XYZ Films Takes Worldwide Rights To Horror-Thriller ‘Sound Of Silence’ From Italy-Based Filmmakers T3

Angelique Jackson The hottest sales title at the Toronto Film Festival is officially off the market, with Focus Features landing worldwide distribution rights to Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” in a deal worth roughly $30 million. Paul Giamatti stars in the Christmas-themed film that reunites the actor and director for the first time since their Oscar-winning 2004 hit “Sideways.” It will hit theaters in Christmas 2023. In “The Holdovers,” Giamatti portrays Paul Hunham, a universally disliked professor at a prep school called Deerfield Academy. With no family and nowhere to go around the holidays in 1970, he stays on campus to supervise students who couldn’t go home. After a few days, only one person is left: a troublemaking 15-year old named Angus, a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Along with the school’s head cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), whose own son was recently lost in Vietnam, the three form an unlikely bond as they spend Christmas together during two very snowy weeks in New England. The cast also includes Carrie Preston, Gillian Vigman and Tate Donovan. David Hemingson wrote the film’s script script.

Tim Allen returns as Scott Calvin a.k.a. Santa Clause in the first trailer for “The Santa Clauses”, Disney+’s upcoming Christmas comedy miniseries based on “The Santa Clause” film series.

“This holds a treasure of utmost importance. I thought about destroying it a billion times to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.” So begins the official trailer for National Treasure: Edge of History, the upcoming Disney+ series based on the hit film franchise. The trailer was unveiled Saturday by series star Catherine Zeta-Jones and her fellow cast members during Disney Branded Television’s presentation at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA. The series premieres Wednesday, December 14 with the first two episodes.

Holly Jones Spain’s Bendita Films (“The Clash”) has scooped international sales rights to twisted and suspenseful production “The Uncle” (“Stric”) ahead of its market screening at the Toronto Festival. “We’re thrilled to represent the brilliant debut feature from David Kapac and Andrija Mardešić, a captivating, oppressive thriller with humorous notes that will surely surprise international audiences with its unsettling atmosphere and inventive narrative structure,” stated Luis Renart, CEO-sales & acquisitions at Bendita Films. Written and directed in tandem by Kapac and Mardešić, the project garnered a special jury mention in July at the Proxima strand which has replaced East of the West at the Karlovy Vary Festival. It marks the first feature effort for the Croatian duo who’ve previously paired to create several festival-showcased short films, including post-war noir comedy “Iris.”

After years in the limelight, Selena Gomez achieves unimaginable stardom. But just as she reaches a new peak, an unexpected turn pulls her into darkness.

EXCLUSIVE: UK sales firm 101 Films International has acquired worldwide sales rights (excluding North America) for drama feature Marlene, and will launch sales in Toronto this week.

National Geographic Documentary Films has announced the acquisition of worldwide rights to Bobi Wine: The People’s President, following its Venice Festival premiere.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent It took a pandemic and a lockdown for “Drive” director Nicolas Winding Refn to make a directorial comeback in Denmark, where he had delivered the “Pusher” trilogy early in his career. “Sometimes the strangest things come in mysterious ways, and this is one of those,” Refn says of “Copenhagen Cowboy,” his Netflix original series, slated to world premiere Sept. 9 at the Venice Film Festival. Since “Drive,” Winding Refn has directed the Bangkok-set thriller “Only God Forgives,” with “Drive” star Ryan Gosling; “The Neon Demon,” with Elle Fanning playing an aspiring model in Los Angeles.; and the Amazon Prime Video series “Too Old to Die Young,” starring Miles Teller as a grieving cop in crime-ridden Southern California. He was preparing another project set abroad when the pandemic hit.

Manori Ravindran International Editor MTV Documentary Films has boarded new projects about an all-girl Afghan robotics team, a #MeToo crime story, an imprisoned mural artist and a community of disabled children in Pakistan. The documentaries join a slate that includes Ondi Timoner’s Sundance title “Last Flight Home,” which will be screening at Telluride this week in a rare double festival act. The fledgling division, which was Oscar-nominated for the film “Ascension” earlier this year, was set up in 2019 by legendary HBO Documentary Films boss Sheila Nevins, and ViacomCBS executives Liza Burnett Fefferman and Nina L. Diaz. Nevins was at HBO for 38 years and won 34 Emmys in that period. Her credits include “Citizenfour,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Paradise Lost.”

Naman Ramachandran Janus Films has acquired North American rights for Hlynur Pálmason’s “Godland,” which bowed at Cannes and is bound for Telluride and Toronto. The film follows a young Danish priest in the late 19th century who travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality. It stars Elliott Crosset Hove (“Winter Brothers”), Ingvar Sigurðsson (“A White, White Day”), Vic Carmen Sonne (“Holiday”), Jacob Hauberg Lohmann (“Shorta”), Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir (“A White, White Day”), Waage Sandø “The Team”) and Hilmar Guðjónsson (“Sóttkví”).

Janus Films has acquired North American rights for Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason’s priest drama Godland, which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard and now heads to Telluride and Toronto this fall.

EXCLUSIVE: The Disney+ series will return with Season 2 on October 26, and Deadline has your first look at the trailer above. Following its two-episode premiere, new episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays.

EXCLUSIVE: Naomie Harris (Moonlight) and Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) have been tapped to lead the psychological thriller The Wasp, which BAFTA winner and two-time nominee Guillem Morales (Inside No. 9) is directing for XYZ Films.

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins looks set for dramatic scenes as it released a new trailer teasing the upcoming series on Wednesday.  Starting on Sunday 4 September at 9pm, 14 celebrities will face a brutal selection course run by the elite team of ex-special forces operators - Chief Instructor, Rudy Reyes, and his team of Directing Staff (DS), Foxy (Jason Fox), Billy (Mark Billingham) and Remi Adeleke.Teasing what viewers can expect in a new trailer, it sees a voiceover say: "Welcome to our extreme spa where celebrity treatments include a relaxing plunge pool, skin exfoliation and motivational speakers." It then cuts to Maisie Smith in the desert shouting: "I need help!" while Ferne McCann is seen grimacing during a brutal challenge. It ends by quickly showing a montage of the other celebrities, including Curtis Pritchard and Pete Wicks, testing themselves during the intense experience.The new trailer comes after former EastEnders star Maisie, 21, revealed she went on the Channel 4 show to inspire "other young girls".

Chris Rock to be emceeing the Oscars anytime soon. According to multiple eyewitness, Rock revealed during his Sunday night show in Phoenix, that he was asked to host next year's show, but refused.As many will remember, it was at the 2022 Academy Awards that Will Smith slapped Rock in the face after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith before presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature. «Chris Rock said he was asked to host next year's Academy Awards at his Sunday night show at Arizona Financial Theatre, and that he refused the offer,» the eyewitness shared. «He also noted that he was offered the chance to do a Super Bowl commercial that he also declined.»Eyewitnesses also told ET that Rock compared hosting the Oscars to returning to the scene of a crime, referencing the murder trial of O.J.

Will Smith is fiercely protective of his family – as became clear after his appearance at the Oscars this year. The world was shocked after he slapped host Chris Rock, who made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, who suffers from alopecia. MORE: Will Smith reveals his heart 'shattered' when son Jaden made a shock requestHe subsequently issued an apology, and his family have all shown their support for him - with both Jada and his son Jaden speaking out.Just months before the incident, the award-winning actor released his memoir, Will, where he opened up about his family life - and some of the lessons he learnt through his children. One that stood out in particular was when his daughter Willow, 21, went to drastic measures to alter her own hair in a bid to stop touring.VIDEO: Will Smith prepares to take a dive into the deepest swimming pool on earthWillow gained global success following the release of her hit song Whip My Hair, and signed up for a month-long tour opening for Justin Bieber.MORE: Inside Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's jaw-dropping £32.3million mansionMORE: Will Smith hailed a 'hero' as he shares video of terrifying encounter during family timeThe talented singer wasn't enjoying the tour and told her dad she wanted to stop at the end of the European leg of the trip.However, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star told his daughter that was not possible because she had upcoming dates in Australia.

A Scot who filmed a sex attack on a woman then sent her the video has died in jail.

EXCLUSIVE: Saban Films has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to AGC International and Image Nation Abu Dhabi’s action picture The Ambush and set an October release for the Emirati production which marks its first non-English language acquisition.

Manori Ravindran International EditorBefore the iPhone, there was the mighty BlackBerry — the world’s first smartphone, which enjoyed a meteoric rise in the early 2000s only to meet a catastrophic demise.A new movie from “The Dirties” and “Operation Avalanche” director Matt Johnson, simply entitled “BlackBerry,” will detail the rise and fall of the once-ubiquitous device as its Canadian parent company Research in Motion floundered in legal disputes and eventually lost its market advantage to competitors such as Apple and Samsung. At the heart of the story is the business relationship between co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.The film’s cast is led by Jay Baruchel (“This Is The End,” “Knocked Up”) and Glenn Howerton (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “A.P.

Good Afternoon International Insider team, Max Goldbart here with your mid-August dose of headlines, analysis and silly emojis. We’re taking a break next week but will be back with your favourite Friday lunchtime newsletter in a fortnight on September 2. For now, read on.