Movies
Questlove to Direct Documentary About Sly Stone
Common will exec produce the project from MRC Non-Fiction. After making his feature directorial debut with Sundance-winning doc Summer of Love, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has set his follow-up feature on Sly Stone. Questlove will direct the documentary about the influential artist, king of funk, and fashion icon, with his partners Zarah Zohlman and Shawn Geehis producing under their Two One Five Entertainment banner. According to the announcement, the doc will follow the musician “who was breaking all the rules at a time when doing so was extremely challenging, even dangerous. The pressure of explosive mainstream pop success and the responsibility of representing Black America forced him to walk the fine line of impossible expectations.” You Deserve to Mak...
BTS Collaborate With Japanese Band Back Number For New Movie Theme ‘Film Out’
Back Number have never written a song for another artist before, and Shimizu shared in a press release that his exchange with BTS — in particular Jungkook, who suggested a new melody based on the demo Shimizu sent — was an exciting experience. “I had some reservations because I’d never written a song that someone else besides myself would sing,” Shimizu said. “But I’m happy that we’ve completed a very lyrical, yet powerful track thanks to our experienced staff, our co-arranger UTA’s efforts, some exciting exchanges with Jungkook, and the personal qualities and power of expression each of the BTS members have.” Previously, BTS’s “Don’t Leave Me” was featured as the theme of the Japanese TV drama Signal, a remake of a South Korean series by the same name, starring Kentaro Sakaguc...
Each And Every Day Spotlights Teen Survivors’ Stories, As Suicide Rates Rise
By Sara Radin “I don’t think I ever fully wanted to die,” Saniya, a student at Drexel University, shares while looking directly into a camera. “I think I wanted to escape.” Saniya is one of many young people at the center of Each and Every Day, a new film from MTV Documentary Films by acclaimed filmmaker Alexandra Shiva that explores the different experiences of students in high school and college navigating “the darker stuff” of life — the bad moments when taking one’s own life felt like the only way forward — and how they kept living. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34, and in 2019, there were 47,511 deaths by suicide. Mental-illness stigma prevents many individuals from ...
How The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things Captured Kyle Allen’s Real-Life Time Loop
In the last weeks of filming the surreal romantic comedy The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, the crew, including rising actor Kyle Allen, condensed multiple days on set into just a few. With the coronavirus spreading and a lockdown impending, whole segments were cut, scenes removed to meet the deadline — and then it stopped entirely. On the final day of shooting, production came to a screeching halt, with the project’s outstanding moments left in a seemingly endless pause, until the remaining frames could be captured seven months later. The bleak humor isn’t lost on Allen that this film, which like Groundhog Day and Palm Springs before it uses a temporal loop as the basis for its plot, was left in its own kind of infinite replay. In the film, out Friday (February 12) on Am...
Hayley Kiyoko, Mindy Kaling & More Are Obsessed With ‘Love Story (Taylor’s Version)’
Taylor Swift released her refreshed version of “Love Story” on Friday morning (Feb. 12) and her biggest A-list fans are already obsessed with it. Mindy Kaling put it best with the tweet, “God I love this song,” about the zhuzh’d up version of the beloved song, which has a reconfigured opening section and louder strings than the original. Because we can’t be together to dance and sing at the top of our lungs together, the Vamps’ James McVey did it for us, tweeting, “Romeo taaaake meeeee,” while Hayley Kiyoko addressed the elephant in the room with the Insta Story caption, “Also this is still absolute MADNESS you have to do this but so proud of you @taylorswift13 Taylor’s version is the only version :)” You Deserve to Make Mone...
‘Wizard of Oz’ Remake In The Works
Are we off to see the wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz — again? New Line Cinema is making a new adaptation of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” L. Frank Baum children’s novel, with Nicole Kassell, the visual architect of “Watchmen,” set to direct. Baum’s 1900 novel, now in the public domain, has spawned many adaptations over the years — most famously, of course, the 1939 MGM musical by Victor Fleming and starring Judy Garland. Kassell’s version will not be a musical. New Line said it will be a “fresh take” and a “reimagining” of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” It will have some advantages, too, since Warner Bros. owns New Line and the 1939 film. That means it can use some trademarked elements like the ruby slippers. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we re...
Winona Ryder Is Back With Edward Scissorhands’ Son in New Super Bowl Ad: Watch
Like Edward, Edgar has trouble functioning in the normal world. When trying to yank on chain on a bus to get off at the next stop, he accidentally cuts the cord with his sharp fingers, getting himself banned from public transportation; while trying to catch a football, he punctures and deflates it; and rather than creating elaborately shaped bushes, he cuts up spectacular salads. To cheer him up, Kim buys the teen a Cadillac LYRIQ, which has a hands-free super cruise feature that allows him to drive without destroying the steering wheel. (No word about a seat belt that his hands won’t slice through, though.) “And Edgar drove off into the sunset,” Kim says as the ad ends. “But don’t worry: He still makes it home in time for dinner — occasionally.” A...
The 2021 Golden Globes Nominations Are Here
As ever, the Golden Globes are a trip. After a delay brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing impact on both the film and television industries, the 2021 show — the awards’ 78th ceremony — will return on February 28 with hosts Amy Poehler and Tiny Fey. The comedy duo will emcee from opposite coasts, with Fey in the Rainbow Room at 30 Rock in New York, and Poehler at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. As the 2021 nominees, revealed this morning (February 3) reveal, it’ll be a party as always. But more than that, this year’s crop comes with some notable achievements — including a posthumous nod for Chadwick Boseman, Regina King‘s first nom as a director (in a category led by women, no less), and four nods for Promising Young Woman. Check out all the nominee...
For Studio Ghibli, Earwig And The Witch Conjures New Possibilities
By Erica Russell For nearly four decades, Studio Ghibli has captured the hearts and imaginations of global moviegoers. Co-founded by celebrated Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki in 1985, the Tokyo-based studio has produced dozens of iconic films, including 1988’s beloved My Neighbor Totoro and 2001’s Academy Award-winning Spirited Away. Its pictures deliver whimsical adventures at once sweeping and small-scale, unforgettable characters, breathtaking animation and music, and complexly layered narratives that refuse to talk down to even its youngest audience members. Ghibli’s latest offering, Earwig and the Witch, is no different — except in one major way. Based on the 2011 children’s book of the same name by Dianna Wynne Jones — author of Howl’s Moving Castle, adapted to film by Ghibli in 2004...
Behind the Rise of Hollywood Composing Teams
Since Reznor and Ross won an Oscar 10 years ago, the pair has also nabbed a Grammy Award for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (on top of two Grammys Reznor had won previously) and an Emmy Award last September for Watchmen. The rock musicians just need a Tony to achieve EGOT status. Craig Harris and Mark IshamJudah and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.) Isham is a trumpeter and synthesizer player who has scored dozens of films since 1983, including Nell and Crash. He was nominated in this category 28 years ago for A River Runs Through It. Harris is a jazz trombonist who has worked with such artists as Lena Horne, Sun Ra and The Roots. This is the first film they’ve scored as a pair. Nicolas Becker and Abraham MarderSound of Metal (Amazon Studios) Previously, Becker scored the 2018 documen...
Mary J. Blige ‘See What You’ve Done’ Lyric Video Launches to Promote Oscar Song Contender
Directed by Erika Cohn, Belly of the Beast chronicles the near-decade-long fight to shed light on the forced sterilization of women’s prison inmates in California. The film highlights this reproductive injustice with personal accounts from formerly incarcerated individuals. The early lyric, “The world can decide if a caged bird flies,” is a reference to Maya Angelou’s seminal autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in which the poet describes the racism and trauma that have impacted her life. The song culminates with Blige singing the line, “It ain’t over till it’s over,” accompanied by images of protestors, Dillon and her legal team in a courtroom, with shackles falling to the ground. The song takes the perspective of the survivors of this underreported i...
Jared Leto Almost Signed an Unknown Billie Eilish After She Rocked His Private Party
Leto was really sold on the pair’s talent when he invited them to play a tiny show at his house during a dinner party for 12 people, where they blew the A-list guests away. “I said, ‘Hey, will you guys come and play a couple of songs?’ and they were, like, ‘Yeah, sure,’ and they showed up with a Guitar Center p.a. and played the most heartbreakingly beautiful music with, like, you know, it shouldn’t have sounded that good, it was impossible that it sounded that good,” he said. “I remember Leo DiCaprio was there and a couple of other people and they were just, like, ‘How did you find these people and, like, who are they?’ Everyone was just jaws on the floor, 12 people max at my place in the hills. Yeah, just great people. I&#...
