful story. But, as we learned with the second one, it’s got to be absolutely right,” Ramirez said, noting the 30-year gap between the original “Top Gun” and “Maverick.”

“Being cognizant of that, we’re excited at the prospect of everyone back in the air,” he teased.

Monsoon Wedding and A Suitable Boy filmmaker Mira Nair has been announced as the Head of Jury for the South Asia Competition at this year’s Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival (October 27-November 5).

The 14 titles selected for the festival’s new competition section, which showcases debut and second-time filmmakers from South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora Cinema, were revealed yesterday, along with the rest of the Jio Mami line-up.

Nair won the Venice film festival’s Golden Lion for Monsoon Wedding (2001) and her more recent credits include The Namesake (2006), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), Vanity Fair (2004), A Suitable Boy (2020) and Queen Of Katwe (2016).

Her next film will be Amri, an experimental portrait of Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil. She also recently directed ‘Monsoon Wedding the Musical’, which opened in New York City in May 2023 and is next headed for Broadway.

Anupama Chopra, Festival Director at Jio Mami, said: “We are thrilled to...

Pakistani Singer Ali Sethi, who gained global spotlight after his song ‘Pasoori’ created waves, took to social media to debunk rumours about him being married to New York-based painter Salman Toor.

On Friday, social media users and his fans went berserk on learning about his marriage via reports. However, Ali took to Instagram on Saturday, where he broke his silence about his marriage speculation. Ali debunked claims of getting married in New York to Salman.

He wrote: “I am not married. I don’t know who started the rumour. But maybe they should help market my new release: Paniya.”

He added a link to his latest song.

Born to journalist and politician parents Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin, Ali started his career with a novel titled ‘The Wish Maker’ in 2009.

He then transitioned to films in 2012. He made his debut in Mira Nair’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ with the song...

Riz Ahmed will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival where the latest short in which the British actor appears – titled “Dammi” and directed by French auteur Yann Mounir Demange – will world premiere.

Ahmed, who earned an Oscar nomination for best actor in 2021 for his performance as a drummer who suddenly goes deaf in Amazon’s “Sound of Metal,” will be feted by the Swiss fest dedicated to indie filmmaking cinema with with its 2021 Excellence Award Davide Campari, which pays tribute to film personalities who have left their personal stamp on contemporary cinema.

“Dammi,” which was teased at Cannes, is an experimental work, broadly on the theme of immigration and identity, produced by French fashion brand Ami, founded by Alexandre Mattiussi, and also starring Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba. The buzzed-about short will screen at Locarno’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande, on opening night, Aug. 2, during the...

A group of South Asian filmmakers, including Indian director Anurag Kashyap (Kennedy) and the team behind Pakistani Directors Fortnight title In Flames, talked on a Cannes panel about how cinema can cross the political barriers that are keeping their countries apart.

Tensions between India and Pakistan are making it difficult for films and filmmakers to travel between each other’s countries, despite the popularity of Indian cinema in Pakistan, and the recent rise of Pakistani films on the world stage, including In Flames and last year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner, Joyland.

Kashyap, who is in Cannes with neo-noir thriller Kennedy playing Out Of Competition, said a new generation of young producers from different South Asian countries is helping talent from the region to work together and introducing global audiences to the whole region’s films: “These young producers make a difference because they don’t have any boundaries,...

Best known for blending classical Hindustani ragas with Western musical influences, Pakistani singer-composer Ali Sethi is a unique find on the Coachella lineup this year. The prestigious L.A.-based festival scheduled to take place in April is one of the most popular musical events in the world and considered a trendsetter in music.

Coachella, returning for the 22nd time (it was canceled in 2020 and ’21 due to the pandemic), has been dominated by artists specializing in rock, pop, indie, hip hop and electronic dance music. But this year’s lineup may be the festival’s most globally inclusive yet. The headliners for the event which sees as many as 750,000 people in total over its six days (as of 2022) are Bad Bunny, Blackpink and Frank Ocean. Harry Styles, who performed on the opening day last year will be closing his Love On Tour in the valley this year.

Read More: Justin Bieber...

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After a lifetime spent between his birthplace of Lahore, Pakistan; the United States; and Great Britain, Mohsin Hamid is an expert at not only observing the world around him, but in using his surroundings to feed his art. In 1993, he was a relatively newly arrived transplant to the States and wrote his debut novel Moth Smoke about Pakistan. When he moved to London in 2000, he wrote about the New York City he’d recently left in The Reluctant Fundamentalist. And when he found himself back in his native Lahore, he began to conceive of the idea for The Last White Man, which he wouldn’t sit down to write for many years.

The book, which just hit shelves, imagines a world in which white people begin to turn dark-skinned — slowly at first, a few people waking up without their whiteness in disparate cities across the country,...

The incredible London Indian Film Festival, UK and Europe’s largest South Asian Film Festival, continues to screen upbeat movies on the last Sunday of each month. Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE, Executive & Programming Director of Liff says, “After a challenging few months, we are bringing some much needed uplifting entertainment and as always our quality films offer fresh views of India and South Asia; movies that may even challenge and certainly leave you thinking.”

Featuring, as always, some brilliant films, the 3rd film in the festival’s Spring online programme is the much-loved festival hit and award-winning (32 International Awards) Hotel Salvation. The screening, for UK viewers, will take place on Sunday 25 April on Liff’s hybrid platform, www.loveliffathome.com.

A heart-warming comedy, Hotel Salvation, also known as Mukti Bhavan is a gentle charmer focussing on 77-year-old Dayanand Kumar, played by Lalit Behl, who has an ominous dream convincing him that his end is near.

FX has given a pilot order to Kindred, an adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s influential novel, from writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen), Courtney Lee-Mitchell (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), Darren Aronofsky and his Protozoa Pictures, Joe Weisberg (The Americans) and Joel Fields (Fosse/Verdon). FX Productions, where Weisberg and Fields are under an overall deal, is the studio.

The rights first were acquired by Lee-Mitchell in 2008 from the author’s agent, Writers House LLC, on behalf of Butler’s estate.

The novel, which sold over a million copies, has been hailed as a visionary work of science fiction since it was first published more than four decades ago in 1979.

FX’s adaptation is centered on Dana, a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own.

Amazon has landed the rights to develop the 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist New York Times story and podcast “The Jungle Prince of Delhi” as a drama series, Variety has learned.

The story, written by Ellen Barry, delved into the history of the royal family of Oudh, deposed aristocrats living in a ruined palace in the Indian capital claiming to be the heirs to a fallen kingdom.

Mira Nair is attached to direct the project and will also executive produce. Stacey Snider, Jane Featherstone, and Kate Fenske of Sister will also executive produce along with Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff of Krasnoff/Foster Entertainment, Christina Lurie of Fourth and Twenty Eight Films, and Barry and Caitlin Roper, head of scripted entertainment for The New York Times.

“Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ellen Barry’s beautifully written tale of the Oudh family revealed deeper truths rooted in the violence and trauma of the partition of India,...

UK indie producer-financier Goldfinch has launched UK streaming platform BirdBox.Film.

The platform launches with three channels of curated content for Tvod – documentaries, drama and festival favorites – with more channels due to be launched in coming months. Themes will include horror in June, shorts in July and sci-fi in August.

Movies will include James Marsh doc Project Nim, Bryan Cranston starrer Trumbo, Olivier Dahan’s La Ve En Rose, Colin Firth drama A Single Man and Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Founders say that each channel with have 50 titles by summer 2020.

June 12 will see the exclusive digital premiere of the The Ascent, directed by Tom Paton, after its premiere at FrightFest 2019. For the shorts, Chris Turner’s Running Man will be first up, starring Raff Law and produced by Sadie Frost and Goldfinch.

The creators says the shorts channel “will reward the younger filmmakers who provide content, with funds to market their shorts,...

Financing and production group Goldfinch has launched U.K. streaming platform BirdBox.Film, a transactional video on demand (Tvod) service.

BirdBox has debuted with three channels based on documentaries, drama and festival favorites. Content available on the site includes Olivier Dahan’s “La Ve en Rose,” Colin Firth-starrer “A Single Man,” and Mira Nair’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.”

Goldfinch said more channels will be launched in coming months, beginning with horror in June, shorts in July and sci-fi in August.

Each channel will be supported by a premiere each month. June 12 will see the exclusive digital premiere of “The Ascent,” directed by Tom Paton, after its premiere at FrightFest 2019. For the shorts channel, Chris Turner’s “Running Man” will be first up, starring Raff Law and produced by Sadie Frost and Goldfinch.

Each channel will have 50 titles by summer, said Goldfinch. The platform added that it is focusing on...

Acclaimed Indian actor Adil Hussain will headline director Bauddhayan Mukherji’s “Marichjhapi,” one of the new projects introduced this week at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Project Market.

Written by Abhinandan Banerjee and Mukherji, the film will follow the real events of January 1979, where refugees on Marichjhapi island, located in the Sundarbans delta located between India and Bangladesh, wake up to find police boats surrounding their island.

Over the next three months, the refugees are tear-gassed, their huts and fisheries destroyed, women raped, houses burnt, and they are fired upon in the middle of the night. And through all of this, relationships flourish and love blossoms.

Monalisa Mukherji will produce via her and Bauddhayan Mukherji’s outfit Little Lamb Films. “Marichjhapi” is budgeted at $800,000, too big to be self-financed. “For this one I will need co-producers,” Monalisa Mukherji told Variety. “People and countries not just supporting financially, but...

Adil Hussain, prominent star of Indian independent cinema, will be present at the Busan International Film Festival as the male lead of two Indian world premieres.

In Vijay Jayapal’s “Nirvana Inn,” Hussain headlines alongside Sandhya Mridul (“Bridge”) and Rajshri Deshpande (“Sexy Durga”). At an earlier stage, the film was at the Busan Asian Project Market in 2018 and subsequently received post-production support from the festival’s Asian Cinema Fund.

Hussain also stars in veteran filmmaker Goutam Ghose’s “The Wayfarers” (“Raahgir”) alongside Tilottama Shome (“Sir”).

“The role I play in “Raahgir “is of the poorest of the poor, a tribal man from Central India, a wayfarer, but a giant of a human, who’s humanity is put to the test by the circumstances he suddenly finds himself in. In “Nirvana Inn” my character journeys through the darkest of human despair and guilt and unfathomable sadness which descends on him, and is beyond his control,...

The Ftii graduate, actor Vijay Varma after delivering an impeccable performance in the super hit film Gully Boy is now all set to go international with his first ever major western production. The Indo-American writer and director Mira Nair who has given some landmark films has now roped in Vijay Varma for her next, A Suitable Boy which is an adaptation of Vikram Seth's much acclaimed novel with the same name for BBC World. Mira has earlier adapted several books into films including The Namesake and The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

In the series Vijay Varma will be seen playing the character of Rasheed, a student at Brahmpur University and an Arabic teacher. Recently during an interview Mira Nair confirmed on the casting including Vijay Varma being roped into the cast. To play his part Vijay Varma has already started his research work with reading the book. The story of A...

Europe’s Largest Indian Film Festival returns to Birmingham again this year for the third year in the row. Sister to the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival, (Liff), Birmingham Indian Film Festival will run from Friday 23 June until Sunday 2 July 2017. This year’s festival promises to be one of the best showcasing 11 Independent Films, 2 Music Documentaries and a host of talent over 10 days in 3 cinemas!

Cary Rajinder Sawhney, Liff & Biff Director, says: “We are delighted to bring Birmingham audiences a carefully curated selection of the very best new Indian and South Asian independent cinema; all films are English subtitled, offering a rare window into over a billion South Asian lives. This year’s selection includes premieres of new comedies, gripping thrillers, shocking horror and insightful true-life documentaries as well as bringing together UK previews of major award-winning films from the world’s greatest film festivals.”

The festival opens on Friday 23 June at Cineworld Birmingham,...

Dfi reveals co-funding partnership on world’s first fully painted feature

The Doha Film Institute has revealed its participation in animated feature Loving Vincent as a co-financier ahead of the film’s premiere at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival next month.

Written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, the film tells the life story of painter Vincent Van Gogh.

Each of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil painting, hand-painted by a team of 125 professional artists from across the world.

The artists worked from footage of live performances by actors including Douglas Booth (Jupiter Ascending), Jerome Flynn (Game Of Thrones) and Saorise Ronan (Brookyln) working against green screen, or sets designed to look like Van Gogh’s paintings.

The film is produced by Poland’s BreakThru Films and the UK’s Trademark Films, and co-produced by City of Wroclaw.

The film is also supported by Silver Reel, Rbf Productions...

Author: Matt Rodgers

Show almost anyone a picture of Riz Ahmed and they’ll be able to place him in something. It could be from Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker’s 2008 Big Brother zombie invasion satire, Dead Set. It might be as Aaron Kalloor, the Mark Zuckerberg techno genius who occupied one of the more interesting threads from Jason Bourne. More realistically, it’ll be from last year’s billion dollar Star Wars blockbuster, Rogue One, in which he played conflicted pilot Bodhi Rook. The point is, you can’t pigeon hole the guy.

Take this week’s City of Tiny Lights, in which Ahmed plays a London private eye investigating the case of a missing sex worker. The film might drown in its own dimly lit gloom, but the fact you stick with it is down to another chameleonic performance from the young Brit. You can read our review here.

Riz Ahmed has a heavy conscience. Or at least it seems that way when the British actor reflects on 2016, a year he tells Et “has been a mess in so many ways,” pointing to the deaths of pop culture icons from David Bowie to Carrie Fisher and the civil unrest in Aleppo, Syria, that has left tens of thousands dead and has caused even more to flee the country. And while he didn’t mention it, Ahmed could have easily been referring to a tumultuous U.S. presidential election, which weighed heavily on the minds of many Americans as the year came to an end. All of this in the same year that saw Ahmed’s profile skyrocket thanks to a starring role on the hit HBO miniseries The Night Of, the surprise debut of Netflix’s The Oa and scene-stealing parts in Jason Bourne and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And if acting...

Indian actor Om Puri—whose career spanned continents—has died, according to the Associated Press. Puri’s vast credits include countless Bollywood films, as well as the likes of Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War, and, more recently, Lasse Hallström‘s The Hundred-Foot Journey. He was 66.

In a remembrance for The Guardian, Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha called Puri “one of the most talented and versatile actors of his generation.” She added: “He put a human face on a label and showed we all want the best for our children and families.” Puri and Chadha recently collaborated on the period piece Viceroy’s House, which is due out in the United Kingdom in March and also stars Gillian Anderson and Michael Gambon.

On Twitter, fellow actors paid tribute to Puri. Riz Ahmed, who worked with him in Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist ...

The prolific, veteran Bollywood actor Om Puri, best known as the star of British films “My Son the Fanatic” and “East is East,” died yesterday at the age of 66, reported the Indian Express.

Born in in 1950, Puri attended the Film and Television Institute of India as well as National School of Drama, and later made his film debut in the 1976 film “Ghashiram Kotwal.” He quickly followed it up with award-winning performances in films like “Aakrosh” in 1980, for which he won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award, “Arohan” in 1982 and “Ardh Satya” in 1983, for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor two years in a row.

Besides his many character roles in Bollywood film, Puri also appeared or starred in numerous English and Hollywood films and TV shows as well. He co-starred in 90s American films like “City of Joy,” “Wolf” and “The Ghost and the Darkness.” He...

Om Puri in West Is West, who has died at age 66 Photo: BBC Films East Is East star Om Puri has died at age 66.

The veteran Indian star reportedly died of a heart attack in Mumbai early today.

Puri, who became known as a character actor in the 1980s, finding fame both in his homeland, with films such as Ardh Satya and Sadgati, and in Britain, where he starred in films including culture clash comedy East Is East and its sequel West Is West. He also found fame in Hollywood, with films including The Hundred-Foot Journey and The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

He was awarded an OBE for his contribution to British film in 2004 and the Padma Shri for his services to the film industry in India in 1990.

On December 21, Puri wrote on Twitter: "I have no regrets at all. I have done quite well for myself. I didn't have a conventional face,...

Rebecca Clough Jan 20, 2017

As America gets its new President, we look at some excellent political drama films that may have slipped under your radar...

Political dramas can be entertaining, informative and even educational, opening up debates and offering new points of view. (When experiencing a year of tumultuous change like the one we’ve just had, they can also be a comforting reminder that, no matter what your situation, it could always be worse...) With the full whack of corruption, war, and conspiracy, here are 25 political dramas which deserve to be better known.

See related 25 underrated political thrillers 17 new TV shows to watch in 2017 Taboo episode 3 review The Girl On The Train review 25. The Marchers/La Marche (2013)

When teenager Mohamed (Tewfik Jallab) is shot by police, his friends want revenge, but he has a better idea: peaceful protest. Marching from Marseille to Paris, they band together with quite an assortment of characters along the way.

Sarah Jessica Parker's long-awaited return to the small screen has kept entertainment and fashion fans alike on their toes. But don't expect to see Carrie Bradshaw 2.0. in HBO's Divorce. Parker's new dark comedy gives a realistic look at the life of a mother of two, Frances (Parker), dealing with a failing marriage, career challenges and complicated friendships. Arjun Bhasin (whose work has included Life of Pi, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Begin Again) was tasked with creating the perfect wardrobe for the show's characters. "We tried to set up these women as three categorically different types of people and to

read more...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

This Past Weekend:

While the new movies reigned at the box office this past weekend, both Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven (Sony) and the animated Storks (Warner Bros.) didn’t fare nearly as well as our projections, both falling short by about $10 million. The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, fared decently with $34.7million, which is about the average for Washington’s films, but the fourth highest opening for a Western after last year’s The Revenant, the animated Rango, and Cowboys and Aliens. Storks’ $21.3 million opening wasn’t great compared to other animated September releases with Sony still holding the September opening record with Hotel Transylvania 2, but it should continue to do well with no other animated movies opening for another month.

Ryan Lambie Kirsten Howard Simon Brew Mar 28, 2017

Ahead of its release this week, here's one final trailer for Ghost In The Shell, starring Scarlett Johansson...

Ahead of its release in UK cinemas this Thursday, one last trailer for Ghost In The Shell has been released, and you can see that right here...

See related Interview: Chris Addison talks In The Loop, standup & Tom Baker

And here's the opening five minutes from the film, that have also been released...

Here's the earlier trailer for the remake/reboot/retelling of Ghost In The Shell from last month, too, if you missed it...

More news as we have it, of course. In the meantime, feel free to flick over to page 2 of our Ghost In The Shell nerve centre, which is packed with loads more stuff about the new film.

Ghost In The Shell release date

Ghost In The Shell is out in...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

This Past Weekend:

Yikes. What a terrible weekend we just had, not only for the new movies released but also for the Weekend Warrior’s predictions. Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks’ Sully won its second weekend in a row with just under $22 million, but as far as the new movies, neither Lionsgate’s Blair Witch nor Universal’s Bridget Jones’s Baby did very well, putting the last nail in the coffin (hopefully) for sequels/remakes trying to play upon nostalgia that just isn’t there. (Good luck to the Rings movie opening next month!) Blair Witch ended up with $9.6 million to take second place and both Bridget Jones’s Baby and Oliver Stone’s Snowden ended up with around $8 million, so...

If you didn’t see his break-out role in one of the century’s best comedies, Four Lions, then we imagine Riz Ahmed first landed on your radar as the doomed assistant to Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler. Along with his high-profile performances in The Night Of, Rogue One, and Jason Bourne this year, one of the two Tiff films he has is the starring vehicle City of Tiny Lights, as noted in our fall festival preview.

Directed by Dredd‘s Pete Travis, it follows Ahmed as a London detective who gets entangled in a missing-girl case as a complex web of lies bubble up. We now have the first clip thanks to THR, which shows Ahmed on the case as he visits his ex-girlfriend at a local bar. Check out the clip below for the film also starring Cush Jumbo, James Floyd, Billie Piper, and Roshan Seth.

Tiff Synopsis:

Later this year,...

All this week, IndieWire will be rolling out our annual Fall Preview, including offerings that span genres, a close examination of some of the year’s biggest breakouts, all the awards contenders you need to know about now and special attention to all the new movies you need to get through a jam-packed fall movie-going season. Check back every day for a new look at the best the season has to offer, and clear your schedule, because we’re going to fill it right up.

“White Girl,” September 2

Writer-director Elizabeth Wood exploded onto the filmmaking scene when her controversial debut “White Girl” shocked audiences at the Sundance Film Festival. A fearless portrait of young female sexuality, the film stars “Homeland’s” Morgan Saylor as Leah, a college student who becomes involved with a young drug dealer during the last two weeks of summer in New York City. When the cops...

The highly anticipated thriller Feast Of Varanasi premiered to a packed audience on Saturday 5th March as part of the London Asian Film Festival in central London.

Attended by the main cast and crew including director Rajan Kumar Patel, Ashwath Bhatt, Holly Gilbert and award winning producer Caroline O Reilly, the dark thriller has received huge praise from critics and the audience alike. Guests included: The Mayor and Mayoress of Kingston Upon Thames, EastEnder’s star Nitin Ganatra, comedian and playwright Nigel Planer and actress Seeta Indrani.

Director Rajan Patel commented: “It was great to see so many people support Independent cinema. It’s so important for independent filmmakers to be given a platform to showcase their talent. The whole project from start to finish has been a real labour of love for everyone involved. I have had the good fortune to work with such a wonderful production team and...

Filmmaker Maris Curran, who we talked with about her Toronto premiere, Five Nights in Maine, last Fall, forwarded this interview she did with a director she admires, Mira Nair. Nair (Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding, The Reluctant Fundamentalist) is one of the most articulate directors out there when it comes down to unpacking the process of being a director. Curran, whose own feature should reach theaters this Fall, asks Nair direct questions about the job of the director, ambition, budgets, and knowing when a project is the right one to develop years of one’s life on. “Never do anything as a […]...

Behold Bill Murray as the white savior barreling into a foreign land and teaching the ignorant natives how to be better people. Obnoxious and tone deaf. I’m “biast” (pro): love Bill Murray

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Bill Murray is Richie Lanz, a sleazy Los Angeles music manager. He’s the kind of guy who takes money from a wannabe singer with no talent and no chance of even the most measly sort of success but who is also naive enough to believe that it’s normal to pay him upfront. And he’s clearly been stringing along his assistant, Ronnie (Zooey Deschanel: Your Highness, Yes Man), who has been working for him in the expectation that she will get a boost to her own singing career. So when he takes her to Kabul — yes, in Afghanistan — to perform for U.

Disney's "The Queen of Katwe," based on the 2011 Espn the Magazine story and subsequent book by Tim Crothers, stars Kenyan newcomer Nalwanga as Mutesi, who grew up in Kampala, Uganda and, with the help of her coach, Robert Katende (Oyelowo), became a competitor in the World Chess Olympiad. Nyong'o plays Mutesi's mother, Harriet. Adapted by William Wheeler ("Ray Donovan"), the film is "Monsoon Wedding" director Nair's first feature since 2012's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," also adapted by Wheeler—and, one hopes, a return to more consistent work. The single image we have so far of "The Queen of Katwe," shot largely on location in Uganda, is a reminder of Nair's superb use of color, which made even her failed Reese Witherspoon vehicle "Vanity Fair" (2004) visually arresting. The film is slated for release this fall.

The first ever Writers Lab, a program targeting female screenwriters over 40, took place at Wiawaka on Lake George, New York from September 18-20, 2015.

The group of mentors included Caroline Kaplan ("Boyhood," "Time Out of Mind," "Personal Velocity"), Kirsten Smith ("Legally Blonde," "Ten Things I Hate About You"), Jessica Bendinger ("Bring It On," "Aquamarine"), Mary Jane Skalski ("Win Win," "The Station Agent"),Gina Prince-Bythewood ("Secret Life of Bees," "Beyond the Lights"),Lydia Dean-Pilcher ("The Lunchbox," The Reluctant Fundamentalist"), Meg LeFauve ("Inside Out," "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"), and Darnell Martin (“Cadillac Records” and “I Like It Like That”).

Launched by New York Women in Film and Television (Nywift) and Iris, a collective of women filmmakers dedicated to championing the female voice in narrative film, was funded in part by Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep, and with the collaboration of the Writers Guild of America East.

Motivated by its screenwriting members who were frustrated with the paucity of development opportunities, Iris founders Elizabeth Kaiden, Kyle Ann Stoke, and Nitza Wilson approached Nywift to support a screenwriting Lab exclusively for this demographic and The Writers Lab came into being.

I spoke with Iris cofounder Elizabeth Kaiden to follow up about the first Writers Lab.

Kouguell: How many screenplays were submitted for consideration?

Kaiden: There were approximately 3,500 screenplays submitted. The selected participants were Sarah Bird ("Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen), Vanessa Carmichael ("The American"). Tracy Charlton ("Raised Up"), Kellen Hertz ("Ashburn"), Anna Hozian ("Anchor Baby"), Lyralen Kaye ("St John the Divine in Iowa"), Jan Kimbrough ("The Glastonbury Cow Party"), Billie Jo Mason ("The Cargo"), Peres Owino ("Basketweaver"), Gretchen Somerfeld ("Face Value"), Janet Stilson ("Jaguar Trail"), and Kim Turner ("It Goes Like This").

Kouguell: What were some highlights from the three-day Lab?

Kaiden: Highlights included the chemistry, warmth and enthusiasm of the group, the bucolic setting in which serious and thoughtful individual meetings between writers and mentors took place, the outstanding, locally sourced, group meals presented by Wiawaka chef Meg, and evening conversations around a bonfire. Oh, and the weather was fabulous.

Kouguell: What is the next step for these writers selected for the Lab?

Kaiden: Writers are all revising their work and communicating with each other. They will use the feedback, resources, references, and friendships they took away from the Lab to further develop their scripts and their opportunities.

Kouguell: In addition to the one-on-one meetings, what other events took place?

Kaiden: There were three panel discussions in which the mentors addressed specific craft issues and general industry insight, informal conversations, group meals, as well as small, directed group conversations led by Nywift Board President Alexis Alexanian to address the challenges writers face in navigating the film world.

Kouguell: What do you feel were some of the most positive outcomes from the weekend in Lake George?

Kaiden: The most exciting outcome of this venture, for me, is uncovering and bringing to public attention the field of women screenwriters, particularly its enormous breadth and depth. The most positive outcomes of the weekend Lab, for me, include the sense of empowerment I believe the Lab gave the writers to continue their work and develop their projects, and the supportive community of writers we all discovered, which can only further our goals of ensuring that more of their stories will reach audiences.

Kouguell: Will the Writers Lab take place again next year?

Kaiden: Yes.

Kouguell: Anything else you’d like to add?

Kaiden: We were excited and delighted by the energy and enthusiasm at the Lab. It felt like an important event. It Was an important event. We discussed and debated issues of theme, tone, craft, structure, character, as well as production, representation, and target markets. The mentors were unbelievably focused, supportive and encouraging. Serious work was done. The writers left feeling, I think, that their voices had been heard, and that they should all continue to tell their stories. I think you will be hearing more from these writers and about these projects. And, although that would have been enough, everyone had a blast.

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College Suny, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...

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Straight Outta Compton’s Jonathan Herman has signed up to re-write the Scarlett Johansson-starring Ghost In The Shell movie…

Straight Outta Compton is fast becoming one of those films that proves to be a launching pad for manifold members of its cast and crew. Director F Gary Gary has already been snapped up for the Furious 8 directing gig, while stars Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell have both landed roles in Kong: Skull Island.

The N.W.A. biopic’s screenwriter – Jonathan Herman, who made his feature debut with that script – is the latest to benefit from his raised profile. DreamWorks has signed him up to rework the script for their Ghost In The Shell live-action remake, which is set to star Scarlett Johansson.

The Tracking Board is reporting that Herman will ‘do an overhaul’ on the existing script, which was penned by William Wheeler of Ray Donovan,...

The Producers Guild Of America’s Women’s Impact Network and website Women And Hollywood have launched a new toolkit called ‘The Ms. Factor: The Power Of Female Driven Content.’

The groups are hoping to raise awareness “on the commercial viability of investing in female producers, directors, and female-driven storylines.”

The statistics in the toolkit can be used when films are being pitched to demonstrate the profitability of female audiences and power of female creative talent.

“Market data regarding movies and television dramatically supports the fact that female-driven content is profitable, yet women working on both sides of the camera remain severely underrepresented,” said Lydia Dean Pilcher (pictured), vp of motion pictures for the Producers Guild Of America and chair of the PGA Women’s Impact Network.

“The toolkit will provide producers and directors pitching female-driven content with the proof they need to combat a prevalent resistance to female storytelling.” Pilcher is a co-author...

Presented by New York Women in Film and Television (Nywift) and Iris, The Writers Lab is funded with the generous support of Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep. The one-of-a-kind lab will bring 12 women screenwriters over the age of 40 together with established mentors from the film industry for an intimate gathering and intensive workshop at Wiawaka Center for Women on Lake George, NY from September 18-20, 2015. The Lab is also presented in collaboration with the Writers Guild of America, East.

Being the only program of its kind, The Writers Lab evolved in recognition of the absence of the female voice in narrative film, along with the lack of support for script development. The lab will offer these 12 promising features by women over 40 a springboard to production.

The prestigious group of mentors includes Caroline Kaplan ("Boyhood," "Time Out of Mind," "Personal Velocity"), Kirsten Smith ("Legally Blonde," "Ten Things I Hate About You"), Jessica Bendinger ("Bring It On," "Aquamarine"), Mary Jane Skalski ("Win Win," "The Station Agent"), Gina Prince-Bythewood ("Secret Life of Bees," "Beyond the Lights"), Lydia Dean-Pilcher ( "The Lunchbox,"The Reluctant Fundamentalist"), Meg LeFauve ("Inside Out," "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"). During one-on-one meetings they will provide the participants with insightful feedback and will take part in additional events to inspire the artists to hone their creative vision.

The Writers Lab, which was first announced at this year’s Tribeca film festival, received over 3,500 submissions, which encouraged the organizer to support not eight, as they originally had planned, but 12 women in film.

The selected participants are Sarah Bird ("Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen), Vanessa Carmichael ("The American"). Tracy Charlton ("Raised Up"), Kellen Hertz ("Ashburn"), Anna Hozian ("Anchor Baby"), Lyralen Kaye ("St John the Divine in Iowa"), Jan Kimbrough ("The Glastonbury Cow Party"), Billie Mason ("The Cargo"), Peres Owino ("Basketweaver"), Gretchen Somerfeld ("Face Value"), Janet Stilson ("Jaguar Trail"), and Kim Turner ("It Goes Like This").

You can find out more about this initiative and others from Nywift Here...

London Indian Film Festival returns for its 6th year from 16 – 26 July with some of the most prestigious and thought-provoking new independent films from the Indian sub-continent.

The opening evening gala promises to be a star studded event that culminates in the premiere screening of Umrika, which stars Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi, Million Dollar Arm and Homeland). The first night of this cool film festival takes place at the historic art deco Cineworld Haymarket Cinema.

Expected attendees are Hollywood, indie film, TV and Bollywood stars including star Suraj Sharma and director of Umrika Prashant Nair. Also there will be Adil Hussain who has been seen in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, English Vinglish (Bollywood), Life of Pi, and Tigers and Umrika.

The amazing Konkona Sen Sharma (Indian national award Page 3, Omkara, Life in a Metro), whose films Saari Raat & Gour Hari Dastaan both will be screened at Liff this year will at the gala event.

It’s almost June and that means Netflix is about to give their content a refresh. Some of the notable titles leaving in June include Rain Man, Taxi Driver, and Donnie Brasco. So if you haven’t seen some of these titles, plan your nights accordingly. We of course can look forward more than a few new titles including the premiere of the Wachowskis’ show Sense8, the new season of Orange is the New Black, Nightcrawler, and Jon Stewart’s film Rosewater.

Available June 1

Employee of the Month (2006)

Hidden Kingdoms (2014)

La Dictadura Perfecta (2014)

R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly (2008)

R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It (2007)

Sex Ed (2014)

Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live from Orlando (2012)

Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live From Atlanta (2013)

Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live from Las Vegas (2014)

The Aviator...

New on Netflix this June: "Sense8," the new sci-fi drama from Andy and Lana Wachowski ("The Matrix" trilogy) and "Babylon 5" creator J. Michael Straczynski, in which eight strangers suddenly find themselves mysteriously connected. Also, look for the return of Netflix original series "Orange Is the New Black" on June 12.

As for movies, you won't want to miss Jake Gyllenhaal's terrifyingly great turn in "Nightcrawler." Also new: "Life of Crime" and "Cake" with Jennifer Aniston; Philip Seymour Hoffman's last completed film, the spy thriller "A Most Wanted Man"; Gina Prince-Bythewood's acclaimed film "Beyond the Lights" starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a rising singer; not to mention the critically panned "Grace of Monaco," starring Nicole Kidman as Princess Grace.

Below is a full rundown of what's new on Netflix in June 2015, provided by Netflix. As always, all titles and dates are subject to change. We've also go you covered...

As two of the most sought after performers currently in film, a collaboration between Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave) and the much-nominated David Oyelowo (Selma) is a very exciting prospect indeed. Add into that mix The Reluctant Fundamentalist director Mira Nair, and it could be argued that Disney is onto something big with planned literary adaptation, Queen Of Katwe.

The film is based on an article by Tim Crothers, published in Espn The Magazine in 2011, and also on the book that followed the article – The Queen Of Katwe: A Story Of Life, Chess And One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream Of Becoming A Grandmaster. The “extraordinary girl” of the title is Phiona Mutesi, who went from a Ugandan slum to the World Chess Olympiad, under the tutelage of Robert Katende – her coach and mentor.

Phiona, who was forced to drop out of school around the age of...

Last week it was revealed that Scarlett Johansson will star as cyborg agent Major Motoko Kusanagi in DreamWork’s live-action movie adaptation of Mamoru Oshii’s groundbreaking 1995 anime film based on the renowned manga series from Masamune Shirow. We now have another Ghost in the Shell update, as a release date for the film has been selected, bringing the long-gestating project one crucial step closer to the big screen.

Box Office Mojo reports that DreamWork’s Ghost in the Shell adaptation will hit theaters in 3D via Buena Vista on April 14th, 2017. While Johansson (Under the Skin, Lucy, Avengers: Age of Ultron) taking on the lead role is the only revealed casting news thus far, we know that Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) is set to direct the live-action Ghost in the Shell movie off a screenplay by William Wheeler (The Reluctant Fundamentalist). Avi Arad and Steven Paul...

It has been announced by Disney today that Ghost in the Shell will be released on April 14th, 2017. Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) is directing from a script which was written by Bill Wheeler (The Reluctant Fundamentalist). Scarlett Johansson is attached to star in Dreamworks' adaptation of the Japanese anime/magna. In other release date news, Jon Favreau's live action/CGI adatation of The Jungle Book has now been pushed back and won't reach us until April 15th, 2016. Scarlett Johansson will also be in that movie, as will Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Esposito, Lupita Nyong'o, and Ben Kingsley. Are you looking forward to these movies?...

David Oyelowo ("Selma") and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o ("12 Years a Slave") are in negotiations to star in Mira Nair's true story tale "Queen Of Katwe" for Disney Pictures and Espn Films.

Based on Tim Crothers’ book, the story follows of a young woman named Phiona Mutesi. Mutesi emerged out of a Ugandan slum to reach the World Chess Olympiad with the help and belief of her coach-mentor Robert Katende (Oyelowo). Nyong’o will play Harriet Mutesi, Phiona’s young mother.

William Wheeler (" The Reluctant Fundamentalist") is penning the script for the $15 million budget film, and shooting begins in the Spring. John Carls and Lydia Dean Pilcher are producing.

Source: Deadline...

David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o are in talks to star in Disney’s “Queen of Katwe,” set to be directed by Mira Nair, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Based on the book “The Queen Of Katwe: A Story Of Life, Chess, And One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream Of Becoming A Grandmaster” by Tim Crothers, the adaptation has a script by Nair’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” screenwriter William Wheeler.

Also Read: Golden Globes Party Report in Pictures: Inside Jennifer Aniston’s Lunch at Arianna Huffington’s Home (Photos)

Story follows young chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi, rising...