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This article contains discussion of drug use and drug addiction.

Bliss would have been the perfect Matrix replacement, if not for one problem. The film follows Greg, down on his luck after losing his job and filing for divorce, who meets Isabel, and convinces him that the broken world around them is nothing more than a computer simulation. Bliss would have been the perfect replacement for The Matrix if it weren't for its convoluted plot that contributed to Owen Willson's shockingly bad Rotten Tomatoes score. That said, while it may not have been rated kindly by critics, there are some rather impressive elements to note in Bliss.

Mike Cahill's sci-fi provides some rather striking visuals that lend themselves to the director's extremely ambitious vision. Bliss frequently provides thought-provoking social commentary on the consequences of drug addiction and challenges viewers to consider its deeper meaning. According to Bliss' Salma Hayek...

See and Bliss star Nesta Cooper is adding screenwriter to her resume as she gets set to adapt and star in Mem, a sci-fi thriller based on Bethany C. Morrow’s YA novel of the same name.

Los Angeles-based Marginal MediaWorks and Sphere Media are behind the book-to-screen adaptation to shoot in Montreal next year. The Mem project marks Marginal’s first international co-production and centers on a scientist in Montreal who discovers how to extract memories from people and turn them into zombie-like creatures known as Mems.

Cooper’s recent credits include Cold Copy, Roxine Helburg’s Tribeca journalism thriller, and Mike Cahill’s Bliss, co-starring Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek. She also starred in Apple TV+’s See and is set to appear in Ridley Scott’s upcoming crime drama Sinking Spring.

“I’m really grateful to be able to collaborate with a writer as prolific as Bethany,...

It’s not all Marvel and animated fairytales. Here’s our pick of the best films you can watch now on Disney Plus UK:

The output of Marvel, Lucasfilm and the Mouse House’s own library of films and TV shows are Disney Plus’s big selling point. But the streaming service also features a large collection of other films that have nothing to do with its major franchises – many of them movies Disney now owns after acquiring other Hollywood studios.

With this in mind, here’s our list of the best films on Disney Plus that aren’t Iron Man, Star Wars, Frozen or anything of that ilk. Encompassing just about every genre, there’s sure to be something to suit your taste if you’re struggling to decide what to watch this evening.

We’ll also keep this list updated as titles shuffle off and new ones are added.

Brit Marling spent the summer of her junior year at Georgetown University interning at Goldman Sachs, an investment firm that this very publication once called “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” She ended that summer with a cushy job offer — only to reject it and, along with her pal Mike Cahill, head to Cuba to film a documentary about boxers and ballerinas caught in the middle of the U.S.-Cuba imbroglio. Marling drank from the capitalist cup, and it left a very bitter taste in her mouth.

Brit Marling is an inspiration. The talented multi-hypenate became an indie darling in 2011 with Another Earth and Sound of My Voice—collaborations with Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij respectively. She avoided various vapid roles and unfulfilling career paths and instead went on to star in (and co-create with Batmanglii) the hit Netflix series The Oa, which was bafflingly cancelled after two seasons, despite a rabid and large fan base. The two are back with another series, FX’s A Murder At The End of The World—a cool Zoomer detective whodunit set in a remote super-hotel in Iceland. On this episode, she […]

The post “It’s Hard to Survive if You Don’t Also Have Your Entrepreneur Hat On”: Brit Marling, Back To One, Ep. 269 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Brit Marling is an inspiration. The talented multi-hypenate became an indie darling in 2011 with Another Earth and Sound of My Voice—collaborations with Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij respectively. She avoided various vapid roles and unfulfilling career paths and instead went on to star in (and co-create with Batmanglii) the hit Netflix series The Oa, which was bafflingly cancelled after two seasons, despite a rabid and large fan base. The two are back with another series, FX’s A Murder At The End of The World—a cool Zoomer detective whodunit set in a remote super-hotel in Iceland. On this episode, she […]

The post “It’s Hard to Survive if You Don’t Also Have Your Entrepreneur Hat On”: Brit Marling, Back To One, Ep. 269 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Exclusive: Fat City, the nascent production company set up by Licorice Pizza producer Sara Murphy and War Pony producer Ryan Zacarias, has a new director of development.

The company, which has a first-look deal with Anonymous Content, has hired Sofia Paz in the role.

She recently worked with artists at the Inhotim Institute of Contemporary Art but before that she was in the development department of Rt Features, on films such as Robert Egger’s The Lighthouse, Antoneta Kusijanovic’s Murina, Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network and Karim Ainouz’s The Invisible life of Eurydice Gusmao. She began as an EP on Mike Cahill’s I Origins.

“We feel very lucky to have Sofia join us as the Director of Development at Fat City,” said Murphy and Zacarias in a joint statement. “Her taste is exceptional and her enthusiasm for story and bringing films to life is infectious.”

“I am just...

The 2023 edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival opens Friday night with some A-list firepower. Ewan McGregor and Alicia Vikander will be in the Czech spa town to collect special honors, while Russell Crowe is attending for a career retrospective and to receive the Crystal Globe lifetime achievement award. Crowe will also be performing on the opening night along with his band The Gentlemen Barbers.

But there’ll also be another musical act set to play June 30 at the opening concert, one that’s perhaps a little more established than the Gladiator star (no disrespect, Russell).

English band Morcheeba have been fine-tuning their downtempo, electronic vibes since forming in the mid-1990s, moving from trip hop origins into more pop-based, hip-hop-infused soul waters, most notably with the 1998 breakout album Big Calm and 2000’s follow-up, Fragments of Freedom. More than two decades on and the band — now made up of two...

Jena Malone in Adopting Audrey

Jena Malone is making breakfast when we talk: caramelised onions, scrambled eggs and mushrooms. It’s the start of the Glasgow Film Festival and she has a lot to get through, with two films screening there. One of them, Adopting Audrey, sees her play a listless young woman who forms an unexpected bond with a misanthropic man after deciding to explore the possibilities of adult adoption. In the other, Consecration, which is screening in the Frightfest strand, she’s cast as a woman with a troubled past investigating the death of her brother in a Scottish convent. They’re very different roles, and her ability to disappear into her characters is one of the reasons why she’s loved in the industry, even if it might make her a bit less visible to fans.

“Audrey is based loosely on a true story that Mike Cahill...

Exclusive: Nesta Cooper (See) has signed on to star in the feature-length drama Kemba, inspired by the life of criminal justice reform advocate Kemba Smith, which Kelley Kali (I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking)) is directing for MPI Original Films and BET.

Kemba picks up with its title character (played by Cooper) as a college student, as she falls in love with a man, only to learn he is a drug kingpin who leads her down a path of abuse and manipulation, placing her in the middle of the government’s “war on drugs,” and ultimately landing her in federal prison. The film will focus on themes paramount in today’s national conversations, including institutional racism, racial inequality and the vital need for criminal justice and prison reform — having its television premiere on BET, with additional launch and distribution plans to be announced at a later date.

MPI’s Stacey Parks,...

"You are sane, approximately." "Sane as you are." Vertical Entertainment has revealed an official trailer for an indie film titled Adopting Audrey (formerly known as Porcupine at its festival premiere), an awkward sort of dramedy from filmmaker M. Cahill. Not to be confused with the other Mike Cahill this Mike Cahill now goes by M Cahill, and directed the indie hit King of California with Michael Douglas back in 2007. This is only his second feature film. Jena Malone stars as Audrey, an "adult woman" who puts herself up for adoption and forms a bond with the misanthropic patriarch of her adoptive family. Based on a true story. The cast also features Robert Hunger-Bühler, Brooke Bloom, Will Rogers, and Emily Kuroda. This actually looks like a nice, sweet little indie flick. Malone looks like Evan Rachel Wood or even Andrea Riseborough in this; I love her style with the short hair and quirky attitude.

Anonymous Content has enlisted Nicholas Shumaker, a longtime producer and former talent agent at UTA, and Kimberly Carver, a veteran manager and TV producer, to join the company’s literary department. Both will work as managers and producers.

Anonymous Content CEO, Dawn Olmstead, said: “Kimberly and Nick have such an incredible passion and commitment to finding creators and artists that not only have authentic voices but that also are the meaningful voices of the future.”

Olmstead said both executives have “tremendous reputations in the entertainment industry, on a global scale,” and that “their fierce dedication to elevating their clients through authentic opportunities is both admirable and unshakeable.”

Shumaker spent the last six years at the UTA Independent Film Group working out of their New York office. During his tenure, Shumaker worked on packaging, financing, and the sales for a variety of international director-driven titles, including the Oscar-winning film “Call Me By Your Name,...

Shelley H. Surpin, a longtime entertainment lawyer and partner at Surpin, Mayersohn & Coghill in Los Angeles, has died. She was 72. Her firm said Surpin died September 3 of complications following a stroke.

A champion for independent film, helped with the careers of such filmmakers as Greg Araki, Nicole Holofcener, Paul Mazur, Allison Anders, Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling, Mike Cahill and Tom Flynn, among many others.

Surpin began practicing entertainment law at Pollock, Rigrod and Bloom (later Bloom Hergott), eventually becoming partners with Andy Rigrod and founding Rigrod and Surpin.

She produced writer-director Batmanglij’s dramatic feature Sound of My Voice, a 2012 Fox Searchlight release that earned Indie Spirit Award noms for supporting actress Marling — who also co-wrote the pic — and Best First Feature. Surpin also executive produced the feature Jake Squared, which premiered at the 2013 Raindance Festival in London.

Surpin received her law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at Uc Berkeley,...

Sebastian Meise’s “Great Freedom,” a prison drama about a gay man repeatedly incarcerated under a draconian law outlawing homosexuality in West Germany, won the award for best feature film at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

The Austrian director took home the Heart of Sarajevo at Thursday night’s ceremony, while leading man Georg Friedrich won the award for best actor for a film that won the runner-up prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar. The prizes were handed out by a jury led by Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić and including American writer-director Mike Cahill, Hungarian director Lili Horvát, Vienna Film Festival artistic director Eva Sangiorgi, and Austrian Film Commission executive director Martin Schweighofer.

Serbia’s Milica Tomović was named best director for “Celts,” which follows three generations who converge at a child’s birthday party against the backdrop of the former Yugoslavia’s painful breakup. The trio of Flaka Latifi,...

Other winners included the three lead actresses of ’The Hill Where Lionesses Roar’.

Sebastian Miese’s Austrian-German drama Great Freedom has won the Sarajevo Film Festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film.

The 2021 winners were announced at an awards ceremony last night (August 20). The film received its world premiere at Cannes last month, where it played in Un Certain Regard and won the jury prize.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The love story tracks the persecution of homosexuality in Germany over the decades following the Second World War. It is the Austrian director...

10 feature world premieres in the selection.

Sarajevo Film Festival has selected 20 features in the competition programme for its 27th edition, which will run in-person from August 13-20.

Nine films have been chosen for the Feature Film section of the programme for fiction titles, including two world premieres – Dušan Kasalica’s Montenegrin-Serbian title The Elegy Of Laurel, and Cristina Grosan’s Hungarian film Things Worth Weeping For.

Other films in the Feature Film section include Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina, which won the Camera d’Or for best debut film at Cannes Film Festival last week; and Norika Sefa’s Looking For Venera,...

10 feature world premieres in the selection.

Sarajevo Film Festival has selected 20 features in the competition programme for its 27th edition, which will run in-person from August 13-20.

Nine films have been chosen for the Feature Film section of the programme for fiction titles, including two world premieres – Dušan Kasalica’s Montenegrin-Serbian title The Elegy Of Laurel, and Cristina Grosan’s Hungarian film Things Worth Weeping For.

Other films in the Feature Film section include Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina, which won the Camera d’Or for best debut film at Cannes Film Festival last week; and Norika Sefa’s Looking For Venera,...

Los Angeles, March 13 (Ians) Hollywood star Salma Hayek has urged everyone to not have a boring weekend.

Salma posted a picture on Instagram, where she is seen standing in a desert backdrop. The star is dressed in a black T-shirt paired with chunky sunglasses. She completed her look with tinted lip gloss.

"Have a peaceful weekend but not a boring weekend," she wrote as caption.

Salma's latest outing is "Bliss", which was released digitally. The film is a science fiction romantic drama co-starring Owen Wilson and directed by Mike Cahill.

The film tells the tale of a man who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets a mysterious woman living on the streets and is convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is a computer simulation.

--Ians

dc/vnc...

Los Angeles, Feb 24: Hollywood diva Salma Hayek channeled her inner Lady Gaga spirit in a new picture she shared on social media.

In an Instagram image she posted, Salma is dressed in a red swimsuit and has water flowing all over her. She sports a sans make-up look.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek)

"I'm ready 'rain on me' @ladygaga," Salma wrote as the caption for the image, which currently has over 413K likes.

Salma's latest release is the digitally-dropped film "Bliss", a science fiction romantic drama co-starring Owen Wilson and directed by Mike Cahill.

The film narrates the story of a man who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets a mysterious woman living on the streets and is convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is a computer simulation.

Los Angeles, Feb 20: Hollywood diva Salma Hayek has shared a funny version of pole dance – that too, after having a hotdog!

In a boomerang video Salma has posted on Instagram. she is seen standing on a stool, holding on to a pole. She is seen dressed in black T-shirt, sweatpants and sneakers.

"My version of pole dancing after eating a hotdog with jalapeno," she wrote alongside the video.

Salma's latest release is the digitally released film "Bliss", a science fiction romantic drama co-starring Owen Wilson, and directed by Mike Cahill.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek)

The film narrates the story of a man who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets a mysterious woman living on the streets and is convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is a computer simulation.

Photo: ‘Bliss’/Amazon Studios Get ready for a mind-bending, reality questioning rollercoaster ride of a film that manipulates viewer expectations and breaks the traditions of Hollywood’s catering to general audiences. Writer and director of ‘Bliss’ Mike Cahill, whose last feature films ‘I Origins’ and ‘Another Earth’ were both sci-fi drama romances were received well critically, offers an interesting perspective to this sci-fi drama romance that’s stylistically unmatched by anything Amazon-produced, and pushes postmodern Cinematic techniques to a level that’s difficult to grasp for the viewer, but one must respect its creativity. The set design and lighting in just about every shot is beautiful and ranges from alluring color coordination to rugged worldly authenticity. This accompanied by the wonderful performances bring a quality to this film that makes it worth watching until the end, and sometimes even glosses over the flaws from the editing and futile plot points.

Just as the Super Bowl traditionally inhibits studios from releasing new titles to theaters, there were few fresh films available on home platforms. As a result, four titles — all previously ranked #1 on multiple charts — took the top spots again. The exception was Netflix, which debuted “Malcolm & Marie” February 5. Starring Zendaya and John David Washington, it immediately became the streamer’s most-watched film.

Long-running, still-Premium VOD titles “Greenland” and “News of the World,” along with $5.99 rentals “Tenet” and “Let Him Go,” are this week’s chart toppers. “News” and “Tenet” made all four lists (as did “The War with Grandpa”). “Let Him Go” failed to make Spectrum’s top 10, with its price reduction coming too late to impact the list.

There were a few surprises. Why is “2067,” an Australian science-fiction film starring Ryan Kwanten and Kodi Smit McPhee, available for $0.99 at Apple? (It’s more expensive elsewhere.) “Promising Young Woman,...

Come On, Get Happy: Cahill Finds Love in a Phoney Place with Simulation Sci-Fi

Director Mike Cahill has depended upon a higher degree of suspension of disbelief in his low-fi ponderings on human connections, so it’s no surprise his third feature Bliss demands the same open-mindedness of taking the subject matter seriously while forgiving the potentially uneven presentation. Starring Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, it’s the most high-profile offering to date following the success of 2011’s Another Earth and the ambitious but somewhat flawed I, Origins (2014).

While the notable leads are somewhat distracting and uneasily navigate a forced chemistry, Cahill presents interesting and meaningful ideas about our innate need to experience opposing planes of emotions and situations to fully appreciate life as a complex continuum of connections.…...

One of the most impressive aspects of Mike Cahill's latest science-fiction mind trip Bliss is the cast itself. The film features Owen Wilson in a different type of role for the actor. It also stars the very talented Salma Hayek, who gives a terrific performance as a woman who may or may not be crazy in an insane world. Strange and weirdly compelling, the film takes on more than just the fantastical as it looks into the abyss of mental illness and addiction in a very creative way. We recently…...

Owen Wilson is at the top of his game in the completely ludicrous sci-fi film “Bliss.” Written and directed by Mike Cahill, known for his trippy sci-fi films,, Wilson not only keeps a straight face while delivering lines of quasi-scientific gibberish, but he also manages to sell the emotional stakes of a movie that often makes little sense.

Continue reading ‘Bliss’: Owen Wilson & Salma Hayek Star In A Strange, Lesser Hybrid Of ‘The Matrix’ & ‘Vanilla Sky’ [Review] at The Playlist.

Oscar-nominated actor Viggo Mortensen makes his feature directorial debut with Falling, which premieres in theaters, digital and on demand today. Mortensen also wrote, starred in and composed the score for Falling to show us that he’s not just a one-trick pony (but was there any doubt?)

Falling follows John (Mortensen) who lives with his partner, Eric (Terry Chen), and their daughter, Mónica (Gabby Velis) in California. This is far from the rural life from his past. His uber-conservative father, Willis (Lance Henriksen), who is facing early stages of dementia, lives alone on the isolated farm where John grew up. When John brings Willis to Los Angeles in an attempt to relocate him closer to family, their relationship begins to unravel as Willis refuses to change his way of life.

The family drama made its world premiere in 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival before screening at Cannes and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Hollywood star Salma Hayek shared a stunning picture in the middle of a make-up, hair and tattoo test on social media.

Salma posted a picture on Instagram, where she is seen sporting a white bathroom robe. In the image, she wears large-framed spectacles and flaunting floral tattoos on her chest.

She shared the image from a look test for her film "Bliss".

"In the middle of a #makeup #hair and #tattoo test for 'Bliss'," she wrote as the caption.

"Bliss" is a science fiction romantic drama co-starring Owen Wilson, and directed by Mike Cahill. The film follows a man who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets a mysterious woman living on the streets and is convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is a computer simulation.  --ians/dc/vnc...

With January finally, in your rear-view mirror, do you still feel part of a sluggish rut, as though one day just blends into the next with barely a change in course? With current events as they are, this may resonate with most folks. Some may wonder if there’s a switch that just needs to be flipped in order to “break out” and go to your “happy place”. That’s certainly true of the hero of a new flick. He’s in a miserable “fog” that seems to haunt his every second. Luckily a chance meeting (or is it) meeting provides that “push” that jolts him out of the mundane and into, what seems, a state of pure Bliss.

That unlikely hero mentioned earlier is Greg Wittle (Owen Wilson), who’s an executive in a big company headquartered in a sprawling urban area. He spends most of his days avoiding...

Science fiction romance Bliss tackles heady themes through a reality warping scope. Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek play strange lovers in a world that may or may not exist. Their mind-bending relationship twists and turns around a central mystery. Are they real people in an elaborate illusion? Or just facades of a troubled existence struggling to cope with difficult truths? The answer becomes obvious rather early, but the protagonist's journey to understanding is a worthwhile endeavor.

Owen Wilson stars as Greg Wittle. He sits in his drab office while the sea of cubicles outside buzzes with ringing phones. Greg draws pictures on his desk of an alluring woman and scenic seaside home. He ignores calls from his coworker and boss, but does pick up for his daughter. Emily (Nesta Cooper) would like him to attend her graduation. He's not sure if his ex-wife or son, Arthur (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), wants him there.

It’s easy to understand why Greg would seek another existence. He’s a middle manager in the “Technical Difficulties” department, an office bathed in harsh fluorescent light and filled with employees who only know how to trill “I’m sorry!” He has a ruined marriage, no home, no social stimulation, and little else that might anchor him to this mortal coil. What does bring joy to Greg (a miscast Owen Wilson) are the pictures he can’t stop drawing, with lush landscapes that portray a home and a woman he doesn’t recognize but that he feels are real. What if, Mike Cahill’s “Bliss” supposes, those things are real and all this trauma is a simulation created to make “real” Greg appreciate his life even more?

Writer-director Cahill has long been obsessed with stories that explore the line between what’s real and what’s not, yet “Another Earth...

Salma Hayek stars in the new indie “Bliss” as a mysterious homeless woman named Isabel who befriends a man (Owen Wilson) who has just lost his job. Written and directed by Mike Cahill (“Another Earth” and “I Origins”), nothings nothing is as clear as it may seem in the film. Isabel is not only a drug addict, but she believes she’s living in one world while another version of herself, a scientist, lives in the much better “bliss world.”

“I was a fan of Mike’s work,” Hayek says on this week’s episode of the new Variety podcast “Just for Variety.” “I got a call from my agent who said, ‘Mike Cahill has a film and he wants you for the lead.’ And I go, “I love him.” They said, “He’s the director that did this and that movie.’ I said, ‘I know who he is. Are you kidding me?...

Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek star in a conceited mess of a movie with a guessable finish

There is some epically bad acting in this silly and tiresome sci-fi fantasy-mystery from writer-director Mike Cahill, whose renowned debut Another Earth in 2011 left me sceptical, yet intrigued. But this is a conceited mess, which almost from the very first frame tips you off that we are heading for some version of the time-honoured cheat/twist ending that has – admittedly – been with cinema since its earliest days and attracted some of the biggest directorial names.

The biggest challenge of discussing Mike Cahill’s “Bliss” lies in describing its premise without making it sound considerably wilder and more interesting than it actually is. In short, the film stars Owen Wilson as a sad-sack office drone who, after accidentally killing his boss, is rescued by an intense, shamanistic homeless woman played by Salma Hayek, who not only informs him that they are soulmates, but also that they are among the few flesh-and-blood humans inhabiting a complex computer simulation, and by imbibing the right combinations of colorful crystals they can bend the laws of physics, and also travel to a paradisiacal alternate reality where their days consist of lounging on yachts and hobnobbing at parties with Bill Nye and a holographic Slavoj Žižek. See? Sounds intriguing enough, doesn’t it?

Now imagine a strangely dull, lead-footed treatment of that premise, and you’ve got some idea of what...

Mike Cahill wants to blow your mind. That much is apparent from his previous theatrical films, Another Earth and I Origins, both of which dealt with intellectually trippy sci-fi themes. The writer/director continues on the same path with his latest effort set in two worlds, one of which is a computer simulation. Figuring out which is which provides the main interest of the film starring Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, premiering on Amazon Prime Video. Although even after watching Bliss, you may not be sure. As with both of his previous works, the filmmaker delivers an undeniably ambitious mind-bender that bites off more than ...

Mike Cahill wants to blow your mind. That much is apparent from his previous theatrical films, Another Earth and I Origins, both of which dealt with intellectually trippy sci-fi themes. The writer/director continues on the same path with his latest effort set in two worlds, one of which is a computer simulation. Figuring out which is which provides the main interest of the film starring Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, premiering on Amazon Prime Video. Although even after watching Bliss, you may not be sure. As with both of his previous works, the filmmaker delivers an undeniably ambitious mind-bender that bites off more than ...

“You and I,” the lead single and video from the soundtrack to the Amazon original sci-fi film, “Bliss” starring Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, premieres exclusively on Variety today, one week ahead of the film’s Feb. 5 release on Prime Video.

The song is written by the film’s composer, Will Bates, and features the unmistakable vocals of Morcheeba’s Skye Edwards. “Bliss” sees Bates once again reuniting with director Mike Cahill, with whom he has worked on all of Cahill’s directing projects.

“This was my first experience with a full orchestra,” said Bates. Starting in music as a jazz saxophonist then as an electronic artist and later as the frontperson for a rock band, all of Bates’ talents and musical connections come together for “You and I.”

Said Bates: “We had the idea of there being a song that melodically incorporated the love theme. I’ve known Skye Edwards for years,...

Following his indie sci-fi features Another Earth and I Origins, director Mike Cahill has spent the last few years helming TV but now he’s back with his third narrative feature, once again delving into sci-fi. Bliss, set to arrive on Amazon Prime on February 5, follows an unfulfilled man (Owen Wilson) and a mysterious woman (Salma Hayek) who believe they are living in a simulated reality. But when their newfound ‘Bliss’ world begins to bleed into the ‘ugly’ world they must decide what’s real and where they truly belong. Ahead of the release, the trailer has now arrived.

“I wanted to tell a story about the fragility of the mind and the malleability of our perception,” the director tells EW. “I particularly wanted to make a film that treated different ways of seeing the world with compassion and empathy, as opposed to judgement. To me this is an important...

"Bliss" is the new Amazon Original Movie written and directed by Mike Cahill, starring Owen Wilson, Salma Hayek, Madeline Zima, DeRon Horton, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and Joshua Leonard, streaming February 5, 2021, on Prime Video:

"...'Greg' (Wilson) after recently being divorced and then fired from his job, meets the mysterious 'Isabel' (Hayek), a woman living on the streets, who is convinced that her polluted, broken world in corrupt Los Angeles is just a 'Matrix'-like computer simulation..." 

Click the images to enlarge...

Amazon Prime Video has debuted a new trailer for the mind-bending love story ‘Bliss’ featuring Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek.

The story follows Greg (Owen Wilson) who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets the mysterious Isabel (Salma Hayek), a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is nothing but a computer simulation. Doubtful at first, Greg eventually discovers there may be some truth to Isabel’s wild conspiracy.

Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson. Photo: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Amazon Studios

Written and Directed by Mike Cahill, the film stars Owen Wilson, Salma Hayek, Nesta Cooper.

Also in trailers – Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo kind of star in trailer for ‘Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar’

The film hits Amazon Prime Video February 5th

The post What world do you live in? Owen Wilson and Selma Hayek star in trailer for ‘Bliss’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Did you know that Mike Cahill, the director behind 2011’s excellent indie feature film Another Earth, was making a new movie? And that it’s already finished? And coming to Amazon next month? I sure didn’t! Owen Wilson (Midnight in Paris) and Salma Hayek (Beatriz at Dinner) star in Bliss, a science fiction romance which, like the […]

The post ‘Bliss’ Trailer: Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek Star in a Twisty Sci-Fi Romance appeared first on /Film.

"You have to experience the good... to appreciate the bad." Whoa! Amazon has unveiled an official trailer for an indie sci-fi drama titled Bliss, the latest from the director of Another Earth and I Origins. What?! No idea he was even making a new film! And it's out in less than a month. A recently-divorced guy falls for an enchanting woman's theory that they live in a harsh, alternative simulation inside of a beautiful, blissful reality. When their newfound 'Bliss' world begins to bleed into the 'ugly' world they must decide what's real and where they truly belong. Owen Wilson stars with Salma Hayek, plus Nesta Cooper, Madeline Zima, Joshua Leonard, Ronny Chieng, and Steve Zissis. I love the concept in this - exploring a timely idea of whether or not a delusional world is more interesting to live in than the real one. A must see trailer.

Amazon has released a new trailer for the sci-fi/thriller Bliss. This is the latest from filmmaker Mike Cahill (Another Earth), with Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek leading the cast. As we can see from the trailer, this looks to be a mind-bending tale of love that blurs the lines between simulation and reality.

The trailer wastes little time in casting doubt on what is real and what is not real, as Owen Wilson's Greg recounts a memory that feels real to him, though he is not certain that is the case. He then proceeds with a busy day at work before meeting, quite literally, the woman of his dreams at a bar. Things get strange in a hurry as Wilson's character comes to find that he's been living in a highly-advanced simulation. The idea is that these harsh simulations can make one appreciate reality. As one might imagine, things don't go as planned.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes the movie Bliss from Amazon Prime Video, starring Owen Wilson, Salma Hayek, and Nesta Cooper.

Bliss is a mind-bending love story following Greg (Owen Wilson) who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets the mysterious Isabel (Salma Hayek), a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is nothing but a computer simulation. Doubtful at first, Greg eventually discovers there may be some truth to Isabel’s wild conspiracy.

The director, who I’m a big fan of, is Mike Cahill. When it comes to sci-fi films, I’m your geek and this filmmaker has done two inspiring movies from the genre.

His first feature film as director, co-written with actress Brit Marling, Another Earth, about a parallel planet Earth, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up...

“The Matrix” is a story of waking up and seeing the real world for what it is and ignoring the simulation that clouds your mind. In that film series, when offered the chance to wake up and find truth, the choice is clear, though not everyone follows through. A similar choice is offered in the new sci-fi film, “Bliss,” but the choice isn’t nearly as clear. Why wake up and experience the real world when the simulation is actually kind of great?

Continue reading ‘Bliss’ Trailer: Owen Wilson & Salma Hayek Question Reality In Mike Cahill’s Trippy Sci-Fi Feature at The Playlist.

Rebecca Murphy has added feature film producer to her list of credits with a deadpan comedy set to debut this Thursday at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival.

Based on the 2014 short of the same name, The Florist follows millennial Annika, played by Murphy, who earns her living selling edible hypnotic flowers to fashionable eateries across Los Angeles.

Following her instincts, and driven by blind ambition, her business appears to be going well until the onset of competitors prompt her to take action and announce she has found the elusive Comet Flower, a legendary plant that may have unique qualities.

The film was written and directed by fellow Australian Andrew Ryan (writer and creator of MTV’s The Sellers) and was shot in California.

The short, also written and directed by Ryan and produced by Murphy, screened at Tribeca Film Festival, with the script named as a finalist for the 2016 Sundance Alfred P Sloan Prize.

Providing Sundance with slices of sci-fi theories in a pair of editions with Another Earth in 2011 and I Origins in 2014, auteur Mike Cahill had the opportunity to work on a larger canvas for his third outing. Working with the likes of Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson back in June of 2019 for a production that took place in Croatia, Bliss is a property of Amazon Studios. In-between features, Cahill worked on a quartet of television series. On this project he worked with cinematographer Markus Förderer.

Gist: This is about a recently-divorced guy falls for an enchanting woman’s theory that they live in a harsh, alternative world simulation inside of a beautiful, blissful reality.…...

Exclusive: Jorge Lendeborg Jr. is starring in the Adam Randall-directed Night Teeth, the Netflix thriller film that is just getting underway in New Orleans. He stars with Debby Ryan (Insatiable) Lucy Fry (Bright), Alfie Allen and Raúl Castillo.

Scripted by Brent Dillon (Black Tide Beach), the youth-driven thriller with a genre twist focuses on one evening in L.A. Lendeborg Jr (Bumble Bee and Spider-Man: Homecoming) stars as a young chauffeur who drives two beautiful young women to five different parties and finds himself fighting for his life after he discovers they’re not who they claim to be. This is a film about three young people stuck together for the night. Within the confines of this vehicle, it’s the changing relationships; the suspicion, attraction and threat are all part of it.

The film is produced...

Black Bear

Gabi on the Roof in July (2010) and 2014’s Wild Canaries (review) filmmaker Lawrence Michael Levine landed the likes of Sarah Gadon, Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott for an Adirondacks shoot this past July. His fourth feature centers on an expecting couple (Gadon and Abbott) who are confronted with an out-of-town guest Abigail (Plaza), a filmmaker suffering from writer’s block who seeks solace in the woods but finds herself at the center of a twisted love triangle. Significant other in filmmaker Sophia Takal (Black Christmas) is a producer on the pic.

Prediction: Midnight

Bliss

Dabbling once again in sci-fi elements, Another Earth (2011) and I Origins (2014) helmer Mike Cahill took on some television projects in the interim before taking off to Croatia (and backyard Los Angeles) for an Amazon Studios backed project with the likes of Salma Hayek, Nesta Cooper and Owen Wilson.…...

In today’s film news roundup, AMC starts Artisan Films, Gravitas buys “Boy Genius,” Nesta Cooper gets cast opposite Salma Hayek and Rebel Road launches P12 as a distributor.

Marketing Move

AMC Theatres is launching a new program, AMC Artisan Films, as a programming-marketing effort to put a spotlight on character and narrative driven movies as an alternative to blockbusters.

“Because AMC is the industry’s top choice for blockbuster movies, many consumers don’t realize that we play more elevated and celebrated films than anyone else in North America,” said Elizabeth Frank, executive vice president of worldwide programming. “With the launch of AMC Artisan Films, we aim to expose more movie-goers to specialized films and increase their theatrical success.”

Frank said AMC is seeking earlier runs in platform releases while holding films longer in the theater to give audiences time to learn about them from other customers.

The idea...

Actors Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek are heading to the future with Mike Cahill‘s, Amazon and Endgame Entertainment vehicle, “Bliss.” The project began principal photography in Los Angeles and Croatia this week with shooting and post-production scheduled for the next few months. Cahill’s latest is a science fiction drama written by the filmmaker with Endgame Entertainment’s James D. Stern producing and Lucas Smith serving as executive producer.

Continue reading Salma Hayek & Owen Wilson Begin Production On Mike Cahill’s New Amazon Sci-Fi Drama ‘Bliss’ at The Playlist.