Press Releases Archive for July, 2017

Traverse City Film Fest At 13 Has Over 120,000 Admissions

The 2017 Traverse City Film Festival(TCFF), founded by Michael Moore in 2005, offered 229 screenings of 115 feature films and 66 shorts in its 13th year. The annual celebration of film welcomed over 120,000 admissions across 12 different venues, including 12 film school classes, six free filmmaker panels, seven parties, two live podcasts, and a gaming…

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Next HBO Series From Showrunners Of “Game On Thrones,” Will Build “A Third American Civil War” In A Parallel Timeline Where The Confederacy Won

Series Will Be Executive Produced And Written By David Benioff And D.B. Weiss; Nichelle Tramble Spellman, Malcolm Spellman, Carolyn Strauss And Bernadette Caulfield Will Also Executive Produce “Game of Thrones” creators/showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will return to HBO with their new original series CONFEDERATE, it was announced today by Casey Bloys, president, HBO…

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GKIDS To Reissue Studio Ghibli Catalog

[pr] KIDS IN DEAL FOR HOME ENTERTAINMENT RIGHTS TO STUDIO GHIBLI CATALOG  BLU-RAY AND DVD REISSUES BEGIN WITH 8 CLASSIC TITLES IN OCTOBER 2017 GKIDS, the acclaimed producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, has announced that it is partnering with Studio Ghibli to handle the famed Japanese animation studio’s catalog in North…

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THE BLACK LIST AND WOMEN IN FILM LOS ANGELES LAUNCH INAUGURAL FEATURE FILM LAB FOR FEMALE WRITERS AND ANNOUNCE SECOND-ANNUAL EPISODIC TV LAB

(Los Angeles, CA, July 17, 2017) – The Black List and Women In Film (WIF), LA announced today that they will again partner on an episodic TV lab for women writers, now in its second year, and will join forces for a newly inaugurated Film Feature Lab for women screenwriters. The Black List/Women In Film Episodic Lab will…

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Outfest Los Angeles Fetes Winners

 OUTFEST LOS ANGELES LGBT FILM FESTIVAL  ANNOUNCES 2017 AWARD WINNERS Los Angeles, July 16, 2017 – Outfest – the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization promoting equality by creating, sharing, and protecting LGBT stories on the screen – has announced the award winners of its 2017 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival, presented by HBO. The nation’s leading LGBT…

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Academy Sets Year-Long Exhibition Residency At Metrograph

THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES ANNOUNCES YEAR-LONG RESIDENCY AT METROGRAPH THEATER NEW YORK NEW YORK, NY – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today a yearlong residency at Metrograph Theaters in New York City, beginning July 24, that will showcase high quality film prints from the Academy Film Archive, home…

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CHARLIE SHEEN’S “9/11” ACQUIRED BY ATLAS DISTRIBUTION

CHARLIE SHEEN’S “9/11” ACQUIRED BY ATLAS DISTRIBUTION  U.S. THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE SET FOR SEPTEMBER 8, 2017  (Los Angeles, July 11, 2017) Atlas Distribution Company announced today that they have acquired the theatrical distribution rights to Charlie Sheen’s new dramatic film, 9/11. A wide US theatrical release date for 9/11 has been set for September 8, 2017. Fox Home Entertainment will be handling the home video release including VOD, Digital HD, and DVD. The film features an award winning cast led by Golden GlobeR winner Charlie Sheen and Academy AwardR winnerWhoopi Goldberg, along with Luis Guzman (The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3), Gina Gershon (Showgirls), Wood Harris(Justified), Jacqueline Bisset (Dancing on the Edge (BBC), Welcome to New York), Olga Fonda (The Vampire Diaries)and Bruce Davison (ABC TV’s The Fosters). Atlas’ President, Harmon Kaslow, stated, “9/11 is an inspiring story told with the sincerest of intent, and we’re very proud to help usher in Charlie Sheen’s return to dramatic roles.”   9/11 was directed by award winning filmmaker and Grammy nominated Music Producer/Engineer MartinGuigui, written by Martin Guigui and Steven Golebiowski, produced by Dahlia Waingort, WarrenOstergard, and Martin Sprock, and executive produced by David Cuddy, Rodric David, Mark Burg, andRyan Johnson. “We’re extremely pleased to have Atlas Distribution and Fox on board and are very much looking forward to the thefilm’s release this Fall.” said Producer Dahlia Waingort. Based on actual events and voicemail messages, 9/11 tells the story of five people trapped in an elevatorin the World Trade Center’s North Tower on September 11th, 2001. Having no comprehension of what has…

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Annapurna Pictures Will Be Released By Fox Home Entertainment

[PR]  Kathryn Bigelow’s DETROIT to be First Film Released Under New Agreement Annapurna and Twentieth Century Fox Film announced a multi-year home entertainment deal. Under the terms of the new partnership, Fox will service the U.S. home entertainment rights for all Annapurna-produced pictures across physical, Digital HD and TVOD platforms. Kathryn Bigelow’s DETROIT will be…

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Barry Jenkins To Adapt James Baldwin’s “If Beale Street Could Talk”

[PR] On the heels of Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award Best Picture Moonlight, Jenkins is set to start production of If Beale Street Could Talk in October 2017. Based on the novel by James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk, is the story of Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover’s innocence while carrying…

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Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Fest Will Close With Detroit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TRAVERSE CITY FILM FESTIVAL 2017 WILL CLOSE WITH KATHRYN BIGELOW’S “DETROIT” TRAVERSE CITY, MI July 5, 2017 — The 13th annual Traverse City Film Festival (TCFF) is proud to announce as its Closing Night Film “Detroit,” the highly anticipated new film by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, one of the greatest directors working today. Following…

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY GOES ATOMIC AT COMIC-CON 2017

For Immediate Release ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY GOES ATOMIC AT COMIC-CON 2017 Atomic Blonde Star and Producer Charlize Theron to Debut EW’s First-Ever Icon Edition of “Women Who Kick Ass” Panel   NEW YORK, NY (July 5, 2017) – Time Inc.’s (NYSE: TIME) ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY plans to raise the bar even higher at Comic-Con 2017 by presenting…

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SAG-AFTRA And AMPTP Reach Tentative Agreement

SAG-AFTRA REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT WITH AMPTP ON SUCCESSOR CONTRACTS COVERING MOTION PICTURES, TELEVISION AND NEW MEDIA LOS ANGELES (July 4, 2017) — Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) today announced it has reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on successor agreements covering motion pictures, scripted…

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Press Releases

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon