Movies

Cinematographer Lyn Moncrief and composer Jay Wadley helped director Emma Tammi deliver the psychological horror elements in Hulu’s “Into the Dark: Blood Moon,” the story of a young mother named Esme (Megalyn Echikunwoke), and her 7-year-old son, Luna (Yonas Kibreab), who have moved to a small town in the desert. To her new neighbors, Esme

Bob Odenkirk had plenty of time to prep for his latest role — two years to be precise. During the week he would film “Better Call Saul,” and on weekends he would fly to meet up with a stuntman for his role in Universal action thriller “Nobody,” which opens March 26 in theaters. The 58-year-old

Say you’re a wild, wayward but ultimately gold-hearted teen who gets busted for attempting to steal a cop car, and your weary, exasperated but ultimately on-your-side counselor offers you a choice of correctional penalty: an extended spell in juvenile hall, or one summer of singing, swimming and mild soul-searching at a Christian youth camp. Which

With coronavirus cases declining as the distribution of vaccinations increase, moviegoing in Los Angles appears ready to rebound. The county is poised to soon enter the orange tier, which requires fewer new coronavirus cases daily per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate under 5%. At that time, movie theaters will be able to raise

Twins Kenny and Keith Lucas, known collectively as The Lucas Brothers, have built comedy careers out of their laidback – some have called it “stoner” – style of comedy. They were named two of Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch” in 2014 and are probably best known for roles in “22 Jump Street,” their Netflix comedy

Brazil’s “The Life That’s Left,” Costa Rica’s “Crono-Capsulas” and Chilean drama series “Silver Bridge” and “La Vida de Nosotros” ran out as four of the big winners at a vibrant and packed online 2021 Sanfic Industria that also underscored the depth of new talent in Latin America. Running March 18-25, Sanfic Industria, the constantly expanding

James Gunn and Warner Bros. debuted the first, R-rated trailer for “The Suicide Squad” on Friday, and it’s clear the foul-mouthed supervillain spectacular doesn’t skimp on all manner of bad behavior. The main story is still out of reach, but the trailer opens with a mission to rescue Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn that proves unnecessary,

The “Pre-Cannes Screenings” organized by Cannes’ Marché du Film will take place online May 25-28. The actual film market, meanwhile, will run alongside the festival from July 6-15. The screenings will be hosted on the market’s upgraded online platform, which will offer virtual booths for sales companies and screening rooms for streaming. As previously announced,

Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer whose novels, such as “The Last Picture Show,” “Terms of Endearment” and “Lonesome Dove,” were turned into award-winning films and who won an Oscar for co-adapting “Brokeback Mountain,” has died, according to The New York Times. He was 84. A spokesperson for McMurtry’s family confirmed his death to The

Having just pitched at the Sanfic-Morbido Lab, Chilean slasher flick project “Matria” will head to South Korea’s Bucheon (Bifan) in June on behalf of Ventana Sur’s Blood Window, where the project pitched to great success in late 2020. In the midst of its pandemic online market run, “Matria” has added two new key castings in

“Godzilla vs. Kong” made an appropriately monster start in mainland Chinese cinemas on Friday. It obliterated competing titles and stomped to the top of the local chart, putting it on course to be Hollywood’s strongest showing in the country for over a year. Data from ticketing agency and data tracking system Maoyan showed that the

A larger number of Chinese celebrities expressed support on Thursday for a nationalistic backlash against foreign-owned consumer goods brands that have expressed concern over the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang Province. At least 40 Chinese stars canceled high-profile, lucrative sponsorship contracts. Among them were Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee, the stars of the best

Retitled from the even more indistinct “Way Down” for U.S. release, Spanish heist “The Vault” stubbornly remains one of those movies you know you’ll be forgetting almost as soon as you finish watching it. There’s nothing really wrong with this glossy tale of a “mission impossible” raid on a heavily fortified Madrid bank to retrieve

Inspired by the real history of Bexhill-on-Sea’s Victoria-Augusta-College, a 1930s finishing school for the daughters of the Nazi elite, “Six Minutes to Midnight,” helmed by Andy Goddard, wants to be a Hitchcockian thriller, but merely manages a familiar pastiche peopled with stock characters that should divert less-discriminating viewers. The clunky plot, set circa August 1939,

It’s a romantic comedy cliché: Boy goes on outrageous quest to win back the girl of his dreams, an adventure fueled by derring-do and impassioned speeches that gain urgency as the violins swell. Onscreen, those manic you-complete-me moments make audiences swoon. But in reality, they’d look like “Bad Trip,” a squirm-worthy exercise in vicarious humiliation

In exorcist movies, there is never much new under the black hole sun. The one development in the genre over the last decade has been to see it merge, on occasion, with the haunted-house film — a comfortable enough mashup, though it’s kind of like pairing two pop stars to create a hit single out

After news broke on Thursday that the legendary Jessica Walter had died, celebrities took to social media to share condolences and fond memories of the award-winning actress. Walter, who was 80, was best known for her portrayal of Lucille Bluth in “Arrested Development.” Her career spanned more than six decades and included other iconic roles,

Billie Piper has joined the cast of Lena Dunham’s feature adaptation of “Catherine, Called Birdy” for Working Title and Amazon. Piper stars in the medieval coming-of-age comedy opposite “Fleabag’s” Andrew Scott and “Game of Thrones” breakout Bella Ramsey. The film, written and directed by Dunham, is in the early stages of production. “Catherine, Called Birdy”

The news of beloved and revered French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier’s death has struck a chord in France and around the world with a flurry of cinephiles, filmmakers, critics, industry figures and talents remembering him on social media on Thursday. Aside from his prolific career as filmmaker, Tavernier (“Round Midnight,” “Coup de Torchon,” “A Sunday in

Jessica Walter, an Emmy-winning actress known for her work as the stalker in Clint Eastwood’s “Play Misty for Me,” and for the TV series “Arrested Development” and “Archer,” died Wednesday in New York. She was 80. Walter received an Emmy nomination in 2005 for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy for playing the manipulative alcoholic

Keri Putnam, a fixture in Hollywood thanks to her longtime shepherding of America’s preeminent film festival, is resigning her post as CEO of the Sundance Institute. Putnam has served in the role for over a decade, guiding the organization’s numerous programs and initiatives to fund and uplift indie filmmaking and marginalized voices, as well as

Paradigm has promoted five staffers to agent status and tapped Gersh alum Michael Romero-LoSasso as the talent agency tries to reposition itself after a year of hard losses, layoffs and the sale of its music division. Paradigm has upped Olivia Falletti, Sam Fischer, Lindsay Hatcher, Dahlton Hubbard and Phoebe Schmidt to agents. Romero-LoSasso joins the

The popular PlayStation video game “Ghost of Tsushima” is getting a film adaptation from Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions. “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski will helm the film. “Ghost of Tsushima” follows the samurai warrior Jin Sakai, the last remaining member of his clan. He must abandon the traditions that guided him as a warrior

Andra Day was just 11 years old when she first heard Billie Holiday’s iconic anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit.” She recalls “prostrating before the speaker, just listening. It was scary and I just felt overwhelming sadness.” Even at that young age, Day says she wanted to help Holiday and “whatever it was she was singing about.”

Cynthia Erivo knows that simply trying to impersonate Aretha Franklin for her starring role as the Queen of Soul in “Genius: Aretha” just wasn’t going to cut it. “The job is to transform and to find as much of the essence of this person to tell her story,” Erivo, who earned her first Oscar nomination

On Sunday night, the Writers Guild Awards handed out its screenwriting prizes in a virtual setting, signaling a historic moment for women at the Oscars, specifically the screenplay awards. Emerald Fennell won best original screenplay for her revenge drama “Promising Young Woman” over Oscar-nominated films “Judas and the Black Messiah” (Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith

When the 20th annual Movies for Grownups Awards air March 28 on PBS, the winners will include career achievement honoree George Clooney, who turns 60 this year and whom AARP exec Tim Appelo described as “a slam dunk argument against ageism.” Hoda Kotb will host the event on “Great Performances,” the fourth time that the

Netflix just tacked on another Oscar nomination to its already record-setting haul. The streamer announced that it has acquired worldwide rights to the Academy Award-nominated live action short film “Two Distant Strangers” from directors Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe. “Two Distant Strangers” will be debut on Netflix on April 9. “When we set out

The Women in Animation (WIA) 2021 spring mentorship program will be taking applications starting March 31, with a special focus on mentoring women of color through its Mentor Circles series. In a new development, the WIA mentorship program is collaborating for the first time with Black N’Animated, LatinX in Animation, and Rise Up Animation to directly advance career opportunities for

Bertrand Tavernier, the prolific French filmmaker noted for films such as “Coup de Torchon” (1981), “A Sunday in the Country” (1984) and “Round Midnight” (1986), has died. He was 79. The director’s death was confirmed on Thursday by France’s Institut Lumière — for which he served as president — and Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux.