“The Persian Version” Writer/Director Maryam Keshavarz on the Joys of Iranian American Culture

The Persian Version won both the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S Dramatic Competition at Sundance this year, and for good reason. The film is a feel-good dramedy that combines stories of traditional Iranian culture with those of the Iranian American experience with a decidedly modern touch. The story follows Leila (Layla Mohammadi), a queer Iranian American working to keep her parents and many brothers who love her at a distance while navigating her ever more complicated personal life.

Meg Ryan on Dedicating Her First Movie in Eight Years to Nora Ephron

How can Hollywood — and the world, for that matter — carry on without Meg Ryan? For someone whose fame blazed like a supernova, her absence has been felt. Ryan’s last movie was the bittersweet 2016 coming-of-age drama Ithaca, which she directed, and her last lead roles were 2008’s The Women and 2009’s little-seen comedy Serious Moonlight. Since then, she has mostly disappeared from the public eye.

“The Marvels” Clip Reveals What Happens When a Superhero and a Superfan Become a Superteam

A superhero and a superfan become a superteam—this would be one way of summing up the vibe in The Marvels. In a brand new clip for co-writer/director Nia DaCosta’s upcoming film, we get to see firsthand what happens when Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, goes from a solo act to a team player. Well, sort of. Carol’s got her hands full as she fights off some Kree revolutionaries who mean her nothing but harm,

“Freelance” Writer Jacob Lentz on Going From “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to Penning his Feature Debut

It sounds like the setup to a sketch: a washed-up journalist, a peacocking dictator, and a bored ex-Special Forces guy walk into a coup… That may be the premise of the action-comedy Freelance (in theaters now), the first feature film from long-time Jimmy Kimmel Live writer Jacob Lentz, but the punchline isn’t what you’d expect. Mason Pettits (John Cena) is a frustrated lawyer who gets a call from an old military buddy turned private military contractor,

How Disney’s 100 Year Journey Began With Four Pages and Four Signatures

The Walt Disney Company celebrated its 100th anniversary on October 16th. That’s a century’s worth of mythmaking and storytelling, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to their upcoming animated feature Wish (hitting theaters on November 22), with a slew of iconic films, characters, a media empire, and theme parks across the world in between. The breadth of Disney’s reach is hard to overestimate. Take the company’s mascot, Mickey Mouse—Mickey is a global icon,

“Pain Hustlers” Director David Yates on Departing From the “Harry Potter” Films in Subversive Style

In Pain Hustlers, the opioid crisis takes on a different tenor than that previously seen in hard-hitting dramas like Hulu’s limited series Dopesick and fellow Netflix’s own Painkiller. While still inspired by actual events, David Yates’ retelling of a “fascinating state of the nation” falls more in line with the big-bang type of storytelling akin to The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short.

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” Reveals Viola Davis as the Head Gamemaker

You can’t ask for an actor with more gravitas to supercharge your movie than Viola Davis. In a new clip for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Davis’s regal presence as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the head gamemaker, commands a literal stage as she addresses a room full of new academy members. “How tantalizing to see all your shining young faces on this auspicious day,” Dr. Gaul says after a laugh so ominous you can practically see the blood freeze in the youngsters’

“The Marvels” Teaser Tracks the Evolution of Captain Marvel

Renegade. Hero. Avenger.

This is how Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) describes Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, arguably the most potent superhero who ever fought alongside the Avengers (sorry, Thor) in this new The Marvels teaser.

“Captain Marvel is one of the most popular characters in the Marvel universe,” says Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige. “One of the highlights of my career was introducing Brie Larson as Captain Marvel.”

The Official Trailer for Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” Hits All the Right Notes

The official trailer for Bradley Cooper’s Maestro has arrived, giving us our most in-depth look yet at his look at the life of the legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and his lifelong relationship with actress and activist Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan). This epic love story, Cooper’s first directorial effort since A Star is Born, is based on a script he co-wrote with Josh Singer.

The trailer centers on both the lasting relationship between Leonard and Felicia,

“The Crown” Season 6, George C. Wolfe’s “Rustin,” David Fincher’s “The Killer” And More Highlight Netflix’s November Titles

A new sizzle reel for Netflix’s November slate has dropped, revealing a slew of high-profile upcoming films and series bowing in the coming month. One of the biggest titles is the return of The Crown season 6 (November 16), which will explore arguably the darkest, most explosive moment in the monarchy’s history as it centers on the growing relationship between Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) before their tragic car journey in Paris that rocked the entire world.

How “Saltburn” Production Designer Suzie Davies Outfitted the Vast Estate in Emerald Fennell’s Thriller

Like many who worked on Saltburn, production designer Suzie Davies signed a contract promising not to reveal the location of the sprawling country house where much of the movie was shot. Writer/director Emerald Fennell wanted a centuries-old estate unidentifiable to audiences, and she found one in the English Midlands that had never been used onscreen. But a Tatler journalist sleuthed out the location a few months ago, effectively voiding the contracts.

Mahershala Ali and Julia Roberts Face the Unthinkable in “Leave the World Behind” Trailer

In the official trailer for writer/director Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind, we open on a married couple in disparate moments of readiness. At the foot of the bed, packing a bag, is Amanda Sanford (Julia Roberts), informing her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke), lying prone under the covers, that she’s gone ahead and booked them a beautiful house by the beach and is prepping their suitcases so that he’s left with little reason to say no to the trip.

“Mission: Impossible 8” Gets New Title, Release Date, And Longer IMAX Run

There has been a flurry of calendar moves and even one very big title change announcement as the entertainment industry absorbs strike-related delays and the studios reconsider upcoming dates. With a new meeting on the SAG-AFTRA strike set for today, there are hopes that the impasse can be solved and the movie and TV business can get back to action. In the meantime, Paramount Pictures has announced that their upcoming Mission: Impossible movie is being moved nearly an entire year,

Director Shawn Levy on Synchronicity Between His “Deadpool 3” and Secret “Star Wars” Movie

Director Shawn Levy is currently promoting All The Light We Cannot See, his Netflix limited series that’s adapted from Anthony Doerr’s best-selling novel of the same name. Levy is one of the busiest men in the business, with season 5 of Stranger Things, Deadpool 3, and a secret Star Wars movie all on his to-do list. The SAG-AFTRA strikes have slowed down production on the latter three titles, but when it comes to the two movies,

“Killers of the Flower Moon” Casting Directors Ellen Lewis and Rene Haynes on Their Historic Oklahoma Casting Call

With its prodigiously detailed and complex production, long running time, and sprawling cast, Killers of the Flower Moon (in theaters now) cut no corners in telling the true story about members of Oklahoma’s oil-rich Osage Nation who were systematically murdered in the 1920s by white men eager to inherit “head rights” worth millions of dollars through marriage and trickery. To surround Leo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro’s duplicitous usurpers with authentic Native American talent,

Martin Scorsese on Finding Truth in Tragedy in “Killers of the Flower Moon”

When Martin Scorsese was young, he had an experience where he became painfully aware of how Native Americans were being treated, and since then, it’s taken him years to find a story he could tell about the culture in a respectful way. Killers of the Flower Moon, which opens in theaters October 20 with a runtime of 3 hours and 26 minutes, presents that lifelong desire with a gentle, examining eye in what could easily be the director’s best work to date.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto Illuminates Martin Scorsese’s Twisted Tale

When I connected with Rodrigo Prieto for our video interview, as one might imagine a cinematographer to do, he was perfectly lit in a warm amber glow, perhaps a nod to a fire motif visually laced in Martin Scorese’s Killers of the Flower Moon – a love story between Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) and Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) wrapped in the travesty the Osage Nation faced during the 1920s.

Having spoken previously with the Mexican native as far back as Argo (2012),

New “Napoleon” Trailer Unleashes Ridley Scott’s Historical Epic

Warrior. Emperor. General. Genius. Tyrant. This is how a new Napoleon trailer describes the titular conqueror in Ridley Scott’s upcoming historical epic. Napoleon is played by Joaquin Phoenix—his second time playing an emperor for Scott—he first ruled the world as Roman Emperor Commodus in Scott’s 2000 epic Gladiator. “Scenes with him just felt really authentic,” co-star Vanessa Kirby has said about working with Phoenix, “he was unbelievable about capturing the idiosyncratic,

How “Killers of the Flower Moon” Production Designer Jack Fisk Created 1920s Oklahoma

Killers of the Flower Moon became a journey of inspirational research for production designer Jack Fisk (The Revenant, There Will Be Blood). He traveled to Oklahoma to visit the very homes of the Osage portrayed in the Scorsese film – a story that unpacks the painful history of the Osage during the 1920s, whose oil-backed wealth was methodically stolen from them under false pretense.

The screenplay was adapted by Eric Roth and Scorsese based on David Grann’s meticulous 2017 work of non-fiction.

“The Zone of Interest” Trailer Reveals Jonathan Glazer’s Harrowing, Urgent New Film

Jonathan Glazer’s films have a way of sticking to your ribs. Whether he’s taking on a gangster story, like his irresistibly intense Sexy Beast (2000), or delivering a powerhouse sci-fi meditation on what it means to be an outsider in his alien-among-us masterpiece Under the Skin (2013), a Glazer film is an experience unlike any other. This is why his latest film, The Zone of Interest, comes with the promise of something both unforgettable in the best sense and in the most urgent and upsetting.