Movies

You have to give the makers of “Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia” credit for their honesty in describing their “inspired by true events” drama. Not only do they offer twice in the closing credits the standard disclaimers about invoking dramatic license and inventing some characters out of whole cloth. To make sure we fully

India’s Yoodlee Films has unveiled a star-studded 2024 release slate across languages. Malayalam-language cinema superstar Mammootty, who had a phenomenal 2023 with critical and commercial hits “Kannur Squad” and “Kaathal – The Core,” headlines “Bazooka.” Directed by debutant Deeno Dennis, the film is a game thriller, a category not often explored in Indian cinema. The

A strong December for local films helped make up for an otherwise miserable 2023 at the South Korean box office – previously the fifth largest cinema territory worldwide. And while theatrical markets in other major territories have recovered to reach at or near pre-pandemic levels, Korea finished 44% below 2019. Data from the Korean Film

Steven Yeun is no longer involved in Marvel’s upcoming “Thunderbolts” film, Variety has confirmed. Marvel never officially confirmed Yeun’s casting, which was first reported back in February, and it’s unclear whether the undisclosed role is being rethought or will simply be recast. Based on the Marvel comics about a band of antiheroes, “Thunderbolts” is set

Mickey Cottrell, a veteran publicist for independent films known as a champion of filmmakers and actors, died Monday at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, his sister Suzy Cottrell confirmed. He was 79. Cottrell had returned to Los Angeles in 2019 after living with his sister in Arkansas while he recovered from a stroke

America Ferrera has found herself in the Oscar race for supporting actress thanks to her role in “Barbie,” which is largely defined by a nearly three-minute monologue in which her character, Gloria, passionately rails against double standards women face on a daily basis. Both the speech and “Barbie” at large have been criticized by some

Thanks to Mario, J. Robert Oppenheimer and M3GAN, Universal Pictures ranked as the highest-grossing studio at the 2023 box office. The company’s slate — a range of 24 films that included “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Oppenheimer” and “M3GAN” — collected $4.907 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Universal’s victory is notable because it marks the

Daisy Ridley‘s Rey is coming back to the big screen in a new “Star Wars” movie directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) and written by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”). The film makes Obaid-Chinoy the first woman and first person of color to direct a “Star Wars” feature film. Previous film directors in the franchise include

In 2021, Paris Hilton spoke on Capitol Hill about the trauma she endured at a camp for troubled teenagers in Utah. “I was strangled. Slapped across the face. Watched in the shower by male staff,” she shared. So begins the Netflix documentary “Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare,” which offers an origin story for Hilton and countless

Jack Black has joined the cast of “Minecraft,” a live-action adaptation of the popular video game. As previously announced, Jason Momoa is starring in the movie alongside “Wednesday’s” Emma Myers and “The Color Purple” actor Danielle Brooks. Production is expected to begin imminently in New Zealand. “Napoleon Dynamite” filmmaker Jared Hess, who previously worked with Black

Herman “Hy” Levine, a 48-year veteran of the film industry who rose through the marketing ranks at Universal and Disney, died Dec. 27 in Rockville, Md. after suffering from pancreatic cancer. He was 87. Levine was an executive Disney from 1986 to 1998, rising to the rank of Vice President of Co-Op Advertising at the

Following years of delays and pandemic restrictions, and now celebrating a post-strike awards season, what better way to kick off the 35th annual Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival than with a “fun and naughty film,” says festival director Lili Rodriguez. Thea Sharrock’s “Wicked Little Letters” will enjoy its U.S. premiere Jan. 5 at the desert

Jordan Peele is not ready to disclose any information about his next movie, which will serve as the follow-up to his 2022 science-fiction thriller “Nope,” but he does think it could be “my favorite movie” as long as he makes it right — no pressure. Peele was supposed to already be making his fourth solo

Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” continued its golden run at the U.K. and Ireland box office with £6.6 million ($8.4 million) over the Dec. 29 weekend. The Timothée Chalamet starrer now has a total of £43.8 million in the territory after four weekends on release. Black Bear’s “Ferrari,” directed by Michael Mann and starring Adam Driver and

First there was “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” Now, get ready for “Steamboat Willie” horror films. The 1928 version of Mickey Mouse entered the public domain on Monday, and indie horror producers are wasting no time in capitalizing on it. Steven LaMorte is set to direct an untitled horror-comedy based on Mickey’s cartoon debut.

Despite the box office success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear,” female directors are not getting the same opportunities in Hollywood as their male counterparts. At the same time, major studios, which pledged to reexamine their employment practices in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, fail to produce many films from people

Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” led the 11th annual Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Award nominations. The final installment of the “Guardians” franchise used over 22,500 prosthetics, 500 wigs and 130 facial hairpieces, breaking the world record for most prosthetics used in a film. It was nominated in special makeup effects, period

The French box office jumped 19% in 2023 with an estimated €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) grossed from 181.2 million tickets, according to Comscore France. Unlike in 2022, when the top 10 was exclusively dominated by U.S. movies, 2023 was bolstered by a mix of Hollywood blockbusters and French fare. Notably, “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle

Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie” wasn’t just the year’s biggest box office winner. It also made history as the highest-grossing movie directed by a woman. Despite the film’s outsized success, major studios gave most of their biggest gigs to male filmmakers. That’s the conclusion of a new study by the Center for the Study of Women in

Ana Ofelia Murguía, the Mexican actor best known for voicing the titular character of Disney and Pixar’s 2017 animated movie “Coco,” died Sunday, Dec. 31, BBC News reports. She was 90. “Coco,” which follows a young boy as he crosses over to the land of the dead during Mexico’s Día de los Muertos, won two

“Wonka,” a musical fantasy that has been the biggest hit of the holiday season, topped the box office on New Year’s Eve, closing 2023 on a sweet note. The film, which stars Timothée Chalamet as a more youthful Willy Wonka, grossed $22.7 million for the weekend and a projected $29.5 million for the four-day holiday. That

Awkwardly arriving the very same day as “The Bricklayer,” with Aaron Eckhart as an ex-CIA agent with the titular dayjob, “The Painter” has Charlie Weber as ex-CIA agent who has taken up … well, you can guess. This more humbly scaled actioner likewise finds its uber-tough erstwhile operative reluctantly forced back into activity amid a

Jeremy Renner has revealed a major step in his career after a terrible accident nearly took his life: He’s headed back to the set of “Mayor of Kingstown” to film the third season. Renner was involved in a near-fatal accident on Jan. 1, 2023, after saving his nephew from being hit by a snowplow. The

Android or artificial intelligence isn’t the enemy in “Robot Dreams,” Pablo Berger‘s gently whimsical fantasy of a loner finding manufactured friendship in a scuzzy vision of 1980s New York City. Indeed, one takeaway from this portrait of a shabby-happy Big Apple populated solely with anthropomorphic animals and surprisingly sensitive automatons is that the world might

Shecky Greene, the legendary standup comedian known for his long tenure as a Las Vegas headliner and for working with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, died Dec. 31 at his home in the city. He was 97. Greene’s wife of 41 years, Marie Musso Greene, confirmed his death to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Greene was

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is quickly sinking at the box office. The comic book adventure, starring Jason Momoa as the King of Atlantis, was positioned on the calendar as the de facto blockbuster of the holiday season. But, so far, the follow-up to 2018’s megahit “Aquaman” has failed to recapture the spark of the

Comic-book movie culture didn’t just stumble this year. It face-planted, giving us one movie after another that fans didn’t much care about and that the corporations backing these films took a disquieting loss on. And that’s not how it was supposed to go. According to the Gospel of 21st-Century Hollywood, the words “comic-book film” and

Tom Wilkinson, the British actor who appeared in films including “The Full Monty,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” died Saturday in the U.K., the BBC reported. He was 75. “It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His

Maurice Hines, an actor, dancer and choreographer who starred with his brother Gregory Hines in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club,” died Friday. He was 80. Friends including Debbie Allen and John Manzari reported the news of his death. Hines began studying tap dancing at 5 years old, making his Broadway debut in “The Girl

Warner Bros. is continuing to beat out Warner Bros. and Warner Bros. over the New Year’s holiday weekend, with “Wonka” now rising above “The Color Purple” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” With that trifecta, the studio has laid claim to the three of the top five slots at the domestic box office throughout the