David Hemingson: Last News

In case you were wondering, there was no beef between Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne. The actor and filmmaker collaborated on 2004’s “Sideways,” an art-house breakout that earned over $100 million worldwide and five Oscar nominations including Best Picture (Payne and Jim Taylor won for Adapted Screenplay).

In a super weekend for specialty, Saltburn had a lofty open on seven screens and The Holdovers a nice $2.7 million in a major week-three expansion that put it at no. 6 at the domestic box office. Actors are once again out promoting their films and indie/original fare continues to benefit from fewer studio releases in the aftermath of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Savina Petkova Hollywood might have ground to a halt in recent months during the recent labor strikes, with the role of artificial intelligence in the moviemaking business a key stumbling block between studio bosses and both the writers and actors guilds. But two-time Academy Award winner Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) quipped at the Thessaloniki Film Festival this week that when it comes to AI, he’s all for it. “If AI could write a script for me, I would be so happy,” Payne joked.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, to two parents of Greek heritage, two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne was awarded Greek citizenship last year around the time he was working on his latest feature, The Holdovers. 

Independents are out in force with high-profile fall festival fare from Pricilla to The Holdovers, a big Viva Pictures push with Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronny Chieng), Cannes documentary winner Four Daughters and Waikiki, the debut feature by Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana. the first homegrown feature to be shown there.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ava DuVernay‘s moving drama “Origin,” which tells the story of author Isabel Wilkerson’s journey to write her famous nonfiction novel “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent,” is the latest film to be making the switch from an adapted screenplay run, to original. Deemed an original screenplay by the Writers Guild of America, the announcement comes after Variety reported “Barbie” from Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and “The Bikeriders” by Jeff Nichols, were also deemed original by the WGA.

Filmmaker Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” “The Descendants,”) recently held a Q&A session during the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France (via Variety), with Los Angeles-based French film journalist Didier Allouch overseeing that conversation. Payne gave the French audience a big tease about what he’s currently working on, which could allow him to tackle a dream film genre.

Jaden Thompson The Newport Beach Film Festival, which will run from Oct. 12-19 this year, has announced their opening and closing night films. Marco Perego’s “The Absence of Eden,” which stars Zoë Saldana, will open the festival on Oct.

the atomic bomb, a revisionist doll and CGI Harrison Ford have gobbled up our attention, for better or worse, but not because any of those varied titles have much heart.Then there’s the “The Holdovers,” directed by Alexander Payne, which is set during frigid Christmastime at a Northeast boarding school that’s nearly empty of students. The lovable dramedy, which just screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, is blanketed in snow and ice — and it’s the warmest cinematic experience you’ll have all year. Running time: 133 minutes.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne returns to the big screen with his entertaining and crowd-pleasing film “The Holdovers” which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival on Thursday night, where he was in-person to introduce. With a 1970s aesthetic, a sharp script by David Hemingson, and a trio of exquisite performers, the film feels like the slam-dunk Oscar contender the establishment members of the Academy can get behind. “The Holdovers” reunites Payne with his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti.

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.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic We’ve all seen our share of stories about inspirational teachers. “The Holdovers” is dedicated to the opposite sort: a hard-ass named Paul Hunham whom everyone hates. The feeling is mutual, as Mr.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Alexander Payne’s comedy “The Holdovers” is landing in theaters in time for Thanksgiving. Focus Features will begin rolling out the film on Nov. 10 in select markets before expanding nationwide on Wednesday, Nov. 22, ahead of Turkey Day. It’ll play in theaters alongside Disney’s animated adventure “Wish,” which debuts on the same day, as well as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and Universal’s “Trolls 3,” which open the week prior. “The Holdovers” reunites Payne with Paul Giamatti for the first time since their 2004 Oscar-winning film “Sideways.” In the upcoming movie, Giamatti plays a curmudgeonly instructor at an elite New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the students with nowhere to go. He eventually forms an unlikely bond with a damaged, brainy troublemaker (played by newcomer Dominic Sessa) and the head cook (portrayed by Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

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.

EXCLUSIVE: The biggest deal ever made at Toronto will be on a film that is not in the Toronto Film Festival roster. I’m hearing that Focus Features is tying up a $30 million worldwide rights deal with Miramax’s Bill Block and CAA Media Finance for The Holdovers, after a discreet screening here for buyers held Sunday. Focus will give the film a theatrical release, and Middle East is the only turf not covered in the deal. The film marks the reteam between director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti, who teamed memorably in the 2004 wine-tasting road trip comedy Sideways, a film that won Payne and Jim Taylor Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay. David Hemingson wrote The Holdovers script.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Carrie Preston (The Good Fight) has signed on to star alongside Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in the Miramax film The Holdovers, from two-time Oscar winner and seven-time nominee Alexander Payne (Nebraska, The Descendants).

EXCLUSIVE: Da’Vine Joy Randolph is set to join Paul Giamatti in Alexander Payne’s next feature film, The Holdovers. Miramax landed worldwide rights to the film last summer with Payne on board to direct. David Hemingson is writing and producing with Mark Johnson and Bill Block also producing. Production is set to start today in New England.