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Joseph and Vanessa Winter's "Deadsteam" recalls and channels the time a ragtag collective shot their would-be cult famous "Evil Dead" on renegade terms. A derelict, boarded-up estate deep in Utah's woodlands. A skeleton crew. Low budgets, high spirits, and minimal tolerance for digital effects over creepily original practical crafts. Not to say "Deadstream" will do for Screenlife horror what "Evil Dead" did to the cabin-in-the-woods subgenre. Still, the Winters lay a harder-than-it-looks template that future filmmakers will attempt to replicate through newer livestream techno-horror lenses.

"Deadsteam" feels at home with "Hell House LLC" and "The Houses October Built" through blueprints. Joseph Winter stars...

The post Deadstream Review: A Haunted House Comedy For The Livestreaming Age [SXSW] appeared first on /Film.

The SXSW Film Festival delivered a doozy of an opening night presentation with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” on Friday in Austin — offering up a buffet of images for viral memes.

Fleshy hot dogs in place of human fingers, a talking raccoon voiced by Oscar winner Randy Newman, butt plugs that serve as portals to other dimensions, a martial arts showdown between Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis, and a universe-shattering bagel all populate the A24 release. While Twitter will have its day with the inventive and well-crafted insanity, the filmmakers and cast also produced a rowdy crowdpleaser with themes of acceptance, optimism, and love literally conquering all.

“We used to do a lot of music videos and we’d get rejected a lot. So we had all these leftover ideas,” explained Scheinert about the kitchen sink approach to the movie’s plot. “So we said,

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Oscar-nominated “Drive My Car” took eight prizes at the 45th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony, held on Friday at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takawana in Tokyo.

In addition to the best picture award, the film won best director (Hamaguchi), best screenplay (Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa) and best actor (Nishijima Hidetoshi). The film also scooped prizes for cinematography, lighting, editing and sound recording.

Meanwhile, best actress went to Arimura Kasumi for her work in the hit romantic drama “We Made a Beautiful Bouquet.”

Best animation honors were awarded to Watanabe Ayumu’s “Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko,” a heart-warming coming-of-age film set in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.

The Japan Academy Film Prizes, which have been awarded annually since 1978, are modeled on the U.S. Academy Awards, though some categories are different. Also, the nominees are selected by industry professionals, though the voters include employees at major film companies,

Multiverses are so hot right now. And why shouldn’t they be? At a time when people can’t even look at their phones without being confronted by a seemingly infinite number of competing realities — a time which everything seems close enough to touch, but almost nothing feels possible to change, and even the happiest people you know are haunted by the endless possibilities of who else they might have been — telling a story that only takes place on a single plane of existence might as well be an act of denial.

That isn’t a problem for the filmmaking duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (better known as Daniels), who once created an interactive six-minute short that could be played in 3,618,502,788,666,131,106,986,593,281,521,497,120,414,687,020,801,267,626, 233,049,500,247,285,301,248 different ways. These guys aren’t just uniquely prepared to meet the present moment, they’ve been waiting for it to catch up with them for a long time.

Way back in 1998, before Marvel made metaverses a household concept, Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a lovely parallel-realities drama called “Sliding Doors,” in which a woman’s life split along two paths, depending on whether or not her character caught a specific train. At the time, juggling these competing fates was considered to be so demanding that the filmmakers obliged one of the two Gwyneths to get a haircut, so audiences could tell them apart.

Nearly a quarter-century later, our collective cine-literacy has gotten so sophisticated that “Sliding Doors” seems no more challenging than a simple game of tic-tac-toe. But that doesn’t necessarily mean audiences can handle the gnarly three-dimensional sudoku puzzle that is “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a mile-a-minute mind-bender from absurdist duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — aka the Daniels — that argues every conceivable variation of our lives exists in some alternate universe or other, then proceeds

In "I Am Legend," Will Smith stars as the brilliant scientist Robert Neville, the lone survivor of a man-made plague that has turned all of humanity into bloodthirsty mutants. Neville spends his days wandering through a desolate New York City in the hopes of finding survivors and trying to develop a cure using his own immune blood as a source. As the last remaining human being, his survival is paramount. But the infected Darkseekers wait in vain, hoping that today will be the day Neville finally makes a mistake and falls into their grasp.

It was recently announced that the film would be...

The post You May Recognize the Monsters From I Am Legend Without the Make-Up appeared first on /Film.

Award winner will open BFI Flare on March 16.

After launching at Sundance and Berlinale, Finnish feminist coming-of-age story Girl Picture has been a hot seller for LevelK.

The film has now closed deals to the US (Strand Releasing); Canada (Photon Films); UK & Ireland (Vertigo Releasing); Japan (Medallion Media); Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (Rtl in collaboration with Salzgeber & Co); Italy (I Wonder Pictures); Spain & Portugal (FilmIn); Benelux (Cinemien); Poland (Aurora Films); Israel (TLVFest); Eastern Europe (HBO Europe); and Korea (Watcha). Other theatrical deals are in the works.

The coming-of-age drama is about Mimmi, Emma and Rönkkö, teenage girls who are navigating

In October 2021, the day after the show's second full season dropped, Netflix After School posted a lyric video on YouTube encouraging viewers to sing along with "Say Hello to Your Friends," the theme song of "The Baby-Sitters Club." If you're a fan of the show, get ready to be discouraged and say goodbye to your friends, as Netflix has canceled "The Baby-Sitters Club" after two seasons.

"The Baby-Sitters Club" began life as a series of books by Ann M. Martin before becoming an HBO show in 1990. The show originally had a 13-episode run and aired in syndication on Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel, with a movie coming down the pike...

The post The Baby-Sitters Club Netflix Series Has Been Canceled After Its Second Season appeared first on /Film.

What a difference two years make. Sure, the usual Oscar contenders did the rounds at the reconvening AFI Awards lunch, which finally took place (at the Beverly Wilshire) after several postponements to celebrate the top 10 films and TV shows of 2021. But what always distinguishes this gathering is the way it brings together not only Oscar and Emmy contending talent, but the power players at the top of the studio and streamer pyramid. “Storytellers, we need you more than ever,” said AFI chief Bob Gazzale as he greeted the starry assemblage.

“It’s difficult to separate the categories,” said Rich Frank, as he introduced the top 10 series. “The years are going to keep on changing. Streaming is taking over our business.”

Indeed. Netflix studio head Ted Sarandos celebrated not only Oscar contenders “The Power of the Dog,” “Don’t Look Up,” and “Tick, Tick, Boom,” but TV series “Maid,” whose star Margaret Qualley

(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)

In this edition of Superhero Bits:

Alligator Loki now has his very own comic.

"The Flash" new release date carries some historical significance.

New Electro concept art from "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

An encouraging "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" tease.

All that and more!

Fans of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"...

The post Superhero Bits: Alligator Loki Gets His Own Comic, Doctor Strange 2 Empire Magazine Covers & More appeared first on /Film.

In early 2019, Casey Neistat began filming “Under the Influence,” about 23-year-old YouTube phenomenon David Dobrik, capturing his evolution from prankster to online celebrity with major brand sponsors and tens of millions of followers across social media platforms. But in 2021, the docu took a turn when a Business Insider story documented sexual-assault allegations by a woman against a former member of Dobrik’s Vlog Squad, Dom Zeglaitis. When the article went viral, Dobrik’s world began to collapse around him and Neistat was there to capture it. The result is a can’t-take-your-eyes-off-it feature docu that sheds light on the social media’s ecosystem and the personalities it perpetuates.

Neistat teamed with Killer Films and documentary writer-producer Mark Monroe to make “Under the Influence,” which is bound to cause more controversy for Dobrik after premiering at South by Southwest on March 12. Neistat and Killer Films co-founder Christine Vachon spoke to Variety

Guillermo del Toro and Jane Campion have strong thoughts about filmmaking — both in execution and exhibition — in this modern streaming age. And lucky for us, they’re not afraid to share those opinions. And that’s exactly what they did last fall, for Variety’s “Directors on Directors” issue.

Now, in case you missed that conversation between the two Oscar winners, Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast gives you another chance. In this Friday edition of the award-winning podcast, we feature the chat, as they swap stories about filmmaking in what’s already the third decade of the 21st century.

But first, our Awards Circuit Roundtable discusses the rise of “Coda” and more as we head into another awards-filled weekend, with the BAFTA, DGA and Critics Choice ceremonies. Listen below!

Last fall, right before the New York premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” — his big-budget remake of the noir thriller,

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is facing a major test of his leadership, after the company’s botched response to an anti-gay bill in Florida sparked a staff revolt among LGBTQ employees and their supporters.

Chapek apologized to the staff on Friday, saying he should have been “a stronger ally.” But for some employees, who found the company’s silence on the bill profoundly alarming, the statement came too late.

“This is a Cya [cover your ass] for Chapek — this is a weak statement,” one Disney staffer told Variety. “We should have gotten this apology on March 1, not weeks after — and after this bill was passed in Florida.”

For Chapek, the apology capped a full week of attempted damage control. On Monday, he explained in an internal memo that the company had not condemned the bill because it might be “counterproductive.” By Wednesday, Chapek was acknowledging missteps and publicly opposing the bill for the first time.

On February 25, 2022, a report in the Orlando Sentinel revealed that the Disney corporation had donated about $200,000 to politicians in Florida who back the passing of bill Hb 1557, colloquially known as the "Don't Say Gay" Bill, by that state's Republican-dominated legislature. The bill, in brief, would ban all discussions of gender and sexuality in elementary schools, regardless of context. 

Disney CEO Bob Chapek (who took over that position from Bob Iger in February of 2020) issued a memo to Disney employees declaring, in brief, that the company would counter the effects of the bill by producing queer-affirming content....

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Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms caters to its own niche of film obsessives.

From the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel to the new frontiers of streaming offered by the likes of Disney+ and HBO Max, IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights the best of what’s coming to every major streamer, with an eye toward exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here is your guide for March 2022.

Christian Blauvelt, Kate Erbland, and Eric Kohn also contributed to this article.

Everybody in the industry seems to like and admire J.K. Simmons, and why wouldn’t they? He’s talented, versatile, dependable and affable. The fan club includes Aaron Sorkin, writer-director of Amazon’s “Being the Ricardos,” for which Simmons is Oscar-nominated as supporting actor.

Sorkin’s last seven screenplays have centered on real people, but he tells Variety he doesn’t picture the person, or any actor, when writing. “But in the case of William Frawley, there was only one actor I wanted. Frawley and J.K. is the closest I’ve come to writing a part for an actor.”

Sorkin’s appreciation began 30 years ago, when his “A Few Good Men” was a big Broadway hit. In a dual phone interview, Sorkin relates, “J.K. understudied the Colonel, which Jack Nicholson played in the movie. I heard J.K. was going on so I went to see, and he

In conjunction with Hans Zimmer’s inventive score, the innovative sound design of “Dune” helps drive the mystical journey of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) on the desert planet Arrakis, where he bumps up against the unshakable force of nature. Indeed, score and sound blend together seamlessly into an organic soundscape, steered by editor Joe Walker, contributing mightily to Denis Villeneuve’s sensory experience. No wonder “Dune” is the frontrunner for score, sound, and editing.

“Denis wanted the sound to be gritty and realistic, and if you landed on Arrakis this is what you’d hear or what a documentary crew might’ve captured,” said supervising sound editor/designer Mark Mangini, who reunited with the Oscar-winning “Blade Runner 2049” team of supervising sound editor/designer Theo Green and re-recording mixers Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett. “That initial framing of his goals informed everything that we subsequently designed and created and that Ron and Doug would mix.

When asked on “The View” this week about filmmakers slamming superhero movies, Marvel Cinematic Universe stalwart Samuel L. Jackson said “it’s easy” for directors to do so “only because people aren’t going to see their movies.” Jackson has been a fixture of the MCU for almost 15 years as Nick Fury, a character he’s next bringing to television on the Disney Plus series “Secret Invasion.”

“Movies are movies,” Jackson said about directors criticizing Marvel films. “Those are the movies that I went to see when I was a kid. And the artistry of making a movie is something that was a mystery for so long. Making movies is no longer a mystery. Kids know how to do it on their phones. So it’s easy for [directors] to dismiss it, only because people aren’t going to see their movie.”

“It’s like we’ve been dumbed down, but

“Dune: Part Two” has already made waves during pre-production, with Florence Pugh and Austin Butler being eyed to join the cast, as well as returning star Javier Bardem hinting at a sandworm showdown for his sci-fi hero. The film is expected to begin production by the end of this summer from Legendary Entertainment.

But that might not be all we see from the “Dune” universe in the coming years. Writer Jon Spaihts, who is also nominated alongside Villeneuve and Eric Roth for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 94th Academy Awards, revealed to The Playlist that while the “Dune: Part Two” script is set, he is already thinking of a third film installment as well as the planned HBO Max spin-off series, “Dune: The Sisterhood.”

Based on the Frank Herbert novels, the “Dune” series spans six books, with a seventh partially completed before Herbert’s death.

“‘Dune Messiah’ is the next book,

The theme of fathers and sons runs through the films of Venezuela-born writer-director Lorenzo Vigas, whose 2015 debut drama “From Afar,” which focuses on a troubled middle-aged man and young hustler in Caracas, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In Vigas’ latest film “El Caja” (“The Box”), which screened Thursday at the 39th annual Miami Film Festival, this motif continues to resonate — and on a global scale.

“El Caja,” which revolves around a young boy in Mexico City longing for a father figure — a desperate search with deadly consequences — could be the prototype of how a dictator such as Vladimir Putin rises to power, Vigas pointed out.

“We are always trapped in our obsessions,” Vigas told fest attendees during a Q&a that followed the screening. “I had a very good relationship with my father, a very close and warm and good relationship. But I connected with that