Twister (1989)

Michael Almereyda

A tornado writhes across the sprawling family estate of soda pop and miniature golf magnate, Eugene Cleveland, but the family inside is oblivious to the weather because they are caught up in their own private whirlwind of off-beat opulence, they are too far-gone to recognize the storm that mirrors their own personal battles. They're deviant and loony, eccentric and cartoony, their intelligence is puny - THE CLEVELAND FAMILY!


Tesla

Michael Almereyda

Ethan Hawke stars as iconic inventor Nikola Tesla, fighting an uphill battle to bring his revolutionary electrical system to fruition. Increasingly displeased by the greed of fellow inventor Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan), Tesla forges his own path toward creating the innovative alternate-current motor. In this playful and unconventional biopic director Michael Almereyda (The Experimenter, Marjorie Prime) weaves together a portrait of a rebel ahead of his time through all his controversies, legal battles, entrepreneurial clashes, and romantic interests. The profundity of his electrical mind is unearthed through this rediscovery of the development of electricity in the United States, ultimately posing existential questions about invention, industry, greed, love, and lightning.


Hamlet (2000)

Michael Almereyda

A hip, thoroughly contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare's epic story of passion, betrayal, and revenge! The president of the Denmark Corporation is dead... and already his wife is remarried to the man suspected of his murder! Nobody is more troubled than her son, Hamlet (Ethan Hawke). Now, after this hostile takeover, trust is impossible, passion is on the rise, and revenge is in the air!


Marjorie Prime

Michael Almereyda

In the near future, a time of artificial intelligence: 86-year-old Marjorie (veteran actress Lois Smith, TWISTER, TRUE BLOOD, DEAD MAN WALKING)—a jumble of disparate, fading memories—has a handsome new companion (Jon Hamm, MAD MEN, BABY DRIVER) who looks like her deceased husband and is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? Also starring Academy Award® winners Geena Davis (THELMA & LOUISE) and Tim Robbins (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, MYSTIC RIVER), MARJORIE PRIME is based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play, exploring memory and identity, love and loss.


Escapes

Michael Almereyda

Directed by Michael Almereyda (MARJORIE PRIME) and executive produced by Wes Anderson (THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL), ESCAPES blazes a wild path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. (Fancher also penned the story for its sequel, Blade Runner 2049.) A consummate raconteur, Fancher recounts episodes from his remarkable life — romantic misadventures with silver-screen stars, wayward acts of chivalry, jealousy, and friendship — matched with a parallel world of film and TV footage wherein Fancher plays cowboys, killers, fops, cads, and the occasional hero. Escapes shows how one man’s personal journey can unexpectedly shape a medium’s future.


Experimenter

Michael Almereyda

Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram (Peter Sarsgaard) designs a psychology experiment that remains relevant to this day, in which people think they’re delivering painful electric shocks to an affable stranger (Jim Gaffigan) strapped into a chair in another room. Disregarding his pleas for mercy, the majority of subjects do not stop the experiment, administering what they think are near-fatal electric shots, simply because they’ve been told to. Milgram’s exploration of authority and conformity strikes a nerve in popular culture and the scientific community. Celebrated in some circles, he is also accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster. His wife Sasha (Winona Ryder) anchors him through it all.


Cymbeline

Michael Almereyda

Academy Award® nominees Ethan Hawke (Best Supporting Actor, Training Day, 2001) and Ed Harris (Best Actor, Pollock, 2000) lead a powerhouse cast including Milla Jovovich, John Leguizamo, Penn Badgley, Dakota Johnson and Anton Yelchin, with Bill Pullman and Delroy Lindo in a gritty story of a take-no-prisoners war between dirty cops and an outlaw biker gang. When extortion, betrayal, and fiery passions threaten his criminal empire, a drug kingpin (Harris) is driven to desperate measures in this explosive, modern retelling of Shakespeare's timeless play.


Cherry 2000

Steve De Jarnatt

David Andrews is a young man of the future whose robot/companion suffers an internal meltdown. To replace the parts, Andrews must enter the lawless zone, where he is forced to team up with a real woman when his life is threatened.


This So-Called Disaster

Michael Almereyda

After appearing in Michael Almereyda's film of "Hamlet" (in which he played the ghost), Sam Shepard invited the filmmaker to document the staging of his most recent play, "The Late Henry Moss," when it premiered in San Francisco in the fall of 2000. Almereyda and a small crew were given access to rehearsals and preview performances leading into opening night. The project evolved into something much more intimate and multi-layered than a straightforward record of the play. The resulting indie documentary from IFC Films is a remarkable group portrait - a vivid look at masterful performers working their way through a process of creative discovery. The film stars T Bone Burnett, James Gammon, Woody Harrelson, Cheech Marin, Anne Militello, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn and Sam Shepard and premiered at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival.


Total Recall

Paul Verhoven

Get ready for the ride of your life! This Special Edition DVD allows you to experience Total Recall the way it was meant to be seen and heard. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as Quaid, a 2084 construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars in this crowd-pleasing science fiction spectacle. Against the wishes of his sexy blonde wife (Sharon Stone), Quaid goes to Rekall, a company that implants artificial memories, so he can "remember" visiting the red planet that is now being settled by human inhabitants. However, Quaid is actually an amnesiac secret agent from Mars - or is he?


Happy Here and Now

Michael Almereyda

IFC presents Michael Almereyda's haunting and adventurous mystery about a woman in search of her missing sister. Set in New Orleans, this existential techno-thriller was called "a small masterpiece" by LA Weekly, won the Jury Prize at SXSW and was a 2004 Spirit Award nominee for the Producer's Award.