Film
Sylvester Stallone to Host Rocky Watch Party Screening
“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” Those words feel particularly relevant in 2020, which makes it the perfect time to revisit the start of the Rocky Balboa story — and you can do it with Philly’s Finest himself. Today, Sylvester Stallone will be hosting a livestream screening of Rocky on Facebook. To launch Creative Artists Agency’s (CAA) new weekly series “Screening Room with the Stars”, Stallone will be on hand to watch the 1976 classic with fans. The initiative will see a new film stream every Thursday at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT on the movies’ respective studio’s Facebook page, so Rocky will be screened on MGM’s page. Next week will find screenwriter and star Nia Vardalos hosting a viewing of My Big Fat Greek ...
The Trip to Greece Offers a Fitting Farewell: Review
Bon Voyage: Funnymen Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon — playing fictionalized versions of themselves — once again join director Michael Winterbottom on a European excursion, this time tracing Odyseus’ 10-year journey home from Troy in a single week. The Trip series might best be described as a mash-up of an Anthony Bourdain special with Whose Line Is It Anyway? — a colorful combination of culture, comedy, camaraderie, and culinary exploration set in some of Europe’s most visually striking locales. However, at its best (the original film set in the north of England and its Italian sequel), the series, thin on plot as it may be, also poignantly chronicles two middle-aged fathers with problems, frustrations, and fears that many men endure at that age. Fortunately, the fourth and final installment ...
Charlize Theron Leads an Immortal Crew in Trailer for Netflix’s The Old Guard: Watch
Tired of Marvel and DC? Perhaps The Old Guard is for you. The forthcoming adaptation of the Image Comics title is certainly left of the dial and follows a bunch of centuries-old mercenaries who realize their immortality is no longer a secret. The blockbuster drops on Netflix this summer on July 10th, and today they’ve dropped its first trailer. Charlize Theron and Chiwetel Ejiofor lead an eclectic cast that also includes If Beale Street Could Talk‘s KiKi Layne and Dudley Dursley himself Harry Melling. Love and Basketball director Gina Prince-Bythewood helms the picture from a script that’s written by the comic’s OG writer Greg Rucka. In other words, all signs point to a win. Editors’ Picks Watch the trailer below. [embedded content] You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are lo...
Netflix’s The Lovebirds Brings Out the Best in Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae: Review
The Pitch: Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) are four years into a relationship that’s on the fritz. They snip at one another. They argue over the littlest things. They can’t even imagine themselves winning The Amazing Race. All of that drama is put on hold, however, when the two fading lovebirds fly right into a maddening murder mystery that takes them all across New Orleans. Even worse, they’re the prime suspects. Can they solve the crime before they’re taken in to do the time? That all depends on whether or not they can set aside their differences and find a way to be a team again. The Big Schtick: The Lovebirds reunites director Michael Showalter and Nanjiani, who both leveled up with 2017’s heartfelt and hilarious The Big Sick. It’s a strong collaboration and this latest...
Sia Shares New Song “Together” from Upcoming Directorial Debut: Stream
Sia’s last proper album, This is Acting, hit shelves more than four years ago. The pop superstar has been quite busy since then, though — and not just with her music. Not only is she working on the soundtrack to a movie she herself directed, she has also expanded her own family by adopting two 18-year-old boys. Marking Sia’s feature directorial debut, the forthcoming film is called Music. Co-written by Sia and children’s author Dallas Clayton, it’s based on a short story the singer penned in 2007. The story follows the life of an autistic teenager (Maddie Ziegler) who is cared for by her drug-dealing half-sister (Kate Hudson). If you’ll recall, actor and dancer Ziegler often appears in Sia’s music videos, including the now-classic clip for “Chandelier”, one of the best hits of the 201...
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Director’s Cut to Debut on HBO Max in 2021
Calls from rabid fans and the film’s stars alike have been heard: Warner Bros. will #ReleaseTheSnyderCut of Justice League on HBO Max next year. The director’s cut has been rumored ever since the original film nearly tanked the entire DC Extended Universe back in 2017. Zack Snyder and his producer wife, Deborah, had left the project following the suicide of their 20-year-old daughter, Autumn. Joss Whedon, who’d led the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s massively successful superhero team-up adventure The Avengers was brought on to finish Justice League. In addition to handling all the post production work, Whedon shot numerous new scenes, many of which are some of the movie’s most lambasted. “You probably saw one-fourth of what I did,” Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter, adding that he...
Peter Dinklage and Jason Momoa to Star in Vampire Con Movie The Good Bad & Undead
Game of Thrones alums Peter Dinklage and Jason Momoa have signed on to star in a vampire con film called Good Bad & Undead. The original story, which comes from Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, sees Dinklage playing the legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing. However, he forging a relationship with an actual vampire (played by Momoa), he begins to scam towns by pretending to vanquish the vampire for money (via Variety). The scheme goes awry, however, when a large bounty is placed on the vampire’s head. The Legendary production is being directed by Max Barbakow, who recently made waves at Sundance with his film Palm Springs. Momoa, who recently played Ozzy Osbourne in a music video, is next set to star in Denis Villeneuve’s much-anticipated adaptation of Dune. Meanwhile, Dinklage ...
Steven Soderbergh on Bill & Ted Face the Music: “I’ve Seen It, It’s Really Good”
Bill & Ted Face the Music won’t hit theaters until August 21st (more on that in a second), but already it’s received high marks. In fact, the highly anticipated sequel has won over filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, who has had quite a hand in making the film a reality. “I’ve seen it, it’s really good, and we’re almost done,” Soderbegh told Flaviar’s NightCap Live (via Collider) while promoting his brandy, “and I feel like it’s the perfect movie for people who want to feel better about what’s happening right now.” So, what the hell does Soderbergh have to do with this? Well, quite a lot. As he told the show, Soderbergh has been a “cheerleader” of sorts, having worked with original screenwriter Ed Solomon on HBO’s Mosaic. Eh, we’ll let him explain: “When Ed and I started working on Mosaic, I ...
Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor to Write Legally Blonde 3 with Reese Witherspoon Returning
Time to brush up on that bend and snap, because Elle Woods is back. Deadline reports that Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor have been tapped to write the script for Legally Blonde 3, which will see Reese Witherspoon return to star. Witherspoon first announced the threequel to 2001’s Legally Blonde and 2003’s Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde back in 2018. At the time, original scribes Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith were expected to serve as screenwriters. However, Kaling and Goor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation) have now been brought onboard to take the story in an entirely new direction. What that story is remains to be seen. The first movie saw Witherspoon’s fashion-focused sorority girl character attending Harvard Law to prove she’s “serious” enough ...
Spike Lee and Ray Allen Working on He Got Game 2
Jesus Shuttlesworth may hit the court again. In a new interview with The Encore, director Spike Lee discussed the possibility of a sequel to 1998’s He Got Game. He even has a new player in mind: New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson. “We were trying to, B.C. not ‘before Christ’ but ‘before corona,’ try to get a meet and greet (with Zion),” Lee explained. “Ray [Allen] and I were going to go to a home game in New Orleans. So, I’m still for it. The story is murky in my mind, but the material is so rich.” So would Williamson. Last year, the 19-year-old player expressed interest to Esquire, saying: “I would wanna be in the sequel to He Got Game, I would definitely want to be, like, in the Part 2 of that movie.” This isn’t the first time talk of a sequel has popped up. Allen spoke to ESPN...
David Lynch Releasing Short Film Fire (Pozar) on YouTube
David Lynch has announced that he will premiere his 2015 short film Fire (Pozar) on his YouTube channel tomorrow. The short was written, directed, and animated by Lynch years ago, but has never formally been released digitally until now, reports The Playlist. On Monday, Lynch broke the news over Twitter while on a break from his weatherman duties. “Dear Twitter Friends,” he wrote. “David Lynch Theater presents Fire (Pozar) on Wednesday, May 20th at 10 a.m. PDT.” Find that tweet below. Fire (Pozar) features music by Marek Zebrowski, a frequent collaborator of Lynch’s. In an interview with the USC School of Music back in 2015, he discussed the mood of the short film and the ways in which he tried to draw it out through sound. “I thought it was a very melancholic film in a certain sense ...
The Academy May Postpone Oscars 2021: Report
Not even the Oscars are immune from the ensuing pandemic. According to Variety, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may postpone the 93rd Academy Awards, set to go down on February 28th of next year. “It’s likely they’ll be postponed,” a source told the publication, while also contending that any definitive plans are far from concrete. Not surprisingly, the Academy declined to comment. Back in April, they announced that films released digitally can qualify to compete, a drastic amendment from their prior requirement of films having a seven-day theatrical release in Los Angeles County. However, with the entire industry still in flux — from production to distribution — it’s still unclear what films will even be released before year’s end. That uncertainty no doubt weighs heavily ...
