Movie News
Writer-director John Krasinski‘s original family film IF has started off its box office run with $1.8 million in Thursday previews.
The fantasy pic, headlining Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming alongside an A-list voice cast, explores the world of discarded imaginary friends and what happens when a young girl and her neighbor try to reunite them with their previous human pals.
The live-action/CGI animated Paramount pic is tracking for a domestic debut in the $40 million range from more than 4,000 theaters, but the family marketplace continues to struggle in the post-pandemic era. Nor is original fare an easy proposition. It’s hard to read too much into Thursday previews since families don’t start turning out in earnest until Friday and Saturday, generally speaking, although some exhibitors are worried the movie could have a hard time getting to $40 million based on presales, according to sources.
Reviews aren’t so great — If...
The fantasy pic, headlining Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming alongside an A-list voice cast, explores the world of discarded imaginary friends and what happens when a young girl and her neighbor try to reunite them with their previous human pals.
The live-action/CGI animated Paramount pic is tracking for a domestic debut in the $40 million range from more than 4,000 theaters, but the family marketplace continues to struggle in the post-pandemic era. Nor is original fare an easy proposition. It’s hard to read too much into Thursday previews since families don’t start turning out in earnest until Friday and Saturday, generally speaking, although some exhibitors are worried the movie could have a hard time getting to $40 million based on presales, according to sources.
Reviews aren’t so great — If...
- 5/17/2024
- by Pamela McClintock
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Daniel Baur’s K5 Intl. has sold out most of international on Kevin Costner’s two-part Western epic “Horizon: An American Saga,” with only a few territories left, ahead of its world premiere Sunday in Cannes’ out of competition section.
K5 closed sales to Tobis Film (German-speaking territories), Metropolitan Filmexport (France), Stan Entertainment (Australia), Unicorn (Eastern Europe), Sf Studios/Ab Svensk (Scandinavia), Echo Lake Distribution (Airlines), EnterMode (South Korea), Falcon Films (Middle East), Nos Lusomundo (Portugal), Tanweer (Greece), MadMen (Australia), Parallax Studios/Saga Film (Philippines), Aqua Group (Turkey) and Myndform (Iceland).
Warner Bros./New Line will give the films wide releases in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Spain, Italy and the Netherlands on June 28 and Aug. 16.
Last year, Baur re-launched K5 Intl. with a new focus on high-budgeted elevated genre films and series. When Baur received the call from producer Howard Kaplan of Territory Pictures that he was...
K5 closed sales to Tobis Film (German-speaking territories), Metropolitan Filmexport (France), Stan Entertainment (Australia), Unicorn (Eastern Europe), Sf Studios/Ab Svensk (Scandinavia), Echo Lake Distribution (Airlines), EnterMode (South Korea), Falcon Films (Middle East), Nos Lusomundo (Portugal), Tanweer (Greece), MadMen (Australia), Parallax Studios/Saga Film (Philippines), Aqua Group (Turkey) and Myndform (Iceland).
Warner Bros./New Line will give the films wide releases in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Spain, Italy and the Netherlands on June 28 and Aug. 16.
Last year, Baur re-launched K5 Intl. with a new focus on high-budgeted elevated genre films and series. When Baur received the call from producer Howard Kaplan of Territory Pictures that he was...
- 5/17/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety - Film News
A new entry in the “Insidious” franchise has been set for the theaters. The next installment of the Blumhouse Productions horror property, co-produced by Screen Gems, has been added to Sony’s theatrical slate, with the studio dating the film for an Aug. 29, 2025 release.
No further details on the project were disclosed, including whether series regulars such as Patrick Wilson and Leigh Whannell would be involved. The newly announced feature is different from “Thread: An Insidious Tale,” an in-universe series spin-off that was first reported on by Deadline in May 2023 and is said to star Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani, with Jeremy Slater attached to write and direct.
Barring no other “Insidious” installments releasing before this newly announced one, this would mark the sixth entry in the horror franchise and the first since last year’s “Insidious: The Red Door,” which saw actors Patrick Wilson and Ty Simpkins return to...
No further details on the project were disclosed, including whether series regulars such as Patrick Wilson and Leigh Whannell would be involved. The newly announced feature is different from “Thread: An Insidious Tale,” an in-universe series spin-off that was first reported on by Deadline in May 2023 and is said to star Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani, with Jeremy Slater attached to write and direct.
Barring no other “Insidious” installments releasing before this newly announced one, this would mark the sixth entry in the horror franchise and the first since last year’s “Insidious: The Red Door,” which saw actors Patrick Wilson and Ty Simpkins return to...
- 5/17/2024
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety - Film News
The revival of I Know What You Did Last Summer is appropriately set to hit theaters in the dead of summer.
Sony Pictures announced Thursday that its new film with the same name as the original 1997 slasher flick is set for theatrical release domestically on July 18, 2025. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) is directing the sequel from a screenplay she co-wrote with Sam Lansky after an initial script from Leah McKendrick. Neal Moritz produces the film.
The Hollywood Reporter previously reported that Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. were in talks to reprise their roles from the first movie that hit theaters Oct. 17, 1997.
Also scheduled for release on July 18, 2025, is Paramount’s Naked Gun reboot from director Akiva Schaffer that features Liam Neeson as bumbling detective Frank Drebin.
The original I Know What You Did Last Summer starred Hewitt, Prinze, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe. It was penned by...
Sony Pictures announced Thursday that its new film with the same name as the original 1997 slasher flick is set for theatrical release domestically on July 18, 2025. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) is directing the sequel from a screenplay she co-wrote with Sam Lansky after an initial script from Leah McKendrick. Neal Moritz produces the film.
The Hollywood Reporter previously reported that Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. were in talks to reprise their roles from the first movie that hit theaters Oct. 17, 1997.
Also scheduled for release on July 18, 2025, is Paramount’s Naked Gun reboot from director Akiva Schaffer that features Liam Neeson as bumbling detective Frank Drebin.
The original I Know What You Did Last Summer starred Hewitt, Prinze, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe. It was penned by...
- 5/16/2024
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Freddy Fazbear will return to haunt multiplexes in 2025.
Universal and Blumhouse’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a horror sequel set in the haunted Chuck E. Cheese-esque establishment known as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, will land in theaters on Dec. 5, 2025.
Universal added several Blumhouse titles to its release calendar, including “The Woman in the Yard” and “Drop”. The studio also shifted the dates for two other buzzy sequels: “M3GAN 2.0” from May 16, 2025, to June 27, 2025; and “The Black Phone 2” from June 27, 2025, to Oct. 17, 2025.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” adapted from the popular video game, made a killing at the box office last October with $297 million globally and became Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film of all time — all while streaming simultaneously on Peacock. Josh Hutcherson starred in the original as a nighttime security guard at Freddys Fazbear’s Pizza, where the animatronic mascots are prone to murder. The studio hasn’t clarified who is returning for the follow-up,...
Universal and Blumhouse’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a horror sequel set in the haunted Chuck E. Cheese-esque establishment known as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, will land in theaters on Dec. 5, 2025.
Universal added several Blumhouse titles to its release calendar, including “The Woman in the Yard” and “Drop”. The studio also shifted the dates for two other buzzy sequels: “M3GAN 2.0” from May 16, 2025, to June 27, 2025; and “The Black Phone 2” from June 27, 2025, to Oct. 17, 2025.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” adapted from the popular video game, made a killing at the box office last October with $297 million globally and became Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film of all time — all while streaming simultaneously on Peacock. Josh Hutcherson starred in the original as a nighttime security guard at Freddys Fazbear’s Pizza, where the animatronic mascots are prone to murder. The studio hasn’t clarified who is returning for the follow-up,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Lily Allen is the latest star ready to lighten up Night and Day, an adaptation of the comedic Virginia Woolf novel.
The singer and actress joins a cast that includes Haley Bennett, Elyas M’Barek and Timothy Spall, who will bring to life the 1919 novel revolving around the daily lives and romances of two women. Katharine Hilbery (Bennett), is an Edwardian astronomer who avoids love, while Mary (Allen) is a straight-talking, fearless, funny suffragette. Jack Farthing rounds out the cast for the feature.
Justine Waddell penned the script and will produce, with BAFTA nominee Tina Gharavi directing the feature, which is aiming to shoot this fall in Newcastle, England and Cologne, Germany.
Financing company FilmHedge has come on board to back the project, withs its founder and CEO Jon Gosier and its COO Chandler Heinz Laun serving as executive producers, along with Konstantin Korenchuk.
Producers include Christopher Figg, Meg Thomson and German co-producers Glisk,...
The singer and actress joins a cast that includes Haley Bennett, Elyas M’Barek and Timothy Spall, who will bring to life the 1919 novel revolving around the daily lives and romances of two women. Katharine Hilbery (Bennett), is an Edwardian astronomer who avoids love, while Mary (Allen) is a straight-talking, fearless, funny suffragette. Jack Farthing rounds out the cast for the feature.
Justine Waddell penned the script and will produce, with BAFTA nominee Tina Gharavi directing the feature, which is aiming to shoot this fall in Newcastle, England and Cologne, Germany.
Financing company FilmHedge has come on board to back the project, withs its founder and CEO Jon Gosier and its COO Chandler Heinz Laun serving as executive producers, along with Konstantin Korenchuk.
Producers include Christopher Figg, Meg Thomson and German co-producers Glisk,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Aaron Couch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The “Silent Hill” film franchise continues with “Return to Silent Hill,” the latest adaptation of the hit horror anthology video game series. Variety has the first look at the famed monster Pyramid Head in the Christophe Gans-directed film, which is previewing at the Cannes Film Festival.
After helming the “Silent Hill” in 2006, Gans returns to direct the next installment from a script he co-with Sandra Vo-Anh and William Josef Schneider. The project is produced by Victor Hadida for Davis Films, Molly Hassell for Hassell Free Productions and David Wulf.
“Return to Silent Hill” is based on “Silent Hill 2,” the second and most popular game in Konami’s successful video game series, which has been named to top video game lists by Time Magazine, IGN and more. Originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, “Silent Hill 2,” is widely considered the best game in the series (and introduced the Pyramid Head character.
After helming the “Silent Hill” in 2006, Gans returns to direct the next installment from a script he co-with Sandra Vo-Anh and William Josef Schneider. The project is produced by Victor Hadida for Davis Films, Molly Hassell for Hassell Free Productions and David Wulf.
“Return to Silent Hill” is based on “Silent Hill 2,” the second and most popular game in Konami’s successful video game series, which has been named to top video game lists by Time Magazine, IGN and more. Originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, “Silent Hill 2,” is widely considered the best game in the series (and introduced the Pyramid Head character.
- 5/16/2024
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety - Film News
Neon has bought North American rights to “The Unknown” (“L’Inconnue”), the hotly anticipated next movie from “Anatomy of a Fall”’s Oscar-winning co-writer Arthur Harari.
As revealed by Variety earlier this week, the movie will star Léa Seydoux (“Dune 2”) and is being represented in international markets. Harari is rolling off of “Anatomy of a Fall” which he co-wrote with director Justine Triet, abd won an Oscar, two Golden Globes, a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The deal was negotiated by Neon’s president of acquisitions and production Jeff Deutchman with producer Nicolas Anthomé on behalf of the filmmakers, and marks Neon’s second collaboration with Harari following last year’s “Anatomy of a Fall” which Neon acquired out of Cannes in 2023 before it won the Palme d’Or for that year. This deal further cements Neon’s commitment to bringing top-of-the-line international cinema to U.
As revealed by Variety earlier this week, the movie will star Léa Seydoux (“Dune 2”) and is being represented in international markets. Harari is rolling off of “Anatomy of a Fall” which he co-wrote with director Justine Triet, abd won an Oscar, two Golden Globes, a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The deal was negotiated by Neon’s president of acquisitions and production Jeff Deutchman with producer Nicolas Anthomé on behalf of the filmmakers, and marks Neon’s second collaboration with Harari following last year’s “Anatomy of a Fall” which Neon acquired out of Cannes in 2023 before it won the Palme d’Or for that year. This deal further cements Neon’s commitment to bringing top-of-the-line international cinema to U.
- 5/17/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety - Film News
Mofac Animation has found Jesus.
Oscar Isaac has signed on to portray Jesus Christ in The King of Kings, the animated family film being made by the South Korean-based animation house. At the same time, Forest Whitaker has been tapped to give voice to the apostle Peter.
The duo join a growing A-list voice cast that includes Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, and Jojo Rabbit actor Roman Griffin Davis.
Seong-ho “Jay” Jang, known as a visual effects pioneer in Korea, is directing King of Kings while Anfernee Kim (Last Knights, John Woo’s The Crossing 2) is producing.
The faith-based feature is very loosely inspired by The Life of Our Lord, a little-known Charles Dickens short story that was published posthumously and that depicted the life and times of Jesus.
The script, by Jang and Rob Edwards (Disney’s The Princess and the Frog), sees Charles and Walter Dickens, voiced by Branagh and Davis,...
Oscar Isaac has signed on to portray Jesus Christ in The King of Kings, the animated family film being made by the South Korean-based animation house. At the same time, Forest Whitaker has been tapped to give voice to the apostle Peter.
The duo join a growing A-list voice cast that includes Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, and Jojo Rabbit actor Roman Griffin Davis.
Seong-ho “Jay” Jang, known as a visual effects pioneer in Korea, is directing King of Kings while Anfernee Kim (Last Knights, John Woo’s The Crossing 2) is producing.
The faith-based feature is very loosely inspired by The Life of Our Lord, a little-known Charles Dickens short story that was published posthumously and that depicted the life and times of Jesus.
The script, by Jang and Rob Edwards (Disney’s The Princess and the Frog), sees Charles and Walter Dickens, voiced by Branagh and Davis,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Stephen Curry has netted a new scripted project as the basketball superstar continues making inroads as a Hollywood playmaker.
Curry’s producing banner Unanimous Media and David Henrie’s Cedar Hill are developing the basketball-focused comedy feature Trick Shot. A director has yet to be attached to the film that has a script from Jay Longino, whose previous writing credits include Uncle Drew (2018) and Skiptrace (2016).
Trick Shot centers on a middle school student who is dismal at basketball until a freak accident occurs, and he suddenly can’t miss a shot. His newfound hoops talent leads him to become an unexpected NBA rookie, where he is soon an integral member of his favorite team.
Producers include Curry and Erick Peyton for Unanimous Media, David Henrie and James Henrie for Cedar Hill and Ben Everard for Everard Entertainment. Longino and Unanimous’ Brian Testuro Ivie serve as executive producers.
Curry is a...
Curry’s producing banner Unanimous Media and David Henrie’s Cedar Hill are developing the basketball-focused comedy feature Trick Shot. A director has yet to be attached to the film that has a script from Jay Longino, whose previous writing credits include Uncle Drew (2018) and Skiptrace (2016).
Trick Shot centers on a middle school student who is dismal at basketball until a freak accident occurs, and he suddenly can’t miss a shot. His newfound hoops talent leads him to become an unexpected NBA rookie, where he is soon an integral member of his favorite team.
Producers include Curry and Erick Peyton for Unanimous Media, David Henrie and James Henrie for Cedar Hill and Ben Everard for Everard Entertainment. Longino and Unanimous’ Brian Testuro Ivie serve as executive producers.
Curry is a...
- 5/16/2024
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Horror and thriller directors Michael and Peter Spierig (Lionsgate’s Jigsaw) are set to direct Fall 2, it was announced by Capstone Studios’ CEO Christian Mercuri. Scott Mann, who directed and co-wrote the first film, is returning to co-write Fall 2 with Jonathan Frank.
Following the successful survival thriller Fall released in 2022 by Lionsgate, Fall 2 will reunite producers Mark Lane and James Harris of Tea Shop Productions (47 Meters Down), Capstone’s Christian Mercuri, David Haring, and Scott Mann via the Flawless banner.
Dan Asma, John Long, and Roman Viaris will also reunite as executive producers alongside Capstone’s Ruzanna Kegeyan. Capstone will finance the sequel, with Fall 2 set to begin shooting in June 2024.
Capstone Global is handling worldwide rights to the franchise. In late 2023, Capstone Studios greenlit both Fall 2 and Fall 3 under the franchise. Mann will return to write and direct the third installment.
“We’re extremely excited to helm the second...
Following the successful survival thriller Fall released in 2022 by Lionsgate, Fall 2 will reunite producers Mark Lane and James Harris of Tea Shop Productions (47 Meters Down), Capstone’s Christian Mercuri, David Haring, and Scott Mann via the Flawless banner.
Dan Asma, John Long, and Roman Viaris will also reunite as executive producers alongside Capstone’s Ruzanna Kegeyan. Capstone will finance the sequel, with Fall 2 set to begin shooting in June 2024.
Capstone Global is handling worldwide rights to the franchise. In late 2023, Capstone Studios greenlit both Fall 2 and Fall 3 under the franchise. Mann will return to write and direct the third installment.
“We’re extremely excited to helm the second...
- 5/16/2024
- by Mirko Parlevliet
- Vital Thrills
One Cannes ritual is IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond’s annual press lunch. IMAX is thriving in the global marketplace, with more than 1,700 screens in 90 countries, as audiences continue to recognize and embrace the global brand for giant film and digital cameras and big-screen formats. Helfand announced the company’s upcoming 2025 filmed for IMAX slate (below) while at Cannes, which he believes will break records for the company. Thanks to IMAX believer Chris Nolan‘s global blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” IMAX performed at peak capacity with over $1 billion in revenue in 2023, matching the company’s 2019 pre-pandemic record.
IMAX delivered 20% of the global box office for “Oppenheimer” — shot entirely with IMAX film cameras — and more than $190 million worldwide, making it the fifth highest grossing IMAX film of all time. IMAX also delivered 21% of the global box office for “Dune: Part Two” — shot entirely with IMAX-certified digital cameras — and over $145 million worldwide, making it the seventh highest.
IMAX delivered 20% of the global box office for “Oppenheimer” — shot entirely with IMAX film cameras — and more than $190 million worldwide, making it the fifth highest grossing IMAX film of all time. IMAX also delivered 21% of the global box office for “Dune: Part Two” — shot entirely with IMAX-certified digital cameras — and over $145 million worldwide, making it the seventh highest.
- 5/16/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The main cast of Jim Jarmusch‘s first film since 2019’s “The Dead Don’t Die” has been revealed, and what a cast it is. Variety reports that Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Jarmusch regular Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore, and Luka Sabbat join Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps on “Father Mother Sister Brother.” Jarmusch has already wrapped shooting, with post-production underway in NYC, so expect the film to be ready for a premiere later this year.
Continue reading ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’: Jim Jarmusch’s Latest Star Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Tom Waits & More at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’: Jim Jarmusch’s Latest Star Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Tom Waits & More at The Playlist.
- 5/16/2024
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
Sony Pictures and private equity firm Apollo have signed non-disclosure agreements with Paramount Global, according to reports, suggesting that the companies may be moving closer to a deal to buy the Hollywood studio.
Sony and Apollo are thought to have been in talks with Paramount for the past ten days, since the studio’s 30-day exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance Media expired. Non-disclosure agreements would allow Sony and Apollo to examine financial information about Paramount that is not publicly available.
According to the New York Times, however, Sony and Apollo have now backed away from the $26bn...
Sony and Apollo are thought to have been in talks with Paramount for the past ten days, since the studio’s 30-day exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance Media expired. Non-disclosure agreements would allow Sony and Apollo to examine financial information about Paramount that is not publicly available.
According to the New York Times, however, Sony and Apollo have now backed away from the $26bn...
- 5/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
Dabney Coleman, the American character actor best known as the sexist boss in 1980 comedy 9 To 5, has died. He was 92.
Born in Texas, Coleman served in the US Army in Europe in the 1950s and studied law at university before beginning his screen career in the 1960s with appearances in TV series including The Outer Limits, The Fugitive and Bonanza. His early feature films included Downhill Racer and The Towering Inferno.
He became more widely recognised after appearing alongside Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in Twentieth Century Fox comedy 9 To 5, a major hit by the...
Born in Texas, Coleman served in the US Army in Europe in the 1950s and studied law at university before beginning his screen career in the 1960s with appearances in TV series including The Outer Limits, The Fugitive and Bonanza. His early feature films included Downhill Racer and The Towering Inferno.
He became more widely recognised after appearing alongside Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in Twentieth Century Fox comedy 9 To 5, a major hit by the...
- 5/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
Netflix’s rom-com “Mother of the Bride” and Will Forte crime drama series “Bodkin” led the Luminate streaming originals chart for the week of May 10-16, elbowing past higher-profile competition.
Two buzzy streaming original movies — Netflix’s “Unfrosted” and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Idea of You” — held up well in their second full week in release. The Jake Gyllenhaal starrer “Road House” continues to be a work horse for Prime Video, which confirmed earlier this week that a second installment is in development. A surprise on the original film chart was Netflix documentary “Living with Leopards,” which debuted at No. 7.
“Bodkin,” which revolves around a podcast crew that comes to investigate the disappearance of three people from a small town in Ireland years before, moved swiftly up the original streaming series chart, passing Netflix’s “A Man in Full.” The Jeff Daniels’ starrer came in at No. 2 in its second full week in release.
Two buzzy streaming original movies — Netflix’s “Unfrosted” and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Idea of You” — held up well in their second full week in release. The Jake Gyllenhaal starrer “Road House” continues to be a work horse for Prime Video, which confirmed earlier this week that a second installment is in development. A surprise on the original film chart was Netflix documentary “Living with Leopards,” which debuted at No. 7.
“Bodkin,” which revolves around a podcast crew that comes to investigate the disappearance of three people from a small town in Ireland years before, moved swiftly up the original streaming series chart, passing Netflix’s “A Man in Full.” The Jeff Daniels’ starrer came in at No. 2 in its second full week in release.
- 5/18/2024
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety - Film News
Nicolas Cage was having fun as his new trippy psychological thriller, “The Surfer,” scored a six-minute standing ovation at a Cannes Film Festival midnight screening on Friday night.
Cage appeared to be having a ball, beaming from ear to ear and waving across the room as cheers erupted around the Palais. At one point he took the mic to ask how to say “eat the rat” in French — a line from the film — roaring “mangez le rat!” to the delight of the crowd. He also claimed that he’d asked Thierry Fremaux if his acclaimed 2021 drama “Pig” could screen in Cannes (it didn’t).
“The Surfer”, directed by “Vivarium” helmer Lorcan Finnegan, stars Cage as a man who “returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son, but is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing...
Cage appeared to be having a ball, beaming from ear to ear and waving across the room as cheers erupted around the Palais. At one point he took the mic to ask how to say “eat the rat” in French — a line from the film — roaring “mangez le rat!” to the delight of the crowd. He also claimed that he’d asked Thierry Fremaux if his acclaimed 2021 drama “Pig” could screen in Cannes (it didn’t).
“The Surfer”, directed by “Vivarium” helmer Lorcan Finnegan, stars Cage as a man who “returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son, but is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing...
- 5/18/2024
- by Alex Ritman and Ellise Shafer
- Variety - Film News
An office drone must suffer the machismo of an Australian coastal town in this barmy, low-budget thriller about a would-be wave-chaser
Here is a gloriously demented B-movie thriller about a middle-aged man who wants to ride a big wave and the grinning local bullies who regard the beach as home soil. “Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” they shout at any luckless tourist who dares to visit picturesque Lunar Bay on Australia’s south-western coast, where the land is heavy with heat and colour. Tempers are fraying; it’s a hundred degrees in the shade. The picture crash-lands at the Cannes film festival like a wild-eyed, brawling drunk.
The middle-aged man is unnamed, so let’s call him Nic Cage. Lorcan Finnegan’s film, after all, is as much about Cage – his image, his career history, his acting pyrotechnics – as it is about surfing or the illusory concept of home.
Here is a gloriously demented B-movie thriller about a middle-aged man who wants to ride a big wave and the grinning local bullies who regard the beach as home soil. “Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” they shout at any luckless tourist who dares to visit picturesque Lunar Bay on Australia’s south-western coast, where the land is heavy with heat and colour. Tempers are fraying; it’s a hundred degrees in the shade. The picture crash-lands at the Cannes film festival like a wild-eyed, brawling drunk.
The middle-aged man is unnamed, so let’s call him Nic Cage. Lorcan Finnegan’s film, after all, is as much about Cage – his image, his career history, his acting pyrotechnics – as it is about surfing or the illusory concept of home.
- 5/18/2024
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Independent distributor Kino Lorber is expanding its Kino Film Collection US streaming business as a direct-to-consumer service and standalone app on Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV and Roku.
The service was launched last November as one of Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, where it will continue to be available. Subscription to the standalone service will cost $5.99 a month.
The Kino collection features hundreds of films from Kino Lorber’s 4,000-title library as well as new releases fresh from theatres and festivals.
To mark its expansion, the service will this month offer a curated assortment of films originally seen at the Cannes festival,...
The service was launched last November as one of Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, where it will continue to be available. Subscription to the standalone service will cost $5.99 a month.
The Kino collection features hundreds of films from Kino Lorber’s 4,000-title library as well as new releases fresh from theatres and festivals.
To mark its expansion, the service will this month offer a curated assortment of films originally seen at the Cannes festival,...
- 5/17/2024
- ScreenDaily
A year ago, the Cannes Film Festival presented the world premiere of what was widely taken to be Jean-Luc Godard’s final film. He had died by assisted suicide eight months before, and the 20-minute-long “Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars'” felt, by nature, like the aestheticized version of a last will and testament. It was a collage film, and it was (surprise!) oblique, yet it offered tea leaves to read about Godard’s state of mind as he prepared to leave the world.
As it turns out, “Trailer of the Film…” was not Godard’s final work. The 18-minute-long “Scénarios,” also made in a collage style, but simpler and more direct, was unveiled today at Cannes, along with a 34-minute documentary about the making of the short. “Scénarios” has the feel of a minor but purefied late-period work, like a Matisse paper cutout. What’s...
As it turns out, “Trailer of the Film…” was not Godard’s final work. The 18-minute-long “Scénarios,” also made in a collage style, but simpler and more direct, was unveiled today at Cannes, along with a 34-minute documentary about the making of the short. “Scénarios” has the feel of a minor but purefied late-period work, like a Matisse paper cutout. What’s...
- 5/17/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety - Film News
US industry workers union IATSE (the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) has said it will resume negotiations over a basic agreement in June after the originally scheduled window for talks ended this week.
Talks between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over a basic agreement resumed at the end of April, and continued until May 16. Though the scheduled negotiation spell did not produce a deal, progress is said to have been made and there are hopes of a deal being reached before the current agreement expires on July 31.
However in a notice to...
Talks between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over a basic agreement resumed at the end of April, and continued until May 16. Though the scheduled negotiation spell did not produce a deal, progress is said to have been made and there are hopes of a deal being reached before the current agreement expires on July 31.
However in a notice to...
- 5/17/2024
- ScreenDaily
The world recently said farewell to Roger Corman, the legendary B-movie producer, writer, director, and performer who passed away at the well-lived age of 98. Corman completely revolutionized the film industry, not only with his independent spirit and penchant for low-budget fare, but also serving as a launchpad for some of cinema's greatest creatives, including Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, and Penelope Spheeris, and that's just scratching the surface.
Known by many for his hundreds of produced films, Corman was also a well-decorated director in his own right, helming 55 films before his death. Corman dabbled in any and all genres, with comedy, drama, horror, exploitation, monster, sci-fi, sexploitation, gothic, and action all well-represented throughout his filmography. In honor of the King of B-movies and one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, here are his 10 best films as a director, ranked.
Known by many for his hundreds of produced films, Corman was also a well-decorated director in his own right, helming 55 films before his death. Corman dabbled in any and all genres, with comedy, drama, horror, exploitation, monster, sci-fi, sexploitation, gothic, and action all well-represented throughout his filmography. In honor of the King of B-movies and one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, here are his 10 best films as a director, ranked.
- 5/17/2024
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Umbrelic Entertainment has unveiled the cast of its upcoming horror film, “The Possession at Gladstone Manor,” which includes Caylee Cowan (“Hypnotic”), Jesse Metcalfe (“John Tucker Must Die”), Charlotte Kirk (“The Reckoning”), Darren Weiss (“Inside Man”), Barbara Crampton (“You’re Next”), William Mapother (“Blackhat”) and Lin Shaye (“Insidious” franchise).
Production is currently underway in Kansas City, and Amp’s Anthony Buckner is handling international sales at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
According to an official logline, “The Possession at Gladstone Manor” picks up “when Jamie Black discovers her mother has gone missing [and] resolves to investigate by applying for the same job her mother held at Gladstone Manor. Jamie soon finds evidence that her mother isn’t the only missing person, and that she may be dealing with sinister forces beyond this world.”
“As die-hard fans of the horror genre, this project feels like a dream come true,” said producer Thomas Zambeck.
Production is currently underway in Kansas City, and Amp’s Anthony Buckner is handling international sales at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
According to an official logline, “The Possession at Gladstone Manor” picks up “when Jamie Black discovers her mother has gone missing [and] resolves to investigate by applying for the same job her mother held at Gladstone Manor. Jamie soon finds evidence that her mother isn’t the only missing person, and that she may be dealing with sinister forces beyond this world.”
“As die-hard fans of the horror genre, this project feels like a dream come true,” said producer Thomas Zambeck.
- 5/17/2024
- by Jack Dunn
- Variety - Film News
Dabney Coleman, one of the best-known character actors of the late 20th century, has died at the age of 92. The news of his death has been confirmed by IndieWire.
In a statement obtained from his manager Jeffrey Goldberg, Coleman’s daughter Quincy wrote, “My father, Dabney Wharton Coleman, took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely at 92 in his Santa Monica home on Thursday May 16th, 2024 at 1:50pm. My father crafted his time here on earth with a curious mind, a generous heart, and a soul on fire with passion, desire, and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity. As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery. A teacher, a hero, and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy…...
In a statement obtained from his manager Jeffrey Goldberg, Coleman’s daughter Quincy wrote, “My father, Dabney Wharton Coleman, took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely at 92 in his Santa Monica home on Thursday May 16th, 2024 at 1:50pm. My father crafted his time here on earth with a curious mind, a generous heart, and a soul on fire with passion, desire, and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity. As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery. A teacher, a hero, and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy…...
- 5/17/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Dabney Coleman, the Emmy-winning character actor who starred in the 1980 comedy classic “9 to 5” and whose career in film and television spanned six decades, died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 92.
Coleman’s death was confirmed to Variety by his daughter, Quincy Coleman.
“My father crafted his time here on earth with a curious mind, a generous heart, and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity,” Quincy Coleman said in a statment. “As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery. A teacher, a hero, and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy… eternally. And always, ‘A goddamn, good looking man.'”
A stage actor early in his career,...
Coleman’s death was confirmed to Variety by his daughter, Quincy Coleman.
“My father crafted his time here on earth with a curious mind, a generous heart, and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity,” Quincy Coleman said in a statment. “As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery. A teacher, a hero, and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy… eternally. And always, ‘A goddamn, good looking man.'”
A stage actor early in his career,...
- 5/17/2024
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety - Film News
Closer in tone to the sharp adult series “BoJack Horseman” than to Illumination’s bland “Sing” franchise, Netflix’s “Thelma the Unicorn” avoids being rendered completely unoriginal by its overly familiar premise thanks to consistent splashes of acid humor and a plethora of wacky supporting characters. Reimagined from the popular 2015 children’s book by Aaron Blabey, this bright-colored fable concerns a female pony chasing musical stardom disguised as a horned magical creature. But by changing her identity to chase those ambitions, Thelma betrays herself and those who truly know her.
The adaptation marks the animated feature debut for co-directors Jared Hess and Lynn Wang. Hess, still best known for co-writing and directing the 2004 indie hit “Napoleon Dynamite,” received an Oscar nomination earlier this year for the handcrafted animated short “Ninety-Five Senses” about a Death Row inmate. He shared the accolade with his wife and careerlong collaborator Jerusha Hess (also his...
The adaptation marks the animated feature debut for co-directors Jared Hess and Lynn Wang. Hess, still best known for co-writing and directing the 2004 indie hit “Napoleon Dynamite,” received an Oscar nomination earlier this year for the handcrafted animated short “Ninety-Five Senses” about a Death Row inmate. He shared the accolade with his wife and careerlong collaborator Jerusha Hess (also his...
- 5/17/2024
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Variety - Film News
Nine years ago, director George Miller came kind of out of nowhere to deliver one of the greatest action movies of all time with "Mad Max: Fury Road." Miller revived the long-dead franchise with a film so universally beloved the only shocking thing is that it took nine years to get another "Mad Max" movie made. Well, here we are, staring down the barrel of the release of "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," which tells the origin story of Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron in "Fury Road"). The question is, can this prequel build on the audience that has come to adore "Fury Road" in the years since its release? Warner Bros. will need that to be the case for the film to be an outright hit at the box office.
"Furisa" hits theaters next weekend and will be opening directly against "The Garfield Movie." Admittedly, these films are both playing for radically different audiences.
"Furisa" hits theaters next weekend and will be opening directly against "The Garfield Movie." Admittedly, these films are both playing for radically different audiences.
- 5/17/2024
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Jacob Elordi Skips Cannes as Crying Paul Schrader Accepts 4-Minute Standing Ovation for ‘Oh, Canada’
Paul Schrader shed tears as his new film “Oh, Canada” earned a four-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Friday night.
Jacob Elordi was notably absent from the premiere, possibly because he is filming Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” in which he stars as The Monster. After the ovation finished, Schrader addressed Elordi not being there, saying: “I’m very happy with Richard, Uma, Jake — not here with us –and it all worked out. Im very happy to be back here on the Croisette.”
Elordi, whose star continues to rise after acclaimed turns in “Saltburn” and “Priscilla,” made his Cannes debut last year in Sean Price Williams’ road movie “The Sweet East.”
The drama tells the life story of a troubled writer, Leonard Fife, who at the end of his life reflects on his decision to flee to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Richard Gere plays the present-day Leonard,...
Jacob Elordi was notably absent from the premiere, possibly because he is filming Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” in which he stars as The Monster. After the ovation finished, Schrader addressed Elordi not being there, saying: “I’m very happy with Richard, Uma, Jake — not here with us –and it all worked out. Im very happy to be back here on the Croisette.”
Elordi, whose star continues to rise after acclaimed turns in “Saltburn” and “Priscilla,” made his Cannes debut last year in Sean Price Williams’ road movie “The Sweet East.”
The drama tells the life story of a troubled writer, Leonard Fife, who at the end of his life reflects on his decision to flee to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Richard Gere plays the present-day Leonard,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Matt Donnelly, Ramin Setoodeh and Ellise Shafer
- Variety - Film News
“How can so much suffering have no meaning?”
That’s a question posed by decorated documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife in Paul Schrader’s meandering ode to death, dying, aging, and regret, “Oh, Canada.” It’s inevitably one also felt by audiences who will be left bewildered by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s most experimental and alienating work in some time, which loses itself in the process.
With “Oh, Canada,” Schrader splices timelines, color palettes, and aspect ratios to tell Fife’s story as a now-revered nonfiction movie-maker who fled the United States in the late 1960s for Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Schrader is a gifted filmmaker who has given us so much more than “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter,” the only movies audiences of late seem to remember him by. He’s not unfamiliar with unpacking a great and morally complicated artist’s work in wildly subversive...
That’s a question posed by decorated documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife in Paul Schrader’s meandering ode to death, dying, aging, and regret, “Oh, Canada.” It’s inevitably one also felt by audiences who will be left bewildered by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s most experimental and alienating work in some time, which loses itself in the process.
With “Oh, Canada,” Schrader splices timelines, color palettes, and aspect ratios to tell Fife’s story as a now-revered nonfiction movie-maker who fled the United States in the late 1960s for Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Schrader is a gifted filmmaker who has given us so much more than “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter,” the only movies audiences of late seem to remember him by. He’s not unfamiliar with unpacking a great and morally complicated artist’s work in wildly subversive...
- 5/17/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Cannes film festival
A dying director who fled from the US to Canada agrees to make a confessional film in Schrader’s fragmented and anticlimactic story
Muddled, anticlimactic and often diffidently performed, this oddly passionless new movie from Paul Schrader is a disappointment. It is based on the novel Foregone by Russell Banks (Schrader also adapted Banks’s novel Affliction in 1997) and reunites Schrader with Richard Gere, his star from American Gigolo. Though initially intriguing, it really fails to deliver the emotional revelation or self-knowledge that it appears to be leading up to. There are moments of intensity and promise; with a director of Schrader’s shrewdness and creative alertness, how could there not be? But the movie appears to circle endlessly around its own emotions and ideas without closing in.
The title is partly a reference to the national anthem of that nation, which is a place of freedom...
A dying director who fled from the US to Canada agrees to make a confessional film in Schrader’s fragmented and anticlimactic story
Muddled, anticlimactic and often diffidently performed, this oddly passionless new movie from Paul Schrader is a disappointment. It is based on the novel Foregone by Russell Banks (Schrader also adapted Banks’s novel Affliction in 1997) and reunites Schrader with Richard Gere, his star from American Gigolo. Though initially intriguing, it really fails to deliver the emotional revelation or self-knowledge that it appears to be leading up to. There are moments of intensity and promise; with a director of Schrader’s shrewdness and creative alertness, how could there not be? But the movie appears to circle endlessly around its own emotions and ideas without closing in.
The title is partly a reference to the national anthem of that nation, which is a place of freedom...
- 5/17/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Straying from the hotheaded “Taxi Driver” style that has dominated much of his career, Paul Schrader pays ruminative and respectful tribute to his late friend, novelist Russell Banks, who gave the writer-director the raw material for one of his best films, “Affliction” — and now, for one of his best films in years. Adapted from Banks’ “Foregone” (and given the title the author told Schrader he wanted for the book), “Oh, Canada” presents a dying artist’s final testimony as a multifaceted film-within-a-film, honoring Banks while also revealing so many of Schrader’s own thoughts on mortality.
Fighting a long, painful bout with cancer, documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife has scores of admirers and a shelf full of awards. As the movie opens, two former students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), arrive at their mentor’s Montreal home and proceed to set up a unique camera rig. It’s a...
Fighting a long, painful bout with cancer, documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife has scores of admirers and a shelf full of awards. As the movie opens, two former students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), arrive at their mentor’s Montreal home and proceed to set up a unique camera rig. It’s a...
- 5/17/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety - Film News
"Alien 3" remains a fascinating entry within one of sci-fi's most enduring franchises. While both Ridley Scott's original "Alien" and James Cameron's "Aliens" remain unimpeachable classics, the third entry is a bit more divisive. It was director David Fincher's feature debut and the end result is a bit messy, in no small part thanks to studio interference. The version we got sees Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in a space prison, once again facing off against a Xenomorph. But director Renny Harlin, of "Deep Blue Sea" and "Cliffhanger" fame, had a radically different idea for the film when he was attached, and sadly, that version never came to fruition.
"I always thought that I had a good idea," Harlin said recently in an interview with /Film's Jacob Hall in honor of his upcoming film "The Strangers: Chapter 1," which is the first part of a whole new trilogy.
"I always thought that I had a good idea," Harlin said recently in an interview with /Film's Jacob Hall in honor of his upcoming film "The Strangers: Chapter 1," which is the first part of a whole new trilogy.
- 5/17/2024
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Bowen Yang realized that he couldn’t defy gravity — or sleep deprivation — when filming “Wicked.”
The “SNL” star told Vanity Fair that he found it “mentally fraying” to fly back and forth between the “Wicked” production in London and his weekly sketch series in New York City. Even “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels seemingly warned Yang against spreading himself too thin.
“This is when Lorne Michaels comes in,” Yang said. “Whatever you think about the situation, however you think it’s unique to you, however you think you might be the exception to the rule, Lorne is here to be like, ‘Actually, it might not be so good on the body for you to fly back and forth between New York and London to go shoot a movie.'”
Yang admitted that he was referencing “Wicked” as the most recent example of balancing both his TV and film obligations.
“I’ll say ‘Wicked,...
The “SNL” star told Vanity Fair that he found it “mentally fraying” to fly back and forth between the “Wicked” production in London and his weekly sketch series in New York City. Even “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels seemingly warned Yang against spreading himself too thin.
“This is when Lorne Michaels comes in,” Yang said. “Whatever you think about the situation, however you think it’s unique to you, however you think you might be the exception to the rule, Lorne is here to be like, ‘Actually, it might not be so good on the body for you to fly back and forth between New York and London to go shoot a movie.'”
Yang admitted that he was referencing “Wicked” as the most recent example of balancing both his TV and film obligations.
“I’ll say ‘Wicked,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
After much hemming and hawing and a little bit of teases about his appearance, Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy has been confirmed for Sony’s “28 Years Later” horror thriller.
Sony chief Tom Rothman revealed the news in a new interview with Deadline. “Yes [Murphy will return], but in a surprising way and in a way that grows, let me put it that way,” Rothman said.
Continue reading Cillian Murphy Confirmed For Danny Boyle’s ‘28 Years Later’ at The Playlist.
Sony chief Tom Rothman revealed the news in a new interview with Deadline. “Yes [Murphy will return], but in a surprising way and in a way that grows, let me put it that way,” Rothman said.
Continue reading Cillian Murphy Confirmed For Danny Boyle’s ‘28 Years Later’ at The Playlist.
- 5/17/2024
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Do you remember where you were 25 years ago when Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Deep Blue Sea" was shockingly eaten by a shark in the middle of his impassioned speech? I unfortunately didn't see it in theaters, but when I rented the DVD from Blockbuster, I remember practically leaping off my couch when that big moment happened. It's one of the most surprising movie moments of the past 30 years -- and not only was that jaw-dropping plot beat not in the original script, but once it made its way into the movie, Warner Bros. wanted to use it in the trailers. Thankfully, director Renny Harlin put his foot down and won that fight against the studio.
Timed to the release of his new film, "The Strangers: Chapter 1," we spoke with Harlin in a career-spanning interview, and naturally, we had to ask about the big "Deep Blue Sea" death, the most memorable imagery from his chaotic,...
Timed to the release of his new film, "The Strangers: Chapter 1," we spoke with Harlin in a career-spanning interview, and naturally, we had to ask about the big "Deep Blue Sea" death, the most memorable imagery from his chaotic,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Ben Pearson
- Slash Film
“Jaws” in 1975 is remembered as the movie that birthed the summer global blockbuster; its many children include “Star Wars,” Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Top Gun,” “Ghostbusters,” “Ghost,” “Twister,” “The Lion King,” “Independence Day,” “Speed,” and “Men in Black.” Today, that bloodline is threatened with extinction.
On the surface, that seems ridiculous — summer box office is still defined by blockbusters — but today that means sequels. It’s become exceedingly rare for studios to invest over $100 million in a summer movie with an original screenplay that’s not already part of a franchise. That’s what makes Paramount Pictures’ $110 million “If” such an outlier.
Still, being that exception also hands writer-director John Krasinski a double-edged sword. Those original blockbusters — all released between 1975-1999 — ended up with domestic gross totals, in 2024 ticket price terms, of over $400 million. Consensus on opening weekend for “If” has been around $40 million,...
On the surface, that seems ridiculous — summer box office is still defined by blockbusters — but today that means sequels. It’s become exceedingly rare for studios to invest over $100 million in a summer movie with an original screenplay that’s not already part of a franchise. That’s what makes Paramount Pictures’ $110 million “If” such an outlier.
Still, being that exception also hands writer-director John Krasinski a double-edged sword. Those original blockbusters — all released between 1975-1999 — ended up with domestic gross totals, in 2024 ticket price terms, of over $400 million. Consensus on opening weekend for “If” has been around $40 million,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Mamoudou Athie can practically taste the lobster rolls from the Carlton hotel. He smiles wistfully as he taps into that sense memory of his first trip to the Cannes Film Festival. In 2023, Athie voiced the lead role in Disney-Pixar’s “Elemental,” which closed the fest. And he’s returning this week as part of the first-rate ensemble of Yorgos Lanthimos’ offbeat movie “Kinds of Kindness.”
Discussion of the crustacean-filled dish might seem irrelevant, but it’s perhaps not incidental. Athie begins our conversation by revealing that his first encounter with Lanthimos’ unique sensibilities was 2015’s “The Lobster.” The Mauritanian American actor, who was studying at Yale School of Drama at the time, was captivated by the originality of the material and the conviction the filmmaker brought to his craft.
“I love something that feels fresh and innovative and risky,” Athie says, sitting down with Variety in late April and eagerly...
Discussion of the crustacean-filled dish might seem irrelevant, but it’s perhaps not incidental. Athie begins our conversation by revealing that his first encounter with Lanthimos’ unique sensibilities was 2015’s “The Lobster.” The Mauritanian American actor, who was studying at Yale School of Drama at the time, was captivated by the originality of the material and the conviction the filmmaker brought to his craft.
“I love something that feels fresh and innovative and risky,” Athie says, sitting down with Variety in late April and eagerly...
- 5/17/2024
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety - Film News
Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore are teased as playing the same character for feminist body-horror thriller “The Substance.”
The Cannes feature, which premieres in competition at the festival, has already been picked up by Mubi for worldwide distribution. French director Coralie Fargeat helms her sophomore film, following her debut “Revenge” which premiered at TIFF in 2017.
“The Substance” is titled for a mysterious serum that transforms users into the ideal versions of themselves. The elusive official synopsis reads: “It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance…what could possibly go wrong?”
The teaser shows Moore intently watching an ad for the substance injection and contemplating undergoing its cellular division. Could Qualley be who Moore transforms into?...
The Cannes feature, which premieres in competition at the festival, has already been picked up by Mubi for worldwide distribution. French director Coralie Fargeat helms her sophomore film, following her debut “Revenge” which premiered at TIFF in 2017.
“The Substance” is titled for a mysterious serum that transforms users into the ideal versions of themselves. The elusive official synopsis reads: “It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance…what could possibly go wrong?”
The teaser shows Moore intently watching an ad for the substance injection and contemplating undergoing its cellular division. Could Qualley be who Moore transforms into?...
- 5/17/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
ReFrame, the Sundance Institute and Women In Film partnership to advance gender equity in the screen industries, announced in Cannes on Friday it is expanding its programme recognising gender-balanced hiring on features into Canada, the UK, Ireland, India, and Australia.
The ReFrame Stamp verifies feature productions that hire women or individuals from minority gender communities including trans, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming individuals in at least 50% of key roles, above and below the line.
The Stamp will be accessible to producers in the five countries starting in autumn, when full international qualifying criteria will be released.
Since launching in 2017 it has been...
The ReFrame Stamp verifies feature productions that hire women or individuals from minority gender communities including trans, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming individuals in at least 50% of key roles, above and below the line.
The Stamp will be accessible to producers in the five countries starting in autumn, when full international qualifying criteria will be released.
Since launching in 2017 it has been...
- 5/17/2024
- ScreenDaily
In “The Big Cigar,” contradictions weigh heavily on Huey P. Newton (played by the magnificent André Holland). He sees them everywhere. For instance, Huey notes that the NRA contradicted their general ideology by helping the GOP pass gun control laws in the 1960s, all because they were afraid of the group Newton co-founded: the Black Panthers. He’s also keenly aware of the contradiction inherent to a Black man being “set free” from a prison of bars and stone into the prison of the American way. “Contrary to propagated belief, I’m not living to die, but I am refusing to live without liberation,” Huey says during his opening voice-over narration.
He even acknowledges the contradiction inherent to “The Big Cigar” itself, saying, “The story I’m about to tell you is true. […] But it is coming through the lens of Hollywood, so let’s see how much of my...
He even acknowledges the contradiction inherent to “The Big Cigar” itself, saying, “The story I’m about to tell you is true. […] But it is coming through the lens of Hollywood, so let’s see how much of my...
- 5/17/2024
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
Earlier this week, comedy writer/director Judd Apatow ended his 30-year relationship with his agency UTA, Deadline describing it as a “magical run” (lol). Trades run lip service-y pieces like this all the time: actors, filmmakers, and talent-changing agencies as a way to generate press for these companies and as tacit understanding for staying in good favor with agents who are the ones often feeding them leaks, exclusives, and scoops.
So, other than Apatow leaving an agency he loyally stuck with for 30 years, there’s no real story there.
Continue reading 3 Judd Apatow Projects Apparently Couldn’t Get Greenlit, Including A Cancel Comedy Starring Zach Galifianakis [Report] at The Playlist.
So, other than Apatow leaving an agency he loyally stuck with for 30 years, there’s no real story there.
Continue reading 3 Judd Apatow Projects Apparently Couldn’t Get Greenlit, Including A Cancel Comedy Starring Zach Galifianakis [Report] at The Playlist.
- 5/17/2024
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” starring Emma Stone, freaked out Cannes Film Festival on Friday night with an anthology of stories about sex cults, cannibalism and general debauchery.
Lanthimos’ follow-up to “Poor Things” earned a 4.5-minute standing ovation, with the director and his cast — including Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Joe Alwyn — leaving while the applause was still going. “Kinds of Kindness” tells three distinctive stories with cast members playing different roles in each. There were a few walkouts during the Cannes premiere, most of them coming after the film’s gorier, second chapter. Lanthimos abruptly left the screening and didn’t speak to audience members once the clapping stopped.
The film, like many of Lanthimos’ avant-garde offerings, overflows with outré plot twists as well as some outrageous moments — like Chau licking sweat off her followers as part of a cult ritual, a man who becomes...
Lanthimos’ follow-up to “Poor Things” earned a 4.5-minute standing ovation, with the director and his cast — including Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Joe Alwyn — leaving while the applause was still going. “Kinds of Kindness” tells three distinctive stories with cast members playing different roles in each. There were a few walkouts during the Cannes premiere, most of them coming after the film’s gorier, second chapter. Lanthimos abruptly left the screening and didn’t speak to audience members once the clapping stopped.
The film, like many of Lanthimos’ avant-garde offerings, overflows with outré plot twists as well as some outrageous moments — like Chau licking sweat off her followers as part of a cult ritual, a man who becomes...
- 5/17/2024
- by Ellise Shafer and Brent Lang
- Variety - Film News
A hot, strong summer wind is the overriding soundtrack to “Three Kilometers to the End of the World” — the kind of dry, whirring weather that swallows conversations held even a short distance away, and carries stray, light objects far from where they meant to land. For 17-year-old Adi, however, it’s not loud enough to keep his secrets safe, nor heavy enough to lift and float him away from the home in which he feels increasingly imprisoned. A rural village in thrall to the Romanian Orthodox Church proves as hostile an environment as you’d expect for a closeted gay teen in writer-director Emanuel Pârvu’s claustrophobic study of personal and institutional prejudice closing in on a community misfit: If the breeze would just die down for a second, you might hear Adi’s inner clock tensely counting down his slim shot at freedom.
An accomplished actor now making his third feature behind the camera,...
An accomplished actor now making his third feature behind the camera,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety - Film News
A New Mexico judge on Friday asked a series of skeptical questions of the prosecutor in the Alec Baldwin manslaughter case, suggesting she might decide to throw out the indictment.
Baldwin is scheduled to face a trial in Santa Fe in July for negligently pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and pulling the trigger. In New Mexico, involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.
Baldwin’s defense has asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to throw out the case, arguing that prosecutors failed to make defense witnesses available to the grand jury.
At a hearing on Friday, Marlowe Sommer asked the prosecutor, Kari Morrissey, why she had not made more of an effort to contact those witnesses before the grand jury proceeding.
“Common sense tells me you should have reached out ahead of time,” she said.
The judge also questioned why Morrissey had cut off a witness...
Baldwin is scheduled to face a trial in Santa Fe in July for negligently pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and pulling the trigger. In New Mexico, involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.
Baldwin’s defense has asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to throw out the case, arguing that prosecutors failed to make defense witnesses available to the grand jury.
At a hearing on Friday, Marlowe Sommer asked the prosecutor, Kari Morrissey, why she had not made more of an effort to contact those witnesses before the grand jury proceeding.
“Common sense tells me you should have reached out ahead of time,” she said.
The judge also questioned why Morrissey had cut off a witness...
- 5/17/2024
- by Gene Maddaus
- Variety - Film News
It's not that theaters are in danger of going away in the immediate future, but the movie business is in a bit of a crisis. Thanks to the pandemic, the box office has struggled to get back to the level of ticket sales the industry had become accustomed to. The SAG and WGA strikes last year have put us in a situation where the 2024 box office is in rough shape thus far, with the summer now burdened by unreasonable expectations. So, what can be done? One Hollywood executive believes he has the answer: Make the experience of going to the movies cheaper.
Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman recently sat down to speak with Deadline. As the head of one of Hollywood's biggest studios -- one that doesn't have a streaming service and is very reliant on box office -- he has a good vantage point to comment on these matters.
Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman recently sat down to speak with Deadline. As the head of one of Hollywood's biggest studios -- one that doesn't have a streaming service and is very reliant on box office -- he has a good vantage point to comment on these matters.
- 5/17/2024
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
The Cannes Film Festival is many things: A prestigious platform for the best of world cinema, a massive industry event where film acquisitions get made, a testament to the French film industry’s classism and rampant sexual abuse. But more than anything, it’s one of the world’s greatest photo opps.
Sure, sure, everyone wants the Palme D’or. But even more people would kill to get seen on the iconic Cannes red carpet, and get their picture snapped by the hordes of press that camp on the Croisette. Some of the world’s most glamorous and beautiful celebrities can be seen on the steps outside the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès every year posing for the cameras, and while it’s not quite the fashion moment that the Met Gala is, it still offers a great opportunity for us pleebs to gawk at some particularly shiny stars in all of their finery.
Sure, sure, everyone wants the Palme D’or. But even more people would kill to get seen on the iconic Cannes red carpet, and get their picture snapped by the hordes of press that camp on the Croisette. Some of the world’s most glamorous and beautiful celebrities can be seen on the steps outside the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès every year posing for the cameras, and while it’s not quite the fashion moment that the Met Gala is, it still offers a great opportunity for us pleebs to gawk at some particularly shiny stars in all of their finery.
- 5/17/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees wrapped up its third week of negotiations with Hollywood’s major studios and streamers on a new Basic Agreement on Thursday, but has yet to reach a deal.
In a message to members on Friday, the union said it expects to add additional bargaining days to the schedule in June. The contract is due to expire on July 31, and the union has repeatedly stated it does not intend to grant an extension.
The Basic Agreement covers 45,000 to 50,000 crew members, largely based in Los Angeles, from 13 local unions. The major issues on the table include funding of the union benefit plans, wage increases, artificial intelligence protections, and safety measures.
“We are working toward setting additional bargaining dates to continue to negotiate the deal our members deserve,” Matt Loeb, the international president of IATSE, said in the message.
Outward signs thus far have indicated that...
In a message to members on Friday, the union said it expects to add additional bargaining days to the schedule in June. The contract is due to expire on July 31, and the union has repeatedly stated it does not intend to grant an extension.
The Basic Agreement covers 45,000 to 50,000 crew members, largely based in Los Angeles, from 13 local unions. The major issues on the table include funding of the union benefit plans, wage increases, artificial intelligence protections, and safety measures.
“We are working toward setting additional bargaining dates to continue to negotiate the deal our members deserve,” Matt Loeb, the international president of IATSE, said in the message.
Outward signs thus far have indicated that...
- 5/17/2024
- by Gene Maddaus
- Variety - Film News
IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, announced Friday, May 17 that it has for now concluded negotiations on its Basic Agreement with the AMPTP without yet reaching a tentative agreement on a new contract.
The guild expects to resume talks for the Basic Agreement in early June and will now shift its focus to its Area Standards Agreement, which covers film and TV workers outside of Los Angeles and encompasses another 23 locals around the country. Negotiations for that contract, as previously scheduled, will begin May 20 and continue through May 31. All of this follows IATSE’s 13 individual locals each reaching a tentative deal with the AMPTP on issues specific to their locals.
IATSE’s Basic Agreement contract and the Asa do not expire until July 31, so not reaching a deal does not mean talks broke down. However, some members are demanding more transparency. Earlier this week, a group known as...
The guild expects to resume talks for the Basic Agreement in early June and will now shift its focus to its Area Standards Agreement, which covers film and TV workers outside of Los Angeles and encompasses another 23 locals around the country. Negotiations for that contract, as previously scheduled, will begin May 20 and continue through May 31. All of this follows IATSE’s 13 individual locals each reaching a tentative deal with the AMPTP on issues specific to their locals.
IATSE’s Basic Agreement contract and the Asa do not expire until July 31, so not reaching a deal does not mean talks broke down. However, some members are demanding more transparency. Earlier this week, a group known as...
- 5/17/2024
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
David Cronenberg shocked the cinema world two years ago when he came out of retirement and showed up at the Cannes Film Festival with a new film, “Crime Of The Future.” 2014’s “Map To The Stars,” which also had a Cannes premiere, was initially supposed to be Cronenberg’s last. Now, will the Canadian auteur’s latest, “The Shrouds,” be his swan song?
Continue reading ‘The Shrouds’: David Cronenberg Remains Uncertain If His Latest Film Will Be His Last: “I Really Don’t Know” at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Shrouds’: David Cronenberg Remains Uncertain If His Latest Film Will Be His Last: “I Really Don’t Know” at The Playlist.
- 5/17/2024
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
Glen Powell’s journey to superstardom began in a creative writing class at Austin’s Westwood High School. He was the only one of the kids who was trying his hand at writing screenplays.
“My teacher, Dr. [F.J.] Schaak was like, ‘Hey, you love writing screenplays. There is no better guy than Richard Linklater. Study all of his movies,'” the actor told IndieWire.
Through Schaak, Powell, who’d already been pursuing acting — his name is still written on the dressing room wall of Austin’s Paramount Theatre, where he performed in “The Sound of Music” as a teenager — met Linklater as well. And Linklater’s longtime editor Sandra Adair spoke to his class.
“I remember watching ‘Waking Life’ in his class, and obviously ‘Dazed,'” Powell said. “And we were sitting there going, ‘Man, this guy can do ‘Before Sunset,’ all these things,’ and we were just like, ‘This guy can kind of do anything,...
“My teacher, Dr. [F.J.] Schaak was like, ‘Hey, you love writing screenplays. There is no better guy than Richard Linklater. Study all of his movies,'” the actor told IndieWire.
Through Schaak, Powell, who’d already been pursuing acting — his name is still written on the dressing room wall of Austin’s Paramount Theatre, where he performed in “The Sound of Music” as a teenager — met Linklater as well. And Linklater’s longtime editor Sandra Adair spoke to his class.
“I remember watching ‘Waking Life’ in his class, and obviously ‘Dazed,'” Powell said. “And we were sitting there going, ‘Man, this guy can do ‘Before Sunset,’ all these things,’ and we were just like, ‘This guy can kind of do anything,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
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