Batso will tell the true story of Warren “Batso” Harding (Hawke) and Dean Caldwell (Radcliffe), who overcame all odds to become the first climbers to ever take on “The Wall of Early Morning Light”, the famously difficult route up iconic peak El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

Marvin decided to bring their story to the big screen because “we all have a Dawn Wall we are destined to summit, or die trying” because “the people who live in the world of professional climbing may seem to be doing something extreme, but in reality, their actions are a mirror of our lives.”

In addition to Hawke (Boyhood) and Radcliffe (Harry Potter), this film will also star Jessica Biel (Sinner) as trailblazing climber and Harding’s romantic partner, Beryl Knauth.

Eamon O’Sullivan wrote the script for this project, while Michael Rothstein and Samuel Hall of North.Five.Six serve as its executive producers. They’ll be handling international sales at EFM, while CAA Media Finance and WME Independent represent the North American rights.

The original film, based on Joe Hill’s short story The Black Phone, saw a 13-year-old boy Finney trying to escape a serial child killer the Grabber. After being abducted and locked in his basement, Finney comes across a disconnected phone and starts receiving calls from the killer’s previous victims.

Scott Derrickson, who directed the first film, previously said he’d like to work on a sequel, after Joe Hill pitched him “a wonderful idea”. The acclaimed horror author confirmed he’s working on a sequel in an interview with Comic Book, and revealed that the Grabber’s mask from the film was what inspired him to keep expanding this universe.

“As soon as I saw the mask I thought, ‘If this film is a hit, there’ll be a sequel,’ because the mask is so iconic. It is like Freddy Krueger’s glove, it is like Michael Myers’ mask, it is this thing where it’s the imagery, iconic imagery, that haunts people’s sleep,” said Hill.

The Black Phone 2 will premiere on June 27, 2025, and its cast will include the returning cast members Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and Miguel Mora.

The National Society of Film Critics has chosen its best film of 2018 — Chloe Zhao’s The Rider.

The low-budget feature was inspired by the true story of Brady Jandreauo, a rising rodeo star sidelined because of an accident. Jandreau also starred as the lead, cowboy Brady Blackburn.

The top prize of best picture was won—44 votes to the 41 votes that went to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. However, Roma did end the night with the most accolades — three in total. Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director, this time Zhao was a runner-up in the category, as well as Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Film.

Ethan Hawke and Olivia Colman took home the best actor and actress awards for their performances in First Reformed and The Favourite respectively. 

See the complete list of winners below:

Best Picture: The Rider, dir. Chloé Zhao

Runners-up: Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuarón), Burning (dir. Lee Chang-dong)

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Runners-up: Lee Chang-dong (Burning), Chloé Zhao (The Rider)

Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Runners-up: Regina Hall (Support the Girls), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed

Runners-up: Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate), Ben Foster (Leave No Trace), John C. Reilly (The Sisters Brothers and Stan & Ollie)

Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Runners-up: Elizabeth Debicki (Widows), Emma Stone (The Favourite)

Best Supporting Actor: Steven Yeun, Burning

Runners-up: Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)

Best Screenplay: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, and Ian Martin, The Death of Stalin

Runners-up: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (The Favourite)

Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Runners-up: James Laxton (If Beale Street Could Talk), Lukasz Zal (Cold War)

Best Foreign Language Film: Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)

Runners-up: Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski), Burning (Lee Chang-dong), Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda)

Ethan Hawke, who is a long shot for an Oscar award for best actor this year, collected the award in that same category for his masterful performance in First Reformed. This critically acclaimed drama also received the award for best screenplay.

Eighth Grade claimed two awards thanks to its breakthrough stars – lead actress Elsie Fisher and director Bo Burnham. Despite their domination at this year’s Gotham Awards, these indie darlings failed to collect the prestigious best feature award. The Rider by Chloé Zhao came out victorious in this category.

Full List Of 2018 Gotham Awards Winners:

Best Feature – The Rider

Best Actor – Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)

Best Actress – Toni Collette (Hereditary)

Breakthrough Actor – Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)

Breakthrough Director – Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade)

Best Screenplay – Paul Schrader (First Reformed)

Breakthrough Series Long Form – Killing Eve

Breakthrough Series Short Form – 195 Lewis

Best Documentary – Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Audience Award – Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Special Jury Award For Ensemble Performance – The Favourite

Made in NY Award – Sandra Lee

Gotham Tributes – Willem Dafoe, Paul Greengrass, Jon Kamen, Rachel Weisz

Batso will tell the true story of Warren “Batso” Harding (Hawke) and Dean Caldwell (Radcliffe), who overcame all odds to become the first climbers to ever take on “The Wall of Early Morning Light”, the famously difficult route up iconic peak El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

Marvin decided to bring their story to the big screen because “we all have a Dawn Wall we are destined to summit, or die trying” because “the people who live in the world of professional climbing may seem to be doing something extreme, but in reality, their actions are a mirror of our lives.”

In addition to Hawke (Boyhood) and Radcliffe (Harry Potter), this film will also star Jessica Biel (Sinner) as trailblazing climber and Harding’s romantic partner, Beryl Knauth.

Eamon O’Sullivan wrote the script for this project, while Michael Rothstein and Samuel Hall of North.Five.Six serve as its executive producers. They’ll be handling international sales at EFM, while CAA Media Finance and WME Independent represent the North American rights.

The original film, based on Joe Hill’s short story The Black Phone, saw a 13-year-old boy Finney trying to escape a serial child killer the Grabber. After being abducted and locked in his basement, Finney comes across a disconnected phone and starts receiving calls from the killer’s previous victims.

Scott Derrickson, who directed the first film, previously said he’d like to work on a sequel, after Joe Hill pitched him “a wonderful idea”. The acclaimed horror author confirmed he’s working on a sequel in an interview with Comic Book, and revealed that the Grabber’s mask from the film was what inspired him to keep expanding this universe.

“As soon as I saw the mask I thought, ‘If this film is a hit, there’ll be a sequel,’ because the mask is so iconic. It is like Freddy Krueger’s glove, it is like Michael Myers’ mask, it is this thing where it’s the imagery, iconic imagery, that haunts people’s sleep,” said Hill.

The Black Phone 2 will premiere on June 27, 2025, and its cast will include the returning cast members Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and Miguel Mora.

The National Society of Film Critics has chosen its best film of 2018 — Chloe Zhao’s The Rider.

The low-budget feature was inspired by the true story of Brady Jandreauo, a rising rodeo star sidelined because of an accident. Jandreau also starred as the lead, cowboy Brady Blackburn.

The top prize of best picture was won—44 votes to the 41 votes that went to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. However, Roma did end the night with the most accolades — three in total. Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director, this time Zhao was a runner-up in the category, as well as Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Film.

Ethan Hawke and Olivia Colman took home the best actor and actress awards for their performances in First Reformed and The Favourite respectively. 

See the complete list of winners below:

Best Picture: The Rider, dir. Chloé Zhao

Runners-up: Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuarón), Burning (dir. Lee Chang-dong)

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Runners-up: Lee Chang-dong (Burning), Chloé Zhao (The Rider)

Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Runners-up: Regina Hall (Support the Girls), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed

Runners-up: Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate), Ben Foster (Leave No Trace), John C. Reilly (The Sisters Brothers and Stan & Ollie)

Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Runners-up: Elizabeth Debicki (Widows), Emma Stone (The Favourite)

Best Supporting Actor: Steven Yeun, Burning

Runners-up: Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)

Best Screenplay: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, and Ian Martin, The Death of Stalin

Runners-up: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (The Favourite)

Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Runners-up: James Laxton (If Beale Street Could Talk), Lukasz Zal (Cold War)

Best Foreign Language Film: Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)

Runners-up: Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski), Burning (Lee Chang-dong), Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda)

Ethan Hawke, who is a long shot for an Oscar award for best actor this year, collected the award in that same category for his masterful performance in First Reformed. This critically acclaimed drama also received the award for best screenplay.

Eighth Grade claimed two awards thanks to its breakthrough stars – lead actress Elsie Fisher and director Bo Burnham. Despite their domination at this year’s Gotham Awards, these indie darlings failed to collect the prestigious best feature award. The Rider by Chloé Zhao came out victorious in this category.

Full List Of 2018 Gotham Awards Winners:

Best Feature – The Rider

Best Actor – Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)

Best Actress – Toni Collette (Hereditary)

Breakthrough Actor – Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)

Breakthrough Director – Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade)

Best Screenplay – Paul Schrader (First Reformed)

Breakthrough Series Long Form – Killing Eve

Breakthrough Series Short Form – 195 Lewis

Best Documentary – Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Audience Award – Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Special Jury Award For Ensemble Performance – The Favourite

Made in NY Award – Sandra Lee

Gotham Tributes – Willem Dafoe, Paul Greengrass, Jon Kamen, Rachel Weisz