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Mike White will be checking back in for The White Lotus season 4, which has now been given the greenlight. More here.

Writer, actor, producer and director Mike White has one of the most eclectic filmographies in Hollywood, and now here he is steering a hugely successful TV project with The White Lotus.

White began his career in the late 1990s when he penned films like the terrific Chuck And Buck, The Good Girl and Orange County. He wrote the screenplay for Richard Linklater’s School Of Rock, before returning to smaller fare like Year Of The Dog and Brad’s Status. After that? It was a move towards television, scripting two series of Enlightened starring Laura Dern.

In 2021, White created what has become his most acclaimed work, the aforementioned The White Lotus, which has amassed a plethora of Emmys across its run so far, both for White’s writing and Jennifer Coolidge...

Writer-director Mike White returns to the opulent world of The White Lotus for season 3. Here’s the trailer for the new series.

Writer, actor, producer and director Mike White has one of the most eclectic filmographies in Hollywood, and now here he is steering a hugely successful TV project with The White Lotus.

Remember, though, his days as an indie darling in the late 1990s when he penned films like the terrific Chuck And Buck, The Good Girl and Orange County. Then there was Richard Linklater’s School Of Rock, before returning to smaller fare like Year Of The Dog and Brad’s Status. He then turned to television, scripting two series of Enlightened starring Laura Dern.

In 2021, White created what has become his most acclaimed work, the aforementioned The White Lotus, which has amassed a plethora of Emmys across its run so far, both for White’s writing and Jennifer Coolidge...

After their collaboration on Nutcrackers, Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films and Rivulet Films will reteam for the pickleball comedy The Dink.

Jake Johnson has nabbed the leading role as he plays a washed-up tennis pro who, to save a club in crisis and win his father’s respect, does the one thing he swore he’d never do: play pickleball. The cast includes Mary Steenburgen and Ed Harris, while Stiller and former tennis champion Andy Roddick will have key supporting roles.

Johnson is coming off Self Reliance, his feature-length directorial debut that he also wrote and stars in. Josh Greenbaum will direct The Dink from an original screenplay from Sean Clements, with production to start in Los Angeles in November.

John Lesher and Stiller are producing through their Red Hour Films banner, alongside Rivulet’s Rob Paris and Mike Witherill. Johnson will also produce. Stiller and Rivulet Films most...

The Toronto Film Festival on Thursday returned post-strikes with Hollywood star wattage as Ben Stiller and director David Gordon Green gave a glittering lift-off for their opening night film Nutcrackers.

Gordon Green introduced Stiller to the crowd at Roy Thomson Hall in the Canadian city that looked primed for film fest fun with the opening night comedy. The Zoolander and Tropic of Thunder star then recalled making movies in Canada.

“When people will talk to me sometimes about the Night at the Museum movies, they’ll say, Wow, what’s it like to shoot in the Museum of Natural History? And I’ll say it was actually a warehouse in Vancouver,” Stiller recounted.

“I’ve made a bunch of movies in Canada, and it’s always been an amazing experience,” Stiller added. His comments followed Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau touting Canada as a foreign location destination for Hollywood. “Our...

The premiere of Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller and Linda Cardellini kicked of the 2024 Toronto Film Festival Thursday night, with several other actors in attendance on the red carpet.

The film centers Stiller’s Mike, a no-nonsense workaholic who takes over caregiving for his orphaned nephews that challenge his straig-laced living style. Working to find them a new home after their parents die in a car accident, Mike is forced to adjust to farm life before he realizes he may find a home with his nephews. This marks Stiller’s first movie role in seven years following 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories and Brad’s Status. In between those and Nutcrackers, Stiller has spent time directing and producing 2018’s miniseries Escape at Dannemora and Apple’s sci-fi thriller show Severance, which has a second season arriving in January 2025.

Co-head of Rivulet Films, the financial backer of the TIFF Opener Rob Paris described the...

Exclusive: One year ago in Toronto, with the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes still in full swing, Rivulet Films co-founders Rob Paris and Mike Witherill were in the throes of packaging a project with David Gordon Green attached to direct a WGA script. Unable to secure an interim agreement to get the go ahead, that project fell apart. But all was not lost because the next day, Green called Paris and had a non-wga script for him that he wanted to direct but they had to move fast because the director had a Q1 2024 commitment.

That project was a script from Green’s friend Leland Douglas called Nutcrackers about Mike, a straight-laced workaholic who has to travel to rural Ohio to care for his four nephews after their parents die in a car accident. After weeks of farm-life mayhem, Mike realizes he won’t have to find a new home...

The Toronto International Film Festival 2024 is kicking off on Thursday night, and people strolling through its streets can already see that the Canadian metropolis is ready to roll.

People started taking waiting positions for fan zone spots on Thursday, the poutine and other food trucks opened up, and movie posters and other marketing messages have taken over the streets of the city.

For example, a Lego figure, put up to promote Piece by Piece, the animated documentary about singer, songwriter and record producer Pharrell Williams that recently opened the 51st Telluride Film Festival, greeted people in David Pecault Square on Thursday, and people could be spotted taking pictures of it.

‘Nightbitch’ poster at TIFF

Meanwhile, a poster for Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch, starring Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Zoë Chao and Mary Holland, which is set to premiere at TIFF ahead of its theatrical release later this year from Searchlight Pictures,...

Nutcrackers, David Gordon Green’s heartfelt comedy starring Ben Stiller, is set to open the 2024 Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 5.

The TIFF opener — marking Stiller’s first starring role in a movie since Mike White’s Brad’s Status and Noah Baumbach’s Netflix family drama The Meyerowitz Stories in 2017 — will have a world premiere at Roy Thomson Hall, which is filled with ordinary moviegoers (and not only industry people as in Cannes and Venice).

Written by Leland Douglas, Nutcrackers follows Mike (Stiller), a straight-laced workaholic who has to travel to rural Ohio to care for his four nephews after their parents die in a car accident. After weeks of farm-life mayhem, Mike realizes he won’t have to find a new home for the orphaned children. They found a new home for him.

Nutcrackers — with an ensemble cast that includes Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson, Tim Heidecker and Toby Huss — is...

Exclusive: Emmy and DGA Award-winning actor, director, writer and producer Ben Stiller has signed with WME in all areas.

Stiller’s breakthrough came with his Emmy-winning sketch comedy program The Ben Stiller Show (1992-1995), which helped launch the careers of Judd Apatow, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo and Bob Odenkirk.

Among his TV credits and accolades, Stiller won the DGA Award for directing all 7 parts of the Showtime limited series Escape at Dannemora, which he also executive produced, receiving Emmy nominations in the Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series categories.

The multihyphenate recently concluded work on the second season of the Apple TV+ series Severance, which he directs and executive produces. For the first season of the series, he won a Peabody Award and was nominated for two Emmys plus PGA and DGA Awards.

His prolific acting career has included roles in major film franchises such as Night at the Museum,...

The Despicable Me 4 trailer suggests it could be the franchise's best movie yet, with a fresh storyline focusing on fatherhood and a more promising script. The screenplay for Despicable Me 4 is co-written by Ken Daurio, who knows the characters well, and Mike White, a renowned screenwriter known for crafting three-dimensional characters and emotionally compelling stories. Mike White's involvement could potentially save the Despicable Me franchise, bringing his master storytelling abilities and family movie expertise to create a funny and engaging story worthy of the original classic.

The Despicable Me 4 trailer has dropped, and it looks like it could be one of the franchise’s best movies to date, which is likely due to a huge behind-the-scenes advantage this one has over its predecessors. Despicable Me 4 sees Gru and his wife Lucy adjusting to having a new baby in the house, Gru, Jr., and the challenges of...

Exclusive: Barbie actor and longtime SNL vet Kate McKinnon and Flight of the Conchords maestro Jemaine Clement are joining the mushrooming ensemble of Jared Hess’ Minecraft at Warner Bros.

Domain is co-financing the feature take of the Mojang videogame with Legendary.

McKinnon and Clement join Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Sebastian Eugene Hansen as well as Jennifer Coolidge — most of whom Deadline told you about first.

The movie is shooting in New Zealand with screenplay credits to be determined on a storyline that’s buried deep in the earth. Producers are Roy Lee, Jon Berg, Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Jason Momoa, Torfi Frans Olafsson, Vu Bui and Jill Messick (posthumously). EPs are Todd Hallowell, Kayleen Walters, Brian Mendoza and Jonathan Spaihts.

Also producing with Warners and Legendary are Vertigo, Mojang/Microsoft and Momoa’s On the Roam.

McKinnon won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in...

If there’s one upcoming MCU project that has been talked about in recent times, it’s ‘Thunderbolts.’ In September Kevin Feige announced that David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, and Olga Kurylenko would be reprising their roles as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Ava Starr/Ghost, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, John Walker/U.S. Agent, and Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, respectively, in the film. He also confirmed that Yelena Belova would be a part of the Thunderbolts team in the film.

Now, the cast of the upcoming movie was the most talked-about aspect of the movie. Initially, Steven Yeun was cast to play Sentry in the movie, and the confirmation followed soon. Fans were not exactly ecstatic with that casting choice, citing obvious differences in how Steven Yeun looks and how comics accurate Sentry is supposed to look; even with a muscle suit and heavy use of CGI,...

Among the highly anticipated upcoming MCU projects, ‘Thunderbolts’ has been a frequent topic of discussion. In September, Kevin Feige revealed the return of David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, and Olga Kurylenko in their respective roles for the film. Additionally, Yelena Belova was confirmed as part of the Thunderbolts team.

Rumors then circulated about Steven Yeun playing Sentry, which was later confirmed. However, Yeun recently withdrew from the role due to scheduling conflicts resulting from the recently concluded SAG-AFTRA strike. Now, according to Daniel Richtman, a reliable source, Austin Abrams is reportedly being considered for the role of Sentry.

In collaboration with @rDCUleaks

I can report Austin Abrams (Euphoria) has the current offer for Sentry in Thunderbolts pic.twitter.com/batuPUaLG3

— Daniel Richtman (@DanielRPK) January 13, 2024

Regardless, Abrams bears a striking resemblance to the comic-accurate Sentry, particularly in his pre-Golden Sentry serum days, during his less-than-ideal moments.

If there’s one upcoming MCU project that has been talked about in recent times, it’s ‘Thunderbolts.’ In September Kevin Feige announced that David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, and Olga Kurylenko would be reprising their roles as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Ava Starr/Ghost, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, John Walker/U.S. Agent, and Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, respectively, in the film. He also confirmed that Yelena Belova would be a part of the Thunderbolts team in the film.

Soon after that rumors appeared that Steven Yeun would be playing Sentry in the movie, and the confirmation followed soon. Fans were not exactly ecstatic with that casting choice, citing obvious differences in how Steven Yeun looks and how comics accurate Sentry is supposed to look; even with a muscle suit and heavy use of CGI, it’s far-fetched at best and laughable at worst.

Ben Stiller returns to the leading role in a comedy film after a six-year hiatus, signing on for Nutcrackers with director David Gordon Green. David Gordon Green, known for directing horror films, makes a return to comedy after his recent efforts with Halloween and The Exorcist: Believer. After the disappointing performance of The Exorcist: Believer, Green may not direct the planned sequel, leaving his future in horror uncertain while he focuses on comedy with Nutcrackers.

Ben Stiller lines up his first lead role in six years, signing on for the comedy Nutcrackers from Blumhouse’s Exorcist sequel director. One of the highest-grossing comedy stars of recent decades thanks to movies like Meet the Parents, Zoolander and Night at the Museum, Stiller has largely been on hiatus since 2017, when he starred in the movies Brad’s Status and The Meyerowitz Stories. Since those twin leads, the star has only made a handful of small appearances,...

With a six-year-long stint in horror recently culminating in one of the very worst films of the century, David Gordon Green’s recent creative stretch has left those who have appreciated his more character-driven work of George Washington, All the Real Girls, Snow Angels, Joe, and even Pineapple Express more than a bit disappointed (though his work on The Righteous Gemstones is certainly worth of praise). The director is now finally returning to his dramatic roots with a new film that’s already in production in Ohio.

Deadline reports Gordon Green is directing Ben Stiller in the actor’s first leading role since 2017’s Brad’s Status and The Meyerowitz Stories––serendipitously the same year as Gordon Green’s last non-horror feature, Stronger––in Nutcrackers. Scripted by Leland Douglas (Call of the Wild), see the synopsis below.

Nutcrackers follows the work-obsessed Mike (Stiller), who must reluctantly travel to rural Ohio to...

Ben Stiller has found his first starring role in several years in David Gordon Green’s Nutcrackers. More details here:

Ben Stiller has signed on to star in David Gordon Green’s next project, titled Nutcrackers, as reported by Deadline. Stiller will also be producing the film through his production company, Red Hour Films.

Nutcrackers is currently in production in Ohio, but this is the first we’re hearing about it. Green has been busy rebooting the Halloween and The Exorcist franchises, the latter which will keep him busy until the release of The Exorcist: Deceiver, the sequel to this year’s The Exorcist: Believer, in 2025.

Stiller has recently been focusing on work behind the camera. The Zoolander actor executive produced and directed six of the nine episodes of the first season of Severance for AppleTV+ recently and also directed all episodes of Escape at Dannemora for Showtime. Stiller hasn...

Exclusive: Emmy winner Ben Stiller has taken on his first lead film role in six years in Nutcrackers, a new title from David Gordon Green that’s currently in production in Ohio.

In addition to starring, Stiller is producing the pic through his Red Hour Films banner. Other producers on the project include Rivulet’s Rob Paris and Mike Witherill, John Lesher for Red Hour, and Rough House’s Nate Meyer. Rivulet is fully financing the film, with UTA Independent repping North American rights.

News of Stiller’s new film project comes amid a period of some change at Red Hour, as EVP Richie Schwartz has departed the company after heading up development for a little less than two years. As of the last year and a half, Stiller has been joined in running Red Hour by former UTA partner and Paramount chief, Lesher, whose work overseeing film and TV...

Exclusive: Primetime Emmy nominee Jenna Fischer is boarding the ensemble cast of Paramount Pictures’ new Mean Girls film based on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical in the role of Ms. Heron, Cady Heron’s mom.

Ana Gasteyer played Cady’s Mom in the original 2004 movie which grossed over $130M WW. The Mean Girls musical feature is currently planned for Paramount+.

Fischer joins previously announced cast includes Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Avantika, Christopher Briney, and Bebe Wood.

The film is based on the 12 Tony nominated stage musical Mean Girls written by Fey, with music by Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Kyle Hanagami is choreographing the pic.

Lorne Michaels is producing with Fey. Erin David, Caroline Maroney, and Micah Frank are overseeing for Broadway Video, and Eric Gurian and Jeff Richmond for Little Stranger.

Arturo Perez and Samantha Jayne are directing with Fey writing the adaptation.

Amazon is making some changes atop its movies team.

Julie Rapaport, who previously served as co-head of movies, will become the sole chief of the division. Matt Newman, Rapaport’s fellow co-head, will transition to a new role at Prime Video’s global sports group, where he is being tasked with developing original sports docuseries, films and scripted projects. He will report to Marie Donoghue, vice president of global sports video at Amazon. Rapaport will continue to report to Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke.

Under Rapaport and Newman, Amazon has enacted a major pivot in its strategy. It has moved from producing arthouse films designed to have robust theatrical launches to becoming a more streaming-focused service. Their main push has been to field more populist films. With the pandemic upending traditional studios’ businesses, Amazon moved aggressively to buy movies like “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “Coming 2 America” and “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania,...

A new series by Christopher James

Mike White (left) makes himself one of the images of excess and wealth in "Brad's Status," one of four movies he wrote in 2017 (and the only one he also directed).

Do one for them; do one for you. If you can still do projects for yourself, you can keep your soul.

— Martin Scorsese: A Journey

Why not make a lot of movies and make a lot of money?

Mike White’s 2017 was full of many ups and downs. Few people would be able to make four movies in a year and have them all be good. Mike White decided to split the difference, making two personal projects alongside two painfully obvious cash grabs. White is among the credited writers on The Emoji Movie and Pitch Perfect 3. But that wasn't all. He also wrote and directed the comedy Brad’s Status, a passion project.

As resort manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) prepares to greet the latest VIPs at the Hawaiian hotel that gives the HBO miniseries The White Lotus its title, he explains to a new employee, “You don’t want to be too specific, as a presence, as an identity. You want to be more generic.”

This is advice the show’s creator, Mike White, has been able to follow at certain points in his career, as the writer of broadly commercial films like School of Rock. That’s an excellent movie, but one...

Dwayne Johnson will star in “Red One” for Amazon Studios, the streaming service announced Monday. The film will reunite Johnson with “Fast and Furious” scribe Chris Morgan — the pair recently collaborated on the hit spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw.”

The deal for the film treatment, which comes after a highly competitive bidding situation, is another sign that Amazon is focused on creating more populist fare. Its interest in fielding more broadly entertaining films comes as the streaming wars continue to heat up, with new entrants like HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and Disney Plus elbowing into the space.

The deal is a statement-making moment for Amazon Studios and its chief Jennifer Salke, who has made a big push to acquire splashier properties. Amazon initially focused on awards contenders such as “Manchester by the Sea” and indie fare like “Brad’s Status” and “Wiener-Dog.” After Salke came on board in 2018, the company has augmented those...

Exclusive: Escalating a relationship at Jason Blum’s Blumhouse, Carla Hacken has signed her Paper Pictures banner to a two-year first look producing deal. Among the films that Hacken will produce at Blumhouse is Coming Around Again, a romantic drama that Sophia Takal will direct from a script by Lawrence Michael Levine. The film is casting up, and focuses on a middle aged divorcee who rekindles a relationship with an old flame while vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard. Coming Around Again will be Takal’s third film for Blumhouse, for whom she last directed Black Christmas.

Hacken’s Paper Pictures will develop film and TV projects, and she is also consulting to help Jason Blum’s company as is expands into streaming films. The deal will run for two years.

“Carla has exemplary taste and deep relationships,” said Blumhouse founder/CEO Blum. “Her calling card for adapting some of the...

Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller have been in each other’s orbit for three decades without working together in any sort of meaningful capacity, which seems strange given their very similar career paths. Stiller was hired as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live in 1989 but left after just four episodes, a year before Sandler became a regular fixture on the show.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, both actors became two of the most popular and bankable comedy stars in Hollywood after headlining a succession of box office hits, but they only crossed paths when Stiller made an uncredited cameo in Happy Gilmore, and he reprised his brief role as Hal L. a quarter of a century later in the opening scene of Hubie Halloween, although they did play estranged half brothers in forgotten 2017 dramedy The Meyerowitz Stories.

Netflix Reveals First Look At Adam Sandler's New Halloween Movie 1 of...

“Dash & Lily” star Austin Abrams will reprise his role as teen Kate’s boyfriend, Marc, for an upcoming Season 5 episode of “This Is Us,” TheWrap has learned exclusively.

As fans will remember, Marc, a real jerk who dated Kate (played as a teen by Hannah Zeile and in the present day by Chrissy Metz) in the ’90s, was a recurring character in Season 4.

Marc was known for being controlling and belittling to Kate, even calling her fat. Their relationship ended when they ran off together to the Pearson family cabin and Marc became even more emotionally abusive, leading to Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and teen Kevin and Randall coming to Kate’s rescue.

The reason behind Abrams’ return to “This Is Us” is being kept under wraps.

“I definitely think that when you’re being verbally abused and put down and not supported properly, like in the episode when Marc calls her a ‘fat face,...

Cavitycolors' new Jason X design will be available for 72 hours only starting today at 5:00pm Est! The Cavitycolors crew will also have this apparel at their booth at Son of Monsterpalooza this weekend. Also in today's Horror Highlights: details and photos from the recent Haunt screening in Los Angeles and Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital release details for The Lingering.

Cavitycolors' Jason X Apparel Release Details: "Evil gets an upgrade this Thursday at 5 Pm Est! This killer new design will be available online for 72 hours only, And in-person at Son Of Monsterpalooza this weekend.

All new Tees, Tanks, Raglans, and double-sided zip-up hoodies!

Set your reminders, cause this will be your Only chance to get this design. No re-print on this one, ever! Stay tuned.

Art by @devondraws."

For more information, visit:

www.cavitycolors.com

---------

Haunt Los Angeles Screening and Release Details: "Momentum Pictures celebrated the La special screening...

Happy Death Day, Loving Vincent, Suburbicon and more titles available at the Cineplex Store in January!Happy Death Day, Loving Vincent, Suburbicon and more titles available at the Cineplex Store in January!Adriana Floridia1/8/2018 3:12:00 Pm

We know that it's impossible to see every movie in the theatre, and especially in the cold of January, you may feel more inclined to stay indoors.

This month, the Cineplex Store has great new releases that mean you won't need to get up much further than your couch in order to watch some of last year's best films.

If you missed any of these when they played theatres, or if you simply want to watch them again, here are the titles that are coming to the Cineplex Store in January!

January 2nd

Our pick to buy: Happy Death Day

​Happy Death Day takes a page from Groundhog Day but employs it for the horror genre.

5 reasons to see Brad's Status5 reasons to see Brad's StatusAdriana Floridia1/2/2018 3:05:00 Pm

Ben Stiller's film, Brad's Status was one of our favourites of the year. Yet this film flew under almost everyone's radar, which is how it came to be on our list of the Best Underrated Movies of 2017.

While Stiller is primarily known for his work in comedies, he's also ventured into the indie film world, and often plays a man having a mid-life crisis. No crisis has been quite as intense as the one we get from him in Brad's Status, the new film from Mike White that gets us deep inside of his protagonist's head. Stiller plays a father who is touring universities with his college-bound son in Boston, all the while realizing that his friends are more successful than him, and that his son likely will be too.

Now that the film is available to stream,...

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Sept 29th-October 1st)

W I D E

800+ screens

L I M I T E D

excluding prev. wide

1. Kingsman 2  $16.9 (cum. $66.6)  1.

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Sept 22nd-24th)

W I D E

800+ screens

L I M I T E D

excluding prev. wide

1.

The weekend's new releases fell shy of Mojo's weekend forecast, but Kingsman: The Golden Circle still managed to debut larger than the original, finishing in the #1 spot. Unfortunately, The Lego Ninjago Film fell well short of expectations as did Friend Request, which delivered a mere $2.4 million opening. There were, however, some bright spots among limited release titles as Battle of the Sexes and Victoria and Abdul delivered strong opening results as September's calendar grosses continue to pace toward record heights. Topping the box office was Fox's Kingsman: The Golden Circle, delivering an estimated $39 million from 4,003 theaters. The opening improves on the $36.2 million opening for the first film, but the film's performance over the next couple of weeks will tell the true story. The first Kingsman turned its $36 million debut into a $128 million domestic run, a 3.54x multiplier. Should Golden Circle follow suit we're talking about a $138+ million domestic run, which...

September 2017 is currently pacing 15.6% ahead of 2016 with a calendar gross of $467.3 million, putting the month on a record pace, $48 million ahead of where 2015 was at the same time period before delivering $626.4 million, the largest September calendar gross ever. Almost half of September's total at this point is thanks to Warner Bros. and New Line's It, which is looking to do strong numbers again this weekend, but will fall from its #1 perch after two straight weeks on top. Debuting in wide release this weekend is Fox's Kingsman: The Golden Circle and it should have enough juice to take the weekend top spot while Warner Animation Group's The LEGO Ninjago Movie is looking to finish in the runner-up position. Entertainment Studios' is going social with the R-rated horror Friend Request debuting in just over 2,500 theaters and likely to finish in the top five (albeit with minimal returns) while Roadside Attractions is...

Ben Stiller and Austin Abrams reveal the relationships behind their new film Brad's StatusBen Stiller and Austin Abrams reveal the relationships behind their new film Brad's StatusAdriana Floridia9/21/2017 10:46:00 Am

There are different ways to measure success.

This is something we learned while watching Brad's Status. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, and now it's coming to Cineplex theatres. The film features an A-List cast including Ben Stiller, Jenna Fischer, Jemaine Clement, Michael Sheen, Luke Wilson, and relative newcomer Austin Abrams. Written and directed by Mike White, Brad's Status follows Brad (Stiller) and his son, Troy (Abrams) who are touring colleges together in Boston, just as Brad realizes he hasn't amounted to the man he thought he'd be, at least not in comparison to his successful, wealthy friends.

We had the chance to chat with Stiller and Abrams about the film at Tiff.

In 2017, we’ve seen five specialized subtitled films gross over $1 million. But the languages aren’t French, or German, or from anywhere in western Europe: The winners are Turkish, Farsi, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

These films came from Turkey, Iran, Israel, and even the United States, and played at conventional “art house” theaters (as opposed to releases from India, China, Mexico, and elsewhere, which aim at ethnically similar audiences).

Once upon a time, $100 million and more (in adjusted grosses) was possible for films like “La Dolce Vita,” “Life Is Beautiful,” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”: more recently, “Amelie,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” and “The Motorcycle Diaries” easily surpassed $20 million. However, over the last few decades we’ve seen the subtitled market shift from decline to near collapse.

Read More:Why French Cinema Faces an Uncertain Future in America

What happened this year shows some revival in the market, but with some twists.

Stephen King’s mighty “It” is single-handedly reviving box office totals after a bleak late summer. It is rare for the second weekend of a hit film to provide the majority of the gross for the time period, but that’s what Warner Bros. achieved on the horror flick’s second weekend. While not as dominant as it was in its September record initial three days, $60 million represented barely more than a 50 per cent drop. Not bad.

With almost $219 million in the till so far and a strong hold, forget $300 million as an ultimate domestic total — $350 million now looks possible. “It” is already the third-biggest modern-day September release ever after only ten days. It will soar past “Rush Hour” by next weekend, and end up almost certain behind “Crocodile Dundee” (adjusted to current ticket prices, at about $410 million) as best for the month in the era of wide initial releases.

Toronto fest debut Brad's Status starring Ben Stiller reigned over the weekend's Specialties with a solid start. The Amazon Studios/Annapurna Pictures release by Mike White grossed over $100K from several locations Friday to Sunday, the highest absolute gross and per theater average among the reporting newcomer titles as of Sunday morning. Prolific documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman's latest Ex Libris: The New York Public Library bowed with an exclusive New York…...

After just eight days in release, WB and New Line's It became the highest grossing September release of all-time, two days later it added another $40 million to that total for an impressive $60 million second weekend and nearly $220 million in just ten days. The horror film's performance vastly overshadowed the weekend's two new wide releases that saw Lionsgate and CBS Films's American Assassin deliver respectable results in second place while Paramount's release of Darren Aronofsky's mother! suffered greatly, finishing in third and receiving a disastrous "F" CinemaScore from opening day audiences. With an estimated $60 million this weekend, WB and New Line's It brought its domestic cume to $218.7 million after just ten days in release. As already mentioned, that makes it the largest September release ever, topping 1986's Crocodile Dundee ($174.8m). That number, of course, is not adjusted for inflation. Adjusted for inflation, however, It still finishes within the top...

Brad's Status...

The Fall roll-outs begin ramping up this weekend as Toronto winds down, kicking the theatrical runs of the year's awards hopefuls into gear. Mike White's Brad's Status, from Amazon Studios/Annapurna Pictures, starring Ben Stiller, Austin Abrams and Luke Wilson is opening in New York and Los Angeles Friday on the heels of its Toronto bow. Vertical Entertainment is rolling out Damian Harris' The Wilde Wedding starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Patrick Stewart and Minnie…...

Friday Am Update: Lionsgate's release of CBS Films' American Assassin brought in $915,000 from Thursday night previews in 2,400 locations beginning at 7Pm. This compares favorably to John Wick, which kicked off its run to a $14.4 million opening with $870k from Thursday screenings. Paramount's mother! delivered $700k from Thursday previews beginning at 7Pm in ~2,000 locations, which is behind the $855k for Crimson Peak, which we used as one of our comps in our weekend preview below. It is, however, an improvement on the $520k Nightcrawler brought in before it opened with $10.4 million back in October 2014. We'll take a closer look at things tomorrow morning once Friday estimates come in. For now you can check out our weekend preview below.Weekend Preview: Following a record breaking opening last weekend, WB and New Line's It will reign supreme once again this weekend, pushing the horror film's domestic gross near record heights after just ten days of release.

So you think a typical teen worries about getting into the right college. Get a load of Brad's Status, a high-anxiety satire from writer-director Mike White that focuses on a parent who thinks the process is far more traumatic for him. Enter Ben Stiller in one of his best and most acutely observed performances as Brad Sloan, a father taking his musical genius son, Troy (a standout Austin Abrams), on a tour of east-coast colleges. Mom Melanie (Jenna Fischer) had to work. Troy has the props to make the grade,...

Ben Stiller, Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell arrive in Toronto for Tiff this past weekend!Ben Stiller, Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell arrive in Toronto for Tiff this past weekend!Adriana Floridia9/11/2017 10:17:00 Am

Almost every star you could ever think of was in Toronto this past weekend for the Toronto International Film Festival.

George Clooney and Julianne Moore were in town for Suburbicon, Angelina Jolie was here with all of her children for the animated film she produced, The Breadwinner, and Nicolas Cage even showed up for his Midnight Madness title Mom and Dad. Essentially if you were in the city, you probably ran into a celebrity. Or at least endured screaming fans.

Also in town were Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman with their extremely dark new film The Killing of a Sacred Deer. We had a chance to chat with them as well as the film's director Yorgos Lanthimos.

Morgan Spurlock’s follow-up to the Big Mac-guzzling documentary is a vanity project that fails to uncover anything groundbreaking

Morgan Spurlock is his own worst enemy. Ever since he bottomed out America’s collective stomach in 2004 with the fast food exposé Super Size Me, Spurlock’s films have gradually nudged his public persona into the foreground at the expense of the trenchant reportage that originally endeared him to us. Though his vanity hit its nadir with the male-grooming documentary Mansome — a feature-length ode to Spurlock’s trademark handlebar ‘stache — that narcissism still threatens to eclipse the subject at hand. And by revisiting his breakout pet topic of cheap food’s steep costs, Spurlock’s made his own self-absorption more abundantly present than ever.

Related: Brad's Status review – Ben Stiller has first world problems in mixed, minor comedy

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Remember Anwar Congo, the aging mass-murderer profiled in Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing?” Well, imagine if that guy had been born in the United States instead of Indonesia, and had become a children’s tennis coach instead of the genocidal leader of a North Sumatran death squad, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of who Nick Bollettieri is and what he’s all about.

Of course, that’s not at all to suggest that these men are equally evil — one slaughtered untold numbers of innocent people, the other just ruined Andre Agassi’s chances of winning the 1989 French Open — but rather to say that both of them personify the same type of narcissistic madness. It’s not a rare condition; we all know people like them: people who dehumanize the rest of us as a defense mechanism. People who pretend that the past can’t hurt them.

“I, Tonya” will make you care about Tonya Harding for the first time in a long time. Moreover, “I, Tonya” will make you sympathize with Tonya Harding for the first time. Remembered for her highly contested role in attacking rival figure skater Nancy Kerrigan (when she’s remembered at all), Harding was one of the greatest villains the ’90s ever produced, up there with O.J. Simpson, the T-1000, and the guy who invented Crystal Pepsi. She was the perfect punchline for a country that always needs someone to laugh at; a country that hinges on the idea of upward mobility but would rather punch down than pull up. Now, thanks to the bitter and bleakly funny black comedy that “Lars and the Real Girl” director Craig Gillespie has made about the most sordid years of her life, Tonya Harding is finally getting a chance to tell her side of the story.

The year’s other big “Wonder Woman” movie includes plenty that would never make the cut in not just a studio-issued superhero blockbuster, but the vast majority of paint-by-number biopics, including: two long-form sequences involving a threesome, a secret venture to a clandestine sex toy-selling lingerie shop, a lie detector machine used as a form of foreplay, ropes, ropes, and more ropes, and a unshakable belief in the true power and reach of feminism. Angela Robinson’s fact-based film follows the eyebrow-raising personal life of Dr. William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) and the two great loves of his life, his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) and their shared partner Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote), and how its unconventional bent led to the creation of Wonder Woman.

For as subversive as her subject matter is, Robinson couches her film in familiar trappings — the film uses a wraparound narrative device that connects past and present,...

Editor’s Note: Before his rise to stand-up stardom, Louis C.K. taught himself how to make 16mm short films, which he used to capture a narrative absurdity that wasn’t present in his onstage routine. Over the years he has amassed a small loyal crew of filmmaking collaborators and has grown into a remarkably effective visual storyteller — in particular on the 61 episodes of FX’s “Louie,” which often leans more on the structure of short films than episodic television.

In August it was revealed C.K. had secretly made his first feature film since his misadventures writing and directing the 2001 “Pootie Tang” — starring his close friend Chris Rock, based on one of Rock’s sketch routines — which Paramount eventually took away from the then-inexperienced and unknown director and tried to salvage in post-production. Before the veil on the secretive “I Love You Daddy” is lifted tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival,...

There’s something very wrong with Thelma, though we’re not quite sure what it is. We first meet her when she’s just a child, living with her devoutly religious family in a remote town on the coast of Norway. The girl’s father, Trond (Henrik Rafaelsen), takes her hunting on the shores of the frozen lake next to their house. Thelma walks ahead of her dad, entranced by the sight of a deer. Standing behind his daughter, Trond silently points his rifle at her head. He doesn’t pull the trigger, but the temptation is there.

“Thelma” — an ominous, unnerving, and strangely powerful thriller about the most devious of human desires — might appear to be a change of pace for “Oslo, August 31st” writer-director Joachim Trier, but the story tenses and frets with the same melancholy glimmer that courses through his dramas. Here, the Norwegian’s filmmaker’s...

The 2011 French buddy comedy “The Intouchables” was a surprise box-office hit, in part because the story of a wealthy, white paraplegic and the black assistant who becomes his close friend doesn’t exactly scream for commercial domination. Yet the movie became a bonafide cultural phenomenon in France, finding fans around the world in the process; its premise, inspired by the bonding of a French businessman Phillips Pozzo di Borgo and caregiver Abdel Sellou, provided an easy, formulaic template for celebrating a connection across race, class and age.

Some critics found its racial politics as problematic as “Driving Miss Daisy,” in that both ostensibly found a black man rescuing his bitter white superior from a grumpy, insular existence. That’s a classic trope of American cinema, so it was only a matter of time before “The Intouchables made its way to an English-language remake.

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