Film at Eleven

Alex Ferrari’s Cyn (review, trailer) has been making a ton of waves on the festival circuit with 20 official selections all around the world. From Peru to Australia to Canada to Europe.

Check the film’s pressroom for full details of where it’s showing.

Now in its 15th year, the 2007 Raindance Film Festival will take place from September 25th to October 7th London’s West End. The festival boasts a lineup of over 30 documentary shorts and features for this year’s festival starting September 25th. Festival programmers trolled through over 1,000 submissions to come up with this years crop. Highlights include:

• Crazy Love, Frank & Cindy, about A deeply personal documentary about Frank Garcia, an 80’s one-hit wonder musician and his blonde bombshell wife Cindy, who makes him live in the basement,
• Off The Grid: Life On The Mesa, Off The Grid: Life On The Mesa, about amazing homes and structures made from rubbish,
• Twenty To Life: The Life And Times of John Sinclair. the ex-manager of MC5 who was busted for smoking grass and served a prison sentence in America. He is one of the many filmmakers attending Raindance this year.

Also, this year, after the successful Stanley Kubrick retrospective Raindance is honouring Jean Luc Godard at this years festival. The films on show have been personally selected by Mr Godard himself - films include Éloge de l’amour, Notre musique and The Old Place. And with both Iggy Pop and Mick Jones of The Clash on the jury, things could prove to be explosive.

If you want to know more about the festival, head over to it’s official site or take a look at the Pulpmovies feature which includes a full lineup and the rather excellent festival trailer.

New Line Cinema has announced that Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane will be hitting DVD on October 2nd.

Unholy terror is released in the skies when a deadly, genetically engineered virus is released onboard a transatlantic flight to Paris in this heart-stopping thrill-ride of terror! When a scientist on the run from the CIA manages to smuggle a contaminated body onto a commercial overseas flight, the plane becomes an incubator for a quickly growing army of the undead. With a zombie invasion spreading through the cabin, only a handful of passengers remain to fight off their fellow travelers and land the plane before it’s too late.

The film stars Kristen Kerr, Mieko Hillman, David Chisum, and Heidi Marnhout and was directed by Scott Thomas.

Magnet, the newly formed genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, announced today the acquisition of North American distribution rights to Kiltro and Mirageman – two exciting action films written, directed and edited by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, produced by Derek Rundell, and starring the soon-to-be legendary Marko Zaror, also known as “The Latin Dragon.” Magnet will also produce Zaror’s next film, which will be announced shortly.

Kiltro was a sensation in Zaror’s native Chile (Mirageman will be released there next year), and Magnet anticipates that U.S. audiences will also embrace this new action star. Mirageman will have its U.S. premiere this week in Austin at the Fantastic Film Festival, and both films are slated for release in 2008.

Winner of the 2004 Stuntman of the Year award for his work as the Rock’s stunt and martial arts double in the feature film The Rundown, Zaror is a worldwide action star and martial arts champion poised for his U.S. breakthrough. In Kiltro, Zaror plays a violent gangster turned avenging warrior after the murder of his mother, and he takes on the role of a masked vigilante in Mirageman. Both films are impressive showcases for his exhilarating martial arts skills.

“I’ve never seen anyone with Marko’s power and size exhibit such agility and acrobatic skill. He’s amazing to watch,” said Magnet’s Tom Quinn. “I haven’t been this excited about an action star since the first time I saw Tony Jaa in Ong Bak.”

“Marko’s talent and skill is unmatched,” said producer Derek Rundell. “At 6′2″, 210 pounds, it’s magic to watch him move with such speed, power and style. We’re thrilled about working with Magnet and introducing him to American audiences.”

Kiltro and Mirageman join Magnet’s already robust slate of films, which includes the exquisite corpse-style thriller The Signal; Toronto Midnight Madness selection Big Man in Japan (Dainipponjin) by Hitoshi Matsumoto; Tony Stone’s heavy metal Viking epic, Severed Ways; action omnibus Triangle from Hong Kong greats Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, and Tsui Hark; Jeremy Saulnier’s darkly comic, hipster slasher flick Murder Party; Olivier Assayas’s Cannes-selected thriller Boarding Gate starring Asia Argento and Michael Madsen; and Mark Hartley’s expose on classic Australian genre filmmaking Not Quite Hollywood.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) is the remarkable true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), a successful and charismatic editor-in-chief of French Elle, who believes he is living his life to its absolute fullest when a sudden stroke leaves him in a life-altered state. While the physical challenges of Bauby’s fate leave him with little hope for the future, he begins to discover how his life’s passions, his rich memories and his newfound imagination can help him achieve a life without boundaries.

Miramax films are releasing this in the US on November 30th (Limited) and we have some stills.

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Award Winning Visual Effects company Numb Robot launches a state of the art animation studio. Founder and CEO Alex Ferrari explain his reasons for expanding his visual effects company, “We have recently opened an animation studio to handle the growing need for high quality 2D and 3D animation. There aren’t many 2D animation studios in the United States so we wanted to throw our hat in the ring. Our aim is to created memorable brands that will last for many years to come.”

Coming from Numb Robot Animation Studios in 2007, Red Princess Blues Animated: The Book of Violence is an animated short film prequel to creator Alex Ferrari’s upcoming feature film Red Princess Blues. The film will be produced in classic Japanesse Anime style. Artist extraordinaire and Creative Director of Numb Robot, Dan Cregan will be making his directorial début. RPB Animated is a chance to explore the world of “Princess,” the main character of Red Princess Blues. Lending her voice to the main character is the lovely Paula Garces.

In this tale we meet her as a 12 year old little girl who finds herself in a strange country looking for her father. She is then taken in by a “unique” looking man who goes by Nino. The short film is completely from the perspective of Princess and what she is going through. She soon discovers the “Book of Violence” and slowly begins her journey that one day will lead to vengeance. The live action feature film is currently in pre-production.

Also coming from Numb Robot Animation Studios and Ukyo Studios in 2007, Red Princess Blues: The Video Game is the ultimate in a gaming experience. Red Princess Blues: The Game is a “violent fairy tale” about a woman tracking down her transgressors with ballistic retribution on her mind. Princess’ thirst for revenge against the sadistic people who wronged her take her on a twisted “Wizard of Oz” style journey of love, honor and most of all vengeance. Travel through the twisted world of Red Princess Blues as our hero Princess battles crazy villains, demented characters and ridiculous levels. The action is hot, fast and most of all violent. The teaser trailer will be out Fall 2007

Sony Pictures Classics revealed the poster for Jimmy Carter Man From Plains, a new documentary directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme. And here it is…

The documentary was an official selection at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and will open in New York on October 19, 2007, expand to Los Angeles on October 26, 2007, then roll out across the US throughout the autumn.

New Label to Specialize in Films from the Vanguard of Horror, Action, Comedy and Asian Cinema

Magnolia Pictures on Tuesday announced the launch of Magnet, a new division of the unique and expanding film distribution business co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. Specializing in the wild, unquantifiable and uncompromised, Magnet will provide an outlet for a different strand of films, which had previously been released alongside Magnolia’s traditional specialties: independent dramatic features and award-winning documentaries.

Magnolia already has a robust history of releasing acclaimed genre titles such as The Host, Exiled, Tears of the Black Tiger, Severance and Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior; moving forward, Magnet will be home to productions and acquisitions that fit in this vein.

The first releases on Magnet’s eclectic international slate define the type of unconventional, risk-taking genre fare it will showcase: Toronto Midnight Madness selection Big Man in Japan (Dainipponjin) by Hitoshi Matsumoto; Tony Smith’s heavy metal Viking epic, Severed Ways; action omnibus Triangle created by the kings of Hong Kong cinema: Ringo Tam, Johnnie To, and Tsui Hark; Jeremy Saulnier’s darkly comic, hipster slasher flick Murder Party; Olivier Assayas’s Cannes-selected thriller Boarding Gate starring Asia Argento and Michael Madsen; and Mark Hartley’s expose on classic Australian genre filmmaking Not Quite Hollywood, featuring Quentin Tarantino. Many more titles will be announced shortly.

“Some of the best, most imaginative, wild and forward-thinking cinema in the world today is being done in the context of genre filmmaking. The Magnet label will consolidate our track record with these rule-breaking films into a strong, identifiable brand,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles.

Murder Party, the first film under the Magnet banner, will be released by Magnolia Home Entertainment on October 16. Other titles will see theatrical and DVD release beginning in early 2008.

“It’s a kick-ass position to be in when you can look to your own company’s films and know that these are the movies you’d want to buy for your personal DVD collection,” added Tom Quinn, senior vice president of Magnolia Pictures. “It’s been a standing question: how do we keep pushing the envelope and find our next Ong Bak, District B13, or The Host? Launching something that isn’t your dad’s genre label was the answer.”

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Halloween may be more than a month away, but it’s never too early to start thinking about monster masks - especially when they look as good as these ones.

The officially licensed Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove Creature mask! From the hit film by William Winckler Productions. The Creature from Blood Cove mask is an adult size mask that can be worn or displayed. The Creature features acrylic teeth on highly detailed sculpture.

The mask can be seen - and ordered - from Cemetery Gate Productions.

After the success of its First Nine contests, Filmaka has launched its Tenth contest The Clinic. Submissions should be between 1 and 3 minutes, based on this subject, and are accepted till 30th September 2007. The annual grand prize is a feature film contract.