Film News Roundup: Rob Schneider Wins SAG-AFTRA National Board Seat
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In today’s film news roundup, Rob Schneider wins a SAG-AFTRA board seat; “Badland,” “Sorry We Missed You” and “Extracurricular” find homes; and “The Shawshank Redemption” gets a re-release.
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Rob Schneider has won a SAG-AFTRA national board seat as a member of presidential candidate Matthew Modine’s progressive Membership First slate.
Schneider won a four-year term as representative of the union’s San Francisco branch. He ran on a campaign platform of increased compensation from streaming services and garnered 402 votes, topping incumbent Kathryn Howell and three other candidates.
Schneider is a former cast member on “Saturday Night Live” with movie credits on “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” “The Hot Chick,” “The Benchwarmers,” and “Grown Ups” in addition to the two-season Netflix series “Real Rob.” It’s the first time he has run for a SAG-AFTRA post.
Results in the closely watched presidential contest will be tabulated on August 28. Modine and current secretary treasurer Jane Austin are challenging Gabrielle Carteris, the current national president, for the post. SAG-AFTRA represents about 160,000 performers. Its national board has 80 seats.
ACQUISITIONS
Cinedigm Corp has bought North American distribution rights to “Badland,” starring Kevin Makely, Mira Sorvino, Trace Adkins, Bruce Dern, Tony Todd and Wes Studi.
Written and directed by Justin Lee, “Badland” is set in the unincorporated areas of the West, where renegade factions have replaced law and order. In the ashes of the Civil War, one of the first African American senators (Todd) commissions a hardened detective with the impossible task of hunting down a trio of war criminals (Adkins, Dern and Fahey), who have eluded capture for more than a decade.
“Badland” was produced by Shawn Nightingale and Kevin Makely. Co-producers include Lara Cuddy and Todd A. Robinson with Jennifer Ambrose as executive producer.
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Zeitgeist Films has teamed with Kino Lorber to acquire U.S. rights for Ken Loach’s “Sorry We Missed You,” which world premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
“Sorry We Missed You” will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September. It was developed and produced by BAFTA-winning film producer Rebecca O’Brien and Loach’s company Sixteen Films. The film will open in New York on March 6 with a national rollout to follow.
The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber’s Wendy Lidell, Eva Diederix of Wild Bunch International and CAA Media Finance.
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Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Ray Xue’s horror-thriller “Extracurricular.”
The film stars Keenan Tracey, Brittany Raymond, Spencer Macpherson, Brittany Teo and Luke Goss and is set to be released in early 2020.
“Extracurricular,” written by Matthew Abrams and Padgett Arango, centers on a quartet of high-achieving high school students who execute elaborate murders. Producers are
Sean H. Thomas and Jason Ross Jallet, with Julien Favre acting as supervising producer.
‘SHAWSHANK’ RE-RELEASE
“The Shawshank Redemption” will be re-released by Fathom Events on Sept. 22, 24 and 25 to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Adapted from the novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King, “The Shawshank Redemption” stars Tim Robbins as mild-mannered banker Andy Dufresne who is wrongly convicted of murder and is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary. He befriends fellow inmate Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman).
Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown and Gil Bellows co-star. The film was directed and written by Frank Darabont and produced by Niki Marvin.
“The Shawshank Redemption” was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture (Marvin), Best Actor (Freeman), Best Adapted Screenplay (Darabont), Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Original Score.
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