News

Willem Dafoe is in talks to star in director Robert Eggers’ Werwulf.The 69-year-old actor - who previously worked with the filmmaker, 42, on The Lighthouse, The Northman and Nosferatu - is in negotiations to appear in Eggers’ upcoming horror flick, Deadline has said.The Spider-Man star could be joining Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily Rose-Depp, who are also in talks to lead Werwulf.Werwulf is being penned by Eggers’ The Northman co-writer Sjón, and is slated to hit cinemas on Christmas Day 2026 in the US.The director and scribe are also due to produce with Focus Features alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, who will be producing under Working Title.Meanwhile, Maiden Voyage’s Chris and Eleanor Columbus will serve as executive producers.While plot details are unknown, Werwulf is expected to be a 13th-century werewolf horror flick set in England.According to The Hollywood Reporter, the dialogue will be “true to the time period,...

What Do We Know About the upcoming series adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Carrie? More than you may think. The Prime Video series from The Life of Chuck and The Haunting of Hill House filmmaker Mike Flanagan is set to be his fourth take on a work by King. From plot, casting news, and more, let’s dive in and look at what is coming up in the adaptation of the classic horror novel.

Why another remake of Carrie?

Despite Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation remaining a classic horror film, multiple variations of Stephen King’s debut novel have made their way to audiences. From a sequel in 1999 to remakes in both 2002 and 2013, as well as a stage musical, Flanagan’s series takes a “bold and timely reimagining” of the book. What this entails remains to be seen. But, we do know that Flanagan has a reverence for Stephen...

Materialists is a film with a classic screwball setup: a young, beautiful matchmaker meets the charming, rich man of her dreams on the same night she runs into her broke, handsome ex-boyfriend. But Celine Song’s sophomore feature takes a more dry, dramatic approach to explore dating in the modern world. Channeling Jane Austen, Materialists discusses relationships like a numbers game where height, income, and age are the key factors to dating success. Every moment we spend with our heroine Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is dominated by the most clinical judgments of men, women, and especially herself. When wealthy finance guy Harry (Pedro Pascal) takes her out to dinner, Lucy describes herself as a failed actress and college dropout with debt and an $80K salary (before taxes). Why be with her when he could be with someone ten years younger who doesn’t need to work for a living and has...

“Maybe after once in a lifetime, we’ll figure out what we lost,” Matt Berninger sings on “No Love,” a reflective, lachrymose highlight from his second solo album. The National frontman sounds like he could spend several lifetimes pondering that question. On Get Sunk, he continues to work the same tastefully tortured alt-rock his main band has always done so well, channeling his most microscopically observed thoughts, pains, hopes, desires, and worries into lovely, lonely tunes like the gentle rocker “Bonnet of Pins,” the orchestral folk tune “Breaking Into Acting,...

Nicole Kidman came to our attention in the 1990s, first in supporting roles with her then-husband Tom Cruise and then as a striking, distinctive leading lady in some of the era’s most enduring cult classics. In the new millennium, the Academy Awards came calling to give some long-overdue recognition to her skillset (she won for “The Hours” in 2002). Anyone would forgive her for resting on her laurels thereafter as she approached middle age, but not Nicole.

A year later, she appeared in Lars von Trier’s avant-garde drama “Dogville,” and from there, has continued to make it a mission statement to work with some of the most fascinating filmmakers in the world – Jonathan Glazer, Park Chan-wook, Yorgos Lanthimos; at the height of her fame, she took a year out to work with Stanley Kubrick. That’s before we even mention her fruitful and admirably frequent collaborations with female directors,...

The Friend directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee with Anne-Katrin Titze: “We spent a lot of time talking with our costume designer Stacey Battat. We've worked with her a couple of times already, and she's got a great eye.”

David Siegel and Scott McGehee’s wondrous and sage The Friend (spiritedly adapted from the National Book Award-winning novel by Sigrid Nunez and a highlight in the Spotlight programme of the 62nd New York Film Festival) stars Naomi Watts as Iris, an author in New York City who loses her best friend Walter (Bill Murray) to suicide and inherits his majestic Harlequin Great Dane Apollo (played by the scene- and heart-stealing Bing).

Iris (Naomi Watts) on the streets of New York City with her very large tote bag and Apollo (played by Bing)

After already having thrown the advice by Wc Fields to never work with children or animals to the...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light took top honors at the 2025 International Cinephile Society (Ics) Awards, winning best picture, director, and ensemble. The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix, has continued to receive recognition, earning nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs.

The Ics recognized Kapadia’s film for its portrayal of “the voices, the faces, the night-lit trains of modern India.” The story follows women from different generations who form a quiet bond as they navigate personal and cultural challenges.

Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’s Oscar-nominated drama about Black teenagers trapped in an abusive reform school, won best adapted screenplay for Ross and Joslyn Barnes, who based the script on Colson Whitehead’s novel. The film also received the cinematography award for Jomo Fray’s work.

Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths won multiple awards, including best actress for Marianne Jean-Baptiste,...

Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” triumphed at the 2025 International Cinephile Society (Ics) Awards, winning best picture, director and ensemble.

“All We Imagine as Light” world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the grand prize of the festival, along with a flurry of international awards. It also went on earn nominations at the Golden Globes and the BAFTA’s, among others.

The International Cinephile Society praised Kapadia’s film for highlighting “the voices, the faces, the night-lit trains of vibrant modern India.” The film revolves around a trip of women from different generations who form a quiet sisterhood to find their own peace amidst daunting personal and cultural issues.

“Nickel Boys,” RaMell Ross’s Oscar-nominated drama about Black teenagers caged in an abusive reform school, took best adapted screenplay honors for Ross and Joslyn Barnes, who wrote the script based on the book by Colson Whitehead.

When you purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Companion is a sci-fi thriller film written and directed by Drew Hancock. The 2025 film follows a young couple going on a weekend getaway with friends at a remote cabin. Their fun getaway soon turns bloody when it is revealed that one of them is a companion robot. Companion stars Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, and Rupert Friend. So, if you loved the thrilling story, sci-fi elements, and compelling characters in Companion, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

M3GAN (Starz & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Universal Pictures

M3GAN is a sci-fi horror thriller film directed by Gerard Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper. The 2022 film follows Gemma, a brilliant roboticist who takes in her niece, Cady, after she lost her parents in an accident. Gemma designed a lifelike doll known as M3GAN,...

Robert Eggers is working on a 13th century werewolf horror movie.The 'Nosferatu' filmmaker - who has already tackled vampires with his recent blockbuster hit - is moving onto another horror creature as he continues to explore the genre.According to the Hollywood Reporter, he has co-written upcoming film 'Werwulf', which will be his next big screen flick.The movie - which will be backed by Universal's art house branch Focus Features - is set to be released on Christmas Day, 2026 in a similar move to 'Nosferatu'.Eggers has reunited with 'The Northman' collaborator Sjón for the script, with details being kept under wraps.However, insiders told the outlet the story will be set in 13th century England, with dialogue "true to the time period".Translations and annotations will be provided for those who don't understand Old English, but Eggers has now decided against shooting...

As Nosferatu arrives on digital with an extended cut featuring four minutes of previously unseen footage, we had a chance to talk to Robert Eggers about what's next for the director behind some of this century's most incredible horror films. And if you're curious about your favorite horror filmmaker's favorite horror movie, we've got an answer.

Nobody digs into the specifics of world building and story craft more than Robert Eggers, so it was exciting to hear that the filmmaker has a number of interesting places he plans to go next. In addition to the just-announced werewolf movie Werfwulf, Eggers told us, "I've always got a lot of scripts in development, you know, I'd like to make a Western someday. I talked a lot about a story of a medieval knight that I wrote that hasn't been made. There's lots of great worlds to explore."

Eggers is known for his fealty to research,...

There are few movies that can hit a nerve quite like the works of David Lynch. But Bertrand Bonello delivered a science-fiction movie that was released everywhere this past year and came closer than ever to reflecting the uniquely nightmarish qualities of Lynch's recent films. The Beast, originally released in 2023 and distributed widely in 2024, is a surreal, romantic, dystopian thriller that stars Léa Seydoux and George McKay. The movie is very loosely based on a 1903 novella, The Beast in the Jungle, by Henry James. The novel concerns a man whose obsession with his fatalist philosophy keeps him from ever feeling passionate or motivated enough to accomplish anything with his life. The Beast takes only loose threads from this novel, modernizing that idea to communicate the dangers of this self-imposed feeling of stagnation, inferiority, or doom that can lead to externalized violence. Bonello took these thematic threads and wove them...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

As the creator of Hellboy and artist of the half-demon hero's many adventures into darkness, Mike Mignola is comics' foremost expert on monsters. Hellboy is an agent of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) and has vanquished every type of monster under the full moon, from vampires to werewolves to dragons to his demonic kin. "Hellboy" comics range from simple short stories to pulp epics as good as any blockbuster movie; you don't get the modern reinvention of "Creature Commandos" without the B.P.R.D.

But what is Mignola's own favorite monster movie? Despite also being the creator of Hellboy's amphibian sidekick Abe Sapien, it's not "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" and its underwater horror Gill-man.

It's James Whale's "Bride of Frankenstein" and Mignola isn't alone; "Bride" often ranks as the best...

The CW’s Smallville told the story of Clark Kent before he was Superman, starting in his teen years. Clark doesn’t fully transform into the famous comic book hero until the final episode of the series. The hit superhero show created by Al Gough and Miles Millar featured many recognizable names from the Superman comics, like Lana Lang, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen.

In DC Comics’ Superman, Jimmy Olsen was a young photographer at the Daily Planet and good friends with Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Smallville’s Jimmy was also a photojournalist, and he was a love interest for Chloe Sullivan. Introducing Jimmy Olsen in Smallville created some discrepancies in the timeline and ultimately led to Jimmy’s death on the show.

Who Was Jimmy Olsen in Smallville?

The first hint of Henry James “Jimmy” Olsen in Smallville was when Chloe mentioned having a fling during her internship...

Robert Eggers says his 'Nosferatu' remake is inspired by gothic horror classic ‘The Innocents’.The 41-year-old director has helmed the remake of 'Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror', F. W. Murnau's silent German Expressionist vampire film, but the 1922 movie is not the only inspiration for his latest horror.Eggers also was influenced by Jack Clayton’s 1961 picture ‘The Innocents’, which is based on 1898 novella 'The Turn of the Screw' by the American novelist Henry James and focuses on a governess who watches over two children and comes to fear that their large estate is haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.During an appearance on Alamo Drafthouse’s YouTube series ‘Guest Selects’, the filmmaker said: “I think it is one of the best - perhaps the best - gothic ghost movie ever made. “I watch it a couple times a year probably for inspiration.

The French director Bertrand Bonello, whose science-fiction drama “The Beast” played in competition at Venice last year, is sitting in the sunshine in medieval Lucca, dressed in white and thinking of the future. He’s speaking to Variety about what he’s learned from the film, which screened this week at Lucca Comics and Games, how cinema is changing and artificial intelligence.

“The Beast” is set in Paris in 2044 when AI reigns supreme. In such a technologically regulated society, human emotions have become a threat, and to get rid of them, Gabrielle must purify her DNA by going back into her past lives. There, she reunites with Louis, her great love. But she’s overcome by fear, a premonition that catastrophe is on the way.

Lea Seydoux plays Gabrielle, while George MacKay is Louis. The film is based on the novella “The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James.

“The Beast...

Prompted by the massive success of the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, ABC released dozens of thrillers and horror movies under their Movie of the Week banner between 1969 and 1975. Starting in 1973, the network branched out into late-night programming intended to compete with talk show king Johnny Carson over on NBC, and the five feature-length telefilms collected as The Classic Ghosts by Kino Cult originally aired in that slot.

These telefilms were shot live on two-inch tape in a manner akin to daytime dramas, which does lead to the occasional flubbed line of dialogue. Furthering the comparison, two of the movies were directed by Lela Swift, who helmed over half of Dark Shadows’s approximately 1,200 episodes. Gloria Monty, who directed two others, went on to radically reshape the floundering soap General Hospital in the late ’70s. It’s notable that the creative team behind the telefilms were mostly women. Besides directors Swift and Monty,...

Siegel and McGeheeDavid Siegel and Scott McGehee’s wondrous and sage The Friend (spiritedly adapted from the National Book Award winning novel by Sigrid Nunez and a highlight in the Spotlight programme of the 62nd New York Film Festival) stars Naomi Watts as Iris, an author in New York City who loses her best friend Walter (Bill Murray) to suicide and inherits his majestic Harlequin Great Dane Apollo (played by the scene- and heart-stealing Bing).

After already having thrown the advice by Wc Fields to never work with children or animals to the wind with their beautiful Henry James adaptation What Maisie Knew, Siegel and McGehee fully embrace the tale of a friendship that belies our dominant anthropocentrism. “How can you explain death to a dog?” Iris, as well as the nameless narrator in the Nunez novel know some important truths about...

Airing as part of ABC’s Wide World of Mystery in 1973, five-part horror series The Classic Ghosts has been rescued from obscurity for a Blu-ray release on October 29.

Bloody Disgusting is teaming up with Kino Lorber to give away three copies of the Blu-ray set.

Click here to enter!

This contest is open to US residents only. One entry permitted per address. Three winners will be drawn on October 29.

Produced by broadcast pioneer Jacqueline Babbin, The Classic Ghosts has been preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

“The Haunting of Rosalind” (65 min) is directed by Lela Swift, based on a story by Henry James. Pamela Payton-Wright, Susan Sarandon, Beatrice Straight, and Frank Converse star.

“The Screaming Skull” (67 min) is directed by Gloria Monty, based on a story by Francis Marion Crawford. David McCallum, Vince Gardenia, and Carrie Nye star.

“The Deadly Visitor” (66 min) is directed by Lela Swift, based...

Late-night horror series The Classic Ghosts has rarely been seen since airing on ABC’s Wide World of Mystery in 1973, but that’s about to change.

The UCLA Film & Television Archive has preserved all five installments, coming to Blu-ray on October 29 via Kino Lorber’s Kino Cult line. Watch the exclusive trailer below.

Produced by broadcast pioneer Jacqueline Babbin, The Classic Ghosts was celebrated upon its debut for being made by a predominantly female crew, including trailblazing television directors Gloria Monty (General Hospital) and Lela Swift (Studio One).

Shot on videotape in the style of a soap opera, with expressive and colorful production design, The Classic Ghosts has an immediacy and otherworldliness akin to Dark Shadows — not surprising since two of the directors (Swift and Henry Kaplan) directed hundreds of episodes of the classic horror TV series.

The two-disc set includes interviews with Mark Quigley (John H. Mitchell Television...

Torque, a Fast & Furious-like biker movie, starred recognizable actors but received poor reviews, especially compared to Fast & Furious. Director Kahn intended Torque to be a comedic take on Fast & Furious but studio pushed for a serious action film, affecting its success. Torque struggled to replicate Fast & Furious' success despite similar stunts and budget, highlighting the importance of a strong lead cast.

Branded as Fast & Furious but for motorcycles, Torque turns 20 years old this year. The 2004 biker movie is rated 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, much lower than The Fast and The Furious 54%, which is surprising considering both were produced by Neal H. Moritz. Torque stars some recognizable actors despite its terrible Rotten Tomatoes score, featuring the likes of Ice Cube and Adam Scott. However, Torque received negative reviews from critics about everything except its action scenes. This makes sense as the movie was supposed to be a Fast & Furious equivalent,...

Jane Campion thought she had finished making films when she completed the Oscar-winning Power of the Dog; she was fixed on the next thing, which was to run a pop-up school for aspiring filmmakers in her native New Zealand.

“It was such a thrill to have a late-career success and to feel that at the end of it that I could do anything I wanted – and the idea of giving back was really fun,” she said yesterday at the Locarno Film Festival.

“Then I just wanted to do more yoga, but that didn’t really happen, even though I had the time. And now I’ve noticed some more ideas coming up. Really surprising ones I can’t really share yet. I think I’m in a good place, to be honest. I think I’m very lucky because I know there will be money for me. People in the industry believe,...

The Turning is a reimagined version of The Turn of the Screw with significant differences in setting and character development. The movie doesn't confirm the existence of ghosts haunting the mansion, leaving Kate mentally shaken and unsure of reality. The ambiguous ending of The Turning, criticized by many, prompts an alternate ending where Miles' possession by Peter Quint is left unresolved.

When The Turning was released in 2020, it was panned by critics and left many viewers confused about its ending. Based on the 1898 Henry James horror novella, The Turn of the Screw, The Turning follows Kate Mandell (Mackenzie Davis), a young woman who is hired to become the governess for Miles (Finn Wolfhard) and Flora Fairchild (Brooklynn Prince), the children of a wealthy family after the death of their parents. Kate's primary responsibility is to take care of the children, but that task soon becomes difficult when ghosts suddenly start haunting Miles and Flora.

The film collaborations of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory were so successful that “Merchant Ivory” became synonymous not just with the name of their production company but an entire style, if not genre, of filmmaking: Well-mounted period dramas of sophistication, taste, and erudition that come across today as light-years more refined than “Downton Abbey” or other costume dramas created in the wake of their popularity.

Stephen Soucy pays tribute to this remarkable collaboration and what made the films of Merchant Ivory so distinctive and unreplicatable in his new documentary of the same name, “Merchant Ivory,” the trailer for which IndieWire is exclusively debuting below. The documentary appeared at Doc NYC 2023 and was an official selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Sarasota Film Festival earlier this year. It features commentary from Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and others, including Ivory himself, now 96 years old, and the oldest Oscar winner ever,...

Mike Flanagan's Netflix shows often draw from classic horror literature, making a Lovecraftian prequel possible. The Fall of the House of Usher's Arthur Gordon Pym backstory could be adapted from both At the Mountains of Madness and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. A direct follow-up to The Fall of the House of Usher is unlikely due to Flanagan's departure from Netflix and his other projects.

A subtle detail in one of Mike Flanagan's most successful Netflix shows perfectly paves the way for an H.P. Lovecraft prequel. Although Mike Flanagan has a few original films under his belt, he is best known for his work in television and movie adaptations of renowned horror novels. His highly acclaimed Netflix shows are also either loosely based on classic horror novels or draw inspiration from the works of some of the greatest horror writers, like Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe,...

With the global rise of fascism, increasingly frequent and brutal climate crises, and an upcoming U.S. election that no one short of the Cenobites from Hellraiser is looking forward to, it’s no surprise that cinema in 2024 has been grappling with some heavy and heady existential themes. Fear and anxiety thus play a central role in numerous films on our list, both in relation to concrete concepts like sexual assault and corporate malfeasance or more nebulous ones embodied by sound or even left invisible altogether, though still strongly felt.

Even if the general feeling of impending doom is increasingly in the air, certainly not every filmmaker felt the need to surrender to nihilism or despair. Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is, yes, a dystopic vision of modern society, but the aims of this raucous, wily satire are scarcely didactic. And...

Let us start by lauding the hair and make-up artist, the costume and set designer, and the cinematographer before anything else. We’re discussing The Beast in the Jungle, Austrian director Patric Chiha’s latest adaptation of the Henry James novella (of the same name) from 1903. Very recently, we’ve had another adaptation (although not a direct one) of the same novella in the much superior The Beast. Chiha’s film, however, is mostly frustrating and occasionally fascinating. The nightclub setting adds a zing to it, but the screenplay falters quite a bit. The one hour and forty-five minutes runtime feels like an eternity, and not in a good way. Anais Demoustier’s magnetic screen presence is what keeps you going. Anyway, let us now try deconstructing The Beast in the Jungle, especially its ending.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens in the Movie?

It takes a while to get settled into the weirdness of this tale.

Bertrand Bonello is a director who is rather hard to put into any category, such is the eclectic nature of his work. His latest follows on that trend, with his first deviation into the science-fiction genre, based on Henry James’s novella The Beast in the Jungle. We had the pleasure in speaking to the talented auteur in Paris earlier this year, as part of a small roundtable.

Bonello spoke in great detail about the themes of the movie, and his fears – and hopes – for AI. He also talks about replacing Gaspard Ulliel in the leading role, and why he feels George MacKay was such a special talent to work with. He also discusses the wonderful Léa Seydoux and her approach to the project, while he speaks about his career and the industry as a whole, and why he has never quite been able to fit in.

To note, while...

by Nathaniel R

Madame Merle: I'd give a good deal to be your age again; to have my life before me.

Isabel Archer: Your life is before you yet.

This article was originally intended to grace our "How Had I Never Seen?" series. Jane Campion's The Portrait  of a Lady (1996) has stubbornly remained on my "to see" list for nearly twenty years. I let it sit there, as a shamefully passive intent, not unlike the way Isabel Archer approached her own 'to experience' lists past the age of 24. That's when she marries Mr Osmond in Henry James "The Portrait of a Lady" and her idealism and ambition are utterly flatted by the limits of her imagination, courage, and self-possession. The novel first appeared in serialized form in 1880 and for the following century and a half, Isabel Archer has confounded and/or fascinated readers; Fellow artists, too, like auteur...

Bertrand Bonello’s head-spinning Henry James adaptation set in 1910 Paris, 2014 LA and an AI-controlled 2044 casts a dreamlike spell

The choking grip of artificial intelligence on humanity is the starting point for Bertrand Bonello’s wildly ambitious, century-spanning, French and English-language story of doomed romance, subconscious fears and pigeon-based symbolism. It’s a theme – AI, that is, not the pigeons – that has been thoroughly mined in cinema of late, perhaps not surprisingly. After all, AI poses one of the more significant threats to the future of humankind. It’s the dystopian sci-fi premise that – literally – writes itself, given half the chance. But the eponymous beast in this story is not AI, and Bonello’s approach to the subject is rather more eccentric and original. It’s certainly the most ambitious of his films, which include the fashion biopic Saint Laurent and The House of Tolerance, about a turn-of-the-century Parisian brothel.

Elliptical,...

“Crimson Peak” is a movie directed by Guillermo del Toro starring Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston.

Guillermo del Toro is one of those directors who, in a world where everything seems to be mass-produced, has managed to forge his own signature style and aesthetic, captivated a loyal audience. Once again, he is not going to disappoint with “Crimson Peak” that not only features fantastic actors but is also an aesthetically first-rate piece of work.

Crimson Peak

“Crimson Peak” is one of those films that place Guillermo del Toro somewhat close to Tim Burton’s universe, very close to Coppola’s “Dracula” (1992), but still holding its unique touch of a universe filled with strange creatures, wonderful photography, and exceptional cinematography.

“Crimson Peak” is a feast for the eyes, where you can savor the elegance and effort in every shot. It’s a gothic tale situated in the nineteenth-century classicism of ghost stories and,...

Earlier this month, horror mastermind Mike Flanagan was announced as the new heir apparent to the "Exorcist" franchise, assuming the reins from David Gordon Green in what's being described as a "radical new take" on the truly scary source material. Little is known about the "Haunting of Hill House" and "Midnight Mass" creator's plans for the long-running property, but at the annual Atx festival in Austin today, Flanagan spoke frankly about the pressure of crafting a new story in the shadow of one of the most frightening tales ever told.

"For 'The Exorcist' specifically, I'm f**king terrified," Flanagan admitted at a panel attended by /Film's Ryan Scott. A spotlight on adaptations titled "From Book To Script To Screen," the event also featured a number of other panelists, including the executive producers behind AMC's "Interview with the Vampire," ABC's "Will Trent," Netflix's "Black Mirror," and the Apple TV+ series "Silo.

Before Bertrand Bonello transformed The Beast in the Jungle into a time-hopping, existentialist sci-fi melodrama, the most radical cinematic treatment of the work of Henry James was Peter Bogdanovich’s 1974 film maudit Daisy Miller. The adaptation is certainly faithful, with dialogue lifted directly from the text and the core narrative and themes understood and preserved by Bogdanovich and writer Frederic Raphael. But the film also filters James’s tale of a scandalously flirtatious 19th-century American woman in Europe through a screwball prism.

Here, the novella’s cool-tempered Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown) is left completely befuddled by the rapid-fire, monopolizing chatter of Daisy Miller (Cybill Shepherd). It’s an oddly compelling approach, but it only intermittently succeeds. When the film premiered, critics and even many of Bogdanovich’s friends and colleagues derided the entire project as a vain folly devoted to the star, the director’s then-girlfriend. The blatant sexism of the reaction aside,...

Opening with an actress screaming at an invisible attacker while filming a green-screen scene, The Beast immediately reveals its primary ideas: the eeriness of technological advancement, a feeling of deep anguish at a terror that isn’t really there, and the interaction between the two. Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi — in which two people, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay), meet in different eras — is an extraordinary excavation of the role technology plays in causing emotional mayhem, and a clarion call to those who would use it as a stand-in during daily human life.

If that sounds complicated, then buckle up: with three timelines and endless recurring symbolism, The Beast is, well, a bit of a beast. We begin in 1910, where Gabrielle is a musician; in 2014, she’s a model and actor house-sitting in Los Angeles; in 2044, she is considering “purifying” her DNA in an attempt to get a job in an AI-riddled society.

French director Christophe Honoré returns to Cannes Competition for a third time on Tuesday with comedy Mio Marcello, reuniting him with long time collaborator Chiara Mastroianni.

The comedy taps into the actress’ real-life complex reality of being the daughter of cinema icons Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.

In a fantasy scenario, Mastroianni hits a crisis point in her life and decides to adopt the look and persona of her late father, much to the surprise of her family and friends, as well as those who knew the legendary actor when he was alive.

Mastroianni is joined in the cast by her mother Deneuve, former partners Benjamin Biolay and Mevil Poupaud as well as Fabrice Luchini, Nicole Garcia, UK actor Hugh Skinner and Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli, who famously starred opposite Marcello Mastroianni in the 1961 classic Divorce Italian Style.

Deadline talked to Honoré ahead of the world premiere.

Deadline: What was...

After breaking out as a wide-eyed soldier in 1917, the actor showed a darker side to masculinity as a closeted thug in Femme. Now he’s gone further, playing an incel in twisted sci-fi The Beast

George MacKay reaches into his backpack and pulls out a squeezy bottle of honey, squirting it into his americano. “It’s a bit eccentric,” he says sheepishly. He picked up the habit years ago on a shoot in Australia; recognising that requesting a pot of honey might be perceived as “a slightly wanky ask”, he carries his own supply instead. This is typical MacKay – charming, discreet, and more than a little concerned about giving others the wrong idea.

On screen, MacKay frequently plays characters who are suffocated by the codes of traditional masculinity, and turned cruel by them, too. The actor’s breakout role was in Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning war blockbuster 1917, which plays out as one dizzying,...

Vertigo Releasing has unleashed the trailer for the visionary sci-fi epic ‘The Beast’.

In a near-future world dominated by artificial intelligence, where human emotions are perceived as a threat, Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) embarks on a journey to purify her DNA by revisiting her past lives. During this process, she reconnects with Louis (George MacKay), her great love. However, a sense of foreboding and fear grips her as she anticipates an impending catastrophe.

The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival to great acclaim and was recently showcased at the London Film Festival. The thought-provoking film which spans three time periods, draws inspiration from Henry James’s evocative short story.

Directed by Bertrand Bonello, the movie stars BAFTA-nominated actors Léa Seydoux and George MacKay.

Also in trailers – Stephen Fry & Lena Dunham embark on an emotional journey in trailer for ‘Treasure’

The movie will be released in UK and Irish cinemas 31st May.

The Beast.She was there on harder terms than any one; she was there as a consequence of things suffered, one way and another, in the interval of years, and she remembered him very much as she was remembered—only a good deal better.So says John Marcher of May Bartram in Henry James’s novella The Beast in the Jungle (1903). Everything coalesces for John and May to reconnect on an October afternoon, having met years prior. Their meeting again is “the sequel of something of which he had lost at the beginning.” What follows is a strained dalliance, never physically realized. John is transfixed by May’s knowledge of his “secret,” the feeling of an imminent doom that has tailed him his entire life. Something awaits him, like a beast in the jungle. And May—only May, whose illness brings her closer and closer to her own death—knows what it is.

Mike Flanagan's impressive horror storytelling makes him a perfect fit to adapt video games to TV. Silent Hill's eerie small-town setting aligns well with Flanagan's atmospheric storytelling style. Both Midnight Mass and Silent Hill explore themes of forgiveness and human struggles, making them a thematic match.

One Mike Flanagan show with an impressive 87% Rotten Tomatoes score proves he should helm a video game adaptation. Most Mike Flanagan movies and shows have either adopted original storylines or drawn inspiration from the works of renowned horror authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, and Henry James. Since the horror auteur has never tried his hand at adapting video games, the mere possibility of him traversing a video game to the small screen someday has always been exciting.

Although Mike Flanagan has not actively expressed interest in bringing new life to existing video games through television or movie adaptations,...

Jane Campion will be honored this year by the Locarno Film Festival, which will present the New Zealand director its Pardo d’Onore Manor Award for lifetime achievement.

Campion will receive the tribute at the 77th edition of the Swiss festival on Friday, Aug. 16.

Locarno will also screen two of Campion’s best-known films selected by the director herself for the tribute: Her 1990 feature An Angel at My Table and her 1993 Palme d’Or winning global breakout The Piano. The latter will be given a grand screening in a new 4K restoration at Locarno’s legendary Piazza Grande on the night of her award. Campion will also take part in a panel conversation at the festival on Saturday, August 17.

The Locarno Film Festival’s Pardo d’Onore Manor honor has previously been awarded to such filmmakers as Agnès Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Kelly Reichardt, and,...

It’s been less than 12 years since Dan Stevens raised a middle finger to the British aristocracy, quitting “Downton Abbey” as the show neared its Emmy-amassing zenith and setting sail for America with his family. As he admits, he had “absolutely no idea” what was going to happen to him.

“There was no roadmap,” the 41-year-old actor explains with frank honestly about a decision that, at the time, was considered by many to be sheer lunacy. “I left ‘Downton’ with a blank slate. It was just, ‘I think I want to do other things.’ But I didn’t know what that looked like.”

To have an idea of what that currently looks like, anyone need just head to their nearest cinema, where Stevens is going head-to-head against himself in two of the biggest studio releases of the season. In what has become something of a calling card for the Brit...

The Beast is like a slow-twisting knife to the side of our existence, its point sharpened with care by writer-director Bertrand Bonello and guided with the utmost precision so as to not puncture any vital organs — we are alive, but in undeniable pain. Indeed, arriving at a time when humanity is at its most anxious, emotionally exhausted, and existentially frustrated, the film offers zero reprieve as it deals with grand questions of love, death, and loneliness. Yet, at the risk of premature exclamation, it stands as one of the most rewarding movies you'll see this year.

Loosely adapted from the 1903 Henry James novella, The Beast in the Jungle, The Beast stars Léa Seydoux as Gabrielle, a woman who decides to undergo an emotional purification procedure that will eliminate her ability to experience any and all strong feelings. It's the year 2044, and it has since been deemed that humans' capacity for...

George MacKay became one Hollywood’s most sought after young actors after his starring role as a sweet-faced solider in Sam Mendes’ Oscar-winning “1917.”

But he’s looking much different in his latest film, “Femme.” He stars in the queer revenge thriller from directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping as a closeted street thug who begins a sexual relationship with Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), a man he doesn’t realize is the drag queen he once brutally gay-bashed.

For the film, MacKay’s body is ripped and covered in tattoos. His hair is shaved and slicked back. He wears tracksuits and garish gold chains and rings, and his working class accent can be hard to decipher.

It took him about eight weeks of “bulking” to get in shape. Even so, MacKay admits he did a lot of push-ups for scenes where he had to be particularly “big and scary.

“The present came to a halt,” Bertrand Bonello writes in an ode to his teen daughter in his experimental feature Coma, “leaving us with the past and the future.” Much of this subtitled text refers to the specific circumstances of the film’s creation during the pandemic. Yet the French filmmaker’s follow-up, The Beast, which was developed before Coma but shot afterward, feels like a natural extension of his fascination with the scrambled perception of time in a digital era. In Bonello’s time-warping adaptation of Henry James’s 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle, the present day is the Paris of 2044, where landscape and character have been warped by advances in artificial intelligence.

What’s evergreen, as a repeated aural motif so often reminds, is the twisted relationship of fear and love between Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay). Bonello gives us a glance at two of...

The Tearsmith is a 2024 romantic movie on Netflix directed by Alessandro Genovesi starring Caterina Ferioli and Simone Baldasseroni.

This is a story brimming with romance, sentiment, and passion, distinctly crafted for teenagers. It’s a unique style, which we foresee, will be a massive hit among the younger, love-struck audience.

It’s got it all, a mix that fuses a nineteenth-century backdrop set in the present day.

Just to be clear: this movie is particularly designed for youths.

The Tearsmith Storyline

In a world where nobody could cry, there existed an artisan who could give crystal tears to a world devoid of emotions.

After an accident, Nika ends up orphaned as a child, raised in an orphanage. Upon reaching adolescence, a family adopts her along with another boy, quite mysterious with a special musical talent.

About the Movie

Yes, it’s targeted at youths, but it’s stylish, especially aesthetically.

It’s too bright, the sunshine is monotonous, it’s very isolating. Those were the reasons why Chloë Sevigny, in a recent viral interview, said she will never live in Los Angeles. Anyone who’s lived there can relate to the loneliness that blankets the fragmented city, a collection of neighborhoods strung together by cars in traffic, where nobody walks or talks to each other. And why does everyone flake on plans? What are we afraid of?

That’s much like the central dilemma in Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast,” a time-hopping sci-fi epic about the existential terrors of unrequited love, green-screen-acting, incel killers, artificial intelligence, and, oh, yes, Los Angeles. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play reincarnated almost-lovers across time who can never make it work: first, in fin-de-siècle Paris (she’s married); then, in 2014 Los Angeles (he’s a sociopathic virgin inspired by 2014 Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger...

One of 2024’s obsessions is “Feud: “Capote vs. the Swans.” The FX on Hulu limited series revolves around the best-selling novelist Truman Capote‘s friendship with several of the highest of New York’s society women include Babe Paley, Slim Keith and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The women treat him as a sort of father confessor, but when he publishes an excerpt from what he considers his will be his masterwork “Answered Prayers” in Esquire — a thinly veiled account of their lives and secrets –they feel betrayed and turn their back on their once trusted friend. He spends the rest of his life trying to get back into their good graces.

Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?

Capote was...

Drive-Away Dolls will have you laughing out loud in a comically raunchy ode to 70s exploitation cinema. The premise has a pair of queer besties driving a car to Tallahassee, Florida; blissfully unaware of the mysterious briefcase in the trunk or the bumbling criminals hot on their trail. Oscar-winning director Ethan Coen and his wife, screenwriter Tricia Cooke, revel absurdly in a lesbian-fueled romp chock-full of hilarious B-movie characters. There are jaw-dropping surprises aplenty, but the script and its shenanigans admittedly lose steam despite a breezy runtime.

Set in 1999 before the Y2K hysteria, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) is suspected of getting down and dirty with another woman while on the phone with her girlfriend. The irate Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) has had enough of Jamie's philandering ways and rampant promiscuity. She wants her out of their apartment pronto. Meanwhile, the sexually repressed and demure Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) is tired of being...

Aurore (Louise Chevillotte) with André Masson (Alex Lutz) at Scottie’s in Pascal Bonitzer’s mysterious and witty Auction (Le Tableau Volé)

Catherine Breillat’s incomparably daring Last Summer starring Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher, and Olivier Rabourdin has received four César nominations: Best Director and Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Léa Drucker), Male Revelation (Samuel Kircher in competition with his brother Paul Kircher for Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom). In the first installment with Pascal Bonitzer, we start out discussing his work on Last Summer which is based on May el-Toukhy’s 2019 film Queen of Hearts and then delve into his latest film, Auction (Le Tableau Volé).

Pascal Bonitzer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Scottie’s in Auction: “It’s an allusion to Vertigo because it’s a great movie. Scottie’s, yes, it’s Sotheby’s, it’s Christie’s, it’s a big auction house.”

Pascal Bonitzer, who put a...

A road trip. A mix-up. A fast-talking hero, prone to tossing off bewilderingly verbose sentences. Some criminals who run the gamut from eccentric to psychotic to painfully inept. (Sometimes, they’re all three at once.) Dangerously sudden violence. Dangerously dark humor. Dangerously outrageous hairdos. The feeling that you’re watching a vintage film noir story run through a Looney Tunes filter. You are in the presence of a Coen brothers movie — whaddaya need, a road map?!

Actually, some sort of Gps system would be a blessing for both you, the viewer,...