Errol Morris Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Longtime TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will be returning for more in-depth tête-à-têtes with noted filmmakers. Mankiewicz’s “Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast” has been renewed for Season 2 by TCM and Max. He announced the renewal on the Season 1 finale featuring guest Bill Hader, star, co-creator and director of HBO’s “Barry” and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member.

John le Carré‘s famous spy character George Smiley hasn’t retired quite yet. Nick Harkaway, le Carré’s son, is writing a new Smiley novel that will publish globally in fall 2024.

EXCLUSIVE: Documentary+, the ad-supported streaming platform launched by Bryn Mooser’s XTR, is moving into distribution.

The International Documentary Association announced its shortlists of features and shorts in the running for the 39th IDA Documentary Awards, a list as notable for what was left out as for what films made the cut.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In 2016, John le Carré published a memoir called “The Pigeon Tunnel,” which the late spy novelist — who died in late 2020 — claims had been the working title of nearly all his books at some point. For le Carré, the term describes the passage through which naive birds of sport were forced from their nests, only to emerge as targets for marksmen waiting with rifles poised at a hotel in Monte Carlo.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

Welcome to the premiere episode of Doc Talk, our new podcast hosted by Oscar-winning writer-director John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor Matt Carey. We’re kicking off with a deep dive into a signature power of documentary: The capacity to right a grave wrong in the criminal justice system by freeing a wrongfully convicted prisoner. Only a handful of major nonfiction filmmakers has achieved this extraordinary feat, springing men and women who faced Death Row or life sentences.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Academy-Award winning documentarian Errol Morris explores the life and career of former British spy David Cornwell — better known as John le Carré, author of such classic espionage novels as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “The Constant Gardener.” Set against the backdrop of the Cold War leading into present day, the 94-minute docu spans six decades. Archival footage, dramatized vignettes and Morris’ expert interviewing skills allow viewers to see and hear the late spy and author in a very candid light. (Cornwell died in December 2020.)“The Pigeon Tunnel,” which draws on Cornwell’s bestselling memoir of the same name, is an Apple Original Films production.

From every perspective, John le Carré lived a highly enviable life, a sense confirmed over and over again in The Pigeon Tunnel, Errol Morris’ elaborate, super-smart sizing up of one of the most successful writers of the past century. The author gained fame as a novelist fine-tuned to examine the many layers of intrigue, rivalry, deception, ruthlessness and intelligence employed in the epic battle between East and West in the second half of the 20th century, one that, rather remarkably, never exploded into World War III.

Addie Morfoot Contributor When it comes to documentary filmmakers, Alex Gibney, Errol Morris and Raoul Peck are at the top of their game. Along with tremendous talent, each helmer possesses what every successful documentarian needs — business savvy — which in turn has allowed them to experience continued success over many years.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris unveiled his new documentary The Pigeon Tunnel – about the spy-turned-novelist David Cornwell, aka John le Carré – at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday. Audience buzz afterwards ranked it among Morris’s best work, a canon that includes the classics The Thin Blue Line and Gates of Heaven.

Early in his new film “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Errol Morris creates one of the most vivid images of a career packed with them: a man in a suit walking through a meadow filled with mirrors. He’s always had a gift for finding specific and memorable visual metaphors for the stories he tells and the themes he’s drawn to; here, what’s noteworthy isn’t just the mirrors but the way the man keeps moving away from them.

The pandemic-fueled era of bingewatching was really beneficial to the current age of documentaries. Had a great documentary film idea? Well, folks like Netflix, Apple, etc.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Films about Grammy Award winner Jon Batiste, Andy Kaufman and designer John Galliano are part of this year’s Telluride Film Festival documentary feature lineup.In all, 22 feature and four short documentaries are heading to the 50th edition of TFF, where buzz for docs seeking Oscar consideration frequently takes hold.The lineup, kept under wraps until the eve of the fest’s opening on Aug. 31, includes docs from novice and veteran documentarians, including Errol Morris (“The Pigeon Tunnel”), Madeleine Gavin (“Beyond Utopia”), Matthew Heineman (“American Symphony”) and Paul B.

Addie Morfoot Contributor The 19th edition of the Camden Intl. Film Festival, kicking off Sept. 14, will feature a handful of award-contending documentaries fresh off showings at Telluride, Toronto, Sundance, South by Southwest, Berlin and Tribeca film festivals.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter New York Film Festival will serve as the world premiere of Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s genre-defying series “The Curse,” led by Emma Stone; and Garth Davis’s science-fiction drama “Foe,” starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. They will screen as part of Spotlight, which Film at Lincoln Center describes as a selection of “significant and surprising films, one-of-a-kind presentations including adventurous portraits of creative minds, one-night only events with live musical accompaniment, bold short films by acclaimed directors, and probing documentaries.” As previously announced, Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” will hold its North American premiere on Oct.

The WGA East and the Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700, have won a major victory in their joint effort to unionize producers and editorial employees at Story Syndicate, the Brooklyn-based documentary powerhouse behind such nonfiction features and series as Harry and Meghan and Unknown for Netflix, Fauci for PBS and I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and Last Call for HBO.

The Toronto International Film Festival announced its lineup of documentaries this morning, a slate that includes the world premiere of a film on uncancelled comedian Louis C.K., as well as fresh work from nonfiction greats Raoul Peck, Frederick Wiseman, Errol Morris, Lucy Walker and Roger Ross Williams.

EXCLUSIVE: David Cornwell, the British spy better known to the world under his pen name John le Carré, reveals secrets of his extraordinary life in a documentary directed by nonfiction filmmaking legend Errol Morris.

EXCLUSIVE: Gersh has signed in-demand Canadian actress Molly Parker for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Errol Morris, who made his name with Texas true-crime documentary The Thin Blue Line, is heading back to the Lone Star state for his latest project.

EXCLUSIVE: Summer of Soul producer RadicalMedia has hired New York attorney and business strategist Candice Cook Simmons as Chief Strategy Officer.

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Schwartzman and Cole Harper’s growing U.S. distribution and sales firm Utopia has promoted Kyle Greenberg to Head of Marketing & Distribution.

WestEnd Films is launching international sales in Cannes on Sinner V. Saints, a comedy based on the true story of the so-called “manacled Mormon” sex scandal. Maisie Williams and Freddie Highmore are lined up to star. Tim Kirkby (Fleabag, Veep, The Pentaverate) is directing with shooting due to begin in the first quarter of next year in the U.S. and UK.

Manori Ravindran International EditorFreddie Highmore and Maisie Williams will star in an adaptation of a bizarre true story about an American ex-beauty queen who was accused of kidnapping and raping a Mormon missionary in England.Entitled “Sinner V. Saints,” the movie is directed by Tim Kirkby (“Fleabag,” “Veep”) and will be sold by WestEnd Films, which is shopping the project to buyers in Cannes next week.

EXCLUSIVE: Airbnb’s damage control strategy when things go wrong during a vacation stay is to be explored in a docuseries from Queer Eye producer Scout Productions and Bloomberg Media.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“2nd Chance” may be the best Errol Morris movie that Errol Morris never made. It’s the first documentary feature directed by Ramin Bahrani, who has often brought a real-world edge to his dramas (“The White Tiger,” “Chop Shop”), and the figure at the film’s center could be a true-life character out of Morris land — one of those rational-on-the-surface, only-in-America compartmentalized crackpot geeks whose hidden dark depths just about scream, “Look out, I‘m a walking nonfiction metaphor!”In “2nd Chance,” that character is one Richard Davis, who invented the bulletproof vest as we know it.

Addie Morfoot ContributorTen years ago, the New York Times embarked on an experiment to incorporate short documentary films into its opinion section and quickly established itself as an alternative to HBO Documentary Films, then the most prominent distributor of short documentaries, growing along with the market for these short nonfiction films in its first decade.Errol Morris, Jessica Yu and Alex Gibney made shorts for “New York Times: Op-Docs” its inaugural year and since that time its roster

William Earl Variety and Rolling Stone are pleased to announce programming for the inaugural Truth Seekers virtual summit on Aug. 26, presented by Showtime Documentary Films.

Diane Garrett True crime documentaries can horrify — and galvanize — viewers, leading to the release of wrongfully accused convicts and sometimes reform. Errol Morris expanded the notion of what documentaries can be with his 1988 doc-noir “The Thin Blue Line,” which controversially recreated the killing of a Dallas cop and led to the release of Randall Adams after 12 years behind bars.

Some stories seem too strange to be true — Matt DeHart‘s is one of them. “Enemies of the State” is finally telling his story.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorCopenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, better known as CPH:DOX, has unveiled its full program, which includes the screenings of 180 films, interactive art, and 40 live debates and talks with artists, experts and opinion-makers.The festival offers new films from a number of leading directors.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe documentary as true-life suspense mystery came to the fore, and might have been invented, by Errol Morris, when he released “The Thin Blue Line” in 1988. It was the rare nonfiction film that had a demonstrable real-world impact (its twisty investigation into the case of a convicted killer, Randall Adams, led to Adams’ conviction being overturned by the Texas Court of Appeals).

IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to Sonia Kennebeck’s (National Bird) documentary thriller Enemies of the State which is executive produced by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (The Fog of War). The docu will be released this summer.

Joanna Harcourt-Smith, the alluring subject of Errol Morris’ Showtime documentary My Psychedelic Love Story, became enthralled in the 1970s with the LSD guru Timothy Leary. It’s a sentiment the Oscar-winning filmmaker could understand.

Need a good real-life mystery to solve? TV audiences love them. And documentary maker Errol Morris famously investigated a murder with The Thin Blue Line, a government LSD conspiracy with Wormwood and Robert McNamara's role in history in Fog of War.