News

Last year, the Dragon Warrior Po came roaring back to theaters in a big way with Kung Fu Panda 4. The latest installment in the Jack Black-led animated series from DreamWorks returned with a massive $547.7 million global box office and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 71% from critics and 83% from audiences, showing that viewers still loved the fighting bear, even after eight years away from screens. The film's remarkable run on the big screen even shook up the formula a bit, introducing a new partner for Po in the form of Zhen, a fox bandit played by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Awkwafina, who turns out to be an unexpected hero like the panda himself. Netflix subscribers have had ten months to take in the martial arts adventure, but that time's about to run out on August 21, when it leaves the platform and heads back to Peacock.

Adam Sandler is all set to star in the upcoming Jay Kelly on Netflix. The film is Noah Baumbach’s latest project for the year 2025, set to release this fall. Before the upcoming collaboration, though, Sandler and Baumbach had previously worked together on The Meyerowitz Stories, which is available for streaming on Netflix (via Netflix on X).

The 2017 movie boasts an ensemble cast including Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, and Elizabeth Marvel, along with Sandler. It follows a group of dysfunctional siblings navigating life in their father’s shadow. Let’s get into the streaming success of the film and why it should be on your watchlist.

The Meyerowitz Stories: Public Reception

The Meyerowitz Stories brings out the best in Noah Baumbach; his gift for blending emotional insight with neurotic humor sets the film apart as a brilliant entry in its genre. Rooted in Adam Sandler’s dramatic and comedic credibility,...

As part of Collider's Exclusive Preview event, we are thrilled to exclusively debut a first look at The Woman in Cabin 10, the upcoming Netflix thriller starring Keira Knightley and directed by Simon Stone, premiering Fall 2025. Based on Ruth Ware’s bestselling novel, the film drops audiences into a world of quiet dread aboard a seemingly serene luxury yacht — where nothing, and no one, can be trusted.

Knightley stars as travel journalist Lo Blacklock, who boards an exclusive yacht for a writing assignment and quickly finds herself in a waking nightmare. Late one night, she sees what she believes is a woman thrown overboard. But when she raises the alarm, she’s told no one is missing — all passengers and crew are accounted for. Dismissed, disbelieved, and isolated in open waters, Lo continues searching for the truth, even as her own safety begins to slip away. Speaking to Collider,...

Peacock is serving up a fresh batch of must-watch movies this week in August 2025, pulling in viewers with a mix of new releases and timeless classics. From thrilling new stories to nostalgic favorites, the streaming platform has something for everyone, whether you’re into action-packed adventures or lighthearted comedies.

The lineup features exclusive premieres like ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ (2025), which dropped on July 25, and ‘Borderline’ (2025), hitting screens on August 1. Alongside these, beloved titles like ‘Clueless’ (1995) and ‘Bring It On’ (2000) are drawing crowds, proving that some stories never get old. Let’s dive into the top ten movies captivating audiences this week, counting down from number ten to the top spot.

10. The Smurfs (2011) Columbia Pictures

This animated adventure brings the tiny blue creatures to life in a modern world. ‘The Smurfs’ (2011) follows Smurfette, Papa Smurf, and the gang as they tumble through a magical portal from their village to New York City.

At the outset of Robert Altman's "The Player," an arsenic-laced satire of the movie business as it existed in the early 1990s, Tim Robbins' suavely vapid studio executive Griffin Mill takes a series of pitch meetings from prominent screenwriters. None of these scribes brings their A-game (save for Alan Rudolph's crossbreeding of "Ghost" and "The Manchurian Candidate"), but the most cynical of the batch comes from comedy legend Buck Henry, who hawks "The Graduate Part II" with nary a whit of shame.

Henry is all business here. He first notes that the three principals, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, and Anne Bancroft, are still alive (Bancroft has since passed), then reveals that the characters are living together in a "big, spooky house up in Northern California somewhere." The kicker: Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson has had a stroke. But while she can no longer speak, she can hear everything going on...

Which Leonardo DiCaprio Film Failed To Impress Quentin Tarantino? (Photo Credit – Instagram/Wikipedia)

The Revenant entered Quentin Tarantino’s firing line back in 2020, not because it is connected to the other films he was originally talking about, but because he saw something in it that reminded him of a certain kind of movie he does not care for.

He started with a review of I Escaped from Devil’s Island in a personal essay for his New Beverly Cinema, then detoured to Papillon and landed on Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s survival epic. It is a classic Tarantino move. He initially follows one thread, then jumps to another before landing somewhere else entirely, pulling together films that barely share a timeline or a tone.

One of the most impactful scenes ever!

Leonardo DiCaprio and the Bear attack.

The Revenant

2015 ‧ Western/Action ‧ 2h 36m pic.twitter.com/5h7IlBEauY

— Unlikely Content (@UnlikelyContent) April...

The new trailer for a raw documentary about Francis Ford Coppola's self-financed passion project, Megalopolis, reveals the epic production behind the 2024 flop. The five-time Oscar winner spent $120 million to fund the movie that took him over 40 years to make. With an idea first conceived in 1977, the Godfather filmmaker began writing the script in 1983, but it wasn't until last year that the movie finally made it into the theaters.

Megalopolis' star-studded cast features Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, and many others. However, despite the star power and Coppola's reputation, the movie faced a series of challenges in marketing and only grossed around $14 million against a massive budget.

Now, Utopia has released a new trailer for Mike Figgis' documentary, titled Megadoc, teasing a never-before-seen look at Coppola's journey in shaping the world of Megalopolis. From unfiltered interviews to a close-up view of Coppola's process, the documentary...

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine has delivered two astonishing performances this summer — one as the gentle Blessing on Dexter: Resurrection and the other as Freddy, the deeply broken arsonist in Smoke.

But it’s Freddy’s devastating final moments on Smoke that truly shook us.

We spoke with Ntare again, this time after fans witnessed Freddy’s chilling confrontation with Dave (Taron Egerton), which marked the climax of his arc — and the end of his life.

(Courtesy of Apple TV+) “That was the pinnacle scene for my character.”

Freddy spends most of Smoke lurking on the edges, a mysterious and damaged man whose motivations are never entirely clear. But when Dave walks into that interrogation room on Smoke Season 1 Episode 7, the power dynamic flips.

“Getting to go toe-to-toe with Taron Egerton was such a thrill because he’s such a dynamic performer,” Ntare shared. “He just sucks all the energy in the room in,...

"The magic and making of Francis Ford Coppola's epic Megalopolis." Utopia has revealed the first look teaser trailer for a new making of documentary film titled Megadoc, from director Mike Figgis. This mega documentary is trying to be the Hearts of Darkness (which was a look at Coppola's troubled Apocalypse Now set) for Megalopolis, which opened in theaters last year. The only problem is that Megalopolis not only flopped big time, but it's just not a good movie by any measure, and Coppola needs to accept this. I get that he spent tons of money on it, and he's trying to be bold and provocative again, but it's a complete mess and most people don't care about it (unlike with Apocalypse Now). This Megadoc features appearances by Francis Ford Coppola (but of course!), Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Dustin Hoffman, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Fineman, Shia Labeouf, Laurence Fishburne,...

Right before he reteamed with Dennis Lehane for the miniseries Smoke, Taron Egerton produced an independent passion project known as She Rides Shotgun.

Adapted from Jordan Harper’s book of the same name, Egerton also stars in the Nick Rowland-directed crime drama as an ex-con named Nate McClusky. Fresh out of prison, Nate — who’s been absent for the majority of his 10-year-old daughter Polly’s life — catches her off guard when he arrives at her school to pick her up in place of her mom. In a revelatory performance by Ana Sophia Heger, Polly quickly deduces that something has gone terribly wrong, forcing the estranged father and daughter to hit the road and fend off danger at every turn.

To prepare for the modern-day tale — albeit one with shades of Westerns and thrillers from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s — Egerton opened up his Rolodex and asked a few...

After receiving Academy Awards and becoming an icon of Hollywood, Francis Ford Coppola just wants to have “fun.” The auteur’s version of playing around? Directing a self-funded $120 million epic.

The making of Coppola’s controversial “Megalopolis” is captured in documentary “Megadoc” by filmmaker Mike Figgis (Figgis previously helmed the Oscar-nominated “Leaving Las Vegas” and is known for directing episodes of “The Sopranos” and “The Affair.”) “Megadoc” is billed as an “unfiltered” look into Coppola’s “Megalopolis” and his creative process as a whole. The official synopsis for “Megadoc” reads: “A raw, fly-on-the-wall documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-long journey in creating his self-financed passion project, ‘Megalopolis.’ The bold and unrelenting epic returns in Mike Figgis’ portrait of Coppola’s creative process – weaving together archival material, unfiltered cast interviews, and a close-up view of how the legendary filmmaker drew from Roman history, political allegory, and his own singular vision...

Broadway's Beanie Feldstein has joined the cast of Focker-In-Law, the upcoming fourth installment in the Meet the Parents comedy series. Feldstein will star in the movie alongside Wicked star Ariana Grande as well as original cast members Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, and Teri Polo. Feldstein's role is currently being kept under wraps. Meet the Parents is a comedy series that began in 2000 with the eponymous hit film. The first movie followed Ben Stiller's Greg Focker, who navigates the difficulties of family dynamics after meeting his girlfriend's parents. Spawning two sequels, the series also includes Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. In a recent interview, Streisand expressed doubt that she would return for the fourth film,...

Harrison Ford has always had issues with "Blade Runner," and time hasn't made him any fonder of the film. But it should have, because despite it being a box office flop upon its 1982 release, it has since become accepted as one of the most important and influential sci-fi movies ever made. Of course, Ford has never let popularity convince him of anything (he never really cared about "Star Wars" despite its overwhelming success), but you'd think he'd be glad that his movie is thought of so highly — especially since he was just one of many stars who could have fronted the film.

Hampton Fancher, who co-wrote the "Blade Runner" script with David Peoples, certainly had a different vision in mind when he first set about bringing the movie to life. He'd actually performed on-screen during the 1960s while under contract with Warner Bros. but had left acting behind in the...

Legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola explains exactly what he wants to accomplish with his Megalopolistour.

Speaking to Deadline, Coppola opened up about his decision to take Megalopolis on the road rather than make it available on DVD or any other form of home media. "I didn’t make the movie available anywhere where people can own it or have a DVD or all that because I wanted to keep the hope of a theater experience going," Coppola said. "So because of that, there are a lot of people who said to me, well, 'How come you can’t get it on all the normal ways?"

"I said, well, because I'm going to go and bring it in a public way at first to prime the pump," Coppola continued. "Where I'll talk about the movie at the end, or rather illustrate some of where the movie could take you if you...

What the fock? “Meet the Parents 4” has officially been renamed “Focker in-Law.”

Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo and Owen Wilson will return for the fourth installment in the long-running comedy series, while Ariana Grande is joining the cast.

The new film’s title references the surname of Stiller’s character, Greg Focker. In the original movie, he endures a lot of painfully awkward hijinx while visiting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. “Meet the Parents,” which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, became box office blockbuster with $330 million worldwide. The comedy of errors then spawned two commercially successful sequels: 2004’s “Meet the Fockers” and 2010’s “Little Fockers.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @fockerinlaw

John Hamburg, who wrote the first three films, will write and direct “Focker in-Law.”

Stiller teased the fourquel during a 25th anniversary screening of “Meet the Parents,” saying...

It was previously announced that the fourth Meet the Parentsfilm is coming to theaters next Thanksgiving, but its title hadn't been known. The sequel's official title and its logo were unveiled on Monday, with the movie's cast members also confirmed.

As announced, the new film has been titled Focker-In-Law. This continues the title theme of the previous sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers. It's also been confirmed that the film will star newcomers Ariana Grande and Beanie Feldstein alongside returning starsRobert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, and Teri Polo. John Hamburg, who worked as a writer on the previous films, is writing and directing, while Jane Rosenthal and John Lesher produce.

It was recently reported that Superman's Jimmy Olsen actor Skyler Gisondo had also been cast in the sequel, but that wasn't officially confirmed. The InSneider reported that Gisondo would be playing a man engaged to Grande's character.

During Collider’s Directors on Directing panel at Sdcc 2025, hosted by Steve Weintraub, legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner revealed that he once passed on directing a film that would go on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture — Rain Man. But as he told the crowd, he doesn’t regret the decision for a second. Rain Man, which starred Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, went on to become a massive critical and box office success in 1988, winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hoffman), and Best Original Screenplay. Directed by Barry Levinson, the film became an instant classic — but Reiner believes everything worked out the way it was meant to, as it allowed him to meet his wife, Michelle Singer.

“You know, the only one that I wanted to do that I didn't do — and I'm glad, in a way, that I didn't — because I wound up meeting my wife,...

What is the greatest three-movie run by an actor? Well, first, let me define what I mean by greatest, and what I mean by three-movie run. For my purposes, “greatest” is measured by an equal consideration of movie quality, performance quality, box office, and pop culture relevance. In other words, the films/performances have to be good and well-known. Now, a three-movie run just means three consecutive films in an actor’s filmography. I’m going based on release date, so sometimes having multiple films in a year removes an actor from contention.

So, a good three-movie run is not easy to pull off.. There are a lot of well-known actors who don’t even sniff this list. Here are a few actors you won’t see in the Top 10: Matt Damon, Ethan Hawke, Nicolas Cage, Matthew McConaughey Bradley Cooper. I tried to get a Jack Nicholson 1970’s run on the list,...

It’s funny how some of the most important and beloved movies of all time can come from stories that aren’t quite as celebrated or well read, and I’m not just talking about movies from 1982. The Thing certainly falls under that category because while Who Goes There is certifiably a great sci-fi story and there have been at least 3 movies based on it, The Thing and John Carpenter will live on far longer than Who Goes There and John W. Campbell. While that certainly doesn’t extend to all famous authors, Stephen King’s name is etched into history and 75% of his adaptations will either be forgotten or redone multiple times over, there’s also that middle ground. Phillip K. Dick has more than his fair share of adaptations out there, but his adaptations typically turn out higher profile than the author or his original works. Blade Runner...

Francis Ford Coppola’s controversial “Megalopolis” production is now being given the documentary treatment. Mike Figgis directs “Megadoc” about the making of Coppola’s self-funded $120 million epic. While the buzzy cast included a slew of “canceled” actors as well as beloved stars, the feature was plagued with allegations of wild on-set antics and unwanted advances against extras (Coppola has denied the claims.) Figgis, meanwhile, was on set to capture it all.

“Megadoc” is billed as an “unfiltered” look into Coppola’s “Megalopolis” and the auteur’s creative process as a whole. The official synopsis for “Megadoc” reads: “A raw, fly-on-the-wall documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-long journey in creating his self-financed passion project, ‘Megalopolis.’ The bold and unrelenting epic returns in Mike Figgis’ portrait of Coppola’s creative process – weaving together archival material, unfiltered cast interviews, and a close-up view of how the legendary filmmaker drew from Roman history,...

Anna Steiger, an acclaimed mezzo-soprano opera singer based in London and Paris, first surmised she’d been deceived after having a look last fall at Sir Laurence Olivier’s prosthetic nose from Richard III. It was on sale at the Hollywood auction house Julien’s. A friend thought it’d be of interest since her mother, British actress Claire Bloom, had co-starred in the 1955 film.

“Just by sheer chance, I thought, ‘I wonder if there’s anything of my father’s there, too,’ ” Steiger recalls. Her father being Rod Steiger, the Method acting icon best known for his role as police chief Bill Gillespie opposite Sidney Poitier in the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night. “And sure enough, a number of his things — which should’ve been my things,” she contends — “were being sold.” This included his Berlin Bear statuette for 1964’s The Pawnbroker, in which he played the title character,...

Has there ever been a more controversial year in cinema than 1971? It was the year that Ken Russell's "The Devils" caused outrage with its graphic sexuality and blasphemous imagery; elsewhere, Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" divided critics with its ugly violence upon making its debut in New York, while Ted Kotcheff's "Wake in Fright" turned stomachs with its grisly kangaroo hunt sequence. In the United States, the gloves were off after the Hays Code had given way to the more lenient MPAA ratings system in 1968, allowing filmmakers to explore challenging themes and show sex and violence in more explicit detail. Among the American movies that pushed these new boundaries were Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" and Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs," an intensely misanthropic psychodrama that became notorious for its depiction of sexual assault.

"Straw Dogs" was Peckinpah's first non-Western film, and it was an unusual hybrid,...

A year ago, Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary director behind classics like “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” released his sci-fi epic “Megalopolis.”

The film, which tells the story of a visionary architect fighting a corrupt politician to rebuild a city after a disaster, didn’t get the warm welcome Coppola hoped for. Despite spending $120 million of his own money, the movie struggled to find an audience.

Coppola premiered “Megalopolis” at Cannes, hoping for a big success, but the reaction was mostly confusion. Lionsgate later picked up the film and released it in theaters in May 2025, where it ran for 138 minutes.

Unfortunately, it only made about $7 million. After that, Lionsgate pulled the film from theaters, gave the rights back to Coppola, and no streaming or Blu-ray releases followed. The movie can’t even be rented on Amazon anymore, with the listing showing “rights expired.”

But Coppola isn’t giving up. At 85 years old,...

Skyler Gisondo is looking to go from a movie about the Fortress of Solitude to one about the circle of trust.

The actor, fresh off his role in Superman, is in talks to join the cast of the next film in the Meet the Parents franchise as the son of Ben Stiller and Teri Polo’s characters. Series mainstays Stiller, Polo, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson and Blythe Danner will star alongside newcomer Ariana Grande in the film that Universal releases in theaters Nov. 25, 2026. John Hamburg, who worked on the screenplay for the 2000 original and the two subsequent sequels, is directing from his own script.

Producers include De Niro and Jane Rosenthal for Tribeca Productions, Jay Roach for Delirious Media and Stiller and John Lesher for Red Hour Films. Universal’s executive vp of production development Matt Reilly and director of production development Jacqueline Garrell are overseeing the project for the studio.

Days after announcing its gala world premieres, the Toronto International Film Festival has just expanded its lineup with a slate of new films featuring A-listers and Oscar winners. On Monday, the festival announced the highly anticipated debuts of movies starring Keanu Reeves, Vince Vaughn, Seth Rogen, Saoirse Ronan, Dustin Hoffman, and Al Pacino, underscoring the festival’s reputation as a crucial spring board for award-season contenders.

Tuner

The film, starring Hoffman and Leo Woodall, is directed by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher (Navalny) in his feature debut. It follows a former piano prodigy (Woodall) who, down on his luck, uses his extraordinary auditory skills to help a found family figure (Hoffman). The cast also includes Havana Rose Liu and Lior Raz.

Christy

Sydney Sweeney stars as trailblazing professional boxer Christy Martin in this drama directed by David Michôd. Based on a true story, the film chronicles Martin’s meteoric rise...

On the heels of broadcast journalism being thwarted by way of President Trump, IndieWire can announce that iconic Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein biopic “All the President’s Men” will get a 2025 spin by way of more than a few Oscar winners.

Robert Downey Jr., Kenneth Lonergan, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron, and Ramy Youssef will all participate in a one-night-only staged reading of William Goldman’s Academy Award-winning 1976 screenplay about the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. John Benjamin Hickey will direct the reading, with additional stars will be announced in the coming weeks. The cast will participate in a Q&a as well. The event will take place at the acclaimed Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY on Monday, August 25 at 7:00 p.m. Et.

The live “All the President’s Men” reading is presented by nonprofit arts and community The Center at West Park...

Exclusive: Some big news spanning independent film distribution and the Los Angeles agency scene: Teddy Schwarzman’s indie studio Black Bear is expanding into U.S. distribution and has hired longtime CAA Media Finance co-head Benjamin Kramer to oversee the operation.

The ambitious U.S. arm will release up to 12 Black Bear and third-party productions per year. We understand there are multiple high-profile movies already on the slate which could go through the pipeline. The company will focus on filmmaker-driven fare and wide-release action and genre movies.

Key staff will be added in the coming months to build out the team under Kramer, reporting to Black Bear CEO Schwarzman.

Producer, financier and sales agent Black Bear already operates direct distribution in the UK and owns Canadian distributor Elevation Pictures.

This has moved fast and Kramer is expected to be in the...

Over the years, WWE introduced a flurry of intriguing gimmicks. From Seth Rollins’ Joker to Bray Wyatt’s Eater of Worlds, from The Undertaker’s Phenom to Kane’s Big Red Machine, the list is endless. However, veering off the trajectory of the main roster characters, WWE introduced a handful of special characters to tell stories that would aid the major superstars in getting the mileage they were looking forward to. One of them was Eugene.

Nick Dinsmore, popularly known as Eugene, was introduced as a wrestling savant with a developmental disability. The kind of character depth that was needed to take the role forward needed more than wrestling. It required acting brilliance while perfectly aligning oneself with the role, considering the emotional challenge that was inherent in his. Eugene did an incredible job with the same.

Eugene’s Role Was Loosely Inspired by a Character in Tom Cruise’s...

The 1967 film that has been ingrained in pop cinema culture will get a new 4K Blu-ray release, according to Blu-ray.com. StudioCanal will be distributing a new physical media production of the famous Mike Nichols comedy The Graduate. The film stars Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, and Murray Hamilton. The new 4K Blu-ray is scheduled to hit retailers on September 15. This StudioCanal version is a UK release, but the 4K disc will be Region Free.

The description reads,

“Winner of the Academy Award for Best Director and winner of five BAFTA Awards including Best Film, The Graduate is one of the most celebrated and highly influential classics in modern cinema. Truly iconic and utterly groundbreaking in its unique visual style and subject matter, it changed the face of modern film and the minds of expectant audiences.

Deep in the suburbs of Pasadena, a bored, confused and alienated...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

One of America's most beloved actors for over 30 years was Robin Williams, whose inherently humorous talents were elevated from his classical training at Julliard. After virtually being picked up off the street for a memorable role in "Happy Days" leading to the full spin-off series "Morky & Mindy," Williams became an overnight sensation in 1978. The funnyman then parlayed his success as a stand-up comic and sitcom actor into starring in feature films by 1980. Though best known for his comedic projects, Williams showed a stunning range across his career, especially in notably darker and sinister roles later in his filmography.

Whether it was leaning into family-friend humor, both in live-action and animated projects, or channeling his talents into more dramatic fare, Williams always brought his A-game. In doing so, the late actor left a body of work that continues to stand the...

Lux Vide boss Luca Bernabei is exiting the firm he joined more than three decades ago, with Fremantle upping its 70% stake to 100%.

Bernabei, whose father Ettore Bernabei co-founded Lux Vide in 1992, joined The Medici, Costiera and Sandokan producer in 1994 as an associate producer and worked his way up to CEO in 2013. Luca Bernabei’s sister Matilde Bernabei, who also founded the company, will remain on the board and become Lux Vide President.

During Luca Bernabei’s tenure, the company became the first in Italy to win an Emmy for Joseph from The Bible Collection and picked up Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for co-produced Coco Chanel. Other big-budget credits include Netflix‘s Medici starring Dustin Hoffman, Richard Madden and Sean Bean, Prime Video’s Leonardo starring Aidan Turner and Devils, the high-stakes financial thriller with Patrick Dempsey.

Bernabei is exiting as Fremantle ups its stake to 100%. The super-indie took a...

F1 The Movie has sped onto a major chart for star Brad Pitt. The new movie from director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) stars Pitt as Formula One driver Sonny Hayes, who returns to the racetrack years after a major accident. The F1 The Movie release kicked off with a $57 million domestic debut, marking Apple Studios' best-ever opening weekend.

Per The Numbers, F1 The Movie has hit a global box office gross of $166.7 million worldwide ahead of the beginning of its sophomore weekend in theaters. Boosted by midweek viewership ahead of the Fourth of July holiday in the United States, the project has now become the 20th highest-grossing movie starring Brad Pitt.

The movie has landed in the Top 20 by surpassing the $165.6 million earned by his 1996 movie Sleepers, which was directed by Barry Levinson and also starred Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Jason Patric.

What This Means...

Feast On These Top-Rated Culinary Films Streaming In India (Photo Credit – Netflix)

The fourth installment of the much-loved comedy-drama series The Bear dropped just a few days ago. Overall, The Bear holds an impressive 92% critics’ score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. If Season 4 left you craving more stories centred around food, chefs, or cooking, these food-themed films deserve your watchlist. And the best part: they’re all streaming on popular Indian Ott platforms.

1. Ratatouille Release Year – 2007 Director – Brad Bird Rotten Tomatoes Score – 96% Streaming On – Jio Hotstar

Plot: The animated comedy-drama follows the story of Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat living in Paris who dreams of becoming a chef. After a twist of fate lands him in a restaurant kitchen, he forms an unlikely bond with a struggling young cook named Linguini (voiced by Lou Romano). The duo finds a way to communicate and team up to create extraordinary dishes,...

What Happened Between Julia Roberts & Steven Spielberg While Filming Hook? (Photo Credit – Wikipedia)

Steven Spielberg was already at the top of his game in the early ’90s following the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and he seemed untouchable. At the same time, Julia Roberts had just exploded into superstardom after Pretty Woman. Hollywood did not get the chance to have enough of her, so when it was announced that the two powerhouses were teaming up for Hook in 1991, the expectations could not have been higher.

Robin Williams had landed the lead role of Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman had another legendary performance waiting in the wings as Hook, and Julia Roberts flitted in to portray Tinkerbell. Great talent, right? It should have been an enjoyable, magical ride. Instead, it became a production Spielberg would rather forget. And he’s made that clear more than once.

Julia Roberts, Steven...

Welcome to Fiscal Spotlight, a special monthly round up of projects—at all stages of production—working their way through Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship pipeline. Enjoy!

***

Even though Pride Month is rapidly coming to an end, we’re not slowing down on promoting and sponsoring Lgbtqia+ Members and films.

You can keep the pride going yourself by sponsoring these three projects. This month, we’re featuring a cross-cultural story about finding yourself with Me, After You, a bathhouse slasher in Steam, and a perilous journey across a snowy old West with In Bloom. Our Fiscal Sponsorship program lets filmmakers take advantage of Film Independent’s 501c3 status and accept tax-deductible donations.

Keep reading to learn more, including how you can support these projects.

In Bloom

Project type: Fiction Feature

Project status: Development

Writer/Director: Kylie Mungenast

Producer: Destiny Greer, Liz Davis

About the Project: A matriarch, a prostitute, and a teacher,...

Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... Neil Diamond? Admittedly, "Sweet Lois Lane" does have a nice ring to it. But sorry, I just don't see the singer behind "Solitary Man" playing Superman. Yet according to Pierre Spengler, one of the producers of "Superman: The Movie," quoted in "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story," Diamond's name was one of many thrown thrown around, albeit briefly. Diamond's bizarre inclusion just goes to show -- everybody was being considered to play Superman.

No, I don't actually think Neil Diamond was seriously being considered, but plenty of other serious actors were. Before the filmmakers landed on the unknown yet incomparable Christopher Reeve to sport the "S," some of the biggest names in Hollywood were being pursued to wear the red, yellow, and blue. Some of them I can kinda support, while others would have suffered the effects of career kryptonite.

Barbra Streisand has been portraying roles in Hollywood for quite a long time. Although her filmography spans decades of hard work, Meet the Fockers is one of her most famous movies, which was a comedy film from back in 2004.

The film eventually turned into a franchise with sequels, which later became known as the Meet the Parents franchise. Well, recent news broke out that Meet the Parents 4 was confirmed to be in development, with a majority of the cast returning to reprise their roles. However, Barbra Streisand rejected the offer because she still holds a grudge over her paycheck from the original 2004 movie.

How much was Barbara Streisand paid for ‘Meet the Parents’?

Although the exact remuneration for a film is never revealed by an actor, it seems that Barbra Streisand was paid significantly less compared to some of her male co-stars, and she’s still angry about that.

Another Meet the Parents 4 return from a previous star, now 83 years old, is possible, but only if one condition is met. A fourth film in the series is officially in development with John Hamburg, who co-wrote the first three films, set to both write and direct the project. Meet the Parents 4 will feature the return of Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, and Owen Wilson, with Ariana Grande also joining the cast in her first role since Wicked.

During a recent interview with Variety, Barbra Streisand addressed a possible return in Meet the Parents 4. The star says she would only consider returning if she were paid significantly more, as she was underpaid compared to her male co-stars in earlier films. She highlighted the pay disparity for women at the time, though she appreciated a bonus check from Universal's then-head, Ron Meyer. Read her...

Barbra Streisand isn’t ruling out another round as Roz Focker — but if you want her back, it’s going to cost you. Now 83, the Egot-winning icon is as busy as ever, releasing The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, a new album featuring duets with the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Sam Smith, and Ariana Grande. It’s her first release since her sprawling 970-page memoir My Name Is Barbra, and she's also in the middle of filming a multi-part documentary about her life. But despite her still-busy schedule, Streisand insists she’d rather be relaxing.

“I’m very lazy,” she said on this week’s Just for Variety podcast. “I don’t like to have to work. I like to be free. I don’t like to have commitments.”

Which is why any return to the big screen — particularly as Roz Focker, the wildly unfiltered sex therapist...

Barbra Streisand still gives a “fock” about her “Meet the Fockers” salary. The Egot winner, who appears in “Meet the Parents” franchise installments “Meet the Fockers” (2004) and “Little Fockers” (2010), told Variety that she was “pissed off” by the salary discrepancies across the ensemble cast.

Streisand played Ben Stiller’s onscreen mother Roz, with Dustin Hoffman as her husband. The duo were the in-law foils to Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner, the parents of Stiller’s wife (Teri Polo). A fourth “Meet the Parents” film was announced earlier this year, with Stiller, De Niro, Danner, Polo, and Owen Wilson (who starred as Polo’s ex) reprising their roles. However, don’t bet on Streisand’s return.

“They’d have to pay me a lot of money because I didn’t get paid what the other people got paid and so I’m pissed off,” the icon said while promoting her album,...

The 10 Best May-December Romance Movies: Far from idealized portrayals of love as pure or effortless, many of the most enduring romantic narratives explore the asymmetries that define human connection: differences in class, culture, gender roles, and age. These disparities complicate the romantic ideal, rendering love not merely as a feeling, but as a process—one that must contend with the realities of embodied experience and social expectation.

The age-gap romance, as a recurring trope in cinematic storytelling, occupies a complex space between transgressive desire and cultural fascination. One of the most provocative forms of such romantic entanglement is the “May–December” romance, a term used to describe relationships marked by a significant age difference between partners. These stories have long fascinated audiences, in part because they foreground love’s capacity to defy convention while simultaneously raising questions about power, agency, and the social norms that govern desire. The term itself...

The landscape along the road from Mellieha to the west coast of Malta is pretty sparse until you reach the sea by the old World War II pill box and look down into the bay below. There, you will be greeted with a remarkable and incongruous sight: a picturesquely ramshackle village that looks like it has sprung fully-formed from the pages of a comic book. That was, of course, the intention, as it was specially built for "Popeye," Robert Altman's notorious comedy musical based on the classic comic strips by E.C. Segar.

The Popeye Village doesn't take long to walk around, but it is a marvel of production design. Indeed, it was perhaps unnecessarily over-designed for the needs of the film. Logs were brought in from the Netherlands and wooden roof shingles were shipped all the way from Canada for the seven-month construction, which employed 165 tradespeople and required eight...

Owen Wilson is stepping back into one of his most popular roles. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he’s returning for Meet the Parents 4, the next chapter in the well-known comedy series.

He’ll be joining Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, who are also coming back for the new film. Teri Polo, who played Stiller’s wife in the earlier movies, is returning too. The big surprise this time? Pop star Ariana Grande is joining the cast.

The new movie is coming from Universal Pictures and is set to hit theaters on November 25, 2026. Paramount Pictures will be handling international release. John Hamburg, who helped write the earlier movies, is back as writer and director. He’s also working behind the scenes as one of the producers.

Related: Top 15 Funniest Comedies of the 2000s

The Meet the Parents series started in 2000. The first movie introduced us to Greg Focker,...

Owen Wilson is set to return for the “Meet the Parents 4,” The Wrap has learned. Wilson joins Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Teri Polo and Ariana Grande in this next installment.

“I Love You, Man” filmmaker John Hamburg, who co-wrote all three previous “Meet the Parents” films, is set to write and direct the sequel. Hamburg also directed the last two episodes of Wilson’s latest TV series “Stick.”

Plot details are being kept under wraps.

Universal Pictures will release the film wide on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2026. Paramount Pictures will co-produce and distribute the film internationally.

De Niro and Jane Rosenthal will produce “Meet the Parents 4” through their Tribeca Productions banner, as will Stiller and John Lesher through Red Hour Films. Hamburg is also attached as a producer alongside original “Meet the Parents” filmmaker Jay Roach. To date, the “Meet the Parents” franchise has grossed over $1 billion at the...

Owen Wilson is back in the Focker fold.

The actor, currently starring in Apple TV+’s well-reviewed Stick, is joining Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro in Universal’s latest installment of its Meet the Parents comedy movie series.

Teri Polo, who also starred in the initial trio of movies that were released in the 2000s, is also returning to the call sheet, with Oscar-nominated pop superstar Ariana Grande the big fresh face for the feature.

John Hamburg, who co-wrote all three prior films, wrote the screenplay for the new feature and is set to direct. Universal has dated the film for Nov. 25, 2026. Paramount Pictures will co-produce and distribute the film internationally.

The initial movie, released in 2000, focused on a man named Greg Focker, played by Stiller, and his desire to gain the approval and blessing of the stern father of his girlfriend. The movies later grew to become family affairs,...

In the vast universe of K-dramas, if we were to choose a crowning, the best of the best, many of us would unhesitatingly choose Reply 1988, which ran on tvN from 2015 to 2016. The beloved K-drama, which is now available to stream on Netflix, is set in 1988 Seoul, featuring the life story of five friends who live in the same alley, their family life, and their friendship.

The third installment of the Reply anthology series, the drama is famous for its nostalgic themes, friendship, and human connection, but it is also known for one other thing: pop culture references. The critically acclaimed drama mentions or references many movies and TV shows, including one Tom Cruise nod that might have slipped past many viewers.

Reply 1988 Features a Cheeky Tom Cruise Nod Reply 1988 (2015 – 2016) | Credits: tvN

Set against the backdrop of 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, Reply 1988 is one the most beloved K-dramas ever to have been created.

With its future on streaming and physical media still uncertain (and probably dire), there might be only one way to see Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis: on the big screen. And while the original theatrical run has come, gone and practically imploded in between, the director is taking the show on the road.

Officially titled “An Evening with Francis Ford Coppola and Megalopolis”, the event will not only feature the film but also a post-screening Q&a with the director himself under the theme of “Bow to Change Our Future.” As for locations, the six-city tour will kick off in Red Bank, New Jersey before heading off to Port Chester, New York, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, and San Francisco.

As per Coppola in a statement, “This is the way Megalopolis was meant to be seen, in a large venue, with a crowd and followed by intense interactive discussions about the future.

Congratulations are clearly in order. After decades of being overlooked, underestimated and sometimes just flat-out ignored, a Hollywood mainstay is finally getting some richly deserved recognition. Bravo!

No, not to Tom Cruise for that honorary Oscar — to the Academy for making sure the world’s last remaining movie star will turn up for its next broadcast.

Let’s face it, at this point the Oscars need Cruise more than Cruise needs an Oscar, particularly an honorary one, which frequently go to stars of more mature vintage (Mel Brooks got one last year, at 97). In recent times, the show’s numbers — to say nothing of its cultural relevance — have been on the same spiraling trajectory as that biplane Cruise dangled from in the latest Mission: Impossible movie. Viewership has fallen some 66 percent since the Oscars’ peak in 1998 (Titanic year), with only about 20 million tuning in these days, about the same audience...

Dustin Hoffman has starred in lots of great movies during his legendary career, but perhaps none of them are more terrifyingly prescient than 1995's "Outbreak." The Wolfgang Petersen-directed thriller tells the story of an Ebola-like virus that travels from Africa to the United States through an infected Capuchin monkey, and it's up to a team of scientists and military personnel -- led by Hoffman, Rene Russo, Kevin Spacey, and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s characters -- to try and prevent it from causing a global catastrophe. Of course, that's easier said than done when powerful military leaders aren't interested in taking the advice of the experts on board.

In 1995, this doom-laden concept might have seemed far-fetched in the real world. However, now that we've lived through the emergence of Covid-19, "Outbreak" will probably hit home for many viewers. Perhaps this is why the movie is finding a new lease of...

Back in April, it was announced that the Academy Awards will finally be acknowledging the achievement in film stunts with their own category. “Since the early days of cinema, stunt design has been an integral part of filmmaking,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang. “We are proud to honor the innovative work of these technical and creative artists, and we congratulate them for their commitment and dedication in reaching this momentous occasion.“

We recently interviewed Scott Adkins for his new film, Diablo, and the action star gave his two cents on the matter. Adkins stated,

I think everyone’s just like ‘Finally,’ ‘Makes sense,’ ‘Why did it take so long?’ I’d be interested to see how they structure it. Because obviously there’s so many wide range and facets of stunt choreography — cars, fights, pitfalls…you know, fire burns. I guess it’s gonna be...