Movies

Hollywood studios and unions are getting closer to a deal on safety regulations for returning to work following the shutdown of production due to the coronavirus, sources have said. Deadline Hollywood reported Friday that major issues are testing protocols, sick pay and travel to work sites with a source expressing cautious optimism that an agreement

In 1969, when “Sesame Street” premiered, it invented a thing called children’s “educational” television, and few would deny that it fulfilled that mission — to teach kids and delight them at the same moment. The legacy of “Sesame Street” is vast, to the point that dozens of children’s shows that don’t call themselves educational, or

Director Marco Pontecorvo shot his film “Fátima” entirely on location in Portugal, not just for authenticity, but because the Portuguese government also created a special film incentive package, giving the production a tax credit. The movie, released via PVOD and in theaters on Aug. 28, is based on historical events in 1917 when three young

Every year, the American Legion sponsors high school boys as they’re given a crash course on American politics. In 2017, Boys State (as it is known) made national news when Texas voted to secede from the union — shining a spotlight on the event. Filmmaker Jesse Moss (“The Overnighters”) read an article in The Washington

A franchise-full of folklore-inspired superhero movies, that constitute Indonesia’s most ambitious film project to date, has finally begun production. Stringent health precautions are being applied as the coronavirus outbreak is still rampant and devastating the country. “Satria Dewa: Gatotkaca,” is the first of eight movies branded under the Satria Dewa Superhero Universe produced by Rene

Disney is conjuring up a new “Haunted Mansion” live-action movie, based on its 51-year-old Disneyland theme park ride, with “Ghostbusters” writer Katie Dippold attached. Producers are Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich through their Rideback banner. Lin has extensive producer experience with the “Sherlock Holmes,” “It” and “Lego” franchises. He and Eirich teamed on Disney’s live-action

Too late to salvage a summer movie season wiped out by coronavirus, but boldly hoping to bring audiences back to cinemas (or drive-ins at least), a handful of movies are opening widely this weekend — or as widely as they can in a country where many communities are still restricting public gatherings. If time travel

Billy Hayes, author of the autobiographical book “Midnight Express,” on which the film directed by Alan Parker and written by Oliver Stone was based, disagreed with several of the assertions made in Stone’s new book, “Chasing the Light.” Oliver Stone, acknowledged master of revisionist history, has made several self-serving comments about me and the film

Times like these demand cameos, and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl makes an all-too-brief one in the much-anticipated “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” out this weekend. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are returning for their third outing as Bill and Ted, with a new mission is to find that one song they recorded to

Bob McLeod, the “New Mutants” comic series’ co-creator, took to Facebook Friday to express his concerns over the new film, including white-washing and the misspelling of his own name in the credits. “I was very excited when I heard they were making a New Mutants movie,” his Facebook post starts. “I thought making it into

“The Last Movie,” Dennis Hopper’s infamous directorial follow-up to “Easy Rider,” is a counterculture touchstone in its own right, even though it wasn’t given a national release for decades after its short-lived 1971 bow. Even longer in coming: a soundtrack album. This Saturday, nearly five decades after the movie first touched screens, a companion LP

Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced strict guidelines for indoor movie theaters in California to reopen in the coming months. The guidelines, announced Friday, were contained in a new color-coded reopening system for counties based on coronavirus prevalence and testing rates. Currently, 38 of the 58 counties (including Los Angeles and Orange), with 87% of the

Unpleasantly effective “Alone” centers on a heroine who wishes she were just that; instead, she’s got insistent, unwanted company in the form of a probable serial killer. John Hyams’ U.S. remake of a not-particularly-well-regarded 2011 Swedish thriller is an apparent improvement in all departments, with the original’s reported plausibility issues and other flaws subsumed in

Amy Adams has joined the cast of Universal Pictures’ “Dear Evan Hansen” and will portray Cynthia Murphy, mother of the characters Connor and Zoe Murphy. “Dear Evan Hansen,” a Tony-winning musical, opened on Broadway in 2016. The story follows a high schooler with social anxiety who gets caught up in a lie after Connor Murphy’s family

Caesar Cordova, a character actor who appeared with Al Pacino in “Scarface” and “Carlito’s Way,” died of natural causes Wednesday in Atlantic City, N.J. He was 84. His son, actor Panchito Gomez “American Me,” “Mi Vida Loca”), announced his death. In Brian de Palma’s “Scarface,” Cordova played the taco cook at the El Paraiso lunch

AMC Theatres is asking a court’s permission to reacquire 10 theaters it divested as part of the Carmike Cinemas merger, after the new operator was forced to liquidate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AMC agreed to divest 15 theaters in nine states in order to win Department of Justice approval for the merger, which made

It used to be that multiple delays to a movie’s release date were a sign that something was wrong with the project. But in the case of Josh Boone’s “The New Mutants,” the fact that even a global coronavirus pandemic isn’t forcing the movie to budge from its drop-dead Aug. 28 opening (after multiple postponements

With North American moviegoing slowly coming back, Disney’s “The New Mutants” delivered a respectable $750,000 in Thursday night previews domestically. The “X-Men” spinoff has been tracking for an opening weekend of $7 million to $10 million at 2,412 locations. The preview number matches “Stuber,” which went on to open with a $8.2 million weekend in

The world premiere of the Tommie Smith documentary “With Drawn Arms” will open the Hamptons International Film Festival on Oct. 8. The film, directed by Glenn Kaino and Afshin, follows the legacy of Smith’s fist-raising gesture during the 1968 Olympic games after he won the gold medal in the 200 meter race. The film features

Because I’m in Vancouver, British Columbia, which has handled coronavirus extraordinarily well, I decided to go to an 11:30 a.m. showing of “Tenet” on Thursday.  Typing that sentence sounds like, Oh, I casually decided to go to see a film — no! I deliberated and deliberated, and Rebecca, my wife, bought me a face shield to wear in

In today’s Global Bulletin, Argentina restarts production with new health and safety regulations, Sovereign Film Distribution picks up Melina León’s award-winning debut “Song Without a Name,” ITV preps for Black History Month and commissions “The Confessions of Frannie Langton,” and IDFA will honor Gianfranco Rosi. SHOOTING After a shutdown of more than five months, the

With Nigerian cinemas set to open for the first time in more than four months, local exhibitors are hoping that Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” will help a reeling box office return to its pre-pandemic heights. Nolan’s mind-bending, time-twisting thriller, which was scheduled to be released in Nigeria Aug. 28, will be the first test of whether

When “X-Men” debuted on July 14, 2000, superhero movies were at their lowest ebb in years. Even though breakthroughs in visual effects made it increasingly possible to bring fantastical superpowers to life, the vapid camp excesses of 1997’s “Batman & Robin” had curdled the whole idea of costumed heroes saving the day into something that

Luisa Cocozzelli, a South Florida resident in her 60s, considers herself something of a film connoisseur. In normal times — meaning, before coronavirus swept the globe, shuttering everything from movie theaters to restaurants and causing millions to lose their jobs and hundreds of thousands to lose their lives — she regularly went to her local

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling has emerged into a fresh controversy after she returned the Ripple of Hope Award bestowed upon her by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization in December 2019, following criticism from Kerry Kennedy. Kerry is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and the president of the organization. “Over the course

Thierry Fremaux from the Cannes Film Festival, José Luis Rebordinos from San Sebastian and Carlo Chatrian from the Berlinale are among the eight artistic directors of the main European film festivals who will be attending the opening night of Venice. The inaugural evening of the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival will take place

Switzerland has selected “My Little Sister,” starring Nina Hoss, Lars Eidinger and Marthe Keller, as its entry in the International Feature Film category of the 93rd Academy Awards. Film Movement is distributing the film in North America. The film, directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond, and produced by Ruth Waldburger at Vega Film, had

A trio of songwriters — Christopher Curtis, Helen Park and Marjorie Duffield — created the tunes at the heart of animated musical “Over the Moon,” the story of a young girl with a passion for science who seeks to prove the existence of the legendary Moon Goddess in the tales her recently departed mom would

Hollywood blockbuster “Tenet” opened on top of the Korean box office, but its performance is declining as the coronavirus makes a comeback in the country. Releases of other films, including “Mulan,” are now being postponed or halted. Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” began its commercial career in the world’s fourth largest theatrical market on Wednesday earning $596,000

China this week became the first global market to make a “full box office recovery” according to targets developed by the U.K.-based film industry analytics firm Gower Street, the company said Thursday. The firm created five targets to track and compare the paths of different territories’ exhibition sectors back to recovery. The indicators move from