Tales of Atonement: the animated series - Upcoming Web Show coming to YouTube

The potential of modern online technologies for story-driven projects is both immense and hugely underutilized. This means that a lot of effort goes into more or less traditional narrative mediums, like TV shows and feature-length movies, while many other exciting possibilities are overlooked. Tales of Atonement: the animated series is a new venture that tries to do the opposite and uses modern technology, especially one video streaming platform, to offer something new. At the same time, the whole project is based on an existing series of novels, which gives it an additional level of appeal.

This animated web series is soon coming to YouTube and it is based on the novel by the name of Tales of Atonement: To Make a Hero by A.A. Moreland, a duo of authors working together, as well as its subsequent series. The new show is also going to be in the realm of fantasy and science fiction. The story begins in medieval Scotland, where a boy discovers a weapon of apparently magical nature. From here, the story of Tales of Atonement asks a simple but intriguing question: are heroes born, or are they made?

It is clear that the upcoming web series, like the novels on which it is based, is a labor of love, commitment, and dedication. Besides, the fact that the author aims to use modern tech to deliver this tale of a hero's journey through a very modern medium is also more than commendable. Tales of Atonement: the animated series is coming to YouTube this winter, so subscribe to its official channel and be among the first to watch this amazing adventure come to animated life!

Coming Soon: Delusion (2017)

A new drama by Christopher Di Nunzio, an up-and-coming US director, brings about an interesting blend of mystery and drama, along with a cast that includes Jami Tennille. Here are the basic outlines of the film’s plot:

Frank Parrillo received a letter from his wife who died three years ago. With help from his nephew Frank decides he's ready to start over. Soon after a mysterious woman appears who seems like a kindred spirit as they both battle internal issues. Still despite premonitions from a psychic and a man who Frank's not sure is even real he chooses to move forward as he confronts the demons in his head. His choice could ultimately lead him to a darker reality.

The film will be distributed by Cinema Epoch and is currently available for buying or renting in the US, UK and Canada at Amazon, while the Amazon Prime users can watch it for free.

Check out the Delusion trailer below.

Coming Soon: The Magnificent Seven

As the release date of September 23rd edges closer, the public interest for The Magnificent Seven only appears to grow. Recently praised for a very diverse cast, the film's director Antoine Fuqua played down this idea, saying that everyone simply worked hard on the movie. His last remake, The Equalizer did not fair that well with me, so I'm hoping that he's back to his sharp self with this one.

Check out the official trailer for The Magnificent Seven below.

Coming Soon: Dunkirk

If war is hell, then the Battle of Dunkirk was a special kind of hell, which saw thousands die in a small patch of land in France as BEF and their allies desperately tried to evacuate by sea as many soldiers from the mainland Europe as possible.

Now, Christoper Nolan is making a film simply called Dunkirk which will showcase the evacuation. The movie promises to deliver a war epic hopefully in the footprints of modern films like Fury and it comes to the theaters in summer of 2017.

Have a look at a short trailer that recently came out.

Coming (Not So) Soon: Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island is not going to be hitting the movie theaters anytime soon (the release date is in 2017), but the film does look both impressive and kind of idiotic at the same time. So far, it looks like the producers decided to combine the notion of King Kong with the first part of the Predator series and then put in a big chunk of Aliens from 1986, mainly with the current military aspect of the film. This will make the film either pretty fun or intensely bad.

Check out Kong: Skull Island trailer below.

Coming Soon: Incarnation

An independent film from Serbia, incarnation looks like an interesting psychological thriller, mixed with some lo-fi science fiction. The plot sees a young man who he is somehow forced to revisit the same moment in time in a city he does not recognize. Here, he is chased by four men in masks who are determined to kill him every time, while on the other side of reality, he finds himself in a hospital as a patient with no memory about who he is. 

The film was directed by Filip Kovacevic as his first film and hopefully, Incarnation will get some kind of a distribution deal. Check out its trailer below. 

Coming Soon: Fingerface

When it comes to low-budget films, it's possible that Andrew Dawson managed to break the mold. This filmmaker created a feature-length romantic comedy using only his own fingers and a whole lot of hours of creating scenery, filming and doing everything else a film needs. According to the Fingerface official site, the plot of the film goes like this:

After losing his job, Giles does the only logical thing. He gets very, very drunk. And in the haze of the bar he sees a girl. Not just any girl. Giles is sure that she’s the girl of his dream from the night before. Her name is Stephanie and it turns out that she’s a lot harder to impress in real life than in dreamland. To win Stephanie’s heart, Giles has to travel the world, turn his back on his friends and give up his other dreams of becoming a musician. But is she worth it? And is Giles really in love, or is it just good, old-fashioned lust?

Coming Soon: The Stranger (2014)

Written and directed by Guillermo Amoedo and produced by Eli Roth, The Stranger tells a tale about a man who arrives into a small town looking for his wife. He soon finds the thing he is after, but this also unleashes carnage upon the same place.

The film seems really low-key, focused mainly on the actors and the rather ordinary-looking violence (which makes it all the more awful), but also pushes a supernatural premise in the mix. Recently, Roth showed that he is really keen on producing interesting mystery-horror films and The Stranger looks exactly like this.

Coming Soon - Mad Max: Fury Road

The critics who managed to see the film love it and all the footage and trailers we saw pointed to the same conclusion - Mad Max: Fury Road will be one hell of a film - from the violence to the beautiful cinematography and crazy action choreography, it's all here. It is coming out in a matter of days, so be ready to start planning to go and see it once it hits the theaters on May, 15. 

To get into the mood (unless you want to stay pure until you see it on the big screen) here is Mad Max: Fury Road Official Retaliate Trailer.

Coming Soon: Ex Machina (2015)

Copyright: A24 Films

For me, the most important thing about Ex Machina is its writer/director Alex Garland. Garland already proved himself as a great writer in films like Sunshine and 28 Days Later.

Now, he is making his directorial debut in a story about a reclusive computer genius who summons a younger computer genius named Caleb to his mountain home. There, Caleb discovers a synthetic life form called Ava that might or might not be fully self-aware, sparking the plot of this compact-looking sci-fi thriller.

Ex Machina comes out in the US on the 10th of April and you can watch its trailer below.

Coming Soon: White God (Fehér isten)

White God (Fehér isten in original) is a strange film that looks beautiful, original and very unnerving. This Hungarian surreal drama was directed by Kornél Mundruczó and it follows a story of a little girl who is torn away from her dog called Hagen thanks to a unjust government regulation. Abandoned, Hagen decides (maybe decides isn’t the right word) to start a revolution against human oppressors. The film did exceedingly well at Cannes Film Festival and now it’s getting a release on March 27.

Watch White God trailer below.

Coming Soon: Man From Reno

Directed by Dave Boyle, Man from Reno is a thriller about two separate stories set in California, connected by the notion of one particular Asian country – first one is an random road accident that includes a sheriff from a small town and a Japanese man, while the other follows a fiction writer from Japan who travels to San Francisco to escape the media pressure of her new book release.

From the trailer, it looks like Boyle created a minimalist thriller with a strong sense of a compact mystery. Currently, the film is hitting the festival circuit, but I’m guessing it will find a wider release date very soon.

Check out Man From Reno trailer below.

Coming Soon: The Gunman

Although Sean Penn isn't an actor who is immediately associated with action films, he looks perfectly suitable in The Gunman. The effectively named film is hitting theaters on March 20th and seems like an engaging spy-gone-rogue action thriller. Aside from Penn, the cast is led by Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, and Ray Winstone, and directed by Pierre Morel, who made the first film in the Taken trilogy (he was dearly missed in the lukewarm Taken 3).

Check out the Gunman trailer below.