Film
There’s a House Party at LeBron James’s Place in Trailer for New Remake: Watch
A new House Party movie is in the works at New Line Cinema, and in the trailer for the remake, Tosin Cole and Jacob Latimore throw a big bash at LeBron James’ pad … with a whole bunch of guest stars. Watch the trailer below. Marking the feature film debut of music video director Calmatic (of “Old Town Road” fame), House Party is produced by James and Maverick Carter and written by Jamal Olori and Stephen Glover. The trailer introduces Cole’s Damon and Latimore’s Kevin as floundering party promoters and house cleaners who decide to throw an event at their famed basketball client’s insane mansion to make some cash. Of course, chaos ensues, complete with guest appearances from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Lena Waithe, Anthony Davis, and a hologram of LeBron. Karen Obilom, D.C...
Syd Barrett Documentary Have You Got It Yet? to Explore Pink Floyd’s Troubled Genius
Pink Floyd’s original, troubled frontman is the subject of Mercury Studios new documentary, Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd. As Deadline reports, the film was co-directed by Roddy Bogawa and the late Storm Thorgerson, co-founder of Hipgnosis and designer of some of rock’s most iconic album covers, including pretty much every Pink Floyd record from 1968’s Saucerful of Secrets through the greatest hits collection The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot in the Door (2011). Thorgerson died in 2013 at the age of 69 of cancer. According to a statement, “The film was completed by Bogawa with StormStudios photographer Rupert Truman and producer Julius Beltrame after Storm’s untimely death.” Thorgerson went to high school with Barrett and Roger...
R.I.P. Mike Schank, Unlikely Star of Award-Winning Documentary American Movie Dead 56
Mike Schank, who was immortalized as a good guy and a great friend in the award-winning documentary American Movie, has died at the age of 56. His passing was announced by his friend Jackie Bogenberger on social media and confirmed by the Milwaukee Record. On October 13th, she wrote that he “passed away early this morning in his mother’s arms. He immediately went on to meet his father and sister who he has missed for a very long time. He was very uncomfortable these last few days, and is in a much better place now.” She told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Related Video Schank became an unlikely icon after American Movie premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary. The fi...
Clerks III Is an Invitation Inside Kevin Smith’s Heart
Kevin Smith’s best films have always been his smallest and most personal works; as a filmmaker, his legacy is a fascinating one, as his attempts at more mainstream Hollywood flicks have never been as creatively successful as the films he increasingly makes specifically for his loyal fanbase. This comes out specifically in the Clerks series, which Smith seems to use as a way of processing big turning points in his life: The original Clerks, of course, was all about the malaise of being in your 20s and not being sure about what to do with your life (its success solving that latter problem for Smith, at least initially). Clerks II, arriving during the middle portion of Smith’s career, focuses a lot on what it means to settle down, get married, start a family, and embrace what you love doing, ...
R.I.P. Robbie Coltrane, Hagrid in Harry Potter Series Dead at 72
Robbie Coltrane, the beloved comic actor who starred as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film franchise, is dead at the age of 72, his agent confirmed to Deadline. Coltrane had been in poor health for about two years, and died in a hospital near his Larbert, Scotland, home. Coltrane featured prominently in all eight films in the Harry Potter series, serving as a bumbling but lovable father figure to the titular orphan. He also stole scenes in the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) as Russian gangster Valentin Zukovsky, and won three consecutive BAFTA Awards for best actor in the ITV crime series Cracker. Michael Gambon is the only other actor to achieve that distinction. Coltrane appeared in the anniversary special ...
Everything You Need To Know About DC’s Black Adam
The DC Cinematic Universe has faced some serious shake-ups in 2022 alone. With the controversial state of its upcoming Flash film, the world has their critical eyes on their newest film set to release this October. DC’s Black Adam, like The Flash, is set to bring about a new era for the DCEU following the mixed bag that was Zack Snyder’s DCEU. With his debut as Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson redefines what it means to be a hero while facing off against the Justice Society of America for the first time in live-action. DC’s Black Adam is a major turning point for the company, with its protagonist leaning further down the line of what is morally sound. While it isn’t uncommon for movies and TV to have morally gray and villainous protagonists, DC’s Black Adam seems to be one of the first superhero...
Liam Neeson to Star in New Naked Gun Film From The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer
The Naked Gun will return with a new film, and in place of Leslie Nielsen, Liam Neeson will star — perhaps as the son of Nielsen’s character Frank Derbin. As Deadline reports, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand will pen the new Naked Gun script, while The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer will direct and executive produce. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing the film through their company Fuzzy Door. Based on the crime spoof series Police Squad!, The Naked Gun franchise began in 1988 with the film From the Files of Police Squad! Nielsen starred in the original film as Det. Sgt. Frank Derbin, a lovable police officer who didn’t exactly have the brains for the job. Nielsen went on to star in two sequels, 1991’s The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear a...
Will Ferrell Is the Ghost of Ryan Reynold’s Present in Trailer for Spirited: Watch
The Ghost of Christmas Present regrets his choice of Scrooge in the first teaser trailer for the holiday musical, Spirited. Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds star in this twist on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which arrives in theaters November 11th and streams on Apple TV+ beginning November 18th. Ferrell stars as Ghost of Christmas Present, who every year sets out to reform one dark soul with the help of two spectral comrades. But everything flips when he meets Clint Briggs (Reynolds), and suddenly this old Christmas Present is forced to reexamine his past and wrestle with his future. The first trailer is a mix of tight musical choreography and loose comical riffs. A tap sequence leaves both leads wondering how the other knew the moves, and sweeping set piece dances are...
Darren Aronofsky Defends Putting Brendan Fraser in a Fat Suit for The Whale
Though Brendan Fraser is earning Oscar buzz for his portrayal of a 600-pound man named Charlie in The Whale, one of the major criticisms of the Darren Aronofsky film is that the actor had to wear a fat suit to portray his character. In an interview with Variety, the director defended his casting of Fraser instead of an obese actor, saying it was difficult to find someone who could pull off the role from an emotional perspective. Aronofsky also said it became “a crazy chase” to find an actor heavy enough for the role. “There was a chapter in the making of this film where we tried to research obese actors,” Aronofsky told Variety. “Outside of not being able to find an actor who could pull off the emotions of the role, it just becomes a crazy chase. Like, if you can’t find a 600-pound ac...
The Joy Luck Club Sequel in Development, Original Cast Expected to Return
The Joy Luck Club — Wayne Wang’s 1993 drama film based on Amy Tan’s eponymous novel — is getting a sequel, Deadline reports, with the original cast in talks to reprise their roles. The Joy Luck Club offered a poignant and nuanced depiction of relationships between Chinese-American women and their Chinese immigrant mothers. In its second iteration, the multi-generational saga will welcome a new array of family members as we see the mothers become grandmothers, and their daughters become mothers. Of course, it’ll also continue to explore the characters’ relationships and attitudes towards family, love, and womanhood in the context of their Chinese-American identity. Not only did The Joy Luck Club pave the way for future Asian-American-led blockbusters like Crazy Rich Asians an...
Cartoon Network Studios Swallowed by Warner Bros. Animation After Layoffs
Warner Bros. Television Group cut 26% of its workforce on Tuesday, October 11th as part of its parent company’s continued cost-cutting measures. Among the hardest-hit divisions was the animation department, which will consolidate Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) and Cartoon Network Studios (CNS) as part of a “strategic realignment.” “We are implementing a new streamlined structure in which the development and main production teams will now work across both Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios,” chairman Channing Dungey wrote in a company-wide memo (via Deadline). Both the development and production teams at WBA and CNS will be merged, with Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe operating independently from the other studios. As Cartoon Brew points out, the consolidation will likely make an...
Armageddon Time Review: James Gray’s Coming-of-Age ’80s Drama Proves Unsatisfying
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: James Gray, an experienced outer-borough tour guide, brings us closer to his own Queens past in Armageddon Time, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama (though he says he wasn’t aiming for that genre; more on that later). The film follows 12-year-old aspiring artist Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) as he struggles with school, makes a friend in his classmate Johnny (Jaylin Webb), clashes with his parents Irving (Jeremy Strong) and Esther (Anne Hathaway), and takes solace in the love of his grandfather (Anthony Hopkins). The 1980 presidential contest looms in the background; at one point, kids at a posh private school start an impromptu chant for Reagan at the mere mention of elections, just before an assembly ...
