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The film academy’s best fit is “The Shape of Water.” Guillermo del Toro’s whimsical period romance about a custodial worker and fish-man hybrid who fall in love stacked 13 Oscar nominations on Tuesday morning, more than any other film this year. Those nods included Best Picture, Best Director for Del Toro, Best Actress for Sally Hawkins, and Best Supporting actor and actress for Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer, respectively. It also landed a healthy mix of below-the-line categories like Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design and Sound Mixing. Also Read: Oscars Nominate First Female Cinematographer: Rachel Morrison for 'Mudbound' Trailing behind was Christopher...

While a number of Oscar hopefuls are cheering after their names were read during Tuesday morning's nominations announcement, other individuals and films considered to be contenders found themselves out in the cold.

Wonder Woman was completely shut out by the Academy, even in the technical categories, despite being one of the highest-grossing films of the year and receiving acclaim from a number of critics groups and awards organizations. Also shut out despite receiving early-season awards attention and Golden Globe, SAG Awards and Critics' Choice nominations was Battle of the Sexes, about the historic tennis match between Billie Jean King and...

Greta Gerwig became the fifth woman ever nominated for a best director Oscar on Tuesday morning.

The Lady Bird helmer was the only woman nominated in the otherwise all-male field made up of Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk) and Jordan Peele (Get Out).

Gerwig's nomination comes after she landed a Directors Guild nomination and a best director nomination from the Critics' Choice Awards for her feature directorial debut. The National Board of Review and National Society of Film Critics also named her best director for her work on the film.

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Actress Connie Sawyer passed away at age 105 over the weekend, multiple outlets report. She was the oldest working member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy.

Among Sawyer’s many roles are as James Franco’s godmother in “Pineapple Express” and as a member of one of the couples interviewed in the documentary portion of “When Harry Met Sally…”

She died peacefully in Woodland Hills, California, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House, a community for retired entertainers. A representative for Sawyer did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

John Cena is in talks to star in Paramount’s “Duke Nukem” movie, a big-screen version of the long-running video game franchise.

The project is set up at Paramount-based Platinum Dunes, which is operated by Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller. No director or writer is attached yet.

Duke Nukem first appeared in the 1991 eponymous video game, developed by Apogee Software, as a muscular cigar-chomping man who always wears Ray-Bans and sports a flat-top haircut as he fights aliens to save planet Earth by using enormous physical strength and his expertise in firearms. He’s appeared in 19 video games as the title character, most recently in “Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour.”

Platinum Dunes franchises include “The Purge,” “Ouija,” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” It’s a producer on John Krasinski’s horror movie “A Quiet Place,” opening April 6.

Cena made his name as a WWE star before starting another career as a movie actor more than

The Mighty Ducks may take the ice again as a television series about Disney's underdog Minnesota hockey team is currently in development.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that while the live-action series is still a long way from firing knucklepucks, screenwriter Steven Brill – who penned 1992's The Mighty Ducks and the sequels D2 and D3 – and producer Jordan Kerner have concocted a new story about the ragtag youth hockey team.

As there is not yet a script for the project, it's unclear if Emilio Estevez's Gordon Bombay or any

After 90 long years, another glass ceiling has finally been broken at the Motion Picture Academy.

“Mudbound” cinematographer Rachel Morrison made history Tuesday by becoming the first female director of photography to receive an Oscar nomination. The recognition comes on the heels of a similar milestone with the American Society of Cinematographers, which nominated Morrison’s “Mudbound” work earlier this month.

“I’m glad that people are recognizing the craft of it and not making decisions based on tokenism; Rachel’s work is on the screen,” “Mudbound” director Dee Rees said on a recent episode of Variety‘s “Playback” podcast. “Go to Sandi Sissel, go to Ellen Kuras, go to Rachel Morrison — women have been making interesting images for a long time.”

Morrison won the New York Film Critics Circle’s cinematography prize in December. She was also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award along with recognition from the Chicago and North Carolina film critics organizations.

“Mudbound” was also

Starz is taking a big step in its plan to expand internationally, striking a deal with Bell Media to launch the first Starz-branded service in Canada.

Bell Media’s The Movie Network Encore is to be rebranded next year, likely with Starz in the moniker although Bell Media did not get specific. The channel will also be made available as a standalone app for streaming.

As part of the deal, Starz parent Lionsgate has also set a theatrical pay TV output deal with Bell Media covering future releases. Lionsgate’s existing movie output pact in Canada is with Entertainment One.

“We’re delighted to bring Starz to Canada as part of our international channel rollout,” said Starz president-ceo Chris Albrecht. “Bell Media is one of North America’s elite content companies, and they bring great brand recognition, a massive consumer base, and unparalleled distribution skills to our alliance. This agreement creates the perfect foundation for the growth

Although “Wonder Woman” got snubbed in Tuesday’s Oscar nominations, superhero fans still had reason to celebrate as “Logan” become the first superhero movie to land an Oscar nomination in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Director James Mangold wrote the screenplay with Scott Frank and Michael Green sharing the honor. “Logan” is up against “Call Me By Your Name,” “The Disaster Artist,” “Molly’s Game” and “Mudbound.” “For us, ‘Logan’ was always going to be a dramatic character piece,” Mangold told TheWrap. “The last chapter of Wolverine’s arc, to us, should be about what he fears most, and that’s not the end of...

Oscar nominations are read so quickly that it takes most observers a few beats to fully understand what they’ve just heard: only once you’ve absorbed who’s in, does it hit you who’s out. So it was when Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis announced Paul Thomas Anderson’s bolt-from-the-blue best director nomination for “Phantom Thread.” The gradual realization that he’d made it in ahead of Martin McDonagh — a presumed sure thing for helming Globes and SAG champ “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri” — made Anderson’s nod the biggest twist in a morning of many.

As it turned out, Anderson’s exquisitely crafted, psychologically intense period romance was the surprise package of this year’s nominees, scoring six nominations, including one for best picture. Awards pundits had widely predicted its nominations for composer Jonny Greenwood, costume designer Mark Bridges and, of course, Daniel Day-Lewis, for what the three-time best actor winner claims is his

NBC has given pilot orders to four multi-camera comedies, including projects from Peacock vets Sean Hayes and Michael Schur. “Abby’s” comes from “The Good Place” creator Schur. The show centers around the titular unlicensed bar in San Diego, where the regulars enthusiastically enforce a unique set of rules that give them a sense of community and allow them to avoid the frustrating behavior found at other establishments. Utv, Fremulon and 3 Arts will co-produce the pilot. Schur will act as executive producer along with David Miner and writer Josh Malmuth. Also Read: CBS Orders Three Pilots From Female Executive Producer-Writers “Like Family” is...

Make no mistake about it: the Academy Awards are the ultimate boys club. In the entire history of the ceremony, there had only been four women nominated for Best Director at the Oscars. But on Tuesday morning that number jumped to five when Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) heard her name called as Best Director. (See list of 2018 Oscar nominations.) Below, our writer Kevin Jacobsen looks back at the four previous female director Oscar nominees. Might Gerwig be the second female champion after Kathryn Bigelow accepted the honor for “The Hurt Locker” eight years ago?

Gerwig earned stellar reviews for her solo directorial debut “Lady Bird,” a coming-of-age story starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf as a complex daughter and mother. The Critics’ Choice Awards and Directors Guild Awards nominated Gerwig as Best Director, and she even won the National Board of Review.

This was a standout year for female directors,

It's that vocals that always gets you first – the snarl that comes through Joan Jett's singing, sandpaper-rough around the edges and 100-percent fuck-you attitude. Yes, she's a first-class rhythm guitarist (listen the opening of the Runaways' "You Drive Me Wild" and tell us that's not gloriously, gut-punchingly rifftastic). But that voice ... that's what rock & roll sounds like. Seductive. Jagged. Rebellious. Like her vocal cords are going to jump out of her throat and kick your ass.

Bad Reputation, Kevin Kerslake's doc on Joan of Rock that premiered Monday at Sundance,

Fox’s launch of “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” is poised to end the three-week box office reign of “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” with about $20 million at about 3,800 North American locations.

The action thriller has already opened impressively in four markets overseas, starting with South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan taking in $15 million during its first weekend. The movie’s original release date was delayed for nearly a year in order to allow star Dylan O’Brien to recover from injuries sustained during shooting.

O’Brien stars in the dystopian trilogy as Thomas. The 2014 original opened with $32.5 million and grossed $102 million in U.S. receipts, and 2015 follow-up “The Scorch Trials” opened with $30 million and tallied $82 million in domestic box office. Kaya Scodelario and Thomas Brodie-Sangster also star. Wes Ball directed all three films.

The finale sees a group of escapees attempting to break into the legendary Last City in order to save their friends. Most international

Dominique Fishback follows her breakout work on The Deuce with an emotionally engaging turn as a bruised Pennsylvania teen on a mission of retribution in director Jordana Spiro's Night Comes On. Restrained, affecting and tenderly observed with a distinctly female gaze, the film takes some time to locate its center as an intimate drama of resilient sisterhood. But the delicacy of the bond etched between Fishback's Angel and her ten-year-old sibling, played by captivating discovery Tatum Marilyn Hall, keeps you hooked into this melancholy but hopeful story of fractured family dynamics.

The tragic loss of the girls' mother weighs heavily...

AMC has responded to Frank Darabont’s latest lawsuit, in which the fired “Walking Dead” director claims he is owed additional tens of millions of dollars on top of the $280 million he has been seeking for the past four years.

In a three-page letter to Judge Eileen Bransten, AMC attorney Orin Snyder argues that Darabont and co-plaintiff CAA are seeking a “second bite at the apple” in case they fall short in their original complaint. The original case, which was filed in 2013, is now awaiting a ruling on summary judgment in Bransten’s court.

In his letter, Snyder asks that Bransten suspend the proceedings in her court until the new lawsuit can be addressed. Snyder argues that because the allegations in the second claim concern the same parties and contracts as the first claim, they should be combined into a single case.

“Plaintiffs are, in effect, still throwing legal theories at the wall in the hopes one will

Altice USA has fired back at Starz over the cable network’s FCC request for emergency injunctive relief in the carriage standoff that is now in its fourth week.

Starz has been dark on Altice USA systems since Jan. 1. Last week, Starz asked the FCC to order Starz-Encore channels back on Altice USA systems because the operator violated FCC rules regarding giving subscribers notice of a major programming change. Altice on Tuesday argued in its response to the FCC that Starz’ complaint “has no basis in fact, law or policy.”

Altice argued that it did not violate the FCC rule requiring 30 days notice of a major programming change like the loss of a channels group because Altice had no certainty until the wee hours of Dec. 31 that the 17 Starz-Encore channels would go dark. Negotiations were ongoing up through New Year’s Eve. Although Starz has maintained that it never ordered Altice to drop the channels, the expiration

Actor Simon Shelton, known for voicing Tinky-Winky in the BBC children’s show “Teletubbies,” died on Jan. 17. He was 52.

His niece, Emily Atack, confirmed the news on Instagram.

“My wonderful uncle Simon Barnes has been taken from us all so suddenly. The kindest and most talented man you could ever wish to meet. Loved by all who knew him, and will be forever. X,” she wrote.

The British actor took over the role of the purple Teletubby from 1998 to 2001, after original actor Dave Thompson was fired in 1997. Shelton also played the Dark Knight in the children’s game show “Incredible Games.”

“Teletubbies” was an educational television show for young children that focused on four creatures with televisions on their abdomens who played each day in Teletubbyland. In its heyday, the program reached one billion children in more than 120 countries in 45 languages.

In 1999, conservative televangelist Jerry Falwell spoke out against the show, and Shelton

It seems like January 23 — that’s National Pie Day, for the dessert-obsessed — comes earlier every year, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, in case you got a little behind in planning your big celebration, TheWrap has compiled a collection of notable pie-centric scenes to satisfy your appetite. “American Pie” (1999) Perhaps the most infamous pie scene ever committed to film, this little gem found Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) expanding his masturbatory repertoire by having his way with an apple pie — and having his father (Eugene Levy) walk in on him mid-act.  Also Read: Exclusive: Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy...

It’s no secret that superheroes have taken over Hollywood, but the Academy Awards is one area these caped crusaders can’t seem to dominate. Plenty of pundits thought that could change after 2017 saw the release of a plethora of superhero flicks that pleased audiences and critics alike. DC and Marvel stormed multiplexes with “Logan,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Spider-man: Homecoming,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” and “Wonder Woman.” These lauded films could have Oscar voters embracing this popular film genre.

But that didn’t happen. “Wonder Woman” was one of the most talked about picture of the year. It was the first studio superhero movie to be directed by a woman and feature a female hero on a solo adventure. Gal Gadot’s Amazonian warrior lit up the box office and is largely credited with turning around DC’s sputtering film series. The Producers Guild named it one of the year’s best films,