In today’s film news roundup, Jon Tenney will play the on-screen spouse of Helen Hunt’s character, the documentary “The Workers Cup” gets a release, and Dances With Films announces its opening and closing titles.
CASTING
Jon Tenney will star opposite Helen Hunt in the indie thriller “I See You” for director Adam Randall from a script by Devon Graye.
Matt Waldeck will produce for Zodiac Features. Tenney will play the on-screen husband to Hunt’s detective character, who is under an intolerable amount of strain.
Tenney is currently in production on the third season of HBO’s “True Detective” alongside Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff, and will appear in six of the eight episodes and will segue directly from that set to the Cleveland location of “I See You.”
Tenney stars in “The Seagull” from Sony Classics with Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, and Elisabeth Moss, which opens in a limited release on Friday. He also has a featured role in Amazon’s “The Romanoffs” from Matt Weiner.
Tenney is represented by Gersh and Brian Wilkins at Link Management.
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ACQUISITION
Passion River Films has acquired the documentary “The Workers Cup” and plans a June theatrical release.
“The Workers Cup” premiered on the opening night of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film is set inside the labor camps of Qatar, where the 2022 World Cup facilities are being built on the backs of 1.6 million migrant workers.
The film debuts June 8 in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Monica Film Center, and in New York City at the Museum of the Moving Image. Following its theatrical run, PBS will host the broadcast debut of the film July 9 on “POV.”
The film follows one team of men from Nepal, India, Ghana, and Kenya whose only common ground is their love for football. Their nightly matches offer them a momentary escape from the homesickness and isolation they endure as the lowest class in the world’s richest country.
“’The Workers Cup’ epitomizes the best and worst of the World Cup,” said Sobel, “It features all the sweat, blood, tears and cheers of the game and shows how soccer can be used to unite and divide people. So there’s no better time to release the film than during the 2018 World Cup. While celebrating the matches in Russia, I hope people take a moment to reflect on the workers toiling behind the scenes in Qatar whose lives are being sacrificed for the sake of the next World Cup.”
“The Workers Cup” is Sobel’s feature film debut after working as a journalist in the Middle East for The Guardian, CNN and ITN. The film was produced by Ramzy Haddad and Rosie Garthwaite, with Dennis Paul and Paul R. Miller serving as executive producers.
FESTIVAL OPENER
The Dances With Films film festival will open June 7 with the world premiere of William Dickerson’s “No Alternative,” starring Kathryn Erbe, Michaela Cavazos, Conor Proft, Chloe Levine and Harry Hamlin.
“No Alternative” is a coming of age drama in the world of grunge-era teenagers in the early 90s. The project is based on Dickerson’s novel.
The festival, which takes place at the TCL Chinese in Hollywood, will close June 17 with the comedy “The Best People,” written and produced by Selina Ringel and directed by Dan Levy Dagerman. Anna Evelyn stars as a woman
