News

By now, the upsetting news of 9-1-1: Lone Star’s cancellation has made the rounds, and we know that this upcoming fifth season will be the last.

It’s never fun when a series you love gets the heave-ho, even if there’s some relief in knowing it will get a proper ending.

That’s why sometimes it’s nice to think about what might happen if the characters we know and love could live in some other capacity.

(Kevin Estrada/Fox)

So, we had some fun and silly thoughts about 9-1-1: Lone Star spinoffs that could keep the spark alive.

From crime procedurals to firefighter spinoffs and even family dramas, there’s something for everyone.

Check out our wishlist for 9-1-1: Lone Star spinoffs, and share your thoughts below!

9-1-1: Detroit Spinoff – Marjan and Paul Co-Run a New House Marjan is...

Egyptian director Alaa Dajani’s “The Native Dance,” a documentary that tells the story of Younis Abdallah and his comrades who were among the 300,000 peasants conscripted into the Egyptian Labor Corps in 1917, many of whom were dispatched to Europe to dig trenches for allied defense in World War I, took the top prize in the Pitching Forum of the Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival’s Agora Docs industry program, which wrapped Wednesday.

The awards ceremony concluded a session that saw more than 400 professionals taking part both in-person and online in the Agora activities.

In “The Native Dance,” which is produced by Kesmat El Sayed and Laura Kloeckner (Seera Films), the jury found “a film that promises a compelling visual approach combining archive material and animation, telling the story about the British forcing peasants from Egypt to dig trenches in Europe during WWI,” read the jury’s statement.

The top prize in the Doc in Progress section,...

Woody Allen, Gerard Depardieu and Johnny Depp all walk into a restaurant.

That’s not the beginning of a bad joke — the three controversial men are looming over a favorite eatery in the South of France, and have been for years.

La Pizza Cresci, a famous spot frequented for decades by Hollywood players who have visited the Cannes Film Festival, has immortalized the trio in a large mural of cinema legends.

The portrait is on the restaurant’s second floor, opposite sweeping views of the French Riviera. As guests snack on plates of pasta and creamy burrata, they can’t help but make eye contact with an illustrated Allen seen playing the clarinet. Bug-eyed and larger than life, the image of Depardieu (who is under investigation in Paris in a case of alleged rape and sexual assault) appears at the forefront of the painting, only a few inches below a rendering of Sharon Stone,...

Broadcasting

Channel 4 and Sky in the U.K. have extended their pre-existing, long-term commercial partnership in a new multi-year agreement which, according to the companies, will facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration, commercial growth and innovation as broadcasting evolves going forward.

Under the terms of the new deal, Sky customers will have access to even more Channel 4 content as more than 1000 hours of All 4 — Channel 4’s VoD platform — exclusives are integrated into Sky’s current and future TV products. Channel 4 will benefit from under the new terms by opening avenues to new digital ad revenue streams which can support its Future4 strategy.

“When we set out our Future4 strategy last year, we made clear that securing strategic distribution partnerships would be a vital part of ensuring we can maximize our reach and impact with viewers in a digital age, grow our revenues and compete more effectively for the future,” said Alex Mahon,...

Michale Boganim is directing “Tel-Aviv/Beirut,” a historical drama set against the backdrop of the Israeli–Lebanese conflict in 1982 and 2006.

Set in Northern Israel, the film tells the journey of two families on each side of the border whose fate intertwined because of the war raging in Lebanon. “Tel-Aviv/Beirut” sheds light on the little-known story of Lebanese people who collaborated with the Israeli army to fight Hezbollah.

Spanning over 20 years, the film follows two women, a Lebanese and an Israeli, who bond amid the war and embark on a road trip together to rescue a loved one.

“Tel-Aviv/Beirut” is headlined by an international cast of Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese actors including Zalfa Seurat, Sarah Adler (“Foxtrot”), Shlomi Elkabetz (“Our Boys”), Younès Bouab (“The Unknown Saint”), Sofia Essaïdi (“La promesse) and Maayane Boganim.

The movie completed shooting during the pandemic in Cyprus and was particularly eventful as it brought together...

Strand Releasing has picked up U.S. distribution rights to Franco-Lebanese auteur Danielle Arbid’s “Simple Passion,” a Cannes 2020 title that played strong on the fall festival circuit.

Announced as part of the Cannes 2020 selection, the French-language film premiered in San Sebastian, and would go on to play Busan, Moscow and Zurich ahead of a planned release in France later this year.

Adapted from Annie Ernaux’s 1992 bestseller, the film tracks an emotionally-toxic but physically combustible relationship between a Parisian academic (Laetitia Dosch) and her mercurial – and married – Russian paramour (dancer Sergei Polunin). Their relationship begins to curdle when one party shows more than carnal interest in the other.

Reviewing the film out of San Sebastian, Variety critic Guy Lodge praised lead actress Laetitia Dosch’s star turn, calling her a “vital life source” and noting that she “holds nothing back physically, but it’s her face, constantly registering shifting internal tides of desire,...

Johnny Depp may have been fired from Fantastic Beasts 3 by Warner Bros., but Dion continues to stand by the actor following the loss of his libel case against The Sun earlier this month. This week, Depp was featured in an ad for the brand's Sauvage cologne that aired in the United Kingdom during The Great British Bake Off, suggesting he will remain as the face of the fragrance. Word he is was paid somewhere between $3 million and $5 million for the TV spot.

Noticing that Dior refused to drop Depp in the same way Warner Bros. had, fans of the actor were quick to hop onto social media to voice their support for the company. "Johnny Depp is still the face of Sauvage, because Dior aren't idiots. Be like Dior," one fan tweets, including the #JusticeForJohnnyDepp hashtag. Many other posts from fans share this opinion, with one praising Dior for "practically...

Because of the ongoing health crisis, the Nifff is pushing back its landmark 20th edition to 2021. “Keeping the original format of the festival intact is impossible in light of the current health crisis and its impact on the film industry,” state the organisers of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff), while still specifying, however, that they will do everything in their power to promote genre film and support audiovisual productions. The festivities for the 20th edition will therefore be postponed until 2021 – and along with them also the “Sauvage” retrospective and the Virtual Worlds exhibition at the Neuchâtel National Natural History Museum, as well as the premiere of Bâtards, a web series by Malou Briand and Raphaël Meyer. Nevertheless, the Nifff is not throwing in the towel, and has decided to maintain the bond it has forged with the audience and the realm of fantastic film. For...

Lorcan Finnegan’s science-fiction thriller “Vivarium” with Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, Jérémy Clapin’s fantasy-filled animated feature “I Lost My Body,” and Hlynur Pálmason’s Icelandic drama “A White, White Day” are among the 11 films set to compete at Critics’ Week, the section dedicated to first and second films that runs parallel with the Cannes Film Festival.

“Vivarium,” described by Critics’ Week’s artistic director Charles Tesson as reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone” and “The Truman Show,” follows a young couple (Eisenberg and Poots) who have just moved into a new housing development and find themselves in a maze of identical homes and a surreal world.

“A White, White Day” marks Pálmason’s follow up to his 2017 feature debut, “Winter Brothers,” which won three prizes at Locarno, followed by a healthy festival run. “A White, White Day” stars Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson (“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”) as an...

In the opening scene of “Sauvage/Wild,” a routine check-up turns suspect when a doctor offers to relieve his patient’s tension down below. After a hurried hand job, money changes hands, revealing the true nature of the interaction. Before parting, the customer asks for a kiss. “Next time,” replies Léo, (though his name is rarely mentioned), embodied with a balance of rough-around-the-edges swagger and childlike vulnerability by Félix Maritaud (“Bpm”). Aside from one night snuggled up to a lonely old man, this is one of the mildest interactions in the film.

Léo’s days are comprised of one sordid, desperate chapter after the next, with very little respite. He follows around a fellow hustler like a puppy dog, and the man returns his affections with a punch to the face. Léo’s health is deteriorating, some rough clients stiff him, and he’s happiest when he’s smoking meth.

There have been quite a few high-quality American films about male prostitution, from John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winning “Midnight Cowboy” to Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho” and Gregg Araki’s “Mysterious Skin,” and from France there has been Patrice Chéreau’s “L’Homme blessé,” and several films from André Téchiné, most notably “J’embrasse pas,” which translates as “I Don’t Kiss.”

Camille Vidal-Naquet’s first feature “Sauvage/Wild” is very much in the Téchiné tradition of “J’embrasse pas,” and the subject of kissing or not kissing is actually central to the narrative. What’s most impressive about this film is the intricacy of Naquet’s screenplay, which plays out in a series of subtly mirroring episodes that follow the life of Leo, a 22-year-old street kid played by Félix Maritaud, who made an impression on screen in “Bpm (Beats Per Minute)” and carries this movie almost singlehandedly.

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably.

I often think there are simply too many films being released any given weekend. When the campaign for Avengers: Endgame (April 26) works best on a computer screen where you can line all the character sheets up and discern the aesthetic meaning of its color palette and the one for Shazam! (April 5) is less than inspiring with Zachary Levi acting a fool with props, however, there can’t be too many because there’s more to look forward to than what we’re going to see anyway. These films...

The 58th edition of Cannes Critics’ Week will take place May 15-23.

Cannes Critics’ Week has kicked off the Cannes 2019 season with the revelation of the poster for its 58th edition.

The parallel section, celebrating emerging directors and first and second features, has used its poster this year to highlight its role in promoting rising young actors too

It features French actor Félix Maritaud in his role of a good-hearted but tortured gay prostitute in Camille Vidal-Naquet’s debut Sauvage which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week last year, courting controversy for some of its hard-core sex scenes.

Maritaud, whose previous...

"Raw, uncompromising and yet strangely romantic." Strand Releasing has debuted an official Us trailer for an erotic French drama titled Sauvage, which translates to Wild in French, which is why the poster and trailer list the titled as "Sauvage / Wild" together. From writer/director Camille Vidal-Naquet, the film follows a young French male prostitute named Leo, played by Félix Maritaud. "The men come and go, and he stays right here — longing for love. He doesn't know what the future will bring. He hits the road. His heart is pounding." It's described as a "powerful portrait of a gay male prostitute in free fall", and premiered in the Critics' Week sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Also starring Eric Bernard and Nicolas Dibla. Certainly not for everyone, but still worth a look especially considering good reviews from festivals. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Camille Vidal-Naquet's Sauvage, direct...

‘The Aftermath’ with Keira Knightley is another new opener.

Stephen Merchant’s solo directorial debut Fighting With My Family leads the openers at the UK box office this weekend, and will look to dethrone three-time champion The Lego Movie 2 from the summit.

The film, which premiered as a ‘secret screening’ in Sundance this year, follows a family of wrestlers from Norwich, as siblings Saraya and Zak work to make it in the WWE. Screen Stars of Tomorrow Florence Pugh (2016) and Jack Lowden (2014) lead the cast, which also includes Nick Frost, Lena Headey and executive producer and former wrestler Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

The star of 2018’s 120 Bpm is outstanding as a hustler in his latest film Sauvage. He explains why making it was like an acid trip – and why he shouldn’t be described as gay

The Rue Saint-Denis has moved on. Twenty years ago, the central Paris thoroughfare was a notorious red-light district, with sex workers of every stripe giving it their all. Now, business has largely moved online, and only a sad-looking sex shop or two marks it out from the multicultural bustle that could be any up-and-coming quarter of London, Berlin or Lisbon.

“It definitely still exists out on the streets,” says Félix Maritaud. “Imagine someone living in precarious circumstances in which they don’t have internet access – there you go. It exists, and it makes the street workers even more precarious.”...

After winning best director at the Venice Film Festival, Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers” picked up three awards, including best film, director and cinematography, at the 24th Lumières Awards, France’s équivalent to the Golden Globes. The ceremony took place on Monday at the Institut du Monde Arabe.

Although it has not made its way into the awards season in the U.S. despite its fall festival bow, the movie is well-positioned in France where it will be vying for nine Cesar Awards, France’s équivalent to the Oscars, on Feb. 22.

Produced by Pascal Caucheteux’s Why Not, “The Sisters Brothers” stars starring Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly and Jake Gyllenhaal.

“The Sisters Brothers” won over Jeanne Herry’s adoption drama “In Safe Hands,” Mikhaël Hers’ “Amanda,” Alex Lutz’s “Guy” and Emmanuel Mouret’s “Mademoiselle de Joncquières.”

Xavier Legrand’s heart-pounding domestic violence drama “Custody” won best first film.

Paris — Two Cannes Critics’ Week hits – ‘Guy,” “Sauvage” – and Erick Zonca’s comeback, “Black Tide,” are three potential highlights in a still-expanding MyFrenchFilmFestival, French promotion org UniFrance’s annual online selection of French and French-language films.

Unveiling MyFFF’s 2019 edition in Paris on Wednesday, UniFrance also revealed that this year’s ninth edition will bow a TV strand, showcasing espionage thriller “The Bureau,” a recent and game-changing Canal Plus Création Originale. The international filmmakers’ jury – unveiled by UniFrance’s president Serge Toubiana and co-managing director Isabelle Giordano on Wednesday morning at Google’s offices in Paris — comprises Jaco Van Dormael (“The Brand New Testament”), Houda Benyamina (“Divines”), Coralie Fargeat (“Revenge”), Mikhaël Hers (“Amanda”) and Kim Nguyen (“Rebelle”). Citing “Divines” which sold to Netflix, and “Revenge” which was acquired by AMC’s Shudder, Toubiana and Giordano said all the filmmakers on the jury have had a connection with a digital service.

Dapper actor Steve Carell made the front of Esquire magazine, but not the back. That side was reserved for Johnny Depp’s Sauvage ad, which was mocked last night by cover-boy Carell and “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon.

“I was up for Sauvage,” Carell told Fallon, all in good fun. “Would you like to see my Sauvage face?”

They then did an impromptu Sauvage-face-off — Carell was not sold Fallon’s attempt. Neither was the cologne company, the NBC personality quipped.

Also Read: Here Are Some Things Michelle Obama Couldn't Say as First Lady (Video)

After that bit, Fallon and his Thursday guest talked about the time Carell finally met Kelly Clarkson, whose name he famously screamed while getting his chest waxed in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”

Watch the video above.

Carell is hosting “SNL” this weekend, his third turn. Carell’s “Beautiful Boy” is still out in some theaters now, and...

Best Israeli documentary went to ‘Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life’.

Jerusalem Film Festival presented its awards on Thursday August 2, with Yona Rozenkier’s The Dive and Tsivia Barkai-Yacov’s Red Cow sharing the best Israeli feature film prize and best debut film.

The Israeli competitions jury split the prizes between the two films ”for their profound qualities and unique cinematic modes of expression, each in its own special way.” The former award comes with a prize of 50,000 Ils.

The Dive is about three brothers who reunite for a weekend to bury their father, before they head to war. The deserted...

Yona Rozenkier’s “The Dive” and Tsivia Barkai-Yacov’s “Red Cow” have scooped The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature Film and the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Debut Film at the 35th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival.

“The Dive” and “Red Cow” shared the award Thursday for best debut film. Produced by Efrat Cohen and Koby Mizrahi ,”The Dive” follows three brothers who reunite for one weekend to bury their father in their native kibbutz on the border with Lebanon before going to war. The movie, which also played at Locarno, is being sold by Stray Dogs.

“Red Cow” is set in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and follows the sexual awakening of a teenage girl living with her widowed father, who is an Orthodox Jew. The movie world premiered at Berlin in the Generation section.

The Israeli competition jury, which comprised Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer,...