With theater chain AMC slowly, but surely sneaking into inevitable bankruptcy, shares of the company (AMC Entertainment Holding Inc.) skyrocketed today to 47% in active premarket trading, this after The Daily Mail reported Amazon’s interest in buying out the struggling movie theater chain. The piece confirmed a long-gestating rumor withing the industry that AMC and Amazon have been holding serious talks for a potential buyout in the last few weeks.
Read more‘Capone': Intimately Grotesque Biopic of A Famous Gangster's Final Days [Review]
I do feel bad for writer/director Josh Trank, who may either be the unluckiest filmmaker around or the biggest douchebag imaginable, you take a guess, there are two sides to this story. His “comeback” movie, “Capone,” comes hot off the heels of the disastrous production on” The Fantastic Four,” which had many reshoots and, supposed, “erratic behavior” on the part of Trank, after his director’s cut was completely decimated into a whole new Studio-approved edit. When finally released, “Fantastic Four” bombed at the box-office and earned an embarrassing 9% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Read moreA First Reaction to Denis Villeneuve's ‘Dune'
Avatar Sequels Cost $1 Billion to Make; Glasses-Free 3D Rumored
James Cameron’s “Avatar” was released in 2009 and became the all-time box-office champ (until “Avengers: Endgame" dethroned it just last year). When Cameron announced that four sequels would follow, many people were bewildered — you see, even if “Avatar” broke box-office records left and right, it also, over the last decade, hasn’t really aged well.
Read moreCannes 2020: Official Selection Will Be Announced in June, Despite Festival Being Canceled
As predicted here two months ago, despite its cancelation, the Cannes Film Festival will announce its Official Selection of movies in June. Cannes boss Thierry Frémaux has also indicated his desire to have these films selected at other festivals in the fall, including this September’s Venice International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.
Read morePaul Verhoeven's ‘Benedetta' Has French Release Date Moved to May 2021
A24's ‘The Green Knight’ Officially Abandons May 29 Release, Delayed To Undetermined Date
The SXSW World Premiere of David Lowery’s “The Green Knight,” a fantasy re-telling of the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, was canceled due to the current pandemic. The film was set to premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas on March 16th.
Read moreKevin James Plays A Psycho Villain in Upcoming R-Rated Thriller ‘Becky’ [Trailer]
You might know Kevin James as the loveable schlub from the CBS sitcom “King of Queens,” but the actor/comedian cranks it up a notch and goes full-gonzo villain for the very first time in Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion‘s R-rated home invasion thriller “Becky.”
Read moreSpike Lee's New Short is a 3-Minute Love Letter to New York and Its Health Care Workers
New York City has been damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Being the cultural epicenter of the world isn’t always a good thing — that means, during a pandemic, you get infected tourists from all over the planet coming to your town, that’s a recipe for disaster. The total lockdown of the city has turned it into a near ghost town. What was once a vibrantly alive metropolis, gleaming with crowds at every turn, has materialized into a gloomier ordeal than most for the Big Apple.
Read moreJudd Apatow's ‘The King of Staten Island' is Ready For VOD Launch in June [New Trailer]
Judd Apatow’s first movie since 2015’s “Trainwreck” clocks in at a whopping two hours and 16 minutes—his second-longest after Funny People. The latest trailer (below), seems to indicate that Apatow’s blend of humor and drama will be at the rendezvous again, and with Pete Davidson himself co-writing the script, you can tell this will have shades of an autobiographical film.
Read moreA Very Strange Interview With Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey needs to act. It’s his drug. He was hooked on acting for close to four decades before he was stripped of that right due to #MeToo allegations brought forth against him two years ago. The 60-year-old actor has admitted to having gotten offers from European financiers to act in their movies.
Read moreSpike Lee's ‘Da 5 Bloods' Gets June Netflix Release, Will Be Eligible For Oscars
We had no idea when Spike Lee’s next film, “Da 5 Bloods,” would be released, all we knew was that shooting had wrapped and the film was all but in the can and ready to go. We expected a fall release date, due to its Oscar potential, and especially with COVID-19 likely to rage on for most of the summer. And yet, here we are, it’s the first week of May and Netflix has just announced that Lee’s next opus will be released 4 weeks from now. Holy smokes.
Read moreIf ‘Mulan' Skips Theaters and Goes Directly to Disney+ ...
An excellent NYT piece courtesy of Brooks Barnes (For Disney, a Stricken Empire) has shaken up the movie industry to its core. You see, with its movie studios (they have eight of them) controlling a staggering 40 percent of the domestic box office last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has completely liquidated the Mouse House’s earnings this year and put numerous high-profile productions to a halt.
Read more‘Blue Story': Bold Drama Tackles Southeast London Gangs [Review]
Smack dab inside the London projects, high-school hoodlums enter a vicious turf war in YouTube star Rapman’s auspicious narrative debut, “Blue Story.”
Read moreThe 14 Most Anticipated Netflix Original Movies Coming in 2020
With the return to cinemas seemingly a long way off for most, and with more and more studios pushing back their tentpole movies every day, we thought it would be poignant to look at some of the extremely interesting movies still to hit streaming giant Netflix in 2020, which will become one of the only sources of new films for what appears to be the foreseeable future.
Read more‘How to Build a Girl': Beanie Feldstein Stars in this Horrendous Teen Comedy [Review]
“Booksmart” and “Lady Bird” actress Beanie Feldstein has a new movie being released via VOD next month, but don’t expect the IFC Films release “How to Build a Girl,” to be even half as good as the aforementioned titles. In fact, it’s bad, very bad.
Read moreRemember When the Trailer for ‘Cast Away' Gave Away the Ending?
Robert Zemeckis' "Cast Away" was a diverting affair, but it really hit its stride once Tom Hanks' FedEx executive Chuck Noland crashes his plane on the deserted island and the film turns into a near-wordless ode to loneliness. It really might be the boldest artistic move Zemeckis ever pulled off in his impressive 40 years career as a filmmaker.
Read moreReopened Texas Movie Theaters Sell Close to 3000 Admission Tickets This Past Weekend
The doom-and-gloomers have, more or less, been silenced when it comes to Texas reopening its movie theaters this past weekend. The Texan governor’s relaxing of certain restrictions against non-essential businesses has gotten people to go back to the cinema again.
Read moreTommy Wiseau Tried to Stop ‘The Room' Documentary From Being Released Because it Disclosed His Age and Nationality
The Canadian filmmakers of “The Room” documentary, “Room Full of Spoons,” were set to release their film in 2017, that is until Tommy Wiseau prevented the release from happening because he found it unflattering. The feud went to court and, unsurprisingly, Wiseau lost and will have to now pay filmmakers Richard Harper, Fernando Forero McGrath, Mark Racicot, and Richard Towns a whooping sum of $700,000.
Read moreTribeca Dramatic Winners: ‘The Half of It,' ‘Cowboys' and ‘Asia' [Review]
Earlier this week, Alice Wu's “The Half of It,” which premiered Friday on Netflix, won the Founders Award for best U.S. narrative feature at this year’s digital-only edition of the Tribeca Film Festival.
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Brady Corbet's “The Origin of the World,” his X-Rated epic about "Northern California’s economy" in the 1970s epic, has now started production in South Africa under the working title “SALT FLATS.”