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The following article is an excerpt from the new edition of “In Review by David Ehrlich,” a biweekly newsletter in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the site’s latest reviews and muses about current events in the movie world. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter in your inbox every other Friday.

I might have hated “Wicked.”

I say “might” not because I’m unsure of my general feelings toward the film, but rather because I’m unsure of what it means for me to hate a piece of art at a time when hair-trigger hostility is so deeply suffused into the air we breathe.

Sure, “piece of art” might be a generous way of describing the hideous first half of an $145 million studio musical adapted from a Broadway show that still feels like a Times Square tourist attraction even though it’s staged on 51st Street,...

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has added 11 titles to its Harbour, Limelight and Bright Futures strands ahead of its 54th edition, which runs January 30-February 9.

In Harbour, the festival world premieres Jeppe Rønde’ Acts of Love following his feature debut at IFFR in 2015 with Bridgend. It’s the story of a woman’s quiet and orderly life in a religious community in rural Denmark which is disrupted by the arrival of her brother.

Tiger Special Jury Prize-winning US filmmakers Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan (New Strains) return with Removal of the Eye about a couple contending with a mother-in-law’s demand for a baby exorcism.

The Hollywood Reporter earned 53 nominations for the 17th annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, including best website and two noms for journalist of the year.

Seth Abramovitch was nominated for print journalist of the year, Mesfin Fekadu for online journalist of the year, Lovia Gyarkye for best film critic and Daniel Fienberg for best television critic. David Rooney was nominated for best theater and performing arts critic, and Fekadu was again nominated for best music critic.

In the celebrity investigation category, Gary Baum was nominated for his June 2024 story “Get Me Bryan Freedman!” which followed the entertainment power lawyer in his work with clients such as Megyn Kelly, Bethenny Frankel, Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon. THR‘s story “Will Ferrell on Navigating His Best Friend’s Transition in ‘Will & Harper'” was also nominated in the same category, with reporting from Seija Rankin, Jason Rovou, Stephanie Fischette and editors-in-chief...

Will Smith’s slap on Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars stirred up a lot of drama and led to some serious consequences, including a ten-year ban from the event. Everyone was buzzing about it for a while, and it got plenty of criticism. But even before that incident, Smith was already facing criticism for his movie Bright, which had been hit with a wave of negative reviews.

Will Smith in Bright (Credits: Netflix)

It turns out that, upon taking a closer look, the film isn’t as bad as it seemed. Many people have been discussing it on social media, with some even praising the whole production and storyline. Sure, it has its flaws — like any project — but fans argue that it’s not quite the disaster movie critics made it out to be.

Why Did Bright Receive Poor Reviews? Will Smith and Joel Edgerton in Bright (Credits: Netflix)

Bright is a 2017 action,...

Mecha is a subgenre that feels like one of the foundations of anime. It’s something that many people unfamiliar with anime might picture if you ask them to describe it. “Mobile Suit Gundam” (1979) was not popular on first airing and was cancelled after 43 episodes. Yet it would gain a cult following through reruns and the burgeoning Gunpla model kit industry. The release of the first compilation film, “Mobile Suit Gundam I” saw a crowd of 15,000 people at its premiere and grossed 1.76 billion yen. From this moment whilst mecha anime had existed before it was now something else, something bigger that would see it maintain popularity to this day.

Iconic Events Releasing’s 2024-2025 Ax Cinema Nights series is screening a series of Gundam movies, starting this October

Humanity has begun to explore space and colonize the stars. A faction called The Principality of Zeon has declared war on the Earth Federation,...

Disgraced anchor Phillip Schofield, who resigned from ITV’s “This Morning” in 2023 after admitting to an affair with a Pa, is planning a return to television.

Schofield has filmed a new show for U.K. Psb Channel 5 called “Cast Away,” in which he is marooned on an island near Madagascar for 10 days. The three-part series will reportedly see him talking about his precipitous fall from grace, from one of ITV’s best-known faces to industry outcast.

“Now you know how I spent my Summer! Alone for 10 days, no food, no water, no crew. My story of survival, both on a desert island and off it,” the TV anchor wrote on Instagram on Wednesday morning.

The show, which is produced by Burning Bright Productions, is set to air in the U.K. for three consecutive nights from Monday, Sept. 30. Burning Bright’s Clive Tulloh and Louise Quayle at exec produce...

Bright Eyes are set to release their new album Five Dice, All Threes on Friday, September 20th, and they were planning to celebrate its release with a trio of shows in New York City, Chicago (at Riot Fest), and a hometown concert in Omaha, Nebraska. But after a rough warm-up show in Cleveland earlier this week, the band have canceled all three shows.

“We’re heartbroken to announce that our upcoming record release shows have been canceled,” reads the band’s official statement on Instagram. “The warm up shows we played earlier this week resulted in Conor losing his voice and, on the advice of doctors, we’ve made the difficult but sensible decision to prioritize rest and recuperation for the remainder of the month.” The band also writes that they’ll be working hard to reschedule the dates, and that refunds for the shows will be available at the point of purchase.

Throughout film history, there have been companies and, for certain stretches, whole studios notorious for churning out garbage. Obviously, American International Pictures had a rep for schlock, but they hit for a shockingly high average at their late 1950s and '60s peak. There's also Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus' Cannon Films, which sparkled with its constellation of B-list action stars like Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson, but Golan was a filmmaker himself with dreams of respectability who courted legit directors like Franco Zeffirelli, Jerry Schatzberg, and Andrei Konchalovsky to make Academy Awards-worthy movies for his exploitation factory.

One of the more outlandishly awful runs from any production entity was Hollywood Pictures, which was created by Disney to nurture fledgling executives and feed film-starved multiplexes — lacking in the wake of MGM/UA, Lorimar and Deg's financial difficulties — with new movies. Disney wasn't sending its best to Hollywood Pictures, so agents...

Antoine Fuqua's 2001 cop drama "Training Day" is notable for its hellish tone, gritty photography, and amazing central performance from the incomparable Denzel Washington. Indeed, "Training Day" won Washington his second acting Academy Award for playing LAPD Detective Alonzo Harris, the most horrible and corrupt cop on the force. Ethan Hawke plays Jake Hoyt, the cop assigned to learn from Alonzo on the day before his promotion. Hoyt will get a disturbing crash course in how deeply the violence and corruption of the LAPD really runs. 

Although Alonzo is a terrible person, he's an appealing villain, and many viewers came to love his gnashing and displays of brazen power. Alonzo's line "King Kong ain't got nothing on me," written by David Ayer, was briefly a part of the oft-repeated pop canon. "Training Day" was Fuqua's third feature as a director (after "The Replacement Killers" and "Bait"), but it was the...

Producer Eric Newman and wife Dana Newman are doubling down on their commitment to Venice Community Housing. The couple, longtime supporters of the organization, made a $500,000 donation to the nonprofit as a way to support affordable housing initiatives.

Founded in 1988, Vch works to invest in permanently affordable housing, advance health and housing-based solutions for unhoused people, promote youth development and education, and build strategic partnerships based on equity and inclusion.

The organization has more than 300 homes in operation and another 400-plus in development. The nonprofit serves more than 1,300 people, the majority of whom are people of color. Vch is currently inching toward a grand opening of Journey Apartments, 40 units for transition-aged youth experiencing homelessness and people experiencing chronic homelessness.

“On behalf of Vch, we graciously thank the Newmans for their long-term and very generous support,” Vch’s co-executive director Erika Lee said in response to the sizable gift. “Donations like...

Looking back at the Infinity Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is remarkable how it transpired from success after success. Following the tremendous victory of The Avengers, it became a lofty task to maintain the momentum and expand the universe. But, in 2013, it only resulted in the semi-successful Iron Man 3 and the lackluster Thor: The Dark World.

However, the next year, two Marvel movies changed the trajectory of the saga and even the genre. The MCU would not be the same without these magnificent Phase Two movies. A decade after their release, here is a look back of the impact and the legacy of those two tentpoles: Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Steve Rogers’ journey continues from the first Avengers, wherein he accomplished missions for S.H.I.E.L.D., using his military experience. However, a deep...

Most expensive Netflix Original movies ever made. (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Netflix has narrowed the gap between the big and the small screen. The streaming giant does not shy away from investing money in ambitious projects, to give the audience a memorable visual experience, without heading out of their homes.

Over the years, the streaming service has produced some costly films, with budgets comparable to those spent on theatrical releases by studios like Disney and Universal Pictures. Here are the 10 most expensive original films on Netflix, ranked from the least budget to the most.

10. Atlas (2024)

Budget: $100 Million

Jennifer Lopez partnered with Netflix to bring this sci-fi action film to the screen. Set in a dystopian future, Atlas stars JLo in the titular role of a data analyst who is tasked to apprehend a rogue robot, while taking the help of artificial intelligence, despite her hatred towards AI. With its premise involving space and robots,...

Bright Eyes are back. On Tuesday, the Conor Oberst-led outfit announced a new album — Five Dice, All Threes, due on September 20th via Dead Oceans — released a new single titled “Bells and Whistles,” and announced a world tour.

Spanning 13 new tracks, Five Dice, All Threes is Bright Eyes’ first album since their 2020 comeback Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, and features contributions by Cat Power, The National’s Matt Berninger, and The So So Glos’ Alex Orange Drink.

Get Bright Eyes Tickets Here

Speaking about it in a statement, the band’s Nate Walcott explained that Five Dice, All Threes “revisits the spirit of our older records. There is a real quality of chaos and ecstatic urgency in the performances.” Comparing it to their 2005 album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Mike Mogis said “It took us 20 years to make another record that sounds like a band playing live.

Exclusive: Corey Stoll (Billions) and Bobby Naderi (The Beekeeper) have been tapped for series regular roles opposite Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks in Prime Video’s thriller series The Better Sister, based on the novel by Alafair Burke.

Stoll plays Adam, who has muscled his way from a local boy in Ohio to the white shoe law firms of New York City, but finds it difficult to embrace the high-class life his wife Chloe (Biel) has built around them. A devoted father, he worries about the impact their new wealth has on his son Ethan.

Naderi plays Matt Bowen, the younger partner of Nancy Guidry, a detective investigating the murder of Chloe’s husband Adam. Matt approaches things with a kinder style, but that softer approach doesn’t entirely mask his profound ambition.

Hailing from Tomorrow Studios, which will co-produce with Amazon MGM Studios, The Better Sister meditates on the...

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"2020 at the box office will be known as the 'year of the asterisk,' with virtually every known measure and metric for box office performance being completely rethought and recalibrated." These were the words of Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian speaking to CNN in October 2020. At that time, the industry was contending with a months-long, global shutdown, with movie theaters on life support as the pandemic raged on. Yes, every title released in 2020 will always come with an asterisk but even with that, one movie had to come out on top during Hollywood's lost year. That movie was "Bad Boys for Life."

Action director extraordinaire Michael Bay helmed 1995's "Bad Boys" and 2003's "Bad Boys II," with the first film ranking...

Exclusive: Robert Alonzo, a two-time SAG Award winner known as one of the top action design professionals in Hollywood, is getting into producing at the action-focused production company Tremor House. His partner in the endeavor is longtime friend and collaborator Jonathan Spano, an entrepreneur and philanthropist whose film technology and stunt work have also earned him a SAG Award.

Tremor House will develop, produce, and/or finance mid-range budget action films. As its first deal, Tremor House has entered into a joint venture to co-finance and co-produce commercial action projects with CAT5, the burgeoning action label from Alexis Garcia.

“Tremor House provides us an opportunity to combine our talents, experience, relationships and resources to create projects with maximum entertainment impact,” said Alonzo and Spano in a joint statement to Deadline. “Using the precision and perspective that comes with understanding how to run a business and putting the right people in the right jobs,...

Week 1 Box Office Collection Report Of Rajkummar Rao’s Srikanth(Photo Credit –Facebook)

Amid the absence or less number of major Bollywood releases, some small to mid-sized films have successfully managed to keep ticket windows busy. The latest addition to the list is Rajkummar Rao’s Srikanth, which was released amid low to negligible buzz, but all thanks to the positivity around it, the film has turned out to be a decent affair so far at the Indian box office. Keep reading to know where it stands after 7 days!

Rao has always impressed us with his impeccable acting skills, and with each film, he keeps on raising his bar. However, when it comes to the box office run, the actor has been highly inconsistent but it seems that his latest release might provide him some relief before the much-awaited Stree 2 hits theatres and ignite fireworks at the box office.

Coming...

Chicago – The spotlight and excitement was at the Final Weekend of Season 18 for Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema (Apuc). The buzz was for Apuc Bright Star Awardee Carlos Chan. The respect was for Hong Kong legend Rebecca Pan, who received Apuc’s Lifetime Achievement Award, all during Hong Kong Cinema Showcase.

The 2024 Season 18 Closing Night on April 20th included a Red Carpet event for the honored Hong Kong attendees, which included Carlos Chan and his director Benny Lau for “We Are Family.” Director Isabel Wong represented her documentary featuring Rebecca Pan, “Pai Niang Niang: The Last Osmanthus Blossom.” Director Mo Lai Yan Chi was there for her musical “Band Four” and director Kelvin Shum returned to Chicago to represent his horror epic “It Remains.”

Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com was there, and got the following Red Carpet Podtalk reactions from the attendees.

Bright Star Carlos Chan (in Green) Struts Down...

As Netflix’s new film chief, Dan Lin’s mandate is to focus on quality — and quantity.

Netflix’s co-ceo Ted Sarandos shed light on Lin’s strategy as the producer takes over film duties from Scott Stuber, who announced in January he was leaving the streamer.

“There is no appetite to make fewer films, but there is an unlimited appetite to make better films, always,” Sarandos said during the company’s Q1 earnings call. “Even though we have made, and we are making, great films. We want to make them better, of course.”

He was responding to a recent New York Times article, which reported that Lin aims to “improve the quality of the movies and produce a wider spectrum of films — at different budget levels — the better to appeal to the varied interests of Netflix’s 260 million subscribers.”

Though Sarandos mostly echoed those sentiments, he made a point...

Exclusive: The Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson sci-fi thriller Mercy is adding four with A Star Is Born‘s Rafi Gavron, Chris Sullivan, Kenneth Choi and Kylie Rogers.

Timur Bekmambetov directs the Amazon MGM Studios project, which was penned by Marco van Belle. It follows a detective (Pratt) who is accused of a violent crime, and must prove his innocence is a future where capital crime has swelled.

True Detective: Night Country‘s Kali Reis and Blinders’ Annabelle Wallis also star in the movie which is hitting theaters on Aug. 15, 2025.

Gersh, Affirmative Entertainment repped Gavron began his career with a breakout lead role in Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering, for which he earned a nomination for ‘Best Newcomer’ at the British Independent Film Awards. In addition to A Star Is Born, he also starred in the limited series Ghosts of Beirut, two seasons of Godfather of Harlem for MGM+,...

On their latest album, American Primitive, the Old 97’s have sandwiched songs about assessing their life choices and serial monogamy with reminders that the world is a doomed and hopeless place and that if you’ve found even a modicum of joy, then that day is a triumph. On the first track, “Falling Down,” they try to frighten you into gratitude via a caustic surf-rock apocalypse built with tremolo electric and strummed acoustic guitars, as frontman Rhett Miller sings, “You’ve got to dance like the world is falling down around you — because it is.

David Ayer is following up the success of The Beekeeper with a new dramatic thriller from producer Damien Chazelle.

Ayer is set to direct Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast from a script by Cameron Alexander. The feature, which has been in development since 2017, follows a former Navy Seal and his combat dog amid their attempt to find civilization after getting stranded deep in the Alaskan terrain.

Producers include Chazelle and Olivia Hamilton of Wild Chickens Productions, in addition to Ayer and Chris Long of Cedar Park Entertainment.

Ayer most recently helmed Amazon MGM Studios’ The Beekeeper, the Jason Statham-led thriller that surpassed $150 million at the global box office. The filmmaker, who wrote Training Day and worked on the script for The Fast and the Furious, has previously directed Fury, Suicide Squad and Bright.

Chazelle’s directing credits include Whiplash, La La Land, First Man and Babylon. During a...

Dark Winds and Blood Quantum actor Kiowa Gordon and Sera-Lys McArthur (Café Daughter, Outlander) have joined the cast of Many Wounds, a contemporary re-imagining of Lee Tamahori’s ground-breaking 1994 Maori film Once Were Warriors, set among indigenous communities in Canada.

Skye Pelletier (Prey) stars in Many Wounds as Mashka, a young teenager on the cusp of being swallowed up by a colonial system meant to further the goals of assimilation who becomes a warrior to protect his family.

Ojibway filmmaker Jeremy Torrie, who wrote and is directing Many Wounds, and producing the film together with Métis producer Tanya Brunel, said he drew on his own personal, painful experiences growing up indigenous in Winnipeg for the script.

“Our intention with this film is to reveal some uncomfortable truths about the effects of generations of forced assimilation and genocide by the Canadian government toward our peoples for a society largely unaware of how deep the wounds go,...

In 2022, Dan Lin, the producer of “The Lego Movie” and “It,” was in negotiations to become head of DC Studios. It was a singular opportunity to reimagine the company behind Superman, Batman and other costumed heroes. But talks broke down. Among the reported reasons was that David Zaslav, the head of DC’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lin could not agree on a way to properly compensate him for leaving his production company Rideback for the new gig.

So why, less than two years later, has Lin decided to take a different corporate job, overseeing Netflix’s film division? And what kinds of obstacles will he need to overcome if Netflix is going to raise the quality of the movies it makes?

For Lin, Netflix offers a vast consumer base, one that overshadows those of rivals like Max or Disney+. It’s also more stable than other media companies.

Anime and manga live-action adaptations, especially English-language ones, have a mixed track record. For every "One Piece" and "Speed Racer," which manage to capture the endless imagination of the medium, there are thrice as many "Dragonball Evolution" and "Ghost in the Shell" bad movies that nearly ruin their source material.

One of the best ones is not really based on an anime or manga — though it is quite clear that "Akira" was a huge influence — Josh Trank and Max Landis' "Chronicle." The film is set in Seattle and follows three teens who acquire telekinetic powers. Soon enough, the fun and games turn dark and deadly when one of them begins to lose control and relish in their power. Aside from very direct visual references to Katsuhiro Otomo's iconic (and very influential) anime masterpiece, "Chronicle" manages to capture the quick and chaotic descent into madness and horror that plagues the...

Indian Artists Shine at Grammy Awards 2024: The 66th edition of the prestigious Grammy Awards witnessed India’s resplendent presence as two eminent artists, Shankar Mahadevan and Zakir Hussain, clinched the coveted awards. Held in Los Angeles, the event not only brought accolades but also showcased India’s musical prowess on the global stage.

Shankar Mahadevan’s Triumph

Renowned singer Shankar Mahadevan’s victory echoed on social media as he secured a Grammy for his exceptional contribution. His fans celebrated the milestone, recognizing his immense talent and the pride he brought to the nation.

Zakir Hussain’s Magical Rhythms

Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain added another feather to his cap by bagging a Grammy Award. His rhythmic mastery and global acclaim have once again been acknowledged, elevating the stature of Indian classical music on the international platform.

Congratulations Ustad @ZakirHtabla ji, @Shankar_Live, @kanjeeraselva, @Rakeshflute and @violinganesh on your Grammy wins!

Lucy Fry (the Wolf Creek TV series), Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid’s Tale), Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks), and comedian Matt Rife (Natural Selection) lead the cast of the psychological horror film I Live Here Now, which recently made its way through production with first-time feature director Julie Pacino at the helm. Utopia represents the worldwide rights to the project, and Screen Daily reports that they’ll be launching distribution sales at the European Film Market, which will be held during the 74th Berlin International Film Festival later this month.

I Live Here Now sees Fry taking on the role of a woman who finds herself trapped in a remote hotel where the violent echoes of her past come alive, blurring the lines between her darkest nightmares and the waking world.

In addition to Wolf Creek, Fry’s credits include Vampire Academy, Mr. Church, 11.22.63, The Darkness, Bright, Night Teeth, She’s Missing,...

It has been nothing shy of an abysmal start at the box office this year. The first chunk of 2024 has been left largely devoid of big new releases (in no small part thanks to the strikes last year) and, as a result, ticket sales are down significantly. But director David Ayer and professional ass-kicker Jason Statham have stepped up to do their part as "The Beekeeper" has become the year's first true breakout hit. To that end, the action flicked passed the $100 million mark over the weekend, becoming the first new release of the year to do so.

"The Beekeeper" ended up topping the charts over the weekend with a $7.4 million haul, per Box Office Mojo. That is more of a commentary on the state of things as there were no new releases to entice audiences. So, we're left with a movie in its third weekend taking the top spot with a sub-$10 million total.

Long Bright River is headed to Peacock. The streaming service has ordered the suspense thriller to series, and Amanda Seyfried (above) will both star in and executive produce the new series.

The thriller is based on the novel by Liz Moore, and it revolves around how ‘victims can band together to regain their power.” Moore co-created the series with Nikki Toscano.Read More…...

Earlier this week, news came out that Scott Stuber, who has been the head of Netflix's original film division since 2017, is leaving his coveted position at the streamer to start a new media company. Executives leave their jobs all the time in Hollywood for a whole host of reasons, but this move feels especially notable given the outsized power Netflix has in the industry.

Stuber has greenlit and overseen a majority of Netflix's original movies, ranging in quality from transcendent to terrible. Much has been made of the bloated, excessively expensive action films that have so far failed to start franchises, but Stuber, buoyed by his relatable experience as a working producer, also managed to lure some of the world's best filmmakers to the platform. Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuaron, Spike Lee, the Coen Brothers, Noah Baumbach, Jane Campion, and many more made movies there, and audiences are better off because of it.

When Scott Stuber arrived at Netflix in 2017, some of its biggest films to date were the Idris Elba drama “Beasts of No Nation,” the Adam Sandler comedy “Sandy Wexler,” or the Will Smith fantasy action film “Bright.” Some were hits or got some awards buzz, and sure they had new films by Noah Baumbach and Angelina Jolie, but Netflix at that time was still getting booed at the Cannes Film Festival for releasing Bong Joon-Ho’s “Okja.”

Under Stuber’s watch, that all changed. Netflix would be the place where Martin Scorsese, Bradley Cooper, Alfonso Cuarón, Jane Campion, and more would want to make their passion projects. It was the place The Rock, the Russo Brothers, Zack Snyder, and Shawn Levy took their tentpoles to make some of the streamer’s biggest hits to date. He spent a fortune to get the rights to two “Knives Out” sequels. And it...

Scott Stuber, who pushed Netflix to expand into blockbuster movie territory, is stepping down from the streaming service’s top film job to form his own media company.

Stuber will remain with the streamer until March, at which point Netflix Cco Bela Bajaria will temporarily assume his role while she searches for a replacement. Bloomberg first reported the news.

Under Stuber’s direction, Netflix’s feature business aggressively entered the blockbuster space, courting filmmakers such as Zack Snyder, the Russo brothers, Michael Bay and Rawson Marshall Thurber. The era began with the Will Smith starrer Bright, the 2017 film that had a reported budget of $90 million, a hefty number that turned heads at the time but would soon look quaint compared to what was to come.

Red Notice, starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, cost somewhere in the $250 million to $300 million range, while the Russo’ Gray Man cost in the $200 million range.

David Ayer directed one of the most unexpectedly huge hits of the last decade with DC's "Suicide Squad" back in 2016. What happened after was an unfortunate mess that Ayer found himself caught in the middle of. Now though, the filmmaker finally gets to be on the right end of a theatrical success story as his latest film "The Beekeeper" has found life at the box office. With the help of Jason Statham and a ridiculous premise, Ayer now has his first theatrical hit since his divisive superhero blockbuster.

Even though it didn't top the charts (that honor belongs to the new "Mean Girls" musical), "The Beekeeper" opened to $16.5 million, with that total growing to $19 million when accounting for the Monday MLK holiday, per The Numbers. The film only made $4 million overseas thus far, bringing its total to $23 million, but it is still scheduled to open in many key markets in the coming weeks.

Jason Statham has a whole new batch of scumbags to take apart in his latest action film The Beekeeper (read our review Here), which is set to reach theatres this Friday, January 12th – so check your local listings and you might even get to catch an early screening tonight. In anticipation of the film’s release, we’ve gotten our hands on an Exclusive featurette that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the film’s stunts and fights, and you can watch that in the embed above.

Directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad) from a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium), The Beekeeper shows what happens when one man’s brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as Beekeepers.

Statham is joined in the cast by Emmy Raver-Lampman (The Umbrella Academy), Bobby Naderi (Black Summer...

Armitage Trail's original novel "Scarface" was first published in 1930, and traces the rise and fall of the vicious gangster Tony "Scarface" Guarino, who took over the Chicago bootlegging underground during Prohibition. Clearly, Tony Guarino is an analog to Al Capone, and many true crime fans find it tantalizingly suspicious that Armitage Trail (real name: Maurice R. Coons) died of a heart attack at age 28, only six months after the publication of "Scarface." Coons, after all, had to hobnob with real gangsters in order to get ideas for his novel, and he would have been known in certain corners of the underground. 

In 1932, director Howard Hawks made the first film version of "Scarface," starring Paul Muni as Antonio "Tony" Camonte. Hawks' film was well-received, with some critics citing its naturalness and lack of melodrama. Indeed, it was so natural and treated crime with such frankness that some markets refused to show it.

From penning Training Day (2001) to helming the one-two punch of End of Watch (2012) and Fury (2014), David Ayer has had the film industry in the palm of his hand on a couple of different occasions.

Following the success of the latter, he then punched his own ticket to the Dceu, opting to write and direct Suicide Squad as a supervillain take on The Dirty Dozen. The film would star the likes of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Will Smith’s Deadshot and Jared Leto’s Joker, but despite one of the most celebrated trailers of all time at 2015’s San Diego Comic-Con, the subsequent poor reception to Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and the adulation for Tim Miller’s irreverent Deadpool (2016) caused Warners to panic and retool Squad on the fly.

What resulted was a bake-off between the studio’s cut and Ayer’s cut, and the...

David Ayer's 2016 DC Comics film "Suicide Squad" is a horrendous mess. It started with an interesting enough premise -- imprisoned supervillains are teamed up and forced to perform morally dubious acts of heroism in exchange for lighter sentences -- but the story wasn't clear and the editing was atrocious. Many were keen to see Will Smith play the supervillain Deadshot, while others were fond of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, but few were pleased with Ayer's vision of the Joker (Jared Leto) -- an updated, tattooed fiend who resembled Ninja from Die Antwoord more than he did any of the previous comic book iterations of the character.

The editing process for "Suicide Squad" was notoriously hellish. The film's first editor, John Gilroy, left the project early on and had to pass editing duties to the uncredited Oscar winner Lee Smith (who cut several of Christopher Nolan's movies). Infamously,...

Universal has long wanted to reboot “Scarface,” Brian de Palma’s 1983 crime classic starring Al Pacino as a powerful Miami drug lord. Multiple directors have circled the reboot over the years, including Antoine Fuqua, Luca Guadagnino and David Ayer. The latter director boarded “Scarface” the year after his “Suicide Squad” grossed $747 million worldwide despite negative reviews. Ayer boarded the reboot in May 2017 as Fuqua’s replacement, but come July 2017 he was already exiting. Some reports cited a scheduling conflict due to Ayer also working on his Netflix action movie “Bright,” but others claimed Ayer and Universal disagreed over his darker take on the material.

In a new interview with Total Film magazine, Ayer said that his script for the “Scarface” reboot was not “too violent” as some reports claimed in 2017, although he did suggest that his take on the gangster was too dark for Universal’s liking. The studio wanted...

‘Tis the season for holiday music, and Bright Eyes have contributed to the festivities with a new cover of the John Prine yuletide classic “Christmas in Prison.”

For their rendition of the song, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott give it a bit of a beefier instrumental, though the spirit of Prine’s original is still very much present — especially since the recording boasts a sample of his voice from 1993’s A John Prine Christmas. (The singer-songwriter died in April 2020 of complications stemming from Covid-19.)

“It is strange to get a chance to share a track with a hero of mine who has passed on,” Oberst said in a statement. “Normally not something I would do. I don’t like holograms. But I have so much love and affection for John as a person and his music. He really changed my life on a lot of levels. When I...

"We have laws for these things!" "Until they fail, then you have me..." MGM Studios has also revealed the first official trailer for The Beekeeper, an action thriller movie from filmmaker David Ayer. They're saving this until January, right after the New Year, which is always a sign it's not going to be good. The story of a man seeking vengeance against scammers whose mission becomes more complicated as the stakes become national when he is revealed to be a former operative of an organization known as "The Beekeepers." It's also "steeped in the mythology" of beekeeping, which this trailer opens with.

The internet is abuzz with anticipation for David Ayer’s forthcoming action film The Beekeeper. MGM debuted a red band trailer for the hard-hitting thrill ride on Wednesday, featuring Jason Statham as an elite ass-kicking machine with an axe to grind.

In The Beekeeper, one man’s brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers.” Ayer directs from a script by Kurt Wimmer. While Statham is the star of the show, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, and Jeremy Irons complete the primary cast.

In The Beekeeper trailer, Statham’s Mr. Clay lives a tranquil life as a beekeeper on a picturesque plot of land. However, when a shadowy organization swindles the kind landowner out of her savings, Clay trades the serenity of farm life for vengeance to...

For the last few years, Netflix seemed to have sprung a leak. Once the one-stop shop for movies and TV, the world’s most popular streamer took a beating as rival services emerged. Disney+ and Max clawed back movies for their own streamers, and it seemed no one wanted to share libraries under any circumstances.

But times have changed.

Desperate to add revenue, rival streamers have once again opened their vaults to Netflix. The result is the best library Netflix has had in several years.

It’s Not TV, It’s Not HBO, It’s Netflix

One major pivot is how Max is allowing some of its HBO crown jewels to drift to Netflix. It began with the groundbreaking “Insecure,” cited by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time. Starting today, Netflix users will also be able to binge the highly acclaimed “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.

The seven-year-long soap opera about David Ayer and his ‘Suicide Squad’ movie just got a new episode. As we all remember, Ayer wrote and directed the first ‘Suicide Squad’ movie, which was released in 2016 as a part of the original plan for DC Extended Universe. Although the movie achieved great commercial success, it received negative reviews for its screenplay, direction, villains, and action sequences, although Margot Robbie received praise for her portrayal of Harley Quinn.

We all know what happened next after Joss Whedon, with the studio’s blessing, reshot the majority of ‘Justice League’ after Zack Snyder left the project. The butchered movie was released in theaters and turned out to be a box-office disappointment.

After almost four years of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign on social media, Zack Snyder released his 4-hour-long director’s cut in 2021, and that encouraged the fans to the #ReleaseTheAyerCut campaign since it was known the...

Time is the measure of success or failure in the streaming world. Gal Gadot’s “Heart of Stone” earned 143 million hours in its first 10 days of Netflix availability. That fell short of Chris Hemsworth’s “Extraction 2” and Jennifer Lopez’s “The Mother,” which each notched 175 million-178 million hours in that same time period. All three movies, along with Zack Snyder’s upcoming two-part film “Rebel Moon,” represent a swiftly disappearing notion in the streaming world: The big-budget, English-language streaming movie is becoming a comparative rarity.

As one industry executive told TheWrap, “Peak streaming is over, Wall Street no longer loves it.”

Compared to just a couple of years ago, the sheer amount of direct-to-streaming movies has plummeted. Netflix, which pioneered big-budget streaming movies, will release just above 40 English-language films in 2023, compared to 75 in 2022. Insiders and analysts blame a change in financial tune. Wall Street no longer rewards spending big...

Hollywood history is full of interesting little mysteries. Like, how could the man responsible for directing the excellent "End of Watch" and writing the unimpeachable classic that is "Training Day" also be responsible for "Suicide Squad" and the embarrassment that was "Bright"? At least in the case of David Ayer's debut DC effort, we know studio meddling was largely to blame. But "Bright?" A hard boiled LA crime odyssey with orcs and fairies? Had anyone been asking for that combo?

Anyway, the point is that, if you only knew about these four movies, you might be under the impression Ayer has just two settings: he's either firing on all cylinders or misfiring entirely. But you'd be mistaken. Lurking between the zenith that was "Training Day" and the nadir that was "Bright," there's "Street Kings," a 2008 crime thriller which Ayer directed from a script by the master of LA noir fiction,...

Top award comes with a $96,500 prize.

Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s first feature, Banel & Adama, has won the $96,500 Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) Bright Horizons Award, it was announced at Forum Theatre at the closing night gala today (August 19).

Banel & Adama, which is in the Pulaar language and features a cast of non-professionals, was the only debut in competition in Cannes this year. Only first and second time directors are eligible for the Bright Horizons Award.

The director was born and raised in Paris but draws on her Senegalese ancestry to tell this story about Banel and Adama, who are passionately in love,...

On the final weekend of a bustling 18-day event, the in-person edition of this year’s Melbourne Film Festival has drawn to a close with an awards ceremony that saw a whopping $300,000 Aud in prize money handed out across six categories. The biggest individual award of $140,000 Aud was presented to the winner of the fest’s international Bright Horizons competition: “Banel & Adama,” an arresting debut feature by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy.

It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”

Its win came...

Eric Newman didn’t set out to be a writer. In fact, segueing to writing, much less showrunning, wasn’t even his idea. The veteran producer, whose résumé was lined with films like Children of Men and Dawn of the Dead, was down in Colombia making Narcos when, he says, Netflix urged him to take the reins. “It was out of the absolute chaos of Narcos‘ first season that I became a showrunner,” Newman explains. “It was Netflix that said, ‘Hey, you’re down there holding it together. You do it.’ “

Nearly a decade later, he has multiple projects in various stages of development and moves fluidly between behind-the-scenes roles. His reputation for getting stuff made earned the 52-year-old father of three overall deals for film and TV at Netflix, where he’s also produced The Watcher, Bright and, soon, Painkiller, a Peter Berg-directed drama about the opioid crisis.

Awards are among the most lucrative film festival prizes in the world.

Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has revealed it will award more than $200,000 in cash prizes at its upcoming edition and has unveiled the nominees for its inaugural First Nations Film Creative Award.

The prize pool, spread across six award categories, is now one of the most lucrative on the film festival circuit. Nearly half is allocated to the Bright Horizons Competition, featuring first and second-time directors, with $95,300 awarded to the winning filmmaker. Those competing for this year’s prize were announced earlier this month.

The festival, which runs...

Most people spend their entire lives avoiding physical altercations, but in Miguel’s case, all he can think about is giving someone the gift of chin music in the Hulu Original film Miguel Wants to Fight. Hulu debuted the first Miguel Wants to Fight trailer on Tuesday, teasing the next film from American High. The light-hearted coming-of-age comedy taps into the curse of peer pressure, self-doubt, and the mystery of knowing if you can hold your own in a schoolyard scuffle.

Here’s the official synopsis for Miguel Wants to Fight:

Despite living in a neighborhood where fighting is stitched into the fabric of everyday life, high school junior Miguel (Tyler Dean Flores) has never found himself in one. And, to be honest, he’s perfectly fine with that. But when a combination of events turn his life upside down, Miguel and his three best friends —the stoic David...