Perhaps the biggest reason why the ghost story has enjoyed such popularity and power for so long is because it lies at the crux of some of humanity's most fundamental mysteries. For one thing, it addresses the question of life after death in a way that doesn't require belief in pearly gates or eternal hellfire, as it presupposes the existence of the soul. After all, if a person's energy can change the mood of a room, can't that same energy exist independently of a body and remain noticeable? Additionally, the total unknowability of ghosts is at once a source of fear and melancholy: if such entities exist, we can't know for sure what their intentions are, and if we might be facing such a fate, wouldn't such constraints as having no body and no voice be remarkably frustrating and lonely?
Steven Soderbergh's latest feature, "Presence," addresses these concepts in a remarkably effective fashion.
Steven Soderbergh's latest feature, "Presence," addresses these concepts in a remarkably effective fashion.
- 1/25/2024
- by Bill Bria
- Slash Film
It all comes down to perspective in the latest from Steven Soderbergh as the twist to this tale of a family who begin to feel like they’re being watched is that we see things unfold from the point of view of the ghostly watcher.
The camera drifts through the house that has just been bought by Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and her husband Chris (Christopher Sullivan), who are moving in with their teen kids Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang), quietly observing what’s going on. Each moment of observation is shot in a single take (by Soderbergh under his alter ego Peter Andrews) before a cut to black. It’s an intriguing gambit and one that Soderbergh, who has never shied away from experimentation, sticks firmly too throughout the running time. But while it feels nailed on as a technical exercise, the story, written by David Koepp, feels slight by comparison.
The camera drifts through the house that has just been bought by Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and her husband Chris (Christopher Sullivan), who are moving in with their teen kids Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang), quietly observing what’s going on. Each moment of observation is shot in a single take (by Soderbergh under his alter ego Peter Andrews) before a cut to black. It’s an intriguing gambit and one that Soderbergh, who has never shied away from experimentation, sticks firmly too throughout the running time. But while it feels nailed on as a technical exercise, the story, written by David Koepp, feels slight by comparison.
- 1/25/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In the latest high-profile acquisition at Sundance Neon is understood to have acquired worldwide rights to Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence starring Lucy Liu.
The Premieres selection debuted last Friday and plays again this upcoming weekend. David Koepp wrote the screenplay.
Shot in one location, Presence follows a family that moves into a suburban home inhabited by a ghost. The cast includes Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Eddy Maday, and West Mulholland.
Julie M. Anderson and Ken Meyer served as producers and Koepp and Corey Bayes are executive producers. Michael Sugar of Sugar23 brokered the deal with attorney Jamie Feldman and Meyer.
The Premieres selection debuted last Friday and plays again this upcoming weekend. David Koepp wrote the screenplay.
Shot in one location, Presence follows a family that moves into a suburban home inhabited by a ghost. The cast includes Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Eddy Maday, and West Mulholland.
Julie M. Anderson and Ken Meyer served as producers and Koepp and Corey Bayes are executive producers. Michael Sugar of Sugar23 brokered the deal with attorney Jamie Feldman and Meyer.
- 1/24/2024
- ScreenDaily
JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray recently got to check out the Sundance Film Festival premiere of director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp’s ghost story Presence, and in his 7/10 review (which you can read Here), he described the film as “a supernatural tale that’s light on horror but heavy on heart.” A wider audience will have the chance to see the move soon (we assume), as Deadline reports that Neon has picked up the distribution rights to the film. A release date has not yet been announced.
As Deadline notes, “The deal comes 35 years after Soderbergh’s $1 million Sundance deal for sex, lies, & videotape and subsequent Palme d’Or win at Cannes followed by a box office gross of $25 million, helped galvanize independent film into a viable business. It seems poetic he would return with a film for the 40th edition of Sundance, and make a major deal there.
As Deadline notes, “The deal comes 35 years after Soderbergh’s $1 million Sundance deal for sex, lies, & videotape and subsequent Palme d’Or win at Cannes followed by a box office gross of $25 million, helped galvanize independent film into a viable business. It seems poetic he would return with a film for the 40th edition of Sundance, and make a major deal there.
- 1/24/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
In the wake of Netflix acquiring It’s What’s Inside out of Sundance 2024, another hot genre movie that world premiered at Sundance has found itself a distribution home this week.
Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence has been acquired by Neon, with Deadline first reporting the news. The site notes, “I haven’t got a deal number to share, but there were about 10 bidders so it’s a healthy sum for a thriller that has gotten uniformly strong reviews at the festival.”
One of those strong reviews came from Meagan Navarro right here on Bloody Disgusting, who awarded Presence 4 stars out of a possible 5 stars in her review published over the weekend.
Meagan raves, “Unsane director Steven Soderbergh reunites with Kimi screenwriter David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) to give an innovative new spin on the quintessential ghost story. Presence frames its haunted events entirely from the perspective of its ghost.
Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence has been acquired by Neon, with Deadline first reporting the news. The site notes, “I haven’t got a deal number to share, but there were about 10 bidders so it’s a healthy sum for a thriller that has gotten uniformly strong reviews at the festival.”
One of those strong reviews came from Meagan Navarro right here on Bloody Disgusting, who awarded Presence 4 stars out of a possible 5 stars in her review published over the weekend.
Meagan raves, “Unsane director Steven Soderbergh reunites with Kimi screenwriter David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) to give an innovative new spin on the quintessential ghost story. Presence frames its haunted events entirely from the perspective of its ghost.
- 1/24/2024
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
“Presence,” a twisty new thriller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has sold to Neon.
The movie, which is directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, puts an inventive spin on the haunted house genre. It unfolds from the perspective of the spectral entity and is primarily interested in dramatizing the issues of the people living in the home, who seem to be grappling with a lot of interpersonal problems.
“I wanted to find a different way to tell the story,” Soderbergh told Variety in a recent profile. “Everything is revealed through the glimpses of this family that this presence sees. And the whole ghost genre element is a Trojan horse to show a group of people in danger of falling apart.”
The market at Sundance has been slower than usual, with deals taking longer to hammer out — that’s a sign of how challenging the box office has become for indie pictures.
The movie, which is directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, puts an inventive spin on the haunted house genre. It unfolds from the perspective of the spectral entity and is primarily interested in dramatizing the issues of the people living in the home, who seem to be grappling with a lot of interpersonal problems.
“I wanted to find a different way to tell the story,” Soderbergh told Variety in a recent profile. “Everything is revealed through the glimpses of this family that this presence sees. And the whole ghost genre element is a Trojan horse to show a group of people in danger of falling apart.”
The market at Sundance has been slower than usual, with deals taking longer to hammer out — that’s a sign of how challenging the box office has become for indie pictures.
- 1/24/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: The Steven Soderbergh-directed and David Koepp-scripted ghost story Presence is being acquired at Sundance by Neon.
The deal comes 35 years after Soderbergh’s $1 million Sundance deal for sex, lies, & videotape and subsequent Palme d’Or win at Cannes followed by a box office gross of $25 million, helped galvanize independent film into a viable business. It seems poetic he would return with a film for the 40th edition of Sundance, and make a major deal there.
I haven’t got a deal number to share, but there were about 10 bidders so it’s a healthy sum for a thriller that has gotten uniformly strong reviews at the festival.
In Presence, a family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they are not alone. A supernatural force has infiltrated the house, and taken a specific interest in the couple’s daughter. The picture is shot entirely in a single location,...
The deal comes 35 years after Soderbergh’s $1 million Sundance deal for sex, lies, & videotape and subsequent Palme d’Or win at Cannes followed by a box office gross of $25 million, helped galvanize independent film into a viable business. It seems poetic he would return with a film for the 40th edition of Sundance, and make a major deal there.
I haven’t got a deal number to share, but there were about 10 bidders so it’s a healthy sum for a thriller that has gotten uniformly strong reviews at the festival.
In Presence, a family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they are not alone. A supernatural force has infiltrated the house, and taken a specific interest in the couple’s daughter. The picture is shot entirely in a single location,...
- 1/24/2024
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Plot: A family moves into a house with a supernatural presence.
Review: I’m sure I can be forgiven for rolling my eyes when I heard the logline for Presence. I’ve seen my share of haunted house movies and was wary of anything being added to this well-worn genre. However, director Steven Soderbergh and his writer David Koepp have once again subverted expectations, making this a supernatural tale that’s light on horror but heavy on heart.
The big selling point here will be that Soderbergh’s camera is always from the perspective of the presence itself (no one uses the term ghost here), making it an interesting visual exercise. The family is observed from an arm’s length, with us eventually realizing that the presence itself isn’t necessarily malignant, nor is it even aware of why it’s in their home in the first place.
The movie...
Review: I’m sure I can be forgiven for rolling my eyes when I heard the logline for Presence. I’ve seen my share of haunted house movies and was wary of anything being added to this well-worn genre. However, director Steven Soderbergh and his writer David Koepp have once again subverted expectations, making this a supernatural tale that’s light on horror but heavy on heart.
The big selling point here will be that Soderbergh’s camera is always from the perspective of the presence itself (no one uses the term ghost here), making it an interesting visual exercise. The family is observed from an arm’s length, with us eventually realizing that the presence itself isn’t necessarily malignant, nor is it even aware of why it’s in their home in the first place.
The movie...
- 1/23/2024
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Sundance film festival: The director tells a haunted house tale from the perspective of the spirit in a visually interesting yet dramatically underwhelming gambit
For the majority of film-makers, the restrictions insisted by Covid became a stifling force and created a clear dividing line between those who could flourish in extremely prohibitive circumstances and those who could not. Steven Soderbergh, a director who has never allowed anything – from Oscar glory to blockbuster success – to kill his plucky spirit of invention, made one of the only essential pandemic movies with the maddeningly underseen thriller Kimi, a sleek and canny new-tech upgrade of a paranoid 70s thriller. He found a way, along with the screenwriter David Koepp, to maximise limitations and the two have smartly reunited for a project that carries on-paper similarities.
Presence, a project shrouded in trademark mystery, shot over last summer with a waiver and now unveiling at Sundance,...
For the majority of film-makers, the restrictions insisted by Covid became a stifling force and created a clear dividing line between those who could flourish in extremely prohibitive circumstances and those who could not. Steven Soderbergh, a director who has never allowed anything – from Oscar glory to blockbuster success – to kill his plucky spirit of invention, made one of the only essential pandemic movies with the maddeningly underseen thriller Kimi, a sleek and canny new-tech upgrade of a paranoid 70s thriller. He found a way, along with the screenwriter David Koepp, to maximise limitations and the two have smartly reunited for a project that carries on-paper similarities.
Presence, a project shrouded in trademark mystery, shot over last summer with a waiver and now unveiling at Sundance,...
- 1/22/2024
- by Benjamin Lee in Park City, Utah
- The Guardian - Film News
Julia Fox didn’t have much to say during the post-premiere Q&a of Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence on Friday night, but the brief comments that came out of her mouth got a ton of laughs inside the Library Center Theatre — and maybe a few raised eyebrows.
After the credits rolled well past 11 p.m., moderator and Sundance director Eugene Hernandez asked the cast for their reactions to seeing the film for the first time. Standing in front of the big screen and joined by cast mates Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday and West Mulholland, Fox took the microphone as it was passed down the line.
“Traumatized,” she said in offering a one-word reaction while wearing a black sequined dress, leather gloves and a black hoodie with the word “Mom” on the chest. “I hadn’t even read the script, to be honest. But when Steven calls,...
After the credits rolled well past 11 p.m., moderator and Sundance director Eugene Hernandez asked the cast for their reactions to seeing the film for the first time. Standing in front of the big screen and joined by cast mates Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday and West Mulholland, Fox took the microphone as it was passed down the line.
“Traumatized,” she said in offering a one-word reaction while wearing a black sequined dress, leather gloves and a black hoodie with the word “Mom” on the chest. “I hadn’t even read the script, to be honest. But when Steven calls,...
- 1/20/2024
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The presence of a camera changes things. Trained actors aside, most people are uncomfortable enough with the knowledge that there’s a lens in their face that they’ll change their behavior in turn. Ghosts, meanwhile, observe without being noticed, with only a few sensitive souls able to discern them at all. Steven Soderbergh’s latest cinematic experiment conflates the two, filming a haunted house story from the perspective of the spirit.
Ghosts are tied to a location, and so is “Presence.” The film takes place entirely within the confines of a handsome, century-old home — the furthest the characters get is the driveway, which the camera observes anxiously through a window like a dog awaiting its family’s return. The film unfolds in a series of single takes, which follow characters through the house and watch them from the closets and corners of various rooms. When an object floats across the room,...
Ghosts are tied to a location, and so is “Presence.” The film takes place entirely within the confines of a handsome, century-old home — the furthest the characters get is the driveway, which the camera observes anxiously through a window like a dog awaiting its family’s return. The film unfolds in a series of single takes, which follow characters through the house and watch them from the closets and corners of various rooms. When an object floats across the room,...
- 1/20/2024
- by Katie Rife
- Indiewire
You know the Tolstoy quote about all happy families being the same, but “every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way?” The quartet at the center of Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence has refined their own particular brand of dysfunction to perfection. The mom, Rebecca (Lucy Liu), is a first-class control freak, has become involved in some shady financial dealings, and dotes on her teenage son, Tyler (Eddy Maday), in a way that would make Freud’s head explode. He’s a champion swimmer, and she has her...
- 1/20/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Unsane director Steven Soderbergh reunites with Kimi screenwriter David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) to give an innovative new spin on the quintessential ghost story. Presence frames its haunted events entirely from the perspective of its ghost. From the opening frame until the end credits, audiences see the thrilling story unfold through chilling narrative twists via Soderbergh’s experimentation with form and technique. Using the camera’s gaze as the ghost’s observing eyes isn’t the only trick up Soderbergh and Koepp’s sleeves, ensuring this exciting shakeup of the haunted house keeps you guessing.
The opening moments introduce the single location, an affluent suburban home just recently on the market, through tracking camerawork that captures the feel of a ghost peering around its haunt. It quickly navigates the halls and rooms, giving a quick overview of the layout as it seeks out a new arrival in the form of...
The opening moments introduce the single location, an affluent suburban home just recently on the market, through tracking camerawork that captures the feel of a ghost peering around its haunt. It quickly navigates the halls and rooms, giving a quick overview of the layout as it seeks out a new arrival in the form of...
- 1/20/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
The not-so-secret fact about premieres is that the actors rarely watch, usually ducking out when the lights go down. They spend the film’s duration smoking cigarettes and reciting the cinema’s version of the serenity prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, i.e. the director’s predilection to use my worst take.”
That was not the case at Sundance’s world premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” a ghostly thriller about the Payne family, a bougie clan with a significant number of problems including a spectral, uh, presence that could be friend or foe. On multiple trips to the washroom—blast the diuretic qualities of Diet Mountain Dew–I spied the entire cast watching the film with edge-of-the-seat anxiety, much like the rest of the theatre..
Lucy Liu, who plays the family’s checked-out mother, looked genuinely shook as she stood with...
That was not the case at Sundance’s world premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” a ghostly thriller about the Payne family, a bougie clan with a significant number of problems including a spectral, uh, presence that could be friend or foe. On multiple trips to the washroom—blast the diuretic qualities of Diet Mountain Dew–I spied the entire cast watching the film with edge-of-the-seat anxiety, much like the rest of the theatre..
Lucy Liu, who plays the family’s checked-out mother, looked genuinely shook as she stood with...
- 1/20/2024
- by Stephen Rodrick
- Variety Film + TV
It’s an invigorating feeling to know early on in a movie that you’re in confident hands, and Steven Soderbergh conveys that assurance instantaneously in the opening moments of Presence. Shooting under his usual Dp pseudonym of Peter Andrews, the director guides his subjective camera into every corner of a handsome old two-story house in a leafy suburb, darting through some spaces and sneaking in close for a longer look at others. The gentle piano score doesn’t exactly hint at menace, but we know something is a little off in this desirable property, which stands empty and is about to be shown to prospective buyers.
Following their collaboration on the taut thriller Kimi, Soderbergh again works from an expertly honed screenplay by distinguished vet David Koepp and the pair seem to be in their element building suspense in a single setting. Rather than constrict the storytelling in any way,...
Following their collaboration on the taut thriller Kimi, Soderbergh again works from an expertly honed screenplay by distinguished vet David Koepp and the pair seem to be in their element building suspense in a single setting. Rather than constrict the storytelling in any way,...
- 1/20/2024
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Directed by Steven Soderbergh and penned by David Koepp, the haunting psychological thriller Presence follows a fractured family as a mysterious supernatural force infiltrates their new home and takes interest in their daughter, Chloe. The film stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland and Julia Fox.
An unsettling presence permeates the home of Chris (Sullivan) and Ruth (Liu) before they even move in. This supernatural entity is a witness to the family’s most vulnerable moments. It has a particular focus on the couple’s young daughter, Chloe (Liang), who is always at odds with her mother and brother Tyler (Maday). However, the young girl is in mourning because of her two girls, one of them — her best friend, Nadia — died recently.
Ruth thinks the key is letting her daughter deal with her own problems, while Chris thinks it needs to be addressed. With Tyler having little empathy for her,...
An unsettling presence permeates the home of Chris (Sullivan) and Ruth (Liu) before they even move in. This supernatural entity is a witness to the family’s most vulnerable moments. It has a particular focus on the couple’s young daughter, Chloe (Liang), who is always at odds with her mother and brother Tyler (Maday). However, the young girl is in mourning because of her two girls, one of them — her best friend, Nadia — died recently.
Ruth thinks the key is letting her daughter deal with her own problems, while Chris thinks it needs to be addressed. With Tyler having little empathy for her,...
- 1/20/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
“Presence,” a ghost story directed by Steven Soderbergh, is set entirely inside a lovely, renovated, 100-year-old suburban home, and before the characters even have a chance to move in, the place is already occupied. The camera literally seems to be peering at things, staring out the second-floor windows, then coming down the stairs to witness the arrival of a harried real-estate agent, then the family of four she’s about to sell the house to. Darting from room to room in an unbroken wide-angle-lens shot, the camera gives us an impromptu tour of the house, letting us drink in the crisp mint-green walls, the vintage wood that lines everything, the ancient smoke-glass mirror and polished oak-board floors and elegant sprawling kitchen. Yet this is no mere real-estate porn. For the entire rest of the movie, Soderbergh employs that roving, bobbing and weaving voyeuristic camera’s-eye view. “Presence” might just be...
- 1/20/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Julia Fox stopped by The Hollywood Reporter‘s studio during the Sundance Film Festival on Friday with her Presence co-stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Lang, Eddy Maday and West Mulholland. When asked what the cast is looking forward to accomplishing in 2024, Fox gave a surprising answer: “Go to outer space.”
“Wow, crazy!” remarked Mulholland. Fox then clarified, “Maybe not this year. I’m planting the seed. I’m putting it out in the universe. I’d like to go.” Sullivan supported her decision, noting, “You have to put it out. Who knows what could happen? Someone could put you on a spaceship!”
Fox then shared a message for a certain billionaire who took William Shatner as a guest on his Blue Origin space flight in 2021. “Someone could watch this, Jeff Bezos,” she said while making a phone call hand gesture.
Liu then asked Fox if she preferred to go...
“Wow, crazy!” remarked Mulholland. Fox then clarified, “Maybe not this year. I’m planting the seed. I’m putting it out in the universe. I’d like to go.” Sullivan supported her decision, noting, “You have to put it out. Who knows what could happen? Someone could put you on a spaceship!”
Fox then shared a message for a certain billionaire who took William Shatner as a guest on his Blue Origin space flight in 2021. “Someone could watch this, Jeff Bezos,” she said while making a phone call hand gesture.
Liu then asked Fox if she preferred to go...
- 1/20/2024
- by Tatiana Tenreyro
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lucy Liu Doesn’t Think ‘Charlie’s Angels 3’ Will Ever Get Made: ‘I Will Be Shocked if That Happened’
Two of Lucy Liu’s most popular films are 2000’s “Charlie’s Angels” and 2003’s “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” in which she starred alongside Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore as the titular trio. But Liu revealed at the Variety Studio presented by Audible that it’s unlikely a third chapter will ever happen — despite Diaz’s recent return to acting after a long hiatus.
“I honestly don’t know how that’s going to be feasible,” she said. “There have been so many iterations, even after the fact … In some ways, it’s such a strange thing to think about it. Times have changed so much since then.
“At that time, when we were doing publicity, they had never before had three women on a magazine cover,” she continued. “They didn’t even know how to do it. It was such a strange thing for women to collaborate and be seen as colleagues and friends.
“I honestly don’t know how that’s going to be feasible,” she said. “There have been so many iterations, even after the fact … In some ways, it’s such a strange thing to think about it. Times have changed so much since then.
“At that time, when we were doing publicity, they had never before had three women on a magazine cover,” she continued. “They didn’t even know how to do it. It was such a strange thing for women to collaborate and be seen as colleagues and friends.
- 1/19/2024
- by William Earl
- Variety Film + TV
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