Artsploitation Films is pleased to announce the upcoming release of The Dead Ones, an American independent film directed by Jeremy Kasten. Named “The Best Horror Film of the Year” by Film School Rejects, the film will be released on DVD/Blu-ray and VOD/Digital on September 29, 202.
For four outcast teens, summer detention means being assigned to
clean their high school after a horrific incident. But they are not alone; a
macabre gang wearing guises of The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse – Famine,
Pestilence, War and Death – has locked them inside and is hunting them through
the school’s ravaged hallways. As the four students battle to survive, each
must confront the supernatural echoes of past traumas they have struggled to
forget – and may be condemned to relive.
About the Director: Jeremy Kasten is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and editor, best known for his visceral, cerebral, and often psychedelic approach to modern horror. His 2001 directorial debut THE ATTIC EXPEDITIONS, starring Seth Green, Alice Cooper, and Ted Raimi, has been hailed by Dread Central as “one of the best mind-f#@k movies ever.” His 2007 neo-noir re-imagining of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ splatter classic THE WIZARD OF GORE starred Crispin Glover, Brad Dourif, and Jeffrey Combs was called “one of the most shocking, entertaining and best horror films of the year” by Film Arcade. Kasten has also contributed to the acclaimed horror anthology films THE THEATRE BIZARRE and THE PROFANE EXHIBIT. His other features include the 2005 zombie thriller ALL SOULS DAY: DIA DE LOS MUERTOS and the 2006 ‘vampirism as addiction’ shocker THE THIRST, which was called “the bloodiest vampire movie ever” (DVD Crypt).
A PURELY SENSORY HORROR
FILM… Kasten reveals the unease of a generation through gripping visions that
do not skimp on gory effects.”
– Alan Deprez, Mad Movies
“Bound to remain in the
minds of those who see it for a good while…The Dead Ones is
destined to be a controversial slice of horror cinema, and it is certainly one
that cannot be easily forgotten.”
– Joseph Perry, Horror Fuel
“The Dead Ones is a juddery, disorienting trip into the psyche of the school shooter, as well as a catabasis into the mor(t)ality of crime, punishment, and maybe even redemption.” – Anton Bitel, Rue Morgue
Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, has acquired the North American distribution rights to the horror adventure film SHORTCUT. Directed by Alessio Liguori and written by Daniele Cosci, SHORTCUT stars Jack Kane, Zak Sutcliffe, Andrei Claude, Sophie Jane Oliver, Terence Anderson. The film is produced by Simona Ferri, Marco Tempera and Robert Cipullo. SHORTCUT will open nationwide across North America (USA/Canada) at drive-in’s and indoor theatres on September 25th (with Thursday night previews), followed by a VOD & digital release on December 22nd.
The Trailer looks terrifying:
SHORTCUT follows a group of five classmates trapped inside their school bus after a mysterious creature invades the road. Every passing minute decreases their survival chances against the constant threats of that unknown entity.
The deal was negotiated on behalf of Brett Rogalsky on behalf of Gravitas Ventures and by Monica Ciarli on behalf of Minerva Pictures International.
“Gravitas is thrilled to be able to share with audiences SHORTCUT. This is a film that audiences are sure to be drawn to as it will not only be an exciting theatrical experience, but should also be an iconic entry into the horror genre for years to come.” – Brett Rogalsky, Gravitas Ventures Acquisitions
Winner of 24 awards, including Best Film at the New York Cinematography Awards and Best Original Screenplay at the Indie X Film Festival, Wives of The Skies is a romantic dramedy, set in 1965, starring two stewardesses, Fran and Marcy from Fine Air, a well-appointed airline. One evening after work, at their stewardess’ hotel, they befriend Derrick, a British photojournalist who wants to interview them as “subjects” for his “documentary film”.
As Fran and Marcy are interviewed, they are revealed as very different than Derrick hoped for or could possibly have expected… As they get to know each other, Wives Of The Skies makes a contemporary socio-cultural statement regarding the meme of “the good girl, drawn bad”. Wives of The Skies clarifies the impact of the overarching “men’s gaze” which objectifies women as carnal sex objects men seek, while they look for love… along the way, addressing the primitive issue of Trust vs. Mistrust, Wives of The Skies displays the Japanese art of Kinbaku.
A soaring success on the festival circuit, the short film is directed by Honey Lauren and features a superlative cast including Rachel Alig, Maddison Bullock, Sebastian Fernandez, and Drew Brandon Jones.
Director Honey Lauren : When someone I know sent me a link to vintage 1960’s Stewardess outfits for sale on EBAY, I was blown away at not only the popularity and high prices, but that these outfits are sold, collected and bid on, by what looked like mostly men. I recognized that these uniforms have become a fetish… for me, at the very least unexpected. Curious, I researched the history of stewardesses during this particular era.
The stewardesses were sporting uniforms by top fashion designers like Pucci, Mary Wells and Yves Saint Laurent. The fabrics, which “hugged” as they stretched, were considered revolutionary for their ability to display the stewardesses. During the flights, the layers of clothing came off at different altitudes. Dramatic designs were all the rage, with geometric patterns and stripes; bold pinks and lavenders topped off with tangerine go-go boots!
As I read the famous COFFEE, TEA OR ME, the tell all book by two “randy Stewardesses”, something about these “sexy Stewardesses”, seemed pushed and insincere. It seemed a marketing ploy by the airlines to sell tickets. Ok. We’ve seen this before. Sex sells. These ladies, and only ladies, were dressed, weighed, packaged and displayed. One airline even advertised the suggestive “Does your wife know you’re flying with us?” Another display of the pattern of woman being sexualized and sold. Only after I wrote WIVES OF THE SKIES, did I find out that COFFEE, TEA OR ME was indeed a hoax, written by a man hired by the airline industry.
I have long recognized that where there is a pattern, there is a story. WIVES OF THE SKIES, is a story. And a question… ‘Sex sells, but at what cost?’
Watch Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander as Gloria Steinem in the brand new trailer for THE GLORIAS.
The film will be On Digital and Streaming Exclusively on Prime Video September 30.
Journalist, fighter, and feminist Gloria Steinem is an indelible icon known for her world-shaping activism, guidance of the revolutionary women’s movement, and writing that has impacted generations. In this nontraditional biopic, Julie Taymor crafts a complex tapestry of one of the most inspirational and legendary figures of modern history, based on Steinem’s own biographical book ‘My Life on the Road.’
THE GLORIAS (Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Lulu Wilson, Ryan Keira Armstrong) traces Steinem’s influential journey to prominence—from her time in India as a young woman, to the founding of Ms. magazine in New York, to her role in the rise of the women’s rights movement in the 1960s, to the historic 1977 National Women’s Conference and beyond.
THE GLORIAS includes a number of iconic women who made profound contributions to the women’s movement, including Dorothy Pitman Hughes (Janelle Monáe), Flo Kennedy (Lorraine Toussaint), Bella Abzug (Bette Midler), Dolores Huerta (Monica Sanchez) and Wilma Mankiller (Kimberly Guerrero).
Alicia Vikander (as Gloria Steinem) and Janelle Monáe (as Dorothy Pitman Hughes) in THE GLORIAS Courtesy of LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions Download
Taymor gives us her singular take on that rare genre- the Female Road Picture, one in which the female leads do not die in the end, and where the “narrative” is not driven by romance or a bad marriage, or unrequited love or, for that matter, men. Gloria’s road story is about her “Meetings With Remarkable Women”. And that is a love story in itself.
When Steinem was asked how she feels about the movie:
I hope this story will inspire viewers to tell their own stories. After all, our brains are not organized by facts and statistics, but by narrative. As the famous quote by Muriel Rokeyser goes, “The universe is made up of stories, not atoms.” We have been sitting around campfires for all of human history, learning from each other in this way, and movies are a current campfire.
On the 3rd of March MGM, Universal and Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced “that after careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace, the release of NO TIME TO DIE will be postponed until November 2020. The film will be released in the U.K. on November 12, 2020 with worldwide release dates to follow, including the US launch on November 25, 2020.”
Jump to the 3rd of September.
007 is back in the brand new trailer for NO TIME TO DIE, hitting cinemas on November 20. From director Cary Joji Fukunaga, the movie stars Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, with Jeffrey Wright, with Christoph Waltz and Ralph Fiennes as “M”. Also starring Rory Kinnear, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, and Billy Magnussen.
In No Time To Die, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
” Maybe tomorrow, we’ll all wear 42, so nobody could tell us apart.”
In Tribute to Chadwick Boseman, the Jack Robinson Biography 42will be opening in St. Louis September 4th at The Ronnie Cinema. For times, Ronnies website can be found HERE. Read Jim Batts’ glowing review of 42 HERE. Check Out this terrific trailer:
IMAX today announced that Warner Bros. Pictures and Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” surged to a better-than-expected start in IMAX, with an estimated $5 million in international box office from only 248 theaters worldwide.
IMAX theatres generated a per screen average of approximately $20K — about 7.5 times the estimated overall per screen average — even with an average 50% seating capacity limitation throughout the world. IMAX also delivered 9.4% of overall box office despite accounting for less than 1% of total screens. “Tenet” opened in IMAX across all 38 available markets worldwide and continues its global rollout this week with at least 900 additional IMAX theatres across the United States, China and Russia.
“The strong international debut of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ is an emphatic statement that audiences around the world are ready to return to theatres where it is safe,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. “It is clear that people want to experience immersive entertainment like ‘Tenet’ in a communal, celebratory way beyond their living rooms, and this film is a jumpstart for the theatrical business with an exciting film slate ahead.”
IMAX reported hundreds of sold-out shows across all markets and many of the company’s flagship locations were sold out all weekend, including the BFI in London, Krung Sri Paragon in Bangkok, CGV’s Yongsan in Seoul, Filmstaden Mall of Scandinavia in Stockholm, Cinemaxx in Copenhagen, VOX Red Sea Mall in Jeddah, Miramar in Taipei, and Toronto’s Cinesphere at Ontario Place.
Per screen averages reached pre-COVID blockbuster levels in many key markets, including Denmark ($73K), Norway ($64K), Saudi Arabia ($55K), Finland ($42K) and Sweden ($38K, despite a 50-person capacity limitation per show).
Filmed using IMAX cameras, “Tenet” continues the successful collaboration between filmmaker Christopher Nolan and IMAX. IMAX’s 9.4% share of box office was comparable to international opening weekend’s for Nolan’s most recent films, “Dunkirk” (12.6%) and “Interstellar” (9.6%).
In fact, “Tenet” had a bigger opening than “Dunkirk” in 11 markets worldwide, and bigger than both “Dunkirk” and “Interstellar” in in key markets including France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Taiwan and Malaysia. ‘Tenet’ will play for an extended run of at least three weeks in IMAX in most markets.
UK and Canada
The UK was the top grossing IMAX market this weekend for “Tenet,” earning $900K — the second highest August opening weekend ever for IMAX in the UK behind 2016’s “Suicide Squad.” Even with a 50% capacity limitation, the IMAX gross trailed the UK opening weekend of “Interstellar” by only 25%. Even Canada — which limited seating capacity to just 50 people per show — delivered an impressive $10K per screen average.
“‘Tenet’ is a reminder of the enduring power of the theatrical experience, and audiences worldwide turned out for the film in a big way,” continued Gelfond. “The performance of ‘Tenet’ in the UK and Canada despite significant capacity limitations is a positive sign for the film’s performance in the U.S., given the way these markets often align at the box office.”
Top Markets and Screens
IMAX’s top five international markets and screens for the weekend debut of “Tenet” include:
Top 5 IMAX Markets (not including Canada):
UK
South Korea
France
Taiwan
Netherlands
Top 5 IMAX Screens:
BFI, London
CGV Yongsan, Seoul
Cinemaxx, Copenhagen
VOX Red Sea Mall, Jeddah
Miramar Da-Zhi, Taipei
John David Washington is the new Protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s original sci-fi action spectacle “Tenet.” Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.
“Tenet” is the latest of Nolan’s trailblazing films also shot with IMAX cameras including “Dunkirk,” “Interstellar,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Nolan designed “Tenet” with IMAX in mind – capturing the film with IMAX cameras, among the highest-resolution cameras in the world, and also refining the film throughout post-production in an IMAX theatre to further optimize how audiences will experience the film in IMAX. Exclusively in IMAX theatres, sequences shot with IMAX cameras will visually expand to fill the entire screen, allowing moviegoers to experience more of the image with unprecedented crispness and clarity. That combined with next generation IMAX precision sound, creates a truly immersive experience.
Select IMAX theatres will be offering The IMAX Experience® featuring 15 perf/70mm film projection which combines the brightest, clearest images at almost 10 times the resolution of standard film projection, with powerful, laser-aligned digital sound and customized theatre geometry to create the world’s most immersive movie experience.
The Hi-Pointe Theater, at 1005 McCausland Ave in St. Louis, is the best place to see movies. Dev Patel in THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD opens there Friday August 28th. The Hi-Pointe’s site can be found HERE. Check out Jim Batts’ rave review of THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD HERE at We Are Movie Geeks. Jim calls the film “an exceptional cinematic experience.”
Academy Award and BAFTA nominee actor Viggo Mortensen explores the fractures and contrasts that make up a modern family in his directorial debut, FALLING, an intimate drama about a son’s relationship with his ageing father.
The family drama, which closed the Sundance Festival and is one of those selected for the official Cannes 2020 festival selection, will have its European premiere at the 68th edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. Viggo Mortensen will receive a Donostia Award in recognition of his career. FALLING will have its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11. https://tiff.net/events/falling
John Petersen (Mortensen) lives with his partner Eric (Chan) and their adopted daughter Monica in Southern California. His father Willis (Henriksen/Gudnason) is a farmer whose attitudes and behaviour belong to a far more traditional era and family model. When Willis travels to Los Angeles for an indefinite stay with John’s family in order to search for a place to retire, these two very different worlds collide.
Willis’ behaviour can be both caustic and funny – with outbursts that shock his liberal family. This endears him to grand-daughter Monica, but it almost proves too much for John, and his sister Sarah (Linney), bringing old wounds back to the surface and creating new ones along the way. With Willis’ memory in rapid decline, his thoughts turn back to his first wife Gwen (Gross), a love that still consumes him a lifetime later. As father and son confront the events that have torn them apart, we see the gamut of their relationship over 40 years, and their differing recollections of John’s mother, Gwen: from dark to light, from rage and jealousy through to acceptance, laughter, and hard-won grace.
Today, Walt Disney Animation Studios unveiled the first look at warrior Raya and her trusty steed Tuk Tuk, from the upcoming “Raya and the Last Dragon.”
It was also revealed that Kelly Marie Tran will voice Raya, joining Awkwafina as the voice of the dragon, Sisu.
Official synopsis:
Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when sinister monsters known as the Druun threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, those same monsters have returned and it’s up to a lone warrior, Raya, to track down the last dragon in order to finally stop the Druun for good. However, along her journey, she’ll learn that it’ll take more than dragon magic to save the world—it’s going to take trust as well. From directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, co-directors Paul Briggs and John Ripa, producers Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho, and featuring the voices of Kelly Marie Tran as Raya and Awkwafina as Sisu.
Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada are directing, with Paul Briggs and John Ripa co-directing. Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho are the producers, and Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim are writers on the project.
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Raya and the Last Dragon” opens in U.S. theaters on March 12, 2021.
