News

Exclusive: The Gotham Group has signed Usman Riaz, the director, animator and co-composer of the animated feature The Glassworker, which has been selected as Pakistan’s official entry for Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars and is vying for an animated feature nomination, as well.

World premiering at Annecy, The Glassworker is the most ambitious project to date for Riaz, an artist, animator, filmmaker and composer who founded Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animation studio, Mano Animation Studios. The film follows young Vincent and his father Tomas, who run the finest glass workshop in the country and find their lives upended by an impending war in which they want no part. The arrival in their town of an army colonel and his young, talented violinist daughter shakes their reality and tests the relationship between father and son.

The Glassworker

Riaz directed the film, marking his feature debut, from a script by Moya O’Shea,...

Fans have been raving ever since the concert for Jane’s Addiction was announced, this year featured the band’s full reunion for the first time in 14 years. Unexpectedly, the show at Leader Bank Pavilion had to be stopped on 13 September, due to a shocking altercation between members.

The singer Perry Farrell took a hit on guitarist Dave Navarro and was subsequently removed from the stage. This brawl caused the concert to be wrapped up in the middle of the 11th song of the set. Fans were enraged while others expressed their disappointment at the turn of events. However, the internet has stated their affiliation, and it is not with the one who started the fight.

Reunion, Ruckus, and Reaction: Brawl in the band

This Friday, 13 September, saw the reunion of the 1980s’ legendary rock band, Jane’s Addiction. The concert held in Boston featured the classic line-up of the band as the guitarist,...

Exclusive: Emmy award-winning Indian producer Apoorva Bakshi (Delhi Crime) has boarded The Glassworker, Pakistan’s first ever Hayao Miyazaki-style animated feature, as an executive producer.

Bakshi, who is producing through her Awedacious Originals banner, joins a growing team of supporters of the ground-breaking 2D hand-drawn project, directed by Pakistan’s Usman Riaz and produced through his Karachi-based Mano Animation Studios.

Spanish animation producer Manuel Cristobal is also on board the project, while Paris-based sales agency Charades picked up international rights after it was presented as a work-in-progress at Annecy International Animation Film Festival last year. The film is currently in post-production and scheduled for delivery in August.

Set in a location loosely inspired by Pakistan, the film revolves around a father and son who run the finest glass workshop in the country but find their lives upended by an approaching war in which they want no part.

A long-time...

The Amazing Johnathan, the magician and comedian who was a longtime fixture on late-night television and the Las Vegas strip, died Tuesday, Feb. 22, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. He was 63.

The cause of death was end-stage heart failure, per the New York Times, with the entertainer — born Johnathan Edward Szeles — previously revealing he had been diagnosed with a heart condition. Szeles’ wife, the performer Anastasia Synn, confirmed her husband’s death, telling the Review-Journal he died in his sleep Tuesday night.

“The last thing I said to him was, ‘I love you,...

Night Gallery (Season 1)

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1969/ Color / 1.33:1 / 408 Minutes

Starring Joan Crawford, Richard Kiley, William Windom

Directed by Steven Spielberg, Boris Sagal, Jeannot Szwarc

A modern-day mythologist with a populist bent, Rod Serling fused the cautionary tales of fantasists like Ray Bradbury to the righteous anger of muckrakers like Ambrose Bierce and A.J. Leibling. Add to that mix the never ending run-ins with network honchos and we can assume that the beleaguered Everyman who populated Serling’s most enduring creation was more than a little autobiographical.

Serling began his long journey on October 2, 1959—and while the signpost up ahead may have read “The Twilight Zone”, the world-weary Serling’s real destination was the past. An early entry in that ground-breaking series was the writer’s own Walking Distance, the story of Martin Sloan, a burned-out ad man who, thanks to some homespun hocus-pocus, has a heart-to-heart chat with his own 11-year-old self.

Neil Young is kicking off his long-awaited Bootleg Series by releasing his December 4th, 1970 show at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It will come out October 1st on double vinyl, CD, and High-Res Digital Audio.

Young played solo acoustic shows at Carnegie Hall on December 4th and December 5th that year, and the second gig has circulated as a beloved bootleg for decades. The first show, which has never been heard before, is now being released.

The 23-song set mixes features Buffalo Springfield classics (“I Am a Child,” “Expecting to Fly”) and Csny tunes (“Ohio,...

Exclusive: Stand-up comedian Kareem Green has joined the cast of Showtime’s Flatbush Misdemeanors.

Green, a three-time champion on Showtime at the Apollo, will recur on the ten-part half-hour comedy, which comes from Kevin Iso (High Fidelity) and Dan Perlman (That’s My Bus!).

Flatbush Misdemeanors, a raw and grounded comedy of city life, follows Dan and Kevin, who play characters struggling to thrive in their new surroundings in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The show explores two longtime friends seeking to climb out of their heads and connect with others.

Green will recur as a character also named Kareem, who is the new stepdad of Dan (Perlman). An uncompromising, confident alpha male, Kareem serves as Dan’s self-appointed, unwanted guide to Flatbush, excitedly claiming his role as Dan’s father figure. Green is reprising his role from the original web series.

The show, which was created by and written by Iso and...

Winners for the 2020 New Zealand Television Awards were announced today, with the event becoming of the few physical screen award ceremonies to be held during the pandemic.

The Luminaries, produced by Southern Light Films and Working Title TV, was the big winner in the drama craft categories with multiple wins including Best Script: Drama for Eleanor Catton, who adapted her Man Booker Prize-winning book for television, Best Director: Drama for Claire McCarthy, Best Cinematographer: Drama for Denson Baker, Best Production Design for Felicity Abbott and Daniel Birt, Best Costume Design for Edward K. Gibbon, Best Makeup Design for Jane O’Kane and Best Post Production Design for Alana Cotton. Lead actor Himesh Patel, who played Emery Staines in the series, won the award for Best Actor.

Taika Waititi, Paul Yates, Jemaine Clement won the Best Comedy award for season 2 of their Wellington Paranormal, while Yates also won Best Script: Comedy for the same program.

Two new seasons of “The Boondocks” will stream exclusively on HBO Max, the latest in a string of TV series revivals that companies are ordering to stand out from their competitors.

The two-season revival will include 24 episodes and will launch in fall 2020 with a 50-minute special. All 55 episodes of the original “The Boondocks” will be available on HBO Max when the Svod service launches in spring 2020.

The new series will follow the adventures of self-proclaimed “Civil Rights Legend” Robert “Granddad” Freeman and his two rambunctious grandsons, Huey and Riley. The family has recently moved to an idyllic community in suburban Maryland only to see it taken over by the tyrannical Uncle Ruckus and his bizarre neo-fascist regime. Life under Ruckus turns out to be an everyday struggle to survive.

Aaron McGruder, who created the original series and the comic strip it was based on, is returning and will serve as showrunner for the two-season revival.

Warner Bros. has brought on rising comedic superstar Tiffany Haddish to voice a new lead role in Lego Movie 2. While no details about the character Haddish is voicing have been given, she becomes the first new cast member to come aboard, joining several voice actors from the first movie. This is also the latest high-profile role for Haddish, who has been landing numerous big roles after her breakout role in last summer's R-rated comedy Girls Trip, alongside Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Regina Hall.

Haddish will be joined by returning The Lego Movie voice stars Chris Pratt (Emmet Brickowski), Elizabeth Banks (Wyldstyle), Will Arnett (Batman), Channing Tatum (Superman) and Jonah Hill (Green Lantern). There is no indication yet as to whether other The Lego Movie voice actors like Alison Brie (Princess Unikitty), Charlie Day (Spaceman Benny), Morgan Freeman (Vitruvius) or others will be returning for this sequel. No story details have been uncovered yet,...

What are you all doing out front of my house on a cold night like tonight? You want to hear about another movie from back in the day? Don’t you have school or something? Ok, I guess I can spare a few minutes to share another forgotten gem with you, but then it’s straight to bed…for me, anyway.

I think it’s safe to say that Linda Blair and I have pretty much grown up together, albeit on different sides of the camera. While I was toiling in the multi-media club in high school making movies for the classes she was in Hollywood making movies for the masses, but we were on the same ship. From the Exorcist movies, Born Innocent, Sarah T.–Portrait of an Alcoholic, Roller Boogie, Ruckus, Savage Streets, Night Patrol, all the way up to All is Normal…I’ve pretty much seen it all.