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Academy voters had no love for Joker: Folie à Deux, but Batman leads the pack when it comes to comic book movies at the Oscars.

Many months ago, Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux seemed a likely Oscar contender at this weekend’s Academy Awards ceremony. Breaking the Batman mould, the 2018 original remains the most-nominated comic book movie to date with 11 nods, including Best Picture, Best Director, and a Best Actor win for Joaquin Phoenix.

With the addition of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, the meta-fictional musical sequel came with more awards hype. This evaporated on contact with the movie’s lacklustre opening weekend, not to mention the disappointed reception from critics and fans.

(Full disclosure – I am blissfully ignorant of Phillips’ Joker movies, so won’t comment on either of them. Wherever you stand on them, it should suit everyone just fine if the worst movie that gets made...

Exclusive: British writer, director, and producer Alex Marx will make his feature debut with The Queen of Fashion, a long-gestating biopic of fashion editor, stylist, and iconoclast Isabella Blow, with Academy Award nominee Andrea Riseborough set to produce and play the lead role.

The Queen of Fashion details the ups and downs of Blow’s life championing unknown and marginalized fashion figures like Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy, and Sophie Dahl, whom she catapulted to success while struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. The project will be sold in Cannes by Rocket Science for international, with CAA Media Finance arranging financing for the film and handling domestic rights.

Riseborough will star as Blow alongside a robust supporting cast featuring Emilia Clarke as Daphne Guinness, Richard E. Grant as Blow’s father Evelyn Delves Broughton, Fionn O’Shea as Philip Treacy, and Hayley Atwell as Alexandra Schulman. Verity Naughton CDG continues casting key roles,...

Sundance Institute has announced the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs fellows.

The Native Lab takes place in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 29–May 4 and will support four fellows and two artists in residence. The Lab focuses on centring Indigeneity in the storytelling of participants from Native and Indigenous backgrounds and will work on feature film and episodic scripts through one-on-one feedback sections and roundtable discussions with advisors.

The fellows are: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (writer-director) with Hum (Phil-usa); Ryland Walker Knight (writer-director) with The Lip Of The World (USA); Charine Pilar Gonzales (writer-director) with Ndn Time (USA...

Sundance Institute announced today the fellows selected for the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs. The Native Lab in New Mexico will support four fellows and two artists in residence, and the Directors Lab in Colorado will support the development of eight projects with nine fellows, with an additional three fellows also joining for the online Screenwriters Lab held immediately after.

For over four decades, Sundance Institute’s signature labs have provided filmmakers a nurturing, immersive environment to develop their projects and refine their artistic voice under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors.

The 2024 Native Lab, taking place in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 29–May 4, is designed for participants of Native and Indigenous backgrounds and focuses on centering Indigeneity in their storytelling. Fellows will build community and refine their feature film and episodic scripts through one-on-one feedback sections and roundtable discussions with advisors. Four fellows were selected: three who are U.

In Matthew López’s Red, White & Royal Blue, queer love is an international incident.

The anticipated big screen adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s bestseller follows the first son of the United States, Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), and Britain’s Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) after their lives become diplomatically entwined following a royal wedding cake snafu. Forced into a fake friendship to rehab the approval ratings of Alex’s mother, President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman), and salvage the respectability of the Crown, the men discover there may be more love than hate between them — despite an ocean of differences as people and stifling traditions that threaten their ability to be together.

Marking López’s directorial debut, Red, White & Royal Blue sees the Tony-winning, queer, Latine playwright pull double duty as screenwriter alongside co-writer and fellow stage scribe Ted Malawer — both of whom were fans of the novel. “We...

Once upon a time a debut feature director fell in love with a beloved LGBT romance and agreed to bring its treasured words to the small screen. Despite understandable early scepticism about chemistry and authenticity from BookTok, BookTube and beyond he held his course and now Red, White & Royal Blue is primed to hit Prime and steal the hearts of loyal readers and total strangers alike. Brace yourselves for loveliness!

Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Prince Henry George Edward James Hanover-Stuart Fox (Nicholas Galitzine) have engaged in a mutual animosity for years. The handsome, headline-hitting young men are considered royalty in their respective homelands with Alex the politically-ambitious son of the first female President of the United States and Henry the philanthropic “spare” heir to the British throne. They ought to share a bond but instead they trade verbal blows.

Prince Henry’s protocol-heavy upbringing has made him...

The Sundance Institute has announced the participants in their famed screenwriters, directors and Native labs.

The directors and screenwriters labs will support 12 fellows, with five fellows selected for the Native lab. Lab participants will develop their original works under the mentorship of notable advisors. Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, David Gordon Green, Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang and Chloé Zhao are among previous Sundance lab participants.

The directors lab advisor cohort includes Miguel Arteta, Joan Darling, Rick Famuyiwa, Stephen Goldblatt, Keith Gordon, Randa Haines, Ed Harris, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Polly Morgan, Ira Sachs, Michelle Tesoro and Joan Tewkesbury. The screenwriters lab advisor cohort, led by artistic director Howard Rodman, includes Justin Chon, Sebastian Cordero, Cherien Dabis, D.V. Devincentis, Scott Frank, John Gatins, Nicole Kassell, Kasi Lemmons, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Elena Soarez and Robin Swicord. The Native Lab creative advisors include Andrew Ahn, Alex Lazarowich (Cree), Dana Ladoux Miller (Sāmoan) and Jennifer Reeder.

The Sundance Institute on Thursday announced the fellows set for the 2023 edition of their Directors, Screenwriters and Native Labs.

Native Lab participants will include Eva Grant (Degrees of Separation), Quinne Larsen (Trouble), Anpa’o Locke (Growing Pains), Jana Schmieding (Auntie Chuck) and Cian Elyse White (Te Puhi’).

Those taking part in the Directors Lab and/or the Screenwriters Lab include Hadas Ayalon (In a Minute You’ll Be Gone), Dania Bdeir & Bane Fakih (Pigeon Wars), Rashad Frett & Lin Que Ayoung (Ricky), Masami Kawai (Valley of the Tall Grass), Gabriela Ortega (Huella), Audrey Rosenberg (Wild Animals), Abinash Bikram Shah (Elephants in the Fog), Walter Thompson-Hernández (If I Go Will They Miss Me), Sean Wang (DìDi (弟弟)) and Farida Zahran (The Leftover Ladies).

A significant part of supporting Indigenous filmmakers for nearly two decades, the Native Lab will kick off online this year from May 1–5 before continuing in person in Santa Fe,...

Walker said: “This is for all the women that win this award after me.”

Elvis cinematographer Mandy Walker became the first woman to win the feature competition at the American Society of Cinematographers Awards on Sunday (March 5).

Accepting her award, Walker said: “This is for all the women that win this award after me.”

Walker is the third woman to be nominated in the ASC feature competition, following Rachel Morrison in 2018 for Mudbound and Ari Wegner in 2022 for The Power Of The Dog; and is also nominated for the Academy Awards this Sunday.

The other feature nominees were Greig Fraser...

“Elvis” director of photography Mandy Walker won Feature Film at the ASC Awards March 5, when the American Society of Cinematographers handed out its honors at the 37th annual awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Walker’s win in the feature film category could prove prescient; 17 out of the last 36 years found the ASC film winner winning the Academy Award. But it’s worth noting that Oscar nominees “Tár” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” were not among the ASC nominees.

In the TV categories, “The Old Man” took awards for Motion Picture, Limited Series, or Pilot Made for Television and Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Commercial, while “Barry” won Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series for its Season 3 finale and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Non-Commercial for its Season 4 finale.

In addition, several honorary awards were handed out. Egot winner Viola Davis...

Elvis cinematographer Mandy Walker cracked a glass ceiling on Sunday, becoming the first woman to win the American Society of Cinematographers Award in the feature competition during the 37th ASC Awards.

The crowd at the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom erupted with applause and gave Walker a lengthy standing ovation as her name was called.

“This is for all the women that win this award after me,” she said to enthusiastic applause, and she looked for to more women breaking more glass ceilings. “Thijs is an inclusive, representative community,” she said, adding, “I didn’t cry, I thought I was going to cry.”

She thanked Elvis director Baz Luhrmann for allowing her to “create magic with him;” Catherine Martin for her “support and inspiration; and her crew for “dancing with the camera and flying with the camera” during Austin Butler’s performance as Elvis.

Walker’s bold lensing of Elvis...

Mandy Walker has won the American Society of Cinematographers feature-film award for “Elvis,” making her the first woman ever to win that award. She is only the third female nominee in the category, after Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound” in 2018 and Ari Wegner for “The Power of the Dog” last year.

Walker now has the chance to become the first woman to win the Oscar for cinematography, where she is also the third female nominee in the gender-neutral Oscars category that took the longest to nominate a woman. Her competitors at the Oscars include two who were also nominated by the ASC, Roger Deakins for “Empire of Light” and Darius Khondji for “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truth,” along with James Friend for “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Florian Hoffmeister for “Tar.”

“This is for all the women who will win the award after me, and for...

The American Society of Cinematographers is handing out its 37th annual ASC Awards tonight at the Beverly Hilton, and Deadline is posting the winners as they’re announced. See the list below.

The night’s first prize went to Carl Herse for HBO’s Barry, which won for Episode of a Half-Hour Series.

The society’s nominees for its marquee Theatrical Feature Film prize are Roger Deakins for Empire of Light, Greig Fraser for The Batman, Darius Khondji for Bardo, Claudio Miranda for Top Gun: Maverick and Mandy Walker for Elvis. Fraser won the ASC’s top prize last year for Dune, en route to winning the Cinematography Oscar.

The ASC film winner has won the Academy Award nearly half of the time — 17 times in its 36 years. Bardo, Elvis and Empire of Light will vie for the Best Cinematography Oscar on March 12 against All Quiet on the Western Front (James Friend...

In an unusual turn of events, this year’s recipient of the International Award at the American Society of Cinematographers Awards is also a nominee in its feature competition. Darius Khondji, who has been working as a director of photography for decades and earned his first Academy Award nomination for Evita (directed by Alan Parker) in 1996, is taking home the annual honor and competing for a trophy for his work on Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.

While some DPs are known for longtime relationships with a single director, Khondji has amassed a remarkable body of work through productions with a range of helmers whose cinematic styles vary widely. Bardo was his first collaboration with Alejandro G. Iñárritu, whom Khondji describes as a very visual director who was intent on making the film, which Netflix released Dec. 16, feel as immersive as possible. He also has lensed films for...

Many were pleased to learn of Greig Fraser’s (“The Batman”) inclusion among the American Society of Cinematographers’ five nominees for the 37th annual ASC Awards. The reigning Oscar and ASC champ for “Dune” is the fourth Dp nominated by the guild for lensing Gotham City. Stephen Goldblatt (1995’s “Batman Forever), Wally Pfister (2005’s “Batman Begins” and 2008’s “The Dark Knight”) and Lawrence Sher (2019’s “Joker”) also received bids for their work on the most awarded comic book franchise in history. Perhaps what has always distinguished the DC property for voters are the undertones of classic noir that this iteration in particular emphasizes.

See over 200 interviews with 2023 awards contenders

From the apparent seams and stitch work on the title character’s mask to director Matt Reeves’ haunting vision of urban decay, this is a rough, grimy take on the Caped Crusader, whose pulp origins Fraser evokes through rusty hues of...

Mandy Walker’s bold lensing of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis made her the third woman to ever be nominated in the feature category of the American Society of Cinematographers’ ASC Awards, which announced it nominations on Monday.

The feature nominees in the competitive 37th ASC Awards race are Walker; Roger Deakins for Empire of Light; Greig Fraser for The Batman; Darius Khondji for Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths; and Claudio Miranda for Top Gun: Maverick.

Walker is now in a select group of just three women who have been nominated in the ASC feature competition. Rachel Morrison was nominated in 2018 for Mudbound, followed by Ari Wegner, who was nominated in 2022 for The Power of the Dog. Morrison and Wegner both went on to earn historic Oscar nominations.

With his work on Sam Mendes’ drama Empire of Light, Deakins extends his record number of ASC feature nominations to a remarkable 17 noms.

Click here to read the full article.

As the 2022-23 awards season gets underway, The Hollywood Reporter’s Behind the Screen is here to help you track the creative awards from guilds and societies such as the American Society of Cinematographers, the Art Directors Guild and the Cinema Audio Society. Below are the key dates, honorees and other information. The listing will be updated regularly.

10th Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards (IATSE Local 706), Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel

Honorees: Steve La Porte, the Oscar and Emmy-winning make-up artist best known for Beetlejuice, Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock, and Terminator 2 & 3; and Josée Normand, Emmy-winning hair stylist known for her work on Star Trek: Voyager, Die Hard and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Emmy-winning make-up artist Fred C. Blau Jr. (Apocalypse Now, 2001’s Planet of the Apes...

Click here to read the full article.

The American Society of Cinematographers has revealed the honorees for the 37th ASC Awards: Stephen Goldblatt will receive Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Darius Khondji the International Award, Charlie Lieberman the President’s Award, Fred Murphy the Career Achievement in Television honor and Sam Nicholson will get the Curtis Clark Technical Achievement Award.

Born in South Africa, British cinematographer Goldblatt was twice nominated for an Oscar, for Batman Forever (1995) and The Prince of Tides (1991), and is known for a body of work that includes the first two Lethal Weapon movies for Richard Donner and two Batman movies (Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin). He also is known for collaborations with Mike Nichols, including Closer, Charlie Wilson’s War and the 2003 miniseries Angels in America, for which Goldblatt was Emmy nominated (he also received Emmy nominations for 2001’s Conspiracy and 2002’s Path...

Stephen Goldblatt, the cinematographer of John Patrick Shanley’s new romance “Wild Mountain Thyme,” did not have a particularly cordial relationship with Barbra Streisand when he shot her 1991 drama “The Prince of Tides.” But that didn’t stop him from coming to her defense when he found criticism of her work sexist and misguided, he recently told TheWrap.

The fuss began in the summer of 1991, Columbia Pictures held a test screening for “The Prince of Tides,” Streisand’s second film as a director after 1983’s “Yentl.” The family drama, based on a beloved novel by Pat Conroy, starred Nick Nolte as a South Carolina teacher struggling with dark memories of his childhood, and Streisand as a New York therapist. It was scheduled for release that fall and the test screening reactions would give the studio an indication of whether, as hoped, this was an awards contender.

The Los Angeles Times...

It was 31 years ago when cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt first met playwright John Patrick Shanley. At that point in his career, Goldblatt had photographed “The Hunger,” “Young Sherlock Holmes,” and the first two “Lethal Weapon” movies. Shanley, who had won an Oscar for writing 1987’s “Moonstruck,” needed a trained eye to lens his first film as a director. It was an offbeat romantic comedy about a terminally ill man, played by Tom Hanks, who agrees to leap into a volcano to assuage island gods.

“‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ was a wonderful experience for me,” Goldblatt said to TheWrap. “John was such an imaginative director and I think the film was well ahead of its time. We got on great together and stayed friends over these years.”

Goldblatt was born in South Africa and raised in London. Now 75, he makes his home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. A couple years ago,...

We all enjoy movies that, if we had to write a review, we’d pan. Mine range from ’60s musical “Bye Bye Birdie” to Richard Curtis’ “Love Actually,” which has become a family Christmas staple. (That scene between Laura Linney and Rodrigo Santoro? Awful.)

During my ’80s stint at Film Comment Magazine, we published several directors’ guilty pleasures, from Michael Powell to Stephen King, as well as John Waters’ list of high-end art films, which included both Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Teorema” and Woody Allen’s “Interiors.”

The latest entry to my guilty pleasures list is Bronx-born playwright John Patrick Shanley’s “Wild Mountain Thyme,” a sublimely over-the-top, candy-cane romance that makes no sense whatsoever. It’s possible to imagine that a canny mainstream Hollywood director like Norman Jewison could have transformed Shanley’s adaptation of his 2014 Tony-nominated play “Outside Mullingar” (written after he turned 60 and inspired by his family...

We all enjoy movies that, if we had to write a review, we’d pan. Mine range from ’60s musical “Bye Bye Birdie” to Richard Curtis’ “Love Actually,” which has become a family Christmas staple. (That scene between Laura Linney and Rodrigo Santoro? Awful.)

During my ’80s stint at Film Comment Magazine, we published several directors’ guilty pleasures, from Michael Powell to Stephen King, as well as John Waters’ list of high-end art films, which included both Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Teorema” and Woody Allen’s “Interiors.”

The latest entry to my guilty pleasures list is Bronx-born playwright John Patrick Shanley’s “Wild Mountain Thyme,” a sublimely over-the-top, candy-cane romance that makes no sense whatsoever. It’s possible to imagine that a canny mainstream Hollywood director like Norman Jewison could have transformed Shanley’s adaptation of his 2014 Tony-nominated play “Outside Mullingar” (written after he turned 60 and inspired by his family...

Oh boy. I have so many questions for John Patrick Shanley. One of which is simply, why? Why was this the story you wanted to tell. Remember, Shanley has previously given us a classic romantic comedy in Moonstruck, penning that screenplay, as well as writing and directing a stirring drama in Doubt. He’s a talented man, no doubt. His return to rom coms, however, in Wild Mountain Thyme, makes his other directorial outing, Joe Versus the Volcano, seem perfectly normal by comparison. This is the weirdest film of the year, almost defying any real definition or verdict. It kind of has to be seen in order to be believed. Make of that what you will. The movie is a romantic comedy, though describing this one is going to be tough. In short, it’s a tale of Irish star-crossed lovers. Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt) is a feisty snd opinionated...

“Wild Mountain Thyme” opens with fiddles playing over a narrator saying “Welcome to Ireland” before promptly announcing that he’s dead — and that’s just the beginning of the bottomless pot of Irish charm that writer-director John Patrick Shanley dips into for this breezy romantic comedy.

Audiences may find themselves captivated or irritated — or, more likely, some combination of the two — over the hundred or so minutes that follow, but the film takes such a circuitous route down a familiar path, and does so with such wit and eccentricity, that the experience as a whole becomes harder and harder to resist.

Make no mistake, that “Welcome to Ireland” sets the tone for what’s going to be the tourism-board version of the country, from director of photography Stephen Goldblatt’s picture-postcard vistas of rolling green hills to the beautiful sunny weather that gives way to dark clouds and rain only when metaphorically necessary.

A movie with more potential directions than its globe-trotting-assassin heroine has wigs, “Ava” offers moments that suggest it might have succeeded as an action thriller, a dysfunctional family drama, or a character study. Since it commits fully to none of these, the results are the sort of bland bang-bang-pow that keep Nicolas Cage and Bruce Willis afloat in between movies that critics actually like, or even see.

“Ava” comes with a pedigree — Tate Taylor behind the camera, and leading turns from A-listers like Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Colin Farrell, and Geena Davis — but the results are fairly generic; for every scene that draws you in with some smart writing or memorable acting, there are four more that suggest the kind of movie that gets released directly to airlines.

We meet Ava (Chastain) on a job in France, pretending to be a hired driver so she can dispatch a corrupt financier played by Ioan Gruffudd.

Once loaded with connotations of exoticism and movie-star glamor, Ava now ranks annually among the most popular girls’ names in America, and it seems its ubiquity is extending to the film world: Tate Taylor’s female-starring shoot-’em-up “Ava” is the third film bearing that title to crop up in as many years. It, too, has the air of something that may once have been unusual in conception only to emerge as rather generic. Built around Jessica Chastain as an ice-cool, globe-trotting assassin facing a tangle of personal and professional challenges when she returns home to Boston, the film provides than a major star vehicle.

At the very least, you’d probably tune in to the second episode — if only to further indulge the exertions of a cast way above the pay grade of this B-list material. Where else are you going to find bloody, athletic scenes of hand-to-hand combat between Chastain and Joan Chen,...

The original artwork on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1969 self-titled debut album will be auctioned off via Christie’s during a sale scheduled for June 2nd through 18th.

The cover was designed by George Hardie and based on photographer Sam Shere’s famous 1937 photograph of the Hindenburg disaster. It’s estimated to fetch between $20,000 to $30,000, and Christie’s senior specialist of Books and Manuscripts, Peter Klarnet, tells Rolling Stone, “In terms of rarity, this is a unique object — I don’t think you can get rarer than that.”

Hardie...

They say you Can’t Go Home Again, but Francis Coppola has pulled a real magic trick — his 1984 gangland musical ended up heavily compromised by outright racism producers that didn’t like the half of the story that favored a black show-biz drama. All the gangster action has been retained in this impressive Encore recut, but with twenty new minutes of performances and backstage intrigues. Gregory and Maurice Hines’ tap dances are extended, and musical numbers have been restored, with the terrific Lonette McKee getting special emphasis. The show was always good, and now it’s much better.

The Cotton Club Encore

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital

Lionsgate

1984-2019 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 139 min. (originally 119) / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 14.99

Starring: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Gregory Hines, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, Maurice Hines, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Fred Gwynne, Gwen Verdon, Julian Beck, John P. Ryan.

Cinematography: Stephen Goldblatt

Production Designer: Richard Sylbert

Film Editors: Robert Q. Lovett,...

One of the more hotly-awaited lists of the year has just dropped: the annual Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Providing support and mentorship to filmmakers since 1981, the Labs boast alumni ranging from Boots Riley to Chloe Zhao, Quentin Tarantino to Ritesh Batra. This year’s labs take place from May 27 – June 18 (Directors) and June 20 – 24 (Screenwriters). Advisors for the month include Robert Redford, Gyula Gazdag (Artistic Director for the Directors Lab), Sandra Adair, Scott Z. Burns, Charlotte Bruus Christensen, Sebastian Cordero, Joan Darling, Suzy Elmiger, Rick Famuyiwa, Stephen Goldblatt, Keith Gordon, Randa Haines, Ed […]...

One of the more hotly-awaited lists of the year has just dropped: the annual Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Providing support and mentorship to filmmakers since 1981, the Labs boast alumni ranging from Boots Riley to Chloe Zhao, Quentin Tarantino to Ritesh Batra. This year’s labs take place from May 27 – June 18 (Directors) and June 20 – 24 (Screenwriters). Advisors for the month include Robert Redford, Gyula Gazdag (Artistic Director for the Directors Lab), Sandra Adair, Scott Z. Burns, Charlotte Bruus Christensen, Sebastian Cordero, Joan Darling, Suzy Elmiger, Rick Famuyiwa, Stephen Goldblatt, Keith Gordon, Randa Haines, Ed […]...

Our Souls At Night

Starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda

Directed by Ritesh Batra

It starts quietly, and ends without drama, melo- or otherwise. After The Lunchbox and its tad disappointing followup The Sense Of An Ending, you know how it is with Ritesh Batra. This is a filmmaker who loves silence and embraces it with all its inbuilt hazards and uncertainties.

We’ve seen him work wonders with wordless emotions in his earlier works. So no surprise if here he once again weaves a luminous lucidity into the looming stillness of a landscape that won’t judge mankind. Kindly or otherwise.

With Our Souls At Night, a deeply stirring gentle humane drama about two autumnal souls drifting together in ways that The Bridges Of Madison County could never fathom, Batra joins the ranks of the greatest living filmmakers. And we are not speaking of India alone. Batra is a...

“May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.” Still the most widely unheralded great movie on the books, John Patrick Shanley’s lightweight/profound fable is an unmitigated delight. See Tom Hanks at the end of the first phase of his career plus Meg Ryan in an unacknowledged career highlight. How can a movie be so purposely insubstantial, and yet be ‘heavier’ than a dozen pictures with ‘big things to say?’

Joe Versus the Volcano

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1990 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date June 20, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Abe Vigoda,

Dan Hedaya, Barry McGovern, Amanda Plummer, Ossie Davis

Cinematography Stephen Goldblatt

Production Designer Bo Welch

Film Editors Richard Halsey, Kenneth Wannberg

Original Music Georges Delerue

Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg and Teri Schwartz

Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley

I think I found...

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Gorilla suits in Batman & Robin were made from old Santa wigs. And that cape swoosh? It was some old tarp...

It’s less of a thing now, but in the 1980s and 1990s, major blockbusters were sometimes accompanied by a making-of book. Sure, these tended to be quite glossy and promotional, but they also had to fill 100-200 pages with something. And in the case of Batman & Robin, one of 1997’s two notorious blockbuster flops (Speed 2 being the other), Michael Singer penned a 128 page guide to what was supposed to be the biggest film of the year.

It’s interesting, too, digging in far more detail than you might expect into the technical details. Here are 25 of the things that we found out from reading it…

1. Bob Kane was involved with the script

Batman co-creator Bob Kane is one of the many interviewees for the book, and...

Roundly dismissed upon its release by critics in 1983, Tony Scott’s classy, stylish art-house vampire film The Hunger arrives on Blu-ray as a demure addition to the Warner Bros. Archive Collection. A notable cult item still lacking of a deserving reappraisal for its significant merits, the film has long languished in obscurity with the exception of its references to the explicit lesbian sex scene shared between Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon (featured in a first-wave resurgence of interest in Lgbt cinematic themes with the documentary version of Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet, 1991). It represents one of three cinematic adaptations from horror writer Whitley Streiber, following the also forgotten Wolfen (1981), starring Albert Finney.

Miriam Blaylock (Deneuve) is an ancient yet breathtakingly beautiful vampire. Her lover of the past three centuries, John (David Bowie) has suddenly begun to age and decay, apparently something that has eventually happened to all of her past lovers,...

What sort of hoops would you jump through in order to take home a piece of movie history? Would you pay $1 a year? That.s what Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to do to keep one of his Mr. Freeze costumes. The folks behind the George Clooney-led Batman & Robin had to keep tabs on all the props and costumes left over from the shoot, because just about everyone wanted to take something home, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a recent feature published in The Hollywood Reporter, the film.s director (Joel Schumacher), screenwriters (Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler), producer (Peter Macgregor-Scott), production designer (Barbara Ling) and cinematographer (Stephen Goldblatt) recounted tales from the infamous production. Among the stories told, Macgregor-Scott revealed Schwarzenegger.s odd deal to keep his hands on his character.s suit.  Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted a costume of Mr. Freeze. It went all the way up to the top...

From writer/director Nancy Meyers (It’S Complicated, Something’S Gotta Give), watch the new trailer for ‪The Intern‬ starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.

De Niro stars as Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower who has discovered that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin (Hathaway).

The film’s cast also features Rene Russo (“Thor”), Anders Holm (“Workaholics”), Andrew Rannells (“Girls”), Adam Devine (“Pitch Perfect”), Celia Weston (“No Reservations”), Nat Wolff (“The Fault in Our Stars”), Linda Lavin (“Wanderlust”), Zack Pearlman (“The Inbetweeners”), newcomer Jason Orley, and Christina Scherer (“Living with Uncle Charlie”).

Meyers also produced the film, with Suzanne Farwell. Celia Costas served as executive producer.

Meyers’ behind-the-scenes creative team is headed by Oscar-nominated director of photography Stephen Goldblatt (“The Prince of Tides,...

Read More: Watch: This Theater's Final Screening on Film (Before Switching to Digital) Will Break Your Heart What does it take to craft an image? Michael Apted ("Gorillas in the Mist") contemplates the answer to this question in his latest film, "Bending the Light," which focuses on  how world-class photographers and cinematographers use certain types of lenses to get just the right "look." In the exclusive clip that appears at the top of this page, cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, who has been shooting films for nearly thirty years now and boasts a rich roster of credits on major motion pictures such as "Lethal Weapon," "Batman Forever," "Charlie Wilson's War" and most recently, "The Help," explains why he has embraced the switch from film stock to digital. Shooting digitally, Goldblatt says, reduces his stress level because he doesn't have to wait to have the film developed in order to see the dailies.

A bevy of honorary awards announcements landed today so it's probably best to just round them up into one shot. So Barbra Streisand, Ben Affleck and Guillermo del Toro — get your speeches ready. Beginning with Streisand, she will receive the American Society of Cinematographers' Board of Governors Award at the Feb. 15 ceremony. Her accomplishments across the industry "are unparalleled, and we look forward to celebrating her groundbreaking contributions to the art of filmmaking," Asc President Richard Crudo said. He goes on to note that the three films she has directed have earned a combined 14 Oscar nominations, though funnily enough, only one of them — 1991's "The Prince of Tides" — received recognition for its cinematography. (Fistbump, Stephen Goldblatt). Over at the Writers Guild of America, which yesterday announced an accolade for the late Harold Ramis, it was revealed that Oscar-winning writer ("Good Will Hunting") and producer ("Argo") Ben Affleck would receive the...

Birdman, Fury and Leviathan among main competition titles; Roland Joffé to preside over main jury.

Alejandro G Ińárritu, Yimou Zhang, Mike Leigh and Jean-Marc Vallée are among the directors with films screening in competition at the 22nd Camerimage (Nov 15-22), the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.

The main competition at the festival, held in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, comprises:

Alejandro G Ińárritu’s Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance); USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki

Yimou Zhang’s Coming Home (Gui lai); China, 2014; Cinematographer: Zhao Xiaoding

Richard Raymond’s Desert Dancer; UK, 2014; Cinematographer: Carlos Catalán Alucha

Lech J. Majewski’s Field of Dogs - Onirica (Onirica - Psie pole); Poland, 2014; Cinematographers: Paweł Tybora and Lech J. Majewski

Krzysztof Zanussi’s Foreign Body (Obce cialo); Poland, Italy, Russia, 2014; Cinematographer: Piotr Niemyjski

David Ayer’s Fury; USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Roman Vasyanov

Tate Taylor’s Get on Up; USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Stephen Goldblatt

Łukasz Palkowski’s Gods (Bogowie); Poland, 2014; Cinematographer:...

In order to examine the art of photography, you have to start by looking at the glass. “It’s the heart of the camera,” explains one lens-maker in director Michael Apted’s (The Up Series) latest documentary Bending the Light.

Apted’s film gives audiences a rare glimpse inside a premier Japanese lens factory and features interviews with celebrated photographers and cinematographers like Stephen Goldblatt, Greg Gorman, Richard Barnes, and Laura El-Tantawy in his study of the relationship between the artist and their tools.

Bending the Light premieres at the Traverse City Film Festival on Aug. 3.

Veteran filmmaker Michael Apted‘s new documentary focuses on the relationship between the artisans who craft camera lenses and the photographers and cinematographers who use them. Bending The Light features never-before-seen footage from inside a premier Japanese lens factory and delivers interviews with two-time Oscar nominee Stephen Goldblatt, Greg Gorman, Laura El-Tantawy and Richard Barnes. The pic premieres August 3 at at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. Here’s the trailer: Bending the Light Trailer from Bending the Light on Vimeo.

Academy Award winners Robert De Niro (“Raging Bull,” “Silver Linings Playbook”) and Anne Hathaway (“Les Misérables,” “The Devil Wears Prada”) star together in Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Intern, which began filming today in New York. Oscar-nominated and award-winning filmmaker Nancy Meyers (“It’s Complicated,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “Private Benjamin”) is directing the comedy from her own screenplay.

The director posted the photo on her Instagram account. (instagram.com/nmeyers)

Meyers is also producing the film, together with Scott Rudin and Suzanne Farwell. Celia Costas is serving as executive producer.

The film’s multi-generational cast also features Rene Russo (“Thor”), Andrew Rannells (“Girls”), Adam DeVine (“Pitch Perfect”), Nat Wolff (“The Fault in Our Stars”), Anders Holm (“Workaholics”), Linda Lavin (“Wanderlust”), Zack Pearlman (“The Inbetweeners”), Reid Scott (“Veep”), newcomer Jason Orley, and Christina Scherer (“Living with Uncle Charlie”).

In The Intern, De Niro stars as Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower who...

Something we’ve come to appreciate since the terrible news of the passing of director Tony Scott came in this morning, is that there’s an argument to be made that almost any one of his films saw him at the top of his game. From debut feature “The Hunger,” one of the first movies of the MTV generation, and the era-defining “Top Gun,” all the way to the bold formal experimentation of his last four films, his films were always technically impeccable, thrilling and instantly recognizable as a Tony Scott picture. He was the action director as auteur.

Which is not to say that his films were entirely about chase scenes and explosions. Far from it in fact — he loved actors, and they seemed to love him back. Denzel Washington worked with him five times, Gene Hackman twice in a row, and one only has to look at the...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: Tate Taylor’s ensemble dramedy “The Help,” his crowd-pleasing adaptation of close friend Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel, has been an awards contender since … well, since it opened back in August. And Taylor will tell you, it feels like he hasn’t stopped talking about the film, his cast, and the film’s impact since late summer, when the story of brave Southern women fighting for basic human rights captivated filmgoers.

I felt bad making Taylor talk even more about his movie, but with the awards season kicking into high gear, I knew I’d be one of thousands hoping to get the young director’s opinion on the happenings surrounding “The Help.” And it’s only going to get busier. The movie just grabbed eight Critics’ Choice Movie Award nominations, including Bets Picture. The next day, it claimed multiple Screen Actors Guild noms including Best Ensemble.

Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced nominations for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards this morning. Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale served as presenters. Nominees for Best Feature include 50/50, Beginners, Drive, Take Shelter, The Artist and The Descendants.

Margin Call was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.

“The Film Independent Spirit Awards recognize the finest artistic achievements across the broad spectrum of independent filmmaking.from emerging talent working on a shoestring budget to established auteurs,” said Film Independent Senior Director Sean Mc Manus. “The 2012 nominees tell their stories in such an authentic way and reflect the inclusive nature of the independent filmmaking community. We are delighted to support them and expand the audience for their work.”

2012 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominations

Best Feature (Award given to the Producer,...

Patrick Wilson is gifted enough to maneuver a new series into using New York as its setting.

The Big Apple is home base for the veteran of Broadway ("Oklahoma!," "The Full Monty") and movies ("Morning Glory," "Watchmen"), so he's more than pleased CBS agreed to shoot "A Gifted Man" there. Premiering Friday (Sept. 23), the drama casts Wilson as a slick surgeon visited by an apparition of his late ex-wife (Jennifer Ehle, "Contagion"), which steers him toward an epiphany as he helps out at the free clinic she ran.

"I'm incredibly grateful," Wilson tells Zap2it of the network's willingness to film "A Gifted Man" on the East Coast. Oscar winner Jonathan Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs") directed the pilot episode, and Wilson believes New York's effectiveness in it "surprised" many of the behind-the-scenes talents involved.

"The show originally was conceived to be very L.A., and that's Ok, but...

Cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, writer-director Tate Taylor, Cicely Tyson, Emma Stone, The Help On Tuesday, August 30, Tate Taylor's comedy-drama The Help passed the $100 million milestone while Rupert Wyatt's sci-fier Rise of the Planet of the Apes passed the $150 million milestone at the domestic box office according to figures found at Box Office Mojo. Overall, Tuesday was an "up" day at North American movie houses; the top ten movies posted an 18% increase compared to the previous day. Up 20% from Monday, The Help took in $2.16m on Tuesday, thus lifting its cume to $100.8m after 21 days. The generally well-received film — a likely Best Picture Oscar contender — features Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Allison Janney, Cicely Tyson, Chris Lowell, and Mike Vogel. At no. 3 on the domestic box-office chart, Rise of the Planet of the Apes grossed $1.05m (up 14% from Monday), for...

Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis in The Help

Photo: DreamWorks Pictures Based on Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel of the same name, The Help is a showcase for its actors while telling the story of a young white girl who returns home from college, determined to be a writer, and finds a story to tell in the lives of the African American maids working in the 1960s for southern families of privilege. Writer and director Tate Taylor sacrifices some emotional impact by never becoming too explicit with the material and instead chose to make more of a safe, warm bath kind of film. To his credit, though, the measured balance of drama, comedy and compassion allows viewers to become part of this world, connect with the characters and share in their desire to have their story told.

At the heart of The Help you find the film's two leads; Emma Stone as Skeeter,...

We're only three episodes in and I've already polluted the idea of this new series, in which participants are supposed to choose their single favorite shot from a film. I offered up a fantasia of multiple shots from Showgirls. The idea is to choose only one shot from each film. I did a better job with X-Men. And I'm so happy that people are now playing along... even if the one shot thing is difficult difficult difficult. But this time our indecision is totally rational. Tony Kushner's extraordinary stage epic Angels in America was adapted for the screen in 2003 by Oscar winning Mike Nichols. Rather than limit myself to one shot I'm picking one from each chapter. This I can manage!

Chapter 1 "Bad News"

Mary Louise Parker and Justin Kirk in their pre-Weeds duet. Harper and Prior, the abandoned lovers, are dolled up to provide themselves with distracting glamour in their shared hallucination.

Release Date: Feb. 12 Director: Chris Columbus Writers: Craig Titley (Screenplay), Rick Riordan (Novel) Starring: Logan Lerman, Alexanda Daddario, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan Cinematographer: Stephen Goldblatt Studio/Run Time: Fox 2000 Pictures, 110 mins. Greeked-out adaptation is fun, if flawed, ride. Say you found out your best friend is actually a half-man-half-goat; a satyr. The teacher you suspect has it out for you actually does (really, swooping down on you in full force with claws and pointy teeth). Another teacher, once confined to a wheelchair, is now prancing around on centaur legs. And oh, your dad is Poseidon — you...