News

By Imran Firdaus

Zahidur Rahim Anjan (1965-2025) was a profound admirer of filmmakers like Robert Bresson, Ritwik Ghatak, Yasujiro Ozu, Alain Resnais, and Aki Kaurismäki. Throughout the new millennium, he was a ubiquitous presence at film appreciation courses across Bangladesh, from the capital to divisional cities and rural districts. As a facilitator and screenplay expert, Anjan illuminated how Ozu and Bresson captured reality in fragmented ways, arguing that drama emerged not from sensational incidents but from the essence of everyday life, leaving a lasting impression. He would refer to Kaurismäki’s minimalist style as a tool to frame contemplation on screen. Needless to say, Anjan was immensely popular among his students, regardless of where he taught—universities, institutions, or workshops.

Through the trained eye of a film student, the zeal of a film activist, the dedication of a little magazine contributor, and the intuitive mind of a creative practitioner who wrote and drew rigorously,...

Whenever a book becomes popular and a bestseller, it's only a matter of time before it becomes a movie or TV show. And when these books reach a certain level of popularity or relevance, they can receive multiple adaptations. Books like Pride and Prejudice, Stephen King's It or Carrie, or Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express are now classic books that have received multiple movie or TV show adaptations. But while these popular books have taken to the screen more than once, they aren't close to the many adaptations some of the most adapted books of all time have.

Everyone knows the story of Dracula, Frankenstein or Tarzan, but probably not everyone knows just how many adaptations these books have. Some of the most adapted books have over 100 adaptations between movies, TV and theater productions. One of these books has more than 500 different adaptations. Other books have become such...

"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan was this year's recipient of the Writers Guild of America's Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement — an annual lifetime achievement award that honors the best of the best in television writing.

In his acceptance speech (reported on by Variety), Gilligan shared some mixed thoughts on the legacy of his most famous work so far. Citing the prevalence of bad guys in the current political landscape, he feels it's time to take a break from antihero protagonists like his own teacher-turned-meth cook lead, Walter "Heisenberg" White (brilliantly played by Bryan Cranston). Gilligan explained:

"Walter White is one of the all time great bad guys. But all things being equal, I think I'd rather be celebrated for creating someone a bit more inspiring. In 2025 it's time to say that out loud, because we are living in an era where bad guys, the real life kind,...

Sony Pictures' woebegotten Spider-Man Universe (no Spider-Man included) kicked off in 2018 with the surprise hit of "Venom," and now has seemingly ended with the disastrous "Kraven The Hunter." Spider-Man has some of the best villains in Marvel Comics, but making them into their own independent characters instead of bad guys? It just wasn't a compelling hook.

With "Venom: The Last Dance" closing the door on Tom Hardy's iteration, will we see a new Venom pop up in a Marvel Studios movie, facing down Tom Holland's Spider-Man? There's plenty of room to keep Venom fresh, since the comic book Venom symbiote has had many hosts besides Eddie Brock. It was introduced clinging to Spider-Man himself as his new black costume, only revealing itself to be a sentient, alien lifeform several issues later. After Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" featured an underwhelming (and studio-mandated) Venom, Marvel fans have longed...

Apple TV+ is heading back to the war zone to unearth and recover the untold stories of the Vietnam War in “Vietnam: The War That Changed America.”

Over the course of six episodes, “Vietnam: The War Changed America” will feature first-account interviews with Vietnam War veterans as they recall their experiences fighting in the conflict and speaking on the dramatic impact it had in shaping the U.S. as Americans know it today.

“Vietnam: The War That Changed America” is produced for Apple TV+ by the BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning team at 72 Films, directed by Rob Coldstream (“John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial”) and produced by Caroline Marsden (“9/11: One Day in America”), with executive producers David Glover (“9/11: One Day in America”) and Mark Raphael (“Crime and Punishment”). The series marks the second collaboration for Apple TV+ and 72 Films, following the launch of “John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial” last year.

Niels Arestrup, the French-Danish actor and muse to Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard who appeared in international features including Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has died. He was 75.

Arestrup’s wife, Isabelle Le Nouvel, confirmed his death to Agence France-Presse on Sunday, saying he died “at the end of a courageous fight against illness.”

Arestrup will forever be linked to Audiard and his performances in the filmmaker’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) — playing the criminal father to Romain Duris’ would-be concert pianist — and A Prophet (2009), in which he embodies a terrifying Corsican mob boss who runs his operation from within prison.

Arestrup won best supporting acting César awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscar, for both roles, and the performances solidified his image as an onscreen villain with a piercing blue gaze who is barely holding back the violence within.

Taxi, a beloved sitcom that aired from 1978-1982, featured a talented main cast including Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. The show also included memorable guest stars like Tom Hanks and Ruth Gordon, all of whom contributed to its success. Deceased cast members like J. Alan Thomas, Jeff Conaway, and Marcia Wallace are deeply missed, but their impactful roles live on in Taxi's legacy.

The beloved sitcom Taxi aired its first episode over 45 years ago, back in 1978, and in the years since, a few cast members have passed away, including J. Alan Thomas. The series, which would run for five seasons and conclude in 1982, centered around a group of New York City taxi cab drivers and their obnoxious dispatcher. Several of the main cast became huge stars, including Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Marilu Henner. An acclaimed series, Taxi won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series for its first three seasons.

Who says you need a project to appear on late night? On Thursday, Amy Poehler swung by “Late Night with Seth Meyers” without any projects to promote, but to instead talk about the books she’s been reading this year and to make Meyers laugh so hard he was incapable of sound.

The memorable moment happened roughly seven-and-a-half minutes into the pair’s interview. While talking about Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” Meyers excused himself to sneeze.

“Oh my god, a sneeze! Everybody stand up!” Poehler cheerfully said.

As the audience cheered and jumped to their feet, Meyers buried his head in his hands, unable to contain his laughter. During the roughly 30 seconds he was laughing, only a couple of his chuckles could be heard. His response caused Poehler to burst into laughter too.

Poehler initially explained she came onto her former “Saturday Night Live” buddy...

Kiefer Sutherland will narrate an Apple TV+ doc series about John Lennon’s murder.

Murder Without a Trial from Jimmy Savile: A British Horrror Story producer 72 Films will feature exclusive eyewitness interviews for the first time along with previously unseen crime scene photos, shedding new light on the life and murder of the Beatles icon and the investigation and conviction of Mark David Chapman, his confessed killer.

Producers obtained Freedom of Information Act requests from the New York City Police Department, the Board of Parole and the District Attorney’s office, and the series reveals “shocking details of Lennon’s tragic murder,” according to Apple.

The streamer has gone big with high-end docs of late, greenlighting shows on Boris Becker, Stephen Curry and supermodels.

Murder Without a Trial is directed by Nick Holt (The Murder Trial) and Rob Coldstream (Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain) with executive producers David Glover...

In 1989 Orion Pictures, along with Nelson Entertainment released Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The film was widely loved, and still is, to this day by both critics and fans alike. Because the film was so popular, spawned tons of merchandise and even had two spinoff shows…a sequel was inevitable.

This isn’t just any sequel, it’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. At the time regarded as a love it or hate it film and was considered a box office failure. So let’s go to hell, visit heaven, build some evil and good robots and face off in the Battle of Bands as we check out Bill & Ted’s bonkers follow up on this episode of Revisited.

As stated earlier, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure was released in February 1989 and became a huge success. People couldn’t get enough of the two brain dead yet incredibly...

TV actress Keerti Nagpure, who is currently seen in the show ‘Pyaar Ka Pehla Naam Radha Mohan’, spoke about her interest in reading books and that she takes out time for her hobby during her shoots as well. She added that she is a huge fan of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

She shared: “Since childhood, I have been very fond of books, and I prefer reading fiction and mythology, as well as novels based on true stories. In fact, reading an interesting book always makes me happy and stress-free, even if I have a hectic shoot schedule. At times, I even read a few pages in between takes. I must also mention that not a lot of people know, but I am a big fan of Harry Potter.”

“I have read all the books in the Harry Potter series as well as the Game of Thrones series.

Above: 1962 poster for The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer.The extraordinary German graphic designer Hans Hillmann (1925–2014) should need no introduction to readers of this column: I’ve written about him on a number of occasions and anyone who loves movie poster design should know his name. For a long time, however, it has been hard to find a lot of his work online, certainly not all in one place. For a while I had entertained the idea of trying to collect images of every single movie poster he ever designed and ranking them from best to least-best. But I knew that even if I could gather together his more than 160 posters that I would tie myself in knots trying to put them in any kind of order.Thankfully author and publisher Jens Müller has done half of the work for me. Müller had first met Hillmann when he curated...

Breathing new life into classic stories, Beehive Books has been teaming up with renowned artists to create custom illustrations for new releases of classic literature ranging from The Island of Doctor Moreau to Crime and Punishment. Beehive Books has launched a Kickstarter for the three latest releases in their Illuminated Editions line, and to celebrate, we've been provided with an exclusive image of one of Kent Williams' illustrations for the new edition of Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan & Shadowings.

We have official details and the exclusive image below, as well as other images from the new Illuminated Editions (including The Great Gatsby and A Voyage to Arcturus). To learn more, visit the Illuminated Editions Kickstarter page!

Press Release: Award-winning painter Kent Williams, legendary Frank cartoonist Jim Woodring, and the renowned Italian illustrators known as the Balbusso Twins are collaborating with Beehive Books to create lush, new illustrated editions of literary classics and forgotten gems.

Spoiler Warning: This Q&a contains details about today’s Flight Attendant season finale “Arrivals and Departure” on HBO Max.

HBO Max, this is how you do it.

This is how you get it done right.

If you’re looking to lure new subscribers who’ll continually soak up the service, it’s with binge series like The Flight Attendant (as opposed to melting down Warner Bros. 2021 film slate) which dropped its final eighth episode today.

And for those looking for a sweet dessert this holiday season after filling up on a serious meal of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, this James Bond girl-in reverse spy comedy series with Kaley Cuoco does the trick.

An even bigger delight: after clocking 279 episodes on CBS/Wbtv’s The Big Bang Theory, Cuoco shines like the sun here, showing nuances we’ve never seen before as alcoholic steward-in-the-sky Cassie Bowen who, after falling...

Allie's surprise pregnancy and return is one of the best stories to come out of Days of Our Lives in a long time, and it's quickly beoming a fan favorite.

So what do the writers do? Push Allie to the back burner for almost an entire week and focus on the less-than-riveting tale of Gabi's kidnapping and a missing book full of secret codes in the margins.

The Gabi story dominated Days of Our Lives during the week of 6-15-20, but did anyone find it compelling?

First of all, Gabi's been kidnapped more times than I can count in the space of just a few years. Even tacking on the extra year for the time jump doesn't make it any more interesting that she was abducted yet again.

And this kidnapping was part of a silly story that rivaled the 2015 elephant statue story for most ridiculous espionage story ever.

The acclaimed HBO and Sky UK miniseries “Chernobyl” has dominated the nominations for the 2020 BAFTA Television Awards. The program, which won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series last year, is nominated for 14 BAFTA TV Awards, which ties “Killing Eve” as the most nominated series in a single year in the ceremony’s history. The nominations for “Chernobyl” include Best Miniseries, Best Writer (Drama), Best Leading Actor (Jared Harris), and Best Supporting Actor (Stellan Skarsgard)

This year’s second most nominated series is Netflix favorite “The Crown” with seven nominations. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Fleabag,” the Emmy winner for Best Comedy, and the BBC/Netflix thriller “Giri/Haji” tie for the third most nomination programs with six nominations each. Other series with multiple nominations include the HBO and BBC adaptation of “His Dark Materials,” Channel 4’s “The Virtues,” and crossover favorites “Killing Eve,” “Sex Education,” and “Top Boy.”

A select group...

Chernobyl is leading the pack for this year’s BAFTA TV Awards and BAFTA TV Craft Awards after the Sky and HBO drama scored 14 nominations, including best drama mini-series.

The nuclear disaster drama’s 14 nods mean it is the most-nominated show in BAFTA history alongside Killing Eve last year, which was also recognized in 14 categories. As well as best mini-series, there are individual nominations for Jared Harris as lead actor and Stellan Skarsgård as best supporting actor.

It secured more than double the nominations than the next best-performing show: Netflix drama The Crown. The Left Bank program’s seven nominations include best drama series. Meanwhile, Fleabag and Giri/Haji have six nominations apiece, while there are five nods for His Dark Materials and The Virtues and four for Killing Eve, Sex Education and Top Boy. Sister Pictures scooped 20 nominations in total for Chernobyl and Giri/Haji.

The nominations and awards...