Film
Kid 90 Is A Personal Portrait of ’90s Teen Celebrity: Review
The Pitch: Comprised almost entirely of home video tapes, audio recordings, and journal entries — interspersed with interviews conducted in the present day — ’90s child star Soleil Moon Frye reflects on her star-studded upbringing in Hollywood and grapples with the nature of growing up in front of the camera as she unearths firsthand accounts of stardom from her youth. Teen Idol: At the risk of speaking too soon, 2021 seems like the year of documentaries about young women growing up in the spotlight. There was Framing Britney Spears, Billie Eilish’s The World’s a Little Blurry, and now kid 90. Though they have the same subject matter, they each tackle coming-of-age for young women in the limelight through three drastically different points of view. Kid 90, crucially, is directed by Frye he...
Netflix Testing Feature to Crack Down on Password Sharing
Netflix password sharing could soon be a thing of the past. As spotted by GammaWire, the streaming service is starting to test a pop-up screen meant to stop viewers from attempting to use somebody’s account. “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching,” the warning reads. It also asks users to verify the account via email or text. However, there is a “verify later” option allowing viewers to bypass the prompt for now, according to Twitter user DOP3Sweet, who shared the image above. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix confirmed the new feature. “This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so,” a spokesperson for the streaming giant said. THR further reported that the extent of th...
Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian Record Score for Melissa McCarthy’s Netflix Film Thunder Force
Thrash metal legends Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian contributed to the score of the upcoming Netflix film Thunder Force, starring Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer. Lombardo (founding drummer for Slayer and current member of Dead Cross, Suicidal Tendencies, and the Original Misfits) and Ian (founding Anthrax guitarist) recently collaborated together as part of the reunited Mr. Bungle, recording 2020’s The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo. Composer Fil Eisler brought the metal icons in on the movie project, sharing the news in a tweet with a picture of the trio together: “I have the pleasure of not only scoring the movie but having two of my childhood heroes @Scott_Ian and @TheDaveLombardo play on the score.” In a retweet, Lombardo added, “April 9th!! Save the date comedy loving d...
Life of Agony to Release Feature-Length Documentary The Sound of Scars
Life of Agony have announced the screening of their new feature-length documentary, The Sound of Scars, starting April 16th. The two-week virtual screening of the documentary will include a Q&A discussion with the band and the director, moderated by SiriusXM’s Shawn the Butcher. Tickets are available for pre-order at this location with a portion of proceeds going to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and All Out. Directed by Leigh Brooks, the 90-minute film compiles personal archive footage, rare photographs, and lost interviews, along with new, never-before-seen conversations with the band and their family members. Footage was also shot over the past two years while the band was on and off tour. Per the press release, the documentary “tells the story of how three friends overcam...
That Bee Gees Biopic Is Stayin’ Alive with Kenneth Branagh as Director
When news first broke that Graham King, producer of the treacly Queen flick Bohemian Rhapsody, would be making a biopic about the Bee Gees, serious fans around the world screamed, “Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!” But now our hopes for a good movie are stayin’ alive, as Variety reports that Sir Kenneth Branagh has been tapped as director. After establishing himself in the 1980s and ’90s as an actor and director of Shakespearian adaptations, Branagh became a constant presence on Hollywood sets, moving into a new phase when he helmed Marvel’s Thor in 2011. The five-time Oscar nominee’s recent credits include Murder on the Orient Express and Artemis Fowl, and if that doesn’t inspire confidence, rest assured that few filmmakers today are as qualified to make a movie about men with astoundi...
Michael B. Jordan Making Directorial Debut with Creed III
Michael B. Jordan in Creed II (MGM) Michael B. Jordan has been confirmed as the director of Creed III, the upcoming sequel in which he will also continue to star as Adonis Creed. According to The Wrap, Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad are also expected to reprise their roles as Adonis’ girlfriend and adopted mother, respectively. The film is slated for release on Thanksgiving in 2022. “Directing has always been an aspiration, but the timing had to be right. Creed III is that moment — a time in my life where I’ve grown more sure of who I am, holding agency in my own story, maturing personally, growing professionally, and learning from the Greats like Ryan Coogler, most recently Denzel Washington, and other top tier directors I respect,” Jordan said in a statement. Jordan continu...
Tracy Morgan Playing Louis Armstrong in Self-Financed Biopic
Tracy Morgan’s next role could show off a different side of his acting. As confirmed by Coming 2 America co-star Jermaine Fowler, Morgan plans to portray late jazz great Louis Armstrong in a self-financed biopic. Fowler shared the revelation in an interview with NME after being asked whether he thinks Morgan’s acting chops are underrated. “I do. I would love to see him do something dramatic,” Fowler said. “In fact, he showed us a clip of a movie he’s financing that’s really, really dope. He wants to play Louis Armstrong in a biopic and I believe he can do it.” He continued by saying Morgan sounds and looks exactly like Armstrong in the clip. “If he can truly pull that off I think it’ll put Tracy on another level altogether,” Fowler added. Taraji P. Henson also confirmed Morgan’s ...
Johnny Depp Investigates The Notorious B.I.G.’s Death in New Trailer for City of Lies: Watch
Three years ago, City of Lies was one month away from hitting theaters before it was pulled by its distributor due to Johnny Depp’s less-than-flattering public image at the time. Now, the crime drama is finally scheduled to hit select theaters and VOD on March 19th, and a newly revealed trailer is streaming below. In case you forgot — which, considering how much time has passed since the first trailer came out in 2018, would be understandable — City of Lies is based on the true story of The Notorious B.I.G.’s death in 1997. Directed by Brad Furman, the movie follows a retired LAPD detective named Russell Poole (Depp) and a journalist (Forest Whitaker) as they try to uncover the identities of those responsible for the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Allegedly a handful of co...
Eddie Murphy Briefly Quit Acting After Receiving Decade’s Worst Actor Razzie Award
Over the past few years, Eddie Murphy has experienced a career resurgence, thanks to movies like Dolemite is My Name and the recently released Coming 2 America, as well as an Emmy-winning return to Saturday Night Live. The renaissance came after a five-year period in which he only released one movie. During an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast (transcribed by The Independent), Murphy explained the hiatus was prompted by his winning of the Worst Actor of the Decade Razzie. “I was making shitty movies,” Murphy told Maron. “I was like, ‘This shit ain’t fun. They’re giving me Razzies…’ Motherfuckers gave me the Worst Actor Ever Razzie. [So I thought], ‘Maybe it’s time to take a break.’” However, the hiatus lasted longer than Murphy originally planned. “I was only gonna tak...
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Accidentally Shown to HBO Max Subscribers Attempting to Watch Tom & Jerry
Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t due to hit HBO Max until March 18th, but some subscribers got an early, inadvertent look on Monday. HBO Max confirmed to Deadline that a glitch temporarily caused the first section of Justice League to stream for users trying to access the new Tom & Jerry movie. “The error was addressed within minutes,” according to HBO Max, but not before several people caught wind of the error and shared video and screenshots of the leak to social media. Snyder’s director’s cut runs four hours long and adds the Joker into the movie, with Jared Leto reprising his Suicide Squad character for the newly shot scenes. Warner Bros. provided Snyder with a reported $40 million for additional footage after he convinced the studio to do reshoots, on top of ...
The Zamundan Palace in Coming 2 America Is Actually Rick Ross’ House
Eddie Murphy reclaimed his acting throne last week with the release of Coming 2 America, a sequel to the 1988 comedy flick. In it, Murphy stars as the iconic Prince Akeem Joffer of the fictional country of Zamunda, and he lives in an enormous palace with his ultra royal family. Not everything is as it seems in the movie, though. As it turns out, Zamunda was recreated in Georgia, not Africa, and the stunning mansion is the real-life home of Rick Ross himself. Ross’ home is a casual 45,000 square-foot mansion in Fayetteville, Georgia with 235 gorgeous acres surrounding it. There are 12 bedrooms, a dining room that seats up to 100 people, and a gold ceiling trim throughout the entire mansion. It’s an absurdly ornate palace both internally and externally, and the team behind Coming 2 America w...
Uzee Usman: Piracy is endangering Kannywood industry
Nigerian filmmaker, actor, and CEO of Uzee Concept, Uzee Usman, has called on the government to help kick piracy away in the movie Industry, particularly in Kannywood. He made this known during an interview with newsmen at the movie shoot of White Blood (Farina Mini) in Abuja recently. He said though no doubt that the Nigerian film industry is growing fast, what requires greater attention is the problem of piracy, which has become a menace that has eaten deep into the industry and may grind it to a halt. He pointed out that although Nigeria has laws against piracy, it remains a thriving business partly due to poor implementation of copyright laws, a near-lack of prosecution of offenders, and corruption in governance agencies. He added that it’s still becoming a huge problem in the northern...
