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Exclusive: Bonnie Arnold and Louise Goodsill have teamed up to adapt Juniper’s Christmas from bestselling author of Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer.

The deal was struck by Emily Hayward-Whitlock at The Artists Partnership in association with Sophie Hicks at Sophie Hicks Agency.

“Eoin has created a fresh and imaginative rendering of a contemporary Santa and a brave young heroine, Juniper Lane, who sets out to save Christmas and Santa himself,” Arnold and Goodsill said in a statement. “It’s a special book with unforgettable characters that we look forward to making into a wonderful film for all to enjoy — a family adventure filled with joy.”

Published by Macmillan Children’s in the U.S. and HarperCollins in the UK in October 2023, Juniper’s Christmas tells the story of eleven-year-old Juniper Lane as she’s thrown into a Christmas...

Colin Farrell has been active in the industry for the past two and a half decades, but his best roles appear to have come late in his career. The Irish actor’s only Academy Award nomination came for the role in The Banshees of Inisherin. In the same year as the tragicomedy, he also starred in Matt Reeves’ The Batman as the Penguin, a role that got a spin-off movie of its own.

Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin | Credits: Searchlight Pictures

The Penguin, which premiered on September 19, has received critical acclaim, proving that Farrell has put the days of dreading his Alexander role behind him. His personal life has been more colorful in the 2000s than his career, as he was romantically linked to several A-list stars and models. Did he settle down with any of them?

Was Colin Farrell Married to Jamie Dornan’s Wife? Amelia Warner...

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” Season 2 has found its Thalia Grace.

Tamara Smart has been cast as Thalia in the Disney+ series. Smart will appear in the recurring guest star role alongside series regulars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn, and Daniel Diemer. Variety recently exclusively reported that Timothy Simons will appear in Season 2 as Tantalus.

Season 2 of the show will be based on the book “The Sea of Monsters,” the second book in the Percy Jackson series by author Rick Riordan. Production is currently underway on Season 2, which is slated to debut in 2025.

“Thalia Grace is one of the most important characters in the Percy Jackson universe, so the right casting was critical,” Riordan said. “Thalia is a powerful warrior, a fiercely loyal friend, and a demigod rebel with a very ‘punk’ / ‘rage-against-the-machine’ sensibility. As soon as we saw Tamara Smart play this role,...

Joe Dempsie leads a wave of new additions to the cast of “Truckload,” winner of Primetime’s Empower Fund at Cannes 2024, in partnership with Funding Futures, the funding arm of Bournemouth Film School.

Joining Dempsie are Adam Ali, Cathy Tyson and Lara McDonnell. The project, starring Jodie Whittaker, aims to champion female and non-binary filmmakers.

“Truckload,” a comedy-drama based on writer-actress Evie Jones’ real-life experience, follows Lizzie (played by Jones) as she returns to Manchester after a life-changing traffic accident. The film explores her recovery journey and the impact on her relationships.

Director Aella Jordan-Edge and producers Arpita Ashok and Victoria Emslie have rounded out the cast with Carol Starks and Angharad Bowen.

Ashok said: “As a producer, I want to continue my previous work as an advocate, platforming under-represented voices and reaching broad audiences. I see storytelling as one of our most powerful tools to achieve change. So, as...

The current proxy war at Disney has been heating up in the past few months, with more people announcing support for the side that matches with their ideas for the future of the company. While Nelson Peltz has been getting support from outsiders, many notable individuals including Abigail Disney and George Lucas announced that they supported Iger (despite both voicing their grievances with him in the past).

Now, another voice has lent their support to Bob Iger, that being actor and comedian Josh Gad. Gad is perhaps best known as the voice of Olaf the Snowman in the Frozen franchise, but he also appeared in the 2017 Live-Action Remake of Beauty and the Beast as LeFou and in 2020’s Artemis Fowl as Mulch Diggums, the Dwarf.

On his personal Instagram account, Gad made the following statement accompanying an image of the Disney CEO: “What this man has done and continues to...

A few weeks ago, Walt Disney's president of motion picture studios, Sean Bailey, stepped down from his position at the company. He had been in that role for 15 years, and under his tenure, Disney went all-in on a plan to release live-action remakes of the studio's classic animated movies. All told, Bailey was responsible for making around $7 billion for Disney, a good percentage of which came from those live-action remakes. But now Bailey's out, and Disney appears to be heading in a new direction.

David Greenbaum, who has spent the past 14 years running Fox Searchlight (now Searchlight Pictures), has taken over, and in a recent article, Puck News reported that Greenbaum's pitch to Disney leadership that got him the job included a single question that summarized his approach to greenlighting things at the studio going forward: Does this movie need to exist?

That's the type of question that Disney seemingly...

It isn’t every week that two of the biggest jobs in film are filled within a matter of days, but that was the case last week. On February 26, Disney’s live-action president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production Sean Bailey exited, making way for Searchlight’s David Greenbaum to take the top job. Two days later on Feb. 28, Rideback’s Dan Lin was tapped to take Scott Stuber’s open seat atop Netflix’s film division.

Greenbaum made his bones on prestige indie films and original, auteur-driven stories. He’s now taking the job at a company that has spent the last 15 years mining IP and playing the hits. Lin is a franchise builder now stepping into an environment known for chasing big prestige swings.

It appears Disney and Netflix are heading in opposite directions. One agent who spoke with IndieWire called it a role-reversal between Disney and Netflix; at one point,...

Longtime lit agent and manager Shari Smiley has died. Smiley passed away Tuesday at age 53. Cause of death is not yet known.

Smiley had a long career in book to movie circles, and most recently had restarted her Smiley Management banner. Before that she had been at 3 Arts, this after a four year stint at The Gotham Group. There, she sold the dramatic rights to several titles, notably In A Dark, Dark Wood, The Barbizon and An Anonymous Girl, all of which resulted in bidding wars. Smiley had also been a consultant for the executor of the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate.

Smiley spent the bulk of her career, 18 years worth, at CAA, where she began as a receptionist in 1993 and was soon selling more books there than some of the tenured agents. When she left that agency, she called legendary literary agent Mort Janklow to tell him, and Janklow...

Movistar Plus+ Shooting Comedy ‘Muertos S.L.’

Cameras are rolling on Muertos S.L., an eight-part Spanish sitcom for Movistar Plus+ set in a family-owned funeral home. Laura and Alberto Caballero are directing the series, which is a Movistar Plus+ production in collaboration with Contubernio Sl. Carlos Areces leads the cast, which also includes Ascen López, Salva Reina, Aitziber Garmendia and Adriana Torrebejano among others. Plot reads: “When Gonzalo Torregrosa, owner and founder of Torregrosa Funeral Home, passes away, Dámaso Carrillo, his right-hand man in the company, doesn’t hesitate that the best for the business is taking the reins himself. However, against all odds, Nieves, the septuagenarian widow, decides to take the lead in the family business, with the assistance of her inept yet enthusiastic son-in-law, Chemi, a Marketing expert, and in defiance of her daughters’ plans to close the Funeral Home and start a gym.

If your favorite movie was pulled as part of Disney+’s cost-saving measures earlier this year, there’s a good chance you can find it on platforms like Prime Video now.

The handbook for turning streaming losses into profits is fairly short. It really only has three main steps: launch an ad-supported tier, raise prices on ad-free customers, and remove titles from streaming platforms that no longer drive sufficient engagement. Disney can check all three items off their list this year; the company is preparing to execute another round of price increases on Thursday, Oct. 12, and has cut big swaths of content from Disney+ and Hulu alike.

Some films cut from Disney+ are now available to rent or buy for as little as $3.99. Era of deepest cuts on Disney+ is likely over. Movies are available on platforms like Prime Video, iTunes and more.

Disney’s content cuts first began in May,...

Disney started pulling content from its direct-to-consumer streaming platform Disney+ earlier this year, following the streaming content bubble bursting spectacularly. Now some of it is beginning to reappear – on paid platforms.

Seasons of shows were unceremoniously zapped from the app, along with several high profile made-for-Disney+ movies, including “Crater,” which was erased a little more than a month after debuting on the platform. Those movies are back – and available to rent or buy on the PVOD platform of your choice

Disney didn’t publicize this; they just showed up with as little fanfare as when they were removed in the first place.

The removed titles now available to rent (for around $4) or buy (for $20) are “Artemis Fowl,” “Better Nate Than Never,” “Crater,” “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “Flora & Ulysses,” “Stargirl,” “Hollywood Stargirl,” “The One and Only Ivan,” “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made” and documentary “Wolfgang.” Disney+ original films that have...

It's another historic first for Disney+ as seven movies that were abandoned from the streamer are now available on major digital platforms.

As part of a surprising move to cut down costs, Disney decided to remove several TV shows from Disney+, which included notable titles like Willow, Big Shot, and The Mysterious Benedict Society.

A good chunk of Disney+ original movies was also not safe from the content purge as the streamer removed the likes of the Cheaper By The Dozen reboot, Artemis Fowl, and Better Nate Than Never.

Read full article on The Direct.

Hollywood's fascination with science fiction has produced some of the greatest thrills in movie history. "Star Wars," "Blade Runner," "The Matrix," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" are but a handful of films that rank high amongst genre enthusiasts for their audacious ideas, innovative visuals, originality, colorful characters, and timeless appeal. Crafting these timeless masterpieces requires significant effort and unwavering commitment, and should not be underestimated. Many production stories showcase the extent to which producers and directors are willing to go to realize their vision -- even if it comes at the cost of the actors' well-being.

Borrowing a cue from the article "12 Horror Movie Scenes That Scared Actors in Real Life," we decided to dive into the world of sci-fi and explore a handful of movie scenes that similarly induced screams from the cast. Not in a negative way, mind you. Indeed, many directors deploy...

With A Haunting in Venice opening this weekend, we wanted to know what film in Kenneth Branagh’s long and illustrious directing career has been your favorite? Have his Shakespeare tales been your type of movie or were his more mainstream films like Thor and Cinderella more your speed? Click your favorite and let us know in the comments why.

Favorite Kenneth Branagh Directed FilmHenry V (1989)Dead Again (1991)Peter's Friends (1992)Much Ado About Nothing (1993)Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)In The Bleak Midwinter (1995)Hamlet (1996)Love Labour's Lost (2000)As You Like It (2006)The Magic Flute (2006)Sleuth (2007)Thor (2011)Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)Cinderella (2015)Murder on the Orient Express (2017)All is True (2018)Artemis Fowl (2020)Belfast (2021)Death on the Nile (2022)A Haunting in Venice (2023)Submit Vote HereView Results Here

The post Poll: Favorite Kenneth Branagh Directed Film appeared first on JoBlo.

Sometimes, you take what you can get at the movies. For example, it is a low bar to clear that the latest entry in the Hercule Poirot Cinematic Universe, "A Haunting in Venice," is an improvement over its predecessor. The 2022 film "Death on the Nile" was turgid, poorly acted, and boasted some of the worst CGI backdrops in big-studio history. So the fact that its immediate follow-up is brisker, offers less painful acting, and very few CGI backdrops is somewhat cold comfort. The stylish first film in the Kenneth Branagh-directed franchise, 2017's "Murder on the Orient Express," seems an awfully long time ago, and whatever sharpness was present has long since evaporated. There are some mild charms and entertainments in "A Haunting in Venice," which tries very, very hard to be spooky and creepy but is saddled with baffling if unsurprising directorial choices and some distracting performances.

The mustachioed...

Hugh Grant’s casting as an Oompa Loompa in “Wonka” has been criticized by an actor with dwarfism.

The film belongs to the universe created by British author Roald Dahl in 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” It is directed by Paul King (“Paddington”) and produced by Heyday Films, Village Roadshow Pictures and Warner Bros.

George Coppen, a British actor with dwarfism, best known for playing Sweet Cupid in Netflix’s “The School for Good and Evil,” told the BBC: “A lot of actors [with dwarfism] feel like we are being pushed out of the industry we love. A lot of people, myself included, argue that dwarfs should be offered everyday roles in dramas and soaps, but we aren’t getting offered those roles. One door is being closed but they have forgotten to open the next one.”

Coppen has also had roles in “Willow” and “Artemis Fowl.”

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...

Eliza Skinner had no idea that her Disney+ series Earth to Ned would be permanently taken off the platform until a text on the show’s writer group chat in mid-May shared an article about Disney removing more than 70 films and series from its streaming services that month. Among the disappearing titles was the comedic talk show — which launched in 2020 with Skinner as head writer — centering on an alien welcoming celebrities to his spaceship.

Due to its classification as a streaming variety series, Skinner says the writers and performers weren’t receiving residuals, although the show’s team had heard rumors blaming Disney’s tax bill. But while her loss isn’t a financial one, Earth to Ned can no longer serve as a calling card to help land future gigs for Skinner, who also doesn’t own a physical copy of the show.

“It’s part of this overall...

The entire media landscape is in a serious transition period right now. Yes, streaming is the future (and that is why the Writer's Guild of America is on strike right now), but that future is probably going to look more like traditional TV than anyone thought a handful of years ago. 

Part of that has to do with ad-supported, video-on-demand services (AVOD) such as Tubi, which have become quite popular in recent years -- particularly for those of us who are tired of paying for any number of subscription-based services such as Netflix. But Tubi, in particular, has oddly benefited from what has been generated by other major services on the market, particularly HBO Max (before it simply became Max).

I was on hand at the Atx Television Festival for a panel called "Fast, AVOD, and the Return to Ad-Supported TV," where Samuel Harowitz, the VP of Content Acquisition and Partnerships at Tubi,...

In what has become a grim reality of the next phase of the streaming era, 60 movies and television shows have left Disney+ and Hulu. That includes Sundance crowdpleasers like “Timmy Failure,” initially-intended for theatrical releases like “Artemis Fowl” and “The Once and Future Ivan,” big-budget IP adaptations like “Willow” and “Y: The Last Man,” and high-concept YA dramedies like “Stargirl” and “Rosaline.” Once such casualty is “The Princess.”

Released in August of 2022, the original high-concept hybrid of “Die Hard” and “The Raid” features Joey King (star of “The Kissing Booth” trilogy) as a princess trapped in a tower having to fight and kill her way floor-by-floor to save herself and her family from a violent coup attempt. It’s the kind of clever genre exercise that might have been a theatrical release a generation ago. Had it been given a theatrical release, however token, it would also have been available on DVD,...

Disney did a little (late) spring cleaning of its streaming services this week, removing several properties from Disney+ and Hulu. Among those that will go on May 26 include some high profile recent shows like “Willow,” “Y: The Last Man,” “Dollface,” and “The World According to Jeff Goldblum.” What makes this troubling for many home viewers who may have been fans (or even stans!) of the affected programs is that, in most cases, there are no Blu-ray/DVD options. In the old days you could always hit record on your Vcr to build a personal library, but it’s not so easy to capture material from streaming—and the whole point of streaming is not needing to do that, right?

As per The Verge, Disney’s cost-cutting is due to a reduction in Disney+ subscribers, to the tune of 4 million in 2023. While the company will have to pay a “content impairment charge” of over $1.5 billion,...

For Halloween 2021, Disney+ entered the world of R.L. Stine with “Just Beyond,” an 8-episode anthology series based on Stine’s line of comic books. The series never got a second season, with Disney+ leaving its fate hanging in the balance these past two years.

Unfortunately, we’ve learned this week that Stine’s “Just Beyond” will be one of many Disney+ original projects that are soon being deleted from the streaming service entirely.

As The Hollywood Reporter explains, “Disney is following Warner Bros. Discovery and removing under-performing titles from its streaming services in a bid to write off nearly $2 billion from its bottom line. In all, there are more than 30 shows that will be removed starting next week from the platforms in this first round of reductions. The titles will vanish starting May 26.”

The long list of titles being removed from Disney+ includes…

America the Beautiful Among the Stars Artemis Fowl...

Get ready to hug your physical DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K discs a little tighter, film fans – because while the age of streaming seemed to come with the promise of everything being available everywhere all at once, that has recently begun to give way to a less optimistic reality. After multiple HBO Max projects were dropped from that service – with no other home to view them on, and no physical release either – it now seems that Disney+ is following suit, with major series, documentaries and original movies set to be dropped from the service on 26 May. It is expected that this is being pursued as a cost-cutting measure, though the exact metrics and cost implications are unclear.

Among the projects leaving Disney+ one week today, according to Deadline, will be the likes of the recent Willow streaming series, sports drama sequel series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, the Turner & Hooch show,...

Update, July 4: Another victim of Disney’s cost-cutting on the streaming front has emerged: “Crater,” a sci-fi adventure film about a group of children that hijack a rover before a member of the group relocates to a new planet. The film, starring Mckenna Grace and Isaiah Russell-Bailey with a featured role played by Kid Cudi, drew mostly positive reviews around its debut on the streaming service on May 12. Roughly seven weeks later, “Crater” has been pulled from Disney+.

The original report follows.

Disney’s content culling from Disney+ and Hulu is coming as early as next week — with the media company pulling off more than 50 titles, including series “Willow,” “The Mysterious Benedict Society” and “Dollface,” and movies such as “The One and Only Ivan.”

At the same time, CEO Bob Iger told investors last week that the company expects to raise the price on the ad-free Disney+ tier later...

As expected, Disney is following Warner Bros. Discovery and removing under-performing titles from its streaming services in a bid to write off nearly $2 billion from its bottom line.

Scripted titles set to be removed from Hulu and Disney+ include FX’s Y: The Last Man, Pistol, Little Demon, Hulu-turned-Disney+ series Mysterious Benedict Society, Disney+’s Big Shot, The Mighty Ducks, Turner & Hooch, Willow and ABC-turned-Hulu comedy Maggie, as well as National Geographic’s The World According to Jeff Goldblum. In all, there are more than 30 shows that will be removed starting next week from the platforms in this first round of reductions. The titles, many of which are listed below, will vanish starting May 26. Sources say the programming could be made available elsewhere, like digital sell-through platforms, etc.

Disney CFO Christine McCarthy revealed last week on Disney’s earnings call that the company would be reviewing the TV series...

Updated with more titles being removed: Disney is starting to pull content from streaming, with dozens of series and specials slated to leave Disney+ and Hulu on May 26, Deadline has learned. The titles, which are being removed from Disney’s streaming services globally, include Disney+’s Willow, Big Shot, Turner & Hooch, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Just Beyond, Diary of a Future President, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The World According to Jeff Goldblum and Hulu’s Y: The Last Man, Dollface, The Hot Zone, Maggie, Pistol and Little Demon. A number of Freeform series also are slated to leave Hulu.

The list features largely short-lived series, specials and direct-to-streaming movies.

The move, which comes with a content impairment charge of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion, was announced during the recent Disney earnings call on May 10.

“We are in the process of reviewing the content on our Dtc services to align...

Sir Kenneth Branagh is grateful to be playing Hercule Poirot again in 'A Haunting in Venice'.The 62-year-old star reprises his role as Agatha Christie's sleuth in the upcoming film and is delighted to have the chance to make another movie after the challenges of the previous installment 'Death on the Nile' – which was hit by delays due to the coronavirus pandemic and sexual misconduct allegations surrounding star Armie Hammer.Kenneth told The Hollywood Reporter: "('Death on the Nile's') theatrical release was challenged for various reasons, but it still did exceptional numbers in the circumstances. And then the streaming performance was really exceptional."So I was very pleased when they came back to us, for sure."He continued: "I was particularly grateful to the single determining factor, really, which was the audience. The audience seems to want it, and they seem to be ready for another.

Darren Aronofsky's 2022 film "The Whale" has been described as "problematic" by many of its critics. "Problematic" is a word that is more or less the same as "offensive," only amended with smaller, positive qualities lurking therein. Overall, the film's treatment of obesity is badly handled, and its themes are misguided; it's clearly a story of depression and homophobia, but Aronofsky seems to think it's about obesity. Perhaps there is a great, compassionate version of "The Whale" in a parallel universe somewhere, but we certainly didn't get it in ours. 

The above-mentioned positive qualities come from the film's performances. Brendan Fraser won an Academy Award for playing the self-hating writing teacher Charlie, and Hong Chau was nominated for her role as Liz, Charlie's nurse and one of his only friends. Indeed, Liz is the only person in Charlie's life that seems to like him, including Charlie. Chau's performance lends...

Exclusive: Laura Fitzpatrick has joined Sony Pictures Imageworks as VP New Business. In her new role, she will be responsible for third party VFX business development and strategic planning for long-term growth. She will also oversee worldwide sales, marketing and client engagement, reporting to EVP Michelle Grady. Upcoming projects Fitzpatrick will have a hand in include the animated features The Sea Beast and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Fitzpatrick most recently served as Global Managing Director at visual effects company Mr. X, where she was responsible for strategic growth planning, financial oversight, and management of teams across multiple facilities.

“Laura is a strategic, forward-thinking executive who is admired by peers throughout the industry,” said Grady. “We are extremely excited to welcome Laura into the Imageworks fold.”

“I am thrilled to join the award-winning team at Sony Pictures Imageworks,” added Fitzpatrick. “Their creativity and innovative genius is unparalleled in the industry and...

Thirty-two years ago, 29-year-old “Henry V” (1989) director, writer and star Kenneth Branagh became the second youngest person to receive Best Director and Best Actor Oscar nominations for the same film after Orson Welles. Over the next 22 years, he picked up bids in three more categories: Best Live Action Short, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. Now, his Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay notices for the 2021 film “Belfast” have made him the first person ever recognized in seven unique categories. He is also included in this year’s Best Director lineup, making that the only award for which he has competed twice.

See 2022 Oscar nominations: Full list of nominees in all 23 categories

The directors currently nominated against Branagh are Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) and Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”). All but Hamaguchi have vied for this honor at least once before,...

Filmmaker Kenneth Branagh is back in the awards race with his new drama “Belfast,” and the film is drawing further interest based on its six Oscar nominations — including Best Picture. Based partly on Branagh’s experience as a child growing up in Northern Ireland, “Belfast” has been drawing critical raves since it hit the festival circuit last fall and earned the coveted Peoples’ Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

But you may be wondering where is “Belfast” available? Is it getting a streaming release? All your burning questions are answered below.

Is “Belfast” Still in Theaters?

Yes, “Belfast” is still playing in some theaters nationwide. Check your local listings. It was initially released by Focus Features on Nov. 12.

Is “Belfast” Streaming Anywhere? Focus Features

“Belfast” is not currently streaming on any existing service, but you can watch the film at home by renting or purchasing it digitally. It’s available through Apple,...

Even when Covid-19 finally, happily and at long last becomes a thing of the past, the distribution shifts it helped usher in across the movie business may be here to stay, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek said on Wednesday.

“We know that we’re in a time of flux,” Chapek told analysts on a conference call shortly after the company reported its quarterly results. “Covid will be in the rear-view mirror, God willing, [in 2022], but changing consumer behavior is a long-term change that is not going away.”

With that in mind, Disney is “sticking with our plan of flexibility” when it comes to the way it releases movies in theaters. During the worst of Covid-19, Disney sent films like “Artemis Fowl” and “Soul” straight to Disney Plus. When it began to lift and vaccines became more available, Disney released other movies such as “Black Widow” and “Jungle Cruise” on the...

Between “Artemis Fowl” and the beleaguered, still-to-come “Death on the Nile,” Kenneth Branagh is coming off somewhat of an iffy run. Nominated for five Academy Awards, the “Henry V,” “Hamlet,” and “Murder on the Orient Express” filmmaker looks headed back in the right direction with “Belfast,” which he calls his most personal film yet. The film is set to world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival later this month. Focus Features is releasing “Belfast” stateside on November 12 and into hopeful Oscar contention. Watch the trailer for the film below.

The drama follows a young boy (Jude Hill) growing up with swinging working-class parents (Jamie Dornan and Catriona Balfe) amid the social and cultural tumult of late-1960s Northern Ireland. Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds play his grandparents. Here’s the synopsis from TIFF:

In his three decades of filmmaking, Kenneth...

You could say that writer/director/actor Kenneth Branagh has a facility easing between high and low art. That is to say, he’s known to make delightful capers and mysteries for more mainstream audiences like “Thor,” “Murder On The Orient Express,” “Artemis Fowl,” and “Death On The Nile,” but he’s also obviously known for his stage work, his expertise with Shakespeare and more personal indies like Focus Features’ upcoming drama “Belfast” which has its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival tonight.

Continue reading ‘Belfast’ Trailer: Kenneth Branagh’s Coming Of Age Tale Features Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan & More at The Playlist.

In its most recent quarterly earnings report, Disney announced that the number of Disney Plus paid subscribers swelled to 116 million as of July 3. Wall Street noticed, as one headline from a financial publication shouted, “Disney Stock Leaps After Earnings Blowout.” Since the introduction of Disney Plus on Nov. 12, 2019, Disney shares price has climbed from $138 to $177 as of Aug. 23.

Wall Street always wants more, and Disney will be addicted to increasing subscriptions even if it means sacrificing theatrical revenue. That’s because math favors Disney Plus. The revenue generated by the 116 million Disney Plus subscribers, at a discounted monthly subscription fee that averages $4.16 each, will generate $5.79 billion annually. This surpasses the $4.73 billion revenue that Disney achieved in 2019 from theatrical distribution. And Disney Plus is still in its infancy. This is in addition to the revenue generated by Disney’s nearly 42.8 million Hulu subscribers and 14.9 million ESPN Plus subscribers.

One chart reveals...

Exclusive: Nonso Anozie, one of the stars of Netflix’s hit fantasy series Sweet Tooth, has signed with WME for representation in all areas.

Anozie plays Tommy Jepperd on the streamer’s drama, based on the DC comic books by Jeff Lemire. The series pulled in 60 million viewers in its first four weeks after its June 4 launch and has been renewed for a second season. Jim Mickle is showrunner, writer, director and executive producer of the series, which is also EP’d by Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey.

The London-born Anozie’s previous TV credits include another fantasy hit: playing Xaro Xhoan Daxos on HBO’s Game of Thrones. He also played Renfield opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers on NBC’s Dracula. On the film side, his credits include Stephen Soderbergh’s The Laundromat, Artemis Fowl, Guava Island alongside Donald Glover, Ender’s Game and Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella among others.

Illustrated by Chris Morris

A version of this story first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

The Oscars have been delayed and disrupted before, but there has never been an awards season like the one that will end on April 25 at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Starting soon after last year’s Oscars on Feb. 9, 2020, the world changed, first with a global pandemic and then with a long-delayed reckoning with institutional racism.

The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021 caused the deaths of more than 500,000 people in the United States and close to 3 million around the world and led to significant cultural and economic turmoil. It also had a profound impact on the entertainment industry and the business of awards — changing the way films are distributed, hastening a move from theaters to streaming, and forcing awards groups to redefine what constitutes a motion picture...

Last week, Walt Disney Studios announced a flurry of release date changes for its upcoming film slate, kicking a number of premium titles down the road as Covid-19-stricken movie theaters slowly reopen.

Buried among seismic moves like Marvel’s “Black Widow” heading to theaters and Disney Plus on the same day was yet another push for the long-suffering murder mystery ensemble “Death on the Nile,” a Hercule Poirot adventure from director and star Kenneth Branagh.

The film, a sequel to “Murder on the Orient Express” and an orphan from Disney’s mega-acquisition of 20th Century Fox, was delayed yet again to Valentine’s Day 2022. The prominent thorn in the rosy picture is Armie Hammer, the disgraced leading man who has been dropped by numerous employers in the wake of a rape allegation and multiple claims of abusive behavior with extramarital partners. Hammer is now in the middle of a...

© Johan Persson

Focus Features has announced that it will release Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast on Friday, November 12, 2021 in theaters domestically.

Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Branagh, Belfast is a poignant story of love, laughter and loss in one boy’s childhood, amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s.

The cast stars Golden Globe nominee Caitriona Balfe, Academy Award® winner Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciaran Hinds, and introduces 10 year old Jude Hill. Dornan and Balfe play a passionate working-class couple caught up in the mayhem, with Dench and Hinds as sharp-witted grandparents.

The film is produced by Branagh, Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas.

Tenet © 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Branagh has previously worked with Christopher Nolan, playing the crucial role of Commander Bolton in the epic Dunkirk as well as 2020’s Tenet. Among his upcoming projects, Branagh will return to the role...

Kenneth Branagh will direct the Bee Gees biopic for Paramount Pictures, an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.

Ben Elton is writing the script for the film that is still untitled. It will follow the life and career of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb — following their first No. 1 hit “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” the band went on to write and perform hundreds of songs, and also worked on the soundtrack for 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever.

The Bee Gees were also the subject of HBO’s recent documentary titled “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” directed by Frank Marshall.

Barry Gibb is the only surviving member of the band — Maurice died in 2003 and Robin died in 2012.

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is producing alongside Graham King via Gk Films and the production company Sister. Barry Gibb will serve as executive producer.

Branagh most recently...

Kenneth Branagh has been tapped to direct the upcoming Bee Gees biopic for Paramount Pictures.

The movie will center on the life and times of the genre-spanning band, following the humble beginnings of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb into their journey to pop superstardom. Following their first No. 1 hit “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” the Bee Gees went on to write and perform hundreds of popular songs and worked on the soundtrack for the 1977 film “Saturday Night Fever.”

Ben Elton is writing the script for the still-untitled biopic.

The band was the subject of a recent HBO documentary titled “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” which was directed by Frank Marshall. Barry Gibb, the only surviving member of the band, was interviewed for the doc; Maurice died in 2003 and Robin in 2012.

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is producing the film with “Bohemian Rhapsody” producer Graham King...

Judi Dench opened up in a conversation benefiting the Vision Foundation about continuing her acting career while coping with deteriorating eyesight (via The Guardian). The Vision Foundation is a London sight loss charity. Joined by Stephen Fry and Hayley Mills, Dench told the audience she remains a working actress by relying on close friends to help her memorize new scripts through the repetition of reading them aloud to her.

“You find a way of just getting about and getting over the things that you find very difficult,” Dench said. “I’ve had to find another way of learning lines and things, which is having great friends of mine repeat them to me over and over and over again. So I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won’t notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless!”

Acting through eye sight loss has given...

Tom Cruise is set to resume shooting “Mission: Impossible 7” in the U.K., this time at Longcross Film Studios.

Longcross used to be a U.K. Ministry of Defence site used to test army tanks, but has since been redeveloped as studios, housing blockbuster productions including “Skyfall,” “Thor: The Dark World” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Recent productions hosted at Longcross include “The King’s Man,” “Artemis Fowl,” “The Gentlemen” and “Death on the Nile.”

Variety has confirmed that Tom Cruise is back in the U.K. after a Christmas break Stateside, with production shifting from Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden to Longcross. The latter studio, which is in Surrey in Southeast England, falls within Tier 4 (the highest level of restrictions), although productions are allowed to continue under strict Covid-19 protocols. The film is expected to complete principal photography at Longcross.

The actor returns to the U.K. as it once...

2020 was a disappointing year by pretty much every metric in existence – so why should the movies be an exception? Whether viewed in a theater or in the safety and comfort of home, here are 11 films that left me looking for the exits:

10. “Irresistible”: During his tenure at “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart spoke truth to power and keenly observed the hypocrisies and the contrivances of the American political system. As the writer-director of this supposed satire of electoral politics, he vacillates between the painfully obvious and the ludicrously improbable.

9. “Superintelligence”: A sentient AI program (voiced by the ubiquitous James Corden) seeks to wipe out humanity unless do-gooder Melissa McCarthy can convince him otherwise, in another disappointing collaboration between McCarthy and director Ben Falcone, her husband. (Falcone is an inspired comic performer but has yet to make a case for his career as a filmmaker.)

8. (tie) “Hubie Halloween” / “The Wrong Missy...

“Raya and the Last Dragon” will premiere on Disney Plus at the same time as it opens in theaters this spring.

The computer-animated fantasy film will be available to rent on Premier Access, which comes with a hefty nearly $30 rental fee. Only Disney Plus subscribers will be able to watch the film on the service. The announcement was made at Thursday’s investor presentation, in which the company revealed that it was planning 10 Marvel and 10 “Star Wars” series for the streaming service.

It also comes a week after Warner Bros. announced it would release its entire 2021 slate on HBO Max at the same time they open in theaters — a list of titles that includes “Dune,” “Matrix 4” and “The Many Saints of Newark.”

“Raya and the Last Dragon” will be released on March 5, 2021. The film features the voices of Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina. The story unfolds in the fantasy...

Exclusive: Production has wrapped in the UK on C.S. Lewis biopic The Most Reluctant Convert, directed by BAFTA-winner Norman Stone (Shadowlands).

Theater actor Max McLean stars in the indie film, which is an adaptation of his U.S. stage production of the same name.

Shot in and around Oxford, the film charts the spiritual journey of the renowned writer prior to the publication of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and before his marriage to Joy Davidman. The film reveals Lewis as an Oxford Professor in 1950 looking back to the period of his youth from 1908 to 1931 when he slowly and reluctantly changed his views from atheism to Christianity.

Nicholas Ralph (All Creatures Great and Small) plays the younger Lewis and newcomer Eddie Ray Martin plays the childhood Lewis. Tom Glenister plays Lewis’s friend and fellow Oxford professor J.R.R. Tolkien, while there are also supporting parts for David Shields and Owen Barfield.

Google has unveiled the top trending searches of 2020, continuing its annual reflection on some of the year’s most searchable moments – from Kobe Bryant’s death, to Parasite’s Oscar wins and the coronavirus pandemic.

An indicator of what were some of the burning topics in users’ minds, the annual Google roundup shows the top trending results for a number of categories including news, people, actors, movies and TV shows.

With the Covid-19 pandemic occurring during the 2020 presidential election, it should come as no surprise that terms including “Election results,” “Who is the winning the election” and “Coronavirus update,” “Coronavirus symptoms” topped the searches list. Zoom, Naya Rivera and Kobe Bryant also were among the top trending overall searches.

On the entertainment side Tom Hanks, Amber Heard, Lea Michele and Joaquin Phoenix were among the top trending actors for Google searches. Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, which took home historic wins back in February,...

In Hollywood these days, the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

Already, the coronavirus pandemic has been responsible for some shocking developments in the film world: “Tenet” keeping its release date, “Wonder Woman 1984” debuting on HBO Max and “Mulan” eschewing U.S. theaters for Disney Plus, to name just a few.

As the new year beckons, one thing is clear: Don’t expect the tumult to end in 2020.

Release date delays, or the prospect of sending studio movies to streaming services, might seem obvious or expected at this point in the pandemic. Yet traditional Hollywood players are still struggling to navigate a new movie distribution landscape, one with contours that are being charted, smudged out, and redrawn again on the fly.

Though most major movies have been shuffled to summer of 2021 or beyond, there are still some high-profile movies on deck for the first few months of the new year.

HBO is stepping into uncharted programming waters.

The premium cabler has made the decision to drop the final five episodes of its drama “Industry” all at once on HBO Max. From Friday, Nov. 27, viewers will be able to streaming the whole eight-episode first season, while the linear showings continue on a weekly basis.

Sources with knowledge of the decision say that all the episodes were already finished, so releasing them en masse over Thanksgiving weekend is a play at drawing more attention to the series. News of the mid-season episode drop comes right after the third episode’s airing, and also only five days after the revelation that “Wonder Woman 1984” is being released both in theaters and on HBO Max the same day, as WarnerMedia experiments with different ways to boost its fledgling streamer’s subscriber count.

“Industry” follows a group of young grads fueled by ambition, youth, romance and drugs,...

New Delhi, Nov 11 (Ians) Actor Josh Gad has no qualms in admitting he is very vulnerable, and says he is in touch with his insecurities.

"I hate to admit this, but I think I'm very vulnerable," Gad told Ians.

"I'm definitely somebody who is in touch with (his) insecurities and I have the financial bills from my therapists to prove it. I think there is an earnestness that clearly resonates with my characters because there's a part of me that is in touch with my emotions. I'm in touch with those things that make me vulnerable," he added.

On the work front, Gad will be seen in the upcoming sequel of the 1989 blockbuster "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids". Joe Johnston is returning to make the sequel titled "Shrunk" with Todd Rosenberg writing the script.

Gad, who has made a name in Hollywood as an actor, comedian and singer, says "Shrunk...

Mulan may have overcome some serious controversy to generate a huge amount of revenue and The Mandalorian has finally returned for season 2 much to the joy and excitement of subscribers around the world, but that’s still just papering over the cracks. Disney Plus has a phenomenally deep and diverse library of content, but one recurring and entirely valid criticism of the streaming service is that must-see original titles are very thin on the ground.

Artemis Fowl grabbed some headlines based entirely on how awful the literary adaptation was, while Mulan and Pixar’s Soul are only debuting as Disney Plus exclusives due to the Coronavirus pandemic, which forced the Mouse House to pull them from the theatrical schedule. And with the obvious exception of The Mandalorian, the platform doesn’t have any TV shows that generate the same sort of buzz as Netflix, Amazon or even HBO Max’s marquee titles,...