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Avatar: The Last Airbender is packed with excellent moments for Aang as he uses the full power of the Avatar Cycle to save the day time and again, but that's never at the expense of Aang's friends. Katara, Sokka, and Toph all get plenty of great moments of their own, from incredible feats in battle to heartfelt, personal scenes or moments of growth. These are the signpost moments for a character arc like Sokka's.

Sokka was introduced as a well-meaning but also obnoxious Water Tribe warrior who fought alongside his sister Katara while rejecting ideas like bending and destiny. Sokka wasn't that likable at first, but before long, Sokka had more and more moments that proved what a great hero and human being he really was, and he kept growing the entire time. In particular, Sokka is known for his clever mind and unconventional thinking, making his best moments unlike anyone else's in the cartoon.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a fantasy anime that features not just stellar world-building and character design, but also outstanding choreography and animation in the show's many fight scenes. Time and again, Avatar Aang and his friends ended up trading blows with their many enemies, which is a chance for Avatar to show off its unique blend of elemental bending, martial arts, and weapons in battle.

Some fights were large-scale clashes that didn't focus much on any given character's actions, such as the Gaang's bloodless battle into the Earth King's palace or the Fire Nation invasion on the day of the eclipse, but other battles focused almost entirely on the choreography of two combatants, which is often more exciting than large-scale battles. Ten particular battles from the three seasons stand out for having clever choreography and fluid movements between the combatants, which no doubt takes some serious skill to animate.

Avatar: The Last Airbender fans know the animated series is chock full of details that could go unnoticed on the first watch. The critically acclaimed 3-season fantasy action show takes us through the journeys of characters whose arcs are well-executed, memorable, and a masterclass in story-telling.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-08)

Amid this ensemble, Zuko, the exiled prince of the Fire Nation, goes through a profound journey of personal growth, evidenced not only through the changes in his heart and perspective but also by his firebending. And this becomes glaringly obvious in The Comet-Enhanced Agni Kai between Zuko and sister Azula.

SUGGESTEDAvatar: The Last Airbender Writer Claimed 4th Season Didn’t Happen Due to M. Night Shyamalan Movie

However, Zuko’s shift in firebending—previously characterized by angry grunts—could be traced back to the Book Three: Fire episode “The Firebending Masters” long before the climactic battle between the...

Exclusive: Ahead of its world premiere at SXSW on Saturday (March 9), feature doc Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics has found an international distributor in the UK’s Rainmaker Content.

The 90-minute film from Canada’s White Pine Pictures investigates the global addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics to human health. The film is an official selection of the SXSW Festival 2024 Documentary Spotlight.

Rainmaker has bagged worldwide sales rights. Two of its key execs, Greg Phillips and Vicky Ryan, have worked with White Pine execs for almost 20 years. While at Kew Media Distribution (Kmd) and Content Media, they represented White Pine titles such as hard-driving TV drama series The Border; feature doc Toxic Beauty; and Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word is Power.

Plastic People has been positioned as the follow-up film to Toxic Beauty.

The synopsis for Plastic People notes that...

Werner Herzog And Peter Zeitlinger Set For Camerimage Honors

Camerimage’s special award for cinematographer-director duos will be handed to Werner Herzog and Peter Zeitlinger. Both filmmakers will receive the award in person at Camerimage’s upcoming 31st edition, where they will meet with the festival audience in Toruń, Poland, and present a retrospective review of their films, including both feature and documentary productions. Zeitlinger and Herzog have collaborated for 30 years. Alongside their first joint venture, Death for Five Voices (1995), their productions include the documentaries Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Wheel of Time (2003), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), Into the Abyss (2011), From One Second to the Next (2013), Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016), Into the Inferno (2016), Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020), Theatre of Thought (2022), and the feature films Invincible (2001), Rescue Dawn (2006), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), My Son,...

Wider availability of vintage footage and a race to relevance has inspired several film-makers to pursue similar subjects

Currently on an extended release in theatres and already earning itself awards buzz, Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s breathtaking documentary about the relationship and career shared by French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, is the surprise independent hit of the summer. But Dosa is not the only director to be inspired by the extraordinary daring of the Kraffts.

In 2016 Werner Herzog released his documentary Into the Inferno, which sparingly included clips from preserved reels out of the couple’s extensive collection. The meat of that film followed present-day volcano expert Clive Oppenheimer, now tapped for a scientific adviser role on Fire of Love, which draws more heavily on the Krafft archive in its all-vintage-filmstrip format of storytelling. In Dosa’s film, the most intrepid home movies ever made gain fresh vitality...

Volcanologists and filmmakers Maurice and Katia Krafft studying an erupting volcanoes, in the documentary Fire Of Love. Courtesy of National Geographic Films.

Volcanoes and love often paired in romantic imagery but Fire Of Love documents a real case of volcanic love, that of married volcanologists Katia and Maurice Kraft, who loved volcanoes, and each other, more than anything.

Even if you have never heard their names, you have likely seen their work, as their breath-taking film footage and still photos of volcanoes erupting have been used countless times in films, as well as appearing in their own documentaries. The couple initially shot the footage as a way to capture complex phenomenon for later scientific analysis, but because they got so close and were so skilled as photographers, the images are astounding, even works of art, in their own right.

The Kraffts have been the subjects of other documentaries, including Werner Herzog’s Into The Inferno.

One of the most acclaimed films to premiere at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year is Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love, which finds Miranda July narrating the life story of French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft and their pursuit to discover everything they could know about volcanoes. Picked up by National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon for a theatrical release starting July 6, followed by a nationwide roll-out and eventual debut on Disney+, the first trailer has now arrived.

I said in my Sundance review, “In a bond forged over mutual fascination (or obsession) with the mysteries of volcanoes, Katia and Maurice Krafft dedicated their lives to discovering everything they could about these natural phenomena. Forces of both awe-inspiring wonder and tragic disaster, Sara Dosa’s archival documentary Fire of Love gracefully captures this extreme dichotomy while also getting to the heart of what drove this couple to abandon a routine,...

"For Katia and Maurice, the unknown is not something to be feared – it is something to go toward." Neon has revealed an official trailer for the acclaimed documentary Fire of Love, a spectacular feature about the true story of a French couple that studied volcanoes. This premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Editing Award at the end of the fest. Fire of Love tells the extraordinary love story of intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died just as explosively as they lived — capturing the most spectacular imagery ever recorded of their greatest passion: volcanoes. The film sifts through the thousands of hours of footage they left behind, trying to piece together their lives and understand them, not only as a couple, but what they were hoping to accomplish in studying volcanoes. Pair this with Herzog's doc Into the Inferno and you're...

The documentary festival will include 38 world premieres.

The UK’s Sheffield DocFest (June 23-28) has unveiled its 2022 line-up, including the world premiere of Werner Herzog’s The Fire Within: Requiem For Katia And Maurice Krafft.

The documentary festival will host 38 world premieres, 22 international premieres and 11 European premieres.

The Fire Within, which is written, narrated and directed by Herzog, will feature in DocFest’s Memories strand. It chronicles the French volcanologists who died in a volcanic eruption on Japan’s Mount Uzen in 1991, leaving an archive of more than 200 hours of footage that makes up the film.

Herzog previously explored the...

Kicking off this week at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, the 51st edition of New Directors/New Films brings together highlights from Sundance, Berlinale, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and many more to provide an essential snapshot of new filmmaking talent. With Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winner Happening commencing the annual festival starting Wednesday, it’s one of 12 films we can recommend as we also look forward to catching up with the rest. Check out our picks below.

The African Desperate (Martine Syms)

It’s a hot July day in upstate New York when Palace (Diamond Stingily) sits for her final art school exam, a passive-aggressive interview with an all-white faculty that leaves her with that soul-crushing question: what are you going to do next? The answer, in Martine Syms’ rollicking debut feature, is a night-long graduation party, a bacchanal that sends Syms’ friend...

“Curiosity is stronger than fear,” utters Katia Krafft, via an actress giving voice to her writing, underscoring images of unimaginably scorching lava exploding around her. With her endearingly reckless husband Maurice Krafft, they form the one-of-kind couple that blazes through the arresting documentary “Fire of Love” from director Sara Dosa.

Read More: Sundance 2022 Preview: 20 Must-See Movies From The Festival

Constructed from the hundreds of hours of grainy footage that the intrepid French volcanologists, previously featured in Werner Herzog’s own exploration on the subject “Into the Inferno,” left behind after their untimely passing, the film makes the case that their marriage was the foundation of their fearlessness.

Continue reading ‘Fire of Love’ Review: Volcanologists Doc Tells Story Of A Singular Romance Blazing With Jaw-Dropping Imagery [Sundance] at The Playlist.

In a bond forged over mutual fascination (or obsession) with the mysteries of volcanoes, Katia and Maurice Krafft dedicated their lives to discovering everything they could about these natural phenomena. Forces of both awe-inspiring wonder and tragic disaster, Sara Dosa’s archival documentary Fire of Love gracefully captures this extreme dichotomy while also getting to the heart of what drove this couple to abandon a routine, domesticated lifestyle and literally sacrifice their lives in the mission to save others. In telling their devotion to one of the natural world’s most dangerous forces, Dosa crafts a documentary that would make Herzog proud—and an ideal double feature with Into the Inferno, his collaboration with volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, which also features the Kraffts.

Even if you’ve never heard of these volcanologists, the divulging of their death in 1991 at the base of a volcanic explosion is presented early on, layering the...

At times, nothing is as gratifying to watch as a movie about obsession that lures you into sharing the obsession. “Fire of Love,” one of the movies that are opening the Sundance Film Festival tonight, is a documentary about an unassuming French couple, Maurice and Katia Krafft, who became the world’s most ardent volcanologists. Starting in 1966, when they met, and over the next 25 years, the two traveled to as many active volcanos as they could find, from Zaire to Colombia to Iceland to America to Japan — and when I say active, I don’t mean wisps of smoke billowing out of the crater. The Kraffts got as close as possible to the danger and spectacle of these seismic tectonic eruptions from the depths of the earth. They stood right next to gleaming rivers of lava, to massive showers of hot rocks, and recorded it all, leaving a filmed and...

Werner Herzog’s “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds” is an aptly meditative travelogue from the philosophical German director. In the last decade or so, Herzog’s documentary output has focused on, among other topics, volcanoes (“Into the Inferno”), prehistoric paintings (“Cave of Forgotten Dreams”) and Antarctica (“Encounters at the End of the World”). In “Fireball,” co-directed by Clive Oppenheimer and available now on AppleTV+, he turns his attention to meteors and comets.

Herzog and Oppenheimer jet to all corners of the globe to engage with astrologists, geologists, religious leaders, self-made scientists, space rock collectors, and people in communities living around some of the world’s largest craters.

In one of the film’s most intriguing scenes, Herzog offers a tribute to Hollywood’s contribution to the subject. He shows us a slightly abridged version of the climactic comet strike in Mimi Leder’s 1998 disaster flick “Deep Impact.”

“Deep Impact” is a movie that,...

We all know how charming Werner Herzog can be. Since he first narrated his 1974 documentary “The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner,” he has learned to put himself as a character in his films behind the camera, as probing questioner and witty commentator. More recently this led to acting jobs, including The Client in Season One of Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.”

Now, the prodigious director of some 20 fiction films, 31 documentary features (“Grizzly Man”) and 18 operas (“The Magic Flute”), has fallen in sync with a collaborator on his explorations into the awe and mystery of science, Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (“Eruptions That Shook the World”).

The two men first met on an Antarctica volcano during filming on Herzog’s only Oscar-nominated film, “Encounters at the End of the World” (2007), the filmmaker said during a recent video interview (below). Oppenheimer stood out among the high-tech down jackets by wearing “a tweed jacket like...

We all know how charming Werner Herzog can be. Since he first narrated his 1974 documentary “The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner,” he has learned to put himself as a character in his films behind the camera, as probing questioner and witty commentator. More recently this led to acting jobs, including The Client in Season One of Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.”

Now, the prodigious director of some 20 fiction films, 31 documentary features (“Grizzly Man”) and 18 operas (“The Magic Flute”), has fallen in sync with a collaborator on his explorations into the awe and mystery of science, Cambridge volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (“Eruptions That Shook the World”).

The two men first met on an Antarctica volcano during filming on Herzog’s only Oscar-nominated film, “Encounters at the End of the World” (2007), the filmmaker said during a recent video interview (below). Oppenheimer stood out among the high-tech down jackets by wearing “a tweed jacket like...

In his latest science doc, the existential film-maker considers the cataclysmic threat from space – as real now as it ever was

In 2007, Werner Herzog made a movie about Antarctica called Encounters at the End of the World, where he met the Cambridge University geographer and seismologist Clive Oppenheimer. The resulting partnership has opened up whole new adventures for Herzog in pop anthropology and the history of ideas. Together, Herzog and Oppenheimer made Into the Inferno in 2016, with Oppenheimer largely in front of the camera and Herzog behind, supplying the unmistakable rasping voiceover with its occasional flourishes of nihilist black comedy. Into the Inferno was all about how volcanos create strange belief systems and supplicant ideologies in the humans around them.

Related: Werner Herzog: 'I'm fascinated by trash TV. The poet must not avert his eyes'...

This strange year is now winding down, and while for much of the month all eyes will be turned towards the U.S. election and its aftermath, as we take a glance at the film offerings, there’s no shortage of worthwhile releases.

From the first batch of five new Steve McQueen films to David Fincher’s first feature in six years to new work by Werner Herzog, Clea DuVall, Gabriel Mascaro, Francis Lee, and more, it’s a stellar line-up as we enter into the final stretch of 2020.

We should also note that some theatrical-only releases earlier this fall are making their digital debuts, such as The Nest and Possessor, so be sure to follow our streaming column for weekly updates.

15. The Giant (David Raboy; Nov. 13)

A highlight at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, David Raboy’s directorial debut The Giant––which follows a young woman who...

Werner Herzog has always thirsted for the uncanny. It’s there in the primal awe he imparted to a grizzly bear in “Grizzly Man,” the cracked rapture of Klaus Kinski’s glowering megalomaniacal conquistador in “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” and the mysteriously intoxicating natural ice-sculpture formations of “Encounters at the End of the World.”

In his new documentary, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” Herzog hits us with an image in the first two minutes that’s as jaw-droppingly whoa! as any footage you’ve ever seen of a UFO that convinced you, for just a moment, that it was a genuine alien visitation. We see dash cam footage, shot on a highway in Chelyabinsk, Siberia, in 2013, of a fire-light meteor streaking across the sky and plunging toward earth, like an airliner crashing right before our eyes. We witness the fireball photographed from assorted locations and angles — roadways, a public square — as Herzog,...

"Each one of these stones from darker worlds has its own story. And the bigger ones have changed entire landscapes." Apple has unveiled the first official trailer for Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds, the latest documentary made by Werner Herzog, and co-directed by volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (also seen in Into the Inferno). This recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival (where I saw it - it's good!), and will be available streaming on Apple TV+ in November to watch this fall. Fireball is a new documentary from the legendary Werner Herzog all about meteors and comets and their influence on ancient religions and other cultural and physical impacts they've had on Earth. It's a fun 97 minute journey through the world of meteors and down into various-sized craters on planet Earth to explore their impact on humanity. If you are like me, and enjoy watching every Herzog documentary, this is another...

“Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds,” the upcoming documentary from acclaimed film director Werner Herzog, is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on November 13. The streaming service revealed the trailer for the project on Friday morning.

Per Apple, “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” takes viewers on an extraordinary journey to discover how shooting stars, meteorites, and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future. The upcoming documentary hails from Herzog and volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, who previously appeared in Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” and “Into the Inferno.”

Although IndieWire’s David Ehrlich had mixed feelings about “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” in his grade B- review of the documentary in September, he nonetheless praised Herzog’s work on the project.

“If you learn anything from this documentary, it will be that nukes would be more effective...

Like tumbling autumn leaves, fall film festivals in Toronto, New York and more have added to the pile of must-see documentaries that could figure in the 2021 Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature.

Possible contenders include Oscar winner Errol Morris‘s yet-untitled doc for Showtime about LSD advocate Timothy Leary. Also, Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus‘s voter suppression film, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” zeroes in on Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and the continued threat to our elections; it just dropped on Amazon Prime. Oscar-nominated “Fire at Sea” director Gianfranco Rosi showed his latest effort, “Notturno,” in Venice and Toronto; shot across three years in Middle East locales near war zones, the doc focuses on how people from the region try to reclaim their everyday lives. It lacks a U.S. distributor.

Sam Pollard showed his IFC Films release “MLK/ FBI”in Toronto and New York, chronicling...

There are few things more soothing and sardonic than hearing Werner Herzog opine about an impending apocalypse. Along with collaborator and co-director Clive Oppenheimer, the filmmakers provide a science-rich documentary freed from the didacticism of the genre, reveling instead in the true wonder and weirdness of our existence. Their previous film, Into the Inferno, gazed […]

The post ‘Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds’ Review: Werner Herzog Explores How Meteors Have Changed the World [TIFF] appeared first on /Film.

In the world of nonfiction filmmaking, few things are as simultaneously comforting and provocative as the voice of Werner Herzog philosophizing and rhapsodizing about the implications of one thing or another. He’s been doing it for decades now in his documentaries, and in recent years he’s specialized in musings about the wonders of science and the natural world: caves in “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” volcanoes in “Into the Inferno,” Antarctica in “Encounters at the End of the World.”

Herzog’s new film, “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,” fits right into that continuum – and like “Into the Inferno,” it’s co-directed with Clive Oppenheimer, a Cambridge professor and scientist who in many ways serves as Herzog’s tour guide into this world. The new film has a bit of the feel of “Werner Herzog’s Greatest Hits” to it, because it goes back into caves and to a volcanic...

A consummate showman who would happily bungee jump into Hell with a camera in his hands just for the joy of narrating that footage, Werner Herzog was a legendary filmmaker long before the breakout success of “Grizzly Man” saw him reborn as a living meme — as a morbidly hilarious mouthpiece for the savagery of a world that doesn’t think you’re special. Somewhere between pulling Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck, brushing off a bullet wound in the middle of an on-camera interview, and coming to the deadpan conclusion that Timothy Treadwell was eaten alive by his bear friends because “the common denominator of the universe is chaos, hostility, and murder,” this titan of New German Cinema became a human version of the “this is fine” dog.

Not that Herzog seemed to mind. Not only did the new cachet make it possible for him to be more prolific than ever before,...

Apple has acquired rights to Werner Herzog’s astronomy documentary “Fireball” for its Apple Original film slate and will premiere the film on Apple TV Plus in more than 100 territories.

Herzog collaborated with British professor Clive Oppenheimer on the project. The duo teamed on the Academy Award-nominated Antarctic documentary “Encounters at the End of the World” and the Emmy-nominated “Into the Inferno.“

“Fireball” explores how shooting stars, meteorites and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future. It’s a Werner Herzog Film production from Spring Films. The film is produced by André Singer & Lucki Stipetić, executive produced by Richard Melman and made with the help and support of Sandbox Films.

Apple Original’s documentaries include “Boys State”; “The Elephant Queen”; “Beastie Boys Story” and docuseries “Visible: Out On Television.” “Boys State” won the U.S. documentary competition at...

Apple announced Friday that it will release a new Werner Herzog documentary, “Fireball,” on its Apple TV+ platform. The film explores how shooting stars, meteorites, and deep impacts on Earth have shaped human mythology and focused our attention on other realms and worlds.

“Fireball” will mark the third collaboration between the legendary director and geoscientist Clive Oppenheimer, who is co-directing the doc.

Oppenheimer, a professor of volcanology at the University of Cambridge, appeared in Herzog’s 2007 Antarctica-set Oscar-nominated “Encounters at the End of the World,” and again in Netflix’s 2016 doc “Into the Inferno.” That most recent film earned an Emmy nomination and followed the pair as they traveled the world to explore various volcanic sites. Much like “Fireball,” that film also drew connections between natural phenomena and its impact on humankind.

“Fireball” will also reunite Herzog with “Inferno” producers André Singer and Lucki Stipetić. Werner Herzog Film is producing alongside Spring Films,...

Apple has acquired rights to Fireball, Werner Herzog’s latest documentary feature, which is now part of the Apple Original film slate and will have its global premiere on Apple TV+. A date has not yet been set.

Fireball reunites Herzog with Professor Clive Oppenheimer for their third pic together following the 2007’s Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World set in Antarctica and the Emmy-nominated 2016 pic Into the Inferno which explored active volcanoes. The new docu reveals how shooting stars, meteorites and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future.

The pic, first announced in October 2018, hails from Spring Films with the help and support of Sandbox Films. André Singer and Lucki Stipetić are producers. Richard Melman is executive producer.

Fireball now joins fellow Apple Original documentaries including the upcoming Sundance-winning Boys State as well as the already released The Elephant Queen,...

Veteran filmmaker reunites with Professor Clive Oppenheimer.

Apple TV+ on Friday (July 24) is planning the worldwide launch of Fireball, an original documentary from Werner Herzog.

The veteran filmmaker reunites with Professor Clive Oppenheimer from Encounters At The End Of The World and Into The Inferno on the film.

Fireball explores how shooting stars, meteorites and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future.

The feature is produced by Werner Herzog Film production and Spring Films. André Singer and Lucki Stipetić served as producers and Richard Melman served as executive...

Apple is boosting its documentary slate with a pickup for Fireball, an upcoming feature from Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer.

The doc's focus will be on how shooting stars, meteorites and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future. Herzog and Oppenheimer, who co-directed Fireball, previously worked together on Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World and Emmy-nominated Into the Inferno.

Werner Herzog Film and Rts are behind the feature, which will be produced by André Singer and Lucki Stipetić, and executive produced by Richard Melman. Sandbox Films is ...

Apple is boosting its documentary slate with a pickup for Fireball, an upcoming feature from Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer.

The doc's focus will be on how shooting stars, meteorites and deep impacts have focused the human imagination on other realms and worlds, and on our past and our future. Herzog and Oppenheimer, who co-directed Fireball, previously worked together on Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World and Emmy-nominated Into the Inferno.

Werner Herzog Film and Rts are behind the feature, which will be produced by André Singer and Lucki Stipetić, and executive produced by Richard Melman. Sandbox Films is ...

At first sight, playing a vital character in Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian,” Disney’s live-action “Star Wars” series, which the studio is using to launch its ambitious streaming venture, might appear to be an odd move for Werner Herzog.

Yet, if Herzog’s career has taught viewers anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. The legendary feature director and documentarian, known for his haunting narration and his films’ wildly eclectic subject matter, is set to portray a mysterious figure in “The Mandalorian,” one whom he says “sets the story on its path” by asking the titular bounty hunter to track a particularly dangerous individual.

Herzog dipped his toe into more conventional Hollywood waters in 2012, appearing opposite Tom Cruise as the villain in “Jack Reacher,” and he says that one of his first on-screen roles, in a German sci-fi film in the 1970s, wasn’t a galaxy far, far away...

Italy’s Biografilm Festival, an event billed as a cinematic celebration of human lives, will pay tribute to Werner Herzog, whose Japanese-language film “Family Romance, LLC” will launch locally following its Cannes premiere, as will “Meeting Gorbachev,” his sit-down conversation with the former Soviet leader.

The prolific Herzog, 76, whose long career comprises feature films such as “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” and “Fitzcarraldo” and a slew of docs, including, more recently Netflix’s “Into the Inferno,” is expected to be on hand at the Bologna-based fest to receive its Celebration of Lives Award on June 10.

As previously announced, Biografilm, which will run June 7-17, is also celebrating Participant Media this year, in particular Diane Weyermann, head of the U.S. company’s documentary film and television unit, who will receive the fest’s Making it Real Award, honoring excellence in producing. The tribute to Participant will include the European premiere...

London-based sales house Film Constellation has boarded Oscar-winning director Werner Herzog’s Japanese-language narrative film “Family Romance,” which will have its world premiere in the special screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written and directed by Herzog, the movie was shot last spring and summer in Tokyo and Aomori, Japan, with non-professional actors. It follows a man who is hired to impersonate the missing father of a 12-year-old girl. Herzog is keeping the plot details under wraps.

As with Herzog’s other works, “Family Romance” explores the recurring theme of individuals chasing impossible dreams, said Fabien Westerhoff, the CEO of Film Constellation.

“This is a project Werner Herzog has kept secret for the last year, and when Werner Herzog asks if you want to work with him, you say ‘Yes, where do I sign,'” Westerhoff said. “Not only because he is one of the greatest living filmmakers, but...

Ever-intrepid filmmaker Werner Herzog is gearing up for his next wide-ranging cinematic exploration of the universe. Variety reports that the “Grizzly Man” and “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World” documentarian has set his sights on “Fireball,” a feature-length documentary about “meteorites and comets and their influence on mythology and religion.” Production on the film is already under way.

Herzog will co-direct the film alongside geoscientist Prof. Clive Oppenheimer; the duo previously collaborated on the Emmy-nominated 2016 Netflix documentary “Into the Inferno.” That film followed the pair as they traveled the world to explore various volcanic sites. Much like “Fireball,” that film also drew connections between natural phenomena and its impact on humankind.

Variety adds that “they will once more go globe-trotting, this time to visit sites that yield insight into comets and meteorites and help them understand what they can tell us about the origins of life on Earth.

Werner Herzog is making “Fireball,” a feature documentary about meteorites and comets and their influence on mythology and religion. Production is underway, and international buyers will get a first look at the Mipcom market in Cannes next week.

“Fireball” reunites the legendary filmmaker with Prof. Clive Oppenheimer. Herzog and geoscientist Oppenheimer previously collaborated on the Emmy-nominated feature documentary “Into the Inferno” for Netflix. That expeditionary film saw the pair travel the globe to visit volcanic sites and explore their impact on humankind.

The producers of “Into the Inferno,” Andre Singer and Lucki Stipetic, are both on board “Fireball.” Herzog and Oppenheimer will co-direct. They will once more go globe-trotting, this time to visit sites that yield insight into comets and meteorites and help them understand what they can tell us about the origins of life on Earth.

Factual producer Spring Films is making “Fireball” with Herzog’s own shingle, Wefjarner Herzog Filmproduktion.

Werner Herzog has re-entered the zeitgeist in a big way over the last several years thanks to directing stirring movies like Rescue Dawn, and documentaries like Cave Of Forgotten Dreams and Into The Inferno. But every now and again he gets to bring that gruff, German persona and voice to an acting role, and the legendary filmmaker recently teased a new acting gig in a major blockbuster movie – of...

If you’re afraid of heights, “Free Solo” is not the film for you. It’s a nerve-racking, vertigo-inducing portrait of a man who scales cliffs with none of the usual safety gear — no ropes, no harness, just a bag of chalk and his bare hands — and it’s made all the more intimidating by the use of relatively new camera technology — including drones, remote-operated rigs, and super-long zoom lenses — that effectively strap audiences right in there with Alex Honnold as he claws his way up a 3,000-foot wall with nothing to protect his fall.

Now, for those who love the thrill of high-adrenaline adventure docs, National Geographic’s “Free Solo” will be a hard experience to top. And yet, as a follow-up to “Meru” — a mountain-climbing doc that was, quite literally, awesome to behold — co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin outdo themselves with this daredevil project, which demanded...

It’s been an interesting, arguably difficult few years for the filmmaker Werner Herzog. Generally busy and active, vacillating from documentary to narrative feature and back, the docs have been coming—two released in 2016, “Lo & Behold, Reveries of the Connected World” and “Into the Inferno.” But the director has been much slower on the dramatic front.

Since the beginning of this decade, Herzog’s only directed two feature-length dramatic films, 2015’s “Queen Of The Desert” and 2016’s “Salt And Fire,” and neither was particularly well reviewed.

Continue reading Werner Herzog Is Headed To The Jungle Of Television For The Series ‘Fordlandia’ at The Playlist.

Werner Herzog is coming to television as the director and executive producer of “Fordlandia,” a new series set in the 1920s and based on Henry Ford’s attempt to built a Utopian society in the heart of the Amazon. The series is being developed by Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group, which acquired the rights to Greg Grandin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Deadline first reported the news.

“Fordlandia” is being written by Christopher Wilkinson, best known as the Oscar-nominated screenwriter behind “Nixon.” Wilkinson’s other credits include “Pawn Sacrifice,” “Ali,” and “Miles Ahead.” Rights to the novel were purchased with plans of developing the story into a television series. Wilkinson will serve as an executive producer along with Herzog.

The book is based on the true story of Henry Ford, one of the richest men in the world during the 1920s. Ford envisioned bringing the...

Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group has acquired the rights to Greg Grandin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Fordlandia to develop as a potential television series, with acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog attached to direct. Oscar-nominated Christopher Wilkinson is writing the series adaptation and will executive produce.

Fordlandia tells the extraordinary true story of the richest man in the world in the 1920s, Henry Ford, and his attempt to recreate small-town America deep in the heart of the Amazon. Amritraj and Herzog are also serving as executive producers, with Addison Mehr and Priya Amritraj co-producing the project. Grandin’s book was published by Macmillan in 2009.

“Fordlandia is an incredible true story and we are thrilled to be working with Werner, one of the world’s most iconic filmmakers, and Chris, a truly exceptional writer,” Amritraj said. “The story of a tycoon with absolute power imposing his vision...

Sit down and listen up. Werner Herzog gave an incredible 100-minute lecture last month at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and now the entire discussion is available to stream for free on the Red Bull Music Academy’s YouTube page. The lecture found Herzog reminiscing on the way music has played a part in his filmmaking. Over his 50-year career, he’s collaborated with the likes of krautrock band Popul Vuh, German composer Klaus Badelt and Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger.

Read More: Werner Herzog Says Independent Film Is a ‘Myth,’ and America Is Stronger Than Trump

Herzog has been quite prolific recently. In the past two years alone, he has released two documentaries, “Lo and Behold” and the Netflix-released “Into the Inferno,” as well as two features, both “Salt and Fire” and the long-delayed “Queen of the Desert” were released theatrically in April.

While he’s well...

The veteran documentary-maker revisits a romantic interlude during a visit to North Korea in the 1950s, and the result is self-indulgent but undeniably fascinating

We are living through a mini-boom in documentaries about North Korea. Film-makers are getting into Pyongyang to shoot – clandestinely, semi-clandestinely and on various pretexts – those vast statues and eerie cityscapes. Werner Herzog’s Into the Inferno suggested the North Koreans’ defensive mindset had something to do with living in the shadow of a volcano, Mount Paektu. Norwegian director Morten Traavik told the extraordinary story of how obscure Slovenian art-rockers Laibach became the first Western band to play North Korea. Alvaro Longorio’s The Propaganda Game argued that North Korea is a zombie state, kept alive by the duplicitous interests of great powers, and Ross Adam and Robert Cannon’s The Lovers and the Despot is about the staggering true story of how in late 70s the...

If there’s one thing Germans love more than techno, it’s Werner Herzog. The legendary German New Wave director experienced a renaissance of sorts with “Grizzly Man” in 2005, propelling him to cult status amongst Millennials, and he has been riding that high ever since.

Read More: Werner Herzog Says Independent Film Is a ‘Myth,’ and America Is Stronger Than Trump

Tonight, Herzog will sit down at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to discuss how music inspires his films, using clips to illustrate his unique ear. Throughout his more than 50-year career, Herzog has collaborated with a wide array of musicians, including krautrock band Popul Vuh, German composer Klaus Badelt and Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger. The event is part of the Red Bull Music Academy, an annual series of music workshops and festivals that travels to a different city every year. Founded in Berlin with an emphasis on techno and DJ culture,...

Last week, in response to the news that Netflix had finally cracked the Cannes competition lineup (a breakthrough that inspired the Federation of French Cinemas to question if a movie that skips theaters should even be considered “a cinematographic work”), I wrote about the streaming giant and how they’ve performed as a distributor. My conclusions were, uh, not super favorable. Criticizing the company’s penchant for pricing out the competition, hoarding the hottest indies on the festival circuit, and burying them on their site without the benefit of a proper release, I argued that Netflix isn’t a distributor so much as “a graveyard with unlimited viewing hours,” and that “it doesn’t release movies, it inters them.” It’s a problem that extends to the well-funded features that Netflix produces themselves, a problem that’s only going to get worse as those titles continue to get better.

See MoreNetflix Keeps Buying Great Movies,...

Review by Stephen Tronicek

It seems Werner Herzog’s art persona exists in the realm of Werner Herzog, not in the realm of modern Hollywood. It’s almost as if the industry evolved around him, leaving him still chugging and fighting the auteurist good fight, churning out the same mind wrenching, thoughtful epics and strangely philosophical and human documentaries that defined his early career. When approaching a narrative feature of his, it’s important to consider this: Even his most acclaimed narrative works, such as Aguirre: The Wrath Of God or Nosferatu are slow building films that in their time were hailed as masterpieces (they still are today), but to the public today would probably hold stale in their sense of artful detachment, made great by their artistry, rather than their true grasp of the audience.Salt And Fire similarly doesn’t hold the audience in such a way, but...

Hulu has announced the new titles that will be available to stream on the platform during the month of April. Leading the pack is the new original series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” based on Margaret Atwood’s classic novel of the same name and starring Elisabeth Moss. The series premieres April 26.

Read More: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Trailer: New Teaser Reminds Us Elisabeth Moss’ Story Is Ours

Also available to stream next month are a handful of modern classics, such as “Robocop,” “Days of Thunder,” “Thelma & Louise,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Election,” “JFK,” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” as well as indie favorites like “Short Term 12,” “The Babadook,” “In a World,” and “Hello, My Name is Doris.”

Find the list of all titles coming to Hulu in April below.

April 1

1408 (2007) (*Showtime)

A Horse Tale (2015)

Agent Cody Banks (2003)

Affliction (1998)

Almost Famous (2000)

America’s Sweethearts (2001) (*Showtime)

Bad Company (1995) (*Showtime)

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) (*Showtime...

When we last saw the Lyon clan in Empire Season 3 Episode 9, Cookie had just learned that new love and New York mayoral candidate Angelo had killed a girl in a DUI when he was a teenager. Not good, for their relationship or his campaign!

Naturally, Lucious was the one who divulged this information, both to Cookie and to the media, so desperate was he to keep his beloved ex-wife away from another man. 

With whom should Cookie be more furious with: Angelo, for keeping this secret from her, or Lucious, for taking such delight out of rubbing his rival's indiscretions in her face?

Either way, there will be hell to pay when Empire returns for its spring premiere on Wednesday, March 22 at 9/8c on Fox. 

Check out these photos from Empire Season 3 Episode 10, aptly titled "Sound & Fury",  to get a taste of what is to come! And remember, if you...

Any discussion featuring Werner Herzog describing his filmmaking process is going to be interesting, and The Hollywood Reporter’s documentary roundtable was no exception. In addition to Herzog discussing his two most recent documentaries “Into The Inferno” and “Lo And Behold, Reveries Of The Connected World,” filmmakers Ezra Edelman (“O.J.: Made In America“), Kirsten Johnson (“Cameraperson”), Josh Kriegman (“Weiner”), Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro”), and Roger Ross Williams (“Life, Animated”) also provided insight into their cinematic approach.

Continue reading 66-Minute Documentary Director Roundtable Talk With Werner Herzog, Ezra Edelman, Kirsten Johnson & More at The Playlist.