Writer-director Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” with Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy, made a splash with festival-goers at the recent Telluride Film Festival. 20th Century Studios has revealed to Variety exclusively that the film will be campaigned for best original screenplay for the upcoming awards season, despite being inspired by the 1968 photo and interview book of the same name.

“The Bikeriders” movie tells a fictional story inspired by the Midwestern motorcycle club in the book’s photos, seen through its members’ lives over a decade. First published in 1968, the book by Danny Lyon explores his firsthand accounts of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Featuring black-and-white photographs and transcribed interviews conducted by Lyon from 1963 to 1967, the WGA has classified it as an original work rather than adapted.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

“This is the most complex script I’ve ever written,...

Exclusive: Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films have picked up North American rights to Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy — a new documentary on the making of the iconic John Schlesinger film, from acclaimed documentarian Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story).

Related Story 1091 Pictures Acquires Domestic Distribution Rights To Romantic Drama ‘Under My Skin’ Related Story Locarno Film Festival War Drama 'Tommy Guns' Gets North American Deal Related Story Ralph Fiennes' 'Four Quartets' Gets North American Distribution Deal Ahead Of Stateside Bow At Santa Barbara

Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow.

Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, Desperate...

UK distributor and production outfit takes Venice documentary.

Source: Wide House

The Rape Of Recy Taylor

Eve Gabereau, the long-time head of UK distributor Soda Pictures (now Thunderbird Releasing) who left the company last year, has officially launched her new outfit Modern Films.

The London-based distribution and production company has made its first acquisition with The Rape Of Recy Taylor, Nancy Buirski’s documentary that premiered at Venice last year.

Modern has UK and Ireland rights to the feature, which tells the story of 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper Recy Taylor, who was gang-raped by six white men in Alabama in 1944. Despite being at serious risk, she decided to speak up and identify her attackers, with the civil rights organisation the NAACP sending its chief rape investigator, and activist Rosa Parks, to support the young women.

The story was one of the era-defining civil rights moments and still has a legacy today. In Oprah Winfrey’s celebrated...

Coming off strong showings at both the Venice and New York Film Festivals, Nancy Buirski’s Augusta Films has set an awards-qualifying run for the filmmaker’s new documentary “The Rape of Recy Taylor.” The film, which debuted at Venice last month and went on to screen at Nyff, will open in New York and Los Angeles this December to qualify for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

In a statement, Buirski said, “We were stunned by reviews that not only recognized the hidden story of black women physically abused in Jim Crow South, but by how powerfully our film resonates today. From a president who gropes women to white supremacy in Charlottesville to women who courageously speak up against predatory celebrities and mogals, this film is smack in the public square. Though we’re throwing our hat in the ring late, we felt this coud not wait! An Academy...

On a quiet late summer night in tiny Abbeville, Alabama, a car full of young white men cruised the streets, searching. They were looking for a mark, Nancy Buirski’s wrenching documentary “The Rape of Recy Taylor” tells us, eventually settling on a trio of black neighbors walking home from evening church services. Recy Taylor, then just 24-years-old, a wife and mother to a nine-month-old, a local sharecropper with ties to the community, was one of them. The car’s passengers — seven of them, including the sons of some of the town’s most notable residents — took Taylor to a secluded stand of trees, forced her to strip naked, and then raped her. (One voiceover tells it plainly without the need for details: “What they did to her? They didn’t need to live.”)

Buirski’s latest documentary, a worthy companion to her lauded “The Loving Story,” tells Taylor’s story in expressive detail,...

Exclusive: Nancy Buirski, the director of By Sidney Lumet and The Loving Story, is headed to the Venice Film Festival with her latest project, The Rape Of Recy Taylor. The documentary about a woman who defied the times to stand up against the physical abuse of black women in the 1940s south, is running in the Horizons section and screens next week. It will have its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival in October. See a first-look clip above. This is the…...

Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present, and future.

The fall festival season has long been a harbinger of things to come, from the contenders that will consume months of awards season jockeying to bright new talents just making their first big splashes, and this year brings with it another glimpse of the future: one that’s filled with new films from a wide variety of female filmmakers.

From Venice to Toronto, New York to Telluride, this year’s fall festival circuit is filled with new offerings from from female filmmakers of every stripe, including 20 that we’ve hand-picked as the ones to keep an eye on during the coming weeks.

First-time feature filmmakers like Maggie Betts, Brie Larson, and the Mulleavey sisters are out in full force, along with the return of mainstays like Angelina Jolie, Lynn Shelton, and Susanna White. There are plenty...

A lengthy talk-fest interview of the underrated filmmaker, who takes us through his life story as a personal journey, not a string of movie assignments. Sidney Lumet seems to attract a lot of criticism, and so did this docu for not challenging his opinions or rubbing his nose in his less admirable movie efforts. The docu is just Lumet’s thoughts, and the words of a man of integrity are always inspiring.

By Sidney Lumet

Blu-ray

FilmRise

2015 / Color /1:78 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date January 9, 2017 / 24.95

Starring Sidney Lumet

Cinematography Tom Hurwitz

Film Editor Anthony Ripoli

Produced by Scott Berrie, Nancy Buirski, Chris Donnelly, Joshua A. Green, Thane Rosenbaum, Robin Yigit Smith

Directed by Nancy Buirski

This ought to be a good year for documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski. I first caught up with her excellent feature docu Afternoon of a Faun, about the ill-fated ballerina Tanaquil Le Clerc, and she’s had other successes as well.

Author: Scott Davis

After what seems like a long road to UK cinemas, the acclaimed true story Loving is finally arriving in UK cinemas and given a fresh impetus after star Ruth Negga was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress last week. We sat down with her and writer/director Jeff Nichols to discuss the extraordinary true story of one couple’s love amongst insurmountable odds.

The film is based on the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Negga), a young couple who were married in 1958 in Washington DC. They actually lived in Virginia but due to anti-miscegenation laws they had to leave the state in order for their marriage to be considered legal, but on their return home they are arrested and sentenced to a year in prison. However, the judge presiding over the case decided that the couple could leave on condition...

This article originally appeared on EW.com.

On Feb. 26, Los Angeles will become what La La Land promises: A city of stars. But before the envelopes are opened, we’ve got inside intel on the nominees. Below, read about the nominees for Best Actress, and come back to EW.com throughout the week for spotlights on the other major categories.

Emma Stone

Starring In: La La Land

Age: 28

Oscar Past: 1 nomination; 0 wins

Role Call: Mia, an aspiring actress in Los Angeles who manages to stay upbeat in the face of professional rejection

After a decade of starring in successful Hollywood films,...

From the moment audiences first saw her powerful performance in Loving at the Cannes Film Festival, Ruth Negga had major Oscar buzz — and now the Irish-Ethiopian rising star will be heading to the Academy Awards for the first time with a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

In the movie, Negga and Joel Edgerton play real-life couple Mildred and Richard Loving, who were arrested in 1958 in their own bedroom in Virginia. Their crime? Being in an interracial marriage. The Lovings’ love truly stood the test of time when they challenged the law and brought their case before the Supreme Court in 1967, leading...

Joel Edgerton has generated awards buzz ever since the 2016 Cannes Film Festival premiere of “Loving” in May. The film tells the true story of the biracial couple whose landmark civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, saw the U.S. Supreme Court end all racial restrictions on marriage in 1967. Edgerton’s portrayal of Richard Loving in director Jeff Nichols’ film earned the actor a Golden Globes nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, the actor’s first Golden Globe nod.

One of the challenges of the role, which saw the Australian actor transform himself into Loving’s Virginia-born brickmason, was staying true to the real Richard Loving, as seen in Nancy Buirski’s 2011 documentary “The Loving Story,” which captured many of the details of Mildred and Richard Loving’s private lives.

“When you get a story that’s real, and the characters existed — and particularly if...

Author: David Sztypuljak

Every year, Ee sponsor the BAFTA Rising Star Award at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards here in London town. The award is always a fascinating one since it’s voted for by the public.

Star Wars’ John Boyega won the 2016 BAFTA Rising Star Award

The nominations have just been announced from BAFTA HQ are in the running for the 2017 spot are all listed below. It’s going to be very interesting to see who takes the win this year with the likes of Tom Holland as Spider-Man being so mainstream and Anya Taylor-Joy appearing in the likes of The Witch.

Previous winners of the award include James McAvoy, Eva Green, Shia Labeouf, Noel Clarke, Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Will Poulter, Jack O’Connell and last year the award was taken by Star Wars star John Boyega.

This year the nominations are as strong as every with Laia Costa,...

Deadpool has had a surprising amount of staying power this awards season, earning its foul-mouthed self some Golden Globe nominations. Now it seems the members of the Writers Guild have fallen for its winking, self-referential masturbation jokes and given it a nod for best adapted screenplay. There it joins Arrival, Fences, Hidden Figures, and Nocturnal Animals. Over in the original category there are no big surprises as La La Land, Moonlight, and Manchester By The Sea continue to accumulate accolades. Hell Or High Water and Loving finish off that list. However, when it comes time for the Oscars, Moonlight and Loving will both compete as adapted screenplays. Moonlight originated with a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who has a story credit on the film, while the Academy decided Loving was based on the documentary The Loving Story. Three documentary screenplays were also nominated by the WGA: Author: The Jt LeRoy...

Even if his throwback sci-fi tale “Midnight Special” were his only 2016 output, Jeff Nichols would have had quite a year. But the filmmaker behind “Mud,” “Take Shelter” and “Shotgun Stories” may have found his best story yet in the life and love of Richard and Mildred Loving.

“Loving,” Nichols’ second of two 2016 films, soars as a beautiful portrait of a resilient family primarily because of its patience. Jettisoning the standard biopic checklist, Nichols instead took great care following the quiet moments along Richard and Mildred’s journey from their meeting all the way through their role in the landmark Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case that struck down existing interracial marriage bans nationwide. The drama of their lives hangs in these individual scenes in a way that few films profiling historical figures manage to achieve.

Over a decade of making films, Nichols has quietly built up an impressive roster of...

‘Nocturnal Animals’ (Courtesy: Merrick Morton/Focus Features)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

This year’s contenders for best adapted screenplay are quite the eclectic group based on their sources — something that can never be said for those competing for best original screenplay. When looking at this category’s past since the year 2000, can history dictate which type of adapted screenplays the Academy might be leaning toward at the 2017 Oscars?

This site’s namesake, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, honed in on nine films considered either frontrunners (the first five) or major threats (the last four) in his latest check-in on the Oscar race: Moonlight, Lion, Fences, Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Nocturnal Animals, Sully, Silence, and Loving. The original sources for these films are as varied as the subject matter in the works they inspired, so let’s break them down.

As for frontrunners: Moonlight, written and directed by Barry Jenkins,...

Jeff Nichols’ fifth feature film (and second in 2016, after the strange and spellbinding Midnight Special) is Loving, which also looks to potentially be his big breakthrough in terms of both popular appeal and awards prestige – thanks, in no small part, to the support of his studio and producers in spreading the good word about one of Hollywood’s most promising young directors.

With the film now in limited release, producer Peter Saraf and his family visited the Princeton Garden Theater in Princeton, NJ on Friday night to discuss his latest project. Following a screening of Loving, Mr. Saraf held an open Q&A discussion with the audience, in which he touched on such topics as the film’s production process, historical authenticity, political subtext, and the reactions of real people depicted in the film.

On the origins of this project

Loving began with The Loving Story, a 2011 documentary film by...

People have been scratching their heads ever since A24 decided to campaign for Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” for original screenplay. That’s because the Writers Guild categorized it that way, an A24 spokesman told me.

Technically, the WGA determined that the play Jenkins adapted with playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” was never produced. But the Academy Writers branch executive committee has decided that Jenkins did adapt “Moonlight” from another source. So that puts “Moonlight” into the race for Adapted Screenplay.

Also moving categories from Original to Adapted is Jeff Nichols’ “Loving” (also deemed original by the WGA). This makes sense, as much of the dialogue in the film comes straight from Nancy Buirski’s 2011 documentary “The Loving Story,” which the filmmaker and cast tried so hard to bring to fictional life.

Will these two films fare as well in the Adapted category as original? Actually, they...

People have been scratching their heads ever since A24 decided to campaign for Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” for original screenplay.

Technically, the play Jenkins adapted with playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” was never produced. But the Academy, unlike the Writers Guild of America, has decided that Jenkins did adapt “Moonlight” from another source. So that put “Moonlight” into the race for Adapted Screenplay.

Also moving categories from Original to Adapted is Jeff Nichols’ “Loving” (also deemed original by the WGA). This makes sense, as much of the dialogue in the film comes straight from Nancy Buirski’s 2011 documentary “The Loving Story,” which the filmmaker and cast tried so hard to bring to life.

Will these two films fare as well in the Adapted category as original? Actually, they rise to the top of that category, competing against Eric Heisserer’s “Arrival,” August Wilson’s “Fences,” and...

We warned everyone to not "lock" up any screenplay predictions too early, especially when the provenance of a screenplay is confusing, and our warnings were not in vain. The Academy has rejected the campaigns of Loving and Moonlight as "Originals" and they have been moved to the "Adapted" category. Both had made no secret that they were inspired by other works, despite their Original campaigns. Loving is partially based on the documentary The Loving Story (2011) and Moonlight on an unproduced play (of sorts -- though now the playwright is saying it never was intended as a play... which makes the situation yet more confusing) called "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue". Regardless, the murkiness was enough for the Academy to cry foul on their preferred Original designations.  (If only the Academy's acting branch would play this kind of interference when obviously lead acting roles like Rooney Mara in Carol or...

Loving is perhaps the least likely and most necessary film to accompany the conclusion of this year’s tumultuous U.S. presidential election: a drama that’s at once calm, even tranquil, and still a vital reminder of the possibility of progressive politics. The newest from writer-director Jeff Nichols (and his second this year, after Midnight Special) tells the story leading up to another momentous event in U.S. history, the landmark civil rights decision Loving v. Virginia, in 1967. But, as Alissa Wilkinson writes at Vox, it does so in a way unlike anything else we’ve seen in this election:It’s difficult, leading up to any election — and especially this one — to not see everything, including pop culture, through the lens of politics. But even by pre-election standards, Loving, about the couple at the center of the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case that invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage, would seem to be obviously political.

Ruth Negga (left) stars as Mildred and Joel Edgerton (right) stars as Richard in Jeff

Nichols Loving, a Focus Features release. Photo credit: Ben Rothstein / Focus Features. © Focus Features

Loving is wonderful, warmly romantic drama about the couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, whose Supreme Court case struck down laws that prevented interracial couples from marrying. Although the court case is part of the story, the film is really about the couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, childhood sweethearts whose deeply romantic love story is the heart of this excellent, touching film.

Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special) directs this fine, realistic, gentle romance story, with fine performances by Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton as the couple. The couple’s beautiful love story is the heart of this film.

Audiences expecting a courtroom drama and in-depth legal discussions about the pivotal Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case may be surprised by Loving.

Loving Man: Joel Edgerton talks in-depth about his critically acclaimed film LovingLoving Man: Joel Edgerton talks in-depth about his critically acclaimed film LovingIngrid Randoja - Cineplex Magazine11/9/2016 10:31:00 Am

Sitting across from Joel Edgerton you are struck by the fact he looks nothing like the men he plays on screen. His brown hair, almond-shaped eyes set behind oversized glasses and trim build give him the look of someone who manages a hip, downtown bar.

It’s hard to see him as The Great Gatsby’s macho, mustachioed Tom Buchanan, who looms menacingly over those around him, or as the bald-headed pharaoh Ramses in Exodus: Gods and Kings, who struts with such graceful arrogance. For the recent The Gift, a film he wrote, directed, and in which he also starred, he transformed into the bespectacled Gordo, a creepy lost soul dripping with ominous intentions.

Now comes the critically acclaimed Loving,...

Ever since his debut feature Shotgun Stories, filmmaker Jeff Nichols has provided a voice for the South with films like Mud, Take Shelter and the action-thriller Midnight Special earlier this year. What he hadn’t done before was to tell a true story taken from a lesser-known part of the South, and a couple whose bravery helped lead to changes in the Constitution, specifically about men and women of different races being able to marry.

Nichols ended up writing and directing Loving, based on the true tale of Richard and Mildred Loving (as played by Joel Edgerton and Preacher’s Ruth Negga), who fall in love in Virginia in the late ‘50s. When she becomes pregnant, they go to Washington, DC to get married, essentially breaking Virginia laws about mixed race married couples. Upon returning home, they’re promptly arrested and the pregnant Mildred is thrown in jail, and they...

Richard and Mildred Loving never sought the spotlight, even as their bid to overturn state laws against interracial marriage grabbed international headlines during the civil rights movement. They rarely gave interviews, and even when their case reached the Supreme Court, the couple declined a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the proceedings.

The Lovings won their right to live as husband and wife in their home state of Virginia after the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 1967. The court’s decision wiped away the country’s last remaining segregation laws, which until that point had outlawed interracial marriage in 16 states.

The...

For this weeks edition of Doc Corner we are celebrating the release of Jeff Nichols' Loving by looking back at the documentary that was quite clearly a heavy inspiration on it.

That Richard and Mildred Loving often got overlooked for their unwilling but necessary part in the civil rights movement is hardly surprising when you watch The Loving Story, Nancy Buiski’s sober and low-key documentary from 2011. The pair, quiet and dignified, do not make for the sort of protagonists that make traditional narratives – a comment that has come up throughout the festival release of Jeff Nichols’ feature adaptation. Theirs is a story of quiet suffering; their victory an almost anticlimactic ‘duh’ moment that it’s easy to see why it has taken so long to get films made about them.

But it is that very reserved nature that makes their story equally compelling. Mildred, especially, is a woman...

From the start, Jeff Nichols’ “Loving” didn’t call attention to itself. Although Focus Features paid $9 million for world rights to the drama based on the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the industry adopted a wait-and-see approach toward the project. After all, Focus had just undergone a major management overhaul, and the acquisition was based on a short screening of footage for buyers at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival — just five minutes of two scenes, cut together with music.

Behind the scenes, however, Focus CEO Peter Kujawski was jubilant over scooping up the project that was based on the 1967 ruling of Loving v. Virginia, with stellar performances by Australian Joel Edgerton and half-Irish actress Ruth Negga. “This was exactly what we want the company to be,” he told his colleagues. “This kind of movie! We have to have this movie!”

Read More: ‘Loving’: How Jeff Nichols Captures Love...

From the start, Jeff Nichols’ “Loving” didn’t call attention to itself. Although Focus Features paid $9 million for world rights to the drama based on the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the industry adopted a wait-and-see approach toward the project. After all, Focus had just undergone a major management overhaul, and the acquisition was based on a short screening of footage for buyers at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival — just five minutes of two scenes, cut together with music.

Behind the scenes, however, Focus CEO Peter Kujawski was jubilant over scooping up the project that was based on the 1967 ruling of Loving v. Virginia, with stellar performances by Australian Joel Edgerton and half-Irish actress Ruth Negga. “This was exactly what we want the company to be,” he told his colleagues. “This kind of movie! We have to have this movie!”

Read More: ‘Loving’: How Jeff Nichols Captures Love...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

This Past Weekend:

In one of the busier weekends of the month, two of the movies did better than I predicted and two did worse. The real winner of the weekend was Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween, which did far better than anyone thought with an opening weekend of $28.5 million in just 2,260 theaters or $12,611 per theater. It ended up completely demolishing Tom Cruise’s action sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, which opened in almost 1,500 more theaters, but at least that ended up around where I predicted with $22.9 million. Ouija: Origin of Evil came out slightly below my prediction to take third place with $14 million, while the Fox comedy Keeping Up with the Joneses bombed even worse than I expected with $5.5 million in 3,000 theaters.

Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski had been on the job for all of five days when footage screened for writer-director Jeff Nichols’ interracial biopic “Loving” at the Berlin Film Festival. He jumped on the opportunity, buying all available world rights for $9 million.

Fall festival showings in Cannes and Toronto reveal a full-fledged Oscar contender. It’s a sincere, restrained portrait of a biracial Virginia couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (Australian Joel Edgerton and half-Irish actress Ruth Negga), who were arrested under miscegenation laws in 1962 after marrying in Washington, D.C. In order to avoid prison time, a local judge demanded they leave the state for 25 years if they wanted to stay together. Eventually, the Aclu supported their landmark civil rights case and took it to the Supreme Court; its 1967 ruling struck down all miscegenation laws nationwide.

In our video interview in Cannes, Edgerton, who co-starred with Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst in Nichols’ “Midnight Special,...

Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski had been on the job for all of five days when footage screened for writer-director Jeff Nichols’ interracial biopic “Loving” at the Berlin Film Festival. He jumped on the opportunity, buying all available world rights for $9 million.

Fall festival showings in Cannes and Toronto reveal a full-fledged Oscar contender. It’s a sincere, restrained portrait of a biracial Virginia couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (Australian Joel Edgerton and half-Irish actress Ruth Negga), who were arrested under miscegenation laws in 1962 after marrying in Washington, D.C. In order to avoid prison time, a local judge demanded they leave the state for 25 years if they wanted to stay together. Eventually, the Aclu supported their landmark civil rights case and took it to the Supreme Court; its 1967 ruling struck down all miscegenation laws nationwide.

In our video interview in Cannes, Edgerton, who co-starred with Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst in Nichols’ “Midnight Special,...

Ruth Negga employs a couple of handy metaphors when talking about her turn as Mildred Loving in Jeff Nichols’ biographical drama, “Loving,” from carrying a precious vase to safety alongside her co-star Joel Edgerton to launching off a trampoline under the guidance of Nichols. But each metaphor – thoughtfully considered and very charming, much like the Ethiopian-Irish actress herself – help drives home one single thing: The delicate, brave nature of taking on such a meaningful and important role.

Nichols’ film eschews the standard high-drama biographical movie formula, instead focusing on the more intimate aspects of the love story that would go on to change the face of marriage in America. While many Americans are at least aware of the existence of the landmark Loving v. Virginia case, few know the details – how the Lovings were ambushed and raided after their 1958 marriage, charged with a slew of crimes, forced to leave their...

The next Best Actress is among us. Ruth Negga's Cannes Film Festival favorite is undeniably great - so great that it is already getting that Oscar buzz. Loving stars Negga and Joel Edgerton travel back in time to the 50s to play real-life couple Mildred and Richard Loving, who were arrested in 1958 in their own bedroom for the crime of matrimony. Because it was illegal for a white man to be married to a black woman (and vice versa), the Lovings love truly stood the test of time when they challenged the law and brought their case before the...

The next Best Actress is among us. Ruth Negga's Cannes Film Festival favorite is undeniably great - so great that it is already getting that Oscar buzz. Loving stars Negga and Joel Edgerton travel back in time to the 50s to play real-life couple Mildred and Richard Loving, who were arrested in 1958 in their own bedroom for the crime of matrimony. Because it was illegal for a white man to be married to a black woman (and vice versa), the Lovings love truly stood the test of time when they challenged the law and brought their case before the...

Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton deliver remarkably nuanced performances in Loving, a late ’50s- / early ‘60s-set true life story of a mixed-race couple whose illegal marriage became a landmark case in the United States Supreme Court. Having tried his hand at the coming-of-age drama (Mud) and both small- and large-scale science fiction (Take Shelter and Midnight Special, respectively), the increasingly prolific Jeff Nichols branches out once more here to the awards season period drama. This heartwarming and wonderfully refined film might not do a whole lot of things we haven’t seen before in the civil rights-era picture, but it does the familiar stuff with enormous care and control.

As they say about these sorts of things: you just couldn’t write it. In June 1958, at the age of 18, Mildred Delores Jeter — of African American and Native American descent — became pregnant with the child of Richard Loving, a 24-year-old white man.

Nancy Buirski, the director of the Cannes documentary By Sidney Lumet and The Loving Story, which aired on HBO and became the basis for Jeff Nichols’ Cannes-bound pic Loving, has found her next project. She will direct and produce The Rape Of Recy Taylor, the true story of a 24-year-old wife and mother who was gang raped in Alabama by seven white men in 1944. Recy Taylor’s story highlights the black women who waged war to take back their bodies and their dignity, and by…...

Plus: Los Cabos, Tfi, Gabriel Figueroa, Labodigital renew association; D Films picks up Canadian rights to Oasis doc; and more…

June Pictures will produce and finance The Florida Project from Sean Baker, the writer-director of last year’s acclaimed Indie Spirit best feature nominee (pictured).

The Florida Project centres on a precocious seven-year-old and her friends who enjoy a summer filled with adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.

Baker reteams with Chris Bergoch on the screenplay but will not repeat another element of Tangerine and will shoot on 35mm rather than the iPhone.

Production will commence in Florida this summer on the June Pictures, Cre Films, and Freestyle Picture Company project. ICM Partners represents Us rights and cast will be announced shortly.

The Los Cabos Film Festival has renewed its association with the Tribeca Film Institute and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund and announced on Tuesday that Gaz Alazraki’s Cabos Discovery 2015 project Casi El...

The revamped studio has paid around $9m for North America and most of the world to Jeff Nichols’ upcoming interracial marriage drama starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga.

CAA brokered the deal and fielded multiple offers after showing early footage to buyers on Friday, the day when Nichols’ Midnight Special premiered to great acclaim in the competition.

Edgerton plays Richard Loving and Negga plays Mildred, an interracial couple from Virginia who incurred the wrath of the authorities and ended up in prison in 1958.

The Lovings were banned from Virginia but found redemption when they sued the state and their case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which struck a blow for the Civil Rights movement when it upheld their right to marry. Big Beach financed the film.

Nichols’ screenplay was inspired by Nancy Buirski’s documentary The Loving Story.

Three years ago, director Nancy Buirski's feature documentary, "The Loving Story," was released. It follows the real-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple living in the state of Virginia where interracial coupling was illegal, and their struggles, including the Us Supreme Court case named after them - Loving vs Virginia (1967); the landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, unconstitutional, overturning existing laws and bringing an official end to all race-based restrictions on marriage in the United States.   Persecuted by a...

Loving

The first photo has been released of Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in "Loving," the latest film from "Take Shelter" and "Mud" director Jeff Nichols. Inspired by Nancy Buirski's documentary "The Loving Story," the film is based on the 1967 civil rights case Loving v. Virginia which was borne out of an interracial couple being sentenced to a year in prison simply because of their marriage. The film doesn't have a release date at this point. [Source: The Wrap]

Latin Lover

"Role Models" actor Ken Marino is set to direct "Latin Lover" for Pantelion Films with "Instructions Not Included" star Eugenio Derbez playing his first English-language leading role. The film is said to have a "Bad Teacher"-style tone and will begin shooting in February.

Written by Chris Spain and Jon Zack, the comedy is about an aging Latin lover who gets dumped by his sugar mama and must fend for himself in a harsh world.

Get your first look at the new Jeff Nichols film before we even get a first look at the other new Jeff Nichols film! Jeff Nichols, director of the fantastic films Take Shelter, Mud and Shotgun Stories, finished a sci-fi film for Warner Bros called Midnight Special. They pushed it back to next March, so in the meantime, Nichols went on to shoot his next film. He's now in production in Virginia on Loving, a drama inspired by Nancy Buirski's 2011 documentary The Loving Story about an interracial couple jailed for marrying in 1958. The two starring as that couple are Joel Edgerton as Richard, and Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving. Here's the first look for Jeff Nichols' Loving with Joel Edgerton & Ruth Negga, found via The Playlist: Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, are sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 for getting married. For nine years the couple...

The first image from Jeff Nichols' "Loving," inspired by director Nancy Buirski's documentary "The Loving Story," shows Joel Edgerton as Richard Loving and Ruth Negga ("Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D," "World War Z") as his wife, Mildred, the plaintiffs in the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which invalidated laws against interracial marriage nationwide. After their June 1958 nuptials, the Lovings were arrested, thrown into jail, and exiled from the state. For the next nine years, the couple fought for their marriage and the right to return home as a family. The film, written and directed by Nichols, co-stars frequent collaborator Michael Shannon as Life photographer Grey Villet, as well as Nick Kroll, Jon Bass, Marton Csokas, and Bill Camp. Shooting is underway in Richmond, Va. CAA is selling domestic rights, with the Wild Bunch division insiders handling foreign sales. The "Loving" production team is.

The producers of Jeff Nichols‘ interracial marriage drama “Loving” have unveiled the first photo of the film’s stars, Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, which debuts exclusively on TheWrap. Writer-director Nichols’ longtime collaborator Michael Shannon co-stars alongside Nick Kroll, Marton Csokas (“The Equalizer”), Jon Bass (“Big Time in Hollywood, Fl”) and Bill Camp (“Black Mass”). Inspired by Nancy Buirski’s documentary “The Loving Story,” the film stars Edgerton and Negga as Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married in June 1958. They were arrested, thrown into jail, and exiled from their home state of Virginia. For the next nine years,...

Michael Shannon and Nick Kroll have been added to the cast of 2016 biopic Loving. The film, inspired by HBO documentary The Loving Story, will tell the story of Richard and Mildred Loving. The two were married in 1958 but were arrested and forced out of their home state due to Virginia’s miscegenation statute in the 1924 Racial Integrity Act. It was this marriage that brought about the Loving vs. Virginia civil rights case in the Supreme Court.

In the film, Shannon will portray the photographer who shot iconic images of the couple for Life magazine, while Kroll is cast as Bernard Cohen – a politician who defended them before the Supreme Court.

Loving is currently shooting principal photography in Virginia, and is directed by Jeff Nichols. This will be the fifth time that Shannon has featured in one of Nichols’ movies. Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga are cast in the titular roles,...

Three years ago, director Nancy Buirski's "The Loving Story" was released. It follows the real-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple living in the state of Virginia where interracial coupling was illegal, and their struggles, including the Us Supreme Court case named after them - Loving vs Virginia (1967), the landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, unconstitutional, overturning existing laws and bringing an official end to all race-based restrictions on marriage in the United States.   Persecuted by a local sheriff, the...

Some directors have actors they like to work with in all their films, Mud’s Jeff Nichols has Michael Shannon and he’s keeping the tradition alive with is latest, Loving, which is also adding Nick Kroll.Nichols’ new film is inspired by 2011 HBO documentary The Loving Story, in which Nancy Buirski chronicles the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, who married in 1958 in defiance of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924. They were arrested and exiled from the state, but that kicked off a landmark civil rights debate that led to a Supreme Court case on the matter that invalidated laws banning interracial marriage.Joel Edgerton is playing Richard, while Ruth Negga is aboard as Mildred. Nichols wrote the script and has already started filming in Richmond, Virginia, with Bill Camp, Marton Csokas and Jon Bass also joining the cast.Loving will mark the fifth collaboration between Nichols and Shannon,...

Probably one of my favorite actor/director bromances right now is the one between Michael Shannon and Jeff Nichols. The actor has been in every one of Nichols' movies to date, and while we (im)patiently wait for the director's big studio effort "Midnight Special" next spring (sadly pushed from release this fall), the duo are charing another project to pair up on. Read More: SXSW: Jeff Nichols & Michael Shannon Talk 'Midnight Special,' Screen First Footage From The Film Shannon, along with Nick Kroll, Jon Bass, Marton Csokas, and Bill Camp, are joining "Loving," which already has Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga slated to lead. The based-on-a-true-story drama is inspired by the documentary “The Loving Story” directed by Nancy Buirski (here’s our review) which tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, who were actually brought to trial for being in an interracial marriage in Virginia in...

Michael Shannon and his "Take Shelter" director Jeff Nichols are re-teaming for the latter's next film "Loving" which just began production.

The based-on-a-true-story drama is inspired by Nancy Buirski's documentary "The Loving Story" which follows a married couple who were actually brought to trial for being in an interracial marriage in Virginia in 1958.

Shannon is playing a Life magazine photographer who took pictures of the couple in 1965. Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Nick Kroll, Jon Bass, Marton Csokas, and Bill Camp also star.

Nichols' immediate next film for release is his completed "Midnight Special" which opens next Spring.

Source: The Wrap...

Big Beach and Raindog Films have commenced principal photography in Virginia on Loving, the director’s follow-up to Mud. Wild Bunch handles international sales and CAA represents Us rights.

Loving is inspired by Nancy Buirski’s documentary The Loving Story and centres on an interracial couple who got married in 1958 and had to fight for their marriage when they were thrown in jail.

Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga star with Nick Kroll, Jon Bass, Marton Csokas and Bill Camp

Ged Doherty, Sarah Green, Buirski, Colin Firth, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub produce, while the executive producers are Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Jack Turner and Jared Ian Goldman.

Writer-director Kate Maberly and Doug Liman will produce The Forest Of Hands And Teeth to star Maisie Williams from Game Of Thrones. Production is lining up for 2016 on the story of a young woman who holds the future of humanity in her hands after a virus turns humans into bloodthirsty...

Three years ago, director Nancy Buirski's "The Loving Story" was released. It follows the real-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple living in the state of Virginia where interracial coupling was illegal, and their struggles, including the Us Supreme Court case named after them - Loving vs Virginia (1967), the landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, unconstitutional, overturning existing laws and bringing an official end to all race-based restrictions on marriage in the United States.   Persecuted by a local sheriff, the...