Alice Eve Fan

Australian director Ben Lewin’s latest film, Please Stand By, has been selected to screen at the Austin Film Festival in Texas. It is the first film by the Melburnian since his Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA-nominated 2012 feature, The Sessions, starring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes.

His new comedy drama stars Toni Collette, Alice Eve and Dakota Fanning and was written by Grimm’s Michael Golamco.

Lewin’s next film, The Catcher Was A Spy, featuring a strong ensemble cast including Paul Rudd, Guy Pearce, Sienna Miller, Paul Giammati, Tom Wilkinson and Mark Strong, is believed to have wrapped principal photography.

Lewin is best known in Australia for creating the TV series Rafferty’s Rules and the mid-1990s feature Paperback Romance, starring Gia Carides and Anthony LaPaglia.

Please Stand By will premiere in Austin in October next to the season finale of HBO’s new drama from The Wire’s David Simon, The Deuce, and the new romantic comedy Amanda and Jack Go Glamping starring David Arquette and Amy Acker, written and directed by Brandon Dickerson.

‘Ordeal By Innocence,’ starring Bill Nighy and Alice Eve,

Amazon is getting a major dose of Agatha Christie. The streaming studio announced the development of multiple TV series based on works by the iconic mystery writer — and the first will be Ordeal By Innocence, which already started production in the U.K. with actors Bill Nighy, Alice Eve, and Ed Westwick.

Run by Christie’s great-grandson James Prichard, Agatha Christie Limited, which manages the literary and media rights to the author’s works, partnered with Amazon on this deal. The goal is to add even more original offerings to the streaming platform’s roster of programming.

Ordeal By Innocence centers on the Argyll family. The black sheep, Jack Argyll, was accused of murdering their matriarch a year ago, but now a man shows up on their doorstep claiming Jack’s innocence. The family must come to terms with this news and the fact that the real killer might still be among them.

The cast is rounded out by Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Matthew Goode (The Good Wife), Catherine Keener (Get Out), Luke Treadaway (Fortitude), Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark), and Morven Christie (The A Word).Sarah Phelps, who worked on previous Christie adaptations And Then There Were None and The Witness for the Prosecution for BBC One, executive produces Ordeal By Innocence.

“The brand of Agatha Christie resonates around the world,” Chris Rice of WME, which brokered the deal, said in a statement. “We couldn’t be happier to have Amazon as our U.S. home for this franchise. We think the series of specials will attract great auteurs and actors to create compelling content for audiences everywhere.”

The series will be released internationally on BBC One.