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Filmed in HD digital video, “Dong” is a documentary about artist and actor Liu Xiaodong, who invited Jia Zhang-ke to film him as he painted two groups of subjects: laborers near the Three Gorges Dam and later, sex workers in Bangkok. “Still Life” was shot simultaneously, sharing the same setting and, in some instances, even the same shots. Han Sanming, one of “Still Life”‘s leads, also appears (in ‘character’) within “Dong”, along with other figures from that film, further emphasizing the connection between the two works.

Dong is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas

Expectedly, the documentary is split into two parts, each set in one of the aforementioned locations. The first takes place in the Three Gorges Region in 2005, documenting Liu Xiaodong’s process as he creates “Hot Bed”, a painting depicting 11 dam workers, most of whom are stripped to the waist (to say the least). During filming,...

Jia Zhang-ke second feature seems like a direct continuation of his first film, which dealt with the titular man trying to get back to his home for the Lunar New Year, failing repeatedly, additionally because no one of his friends want to take the trip. This time, the main character, Xiao Wu, as is the original title of the movie, a pickpocket, returns to his dirty, provincial town of Fenyang that is cracking down on crime in 1997, under the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong. While there, he finds that his former partners in crime (literally) have moved forward, while Xiaojong, probably his closest friend, has not even invited him to his wedding. A bit later on, Xiao Wu gets in a romantic relationship with a prostitute, visits his parents, all the while continuing to pickpocket despite his insistence of having stopped.

Pickpocket is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival...

The Chinese box office hit a record high over Lunar New Year with animation Ne Zha 2 and prequel Detective Chinatown 1900 helping deliver a total gross of more than $1.1bn (RMB8bn) over six days from January 29 to February 3

The Year of the Snake made a strong start last Wednesday (January 29), the first day of the holidays, with takings of $250m (RMB1.8bn), up 35% on 2024 and the biggest single day gross ever in China – beating the previous record of $235m (RMB1.69bn) from 2021.

Six new local titles were released over the period and the total gross is expected to...

We got confirmation late last year that a follow-up to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was officially in the works, with writer Dave Callaham enlisted to pen the script for the untitled movie.

Adam Wingard, who helmed The New Empire and previous MonsterVerse movie Godzilla vs. Kong, was originally set to return, but ultimately departed the project under "amicable" circumstances, with Grant Sputore stepping in to replace him shortly after.

Now, Deadline reports that the next MonsterVerse movie has founds its lead in Kaitlyn Dever.

We don't have any details on who she'll play, but the trade mentions that, while Kong and Godzilla will still be fronting the film, Legendary is looking to build on its human characters. The story will focus on "Godzilla and Kong as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat."

Sputore doesn't have much experience, having come from the world of commercials, but he...

Marvel Rivals already boasts an impressive 35-hero roster, with two more coming before the end of Season 1, but plenty more future additions have already been leaked. Rivals has launched to massive success, possibly reimagining the hero shooter genre with all free-to-play characters, power-fantasy kits, and multiple user-friendly features. The most obvious example of this success is the more than $100 million the title made in December 2024 alone.

Season 1 of Marvel Rivals is introducing four new playable heroes in The Fantastic Four. Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm were released alongside the season's launch, while Johnny Storm and The Thing will go live at the halfway mark of the season. This season is the only one expected to have four heroes, as the following seasons will be dropped down to two. Regardless, the studio has said its goal is to release a new hero every month and a half to keep the game fresh.

A polarizing MonsterVerse installment has been one of the most-watched movies on Netflix since Christmas Day. Earlier this year, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire debuted to mixed critical reviews but was financially successful, becoming the highest-grossing MonsterVerse film to date.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is currently third on Netflix's Top 10 chart, only behind Carry-On and Kerry Washington's The Six Triple Eight. Directed by Adam Wingard, the film is a direct sequel to 2021's Godzilla x Kong and is the fifth film in the shared Monsterverse franchise. In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kong encounters more of his species in the Hollow Earth and must again ally with Godzilla to stop the tyrannical Skar King and the powerful, frost-breathing Shimo from invading the Earth's surface. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kaylee Hottle all reprise their roles from the previous film and are joined by Dan Stevens,...

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a 2024 film that is the latest installment of the highly successful Monsterverse Franchise. Helmed by Adam Wingard, the film picks up after the events of “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021) and continues the story of Kong, the giant ape, and Godzilla as they join forces to fend off a much bigger threat.

This installment is pure cinematic magic. Adam Wingard totally nailed it again, winning over kaiju fans everywhere with his love for both Godzilla and Kong and their epic tales. First off, the CGI was on point, making these monsters come alive with their own personalities, lifelike moves, and that cool, slightly cartoony ambiance the movie was going for. It felt like the Showa-era films were brought back to life! We see Godzilla keeping the peace on Earth, taking down humans and titans, disrupting nature’s balance, while Kong is on a quest to...

In the latest chapter of the creature-feature franchise, Godzilla and Kong have buried the hatchet just in time to save the world. From director Adam Wingard (The Guest), the 2024 film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire follows the two beasts as they square off against a monstrous new adversary that threatens all humankind. Wingard — who co-wrote the film with Simon Barrett (The Guest) and Terry Rossio(Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) — also directed 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Dan Stevens.

Stream it on Netflix now.

When strange radio interference disrupts equipment at the Monarch observation station within the subterranean world of Hollow Earth, Dr. Ilene Andrews (Hall), her daughter Jia (Hottle), and scientist Mikael (Ferns) are stumped. While the rest of the Monarch researchers think it’s a fluke, Ilene turns to...

In the world of visual novels, Korean Manhwas are slowly gaining popularity. From Omniscient Reader to True Beauty, several webtoons are entering their respective niche. This is especially true with most upcoming series in the romance genre. This includes a popular fan-favorite webtoon that might be on par with The Apothecary Diaries and Horimiya. But there’s a catch to it.

Maomao and Jinshi in a still from the anime | Credit:

Maybe Meant To Be is one of the popular webtoons in the romance genre. Its light-hearted take on relationships sets it apart from other series. The webtoon is a refreshing take on the romance genre as a whole. Its overarching flaw, however, is holding back its true potential.

Maybe Meant to Be is a promising yet flawed series

Maybe Meant To Be is a romance webtoon written by Honeyskein and Damcho. The South Korean visual novel follows the journey...

Hollywood – Fresh faces of vertical short-form video gathered at the NeueHouse Hollywood on a recent Friday for the latest collaboration in the fast-growing digital media space.

Sarah Moliski, 31, commanded the red carpet in a revealing leather corset set, reminiscent of the characters she plays regularly on ReelShort. The blonde villain, as she refers to herself, is not only an actress for the platform but a casting director. For a company producing 15 to 16 shows a month, Moliski stays busy.

ReelShort is one of the leading vertical short-form platforms that has seen a spectacular rise in users and revenue over the last two years. The Chinese-owned platform has seen a 992% increase in downloads in the last 12 months, from 3.4 million in Q1 2023 to 37 million in early 2024, and told TheWrap they took in a stunning $40 million in September with its micro-payment format.

Sarah Moliski attends the Crazy Maple Studio and Screencraft Celebration of the...

“Sorry… Forget this is New York, not Beijing,” laughed Jia Zhang-Ke, a titan of Chinese cinema’s post-1990 “Sixth Generation” of directors, to a packed house inside Alice Tully Hall for the New York Film Festival on Tuesday.

In a Q&a after the U.S. premiere of his latest film, Caught by the Tides, Jia’s English translator could barely keep up as he effusively spoke about the 23-year journey to bring his new project to the big screen. While many in the audience understood the director’s native Mandarin, his translator transcribed as quickly as possible for the English speakers. One thing that needed no translation was Jia’s passion for providing a world view on contemporary China through a cinematic lens.

Caught by the Tides follows Qiaoqiao (played by the director’s real-life wife and muse Zhao Tao), a lovelorn singer who traverses miles across her northern...

Premiering at Cannes earlier this year, Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides” is another entry in the filmmaker’s indie career that serves to mystify viewers as much as it seeks out answers to the questions it asks. Utilizing documentary footage Zhangke has collected throughout his career, as well as characters he’s explored in previous films, “Caught by the Tides” capitalizes on the themes of time and memory the writer/director has been exploring since his 2006 Golden Lion-winning drama “Still Life.” As reported on by Variety, speaking at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, Zhangke shared that he plans to continue studying these concepts and finding ways to incorporate them on screen, both in a historical context and a futuristic sense.

“I have so much interest in the current China that I’m sure to make other films on the subject,” said Zhangke of planning his next projects.

Monica Sorelle’s Mountains is a film about work that nonetheless champions leisure. As Esperance (Sheila Anozier) suggests to her husband Xavier (Atibon Nazaire), “If work was a good thing, the rich would have taken it for themselves.” Mountains interprets leisure not so much as the opposite of work or struggle, but a stance that can and should suffuse each moment of life, not discounting those we sell to make a living.

Xavier and Esperance are Haitian immigrants living with their adult son, Junior (Chris Renoir), in Miami’s rapidly gentrifying Little Haiti neighborhood. Whether recompensed or not, each has their work: Xavier is a demolition worker, Esperance a crossing guard and dressmaker, and Junior, to the consternation of his parents, aspires to be stand-up comedian. An incident of on-the-job racism, complicated in that it involves a Cuban immigrant (Yaniel Castillo) tussling with Xavier’s Black American coworker (Roscoè B. Thické III...

In Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, the Hollow Earth Iwi tribe names Godzilla as "the monster who ate a star," revealing his power source. Godzilla's atomic breath ability may not be universal among his species, as indicated by the Iwi mythology in the film. The movie hints that Godzilla gained his atomic breath ability by absorbing radiation from a concentration point in the Hollow Earth.

Godzilla has been given many names over his 70-year history, but in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, the Hollow Earth Iwi tribe bestowed a new name upon him which provides some insight into his past. The New Empire saw Godzilla transform and achieve a power level previously unseen in the Monsterverse, and furthered his storyline as the planet's Alpha Titan and protector. However, the movie also provided a new thread into Godzilla's origins in one scene in particular.

As the Monarch team led...

Millie Bobby Brown did not return for Godzilla X Kong, signaling a shift towards focusing on other human characters in the Monsterverse franchise. Madison's absence comes as Kong's storyline takes center stage in The New Empire, making Jia the new main human character. While Madison may not return for the sequel, there's still a possibility for her to come back in a future Monsterverse movie tied to Godzilla.

Millie Bobby Brown did not return for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, and here's why. The fifth installment of the Monsterverse franchise is a direct sequel to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, which featured a big ensemble of human characters opposite the two titular Titans. Official details for Godzilla X Kong confirmed a few returning cast members: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kaylee Hottle. All three of them debuted in the last movie, but they are the only Monsterverse veterans who are back.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire soundtrack features a mix of rock and R&b songs to enhance action sequences and human storylines. Songs like "Welcome To My World" by Jim Reeves and "I Got'Cha" by Greenflow are strategically placed in the film to add emotional depth. Godzilla x Kong soundtrack is not available on Apple Music or Spotify, but the official score by Tom Holkenborg is released for fans to enjoy.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire includes a rock-and-roll-centric soundtrack to add multiple songs to the Titan action. The Monsterverse movies are best known for the massive action sequences they are capable of delivering thanks to having central characters like Godzilla and Kong. Both monsters return in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire as they are forced to work together to stop a new threat, Skar King, from taking over the world. While the film's sound predominantly comes...

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire follows the previous movie's high-stakes conflict with a talented cast, including new additions like Dan Stevens. The sequel is available on Apple TV+ and Amazon, with returning actors like Rebecca Hall, Kaylee Hottle, and Brian Tyree Henry. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire features new characters and a central protagonist, Trapper, played by Dan Stevens, a titan veterinarian.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the long-awaited follow-up to 2021s Godzilla vs. Kong, and the sequel's cast includes some new additions alongside returning actors. Godzilla vs. Kong saw its titular creatures battle against each other in a high-stakes conflict that put the fate of the planet at risk. Like the rest of the movies in the Monsterverse franchise, it was also a blockbuster action spectacle due in part to the great work of an excellent cast. Many of these stars returned for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,...

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's sequel set for March 26, 2027 release. Grant Sputore to direct the untitled third Godzilla and Kong movie. There are plenty of candidates for the next movie's villain, but currently litte is known.

The next trip to the MonsterVerse isn't right around the corner, but at least we now know when it will be. The follow-up to 2024's hit Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (which became the highest-grossing installment of the cinematic universe to date) has been scheduled for release. According to Collider, the monster mash will roar its way into theaters on March 26, 2027. This continues the three-year gap between installments seen with March 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong and March 2024's The New Empire.

While it is currently unknown whether the next MonsterVerse installment will feature the return of Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews or Kaylee Hottle as her adopted daughter, Jia, the...

Stars: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen | Written by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, Jeremy Slater | Directed by Adam Wingard

Adam Wingard returns to the director’s chair to deliver a second helping of the mother of all monster battles, following his superlative work on 2021’s Godzilla Vs Kong. The fifth film in Warner Bros’ MonsterVerse series, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire sees Kong and Godzilla teaming up to take on a new pair of adversaries, but not without punching each other a bit first. Got to give the fans what they want, after all.

The plot picks up a couple of years after the events of the previous film, with Kong now settled into his new home in Hollow Earth and Godzilla taking down Titans on the surface world, in between power naps in the Colosseum. However, when Dr Ilene Andrews’ (Rebecca...

Sideshow and Janus Films have bought U.S. rights for Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s epic drama Caught By The Tides, following its buzzy world premiere in competition at Cannes in May.

Written by Jia and Wan Jiahuan, the film follows a deeply moving love story over a 23-year time span against the backdrop of explosive growth in China.

Made up of old footage shot by Jia over the past century as well as some new, the film traverses personal and national history including all of his films to date.

Sideshow and Janus Films, which acquired the film from mk2 films, will release the film exclusively in theaters in the coming months.

The companies said in a joint statement: “Jia Zhang-ke is one of the twenty-first century’s most important filmmakers and with Caught By The Tides delivers what will surely be considered one of his great films that gives...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired US rights to Caught By The Tides, director Jia Zhang-ke’s entry in last month’s Cannes competition line-up.

The companies said they plan to release the film exclusively in US cinemas “in the coming months.”

Written by Jia and Wan Jiahuan. the Chinese-language film stars Jia’s wife Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin in a love story unfolding over 23 years against the backdrop of China’s explosive growth. The film includes both new material and old footage shot by Jia since the turn of the millennium.

Caught By The Tides is produced by Casper Liang Jiayan,...

“Caught by the Tides,” the contemporary Chinese epic film directed by Jia Zhangke, has been acquired for U.S. release by Sidehow and Janus Films.

The film appeared in main competition in Cannes in May and is an extended look at the romantic destiny of Jia’s perennial heroine, Qiaoqiao over a period of 21 years. On another level, the film is an examination of a country going through profound transformation, mixing individual experiences and turbulent emotional and social changes.

It uses a mixture of old footage shot by Jia over the past century as well as some new. The main cast are Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin.

Variety’s reviewer Jessica Kiang, called the film: “an epic, lyrical drama that is both Chinese master Jia’s career-retrospective reinvention and a defining portrait of modern China.”

Sideshow and Janus Films will release the picture exclusively in U.S. theaters at an...

Sideshow and Janus Films have snapped up U.S. distribution rights to Chinese master filmmaker Jia Zhangke’s latest feature Caught by the Tides, which premiered to rave reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The two distributors said they will “release the film exclusively in theaters in the coming months.”

Caught by the Tides is composed almost entirely of improvisational footage Jia shot across China over nearly 25 years with his troupe of longtime collaborators. In an interview at Cannes, the director told The Hollywood Reporter that he began to sculpt a feature from the hundreds of hours of footage he had accumulated during the quiet days of China’s long, three-year pandemic shutdown.

THR‘s lead critic summed up the resulting film’s innovative narrative and formal approaches by writing that it “ebbs and flows like poetry.”

Like virtually all of Jia’s work, stretching back to his...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.Find all of our Cannes 2024 coverage here.Those fearing cinema’s obsolescence in the face of more popular media—an anxiety that now seems an existential characteristic of the art—will be glad to find in Cannes the obligatory films that court relevance and awards by centering on an Important Topic. These are the loud films, which anticipate being pounced upon with flash-pan hot takes. But other movies at the festival are playing a longer and subtler game. They’re not necessarily quiet—in fact, one is a knockabout martial-arts film—but what they do, they do with deceptive ease, without any pandering or grandstanding. Their ambition creeps up on you. Their subjects are inextricable from their forms; rather than a plug-and-play insertion of topic into narrative, there appears only this way of telling such a story. The stories themselves, whether told by classical or more radical means,...

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire officially becomes the highest grossing film in Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse line of films after astonishing worldwide box office return.

Per Deadline, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which received its wide release on March 29, has surpassed $570 million at the worldwide box office. As of now, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire stands as the highest-grossing MonsterVerse film, beating out previous record holder Kong Skull Island by just shy of $3 million. Godzilla x Kong's smashing box office success comes from a combined gross of $196.3 million in domestic ticket sales and $373.7 million coming from foreign markets.

Related Adam Wingard Is Out for Godzilla x Kong Sequel, but These Directors Would Be Perfect Successors

With Adam Wingard out of the sequel to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, there are other talented directors who could take up the keys to the kingdom.

Godzilla x Kong: The New...

We recently got confirmation that a follow-up to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is officially in the works, with writer Dave Callaham enlisted to pen the script for the untitled movie.

There was no mention of a potential director at the time, but we'd later learn that Adam Wingard, who helmed The New Empire and previous MonsterVerse movie Godzilla vs. Kong, would no longer direct the project after initially being attached to return. His departure was described as "amicable and stemming from timing issues," with the door remaining "open for a future return."

Now, THR (via SFFGazette.com) the next instalment in the popular franchise has enlisted a new director, with Grant Sputore set to take the helm.

Sputore doesn't have much experience, having come from the world of commercials, but he does have one feature under his belt: The 2019 sci-fi movie I Am Mother starring Hilary Swank.

Callaham...

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Adam Wingard confirms that the Mothra in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the mother of the one seen in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Mothra remains alive at the end of Godzilla x Kong, meaning she could return in a future film. A sequel is currently in the works, but Wingard is not returning to direct.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard confirms a major Mothra theory. After the success of Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021, Wingard returned to helm the outing for the two eponymous monsters, this time following them as they take on the villainous Skar King. As Godzilla and Kong find themselves outmatched by the combined power of Shimo and Skar King, they turn to Mothra for help, but the inclusion of this iconic monster left some confused after the creature's death in...

It was recently announced that Warner Bros./Legendary are officially moving forward with a follow-up to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, with writer Dave Callaham enlisted to pen the script for the untitled movie.

There was no mention of a potential director at the time, but it seems Adam Wingard, who helmed The New Empire and its predecessor Godzilla vs. Kong, was set to return.

Was being the operative word.

According to THR, Wingard is no longer in line to direct the project. Though the report stresses that he didn't have a deal in place, anyway, it sounds like he was tentatively attached prior to a parting of ways, which is described as "amicable and stemming from timing issues," with the door remaining "open for a future return."

Wingard is now expected to turn his attention to his next project, a new original feature that he wanted to tackle...

Jia Zhangke’s is often a cinema of déjà vu: “We’re again in the northern Chinese city of Datong,” Giovanni Marchini Camia wrote for Sight and Sound back in 2019, “it’s again the start of the new millennium, Qiao is again dating a mobster, yet no one else makes a reappearance and there are enough differences to signal that this isn’t a sequel or remake.” Camia was writing about Ash Is Purest White yet much of the same could be said for Caught by the Tides, the director’s latest experiment in plundering his archive––indeed his memories––and spinning what he finds into something new. The protagonist of Tides is again named Qiao and is again played by Zhao Tao, appearing here in more than 20 years of the director’s footage and allowing the viewer to watch that singular creative partnership evolve in real time––one of...

During the 77th Festival de Cannes, the world's attention is focused on this early summer French beach. On the evening of May 17th local time, the Beijing International Film Festival Organizing Committee successfully held the “2024 Beijing Film Night—Beijing International Film Festival Cannes Promotion.”

The Beijing International Film Festival has consistently embraced an open and inclusive mindset, inviting professionals from various countries and regions for multifaceted exchanges, drawing on advanced experiences to create an international brand for Chinese cinema and Beijing culture.

Participants included heads of departments from the China Film Co-production Corporation, Bona Film Group founder and chairman Yu Dong, renowned director Jia Zhang-ke, representatives from major international film festivals such as Mar del Plata, Cairo, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Tallinn, Busan, Toronto, Zurich, Geneva, and film market buyers, film representatives, and related agency heads from dozens of countries and regions including Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Greece, Germany,...

Across his 25-year career, Jia Zhangke has become the de facto face of independent-minded Chinese cinema — and the Cannes Film Festival has arguably been the most important institution to help him hoist that flag on the world stage.

Beginning with his 2002 drama Unknown Pleasures, the 53-year-old auteur has landed in Cannes’ main competition seven times — more than any other Chinese filmmaker in the festival’s history. Although the Palme d’Or has so far proved elusive, Jia won Cannes’ best screenplay prize in 2013 with his acclaimed anthology thriller A Touch of Sin, a searing depiction of China during its breakneck economic boom times. Jia returns to Cannes this year with Caught by the Tides, his first fictional feature since his well-regarded drama Ash Is Purest White debuted at the festival in 2018.

“A lyrical, fluid narrative,” as Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux recently described it, Caught by the Tides is composed...

A recurring motif in the films of Jia Zhang-ke is the enchantment of watching his extraordinary muse, Zhao Tao, dance — in the glitzy faux-Vegas spectacles of The World; leading a routine to the Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West” in Mountains May Depart; strutting in formation to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A” in Ash Is Purest White. In the Chinese master filmmaker’s decades-spanning drama Caught by the Tides (Feng Liu Yi Dai), Zhao shimmies around a dance floor to pulsing Edm, unaware that the man in her life will soon leave town, dropping her into a 20-year romantic limbo.

Eclectic music choices have always played an important part in Jia’s chronicles of social change and shifting values in a contemporary China surging forward, driven by cultural and economic expansion, urbanization and globalization, its traditional insularity increasingly pierced by Western influences.

Songs are more present than ever in his new film.

The Chinese title of Jia Zhangke’s mesmerizing “Caught by the Tides,” a masterfully poetic and pioneering fusion of the old and the new, can be translated in several ways. Jia himself suggests “The Drifting Generation,” but it can also mean “The Romantic Generation” with the etymology of “romantic” lying in the Chinese words for wind and current. The restless motion of the natural world is certainly captured in the English title’s reference to an ocean’s ebb and flow. But what that version cannot adequately convey is the airiness and the yearning that Jia whips in to “Caught by the Tides” — quite miraculously considering he is largely working with repurposed footage from across the last 23 years of his justly celebrated career.

Loosely speaking a love story, “Tides” is also perhaps the most definitive national portrait that Jia, modern China’s foremost cinematic chronicler, has ever delivered. This is...

This year's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire wasn't exactly a monster hit, but it did manage to take in close to $555 million worldwide on a reported $135 million budget. Now, we have word that a sequel is officially in development, and Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have enlisted a writer to pen the script.

According to THR, Dave Callaham has signed on to write the untitled movie. No plot details have been disclosed, but it's assumed that both the King of the Monsters and the mighty Monarch of Skull Island will return to face a new, potentially world-ending threat.

Callaham has previously worked on several major studio tentpoles, including the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot, Wonder Woman 1984, Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. He also has some prior experience with Big G, having written the early drafts and received story by...

It’s the most exciting time of the year for a cinephile: the Cannes Film Festival is set to kick off next week, running May 14-25. Ahead of festivities we’ve rounded up what we’re most looking forward to, and while we’re sure many surprises await, per every year, one will find 20 films that should be on your radar. Check out our picks below and be sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest updates from the festival.

All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia)

After one film, Payal Kapadia is a name you should know––a fresh, intrepid voice in cinema. And in the wake of student protests turning the world upside-down, she’s an essential up-and-comer. Her lone feature to date, 2021’s A Night of Knowing Nothing, is an experimental immersion into India’s own student revolutions––a brutal awakening into the shockingly violent...

Jia Zhang-ke could fairly claim to be the most important filmmaker of his generation; he’d probably be the last person to do so. Audiences tend to scan Jia’s work for political sentiment, but the director has always attested that his films are strictly about people. As a lecturer in Shanghai University and elsewhere, he’s used to speaking about them at length. During a nearly three-hour masterclass at the Visions Du Reel festival in Switzerland last week, some of his answers stretched to nearly 30 minutes without pause, yet earlier that day, when I asked him if he believed on a fundamental level that the complexities of his characters––their interpersonal relationships and inner lives––were more important than what looms in the background of his stories––the epic geographical and architectural changes and vast social, economic, and political shifts––he paused, smiled, and simply said “yes.”

Jia was born in 1970 in Fenyang,...

There’s a beautiful scene in Jia Zhangke’s 2004 film The World in which the protagonist, Tao, crosses paths with an industrial worker nicknamed Little Sister on the rooftop of an unfinished building. They chat aimlessly beneath towering spires of exposed rebar until a massive plane soars overhead, drowning out their voices. “Tao, who flies on those planes?” he asks, to which she responds, “Who knows…I don’t know anybody who’s ever been on a plane.”

It’s this precise contrast of stasis and flux, of the sublime and the quotidian, of simple personal dreams swallowed up by massive national ambitions, that characterizes Liu Jian’s newest feature, Art College 1994. Jia also lends his voice to one of its characters: Gu Yongqing, a “roving artist abroad” who speaks of “the mysterious power of art” during a visiting lecture at the titular art college. This is Liu’s third animated feature film,...

Sporting a warm smile and a pair of sunglasses – “Sorry, I’ve been busy editing and my eyes hurt,” he explained – one of China’s leading indie directors Jia Zhangke, whose upcoming film “Caught by the Tides” will be vying for the Palme d’or in Cannes next month, was guest of honor at the 55th edition of Swiss doc festival Visions du Réel this week.

Finished just in time for submission to Cannes, the film features his wife Zhao Tao, his muse over the last two decades, and tells the story of a couple spanning 20 years. (Jia previously spoke with Variety about the film in February when it still went under the working title “We Shall Be All.”)

Explaining how the pandemic gave him the opportunity to review his footage all the way back to 2001, he described his new film as “a concentration of 20 years’ experience,” which blends footage...

Macho sports-movie tropes meet with bright chick-flick framing to curious effect in “Yolo,” either an ostensible boxing drama that doesn’t pick up the gloves until the third act, or a misfit romcom that takes a late and unusual turn toward transformational self-help territory. Chinese audiences have been delighted by either formulation, as Jia Ling’s second feature as director-star — following 2021’s popular time-travel comedy “Hi, Mom” — has racked up the year’s second-highest global gross so far, mostly on the strength of its domestic receipts. That’s been enough to secure it an international release through Sony, but “Yolo” is likelier to bemuse outside viewers unfamiliar with Jia’s persona as a celebrity comedian — and her extreme weight-loss journey while making the film, a narrative that powered its publicity on home turf.

“Yolo” is itself a work of cultural translation, adapted as it is from Japanese director Masaharu Take...

Among the high-profile filmmakers selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival is a wave of upcoming talent from Asia and the Middle East, including the first Indian feature chosen for Competition in 30 years and the first film from Saudi Arabia to ever make the Official Selection.

While Cannes has a reputation for bringing back familiar names year after year, the line-up for the 77th edition does feature several rising filmmakers and not just in the “discovery” strands of the selection.

Making her first appearance in Competition is Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia with All We Imagine As Light. It marks...

Acclaimed auteurs Francis Ford Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino and Andrea Arnold are among the filmmakers set to compete for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

A total of 19 features were revealed today (April 11) that will play in Competition at the festival, set to run May 14-25.

Rarely a festival to veer far from familiar names, the Competition line-up is dominated by directors who have been selected multiple times for Cannes.

They include US filmmaker Coppola with sci-fi epic Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver and is set in a future version of New York City following a disaster.

(L-r) Kaylee Hottle as Jia and Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary. Pictures’ action adventure “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Daniel McFadden. Copyright: © 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. When the two titans of the Monsterverse, Godzilla and King Kong, intersected in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, Rebecca Hall was there, starring as Dr. Ilene Andrews, a linguist who becomes an expert on the giant ape. Now, in the sequel, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, she’s back in the role. She spoke about how she was excited about making a sequel, especially since it was the first time she was able to revisit a role she’d played before. (Click on the media bar below to hear Rebecca Hall) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rebecca_Hall_Godzilla_x-_Kong_The_New_Empire_Revisiting...

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

The Titan war explored in "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" sheds light on the ancient history of the powerful creatures in the Monsterverse. New Titans introduced in the movie present new allies and rivals for Godzilla and Kong, setting the stage for potential sequels. Godzilla's past victory over the Skar King, driven by the evil Titan's desire to conquer all, ties into the current threat in the film.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire explored a Titan war, one that took place thousands of years before the Monsterverse chronologically began. The Monsterverse timeline of the Godzilla and Kong movies is certainly expansive, ranging from the stories set in the 20th century, like Kong: Skull Island and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, to the present-day stories of Godzilla x Kong. However, more so than any other story in the franchise,...

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire has hit the theaters amidst lots of expectations and hype. The 5th film of the MonsterVerse franchise which is a follow-up to the 2021 blockbuster, sees Godzilla and Kong reunite to fight an unknown threat hidden within the Earth that poses grave danger to humans and Titans alike.

A still from Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire

Apart from having a loyal fan base of MonsterVerse enthusiasts, the film also sees deaf actor Kaylee Hottle reprising her central role from 2021’s Godzilla Vs Kong. Casting a hearing impaired artist in the lead role is an inspiring step towards representation of the deaf community and Hottle is grateful to be part of this effort. Marvel’s Eternals is the other film that cast a deaf actor Lauren Ridloff in the role of Makkari.

Kaylee Hottle On Being A Role Model For the Deaf Community After Her...

The next installment in Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse was released earlier this week on March 29. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a sequel to 2021’s Godzilla Vs. Kong and sees the titular monsters team up to fight a bigger Titan who threatens to destroy the world. The film received mixed responses from critics and seemed to have a good opening weekend.

Director Adam Wingard returned to helm the project after the success of the previous film. Along with other cast members such as Rebecca Hall and Bryan Tyree Henry, deaf actress Kaylee Hottle also reprised her role as Jia. Wingard mentioned how he managed to create a complicated system to give cues to the star as the performance involved many reaction shots for the monsters.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Director Was Initially Afraid Of The Huge Production A still from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Director Adam...

Human characters in the Monsterverse add emotional stakes for viewers and provide connections to the monsters. While humans may take away screentime from monsters, they help establish context and meaning in the storylines. Godzilla and Kong need humans to showcase the impact of their actions and add depth to their characters.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire star Kaylee Hottle (Jia) believes that humans are an essential part of the Monsterverse. Though it revolves around Godzilla and Kong, humans have been a part of the Monsterverse since it first began in Godzilla (2014). Since then, the universe has introduced King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, and numerous other world-shattering Titans. All the while, humans desperately try to survive beneath their mighty steps. Unfortunately, the focus on human characters has drawn sharp criticism.

Humans play a much smaller role in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire's cast, but Hottle is still ready to defend her role from any critics.

The human element is an important aspect of any monster feature, as it provides multiple perspectives, adds to the relatability factor, and makes the stakes feel real to the audience. Legendary’s Monsterverse has struggled with finding a compelling human character or story arc since the beginning, which is why almost every movie in the series has completely changed the cast. Most of the time, the narrative focus was either misplaced or simply detached from the creature storyline.

Earlier this year, Apple TV+’s series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters managed to crack the code by presenting a perfect balance between creature features and human elements through Lee Shaw and Keiko Miura’s story arc, which was seen as a positive sign for upcoming installments. However, with the latest entry in the franchise, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, director Adam Wingard has chosen to go in a different direction, putting...

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is full of surprises. But there’s one very big cameo that has been withheld from marketing materials so far that really needs to be discussed.

But in order to do that, we’ve got to talk about the ending of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” If you haven’t seen the movie – or if you don’t want to be totally ruined when you do – turn back now.

Consider this your last spoiler warning.

Still there? Ok, let’s get into it.

Is there an extra monster in “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire?”

Yes, there is.

Is it a classic monster?

Yes, it is.

Who is it?

It’s Mothra.

Whoa really?

Yes really. The last time we saw Mothra in the MonsterVerse was 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” In that film, she showed up to help Godzilla against the...

Godzilla and King Kong may be the titans fans flock to see, but a new contender has entered the ring, and he’s no mindless beast. Director Adam Wingard sheds light on the motivations behind Skar King, the cunning villain who stands as a stark contrast to Kong in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

A still from Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire

While Godzilla and other Titans are driven by instinct, Skar King is different. Unlike Godzilla and the other big monsters, he isn’t just acting on instincts. He’s smart and thinks things through. Here the director explains more about what makes Skar King such a unique and menacing villain.

Director Reveals Why Skar King is the Perfect Villain in the MonsterVerse

Director Adam Wingard wanted to show how smart primates can be in real life, and he used that to shape Skar King’s character.

Iconic characters survive the brunt of time and stay relevant through generations by adapting to new themes and varying treatments—an aspect that is clearly noticeable when we take a look at the seventy-year journey of Godzilla in the pop culture landscape. In a journey that mimics that of another pop culture legend, Batman’s transformation in comics itself, Toho’s Godzilla movies have ranged from originating in grim-dark disaster horror-themed spectacles to pure campy monster battles intended for the amusement of the younger section of the audience to metaphorical sci-fi allegories. Such a variety of treatment has not only made character timeless but has also paved the way for the global popularity of the iconic Kaiju. Which is why we can have a Godzilla movie set as a post-World War II human drama and, within a few months, have another one radically differing in tone as a monster bash-em-up movie,...