SXSW documentary William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill has been acquired by Signature Entertainment in the UK and Ireland, with the film’s UK sales outfit Blue Finch Films also locking in a slew of further key territories.
Signature Entertainment plans to release the title later this year, with the doc also selling in Germany (Polyband Medien), Scandinavia (Nonstop Entertainment), Israel (Yes TV) and Italy (8 E Mezzo), ahead of next month’s European Film Market (EFM).
The film is written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, whose credits include Alfred Hitchcock documentary 78/52. It offers an intimate portrait of prolific Canadian actor,...
Signature Entertainment plans to release the title later this year, with the doc also selling in Germany (Polyband Medien), Scandinavia (Nonstop Entertainment), Israel (Yes TV) and Italy (8 E Mezzo), ahead of next month’s European Film Market (EFM).
The film is written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, whose credits include Alfred Hitchcock documentary 78/52. It offers an intimate portrait of prolific Canadian actor,...
- 1/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
On the final weekend of a bustling 18-day event, the in-person edition of this year’s Melbourne Film Festival has drawn to a close with an awards ceremony that saw a whopping $300,000 Aud in prize money handed out across six categories. The biggest individual award of $140,000 Aud was presented to the winner of the fest’s international Bright Horizons competition: “Banel & Adama,” an arresting debut feature by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”
Its win came...
It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”
Its win came...
- 8/19/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
U.K.-based sales and distribution outfit Blue Finch Films has boarded international sales, excluding North America, for William Shatner documentary “You Can Call Me Bill” from Legion M and Exhibit A Pictures.
Written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, who has previously helmed documentaries such as “78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene,” “Memory: The Origins of Alien,” and “Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist,” the film had its world premiere at SXSW 2023 as part of the Documentary Spotlight section.
The film is an intimate portrait of William Shatner’s personal journey across nine decades, stripping away all the masks he has worn during his storied career – most famously the Star Trek franchise – to reveal the man behind it all. The first and only feature-length documentary dedicated to Shatner’s life, career and philosophy, it delves into his most fervent passions, hopes and concerns, through a thematic distillation of his...
Written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, who has previously helmed documentaries such as “78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene,” “Memory: The Origins of Alien,” and “Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist,” the film had its world premiere at SXSW 2023 as part of the Documentary Spotlight section.
The film is an intimate portrait of William Shatner’s personal journey across nine decades, stripping away all the masks he has worn during his storied career – most famously the Star Trek franchise – to reveal the man behind it all. The first and only feature-length documentary dedicated to Shatner’s life, career and philosophy, it delves into his most fervent passions, hopes and concerns, through a thematic distillation of his...
- 5/10/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary director Alexandre O. Philippe has tackled many nerdy subjects over the course of his career. In "78/52," he hyper-focused on the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." In "The People Vs. George Lucas," he examined the complicated relationship fandom had with George Lucas post-prequels and pre-Lucas selling his company to Disney. In "Leap of Faith," he dug into the psyche of director William Friedkin and how much of the filmmaker made its way into the DNA of "The Exorcist."
His latest film is focused on another titan of geekdom: the one and only William Shatner. "You Can Call Me Bill" premiered at SXSW just a few days before the beloved actor's 92nd birthday, and it isn't your typical talking-head career retrospective. You could easily do a whole feature length doc just on how Shatner's performance as Captain Kirk on "Star Trek" has influenced pop culture and storytelling,...
His latest film is focused on another titan of geekdom: the one and only William Shatner. "You Can Call Me Bill" premiered at SXSW just a few days before the beloved actor's 92nd birthday, and it isn't your typical talking-head career retrospective. You could easily do a whole feature length doc just on how Shatner's performance as Captain Kirk on "Star Trek" has influenced pop culture and storytelling,...
- 3/29/2023
- by Eric Vespe
- Slash Film
William Shatner on ‘Star Trek’ Feuds, Jeff Bezos’ Space Agenda, and Why He Won’t Cameo in New Movies
In October 2021, a few days after he became the oldest person in history to travel to space, William Shatner blocked me on Twitter. To be fair, it may have been an inauspicious moment to publicly ask the 90-year-old, who had spent around three minutes floating around Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket before returning to Earth, whether he had actually traveled high enough to reach the official definition of space. Needless to say, Shatner had a lot on his mind at the moment, as the ensuing year and a half made clear.
While the “Star Trek” O.G. had spent many years contemplating his sci-fi legacy from that show, the cosmic experience of witnessing the planet from above made him far more concerned about the fragility of the Earth. In tandem with various other multimedia projects, the now 91-year-old Shatner has become a bonafide climate change activist, and that cause has...
While the “Star Trek” O.G. had spent many years contemplating his sci-fi legacy from that show, the cosmic experience of witnessing the planet from above made him far more concerned about the fragility of the Earth. In tandem with various other multimedia projects, the now 91-year-old Shatner has become a bonafide climate change activist, and that cause has...
- 3/9/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe, who was born in Switzerland and is based in Denver, has carved out a neat niche for himself. He makes movies about movies — that is, movies about our obsession with movies. He shares the obsession, and as a filmmaker that allows him to overlap the role of superfan, critic, and historian in a way that’s candy for a certain breed of film freak. In “Document of the Dead,” Philippe made a grounded but heady exploration of “Night of the Living Dead” and what the rise of the zombie movie in the late ’60s was all about. In “78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene” (his best film), he penetrated the metaphysics of “Psycho,” starting with the shower scene but extending to the entire film, taking a movie that’s famous for its fear and showing you how its true pleasure and mystique lies in the intricacy with which we watch it.
- 7/17/2022
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
In the documentary 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene multiple talking heads from Guillermo del Toro to Elijah Wood iterate how Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) was a game-changer: in terms of horror tropes, in terms of movie music, in terms of what could be shown on screen, in terms of how filmmakers could play with narrative expectations and so on. But maybe one of its boldest moves was to dictate when people could and should enter a movie theatre to watch a film. Peter Bogdanovich talks about attending the first press screening of Psycho: “As you went in Hitchcock’s voice was blaring on loudspeakers saying ‘Nobody will be allowed in after the picture starts and please don’t reveal the ending.’” From the dawn of cinema, up through the 1950s, audiences would apparently come and go as they pleased, often entering a film half way through. It seems...
- 4/23/2021
- MUBI
Exclusive: Sc Films has boarded international sales rights to documentary Leap Of Faith: William Friedkin On The Exorcist.
The warmly-received Venice premiere will screen at Sundance later this week and Sc Films will present it to buyers at the Efm in Berlin later this month.
The cinematic essay explores the nuances of Friedkin’s filmmaking process and the story behind one of the most iconic horror movies of all time.
The deal was negotiated between Mike Chapman and Russell Webber for Sc Films and ICM Partners on behalf of the producers.
Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe and produced by Kerry Deignan Roy of Exhibit A Pictures, the talking-head deep-dive is co-produced by Annick Mahnert of Screen Division, Cathy Trekloff and Chad Herschberger of Milkhaus and Robert Muratore of Exa. Karyn Kusama, Matt Manfredi, and Phil Hay of Familystyle served as executive producers alongside Joey Porcelli and Randy Pharo.
The documentary...
The warmly-received Venice premiere will screen at Sundance later this week and Sc Films will present it to buyers at the Efm in Berlin later this month.
The cinematic essay explores the nuances of Friedkin’s filmmaking process and the story behind one of the most iconic horror movies of all time.
The deal was negotiated between Mike Chapman and Russell Webber for Sc Films and ICM Partners on behalf of the producers.
Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe and produced by Kerry Deignan Roy of Exhibit A Pictures, the talking-head deep-dive is co-produced by Annick Mahnert of Screen Division, Cathy Trekloff and Chad Herschberger of Milkhaus and Robert Muratore of Exa. Karyn Kusama, Matt Manfredi, and Phil Hay of Familystyle served as executive producers alongside Joey Porcelli and Randy Pharo.
The documentary...
- 1/30/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: IFC Midnight has acquired U.S. rights to 78/52, the Alexandre O. Philippe-directed Sundance documentary that deconstructs the infamous shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The film features interviews with Guillermo del Toro, Bret Easton Ellis, Karyn Kusama, Eli Roth, Walter Murch and Peter Bogdanovich. Philippe, who wrote the script, broke down in great detail a scene that became a template for how to terrorize a movie audience with a combination of…...
- 1/28/2017
- Deadline
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