Prairie Pictures, Arlington, Texas, has acquired 35mm footage of the recent Spencer, S.D. tornado for its StormStock library. Shot by Prairie’s Martin Lisius, the images feature the nearly mile-wide storm as it destroyed the town of Spencer. Other recent StormStock acquisitions include footage of tropical storm "Frances," several Great Plains supercell thunderstorms, a behind-the-scenes look at storm chasers pursuing their prey, as well as additions to the flash flooding, lightning, tornado and hurricane categories….Energy Film Library has opened an office in Milan, Italy. Energy Italia’s primary focus is to service the production and postproduction houses, ad agencies and corporate accounts that are currently in and around Milan. The office consists of CEO Laura Ronchi, manager Stefano Fantoni, and sales manager Fabio Valentiand….Arlington, Va.-headquartered Henninger Media Services and Dallas-based The Image Bank (TIB) have entered into an agreement whereby Henninger now provides direct access to the library of motion images in TIB’s collection. The postproduction facility maintains a master file of the TIB collection, which is stored in digital Betacam format…. Oddball Film+Video has formed an alliance with Kinotek Inc., New York, to provide streaming video images for its online internet magazine program, Film Bytes, a weekly series that explores the changing climate and evolving state of motion picture and TV media. The San Francisco-based Oddball has also been busy supplying a montage of images that include a surrealistic "hamburger car" and a duo of zany "airdevil" skydivers for a national Fruitopia spot; historic technology footage of early electronic experiments for the PBS broadcast of Transistorized, a documentary exploring the origins of the electronic age; rare erotic animation for Suzie Bright: Sex Pest, a profile of the "sexpert" author, produced by the U.K.’s Rapido TV; and archival fan dancing footage for Massachusetts Peabody Essex Museum’s history exhibit, for broadcast on WGBH-TV, Boston….
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More