Film
Daniel Radcliffe is “Weird Al” Yankovic in First Photo from Upcoming Biopic
Daniel Radcliffe is set to star as “Weird Al” Yankovic in an upcoming biopic about the legendary musician, comedian, and parodist. With filming now underway, Roku has shared the first photo of Radcliffe in character. The film, aptly titled WEIRD: The ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Story, was written by Yankovic himself alongside Eric Appel, who will also serve as the film’s director. The biopic “holds nothing back, exploring every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle,” promises a press release. “WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story takes audiences on a truly unbelievable journey through Yankovic’s life and career, from gifted child prodigy to the greatest musical legend ...
Christopher Nolan Shares Moody First Look at Oppenheimer
Death and destruction never looked so good: Christopher Nolan has shared a first look at Cillian Murphy as the father of the atomic bomb in the upcoming movie Oppenheimer. The hotly-anticipated film has also added Kenneth Branagh to an already stacked cast. Nolan’s follow-up to 2020’s Tenet follows J. Robert Oppenheimer both before and after he helped develop humanity’s most terrifying weapon. The first look finds Murphy staring down the camera, mouth holding one of the cigarettes that would eventually kill him, and eyes as haunted as they might have been after the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb, when Oppenheimer said, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Emily Blunt stars as his wife Kitty Oppenheimer, and Nolan has also recruited Robert Dow...
Oscars 2022: The Academy Cuts 8 Awards From Live Broadcast
The Academy knows that people complain about the Oscars being too long, so it’s cutting eight awards from this year’s live broadcast. Instead, the awards for Best Documentary (Short Subject), Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Production Design, Short Film (Animated), Short Film (Live Action), and Sound will be announced and recorded at the Dolby Theatre an hour before the Oscars’ live telecast begins, and then edited into the live show. In a letter addressed to its members, Academy President David Rubin clarified that the eight cut categories would be presented at the actual Oscars, not at a pre-show or on the red carpet. Instead, the award ceremony — set for March 27th — will simply begin an hour earlier than previously scheduled to allow for the recording. “To...
Fred Hechinger Cast as Chameleon in Sony’s Marvel Film Kraven the Hunter
Sony is continuing to make use of its Universe of Marvel Characters. According to Deadline, the studio has cast Fred Hechinger as Chameleon in the upcoming Kraven the Hunter. The White Lotus breakout will star alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role, as well as Russell Crowe in an undisclosed role. Word is that much of the Kraven cast will be made up of the classic Spider-Man villain’s family (with Crowe likely playing his father), and that fits with Hechinger joining as Chameleon. In the comics, Chameleon is Dmitri Smerdyakov, Kraven’s half-brother. He’s a master of disguise and impressions, skills that allow him to assume the identity of nearly anyone he encounters. Some versions of the character have depicted him with scientifically enhanced powers and technology...
25 Years Later, David Lynch’s Lost Highway Remains an Underappreciated and Nightmarish Neo-Noir Gem
David Lynch is rightly considered among the most impenetrably bizarre and allegorical filmmakers of his generation; however, there’s always a resolutely singular sense of authorship and intention to his work (even if he’s literally the only person who knows what he’s trying to say). That’s as true of 1977’s pioneering Eraserhead and 1986’s revered Blue Velvet as it is 1999’s comparatively conventional The Straight Story and 2006’s maligned Inland Empire. It’s certainly also valid for what’s perhaps his most unjustly disparaged creation: 1997’s Lost Highway. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this week, Lost Highway arrived in the midst of a career slump for Lynch. Neither 1990’s Wild at Heart nor 1992’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me earned the same kind of accolades as his 1980s run of films...
Alan Rickman’s Top 10 Performances
Top Performances is a recurring feature in which we definitively handpick the very best performances from an iconic actor or actress. This article was originally published in 2006. He was the villain. Until he wasn’t. You can take this angle on the late Alan Rickman in two ways. The first is his film career, in which the actor set himself up to be a go-to heavy for years to come. His Hans Gruber in Die Hard was the perfect foil for Bruce Willis’ John McClaine — the former neat, succinct, calculating while the latter was a mess, foulmouthed, and always improvising. Then there was the scenery-chewing performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, a movie oft-maligned but not because of Rickman. Far from it. These evil performances were not an indication of what wo...
First Print VHS Tape of The Terminator Auctioned for $32,500
For all those who didn’t preserve their original copy of The Terminator from 1984, we know now why you cry. A first print VHS of the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi thriller recently sold for $32,500 at an online auction on the vintage marketplace ComicConnect. The item boasted quality gradings between 9 and 10 out of 10 for every inspection category aside from the physical tape’s corners and edges, which still produced an admirable 7 out of 10. COO of ComicConnect Vincent Zurzolo told TMZ it was sold in three days after being put up for auction. The long-running franchise debuted in 1984 as a low-budget thriller that became an unexpected hit and launched writer-director James Cameron and its two breakout leads Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton into superstardom. The trio returned for 1991’s ...
Adam Sandler Mentors a Basketball Phenom in Teaser Trailer for Hustle: Watch
It’s fine to like basketball, but Adam Sandler needs you to “love this game” in the new teaser trailer for Hustle. The sports flick is co-produced by Sandler and LeBron James and arrives on Netflix June 10th. Sandler plays a recently fired basketball scout who discovers a rare unicorn of a prospect (Utah Jazz forward Juancho Hernangómez in his film debut) in Spain. Despite dominating street ball, this player has something of a troubled past, and if Sandler is going to convince an NBA team to take a chance on both of them, they need to work on his his mental game. “There’s a thousand other guys waiting in the wings who are obsessed with the game,” Sandler says in the trailer. “Obsession is gonna beat talent every time. You got all the talent in the world, but are you obsessed? Let’s fa...
Brad Pitt Sues Angelina Jolie for Selling Winery Stake to Russian Oligarch
Brad Pitt is suing his ex-wife Angelina Jolie for selling her stake in their French winery to a Russian oligarch, multiple outlets report. The couple bought a controlling interest in Château Miraval in 2008, with Jolie putting in roughly 40% of the $28.4 million purchase price. The estate comprises a large house and a winery. They were married at Marival in 2014, and upon their divorce in 2019, Pitt claims they had a “mutual understanding” that neither could sell their share without the other’s permission. In January 2022, according to the suit, Jolie “informed Pitt in writing” that she had reached a “painful decision, with a heavy heart,” to sell her share to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of the alcohol giant Stoli Group, which is owned by billionaire Yuri Shefler. Ad...
Olivia Rodrigo Debuting SOUR Film on Disney+: Watch the Trailer
Olivia Rodrigo is bringing the story of her hit debut album SOUR to Disney+. The streamer is set to premiere the pop star’s new film OLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film) on March 25th. The movie will document the singer’s road trip from Salt Lake City, where she began writing her smash record, to Los Angeles. Over the course of the trip, she’ll also perform all 11 songs on the album with entirely new arrangements at such stunning locations as Mojave Airplane Boneyard, Arcosanti, and Red Rock Canyon State Park. “I think I just wanted to tell people what was going on in the back of my head in a way that was proud and not ashamed,” Rodrigo explains in a teaser trailer for the film before archival footage featuring her in the recording studio flashes across the screen. “Coming f...
Forrest Gump’s Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis, and Eric Roth to Reunite in New Film
The trio behind the 1994 blockbuster Forrest Gump — Tom Hanks, director Robert Zemeckis, and screenwriter Eric Roth — are teaming up again for a film adaptation of the graphic novel Here, Deadline reports. Centered in one room, Richard McGuire’s graphic novel follows the lives of several people who inhabit the space over an extended period of time. Roth and Zemeckis are collaborating on the film’s script, while Zemeckis will direct the picture and Hanks will star. Here is set to be produced by Playtone and ImageMovers. While not many details exist about the project, Here is likely to be a big event for the trio, who all won Oscars for Forrest Gump. The film will mark the second collaboration between Hanks and Zemeckis in recent years after the duo’s live-...
Francis Ford Coppola Slams Marvel: “It’s One Prototype Movie That Is Made Over and Over Again”
You don’t become one of the world’s most esteemed living filmmakers without making a few enemies. In a new interview with GQ, Francis Ford Coppola didn’t shy away from calling out his pet peeves in modern cinema, revealing that he generally finds Marvel movies formulaic and repetitive. “There used to be studio films,” the Godfather mastermind said. “Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different.” Even some non-Marvel blockbusters, particularly Dune and No Time to Die, haven’t pleased Coppola, either (ironically, Dune director Denis Villeneuve has also voiced his frustrations with the science of Marvel). Advertisement Related Video “You cou...
