But it was still a frustrating ride. “We never made a film where we weren’t present during the principle action,” Vasarhelyi said in an interview with Chin over Zoom. The pandemic forced them to interview their key subjects, the British divers who drove the mission, from afar. Underwater reenactments were shot with the divers at Pinewood Studios in the U.K. rather than at the actual Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai....
Which isn’t to suggest that the quizzical calm of Denzel Washington’s lead performance doesn’t make for an arresting contrast against the foam-mouthed ferality that Toshirō Mifune brought to the role in “Throne of Blood,” or that Bruno Delbonnel’s grayscale cinematography doesn’t feel like a deliberate 180 from the saturated grit of Justin Kurzel’s “Macbeth” and the fetid barbarism of the Playboy-funded Roman Polanski movie that substitute teachers once showed in public high schools (it was a different time)....
In the complicated world of staged availability, this means that the studio will prioritize its in-house platform rather than move its titles to premium cable. The films will spend four months on Peacock, followed by 10 months elsewhere (those deals have not been announced), then returning to Peacock for four more months. This strategy is relatively kind to theaters since it occurs beyond the normal window of theater exclusivity while preserving maximum positive impact for Universal’s still-new streaming platform....
Zemeckis’ “The Witches” is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1983 novel of the same name. Newcomer Jahzir Kadeem Bruno stars as a young boy who moves in with his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. The year is 1967, and the boy and his grandmother find themselves in an unexpected battle against a coven of glamorous witches (led by Anne Hathaway’s Grand High Witch) who seek to turn the town’s children into mice....
Exhibition now operates like every other industry under the law, including rules governing anti-trust, monopolistic, and unfair business practice behavior. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres means the elevated rules governing studios no longer apply. Here’s what this means: It eases the barrier to studios operating theaters The 1949 decree made it illegal for a theater owner to produce and distribute movies. For about two decades, five studios — MGM, RKO, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros....
TIFF previously announced “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” to debut at the 47th edition of the festival this September. “Catherine Called Birdy” stars “Game of Thrones” alum Bella Ramsey as the title character, who finds herself as a tween bride to save her family’s name in the Middle Ages. Per an official synopsis: “The year? 1290. In the Medieval English village of Stonebridge, Lady Catherine (known as Birdy) is the youngest child of Lord Rollo and Lady Aislinn....
The Festival takes place from June 8-19 and will open with Jennifer Lopez documentary “Halftime.” The features program spans 10 categories and showcases 110 feature films and 16 online premieres from 151 filmmakers across 40 countries. This year’s TV lineup include nine series premieres and two first looks at returning favorites. Emmy-winning AMC series “Better Call Saul” debuts its mid-season premiere of the final season, followed by a special conversation with lead stars Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn and showrunner, executive producer, and co-creator Peter Gould....
The “CODA” Best Supporting Actor winner shared that on Saturday, August 13, his Jeep was reported stolen. Kotsur’s Academy Award statue was in the car, as the actor was traveling to Mesa, Arizona, to receive a key to the city, and he was asked to bring the statue to the event. “A little kid stole my Jeep while I have [my] Oscar award in my Jeep,” Kotsur wrote in a since-deleted tweet....
Village Roadshow alleged that Warner Bros. undercut the theatrical release of the fourth “Matrix” film by driving subscribers to HBO Max. Per Variety, “the suit alleges that Warner Bros. unilaterally decided to release the latest ‘Matrix’ installment simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, with no notice to Village Roadshow.” The production company has a history of co-financing with the Warner Bros. studio across the “Matrix” trilogy as a whole, “Joker,” and the “Oceans” film series....
During the Kering Women In Motion conversation at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, presented by Variety, award winner Davis revealed that a male director called her by his maid’s name decades ago. “I had a director who did that to me. He said, ‘Louise!’ I knew him for 10 years, and he called me Louise and I find out that it’s because his maid’s name is Louise,” Davis remembered. “I was maybe around 30 at the time, so it was a while ago....
The vagaries of talent contracts, and how their payouts are related to reaching profit (a likely far-off point for the multi-hundred million dollar effort), remain unclear. But what is known is that along with its strong theatrical response (though low for a Marvel title, with its concurrent PVOD release, Covid impact, and a seemingly mixed response from audiences to the film), the money it is earning is increasing. “Black Widow” is #1 on iTunes (usually quickest to respond to new releases) and currently #3 at Google Play....
Per The Hollywood Reporter: “Sarnoff says the studio announced the 2021 strategy before talking with its partners because they feared the news would leak. ‘I wish we could have had more time to speak to our partners and talent,’ she says. ‘We are very conscious of paying a fair price for the HBO Max 31-day distribution of the movie, and we think they’ll be happy to see how much effort we will put behind successfully launching these movies....
Ever since its debut, “Never Have I Ever” has earned its spot in the teen TV hall of fame. The series opens with 15-year-old Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) on a mission to bang Paxton (Darren Barnet), the hottest kid in school, while not getting distracted by her frenemy Ben (Jaren Lewison), growing anger issues, and the fresh pain of her dad’s (Sendhil Ramamurthy) sudden death. Thus begins a heartwarming, horny story of adolescent growth, narrated by tennis legend John McEnroe....
When most categories have five nominees, and Best Picture has more (in this case, eight), snubs happen. But why did $35 million “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which won the Golden Globe for Screenplay, the often-predictive SAG Ensemble, and Best Editing awards, lose so resoundingly to a series of lower-budget, less mainstream movies? It’s not the fault of the Netflix awards team, who received a record 36 Oscar nominations and seven wins for “Mank,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “My Octopus Teacher,” and more....
The notion of Radio City’s 6,000-plus seats filling up with unmasked audiences in one month’s time was jolting, but Cuomo’s declaration had some curious blind spots. For one thing, Tribeca is far from the “the first in-person film festival to take place in North America,” let alone New York. New Directors/New Films, co-hosted by Film at Lincoln Center and MOMA, took that mantle in March; across the country, in-person film festivals have been taking place throughout the pandemic, including regional efforts like the Florida Film Festival and the Micheaux International Film Festival in Los Angeles....
We will obviously get a better handle on the Oscar race after the February 19 MUAHS Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. However, where “Dune” has the advantage is not being limited by real-life people or a Disney icon in training. Indeed, director Denis Villeneuve was free to reinvent the look of Skarsgård’s Baron by riffing on Marlon Brando’s Col. Kurtz from “Apocalypse Now.” For this makeup journey into the “heart of darkness,” he tapped go-to designer Donald Mowat, a 30-year vet, who collaborated with the Swedish team of prosthetics artists Love Larson and Eva von Bahr....
IndieWire has learned that the new Superman will focus on a young Clark Kent when he first arrives in Metropolis. No director is attached yet. As for whether Henry Cavill will return as Superman, because the film focuses on a younger hero, it will star someone other than Cavill. Cavill himself confirmed the news on Instagram shortly after news broke of a new Superman movie, and he said “my turn to wear the cape has passed....
When asked what it’s like to be the first Korean actress nominated for an Oscar, she said, “Very stressful.” She added, “I was just very happy being nominated. I never even dreamed about being nominated for an Oscar. People will be very happy for me if I get the win, but it’s very stressful.” Yuh-Jung Youn has had a winning streak the past month during the awards season, as she won Best Supporting Actress honors at both the BAFTA Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards....
“I should have never played Nina,” Saldana said (via Entertainment Weekly). “I should have done everything in my power, with the leverage that I had 10 years ago — which was a different [amount of] leverage, but it was leverage nonetheless. I should’ve tried everything in my power to cast a Black woman to play an exceptionally perfect Black woman.” When she was cast in 2012, after replacing Mary J....
Stiller told Esquire that Wilson was always his top choice for Hansel, but there was a time when scheduling conflicts suggested the actor would not be available to film the movie. The studio forced Stiller to hold Hansel auditions, which is when a young Gyllenhaal entered the room. “The only one that I remember clearly was a young Jake Gyllenhaal doing this wide-eyed version of Hansel that was really funny,” said Stiller, who also revealed that Andy Dick was supposed to play the villainous Mugatu before Will Ferrell joined....
