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Blake Lively has always been a limelight stealer, be it through her unparalleled beauty or indomitable acting chops. However, as of late, she has been under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Following her latest interviews about her recently released romance/drama It Ends with Us, she is alleged of sporting “toxic behavior” as a celebrity.

Blake Lively in Gossip Girl. | Credits: The CW.

Amidst all of this, journalist Kjersti Flaa has come up with an eight-year-old interview with Lively where the actress was notably seen not being on her best behavior as Flaa tried to interview her. Needless to say, this has further put the actress under a lot more fire than before. But what’s surprising is that Flaa isn’t the only journalist with regrettable memories about Lively.

Kjersti Flaa Confronts Blake Lively Over Her Toxic Behavior

A little while ago, Norweigan journalist Kjersti Flaa unearthed...

Where studio distributors have tentpole titles, specialized releasing has platform princes. These filmmakers are intellectual property: They will never produce blockbusters, at least not in the traditional sense, but their names trigger a passionate, arthouse fanbase eager to devour their work. And in the kingdom ruled by per-theater averages, Wes Anderson is the crown prince.

Dozens of directors have found massive success with a platform release: Clint Eastwood, Darren Aronofsky, Jason Reitman, Tom Hooper, Steven Spielberg, the Coen Brothers, Richard Linklater, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Other directors to achieve over $100,000 per-theater averages in the last decade include Kevin Smith, Damian Chazelle, Morten Tyldum, Terence Malick, Lee Daniels, Luca Guadagnino, and Barry Jenkins. (Among women, Kathryn Bigelow came closest with “Zero Dark Thirty.”)

However, Anderson is among the few whose work consistently thrives not only in its initial limited release, but also expands to find a larger audience. That’s rare; in my film-buying days,...

John Travolta’s “Gotti” is making headlines for reportedly being dropped from release a mere 10 days before opening in theaters. Lionsgate Premiere was set to open “Gotti” on December 15, but news broke yesterday on the Tracking Board that the film would no longer be released and that distribution rights were being reverted back to producers Travolta has weighed in on the release controversy in an interview with Deadline and denies the film was suddenly dropped.

“Unfortunately, the reports were speculation bordering on fake news,” Travolta told Deadline. “Lionsgate was planning on a minimal release and I did an investigation into people who might have the interest and financial wherewithal to better release it.”

Travolta says he found a partner in Edward Wilson, who has produced films like Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” and “Wonder Wheel.” According to the actor,...

The hits keep on coming. Both “The Disaster Artist” (A24) and “The Shape of Water” (Fox Searchlight) opened strong, despite the usual strong-fall off in post-Thanksgiving audiences. Last year the month of November saw only one specialized release, “Manchester By the Sea,” pull an opening platform per theater average over $60,000. This year has already seen five.

“The Disaster Artist” (in 11 markets) showed the best performance in New York/Los Angeles of any title this year (nearly $120,000 per theater), besting last weekend’s numbers for “Call Me By Your Name” (Sony Pictures Classics). They join other Oscar-bound strong openers including “Lady Bird” (A24) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (Fox Searchlight).

This marks unprecedented strength over such a short period, with “Lady Bird” and “Three Billboards” already performing well in wider release. At some point exhibitors are going to be challenged to handle so many hits (all will not go wide...

Why do James (Jason Clarke) and his visually impaired wife Gina (Blake Lively) live in Bangkok? It’s a question that hangs over “All I See Is You,” begging to be asked. We know that James does insurance work somewhere in the Thai capital, but the way he brings it up in conversation makes it sound like an alibi. Usually film characters take jobs in far-flung destinations towards the end of the story, not before it starts. In truth the answer couldn’t be more obvious; it’s there the whole time, right in front of our faces, visible to everyone but Gina. Or maybe she sees it too, and — like us — simply doesn’t want to accept the fact that her doting husband moved her to a foreign city because of her debilitating blindness, and not in spite of it.

It can be nice to feel needed, but there...

One of the joys of the New York Film Festival is that for 18 days the greatest international filmmakers descend on Lincoln Center not only to share their most recent films, but to engage in a conversation about their work and career.

This year, two of the greatest living cinematographers, Vittorio Storaro and Ed Lachman, had films at the fest – “Wonder Wheel” and “Wonderstruck” – and for 90-minutes shared the stage with festival director Kent Jones to discuss the craft to which they’ve dedicated their lives. IndieWire has the exclusive video of the entire “Master Class” below.

Lachman has shot a number of the seminal American films of the last the 30 years, including Sofia Coppola’s “Virgin Suicides” and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Limey,” but it’s been his 15-year collaboration with director Todd Haynes (“Carol”) that has defined his career. Storaro is best know to American audiences for having shot...

Feeling like a poor stage-to-screen adaptation in the lineage of Rent or The Producers — just without catchy songs to redeem it — Wonder Wheel is an undercooked offering from Woody Allen. Justin Timberlake plays Mickey Rubin, a fit lifeguard in a one-piece bathing suit. As is painfully clear in the opening scenes, if you’re going to cast one of the biggest pop stars in the world, at least use him for what he’s good at.

Timberlake begins the film with narration about his time at Nyu and burgeoning writing career. He does his best Allen impression, over-enunciating every word, but the character isn’t your typical, neurotic Allen surrogate. Allen instead writes the neurosis into Ginny, Kate Winslet’s character, a desperate housewife who is cheating on her husband, Humpty (Jim Belushi), with Mickey. Lacking the neurotic charm that made Jesse Eisenberg’s Cafe Society turn so endearing, Timberlake struggles with delivery here,...

It’s no secret that these days we get one new Woody Allen movie a year. The thing is, usually it’s been a summer release, piggybacking off of a debut at the Cannes Film Festival. Sometimes in this modern era, they become Oscar winners, like Blue Jasmine, Midnight in Paris, or Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Other times, they become unfairly ignored gems, like Cafe Society. Still other times, they appear like “lesser” Allen works. This year, however, things are a little bit different. This time around with Wonder Wheel, Allen and Amazon Studios skipped Cannes, will instead be the Closing Night Selection at the New York Film Festival, and will instead have a December release, right in the heart of awards season. A Trailer dropped today to showcase why Amazon is so bullish on it. You can see it below, but first…a bit of discussion. Plot wise, I’ll...

Woody Allen frames a tale of romantic entanglement and mob revenge against the backdrop of 1950s Coney Island in his new film, Wonder Wheel.

The movie follows four primary characters: waitress Ginny (Kate Winslet) and her hard-drinking carousel operator husband Humpty (Jim Belushi); charming lifeguard and aspiring playwright Mickey (Justin Timberlake) and Humpty's long-estranged daughter, Carolina (Juno Temple), who returns home to flee her gangster husband.

"I'm marked," Carolina tells her father. "They're gonna kill me." Later, in another tense scene, she admits, "I know where all the bodies are buried.

After his last movie Cafe Society and his poorly received TV series Crisis in Six Scenes, Woody Allen is continuing to partner with Amazon Studios on his latest film, Wonder Wheel… and can you blame him? They reportedly gave him $25 million to work with and the result seems to be his most visually ambitious […]...

Amazon Studios owns the 2017 New York Film Festival with opener “Last Flag Flying” from Richard Linklater, Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck” as the centerpiece gala October 7, and Woody Allen’s “Wonder Wheel” closing it out October 15 — but taking those movies into the crowded fall marketplace and landing Oscar nominations and wins is another matter altogether.

Of course, Amazon has done it before: At Sundance 2016, it paid $10 million for Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester By the Sea” and took the movie (via Roadside Attractions) all the way to six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. It won two, for Best Actor Casey Affleck and Lonergan for Best Original Screenplay, and earned a robust $47.6 million domestic.

This year, the deep-pocketed studio challenger — which, unlike Netflix, supports the industry’s established theatrical paradigm, 90-day window and all — has a wider swath of films to compete in multiple awards categories. But there are several key differences this time.

Amazon Studios owns the 2017 New York Film Festival with opener “Last Flag Flying” from Richard Linklater, Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck” as the centerpiece gala October 7, and Woody Allen’s “Wonder Wheel” closing it out October 15 — but taking those movies into the crowded fall marketplace and landing Oscar nominations and wins is another matter altogether.

Of course, Amazon has done it before: At Sundance 2016, it paid $10 million for Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester By the Sea” and took the movie (via Roadside Attractions) all the way to six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. It won two, for Best Actor Casey Affleck and Lonergan for Best Original Screenplay, and earned a robust $47.6 million domestic.

This year, the deep-pocketed studio challenger — which, unlike Netflix, supports the industry’s established theatrical paradigm, 90-day window and all — has a wider swath of films to compete in multiple awards categories. But there are several key differences this time.

With Sony finally moving forward with their Charlie's Angels reboot, after languishing in development for a few years, a new report claims that stars Kristen Stewart and Lupita Nyong'o are being eyed to play two of the three Angels in this reboot. We reported in May that actress Janelle Monae was at the top of the studio's "wish list" to play one of the Angels, but the actress isn't mentioned in this latest report, so it's possible that she's not in contention for the role anymore. Regardless, with casting starting to heat up, production could begin sooner rather than later.

Variety broke this news today, revealing that the studio is interested in several other "big names" for the reboot, although no specific actors were mentioned. Director Elizabeth Banks came aboard just over two years ago, but our report from May revealed that the script was undergoing a rewrite from Narcos...

Kristen Stewart is being floated for Sony’s “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, reports Variety. Actress and “Pitch Perfect 2” director Elizabeth Banks is signed on to direct. The studio is also floating Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o to be part of the ass-kicking trio of private detectives.

If Stewart does sign on, it would be the actress’ first studio film since 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman.” The “Twilight” star has wracked up an impressive roster of highly acclaimed indie films in recent years, including Olivier Assayas’ “Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Personal Shopper,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women,” and Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society.”

Read More:Kristen Stewart Explains Why She Didn’t Cast Herself in Her Short Directorial Debut, ‘Come Swim’

Since her Oscar-winning breakout in Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave,” Nyong’o has filmed multiple “Star Wars” movies, as well as Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book.

Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet were spotted in New York City filming Woody Allen‘s latest project. Woody Allen Project Filming In New York The film is as of yet untitled, and stars Selena Gomez as well as Fanning and Chalamet. This will be the third film that Allen directs for Amazon Studios, following Cafe Society and the upcoming Wonder Wheel. […]

Source: uInterview

The post Elle Fanning & Timothée Chalamet Shoot Woody Allen Project Film In New York City appeared first on uInterview.

daniels-gillies:

Blake Lively attends the Amazon Studios ‘Cafe Society’ Press Luncheon at the 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 2016.

Tony Sokol Aug 9, 2017

Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez will bring new blood to Woody Allen’s untitled next film.

Woody Allen has cast Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, and Selena Gomez in his next feature film. As is usually the case with Allen's projects, the new movie is thus far unnamed.

His latest project will be distributed in cinemas by Amazon’s television and motion picture production arm. This will be the third project Allen directs for Amazon Studios, which produced Cafe Society and the upcoming Wonder Wheel. Amazon also produced Allen’s television directorial debut, Crisis In Six Scenes.

Chalamet is intriguing casting, already starring in Call My By Your Name, which hits cinemas in the Us this autumn, and is already generating Academy Awards talk. Fanning starred in Nicolas Wind Refn’s conspiracy of fame hallucination The Neon Demon, and had a key featured part in Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled.

Prolific filmmaker Woody Allen might not have a title or a released logline for his latest feature ready just yet, but he’s already announced quite a cast. The untitled feature film is set to star “Call Me By Your Name” breakout Timothée Chalamet, alongside Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez. The film will be theatrical distributed through Amazon Studios, who collaborated with the filmmaker for his most recent films, “Cafe Society” and the upcoming “Wonder Wheel.”

Details on the new project are not yet available, but it’s safe to assume it will likely focus on fraught relationships between a wide-ranging cast of metropolitan types.

Read More:Woody Allen and Kate Winslet’s ‘Wonder Wheel’ to Close New York Film Festival

Earlier this year, Allen spoke about his relationship with Amazon during a Facebook Live session, where he shared, “Amazon is a perfect example of a company that’s so...

Selena Gomez is joining Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning in Woody Allen's upcoming film.

The logline for the currently untitled project, which will be released by Amazon Studios, is being kept under wraps, as has been the pattern with most of Allen's films.

Allen previously worked with Amazon on his film Cafe Society. His next film Wonder Wheel, starring James Belushi, Juno Temple, Justin Timberlake, and Kate Winslet, will make its world premiere as the closing night film of the New York Film Festival in October. It also will be released by Amazon.

Gomez, who executive produced the hit Netflix...

Dear Board of Governors and members of the Academy,

Let’s face it!

Actors are the face of Oscar. Every year, I’m struck by how many more worthy performances there are than films. We often find more problems in movies we like — plot points not resolved, length issues — than we do with performances, which are more consistently flawless.

In other words, great performances are in more abundance than great films.

So why should the number of acting nominees be limited to five, rather than up to ten, as the maximum current Best Picture rules allow? I propose increasing the number of acting nominees in all four categories, to be selected by the Entire membership, with the number of acting nominations equaling the number of Best Picture nominees.

All of the many Academy members I canvassed, including members of the Acting branch, Oscar-winners and former Governors, agreed with this proposal.

Will Kate Winslet join the likes of Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, and Cate Blanchett by winning an Oscar for a performance in a Woody Allen movie? It’s too early to tell, but that’s certainly Amazon Studios’ agenda with Allen’s new film, “Wonder Wheel.” The movie will close the New York Film Festival ahead of its December release, setting it up for a high profile awards campaign. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to report the news.

Read More: Woody Allen Sets Awards Season Return With ‘Wonder Wheel’ December Release

“Wonder Wheel” stars Winlset opposite Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple and Jim Belushi. Amazon has not released an official synopsis, but the movie is set around Cony Island in the 1950s. Allen’s last Amazon Studios release was “Cafe Society,” which opened the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.

Amazon won two Oscars last year for “Manchester By the Sea,” and...

Dark comedy set to shoot in New York later this summer.

Production company Over Easy has castChristina Hendricks, Alysia Reiner, and Anna Camp as the leads in Egg.

The story centres on a conceptual artist and her passive-aggressive husband who invite a pregnant art school rival and her power-hungry husband to their loft in the Bronx for dinner, and surprise their guests with the artist’s work-in-progress – a radical alternative to motherhood. David Alan Basche and Gbenga Akinnagbe will also star.

Marianna Palka will direct the comedy from a script written by Risa Mickenberg, author of Taxi Driver Wisdom. Palka is a four time Sundance Film Festival alumnus whose directorial debut Good Dick premiered in 2008.

Hendricks is best known for Mad Men and recently starred in The Neon Demon. She was just announced as a lead in the upcoming NBC series Good Girls. Upcoming films include Candy Jar, for Netflix, with [link=nm...

Production will begin later this year on a new female driven international espionage thriller The Rhythm Section, with financing from leading independent studio Im Global, it was announced today by Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of Eon Productions in London and Im Global Founder and CEO, Stuart Ford in Los Angeles.

Wilson and Broccoli, who have produced the last eight Bond films (Spectre, Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale, Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies, Goldeneye), will produce. Ford and Im Global’s Academy Award winning head of production Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, upcoming Detroit) and author/screenwriter Mark Burnell will serve as executive producers.

The Rhythm Section is a contemporary adaptation of the first of British thriller writer Mark Burnell’s “Stephanie Patrick” series of four novels.

Heroine, Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) is on a path of self-destruction after...

Things are looking up at the specialty box office as two festival hits, Sundance breakout “The Big Sick” (Amazon/Lionsgate) and Sofia Coppola’s Cannes director-winner “The Beguiled” (Focus Features) both beat all the 2017 limited openings to date. With $87,000 and $60,000 per theater averages respectively, they both accomplished something only one platform film (“Cafe Society”) achieved all last summer. And they did so the same weekend in some of the same theaters.

This shows that core specialty audiences are starving for cinematic nourishment they aren’t getting from mainstream studio fare.

The two new films join “Beatriz at Dinner” (Roadside Attractions), which expanded well in its third week. A box office rebound for specialized non-mass-audience film is finally under way.

Opening

The Big Sick (Lionsgate) – Metacritic: 87; Festivals include: Sundance, South by Southwest, Seattle 2017

$435,000 in 5 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $87,000

Amazon strikes again with its $12-million Sundance acquisition marking the biggest limited opening of the year,...

Resistance is a new film project in development that will be based on the true events of Marcel Marceau, a French actor and mime most famous for his stage persona, “Bip The Clown." Marceau became an orphan when his father, a kosher butcher, was killed in Auschwitz. Afterward, he took up the art of miming to bring hope to other orphans who had lost their parents to the Nazis.

According to Variety, "The film will focus on Marceau’s involvement in the French resistance when his country was occupied by the Nazis during World War II."

Marceau was made Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1998 and was awarded the National Order Of Merit in France for his work in the resistance. He also won an Emmy along with many other awards.

Resistance is already being compared to the film Life is Beautiful, which is about a man who...

Blake Lively lit up the red carpet at Monday night's American Ballet Theatre Spring Gala at the David Koch Theater in New York City.

Related: Amber Tamblyn's 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' Co-Stars Sweetly Support Her at Directorial Debut Premiere

The 29-year-old actress arrived wearing a bright pink coat over a stunning bright yellow, strapless Oscar de la Renta gown, with a high slit on the side and a short train. She accessorized the dress with sparkly gold, single-strap heels and turquoise earrings and jewel-toned rings. The Cafe Society star had her hair swept back in a ponytail and opted for light eyeshadow and a pink-toned lip.

Getty ImagesGetty Images

Related: Exclusive Pics: Kylie Jenner Seems So Disinterested in Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds at the Met Gala

Also in attendance that night was Katie Holmes in an elegant red, strapless Zac Posen number, which featured pockets, metallic floral designs and a waist-flattering silhouette. The actress...

While the Cannes Film Festival is the showboat film festival to end all festivals, all of that is a springboard for the talking. Talking about the movies, talking about the movie industry, talking about the talking. Last year, the talking points were the persistence of Kristen Stewart, Woody Allen and Ronan Farrow, auteurs like Jim Jarmusch and Nicolas Winding Refn, and women (or the lack thereof). This year, we’ve read the Croisette crystal ball for the conversations likely to dominate the festival in the days to come. This isn’t necessarily about must-see titles (we’ve got those covered here); these are the stories most likely to be heard beyond the Cannes bubble. Here’s a look at the news cycle to come.

Read More: The Potential Oscar Contenders at Cannes 2017: A Rundown

Nicole Kidman Takes Charge

If last year’s Cannes It Girl was brainy “Personal Shopper...

While the Cannes Film Festival is the showboat film festival to end all festivals, all of that is a springboard for the talking. Talking about the movies, talking about the movie industry, talking about the talking. Last year, the talking points were the persistence of Kristen Stewart, Woody Allen and Ronan Farrow, auteurs like Jim Jarmusch and Nicolas Winding Refn, and women (or the lack thereof). This year, we’ve read the Croisette crystal ball for the conversations likely to dominate the festival in the days to come. This isn’t necessarily about must-see titles (we’ve got those covered here); these are the stories most likely to be heard beyond the Cannes bubble. Here’s a look at the news cycle to come.

Read More: The Potential Oscar Contenders at Cannes 2017: A Rundown

Nicole Kidman Takes Charge

If last year’s Cannes It Girl was brainy “Personal Shopper...

Buyers return to Cannes like swallows to the Capistranos, but this year they’ll find a hostile landscape. Too many buyers, too few titles, and streaming-service disruptors are driving up prices all the while, making North American prebuys increasingly necessary.

That’s hazardous terrain: Witness the Weinstein Company’s $6 million bid for transgender drama “3 Generations” (aka “After Ray”). Two years later, after a title change and poor reviews on and off the festival circuit, the drama starring Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon finally received a May 5 release. Total domestic gross to date: $46,421.

That was in 2015, the last year that TWC held its then-annual dog-and-pony show for buyers and press at the Majestic Hotel. This year, like the last, they’ll hold court on their yacht, which also serves as their offices — still tony, but on a budget; it’s a lot less expensive than that prime Croissette real estate. Meanwhile,...

Buyers return to Cannes like swallows to the Capistranos, but this year they’ll find a hostile landscape. Too many buyers, too few titles, and streaming-service disruptors are driving up prices all the while, making North American prebuys increasingly necessary.

That’s hazardous terrain: Witness the Weinstein Company’s $6 million bid for transgender drama “3 Generations” (aka “After Ray”). Two years later, after a title change and poor reviews on and off the festival circuit, the drama starring Elle Fanning and Susan Sarandon finally received a May 5 release. Total domestic gross to date: $46,421.

That was in 2015, the last year that TWC held its then-annual dog-and-pony show for buyers and press at the Majestic Hotel. This year, like the last, they’ll hold court on their yacht, which also serves as their offices — still tony, but on a budget; it’s a lot less expensive than that prime Croissette real estate. Meanwhile,...

04.27.17: This list is now final. While I may in the future see additional films that were released in the awards year of 2016, no more films will be added to this list. (I may add links to reviews of films listed here.)

This ranking includes only new theatrical releases viewed for the awards year of 2016 (for eligibility for the Academy Awards and the Ofcs and Awfj awards); some films released in the UK without Us releases (and so ineligible for those awards this year) may also be included, for my own bookkeeping purposes. Links go to my review. Numbers after each entry are Date First Viewed/NYC Release Date/London Release Date; year is 2016 unless otherwise noted.

worth paying multiplex prices for

[5 stars]

Arrival (10.10/11.11/11.10)

La La Land (10.07/12.09/01.13.17)

A Monster Calls (10.06/12.23/01.01.17)

The Lobster (07.16.15/05.13/10.16.15)

Zootropolis (aka Zootopia) (02.22/03.04/03.25)

A Bigger Splash (10.08.15/05.04/02.12)

Miss Sloane (11.20/11.25/05.12.17)

London Road (06.03.15/09.09/06.12.15)

The Girl with All the Gifts (07.26/02.24.17/09.23)

I, Daniel Blake...

What a difference a year makes: Amazon Studios’ lunch at CinemaCon 2017 was packed. Not like last year. “We were a new studio brand who had released one movie and bought five at Sundance,” said Jason Ropell, Amazon’s worldwide head of Motion Pictures. “We were planning to release 15 movies. It was ambitious and pretty damned scary.”

It turned out exhibitors did fine with Amazon’s movies, especially Oscar-winning $47-million-grosser “Manchester By the Sea,” which was released by Roadside Attractions and is winding up its 19th week in theaters. Other hits included Whit Stillman’s Jane Austen comedy “Love & Friendship” (19 weeks) and Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” (12 weeks), along with arthouse entries “The Handmaiden” (18 weeks), documentary “Gleason” and Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman,” which collected the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

Ropell and head of movie marketing and distribution Bob Berney, who is well known by exhibitors, scored rousing applause whenever...

What a difference a year makes: Amazon Studios’ lunch at CinemaCon 2017 was packed. Not like last year. “We were a new studio brand who had released one movie and bought five at Sundance,” said Jason Ropell, Amazon’s worldwide head of Motion Pictures. “We were planning to release 15 movies. It was ambitious and pretty damned scary.”

It turned out exhibitors did fine with Amazon’s movies, especially Oscar-winning $47-million-grosser “Manchester By the Sea,” which was released by Roadside Attractions and is winding up its 19th week in theaters. Other hits included Whit Stillman’s Jane Austen comedy “Love & Friendship” (19 weeks) and Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” (12 weeks), along with arthouse entries “The Handmaiden” (18 weeks), documentary “Gleason” and Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman,” which collected the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

Ropell and head of movie marketing and distribution Bob Berney, who is well known by exhibitors, scored rousing applause whenever...

If you've read The Film Experience for any length of time beyond let's say, a week, you'll know that we live for eye candy. Three of the cinematic arts that most regularly provide this are, outside of beautiful movie stars in the acting categories, Production Design and Costume Design i.e. the Moulin Rouge! categories. We love these categories so much we have two weekly series for them, Daniel Walber's "The Furniture" and my own forthcoming costume series "Three Fittings".

Anyway, it's time to make our final predictions for Oscar but it's also time to get those Film Bitch Awards (my own long running awards jamboree) going. So herewith my personal ballot and, putting the pundit hat on, my Oscar predictions. These two modes should not be confused... so apologies for discussing them simultaneously. This is what happens when you procrastinate!

Will Stuart Craig receive his 5th nomination directly from...

The Art Director's Guild can give us a taste of what's to come for Oscar but that's the reductive way of looking at it. By having multiple categories they give us a much better sense of what these craftsmen thought of the work done in any given film year... or at least told us which screeners they caught up with. Instead of 5 annual nominees like the Oscars, they have 15. Or in this year's case 16 titles (there was a tie in "period film").

Midnight In Paris won a surprise Academy nomination for Production Design (without an Adg nomination). Might Cafe Society (which *has* an Adg nomination) make the Oscar list despite a current low profile?

Which will go on to Oscar? (I'll have to rethink our chart which has four films which didn't score with the Adg in the top ten though one of them, The Handmaiden, still feels possible as...

The Art Directors Guild has announced the nominees for this year’s Adg Excellence in Production Design Awards, with “Jackie,” “La La Land” and more among the contenders. Adg’s awards are different from most others, as it has categories for Period, Fantasy and Contemporary Films; this has led to a wide array of winners in recent years, including the likes of “Her” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.” This year’s ceremony, the 21st, will take place in Hollywood on Saturday, February 11. Full list of nominees below.

Read More: Writers Guild Awards Nominations: ‘Moonlight,’ ‘Arrival,’ ‘Manchester by the Sea’ and More

Period Film

“Cafe Society” (Production Designer: Santo Loquasto)

“Fences” (Production Designer: David Gropman )

“Hacksaw Ridge” (Production Designer: Barry Robinson)

“Hail, Caesar!” (Production Designer: Jess Gonchor)

“Jackie” (Production Designer: Jean Rabasse)

Fantasy Film

“Arrival” (Production Designer: Patrice Vermette)

“Doctor Strange” (Production Designer: Charles Wood)

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them...

“Jackie,” “Cafe Society,” “Fences,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Hidden Figures” and “Hail, Caesar!” have been nominated for excellence in production design by the Art Directors Guild in the period-film category, the Adg Awards category that typically produces most of the Oscar nominees for Best Production Design. In the fantasy-film category, the nominees are “Arrival,” “Doctor Strange,” “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” “Passengers” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” And among contemporary films, the Adg nominated “Hell or High Water,” “La La Land,” “Lion,” “Manchester by the Sea” and “Nocturnal Animals.” Also Read: How Tom Ford Went From Designer to Director With.

Author: Competitions

To celebrate the release of Woody Allen’s Café Society starring Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll and Ken Stott on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download, out now, we are giving you the chance to bring home the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and win a copy of the film on Blu-ray.

Starring stellar cast members Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”, “Batman V Superman”) as Bronx born Bobby Dorfman who moves to Hollywood, where he falls in love, and back to New York, where he is swept up in the vibrant world of high society nightclub life. Steve Carell (“The Office”, “The 40 Year Old Virgin”) as Bobby’s uncle Phil, a high powered Hollywood agent. With Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”, “Snow White and The Huntsman”) as Vonnie, Phil’s charming assistant, and Blake Lively (“Gossip Girl”, “The Shallows”) as Veronica Hayes,...

La La Land stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling may be getting attention for their big-screen reunion in Damien Chazelle's acclaimed musical. But the duo — who formerly shared the screen in Crazy, Stupid, Love and Gangster Squad — weren't the only onetime movie pair to reunite in a non-sequel or franchise-continuation film in 2016.

Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg and Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman starred opposite each other for the third and fourth times in Cafe Society and Office Christmas Party, respectively. Meanwhile, Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard had a Garden State reunion, 12 years later, in Jackie....

It’s time to put a bow on 2016, ladies and gentlemen! New Year’s Eve is tomorrow, but before that party, today will be a festivity of sorts. Yes, it’s time to reveal my picks for the year’s best films and performances. From early year releases that held on all the way to a few late breaking players, my lists have a whole range of titles. The year has been a volatile one, both in terms of world events and also when it comes to cinema. 2016 was the year where things kind of got nuts politically and with celebrity deaths, but it was also the year wearisome incredible movies came out. Plenty of people will focus on the former, so I’ll concentrate on the latter today. Let’s get started! Below you will see both my picks for the very best movies of 2016 as well as the...

Woody Allen’s most recent creation, Cafe Society, is a visually-stunning film set in 1930’s Hollywood. Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) is the son of a Jewish family in 1930’s New York, and working for his jeweler father. Aspiring for greater things, Bobby ventures to Hollywood, where he lands a job working for his uncle Phil Stern […]

Source: uInterview

The post ‘Cafe Society’ BluRay Review: Woody Allen Takes On Hollywood’s Golden Age appeared first on uInterview.

What did you see this weekend? I've had the neverending winter cold so I've been totally out of it. Hope you've been enjoying more films than I! This weekend contained a spectacular debut for La La Land which grossed nearly a million in only five theaters. To put it in context that's about twice what Moonlight and Cafe Society were able to accomplish in their similar sized opening weekends which were considered quite strong at the time. It's about four-to-six times what other art house darlings of the year (like The Lobster, Jackie, Love & Friendship, A Bigger Splash) were able to manage in similar sized openings. Most of those films proved to have a ceiling around $9-12 million at the Us box office but La La Land seems sure to cross over to mainstream success.

Also worth noting: A great weekend for the musical form in general since Moana stayed up top.

Kristen Stewart had a 2016 that will long be remembered as one of the best years of her career. She surprised as a charming romantic foil in Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society,” stole Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women” from Michelle Williams and Laura Dern and gave another Olivier Assayas film her trademark magnetism (“Personal Shopper”). So what’s left for Stewart to do with just one month left in the year? The answer is be the star in a new music video for The Rolling Stones.

Read More: Kristen Stewart Talks Directing Her First Film: ‘I’ve Never Been Happier Doing Anything’

The band is releasing their acclaimed blues album “Blue and Lonesome” today, and they’ve celebrated with a freewheeling new video set to the song “Ride ‘Em On Down.” The clip finds Stewart cruising around an abandoned Los Angeles in a blue Ford Mustang. Accompanying her is a six...

Photo Credit: Francois Duhamel. Copyright © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Rules Don’T Apply Motion Picture Copyright © 2016 Regency Entertainment (USA), Inc. and Monarchy Enterprises S.a.r.l. All rights reserved.

Rules Don’T Apply opens as a boy-meets-girl tale set in classic Hollywood, an introduction suggesting a light-hearted romance, maybe even romantic comedy, which is how the film is being promoted. And Rules Don’T Apply is that boy-meets-girl tale at first, until Howard Hughes shows up, played by writer/director Warren Beatty. Then the story takes a darker turn and switches from Hollywood romance with contemporary Woody Allen flavor to a Howard Hughes biopic. It is as if Beatty the actor hijacks Beatty the director’s film.

Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins), a small-town beauty queen raised with a strong Baptist faith, arrives in Hollywood with a movie contract from Howard Hughes in hand and her mother (Annette Bening) in tow.

Will the new guard or the old guard rule? The Cinematography branch has often favored established DPs over newcomers, but this year might change that a bit. [Updated Nov. 20]

Top Five

Stephan Fontaine, “Jackie”

James Laxton, “Moonlight”

Rodrigo Prieto, “Silence”

Linus Sandgren, “La La Land”

Bradford Young, “Arrival”

Almost There

Caleb Deschanel, “Rules Don’t Apply”

Greig Fraser, “Lion”

Seamus McGarvey, “Nocturnal Animals”

Robert Richardson, “Live By Night”

Philippe Rousselot, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”

Vittorio Stoaro, “Cafe Society”

Longshots

Robert Elswit, “Gold”

Roger Deakins, “Hail, Caesar!”

Simon Duggan, “Hacksaw Ridge”

Greig Fraser, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”

Janusz Kaminski, “The Bfg”

Giles Nuttgens, “Hell or High Water”

Gregory Ellwood’s Current Oscar Predictions:

Best Picture

Director

Best Actress

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Supporting Actor

Original Screenplay

Adapted Screenplay

Editing – Coming Soon

Cinematography

Animated Feature Film

Foreign Language Film – Coming Soon

Documentary Feature – Coming Soon

Original Score...

The fall specialized season (with attached awards campaigns) is going into high gear. This weekend brings the release of Amazon Studios Sundance pickup “Manchester by the Sea” (Roadside Attractions), one of the year’s most anticipated films, to a strong initial response in its first two cities. Also, Focus Features released buzzy festival hit “Nocturnal Animals” somewhat wider to enough interest to suggest ongoing adult audiences ahead.

None of these grosses challenge 2016’s top limited releases, though, consistent with what has been a decline in overall specialty numbers this year. But they join “Moonlight” and “Loving” among successful launches that perform well enough to keep their awards chances alive along with their commercial prospects.

That’s in stark contrast with Ang Lee’s technological experiment “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” After what seemed to be a decent start in two theaters last weekend, its wider national break ranks with...

Back in June, Warner Bros. set a Summer 2019 release date for their highly-anticipated adaptation of Minecraft, which will be directed by Rob McElhenney (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Today the project has seemingly found its first cast member, with Steve Carell entering talks to join the big screen ensemble. No details were given about the character he will play in this adaptation quite yet.

Variety reports that Rob McElhenney is still attached to make his feature film directorial debut with Minecraft. The director also wrote the latest version of the script with Jason Fuchs, who wrote last year's fantasy adventure Pan for Warner Bros., along with the studio's upcoming superhero adventure Wonder Woman, arriving in theaters June 2, 2017. Warner Bros. would not confirm the casting at this time, and the studio has yet to release any story details.

Warner Bros. picked up the project in February 2014, with Shawn Levy coming aboard...

Remove Warren Beatty from the equation and expectations of “Rules Don’t Apply” — which he wrote, directed and stars in — would fit the outcome. A sweet, old-fashioned Hollywood romance that just so happens to involve Howard Hughes as a supporting character, Beatty’s long-gestating project is a modestly enjoyable, well-acted nostalgia piece with just a touch of edge. As passion projects go, this one’s disarmingly slight in its ambitions, the opposite of Hughes’ legacy in every way.

At the same time, Beatty’s lively screenplay does a fine job of sketching out a distinct moment in Hughes’ legacy while situating more intimate drama within it. “Rules Don’t Apply” opens in 1964, on the brink of Hughes’ famous phone call to reporters on national television after years of avoiding them. From there, it flashes back six years to a very different occasion: Bright-eyed young actress Marla Collins (Lily Collins) heads...

A lackluster October 2016 at the box office saw calendar grosses down ~8% compared to last year, contributing to a disappointing Fall movie season that finished down 9.3% compared to 2015. As a result, only one new release in the Fall 2016 timeframe (Sully) has managed to gross over $100 million domestically so far and it would appear it's going to remain that way. Overall, October saw a record 293 films (+32 compared to 2015) generate $657.4 million compared to the $715.3 million from 261 films last year, resulting in the second worst per film average over the last 35 years. For both, 2016's October timeframe and the Fall movie season, this was the second year in a row that saw a decline in grosses, which could be chalked up to the fact 2014 delivered a record Fall movie season, driven by a record October. That said, while October 2015 was down just 5.6% compared to 2014, October 2016 is down 13.27% compared to 2014.October 2016's largest grossing calendar...

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