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February 9 - February 15

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Apple has taken the worldwide rights to Fancy Dance, the 2023 Sundance Film Festival title that stars Lily Gladstone, who recently landed an Oscar nomination for Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Erica Tremblay, who worked on FX series Reservation Dogs as a writer and director, made her feature debut on the film and also co-wrote and produced...

Blumhouse plans to create a horror destination at The Stanley Hotel in Estes, Colorado, the setting for Stephen King’s The Shining. Blumhouse plans to create a horror destination at The Stanley Hotel in Estes, Colorado, the setting for Stephen King’s The Shining. Governor Jared Polis and the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media announced today that Blumhouse will exclusively curate the 10,000+ square-foot Stanley Film Center exhibit space. The company will create exhibits pulled from its extensive catalog of franchises in films, television, and gaming. Blumhouse titles include Halloween, The Black Phone, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Get Out, M3GAN, Paranormal Activity, and The Purge, among others. The main Stanley Film Center building will be at least 67,000 square feet and is estimated to cost more than $70 million to complete and furnish. No opening date has been set....

According to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is campaign co-chair of Joe Biden‘s campaign, contributed $1 million to the FF PAC, which is short for Future Forward, the main independent entity backing the president’s re-election bid. Future Forward made news this week when it announced plans to spend $250 million in an advertising blitz in battleground states. Also contributing to FF PAC was Sheryl Sandberg, the former Meta exective who recently announced that she was leaving the tech giant’s board. According to FEC records, she contributed $500,059 in December to Future Forward via an in-kind donation of stock. Other donors to Future Forward include Golden Eagle Acquisition’s Harry Sloan, who gave $100,000, and Los Angeles developer developer Jeff Worthe, who gave $1,000,000. Weeks before Biden made his first trek to Los Angeles for a fund-raising swing, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw each gave the maximum $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, the joint committee raising money for the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committees and state parties. Also making recent contributions: J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath, who each gave $500,000; Greg Berlanti, who gave $250,000; Chris Meladandri, who gave $250,000; Skip Paul, who gave $250,000; and developer Rick Caruso, Jim Gianopulos, Shonda Rhimes, attorney Ted Boutrous and Bryan Lourd, who each gave $100,000. Haim Saban and Casey Wasserman each gave the $929,600 maximum contributions last fall. One of the main super PACs supporting former President Donald Trump, MAGA Inc., received $5.25 million in contributions from Linda McMahon, the former Small Business Administration administrator and former president and CEO of WWE, and $1 million from Los Angeles developer Geoff Palmer...

Goa-based Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest film market, will have a documentary-focused sister edition in Mumbai from June. The documentary component of the market will now be a full fledged Film Bazaar on its own within the Mumbai International Film Festival for documentary, short fiction and animation (MIFF). The Indian government-run MIFF, which began in 1990, is separate from the privately managed Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. Like its Goan counterpart, which is a part of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the MIFF Film Bazaar will have a co-production market, the primary goal of which is to facilitate partnerships between filmmakers and potential producers or co-producers globally. It aims to provide a platform for collaboration, co-productions and funding opportunities for documentary film projects. Filmmakers will be able to pitch their projects and explore avenues for financial support and collaboration both locally and internationally...

Fans may not be aware of unofficial sequels to popular movies, typically produced by smaller studios, which introduce new characters and scenarios. These unofficial sequels are often of poorer quality but can still be fun to watch for some fans. Examples include unofficial sequels to Alien, Dawn of the Dead, Goodfellas, Night of the Living Dead , and Planet of the Apes. Titanic seems like a movie that would never have a sequel, so fans might be surprised to discover that someone did set out to make one. In Titanic II, a modern-day replica of the Titanic sets sail on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's maiden voyage, only to meet disaster once again. Titanic II was written and directed by Shane Van Dyke, the grandson of Dick Van Dyke. While the sequel to Titanic in particular was completely unnecessary, unofficial and typically direct-to-video sequels are enjoyed and even praised by some fans...