Robot & Frank was one of the surprise hits of Sundance 2012, packing a lot of heart and charm into a film about an aging burglar and his robot butler, It begged the questions why Frank Langella isn.t still getting leading man roles on a more regular basis, and why Peter Sarsgaard doesn.t voice more robots. While the following story is sadly Langella-less, the good news is that Robot & Frank.s director Jake Schreier will be reteaming with Chris Ford for an untitled project for Treehouse Pictures, the company behind Nicholas Jarecki.s Arbitrage. According to Deadline, the production company signed off on the duo.s original idea about a high-action love story set in a world reeling from the after-effects of the entire population becoming addicted to the Internet. Sounds like a really far-fetched idea to those of us here at Cinema Blend, where we.re always working to...
- 3/7/2013
- cinemablend.com
Exclusive: The Robot & Frank team of helmer Jake Schreier and writer Chris Ford have reunited for a new project. They have sold an original idea to Treehouse Pictures, which backed Arbitrage. Ford will write and Schreier will direct. The untitled film is an action-packed love story set in the world left behind after everyone becomes addicted to the internet. Their last film, the Frank Langella-Susan Sarandon-starrer Robot & Frank, premiered to raves at 2012 Sundance and was released last summer by Sony and Samuel Goldwyn. It won the Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize and Ford was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Schreier is represented by CAA and Oasis Media Group, Ford by CAA and 3 Arts.
- 3/6/2013
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
Just because 2010's "The Last Exorcism" was called "The Last Exorcism," doesn't mean the story was over. Neil Sweetzer (played by Ashley Bell) has survived the terrifying backwoods horror that befell her family and Reverend Cotton Marcus and returns for another round of Satanic dread in "The Last Exorcism Part II" , opening in theaters this weekend. At the helm of this potential franchise is Eli Roth, who made his name first as a director (with the "Hostel" series), then as an actor ("Inglourious Basterds") and is now taking on the job of producer. In addition to the "Last Exorcism" series, you'll find Roth's producer credit attached to several upcoming horror movies from rising new directors. Roth spoke with Moviefone about how important it is to have new voices in horror, why "The Last Exorcism" has a better shot at connecting with young audiences than "The Exorcist" ever will, and how...
- 2/27/2013
- by Eric Larnick
- Moviefone
Now that Eli Roth has been working on Goretorium, Hemlock Grove, and The Green Inferno, we weren’t sure where that left the full version of Thanksgiving. However, Roth has no plans to abandon the project and it seems to be moving forward. Here’s what he had to say in a recent interview with Behind the Thrills:
“Dude, it’s gonna happen. I’m working with the Clown writers on it. We have a call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Jeff Rundell, my co-writer and I have a very extensive treatment. We finally cracked the story and how to make it really really scary, and the reason to do it, and I’m really excited about it. So the Clown script was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read, and we’re like ‘before Jon [Watts] shoots Clown, he has a window.’ Chris Ford, who’s movie Robot & Frank just opened…...
“Dude, it’s gonna happen. I’m working with the Clown writers on it. We have a call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Jeff Rundell, my co-writer and I have a very extensive treatment. We finally cracked the story and how to make it really really scary, and the reason to do it, and I’m really excited about it. So the Clown script was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read, and we’re like ‘before Jon [Watts] shoots Clown, he has a window.’ Chris Ford, who’s movie Robot & Frank just opened…...
- 8/23/2012
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
I'm sure most of you remember Eli Roth's grindhouse trailer for a fake slasher horror film called Thanksgiving. Well, we've been hearing for years that he was going to turn it into a feature film like Robert Rodriguez did with Machete. It's been so long since we've heard anything on the Thanksgiving movie that I just figured it was dead. Well, it's not, Roth is currently working on the script with the writer of Clown.
In a recent interview with Behind The Thrills Roth is asked about the movie, and fills us in on where the project currently stands,
Dude, it's gonna happen. I'm working with the Clown writers on it. We have a call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Jeff Rundell, my co-writer and I have a very extensive treatment. We finally cracked the story and how to make it really really scary, and the reason to do it,...
In a recent interview with Behind The Thrills Roth is asked about the movie, and fills us in on where the project currently stands,
Dude, it's gonna happen. I'm working with the Clown writers on it. We have a call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Jeff Rundell, my co-writer and I have a very extensive treatment. We finally cracked the story and how to make it really really scary, and the reason to do it,...
- 8/23/2012
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
One of the most exciting financial initiatives for the independent filmmaker is offered by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. It believes that a carefully reasoned and systematic understanding of the forces of nature and society, when applied inventively and wisely, can lead to a better world for all. The Foundation makes grants to support original research and broad-based education related to science, technology, and economic performance; and to improve the quality of American life. Though founded in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., then-President and CEO of General Motors, the Foundation is an independent entity and has no formal relationship with the General Motors Corporation.
Armed with this general knowledge of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation I was lucky to be able to interview Doron Weber, the Vice President of the Sloan Foundation who was at the Sundance Film Festival with a couple of their prize winning films. I also knew of the Sloan Foundation through Denise Kassel and the Coolidge Corner Theater who for two years running has been touting the Foundation at the Art House Convergence held just before the Film Festival.
"It is not fostering films that teach but films that integrate science into the drama that makes for good stories. This program brings public understanding of science and technology which is about bridging the gap between the two cultures and fostering a keener appreciation of the increasingly scientific and technological world in which we live. Also humanizing the face of science—and of the men and women engaged in scientific and technological pursuit.
The Public Understanding Program supports books, radio, television, film, theater, opera and special events. The film program specifically has three components, of which the first is film schools —- which includes AFI, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Nyu, UCLA and USC -- and annual awards in screenwriting (feature scripts and film production, short films).
This is where Robot & Frank was hatched, as a $20,000 production grant to writer Chris Ford and director Jake Shcreier who eight years later turned it into a feature film (on their own. "We also give out a new $50,000 grand jury prize for the best script from the winning screenplays (Best of the Best) and a handful of $100,000 first feature production grants for camera-ready scripts. This is where Valley of Saints won its $100k grant. We later gave Valley of Saints a second grant through our screenplay development program which has four partners, our three film festival partners—Sundance, Tribeca and Hamptons—and Film Independent. Film Independent gave Valley its Sloan Producers Grant of $25k to keep that project going. So in this way we use our four partners as a “farm system” and keep nurturing projects until they get finished."
Two examples were highlights of Sundance this year. Jake Schreir's Premieres film, Robot & Frank, starring Frank Langella, a tale of a man who strikes up an unlikely friendship with his robotic caretaker was developed with Sloan support as was Musa Syeed's World Competition film Valley of Saints for which he granted $100,000 as a First Feature Grant.
But that is not the end of the story. Doron points to continual support of films the Foundation backs. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival of $20,000 was split between Robot & Frank which is about technology and our relationship with it, and Valley of Saints for the innovative way the film depicts the scientist at the heart of the film. It takes a particular point of view to incorporate a scientific element into a feature. Think A Beautiful Mind, Social Network, Moneyball, Contagion, Memento, The Aviator, and even Frankenstein. There are many way to make a science and technology-themed film.
Valley of Saints : Teaser Trailer from People's Television on Vimeo.
Valley of Saints, also won the World Audience Award at Sundance. This beautiful film taking place in crown jewel of Kashmir, Dal Lake is a sprawling aquatic community where erupting political violence often distracts from the natural beauty. In Berlin's Efm, it will be represented by The Film Collaborative. See the trailer here.
Another element of the Sloan Foundation is its support of the distribution of these films. Art House Convergence has become a grantee of distribution support as well. Films like Frankenstein or any other film chosen by a member theater of the Art House Convergence can be chosen along with a speaker on the science in the film and distribution will be paid for by the Sloan Foundation. "This is a new program and so far no Sloan film has been distributed. But as a condition of the new grants, every theatre which agrees to screen three Science on Screen films will have to choose one from the Sloan Library of films that have either won prizes by us or been developed with foundation help."
The Science on Screen: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant Program began at The Coolidge Corner Theater. Denise Kassel who left the Hamptons Film Festival to go to Coolidge Corner used her relationship with the Sloan Foundation to expand film and scientific literacy with this popular program, now in its eighth year. Last year, eight grants of $7,000 were awarded to Convergence participants. Those grant recipients returned this year to Ahc to tell others about their Science on Screen experiences, and to encourage other theaters to apply for this year’s expanded grants program. Through generous funding support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Coolidge Corner Theatre is launching a second year of its national Science on Screen initiative at the Art House Convergence. In 2012, the Coolidge will issue 20 grants of $7,000 to art house cinemas across the country for use in implementing their own Science on Screen programming. Denise Kasell, Executive Director, Coolidge Corner Theatre discussed this with Beth Gilligan, Associate Director of Development, Marketing & Outreach, Coolidge Corner Theatre; Cheryl White, Science on Screen Program Manager, Coolidge Corner Theatre; Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Brian Hearn, Film Curator, Oklahoma City Museum of Art; Tara Schroeder, Director of Programming & Marketing, Tampa Theatre.
The Foundation’s Public Understanding Project which includes film as one small part of its reach has four feature film projects that have been completed and are being released: Future Weather which might go to Tribeca, and Whaling City which is in post and received $100,000, Robot & Frank and Valley of Saints. They now have a library of 30 films.
Doron told me how it works. “First each partner institution selects a short list with a committee of film professional and scientists. Then they send me what they have. I weigh in about suitability only after they have chosen something as film-worthy. The films are not sci-fi or about medicine. They are about science or technology. The mission is to deepen appreciation of modern life via two cultures, that of everyday life and that of science.” He receives scripts from one of four partners who have chosen them: Tribeca, Sundance, Film Independent and the Hamptons Film Festival.
“We also read scripts from six film schools which is how we got Valley of Saints and Robot & Frank. “ The six film schools are Nyu's Tisch School, Columbia U., USC, UCLA, AFI and Carnegie Mellon.
The material might be Alan Alda's current play at the Geffen Theater in L.A. on Marie Curie (though there are two other Marie Curie projects); they also will commission such plays, or books, radio, tv. The plays are a totally separate theatre program. "Here we have three theatre partners: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Company and Playwrights Horizons. The Foundation comes in very early with development money which they recognize is very important and very hard to find. An example is How The World Began. This is just a play. The other play is Photograph 51 which is being developed into a screenplay by the playwright Anna Ziegler, Rachel Weisz as producer and Protozoa Pictures. There is no budget yet though I suspect it will come out closer to $5 million. Photographing Creationism which is about DNA went from a play to a screenplay with a budget of $10 million."
Doron Weber came to Sloan with a background in the humanities rather than in science. He has also written several books in the health and science arena and worked at the Rockefeller University, a world class biomedical center. “ My education is in the arts but my professional life has been at the intersection of science and the arts.” He came to Sloan who did not do art projects at that time, and he brought them in on mass media. He has been at the Foundation for more than sixteen years.
Armed with this general knowledge of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation I was lucky to be able to interview Doron Weber, the Vice President of the Sloan Foundation who was at the Sundance Film Festival with a couple of their prize winning films. I also knew of the Sloan Foundation through Denise Kassel and the Coolidge Corner Theater who for two years running has been touting the Foundation at the Art House Convergence held just before the Film Festival.
"It is not fostering films that teach but films that integrate science into the drama that makes for good stories. This program brings public understanding of science and technology which is about bridging the gap between the two cultures and fostering a keener appreciation of the increasingly scientific and technological world in which we live. Also humanizing the face of science—and of the men and women engaged in scientific and technological pursuit.
The Public Understanding Program supports books, radio, television, film, theater, opera and special events. The film program specifically has three components, of which the first is film schools —- which includes AFI, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Nyu, UCLA and USC -- and annual awards in screenwriting (feature scripts and film production, short films).
This is where Robot & Frank was hatched, as a $20,000 production grant to writer Chris Ford and director Jake Shcreier who eight years later turned it into a feature film (on their own. "We also give out a new $50,000 grand jury prize for the best script from the winning screenplays (Best of the Best) and a handful of $100,000 first feature production grants for camera-ready scripts. This is where Valley of Saints won its $100k grant. We later gave Valley of Saints a second grant through our screenplay development program which has four partners, our three film festival partners—Sundance, Tribeca and Hamptons—and Film Independent. Film Independent gave Valley its Sloan Producers Grant of $25k to keep that project going. So in this way we use our four partners as a “farm system” and keep nurturing projects until they get finished."
Two examples were highlights of Sundance this year. Jake Schreir's Premieres film, Robot & Frank, starring Frank Langella, a tale of a man who strikes up an unlikely friendship with his robotic caretaker was developed with Sloan support as was Musa Syeed's World Competition film Valley of Saints for which he granted $100,000 as a First Feature Grant.
But that is not the end of the story. Doron points to continual support of films the Foundation backs. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival of $20,000 was split between Robot & Frank which is about technology and our relationship with it, and Valley of Saints for the innovative way the film depicts the scientist at the heart of the film. It takes a particular point of view to incorporate a scientific element into a feature. Think A Beautiful Mind, Social Network, Moneyball, Contagion, Memento, The Aviator, and even Frankenstein. There are many way to make a science and technology-themed film.
Valley of Saints : Teaser Trailer from People's Television on Vimeo.
Valley of Saints, also won the World Audience Award at Sundance. This beautiful film taking place in crown jewel of Kashmir, Dal Lake is a sprawling aquatic community where erupting political violence often distracts from the natural beauty. In Berlin's Efm, it will be represented by The Film Collaborative. See the trailer here.
Another element of the Sloan Foundation is its support of the distribution of these films. Art House Convergence has become a grantee of distribution support as well. Films like Frankenstein or any other film chosen by a member theater of the Art House Convergence can be chosen along with a speaker on the science in the film and distribution will be paid for by the Sloan Foundation. "This is a new program and so far no Sloan film has been distributed. But as a condition of the new grants, every theatre which agrees to screen three Science on Screen films will have to choose one from the Sloan Library of films that have either won prizes by us or been developed with foundation help."
The Science on Screen: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant Program began at The Coolidge Corner Theater. Denise Kassel who left the Hamptons Film Festival to go to Coolidge Corner used her relationship with the Sloan Foundation to expand film and scientific literacy with this popular program, now in its eighth year. Last year, eight grants of $7,000 were awarded to Convergence participants. Those grant recipients returned this year to Ahc to tell others about their Science on Screen experiences, and to encourage other theaters to apply for this year’s expanded grants program. Through generous funding support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Coolidge Corner Theatre is launching a second year of its national Science on Screen initiative at the Art House Convergence. In 2012, the Coolidge will issue 20 grants of $7,000 to art house cinemas across the country for use in implementing their own Science on Screen programming. Denise Kasell, Executive Director, Coolidge Corner Theatre discussed this with Beth Gilligan, Associate Director of Development, Marketing & Outreach, Coolidge Corner Theatre; Cheryl White, Science on Screen Program Manager, Coolidge Corner Theatre; Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Brian Hearn, Film Curator, Oklahoma City Museum of Art; Tara Schroeder, Director of Programming & Marketing, Tampa Theatre.
The Foundation’s Public Understanding Project which includes film as one small part of its reach has four feature film projects that have been completed and are being released: Future Weather which might go to Tribeca, and Whaling City which is in post and received $100,000, Robot & Frank and Valley of Saints. They now have a library of 30 films.
Doron told me how it works. “First each partner institution selects a short list with a committee of film professional and scientists. Then they send me what they have. I weigh in about suitability only after they have chosen something as film-worthy. The films are not sci-fi or about medicine. They are about science or technology. The mission is to deepen appreciation of modern life via two cultures, that of everyday life and that of science.” He receives scripts from one of four partners who have chosen them: Tribeca, Sundance, Film Independent and the Hamptons Film Festival.
“We also read scripts from six film schools which is how we got Valley of Saints and Robot & Frank. “ The six film schools are Nyu's Tisch School, Columbia U., USC, UCLA, AFI and Carnegie Mellon.
The material might be Alan Alda's current play at the Geffen Theater in L.A. on Marie Curie (though there are two other Marie Curie projects); they also will commission such plays, or books, radio, tv. The plays are a totally separate theatre program. "Here we have three theatre partners: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Company and Playwrights Horizons. The Foundation comes in very early with development money which they recognize is very important and very hard to find. An example is How The World Began. This is just a play. The other play is Photograph 51 which is being developed into a screenplay by the playwright Anna Ziegler, Rachel Weisz as producer and Protozoa Pictures. There is no budget yet though I suspect it will come out closer to $5 million. Photographing Creationism which is about DNA went from a play to a screenplay with a budget of $10 million."
Doron Weber came to Sloan with a background in the humanities rather than in science. He has also written several books in the health and science arena and worked at the Rockefeller University, a world class biomedical center. “ My education is in the arts but my professional life has been at the intersection of science and the arts.” He came to Sloan who did not do art projects at that time, and he brought them in on mass media. He has been at the Foundation for more than sixteen years.
- 2/8/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Last night, I got to spend an evening at the BFI surrounded by dozens of amateur film-makers, all buzzing with excitement at making the shortlist for the 2010 Virgin Media Shorts Awards. In an auditorium packed with 450 cast, crew, journalists and judges, we got to see the 12 finalist entries all desperate to find out who would be crowed the 2010 champion.
The awards were hosted by Danny Wallace who did a wonderful job at keeping the audience entertained in between all of the 12 short movies that were shown on the giant screen in the BFI to rapturous applause. The 12 shorts were picked out of a massive 1600 entries by the judges of the competition which included Actress, Thandie Newton, Directors, Duncan Jones and Mike Newell, Film Critic James King, Executive Director of Digital Entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose, the Senior Production Executive at the UK Film Council, Chris Collins and finally, the VIP Judge,...
The awards were hosted by Danny Wallace who did a wonderful job at keeping the audience entertained in between all of the 12 short movies that were shown on the giant screen in the BFI to rapturous applause. The 12 shorts were picked out of a massive 1600 entries by the judges of the competition which included Actress, Thandie Newton, Directors, Duncan Jones and Mike Newell, Film Critic James King, Executive Director of Digital Entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose, the Senior Production Executive at the UK Film Council, Chris Collins and finally, the VIP Judge,...
- 10/6/2010
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Sure why not, in the midst of all the pomp around TV upfront season with networks announcing their fall lineups, web TV network Atom.com unveiled its shiny new slate of comedy web series today. There’s a lot to digest here, so we’ll start with just the news. As we reported earlier Atom’s flagship comedy The Legend of Neil returns for its 7-episode third season this summer and Nytvf-winning series Johnny B. Homeless has a 9-episode pickup starting June 15. The slate actually begins today, with the premiere of M'Larky from creator Dan Fogler who stars as detective Black in a cop show well past its prime. Josh Warren stars as Detective John M’Larky, who with “his maniacal colleagues who go undercover in their pursuit of booze, broads and Colombian drug runners.” Also set to appear in the series are Gilbert Gottfried, Jeffrey Ross and Tony Hawk.
- 5/19/2010
- by Marc Hustvedt
- Tubefilter.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.