Latest Movie Features
Mark Hamill Talks ‘The Machine,’ His ‘Star Wars’ Future and Joining Mike Flanagan’s Repertory Company
Mark Hamill knows full well that he’s perceived as one of pop culture’s most heroic figures, so he welcomes any opportunity he can get to go against type. In the case of his latest film, The Machine, Hamill and stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer play father and son, and to put it mildly, they get caught […]
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‘The Little Mermaid’ Stars Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem Want an Ursula/Triton Spinoff
Melissa McCarthy was definitely on edge when she knew she’d be working with the actor behind Anton Chigurh, Bond villain Raoul Silva and many other intimidating characters, but Javier Bardem quickly disarmed her during their one day of shooting together on The Little Mermaid. McCarthy and Bardem play rival siblings Ursula and King Triton in […]
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The Widening Web of Phil Lord and Chris Miller
It’s 12:30 in the morning, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller are sure that something is wrong. They are just two and a half weeks out from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hitting theaters, and they’re holed up on a mixing stage at Sony Pictures Animation in Culver City. They are nearing the end of the […]
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‘The Little Mermaid’ Filmmakers Talk the Sea Creature Designs, Bypassing “Les Poissons” and Cutting Javier Bardem’s New Song
The Little Mermaid’s brain trust of director Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca decided early on that verisimilitude was the name of the game. They knew that their live-action reimagining of the 1989 animated classic couldn’t have it both ways, so they opted for photorealism at every turn instead of a hybrid of realistic and […]
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‘Sanctuary’ Star Christopher Abbott Talks His Dark Romcom and ‘Possessor’ Deleted Scenes
Christopher Abbott has quietly become one of the more respected actors on the indie-film scene, and his latest film, Sanctuary, is yet another example why. Written by Micah Bloomberg and directed by Zachary Wigon, Sanctuary certainly has the trappings of a contained psychological thriller, but it’s ultimately a twisted romcom about power dynamics, starring Abbott […]
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‘Succession’ Star Arian Moayed on His Busy Post-Stewy Future
“So you saw the heckler!” Arian Moayed says with a laugh while sitting in the Ambassador’s Lounge of the Hudson Theatre, where, two nights before, a woman interrupted a performance of the now-Tony-nominated A Doll’s House to tell the actor to take off his costume. “There’s a debate among the production about whether she was […]
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Cannes: Behind the Jennifer Lawrence-Produced Doc ‘Bread and Roses’ About Women in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan
In August 2021, the fall of Kabul was seen in news coverage taking place in real time, as the Taliban took hold of Afghanistan’s capital only a few days after the American armed forces pulled out of the country following a two-decade-long presence. After 20 years of hard-won gains, under Taliban rule, women in the […]
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‘Fast X’ Director Louis Leterrier Talks Those A-List Cameos and the Twisted Scene That Required Approval From the Top
[This story contains spoilers for Fast X.] Fast X director Louis Leterrier may have joined the Fast Saga in the most unusual of circumstances, but he’s made his presence felt in a big way. Leterrier, who film fans know most as the helmer behind The Incredible Hulk (2008) and the Transporter franchise, replaced Fast mainstay […]
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Ann-Margret on Elvis, Baked Beans, ‘Mad Men’ and Her ‘Flintstones’ Alter Ego
Before Rihanna, before Madonna, before even Cher, there was Ann-Margret. She was the original mononymous triple threat, hijacking pop culture from the moment she burst onto the scene in the early 1960s. Born Ann-Margret Olsson in Sweden in 1941, she immigrated to the U.S. with her parents in 1946. A screen test for 20th Century […]
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Legend of the Croisette: How Hirokazu Kore-eda Put a Fresh Spin on His Trademark Humanism for Competition Title ‘Monster’
Cannes Film Festival head honcho Thierry Frémaux often likes to speak of the “Cannes family,” meaning the extended stable of international auteurs whom the festival helped discover, nurtured and has made regulars on the famed red-carpet steps of the Palais des Festivals. Today’s standard-bearer for Japan’s great tradition of humanist filmmaking in Cannes is undoubtedly […]
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‘The Little Mermaid’ Stars Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King on Re-Creating Ariel’s Hair Flip, Singing Live and Prince Eric’s Dangerous Boots
The Little Mermaid’s Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King created a special bond while filming Rob Marshall’s live-action reimagining of Disney’s 1989 animated classic, and Hauer-King isn’t afraid to be a fanboy of his mega-talented co-star. The Atlanta and London natives play the roles of mermaid Princess Ariel and Prince Eric, respectively, which Jodi Benson and […]
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‘Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me’ Team on Why They Did the Doc Now and That Ending Twist
Over the last several years, the documentary space has increasingly explored a topic that director Ursula Macfarlane and producer Alexandra Lacey say it never would have even just 10 years ago: wronged women. “This film wouldn’t have been made in this way even five years ago — certainly, not 10 years ago,” doc director Ursula […]
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Africa (Finally) Has Its Cannes Moment
This could be the year African cinema conquers Cannes. The 76th festival has more Africa-set features in the official selection than ever, including two in competition — Four Daughters from Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania (The Man Who Sold His Skin) and Banel & Adama, the debut feature from Senegalese-French filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy. Then there’s […]
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It’s a Good Time to Be Fisher Stevens: “I Get to Kind of Do Everything at This Point in My Life”
Given his growing tendency to line up half of Hollywood to appear in his films, anyone cast in a Wes Anderson movie might worry just how much screen time they’ll end up getting. Not Fisher Stevens. After minor roles in The Grand Budapest Hotel (a concierge), Isle of Dogs (the voice of a mutt called Scrap) […]
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Cannes: China’s Animation Sector Is Drawing Up Plans to Conquer the Global Market
There were two bigger box office hits in China over the Lunar New Year, but the returns enjoyed by Boonie Bears: Guardian Code may, in hindsight, turn out to be the result that actually points to an emerging trend in Chinese cinema. The country’s animation industry is certainly hoping so. In collecting an estimated $136 […]
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Cannes: Cate Blanchett and Warwick Thornton on Tackling the Big Questions in ‘The New Boy’
The genesis of Warwick Thornton’s seventh narrative feature The New Boy stretches back to the beginning of the Australian’s fictional filmmaking career. Thornton drafted the first script of The New Boy — a story about innocence and survival, following a lone Indigenous boy who finds himself in a Christian monastery in 1940s Australia — 18 […]
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