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Tony Tost, the Poker Face showrunner who made his feature directorial debut with Americana, is looking forward to a time when his movie can be appreciated outside of this current cultural moment.

Tost took to X late Thursday to offer his thoughts on the film that hit theaters last weekend from Lionsgate and stars Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser and Halsey. Centering on an array of people tracking down a rare Native American artifact, the project was the subject of social media debate after collecting a mere $500,000 from its launch in more than 1,100 theaters.

“One of the great things about movies is that they outlive the zeitgeist into which they were released,” Tost posted. “As someone whose first film sorta got gobbled up by the zeitgeist, I’ll be curious to see how it’ll stand up after this moment is over. Hopefully fairly well!”

The Damnation creator also shared...

Sydney Sweeney's breakthrough began in 2018, when she drew notice in the nostalgic teen dramedy Everything Sucks!, delivered a chilling performance in Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, and played a troubled young woman in HBO's Sharp Objects. Not long after, she made her big-screen debut in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, playing a member of the infamous Manson family.

Her career quickly gained momentum with two standout HBO series – the raw, emotionally charged Euphoria and the sharp social satire of The White Lotus season 1 – earning Emmy nominations for both. In 2023, she displayed impressive range, taking on the role of a whistleblower in the tense HBO drama Reality while also showcasing her comedic side in the hit rom-com Anyone But You.

By 2024, Sweeney pushed her versatility even further, entering the superhero realm with Madame Web and headlining the psychological horror film Immaculate. In 2025, Sweeney's slate remains busy,...

After 15 years working in series television, writing shows including Longmire, Damnation, The Terror, and most recently, Pokerface, Tony Tost moves into the world of feature filmmaking with his road-trip western caper flick Americana, whose cast boasts Zahn McClarnon, Paul Walter Hauser and Sydney Sweeney. Tost spoke with Filmmaker about his upbringing, his journey from academic and published poet to screenwriter, showrunner, and sage of the narrative craft — his Substack, Practical Screenwriting, is an endlessly rewarding font of experience, narrative nuts and bolts, and honest takes about the industry at large — all while musing over westerns, identity and […]

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Plot: A gallery of dynamic characters clash over the possession of a rare Native American artifact in this wildly entertaining modern-day western. After the artifact falls onto the black market, a shy waitress with big dreams teams up with a lovelorn military veteran to gain possession of it, putting them in the crosshairs of a ruthless criminal working on behalf of a Western antiquities dealer. Bloodshed ensues when others join the battle, including the leader of an indigenous group and a desperate woman fleeing her mysterious past.

Review: There are few things as satisfying as a good ensemble cast. When you get a team of solid actors working together on a project that takes classic genre elements and delivers a twist, few things are as enjoyable. Americana, the feature directorial debut from Tony Tost, showrunner of Poker Face and creator of Damnation, takes the tropes of the western genre and...

Sydney Sweeney’s Americana Loses Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score Before Theatrical Debut ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Americana brings together a mix of characters in a small South Dakota town whose lives collide over a valuable ghost shirt, leading to tension and violence. The film, written and directed by Tony Tost, is known as the creator of Damnation and showrunner for Poker Face season 2.

The crime thriller stars Sydney Sweeney as its main protagonist alongside actors like Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon, Simon Rex, Harriet Sansom Harris, and more.

Americana’s Rotten Tomatoes Score: From Perfect Score to 77 Percent

The film first premiered at South by Southwest in March 2023 with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score based on eight reviews. However, that score has since shifted to 79% with fourteen reviews ahead of its August 15 theatrical release.

Trending New James Bond Update: This 37-Year-Old Actor Just Entered The Race To Be...

“Yellowstone” spinoff series “Y: Marshals” has tapped Logan Marshall-Green to lead the upcoming CBS drama series, according to media reports.

Marshall-Green will star opposite Luke Grimes, who reprises his role as Kayce Dutton from “Yellowstone,” in the new series. The show follows Grimes’ Kayce as he joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy Seal to bring justice to his home state of Montana, per the official logline.

Marshall-Green marks the second casting announcement for the new series and the first casting outside of the “Yellowstone” franchise for “Y: Marshals,” which is the show’s working title.

Marshall-Green is best known for starring in films “Upgrade,” “The Invitation” and “Devil,” and on the TV side, he can be seen in “Big Sky,” “Damnation,” “Dark Blue,” “Traveler” and “The O.C.” Marshall-Green also recently appeared on “Sex and the City” spinoff series “And Just Like That” as Adam.

Rumors are teasing the five main heroes who are now expected to be featured in Marvel Studios' rumored Midnight Sons movie. Along with some of Marvel's more popular teams like the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, the Midnight Sons appear close to getting their first big-screen run in the foreseeable future. With a rotating roster of heroes who have pushed this team forward in the comics, the question now is how they will be adapted into a movie.

The Cosmic Circus shared a rumor that Marvel Studios plans to adapt the Damnation storyline from Marvel Comics into the MCU. This is likely to be realized in the McU's upcoming Midnight Sons movie, which has been heavily discussed in rumors but has not yet been officially announced for development.

Damnation is a major event from a 2018 comic featuring the Midnight Sons. It centers on Doctor Strange being overconfident about restoring magic to the world.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s foray into the multiverse has been a mixed bag for many fans, mostly because the movies and TV shows explicitly focused on the multiple universes of the MCU have not actually shown that much of it. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Loki, and even Deadpool & Wolverine offered contracted journeys into other universes that didn’t completely satisfy everyone. But what comes after the Multiverse Saga could be a completely different story, and this time the devil really is in the details.

Ironheart introduced one of Marvel’s “big bads” to the MCU, with Sacha Baron Cohen finally making his first appearance as Mephisto in the season finale. Now, a new rumor has suggested that Marvel Studios is mapping out a path to a big supernatural showdown with the slippery devil with an adaptation of the 2018 comic event, Damnation, and some big characters – with...

In the season finale of Ironheart, Marvel Studios finally introduced the McU's version of Mephisto. Played by Sacha Baron Cohen, he was revealed as the one who'd given Parker Robbins his Hood and ultimately acquired Riri Williams' soul in exchange for the resurrection of her long-dead best friend, Natalie.

The series ended with a post-credits scene suggesting that Parker planned to seek Wong's help to regain what he'd lost, and The Cosmic Circus has now shared some insights into what all this might be leading to.

According to their sources, the idea is to eventually adapt "Damnation," a 2018 storyline revolving around the Midnight Sons. That iteration of the team was comprised of Blade, Ghost Rider, Elsa Bloodstone, Man-Thing, Moon Knight, and Doctor Voodoo.

During the 4-issue event, Mephisto took over Las Vegas, creating Hell on Earth. In doing so, he transformed the Avengers into his demonic, Ghost Rider-like slaves,...

The prevalence of live-action reboots of popular animated media has led to a misguided belief that animation is somehow a testing ground for ideas that can later receive a “definitive” non-animated version of the story. Not only is this belief offensive to animators, but it also ignores the fact that some stories work even better when distanced from the physical limitations of live-action cinema – especially when it comes to over-the-top genre stories.

And if there’s one series of movies that has a lot to gain from embracing a more stylized approach to filmmaking, it has to be the Predator franchise. I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, as the latest entry in the series already seems to be a bona fide hit, with Predator: Killer of Killers benefiting from the aesthetic freedom of its animated visuals.

And in honor of this horror-adjacent spin-off reminding audiences that...

Lionsgate has shared the official trailer and poster for the crime thriller neo-western Americana, which will open in theaters on August 22.

With a runtime of 107 minutes, the film has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association for violence, language throughout, and some sexual references.

A gallery of dynamic characters clash over the possession of a rare Native American artifact in this wildly entertaining modern-day western.

After the artifact falls onto the black market, a shy waitress with big dreams (Sydney Sweeney) teams up with a lovelorn military veteran (Paul Walter Hauser) to gain possession of it, putting them in the crosshairs of a ruthless criminal (Eric Dane) working on behalf of a Western antiquities dealer (Simon Rex).

Bloodshed ensues when others join the battle, including the leader of an indigenous group (Zahn McClarnon) and a desperate woman fleeing her mysterious past (Halsey).

Written and directed by Tony Tost, Americana was produced by Alex Saks.

A little over two years since its debut at SXSW, the first trailer for the star-studded Americanais finally here courtesy of Lionsgate. The feature directorial debut of Tony Tost brings Grammy-nominated pop star Halsey to the big screen for the first time in a violent South Dakota spin on a heist thriller centered around a highly coveted Native American artifact. When said artifact falls onto the black market, outsiders and outcasts, including a small-town woman and her son, a quirky waitress, and a military veteran, collide in a desperate dash to claim it for their own ambitions. The first footage follows Halsey's character Mandy Starr on a "murder spree" as they snatch the treasure for themselves and immediately place a target on their back.

Before ever meeting the long-suffering Starr, viewers are first introduced to the lonesome cowboy Lefty Ledbetter and hopeful Nashville star Penny Jo Poplin, played by Paul Walter Hauser and Sydney Sweeney,...

It’s no doubt that “Knives Out” director Rian Johnson has a jam-packed schedule — but production on his latest projects, “Knives Out 3” and “Poker Face” Season 2, coincided exactly, creating a conflict that he said was “more stressful” than last time around.

“This time was more stressful because … the two production periods lined up with each other, whereas with the last one, I was in post-production on ‘Glass Onion’ when we were in the writers’ room for ‘Poker Face,’ so I could just go back and forth in our office between the edit and ‘Poker Face,'” Johnson told TheWrap.

However, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” which is slated to debut later in 2025, was shooting in London while the sophomore season of “Poker Face” was filming in New York. While series creator, EP, writer and director Johnson said he was “just as involved” with Season 2 during the writers’ room and production,...

Chinese director Tao Shen’s Floating Clouds Obscure the Sun has won the best film award by a new filmmaker in the Forward Future program at the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival.

”After completing her so-called ‘mission’ in life, housewife Tianzhen wants to leave her hometown and go out to see the world,” according to a synopsis. “But her actions and thoughts begin to become unpredictable.”

Johanné Gómez Terrero was honored as best director in the section for his movie Sugar Island, a reflection on the complex past, present, and future lives of Afro-Dominican people in the Dominican Republic.

And At the Bench, directed by Yoshiyuki Okuyama, won the best screenplay award in the Forward Future program. The anthology film, which shows scenes of the everyday life of various people who gather by a small bench, also received the Best Artistic Contribution honor.

Finally, the Valentino Weaving...

Two years ago, American Music Award winner and Grammy nominee Halsey made their big-screen acting debut in Americana at SXSW. The film, which also marked the debut feature of Damnation creator Tony Tost and was produced by Alex Saks, placed the pop star in an all-star lineup that also included rising megastars Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser for a violent story set in a small South Dakota town. Over a year later, with all the acting firepower and a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, Lionsgate was finally able to snag the rights to the film and schedule a release. Now, we're excited to include the long-awaited title as part of Collider's Exclusive Preview event for the upcoming slate of summer movies.

For Americana, we can exclusively share three new images that highlight the main trio at the center of this story of local outsiders, outcasts, and a precious artifact. Halsey plays the long-suffering Mandy Starr,...

The Beijing International Film Festival has unveiled the 15 titles that will screen in the Forward Future section of its 15th edition later this month.

The Forward Future section, launched in 2014, is dedicated to discovering and promoting new filmmakers, focusing on directors’ first or second features. Hungarian director, screenwriter, and producer Béla Tarr (Damnation, Satan’s Tango, The Man From London) will serve as the president of the jury for the Forward Future program. Rounding out his jury will be Chinese actress Jin Chen, also known as Gina Jin, Chinese actor Song Yang, Japanese director, screenwriter and actor Sabu, and Swiss director and screenwriter Cyril Schäublin.

Beijing organizers promise “innovative” spirit, “unique styles,” and “cutting-edge” filmmaking in the Forward Future section, along with insight into the thinking and concerns of young filmmakers from all over the world.

Featured in the program are movies from first-time Chinese directors, namely Jing Yi’s The Botanist,...

Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Let the Bullets Fly) will serve as the head of the main competition jury at the 15th Beijing International Film Festival, which will hand out its Tiantan Awards.

The jury will also include Chinese American director and actor Joan Chen (The Last Emperor), British director David Yates (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Chinese actor Ni Ni, Finnish director Teemu Nikki, Swiss director and actor Vincent Perez, and art director Tim Yip from Hong Kong. The panel will select the winners across 10 award categories, including best feature film, best director and best screenplay.

The festival also unveiled its 15 main competition films, with organizers saying they received a record 1,794 feature film submissions from 103 countries and regions, marking a 19 percent increase over last year.

The three Chinese films in the main competition lineup are Hao Ming and Li Peiran’s Better Me,...

In the 1990s, Marvel introduced the Midnight Sons, a collection of its most supernatural heroes to face the Mother of Demons and the Darkhold. Despite having prevailed, in the shadows of Marvel’s current line of paranormal stories, Chthon is now free, a living Darkhold runs loose, and a cult of Darkholders has ushered the return of one of Hell’s greatest threats. To face these evils, the Midnight Sons must reform.

While the colorful, spandex-clad heroes like Captain America or Spider-Man capture the most attention, a dark plot has been woven throughout Marvel’s supernatural comics. The ripples of this conspiracy have affected every major supernatural comic line, and in the wake of the Blood Hunt, evil is getting bolder.

The Blood Hunt has already forced a small version of the Midnight Sons to rally, but the evil that gathered the first iteration of the team has returned. In...

Japanese black-and-white film Teki Cometh took the top Tokyo Grand Prix prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

The film also won Best Director for Yoshida Daihachi and Best Actor for Nagatsuka Kyozo.

Teki Cometh is based on a novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka. The film follows Watanabe Gisuke, a 77-year-old widower and retired college professor of French literature, living alone in an old Japanese-style house his grandfather had built. However, one day, an unsettling message appears on his computer saying that the enemy is coming.

The festival’s Special Jury Prize went to Colombian film Adios Amigo by Ivan D. Gaona.

Anamaria Vartolomei from Traffic took the Best Actress prize.

Chinese film My Friend An Delie, the debut feature by actor-director Dong Zijian, received the award for Best Artistic Contribution.

The Audience Award went to Yang Lina’s Big World, which follows Chunhu, who has cerebral palsy. During one summer,...

The impressive roster of guest stars on Peacock’s Emmy-winning comedy “Poker Face” continues to grow. In a recent press release, the streamer announced John Mulaney (“John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA”), Ego Nwodim and Sam Richardson will guest star on Season 2.

“Poker Face” is a mystery-of-the-week series following Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road with her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve.

Season 1 premiered on Peacock in January 2023 to rave reviews and quickly became certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The show’s first season received four Primetime Emmy nominations, including Best Comedy Actress for Lyonne, and garnered Peacock its first Emmy win for Judith Light‘s Best Comedy Guest Actress performance.

See Peacock celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with ‘Reggaeton’ docuseries featuring Daddy Yankee,...

John Mulaney, Ego Nwodim and Sam Richardson have joined the cast of “Poker Face” Season 2.

Mulaney, Nwodim and Richardson will guest star in the second installment of the Peacock mystery series, which is currently in production. Their roles remain under wraps, though its likely they’ll cross paths with Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie as she crosses the country solving murder mysteries in her Plymouth Barracuda.

The three new additions join the previously announced guest stars for Season 2, which include Giancarlo Esposito (“Better Call Saul”), Katie Holmes (“Ray Donovan”), Gaby Hoffmann (“Transparent”), Kumail Nanjiani (“Welcome to Chippendales”), Sherry Cola (“Nobody Wants This”), Kevin Corrigan (“Narcos: Mexico”), Ben Marshall (“SNL”), Kathrine Narducci (“Euphoria”), Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”), B.J. Novak (“The Office”) and Margo Martindale (“Cocaine Bear”).

Mulaney recently debuted a series of Netflix talk show special with “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.,” and was recently announced to host a live weekly variety...

Western-based series have been the cornerstone of TV since its inception, capturing the spirit of the American frontier. These shows present compelling stories of justice, survival, and moral dilemmas set against wild and lawless landscapes. However, many outstanding Western series have either been prematurely ended or been severely limited in their scope. Some of the best made for TV Westerns presented engaging plots and intriguing characters, and warranted longer durations to develop their themes and narratives fully. Whether they were canceled early or constrained by their format, each show left viewers wanting more.

Several of these shows constructed expansive worlds and introduced exciting and unique characters with the potential for growth over multiple seasons. The best Western TV shows thrive on gradual, paced storytelling, enabling exploration of frontier life, moral ambiguity, and deep character development. Unfortunately, many of these series were stopped just as they hit their stride. Given more time,...

Sometimes a movie can be a best horror movie you never saw candidate but there are other instances where a movie has been seen and talked about but altogether lost to time. Richard Stanley has had a long career in terms of time he has been active but a very small amount of output in terms of actual number of projects. While the saga of his journey to direct the big budget remake of The Island of Doctor Moreau and subsequent firing has been widely captured in the documentary Lost Soul and his latest success with The Color Out of Space was highly regarded but tinged with controversial allegations, he had a couple of gems before all that. Dust Devil, his sophomore effort, still very much so belongs in the Best Horror You Never Saw category and I will get to that one too, but Hardware (pick up a copy...

Peacock has announced the all-star cast for Season 2 of “Poker Face” continues to expand. The Emmy-winning comedy has added Cynthia Erivo, B.J. Novak and Margo Martindale as guest stars. They join previously announced guest stars Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Gaby Hoffman, Kumail Nanjiani, Sherry Cola, Kevin Corrigan, Ben Marshall and Kathrine Narducci.

“Poker Face” is a mystery-of-the-week series following Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road with her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve.

Season 1 premiered on Peacock in January 2023 to rave reviews and quickly became certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The show’s first season received four Primetime Emmy nominations, including Best Comedy Actress for Natasha Lyonne, and garnered Peacock its first Emmy win for Judith Light‘s Best Comedy Guest Actress performance.

Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider merge into Vengeance Supreme in new fanart by BossLogic (@bosslogic). This hybrid character design features elements from both heroes, such as Ghost Rider's flaming skull and chain-like spell rings, along with Doctor Strange's cloak, clothing, and Sanctum Sanctorum setting. Rumors suggest a live-action Vengeance Supreme could be possible with both Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange potentially appearing next to one another in 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars movie.

Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider are two heroes who have a history of dealing with the darker and more mystical side of the Marvel Universe, with their roles as a Sorcerer Supreme and as a host to the Spirit of Vengeance ranking them up there as some of the most powerful characters around. Not known to cross paths too often in comics, new fanart has fused Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider together, marking the debut of Vengeance Supreme!

Peacock has announced their Emmy-winning comedy “Poker Face” will continue its trend of famous guest stars in Season 2. Notable names joining the mystery include Katie Holmes (“Ray Donovan”), Kumail Nanjiani (“Welcome to Chippendales”), Sherry Cola (“Joy Ride”), Giancarlo Esposito (“Better Call Saul”), Gaby Hoffman (“Transparent”), Kevin Corrigan (“Narcos: Mexico”), Ben Marshall (“Saturday Night Live”) and Kathrine Narducci (“Euphoria”).

“Poker Face” is a mystery-of-the-week series following Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road with her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve.

Season 1 premiered on Peacock in January 2023 to rave reviews and quickly became certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The show’s first season received four Primetime Emmy nominations, including Best Comedy Actress for Natasha Lyonne, and garnered Peacock its first Emmy win for Judith Light...

New cast members have been announced for the second season of Poker Face. After the first season saw its share of big names coming in for special guest roles, it's now clear that Season 2 will do the same.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Season 2 of Poker Face will feature Katie Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, Giancarlo Esposito, and Gaby Hoffman. They will each be featured in guest roles at different points in Season 2, which is currently in development at Peacock.

Related Peacock's Poker Face Gets Exciting Update as Fans Wait for Season 2

Natasha Lyonne's acclaimed Peacock series gets an exciting update.

Natasha Lyonne is returning as Charlie Cale for Season 2 of Poker Face. The first season similarly featured a star-studded list of guest stars, and there will likely be several other big names announced for Season 2. Season 1 saw special guests like Ron Perlman, Adrien Brody, Ellen Barkin, Simon Helberg, Nick Nolte, Rhea Perlman,...

Poker Face just revealed a winning hand for season two.

Katie Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, Giancarlo Esposito and Gaby Hoffmann have all been tapped as guest stars for season two of the hit Peacock series. The season doesn’t yet have a premiere date. The first season had 10 episodes.

The murder mystery show starring Natasha Lyonne and created by Rian Johnson has a homicide-of-the-week format. Lyonne stars in every episode as Charlie Cale, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who has been on the run since the premiere and makes weekly pit-stops to solve murders, establishing herself as the show’s unlikely detective who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying.

The set-up brought in an eye-popping roster of guest stars for season one — a list that included Nick Nolte, Cherry Jones, Clea DuVall, Adrien Brody, Chloë Sevigny, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jameela Jamil, Judith Light, Ellen Barkin, Lil Rel Howery,...

And Just Like That... isn't finished shaking up its Season 3 cast. The Sex and the City sequel series has added three new recurring cast members while promoting two other actors to series regulars.

According to TVLine, And Just Like That... Season 2 cast members Sebastiano Pigazzi and Dolly Wells who respectively portray Giuseppe and Joy have been promoted to series regulars ahead of Season 3. Additionally, Mehcad Brooks (Supergirl), Jonathan Cake (The Affair), and Logan Marshall-Green (Spider-Man: Homecoming) have joined the comedy-drama series as undisclosed recurring characters. The casting update comes roughly two months after it was announced that Rosie O'Donnell would be joining the cast for Season 3 as "Mary."

Related Did Carrie and Aidan End Up Together in And Just Like That...?

And Just Like That tried to make Aidan Carrie's true soulmate. But there's still the question of if they ended up together in Season 2.

Where Have You Seen the New Season 3 Cast Members Before?...

“And Just Like That” has added Logan Marshall-Green, Mehcad Brooks and Jonathan Cake to its Season 3 cast as recurring guest stars.

Additionally, Season 2 recurring guest stars Sebastiano Pigazzi and Dolly Wells have been upped to series regulars.

Pigazzi plays Giuseppe, who dates Anthony (Mario Cantone), while Wells plays Joy, a colleague of Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). Character details for Marshall-Green, Brooks and Cake are not yet known.

Marshall-Green is best known for films including 2018’s “Upgrade” and 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” On TV, he’s appeared in “When They See Us,” “The O.C.” and “Damnation,” most recently starring in “Big Sky.” He is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, CAA and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.

Brooks has played detective Jalen Shaw in “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order: Organized Crime.” His other credits include “Mortal Kombat” and “Mortal Kombat 2” as well as “Desperate Housewives” and “Necessary Roughness.

Exclusive: Sarah Jones and Oscar nominee Adriana Barraza are set for series regular roles in Prime Video’s comic book series with the working title El Gato. They join the previously announced leads Diego Boneta and Lorenza Izzo.

Based on the comic series El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez, El Gato follows Frank Guerrero (Boneta), who returns home to Mexico after the death of his father and finds himself neck-deep in a nest of vipers – his estranged family – who are vying for control of his father’s business empire. But Frank’s grief is interrupted when he learns his only inheritance, a seemingly worthless parcel of land on the border, sits atop the lair of a famous costumed vigilante — his father, “El Gato.” Now, Frank is in the crosshairs. To survive, he’ll have to solve mysteries decades in the...

Over the course of its history, USA Network has had both great successes and big disappointments when it comes to its original scripted shows. Which of the current ones will be cancelled or renewed for another season? Stay tuned!

Scripted USA Network shows listed: Benched, Briarpatch, Chucky, Colony, Complications, Covert Affairs, Damnation, Dare Me, Dig, Dirty John, Eyewitness, Falling Water, Graceland, Mr. Robot, Pearson, Playing House, Psych, The Purge, Queen of the South, Royal Pains, Rush, Satisfaction, Shooter, The Sinner, Sirens, Suits, Treadstone, Unsolved, and White Collar.

Last updated: Most recent ratings added for Chucky.

There's lots of data that USA Network execs look at when deciding whether to renew or cancel a TV series but ratings are the major ingredient. Here's an updated listing of all of their recent/current primetime scripted shows.

Read More…...

Werckmeister Harmonies released in the Criterion Collection on April 16th.

Béla Tarr is an auteur with a reputation befitting the Criterion Collection. The Hungarian filmmaker utilizes beautiful visuals — typically in black and white — and unsettling realism to explore the unpleasant truths of existence. It’s fitting that his first feature to receive a proper physical release in the Criterion Collection is 2000’s whimsical mystery The Werckmeister Harmonies. Even better, we get two for the price of one with the inclusion of his debut feature, Family Nest, included in the special features.

Werckmeister Harmonies Plot

A peculiar circus, consisting of a massive and mysterious whale, sets up shop in the center of a small town. As curious spectators flock to the unconventional attraction, a primal violence bubbles to the surface of the sleepy village.

The Critique

A spectator examines the mysterious whale.

Also Read: Criterion Collection: The Runner Review

Werchmeister Harmonies...

I was very gratified by the response to last year’s interview with Rob Tregenza, a Zelig-like figure of modern cinema. Our very long, multi-Zoom conversation covered a life in film: four features, cherished experiences with Jean-Luc Godard, and hopes he hadn’t reached the end. What I didn’t quite find time for was, and I am embarrassed to even note it, the matter of his shooting stretches of Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies, most notably its iconic opening sequence. By any token this is a major contribution to contemporary cinema for Tregenza’s part and––by that token, at least in my estimation––a major oversight on my own.

With Criterion’s 4K Uhd release of Werckmeister Harmonies arriving this month––about a year since Janus Films’ extremely successful theatrical tour––I figured it was time to ask Tregenza about his experience shooting the film. I did not...

“When you die, will people notice,” Charlie Croker (Jeff Daniels) asks in Netflix‘s teaser trailer for the upcoming limited series A Man in Full. The question is as old as time and something people often ask themselves when contemplating a swift exit from this mortal coil. What would prompt a real estate mogul to have such macabre thoughts? His bankruptcy and inevitable downfall, of course.

Here’s the official synopsis for A Man in Full courtesy of Netflix:

When Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker faces sudden bankruptcy, political and business interests collide as Charlie defends his empire from those attempting to capitalize on his fall from grace.

A Man in Full is based on the New York Times best-selling novel by the late Tom Wolfe, who died of an infection in Manhattan in 2018. The six-episode limited series hails from David E. Kelley Productions and Royal Ties Productions Inc.

Although Moon Knight had its detractors, the story of mercenary Marc Spector and his other personalities captured enough of an audience that many Marvel fans are calling for second season. Thus far, no second season has been announced, and recent comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger about focusing on its “strongest franchises” only throw the possibility into further doubt.

But there is one guy who hasn’t lost faith: Oscar Isaac. An Instagram post from Geek House Show features Isaac talking at a panel during Middle East Film and Comic Con. When asked about the future of Moon Knight in the MCU, Isaac described his hopes for the character, revealing not only that he’s game to play the character again but also dropping a surprising season 2 idea in the process. “I thought there was an interesting opportunity with Midnight Sons,” he answers, referring to a long-running Marvel Comics team that usually fights supernatural threats.

Exclusive: Samantha Bee is joining director Nazrin Choudhury and producer Sara McFarlane as Executive Producer on the film campaign for the Oscar-qualifying short film Red, White and Blue, which stars Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect).

Per the official synopsis, Red, White and Blue tells the moving story of Rachel, a single parent in a precarious position forced to cross state lines in search of a necessary abortion. As we learn more about Rachel and the series of events that led to this journey, we learn a heartbreaking truth which means her life will never be the same again.

Snow stars as Rachel, alongside Juliet Donenfeld (Better Call Saul). The short qualified to be considered for the 2024 Academy Awards after winning the Grand Jury Award for Best Live Action Short at Edmonton International Film Festival. The film also won the Industry Choice Award at Dances With Films: NY.

Red, White and Blue is written,...

The episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw covering The Invitation (2015) was Written by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Horror doesn’t always have to be jump scare after jump scare or a non-stop gore fest. It doesn’t have to have Aliens, Terminators, or Predators to say nothing of any of the other monsters we’ve seen over the years. Movies that don’t include those coveted horror checklists typically get lumped into the thriller category like Silence of the Lambs or even Get Out. Funny how those are the movies that the Globes and Oscars want to award. Without a shadow of a doubt horror films that can be labeled something a little more friendly to draw more audience demographics or get better ink in reviews. I’m here...

If I were into board games twenty or thirty years ago, I reckon my shelves would have more games like Damnation: The Gothic Game on them. As it stands today, Damnation: The Gothic Game stands alone as just about the only game here that relies on mechanisms that are no longer popular with modern gamers – specifically those involving rolling a die for movement, and player elimination. As things are today, with a general market preference for softer, kinder games, Damnation: The Gothic Game stands alone as a unique experience. It has rapidly become the meanest, most brutal and often most exciting game in my collection.

In Damnation: The Gothic Game, players each take the role of a villain inspired by literary or potentially historic characters who are thrust (presumably unwillingly) into Dracula’s Castle. Once there, they must move through the castle, explore rooms to find powerful weapons and items...

BÉLA Tarr Gets European Film Honor

Legendary Hungarian director Béla Tarr will receive the Honorary Award from of the Academy President and Board at the European Film Awards on Dec. 9.

“With this award the European Film Academy wishes to pay special tribute to an outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide,” the Academy said in a press release.

Previous recipients of the award include Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras. Tarr is best known for his films “Damnation” (1988), “Sátántangó” (1994), “Werckmeister Harmonies” (2000) and “The Turin Horse” (2011).

‘Tumse Na Ho Payega!’ Goes No. 1 In India

Disney and Hotstar film “Tumse Na Ho Payega!,” starring Ishawk Singh and Mahima Makwana, was the most-viewed film in the Indian Ott space between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8 with 4.6 million views.

The film tells the...

Tarr to receive Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board.

Hungarian director Béla Tarr is to receive the Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board at this year’s European Film Awards.

Béla Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition. Previous recipients were Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.

Efa said it wished to pay special tribute to an “outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide.”

Tarr made his...

Hungarian director Béla Tarr will receive the Honorary Award of the European Film Academy president and board at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on Dec. 9.

“With this award the European Film Academy (Efa) wishes to pay special tribute to an outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide,” Efa said on Wednesday. “Béla Tarr is the sixth filmmaker to receive this recognition – earlier recipients were Manoel de Oliveira, Michel Piccoli, Sir Michael Caine, Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.”

Born in Hungary, the auteur started experiments in filmmaking at the age of 16. His feature debut, Family Nest. In 1982, The Prefab People received a special mention at the Locarno Film Festival. Tarr followed that up with Almanac of Fall (1984) and Damnation, which was nominated for the first European Film Awards in 1988.

One of Tarr’s best-known films is Sátántangó,...

Resident Evil is a video-game franchise with no foreseeable end in sight. And as Capcom’s zombie shooter approaches the big 3-0, it unleashes another entry in the often overlooked animated series of films. Taking place between games 6 and 7, and following 2017’s Vendetta, the story of Resident Evil: Death Island is subject to the same formula as its predecessors. A big threat brews somewhere, and the characters rush in to stop it. However, the new animated film does manage to set itself apart by featuring an all-star cast and complementing the over-the-top action sequences with organic emotional moments.

While the previous animated films — Degeneration, Damnation, and Vendetta — tend to star only a few major characters from the game franchise, Death Island includes four heavy-hitters. Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Claire Redfield are all active during this mission.

Death Island opens with a flashback from the Raccoon City...

The following contains spoilers from Secret Invasion Season 1, Episode 2, "Promises," now streaming on Disney+.

Secret Invasion has done a good job of giving its various supporting Skrulls a great deal of personality without much screen time. Beyond the core dramatic triangle of Gravik, Talos and G'iah sits an entire apparatus of Skrull infiltrators occupying all levels of their elaborate conspiracy. It's very much to the series' credit that those supporting figures make a strong impression in a short amount of time.

That includes Pagon, Gravik's second-in-command, who plays a significant role in his interplay with G'iah. Actor Killian Scott does wonders with him, despite Pagon's stoic demeanor and comparatively few lines. It's also a chance for international audiences to get to know his work after a career spent largely on Irish television.

Related: Secret Invasion's Emperor Drogge, Explained

Killian Scott Plays an Important Skrull

Pagon is Gravik's loyal hand...

It’s been a good time to be a Béla Tarr fan. While the Hungarian master hasn’t made a full-fledged new feature since 2011’s The Turin Horse, we’ve seen recent restorations of Damnation, Sátántangó, and Twilight, for which he consulted on. Now, his mesmerizing turn-of-the-century masterpiece Werckmeister Harmonies, co-directed with Ágnes Hranitzky, has received a 4K restoration. Following a TIFF premiere last fall, Janus Films will release it in theaters starting later this month and the new trailer has landed.

Here’s the synopsis: “One of the major achievements of twenty-first-century cinema thus far, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies unfolds in an unknown era in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus—complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy,...

It’s Béla Tarr season this year, as not only is the Hungarian filmmaking making a rare appearance in the United States for a Los Angeles American Cinematheque retrospective of his work, but Janus Films is also re-releasing his 2000 masterpiece “Werckmeister Harmonies.”

Per distributor Janus Films, one of the major achievements of 21st-century cinema, Béla Tarr’s mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by the celebrated writer and frequent Tarr collaborator László Krasznahorkai, “Werckmeister Harmonies” unfolds in an unknown era in an unnamed village, where, one day, a mysterious circus — complete with an enormous stuffed whale and a shadowy, demagogue-like figure known as the Prince — arrives and appears to awaken a kind of madness in the citizens, which builds inexorably toward violence and destruction. In 39 of his signature long takes, engraved in ghostly black and white, Tarr...

Bleak Week just got a whole lot bleaker.

The American Cinematheque in Los Angeles has set the second edition of its “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair” series, and this year’s guest of honor will be none other than Béla Tarr, Hungarian master of plumbing the nadirs of the human experience from his last feature “The Turin Horse” to his beloved epic “Sátántangó,” about a farming village in crisis. IndieWire can announce that Tarr will make a rare appearance in the U.S. beginning June 6 at the Aero Theatre for a series of Q&As.

“Hi LA! It will be nice to see you again, after a very long time. I am curious how you are now and what is going on in the town! I hope we will have a good meeting and we will spend a good time together. See you there!” said the filmmaker in a statement shared with IndieWire.

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including a Béla Tarr double bill, with new 4K restorations of Damnation and Sátántangó, Léa Mysius’ The Five Devils, Radu Jude’s short The Potemkinists, and Kira Kovalenko’s Unclenching the Fists.

They will also present a series on past Cannes Film Festival selections with films by Abderrahmane Sissako, Alice Rohrwacher, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Jeremy Saulnier, and more. Ana Vaz’s The Age of Stone and most recent work It is Night in America will arrive on the service, plus a Merchant Ivory series.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

May 1 – Blind Spot, directed by Claudia von Alemann | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

May 2 – Heat and Dust, directed by James Ivory | Gilded Passions: Films by Merchant Ivory

May 3 – Damnation, directed by Béla Tarr | Béla Tarr: A Double Bill

May 4 – The Bostonians, directed by...

Hungarian filmmaker György Fehér's seldom seen 1990 masterpiece, Twilight, gets a 4K restoration treatment by the Hungarian Film Institute and distributed by Arbelos.  The LA-based distribution and restoration company is known for their 4K rerelease of such classics as Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie, Matsumoto Toshio's Funeral Parade of Roses, and Wendel Harris's Chameleon Street, as well as fellow Hungarian master Béla Tarr's Satantango and Damnation. Fehér, who only directed two feature films during his lifetime, was a close collaborator on a number of Tarr's films and shared similar aesthetics. Shot by Miklós Gurban (Werckmeister Harmonies), the film is composed entirely of some 50 long tracking shots. And it is stunning. A retiring police inspector (Péter Haumann) is called in to investigate the murder of...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

György Fehér may be best known as a producer on Béla Tarr classic “Sátántangó” and as a collaborator on Tarr’s “Werckmeister Harmonies.” But the fellow Hungarian filmmaker made two feature films of his own, mostly notably 1990’s “Twilight,” about a detective who comes out of retirement to help find a small girl’s killer. The all-but-lost film has mostly been relegated to the realm of torrenting, but now you’ll get a chance to see it burnished on the big screen thanks to a new restoration from Arbelos.

A brand new 4K restoration from the National Film Institute – Hungarian Film Archive and FilmLab, supervised by Gurbán, will make its way to Film at Lincoln Center on April 21. IndieWire has the exclusive trailer for the film below.

After discovering the murdered body of a young girl deep in a mountainous forest, a hardened homicide detective pushes himself to increasingly obsessive...