A24’s Nicolas Cage Comedy ‘Dream Scenario’ To Open Zurich Film Festival

William Earl Nicolas Cage is one of the most admired actors in the world, and given the lore surrounding his unique personality and spectrum of roles, ranging from award-winning to eccentric, he’s always a point of interest in Hollywood. In the upcoming film “The Retirement Plan,” debuting theatrically on Sept. 15, Cage plays a retired government assassin with a violent set of skills, who must protect his estranged daughter and grandchild (played by Ashley Greene and Thalia Campbell) after they get tangled up with some very bad men (including Ron Perlman and Jackie Earle Haley).

Nicolas Cage, after more than 100 credits, finally has his dream role, at least as comedy fans are concerned. He knocks it out of the park as a schlubby balding college professor who suddenly starts appearing in people’s dreams, first his daughter’s, then an old girlfriend’s, and soon millions of people around the globe are seeing this ordinary looking, very plain guy walking throught their slumber in rather non-descript ways no matter what the situation. He becomes a phenomenon, until it reverses and the whole thing turns into a literal nightmare.

Nicolas Cage was on hand for the TIFF premiere of his latest film, “Dream Scenario”, in which he plays Paul Matthews, an ordinary guy who becomes a reluctant celebrity when he mysteriously begins appearing in the dreams of other.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Just when you thought Nicolas Cage’s filmography couldn’t get any weirder, along comes Kristoffer Borgli’s “Dream Scenario” to mess with your head. Cage plays a character you probably wouldn’t notice in real life: Paul Matthews. Schlubby, balding, in wrinkled pants and brown leather loafers, he’s a tenured professor at a university you’ve never heard of, droning on year after year about collective consciousness and the wisdom of the herd.

You’ve seen Women Talking, welcome to Women Swearing: Wicked Little Letters, Thea Sharrock’s fantastically funny feature puts Jessie Buckley and Olivia Colman together in the filthiest pairing since Derek met Clive in the late 1970s. Set in 1920, it’s based on a story that, per the credits, is “more true than you’d think”, which, when you get to the end of it, is quite a claim. Think what a hip, modern and actually funny Carry On spoof of Call the Midwife might look like, scripted by the Coen brothers, shot with a little visual nod to Wes Anderson, and dictated by a screenwriter with Tourette Syndrome.

Nicolas Cage plays a man who gets turned into a meme in his new movie Dream Scenario, which is something that he has personal experience with.

A24 after a raucous Midnight Madness premiere of Dicks the Musical brought the funny again tonight with the world premiere of Kristopher Borgli’s Dream Scenario, another ode and self satire of Oscar winner Nicolas Cage if there ever was one.

Nicolas Cage is looking stylish at the Toronto International Film Festival!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Shane Atkinson’s “LaRoy,” a crime thriller laced with dark comedy, swept three major prizes at the 49th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival. The movie, which marks Atkinson’s feature debut and showcases Coen brothers influences, won the Grand Prize, the Audience Award and the Critics Award. It stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter A raucous, deliriously madcap midnight premiere of “Dicks: The Musical” closed out the first day of the Toronto Film Festival. A24’s first-ever musical, which leans hard into its R-rating and puts an irreverent, queer spin on “The Parent Trap,” played to laughs, cheers, audible gasps and shrieks and, yes, a few groans from the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

It is never a normal “opening night” when it comes to the Toronto Film Festival which is offering numerous films including the much anticipated Hayao Miyizaki film The Boy And The Heron which is the key opening night gala, but there are others including two exceptional directorial debuts from celebrated veteran stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Patricia Arquette making it all a very memorable kickoff for TIFF on many fronts.

It was 22 years ago that Skip Hollandsworth wrote a Texas Monthly article about Gary Johnson, a school teacher who moonlights as a hit man who doesn’t kill people. Now if that doesn’t sound like the formula for a hit movie, you may understand why it has taken so long for Gary’s story to make it to the silver screen, so long in fact that its subject passed away before he could hit the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival where the film is having its World Premiere tonight. Nevertheless Glen Powell never forgot the story and has teamed with Richard Linklater to finally tell it, but it is only “loosely” based on the article. Certain details in the screenplay co-written by Linklater and Powell are made up, and those are the details that actually help make this a hilarious winner, as well as perhaps Linklater’s most commercial movie since School Of Rock. Its quirky true crime element also has a bit in common with Linklater’s Bernie which starred Jack Black. The director seems drawn to this kind of offbeat tale, with some level of truth to it.

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore‘s new movie May December is set to introduce the 2023 New York Film Festival later this month!

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below).

In principle, using the rainy-day, kitchen-sink post-rock of Manchester band The Smiths so prominently in a film like The Killer seems incredibly perverse, given that it’s an exotic, globe-trotting thriller about an American assassin. But in reality, it’s actually very sound choice indeed: legend has it that the band’s singer, Morrissey, had two reasons for naming his band so, the first being that “Smith” is one of the most common and thus unremarkable surnames in the world. The second, and much more subversive theory, suggests that it’s also a reference to David and Maureen Smith, brother-in-law and sister of ’60s serial killer Myra Hindley, the snappily dressed couple whose testimony blew open the Moors Murderers case and whose beatnik likenesses adorn the cover of Sonic Youth’s 1990 album “Goo”.

It’s hard to believe that it’s now over 60 years since Roman Polanski teamed up with Jerzy Skolimowski for the landmark 1962 Polish thriller Knife in the Water. But it’s even harder to believe that these two giants of international cinema reunited more recently to pool their braincells and come up with the most terrible, joyless farce since the heyday of the ’70s British sex comedy. Forget for a moment, if you can, the furor surrounding Polanski’s controversial status as a fugitive from justice and concentrate instead on the fact that the Venice Film Festival, in its infinite wisdom, went ahead and booked this entirely dreadful offering anyway, deeming it somehow worthy of a prestigious Out of Competition slot.

Five years after his triumphant A Star is Born world premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Bradley Cooper is back on the Lido with Maestro. Except, the director and star is only here in spirit owing to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Thank god for Alexander Payne. The filmmaker is, and always have been, a true humanist. A writer/director more interested in human beings, something that has always been the special effect of his movies. A two-time Oscar winning writer, his latest film, The Holdovers, which had its World Premiere Thursday at the Telluride Film Festival, is one of the rare movies in which he doesn’t also have a writing credit. David Hemingson did the screenplay, but the idea, an inspired one, came from Payne, a real film buff who was always intrigued by Marcel Pagnol’s 1935 French film Merlusse about a group of boarding school students stuck over the holidays with a much-despised teacher. The director thought it had the bones for a new story and developed with Hemingson. Still, set in 1970, it is Payne’s first period film after a celebrated career for movies like Sideways, The Descendants, and many others. He has made some contemporary classics, no doubt, but the warm humanity of a trio of people left alone at Christmas in a snowy boarding school, ranks right up there with his very best. It is funny, sad, witty, poignant, filled with snark and heart and great acting. It also manages to be a film set at the holidays that offers something truly new for the genre, and also delightfully not only evokes the period in which it is set, it also purposely looks like a movie made then.

EXCLUSIVE: Last week we brought you news of which A-listers would and wouldn’t be attending Venice. This week, the Toronto talent picture is taking shape ahead of its September 7th kick off.

Pete Doherty has been announced, and will premiere at next month’s Zurich Film Festival.Peter Doherty — Stranger In My Own Skin is directed by the singer’s wife Katia deVidas and will be presented in-person by the singer, who will also perform at the event.Zurich Film Festival 2023 is to be held between September 28 and October 8.The festival’s artistic director Christian Jungen said in a statement of the new film: “The biopic chronicles the British rockstar who, after reaching the pinnacle of his career, sinks into the depths of a serious drug addiction.“His wife, director and musician Katia deVidas, followed the wild life of the Libertines frontman at close quarters for over 10 years. We’re looking forward to welcoming them both to Zurich.”Last summer, Doherty released his memoir A Likely Lad.