Jan 29 2019

Anton’s parents dropped by the IndieWire Studio last weekend to discuss the documentary, Love, Antosha.

INDIEWIRE – It’s been nearly three years since the tragic passing of Anton Yelchin, but thanks to the actor’s prolific pursuits, a new documentary about his life and career includes more than just footage of his acting.  “All the music in the movie, besides the score is Anton,” “Love, Antosha” director Garret Price told Kate Erbland at the IndieWire Studio presented by Dropbox this past weekend. “He scored his own movie, basically. Which is pretty amazing.”

Yelchin’s parents, Irina and Viktor, also spoke at the studio, explaining that “Love, Antosha” is a movie they think he would have enjoyed. “He would love the way the story’s told, how it goes from one thing to another and it flows,” Irina Yelchin said.

Viktor pointed out that Anton had a sense of humility that probably would have kept him from making a movie like this during his life. “He wouldn’t love that we made this movie,” Viktor said with a slight smile. “But the result, he would be really proud of it.”

Before and after his passing in a vehicle-related accident in June 2016, Yelchin was no stranger to Sundance. “Like Crazy,” which co-starred Yelchin, Felicity Jones, and Jennifer Lawrence, won the Grand Jury Prize in 2011. (The film’s director Drake Doremus is also a producer on “Love, Antosha.”) Cory Finley’s “Thoroughbreds,” which featured one of Yelchin’s final roles, premiered at the festival in 2017.

“Love, Antosha” features interviews not just with Irina and Viktor, but a number of former Yelchin co-stars, sharing their memories and experiences both on and off the set. “Star Trek” franchise co-stars Chris Pine and John Cho join Kristen Stewart and others, who each speak to Yelchin’s personal and professional history.

Dec 13 2017

Ahead of the Part 2 premiere on Friday, December 15th, Netflix has announced that Trollhunters is headed to new adventures with a third and final chapter! It is slated to premiere next year.

“Trollhunters” (Part 3) and “3 Below” (Second installment of Tales of Arcadia Trilogy)
“Trollhunters” Part 2, from Guillermo del Toro, premieres on Netflix, on Friday, Dec. 15, with a third and final chapter of the Emmy-winning series set to debut in 2018. “3 Below,” the second series in the previously announced Tales of Arcadia trilogy, will premiere in late 2018 and feature two royal teenage aliens and their bodyguard who flee a surprise takeover of their home planet by an evil dictator and crash land in Arcadia. Now on the run from intergalactic bounty hunters, they struggle to blend in and adapt to the bizarre world of high school all the while attempting to repair their ship so they can return and defend their home planet. A final chapter, “Wizards,” is set to debut in 2019. “Trollhunters” was created and executive produced by Guillermo del Toro with Marc Guggenheim, Rodrigo Blaas, Chad Hammes, and Christina Steinberg also serving as executive producers. Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman serve as co-executive producers.

Sep 05 2017

The first season of Trollhunters is set to be released on DVD on November 7th. No Blu-ray version was announced, as of now. The 4-disc set will consist all 26 episodes of the first season, along with a behind-the-scenes featurette with the show’s creator, co-writer, and co-executive producer, Guillermo del Toro. You can pre-order your copy on Amazon.

The show was one of Anton’s final projects. He was able to record majority of his lines before his untimely passing. Del Toro refused to recast the character and preserved his work. Other voice cast includes Kelsey Grammer, Ron Perlman, Steven Yeun, Lauren Tom, Clancy Brown, Tom Hiddleston, and James Purefoy. The show has already been renewed for a 13-episode second season, which is expected later this year.

When ordinary teenager Jim Lake Jr. stumbles upon a mystical amulet on his way to school one morning, he inadvertently discovers an extraordinary secret civilization of mighty trolls beneath his small town of Arcadia. Suddenly destined to play a crucial role in an ancient battle of good and evil, Jim is determined to save the world…right after gym class. A must-see viewing event for the entire family, DreamWorks Trollhunters will bring viewers of all ages around the globe into the rich and creative world of this all-new Netflix original series.

Mar 11 2017

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Porto, the Gabe Klinger-directed film starring Anton Yelchin and Lucie Lucas. The deal comes as the pic shot in the Portuguese city preps for its North American premiere Sunday at SXSW. The pic is screening in 35mm in Austin, and Kino Lorber is planning a fall theatrical release with a commitment to show the film both on 35mm and digital before a winter VOD bow.

It’s one of the final film roles for Yelchin, who died last June in a freak car accident. He plays Jake, who along with Mati (Lucas) are outsiders in the northerly Portuguese city of Porto who once experienced a brief but intimate connection. He’s an American loner exiled from his family; she’s a French student abroad with her professor lover. One day they see each other from a distance at an archeological site and then again at a train station and a café, where Jake works up the courage to speak to her for the first time, and they embark on a night of carefree intimacy. The experience is looked at years later, both of them still haunted by the powerful moments they shared.

Source: Deadline

Feb 10 2017

Guillermo del Toro spoke with Entertainment Weekly and talked about the renewal of Trollhunters and how Anton’s work will go on for the second season. The first season is still available for streaming on Netflix.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It seems like you have some news to share.
GUILLERMO DEL TORO:
Well, we got very good news about how many people were watching the series, but we got confirmation that the next [13] episodes are a go. We’ve been working on a second season for a while now because we knew that if everything went right, we could proceed. We’re going to go ahead and now continue, rather than start, because we’ve been doing it for more than a year. The reality and the beauty of this is that we can continue not only the storyline and the characters, but we have a huge swath of work from Anton that allows us to continue Anton through more than half the season.

How did you approach the show following the loss of Anton?
From the get-go, even in the first season, we knew we wanted to preserve as much of the performance of Anton as possible, both from an artistic and a human point of view, and also simply because I think it’s a tribute to what we think he brings to the role of Jim. From the beginning when we planned the writers’ room, we set out a map of 52 episodes, and created arcs that break every 13, and those were planned four years ago. So we have been recording Kelsey Grammer, Anton, Ron Perlman, Clancy Brown, everybody involved in the series for years and years. And there was a break in the arc in the right episode that allows us to preserve all the work that Anton did that was phenomenal. At the end of recording sessions, Anton did one of the most complex episodes and then he looked at the pilot, complete, and there was a great moment in which he was able to see the work and do a really complicated episode in which he did multiple voices and we were all so proud and so close when we lost him. And now I can tell you, we’re not only going to second season, but we’re going to be able to preserve a really large part of it with Anton’s voice.

Does his passing change anything in your initial plan, or are you sticking to it?
Actually, coincidentally, we have an event in the last episode Anton did which allows us to sort of change his voice slightly, so the character stays — but we didn’t plan this. It was pure serendipity that we had that in the works. The beats of the second season have been set for years, and as of now, we have not altered or needed to alter a single beat.

Jan 24 2017

When Anton Yelchin was killed in a freak car accident last June, the 27-year-old actor left behind five unreleased movies: “Star Trek Beyond,” the romance “Porto,” the delayed missing-son drama “We Don’t Belong Here,” a sci-fi mystery called “Rememory” and the twisted psychodrama “Thoroughbred.” We’ll now spend the year bidding Yelchin another bittersweet farewell with each release.

The latest sendoff came this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, where the sensational “Thoroughbred” premiered. Yelchin has a supporting role in the movie, a “Heathers”-meets-”Persona” psychodrama depicting two wealthy teen girls (Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke) who concoct a twisted murder plot in suburban Connecticut.

“Thoroughbred” wrapped production two weeks before Yelchin’s death. It was the last movie he shot.

“He is truly a phenomenal actor and an unbelievable person, and I think all of us feel incredibly lucky to have spent time with him and to love him and to allow him to inspire us,” Taylor-Joy told The Huffington Post on Sunday as Cooke nodded along with her sentiments. “It’s really a testament to his ability as a performer because [Tim, Yelchin’s character], in the script ? it’s not that he’s not fleshed out, but I think a lesser actor would have made him more of a parody. The sympathy and the love that we feel toward him? He’s just having a rough time. [Our characters] grab him and pull him into something, and you really feel for him.”

The “something” Taylor-Joy alludes to is the aforementioned murder of her character’s savage stepfather (Paul Sparks). Yelchin plays a registered sex offender and local drug dealer. Because he has a gun, the girls lure Tim into their devilish scheme ? he joins “Team Estrogen,” as Cooke put it. Yelchin is dynamite in the role, frazzled and wide-eyed with paranoia.

“It was incredibly sad to hear the news,” first-time writer/director Cory Finley said, referring to Yelchin’s death. “I think I can speak for everyone in saying we felt very, very fortunate to have worked with him. He was, first, just a consummate artist on set. He did a lot of improvisation and came in with a lot of really specific character work done and really had a vision for the character and had a huge role in shaping that part.”

After a slew of enthusiastic reviews for “Thoroughbred,” Focus Features purchased theatrical rights for around $5 million, a decent sum for a Sundance title without much pre-festival buzz. No release date has been announced.

“He was also just the kindest, funniest and most playful guy on the set,” Finley said. “We always really loved him. It was a huge loss, but he was an amazing actor and a great guy.”

Dec 01 2016

Featuring works from 22 countries and a new environmental theme being called New Climate, this first round of the full lineup sees five Day One movies kicking the festival off January 19 next year.

Thoroughbred / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Cory Finley) — Two teenage girls in suburban Connecticut rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of growing apart. In the process, they learn that neither is what she seems to be—and that a murder might solve both of their problems. Cast: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin, Paul Sparks, Francie Swift, Kaili Vernoff. World Premiere

Source: Deadline

Oct 26 2016

The organization that presents the Academy Awards is dedicating a performance of promising new screenplays to late actor Anton Yelchin.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that its annual Nicholl Fellowships live-read event will be presented in Yelchin’s honor.

The “Star Trek” actor performed at the first Nicholl live read in 2013. He died in June when his Jeep rolled down his driveway and crushed him. His parents have sued the vehicle’s manufacturer.

Yelchin’s “Star Trek” co-star John Cho, as well as actors Cary Elwes, Aja Naomi King and Alia Shawka are set to perform selected scenes from this year’s five winning screenplays on Nov. 3 at the film academy’s headquarters in Beverly Hills, California. The winning screenwriters were announced last month.

The Nicholl Fellowships is the academy’s annual, global screenwriting competition. Winners receive $35,000 and academy support toward the completion of a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year.

Winning Nicholl scripts have also been produced and released theatrically, including 2006’s “Akeelah and the Bee” and “Stockholm, Pennsylvania,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year.

Source: Page Six