Avatar 2 Resumes Production in New Zealand
Avatar 2 has returned to production in New Zealand after shutting down—along with every other film and TV production, more or less—due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Producer Jon Landau, a longtime collaborator with director James Cameron, shared some details with RNZ about re-starting production:
“We feel very comfortable because of the actions of your government and also the responsibility the people took to really curb the virus there.
Why Christopher Nolan Used a Real Plane For an Epic Stunt in Tenet
When Warner Bros. dropped the new trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet last Friday, we were, to put it mildly, enthused. Nolan’s latest is a sci-fi epic on the scale of his brilliant, beguiling 2010 dreams-within-dreams caper Inception. In fact, according to star John David Washington, Tenet is even bigger. In an interview on Twitch TV on the gaming platform Fortnite, Washington said Tenet was far ahead of even Nolan’s past features: “We’re familiar with [Nolan’s] films,
Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho Gets New Release Date
We’ve got a new official release date for co-writer and director Edgar Wright’s time-traveling psychological thriller Last Night in Soho. Focus Features will now release Wright’s latest, which he co-wrote with Oscar-nominated scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917), on April 23, 2021. Last Night in Soho was originally due in theaters on September 25, 2020, until, well, you know.
Here’s Wright’s tweet relaying the news:
Haunted by someone else’s past,
The Future of Indiana Jones 5 Looks Bright
If you’re going to replace Steven Spielberg—and let’s be honest, nobody could ever replace him—you could hardly do better than director James Mangold. Spielberg stepped aside from directing Indiana Jones 5 so that the Logan and Ford v Ferrari auteur could take a crack. This makes Mangold the first person to direct an Indy movie not named Steven Spielberg.
Tickets for Drive-In Movie Theater Near Yankee Stadium on Sale This Sunday
We don’t know when, or even if, the 2020 major league baseball season will happen this year, threatening to leave the beloved Yankee Stadium eerily quiet this summer. Luckily for Bronx residents, MASC Hospitality Group decided to tap into their enterprising New York spirit and bring the borough the block party of a lifetime.
The food-focused event company specializes in food and beverage gatherings like the Bronx Night Market and Bronx Beer Festival.
The New Trailer For Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is Here
If you want a one-word reason for why there simply is no substitute for seeing a film in a movie theater, we give you Tenet, Christopher Nolan‘s latest. Nolan is one of those filmmakers who relishes the opportunities the biggest screens and the most pristine sound systems can deliver. This is why, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe and productions and movie theaters worldwide were closing,
Charlize Theron Thrills in First Trailer for Netflix’s New Actioner The Old Guard
Ever since Charlize Theron pulled off one of the great lead performances in an action movie in Mad Max: Fury Road (in our humble estimation, the action movie of the century) playing the literal road warrior Furiosa, we’ve thrilled at seeing her in roles that utilize her action chops. She was dynamite in David Leitch’s Atomic Blonde and was the villain to beat all villains as Cipher in The Fate of the Furious that same year.
The Zack Snyder Cut of Justice League is Coming to HBO Max
In a truly shocking announcement yesterday, HBO Max revealed that they were releasing Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut in 2021. The brand new streaming service—launching on May 27—will be showing Snyder’s version of the film in what The Hollywood Reporter says could be a four-hour director’s cut, or, possibly, in six different TV-style chapters. Snyder is reuniting with his original postproduction crew to work on new visual effects,
How Critic Youn Sung-eun Found New Ways to Promote Korean film
What does a freelance film critic do when there are no films to release? For South Korea’s Youn Sung-eun, the situation forced her hand to dive into a new business venture earlier than she anticipated – only this time she’ll be the one creating the content.
“I’m not naturally an optimistic person, so I don’t think people will return to the cinema as they used to. I had been planning a new business for a while,
Mahershala Ali Shares an Illustration of Himself as Blade
Remember four and a half million years ago, last July, when Marvel revealed that Mahershala Ali would playing Blade in a new film about their half-vampire superhero? It was another lifetime and a very different world, but that doesn’t mean that Ali isn’t still hyped to play the character whenever we’re finally able to get back to making movies and enjoying a semblance of regular life. Ali shared an illustration of himself as the daywalking vampire-hunting superhero,
New Wonder Woman 1984 Images & Posters Reveal a Summer Blockbuster Waiting in the Wings
New images and a new poster remind us that there is a world in which director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot reveal Wonder Woman 1984 to us in a theater. Whether or not that world exists in 2020, well, that’s yet to be determined. The current release date for Jenkins and Gadot’s highly anticipated sequel is August 14, 2020, after the original release date of June 5 began untenable due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Composer Brandon Campbell on Scoring Netflix’s The Letter for the King, Hans Zimmer, & COVID-19
Composer Brandon Campbell remains busy despite the worldwide shutdown of just about every film and TV production due to COVID-19. “I’m doing alright, all things considered, ” he says. Although he can’t give us the names of his current projects, he’s got two he’s still scoring and a third that might follow. Campbell’s relatively full plate makes him one of the lucky ones in the film and TV world at the moment, but it’s still a precarious position.
Netflix Reveals the Trailer for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods
The first glimpse at Spike Lee’s new feature Da 5 Bloods is here, and it immediately claims our attention as every Spike Lee joint does. Da 5 Bloods sees the tirelessly inventive, always curious Lee delivering a Vietnam war movie, a caper, and a story of brotherhood all in one. Lee directed from a script he co-wrote with Paul De Meo, Danny Bilson, and Kevin Wilmott. Wilmott recently shared an Oscar with Lee fro co-writing their excellent BlacKkKlansman with fellow scribes Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz.
The Matrix 4 Cast Signs 8-Week Extension
At this point, all news surrounding the reopening of our economy, and film productions, in particular, is incredibly fluid. Yet a new report from Variety at least suggests that studios are seeing some potential to begin filming—or in many cases to resume filming—in the near future. Variety’s Marc Malkin has the exclusive that The Matrix 4 cast has signed eight-week extensions, keeping the actors available until at least July 6.
Set Your Phasers to Spiritual—A Movie Watchlist For Contemplating The Big Stuff
Years and years ago, before “meme” wasn’t even a word, before the internet itself, I was teaching a college film course called Critical Approach to Cinema. The title alone stood as a warning that it was time to get attentive to the art of film.
One of the movies I showed the class was Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I knew that getting them to watch a film whose slow and deliberate unfolding of sound and image would require wholesale changes in their viewing reflexes.
From Public Health to Film, How Thai Filmmaker Nirattisai Ratphithak Found His Path
Like nearly every other industry, the filmmaking world has undergone an unprecedented global shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve been talking to filmmakers all over the world to find out how they’ve been handling the stoppage in work, making the most of their quarantine, and their hopes for the future. Those interviews have included chats with Indian filmmakers Tannishtha Chatterjee and Priyanka Singh, and Filipino filmmaker Keith Sicat.
Director Matt Wolf on His Uncannily Timely Documentary Spaceship Earth
Spaceship Earth tells the fascinating, timely story of eight men and women who, in 1991, stepped into a sealed replica of Earth’s ecosystem to live a fully sustainable life for 24 months. Their world was called Biosphere 2, engineered by inventor/investor John Allen, and the experiment in which they participated, deemed a global media phenomenon. Spaceship Earth is available now on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, FandangoNow, Vudu, DIRECTV, DISH, and longtime NEON partner Hulu.
Hamilton Movie Will Premiere on Disney+ a Full Year Earlier Than Planned
Good news is few and far between these days, so we’ll take it where we can get it. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is good news. The movie version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is arriving on Disney+ a full year (and change) earlier than originally planned. Hamilton will now stream on July 3, 2020, instead of the originally slated release of October 15, 2021. Miranda himself shared the news on Twitter:
It’s only a matter of time…
With Her Amazon Directing Gig on Hold, Indian Filmmaker Tannishtha Chatterjee Embraces Other Creative Pursuits
It’s often two-thirty in the afternoon before actor, writer, and director Tannishtha Chatterjee finds time to turn her attention to creative pursuits. “Till lunchtime…I’m cooking, cutting vegetables, cleaning, dusting and bathing Radhika.”
Radhika is Chatterjee’s four-and-a-half-year-old daughter. For the last six weeks, it’s been just the two of them tucked away in her Mumbai apartment. “She’s actually become quite independent in the last one and a half months. She’s learned many new things.
Erica Mūnoz on Producing & Starring in HBO’s Undocumented Immigrant Story Long Gone By
Just premiered on HBO, Long Gone By is the story of the hardworking single mother and undocumented immigrant Ana, played by Erica Mūnoz, who is trying to create the best life for her brainy teen daughter Izzy (Izzy Hau’ula) in their adoptive small town of Warsaw, Indiana. When a deportation order demands Ana return to Nicaragua, it puts not only her own future in jeopardy, it makes Izzy attending Indiana University nearly impossible.
