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The Orson Welles estate objects to AI startup Fable Studio’s plans to “reconstruct” lost footage of the director’s 1942 feature “The Magnificent Ambersons,” which had 43 minutes cut from its released edition.

Edward Saatchi, the CEO of the Amazon-backed company, appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday morning to announce his company’s AI platform Showrunner will generate footage that recreate sequences removed from what he deemed Welles’ “ruined masterpiece,” saying that AI technology will bring it “back to life.”

In a statement to Variety, David Reeder of Reeder Brand Management, who handles the estate for Beatrice Welles, said that he was not informed of Fable’s plans to tackle “Magnificent Ambersons.” The estate also noted that it maintains approval of AI technology in its efforts to license a voice model of Welles for commercial enterprises.

“We saw the various articles on ‘Ambersons’ today. In general, the estate has...

Orson Welles is one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. After directing several high-profile stage productions and hosting his radio anthology series, Welles' first film was Citizen Kane (1941) – which he co-wrote, directed, and starred as the titular character Charles Foster Kane – and is now widely regarded as one of the best movies of all time.

Throughout his career, Welles directed twelve additional feature films, including highly celebrated works such as The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Othello (1951), Touch of Evil (1958), The Trial (1962), and Chimes at Midnight (1966). Despite his towering achievements and influence, Welles was an outsider to Hollywood's studio system at the time, and often found himself fighting with studios for creative control.

Edward Saatchi, CEO of Amazon-backed startup Fable, sees AI as “possibly the end of human creativity,” at least as an exclusive phenomenon. And no, he doesn’t believe that’s a bad thing.

The exec made the provocative comments on CNBC on Friday in an interview on Squawk Box (watch the full segment above). The appearance was timed to the news that Fable’s interactive platform Showrunner has embarked on a “non-commercial, academic” initiative to rescue lost footage from 1942 Orson Welles film The Magnificent Ambersons.

“What’s coming is a world where we’re not the only creative species,” Saatchi said, “and that we will enjoy entertainment created by AIs. So, we wanted to train our AI on the greatest storyteller of the past 200 years, Orson Welles.”

Following close on the heels of Welles’ towering achievement, Citizen Kane, Ambersons was released by Warner Bros. in 1942 in a slimmed down version,...

The lost 43 minutes of Orson Welles‘ “The Magnificent Ambersons” is the holy grail of cinema. The legend goes that after a bad test screening, Rko tacked on a happy ending and chopped the film from 131 minutes to 88. The missing minutes were melted for their silver nitrate, but cinephiles have spent years seeking a print that retained the the footage; TCM even sponsored a trip to Brazil in pursuit of a complete print.

Like other efforts, Brazil didn’t pan out. Welles believed that the studio butchered a movie that would be seen as greater than his debut, “Citizen Kane,” but would he have used generative AI if it offered the possibility of recreating what he lost?

Showrunner, which bills itself as the “Netflix of AI,” is either betting Welles would. It is using “The Magnificent Ambersons” to develop its latest model, Film-1, which Showrunner hopes will let people generate lifelike short films.

Since the rise of generative artificial intelligence in 2022, the technology has mostly been plugged into parts of the production pipeline as far as its deployment in Hollywood. Think visual effects, dubbing and storyboarding. As it stands, it’s mostly thought of as a tool to streamline certain processes and cut costs.

But others have their sights set on completely overhauling the entertainment industry’s use of AI. At the forefront: Showrunner, which plans to reconstruct the destroyed 43 minutes of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons.

Amazon-backed Showrunnner announced on Friday a new AI model designed to generate long, complex narratives — ultimately building toward feature film length, live action films — for its platform completely dedicated to AI content that allows users to create their own episodes of TV shows with a prompt of just a couple of words. Over the next two years, it’ll be utilized to re-create Welles’ follow-up to Citizen Kane,...

Michael Mann, the acclaimed filmmaker behind movies like Heat and Collateral, once shared his picks for the greatest films of all time in Sight and Sound’s latest poll.

His selections reflect a mix of classic and modern cinema, highlighting both American and international masterpieces.

Topping Mann’s list is Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 epic Apocalypse Now. Mann describes it as “a dark, high-voltage identity quest, journeying into over-load, wilderness and nihilism in an operatic and concrete narrative. A masterpiece.” The film, which adapts Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War, is widely praised for its stunning cinematography, intense performances, and hallucinatory depiction of war’s chaos.

Nicolas Cage has opened up about the five films that shaped his approach to acting and left a lasting impact on him as a performer.

Speaking with Rotten Tomatoes, Cage shared the titles that inspired him and explained why they hold such significance in his career and understanding of cinema.

At the top of his list is Elia Kazan’s 1955 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, starring James Dean. Cage describes Dean’s performance as transformative: “I was 15, and I’d seen Bergman’s Seventh Seal and Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits and Welles’ Citizen Kane — great films. But when I saw Dean in that, it really...

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For Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg's 40th birthday, his then-wife and friends got together to make a short film for him called "Citizen Steve," a parody of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" that gave actors Dan Aykroyd and John Candy the opportunity to play fictional reporters trying to get to the bottom of Spielberg's story. 

The short also served as a platform for Spielberg's family and friends to reminisce about amusing interactions they'd had with the young cinephile. Childhood pals remembered Spielberg's room being cluttered and dirty, with an ever-present parakeet and bird crap above the curtains. His neighbor's parents...

The movies of Paolo Sorrentino, like “The Great Beauty” and “The Hand of God,” have always been bursting with color and movement and emotional energy, with torn-up romantic and family passion, all rooted in a baroque flamboyance that can be compelling but also messy and overstated — which is why I blow hot and cold on him, and am usually in the middle. The most recent Sorrentino film, “Parthenope,” was, I thought, a disaster of florid loose ends that never came together.

But in “La Grazia,” the new Sorrentino movie that opened the Venice Film Festival tonight, this director who has long suggested (at least to me) a kind of made-for-tv version of Fellini in the ’70s pulls himself together in a surprising and ironically fastidious way.

The film’s central character is the president of Italy, Mariano De Santis — a fictional character played, in a performance of meticulous and weirdly domineering passivity,...

There’s no such thing as a typical Gus Van Sant film.

With the possible exception of Steven Soderbergh, no American filmmaker working today has had a career marked by such radical shifts in style, budget and artistic ambition as the 73-year-old director from Louisville, Kentucky. From edgy indies to blockbuster crowd-pleasers, prestige Oscar bait to experimental movies, Van Sant has spent the past 40 years delighting, surprising and confounding his audience.

His early films — the “Portland trilogy” of 1988’s Mala Noche, 1989’s Drugstore Cowboy and 1991’s My Own Private Idaho — were gritty, realist dramas about outsiders: migrant workers, nomadic drug addicts and gay hustlers. The mid-’90s saw Van Sant pivot to more studio-friendly fare: the glossy camp of the 1995 dark satire To Die For, featuring Nicole Kidman in a career-making wig, and 1997’s Good Will Hunting, a $225 million global hit that introduced the world to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

When a young and very broke Sylvester Stallone wrote "Rocky," managed to get it financed, then somehow convinced the studio to let him star in it (Sly almost lost the lead role to a "Gunsmoke" actor), he achieved something that feels like it would be almost impossible today. In the streaming age, in which we teeter on the verge of an AI-driven garbage future, the incredible underdog story that is Stallone's own rise to fame seems like it belongs to a bygone era.

That underdog story mirrored Rocky Balboa's own path to glory. Sly was living in New York and had struggled to maintain any sort of career...

Next week, the Sphere in Las Vegas promises to whisk viewers into the world of the MGM Technicolor classic The Wizard of Oz in a way theatergoers have never experienced before. Following in the footsteps of other special presentations, the film has been digitally enhanced and expanded to fit the experimental entertainment center's 160,000-square-foot screen. Not only that, but the venue will employ everything from pyrotechnics to haptic seats and other environmental effects to simulate every step of Dorothy's adventure with her friends. However, the screening hasn't been able to escape controversy since the finer details were announced. The team behind it has been unafraid to alter the original film,...

“The Wizard of Oz” was released over 85 years ago, but the timeless classic remains one of the most influential films ever.

From Judy Garland as Dorothy to her performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the film has remained a go-to for generations. Visually, there’s the beautiful shift from black and white to technicolor, which has viewers enthralled to this day. Film critic Leonard Maltin described why the film has and continues to draw in audiences. “You have to know you’re facing utter perfection.”

But that wasn’t always the case.

Maltin told the crowd, upon its release in 1939, the film was a flop. “It was a very expensive movie to make and it shows. It was very difficult to make their investment back. And it only turned a profit through re-reissuing to theaters and then ultimately being sold to television, which is where it took root in our popular culture.

Amy Irving knows how to give a great gift.

The "Carrie" and "Yentl" actress and singer, who was married to director Steven Spielberg from 1985-1989, called in a few favors when Spielberg's 40th birthday rolled around in late 1986 and commissioned a short documentary to be made for him, which turned out to be a cross between a parody of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" and a "This is Your Life"-style walk down memory lane. Dan Aykroyd and John Candy effectively recreate the opening of "Citizen Kane," with Aykroyd narrating a newsreel about Spielberg's 40th birthday before he takes the role of a fast-talking editor, barking orders to Candy, who's playing a reporter trying to get to the bottom of who the real Spielberg is and why he makes the decisions he does. 

There are interviews with Spielberg's real family and childhood friends, reminiscing and sharing fond memories of interacting...

Gary Oldman is in a good place.

For an actor whose early career was defined by volatility — on- and offscreen — that’s no small feat. Born in 1958 in working-class New Cross, South London, Oldman came up through British theater before breaking out in the 1980s with fearless portrayals of damaged men: punk icon Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986) and murdered playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987).

By the mid-’90s, his talent for feral, unhinged roles — in Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, True Romance — had made him Hollywood’s go-to psycho. On Air Force One, Harrison Ford dubbed him “Scary Gary.”

But typecasting persisted. “I put myself out of work,” Oldman says of his decision to break free from his “rent-a-villain” persona.

The gamble worked. A late-career reinvention brought gravitas and restraint: Sirius Black in Harry Potter, police commissioner Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

This piece was originally published in Issue 7 of Notebook magazine as part of a broader exploration of the unfilmable. The magazine is available via direct subscription or in select stores around the world.Back in 1964, British director and producer Michael Apted interviewed a group of seven-year-olds from different social and economic backgrounds. The resulting program, titled Seven Up!, was aired on May 5 of that year by itv (Granada Television). Seven years later, Apted reached out to his subjects for a second interview, 7 Plus Seven, also broadcast by itv. Despite its origin on television, some episodes were theatrically released in the United States and elsewhere, speaking to the cinematic quality of the project. He repeated the process seven more times. The last installment in the series was 63 Up (2019); the next one would have been scheduled for 2026, but Apted died five years before then, in 2021. Both praised by critics and reviled as folk psychology,...

Laura Mulvey, the film theorist and filmmaker best known for her seminal essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, will be awarded a BFI Fellowship.

Mulvey will be handed the award at BFI Southbank on 4 November. She will also take part in an In Conversation event. At the same time, BFI Southbank will also mount a rep season of her work titled Laura Mulvey: Thinking Through Film. It will run at BFI Southbank throughout November and December.

Mulvey is currently Honorary Professor of Film at the University of St Andrews and Emerita Professor of Film and Media Studies and Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. She was the founding Director of Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (Bimi) from 2012 to 2015. She previously taught at the University of East Anglia and the BFI. In the 1990s, Mulvey was the Course Director of the transformational BFI Ma partnership with Birkbeck College.

She...

When you've worked as a film journalist for 25 years, you get used to people asking you to name the greatest movie all time. I always inform the inquirer that my default answer is Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff." A masterpiece that pretty much destroyed The Ladd Company, it's a soaring, hilarious, uplifting film that celebrates the best parts of the U.S.' cowboy mentality. It's also a brilliant combination of formats, a masterclass in the use of optical visual effects, and the shortest 192 minutes you'll ever spend watching a movie. Once I get this out of the way, I'll add, "But it depends on the day. Catch me walking out of a screening of Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing,' or Ernst Lubitsch's 'To Be or Not to Be,' and that might be my answer."

Sometimes,...

When you hear the words “iconic movie,” the usual suspects tend come to mind: “Citizen Kane,” “Raging Bull,” “The Godfather: Part II.” And now, “Freakier Friday.”

This is not an exaggeration: Kate Erbland’s IndieWire review even gave a nod to the enduring fandom of the beloved original 2003 film “Freaky Friday,” with Erbland writing, “If you’re of the mind that Jamie Lee Curtis should have won her first Oscar for her work in Mark Waters’ film. … ‘Freakier Friday’ is very much for you. Simply put: Here is a legacyquel worth the wait. What a concept!”

And what a concept indeed. How does anyone revisit an iconic classic film — and even arguably make it even better? In-demand screenwriter Jordan Weiss knew exactly how, and even helped land a theatrical release for the sequel that was long rumored to be for streaming only. (A representative for Disney did not confirm or...

On Thursday August 7 2025, Vice broadcasts Wow – Women Of Wrestling!

All-American Return Season 5 Episode 47 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Wow – Women Of Wrestling,” titled “All-American Return,” promises to be an exciting event for fans. This episode marks the return of Americana, who has been away for some time to focus on her son. Her comeback is highly anticipated, and the energy surrounding her return is palpable.

In this episode, Santana Garrett, who was once Americana’s partner in the “All American Girls” Tag Team, is set to support her friend in this important moment. Santana will take on Scout Parker in a match that is sure to showcase the skills and determination of both wrestlers. The friendship and history between Americana and Santana add an emotional layer to the storyline, making it more compelling.

Additionally, the episode features a long-awaited confrontation between Fury and Xena Phoenix. These two powerful wrestlers...

1963's Cleopatrawill forever be one of Hollywood's most famous disasters. However, one person bore the brunt of its failure, and it wasn't star Elizabeth Taylor. Collider's Michael Zimmermann talked to a man who is eminently qualified to talk about the film: Ben Mankiewicz, who is not only one of the world's most prominent film historians, but is also the great-nephew of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the film's director, who he argues suffered the most for the film's infamy. Says Mankiewicz, when talking about whether there is a "villain" responsible for Cleopatra's cost overruns:

"Elizabeth's certainly not the villain. I mean, she is very much the heroine who's blamed too much, and I think sort of becomes a fairly empathetic figure if it definitely caused some of her own problems, as Joe pointed out. But, you know, she came out, she didn't suffer as Cleopatra. Richard Burton didn't suffer because of...

A body-swap comedy, when it’s really cooking, is built on a device that won’t quit. An actor, generally an adult, pretends to be inhabited by someone totally different from him or herself (generally a kid). The comedy that emerges is trip-wired with slapstick psychology — you feel like you’re looking at an actor but can just about see the person hidden inside. In “Big,” the “Citizen Kane” of the genre, Tom Hanks didn’t just mimic the gestures and wide-eyed aura of an eager 13-year-old; he seemed to be entering the kid’s soul, a feat of acting at once hilarious and enchanting. Jennifer Garner did much the same thing in “13 Going on 30” (one of the most inspired comedies of the 2000s), and so, in a less elevated way, did Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake of “Freaky Friday” — as did Lindsay Lohan, who in her...

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The "Seinfeld" season 7 two-parter "The Cadillac" is mostly remembered for being (to borrow the titling parlance of a '90s sitcom competitor) the one where George (Jason Alexander) goes on a date with Marisa Tomei (playing herself). But the title of the episode has nothing to do with that storyline!

Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) has just gotten back from an extremely well-paying comedy gig. We don't see the number on the check but it makes Kramer (Michael Richards) jump. So, Jerry decides to do something uncharacteristically nice. His father Morty has dreamed of owning a Cadillac but never been able to afford one. So Jerry flies down to Florida with a surprise gift for his dad. But this being "Seinfeld," even these good intentions lead to trouble.

Morty is his condo association's president. The new Cadillac makes his fellows think he's embezzling money.

Given its monumental status as one of the greatest films ever made, it is perhaps surprising that there aren't more movies about the circumstances surrounding the making of "Citizen Kane." After all, beyond the technical dazzle of Orson Welles' magnum opus, it is also the story of a clash between two towering egos at opposite ends of their careers: In one corner Welles, the prodigiously talented upstart from New York who was handed the keys to Hollywood for his first motion picture; in the other, William Randolph Hearst, the fearsome magnate who dominated the largest and most influential media empire in the United States. It is also the tale of two sprawling estates that became monuments to their builders; Hearst Castle, an opulent testament to Heart's immense wealth, and Xanadu, Welles' gloomy fictionalized version of the former that would loom large over the rest of his career. Yet, to date,...

The following article is an excerpt from the latest edition of “In Review by David Ehrlich,” a biweekly newsletter in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the site’s latest reviews and muses about current events in the movie world. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter in your inbox every other Friday.

Ben Mankiewicz is never someone who I expected to find on the wrong side of film history. The face of Turner Classic Movies since Robert Osborne’s death, in addition to being the grandson of “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the grand-nephew of “All About Eve” director Joseph L. Mankiewicz,” the Hollywood scion is nothing less than a living emblem of the sanctity and enduring value of 20th century cinema. Delivered in a nasal but welcoming voice that’s capable of making 100-year-old masterpieces sound like vital artifacts and spectacular entertainments all at once,...

There’s a film out there that’s pulled off something rare—every critic who’s seen it loves it. That movie is ‘Leave No Trace’, a 2018 drama that’s earned a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, holding strong with over 250 reviews. It’s a story about a father and daughter living off the grid, and it’s got a grip on anyone who watches it.

The plot centers on Will, a war veteran, and his teenage daughter, Tom, who’ve carved out a life in the forests near Portland, Oregon. They’re not just camping—they’re hiding, avoiding society’s rules. When authorities find them, they’re forced into a world that feels foreign. The story follows their struggle to adapt and their pull back to the wild, where they feel free. Directed by Debra Granik, the film is based on Peter Rock’s novel ‘My Abandonment’, which draws from a real-life tale,...

Scott Riccardi‘s 16-day winning streak on Jeopardy ended on the season finale last week and internet theories have popped up claiming that he lost on purpose, which he says isn’t the case.

The Jeopardy champ is opening up about why he got that Final Jeopardy question wrong and what was going on in his head during that moment.

Scott lost the game because of a question about newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, which many felt was an easy one.

The “20th Century Names” category had the following clue: “According to one obituary, in 1935 he owned 13 magazines, eight radio stations, two movie companies and $56 million in real estate.”

While Scott answered Howard Hughes, the correct response was, “Who is Hearst?”

After winning $455,000 across his 16 wins, Scott went on Reddit to talk about his loss.

Keep reading to find out more…

Read Scott’s full message below!

Hi everyone, Scott here.

Orson Welles’ 1941 classic, “Citizen Kane,” is regarded by many as one of the greatest films of all time. It’s also considered one of the most influential films. It’s still talked about to this day and has impacted filmmakers including Martin Scorsese and David Fincher. Fincher directed “Mank,” which tells the story of Herman J. Mankiewicz and how he developed the script for Welles.

“Mank” producer Douglas Urbanski attended the Variety 120 Screening Series presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films such as “All About Eve” and “Psycho.”

Urbanksi, who first saw “Citizen Kane” during his days at New York University, discussed the film’s lasting impact and explained that a lot of it has to do with the stories and mystique surrounding the film.

He said, “’Citizen Kane’ has everything that’s not on the screen that lends to its mystique.

Dave Franco‘s upcoming psychological horror film, Together, was initially getting a lot of love from critics. So much so that the movie even earned a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score after its big premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. But surprisingly, that impeccable feat was stolen just a day before its theatrical release.

Written and directed by Michael Shanks in his first-ever feature film, Together stars real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie. The story follows them as they move to the countryside, hoping for a peaceful life. But instead of calm and quiet, they face something dark and weird. A creepy force begins to mess with their bodies in scary and supernatural ways.

So far, horror fans were hyped when the movie first came out at Sundance, especially because it looked fresh and terrifying. But now, thanks to one critic’s negative review posted on July 28, the movie...

Together has lost its perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score ahead of its theatrical release. Written and directed by Michael Shanks in his feature debut, the upcoming body horror movie stars married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple who relocate to the countryside and encounter a strange supernatural force that begins to alter their bodies in terrifying ways.

In addition to Franco and Brie, the cast also includes Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey, Jack Kenny, Sunny S. Walia, Karl Richmond, Tom Considine, Melanie Beddie, and Sarah Lang. Together premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival this past January and debuted to a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, though reviews have continued coming in ahead of its theatrical release.

Now, ahead of its theatrical release in just a few days, Together has lost its perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. A single negative review published today, on July 28, has dropped its score down...

Adam Sandler, like Jerry Lewis and Jim Carrey before him, is a master of dopey comedies that fans adore and critics despise. Even though Sandler has recently delivered impressive dramatic performances in films like Uncut Gems, prompting some reviewers to reconsider their Sandler bias, the sharp knives still come out when he releases Netflix nonsense like Happy Gilmore 2. Count in Cracked when it comes to hating on Happy — our own Tara Ariano summed up her opinion succinctly: “I laughed once.”

Let’s pile on with five more of Happy Gilmore 2’s worst reviews in its first few hours of release…

1 ”Worst Sequel of All Time”

“Happy Gilmore 2 May Be The Worst Sequel of All Time,” screams the Daily Beast’s headline. But critic Nick Schager was just getting started:

“Arguably the least inspired film in the actor’s canon, if not all of movie history.” “A cinematic abomination devoid of imagination,...

If your friend ever claims to be a bigger Hollywood nerd than you are, you should possibly challenge them to see who can solve the set of daily puzzles by Actorle faster. After all, it is the best way to keep your pop culture basics sharp and smooth flowing.

The set of puzzles by Actorle on July 26, 2025, features everything from iconic actors to a movie from the film Noir era. Daily puzzles like these are the best exercise for your brain while you have your breakfast, and in case you get stuck with today’s problems, below are my answers to all of them.

Actorle Solution for Today The answer to Actorle on July 26 is Jon Bernthal | Credit: Actorle/FandomWire

For anyone looking for tips and tricks to solve Actorle the quickest, always look for how long the actor has been in the industry. This narrows the vast list of...

Let's get this out of the way from the start: John Wayne was a problematic figure, and he is reviled in some quarters for his track record of bigoted views and Commie-bashing during the Red Scare. However, there is little denying that the Duke was a true Hollywood legend and one of the most memorable actors in the history of cinema. Over 45 years since he passed away, Wayne is still one of the first names that spring to mind when we think about Western movies, and rightly so. But he also transcended the genre that made him a superstar, standing alongside the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Mouse, and Marilyn Monroe as an icon of the 20th Century.

Like many modern viewers, I didn't know a ton about Wayne until quite recently when I started writing about his movies for /Film; as a progressive type, I felt an aversion towards...

A piece of movie history, part of one of the most iconic cinematic endings of all time, went up for auction this week. Rosebud, the wooden sled that proves crucial to the plot of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, was sold at auction for almost $15 million Usd. The prop is one of only three known copies known to exist.

As reported by The Guardian, this copy of Rosebud was formerly in the collection of famed horror director Joe Dante (Gremlins). Dante was given the prop by a Paramount employee while filming the 1985 science fiction movie Explorers. It was intended to be thrown out, eerily echoing the climax of the film, but it was instead gifted to Dante, a noted film buff. Dante used the prop in several of his subsequent films, including The 'Burbs and Gremlins 2 The New Batch. The buyer is remaining anonymous, but paid $14.75 million for it, the second-highest...

Nonlinear storytelling wasn’t invented by Christopher Nolan; it’s a tool that’s as old as the medium of literature and motion pictures itself. Among the earliest examples are apparently Homer’s Iliad, Vyasa’s Mahabharata, and several stories in The Arabian Nights. When it comes to cinema, Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr., Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane can be credited for both perfecting this gimmick and making it palatable to the general public. As for television, shows like True Detective (the first season), Pachinko, Sharp Objects, Dark, and The Haunting of Hill House are the pinnacle of nonlinear narratives, at least for me, primarily because the timeline jumps gave the themes a lot of depth and fleshed out the characters in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if it was given to us straight. However, much like anything that’s popular, talentless...

Item donated by a director who was given it during a studio clearout becomes second most valuable piece of movie memorabilia

The iconic sled from Orson Welles’s 1941 classic Citizen Kane has sold for $14.75m (£11m) at auction.

The item therefore becomes the second most valuable piece of movie memorabilia ever sold, following last December’s sale of a pair of ruby slippers from 1939’s The Wizard of Oz for $32.5m (£24.2m).

Gremlins director Joe Dante has sold Rosebud – the sled from Orson Welles’ classic, Citizen Kane – at auction for over $14m.

Joe Dante, the director of Gremlins, Piranha, Matinee and too many other wonderful films to list, certainly seems like the kind of person who’d collect movie memorabilia. But did you know that, for about 30 years, he owned the famous sled, Rosebud, from Citizen Kane? This writer certainly didn’t.

The headline rather gives this away, but Dante recently sold the piece of memorabilia – first seen in Orson Welles’ 1941 classic – at auction for $14.75m.

What’s even more jaw-dropping than that huge sum of money is how Dante acquired the sled in the first place. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker was shooting his 1985 sci-fi adventure Explorers on the Paramount lot when one of the crew members came up to him and asked if he wanted the old wooden prop.

On Thursday July 17 2025, ABC broadcasts Jimmy Kimmel Live!!

Jelly Roll; Kevin James; The All-American Rejects Season 23 Episode 145 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” promises an entertaining night with a lineup that includes guest host Jelly Roll, actor Kevin James, and a performance by The All-American Rejects. This episode is set to air on ABC, and fans are eager to see what the night has in store.

Jelly Roll takes the reins as guest host, bringing his unique style and charisma to the late-night stage. Known for his music and engaging personality, Jelly Roll is expected to connect well with the audience and keep the energy high throughout the show. His presence adds a fresh twist to the program, making it a must-watch for fans of the genre.

Actor Kevin James will also be joining the fun. With his comedic background and experience in both television and film,...

On the second day of bidding at Heritage Auctions’ entertainment auction, the iconic Rosebud sled from Orson Welles’ 1941 classic “Citizen Kane” sold for a record $14.75 million, making it the second-biggest purchase of Hollywood memorabilia ever.

The sled previously belonged to “Gremlins” director Joe Dante, who unbeknownst to many was in possession of the red sled since 1984.

Rosebud is now the second most-valuable piece of movie memorabilia behind Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” The magical slippers sold for $32.5 million last year at Heritage’s auction.

“I’ve had the honor of protecting this piece of cinematic history for decades,” Dante said in a statement. “To see Rosebud find a new home — and make history in the process — is both surreal and deeply gratifying. It’s a testament to the enduring power of storytelling.”

The sled was thought to be lost for four decades after shooting wrapped on the Academy Award-winning film.

The sled known as Rosebud — or at least one of the original red sleds created for the 1941 Orson Welles masterpiece Citizen Kane — has just sold for $14.75 million at auction.

The pine hardwood prop, which bears its original paint but signs of production use, wear and removed rails likely sacrificed to wartime scrap drives, has belonged to director Joe Dante since 1984. While he was directing Explorers (1985), it was given to him by someone clearing out a portion of the Paramount lot that once served as the home of Rko Pictures.

“One of the crew who knew I was a fan of vintage films came to me with a wood prop and said, ‘They’re throwing out all of this stuff. You might want this,’” Dante recalled in a recent interview. “I’m not sure he knew what the sled was, but he must have had some inkling, or why else would he have asked me?...

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival has announced its full lineup, which will see Radu Jude, Abdellatif Kechiche and Ben Rivers competing for its prestigious Golden Leopard.

Jude, who won the Special Jury Prize only two years ago – for “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” – will bring the much-anticipated “Dracula.” In a conversation with Variety, the Romanian director said: “If ‘Kontinental’ 25’ is my answer to Roberto Rossellini, let’s say that ‘Dracula’ is my love letter to Ed Wood.”

“There’s a lot of talk about A.I. these days, but after this film, you won’t talk about it in the same way. It’s a very radical film, a crazy political comedy,” said Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro.

Among all the 17 world premieres in Locarno’s main International Competition, Abdellatif Kechiche will continue his controversial saga with “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due” – a...

A lively, chaotic swirl of contradictions, Jaws is a thriller that played a role in the entire restructuring of Hollywood’s methods of selling its films to the public. It was the sure-to-be calamity that became one of the most beloved and quoted films of all time—a certain generation’s Citizen Kane that gave rise to a legendary, controversial filmmaker and seemingly turned everyone else into aspiring directors. It also played a role in the rise of an obsession with a kind of theme-park movie that gluts global cinemas to this day. That’s a lot of baggage for any film, much less a monster movie with grade-z roots, to live up or down to.

The surprise is how good it was and still is. The film is a strange mixture of the ultra-controlled and the wild and wooly. Imagine if portions of Psycho were spliced into one of...

The Malayalam series Kerala Crime Files 2 : The Search for Cpo Ambili Raju on Jio Hotstar is a tough nut to crack. Normally our main grouse against webseries is that they take too long to get to the point.

The slowburn syndrome doesn’t really singe the storytelling in this painstakingly constructed series. The problem is elsewhere. Kerala Crime Files just doesn’t have an interesting enough story to tell. That is not such a bad thing, if you consider the fact that true crime is often exaggerated beyond all decency in films and serials. Here there is no patience for overdoing things.

So yes, it does feel real. But it doesn’t hold our attention in any rewarding way. It all begins when a senior Cpo Ambili Raju (The ever-dependable Indrans) goes missing. Ambili’s introduction sequence in a bus is well constructed. It whets our appetite for more...

When it comes to borrowing from other films, quality often determines the verdict—what some might call theft is generously reframed as “homage” or “inspiration.” However, Stealing Pulp Fiction is so overloaded with empty dialogue, hollow style, and shameless nods that it becomes fascinating just how charmless and dull the final product manages to be.

Now, I love a caper. And, I’ll add, I love Pulp Fiction, which changed movies forever. However, this is such an uninspired effort (albeit with good intentions), Stealing Pulp Fiction stretches a thin sitcom premise into an endlessly tedious ninety-minute ride that feels downright terminal.

Stealing Pulp Fiction Review and Synopsis Jason Alexander in Stealing Pulp Fiction (2025) | Image via Giant Pictures Cazzie David, Jon Rudnitsky, Jason Alexander, and Karan Soni in Stealing Pulp Fiction (2025) | Image via Giant Pictures Jon Rudnitsky and Karan Soni in Stealing Pulp Fiction (2025) | Image via Giant Pictures

The film opens...

What Is Ryan Gosling’s Favorite Comedy Movie?(Photo Credit –YouTube)

Ryan Gosling could’ve said Casablanca. He could’ve said Citizen Kane. But no, he picked Step Brothers. While chatting with Still Watching Netflix to promote The Gray Man two years ago, Gosling dropped the kind of cinematic confession that instantly earns him honorary couch potato status.

“You tell people your favorite movie is On the Waterfront when it’s really Step Brothers,” the Barbie star admitted. And frankly, that’s a good take. Let’s break that down: Step Brothers, a film once described by critics as a chaotic mess with juvenile humor, is Gosling’s go-to feel-good flick.

“You could be in a bad place in your life, you could be in a great place in your life, it’s always the right time,” he said during the chat. And just like that, he gave us the...

MCU star Chris Evans cited Tombstone as one of his top four favorite movies. A Western from director George P. Cosmatos, the 1994 film is a star-studded ensemble movie featuring the likes of Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, and, of course, Western icon Sam Elliott. In fact, it's widely regarded as one of the best movies for several of the actors involved in the film, such as Russell and Kilmer.

Set in 1879, Tombstone boasts a cast of characters comprised of a slew of historical figures, from notorious outlaws like Johnny Ringo and William “Curly Bill” Brocious to legendary Western heroes like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Despite juggling a massive cast of actors, not to mention surprising appearances from Charlton Heston and Harry Carey Jr., Tombstone succeeds in being an entertaining Western and a longtime favorite of many – including Chris Evans.

Chris Evans Included Tombstone In His List Of Top...

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"The Simpsons" thrives on parody, from "Planet of the Apes" musicals to all the trips that "Treehouse of Horror" has taken into the twilight zone. I saw "The Simpsons" episode "Rosebud" before I had ever seen "Citizen Kane" (no cane included).

"Simpsons" season 9 episode "Das Bus" homages the 1981 submarine epic "Das Boot" (German for "The Boat"). However, the actual story of the episode parodies something else: William Golding's 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies," which follows British schoolboys stranded on a desert island who then become savage and tribal murderers. In "Das Bus," Bart, Lisa, and their Springfield Elementary classmates are traveling to a statewide Model U.N. club event. A bus crash sends them into the ocean, where they drift to an uncharted island. While they miss the model U.N., they still have to use the skills of...

Charlie Day is obviously best known for playing beloved degenerate Charlie Kelly on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But the actor has appeared in a number of other notable movies and TV shows, including Horrible Bosses, Fool’s Paradise and one episode of Law & Order — although he only had a very small part as a helpful witness, unlike Mac, who somehow landed a juicy teen murderer role.

But Day’s first ever on-screen acting job was in Mary & Rhoda. The 2000 TV movie began as a pilot for a planned reboot of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but CBS ultimately passed on the “updated” version. “If you loved The Mary Tyler Moore Show, stay away from Mary & Rhoda,” one review read.

During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Day recalled that the role was limited to just one line. His character, named “Mailroom Kid,” simply had to tell Moore’s...

In 2024, Steven Spielberg listed his 20 favorite movies of all time for Far Out Magazine, and many of them are indelible classics that one might expect Spielberg to list. "Seven Samurai," "Citizen Kane," "Day For Night," and "2001: A Space Odyssey" are all on the list, of course, although he did also throw in a few curveballs. James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" was mentioned, as was Olivier Nakache's and Éric Toledano's 2011 film "The Intouchables." He also picked out Victor Fleming's relatively obscure 1943 film "A Guy Named Joe" as one of the best ever, although that tracks; Spielberg remade the film in 1989 as "Always." 

Spielberg's #1 film of all time, however, was a safe and reliable standby; he's very fond of Frank Capra's Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life." But then, who doesn't like "It's a Wonderful Life?" 

The story of Capra's classic is possibly well-known even to non-cinephiles.

Easter eggs have become far too commonplace in movies nowadays. It's gotten to the point that they distract viewers from paying attention to the story unfolding on the screen, because to get sucked into the emotion of a movie might cause you to miss a glancing reference to an obscure Marvel character or a deep Mario Kart cut — which, upon spying it, will allow you to laugh many decibels too loud so as to alert every single person in the theater that you are the knowingest knower who ever did know.

Before Easter eggs became a matter of competitive viewing, they were just innocuous bits of ephemera scattered in and around the frame that you might not notice until a subsequent viewing. Some directors invited their audiences to be on guard for obligatory bits, but for the most part, they were wholly unexpected. And, oh yeah, we didn't call them Easter eggs.