Corrinne Wicks Edition: Bits & Pieces: The Elephant Queen is a genre-crossing wildlife documentary, uniquely crafted as a character driven narrative. Its enduring themes are built upon a foundation of authenticity and integrity, brought from filmmakers Mark Deeble (Voyage of Time) and Victoria Stone’s (The Queen of Trees) 60 years of collective experience in the rich tradition of wildlife documentary filmmaking and production. Deeble and Stone, who are Emmy and Peabody Award-winners, spent 25 years living in the East African bush, preparing them for the unforgettable odyssey of The Elephant Queen.
Fromthe first words uttered in pioneering film The Jazz Singer to the early sound years of cinema including All Quiet on the Western Front, King Kong and Singing In The Rain, to groundbreaking blockbusters such as Apocalypse Now, Star Wars, Top Gun and Jurassic Park, sound and sound design are an integral part of films and film history. Sound design makes a film, but, if done properly, most viewers won’t even realise how a film’s narrative and themes are being advanced. Now a new feature documentary puts sound in the spotlight and makes a noise about the sound effects that set the heart racing.
One in 7 (13%) Brits admit to having illegally streamed at least one film over the past 12 months, according to new research from personal finance comparison site finder.com. This is equivalent to 5.4 million people over the course of the year. Making it the most popular form of entertainment to stream illegally, beating both sports and tv programmes. The research found that 8.9 million Brits streamed illegally (17%), with three fifths (61%) of these watching films illicitly.
Corrinne Wicks Edition: Bits & Pieces: Multiple bullets, multiple targets, one name. Pop quiz: someone is running around London killing your namesake. What do you do? Do you run? Do you stay and fight? If you’re quasi-famous YouTuber Ben Lyk (Eugene Simon), you vlog about it and hope for the best. That is, until Scotland Yard try and sort it out, rounding him up along with every other Ben Lyk in town, keeping them holed up in a safe house that isn’t so safe. And once the Ben Lyk’s begin dropping dead one by one, it’s a mad dash to figure out why this is even happening in the first place.
Multiple bullets, multiple targets, one name. Pop quiz: someone is running around London killing your namesake. What do you do? Do you run? Do you stay and fight? If you’re quasi-famous YouTuber Ben Lyk (Eugene Simon), you vlog about it and hope for the best. That is, until Scotland Yard try and sort it out, rounding him up along with every other Ben Lyk in town, keeping them holed up in a safe house that isn’t so safe. And once the Ben Lyk’s begin dropping dead one by one, it’s a mad dash to figure out why this is even happening in the first place.
Chadwick Boseman stars in 21 BRIDGES. An embattled NYPD detective (Boseman), is thrust into a citywide manhunt for a pair of cop killers after uncovering a massive and unexpected conspiracy. As the night unfolds, lines become blurred on who he is pursuing, and who is in pursuit of him. When the search intensifies, extreme measures are taken to prevent the killers from escaping Manhattan as the authorities close all 21 bridges to prevent any entry or exit from the iconic island. 21 BRIDGES is produced by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame) Chadwick Boseman and Logan Coles and directed by Brian Kirk.
When a charming woman named Penny climbs into his taxi, Harris finds himself entranced. That is, right up until she disappears from the back seat without a trace. As he desperately tries to make sense of what happened, he resets his meter and is instantly brought back to the moment she first climbed into his cab. He and Penny find themselves trapped in an endlessly looping ride that changes their lives forever.
Corrinne Wicks Edition: Bits & Pieces: Fans at Lucca Comics and Games convention in Lucca, Italy were treated to the brand new main trailer for the highly anticipated new series The Witcheron Thursday 31st October 2019 when showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich unveiled the footage during a panel discussion with cast members Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) and Freya Allan (Ciri). The trailer also gave fans the first confirmation that all eight episodes of the series will debut on Netflix globally on 20th December 2019.
Although Halloween is a religious festival believed to have pagan roots, in the US it is an excuse for children, and adults, to dress as their favourite film or TV characters, give out frights and eat sweets, play pranks, and in the case of the older participants, have a hell of a party. To reflect this lucrative phenomenon (which generated $9 billion last year in the US alone), Halloween-themed episodes have become a recurring feature on TV shows.
Here are some of the most memorable frights, including The Simpson’s being abducted by aliens, to Buffy accidentally summoning a demon, and Modern Family’s memorable Halloween meltdown.
American Horror Story – Tricks and Treats
No one does a Halloween episode like the the hit horror series, American Horror Story. In the very first season, Murder House, it featured a two part Halloween episode, wherein it is the one night of the year where the dead get up and walk around – presumably because no one will notice as so many people are dressed up as frights, ghouls and ghosts themselves.
American Horror Story – Tricks and Treats
So, the episodes are packed with a load of zombies, and also features the terrifying Rubber Man, as well as a strange creature lurking in the basement.
Bones – Mummy In The Maze
In this episode of the crime drama, forensic specialist Dr Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI Agent Seely Booth (David Boreanaz), must look into a murder, after the discovery of two mummified people discovered in a hay maze.
Bones – Mummy In The Maze
This occurs slap bang in the middle of Halloween festivities, and takes them to the ultra-creepy ‘Dungeon of 1000 Corpses’ fun house at an amusement park, where they must chase the killer while still dressed in their costumes!
Modern Family – Halloween
The Dunphy place is turned into a haunted house for trick-or-treaters, which means all the family get kitted out in Halloween outfits, and all kinds of scary gimmicks are put into place. Unfortunately for the family, everything goes wrong and descends into chaos.
Modern Family – Halloween
Buffy – Fear Itself
In this episode of the massively popular supernatural series, Buffy and her pals go to a haunted house themed costume party. So far, so fun, right? Well, not really, because the house chosen for the party just happens to be portal to hell, and the demon that resides there grows stronger and stronger by feeding on the fear of the partygoers. Wait until the evil being finally emerges – it’s not what you’d expect!
Buffy – Fear Itself
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror
The Treehouse of Horror episodes of the long-running animated series started in October 1990, and has run every year since then around Halloween. The very first Treehouse of Horror was inspired by the ghoulish American EC Comics, which featured three individual scare stories.
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror
In this episode, the Simpsons moved into a mansion house with a curse on it, get abducted by aliens, and Homer has an encounter with a very cheeky raven. Just another typical day in Springfield.
American Dad – Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls
In this hilarious episode of the Seth MacFarlane comedy show, Stan attempts to have the scariest haunted house in the neighbourhood by enlisting five real life serial killers to wreak havoc on Halloween. As you might expect, things get badly out of hand.
American Dad – Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls
How I Met Your Mother – Slutty Pumpkin
Marshall dresses up as Jack Sparrow, and Lily as a green parrot, in a bid to win the best costume at the forthcoming Halloween party. They are both extremely excited at the prospect of securing the fifty dollar gift certificate. Despite having forked out $200 on the costumes themselves.
How I Met Your Mother – Slutty Pumpkin
Angel – Life of the Party
Of course you’d expect a Halloween themed episode in this Buffy spin-off, a fantasy drama about a vampire (David Boreanaz) helping people in Los Angeles deal with problems of the supernatural variety.
Angel – Life of the Party
In Life of the Party, at a Halloween party thrown by Wolfram & Hart (a law firm acting as a front for interdimensional demons), Lorne turns into a horned beast and starts killing guests. The moral of the story is, don’t have too many drinks at your next Halloween party – you might make a spectacle of yourself.
Available to own from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Ahead of the UK premiere of SWALLOW at Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween, director Carlo Mirabella-Davis reflects on the personal inspiration behind his debut feature, healing psychological wounds and his empathy for the horror genre.
SWALLOW is your directorial debut. How difficult was it to get the project off the ground?
Getting a film made is a fascinating process. My late, great teacher at NYU, Bill Reilly, would always say “script is coin of the realm”. The early stages involved perfecting the screenplay as much as I could, writing and rewriting until I felt confident sending it out.
The sacred bond between the producer and the director is the catalyst that brings a film into being. I asked my colleague who the best independent producers in the business were, and she said, “Mollye Asher and Mynette Louie, but you’ll never get them”.
I watched their films and was floored by how incredible they all were. As luck would have it, both Mollye and Mynette decided to work on the film. Amazing, inspiring, driven producers like Mollye and Mynette will support your vision, collaborate with you, and fight passionately to bring that vision to the world. Once we had the finished script and our team, we brought on an amazing casting director, Allison Twardziak, and we cast the lead roles of the film. We were incredibly lucky to have the brilliant Haley Bennett come on board as Hunter, and once she joined the production, along with the marvellous Austin Stowell, I knew we had a powerful film on our hands.
Raising the money was a bit of a challenge in the United States because independent film studios often don’t want to take a chance on a first-time director. Through Sundance Catalyst, we raised some money in the United States, but the bulk of the financing came from France, from our incredible investors Charades and Logical who took a chance on an unusual script, and I’m so glad they did, because they were absolutely wonderful to work with.
Hayley Bennett in SWALLOW
Haley Bennett is outstanding in the film as Hunter. How did you cast her?
We were so incredibly fortunate Haley Bennett accepted our offer to play the role of Hunter. She’s a profoundly brilliant actor, collaborator, and artist who delivers a tour-de-force performance in the movie. I’d seen Haley in Girl on a Train and was deeply impressed, so we made an offer and thankfully she accepted. Haley has a remarkable ability to evoke different layers of emotion simultaneously. She wears many masks throughout the film, layered on top of each other and she can convey all those layers of emotion, all those masks, simultaneously in just the twitch of her eye or the way Hunter fixes her hair. Haley was also an executive producer on the film and very devoted to the project. I got so incredibly fortunate that someone as committed, empathic, and imaginative as her brought Hunter to life with such specificity, authenticity, and heart.
Haley’s character suffers from a condition called Pica, an eating disorder that involves swallowing progressively dangerous non-food objects. What drew your attention to that particular illness?
I remember seeing a photo of all the contents removed from the stomach of a patient with pica, all these objects spread out like an archaeological dig. I wanted to know what drew the patient to those artifacts. It seemed like something mystical, almost like a holy communion, and I wanted to know more. I got in touch with the world‘s leading expert on pica, Doctor Rachel Bryant-Waugh, and she was kind enough to read the script and be a consultant on our film. Although pica is a relatively obscure condition, I felt it could be representative of any rituals of control, any reaction to a difficult situation, any obsessive behavior, and therefore, universal.
The film revolves around issues of control, repression and identity. How autobiographical is the story?
The film was inspired by my grandmother, Edith Mirabella, a homemaker in the 1950s in an unhappy marriage who developed various rituals of control. She was an obsessive handwasher who would go through four bars of soap a day and twelve bottles of sanitizing alcohol a week. I think she was looking for order in a life she felt increasingly powerless in. My grandfather at the behest of the doctors, put her into a mental institution where she received electroshock therapy, insulin shock therapy, and a non-consensual lobotomy which resulted in the loss of her sense of taste and smell. I always felt there was something punitive about how my grandmother was treated, that she was being punished for not living up to society’s expectations of what they felt a wife and a mother should be. I wanted to make the movie to show my grandmother, wherever she is, that her suffering did not go unnoticed. So much suffering goes unnoticed in our world today, and I think through the power of cinema we can increase empathy, fight prejudice, and heal psychological wounds.
SWALLOW is beautifully shot, creating a sharp, clinical edge that makes the luxurious world Hunter inhabits somehow fraught with danger. Tell us how you approached the design and look of the film?
So thrilled you feel that way! I was extremely fortunate to have an incredible, imaginative, devoted design team. Our visionary cinematographer, Kate Arizmendi, our inspired production designer, Erin Magill, and our amazing costume designer, Liene Dobraja, evoked Hunter’s world with such detail and subtext. In order to Illustrate Hunter’s psychological movement, Kate and I developed a rigid visual vernacular, a strict set of camera direction rules that we broke at key emotional moments. Kate had the idea to shoot the film with Master Prime lenses because, as she put it, “Pica is all about textures”, and the Master Primes allowed her to illustrate the textures of Hunter’s world in mystical detail. In a film that’s all about little objects and the tyranny of environments, Erin Magill brought such specificity of space and vibrant color to Hunter’s world. And Liene, who is so good with expressing the characters’ inner cosmology through what they wear, created a wonderful wardrobe journey for Hunter. We wanted Swallow to take place in a stylized world that became more and more realistic as the film progressed in order to reflect Hunter’s growing psychological clarity. Like a perfect pane of glass with a crack slowly forming in it.
Research has shown that more children are swallowing objects than ever before and that adult cases are on the rise too. Why do you think that is?
Interesting question. We are living in a world that is becoming increasingly chaotic and because of that, I think rituals of control are on the rise.
While I’m not a mental health professional, I believe OCD, eating disorders, cutting, all these rituals of control can often be related to past trauma or situations that people feel powerless in. We very much consider Swallow to be a feminist film, and in America, there’s no denying that a certain kind of old-world patriarchy has become newly emboldened.
With the Trump presidency, we’ve seen a reinforcing of patriarchal paradigms, a silencing of dissenting voices, and a rollback of reproductive rights.
We are also fortunate to be living in a time where there are many powerful new voices and activists fighting back; more films directed by female filmmakers, and more films with female main characters that explore these issues. I hope Swallow is one of those voices of change, and I hope it raises awareness and makes people feel seen and less alone.
SWALLOW
Do you think horror films can help us deal with and understand troubling and mentally-challenging issues?
I do. Fear is the oldest emotion, the first emotion. To paraphrase Rainer Werner Fassbinder, “Fear eats the soul”. I think horror movies are a powerful tool which allows viewers to manifest their fears in a safe environment, a communal environment. Once those fears are manifested on the crucible of the screen, they can be experienced and processed in a way that facilitates catharsis for the viewer, providing a greater understanding of what they’re frightened of and why. Once we understand our fears and what drives them, we can emancipate ourselves from a cycle of terror and anxiety. We are fortunate to be in a new renaissance of horror with incredible, personal, socially relevant films like Get Out, Babadook, and Hereditary. Because horror is a genre that is inherently extreme and uncomfortable, I do agree that horror has the hardwired capacity to take on challenging topics. As a lifelong horror fan, I truly believe that powerful, thoughtful horror movies can change the world for the better.
Do you have an affinity to the genre?
Yes! I’ve been horror fan my entire life. When I was six years old, I begged my parents to rent a horror movie for my birthday, and they obliged with a delightful screening of The Blob. Swallow has many little horror film references within it. For example, when Hunter puts the red gels on the window, another Erin Magill innovation, it’s a direct homage to the glorious colors in Argento’s 1977 Suspiria. My fantastic, passionate, inspiring editor, Joe Murphy, and I, bonded over our mutual love of unusual, obscure, art horror films.
Finally, we hear your next film is going to be a supernatural horror. Can you reveal a few details?
I’m working on a feminist supernatural horror movie, among other scripts, but I can’t reveal the contents at this time.
SWALLOW is screening at 6.15pm at Cineworld, Leicester Sq. on Sat 2 Nov, as part of the Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween all-dayer.
Toy Story 4 fends off the mighty Spider-Man: Far From Home to secure the Number 1 spot on the Official Film Chart for a second week.
Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the gang romp to victory for a second time on this week’s Official Film Chart. With both the physical and digital formats now in its toolbox, the Disney•Pixaranimated sequel delivers over 260,000 sales and the biggest DVD and Blu-ray of the week, to hold the top spot on the Official Charts Company’s weekly rundown.
Swinging in at Number 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home snares this week’s highest new entry. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker’s relaxing European getaway takes an unexpected turn when Nick Fury shows up in his hotel room to recruit him for a mission; Spider-Man must step up to take on new threats in a world that has changed forever.
Elsewhere, Men in Black: International zooms up four places to Number 3, while the digital release of Danny Boyle rom-com,Yesterday, which reimagines a world without The Beatles, strikes a chord at Number 4.
A non-mover for Aladdin at Number 5, while The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Elton John biopic Rocketman each slip three places to 6 and 7, respectively.
Meanwhile Godzilla: King of the Monsters (8)retains its grip on the Top 10 in its sixth week on chart and superhero finale X-Men: Dark Phoenix holds on at Number 9.
Finally, all rise for The Queen’s Corgi – the British monarch’s favourite dog – who gets lost from the palace and finds himself at a dog fighting club before beginning an epic journey home. The animated film featuring the voices of Jack Whitehall, Dame Julie Walters, Sheridan Smith and Matt Lucas, is a new entry this week at Number 10.
On this week’s Official Film Chart online show, take a look at the spine-tingling trailer for Annabelle Comes Home, available to download and keep from November 2.
Richard is someone who is honest and sweet and kind and he sometimes get confused on things but is a good person to hang around.
Based on the bestselling comic book, Vin Diesel stars as Ray Garrison, a soldier recently killed in action and brought back to life as the superhero Bloodshot by the RST corporation. With an army of nanotechnology in his veins, he’s an unstoppable force –stronger than ever and able to heal instantly. But in controlling his body, the company has sway over his mind and memories, too. Now, Ray doesn’t know what’s real and what’s not – but he’s on a mission to find out.
The third season of The Crown sees a new guard sweep into Downing Street, as Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) and her family struggle to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing Britain. From cold-war paranoia, through to the jet-set and the space age – the exuberance of the 1960s and the long hangover of the 1970s – Elizabeth and the Royals must adapt to a new, more liberated, but also more turbulent world. Written by Peter Morgan, The Crown also stars Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, Tobias Menzies as The Duke of Edinburgh, Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Ben Daniels as Lord Snowdon, Jason Watkins as Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Charles Dance as Lord Mountbatten.
While adjusting to a new life in a quiet suburban community, a recently divorced mother (Dawn Van de Schoot), and her two teens receive mysterious red letters instructing them each to kill or be killed. As the bloodshed begins, they find themselves in a race against time to protect the ones they love from the people they thought they knew.
Aaron Schimberg’s impressive second feature is his response, as a filmmaker with facial deformity, to cinematic portrayals of disfigured people, from Freaks to The Elephant Man. Simultaneously empathetic and sardonic, Chained for Life’s multi-layered meta narrative casts Jess Weixler (Teeth) as Mabel, a well-intentioned Hollywood star. She takes the role of a blind woman in a hospital-based horror movie about abnormalities, directed by an egomaniacal German auteur. As shooting progresses, Mabel gradually falls for friendly British co-star Rosenthal, played by Adam Pearson (Under The Skin), who has neurofibromatosis. Writer-director Schimberg challenges you to think about representation and exploitation whilst refusing to offer up any simplistic answers, while also paying homage to previous film-within-a-film-practitioners from Fassbinder to the Muppets. (Synopsis by Manish Agarwal)
Following an acclaimed run on the independent film festival circuit, 501 Pictures and Public Displays of Affection, in a partnership with Epic Pictures and Dread, has announced the US release of D.C. Hamilton’s Hitchcockian romance The Fare. The sophomore feature from Hamilton stars Gino Anthony Pesi (“Shades of Blue”) as a weary cab driver and Brinna Kelly as his enigmatic passenger, who charms him as her ride begins over and over and over again. Screenwriter and star Kelly reteams with Hamilton following their work on his directorial debut The Midnight Man. Pesi, Hamilton and Kelly produced alongside Kristin Starns.
The award winning live action short film Brotherhood tells a poignant story of a rural Tunisian father caught in between loyalty to his family and his rigid moral principles. It has been sweeping accolades at film festivals around the world winning 45 awards and selected for over 130 international film festivals including TIFF and Sundance! Brotherhood has already won five high profile awards at Aspen, Melbourne, Short Shorts Japan, Indyshorts and San Francisco International Film Festival.
In Brothers in Arms (aka Semper Fi) the duty to family prevails, no matter the cost. Cal (Jai Courtney, Suicide Squad) is a by-the-book police officer who, along with his rowdy and inseparable group of childhood friends, makes ends meet as a Marine Corps reservist. When his reckless younger half-brother, Oyster (Nat Wolff, The Fault in Our Stars), is arrested after a bar fight and given an unfair prison sentence, Cal – driven by his loyalty to family and fierce code of honour – fights for Oyster in this gripping tale of brotherhood and sacrifice.
Emilia Clarke (HBO’s Game of Thrones), Henry Golding (A Simple Favor, Crazy Rich Asians), Michelle Yeoh and Emma Thompson star for director Paul Feig (A Simple Favor, Spy, Bridesmaids) in Last Christmas, a romantic comedy inspired by a George Michael beat, from a screenplay by Academy Award® winner Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Bridget Jones’s Baby) and playwright Bryony Kimmings.
Shortlisted as one of the nine films in contention to be the Dutch entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, BLOODY MARIE is anchored by a head-turning performance by German actress Susanne Wolff (Styx).
