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As you’ve likely heard by now, “The Mosquito Coast” is a family affair. The Apple TV+ drama stars Justin Theroux as the rakish patriarch Allie Fox, a character first created by Paul Theroux in his 1981 novel of the same name. Despite pronouncing their shared surname with altered inflections (Justin typically goes by “Tha-row,” while Paul insists it’s “Tha-roo”), the series’ executive producers are also nephew and uncle, coming together to retell a 40-year-old story for modern audiences. “Modern” is a two-sided coin for “The Mosquito Coast.” Plenty of factors separate the book (which was also turned into the 1986 film starring Harrison Ford) from the series, but perhaps most striking about the latest adaptation is how much DNA it shares...

In the last 404 years, “Romeo and Juliet” hasn’t become the world’s most famous piece of theater by staying static. A pair of productions from this past spring that prove not even four centuries’ worth of iterations have exhausted the possibilities. Simon Godwin, who worked alongside co-director and writer Emily Burns at the helm of the mid-lockdown film “Romeo & Juliet” starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley in the title roles, has long recognized not just the inherent advantages but the necessity of reshaping Shakespeare. “I find him to be a super empowering writer. We’ve both really broken free from a kind of reverence into an irreverence, which I think is more Shakespearean than than being loyal. In a way, you’re loyal by being...

Taika Waititi is expanding his duties on the upcoming HBO Max period series “Our Flag Means Death. In addition to directing the pilot and serving as executive producer, the Oscar winner will also star as the notorious pirate Blackbeard. “Our Blackbeard is a legend, a lover, a fighter, a tactical genius, a poetic soul, and quite possibly insane. Only one man could play this role, and that is the great Taika Waititi. We’re thrilled beyond measure he’s decided to don the beard,” showrunner David Jenkins said. Waititi is joining previously announced cast member Rhys Darby, who worked with director Waititi on the film version of “What We Do in the Shadows,” co-directed by Jemaine Clement. He also starred in the TV series “Flight of the...

April 28 was opening night of New York’s first in-person film festival in more than a year. The 50th edition of New Directors/New Films opened with a screening of “El Planeta,” the black-and-white debut feature of Argentinian filmmaker Amalia Ulman, who also stars as a wayward fashion designer at the mercy of her mother. Introducing the film, Ulman joked that she was less nervous now that she had a little bit to drink. “I’m very happy you’re all here,” she said . “Today was my first time going back to the theater after a year. I love going to the movies here in New York.” That sentiment pervaded the sold-out audience at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade theater, but it also meant the 268-seat screening room could only accommodate 50...

Elliot Page joined Oprah for his first sit-down television interview since coming out as transgender in December 2020. The emotional interview includes several revelations from Page about how the pressure to fit the expectations of the female gender in Hollywood took its toll on his mental health. During the exhaustive international press tour for Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” Page suffered a panic attack and collapsed at the after party. “There was so much press and so many premieres all around the world and I was wearing dresses and heels to pretty much every single event,” Page said, noting one bad panic attack occurred in Paris on the “Inception” press tour after her manager offered him three dresses to wear to a screening (via...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Yasuke”] “Yasuke” is purportedly a show about history’s first Black samurai. When the Netflix adult animated series sticks to that idea, it’s pretty good. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for the six-episode series to lose sight of its compelling protagonist in favor of increasingly outlandish fantasy elements. The series, which hails from animation veteran LeSean Thomas (whose credits range from “The Legend of Korra” and “Black Dynamite” to “The Boondocks”) is very loosely based on Yasuke, who served Oda Nobunaga, the “Great Unifier” of Japan, as a samurai in the 16th century. “Yasuke” begins near the end of the real samurai’s recorded history: Records state that Yasuke...

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. Digital filmmaking was mostly resigned to DSLR, until RED digital came into the picture. The camera company quickly became a favorite among directors and cinematographers, including Steven Soderbergh, one of the earliest to use a RED camera when he shot both installments of “Che” in 2008. Given the hefty price tag, RED cameras are too pricey to buy for some indie filmmakers — other than the RED Komodo, which are geared for indie productions, most indie filmmakers would rent these...

Amazon surpassed Wall Street’s expectations in its Q1 2021 earnings report, which included a rare spotlight on the company’s film and television assets. The ecommerce company, which owns Amazon Prime Video, typically does not emphasize its streaming portfolio or Amazon Studio’s work during its quarterly earnings report. That wasn’t the case during the company’s Thursday presentation, where Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is expected to step down as CEO in Q3, praised Prime Video’s viewership successes during the last year. “As Prime Video turns 10, over 175 million Prime members have streamed shows and movies in the past year, and streaming hours are up more than 70 percent year over year,” Bezos said in the company’s Q1 earnings press...

The video above was produced by IndieWire’s Creative Producer Leonardo Adrian Garcia. Making good TV is hard. This isn’t (or shouldn’t be) some mind-blowing revelation, but it’s a truth that appears to be taken for granted more and more these days. Take Marvel’s two major players in the streaming game this year: “WandaVision” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” The latter released its sixth and final episode last Friday to a lackluster response that left many fans channeling Peggy Lee and wondering, “Is that all there is?” Part of the problem that Marvel keeps running into is that it doesn’t seem to realize TV shows still need to go somewhere. Great television picks the viewer up in one location and transports them to another...

The Tribeca Festival is bringing back in-person events for its 2021 lineup, and that includes programming typically seen at home. The Tribeca TV lineup will feature nine shows total, consisting of eight series premieres and a season premiere, as well as panel appearances by featured guests Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Joshua Jackson, Helen Hunt, and more. Oh, and to kick things off, KISS will be performing. Yes, KISS the band. At a film and television festival. Just go with it. “When we launched Tribeca TV five years ago, we created space within the film festival to recognize the incredible, boundary-pushing work being done by filmmakers in the episodic format as official festival selections,” Cara Cusumano, Festival Director and VP of...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Shadow and Bone.”] There’s no rulebook for fitting two books’ worth of story into eight episodes of TV. It would be a hard enough undertaking if that source material was set in a single location or one that didn’t have a gargantuan, seemingly endless magical void stretching across the horizon. The Fold was just one hurdle in bringing “Shadow and Bone” to television. Aside from representing in visual form some of the otherworldly fantasy elements in Leigh Bardugo’s book universe, showrunner Eric Heisserer wanted to figure out a way to situate non-readers in this world as well. To start, he looked to a much different genre inspiration when working on the script for the opening...

In a lengthy interview with Yahoo Entertainment, “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin criticizes HBO for ignoring his series in the decade since the comedy signed off the network. “I resent it tremendously,” Ellin said, adding that HBO giving “Entourage” the cold shoulder in recent years is due to the same “wave of righteous PC culture” that has created backlash around the series. “Entourage” is often criticized for its misogynistic depiction of women and accused of glorifying toxic Hollywood culture, among other grievances. Ellin said the show was merely depicting Hollywood at the time and would be updated with the times if HBO rebooted the property. “I don’t think ‘Entourage’ was this vulgar boy-fest that people like to paint it as now,”...

Yes, the 93rd Academy Awards broadcast hit an all-time ratings low, but it’s not all bad news for movies’ biggest night. First, the cold, hard numbers: Per preliminary data from the Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings system, this year’s Oscars telecast drew 9.85 million total viewers and a 1.9 rating among the key demographic of adults 18-49. That’s a drop-off of 58.3 percent from the 2020 telecast, which pulled in 23.64 million viewers and landed a 5.3 rating. These ratings mark all-time lows for the Oscars, following last year’s all-time lows. However, the Academy Awards are not alone. Live TV viewership has been on a steady decline for some time now. Awards shows overall have struggled to maintain viewership, as fans choose to engage...