Film
Will Ferrell Joins Cast of Barbie Film
Director Greta Gerwig has announced a doll-icious addition to her upcoming adaptation of Barbie. As Deadline reports, iconic comedian Will Ferrell has joined a cast that stars Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as the world’s most popular yet insanely-proportioned doll. Plot details haven’t been unboxed as yet, and there’s no word on if Ferrell will be playing a doll, a human, the voice of the Malibu Dream Home, or something else entirely. But we do know that the script comes from Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, and that America Ferrara, Kate McKinnon, and Simu Liu have all signed up for the cinematic playdate. Alexandra Greenblatt, Emma Mackey, and Alexndra Shipp also co-star. Production on Barbie began last month in the UK ahead of a targeted 2023 rel...
Carrie Brownstein to Direct New Annie Murphy Film Witness Protection
Carrie Brownstein is set to direct Annie Murphy in MRC Film’s upcoming comedy Witness Protection, Deadline reports. Unsurprisingly, Witness Protection follows Murphy she enters a witness protection program. Her character has grown used to defining herself based on her romantic relationships, but as she starts over in an unknown place where her identity must be kept secret, she struggles to figure out who she really is alone. The film reunites Schitt’s Creek star Murphy with writers Rupinder Gill and David West Read, who served as writers and producers on the sitcom. Becky Sloviter, Elysa Dutton, and Leslie Morgenstein serve as producers for the project, which doesn’t yet have a release date. Advertisement Related Video Brownstein may have made a name for herself as the ...
David Mamet Claims Teachers Are “Inclined” to “Pedophilia”
To quote David Mamet’s Romance, “Uh, what the fuck?” The film director and Pulitzer-prize winning playwright claimed in a conversation with Fox News’ Life, Liberty & Levin that teachers are “inclined” towards “pedophilia.” Mamet, whose plays include Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo, and who was nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays for The Verdict and Wag the Dog, was on the program to promote his new book Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch. “We have to take back control,” he said. “If there’s no community control of the schools, what we have is kids being not only indoctrinated but groomed in a very real sense by people who are — whether they know it or not — sexual predators. Are they abus...
James Hong Gets Candid About Making the “Berserk” Everything Everywhere All at Once
James Hong is the living definition of a screen legend, having appeared in literally hundreds of films, TV shows, and video games as an actor. Some of his most notable roles include appearances in Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, The Golden Child, and the Kung Fu Panda series — he memorably fought Wayne Campbell over the hand of his daughter in Wayne’s World 2, and just this spring provided the voice of local elder Mr. Gao in Pixar’s Turning Red. And then there’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, the genre-warping, mind-bending exercise in multiverse-hopping written and directed by Daniels. In the film, Hong, 93, plays Gong Gong, father to Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and grandfather to Joy (Stephanie Hsu) — traditional in his ways and a disapproving figure in Evelyn’s life, Gong Gong...
James Hong Gets Candid About Making the “Berserk” Everything Everywhere All at Once
James Hong is the living definition of a screen legend, having appeared in literally hundreds of films, TV shows, and video games as an actor. Some of his most notable roles include appearances in Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, The Golden Child, and the Kung Fu Panda series — he memorably fought Wayne Campbell over the hand of his daughter in Wayne’s World 2, and just this spring provided the voice of local elder Mr. Gao in Pixar’s Turning Red. And then there’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, the genre-warping, mind-bending exercise in multiverse-hopping written and directed by Daniels. In the film, Hong, 93, plays Gong Gong, father to Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and grandfather to Joy (Stephanie Hsu) — traditional in his ways and a disapproving figure in Evelyn’s life, Gong Gong...
Sean Penn Says He Considered Joining Ukrainian Armed Forces
Just a few weeks after returning to the US following his pedestrian flee from Ukraine to Poland, Sean Penn says he considered joining Ukraine’s resistance against Russia. In an interview with the new quarterly magazine Hollywood Authentic, the actor said he only would’ve stayed in Ukraine longer to join the country’s armed forces. “The only possible reason for me staying in Ukraine longer last time would’ve been for me to be holding a rifle, probably without body armor, because as a foreigner, you would want to give that body armor to one of the civilian fighters who doesn’t have it or to a fighter with more skills than I have, or to a younger man or woman who could fight for longer or whatever,” Penn said. “So, where I am in life is short of doing that, but if you’ve been in Ukraine ...
Sean Penn Says He Considered Joining Ukrainian Armed Forces
Just a few weeks after returning to the US following his pedestrian flee from Ukraine to Poland, Sean Penn says he considered joining Ukraine’s resistance against Russia. In an interview with the new quarterly magazine Hollywood Authentic, the actor said he only would’ve stayed in Ukraine longer to join the country’s armed forces. “The only possible reason for me staying in Ukraine longer last time would’ve been for me to be holding a rifle, probably without body armor, because as a foreigner, you would want to give that body armor to one of the civilian fighters who doesn’t have it or to a fighter with more skills than I have, or to a younger man or woman who could fight for longer or whatever,” Penn said. “So, where I am in life is short of doing that, but if you’ve been in Ukraine ...
Will Smith Banned From Attending Oscars for 10 Years
The Academy has banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars and associated events for a period of 10 years. The punishment was announced by the Academy Board of Governors following a meeting on Friday morning. The meeting had originally been scheduled for April 18th, but was pushed up after Smith announced his resignation from the Academy and said he would not contest any additional punishments. “This action we are taking today in response to Will Smith’s behavior is a step toward a larger goal of protecting the safety of our performers and guests, and restoring trust in the Academy,” the Academy’s president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement. “We also hope this can begin a time of healing and restoration for all involved and impacted.” Advertisement Related Video In a bri...
Metal Lords Review: Game of Thrones’ D.B. Weiss Delivers A Light Comedy About Heavy Metal
The Pitch: Heavy metal, with its knowingly ridiculous embrace of deafening volumes and over-the-top violent imagery, and predominantly young male audience, has been fertile territory for comedy since This Is Spinal Tap. And over the last few decades, some enduring comedies have irreverently paid tribute to hard rock bands and the adolescents who love them, including School of Rock, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and Detroit Rock City. Screenwriter D.B. Weiss, best known as the co-creator and co-showrunner of Game of Thrones, has brought us a potential new addition to that canon with Metal Lords. In 2019, Weiss and his Game of Thrones creative partner David Benioff inked a $200 million deal to produce films and series for Netflix. And while some of Benioff and Weiss’s more ambitious ...
Ambulance Review: Some Deranged Grandeur, Courtesy of Michael Bay
The Pitch: In his 2019 Netflix film 6 Underground, Michael Bay stages an opening car chase where his heroes smash through the streets of Italy, goring bad guys and yelling nonsense at each other. “I’m conducting surgery!” one character screams while, essentially, just tending to a wound. But maybe that moment stuck in Bay’s head. Maybe he regretted not making that set-piece more surgical, to the point where he built an entire movie called Ambulance around the premise: What if you were performing life-saving surgery during a car chase? Technically, Bay did not come up with this premise. Ambulance is a remake of a 2005 Dutch film, and Bay is not a credited screenwriter. But his penchant for breaking tension with over-explained jokes, or breaking jokes with melodramatic bombast, transcend any...
Ana de Armas’ Marilyn Monroe Movie Becomes First Netflix Original Rated NC-17 for Sexual Content
Blonde, the upcoming Netflix movie starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, has been given an NC-17 rating for “some sexual content” by the Motion Picture Association. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, while the streamer has hosted NC-17 films such as Blue Is the Warmest Color, this is seemingly the first time that label has been affixed to a Netflix original. Blonde is a fictional tale based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 700-page magnum opus, which came out in 2000 and which the New Yorker called “the definitive study of American celebrity.” The film is soundtracked by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and according to director Andrew Dominik, an NC-17 rating was always part of the plan. “It’s a demanding movie,” he told Screen Daily last February. “If t...
Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Defamation Trial to Air on Court TV
Next week, Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard goes to trial in Fairfax County, Virginia. With expected witnesses including James Franco and Elon Musk, it will draw plenty of media attention on its own and now, Court TV has announced it will be providing the televised feed. The network will be the official pool feed provider for the lawsuit, promising in a press release to “provide viewers unobstructed and unbiased views of the proceedings.” Of course, Court TV will also air its own analysis of the trial. “Court cases that are as high-profile as this one often create a lot of noise, and it can be difficult for viewers to break through these distractions to have a clear picture of the facts, but that’s where we come in,” said Acting Head of Cour...
