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Eckhart’s character is a former CIA agent that has transferred to Belgium in order to work for an espionage invention corporation specializing in security mechanisms. He works between Brussels and Antwerp and speaks five languages. Having been trained as a deadly assassin by the specialists at Langley, the former agent is perfect for his new job. Just days after his daughter (portrayed by Liana Liberato) has moved to Belgium after her mother’s death, all hell breaks loose at Eckhart’s workplace.

As it turns out, Eckhart’s employers are a shell company that has been ingeniously imitating a major European manufacturer. When the employees outlive their usefulness, the brains behind the operation decide to terminate them with deadly prejudice. Eckhart narrowly escapes with his daughter and they are forced to go on the run. His prior training in evasion and survival techniques helps them find temporary safety, but a major obstacle to their survival emerges. The agent’s former lover and colleague at CIA headquarters (Olga Kurylenko) has been colluding with the technology corporation’s conspirators. Having discovered Eckhart’s awareness of the situation, she is retained to capture or kill him at any cost.

The competing plotline of Erased is the father-daughter relationship that is developing between Eckhart and Liberator’s characters. When their lives become chaotic she is unsure as to whether or not she can trust her formerly absentee dad. He wants to protect her, but needs to earn her trust to gain her full cooperation. Their family dynamic is strained at best and dismembered at worst. If they are to survive despite being repeatedly hunted like animals, they will have to learn to trust one another utterly.

Erased is a fantastic movie. It is as exciting as it is interesting. Aaron Eckhart’s talent meshes beautifully with the hurried pace orchestrated by international director Philipp Stölzl. Moreover, the leading man has considerable chemistry with the up-and-comer Liana Liberato. They make a formidable and credible father-daughter pairing. If you are in the mood for an international thriller that delivers on two fronts; the intellectual playing field and the broken family dynamic, look no further than this unexpectedly terrific film, Erased.

See the official trailer and read the full review at SCREEN SPOTLIGHT

PROGRAMMER’S NOTE

Heaven help the children of writers — especially those children aspiring to be writers themselves. Take Sam Borgens (Lily Collins), just nineteen and already set to have her first novel published. Her father, acclaimed novelist Bill Borgens (Greg Kinnear), is ostensibly thrilled for Sam — but he can’t quite disguise his resentment that she never asked him for help. There might also be a touch of envy at his progeny’s progress, as Bill is helplessly stalled in the writing of his new book. But then, he has no one but himself to blame. He spends what should be his writing hours spying on his ex-wife Erica (Jennifer Connelly) and her new husband, refusing to let go of a marriage that truly, definitively ended; he even makes his son Rusty (Nat Wolff ) set a place at the table for Erica every Thanksgiving, despite the fact that she left him three years ago.

Welcome to Josh Boone’s Stuck In Love, where dysfunction makes good fodder for fiction and no one ever seems to get over anything. While Bill pines after Erica, Sam wants nothing to do with her mother, who is tentatively trying to assert herself back into her children’s lives. Determined not to suffer the same fate as her cuckolded father, Sam instead pursues a love life consisting exclusively of one-night stands. Rusty, meanwhile, is the polar opposite of his older sister: a hopeless romantic and a budding littérateur, he dedicates poems to his seemingly unreachable classmate Kate (Liana Liberato). When he finally does manage to win Kate over in a manner not exactly befitting a swooning, smitten bard (he punches her abusive boyfriend in the face), Rusty is unable to see that she is both less and more than the romantic ideal he’s constructed. But when Kate provokes a crisis, it soon proves to be the catalyst for the fractured Borgens family to reunite and begin to renew their bond, however imperfectly.

Wildly funny and deeply touching in equal measure, Stuck In Love is a promising debut for Boone, aided in no small part by the stellar cast he’s assembled. Veterans Kinnear and Connelly shine, but keep your eyes on the trio of Collins, Wolff and Liberatto: these expressive young talents nearly steal the show.

Jane Schoettle

See the announcement on the TIFF website.

The Casting Society of America has announced nominations for its 2012 Artios Awards, which will be held at bi-coastal ceremonies on Oct. 29.

Casting director Gaby Kester was nominated for her work on Hysteria!

Read the full HOLLYWOOD REPORTER article.

BY BETH HANNA
AUGUST 9, 2012

“Stuck In Love,” directed by first-time feature filmmaker Josh Boone, will have its world premiere in the Special Presentations section of TIFF 2012. Greg Kinnear stars as a successful writer estranged from his ex-wife (Jennifer Connelly) and coping with his kids’ coming-of-age: 19-year-old daughter Samantha (Lily Collins) is already celebrating her first book publication, though her love life isn’t quite so functional, and 16-year-old son Rusty (Nat Wolff) is in the throes of a troubled first relationship.

“Stuck In Love” co-stars Kristen Bell, Logan Lerman and Stephen King (as himself), and was shot on location in beach town Wilmington, North Carolina.

TOH! sat down for a short phone interview with Boone.
Read highlights from the interview with Thompson on Hollywood

”It’s the great nostalgic vision of the writer,” says Kinnear (left), who stars in the dramedy Stuck In Love (release date TBD) as a novelist with a ­complicated ­family life, including an ex-wife (Jennifer Connelly, right) and a daughter (Lily Collins) whose book has just been accepted for publication. ”He lives in a gorgeous beach house; he smokes, drinks, and has faraway looks.” Stuck In Love is written and directed by Josh Boone, making his feature film directing debut, and is produced by Judy Cairo of Informant Media. Kinnear also stars in the upcoming film The English Teacher. He jokes, ”People will look back and say, ‘This is ­Kinnear’s ­literary period.’ ” —Keith Staskiewicz

The KCET Cinema Series continued Tuesday night with a screening of “Hysteria” at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the NoHo Arts District.

After the screening, host Pete Hammond introduced Producers Judy Cairo and Tracey Becker, and Director Tanya Wexler. The audience was entertained by the lively discussion on the stage, which was full of puns and revealing stories about the making of independent film.

Listen to the KCET Podcast

Two pegged for feature debut of writer/helmer Josh Boone

Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly are in negotiations to star in “Stuck In Love,” which will mark the feature helming debut of writer-director Josh Boone.

Judy Cairo of Informant Media will produce “Stuck In Love,” which is described as a funny and touching tale of a fractured family trying to rediscover one another over the course of a tumultuous year. Story explores the complicated relationships between a successful novelist (Kinnear), his ex-wife (Connelly), collegiate daughter and teenage son.

Read the full VARIETY article

Sony Pictures Classics has closed its deal for U.S. and South African rights to “Hysteria,” centered on the invention of the vibrator in Victorian-era England.

Sony Classics made the announcement Thursday, six weeks after Cassian Elwes confirmed that he was in negotiations. “Hysteria” premiered on Sept. 15 at Toronto Intl. Film Festival following several press and industry showings.

IFC, Samuel Goldwyn and Millienium Entertainment also made bids on “Hysteria,” starring Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Jones and Rupert Everett. Pic, penned by Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer, is directed by Tanya Wexler.

Read the full article at VARIETY

It seems like Sony Pictures Classics got what all the, er, buzz was about with Hysteria. The studio announced they have acquired the U.S. and South African rights to the Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy romantic comedy, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie, directed by Tanya Wexler, is based on the story of Joseph Mortimer Granville (played by Dancy), the inventor of the world’s first electro-mechanical vibrator.

Read the full article at EW

Hysteria is Tanya Wexler’s UK romantic comedy that revolves (among other things) around the invention of the vibrator during the Victorian age — apparently the device was used as a science-based antidote to certain mental maladies before it was discovered to have, well, ancillary value. Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal star along with Rupert Everett, Jonathan Pryce and Felicity Jones in the film, which will be looking for distribution at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it just won a Gala Presentation invite.

Read the full article at DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD