Beleaguered Regal cinema chain operator Cineworld Group has found a lifeline by securing a new debt facility of $450 million and the issue of equity warrants. The company has agreed bank covenant waivers until June 2022 and has extended the maturity of its $111 million incremental revolving credit facility from Dec. 2020 to May 2024.
Hong Kong-produced “Caught in Time” gave fresh life to the mainland China box office over its opening weekend. The fantasy crime thriller about a cop chasing a gang through different eras earned $30.3 million. Produced by Emperor Motion Picture, the film stars the popular Daniel Wu and Wang Qianyuan, and was directed by Lau Ho-leung.
The American Music Awards gave three trophies apiece to Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Dan + Shay in a show that proceeded along the lines of a typical annual AMAs telecast while acknowledging that the live audience for this pandemic edition consisted of a bare handful of masked, cheering fans in the Microsoft Theater’s balcony.
Taylor Swift won three American Music Awards Sunday night, including the top “favorite artist” honor — explaining her absence as due to being busy in the studio re-recording her entire Big Machine catalog. The climactic favorite artist award came as something as a surprise, since Swift’s name had not come up as a winner any
Exclusive Harvey Weinstein is getting the home movie treatment from behind bars — having cameras record his every move so he doesn’t go the way of Jeffrey Epstein … TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell us … a correctional officer is assigned to follow Weinstein anytime he’s on the move from within the state
The Weeknd literally lit up Los Angeles with his American Music Awards performance, setting a new standard for the how-to-get-creative-with-social-distancing-during-an-awards show. Playing a pyro-loaded medley of “Your Eyes” and “Save Your Tears,” the performance started off with a solo from superstar saxist Kenny G — who performs on the song’s remix — before cutting to The
The 2020 American Music Awards aired on Sunday night from Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater with host Taraji P. Henson. Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Dan + Shay were the top winners with three apiece. As with all awards shows this season, the AMAs has had to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines by having a limited audience
John Belushi’s kinetic energy and skill at physical comedy made him a larger than life performer during his short run as a superstar on “Saturday Night Live” and in movies such as 1978’s “Animal House” and 1980’s “The Blues Brothers.” But Belushi’s work off-camera as a writer and director, from his earliest days in the
“Monty Python” actor John Cleese is being accused of transphobia following a series of tweets in which he defended “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling. In June, Rowling made headlines for stating that she believes one’s biological sex is their “real sex” and criticizing transgender people for “erasing the concept of sex.” In September, Cleese signed
“Aquaman” star Jason Momoa became a real superhero on Wednesday when he surprised 7-year-old fan Danny Sheehan with a video call. Sheehan, who has a rare form of brain cancer, went viral earlier in the week for his reaction to receiving an “Aquaman” figurine as a gift. “Oh my gosh, my favorite one,” the boy
In a nod to the exponentially growing interest in premium TV content and the swelling number of content-ravenous platforms, the Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG)’s industry section has launched a competitive television section dubbed Episode 0: Series in Development. Its participants will be given the opportunity to network and vie for prizes that consist of post-production
The casts of Fox Sports’ pregame shows, “Fox NFL Sunday” and “Fox NFL Kickoff” will not appear in Fox’s Los Angeles studios today due to concerns regarding COVID-19. Instead, Chris Myers will host both shows, with analysts Charles Woodson and Reggie Bush also in-studio. Regular “Fox NFL Sunday” cast members Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Michael
The Guadalajara Film Festival’s industry centerpiece, its Encuentro de Co-produccion, a springboard for Latin American feature film projects, unspools this week online, as directors and producers look to catch the eye of the international marketplace and secure key sales, distribution and production partners. Guadalajara has long rejected the idea that gender-based quotas are needed when
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square,” streaming now on Netflix. Christine Baranski grew up watching “White Christmas” with her family when she was a little girl, and that is a tradition she has kept, now watching it year after year with her own grandchildren.
According to his Twitter page, Bo McGuire has been “putting the queer in country since 1984ever.” Now, with his feature debut “Socks on Fire,” he’s putting some much overdue queer into the documentary landscape, with an anarchic, poetic and sometimes mind-blowingly surreal memoir that rakes over the coals of a very personal family feud. At
“People don’t really think about striptease these days,” says director Yoichiro Okutani, “it’s seen as old-fashioned. They don’t care. Normally, you wouldn’t even go there.” So with his debut film “Odoriko,” which takes its name from the Japanese word for exotic dancers and has its premiere in IDFA’s Feature-Length Documentary Competition, Okutani’s has decided to
In his latest documentary “Crazy, Not Insane”—screening at documentary film festival IDFA—Alex Gibney gives the floor to Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a renowned American psychiatrist who has examined numerous serial killers. Specializing in the study of people with dissociative identity disorder (DID), Lewis has concluded that many of the 20th century’s most notorious murderers—including Joel
President Trump still refuses to publicly acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election, but in any event he and his administration will lose access to the White House accounts on Facebook and Instagram in less than two months. Facebook confirmed that as of Jan. 20, 2021, when president-elect Joe Biden is sworn in as the
Body-swap horror comedy “Freaky” repeated as the winner of a seriously subdued U.S. box office with $1.2 million at 2,057 locations in North America. The Universal and Blumhouse Productions’ movie stars Vince Vaughn as a serial killer and Kathryn Newton as a low-profile high schooler who inadvertently switch bodies on Friday the 13th. “Freaky” has
Colombian documentary feature “Alis,” from directors Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf, has won the Forum Award for best project at IDFA, one of the world’s leading documentary film festivals, which is running as a virtual event until Dec. 6. IDFA’s Forum section is a co-financing and co-production market for “creative” documentaries. “Alis” follows eight
Like many of its counterparts worldwide, the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (FICG), Mexico’s largest film festival, faced the quandary of whether to go online, reschedule or cancel altogether because of the pandemic. It opted for a rescheduled hybrid 35th edition which would serve those either unable or afraid to travel and those without an internet
There have been a number of recent documentaries—Netflix’s “Knock Down the House,” featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and “Time for Ilhan,” looking at Ilhan Omar—that are about female politicians of color who have challenged the status quo on gender and race as they vie for political office in America. But these representational battles are not just the
A large group of biz owners in Erie County, NY called the local authorities’ bluff when they tried shutting down their get-together … and sent Johnny Law packing. This went down Friday night at a CrossFit gym called Athletes Unleashed in Orchard Park — not too far away from Buffalo — where upwards of 100
The diaries of the late actor Alan Rickman — best known for playing Severus Snape in the “Harry Potter” movies — will be published as a book in fall 2022. As reported by The Guardian, Rickman’s journals covered everything from his thoughts on acting to insights on friendships and politics. The avid theater-goer also reviewed
Camera crews can be very heteronormative and there is a lot of toxic masculinity, argued DP Michael Filocamo during the online IMAGO and Digital Orchard Foundation Diversity and Inclusion Roundtable at Camerimage. Also noting the current situation in Poland and even calling out the festival itself. “As a queer cinematographer, I have experienced homophobia from
Filming the New York-set HBO thriller series “The Undoing” presented the challenge of getting inside the head of Nicole Kidman’s character, Grace, as her world flies apart and she doesn’t know what to believe, says Oscar-winning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. The British DP, known for an artistic approach and a fascination for macro-level detail, used
Cinematographer Frederick Elmes, who was named as the winner of EnergaCamerimage Film Festival’s First Look – TV Pilots Competition on Saturday for his work on the Amazon series “Hunters,” spoke about the show’s first episode “In the Belly of the Whale” during an online Q&A earlier this week. Elmes explained that the story – following
Lance Heflin, former executive producer of “America’s Most Wanted,” died Nov. 15 after a brief hospital stay, his representative confirmed to Variety. He was 67. Heflin’s work on “America’s Most Wanted” led to the arrest of more than 1,000 fugitives, including 17 from the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Criminals list. During his 22 years as
Even in his dotage, stooped and tissue-skinned and walker-dependent, the former (and final) Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev is an imposing, even intimidating figure — formidable enough to have stymied the venerable Werner Herzog two years ago. The German auteur’s oddly cautious 2018 doc “Meeting Gorbachev” was a missed opportunity, colored by the filmmaker’s obvious
Indie ethos, costume drama and rich fantasy won the day at the world’s top cinematography event, EnergaCamerimage Film Festival, on Saturday, with Joshua James Richards’ naturalistic filming in Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” taking the Golden Frog plus FIPRESCI jury honors. The chronicle of life on the rough edges of America’s society among retirees living on the