Movie News

Illumination’s “Sing 2,” the animated film written and directed by Garth Jennings, will world premiere at AFI Fest on Nov. 14 at the Tcl Chinese Theatre.

The movie, a sequel to 2016’s “Sing,” follows a koala named Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) as he and his cast of performing animals prepare for their biggest concert yet in Redshore City, and must convince a reclusive rockstar (Bono) to join them. The film will feature more than 40 covers of classic and contemporary hit songs.

Returning stars, along with McConaughey, include Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll and Jennings. They are joined by new cast members Pharrell Williams, Halsey, Bobby Cannavale, Letitia Wright, Eric André and Chelsea Peretti.

“Sing 2” is produced by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, along with Janet Healy. After the AFI Fest premiere, the pic will hit theaters on Dec. 22.

AFI Fest takes place from Nov.

Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins and Ryan Kwanten are set to go head-to-head in upcoming action movie Section Eight, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Based on an original screenplay by Chad Law (The Hit List, Drive Hard) and Josh Ridgway (The Sector, Howlers), and set to be directed by Christian Sesma (Pay Dirt, The Night Crew), the film comes from Firebrand, reunited with Lundgren for a third time following 2017’s Altitude and upcoming Christmas action comedy Pups Alone. Firebrand founder Brandon Burrows will produce.

Section Eight will tell the story of a former soldier who, after avenging the murder of his family, is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy ...

The “John Wick” prequel series at Starz, “The Continental,” has cast Colin Woodell in the lead role, Variety has learned.

Woodell will star as a young Winston Scott, the character played in the film franchise by Ian McShane. “The Continental” will explore the origin behind the titular hotel-for-assassins through the eyes and actions of Scott, who is dragged into the Hell-scape of a 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the New York’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the iconic hotel, which serves as

Director Denis Villeneuve wasn’t alone in fulfilling a teenage dream to make “Dune.” Composer Hans Zimmer satisfied his own fantasy by composing an otherworldly score inspired by Frank Herbert’s hallucinatory 1965 sci-fi adventure novel. In fact, the Oscar-winning Zimmer (“The Lion King”), who has also amassed 10 nominations, could very well win his second award for this musical masterpiece: an experimental retro-future invention of instruments and sounds to convey the beauty and danger of the Arrakis desert planet — from the rhythm of the wind pushing the sand between the rocks to the pounding percussion of the monstrous sandworms.

“We both read it as teenagers, but we didn’t make the movie with hindsight of age and wisdom,” Zimmer said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “As soon as we started, we were transported back in time … and I did music with the recklessness and craziness that only a teenager has.

In just a few weeks, Kristen Stewart returns to the big screen as the star of Pablo Larraín's emotional drama "Spencer." Starring as the Princess of Wales, Stewart paints a haunting portrait of the tragic former royal as she suffers through a miserable Christmas weekend with the royal family. As the premiere date for her intimate performance approaches, we all know that there's one huge question on everyone's mind: does Kristen Stewart wanna play The Joker??

Surely you haven't missed the buzz (because there's been a lot of it) about Robert Pattinson's upcoming performance in "The Batman." Stewart's former co-star is...

The post Kristen Stewart Says Thanks But No Thanks To Being Fancast As The Joker appeared first on /Film.

If there's any topic above all others that I personally don't need to see covered in our entertainment anytime soon, it's recreations of our past and present circumstances during this pandemic. Coming in at a close second would be depictions of the last four or five years of politics in the United States, for very obvious reasons. Thankfully, Showtime's "The First Lady" anthology series looks to be steering well clear of both areas, instead focusing on dramatizing the lives of three First Ladies in years past. We've yet to receive any actual first-look images or footage from this series just yet, but the ambition on display...

The post Showtime's The First Lady: Everything We Know So Far appeared first on /Film.

"Gone Girl" is one of the most popular mystery novels of the postmodern era. Before publication, expectations for the book were high, as author Gillian Flynn's previous works, "Sharp Objects" and "Dark Places," had established her as a sharp, cunning writer unafraid to tackle truly twisted material. "Gone Girl" became a sensation when it hit bookshelves in 2012; the question "Who is Amy Dunne?" haunted both the novel's characters and an audience of mystery fans.

Hollywood quickly turned its attention to an adaptation. 20th Century Fox nabbed the rights, and Flynn was hired to write the adaptation herself. Some authors may complain when...

The post 13 Movies Like Gone Girl That Thriller Fans Need to Watch appeared first on /Film.

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "mother!"Where You Can Stream It: Paramount+The Pitch: Darren Aronofsky helms a wildly misunderstood bit of insanity starring Jennifer Lawrence as the younger wife of an old man, a struggling poet Javier Bardem. All Lawrence's character – who, like everyone else in the movie, has no real name – wants to do is please her man and stay at home; she's the living fantasy of angry, lonely men everywhere; a woman with no ambition...

The post The Daily Stream: mother! Is the Bonkers, Misunderstood Treat You Should Revisit This Halloween Season appeared first on /Film.

In Frank Herbert's "Dune," several imperial forces wage war over a precious resource that can only be found in a single location, while the natives of that land reap none of the benefits. In the seminal 1965 sci-fi novel, that resource is the hallucinogenic drug known as the "spice" melange, but it doesn't take much reading between the lines to see that "Dune" is about oil.

Like oil, melange is a highly valued resource without which an entire empire would collapse. Like the oil-rich Middle East, the desert planet of Arrakis is ruled over by a foreign force who reap...

The post The Oil Must Flow: How Does Denis Villeneuve's Dune Deal With the Book's Middle East Inspirations? appeared first on /Film.

It’s arguably too soon for “Four Hours at the Capitol,” though not because the January 6th insurrection is too taboo a topic. Rather, the 92-minute HBO documentary has little to say that hasn’t already been said over the last nine months, and little by way of factual or aesthetic detail that might illuminate new angles on the day’s harrowing events. There are a few intriguing exceptions, though these are not only fleeting, but also sandwiched between larger narrative slices that feel almost perspective-less in their approach to fresh wounds and extremely recent history.

A sense of stillness and normalcy permeates the introduction, as a police officer recounts the day’s unassuming start. However, given the film’s tight focus on a specific window of time — as evidenced by its title — things quickly go off the rails. Through a series of on-scene videos, and through first-hand interviews with officers,

On the eve of his 77th birthday, Udo Kier was on the phone at his home in Palm Springs, wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with orange lettering that reads, “Don’t act.”

He received the shirt as a gift, and it bears a maxim he gleaned from Lars von Trier, with whom he began a three-plus-decade partnership on “Medea” in 1988.

“He means don’t act so people can feel and see that you’re acting. That’s the difference,” said the Cologne-born actor, the star of more than 200 movies from directors including Von Trier, Fassbinder, and Werner Herzog.

Over the years, Kier’s steely cobalt eyes and sinisterly soothing German accent have enabled him to play low lives, decadents, and villains. But he takes a break from all that in Todd Stephens’ “Swan Song,” released this past summer. In a perfect world, it would catapult the iconic performer into the awards conversation.

In case you haven't heard the big news — the next "Game of Thrones" is on the way! It's called... "Westworld"? Or maybe "The Witcher"? Perhaps it's "The Expanse"? Or Amazon's "Lord of the Rings"? So many shows have had the title thrown their way, that it's getting pretty hard to keep track. But the latest addition to the club has been getting the comparison since the project was first announced.

Amazon's upcoming fantasy epic, "The Wheel of Time" shares much in common with HBO's crown jewel — both are based on best-selling series set in sprawling fantasy worlds, fit...

The post Amazon is Already Spending Game of Thrones Money to Make The Wheel of Time appeared first on /Film.

DC FanDome Gets 66 Million Views Worldwide

Warner Bros. Entertainment announced that viewership for DC FanDome 2021, the virtual fan event, greatly exceeded last year’s, accruing 66 million views worldwide to date. On Oct. 16, the day of the event, DC FanDome was a trending topic in the number one position on Twitter for eight hours in the U.S. and in the top 50 in 53 countries around the world. The event was available in 12 languages across 220 countries.

“With triple the fan traffic of last year, DC FanDome 2021 exceeded all of our expectations,” said Ann Sarnoff, chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks. “We continue to innovate across the company in service of our fans, and I cannot overstate the creativity and hard work that went into this highly curated, global digital event. We gave fans what they wanted — the very best of all things DC — and their engagement and response have been fantastic.

People who were teenagers in the '90s just love talking about how brilliant it was growing up in the decade of the Macarena, Game Boys, and Cool Britannia. Yet while the 1980s has enjoyed an extended love-in through TV and movies, nostalgia hounds hankering for quality '90s throwbacks have so far been short served. That's why "Derry Girls," with its affectionate nods to the fads of the decade and a canny soundtrack ranging from Ace of Base to Whigfield, was such a blast. Or lush, mint, wicked, cushty, mega, or whatever else people said back then if something was really, really good.

In case you missed it, "Derry Girls"...

The post Derry Girls: Will there be a season 3? appeared first on /Film.

Amir Ramses, artistic director of the ongoing El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, has resigned in the final days of the event. It’s believed he may have stepped down due to growing local opposition to Cannes-winning film “Feathers,” by Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy.

The film follows a family thrown into disarray after its patriarch is accidentally turned into a chicken by a magician during a children’s birthday party. “Feathers” debuted at the Cannes Critics’ Week, where it won the grand prize and the Fipresci prize. Following its screening at El Gouna, several prominent local critics took issue with the portrayal of Egypt in the film, which may have led to Ramses’ resignation, Variety understands. Ramses is also a filmmaker.

Variety has reached out to the festival for comment.

On Wednesday, El Zohairy won the Variety Middle East and North African Region Talent Award, given annually at the festival.

Hulu has released a first look for their sci-fi movie “Mother/Android,” starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Algee Smith. The new film, which debuts Friday, Dec. 17, marks the feature directorial debut of “Project Power” and “The Batman” screenwriter Mattson Tomlin.

Set in the near future, Moretz stars in the film as Georgia, who is days away from the arrival of her first child with boyfriend Sam (Smith). “Mother/Android” follows the couple through their treacherous journey of escape as their country is caught in an unexpected war with artificial intelligence. They must face “No Man’s Land” – a stronghold of the android uprising — in hopes of reaching safety before Georgia gives birth. “Mother/Android” also stars Raúl Castillo playing a character named Arthur.

Note the blue eyes in the below images, perhaps the signature look of the new machine overlords? Or just a near-future fashion statement, only time (and the eventual drop of the trailer will tell).

Tomlin,

Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij's Netflix series "The Oa" never exactly took the world by storm, but by the time the show was abruptly canceled in 2019, it had certainly left a mark as one of the most unconventional pieces of science fiction storytelling of the modern era. To even attempt to concisely sum up the plot would be a fool's errand – I mean, this is a show that features a telepathic octopus and a series of dance moves that help prevent a school shooting, to name just two of its weirder aspects – but the show helped to shake up the idea of...

The post Why Netflix's The Oa Was Canceled - Here's What We Know appeared first on /Film.

Denis Villeneuve's highly anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune" is almost here, which makes it the perfect time to revisit the other "Dune" film adaptation, directed by surrealist maestro David Lynch. Lynch's "Dune", released in 1984, is something of a mixed bag; it was a critical and commercial failure but has gained a small cult following over the years. So how did the man who directed the gonzo, avant-garde "Eraserhead" and then the heartwrenching "The Elephant Man" end up taking on a big-budget science fiction fantasy story riding on the success of "Star Wars"?

Keith Phipps at The Ringer did a deep dive into just how Lynch ended up in the...

The post Why David Lynch Decided to Adapt Dune appeared first on /Film.

James Wan radically reinvented the horror genre with "The Conjuring." After the success of "Insidious," his second foray into supernatural horror following the poorly received "Dead Silence" (which was unfair -- "Dead Silence" is good), Wan dove into more mature, classic horror territory. As Alonso Duralde succinctly put it in his review for The Wrap, "'The Conjuring' doesn't try to reinvent the tropes of horror movies ... but Fred Astaire didn't invent tap-dancing, either." A classic haunted house tale directed with modern verve, "The Conjuring" was an unprecedented success, inspiring an entire cinematic universe that now spans eight movies, with several more to come.

However,...

The post 10 Things in The Conjuring Universe That Make No Sense appeared first on /Film.

Director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune” has collected promising ticket sales internationally, but will box office spice flow in North America?

The Warner Bros. film, a big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel, opens in 4,100 theaters in the U.S. and Canada on Friday and is projected to generate $30 million to $40 million in its first three days of release. It would be a solid start considering “Dune,” like the studio’s entire 2021 film slate, is landing simultaneously on HBO Max in the U.S. That pandemic-era strategy, one that has been controversially received, has contributed to depressed ticket sales for “The Suicide Squad,” the LeBron James sports comedy “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and Hugh Jackman’s sci-fi drama “Reminiscence,” among others. Box office experts predict that ticket sales for “Dune” may be especially strong on Thursday night (for previews) and Friday before slowing down on Saturday and