Film
Netflix to Stop Greenlighting “Vanity Projects” Like The Irishman
With subscribers declining and competitors on the rise, Netflix has had to find ways to compensate and adjust to the State of Streaming in 2022. One way they plan to do that, executives said, is to make “bigger and better” movies, ultimately releasing fewer overall than the excessive output they’ve accrued in recent years. That also means the era of exorbitantly expensive vanity projects — like Martin Scorsese’s 2019 crime drama The Irishman, which had a $175 million price tag — is over. With massive names like Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in its cast, The Irishman felt like an easy grab for visibility (albeit an entertaining one). But execs at Netflix say these massive prestige pieces are more voracious than they’re worth: “This tendency to do anything to attract talent a...
Johnny Depp Wins Defamation Case Against Amber Heard
The verdict is in. After six grueling weeks of testimony, cross-examination, and scandalous allegations levied by both sides, a jury has found Amber Heard guilty of defamation against ex-husband Johnny Depp. The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and an additional $5 million in punitive damages. But in the state of Virginia where the trial was held, punitive damages are capped at $350,000, and after the jury’s ruling was read out, Judge Penney Azcarate lowered the punitive damages to match. Depp’s total award is then $10.35 million. He had sought $50 million. The jury also weighed in on Heard’s $100 million countersuit, elements of which were awarded in her favor. The jury granted Heard $2 million total, all for compensatory damages, with no punitive damages assessed. Ad...
KK, Indian Superstar, Dead After Suffering Heart Attack Post-Concert
Krishnakumar Kunnath, the Indian superstar popularly known as KK, died of a heart attack shortly after a concert on Tuesday, the Hindustan Times and The Times of India report. He was 53 years old. Following a performance at Nazrul Mancha auditorium in Kolkata, KK reportedly returned to his hotel and collapsed. He was rushed to Calcutta Medical Research Institute where he was pronounced dead. Shortly before the cardiac event, his Instagram account posted two photos of the concert. “Pulsating gig tonight at Nazrul Mancha,” he wrote. “Vivekananda College !! Love you all.” Advertisement Related Video Born August 23rd, 1968, KK’s success was due in no small part to his versatility. He was comfortable performing in many of the most spoken languages in India, including English...
Top Gun: Maverick Used A.I. to Recreate Val Kilmer’s Voice
Tuned-in Top Gun fans know that Val Kilmer and his character Tom “Iceman” Kazansky have a few things in common, and perhaps their most notable similarity is the fact that in Top Gun: Maverick, both of them have lost the ability to speak due to cancer. Kilmer does, however, have one line of spoken dialogue in the new sequel, and it took some artificial intelligence to bring it to life. Kilmer — whose throat cancer treatment reduced his voice to a rasp back in 2014 — announced last year that he had partnered with the software company Sonantic to realistically recreate his old speaking voice for the documentary Val. Using hours and hours of audio, this process was used again for Kilmer’s appearance in Top Gun: Maverick. Sonantic used what they call a “voice engine” to teach the...
The 10 Most Brutal Stunts in Jackass 4.5
Ever since 2002, the Jackass team has been responsible for some of the most brutal and hard-to-watch stunts on television. With six features and multiple spin-offs, the cast members have engaged in hundreds of stunts on camera, sometimes suffering serious injuries as a result. This year, the gang got back together after a long hiatus for Jackass Forever, and with it we got a brand new slate of horrific stunts. Not only that, but a new documentary, Jackass 4.5, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Jackass Forever, and, by extension, at the awful moments that took place in Jackass Forever. From a blindfold race to a condom filled with sewage, this doc has no shortage of cringe-worthy moments. But for now, here are the top 10. 10. Fire in the Hole <img aria-describedby="...
Pauly Shore Teases Possible Encino Man Sequel: “I Would Do It for the Fans”
Love them or hate them, remakes, reboots, and revivals are having a moment in Hollywood and on streaming. Disney+ might be cashing in next with a sequel to 1992’s Encino Man, according to one of the film’s stars, Pauly Shore. Speaking in an oral history of the film with Inverse, the actor added that if his co-stars Brendan Fraser and Sean Astin were on board, he might be down for a remake. “I know Disney+ is talking about possibly doing the sequel,” Shore said. “If they want me to do it and the script was right and Brendan and Sean were on board and it made sense, I would do it for the fans! It’s what George [Zaloom, who wrote Encino Man] has been working on. So ask him about it.” When asked, Zaloom offered little in terms of clearing the air: “If you ask me ‘Is there going to be anot...
See the Prosthetics That Might Win Bradley Cooper an Oscar in Leonard Bernstein Biopic Maestro
Academy Award voters love a good prosthetic, and plastic-aided transformations have garnered Oscars for Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, and more. Perhaps we’ll soon be adding Bradley Cooper’s name to that list; the many times-nominated superstar is directing himself in the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, and first look photos show him wearing a double-sized nose, jowls that hang down over his chest like a bronze chain, and eyebrows so bushy they tried to invade Iraq. Maestro is produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Martin Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions. Cooper himself co-wrote the script with Josh Singer, and he’ll be starring opposite Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre, Chilean actress and Bernstein’s wife. Although Bernstein is best rememb...
Even Jon Voight Is Calling For Common Sense Gun Control: “This Is Mental”
Jon Voight has released a statement in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas elementary school mass shooting calling for stricter gun laws in the US. “Oh, how my heard bleeds for all those lost,” he began the video posted to his Facebook page in front of an American flag. “My soul cries. We must do something about these horrors that are taken out on innocent beings. Humans who each have lives, and years of life that they’re supposed to live. They’ve been taken down by insanity.” The outspoken Republican and father of Angelina Jolie later went on: “There should be proper qualifications for gun ownership. Proper testing. One should only own a gun if they’re qualified and schooled. It’s not about left, right, guns, no guns. This is about brains that are dysfunctioning. This is mental. This is not abo...
David Cronenberg Plays the Fleshy Hits in the Evocative, Squicky Crimes of the Future: Review
The Pitch: In a near-future world where pollution and technological advancement have led human beings to develop “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome” (i.e. the spontaneous development of new organs and bodily configurations), bodily modifications are the norm and pain is virtually a thing of the past. Save, it seems, for Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), a celebrity performance artist whose gimmick is tattooing, then surgically (and publicly) removing, the new organs his body generates in elaborate showcases with his creative partner/probably-lover Caprise (Léa Seydoux). He lives a life of constant pain, one which no number of bio-technological devices — floating orchid-like beds that attach fleshy tentacles to his limbs, living high chairs that rock him as he eats breakfast so he can keep h...
Taika Waititi’s Star Wars Film Targets 2023 Release
It’s been two and a half years since Lucasfilm closed its latest trilogy with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but during the annual Star Wars Celebration event at Anaheim Convention Center on Friday we got an update on the cinematic future of that galaxy far, far away. In an interview with Total Film, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the next feature film will come from the cracked mind of Taika Waititi, and that they are targeting a release in 2023. Kennedy explained that it would come “not [in] 2023, but late 2023,” which makes sense, since the three latest movies — The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, all landed in December. She added, “We haven’t locked anything in.” She didn’t offer any details about the plot, timel...
Jussie Smollett Directed ‘B-Boy Blues’ to Debut on BET+
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Chicago Tribune / Getty Former Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who was later disgraced after being convicted of making false reports about what he alleged to be a hate crime in 2019, has directed a new film. Smollett’s first project since his fall from grace, a full-length feature film called B-Boy Blues was directed and financed, in part, by the actor. The film is an adaptation of the 1994 novel by James Earl Hardy about the lives of Black gay men in New York City. It’s been described as “a clash of class and culture when Mitchell Crawford, a college educated journalist from Brooklyn and Raheim Rivers, a bike messenger from Harlem, fall in love.” The film has previously been seen by fans at the 2021 American Black Film Festival where it w...
R.I.P. Ray Liotta, Goodfellas and Field of Dreams Actor Dead at 67
Ray Liotta, the veteran actor known for his roles in Goodfellas and Field of Dreams, has died at the age of 67. According to Deadline, Liotta passed away in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the film Dangerous Waters. No cause of death has been made public at this time. Born December 18th, 1954, Liotta was bartending in New York when he caught his first break with a role on the daytime soap opera Another World. He joined the series in 1978 but left in 1981 to test his luck in Hollywood, booking parts on a Casablanca TV show and the crime drama Our Family Honor, before netting his first major film role in the Jonathan Demme-directed Something Wild (1986). The part earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Adve...
