shareeka epps Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Cinematical has received this exclusive image from the film The Winning Season, which will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, January 19th. Directed by Jim Strouse (Lonesome Jim, Grace is Gone), The Winning Season stars Sam Rockwell as an adult misfit who's brought on to coach the local girl's high school basketball team. Also appearing in the flick, which I've heard is like Bad Santa meets The Bad News Bears, is Emma Roberts, Rob Corddry, Shareeka Epps and Emily Rios. The Winning Season was a late addition to the Sundance slate, and my friend's who've seen it vouch that it's, well, a winner. Both Strouse and Rockwell (who also stars in another Sundance film called Moon) are veterans of the fest and have had good luck in the past. I see no reason why this one won't immediately sell and hit theaters at some point next year.

Of course, your friends from Cinematical will bring back the scoop early and tell you all about The Winning Season when we see it in Park City next month. Check out a larger version of the image above, and for more information on the film and the festival, check out the official Sundance film guide.

We've known about Wes Craven's 25/8 -- which will mark the first time he's written and directed a film since 1994's New Nightmare -- for a couple of months now. The horror film will follow seven fifteen-year olds who are haunted by a serial killer who supposedly died on the day they were born. (As Scott pointed out when the project was announced, this sounds a little familiar.) Now, the Hollywood Reporter tells us who'll be playing some of the teenagers: Denzel Whitaker (The Great Debaters), Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson), Emily Meade (the upcoming Assassination of a High School President) and, maybe most interestingly, Henry Lee "Little Dennis" Hopper, making his acting debut.

The Hollywood Reporter article actually has a neat little profile of Dennis Hopper's son, whom Craven met at a party and invited to audition for the film. It makes a point of emphasizing how surprisingly not-screwed-up Henry Lee has turned out to be, despite growing up with one of Hollywood's craziest personalities. The elder Hopper's career is hard to top for sheer weirdness, but a Wes Craven movie is probably a good place to start.

Teaching at an inner city middle school can be stressful, but Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) handles the kids under his tutelage with ease, engaging them in classroom discussions, bantering about their lives, even coaching the girls' basketball team. He's the kind of teacher you wish all your middle school teachers had been -- interesting, fair, and not condescending to his students just because they're kids. Yes, Dan is the perfect teacher, while he's on the job. It's after work, when he brings out the crack pipe, that his dark side comes out.

Dan, the protangonist of Half Nelson, is living a double life: Responsible schoolteacher by day, crackhead by night. An idealistic young man caught in the throes of a reality he doesn't know how to handle, Dan deals with his stressors by making them go away for awhile. He thinks he's got it all under control, and, like a lot of addicts, maintains the illusion of control on the surface, for awhile -- until the day one of his students, Drey (newcomer Shareeka Epps), walks in on him in the locker room post-game, prone on the floor, crack pipe in hand.

Half Nelson, first time feature director Ryan Flecks's narrative tale of a crack-addicted high school teacher (Ryan Gosling) who befriends a student (Shareeka Epps) after she learns of his addiction., was acquired by ThinkFilm on the last day of the Sundance Film Festival. ThinkFilm acquired worldwide rights to the film, co-written by Fleck and Anna Boden, reportedly for just under $1 million, plus a large percentage of gross to the filmmakers. Negotiations went down to the wire amidst interest from other distributors, making Half Nelson the last deal in an otherwise relatively slow deal season at this year's Sundance.