Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” may have just revived the struggling theatrical business overseas with a Wednesday-Sunday opening of $40M+ and that’s not including Canadian numbers, which are set to be revealed on Sunday.

Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley has admitted that her post-”Rise of Skywalker” career has thus far been a bust. The final chapter of the “Star Wars” Disney trilogy came out last December and Ridley, just 28 years of age, admitted in an interview to EW “There were loads of things I auditioned for and I didn’t get any of them”.

This news has me straight in the gut. “Black Panther” actor Chadwick Boseman has just died after a 4-year battle with Colon Cancer. He was 43 years of age.

This year, the Toronto International Film Festival decided to go in a completely different direction when it came to the number of media they would accredit. Since the year has been a wash due to COVID-19, TIFF decided to slash 2/3 of the number of press credentials they would usually accept. According to an email sent to me via TIFF’s media accreditation office, the usual number of 1600+ accredited journalists has gone down to just 500 for this year’s digitally-driven edition of the festival.

This year’s New York Film Festival was already shaping up to be one of the better festival lineups of the fall, but, after today’s news that NYFF organizers have managed to convince Apple and A24 to world premiere Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks,” it may officially be the best one of the lot. Coppola’s film, along with Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe,” Azael Jacobs’ “French Exit” and Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” represent the most highly anticipated titles of this year’s 58th edition of the fest.

Charlie Kaufman loves to examine the uneasy anxieties that are at the core of human existence. His films, ranging from the romantically morbid animation of “Anomalisa” to the philosophical musings of “Synecdoche, NY,” are heavily derived from the 20th-century stage plays Kaufman has been influenced by. In his latest pseudo-intellectual Dostoyevskian “romp,” Kaufman dares us to leap into the wild blue again with him in the weirdest, most obsessively personal Netflix original movie I have ever seen.

With studios delaying releases until 2021, let’s be frank, there just won’t be that many Oscar contenders in 2020, but there are exceptions, and Francis Lee’s “Ammonite” is one of them. Chosen to be part of this year’s nixed Cannes and Telluride Film Festivals, this lesbian romance will finally screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September. TIFF wanted the film so badly to be the first festival to screen “Ammonite” that they persuaded its distributor, Neon, to pull its screenings from the upcoming Deauville Film Festival in France.

Last September I saw Searchlight Pictures’ upcoming “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” which is based on Charles Dickens’ classic ode to grit and perseverance.

The prestigious festival’s top honchos, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, have announced that, starting in 2021, the Silver Bear acting prizes will go gender-neutral. A statement from the festival reads: “Instead of the awards for the Best Actor and the Best Actress, a ‘Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance’ and a ‘Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance’ shall each be awarded on a gender-neutral basis.”

We have now got word that Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film, supposedly titled “Soggy Bottom,” has started filming in California with the working title “Soggy Bottom.”

Owing to a lack of competition from other releases, Warner Bros’ “Tenet” is currently outpacing the studio’s biggest 2019 hit “Joker” in pre-sold tickets. “Tenet” will most likely be playing at a record number of screens in various different cities across the world as it slowly, but surely starts being unveiled to the public next week. Of course, most of those theaters will be limited to around 40-50% seating capacity, due to social distancing protocols, but Christopher Nolan’s latest is the only show in town and those hungry to watch an exciting new blockbuster will be coming out in droves to catch the film.

Warner Bros. and DC Films are now officially going along with Zack Snyder’s bid to release his full cut of “Justice League,” without a single shot from replacement director Joss Whedon in its frames (not to mention $30 million worth of touch-ups.).

Directors UK, the British organization representing 7500 directors, just published updated guidelines for nudity and sex scenes in the pandemic era. Their suggestion for safe and virus-free movie sex during the COVID-era? Use body doubles of real-life partners engaging in intimate acts.