Andrew Semans: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Writer-director Andrew Semans (Resurrection, Nancy, Please) has signed with WME for representation.

Premiering earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, the visceral and supremely audacious psycho-drama, “Resurrection” starring Rebecca Hall, has been described as “unhinged,” “bat-shit crazy,” “totally out there,” and worse. Of course, these are all compliments for a searing psychological dramatic thriller that’s horrifying, and, yes, tips into the horror genre a little bit, but also just unpredictable in its madness.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K. premiere of “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande,” directed by Sophie Hyde, will open this year’s Sundance London (June 9-12), with lead actors Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack in attendance.

Jamie Lang After a banner 2021 for high-end genre films, industry vets are hopeful that the fantastic can resurrect the corpse of pre-COVID theatrical distribution.As bolts of lightning reanimated the body of Frankenstein’s monster, Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” which turned heads when it took the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Sundance Grand Jury prize-winner “Nanny,” a supernatural tale from director Nikyatu Jusu, have revitalized the festival scene.While “Nanny” may have been the jewel in the genre crown at Sundance, the influence that genre cinema held over 2022’s first major festival was wide-ranging and undeniable. Chloe Okuno’s psychological thriller “Watcher” impressed — segueing into several sales deals — as did Hanna Bergholm’s psycho-horror feature “Hatching,” sold by Wild Bunch and Charades-sold Spanish standout “Piggy,” the follow-up to Carlota Pereda’s 2019 Spanish Academy Award-winner “Cerdita.” Among genre titles at Berlin this year are Dario Argento’s serial killer thriller “Dark Glasses” in the Berlinale Special section, while Bertrand Bonello’s subconscious voyage “Coma” and Peter Strickland’s gory “Flux Gourmet” (pictured above) feature in Encounters.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIFC Films and Shudder has acquired North American rights to psychological thriller “Resurrection” following its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film stars Rebecca Hall as Margaret, a woman who balances the demands of a busy career and single parenthood. Her carefully constructed life is upended when an unwelcome shadow from her past, David (Tim Roth) returns, forcing her to confront the monster she’s evaded for two decades.“Resurrection” was written and directed by Andrew Semans (“Nancy, Please”) and co-stars Grace Kaufman and Michael Esper.

IFC Films and Shudder have taken North American rights to Andrew Semans’ psychological thriller Resurrection starring Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman and Michael Esper.

Jessica Kiang There are very few actors with Rebecca Hall’s facility for making difficult, even contradictory characters seem plausible. So it’s quite something to say that even her knack for the dignified and intelligent portrayal of mental and behavioral instability meets its Waterloo with Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” a psychological thriller that starts off promisingly before swerving into serious (and sadly self-serious) derangement.

Resurrection is a tedious, one-note paranoiac thriller that never shifts gears to get out of its rut. With classy production values and a tony cast led by Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth, writer-director Andrew Semans’ first feature in a decade, since the similarly plotted Nancy, Please, grinds on trying to build suspense but doesn’t have much of a clue as to how to tease and tantalize an audience. A significant theatrical release for this Sundance Premieres item seems most unlikely.