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One of our go-to free streaming options, Pluto TV, is getting into the summer spirit with a lineup that’s hard to beat. July is shaping up to be a big month, loaded with fan-favorite blockbusters, feel-good summer flicks, and a special birthday celebration that’s sure to put a smile on your face. Whether you’re in the mood for action, nostalgia, or just something fun to throw on during a backyard BBQ, Pluto has something for everyone this summer.

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Kicking things off is the Clueless 30th Anniversary Celebration, which brings back the beloved 90s classic, “Clueless”, on-demand through July. There will be a full Pluto TV Comedy channel takeover on July 1st and a triple-feature marathon on the 90s Throwback channel on July 19th.

A birthday celebration is also in order, as the Tom Cruise Tribute kicks off July 3rd. Pluto is...

Walt Disney Animation Studios pulled back the curtain on Zootopia 2 on Friday, offering the first major preview of the highly anticipated sequel during a packed presentation at the Annecy international animation film festival.

Director and writer Jared Bush, who also serves as Disney Animation’s new chief creative officer, made his Annecy debut with the film, unveiling new footage from Zootopia 2 at the Bonlieu Scène Nationale. The sequel to Disney’s 2016 Oscar-winning hit reunites audiences with rabbit police officer Judy Hopps and former con-artist fox Nick Wilde as they investigate a mysterious new arrival in the mammal metropolis: a reptile named Gary De’Snake (voiced by Everything Everywhere All At Once star Ke Huy Quan).

Bush revealed they cast Quan after spotting the excitable Oscar-winner doing an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and decided he had exactly the right energy to play Gary the venomous but misunderstood snake.

After making her onscreen debut at 11, Natalie Portman quickly learned to separate herself from her public image.

The Oscar winner recently opened up about being subjected to “a long Lolita phase” when she was “really sexualized” as a child actor, making her debut performance in Luc Besson’s Léon: The Professional.

“I think there’s a public understanding of me that’s different from who I am,” she told Jenna Ortega for Interview. “I’ve talked about it a little before—about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen. I felt very scared by it. Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me. And I felt like my way of protecting myself was to be like, ‘I’m so serious. I’m so studious.

Léon: The Professionalstar Gary Oldman reveals that his iconic "Everyone!" line delivery was never intended to make the final cut of the movie. Released in 1994, director Luc Besson's action thriller stars Jean Reno as Léon, an assassin who takes the 12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman) under his wing after her family is murdered. Oldman plays Léon: The Professional's main villain, Stansfield, a corrupt and violent DEA agent. One of the most iconic lines of Oldman's career comes when he demands that a subordinate bring him "everyone" as backup before he then repeats the word in an exaggerated yell.

During a recent interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Oldman reveals that his shouting delivery of the word "everyone" was actually intended as a joke for Besson. The actor recalls wanting to make the director laugh on one particular take, but then the moment ended up in the final cut of the movie.

Writer-director Lucile Hadžihalilović’s The Ice Tower invites comparison to a haunting passage from Dazai Osamu’s No Longer Human. Dazai’s protagonist describes being miles away from home and vomiting blood, which forms “a big rising sun flag in the snow.” Then, as he weeps, the man hears from a distance a little girl saying, “Where does this little path go? Where does this little path go?” It’s one that may as well lead to Hadžihalilović’s film, which abounds in contrasts between blood and snow, among other sensualist pleasures.

Jeanne (Clara Pacini) seems to follow paths wherever they go, without wasting time to wonder where they will take her. She runs away from her foster home in a remote region of France, where her only solace was reading fairy tales to a younger child, Rose (Cassandre Louis Urbain). It’s the 1970s and Jeanne can easily hitchhike...

All titles below begin streaming for free on February 1 unless otherwise noted.

Originals

Action

Earthquake Underground (2/29)

When a massive earthquake submerges several subway cars underground, a group of misfit passengers band together to get to the surface or die trying.

Vice News Presents: Mass Shooting America (2/7)

An unflinching look at the true scope and scale of gun violence in America, as told by those who’ve experienced it first-hand.

Love You To Death: Mommy’S Missing (2/14)

The case of a missing mother reveals twisted family secrets that leave a trail of flames, arrests, and deaths in their wake.

TMZ No Bs: Miley Cyrus (2/24)

Harvey Levin and his team of TMZ experts discuss Miley Cyrus’ meteoric rise to fame and debate her biggest scandals and successes.

Love You To Death: For Love Or Money (2/28)

The shooting of a beloved Cleveland firefighter leads detectives to uncover a shocking plot for money gone very wrong.

Schwarzenegger. Stallone. Van Damme. Gibson. Snipes. Ford. When you make a list of the most popular action heroes of all time, there’s another name that needs to be added to that list – Liam Neeson. Over the last sixteen years, he’s headlined a neverending series of action thrillers that have propelled him to a much higher echelon of fame than he’d ever been on before, with him only ever becoming an action star once he was fifty-six. Ultimately, it was all due to a low-budget, European-financed action flick, which came very close to going direct-to-video and reached theatres in Europe a full year before it opened in North America. That movie is Taken, and we’re going to tell you how it revitalized the career of a man who – at the time – was generally considered a top-tier character actor with limited box office appeal. That’s right – it...

A criminally lesser-known sci-fi action movie is all set to land on free streaming in the new year, meaning audiences can start things off right by discovering this delightful B-movie throwback starring MCU actor and Memento star Guy Pearce. Titled Lockout, the action flick borrows from all manner of cinematic greats, including the likes of Die Hard and John Carpenter’s Escape From New York, to deliver an experience that, while not fresh, is all kinds of fun.

Directed by James Mather and Stephen Saint Leger from a script written by Mather, Saint Leger, and Léon: The Professional and Taken’s Luc Besson, who also serves as an executive producer, Lockout stars Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joe Gilgun, Lennie James and Peter Stormare alongside Guy Pearce. The action sci-fi movie is due to hit the free streaming platform Tubi on January 1, and you can check out the gloriously high-concept below.

In a pairing that initially seems odd but eventually makes total sense, Variety reports that rapper, actor, and media personality Snoop Dogg will star in and co-produce director Luc Besson's upcoming film The Last Man. The new movie is said to be a comedic sci-fi adventure in the vein of The Fifth Element, Besson's 1997 blockbuster starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, and Gary Oldman. As of this writing, no other casting decisions have been made.

Besson and Snoop first collaborated on the 2006 live-action-animated hybrid film Arthur and the Invisibles, in which the latter voiced the character Max. According to Besson, the pair have been eager to team up on a new project ever since.

Related Luc Besson's 10 Best Movies, Ranked

From action to sci-fi to crime thrillers, these 10 movies offer a glimpse into what makes Besson's storytelling so entertaining and thought-provoking.

"I’ve been a big fan of Snoop Dogg...

Snoop Dogg is set to add another feather to his cap by teaming up with Luc Besson for a sci-fi movie titled The Last Man, in which the rapper will star and serve as a co-producer.

Last month, Snoop teased that he was working on a film “in the vein” of Planet of the Apes — but with “dogs instead of apes.” This description matches up with today’s Variety report about The Last Man.

Besson will pen the screenplay, which is expected to take cues from his 1997 cult classic The Fifth Element by mixing sci-fi with comedy and action. Filming is scheduled to begin in 2025.

The Last Man is co-produced by Virginie Besson-Silla and Luc Besson for EuropaCorp with Snoop Dogg and Sara Ramaker through their Death Row Pictures banner.

“I’ve been a big fan of Snoop Dogg’s music ever since ‘Who Am I,'” said Besson. “We first met 20 years ago,...

Snoop Dogg will star in and co-produce Luc Besson’s next movie, an original sci-fi movie titled “The Last Man.”

Although the post-apocalyptic plot is under wrap, it may be connected in some ways to Dogg’s 2009 song “Last Man Standing.”

The project is penned by Luc Besson, who successfully dived in science-fiction with the 1997 cult movie “The Fifth Element” starring Bruce Willis, and then with “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson. The latter was a box office hit, grossing $469 million worldwide in 2014. Three years later, Besson then went on to direct the pricey “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” which grossed $225.9 million worldwide. “The Last Man” will likely be in the same vein as “The Fifth Element,” blending science-fiction, comedy and action.

Dogg and Besson previously worked together almost 20 years ago on the animated feature “Arthur and the Minimoys.” Dogg voiced one of the main characters of the movie.

The Producers Guild of Korea (Pgk) and the Association of Indonesian Film Producers (Aprofi) are deepening their collaboration following their renewed memorandum of understanding, at the inaugural Jaff Market in Yogyakarta, where horror projects dominate the slate of potential co-productions.

The partnership, which first began in 2013, comes at a time when Indonesia’s film industry is experiencing significant growth. “The Indonesian film market has reached 74 million admissions this year with three weeks still to go,” says Aprofi chair Edwin Nazir (“The Science of Fictions”). “So even though we have 280 million [population] it’s still just very big room to grow.”

Pgk president Lee Dong-ha (“Train to Busan”) sees the timing as strategic. “The Indonesian film industry has become one of the most dynamic in the world, and South Korea has become a mature place, especially in terms of awareness. That’s naturally why the MoU [Memorandum of Understanding] between the two organizations was renewed after the pandemic.

"Is life always this hard, or is it just when you're a kid??" Madman has revealed their brand new re-release trailer for the action classic Leon: The Professional, written & directed by Luc Besson, first released in late 1994. Also known as just The Professional in the US, this has gone on to become a cult classic with a ton of fans who absolutely love it. Celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year, Madman is releasing a new Blu-ray 4K Special Edition for anyone to add to their shelves. 12-year-old Mathilda is reluctantly taken in by Leon, a professional assassin, after her family is killed. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégé and learns the assassin’s trade with him. This stars Jean Reno as Léon, Natalie Portman as Mathilda, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello, Michael Badalucco, & Ellen Greene. I always like the little plant she has. Roger Ebert originally gave it...

Lon: The Professional will soon have a free new streaming home. The 1994 Luc Besson-helmed action thriller marked Natalie Portman's feature film debut in a role viewed as more controversial over time.

Lon: The Professional will hit Tubi on November 1. Written and directed by Besson, the film starred Portman alongside Jean Reno and Gary Oldman. The action thriller follows Reno's titular Lon, a professional hitman who reluctantly takes Portman's twelve-year-old Mathilda Lando under his wing after a corrupt DEA agent, Oldman's Norman Stansfield, kills her family. The movie's cast also includes Danny Aiello, Michael Badalucco, Ellen Greene, Peter Appel, Adam Busch, Joseph Malerba, Mawenn, George Martin, Keith A. Glascoe, Willi One Blood, and Jean-Hugues Anglade in a cameo role.

Related 'Everyone Makes Their Choices': Fired Scream 7 Star Reacts to Neve Campbell's Return

After losing her starring role in Scream 7, Melissa Barrera shares her thoughts on Neve...

After coming face-to-face with the Ghost With the Most in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Jenna Ortega will deal with another dead guy alongside Natalie Portman in Cathy Yan‘s upcoming film The Gallerist. Ortega and Portman are circling the project, which finds the Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn helmer back in the director’s chair. In addition to directing the picture, Yan co-wrote the screenplay with James Pedersen. In addition to her starring role, Portman produces the film alongside Jonathan King, Ash Sarohia, Tom McCarthy, Rae Baron, Sophie Mas, and Zola Elgart Glassman.

Details about The Gallerist are scarce. Still, Deadline says the film focuses on a desperate gallerist who conspires to sell a dead guy at Art Basel Miami. If Portman and Ortega join the movie, Yan’s next project could become one of the hottest tickets in Tinsel Town.

Dead Pigs...

It’s 30 years later. Is it too late for a The Professional sequel starring Natalie Portman as Mathilda? Luc Besson’s Controversial Masterpiece Luc Besson is, without a doubt, one of the most provocative directors of his generation. When he released Léon: The Professional in 1994, audiences were equally impressed and shocked by what they saw on the big screen. […]

Mathilda: The Professional – We Need A Natalie Portman Sequel Written by Tito Pernalete for Fortress of Solitude...

Hollywood has produced some of the cinema's most incredible gangster movies, dating back to the Golden Age of the art form, when actors like James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart helped define the form. If those pictures had one problem, it was the restrictions imposed upon them by the Hays code, which strictly defined their content. This is why many movie-going fanatics have turned to crime and gangster films produced outside North America to see things they wouldn't see anywhere else.

Today, the Hays Code is a thing of the past, and America's crime fiction has only improved since then. However, the quality of foreign-language gangster films has also improved. While these films are often overlooked due to the attention given to their American counterparts, they are every bit as violent, epic, and captivating, if not more so. Here are ten of the absolute best foreign language gangster pictures ever made.

It’s been a few decades since last we saw Jean Reno playing a withdrawn curmudgeon protecting a pint-sized charge in “The Professional.” Now, with director David Schurmann’s “My Penguin Friend,” it’s a welcome return to a winning formula.

In the Brazilian filmmaker’s tender-hearted, all-ages adventure, Reno plays a grief-stricken father who gains a small, sweet companion after rescuing him from polluted waters. Inspired by the unshakeable bond between a real-life Brazilian fisherman and a Magellanic penguin thrown off his migration route, the French actor reveals new colors as a performer, shading the picture’s playful and poignant overtones with sensitivity and subtlety, making this a must-see for those who love uplifting stories about redemption, perseverance and empathy.

Reno plays João, whose journey began long before his penguin pal’s arrival, when his cozy, beachside home in Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro, was filled with love, music and laughter.

After seemingly parting ways with Marvel Studios on bad terms after 2013's Thor: The Dark World, Natalie Portman was absent from the MCU until suiting up as the Mighty Thor in 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder.

While Jane Foster's arc wasn't quite as satisfying as what we saw on the page, Portman kicked serious butt as Thor before ultimately succumbing to her cancer. The door was, however, left open to a possible return after she entered the gates of Valhalla alongside Heimdall.

Talking to Total Film, Portman was asked if she'd be open to returning as the Mighty Thor. "Oh, I have no idea," she started. "I mean, no one's asked me to. So I don't know. But sure, that was super-fun."

It would be a missed trick to not either resurrect Jane or have her play a Multiversal member of the Thor Corps, but at least we know...

Since its inception in 1977 by creator George Lucas, the Star Wars universe has invited some of Hollywood’s biggest names to participate in telling stories from a galaxy far, far away. On that note, imagine having the chance to star in one of the most iconic film sagas of all time, only to walk away with an unpleasant memory that seemed like it’d never fade.

Can an experience alongside a cinematic legend like Lucas ever be, dare we say, “boring”? Well, for Terence Stamp, acclaimed for his chilling portrayal of the villainous General Zod in Richard Donner’s Superman, a discouraging stint on the set of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace left an indelible mark.

A still from George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace | Lucasfilm Ltd.

The London-born actor, 85, earlier detailed his less-than-satisfactory experience collaborating with Lucas during the 1999 epic space opera flick.

Luc Besson has a rather unique filmography. While some of the films he's written and/or directed, including The Professional and Taken, have become staples in pop culture, other films - particularly Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - are better tossed and left in the dustbin of history. Among his work, many consider Besson's crowning achievement to be The Fifth Element, starring Bruce Willis as a soldier turned cab driver who winds up protecting a mysterious girl (Milla Jojovich) who is literally the key to stopping a dark force from engulfing the universe. The Fifth Element delivered a universe that was unlike anything else in science fiction at the time, both in terms of visual appeal and lore. It also had some great performances as Willis lends equal parts heart and snark to his cosmic cabbie Korben Dallas, while Jojovich's Leeloo runs through a gauntlet of emotions.

Fill the cannons with stuffed animals and watch the fluff fly as Eli Roth’s Borderlands takes the Lionsgate stage at CinemaCon! The annual entertainment event is in full swing after yesterday’s Warner Bros. panel and reveal of Todd Phillips’s Joker: Folie à Deux trailer. With film and television fans fired up about upcoming releases, Lionsgate is ready to take them to a wasteland where kooky characters try to kill each other, and a fabled vault of riches awaits.

The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin wrote the initial screenplay for Borderlands but removed his name from the project after the script was rewritten by Roth, Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Joe Crombie, Chris Bremner, and Sam Levinson. Zak Olkewicz wrote scenes for Miller during the reshoots. Elements from drafts Aaron Berg and Oren Uziel wrote before Mazin have reportedly made their way into the film as well. So...

4K just got a whole lot sharper, as Sony will release Luc Besson’s 1990 action-thriller La Femme Nikita on the format in June, joining other Besson films like 1994’s The Professional and 1997’s The Fifth Element on the format. This release — which comes in a slick steel book — is restored from the original camera negative, with a 4K image that boasts 2160p Ultra High Definition.

Here is Sony’s official writeup for the movie: “From director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) comes the must-see thriller about a vicious street punk turned sexy, sophisticated and lethally dangerous assassin. Starring Anne Parillaud, Jeanne Moreau and Jean Reno, La Femme Nikita is “slick, stylish and tremendously entertaining” (The New York Times)! Rescued from death row by a top-secret agency, Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is slowly transformed from a cop-killing junkie into a cold-blooded bombshell with a license to kill. But when she begins the deadliest mission of her career,...

Natalie Portman revealed on a recent episode of the “Smartless” podcast (via People) that Jodie Foster once reached out to her after she heard Portman giving a speech about being sexualized as a young actor. Foster famously skyrocketed at 12 years old when she was cast in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” as a child sex worker. Portman, meanwhile, was 11 years old when she was cast in “Léon: The Professional,” which served as her own acting breakthrough.

“I did a speech at a Women’s March about being sexualized as a young actress, and she reached out to me after that, and we talked and it was amazing,” Portman said. “She’s still a role model.”

Portman said that she learned at a young age to project a tough exterior on film sets to avoid sexualization by potential predators.

“That kind of projection of seriousness protected me in a way,” she said.

Plot: A band of expert criminals led by Cyrus Whitaker is recruited to do what they do best — lift $500 million in gold from a passenger plane— but they must do it mid-flight at 40,000 feet!

Review: The entire plot of the Quibi/Roku series Die Hart hinges on Kevin Hart wanting to break out of comedy roles so he can be taken seriously as an action hero. While that plot was played for laughs, it was not the first time Hart tried something different. Both his films The Upside and Fatherhood, as well as the Netflix limited series True Story gave Hart more opportunities to channel his dramatic talents, but Lift is the comedian’s first project that is straight action without the reliance on his being the butt of the joke. Cast in a role commonly saved for Hart’s friends Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg, Lift is a big-budget...

Exclusive: Briarcliff Entertainment has closed a deal for U.S. distribution rights to DogMan, the Luc Besson-directed revenge thriller that stars Caleb Landry Jones. A first quarter 2024 theatrical release is the plan for a film that made its world premiere this fall at the Venice Film Festival.

Besson wrote the script and Jones stars as an unusual man named Douglas who, having just been arrested, opens his heart to tell the moving story of his life. As a survivor of childhood trauma at the hands of a violent father who forced him to live in the family kennel, Douglas develops a bond with dogs that defies understanding. Out of this hell, he grows to discover love, theatre, and cabaret, but also the injustice and disillusionment of the human world. In a life that’s been broken a thousand times, only the love of his dogs can bring salvation. That...

Luc Besson, the onetime A-list director who rose to the top of the box office with his kinetic action films, had his career derailed by rape allegations leveled against him in 2018 by Sand Van Roy, an actress on his film “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” The ensuing legal battle consumed five years of Besson’s life, but after being cleared last June of all charges by the Cour de Cassation, the French equivalent to the Supreme Court, he’s re-emerging at this year’s Venice Film Festival with the indie drama “Dogman.”

But will the industry work with Besson? That’s one of the questions that we discuss during a lengthy interview at the Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris on the eve of his big premiere. Besson is evasive about the matter, preferring to talk up his latest effort, the story of a bruised man who faces...

Lido red carpets may be star-deprived this year, but that didn’t stop the Venice Film Festival from arranging a gorgeous constellation of new movies from supernova directors. (The full lineup is here.)

The SAG-AFTRA strike work stoppage means, of course, that competition directors like Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), David Fincher (“The Killer”), Sofia Coppola (“Priscilla”), Ava DuVernay, Saverio Costanzo (“Finalmente L’Alba”), and Michel Franco (“Memory”) will have to do the talking at press conferences and attend step-and-repeats without their actors, if they’re willing. It’s tricky for multihyphenates like Bradley Cooper, who directs and stars as Leonard Bernstein in Netflix’s “Maestro;” IndieWire hears he will sit this festival out.

Among the Venice film stars who will not be waving to the paparazzi from water taxis are Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Carey Mulligan, Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, Jacob Elordi, Aunjanue Ellis, Lily James, Joe Keery,...

Whether they’re the chilling villain we watch with dread or the misunderstood figure we find ourselves growing attached to, cinema’s contract killers can impact audiences in a wide range of ways. The love we have for Leon (Jean Reno) in The Professional, the utter fear Tom Cruise’s Vincent stunned us with in Collateral, and the oozing coolness of Jef Costello (Alain Delon) in Le Samouraï are all examples of how movie assassins can stay with us long after the credits roll.

Luc Besson — the French filmmaker behind The Professional, The Fifth Element, and La Femme Nikita — has been cleared of all charges in the alleged rape of actress Sand Van Roy.

According to legal documents acquired by Rolling Stone, the ruling came Wednesday via the French high court the Cour de Cassation, who declared that “after examining the admissibility of the appeal and the files from the instruction, the Cour de Cassation has determined that there doesn’t exist, at present, any means to allow for the admission of the appeal.

French actress-writer-director Maïwenn has confessed to a bit of Franco-American culture clash on the set of her latest movie, Jeanne du Barry. The Cannes opener stars Johnny Depp in his first feature film role in three years, as Louis Xv, and Maïwenn as the 18th century monarch’s favorite mistress. In a recent interview with French Premiere, the filmmaker said that she had been warned not to knock on Depp’s dressing-room door during filming to let him know she was waiting. “One day, I did it anyway,” she said. “And there, he made me understand that I had committed an unacceptable intrusion and asked me how I would have felt if he came knocking on my dressing room door. I replied that everyone does it all the time. Because that’s how a set works in France!”

That’s how a set works in Hollywood, too, or it should anyway.

Natalie Portman, who starred in 1994's Léon: The Professional, addressed how abuse allegations made against director Luc Besson have changed her personal view of the film that launched her career.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Portman was asked about the allegations of sexual abuse against Besson by multiple women, which the actor described as "devastating" and surprising. "I really didn’t know. I was a kid working. I was a kid. But I don’t want to say anything that would invalidate anyone’s experience," Portman said. "It’s a movie that’s still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever made, and it gave me my career, but it is definitely, when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it. So, yes, it’s complicated for me.

Related: An Angry...

In a movie career that stretches back 25 years, Jennifer Lopez has on occasion done flaked-out underworld thriller romance (“Out of Sight”), capery action (“Parker”) and revenge (“Enough”). Yet she has never placed herself at the center of such a down-and-dirty, grimly overwrought, execute-now-and-ask-questions-later B-movie as “The Mother.” I’m tempted to call the film “minimalist,” because if you consider its bare-bones screenplay (by three writers!), its convoluted utilitarian set-up, its 2D villains, and its essential formulaic momentum, it’s a prime example of action filmmaking made basic.

Yet “The Mother” is a Netflix action movie, which means that it has a certain flavor of ambition mixed into its pulp stew. The movie, which should have been 90 minutes long (it’s 116), is lumpy and inflated, it’s sketchy yet a touch grandiose, and it’s full of tersely dramatized scenes that somehow feel overly broad. Lopez, as a military sniper turned...

Maïwenn Lo Besco (known simply as Maïwenn) has admitted to assaulting a French journalist. She made the admission on a live French talk show called “Quotidian.”

Last month Maïwenn was accused of assaulting Edwy Plenel, the editor-in-chief of Mediapart, an online investigative newspaper, during a February encounter. Plenel said he was having dinner with his lawyer when Maïwenn walked over, grabbed his hair and spit in his face. Plenel said the encounter was “damaging on a moral and psychological level” and after the supposed attack was left feeling “very traumatized.”

Also Read:

Ava DuVernay Overall Deal to End at Warner Bros. Television

It was unclear what the motivation for the alleged assault could have been, although there speculation that it was because the site was reporting on the sexual assault allegations leveled against French filmmaker Luc Besson. Besson is Maïwenn’s ex-husband from 1992 to 1997. They started dating when she was...

Canadian rockers The Beaches have readied their second proper studio album, Blame My Ex. The record arrives September 15th, but with lead single “Blame Brett,” out now, you already know who to blame for Jordan Miller’s problems.

“Blame Brett” allows The Beaches’ singer-bassist to explain that her newfound commitment issues are the result of a broken heart. “I’m sorry in advance/ I’m only gonna treat you bad/ I’m probably gonna let you down/ I’m probably gonna sleep around,” she sings, over vibrant guitar. “But don’t blame me, blame Brett/ Blame my ex, blame my ex, blame my ex.”

The single has “a little bit of a misleading title,” Miller said in a statement. “It’s not really about my relationship. It’s about feeling vulnerable and afraid to open your heart to someone new. I’m basically talking to my future partners, explaining that...

(Clockwise from Top Left): Chicken Run (Dreamworks), Last Action Hero (Columbia Pictures), Starship Troopers (TriStar Pictures), Léon: The Professional (Buena Vista International)Graphic: AVClub

May is the start of the summer movie season which means Netflix—along with the other streamers—will have to up their game to...

Must-watch comedy series, eye-opening documentaries and an expansion of the “Bridgerton” universe are among the noteworthy additions to Netflix this month. May 12 sees the premiere of Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix original film “The Mother,” in which she plays an assassin lured back in for one last job. And on May 23, the documentary “Victim/Suspect” examines how sexual assault victims too often get turned into suspects when they report their assaults.

“Queen Charlotte,” the “Bridgerton” prequel series, arrives on May 4 while a new season of Tim Robinson’s sketch series “I Think You Should Leave” drops on May 30. And if you missed the most recent season of the niche (but delightful) comedy series “Documentary Now!,” you can stream that on Netflix starting May 9.

Check out the full list of what’s new on Netflix in May 2023 below.

Also Read:

The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now Arriving May 1

Above Suspicion

Airport...

Netflix recently announced it would be investing $2.5 billion into South Korean programming. Before Squid Game season 2 comes down the pike, however, the first seeds of that investment will bear fruit for Netflix in May 2023.

Netflix’s list of new releases for May 2023 is highlighted by the May 12 release of Korean series Black Knight. Set “in a dystopian 2071 devastated by air pollution,” this show will follow world-saving deliverymen known as “Black Knights.” Other international offerings this month include Japanese sumo drama Sanctuary on May 4 and Spanish crime thriller Muted on May 19.

Netflix’s domestic TV options this month include Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on May 4. That will be followed by post-apocalyptic animated comedy Mulligan on May 12 and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s TV debut Fubar on May 25. And for those hoping for “triples,” I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson premieres on May 30.

On the movie side of things, Netflix has an unusually busy month.

French actor Alain Delon has been a revolutionary presence in the film industry for decades.

From his early work in the ‘60s to more recent films like The Professional, Alain Delon has challenged ideas about acting and storytelling. He has created a unique style of performance that is both powerful and subtle. He is also credited with popularizing the ‘anti-hero’ type of character – a morally ambiguous figure who often exists outside traditional violence or justice systems.

Delon’s influence on filmmaking has been immense, but it’s not just about his individual performances: his work was also driven by philosophy and activism. Throughout his career, he became an outspoken advocate for gay rights and gender equality – two issues that were not widely discussed at the time.

In this article, we’ll explore Delon’s revolutionary impact on cinema and culture, looking at his career highlights, acting styles and philosophies.

Alain...

After securing major distribution deals at the EFM, Luc Besson’s next film “Dogman” starring Caleb Landry Jones, is now eyeing a launch in the festival circuit this fall, Variety has learned.

The movie’s French release, initially planned for April 19, has been pushed to the fall to allow distributors to prepare a coordinated global release after a launch at an A-category festival. It would mark the first Besson-directed movie to open at a festival in decades. His wild space opera movie “The Fifth Element” was the opening night movie of the 50th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1997.

Besson’s first film since his 2019 actioner “Anna,” “Dogman” is rumored to mark a return to form for the French director. Based on the trailer which we saw before the Berlinale, the film will be closer to some of his early work, notably “The Professional” and “Nikita” which were character-driven movies with a darker edge.

Jean Reno is an internationally renowned French actor best known for his roles in Hollywood films such as The Professional, Léon: The Professional, Godzilla and Mission Impossible. Born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez in Casablanca in Morocco on July 30th 1948, he moved to France at the age of three with his family.

Jean Reno. Depostiphotos

Reno’s first foray into acting came while still a student when he joined a local theater group. His professional debut was in the play “Molière,” which was followed by many other stage performances. After appearing as an extra in several movies, Reno’s big break came when he was cast as a corrupt police officer in Nikita (1990). This performance earned him an award for Best Supporting Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.

Since then, Reno has gone on to star in numerous successful films including The Da Vinci Code (2006), Les Visiteurs (1993), Ronin (1998) and Godard’s...

Luc Besson’s ”Dogman,” starring Caleb Landry Jones, wowed buyers at the Berlin’s European Film Market, where it was screened for select buyers.

“We hosted only one private screening of the completed film and buyers were stunned, they all came out saying that it was Luc Besson’s best film to date, his most mature movie and some even called it a masterpiece,” said Gregoire Melin, founder of Kinology, which is handling sales on the film.

On the heels of the screening, Kinology closed deals with some of the biggest distributors in key international territories, including Italy (Lucky Red), Germany and Austria (Capelight Pictures), Spain and Latin America (Sun Distribution Group), Scandinavia (Svensk Filmindustri), Benelux (Belga Films), Switzerland (Elite Film), Middle East (Front Row), Poland (Monolith), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aqs) and former Yugoslavia (Blitz).

Kinology is in active talks to close deals for the U.

Liam Neeson recalls how he came to star in Taken and reveals why he thought the action thriller would go straight to DVD. First released in France in 2008 and given a North American theatrical release almost a year later in 2009, Taken sees Neeson playing retired CIA operative Bryan Mills, who uses his lethal set of skills to recover his kidnapped daughter in Europe. The movie, which is directed Pierre Morel, ended up earning more than 226 million at the box ofifce, starting a franchise that now consists of three films in total and a short-lived TV show.

In a recent interview with IndieWire in which he looks back at some of the highlights in his long career, Neeson reveals that he originally didn't have high hopes for Taken. The actor recalls that he wanted the part because Leon: The Professional filmmaker Luc Besson was behind the script and because it...

After winning best actor at Cannes with Justin Kurzel’s “Nitram,” Caleb Landry Jones is poised to gain further international recognition with another towering and intense performance in “DogMan.”

The anticipated movie, which is now in post and will mark Luc Besson’s directorial comeback after his 2019 film “Lucy,” was teased with a trailer at a private exhibition event in Paris, at the Grand Rex theater, on Jan. 24.

Introduced on stage by Besson, the trailer delivers a glimpse at the movie’s emotionally charged scenes with Landry Jones filling nearly every frame. The Texas-born musician and actor stars as Douglas, a man who was abused as a child by his violent father and viciously thrown to dogs. Instead of attacking him, the dogs came to protect him and became his allies in life. On a journey to heal from childhood trauma and physical injury, Douglas seeks to find his own path,...

Aiello in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing".

Actor Danny Aiello has passed away at age 86 following a brief illness. Aiello didn't start acting until age 34 but when he did, he became a reliable and popular character actor. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", playing the owner of a pizza parlor trying to navigate boiling racial tensions in the neighborhood. He also had a memorable role in Norman Jewison's "Moonstruck". Other films include "The Godfather Part II", "The Front", "The Purple Rose of Cairo", "Radio Days" (the latter three with Woody Allen), "Fingers", "Fort Apache the Bronx", "The Cemetary Club", "Ready to Wear", "The Professional", "Once Upon a Time in America" and "Prince of the City". Although Aiello worked with some of the most legendary directors, his one regret was not having been cast in a Martin Scorsese film.

Welcome to the DC Extended Universe, Cathy Yan. She won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival for her bracing debut “Dead Pigs,” and was quickly scooped by Warner Bros. and DC to helm “Birds of Prey.” Subtitled “The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Miss Harley Quinn,” the tentpole is led by Margot Robbie’s cupid of crime in a candy-colored display of female power.

During a recent chat with /Film, Yan spoke about the cinematic influences on “Birds of Prey,” and with this introduction to the film, she has certainly set a high bar of expectations for her upcoming DC debut.

“The way that I sort of talked about the structure of the film is a bit like ‘Pulp Fiction’ meets ‘Rashomon.’ So it’s an unconventional structure,” Yan said. “For me, there’s a lot of my favorite filmmakers that have influences on this film,...

It’s been 17 long years since “Rules of Attraction” director Roger Avary has released a film, during which time he was involved in a deadly car crash, charged with gross vehicle manslaughter, saw a work furlough translated into actual prison time, and watched things go south with Video Archives amigo Quentin Tarantino over the “Pulp Fiction” credit fiasco. Those are setbacks that might break the spine of a lesser scribe, but in Avary’s case, it seems to have strengthened his resolve to write — although until now, virtually nothing has been produced to show for it. Not for lack of trying. Some people are good at directing movies, and others are good at getting movies to direct. Avary hustled a number of projects, and somehow, “Lucky Day” was the first to get made.

The movie marks a curious comeback, . Where Avary’s other films have innovated and unsettled, this one’s clever but safe,...

Welcome to this week’s Major League Wrestling: Fusion review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and Tony Schiavone is back on commentary this week, so get your clicker ready to skip that lousy Mankind/Rock title match. Yeah, that’ll put butts in seats.

Match #1: Low Ki defeated Jimmy Yuta The following is courtesy of mlw.com:

“The Professional” has indeed been a real pro at knocking opponents out cold and even though Yuta has a few inches on Low Ki, the wily vet was ready for quick work. Yuta was squaring to grapple up with Low Ki, but a quick boot to the face sat Yuta down for the quick Ko that led to referee Doug Markham signaling for the bell.

My Opinion: 1.5 out of 5 – This was a short squash, but Low Ki gave a cool kick.

Match #2: The Von Erichs (Marshall and Ross Von Erich...

Artist ApexForm has posted a piece of concept art of what Natalie Portman might look like when we see her next in the upcoming film, Thor: Love and Thunder, in which she is set to play The Mighty Thor. Fans are divided on the casting choice, and the ones who are okay with it are even still a little hesitant. But one thing is for sure, she’s going to get jacked! She even said so when she announced her role on Instagram after the Hall H panel. She posted the picture of herself onstage holding Mjölnir, and said you could count it as her before picture before she gets jacked.

So that’s something the artist definitely took into consideration as this piece of art has Portman looking very strong. I don’t know that she has the ability to get this big on her little frame, but it...

Updated with EuropaCorp statement: Luc Besson’s embattled EuropaCorp has responded to a report in French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, which said on Sunday the studio was entering a deal that would see NY-based Vine Alternative Investments come to its rescue. In a statement provided to Deadline, Europa confirmed discussions “with several financial partners including the group Vine, as part of the restructuring of its debt and the strengthening of its financial capacity.”

Vine, Europa said, “has expressed interest in a potential stake in the capital of the company” and talks are ongoing. As of March 31, EuropaCorp’s net debt stood at $181M. In May, the company was granted a six-month debt waiver to give it time to balance the books. Vine would be expected to convert Europa’s debt into capital shares.

A rescue deal between Europa and Vine was reportedly hatched on July 3 in the office of the French judicial administrator.