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Convicted felon Randall Miller is planning on returning to a film set, and this time, the state of California may be helping him.

After pleading guilty to criminal trespassing and involuntary manslaughter in the on-set death of camera assistant Sarah Jones while shooting the film “Midnight Rider” in Georgia, Miller served a year in prison and is still currently under probation. Despite this, as reported by Variety, California has granted Miller $1.5 million in tax incentives to shoot in the state for an upcoming independent feature for which he and his team are currently seeking financing. Per the terms of his probation, Miller is unable to direct this project but has written the script and will serve as a producer.

The tax credits granted were for a production called “Supercrip,” which, according to a description, tells the story of a quadriplegic Uber driver whose life changes after meeting “a self-centered movie star.

Director Randall Miller, who remains on probation for the fatal accident on the set of “Midnight Rider,” has scored $1.5 million in California state tax incentives to make his next independent feature.

Miller and his team were granted the tax credit to make “Supercrip,” a story about a quadriplegic Uber driver whose life is changed when he meets a “self-centered movie star,” according to the description.

Miller is not allowed to direct movies while on probation. In an interview, he said he wrote the screenplay, but is not directing. No director has been hired.

He said filming is expected to begin on March 1, though he is still working to put together the financing. His probation is due to expire on March 9, after which he will no longer face any court-imposed limit on his activity.

Miller pleaded guilty in 2015 to involuntary manslaughter in the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones. He was...

Exclusive: Wavelength, the NYC and London-based film production and branded content studio has promoted two and hired one.

The studio’s UK Managing Director, Dan Bowen, will now take on the role of Senior Vice President of Branded Content while former Head of Studios, Mike Prall, now serves as Vice President of Productions. Wavelength is also bringing PR efforts in-house and has tapped film and entertainment publicist Lynsey Gray as Head of PR.

As part of the leadership team, the trio works closely with Wavelength’s Emmy-winning duo, Founder, CEO, and Executive Producer, Jenifer Westphal and President and Executive Producer, Joe Plummer to build on the company’s success and global strategy, which is driven by its mantra: We tell great f**king stories.

“We are thrilled to announce these strategic changes as we continue to evolve and expand our global footprint,” explains Jenifer Westphal. “Dan and Mike have been instrumental in shaping our success,...

Saoirse-Monica Jackson has proven herself as a versatile actress through her roles in various TV shows and films, ranging from teen sitcoms to big-budget superhero movies. She has showcased her comedic strengths in her role as Roopa in the comedy film Coffee Wars, giving one of the funniest and strongest performances in the whole film. Derry Girls is considered one of the best British shows on Netflix, and Saoirse-Monica Jackson shines in her role as Erin Quinn, proving her top-notch comedic timing and ability to anchor a series.

While she may be best known for her role as Erin Quinn in the teen sitcom Derry Girls, Saoirse-Monica Jackson has appeared in a number of TV shows and films that have consistently proven her talents as an actress. Her first role was in the British crime miniseries The Five, and since then she has appeared in a number of other projects...

Having grown up on the music of Kate Nash, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to the talented artist, to look across the release of Coffee Wars, where she takes a starring role as the vegan barista Jo, hoping to shake up the world of coffee making – and maybe change a few people’s perspectives along the way.

We spoke to Nash (and her dogs) on Zoom, to discuss her real life veganism, and her experiences making the switch. She also talks about her relationship with coffee, and looks back across her career, and her musical beginnings on MySpace. She also speaks about Netflix series Glow, and why she stills holds out some hope that one day a season four could be made.

Watch the full interview with Kate Nash here:

Synopsis

Coffee aficionado Jo is doing her best to stay afloat running her own coffee...

Coffee Wars Trailer — Randall Miller‘s Coffee Wars (2023) movie trailer has been released. The Coffee Wars trailer stars Kate Nash, Toby Sebastian, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Owain Arthur, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jordan Stephens, Maya Savin Miller, Jenny Rainsford, and Freddie Fox. Crew Randall Miller and David Rollins wrote the screenplay for Coffee Wars. Poster Coffee Wars Movie Poster Plot Synopsis Coffee Wars‘s [...]

Continue reading: Coffee Wars (2023) Movie Trailer: Coffee Aficionado Kate Nash faces Her Archrival at the World Barista Championships...

"This year we need a drink that wins it all!" How about just a nice espresso? An official trailer has debuted for an indie comedy called Coffee Wars, just a movie about baristas battling it out at a coffee competition. This hasn't premiered at any film festivals, as far as we know, and it will be out to watch in March on VOD. Coffee aficionado Jo is doing her best to keep her plant-based, independent, coffee shop afloat alongside her band of misfit employees. In a last-ditch effort to save her business, Jo and her team embark to battle it out as the underdogs competing in the World Barista Championship in order to finally have a chance to prove herself in the dairy-dominated world of coffee. The film stars Kate Nash as Jo, Toby Sebastian, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Owain Arthur, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jordan Stephens, Maya Savin Miller, Jenny Rainsford, and Freddie Fox.

Alan Brain’s 2021 award-winning “The Rumba Kings” and Jace Panebianco’s “Broken Molds” will be among the films showcased at the Maui Film Festival, which will accommodate guests in an open-air, pod-style seating, from Nov. 17-21 at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center in Kahului. There are 13 premieres among the features in the lineup.

Even though the festival has arranged for guests to show proof of vaccination, for those who wish to participate virtually, 90 feature films and shorts are available to stream. These include Nov. 17 screenings: Emily Sky’s “River,” which explores space and time throughout six continents; Panebianco’s “Broken Molds,” which follows the origin story of windsurfing, and Isaac Halasima’s “Waterman,” a documentary narrated by Jason Mamoa, that tells the story of five-time Olympic Gold medalist Paoa Kahanamoku.

Peggy Callahan and Louie Psihoyos “Mission Joy,” explores the friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, and Frauke Sandig’s documentary,...

A Georgia judge on Wednesday decided not to send Randall Miller back to jail for shooting a movie in 2019, but warned the director not to make any more films for the remainder of his sentence.

Miller is on probation for the 2014 death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, who was killed in a train crash on the set of “Midnight Rider.” Miller pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and served a year in jail in Wayne County, Ga. The judge, Anthony Harrison, also sentenced Miller to 10 years of probation, during which he was not to work as a “director, first assistant director or supervisor with responsibility for safety in any film production.”

Local prosecutors moved last year to revoke Miller’s probation, after learning that Miller had directed a new film, “Higher Grounds,” in Serbia, London and Colombia in 2019. At a lengthy hearing on Wednesday, Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins...

Midnight Rider director Randall Miller told a Georgia court Wednesday that he never knowingly violated the conditions of his probation for the 2014 death of Sarah Jones, and that was just enough to convince a judge not to send him back to jail.

“I was allowed to continue to work in the film business as long as I worked in a role that did not involve safety,” Miller said in video testimony today from his home in California, regarding his understanding of the parameters of his probation and parole. “It was important to me that I had no role in safety if I was to do any movie at all,” the Bottle Shock helmer added.

“I get that he was nervous and heard what he wanted to hear,” Judge Anthony L. Harrison declared of Miller misunderstanding the scope of his sentence in the heat of trial back in 2015. Yet, the Georgia...

Director Randall Miller has asked a Georgia judge to once again delay his probation hearing, noting that he recently tested positive for Covid-19.

Miller is on probation for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2014 death of Sarah Jones, a camera assistant who was killed in a train crash on the set of the film “Midnight Rider.” Under the terms of his sentence, Miller was not to serve as a director for a period of 10 years.

However, Miller directed a film called “Higher Grounds” in Serbia in 2019. When officials were alerted to the project last spring, they accused Miller of violating his probation.

The hearing was originally scheduled for June but has been repeatedly delayed. It is now set for Nov. 30. On Monday afternoon, Miller’s attorneys informed Judge Anthony Harrison that Miller had tested positive for Covid-19 and could not travel for at least three weeks.

“For the foregoing reasons,...

Update, Aug. 14: Randall Miller’s hearing before Judge Anthony L. Harrison has been delayed again, now set for Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 9Am Et, “upon agreement of counsel, and for good cause shown” according to an amended rule nisi which you can read here. Deadline will update you if we hear back from Miller’s attorney Ed Garland or Harrison, but we hear that talks between prosecutors and Miller’s team are ongoing to determine whether or not the Midnight Rider filmmaker should serve more time in jail after directing the DGA signatory film Higher Grounds last summer in Serbia, Colombia and the UK during his probation period.

On May 29, Georgia law enforcement authorities requested that Department of Community Supervision issue an arrest warrant for the filmmaker, asserting that he violated the conditions of his probation.

Miller’s lawyers on June 2 said that Miller was well within his rights to...

Exclusive: Update, 12:45 Pm: Looks like both Randall Miller and the family of Sarah Jones will have to wait a while longer to discover if the Midnight Rider director could be going back to jail or not.

A hearing (exclusively revealed by Deadline last week) on the possible probation violation by the once again working filmmaker that was scheduled for June 17 at the at the Wayne County Courthouse in Jesup, Georgia and online has been moved to July 22.

“Technical issues” was the reason given for the more than a month long delay.

This postponement comes as prosectors and lawyers for Miller have already de facto clashed outside the courthouse on whether a warrant should be issued for the Californian-based director. However, the shift today from the court clerk’s office does give Miller some significant breathing room over if his helming of the comedy Higher Grounds overseas last year was out of bounds or not.

Exclusive: One week after Georgia prosecutors sought a new arrest warrant for Midnight Rider director Randall Miller over probation violations stemming from the 2014 on-set death of Sarah Jones, the filmmaker’s lawyers are fighting back to stop potential return to jail for their client.

“The defense urges the court to deny the application for a warrant,” proclaims a June 2 memorandum from the Atlanta firm of Garland, Samuel & Loeb that was made public by the Peach State courts today.

As exclusively reported by Deadline on May 27, last year Miller was the director of the independent feature comedy Higher Grounds in Serbia, UK and Columbia. On the surface, the DGA sanctioned gig seems to be in contradiction to the terms of Miller’s 2016 probation from his involuntary manslaughter conviction that appeared to not allow him to direct anything for 10 years.

Miller’s attorneys have argued that he was well within the rules...

Randall Miller, the “Midnight Rider” director serving probation for his role in the 2014 death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, will be summoned to court for allegedly violating his probation by directing a new film last year, Variety reported.

As part of a 2015 plea deal in Georgia, Miller pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing and involuntary manslaughter in connection to Jones’ death. She was killed and several others injured when a train plowed through a “Midnight Rider” set that was set up on a Georgia train trestle.

He was released after serving a year in prison and is now subject to a 10-year probation in which he is “prohibited from serving as director, first assistant director or supervisor with responsibility for safety in any film production.”

Miller’s lawyers understood that to mean that Miller was allowed to shoot his latest film, “Higher Grounds,” in Serbia, Colombia, and the UK last year,...

“Midnight Rider” director Randall Miller violated his probation by shooting a new independent film overseas, Georgia officials from the Department of Community Supervision told TheWrap Friday.

“After a thorough review of the case and collaboration with our partners in law enforcement, it has been determined that Mr. Miller’s actions result in a violation of his probation, and appropriate action will be taken,” Brian Tukes, a spokesman for the department, said in a statement.

Local prosecutors can now seek a warrant for Miller’s arrest, though a representative for the Superior Criminal department in Wayne County told TheWrap that no violation has been filed as of Friday.

Also Read: 'Midnight Rider' Case: Csx Transportion Settles with Sarah Jones' Family

Miller, who served a year in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass over the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones during the 2014 shoot of “Midnight Rider,...

Exclusive: Six years after Sarah Jones was killed on the Georgia set of Midnight Rider, director Randall Miller is facing being arrested again.

Law enforcement authorities in the Peach State today requested that Department of Community Supervision issue a warrant for Miller for violating the conditions of his probation, we have learned. The effort arises from Deadline’s exclusive earlier this week that Miller had directed the DGA sanctioned film Higher Grounds last summer in Serbia, Colombia and the UK.

“I have requested Wayne County probation to issue a warrant for his arrest,” Assistant District Attorney John Johnson told Deadline on Friday. “Randall Miller has violated the terms of his probation,” the Georgia prosecutor added of Miller getting behind the camera on the Kate Nash-starring Higher Grounds. “As a director, he’s in violation.”

If after a hearing before a judge, Miller is found to have violated his probation,...

Exclusive: The parents of Sarah Jones are calling on the DGA to kick Randall Miller out of the guild after learning that he recently directed a new movie, Higher Grounds, in Serbia and Colombia last summer — this despite the special conditions of his probation after he spent a year in jail for the death of their daughter, Sarah Jones.

Jones was killed by a speeding freight train on the first and only day of shooting on the Miller-directed Midnight Rider in Georgia in 2014.

In a statement provided to Deadline tonight, Jones’ parents, Richard and Elizabeth, said that “The legal system will decide whether Mr. Miller violated the terms of his probation when he produced and directed the feature film Higher Grounds. But in our opinion he most certainly violated the moral and ethical standards that informed his court sentencing. To us, his actions were blatantly defiant and egregiously disrespectful to the entire creative community,...

Randall Miller, the director who spent a year in prison after pleading to involuntary manslaughter when camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed during production of his film “Midnight Rider,” has directed another movie — despite a clause in his plea agreement that called for a 10-year probation in which he was “prohibited from serving as director, first assistant director or supervisor with responsibility for safety in any film production.”

However, Miller is now in post production on “Higher Grounds,” a comedy centered around a barista championship, that he shot in Serbia, Colombia, and the U.K. Miller’s attorney, Richard Thompson of Brecheen Feldman Breimer Silver & Thompson, said he believed the production did not violate the terms of the plea agreement.

“Our understanding of the terms of his probation is that he’s allowed to direct as long as he’s not in charge of safety,” Thompson told IndieWire. “We were...

Exclusive: Due to ambiguity in probation documents, disgraced Midnight Rider director Randall Miller is back behind the camera and making movies – despite an involuntarily manslaughter guilty plea that many believed forbid such work for up to decade.

Deadline has learned that Miller directed the comedy Higher Grounds in Serbia and Colombia last year. The completed feature follows a vegan barista, played by Glow‘s Kate Nash, whose coffee shop is sinking, and gears up as the underdogs in the World Barista Championships. Higher Grounds was produced by Miller and his wife Jody Savin, who was also an initial defendant in the Sarah Jones death case, with charges eventually dismissed.

Jay Karandikar, Satish Karandikar, Zak Kristofek and Michael Melroy Smith are also executive producers on Higher Grounds.

Some talent reps who had their clients involved in the new movie wanted to vet Miller’s current situation to direct, we’ve learned.