Now on Channel 4 'Willem & Frieda' - 03/02/2023

We are proud to be executive producers on Willem and Frieda – Defying the Nazis - Presented by Stephen Fry. Willem and Frieda tells the incredible story of how a group of artists from the LGBTQ+ community became some of the Dutch Resistance’s most daring, but largely unsung heroes. Channel 4 broadcast tonight at 9pm and available on demand after. The theatrical version will premier at the BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival on March 24th.

Emile Hirsch To Star In Psychological Thriller 'Past Life' - Deadline Hollywood 10/25/2022

Emile Hirsch is set to star in Past Life, a psychological thriller scheduled to start shooting in March 2023. LA-based company Disrupting Influence will launch worldwide sales next month at AFM..

Past Life follows Jason Frey, an investigative reporter who reluctantly agrees to attend a hypnotism event with his pregnant wife Claira. Under hypnosis, Jason witnesses a murder through the eyes of a killer. Haunted by what he has seen, Jason uses past live regression techniques to investigate a series of unsolved murders from the eighties while unwittingly reawakening a psychopath’s killer tendencies. For full article CLICK HERE

'Cannes: Stephen Fry, Channel 4 Board Atticus Films’ LGBTQ+ Doc ‘Willem & Frieda' - Hollywood Reporter 5/20/2022

The feature documentary, telling the true story of members of the LGBTQ+ community who worked with the Dutch resistance during WWII, is being sold by Disrupting Influence in Cannes.

Stephen Fry has signed on to present Willem & Frieda, a feature documentary telling the story of members of the LGBTQ+ community who worked with the Dutch resistance during World War II. More production news coming soon. For full article CLICK HERE

'Cannes: Saban Takes Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hugh Bonneville WWII Spy Thriller Lives in Secret' - Hollywood Reporter 5/17/2022

The film, about the intelligence officer who became the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny, has been acquired for North America and other territories, including the U.K.

Saban Films is in final negotiations to acquire North America and multi-territory rights — including for the U.K., German-speaking Europe, Scandinavia, Spain, Benelux and Australia — to real-life WWII spy thriller Lives in Secret, starring Hugh Bonneville and Charlotte Gainsbourg. More development news coming soon. For full article CLICK HERE

'You need to see Bonnie & Bonnie' - Film Daily 10/16/2020

CONGRATULATIONS to Lena Murisier and the team behind her proof of concept short for upcoming series BONNIE & BONNIE for their fantastic win at the Top Shorts festival and for making the Official Selection at Venice!!! The short Film Daily called an “instant hit” – “You must watch BONNIE & BONNIE”. More development news coming soon. For full article CLICK HERE

'Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren and Luke Wilson in Emotional Trailer for 'Berlin, I Love You' - People 01/15/2019

Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren and Luke Wilson are learning about love in the trailer for Berlin, I Love You.

Directed in segments by 12 directors, the film is the latest installment in the Cities of Love franchise which has spawned the films Paris, Je T’Aime and New York, I Love You. “This is Berlin, a pounding heartbeat grown out of a divided nation,” a voiceover says. “People come to Berlin to dream, to dance and to fall in love”...

The film tells the kaleidoscope of stories about love, tolerance and redemption with a total of 20 actors starring in the film including (Luke) Wilson, Jenna Dewan, Diego Luna, Iwan Rheon, Mickey Rourke and Emily Beecham.

Berlin, I Love You is in theaters and VOD Feb. 8. For full article and trailer CLICK HERE

‘Into the Badlands’ Star Emily Beecham Joins ‘Berlin, I Love You’ - Variety 06/29/2018

Emily Beecham has taken a leading role in one of the segments in “Berlin, I Love You,” the anthology feature that will consist of 10 romance-themed stories set in the German capital. She joins a stellar cast in the picture, including Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley and Jim Sturgess.

Beecham is known for playing the Widow in AMC’s hit martial-arts action series “Into the Badlands” and for her starring role in “Daphne.” She landed best actress awards at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Turin Film Festival for that part, as well as BIFA and Empire Award nominations. She was also in the Coen brothers’ movie “Hail, Caesar!”

In “Berlin, I Love You,” Beecham appears in a segment called “Me Three,” directed by Stephanie Martin (“Wild Horses”) and Claus Clausen. She plays Hannah, a woman in an abusive relationship, who by chance meets another woman in a colorful Berlin launderette and strikes up a friendship. Touching upon themes of abuse and the place of women in society, the partially improvised segment was inspired by the #MeToo movement, Beecham told Variety. For full article CLICK HERE

Helen Mirren & Keira Knightley’s ‘Berlin, I Love You’ Heads To U.S. After Saban Deal - Deadline Hollywood 5/13/2018

The anthology feature, which also stars Jim Sturgess, tells ten stories of romance set in the German capital with directors including Fernando Eimbcke, Dennis Gansel, Massy Tadjedin,  Peter Chelsom, Til Schweiger, Justin Franklin, Dani Levy and Dianna Agron helming different segments with Josef Rusnak directing the transition sequences.

The film is produced by Claus Clausen and Edda Reiser (Walk on Water Films) alongside Alice De Sousa (Galleon Films) and Skady Lis (Getaway Pictures) as co-producers.

Emmanuel Benbihy is executive producing, and the film was financed by VX119 Media Capital, whose managing partners are Jeff Geoffray and Jeff Konvitz.  Highland Film Group is handling worldwide sales together with Disrupting Influence’s Glenn Kendrick Ackermann and Jason Piette, with CAA Media Finance co-repping the U.S. rights. CLICK HERE

Toronto: Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren Join 'Berlin, I Love You' (Exclusive) - Hollywood Reporter 9/8/2017

 Jim Sturgess is also boarding the latest film in the 'Cities of Love' anthology series launched by Emmanuel Benbihy in 2006.

The trio have joined the cast of Berlin, I Love You, which marks the latest film in the Cities of Love anthology series launched by Emmanuel Benbihy that already has tackled tales of romance in Paris and New York.

Written by Neil La Bute and David Vernon, Berlin, I Love You segments are being directed by Fernando Eimbcke, Dennis Gansel, Massy Tadjedin, Peter Chelsom, Til Schweiger, Justin Franklin, Dani Levy and Dianna Agron. Josef Rusnak will helm the transition sequence that ties all the episodes together.

Mirren, Keira Knightley and Jim Sturgess join co-stars Diego Luna, Mickey Rourke, Toni Garrn, Sibel Kekilli, Agron and Rafaelle Cohen, who already boarded the project, which is being shopped to international buyers at TIFF by Highland Film Group and Disrupting Influence's Glenn Kendrick Ackermann and Jason Piette. CLICK HERE

Mickey Rourke Joins Anthology Movie 'Berlin, I Love You' (Exclusive) - Hollywood Reporter 8/2/2017

The feature also stars Diego Luna and Sophie Turner.

Mickey Rourke will star in anthology movie Berlin, I Love You, the latest in the Cities of Love series.

Rourke is the latest to join the A-list ensemble that already includes Diego Luna, Orlando Bloom, Sophie Turner, Jack Huston and Jared Leto. Patrick Dempsey and Renee Zellweger will also star, as well as make their directorial debuts as part of the film.

Other directors will include Massy Tadjedin, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Shekhar Kapur, Tom Van Avermaet and Fernando Eimbcke, along with German directors Til Schweiger, Dennis Gansel and Dani Levy.

Berlin, I Love You, which will begin production at the end of the summer, will explore how romance is expressed through love won, lost and everything in between in Berlin. The Cities of Love franchise has also included stops in Paris (Paris je t'aime) 2006 and New York City (New York, I Love You) in 2008.

Rourke will star in the Schweiger-directed segment, playing a divorced man whose intimacy with a young female stranger in a sports bar causes him to question the identity of his estranged daughter.

Claus Clausen from Walk on Water Films will produce alongside his partners Josef Steinberger (Rheingold Films), Edda Reiser (Walk on Water Films) and Alice De Sousa (Galleon Films). Highland Film Group is handling worldwide sales in Cannes together with Disrupting Influence's Glenn Kendrick Ackermann and Jason Piette.

Rourke, who is known for his roles in Sin City and The Wrestler, recently starred in the indie dramedy Ashby with Nat Wolff and indie boxing movie Tiger. He is repped by APA and Edelstein Laird. CLICK HERE

Congratulations to the author of "Cash Landing" for winning the 2017 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction - 2017 Harper Lee Prize awarded to Boies Schiller lawyer's novel 'Gone Again' - ABA Journal 7/12/2017

A Boies Schiller lawyer has won the seventh annual Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.

James Grippando won the award for his book Gone Again, the 12th in the Jack Swyteck series, about the adventures of a Miami criminal defense attorney. The novel opens with Swyteck being approached to help stop the execution of a convicted murderer—by the mother of the purported victim, who believes her daughter may still be alive.

“I don’t know who’s happier, James Grippando the writer or James Grippando the lawyer,” he said. “Winning the 2017 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction is easily the proudest moment of my dual career.”

The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction is awarded by the ABA Journal and the University of Alabama School of Law. Lee authorized creation to mark the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird’s publication in 1960. Since 2011, it has been granted to a novel published within the previous year that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change. CLICK HERE

EFM: Josh Hartnett to star in thriller 'The Last Draw Of Jack Of Hearts' - Screen Daily 2/4/2017

EXCLUSIVE: Highland Film Group will commences talks with worldwide buyers in Berlin.

Guy Moshe wrote and will direct The Last Draw Of Jack Of Hearts, a thriller project that reunites him with Hartnett after the 2010 action fantasy Bunraku.

Hartnett will play a former black ops betrayed and left for dead during a covert operation in Africa.

When the expert solider resurfaces in Naples, he seeks revenge and resolves to win back the beautiful and mysterious love of his life.

Matthew G. Zamias and Moshe are producing with Chimera Pictures’ Pedro Tarantino, Disrupting Influence’s Glenn Kendrick Ackermann and Jason Piette and Lituanica Film’s Karolis Malinauskas.

Principal photography is set to commence in April on the thriller, one of several titles on the Highland Film Group slate that Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier bring to Berlin. CLICK HERE