Month: May 2021

The 41st edition of the Toronto Film Festival will open with Sony and MGM’s The Magnificent Seven, as Deadline predicted last night. The Antoine Fuqua-directed remake of the classic 1960s Western stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Haley Bennett and Peter Sarsgaard. It marks latest collaboration between Fuqua and Toronto. Fuqua brought Training Day and leading man Washington to TIFF 15 years ago.

Maggie Grace, who starred opposite Liam Neeson in the Taken trilogy, Ryan Kwanten(True Blood) and Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Huntsman: Winter’s War) have been set to star alongside Toby Kebbell (Ben-Hur) in Rob Cohen’ new action/thriller Category 5.

Scripted by Cohen, Scott Windhauser, Jeff Dixon, Anthony Fingleton, and Carlos Davis, Category 5 follows a team of tech hackers embarking on a $600 million robbery from a coastal U.S. Mint facility the same time a disastrous Category 5 storm is set to strike. The remaining people left in the deserted beach town are a meteorologist (Kebbel), a treasury agent (Grace), and the meteorologist’s ex-marine brother (Kwanten). Together they must not only survive the storm, but also stop the mastermind thieves, headed by Inneson, from accomplishing the heist of the century.

Randy Couture (The Expendables), Melissa Bolona (Dog Eat Dog) and Jamie Andrew Cutler (Kick-Ass 2) have also joined the cast.

EXCLUSIVE: Mainstream and auteur Colombian companies join efforts for the comeback of El Páramo director.

Adam Robitel, who is in prep to direct the Blumhouse sequel Insidious 4, has signed with CAA. The writer-director made documentary-style horror feature The Taking Of Deborah Logan, which was produced by Bryan Singer and became to the No. 1 most downloaded film of any genre on Halloween. Robitel and writing partner Gavin Heffernan previously penned Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension for Paramount Pictures and Blumhouse. He and Christopher Landon also recently sold their pitch Liminal to Fox 2000 with Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson producing. Robitel had been with APA and he continues to be repped by Zero Gravity Management.

The new season will be produced by Roopesh Parekh (The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses) and Michael Ray, and directed by Josh Agnew (Mr Selfridge) and Stephen Woolfenden (Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them). Horsfield continues to serve as executive producer alongside Tom Mullens, Karen Thrussell and Timmer for Mammoth Screen, and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for the BBC.

EXCLUSIVE: From director Darren Lynn Bousman comes Abattoir, a new horror thriller written by Chris Monfette about a haunted house constructed entirely from rooms in which horrific deaths have occurred. It stars Jessica Lowndes, Joe Anderson, Dayton Callie, Lin Shaye and Jay Huguley and follows Julia (Lowndes), a real estate journalist who finds herself on the crime beat following the horrific murder of her sister. When the room in which her sister was killed is literally stolen, Julia’s investigation takes her on a tour of recent and far older tragedies.

Finnish director Aku Louhimies will start shooting his new epic The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas) on June 6, with 80 filming days scheduled.

SF Film Finland has the theatrical launch slated for October 2017, timed to the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence.

The World War 2 historical-drama tells the story of a platoon of ordinary Finnish soldiers in the battlefield between Finland and the Soviet Union.

The script is adapted from Väinö Linna’s bestselling 1954 novel, and its uncensored version from 2000.

The book, translated into 23 languages, has been filmed twice before as 1955 and 1985 hits.

“The story of The Unknown Soldier is very universal. It’s a gripping portrayal of how a tragedy changes us all,” said Louhimies.

Eero Aho (Tears Of April, 8-Ball) will play Corporal Rokka, Jussi Vatanen (Lapland Odyssey) will play Second Lieutenant Koskela, and Aku Hirviniemi (Finland’sSaturday Night Live) will play Corporal Hietanen.

The production has already recruited 14,000 volunteer extras.

Key partners and funding bodies are the Finnish Film Foundation, Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and Finnish Military Forces. Domestic distribution will be handled by SF Film Finland.

Louhimies, whose credits include Frozen Land, Naked Harbour and 8-Ball, recently directed the five-part Irish drama series Rebellion (RTE/Sundance/Netflix).

Louhimies also produces The Unknown Soldier alongside Mikko Tenhunen.

EXCLUSIVE: Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam Ackland and their company SunnyMarch have come aboard to produce Guantanamo Diary along with ZeroGravity’s Mark Holder and Christine Holder. They will produce with Michael Bronner (who is scripting the project) and Lloyd Levin and Beatriz Levin. The project follows the tribulations of 45 year-old Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a man who was a suspected terrorist and has been incarcerated at Guantanamo bay for 14 years without ever being charged with a crime or having the opportunity to defend himself in court. But that may change and quickly.

Convergent Media is providing development funds for the project. Zero Gravity has been on fire as of late with the release of Beasts of No Nation last year, The Accountant, directed by Gavin O’Connor and starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick coming out wide from Warner Bros. in October and prep on an original Netflix series:Ozark which stars Jason Bateman. They are also in post on Headhunters Calling with Gerard Butler, J.K. Simmons and William Dafoe (directed by Mark Williams).

Wilson Bethel and Dougray Scott have joined the cast of Harley and the Davidsons, the six-hour Discovery Channel miniseries about the birth of the iconic motorcycle brand that premieres September 5.

Bethel will play Ray Weishaar, a member of the Harley-Davidson “Wrecking Crew” who helped popularize the slang term “hog” in reference to Harley, taking victory laps with the team’s pig mascot. Scott is set as Randall James, CEO of Indian Motorcycles, Harley’s chief competitor.

Bethel has starred in The CW’s Hart of Dixie the past four years. Last summer, he starred in ABC’s The Astronaut Wives Club and recently wrapped filming the pilot Infamous for A&E.