Film
Naomi Ackie to Play Whitney Houston in Upcoming Biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard and Naomi Ackie in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Sony’s upcoming Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, has finally found its leading star. English actress Naomi Ackie is in “final negotiations” to play the late legendary singer, according to Variety. The 28-year-old Ackie recently earned a BAFTA for her acclaimed performance in the Netflix comedy-drama The End of the F***ing World. She’s also scored major screen time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the British anthology series Small Axe from Steve McQueen, whom we recently named our Filmmaker of the Year. Together with director Stella Meghie (The Photograph) and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody), Ackie will tell the complex yet inspiring story of Whitney H...
Tom Cruise Goes Off at Mission: Impossible 7 Crew for Breaking COVID-19 Protocol
Tom Cruise has had several infamous breakdowns over the years where he’s yelled at the people around him. Surprisingly, his latest rant was not only justified, but completely necessary. Nearly 50 crew members watched as the Mission: Impossible 7 star went off on two coworkers after he noticed they weren’t following COVID-19 safety protocols. In audio obtained by The Sun, Cruise can be heard threatening to fire two crew members after spotting them standing less than three feet apart by a computer. “If I see you do it again, you’re fucking gone,” he screamed. “And if anyone on this crew does it, that’s it — and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever fucking do it again. That’s it!” Following the CDC guidelines during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is essential to slow the spread of C...
Sundance Film Festival Announces 2021 Virtual Lineup
The Sundance Film Festival will continue in 2021 and returns with a new upgrade amidst the ensuing pandemic. For the first time ever, the entire festival will take place digitally through “a feature-rich, Sundance-built online platform” in conjunction with in-person festivities that will air through Satellite Screens across the country from January 28th to February 3rd, 2021 “Togetherness has been an animating principle here at the Sundance Institute as we’ve worked to reimagine the Festival for 2021, because there is no Sundance without our community,” said Sundance Institute Founder and President Robert Redford. “Under Tabitha’s leadership, we’ve forged a new collective vision: one that honors the spirit and tradition of these invigorating yearly gatherings in Utah, while making roo...
Top 25 Films of 2020
Our Annual Report continues as we reveal the Top 25 Films of 2020. Stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles in the days and weeks to come about the best music, film, and TV of the year. If you’ve missed any part of our Annual Report, you can check out all the coverage here. Going to the movies ain’t like it used to be, right? What an understatement. With theaters shuttered up and movie chains filing for bankruptcy, one might argue it’s been a pretty crap year for cinema. Financially speaking, they’re not wrong. But, art is a funny thing. It has a way of enduring even the most arduous obstacles — you know, that whole Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park, “life finds a way” bit — and this year was a testament to that truth. Art had no issue finding a proper stage. That stage, as fate...
National Film Registry Adds The Dark Night, Shrek, A Clockwork Orange, Record Number of Films by Women
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Shrek (DreamWorks), and A Clockwork Orange (Warner Bros.) The Library of Congress has announced the next crop of 25 movies admitted into the National Film Registry, as NPR reports. The class of 2020 includes Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece A Clockwork Orange, recent blockbusters The Dark Knight and Shrek, and a record number of films made by women. As with last year’s list, there are several films that are so obviously classics, it’s a surprise they haven’t been added already. The unsinkable 1978 musical Grease fits that description, as does the Charlie Chaplin flick Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), Wim Wender’s 1999 documentary about Cuban musicians, The Buena Vista Social Club, and, if you’re of a certain generation, The Bl...
Soul Wears an Old Hat But Opens New Doors for Pixar: Review
The Pitch: A new original Pixar film from the co-writer/director of Monsters, Inc., Up, and Inside Out, Soul is meant to remind us all how wonderful this studio’s films can be. And with a cast including Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, and Graham Norton … could it possibly go wrong? Death Becomes Him: The ads for Soul have been playing for roughly a year, due to the film’s original release plan being upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the gist has been the same: Foxx voices Joe, a kindhearted middle-school music teacher in New York City who has dreams of being a full-time jazz pianist. Lucky for Joe, he’s got the talent, too, as he shows to a jazz legend (Angela Bassett) during an impromptu audition. After getting the gig, everything seems swell for Joe…until he falls through an open sewer and die...
Jeff Bridges “Feeling Good” Amidst Cancer Battle, Adopted a Puppy
Jeff Bridges is three months into his battle with lymphoma and is “feeling good. What’s more, he adopted a puppy. The Big Lebowski actor marked his 71st birthday by posting a brief health update to his website. Alongside a photo of himself and his new pup Monty, Bridges also revealed that he shaved his head. In October, Bridges announced that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma. “I feel fortunate that I have a great team of doctors and the prognosis is good,” Bridges said at the time. “I’m starting treatment and will keep you posted on my recovery.” Being The Dude that he is, Bridges dedicated the rest of his blog post to lifting up others. He encouraged his fans to check out the music of his lifelong friend John Goodwin and asked for donations on behalf of No Kid Hungry. He also revealed ...
Chris Pine to Add Charisma Bonus to New Dungeons and Dragons Movie
Grab your Ring of Fire Resistance, because it’s about to get hot in here. As Variety reports, Chris Pine is in talks to add his charisma bonus to a long-in-the-works Dungeons & Dragons adaptation from Paramount Pictures. The film comes from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who had previously co-directed the 2018 film Game Night. They are said to be re-writing a draft by Michael Gilion, and the film is scheduled to arrive on this plane on May 27th, 2022. Dungeons & Dragons will be based on the beloved tabletop game of the same name, which was first developed by Gary Gygax in 1974. With multiple rule books spanning hundreds, or even thousands of pages, this roleplaying framework allows players to do almost literally anything they can imagine. That f...
Filmmaker of the Year Steve McQueen: “All We Have Is Our Morality and Our Sense of Justice”
It’s November 5th, two days after Election Night 2020, and Steve McQueen and I look no worse for wear. Even through the Zoom screen, yet another way the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way film journalists do business, we understand that other, urgently important things are going on. It’s the middle of a hellish week where the world would collectively gnaw on its fingernails hoping for someone, anyone, to declare the next president of the United States. (Besides the guy trying to steal it, of course.) But even amid the strain and trauma of that week, just one of 52 that would offer no small amount of pain to everyone this year, there was still cause for celebration. While theaters are closed and the fate of mainstream moviemaking lies in a precarious limbo, McQueen’s latest works — the f...
Danny Elfman’s Edward Scissorhands Score Gets 30th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue
Tim Burton’s unintentional Christmas classic Edward Scissorhands came out 30 years ago, almost to the day. To celebrate its anniversary as of one the most charmingly bizarre films out there, Waxwork Records is putting out a special deluxe reissue of the beloved score Danny Elfman wrote for the movie. The 30th anniversary deluxe reissue includes all of Elfman’s fairytale-like compositions, including the gorgeous snow scene music and that iconic suburbia suite that makes it one of Burton’s all-time bests. To ensure a quality product, the audio has been re-mastered for vinyl from the original Edward Scissorhands masters, which means you can hear all of the details Elfman snuck into these songs. There’s plenty of visual flair to go with the reissue, too. It’s being pressed to 180 gram vin...
Griselda Records Announce Conflicted Feature Film and Soundtrack
Griselda Records is breaking into the movie business. The hip-hop collective and record label has announced that a debut feature film called Conflicted is on the way, as is the stacked soundtrack that will accompany it. Check out the official trailer below. According to a press release, Conflicted is an “urban tale” depicting Benny the Butcher as a Buffalo gangster named Hunter who struggles to do right after being released from prison. Faced with the dilemmas of his fresh start, Hunter declares he will never to go back to the game that cost him his freedom. In the process of getting back on track, though, he falls in love and is inevitably confronted with the demons of his past. All of this leaves Butcher feeling — wait for it — conflicted. Conflicted is directed by AK Reed, written by De...
Chris Evans to Voice Buzz Lightyear in New Pixar Movie
Chris Evans is going to infinity and beyond as the voice of Buzz Lightyear in a new Pixar film called simply Lightyear. News of the upcoming sort of spin-off was announced during Thursday’s Disney Investors Day presentation. But Evans isn’t technically replacing Tim Allen, who voiced the beloved Space Ranger in the Toy Story films. Instead, think of Lightyear as “the movie within the movie,” as it will be the imagined adventure on which Andy’s favorite action figure was based. As Pixar Chief Creative Office Pete Docter explained during Thursday’s event, “See, back when we created the very first Toy Story, we designed Buzz Lightyear with the idea that he was a toy based on some really cool character from an epic, blockbuster film. Well, all these years later we decided it’s time to make tha...
