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The virtual event Winter Haunts is back on 16th November, offering a full day of workshops, interviews, and panel discussions for fans of ghost stories and Gothic fiction. Organised by Writing Magazine and Alex Davis Events, the one-day festival brings together celebrated authors and speakers to share insights into crafting supernatural tales. Now in its third year, Winter Haunts continues to draw an international audience keen to explore the eerie and mysterious from the comfort of home.

The event promises an impressive roster of writers, including Silvia Moreno-Garcia, known for her acclaimed novels Mexican Gothic and Silver Nitrate, and Laura Purcell, the bestselling author behind The Silent Companions and The Whispering Muse. Joining them are Jeremy Dyson, co-creator of The League of Gentlemen, and Nathan Ballingrud, whose stories Wounds and The Crypt of the Moon Spider have captivated horror fans. Also on the line-up are Christopher Golden, Eric La Rocca...

Atom Egoyan has revealed that he was so traumatized by the negative reception to his Ryan Reynolds-starring thriller The Captive at the Cannes Film Festival that he will never return again with a film.

The pedophilia thriller, starring Reynolds as a man dealing with the disappearance of his nine-year-old daughter, was widely panned by the Cannes critics corps when it world premiered in competition in 2014.

“It was actually the worst reviewed film that I ever did. We should never have taken it to Cannes,” the Canadian-Armenian director told a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra meeting in Qatar on Wednesday.

“It got this really crazy reception. It was in competition on the Friday night. I haven’t been to Cannes since because I just don’t ever want to come back to what we had that night. The last couple of films, we showed in Venice or Berlin.

System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who recorded the song “Patterns” together in 2000, have reunited for a new song that will help raise money for imperiled Armenians.

The tune was the brainchild of Cesar Gueikian, CEO of Gibson Brands. Gueikian, an Argentine member of the Armenian diaspora, teamed with Tankian and Iommi on a new song, “Deconstruction,” that’s coming out under the banner of the Gibson Band via Gibson Records as a charity single. The tune is a six-minute descent into psychedelic...

Comedian Sarah Silverman isn’t in a laughing mood these days as she and two others have sued Meta and OpenAI for using their original content without their permission.

Silverman, Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden filed a lawsuit in California against Facebook’s parent company and ChatGPT for allegedly using their content to train their artificial intelligence programs.

The lawsuits allege that most of the material used in their training comes from copyrighted works used “without consent, without credit and without compensation.”

The catalyst for their lawsuit is reportedly leaked information about how the two companies operated their artificial intelligence department. The three authors then found that their books were included in the materials used to hone AI capabilities in conversing with a more human tone.

The books in question were specified in the lawsuits as Silverman’s The Bedwetter, Kadrey’s Sandman Slim and Golden’s Ararat.

OpenAI states...

Sarah Silverman and two other authors filed class-action lawsuits against OpenAI and Meta, claiming that the companies’ artificial intelligence software programs pilfer from their copyrighted works.

The lawsuit reflects a growing debate over when emerging artificial intelligence technology crosses the line into infringing on copyrighted works, a question that came up in a recent congressional hearing featuring OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

In the lawsuit, Silverman and two other authors, Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, claim that OpenAI’s ChatGPT relies on their works for its training dataset.

The authors, who are seeking class-action status, say they did not consent to their works being used in this way, but they were “ingested and used to train ChatGPT.”

“Indeed, when ChatGPT is prompted, ChatGPT generates summaries of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works –something only possible if ChatGPT was trained on Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works,” the lawsuit states.

The suit claims that OpenAI copied Silverman’s book The Bedwetter,...

Sarah Silverman is part of a new copyright class action suit against OpenAI, which alleges that ChatGPT was illegally trained on copyrighted books.

Silverman is one of three lead plaintiffs, alongside the authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey. They claim, on behalf of the prospective class, that their books were part of a trove of copyrighted material “copied by OpenAI” and used to train ChatGPT “without consent, without credit, and without compensation.”

The new lawsuit is similar to one brought by authors Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad against OpenAI earlier this year.

TheLifetimeAchievement Award of the twentiethSoundTrack_Cologne 2023goes to Mychael Danna.

Danna is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning film composer who has composed over 80 film scores and is recognized for his blending of non-western traditions with orchestral and electronic music. He composed the transculturally inspired, 2013 Oscar and Golden Globe winning film score for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. Danna also composed the scores for Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and Ride With the Devil.

Other well-known films Danna has composed music for include Academy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated films such as The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica and Ararat from his longtime collaboration with director Atom Egoyan; also Moneyball and Capote with director Bennett Miller, Monsoon Wedding, Little Miss Sunshine, Being Julia, Stillwater, The Addams Family 1 and 2, Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur and The Song of the Crayfish.

Danna won an Emmy Award for outstanding music composition for the mini-series World Without End.

Production scheduled to start in Toronto next week.

Atom Egoyan will direct Amanda Seyfried in Seven Veils, which the project’s co-financier XYZ Films will introduce to worldwide buyers at the EFM next week.

Production is scheduled to start in Toronto next week on the feature that sees Seyfried star as an earnest theatre director tasked with remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome, as she struggles with repressed trauma.

Seven Veils reunites XYZ Films with Ipr.Vc and Rhombus Media after their collaboration on the upcoming Berlin world premiere BlackBerry.

The project announcement also dovetails with...

Production scheduled to start in Toronto next week.

Atom Egoyan will direct Amanda Seyfried in Seven Veils, which the project’s co-financier XYZ Films will introduce to worldwide buyers at the EFM next week.

Production is scheduled to start in Toronto next week on the feature that sees Seyfried star as an earnest theatre director tasked with remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome, as she struggles with repressed trauma.

Seven Veils reunites XYZ Films with Ipr.Vc and Rhombus Media after their collaboration on the upcoming Berlin world premiere BlackBerry.

The project announcement also dovetails with...

Atom Egoyan on Christopher Plummer: “I had the honour of working with him twice, with Ararat in 2002 and Remember in 2015.”

In 2016, Atom Egoyan and I met at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue for a conversation on his terrifically paced thriller Remember, written by Benjamin August. Structured in the spirit of a cumulative tale the film stars Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, and Bruno Ganz. Since that time Martin Landau and Bruno Ganz have passed away. Sadly, on Friday morning, February 5, Christopher Plummer died at the age of 91.

Christopher Plummer in Atom Egoyan’s Ararat

At the Museum of Tolerance in New York during the post-screening discussion I moderated on Remember with his producer Robert Lantos, I commented to Atom: I would like to start with your choice of actors. It seems to me that their past roles inform the film. Christopher Plummer seems to whisper inaudibly throughout "Remember The Sound Of Music?...

Atom Egoyan's They Will Take My Island collaboration with Mary Kouyoumdjian to have a digital première. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The MetLiveArts will host the world première of Atom Egoyan and composer Mary Kouyoumdjian’s film They Will Take My Island on Armenian American abstract painter Arshile Gorky on Tuesday, January 26 at 7:00pm (Est).

Kouyoumdjian’s score is performed by the Jack Quartet and the Silvana Quartet with interviews of Saskia Spender, President of the Arshile Gorky Foundation and granddaughter of Arshile Gorky, Parker Field, Managing Director of the Arshile Gorky Foundation, and Michael Taylor, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They Will Take My Island includes original short films by Egoyan and never before seen scenes from his films.

The event is supported by the Nazar and Artemis Nazarian, the Armenian...

American poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate Louise Gluck was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature Thursday, the world’s highest literary honor, “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal,” said the Nobel Committee.

She is the first American woman to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993 and one of only 16 women since the awards, established in the will of Alfred Nobel, began in 1901.

Nobel Committee chair Anders Olsson praised Gluck’s striving for clarity. “Glück seeks the universal, and in this she takes inspiration from myths and classical motifs, present in most of her works.”

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded by The Swedish Academy in Stockholm.

Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, said in a video presentation Thursday, that he had informed Gluck of the award earlier in the day. “It came as surprise. A welcome one.

Guest Of Honour director and rabbit competition winner Atom Egoyan with Anne-Katrin Titze’s Steiff Dürer Bunny at the Seven Grams Caffe in New York Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Canada Now Opening Night U.S. premiere on February 13, of Atom Egoyan’s Guest Of Honour, starring David Thewlis and Laysla De Oliveira with Luke Wilson and Arsinée Khanjian, 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman asked Atom about his work with longtime composer Mychael Danna and Shannon Graham.

Guest Of Honour China poster from Atom Egoyan’s phone Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Ed Bahlman: Atom, it’s a beautiful score. Can you talk a little bit how you worked with the composer?

Atom Egoyan: The composer is someone I’ve been working with since Family Viewing, Mychael Danna. He’s a very brilliant composer. Because of the relationship, a lot of the visual composing...

Filmmaking brothers Michael and Peter Spierig have boarded the supernatural thriller series adaptation of the popular literary “Ben Walker” franchise, developed by Stuart Ford’s Agc Television.

Rob Carlson at UTA negotiated the deal on behalf of the Spierig Brothers with Agc Television President Lourdes Diaz, Agc’s VP of Legal & Business Affairs Anant Tamirisa, and VP of Scripted Television Matt Bankston.

Ford, Diaz, creator Christopher Golden, and Pete Donaldson for Donaldson Media & Consulting will executive produce.

The Spierig brothers hit the ground running in 2003 when their debut feature “Undead” won the Fipresci Award and enjoyed a North American release handled by Lionsgate. Their follow up, “Daybreakers,” starred Ethan Hawke and was a hit at that year’s Midnight Madness in Toronto, before again enjoying a theatrical run again handled by Lionsgate.

Since then the two have found continued success with features such as “Predestination” – once again with Hawke in the leading role,...

Exclusive: The Alienist writer John Sayles is developing a limited series set in the world of televangelism with Agc Television.

Sayles, who has been nominated for a best screenwriting Oscar for Passion Fish and Lone Star, is developing Electric Church with Black Mirror director John Hillcoat on board to direct.

Sayles co-created the project with Marc-Edouard Leon. The drama tells the true story behind the rise of the Christian Right. In the 1980’s, larger-than-life personalities such as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell ruled the airwaves. They were rich, they were idolized, they epitomized religious excess. The series will explore how their paths collided in an epic saga that would change the face of American politics.

Sayles will exec produce with Hillcoat, Agc Studios founder Stuart Ford, Agc Television President Lourdes Diaz and Agc’s Head of Film Greg Shapiro with Jonathan Pavesi producing.

The deal...

Agc Television has optioned rights to author Christopher Golden’s Ben Walker supernatural thriller book franchise to develop into a TV series. The deal unveiled Tuesday encompasses the prolific Golden’s 2017 bestseller Ararat that launched the series and the upcoming The Pandora Room which hits shelves in April. A third novel, Red Hands, will be published in 2020.

Golden, who helped on the screenplay for the Hellboy reboot coming later this year, will pen the pilot script based on Ararat, which won a Bram Stoker Award. Agc Studios founder Stuart Ford and TV division boss Lourdes Diaz are executive producing the project with Golden and Pete Donaldson of Donaldson Media & Consulting. A late 2019 production start is being eyed.

The book’s lead character Ben Walker is a self-described “weird sh*t expert” working for a secret arm of the Department of Defense to investigate newly discovered phenomena. The job leads Walker...

Stuart Ford's Agc Television has optioned Christopher Golden's Ben Walker novels for the small screen, starting with the best-selling supernatural thriller Ararat.

Golden's Walker novels follow the titular character, a self-described "weird shit expert" who investigates strange phenomena for a secret arm of the Department of Defense. In Ararat, an earthquake reveals a secret cave in Mount Ararat in Turkey.

When a newly engaged couple go exploring, they discover an ancient buried ship many believe to be Noah's Ark. But when a blizzard traps them inside, a much more horrible truth is revealed. Agc Television has optioned ...

In today’s film news roundup, “Screwball” is getting a domestic release in the spring, Brian Goldsmith re-ups at Lionsgate, horror novel “Snowblind” is in the works as a film, and “Room 13” has been cast.

Acquisition

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to baseball doping documentary “Screwball” and plans a theatrical release to coincide with the start of the Major League Baseball season in April.

The film, directed by Billy Corben (“Cocaine Cowboys”), centers on the Alex Rodriguez/Biogenesis doping scandal, which broke in 2013 when several Mlb players were accused of obtaining performance-enhancing drugs such as human growth hormone from the now-defunct rejuvenation clinic Biogenesis of America.

“Screwball” premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival and recently played at DocNYC. Corben and Alfred Spellman produced under their Rakontur banner.

“Billy Corben’s wildly entertaining doc is his latest look at a perverse pursuit of the American Dream,...

Exclusive: David Thewlis has been set to star in Oscar nominee Atom Egoyan’s latest feature, Guest Of Honour. Thewlis will be joined by Laysla De Oliveira and Luke Wilson in the father-daughter drama. From a script by Egoyan, filming begins on November 5 in the Toronto area. The Film Farm’s Simone Urdl and Jennifer Weiss are producing; Egoyan is also producing for Ego Film Arts. Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Sebastien Beffa and Noah Segal are exec producers. Elevation Pictures has Canadian rights, Playtime is handling international sales.

Thewlis plays Jim, dad to Veronica (De Oliveira), a young high-school music teacher. The two attempt to unravel their complicated histories and intertwined secrets in the film which weaves through time exploring perception and penance, memory and forgiveness.

When a hoax instigated by an aggressive school bus driver (Rossif Sutherland) goes very wrong, Veronica is accused of abusing her position...

With 18 stories sure to chill you to the bone written by critically acclaimed authors Scott Smith, Michael Koryta, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Pinborough, among many others, Hark! The Herald Angels Scream will be available in both paperback and Kindle editions on October 23rd from Blumhouse Books/Anchor Books.

"Hark! The Herald Angels Scream, edited by bestselling author and editor Christopher Golden will be available on October 23rd. A Blumhouse Books/Anchor Books paperback original, Hark! The Herald Angels Scream is a fantastic collection of 18 horror stories from bestselling, acclaimed authors including Scott Smith, Seanan McGuire, Josh Malerman, Michael Koryta, Sarah Pinborough, and many more.

Publishers Weekly gave a positive review to Hark! The Herald Angels Scream and said, “This lineup proves that the Christmas season can have plenty of thrills and chills.” Booklist said, “Golden curates another sure-bet horror anthology.” Hark! The Herald Angels Scream dives deep into the dark side...

Charles Aznavour, the French singer and musical stylist sometimes referred to a France’s Sinatra, has died at age 94.

His death at one of his homes in France was confirmed by both his producer Gerard Drouout Productions and the French Culture Ministry.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement: “Profoundly French, viscerally attached to his Armenian roots, famous in the entire world, Charles Aznavour accompanied the joys and sorrows of three generations. His masterpieces, his timbre, his unique influence will long survive him.”

Though he never achieved fame in the United States on the level of his European popularity, his dramatic gestures and story-telling style of singing and songwriting was a major influence on Liza Minnelli, David Bowie and even Bob Dylan. In a 1998 concert at Madison Square Garden featuring Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Dylan paid tribute to Aznavour with a performance of Aznavour’s “The Times We’ve Known.

French-Armenian singer-songwriter-actor Charles Aznavour, best known for songs such as “She,” “Yesterday When I Was Young” and “For Mama,” has died. Aznavour, who was 94, died in his sleep from a cardiac arrest in his home in Mouries, France, according to his agent.

Aznavour sold more than 180 million records and appeared in more than 60 films. Bob Dylan considered Aznavour, sometimes referred to as a Gallic Frank Sinatra, to be “one of the greatest live performers” he’d ever seen. CNN named him Entertainer of the Century in 1998, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Monday: “Charles Aznavour was profoundly French, deeply attached to his Armenian roots and known throughout the world. He has accompanied the joys and pain of three generations. His masterpieces, the tone of his voice, his unique radiance will long survive him.”

Aznavour, who continued to perform...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Best in Show (Christopher Guest)

Christopher Guest has had an exceptionally strong ’00s with A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration, and it remains to be seen how his upcoming Mascots will be received, but his arguable peak is still the gloriously funny mockumentary Best in Show. Guest’s other films have lovingly skewered egotistical oddballs and the insanity of subjective or objective criticism, so Best in Show is...

The Promise is visually arresting and befittingly nostalgic, but no where near enough so to warrant or rectify the film’s atrociously underdeveloped protagonists and threadbare plot. Director Terry George fails to materialize the sobering and engrossing pathos elicited by genre heavyweights like Schindler’s List and, to a certain extent, George’s own Hotel Rwanda. As a result, The Promise falls subsequently flat.

Co-writers George and Robin Swicord’s (heavily revised) vision of a whimsical, fleeting love-triangle trope backdropped by the Armenian genocide is as bad a narrative combination as it reads, exploiting the atrocity and its victims as mere devices of tragedy in an attempt to humanize characters that scarcely qualify as people that are even remotely worthy of triggering compassion. The only genuine humanness residing in the otherwise haughty film is its desire to produce a movie that’s accessible and informative regarding the plight of the Armenian people.

Terry George‘s The Promise begins with a title card that appears on-screen stating that 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Turkish government during World War I. It’s a tragedy that has been depicted before in film, perhaps most notably in Atom Egoyan’s underwhelming Ararat, with ample room still made available to deliver the definitive version. Despite formidable talent on both sides of the camera, unfortunately we’ll have to wait longer for such a drama to arrive.

The film takes place on the brink of World War I in Turkey. Michael (Oscar Isaac), an intelligent, compassionate Armenian, decides to settle down and marry a girl (Angela Sarafyan) that he’s not completely smitten by, but claims that with time he will indeed love her. He lives in Armenia, but opts to journey to Turkey, without his wife, to study medicine at the Imperial Medical School and become...

Christopher Plummer is a marvel. At age 85, when most men his age have long ago settled into retirement, he’s acting full-time both on stage and in films. He holds the record as the oldest person — age 82 — to win an Oscar (his was a Best Supporting Actor nod for 2011’s Beginners), and this month he carries a heavy load as the star of director Atom Egoyan’s dramatic thriller Remember.

Plummer plays Zev, a Holocaust survivor suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s who sets out to find the Nazi guard who killed his family 70 years ago in Auschwitz. Plummer was at his Connecticut home when we spoke by phone about the daunting role, his own memories of the war and how he keeps his mind sharp.

What drew you to this role?

“Well, I had never really done this sort of thing before, a kind of victim. He...

Canadian film-maker received the honour before a screening of Exotica as part of the Tribute To… programme

At the Sarajevo Film Festival on Wednesday [Aug 19], Canadian director Atom Egoyan received the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo for his contribution to the art of film at a ceremony in the festival’s Meeting Point cinema.

“By awarding Atom Egoyan with the Heart of Sarajevo, we would like to honour one of the most noted contemporary film-makers, who is not only a theatre and opera director as well, but also a visual artist, writer and professor of film,” said Sff festival director Mirsad Purivatra.

“They call him the master of visual and verbal storytelling, and we completely agree.”

Egoyan then took to the stage and delivered a touching speech: “I’ve been to many festivals, I’ve received honours, but this one is so special because of the spirit and the history of this festival.

“This is a festival...

Director’s latest feature Remember to screen at Venice and Toronto.

The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 14-22) is to pay tribute to Canadian director Atom Egoyan, who will receive Honorary Heart of Sarajevo for his contribution to film.

The festival will screen three of his films: Exotica (1994), set in and around a fictional strip club; Cannes award-winner The Sweet Hereafter (1997); and Ararat (2002), a drama about the Armenian genocide.

Egoyan, who was born to Armenian parents in Egypt but moved to Canada aged two, has directed more than a dozen features, several TV projects, and shorts.

Following critical acclaim and accolades for Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter and Ararat, his films of the past decade have included crime drama Where The Truth Lies, starring Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon; true crime drama Devil’s Knot, again with Firth and Reese Witherspoon; and thriller The Captive, starring Ryan Reynolds.

Egoyan’s latest feature, Remember, starring...

With the exception of Atom Egoyan's Ararat, the Armenian Genocide has not had much attention in Western cinema. German-Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin, whose previous films have often looked at issues of the marginalized, transnational cultures and violence, attempts to tackle this huge and difficult subject with his sweeping epic The Cut. A fictionalized story of one man's journey of war, slavery, and an epic journey to find his family, it is perhaps too long and somewhat predictable in its narrative unfolding, but nonetheless is effective in its portrayal not only of the genocide, but also the harrowing effects of trauma, and is beautifully photographed and scored.Nazaret (Tahar Rahim) is an Armenian living in southeastern Turkey as a skilled metalsmith. His happy life with his wife...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Cannes – Friday May 16th

The first title out of the gate at this morning’s 8:30 a.m. showing was the first of three Canadian films in the Main Competition. Snatched up earlier by the A24 folks, starring Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson and Mireille Enos, The Captive landed mostly 2 star notes with our panel, unfortunately making Atom Egoyan’s kidnapping thriller the first misfire of the fest. Winner of the Grand Prix and the International Critic’s Prize by the F.I.P.R.E.S.C.I.for The Sweet Hereafter in 1997, the Canuck has been at the fest’s Directors’ Fortnight for Speaking Parts (1989) and The Adjuster (1991) and found a home in the official selections for six features: Exotica (1994), Felicia’s Journey (1993), Ararat (2002 – Out of Comp), Where the Truth Lies (2005) and 2008′s Adoration.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s over three hour dialogue driven drama occupied a one time showing 3:00 p.

Welcome back to Cannes Check, In Contention's annual preview of the films in Competition at next month's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 14. Taking on different selections every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Jane Campion's jury. Next up, the third Canadian director in the lineup: Atom Egoyan's "The Captive." The director: Atom Egoyan (Canadian, 53 years old). There was a time when Egoyan looked to be as estimable a festival fixture as his compatriot David Cronenberg, but his career hasn't moved in the direction many thought it would after he won big at Cannes (and scooped a surprise Best Director Oscar nod) for 1997's critical peak “The Sweet Hereafter.” Born in Cairo to Armenian-Egyptian parents – a heritage he'd later explore in his 2002 film “Ararat” – Egoyan largely grew up in British Columbia and studied...

The filmmaker, set to premiere Captives in competition in Cannes, will direct Christopher Plummer in the thriller for Serendipity Point Films. Im Global will handle international sales.

Ari Lantos and Serendipity chief Robert Lantos will produce in what marks the latter’s eighth collaboration with Egoyan.

eOne will distribute Remember in Canada, Arp in France and Videovision Entertainment in South Africa.

The Serendipity Point Films thriller in association with Distant Horizon, Detalle, Telefilm Canada and Egoli Tossell will kick off in Toronto on July 14.

Benjamin August wrote the original screenplay in which, according to notes provided by the film’s representatives, “the darkest chapter of modern history collides with a contemporary mission of revenge.”

Martin Landau, Dean Norris, Bruno Ganz, Heinz Lieven and Günter Lamprecht round out the key cast.

Mark Musselman and Anant Singh serve as executive producers with Moises Cosio, Jeff Sagansky, Mike Porter, Larry Guterman and D Matt Geller.

Egoyan and Lantos...

Could this be a return to form for Atom Egoyan? Following the announcement of its official selection for this year’s Cannes film festival, the first trailer for Egoyan’s The Captive is online, and it looks like a tense, psychological thriller.

Since hitting his stride in the 90s with a series of multi-faceted, insightful dramas—Speaking Parts, The Adjuster, Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia’s Journey, Ararat—Egoyan has hit a slump in regard to critical acclaim for his more recent work. But hopefully “The Captive” will put the major Canadian filmmaker—and former Cannes winner—back on the map. The plot, which involves the disappearance of a little girl and her subsequent re-surfacing eight years later on an unknown web-feed, seems like a good fit for the veteran director.

The film also stars Ryan Reynolds, Rosario Dawson, Mireille Enos, Scott Speedman, and Egoyan preferred actor, Bruce Greenwood.

Source:...

Variety is reporting that Image Entertainment has scooped up the distribution rights to Atom Egoyan’s crime thriller Devil’s Knot. Image, a division of Maryland-based Rlj Entertainment, plans to release the film next year in the second quarter.

Synopsis:

Worldview Entertainment's dramatic crime thriller Devil's Knot, filmed in the greater Atlanta, Georgia, area under the direction of Atom Egoyan, stars Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth with a screenplay by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson. Elizabeth Fowler, Richard Saperstein, and Clark Peterson produced Devil’s Knot alongside Worldview Entertainment CEO Christopher Woodrow. Worldview’s Molly Conners, Sarah Johnson Redlich, Maria Cestone, and Hoyt David Morgan executive produced alongside actual defendants Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. Devil’s Knot is a Fowler-Saperstein-Peterson Production.

Following the release from prison of the West Memphis Three, after nearly 20 years of incarceration, Hollywood was abuzz with plans to develop the teen trio's...

The first still from the true-crime tale Devil's Knot, which is based on the tragedy surrounding the now freed West Memphis Three, is here, and it offers your first look at Reese Witherspoon as Pam Hobbs, the mother of Steve Branch, one of the three children savagely murdered in Arkansas in 1993.

Synopsis:

Worldview Entertainment's dramatic crime thriller Devil's Knot, filmed in the greater Atlanta, Georgia, area under the direction of Atom Egoyan, stars Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth with a screenplay by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson. Elizabeth Fowler, Richard Saperstein, and Clark Peterson produced Devil’s Knot alongside Worldview Entertainment CEO Christopher Woodrow. Worldview’s Molly Conners, Sarah Johnson Redlich, Maria Cestone, and Hoyt David Morgan executive produced alongside actual defendants Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. Devil’s Knot is a Fowler-Saperstein-Peterson Production.

Following the release from prison of the West Memphis Three, after nearly 20 years of incarceration,...

"Les Miserables" Director Tom Hooper and composer Mychael Danna will be honored at the 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. Hooper is set to get the Sonny Bono Visionary Award while Danna will receive the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing. Both will join previous announced honorees -- the cast of Argo, Richard Gere, Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Helen Mirren, Naomi Watts and Robert Zemeckis. The Festival runs January 3-14.

(Watch my fun interview with Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables" right here, "Les Miserables" movie review)

Here's the complete press release:

Palm Springs, CA (December 18, 2012) . The 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) will present Academy Award®-winning director Tom Hooper with the Sonny Bono Visionary Award and Mychael Danna with the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing. Presented by Cartier, the Awards Gala will be held Saturday, January 5, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Hosted by Mary Hart,...

At some point in the not too distant future, Ryan Reynolds will be facing down hordes of sword-wielding immortals in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Highlander remake. Before he heads to Scotland, however, Reynolds is off to Canada to star in Atom Egoyan's Queen Of The Night.No, it's not an entire film based on a Whitney Houston song or an operatic character. The details are scarce at this point, but the film is apparently a kidnap thriller in which Reynolds will play the father of an abducted child. Don't expect much in the way of clock-ticking revenge action though: Egoyan's films (like Calendar, Exotica, Ararat and Adoration) tend to be more cerebral than that.Egoyan, as usual, has co-written the screenplay, and will produce the indie thriller along with Simone Urdl, Jennifer Weiss and Stephen Traynor. He's currently still hard at work on The Devil's Knot, his dramatisation of...

Following the release of the West Memphis 3, Hollywood was abuzz with plans to develop the teen trio's incredible story of wrongful conviction for the mutilation and murder of three young boys, into a narrative feature. But tackling a complicated.and unsolved.murder mystery that spans nearly 20 years and includes a myriad of characters is an ambitious undertaking to say the least. Still, Atom Egoyan was more inspired than intimidated by the West Memphis 3 story, so the writer-director who has spun real life tragedy into compelling dramas with The Sweet Hereafter and Ararat is helming an adaptation of their story as told by Mara Leveritt's best-selling true crime book, Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. His film of the same name will star Colin Firth as private investigator Ron Lax, whose tireless efforts uncovered troubling details about the case that ultimately led to the release...

by Scott Mendelson

HollywoodNews.com: Angelina Jolie’s director debut is caught between two very specific goals. On one hand, it wants to be a thoughtful, adult romantic drama that happens to be set during a period of rather ghastly civil war. On the other, because there really hasn’t been a major motion picture set during the Bosnian war that raged primarily from 1992-1995, writer/director Jolie feels a need to craft a somewhat definitive account of the conflict. As a result, much of the picture feels like a glorified book report, with characters ham-fistedly explaining the nature of the conflict, the living conditions of the victims, and character arcs. The film constantly violates the ‘show-don’t-tell’ rule, with lead characters explicitly stating their emotions and their character arc. Like Atom Egoyan’s Ararat (which dealt with the 1915 Armenian genocide), the film spends much time feeling less like a...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: The legendary Christopher Plummer, who has been earning raves for his performance in Mike Mills’ “Beginners” as a widower embracing his homosexuality, will receive the “Hollywood Supporting Actor Award” at this year’s 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment. The event is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 24, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Plummer, an Academy Award nominee for his recent performance in “The Last Station,” has been enjoying even more awards chatter as of late for his turn as Hal, a closeted gay man who didn’t choose to come out until his wife passed away … much to the surprise of his son (Ewan McGregor).

Plummer, who can be seen in “Barrymore” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” later this year, will be on hand to accept the award.

His bio is below:

Christopher Plummer...

When Dr. Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore) begins to suspect that her husband, David (Liam Neeson), a 50-something professor of music, is having an affair, she is unsure how to uncover the truth. Catherine is a woman at the pinnacle of her career and someone who is used to having all aspects of her life under control. When she begins to suspect David of extra-marital activities, she is equally upset and determined to find out why her husband could be straying and what it is he may be looking for outside his marriage.

Her investigation awakens desires she never knew she had.

During a chance dinner with friends, Catherine encounters an alluring young woman in the restaurant’s rest room, Chloe (Amanda Seyfried). Upon returning to her table, her husband and friends are playing 'spot the hooker' and immediately identify the beautiful blonde — now in the company of an older businessman — as a prostitute.

Chicago – Atom Egoyan makes memorable films, examinations of the human psyche that create intuitive philosophy. His newest film, “Chloe,” is no exception, as Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried play characters that forge a complex connection.

The title character Chloe is portrayed by Seyfried, in a departure from her current soft leading lady status. Chloe is a prostitute, who is observed through an office window by a successful gynecologist named Catherine (Moore). When the good doctor suspects her husband (Liam Neeson) to be straying, she hires Chloe to seduce him and confirm her fears. The cat and mouse game that ensues results in karmic reparations for all.

These are the type of films that Egoyan, a well-known Canadian director since the 1990s, has delved into. His sense of humanity, in which the repression of sin often becomes the punishment, strengthens and manifests his cinema art. After making a splash with his...

See the official trailer for Sony Pictures Classics' "Chloe," a potent, sexy-looking release starring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Nina Dobrev, Max Thieriot, Meghan Heffern, Laura DeCarteret and Mishu Vellani. Atom Egoyan ("Adoration," "Where the Truth Lies," "Ararat") directs from the screenplay written by Erin Cressida Wilson. The drama is produced by Jeffrey Clifford, Joe Medjuck, Simone Urdl, Ivan Reitman and Jennifer Weiss. The film opens in limited areas on March 26th. Also, for those who haven't seen the new poster yet, check it out.

One minute he's making uneasy arthouse films, the next he's a Hollywood gun for hire, shooting the likes of Liam Neeson. Can auteur Atom Egoyan really cope with a dip in the mainstream?

A year is a long time in the movies. Fifteen months ago, I met the Canadian film-maker Atom Egoyan as he brought his low-key indie Adoration to the London film festival. The venue was an anonymous hotel cafe. At the festival's next edition, Egoyan returns with a new film, Chloe; this one stars Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried, and Egoyan is holding forth in a suite at Claridge's in central London. Things have clearly gone well for him.

At our first enconter, in the cafe, Egoyan was nursing a hangover that made him pleasantly effusive. He wasn't what I expected. Even his actors can be confused; before starting work on Adoration, one of its leads,...

Case 39

Opens: January 1st 2010

Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper, Kerry O'Malley

Director: Christian Alvart

Summary: A family services social worker thinks she has seen it all until she meets her newest, most mysterious case - a troubled 10-year old girl whose parents try to kill her. The social worker decides to take her in herself until the right foster family comes along.

Analysis: Despite the presence of promising German director Christian Alvart ("Pandorum"), 'Case' has sat on a shelf since late 2006 and is finally being quietly shuffled out this year for one very good reason - it stinks. Having opened in Australia a few months back, reviewers utterly savaged the film as both incredibly dumb and utterly ludicrous. Lead star Renee Zellweger also scored personal criticism to a level rarely seen in film reviews outside of comments about Nicole Kidman's 'more alien than the...

Case 39

Opens: January 1st 2010

Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper, Kerry O'Malley

Director: Christian Alvart

Summary: A family services social worker thinks she has seen it all until she meets her newest, most mysterious case - a troubled 10-year old girl whose parents try to kill her. The social worker decides to take her in herself until the right foster family comes along.

Analysis: Despite the presence of promising German director Christian Alvart ("Pandorum"), 'Case' has sat on a shelf since late 2006 and is finally being quietly shuffled out this year for one very good reason - it stinks. Having opened in Australia a few months back, reviewers utterly savaged the film as both incredibly dumb and utterly ludicrous. Lead star Renee Zellweger also scored personal criticism to a level rarely seen in film reviews outside of comments about Nicole Kidman's 'more alien than the...

The New York Times' Stephen Holden certainly adored Adoration: "A profound and provocative exploration of cultural inheritance, communications technology and the roots and morality of terrorism, the Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan nimbly wades into an ideological minefield without detonating an explosion." Here's a synopsis from the official site:

High school French teacher Sabine (Egoyan's wife and frequent collaborator Arsinée Khanjian) gives her class a translation exercise based on a real news story about a terrorist who plants a bomb in the airline luggage of his pregnant girlfriend. The assignment has a profound effect on one student, Simon (Devon Bostwick), who lives with his uncle. In the course of translating, Simon re-imagines that the news item is his own family's story, with the terrorist standing in for his father. Years ago, Simon's father crashed the family car, killing both himself and his wife, making Simon an orphan.

Cologne, Germany -- Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan will be honored with this year's Master of Cinema lifetime achievement award at the 58th Mannheim-Heidelberg film festival.

Egoyan won Mannheim's Golden Ducat award for "Next of Kin" in 1984. He will accept the honor in person Nov. 6. Previous Master of Cinema winners include Aleksandr Sokurov, Wim Wenders, Raoul Ruiz, Theo Angelopoulos and Zhang Yimou.

Mannheim will also screen a retrospective of Egoyan's films -- including "Next of Kin," Oscar-nominated "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997), "Felicia's Journey" (1999), "Ararat" (2002) and "Adoration" (2008).

The 58th Mannheim-Heidelberg festival runs Nov. 5-15.

WME's loss is APA's gain.

The agency has signed actors Taryn Manning, David Alpay and Dorian Missick and director Andrzej Bartkowiak. Manning and Bartkowiak were repped by WMA, Alpay and Missick by Endeavor. Those two agencies merged last month.

APA also has picked up actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who did not have U.S. agency representation.

Manning, managed by Untitled Entertainment, has appeared in "Hustle & Flow," "Cold Mountain," "White Oleander" and "Crazy/Beautiful." She next appears in the indie film "8-3" and the remake "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde."

Manning also is repped by music manager Mike Renault. She and her band, Boomkat, are touring and will perform next month at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

Alpay co-stars in the Showtime series "The Tudors." He also appeared in the features "Ararat," "Man of the Year" and "Closing the Ring." He is managed by Kritzer Levine Wilkins Entertainment.

Missick has appeared...

With his twelfth feature 'Adoration,' Atom Egoyan remains committed to provocative fare.   Asked how he achieves such intellectual richness in his independent films, filmmaker Atom Egoyan leans closer, flashes a quizzical look and asks for the question to be repeated. Speaking during a lunchtime interview at last fall's Toronto Film Festival, Egoyan struggles to be heard in a hotel restaurant crammed with fellow festival filmmakers, their casts and assorted members of the press. A friend and fellow journalist interrupts our conversation to ask about an upcoming interview and Egoyan flashes an irritated look. It's hard to talk seriously about your serious movie when there's chaos around you.   "People refer to me as an independent filmmaker and I understand why they say that," Egoyan says, resting his elbows on the table. "But the word independent, at least as it means to film, that's confusing to me. I mean my...