New comedies mark the penultimate weekend of summer from Buddy to Idiots to Finding Emily. Korean zombie thriller Colony, from the director of Train to Busan, and superhero film Legend of the White Dragon (both from Well Go USA) join a handful of limited releases including docs Boorman and the Devil, The Cycle of Love and Hanging By a Wire.
Horror comedy Buddy from Roadside Attraction and Chris Cooper, by Chris “Casper” Kelly, hits 1,258 screens. Set in the colorful world of It’s Buddy!, a fictional 1990s kids’ television show starring a bright orange unicorn and a group of children who spend their days singing, dancing and helping Buddy (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) spread happiness. But when one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased and cracks begin to appear in this seemingly perfect world. Certified Fresh at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. A promotional video of Buddy playfully ambushing a movie theater employee has gone viral on social media ahead of the opening. Premiered at Sundance; see Deadline review.
IFC opens raunchy road-trip romp Idiots on 1,100 screens. From filmmaker Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger), it stars Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Mason Thames, Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun and Peter Dinklage. Premiered at Sundance; Deadline review here under its previous title, Sh*theads. Two unqualified bozos (Franco and Jackson) are hired to transfer a rich teen (Thames) to rehab when their straightforward gig quickly spirals into dangerous mayhem.
Also from IFC, The Sun Never Sets by Joe Swanberg debuts at the Music Box in Chicago, expanding next weekend. Stars Dakota Fanning as a woman whose relationship with her boyfriend hits a rough patch just as her ex reappears in her life, leading to messy entanglements in the Alaskan wilderness. Premiered at SXSW; see Deadline’s interview with Swanberg.
Well Go USA Entertainment is out with Korean zombie thriller Colony by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) on 411 screens. Stars Gianna Jun as Professor Se-jeong, who is thrust into a bloody nightmare when a rapidly mutating virus is released during a biotech conference, causing authorities to seal the facility. Trapped inside with no escape, Se-jeong and a small group of survivors must fight to stay alive while the infected undergo horrific transformations.
Premiered at Cannes Midnight Screenings section.
Well Go released a remastered Train to Busan earlier this month for the hit’s 10th anniversary.
The distributor is also debuting long gestating Legend of the White Dragon as an event release for the three-day weekend and Wednesday, one showtime daily, on 596 screens. Directed by Sean and Aaron Schoenke, the film reunites the late Jason David Frank with fellow Power Rangers Jason Faunt, Cerina Vincent and Ciara Hanna. Forced to hide in the shadows, superhero fugitive hero Erik Reed/the White Dragon (Frank) must clear his name to reunite with his family. Standing in his way is a mysterious villain intent on his destruction. The release is timed to National Power Rangers Day marking the premiere of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series in 1993.
Rom-com Finding Emily from Focus Features and the producers of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill debuts at 678 locations. The feature directorial debut of Alicia MacDonald, written by Rachel Hirons and produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Olivier Kaempfer. It stars Angourie Rice, Spike Fearn and Minnie Driver. When a lovesick musician is given the wrong number for his dream girl, he teams with a driven psychology student to find her, sparking a campus-wide frenzy. Billboards in L.A. and New York have been offering “Emily-only” advance screenings at AMC Century City and AMC Empire 25 open only to people named Emily or their friends.
Kino Lorber is out with Filipiñana, the feature debut Rafael Manuel, at the Film Forum in NYC. The scathing look at class hierarchy set within an exclusive private golf club in Manila premiered at Sundance, where it won a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision before going on to play Berlin and other fests. Manuel is in town for three sold-out Q&As.
The Cycle of Love by Oscar-winning filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets, The Lost Children, Evelyn, Virunga), executive produced by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, opens at the Angelika in NYC. The doc from Variance Films adds L.A. next weekend with more cities to follow September 1, kicking off an Academy campaign for the fall. Premiered at Telluride and has since played CPH:DOX, Sheffield DocFest and DC/DOX.
The film centers on the 1977 real-life adventure of PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist who picked up a handful of paintbrushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off on a 6000-mile cross-continent mission to find Lotta, a woman who had captured his heart during a visit to India.
David Kittredge documentary Boorman and the Devil from Yellow Veil Pictures opens in limited release at The Quad in NYC. Adds the Laemmle L.A. and additional markets September 4. After directing Point Blank and Deliverance, John Boorman was offered to direct Exorcist II: The Heretic. The film became a massive failure, nearly ending his career. Years later, cast and filmmakers discuss its ambition and artistic value. Includes interviews with Boorman and actresses Linda Blair and Louise Fletcher.
In Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s Sundance-premiering Hanging By a Wire from Abramorama, opening at the Village East in NYC, a routine school commute turns terrifying when a cable car’s wire snaps, leaving eight passengers — including six schoolboys — dangling 900 feet above a ravine in the remote Himalayan foothills. With no margin for error and a cable that could fail at any moment, an unlikely alliance of rescuers must improvise under intense public scrutiny, racing against an invisible clock before disaster strikes live on television.
Disposable Humanity opens for a weeklong Oscar-qualifying run at the Laemmle Monica Film Center. Explores the Hitler’s “Aktion T4” program that resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 disabled people. The murders, arranged and executed by doctors in cooperation with the German state from 1939-1941, targeting those that the T4 program deemed “life unworthy of living.” Directed by Cameron S. Mitchell, produced by David Mitchell.
Winner of the Slamdance Audience Award, RiverRun International Film Festival’s Director’s Award for Community Impact, and the Ridgway Independent Film Festival Director’s Choice Award, and nominated for Best Documentary of the Year by the Midwest Film Journalists.