Robert Downey Jr.’s Tropic Thunder is absolutely unhinged with its satirical take on the film industry. Despite its controversies, the film went on to become a cult classic with time. Now, it looks like there is another Tropic Thunder ready to grace our screens courtesy of Armando Lannucci and Sam Mendes – The Franchise starring Himesh Patel and Aya Cash amongst others.
Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder | Credits: Paramount Pictures
HBO just dropped the trailer for The Franchise, and it is evident that the series is going to be a fun, light-hearted watch. Taking viewers on a satirical journey through Hollywood, the show immediately evokes memories of Tropic Thunder. Thanks to its sharp humor and scripted behind-the-scenes drama, The Franchise will attempt to take a jab at the film industry – much like Robert Downey Jr.’s film did back in 2008.
HBO’s The Franchise Gets its First Trailer The...
Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder | Credits: Paramount Pictures
HBO just dropped the trailer for The Franchise, and it is evident that the series is going to be a fun, light-hearted watch. Taking viewers on a satirical journey through Hollywood, the show immediately evokes memories of Tropic Thunder. Thanks to its sharp humor and scripted behind-the-scenes drama, The Franchise will attempt to take a jab at the film industry – much like Robert Downey Jr.’s film did back in 2008.
HBO’s The Franchise Gets its First Trailer The...
- 9/10/2024
- by Mishkaat Khan
- FandomWire
‘The Franchise,’ Superhero Comedy From ‘Veep’ Creator Armando Iannucci, Drops First Stressful Teaser
If you thought Marvel movies were stressful, you ain’t seen nothing yet. HBO dropped the first teaser for “The Franchise,” the premium cable network’s upcoming high-pressure comedy about creating a superhero franchise in Hollywood. The series will premiere on Oct. 6.
The upcoming show comes from Armando Iannucci, best known for creating “Veep” and “The Thick of It,” as well as Sam Mendes and Jon Brown.
“Just another 83 days, and then we’re done,” Himesh Patel as Daniel says in the teaser while rushing down a hall with people filing after him. “I’d savor every moment.”
As is typically the case with Iannucci’s work, it’s difficult to know how much of that statement is rooted in truth and how much is sarcasm thinly masking an impending mental breakdown. That manic tone continues throughout the teaser as characters call this movie everything from “a scrotum resting on...
The upcoming show comes from Armando Iannucci, best known for creating “Veep” and “The Thick of It,” as well as Sam Mendes and Jon Brown.
“Just another 83 days, and then we’re done,” Himesh Patel as Daniel says in the teaser while rushing down a hall with people filing after him. “I’d savor every moment.”
As is typically the case with Iannucci’s work, it’s difficult to know how much of that statement is rooted in truth and how much is sarcasm thinly masking an impending mental breakdown. That manic tone continues throughout the teaser as characters call this movie everything from “a scrotum resting on...
- 9/9/2024
- by Kayla Cobb
- The Wrap
Screen International, in association with Screen Scotland, has revealed the line-up for the second edition of its Rising Stars Scotland talent spotlight.
The biannual programme started in 2022 and aims to identify and promote the next generation of Scottish filmmakers and actors to the international industry.
Rising Stars Scotland is a joint initiative from Screen Scotland and Screen International, and is an offshoot of Screen’s UK & Ireland Stars of Tomorrow showcase.
The line-up features 10 up-and-coming actors, writers, writer-directors and producers who are on the verge of their first major professional breakthrough. All those selected are either originally from or currently living in Scotland.
The biannual programme started in 2022 and aims to identify and promote the next generation of Scottish filmmakers and actors to the international industry.
Rising Stars Scotland is a joint initiative from Screen Scotland and Screen International, and is an offshoot of Screen’s UK & Ireland Stars of Tomorrow showcase.
The line-up features 10 up-and-coming actors, writers, writer-directors and producers who are on the verge of their first major professional breakthrough. All those selected are either originally from or currently living in Scotland.
- 8/19/2024
- ScreenDaily
The indie/arthouse market is showing some breadth as Kneecap has a great debut, CatVidoFest as well, and holdovers like Didi and Sing Sing are kind of raking it in considering how few screens they’re on. As more wide releases and tentpoles show up and take flight a rising tide may be raising indie boats – maybe not as much or as many as distributors hope, but some.
Theater chain CEOs on quarterly earnings calls last week insisted they need all kinds of movies and that’s what they’re getting, including Indian specialty fare that continues to pop at the box office. Daru Na Peenda Hove, a Punjabi film from Rhythm Boyz Entertainment, is no. 9 this weekend, Comscore says, grossing $616k on 118 screens.
Kneecap from Sony Pictures Classics led new indie openings with $492.4k on 703 screens. The music biopic is playing arthouses and multiplexes, reaching younger demos, and music...
Theater chain CEOs on quarterly earnings calls last week insisted they need all kinds of movies and that’s what they’re getting, including Indian specialty fare that continues to pop at the box office. Daru Na Peenda Hove, a Punjabi film from Rhythm Boyz Entertainment, is no. 9 this weekend, Comscore says, grossing $616k on 118 screens.
Kneecap from Sony Pictures Classics led new indie openings with $492.4k on 703 screens. The music biopic is playing arthouses and multiplexes, reaching younger demos, and music...
- 8/4/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
In a summer of sparkling indie releases, may we suggest you take a detour to chilly London and Mikko Mäkelä’s “Sebastian”? Debuting at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, this stylish drama centers on Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a young writer on the verge of landing a deal for his first full-length novel. The project centers on a fictional young sex worker who specializes in hookups with much older men.
Continue reading ‘Sebastian’: Mikko Mäkelä & Ruaridh Mollica Revisit Their “Sex-Positive Sex Worker” Drama [Interview] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Sebastian’: Mikko Mäkelä & Ruaridh Mollica Revisit Their “Sex-Positive Sex Worker” Drama [Interview] at The Playlist.
- 8/2/2024
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
Write what you know, as the saying goes — so if you don’t know it, do the research. A young Londoner takes on that task and goes through the digital looking glass in Finnish-British writer-director Mikko Mäkelä’s “Sebastian,” now in limited release from Kino Lorber after premiering at Sundance earlier this year. Titled after the pseudonym that aspiring novelist Max (Ruaridh Mollica) employs when propositioning himself for other men, this adamantly morose drama keeps a close eye on its lead as he navigates his intimacy issues. But despite the film’s confident naturalism, it seems less intimate as it goes on, with Max somehow growing more distant and generic as he becomes more comfortable in his own skin.
By day, Max makes his way as a freelance writer, turning in half-hearted features for a culture magazine. He tinkers away at short stories and idolizes Bret Easton Ellis (whose own...
By day, Max makes his way as a freelance writer, turning in half-hearted features for a culture magazine. He tinkers away at short stories and idolizes Bret Easton Ellis (whose own...
- 8/2/2024
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
“Max leaps into someone’s eyes as they are jerking off whilst Max thrusts into him.”
Ok, maybe that’s not verbatim a line from Finnish writer/director Mikko Mäkelä’s “Sebastian” screenplay. That’s Mäkelä demonstrating how specific his script was about the gay sex he wanted to make happen onscreen. This provocative drama, a Sundance 2024 premiere, stars newcomer Ruaridh Mollica as Max, a 25-year-old writer who submerges himself in London’s underground world of escort services in order to research a novel about a sex worker. Posing as his protagonist, Max accepts money, travel, and more from older men in exchange for on-demand sex in cold hotel beds and elsewhere, sending Max in a spiral the movie shows in explicit terms, and while not shying from the twinky beauty of its lead.
“I don’t think I approached it so much from the point of view of thinking about sexiness,...
Ok, maybe that’s not verbatim a line from Finnish writer/director Mikko Mäkelä’s “Sebastian” screenplay. That’s Mäkelä demonstrating how specific his script was about the gay sex he wanted to make happen onscreen. This provocative drama, a Sundance 2024 premiere, stars newcomer Ruaridh Mollica as Max, a 25-year-old writer who submerges himself in London’s underground world of escort services in order to research a novel about a sex worker. Posing as his protagonist, Max accepts money, travel, and more from older men in exchange for on-demand sex in cold hotel beds and elsewhere, sending Max in a spiral the movie shows in explicit terms, and while not shying from the twinky beauty of its lead.
“I don’t think I approached it so much from the point of view of thinking about sexiness,...
- 7/31/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
“The Jetty” is a new Brit-produced live-action, crime thriller TV series, created by Cat Jones and directed by Marialy Rivas, starring Jenna Coleman as ‘Detective Ember Manning’, airing July 15, 2024 on BBC iPlayer and BBC One:
“…when a fire tears through a property in a scenic Lancashire lake town, ‘Detective Ember Manning’ (Coleman) must work out how it connects to a podcast journalist investigating a missing persons cold case and an illicit relationship between a man in his twenties and two teen girls.
“But as Ember gets close to the truth, it threatens to destroy her life – forcing her to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about her past, present and the town she’s always called home…”
Cast also includes Tom Glynn-Carney, Ruby Stokes, Archie Renaux Laura Marcus, Bo Bragason , Amelia Bullmore, Matthew McNulty, Ralph Ineson, David Ajala, Nina Barker-Francis, Miya Ocego, Elliot Cowan, Shannon Watson, Arthur Hughes, Dominic Coleman and Ruaridh Mollica.
“…when a fire tears through a property in a scenic Lancashire lake town, ‘Detective Ember Manning’ (Coleman) must work out how it connects to a podcast journalist investigating a missing persons cold case and an illicit relationship between a man in his twenties and two teen girls.
“But as Ember gets close to the truth, it threatens to destroy her life – forcing her to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about her past, present and the town she’s always called home…”
Cast also includes Tom Glynn-Carney, Ruby Stokes, Archie Renaux Laura Marcus, Bo Bragason , Amelia Bullmore, Matthew McNulty, Ralph Ineson, David Ajala, Nina Barker-Francis, Miya Ocego, Elliot Cowan, Shannon Watson, Arthur Hughes, Dominic Coleman and Ruaridh Mollica.
- 6/29/2024
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
"You need to carry on and finish it." Kino Lorber has revealed an official trailer for an indie LGBTQ drama titled Sebastian, made by a Finnish-British filmmaker named Mikko Mäkelä. This originally premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and it also played at the Provincetown & Frameline Film Festivals. Sebastian follows a burgeoning young journalist who turns to sex work to research his first novel. But where will this lead him? What will he discover? Another intimate, hypnotic exploration of repressed sexuality through cinema. Posing tantalizing questions about the creative process and the recurring cultural conversations about authenticity in art and who can / should tell certain stories, the film stars Ruaridh Mollica as Max, aka Sebastian, whose "fearless lead performance should elevate him to rising star status", and who has already been cast based on his work here in the upcoming HBO series from Armando Iannucci called "The Franchise...
- 6/27/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Premiering earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival, Sebastian marks the sophomore feature from writer/director Mikko Mäkelä (whose debut was the 2017 gay romance A Moment in the Reeds). Following a burgeoning young journalist who turns to sex work to research his first novel, the film was picked up by Kino Lorber for an August 2 release and the first trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a 25-year-old aspiring novelist, living in London and paying his dues working at a literary magazine. Frustrated by his own ambitions and the pressures to succeed, Max begins moonlighting as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, secretly meeting men via an escorting platform and using his experiences to fuel his stories. What begins as a few furtive meetings soon becomes a hidden nocturnal life, and the debut novel that he has been longing to write finally seems within reach.
Here’s the synopsis: “Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a 25-year-old aspiring novelist, living in London and paying his dues working at a literary magazine. Frustrated by his own ambitions and the pressures to succeed, Max begins moonlighting as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, secretly meeting men via an escorting platform and using his experiences to fuel his stories. What begins as a few furtive meetings soon becomes a hidden nocturnal life, and the debut novel that he has been longing to write finally seems within reach.
- 6/27/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
A 25-year-old aspiring novelist dives into the deep end of niche sexuality in “Sebastian,” a sexy and provocative queer drama from writer/director Mikko Mäkelä. The Finnish filmmaker first brought the movie, featuring a breakout performance from Ruaridh Mollica as writer turned sex worker Max, to the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Kino Lorber picked up distribution rights to the film and will now release it starting August 2 in select theaters. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a 25-year-old aspiring novelist, living in London and paying his dues working at a literary magazine. Frustrated by his own ambitions and the pressures to succeed, Max begins moonlighting as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, secretly meeting men via an escorting platform and using his experiences to fuel his stories. What begins as a few furtive meetings soon becomes a hidden nocturnal life,...
Here’s the official synopsis: “Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a 25-year-old aspiring novelist, living in London and paying his dues working at a literary magazine. Frustrated by his own ambitions and the pressures to succeed, Max begins moonlighting as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, secretly meeting men via an escorting platform and using his experiences to fuel his stories. What begins as a few furtive meetings soon becomes a hidden nocturnal life,...
- 6/27/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Anatomy Of A Fall’s Swann Arlaud will star in Sukkwan Island, a psychological thriller from French director Vladimir de Fontenay that mk2 Films has boarded for sales.
Woody Norman, best known for C’mon C’mon, co-stars in the film about a father and son on a quest for survival deep in the Norwegian fjords. Production started in Norway in February and is being shot in three parts to follow the rhythm of the seasons, with further filming between Glasgow and Norway set for May.
France’s Haut et Court produces and will release Sukkwan Island in France. Co-producers include Norway’s Maipo Film,...
Woody Norman, best known for C’mon C’mon, co-stars in the film about a father and son on a quest for survival deep in the Norwegian fjords. Production started in Norway in February and is being shot in three parts to follow the rhythm of the seasons, with further filming between Glasgow and Norway set for May.
France’s Haut et Court produces and will release Sukkwan Island in France. Co-producers include Norway’s Maipo Film,...
- 5/1/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Sundance queer drama “Sebastian,” directed by up-and-coming Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä, has been bought by Kino Lorber for U.S. distribution, along with a string of international buyers.
Represented in international markets by LevelK, the film made its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“Sebastian” follows Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a 25-year-old freelance writer and aspiring novelist who seems well on his way to success in London’s cultural spheres. Yet by night, he finds a different kind of exhilaration as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, meeting men via an escorting platform. Max uses his experiences as Sebastian to fuel his stories, and the worthy debut novel that he has been longing to write finally seems within reach. But Max increasingly struggles to remain in control of his double-life, leading him to reckon with whether Sebastian is merely a...
Represented in international markets by LevelK, the film made its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“Sebastian” follows Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a 25-year-old freelance writer and aspiring novelist who seems well on his way to success in London’s cultural spheres. Yet by night, he finds a different kind of exhilaration as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, meeting men via an escorting platform. Max uses his experiences as Sebastian to fuel his stories, and the worthy debut novel that he has been longing to write finally seems within reach. But Max increasingly struggles to remain in control of his double-life, leading him to reckon with whether Sebastian is merely a...
- 2/27/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Succession’s Sarah Snook, now the toast of the town for her dazzling one-woman performance playing 26 characters in a breathtakingly innovative staging of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, will likely head to Broadway early in 2025 once she’s had a break, and if she wants to do it.
There are tentative, in no way definite, plans for the production to be filmed for the National Theatre’s Nt Live.
Look, movies and television are great art forms, and I love ‘em to bits like everybody else, but nothing beats watching an artist at the top of their craft live on a theatre stage. And in Snook’s case in The Picture of Dorian Gray, she’s able to command every inch of the Theatre Royal Haymarket stage.
Sarah Snook in ‘Dorian Gray’
Snook went into rehearsals last November to shoot the extensive video content that features...
There are tentative, in no way definite, plans for the production to be filmed for the National Theatre’s Nt Live.
Look, movies and television are great art forms, and I love ‘em to bits like everybody else, but nothing beats watching an artist at the top of their craft live on a theatre stage. And in Snook’s case in The Picture of Dorian Gray, she’s able to command every inch of the Theatre Royal Haymarket stage.
Sarah Snook in ‘Dorian Gray’
Snook went into rehearsals last November to shoot the extensive video content that features...
- 2/17/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
In an exclusive uInterview, Ruaridh Mollica and Mikko Makela open up about their new Sundance film, Sebastian.
Sebastian follows the secret double life of Mollica’s character, Max, who assumes an alias and begins a career as a sex worker to inspire his first novel.
Makela, who directed the film, said that he wanted to create something that did not “problematize sex.”
“Sex was such an important part of the story, the power of sexuality and the empowering potential of self-discovery through sexuality,” Makela told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “I think we’ve seen so many sex worker films and portraits; some are really amazing, inspiring films. But sex work is still problematized and seen as a result or cause of trauma. I wanted to make a film with a character for whom sex work was a conscious choice rather than something done for lack of choices or economic prerogative.
Sebastian follows the secret double life of Mollica’s character, Max, who assumes an alias and begins a career as a sex worker to inspire his first novel.
Makela, who directed the film, said that he wanted to create something that did not “problematize sex.”
“Sex was such an important part of the story, the power of sexuality and the empowering potential of self-discovery through sexuality,” Makela told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “I think we’ve seen so many sex worker films and portraits; some are really amazing, inspiring films. But sex work is still problematized and seen as a result or cause of trauma. I wanted to make a film with a character for whom sex work was a conscious choice rather than something done for lack of choices or economic prerogative.
- 2/8/2024
- by Ava Lombardi
- Uinterview
Swann Arlaud, recently seen as Sandra Hüller’s lawyer in “Anatomy of a Fall,” and Woody Norman, who appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix in 2021 crowdpleaser “C’mon C’mon,” are set to lead the cast of “Sukkwan Island.”
Ruaridh Mollica, who turned heads in this year’s Sundance following his lead turn in “Sebastian,” and Alma Pöysti, who was recently Golden Globe-nominated for Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” will also star in the film, being directed by Vladimir de Fontenay, marking the French filmmaker’s first feature since his Cannes-bowing “Mobile Homes” in 2017.
Set to start shooting in Norway in the coming weeks, “Sukkwan Island” is based on the semi-autobiographical novella by American author David Vann, part of his 2010 collection “Legend of a Suicide.” The story follows a haunted young man’s travels to a wild and secluded Island to reconnect with his father. Ten years before, they shared a harrowing and life...
Ruaridh Mollica, who turned heads in this year’s Sundance following his lead turn in “Sebastian,” and Alma Pöysti, who was recently Golden Globe-nominated for Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” will also star in the film, being directed by Vladimir de Fontenay, marking the French filmmaker’s first feature since his Cannes-bowing “Mobile Homes” in 2017.
Set to start shooting in Norway in the coming weeks, “Sukkwan Island” is based on the semi-autobiographical novella by American author David Vann, part of his 2010 collection “Legend of a Suicide.” The story follows a haunted young man’s travels to a wild and secluded Island to reconnect with his father. Ten years before, they shared a harrowing and life...
- 1/31/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Finnish filmmaker Mikko Mäkelä takes us into the shadow worlds of niche sexuality and queer sex work in London’s most sterile apartments and grayly desolate hotels in his new film “Sebastian.” This provocative, explicit, and ultimately tender drama stars newcomer Ruaridh Mollica as Max, a 25-year-old literary journalist writing a novel about a sex worker named Sebastian — and to get to the root of the thing, Max decides that he, too, must submerge himself in that very underworld.
As a psychological portrait of an aspiring writer who gets too immersed in his own project, “Sebastian” is never as piercing as star Mollica’s eyes and chiseled face. But the performance is affecting, and Mäkelä brandishes an ambient, lulling sense of style that evokes the loneliness at Max’s core. Internationally savvy gay film fans with a taste for the kinky and sad will want to check out this understated...
As a psychological portrait of an aspiring writer who gets too immersed in his own project, “Sebastian” is never as piercing as star Mollica’s eyes and chiseled face. But the performance is affecting, and Mäkelä brandishes an ambient, lulling sense of style that evokes the loneliness at Max’s core. Internationally savvy gay film fans with a taste for the kinky and sad will want to check out this understated...
- 1/22/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
It’s notoriously difficult to make films about writers. Writing — literally sitting down at a keyboard and banging out words — is about as fun to watch as paint drying. So filmmakers make much of the research process, the uneven economics, the epic highs and lows of creative life. “Sebastian,” the second feature from Mikko Mäkelä (“A Moment in the Reeds”), takes these liberties to new, bizarre heights, as its scribe protagonist turns to sex work to gin up inspiration for his forthcoming novel
Read More: Sundance 2024: The 23 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch
Our author is Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a navel-gazing 25-year-old who escorts online under the name Sebastian.
Continue reading ‘Sebastian’ Review: A Nakedly Solipsistic Quarter-Life Crisis About A Sex Worker [Sundance] at The Playlist.
Read More: Sundance 2024: The 23 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch
Our author is Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a navel-gazing 25-year-old who escorts online under the name Sebastian.
Continue reading ‘Sebastian’ Review: A Nakedly Solipsistic Quarter-Life Crisis About A Sex Worker [Sundance] at The Playlist.
- 1/22/2024
- by Lena Wilson
- The Playlist
There is plenty in Sebastian, written and directed by Mikko Mäkelä, that is provocative. It’s a focused, often handsome piece of work. It’s also never entirely convincing as a character study. Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is a young, aspiring writer in London. He’s got a plum gig writing for a respected magazine and a short-story collection set to be published. Next up is his debut novel, and Max is determined to examine the inner life of the sex worker. To do this, he begins a double life: writer by day, escort by night.
Mäkelä is confronting questions of license here. To what degree does one need to embody that which they are writing about? If at all? Max––whose nocturnal pseudonym is Sebastian––clearly believes that in order to understand the subject you’re writing about your must immerse yourself. This decision will of course come with sacrifices...
Mäkelä is confronting questions of license here. To what degree does one need to embody that which they are writing about? If at all? Max––whose nocturnal pseudonym is Sebastian––clearly believes that in order to understand the subject you’re writing about your must immerse yourself. This decision will of course come with sacrifices...
- 1/22/2024
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Ruaridh Mollica says he had a year to prepare for his “role of a lifetime — so far” in Finnish filmmaker Mikko Makela’s powerful new film Sebastian, which premieres at Sundance on Sunday.
The film follows a culture journalist who goes undercover and leads a double life as a sex worker to research a debut novel. The 24-year-old Mollica, born to a Scottish mother and an Italian father, gives a superlative performance in his first feature film lead role, as he assumes the split personalities of Max, a young wannabe literary sensation, and Sebastian, who hires himself out to desirous older male clients.
The intimate moments, though at times full-on, actually serve the narrative to reflect Max/Sebastian’s state of mind.
Between his initial self-tape, first audition and screen tests, Mollica had 12 months to enter into full character research mode before officially being handed the part, and the...
The film follows a culture journalist who goes undercover and leads a double life as a sex worker to research a debut novel. The 24-year-old Mollica, born to a Scottish mother and an Italian father, gives a superlative performance in his first feature film lead role, as he assumes the split personalities of Max, a young wannabe literary sensation, and Sebastian, who hires himself out to desirous older male clients.
The intimate moments, though at times full-on, actually serve the narrative to reflect Max/Sebastian’s state of mind.
Between his initial self-tape, first audition and screen tests, Mollica had 12 months to enter into full character research mode before officially being handed the part, and the...
- 1/19/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä isn’t shying away from sexual content in “Sebastian,” which has its world premiere on Sunday at Sundance Film Festival.
“As was already the case with ‘A Moment in the Reeds,’ I wanted to provide a very frank and honest portrayal of queer sexuality,” he tells Variety, referencing his 2017 debut.
“For so long, queer sexuality has been shied away from and censored. It has been such a balancing act for queer filmmakers and a very unfair one, because we want to provide representation for ourselves, but we also don’t want to alienate audiences and people who finance our films. Luckily, things have improved a great deal.”
In Mäkelä’s sophomore film – competing in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition – aspiring writer Max (Ruaridh Mollica) leads a double life as sex worker Sebastian, hoping to use his experiences in a novel. But while Max tries to...
“As was already the case with ‘A Moment in the Reeds,’ I wanted to provide a very frank and honest portrayal of queer sexuality,” he tells Variety, referencing his 2017 debut.
“For so long, queer sexuality has been shied away from and censored. It has been such a balancing act for queer filmmakers and a very unfair one, because we want to provide representation for ourselves, but we also don’t want to alienate audiences and people who finance our films. Luckily, things have improved a great deal.”
In Mäkelä’s sophomore film – competing in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition – aspiring writer Max (Ruaridh Mollica) leads a double life as sex worker Sebastian, hoping to use his experiences in a novel. But while Max tries to...
- 1/19/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
The queer drama is directed by UK-Finnish director Mikko Makela.
LevelK has boarded international sales rights to UK feature Sebastian ahead of its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival this month.
The film is the second feature from UK-Finnish director Mikko Makela. It follows a freelance writer rising through London’s cultural world who finds exhilaration at night as a sex worker under the pseudonym Sebastian.
Ruaridh Mollica leads the cast, alongside Screen Rising Stars Scotland talent Hiftu Quasem and Jonathan Hyde.
September Films will distribute the film in the Netherlands, with Aurora handling distribution for Finland.
LevelK has boarded international sales rights to UK feature Sebastian ahead of its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival this month.
The film is the second feature from UK-Finnish director Mikko Makela. It follows a freelance writer rising through London’s cultural world who finds exhilaration at night as a sex worker under the pseudonym Sebastian.
Ruaridh Mollica leads the cast, alongside Screen Rising Stars Scotland talent Hiftu Quasem and Jonathan Hyde.
September Films will distribute the film in the Netherlands, with Aurora handling distribution for Finland.
- 1/15/2024
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Joshua Griffin and Ruaridh Mollica in Too Rough
A short film which really punches above its weight, Sean Lionadh’s Too Rough has been on our radar here at Eye For Film since the Glasgow Short Film Festival in March, where it won the Audience Award. It has since won a Scottish BAFTA and is now qualified to enter the Oscar race – a big deal for a small scale project about life in a Glasgow council flat. When we met, however, Sean was upfront about his feelings on its success. “Filmmaking is always so hard that you feel you’re owed awards. So I have a sense of entitlement after the suffering of actually making it. It hasn’t really clicked that it actually all paid off. But yes, it’s a lovely feeling.”
It tells the story of Nick (Ruaridh Mollica), who, after a drunken party, impulsively takes his...
A short film which really punches above its weight, Sean Lionadh’s Too Rough has been on our radar here at Eye For Film since the Glasgow Short Film Festival in March, where it won the Audience Award. It has since won a Scottish BAFTA and is now qualified to enter the Oscar race – a big deal for a small scale project about life in a Glasgow council flat. When we met, however, Sean was upfront about his feelings on its success. “Filmmaking is always so hard that you feel you’re owed awards. So I have a sense of entitlement after the suffering of actually making it. It hasn’t really clicked that it actually all paid off. But yes, it’s a lovely feeling.”
It tells the story of Nick (Ruaridh Mollica), who, after a drunken party, impulsively takes his...
- 11/26/2022
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Bodyguard star Nina Toussaint-White is to lead a Channel 5 thriller from Deceit producer Story Films.
Toussaint-White will play Jodie in Witness No.3, a single mum who runs a hairdressing salon. One day at work, Jodie momentarily glances out of the window and in a split second her life descends into freefall. What she notices seems innocuous – two men walking on the opposite side of the road – but she’s actually witnessed a killer and his victim moments before a murder.
Joining the ensemble cast are Sion Daniel Young, Clare Dunne Ruaridh Mollica and Sue Johnston.
Filming in Ireland, the thriller from up-and-coming writer Thomas Eccleshare is the latest from the Viacom-owned UK broadcaster, which has been ramping up its drama offering following the success of the All Creatures Great and Small reboot and thrillers like The Drowning...
Toussaint-White will play Jodie in Witness No.3, a single mum who runs a hairdressing salon. One day at work, Jodie momentarily glances out of the window and in a split second her life descends into freefall. What she notices seems innocuous – two men walking on the opposite side of the road – but she’s actually witnessed a killer and his victim moments before a murder.
Joining the ensemble cast are Sion Daniel Young, Clare Dunne Ruaridh Mollica and Sue Johnston.
Filming in Ireland, the thriller from up-and-coming writer Thomas Eccleshare is the latest from the Viacom-owned UK broadcaster, which has been ramping up its drama offering following the success of the All Creatures Great and Small reboot and thrillers like The Drowning...
- 11/4/2021
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
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