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An entertainment news feed.
There’s a streamer that’s adored by diplomats and by Mormons, by doctors at the Mayo Clinic and by rabid cinephiles. The brand has continually operated under its founder for more than 30 years, and the odds are excellent that you have never, ever heard of it. One reason you’ve probably never heard of MHz Choice is — with apologies to its founder and operator, Frederick Thomas — its terrible name. He said he chose to call it MHz because it derives from megahertz, or one million hertz, a measure of radio transmission frequencies or a computer’s clock speed. Neither of these things seem to address the MHz mission, which is to stream TV shows and films from 30 international countries. (Thomas knows the name is “confusing,” he told...
Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott will find love in a Bronx bar with an upcoming Off-Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.” The “White Lotus” Emmy nominee and “Poor Things” actor, respectively, will star in the revival of the 1984 play, set for the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village this fall. “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” will start previews on Monday, October 20 with an opening night set for Monday, November 13. Actor Jeff Ward will make his stage directing debut with the production, while Plaza will make her own stage acting debut as well. Many know John Patrick Shanley for his Oscar-winning original screenplay for “Moonstruck,” but he also won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony for Best...
The Safdies may be (temporarily) breaking up as directors, but the brothers are still a showbiz team. Josh and Benny Safdie have executive produced a new documentary limited series “Telemarketers” for HBO, it was announced Wednesday. The channel has set an August 13 premiere date for the series, in addition to releasing the official trailer. “Telemarketers” focuses on two former telemarketing employees Pat Pespas and Sam Lipman-Stern, the latter of whom is credited as co-director of the series with Adam Bhala Lough. The series chronicles, with the assistance of footage shot by Limpman-Stern, the duo’s time working in the telemarketing industry during the early 2000s, when Limpman-Stern was a 14 year-old high school dropout and Pespas...
The next film from “Promising Young Woman” director Emerald Fennell will open in theaters late this November, Amazon Studios and MGM announced Tuesday. The film starring Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi will open in limited release on November 24 followed by an expansion theatrically on December 1 as distributed by MGM. We also got a first plot description for the film, which is described as “a wicked tale of privilege and desire” and is categorized as a drama, comedy, suspense, and arthouse project. Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s...
Since the SAG-AFTRA strike began earlier this month, the focus has largely been on how actors have taken to the picket line. But SAG-AFTRA is also the union for thousands of stunt workers, and on Monday, they held a rally of their own to show support to the union. Per Atlanta News First, the rally took place Monday afternoon in Fayetteville, Georgia, with members of the state’s stunt community coming to protest for wage increases, residual payments, and protections against artificial intelligence. “We should share in the successes of our employer when their product goes and they make billions with a ‘B.’ Billions of dollars on the backs of the people who do the work,” SAG-AFTRA local president Eric Goins told Atlanta News First...
At a time when the star system has started to fade and movie studios are blandly reasserting themselves as the true auteurs of Hollywood cinema, a soft-spoken British director with a flair for puzzles and a fiendish penchant for scarves has somehow become one of the most famous pop artists on the planet. In less than two decades, Christopher Nolan has gone from an anonymous micro-budget filmmaker to a genuine household name, a figure whose cultural cachet now rivals that of Quentin Tarantino or Steven Spielberg. This, despite the fact that most people probably couldn’t pick Nolan out of a line-up. He’s a bonafide brand despite not being much of a personality; his films do all the talking for him, “Inception” going so far as to become...
We all know one of the biggest issues both of the striking guilds, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, have with AMPTP’s offer for a new contract is a lack of protection against and regulation of AI. But now it seems the studios are doubling down on their investment in AI. The Intercept has reported that Netflix has posted a new Product Manager role for their AI Machine Learning Program — and it pays a whopping $900K. According to the job description, the Product Manager position will focus on “increasing the leverage of our Machine Learning Platform.” The MLP is Netflix’s in-house AI program, which has traditionally been used to power the algorithmic recommendations of the company’s streaming service. According to a Netflix’s research page, the...
We will update this article throughout the season, along with all our predictions, so make sure to keep checking IndieWire for the latest news from the 2023 Emmys race. The nomination round of voting takes place from June 15 to June 26, with the official Emmy nominations announced Wednesday, July 12. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be presented over two consecutive nights on Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, September 10, with an edited presentation of the ceremonies to be broadcast on FXX at a later date. Finally, the 75th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards take place on Monday, September 18, and air live on FOX at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT. See our previous thoughts on what to expect at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards here. The State...
The Venice Film Festival sails on in Italy — even with much of Hollywood at a standstill. The annual cinema celebration hosted by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera runs from August 30 through September 9. Despite already having lost Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” from its opening night slot due to its SAG-AFTRA talent including star Zendaya being unable to accompany the world premiere due to strike work stoppage orders, Venice has plenty of movie goodness in store for its 80th edition. (Remember, too, Venice’s resilience: It was the only major festival to host a fully in-person event in pandemic 2020 even after Italy had been hit hard by Covid.) Competition highlights include Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sofia...
The SAG-AFTRA strike has studios questioning release schedules, film festivals wondering who will show up, and indie filmmakers interrogating their own projects to understand what’s possible and what’s out of reach. For some, it means opportunity while others need to make tough choices. Actor and producer Victoria Vertuga’s indie horror feature, “Cold Blows the Wind,” was accepted at the Days of the Dead Film Festival, which runs in Los Angeles August 25-27. When SAG called the strike, she sought clarity about what she could and couldn’t do for her film. Just as other indie filmmakers can sign interim agreements to continue production on independent films with no ties to AMPTP members, she obtained her own interim agreement that...
With a troubled history and soft box office, DC Comics’ “The Flash” ($19.99) on PVOD gives Warner Bros. its second #1 film right now. As “Barbie” comes off a $162 million domestic opening in theaters, “The Flash” takes the top spot at all three VOD charts this week, just over a month after debuting in theaters. Never mind that “Barbie” made more in its opening weekend than “The Flash” did in its under-$110 million domestic run, on a movie with twice the production cost. In an even quicker turnaround, “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” ($19.99), consistent with Universal’s home release strategy after three weekends in theaters, also made all three lists after the animated feature grossed $15 million. Vudu, with a revenue-based chart that...
Tony Bennett accepted the boundaries of his universe. In the last few decades of his life, the period of his greatest success, he never tried to do a Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash-style album of recent pop and rock hits tweaked to suit his voice. Instead, he transported the contemporary artists he worked with — Lady Gaga especially — to his preferred musical arena: the Great American Songbook classics of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, and so many more. Without seeing the cover, you’d never even know his “MTV Unplugged” album was an “MTV Unplugged” album just by listening to it. His last studio album, “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” speaks to his appreciation of the craft of...
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.) grossed $155 million domestic and $182 million foreign. “Oppenheimer” (Universal) grossed $80.5 million domestic and $93.7 million foreign. Two non-franchise films, released on the same weekend, from two proven directors allowed their voices loud and clear despite $100 million+ budgets. That’s mega. We all know that prefix — it’s Greek for “millions” — but the rise of atomic bomb testing in the 1950s introduced “mega” into daily use. It referred to the power of TNT expressed as megatons, or a million tons of TNT. It also implied massive impact or damage — and that’s acutely true here. “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” have damaged the studio truisms that surround moviemaking. The franchises, the familiar execution...
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