Latest in Ben Is Back

For Peter Hedges, casting his Oscar-nominated son Lucas Hedges in his latest movie Ben Is Back wasn’t about opportunity, rather catharsis. The 56-year old filmmaker’s reasons for tackling a teenage drug addiction drama extend back to his mother, Carol Hedges, a former alcoholic who quit drinking when he was 15 years…

It was a father-and-son moment when Ben Is Back writer-director Peter Hedges was joined on Deadline’s The Contenders New York stage by son Lucas Hedges, who plays the title role in dad’s film about a drug-addicted son who leaves rehab to spend the holidays with his family, among them his mother played beautifully by…

Julia Roberts has returned to acting with a vengeance this fall on both the big screen, with Ben Is Back, and small screen in Amazon’s much-acclaimed Homecoming, which should be an Emmy juggernaut come summer and has already earned Roberts nominations for Lead Actress in a Drama Series at both the Golden Globes and…

UPDATED AT BOTTOM: The Queens have it again. Focus Features opened Mary Queen of Scots in four New York and L.A. locations Friday to a robust start, taking in over $200K for a weekend, topping $50,045 per-heater average, placing it as the 11th highest PTA of the year as of Sunday morning. Specialty moviegoers are…

Following a couple of somewhat lighter weeks in the Specialty space, this weekend is really ramped up with star-lead limited release awards contenders vying for box office recognition. Focus Features rolls out Mary Queen of Scots, starring Oscar nominees Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie as the 15th century rival…

With each passing year, Lucas Hedges multiplies his awards season filmography. First there was Manchester by the Sea, for which he was Oscar nominated. Then, last year, much-garlanded turns in Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. This year he's back with no fewer than three films: Joel Edgerton's Bo…

Roadside Attractions has dropped the first full-length trailer for Ben Is Back, the drama starring Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges as a mother and son caught up in the opioid epidemic that made its debut at the Toronto film fest last month. “He’s got the sparkle back in his eyes,” says Ben’s cautiously optimistic mom…

Every now and then several movies come along the same basic premise, and that is the case with a slew of films premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, all in the past 24 hours,  that deal with efforts of parents to change the course of their son’s life, and all of them happen to start with a ‘B’.  We…

When it comes to an independently-financed movie, is it meant for a theatrical release or streaming? It’s a question that The Imitation Game Oscar-nominated producer and Black Bear Pictures CEO/President Teddy Schwarzman assesses frequently in the current climate, and he expounded on that at Winston Baker’s Script to…

Fifty-five seconds is all it takes for this Ben Is Back teaser to leave us wondering what’s next. Toronto Film Festival attendees will get the first chance, as Peter Hedges’ drama starring Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges makes its world premiere there as a special presentation next month. The trailer starts with a…

Coming into its second Cannes Film Festival since Micah Green left his post as CAA Film Finance and Sales Group co-head to partner with Texas-based Dan Friedkin in 30WEST, the company has lived up to its promise as a disruptive force in the indie film space. If it was initially hard to figure out 30WEST's place in…

Emmy-winner Courtney B. Vance (The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story) has signed to play opposite Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges in Peter Hedges’ drama, Ben Is Back, which began production today in New York. It follows Ben Burns (Hedges) who returns home to his unsuspecting family one fateful Christmas Eve…