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The Batman: Arkham series is considered one of the best video game franchises of all time, and anyone who has ever even dreamt of being Batman should definitely try the Arkham games out. The series is more than a decade old now, and players are still swinging through Gotham’s gritty streets, and cracking skulls of criminal scums.

Villains are characters that solidify the hero’s identity in media, and although the Batman: Arkham series has presented us with a plethora of villains who are perfect for rivaling the Caped Crusader, some villains didn’t make the cut in the Arkham series. Hence, we have created a list of villains that absolutely needed to appear in the Batman: Arkham games. Let’s dive right into it.

1. Prometheus Prometheus wanted poster in Arkham Asylum | Image Credits: Warner Bros. Games

Starting our villains list with Prometheus, who is literally the dark reflection...

The Batman: Arkham series took the world by storm when its first game was released in 2009. The series became lauded as one of the greatest superhero franchises in video game history. It also gave us the best comic-accurate Batman experience that truly made us feel like the Caped Crusader.

Now that speculations of a new Arkham game have been floating around the web for a while, fans cannot help but wonder who is going to be the next big villain in the Arkhamverse. If you are one of those people who are scratching their head with no idea who is going to be the next harbinger of havoc, then worry not, because we have brought you a list of 5 Batman villains who would be perfect for the next Arkham game.

1. Ventriloquist

The Ventriloquist, or Arnold Wesker, is a ruthless criminal and a crime boss in the DC Comics who (as...

Soap Kitchen: Ruizpalacios Underwhelms & Over Bakes Food Drama

Making his English language debut with fourth feature La Cocina, based on the notable stage play by Arnold Wesker, Alonso Ruizpalacios presents an absurd, impulsive microcosm of oft invisible experiences. Taking place behind-the-scenes in what appears to be a mediocre tourist mainstay in Times Square (set in an era before cellphones), a teeming community of workers tossed together like a makeshift family goes about the daily grind. As circumstances dictate, the focus is one particularly grueling lunch shift in which various coinciding dilemmas come to a show stopping head.

Much like his exceptional 2018 title Museo, Ruizpalacios gravitates towards the power of process, drifting into tangentiality of the narrative to collect the milk of human experiences.…...

Rooney Mara drama “La Cocina” by Alonso Ruizpalacios has been snapped up by boutique movie distributor Mubi to stream exclusively in the U.S. starting May 2.

Mara stars opposite four-time Ariel Award winner Raul Briones in this intense black & white kitchen drama which Variety described as a “chaotic symphony of nearly two dozen characters…” that “mixes biting social critique with stylistic bravura.”

Based on the seminal 1957 play “The Kitchen” by Arnold Wesker, the drama takes place in a hectic Times Square kitchen where a staff of mostly immigrant workers battles the heat, the pressure and the weight of dreams carried from distant homelands.

Drama premiered in competition at the 2024 Berlinale and was nominated for best director and best cinematography at the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

It was shot on location in New York City and at the venerable Estudios Churubusco in Ruizpalacios’ native Mexico City.

“We couldn’t be more...

The tempestuous chef trope has been done better elsewhere and this kitchen as a microcosm of exploited migrant workers is a disappointment

Here is a strangely exhausting movie, quaintly imagining the frenzied atmosphere of a New York restaurant kitchen as a microcosm of exploited migrant workers, full of macho shouting and self-conscious acting, with every speech a drama school audition piece. The Mexican film-maker Alonso Ruizpalacios has given us some terrific work in the past, such as his debut Güeros, his drama-thriller Museum and his rather amazing docudrama A Cop Movie, but I couldn’t make friends with this strained and histrionic picture. It is in English and Spanish, shot in black-and-white, but sometimes shifting to different colour filters, and inspired by The Kitchen, the 1957 stage play by Arnold Wesker.

Raúl Briones (who was an officer in A Cop Movie) plays Pedro, one of the chefs, a hot-tempered guy who...

Batman has arguably the most impressive rogue's gallery in comic book history, and with the Dcu set to feature a new take on the character, there are a number of villains that need to appear at some point in the universe. After the fizzling out of the Dceu, James Gunn and Peter Safran were tasked with starting a brand-new Dcu, becoming co-CEOs of DC Studios. One of the projects Gunn announced in the initial slate reveal was a new iteration of Batman with The Brave and the Bold, which will feature his biological son Damian Wayne.

With every Batman adaptation comes iconic villains, and the Dark Knight's film history has featured a variety of incredible villain performances over the years. From Heath Ledger's Joker to Colin Farrell's Penguin, there is no shortage of incredible characters that have been adapted. Still, the new DC Universe has the chance...

Warning: contains spoilers for "Living Doll," appearing in DC Horror Presents #2!

One of Batman's scariest villains has experienced a rebirth, and is ready to make their presence known. Gotham City is home to some of the worst criminals in the DC Universe, such as the Joker, the Penguin and Black Mask. There are a number of second-string villains as well, all lurking just under the surface, waiting for their moment to come–and it does for one in DC Horror Presents #2.

DC Horror Presents #2 features two stories, and the first, “Living Doll,” by Latoya Morgan and Tom Derenick and Walt Barna, sees the rebirth of Scarface, the haunted, talking former partner of the Ventriloquist. Two young lovers discover the doll in a warehouse, freeing it in the process. Scarface kills one of the kids, brutally decapitating him. Ironically, his date, a young woman named Ramsey, is enamored with Scarface. She quickly disowns her date,...

Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina” (English Title: The Kitchen), adapted from Arnold Wesker’s play The Kitchen, is a feverish live-wire immersion into a restaurant serving tourists at Times Square. Opening with the arrival of a young Mexican woman, Estella (Anna Diaz) seeking a cook’s job at the restaurant The Grill, there’s a note of anticipation tempered with grungy realism. But she’s not the primary character in the narrative, just an entry point. Quickly, the film swerves into one of the other cooks, Pedro (Raúl Briones), who shares a family history with Estella though initially he struggles to recall her. Their families have known each other since they were kids.

Pedro is a magnificent flirt, with an easy way of skidding around another’s sour mood by dialing up his casual humor and allure. In one of the most sexually bristling scenes, he pacifies his pregnant white American girlfriend,...

Alonso Ruizpalacios established himself as a keen observer of life in Mexico beginning with feature-length directorial debut, 2014’s Güeros. Shot in luminous black and white, the shaggy dramedy abounds as much in potshots at Mexican culture as it does in homages to cinema. His subsequent films are no less playful with form, including 2021’s docudrama A Cop Movie, a galvanizing portrait of police work that subverted genre conventions.

Ruizpalacios’s fourth feature, La Cocina, which premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year, isn’t set in Mexico, but many of its characters hail from the director’s country of origin, and their immigrant dreams are as much the subject here as the exploitative nature of capitalism. The film, based on Arnold Wesker’s 1957 play The Kitchen, is set almost entirety in a Times Square restaurant, and it finds Ruizpalacios tackling political issues from a personal perspective.

At the start of the film,...

Set at a restaurant that caters to tourists in Times Square, Alonso Ruizpalacios’s La Cocina, adapted from Arnold Wesker’s 1957 play The Kitchen, revolves around Pedro (Raúl Briones), an undocumented Mexican line cook, and Julia (Rooney Mara), a white American working front of house. When $800 goes missing from the till, triggering an investigation by restaurant management, their love story derails. Throughout, Ruizpalacios allows the Grill to be both exactly what it is—a specific workplace with its own Kitchen Confidential-style rituals and pecking order—and a microcosm of American capitalism. “American” in the broadest sense since, as Pedro reminds us, “America is not a country.”

In an important scene, the Grill’s second-generation Mexican American manager, Luis (Eduardo Olmos), is interrogating Pedro, whom he suspects of having stolen the money to pay for the abortion that Julia wants and, coincidentally, would cost $800. While the intransigent line cook sidesteps Luis...

One forgotten supervillain has the potential for a career resurgence on par with Harley Quinn: Peyton Riley, DC's second Ventriloquist. At her inception, Harley was an evil sidekick who wasn't even supposed to be in official DC Comics canon. Yet, her popularity grew enough to justify her going solo and a "rebranding" of sort. Harley is now one of the leading figureheads of the DC brand.

The Harley Quinn method of re-building a character could do wonders for someone like Peyton Riley, DC's forgotten Ventriloquist. Riley actually has a history with Harley Quinn, having made frequent appearances alongside Quinn, including in Detective Comics #831 by Paul Dini, Don Kramer, Wayne Faucher, John Kalisz, and Jared K. Fletcher.

DC never seems consistent on whether the original Ventriloquist, Arnold Wesker, should stay dead. As a result, Peyton Riley doesn't make as many appearances in recent continuity, as Wesker tends to take priority.

Exclusive: Billy Howle is so at home playing characters wading through pools of anger and angst that he had an “alien feeling” while playing idle rich boy Benji Winbury in Netflix hit The Perfect Couple.

The British actor, almost as a counterpoint to the Nantucket frippery on display in the adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s chart-topping beach read, can now be found on the stage of the prestigious Almeida Theatre in Islington, North London. There he opens tonight, taking on the theatre’s original angry young man, Jimmy Porter, a mammoth career-defining role, in a revival of John Osborne’s 1956 classic Look Back in Anger, which takes place in a dreary attic apartment where Jimmy rails at a society that has become “sick.”

“There’s all this talk about mental health,” says Howle, “and let’s face it, the guy has anger issues. It’s in the title of the play.

“La Cocina,” starring Rooney Mara and Raúl Briones, gets its U.S. release Oct. 25 at the Angelika Film Center in New York, and Nov. 1 at L.A.’s Laemmle Monica. Willa is handling U.S. distribution. The drama will then get a rollout in the top 10 American markets. HanWay handles international sales.

Directed and written by Alonso Ruizpalacios, “La Cocina” stars Briones as Pedro, an undocumented cook in a busy midtown Manhattan restaurant in love with server Julia (Mara), who is pregnant with his child. Tension builds and then erupts when it’s discovered that money has been stolen from the cash register, and blame falls on Pedro. But who really stole the money?

Mexican filmmaker Ruizpalacios adapts “The Kitchen,” a 1957 play by Arnold Wesker, into a drama about social and financial inequalities in modern-day America. It also gives the anonymous workers who drive the service economy a human face,...

The Batman: Part II is easily one of the most anticipated upcoming superhero movies, even though the sequel to 2022's The Batman is not being released until 2026. Many fans are looking forward to seeing where director Matt Reeves takes his more street-level version of the Caped Crusader. This includes the villains that he faces, with the Dark Knight's next foe being just as important as the development of Bruce Wayne himself.

Several classic Batman villains can work within the world established by The Batman. Others might need some tweaking, but fans want to see them, nonetheless. Likewise, there's a certain Clown Prince of Crime who's almost certain to show up in some capacity. Thus, the potential foes to face Batman and his allies are endless, though they have to fit in Batman's world.

Updated on August 12, 2024, by Robbie Robinson: Matt Reeves impressed new and old fans of Batman with his film.

The Ventriloquist became a terrifying threat after being resurrected as a Black Lantern, creating multiple indestructible construct version of his dummy Scarface, wreaking havoc in a way he was never able to during his lifetime. In DC's Blackest Night storyline, readers witnessed how a seemingly harmless villain like Arnold Wesker could turn into Batman's scariest enemy with a signal power upgrade. The Black Lantern Ventriloquist's transformation from a joke to a nightmare shows the potential of even the least respected villains in Batman's rogues gallery.

Not many people were scared of this Batman villain until he got his hands on a Black Lantern Ring, turning him into a formidable threat in the process, while also making him legitimately spooky for the first time. Arnold Wesker, known as the Ventriloquist, and his dummy Scarface, truly took their place among the Caped Crusader's rogues' gallery when Wesker became a Black Lantern.

Blackest...

Exclusive: Lord of the Rings star Morfydd Clark and Under the Banner of Heaven’s Billy Howle will star in new versions of John Osborn’s Look Back In Anger and Arnold Wesker’s Roots, which will run in rep at London’s Almeida in what has been dubbed the Angry and Young season. Ahead of the season, Romola Garai will appear in Eline Arbo’s adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s exceptional Noble Prize-winning novel The Years.

Roots, with Clark in the central role of Beatie Bryant who returns to her family in Norfolk after living a highly charged political life in London, will run at the Almeida in Islington, North London, from September 10 through November 23, directed by Diyan Zora.

Howle will take a small part in Roots but in Look Back In Anger, which will run from September 20 through November 23, he’ll play Jimmy Porter, the theater’s original angry young man.

Ian Gelder, known for his roles in Game of Thrones and Torchwood, has died at the age of 74 after battling cancer, his husband and fellow actor Ben Daniels confirmed.

Gelder’s passing was announced, leaving fans and colleagues mourning the loss of the veteran actor.

Per The Sun, Daniels confirmed that his cause of death was due to complications from bile cancer.

Gelder is renowned for his portrayal of Kevan Lannister in the acclaimed series Game of Thrones, the younger brother of Tywin Lannister, played by Charles Dance.

The British actor enjoyed a prolific career spanning five decades in both stage and television.

His husband, Ben Daniels, shared the heartbreaking news of Gelder’s death on social media.

Ben Daniels leads tributes for Ian Gelder

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ben (@bendanielsss)

In a poignant statement, Daniels expressed his profound grief, describing Gelder as his “darling...

Ventriloquist meets a chilling end in Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum #3, going out unceremoniously. Arkhamverse introduces a sad ending for Ventriloquist, leaving his potential untapped in the Batman: Arkham franchise. Ventriloquist's death in Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum #3 marks the end of any potential storylines for the character in the Arkhamverse.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum #3!DC Comics has just revealed that a member of the Dark Knight's rogues' gallery died between the last two games in the Batman: Arkham franchise. The Arkham series has seen the deaths of numerous Batman's enemies, but rather than a dramatic final send-off, one classic villain goes out rather unceremoniously.

In Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum #3 by John Layman and Jesús Hervás, a riot is breaking out in Arkham and Harley Quinn is eager to get out. Harley teams up with Scarecrow and, to her displeasure, the Ventriloquist. However,...

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Berlinale Competition title La Cocina.

Picturehouse’s newly-announced acquisitions team James Brown and Julia Trawinska acquired the film from sales agent HanWay Films in Berlin.

La Cocina had its world premiere on Friday, February 16 in Berlin.

The black-and-white drama follows a Mexican cook in a New York tourist trap restaurant, who is in love with an American waitress who cannot commit to a relationship with an undocumented alien.

Rooney Mara stars alongside Raul Briones Carmona. The film is co-financed by Fifth Season, which co-represents North America rights with WME Independent.

“La Cocina,” the Rooney Mara-starring drama that recently bowed in competition at the Berlinale, has been acquired for most international territories.

HanWay Films has closed sales for France (Originals Factory), Australia and New Zealand (Vendetta), Spain (Avalon), Italy (Teodora Film), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Scandinavia (Mis. Label), Poland (Monolith), Romania (Bad Unicorn), Baltics (Acme), Czech Republic (Film Europe), South Korea (The Coup Inc.), Japan (Sundae), Taiwan (Filmware International), China (HiShow), Greece (Tfg), the Middle East (Front Row), Israel (Forum Film), Singapore (Shaw), Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures) and Ships and Airlines (Cinesky). Before the Berlin Film Festival began, a key deal with Germany and Austria was closed with Square One Entertainment.

Variety understands that a U.K. and Ireland deal is very close to being finalized, while Fifth Season — which co-financed the film — is co-representing the North American sale with WME.

The fourth feature from one of...

Everyone knows that most big restaurant kitchens are a mess. Everyone also knows that restaurant workers are overworked, underpaid, usually some of the most stressed out people on the planet, who work tirelessly where we can't see them to prepare our food and keep the restaurant running at full speed. There have been a number of good films made about kitchens and restaurant workers recently (Boiling Point and "The Bear" are two of the most prominent) and now there's another new one to add to that growing subgenre. La Cocina is the latest feature film made by a Mexican filmmaker named Alonso Ruizpalacios, who directs this B&w drama based on the acclaimed stage play by Arnold Wesker. Alas, La Cocina is unfortunately a messy, tiresomely chaotic, frustrating film that is so obsessed with its own chaos that it becomes annoying to sit through, especially the final 30 minutes. Check, please! I don't want a desert today,...

It was when Alonso Ruizpalacios was in London working as a dishwasher at the (now-extinct) Rainforest Cafe that he came up with the idea for La Cocina.

“I was a drama student and I’d just read the [1957] play The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker and to make the work — which is tough, monotonous and very, very hard — bearable, I’d look at it through the creative lens of the play. If you see how a kitchen works, you realize it is much like the world, like [how] society works. Wesker says for Shakespeare all the world is a stage, whereas for him all the world is a kitchen.”

It was decades later, after success with Mexican films like Museo and A Cop Movie, that Ruizpalacios came back to the idea, taking The Kitchen as the jumping-off point for his English-language debut, transferring the action from late-’50s London to modern-day New York.

Egos are charred and tempers seared in La Cocina, a kitchen nightmare set in the engine rooms of a vast Times Square eatery where the staff have more pressing things to worry about than rising temperatures. Take Pedro, a hardened and still-undocumented line cook whose outbursts of ideology can only mask his resentments and vulnerability for so long. Then there’s Julia (Rooney Mara), who is carrying Pedro’s unborn child, hiding her morning sickness in the staff room and planning to sneak out on break to get an abortion. And then there’s Estela (Anna Diaz), our eyes and ears: fresh off the proverbial boat, with barely a word of English, asking strangers on the subway how to get to 45th street before being unceremoniously tossed into a lunch shift that soon resembles The Raft of the Medusa, adrift on a sea of Cherry Coke.

The director of this lively tableaux is Alonso Ruizpalacios,...

If “the kitchen as war zone” has become a veritable sub-genre unto itself, Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “La Cocina” is the closest thing it has to its own “Gallipoli.” The trenches are made out of stainless steel instead of rotten wood, and the steady bombardment of orders comes with a greater threat of deportation than it does that of immediate death, but a job at The Grill just outside of Times Square is no less dehumanizing than a deployment along the frontlines at Suvla Bay, and it comes without any of the same hope for glory.

On the contrary, the soul-crushing system that compels undocumented immigrants to do this kind of work depends upon keeping them out of sight; not only from Ice, but also from the tourists who can only enjoy their rubber-fried lunch because they don’t have to look at the labor that went into making it. Capitalism is...

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios has had a winning record coming to the Berlin Film Festival since 2013, when his film Gueros took the Best First Feature prize. Five years later he was back with his second, the sensational museum-heist film Museo, and deservedly won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. His third, A Cop Movie, which plays with the traditional docu form by using actors, won Best Documentary at Mexico’s Golden Ariel Awards.

Ruizpalacios belongs in the same league as iconic current Mexican directors Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and particularly Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose cinematic style seems closest to what Ruizpalacios has been doing. His latest trip to Berlin, La Cocina, reinforces the thrilling talent of this singular filmmaker who for the first time has shot a film using both Spanish and English. It features American star Rooney Mara as well as a stunning, uninhibited, shoot-for-the-stars turn from Raul Briones,...

There’s a surging life force felt in every scene of Alonso Ruizpalacios’ superbly acted La Cocina — at times ebullient but more often on edge, if not careening dangerously toward disaster or violence. Think The Bear on cocaine with a Red Bull chaser and you get some idea of the sustained intensity and simmering pressure of this bruising tragicomedy about what the diners (mostly) don’t see during a working day in a busy Times Square restaurant.

The Mexican writer-director has style to burn, evident in the intoxicatingly textured black-and-white visuals, the livewire editing and the striking use of music, from solemn choral pieces to cacophonous jazz. Even if he takes too long wrapping up an overwrought climactic crescendo, this is a compelling vision of the immigrant experience as a hellish limbo in which even the seeming ballast of community, brotherhood and love can be illusory.

In his previous films Güeros,...

Before demonstrating himself to be one of Mexico’s most original and exciting new filmmaking talents, Alonso Ruizpalacios washed dishes in a bustling big-city kitchen. That experience informs every second of the “Museo” director’s fourth feature, “La Cocina,” a thrilling in-spirit adaptation of Arnold Wesker’s 1957 play “The Kitchen,” transposed from midcentury London to modern-day New York.

A chaotic symphony of nearly two dozen characters, this black-and-white indie confection (garnished with sparing touches of color) mixes biting social critique with stylistic bravura. The setting is in the guts of a high-volume midtown Manhattan restaurant called The Grill — a hectic pressure cooker where personal and professional concerns come to a boil.

The food looks edible at best, and a lot less enticing after we’ve witnessed the commotion that goes into preparing it. In Ruizpalacios’ version, practically the entire staff — not Rooney Mara’s pregnant waitress, but the ones touching the food,...

Rooney Mara has become increasingly selective with her roles, often prioritizing projects from A-list auteurs and taking long hiatuses when the right films don’t materialize. At the Berlin Film Festival press conference for her new film “La Cocina” (via Variety), Mara attributed some of her choosiness to her insistence on working with directors she trusts.

“I really go by the director. I learned that pretty early,” Mara said when asked about her criteria for selecting roles. “I had some bad experiences as an actor. And then I think it was probably after the first time I worked with David Fincher that I was like, ‘Oh, follow the director.’ So I really make my choices based on the filmmaker and who I want to work with because at the end of the day, it’s all them.”

“La Cocina” is directed by “A Cop Movie” filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios, whom Mara...

Rooney Mara says she chooses movie projects these days based on who is seated in the director’s chair and has been doing so for some time.

“For me, I really go by the director. I learned that pretty early,” the Women Talking and Girl With a Dragon Tattoo actor said Friday when explaining how she ended up starring in director Alonso Ruizpalacios’ English-language debut, La Cocina, which bowed at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday.

The two-time Oscar nominee plays a waitress at a high-stress Manhattan restaurant where she strikes up a relationship with a backroom cook, played by Raúl Briones. “I had some bad experiences as an actor,” Mara continued.

So it took her role in David Fincher’s The Social Network, where she played Erica Albright, to restore her faith in acting. “It was the first time I worked with David Fincher and I realized follow the director.

Inspired by Arnold Wesker’s 1957 stage play, “The Kitchen,” Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “La Cocina” dives deep into the bowels of the industrial-size kitchen of a restaurant in New York City’s Times Square where food is churned out to serve throngs of diners, mostly tourists.

For Ruizpalacios, whose feature debut, “Güeros,” won the best first feature award at the Berlinale nearly 10 years ago, “La Cocina” (“The Kitchen”) is basically an anti-food-porn movie. “I wanted to show the other side of the food industry where expediency is more important than the quality of the food. It’s a metaphor for corporate capitalism,” he says.

The story takes place at the fictional The Grill in Manhattan, where cash has gone missing from the register. All the undocumented cooks, hailing from a diversity of countries, are placed under scrutiny, particularly Pedro (Raúl Briones), who is already on the line for his troublemaking.

Pedro is...

Exclusive: HanWay Films has closed a Germany & Austria pre-sale on Berlinale competition title La Cocina with SquareOne Entertainment.

From Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios (A Cop Movie), and starring two-time Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (The Girl with Dragon Tattoo) and Mexican star Raúl Briones (A Cop Movie), the love story is set over one day in a Times Square kitchen.

The deal was negotiated by SquareOne Entertainment‘s Head of Acquisitions Thomas Sierk with Vinh-Minh Nguyen and CEO Al Munteanu, and Nicole Mackey, Head of Sales at HanWay Films.

Fifth Season has co-financed the film and is co-representing North America with WME.

The film’s synopsis reads: “It’s the lunch rush at The Grill in Manhattan, and money has gone missing from the till. All the undocumented cooks are being investigated, and Pedro (Briones) is the prime suspect. He’s a dreamer and a troublemaker, and in love with...

Battered by disappointing markets at Toronto and AFM, both of which were held under the shadow of the actors strike, buyers and sellers are looking to Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM), which runs Feb. 15-21, to re-energize the indie business. The outlook, coming out of Sundance, is good.

“The difference in Sundance from last year to this was extreme, there were a lot more deals being down, both by distributors and streamers,” says Janina Vislmaier, head of sales at Protagonist Pictures, which screened The Outrun with Saoirse Ronan and Sasquatch Sunset with Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg in Park City, both of which will screen at the EFM. “Everyone is really excited ahead of Berlin, especially because all the buyers are back, including from Asia, which is a really good sign.”

The end of the SAG and WGA strikes hasn’t, yet, delivered the flood of new projects and packages many had predicted,...

Double Oscar-nominee Rooney Mara is all wrapped up, literally, with her co-star Raúl Briones in her new film, La Cocina. In it, the English-language debut of Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios (A Cop Movie, Museo), Mara plays Julia, an American waitress working the high-stress lunch rush in the Manhattan restaurant The Grill, whose relationship with undocumented Mexican grill cook Pedro (Briones) is about to be put to the test.

The official posters for the film, exclusively revealed to The Hollywood Reporter, show the Women Talking and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo actress back-to-back with Briones, bound together by a seemingly unending ticker tape of lunch orders. In the bottom corner, a loose lobster appears to be making a break for freedom.

A second poster shows Mara cleaning the glass of the lobster tank while Briones looks on. Submerged inside the tank is a mini Statute of Liberty, symbolic of the (broken?...

Exclusive: HanWay Films will represent international sales at next month’s EFM on Berlinale Competition title La Cocina. Fifth Season co-financed the film and is co-representing North America with WME.

Two-time Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (Carol) stars in the movie which is set over one day in a Times Square kitchen. Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios (Güeros) directs and Raúl Briones (A Cop Movie) co-stars.

The film’s synopsis reads: “It’s the lunch rush at The Grill in Manhattan, and money has gone missing from the till. All the undocumented cooks are being investigated, and Pedro (Briones) is the prime suspect. He’s a dreamer and a troublemaker, and in love with Julia (Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to a relationship. Rashid, The Grills owner, has promised to help Pedro with his papers so he can “become legal”. But a shocking revelation about Julia compels Pedro to spiral...

Batman: The Animated Series has introduced many memorable characters and expanded Batman's mythology, with some, like Harley Quinn, even making it into the comics and movies. Some notable characters from the animated series, like Man-Bat, The Ventriloquist and Scarface, and Baby-Doll, have yet to be adapted in live-action films. Characters like Harvey Bullock, Roland Dagget, The Mad Hatter, The Gray Ghost, The Phantasm, Batgirl, and Nightwing have made significant appearances in the animated series but have not been given the same treatment in movies.

Batman: The Animated Series has always done an amazing job bringing to life The Dark Knight's allies and villains, something the live-action films have sometimes struggled with. Batman has one of the most expansive and well-known cast of related characters in all of DC Comics, giving his films and TV shows plenty to work with. In many cases, the critically adored animated series has made...

We were a bit surprised that Alonso Ruizpalacios‘ La Cocina didn’t shore up at a major film fest in 2023, so it’ll be readying to get out of a kitchen for a prime film festival date in ’24. His fourth feature after Güeros (2014), Museum (2018) and A Cop Movie (2021), this has Rooney Mara in the lead and is based on Arnold Wesker’s stage play (set in 1950s London restaurant and revolves around an affair). Will there be carryover docu-esque elements like his last film? It’s a possibility.

Gist: Follows the life in the kitchen of a NYC restaurant where cultures from all over the world blend during the lunchtime rush.…...

Warning! Contains Spoilers For Batman #137!Batman is by far the most popular, most successful DC superheroes, despite his lack of superpowers. Batman has managed to fight actual gods and demons, utiliing nothing more than his ability to plan ahead and be well-trained – but DC has recently revealed that due to one dark twist, Batman has gained actual superpowers.

A preview for Batman #137 – by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles – reveals the Caped Crusader's new power, as part of the burgeoning "Gotham War" between Batman and Catwoman.

When Batman is taking down one of Catwoman's associates, a woman named Fright, Fright tries to spray Batman with Fear Toxin, which, alarmingly, Batman completely and utterly ignores. Batman isn't typically shown as having powers, but this new development could be for a very dark reason.

The Gotham War Is Sending Batman Into Overdrive

Batman and Catwoman are set to go to war over Gotham,...

Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #9 ahead!Gotham is filled with a colorful cache of criminals, and the Joker has finally revealed which one is the city's absolute worst. As two Jokers prepare to go to war, one of them sheds light on the lamest Batman baddie.

In The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #9 by Matthew Rosenberg, Francesco Francavilla, and Carmine Di Giandomenico, the Joker of Gotham is still recovering from his wounds and hiding out in the sewers of Gotham. the Clown Prince of Crime gets into a skirmish with Killer Croc, who helps the Joker realize that a war is on the horizon now that the Joker of Los Angeles is coming to Gotham.

In dire need of an army, the Joker begins a recruitment drive and starts looking for anyone he can bring over to his side. The first place he...

Since the release of Gotham Knights on Oct 21st, 2022, it's become clear that WB Games Montreal included several minute details that are very easy to miss on the first few playthroughs. The game is set in Gotham City after the lethal ambush of Batman, and it follows the heroic exploits of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood as Ra's Al Ghul, Harley Quinn, and others terrorize the city. Although Batman is absent for most of the game, he leaves a lasting detective legacy behind with his case files to help the Gotham Knights follow in his footsteps and deliver swift justice.

A major part of Gotham Knights' appeal is discovering the wealth of hidden details after playing the acclaimed comic book video game, many of which include historical tie-ins to long-held DC lore. Whether paying homage to Bruce Wayne's childhood hero, referencing Black Canary's time as a musician, or...

La Cocina

Another project that was working under the radar, Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios quickly moved back into production on his fourth film project only moments after launching his non-fiction 2021 entry A Cop Movie. Based on the play by Arnold Wesker, La Cocina (aka The Kitchen) was in production in April of last year in NYC with – and Ruizpalacios lassoing Rooney Mara. the drama certainly recalls of his 2008 short film.



Gist: This follows the life in the kitchen of a NYC restaurant where cultures from all over the world blend during the lunchtime rush.

Release Date/Prediction: We think Ruizpalacios will return to the Berlinale – in comp for the Golden Bear.…...

(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)

In this edition of Superhero Bits:

Christina Ricci is our latest Harley Quinn in a new DC podcast.

Kumail Nanjiani has no idea if his "Eternals" character Kingo is coming back.

"The Flash" delivers an emotional trailer for its final season.

The NAACP Image Awards go big on "Wakanda Forever."

All that and more!

Jada Toys Is Releasing Some Fun Marvel Heroes And Vehicle Combo Packs

The folks at Jada Toys are introducing some new toys that will give a couple of classic Marvel heroes a sweet ride to cruise in whilst crime fighting. As showcased in the above video, the toy...

Love makes people do unpredictable things, but what is amour without a touch of madness to keep things interesting? In partnership with DC and Warner Bros., Spotify announced today that the all-new audio series Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind starring Christina Ricci and Billy Magnussen, premieres on January 31, 2023, exclusively on Spotify. The 7-episode series, written and directed by Eli Horowitz, is the latest audio project bat-swinging out of Spotify’s multi-year deal with DC and Warner Bros. following the success of Batman Unburied. By the way, Batman Unburied is outstanding! You should all check it out immediately.

Here’s the official synopsis for Spotify’s Harley Quinn and The Joker podcast:

Starring Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets, Wednesday, The Matrix Resurrections, The Addams Family) and Billy Magnussen (No Time To Die, Made for Love) as our titular characters, Harleen Quinzel and The Joker, the series tells a new story from...

Spotify, in partnership with DC, and Warner Bros. announced today that the all-new audio series Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind, starring Christina Ricci and Billy Magnussen, will premiere with all episodes available to listeners on January 31, 2023.

The 7-episode series, written and directed by Eli Horowitz (Homecoming), is the highly-anticipated second project to be released as part of Spotify’s multi-year agreement with DC, and Warner Bros. following the global sensation, Batman Unburied.

Starring Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets, Wednesday, The Matrix Resurrections, The Addams Family) and Billy Magnussen (No Time To Die, Made for Love) as our titular characters, Harleen Quinzel and The Joker, the series tells a new story from the perspective of one of Gotham City’s most iconic villains.

When we meet Dr. Harleen Quinzel, she’s fresh out of grad school, a new psychologist at Arkham Asylum, determined to help the patients her colleagues have written off.

Cristin Milioti will play Sofia Falcone in the upcoming The Batman Penguin-centric spin-off show starring Colin Farrell. The news confirmed fan theories about the spin-off focusing on the seedy underworld of the corrupt Gotham and showcasing the dangerous mob families and criminals that plague the streets.

Although the Falcone family is among the most recognizable antagonists in the Batman universe, the Dark Knight has several other street-level villains that also deserve some recognition. From dangerous masterminds to cunning criminals, these villains have given the Caped Crusader a run for their money before.

Roxy Rocket

Created for Batman: The Animated Series, Roxy Rocket was one of Batman's most inspired enemies. She has no powers but can still give Batman a run for his money thanks to her acrobatic skills and her trademark rocket, which grants her an edge in battle.

Related: 10 Most Relatable Batman Villain Quotes

Roxy is a skilled fighter,...

Mexican auteur cinema appears to be moving northwards as Michel Franco will not be the only one to film there this Spring. TheFilmStage folks confirmed that production has indeed began on Alonso Ruizpalacios‘ fourth feature — which began filming in Mexico on La Cocina and will move to NYC shortly afterwards. Rooney Mara is part of what we figure will be a two-hander — as the original text is Arnold Wesker’s stage play is actually set in 1950s London restaurant and revolves around an affair.

Peter, a high-spirited young cook, seems to thrive on the pressure. In between preparing dishes, he manages to strike up an affair with married waitress Monique.…...

After taking a few years off, Rooney Mara returned last winter with Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley and she’ll be seen later this year in Sarah Polley’s highly-anticipated drama Women Talking. Now, we’ve learned her next role in a project that has already quietly begun production.

Mara is leading La Cocina, the latest film from Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios, who helmed Gueros, Museo, and last year’s A Cop Movie. With production already underway in Mexico City, the film is reportedly based on Arnold Wesker’s play, following “the life in the kitchen of a vast New York City restaurant where all the cultures of the world mix during the lunchtime rush.”

Additional casting is not known at this point, but one can see various snaps from the Mexico City set below, before production heads to NYC. With shooting underway, there’s a chance we could...

The Resident Evil franchise is one of the most popular and successful video game franchises of all time, with the series still going strong today after the series debuted in the 1990s. In addition to its revolutionary horror gameplay, the series is popular due to its fan-favorite characters that have continued to bring fans back to the series.

Related: Resident Evil: The 10 Most Terrifying Scenes In The Film Franchise

One of the most popular characters in the Resident Evil franchise, in addition to the likes of Jill Valentine and Arnold Wesker, is Chris Redfield. Agent Redfield is the ‘action man’ of the game and certainly has some of the most exciting and action-packed moments across the history of the franchise.

Update, with reactions Mark Blum, a veteran New York stage actor whose credits also include roles in the film Desperately Seeking Susan and the Netflix TV series You, has died due to complications from the coronavirus. He was 69.

His death was announced by the Off Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons. SAG-aftra confirmed the news.

“He was a wonderful actor and a very good and kind man,” tweeted Rosanna Arquette, his co-star in 1985’s Desperately Seeking Susan. Arquette said she was deeply saddened by “this very very hard news…” (Read her tweet and others here.

Even though we’re all pretty geeked for what’s sure to be a pivotal episode of Gotham airing later this evening, “Ace Chemicals,” the time will soon come for us to turn our attention toward next week’s installment. And from what we can tell, it’ll live up to its title, that being “Nothing’s Shocking.”

For starters, it features the debut of the Ventriloquist and Scarface, whom we were led to believe were cut from the final season. Then again, executive producer John Stephens and company probably found a way to shoehorn the inseparable duo into the saga once they were granted an additional two episodes.

No matter how you slice it, this is the first time we’re seeing them in live action – and that’s pretty exciting, if you were to ask me. But strangely enough, the actor being used for the Ventriloquist is that of Andrew Sellon,...

Over the course of its previous four seasons, Gotham sure did put its stamp on a wealth of villains taken from the Batman mythos. In addition to favorites such as the Penguin, Riddler, Mr. Freeze and Ra’s al Ghul, more obscure baddies like Professor Pyg and Flamingo were brought to the mainstream, not to mention Hugo Strange finally getting his first appearance in live action.

Naturally, the fifth and final season will pile a few others on top of that, as Shane West’s debut as Bane is no doubt the biggest addition. Plus, we have the return of Cameron Monaghan as the Joker-like Jeremiah Valeska on the horizon, so it’s safe to say he’s going to steal more scenes.

As for the new blood in town, we learned months ago to expect the likes of Scarface and Ventriloquist, but that, unfortunately, will no longer be happening.