News

Exclusive: Ella Beatty (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) is set to play the lead in the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster true-crime franchise for Netflix. She landed the role after an extensive multi-country casting search. Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps will also star in the new season, which will tell the story of Lizzie Borden who was tried and acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Ma.

Beatty will portray Borden, with Hall said to be portraying her stepmother and Krieps believed to be playing a maid. Max Winkler is set to direct the pilot episode.

All four already are in the Ryan Murphy universe. Beatty, whose parents are Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, made her screen acting debut with a recurring role on FX’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.

Exclusive: Tom Bateman (Murder on the Orient Express) has landed the male lead in The Love Hypothesis, Amazon MGM Studios and MRC’s rom-com based on the New York Times bestseller by Ali Hazelwood.

He’s set to star opposite Lili Reinhart in the film following Olive Smith (Reinhart), a biology PhD candidate, and Dr. Adam Carlsen (Bateman), a hotshot professor and well-known tyrant, as they enter into a fake relationship, seeing each of their carefully calculated theories on love get thrown into chaos.

Claire Scanlon (Set It Up) is directing The Love Hypothesis from a script by Sarah Rothschild (The Sleepover). Elizabeth Cantillon is producing, with Reinhart, Catherine Hagedorn, and Hazelwood executive producing.

Published in 2021 by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Hazelwood’s novel spent 10 months on the New York Times bestseller list, breaking out internationally in 40 countries, and...

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has revealed its first five special presentation world premieres for this year’s official selection, among them Steven Soderbergh’s comedy The Christophers,Alejandro Amenábar’s adventure The Captive andNia DaCosta’s Hedda.

Also set to make their global debuts at the 50th TIFF edition, running September 4-14, are Sung-hyun Byun’s action thriller Good News, Nia DaCosta’s Hedda and Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks.

The Christophers, hailing from the UK, stars Ian McKellen, James Corden, Jessica Gunning and Michaela Coel and follows the estranged children of a famous artist who hire...

The 50th Toronto International Film Festival has set its first five World Premiere Special Presentation titles in the Official Selection: Alejandro Amenábar’s The Captive, Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers, Sung-hyun Byun’s Good News, Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, and Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks.

The festival runs from Sept. 4-14, presented by Rogers.

“These first five films of our Official Selection reflect the innovation, heart, and global perspective that have made our Festival a home for great cinema over the past 50 editions,” said TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey. “We’re excited to kick-off our Special Presentations with Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks, a young, Canadian director who has very close ties to TIFF in addition to these established directors. We can’t wait to share more in the weeks ahead as we celebrate this historic year with audiences and filmmakers from around the world.”

These five movies from Canada,...

New movies from directors Steven Soderbergh and Nia DaCosta have been added to this year’s Toronto Film Festival lineup.

TIFF organizers announced on Thursday the first five titles of its official selection, all of which are set to world premiere in Canada. They are Soderbergh’s “The Christophers,” DaCosta’s “Hedda,” Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Captive,” Sung-hyun Byun’s “Good News” and Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks.”

Soderbergh, the prolific filmmaker of “Ocean’s 11,” “Contagion” and “Erin Brockovich,” was at the last edition of TIFF with his ghost thriller “Presence.” His newest film, “The Christophers,” is described as a black comedy set in the art world and stars Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning, and James Corden.

DaCosta, known for “The Marvels,” “Candyman” and the upcoming “28 Years Later: Bone Temple,” is adapting Henrik Ibsen’s famous play with Tessa Thompson and Imogen Poots in the lead roles. “Hedda...

Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers,” Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Captive,” Byun Sung-hyun’s “Good News,” Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda” and Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks” are among the films that will have their world premieres at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Thursday.

The five films will be part of the festival’s Special Presentation section. They join the opening-night selection, Colin Hanks’ documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” as the first films to be announced by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.

Soderbergh’s “The Christophers” is written by Ed Solomon and stars Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, James Corden and Jessica Gunning; it focuses on the estranged children of a famous artist, who hire a forger to finish their father’s uncompleted paintings.

“The Captive” is a historical drama focusing on the time that “Don Quixote” author Miguel de Cervantes spent in an Algerian prison.

Although it may still be high summer, we’re already looking forward to the upcoming fall film festivals. After previously announcing that this year’s edition will open with Colin Hanks’ documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” the Toronto International Film Festival has today announced the first five Special Presentation titles of its Official Selection set to have their world premieres at the festival’s 50th edition this September.

The five include new films from Steven Soderbergh, Nia DaCosta, Chandler Levack, Alejandro Amenábar, and Sung-hyun Byun. Per today’s press release, “These films hail from Canada, Spain/Italy, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and reflect the bold vision, global perspective, and artistic excellence that have defined TIFF for five decades.”

Soderbergh will bring his dark comedy “The Christophers” to the festival. Starring Ian McKellen, James Corden, and Michaela Coel, it’s about a family who hires...

Steven Soderbergh’s dark comedy The Christophers and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta’s latest film, Hedda, are set for world premieres at the Toronto Film Festival in September, organizers said on Thursday.

Ian McKellen, Jessica Gunning, Michaela Coel and James Corden star in Soderbergh’s movie about the estranged children of a famous artist who hire a forger to finish their father’s unfinished paintings so they can be sold after his death.

Soderbergh directed The Christophers based on a script by Now You See Me scribe Ed Solomon. The creative duo collaborated on earlier projects like No Sudden Move, Full Circle and Mosaic.

Also getting a first look in Toronto is DaCosta’s Hedda, a reimagining of the Henrik Ibsen stage play Hedda Gabler that stars Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss and Imogen Poots. Thompson will play Hedda Gabler, considered one of the greatest dramatic roles in theater history.

Icelandic composer Hildur Gudnadóttir will receive the career achievement award at the 21st Zurich Film Festival, Zurich announced Thursday. An Oscar winner for her score to Todd Phillips’ Joker, making her the first-ever solo female artist to win the Academy Award for best score, Gudnadóttir is also known for her music for Todd Field’s Tár (2022) and Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting in Venice (2023) and for her Emmy-winning score for HBO’s Chernobyl (2019). She will be honored at the festival’s “Cinema in Concert” gala on Oct. 2.

“Hildur Gudnadóttir is one of the most innovative composers of our time,” said festival director Christian Jungen. “She knows how to use experimental sounds to shape mainstream pop culture and lend it atmospheric depth. She is an inquisitive musician who develops her scores in dialogue with the filmmakers and their sequences, creating melodies that you might not hum to yourself on the way home,...

Cannes 2025 has come to a close. Now, with a bit of time to reflect, jury member Jeremy Strong is opening up about his experience basking in cinema’s glow for almost two weeks. During the final press conference for the festival (as per Variety), Strong ended up comparing his involvement on the jury to a rather popular film from last year.

“This has been a really wonderful experience,” he said, “a really connected experience with these people — it’s like ‘Conclave’ with champagne. It’s really great.”

This reference was also timely as just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Cannes, an actual new Pope was recently welcomed and honored at the Vatican in Rome. “Conclave,” starring Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow, follows the church’s Dean of Cardinals as he works to elect a new Pope from a group of vainglorious wheeler-dealers. It...

Jeremy Strong is reflecting on his past 11 days as a member of the Cannes Film Festival competition jury, comparing it to the process of choosing a new pope as depicted in the Oscar-winning film “Conclave.”

“I feel immeasurably inspired by what I’ve seen here,” Strong said during a press conference after the jury awarded Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” with the Palme d’Or. “It’s been so invigorating, and this sort of cumulative tally of the work I’ll carry with me.”

Strong continued: “This has been a really wonderful experience, a really connected experience with these people — it’s like ‘Conclave’ with champagne. It’s really great.”

Strong served under president Juliette Binoche along with Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, Hong Sansoo, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi and Carlos Reygadas. During the presser, the group explained their decision to give the top prize to “It Was Just an Accident,...

As the lights go up on the last of the 22 films in Competition this year, Deadline’s critics reflect on the potential winners in what must be the strongest lineup in recent years…

Pete Hammond

I don’t think I’ve seen a Cannes Film Festival with so many enthusiastic reviews from the press. Only a handful of films seemed to get totally negative notices and none of them across the board. I walked out on a couple, including Resurrection, the Chinese film. Life is just too short. I also didn’t make it through Sebastian Lelio’s The Wave, or the Italian women’s prison flick Fuori despite liking Italians and its star Valeria Golino. I just wasn’t feeling it.

Otherwise, I have to say everything else I saw was above average but some of it overpraised in other quarters. Calm down! I mean, The Secret Agent was good,...

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated actors Colman Domingo and Jeremy Strong are in discussions about making their debuts at London’s National Theatre, Indhu Rubasingham, the landmark institution’s artistic director and co-chief executive has confirmed to Deadline.

“They’re the real deal, and I want them here at the National,” Rubasingham says. “I’m talking to them about what they might want to do here.”

Rubasingham, as we reported, announced her inaugural season of plays and musicals Tuesday, featuring an array of starry names with strong stage chops that include Paul Mescal (Gladiator II), Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) and Aidan Turner (Rivals). All have signed on to take their bows on the National’s stages.

The National Theatre’s Indhu Rubasingham. Photo by Baz Bamigboye/Deadline

Lesley Manville (The Crown), a leading artist who long has trodden the National’s boards, returns to lead...

While doing press for her addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Marvels, back in November of 2023, director Nia DaCosta had to defend the fact that she wrapped up her work on that film remotely while prepping another movie, her upcoming drama Hedda. She explained to Jake’s Takes, “It was literally just that they moved the date of the film four different times. So instead of it being a two year process, which I was deeply committed to, it became a three and a half year process. I pushed [Hedda], and then I pushed it again, and then I pushed it again, and then eventually, we all knew ‘Okay, if this pushes again I’m not gonna able to be in L.A. to do the rest of [The Marvels] in person.’ We figured out a way to do it remote. … Everyone was so clear about what the film was, what we wanted,...

The Marvels, directed and co-written by Nia DaCosta, was a box office bomb for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was a shake to the foundations of what had previously been an untouchable franchise.

Now, DaCosta has revealed she wasn't entirely happy with the process of making the wildly expensive MCU movie. Speaking at the Storyhouse screenwriting festival (via Deadline), she gave fans a glimpse at what seemed at times like a difficult experience for her. "They [Marvel] had a date, and they were prepping certain things, and you just have to lean into the process hardcore,” DaCosta said during a conversation with Kate Dolan. “The way they make those films is very different to the way, ideally, I would make a film, so you just have to lean into the process and hope for the best. The best didn’t happen this time, but you kind of have to trust in the machine.

Nia DaCosta has been reflecting on her experience on directing The Marvels for Marvel Studios, which came with its ups and downs.

Director Nia DaCosta tipped her toes into the MCU with 2023’s The Marvels – her ambitious but flawed sequel to Captain Marvel. The film received middling reviews and was a box office disappointment, failing to break even in cinemas.

Speaking at Storyline, the second annual screenwriting festival in Dublin, DaCosta reflected on her time making The Marvels. As you might have guessed, DaCosta was a small part of a huge filmmaking machine and it came with certain expectations.

“They had a date, and they were prepping certain things, and you just have to lean into the process hardcore,” the director said in a chat with filmmaker Kate Dolan, as reported by Deadline. “The way they make those films is very different to the way, ideally, I would make a film,...

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta said she had always wanted to make a Marvel movie because “she was a big comic book nerd growing up,” but revealed that the reality of directing the mega-budget 2023 studio film The Marvels was a far different experience than she could have imagined.

Speaking at Dublin’s second annual screenwriting festival Storyhouse, the Little Woods and Candyman director admits that when she came aboard to direct The Marvels she “stepped into a system” and she had to “lean into the process.”

“They had a date, and they were prepping certain things, and you just have to lean into the process hardcore,” she said during a detailed conversation with filmmaker Kate Dolan. “The way they make those films is very different to the way, ideally, I would make a film, so you just have to lean into the process and hope for the best. The best didn’t...

The Wheel of Time season 3 is in full swing, and it feels like it's just getting better with each new episode. The fourth of the season, "The Road to the Spear," was a sweeping epic that saw reincarnated messiah Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski) go on a surreal vision quest through the lives of his ancestors. The next, "Tel'aran'rhiod," vastly expanded the world of the series, introducing new locations and cultures as our heroes explored the homeland of the Aiel Waste and sailed the high seas with the Sea Folk.

This week's episode will continue to explore more of The Wheel of Time world by giving us ample time in the seaside city of Tanchico. The nefarious sisters of the Black Ajah have set up camp there to search for a dangerous artifact which could give them power of the Dragon Reborn. At their head is Liandrin Guirale, played by English actress Kate Fleetwood.

Leslie Siebert was recently named sole president of the Gersh Agency, which reps a wide range of actors, writers, directors and artisans, including Angela Bassett, Jacob Elordi and Hiroyuki Sanada.

The boost that came last month makes Siebert the first woman to lead a major Hollywood talent agency. It comes nearly two years after Gersh received an investment from private equity firm Crestview Partners. Since then, the agency founded in the late 1940s by famed talent rep Phil Gersh has acquired the Madrid-based You First sports agency and the digital and alternative departments of what was formerly the A3 agency.

Siebert is a long-serving Gersh loyalist who joined the agency in the mid-1980s. Here Siebert discusses Gersh’s plan for growth and how she aims to build on its long legacy in Hollywood.

What is Gersh’s position in the representation landscape?

We are positioned exactly where we want...

Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment

by James Cameron-wilson

The career and reputation of Douglas Sirk has undergone many mutations. Famous for directing lush melodramas in the 1950s, he was dismissed and belittled by many contemporary critics, until seeing a revival of sorts in the 1970s sparked by European writers and filmmakers, in particular Jean-Luc Godard and then subsequently by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Later on, many notable directors doffed their hat to Sirk and paid homage to his 1950s’ soap operas, including Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Wong Kar-wai, David Lynch, John Waters, Lars von Trier and in particular Todd Haynes, with his sumptuous imitation Far from Heaven, with Julianne Moore. When the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro accepted his Oscar for The Shape of Water, he even name-checked Douglas Sirk as an inspiration.

Sirk, the son of Danish parents, made his breakthrough as a stage director in 1920s’ Germany and then, when filmmakers...

Cinema is an integral part of a state’s ideological apparatus, which today in the 21st century stands taller than its counterparts. When an artist, whose existence is determined by the relations of production, translates his imagination into sound and images, it takes the form of something which can roughly be called cinema and reflects a collective’s or an individual’s relations with the state.

With every passing political shift – which inevitably changes the base and affects the superstructure inexorably, cinema, like its counterparts, suffers the dread of becoming dated. Rarity occurs when a film transcends the materialistic changes of a society, which naturally differs from the time when it was produced. Satyajit Ray’s “Nayak” (1966) belongs to such a rare pedigree. Its re-release in theatres, in a 2K restored print, is nothing less than a political event which invites us to read this classic which still competently corresponds...

Netflix’s recent Nordic Noir series, The Are Murders, an adaptation of Viveca Sten’s thriller novels, revolves around two different cases of murder mystery set in the Swedish town of Are, and the investigating detective duo are the connecting factor between them. The first case, which concerns teenager Amanda Halvorsen’s murder, is inspired by “Hidden in Snow” and focuses on the disturbing real-world crisis of immigrant exploitation and human trafficking. On the other hand, the second one, the investigation into Johan Andersson’s murder, unearths deep-seated familial issues and relationship troubles as the reasons behind the act. A common factor in both these cases is the way they challenge the existing idealized image of community spirit and familial values, which allows the devious criminal elements to conceal themselves and beguile others. The cast and crew involved in the series emulated this factor very well through their performances, strengthening...

Nobody’s doing it quite like Plan B Entertainment’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. This year, the company’s co-heads (who oversee Plan B with Brad Pitt) brought RaMell Ross’ epic Colson Whitehead adaptation “Nickel Boys” to Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ross with Joslyn Barnes) Oscar nominations after Amazon released the 1960s-set, formally daring civil rights drama in theaters last fall. They join this week’s episode of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast with co-host Anne Thompson to talk honoring the “acrobatics and the courage and the bravery and the gymnastics” of Whitehead’s text, Ross’ innovative first-person camera work with cinematographer Jomo Fray, and the anxiety-inducing challenge of the film’s ending.

But Plan B is plenty busy elsewhere, with Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” just premiering in London and heading for a Berlin Film Festival bow. Also with Brad Pitt as executive producer, Gardner...

Brad Pitt is set to star in Paramount Pictures’ “Heart of the Beast,” according to an insider with knowledge of the project. David Ayer is directing.

Damien Chazelle and Olivia Hamilton are producing under their Wild Chickens Productions banner as part of their first-look deal with the studio. Ayer will produce under his Crave Films banner, along with Temple Hill Entertainment and Brad Pitt through his Plan B banner.

Cameron Alexander, who penned the script, will executive produce. Richard Raymond is co-producing.

The story follows a former Army Special Forces soldier and his retired combat dog who battle for survival after a plane crash deep in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness.

Pitt will next be seen Apple’s “F1” racing film from “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski, which will be released on June 27. Meanwhile, his Apple TV+ film “Wolfs” with George Clooney became the platform’s most-watched movie after premiering...

Exclusive: Brad Pitt has found his next star vehicle in Heart of the Beast, David Ayer’s action adventure film for Paramount Pictures, on which we were first to report last March. He’ll also produce for his Plan B Entertainment.

Written by Cameron Alexander, who will executive produce, the film centers on a former Army Special Forces Soldier and his retired combat dog who battle for survival after a plane crash deep in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness.

Damien Chazelle and Olivia Hamilton will also produce under their Wild Chickens Productions banner, as part of their first-look deal with the studio. Ayer produces under his Crave Films banner, along with Temple Hill Entertainment, and Pitt under his Plan B banner. Richard Raymond is co-producing.

For Pitt, Heart of the Beast marks the follow-up to F1, Apple’s anticipated, big-budget sports actioner, which Warner Bros releases in theaters on June 27. He...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Venice Film Festival. A24 releases “Babygirl” in theaters December 25.

The worst thing your partner could possibly say to you after sex, after you’ve said “I love you,” is the dreaded “love you.” No “I.” And that’s not the most demoralizing response Romy (Nicole Kidman) has for an amorous confession by her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) in “Babygirl,” writer/director Halina Reijn’s provocative erotic dramedy that begins and ends with an orgasm. One of them is faked, but in between, this perversely funny and absorbing new film explores the pleasure gap between men and women, and how our inability to talk about sex limits our ability to just do it.

And there’s lots of sex here, with Kidman going raw inside and out for one of her top performances in a career built on risk-taking. That’s...

In a year marked by personal losses as well as national strife, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about time. Strange how hours can feel eternal, days brief and weeks like they are bleeding into each other so that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

I had all that in mind while compiling my favorite arts and culture picks from this year. Some of these works consider time on a personal level, like when you pick up a book and can’t put it down. Others ask how much time we have as a society considering the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. A handful think of time more linearly — offering reflections on the past so we might better understand the future.

Here are some works, in alphabetical order, that rearranged time for me:

Alvin Ailey

Two recent works offer a portrait...

The long-awaited 28 Years Later isn't being released for seven months, but it already has a sequel set for January 16, 2026, on Martin Luther King weekend. Titled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the sequel is still shrouded in mystery, but it is confirmed that Danny Boyle will not be directing. Instead, Nia DaCosta will be directing Alex Garland's screenplay. The producers are Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice, and Bernard Bellew. Cillian Murphy is executive producing. The Bone Temple was apparently filmed back-to-back with 28 Years Later, so it is somewhat interesting that it's being released seven months apart.

Nia DaCosta is familiar with franchise filmmaking, having most recently directed The Marvels. If the fact she directed that box office bomb has you worried about her 28 Years Later installment, there is hope — her remake of Candyman, which she wrote with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, is extremely stylish,...

The second film in the “28 Years Later” trilogy, “The Bone Temple,” has landed a Jan. 16, 2026 domestic release date from Columbia Pictures.

The project’s MLK weekend release comes just six months after the first trilogy entry “28 Years Later,” which is slated for June 20. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes star in that film, which shot back-to-back with “The Bone Temple.”

“It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected,” the “28 Years Later” official synopsis reads. “One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders and horrors that have mutated not only...

Ewan McGregor has signed on to tread the boards for the first time in 17 years with a remake of Henrik Ibsen’s 1892 play The Master Builder.

The new project was written by American playwright Lila Raicek and will be directed by Michael Grandage. The play will run on London’s West End between April and July 2025.

Speaking this morning with the BBC, McGregor said his 17-year absence from the stage is “the longest I haven’t been on stage, and in honesty, I’ve missed it.”

“The funny story is, I had literally just finished reading Ibsen’s The Master Builder for pleasure – an extraordinary read,” McGregor continued. “Michael got in touch out of the blue and I mentioned how much I’d love to get back on stage.”

The Master Builder follows Halvard Solness, an acclaimed architect of a small Norweigan town who begins to unravel over fears his young rival will overtake him.

Kieran Culkin is doing less homework than a more novice actor might when it comes to starring on Broadway in a production of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Glengarry Glen Ross.” In fact, until rehearsals start early next year, he’s not doing any homework at all to play broken Chicago realtor Richard Roma in “Leopoldstadt” director Patrick Marber’s adaptation.

“We start rehearsals in early February. I am trying to not — yeah, I am not digging in,” Culkin told IndieWire when asked about the play during a recent interview ahead of “A Real Pain.” “I’ve read [Mamet’s play] twice, and I’m not going to take a look at it until the day before rehearsal.”

Understandably, Culkin is quite busy on the awards circuit through at least February. He’s widely tipped for a Best Supporting Actor nomination for “A Real Pain,” with many, many awards ceremonies to come ahead of the Oscars.

“She always looks so extreme,” a fellow teacher observes of Maggie Smith’s trademark rigidity in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969), putting her finger on the straight-backed, nose-high hauteur audiences enjoyed for more than half a century.

A shrill and tragically short-sighted instructor at a school full of impressionable-aged girls, Jean Brodie proved to be the defining credit of the English stage legend’s screen career, to the extent that her strict-but-caring Harry Potter character, deputy headmistress Minerva McGonagall, could be the selfsame martinet, curdled by several more decades of disappointment. (Kids who grew up on the J.K. Rowling adaptations will surely appreciate “Prime” once they’re older.)

That’s not to say she was never better. In fact, Smith, who died Friday, never gave a bad performance, and just as fine wines improve with age, that also goes for the legendary actor’s biting brand of vinegar, which...

If Catherine Breillat’s subversive stylings crossed ways with a classic screwball romance, it might look something like Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. This charged tale of a female CEO embarking on an affair with her younger male intern bears the most outward resemblance to the late 20th-century erotic thriller. Yet in spirit and subject, it’s a true comedy of remarriage.

As the great scholar Stanley Cavell observed in his study of early sound comedies that depicted adultery and tried to run afoul of the Hays Code by pledging allegiance to monogamous commitment, “The joining of the sexual and the social is called marriage.” Babygirl’s bookending scenes of Nicole Kidman’s Romy achieving orgasm within the confines of her relationship with Antonio Banderas’s Jacob tell the full story of a couple that learns to come together again after an affair. Similar to the resolution of many of those early comedies,...

The poster child of cinematic modernism, one of those early-‘60s event films that seemed to break every rule classical Hollywood ever codified, Alain Resnais’s Last Year at Marienbad left its initial audiences in equal measure ravished by Sacha Vierny’s sumptuous cinematography, capturing in rapturous detail every element of its chateau setting’s florid production design, and baffled by its deliberately disorienting puzzle-picture narrative, so willfully inscrutable that its three main characters don’t even have names. You have to trouble yourself to read Alain Robbe-Grillet’s screenplay in order to glean that they’re called A, X, and M, as if to emphasize that they’re variables in some erotic algorithm.

Unlike the testimonials to the politique des auteurs, all the rage with the Cahiers du Cinéma crowd, Last Year at Marienbad draws its power from a different engine, the disparate and ultimately divergent sensibilities of its director and screenwriter.

Netflix has given a formal greenlight to His & Hers, a psychological thriller starring and executive produced by Tessa Thompson. The six-episode limited series, adapted from Alice Feeney’s novel, comes from writer/executive producer Bill Dubuque; writer/executive producer Dee Johnson, who serves as showrunner; filmmaker William Oldroyd, who serves as a writer, executive producer and will direct the first episode; as well as executive producers Jessica Chastain and Kristen Campo. Fifth Season is the studio.

Set in the sweltering heat of Atlanta, Anna (Thompson) lives in haunting reclusivity, fading away from her friends and career as a journalist. But when she overhears about a murder in Dahlonega – the sleepy town where she grew up – she is snapped back to life, pouncing on the case and searching for answers. Detective Jack Harper is strangely suspicious of her involvement, chasing her into the crosshairs of his own investigation.

Exclusive: Saffron Hocking (Top Boy) is the newest addition to the cast of Fuze, the race-against-the-clock thriller that Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James are leading for director David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water).

Details as to the role she’s playing are under wraps. As previously announced, others in the cast will include Sam Worthington, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Elham Ehsas and Honor Swinton-Byrne.

Currently in production in London, the film written by Ben Hopkins watches as a long-buried WWII bomb found in central London sparks a citywide evacuation. Gillian Berrie (Outlaw King) and Mackenzie are producing for Sigma Films, alongside Sebastien Raybaud (The End We Start From), and Callum Grant (Jackdaw) for Anton.

Anton is fully financing the film and will co-rep U.S. rights alongside UTA Independent Film Group and WME Independent, with Sky to release the film theatrically in the UK and Ireland.

Nominated for a BAFTA for her...

The big winners of the Tony Awards saw their grosses soar in the week following the June 16 ceremony, with Merrily We Roll Along, The Outsiders, Stereophonic and An Enemy of the People hitting new highs.

Merrily We Roll Along, winner of the best revival of a musical and Tony Awards for stars Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe, saw the biggest jump in the industry for the week ended June 23, upping its total gross by close to $330,000 compared to the prior week. The musical, which has been playing the Hudson Theatre since September, grossed $2.17 million and played to 100 percent capacity as it also nears the end of its run on July 7. Its average ticket price also reached a new high of $281, the highest in the industry for the week.

An Enemy of the People, starring Jeremy Strong, ended its run on June 23 and broke another box office record to reach $1.54 million...

In the week leading up to Jeremy Strong’s Tony Award victory, Broadway’s An Enemy of the People broke the box office record at Circle in the Square Theatre, grossing $1,266,338 and topping its own previous records.

The production had already broken the previous Circle in the Square box office record of $917,008, held by the 2014 production of The River starring Hugh Jackman, more than 15 times. Enemy routinely sells out and posts weekly grosses in excess of $1 million.

The revival of Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama is in its final week of a limited engagement, set to play its final performance this Sunday, June 23. When it closes, it will have played 23 previews and 112 performances since beginning previews Tuesday, February 27.

Strong, who co-stars with Michael Imperioli and Victoria Pedretti, won the Tony for Best Leading Actor in Play. Enemy was nominated for for a total of five Tonys including Best Revival of...

A few key stories have emerged with the dust settling on the 77th Annual Tony Awards. One, we should have seen “Merrily We Roll Along” when we had the chance (it closes July 7!). Two, it’s great that Brooke Shields has broken the Crocs-red carpet barrier. And three, why does Eddie Redmayne singing directly into the camera give us the willies?

With that out of the way, though, awards-obsessives can crack out their abacuses and start making charts to see who is getting closer to achieving Egot status.

Egot, of course, stands for Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, Tonys, and while Sunday night didn’t put anyone over the top, we have a few celebs who can start giving it serious thought.

Sarah Paulson won her first Tony for Best Actress in a Play, for Branden Jacobs-Jenkens’s dysfunctional family drama “Appropriate.” Paulson is a seven-time Emmy nominee and one-time winner for “The People vs.

The 77th Tony Awards gave those of us cuckoo for kudos the thing that we love most about show biz celebrations.

Surprises.

Throughout the course of the evening, the envelopes revealed a number of out-of-left-field selections. (See the Tony Awards winners list.) That made watching the reactions of the recipients all the more fun. So who were the most visibly shocked Tony winners? Here the Top 5, along with their corresponding “shockmeter” rating.

1. Danya Taymor, Best Director of a Musical for “The Outsiders.”

Most Broadway insiders were expecting Maria Friedman to roll away with the prize for “Merrily We Roll Along.” So it’s no wonder that the dazed Danya literally jumped out of her seat and jolted to the stage. The untamed Taymor did clearly write her speech in advance — but preparation is the hallmark of any good director. Shockmeter rating: 9.5.

See 2024 Tony Awards: Every winner (and nominee) in all 26 competitive categories

2. Kecia Lewis,...

The Outsiders and Stereophonic took home the top prizes of best musical and best play at the 77th Annual Tony Awards on Sunday.

The best musical race had been one of the closest categories heading into Sunday’s ceremony, with The Outsiders, a story about young boys growing up in a rough setting, based on S.E. Hinton’s best-selling novel, and Hell’s Kitchen, featuring a score by Alicia Keys, seen as the top contenders, amid other contenders including Water for Elephants, Illinoise and Suffs. The two battled for awards throughout the night, with The Outsiders picking up a key win for director Danya Taymor and Hell’s Kitchen earning first-time acting wins for Maleah Joi Moon and Kecia Lewis.

Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along took home the prize for best revival of a musical, while Branden Jacobs-Jenkins family drama Appropriate won the Tony Award for best revival of a play.

Jeremy Strong won his first Tony Award on Sunday night.

The Succession star took home the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for An Enemy of the People. He seemed visibly surprised when accepting the award onstage. He thanked the cast and creatives behind the production along with the people who work at the theater.

“I want to thank the ushers and the front-of-house staff,” he said, receiving loud applause, “who see me walking in every day looking like I’ve just been run over by a truck and, and see me walk out looking somehow even worse with like bits of pretzels … in my hair.”

Strong stars with Michael Imperioli in the revival of Henrik Ibsen’s play, portraying a small-town doctor who considers himself a proud, upstanding member of his close-knit community. When he discovers a catastrophe that risks the lives of everyone in town,...

“I think ‘Stereophonic’ has taken off in a really once-in-a-lifetime way within the theatre community,” shares Sam Eckmann about the show he believes is the frontrunner for Best Play at the 2024 Tony Awards. He and I recently reconvened to discuss all 11 of the play categories ahead of the 77th annual ceremony on Sunday, June 16, and we didn’t need much time to debate the top category with David Adjmi’s “Stereophonic” so far out front to prevail. Watch our full Tony Awards predictions slugfest above.

We are feeling similarly confident about Branden Jacobs-Jenkins‘ “Appropriate” taking home the trophy for Best Play Revival. Sam points out that since this play has never been on Broadway before – it is considered a revival under the Tony Awards “classics” rule – the playwright will be on the ballot and eligible to win, which will help push the show over the finish line because “he’s a really admired writer.

The Broadway revival of An Enemy of the People, starring Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli, has recouped its $5.5 million capitalization.

The milestone, announced by producers Seaview, Patrick Catullo and Brad Pitt’s Plan B, comes after only about four months on Broadway, with the play breaking the Circle in the Square’s box office record (of $917,008) 16 times. The production began previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Feb. 27 and is set to close June 23.

The production, which opened March 18, has maintained more than 100 percent capacity for the entirety of its run and has grossed more than $1 million most weeks. The average ticket price for the show has generally been around $150, which puts it somewhat on the higher end within the industry, but still well below average ticket prices commanded by shows such as Merrily We Roll Along, which announced the recoupment of its $12 million capitalization in March after about six months on Broadway.

Floyd Collins, the 1994 musical that has built an enduring popularity due to an Off Broadway cast recording, will finally receive a Broadway staging: The Adam Guettel-Tina Landau musical will be part of the just-announced 2024-2025 40th Anniversary Lincoln Center Theater season.

The musical, based on the true and tragic story of a 1925 cave explorer in Kentucky that has long since passed into folklore, joins the previously announced play McNeal starring Robert Downey Jr. on the Lct season Broadway line-up. Floyd Collins will being previews on March 27, 2025 at Lct’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, with an opening night of Monday, April 21.

Lct also announced its Off Broadway season line-up, which will include The Blood Quilt by Katori Hall, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, and Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, featuring a new version by Mark O’Rowe, directed by Jack O’Brien, both at Lct’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

At Lct’s smaller Clair Tow Theater,...

Don’t expect to see Jeremy Strong at the next Roy family reunion.

The Golden Globe winner said any said any possibility of a Succession revival has been “happily put to rest” for him more than a year after the critically-acclaimed HBO series ended its four-season run.

“I’m sure there’s a desire for more [Succession]. I would really pass that buck to [creator] Jesse Armstrong,” he told People ahead of the 77th Tony Awards.

“But I think in terms of the role that I played, he came to his terminal point,” added Strong. “So for me, that’s something that is very happily put to rest.”

Strong won his first Emmy Award and Golden Globe for starring as Kendall Roy on Succession, which followed the grown Roy children as they fought for the keys to their father Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) media empire,...

The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi has said he would like Donald Trump to watch his Cannes Competition selection after the former US president’s campaign declared it will sue the filmmakers over “blatantly false assertions”.

“I don’t necessarily think this is a movie he would dislike,” Abbasi told a Cannes press conference on Tuesday. ”I think he would be surprised. I would offer to go and meet him and have a screening and talk about the movie afterwards.”

Trump’s campaign labelled the 1970s-set origins story centred on the relationship between Trump and his notorious fixer Roy Cohn “pure...

The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi has said he would like Donald Trump to watch his Cannes Competition selection after the former US president’s campaign declared it will sue the filmmakers over “blatantly false assertions”.

“I don’t necessarily think this a movie he would dislike,” Abbasi told a Cannes press conference on Tuesday. ”I think he would be surprised. I would offer to go and meet him and have a screening and talk about the movie afterwards.”

Trump’s campaign labelled the 1970s-set origins story centred on the relationship between Trump and his notorious fixer Roy Cohn “pure fiction...

The Apprentice filmmaker Ali Abbasi was asked Tuesday at the film’s Cannes Film Festival press conference about Donald Trump’s legal threats against the movie following its world premiere here the night before.

“Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people, they don’t talk about his success rate [with those lawsuits],” the filmmaker told the press today.

Following the movie’s premiere, where it received an 11-minute standing ovation at the Grand Theatre Lumiere, Trump campaign advisor Steven Cheung back in the U.S. declared, “We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”

The movie follows the rise of a young 1980s Donald J. Trump, played by Marvel Studios movie icon Sebastian Stan, as a real estate baron and how he became inspired to wheel and deal from ruthless attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).

Related: ‘The Apprentice’ Cannes Film Festival Premiere Photos: Sebastian Stan,...

Italian auteur Pietro Marcello – whose 2019 film “Martin Eden” made a splash on the international art-house scene – is shooting “Duse,” a movie about legendary Italian stage diva Eleonora Duse. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi stars as Duse and Noémie Merlant (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) plays her daughter.

The Match Factory has acquired international rights to “Duse” and is kicking off sales on this buzzy biopic in Cannes. See an exclusive first-look image above.

Duse, who lived between 1858 and 1924, was considered by many the greatest actress of her time. She performed in many countries, most notably in plays by Gabriele D’Annunzio and Henrik Ibsen.

Marcello’s “Duse” will look at the latter part of her life when she is 60 “and her legendary career is now long over,” says the provided synopsis.

“But in the brutal years between the First World War and the rise of fascism, the Divina chooses to return to...