First Images From “The Witcher” Season 2 Reveal Geralt’s New Armor
Henry Cavill took to Instagram today to try and disrupt our lunatic news cycle with something plainly good—a look at himself as The Witcher‘s Geralt in full armor. This monster-slayer is ready to roll for season two, revealing that Geralt will be rocking some brand new armor for the upcoming trials and tribulations he’s sure to face. We get one shot of Cavill’s Geralt facing us in his armor, a second from the back. Both show that the White Wolf favors dark armor...
“The Good Lord Bird” Costume Designer on Dressing Ethan Hawke as Abolitionist John Brown
Rampaging through “Bloody Kansas” in 1856, abolitionist John Brown and his hardy band of followers lived in the wilderness foraging for food and killing pro-slavery “Red Shirts.” As dramatized in seven-episode miniseries The Good Lord Bird, produced by Blumhouse Television and premiering on Showtime this past Sunday [October 4], the tiny army led by Ethan Hawke‘s vainglorious John Brown rarely had the money for food or store-bought clothing. But as they trekked east on their ill-fated mission to attack the U.S...
HBO Max Reveals “The Witches” Trailer
This is the kind of surprise we needed today. HBO Max has revealed the trailer for The Witches, directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis, adapted from Roald Dahl’s iconic story. The Witches was originally scheduled for a theatrical release, but, you know, 2020. So instead, it’ll be hitting HBO Max on October 22. This trailer is our first good glimpse at it, and hoo boy is this cast great. The story is set in 1960s Alabama and follows a young boy (Jahzir Bruno) and his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) as they come upon a coven of witches while on vacation...
Join Our Film School Friday Event About Sonia Lowman’s Documentary “Black Boys”
It’s that time again, folks—we’ve got another Film School Friday event for you today, and it’s a really, really good one. Today’s event features a conversation with documentarian Sonia Lowman about her new documentary Black Boys, which came out on Peacock on August 16. Lowman and her Black Boys producer Jon-Thomas Royston will be in conversation with former Executive Director of My Brother’s Keeper Conan Harris and the Motion Picture Association’s Vice President of External and Multicultural Affairs John Gibson...
Netflix Reveals First Look of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” With Chadwick Boseman in Final Role
These are likely the most bittersweet images you’ll see today. Or this week. Netflix has revealed the first look at Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which features Chadwick Boseman in his final role. Boseman stars alongside Viola Davis in director George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 play. The film focuses on racial tension in Chicago in 1927 and follows a single, volatile afternoon recording session with the trailblazing performer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), her ambitious trumpeter Levee (Boseman),...
Barry Jenkins Reveals First Look at “The Underground Railroad”
When we first learned that Barry Jenkins would be adapting Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Underground Railroad” back in 2017, we were enthused. The immensely gifted writer/director was coming off his groundbreaking, career-making film Moonlight, and the thought of Jenkins taking Whitehead’s gorgeous, haunting novel and adapting it into a series was thrilling. Then Jenkins went on to direct If Beale Street Could Talk, another brilliant film (adapted from another brilliant writer’s novel,...
Listen to the First Episode of The Official “No Time To Die” Podcast
If you’ve been hankering for some more James Bond in your life (and who hasn’t?), you can now get your fix, podcast style. A new No Time To Die podcast featuring the film’s director, stars, producers, and more is now available. No Time To Die: The Official James Bond Podcast includes stars Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas, and Naomie Harris, as well as writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga and recording artist superstar and No Time To Die theme song creator Billie Eilish...
A24 Reveals Trailer For Lee Isaac Chung’s Exceptional “Minari”
You can now have your first look at one of the best movies to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari. Powerhouse studio A24 has released the first trailer for Chung’s moving portrait of a Korean family moving to Arkansas in the 1980s, and their struggles to craft their own version of the American dream.
The reviews for Minari coming out of Sundance were stellar,...
Zendaya to Play Ronnie Spector in A24 Film
Recent Emmy-winner Zendaya (the youngest actress to ever win Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and only the second Black woman to win the category, no less) will play singer Ronnie Spector in a film about her life for A24. Deadline broke the story that the rising star will play Spector after a deal was closed to the singer’s life rights and for her memoir (co-written with Vince Waldron) “Be My Baby.” Deadline hears that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury will pen the script...
Get Excited About Barry Jenkins Directing “Lion King” Sequel
Barry Jenkins is a phenomenal director. So there’s your first and most obvious reason that today’s news that Jenkins been tapped to helm a Lion King sequel (!!) is good for Lion King lovers in particular and film lovers in general. Deadline broke the story that the director of the sensational, Best Picture-winning Moonlight (Jenkins and his co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney also won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay),...
Gillian Anderson is Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown” Season 4 Images
The cast of the splendidly written, gorgeously produced, exquisitely attired The Crown has been so good for so long it’s almost easy to take it for granted. For example, the recent news that the extremely talented Elizabeth Debicki would be playing Princess Di for The Crown’s final two seasons added yet more acting firepower to a show that’s already lousy with it. Yet still, it’s pure joy to get a glimpse of a bevy of new photos for season 4,...
Watch “The Mandalorian” & More With Friends Via Disney+’s New GroupWatch Feature
Disney is unveiling GroupWatch, a brand new feature on Disney+, that will allow up to seven subscribers to simultaneously watch and react to a series or movie. With many theaters closed and social gatherings largely reduced, GroupWatch will give Disney+ the most developed social viewing option available for a streaming service at a time where we could all use as many remote social options as we can get.
Of course, Disney+ isn’t alone in seeing the need for folks to be able to watch a movie or a series together,...
“The Boys in The Band” Director Joe Mantello on Adapting Broadway’s Groundbreaking Play
Mart Crowley’s 1968 play The Boys in the Band is an undisputed milestone in gay history. Produced a year before the Stonewall rebellion, this story of an Upper East Side birthday gathering was groundbreaking, with gay men overtly representing themselves onstage, and asked to be seen as themselves, nothing more or less. This was a first. It was also a massive hit. For its 50th anniversary, producer Ryan Murphy revived the play on Broadway, with director Joe Mantello directing a cast of all openly gay actors...
“Lovecraft Country” DP Michael Watson on Lensing HBO’s Multi-Genre Hit Series
If you’ve been watching Lovecraft Country on HBO, you’ve seen one of the most sublimely ambitious series on TV this year. Stripping the legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft for parts (the man was a seething racist and anti-Semite), creator Misha Green’s 9-episode series is equal parts horror, drama, sci-fi, and social commentary. Lovecraft Country is the show 2020 needed but probably didn’t deserve.
Cinematographer Michael Watson lensed four of Lovecraft‘s episodes,...
Director Julie Taymor on The Many Perspectives of Her Gloria Steinem Biopic “The Glorias”
Director Julie Taymor’s latest feature, The Glorias, celebrates the life of a living icon of our time, Gloria Steinem, but she tells Gloria’s story in her utterly singular way. The director uses four different actresses to represent the famed women’s rights activist at different times in her life. There are imaginative, surreal sequences that express Gloria’s inner dialogue. There’s a sort of metaphysical bus, which carries Gloria through her journey, sometimes accompanied by her older or younger selves (played in the film by Ryan Kiera Armstrong,...
M. Night Shyamalan Reveals Title & Poster For New Film
The title, poster, and cast for M. Night Shyamalan‘s new film have been revealed. Shyamalan’s latest is called Old, and Collider broke the story that the film is based on a French graphic novel “Sandcastle” by Pierre Oscar Levy and artist Frederick Peeters. Collider learned that Shyamalan received “Sandcastle” as a Father’s Day gift and was so enamored with the premise that he purchased the rights to it, ultimately leading to his script. ...
James Cameron Reveals “Avatar 2” is Done & “Avatar 3” is 95% Finished
Who better for James Cameron to reveal the nearly complete status of his next two Avatar films than old buddy Arnold Schwarzenegger? That’s precisely what happened when Cameron sat down to have a virtual chat with Schwarzenegger during the 2020 Austrian World Summit. Cameron was speaking with his old Terminator and T2 collaborator from New Zealand, where he said he was “100% complete on Avatar 2 and sort of 95% complete on Avatar 3.”
Cameron and his Avatar 2 and 3 cast and crew had lost about four and a half months due to COVID-19...
Downtown Disney Unveils a Stunning Chadwick Boseman Mural
Author and artist Nikkolas Smith created a powerful, gorgeous tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. Smith’s work was unveiled at Downtown Disney on Thursday, showing Boseman exchanging the Wakanda salute with a young child wearing a Black Panther mask. It’s a lump-in-your-throat kind of work, simultaneously reminding you the type of person that we lost and the massive impact that he made with his time.
“This one is special. My King Chad tribute is now on a wall on display at Downtown Disney,”...
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” Review Roundup: Aaron Sorkin’s Timely Film Resonates
The reviews are out for writer/director Aaron Sorkin‘s The Trial of the Chicago 7, a film that’s painfully timely. Sorkin’s second directorial effort is a look at the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which escalated when the Chicago Police Department and National Guard descended and turned what was a peaceful gathering of Americans making use of their First Amendment rights into a violent clash. Sound familiar?
The Trial of the Chicago 7 focuses on both the protest itself and,...
“The Queen’s Gambit” Trailer Reveals Netflix’s Stylish Chess Drama
As we noted yesterday there is a ton of good stuff coming to Netflix in October. One of those titles is The Queen’s Gambit, a new limited series drama based on Walter Tevis’s novel of the same name. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Beth Harmon, a chess prodigy who wades into the male-dominated competitive chess world with her immense, undeniable gifts.
Beth’s journey into the world of competitive chess begins at an orphanage in Kentucky,...
