Iranian actor Leila Hatami, best known outside her country for her role in Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning “A Separation,” will soon be back on international movie screens in Iranian-British director Mehdi Norowzian’s metaphysical drama “A Time in Eternity” which recently wrapped in Iran.
“There isn’t one scene without me,” Hatami told Variety, speaking on the sidelines of the just concluded Venice Film Festival where she was a member of the main jury.
The London-based Norowzian, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1999 short “Killing Joe” and subsequently directed Joseph Fiennes, Elizabeth Shue, Dennis Hopper and Sam Shepherd in the 2002 drama “Leo,” has since become a prominent commercials director. Norowzian recently returned to Iran to shoot this film, which is his first feature after two decades.
In “Eternity,” Hatami plays Mariam, a woman who’s beloved husband Saeed has mysteriously gone missing, leaving her and her 12-year-old daughter in a state...
“There isn’t one scene without me,” Hatami told Variety, speaking on the sidelines of the just concluded Venice Film Festival where she was a member of the main jury.
The London-based Norowzian, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1999 short “Killing Joe” and subsequently directed Joseph Fiennes, Elizabeth Shue, Dennis Hopper and Sam Shepherd in the 2002 drama “Leo,” has since become a prominent commercials director. Norowzian recently returned to Iran to shoot this film, which is his first feature after two decades.
In “Eternity,” Hatami plays Mariam, a woman who’s beloved husband Saeed has mysteriously gone missing, leaving her and her 12-year-old daughter in a state...
- 9/12/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Iranian-British director and artist Mehdi Norowzian has just wrapped the Iran shoot of his new drama A Time In Eternity starring Venice 2022 jury member Leila Hatami, best known for her roles in A Separation, The Pig and Imagine.
The production marks the first feature in two decades for Norowzian, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1999 short film Killing Joe and shortly after directed Joseph Fiennes, Elizabeth Shue, Dennis Hopper and Sam Shepherd in the drama Leo.
In the interim, he built a career as a top commercials director, working closely with Ridley Scott’s Rsa Films under the banner of Joy@Rsa.
Hatami stars as a woman who is on a relentless and potentially futile quest to track down her missing husband. In the backdrop, the situation puts untold pressure on her relationship with her 12-year-old daughter, while she is also dealing with the unwanted attention of her amorous brother-in-law.
The production marks the first feature in two decades for Norowzian, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1999 short film Killing Joe and shortly after directed Joseph Fiennes, Elizabeth Shue, Dennis Hopper and Sam Shepherd in the drama Leo.
In the interim, he built a career as a top commercials director, working closely with Ridley Scott’s Rsa Films under the banner of Joy@Rsa.
Hatami stars as a woman who is on a relentless and potentially futile quest to track down her missing husband. In the backdrop, the situation puts untold pressure on her relationship with her 12-year-old daughter, while she is also dealing with the unwanted attention of her amorous brother-in-law.
- 9/7/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Justin Timberlake on the Oscars' Red Carpet Justin Timberlake at the Academy Awards The Social Network actor Justin Timberlake arrives at the 83rd Academy Awards, which took place on Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. At the ceremony, Timberlake and Black Swan actress Mila Kunis introduced the nominees – and eventual winners – in the animation categories. Throughout the proceedings, he pretended to be the elusive Banksy, whose Exit Through the Gift Shop was a Best Documentary Feature contender. The joke fell mostly flat, but Timberlake actually elicited some laughs when he imitated three-time Oscar-nominated veteran Kirk Douglas*, who mercilessly stretched the Best Supporting Actress announcement into what seemed like hours. Admittedly, Douglas was funny. (The winner in that particular category turned out to be Melissa Leo for David O. Russell's The Fighter.) As announced by the Justin Timberlake-Mila Kunis duo, the Best Animated Short Film was Shaun Tan...
- 5/2/2015
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
RopeOfSilicon have posted the official first image from Massy Tadjedin’s Last Night.
Selected to close this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Last Night stars Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes and Guillaume Canet.
Last Night was written and directed by Tadjedin and is her first foray into feature film directing Tadjedin, having achieved writing credits on John Maybury’s The Jacket and Mehdi Norowzian’s Leo previously.
Synopsis: Michael and Joanna Reed (Worthington and Knightley), a happily married Manhattan couple, but after attending one of Michael’s business parties Joanna notices a curious moment between him and his co-worker, Laura (Mendes). Nothing specific can be made of the incident, but each are soon tempted to stray, as the Michael goes on a business trip with Laura while Joanna has an encounter with a past love (Canet).
Check out the first look image below, featuring Knightley and Canet:
Last...
Selected to close this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Last Night stars Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes and Guillaume Canet.
Last Night was written and directed by Tadjedin and is her first foray into feature film directing Tadjedin, having achieved writing credits on John Maybury’s The Jacket and Mehdi Norowzian’s Leo previously.
Synopsis: Michael and Joanna Reed (Worthington and Knightley), a happily married Manhattan couple, but after attending one of Michael’s business parties Joanna notices a curious moment between him and his co-worker, Laura (Mendes). Nothing specific can be made of the incident, but each are soon tempted to stray, as the Michael goes on a business trip with Laura while Joanna has an encounter with a past love (Canet).
Check out the first look image below, featuring Knightley and Canet:
Last...
- 8/19/2010
- by Jamie Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Screened
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screened
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Method Fest,
Burbank
Two parallel stories generate mystery and sparks in "Leo", a well-written drama of psychological depth but diminishing returns. The feature debut of helmer Mehdi Norowzian, whose short "Killing Joe" was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, features steamy Southern atmospherics and strong performances from Elisabeth Shue and Joseph Fiennes.
The script by Amir Tadjedin and Massy Tadjedin offers penetrating observations about the cruelty of a mother tormented by guilt and the survival instincts of a child forced to grow up too fast. But by expending so much energy obscuring the connection between the two story lines, it denies viewers a deeper involvement with the characters. Despite the story's strengths and impressive widescreen lensing, the film's theatrical prospects look limited.
At the heart of the mystery is Stephen (Fiennes), a murderer released from Mississippi State Prison whom Fiennes infuses with the equanimity and inward gaze of a strange saint. He goes to work at a diner that feels like an archetypal purgatory of stunted souls, complete with Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper.
Shepard is well-cast as the tough, mystical proprietor who believes in the curative powers of the Bible and shepherd's pie. Hopper is diner regular Horace, a wild-eyed bully who keeps waitress Caroline Deborah Kara Unger) under his thumb and takes particular delight in taunting Stephen.
Hopper is so good at playing -- and by now so identified with -- sadistic freaks that his presence here is something of a distraction and feels out of proportion to the low-key proceedings. Through no fault of Unger's, who does her best with a slim role, the put-upon Caroline is less a character than a type, a weathered waif who incites Stephen's need to save someone. In this waiting station on his road to redemption, he opens up to Caroline and fellow ex-con Louis (James Middleton), but his chief outlet is the lined pages he fills all night.
The nature of Stephen's writing project slowly emerges as his story is intercut with the unhappy tale of Mary (Shue), who's raising a toddler girl while suffocating in her marriage to an Ole Miss professor (Jake Weber). She flinches at the insincere niceties of genteel Southern academia and easily falls prey to the malicious intrusions of one of the faculty wives (Amie Quigley) -- an overage 1950s sorority sister with her cardigans, pearls and casseroles. Stricken by doubt and jealousy, Mary begins her downward spiral when she turns a tentative flirtation with a hunky house painter (Justin Chambers) into something a lot less tentative.
Shue delivers a finely calibrated portrait of a sensuous, book-smart woman whose emotional delicacy traps her in tragedy, where she punishes herself and everyone around her. In what may be a comment on the character's inertia but mainly feels like an odd lapse from the film's realistic tone, the self-destructive Mary never ages over an 18-year period.
There are plenty of luminous and affecting moments in "Leo", especially when Shue is onscreen, but after so much emphasis on creating a puzzle, the resolution of its dual narrative doesn't pack the intended punch, being neither altogether surprising or dramatically satisfying.
LEO
Gold Circle Films
A Freewheel/Joy/Scala production
Credits:
Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Screenwriters: Amir Tadjedin, Massy Tadjedin
Producers: Massy Tadjedin, Erica August, Sara Giles, Jonathan Karlsen
Executive producers: Nik Powell, Derek Roy, Sara Giles
Director of photography: Zubin Mistry
Production designer: Stefania Cella
Music: Mark Adler
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Cast:
Stephen: Joseph Fiennes
Mary: Elisabeth Shue
Ryan: Justin Chambers
Caroline: Deborah Kara Unger
Ben: Jake Weber
Leo: Davis Sweatt
Vic: Sam Shepard
Horace: Dennis Hopper
Brynne: Mary Stuart Masterson
Louis: James Middleton
Ruth: Amie Quigley
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Stephen Kay has come aboard to direct Senator International's horror project Boogeyman for Ghost House Pictures, Senator's genre label headed by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Production is due to begin in the spring in New Zealand. Screen Gems will distribute domestically. Mehdi Norowzian was attached to direct the project but is no longer on board. Boogeyman is described as a classic horror project about a young man traumatized by memories of terrible events in his childhood bedroom. Years later, he reluctantly returns home to face his fears. Raimi and Tapert will produce from a script by Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White. Steve Hein and Gary Bryman are executive producing. Kay, repped by ICM, directed the MTV telefilm Wasted, starring Nick Stahl and Summer Phoenix, as well as Get Carter, starring Sylvester Stallone. He also wrote and directed the indie feature The Last Time I Committed Suicide. Senator International is fully financing and handling worldwide rights to all pictures produced under the Ghost House banner, with Senator executive vp motion pictures Nathan Kahane and creative executive Jim Miller overseeing the daily creative operations.
- 3/14/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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