Movie News

Exclusive: Netflix and writer/director Wash Westmoreland have set Jack Huston to play the male lead in an adaptation of the Susanna Jones novel The Earthquake Bird. He stars alongside previously set Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough. The Earthquake Bird is a Tokyo-set female-driven noir thriller that tells the story of young female expat who is suspected of murder after her friend goes missing in the wake of a tumultuous love triangle with a handsome local photographer. Huston, best known for Boardwalk Empire, plays the photog. Pic shoots this May in Tokyo and Sado Island.

Scott Free’s Kevin Walsh and Michael Pruss will produce alongside Ann Ruark and Twenty First City’s Georgina Pope. Ridley Scott will be exec producer.

The Earthquake Bird won several awards including the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Crime Writers’ Association New Blood Dagger Award for newly published authors. Westmoreland seems a strong

Stranger Things and Mr. Mercedes actor Peyton Wich has been cast in Sony's Goosebumps 2, joining Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ken Jeong, Chris Parnell, Madison Iseman, Ben O'Brien, Caleel Harris, and Jeremy Ray Taylor. Ari Sandel is developing this latest version based on the popular book series by R.L. Stine. Rob Lieber penned the screenplay for the sequel, which will open in theaters October 12. Neal H. Moritz is producing the pic under his Original Film shingle, along with…

Focus Features announced Wednesday that it is giving Josie Rourke’s Elizabethan biopic “Mary Queen of Scots” a December 7 release, right in the middle of awards season.

The film stars two of this year’s Best Actress Oscar nominees, Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, who will respectively play Mary Stuart and her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. It follows Mary after her husband, the French monarch Francis II, dies when she is 18. Defying demands that she remarry, she returns to her native Scotland to become Queen there, only to find that it has fallen under Elizabeth’s rule. In a world dominated by men, the two cousins vie for control of England’s throne, setting off a chain reaction of rebellion and conspiracy.

It's game on for F. Gary Gray and Hasbro's M.A.S.K. property.

The Fate of the Furious filmmaker will direct the project for Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

No writer is yet attached to the project, based on the 1980s property created by the now-defunct toy company Kenner. The premise, which revolves around the task force M.A.S.K. (which stands for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) and its battle against the evil V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem), has spawned a cartoon series and comics in addition to a number of toys. Gray is producing the film along with Hasbro.

Gray's Fast and Furious installment...

They will host market screenings for Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio’s film in Cannes.

LevelK has acquired world sales rights to Finnish comedy Heavy Trip after its successful launch at SXSW.

LevelK will host market screenings in Cannes for the film, which is directed by Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio.

Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho produced for Making Movies on a budget of $3.8m (€3.1m), financed by the Finnish Film Foundation, Yle & Film Camp.

Scanbox Entertainment released the film locally on March 9.

The cast includes Johannes Holopainen, Minka Kuustonen & Ville Tiihonen.

The story is about an unknown heavy metal

Actor’s barrister says Bauer had a campaign to ‘take down’ Wilson and attempted to ‘neutralise’ her responses

Rebel Wilson deserved the right to reply before a magazine publisher accused her of being a serial liar – and an apology afterwards – a Melbourne court has been told.

The Australian actor is in Melbourne for day two of a court of appeal hearing as Bauer Media challenges supreme court of Victoria orders it must pay her $4.5m for defamation.

The great “Saturday Night Live” performers have always been more than funny. They’re up there to make you laugh, of course, but it’s the way they make you laugh — the manic expressive rock-star shine of their personality, and how it channels their comedic spirit. (That’s something you hold onto long after the laugh is over.) And no one on “Saturday Night Live” ever had a spirit that burned more brightly, or hilariously, than Gilda Radner.

She poured her essence — her very being — into every character she created, and she did it effortlessly, without fuss. When she played Judy Miller, the hyperactive Brownie who made up insanely self-directed TV fantasies in her bedroom, Radner seemed to be channeling her inner child — but that, in a larger sense, is what she did in every sketch. She didn’t just create characters. She became them, and invited the audience to

Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland play lovable oldsters on a road trip, with soppy, insufferable results

Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland take to the road in this soppy bittersweet heart-sinker – depressing in various intentional and unintentional ways. Lovably impulsive oldsters Ella and John infuriate their uptight children (played by Christian McKay and Janel Moloney) by heading off in their cranky old Winnebago for a last road trip in the sunset of their lives, despite their frailties. They are cheerful, gutsy, secretly scared of the future and by imminent revelations about their shared past.

It is an Italian production, directed by Paolo Virzì and co-written by Stephen Amidon, adapting the novel by Michael Zadoorian.

Exclusive: Marking the first collaboration between the Tribeca Film Festival and a health organization, a new John Hillcoat- directed short Corazon , fully financed by the Montefiore Health System , has its World Premiere Friday at the fest where it is a finalist in the Tribeca X section which is a juried award for storytelling supported by a brand recognizing the intersection of advertising and entertainment. Attracting top talent like director Hillcoat, Oscar…

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Americans” Season 6, Episode 4, “Mr. and Mrs. Teacup.”]

Who thought a montage involving Paige making out and Philip line dancing could be so heartbreaking?

Thus is the power of “The Americans,” as showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg almost simultaneously doled out pleasure and pain in a bone-chilling fourth episode. Philip (Matthew Rhys) clung to his simple pleasures while he could, retreating to his favorite country bar to kick off his boots with coworkers before snacking on potato chips over a pile of mounting bills. Paige’s (Holly Taylor) date turned from a fun night out to a professional conflict as she stared at her sleeping beau’s valuable ID badge. And then there’s Elizabeth (Keri Russell): so close to getting what she needs, only to be left with nothing yet again.

She’s tired, and we’re scared. Much like joy and sorrow are contradictory emotions, each

Naina Sen’s joyful, compassionate film about an Aboriginal women’s choir shows the complex, unexpected consequences of colonisation

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There is a scene about an hour into Naina Sen’s documentary The Song Keepers in which a woman in her 60s ascends a ridge. The surrounding terrain is harsh desert, the red-hued country synonymous with the Australian outback. Below, nestled among the green blooms of towering eucalypts, is a patchwork of corrugated tin roofing that is the small, remote township of Areyonga. Visually the shot is sumptuous: a striking, sun-drenched panorama that alludes to the extent of isolation experienced by the Aboriginal communities that feature in the film. But that’s not all it is.

The woman is Theresa Nipper, a member of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir that is the subject of The Song Keepers.

[Editor’s note: Spoilers follow for “The Expanse” Season 3, Episode 2, “Iff.”]

In Wednesday night’s episode of “The Expanse,” fans were introduced to a major new player for Season 3, and Anna Volovodov sure did make an impact: because in a sea of screaming men and women, she was the only nice person around.

We first see Anna attempting to enter the United Nations on Earth while scooting past a mob of anti-war protestors. When a young man collapses through the barricade and breaks his wrist in front of her, she demonstrates immense calm as she directs a nearby guard to help the guy, not taking no for an answer but handling the situation with firm grace, even after getting hit in the head.

So it’s not that much of a surprise when we find out that she’s not just a nice lady: She’s a Reverend Doctor who leads a small Methodist congregation, who

Exclusive: Netflix and writer-director Wash Westmoreland have set Jack Huston for their adaptation of the Susanna Jones novel The Earthquake Bird. The Boardwalk Empire alum co-stars alongside previously set Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough as an aspiring British musician who dreams of making it big in Tokyo. The Earthquake Bird is a Tokyo-set female-driven noir thriller that tells the story of young female expat who is suspected of murder after her friend goes missing…

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from “Riverdale” Episode 18, “Chapter Thirty-One: A Night to Remember.”]

Well, the Riverdale High musical went about as well as could be expected, and by that we mean that someone got murdered.

For the special episode airing Wednesday, the students of “Riverdale” staged a production of “Carrie: The Musical,” a Broadway musical adapted from Stephen King’s 1974 novel. Kevin Keller (Casey Cott) directed the play with Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) in the title role and Alice Cooper (Madchen Amick) as her religious mother Margaret. Or at least, that was the plan until Kevin continued to receive cut-and-paste death threats from the Black Hood (but didn’t he die?) demanding that Cheryl be replaced as the lead or else a very heavy sandbag would take her out of commission.

Even though Cheryl refuses to bow to thespian terrorism, her mother Penelope (Nathalie Boltt) refuses to let her participate, forcing Kevin to replace Cheryl with

Focus Features has moved its awards-season contender “Mary, Queen of Scots,” starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, back five weeks from Nov. 2 to Dec. 7.

Ronan is starring in the title role opposite Robbie as Elizabeth I. Josie Rourke is making her feature directorial debut on the movie, directing from a script by Beau Willimon. The project is based on John Guy’s biography “My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots.”

Producers are Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and Debra Hayward. The trio all received best picture Academy Award nominations for “Les Misérables.” Other cast members include Guy Pearce, David Tennant, Jack Lowden (“Dunkirk”), Joe Alwyn, Martin Compston, and Brendan Coyle (“Downton Abbey”).

The story is set during the 16th century when Mary Stuart became Queen of France at 16, was widowed two years later, and returned to her native Scotland to reclaim her throne.

Universal Pictures set a Sept. 27, 2019, release date for its action-thriller “The Hunt,” produced by Jason Blum for his Blumhouse Productions alongside Damon Lindelof for his White Rabbit shingle.

The studio won an auction last month for “The Hunt,” a spec script written by “Lost” and “The Leftovers” co-creator Lindelof and Nick Cuse. Craig Zobel (“Z for Zachariah”) has been set to direct. Lindelof, Cuse, and Zobel all previously collaborated on HBO’s “The Leftovers.”

Lindelof’s feature writing credits include Brad Pitt’s “World War Z” and “Prometheus.” Nick Cuse is the son of Carlton Cuse, who teamed with Lindelof on “Lost.” Nick Cuse began as a writer’s assistant on “The Leftovers” and later became a story editor and writer. Zobel directed several episodes of the show.

Universal is keeping the plot details under wraps. Blumhouse and Universal saw an impressive 2017 with “Split,” “Get Out,” and “Happy Death Day.

Company founder says ‘work’ on The Lord Of The Rings and Cortés series to begin this year.

In the week Netflix top brass said global subscribers had hit 125m, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has revealed his company’s Amazon Prime service has exceeded 100m members.

Bezos told shareholders in a letter released on Wednesday (April 18) that more new members joined Prime worldwide in 2017 than in any other year in the service’s 13-year history.

Prime Day 2017 was the company’s biggest global shopping event ever until it was surpassed by Cyber Monday.

Bezos said Prime Video “continued to drive Prime

Company founder says ‘work’ on The Lord Of The Rings and Cortés series to begin this year.

In the week Netflix top brass said global subscribers had hit 125m, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has revealed his company’s Amazon Prime service has exceeded 100m members.

Bezos told shareholders in a letter released on Wednesday (April 18) that more new members joined Prime worldwide in 2017 than in any other year in the service’s 13-year history.

Prime Day 2017 was the company’s biggest global shopping event ever until it was surpassed by Cyber Monday.

Bezos said Prime Video “continued to drive Prime

David Leitch is a busy man. In addition to the highly anticipated Deadpool 2, which will be out later this year, the director is also helming the Fast and Furious spin-off movie Hobbs and Shaw, and is looking into potentially doing a sequel to his action hit Atomic Blonde. In an interview with Fandango, Leitch gave a few updates on those projects, as well as some thoughts on the Deadpool sequel: “We did our best to expand the action, and in a general sense, just make it bigger. In terms of the tone, and the fun, and the DNA …

Rumours has swirled around future of festival, key film event in Middle East.

The organisers of the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) have announced a one-year hiatus with the next edition now scheduled for 2019 as part of a major overhaul of the event.

They said the move was part of a new strategy to support the growth and evolution of the film and content industries in the region, and added that from now the festival would be held every two years from 2019 onwards.

“With the vast changes taking place both in the regional and global movie-making and content industry, we