Month: June 2020

FX’s drama “Mrs. America” examines two sides of the political movement around the Equal Rights Amendment. On one side are second-wave feminists such as Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne) and Betty Friedan (Tracey Ullman) while the opposition is led by the staunchly conservative Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett). Series composer Kris Bowers, who has penned music for
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In today’s film news roundup, three projects — “The Culling,” “Atlantis” and “A Savannah Haunting” — are unveiled; “Transhood” wins the Audience Award at AFI Docs; the WGA East announces 15 candidates; and the Visual Effects Society honors five members. PROJECT LAUNCHES Universal Pictures is developing the thriller “Atlantis with “Jurassic World” director Colin Trevorrow
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Industrial Light & Magic’s Hal Hickel will take part in a free online discussion about the making of Disney Plus hit series “The Mandalorian” for the VIEW Conference on Saturday, June 27, at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The program is what conference organizers are calling their 2020 Premier PreVIEW, looking ahead to the 2020 VIEW
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“30 Rock” creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, along with the show’s owner NBCUniversal, have asked that four episodes of the series in which characters appear in blackface be removed from streaming and syndication. In a note obtained by Variety and shared below, Fey wrote to the platforms saying that the episodes are “best taken
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A prison inmate in Central Florida was allegedly beaten to death by a corrections officer as other guards watched. 51-year-old Christopher Howell died last week while serving a 4-year sentence at the Lake Correctional Institution near Orlando after a 2018 conviction for stealing some phone chargers and threatening people with a knife. According to reports
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Organizers of the SAG Awards will not act in the near future on calls to abolish gender-specific categories. In a letter published this month by Variety, “Billions” star Asia Kate Dillon wrote that the SAG Awards categories need to change because they “erase non-binary identities by limiting performers to identifying as male or female /
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NBC has made the decision to stagger production on the 12 pilots it currently has in the works due to coronavirus disruptions. The network still plans to shoot multiple pilots, including that for drama “Langdon” which centers around the character made famous by from Dan Brown’s novels and Tom Hanks, later this year once they
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Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Ken Leung have boarded the cast of M. Night Shyamalan’s top-secret movie. They join previously announced stars Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff and Vicky Krieps. Shyamalan will write, direct and produce the untitled film, which will be released by Universal Pictures. Like most Shyamalan movies, plot details
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“Irresistible” is the second film written and directed by Jon Stewart, but unlike the first, the deadly serious and surprisingly accomplished true-life Iranian prison drama “Rosewater” (2014), this one comes straight out of Stewart’s satirical-political wheelhouse. Set shortly after the 2016 presidential election, it’s a close-to-the-bone tall tale — slightly exaggerated but still basically plausible
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As a banjo player and as a comedian, Steve Martin has had deep meaningful relationships with many classical orchestras around the country. Most particularly, Martin and the hallowed Philadelphia Orchestra have had particularly tight ties. In 2018, Martin headlined the orchestra’s 161st Academy Ball with conductor/music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin as cohost to benefit the legendary
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Spotify is now available for Comcast’s TV and broadband subscribers to stream from their television sets. The cable operator announced that under a deal with Spotify, the music and audio streaming service’s 50 million music tracks and more than 1 million podcasts are available to stream on Xfinity starting this week. Spotify is available Monday
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Microsoft has given up trying to compete with Amazon’s Twitch. On Monday, Microsoft announced that it is shutting down Mixer, its livestreaming gaming service, effective next month. The company struck a deal with Facebook to migrate current livestreamers from Mixer to Facebook Gaming. “Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on
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Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman and more celebrities are mourning the death of one of director Joel Schumacher, director of films including “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “The Lost Boys” and “Falling Down,” who died on Monday from a year-long battle with cancer. He was 80. Schumacher, a costume designer-turned-director, famously took over the Batman franchise when director
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“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” Paramount and Nickelodeon’s animated adventure based on the absorbent underwater fry cook, is skipping its planned theatrical debut. It will instead launch on premium digital rental services in early 2021 before landing exclusively on CBS All Access, the streaming service owned by the studio’s parent company, ViacomCBS. It
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Some of the most interesting ads from Hulu may be the ones that aren’t on the streaming service. The Walt Disney-owned video-streaming hub is launching a new commercial format aimed at prodding viewers to move to a smartphone or tablet screen and interact with the advertiser, whether that exchange means redeeming a coupon, examining a
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Both “Y: the Last Man” and “American Horror Stories” will debut on Hulu rather than FX. Hulu made the announcement on Monday as part of their NewFronts presentation. The two shows will be the latest FX originals to premiere on the streaming service. Upon the completion of the Disney-21st Century Fox merger and Disney’s acquisition
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