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Sofia Boutella desperately needed a break from action, and J.J. Perry’s The Killer’s Game provided exactly that.

After devoting nearly the entirety of 2022 to her most physically demanding role yet as Kora/Arthelais in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon franchise, Boutella was relieved that she didn’t have to bear the burden of being the primary action hero in Perry’s action-comedy. Instead, she was charmed by the romantic role she was offered alongside her former Hotel Artemis co-star Dave Bautista. Her Rebel Moon character also didn’t have the greatest luck in the romance department, so The Killer’s Game’s more hopeful love story likely appealed to her as well.

The Algerian actor’s physical background is still on full display in the opening sequence, as her character, Maize, is a ballet dancer who’s eying retirement when she meets Bautista’s assassin character, Joe Flood.

“I enjoyed...

Exclusive: Stefanie Estes, star of Blumhouse-execed SXSW title Soft & Quiet, is leading horror-thriller The Spotter alongside Alyshia Ochse (The Other Black Girl), Rob Kirkland (Yellowstone) and Robbie Allen (The Redeemer) .

USC alum Harry Locke IV directs the movie, which is penned by Mike Gerbino. Locke’s credits as an on-line editor and in the VFX department include The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Tangerine. Currently in post-production, The Spotter is his sophomore feature as a director.

The film follows Iris (Estes), a struggling mother who reluctantly assists her friend Bridgette’s (Ochse) suicide. When the unthinkable happens, she finds herself entangled in a nightmarish battle between guilt and the supernatural. Above is a first-look image.

Sasha Yelaun and Alain Azoulay of Azoulay Pictures (The Redeemer) are producing. Harry Locke IV is also producing alongside Robbie Allen. Alyshia Ochse and Stefanie Estes are co-producers.

Pinnacle Peak Pictures is bringing a slate of faith-based films to the Cannes market, including a new installment in the “God’s Not Dead” franchise.

Entitled “God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust,” the film will be released theatrically in the U.S. this fall, but, like the rest of Pinnacle’s slate, foreign territories are available to buyers. The new “God’s Not Dead” film follows the series’ protagonist, Rev. David Hill (played once again by David A.R. White), who, with the help of a skilled political strategist, runs for political office on a platform of preserving “religious freedom” and healing divisions. The cast also includes Dean Cain, who appeared in the first film in the franchise and is best known for “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” as well as Isaiah Washington (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Ray Wise (“X-Men: First Class”).

In addition, Pinnacle Peak Pictures will present “Disciples in the Moonlight,...

Berlin Film Festival 2025 Dates

Next year’s Berlin Film Festival will run from February 13 to 23. The edition will be Tricia Tuttle’s first as festival head. Tuttle takes over from Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian, who stepped down after the last edition. Rissenbeek and Chatrian have been jointly running the festival since 2019 under a dual management structure put in place following the departure of Berlinale long-time director Dieter Kosslick after 18 years at the helm. Tuttle was previously director of the London Film Festival.

Cannes Film Festival Selection Presser

The Cannes Film Festival will announce its official selection on April 11. Presiding over this year’s official competition is Barbie filmmaker Greta Gerwig. Quebecois filmmaker Xavier Dolan will lead the Un Certain Regard Jury. High-profile films currently tipped for the Croisette include George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux has said he...

Swifties have done it again. In the latest sign of their appreciation and devotion to Taylor Swift, a group of Brasilian Swifties have successfully lobbied local officials in Rio de Janeiro to celebrate the arrival of the pop star and her “Eras Tour” with a special projection onto the city’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue.

The announcement was made on Thursday, as the city’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, confirmed that they would “properly honor” Swift’s presence with the projection, comparing her to a modern day Michael Jackson or Madonna. “Welcome, Taylor Swift, and stay happy, Swifties,” he said.

Swift landed in Brasil on Thursday, and is scheduled to perform three shows in Rio de Janeiro, after which she’ll head down to São Paulo for three more dates.

The projection on Christ the Redeemer is of a t-shirt reading “Welcome to Brasil,” inspired by the “Junior Jewels” t-shirt...

A not-so-long time ago, in a Burbank studio, Zack Snyder pitched a "Star Wars" movie.

The year was 2012. Disney had just bought Lucasfilm, which gave the company the keys to George Lucas' blockbuster franchise. It was the earliest of days. Lucasfilm leader Kathleen Kennedy was taking meetings with every successful director in Hollywood, which led to a sit-down with Snyder. Snyder was at a critical juncture in his career: after delivering three relatively well-reviewed entertainments in "Dawn of the Dead," "300" and "Watchmen," the filmmaker had stumbled with "Sucker Punch," a wholly original action-fantasy about a group of young women who weaponize their imagination to break free of a mental institution.

Snyder was about to get off the ropes with "Man of Steel," but he sensed a world-building opportunity at Disney. His pitch was to take the "Star Wars" series back to its Akira Kurosawa roots with, as he recently told Vanity Fair,...

Warning! Spoilers for Avengers #4 ahead!Although the current Avengers team has some heavy hitters like Thor and Captain Marvel on its ranks, Scarlet Witch is the one Avenger who scares the Black Panther the most. Considering that she took out the entire team well before her most recent power-up, T’Challa is right to be cautious around Wanda Maximoff.

In Avengers #4 by writer Jed MacKay and artist C.F. Villa, the Avengers are spread throughout the world battling a new group of villains known as the Ashen Combine. While Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Thor are preoccupied with the villains on Earth, Sam Wilson and T'Challa infiltrate the Ashen Combine’s fortress the Impossible City, which is sitting empty in low orbit. Captain America and Black Panther work to detonate the fortress, but when they don’t hear word from their teammates they begin to get concerned. Sam says that if someone can take down Thor,...

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for “The Righteous Gemstones” Season 3, Episode 3, “For Their Nakedness Is Your Own Nakedness.“]

If you’ve seen the opening scene of the latest episode of “The Righteous Gemstones,” congratulations. “There Will Come a Payday” will now be a resident of your subconscious for the next few weeks.

And you can credit a few different people. First, there’s the incomparable Walton Goggins, whose poolside Baby Billy performance of the song opens things up with a waltz-time country gospel flair. There’s also Red Sovine, who originally recorded the track for his 1978 swan song album “16 New Gospel Songs,” helping to cap off his own prolific two-decade career as a recording artist.

“The Righteous Gemstones” composer Joseph Stephens is the other key part of the process, fine-tuning this newest cover of the half-century-old song for the HBO show.

“In the script, there’s a big scene where Baby Billy sings a song in...

Exclusive: James DuMont (The Righteous Gemstones), Christopher James Baker (Ozark), Manny Galan (City on a Hill), Juvian Marquez (Power Book II: Ghost) and Anirudh Pisharody (9-1-1) will round out the cast of the thriller Unit 234, from director Andy Tennant, which is currently in production in the Cayman Islands. The quintet will star alongside previously announced cast members including Isabelle Fuhrman, Don Johnson and Jack Huston.

In the film written by Derek Steiner, a lone employee at a remote storage facility (Fuhrman) discovers an unconscious man locked inside Unit 234, chained to a gurney and missing a kidney. She must then fight to survive a ruthless gang, dead set on retrieving their precious cargo…at any cost. Blythe Frank, Hadeel Reda, Lee Dreyfuss and Productivity Media’s William Santor and Doug Murray are producing, with Johnson, Colleen Camp and Radiant Films International founder Mimi Steinbauer serving as executive producers. Radiant...

Exclusive: Greg Hovanessian (Another Life) will star alongside Matt Barr as a series regular in The CW’s Walker: Independence pilot.

The new, one-hour project is a Walker origin story set in the late 1800s that follows Abby Walker, an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins (Barr), a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams. The newfound family will struggle with the changing world around them, while becoming agents of change themselves in a town where nothing is what it seems.

Hovanessian will play Tom Davidson, the new Sheriff in Independence. Tom’s handsome for someone you don’t know is the devil. And Abby...

Exclusive: Miranda Rae Mayo is reteaming with her former Chicago Fire co-star Yuriy Sardarov on Daddy, a dark comedy written and directed by Neal Kelley and Jono Sherman, which will enter production in Topanga Canyon next week.

The film is set in a dystopian society where the state has the power to determine who can and cannot father children, watching as four men attend a government sanctioned retreat in the remote mountains of California. When they show up at the site, only to find no guide or instructions waiting for them, they are left to their own devices and must prove to themselves—and each other—that they have what it takes to become fathers.

Kelley and Sherman are producing the film—also starring Pomme Koch (The Band’s Visit)—under their Twnshp Pictures banner, with The Kalin Company’s Sophia Kalin. Nathan Nemon is exec producing.

Mayo is best known...

Exclusive: Chris Mulkey (On the Basis of Sex, Captain Phillips) has signed on to a starring role in The Redeemer, the indie Western from writer-director Myles Clohessy, which is heading into production in Montana later this month.

The two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee joins a cast that includes Titus Welliver, Brandon Routh, SAG Award winner Robert Clohessy, Mo Brings Plenty, Eddie Spears, Golden Globe nominee Irene Bedard, Timothy V. Murphy and newcomer Baylee Toney, as previously announced.

The Redeemer tells the story of Butch (Mulkey), a washed up war hero in 1880s Montana who embark on a life-or-death rescue mission into the frontier, alongside his estranged son Garrett (Routh), to save his Indigenous wife Aponi (Bedard) and daughter-in-law (Toney), after they’re kidnapped by a gang of violent outlaws led by the formidable former Calvary Captain Randall Ferguson (Murphy). But a harsh winter, the horrors and dangers of the frontier,...