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With the on-going global pandemic continuing to wreak havoc on nearly every facet of daily life, Hollywood’s top directors are hoping to get some help for movie theaters. With theaters suffering around the world, many closed for going on a year, it’s hoped that the names behind the biggest blockbusters can add some influence and gain them support. More than 40 directors and Hollywood personalities, including Christopher Nolan, Steve McQueen, and Ridley Scott have signed their names to a...

After the release of “Wonder Woman 1984” to HBO Max and theaters, actress Gal Gadot isn’t slowing down for a minute. She’s already announced her next project, which itself has found a home on competing streaming service Netflix. Not much is known about the film, outside of Gadot’s being the lead and that “Heart of Stone” is some type of espionage thriller. It’ll be helmed by Tom Harper, who directed Felicity Jones in the hot air balloon adventure, “The Aernoauts,” as well as Jessie Buckley...

Ethan Hawke is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the villain in the upcoming “Moon Knight” television series on Disney+, THR reports. The casting choice will make “Moon Knight” hard to resist for indie movie lovers, as the MCU series pits Hawke against Oscar Isaac, who is starring in the title role. “Ramy” breakout May Calamawy is also set to star in “Moon Knight,” which is being directed by Mohamed Diab and “The Endless” and “Synchronic” filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead...

Christopher Nolan filmed a portion of his espionage epic “Tenet” in Mumbai, India, and loved it so much that he’s already thinking of ways to incorporate a return to the country in whatever projects will follow in the future. Speaking to India’s IANS news agency, Nolan said it was inspiring to meet filmmakers in Mumbai during his extended stay filming “Tenet.” The India-set portions of “Tenet” featured Dimple Kapadia, one of the country’s well-known actresses. “I never make plans so far...

Ever since she brought Edward Snowden’s story to the masses with the Oscar-winning “Citizenfour,” Laura Poitras has built a career out of chasing the truth, even at the expense of her own safety. Last fall, it came at the expense of her job. In an open letter published Thursday, the documentary filmmaker said she was fired from First Look Media, the nonprofit investigative journalism entity that owns Field of Vision, the documentary production company where she did much of her work. Poitras...

Field of Vision’s IF/Then Shorts initiative has launched a new partnership with Hulu that will provide $100,000 in grants to short documentary filmmakers, plus support in the form of a one-year lab focused on production and career training. Applications open today for the program, which will support up to four filmmaking teams with projects in development with $25,000 in funding. IF/Then was founded in 2017 as part of the Tribeca Film Institute. After TFI closed last year, the program joined...

All products and services featured by IndieWire are independently selected by IndieWire editors. However, IndieWire may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. There are plenty of juicy biographies and autobiographies about Hollywood’s biggest personalities in front of the camera, but just as dramatic — and sometimes even more so — are the ones that focus on the figures behind the scenes...

First Look Media co-founder Laura Poitras published an open letter Thursday, writing that she’s been fired from First Look, the nonprofit that owns investigative journalism outlet The Intercept and the documentary studio Field of Vision. Poitras said the firing, which happened back in November, came after she publicly criticized The Intercept’s handling of whistleblower Reality Winner. She says the organization is betraying its founding mission to serve as a public watchdog anchored in deep...

Gone this award season, along with many other live events, is the annual Governors Awards, scuttled by the pandemic. Instead, the Academy Board of Governors has voted to present two Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards for the first time, not only to filmmaker Tyler Perry, but also to the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF). The Oscar statuettes will be presented at the two-month-delayed 93rd Oscars which airs live on ABC and to broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, April 25, 2021. “There...

A24 is producing a documentary about the transition of power in the American government from directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix, IndieWire has learned. The Oscar-winning filmmakers were in Washington, D.C. filming as a violent insurrection swept through the Capitol last week. The film — focused on the big picture of transitions of power rather than just this most unusual one — has long been in the works. But the filmmaking team happened to be in Washington last week and were able to capture...

Daisy Ridley and Jennifer Hudson’s avatars stood on stage before a captive audience. “I’ve been holed up for a year, so this is like the first party I’ve been to and it’s just great,” said Ridley, as her animated self smiled and looked out at the room. “I’m in awe,” Hudson added. In reality, they were hidden behind headsets with Ridley located outside London and Hudson in Chicago. In the VR crowd milling about before the conversation began, an attendee snarked, “You’ve got wonder how many...

Duncan Jones is no stranger to adapting video games for the big screen, as the co-writer of Universal Pictures’ 2016 “Warcraft” adaptation, which he also directed. That film was an infamous critical flop, but it hasn’t deterred Jones from giving other video games the movie treatment. Case in point: A 92-page script adaptation of the 1995 video game “Full Throttle” written in quarantine during a bit of writer’s block. Jones self-published the script for free on Dropbox. “I enjoy writing. I...

The Gotham Awards have long functioned as a bare-bones fundraiser (for the freshly rebranded Gotham Film & Media Institute) followed by a vibrant afterparty, but Monday night’s live Facebook event was especially scruffy. Live winners didn’t know what was going on as they and their fellow nominees stared into the void. The show isn’t watched by many, but the winners do contribute momentum that steers various voting groups toward which movies matter most. This year, voters need all the help...