Posts

On Tuesday, Netflix debuted a new teaser trailer for the Oscar winner’s upcoming stop-motion take on Carlo Collodi’s Italian folktale, co-directed with Mark Gustafson and co-written with Patrick McHale. Disney will bring a live-action remake of its well-loved 1940 classic to Disney+ on September 8, with star Tom Hanks as Geppetto and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth voicing Pinocchio. But where that production seems to be clinging to the old (a teaser from last month revealed what very well could be another shot-for-shot remake à la the 2018 “Lion King“), “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” explicitly promises “a story you think you know, but you don’t....

There’s something so seductive about second chances. Who among us hasn’t looked at a decision we’ve made or a path we’ve chosen and wondered what would have happened if we’d gone a different way? If we could go back and have a do over, knowing now what we could never have known then. This is not necessarily what Hannah Fidell was thinking when making the FX on Hulu limited series “A Teacher,” an adaptation of her eponymous feature film released seven years earlier....

Zaslav’s all-in executive compensation package last year reached $246.6 million, according to a Discovery, Inc. proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The former NBCUniversal executive, who has spent decades running Discovery under a series of seven-year contracts, has always been among Hollywood’s highest-paid CEOs — but his prior hauls were nothing like this. In 2019, Zaslav made $37.7 million, down from his 2018 take of $45.8 million. So how the hell did he get to nearly $250 million?...

The “Four Weddings and a Funeral” actor tweeted to activist Steve Bray, suggesting the “Benny Hill” theme song be played in front of Parliament. “Glad you have your speakers back,” Grant wrote. “Do you by any chance have the Benny Hill music to hand?” Bray obliged and went on to blare the iconic “Benny Hill” track with loud speakers, drawing newscasters to the sound of the wacky them. Officially titled “Yakety Sax,” the song inspired local onlookers to also break out into a dance....

Those changes also prompt plenty of debate between Bond fans, who all seem to have an opinion on which version of 007 is the best. Some prefer the grittiness of the modern era, while others lament the loss of the silliness that once defined the franchise. However, diehard fans will be quick to point out that the lighthearted nature of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore eras was itself a departure from the original books....

As Wayland explained, “When [‘Luther’] first came out everybody loved the fact that Idris Elba was in there — a really strong, Black character lead. We all fell in love with him. Who didn’t, right? But after you got into about the second series you got kind of like, ‘OK, he doesn’t have any Black friends, he doesn’t eat any Caribbean food, this doesn’t feel authentic.” Wayland continued, “It’s great having those big landmark shows with those key characters, but it’s about making sure everything around them, their environment, their culture, the set is absolutely reflective....

Jennifer Schuur (formerly a producer on “Hannibal”) and Joshua Allen (a story editor on “Empire”) serve as co-showrunners on the series, working from the formula developed by producer Rodrigo Garcia. Each episode focuses on a particular patient and his or her sessions with Dr. Taylor. This time around, Anthony Ramos (“In the Heights”), Liza Colón-Zayas (“Keane”), John Benjamin Hickey (Broadway’s “The Inheritance”), and Quintessa Swindell (“Voyagers”) join the series, with Joel Kinnaman of “Altered Carbon” and “The Killing” playing Brooke’s on-and-off longtime boyfriend....

More people voted for the Spirits this year than ever before: Film Independent has grown to over 7,000 members, adding more international voters. Spirits have a $22.5 million budget cap; international film qualification is based on the writer, director, and producer’s country of origin. A foreign-language with an American story (like, say, “Minari”) is not an international film; nor is “The Father.” Leading the 2021 Indie Spirit Awards nominations with seven is Eliza Hittman’s critics’ favorite “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” which did not make the cut at the Oscars, and might not win any Spirits either....

Talent in attendance will include Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne (“Am I OK?”), Hanna Bergholm (“Hatching”), Adamma Ebo (“Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul”), Violet Columbus and Ben Klein (“The Exiles”), Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeymar (“Neptune Frost”), Nikyatu Jusu (“Nanny”), John Patton Ford (“Emily the Criminal”), and Eugene Yi and Julia Ha (“Free Chol Soo Lee”). These are just some of the rising filmmakers who are premiering their first features and shorts at Sundance this year....

“Everybody makes a big deal out of [the box office battle], but the truth is what we really need to focus on is getting back to theaters,” Cameron said. “Hopefully we can still have movies like that, ‘Endgame’ and ‘Avatar’ and the big Marvel movies and all that, movies that are able to make $1 billion or $2 billion.” Cameron continued, “Let’s pray that movie theaters are still there after this pandemic and after this shift towards streaming, not that I have anything against streaming....

Related ‘Riches’ Imagines a ‘Succession’ Scenario Where Big Business Is Good Mark Burnett Exits MGM Worldwide Television Related 51 Directors’ Favorite Horror Movies: Bong Joon Ho, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, and More The Best True Crime Streaming Now, from ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ to ‘McMillions’ to ‘The Staircase’ Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Speaking with Insider, Jennifer Beals revealed a slight snag in the process of developing her character and expressed gratitude towards the show’s creators for helping her find a solution. “In the original script, my employees referred to me as ‘master,’” she said, an idea that did not sit well with her. “I felt in this world I’m creating in my establishment, The Sanctuary, given that I’ve come from an enslaved people, perhaps we can choose better language — something that was more in line with her ethos and vision of her place,” she said....

While promoting “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” Carrey told CBS’ Gayle King that he was “sickened” by the response at the 2022 Oscars after Smith slapped presenter Rock after a joke regarding wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s haircut. The actress suffers from alopecia, a hair loss condition. Smith then yelled from his seat to Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth.” He later went on to win Best Actor for “King Richard....

“No,” Favreau answered. “The story unfolded as I wrote it. ‘The Mandalorian’ inherits a great deal from existing ‘Star Wars’ stories, and when I write, that context is always a consideration. It became clear that, within the established continuity, certain things were likely to transpire.” According to Favreau’s answer, the inclusion of Luke Skywalker in “The Mandalorian” might not have been considered until after the show’s writers decided upon a storyline that saw Grogu being placed upon a seeing stone and reaching out to an unknown Jedi....

Hoytema has become Christoper Nolan’s go-to cinematographer in recent years, shooting “Interstellar,” “Dunkirk,” and “Tenet.” For his work on “Dunkirk,” Hoytema was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Hoytema is confirmed to be reuniting with Nolan for a fourth time on the director’s upcoming atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer,” production for which is scheduled to begin in early 2022. The cinematographer first broke out with “Let the Right One In,” which he followed up with “The Fighter,” “Tinker Tailor Solider Spy,” and “Her....

“I mentioned Brando in ‘Apocalypse Now,’ this guy who is very elusive and insane but what he is saying makes sense and is poetical,” Brolin said about tackling the Thanos role. “I started seeing the parallel which I liked for me. I loved being able to resort to a film like ‘Apocalypse Now’ when I was doing something like ‘Avengers.’” The motion capture visual effects needed to play Thanos also appealed to Brolin’s interests, especially because the technology would render his performance into CGI right there on set....

With the terrific opening of “Top Gun: Maverick” (Paramount), optimism about theater recovery increased accordingly — but we remain a long way from normalcy. “Maverick” broke no Memorial Day records, unless you pretend ticket prices haven’t changed in the last four decades. Those distortions aside, June provides a chance for further improvement. In May, American and Canadian theaters grossed around $785 million, which represents 72 percent of May 2019. That’s the second best month since January 2020, and easily the highest of 2022....

“BLKNWS” was an immersive, fictional newscast that satirized America’s “news-creation industrial complex.” Through a combination of original content and aggregated news footage, it imagined what a cable news network run from a Black perspective would look like. An official press release for the installation described it as “a fugitive newscast that rejuvenates what news can be, ‘BLKNWS’ aims to become a bona fide news network that can only be accessed at specific terrestrial sites....