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Incoming Harry Potter actor John Lithgow says he wasn't prepared for the backlash he received after joining the cast of HBO's new series, and that he's "curious" to have a conversation with J.K. Rowling about it all. Lithgow has been tapped to play Albus Dumbledore in the fresh adaptation of Rowling's novels, which is set to hit the small screen next year. The series is drawing the ire of many in a way the films never did, thanks to Rowling's outspoken views on the transgender community, which date as far back as 2020.

Speaking with The Times of London about his portrayal of antisemitic children's author Roald Dahl in the stage play, Giant, the subject of Harry Potter inevitably came up. How could it not? Lithgow's appearance in the project has been garnering a ton of attention because, as he put it, it's probably "the last major role" he'll ever play.

Blood of Zeus is often praised for its retelling of Greek legends with a twist. It is riveting in the manner of its portrayal of family, redemption as well as power. But what makes it so different are the compelling characters and the plot. The makers are all set to chalk the third season up with the latest update.

Seraphim from Blood of Zeus | Credits: Powerhouse Animation

Most specifically, it has to do with Albert Molina joining the voice cast. It looks promising, but that isn’t all considering his versatility. His involvement would add more depth and gravitas to his character as Cronos. It ultimately fits well with the intermingling of myth and fiction in the series.

Alfred Molina joins Season 3 as Cronos

You may know him as Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man series, but Alfred Molina is more than that. His notable roles in Frida, Three Pines and...

Following reports of his potential involvement in the Harry Potter series, John Lithgow has now confirmed that he will be playing Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s new television series based on J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. However, despite the buzz surrounding his casting, there has been considerable discourse for various reasons.

John Lithgow in a still from Conclave | Credits: Focus Features

While some Potterheads want the showrunners to continue following the ‘British actors only’ rule from the film series, others have shared their discomfort with Lithgow’s collaboration with Rowling, especially due to his role in the 1982 romantic comedy and its conflicting nature with the author’s controversial stance.

John Lithgow to play Albus Dumbledore in the new Harry Potter TV series

Following the huge success of the film series, HBO announced a new Harry Potter adaptation for television. Based on each book in J.K. Rowling’s series, the...

The critically acclaimed crime thriller, Santosh, written and directed by award-winning British-Indian filmmaker, Sandhya Suri, will be releasing in UK cinemas on 21st March 2025, distributed by Vertigo Releasing and Civic Studios.

Starring Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar; and produced by Mike Goodridge (Love is Strange), James Bowsher (The Night), Balthazar de Ganay (The Summer House) and Alan McAlex (Masaan), the film has garnered unanimous international plaudit, with 14 award nominations and seven wins including a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer; British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) win for Best Screenplay; and recognition by the National Board of Review within the Top 10 Independent Films of the Year. The film also earned a nomination at Cannes Film Festival 2024 in the Un Certain Regard category; was nominated for the Sutherland Award for Best Film Feature at BFI London Film Festival; and was the UK’s official submission for...

“Peter Hujar’s Day,” which premiered at this year’s Sundance, has sold to Sideshow and Janus Films. It’s one of the few projects to land a buyer out of the festival so far.

Written and directed by Ira Sachs, “Peter Hujar’s Day” is set over a 24-hour period in December 1974 and centers on one conversation between photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) and his close friend, writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), who recorded their talk for an art project. Hujar, who died of AIDS in 1987, only became celebrated as an artist after his death.

The film debuted in Park City to positive reviews, with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calling it a “magical 1974 time capsule of a movie.” In his review, he wrote that “in its tiny-scaled staged-documentary way, ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’ is exquisitely done and arresting to watch.”

“Peter Hujar’s Day” will screen at the Berlin Film Festival before Sideshow...

Ben Whishaw again proves himself as the brilliant actor we all knew he was, if we were looking closely enough, in Ira Sachs’ “Peter Hujar’s Day.” The film, set in 1974 New York City, is an intimate two-hander starring just Whishaw and Rebecca Hall as gay photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz, respectively. They gathered, it’s true, on a cold day in December, where Hujar recounts all the events of the previous one, which involved photo opportunities with Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, and a lot of quotidian nothingness. But those small moments of a day grow profound as Peter’s winding monologue wears on. Writer/director Sachs’ extraordinary new movie never breaks from the pair, and at times becomes like a documentary about the greatness of the actors themselves, Mozart possessing the soundtrack as Sachs and cinematographer Alex Ashe take longing, lingering B-roll of the performers.

In the ever-shifting world of the biopic, a biopic can be many different things. It can be like a novel (if it covers someone’s entire life). It can have the more concentrated quality of a short story (if it’s set during one key period). On that score, you might say that “Peter Hujar’s Day” is the biopic as sonnet. The entire film takes place in one day — but more than that, it consists entirely of Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw), the noted New York photographer of the 1970s and ’80s, having a rambling conversation with his friend, Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), in which he recounts everything he did the day before.

It seems that the two were collaborating on a project. Rosenkrantz instructed Hujar to write down everything that happened to him on Dec. 18, 1974, and to show up the following day at her apartment on 94th St. in Manhattan,...

In 2008, Ira Sachs got fired by his manager. The most indie spirited of independent filmmakers had refused to play the game for too long, and the bill had finally come due.

“I understood it in a way,” Sachs, more than a decade and a half-dozen features removed from that experience, says. “Because I was not entering the business, and his job was to facilitate the business of Hollywood, which was not what I was interested in doing. They were trying to get me jobs as opposed to what I was trying to do, which was produce my own work.”

For the record, Sachs thinks that he never would have gotten the gigs that his representatives wanted him to land. But the experience helped rethink his value in an industry that usually measures those things in terms of box office grosses.

“Before that, I thought I was kind of owed a career based on certain successes,...

Sophie Hyde’s new film “Jimpa,” which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, began as a deeply personal story about her experience as the child of a gay father and parent of a transgender teen. But as anti-trans sentiment grew during production, the family drama took on new urgency.

“I had no idea that it would become so antagonistic towards trans people in particular,” Hyde told executive editor Adam Chitwood at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “Now we’re in a place where suddenly parents are at risk for loving and supporting their children. And that is just crazy to me, because if you’re a parent, you look at your child and they tell you who they are, you should believe them and feel very grateful that they express that to you.”

Hyde, winner of the World Cinema Directing Award Dramatic for...

Dirty Dancing's iconic status is elevated by classic 1960s songs & original tunes. Movie won an Academy Award & soundtrack went 14x multi-platinum by 2022. Soundtrack features iconic songs like "The Time Of My Life" & "She's Like the Wind".

Besides being a romance classic, the popular Dirty Dancing songs add to its iconic status with classic songs from the 1960s plus some original tunes. Released in 1987 to positive reviews, Dirty Dancing is set in 1963 and follows Frances "Baby" Housemen as she falls in love with a dance instructor while staying at a vacation resort. The movie delivers on its title and is a perfect mix of quintessential star-crossed romance and strong dance performances from stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. Though the film became a 1980s staple, the Dirty Dancing songs have stood the test of time.

An immediate box office smash, grossing over $200 million (via Box Office Mojo), Dirty Dancing also...

Exclusive: Jaquel Spivey (Mean Girls), Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding), Margaret Cho (Fire Island), Brigette Lundy-Paine (I Saw The TV Glow) and Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story) are among those set to star in Queens of the Dead, a new horror comedy directed by Tina Romero, daughter of legendary director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead).

Co-written by Erin Judge & Tina Romero, the film pays tribute to the zombies from the elder Romero’s classic zombie films with a fresh, contemporary, and queer twist, promising to offer a genre-smashing, glam-gore thrill ride through the zombie apocalypse. The story follows an eclectic group of drag queens, club kids, and frenemies who must put aside their personal dramas and use their unique skills to combat the brain-thirsty undead when a zombie apocalypse breaks out during their drag show in Brooklyn.

Others featuring in the cast of the film from Vanishing...

Peacock has announced the lineup of movies, TV shows, and live sports that will be available on the streaming service in June. The Peacock June 2024 schedule includes Monkey Man, Love Island USA Season 6, The Valley season finale, Olympic Trials, Pride Month programming, and more.

This month’s sizzling line-up takes us back to the hottest villa on TV to meet a new group of bombshells in Season 6 of Love Island USA (premiering exclusively on Peacock on June 11). Grab a glass of wine for an extended and uncensored version of the season finale of The Valley, premiering Wednesday, June 5, exclusively on Peacock.

The streaming service will also offer titles like The Continental (season one is streaming now), the first three John Wick movies, Gladiator, and a trio of films from The Bourne franchise arriving June 1. Plus, don’t miss WWE’s legendary Clash at the Castle: Scotland in Glasgow on June 15 live on Peacock.

Exclusive: Searchlight has set five more for major roles in its Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet: Boyd Holbrook (The Bikeriders), Scoot McNairy (Argo), Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Will Harrison (Daisy Jones & The Six) and Charlie Tahan (Ozark).

Character details are under wraps. Pic is now in production in New Jersey.

Other new additions include P.J. Byrne (Babylon), Eli Brown (Gossip Girl), Nick Pupo (Halt and Catch Fire), Big Bill Morganfield, Laura Kariuki, Eric Berryman (Atlanta), David Alan Basche (Egg), Joe Tippett (Monarch) and James Austin Johnson (Saturday Night Live).

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early ’60s, A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts — his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation...

When film fans talk about great on-screen chemistry, one of the first pairings that comes to mind for me is Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the now-classic, "Dirty Dancing." As Johnny Castle and Frances "Baby" Houseman, the duo are practically radiating with charisma and it's impossible not to fall in love with them throughout the film. It's also a huge testament to their acting abilities, as the pair famously butted heads throughout the production of "Red Dawn," a film they appeared in together three years prior.

"Patrick was playing pranks on me and everybody," Grey said during an episode of "The View" in 2022. "[He was] late and the boss of everybody and it was just, like, macho and I just couldn't take it. I was just like, 'Please, this guy, that's enough with him.'" Grey was the first of the duo cast, and for a time it looked like Billy Zane,...

Generation, the Berlin Film Festival sidebar for children and youth films, has announced this year’s winners unveiling the picks from both the Generation 14plus (for teen and older viewers) and the youth jury for the Generation Kplus (kids and tweens) sections.

Sasha Nathwani’s coming-of-age drama Last Swim, about an Iranian-British teen confronting a major life decision, took the Crystal Bear for best film in the Generation 14plus section, with Kim Hye-young’s It’s Okay!, about an orphaned young dancer, winning the top prize for Generation Kplus. Both prizes were awarded by youth juries of young filmgoers.

In its statement, the 14plus jury called Last Swim “a story about the beauty of life and of things coming to an end. It is a film that does not shy away from portraying the messy and consuming feelings that can arise when you know your dreams may not be fulfilled. However,...

It’s a fairly packed month on Hulu this February thanks to the addition of some interesting TV shows from FX and ABC. While the streamer’s own original content is somewhat limited – Life + Beth is returning for season 2 – you can also catch the new series of Feud this month. The new installment in Ryan Murphy’s juicy anthology show is based on the bestseller Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer, and tells the story of Truman Capote’s betrayal and fall-out with New York’s most glamorous socialites. The cast is absolutely stacked, with Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny and Calista Flockhart all swearing delicious revenge on Tom Hollander’s Capote.

Also via Hulu in February comes the third season of Abbott Elementary, along with new episodes of The Connors, The Good Doctor, Will Trent,...

Fusion Entertainment has signed Bria Vinaite, an actress who got her breakout role as a woman living on the economic fringes in Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project.”

The Lithuania-born actress was discovered by filmmaker Baker when she was working in the fashion industry and cast in the lead part of a struggling single mother raising her daughter in a motel. Her performance earned Vinaite multiple award nominations from critics groups including Chicago Film Critics Association and San Diego Film Critics Association.

Since “The Florida Project” debuted in 2017, Vinaite has gone on to act in TV series including “The Oa” and films such as “Balance Not Symmetry” and “Lost in Transmissions.” Next year, she will star in “Pandemonium,” the latest feature from Icelandic filmmaker Anton Sigurdsson. It follows a group of wealthy New Yorkers trapped at a wellness retreat run by a nefarious guru. The film shoots in New Jersey...

The Oscars are still five months away, but there’s one winner prediction that you can take to the bank. The category of Best Costume Design will be won by a period drama or a fantasy film. In the past 45 years, only one contemporary-set movie has scored the costume prize, with only about one contemporary nominee per decade.

While dressing up monarchs and showgirls and superheroes is a craft that deserves praise, the period/fantasy monopoly also highlights work outside of that mold. And there’s no better recent example of imagination in modern dress than “Passages,” the great drama from director Ira Sachs (“Love Is Strange”), elevated with idiosyncratic, seductive costumes design by Khadija Zeggaï.

Set among the bourgeoisie in modern day Paris, “Passages” focuses on German filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski), who is married to artist Martin (Ben Whishaw) but falls in love with schoolteacher Agathe (Adele Excharpoulous).

The film,...

Fusion Entertainment has signed on to manage Joanna Arnow, an acclaimed acclaimed writer, director, actor and editor whose narrative feature debut “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed” impressed audiences and critics when it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors Fortnight section. The film was later acquired by Magnolia Pictures. It will be released domestically in 2024 after having its U.S. premiere this week at the New York Film Festival

This puts Arnow under the same management team as “Red Rocket” and “The Florida Project” filmmaker Sean Baker, who was an executive producer on the film.

Arnow also joins a roster of notable multi-hyphenates including “She Dies Tomorrow” filmmaker Amy Seimetz, “Cha Cha Real Smooth” director, writer and star Cooper Raiff, and”Saint Frances” writer and star Kelly O’Sullivan. Other notable Fusion management clients include: “Triangle of Sadness” breakout Dolly De Leon; writer-directors-producers Greg Kwedar and Clint Benley,...

Ben Whishaw and Franz Rogowski are brilliantly believable in Ira Sachs’s exploration of a gay marriage that’s challenged when one partner has a passionate affair with a young woman

In writer-director Ira Sachs’s 2014 charmer Love Is Strange, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina play a long-term couple whose same-sex marriage causes one of them to lose their job, temporarily forcing them apart. It’s a sweet-natured affair that won the hearts of audiences and critics alike, with the American Association of Retired Persons delightfully citing it as the “best grownup love story” of the year.

There’s a similar bittersweetness at the heart of Sachs’s latest gay marriage story (co-written with regular collaborator Mauricio Zacharias), although this time it’s wedded to a rather more candid portrayal of physical and emotional intimacy. Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw are brilliantly believable as Tomas and Martin, a German film-maker and English graphic artist respectively,...

Variety has partnered with brand and culture consultancy Bsbp to curate a series of exclusive Q&a screenings in London of some of the industry’s most anticipated films. The screenings, which are targeted at BAFTA and AMPAS voters as well as key players in the showbiz community in the U.K., will take place at London’s The Cinema at Selfridges.

Variety and Bsbp have teamed with film distributor, global streaming service and production company Mubi for the first screening in the series, which will be for “Passages,” written and directed by Ira Sachs. The screening will be accompanied by a Q&a conducted by Variety critic Guy Lodge with Sachs and leading actor Franz Rogowski.

The sexually frank relationship drama, about a polysexual Parisian love triangle, also stars Ben Whishaw and Adele Exarchopoulos, and premiered to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, also playing at the Berlinale.

Passages opens with one of its leads Tomas (Franz Rogowski) immersed in setting a scene for his latest film. With the director making subtle adjustments to truly capture the intended experience only to grow quickly frustrated with his cast’s inability to give him what he wants. Increasingly micromanaging the staging until his emotions taint the proceedings.

It’s a scene that neatly encapsulates the drama that is about to unfold. As one-half of a stable, if tepid, partnership with husband Martin (Ben Whishaw), Tomas has found himself trapped in personal and professional mundanity. A chance encounter with schoolteacher Agathe (Adele Exarcholopoulos) gives him a taste of the raw, amorphous excitement he has been seeking, but has no idea how to wrestle with it. The tensions between him and Martin exacerbate and an unsustainable affair with Agathe deepens.

It’s a film about desire and our inability to quantify what we want from its fulfilment.

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on August 9th, reviewing “Passages,” directed by Ira Sachs and featuring Ben Whishaw. In theaters since August 11th.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

“Passages” is a time tested love triangle set in Paris with a twist. Gay married couple Martin (Ben Whishaw) and filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) are on shaky ground, when Tomas meets Agathe (Adéle Exarcopoulous) and begins an affair. The liaison blossoms into romance, which has Tomas moving out of his husband’s apartment. This begins an indecisive cycle for Tomas, whether he wants to complete the journey with Agathe or go back to Martin.

”Passages” is in theaters since August 11th, including Chicago’s (click link) Music Box Theatre. Featuring Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Erwan Kepoa Falé and Arcardi Radeff. Written by Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias. Directed by Ira Sachs. Rated “R...

Franz Rogowski as Tomas and Adele Exarchopoulos as Agathe, in Passages. Courtesy of Sbs Productions and Mubi

Passages is a steamy tale of a romantic triangle in which a Paris-based German filmmaker (Franz Rogowski) strays from his marriage to his British husband (Ben Whishaw) by starting an affair with a beautiful young French woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Yet when the cheated-on husband starts his own affair with another man, the filmmaker is suddenly jealous and wants him back. Tomas can’t seem to make up his mind.

That premise might sound like a modern romantic comedy (and in fact the director describes it as comedy-drama) but there is little humor in this emotional drama about toxic love with an unreliable character at the center of this triangle. What humor does exist is of the bitter variety, or perhaps driven by ridiculousness of the quirky artist at the center of this romantic mess.

Ira Sachs’ Passages, which is expanding its release this weekend, has become known for its sex scenes, but the filmmaker believes audiences are drawn to it for a different reason.

The story of a married gay couple in Paris whose relationship unravels when one partner (Franz Rogowski) begins an affair with a woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos) includes crucial moments of intercourse that ignited discussion about the state of intimacy in American cinema, especially following the news that the MPA gave the film an Nc-17 rating. The version seen now in theaters is unrated.

But, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sachs argues that audiences are drawn to the film less because of the sex and more because of the emotional density of its subject matter. “I feel like people are happy to see an adult film, to be honest,” Sachs says. “I’m not sure the sex is what...

“I wanted to make a movie of pleasure,” offers Ira Sachs. “For me, that means skin is revealed. Skin is part of what cinema can offer in a way that creates a kind of… horny environment for the audience and the actors.”

Sachs, the veteran indie filmmaker behind intimate dramas like Forty Shades of Blue and Love Is Strange, is discussing his stellar latest, Passages, about a libertine director in Paris, Tomas (Franz Rogowski), who decides to have an affair with a woman, Agathe (Adéle Exarchopoulos), despite being in a...

When it comes to “Passages,” Ira Sachs’ witty, wise and very sexy Parisian drama, it all started with Franz Rogowski, who plays the film’s self-absorbed film director, Tomas. “I had seen Michael Haneke’s “Happy End” starring Franz,” remembers Sachs, the auteur of richly textured, grown-up gems such as “Love is Strange,” “Little Men” and “Keep the Lights On,” recently joining me for an interview about his latest, opening in theaters this week.

Continue reading ‘Passages’: Ira Sachs On His New Film’s Nc-17 Rating, The Movie’s Intimate Sex Scenes & Finding Pleasure In Men Behaving Badly [Interview] at The Playlist.

Normally at the top of these Don’t-Miss Indies round-ups, we like to make a little joke that’s somewhat topical. But if you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on in Hollywood for the past couple of months, you’ll know that the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are no laughing matter (unless we’re talking about the writers’ signs.) In fact, right at press time not one but two of this months featured titles have been pushed, due to strike-related issues.

And while our blog deadlines being imperiled by the inhuman machinery of Late Capitalism is certainly a headache, our real concern is the wellbeing of our filmmaking community during this lean, labor-conscious strike period. Please consider donating to artist support funds like this or this.

Shortcomings

When You Can Watch: August 4

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Director: Randall Park

Cast: Justin H. Min,...

After of two decades of filmmaking, from “Married Life” to “Love Is Strange,” Ira Sachs has made his tenth feature with the alluring “Passages.” The unrestrained, brazenly sexy love triangle starring an all-start cast of Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adèle Exarchopoulos hit big at both Sundance and Berlin.

Last January, Sachs enjoyed holding court at a Sundance steakhouse as distributors made offers. Although the MPA Ratings Board slapped an Nc-17 on “Passages,” winning suitor Mubi will release the French-produced film unrated on August 4 before making Sachs’ film available online to its 12 million subscribers.

The filmmaker Zoomed with me from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Anne Thompson: Twelve million. That’s a significant number!

Ira Sachs: They understand that there’s a large audience who is interested in personal filmmaking that has been neglected by Hollywood. There’s no interest in...

August is heating up on Max, with “90 Day: The Last Resort” premiering on the streamer Aug. 15 (one day after it airs on TLC).

Five fan-favorite couples from “90 Day Fiance” have reached their breaking points. In a final attempt to salvage their relationships, each couple will participate in a couples retreat to determine whether or not they can heal old wounds. Alongside a team of professionals, they’ll actively navigate issues with trust, sex, jealousy, anger and intimacy. Explosive group therapies, intense couples sessions, past life regressions, unique on-and-off-resort activities and so much more ensue. At the end of the retreat, each couple must decide if they will stay together or move on separately.

Fans of dating and relationship shows may also be interested in “Kim vs Kayne: The Divorce” on August 7, which chronicles the split between Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. There’s also Season 18 of “Sister Wives,...

Summer isn’t over yet but HBO and its streaming arm Max are already moving on to fall. With its list of new releases for August 2023, Max is focusing on football! The American kind, mind you, not the actually footy kind.

August 2023 sees the release of two major football documentaries on HBO and Max. The first is the premiere of Hard Knocks on Aug. 10. The new season of long-running NFL training camp docuseries will center on the New York Jets, new employers of legendary quarterback Aaron Rodgers. On Aug. 23, Max will air the aptly named Bs High. The doc tells the stranger-than-fiction story of high school football team Bishop Sycamore, which pulled off one of the more notable sports scams you’re likely to ever hear about.

Not of the football variety but in keeping with the North American sports theme will be season 2 of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty on Aug.

DeVaughn Nixon, Quincy Isaiah, and Delante Desouza in ‘Winning Time’ season 2 (Photograph by Warrick Page/HBO)

Hard Knock‘s new season focusing on the New York Jets and the second season of the original drama Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty join Max’s August 2023 lineup, along with Tracy Morgan’s latest comedy special. August’s schedule also includes the season finales of And Just Like That… and Warrior.

Rap Sh!t season two premieres on August 10th, and the new half-hour young adult animated series Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake arrives on August 31st.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In August 2023:

August 1

A Hologram for the King (2016)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child...

August is one of the weird months on the calendar. It feels like it should be early fall; September is Right there, after all. And yet August is one of the hottest months of the year for many in the United States, one last gasp of summer before autumn and its traditional TV schedule of new releases settle in.

This year’s fall schedule will look markedly different thanks to strikes by both the leading actors’ union and the leading writers’ guild in Hollywood, but August will still have some fantastic new hits coming to streaming. Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming platform Max is debuting new titles in just about every imaginable category, so here are the five we’re most excited for at The Streamable!

7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com

Get 20% Off Your Next Year of Max When Pre-Paid Annually

‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’ Season 2 Premiere | Aug.

The director of Passages slams the MPA for giving the film an Nc-17, accusing the ratings body of "cultural censorship." Premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Passages tells the story of a long-term gay couple (Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw), and what happens when one of the men has an affair with a woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Directed by Ira Sachs (Love is Strange), the film received acclaim after its Sundance debut (as reflected in its 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and was picked up for U.S. distribution by Mubi. The film’s box office prospects were dealt a blow however when the Motion Picture Association slapped it with an Nc-17 rating.

In the wake of the MPA’s surprising and controversial Passages ruling, director Sachs is speaking out against the ratings body and their decision. Speaking to the L.A. Times (via EW), Sachs slammed the MPA for "a form of...

Mubi has debuted the trailer for Ira Sachs’ intimate drama ‘Passages.’

Set in Paris, this seductive drama tells the story of Tomas (Rogowski) and Martin (Whishaw), a gay couple whose marriage is thrown into crisis when Tomas begins a passionate affair with Agathe (Exarchopoulos), a younger woman he meets after completing his latest film.

Directed by Ira Sachs (Love is Strange, Little Men) and produced by Saïd Ben Saïd (Elle, Bacarau) and Michel Merkt (Toni Erdmann), the film stars BAFTA-winner Ben Whishaw (Skyfall, Paddington, Women Talking), Franz Rogowski (Great Freedom, Transit, Victoria), and Palme d’Or-winner Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour, The Five Devils).

Also in trailers – That wasn’t me…” John Boyega stars in full trailer for ‘They Cloned Tyrone’

The film will open theatrically in the UK and Ireland on 1 September 2023.

The post Trailer lands for Ira Sachs’ ‘Passages’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Our review from Sundance put it perfectly in its opening line. Filmmaker “Ira Sachs prefers relationships of the doomed variety.” Throughout the indie writer/director’s career, Sachs has— in films like “Love Is Strange,” “Little Men,” “Keep the Lights On” and especially in his debut, “The Delta”—explored the difficulties and traumas of love and how the best intentions can go sour.

Continue reading ‘Passages’ Trailer: Ira Sachs New Love Triangle Stars Adèle Exarchopoulos, Franz Rogowski & Ben Whishaw at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story), Angel Parker (The Recruit), Shiv Pai (Uncut Gems) and Navia Robinson (Gotham Knights) have closed deals to join Ctrl Alt Del, the indie drama that will also star Jason Priestley, Laurel Marsden, Elsie Fisher and Mena Suvari, as previously announced.

The debut feature from Kit Williamson (Eastsiders) follows disaffected teen Ava (Marsden) and her estranged filmmaker father Greyson (Priestley) as they try to reconnect in the aftermath of a tragic incident prompted by his latest movie. Pic explores timely questions about the responsibility of media in our society, and how what we consume profoundly affects us and the people around us.

Robinson will play Makayla, the daughter of Greyson’s agent, who befriends Ava for clout, with Parker as Makayla’s agent mother Jordyn, who is delighted when the publicity from a tragic incident involving her client’s controversial movie makes it a box office smash.

With the Cannes Film Festival kicking off next weekend, all eyes in the indie film world are currently on the Croisette. But while most of the buzzy Cannes premieres won’t be making their way stateside for several months, we’re finally approaching the window where breakouts from Sundance begin to open in theaters.

One such hit is “Passages,” Ira Sachs’ haunting eighth feature about a filmmaker who abandons his husband for a woman he meets in Paris. The film, which stars Frank Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adèle Exarchopoulos, was praised by many as a throwback to the kinds of intense character studies that Mike Nichols cut his teeth on in the 1960s and ’70s.

The film earned strong reviews at Sundance, with IndieWire’s David Ehrlich writing, “A signature new drama from a director whose best work is at once both generously tender in its brutality and unsparingly brutal in its tenderness,...

Exclusive: Madison Iseman (Jumanji franchise), Aaron Dominguez (Only Murders in the Building), Antonia Desplat (Shantaram) and Charlie Tahan (Ozark) have signed on to star alongside Stranger Things‘ Jamie Campbell Bower in Chuck Russell’s remake of the ’80s supernatural horror Witchboard, which is now in production in Montreal.

The new film watches as recovering drug addict Emily (Iseman), her fiancé Christian (Dominguez) and a group of their friends open an organic café, refurbishing an old carriage house in New Orleans’ French Quarter. A darkness descends over Emily when she discovers an ancient pendulum board, once used to summon spirits, with Christian then seeking help for Emily from occult expert Alexander Babtiste. Babtiste, however, has secrets of his own, knowing the fateful bloodlines that binds them all to the Witchboard. A modern coven of White Witches, a masked ball at Babtiste’s mansion, and the legacy of Naga Soth, the Queen of Witches,...

In his third feature outing with ascendant genre filmmaker Ari Aster on Beau Is Afraid, Lars Knudsen produced the duo’s most ambitious, thought-provoking and outlandish work yet — a nightmare comedy of staggeringly detailed vision that is sure to engender conversation.

A nearly-three-hour epic reuniting the pair with A24, this deeply unsettling and quite funny feature burrows into the psyche of Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), a man-child riddled with anxiety who exists in a world in which each of his worst fears is bound to come true. The film bears the framework of a Grimm’s fairy tale à la Hansel and Gretel, watching as Beau finds himself in increasingly surreal scenarios while on a journey on foot to his mother’s house.

For Aster and Knudsen, Beau Is Afraid comes on the heels of Midsommar, an astonishingly dark folk horror starring Florence Pugh, which the former insists is “a joke.

Exclusive: Golden Globe and 2x Emmy nominee Alfred Molina (Spider-Man: No Way Home) has joined the indie dramedy When We Get There, marking the feature debut of writer-director Ryan Patrick Welsh. 2x Emmy nom Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers franchise) and William Katt (The Greatest American Hero) are also set, with newcomers Chris Heeder, Jamie Lien and Alek Kristopher rounding out the cast.

Co-directed by Justin Giddings, When We Get There tells the story of brothers Cal (Heeder) and Ty (Kristopher), who embark on a cross-country trek to meet the father they’ve never known, and the only family they have left. Along with Cal’s long-term girlfriend Ellie (Lien) and a new guitar named Stevie, the trio are forced to navigate uncertain futures on a 2000-mile journey in a car on its last leg. Along the way they discover what, and who, it’s worth showing up for.

Molina portrays...

Mubi has taken U.S., UK, Ireland and Latin America rights to the Ira Sachs-directed Passages, which made its world premiere in the Premieres section of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

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In contemporary Paris, German filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) embraces his sexuality through a torrid love affair with a young woman named Agathe (Palme d’Or winner Adèle Exarchopoulos), an impulse that blurs the lines that define his relationship with his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw). When Martin begins an extramarital affair of his own, he successfully gains back his husband’s attention while simultaneously unearthing Tomas’ jealousy. Grappling with contradicting emotions, Tomas must either embrace the...

With “Passages,” American indie darling Ira Sachs (“Love Is Strange”) makes his first film in France, a brutally honest portrait of a train-wreck relationship, in which an openly gay director sabotages his marriage — and maybe his life — by falling for a woman. Affairs happen, that’s nothing new. But this one proves unusually destructive, giving three stellar international actors — German actor Franz Rogowski (“Great Freedom”), Ben Whishaw (“The Lobster”) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) — a chance to tear one another’s hearts to shreds. Domestic interest will be limited, as it always is with Sachs’ shoestring heart-tuggers, but having his last movie, “Frankie,” selected for Cannes should give “Passages” a certain entrée in Europe.

Like a less-tyrannical, latter-day Fassbinder, queer auteur Tomas (Rogowski) is used to calling the shots. On set, the cast and crew put up with his tantrums. At home, longtime partner Martin (Whishaw) humors his needy husband’s caprices.

There are unlikable protagonists, and then there’s Tomas, the tragicomically insufferable narcissist at the center of Ira Sachs’ Passages. A German film director living in Paris, Tomas is, to borrow an overused term, “toxic” — a guy who lies and leeches, connives and cajoles, fucks and finagles his way through the world, his talent and impish, overcaffeinated magnetism clearing the path.

The most endearing thing about Tomas is how utterly decipherable his awfulness is. The fragility of his ego and his insatiable need to be not just desired, but revered, coddled, stimulated — you name it — are so evident as to be almost touching. (If it wasn’t clear: Folks who require niceness in a main character, this one’s not for you.)

Played by a sensational Franz Rogowski (Transit, Great Freedom), Tomas is also an undeniable force of nature. That goes a long way toward explaining the grip he has...

Ira Sachs prefers relationships of the doomed variety — tempestuous passions torn asunder, sometimes by external forces like capitalism, which complicated the search for a home through New York’s cutthroat real estate market in “Love Is Strange” and “Little Men.” His latest film — the sexy, frustrating, loose-yet-compact, altogether irresistible three-hander “Passages” — also concerns property contracts and a homeless protagonist. However, this one’s got nobody but himself to blame for that predicament, fluent as he is in the same toxic strain of amour fou that previously perfumed the air in “Keep the Lights On” and especially Sachs’ debut, “The Delta.” As in that film — also pitched at the admirably humble quotidian scale Sachs hasn’t felt the need to exceed in more than a quarter decade — “Passages” follows a bisexual chaos agent so wrapped up in his own narcissism that he can’t see where his self-exploration ends and insensitivity to those around him begins.

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Mubi releases the film in limited theaters on Friday, August 4, with expansion to follow.

Not long into Ira Sachs’ “Passages” — sometime all too shortly after a restless, self-involved filmmaker (Franz Rogowski) leaves his much softer husband (Ben Whishaw) for the earthy and new woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos) he meets at a dance club after a stressful day of shooting — Tomas launches into a post-coital chat by telling Agathe that he’s fallen in love with her. “I bet you say that a lot,” she replies, bluntly sniffing out his bullshit in a way that suggests this Parisian school teacher doesn’t understand how far most artists would go to convince their audience of an emotional truth. “I say it when I mean it,” Tomas counters. “You say it when it works for you,” Agathe volleys back. They’re both right,...

Fusion Entertainment has signed filmmaker Ira Sachs, actor Mya Taylor and writer-director-actor Jude Dry. The management company, which was founded this year by Chris Evans and Adam Kersh, hails the signings as an important step in bolstering their roster of LGBTQ+ talent.

Kersh and Sachs have had a long association, having worked together for a decade. Kersh helped spearhead the publicity campaigns for the Sachs’ queer-positive NYC triptych “Keep the Lights On” (2012), “Love Is Strange” (2014), and “Little Men” (2016). Sachs recently finished filming his latest feature “Passages,” which follows a gay couple living in Paris whose relationship is disrupted when one of them begins seeing a much younger woman. “Passages” stars Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Kersh also has a long history with Taylor, having been the chief architect of the publicity campaign for Sean Baker’s “Tangerine,” which served as Taylor’s film debut. Kersh also spearheaded the Oscar campaign for Taylor,...

Passages

Entering his third decade in filmmaking, Ira Sachs has moved into what we can call the Euro portion of his filmmaking career setting his narratives in culturally more diverse setting and having back to back projects being produced by Saïd Ben Saïd (Frankie). Announced during Cannes, Passages went into production in October with the likes of Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski and Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Gist: This is about two men who’ve been together for more than a decade, and one of them has an affair with a woman (Exarchopoulos).…...

Exclusive: Andrew Polk will star alongside Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway in Armageddon Time, James Gray’s coming-of-age film for Focus Features, which has now wrapped production.

The film, written and directed by Gray, is inspired by his life in a pre-Reagan America set in Queens, New York. It reunites him with Darius Khondji, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer who previously lensed his films The Immigrant and The Lost City of Z.

Gray is producing with Anthony Katagas, Marc Butan and Rodrigo Teixeira. Focus Features will distribute the film in the U.S., with Universal Pictures International handling distribution in other territories.

Polk is a Daytime Emmy winner who recently appeared in Danny Strong’s Hulu series Dopesick and Alan Taylor’s Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark. The actor has also appeared in films including The Week Of, Rebel in the Rye,...

After going international with the Isabelle Huppert-led Frankie, it looks like American director Ira Sachs is continuing the trend with his next feature. The Love Is Strange and Little Men director has already begun shooting the project, titled Passages, and the cast has been announced today.

The trio of Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adèle Exarchopoulos will lead the project, as revealed by producer Saïd Ben Saïd, who is reteaming with Sachs after Frankie. Erwan Kepoa Falé is also part of the cast, his agency reported earlier this fall. Official plot details haven’t been disclosed, but Sachs did recently discuss the project.

“I’m working on a film called Passages about two men who’ve been together for fifteen years, and one of them has an affair with a woman,” Sachs told Outtake Mag. “It’s an intimacy triangle I’ll hopefully be shooting this year.” Rogowski recently starred in another gay drama,...