Golden Globe winning actor Harve Presnell, best known for his role as William H. Macy’s father-in-law in the Coen Brothers’ 1996 hit “Fargo” has died. He was 75. Presnell’s agent Gregg Klein said the actor died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica.
Following a historic win at the Edinburgh Film Festival, the acclaimed Irish animated feature, “The Secret of Kells,” has been acquired by Empire Film Group, Inc. for theatrical, video and television release into the USA market. The coveted Standard Life Audience Award was presented to producer Paul Young on Sunday by Sir Sean Connery at the awards ceremony in Edinburgh, Scotland, and marks the first time in the prestigious festival’s 61-year history that an animated feature has won the top audience award.
Here Media announced today the launch of Here Films, the new acquisition and distribution division of Here Media, Inc. All current staff of Regent Releasing will be folded into the newly formed parent company Here Media effective immediately. Here Films staff will oversee all remaining Regent releases through 2009 with all new films being released through the Here Films banner. Here Films recently acquired several high profile films including Cannes Directors’ Fortnight winner “I Killed My Mother” (J’ai tué ma mère), Berlin Silver Bear Winner “About Elly” (Darbareye Elly), and the Kenneth Branagh made for cinema opera “The Magic Flute.” Here Films will distribute all these pictures in select U.S. theaters, on DVD and via here! Networks in 2010.
Ryan Reynolds will star in the independent film, Buried. In Buried, Reynolds will play a civilian contractor who’s kidnapped in Iraq and awakens buried in a coffin in the desert, armed only with a cell phone, a candle and a knife. Rodrigo Cortes will be directing and production begins next month in Barcelona.
The 82nd Academy Awards, which will be presented on March 7, 2010, will have 10 feature films vying in the Best Picture category, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis announced yesterday (June 24) at a press conference in Beverly Hills.
“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same - one Best Picture winner - but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”
Actress Farrah Fawcett died at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., of cancer at the age of 62.
Harsh Patel of VIMOOZ, recently conducted an interview with Jonathan Gershfield, the director of Deal is a Deal. Deal is a Deal is a 2008 British comedy film that revolves around Paul Callow (Mackenzie Crook) who accidentally runs a man over with his underground train, after the man is pulled on to the tracks by his dog. After a week off he kills a second passenger who falls on to the tracks after having a heart attack. Before taking time off for the second accident his colleagues tell him about a little known ‘rule’ at London Underground that no-one talks about: three ‘under’ within a month, and you lose your job - earning yourself ten years’ salary in one lump sum. But being off for the next week means that Paul needs to find someone willing to kill themselves by the following Monday.
Planet Green, Discovery Communication’s channel and multiplatform destination devoted to the environment, today announced “Reel Impact”, a powerful weekly two-hour block of documentary programming. Set to launch September 12th, the new block will air 8 p.m.-10 p.m. ET Saturdays and will repeat Thursdays at 11 p.m.-1 a.m. ET. It kicks off with the television debut of documentary feature The Last Beekeeper by director Jeremy Simmons. “Reel Impact” will feature an eclectic slate of high-profile films including some world and U.S. premieres such as “No Impact Man” by Laura Gabbert and Eden Wurmfeld, Barbara Ettinger’s film A Sea Change and Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez by Robert Cornellier. The strand will also present highly-praised classic films like Leonardo DiCaprio’s The 11th Hour, An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car?
Allan King, the veteran documentary-filmmaker, has died aged 79 years old following a battle with brain cancer. Read more …
