Latest Movie Features
The Korean Wave Comes Full Circle at the Busan Film Fest
Keen eyes will have spotted a slight tweak to the usual mission championed by the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) when it announced the program for its 28th edition. While there are plenty of opportunities for international visitors to tap into current trends in the Asian cinema scene across the board — the foundation on […]
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Dan Harmon Gives Update on “Truly Terrifying” ‘Community’ Movie
“I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that the story would involve the gang getting back together,” says Dan Harmon. That’s how he, star Joel McHale and co-writer Andrew Guest pitched the Community movie around town, pre-strike. And though Harmon and Guest still have work to do on the script, which […]
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‘Chicken Run 2’ Director on Reuniting the Flock After 23 Years and Why Mel Gibson Didn’t Return
Back in the summer of 2000, a small group of diminutive, handcrafted clay chickens broke out of a coop and made cinema history. British stop-motion animation pioneers Aardman were already renowned for their Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit short films, but Chicken Run was their first feature. It was such an ambitious project that it required […]
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‘Foe’ Director Garth Davis on Crafting a Climate Change-Set Love Story That “Echoed the State of the Planet”
[The following story contains spoilers from Foe.] In Garth Davis’ new genre mashup, Foe, the future of the planet — and a relationship — hinges, in part, on the possibilities around artificial intelligence in response to climate change. The Amazon Studios film, which is set to release globally on Oct. 6, is based on author and […]
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‘All of Us Strangers’ Director on Importance of Casting a Gay Actor as His Lead: “There’s So Much Nuance That I Was Trying to Get to”
Andrew Haigh says that when it came to casting for All of Us Strangers, his romantic fantasy inspired by Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers, it was important that his lead — played in the film by actor Andrew Scott — be gay. The writer-director opened up about his approach to casting and talked about shooting the […]
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‘Flora and Son’ Director John Carney Defends Eve Hewson’s Casting and Explains Why He Won’t Make a Studio Movie
Musicians often have a signature style, and for Irish writer-director-musician John Carney, it only makes sense that his films have one, as well. Carney’s brand of musical drama usually tells a relatable story about the healing power of music, and his latest film for Apple TV+, Flora and Son, is no exception. As a child […]
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‘Dumb Money’ Producer Aaron Ryder Is Used to David vs. Goliath Stories (Just Ask About ‘Memento’)
In January 2021, Dumb Money producer Aaron Ryder was in the midst of a mandatory two-week quarantine in Montreal, and to pass the time, he began to track the ever-evolving situation with GameStop’s stock. The struggling video game retailer became the apple of the internet’s eye, as Redditors on the WallStreetBets subreddit and YouTube investors […]
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Inside the Whirlwind ‘May December’ Production and Big Netflix Payout
Sophie Mas and Natalie Portman met by chance at the Cannes Film Festival 15 years ago. Portman was on the jury, Mas was introduced through a friend, and they developed an instant friendship. A decade and a half later, they found themselves back at the Croisette — this time to premiere the first project out […]
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Hollywood Flashback: In 1978, ‘Blue Collar’ Examined Auto Unions
The ongoing United Auto Workers strike has placed heightened focus on working conditions at U.S. car companies. Among the narrative films to have previously spotlighted such issues — alongside documentaries like Michael Moore’s 1989 standout, Roger & Me — is Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar, which rolled into theaters 45 years ago and starred Richard Pryor, […]
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‘Reptile’ Producers Black Label Media Talk Their Third Benicio Del Toro Film and Say ‘Sicario 3’ Is “Very Close”
Black Label Media, consisting of sisters Molly and Rachel Smith and twin brothers Trent and Thad Luckinbill, have returned to the screen with their calling card: a Benicio Del Toro-led crime thriller. The independent production and finance company, most known for producing the Sicario films and co-financing La La Land, is set to release Grant […]
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How Jordan Firstman’s Instagram Hangover Led to His First Starring Movie Role
Jordan Firstman is sitting on a couch in a sterile corporate office after a photo shoot, wearing just a pink beach towel and cowboy boots, talking about recreational drugs. The juxtaposition is both funny and an apt metaphor for his career path. He spent eight years working in the writers rooms of irreverent comedies like […]
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‘No One Will Save You’ Filmmaker Brian Duffield Breaks Down His Alien Invasion Thriller’s Wild Ending
[The following story contains spoilers for No One Will Save You.] During an uneventful weekend at the domestic box office, Brian Duffield’s alien invasion thriller No One Will Save You became the talk of social media. The Hulu release, which features virtually no dialogue, is another critical win for Duffield following his critically acclaimed directorial […]
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‘Expendables 4’ Director Scott Waugh Talks Doubling Rufio in ‘Hook’ and Learning a Hard Lesson on ‘Last Action Hero’
Before John Wick ushered in a new era of stuntmen turned directors, Expend4bles director Scott Waugh was one of the few exceptions to pull off the feat. Following in the footsteps of his older brother Ric Roman Waugh, the younger Waugh made his own luck by funding 2012’s Act of Valor and co-directing the action […]
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‘Fair Play’ Composer on Capturing the “Ticking Time Bomb” Behind the Film’s Central Relationship With Track “One Crest”
In Chloe Domont’s upcoming erotic thriller Fair Play, the relationship between two competitive stock traders — Phoebe Dynevor’s Emily and Alden Ehrenreich’s Luke — goes from fairy tale-esque to a ticking time bomb. It’s a rather fitting dynamic for the soon-to-be-wed couple who both work at the same company in an industry driven by the thrum and […]
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‘No One Will Save You’ Filmmaker Brian Duffield on the Long Road to His Alien Home Invasion Thriller
No One Will Save You filmmaker Brian Duffield has experienced many twists and turns throughout his 13-year career. After making the Black List in 2010, he pulled off the same feat in 2011 with his Jane Got a Gun spec script, which went on to endure one of the most dramatic journeys to the big […]
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Why TIFF and Venice Dealmaking Felt Like Business-as-Usual Amid the Strikes
Crisis? What crisis? If the independent film industry went into this year’s fall festival season with a sense of impending doom — the double strike raising fears of a production slowdown and confusion over SAG-AFTRA’s interim agreements, worrying buyers and sellers alike — the initial signs coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival and […]
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