That Netflix strategy to conquer the movie world may need to be rethought. Apparently, buying up every movie in sight and then just dumping it on your cloud to no advertising fanfare isn't an air tight business model, nor is forking over nearly $100 million with no broader release strategy to earn your money back. (David [...]
Finally: DC actually follows through on a no-brainer. Joss Whedon, creator of TV's snarky female action hero series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is set to write, produce, and direct DC's standalone Batgirl movie. You read that right: complete creative control (or at least as close as one gets to that in these cinematic universes). After having been burned, [...]
UPDATE: The Post will now not only be the next film for all three, but prep is rushing for a May shoot start, and a theatrical release later this year just in time for the 2017 Awards Season race. (Read more updates in the last three paragraphs.) Finally - Meryl Streep is going to be in a Steven Spielberg movie. Adding [...]
Busted. In an exclusive pictorial essay, with timecodes, Variety shows the backstage photos that captured the subtle mistakes which led to the biggest Oscar blunder in the nearly 90-year history of the Academy Awards. To literally see the sequence of events, click here. PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan were the only two people at the event in charge of envelopes and protocol (as is per usual), [...]
Barry Jenkins wasn't able to say what he'd hoped to, but who can blame him? The producer/writer/director of surprise Best Picture winner Moonlight was understandably flummoxed in the whirlwind of the biggest Oscars gaff ever. Everyone was in a state of shock following the envelope mishap that led to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway erroneously naming La La Land as [...]
A La La Land slide turned into a Moonlight blindside. In what was the most bizarre ending in Oscar history (or possibly the most bizarre Oscar moment, period), and right up there with any live event ever, Moonlight was named Best Picture of 2016 at the 89th Annual Academy Awards after La La Land had already been announced as the [...]
A big budget Martin Scorsese crime epic is being day-and-dated to stream online, with limited theatrical play - starring Robert De Niro in a long-overdue 9th collaboration, no less. And a part of me just died inside. Paramount Pictures is screwing up a lot of things lately, and Netflix is having a dubious track record as savior. [...]
Something old, something new. Couldn't ask for a better two. Director Jon Favreau, who's conjuring his live action Jungle Book magic for the world of The Lion King, announced via Twitter the actors he's cast in the roles of Mufasa and Simba: James Earl Jones and Donald Glover Jones, of course, played the role of Mufasa in Disney's original animated version, while Glover is the hottest [...]
America's perennial Sweetheart may have an inspiring tear-jerker that's perfectly suited for her, and a wide audience, just in time for the holidays. Julia Roberts' new movie Wonder was originally slated to open this spring on April 7. But the adaptation - which received high scores after test screenings - is now being positioned to drop right before Thanksgiving. Based [...]
Holy blindsides, Batman. After news that pre-production had fallen behind, and reports of displeasure by both Affleck and executives with the current state of the script, Ben Affleck has announced that he will no longer direct The Batman. He remains onboard, however, as both star and producer. "It has become clear that I cannot do both jobs to the [...]
I Can't Unsee That Movie: film news and reviews by Jeff Huston 