Movie News

Farewell Fantastic Beasts, we hardly got a chance to know you. In what can only be called one of the most daring box-office heists of the spring, Universal’s new animated comedy, The Bad Guys, stole the weekend’s top spot in broad daylight, making off with a hefty 24 million haul. The multiplex larceny came at the expense of Warner Bros.’ latest big-budget Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which nosedived to third place in its sophomore frame—an ominous sign for the long-running wizarding franchise. Meanwhile, two other new wide releases joined them at the top of the charts: the arty, mud-and-blood-soaked Viking saga The Northman and the Nicolas Cage meta-action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

Following in the family-friendly footsteps of Sing 2 and the more recent Sonic the Hedgehog 2, The Bad Guys is further proof that the spring has become a very hospitable time for kid-targeted titles.

When Disney scored the rights to the “Alien” property after acquiring 21st Century Fox, many fans wondered what the company would do with the R-rated sci-fi horror franchise. Launched in 1979, the Ridley Scott-directed original film starred Sigourney Weaver as the badass Ellen Ripley. Since then, a new prequel series at FX led by creative hot-shot Noah Hawley and executive produced by Scott was announced.

Continue reading Noah Hawley’s Earthbound ‘Alien’ FX Series Taps ‘WandaVision’ Writer Bobak Esfarjani at The Playlist.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic has unveiled its first news out of the upcoming edition. After last year’s push to late August due to the pandemic, the festival is returning to its usual dates at the beginning of summer — the 56th edition will take place July 1–9.

First up is a new Kviff Talents platform initiative. “The objective of this year-round program is to identify talented filmmakers and to support the creation of creative audiovisual projects with international ambitions possessing a high level of originality. As part of the program, selected filmmakers will receive financing for development, mentoring from experts, and the chance to present their projects to potential producers, partners, and investors at the festival in Karlovy Vary,” the festival said.

The project’s pilot phase is open to submissions from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But in the future, the project will expand

Sienna Miller now stars in Netflix’s #MeToo drama “Anatomy of a Scandal,” but the film veteran says she was not aware of a massive Hollywood scandal unfolding years ago: Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment and rape of actresses.

Miller, who worked with mega-producer Weinstein on 2006’s Edie Sedgwick biopic “Factory Girl,” admitted that she was completely oblivious to Weinstein’s attacks on women at the time. The Miramax and Weinstein Company executive was convicted of rape in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

“I wasn’t scared of him, actually,” Miller told The Guardian. “And I was not aware that he was raping people.”

While Weinstein’s infamous harshness was well-known (“You weren’t really inaugurated until Weinstein made you cry”), Miller added that she “genuinely felt he’d given [her] the biggest validation” by criticizing her behind the scenes.

The “21 Bridges” star detailed a tense encounter with Weinstein,

Sienna Miller recently told The Guardian that dating Jude Law is most likely one reason she was never abused by disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. Miller was the star of the Weinstein-backed “Factory Girl,” in which she played Andy Warhol’s muse Edie Sedgwick. The actor said being in a relationship with Law shaped her connection with Weinstein, as she often called the producer “pops.” Law headlined several of Weinstein’s movies prior to Miller working with him, from “The Talented Mr. Ripley” to “Cold Mountain.”

“I was Jude’s girlfriend, and there was probably protection in that. Jude was a big actor for Harvey,” Miller said. “I called Harvey ‘Pops’ from day one, which I’m sure helped; you’re not going to wank on that.”

Miller recalled one day when Weinstein shouted at her, but that was the extent of which he acted rudely towards her. Weinstein took

Ever since he wrapped up the latest “Star Wars” trilogy in 2019 with “The Rise Of Skywalker,” J.J. Abrams has been very busy over at Bad Robot. And thanks to a five-year, 250 million overall deal with WarnerMedia in 2019, Bad Robot’s producing credits are nearly endless. While Ta-Nahesi Coates‘ “Superman” film and a “Zatanna” movie are years away, several animated DC shows will hit HBO Max soon.

Continue reading J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot To Produce Live-Action ‘Hot Wheels’ Film With Warner Bros. & Mattel at The Playlist.

After working together on “Attack of The Clones” and “Revenge of The Sith” and a 17-year gap since they last worked together, Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are poised to finally reunite in the latest live-action “Star Wars” series, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney+.

The new six-episode long limited series see Christensen returning to the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader role as his “Inquisitor” Jedi hunters from “Star Wars: Rebels” attempt to hunt and kill the remaining Jedi that have survived Order 66.

Continue reading ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’: Hayden Christensen Won’t Confirm Whether James Earl Jones Is Voicing Vader, But Seems Interested In Continuing His ‘Star Wars’ Role at The Playlist.

"Russian Doll" season 1 centers on Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne), a cynical software coder who finds herself stuck in a time loop where she's forced to relive the night of her 36th birthday party before dying and repeating the process anew. Every time she cycles through the loop, things are a little different. At first, the variations are small. Over time, however, these changes begin to add up, even as Nadia moves closer and closer to making peace with her tumultuous upbringing and realizing what she needs to do to move forward (in more senses than one).

For as much as "Russian Doll" deals with generational trauma,...

The post Russian Doll Almost Starred Jordan Peele and Alfred Molina appeared first on /Film.

It wouldn’t be the return of CinemaCon in full force without the cheerleaders. As exhibitors, distributors, and press trooped back into Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, it didn’t take long to get some dramatic data points about the true power of theatrical releases.

Cinépolis CEO Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, who oversees the world’s fourth-largest theater chain, had a message for studio execs sitting at front-and-center reserved tables: The best way to avoid piracy is a healthy and exclusive theatrical window. On the flip side, day-and-date streaming is perfect if you want your film to be pirated — it’s virtually a guarantee for illegal downloading and a loss of revenue. And: He brought receipts (and his corporate communications team sent them to IndieWire).

Day-and-date continues to be a highly unpopular strategy among the exhibitors at CinemaCon. Marvel’s “Black Widow” went day-and-date in theaters and on Disney+ on 2020. Ahead of its merger with Discovery,

(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:

"The Batman" gets the Adam West treatment.

The "Batgirl" movie may be going to theaters after all.

A new "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" poster surfaces. 

The "Squirrel Girl" podcast gets a very catchy theme song.

All that and more!

The...

The post Superhero Bits: Batgirl May Be Headed To Theaters, A Stylish New Doctor Strange 2 Poster & More appeared first on /Film.

Howard Stern weighed in on the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard defamation trial, which has been publicly live-streamed since April 11.

During his radio segment “The Howard Stern Show,” Stern speculated that Oscar winner Depp is intentionally overacting for a television audience (and that he wants it to be televised). The “Ed Wood” star is suing ex-wife Heard for defamation after she wrote about their allegedly abusive relationship in a Washington Post op-ed. Heard’s legal team reportedly tried to block cameras in the trial, while Depp’s team did not publicly challenge the decision, which was ultimately approved by Judge Penney Azcarate.

“The reason he wanted that, he wanted it televised, is that’s what narcissists do,” Stern said of Depp on his SiriusXM radio show (via Mediaite). “They think they can talk their way out of anything. I think Johnny Depp is a huge narcissist and what I mean by that is — he figured,

J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot has signed on to produce the live-action adaptation of the iconic toy “Hot Wheels,” Mattel and Warner Bros. announced on Monday.

While plot details are still in their original packaging, the release notes that the film will feature “the world’s hottest and sleekest cars, monster trucks and motorcycles,” fitting for the 54-year-old toy brand. According to figures from the Npd Group retail tracking service, Hot Wheels is the number one selling toy in the world, moving more than 8 billion vehicles.

This project marks one of the first major film titles under Bad Robot’s production deal with Warner Bros., which runs through 2024, alongside “The Pinkerton” from screenwriter Daniel Casey, “Zatanna” from screenwriter Emerald Fennell, the untitled Superman movie from screenwriter Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the animated feature “Oh The Places You’ll Go!” with Jon M. Chu directing.

“Before Hot Wheels became the global household name it is today,

“Irma Vep” wasn’t Olivier Assayas‘ first film to premiere at Cannes, (that’d be his 1994 breakthrough ‘Cold Water‘), but the 1996 film is the one that made him a star. And not just a star: the success of “Irma Vep” made Assayas an overnight sensation in French cinema. Now, over twenty-five years later, Assayas returns to his biggest hit for a 2020s update as a limited series.

Continue reading First Look: Olivier Assayas’ ‘Irma Vep’ With Alicia Vikander Hits HBO On June 6 After Its Cannes Premiere In May at The Playlist.

Director Robert Eggers and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke began their collaboration with the 2008 short “The Tell-Tale Heart.” In the 13 years since, they’ve developed a methodology that yielded the visually striking likes of “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse” — but as impressive as those features were, they were a mere prelude to the duo’s latest achievement.

Shot on 35mm on an 87-day schedule, “The Northman” is a jaw-droppingly ambitious Viking epic, filled with precise detail, extravagant action, and mythic grandeur. The film is as clear as it is complex thanks to the purity of expression that Eggers and Blaschke have been working toward since that now-far-off Edgar Allan Poe adaptation.

“Over the course of our time together I’ve tried to simplify the visual experience so that things are presented in the most direct way,” Blaschke told IndieWire. “We’ve been working toward distilling things to their essence, working with blocking

Stanley Kubrick's films encompass whole worlds, translating emotions and rituals into a unique and innovative visual language. Whether it's the Overlook Hotel of "The Shining" or the sterile space stations and star gates of "2001: A Space Odyssey," there's a disciplined quality to the movies' design and cinematography. There's also a sense of perfection, that every piece, from the costuming and the music, fits exactly where it must. Naturally, that obsessive tendency could be difficult for his collaborators. Kubrick demanded a great deal of them and himself.

Kubrick followed the science-fiction fantasias of 1968's "2001" and the dystopian grimness of...

The post Making Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon Took a Huge Toll On the Cast and Crew appeared first on /Film.

For a film journo who closely followed last year’s he said (filmmakers)/she said (Isis “sex slave” subjects) controversy that entangled Hogir Hirori’s Sundance-premiering (followed by film-festival-shunned) Sabaya, the recent Cph:dox panel “Beyond Courage: Trauma-Informed Storytelling” was simply a must-see. The discussion, expertly moderated by Gavin Rees, Executive Director of Dart Center Europe (a satellite of Columbia Journalism School’s Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma), was part of the “Claim Your Story!” program, one of three engaging afternoons under Cph:conference’s “Business As Unusual” banner. (“Follow the Money!” and “Shaping Success.” were likewise smartly curated by The Catalysts, a multimedia agency that “turns […]

The post “People Are Not ‘the Trauma They’ve Experienced'”: Trauma-Informed Storytelling at Cph:conference 2022 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Over the past few years, Peter Quill and the crew of the Benatar have been busy avenging. When we last saw Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Groot (Vin Diesel), they were aiding Earth's Mightiest Heroes in their fight against Thanos in "Avengers: Endgame." When we next see them, they'll be alongside the God of Thunder this summer in "Thor: Love and Thunder." But by the end of this year, the team will make their triumphant return to guarding the galaxy in their own adventure: "The Guardians of...

The post Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Crew Gift Confirms Cosmo the Spacedog, Young Adult Groot appeared first on /Film.

Executives sound optimistic note, trumpet big screen experience.

Exhibition executives and producers have called for more family films and extolled the virtues of local content and data in one of the first CinemaCon panel sessions on Monday (April 25).

Piracy was another issue that rose to the fore in sessions that were generally optimistic about theatrical cinema-going and exhibition as attendees gathered in Las Vegas for the convention’s first proper return since pre-pandemic 2019 (CinemaCon was cancelled in 2020 and there was a truncated event in August 2021.)

Warner Bros president of international theatrical distribution Andrew Cripps noted how piracy was “rampant” in

“The Idol” has found a new congregation. The upcoming HBO series, co-created and executive produced by The Weeknd, Sam Levinson, and Reza Fahim, is being significantly reworked with changes to the cast and crew, as multiple outlets have reported.

The series was first announced in June 2021, with The Weeknd also slated to star in the six-episode show about a Los Angeles nightclub owner-turned-cult leader who romances a rising pop star. Lily Rose-Depp was cast in September 2021, along with Troye Sivan, Suzanna Son, and Steve Zissis, plus recurring stars Melanie Liburd, Tunde Adebimpe, Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Nico Hiraga, and Anne Heche.

According to sources, production was already completed on multiple episodes of the six-episode series, which will now be redone due to a change in creative direction, as Deadline reported.

HBO representatives could not immediately be reached for comment, but the network has not shared which cast and crew are changing on the series.

Back in 2018, the Paramount Network released a miniseries called "Waco," about the real-life events in February 1993 when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (Atf) unleashed a bloody raid in Mount Carmel on the Branch Davidians religious community (or cult depending on who you ask) led by David Koresh. The raid led to a standoff, resulting in the deaths of four government agents and six Branch Davidians. Things were exacerbated, however, when during a 51-day siege initiated by the FBI, a fire broke out. The Mount Carmel Center was destroyed, and 76 members of the Branch Davidians were killed,...

The post Paramount+ Sequel Series American Tragedies: Waco – The Trials Has Found Its Cast appeared first on /Film.