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In the pop-star tradition of Cher, Madonna and Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan might add actress to her resume.

The Grammy winner revealed that she recently met legendary cult filmmaker John Waters, who encouraged Roan to embrace her inner thespian and give acting a try.

“I met John Waters last night, which was insane,” she told W Magazine. “One of my idols! And I was talking about how there are only so many ‘firsts’ you can have with your career.”

Roan continued, “And he said, ‘No, no, no—there are all the firsts to go through when you become an actress!’ And I said, ‘I’m not an actress—what are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Every singer is an actress!’ And I was like, okay, maybe I am! Damn! If John Waters says I’m an actress, maybe I am!”

After breaking out with her 2023 debut studio album The Rise...

Baltimore native John Waters is filmdom’s pencil-mustached titan of trash who has spent a lifetime of dumpster-diving into a vat of bad taste, sleaze, kinky gross-outs, over-the-top camp, maudlin melodramatics, sick jokes, taboo sexuality, vulgarity and bizarre personalities. At least he has a fabulous sense of humor. The director is a New York University film school dropout who instead became a scholar of transgressive, envelope-shredding cinema, influenced by the directorial likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Federico Fellini, William Castle, Douglas Sirk and Ingmar Bergman. Early on, Waters assembled a stock company of players from suburban Baltimore who he would the Dreamlanders, including Mink Stole and Edith Massey.

But Waters would find his true muse and favorite leading lady in his childhood friend, Glenn Milstead, a drag queen whose alter-ego was known as Divine. When Milstead died at age 42 from an enlarged heart in 1988, Waters' output went more mainstream, with...

There is, for devotees of a specific type of movie arcana, a glorious moment in Jason Statham’s new movie, “A Working Man.” About midway through, his character, searching for a trafficked young woman, poses as a drug dealer looking to score a connection with a local kingpin holding court in the backroom of a biker bar. The kingpin suspects he’s a cop, but after Jason handily dispatches his goons, the kingpin, regarding his fists, says, “Look at those bricks. You ain’t a cop, you’re a working man.”

The title drop, when a line of dialogue references the film’s title, is a delicate art with a distinct cult following. When they’re good, they’re very good. When they’re bad, they’re terrific.

Director John Waters is a title drop enthusiast. He rattled off some favorites in a phone call with IndieWire: “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,...

For many of us, it's hard to imagine a time before "The Simpsons." As the longest-running scripted television series of all time, "The Simpsons" has been on the air since 1989, and while the show has certainly evolved over 36 seasons, some things have been there since the beginning. Maggie has always been a little too smart for a baby, Homer has always been a bit of a jerk sometimes, and people are rather inexplicably bright yellow, and that goes back to before the animated family even had their own television series. 

Before creator Matt Groening had a show of his own, the Simpson family and their neighbors in Springfield were the stars of a series of shorts on the Emmy-winning Fox sketch comedy series "The Tracey Ullman Show." Though how exactly "The Simpsons" were conceived is contentious, we know for sure that the very first "Simpsons" short aired on the first...

Van Smith, who worked on all of John Waters’ films for more than 30 years, is headed to the Costume Designers Guild’s Edith Piaf Hall of Fame. Smith will be inducted posthumously by his longtime director at the CDG Awards ceremony on February 6 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.

Considered one of the “Dreamlanders,” Waters’ ensemble of regular cast and crew members, Smith first worked with the quirky filmmaker on Pink Flamingos (1972), including the famous and often copied look of the film’s star Divine. Their legacy includes the extreme outfits of the flamboyant criminals and hairdressers in Female Trouble (1974) and the grotesque Mortvillians in Desperate Living (1977) Smith to Polyester (1982) and Hairspray (1988) to more mainstream films such as Cry-Baby (1990) and Serial Mom (1994).

Pink Flamingos and Hairspray were inducted into the National Film Registry in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Related: 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More...

“My films were never mainstream, but they always had an audience.”

From Pink Flamingos and Hairspray to Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, and beyond, John Waters has been shocking viewers with his signature brand of satirical camp that toes the line between arthouse and exploitation for more than half a century.

On November 21, Waters was presented with the 2024 Coolidge Award from Brookline, Massachusetts’ historic Coolidge Corner Theatre, an honor previously bestowed upon the likes of Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Julianne Moore, and Werner Herzog.

Launched in 2004, the Coolidge Award recognizes a film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema; an acknowledgment certainly befitting of Waters. The award’s 20th anniversary also marks the first presentation in the Coolidge’s recently expanded space, which opened last spring.

Following a tribute reel highlighting Waters’ work, Emmy award-winning GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen took the stage to lead a 45-minute...

Legendary filmmaker John Waters will be honored with The Coolidge Award at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Ma this Thursday, November 21.

Waters will discuss his life and career with Emmy award-winning GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen. The conversation will include a tribute clip reel and will be followed by the award presentation.

Earlier in the day, the Pope of Trash will introduce and participate in a Q&a following a 35mm screening of Cecil B. Demented, his 2000 black comedy starring Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff.

Launched in 2004, The Coolidge Award recognizes a film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema. Past recipients include Meryl Streep, Jonathan Demme, Michael Douglas, Julianne Moore, and Werner Herzog, among others.

The Coolidge’s John Waters celebration continues with screenings of 1974’s Female Trouble on November 22, 1977’s Desperate Living on November 29, 2004’s A Dirty Shame on December 2, and 1998’s...

Liarmouth was set to star Aubrey Plaza, and be the first John Waters film for 20 years. It’s now not set to be.

John Waters hasn’t made a film in 20 years, so it was exciting to hear back in 2022 that he was set to bring his demented brand of comedy back to the silver screen, along with Aubrey Plaza, a gifted comic actor with whom the filmmaker would surely have created something special.

Sadly, that’s not to be as Waters has revealed (courtesy of World Of Reel) that the project is no longer happening. Funding seems to be the source of the issue, with Waters telling Indie Wire that:

“I wrote the script, they liked it, Aubrey [Plaza] likes the script, wants to be in it, I want her to be in it, and every person said, “No, we don’t have a penny of the budget.” That is where it is today.

Aubrey Plaza has been waiting to wade into John Waters’ filmography for decades, ever since she first watched his 1994 satirical film “Serial Mom.”

During a visit alongside director Sean Price Williams to Kim’s Video at Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Manhattan for its web series, Plaza credited Waters for inspiring her comedy taste in film.

“John Waters blew my mind with ‘Serial Mom,'” she said, adding that working in a video store while in high school was how she “learned about independent films.”

The “Megalopolis” actress added, “I was getting really into John Waters. I was getting really into ‘Waiting for Guffman’ and Christopher Guest movies. [But] ‘Serial Mom’ for me was like, oh my god…I was laughing so much. I thought it was the funniest shit I’ve ever seen. Of course I watch all those other movies and I just think he just doesn’t care. It...

From ‘Good Morning Baltimore’ to ‘good night Los Angeles,’ Ricki Lake is paying tribute to her beloved longtime collaborator John Waters.

The Hairspray star will host ‘Let’s Talk w/ Ricki Lake‘ along with the curators of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures‘ ‘John Waters: Pope of Trash‘ to close out the exhibit on August 3.

The conversation with senior exhibitions curator Jenny He and associate curator Dara Jaffe will touch on Lake’s decades-spanning career of work with Waters, who directed her in such cult classics as Hairspray (1988), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Cecil B. Demented (2000) and A Dirty Shame (2004).

Launching last September, ‘John Waters: Pope of Trash’ is “the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the artist’s contributions to cinema. The exhibition delves into his filmmaking process, key themes, and unmatched style. Works on view include costumes, set decoration, props, handwritten scripts, posters, concept designs, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, film clips, and more.

Image: IFC Films, Warner Bros., Cinetic Media, Screenshot: YouTube, YouTube, Apple/YouTube, Disney/YouTube, Photo: Frank Masi (Sony Pictures Entertainment), Atsushi Nishijima (Searchlight Pictures), Warner Bros. Pictures, Magnolia Pictures, Vertical, CraSH/imageSPACE/Shutterstock (Shutterstock), Jasin BolandIn A Violent Nature review: A slasher in touch with its surroundingsIn A Violent NatureImage:...

John Waters earlier this yearPhoto: CraSH/imageSPACE/Shutterstock (Shutterstock)

Freaks, sickos, and perverts the world over breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced in October 2022 that John Waters would be adapting his novel Liarmouth into a feature film. For one thing, the film would be his first since 2004's A Dirty Shame.

Following rumors that Aubrey Plaza would be leading John Waters' first movie in 20 years, the actress was just officially confirmed to be starring in the renowned actor's next film project, titled Liarmouth. Finally sitting in the director's chair over two decades after A Dirty Shame graced cinemas back in 2004, Waters is set to write and direct the planned project based on his 2022 debut novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance. Although reports of Plaza's involvement with Waters' movie surfaced earlier this year, nothing was officially confirmed until now.

It’s a little shocking to realize that filmmaker and King of smut, John Waters (“Pink Flamingos”), hasn’t made a feature film effort since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame.” That said, things appear to be on the upswing, and the filmmaker seems optimistic about getting his next two movies made in the near future after a twenty-year hiatus.

Over the weekend in Los Angeles, Waters hosted a candid commentary for his first two short films (“Hag In A Black Leather Jacket” and “Roman Candles”) at the Academy Museum.

Continue reading John Waters Confirms Aubrey Plaza Will Star In ‘Liarmouth’ But Still Needs Funding To Make It at The Playlist.

Well, after a flurry of rumors, Aubrey Plaza is officially cast in John Waters’ first film in 20 years: “Liarmouth.”

Waters will write and direct the “feel-bad romance” adapted from his novel of the same name. “Liarmouth” will be Waters’ first film since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame.” Plaza is set to play con artist Marsha Sprinkle, who is described as “a suitcase thief, scammer, and master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She’s smart, she’s desperate, she’s disturbed, and she’s on the run with a big chip on her shoulder. They call her Liarmouth ― until one insane man makes her tell the truth.”

The feature was first announced in December 2022 with Village Roadshow Pictures has optioned the novel and Steve Rabineau producing. Waters recently provided an update to the project.

“The book was optioned. I turned in the script. They like the script,...

It’s not easy to shock John Waters. The “Pink Flamingos” director spent his career pushing, prodding and profaning the envelope in every way imaginable. But one thing the self-proclaimed “pope of trash” never thought he’d see was a career-spanning show at the Academy Museum.

The exhibition — which features everything from a full-scale trailer home to Ricki Lake’s cockroach-covered dress from the movie “Hairspray” — opened last September and runs through the end of August. Waters spoke to Variety ahead of the opening, but because of the writers’ strike last summer, he wasn’t able to discuss current or upcoming projects.

Back in Los Angeles this weekend, Waters provided a candid live commentary for his first two short films, “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket” and “Roman Candles,” and fielded questions from the audience. When asked how he feels to be paid such respect by the same organization that bestows Oscars,...

Production on John Waters’ new film, Liarmouth, is moving ahead with Aubrey Plaza set to star.

First announced in 2022, Liarmouth is slated to be Waters’ first new movie in 20 years. Though it was delayed by last year’s strikes, new reports claim that progress is coming along and filming is expected to begin in Baltimore, Maryland later this year. According to Word of Reel, Waters has completed the script, a budget is currently being assembled, and beyond confirmation of Plaza’s role, “further casting should be announced shortly.”

The film itself is based on Waters’ 2022 novel-of-the-same-name, which follows the story of Marsha Sprinkle, a smart, desperate, and disturbed con artist dubbed “Liarmouth” who’s wanted dead by even her own family. Speaking in a 2022 interview with Dazed, Plaza explained that she wanted to be involved as soon as the film adaptation was announced.

“I emailed [Waters] immediately and said, ‘You better let me audition for you,...

The legendary “Pulp of Trash,” John Waters hasn’t directed a feature film since A Dirty Shame back in 2004, but The Guardian reports this week that the Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, and Serial Mom director will soon be making a long-awaited return with a brand new movie!

The Guardian reports this morning, “Hairspray director John Waters is about to start production on his first feature film for 20 years, with Aubrey Plaza as the lead.”

The film is titled Liarmouth, an adaptation of Waters’ same titled novel from 2022.

Liarmouth is “a feel-bad romance,” with the novel billing it as “a hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction from the brilliantly twisted mind of John Waters.”

“Liarmouth centers on a scammer and compulsive liar called Marsha Sprinkle who splits from her partner Daryl and steals from both her daughter and her mother.”

The full synopsis for the book digs a bit...

Aubrey Plaza will lead the cast of ‘Feel-Bad’ romance Liarmouth, which marks John Waters’ first directorial outing in two decades.

John Waters hasn’t made a film in 20 years, but he’s set to bring his demented brand of comedy back to the silver screen, along with a leading actor who should prove equal to his ambitions.

Waters’ last film was 2004’s A Dirty Shame which starred Tracy Ullman, Johnny Knoxville and Chris Isaak. That was his comedy about sex addiction. In the 1990s alone, Waters also gave us Pecker, which featured Edward Furlong taking pictures of perverts, and Serial Mom, the 1994 black comedy featuring the mighty Kathleen Turner as a mother who doubles as a serial killer.

Waters’ style is certainly unique and the idea of a new film from him after all this time is a welcome one. What’s more, he’s found a leading actor to...

American Cinemas Editors has cut together the nominees for its 74rd annual Ace Eddie Awards, which will be handed out next month. See the list of all 13 film and TV categories below.

The group also said today that Nina West, who played Divine in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and Edna Turnblad in the touring production of Hairspray, will host the March 3 ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Westwood.

Vying for the marquee prize of Best Edited Feature Film are the editors behind Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer and Past Lives. The Comedy Theatrical race will be among Air, American Fiction, Barbie, The Holdovers and Poor Things.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Eddie winner for theatrical drama has gone on to score the Academy Award for Best Editing 13 of 23 times — but none of the past four years. In a twist,...

John Waters may not have directed a film in nearly two decades, but he has been far from slowing down. With a handful of books, several TV appearances and his annual one-man show, Waters is about as busy as he’s ever been. Thankfully, one of those books, “Liarmouth”, will be his next feature. And after that? Anything but retirement.

In a new profile straight out of John Waters’ hometown of Baltimore, the writer/director said, “I jump up every day to go to work…People say why aren’t you going to retire? Because I wish I believed in another life after, but I don’t. So I want to see every person, every movie, read every book, go everywhere in the world…That’s why I think travel is so important. That’s why I continue to do this show.” The show he’s referring to is A John Waters Christmas,...

20 years after the release of his last film “A Dirty Shame,” shock film icon John Waters might be returning to the director’s chair very soon.

In an interview with The Baltimore Fishbowl on December 22 about his famous annual Christmas parties, the “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray” filmmaker revealed that he has finished the script for “Liarmouth,” a film adaptation of his own 2022 novel of the same name. Waters further said that he turned the script over to the producers — it’s set up at Village Roadshow Pictures, which optioned the novel — and that he is currently waiting on the budget for the project.

“I’ve written the script and I turned it in and they like it and we’re doing a budget,” Waters told the Baltimore Fishbowl. “Who knows? We’ll see. We’ll see.”

“Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance” focuses on con artist Martha Sprinkles, nicknamed Liarmouth, and her romance with fellow scammer Daryl.

John Waters' films often push boundaries and tackle taboo subjects, gaining controversy but also creating a safe space for marginalized communities. While some of Waters' films may feel disjointed or unmemorable, they still showcase his unique and provocative sense of humor. Waters' legacy extends beyond filmmaking, as he has had an impact on LGBTQ+ cinema and recently published his first novel.

American filmmaker John Waters is famously known for his controversial films, many of which are just as taboo today as they were in the '70s. A pioneer of provocative media, Waters specializes in counterculture as a subgenre and ideology for the films he directs. He's gained a significant cult following due to his outrageous yet uniquely reformative black comedy. While John Waters' icon status began for his purposefully objectionable film Pink Flamingos, he truly became known for his 1988 movie Hairspray. According to Waters, Tracy Turnblad's Hairspray narrative...

Tom Holland's 1988 film "Child's Play" was about a serial killer named Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) who was fatally wounded by a cop (Chris Sarandon) during a shootout in a toy warehouse. As he lay dying, Charles, a.k.a. Chucky, used voodoo magic to shunt his consciousness into a nearby Good Guy doll, a talking plastic child about a foot tall. In the body of the doll, Chucky continues his reign of terror. "Child's Play" was clearly a spoof of the Cabbage Patch Kids phenomenon a few years previous, positing that the year's difficult-to-obtain ultra-hot Christmas toy could possibly contain the soul of a murderer. 

To date, there have been six sequels to "Child's Play," a remake, and a spinoff series called "Chucky," which concluded part one of its third season in October of 2023. The series became increasingly wild as it went on, tilting heavily into camp and comedy.

Suzanne Shepherd, who was best known for her roles in “Goodfellas” and “The Sopranos,” has died at the age of 89.

Shepherd’s death was announced by her friend Tom Titone, who wrote on Facebook, “Suzanne Shepherd passed away peacefully very early yesterday morning. She was 89 years old.”

Titone, who shared photos of Shepherd alongside his words, continued, “I took these photos a couple of years ago at her home on the Uws. Always the actress.

“I studied with Suzanne as a young actor. She saw in me what I could not yet see in myself. She introduced me to my husband. She was the officiant to our marriage under a beautiful gazebo in Central Park with a gathering of family and friends. For this, I will always be grateful.”

He finished, “She was a huge presence. A Big personality. She roared with life and at it. May she rest now.

Suzanne Shepherd, an actor known for her roles in “The Sopranos” and “Goodfellas,” died Friday morning in her home in New York City, her agent confirmed to Variety. She was 89.

Shepherd portrayed Mary DeAngelis, the mother of Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco), in HBO’s crime drama series “The Sopranos,” as well as the mother of Lorraine Bracco’s character Karen Hill in 1990’s “Goodfellas.” She also had roles in “Jacob’s Ladder” (1990), “Trees Lounge” (1996), “Lolita” (1997), “American Cuisine” (1998), “Living Out Loud” (1998), “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), “A Dirty Shame” (2004), “Harold” (2008), “The Week Of” (2018) and “The Performance” (2023), among other films.

Shepherd was born on Oct. 31, 1934. She made her acting debut in the 1988 romcom “Mystic Pizza,” starring Julia Roberts, and appeared in such films as “Working Girl,” “Uncle Buck” and “Second Sight” before working on Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas.”

On the television side, she guest-starred in “Law & Order,” “Third Watch,” “Ed,” “Blue Bloods,” “Deadline,...

John Waters has had some pretty outrageous moments on the big screen. From the umbilical cord scene in Female Trouble and the singing anus in Pink Flamingos to the fart-soaked Odorama cards of Polyester and a semen-shooting Johnny Knoxville in A Dirty Shame, he has easily earned the nickname the Pope of Trash. But as far as John Waters figures, he’s immune to being a victim of cancel culture.

Citing his classic 1972 midnight movie Pink Flamingos — you know, the movie where Divine eats fresh dog crap — John Waters told MovieWeb that even 50+ years on, “It’s more politically incorrect than it ever was, but I never get canceled. I think the reason is because I’m not mean-spirited. I make fun of things I love, and I direct a movie, I think, with love for the characters and with love to the audience.”

Such words came ahead of John...

The Pope of Trash is about to be the Trash of Tinseltown, as John Waters is slated to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The 77-year-old John Waters will receive his star – designated as the 2,763rd – on September 18th as he is surrounded by frequent collaborators Ricki Lake, Mink Stole and Greg Gorman. As part of Waters’ Dreamlanders troupe, Lake has appeared in five films for Waters, most notably Hairspray, while Stole has appeared in every single one, beginning with 1969’s Mondo Trasho. Meanwhile, Gorman has photographed Waters numerous times, capturing some famous images of the director’s trademark pencil mustache.

As per Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, “John Waters has been a huge part of pop culture for many years…As a director, he has created some of our historic and favorite film moments and we’re thrilled to welcome him to...

BlondePhoto: Netflix

Young Adam (2003): A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers’ lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits. Starring: Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullan, Emily Mortimer.

Bad Education (2004): An examination...

Filmmaker Ira Sachs has spoken out against the Motion Picture Association’s Nc-17 rating of his Sundance film “Passages,” slamming the ratings board as “anti-progress” and saying that he will not recut his film to earn an R rating and will instead release the film unrated with distributor Mubi.

“There’s no untangling the film from what it is,” Sachs told The Los Angeles Times. “It is a film that is very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives. And to shift that now would be to create a very different movie.”

“Passages,” which premiered at Sundance this year, follows a same-sex couple, Tomas and Martin (Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw), whose relationship is upended when Tomas has an affair with a woman named Agathe (Adèle Exarchapoulos). The film shows how those relationships change through a series of sex scenes both gay and heterosexual, including one that...

John Waters is a different kind of cinematic icon, a misfit auteur whose putrefying punk aesthetic has shocked audiences for more than half a century. Waters has somehow bridged the extreme bottom of low culture (his first short was titled Hag in a Black Leather Jacket) with the critically lauded highs (several of his films are in The Criterion Collection). Ever since his early features, the filmmaker has pushed the boundaries of acceptability and discovered true artistry on the margins.

In yet another instance of his anomalistic position among important directors, Waters is extremely in touch with his audience, and goes out of his way to be with people and communicate with film fans. He's an eloquent yet grounded public speaker, loquaciously witty and immensely clever, and he's bringing the whole Waters package to his fans once again with a suitably quirky upcoming event — The John Waters Filthy Film Festival.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film Forum

Godard’s Contempt and Midnight Cowboy play in 4K restorations.

Museum of the Moving Image

E.T., Roger Rabbit, and An American Werewolf in London play on 35mm in a summer movie series, while a print of The Royal Tenenbaums screens on Sunday; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms also shows.

Bam

A series of recent restorations brings films by Claire Denis, Orson Welles, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the Three Colors trilogy.

Film at Lincoln Center

The Mother and the Whore begins a run in its 4K restoration; Friday plays for free (when else) Friday night in Damrosch Park.

Museum of Modern Art

Prints from the 20th Century Fox vault begin playing in a new series.

Roxy Cinema

35mm prints of Manhattan, A Dirty Shame, Uncle Sam, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show screen, while Fassbeinder’s Whity also plays.

IFC...

The movie: "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"

Where you can stream it: Prime Video

The Pitch: Writer and director Kevin Smith brings his brand of crass but heartfelt comedy to a romantic story about two best friends, Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) who decide to make a porn film as a last-ditch effort to pay their rent and utility bills. While Smith usually prefers his performers to stick to the script because he writes such great dialogue, working with a bunch of actors who had come from the Judd Apatow world of improv acting allowed him to loosen up his storytelling style and let his performers go wild. The result is a heartwarming, absolutely hilarious romantic comedy that also might be one of the filthiest and most wholesome movies ever made. 

As Zack and Miri try to make their movie, they meet a ragtag crew of sweet deviants who help them.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Newsi ran from it and was still in it.The Filmmaker Magazine editorial staff shared their annual roster of 25 New Faces of Independent Film, including Antonio Marziale, Darol Olu Kae, Lucy Kerr, and more.John Waters will return to directing with Liarmouth, an adaptation of his own novel of the same name. It will be his first film since 2004’s A Dirty Shame. The Edinburgh International Film Festival has been shut down after the charity that runs it, the Centre for the Moving Image (Cmi), announced it has called in administrators and made 102 out of the 107 current staff redundant. Mark Cousins wrote about the closure of the “feminist, unbridled, Nonconformist Scottish and passionately international” festival in the Guardian. The legendary actress Angela Lansbury died this week at age 96. "She moved so easily between film,...

Cult director John Waters has produced some of the most shocking and outrageous scenes in film history that have delighted fans for over 60 years of pure filth.

He began his career with low-budget indie films and then later proceeded to push the boundaries of taste when he released Pink Flamingos in 1972 to outraged critics starring his iconic muse, drag queen Divine, who played the “filthiest person alive.” Divine continued to collaborate with Waters and featured in several of his movies, including Multiple Maniacs, Female Trouble, Polyester (alongside Tab Hunter), and Hairspray.

Not one to shy away from the controversy, he leaned into his nickname ‘‘The Pope of Trash’ to create more campy 90’s classics like Cry-Baby starring Johnny Depp, Pecker; Cecil B. Demented; Serial Mom starring Kathleen Turner. Waters directed his last film, A Dirty Shame, in 2004, featuring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, and Chris Isaak. He shifted his focus in...

Chicago – The legendary “Pope of Trash,” outrageous filmmaker John Waters, promoted his new novel “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance” at the Chicago Humanities Festival (Chf) on May 7th, 2022, and HollywoodChicago.com was there.

Waters sat down for an interview with Chicago cinéaste Richard Knight Jr. at the Spring Chf, and signed his new novel afterward. Photographer Joe Arce got an Exclusive Portrait of the filmmaker, and Patrick McDonald got a bit of insight into his film film, “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket,” which Waters made on 8mm in 1964 at age 18 … see the 30 second documentary below.

John Waters at Chicago Humanities Festival, May 7th, 2022

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

John Waters was born in Baltimore, and his met his frequent collaborator Divine (Glenn Milstead) while growing up in nearby Lutherville. He absorbed the atmosphere of “Charm City” and used Baltimore as the early settings for his films,...

Hulu has ordered a comedy pilot from Steve Levitan and John Enbom with Keegan-Michael Key and Johnny Knoxville attached to star, Variety has learned.

In the pilot, titled “Reboot,” Hulu decides to reboot an early 2000’s family sitcom. Its dysfunctional cast is forced back together and now must deal with their unresolved issues in today’s fast-changing world.

Levitan is the creator, executive producer, and showrunner and also wrote the pilot story. Levitan and Enbom wrote the pilot teleplay. Enbom will serve as writer and executive producer on the series. Danielle Stokdyk will also executive produce. 20th Television, where Levitan is currently under an overall deal, will serve as the studio.

“Reboot” is the first announced project for Levitan since the ending of “Modern Family” in April 2020 after eleven seasons and 250 episodes. Levitan co-created the hit ABC single-cam sitcom, which won 22 Emmy Awards throughout its run, including five wins for best comedy series.

Team Experience has been celebrating John Waters for his 75th birthday.

By Ben Miller

I like to think John Waters had enough of what people have been expecting from him. Following a slightly more conventionally commercial run of films with Hairspray onward, Waters returned to his sex-addled farcical roots with 2004’s A Dirty Shame. I love the idea of a fan of Cry-Baby showing up to this film expecting something along the same lines, only to be presented with something much closer to Desperate Living.

A Dirty Shame follows the residents of Hartford Road as either "neuters", a group of puritanical sex haters, or "perverts", a group of sex addicts with unique fetishes brought on by accidental concussions...

James Ransone has been cast in Scott Derrickson’s upcoming film for Blumhouse and Universal, The Black Phone. Derrickson and frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill adapted the script based on Joe Hill’s short story. Derrickson, Cargill and Jason Blum, for Blumhouse, are producing the film. Universal and Blumhouse will present the Crooked Highway production. Joe Hill is an executive producer.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Rex/Shutterstock Scott Derrickson ‘Doctor Strange’ Launch Event, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 24 Oct 2016

James Ransone has created indelible performances on the big and small screens as well as the stage, performing in a wide variety of projects that span from intimate indies to blockbuster genre films.

Ransone starred in It Chapter Two as Eddie Kasprak, one of the members of “The Losers Club,” opposite Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader, et al. His performance in the movie garnered such praise as “James Ransone...

Based on the short story of the same name by Joe Hill, The Black Phone is shaping up to be quite the Sinister reunion, as James Ransone (who played Deputy So & So in 2012's Sinister and Ex-Deputy So & So in Sinister 2) has joined Ethan Hawke (who played Ellison Oswalt in Sinister) in the cast of the new Scott Derrickson film that he co-wrote with C. Robert Cargill:

James Ransone has been cast in Scott Derrickson’s upcoming film for Blumhouse and Universal, The Black Phone.

Derrickson and frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill adapted the script based on Joe Hill’s short story.

Derrickson, Cargill and Jason Blum, for Blumhouse, are producing the film. Universal and Blumhouse will present the Crooked Highway production. Joe Hill is an executive producer.

About James Ransone:

James Ransone has created indelible performances on the big and small screens as well as the stage,...

It’s 50 years since John Waters made his first feature film, “Mondo Trasho” — a scuzzy, Divine-starring underground ride that set the tone for a career of joyously offending delicate sensibilities and expanding the boundaries of U.S. indie cinema, through such now-celebrated films as “Pink Flamingos,” “Polyester” and the original, pre-Broadway incarnation of “Hairspray.” With Locarno celebrating Waters’ films with a mini-retrospective and the Pardo d’onore Manor award for career achievement, we caught up with the 73-year-old to discuss cinematic rebellion, past and present.

Half a century ago, when you were releasing your first feature, you can’t have imagined that you’d now be getting career awards and retrospectives at a major film festivals.

I know, I love it. It’s so different, though. When I was growing up, people’s parents found my films and called the police. Now people say to me, “My parents love you,...

John Waters hasn’t really been involved in the film industry for quite some time. He last major film was the 2004 feature “A Dirty Shame.” But previous to that, the filmmaker was notorious amongst film fans and Hollywood types for being one of the most subversive names in the industry. And when you’re the self-appointed King of Filth, you’re bound to experience some bad reviews from time to time.

Continue reading Director John Waters Shares Advice For People Afraid Of Bad Reviews: “Sometimes They’re Right—A Little” at The Playlist.

John Waters loves being called things like the “Pope of Trash,” the “People’s Pervert” and the “Prince of Puke,” but when you visit him at his home in Greenwich Village, he’s the consummate host. When you step off the elevator and you’re not sure which door belongs to him, you hear his voice call out, “Over here.” And when you step inside, he offers you coffee or water before retiring over to a marble table that overlooks a treelined street.

He’s wearing a white-and-black blazer and a gray turtleneck.

Baltimore native John Waters is filmdom’s pencil-mustached titan of trash who has spent a lifetime of dumpster-diving into a vat of bad taste, sleaze, kinky gross-outs, over-the-top camp, maudlin melodramatics, sick jokes, taboo sexuality, vulgarity and bizarre personalities. At least he has a fabulous sense of humor. The director, who turns 72 on April 22, is a New York University film school dropout who instead became a scholar of transgressive, envelope-shredding cinema, influenced by the directorial likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Federico Fellini, William Castle, Douglas Sirk and Ingmar Bergman. Early on, Waters assembled a stock company of players from suburban Baltimore who he called the Dreamlanders, including Mink Stole and Edith Massey.

SEEHonorary Oscars: Full list of 132 winners from Charlie Chaplin to Cicely Tyson

But Waters would find his true muse and favorite leading lady in his childhood friend, Glenn Milstead, a drag queen whose alter-ego was known as Divine.

April 9

– Exclusive: Organizers have today announced plans for the first annual Northwoods Film Festival, to be hosted on August 16 and 17, 2019 at the Lakeland Cinema 6 in Woodruff, Wisconsin. Over the course of two days, the non-for-profit festival will bring groundbreaking and dynamic programming to local audiences, aiming to create conversation and appreciation for film in Northern Wisconsin. The lineup for the festival, which will be announced in the coming months, will bring independent films showcasing thoughtful topics and engaging stories not normally available to audiences in the area.

Through its programming, “the festival aims to attract audiences from the local community of varying ages, backgrounds, and a mix of local residents and seasonal guests. The festival will showcase the warmth and hospitality of the Northern Wisconsin area to bring audiences together in a shared space to enjoy independent film.”

“We are thrilled to channel our passion for the arts and cinema...

Colombian director Cirro Guerra (Birds Of Passage) has been appointed head of jury for Critics’ Week, which runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival and is dedicated to first and second films. The jury is rounded out by actress Amira Casar (Call Me By Your Name), Danish producer Marianne Slot (The House That Jack Built), Congolese critic Djia Mambu and Italian director Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra). Guerra’s critically acclaimed 2015 black-and-white pic The Embrace of the Serpent won the top prize at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar in 2016. His most recent film Birds Of Passage also world premiered at Directors’ Fortnight. Critics’ Week, headed by Charles Tesson, has previously helped launch the careers of Jacques Audiard, Alejandro González Iñarritu, Ken Loach, François Ozon, Wong Kar-waï and Jeff Nichols.

John Waters is to receive the Locarno Film Festival‘s highest honorary distinction, the Pardo d’Onore Manor,...

Previous recipients include Ken Loach, Werner Herzog and Agnès Varda.

Us filmmaker John Waters will receive the honorary Pardo d’onore Manor lifetime achievement award at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival this year (August 7-17).

Waters will accept the award in a special ceremony in Locarno’s Piazza Grande on August 16.

The Baltimore native has been a director for more than fifty years, making his first short film Hag In A Black Leather Jacket in 1964 and his first feature Mondo Trasho in 1969. He is renowned for embracing an irreverent style in films such as Pink Flamingos (1972), Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977).

Waters’ 2000 feature Cecil B.

John Waters is set to receive the Pardo d’onore Manor lifetime achievement award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, the first under new artistic director Lili Hinstin. The cult U.S. filmmaker will receive the festival’s highest distinction in Locarno’s Piazza Grande on Aug. 16.

Hinstin said Waters’ “playful” work, which was “full of boldness and joy,” offered “a symbol of freedom far removed from the political correctness ruling today.”

“For my first edition, offering John Waters the highest distinction of the festival is a perfect manifesto,” said Hinstin. “His political and aesthetic commitment is vital in these times, and I am extremely happy and honored to share his incredible work with the audience of Locarno.”

Waters’ appearance in the Piazza Grande will be followed by a ‘Crazy Midnight’ screening – the festival’s new strand introduced to the program this year – of his 2000 film “Cecil B. DeMented.

One of the most exciting genre celebrations in recent years, the Salem Horror Fest celebrated another successful gathering of horror lovers last year, and Daily Dead was thrilled to be a media sponsor of the 10-day event. This year's Salem Horror Fest looks to be even more memorable, as it's been announced that legendary filmmaker and author John Waters will be on hand to do a live performance of "This Filthy World: Filthier & More Horrible."

Waters' live performance will take place at the Peabody Essex Museum on Wednesday, October 9th. To learn more about tickets, visit Salem Horror Fest online.

Salem Horror Fest 2019 will begin on Thursday, October 3rd and run through Sunday, October 13th. If you're looking to book a hotel or secure an Airbnb, then you'll want to do it here sooner rather than later, as space is limited.

We'll be sure to keep Daily Dead readers updated...

The film-maker who built a career on bad taste makes fun of gay political correctness – but one subject remains off-limits

The pope of trash, the prince of puke, the ayatollah of crud – in his 50-year career, film director John Waters has accrued an enviable array of hideous honorifics, all worn with pride. He is best known for his seminal countercultural comedies, each of them – from Pink Flamingos to Hairspray to Serial Mom – celebrating delicious deviance and alternative family values. His last feature was 2004’s A Dirty Shame and, though he’s still interested in film-making, Waters remains sanguine about the forms he works in.

“I just tell stories,” he tells me over the phone from Baltimore, his home town and geographic muse. “It doesn’t matter how.” Waters has increasingly focused on art and writing – a major retrospective has just opened at Baltimore Museum of Art and a new book,...