Stars: Julian Sands, Charlotte Hope, Aoibhe O’Flanagan, Pippa Winslow, Philipp Christopher | Written and Directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen
What are the chances that two films called The Piper, both horror films involving the legend of The Pied Piper, would come out in the same year? And that both would be hard to see? While I haven’t seen the one starring Liz Hurley yet, I did get a chance to see the one written and directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen and featuring the late Julian Sands in one of his last roles.
It opens with the voice of Gustafson (Sands) on the phone trying to talk Katherine out of destroying the last copy of her Concerto for Children. She tells him “It is evil, no one must ever know about it” before rushing outside to try and burn it in her fire pit. But something with glowing eyes intervenes, and she burns while the manuscript survives.
What are the chances that two films called The Piper, both horror films involving the legend of The Pied Piper, would come out in the same year? And that both would be hard to see? While I haven’t seen the one starring Liz Hurley yet, I did get a chance to see the one written and directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen and featuring the late Julian Sands in one of his last roles.
It opens with the voice of Gustafson (Sands) on the phone trying to talk Katherine out of destroying the last copy of her Concerto for Children. She tells him “It is evil, no one must ever know about it” before rushing outside to try and burn it in her fire pit. But something with glowing eyes intervenes, and she burns while the manuscript survives.
- 1/11/2024
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
The Oscar Meter at Deadline is working overtime as the race for the 96th Academy Awards is shifting into higher gear as summer turns to fall this weekend.
The official start of the very long six month+ awards season is now behind us as we made it through the Fall Festival Trifecta of Venice/Telluride/Toronto that has always launched the season, and we are one week away from the start of two more important autumn fests with New York Film Festival getting underway on September 29th and London Film Festival beginning a week later. Those fests, unlike the Trifecta, aren’t big on World Premieres, but rather will help put the crop of already premiered contenders at 2023 festivals that also include last January’s Sundance, and May’s Cannes further into laser focus as to their actual chances of ultimately landing Oscar nominations. New York though is offering a...
The official start of the very long six month+ awards season is now behind us as we made it through the Fall Festival Trifecta of Venice/Telluride/Toronto that has always launched the season, and we are one week away from the start of two more important autumn fests with New York Film Festival getting underway on September 29th and London Film Festival beginning a week later. Those fests, unlike the Trifecta, aren’t big on World Premieres, but rather will help put the crop of already premiered contenders at 2023 festivals that also include last January’s Sundance, and May’s Cannes further into laser focus as to their actual chances of ultimately landing Oscar nominations. New York though is offering a...
- 9/22/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
How did this emotional sketch become a movie? Tilda Swinton and Joanna Hogg, born on March 20, 1960 in London, England, UK and known for writing and directing The Souvenir (2019), The Souvenir: Part II (2021) and Unrelated (2007), all produced by Emma Norton of Jwh Films, are favored by the charmed circle of rich white seemingly heterosexual men like Martin Scorsese (Sikelia Productions), David Fenkel and Daniel Katz (A24), and British vet producer Ed Guiney (Element Pictures). This is all conjuncture on my part, as it was when I wrote about the deal behind Triangle of Sadness, but the sketchiness of this and the formulaic quality of Triangle, coupled with the stellar names of those involved in the production lead me to believe there was more to the making of the movie deal than there is to the movie itself. In The Eternal Daughter, these men have chosen to celebrate womanhood as expressed by a particular female filmmaker as she attempts to create a story about herself and her mother plus one kindly black bereaved man played by Joseph Mydell (there is a hint of something about slavery here) and a cold modern young woman played by Carly-Sophia Davies whose heart also melts at the pathos of the celebate and lonely filmmaker, who actually is not pathetic but apparently just creatively alive. Watch the trailer here and then watch the movie and judge for yourself: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13874422/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Together these men must have brought the film to Kristin Irving of the BBC where it got made, somewhat along the same lines as highly touted The Souvenir which landed BBC Films with funds from BFI Film Fund and was also produced by Jwh Films, again in association with Scorsese’s incubator Sikelia. This time Protagonist Pictures was the international sales agent and A24 only distributed in North America. Its sequel, The Souvenir Part II stars real-life mother and daughter Tilda Swinton and Honor Swinton Byrne, a conceit which perhaps gave life to the idea of another mother-and-daughter movie in which both roles are played by Tilda Swinton and which was made by the same team plus Ed Guiney of Element Pictures. A24 has now taken on both international sales and US rights. All of these films must have made 2 cents at the box office. What’s up? What is Tilda Swinton herself up to these days? Her previous film Three Thousand Years of Yearning by stalwart filmmaker George Miler sold to more interternational distributors in 2021 and 2022 than the Jwh films did, but it still must not have fared much better at the box office. (Read my blon on that here.) The short by Almodovar, The Human Voice, was a little gem, showing off Swinton’s accomplished acting skills as she enacted the remake of Cocteau’s The Human Voice under strict Covid protocols. But none of these reaches the new heights always expected of her…We’ll see what her next four films The End (pre-production) by Joshua Oppenheimer, Asteroid City (post-production) by Wes Anderson, The Killer (post-production) by David Fincher, and an Untitled Julio Torres Project (post-production) bring to the audiences who eagerly await whatever she does (count me among them). The Eternal Daughter has been described as a mystery drama and as a ghost story about “a middle-aged daughter and her elderly mother who confront long-buried secrets when they return to their former family home, a once-grand manor that has become a nearly vacant hotel brimming with mystery.” But there are no ghosts nor is there much of a mystery beyond why a mother and daughter have an eternal and universal tension between them, as most mothers and daughters do. Nor is the nearly vacant hotel ever revealed to be the ancestral home, nor is there much of a mystery about a banging shutter which keeps Tilda the daughter up at night. And whence cometh the acclaim of Joanna Hogg? Perhaps it was Covid. Dare I argue with the top film festivals and critics whom Rotten Tomatoes scored at 95%? Who are these critics? How many males among them? All Swinton has to do is attach her name to a project and it will be made — with male money. The film does truly touch emotions felt by every daughter trying to hard to please a mother who cannot express her own desires or her own heartfelt love for her daughter. But this situation makes the daughter seem pathetic except in her own creative mind as she grapples with the dilemna of The Eternal Duaghter. But what is the story here? That a writer’s imagination trumps reality? Are we so starved for emotional experiences that such a sketch brings us to tears? Am I horribly out of touch with the universe? Another film which touches this same raw nerve is Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun. Where have I gone wrong? Compare this to Eo, a film with no ersatz emotion and created to produce an emotion the director Jerzy Skolomowski had not felt since he saw Au Hasard Balthazar in 1966. Read my blog and his quotations. I am longing for the days of Angelopoulos, of Terence Davies or even Peter Greenaway. Give me hard art, not oblique emotional sketches, playing like the little musical phrase that Proust’s Swann held so dear as a reminder of his lost love. Postscript: An interesting article by Carlos Aguilar appeared in the LA Times shortly after I published this. It explains the long friendship between Tilda Swinton and Joanna Hogg. At first I thought it negated my negative take on the deal, but on second reading, I decided that it only added another tier to the dealmaking process which is that Tilda swings her own weight and can bring in her friend to the circle of dealmaking whereas before, Hogg remained in the background of the art film world.
- 12/18/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
After last year’s three-Oscar haul for “Moonlight,” including Best Picture, A24 wants to prove that was no anomaly. Here’s what the rising young distributor will push this awards season. (Remember: A year ago, “Moonlight” wasn’t viewed as a likely Best Picture contender — much less the big winner.)
Co-founded by David Fenkel, John Hodges, and Daniel Katz, A24 is known for edgy arthouse pleasers that eschew conventional storytelling. “Moonlight” was the company’s first original production; its other box office players include Oscar-winners “Ex Machina,” “Room,” and “Amy,” and smart horror flick “The Witch.” But none have passed the $27 million box office earned by “Moonlight.”
Read More:Why Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’ Is a Serious Oscar Contender
After the fall trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the company has three bonafide awards contenders: SXSW’s well-reviewed true story “The Disaster Artist” (December 1), director James Franco’s 14th...
Co-founded by David Fenkel, John Hodges, and Daniel Katz, A24 is known for edgy arthouse pleasers that eschew conventional storytelling. “Moonlight” was the company’s first original production; its other box office players include Oscar-winners “Ex Machina,” “Room,” and “Amy,” and smart horror flick “The Witch.” But none have passed the $27 million box office earned by “Moonlight.”
Read More:Why Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’ Is a Serious Oscar Contender
After the fall trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the company has three bonafide awards contenders: SXSW’s well-reviewed true story “The Disaster Artist” (December 1), director James Franco’s 14th...
- 9/27/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
After last year’s three-Oscar haul for “Moonlight,” including Best Picture, A24 wants to prove that was no anomaly. Here’s what the rising young distributor will push this awards season. (Remember: A year ago, “Moonlight” wasn’t viewed as a likely Best Picture contender — much less the big winner.)
Co-founded by David Fenkel, John Hodges, and Daniel Katz, A24 is known for edgy arthouse pleasers that eschew conventional storytelling. “Moonlight” was the company’s first original production; its other box office players include Oscar-winners “Ex Machina,” “Room,” and “Amy,” and smart horror flick “The Witch.” But none have passed the $27 million box office earned by “Moonlight.”
Read More:Why Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’ Is a Serious Oscar Contender
After the fall trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the company has three bonafide awards contenders: SXSW’s well-reviewed true story “The Disaster Artist” (December 1), director James Franco’s 14th...
Co-founded by David Fenkel, John Hodges, and Daniel Katz, A24 is known for edgy arthouse pleasers that eschew conventional storytelling. “Moonlight” was the company’s first original production; its other box office players include Oscar-winners “Ex Machina,” “Room,” and “Amy,” and smart horror flick “The Witch.” But none have passed the $27 million box office earned by “Moonlight.”
Read More:Why Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’ Is a Serious Oscar Contender
After the fall trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the company has three bonafide awards contenders: SXSW’s well-reviewed true story “The Disaster Artist” (December 1), director James Franco’s 14th...
- 9/27/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
A24, the company founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges, has been hitting the motherlode—for indie companies, anyway—with smart film choices and even smarter ways of bringing them to marketplace, particularly in their increasingly innovative—and, yes, disruptive—use of digital marketing. It not only has been working at the box office, but also at the Academy Awards, where the company defied expectations and watched their first in-house production…...
- 5/27/2017
- Deadline
A24, the New York-based independent entertainment company founded by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges has just scooped up the worldwide rights to Uncut Gems, a thriller set to be directed by both Josh and Benny Safdie (The Pleasure Of Being Robbed, Daddy Longlegs). Alongside the announcement of the film, it's also been revealed that Jonah Hill (War Dogs, Moneyball) is set to star in the project... Read More...
- 5/16/2017
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Buyers return to Cannes like swallows to the Capistranos, but this year they’ll find a hostile landscape. Too many buyers, too few titles, and streaming-service disruptors are driving up prices all the while, making North American prebuys increasingly necessary.
That’s hazardous terrain: Witness the Weinstein Company’s $6 million bid for transgender drama “3 Generations” (aka “After Ray”). Two years later, after a title change and poor reviews on and off the festival circuit, the drama starring Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon finally received a May 5 release. Total domestic gross to date: $46,421.
That was in 2015, the last year that TWC held its then-annual dog-and-pony show for buyers and press at the Majestic Hotel. This year, like the last, they’ll hold court on their yacht, which also serves as their offices — still tony, but on a budget; it’s a lot less expensive than that prime Croissette real estate. Meanwhile,...
That’s hazardous terrain: Witness the Weinstein Company’s $6 million bid for transgender drama “3 Generations” (aka “After Ray”). Two years later, after a title change and poor reviews on and off the festival circuit, the drama starring Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon finally received a May 5 release. Total domestic gross to date: $46,421.
That was in 2015, the last year that TWC held its then-annual dog-and-pony show for buyers and press at the Majestic Hotel. This year, like the last, they’ll hold court on their yacht, which also serves as their offices — still tony, but on a budget; it’s a lot less expensive than that prime Croissette real estate. Meanwhile,...
- 5/15/2017
- by Anne Thompson and Graham Winfrey
- Thompson on Hollywood
Buyers return to Cannes like swallows to the Capistranos, but this year they’ll find a hostile landscape. Too many buyers, too few titles, and streaming-service disruptors are driving up prices all the while, making North American prebuys increasingly necessary.
That’s hazardous terrain: Witness the Weinstein Company’s $6 million bid for transgender drama “3 Generations” (aka “After Ray”). Two years later, after a title change and poor reviews on and off the festival circuit, the drama starring Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon finally received a May 5 release. Total domestic gross to date: $46,421.
That was in 2015, the last year that TWC held its then-annual dog-and-pony show for buyers and press at the Majestic Hotel. This year, like the last, they’ll hold court on their yacht, which also serves as their offices — still tony, but on a budget; it’s a lot less expensive than that prime Croissette real estate. Meanwhile,...
That’s hazardous terrain: Witness the Weinstein Company’s $6 million bid for transgender drama “3 Generations” (aka “After Ray”). Two years later, after a title change and poor reviews on and off the festival circuit, the drama starring Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon finally received a May 5 release. Total domestic gross to date: $46,421.
That was in 2015, the last year that TWC held its then-annual dog-and-pony show for buyers and press at the Majestic Hotel. This year, like the last, they’ll hold court on their yacht, which also serves as their offices — still tony, but on a budget; it’s a lot less expensive than that prime Croissette real estate. Meanwhile,...
- 5/15/2017
- by Anne Thompson and Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
The Best Picture Flub heard around the world — when “La La Land” was erroneously handed the top Academy Award in February over “Moonlight”– was a veritable meme factory thanks to shocked A-listers and filmmakers from both projects. What we haven’t yet heard is an account from the film boutique “Moonlight’s” distributor A24, a five-year-old art house that defied the odds and claimed Best Picture in its young life. Daniel Katz and David Fenkel relived the moment in a profile from May’s GQ Style — an unusual oral history of a very inside Hollywood operation that features commentary from the likes.
- 5/10/2017
- by Matt Donnelly
- The Wrap
General audiences don’t pay much attention to the distributors of most films (unless the distributor happens to be Disney). But most film distributors aren’t A24 Films, the little start-up distribution company that could. Founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges, A24 is one of the rare independent film distributors to build […]
The post Ranking All 48 (Mostly Great) Movies Released by A24 appeared first on /Film.
The post Ranking All 48 (Mostly Great) Movies Released by A24 appeared first on /Film.
- 5/1/2017
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
A24 cemented its perception as the new-model indie distributor when Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” won three Oscars, including that dramatic best-picture win. So what does the upstart indie, hailed for holding the skeleton key that unlocks the precious millennial demo, do for an encore?
The Tribeca Film Festival showcased two upcoming A24 releases, both of which seem oddly retro: World War II costume drama “The Exception,” starring Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and “The Lovers,” starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as an unhappy older married couple. They also dropped the trailer for Yiddish-language Hasidic family drama “Menashe” and suddenly, the new boss looks a lot like the old one.
What gives? This older-demo arthouse trio could easily carry the signature blue-and-white logo of venerable specialty distributor Sony Pictures Classics. But don’t be deceived by appearances. A24 is a far cry from older-generation studio indies like Spc and Fox Searchlight,...
The Tribeca Film Festival showcased two upcoming A24 releases, both of which seem oddly retro: World War II costume drama “The Exception,” starring Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and “The Lovers,” starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as an unhappy older married couple. They also dropped the trailer for Yiddish-language Hasidic family drama “Menashe” and suddenly, the new boss looks a lot like the old one.
What gives? This older-demo arthouse trio could easily carry the signature blue-and-white logo of venerable specialty distributor Sony Pictures Classics. But don’t be deceived by appearances. A24 is a far cry from older-generation studio indies like Spc and Fox Searchlight,...
- 4/27/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
A24 cemented its perception as the new-model indie distributor when Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” won three Oscars, including that dramatic best-picture win. So what does the upstart indie, hailed for holding the skeleton key that unlocks the precious millennial demo, do for an encore?
The Tribeca Film Festival showcased three upcoming A24 releases, all of which seem oddly retro. There’s Yiddish-language Hasidic family drama “Menashe,” World War II costume drama “The Exception,” starring Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and “The Lovers,” starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as an unhappy older married couple. Suddenly, the new boss looks a lot like the old one.
What gives? This older-demo arthouse trio could easily carry the signature blue-and-white logo of venerable specialty distributor Sony Pictures Classics. But don’t be deceived by appearances. A24 is a far cry from older-generation studio indies like Spc and Fox Searchlight, which tend to follow an established playbook.
The Tribeca Film Festival showcased three upcoming A24 releases, all of which seem oddly retro. There’s Yiddish-language Hasidic family drama “Menashe,” World War II costume drama “The Exception,” starring Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and “The Lovers,” starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as an unhappy older married couple. Suddenly, the new boss looks a lot like the old one.
What gives? This older-demo arthouse trio could easily carry the signature blue-and-white logo of venerable specialty distributor Sony Pictures Classics. But don’t be deceived by appearances. A24 is a far cry from older-generation studio indies like Spc and Fox Searchlight, which tend to follow an established playbook.
- 4/27/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Screen Producers Australia has confirmed its international executive lineup for the Screen Forever 2015 International Partnership Market.
This year's lineup will include International Drama Commissioner, UK broadcaster Channel 4, Simon Maxwell; Voltage Pictures. Vice President, Acquisitions and Development, Babacar Diene (Us); A24 Chief Operating Officer Matthew Bires (Us); All3 Media International Head of Acquisitions, Maartje Horchner (UK); and Acquisitions Executive Emily Gotto from international sales company Protagonist (Us).
The Screen Forever International Partnership Market takes place during Screen Forever 2015 conference, which runs from November 17-19 at the Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne.
Screen Producers Australia Chief Executive Matthew Deaner said he was delighted to have such highly regarded executives participating.
"Each brings with them outstanding experience in developing and overseeing critically and commercially successful productions for film and television around the world," he said..
.Through Screen Forever and the International Partnership Market, the international participants, along with those still to be announced,...
This year's lineup will include International Drama Commissioner, UK broadcaster Channel 4, Simon Maxwell; Voltage Pictures. Vice President, Acquisitions and Development, Babacar Diene (Us); A24 Chief Operating Officer Matthew Bires (Us); All3 Media International Head of Acquisitions, Maartje Horchner (UK); and Acquisitions Executive Emily Gotto from international sales company Protagonist (Us).
The Screen Forever International Partnership Market takes place during Screen Forever 2015 conference, which runs from November 17-19 at the Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne.
Screen Producers Australia Chief Executive Matthew Deaner said he was delighted to have such highly regarded executives participating.
"Each brings with them outstanding experience in developing and overseeing critically and commercially successful productions for film and television around the world," he said..
.Through Screen Forever and the International Partnership Market, the international participants, along with those still to be announced,...
- 8/25/2015
- by Inside Film Correspondent
- IF.com.au
A version of this story first appeared in the Jan. 3, 2014, issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. By the time of the Sundance Film Festival in January, the 5-month-old finance and distribution company A24 had acquired three films for a combined mid-seven figures: Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring and James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now. "Everyone told us, 'Very cool films, but they're not going to work,' " says A24 co-founder Daniel Katz, 36. Too art house. Photos: 'Duck Dynasty,' Matthew McConaughey, 'Breaking Bad' and the Rule Breakers of
read more...
read more...
- 12/17/2013
- by Rebecca Ford
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.