This would make ‘Kingdom’ the best Thursday night ever for an ‘Apes’ movie besting 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes” which did $5M.

Kathryn Bigelow is now set to direct a “hot script” by former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim (“Jackie”). The film will tackle how the White House reacts in real time to ballistic missiles headed for America.

Last October, I reported that filmmaker Gregg Araki, one of the main voices of the ‘90s New Queer Cinema movement, was working on a new film. We have an update, and it’s a good one.

This matched the positive intel that came out of last year’s test screening. One of our readers raved about it, saying “It’s very unsettling and deeply steeped in the satanic panic of the ‘70s serial killer horror.”

Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness” has officially been Rated R for strong/disturbing violent content, strong sexual content, full nudity and language.

”Nouvelle Vague” is being dubbed as a “comedy” and “love letter” to the French New Wave, Godard and company. Linklater has described it as being “like a New Wave film.”

Most notable, of all of Paul Schrader’s anti-PC rants, is his defense of Kevin Spacey, one of the key figures in the #MeToo movement, and whom in July was cleared of sexually assaulting four men following a trial in London.

We now know what Haigh’s next film will be. Ben Stiller is set to play literary giant Norman Mailer opposite Colin Farrell's Jack Henry Abbott in “Belly of the Beast.”

Not many are willing to call ICs out, and for good reason. Some of the names who have come out against the protocol include Gaspar Noe, Mia Hansen-Løve and Toni Collette.

The first three ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, directed by Jackson, garnered immense praise and were commercial behemoths. Each installment ended up with a slew of Oscar nominations.

Peter Weir, 80, the director behind “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” “Witness,” “Dead Poets Society,” and “The Truman Show,” will be receiving this year’s honorary Golden Lion at Venice.

Sydney Sweeney is set to play boxer Christy Martin, aka the “female Rocky,” in a new biopic from director David Michod (“Animal Kingdom”). It’s another “hot package” headed to the Cannes market.

The MPA was about to stamp “In A Violent Nature” with a NC-17 rating, but IFC/Shudder have decided to bypass all that and just release the film as “Unrated.”

I finally got a second source to confirm this, so I can confidently report that Austin Butler is in final talks to star in Michael Mann’s “Heat 2” Butler is set to play Chris Shiherlis, originally portrayed in 1995’s “Heat” by Val Kilmer.

Krasinski’s upcoming “IF” could go either way. Word of mouth will have to play a key role in its success. However, there is a major red flag for this film …

I’ll be arriving at the Cannes Film Festival next Tuesday. The screening schedule was just released, so this’ll be a good indicator of when to expect reactions for the competition (and non-competition) titles.

Isabelle Huppert will lead the 2024 Venice Film Festival jury this year. Serving as jury president, Huppert will hand out the Golden Lion which was won last year by Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”.

It turns out that Iran has decided to sentence Rasoulof to eight years in prison and flogging. It's possible that Iranian authorities have sentenced Rasoulof in such harsh fashion as a way to convince him pull his film.