God’s Own Country
Celebrated filmmaker Francis Lee scored much acclaim and awards for his 2017 gay romance drama “God’s Own Country” but earlier today discovered his film had been censored on Amazon Prime in the United States.
Investigations into this revealed it was US distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films was reportedly responsible – cutting the “sexually explicit content” without consultation in order to get it on “certain carousels” on the Prime Video website and increased its visibility and revenue generation. Amazon Prime has since pulled the censored cut and now the original theatrical cut is available for rent or purchase. [Source: Indiewire]
Waiting for the Barbarians
Ciro Guerra’s “Waiting for the Barbarians” is skipping theatrical with Samuel Goldwyn Films recently acquiring the film for a VOD release in August. Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, and Robert Pattinson star in the film which debuted at Venice last year.
The film is based on the novel by author J.M. Coetzee, and tells the story of a Magistrate on the verge of retirement when Colonel Joll begins a series of ruthless interrogations about information regarding the situation involving ‘barbarians’ at the border. This leads the Magistrate to question his Colonel’s loyalty. [Source: Deadline]
Dune
Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has revealed that getting the design of the giant sandworms of Arrakis right for his upcoming adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi saga “Dune” took about a year. Speaking with Empire, Villeneuve says: “We talked about every little detail that would make such a beast possible, from the texture of the skin, to the way the mouth opens, to the system to eat its food in the sand. It was a year of work to design and to find the perfect shape that looked prehistoric enough.” “Dune” is currently slated to open December 18th.
Ride or Die
Marlon Wayans and producer Neal H. Moritz are teaming for the romantic buddy-cop action-comedy “Ride or Die”. Wayans and Rick Alvarez wrote the script and Wayans will star as robbery detective Martin Banks.
Banks is teamed with a consummate professional – the narcotics detective and unapologetic butt-kicker Tami Moore. Sparks and bullets fly when these opposites are partnered to track down a billion-dollar cache of deadly opioids stolen from the vault of a multinational pharmaceutical company. [Source: Heat Vision]
The Last of Us Part II
PlayStation has released another behind-the-scenes video for Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us Part II,” this time taking a look at the game’s next-level gameplay along with the more realistic level design, exploration spaces and combat encounters. The game launches on June 19th.
