Welcome back Studio Coffee Folks! Today we’re checking out a trailer for Lucky Grandma from Good Deed Entertainment, as well as an acquisition deal for Aubrey Plaza’s Black Bear and the Hugo Weaving-lead Hearts and Bones.
ICYMI:
- If you’re into Dark Side of the Ring, check out Ringside.
- Crunchyroll is launching a new Extras channel on YouTube.
- And there may be an Ironheart series underway for Disney+.
Aubrey Plaza’s Black Bear finds a home with Momentum Pictures
Aubrey Plaza’s much-hyped meta drama, Black Bear, has been acquired by Momentum Pictures in a U.S. distribution rights deal. Also starring Christopher Abbott, and Sarah Gadon, the movie premiered earlier this year at Sundance and is written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine. Black Bear follows a pregnant wife and her husband in a remote lake house in the Adirondacs, who are met by an unexpected guest with a nasty case of writer’s block. The filmmaker tries to go to the woods for inspiration, but finds herself intertwined in the middle of a dangerous pursuit of art and desire. Levine says he “wanted to do something more unusual and spontaneous,” and that he was inspired by his own sister’s creative approach, per Deadline. Black Bear has no release date at time of writing.
Hugo Weaving-lead Hearts and Bones finds a U.S. distributor
The Hugo Weaving-lead drama Hearts and Bones has negotiated U.S. rights to Gravitas Ventures in a recent deal with Visit Films. In it, Weaving stars as a war photographer suffering from PTSD who befriends a Sudanese refugee in an exploration of the global response to those displaced by war. Writer and director Ben Lawrence says its “themes of hope, family, friendship, love and human connection are needed even more right now.” Hearts and Bones originally debuted at Toronto Film Festival in 2019 to positive reviews praising its good intentions and moral complexity.
HBO signs on I Know This Much is True writer/director for a two-year first-look deal
Derek Cianfrance, writer and director of HBO’s Mark Russel-lead I Know This Much is True, has inked a two-year overall deal with HBO, per Variety. The news comes ahead of the show’s May 10 release date, although Ruffalo’s dual casting has been praised as a nuanced series highlight. Cianfrance’s claim to fame rang in 2010, when he wrote and directed Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine, then success struck again in 2012 with Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes with A Place Beyond the Pines. Most recently, he worked on 2016’s The Light Between Oceans.
Ron Howard meets Warren Klein in a new Funny or Die video
Arrested Development’s Ron Howard and Funny or Die have teamed up for a Motion Picture Television Fund promotion, featuring the comedy site’s recurring character and Hollywood agent Warren Klein. In a six-minute video titled Ron Howard Digs Up a Very Strange Voicemail His Agent Left Him in 1983, the director recalls what he remembers as an extremely trying time, in an effort to contextualize the pandemic we’re going through right now. It’s Howard’s hope that, in remembering how we’ve overcome problems in the past, we’ll get through this one – and to help us do that, we’ve got the Motion Picture Television Fund, an organization that offers assistance to those of limited means in the industry.
Lucky Grandma hits theaters (and casinos) later this month
Good Deed Entertainment’s Lucky Grandma is here with a slick new trailer, highlighting the titular granny’s descent into the middle of a Chinatown gang war. Tsai Chin stars as the chain-smoking, gambling Grandma Wong and is directed by Sasie Sealy. It’s a dark comedy/action heist pic with style and heart, as well as a “love letter to Chinatown and an homage to all the badass elderly women who inhabit it.” Look for it in virtual theaters beginning on May 22, 2020.
