Movie News

Team Downey is going to focus on TV at HBO.

Robert Downey Jr. and his wife and producing partner Susan Downey have signed a one-year, first-look deal with the premium cable network. The company, which next has Matthew Rhys vehicle Perry Mason bowing this year, will create and develop new projects for HBO.

"HBO provided a happy home for Perry Mason. We’re excited to roll up our sleeves, expand the partnership, and tell stories that meet the standard their brand has come to represent," the Downeys said in a joint statement to THR.

Perry Mason was originally conceived ...

Two years after BlacKkKlansman debuted on the Croisette, Spike Lee is heading back to Cannes to serve as jury president.

The 62 year-old U.S. filmmaker will award the Palme dO’r at the close of the 73rd edition, which will take place from 12-23 May, 2020. Jury members will be announced in mid-April.

BlacKkKlansman, which won Cannes’ Grand Prix and scored Lee’s first Oscar, marked the director’s return to Cannes after a 22-year absence. Seven of Lee’s movies have played at the festival, including She’s Gotta Have It, Do The Right Thing and Summer Of Sam.

Lee said in a statement, “In this life I have lived, my biggest blessings have been when they arrived unexpected, when they happened out of nowhere. When I got the call that I was offered the opportunity to be president of Cannes jury for 2020, I was shocked, happy, surprised and proud all at the same time.

Update: It’s official, American singer Billie Eilish is recording the theme for James Bond pic No Time To Die.

Eilish teased earlier today on her Instagram that she may be working on the movie, and the news has now been confirmed by the official James Bond twitter account:

The #NoTimeToDie title song will be performed by @billieeilish. Billie has written the song with her brother @finneas and is the youngest artist in history to write and record a James Bond theme song. pic.twitter.com/Qd5cYIRlmg

— James Bond (@007) January 14, 2020

The account also tweeted the following quote from Ocean Eyes singer Eilish: “It feels crazy to be a part of this in every way. To be able to score the theme song to a film that is part of such a legendary series is a huge honour. James Bond is the coolest film franchise ever to exist. I’m still in shock.

Mads Mikkelsen is leading the cast of Scandi pic Riders Of Justice, the latest feature from Oscar-Winning Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen.

Jensen is a noted screenwriter with more than 30 feature credits; he has collaborated with the likes of Susanne Bier and Lone Scherfig. As a director, he helmed a trio of Oscar nominated shorts in 1997, 1998, and 1999, winning for the latter. His features, characterized by their dark humor, include 2005 comedy-drama Adam’s Apples, 2003 pic The Green Butchers, and 2015 film Men & Chicken, all of which also starred Mikkelsen and screened at Toronto.

His latest film follows Markus, who has to go home to his teenage daughter, Mathilde, when his wife dies in a tragic train accident. It seems like an accident until a mathematics geek, who was also a fellow passenger on the train, and his two colleagues show up saying they are convinced someone is behind it.

February is set to be a busy month for Hollywood in China. “Jojo Rabbit,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story” and “Dolittle” will all get their crack at the world’s second largest film market next month, Chinese reports confirmed on Tuesday. The news comes just after the big reveal that three Oscar best picture contenders rank among this year’s most decorated films, boasting 18 Academy Award nominations between them.

After screening as the opening film at the International Film Festival and Awards Macau in December, Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit” will get a limited China release on Feb. 12, three months after its early November U.S. debut. It received six Academy Award nods for best picture, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, film editing, costume design and production design. Waititi’s “Thor: Ragnarok” brought in $112 million in China in 2017.

Next up is Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” which will hit China in wide release on Valentine’s Day,

Quentin Tarantino has the upper hand in the Best Original Screenplay race. The groundswell started with the upbeat reception for Tarantino’s ninth feature opus “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” at Cannes, a Charles Manson-inflected 1969 Los Angeles fable starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The auteur hit yet another original creation out of the park, with both strong reviews and global box office ($329.4 million).

This earned Tarantino his sixth Oscar nomination and could yield the Globe and Critics Choice screenplay-winner his third Original Screenplay win (after “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained”).

The writers branch often rewards international auteurs like Bong Joon Ho, who scored his first Oscar nominations for the Cannes Palme d’Or-winner “Parasite” (Neon), a brilliantly comedic look at a lower-depths family of con artists who one by one infiltrate a rich family’s stunning hillside modern home. Inevitably, all hell breaks loose. The timely movie

Monos first non-comedy to lead local-language chart in 10 years.

Colombian film authorities have said that theatre-going reached a record level of 73.1million in 2019, while local-language market share of overall films stayed on par with 2018 on 3.4%.

Overall admissions climbed by 14% year-on-year from 64million, negating a 13.6% climb by local cinema from 2.2million in 2018 to 2.5million.

Alejando Landes’ international feature film Oscar submission and thriller Monos achieved the distinction of becoming the first non-comedy in 10 years to finish top of the local-language charts.

Monos led Colombian films on 267,916 admissions, with comedies taking six of the remaining nine top slots.

In second place was

This year’s animated feature nominees include Pixar’s “Toy Story 4,” DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” Laika’s stop-motion “Missing Link,” and two Neflix entries: “Klaus” and “I Lost My Body.”

“Toy Story 4” is certainly the one to beat. It exceeded expectations while breaking the franchise box office record. Pixar proved there was definitely one more story to tell about Woody’s (Tom Hanks) existential journey. It’s about change and growth, with Bo Peep (Annie Potts) and Forky (Tony Hale) as the catalysts. Pixar upped its animation (from the porcelain shepherdess to the complex antique shop), and delivered a surprising, bittersweet climax.

DreamWorks’ prestigious “Hidden World” concluded the beloved “Dragon” franchise on a high note, with director Dean DeBlois confronting the politics of hate, as grownup Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) secures the safety of his pal, Toothless, new companion Light Fury, and the rest of the dragon clan.

In which producer-director Steve Markle chronicles his own love life.

Raven Banner Entertainment’s specialty distribution arm Northern Banner Releasing has picked up Canadian rights to Slamdance selection Shoot To Marry.

Steve Markle’s documentary screens in the Breakouts section and is described as a rom-com-doc, in which the heartbroken filmmaker chronicles his own romantic journey over a five-year period.

Markle produced, shot and edited Shoot To Marry. Raven Banner’s Andrew Hunt serves as an executive producer on the film.

Northern Banner negotiated the deal with producer-director Markle and is yet to settle on a Canadian release date.

Slamdance runs in Park City,

It’s not easy being a time-traveling band of disrupters and the cast of the Starz epic romance “Outlander” are more than happy to expound on the complications that inevitably arise in their wake.

“You have to be slightly on guard,” Sophie Skelton, who plays Brianna Fraser, explained on Tuesday at the Television Critics Association press tour. “Sometimes in a scene, I’ll want to slip in an, ‘Ok.'” Skelton’s concern comes not from deviating from the script, but rather from the fact that her character is a 1960s woman living in a 1770s world and “Ok” won’t be acceptable to say for decades – because it hasn’t been coined yet.

Skelton and fellow cast members Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, and Richard Rankin took the stage alongside executive producer Maril Davis to answer a bevy of questions from entertainment journalists about Season 5 – which premieres Sunday, February 16 – and

A new director has been hired on the flagship feature film at Skydance Animation, a division of David Ellison’s company run by former Pixar chief John Lasseter.

Peggy Holmes, a name in the animation space who has directed and choreographed for years at Disney, has replaced Alessandro Carloni. Skydance and Carloni parted ways thanks to creative differences, insiders said.

“Peggy is an incredible creative talent and has already been a huge asset to our growing animation studio over the past year. We’re so happy to have her leading the team creating Luck. She has the perfect mix of experience and artistic vision to bring this exciting project to the screen,” said Skydance Animation president Holly Edwards in a statement.

Another individual close to the company noted production has not yet hit its stride — though “Luck” has faced other roadblocks on the way to completion. Actress Emma Thompson publicly

In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv, Universal Pictures claims the top spot in spending with “Dolittle.”

Ads placed for the fantasy-adventure film had an estimated media value of $8.22 million through Sunday for 1,092 national ad airings on 40 networks. (Spend figures are based on estimates generated from Jan. 6-12. Estimates may be updated after the chart is posted as new information becomes available.) Universal prioritized spend across networks including CBS, Fox and NBC, and during programming such as NFL Football, SpongeBob SquarePants and NBA Basketball.

Just behind “Dolittle” in second place: Columbia Pictures’ “Bad Boys for Life,” which saw 924 national ad airings across 36 networks, with an estimated media value of $6.77 million.

TV ad placements for Paramount Pictures’ “Like a Boss” (Emv: $5.18 million), Warner Bros.’ “Just Mercy” ($4.25 million) and Universal’s “1917” ($3.36 million) round out the chart.

While Lulu Wang’s emotional family drama “The Farewell” may have broken through last year, and upcoming comic book adaptations “Birds of Prey” (by Cathy Yan) and “The Eternals” (from Chloé Zhao) spell fresh opportunities for filmmakers of Chinese descent in 2020, a rollicking little follow-the-money caper called “Lucky Grandma” from first-time feature director Sasie Sealy and co-writer Angela Cheng proves there are plenty more emerging Chinese American talents just waiting for their shot. All it takes is a little good fortune — and the support of a few encouraging festivals, like the Tribeca team that gave this film a boost — and they should be on their way.

, Sealy’s high-attitude debut stars Tsai Chin of “The Joy Luck Club” as a surly, age-toughened widow who, reluctant to accept that it’s time to move in with her son (Eddie Yu), follows her fortuneteller’s advice and takes her life savings to the casino.

Cape Cod might seem like an idyllic summer retreat, but Starz’s upcoming “Hightown” drama will shine a sinister light on its denziens. The series, which has Rachel Morrison as director for the first two episodes, will follow a women’s journey to sobriety in the midst of a murder investigation and the region’s growing opioid epidemic. Starz revealed a new teaser for the show, which will premiere sometime in the spring, ahead of a “Hightown” panel during the Television Critics Association 2020 Winter Press Tour in Pasadena Tuesday evening.

“Hightown” serves as Morrison’s first venture into TV direction, and she noted that she learned a great deal about creating a style for the show — while having the confidence that subsequent episode directors would maintain a consistent tone. Morrison said everyone was supportive of the show’s look, and its new teaser, which meshes hard partying with relentlessly bleak imagery,

Why has Falcon and the Winter Soldier canceled their planned shoot in Puerto Rico? What would the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic writers change if they could do it all over again? Would you believe a classic Superman comic predicted the return of white nationalism in 2020? Want to get a first look at Green […]

The post Superhero Bits: ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Cancels Puerto Rico Shoot, ‘Green Arrow and the Canaries’ First Look & More appeared first on /Film.

Spike Lee is about to make history as the first African-American to serve as jury president for the Cannes Film Festival. Lee had seven films premiere at the fest in the past, and will now preside over the 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival taking place from May 12-23, 2020. In other, not-so-great film festival news: the China […]

The post Spike Lee Will Be President of 2020 Cannes Jury; China Independent Film Festival is Shutting Down appeared first on /Film.

Taika Waititi is one of the busiest people in Hollywood right now, but he would drop it all for Ig-11. Well, maybe not all of it, but he would definitely rush to reprise his role as the dangerous assassin droid in The Mandalorian. But nothing is ever over in Star Wars, as we all know, and Waititi […]

The post Taika Waititi Wants Fans to Petition for Ig-11 to Come Back in ‘The Mandalorian’ appeared first on /Film.

Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa sharing the screen might be too much brawn for one frame. But that’s what we’re going to get with See season 2, which has cast the Guardians of the Galaxy actor in the Apple TV+ sci-fi series. Apple has cast Bautista to star opposite Jason Momoa in the See season 2 cast for […]

The post ‘See’ Season 2 Adds Dave Bautista to the Apple TV+ Series appeared first on /Film.

Joker, a movie about a mentally ill aspiring comedian who turns to acts of violence (that also happens to be based on one of the most popular comic book characters ever created), was originally released October 4, 2019. Since then, it's inspired dozens of thinkpieces, made tons of money, and provoked equal parts adulation and vitriol. However, on the heels of the Academy making its mainstream love of Joker official with 11 Oscar nominations, Warner Bros. is jumping back into all of it again. For one week only, you can go see Joker on the big screen, and find …

Al Pacino has spent a lifetime making movies, so we’ll forgive him for committing the cardinal sin of filmmakers who pivot to television: calling “Hunters,” his new TV series, a “10-hour film.” The Oscar-winning actor, who recently earned his ninth Academy Award nomination for Netflix’s “The Irishman,” is proving quite the draw on streaming, starring in one of Amazon Prime Video’s most hotly anticipated shows. Set in 1977, “Hunters” follows a diverse group of New York-based Nazi hunters who’ve discovered hundreds of high-ranking former officers hiding in America — who are conspiring to create a Fourth Reich.

“There’s an originality in this show. It’s somewhat eccentric,” Pacino said during Amazon’s Tuesday afternoon TCA panel. “You’ll see it from certain angles where it’s not a dry thing. They’ll catch you off guard, and you really can’t believe it. […] You never know when