AFM

D A I LY
5

N OV E M B E R
8, 2 0 1 5

THR.COM/AFM

Mili Pictures D5 110815.indd 1

11/3/15 11:54 AM

COMPLETE
AN EXCEPTIONAL MOVIE / COMPLETE
CAST: Adil Hussain DIRECTOR: Rajan Kumar Patel
GENRE: Crime/ Thriller
ADIL
HUSSAIN

A visual feast and a gripping cat-and-mouse English-language contemporary

thriller set in the labyrinthine alleys of the ancient Hindu city of Varanasi on the
shores of the sacred Ganges River. A cerebral yet visceral thriller in a lush and
exotic setting with an international cast.

IN PRODUCTION

MISCHA
BARTON

PAZ DE LA
HUERTA

CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION (2015)

CAST: Mischa Barton
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Paranormal horror. "Sometimes Evil Has A Pretty Face"
CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION (2015)
CAST: Paz de la Huerta
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Thriller. "Shes Not Alone"

PREPRODUCTION

TARA REID

ANA COTO

NATASHA
HENSTRIDGE

CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016)

CAST: Tara Reid
DIRECTOR: Robert reed Altman
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Horror (Ghosts) "Hunger Is Not Solely For The Living"
CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016)
CAST: Ana Coto
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Thriller. "Down There, No One Can Hear You Scream"
CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016)
CAST: Rachel Leigh Cook , Natasha Henstridge
GENRE: Sci-Fi Erotic Drama
There Are No Limits To What We Can Experience

RACHEL LEIGH
COOK

REBEL MOVIES AFM Office #323 AFM Telephone: 310.458.6700 xt 323

rebelmovies@rebelmovies.eu - www.rebelmovies.eu
Rebel Entertainment D1 110415.indd 1

10/30/15 2:50 PM

NOVEMBER 08, 2015

THR.COM/AFM

AFM
WEATHER
AND HIGH
TEMPS

TODAY

73 F
23 C

A F M 5

TOMORROW

66 F
19 C

Amazon Studios
Takes Refns
Neon Demon

Is TV (Slowly) Killing the AFM?

By Alex Ritman

mazon Studios has

swooped into Santa
Monica and the AFM to
pick up The Neon Demon, the
hotly anticipated AmericanDanish horror film from Drive
director Nicolas Winding Refn,
starring Elle Fanning, Keanu
Reeves, Christina Hendricks and
Jena Malone.
The title which Amazon
will give a U.S. theatrical
release next summer is a
project from Gaumont and
Wild Bunch, which both have
co-financed and are co-selling
internationally. The Jokers
will distribute in France, in
association with Wild Bunch
and Gaumont.
Produced under Refns
Danish outfit Space Rocket
Nation (Only God Forgives),

The lure of small-screen projects is drawing A-list talent away from film, making it increasingly
difficult for producers to package midbudget films. Says one: Its the worst Ive ever seen it
By Scott Roxborough

ealmakers have found a scapegoat for the

dearth of hot titles and the distinct lack of
buyer buzz at the American Film Market this
year: television.
The boom in television production, so goes the
argument, is drawing talent away from film projects,
making it increasingly difficult to attach A-listers
to features.
Speaking at the AFM Finance Conference, financing consultant Roy A. Salter noted that the boom in TV
comedy and drama has sucked the oxygen out of the
film business. The volume of production on U.S. TV
networks has literally doubled in the last three years,
said Salter. Theres less talent available [for films].
The attention has been turned to the T [television]
rather than the F [film]. Is it affecting features? Yes.

That sales agents are finding it harder to put

together packages is evident to anyone walking the
[half-empty] halls of the Lowes.
Its either: the cast is great but you dont trust the
director; or the actors are A-list but its the wrong
genre for them; or the package is great but the script
isnt there yet, says Al Munteanu, president of German
distributor Square One Entertainment. Its the worst
Ive ever seen it.
The somber mood at AFM, and every other major
film market this year, is in sharp contrast to the mood
at the MIPCOM TV market in Cannes last month,
where a flood of high-profile productions gave the
event the feel of a boom town.
Whether TV is really to blame for AFMs blues,
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2

C O N T I N U ED O N PA G E 2

Animal Crackers
Sells Wide
By Alex Ritman

nimal Crackers the

upcoming animated
release voiced by
Emily Blunt, John Krasinski,
Danny DeVito, Ian McKellen and
Slyvester Stallone has been
snapped up by hungry buyers
across the globe.
Australian sales outfit
Odins Eye announced Sunday
that the Blue Dream Studios
feature co-directed by Tony
Bancroft (Mulan)
and creator Scott
Christian Sava
had been captured
for Russia and
Blunt
the Baltics (All

Benicio Del Toro

signs autographs
before attending an
In Conversation WIth event
at the Egyptian Theatre
sponsered by the
AFI film festival.

C O N T I N U ED O N PA G E 2

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_news1_2A.indd 1

11/7/15 9:50 PM

theREPORT

HEAT INDEX

ANGELINA JOLIE PITT

Early reviews for her third directorial
outing, By the Sea, have been scathing,
with THRs Todd McCarthy observing
that the marital drama has no
reason for being.

JA M E S M A R S H
Marshs next feature, the Colin Firth
-and Rachel Weisz-starring Untitled
Donald Crowhurst Project, has seen
insane levels of interest for sellers
StudioCanal, with one U.S. buyer
reportedly offering $6 million.

Killing
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

however, is debatable. Some A-list

talent certainly is migrating to the
small screen see Vince Vaughn
and Colin Farrell on HBOs True
Detective or Clive Owen taking up
residence (together with director
Steven Soderbergh) on Cinemax
drama The Knick.
But they cant all be doing TV,
notes Munteanu.
Recent high-profile talent
shuffles on big presold projects
Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow exiting
hot femme-focused comedy Bad
Moms to be replaced by the trio of
Mila Kunis, Christina Applegate and
Kristen Bell; Edgar Ramirez replacing
Gerard Bulter on Alcons Point Break
reboot had nothing to do with
TV. Alicia Vikander jumped out of
IM Globals Dave Eggers adaptation The Circle (to be replaced by
Emma Watson) in order to appear

The Knick

in another film (the upcoming

fifth Bourne film, with Matt Damon)
not a TV show. Other factors a
declining home video market, a
sharp decrease in TV licensing
revenue in many territories, and a
cinema market increasingly hostile
to midbudget fare appear to be
at least as significant as the TV
boom in explaining the current
AFM drought.
The fact is, films in the middle range arent working the way
they used to, said Stephan Giger

Crackers
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Content Media), India (Pictureworks), Turkey (The

Moments), South Africa (MNet), alongside much of
Eastern Europe, Iceland, Israel and the Middle East.
eOne already has the film for the U.K and Canada,
while China Film Group is bringing it to the worlds
second-biggest box office and Entremode will distribute in Korea. Domestic rights are still yet to
be announced.
The film, which was produced at Blue Dream
Studios facilities in Spain, sees Blunt and Krasinski
voice a couple who inherit a rundown circus and
with it a mysterious box of animal-shaped cookies
that possess magical powers. Delivery is expected
September 2016 for an early 2017 release.
Animal Crackers is to Blue Dream Studios as Toy
Story was for Pixar two decades ago, said Michael
Favelle of Odins Eye, which is also shopping Bad Cat,
Arkie and Throne of Elves from its animated slate
at AFM.

know your dealmaker

JA S O N M O R I N G

PRESIDENT, DOUBLE DUTCH

INTERNATIONAL

Moring has engineered a deal with wealth

management firm Fleet-Fairhaven to
provide a $50 million P&A fund to market
Double Dutch International-repped titles
in the U.S. Terms dictate a movie must
open on more than 100 screens in order
to gain access to the fund.

Fanning in
The Neon Demon.

Demon

Animal Crackers

MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Paolo Sorrentinos Youth nabbed

five European Film Award nominations, including best film. The
awards are held Dec. 12 in Berlin.
C
 omcast is on the defensive
following a leaked internal memo
that implied the companys caps
on home broadband data are not
related to network congestion.
A
 mysterious light in the sky over
Southern California caused a flurry
of speculation on social media
before the U.S. Navy confirmed it
had test-fired a Trident missile.

the film focuses on an aspiring young model who

moves to L.A., only to find herself immersed in a
group of beauty-obsessed women who will go to any
lengths to have what she has.
One morning, I woke and realized I was both
surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a
sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film
about vicious beauty, said Refn.
After making Drive and falling madly in love with
the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return
to tell the story of The Neon Demon, he continued.
The Amazon deal was arranged by Vincent Maraval
and Carole Baraton of Wild Bunch and Gaumonts
Cecile Gaget.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_news1_2A.indd 2

of Swiss-based buyer Ascot Elite.

It seems to be getting harder for
everyone to pull these projects
together.
Salter, at least, predicted
that the production cycle will
swing away from television and
back to film in the next two to
three years.
But even if TV dramas fade and
the talents calendars begin to open
up, it likely wont mean an end to
the deeper problems in the indie
film business.

11/7/15 10:00 PM

Beijing Film Fest D5 110815.indd 1

10/27/15 11:10 AM

theREPORT

AFM
IN BRIEF

THE 2015 AFM POSTER AWARDS

THR PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE MOST AMUSING AND OVER-THE-TOP
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS AT THE AMERICAN FILM MARKET

De La
Huerta

Impacto Takes Genre

Titles for LatAm
Impacto Cine has
acquired all Latin
American rights to the
first four films from
Madrid-based production banner Rebel
Movies Scare slate.
The genre titles include
The Malevolent, in which
Mischa Barton plays a
malicious but seductive
shape-shifting entity, and
Overtime, about an office
worker who is the last
intended victim of a murderers rampage, starring
Paz de la Huerta.

WORST INTERNET SEARCH EVER

How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town

Sometimes when you Google a movies title your search
results are for the film youre looking up. Other times, you
get far more interesting results. This is more the latter.

WORST OBITUARY

Judas Ghost
The spirit of Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford now
haunts an abandoned warehouse? The larger question:
Rob Halford died?! Someone better let him know.

Wizarts Snow Queen

Expands Domain
Russian animation studio
Wizart announced a trio
of sales for its successful
Snow Queen franchise: BF
Distribution took Snow
Queen 2 for several Latin
American countries,
Kino Swiat nabbed Snow
Queen3 for the Polish
market, and A-Pictures
and ADR Distribution
picked up Italian rights.
Cohen Grabs
Germanys Fritz Bauer
Cohen Media Group has
picked up the German
historical drama The
People vs. Fritz Bauer for
North America. The film
chronicles a lawyers fight
to bring Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann to justice.

BEST REASON TO BRUSH THREE TIMES DAILY

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_news3C.indd 1

BEST USE OF (NOT) KEVIN JAMES

Jungle Master: Candy Planet

While its unclear how one becomes a
Jungle Master on Candy Planet, one thing
is clear: This poster causes cavities.

Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant

In the [name]:[career title] category for best picture, the
winner is: Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant! To
be fair, it was only up against Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

11/7/15 8:28 PM

HOLLYWOOD STORM PRESENTS

ALEXANDER NEVSKY

BLACK ROSE
KRISTANNA LOKEN

ADRIAN PAUL

ROBERT DAVI

MATTHIAS HUES

Two Tough Cops. One Impossible Mission.

HOLLYWOOD STORM PRESENTS A HOLLYWOOD STORM / CZAR PICTURES PRODUCTION ALEXANDER NEVSKY KRISTANNA LOKEN "BLACK ROSE"
ROBERT DAVI ADRIAN PAUL ROBERT MADRID MATTHIAS HUES POLINA BUTORINA DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY RUDY HARBON
EDITOR STEPHEN ADRIANSON MUSIC BY SEAN MURRAY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SHELDON LETTICH EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS BRYAN GOERES ALEXANDER IZOTOV ROBERT MADRID
STORY BY ALEXANDER NEVSKY WRITTEN BY BRENT HUFF AND GEORGE SAUNDERS PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY ALEXANDER NEVSKY
2015, HOLLYWOOD STORM, LLC.

International Sales: LIGHTNING ENTERTAINMENT. AFM Office: Loews Hotel 8th Floor, Escondido Suite

Lightning Ent D5 11081.indd 1

11/5/15 12:07 PM

theREPORT

Parkers Rome
Gathers Momentum
By Alex Ritman

Ian Hart Joins

Brit Rom-Com
Modern Life

Parker

By Scott Roxborough

ll Roads Lead to Rome, in which Sarah Jessica Parker

stars as a single mom in New York who embarks on
a European adventure to reconnect with her rebellious teenage daughter, has been snapped up for North
America by Momentum Pictures.
Raoul Bova and Paz Vega also star in the rom-com from
writers Josh Appignanesi and Cindy Myers and director Ella
Lemhagen. The film, Parkers first big-screen appearance
since 2011s New Years Eve, was produced by Andrea
Iervolino, Monika Bacardi and Silvio Muraglia.
Ellas story takes audiences on a wild, passionate
adventure alongside Sarah Jessica Parkers Maggie
through Italy, which provides the perfect setting for the
hilarious and deeply charming story. Viewers will be
delighted by this movie, said Berry Meyerowitz, Momentum
Pictures president.
The deal, which was announced on Saturday at AFM,
was brokered by Julie Sultan of AMBI Distribution on
behalf of the filmmakers and by Larry Greenberg for
Momentum.
All Roads Lead to Rome will be released in February
2016.

an Hart has come on

board Modern Life
is Rubbish, a Brit
Hart
rom-com from first-time
director Daniel Gill.
The feature, which Brian
OSheas The Exchange is shopping to buyers at AFM, stars
Freya Mavor (BBCs Skins) and
Josh Whitehouse (Northern
Soul). They play a couple who
have decided to call it quits
but struggle to split up their
record collection.
Modern Life is Rubbish is based
on Gills 2009 short film of the
same name, which starred Rafe
Spall and Rebecca Night. The film
takes its name from the title
of the second album by British
band Blur.

STTN Sues Over Shes Funny That Way Piracy

The lawsuits are the start of what the company says will be international legal
action against alleged pirates who posted the film online By Scott Roxborough

TTN Capital is getting litigious again

with Peter Bogdanovich movie Shes
Funny That Way. T he producer of the
film, which stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer
Aniston, is already in arbitration with Clarius
Capital Group over problems with the U.S.
release of the movie. On Nov. 6, STTN filed
at least five suits against unnamed defendants they claim illegally posted the film to
BitTorrent websites, resulting in significant
piracy that damaged the film financially.
The lawsuits were filed in the United States
District Court in Illinois against more than
100 defendants all of whom are identified by their Internet IP addresses and not
by name. STTN says the legal action is the

start of a planned international anti-piracy

campaign, with further, similar suits planned
across the U.S., Europe and Asia. This kind of
mass John Doe attack has been done before
for such films as Dumb and Dumber To and
The Dallas Buyers Club.
The legal stratagem of suing anonymous
users of BitTorrent for sharing copyrighted
work is controversial with a few judges
questioning whether merely identifying an
IP address is enough evidence to pin blame
for piracy on its user. What also sets the Shes
Funny That Way case apart from ones like
Dallas Buyers Club is the fact that the film
didnt get a traditional theatrical release but
went out via Lionsgate on SVOD, with a small
theatrical platform bow.
Initially, Clarius Capital
Group had picked up domestic rights and was planning
a significant theatrical bow.
But, according to STTN,
while Clarius had guaranteed a P&A commitment of
more than $24.5 million and
a minimum 1,500 screen
bow, the company only made
a $900,000 payment on a
$4.5 million minimum guarantee and couldnt come up
with the funds to release the
Shes Funny That Way
picture theatrically.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_news4A.indd 6

Vertical Grabs
Frank With
Platt, Russo
By Scott Roxborough

ertical Entertainment has secured worldwide digital rights to G.J. Echternkamps

autobiographical comedy Frank and
Cindy, starring Rene Russo, Oliver Platt and
Johnny Simmons.
The feature looks at Echternkamps own
relationship to his mother Cindy (Russo) and
step-father Frank (Platt), the later the bassist
of 80s one-hit wonder OXO. Simmons plays
Echternkamp. Jane Levy and Marc Maron co-star.
Echternkamp made a documentary of the same
name, on the same subject, in 2007. The non-fiction film won best documentary honors at the
Raindance and Seattle True Independent
film festivals.
The Frank and Cindy feature film premiered at
the L.A. Film Festival this summer.
Vertical plans to roll out Frank and Cindy
digitally worldwide
in the second quarter
of 2016.
The deal was
negotiated by WME
on behalf of the
filmmakers, and
Goldberg and
Peter Jarowey, vp
Platt (left)
of Acquisitions,
and Russo.
at Vertical.

11/7/15 9:26 PM

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11/6/15 5:09 PM

Q&A

DIRECTOR

Adam McKay

The comedy helmer gets serious (and thrown headfirst

into awards season) with a star-studded cast playing out the
drama of a real-life financial collapse By Rebecca Ford

NOW N FOR COM EDY H I TS L I K E STEP BROTHERS, ANCHORMAN

and Talladega Nights, Adam McKay might not be the first

person who comes to mind when thinking of a writer-director for
a financial drama about the credit and housing collapse of the
mid-2000s. But while prepping for 2010s comedy The Other Guys, McKay,
47, discovered Michael Lewis nonfiction book, The Big Short: Inside the
Doomsday Machine, and was hooked. McKay, who wrote for Saturday Night
Live, co-founded Funny or Die and penned the script for Marvels Ant-Man,
then got Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt on board.
Paramount put The Big Short on the fast-track in time for awards season,
and it will debut Nov. 12 at AFI Fest as the closing-night film. Ahead of its
world premiere, McKay spoke to THR about his dream cast, breaking the
fourth wall and how he hopes his timely film will spark discussion.

Was there any apprehension about

hiring you, since youre known mostly
for comedy?
Ive always been pretty politically
active, and even when I was on SNL
I used to write a lot of the political
cold openers thats always been
a big part of who I am. But youd
have to ask them. Im sure somebody had a moment of, Really?
The guy who did Talladega Nights is
going to do this? My big idea was
to break the fourth wall, to talk to
the audience periodically throughout the movie. If they were cool
with that, then they were cool with
what I was going to do.
Why did you want to break that wall?
I told Michael Lewis that he had a
footnote in the book where when
they describe synthetic CDOs
[collateralized debt obligations],

he actually said, If you followed

this to this point, you deserve a
gold star. And that was what sort
of cued me to, Oh, the author just
talked to me. Ive always been
fascinated by breaking the fourth
wall. The show thats really done
it well recently is House of Cards,
very artfully. Theres also kind
of a snobbery among filmmakers against narration, which Ive
always been interested in. Some of
the great movies of all time, like
Goodfellas, Apocalypse Now and
Election, all use practical narrators
or just straight narration. Thats
why I think I was so excited about
it. I knew this was a chance to play
with this kind of form that I felt
was there for the taking.
This is quite a cast. Did you have
actors in mind while writing?
I always think about whos playing
the roles. I had these names on the
board. When I turned in the first
draft to Paramount, I said, Would
you care if I sent this to some

BY THE NUMBERS

Films directed

28

Weeks Lewis 2010 book spent on

The New York Times Best Sellers list

$723.5

Worldwide box office,

in millions, for
McKays first five movies

I just hope some

presidential candidate
has to field one extra
question because of this
movie, McKay says.

actors just to see what they think?

Within two or three weeks, they
all started coming back saying,
Yes. And it slammed the movie
into a really fast gear too, because
guys like that will have really
tight schedules.
How did shooting The Big Short differ
from your previous films?
The larger structure was fastpaced, but the actual day-in,
day-out shooting was not. Usually
when Im shooting comedies, all
day long Im thinking of alternatives for jokes. Theres about nine
plates spinning at all times because
Im also the writer. In this case,
I half-jokingly said it felt very
European, it was very relaxed. We
could really get into the nuance of
characters. It was one of the more
pleasurable shoots Ive had.
How would you compare the way Bale,
Carell and Gosling work?
The two that I would really
compare to each other are Carell
and Bale. Both do tons and tons
of preparation. And Carell is very
hard on himself. He really pushes
with each take and wants to keep
digging and digging. Bale does
so much work that by the time he

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_q&a_McKayB.indd 8

shows up he basically is the character. I think Gosling is closer to

kind of what Im used to in a sense
that hes really improvisational. He
obviously does loads of preparation, but hes very playful.
Do you hope The Big Short sparks a
bigger discussion on the subject?
Its a movie, so you dont want to
act all crazy about it, but I hope
in some small way it pushes some
discussion. Its kind of amazing
that we had the largest collapse
since the Great Depression, but we
all seem to have forgotten. And not
many of the problems were fixed.
Theres a lot of misinformation
thats purposely spread. So I think
with the presidential election coming up, Im hoping in some small
way it brings back some discussion.
Are you going to write Ant-Man 2?
I was talking to [Paul] Rudd about
it the other day. Well see what happens, but that would certainly be
fun. I loved working with Marvel.
And I have a couple of projects in
development. One of them is more
dramatic, ones more comedy, still
with a little bit of political teeth to
it. And theres a TV show idea Ive
been kicking around.

VICTORIA WILL/INVISION/AP

How did you end up getting to write

and direct this movie?
We were doing a lot of research
about the financial crash for The
Other Guys. I came across The Big
Short, which you pretty quickly do
when you go into that subject. I
just assumed it would be a movie,
but then I figured, Someone else
will do it. Im a comedy guy. Then
about a year and half ago, my
agent said, If you could do anything, what would you do? Right
away, I just said, The Big Short.
He called [Pitts] Plan B, and fortunately they were open to the
idea of me doing a big rewrite on it
and directing.

11/6/15 8:29 PM

Uptown 6 D3 110615.indd 1

11/5/15 2:49 PM

AFM SCREENING GUIDE

2015
NOV. 8

8:45 AM Suburra, Indie Sales,

Broadway 3
The Kind Words, Beta Cinema, 118Mins.,
AMC 7
The King of Havana, Filmax
International, 120 Mins., Tunnel Post #1
9:00 AM Despite the Falling Snow,
6 Sales, 113 Mins., AMC 6
Land of Mine, K5 Media Group Gmbh,
Doubletree #1
My Internship in Canada, Films
Distribution, 108 Mins., AMC 4
Retribution, Film Factory
Entertainment, 100 Mins., AMC 2
The Hollow Point, Highland Film Group,
96 Mins., AMC 3
The Manny, Picture Tree International
Gmbh, 110 Mins., Doubletree #2
11:00 AM Baby Steps, Media Luna New
Films Ug, 102 Mins., Loews 3
Beeba Boys, Mongrel International,
104Mins., AMC 5
Brothers of the Wind, Terra Mater Film
Studios, 95 Mins., Tunnel Post #1
By Way of Helena, Westend Films,
110Mins., AMC 2
Coconut Hero, Beta Cinema, 100 Mins.,
AMC 1
Damascus Cover, Carnaby International
Sales and Distribution, AMC 6
Homesick, Wide, 98 Mins., Olympia 1
Isnt It Delicious, Angel Grace
Worldwide, 104 Mins., Fairmont 1
Level Up, Independent, Fairmont 3
Nobody Wants the Night, Metro
International Entertainment, 103 Mins.,
Broadway 4
Savva, Highland Film Group, 85 Mins.,
Broadway 2
Scherzo Diabolico, Jinga Films,
90Mins., Loews 2
The Confirmation, Arclight Films,
90Mins., Doubletree #2
The Fencer, The Little Film Co, 95Mins.,
Ocean Scr #
The Hallow, Altitude Film Sales,
95Mins., AMC 4
The Roommates Party, Other Angle
Pictures, 100 Mins., Doubletree #1
Trenk, the Little Knight, Global Screen
Gmbh, 75 Mins., AMC 3
Urge, Fortitude International,
Broadway3
Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass,
Fortissimo Films, 111 Mins., AMC 7
Youre Ugly Too, Picture Tree
International Gmbh, 81 Mins., Fairmont 2
1:00 PM Across the Line, The Little Film
Co., 90 Mins., Ocean Scr #
Angry Indian Goddesses, Mongrel
International, 104 Mins., AMC 3

Gaumonts
The Boy and
the Beast

 ampo Grande, Films Distribution,

C
108Mins., AMC 1
Dont Grow Up, Indie Sales, Broadway 4
Dont Speak, Princ Films, 82 Mins.,
Loews 3
Franny, Covert Media, 92 Mins., Tunnel
Post #1
I Am Hardwell Living the Dream,
Dutch Features Global Entertainment,
87Mins., Broadway 3
Kill Command, Protagonist Pictures,
AMC 5
Mom and Me, Visit Films, 76 Mins.,
Doubletree #1
My Men, Gaumont, 90 Mins., AMC 4
The Duel of Wine, Media Luna New
Films Ug, 95 Mins., Loews 2
The Squad, Snd - Groupe M6, 90 Mins.,
AMC 6
Versus, Planeta Inform Film Distribution,
100 Mins., AMC 2
War Pigs, VMI Worldwide, 100 Mins.,
Olympia 1
3:00 PM Belle and Sebastian, the
Adventure Continues, Gaumont, AMC 1
Big Dance Family, 4Square Films, 87
Mins., Doubletree #1
Brand: A Second Coming, Myriad
Pictures, 105 Mins., Fairmont 1
Chasing Niagara, Red Bull Media
House, 80 Mins., Tunnel Post #1
Cupids Guillotine, Jersey Style Films
Llc, 88 Mins., Olympia 1
Dora or the Sexual Neuroses of Our
Parents, Wide, 90 Mins., Loews 2
Man Down, The Solution Entertainment
Group, 92 Mins., Broadway 1
Night of the Living Deb, Jinga Films,
85Mins., Fairmont 3

 WA & Eazy-E: The Kings of Compton,

N
VMI Worldwide, 90 Mins., Loews 3
Oddball, Global Screen Gmbh, 93 Mins.,
AMC 4
Ruben Gutherie, Arclight Films,
Doubletree #2
Spy Time, Film Factory Entertainment,
93 Mins., AMC 2
The Crew, Snd - Groupe M6, AMC 6
The Debt, 6 Sales, 100 Mins., Broadway 2
The Trust, Highland Film Group,
Broadway 4
5:00 PM Atomic Falafel, 6 Sales,
93Mins., Broadway 3
Bling, Celsius Entertainment, 82 Mins.,
Doubletree #2
Colonia, Beta Cinema, 110 Mins.,
Broadway 4
Loev, Wide, 90 Mins., Loews 3
Macho Man, Global Screen Gmbh,
100Mins., Doubletree #1
My Name Is Nobody, Little Books Little
Films, Llc, 115 Mins., Loews 2
Police Evo, Creative Content Malaysia,
120 Mins., Fairmont 1
Roadduster, Dutch Features Global
Entertainment, 107 Mins., Tunnel Post #1
Searching for Eddie Running Wolf,
Radioactivegiant, 97 Mins., AMC 1
Superbob, VMI Worldwide, 90 Mins.,
Olympia 1
The Boy and the Beast, Gaumont,
Broadway 2
The Exclusive: Beat the Devils Tattoo,
Lotte Entertainment, 125 Mins., AMC 2
The Price of Desire, The Little Film Co.,
105 Mins., Ocean Scr #
The Wait, Pathe International (Fr),
100Mins., AMC 6

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_SGB.indd 1

T he Wait, Pathe International (Uk),

100Mins., AMC 6
Truman, Filmax International, 110 Mins.,
AMC 5
Weaponized, VMI Worldwide, 90 Mins.,
Fairmont 2
7:00 PM Movie Madness, Little Books
Little Films Llc, 90 Mins., Olympia 1

NOV. 9

9:00 AM Bolshoi Babylon, Altitude Film

Sales, 83 Mins., AMC 2
Departure, Mongrel International,
110Mins., AMC 6
Lost In the Pacific, Arclight Films,
Fairmont 2
Sundown, Green Films, Inc., 100 Mins.,
Fairmont 1
Wild for the Night, Highland Film
Group, AMC 1
11:00 AM Belle and Sebastian, the
Adventure Continues, Gaumont, AMC 4
Black, Films Distribution, 95 Mins.,
AMC7
Dragon, Mirsand Ltd., 100 Mins.,
Loews3
Larry Gaye, Renegade Male Flight
Attendant, Other Angle Pictures,
90Mins., AMC 1
Lounge Act, Arclight Films, Olympia 1
Operator, Cinema Management Group
Llc, 88 Mins., Ocean Scr #
Synchronicity, Magnolia Pictures &
Magnet Releasing, 101 Mins., AMC 6
The Clan, Film Factory Entertainment,
107 Mins., AMC 2
11:00 The Debt, 6 Sales, 100 Mins.,
AMC5

10

11/6/15 8:21 PM

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1419 WILCOX AVENUE LOS ANGELES, CA 90028 USA
PHONE: 323.703.1115 FAX: 323.207.8024
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PHONE: 323.703.1115 FAX: 323.207.8024
SALES@VMIWORLDWIDE.COM
WWW.VMIWORLDWIDE.COM

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11/6/15 6:15 PM

PRO MOT IO N

SEE & BE SEEN

Daily, breaking news and reviews from the front lines
at all major international film festivals & markets

AFM
AMERICAN FILM MARKET

November 4-1 1, 2015

BERLIN
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Februar y 1 1-21, 2016

CANNES
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

May 1 1-2 2, 2016

TORONTO
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

September 8-18, 2016

THR covers film festivals around the globe.

From previews in the print weekly issue to festival and
market dailies*, plus digital content on THR.com and events,
THR covers the festival circuit from start to finish.

CONTACT: UNITED STATES | Debra Fink | debra.fink@thr.com

EUROPE | Alison Smith | alison.smith@thr.com Tommaso Campione | tommaso.campione@thr.com
Frederic Fenucci | frederic.fenucci@billboard.com | +44 7985 251 814
ASIA | Ivy Lam | ivy.lam@thr.com AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND | Lisa Cruse | lisa@spiritedmedia.co.nz
*Excluding Busan International Film Festival

thrhaff_FP_festival_overview_afm_2015.indd 1

10/20/15 12:22 PM

R E V I E WS
AFI FEST

briefly compare notes on physical

maladies, and the famously womanizing Brit tries to get the equally
experienced Yank to say whether
he ever scored with the one woman
who frustratingly eluded Fred. But
mostly they simply enjoy just batting things around; as Fred later
tells his daughter, We only ever
told each other the good things.
As ravishing images cascade
onto the screen, assorted other
characters swim into view. Theres
American actor Jimmy Tree (Paul
Dano), there preparing for a new
role; a fat man with a huge portrait of Karl Marx tattooed on his
back; a masseuse with a variety
of skill sets; an old couple who
never converse at dinner; a Miss
Universe who thinks nothing of
striding nude into a spa in front of
the geezers; and Freds daughter,
Captions are
national medium
Lena (Rachel Weisz), a touchingly
7/7 tracked -20
hyphens off
wounded victim of her fathers
frequent absences and a link to his
long-suffering wife, whose fate is
only clarified at the end.
As scant as the film is on plot,
it gets by just fine on progression.
Paolo Sorrentinos visually ravishing, dramatically vibrant English-language feature A lovely scene has Fred listening
stars Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel as two aging artist friends by todd mccarthy
to a young boy practicing one of
the
mans
compositions
on
the
violin;
a
lewd music video features the
OUTH IS A VOLUPTUARYS FEAST, A FULL-BODY IMMERSION IN
new
rock
star
girlfriend
of
Micks
son,
who
has jilted Lena in the past; a
the sensory pleasures of the cinema. A film about old artists
second visit by the queens representative forces Fred to explain that he
by a much younger man, Paolo Sorrentinos second Englishhas only ever conducted Simple Songs with his wife singing them and
language feature is an immeasurable improvement on his
hell never do otherwise.
first, This Must Be the Place, standing much closer to the level
Then comes the humdinger, an unexpected visit from the great veteran
of his 2013 triumph, The Great Beauty, as it takes on potentially heavy
star Mick is counting on to play the lead and assure the financing of his
material in a disarmingly whimsical, intelligent and keen-witted manner.
new film. Its never convincing when anyone less than a famous actor is
Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, both at the top of their games,
asked to play one, so its supremely fortunate that Sorrentino was able
wonderfully carry this spirited look at two aging friends with distinctly
to enlist Jane Fonda, who struts in deliberately over-made-up and fouldifferent ideas about how to wrap up their creative careers. Given that
mouthed in Joan Crawford/Ava Gardner mode and brutally tells it like it
the central characters are a retired 80-year-old composer-conductor and
is to a man who has directed her many times.
a veteran film director anxious to launch yet another picture, one might
Most dramatists in film and the theater cannot tackle old age as a subexpect to encounter these old gents in autumnal, summing-up mode. Or
ject without piling on philosophical homilies about wisdom, loss, regret,
if it were a Hollywood production, perhaps a farcical old-age comedy.
acceptance and whats most important in life, so Sorrentinos avoidance
But Sorrentino does nothing so obvious, establishing an oddly paraof these conventional postures proves enormously refreshing.
doxical tone of relaxed rigor that embraces his characters unpretentious
Crucial to the films success are the contributions of the two leading
reflections on their advanced years and artistic legacies while filling the
men. Caine is at his unerringly truthful best in a climactic interlude,
screen around them with fanciful and bizarre characters reminiscent of
while Keitel clearly has been rejuvenated by the best part hes had in a
Sorrentinos stylistic forebear Fellini.
long time. Meanwhile, Weisz hits unexpectedly touching, and sometimes
A stunning revolving opening shot of a singer performing produces a
amusing, notes of distress and Dano is vastly entertaining as the actor
sensual rush that is sustained for the next two hours. First and foremost
trying to discover how to play his next character. Youth is like a great spa
among the odd assortment of wealthy guests at a large hotel spa in the
treatment for the cinematically fatigued.
Swiss Alps is Fred Ballinger (Caine), a long-eminent musician being
entreated by an emissary of the queen to return to London to conduct one
AFI (Special Screenings)
concert of his most celebrated composition, Simple Songs, in exchange
Cast Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, Jane Fonda,
for a knighthood. He adamantly refuses and will not say why.
Mark Kozelek, Robert Seethaler, Alex MacQueen, Luna Mijovic
By contrast, Freds old pal Mick Boyle (Keitel) has a staff of four young
writers to help finish the screenplay to his upcoming project. The two men Director Paolo Sorrentino // 119 minutes
Caine (left) and
Dano wrestle with
questions of art
and aging.

Youth

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_rev1B.indd 1

13

11/6/15 8:19 PM

REVIEWS

never sheds her movie-star baggage.

From the start, however, Herzog bangs us over the head
with evidence that Gertrude is a Modern Woman, introducing her on the family estate in England spouting such
anachronistic dialogue as, I cant take it any longer. I feel
so domesticated. Apparently, time away at Oxford was her
undoing as a creature of polite society. But despite Bells
many hats adventurer, historian, diarist, photographer,
archeologist and political liaison among them the film
banalizes her story into a life of chronic wanderlust shaped
less by insatiable cross-cultural fascination than by twin
heartbreaks that provide melodramatic bookends. And
the crippling blunder from which it never fully recovers is
the miscasting of a very wooden James Franco as Henry
Cadogan, the Tehran embassy diplomat who becomes her
first tragic romance in the films most ineffectual stretch.
Herzogs script opens with a 1914 Cairo confab led by a
droll Winston Churchill (Chris Fulford), during which the
Brits discuss how the carve-up of the collapsed Ottoman
Empire should proceed after the onset of World War I.
Already there are belabored nods to the mess of religious
and ethnic conflicts that continue to define the region a century later. Lawrence weighs in with his opinion that nobody
is better equipped to unravel the Arab peoples tangle of
tribal affiliations and rivalries than Gertrude Bell.
The film then skips back 12 years to her flight from the
Victorian motherland as shes shipped off to her uncle
(Mark Lewis Jones) in Tehran. While her cousin (Holly
Earl) has the flutters for embassy secretary Cadogan, that
soft-spoken seducer only has eyes for Gertrude. Soon hes
teaching her Farsi, showing her the surrounding desert and
proposing marriage. But Gertrudes family objects, and
Cadogan dies under mysterious circumstances.
Three years later, Gertrude is back in the region, a selfdescribed widow. For the first time in my life, I know who I
am, she says. My heart belongs to no one now but the desert. She acquires a trusted servant guide (Jay Abdo) and
embarks on a restless crusade to explore the arid wilderness
and study its people, shrugging off staunch opposition to
her plans from the fusty British military establishment.
Werner Herzog directs Nicole Kidman as British
The film then becomes an episodic series of expediadventurer Gertrude Bell in a passionless trudge that lacks
tions, during which conflicts are no sooner suggested than
both sweep and psychological complexity by david rooney
Gertrude is charming her way out of sticky situations with
Turkish
military,
nomadic warriors and sheiks. The deeper we immerse
ERNER HERZOGS FIR ST NA RR ATIV E FEATURE IN SIX
ourselves
into
the
desert, the more everything seems like a dream, she
years, Queen of the Desert, has no scarcity of the German
says in one of countless variations on the same theme. But the action
auteurs key themes. Tracing the life of British explorer
Gertrude Bell, whose unique understanding of Bedouin is less dream-like than prosaic, despite spectacular scenery and Klaus
Badelts swelling score.
cultures helped reshape the Arab world in the early
Among the more entertaining interludes is her time spent at an archeo1900s, this is the story of a woman penetrating the boundaries of nature
as a refuge from the conventions of society, the rigidity of colonialism and logical dig with Lawrence. And while Pattinson in Arab headgear takes
some getting used to, the easy camaraderie in his scenes with Kidman
the cruelties of the human heart. Like so many Herzogian protagonists,
is appealing. A more dramatic shift occurs after Gertrude inadvertently
she loses herself in a landscape of solitude that mirrors her state of mind.
casts her spell over Major Charles Doughty-Wylie (Damian Lewis), the
So why are all those tired camels onscreen not the only ones groaning?
unhappily married British Consul General in Damascus. But while he
Mainly its because despite the directors frequently stated mission to
wears down her resistance and she pines for him while shes alone in the
liberate the poetry in his material by excavating what he has described
desert, fate intervenes again as the war escalates.
as ecstatic truth, this is a literal, rather flat epic that keeps telling us in
All this is told ploddingly, often with regrettable dialogue. And despite
voiceovers of its spiritual dimension without actually generating much
Kidmans commitment, the character never acquires much complexity.
evidence of it. The brief but significant appearances of Robert Pattinson
While cinematographer Peter Zeitlingers visuals have a bland handsomeas T.E. Lawrence aside, the film seems less likely to draw comparison to
ness, Queen of the Desert is a pedestrian retelling of an extraordinary life.
David Leans classic foray into the desert sands than it is to a dated breed
of 1980s romantic bio-drama, begging to be redubbed Out of Arabia.
AFI (Special Screenings)
Trekking across dunes and rocky terrain for much of the duration,
Nicole Kidman shows no sign of having spent an hour in the sun or gone a Cast Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damian Lewis, Robert Pattinson
Director Werner Herzog // 110 minutes
day without moisturizer. But she carries the film competently, even if she
Kidman is Bell and
Franco the diplomat
she loves.

Queen of the Desert

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_rev2_queenofdesertB.indd 1

14

11/6/15 8:42 PM

The Clan

The latest from Argentinas Pablo Trapero is an absorbing true

story about a family of kidnappers by boyd van hoeij

A SED ON A HOR R I F IC

true story, Pablo Traperos

The Clan (El Clan) looks
at the comfortably middle-class
Puccios, whose family business, in
early 1980s Argentina, consisted of
kidnapping people even richer than
themselves. Headlined by local star
Guillermo Francella (The Secret in
Their Eyes), who plays the Puccio
paterfamilias to perfection, the film
combines a family chronicle with
shades of film noir.
The Clan opens with a quick
sketch of the political situation in
Argentina in the early 80s, when
the country was trying to leave
its dictatorship years behind and
return to a form of democracy
and normalcy. The gray-haired
Arquimedes Puccio (Francella),
however, still seems to know a few
people in high places that might
protect him in case of need. His
familys just big enough to warrant
the films title, also consisting of
his matronly wife, Epifania (Lili
Popovich), a teacher; their rugbystar son, Alex (Peter Lanzani);
younger and more sensitive teen

Guillermo (Franco Masini); girls

Silvia (Giselle Motta) and Adriana
(Antonia Bengoechea); and eldest
son Daniel (Gaston Cocchiarale),
nicknamed Maguila.
The film proper opens three
years earlier, while Maguila is still
in New Zealand, a fact Arquimedes
bitterly resents. Alex is thus roped
into helping kidnap a wealthy
friend he knows through his rugby
club. Transported back home and
chained to a pipe in the bathroom,
the victim is fed Epifanias cooking
until his family is ready to pay the
demanded ransom.
In an impressively played
sequence, Alex finds out that the
release didnt go according to plan;
his teammates explain to him
that the ransom was paid but that
their buddy has been found dead.
The semi-comforting words of his
father after dinner that night
We had no choice, he threatened
to destroy our family! mark
Alexs total loss of innocence. But
instead of rebelling, he follows his
fathers lead, with Arquimedes
making sure that Alex gets his

In the 1980s, the

Puccios made
money by kidnapping
members of
rich families and
collecting ransom.

share of the spoils, both in cash

and in the form of a surf store he
opens for his son. Killing after the
ransoms been paid subsequently
becomes a family habit.
The screenplay is patchy in
parts, but there are no false notes
in the ensemble. Francella, with
dyed gray eyebrows, and Lanzani,
saddled with black sideburns
the size of dead mice, are clearly
best in show. And the film finally
gives audiences the long-awaited
confrontation between the two
in a strong sequence toward the
end, when they violently thrash

Day Out of Days

Zoe Cassavetes new film is a closely observed but rather uninvolving

portrait of a struggling over-40 actress in Hollywood by jon frosch

OV IE S A BOU T ACT R E SSE S FOR M

one of the juiciest cinematic subgenres, with examples ranging from

sublime (All About Eve, Persona, Mulholland
Drive) to ridiculous (Valley of the Dolls) to sublimely ridiculous (Mommie Dearest), nearly all
bursting with drama, sex, humor or horror.
The first thing to note about Zoe Cassavetes
Day Out of Days, a serio-comic chronicle of the
daily humiliations, big and small, of being an
over-40 actress in Hollywood, is that its not
really bursting with anything an indication
both of the films integrity and its limitations.
The new work from the daughter of John
Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands features no
teary soliloquies or slapsticky set pieces, no
outbursts, catfights or hallucinations. It is,
rather, a quiet, wearily observed portrait of
a former movie star (Alexia Landeau) fallen
on hard times and drifting through a life and
career in which she no longer seems invested.
Never going out of its way to charm, tickle

funny bones or pluck heartstrings, Day Out of

Days is as discreet and detached as its heroine.
If only it were more interesting.
Cassavetes (whose first film, Broken English,
was released in 2007) follows the single,
childless Mia as she goes about her business:
meeting at the Chateau Marmont with a
lecherous loon of a director (Eddie Izzard);
auditioning to play the mother of the main
character on a new TV series; lunching with her
agent (Brooke Smith, note-perfect as usual);
dealing with her emotionally and financially
Izzard (left) is
a predatory
director and
Landeau an
actress seeking
a comeback.

AFM (Film Factory Entertainment)

Cast Guillermo Francella, Peter
Lanzani, Lili Popovich, Gaston
Cocchiarale, Giselle Motta
Director Pablo Trapero
108 minutes

dependent mom (Melanie Griffith); hiking

Runyon Canyon with her gay dermatologist
pal (Cheyenne Jackson); reshooting scenes for
a slasher flick helmed by a verbally abusive
egomaniac (Mad Mens Vincent Kartheiser);
agonizing over her ex (Alessandro Nivola).
Between rendezvous, we see Mia driving
the streets of Hollywood looking dazed, with
French duo Scratch Massives angsty electro
score reinforcing the dreamy, anesthetized
monotony of her existence. But as competent a
director as she is, Cassavetes hasnt found a way
to wring emotion or freshness from the ennui
of a faded star, the way, for example, Sofia
Coppola did in Somewhere largely thanks
to her use of music and how she arranged her
performers bodies within the frame.
Cassavetes and Landeau never turn Mia
into a punchline or pile on the indignities for
effect. If anything, theyve exercised too much
restraint; its hard to believe someone with such
dull edges was ever a success in the first place.
AFM (Other Angle Pictures)
Cast Alexia Landeau, Melanie Griffith, Eddie
Izzard, Cheyenne Jackson, Vincent Kartheiser
Director: Zoe Cassavetes // 80 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_rev3_B.indd 27

out their issues. With just a few

quick brushstrokes, Trapero
here manages to suggest that
Arquimedes might be more
diabolical and cunning than even
his own son realized, which makes
Alex so angry and ashamed that
his subsequent, desperate action
makes a tragic kind of sense.

15

11/7/15 7:09 PM

REVIEWS

Two London
couples get
friendly
before things
turn freaky.

Kill Your Friends

Owen Harris darkly comic film revisits a golden age of fear and
loathing in the British music industry by stephen dalton

The Ones Below

Postpartum baby blues take on nightmarish dimensions in

David Farrs debut, a slick thriller that borrows deftly from
some famous movie ancestors by stephen dalton

OU DON T DE SERV E T H AT T H I NG I NSIDE YOU! T H IS

chilling line, directed at the heavily pregnant heroine of The

Ones Below, sets up a derivative but polished psycho-thriller
that never tries to hide its obvious debts to vintage Polanski and
Hitchcock. Set in contemporary London, the feature debut of British
stage dramatist and Royal Shakespeare Company veteran David Farr
is a superior genre exercise with plenty of creepy ambiance and an
attractive ensemble cast in its favor.
Clemence Poesy stars as Kate, a young Londoner expecting
her first child with husband Justin (Stephen Campbell Moore).
When new neighbors move into the apartment downstairs, wealthy
banker Jon (David Morrissey) initially acts gruff and distant, but
his glamorous Scandinavian wife, Theresa (Laura Birn), quickly
forms an almost overfriendly bond with Kate. United by pregnancy,
the women bring their spouses together for a boozy dinner party
that ends in horror when Theresa stumbles down an unlit staircase,
losing her baby.
Angry and bereft, Jon and Theresa blame their new neighbors
for the loss. Relations between the couples turn bitter, amplifying
tensions between Justin and Kate, who has a family history of
suicide. But the mood lightens a little when the grieving newcomers
leave London for a spell to get over their tragedy.
Returning to London with Jon months later, a contrite Theresa
cautiously rebuilds her friendship with Kate, even earning her trust
as a regular babysitter. But her close interest in the child begins to
suggest murky ulterior motives. Suspicions aroused by a series of
sinister clues and near-miss accidents, Kate turns detective on her
neighbors. Adhering to the psycho-thriller manual, Farr naturally
keeps us guessing whether all this dark stuff is really happening
or just post-natal paranoia. Which is a big hot steaming bowl of
Rosemarys Baby, of course, but tasty and nutritious all the same.
Farr keeps us hooked with plenty of creeping dread, a Polanskilite crackle of polymorphous sexual tension, and some stylishly
weird visual touches. Birn and Moore are both a little too stiff and
colorless, but Poesy convinces as a mentally fragile young mother
while Morrissey exudes his usual blunt, alpha-male charisma.
AFM (Protagonist Pictures)
Cast Clemence Poesy, Laura Birn, David Morrissey
Director David Farr // 87 minutes

N T H E L AT E 1990S, T H E U.K .

music industry hit stratospheric new heights of success

and excess thanks to a bumper crop
of mega-selling homegrown bands
including Oasis, Blur, Radiohead
and The Spice Girls. Shortly before
illegal downloads and plummeting
CD sales brought the party to a
crashing end, British pop enjoyed
one last, blazing, golden age.
Fortunes were made, mediocrities
became megastars, and mountains
of cocaine were consumed.
This is the backdrop to Kill
Your Friends, a bracingly dark
comedy based on the cult 2008
novel by the Scottish author
John Niven. Drawing on his own
experiences working at a London
record company, Niven also wrote
the screenplay for first-time Brit
director Owen Harris, maintaining
most of the books key plot points
but diluting some of its more
grotesque, profane, scatological
elements. Kill Your Friends remixes
a brutally funny novel into an
entertaining if somewhat familiar
big-screen tale of amoral, chemically fuelled decadence.
Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max) stars
as Steven Stelfox, a 27-year-old
A&R manager at a major London
record label. Responsible for
finding and nurturing new talent,
Stelfox is solely focused on scoring hit records that will boost his
own wealth and career prospects.
Although he knows the right cool
names to drop when talking to coworkers and potential signings, he
despises the romantic notion that
music has any artistic value.
With his hollow-cheeked, deadeyed, vulpine good looks, Hoult is
well cast as a Machiavellian psychopath who will stop at nothing to
achieve his career ambitions, from
office backstabbing to blackmail
to murder. One key stumbling
block is his immediate boss (James
Corden), who duly meets a brutal
end involving drugs and a baseball
bat. But new obstacles soon spring
up to thwart Stelfox, including
a secretary who knows his dark
secrets (Georgia King) and a
dogged detective with musical

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D5_rev4_B.indd 26

ambitions (Edward Hogg). Before

long the bodies start to stack up.
Niven cites screenwriter William
Goldmans memoir Adventures
in the Screen Trade as a key
inspiration for Kill Your Friends,
especially his golden rule about the
Hollywood formula for commercial
success: Nobody knows anything.
The character of Stelfox also
has some more obvious literary
ancestors, notably the homicidal
antiheroes in Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho and Irvine Welshs
Filth. All three are strong, witty
voices on the page. All three lose
some crucial texture and depth in
the leap from book to screen.
Harris and Niven try to re-create
the books confessional first-person
tone by having Hoult intermittently talk directly to camera. But
the literary Stelfox was much more
misogynistic, homophobic, racist
and generally contemptuous of

Hoult plays an
unhinged musical
talent scout.

humanity than his screen avatar.

The movie is tamer than the novel,
almost becoming a celebration of
overblown hedonism in Wolf of Wall
Street mode rather than a portrait
of a morally vacant, mentally
unhinged monster.
That said, Harris still takes us for
a deliciously nasty walk on the wild
side. Appropriately, the soundtrack
features several Britpop stars from
the era in question.
AFM (Altitude Film Sales)
Cast Nicholas Hoult, Craig Roberts,
James Corden, Georgia King
Director Owen Harris
103 minutes

16

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DING:
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REVIEWS

Deyn plays a
farm girl who
longs to leave the
rural life behind.

Sunset Song

Agyness Deyn holds center stage as a passionate farm woman

in Terence Davies stirring epic drama by deborah young

ER ENCE DAV IE SS EMO -

tionally resonant Sunset

Song breathes life into Lewis
Grassic Gibbons Scottish novel
about an independent-minded
young woman living on a farm in
the years preceding World WarI.
It is a rare director who dares
to embrace the slow, meditative
rhythms of a classic novel without
feeling the need to modernize or
accelerate it, but Davies uses the
measured pace to unfold his poetic
vision of the Scottish peasantry
and their attachment to the land.
Patient viewers will find themselves

caught up in a world apart that

seems unchangeable, until its calm
is brutally disturbed by war.
Despite a long and travailed
production history, the film is
visually stunning and emotionally
engrossing, with choppiness
evident only in the final scenes.
Holding down the farm is
Agyness Deyn, the pixie-haired
British supermodel turned actress,
in the career-changing role of
Chris Guthrie, a bright girl who
dreams of becoming a teacher.
Though her beautiful face and
body can be as distracting as some

The Squeeze

Golf aficionados will find much to enjoy

in this mildly entertaining diversion

by frank scheck
R R I V I NG ON T H E AT ER SCR EENS

armed with laudatory testimonials from

such golf legends as Jack Nicklaus, Phil
Mickelson and Tom Watson, Terry Jastrows
golfing-themed thriller boasts an undeniable
authenticity. Starring Jeremy Sumpter, whose
true-life golfing skills are on ample display,
and directed and scripted by seven-time Emmy
Award-winning TV sports director Terry
Jastrow, an accomplished player himself, The
Squeeze is bound to appeal to aficionados of the
sport. It fares less well in dramatic terms.
Sumpter (Friday Night Lights) plays 22-year
old Augie, who in the films early moments is
seen winning a local golf championship and
breaking his own course record in the small

of her elaborate hairstyles, Deyn

rises to the challenge of Scottish
dialogue in the old-time accent of
Aberdeenshire, as do co-stars Peter
Mullan and Kevin Guthrie.
Like all of Davies work from
Distant Voices, Still Lives to
2011s The Deep Blue Sea, this is
ultimately a film about memory
and the bittersweet images
from the pasts that haunt the
characters. Much of the story is
narrated in voiceover as Chris
looks backs at her life, as though
she were reading a deeply
pondered diary, giving events
nostalgic depth.
At the turn of the last century,
the Guthrie family farms the land
somewhere outside of Aberdeen.
John (a fiercely unsympathetic
Mullan) is a violent patriarch who
beats his grown son sadistically
and forces himself on his longsuffering wife. After giving birth to
twins in agonizing labor, she seems
to lose her mental balance.
Only their daughter Chris
(Deyn), who looks on helplessly
out of large, liquid eyes, refuses to
rebel against her fathers tyranny.
Wearing long brown schoolgirl
braids, she reads books and dreams
of leaving the country folk behind.
Death and illness bring changes
to the family, but the strongest tie
that binds Chris is never severed:
her intense love for the land. And
its not hard to understand her
when gazing at cinematographer

town in which he lives. His success attracts

the attention of a Southern gambler named
Riverboat (Christopher McDonald) and his
wife, Jessie (Katherine LaNasa).
Despite his dream of competing in the
U.S. Open, Augie, desperate to shore up
his financially struggling parents, agrees to
Riverboats proposition that he team up with
him to play in a series of high-stakes games,
much to his beautiful girlfriend Natalies

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AFM (Fortissimo Films)

Cast Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan,
Kevin Guthrie
Director Terence Davies
135 minutes

(Jillian Murray) dismay.

The trio eventually makes their way to Las
Vegas, where they become embroiled with a
notorious gangster named Jimmy Diamonds
(Michael Nouri). The stakes keep getting
higher until Augie gets set up in million-dollar
match and finds himself in the titular situation,
with Jimmy threatening his life if he wins and
Riverboat promising the same if he loses.
The films debt to previous con-artist-themed
flicks like The Sting is all too evident, especially
when that movies theme music is featured in
the background. Never finding a consistent
tone in its blending of comedy and suspense,
The Squeeze emerges as little more than a minor
diversion. But its engaging throughout, with
Sumpter an ingratiating protagonist.
AFM (American Cinema International)
Cast Jeremy Sumpter, Christopher McDonald,
Katherine LaNasa, Jillian Murray
Director Terry Jastrow // 81 minutes

Sumpter (right) and

Murray star in a story
of golf and gangsters.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Michael McDonoughs glowing,

endless fields of wheat that recall
Days of Heaven. The painterly
visuals of Davies films are more
achingly beautiful than ever here.
Sacrifices and toughness are
required to farm the land, and
Chris never shirks her lot. One
stormy night, dragging two huge
workhorses back home through
lightning and thunder, she is
aided by their young neighbor
Ewan (sensitively played by
Guthrie). Rather surprisingly,
their courtship is swift and
unobstructed. In fact, the films
first 90 minutes seem to roll by
on oiled wheels, establishing
Chris passion for life, the magical
rhythm of the seasons and the
common values that bind the
community together.
When drama finally arrives,
it comes with a devastating
vengeance. The far-reaching winds
of war send shockwaves through
the idyllic rural community. The
turn of events is extremely abrupt
and tumultuous, psychological
realism gets lost in the bustle and
the ending has an almost hurried
feeling. Its not enough to ruin the
film, but it does close the delicate
story on an unsettling note.

18

11/7/15 7:12 PM

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8 Decades of The Hollywood Reporter

The most glamorous and memorable moments from a storied history

From left: Patel,

Taylor, Jackson and
Damon in 2002.

ichael Jackson may

be best remembered
for revolutionizing
the music scene, but
in 2002, the King of Pop had other
ambitions. Just months after the
release of his 10th and final album,
Invincible, Jackson made plans to
enter the film business with the
launch of his own independent
film company, Neverland Pictures.
The mini-studio was the result of
a proposed $20 million partnership between Jacksons Neverland
Entertainment and production
company MDP Worldwide. The
news was made public at a private
dinner reception at MDP chief
Mark Damons home, where nearly
300 guests consisting mostly
of distributors who had shopped

projects at AFM earlier that

day eagerly awaited Jacksons
arrival. The pop icon made a rare
appearance at the event, arriving
arm-in-arm with longtime friend
Elizabeth Taylor. He called
me beforehand and asked if he
could bring his friend his best
friend, Damon tells The Hollywood
Reporter. When the distributors
saw Michael and Liz Taylor next
to him, they all fainted. To this
day, [some] still tell me that it was
the greatest experience of their
lives. At the dinner, Jackson spoke
enthusiastically about his vision for
Neverland Pictures: He and producing partner Raju Patel would
produce family films and reboots
of classic fairy tales, some of which
Jackson also would direct and

star in. I dream great dreams,

Jackson said. Everything Ive
achieved started with a dream, and
of all the dreams, this is the one I
am most passionate about. But
nothing came of Jacksons moviemogul plans, as the deal never
closed. Michael had too many
distractions with his life at the
time, Damon recalls. At times
he was totally focused, and other
times it was just a vacant stare.
He had a cameo in the 2004 fantasy comedy Miss Castaway and the
Island Girls (he played a Vatican
agent projected by an R2-D2-like
droid) and later starred in the
2009 concert doc Michael Jacksons
This Is It, which was released after
his death and grossed $261 million
worldwide. MEENA JANG

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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20

2002 PHIL RAMEY AGENCY/RAMEYPIX/CORBIS

Michael Jackson Announced Plans to

Launch His Own Movie Studio in 2002

11/7/15 7:06 PM

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