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Exclusive: Stephen Amell, Minnie Driver and Hamza Haq will star in Underbelly, a crime drama set in the 1000 Islands region, home to a picturesque river that serves as a border between Canada and the U.S. The series was created by Saving Hope’s Graeme Stewart and will be an original for Canadian streamer Crave. Tamara Podemski also stars.

Shaftesbury, producer of Hudson & Rex and Murdoch Mysteries, is making the six-part series. Fifth Season is co-financing and will distribute. It is warming up international buyers here at MIPCOM on the buzzy project, which will premiere on Crave next year.

Deadline can reveal the news and share the first image from the series.

Amell, soon to appear in Suits L.A., plays Officer Henry Roland. He finds evidence linking a case of missing illegal substances to his childhood best friend, Tommy Hawley, played by Haq. As Henry embarks on a mission to save his friend,...

Hyde Park International will launch sales and show first footage at the AFM in Las Vegas next month on the road trip comedy Northbound starring Oscar-nominated Bruce Dern.

Screen has obtained a first-look image from the film, which GateHouse Productions shot in Canada and is now in post targeting a release and awards attention in 2025.

Dern plays Arthur, an 80-something maverick inspired by director William Scoular’s father, who persuades his grandson Kevin to help him escape from his nursing home.

The pair then drive from Arizona to Canada and mayhem ensues. When they pick up mysterious stranger, bullets fly...

Exclusive: Lumanity Productions announced that a feature film adaptation deal has been inked with Christine Mangan for her novel The Continental Affair.

This adds to Mangan’s previously optioned debut novel Tangerine originally signed by Imperative Entertainment for producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov at Smokehouse with Scarlett Johansson attached to star. With an eye towards international co-production, Lumanity writer/director Robert Budreau, is set to write, direct and co-produce the film.

Published by Flatiron, a division of Macmillan, in 2023, The Continental Affair is a glamorous early 1960s romantic crime caper about Henri and Louise who fatefully cross paths one morning in Europe. He is living in exile after deserting his post in the French Algerian war. Louise is running from a shadowy past in London and the chains of gendered expectations. When she steals the money that Henri is supposed to protect, the two...

Religious hysteria, family secrets and a tinge of the occult make hard times all the harder for protagonists in “Queen of Bones.” This Ontario-shot U.S. indie production is a rural gothic with echoes of both “Flowers in the Attic’s” dark YA melodrama and “Carrie’s” supernaturally vengeful coming of age. But it lacks the bold ideas and execution to approach those stories’ impact, winding up an underwhelming if watchable exploration of familiar themes and character types. Falling Forward Films plans a theatrical release for later this year, though this mild thriller would seem likelier to find an audience in home formats.

Its title oddly prefaced by “Folktales of the Great Depression…,” as if part of a series, Michael Burgner’s screenplay has a chaptered progress whose portentous divisions promise content considerably more shocking than we actually get. Lillian (Julia Butters) and Samuel (Jacob Tremblay) are 14-year-old twins living...

The supernatural horror movie Queen of Bones has found a distribution home this week, with Deadline reporting that Falling Forward Films has acquired the film for release.

Queen of Bones is expected to arrive in theaters sometime this year.

Julia Butters (The Fabelmans), Jacob Tremblay, Martin Freeman (Fargo) and Taylor Schilling (Pam & Tommy) star in the folk horror film.

Queen of Bones follows twin siblings Lily (Butters) and Sam (Tremblay) who live at a remote homestead with their widowed father, Malcolm (Freeman), a violinmaker in 1931 Oregon.

When Lily and Sam find an Icelandic spell book in the cellar, they begin to suspect a connection between their mother’s death and dark forces in the woods. They then embark on a dangerous mission to force their father and his friend, Ida May (Schilling), to reveal the truth.

Robert Budreau (Delia’s Gone) directed from a script by Michael Burgner (The Darkest Corner...

Exclusive: Scott Kennedy’s Falling Forward Films has acquired U.S. theatrical rights to the supernatural thriller Queen of Bones, starring Julia Butters (The Fabelmans), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Martin Freeman (Fargo) and Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black), ahead of its February domestic premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, with plans to release the film in theaters this year.

A TIFF 2023 title directed by Robert Budreau (Born to be Blue), the film tells the story of twin siblings Lily (Butters) and Sam (Tremblay), who live at a remote homestead with their widowed father, Malcolm (Freeman), a violinmaker in 1931 Oregon. When Lily and Sam find a spell book in the cellar, they begin to suspect a connection between their mother’s death and dark forces in the woods. They then embark on a dangerous mission to force their father and his friend, Ida May (Schilling), to reveal the truth.

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its lineup for the Industry Selects program of films beyond the official fest lineup and available for worldwide acquisition as each gets an in-person screening for film buyers and industry execs.

Leading the selection is director James Marsh’s Dance First, a biopic with Gabriel Byrne playing the literary giant Samuel Beckett and Sandrine Bonnaire, Maxine Peake, Aidan Gillen and Fionn O’Shea also starring; and director Neil Burger’s Inheritance, a thriller that has a woman played by Phoebe Dynevor learning her father Sam (Rhys Ifans) was once a spy, which puts her at the center of an international conspiracy.

Also picked for market screenings in Toronto is Jimmy Warden’s Borderline, set in 1996 Los Angeles and starring Eric Dane, Ray Nicholson and Samara Weaving as a pop star taken hostage; The Home, a horror pic from Purge series creator James DeMonaco, and starring...

Lizzie Gottlieb on Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb: “I wanted to express that it’s a buddy movie, it’s got energy and hopefully humour.” Photo: Claudia Raschke, courtesy of Wild Surmise Productions, LLC / Sony Pictures Classics

Lizzie Gottlieb’s loving double portrait begins with Ethan Hawke (star of Robert Budreau’s Born To Be Blue) reading from Robert Caro’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Power Broker: Robert Moses And The Fall Of New York, edited by Robert Gottlieb, and ends with a Chet Baker recording (of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s Do it the Hard Way). In-between we have Colm Tóibín, Lynn Nesbit, David Remnick, Mary Norris, Bill Clinton, Conan O'Brien, Maria Tucci, Ina Caro and many others commenting on the dynamic duo.

Lizzie Gottlieb with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I was really thrilled to be able to interview Bill Clinton.”

Gottlieb, who has been the editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster,...

Exclusive: Principal photography has begun on the World War II drama The Boy in the Woods, a big-screen adaptation of the wartime novel The Boy in the Woods: A True Story of Survival During the Second World War by Maxwell Smart.

The film is currently shooting in North Bay, Canada.

Rebecca Snow (Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust) writes and directs the pic for Lumanity and JoBro Production. Myriad Pictures holds worldwide rights (excluding Canada) and will be selling the film at the American Film Market.

Billed as a “true-life survival story,” the film follows Max, a Jewish boy hiding in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during WWII. Max is an aspiring artist who escapes death when his selfless mother tells him to run away from the Nazi trucks which they are about to board. He befriends a farmer, Jasko, and his family, who take him in. But with mounting...

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Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future and Danis Goulet’s Night Raiders lead nominees for the upcoming Dgc Awards with three each.

The Directors of Guild of Canada unveiled nominations for its 21st Dgc Awards on Nov. 5 on Friday. Del Toro, who shot Nightmare Alley mostly in and around Toronto, did not receive a nomination for best feature film direction.

But del Toro’s tribute to the film noir genre, which starred Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett, did earn Oscar-nominated production designer Tamara Deverell a Dgc Awards nod in the same category, Cam McLauchlin a nomination for feature best picture editing, and best sound editing nominations for Nathan Robitaille, Jill Purdy, Dashen Naidoo, Josh Brown, Nelson Ferreira, Kayla Stewart, Craig MacLellan and Kevin Banks.

Cronenberg received a best film director nomination for Crimes of the Future,...

Exclusive: Marisa Tomei (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Lena Olin (Hunters) have signed on to star alongside Camila Mendes and Archie Renaux in Gulfstream Pictures’ romantic comedy Upgraded, which has entered production in the UK.

In the film from actor-director Carlson Young (The Blazing World), aspiring art intern Ana (Mendes) is invited on a last-minute work trip to London by her brilliant but intimidating super boss, meeting the handsome and wealthy William (Renaux) on the plane. Set in both London and New York City, the rom-com chronicles the trials and tribulations of balancing work, romance and following your dreams.

Tomei will take on the role of the formidable auction house executive Claire Dupree, a brilliant and terrifying boss to auction-house trainee Ana. Olin will play the charismatic and charming Catherine Laroche, a wealthy and influential art seller, and the mother of Ana’s love interest, William.

Developed in part by...

Martin Freeman, Jacob Tremblay, Julia Butters and Taylor Schilling will play the dysfunctional family at the center of folk horror film “Queen of Bones.” Production is currently underway in Canada.

Directed by Robert Budreau (“Delia’s Gone”) from a script by Michael Burgner, the film follows a widowed violin maker named Malcolm (Freeman) who lives on a remote Oregon homestead in 1931. His life is turned upside down when his twin children Lily (Butters) and Sam (Tremblay) find a spell book in their cellar which reveals that their mother’s death is connected to something that lives in the woods. The siblings decide to do whatever it takes to get their father and his friend Ida May (Schilling) to reveal the truth about what happened.

Also Read:

Tessa Thompson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Star in Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Ash’ for Director Flying Lotus

Budreau will also produce through his Lumanity Productions. Jennifer Davisson...

Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black), Jacob Tremblay (The Predator), Martin Freeman (Fargo TV series), and Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) have been cast to star in the folk horror film Queen of Bones, which is now filming in Canada with Robert Budreau (Delia’s Gone) at the helm. According to Deadline, Queen of Bones centers on

twin siblings Lily (Butters) and Sam (Tremblay) who live at a remote homestead with their widowed father, Malcolm (Freeman), a violinmaker in 1931 Oregon. When Lily and Sam find an Icelandic spell book in the cellar, they begin to suspect a connection between their mother’s death and dark forces in the woods. They then embark on a dangerous mission to force their father and his friend, Ida May (Schilling), to reveal the truth.

The screenplay was written by Michael Burgner. Queen of Bones is coming to us from Appian Way,...

Julia Butters (The Fabelmans), Jacob Tremblay, Martin Freeman (Fargo) and Taylor Schilling (Pam & Tommy) have all joined the folk horror film Queen of Bones, reports Deadline.

Queen of Bones follows twin siblings Lily (Butters) and Sam (Tremblay) who live at a remote homestead with their widowed father, Malcolm (Freeman), a violinmaker in 1931 Oregon.

When Lily and Sam find an Icelandic spell book in the cellar, they begin to suspect a connection between their mother’s death and dark forces in the woods. They then embark on a dangerous mission to force their father and his friend, Ida May (Schilling), to reveal the truth.

Robert Budreau (Delia’s Gone) is directing from a script by Michael Burgner (The Darkest Corner of Paradise).

It hails from Appian Way, Lumanity Productions and Productivity Media, and has entered production in Canada.

The post ‘Queen of Bones’ – Icelandic Spell Book Awakens a Dark Force in the...

Exclusive: Julia Butters (The Fabelmans), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Martin Freeman (Fargo) and Taylor Schilling (Pam & Tommy) have been tapped as the leads for the folk horror film Queen of Bones, from Appian Way, Lumanity Productions and Productivity Media, which has entered production in Canada.

Queen of Bones follows twin siblings Lily (Butters) and Sam (Tremblay) who live at a remote homestead with their widowed father, Malcolm (Freeman), a violinmaker in 1931 Oregon. When Lily and Sam find an Icelandic spell book in the cellar, they begin to suspect a connection between their mother’s death and dark forces in the woods. They then embark on a dangerous mission to force their father and his friend, Ida May (Schilling), to reveal the truth.

Robert Budreau (Delia’s Gone) is directing from a script by Michael Burgner (The Darkest Corner of Paradise).

Queen of Bones is the latest project to reteam Budreau with Productivity Media,...

“People are catching up on films,” is how one arthouse executive described the current moment in specialty, which echoes the slowdown in studio wide releases.

August can be slow ahead of a trio of festivals – Venice, Toronto, New York – and a ramp up to awards season. It can also offer an less obstructed runway for specialty films to cross over (Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma). This summer has been slow, but strong word of mouth has boosted select films. Warner Bros.’ Elvis for one, is at 143 million, pushing five times what it made opening weekend. Focus Features’ Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris opened at 2 million but will cross 10 million. Rrr is a phenomenon, passing 11M. Greg Laemmle said he’s bringing the blockbuster from India back on August 26. Laemmle is also holding an event screening for Neon documentary Fire Of Love next Wed. and hopes that will keep other runs going.

(from left) Stephan James and Genelle Williams in Delia’s Gone. Photo: Vertical Entertainment In 1994, Johnny Cash’s black and white music video for “Delia’s Gone” debuted on MTV, introducing a generation of alterna-kids to classic-style country that was cool in an era of Garth Brooks’ pop version. It was a...

"There's an unhinged dude running around." Vertical Entertainment has unveiled an official trailer for an indie drama titled Delia's Gone, the latest film by filmmaker Robert Budreau. In the film, a convicted man embarks on a journey of violence and redemption to find out the truth about his sister's death. Delia's Gone stars Stephan James (from If Beale Street Could Talk and National Champions). After emerging from prison for 5 years for being wrongfully accused of killing his sister, Louis embarks upon a mission to find out what really happened to her. The cast also includes Marisa Tomei, Paul Walter Hauser, Genelle Williams, Hamza Haq, and Travis Fimmel. It looks like quite a powerful film, with an outstanding lead performance from Stephan. This very much seems worth a watch. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Robert Budreau's Delia's Gone, direct from YouTube: Living with an intellectual disability, Louis is wrongfully...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has locked down U.S. rights to the starry dramatic thriller Delia’s Gone, from writer-director Robert Budreau (Born to Be Blue), slating it for release in theaters nationwide on August 19.

The film follows Louis (Golden Globe nominee Stephan James), who has an intellectual disability and lives with his older sister Delia (Genelle Williams) amidst her struggles with addiction following their father’s death. After a night of drinking, Delia’s truck is found abandoned at a bar, drawing suspicion from the local sheriff (Oscar winner Marisa Tomei) who soon discovers she’s been killed. All evidence points to Louis who, pressured by police, pleads guilty and is sentenced to five years in prison for his sister’s murder. Upon release, Louis is confined to a home care facility where he is visited by Stacker (Travis Fimmel), one of the men to last see Delia alive, who...

Exclusive: Dennis Quaid (Midway), Isabelle Fuhrman (The Novice), David Thewlis (Fargo), Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games franchise) and Kiera Allen (The Good Doctor) will star in the sci-fi mystery Littlemouth, which has entered production in the Cayman Islands. Jonathan Sobol (The Padre) wrote the script and is directing for Productivity Media and and Darius Films.

The film set in the present day follows a brilliant computer scientist (Fuhrman) who is recruited by a charismatic tech billionaire (Quaid) to work on a secret project that might just change humanity’s place in the universe forever, though it comes at great risk. Nicholas Tabarrok is producing alongside Productivity Media’s William G. Santor (Four Good Days) and Doug Murray (Unplugging), with Mimi Steinbauer’s Radiant Films handling international distribution rights.

“This is a story I am passionate about telling and I’m thrilled and humbled with the cast that has...

James Gunn’s Suicide Squad spinoff HBO Max series Peacemaker has added Chukwudi Iwuji, as Clemson Murn in a series regular role, and three recurring guest stars, those being Lochlyn Munro as Larry Fitzgibbon, Annie Chang as Detective Sophie Song and Christopher Heyerdahl as Captain Locke.

Peacemaker will explore the origins of John Cena’s character from the upcoming Aug. 6, 2021 Warner Bros. release, which is also being planned to hit HBO Max at the same time. Peacemaker is a guy who believes in peace at any cost — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.

Of the four characters announced, Fitzgibbon is the head doctor at Belle Reve penitentiary in DC Comics lore and he’s an aide to government official Amanda Waller who assembles the Suicide Squad (played by Viola Davis in the movie).

Today’s quad joins previously announced series regulars Cena, Danielle Brooks,...

Exclusive: Travis Fimmel will join Marisa Tomei, Paul Walter Hauser and Stephan James in Robert Budreau’s upcoming drama Delia’s Gone.

Written and directed by Budreau and based on Michael Hamblin’s short story Caged Bird Sing, the film follows a convicted man (James) on the spectrum who escapes his care home and embarks on a journey of violence and redemption to learn the truth about his sister, Delia (Tomei). Fimmel, who currently stars in HBO’s just-renewed Raised by Wolves, will play Delia’s brother.

The pic is produced by JoBro Productions and Lumanity Productions in association with Productivity Media, eOne and Vigilante Productions, with Moryto Pictures and Ontario Creates. Executive producers are James, Daniel Bauer, Patrick Roy, Anne-Claire Villeneuve, William Santor, Andrew Chang-Sang, John Hills, Alastair Burlingham, Gary Raskin, Adam Moryto, Mark Gingras, John Laing, Andrew Bronfman and Jason Jallet. DeForrest Taylor is co-executive producer.

Delia’s Gone is...

Exclusive: Stephan James, Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, and Paul Walter Hauser have signed on to star in Delia’s Gone, an indie drama written and directed by Robert Budreau.

The pic is currently in production in North Bay, Ontario. Based on Michael Hamblin’s short story Caged Bird Sing, the plot follows a convicted man on the spectrum (James) who escapes his care home and embarks on a journey of violence and redemption to find the truth about his sister, Delia.

Budreau is also producing the project under his Lumanity label alongside Jonathan Bronfman of JoBro Productions.

Executive producers are William Santor, Andrew Chang-Sang, John Hills, Adam Moryto, Michael Hamblin, Andrew Bronfman, Jason Jallet, Mark Gingras, John Laing, James, Daniel Baur, Patrick Roy, Anne-Claire Villeneuve, Alastair Burlingham, and Gary Raskin.

The feature is being sold by Radiant Films globally with eOne overseeing distribution in Canada.

James was last seen on the...

Exclusive: IFC Films is always a player at the Toronto Film Festival in acquiring films and launching awards-season entries — the Hirokazu Kore-eda-directed The Truth makes its North American debut here — but the company is making news of another kind. IFC has solidified its new streaming channel, IFC Films Unlimited, by expanding to Apple TV channels, both in the U.S. and Canada. The service launched in the U.S. last May, and today marks the debut of IFC Films Unlimited in Canada.

The Apple deal gives the IFC Films Ott service an important platform where customers can subscribe directly through the Apple TV app, for $5.99 per month. The streaming service launched with just over 400 films available in the U.S.

The subscription video on demand streaming channel is comprised of theatrically released titles from distribution labels IFC Films, Sundance Selects and genre label IFC Midnight. The Truth, which premiered at Venice,...

Stars: Ethan Hawke, Noomi Rapace, Mark Strong, Christopher Heyerdahl, Bea Santos, Mark Rendall, Ian Matthews, John Ralston, Shanti Roney, Christopher Wagelin, Thorbjørn Harr | Written and Directed by Robert Budreau

1973, Stockholm, Sweden: Self-styled outlaw Lars Nystrom, high on pills, wearing a wig, shades and a cowboy hat, walks into a bank, pulls out a machine gun and fires into the ceiling, cranks up his portable radio, then declares ‘the party has begun’. He takes two bank workers hostage and demands his friend Gunnar is released from prison, $1million, and a getaway car. As negotiations with the police reach a deadlock, one of the hostages, married mother Bianca, initially terrified by being held captive by the erratic Lars, becomes sympathetic, then strangely attracted to him. As the net tightens, and Lars is forced to take desperate measures, Bianca finds herself siding with criminal over cops.

The Captor, aka Stockholm, is directed by...

Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace star as villain and hostage in this fictionalised version of the bizarre robbery that gave birth to term Stockholm syndrome

Since this diagnosis was invented, Stockholm syndrome has become almost a cliche: the psychological disorder making captives feel irrational loyalty and even love for the people holding them prisoner. But why? The victims’ unconscious need to rationalise their own humiliating submission? The brutal power relation of oppressor and oppressed creating its own attachment?

Canadian film-maker Robert Budreau offers his own answers with a fictionalised version of that bizarre event that gave birth to the term – the extraordinary 1973 robbery in Stockholm during which an escaped convict stormed into a bank brandishing a submachine gun, took hostages, demanded his old cellmate be released from jail and brought to his side, and negotiated directly via telephone with Prime Minister Olof Palme himself. His traumatised, mesmerised captives came to...

Ethan Hawke in Stockholm. Courtesy of Blumhouse.

Ever wonder why they call the phenomenon where hostages bond with their captor “Stockholm syndrome?” The semi-comic crime film Stockholm answers that question, in a tale based on a 1973 true incident. Ethan Hawke stars as a crook who walks into a Stockholm bank wearing a long-haired wig and sunglasses, toting a bag full of weaponry, and proceeds to take hostages. However, he is not there to rob the bank. Instead he demands the release of a friend, imprisoned bank robber Gunnar Sorensson (Mark Strong). As the stand-off with authorities drags on, the hostagetaker shows a softer, houman side and starts to form a tentative bond with one of the bank employees he’s holding, Bianca, played by Noomi Rapace, the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

There are undeniable parallels to Dog Day Afternoon in writer/director Robert Budreau’s film but Stockholm is a smaller,...

Exclusive: Screenwriter Janine Eser (Fanie Fourie’s Lobola) has been brought on to adapt the screenplay to Trevor Noah’s bestselling memoir, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, which has Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o attached to star. Liesl Tommy, the director behind the upcoming Jennifer Hudson-starring Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, is directing Born a Crime for Paramount Players.

Nyong’o will play Noah’s mother, Patricia, who served as an important figure to her son in his formative years. Set during the waning days of apartheid and the transition into the new South Africa, the memoir details the personal and often painful story of Noah’s youth. At the center of it all is Noah’s fearless mother, Patricia. In 2009, while returning from church service, Patricia was shot in the head by his stepfather but miraculously survived.

Noah is producing the project under his Day Zero Productions...

On August 23, 1973, a convict by the name of Jan-Erik Olsson tried to rob the largest bank in Stockholm while he was on leave from his stint in prison. Olsson carried a machine gun, and he took a few hostages, but he wasn’t a jerk about it or anything; he was reasonably kind to the bank tellers, he only hurt people by accident, and — as the day wore on — he even started singing Roberta Flack in the vault (the acoustics down there must have been fantastic).

Either charmed by her captor, or simply convinced that he was harmless, one of Olsson’s hostages spoke up for him over the phone when the Prime Minister of Sweden called to negotiate; several others raised money for his legal defense when the standoff was over. It was almost as if the trauma of the whole event had caused its victims to sympathize with their assailant.

Everyone's heard the phrase “Stockholm syndrome,” but where did the term come from? That’s the question that Robert Budreau’s film Stockholm answers.

As the film’s tagline says, the movie is “based on an absurd but true story” and stars Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace as a bank robber and hostage in Sweden who may or may not fall a little bit in love while he is her captor. The film is based on The New Yorker article “The Bank Drama” by Daniel Lang about the real-life occurrence in the '70s.

The ...

Everyone's heard the phrase “Stockholm syndrome,” but where did the term come from? That’s the question that Robert Budreau’s film Stockholm answers.

As the film’s tagline says, the movie is “based on an absurd but true story” and stars Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace as a bank robber and hostage in Sweden who may or may not fall a little bit in love while he is her captor. The film is based on The New Yorker article “The Bank Drama” by Daniel Lang about the real-life occurrence in the '70s.

The ...

Ever wonder where the phrase Stockholm syndrome came from? The answer can more or less be found in Robert Budreau’s bank-heist biopic “Stockholm.” The film announces its intentions from the start, boldly declaring itself “Based on an absurd but true story.” Neither claim — the absurdity, nor the truth — is entirely accurate, leading to a movie that is both intermittently compelling and consistently uneven.

Budreau certainly has enough to work with, having adapted a lengthy 1974 New Yorker story about a still-infamous robbery in Sweden. Though the names and, as it turns out, some crucial details have been changed, the script hews fairly close to the basic event. An impish Hawke blasts things off as Lars Nystrom, the Swedish-born, American-raised troublemaker who announces his arrival at Stockholm’s biggest bank by blaring Bob Dylan on the radio while simultaneously brandishing a machine gun.

The first person to notice his softer side...

The names have been changed. That might not mean much since “true stories” generally do that by making composites of certain characters to give the drama a more cinematic feel, but it means a lot here considering the topic at-hand: Stockholm syndrome. It’s a complex subject dealing with the notion that captives have been known to develop a psychological attachment to their captors that’s strong enough to want to protect them from harm despite themselves being in harm as a result of being held captive. Initially thought to be simple brainwashing, its definition ultimately expanded to shed light on the fact that the reaction was itself a survival technique. If your life depends on the police cooperating and they refuse, don’t they become the bad guys?

It’s an enemy of my enemy is my friend type ordeal that was first brought into the public consciousness in...

Stockholm Sgm and Dark Star Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net & linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Robert Budreau Screenwriter: Robert Budreau, inspired by a 1974 New Yorker magazine article “The Bank Drama” Cast: Noomi Rapace, Ethan Hawke, Mark Strong, Christopher Heyerdahl, Bea Santos, Thorbjørn Harr Screened at: Tribeca, NYC, 3/15/19 Opens: April […]

The post Stockholm Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

While the SXSW Film Festival is kicking off in Austin this week, the Tribeca Film Festival will continue to shine a spotlight on upcoming genre films in April and May, including Joe Begos' Bliss, Ant Timpson's Come to Daddy (starring Elijah Wood and Stephen McHattie), and Something Else (directed by Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella).

From the Press Release: "New York – March 5, 2019 – The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by At&T, today unveiled its feature film lineup. Continuing its tradition of elevating exceptional storytelling rooted in today’s global film communities, the 18th annual Festival will showcase debut works from emerging talent and new works from notable filmmakers. The program includes discoveries, comedies, music-centered, political and social films. The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 24 - May 5.

The feature program includes 103 films from 124 filmmakers. The films selected in the three competition sections consist of 50% women directed films. The lineup includes 81 World Premieres,...

Stockholm, a psychological thriller starring Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace and directed by Robert Budreau, will have its West Coast premiere as the opening night film of The Method Fest Independent Film Festival, which will run March 22-28 at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills.

The festival, which focuses on the art of acting on film, will close with the Los Angeles premiere of Michael D. Olmos’ Windows on the World, in which a Mexican man travels to New York in the wake of 9/11 in search of his father who worked at the World Trade Center.

“This ...

Stockholm, a psychological thriller starring Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace and directed by Robert Budreau, will have its West Coast premiere as the opening night film of The Method Fest Independent Film Festival, which will run March 22-28 at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills.

The festival, which focuses on the art of acting on film, will close with the Los Angeles premiere of Michael D. Olmos’ Windows on the World, in which a Mexican man travels to New York in the wake of 9/11 in search of his father who worked at the World Trade Center.

“This ...

"All of Sweden would like to know: what is it like being stuck in there with those criminals?" Dark Star has debuted the first official trailer for the indie crime comedy Stockholm, made by Canadian director Robert Budreau. This true crime film tells the strange story of the infamous 1973 hostage crisis in Stockholm, which is where the term "Stockholm Syndrome" originates. Ethan Hawke stars as Lars, a "charming, bumbling, Bob Dylan-loving crook" who one day tries to rob the biggest bank in Stockholm, Sweden, taking the bank staff and patrons hostage. But as they soon discover, he's not all that he seems, and soon enough some of the hostages begin to help him figure out how to safely escape with the money. Also starring Noomi Rapace, Christopher Heyerdahl, Bea Santos, Thorbjørn Harr, John Ralston, and Mark Rendall. So this looks as amusing and as crazy as it sounds, but...

Review By Peter Belsito

Stockholm was the best film I saw at the recent Whistler Film Festival in British Columbia.

Many of us are familiar with the term “Stockholm Syndrome”, a phenomenon where imprisoned or kidnapped hostages start to identify emotionally or politically with their captors. The Patty Hearst story is probably one of its most famous examples.

In the most legendary and spectacular case of “Stockholm Syndrome” — the 1974 Patty Hearst affair, the kidnap victim swung all the way over to the other side. Yet that was far from typical. Patty, the 20-year-old heiress who wedded herself to the “revolutionary” Symbionese Liberation Army, was photographed sporting a beret and a born-again moniker (Tania!) and a machine gun.

This is Not about that incident at all.

This film is about the original story from which that the term takes its name. And it is far more complex and interesting than the title might suggest.

Eleven World Premieres plus $146,500 in cash and prizes to be awarded.

‘Mary Queen of Scots’ and ‘Momentum Generation’ to bookend festival.

Canadian Premieres include ‘On the Basis of Sex’, ‘Stockholm’, and ‘Untogether’. Western Canadian Premieres include ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’, ‘Roma’ and ‘At Eternity’s Gate’

The 18th annual Whistler Film Festival (Wff), November 28 to December 2, selected its opening night film and full program lineup from over 1,000 submissions. Festival goers can look forward to 85 fresh films including 50 features and 35 shorts representing 12 countries. Selections for this year’s festival include leading award season fare, quality Canadian content (69% of the lineup) and more female-directed films than ever before (46% of the lineup).

‘Canada’s coolest film fest’ remains true to its mandate of discovering new talent, with the inclusion of 16 first time feature films, 21 feature films directed by women, and with 64% of its program premiering Canadian features, more than any other international Canadian film festival this year.

Ethan Hawke is a notorious multi-tasker. He writes articles, books, and scripts — both “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight” (with Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater) were nominated for Adapted Screenplay Oscars. He’s a gifted theater director (“A Lie of the Mind”), musician, and songwriter.

His day job has yielded a couple of Supporting Actor Oscar nominations (Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day” and Linklater’s “Boyhood”). He can do everything from action westerns (“The Magnificent Seven” and the upcoming “The Kid”) to heist movies (Robert Budreau’s upcoming “Stockholm”) and sincere romance. And he’s having a good year: He’s in the running for a Best Actor nod for his performance as an angst-ridden priest in the Paul Schrader drama “First Reformed.”

Like fellow multi-taskers Mark Duplass, David Lowery, Amy Seimetz and Jeff Bridges, Hawke feeds his creative mojo with rich nutrients. That’s why, at age 47, he’s already...

Ethan Hawke is a notorious multi-tasker. He writes articles, books, and scripts — both “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight” (with Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater) were nominated for Adapted Screenplay Oscars. He’s a gifted theater director (“A Lie of the Mind”), musician, and songwriter.

His day job has yielded a couple of Supporting Actor Oscar nominations (Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day” and Linklater’s “Boyhood”). He can do everything from action westerns (“The Magnificent Seven” and the upcoming “The Kid”) to heist movies (Robert Budreau’s upcoming “Stockholm”) and sincere romance. And he’s having a good year: He’s in the running for a Best Actor nod for his performance as an angst-ridden priest in the Paul Schrader drama “First Reformed.”

Like fellow multi-taskers Mark Duplass, David Lowery, Amy Seimetz and Jeff Bridges, Hawke feeds his creative mojo with rich nutrients. That’s why, at age 47, he’s already...

Exclusive: Anonymous Content has brought in managers Brooke Ehrlich and Geoffrey Sanford to expand the media rights division formed by partners Howie Sanders and Kassie Evashevski last year. Together, Ehrlich and Sanford ran their own boutique management firm The Sanford Ehrlich Company. They will operate out of Anonymous Content’s Los Angeles headquarters.

“Brooke and Geoffrey are two of the very best representatives of critically-acclaimed material, as well as brilliant screen and television writers and directors,” Sanders and Evashevski said. “We couldn’t be more excited to have Brooke and Geoff join us. “Over the course of their very successful careers, they have displayed savvy and a keen eye for talent that is unquestionable.”

Sanford and Ehrlich stated, “We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Anonymous Content and work with their incredible clients, and team. We’ve long admired the way they do business and are excited to bring...

Smith Global Media has picked up U.S. distribution rights to the Ethan Hawke- and Noomi Rapace-starrer Stockholm, a thriller from director Robert Budreau based on the true story of a 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm.

The deal for the Canadian indie is in the mid-seven figures, including a P&A commitment for a theatrical release in early 2019.

"Stockholm is a quirky and supremely entertaining film, with brilliant performances from the entire cast," Harry Smith, president of Smith Global Media and younger brother of actor Will Smith, said Monday in a statement.

Stockholm follows the drama chronicled in ...

Smith Global Media has picked up U.S. distribution rights to the Ethan Hawke- and Noomi Rapace-starrer Stockholm, a thriller from director Robert Budreau based on the true story of a 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm.

The deal for the Canadian indie is in the mid-seven figures, including a P&A commitment for a theatrical release in early 2019.

"Stockholm is a quirky and supremely entertaining film, with brilliant performances from the entire cast," Harry Smith, president of Smith Global Media and younger brother of actor Will Smith, said Monday in a statement.

Stockholm follows the drama chronicled in ...

Stockholm Syndrome is a phenomenon we’re all familiar with — at least, in the abstract. In a hostage situation, some ordinary folks will start to sympathize and identify with the people holding them hostage; it’s a survival technique that carries a weird undercurrent of transgression, as if they secretly wanted to be their captors. In the most legendary and spectacular case of Stockholm Syndrome — the Patty Hearst affair, in 1974 — the kidnap victim swung all the way over to the other side. Yet that was far from typical. Patty, the 20-year-old heiress who wedded herself to the “revolutionary” Symbionese Liberation Army, sporting a beret and a born-again moniker (Tania!) and a machine gun, was more like a case of Stockholm Syndrome to the fifth power.

Far more characteristic is the bank robbery and six-day hostage crisis that the syndrome was originally named for. It took place in 1973, and “Stockholm” offers a loose,...

Recent years have seen a renewed dramatic interest in the chestnuts we all remember from Introduction to Psychology. TV has its Masters of Sex, Sundancers get dueling features about the Stanford Prison Experiment and the cruel discoveries of Stanley Milgram. While we wait for a good biopic on Ivan Pavlov, writer/director Robert Budreau examines the Stockholm Syndrome by reenacting the hostage crisis that gave the phenomenon a name. His Stockholm, which gently massages actual events to serve as a fine vehicle for Noomi Rapace and Ethan Hawke, is far from the first movie to believably show a crime victim coming...

Working with Ethan Hawke on 2015’s Chet Baker biopic Born to Be Blue, writer/director Robert Budreau was eager to work with the actor again, finding that opportunity with his Tribeca-premiering Stockholm.

Given a 1975 New Yorker article by one of his L.A. producers, Bureau found here a most unusual and unexpected story, detailing the absurd incident—a hostage crisis at a Swedish bank—that resulted in the creation of the term “Stockholm Syndrome.” “I was really captivated by the story and attracted to the characters, because it’s a real-life story,” Budreau said at Deadline’s Tribeca Studio, appearing alongside stars Hawke and Noomi Rapace. When Hawke and Rapace came aboard, the project came together “relatively quickly, which is not usual for most films,” the director said.

In Stockholm, Hawke plays a mysterious bank-robbing bandit, while Rapace portrays hostage Bianca Lind, a woman who falls for her captor. A Swede by birth,...

The Tribeca Film Festival will have Ethan Hawke starring in Robert Budreau's Stockholm and Alessandro Nivola playing a rabbi opposite Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in Sebastián Lelio's Disobedience Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Sebastián Lelio's Disobedience, co-written with Rebecca Lenkiewicz and based on the novel by Naomi Alderman, tackles the rules of tradition that come up against the physical quick violent pangs of rejection and lasting desire. Rachel Weisz (Ronit) and Rachel McAdams (Esti) let us read the nuances of their complicated feelings on their faces. The two women, whose past, present and future relationship the film centres on are emotional open books.

Ronit (Rachel Weisz) with Esti (Rachel McAdams) and Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) in Disobedience

Upon Ronit's arrival from the Us back into the North London Orthodox Jewish community she had left so many years ago, she reunites with two old friends, Esti and Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), who...

Ethan Hawke’s upcoming film, “Blaze,” has just added a number of actors to its already impressive lineup, including “Boyhood” director himself Richard Linklater. Sam Rockwell, Steve Zahn, Wyatt Russell, Kris Kristofferson and Hawke will be joining Ben Dickey, Alia Shawkat, Sybil Rosen, Charlie Sexton, and Josh Hamilton in the music biopic based on singer and songwriter Blaze Foley.

Co-written, produced and directed by Hawke, the film is based on Sybil Rosen’s memoir ‘Living in the Woods in a Tree.’ It follows the life of the unsung songwriting legend of the Texas Outlaw Music movement that spawned the likes of Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. Dickey will star as the musician, Shawkat plays Rosen and Rosen portrays her own mother.

Rosen, who co-wrote the film with Hawke, was Blaze’s real, life-long love and their passionate affair is said to form the narrative spine of the film.

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