News

Following on from a July where they added a large number of horror titles to their catalogue, Hulu have now made available even more great outings from the genre. As with all the major streaming players, keeping subscribers happy with new content during this Covid-19 year has been crucial, especially given the new competitors that have sprung up in recent months, further splintering film rights. Hulu are usually pretty reliable in terms of diversity, though, and have added some particularly strong horror titles for August.

Among the highlights for new movies is the original 1988 Child’s Play, which introduced the murderous Chucky to the world in a film that arguably remains the high-point of the franchise. A reasonably realistic setting, a convincing child performance and some excellent effects work make Child’s Play a classic of the period and more than worth a rewatch. And with the Chucky series on the way,...

With the end of the month ahead of us, we now have a full list of everything that’s coming to Netflix and the various other streaming services across August. The sites will continue to do their best to keep you from straying out into the sun for the rest of the summer, too, as each of them has got a whole heap of new movies and TV shows coming to their libraries that you’ll want to check out. Mostly classic films you’ll enjoy sticking on again, but also a few much-anticipated originals, too.

See below for the full line-up of titles coming to Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video, as well as our own picks for what should be on your radar.

August 1

Netflix

A Knight’s Tale

Acts of Violence

The Addams Family (1991)

An Education

Being John Malkovich

Death at a Funeral

Dennis the Menace...

Hulu is out with its list of everything new arriving in August and everything leaving at the end of the month.

Highlights include “Ordinary Love,” a 2019 movie about how a couple endures a breast cancer diagnosis, and “Peanut Butter Falcon,” Shia Labeouf’s 2019 movie about a young man with Down syndrome who runs away from a nursing home to attend the wrestling school of his idol, the Salt Water Redneck.

Hulu Originals to look out for next month include Season 3 of “Find Me in Paris” and the Hulu Original premiere of “The Binge.”

Leaving at the end of the month are 2007’s “3:10 to Yuma,” 1973’s “Charlotte’s Web,” 1988’s “Rain Man,” and “The X-Files.”

Also Read: 'The Crown' Season 5 Won't Premiere Until 2022

Aug. 1

Monchhichi: Complete Season 1B (Cartoon Network)

The Pier (El Embarcadero): Complete Seasons 1 & 2 (BetaFilm)

UniKitty: Complete Season 2B (Cartoon Network)

71 (2015)

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

A Good Woman...

We’re only just over halfway through July, but let’s hop ahead a couple of weeks into the future and take a look at what’s coming to Hulu in August. Next month will see the streaming service add an enormous list of movies and TV shows, with numerous classics amongst them, and everyone from horror to action to romance fans and even family audiences should be pleased with what’s coming.

The first day of the month, for example, brings the opening installments in two major horror franchises that kicked off in the late 80s – 1987’s Hellraiser and 1988’s Child’s Play. Sticking with the 80s, August 1st likewise sees 1986’s Top Gun added to the library, too. Not to mention 1981’s My Bloody Valentine.

For you romance lovers out there, meanwhile, Australia and Four Weddings and A Funeral drop the same day, and family audiences can enjoy Cats & Dogs,...

If you were concerned about there being a content drought in August due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down Hollywood, you were…absolutely right in those concerns.

For its new releases in August 2020, Hulu is following Apple, Disney, and even Peacock’s lead in taking things nice and slowly. The vast majority of the notable offerings here are of the library variety. Hulu adds classic movies like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Rain Man, and Top Gun on August 1. Those go along with the very much still-holds-up Casino Royale on August 31.

Hulu also has room for some interesting recent indie movies like Ordinary Love (Aug. 3) and Peanut Butter Falcon (Aug. 6). But when it comes to Hulu original content there’s not much going on. The unheralded Find Me in Paris debuts its third season on August 21. That is followed by original comedy The Binge on August 28. And that’s about it!

As we’re now at the halfway point of July, it’s time to begin looking ahead to what all the various streaming services will be bringing us in August. And while some of the big guns, like Netflix and Amazon Prime, have yet to announce their slate, Hulu has emerged first out of the gate today, dropping a massive line-up for next month.

Seen down below, there’s truly something for everyone here. As usual, the platform has every genre covered, pulling films and TV shows from all over to put together a meaty list of content for their subscribers to get stuck into next month. And you can see the entire line-up of what’s heading to Hulu down below.

Released August 1

Monchhichi: Complete Season 1B (Cartoon Network)

The Pier (El Embarcadero): Complete Seasons 1 & 2 (BetaFilm)

UniKitty: Complete Season 2B (Cartoon Network)

71 (2015)

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

A Good Woman...

Variety reports out of Afm that Film Movement has bought North American rights to A Good Woman is Hard to Find, which has already been released in the UK. It will arrive on VOD platforms in 2020. If you caught Sarah Bolger in Emelie (here’s our review) you’d never let her near your kids or hamster again. She is […]...

Sarah Bolger stars as an A.I. in a new Chinese sci-fi thriller called 2036 Perfect-Lover.com. The actress recently shared the film's first trailer, which you can watch below.

In a future world where humans are ranked by social credit points and social classes are more divided than ever, artificial intelligence is fracturing society in a fundamental ways, igniting a debate about the differences between human and AIs.

2036 Perfect-Lover.com is directed by Lien Yi-Chi. It premiered in China in January, but there is currently no word about a domestic release.

Check out the trailer:...

Yet another real-life-based show where participants show their giz zards and open their spleen is com ing our way. It's about those wives who stood by those husbands in those situations. What wives, you ask? Or even if you didn't ask, I'm telling you.

Like Silda Spitzer, who stood loyally behind hubby Eliot the short-term governor. Like Hillary, whose mate (the name escapes me) played patty-cake with that mouth organ Harmonica Lewinsky. Like Jeanine Pirro, whose Al did time while she was a sitting Da. Like Mrs. Gary Hart, whose spouse the senator was running for president...

CANNES -- Tim Roth and Neve Campbell have joined German star Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others) in the cast of Sea-Wolf, the $20 million adventure two-parter from Herbert Kloiber's Tele-Munchen Group for RHI Entertainment and German public broadcaster ZDF.

Koch will star as the crazed seaman Wolf Larson in the new adaptation of the Jack London classic. Roth will play his brother and rival Death Larsen while Campbell will star as Maude, a runaway bride who lands on Wolf's ship.

Mike Barker (A Good Woman) will direct the mini for Tele-Munchen's production division Clasart Television from a script by Nigel Williams (Elizabeth I).

Shooting is set to start in Halifax, Canada at the end April for delivery this fall. ZDF will air the series in Germany with RHI handling U.S. rights.

Tele-Munchen is using Sea-Wolf as the flagship to launch its new international sales outfit, which is being run by ex-Telepool sales exec Carlos Hertel. TMG holds all worldwide rights to Sea-Wolf outside of Germany and the U.S.

ROME -- Giuseppe Tornatore's La Sconosciuta (The Unknown) received three nominations for Italian film studio Cinecitta's prize designed to highlight behind-the-scenes excellence in film.

Tornatore and La Sconosciuta have been darlings of the Italian film sector this year. After debuting at the first RomaCinemaFest in October, La Sconosciuta dominated this month's David di Donatello Awards. He also was the toast of the just-completed Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, where he received an honorary prize and was featured in a comprehensive retrospective.

The prizes in categories for best set design, costumes, makeup and hair, special effects, sound and production, can be given to any film -- foreign or local -- shown in Italy over the one-year period that concluded March 31.

La Sconosciuta was nominated in the categories for best set design, sound and production.

Other films nominated in more than one category were Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoniette (for costumes, makeup and hair), Mike Barker's Oscar Wilde adaptation A Good Woman (set design and sound), and Vittorio and Paolo Taviani's Masseria delle Allodole (the Lark Farm) (set design and costumes).

Icon Prods. has sold stateside distribution rights to the R-rated crime thriller Butterfly on a Wheel to Lionsgate Releasing.

Directed by Mike Barker (A Good Woman), Wheel stars Pierce Brosnan as a mysterious stranger who arrives in Chicago and terrorizes a happy-seeming married couple (Maria Bello, Gerard Butler) after kidnapping their daughter. Soon it becomes clear that his outrageous demands are not in pursuit of a Big Cash payment.

The film's title comes from Alexander Pope's An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot: "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"

Written by William Morrissey, Wheel was filmed in Vancouver and Chicago. It was produced by Brosnan, Morrissey and William Vince. Executive producers are Icon's Bruce Davey, Marina Grasic, Beau St. Clair and Dave Valleau. It is an Infinity Features/Irish Dreamtime U.K./Canadian co-production.

Icon Entertainment International is handling worldwide sales; Japan and Italy are the only territories still available.

BERLIN -- Independent producer Alan Greenspan (A Good Woman, Fever Pitch) and German production group Studio Hamburg International Prod. have signed a co-production agreement to finance and produce mid- to low-budget features, the two companies announced on Sunday. In what amounts to a "two-way first-look deal," SHIP and Greenspan's shingle, International Arts Entertainment, will cooperate on projects in the $5 million-$20 million range. SHIP and IAE also will share an office in Burbank. "I think our companies complement each other very well," SHIP head Sytze van der Laan said. "With Alan, we have a partner with close ties to Hollywood who is able to package films and talent, and what we bring to the table is a financing structure, as well as our close ties to the German and European markets."...

LONDON -- Luxembourg-based movie production and financing banner Thema Prods. said Wednesday that it has appointed former entertainment lawyer Kami Naghdi as managing director of a new London start-up operation and announced plans to open a studio facility in St. Petersburg, Russia. Naghdi also will be head of worldwide business development for the company, which comprises producers Michael Dounaev and Jimmy de Brabant. Dounaev and de Brabant have executive produced seven features since founding Thema in 2003, including Woody Allen's Match Point and the Helen Hunt starrer A Good Woman.

The ninth annual Hollywood Film Festival, which opens Oct. 18 with Warner Bros. Pictures' Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, unveiled Monday a lineup of 60 films, drawn from a record 2,200 worldwide submissions. The fest, which runs through Oct. 23 at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, will close with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro, from Walt Disney Pictures. The fest also will present five Centerpiece Premieres and a Special Screening. They are Lions Gate Films' Fierce People, Warners' North Country, the Starz documentary Bullets Over Hollywood, Lions Gate's A Good Woman, the documentary Champion and The Sisters.

TORONTO -- Canadian independent producer and distributor Lions Gate Entertainment has seven more major features to release theatrically this year, including Grizzly Man, Lord of War, Waiting and A Good Woman, management said in a conference call Wednesday. Their performance will have to be solid to allow the firm to meet its full fiscal-year financial targets after the dismal boxoffice for High Tension prompted the Vancouver-based company to post a widened fiscal first-quarter loss late Tuesday (HR 8/10). "We were wrong," Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer told analysts Wednesday of his company's bet on Alexandre Aja's horror flick about two girls fending off a sadistic psychopath.

TORONTO -- The bon mots fly fast and furious in A Good Woman, which transplants Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan to a new place and time.

But while screenwriter Howard Himelstein and director Mike Barker have done a workable job of drawing the Wilde social satire out of the drawing room, the film never quite manages to travel at the same buoyant velocity as the acerbic wit.

The tone trouble and problematic casting (more about that later) prevent the adaptation from being considered truly Oscar-worthy -- that's referring both to the statuette and Mr. Wilde -- though the delicious dialogue and opulent backdrops still make for a reasonably pleasant viewing experience.

Reverting to Wilde's original title for his play, A Good Woman has been moved up to the 1930s and relocated to the decidedly airier Amalfi coast in Italy.

Several of the characters, meanwhile, now have become Americans.

That would include Robert (Mark Umbers) and Meg (Scarlett Johansson) Windermere, a young newlywed couple in good standing who have left New York's sticky summer behind for some sensible vacationing on the Italian Riviera.

Having the same idea is Mrs. Stella Erlynne (Helen Hunt), a woman of a certain age with a certain reputation to match, who has seemingly exhausted her supply of the wealthy, married New York men who served as her meal ticket.

It doesn't take long before the penniless vamp appears to have landed Robert as her latest conquest, and their frequent sightings together have set the tongues of the sunbathing aristocracy a-flapping.

Meg's discovery that Robert has been issuing a number of checks to Mrs. Erlynne would seem to confirm those rampant rumors, and she receives little solace in the enamored attention paid to her by eligible Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore).

Of course, things, as it turns out, aren't quite as they appear.

Director Barker (1999's Best Laid Plans), along with cinematographer Ben Seresin, production designer Ben Scott and costume designer John Bloomfield, get the look and feel of the picture up to Merchant Ivory snuff, but there's a prevailing wistfulness hanging over the entire enterprise that has the effect of signaling that weightier third-act twist earlier than necessary.

As for the cast, while Johansson seems to have a natural affinity for period dress, Hunt fares less successfully in the role of the calculating seductress.

She effectively conveys Mrs. Erlynne's vulnerability and pain later on, but Hunt never seems entirely comfortable in her character's skin when she's required to play the shameless vamp with a knack for insinuating herself into the beds and checkbook registers of men who should know better.

As her quite willing next victim, the very wealthy but lonely Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson) nails the required tragicomic pitch with a great deal of self-effacing charm.

A Good Woman

Beyond Films

Credits:

Director: Mike Barker

Screenwriter: Howard Himelstein

Based on the play Lady Windermere's Fan by: Oscar Wilde

Producers: Alan Greenspan, Jonathan English, Steven Siebert, Howard Himelstein

Executive producers: John Evangelides, Mikael Borglund, Hilary Davis, Jimmy De Brabant, Michael Dounaev, Liam Badger, Duncan Hopper, Rupert Preston

Director of photography: Ben Seresin

Production designer: Ben Scott

Editor: Neil Farrell

Costume designer: John Bloomfield

Music: Richard G. Mitchell

Cast:

Mrs. Erlynne: Helen Hunt

Meg Windermere: Scarlett Johansson

Tuppy: Tom Wilkinson

Lord Darlington: Stephen Campbell Moore

Robert Windermere: Mark Umbers

Contessa Lucchino: Milena Vukotic

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 93 minutes...

TORONTO -- Looking to become a bastion of heavyweight, star-filled indie cinema, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled Tuesday a 328-film lineup that includes 100 world premieres and 81 North American premieres. Among the 20 high-profile films to receive red-carpet treatment at Roy Thomson Hall are Mike Barker's A Good Woman, a Beyond Films comedy about Americans in Italy that stars Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, and Kevin Spacey's second film, Lions Gate Films' Beyond the Sea, in which Spacey stars as Bobby Darin. Elsewhere, the festival is hosting the world premiere of Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall, a German thriller about Adolf Hitler's final hours that stars Bruno Ganz, and a matinee gala for John Stephenson's Five Children and It, a kids' tale that stars Kenneth Branagh and Tara Fitzgerald.

TORONTO -- Looking to become a bastion of heavyweight, star-filled indie cinema, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled Tuesday a 328-film lineup that includes 100 world premieres and 81 North American premieres. Among the 20 high-profile films to receive red-carpet treatment at Roy Thomson Hall are Mike Barker's A Good Woman, a Beyond Films comedy about Americans in Italy that stars Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, and Kevin Spacey's second film, Lions Gate Films' Beyond the Sea, in which Spacey stars as Bobby Darin. Elsewhere, the festival is hosting the world premiere of Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall, a German thriller about Adolf Hitler's final hours that stars Bruno Ganz, and a matinee gala for John Stephenson's Five Children and It, a kids' tale that stars Kenneth Branagh and Tara Fitzgerald.

TORONTO -- Looking to become a bastion of heavyweight, star-filled indie cinema, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled Tuesday a 328-film lineup that includes 100 world premieres and 81 North American premieres. Among the 20 high-profile films to receive red-carpet treatment at Roy Thomson Hall are Mike Barker's A Good Woman, a Beyond Films comedy about Americans in Italy that stars Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, and Kevin Spacey's second film, Lions Gate Films' Beyond the Sea, in which Spacey stars as Bobby Darin. Elsewhere, the festival is hosting the world premiere of Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall, a German thriller about Adolf Hitler's final hours that stars Bruno Ganz, and a matinee gala for John Stephenson's Five Children and It, a kids' tale that stars Kenneth Branagh and Tara Fitzgerald.

TORONTO -- Looking to become a bastion of heavyweight, star-filled indie cinema, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled Tuesday a 328-film lineup that includes 100 world premieres and 81 North American premieres. Among the 20 high-profile films to receive red-carpet treatment at Roy Thomson Hall are Mike Barker's A Good Woman, a Beyond Films comedy about Americans in Italy that stars Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, and Kevin Spacey's second film, Lions Gate Films' Beyond the Sea, in which Spacey stars as Bobby Darin. Elsewhere, the festival is hosting the world premiere of Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall, a German thriller about Adolf Hitler's final hours that stars Bruno Ganz, and a matinee gala for John Stephenson's Five Children and It, a kids' tale that stars Kenneth Branagh and Tara Fitzgerald.

Scarlett Johansson is set to join the cast of Woody Allen's 36th movie, replacing Kate Winslet, who dropped out Friday. Winslet reportedly wanted to spend more time with her family. Johansson joins cast members Emily Mortimer and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers on the feature, which is due to begin production shortly at London's Ealing Studios. The untitled film is being produced by Letty Aronson, Lucy Darwin and Gareth Wiley, with Stephen Tenenbaum executive producing. Hanway Films is handling international sales, with backing from BBC Films, Magic Hour Media, Thema Production, Invicta Capital and the Bank of Ireland. Johansson recently signed on to do Mission: Impossible 3 for C/W Prods. Other projects in which she is involved include The Black Dahlia, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and A Good Woman. Johansson is repped by WMA.

Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt is pregnant with her first child. The Oscar-winning As Good As It Gets star, 40, has announced she will give birth to her baby - fathered by boyfriend Matthew Carnahan - in the summer. Hunt has been dating 42-year-old producer Carnahan since 2001 following the collapse of her short marriage to The Simpsons regular Hank Azaria, 39. Her spokesperson Stephen Huvane says, "Helen and Matthew Carnahan are expecting their first child in the summer." Hunt, who also won four Emmys for Mad About You, will next be seen in A Good Woman and HBO's Empire Falls.

NEW YORK -- When Scarlett Johansson's name came up for not one, but two Golden Globe nominations Thursday morning, the actress was thrust into the spotlight as Hollywood's hottest ingenue. Johansson grabbed a best lead in a musical or comedy for Focus Features' Lost in Translation as well as best actress in a drama for Lions Gate Films' Girl With a Pearl Earring. "Scarlett is the story of the year in movies," enthused Lions Gate Films Releasing president Tom Ortenberg. "We are extremely proud to be associated with her. She's just a terrific young actress and young lady." After getting an "are-you-sitting-down?" phone call from her mother with news of two Golden Globes nominations, Hollywood's newest "it" girl, who was filming A Good Woman in Rome, suddenly became homesick. "It's kind of strange because the only place I want to be right now is in Los Angeles with my mom," said the 19-year-old actress in between takes. But help was nearby, at least in liquid form: "They've just ordered lots of champagne," she added, "which is on its way."...