Hey, "Tough As Nails" fans. Tonight, July 7, 2023, another new episode of Tough As Nails season 5 did indeed hit the air, and another unlucky contestant got eliminated from the individual competitions at the end of it, losing their shot to win $200,000 dollars, a new Ford truck and Tough As Nails Champion bragging rights. Tonight's episode kicked off with host Phil Keoghan showing up with a new team challenge for the contestants. In this one, they had to build a steel trailer, dip it in zinc and connect it to a truck for the win. Yesi was selected to be crew boss for Dirty Hands during this challenge, and Paul was crew boss for the Savage Crew team. During this challenge, the teams had to weld three sides onto their trailer. Carolina ran into some issues for the Savage Crew team with this part of the challenge. So, Dirty Hands took an...
- 7/8/2023
- by Andre Braddox
- OnTheFlix
Exclusive: Tough as Nails returns for its fifth season and this time, it’s coming from the Great White North.
For the first time, the CBS competition show traveled to Canada where it will feature 12 locals and Americans in a test of strength, endurance, life skills and mental toughness. Some of the seasoned professionals include a carpenter, toolmaker, ironworker, electrician and firefighter — in other words, skilled workers who are pushed to their limits on real-world job sites.
There are also three vets participating this season. The show was filmed in the steel town of Hamilton, Ontario.
In the first individual challenge of the season, competitors will cut, grind and torch 500 pounds of scrap metal. The first two to finish the job earn the privilege of choosing their teammates for Dirty Hands and Savage Crew.
The fifth season launches July 2 with a two-hour premiere and will continue airing Fridays and Sundays on CBS.
For the first time, the CBS competition show traveled to Canada where it will feature 12 locals and Americans in a test of strength, endurance, life skills and mental toughness. Some of the seasoned professionals include a carpenter, toolmaker, ironworker, electrician and firefighter — in other words, skilled workers who are pushed to their limits on real-world job sites.
There are also three vets participating this season. The show was filmed in the steel town of Hamilton, Ontario.
In the first individual challenge of the season, competitors will cut, grind and torch 500 pounds of scrap metal. The first two to finish the job earn the privilege of choosing their teammates for Dirty Hands and Savage Crew.
The fifth season launches July 2 with a two-hour premiere and will continue airing Fridays and Sundays on CBS.
- 6/30/2023
- by Lynette Rice
- Deadline Film + TV
The two-hour Tough as Nails Season 4 finale will feature a challenge between the oldest and youngest competitors of the season. And TV Insider has an exclusive first look at the tight race to the finish in the sneak peek above. Airing Wednesday, February 22 at 9/8c on CBS, the show will see Savage Crew and Dirty Hands go head-to-head in the final team battle. Then, the individual finalists race to demo, smash, cut, and stack their way over shipping containers with the first to finish the job crowned the winner of Tough as Nails Season 4. In the sneak peek, the eldest cast member, Ellery Liburd, represents for Dirty Hands and the youngest, Larron Ables, is playing for Savage Crew. Their challenge starts off with wood chopping and stacking. Being a firefighter, Ellery is overly familiar with an ax. He cuts through the wood with strength and precision. Larron, a diesel technician,...
- 2/22/2023
- TV Insider
Exclusive: Corbin Bernsen (Showtime’s City on a Hill), Timothy V. Murphy (TNT’s Snowpiercer) and Jeremy Holm (House of Cards) have signed on to star in the horror film Herd, from director Steven Pierce.
The indie co-written by Pierce and James Allerdyce tells the story of a woman who ends up trapped between a zombie outbreak and warring militias as she tries to outrun her past. Pierce is producing Herd as the inaugural feature under his newly-minted Fp banner, alongside Allerdyce, Lori Kay, Matt Mundy and Bret Carr. Production will commence in Missouri early next month.
Bernsen is a two-time Emmy and Golden Globe nominee perhaps best known for Arnie Becker on 20th Television’s LA Law, who recently signed on to reprise the role in an ABC revival. The actor can currently be seen on Showtime’s City on a Hill and will also soon be seen on...
The indie co-written by Pierce and James Allerdyce tells the story of a woman who ends up trapped between a zombie outbreak and warring militias as she tries to outrun her past. Pierce is producing Herd as the inaugural feature under his newly-minted Fp banner, alongside Allerdyce, Lori Kay, Matt Mundy and Bret Carr. Production will commence in Missouri early next month.
Bernsen is a two-time Emmy and Golden Globe nominee perhaps best known for Arnie Becker on 20th Television’s LA Law, who recently signed on to reprise the role in an ABC revival. The actor can currently be seen on Showtime’s City on a Hill and will also soon be seen on...
- 3/22/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Celebrated up-and-coming Colombian filmmaker Laura Mora has wrapped shooting on her third feature “Kings of the World,” backed by Cristina Gallego, producer-director of 2018 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “Birds of Passage,” and Mirlanda Torres.
“Kings” is set up at Gallego’s Bogota-based Ciudad Lunar, the label behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and Torres’ La Selva Producciones. It is backed by a powerful alliance of international production partners, often a sign these days of a major Latin American art film: Mer Films (Norway), Iris Prods. (Luxembourg), Talipot Studio (Mexico), Tu Vas Voir (France) and made in association with Caracol Televisión.
Written by Mora and María Camila Arias, a co-writer on “Birds of Passage,” “Kings of the World” is among the titles that sales agent Film Factory Entertainment is presenting at the Toronto Festival’s market.
The feature follows Rape, Culebro, Sere, Winny and Nano, five Medellín young men of and from the streets.
“Kings” is set up at Gallego’s Bogota-based Ciudad Lunar, the label behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and Torres’ La Selva Producciones. It is backed by a powerful alliance of international production partners, often a sign these days of a major Latin American art film: Mer Films (Norway), Iris Prods. (Luxembourg), Talipot Studio (Mexico), Tu Vas Voir (France) and made in association with Caracol Televisión.
Written by Mora and María Camila Arias, a co-writer on “Birds of Passage,” “Kings of the World” is among the titles that sales agent Film Factory Entertainment is presenting at the Toronto Festival’s market.
The feature follows Rape, Culebro, Sere, Winny and Nano, five Medellín young men of and from the streets.
- 9/9/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Cristina Gallego, producer-director of 2018 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “Birds of Passage,” is set to produce “Kings of the World,” the second feature by Colombia’s Laura Mora. Mora’s “Killing Jesus” marked one of the most notable of recent Latin American debuts.
Shooting this month in Medellin and Bajo Cauca, Colombia, “Kings” is set up at Gallego’s Bogota-based Ciudad Lunar, the shingle behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and Mirlanda Torres’ La Selva Producciones.
It is backed by a powerful alliance of international production partners, often a sign these days of a major Latin American art film: Mer Films (Norway), Iris Prods. (Luxembourg), Talipot Studio (Mexico), Tu Vas Voir (France) and made in association with Caracol Televisión.
“Kings of the World” is being brought onto the Cannes market by Film Factory Entertainment, a sales agent on “The Weeping Woman,” “Wild Tales” and “The Clan.”
Written by Mora and María Camila Arias,...
Shooting this month in Medellin and Bajo Cauca, Colombia, “Kings” is set up at Gallego’s Bogota-based Ciudad Lunar, the shingle behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and Mirlanda Torres’ La Selva Producciones.
It is backed by a powerful alliance of international production partners, often a sign these days of a major Latin American art film: Mer Films (Norway), Iris Prods. (Luxembourg), Talipot Studio (Mexico), Tu Vas Voir (France) and made in association with Caracol Televisión.
“Kings of the World” is being brought onto the Cannes market by Film Factory Entertainment, a sales agent on “The Weeping Woman,” “Wild Tales” and “The Clan.”
Written by Mora and María Camila Arias,...
- 7/6/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Out of the darkness, some voices rise above the others. At the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, director Josef Wladyka is that voice. The creator first made waves in 2014 when his debut “Manos Sucias” (Dirty Hands)—a harrowing narcos story concerning Colombian drug trafficking—netted Wladyka Tribeca’s jury award for Best Director. Since then, he’s helmed episodes of acclaimed television programs, such as “Narcos” and “Terror.” Wladyka returns to Tribeca with “Catch the Fair One,” a bristling, horrific thriller executive produced by Darren Aronofsky, concerning a Native American woman boxer who voluntarily enters a human trafficking ring to find her kidnapped younger sister.
Read More: 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Preview: 15 Must-See Films To Watch & More
For two years, Kaylee aka… Ko has been searching for her sister Weeta (Mainaku Borrero).
Continue reading ‘Catch The Fair One’: Josef Wladyka Delivers A Cathartic, Bloody Knock-Out & Instantly Becomes One To Watch [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.
Read More: 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Preview: 15 Must-See Films To Watch & More
For two years, Kaylee aka… Ko has been searching for her sister Weeta (Mainaku Borrero).
Continue reading ‘Catch The Fair One’: Josef Wladyka Delivers A Cathartic, Bloody Knock-Out & Instantly Becomes One To Watch [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.
- 6/15/2021
- by Robert Daniels
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Deadline has your first look at Catch the Fair One, a boxing pic backed by Darren Aronofsky and Oscar-winning Nomadland producer Mollye Asher, which will soon premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The thriller, written and directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka, centers on a former boxer who embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister.
Leading the cast, in her first film role, is professional boxer Kali Reis. Known for competing in the first female boxing match ever televised, Reis is also the first Native American fighter to win the International Boxing Association middleweight crown.
Exec produced by Aronofsky, with Asher producing, the film also stars Daniel Henshall, Tiffany Chu, Michael Drayer, Shelito Vincent, Lisa Emery, Kimberly Guerrero, and Kevin Dunn.
Asher’s fellow producers on the project are Kimberly Parker and Wladyka, who previously won Tribeca’s...
The thriller, written and directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka, centers on a former boxer who embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister.
Leading the cast, in her first film role, is professional boxer Kali Reis. Known for competing in the first female boxing match ever televised, Reis is also the first Native American fighter to win the International Boxing Association middleweight crown.
Exec produced by Aronofsky, with Asher producing, the film also stars Daniel Henshall, Tiffany Chu, Michael Drayer, Shelito Vincent, Lisa Emery, Kimberly Guerrero, and Kevin Dunn.
Asher’s fellow producers on the project are Kimberly Parker and Wladyka, who previously won Tribeca’s...
- 5/24/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Hey, "Tough As Nails" fans. Tonight, August 19, 2020, another new episode of Tough As Nails did indeed air, and another unlucky contestant saw their shot at the ultimate $200,000 grand prize for individual competitions disappear. Tonight's episode kicked off with the team competition. This was another very important comp because Dirty Hands were competing for the most team comp wins that comes with a $60,000 dollar reward. The Savage Crew were competing to stay in the running to win the $60,000 team prize. At this point, the Dirty Hands crew led the Savage Crew 4-2 in team competition wins. During this team challenge,the teams had to clear a firebreak that was 6 feet wide and 60 feet long. The first team to get it done, won $12,000 dollars.
- 8/20/2020
- by Andre Braddox
- OnTheFlix
Hey, "Tough As Nails" fans. Tonight, August 12, 2020, another new episode of "Tough As Nails" did indeed air ,and another unlucky contestant got eliminated from the individual competitions, losing their shot at winning that $200,000 grand prize. However, everyone was still eligible for the $60,000 team, grand prize. The team with the most wins this season, won it. Both teams revealed they were really pumped for this next team challenge because if Dirty Hands won it, they would automatically confirm the most comp wins since they were leading 4-1 with only 3 more team comps to play. If The Savage Crew won this next team challenge, they would save their chances of winning the $60,000 dollar team,grand prize. Next, host Phil Keoghan showed up with the next team challenge. In it, they had to move everything out of a house garage. Then successfully load it onto a truck and close all the latches for the win.
- 8/13/2020
- by Andre Braddox
- OnTheFlix
George Takei has joined the cast of the upcoming Season 2 of “The Terror.” The famed “Star Trek” actor will join the ensemble for the sophomore installment of the acclaimed AMC anthology, which will center on the Japanese-American community during World War II.
In addition to appearing as “Yamato-san, a former fishing captain and community elder,” AMC announced that Takei will be serving as a consultant on the season. Takei has been open about his experiences living in a wartime internment camp as a young boy. A portion of “The Terror” Season 2 will take place in a similar environment.
At the time of the series’ renewal, AMC described that Season 2 will “center on an uncanny specter that menaces a Japanese-American community from its home in Southern California to the internment camps to the war in the Pacific.” Production on the 10-episode season begins next month in Vancouver.
Along with Takei, Kiki Sukezane,...
In addition to appearing as “Yamato-san, a former fishing captain and community elder,” AMC announced that Takei will be serving as a consultant on the season. Takei has been open about his experiences living in a wartime internment camp as a young boy. A portion of “The Terror” Season 2 will take place in a similar environment.
At the time of the series’ renewal, AMC described that Season 2 will “center on an uncanny specter that menaces a Japanese-American community from its home in Southern California to the internment camps to the war in the Pacific.” Production on the 10-episode season begins next month in Vancouver.
Along with Takei, Kiki Sukezane,...
- 12/18/2018
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Josef Kubota Wladyka (Narcos) has been tapped to direct the first episode of Season 2 of AMC’s anthology series The Terror.
Season 2 is co-created by Alexander Woo (True Blood) and Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island) with Woo, who is currently under an overall deal at AMC Studios, set as showrunner. The next iteration will be set during World War II and center on an uncanny specter that menaces a Japanese-American community from its home in Southern California to the internment camps to the war in the Pacific. The 10-episode Season 2 is expected to air on AMC in 2019.
“We are so thrilled to have gotten our dream director in Josef Kubota Wladyka,” said executive producer/showrunner Woo. “Not only is he a proven talent in both features and television, but his Japanese-American background gives him a personal connection to the material as well.”
The Terror season two is executive produced by...
Season 2 is co-created by Alexander Woo (True Blood) and Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island) with Woo, who is currently under an overall deal at AMC Studios, set as showrunner. The next iteration will be set during World War II and center on an uncanny specter that menaces a Japanese-American community from its home in Southern California to the internment camps to the war in the Pacific. The 10-episode Season 2 is expected to air on AMC in 2019.
“We are so thrilled to have gotten our dream director in Josef Kubota Wladyka,” said executive producer/showrunner Woo. “Not only is he a proven talent in both features and television, but his Japanese-American background gives him a personal connection to the material as well.”
The Terror season two is executive produced by...
- 10/17/2018
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
29 years ago today, CBS aired music icon Frank Sinatra’s final screen role. He guest starred in an episode of Magnum, P.I. In the episode, titled “Laura,” Sinatra played a retired New York cop who learns that his granddaughter was murdered during his retirement celebration. He asks Magnum for help in his hunt for the murderers. Sinatra appeared on the cover of TV Guide with Magnum, P.I. star Tom Selleck the week his episode aired. Though the CBS detective series was Sinatra’s final screen acting role, he could have had a part in The Godfather: Part III afterward. Francis Ford Coppola offered Sinatra the role of Don Altobello, but he didn’t end up taking the part. Oddly enough, the part went to Eli Wallach, whom Sinatra replaced in From Here to Eternity. Other notable February 25 happenings in pop culture history: • 1950: Variety show Your Show of Shows premiered on NBC.
- 2/25/2016
- by Emily Rome
- Hitfix
For any thinking person, little in Josef Kubota Wladyka's fleet and sweaty Colombian-smuggler thriller Manos Sucias will surprise. Drug-running is work for the broke and desperate; the runners might be less broke after a delivery, but that desperation only grows worse; killing is grim and painful and utterly unlike the balletic fun the movies so often insist. But as it dashes up the coast and railroads through the jungle, the film is vigorous in its evocation of place and prickling and insistent with its suspense. Those punishing truths come to feel like probabilities we hope against hope first-time smuggler Delio (Cristian Abvincula) might beat.
The title translates to Dirty Hands, so you know it's not going to end well. A couple uncertain early scenes fai...
The title translates to Dirty Hands, so you know it's not going to end well. A couple uncertain early scenes fai...
- 4/1/2015
- Village Voice
Executive produced by Spike Lee and directed by Nyu grad Josef Kubota Wladyka, the Colombian production, "Manos Sucias" ("Dirty Hands"), now has an official USA release date, via Tenacious Productions, set for April 3, 2015. Scripted by Alan Blanco and Wladika, "Manos Sucias" stars Cristian Advincula and Jarlin Martinez as Delio and Jacobo; the latter is a desperate fisherman and seasoned trafficker, who along with the naive Delio, decide to traffic millions of dollars worth of cocaine up the Colombian Pacific coast. Towing a submerged torpedo in the wake of their battered fishing boat, ‘Jacobo,’ a desperate fisherman and Delio, a naive kid, embark...
- 3/25/2015
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Executive produced by Spike Lee and directed by Nyu grad Joseph Wladika, the Colombian production, "Manos Sucias" ("Dirty Hands"), will open at this year's Toronto Black Film Festival's 3rd edition, presented by Global News, which kicks off today, February 10th – 15th. Scripted by Alan Blanco and Wladika, "Manos Sucias" stars Cristian Advincula and Jarlin Martinez as Delio and Jacobo; the latter is a desperate fisherman and seasoned trafficker, who along with the naive Delio, decide to traffic millions of dollars worth of cocaine up the Colombian Pacific coast: Towing a submerged torpedo in the wake of their...
- 2/10/2015
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Premiering in Cartagena Film Festival 2014 and then going to the filmmakers’ hometown, New York City, where " Manos Sucias" ("Dirty Hands") won Tribeca Film Festival’s Best New Narrative Director Award and 2nd place Audience Award, this film has not yet closed Us distribution, but has been acquired internationally by some of the best distributors.
In Cannes, Marina de la Fuentes’ international sales agency, 6 Sales, sold it to Paris-based Pretty Pictures who acquired not only France – its usual home territory – but also Germany, Austria, Benelux and Switzerland. James Velaise of Pretty Pictures screened the film at Tribeca and “immediately fell madly in love with it,” he said.
“It came totally out of the blue, we were mesmerized by the filmmaking. As a first-time film 'Manos Sucias' is outstanding, as good as anything we’ve seen coming out of Latin America in a long time,” said Velaise.
Shot on location in Colombia, using local actors who speak the patois of Buenaventura, "Manos Sucias" reflects years of painstaking research by Josef Wladyka.
“What is fascinating is that the filmmaker spent five years in Buenaventura learning what was going on there and building up the trust of people. The average filmmaker would never take the time to do that. You feel that in the film: There a sense of genuineness which you don’t get in 99% of indie films today,” said Velaise.
At the same time, 'Manos Sucias' is “incredibly tight: On paper, it has some breakout potential to it, because it is a thriller, ” he added.
Pretty Pictures will now seek to sell the film on to distributors in the other four territories, all significant distributors for arthouse films. Velaise reasons that companies exist in these territories that often buy the same films as Pretty Pictures, and share similar tastes. (e.g., "La Jaula de Oro", premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard 2013 and was acquired by Belgium-Fourcorners Distribution, France-Pretty Pictures, Germany-Films Boutique, Hong Kong (China)-Encore Inflight Limited, Hungary-Cirko Film Kft., Italy-Parthenos S.R.L., Mexico-Canibal Networks, Netherlands-Wild Bunch Benelux, Norway-As Fidalgo Film Distribution, Poland-Art House, Puerto Rico-Wiesner Distribution, Switzerland-Xenix Filmdistribution Gmbh, Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc., U.K.- Peccadillo Pictures or "Love is Strange" by Ira Sachs premiered at Sundance 2014 and was acquired by U.S.-Sony Pictures Classics, Australia-Rialto Distribution (Australia), Canada-Métropole Films Distribution, Canada-Mongrel Media Inc., France-Pretty Pictures, Italy-Koch Media, Mexico-Cinemas Nueva Era, Portugal-Midas Filmes, Spain-Golem Distribución, Switzerland-Xenix Filmdistribution Gmbh, Turkey-Kurmaca Film, U.K.- Altitude Film Sales). These distributors are all likely candidates to acquire rights to "Manos Sucias" as well.
U.S. rights to "Manos Sucias" are handled by Wme Global’s Mark Ankner and Christine D’Souza. Distributors seeking to win over the booming Latino audience, and who have an affinity for gritty, action-packed, arthouse thrillers, or any of Pretty Pictures’ recent acquisitions (see below) owe it to themselves to check out this film.
This pioneering U.S.- Colombia production was the debut feature by writer-director, Josef Kubota Wladyka and co-writer-dp Alan Blanco. It was produced by Elena Greenlee, Márcia Nunes, Mirlanda Torres Zapata and Carolina Caicedo and exec-produced by U.S. Film Director Spike Lee.
"Manos Sucias" follows two estranged brothers, both Afro-Colombian fishermen, who embark on a fishing-boat from Buenaventura, Colombia’s biggest Pacific Coast port and a violent drug trade emporium. Their mission is to tow underwater a “narco-torpedo” packed with 100 kilos of cocaine to Panama. En route, they must circumnavigate marauding paramilitaries and impoverished villagers eager for their cargo.
In Cartagena, I interviewed the director, Dp, and producers. Josef Wladyka is a U.S. citizen who is the son of a Japanese mother and a Polish father. He received the Spike Lee Fellowship while attending the Tisch School of the Arts at Nyu.
Josef:
You could say this is a drug story, but you should know it is much more than that. In a fisherman’s village the Afro Colombians are confronted with drug traffic taking place on their ancestral beaches where they have lived for generations.
Before I started Grad Film School at Nyu, I spent several months backpacking with a close friend in South America. We traveled along the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Colombia, and went through these towns that were under siege by narco-trafficking. The locals would tell us stories about homemade submarines, narco-torpedoes, and different armed groups that would fight to control these areas. I became very interested in the subject and wanted to immerse myself more in the world. With the help of a friend from the region, I went back several times to Buenaventura, Tumaco, and other parts of the Pacific coast of Colombia to continue researching and collecting stories.
I also got permission to go to Malaga Naval Base where I saw confiscated narco-torpedoes and submarines first hand. I always had a camera with me and shot lots of footage during my travels. I used that footage to make a pitch video for raising money from Kickstarter and private equity.
The film is an official Colombian production, recognized by the Ley de Cine (The Cinema Law). It is a 50-50 coproduction with Colombian producers Carolina Caicedo and Mirlanda Zapata. With our U.S. producers, Márcia Nunes and Elena Greenlee, that makes four female producers on this film.
Cine Colombia , Colombia’s largest distributor and theater owner, one of the Cartagena Film Festival sponsors as well, invested in the film, as did Caracol, one of Colombia’s top two broadcasters.
Márcia knew Cine Colombia from her previous life in international sales with Goldcrest. Elena, Alan and I scouted in October 2012, one week in Bogotá and through Proimagenes we met many possible co-producers and visited locations. We chose young producers who were hungry for their first film; they were not rigid.
The U.S. producers wanted to do the film U.S. indie style, not in the usual Colombian style. We shot it in Buenaventura, Colombia’s largest port, which has been hit very hard by narco traffickers and violence.
This was the first feature for everyone. Except for Márcia, who got her Masters of Film Business at Gallatin School of Nyu, the others all got their MFAs from Tisch, though some graduated two years ago and others four years ago.
How we, as foreigners, were able to make this film, opening up delicate, sensitive and violent stories, was based on my having no assumptions. And our own cross-cultural backgrounds helped.
We had a great premiere in Cartagena. The festival permits people to see films for free and we were able to test the Colombian audience’s reaction. The film explores the international issue of drug trafficking and the social-exclusion of the Afro-Colombian community on the coast from the mainstream economy in Colombia. The film is genre bending; it is not too arty and is not fully a genre movie. The audience of 800 to 1,000 Colombians laughed and cried, even danced in their seats. Three of the actors also saw the film for the first time, as did the crew. When the actors came up for the Q & A they received a standing ovation from the crowd. It was a beautiful moment.
We offered free audiovisual workshops for the community before we shot the film, and found many of our actors and crewmembers through that process. We used Kickstarter to raise Us $60,000 to greenlight production and fund our community workshops in Buenaventura.
Film Independent bestowed the Canon Filmmaker Award upon the film’s two producers, who are also Film Independent Producing Fellows. The Canon Filmmaker Award Program is a program for Film Independent Fellows, alumni of the Los Angeles Film Festival and Spirit Awards Nominees and Winners. Producers Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes who had participated in the Find Producing Lab with the project were awarded with the loan of a Canon camera package for their production. Further support was granted by the San Francisco Film Society, who, together with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, awarded the film with two grants, one during the production phase, and one during post-production.
Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development at Film Independent spoke with Elena and Márcia in those early days about Manos Sucias and its upcoming shoot, and here’s what they had to say then:
Manos Sucias, Canon Filmmaker Award Winner Round 2
"The social exclusion of the Pacific coast — home to much of the Afro-Colombian population — is felt throughout the country, echoed in the sentiment that Colombia “doesn’t really have a black population.” While popular culture glamorizes cocaine “cowboys,” and the Us takes a tough stance in the “war on drugs,” few people acknowledge the oppression and resilience of these citizens.
Our goal is for the film to inspire change in our audience, and in the region. We want audiences to realize that people like Jacobo and Delio are not perpetuating the drug trade, they are trapped in it; and to reflect on the impact their personal choices have on the situation.”
“When Josef and Alan brought us the script in early 2012, we immediately fell in love with it. The characters jumped off the page, and we couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
Pretty Pictures roster of films illustrates their exceptional taste in films:
"The Dark Valley" ("Das Finstere Tal") By Andreas Prochaska (Acquired From Films Distribution In Feb 2014)
"Dancing In Jaffa" By Hilla Medalia (Acquired From K5 International In Apr 2013)
"Omar" By Hany Abu-Assad (Acquired From The Match Factory In Feb 2013)
"The Look Of Love" By Winterbottom Michael (Acquired From Studiocanal In Aug 2012)
"Pieta" By Ki-Duk Kim (Acquired From Finecut Co. Ltd. In Aug 2012)
"Wadjda" By Haifa Al-Mansour (Acquired From The Match Factory In May 2012)
"The Hunt" ("Jagten") By Thomas Vinterberg (Acquired From Trust In Apr 2012)
"Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present" By Matthew Akers (Acquired From Dogwoof In Feb 2012)...
In Cannes, Marina de la Fuentes’ international sales agency, 6 Sales, sold it to Paris-based Pretty Pictures who acquired not only France – its usual home territory – but also Germany, Austria, Benelux and Switzerland. James Velaise of Pretty Pictures screened the film at Tribeca and “immediately fell madly in love with it,” he said.
“It came totally out of the blue, we were mesmerized by the filmmaking. As a first-time film 'Manos Sucias' is outstanding, as good as anything we’ve seen coming out of Latin America in a long time,” said Velaise.
Shot on location in Colombia, using local actors who speak the patois of Buenaventura, "Manos Sucias" reflects years of painstaking research by Josef Wladyka.
“What is fascinating is that the filmmaker spent five years in Buenaventura learning what was going on there and building up the trust of people. The average filmmaker would never take the time to do that. You feel that in the film: There a sense of genuineness which you don’t get in 99% of indie films today,” said Velaise.
At the same time, 'Manos Sucias' is “incredibly tight: On paper, it has some breakout potential to it, because it is a thriller, ” he added.
Pretty Pictures will now seek to sell the film on to distributors in the other four territories, all significant distributors for arthouse films. Velaise reasons that companies exist in these territories that often buy the same films as Pretty Pictures, and share similar tastes. (e.g., "La Jaula de Oro", premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard 2013 and was acquired by Belgium-Fourcorners Distribution, France-Pretty Pictures, Germany-Films Boutique, Hong Kong (China)-Encore Inflight Limited, Hungary-Cirko Film Kft., Italy-Parthenos S.R.L., Mexico-Canibal Networks, Netherlands-Wild Bunch Benelux, Norway-As Fidalgo Film Distribution, Poland-Art House, Puerto Rico-Wiesner Distribution, Switzerland-Xenix Filmdistribution Gmbh, Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc., U.K.- Peccadillo Pictures or "Love is Strange" by Ira Sachs premiered at Sundance 2014 and was acquired by U.S.-Sony Pictures Classics, Australia-Rialto Distribution (Australia), Canada-Métropole Films Distribution, Canada-Mongrel Media Inc., France-Pretty Pictures, Italy-Koch Media, Mexico-Cinemas Nueva Era, Portugal-Midas Filmes, Spain-Golem Distribución, Switzerland-Xenix Filmdistribution Gmbh, Turkey-Kurmaca Film, U.K.- Altitude Film Sales). These distributors are all likely candidates to acquire rights to "Manos Sucias" as well.
U.S. rights to "Manos Sucias" are handled by Wme Global’s Mark Ankner and Christine D’Souza. Distributors seeking to win over the booming Latino audience, and who have an affinity for gritty, action-packed, arthouse thrillers, or any of Pretty Pictures’ recent acquisitions (see below) owe it to themselves to check out this film.
This pioneering U.S.- Colombia production was the debut feature by writer-director, Josef Kubota Wladyka and co-writer-dp Alan Blanco. It was produced by Elena Greenlee, Márcia Nunes, Mirlanda Torres Zapata and Carolina Caicedo and exec-produced by U.S. Film Director Spike Lee.
"Manos Sucias" follows two estranged brothers, both Afro-Colombian fishermen, who embark on a fishing-boat from Buenaventura, Colombia’s biggest Pacific Coast port and a violent drug trade emporium. Their mission is to tow underwater a “narco-torpedo” packed with 100 kilos of cocaine to Panama. En route, they must circumnavigate marauding paramilitaries and impoverished villagers eager for their cargo.
In Cartagena, I interviewed the director, Dp, and producers. Josef Wladyka is a U.S. citizen who is the son of a Japanese mother and a Polish father. He received the Spike Lee Fellowship while attending the Tisch School of the Arts at Nyu.
Josef:
You could say this is a drug story, but you should know it is much more than that. In a fisherman’s village the Afro Colombians are confronted with drug traffic taking place on their ancestral beaches where they have lived for generations.
Before I started Grad Film School at Nyu, I spent several months backpacking with a close friend in South America. We traveled along the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Colombia, and went through these towns that were under siege by narco-trafficking. The locals would tell us stories about homemade submarines, narco-torpedoes, and different armed groups that would fight to control these areas. I became very interested in the subject and wanted to immerse myself more in the world. With the help of a friend from the region, I went back several times to Buenaventura, Tumaco, and other parts of the Pacific coast of Colombia to continue researching and collecting stories.
I also got permission to go to Malaga Naval Base where I saw confiscated narco-torpedoes and submarines first hand. I always had a camera with me and shot lots of footage during my travels. I used that footage to make a pitch video for raising money from Kickstarter and private equity.
The film is an official Colombian production, recognized by the Ley de Cine (The Cinema Law). It is a 50-50 coproduction with Colombian producers Carolina Caicedo and Mirlanda Zapata. With our U.S. producers, Márcia Nunes and Elena Greenlee, that makes four female producers on this film.
Cine Colombia , Colombia’s largest distributor and theater owner, one of the Cartagena Film Festival sponsors as well, invested in the film, as did Caracol, one of Colombia’s top two broadcasters.
Márcia knew Cine Colombia from her previous life in international sales with Goldcrest. Elena, Alan and I scouted in October 2012, one week in Bogotá and through Proimagenes we met many possible co-producers and visited locations. We chose young producers who were hungry for their first film; they were not rigid.
The U.S. producers wanted to do the film U.S. indie style, not in the usual Colombian style. We shot it in Buenaventura, Colombia’s largest port, which has been hit very hard by narco traffickers and violence.
This was the first feature for everyone. Except for Márcia, who got her Masters of Film Business at Gallatin School of Nyu, the others all got their MFAs from Tisch, though some graduated two years ago and others four years ago.
How we, as foreigners, were able to make this film, opening up delicate, sensitive and violent stories, was based on my having no assumptions. And our own cross-cultural backgrounds helped.
We had a great premiere in Cartagena. The festival permits people to see films for free and we were able to test the Colombian audience’s reaction. The film explores the international issue of drug trafficking and the social-exclusion of the Afro-Colombian community on the coast from the mainstream economy in Colombia. The film is genre bending; it is not too arty and is not fully a genre movie. The audience of 800 to 1,000 Colombians laughed and cried, even danced in their seats. Three of the actors also saw the film for the first time, as did the crew. When the actors came up for the Q & A they received a standing ovation from the crowd. It was a beautiful moment.
We offered free audiovisual workshops for the community before we shot the film, and found many of our actors and crewmembers through that process. We used Kickstarter to raise Us $60,000 to greenlight production and fund our community workshops in Buenaventura.
Film Independent bestowed the Canon Filmmaker Award upon the film’s two producers, who are also Film Independent Producing Fellows. The Canon Filmmaker Award Program is a program for Film Independent Fellows, alumni of the Los Angeles Film Festival and Spirit Awards Nominees and Winners. Producers Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes who had participated in the Find Producing Lab with the project were awarded with the loan of a Canon camera package for their production. Further support was granted by the San Francisco Film Society, who, together with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, awarded the film with two grants, one during the production phase, and one during post-production.
Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development at Film Independent spoke with Elena and Márcia in those early days about Manos Sucias and its upcoming shoot, and here’s what they had to say then:
Manos Sucias, Canon Filmmaker Award Winner Round 2
"The social exclusion of the Pacific coast — home to much of the Afro-Colombian population — is felt throughout the country, echoed in the sentiment that Colombia “doesn’t really have a black population.” While popular culture glamorizes cocaine “cowboys,” and the Us takes a tough stance in the “war on drugs,” few people acknowledge the oppression and resilience of these citizens.
Our goal is for the film to inspire change in our audience, and in the region. We want audiences to realize that people like Jacobo and Delio are not perpetuating the drug trade, they are trapped in it; and to reflect on the impact their personal choices have on the situation.”
“When Josef and Alan brought us the script in early 2012, we immediately fell in love with it. The characters jumped off the page, and we couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
Pretty Pictures roster of films illustrates their exceptional taste in films:
"The Dark Valley" ("Das Finstere Tal") By Andreas Prochaska (Acquired From Films Distribution In Feb 2014)
"Dancing In Jaffa" By Hilla Medalia (Acquired From K5 International In Apr 2013)
"Omar" By Hany Abu-Assad (Acquired From The Match Factory In Feb 2013)
"The Look Of Love" By Winterbottom Michael (Acquired From Studiocanal In Aug 2012)
"Pieta" By Ki-Duk Kim (Acquired From Finecut Co. Ltd. In Aug 2012)
"Wadjda" By Haifa Al-Mansour (Acquired From The Match Factory In May 2012)
"The Hunt" ("Jagten") By Thomas Vinterberg (Acquired From Trust In Apr 2012)
"Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present" By Matthew Akers (Acquired From Dogwoof In Feb 2012)...
- 7/18/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
There are some incredibly talented people working in TV at the moment, whether it’s Breaking Bad series creator Vince Gilligan, or Game of Thrones’ showrunners, Db Weiss and David Benioff, or Orange is the New Black boss, Jenji Kohan. When it comes to sci-fi, though, no one quite has the talent of Ronald D Moore, the man who brought Battestar Galactica back from the dead.
With the DVD launch of his Helix, Moore’s latest foray into the adventures on the small screen, we look back at five moments that back up his claim as King of Sci-Fi
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Yesterday’s Enterprise
Moore’s career began when he submitted a spec script for Star Trek: The Next Generation, which became season three episode, The Bonding.
Less than six months later, Moore had become one of the show’s regular writers, and was tasked with combining...
With the DVD launch of his Helix, Moore’s latest foray into the adventures on the small screen, we look back at five moments that back up his claim as King of Sci-Fi
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Yesterday’s Enterprise
Moore’s career began when he submitted a spec script for Star Trek: The Next Generation, which became season three episode, The Bonding.
Less than six months later, Moore had become one of the show’s regular writers, and was tasked with combining...
- 6/30/2014
- by Ben Mortimer
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
With two Led panels, one Canon C300 and a crew of no more than a dozen people including locals, co-writer/director Joseph Wladyka and co-writer/cinematographer Alan Blanco went to Buenaventura, Colombia - a heavily narco-trafficked country - to film Manos Sucias ("Dirty Hands")."One of my favorite moments making this film was when me, Joe and the two leads went out to sea in a small boat to get some scenes," says Blanco after their premiere in New York City this week. "The motor didn't work very well and we could have been stranded at sea, but was worth it."It seems that much was worth it on Manos Sucias, an authentic and heart-wrenching portrayal of drug trafficking on the pacific coast of Colombia. After the successful Kickstarter...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 4/24/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Executive produced by Spike Lee and directed by Nyu grad Joseph Wladika, the Columbian production Manos Sucias (Dirty Hands) will screen at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, which runs April 16 through April 27. Scripted by Alan Blanco and Wladika, Manos Sucias stars Cristian Advincula and Jarlin Martinez as Delio and Jacobo; the latter is a desperate fisherman and seasoned trafficker, who along with the naive Delio, decide to traffic millions of dollars worth of cocaine up the Colombian Pacific coast. Here's the synopsis, courtesy of Tff's website: Towing a submerged torpedo in the wake of their battered fishing boat, ‘Jacobo,’ a desperate fisherman and Delio, a...
- 4/15/2014
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Entertainment Geekly is a new weekly column which examines contemporary pop culture through a geek lens and simultaneously examines contemporary geek culture through a pop lens. So many lenses!
Fans are awful. I don’t mean fans of any one particular TV show or movie franchise or literary saga or videogame cycle. I mean like the whole contemporary idea of fandom is one of the signature annoying facts of life in the modern age. Fans are passionate and angry and incoherent; fans always know everything, always more than you. They even know more than the people who make the freaking...
Fans are awful. I don’t mean fans of any one particular TV show or movie franchise or literary saga or videogame cycle. I mean like the whole contemporary idea of fandom is one of the signature annoying facts of life in the modern age. Fans are passionate and angry and incoherent; fans always know everything, always more than you. They even know more than the people who make the freaking...
- 9/5/2013
- by Darren Franich
- EW.com - PopWatch
If for some reason AMC ever offers you money or stock options for your Mad Men ad tagging, word to the wise: Take the stock. Yesterday we asked how the staggering $5 billion Facebook Ipo could affect you, but there’s no question on how well it will work out for famous muralist and graffiti artist David Choe (pictured.) According to The New York Times, Choe, who was hired back in 2005 by the social networking site to paint murals for the company’s first corporate headquarters, “will reportedly be worth some $200 million when Facebook begins trading publicly later this year.”
In...
In...
- 2/3/2012
- by Aly Semigran
- EW.com - PopWatch
Street artists must be in the collective conscience this spring, with two documentaries about some of street art's biggest names hitting festivals and arthouses within a few weeks of each other, featuring artists with widely varying levels of self awareness. First was the Sundance darling Exit Through the Gift Shop, which was directed by and stars Banksy, a street artist so certain of himself and his message that he refuses to reveal his identity. Exit follows the unlikely rise of Thierry "Mr. Brainwash" Guetta, a gadfly/videographer who becomes a street artist so seemingly oblivious that he doesn't appear to realize that his derivative ripoffs are cannibalizing the artform he claims to love. (See my ReThink Review of Exit Through the Gift Shop here.) Following that is Dirty Hands: the Life and Crimes of David Choe, Harry Kim's documentary following eight turbulent,...
- 5/13/2010
- by Jonathan Kim
- Huffington Post
Google turns up nothing. The Wikipedia page has been deleted. The "IMDb" page included in the mail out is actually a very clever knock off. And the chances of Richard Matheson, Rod Serling and Kurt Vonnegut ever having worked on a script together are pretty much nil. Looks and smells like a hoax to me, but damn, it's a good one, the sort that appears to have professional backing, so clearly there's something else going on here. Check the press release below and chime in on your thoughts on what this could really be ...
Get Your Dirty Hands Off Me is a 1975 epic Thriller science fiction film directed by Tom Gries loosely based on the Story 'Dark Races' (Weird Tales, Dec 1932) by Robert E. Howard . The film stars Perry King and features Karen Black, Frank Langella, John Saxon,... The script was originally written by Richard Matheson and Charles Williams about...
Get Your Dirty Hands Off Me is a 1975 epic Thriller science fiction film directed by Tom Gries loosely based on the Story 'Dark Races' (Weird Tales, Dec 1932) by Robert E. Howard . The film stars Perry King and features Karen Black, Frank Langella, John Saxon,... The script was originally written by Richard Matheson and Charles Williams about...
- 4/27/2010
- Screen Anarchy
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