Category: NEWS

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of Wake in Fright, the legendary, long-sought-after Australian film, released theatrically at the BFI Southbank and cinemas nationwide in the UK & Eire and for the first time on home video in the UK. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, who later directed First Blood, the first Rambo film, Wake in Fright was the first film to have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival twice, first in 1971, the second time in 2009. This startling Australian companion to Straw Dogs and Deliverance, has been screened across the UK film festival circuit in 2013 and, following a UK & Eire theatrical release on 7 March 2014, will be released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition as part of Eureka! Entertainment’s award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series on 31 March 2014.

“The best and most terrifying film about Australia in existence” – Nick Cave

“It left me speechless” – Martin Scorsese

“It’s not dated. It is powerful, genuinely shocking and rather amazing” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“Have a drink, mate? Have a fight, mate? Have a taste of dust and sweat, mate? There’s nothing else out here.” Balanced on a knife-edge between social realism and existential horror, this disturbing, subversive portrayal of Australia’s cultural underbelly failed to find a wide audience on its original release, but has since become established as a seminal cornerstone of the Australian cinema.

A middle-class schoolteacher, stuck in a government-enforced teaching post in an arid backwater, stops off in the mining town of Bundanyabba on his way home for the Christmas holidays. Discovering a local gambling craze that may grant him the financial independence to move back to Sydney for good, the opportunity proves irresistible. But the bad decisions are just beginning and a reliance on local standards of hospitality in “the Yabba” may take him on a path darker than ever expected.

One of the many triumphs in director Ted Kotcheff’s career, Wake in Fright effortlessly sustains the quality of a sun-baked nightmare, with a relentless forward drive and outstanding performances by Donald Pleasance, Gary Bond, Sylvia Kay, and Chips Rafferty in his final role. A brutal, gripping dissection of the limits of masculinity and amorality to stand alongside Straw Dogs, A Clockwork Orange, and Deliverance, it remains a stunning entry in the envelope-pushing cinema of the early 1970s. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this film in a new Dual Format edition for its UK home viewing premiere.

By Brogan Ord Staunton.

After months of speculation, what everyone has wanted ever since the rumor mill started spinning has been confirmed! Everyone’s favourite Apatow regular has been cast as the Antman!
The news is all that much sweeter considering only 5 days ago, in an interview with Total Film, Rudd did a pretty good job of convincing us, there was no possibility of such a perfect casting choice.

The film will also be directed by British filmmaker Edgar Wright, the hailed director behind the Cornetto Trilogy.

This will be Rudds first film as a Superhero, which sees him and will play the genius Dr. Hank Pym who devises a method to shrink himself to the size of an ant.
For an unknown character, Marvel are taking quite a risk, but with the increasing back catalogue of success, this could be another Marvel dark horse.

With a release date of July 2015, it’s another film announcement that will ensure 2015 as a year to be reckoned with!

Leading independent crime fiction publisher Caffeine Nights is set to publish the first guide to the film career of cult actor Danny Dyer. Written by GQ journalist James Mullinger and film producer Jonathan Sothcott, the book trade paperback volume is comprehensively illustrated with black and white images from Dyer’s film career.

Dyer, who will take over as landlord at The Queen Vic pub in EastEnders on Christmas Day, is Britain’s most controversial modern film star. Idolised by Harold Pinter and with a body of work that has grossed nearly $50 million at the UK box office, Dyer is the most bankable star in British independent films with approximately one in ten of the country’s population owning one of his films on DVD.

With iconic performances in such cult classics as The Business, The Football Factory, Dead Man Running, Outlaw and more recently Vendetta, Dyer is one of the most recognisable Englishmen in the world. For the first time, and with its subject’s full co-operation, this book chronicles his film career in depth, combining production background with critical analysis to paint a fascinating picture of the contemporary British film industry and its brightest star. Packed with anecdotes from co-stars and colleagues, as well as candid contributions from the man himself, The Films of Danny Dyer is the ultimate companion to the work of British cinema’s grittiest star.

Co-author James Mullinger said, “I have been a fan of Danny’s work since I first saw him as Moff in Human Traffic in 1999. A unique and charismatic performance, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Since then, he has continued to impress me in The Football Factory (which I believe to be one of the greatest – and most underrated – films of the noughties), the Oscar-winning Wasp and his work with Harold Pinter amongst others. I feel enormously proud to be co-writing this critique of his work. Danny is one of the most bankable stars in the UK and it is time that we celebrated that.”

Jonathan Sothcott commented, “People will complain that Danny’s films don’t deserve a guide like this but trust me, not only is he our most successful independent film star, he has a huge fan base who love his movies and we’ve written something that they’ll connect with, while at the same time providing an insight into the shallow end of the UK film industry where Dyer has ruled the DVD roost for a decade.”

Darren Laws of Caffeine Nights added, “Danny is hugely popular and still very much on the ascent in terms of his career. With EastEnders about to bring him to a whole new audience, his career-best performance in Vendetta and a very credible back list, it is time to recognise the achievements of this versatile British actor and this book will please fans of British film and Danny Dyer alike.”

The Films of Danny Dyer is published by Caffeine Nights on December 19th 2013.

More information: www.thefilmsofdannydyer.com