Exclusive: The creator, executive producer and showrunner of the acclaimed HBO Max series Station Eleven, Patrick Somerville, and the series’ associate producer and editor David Eisenberg, have opened the doors to feature film and television production company Tractor Beam.
Somerville and Eisenberg first met on The Leftovers, hitting it off as friends and hoping to become eventual collaborators. They reteamed for Station Eleven, where during the long, often pandemic-induced delays, they hatched the idea for Tractor Beam, with the mission of making content that centers on the creatives and empowers them to control the filmmaking process.
Hilary Flynn and Stephanie Jacob-Goldman have been brought aboard as Tractor Beam’s VP of Development and VP of Production, respectively. Somerville currently has a deal at Paramount Television Studios.
“Our mission at Tractor Beam is to help creators get home,” said Somerville. “Streamers have opened up astounding new opportunities in television and film,...
Somerville and Eisenberg first met on The Leftovers, hitting it off as friends and hoping to become eventual collaborators. They reteamed for Station Eleven, where during the long, often pandemic-induced delays, they hatched the idea for Tractor Beam, with the mission of making content that centers on the creatives and empowers them to control the filmmaking process.
Hilary Flynn and Stephanie Jacob-Goldman have been brought aboard as Tractor Beam’s VP of Development and VP of Production, respectively. Somerville currently has a deal at Paramount Television Studios.
“Our mission at Tractor Beam is to help creators get home,” said Somerville. “Streamers have opened up astounding new opportunities in television and film,...
- 1/20/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Sharing its title with a historic Reno hotel that's seen better days (or maybe not), "El Cortez" is a clumsy lump of ponderous pulp fiction with "Cooler" aspirations.
With its roster of unconvincing stock characters and predictable double-crosses, the film, which opened Oct. 6 in New York, likely won't be requiring that No Vacancy sign during its Los Angeles run.
Lou Diamond Phillips stars as Manny, who is apparently, as the press notes inform us, autistic, but with those perpetually pursed lips and taste for bow ties, he comes across as a nerdy cross between Norman Bates and Pee-wee Herman's medicated cousin.
At any rate, Manny has taken a job as a desk clerk at Hotel El Cortez after serving a five-year stint in a prison for the criminally insane. Save for those unpleasant black-and-white flashbacks, he's got plenty to keep him distracted, what with serving as an informant for the persistent cop (James McDaniel) who arrested him back in the day.
Currently under his watch is Jack (Glenn Plummer), a drug dealer whose former hooker girlfriend, Theda (Tracy Middendorf) has quite the eye for our Manny, especially after hearing him mention something about a gold mine belonging to the wheelchair-bound Popcorn (Bruce Weitz), who recruits Manny to help snare a high-rolling investor (Peter Onorati).
Big shock: Everybody, including mannered Manny, is not quite what they appear to be. But given Stephen Purvis' flaccid direction and writer Chris Haddock's cliched plot twists, those big revelations probably will be greeted with smirks rather than surprise once they finally get put into motion.
By the time the action, for what it is, moves from the El Cortez to that fabled gold mine, it is clear that the filmmakers have switched allegiances from "The Cooler" to "The Grifters" by way of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," but by that point The Only Ones being conned here are the paying viewers.
EL CORTEZ
Brazos Pictures
Credits:
Director: Stephen Purvis
Screenwriter: Chris Haddock
Producers: Stephen Purvis, Dennis Bishop
Executive producers: J.B. Roberts, Stephen Hunter Flick
Director of photography: Robert F. Smith
Production designer: Meghan C. Rogers
Editor: Bob Allen
Costume designer: Laura Flett
Cast:
Manny: Lou Diamond Phillips
Popcorn: Bruce Weitz
Jack: Glenn Plummer
Theda: Tracy Middendorf
Arnie: James McDaniel
Russo: Peter OnoratiRunning time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
With its roster of unconvincing stock characters and predictable double-crosses, the film, which opened Oct. 6 in New York, likely won't be requiring that No Vacancy sign during its Los Angeles run.
Lou Diamond Phillips stars as Manny, who is apparently, as the press notes inform us, autistic, but with those perpetually pursed lips and taste for bow ties, he comes across as a nerdy cross between Norman Bates and Pee-wee Herman's medicated cousin.
At any rate, Manny has taken a job as a desk clerk at Hotel El Cortez after serving a five-year stint in a prison for the criminally insane. Save for those unpleasant black-and-white flashbacks, he's got plenty to keep him distracted, what with serving as an informant for the persistent cop (James McDaniel) who arrested him back in the day.
Currently under his watch is Jack (Glenn Plummer), a drug dealer whose former hooker girlfriend, Theda (Tracy Middendorf) has quite the eye for our Manny, especially after hearing him mention something about a gold mine belonging to the wheelchair-bound Popcorn (Bruce Weitz), who recruits Manny to help snare a high-rolling investor (Peter Onorati).
Big shock: Everybody, including mannered Manny, is not quite what they appear to be. But given Stephen Purvis' flaccid direction and writer Chris Haddock's cliched plot twists, those big revelations probably will be greeted with smirks rather than surprise once they finally get put into motion.
By the time the action, for what it is, moves from the El Cortez to that fabled gold mine, it is clear that the filmmakers have switched allegiances from "The Cooler" to "The Grifters" by way of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," but by that point The Only Ones being conned here are the paying viewers.
EL CORTEZ
Brazos Pictures
Credits:
Director: Stephen Purvis
Screenwriter: Chris Haddock
Producers: Stephen Purvis, Dennis Bishop
Executive producers: J.B. Roberts, Stephen Hunter Flick
Director of photography: Robert F. Smith
Production designer: Meghan C. Rogers
Editor: Bob Allen
Costume designer: Laura Flett
Cast:
Manny: Lou Diamond Phillips
Popcorn: Bruce Weitz
Jack: Glenn Plummer
Theda: Tracy Middendorf
Arnie: James McDaniel
Russo: Peter OnoratiRunning time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/19/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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