Gravitas Ventures Picks Up Comedy Film ‘Halfway to Amarillo’ (EXCLUSIVE)

While the overall quality of newer seasons of “Saturday Night Live” is debatable, most people will agree that the digital segments, primarily those from the comedy troupe, Please Don’t Destroy, are still pretty great. So, it’s exciting to see the Please Don’t Destroy guys get a chance to actually spin off into their own feature film, which they get to do this fall in the film, “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain.” READ MORE: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ Review: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg’s Reboot Is Delightfully Dorky With the release of “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” scheduled for November, Peacock has gone ahead and released first-look images from the upcoming film.

Chances are you’ve seen a “Star Wars” movie. Still, even if you haven’t, you know such basics things like the tagline, “in a galaxy far, far away…” (which actually has four ellipsis points in it, despite the incorrect grammar), you’ll know who George Lucas is, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and probably Yoda.

Naman Ramachandran Gravitas Ventures has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to horror-thriller “Thirst.” The film marks the directorial debut of musician Eric Owen, drummer with alternative rock duo Black Pistol Fire. Written by Owen, in the film, insomnia spreads in a small town, causing fear and panic.

EXCLUSIVE: An announcement today from the Points North Institute will provide a major career boost to a diverse group of documentary filmmakers. 

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights to Academy Award-winning Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival next month.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Brazil’s Pandora Filmes, one of the country’s premier independent distributors, has secured Brazilian distribution rights to “Tomorrow’s Rain”(“Amanhã Já Não Chove”), a Portuguese portrait of bourgeois malaise which was brought onto the market last weekend at the Locarno Festival’s Match Me! Pandora Filmes’ distribution slate takes in “Parasite,” “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” and “R.M.N.” Set up at Lisbon’s Omaja and Brazil’s Capuri, which cut the deal with Pandora, “Tomorrow Rain” marks the fiction feature debut of Portuguese director-producer Bernardo Lopes at Omaja, a 2021 Portuguese Film Academy Sophia Award winner for his short “Moço.” Produced by Lopes and Eduardo Rezende, “Tomorrow’s Rain”will star José Pimentão, who played Ramiro in Netflix’s “1899,” and João Nunes Monteiro, a Portuguese Film Academy Sophia Award winner best actor award winner for “Mosquito” in 2021 and best supporting actor winner last year for “The Tsugua Diaries.” Written by Lopes and Francisco Mira Godinho, who together co-wrote and co-directed TV mini-series “Lugar 54,” an Omaja production for Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, “Tomorrow’s Rain” depicts one summer day in the life of a crumbling family at the peak of the Portuguese financial crisis of 2012. “‘Tomorrow’s Rain’ is a feature fiction family drama that makes an urgent portrayal of a marginalized southern Portuguese region during the 2012 financial crisis, from the POV of a decadent bourgeois family that suffers from a tumor in the form of a secret, consuming them until the day of their inevitable end,” Lopes told Variety.

HBO has picked up to series The Franchise pilot, a half-hour comedy that takes a wry look at superhero movie-making, from Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, Veep and Avenue 5 creator Armando Iannucci and writer Jon Brown.

Just watching the trailer for Sebastián Silva’s “Rotting in the Sun” makes one thing abundantly clear—if you watch this film, you better be comfortable with male nudity. And if the sheer number of penises doesn’t scare you off, then you’re going to be delighted to find a really ridiculous and hilarious meta-comedy.

“This Past Weekend with Theo Von,” the “Pitch Perfect” actor, 39, said that while he thinks television comedies still deliver, the same can’t be said for films.“My theory is I think, I think like Marvel ruined it,” he shared. “I feel like superhero movies kind of ruined comedies.”“Because people go to the theater and you expect to watch something that costs $200 million to make and comedy movies aren’t that,” he added.The “Modern Family” actor said it’s now much tougher to pitch a comedy movie to studio bosses.“You have to like mask it.

Billy Friedkin remains a uniquely unforgettable figure to his friends and colleagues — an eternal contradiction, both cantankerous yet kindly, argumentative yet thoughtful. He was a brilliant creator of popular entertainment but, to his close friends, also was brooding and cerebral.

Ellise Shafer Diane Kruger is set to receive the Golden Eye Award at this year’s edition of Zurich Film Festival. Throughout the course of her career, Kruger has worked with high-profile directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Wolfgang Peterson and Robert Zemeckis. She is best known for her roles as Helen of Sparta in “Troy” (2004), Abigail Chase in “National Treasure” (2004) and its sequel “Book of Secrets” (2007), Bridget von Hammersmark in Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), Anna in “Mr.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Zurich Film Festival will honor the chief executive of German film and TV company Leonine Studios, Fred Kogel, with its Game Changer Award, which is presented to a leading personality from the film industry whose “extraordinary efforts serve to advance the sector.” Kogel set up Leonine four years ago, and it has grown rapidly to become Germany’s leading independent film company, as well as a major TV producer. Its successes as a film distributor have included the release of “The School of Magical Animals,” “Knives Out” and the “John Wick” franchise.

Roland Emmerich’s upcoming gladiator series Those About to Die has been picked up by Prime Video across Europe.

Risks in Hollywood pay off. “Barbie” has already grossed half a billion dollars after nine days in theaters, with no signs of slowing down as the film heads into its second box office weekend.

Holly Jones Ahead of its Locarno Festival world premiere, sales agent Outplay Films (“León”) has dropped an international trailer and poster for coming of age drama “Rivière,” an earnest take on adolescence and the way youth negotiates trauma. “Riviére,” the debut feature of Hugues Hariche, will bow in the Festival’s Cineasti del Presente strand which highlights first and second feature-film debuts from emerging directors, sometimes uncovering exceptional talent. It follows Manon (Flavie Delangle), 17, as she abruptly returns to her hometown of Belfort, France in an attempt to reconcile with her estranged father.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Beta Film has sold more than 100 hours of drama series to PBS Distribution-backed Walter Presents for the U.S., and Channel 4-backed Walter Presents for the U.K. Five seasons of Italy’s gritty crime series “Rocco Schiavone” as well as Canadian mystery dramas “The Wall – The Chateau Murder” and “The Wall – The Orchard” will be available in both territories.

Way back in 2019, it was reported that Daniel Kaluuya was involved as a producer in a new feature film adaptation of “Barney,” the classic kids’ show featuring the iconic purple dinosaur. Since then, there have been a few tidbits here and there about the film, but it many people are curious why one of the best actors working today is so excited about making a film about a huge, silly purple dinosaur.

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is refusing to row back on his decision to invite controversial movie-biz bigwigs Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson to the late summer event, which will take place despite the potential disruption by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. “Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations. Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved,” Barbera said in a new interview with Variety.

Way back in 2019, it was reported that Daniel Kaluuya was involved as a producer in a new feature film adaptation of “Barney,” the classic kids’ show featuring the iconic purple dinosaur. Since then, there have been a few tidbits here and there about the film, but it many people are curious why one of the best actors working today is so excited about making a film about a huge, silly purple dinosaur.

Jaden Thompson Gravitas Ventures has acquired the rights to the upcoming horror-comedy “Slotherhouse,” directed by Matthew Goodhue. Alongside Iconic Events Releasing, the film will hit theaters nationwide on August 30. “Slotherhouse” tells the story of college senior Emily Young, who aims to be voted president of her sorority.