News

It’s shaping up to be a Huston family Christmas.

Siblings and Hollywood royalty Anjelica and Danny Huston are teaming on a new project, The Christmas Witch Trial of La Befana, a hybrid animated and live-action feature film that is currently shooting in Los Angeles and Ontario, Canada.

HighballTV confirmed the details of the film, which was written by David James Brock and HighballTV’s Melissa D’Agostino based on an idea they conceived with Matt Campagna who is also directing with D’Agostino, a frequent creative partner. Johnathan Sharp is producing.

The plot follows a peculiar court case that unspools after the children in a rural Italian village kidnap their legendary Christmas witch, played by Huston, and put her on trial in an attempt to stop her annual judgment from their lives. While casting a spell through witches, fantasy and Italian folklore, the project is said to touch on universal themes of grief,...

No stranger to playing witches on screen, Anjelica Huston (The Witches) has been cast to play the legendary Christmas Witch in upcoming film The Christmas Witch Trial of La Befana.

Variety reports that the holiday movie is a “live-action/hybrid feature,” with Canada’s HighballTV behind the project. It’s based on a popular Italian folk tale, the website notes.

“The Christmas Witch Trial of La Befana tells the story of a group of children who kidnap the legendary Christmas Witch and put her on trial as a means of banishing her annual judgments.”

Variety notes in today’s report detailing the upcoming movie, “production will feature several animation techniques, including extensive use of rotoscope.”

Jesse Gervasi, Maya Misaljevic, Luca Doulgeris, Paolo Mancini, Tarah Consoli, Juan Chioran, and Phil Luzi will also star alongside Anjelica Huston.

Matt Campagna is directing the film, written by David James Brock and Melissa D’Angostino.

Anjelica Huston, one of cinema’s most iconic witch portrayers, has been cast to star in the upcoming live-action/hybrid feature “The Christmas Witch Trial of La Befana,” the first animated film produced by Canada’s HighballTV.

Based on a popular Italian folk tale, “The Christmas Witch Trial of La Befana” tells the story of a group of children who kidnap the legendary Christmas Witch (Huston) and put her on trial as a means of banishing her annual judgments.

David James Brock (“Mother of All Shows”) and Highball TV’s Melissa D’Angostino co-wrote and co-conceived the project alongside Matt Campagna, who will direct. Jonathan Sharp is producing.

According to HighballTV, production will feature several animation techniques, including extensive use of rotoscope. The film will also feature an original songs composed by Brock, D’Angostino and Rebecca Everett.

Other actors set to join Huston in the film include Jesse Gervasi,...

Rush frontman-bassist Geddy Lee, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr and Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley appear in a new documentary about the origins and high points of pioneering Toronto radio station Cfny.

Veteran film producer Matt Schichter makes his directorial debut with Cfny: The Spirit of Radio, which has just wrapped post production. Other artists appearing in the doc include Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies), Peter Hook (New Order/Joy Division), Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Emily Haines (Metric), Ben Kowalewicz (Billy Talent) and Andy McCluskey (Omd).

During the 1970s and 1980s, major record companies and large independent labels relied on records being played on local radio in major markets to promote commercial releases. Toronto’s Cfny, which launched in a small city suburb in 1960, eventually became hugely influential in breaking punk and new wave acts after evolving into an alternative radio station on the FM dial.

In 1979, Rush drummer Neil Peart wrote a song,...

Exclusive: Burgeoning Toronto-based indie streaming platform HighballTV has announced five original titles it plans to put into production in 2023, with an overall investment of 15.6M.

The new slate consists of Caden Douglas’ genre comedy Mother Father Sister Brother Frank, music documentary Working On The Radio, anthology film The God Of Frogs, Andre Rehal’s crime drama Jin And The Wild Dog and Alice Moran’s comedy film Bash. (scroll down for more details).

The company has raised the slate financing via private investors and loans with the Royal Bank Of Canada and will also tap into the regional film tax incentives.

“We’re looking at being 50:50 between the two types of financing (private financiers and Rbc),” said HighballTV head of production Matthew Campagna. “They really believe in us and our company with its slow, careful organic growth.

“We’ve got the corporate guarantees and the tax returns to back...

Click here to read the full article.

Graham Greene is set to star alongside Alice Moran in the comedy mystery Paige Darcy and the Case of the Stoned Cat, from directors Melissa D’Agostino and Matt Campagna for HighballTV.

Greene, who earned an Oscar nomination for playing medicine man Kicking Bird in Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves and will also appear in Marvel’s Echo series, joins an ensemble cast that includes Linda Kash, Dan Jeannotte, Andrew Phung and Paloma Nunez.

Paige Darcy and the Case of the Stoned Cat is also written by Second City alum Alice Moran, who has also starred in Sunnyside and Man Seeking Woman. Moran plays a former precious tween sleuth, Paige Darcy, who is dragged into solving both a murder case and the mystery of how to put her life back together.

The movie is shooting in Hamilton, Ontario through August. “We’ve been...

Exclusive: Deadline has your first look at Six Days to Die, the second film in a sci-fi western trilogy series by Matt Campagna, which he wrote, directed, shot and edited.

The film brought to life through virtual environments, comprised of elaborate 360-degree digital matte paintings, centers on a desperate gambler wrongfully accused of murder who flees through a post-apocalyptic frontier, with a vengeful Marshal doggedly hunting him down, on a bloody quest to bring order to the chaos.

The Umbrella Academy’s Colm Feore stars alongside Darryl Hinds, Melissa D’Agostino, Ari Millen and Kyra Harper. Breann Smordin and Elizabeth Frase produced the pic, which is eyeing a festival premiere next year, and is being sold worldwide by Forward Motion Entertainment. The third film in the trilogy series, Six Guns For Hire, is currently in post-production.

Check out the first still from Campagna’s latest, along with several character portraits, below.

HighballTV, the Canada-based subscription streaming platform that focuses on curated film collections from leading filmmakers and top titles from major film festivals, has unveiled its 2021-2022 slate of original productions. All of the films are directed by women directors and/or people of color, and every writing team is led by a woman or person of color.

Its 2021-2022 slate comprises three new projects, backed with a combined investment of $12 million. The films are Andre Rehal’s drama “Strangers in a Room,” Melissa D’Agostino’s dark musical comedy “Mother of All Shows,” and the mystery-drama “Paige Darcy: Former Teen Detective,” written by Alice Moran.

“Strangers in a Room,” Rehal’s feature directorial debut, follows a veteran actor in a slump who comes face to face with the idea that his dream is dead, following a micro-aggression steeped in industry politics. The cast includes Jonathan Kim (HBO Max’s upcoming series...

Stars: Colm Feore, Steven Morana, Holly Deveaux, Ari Millen, Art Hindle, Bobbie Phillips, Melissa D’Agostino, Marco Timpano, Mark Andrade, Nicole Stamp, Jon Cor, Supinder Wraich | Written by Matthew Campagna, Rudy Jahchan | Directed by Chris Green, Steven Morana

[Note: With the film now out on DVD in the UK, here’s a reposting of our review of Beast Within from its US digital release last year]

Essentially a horror version of Knives Out (or the many Agatha Christie films which inspired it) and filmed on a low-budget, of course, Beast Within is a whodunit creature feature which stars Steven Morana (Whiskey Business) and Holly Deveaux (The Mist) as a couple attending the launch party of their gaming app Werewolves Awaken. But when a guest is mysteriously found dead, they question who could be the killer, as everyone becomes a suspect and player in a deadly real-life version of the game.

For a low-budget genre film, Beast Within has some truly fantastic effects work – from the over the top violence, blood...

Canada-based actor Colm Feore, whose credits include Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” “My Salinger Year,” “The Amazing Spiderman 2” and multiple Oscar winner “Chicago,” is to star in post-apocalyptic Western “Six Guns for Hire,” which has just started principal photography in Toronto, Canada. The film also stars Maurice Dean Wint, Oyin Oladejo, and Patrick Kwok-Choon.

“Six Guns for Hire,” the third in a trilogy, is written and directed by Matt Campagna. It follows a vicious group of strangers who gather to divvy up the spoils of a train robbery, while an ace detective pursues hot on their trail. As the bandits realize they may not be strangers after all, the detective unearths a deadly conspiracy at the heart of their crime.

The three stories in the trilogy series, all developed and directed by Campagna, exist within the same post-apocalyptic world, without being traditional sequels or prequels to each other.

Melissa D’Agostino...

Stars: Colm Feore, Steven Morana, Holly Deveaux, Ari Millen, Art Hindle, Bobbie Phillips, Melissa D’Agostino, Marco Timpano, Mark Andrade, Nicole Stamp, Jon Cor, Supinder Wraich | Written by Matthew Campagna, Rudy Jahchan | Directed by Chris Green, Steven Morana

Essentially a horror version of Knives Out (or the many Agatha Christie films which inspired it) and filmed on a low-budget, of course, Beast Within is a whodunit creature feature which stars Steven Morana (Whiskey Business) and Holly Deveaux (The Mist) as a couple attending the launch party of their gaming app Werewolves Awaken. But when a guest is mysteriously found dead, they question who could be the killer, as everyone becomes a suspect and player in a deadly real-life version of the game.

For a low-budget genre film, Beast Within has some truly fantastic effects work – from the over the top violence, blood and copious amounts of guts to the werewolf transformations and make-up effects,...

The actor will play a priest in the Men Of Characters thriller, currently shooting in Milton, Ontario, at the Rockwood Estates.

Matt Campagna directs the story of an eccentric billionaire who spirals out of control at the extravagant launch party for his new werewolf mobile game, sparking a sequence of events that lead to murder.

The producers said Hunter’s Moon has become the first production in Canada to shoot on Sony’s A7S 4K full-frame camera.

Campagna previously directed the micro-budget feature Six Reasons Why starring Feore. Hunter’s Moon also stars Holly Deveaux, Steven Morana, Katie Boland, Art Hindle and Ari Millen.

Steven Morana, who founded Men Of Characters with Nic Izzi, is the executive producer.

Next week, production begins here in Toronto on the upcoming horror flick Hunter's Moon. The film is written and directed by Matt Campagna (Six Reasons Why). This is the first film in Canada to be shot on the new Sony A7S Camera, the world's first 4K full-frame camera.An eccentric billionaire spirals out of control at the extravagant launch party for his new werewolf mobile game. It's all fun and games until they find the body of the first victim -- beginning a heart-pounding race for survival of the fittest.The film stars Holly Deveaux (Hemlock Grove); Steven Morana (his dad and brother service their cars at my garage), who will also produce under his Men of Characters banner with partner Nic Izzi; Katie Boland (Reign); Art...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

More horrific shenanigans are afoot in the Great White North as Screen Daily is reporting that production is set to commence in Toronto on August 13 on the Men of Characters thriller Hunter's Moon.

Matt Campagna (Six Reasons Why) directs the story of an eccentric billionaire who spirals out of control at the extravagant launch party for his new werewolf mobile game, sparking a sequence of events that lead to murder.

Holly Deveaux (pictured), Steven Morana, Katie Boland, Art Hindle, and Ari Millen star. Steven Morana, who founded Men of Characters with Nic Izzi, is the executive producer.

Hunter’s Moon will be the first production in Canada to shoot on Sony’s 4K full-frame A7S camera.

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Production is set to commence in Toronto on August 13 on the Men Of Characters thriller.

Matt Campagna directs the story of an eccentric billionaire who spirals out of control at the extravagant launch party for his new werewolf mobile game, sparking a sequence of events that lead to murder.

Hunter’s Moon will be the first production in Canada to shoot on Sony’s 4K full-frame A7S Camera.

Campagna previously directed the micro-budget feature Six Reasons Why starring Colm Feore.

Holly Deveaux (pictured), Steven Morana, Katie Boland, Art Hindle and Ari Millen star. Steven Morana, who founded Men Of Characters with Nic Izzi, is the executive producer.