In today’s film news roundup, Aidan Gillen and Tom Hollander join “Bohemian Rhapsody, “The House With a Clock in its Walls‘ gets a release date and IFTA holds its election.
CASTINGS
Aidan Gillen and Tom Hollander have joined the cast of Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which has gone into production.
The movie is directed by Bryan Singer with New Regency and GK Films as the production companies.
The producers are King, Singer, and Jim Beach. Denis O’Sullivan, Arnon Milchan, and Jane Rosenthal are the executive producers. Kira Goldberg is overseeing the project for Fox.
Rami Malek is playing Mercury. Ben Hardy, whose credits include “X-Men: Apocalypse” and “Mary Shelley,” will play drummer Roger Taylor. Gwilym Lee (“The Hollow Crown”) will portray lead guitarist Brian May and Joe Mazzello (“The Social Network”) will tackle the role of bass guitarist John Deacon. Lucy Boynton is playing Mary Austin, lifelong companion of Mercury.
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Mercury wrote numerous hits for Queen, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Killer Queen,” “Somebody to Love,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” and “We Are the Champions.”
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Gillen (“Game of Thrones, “Maze Runner: The Death Cure”) will play John Reid, Queen’s manager from 1975-1978. Hollander (“Breathe”) will play Jim Beach, Queen’s long-time manager, who took over in 1978.
Mercury formed Queen with May and Taylor in 1970 and passed away in 1991 at the age of 45.
Justin Haythe wrote the script. The film is slated for U.S. release on Dec. 25, 2018.
RELEASE DATE
Universal has set a Sept. 21, 2018, release date for “The House With a Clock in its Walls,” starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett.
Amblin Entertainment is producing the adventure of a 10-year-old boy (played by Owen Vaccaro) who goes to live with his uncle in a creaky old house with a mysterious tick-tocking heart — and accidentally awakens the dead. The project is based on the children’s book by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey.
Eli Roth is directing from a script Eric Kripke (creator of TV’s “Supernatural”). Co-stars are Kyle MacLachlan, Colleen Camp, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Vanessa Anne Williams and Sunny Suljic.
Producers are Mythology Entertainment’s Brad Fischer and James Vanderbilt as well as Kripke. Executive producers are William Sherak, Tracey Nyberg and Laeta Kalogridis.
IFTA BOARD
The Independent Film & Television Alliance has selected Michael Ryan of GFM Films as chairman of its executive committee for a second two-year term.
Andrew Kramer (Lionsgate) was elected as general vice chairperson, and Clay Epstein (FilmMode Entertainment) was elected as vice chairperson / secretary. Jay Joyce (Artist View Entertainment), Lloyd Kaufman (Troma Entertainment), Charlotte Mickie (Mongrel International), and Almira Ravil (Screen Media) will continue serving as members of the executive committee through the second year of their term.
The following new board members have been elected to serve a two-year term for 2017-2019: Tannaz Anisi (13 Films), Paul Bales (The Asylum), Jason Buckley (Lakeshore Entertainment), Carl Clifton (Hyde Park International), Caroline Couret-Delegue (Unaffiliated), Kirk D’Amico (Myriad Pictures), Jeffrey Greenstein (Millennium Media, Inc.), Lisa Romanoff (Vision Films, Inc.), Gabrielle Stewart (HanWay Films) and Jeannine Tang (The Weinstein Company). Andrew Orr (Independent Film Sales) will serve as an alternate.
Also on the board of directors, continuing for their second year, are Shaked Berenson (Epic Pictures Group), Tamara Birkemoe (Foresight Unlimited), Jody Cipriano (MarVista Entertainment), Alexandra Cocean (Voltage Pictures), Camela Galano (Unaffiliated), Brad Krevoy (Motion Picture Corporation of America), Albert Lee (Emperor Motion Pictures), Nat McCormick (The Exchange), Michael Rothstein (IM Global), and Alison Thompson (Cornerstone Films).
ACQUISITIONS
Seville International has sold Adam MacDonald’s horror film “Pyewacket” to IFC Midnight for the U.S., following the film’s premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
Sales on the film include UK (Signature Entertainment), Japan (New Select), Latin America (Cinemex), Middle East (Empire International Gulf), Indonesia (Pratama), Malaysia (Suraya) and Vietnam (Green Media).
The film focuses on a teenage girl forced to move to a house in the woods by her unstable mother after the painful passing of her father. Feeling trapped and hopeless, she turns to black magic to release her anger and naively performs an occult ritual found in a book on her bedroom shelf to evoke the spirit of a witch to kill her mother.
“We are thrilled with the response to this one of a kind film,” said Anick Poirier of Seville International. “The tension, terror and suspense that Adam creates in ‘Pyewacket’ will have audiences looking over their shoulders long after it has finished.”
The sales were negotiated on behalf of Seville International by Poirier, Natalie Kampelmacher and Charlotte Lopez.