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In October 2011, James Erwin answered a Reddit post with a short story that scored him a production deal. Although the wheels are still turning on Rome Sweet Rome (as in, it hasn’t been made yet), another Redditor has scored a development deal by using the site to post up a short horror tale. Daily Dot has the story of Dathan Auerbach, a philosophy teacher who earned a lot of fans after posting “Footsteps” to the site and earned even more when the success prompted him to post “Balloons” on the scary story subreddit called /nosleep. The second story won the monthly writing contest in October and propelled him to keep writing and posting. Of course, it’s also easy to see why his work became so popular because it’s damned effective. “Reddit as a website gave me the opportunity to get my stories in front thousands and thousands of people,” said...

What began as a series of scary short stories posted to Reddit has become a brush with Hollywood for one author.  Dathan Auerbach has been using Reddit's No Sleep sub-category to post his horror fiction. This endeavor led Auerbach to collect his short stories and mold them into a novel called Penpal, published earlier this year.

Auerbach took to Reddit recently to reveal that Penpal has been optioned by Rich Middlemas, producer of the 2011 award-winning documentary Undefeated.

Auerbach writes, "Rich has just started shopping the book around in an attempt to get it set up in Hollywood, so we've still got a ways to go, but I'm hopeful that we'll get there."

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Remember when, four or five years ago, Hollywood thought we just needed to see movies about the war on terror and its negative repercussions? Stop-Loss, Lions for Lambs, Grace is Gone, Redacted, Rendition, In the Valley of Elah, (this one is, admittedly, very entertaining) The Kingdom — none of which were big hits, critically or commercially. Unlike the Bush Administration, studios learned their lesson and left this conflict alone.

But now that Iraq has (more or less) come to an end, maybe we can enter that Apocalypse Now or Platoon stage of war filmmaking — i.e., replace partisan politics with varying, brilliant depictions of war’s horrors — and there’s no better way to approach it than the viewpoint of someone on the ground. According to Deadline, Rich Middlemas, the Oscar-winning producer of Undefeated, is getting behind a feature version of veteran David Bellavia‘s memoir, House To House: An Epic Memoir of War.

Following a triumphant win at this year.s Oscar ceremony, Exclusive Media has sold international rights in a number of key territories to its Academy Award® Winning documentary feature film Undefeated, it was announced today by Exclusive Media, President of International Sales and Distribution, Alex Walton.

Deals have been completed with the leading documentary distributor Dogwoof in the UK and to Madman Entertainment in Australia as well as with Cdc in Latin America, Independent Films in Benelux, Impuls Pictures/Rialto in Switzerland, Sam Films in Iceland and United King in Israel. Additional sales were made withCathay in Singapore, Pt Amero in Indonesia, Lots Home Entertainment in Taiwan and M Pictures in Thailand. Negotiations are currently underway with a number of remaining territories.

On finalizing the sales, Walton said, .Undefeated is a universally crowd pleasing film exploring the triumph of the human spirit and it is attracting some of the leading...

Crowded House said it best in the lyrics “Hey now, hey now, don’t dream its over.” Yes, the awards season officialy came to an end tonight at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, CA. Tears, jubilation, substance and style were all memorable moments at the 84th Academy Awards hosted by Billy Crystal. With Sacha Baron Cohen’s shenanigans earlier on the red carpet and no huge upsets, Cirque du Soleil’s performance was the highlight of the evening.

The Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year went to “The Artist” produced by Thomas Langmann and Michel Hazanavicius won for Achievement in Directing. The movie becomes the first silent film to take the gold since the original Oscar ceremony 83 years ago when Wings won.

Christopher Plummer was the winner for a Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in “Beginners”; Octavia Spencer, was the...

Movies about movies were all the rage Sunday night at the 84th Academy Awards. The Artist, the French-made black-and-white homage to silent cinema, was the big winner with a total of five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Directing (by Michel Hazanavicius). The film’s charming star, Jean Dujardin, won Best Actor, while Meryl Streep accepted her first Oscar in 29 years — and her third overall — for playing former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

At the age of 82, Christopher Plummer became the oldest person to receive an acting Oscar by winning Best Supporting Actor for Beginners. And...

Pakistani documentary film .Saving Face., which uncovers the story of hundreds of people, mostly women who become acid attack victims, was honoured with the Oscar award for best documentary (short) at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony here.Directed by Daniel Junge and Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, .Saving Face. follows several survivors, and narrates the tale of their fight for justice, and a Pakistani plastic surgeon who has returned to his homeland to help them restore their faces and their lives.The film beat .The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement., .God is the bigger Elvis., .Incident in New Baghdad. and .The Tsunami and The Cherry Blossom. to win the prestigious award.In the best documentary (feature) category, the Oscar went to .Undefeated. directed by Tj Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas.

Click to enter!

I am live-blogging the 84th Annual Academy Awards, I will begin when Billy Crystal walks out on stage. Why am I doing this? I watch the Oscars, therefore I know how boring it can be. I will have my laptop on hand so I figure I will bring some praise and cynicism to the party.

Winners will be in Red.

Click ‘Continue Reading’ to enter the Live Blog.

09:39pm

Goodnight everyone, see you at the movies.

09:38pm

It was a good show, celebrating movies never gets old for me. Congrats to The Artist, well deserved.

09:36pm

Damn right you bring that dog on stage.

09:35pm

Best Picture

“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer

“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer

“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers

“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese,...

On Wednesday of Oscar Week, the third annual “Docs!” night spotlighted the work of the nominated filmmakers in the Documentary Short Subject and Documentary Feature categories. The program included film clips from all of the nominated documentaries in both categories, followed a panel discussion with each group of nominees. On hand was program host Michael Moore - Oscar-winning director and Documentary Branch governor.

In his intro to the various clips, Moore remarked that nothing compares to watching a film with other fellow Americans in a theater and something that should be experienced together collectively. According to the director, “the public has turned to the documentary genre recently to learn the truth.” I was pleased with his enthusiastic acknowlegement of the Documentary Women filmmakers. “There are more women in the documentary branch than any other branches.”

My personal favorite of the group is God Is Bigger Than Elvis – in 1963 actress Delores Hart,...

Poster for the Undefeated documentary on the Manassas Tigers' 2009 football season. Weinstein Co's football docu gets its first movie poster for the film helmed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. Pic opens on February 17th and is produced by Seth Gordon, Glen Zipper and Rich Middlemas. Undefeated is set in the inner-city of Memphis and chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand. When he arrived, the team consisted of 17 players, some timeworn equipment and a patch of grass masquerading as a practice field...

Poster for the Undefeated documentary on the Manassas Tigers' 2009 football season. Weinstein Co's football docu gets its first movie poster for the film helmed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. Pic opens on February 17th and is produced by Seth Gordon, Glen Zipper and Rich Middlemas. Undefeated is set in the inner-city of Memphis and chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand. When he arrived, the team consisted of 17 players, some timeworn equipment and a patch of grass masquerading as a practice field...

Poster for the Undefeated documentary on the Manassas Tigers' 2009 football season. Weinstein Co's football docu gets its first movie poster for the film helmed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. Pic opens on February 17th and is produced by Seth Gordon, Glen Zipper and Rich Middlemas. Undefeated is set in the inner-city of Memphis and chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand. When he arrived, the team consisted of 17 players, some timeworn equipment and a patch of grass masquerading as a practice field...

Clip from Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin's Undefeated documentary from Weinstein Co Catch a new video from BeliefNet.com on the film produced by Seth Gordon, Glen Zipper and Rich Middlemas. Pic opens on February 10th in limited areas and includes Montrail 'Money' Brown, O.C. Brown, Bill Courtney and Chavis Daniels. Set in the inner-city of Memphis, Undefeated chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand...

Clip from Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin's Undefeated documentary from Weinstein Co Catch a new video from BeliefNet.com on the film produced by Seth Gordon, Glen Zipper and Rich Middlemas. Pic opens on February 10th in limited areas and includes Montrail 'Money' Brown, O.C. Brown, Bill Courtney and Chavis Daniels. Set in the inner-city of Memphis, Undefeated chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand...

Clip from Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin's Undefeated documentary from Weinstein Co Catch a new video from BeliefNet.com on the film produced by Seth Gordon, Glen Zipper and Rich Middlemas. Pic opens on February 10th in limited areas and includes Montrail 'Money' Brown, O.C. Brown, Bill Courtney and Chavis Daniels. Set in the inner-city of Memphis, Undefeated chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand...

Its that time of the year again in when everyone prepares their Oscar predictions, because let’s be honest for a moment – the best part of the Oscars is placing your bets on who’ll win and hopefully walking away from a long and usually boring ceremony with some extra cash in your pocket. This morning the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards with no major surprises but instead, a long list of snubs. Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is the surprise leader of the 2012 Academy Award nominations with 11 nods, including Best Picture and Best Director. The Artist followed with 10 nominations. Here are my predictions of who I feel will take home gold come Sunday February 26, as well as those films and talent who I believe were snubbed.

Academy Branch Breakdown

Actors 1205

Art Directors 374

Cinematographers 200

Directors 366

Documentary 151

Executives 437

Film Editors 221

Makeup Artists...

New clip from the Undefeated football documentary on the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season. Helmed and edited by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, the Weinstein Co-distributed documentary opens on February 10th and features Coach Bill Courtney, Montrail “Money”, Chavis, O.C. and Coach Mike Ray. Thanks to Belief.net, we have a new exclusive movie clip from the film produced by Rich Middlemas, Dan Lindsay, Seth Gordon, Ed Cunningham and Glen Zipper. Set in the inner-city of Memphis, Undefeated chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand.

New clip from the Undefeated football documentary on the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season. Helmed and edited by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, the Weinstein Co-distributed documentary opens on February 10th and features Coach Bill Courtney, Montrail “Money”, Chavis, O.C. and Coach Mike Ray. Thanks to Belief.net, we have a new exclusive movie clip from the film produced by Rich Middlemas, Dan Lindsay, Seth Gordon, Ed Cunningham and Glen Zipper. Set in the inner-city of Memphis, Undefeated chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand.

New clip from the Undefeated football documentary on the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season. Helmed and edited by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, the Weinstein Co-distributed documentary opens on February 10th and features Coach Bill Courtney, Montrail “Money”, Chavis, O.C. and Coach Mike Ray. Thanks to Belief.net, we have a new exclusive movie clip from the film produced by Rich Middlemas, Dan Lindsay, Seth Gordon, Ed Cunningham and Glen Zipper. Set in the inner-city of Memphis, Undefeated chronicles the Manassas Tigers’ 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand.