Movie News

It’s a 20th century showdown at the box office this weekend, with the baby boomer epic “Elvis” contending against Gen X revamp “Top Gun: Maverick” for the top spot on domestic charts.

Director Baz Luhrmann’s biopic about the King of Rock and Roll is projected to draw 30 million from 3,906 theaters in its opening. It would be the second-strongest North American opening of the Aussie filmmaker’s career, coming in behind the 50 million debut of his 2013 adaptation “The Great Gatsby.” The film, which stars Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, could also mark the highest non-franchise domestic opening since the onset of Covid-19, potentially topping the 30.4 million debut of Paramount’s “The Lost City” earlier this spring.

It’s a solid start for “Elvis.” The Warner Bros. release has scored largely affectionate reviews from critics, with many highlighting star Butler’s breakout turn as Presley. Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman

Producer Yash Raj Films has revealed the keenly anticipated first look for Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s “Pathaan.”

The look is revealed in a motion poster, a favored Bollywood way of teasing the film and features a gun toting Khan. The poster dropped on June 25, which marks the 30th anniversary of “Deewana” (1992), Khan’s film debut.

“Thirty years of Shah Rukh Khan is a cinematic moment in itself in the history of Indian cinema and we wanted to celebrate it with his millions and millions of fans globally,” said “Pathaan” director Siddharth Anand (“War”). “Today is Shah Rukh Khan day and we need to tell the world that. This is team ‘Pathaan’s way of saying thank you to Shah Rukh for the countless memories and smiles that he has given all of us in his incredible journey in cinema.”

“He is the alpha man on a mission in

Marvel Studios is heading back to San Diego Comic-Con. During a virtual press conference on Friday for the company’s upcoming feature film “Thor: Love and Thunder,” studio president Kevin Feige confirmed that the studio will have a presence at the pop culture expo, set to take place in July.

The announcement is a major boost for Sdcc, which canceled its in-person conventions in July 2020 and July 2021 due to the Covid pandemic. Although a pared down Comic-Con did take place at the San Diego Convention Center over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021, Marvel did not hold any panels during the event, nor did it participate in the virtual Comic-Con@Home events that replaced the July 2020 and 2021 conventions.

Feige and Disney have not clarified Marvel’s exact plans for Sdcc. Upcoming films and shows set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that could be teased during the convention include this November’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,

When “The Umbrella Academy” star Elliot Page came out as a trans man in 2020, it was immediately obvious that it would change the trajectory of the hit Netflix show. Season 3, which premiered on Netflix last week, represented the first opportunity for the superhero show to address Page’s transition. Page’s character, Viktor Hargreeves, also transitions in the new season, but pulling that off without it feeling forced or insensitive was one of the biggest challenges the creative team faced. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Page and “The Umbrella Academy” showrunner Steve Blackman spoke about their approach to Viktor’s transition, and what the new storyline means to them.

“I think one of the most special things about this is how it’s handled,” Page said. “It’s not void of emotional moments with the siblings, of course. I think they’re each individually special and in relation to their specific relationship.

Growing up, 1978's "Game of Death" was my favorite Bruce Lee movie. Mainly because of the flawless John Berry-produced soundtrack; not to mention the iconic movie line "You lose, Carl Miller." But more importantly, "Game of Death" was the only Bruce Lee movie I had actually watched from beginning to end. It wasn't until I got older and discovered Wikipedia and YouTube did I realize how comically disastrous of a film Bruce Lee's final movie truly is.

The martial arts legend died while making "Game of Death," so the filmmakers decided to rework the...

The post A Lot Of Cheeseburgers Went Into Chuck Norris And Bruce Lee's Way Of The Dragon Showdown appeared first on /Film.

In news that will surprise exactly no one, "Top Gun: Maverick" has been doing exceedingly well at the box office. The top-grossing film of Tom Cruise's career has officially passed the threshold of 1 billion dollars, according to Deadline. That is a staggering amount of money, and considering the number the pandemic has done on the box office, it's practically a miracle. 

That's a whole lot of nostalgia. Last weekend the film passed 900 million, 100 million over Tom Cruise's previous record. The thing is, it can't all be nostalgia. "Top Gun," the film which this is the sequel to, opened 36 years...

The post Top Gun: Maverick Speeds Past the 1 Billion Mark at Worldwide Box Office appeared first on /Film.

It took 30 years to convince Tom Cruise to make a sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun,” hit by Tony Scott, but the decision has definitely paid off. Today, “Top Gun Maverick” crossed the 1 billion mark worldwide, becoming Cruise’s highest-grossing film ever worldwide. That’s also the second-highest grossing film since the pandemic began in March 2020. ‘Maverick’ has grossed 521.7 million domestically and 484.7 million in overseas markets.

Continue reading ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Crosses 1 Billion At The Box Office Becoming Tom Cruise’s Biggest Hit Ever at The Playlist.

Lightdox has picked up Luke McManus’ musical ode to contemporary Dublin, “North Circular,” which will have its international premiere at Sheffield DocFest.

In this melodic black and white postcard, the audience travels along Dublin’s North Circular Road and meets some of the area’s enigmatic inhabitants. Personal testimonies touching on subjects from colonialism, mental health and addiction to women’s empowerment and gentrification are embodied in folk songs. Atmospherically conveying Ireland’s turbulent past and present, the filmmaker has composed a heartfelt love letter to Dublin.

The film includes musical performances from artists local to the North Circular, including John Francis Flynn, Séan Ó Túama, Eoghan O’Ceannabháin, Ian Lynch and Gemma Dunleavy.

McManus previously attended Sheffield DocFest as a producer of “The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reis,” and now returns with his feature debut as a director. The film premiered at Dubin Intl. Film Festival, where it won

Baz Luhrmann is back! The Australian filmmaker is an artist that movie fans have extreme opinions about. Either you love Luhrmann's style, or you hate it. Luhrmann has been subverting expectations ever since he made his filmmaking debut with the 1992 romantic comedy "Strictly Ballroom." Luhrmann took a much different approach to the "dance comedy" than some movie fans were expecting.

Luhrmann's next films got even wilder. Even though Luhrmann's adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Romeo + Juliet" didn't change a word of the original text, the film was set in the modern day. Luhrmann's next film, "Moulin Rouge!" became one of the best movie musicals of...

The post Every Main Character in Elvis Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "The Departed"

Where You Can Stream It: Netflix, HBO Max

The Pitch: A cop and criminal each risk blowing their cover while acting as informants for the other side of the law in Martin Scorsese's Boston-set "Infernal Affairs" remake.

"The Departed" is a movie where (more than two) characters lead double lives, and double-featuring it with "Infernal Affairs," the Hong Kong film on which it's based, is an experience that gets the...

The post The Daily Stream: The Departed Is A Rare Remake That Matches The Original With Fresh Themes appeared first on /Film.

Lots of positive news for theaters this weekend to report, although like last weekend’s even better results, they come with caveats.

The standout result is that Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” (Warner Bros.) did over 30 million, at the high end of recent projections. Though not as big as “Bohemian Rhapsody” (51 million), with the new film’s appeal to older audiences and opening in a much more competitive weekend, this is a very encouraging opening.

It is both for its studio (undergoing transition under new management) but more so for the industry. As a non-franchise film, it is a more than respectable start for a high-profile but not automatically success-certain project.

It’s the second biggest first weekend for any non-franchise 2022 release. Only “Uncharted,” with a much greater typical audience appeal and with the star of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” as a draw (“Elvis” has the hardly unknown but less proven

I've never seen a bad Samuel L. Jackson performance. I've seen bad movies with him in them, but he usually manages to save these films with his golden one-liners. Case in point: "Enough is enough! I have had it with these mutha****** snakes on this mutha****** plane!"

2006's "Snakes on a Plane" had one of those campy movie scripts that agents beg their A-list clients to run away from. Jackson, on the other hand, heard merely the title of movie and exclaimed, "Snakes on a Plane. Oh, s***, I need to be in that!'"

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jackson revealed that when he...

The post Samuel L. Jackson Doesn't Mind Ignoring His Agents' Advice appeared first on /Film.

When Quentin Tarantino began casting for "Pulp Fiction," Miramax wanted a big-name actor attached to the film. When Bruce Willis, a big-name actor who happened to be a big fan of Tarantino's breakout debut film "Reservoir Dogs," found out that the director was prepping for his second film, he wanted a role ... even if it meant taking a pay cut.

As Vanity Fair tells it, Harvey Keitel, who would go on to play the scrupulous clean-up man in "Pulp Fiction," was picking up his daughter from Bruce Willis' home in Malibu when he told him about the upcoming project. Keitel invited Willis to...

The post Bruce Willis' Casting Was Crucial To Getting Pulp Fiction Made appeared first on /Film.

Ever since Disney’s high-profile merger with 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) in 2019, superhero fans have been eagerly waiting to see characters from Fox’s “X-Men” franchise added to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Certain characters from the long-running “X-Men” series will undeniably be difficult to recast. But this week, two of Marvel’s top directors came up with an idea to get the process started.

Speaking on the ComicBook.com Phase Zero podcast, Anthony and Joe Russo were asked if there was another superhero they would like to see their “The Gray Man” star Chris Evans play. Their response: Wolverine, the beloved character recently vacated by Hugh Jackman after nine films in the role. The brothers, who directed Evans in four Marvel movies starting with “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” explained why they think Evans should suit up as the “X-Men” icon.

“Evans has incredible range and great physicality,

Bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved "The Lord of the Rings" fantasy series to the screen was an enormous undertaking, especially for an indie New Zealand filmmaker who had never made a film with such a pricey budget of 281 million before. But director Peter Jackson's homespun approach to making the epic trilogy actually worked in his favor.

The filmmaker told Fresh Air in 2002 how he was allowed to make the films "the new Zealand way, not the Hollywood way," thus producing one of the greatest cinematic trilogies of all time: 

"We made it the New Zealand way, not the Hollywood way ... we still shot it...

The post Peter Jackson's Indie Movie Roots Let The Lord Of The Rings Effects Run Wild appeared first on /Film.

If stories of mega media corporations losing out on unfathomable fortunes make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, then you're gonna love this one. Here is the story of how Disney's inability to put equal faith into all of their creations coupled with a few big wigs being overly presumptuous about consumer tastes led to a "Toy Story" themed financial fiasco that precedes their latest one by nearly 30 years.

Believe it or not, Disney thought "Toy Story" would be an absolute flop at worst, and a small niche success at best. The powers that be never anticipated that the computer...

The post How A Toy Story Merch Mistake Lost Millions Of Dollars For Disney appeared first on /Film.

The past few years have been a wild ride for Harley Quinn and her many admirers. One of the most recognizable DC comic characters, Harley's pop-culture street cred has skyrocketed so high that not only is she incredibly likely to knock on your door when the night for trick-or-treating arrives, but she's also become a star of both the big and small screens. Plus, when it comes to the world of comics, Harley continues to be a big earner for DC, regularly starring in her own series and occasionally popping in elsewhere.

The best part about the booming Harley business? Anyone who...

The post Why Margot Robbie Didn't Reprise Her Role For HBO's Harley Quinn Series appeared first on /Film.

The name's Bond. James Bond. And for those who grew up in the '90s, Pierce Brosnan is the James Bond of our generation.

"GoldenEye" saw Pierce Brosnan step into the role, which proved a far cry from Timothy Dalton's quintessentially '80s secret agent. The quiff, the '80s soundtrack, and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante were a thing of the past. It had been six whole years since "License to Kill" -- the longest wait between Bond films since 007 made his big-screen debut in 1962. After a short, two-film run, Timothy Dalton was bowing out. It was time for a new 007, and Brosnan delivered. This...

The post Pierce Brosnan Was Channeling Two Previous Bonds For His GoldenEye Performance appeared first on /Film.

Film commissions all over the world have seen a run on their services as production has boomed across the globe. And Afci Week, the big confab hosted by the Assn. of Film Commissioners Intl. that runs June 27-29, couldn’t have come back as an in-person event at a better time.

After two years without an in-person event, “people are excited to be together, to see their friends, to meet new people and to find out what’s going on in the industry, and meet with industry professionals and executives,” says Afci president Eve Honthaner, who took over the post in August.

“Afci Week is a uniquely exclusive annual event for film commission professionals held on a global scale,” she says.

Afci Week, although abbreviated this year to two days rather than five, with one optional day, will give film commissioners access to key entertainment industry executives, and panels on sustainability and “green” production,

When Austin Butler landed the lead role in “Elvis,” he knew he was officially entering the Hollywood stratosphere. Not only had he beaten out the likes of Harry Styles and Miles Teller for the coveted part, but he would also be working with the famously extravagant Baz Luhrmann for his first lead role. To prepare for the career-altering event, he reached out to Leonardo DiCaprio, who saw his career explode after starring in Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” and later collaborated with him on “The Great Gatsby.”

In an interview with EW, Butler revealed the advice that DiCaprio gave him about working with the Australian director.

“Leo told me, ‘Baz is going to constantly keep you off balance, and it’s going to pull things out of you [that] you never knew you had inside you,'” Butler said. “That’s exactly the experience that I had.”

Luhrmann’s tendency to