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Kino Lorber strikes again and brings the 1990 Mike Figgis thriller, Internal Affairs, to Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray this December. The film stars Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Laurie Metcalf, Nancy Travis, and Richard Bradford. Blu-ray.com reports that the movie is set to hit retailers on December 17 with a two-disc release that includes a bevy of new goodies, including a new 4K restoration.

In 2019, it was reported that Paramount was intending to remake the movie with Todd Garner, who recently worked with the studio on the family film Playing With Fire, producing under his Broken Road Productions banner. Since then, no updates have been revealed. However, our Arrow strongly recommended the 1990 film, saying, “If you’ve never seen Internal Affairs, stop what you’re doing right now, find it somewhere, and give it a whirl. You owe it to yourself to chow down on a slice of Evil Gere with a...

The internet loves to dissect things, from how a major star ended up getting a Dwi to how exactly Kim Cattrall came to record her scat singing video. But one thing that people still can’t confirm is how “The Sopranos” ended up turning to slo-mo and a wipe cut in a Season 5 episode.

It’s not for lack of trying.

For years, Reddit users have obsessed over the Episode 10 (“Cold Cuts”) moment in which Carmela blurts out to an ex-lover that she’s returning to her estranged husband, Tony, fueled partly because of massive pandemic watches. The episode’s director, Mike Figgis, briefly mentioned the wipe transition in his commentary on the series’ DVD set. And the question came up again during the interview process for Alan Seppinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz’s definitive making-of book, “The Sopranos Sessions.”

But the question still tickled people’s fancies, so Seitz...

Good afternoon Insiders, Jesse Whittock back again to take you through the week’s news in the entertainment industry, as the Cannes Film Festival nears its close.

What More Cannes I Say?

Stand up for the standouts: After a quiet opening, the Cannes Film Festival received a shot of life as several buzzy titles finally hit the screen. The excitement on the ground began with The Substance, the much-anticipated blood-splattered horror thriller from French director Coralie Fargeat, which was met with a 13-minute ovation, the longest for a title at this year’s festival until Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts (L’Amour Ouf) took that crown last night. Fargeat’s pic, which stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, is a punk rock fable centered around a new product called The Substance that promises to transform people into the best version of themselves. It’s an offer that comes with a twist.

Mike Figgis has been shooting a behind-the-scenes documentary for the past 18 months about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. It’s called Megadoc.

Figgis told me Monday that it’s been edited but there’s allowance for the fact that the film played in competition here at the Cannes Film Festival. He recorded an interview with the cinema titan the other day.

Figgis, who was introduced into the Coppola clan back in the mid 1990s after directing Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, told me that the documentary is “very much a fly-on-the-wall” and also features conversations with various cast members — Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Shia Labeouf — and Coppola’s wife Eleanor Coppola, who shot the footage and directed her own study of her husband’s work for the acclaimed Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, about the making of 1979s Apocalypse Now.

He will go...

Francis Ford Coppola has poured his passion and finance into his longtime project, Megalopolis. Set in the fictional modern America, the sci-fi drama movie is set to have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this Thursday.

Francis Ford Coppola (via Wikimedia Commons/Bernard Gotfryd)

As the movie makes rounds for its concept and the iconic filmmaker’s comeback in the industry, a new report questioned his on-set behavior amid concerning allegations. In response to his alleged behavior, the film’s executive co-producer expressed his point of view, reflecting that he was “never aware” of any complaints during the production.

Megalopolis Producer Defends Francis Ford Coppola’s Alleged On-Set Behavior

Francis Ford Coppola is back with his self-financed long-time passion project, Megalopolis, which is set in a fictional modern America. Ahead of its world premiere, The Guardian published a report on the film’s production in which several crew...

Despite the many faux beginnings, middle, and endings to his self-assured masterpiece, Francis Ford Coppola had only really begun to find a way to film his dream project after a 40-year-long wait. In the process, he not only lost a substantial part of his beloved and successful winery estate but also dealt with the illness and subsequent death of his wife, Eleanor Coppola.

Francis Ford Coppola [Photo: Gerald Geronimo via Wikimedia Commons]The madness and creativity that went into Coppolaʼs self-financed film drove almost every major crew member to the brink of insanity as some of them quit halfway through filming. The stories that filtered out from behind the scenes of the infamous film, even before its premiere, have made it a curious case for critics and audiences alike.

Francis Ford Coppola Achieves an Impossible Nightmare

After extensive research, The Guardian has compiled an on-set and off-screen history of the filming of Megalopolis that...

Days before Francis Ford Coppola premieres his self-financed epic “Megalopolis” at the Cannes Film Fesstival, The Guardian has published a report on the film’s production in which several crew members detail Coppola’s alleged behavior on set. Several sources told the publication that Coppola was “old school” in his behavior toward women.

“He allegedly pulled women to sit on his lap, for example,” reads The Guardian report. “And during one bacchanalian nightclub scene being shot for the film, witnesses say, Coppola came on to the set and tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras. He apparently claimed he was ‘trying to get them in the mood.'”

Defending Coppola is Darren Demetre, the executive co-producer on “Megalopolis.” He told the publication that Coppola did kiss some extras on the cheek in a friendly manner and no one ever expressed to him that Coppola’s behavior made them uncomfortable.

Francis Ford Coppola is shrugging off retirement rumors ahead of the release of his sprawling self-financed film “Megalopolis.”

Coppola had been developing the original story for “Megalopolis” for close to 30 years, with Deadline reporting that the auteur lost 75 pounds to increase his stamina to complete the script. The 84-year-old filmmaker told the outlet that despite “Megalopolis” being a “big, difficult” movie, it is in no way his swan song.

In fact, his next upcoming project is finally what led Coppola to consider “Megalopolis” as complete.

“One way I knew ‘Megalopolis’ was finished is that I’ve begun work on a new film,” Coppola said. “It won’t be cheap by any means, but I don’t know it can be called ‘an epic film.'”

“Megalopolis” centers on the destruction of a utopian society that struggles with adapting to the future. Cesar, an architectural idealist played by Adam Driver, clashes...

Exclusive: Some 20 years after it took root in the imagination of Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis screened this morning for the very first time. Held at the Universal CityWalk IMAX Theater, the epic film screened for buyers, and had every distributor in attendance. Also in tow were family friends and filmmakers, a list that included Anjelica Huston, Nicolas Cage, Andy Garcia, Spike Jonze, Al Pacino, Jon Favreau, Colleen Camp, Roger Corman, Darren Aronofsky, Cailee Spaeny and cast members Shia Labeouf and Talia Shire.

I was there also, and what can I say about the movie when I promised Coppola I would be a fly on the wall and not write anything approximating a review? Coppola’s new film is crackling with ideas that fuse the past with the future, with an epic and highly visual fable that plays perfectly on an IMAX screen. He covers complex themes in a remarkably brief two hours and 13 minutes,...

Despite launching his career to fresh heights, neither Nicolas Cage or writer/director Mike Figgis were apparently paid for Leaving Las Vegas.

1995’s Leaving Las Vegas was the film that launched Nicolas Cage’s career into another sphere of fame and opportunity. Playing an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter opposite Elisabeth Shue earned Cage a Best Actor Oscar, opening up all kinds of new career avenues, not least his incredible run as an action star in the blockbuster triumvirate of Con Air, Face/Off and The Rock.

However, despite being the launchpad for an incredibly successful second act in his career in which Nicolas Cage would shoot to global stardom, the actor has revealed that he was probably never paid for the film. Mike Figgis, the movie’s writer and director had already claimed this on The Hollywood Reporter's It Happened In Hollywood podcast while also adding that he himself had never been paid either.

People say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but Nicolas Cage could be spilling beans about his time in Sin City. In 2022, Cage said he likely never got paid for his role as the suicidal alcoholic screenwriter Ben Sanderson in the Mike Figgis-directed drama Leaving Las Vegas. The film was an Academy Awards powerhouse in 1996, earning top prizes for Best Actor (Nicolas Cage), Best Actress (Elizabeth Shue), Best Director (Mike Figgis), and Best Adapted Screenplay. The thought of Cage not getting paid for such a monumental role seems ridiculous, but it could be true.

While walking the red carpet at the SXSW Film & TV Festival on Monday, promoting his new film Arcadian, Cage spoke with Business Insider about his earnings confusion. While many of us would be livid about not getting paid for such a significant role, Cage says he remains unbothered by the circumstances.

“But I haven’t been thinking about it,...

At the SXSW earlier this week, Nicolas Cage agreed with his Leaving Las Vegas writer-director’s reveal on The Hollywood Reporter‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast that he was never paid for the movie that won him his best actor Oscar.

Cage, who was in Austin promoting his latest movie, Arcadian, spoke about the unpaid bill with Business Insider, telling the website’s reporter that it it’s likely he was never paid for the Mike Figgis-directed 1995 drama for which he won the best actor Oscar, ushering in a successful second act of his career.

“But I haven’t been thinking about it,” Cage said. “I got to play a part that I absolutely had to play. There was no doubt in my mind that it would be an experience and a great movie. I wasn’t going to stop — whether they paid me or not, I was making the movie.

“Come with me if you want to live!” But don’t bother if you don’t care for James Cameron’s movies. Michael Biehn — who played Kyle Reese in 1984’s The Terminator — revealed that singer Sting turned down playing the character because he didn’t like the director’s previous work…Piranha II: The Spawning.

Biehn — who was also featured in deleted scenes in Terminator 2: Judgment Day — remembered Sting’s fateful words to Cameron during the casting process, telling Michael Rosenbaum on his podcast, “I think originally [James Cameron] wanted Sting because he thought Sting had this unearthly quality about him. And I think he met with Sting, and I think Sting basically said, ‘Yeah, I just saw Piranha 2. I think I’ll take a pass on this thing.’ Something along those lines. I’m not sure how serious Jim was about him. I’ve never heard any other name associated with Kyle Reese.

As we continue to explore the best in 2023, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage as well as a glimpse into 2024.

Most-Read Reviews

1. Body Parts

2. The Exorcist: Believer

3. Barbie

4. Beau Is Afraid

5. Priscilla

6. Suzume

7. Hypnotic

8. No Hard Feelings

9. The Zone of Interest

10. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Most-Read Interviews

1. Claire Simon on Capturing the Female Body and What Sets Her Apart From Frederick Wiseman

2. “I Don’t Think Directors Should Be Amenable”: Erik Messerschmidt on Shooting The Killer and David Fincher’s Simple Process

3. Richard Kelly on Creative Heartbreak, Political Cinema, and Future Projects

4. Christopher Blauvelt on May December, Formatting for Netflix and 35mm, and Life Lessons from Harris Savides

5. Brandon Cronenberg on Infinity Pool,...

Nicolas Cage doesn’t really care if you know he’s related to Francis Ford Coppola.

The actor, best known for his lively performances in flicks such as Con Air and Face/Off, famously changed his name from Nicolas Coppola to Nicolas Cage at the start of his career. He told a boisterous audience this afternoon at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that he made the switch for two reasons.

The first appeared to be what Cage described as some early career on-set bullying.

“I did a little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Cage said. “When I was on set, some of the other actors couldn’t believe I had talent because I was Coppola’s nephew. They would quote lines from Apocalypse Now and change lines to ‘I love the smell of Nicholas in the mornings instead of napalm in the morning.’”

Cage continued...

Rita Hollingsworth, a longtime publicist for entertainment clients and non-profit organizations, died Nov. 16 in Los Angeles. She was 61.

Her husband Jeff Hollingsworth said she had suffered a intracerebral brain hemorrhage.

When working at the Lee Solters Company, she represented clients including Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli and Neil Diamond, as well as the Carousel of Hope and Race to Erase Ms with Barbara and Nancy Davis.

After founding publicity firm Rmh Media, she worked with directors including Robert Altman, Mike Figgis, Alan Rudolph, Michael Radford, Tim Hutton and Chen Kaige, bringing their films to Cannes, Toronto, Sundance and other festivals.

Rmh also represented clients including bestselling author Reyna Grande, the Angelus Student Film Festival, the Anthony & Jeannie Pritzker Family Foundation, Foster Care Counts, artworxLA and St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, where she was a key strategist for the large senior nutrition program.

Rmh Media is working with filmmaker Matthew Solomon...

UK-French sales agent, distribution and production company Alief has announced that the Ted Raimi led psychological thriller, Failure!, will have its World Premiere at FrightFest on August 28th 2023. Alief picked up worldwide rights at the Cannes Film Festival in May after Failure! made its debut at the Fantastic Pavillion. To mark the occasion, a teaser trailer and poster has been released. Failure! follows James who has a big debt with the bank and is given one hour to choose between financial ruin or murder in order to protect his family. As the hour progresses he finds his home and phone invaded by multiple characters pulling him in different directions, gradually adding to his distress and his unravelling. But who is real and who isn’t? As well as Raimi, the film also stars Merrick McCartha (Senior Year), Melissa Diaz (Ruthless), John Paul Medrano (Seven Days) and Daniel Kuhlman (Voodoo MacBeth) and Noel Douglas Orput.

The sales, distribution, and production company Alief picked up the worldwide rights to the psychological thriller Failure!, starring Ted Raimi, at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and now they have announced that the film is going to have its world premiere at the FrightFest film festival in London on August 28th! In anticipation of the premiere, a teaser trailer for Failure! has been unveiled and can be seen in the embed above.

Directed by Alex Kahuam (Forgiveness), Failure! was shot in a single 87 minute take. Within that single take we follow James (Raimi), who has a big debt with the bank and is given one hour to choose between financial ruin or murder in order to protect his family. As the hour progresses he finds his home and phone invaded by multiple characters pulling him in different directions, gradually adding to his distress and his unravelling. But who...

Julian Sands, the British actor who pivoted from the romantic lead in “A Room With a View” to playing sinister characters in films like “Warlock,” was confirmed dead Tuesday after being reported missing near Mt. Baldy in Southern California on Jan. 13. He was 65.

On Saturday morning, hikers found human remains in the Mt. Baldy wilderness and contacted the Fontana Sheriff’s Station.

“The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood. The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department wrote in a statement.

Sands had gone hiking in the snow-covered Baldy Bowl area, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles. He was an experienced mountaineer, but...

Human remains recently discovered by hikers in the Mount Baldy wilderness outside Los Angeles were identified as those of British actor Julian Sands, who had been missing since January, authorities announced Tuesday.

On Saturday morning, civilian hikers contacted the Fontana Sheriff’s Station after they found the remains, which were then taken to the San Bernardino County Coroner for identification.

“The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood,” the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands.”

An avid outdoorsman, Sands was reported missing by his family Jan. 13 after he had gone hiking in the Baldy Bowl Trail area of the San Gabriel Mountains that day.

It’s a spring afternoon, high up in the mountains of Moab, Utah, and Kevin Costner looks up at the sky. Rough weather is starting to roll in and he needs to get back to work and bank some more scenes. After all, it’s coming out of his pocket. The project is called Horizon, the first of four films set in the pre- and post-Civil War expansion of the American West. It is his most sprawling epic since Dances With Wolves, which he also part-funded, and which brought him seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Investing in himself isn’t just frivolous affectation for Costner. It’s in his DNA. “I’ve mortgaged 10 acres on the water in Santa Barbara where I was going to build my last house,” he says. “But I did it without a thought. It has thrown my accountant into a f*cking conniption fit.

Salma Hayek gets a lot of attention for her stunning looks, but her oeuvre proves she's a versatile and formidable actress. From action to drama to comedy, Hayek takes on every role with consummate aplomb. Her talent has garnered Oscar, Golden Globe, and Emmy award nominations.

Hayek started her acting career in the novela "Un Nuevo Amanecer" in the late-1980s. She then appeared in television shows, including "Teresa," "Street Justice," and "Dream On." She made her big screen debut with 1993's "Mi Vida Loca," portraying Gata -- a small yet memorable role. Her feature film debut led to bigger and bigger parts, leading her to become one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. While the 1990s saw her cultivate a reputation as a sex symbol, she's since lent her impressive acting chops to a wide range of films, such as experimental indie flicks, superhero blockbusters, and everything in between.

Nicolas Cage’s favorite cult film role is one he did for free.

The Oscar winner revealed during a Reddit Ama with “Renfield” co-star Nicholas Hoult that, among his best underseen roles, his favorite remains a small cameo in 1989’s “Never on Tuesday.”

Cage was asked by a fan what his “favorite lesser-known performance out of your filmography” is, to which Cage responded, “There was a little cameo that I did that lasted all of about one minute in a movie called ‘Never on Tuesday.’ I don’t recommend the entire film. But, it was a performance I did.”

The indie movie was written and directed by Adam Rifkin and starred Andrew Lauer, Pete Berg, and Claudia Christian as a trio with car trouble. The film was direct-to-video and produced by Cassian Elwes.

The “Peggy Sue Got Married” star added, “I didn’t get paid but the agreement was with...

With Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-development passion project Megalopolis recently wrapped after a smooth production, there’s been some speculation that the $100 million epic––starring Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia Labeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, Db Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, James Remar, and Giancarlo Esposito––could see the light of day before the end of the year, but that won’t be the case.

As announced at Wondercon 2023, Popverse reports the Syzygy, the comics publisher, will be releasing a graphic novel tie-in for Megalopolis timed with its release in 2024. Coming from Syzygy co-founder Chris Ryall and artist Jacob Phillips, who were contacted by Coppola, they spent time on set developing this adaptation. “The exciting thing is that I’ve only worked directly with him on this,” Ryall said. “This isn’t the kind of thing...

Adam Driver has nothing but respect for the auteur steering his next film.

Driver collaborates with Francis Ford Coppola on mega-budget epic “Megalopolis,” which has a staggering $120 million-plus price tag from Coppola’s personal finances. Driver stars alongside Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Talia Shire, Shia Labeouf, Jason Schwartzman, and Dustin Hoffman. The film is set in a futuristic New York City, where an architect aims to rebuild the city as a utopia following a devastating disaster.

“‘Megalopolis’ is one of the most exciting things that I’ve ever been a part of, with Francis [Ford Coppola] in particular,” Driver told Paste. “It’s one of the best shooting experiences I’ve had. And the things that he’s made, there’s no frame of reference for it. It’s so unique and inventive and hopefully accessible by everyone. That it’s not so elusive that it’s for a certain audience,...

It’s hard to believe we will actually see Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-development passion project Megalopolis in the near future as production is nearing its end. With a cast featuring Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia Labeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, Db Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, James Remar, and Giancarlo Esposito, the $100 million epic is now wrapping up a Georgia shoot that was on-schedule and within budget, despite what some may say.

We can now glean a few more details on the production thanks to Adam Driver, who is doing press for his forthcoming sci-fi dinosaur thriller 65. Speaking to Paste Magazine he said he’ll be taking some time off having just finished Megalopolis, with no set plans for upcoming films. “Megalopolis is one of the most exciting things that I’ve ever been a part of,...

Discoveries have been endless this past year, as Hong Kong Film Festival (UK) continues to explore a newfound fluidity alongside the Hong Kong community in the UK. Adrift are the stories of Hong Kong, a wavering sense of identity alongside an uncertain history. Memories fluid, imaginations of a drifting home.

Hong Kong Film Festival’s second edition is titled “Home Away From Home”. Distance and disparity unveils a world of possibility; between Hong Kongers in the UK and those in Hong Kong, between the Hong Kong we once lived in, but can now only watch from afar. Between the Hong Kong in our dreams, and the Hong Kong laid bare to us now; between your Hong Kong and history’s Hong Kong, between a colonial Hong Kong and post-colonial Hong Kong. A pre-1997 versus a post-2019 Hong Kong, a Hong Kong under the world’s watchful eyes, and that under our own scrutinising gaze…...

Even the Super Bowl wasn’t going to keep this crowd away from celebrating Michelle Yeoh and her historic Oscar nomination as the first Asian woman with a nod in the best actress category.

On Sunday night — while the last quarter of the big game was still being played — around 100 guests arrived at the new Mandarin Oriental Residences in Beverly Hills for a dinner in honor of the Everything Everywhere All at Once star.

Hosted by project developer Michael Shvo, chef Daniel Boulud and Mandarin Oriental, the night began with a cocktail party, where a large-screen TV had the game on.

One guest, Angela Bassett, told The Hollywood Reporter she had caught Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance before heading over to fete her fellow Oscar nominee Yeoh (with whom she starred in the 2021 film Gunpowder Milkshake). Said Bassett of Rihanna (who is nominated for an Oscar for her Black Panther: Wakanda Forever...

As Francis Ford Coppola Megalopolis Rumors; Mike Figgis Plans a Behind-the-Scenes Documentary”>defends misguided reports of chaos on the set of his long-in-the-works, 100 million-plus epic Megalopolis, the director has also found time as of late to revisit some past works. Just as the man’s done recently for The Cotton Club, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Apocalypse Now, and a newly minted The Godfather Celebrates 50th Anniversary with New Restoration, Coming to Theaters & 4K Home Video”>The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, he’s now reworked one of his films—this time his most recent.

Upon its 2011 unveiling, Coppola had major plans for Twixt, his horror film starring Val Kilmer, Elle Fanning, and Bruce Dern. During one of the strangest and best panels in Comic-Con history, he revealed he wanted to take the film on a 30-city tour where each night would be a completely different film...

Update: A close source has relayed word from certain members of Megalopolis‘ crew; they describe the set of Coppola’s film as the smoothest they’ve worked in some time, adding confusion about rumors of discord. Find the original story below.

First, the dishy material: it’s fair to be skeptical of The Hollywood Reporter‘s report (from Hollywood) that Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis “has descended into chaos,” whatever their “multiple sources” might allege. If taking this account at face value might spell certain bumps in the road, we could stand to consider the scant number of exact quotes:

One from “a production executive” concerned about the amount of money Coppola is personally spending. The representative of a fired party (i.e. main sources of this negative account) calling it “absolute madness.” The Art Directors Guild’s boilerplate acknowledgement of Coppola firing art department crew and a need to...

Click here to read the full article.

Enjoying renewed interest from all corners in Hollywood due to his praised performance in the 2021 indie thriller Pig, Nicolas Cage has entered what can only be called a renaissance.

After years of making indies, the actor is in demand for live-action studio films for the first time since 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. While he had done occasional studio voice work, with such as films as The Croods and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, he returned in earnest with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a meta action movie released in April by Lionsgate in which Cage plays an actor named Nick Cage. Then he booked a chewy role as Dracula in Universal’s upcoming vampire thriller Renfield. Sources tell THR that the actor was paid 7 million to lead Massive Talent and received close to 3 million for Renfield for a supporting role.

That...

Nicolas Cage may have won an Academy Award for Leaving Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean he was paid. Director Mike Figgis has come clean that neither him nor Cage were given their 100,000 salary for the 1995 movie.

On a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s “It Happened in Hollywood” podcast, Figgis–who was also nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay that year for Leaving Las Vegas–explained that the studio, Lumiere Pictures, told both him and Cage that since the movie didn’t turn a profit, they did not earn their salary. However, it made just under 50 million on an estimated 4 million budget. Now we here at JoBlo are no mathematicians, but…

However, Mike Figgis doesn’t seem all that miffed about the shortchange. “I mean, my career then took off again, and the next film I did, I got really well paid. And within a...

Click here to read the full article.

Nicolas Cage may have won a priceless Oscar for his turn as a suicidal screenwriter with an alcohol addiction in 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas — but that’s all he got. The actor was never paid the 100,000 he was promised to star in the film.

That surprising detail was revealed in a podcast interview with Mike Figgis, the writer-director of Leaving Las Vegas, who joined The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood for that show’s third season premiere.

Figgis, too, was never paid the 100,000 budgeted for his directing fee.

“They said the film never went into profit,” Figgis says of Lumiere Pictures, which financed the 4 million film, which Figgis shot using handheld 16mm cameras on the streets of Las Vegas.

The film earned 32 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Figgis seems not to mind the shortchanging.

“Whatever,” he says. “I mean,...

The late, great Jean-Luc Godard wrote in his 1960 film "Le Petit Soldat" that photography was truth, and that cinema is truth at 24 frames per second. Every edit is a lie. 

Editing is one of those alterations from truth that modern cinema audiences have long ago internalized and accepted as part of the medium's vernacular. We accept that a conversation between two on-screen characters will instantly shift from one person's point of view to the other. Shot, reverse shot. In terms of consumption, this provides a natural form of clarity and lends to cinema a certain kind of unconscious rhythm. In actuality, the shot-reverse-shot will, at the very least, require two cameras running simultaneously, one on each actor. More likely, a single camera will be used, and the actors will run through the scene several times, the camera filming both angles separately. Editors -- the eldritch wizards of the film world...

Exclusive: The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment and Janet Yang Productions announced the four winners of the inaugural Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge, which awards a 15,000 production grant to four Aapi women or non-binary filmmakers.

Selected from a pool of over 400 applicants, four grantees will be offered networking opportunities with Emmy and Golden Globe-winning producer Janet Yang and the Cape network, as well as the chance to submit films to potential buyers and platforms.

Julia S. Gouw, a former member of the board of directors of East West Bancorp, Inc. and East West Bank, helped fund the Short Film Challenge to uplift Aapi and non-binary filmmakers.

“There was no better team than Janet [Yang] and the all-women-led team at Cape to fulfill my vision to create more representation in the Aapi community,” Gouw said. “I hope this Film Challenge will provide more opportunities, particularly for Aapi women and non-binary filmmakers,...

Surprising as it may sound, the Korean film industry has had a rough time over the past couple of years. Get ready for a comeback.

Just at a moment when Korean film producers might have expected to capitalize on the unprecedented multi-Oscar success of “Parasite” in 2019 to just KRW173 billion (138 million) in 2021.

The film industry is now hoping for a trickle-down effect from Korea’s other creative sectors — music, TV drama, cosmetics and food — that will speed its revival.

“One of the first things I did after getting the job was to change the industry’s branding. No more ‘Korean Cinema.’ Instead, we should call ourselves ‘K-Movies,’ ” said Korean Film Council (Kofic) chairman Park Ki-yong. “It fits with the times.” Korea’s stand in the Cannes International Village has been appropriately rebadged.

K-Movies’ comeback is also likely to have a more international flavor, as foreign filmmakers come to Korea...

It’s always satisfying to see a character get what they deserve. We love it when the bad guy gets his comeuppance and the good guy triumphs. But sometimes, it’s even more satisfying to see a character who started as bad find redemption by the end of the story.

Movies About the Salem Witch Trials (Our 10 Picks)

These movies stay with us because they show us that it’s never too late to turn our lives around. So in this blog post, we’ll be counting down the best movies about redemption.

From ex-cons to former bullies, these characters all find a way to make up for their past mistakes and become better people.

So please sit back, relax, and enjoy our list of the best movies about redemption.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Director and writer Quentin Tarantino’s film “Pulp Fiction”, released in 1994, was a major critical and commercial success.

Inside a makeshift cafe set at Hong Kong’s luxurious Rosewood Hotel, local actor-producer Josie Ho sits across from British actor Julian Sands. Both are giving director Mike Figgis their full attention as he explains the scene that they are going to film.

What was said could not be heard from afar, despite the set being unusually quiet. Dolled up multi-racial extras and other crew members who were busy preparing the next shot whispered to each other. Everyone was patiently waiting for the director’s cue.

“I normally have a very quiet set,” Figgis (director of “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Internal Affairs”) told Variety on location with “Mother Tongue,” an arthouse mystery thriller that is among the latest efforts from 852 Films, a production company co-headed by Ho and husband Conroy Chan. “I asked for silence a lot. My whole technique is based on silence, based on talking quietly and intimately to actors.

It was the year of fresh faces, surprise wins, tear-inducing moments, battling pigs and Sharon Stone making Gap red-carpet worthy, all of which added up to one of the most well-received Oscar ceremonies of the past 30 years. Out of 24 categories, an outstanding 15 winners were first-time nominees. Whoopi Goldberg helmed the 68th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on March 25, 1996, and earned rave reviews after a lackluster previous year.

The year prior, David Letterman‘s hosting was met with largely negative reviews, so the Academy brought in legendary music producer Quincy Jones to liven things up, and it was he who picked Goldberg. This was the comedienne’s second time to host, having done so two years prior (she would host again in 1999 and 2002), and she managed to honor the nominated films, while also getting laughs with subtle digs – beginning with her opening remark, “So, did you miss me?” The “mighty afro-deity” also...

Training Day is one of the archetypal crime dramas of its time. It features a classic standoff between a young, fresh-off-the-street rookie police officer named Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) and his veteran partner Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington). The older cop is ostensibly evaluating his young partner, but in actuality he’s breaking Jake hm down and trying to corrupt him–just as Alonzo himself, one of the great screen monsters of the past 20 years, is corrupt beyond all redemption. Here is a supposed officer of the law who acts more like a crime boss, ruling over his neighborhood with an iron fist.

The tension that burns at the center of the movie–will Jake be turned and will Alonzo get his comeuppance?–forms the bedrock of a classic dramatic scenario. The power inherent from being in law enforcement can be both a force for good and a weapon of evil.

Hong Kong’s film industry moved ahead on several fronts over the weekend after coronavirus-mandated lockdowns were reduced. But the return to business is likely to be uneven.

Cinemas reopened on Thursday, after being ordered shut since Dec. 2, 2020. A local producer-distributor Golden Scene pulled back the curtains on its expansion into exhibition. And Emperor Motion Picture unveiled plans for a big-budget movie, firmly centered in the territory’s crime drama tradition, and reuniting two of its most bankable stars Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, last seen together in the iconic “Infernal Affairs” trilogy.

Box office over the weekend totaled $2.2 million (Hk$17.1 million) over the four days between Thursday and Sunday, according to data from the Hong Kong Box Office Limited, a joint venture of the Motion Picture Industry Association and the Hong Kong Theater Association.

While the organization declined to provide running totals for each film, it said that...

“Mother Tongue,” a suspense thriller directed by two-time Academy Award nominee Mike Figgis starts shooting in Hong Kong this week. It stars and is produced by actor-singer-producer Josie Ho.

Figgis and Ho will hold a start-of production ceremony Wednesday at Hong Kong’s Shaw Studios. Production is expected to last until April with the completed film having set a tentative release schedule in January 2022.

Ho plays two characters. The first is an award-winning actress who is involved in a relationship with a younger woman played by Minami (“Battle Royale”) while in search of her long lost daughter, behind her partner’s back. She also plays the actress’s bitter sister.

Bruce Wagner penned the script and Ho is producing the film together with Conroy Chan, with whom she co-founded film entertainment 852 Films. “Mother Tongue” also stars Julian Sands (“A Room With A View”), Elaine Jin (“Mad World”) and Canon Nawata...

The year continues to provide plenty more surprises — and flies on the heads of politicians — and over the last week we saw “Dune” from Warner Bros. exit the calendar year, something that was very much expected around these parts. While many on the internet want to decry “the end of cinema” and that the film year is “canceled,” it’s time to start expanding your cinematic palates.

In terms of what it means to awards, an interesting observation is how young and “novice” the best director field seems this year. Traditional Oscar years have always had a good amount of the “Og masters” of cinema in the mix like Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, which brought the average age of the nomination pool up considerably. In the current contenders for best director, Aaron Sorkin would be the oldest of the top five predicted lineup, at 59, for “The Trial of the Chicago 7.

“Last Call” is a movie about a man in need of an intervention. Not David, who misdials the suicide hotline and gets a janitor named Beth — who’s working late at the local community college — instead, but director Gavin Michael Booth, who has fallen for the fad of shooting an entire feature in a single take — or a double take, in this case. Booth films both sides of this high-stakes phone conversation simultaneously, then crowds them into the same frame, so audiences can watch this miserable melodrama play out in real time.

Someone should step in and stop inexperienced directors from pulling this sort of stunt, especially when masked as some kind of statement, the way Booth does. I don’t mean to trivialize suicide by suggesting that “Last Call” doesn’t take the subject seriously. It’s just that Booth has chosen a technique that calls attention to itself...

The new documentary Somebody Up There Likes Me traces the career of Ron Wood, from his days as the bassist in the Jeff Beck Band, through his brief and boozy tenure in the Faces with life-long friend Rod Stewart, to his long run in the Rolling Stones.

The film features new interviews with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charle Watts and Rod Stewart, along with Wood himself. It’s available now as a Virtual Cinema release on the movie’s official website and will arrive on DVD/Blu-ray on October 9th.

Ronnie Wood has always seemed like he’d be nothing if not an enjoyable hang. That proves to be very much the case with “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” a documentary about the Rolling Stones guitarist from British director Mike Figgis (“Leaving Las Vegas”), who has clearly been hitting it off for quite a while with the musician … although Wood is so hail-fellow-well-met, you suspect he might have a good rapport with anybody. A surfeit of conviviality and a storied 60-year career do not always add up to a great story, though, and so “Somebody” will be liked by hardcore Stones fans down here more than raved about by anyone hoping Figgis has sussed out a narrative worthy of one of his fictional projects.

When Wood is glimpsed in the doc’s opening, there are pianos tinkling instead of guitars blaring, as we see him at work on his other passion,...

Before becoming a filmmaker, Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis was a musician and performer in the experimental group called The People Show. Before that, he played trumpet and guitar in the experimental jazz ensemble The People Band, whose first record was produced by Rolling Stone drummer Charlie Watts. He is also the founding patron of an online community of independent filmmakers called Shooting People. You can say Figgis is a People person, which makes him the perfect director to capture Ronnie Wood in the documentary Somebody Up There Likes Me.

One of rock and roll’s most iconic guitarists, Wood is good with people. He plays well with others. He is the Stone who’s never alone. Before he began weaving guitar licks with Keith Richards in the Rolling Stones, Wood helped shape the British rock sound in bands like The Birds and the Creation. He was the bass...

Ronnie Wood is one Stone who’s never alone. Although he’s been in the Rolling Stones since 1975, he’s the only member who continually gets called out to reunite with one of the other classic rock groups he helped shape: The Birds, The Jeff Beck Group, The Faces (with Rod Stewart), and The New Barbarians. He was such a busy player it took until 1974 until he realized I’ve Got My Own Album to Do. Eagle Rock Entertainment’s upcoming documentary Somebody Up There Likes Me will trace Wood’s 50-year musical journey. Directed by Mike Figgis, this is the first in-depth film biography of the iconic musician. Somebody Up There Likes Me will be available in North America as a Virtual Cinema release starting Sept. 18 and running through October. The DVD, Blu-ray and deluxe hardback book release date is Oct. 9.

Wood has made countless contributions to the cultural zeitgeist as an artist,...

Documentaries on Brian Wilson and the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood will premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, held in New York City from April 15th through the 26th.

Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road captures the last 20 years of Beach Boys genius Wilson. Directed by Brent Wilson (no relation), the film features Wilson and Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Jason Fine driving around Los Angeles, as well as clips of him on the road and recording in the studio. Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Jim James, Nick Jonas, Taylor Hawkins, Jakob Dylan and others appear in the film.

Filming a long, extended take in a movie is one of the best ways to win some acclaim and show off a bit of your directorial prowess. But it’s often so complex and so ambitious that still only a handful of directors have ever dared make their movie to appear as though it was filmed in one continuous, unbroken shot. Sam Mendes is the latest mad man to attempt the feat for his World War I epic “1917,” and boy did he nail it. Here are some other films that helped pave the way for him.

“Rope” (1948)

The master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock was the first to attempt a single-take feature film, taking on a radical experiment with a big budget and A-list stars that included James Stewart. His movie “Rope” was inspired by a play by Patrick Hamilton and concerned a pair of men who murdered someone, hid his...