Film News Roundup: Arthouse Specialist Kino Lorber Launches Digital Platform
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In today’s film news roundup, Kino Lorber has started a VOD platform, Tony Todd is starring in a horror-comedy, the Red Nation International Film Festival sets its lineup and ballet dancer Kirsten Bloom Allen starts a production company.
VOD DISTRIBUTION
Arthouse distribution specialist Kino Lorber is launching VOD platform Kino Now with more than 600 new releases, classics and international films.
Kino Now, announced Monday, will offer exclusive early access to new theatrical releases, festival hits and exclusive titles not available on other streaming platforms or not yet available on home video.
The platform will also include special “bundle” offerings of selected hard-to-find titles as well as collections from renowned filmmakers including international TV series such as “Deutschland 83” and “Bad Banks”; documentary series including Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth”; auteur collections built around Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller and Fritz Lang; and pioneers of cinema restorations of the early works of African American filmmakers and the first women filmmakers.
The site will be annually refreshed with over 50 new theatrical releases from Kino Lorber’s first run and repertory divisions and over 500 yearly additional titles as “festival direct” exclusives and indie art house digital premieres.
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New titles coming soon include Rick Alverson’s “The Mountain,” starring Tye Sheridan and Jeff Goldblum; Chinese auteur Bi Gan’s box office hit “Long Day’s Journey into Night”; Lila Avilés’ “The Chambermaid” (Mexico’s current official Oscar submission), Franco Rosso’s 1980s British reggae hit “Babylon”; international documentaries like “Walking on Water”; and climate change spectacle “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch.” The news was first reported by Deadline.
CASTING
“Candyman” actor Tony Todd is starring in the horror-comedy “The Reenactment,” with shooting wrapping this week in and around Nashville, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film centers on a film crew working on a TV show like “Unsolved Mysteries” who get more than they bargained for when they arrive at what’s supposed to be an abandoned house in the mid 90s. Also starring are Megan Duffy, James Allen Cox, Stephen Wesley Green, Kaitlyn Bausch, Madison Boyd, Nick Fair and Taylor Quinn.
“The Reenactment” is produced and directed by Andrew Ford from a script by Ford and Eli Osman. Steve Longi (a co-producer on “Hacksaw Ridge”) is also producing through his Longi Entertainment with Whitney Wolanin through TopNotch Entertainment.
Todd is repped by Defining Artists and manager Jeffrey Goldberg. Duffy is repped by Lemon Lime Agency.
FILM FESTIVAL
The lineup for the Red Nation International Film Festival has announced official selections of 53 films, representing nine countries during its Nov. 1-14 run in Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
There are 21 films directed by women. All the films in the festival are either produced, directed, written by or star Native talent and/or the subject is related to the American Indian and Indigenous experience. Jurors include Shari Belafonte, Christine La Monte, James Tumminia and Mary Kim Titla.
Red Nation Tribute Awards include Tantoo Cardinal for the Oyate Wayanka Po Win Lifetime Achievement Award; Sacheen Littlefeather for the Marlon Brando Award; and Ed Begley Jr. for the Edward Albert, Jr. Award.
Films in competition include “Juliana & The Medicine Fish,” directed by Jeremy Torrie about a father struggling to save his financially-strapped fishing lodge; “Once Upon a River,” directed by Haroula Rose about a 15 year old Native son who takes to the Stark River on an odyssey; and “Falls Around Her,” directed by Darlene Naponse about a legendary singer who returns to the vast wilderness of her reserve.
The festival will also include a screening of the 1989 movie “PowWow Highway,” directed by Jonathan Wacks about Cheyenne friends with different outlooks on a road trip. Gary Farmer and A Martinez star.
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Ballet dancer Kirsten Bloom Allen has formed Arc Entertainment Company to merge ballet with cinema and rock music, Variety has learned exclusively.
Arc Entertainment Company will focus on making the art of dance a new platform by featuring unique appearances at rock concerts, as well as adding dance to new lifestyle brand films and music videos.
“Dance is the oldest form of communication known to man and when mixed with the intensity of rock or metal music, it becomes much more accessible to a wider audience,” Allen said.
In July, ARC released a music video to the hit song “Sound of Silence” by the independent metal band Disturbed. It is currently in pre-production for the video shoot of Disturbed’s hit single “A Reason to Fight” to further the song’s message of suicide prevention.
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