Bound: Last News

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Seasoned Finnish producer Ilkka Matila (“The Eternal Road”, “All the Sins”) of MRP Matila Röhr has signed with Estonia’s Taska Film and locked early support from the Finnish Film Institute and local commercial channel MTV3 for the $2.7m film “Between the Hammer and the Sickle.” Nordisk Film holds Scandinavian rights. To be pitched on Aug. 24 at the Nordic Co-Production Market in Haugesund, Norway, the title will be one of Matila’s most defining projects, a feature which he believes will stay, along the lines of the multi-awarded “Mother of Mine” or “The Eternal Road.” “Between the Hammer and the Sickle” will be one of the first features ever to portray Finland’s illustrious former president Urho Kekkonen. Head of state for nearly 26 years, Kekkonen served as the longest-serving Finnish president from 1956 until 1981 and masterminded his country’s policy of neutrality, keeping at bay the threatening Soviet Union with which Finland shares 800 miles of border.

With Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom Exodus due to world premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, Zentropa has dropped a look at the kinetic opening sequence as well as a set of new posters (check out the video above and see photos below).

Leah Remini was a no-show at her best friend Jennifer Lopez's wedding to Ben Affleck over the weekend, opting instead to spend time with her college-bound daughter Sofia Pagan.  According to TMZ, the actress, 52, chose to 'prioritize family time' as her 18-year-old  wraps up her summer.The publication noted that there were no hard feelings over the scheduling conflict, and that the two remain friends. Absent: Leah Remini was a no-show for her best friend Jennifer Lopez's Georgia wedding with Ben Affleck over the weekendRemini was in good company, as others close to the couple also didn't make it to Riceboro, GA for the big day.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired Laura Baumeister’s feature debut “Daughter of Rage” ahead of its world premiere at Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals. Baumeister previously directed the shorts “Isabel im Winter” which played at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2014 and “Ombligo De Agua” which screened in Rotterdam and Clermont-Ferrand in 2018.

Naman Ramachandran Altitude is handling international sales and U.K. and Irish distribution for Laura Poitras’ documentary about artist and activist Nan Goldin, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”The film is scheduled to make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it will compete for the Golden Lion, an opportunity rarely accorded to non-fiction titles.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSyndicado Film Sales has acquired international sales rights to Davit Pirtskhalava’s “A Long Break,” which world premieres in the Discovery Section of Toronto Film Festival. In the Georgian drama, a seemingly harmless gathering turns into a trial for a former classmate, who used to be a bully.In the film, Tsitsi initiates a reunion of his former classmates 13 years after they left school.

EXCLUSIVE: Playwright Theresa Rebeck, who created the stage musical-themed NBC series Smash, has joined the real-life Broadway-bound musical adaptation of the 1988 film comedy Working Girl, producers announced today.

Steven Oxman Taking an overly respectful and frankly miscalculated approach to its source materials — the 2003 roman à clef novel and the 2006 Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway-starring film — the new musical version of “The Devil Wears Prada,” now trying out in Chicago ahead of a projected Broadway run, provides some serviceable entertainment but needs a hefty dose of guilty, edgy fun to boost its mild pleasures.At this stage in its development — having persevered mightily to reach its opening after enduring over 20 cases of COVID during rehearsals and previews — the show boasts an Elton John score that operates in too limited a register and a production from director Anna D. Shapiro (“August: Osage County”) that never quite decides between authentic glamor or a more theatricalized kind, resting right now in a merely semi-satisfying middle.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Runner,” by director Marian Mathias, which will have its world premiere in the Discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival.Already sparking upbeat word of mouth, “Runner” follows Haas (Hannah Schiller), an 18-year-old girl who was raised by her father in the rural Midwest. When her father suddenly dies, she must carry out his wish to be buried in the town where he was born.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Rome-based indie distributor Intramovies has snapped up international sales rights to Locarno contender “Nightsiren” (“Svetlonoc”) by Tereza Nvotovà.The Slovakia-Czech Republic production turns on a young woman who returns to her remote mountain home to seek answers about her traumatized childhood. The deeply superstitious villagers turn on her, accusing her of witchcraft and murder.As Nvotová, who co-wrote the screenplay with Barbara Namerová, explains in her statement, “Nightsiren” “seeks to dispel outdated myths surrounding womanhood, drawing a line between ancient misogynist superstitions and their resurgence in the modern world.”“Even though women are no longer being burned at the stake, they’re still targeted for their sexuality, emotionality and reproductive choices.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentSebastian Lelio’s “Wonder,” starring “Black Widow’s” Florence Pugh, “Winter Boy” with Juliette Binoche and directors Hong Sang-soo and Ulrich Seidl will compete in main competition at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world.In “Wonder,” the latest from Academy Award winning director Lelio (“A Fantastic Woman”),Pugh plays an English nurse brought in to the Irish Midlands in 1862 to observe the alleged miracle of girls going months without food.Binoche co-stars in “Winter Boy,” from resilient French auteur Christophe Honoré who won at Cannes Un Certain Regard with 2019’s “On a Magical Night.” Hong Sang-soo, the prolific South Korean director, will present “Walk Up,” a film which is billed as taking a gently delightful new perspective on themes dear to his poetics. Seidl’s “Sparta” forms part of a diptych with 2022 Berlin competition contender “Rimini,” both movies turning on men who cannot escape their past.The 12 competition titles announced on Tuesday by San Sebastian join its four Spanish contenders, unveiled last month.A brief breakdown on the new competition entries:San Sebastian Main Competition: Newly Announced Titles“Il Boemo,” (Petr Václav, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia)The passions and ambitions, breakthrough and tragic fall from grace of Czech opera composer, Josef Mysliveček,a mentor to Mozart.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorMichele Vannucci’s “Delta” has debuted its trailer ahead of its world premiere on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival. True Colours is handling world sales.The Po Delta in Italy is the setting of the clash between fishermen and poachers. Osso wants to save the river from overfishing at the hands of the Florians, a family on the run from the Danube.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“Bread and Salt,” which has been selected for Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, has debuted its trailer. The film has been picked up by IKH Pictures Promotion for world sales.The film, the feature debut by director Damian Kocur, follows talented pianist Tymek, a student of the Warsaw Academy of Music, who returns to his home town for a vacation, a place where time has stood still. The central meeting point for local youth is the newly created kebab bar.

Two flights bound for Edinburgh Airport were forced to redirect to Glasgow in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Ryanair and Jet2 passengers landed at the other end of the M8 around 3am, due to "planned runway maintenance" at Edinburgh Airport.

An easyJet flight leaving Portugal for Glasgow was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after take-off - after the pilots were reportedly told an engine had caught fire.

A British Airways flight was forced to issue a mid-air alert after a sick passenger required urgent medical assistance. The 7.15am BA1472 service from London Heathrow to Glasgow Airport requested a priority landing on Monday, July 18, due to the on-board emergency.

Eden Espinosa is currently leading the Broadway-bound production of Lempicka: A New Musical at the La Jolla Playhouse and you can listen to some of the songs here!

Thania Garcia Kid Cudi will shadow the moon in its orbit around the globe with his newly announced “To the Moon 2022 World Tour.” The 27-city trek will take Cudi from North America to Asia and Europe, kicking off in Vancouver on Aug. 16 and closing with a show at the Fabrique in Milan on Nov. 22.“To the Moon” will first travel through North America, with stops at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, American Airlines Center in Dallas and the United Center in Chicago.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCate Blanchett (“Carol”) and Terrence Malick (“The Tree of Life”) have reteamed on “Evolver,” a VR free-roaming, music-filled interactive and transcendental experience which is world premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. Produced by the artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast (“We Live in an Ocean of Air”) in the U.K., Atlas V (“Spheres”) in France and Pressman Film (“The Crow”) in the U.S., “Evolver” is a pioneering experience taking audiences inside the landscape of the body, following the flow of oxygen through a branching ecosystem, to a single ‘breathing’ cell.

EXCLUSIVE: Vertical Entertainment has secured North American rights to the romantic drama Alone Together, written, directed by and starring Katie Holmes, which will make its world premiere in the Spotlight Narrative section of the Tribeca Film Festival on June 14. Vertical plans to release the film exclusively in theaters in July 22, with a VOD bow to follow on July 29.

EXCLUSIVE: Utkarsh Ambudkar, who stars as Jay on CBS’ breakout comedy Ghosts, has boarded the Tribeca-bound indie Four Samosas as an executive producer, with Verve Ventures coming aboard to handle sales.