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There’s a reason why Spike Lee’s latest, “Highest 2 Lowest” opens with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'” from “Oklahoma!” playing over swooning aerial views of the high-rises of New York. The oldest of five kids, Lee was not only influenced by his jazz musician father, but he was also his cinephile mother’s movie date. She loved musicals like “Oklahoma!,” “The Sound of Music,” and “Bye Bye Birdie,” which inspired the Rosie Perez opening of “Do the Right Thing.”

A family friend also took the young Lee to see Akira Kurosawa films.

“I wanted to see people’s heads chopped off, in Samurai films,” Lee told me at Cannes in May, where “Highest 2 Lowest” premiered out of competition. At NYU Film School he came to appreciate Kurasawa’s entire oeuvre. “Rashomon” inspired the differing perspectives in his first feature, “She’s Gotta Have It.”

“Highest 2 Lowest” marks...

Is God Is has landed an early summer release date from Orion Pictures, a division of Amazon MGM Studios.

Playwright Aleshea Harris is directing the big screen adaptation of her acclaimed, award-winning stage play of the same name will open in cinemas May 15, 2026. That’s just around the time of the Cannes Film Festival, although there’s no word yet as to whether the movie will make an awards play, although Orion is known as a home for prestige fare.

Is God Is marks Harris’ feature directorial debut, and stars Kara Young (Virgo) and Mallori Johnson (Kindred) as twin African-American sisters who were burned badly as babies in a fire that left them with permanent, disfiguring scars. Now 21 years old, they embark on an epic quest for revenge and, and along the way, confront a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths.

Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson and Josiah Cross co-star,...

New Regency has hired former 20th Century Fox creative production executive Colin Greten as vice president of film as the company grows its production ambitions.

Greten will report to president of motion pictures and television Natalie Lehmann as New Regency assembles a feature slate that includes John Hillcoat’s Blood Meridian adaptation, Ubisoft video game adaptation Watch Dogs to star Tom Blyth and Sophie Wilde, and Psycho Killer with Georgina Campbell in the lead.

Lehmann called the new hire “a sharp, forward-thinking executive with a strong creative sensibility and valuable industry experience”. Greten’s arrival follows the recent appointment of Tesha Crawford as EVP,...

New Regency has hired Colin Greten as Vice President of Film in an ongoing expansion of its leadership team and global footprint.

The company recently added Tesha Crawford as EVP, Head of International Television.

Greten, who reports to Natalie Lehmann, president of Motion Pictures and Television, was most recently a creative production executive at Disney-owned 20th Century Studios. He joins during a period of growth for New Regency as the company builds out a slate of high-profile film and TV projects, including Blood Meridian based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, written by John Logan and directed by John Hillcoat; Watch Dogs, an adaptation of Ubisoft’s best-selling video game franchise starring Tom Blyth and Sophie Wilde; and Psycho Killer, written by Andrew Kevin Walker and starring Georgina Campbell. Additional recent and upcoming titles include Steve McQueen’s Blitz (Apple TV+); The Bikeriders (Focus Features), untitled Elon Musk documentary from Alex Gibney (HBO); 2073,...

Scott Rudin is returning to Broadway after allegations of abusive behavior derailed the producer’s career.

Rudin and Barry Diller will produce Samuel D. Hunter’s new play “Little Bear Ridge Road,” which will run for a limited 18-week run this fall. “Little Bear Ridge Road” is set on the outskirts of a small Idaho town and follows an aunt and her long-estranged nephew as they find themselves with a crumbling house to sell.

Oscar-nominee Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, who played the same roles at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, will star in the production with direction by Joe Mantello. It marks the Broadway debut of Hunter, who wrote the play “The Whale” and adapted it into an Oscar-winning film for Darren Aronofsky. Performances will begin on Oct. 7 ahead of opening night on Oct. 30 at Broadway’s Booth Theatre.

Rudin has signaled that he wanted to get back in the...

After signaling he’d be back for the upcoming season, Scott Rudin is unveiling his formal return to Broadway with a new play.

Rudin and Iac mogul Barry Diller are set to produce Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road for an 18-week limited run with Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock beginning on Oct. 7 ahead of an Oct. 30 opening night at Broadway’s Booth Theatre.

For the 95-minute play, Metcalf and Stock will be reprising roles from a run at Chicago’s The Steppenwolf Theatre Company last year. John Drea and Meighan Gerachis will also be joining the Broadway version from the original run. Tony Award winner Joe Mantello is returning to direct.

The logline for the play: “On the remote outskirts of a small Idaho town, a razor-tongued aunt and her long-estranged nephew find themselves suddenly back in each other’s orbit—two lonely souls with a crumbling...

Little Bear Ridge Road, the new play by Samuel D. Hunter, marking his Broadway debut, will premiere on Broadway for a limited 18-week run this fall starring Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, reprising their performances from the production’s world premiere at The Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with direction by Joe Mantello. Performances will begin on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, ahead of a Thursday, October 30 opening night at Broadway’s Booth Theatre. Rounding out the company from the initial run at Steppenwolf Theatre are John Drea as ‘James’ and Meighan Gerachis as ‘Paulette.’ The design team for Little Bear Ridge Road includes Scott Pask (scenic design), Jessica Pabst (costume design), Heather Gilbert (lighting design), and Mikhail Fiksel (sound design). The show is produced by Scott Rudin and Barry Diller. A recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Samuel D. Hunter has...

Producers Scott Rudin and Barry Diller announced today that Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road will premiere on Broadway for a limited 18-week run this fall in a production starring Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, under the direction of Joe Mantello.

Metcalf and Stock will reprise their acclaimed performances from the production’s world premiere last year at The Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. Performances will begin on Tuesday, October 7, ahead of a Thursday, October 30 opening night at Broadway’s Booth Theatre.

Steppenwolf has opted not to participate in the Broadway production.

The production marks Rudin’s return to Broadway since his 2021 departure following allegations of bullying his staff. In a New York Times profile three months ago, Rudin announced his plans to resume his producing career, saying he has undergone “a decent amount of therapy.” He called his previous behavior “bone-headed” and “narcissistic.”

The play that will...

The Social Network is getting a sequel, and it sounds like it’s going to be a lot different from the first movie. According to Daniel Richtman, an industry insider who shared the news on his Patreon, Social Network 2 won’t just focus on Facebook this time.

He says the new film will introduce fresh characters and cover more of the tech world and social media scene.

It’s been a long road to get here. Back in 2019, Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the original movie, shared that producer Scott Rudin wanted a follow-up. Sorkin said there was more than enough real-life drama to build a new story. “A lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff has happened since the movie ends,” he said.

Later that same year, Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark Zuckerberg in the first film, said he’d love to return if Sorkin was involved. “Sorkin is a genius,...

The sequel to The Social Network is finally moving forward, and it’s not going to be what fans might expect. A new report from industry insider Daniel Richtman, posted on his Patreon account, says Social Network 2 won’t just be about Facebook this time. Instead, it will focus on new characters and explore more of the world of social media and tech.

This sequel has been talked about for years. Back in January 2019, Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the first film, said that producer Scott Rudin had pushed for a follow-up. Sorkin admitted there was plenty of real-life drama to work with since the first movie ended. “A lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff has happened since the movie ends,” he said.

In July of that same year, Jesse Eisenberg said he was open to returning. “Sorkin is a genius, and if he chooses to write about something, I’ll obviously be interested,...

Our generation’s The Two Jakes? That’s where the mind goes, but if David Fincher is (speaking creatively) something like the modern Polanski, I suspect Aaron Sorkin isn’t even as good a director as Jack Nicholson. Much as these comparisons were surely mulled over, Deadline reports the legendary screenwriter and not-quite-legendary director is poised to helm The Social Network Part II––less a direct sequel than curve, adapting the Wall Street Journal‘s The Facebook Files, a rather notable exposé of Mark Zuckerberg’s empire and its results in the years since its creation.

One presumes Scott Rudin and Kevin Spacey will not return to produce, and casting details are uncertain. All the same, a Social Network sequel that doesn’t feature Mark Zuckerberg is hard to imagine, and someone other than Jesse Eisenberg playing him is (in the Lost Highway sense) a fun idea, but perhaps unlikely.

Could anyone really forget about Clueless, even three decades after its debut? As if!

Alicia Silverstone and writer-director Amy Heckerling joined costars and crew at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures screening of Clueless on Saturday, marking the 30th anniversary of the iconic film’s July 1995 release — but it was Silverstone’s costars Breckin Meyer and Elisa Donovan who shared the biggest bombshells of the night.

Meyer, who portrayed laid-back skateboarder Travis Birkenstock, was eager to work with Heckerling, having been a fan of her earlier films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Johnny Dangerously, and Look Who’s Talking. He also recalled some of the other actors who auditioned for the role.

“All the other guys I knew — Seth Green, Jeremy Renner, and all these cats — were auditioning for it,” Meyer said.

Donovan, who played Amber, the high school rival to Silverstone’s heroine Cher Horowitz, recalled one of...

Barry Diller’s colorful, candid new memoir Who Knew is a book that can’t help but read a bit like a bookend. Not necessarily for himself, or even for his cohort, but for the era of colorful, candid memoirs authored by Hollywood heavyweights.

It’s an entertaining shelf. Paramount head Bob Evans’ The Kid Stays in the Picture is the lodestar, followed by volumes from a pair of trailblazing female producers: Julia Phillips’ You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again and Lynda Obst’s Hello, He Lied. Those at the margins of the business have told some of the most memorable stories (recall Golden Age sex broker Scotty Bowers’ Full Service), although there have been revealing accounts at or near the top from managers Bernie Brillstein and Jerry Weintraub, indie legend Christine Vachon and the super-agent Michael Ovitz.

These days, two factors are pushing the fun out of memoirs.

In Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, Tom Cruise was hilarious as the over-the-top movie producer. The character of Les Grossman was initially not included in the film, and Cruise was offered the role of Rick Peck. It was the Mission: Impossible actor who suggested that the makers add the unhinged studio head character. After the success of the character, Cruise had always wanted a spinoff based on Grossman.

During a recent interview, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie commented on Cruise’s funny character. It was reported in 2022 that Cruise and McQuarrie are collaborating on a Tropic Thunder spinoff. The director shared the update that they are having a serious conversation about the spinoff.

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are having serious discussions on Les Grossman Tom Cruise as Les Grossman in a still from Tropic Thunder | Credits: DreamWorks Pictures/Paramount Pictures

After the success of Top Gun: Maverick...

Though still in the thick of promoting “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise are already working on their next pair-up — it just might not be what you expect.

“The conversations we’ve had about Les Grossman are so fucking funny,” McQuarrie said in a recent interview with Josh Horowitz on his “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.

Cruise played the fictional Hollywood power player in the 2008 satire “Tropic Thunder” from director Ben Stiller. Heavily modeled on Scott Rudin, Grossman is a Diet Coke-swilling, obscenity-prone producer with no filter and tendencies toward anger, as well as dance. It may sound silly to center an entire film around him, but McQuarrie and Cruise are actively looking for a way in.

“We’re having serious conversations about it and how best to do it,” McQuarrie said. “It ultimately comes down to what that character is.”

The big...

At Tuesday night's 2025 Sports Emmy Awards, Lady Gaga took home her first Emmy. She won for Best Music Direction of "Hold My Hand" for the Super Bowl Lix pregame show. With previous victories at the Oscars and Grammys, that places her just a Tony Award short of Egot.

This marked her fifth try at winning an Emmy following nominations for her variety specials Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, and One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, plus the special class program Super Bowl Li Halftime Show Starring Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga won her Academy Award for the song "Shallow" from the 2018 film A Star Is Born. She is a 14-time Grammy Award winner, with the first for The Fame and "Poker Face" in 2010 and the most recent earlier this year for...

With 3 Tony Awards and numerous Broadway credits under his belt, Nathan Lane is heading back to The Great White Way. "Not next season, but the following I will be making a return," the performer said in a recent interview with Deadline's Pete Hammond. "It's not for about a year and a half. I can't talk about it, but it's something I've wanted to do for a very long time [and it's] with Joe Mantello," he teased. The production is expected to be a Scott Rudin-produced revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, which, according to a recent report in The New York Times, would also star Tony-winner Laurie Metcalf. This would mark Lane's first return to Broadway since 2023's Pictures From...

Prestige International Pictures, a film sales, financing and production company, will be launching at the Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival. The company will be headed by sales industry veteran Carlos Rincon as the president and co-founder. Prestige will be announcing its Cannes slate in the coming days.

Joining Rincon at Prestige as partners and co-founders are producers Chris Lemos, Luis Guerrero, William Knochel and Brad Friedlander of Vital Pictures.

Prestige describes itself as being a distribution company “by filmmakers, for filmmakers” as the producing founders have “lived through all the experiences and challenges that filmmakers face while seeking distribution for their film,” according to a statement. In addition to representing third-party content, Prestige will also represent Vital’s slate of in-house titles.

The company will be based on the West Coast (Los Angeles) and East Coast (Atlanta) to “further enhance relationships with filmmakers on both coasts.”

Previously,...

Art is subjective. One person may see a garbage bag floating in the wind. Another? The most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen. But when producers with an all-star cast and millions on the line expect Basic Instinct and you show up with a gonzo indie art film? Art just might get thrown out of a high rise window along with your career. In today’s video we explore the story of a director taking his last shot at redemption after a recent flop; Deciding to do so by tricking his studio into funding a sexy thriller while he secretly makes an odd art film. One that he fully understands a mainstream audience may not enjoy. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Lets see if it pays off. This is what happened to Eye of the Beholder.

The story of Eye of the Beholder actually began in 1980 with the book...

Guy Ritchie will direct the “Road House” sequel with Jake Gyllenhaal reprising his role as Dalton, according to an insider with knowledge of the project.

Will Beall is writing the script. Plot details are being kept under wraps.

Doug Liman previously directed “Road House,” a new spin on the classic Patrick Swayze film, from a script by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.

In “Road House,” Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a former UFC champ who ends up working as a “cooler” at a dive bar in the Florida Keys. The cast also includes Daniela Melchior, Jessica Williams, Billy Magnussen, Lukas Gage, actual UFC fighter Conor McGregor and Joaquim de Almeida.

Producers include Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Alex Gartner, and Nine Stories Productions’ Gyllenhaal and Josh McLaughlin. Ivan Atkinson will executive produce.

The film succeeded despite a bit of a rocky start to its promotional campaign, as Liman laid into...

Rowdy Herrington's barroom brain-stomper "Road House" has had an interesting pop cultural journey. When it hit theaters 36 years ago, the improbable tale of Dalton (Patrick Swayze), a highly sought-after bouncer (with an NYU philosophy degree) who gets recruited to clean up a once-successful Missouri saloon that's become "the kind of place where they sweep up eyeballs after closing," received the kind of reviews you'd expect. Roger Ebert understood it (though lacked the courage to declare it the masterpiece I believe he knew in his heart it was), but his colleagues tore the film to shreds for being just about everything that makes it great: silly, boisterous and gratuitously violent. If they hadn't walked in expecting to have their intelligence insulted, they would've noticed that it was punchily written by Hilary Henkin and David Lee Henry and ferociously well directed.

Decades later, people possessed of supreme discernment now recognize that...

If you know your way around a Hollywood face sheet, chances are one character in Apple TV+’s “The Studio” might look and sound familiar to you: Catherine O’Hara’s Patty Leigh, where the “Schitt’s Creek” Emmy-winning actress is obviously doing a play on producer Amy Pascal. Especially in terms of Patty’s hairstyle, wanton tresses that feel like an extension of her frittering mind after she’s ousted from the fictional studio Continental Pictures.

Patty is introduced in Episode 1 of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg‘s series entreating new studio chief Matt Remnick (Rogen) to give her a three-year overall exclusive deal — a standard exiting strategy and one where Patty also asks for a “put picture,” or one she can greenlight without the studios’ permission. Given that Pascal is one of the most influential producers in town — and one of its most powerful women — and is also one whom...

Scott Rudin has publicly apologized for his “bone-headed” and “narcissistic” behavior as a producer, four years after being effectively canceled in 2021. Rudin, who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and 18 Tony Awards, was accused by several former staffers in a June 2021 Hollywood Reporter piece of allegedly abusing them. Details included Rudin allegedly smashing a computer on an assistant’s hand and throwing objects at employees.

After the report, Rudin announced that he would be taking a step back from his projects, including his slated producing credits for five A24 films such as Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” The Daniels’ “Everywhere All at Once,” and Alex Garland’s “Men.” Rudin said in 2021 that he was going to “take the time to work on personal issues I should have long ago.”

Now, Rudin is returning to Broadway and “owning” his mistakes. “A lot of what was said was true.

Broadway and film producer Scott Rudin, whose aggressive and bullying behavior to some of his staff led to public condemnation and his withdrawal from producing four years ago, is making a comeback, which Rudin announces today in an interview with The New York Times.

In the article, Rudin says he has more than a dozen shows in development, including both musicals and plays. At least three of the latter, according to the Times, will star Laurie Metcalf and be directed by Joe Mantello. (Neither of them responded to Times’ requests for comment.)

This fall, he will produce Little Bear Ridge Road, a play by Samuel D. Hunter staged last year by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company. The New York production, like the one in Chicago, will star Metcalf and will be directed by Mantello. In the spring Rudin will produce Montauk, a new play by David Hare, also starring Metcalf and directed by Mantello.

Producer Scott Rudin, who stepped back from the film and theater industry in 2021 after workplace abuse allegations, is planning his Broadway return.

The New York Times reported Friday that Rudin is developing a handful of Broadway productions. They include “Little Bear Ridge Road,” a play by Samuel D. Hunter that will star Laurie Metcalf from director Joe Mantello, for this fall; “Montauk,” a new play by David Hare also with Metcalf and Mantello, for next spring; and a revival of “Death of a Salesman” with Nathan Lane, Metcalf and Mantello for the following season.

Rudin was shunned from the industry after THR reported that Rudin threw items at employees, including a stapler and baked potato, berated staffers and threatened them with career retribution if they left his employment, and smashed a computer monitor on the hand of an assistant, sending him to the emergency room. The allegations came after the...

Scott Rudin, the producer who stepped away from his Broadway productions four years ago following allegations of workplace misconduct, is quietly readying his return. According to the New York Times, Rudin reflected on what he called “bone-headed” and “narcissistic” behavior while undergoing “a decent amount of therapy.”

“I have a lot more self-control than I had four years ago,” he said. “I learned I don’t matter that much, and I think that’s very healthy … I don’t want to let anybody down. Not just myself. My husband, my family and collaborators.

Scott Rudin is planning to return to Broadway next season.

The film and theater producer, who left the Broadway industry in 2021 after an article in The Hollywood Reporter detailed numerous claims of Rudin bullying assistants, now says he plans to stage three Broadway productions next season, with two starring Laurie Metcalf and directed by Joe Mantello, according to The New York Times.

As he prepares his return, Actors’ Equity says it will safeguard against any “bullying, harassment and discrimination” for stage managers or actors on productions he would be involved in.

“If Rudin is producing on Equity agreements, we will enforce them. They include strong protections against bullying, harassment and discrimination – stronger now even than when he last used them in 2021. Anyone who experiences or witnesses bullying, harassment, discrimination, etc in a workplace where Equity contracts are in use, whether or not they themselves are an Equity member, can file...

1990s teen hit Clueless has been brought to the stage of London’s West End by the film’s original writer and director Amy Heckerling, who has focused on keeping the 90s theme integral to the story.

Heckerling told BBC News that she has “no interest in being modern,” and has stuck closely to the original story. The 1995 film, inspired by Jane Austen’s novel Emma and starring Alicia Silverstone as lead character Cher and took $88million at the box office. It was credited with inspiring similar teen school dramas including Mean Girls, Gossip Girl and Legally Blonde.

And she admitted neither the original film nor the musical are documents of real LA life for most citizens. Heckerling told the BBC she wished the original film had been a musical, because “”there were natural moments in the script where characters could have sung.”

Scottish singer KT Tunstall has composed an original score for the show,...

Starring the talented Natalie Portman in its titular role, Annihilationmade its theatrical release on February 23, 2018. After its long stint on Netflix, Annihilation will now receive the axe in international markets this March as a part of the streamer's ongoing content reshuffling efforts. The streaming giant frequently rotates its catalog due to licensing agreements and cost-cutting measures, a practice that has time and time again left subscribers frustrated.

Directed by Alex Garland, the name behind Ex Machina (2014), Annihilation is an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's novel of the same name and was produced by Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, and Andrew Macdonald. With its ambitious narrative, stunning visuals, and thought-provoking themes, Annihilation was widely successful on the streamer, earning itself a cult following. The film went on to receive critical acclaim and, despite not being a major commercial success, was soon cemented as one of the best original sci-fi horror films of the decade.

The Academy Awards are one of the biggest celebrations of film and art that everyone looks forward to! But even the biggest night of the year faces a few hilarious blunders that make the event memorable for years.

From La La Land mistakenly being announced as Best Picture instead of Moonlight to John Travolta’s infamous mispronunciation of Idina Menzel’s name, these moments have left audiences stunned, amused, or outright baffled. But these are a few instances that add flavor to the award night. As everyone comes together to honor incredible talents, a few accidents are bound to happen.

Without further ado, let’s take a quick stroll down memory lane and reminisce about these hilarious moments.

10. In Memoriam confusion Jan Chapman’s image displayed instead of Janet Patterson during 2017 Oscars | Credits: The Academy Awards

The 2017 Oscars were not only a breakthrough year for cinema, but it is also...

There's a lot of magic that goes into the art of making movies, but it's rare that all the performers in a movie don't meet before cameras start rolling. Nevertheless, things get complicated on big-budget sets, especially when you factor in Covid-19 restrictions, reshoots, and actors who refuse to work with each other. 

With all that in mind, it's not uncommon that some co-stars aren't always on set at the same time during production. A lot of times, pivotal characters never meet in movies, meaning the only opportunities that actors get to interact would be at the table read or during the film's promotional period. Take, for instance, Tom Holland and Tom Hiddleston, whose characters never interact in "Avengers: Infinity War," despite the actors frequently appearing in interviews together. 

Surprisingly, for these 12 films we're about to cover, not only was there limited contact between co-stars at times, but some actors...

Jesse Eisenberg has put himself back in the Oscars race with A Real Pain, a film he wrote, directed, and acted in. The film has received two nominations, including Best Screenplay for Eisenberg and Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin. Eisenberg’s earlier stint at the Oscars was when he went up against and lost narrowly to Colin Firth at the Academy Awards in 2011.

At the time, Eisenberg was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for playing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s The Social Network. Aaron Sorkin wrote a screenplay for the film, that was adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal.

Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg as Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network | Credits: Sony Pictures Releasing

The book explored the multiple lawsuits that were ongoing at the time against Zuckerberg.

Jesse Eisenberg was prevented from meeting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg before portraying him in 'The Social Network'.The 41-year-old actor earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the social media gurur in the 2010 film and has now revealed that, despite wanting to meet Zuckerberg before portraying him, he was stopped from having a face-to-face exchange.After being cast in the role, Jesse - who was 25 at the time - decided to drive to Menlo Park in Northern California with an aim to walk straight into the Facebook offices and ask to sit down with Zuckerberg so he could see what he was like and do some research before playing the role. However, on his journey there, he was called by the producers of the film and warned not to follow through with his plan due to legal reasons. Speaking to host Scott Feinberg on an episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast,...

Before The Social Network began filming, Jesse Eisenberg tried to meet Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg – but then a producer intervened…

Released in 2010, The Social Network wasn’t exactly a flattering portrait of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. In the hands of writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher, the Harvard student who became a billionaire by building a social media empire is roundly portrayed as reclusive, vain and quietly vengeful.

It’s little wonder, then, that The Social Network’s makers weren’t exactly keen to have Jesse Eisenberg – the actor cast as Zuckerberg – to meet the film’s subject in person.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, however, Eisenberg recalls that he was so keen to meet the figure he was playing that he decided to drive over to Facebook’s headquarters in California. He didn’t have an appointment booked, but hoped that Zuckerberg...

Ideally, Jesse Eisenberg says, he would have at least met Mark Zuckerberg before portraying the Facebook co-founder in the 2010 film The Social Network. So the actor concocted a plan.

Eisenberg looked back on the David Fincher drama, which is now celebrating its 15th anniversary, as part of a wide-ranging discussion on the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast with host Scott Feinberg.

After being cast as the tech titan, Eisenberg wanted the opportunity to meet with Zuckerberg in person before filming began, but the movie’s producers hadn’t set anything up. So the then-25-year-old actor decided to simply drive to Menlo Park in Northern California to walk straight into the Facebook offices and ask for a sit-down with Zuckerberg.

“I was driving up to meet him because I was told [by producers], ‘No, we’re not going to [set up a meeting for you],'” Eisenberg recalled. “So I was literally in my car driving up.

Countless ink has been spilled and millions of feet have been shot about living in Los Angeles, and how it feels like you’re always on the precipice of apocalypse. With what we’ve seen and lived through, this past week that feeling was all too real.

Almost everyone in LA knows someone who’s lost everything in the wildfires that cut through the Pacific Palisades, Altadena and elsewhere. Its heartening to see Angelenos come together to help each other through volunteering, mutual aid and donations, and heartbreaking to see the GoFundMe pages that have been created for family after family. Our hearts are with everyone who has been affected by the wildfires in LA and beyond.

Los Angeles is more than just our home; it is the heart of Film Independent. This community is a big part of who we are, and we stand by your side during these challenging times.

Tom Cruise had no issues in going up against Harvey Weinstein way before the MeToo scandal brought down the Hollywood producer. Last year, fans heard from director Todd Field about how Cruise helped him to avoid Weinstein from hijacking his film. Interestingly, Cruise also took his chance to parody Weinstein in one of his roles.

Tom Cruise as Les Grossman in a still from Tropic Thunder | Credits: DreamWorks Pictures/Paramount Pictures

In Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, the Mission: Impossible actor played an over-the-top movie producer. Many speculated that the role was based on Weinstein while others also commented that the role carried resemblances to producer Scott Rudin. Fans believed that Cruise used the role to call out Weinstein’s aggressive behavior at a time when he was still all-powerful in the industry.

Tom Cruise parodied Harvey Weinstein and exposed his bullying behavior Harvey Weinstein | Credits: Georges Biard, licensed under...

For all the bluster around movies about American filmmaking trending too heavily towards blockbuster spectacle, every year sees at least one grand tome about the soul of America. In 2024, you need to look no further than The Brutalist – a new feature from director and writer Brady Corbet. A grandiose epic in the vein of The Master and The Godfather, The Brutalist asks us to follow an immigrant story over decades. With Adrien Brody delivering a career-defining performance, the three-and-a-half-hour showcase overflows with ideas. Even with some slight pacing issues in the second half (Corbet builds in a fifteen-minute intermission), The Brutalist stamps itself as one of the early contenders for Best of the Decade honors.

Courtesy of A24 Related 5 Reasons You Should Watch Adrien Brody’s “The Brutalist” The Brutalist Plot

László Tóth (Adrien Brody) arrives in America as a survivor of the Holocaust. His wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and...

No Country for Old Men, the neo-western thriller directed by the Coen brothers, is arriving in the streaming wasteland on December 1. Starring Javier Bardem in one of his finest performances, the bleak film offers the perfect counterbalance to the joy of the holiday season unless you have Christmas decorations with Anton Chigurhs face on them, in which case the film is already on your holiday watchlist.

No Country for Old Men hits Paramount+ the first day of December, and while it isnt the only thriller arriving on the platform next month, it is certainly one of the best. Joel and Ethan Coen's gritty neo-western is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Pulitzer prize-winner Cormac McCarthy. The $25 million production was a box office success, making over $171 million worldwide and proved the Coen brothers could be just as successful at the box office as they were with critics including the late Roger Ebert,...

Quick Links The South Park Movie Pushed Boundaries South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut Was Successful Enough to Warrant a Sequel The South Park Feature-Length Specials

25 years ago, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was unleashed to the masses during the early phases and height of the TV series' popularity. The movie took the TV series' bawdy satirical humor and amplified it to 100 as it tackled censorship, the MPAA, scapegoating, and many other themes that would become South Park's bread and butter. The movie dealt with its share of issues during production, mostly with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's fights with the MPAA over its content, but when it was all said and done, the South Park movie became a critical and financial success, even going on to earn an Academy Award nomination.

That was in 1999, and as it stands in 2024, fans of the series haven't gotten...

Peter Weir's 1998 film "The Truman Show" was ahead of its time. The film tapped into a common paranoid fantasy born of the ultra-saturated media age, increasingly interested in "reality television." What if, the movie asked, you were being filmed by hidden TV cameras 24 hours a day, and your life was being broadcast around the world for an eager viewing public? By extension, what if all the people you meet are paid actors, only pretending to be your friends and lovers, inserted into your "show" for dramatic purposes? All life is now public, and it's being used as fodder for entertainment. "The Truman Show" was an existential crisis for the MTV generation, and the original script was even darker if you can believe it.

"The Truman Show" imagined such a scenario, with one Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) at its center. Truman was adopted by a TV company at birth, and...

Exclusive: Apple TV+ has extended its first-look deal with Oscar-nominated producer Kevin Walsh and his The Walsh Company shingle, to continue to develop and produce original films and series for the service.

This is a sweeter deal, and positions Walsh to become a bigger supplier for Apple’s slate of originals. It comes after Walsh produced Apple Original Films’ The Instigators, which launched as the most-watched movie on Apple TV+; and the Ridley Scott-directed Napoleon. Up next is another Apple original, Echo Valley, a Michael Pearce-directed thriller that stars Julianne Moore alongside Sydney Sweeney from an original screenplay by Brad Ingelsby. Produced by The Walsh Company and Scott Free Films, that film debuts next year.

Walsh is also in the middle of a potential sequel to The Instigators, sorting it out with Apple, director Doug Liman, co-writers Casey Affleck and Chuck MacLean and Artists Equity partners Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

The sixth season of the FX series What We Do in the Shadows will also be the show’s last. The final batch of episodes are scheduled to start airing on October 21st at 10 p.m. Et/Pt… and fans will have the chance to watch the first three episodes that night! The remaining eight episodes of the 11-episode season will be released on a weekly basis, and will be available to stream the next day on Hulu. They’ll be available to stream internationally on Disney+ at a later date. When the new episodes do air, viewers will be introduced to a new character: someone named Lisa, who “works in a corporate environment,” and today Deadline revealed that Lisa will be played by comedian Alyssa Limperis.

Limperis’ previous credits include Flatbush Misdemeanors, The List, Aunty Donna’s House, and Too Late. She also voices multiple characters on the Cartoon Network show We Baby Bears.

Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of "The Addams Family" was a massive hit when it was released in November 1991, making $191 million worldwide over a $30 million budget and reintroducing the Addams characters to the pop culture mainstream. The film also kicked off a trend of high-profile cinematic adaptations of classic TV shows; all due respect to 1983's "Twilight Zone: The Movie" and 1987's "Dragnet," but neither of those films exactly lit up the box office. Thus, it was almost a given that an "Addams" sequel be put into production, with "Addams Family Values," hitting screens just two years after its predecessor, in November of 1993.

The first "Addams Family" made the choice to tap into the pop culture zeitgeist in a big way, partially for satiric reasons (one of the delights of the first movie sees Raul Julia's Gomez become addicted to then-current television) and partially for marketing reasons. For the latter,...

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Before Barry Sonnenfeld became a director with films like the "Addams Family" movies, "Get Shorty," and "Men in Black," he was a decorated cinematographer who often worked with The Coen Brothers, Danny DeVito, Penny Marshall, and on two of Rob Reiner's most memorable films — "When Harry Met Sally..." and "Misery." In Sonnenfeld's new book, "Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time: True Stories from a Career in Hollywood," he described his role of cinematographer as a "friend of the director," rather than just the director of photography. "I had as many opinions and ideas about editing, performance, or if the costumes looked worn-in enough, as I did about lighting or camera angles," he wrote. It makes sense; the cinematographer is your first line of defense to make sure something looks right, so Sonnenfeld was often involved in areas that were...

The sixth season of the FX series What We Do in the Shadows will also be the show’s last. The final batch of episodes are scheduled to start airing on October 21st at 10 p.m. Et/Pt… and fans will have the chance to watch the first three episodes that night! The remaining eight episodes of the 11-episode season will be released on a weekly basis, and will be available to stream the next day on Hulu. They’ll be available to stream internationally on Disney+ at a later date. With the premiere date swiftly approaching, a trailer for What We Do in the Shadows season 6 has arrived online and can be seen in the embed above.

A spin-off from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s horror-comedy mockumentary film of the same title, What We Do in the Shadows centers on three vampires who live together: Laszlo (Matt Berry...

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Tim Burton has always been an outlier in Hollywood. He's a filmmaker with a distinct, peculiar aesthetic and set of interests, yet his movies have broad appeal and are remarkably consistent in the way they perform financially. Even Burton's weakest franchise films bear the sort of directorial hallmarks that are often missing from tentpoles in the 21st century. Indeed, say what you will against his "Dark Shadows," but only Burton could have enough pull to get a $150 million movie reboot of a cult '60s soap opera oddity green-lit in 2012 while also making it precisely the way he wanted. It's the same reason the critically-derided horror-comedy has found its share of defenders.

Be that as it may, having to deal with the relentless friction between creativity and commerce has taken its toll on Burton in the past. His 1996 sci-fi...

Meryl Streep could soon be adding another series to her growing list of TV credits. The three-time Oscar winner is attached to star in a series adaptation of author Jonathan Franzen’s National Book Award-winning novel “The Corrections,” according to Puck and Variety.

The series is being developed by CBS Studios and wiip and will be shopped around to streamers and networks, but no buyer is attached yet. Franzen is writing the adaptation and will executive produce.

The novel, which was first published in 2001, tells the story of a Midwestern family as they prepare to reconvene for “one last Christmas” before the patriarch’s health declines further. It covers themes of family, generation gaps, identity, and the pursuit of happiness. It is considered by critics to be one of the best American novels of the 21st century so far.

There have been attempts to adapt “The Corrections” since it was published.

Jonathan Franzen’s popular novel The Corrections could be getting the TV treatment, with an assist from a showbiz legend.

TVLine has confirmed that Oscar winner Meryl Streep is attached to star in a potential limited-series adaptation of The Corrections, based on Franzen’s 2001 book. A CBS Studios rep confirms to us that the project is in its “very, very early” stages, with Puck reporting that it will soon be pitched to streaming services.

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The Corrections could finally make it to the small screen — with Meryl Streep attached to headline.

Deadline has confirmed that Streep is set to star in the project from CBS Studios. Author Jonathan Franzen is adapting the 2001 novel chronicling a Midwestern couple and their adult children.

CBS Studios, which is producing with wiip, will take out the project soon. Franzen, wiip’s Mark Roybal and Nicole Clemens, formerly of Paramount TV Studios), will exec produce.

There’s been a previous attempt to bring the book to the small screen. In 2011, HBO ordered a pilot from Noah Baumbach. Scott Rudin, who had been developing the project for a decade, originally as a feature, was set to executive produce with Baumbach and Franzen. The pilot starred Chris Cooper, Dianne Wiest, Ewan McGregor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans and Greta Gerwig.

The following year, however, HBO declined to move forward. Puck first reported the news.