News

Andrew Ahn and James Schamus stepped into the spotlight to discuss their reimagining of Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated 1993 classic The Wedding Banquet and their careers at a “The Makers” event held on Wednesday as part of BFI Flare, the London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival.

Director/co-writer Ahn was also asked about the backlash against queer rights in various parts of the world. “I wish it weren’t so fraught, and it makes me incredibly anxious. I can only hope that this film coming out … is is an opportunity for people to build community, watch this film together, gain some strength, and then be able to go out there and fight for what is portrayed on screen,” he said.

“It just shows you it’s never a guarantee. It’s always this pendulum swing.”

Added co-writer/co-producer Schamus: “It was that moment which we all experienced just recently at Sundance [where the movie premiered] and I...

Christina Ricci has been an accomplished actress and has starred in several popular films and series since her big screen debut in Mermaids (1990). But one role she missed out on was that of Mathilda in the classic 1994 film, Léon: The Professional, losing out to Natalie Portman. And in a new interview with the YouTube show, First We Feast (via The Wrap), Ricci reveals the ridiculous reason why: she was "too common and healthy looking."

That may come as a surprise to some, considering one of Ricci's most famous roles was the rather gothic Wednesday Addams in the early 1990s hit film, The Addams Family and its sequel. She explained to her Yellowjackets co-star Melanie Lynskey why she lost out on her "dream role:"

"I really wanted to be in 'Léon: The Professional,' but I was too common and healthy-looking. What a time to be twelve."

Léon: The Professional,...

Christina Ricci talks about how she lost a major role to Natalie Portman. The Yellowjackets star started her career as a child star, featuring in the 1990 movie, Mermaids, and scored her big break portraying Wednesday Addams in the 1991 movie The Addams Family. She transitioned into more adult-themed roles in 200 Cigarettes, The Ice Storm, Buffalo '66, and many more. In the Tim Burton-directed Netflix series Wednesday, she appeared as Marilyn Thornhill, a teacher at Nevermore Academy.

Most recently, Ricci played a sadistic healthcare worker in the hit show Yellowjackets. The show follows a group of girls who are stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash, taking place in dual timelines. Ricci's character, Misty, is one of the survivors in the present timeline who is still haunted by what happened to them in the woods. While promoting the show's season 3, Ricci reflects on her childhood career, where she admits...

With the horror genre, sometimes less is more. Tension and emotion can carry a film through a lot of weaknesses. Julia Max’s The Surrender coasts on strong performances and direction to overcome the shortcomings of an occasionally shallow and generic script, making it a great entry in the canon of recent indie horror.

The Surrender Review

The movie follows a woman and her mother grieving after the death of the family’s patriarch as they consult a mysterious stranger who makes a unique promise: to bring their recently departed loved one back from the dead. Séancé horror films like this are easy to mess up because they can often border on goofy, but for the most part, Julia Max’s directorial debut manages to achieve a tone that feels genuinely sinister and also very effectively sad.

RelatedHallow Road SXSW Review — Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys Are Phenomenal in a Lean,...

Exclusive: Principal photography wrapped at the end of February in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Mark Pellington’s conspiracy thriller Lone Wolf, starring Oscar nominees Lily Gladstone and Bryan Cranston.

We first told you about the project back in Cannes and cast to have joined since then includes O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (Den Of Thieves 2), Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty), Chet Hanks (Dead Wrong) and Spencer Garrett (Yes Man).

Tom Chilcoat’s original screenplay is about a troubled marine vet (Gladstone) who is pulled into a dark conspiracy by a cunning mercenary (Cranston) to commit a political assassination.

UTA Independent Film Group is currently handling sales on the film, which is produced by industry vets Ted Hope (The Ice Storm) and Christine Vachon (Past Lives) through their Double Hope and Killer Films banners respectively, alongside Jordan Wagner of Wagner Entertainment.

Executive producers of the project include Sean Krajewski, Ronnie Exley, Lawrence Minicone...

Jesse Eisenberg has quietly amassed one of the most impressive filmographies of any artist working today, as he has shown a great deal of interest in all aspects of storytelling. While Eisenberg’s career began with small roles in films by noted directors like M. Night Shyamalan and Michael Hoffman, he quickly created an awkward, paranoid personality that made him an unorthodox leading man. While Eisenberg perfected this persona over the course of his subsequent film roles, he would frequently show an ability to subvert it by taking on more subversive parts. Eisenberg has written short fiction, worked in theater, delivered an amazing performance on the FX miniseries “Fleishman Is Is Trouble,” and has become an exciting writer/director who is certain to have many more great films.

Although he does make time to appear in franchises like “Now You See Me” and “Zombieland” that appeal to more average moviegoers,...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Connecticut is one of the smallest, and more anonymous, of the 50 American states. With New York to the west of us and Boston to the east, the Nutmeg State has an unavoidable vibe of being stuck between two actually interesting places. I'm a lifelong Connecticuter, but I can't say we share the same fervor of statewide pride as, say, Texas does.

If we have a statewide reputation, it's for being a (new) haven of rich, sleepy suburbs — so no surprise that many of your favorite actors have settled in Connecticut. We gave Hollywood Katharine Hepburn, Robert Mitchum, Meg Ryan, Paul Giamatti, Seth MacFarlane, and many more. Plus, the stereotypes of the state make it a favorite for dramas and/or comedies (often both in one film) tackling suburban ennui. There's no real town named Stars Hollow, but "Gilmore Girls" gets the Nutmeg mood right.

To many, he will always be Frodo Baggins, the brave little furry-footed hobbit who volunteers to bear the burden of carrying the dreaded One Ring as he leaves his bucolic existence behind while sacrificing himself to save Middle-earth in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

But Elijah Wood has had quite a varied career beyond the Shire ever since he made his film debut at 8-years-old with a small part as Video Game Boy #2 in 1989’s “Back to the Future Part II.” He would go on to land the coveted central role in the epic fantasy franchise based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s enduring classic when he was 18. But his early output on the big screen consisted of a string of so-so ‘90s titles such as “Radio Flyer,” “Paradise” and “Forever Young.” However, he often earned praise for his part in even mediocre projects.

But when he reached his teens, Wood...

Two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee will have to make some more room in his trophy case. The Directors Guild of America said today that the Taiwanese filmmaker will receive its 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award.

He will put up the hardware during the 77th DGA Awards on Saturday, February 8, at the Beverly Hilton.

“Ang Lee is truly a master filmmaker,” DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter said. “For over 30 years, he has directed a dynamic body of work that boldly cuts across genres – from period drama to comedy, adventure to western, superhero to martial arts – always fearlessly taking on new challenges, never repeating himself, and consistently achieving cinematic excellence.”

Lee won Best Director Oscars for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain and 2013’s Life of Pi and scored another noms for his 2000 epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He also has two Best Picture nominations as producer of Crouching Tiger and Life of Pi. His remarkable filmography...

Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee added a prestigious honor Tuesday to his already exceedingly decorated career in the arts. The three-time Oscar winner was presented with the Praemium Imperiale at a black-tie ceremony in Tokyo. Often described as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, the award is handed out annually to artists working in various fields. A mark of the prize’s prestige, past honorees in the film and theater category have included true icons of film history, such as Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Jean-Luc Godard, Martin Scorsese and Catherine Deneuve.

“I’d like to think that my career is a never-ending school where I learn about cinema and about myself and about the world. There is no end to that learning,” Lee said during a news conference in Tokyo ahead of the awards ceremony. “As the first person from Taiwan to receive this award, I’m proud and deeply grateful.

Christina Ricci's decades-long career dates back to her childhood, when she became known for playing smart, spooky characters. While Ricci made her film debut in Mermaids in 1990, her breakout role is widely recognized as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family; she would reprise the morbid character for 1993's Addams Family Values. In 1995, she starred in Casper as Kat Harvey, a teenager who develops a bond with a ghost. Four years later, Ricci worked alongside Tim Burton, a master of spooky, for his gothic horror Sleepy Hollow. During a recent conversation with People, Ricci was asked what it was like to be a pioneer in the spooky genre:

"That's very kind of you. I don't feel like a pioneer... certainly. I was lucky as a young person at that time [with] where our culture was to play really interesting roles, interesting young girls and then interesting women."

Ricci has consistently worked...

With a career spanning over 50 years, Sigourney Weaver has showcased her versatility across Broadway, television, and film, creating iconic heroic characters in both dramatic and comedic roles. Her remarkable talent has earned her three Academy Award nominations.

Born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949, in New York City, she adopted the name Sigourney at age 14, inspired by a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby.

Weaver graduated from Stanford University and obtained a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama. Even as she found fame and success on the screen, she would maintain her love for the stage throughout her career. Her many theater credits include four Broadway productions: Sir John Gielgud’s production of The Constant Wife in 1975, the groundbreaking 1984 production of David Rabe’s Hurlyburly opposite William Hurt, Harvey Keitel and a newcomer named Cynthia Nixon, and the 1996 production of Sex and Longing, written...

She’s survived xenomorphs, busted ghosts, lived among the gorillas, and co-starred in the top-grossing blockbuster of all time — and soon she’ll have a Golden Lion. Screen icon Sigourney Weaver, whose stately grace and steely will have captivated filmgoers for nearly 50 years, will be awarded the Venice Film Festival‘s top honor for lifetime achievement at the event’s glamorous 81st opening ceremony. But first, the three-time Oscar nominee met the international press in Venice on Wednesday afternoon for a wide-ranging conversation about her career and the art of cinema.

Within the first five minutes of the sit-down, Weaver was brought to tears by a female journalist’s personal thank you for her pioneering performances as strong women characters — most notably, as the heroine Ripley in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic Alien — which shifted perceptions in the industry about the kinds of parts women could play and empowered female viewers everywhere.

Exclusive: Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy) and Colby Minifie (The Boys) will lead the cast of The Surrender, an indie horror film from first-time feature filmmaker Julia Max.

Others to appear in the film, currently shooting in Los Angeles, include Neil Sandilands (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Vaughn Armstrong (Star Trek: Enterprise), Mia Ellis (Lavender Men), Pete Ploszek (You), Chelsea Alden (13 Reasons Why), Riley Rose Critchlow, Lola Prince Kelly and Alaina Pollack.

A sales title with all rights available, The Surrender centers on a fraught mother-daughter relationship that is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead. As the bizarre and brutal resurrection ritual spirals out of control, both women must reconcile their differences as they fight for their lives, and for each other.

“The Surrender is an incredibly personal...

Exclusive: Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee has boarded 76 Days, a documentary from Joe Wein, based on Steven Callahan’s New York Times bestselling memoir Adrift: 76 Days Lost At Sea, as an executive producer.

Lee comes to the project after collaborating with Callahan on his 2012 Oscar winner Life of Pi. He had the author serve as a consultant on that film, examining an unbelievable story of survival at sea, after learning about Callahan’s own incredible tale in the same vein.

On the eve of February 4, 1982, in the middle of the night, there was a loud boom as a whale collided with Steven’s boat. Within minutes, his small craft was flooded with a rush of water. He grabbed what he could, heaved his life raft into the ocean, and snatched his emergency kit. Without food or water, for an incredible 76 days the inflatable raft was his home as he drifted across the Atlantic Ocean.

The 62nd edition of the New York Film Festival will kick off with RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys.”

Film at Lincoln Center made the announcement early Monday and notably didn’t specify a premiere designation for the film, perhaps an indication that “Nickel Boys” will have its world premiere at another festival such as the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, or Venice Film Festival.

“What an absolute honor for ‘Nickel Boys’ to open the 62nd New York Film Festival… a daydream really, for the crew, the cast, and team who’ve committed so wholeheartedly to its vision,” Ross said in a statement. The filmmaker’s debut documentary, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” was previously screened at the 2018 edition of New Directors/New Films at New York City’s Lincoln Center. Ross called his debut feature...

Sigourney Weaver will be honoured with Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

The US actress will receive the award at the 81st edition of the festival (August 28 – September 7).

Weaver is a three-time Oscar nominee best known for the Alien, Avatar and Ghostbusters franchises while she has also received critical acclaim for roles in Gorillas In The Mist, Working Girl and The Ice Storm - winning a supporting actress Bafta for the latter.

“To be gifted this award is a privilege I share with all the filmmakers and collaborators I have worked with throughout the years. I proudly...

Sigourney Weaver has been awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the upcoming Venice International Film Festival.

Venice chief Alberto Barbera called the thrice Academy Award-nominated Alien star “an actress with few rivals.”

“Strengthened by her significant theatrical training, she won over the great film-going public with Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, soon becoming an emblematic figure of the 1980s,” he added. “As an authentic collaborator, rather than simply a malleable instrument in the hands of a director, she has contributed to the success of movies by James Cameron, Paul Schrader, Peter Weir, Michael Apted, Roman Polanski, Ivan Reitman, Mike Nichols, Ang Lee, and many others, each time imposing the mark of a complex personality — at times contradictory but always authentic — onto her own charismatic presence. Endowed with a remarkable temperament, able to move with delicacy yet without fragility, she has created the image of a woman who is self-assured and determined,...

Tobey Maguire is best known to audiences around the world as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the first three adaptations of the comic-book hero’s adventures, but he has had a wide range of acting roles from intense dramas to comedies to even a Western. One of Maguire’s great advantages in getting started was the fact that, from his early days as a child actor, Maguire had a boyish look that allowed him to be cast as characters who were much younger than his own chronological age.

After his breakthrough role in 1997’s “The Ice Storm,” Maguire’s solid work soon came to the attention of Hollywood’s awards groups, and Maguire was honored at the Golden Globes with a Best Actor nomination for 2009’s “Brothers.” In addition, he also received two ensemble nominations from the Screen Actors Guild for his work in the films “The Cider House Rules” and 2003’s “Seabiscuit.

Invited by the new Ecam Forum co-production market in Madrid to inspire up-and-coming filmmakers and creators, veteran U.S. indie producer and former Amazon Studios film executive Ted Hope is delivering a masterclass, The Transformative Moment is Now. Double Down on the Glorious Disaster That Makes Us Human.

Hope has an impressive track record of more than 70 films under his belt, including Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm”, “The Wedding Banquet,” made under the landmark Good Machine brand in the 1990s. He is still producing independently with passion after having launched Amazon’s foray into feature film production, and his blog “Hope for Film” is an inspiring read for indie filmmaking.

We spoke to Hope ahead of his Madrid masterclass.

Less than a year ago in Locarno, you spoke about apocalyptic times in indie filmmaking. “The indie film sector is fucked,” you claimed. What is your frame of mind today?...

Tobey Maguire, in one way or another, revolutionized the very essence of Marvel, popularizing it among audiences when DC characters like Superman and Batman were dominating pop culture. Spider-Man trilogy has to be the best works of the actor, but he almost didn’t become an actor.

Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man

The world would have a different actor playing the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as Maguire had a different career path before finding his interest in acting. Thanks to his mother, Wendy Brown, who gave the direction of a career path. Now, the world knows Maguire.

Tobey Maguire’s Almost Had A Different Career Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man (2002)

Tobey Maguire made Spider-Man cool. Also, it was the first time the character reached millions, if not billions of fans around the world. But the actor almost had a different career path. Maguire’s father, Vincent Maguire, was a top Santa Monica chef,...

Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch and Katie Holmes will star in the Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town this fall.

In the production, directed by Kenny Leon, Parsons will play the role of Stage Manager, Deutch will play Emily Webb and Holmes will play Mrs. Webb. They lead a cast of 28 actors, who also include Richard Thomas (The Waltons, To Kill a Mockingbird) as Mr. Webb, Ephraim Sykes (Ain’t Too Proud, Hairspray Live!) as George Gibbs and Billy Eugene Jones (Purlie Victorious) as Dr. Gibbs.

The play will begin previews at the Barrymore Theatre on Sept. 17, ahead of an Oct. 10 opening.

Known for his role as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, Parsons also has extensive stage credits, including a role in Mother Play, which begins Broadway previews April 3. He has previously appeared on Broadway in productions including The Boys in the Band, An Act of God and The Normal Heart.

Ang Lee is hoping to make progress on his planned Bruce Lee biopic.The 'Brokeback Mountain' director is set to helm a new film about the martial arts legend – with his own actor son Mason Lee in the lead role – and wants to get started on the project in the near future after taking many years to "connect" to the story.Ang told Variety: "It took me years to think of a way to crack it, to connect to it. Character-wise, I couldn't be more different from Bruce Lee but there are aspects I relate to."He had identity issues: he was always yearning to belong, to find his place. That really speaks to me."Neither of us are getting any younger. So I hope I get to make this movie soon."Lee had a natural connection with actors from the start of his career that enabled him...

There is a good chance that general audiences will know David Krumholtz for his standout supporting performance in the recent Best Picture-winner Oppenheimer or his long career appearing in projects like The Ice Storm, 10 Things I Hate About You, and The Deuce. However, one can only hope everyone who loved him so much in those parts also now sees him take on a leading role in writer-director Bob Byington’s Lousy Carter. This isn’t because his latest is anything like that ambitious and often unwieldy historical epic about the cataclysmic creation of the atomic bomb. Rather, it is because he remains a great screen presence no matter the shaggy limitations of the film itself. It isn't perfect, but that's fitting considering the rough edges of its central character. Really, it couldn't be any other way and remain true.

With “The Devil Wears Prada” (2007), “The Girl on the Train” (2017) and now “Oppenheimer,” Emily Blunt has reaped three BAFTA bids for individual performances. She also contended for Rising Star in 2007. But she has gone home empty-handed. That could change this year.

Her two prior bids were for films that didn’t make the cut for Best Picture. Conversely, “Oppenheimer” is widely expected to win that award. That could give the edge to Blunt in the highly competitive Supporting Actress race as it did for Helena Bonham Carter (“The King’s Speech”), Judi Dench (“Shakespeare in Love”) and Juliette Binoche (“The English Patient”).

Praise for Blunt’s performance and career as a whole would fit the bill of the likes of Miriam Margolyes (“The Age of Innocence”), Sigourney Weaver (“The Ice Storm”) and Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”). They had delivered many lauded performances, but had never been rewarded.

The BAFTAs have long...

Whereas his early films such as “Pushing Hands” and “The Wedding Banquet” often touch upon the crossroads between modernity and tradition, Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee found himself in a similar situation with his third film. As he reflects upon the production of his 1994 “Eat Drink Man Woman”, he describes how he felt the pressure between going mainstream with his movies or making an arthouse film, especially after winning the Golden Bear at Berlin International Film Festival for “The Wedding Banquet”. Considering this situation, it seems only fitting he would make a film which would not only pick up the thematic threads of his previous ones, but which would also discuss these issues within the circle of the family, their relationships and, of course, the world of cooking.

Eat Drink Man Woman is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

Even though he has been planning to settle down...

After bursting onto the scene in the mid-1990s with his breakout performance in The Ice Storm, among several other noteworthy Hollywood releases, Tobey Maguire carved out a career as an unlikely leading man, usually playing kind though ignored social outcasts. While he won plenty of acclaim with such roles around the turn of the century, it wasn't until his famous portrayal of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy that Maguire truly cemented himself as an immortal icon of the screen.

If you've ever stressed about seeing older relatives during the fourth week of November, then Ang Lee’s 1997 classic, and one of his best movies, The Ice Storm is the Thanksgiving movie for you. Unlike Halloween or Christmas, there aren’t a lot of essential “Thanksgiving” movies that are required viewing every holiday season. While Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is in a class of its own, you’d have to stretch to call films like Hannah and Her Sisters or Nobody’s Fool “Thanksgiving classics.” But The Ice Storm is a sensitive examination of the secrets beneath the surface of an idealized suburban community – a perfect subject to explore if you find being with your relatives uncomfortable on this holiday. The Ice Storm explores the inherent issue with “familial protocol” and the inability to communicate. By refusing to talk about uncomfortable topics, families can prevent themselves from healing. The Ice Storm...

"Alien" is a watershed horror and science-fiction film; many have tried to recapture its foreboding magic but director Ridley Scott is confident no one can beat his classic.

The film follows the seven-person crew of the space mining vessel Nostromo; in the 22nd century, space travel is the job of regular working Joes. They pick up a distress signal and, in investigating, pick up an eighth passenger: the titular beast, a phallic and half-cybernetic horror spawned from a human (specifically John Hurt's Kane) but utterly devoid of humanity. The alien blends into the leaky, industrial hull of the Nostromo, and as it picks off the crew one by one, their goal shifts from destroying it to escaping it.

Next year marks the 45th birthday of "Alien," but it still holds up no matter its age. However, in the decades since its release, more than half the cast has passed on.

“Snow in Midsummer,” a drama film which premiered in the Venice Days section of the recent Venice film festival, narrowly emerged as the front-runner for the Golden Horse Film Awards.

Nominations for the November awards were announced on Tuesday, with “Snow” gathering recognition in nine categories, including best film. But it was only narrowly ahead of a pair of films with eight nominations each – “Marry My Dead Body” and “Eye of the Storm” – and a further cluster with seven nominations each. These include “Abang Adik,” “Old Fox,” “Trouble Girl” and “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon.”

The best picture category includes “Snow,” “Dead Body” and “Eye of the Storm” as well as Hong Kong’s “Time Still Turns the Pages” and Chinese-Japanese indie film “Stonewalling.” Directed and written by husband and wife team of Otsuka Ryuji and Huang Ji, “Stonewalling” is enjoying a career on the international festival circuit,...

Locarno — Switzerland’s Locarno Fest hit its final straits on Wednesday evening with “Spring Breakers” director Harmony Korine, among a slim roster of on-site stars, set to arrive to accept in person an Honorary Golden Pard.

Otherwise, the dust is settling on activities at the festival’s vibrant industry arm, Locarno Pro, which broke all-time attendance records with 1,530 delegates, and on a market which, however relaxed, says much about larger forces rocking the arthouse and crossover business worldwide:

Arthouse Crunch

Over the last decade, theatrical arthouse markets have imploded soufflé-like. “We used to make 5,000 admissions per title, now the target audience is 500,” Peter Bognar, at Hungary’s CinefilCo, told Variety at Locarno. So, to close the gap and move hopefully into a little upside, having tapped subsidies and local TV pre-buys, producers are looking ever more to overseas public-sector coin, channelled via international co-producer partners. Tapping that not by chance...

Locarno can’t get enough of Ted Hope. Five years after receiving the festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico Award, the producer of modern indie classics such as “The Wedding Banquet” and “The Ice Storm” shook things up yesterday at Locarno’s StepIN think tank with an Out of the Box keynote, a sweeping blast on the state of the industry.

It resonated hugely with senior European industry executives who are often now battling the very same issues which Hope zeroed in on.

“It was an exercise in overload,” the former Amazon exec told Variety the day after he gave the 40-minute talk. He used 150 bullet points distilled from his Substack, and talked entertainingly at one and the same time. “It’s hard to engage people in this conversation, if you don’t do something like that. It gives me a lot of ammunition for my Gatling gun.”

On Friday, Hope delivered a masterclass.

Veteran indie producer Ted Hope opened Locarno’s industry symposium Thursday afternoon with a provocative keynote during which he declared: “The indie film system is f*cked.”

The talk, titled “Indie Films: 50 Years of Building The Wrong Thing,” began with Hope’s pointed declaration before he reassured the audience of predominantly European industry insiders that now is the time to build a new, self-sufficient indie eco-system.

“There’s a huge chance that we’ve never had before to build something better,” Hope said, adding: “And I actually think it’s quite doable.”

Hope has made similar assessments in the past. In 1995, the producer, best known for helping to launch the careers of indie filmmakers such as Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener, Todd Field, and Michel Gondry, published the seminal essay “Indie Film Is Dead.” Today, however, Hope said his past thesis wasn’t quite right. At the time, he said he...

Former Amazon Studios film executive Ted Hope delivered a blistering takedown of the studios and streamers during an “out-of-the-box” keynote at the Locarno Film Festival.

The veteran U.S. producer has been in the indie trenches since 1990 when he founded Good Machine, the label behind Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm” and Todd Solondz’s “Happiness,” but subsequently leaped to the other side of the fence when he became head of motion picture production in the early days at Amazon Studios.

During a wide-ranging address accompanied by a slide presentation at the Locarno Film Festival’s StepIN think tank on Wednesday, Hope lambasted streaming giants and studios, the Director’s Guild of America, the impact of AI, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and more.

Hope’s talk started out with the heading: “50 Proofs That The Cinema Apocalypse Is Upon Us.” Here are some of Hope’s “proofs...

Sigourney Weaver Depositphotos

Susan Alexandra “Sigourney” Weaver, born on October 8, 1949, is an accomplished American actress known for her contributions to the action heroine archetype in science fiction movies. Weaver’s notable portrayal of Ellen Ripley in the Alien franchise garnered her an Academy Award nomination in 1986 and solidified her status as one of the most influential female protagonists in the history of cinema.

Throughout her career, Weaver has received seven Golden Globe Award nominations. In 1988, she made history by winning both the Best Actress in Drama and Best Supporting Actress categories for her outstanding performances in Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, respectively. This achievement made her the first individual to secure two acting Golden Globe Awards in a single year. Moreover, Weaver received Academy Award nominations for her exceptional work in both films. Additionally, she was honored with the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role...

Just announced this week, the Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2024 includes horror icon Christina Ricci, who finally gets her well-earned star on the Walk of Fame next year.

Christina Ricci is of course a longtime favorite among horror fans, becoming a household name thanks to her performance as Wednesday Addams in the live action Addams Family movies of the 1990s. She just returned to the world of The Addams Family in the Netflix series “Wednesday,” playing a new character for director Tim Burton.

Ricci also starred in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow back in 1999, with other notable genre roles including Casper, Bless the Child, Wes Craven’s Cursed, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, and Showtime’s hit series “Yellowjackets.” Ricci also appeared in Sam Raimi’s series “50 States of Fright,” and most recently starred in the 2022 horror movie Monstrous.

Nominated twice for Primetime Emmy Awards, Christina Ricci’s enduring body...

“Yellowjackets” will look to take the Emmys by storm again after the first season of the Showtime hit came away with seven bids including a nomination for Best Drama Series. The show follows a high-school girls soccer team that survives a plane crash. What seems at first a lucky escape, however, soon devolves into something far more nightmarish as they try to survive in the Canadian wilderness. That’s one half of the story, set in 1996. The other half of the series focuses on the survivors as adults 25 years later in 2021.

The show stars Melanie Lynskey in the lead role — the adult version of Shauna — while Elijah Wood joined the season two cast as Walter Tattersall, a detective who tries to help Christina Ricci‘s Misty. “The Lord of the Rings” alum is a welcome addition to the cast of “Yellowjackets” and fits right in alongside fellow child actor Ricci.

Ang Lee is arguably one of the greatest directors to make a superhero film. Given his eclectic, widely varied filmography, from the timeless Brokeback Mountain and Sense & Sensibility to The Ice Storm and Life of Pi, you'd think that if he made a superhero film, it would be one of the greatest ever made, right? Sadly, that isn't what happened, as his 2003 film Hulk was widely dismissed as a failed experiment, a self-serious drag trying too hard to be a Greek tragedy. The cast of A-list talent, ranging from Eric Bana to Jennifer Connelly to Sam Elliott, all feel like they've had every ounce of tangible personality squeezed out of them for the sake of a "serious adult" experience.

Elijah Wood, a renowned American actor, has captivated audiences with his versatile and impressive performances for over three decades. Born on January 28, 1981, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wood’s career as an actor began at a young age. He has starred in numerous films and television series, most notably as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s blockbuster The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. This article delves into the life and career of this iconic actor, showcasing his incredible journey from child star to accomplished Hollywood actor.

Early Life and Childhood Elijah Wood. Depostiphotos

Elijah Jordan Wood was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as the second of three children to Debbie Krause and Warren Wood. His parents managed a local delicatessen together. Wood’s ancestry includes English, German, Austrian, and Danish roots. As a child, Wood displayed a natural talent for performing, which led his mother to take him to the...

“Yellowjackets” earned seven Emmy nominations for its first season and stands to perform even better this time around. Ardent supporters within the television academy who want the show to compete in as high a number of categories as possible have a trio of viable Drama Supporting Actor candidates to back. The top 10 is currently swarming with names from “Succession,” “The White Lotus: Sicily” and “House of the Dragon.” As of now, “Yellowjackets” trails all three for Best Drama Series but only by a relative handful of users. Emmy voters haven’t been shy about promoting their favorites in the past; a restricted ballot can only effect so much change. If Showtime’s hit thriller is the awards juggernaut some are saying it’ll pan out to be, the show could sneak at least one of three male cast members – Elijah Wood, Warren Kole and Steven Krueger – into the race.

See...

TheLifetimeAchievement Award of the twentiethSoundTrack_Cologne 2023goes to Mychael Danna.

Danna is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning film composer who has composed over 80 film scores and is recognized for his blending of non-western traditions with orchestral and electronic music. He composed the transculturally inspired, 2013 Oscar and Golden Globe winning film score for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. Danna also composed the scores for Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and Ride With the Devil.

Other well-known films Danna has composed music for include Academy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated films such as The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica and Ararat from his longtime collaboration with director Atom Egoyan; also Moneyball and Capote with director Bennett Miller, Monsoon Wedding, Little Miss Sunshine, Being Julia, Stillwater, The Addams Family 1 and 2, Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur and The Song of the Crayfish.

Danna won an Emmy Award for outstanding music composition for the mini-series World Without End.

The best Tobey Maguire movies have been making headlines since appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside fellow Spider-Men Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. Maguire is perhaps best known for his turn as Peter Parker in the original Sam Raimi trilogy, but he's also taken on plenty of blockbusters and indie roles since his feature film debut in 1989. It was in the '90s that Maguire became a true star thanks to leading roles in Pleasantville and The Cider House Rules. Since his appearance in No Way Home, there has been renewed interest in Maguire and his work.

For many years, Maguire was an indie darling, and while he had mainstream success with the Spider-Man franchise, he preferred to work with more auteur directors like Ang Lee, Lasse Hallstrom, and Steven Soderbergh. Even when choosing roles in big-budget movies, Maguire hooked up with a director like Sam Raimi. This means...

One of the most exciting parts of "Yellowjackets" season 2, which premiered on March 26, is the addition of Elijah Wood as Walter. Showtime (via Yahoo!) describes his character as "a dedicated Citizen Detective who will challenge Misty in ways she won't see coming." He has an equal passion for sleuthing and true crime, and he accompanies Misty on her investigation of Natalie's whereabouts after she was kidnapped by a mysterious group in season 1.

It is unclear if Walter and Misty will be romantic interests, but their playful interactions and quirky qualities will certainly bring some lightheartedness to the grim series. "The journey that we're on in this particular season is really funny. The show's dark and gnarly and a lot of what we got to do together was kind of like the comic relief," Elijah Wood explains in Entertainment Tonight. Part of the Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood's strong connection and...

This article contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets" season 2 episode 1.

Season 2 of "Yellowjackets" is officially underway on Showtime, and it's continuing to make the case for the most impressive cast on television. With an array of talent featuring Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis as just some of the adult Yellowjackets who managed to survive their time stranded in the forest, the series also spotlights incredible work from their younger counterparts as well. The already impressive group of actors is expanding in season 2 with the grown-up version of Lottie (Simone Kessell) debuting as a new-age cult leader in the premiere and actor Lauren Ambrose ("Six Feet Under") will be appearing at some point in a substantial role as adult Van, the fan-favorite character played by Liv Hewson in the 1996 timeline. 

An outsider will also come into the fray in the form of Elijah Wood, whose character Walter is teased in a...

It’s been over a year since “Yellowjackets” wrapped its Emmy-nominated first season and revealed the Antler Queen’s identity. In the ‘96 timeline, winter is starting to deplete the forest’s supply of hunting game. Subsequent fear breeds mystical thought and empowers Lottie (Courtney Eaton) to assume control of the group. Meanwhile, Travis (Kevin Alves) is searching for his younger brother, Javi (Luciano Leroux), who disappeared the night everyone unwittingly consumed psychedelic mushrooms.

In the present, Natalie (Juliette Lewis) has been kidnapped by members of a sect sporting the hooked-girl symbol, presumably at the behest of an adult Lottie (Simone Kessell), a cult figure we have yet to meet. Taissa (Tawny Cypress) pulls off an upset victory for a state senate seat, but her wife (Rukiya Bernard) discovers in the form of their missing dog’s severed head that Tai’s ritualistic tendencies in the face of uncertainty didn’t...

Among the fundamental questions of Yellowjackets is how much trauma does or doesn’t change a person. The Showtime drama largely takes place in two timelines: one showing the immediate aftermath of a plane crash that stranded a high school girls’ soccer team in the remote Canadian wilderness, the other catching up to the survivors in the present day. Some of them, like overeager Misty (Samantha Hanratty in the Nineties, Christina Ricci in the present), seem more or less the same in both eras. Then there are the ones like...

Plot: The Yellowjackets barely made it through summer, but now as winter begins to bite, we’ll see if hunger and desperation turn into full-on psychosis. Meanwhile, 25 years later, each survivor must determine if the darkness is coming for them or from them.

Review: Yellowjackets was one of the bigger surprises on television last year. A blend of Mean Girls and Lord of the Flies, the Showtime survival/thriller series had a solid cast and built buzz over its bloody first season, securing a second season renewal after airing just five episodes. With a third season already greenlit, the five-year plan for the New Jersey soccer team forced to band together in the Canadian wilderness is closer to reality. Like any successful series, the sophomore run can be the most challenging, with some stories succumbing to going too big far too quickly. Luckily, Yellowjackets returns for a second season that...

The first season of “Yellowjackets” definitely hit a nerve with its inspired combination of “Now and Then,” “Lord of the Flies” and “Alive”; the series quickly became one of Showtime’s most successful ever, with about 5 million viewers tuning in each week.

The inspired premise of a group of plane crash survivors — told in the “then” and “now” — was only enhanced by the stellar cast who brought it to life, like Melanie Lynskey as Shauna, now a suburban mom and housewife with homicidal impulses; Juliette Lewis as the edgy, extremely damaged grown-up Natalie; and Christina Ricci as the obsessive Misty, who was basically to blame for the entire disaster, as her teenage self (Samantha Hanratty) was enjoying the camaraderie of the girls’ life in the wild so much that she destroyed the plane’s black box to prevent the team from getting rescued in the first place.

The “Yellowjackets” casting team deserves all the awards,...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a sensation when it was released back in the year 2000. No one expected Ang Lee’s martial arts epic to make over 100 million in the United States. The director, at the time, was best known for independent dramas like The Ice Storm. His taking on a kung-fu-filled fantasy epic seemed like a stretch, and when people learned it would be shot in Mandarin, they naturally assumed it would maybe be a nice art-house hit but not much more. Instead, the film played to boffo box office both internationally and domestically, leading to an unexpected revival for the wuxia genre, paving the way for the successful domestic release of Zhang Yimou’s Hero and more.

With the film back in theaters starting February 17th in a new 4K restoration, I was lucky enough to get some time with the director, Ang Lee, who proved to be...

Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood are together again — they previously starred in The Ice Storm in 1997 — in Yellowjackets Season 2. Showtime has released the first photo offering not only a look at Wood’s new character but also at the reunion. “Welcome to the Bureau of Citizen Detectives, @elijahwood,” the show’s official Twitter account wrote in the caption alongside the image (which you can check out above). That’s about half of what we know about his character so far. Wood’s casting was announced in August 2022, at which time it was said that he would be playing Walter, described as “a dedicated Citizen Detective who will challenge Misty in ways she won’t see coming,” in a season-long guest arc. This new photo comes after Showtime previously revealed a look at another Season 2 addition: Lauren Ambrose as adult Van. Also among the new cast members ...