News

Exclusive: Gomorrah star Salvatore Esposito is the latest name to join English-language sports car biopic, Maserati: The Brothers, which is now filming in Italy.

Michele Morrone, Anthony Hopkins, Andy Garcia, Jessica Alba and Tunisian actress Maya Talem — another new joiner — are also starring in the film about the brothers behind the iconic Italian car.

Pic is being produced by Italy’s Andrea Iervolino for his new film and TV outfit called The Andrea Iervolino Company and directed by Oscar winner Bobby Moresco (Crash). Filming will take place from today at Rome’s Cinecittà studios, Modena and Bologna.

Maserati was founded in 1914 in a garage in the central Italian city of Bologna by three brothers: Alfieri, Ettore and Ernesto. From its early days, the company – which is now known for luxury cars — was connected to the world of car racing. Maserati’s first Grand Prix vehicle is the one that Alfieri Maserati...

The Gina Prince-Bythewood directed TriStar Pictures and eOne title, The Woman King, will be making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The epic movie, starring and produced by Oscar winner Viola Davis, opens theatrically in U.S. and Canada on Sept. 16.

The Woman King tells the story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. Inspired by true events, Davis plays General Nanisca as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life. Some things are worth fighting for.

Bythewood directed from a story by Maria Bello and Dana Stevens and the screenplay by Stevens. In addition to Davis and Julius Tennon, The Woman King is produced by Oscar winning Crash producer Cathy Schulman.

18 works in progress by some of the Nordic region’s biggest names – Bille August, Björn Runge, the multi-prized Jp Valkeapää and Malou Reymann will be showcased at the hybrid Nordic Film Market (Feb. 3-6), along with some Sundance and Rotterdam competition entries.

The Nfm runs parallel to the final stretches of the Göteborg Film Festival (Jan.28-Feb.6).

So far, over 450 international delegates have signed up for the major Nordic film confab. Only 250 will be able to attend in-person, due to Covid restrictions in Sweden.

“We’ve received a huge interest from professionals to attend in-person, following the decision of Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin’s European Film Market to go online. It’s been very difficult to say ‘no’ to people, but our priority is to guarantee a safe event,” said Göteborg head of industry Cia Edström who underlines the various safety measures to be implemented at the Nfm, from vaccination checks,...

Lana Condor will star in “Take Out,” an action comedy series in development at Hulu, an individual with knowledge tells TheWrap.

The 20th Television series follows Iris (played by Condor), a cook with a crime-fighting secret. As if balancing her personal life while working at a restaurant wasn’t hard enough, Iris is determined to destroy an evil crime syndicate that is hell-bent on taking over New York City.

Randall Park and Michael Golamco, who co-wrote the Netflix rom-com film “Always Be My Maybe,” will write the pilot episode of “Take Out.” Park and Golamco will also executive produce the series, alongside Condor and Hieu Ho.

After news of the role broke on Wednesday, Condor tweeted, “Im Crying !!! Lets Goooo Get It!!! The project perfectly combines my favorite things: Food, Action, and Love and I couldn’t be more excited.”

Condor most recently starred in the third installment of Netflix...

Sf Studios has boarded “Ellen,” an inspirational period drama about an unsung Danish woman who saved Jews during WW II. It will be directed by Mehdi Avaz (“Collision”) and executive produced by Niels Juul, whose credits include “Ferrari,” “Silence” and “The Irishman.”

Written by James Wyllie, the English-language movie will tell the true story of Ellen Nielsen, a fishmonger and single mother of six kids, who initiated the dangerous transport of Danish Jews on fishing boats to safety in Sweden during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Ellen’s tiny house, which was located in a fishing village on the outskirts of Copenhagen, became the central point of the Danish resistance movement and harbored a complex system of secret communication and transport.

Juul, who previously headed Cecchi Gori Pictures where he worked on “Life Is Beautiful,” “Il Postino” and “Shawshank Redemption,” is passionate about the project.

“When I first got into the film business,...

Randall Park, the “Fresh Off the Boat,” “WandaVision” and “Always Be My Maybe” star, will make his directorial debut for Roadside Attractions on a comedic drama called “Shortcomings.”

“Shortcomings” is based on the 2007 graphic novel by Adrian Tomine, the celebrated cartoonist and illustrator for The New Yorker and of the graphic memoir “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist.” Tomine will also adapt the screenplay and executive produce the film adaptation, which Park said will be updated to modern day.

Tomine’s story has been hailed as an iconic work of contemporary Asian American fiction, grappling with racial politics, sexual mores and pop culture with poignant and hilariously irreverent prose. “Shortcomings” follows a trio of young Bay Area urbanites — Ben Tanaka, Miko Hayashi and Alice Kim — as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships, traversing the country in search of the ideal connection. In cafes, bars and bedrooms, their stories collide...

Randall Park is set to make his directorial debut with a feature film adaptation of the Bay Area-set graphic novel Shortcomings.

Adrian Tomine is behind story that follows a trio of young urbanites — Ben Tanaka, Miko Hayashi and Alice Kim — as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships, traversing the country in search of the ideal connection. Tomine will pen the screenplay.

Roadside Attractions will produce the feature, with Park’s Imminent Collision banner. Roadside co-presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff will produce with Jennifer Berman and Ryan Paine.

Hieu Ho, Michael Golamco and Park will produce for Imminent Collision, which develops and ...

Randall Park is set to make his directorial debut with a feature film adaptation of the Bay Area-set graphic novel Shortcomings.

Adrian Tomine is behind story that follows a trio of young urbanites — Ben Tanaka, Miko Hayashi and Alice Kim — as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships, traversing the country in search of the ideal connection. Tomine will pen the screenplay.

Roadside Attractions will produce the feature, with Park’s Imminent Collision banner. Roadside co-presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff will produce with Jennifer Berman and Ryan Paine.

Hieu Ho, Michael Golamco and Park will produce for Imminent Collision, which develops and ...

Hollywood is continuing to go crazy for GameStop with HBO the latest to get involved in a project based on the stock saga.

The WarnerMedia network is developing a scripted feature film with Jason Blum, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Len Amato.

Their logline: How a populist uprising of social media day traders beat Wall Street at their own game turning the stock market upside down and shaking the financial world to its core.

It follows two feature films in development – Netflix making a film with Mark Boal and Noah Centineo and MGM adapting Ben Mezrich’s The Antisocial Network. Jamie Rogozinski, the founder of Reddit’s WallStreetBets, has sold his life story to RatPac Entertainment, while Xtr, the company behind You Cannot Kill David Arquette , has teamed up with directors Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci on a doc project and Console Wars director Jonah Tulis has started production on another feature documentary with Submarine.

Writer-director Deon Taylor will direct the upcoming film “Freedom Ride,” based on first-person accounts of the original freedom riders, including the late Congressman John Lewis.

Taylor and his Hidden Empire Film Group partner Robert F. Smith will executive produce the project, joining a producing team that includes civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and his company, Brooklyn Media, as well as The Hideaway Entertainment and Inde Companies.

“John Lewis once said, ‘You are a light. You are the light! Never let anyone — any person or any force — dampen, dim or diminish your light…Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.’ His words not only resonate with me as human, but inspire me to tell his amazing story,” Taylor said in a statement.

London-based singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya, a Rolling Stone Artist You Need to Know, made her Tonight Show debut Tuesday with a performance of “Crash,” from Yanya’s recent EP Feeling Lucky?

For the virtual performance — styled and shot like it was filmed at the turn of the Nineties — Yanya and her backing band played the single from a vibrantly colored soundstage.

Yanya also provided a behind-the-scenes look at the performance on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nilufer Yanya (@niluferyanyaaaaaa)

“Crash” is the lead single of Yanya’s Feeling Lucky?...

The 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards announce their nominations on Thursday, February 4, for the best achievements in film and television acting from the year 2020, though the Covid-19 pandemic prompted SAG to extend its eligibility window to February 28 just like the Oscars did. So who do we think will prevail? Scroll down for our predictions in five categories (all races except for the stunt ensemble contest) with contenders listed in order of our racetrack odds, with our projected winners highlighted in gold and dark horse contenders for nominations in italics.

Our odds are based on the combined predictions of over 2,700 Gold Derby users as of this writing. That includes Expert journalists we’ve surveyed from major media outlets, the Editors who cover awards for Gold Derby year-round, the Top 24 Users who had the best prediction scores betting on last year’s SAG nominations, and the All-Star Top 24 who had the best forecasts...

As the film awards season continues to take shape in this unconventional year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 72nd annual Golden Globes will be one of the first big needle movers for contenders. For films, the voting body has an opportunity to recognize a larger group of films and performances with its comedy and drama splits among the categories.

This year, films like “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Mank,” both from Netflix, could lead the tally, currently predicted for five nominations, which would mirror the same nomination tally as last year’s “The Irishman” from Martin Scorsese.

There doesn’t seem to be one film that could dominate with a wide-open year that could dominate, as seen in previous years, or long-standing records being broken. Currently, Robert Altman’s “Nashville” has the most nominations ever received with 11. Unless you’re predicting five men from Sorkin’s “Trial...

February sees the launch of Arrow – a superb new streaming site for exclusive film premieres, cult and arthouse classics, and critically acclaimed TV from all over the world. It’s an absolute must for connoisseurs of the finest in screen entertainment.

Arrow’s new UK subscription video-on-demand service brings their passion-driven approach to deliver an incredible line-up of titles, hand-picked and curated by the Arrow team, including cult classic Donnie Darko, a season of films from director Lars Von Trier (including

Antichrist and The House That Jack Built), Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy, Spanish chiller [Rec], David Cronenberg’s Crash, and the Hellraiser trilogy.

Arrow will also strive to debut the very best in new releases each month, with the exclusive world premiere of Adam Stovall’s festival smash-hit A Ghost Waits this February. New titles already available include the extraordinary documentary The El Duce Tapes and slow-burn

horror standouts The Bloodhound and After Midnight.

Starz has promoted Karen Bailey to Executive Vice President of Original Programming, from her previous SVP role.

In her expanded position, Bailey will continue to spearhead the network’s inclusion initiatives across the slate with a focus on narratives by, about and for women and underrepresented audiences. She will also continue to expand the drive toward adequate and authentic representation programming, overseeing new development and current productions for the network including the critically-acclaimed Outlander, P-Valley and American Gods as well the upcoming series Dangerous Liaisons and Becoming Elizabeth. She will be based in the company’s Santa Monica office.

During her tenure as SVP, Bailey oversaw production for series including Party Down, Crash, Boss and Starz’s first international series Spartacus and Camelot. Bailey first joined Starz in 2006 as an executive producer, overseeing development, production and post-production for the company’s studio slate of television movies and mini-series. She was...

Bruce Kirby, the longtime character actor whose many TV roles included regular turns on Columbo and L.A. Law, died Sunday in Los Angeles. Kirby, the father of late actor Bruno Kirby, was 95.

His son, acting coach John Kirby, announced the death in a Facebook post. A cause of death was not specified, but John Kirby noted that his father “passed away peacefully” at Cedars in Los Angeles.

Beginning his acting career in the 1950s with appearances in Golden Age anthology programs such as Omnibus and Goodyear Playhouse, Kirby became a familiar presence on episodic TV in the 1960s, with roles on Car 54, Where Are You?, The Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie and The Defenders.

His TV career continued through the 1970s and ’80s with roles on sitcoms and dramas, specializing in playing cops and detectives on such series as Medical Center, Toma, Kojak, Shannon, Lou Grant, Hunter and In The Heat Of The Night.

Kirby played several roles in the long-running Peter Falk series Columbo, most notably his run as the show’s Sgt. Kramer. From 1986 to 1991, Kirby recurred on L.A. Law as D.A. Bruce Rogoff, and in the early 1980s he was cast as Officer Schmidt in the San Francisco-based crime drama Shannon.

Other TV credits include The Rockford Files, Matlock, Hill Street Blues, The Golden Girls, Chicago Hope and, in the 2000s, The Sopranos, The West Wing and, in two of his final appearances, Numb3rs and Scrubs.

Though TV roles dominated his career, Kirby also made appearances in such feature films as the 1971 Don Knotts vehicle How To Frame A Figg, the 1985 Patsy Cline biopic Sweet Dreams (in which he played TV personality Arthur Godfrey), 1986’s Stand By Me and, in 1993, the Matt Dillon comedy Mr. Wonderful.

In 2004, Kirby reteamed with Dillon for one of his most memorable big-screen roles, playing the father of Dillon’s shady cop in the Oscar-winning Crash.

On Broadway, Kirby was featured in the replacement cast of 1984’s Death of a Salesman starring Dustin Hoffman. Kirby played the role of Uncle Ben.

Bruno Kirby, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 57, followed his father into acting, with roles in The Godfather: Part II, When Harry Me Sally…, City Slickers, The Larry Sanders Show, This Is Spinal Tap, Good Morning Vietnam and many others. Like his father, he made appearances on Mash, Columbo, Kojak, Room 222 and Hill St. Blues.

On his Facebook tribute, John Kirby wrote, “My father loved acting and aside from his extraordinary professional career in television, film & theater, he never stopped working on it from his early years in New York on scholarship with Lee Strasberg for 9 years, LA’s Theatre East & The Actors Studio. It was very painful for him when he no longer could perform. I am so glad his wonderful work will live on…

“He was a great father who loved Bruno and me and as a family he made it his business for us to tour in these professional Summer Stock packages, something we would all look forward to every summer…I’m glad you’re up there with Bruno and so many of our loved ones.”

In addition to son John, Kirby is survived by wife Rosalyn.

Bruce Kirby, the prolific character actor known for playing Sgt. George Kramer on NBC’s “Columbo” and the father of Matt Dillon’s cop in the 2005 Oscar winner “Crash,” has died at the age of 95.

Kirby’s son, acting coach John Kirby, announced the news of his father’s death on Facebook on Monday. “My dear brilliant dad Bruce Kirby passed away peacefully last night at Cedars in Los Angeles at the age of 95,” he wrote. “My heart is heavy but grateful for all the extra blessed years together.”

Kirby’s other son, Bruno Kirby, was a character actor who appeared in films such as “When Harry Met Sally…” and “The Godfather Part II” before his death in 2006 at age 57 due to complications related to leukemia in 2006.

Born in 1925, Bruce Kirby worked as an actor for nearly six decades, with credits reaching as far back as an appearance on “Goodyear...

You’ve heard of unlikely romances, but the star of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and an amusement park ride? That takes “unlikely” to a whole new level, but that’s also precisely the plot of Zoé Wittock’s festival favorite “Jumbo,” in which Noémie Merlant romances a tilt-a-whirl in a tender, erotically charged love story.

For the sake of contextualizing the weirdness of this romance a bit more, here’s the official synopsis, straight from distributor Dark Star Pictures: “Director Zoé Wittock’s first feature film ‘Jumbo’ stars Noémie Merlant (‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’) as Jeanne, a shy young woman, lives at home with her uninhibited bartender mother and works the graveyard shift as a cleaner at an amusement park. Her mother wants her to meet a man, but Jeanne prefers tinkering in her bedroom with wires, light bulbs, and spare parts, creating miniature versions of theme park rides.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Michael Apted by Andrew H. Walker. Filmmaker Michael Apted, best known for an eclectic filmography that includes Coal Miner's Daughter, The World is Not Enough, and the Up documentary series, has died at 79. In his obituary, Peter Bradshaw writes that the Up series, Apted's epic masterpiece, "had an incalculable effect on [...] the thinking of the British progressive left – as it asked us to ruminate on the inescapability or otherwise of class, and what narratives were possible for working people."Recommended VIEWINGAbove: John Gianvito's Her Socialist Smile (2020). John Gianvito's Her Socialist Smile, one of the best films of 2020, is now playing at the National Gallery of the Arts' website. Read our review of the film by Michael Sicinski here.To commemorate avant-garde filmmaking titan Stan Brakhage's birthday on January 14, Re:voir will be...

The following interview with David Cronenberg about his film Crash originally appeared as the cover story of Filmmaker‘s Winter, 1997 edition. With Crash having just been rereleased in a new restoration by Criterion, it is being republished online for the first time. Also regarding Crash: Joanne McNeil’s essay on the relation of the work to the source material, J.G. Ballard’s novel. Blood, semen and gasoline are the liquids that course through David Cronenberg’s compelling study of sexual fetishism, Crash. But far from being a, well, messy affair, Crash is startling for its cool precision and astute manner of intellectual provocation. […]

The post Braking and Entering: Director David Cronenberg on His Austere and Unnerving J.G. Ballard Adaptation, Crash first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The following interview with David Cronenberg about his film Crash originally appeared as the cover story of Filmmaker‘s Winter, 1997 edition. With Crash having just been rereleased in a new restoration by Criterion, it is being republished online for the first time. Also regarding Crash: Joanne McNeil’s essay on the relation of the work to the source material, J.G. Ballard’s novel. Blood, semen and gasoline are the liquids that course through David Cronenberg’s compelling study of sexual fetishism, Crash. But far from being a, well, messy affair, Crash is startling for its cool precision and astute manner of intellectual provocation. […]

The post Braking and Entering: Director David Cronenberg on His Austere and Unnerving J.G. Ballard Adaptation, Crash first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

One of the pleasant surprises of Star Trek: Discovery‘s third year has been the addition of David Cronenberg as a supporting character. The filmmaker plays Federation agent Kovich, who shares some of the more disturbing realities of life in the 32nd century with the time-displaced Discovery crew. And according to an interview with the director in Variety, he’ll be turning up again in the remaining three episodes of season 3, and again in the already-in-production fourth run of the CBS All Access hit.

Kovich was most recently seen showing an interest in the Mirror Universe and Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Georgiou, and helps set up a seeming return to her own time. When interviewed, Cronenberg discussed how he sees the character, commenting as so:

“He is an interrogator who’s also kind of an academic historian. He plays his cards pretty close to his vest, as does the Emperor.

The controversy surrounding the original release of this dark exploration of sexy car accidents now seems quaintly outdated – but the film holds up well

In 1996, David Cronenberg’s movie Crash, now rereleased in 4K digital, became the subject of the last great “banning” controversy for a new film in Britain. His vision of the erotic car crash got brimstone denunciations from the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail. This delayed its BBFC certificate, and Westminster council issued a solemn edict forbidding it in West End cinemas.

But in the 21st century, the press appetite for denouncing shocking films just seemed to vanish, overnight becoming the quaint tradition of a bygone age, perhaps because of a belated realisation that these campaigns were destined to fail and didn’t sell papers, and that, increasingly, nothing sold papers in any case as newsprint lost ground to the internet’s oceanic swell, in which...

Offering their audience and fans a variety of shows across all genres, ALTBalaji and ZEE5 Club has always been a go-to Ott hub for the Indian audience.

Be it romance, crime, mystery, comedy, horror, or any other genre, the platforms have always provided clutter-breaking content with their favorite stars on the show. Taking the legacy ahead, ALTBalaji and ZEE5 Club announce yet another show - Crashh, a beautiful saga of a sibling bond.

To take the excitement and drama quotient ahead of the show’s release a notch higher, the makers have roped in Zain Imam as one of the protagonists of the show.

The dashing and debonair actor will be seen playing the role of Rishab in the series. Rishab is a doctor who lost his parents in a mishap. He hides his pain and immerses himself in work to shift his focus.

Speaking about his character on the show,...

Cinemas in Wales and Scotland and some islands remain open.

UK film distributors are quickly putting new release plans in place in response to the government’s new lockdown rules which will see cinemas close in England tomorrow (Thursday November 5) for four weeks.

But not all films are being postponed – and some are even proceeding with theatrical release, since cinemas remain open in parts of Scotland and on islands such as Guernsey and Isle Of Man. Wales is set to emerge from its “firebreak” next week, and cinemas in the nation are accepting bookings. Nothern Ireland’s cinemas may also...

After debuting on Netflix, Aaron Sorkin’s critically acclaimed “The Trial of the Chicago 7” has made one of the key decisions in a successful awards campaign. The film’s robust cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Frank Langella, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong and Michael Keaton, who will all campaign in the supporting categories for the upcoming Academy Awards, as confirmed by Netflix.

The film tells the story of the famous trial of seven individuals that were charged for inciting a riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill.

Going the route of past films like “Spotlight” and “Crash,” the film has now positioned itself to possibly land multiple acting nominations. One of the biggest benefactors will be Cohen, who received an Oscar nomination in adapted screenplay for 2006’s “Borat,” as he received a large number of the standout notices. Partnered with his well-received performance in “Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm,...

Tyler Perry is Variety‘s 2020 Showman of the Year. For the full cover story, click here.

Music supervisor Joel C. High distinctly remembers meeting Tyler Perry for the first time in 2004 on “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” “It changed my life,” says High of what was the beginning of a beautiful filmmaker-music supervisor partnership that continues to this day.

The secret to their harmony is simple. As Perry divulges, he doesn’t “change partners once at the dance.” Says Variety’s Showman of the Year: “[Joel] gets the exact tone and feel of what I was thinking.”

High, who now serves as president of the Guild of Music Supervisors, was head of music at Lionsgate overseeing film and television when Michael Paseornek, the studio’s then president of production, brought Perry to High’s attention. On deck was Perry’s first movie, based on one of his stage plays.

No stranger to soundtracks,...

Nilüfer Yanya sings from 38,000 feet in the video for “Crash.” The track is off her upcoming EP Feeling Lucky? out December 11th via Ato Records.

Co-written and produced by Nick Hakim, the song’s video features Yanya as a flight attendant on board a plane. (Neck scarf? Check. Pilot wings? Check.) “If you ask me one more question, I’m about to crash,” she sings, braving turbulence and strumming the electric guitar.

“The video for ‘Crash’ takes place on a flight,” Yanya said in a statement. “Last year, doing a...

The Ape

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1940 / 62 min. / 1:33:1

Starring Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon

Cinematography by Harry Neumann

Directed by William Nigh

William Nigh directed over 40 silent films before he signed on for The Ape, which might account for this 1940 film looking far older than its release date—the staging is rudimentary and the dialog so simple that intertitles would convey the action with all its meaning intact. Curt Siodmak’s storyline could have been plucked from a different era too—in particular 1931’s City Lights in which a flower girl regains her sight thanks to Chaplin’s perennial outcast, the little tramp. In The Ape the misfit is Boris Karloff as a scientist who helps a lame girl to walk—and though this low budget melodrama can’t compete with Chaplin’s sentimental masterpiece, like many silent era films, it has its own unvarnished appeal.

Karloff plays Dr. Adrian,...

Sony has just kicked off its latest sale for all PlayStation owners, this time in celebration of the year’s spookiest holiday.

Well over 200 individual games (including Dlc and special editions) are currently available for a fraction of their usual asking price in the aptly-named Halloween Sale, with the majority of those included in the promotion belonging to the horror genre. There are some exceptions that wholly ignore the theme, of course, such as Crash Team Racing and Spyro (your guess is as good as ours), but generally speaking, most of what you’ll find here either contains zombies, human-eating monsters, murderous animatronic animals or legions of demons intent on enslaving Earth’s entire population.

See if you can spot the games each of those references belongs to – as well as hundreds of other lesser-known titles – via the full list below.

Alien Isolation: The Collection — $8.99 Arc The Lad: Twilight of...

There comes a time in your life when you no longer love every piece of media you consume. As a child, you don’t mind whatever slop gets thrown on in front of you. As you get older, though, your palette develops, and what may have been fine as a kid, no longer works for you. One of the first times I realized this for myself was playing Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, the Traveller’s Tales-developed sequel released in 2001. Despite loving the original trilogy, this lackluster entry soured me on the franchise, and it wasn’t until the release of the N’Sane Trilogy in 2017 that I fell back in love with the series. Activision apparently sensed that I was not alone in this regard, which explains why they commissioned developer Toys for Bob to craft Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, which effectively erases everything about...

The Academy has taken its fair share of hits over the years, failing to recognize the very best films and performances each year, especially when it comes to people of color. #OscarsSoWhite highlights the absence of all talents that fail to get cited, despite much of Black actors and actresses’ conversation. While Black representation in the acting categories is abysmal, Latinx representation has even worse numbers.

The last Latinx actor to be rewarded in an acting category was Benicio del Toro 20 years ago for his supporting role as Javier Rodriguez in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic.” Only seven Latinos have been nominated on the film side of things at the Screen Actors Guild awards in its 25-year history, with del Toro being the only Latino to have ever won (Jharrel Jerome and America Ferrera are the only Latinx actors to win Emmys for television performances).

Looking back at the last 30 years,...

October is horror movie season, but there’s no reason to watch “Hocus Pocus” for the umpteenth time when there are newer offerings available. This year, several of the major horror film festivals across the U.S. were forced to cancel their physical gatherings, but they’ve joined forces to create a single virtual festival event loaded with promising new work from around the world. Running October 8 – 11, Nightstream represents the collaborative programming efforts of Boston Underground, Brooklyn Horror, Overlook, the North Bend Film Festival, and Popcorn Frights Festival. The supersized curatorial undertaking has yielded an international lineup of genre efforts that include some favorites from earlier the festival season as well as many discoveries.

Launching as New York Film Festival’s virtual edition winds down, Nightstream is another example of ongoing efforts to replicate the festival experience in these stay-at-home times. The program opens Thursday with the world premiere of the Hulu Original production “Run,...

Sf Studios has boarded “Toscana,” Mehdi Avaz’s upcoming romantic drama starring Anders Matthesen that just started filming.

A tribute to love and food, “Toscana” also stars Christiana Dell’Anna (“Gomorra”) and Andrea Bosca (“Quantico”), as well as Ghita Nørby (“Silent Heart”), Lærke Winther (“Dicte”) and the singer Christopher. Matthesen, one of Denmark’s most popular actors, previously starred in the award-winning film “Out of Tune” and in the local hit movie “Ternet Ninja.”

Sf Studios is planning to release “Toscana” in theaters across the Nordics in December 2021. It marks the third feature film by Avaz, who made his feature debut with “While We Live” in 2017 and his sophomore outing with the 2019 drama “Collision.” The filmmaker also produced the critically acclaimed TV show “Alfa,” which recently bowed on TV2 Zulu.

“In a very short time I have become the father of two lovely boys, which has greatly changed my focus on life.

After more than a decade since the last major Crash Bandicoot adventure, it is indeed “about time” for a sequel, and while Crash Bandicoot 4 successfully revives the spirit of the classic ‘90s trilogy, its best moments come from newly introduced gameplay mechanics.

It’s About Time smartly ignores all of the questionable sequels since 1998’s Crash Bandicoot: Warped. After being trapped in a timeless prison at the end of the previous game, Uka Uka, Dr. Neo Cortex, and Dr. N. Tropy accidentally rip a hole in the fabric of space and time while trying to escape. The mad doctors realize they can escape to other dimensions and they unsurprisingly decide to take over the multiverse. The story has a very fun Saturday morning cartoon vibe to it, though the writing is surprisingly smart, with regular callbacks to previous games and a couple of jokes definitely targeted at adult fans.

This...

The ‘70s represented some of horror’s most creative and exciting developments. Criterion Channel is taking the month of October to delve into this influential decade’s fright-filled contributions with their newest collection—‘70s Horror. Whether you’re a newbie to Romero or a devotee of De Palma, this trip through time promises grindhouse meets art house on an epic scale.

Read More: Criterion December Titles Include David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash,’ Alejandro Iñárritu’s ‘Amores Perros’ & More

While every entry represents its own peek into a decade welcoming decadence, sexual expression, and gore galore; there are some choices that are must-watch titles for fans.

Continue reading Criterion Channel Is Doing A ’70s Horror Series For Halloween, And We Have A Trailer at The Playlist.

The Criterion Collection could easily take a month off in 2020, maybe two, and rest easy at winning the title for best cinephile DVD/Blu-Ray company (how many years in a row they’ve already won that title is something we’ll leave you to debate with friends). 2020 has already included an amazing and essential box set from French New Wave legend Agnès Varda, another upcoming box set from Federico Fellini which is sure to astound, and plenty of landmark, long-awaited soon-to-come releases like “Moonstruck,” Jim Jarmusch‘s hip hop/ninja assassin mash-up, “Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai,” Claudia Weill‘s seminal feminist indie classic “Girlfriends,” Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” class warfare drama, David Lynch‘s “Elephant Man,” and earlier this summer, “Come & See,” the legendary WWII film from Soviet director Elem Klimov.

Continue reading Criterion December Titles Include David Cronenberg’s ‘Crash,’ Alejandro Iñárritu’s ‘Amores Perros’ & More at The Playlist.

Despite the increasingly toxic debate, Maïmouna Doucouré’s film and its accusers are on the same side: attacking pornification and the false promise of liberation by sexualised display

Should this film be cancelled? Or, to raise a secondary point: should one see this film before taking a view on such things? It’s still surprising to me, even having lived through so many controversies like this, how many people can’t quite bring themselves to answer “yes” to the second question, or they say that watching the film simply plays into the filth-merchants’ hands, a sorrowing paradox I remember first encountering during the National Theatre run of The Romans in Britain.

Mignonnes, or Cuties – an interesting, flawed debut feature for Netflix from Franco-Senegalese director Maïmouna Doucouré – finds itself at the centre of the nastiest obscenity row since David Cronenberg’s Crash in 1996. This is because of sequences showing a group of naive,...

The Venice Film Festival, which reinvigorated the fall festival season with a physical event that began on September 2 in Italy, concluded on Saturday with its annual awards ceremony. See the full list of winners and watch the live stream below.

Led by president Cate Blanchett, the jurors for the main competition included Austrian director Veronika Franz, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir”), Italian writer and novelist Nicola Lagioia, German filmmaker Christian Petzold, actor Matt Dillon (“Crash”), and French actress Ludivine Sagnier.

Together, they awarded the festival’s top prizes, including the Golden Lion, which last year went to “Joker” under jury president Lucrecia Martel. This year’s Golden Lion went to “Nomadland,” which received a rapturous reception out of the Toronto International Film Festival as well this week, and looks to be headed straight for Oscar contention.

Meanwhile, in the Orizzonti, or Horizons, section running parallel to the main competition,...

In the wake of #OscarsSoWhite, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have taken a hard look at what they can do to promote and actively encourage inclusion and diversity in their voting body. Along with expanding their membership to include more voices from around the world, they’ve announced a new initiative titled Academy Aperture 2025. One of the most significant elements of the plan has now been unveiled. They have announced new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility in the Best Picture category, which not only features onscreen standards in terms of casting, but it also extends to internships, production, marketing, distribution, and more.

“The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them. The Academy is committed to playing a vital role in helping make this a reality,” said Academy President...

Apple TV+ has debuted a new trailer for the espionage thriller series ‘Tehran’.

The eight-episode series tells the thrilling story of a Mossad agent who goes deep undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran that places her and everyone around her in dire jeopardy.

Created by Moshe Zonder (“Fauda”), Dana Eden and Maor Kohn, and co-created and directed by Daniel Syrkin, the show stars Israeli actress Niv Sultan; Shaun Toub; Navid Negahban; Shervin Alenabi (“Baghdad in My Shadow”); Liraz Charhi (“A Late Quartet”); and Menashe Noy.

Also in trailers – Neon release uncut trailer for Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’

The series premieres globally on Appl TV+ September 25th.

The post Apple TV+ drop trailer for espionage thriller series ‘Tehran’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

It’s time to start packing, to call around to find out what might be playing, to pull out the sweaters and a warm jacket for the first time in months and, above all, to look forward to a guaranteed long weekend of films that will all be worth seeing and that will provide a strong indication of what kind of serious movie year this will be.

Unfortunately, everyone knows the depressing answer to that question. And now, for some of us, is when the miserable truth of the matter is staring us straight in the face: the movie screens in Telluride will be empty over this Labor Day weekend for the first time in 46 years. There will be no hour-plus ride from the Montrose Airport to the host town of just 2,325 year-round residents, no dash to grab the schedule where the titles to be shown will be revealed for the first time,...

Apple is preparing to enter thriller territory with “Tehran,” one of Apple TV+’s first forays into the genre. The company released the trailer for the upcoming espionage series on Wednesday.

Per Apple, “Tehran” tells the thrilling story of a Mossad agent who goes deep undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran that places her and everyone around her in dire jeopardy. The series is created by Moshe Zonder (“Fauda”), Dana Eden and Maor Kohn, and co-created and directed by Daniel Syrkin. Zonder also serves as writer alongside co-creator Omri Shenhar. “Tehran” stars Niv Sultan, Shaun Toub; Navid Negahban, Shervin Alenabi (“Baghdad in My Shadow”), Liraz Charhi (“A Late Quartet”), and Menashe Noy.

Though the series’ new trailer doesn’t offer much in the way of new plot details, the various scenes of interrogations, hacking, and spurts of gritty violence suggest that whatever undercover mission is happening, it will indeed...

David Cronenberg, though never officially retired, is in no rush to get back to filmmaking even after a six-year hiatus since the release of his Hollywood-skewering satire “Maps to the Stars.” Instead, the Canadian auteur, who is 77 years old, is reappraising his legacy at the moment, and in the form of a 4K restoration of his 1996 film “Crash.” To promote the new transfer of his controversial J.G. Ballard adaptation about car-crash fetishists, Cronenberg spoke with The Canadian Press (via Yahoo! News) about the film, and specifically its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival when Francis Ford Coppola was president.

According to Cronenberg, Coppola went out of his way to make sure people knew that not everyone supported “Crash,” which bowed in the main competition and received a Special Jury Award created exclusively for it, since other people opposed its Palme d’Or contention. And those people, according to Cronenberg,...

This year, David Cronenberg’s “Crash” is celebrating its 24th anniversary. And as it approaches its quarter-century mark, the film is getting a brand-new 4K restoration release with all the bells and whistles. This has renewed interest in the filmmaker’s cult film that has a bit of a checkered history when it comes to awards. You see, even though “Crash” won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, the filmmaker believes he was slighted by none other than Francis Ford Coppola in the judgment.

Continue reading David Cronenberg Reflects On The ‘Crash’ Cannes Award Controversy: “Coppola Was Totally Against It” at The Playlist.

Apple TV+ is preparing to release one of its first thrillers with “Tehran,” a series that centers on an undercover Mossad agent. Set to premiere September 25 on the streaming service, the eight-episode series will debut with the first three episodes, followed by new episodes every Friday.

Per an official synopsis from Apple, the series revolves around a Mossad agent who goes deep undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran that places her and everyone around her in dire jeopardy. The series stars young Israeli actress Niv Sultan; Shaun Toub; Navid Negahban; Shervin Alenabi (“Baghdad in My Shadow”); Liraz Charhi (“A Late Quartet”); and Menashe Noy.

Apple partnered with Cineflix Rights and Israeli network Kan 11 to co-produce “Tehran.” The series is created by Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden, and Maor Kohn, and directed by Daniel Syrkin. Omri Shenhar serves as writer alongside Zonder. The series is executive produced by Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden,...

Leading civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump has set his latest Hollywood project, joining the producing team behind the film “Freedom Ride,” which dramatizes the experiences of the original Freedom Riders, including the late Rep. John Lewis.

Crump’s Brooklyn Media will produce the film with Hideaway Entertainment and Inde Companies. The news comes less than a month after civil rights legend and longtime U.S. congressman Lewis died at 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. It also comes on the 55th anniversary of the landmark passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited discriminatory practices in voting.

“This film is not only timely with the recent passing of Congressman John Lewis, it is timely because it will help to preserve the legacy of John Lewis for younger generations to come,” Crump said in statement. “This story will resonate with the world today because John Lewis was an original voice...

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time kicked off the latest PlayStation State of Play event, and we actually learned quite a bit of new information during the game’s latest showcase.

First off, as we’ve heard before, Crash Bandicoot 4 will be a traditional Crash Bandicoot game in most of the ways that matter most to fans. That means that most of the game’s levels will see you navigate a course filled with obstacles and collectibles as you work to reach the end of each area, snag certain items, and defeat a variety of bosses.

What longtime Crash fans may be happiest to hear is that Crash Bandicoot 4 developers Toys for Bob are committed to ensuring that this upcoming sequel retains the precision gameplay of the original. If you were one of the many who were surprised to find that the original Crash Bandicoot games were actually pretty challenging,...

“Men lie with me, not to me!”

Rosanna Arquette and Jason Robards in Black Rainbow (1988) is currently avalable on Blu-ray From Arrow Video

Mike Hodges wrote and directed this supernatural chiller as a meditation on the human race’s ability to destroy the world, a gothic tale of suspense and the occult, guaranteed to send shivers down your spine.Martha Travis is a travelling clairvoyant on the road with her sceptic father. During a séance Martha communicates a message from a dead man to his wife in the audience. Shocked the wife insists her husband is still alive. Later that evening the husband is killed by a ruthless assassin. As Martha foresees more and more tragic events journalist Gary Wallace follows the pair in pursuit of a hot story with catastrophically eerie results.

Sent direct to cable by its struggling distributor on initial release, Black Rainbow unfairly never got the exposure it deserved,...

Directed by Brian Skiba, The 2nd features Ryan Phillippe as Vic Davis, a Secret Service Agent who is caught in a high stakes terrorist operation and must use his skill sets to take down this dangerous outfit. Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers) is the leader of this group who are out [...]

The post Ryan Phillippe Takes On Casper Van Dien In Action Fueled ‘The 2nd’ Trailer appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.