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Earlier this year, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Long Walk (which was, like The Running Man and Thinner, published under the pen name Richard Bachman) went into production, with director Francis Lawrence, whose previous credits include Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2, Red Sparrow, Slumberland, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, at the helm. Now, cast member Judy Greer (the Halloween and Ant-Man franchises) has said that the film Lawrence has made out of King’s story is beautiful and dark.

An adaptation of The Long Walk has been trudging through development hell for decades. At one point, the rights were in the hands of Frank Darabont, who made the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Then the rights passed over to New Line Cinema, where...

When you think of The Hunger Games, it’s hard not to picture Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen right away, gripping her bow with fierce determination. From 2012 to 2015, Lawrence truly portrayed Katniss, the heroine from Suzanne Collins’s novels, and won over fans worldwide with her portrayal of a young girl caught in the deadly world of the Hunger Games. Her journey through hardship and survival resonated deeply with audiences, transforming her into a cinematic icon and making her a household name.

Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games | Credits: Lionsgate

Lawrence’s portrayal of Katniss didn’t just bring the character to life, it became the heart of the series, driving up its popularity. Now, with the recent release of the prequel movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which explores the early days of Panem and the origins of Coriolanus Snow, fans are left wondering, could Lawrence ever return...

While Jennifer Lawrence has been under the radar in the recent past, the actress was the ‘it girl’ of Hollywood in the 2010s as she starred in multiple acclaimed films and blockbusters. Gaining global stardom due to her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games franchise. She was also the highest-paid actress in 2014.

In 2013, Lawrence reportedly achieved a rare feat. While she earned critical acclaim for her role in Silver Linings Playbook and won the Oscar for Best Actress, she also headlined the year’s highest-grossing domestic release The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The only other actor to do this was reportedly Tom Hanks in 1995 with Toy Story and Forrest Gump.

Jennifer Lawrence Achieves A Rare Feat Previously Only Achieved By Tom Hanks Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | Credits: Lionsgate

The early 2010s were ruled by Jennifer Lawrence as the young actress shot to the mainstream with The Hunger Games franchise.

Back in June, author Suzanne Collins announced that she was writing a new Hunger Games novel titled Sunrise on the Reaping. It's set to arrive in bookstores on March 18, 2025, and tells a story set 40 years after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Hours later, it was confirmed that a movie adaptation is also in the works and the actor who will play the young Haymitch Abernathy (a character portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the original trilogy) may have now been revealed.

According to Production Weekly (via SFFGazette.com), Challengers star Mike Faist may be in line to lead the cast of Sunrise on the Reaping. Given the source, we'd advise taking this with a pinch of salt; however, the publication has been known to share plenty of accurate casting intel in the past.

Faist has received widespread acclaim for his performances on stage, though we're sure many of you will...

Easily one of the hottest celebrities in Hollywood right now, Alan Ritchson is finally riding all the high waves of success and fame that he had been chasing for decades in the entertainment industry. An iconic Jack Reacher—perhaps the best to have existed and to ever exist—he is nailing every role thrown his way, proving his tremendous worth time and time again.

Alan Ritchson in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. | Credits: Lionsgate.

But Ritchson has also seemingly fallen short by quite a bit extent. As it turns out, the 41-year-old actor was also among the contestants auditioning for the role of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s God of Thunder. However, for reasons unknown, Ritchson took the role as unseriously as ever, thinking it wouldn’t involve acting, and ended up losing out on the major role.

Alan Ritchson Lost Out on Thor Due to a Silly Mistake

For one...

Yesterday, we learned that production has begun on an adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Long Walk (which was, like The Running Man and Thinner, published under the pen name Richard Bachman), with director Francis Lawrence, whose previous credits include Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2, Red Sparrow, Slumberland, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, at the helm. Now Deadline has broken the news that the cast of the film includes Star Wars legend Mark Hamill, who just recently finished working on another King adaptation called The Life of Chuck, and Judy Greer of the Halloween and Ant-Man franchises. Details on the characters they’ll be playing have not been revealed. Having read the source material, The Major and the mom of the lead character are the first possibilities that come to my mind.

An adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Long Walk has been trudging through development hell for decades. At one point, the rights were in the hands of Frank Darabont, who made the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Then the rights passed over to New Line Cinema, where Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal was hired to direct the film from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, whose credits include the two most recent Scream movies. While doing the press rounds for his film The Last Voyage of the Demeter last year, Øvredal revealed that he was no longer involved with The Long Walk, and said not making that movie is one of the big regrets of his life. Last November, Francis Lawrence, whose previous credits include Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger...

The Hunger Games franchise is iconic in more ways than one. Upon the first film’s release in 2012, it started a wave of young-adult fantasy in mainstream media, causing other films and works to be rapidly put out to keep up with audience demand. It only went up from there, with the second film being iconic in every way. Since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the franchise has taken somewhat of a dip, but a recent announcement has caused more anticipation for what it will bring.

After the release of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, it was announced that both Suzanne Collins and Francis Lawrence would be working on a book and a movie called Sunrise on the Reaping. Set in the past, the moment fans heard that the book and movie would follow the story of young Haymitch and how he won his games, they have been waiting for more updates.

Lionsgate is set to give the thriller Clear Cut, which stars Clive Standen of the Taken TV series, Tom Welling (Smallville), Stephen Dorff (Blade), and Alec Baldwin (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation), a theatrical, digital, and VOD release on July 19th – and with that date just a few weeks away, a trailer for the film has arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above.

Brian Skiba directed Clear Cut (formerly known as Cold Deck) from a screenplay by Joe Perruccio, who earns his first feature writing credit on this film. The Hollywood Reporter let us know that the story centers on Jack (Standen), who tries to leave his past behind him when he starts a logging job but finds that a team of criminals with a score to settle are out to kill him.

Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives), Lucy Martin (Vikings), Lochlyn Munro (Freddy vs. Jason), Chelsey Reist...

The final The Hunger Games movie, Mockingjay Part 2, was released in 2015, and almost a decade later, lead star Jennifer Lawrence admits wanting to reprise her role as Katniss Everdeen. The famed dystopian movie franchise was based on the works of Suzanne Collins, and it remained one of the most definitive films of its genre.

Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay / Lionsgate

Apart from Lawrence, actress Jena Malone also expressed her willingness to return to the country of Panem. She played the courageous victor Johanna Mason from District 7 and has appeared in three out of four installments.

Jena Malone Wants To Do Another The Hunger Games Movie

During her interview with Et Online, Jena Malone exclaimed, “Come on, where’s Johanna Mason? I’m like, I’m just waiting,” when the topic of a possible The Hunger Games movie was mentioned.

After the prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,...

by Cláudio Alves

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) Francis Lawrence

Yesterday, Kiefer Sutherland came to social media with a devastating announcement. His father, who he rightfully described as "one of the most important actors in the history of film," had passed away. Donald Sutherland was 88, and he leaves behind an enviable legacy. His career is the stuff of legend, spanning nearly two hundred screen credits over six decades and many a landmark in American cinema. Moreover, his kindness and political activism earned him admiration as a human being, not just an artist.

Speaking only for myself, Donald Sutherland was one of my favorite thespians of the silver screen, a man of varied talents who could as effortlessly embody fatherly warmth as the darkest impulses within us all. His absence is inconceivable, yet one must contend with it. And what better way to do it than to celebrate his well-lived life?...

Donald Sutherland, the Canadian actor who delivered memorable turns in films like Don’t Look Now, Klute, and The Hunger Games, has died. He was 88.

Sutherland’s son, the actor Kiefer Sutherland, announced the death on social media. ”I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film,” Sutherland wrote. ”Never daunted by a role, good, bad, or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.”

Sutherland passed away in Miami after a long, unspecified illness and leaves an indelible impression on the arts.

A biopic based on the life of legendary singer-songwriter and dancer Michael Jackson has been in the works at Lionsgate. The project is generating plenty of hype with its first-look images and the talented cast attached to it. Therefore, it is understandable why Lionsgate executive Jim Packer feels that the movie will become the studio’s biggest hit of all time.

Lionsgate is working on a Michael Jackson biopic directed by Antoine Fuqua (Credit: Beat It | Billboard Music).

Titled Michael, the film is being directed by Antoine Fuqua and is expected to be released next year. During a recent event, Packer spoke highly of the upcoming biopic and expressed faith that it would beat the Jennifer Lawrence-led Hunger Games franchise to become the studio’s biggest blockbuster of all time. Here is everything Packer had to say about Michael and the future of Hunger Games.

Lionsgate Executive Jim Packer...

Earlier today, the news broke that author Suzanne Collins is writing a new Hunger Games novel titled Sunrise on the Reaping. It will arrive in bookstores on March 18, 2025, and features a story which takes place 40 years after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

"With 'Sunrise on the Reaping,' I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, 'the easiness with which the many are governed by the few,'" Collins explained. "The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question 'Real or not real?' seems more pressing to me every day."

Fans of the hit franchise wasted no time speculating that this book is likely setting the stage for another movie and, unsurprisingly, Lionsgate has confirmed plans (via SFFGazette.com) for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on...

Grace Van Dien, most well-known for her role as Chrissy Cunningham in season four of ‘Stranger Things,’ recently spoke candidly about her treatment in Hollywood on a video game streaming platform. In addition to Grace Van Dien’s acting career, she is also a Twitch Streamer known as BlueFille. This is a newer profession, in which people watch and pay people online to play video games. They can also be sponsored by companies to promote products. She later announced on her stream that she had stepped down from acting recently, due to unwanted advances from producers. She alleged that she had been asked to engage in sexual acts to get parts or keep her job. Now, she more frequently streams video games due to the protection that that gives her. According to Variety, she stated, “I get to stay inside my house and play video games and I don’t...

Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television honored the winners of its inaugural Mfa Screenwriting Competition, a contest that engages industry leaders to evaluate the best work emerging from the student body.

The winning students were selected blindly by a panel of more than 40 experts from companies including Anonymous Content, Gotham Group, Macro, Verve, Entertainment 360, Temple Hill, Scott Free, Riot Games and more. Awards were presented Tuesday night by Lmu Sftv graduates Melissa Blake, who has written and produced series including Based on a True Story and One Mississippi, and Evan Romansky, creator of the four-time Emmy nominee Ratched, which he wrote as an Mfa thesis project.

The Mfa Screenwriting Competition highlights the best feature and pilot scripts written by second- and third-year graduate students from Lmu’s Writing for the Screen and Writing and Producing for TV programs. It is one of numerous Sftv initiatives designed to...

If you’re trying to figure out what movie to watch on Netflix, an easy way to whittle down the choices is to find out what movies are soon leaving the streaming service. To that end, we’ve got the full list of movies leaving Netflix in May 2024, and there are some bangers on here.

The entire original “Hunger Games” franchise will depart at the end of the month, while the critically acclaimed sequel “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” expires on May 9. And if you’re hankering for some stress, “Uncut Gems” leaves on May 8, while the bestseller adaptation “Where the Crawdads Sing” will depart Netflix on May 11.

See the full list of what’s leaving Netflix in May 2024 below.

Leaving May 1

Bennett’s War

Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Leaving May 2

Survive the Night

Leaving May 3

Arctic Dogs

Leaving May 8

Uncut Gems

Leaving May 9

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish...

Netflix has released their monthly list of every movie and TV show that will be expiring from the streaming service soon.

Beginning on May 1, 2024, Netflix will be removing 39 total titles. Unfortunately, there are some fan favorites included here. Notably, all four Hunger Games films will be removed next month! Other title leaving are one of the Magic Mike movies, You’ve Got Mail, The Great Gatsby, Split, and more.

Head inside to see the full list of movies and TV shows being removed from Netflix in May 2024…

Everything Leaving Netflix in May 2024:

Leaving 5/1/24

Bennett’s War

Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Leaving 5/2/24

Survive the Night

Leaving 5/3/24

Arctic Dogs

Leaving 5/8/24

Uncut Gems

Leaving 5/9/24

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Leaving 5/10/24

St. Vincent

Leaving 5/11/24

Where the Crawdads Sing

Leaving 5/14/24

Fifty Shades of Black

Leaving 5/19/24

Rosario Tijeras (Mexico): Seasons 1-3

Leaving 5/11/24

Sam Smith: Love Goes – Live at Abbey Road Studios

Leaving 5/22/24

The Boxtrolls...

I'll never forget the day a doctor told me that I had bipolar disorder. Although I was smart and well-versed enough to know, cognitively, that Alex Forrest in "Fatal Attraction" was a problematic example of how a person living with bipolar disorder behaves, I couldn't shake the immediate fear in my soul that this diagnosis meant that I was going to be just like her. Still sexy as hell, obviously, but also the type of person who would stalk a one-night stand, kill their family pet, and pour acid on their car. Fortunately, in the years since my diagnosis, a slew of celebrities have been open about their own diagnoses. Carrie Fisher's memoir "Wishful Drinking" is arguably the highest-profile example, but Mariah Carey, David Harbour, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Linda Hamilton, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and legendary Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson have all spoken candidly about how bipolar disorder impacts their lives.

"She demanded that people follow on her terms..." "We're talking about a 'one-off' here." Magnolia Pictures has revealed the full trailer for documentary film titled Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, not to be confused with 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. This intimate doc reveals the story of a fierce rock 'n' roller, actress, muse and mother who rose to prominence in the 60s & 70s. It first premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and also played at the London Film Festival lat year. Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg is a vital portrait of the charismatic and fierce rock n' roller, actress, muse, and mother who became famous after a chance encounter with the Rolling Stones. Scarlett Johansson voices Anita (based on the words of her unpublished memoir) and the film includes her children, Marlon & Angela Richards, and their father, Keith Richards. Never-seen-before home movies and family...

Alan Ritchson has become well-known for playing beefy characters with a strong sense of justice after starring in Titans as Hank Hall/Hawk and his current gig as the titular hero in Prime Video’s Reacher. But before playing TV’s biggest boy Jack Reacher, Ritchson appeared in a variety of movies and TV shows, some more unexpected than others.

From Brooklyn Nine-Nine to New Girl, here are some of Alan Ritchson’s weirdest pre-Reacher roles.

Gloss – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Alan Ritchson doesn’t have much screen time in the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire, but in that short amount of time he’s able to give a surprising amount of depth to his character. Gloss was raised as a career tribute from District 1, and went on to win his year, only to be thrust into the arena once again in the Quarter Quell. Gloss and many of...

Alan Ritchson is a force of nature in Prime Video's "Reacher," where he delivers a compelling, book-accurate performance of the titular drifter with a penchant for solving crimes. Ritchson balances Reacher's brute strength with the perfect amount of vulnerability, painting him as a man fiercely dedicated to the cause, willing to evolve as a person when the situation demands so. While Reacher is perhaps one of his best roles so far, Ritchson's career is marked with performances that need to be highlighted, given how often they tend to be overlooked.

Before Ritchson started playing buff dudes who could beat up anyone in the room, he embodied a diverse range of characters on both the big and small screens. Ritchson started his career with a recurring guest role in the DC Comics series "Smallville," where he played Arthur Curry/Aquaman — a role he reprised when he voiced the character in the animated film,...

The two big original releases on Netflix this month are Spaceman and 3 Body Problem. In Spaceman, Adam Sandler plays an astronaut alone and far from home who desperately wants to fix things with his wife. When he discovers an enormous alien spider in the bowels of his ship, a conversation between the two gets underway, and Sandler has a chance to make some big changes. To be clear: this is not a comedy!

Meanwhile, new sci-fi series 3 Body Problem hails from Game of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Along with True Blood writer Alexander Woo, they’ve spun a tale that is set to blow your mind this March. Your mileage may vary, but it certainly looks interesting! And hey, we all love the show’s star, Benedict Wong.

Here’s everything else coming to Netflix this month. Note that Netflix marks its international offerings...

Hollywood icon Alan Ritchson, renowned for his memorable performances across numerous films, has captivated audiences with his versatile talents. Despite his widespread popularity, even a star of Ritchson’s magnitude has encountered setbacks in his career trajectory.

The disappointment among Ritchson’s dedicated fan base is palpable, particularly when considering the missed opportunities of two pivotal roles that could have further showcased his prowess.

Reacher star Alan Ritchson

Among his significant losses, Ritchson’s absence from roles in both Thor and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stands out prominently. These roles, which undoubtedly held the potential to elevate Ritchson’s career to new heights, slipped through his grasp due to unforeseen circumstances.

Regrettably, Ritchson’s occasional lapses in commitment and dedication to his craft played a pivotal role in these missed opportunities.

Alan Ritchson’s Near Encounter with the Role of Thor

Alan Ritchson revealed that he auditioned for the...

After 20 years in the business, Alan Ritchson is finally having his moment. The actor is perfectly suited to his starring role in Prime Video's "Reacher," so much so you'd swear he was engineered in a lab for the sole purpose of bringing Lee Child's brawny blonde bruiser to life on the screen. It didn't come easy, though. After making some waves on "American Idol" and then popping up as Arthur Curry/Aquaman in a handful of "Smallville" episodes, Ritchson seemed primed to break out thanks to his role on the cult college football sitcom "Blue Mountain State." Instead, he spent most of the next decade serving as a third-tier player in various network shows and a handful of big-budget pictures.

Things might've gone very differently, had Ritchson landed the role of another blonde superhero beefcake. Not that long after being cast as the brash football captain Thad Castle on "Blue Mountain State,...

Alan Ritchson is opening up about why he lost two major roles in Thor and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

In a new interview, the Reacher actor is looking back at his career and talking about what led Marvel to not cast him in the titular role that ultimately went to Chris Hemsworth.

“I didn’t take it seriously,” Ritchson told Men’s Health of his audition for the superhero movie. “I was like, ‘They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.'”

Following his audition for the 2011 film, casting told his team he didn’t show had “the craft” for the role. Ritchson had previously played the DC superhero Aquaman in the Smallville series. With Ritchson losing out on playing Thor, he also lost out on reprising his role across the MCU and follow-up sequels.

Later on, Ritchson would audition...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe could have looked slightly different, Alan Ritchson revealed this week.

The Reacher star said he came close to playing Thor, god of thunder, before Marvel eventually handed the role to Chris Hemsworth.

“I didn’t take it seriously,” Ritchson said of his MCU audition in a new Men’s Health cover story. “I was like, ‘They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.'”

Following his audition, though, the Marvel casting team told Ritchson he hadn’t shown he had “the craft,” and the part eventually went to Hemsworth. Thor first appeared in the character’s titular 2011 film and has been featured in eight Marvel films since then.

The loss plagued Ritchson, who rededicated himself to acting lessons following the defeat.

Several years later, he also lost out on the role of Finnick Odair in 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire...

Thanks to the growing popularity of his Amazon Prime Video action thriller series “Reacher,” based on the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child, Alan Ritchson’s is starting to really take off. It’s only been on for two seasons but seemingly taken off in the last year and is quickly turning the 6 ft 2 actor into a star.

Before that, he had smaller roles with appearances in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (2013) and “Fast X” (2023).

Continue reading Alan Ritchson Says Marvel’s ’Thor’ Role Was His To Lose Initially, But “Didn’t Take The Audition Seriously” at The Playlist.

Alan Ritchson is now best known for ‘Fast X’ and ‘Reacher,’ a popular show based on Lee Child’s book series. He’s steadily rising as a major action star. But before landing big roles, Ritchson was just trying to break into Hollywood. He auditioned for the role of Marvel’s God of Thunder in the 2011 standalone movie ‘Thor.’ However, Ritchson admitted in his interview with Men’s Health that he didn’t take the role too seriously.

I didn’t take it seriously.I was like, They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.

This turned out to be wrong, as his audition for the role didn’t impress, and it eventually went to Hemsworth, who became iconic as the God of Thunder. It seems Ritchson was affected by this failed audition.

Before MCU’s Thor, Ritchson had already landed superhero roles.

Alan Ritchson is nowadays most associated with ‘Fast X’ and ‘Reacher’ an incredibly popular show based on a series of books written by Lee Child. He is slowly but surely becoming the biggest action name we have currently. But before he managed to score several big roles Ritchson was just looking for work trying to break it in Hoolywood and he found himself auditioning for Marvel’s God of Thunder for his 2011 standalone movie ‘Thor.’

Ritchson revealed however that he didn’t take the role too seriously in his interview with Men’s Health:

I didn’t take it seriously.I was like, They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.

This turned out to be incorrect, since the feedback was, that his performance at the audition wasn’t satisfactory and the role eventually went to Hemsworth who made it so big with the role,...

Alan Ritchson has been rapidly ascending Hollywood's A-list in recent years. Much of that has to do with the fact that he's now headlining Amazon's "Reacher" series as the titular Jack Reacher, as well as appearing in supporting roles in movies like "Fast X." With a third season of the hit Prime Video series on the way, it's clear that the show is connecting with audiences, and Ritchson is owed a lot of credit for his part in that. Leading a TV show is something the actor has worked hard and long for, dating back to early in his career when the opportunity to headline a series was ripped right out from under him.

Ritchson spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet for the "Reacher" season 2 premiere. The actor spoke about his long journey to becoming a lead actor on a show, describing it as "a long time coming.

Jennifer Lawrence may have lost the Golden Globe for female actor in a motion picture comedy or musical, but she provided some of the best moments of the 2024 ceremony. She went viral for mouthing “If I don’t win, I’m leaving!” at the camera when her nomination was announced, and then she generated more headlines for reuniting with her “Hunger Games” co-star Lenny Kravitz while inside the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The two actors starred as Katniss and Cinna, respectively, in “The Hunger Games” (2012) and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (2013). As Cinna was Katniss’ stylist, the two actors shared many scenes together during production.

Lawrence and Kravitz’ reunion was the latest gift for “Hunger Games” fans, who recently turned the movie prequel, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” into a box office hit last fall. Lawrence told Variety in June during her “No Hard Feelings” press tour...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Leviathan 4K Uhd from Kino Lorber

Leviathan plunges onto 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on February 20 via Kino Lorber. The 1989 sci-fi/horror film been newly restored in 4K from the 35mm interpositive with Dolby Vision/Hdr and 5.1 surround and lossless 2.0 audio.

George P. Cosmatos directs from a script by David Webb Peoples and Jeb Stuart. Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson, Michael Carmine, Lisa Eilbacher, and Héctor Elizondo star.

Special features include: a new commentary by film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson; Leviathan: Monster Melting Pot featurette; interviews with Hudson and Elizondo; the trailer; and reversible artwork.

Pumpkinhead & Killer Klowns Puppets from Toynk

Reach out and grab some fun with Toynk’s Reachers,...

In a recent New Yorker profile, Craig Mazin, who wrote The Last of Us and Chernobyl, calls Queen’s Gambit co-creator Scott Frank “one of the best screenwriters of all time.”

Long a known quantity for Get Shorty, Out of Sight, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Marley and Me, The Wolverine and Logan, Frank opens up to the magazine about his less-recognized work: The nearly 60 films he has worked on as a script doctor, earning at times $300,000 a week.

Among the films on that less-well-known list are, according to the piece, Saving Private Ryan, The Ring, Gravity, Night at the Museum, Unfaithful, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Night at the Museum and, says Frank, “a lot of the X-Men movies.” Which ones? “I don’t remember their titles,” he said.

“Ninety-percent of what I get called in on is character work,” Frank told The New Yorker.

When Jennifer Lawrence Received Massive Backlash Over Her Butt-Scratching Incident! (Picture Credit: Facebook)

We love Jennifer Lawrence for her acting chops, but her unfiltered nature attracts us the most. She’s pretty honest about her personal life and political opinions. But things took a controversial turn when the actress confessed to scratching her b*tt against the sacred Hawaiin rocks. Scroll below to know all about the blast from the past.

As most know, Jennifer gained worldwide recognition for her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games franchise. The controversy took place during the shoot of the second installment, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The filming took place in Georgia, New Jersey and Hawaii.

Jennifer Lawrence describes her “butt-scratching” incident

JLaw shared the incident while promoting her film Passengers with Chris Pratt on The Graham Norton Show. She said, “There were … sacred … rocks — I dunno, they were ancestors, who knows — they were sacred.

Here’s your guide to every movie and TV show leaving Netflix Canada in January 2024.

In case you missed it, we also covered all the movies and TV shows leaving Netflix Canada in December 2023.

Some great movies are leaving Netflix Canada in January 2024, including James Cameron’s award-winning juggernaut Titanic, beloved coming-of-age comedy 13 Going on 30, powerful WW2 drama The Pianist, and slasher switch-up Freaky.

Please Note: This is not the full list of everything leaving Netflix UK in January 2024. More departures will be announced throughout December 2023 and January 2024.

Movies and TV Shows Leaving Netflix Canada on January 1st, 2024 13 Going on 30 (2004) A Dog’s Purpose (2017) The Bride of Habaek (1 Season) Bridesmaids (2011) Burlesque (2010) The Change-Up (2011) Christmas Under Wraps (2014) Christmas With a View (2018) Countdown (2019) Cutthroat Island (1995) The Danish Girl (2015) Dreamgirls (2006) DreamWorks Shrek the Halls (1 Season) Falls Around Her (2018) Football-Inspired Workouts for All (2023) N Freaky (2020) Full Out 2: You Got This! (2020) The Girl on the Train...

Kristen Stewart returns to the big screen, in her first role since David Cronenberg’s 2022 horror “Crimes of the Future,” in “Love Lies Bleeding,” a romantic thriller. from A24.

In “Love Lies Bleeding,” Stewart plays a gym manager, Lou, who meets a bodybuilder named Jackie (Katy M. O’Brian), who has stopped into town and is intent on going to Las Vegas to pursue her bodybuilding dreams. Lou falls in love with Jackie, but their steamy relationship is disrupted as the two face dangerous threats from Lou’s criminal father. The trailer shows their romantic spark and the bloody chaos that ensues.

O’Brian has previously starred in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “The Mandalorian” and will be seen in next year’s “Twisters.” Most recently, Stewart received a 2022 Oscar nomination for best actress for playing Princess Diana in “Spencer.”

Also starring in the film are Ed Harris (“Apollo 13”) as Lou’s father,...

Meg Ryan is not standing by silently and letting people label her actor son Jack Quaid a nepo baby, a term used for kids of famous parents. Quaid is the son of Ryan and actor Dennis Quaid.

In a new interview, Ryan defends her son of the label, calling it “dismissive.”

“Jack is really talented. He’s more of a natural than I’ll ever be. That nepo stuff is so dismissive of his work ethic, his gifts, and how sensitive he is to the idea of his privilege,” she told Glamour magazine.

Quaid currently stars in Amazon’s Prime Video series The Boys in the role of Hugh “Hughie” Campbell. Ryan recalled Quaid’s talent when he starred in a play he was cast in at school.

“I remember seeing him in a middle school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Ryan says. “He was playing Bottom. I was newly divorced from his dad,...

Earlier this week, we heard that Francis Lawrence, whose previous credits include Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2, Red Sparrow, Slumberland, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is the latest director to be attached to helm an adaptation of The Long Walk, a Stephen King novel that was published under the Richard Bachman pen name back in 1979. Now The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that The Long Walk is set up at Lionsgate, with Lawrence in “final talks” to direct. So this will be a continuation of the working relationship Lionsgate and Lawrence have had on the Hunger Game films.

Joe Drake of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group provided the following statement: “When you have enjoyed the strong creative collaboration and success that we have had working with Francis, you want to repeat that experience as much as possible.

The Long Walk has new spring in its step as Lionsgate is now behind a big-screen adaptation of the Stephen King book.

Lionsgate has picked up the rights to the 1979 dystopian novel, with Francis Lawrence in final talks to direct. Jt Mollner will pen the script. The move puts Lawrence back in business with Lionsgate, for whom he directed The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which is currently in theaters and has grossed more than $200 million globally.

Roy Lee is producing Long Walk with Lawrence.

New Line was previously developing the project with director André Øvredal and a script from James Vanderbilt before the rights lapsed in the summer of 2022. Now Lionsgate will begin anew with its own take.

“When you have enjoyed the strong creative collaboration and success that we have had working with Francis, you want to repeat that experience as much as possible,” said Joe Drake,...

Stuntman, actor and martial artist Taraja Ramsess was killed in a car crash in Georgia along with three of his children.

Ramsess, who was 41, is best known for his work on the Black Panther and Avengers movies.

Atlanta TV station Wsb-tv reported that the crash occurred just before midnight on Halloween when the vehicle Ramsess and his children were in collided with a tractor-trailer that had broken down in the left lane of an exit off the interstate.

Ramsess’ mother, Akili Ramsess, photojournalist and executive director of the National Press Photographers Association, announced the death of her son and two of his daughters in an Instagram post.

Next to a series of photos of her son and grandchildren, Akili wrote: “My beautiful, loving, talented son Taraja @chop.saki, along with two of my grandbabies, his 13 yo daughter Sundari and his 8-week old newborn daughter Fujibo, were killed the previous night in a horrific traffic accident.

An adaptation of The Long Walk, a Stephen King novel that was published under the Richard Bachman pen name back in 1979, has been trudging through development hell for decades. At one point, the rights were in the hands of Frank Darabont, who made the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Then the rights passed over to New Line Cinema, where Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal was hired to direct the film from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, whose credits include the two most recent Scream movies. While doing the press rounds for his film The Last Voyage of the Demeter earlier this year, Øvredal revealed that he was no longer involved with The Long Walk, and said not making that movie is one of the big regrets of his life. Now we know who has replaced him at the helm: Francis Lawrence.

Update: While The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is definitely going to rule the holiday box office, with an estimated 5-day haul of $43 million, Wish isn’t nipping as closely at its heels as anticipated. Indeed, Deadline is estimating the film will make $35-38 million, which isn’t far off from Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, which was supposed to play a distant third. The film is having a stronger box office showing than expected, with it likely to finish with $30-33 million, while also pulling in blockbuster numbers overseas. It’s another strong showing for an adult-oriented film, and while it’s not exactly Oppenheimer, it proves grown-ups like to go to movies too!

Original story: After a mediocre showing at the box office last weekend, which seemingly put a damper on Lionsgate’s franchise plans, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is rebounding...

Director Francis Lawrence first came to the “Hunger Games” franchise in 2013 for “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” and he’s helmed every movie in the series since. His latest entry is “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” the fifth film in the franchise and Lawrence’s fourth. Set over 60 years before the events of the first film, “Songbirds and Snakes” retains the spirit of the earlier movies while crafting its own aesthetic. As Lawrence told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, its prequel status meant he wasn’t beholden to anything previously established in the series.

“I think that gave us the freedom to take it in a very different direction aesthetically,” Lawrence said. “It’s, in essence, a period piece.” Lawrence and his department heads took their cues from reconstruction-era Berlin for the visual design, which is given an added layer of verisimilitude by the fact that...

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we take a look at Britney Spear's I'm A Slave 4 U and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, both by Francis Lawrence. There is a moment in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, in which heroine Katniss Everdeen is forced to go on stage in a dress that sets aflame like a Phoenix. She is wildly uncomfortable, but the moment seals her fate: this is where she becomes a star, and the rest of the franchise is her dealing with the repercussions of being someone in the public eye in a fascist dystopia. Is she one of the people in power, or the girl who will shake...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Lionsgate’s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opened at China’s movie box office in third place over the weekend, losing to two holdover local films and earning just $4.6 million. It’s just the latest disappointing performance by a U.S. franchise film in the market.

Songbirds & Snakes has earned low to middling social scores from Chinese audiences, and ticketing app Maoyan projects it will total only about $7 million by the end of its run.

Songbirds & Snakes opens eight years after the last Hunger Games title played in theaters and 12 years after the first film hit the big screen. The previous four Hunger Games films, based on Suzanne Collins’ dystopian YA novels and starring Jennifer Lawrence, all performed considerably better in China than the new title. The Hunger Games (2012) earned a total of $27 million, while The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) took $28 million, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1...

"The Hunger Games" prequel "The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" isn't the beginning of a new saga, like the fizzled-out "Fantastic Beasts" series was to the "Harry Potter" movies. Instead, it's a standalone origin story based on Suzanne Collins' 2020 novel, which reveals how future Panem president Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) helped shape the Hunger Games from a depressing slaughterfest into must-watch entertainment. But eight years after the release of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2," are the Hunger Games still the box office draw they once were?

The short answer is no, but that doesn't mean "The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" is a bomb in the making. After grossing $19.1 million on Friday (including Thursday previews), the "Hunger Games" prequel is on track to gross somewhere north of $45 million at the box office in its opening weekend, per The Hollywood Reporter, with the studio hopeful that it could hit $50 million.

Francis Lawrence didn't direct the first "Hunger Games" movie, but he directed the rest of them, and he's made the series his own. Starting with "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" and continuing through the rest of the films, Lawrence has showcased an eye for thrilling and horrifying visuals and a keen ability to draw the best out of his actors, whether they're going broad or subtle. Through his lens, what could've been a boilerplate YA series has leaned into the aggressive, the political, and the deeply moving. 

Lawrence is back with "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," a prequel telling the story of young Coriolanus Snow, who will grow up to be the vicious dictator with his thumb on the sci-fi dystopia of Panem in the original four films. It's arguably the best and most thematically ambitious film in the series, putting the audience in the company...

After two disastrous weekends kicking off November, there’s new hope with four new releases hitting theaters across the country. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

All three sequels to 2012’s “The Hunger Games,” based on Suzanne Collins‘ series of young adult novels, opened in mid-November following the first movie opening in March and grossing over $400 million. 2013’s “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” did just as well, as each successive sequel opened with over $100 million – the “Mockingjay” finale in 2015 just barely.

Along comes “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” an adaptation of Collins’ prequel novel, telling the story of the Capitol’s President Coriolanus Snow, played by Donald Sutherland in the original movies and by Tom Blyth (“Billy the Kid”) in this prequel. In fact, the only person returning from the original four movies is director Francis Lawrence, who directed the three sequels.

See...

There is something to be said about the cycle of sci-fi films made in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. While the decades to come would be defined by Star Wars pew-pews, for a little while there, the genre was fixated almost wholly on grim cynicism, downbeat endings, and unadulterated dystopia. I’m a sucker for all that jazz, even when it’s at its silliest. That would be your “Soylent Green is people!” films or the sequels to Chuck Heston crying, “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” This could also explain why I sat with a smile for nearly all 157 minutes of Francis Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. It’s grandiose, kooky, and sometimes cruel. But despite being adapted from a YA book, this gray universe imagined by Suzanne Collins still feels refreshingly adult in our own modern multiplex land of bread and circuses.