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Filmmaker Terry Gilliam has been working on a new movie that was previously titled The Carnival at the End of Days. However, new reports suggest that the film has been renamed as Carnival, with major updates surrounding its plot and cast. But among all, what caught our attention is Jason Momoa’s name in the list of actors associated with the project.

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow | image: Disney

While it’s already known that Terry Gilliam has tapped Johnny Depp to appear in his upcoming movie; now Jason Momoa’s appearance alongside Depp has sparked some gossip. It seems that people no longer need to rely on Momoa’s fake court video from the Depp vs. Heard trial, wherein he appeared trashing Amber Heard while supporting her ex-husband. It now seems that Momoa has already become Team Depp, for Carnival.

Jason Momoa will team up with Johnny Depp...

Terry Gilliam is set to direct another film, with Carnival starring Johnny Depp, Jason Momoa, Adam Driver, Emma Laird and more.

It’s beginning to look increasingly like Terry GIlliam’s next film will go before cameras imminently. Originally titled The Carnival At The End Of Days, it’s a story that sees Satan off in search of new humans to put before God as a new Adam and Eve. Gilliam’s always been something of a provocateur, and this now project – now simply titled Carnival – sounds no different.

Sets are apparently being built for the film which is set to be shot in Rome’s Cinecitta Studio, the largest film studio in Europe, with the report at Box Office stating that the production will employ over 3,000 people. The reported $30-40m that Gilliam needed to make the film seems to have come via Italian company Notorious Pictures, which partly...

Equipped with a painfully dull story and a hopelessly meandering message, “Aftermath” is a generic action-thriller, salvaged only by its well-choreographed action set pieces. Written by Nathan Graham Davis and directed by Patrick Lussier, the film loses momentum whenever it tries to be more than a “Die Hard” rip-off. The evasive non-commitment in its unserious commentary over a serious issue like armed human resources being manipulated by decisions taken from an armchair makes the film’s attempts to take it as something else than your usual run-of-the-mill hostage action thriller futile. It does work when you accept it for what it is: your usual run-of-the-mill hostage action thriller. There is some B-Movie schlock to be enjoyed, in that way.

Aftermath (2024) Movie Synopsis and Plot Summary: A Veteran’s Battle on the Homefront

Eric Daniels (Dylan Sprouse), a young war veteran, tries to get his life on track in the ‘normal’ world.

Filmmaker and former “Monty Python” member Terry Gilliam is moving forward with his next feature film project, “The Carnival At The End of Days.” The picture is being primed for a picturesque production in Italy and has secured quite the cast for what sounds like a creative cinematic take on the biblical story about “Adam and Eve.” Gilliam co-wrote the adaptation with Christopher Brett Bailey.

Continue reading ‘Carnival’: Terry Gilliam’s Next Effort With Johnny Depp & Jeff Bridges Adds Asa Butterfield & Emma Laird at The Playlist.

Robert De Niro has countless stories from his legendary career, but on Wednesday night, he had no recollection of the ones Stephen Colbert tried to prompt him to tell — which in turn prompted the CBS host to simply rip up his notecards.

De Niro stopped by “The Late Show” in support of his new Netflix series “Zero Day,” in which he plays a former president called back in to serve his country after a massive cyberattack. But, before Colbert got into the series, he first noted that this year marks the 40th anniversary of De Niro’s film “Brazil.”

“I understand that it almost didn’t get released, and that you had something to do with making that happen,” Colbert prompted.

De Niro noted that Colbert’s producer Neil Goldman told him that just prior to the show, but admitted, “I don’t remember that.”

“So maybe I should have...

MK2 Films, the Paris-based indie powerhouse behind “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped former Kinology executive Emmanuel Pisarra as head of acquisitions.

Pisarra, who succeeds Olivier Barbier in this role, joins MK2 Films’ growing team, alongside Vanessa Saal, who was recently named executive consultant and U.K. lead; Yasmine Talli, who oversees co-productions; as well as consultants Frances Harvey and Anna Pokorska.

He will report to Fionnuala Jamison, MK2 Films’ managing director. Pisarra, who is attending the Berlin Film Festival, will be shaping the company’s upcoming slate while also leading sales to France and Benelux.

“I’ve long admired mk2 Films for its fearless, forward-thinking approach to cinema—one that values artistic integrity as much as commercial ambition,” said Pisarra. “Joining its exceptional team at such a pivotal moment is an incredible opportunity.”Pisarra brings extensive experience in acquisitions and sales.

At Kinology, Pisarra spearheaded global sales for films...

Few actors’ screen presence reverberates with such genuine intensity as Benicio del Toro. Like Gary Oldman, Denzel Washington, Toshiro Mifune, Mads Mikkelsen, and so on. I feel Benecio del Toro is almost always good, irrespective of the quality of the film built around his character. Born in Puerto Rico on February 19, 1967, to lawyer parents, Benicio del Toro was a basketball player in school. Benicio del Toro was studying business at the University of California, but his interest in acting soon made him drop out and study acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory with Arthur Mendoza. In the late 1980s, Benicio del Toro started appearing in TV shows like Miami Vice and Private Eye.

Benecio del Toro was recognized as a promising performer in his second movie role, where he played Dario, a vicious enforcer of a drug kingpin in Timothy Dalton’s James Bond movie License to Kill (1989). Though the...

So many celebrities stepped out to attend the Charles Finch & Chanel Pre-bafta party ahead of the 2025 BAFTAs on Saturday (February 15), and we’ve got all of the photos.

The event was hosted at 5 Hertford Street in London, England and featured a star-studded guestlist including the likes of Demi Moore, Vanessa Kirby, Anna Kendrick, Mikey Madison, Marisa Tomei, Jeff Goldblum and Sebastian Stan.

Since there were so many stars in attendance, we pulled the pictures together so that you could easily scroll and see who was there and what they were wearing.

Keep reading to find out more…

Keep scrolling to see all of the photos…

Lucy Boynton

Elizabeth McGovern

Terry Gilliam

Jeff Goldblum and wife Emilie Livingston

Jeff Goldblum and wife Emilie Livingston

Hannah Dodd

Ellie Bamber

Bel Powley

Dianna Agron

Haley Bennett and Joe Wright

Damian Lewis and Alison Mosshart

Laura Bailey

Millie Brady

Marisa Tomei

Antonia Desplat

Lily James...

Exclusive: Terry Gilliam’s biblical comedy Carnival: At The End Of Days has been boarded by prolific Italian producer and entrepreneur Andrea Iervolino, whose credits include Ferrari, Maserati: The Brothers and To The Bone.

Iervolino is due to produce and help finance the film and is heading to the European Film Market in Berlin this month to discuss the project with potential buyers and will look to add a sales agent while there. The aim is to shoot in Italy as soon as April.

According to Iervolino, the project will reflect Gilliam’s customary ambition, scope and creative vision. He describes it to us as “an epic and visionary work” and a “live-action film that makes unprecedented use of CGI”: “Carnival is an extraordinarily complex film for an independent production. It is a project that blends live-action aesthetics with an unprecedented amount of CGI. It is, without a doubt,...

Heath Ledger’s Last Film Tribute (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Seventeen years ago, Heath Ledger’s sudden death in January 2008 shook the world. At just 28 years old, the actor was soon seen in an unforgettable performance as the maniacal criminal Joker in The Dark Knight. However, Christopher Nolan’s Batman flick wasn’t his final project.

While his outlandish turn as Joker deservingly earned him a posthumous Academy Award, Ledger was also in the middle of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a fantasy drama co-starring Andrew Garfield. To complete the shooting after Ledger’s passing, not one but three actors — Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell — came on board to actualize the Australian actor’s last work.

In a powerful gesture of generosity, the trio of English, Irish, and American actors donated their entire earnings from the film to Ledger’s and Michelle Williams’ 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, ensuring she would...

Now that we’re 26 seasons into South Park, it would be unthinkable for series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to ever consider killing off one of the core four characters whom we have loved for nearly 30 years — well, any one besides Kenny, of course.

But back in South Park Season Five, the show’s creators decided to throw their avid fanbase a curveball by putting a button on one of the hit animated comedy’s oldest running gags. In “Kenny Dies,” South Park’s unluckiest immortal pauper came down with a terminal illness that led to his unfunniest death thus far in the series, a bleak end that was in stark contrast to the Rube Goldberg-esque graphic death scenes he’d suffered in so many previous episodes. Kenny wouldn’t return in his corporeal form until the Season Six Christmas episode “Red Sleigh Down.”

But as Parker and...

George R.R. Martin is not shy about sharing his thoughts on adaptations of his work. The author has previously shared his discontent with "House of the Dragon" and the changes made to the source material — specifically the Blood and Cheese sequence and the erasure of a book character with big repercussions for the larger story.

But you know what show has Martin giddy with excitement? "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms." The upcoming "Game of Thrones" spin-off is based on Martin's "Tales of Dunk and Egg" novellas, which tale the story of Ser Duncan "Dunk" the Tall, a hedge knight, and his squire, Egg (who is revealed to be Prince Aegon Targaryen). The show takes place 90 years before the events of the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Martin took to his blog, which he's dubbed "Not a Blog," to share his satisfaction with how this adaptation is turning out,...

Storyboards by more than 50 famed filmmakers and animators including Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, Federico Fellini, Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson, and Alfred Hitchcock are set to go on display in an exhibition organised by Italy’s Prada Foundation.

The show, titled “A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema,” will kick off Jan. 30 in Milan at the Prada Foundation’s Osservatorio outpost and then travel to Prada’s Rong Zhai space dedicated to cultural activities in Shanghai in Nov. 2025.

Prada Foundation “Storyboards” exhibit – which comprises more than eight hundred mood boards, drawings, sketches and other items created between the late 1920s and 2024 – is curated by U.S. academic Melissa Harris, who is editor-at-large of Aperture Foundation. The show is designed to create an immersive experience by mimicking the working environment of a storyboard artist with drafting tables and an open layout.

“For many, storyboarding is an integral part of...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which turns 50 this year, is clearly one of best comedies ever made. And, barring some sort of dark twist in the Peter Rabbit series, it’s the best movie to feature a bloodthirsty bunny gnawing someone’s head off.

While the idea of sequelizing this beloved classic may seem foolish to some, it very nearly happened. Back in 1997, Eric Idle pitched a Holy Grail follow-up to the rest of the Pythons. Although the project never came to fruition, Idle’s original outline survives. He’s currently selling copies of The Final Crusade, but he also posted info about it on his blog in 2013.

According to Idle, The Final Crusade was to be “about a group of grumpy old men being pressured to get back together again for a last quest,” which would “allow us to mock ourselves.” And that mockery wasn’t exactly subtle.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSChinatown.Wildfires continue to devastate the greater Los Angeles area, having killed 25 people and destroyed more than 1,400 homes, schools, businesses, and institutions.A number of disaster relief and emergency resource funds are positioned to help those affected, including the California Community Foundation Wildfire Recovery Fund, the California Fire Foundation, the Entertainment Industry Community Fund, and finally the Motion Picture & Television Fund. GoFundMe has also organized a Wildfire Relief Fund and hosts a number of individual verified fundraisers that will continue to be updated.The nomination voting period for the Oscars, which was supposed to end on January 12, has been extended through January 17, with nominations to be announced on January 23. (The Academy will also donate a portion of...

French filmmaker and artist Michel Gondry has been announced as a guest of honor at this year’s edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, running from June 8 to 14, 2025.

Gondry will be presented with an Honorary Cristal award, following in the footsteps of previous honoraries such as Terry Gilliam and Wes Anderson who were similarly feted at the 2024 edition of the festival.

It will be the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director’s first visit to the French lakeside festival billed as the biggest animation festival in the world, although his work Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?: An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky played at the 2014 edition, winning the Prix André-Martin for best French animated feature.

Annecy pointed to Gondry’s work on music videos for artists such as Björk, The White Stripes, Steriogram and Daft Punk as another motivation for the honor.

“Michel Gondry...

"Monty Python's Flying Circus" was a tough sell in the United States, and it's easy to see why. Many of the TV shows and media tropes that the Pythons lampooned on their famously absurd sketch comedy show were unbearably insular to British audiences. There were jokes about local television personalities, spoofs of English news programs, and send-ups of the BBC's tendency to cram dry, not-at-all-entertaining documentaries into their programming blocks.

The BBC had made a deal with Time-Life Television to broadcast reruns of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in the United States, but after a deal had been struck, Time-Life deemed the series to be "too British" for U.S. audiences. Ultimately, it was shelved. Time-Life's suspicions about the Pythons were proven true when the troupe's 1971 anthology film "And Now for Something Completely Different" tanked at the box office. Additionally, the six silly men performed a 30-minute block of material...

Christopher Nolan has developed a reputation for playing with non-linear structures and time travel in his movies, but there are plenty of other filmmakers who explore similar themes. Many of Christopher Nolan's best movies deploy non-linear structures in one way or another, like Memento's reverse plot thread or Oppenheimer's concurrent portrayal of the past and the future. Other movies explore time travel more explicitly, like Tenet and Interstellar.

With the news that Christopher Nolan's next movie is an adaptation of The Odyssey, it will be interesting to see how he leaves his own mark on a story that has been passed down through generations. One possibility is that he will chop up the structure to his own liking. This would be a bold move for such a revered classic, but Nolan frequently devises non-linear structures that enhance his movies, rather than coming across as mere gimmicks. Other great directors,...

Roger Pratt, a famous British photographer known for his striking visual style, has died. He was 77 years old. The British Society of Cinematographers (Bsc) announced his death and said he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease that started early.

Pratt’s career spanned over forty years, during which time he established himself as one of the most adaptable directors of photography in the film business. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on “The End of the Affair” (1999) and worked with many innovative directors.

While filming “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975), he and Terry Gilliam formed a successful relationship out of the blue. While shooting the Bridge of Death scene, Pratt, who was then a clapper loader, amazed Gilliam. Gilliam remembered, “This guy said, ‘Just give me a moment,’ and in a few minutes, he had run down the mountain, crossed the river, run up the other side,...

Roger Pratt, the cinematographer behind “The Fisher King,” “Brazil” and Tim Burton’s “Batman,” has died. He was 77.

The news was posted via the British Society of Cinematographers: “It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of Roger Pratt Bsc (1947-2024).” The news did not state when he died, nor did it share the cause of death.

Pratt was nominated for an Academy Award in 1999 for his work on “The End of the Affair.” He was also a frequent collaborator of Terry Gilliam. Pratt and Gilliam worked on “Brazil,” “The Fisher King” and “12 Monkeys.”

Richard Attenborough was another collaborator. Pratt worked on “Shadowlands” which won the BAFTA for Best British Film.

He also worked on the “Harry Potter” films, including “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

Pratt was born in 1947 in the British county of Leicester. In the 1960s,...

Oscar-nominated cinematographer who helped create the look of Tim Burton’s Batman and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, as well as two Harry Potter films

The cinematographer Roger Pratt, who has died aged 77, rendered some of cinema’s most spectacular fantasy worlds. His films included Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) but his finest work involved bringing to the screen two vivid and nightmarish dystopias in the 1980s.

In Brazil (1985), which went by the working title of 1984½ and concerned an office drone (Jonathan Pryce) whose dreams of heroism plunge him into conflict with authority, Pratt helped to realise the retro-futuristic vision of a film that its director Terry Gilliam imagined taking place “everywhere in the 20th century, on the Los Angeles/Belfast border”.

Robin Williams is best known for his film comedies, such as Mrs. Doubtfire and Aladdin, but when asked about his own prized performances, Williams leaned toward more dramatic work. Forget Mork & Mindy – here are six roles that the comic named as his favorites, as reported by Far Out…

1 Dead Poets Society

According to the Williams biography, Robin, Dead Poets Society was originally slated to be directed by Jeff Kanew, the auteur behind Revenge of the Nerds. Williams didn’t see the story as a comedy and wouldn’t commit until Peter Weir signed on to direct. Williams identified with the story’s plot about a young man who dreams of becoming an actor but is opposed by a stern father who wants him to be more responsible. “It talks about something of the heart and of pursuing that which is a dream — and in some cases, to a tragic end,...

Roger Pratt, the cinematographer who lensed Batman for Tim Burton, was a favorite of Terry Gilliam’s and shot two Harry Potter movies, has passed away. The British-born Dp was 77.

The British Society of Cinematographers posted a tribute to Roger Pratt on their Instagram page, writing in part, “It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our friend and colleague, Roger Pratt Bsc (1947-2024). Roger Pratt Bsc was an extraordinary #Cinematographer, who was awarded this society’s highest honour, our Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. Roger was born in Leicester, the son of a parish vicar, and although the church didn’t capture his career aspirations, seeing 16mm “fact and faith” films did.”

Roger Pratt first garnered attention shooting for Terry Gilliam on 1985’s Brazil – work that was recognized by the American Society of Cinematographers as some of the best ever – and he would go on to...

Oscar-nominated British cinematographer Roger Pratt has died, aged 77.

The British Society of Cinematographers, of which Pratt had been a member since 1986, confirmed the death and said Pratt had been suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Born in Leicester in 1947, Pratt attended the London Film School in the late sixties and got his first credit as camera assistant on director Mike Leigh’s 1971 film Bleak Moments. He would later serve as cinematographer on Leigh’s 1983 TV film Meantime and 1988 feature High Hopes.

Working as clapper loader on Monty Python And The Holy Grail in 1975 began Pratt’s relationship with Terry Gilliam,...

Oscar-nominated British cinematographer Roger Pratt has died, aged 77.

The British Society of Cinematographers, of which Pratt had been a member since 1986, confirmed the death and said Pratt had been suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Born in Leicester in 1947, Pratt attended the London Film School in the late sixties and got his first credit as camera assistant on director Mike Leigh’s 1971 film Bleak Moments. He would later serve as cinematographer on Leigh’s 1983 TV film Meantime and 1988 feature High Hopes.

Working as clapper loader on Monty Python And The Holy Grail in 1975 began Pratt’s relationship with Terry Gilliam,...

Roger Pratt, an Oscar-nominated British cinematographer who worked on two Harry Potter films and with such top directors as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Kenneth Branagh, Mike Leigh, Lasse Hallström, Neil Jordan, Wolfgang Petersen and Richard Attenborough, has died. He was 77.

The British Society of Cinematographers said he died in late 2024 but did not provide an exact date or a cause.

Pratt earned an Academy Award nom for Jordan’s The End of the Affair (1999) and also lensed the filmmaker’s Mona Lisa (1986) and 2000 short Not I. His dozens of credits include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005); Burton’s Batman (1989); Leigh’s High Hopes (1988); Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), The Fisher King (1991) and 12 Monkeys (1995); Branagh’s Frankenstein (1994); and Hallström’s Chocolat (2000); and Petersen’s Troy (2004).

Pratt also was the go-to lenser for the late two-time Oscar winner Attenborough on several films including...

Roger Pratt, the British cinematographer best known for his work on Tim Burton‘s Batman (1989) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), has died. He was 77.

Pratt’s death was confirmed Friday in a statement by the British Society of Cinematographers, which did not specify a date or location but said he died last month.

An Oscar nominee for The End of the Affair (1999), Pratt was born in 1947 and grew up in the U.K. midlands.

He studied at the prestigious London Film School and went on to collaborate with filmmaker Terry Gilliam across his career after the pair met on the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) while Pratt worked as a clapper loader. Gilliam recalled about meeting Pratt: “We were filming the Bridge of Death sequence and needed a dramatic shot looking up at the bridge with the mountains in the distance. I stuck the...

Tarsem Singh’s The Cell came at the end of a trend of 1990s noir films that merged the conventions of the genre with the aesthetics of music videos. Tarsem himself cut his teeth making music videos, most famously for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” and his first feature at times feels like an assembly of images that strives primarily for visceral impact, throwing cohesiveness to the wind.

The narrative’s lack of connective tissue does make sense in the context of a film that largely takes place in a virtual reality rendering of the subconscious, the product of an experimental technology that becomes a law enforcement tool when the F.B.I. coaxes one of the tech’s researchers, Catherine (Jennifer Lopez), to enter the mind of captured serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D’Onofrio) in order to discern the location of a kidnapped woman set to be his next victim.

David Fincher reveals that he pitched a creepier version of the Harry Potter movies. Chris Columbus was ultimately chosen to direct the adaptation of the first Harry Potter book and went on to direct Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as well. However, many well-known directors were considered to helm the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, including Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, Rob Reiner, Terry Gilliam, and Tim Robbins. Fincher, who had already directed Se7en and Fight Club at that point in his career, was also considered.

While speaking with Variety, Fincher explained that he was invited by Warner Bros. to pitch his creative vision for Harry Potter. He recalls how he emphasized that he did not want to "do the clean Hollywood version of it" and wanted the movie to be reminiscent of the 1987 dark comedy film Withnail and I. Warner Bros. was...

Before Spider-Man came into play, Tobey Maguire was not all that famous in Hollywood despite having worked with impressive directors like Lasse Hallström and Terry Gilliam. It was Sam Raimi’s work that elevated the actor into an icon of the modern comic book universe and revolutionized the Cbm industry.

Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man [Credit: Sony Pictures]

Everything changed in 2002 after Tobey Maguire unmasked himself to reveal a complex, conflicted, and layered Spider-Man. Beating out other fan favorites like Jude Law and Heath Ledger for the part, the relatively unpopular 26-year-old actor then established a superhero format that became the norm for the coming era of Cbm adaptations.

As for the live-action superhero films of the 20th century, they were already ancient history – except for the Earth-789 classics.

Maguire’s Spider-Man vs Clooney’s Batman Batman & Robin (1997) [Credit: Warner Bros.]

George Clooney‘s era as the Caped Crusader was perhaps one of...

From Alan Rickman to Chadwick Boseman, these celebrated actors tragically passed away before the release of what would become their final films.MEGAAdam WestMEGA

On June 9, 2017, Batman star Adam West died at the age of 88 following a short battle with leukemia. Four months later, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released his post-humous animated film Batman vs. Two-Face, in which he voiced Bruce Wayne/Batman's character.

Alan RickmanMEGA

Alan Rickman marked his final performance in the 2016 film Alice Through the Looking Glass. The famed Harry Potter actor, who portrayed Professor Severus Snape in the film franchise, died on January 14, 2016, after suffering from cancer. He was 69.

Anton YelchinMEGA

Anton Yelchin died on June 19, 2016. The then-27-year-old actor, who starred in Star Trek Beyond, was killed in a freak car accident in Studio City while he was on his way to meet his friends, his publicist, Jennifer Allen, confirmed at the time.

"It appears...

When you're making a movie, you can only control so much. You can meticulously plan your shots; you can account for every dollar of your budget in advance; you can hire all the best people to make sure each department completes its mission at the highest caliber. The world is random and full of tragedy, however, and sometimes, film productions have to deal with shocking, unexpected loss. When an actor dies while still in production on a movie, that can send a production reeling.

It's happened many times in the past. For example, James Dean had just finished shooting "Giant" when he died in a car crash, only 24 years old. Because his part still required a significant amount of Adr, his "Rebel Without a Cause" co-star Nick Adams dubbed over many of his lines.

Sometimes, movies don't recover. However, these days — especially thanks to the advent of CGI and other...

Upon entering the Criterion Closet, “Finding Nemo” writer/director Andrew Stanton named it as “hallowed ground” and considering he joins an ever-widening array of talent to leave Criterion’s New York offices with a huge bag of goodies — from Ayo Edebiri to Mike Leigh — he’s not that far off. But for Stanton, his love for Criterion goes a lot deeper than its modern popularity.

“I have been a collector since the very beginning,” he said. “Matter of fact, I think Criterion started, similarly, a few years ahead of Pixar. So, when we were just a small group of nerds, we would just covet every new LaserDisc that came out. And here we are still.”

Celebrating the Criterion release of Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 Depression-set comedy “Paper Moon,” Stanton broke down how well the film unfolds its narrative.

“Probably one of the strongest, most economical openings,” Stanton said. “In, I’d say 10 seconds,...

2024 had a lot of great sci-fi and fantasy TV shows, but sadly, a few that let viewers down!

Over the past 12 months, fans got to enjoy a lot of genre TV, from returning hits like The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon to great new shows like Fallout. There were also a few duds here and there, many of which came and went without much buzz. Not all of these shows were bad, some many were disappointing. Some were parts of franchies that came up short and others were new efforts that landed with a thud.

Here at the end of the year, we're remembering the 10 biggest sci-fi/fantasy TV shows that let people down. Not every show can be a winner. Just ask fans of these series:

The Umbrella Academy. (L to R) Aidan Gallagher as Number Five, Robert Sheehan as Klaus Hargreeves, Tom Hopper as Luther Hargreeves,...

Monty Python isn’t exactly known for creating the most festive content, with the possible exception of the first five minutes of Life of Brian, and the “Christmas in Heaven” musical number that wraps up The Meaning of Life.

But, oddly enough, one Python member secured their role in the troupe by finding a creative use for an old holiday tradition.

Back in 1968, Terry Gilliam was having trouble getting work. He had previously made photographic comic strips for a magazine called Help!, including one in which a horny John Cleese hits on his kid’s Barbie doll.

When Help! went under, Cleese told Gilliam to get in touch with the people making Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children’s comedy series featuring Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, which had become a surprise hit with adults. Gilliam later wrote that he was only hired because producer Humphrey Barclay “took pity on me,...

Here’s what Taika Waititi has been doing in the shadows: preparing to receive a career honor from the Producers Guild.

The PGA today set the Oscar winner for its 2025 Norman Lear Achievement Award, which recognizes a producer or producing team for their extraordinary body of work in television. He’ll pick up the prize during the 36th annual Producers Guild Awards on February 8 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

“Taika Waititi has profoundly transformed the television landscape with his imaginative work as a producer, bringing to life groundbreaking series What We Do in the Shadows, Our Flag Means Death and Reservation Dogs,” Producers Guild of America Presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line said in a joint statement. “His remarkable ability to explore cultures through a lens of humor and humanity makes these narratives not only relatable but also deeply engaging for audiences.”

Piki Films co-founder Waititi...

Jennifer Tilly, the Oscar-nominated actor who has worked in Hollywood alongside visionary and auteur filmmakers including The Wachowskis, Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam, who for decades lent her voice to long-running franchises, all while moonlighting at the top poker tables and taking on the game’s best gamblers to become a world champion player, is now immersed in the most challenging gig in her 30-plus year career: a supporting role on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Tilly’s entree into Bravo’s world of wealthy women who work hard and fight with each other even harder comes in the currently airing 14th season of Rhobh, the franchise’s crown jewel. She appears in episodes as a “friend” of main cast member Sutton Stracke, the socialite boutique owner who rounds out the main group of Hollywood housewives. Their banter and genuine friendship ring true in Tilly’s initial onscreen moments...

The TV adaptation of 12 Monkeys ended up being very different from the Bruce Willis/Brad Pitt time-travel movie it was based on — but it was still just as great. Released in 1995, Terry Gilliam’s initial film version of 12 Monkeys takes place in a post-apocalyptic future ravaged by a deadly disease. Willis plays a convict who’s sent back in time to gather information about the creation of the virus that ended up decimating the human population. When the time travel experiment goes awry, he ends up in the wrong year.

In 2015, 12 Monkeys was reimagined as an underrated TV show for Syfy. The series was created by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett, and in its first season, it was run by Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Natalie Chaidez. The movie is a loose remake of the classic 1962 French short La Jetée, about a time traveler who gets caught in a stable time loop.

Borrowing from a variety of science fictional traditions, 2073 is ostensibly a warning from the future. It doesn't help its case that the future is already here, though, as is often attributed to William Gibson, 'it is differently distributed'. Samantha Morton provides narration and a performance of flattened affect well within her range as a survivor of some unspecified Event. There is reference to sci-fi comics I used to read but between the alleged year and the distance associated it is not clear what or when or how old those are.

To be honest it doesn't matter. There's been mention in the bumpf around the film of La Jetée, an experimental piece probably best known as an inspiration for Twelve Monkeys. The original postulated a closed loop of time, your archetypal bootstrap paradox, and while Terry Gilliam drew inspiration from it, he replaced that circle with a spiral. One whose course.

Whether he likes it or not, Terry Gilliam is smack-dab in the middle of a Monty Python feud. While Eric Idle and John Cleese are doing the public mud-slinging, Gilliam and his offspring are at the heart of the conflict. Idle can’t believe the Python comedians don’t have more money in the bank, blaming Gilliam’s daughter, Holly (who runs the group’s business affairs), for financial mismanagement.

“Python is a disaster,” Idle tweeted earlier this year. “If you put a Gilliam child in as your manager you should not be so surprised. One Gilliam is bad enough. Two can take out any company.”

Oof. Cleese has fired back on multiple occasions, including earlier this year.

“I have worked with Holly for the last 10 years, and I find her very efficient, clear-minded, hard working, and pleasant to have dealings with,” Cleese tweeted. “Michael Palin has asked me to...

Americans likely know David Frost best as the TV host who took on Richard Nixon in the landmark interview that served as the basis for Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon — a film that earned rave reviews from everybody except those who went in thinking it was a sequel to Michael Keaton’s harmonica-playing snowman movie.

Frost also had a huge impact on the comedy world, thanks to his 1960s satirical news program The Frost Report, which, along with the Frost-hosted That Was the Week That Was, inarguably paved the way for future news parodies such as The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update.”

The Frost Report’s supporting cast included Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett (who later starred in The Two Ronnies) as well as a young performer named John Cleese. The show’s writing staff also included future Monty Python members Graham Chapman, Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

In 2006, director David Lynch shared his personal design for a bird feeder that also keeps squirrels at bay.

Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive director David Lynch seldom gives interviews, but when he does, they often provide a valuable insight into his unusual, ingenious mind.

Case in point: a 2006 interview in which Lynch took the time to explain and sketch out his design for a squirrel-proof bird feeder. His construction employs a pair of metal discs, suspended above and below the feeder, which mean greedy squirrels can’t climb up and steal the food from below or try to jump onto it from above.

It’s a thoroughly charming moment that occurs right at the beginning of a lengthier, 40-minute discussion about Lynch’s career as a filmmaker. And as frivolous as it sounds, the exchange gets to the heart of Lynch as both an artist and a person – how quiet he is,...

Taika Waititi really seems to be on a streak of losing shows and films. The filmmaker adapted the acclaimed Terry Gilliam film Time Bandits as a show for Apple TV+ but the series was canceled after its very first season. The adventure comedy series featured Lisa Kudrow, Kal-El Tuck, Charlyne Yi, and Waititi himself.

The series was co-created with Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris. While the show achieved critical acclaim, it did not seem to get the required viewership for a historic fiction sci-fi adventure series as big as that and hence was reportedly canceled. However, interest still remains within a small circle of fans.

Time Bandits Will Not Return For A Season 2 A still from Time Bandits | Credits: Apple TV+

Taika Waititi’s hot streak of getting his shows canceled this year is going strong. The filmmaker and actor’s latest series to get canceled after the beloved pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death,...

Bruce Willis, one of Hollywood's finest, made wearing a vest during a hostage situation seem perfectly acceptable. Many of his most beloved roles saw him wielding a squint like Clint Eastwood and a level of sass that other actors just couldn't deliver. But much like Willis himself, his top three rated films on Rotten Tomatoes are a surprising package that would certainly make for an interesting unofficial trilogy to watch over a weekend. That includes what Rt has deemed the best of the bunch: a movie about a decidedly vexed New York City cop with no shoes and a partiality to Roy Rogers films.

Indeed, it should come as absolutely no shock that "Die Hard," Willis' breakout vehicle and a bullet-riddled pillar of the action movie genre, is the actor's highest rated film on Rt among critics. Earning a well-deserved 94% from the website, "Die Hard" broke the mold that so...

As befitting its name, the American Cinematheque keeps the art form of film running in theaters. The non-profit, founded in 1984, showcases 1,500 films a year, programming year-round at three Los Angeles theaters, and its annual awards show helps raise money to keep those films in front of an audience. This year’s honorees (who will be feted at the Beverly Hilton on Dec. 6) have had extraordinary careers and share a passion for cinema.

Jessica Chastain, the 38th recipient of the American Cinematheque Award, follows in the footsteps of Eddie Murphy, who was its first honoree, and other Hollywood royalty like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scor-sese, Denzel Washington and Al Pacino.

The star of films like “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Interstellar” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Chastain is no stranger to accolades, having earned an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Drama Desk and three SAG Awards. She is also an Emmy and two-time Tony Award nominee.

Taika Waititi addresses why his TV series Time Bandits, a reimagining of the cult classic 1981 movie, was canceled after one season on Apple TV+ despite generally favorable reviews. The series followed the adventures of 11-year-old Kevin (Kal-El Tuck), a young history buff who joins a group of bumbling, time-traveling bandits led by Penelope (Lisa Kudrow). Featuring Waititi as the Supreme Being alongside long-time collaborator Jemaine Clement as Pure Evil, the show aimed to adapt the original Time Bandits movie’s surreal storytelling for modern audiences with Waititi's iconic quirks.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Waititi explained the reasons behind the show’s untimely cancelation despite earning a respectable 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes. According to the New Zealand filmmaker, the decision came down to production costs, as the series was deemed too expensive to continue regardless of its critical success. Reflecting on his short-lived experience with the fantasy TV show,...

While auteur Tim Burton doesn’t want to revisit projects like Edward Scissorhands for any potential sequels, he said he feels positive he’ll return to the beloved film’s leading man, Johnny Depp.

“There are certain films I don’t want to make a sequel to,” he said at the Marrakech International Film Festival following the box office success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, per IndieWire. “I didn’t want to make a sequel to [Scissorhands] because it felt like a one-off thing. I didn’t want to have a sequel for The Nightmare Before Christmas because it also felt like a one-off thing. Certain things are best left on their own and that for me is one of them.”

When asked if there would be further collaborations with frequent screen partner Depp — whom he’s directed in a slate of films including Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd and Ed Wood — he answered,...

Director Tim Burton may be tight-lipped on his next project, a remake of “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,” but during a red carpet interview at the Marrakech International Film Festival, he was forthcoming about why.

“One thing I learned very early on is until I’m actually on a set doing something, I don’t know if I’m doing it,” he told IndieWire. “I never like to talk about things too much. I’ve worked on so many projects, sometimes they happen, sometimes they don’t happen, so I don’t want to jinx anything. I mean, I was doing ‘Superman’ once. There was another project that I worked for a year on, and it didn’t happen. It’s quite traumatic, it’s quite emotional.”

Inspired by his childhood love of monster movies and horror films, Burton is set to direct “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman...

Here’s why Johhny Depp hated working with Benicio Del Toro ( Photo Credit – Wikimedia )

While Johnny Depp was locked in, playing Hunter S. Thompson’s wild alter ego, Raoul Duke, with laser focus, del Toro was off the rails, diving headfirst into his chaotic method of acting as Dr. Gonzo. And let’s just say Depp didn’t precisely vibe with that—especially when del Toro’s unpredictable antics started messing with the flow on set.

Director Terry Gilliam spilled the tea in a 2019 interview with Far Out, revealing just how much tension there was between his two leading men. “Johnny knew exactly what he was doing, but Benicio was almost completely out of control,” Gilliam recalled. And that “out of control” vibe? Yeah, it didn’t sit well with anyone on set. Gilliam shared that the crew was frequently on edge with del Toro’s free-wheeling approach. “The continuity girl was shouting,...

The holiday season is here, even if you wish that the Christmas season didn't truly start until after Thanksgiving. Naturally, movie studios have already begun to foist holiday movies upon the world, whether it's Hallmark-style straight-to-streaming fluff like "Hot Frosty" or the extremely big-budget action-adventure "Red One," starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans as an unlikely duo who have to team up to rescue none other than Santa Claus himself from being kidnapped and ruining the holiday altogether. But for those of us who may love films but want something a little different out of the movies that ring in the extended holiday season from Thanksgiving all the way through New Year's Day, try out these 12 movies for size. We won't get into any standard-issue "Is 'Die Hard' a Christmas movie?" debates in this list. Instead, let's just look chronologically at these 12 very different kinds of holiday movies.