Movie News

When “Top Gun: Maverick” takes flight in North American theaters on Friday, ticket sales for the oft-delayed tentpole may break through the stratosphere.

Thanks to stellar reviews and a healthy dose of nostalgia, Paramount and Skydance’s star-spangled action film — starring Tom Cruise as a fighter pilot who feels the need for speed — is expected to generate a blockbuster 85 million to 100 million over the weekend. Through Memorial Day on Monday, domestic box office receipts could fly as high as 130 million. “Maverick” is playing in 4,732 North American cinemas, the widest theater count in history.

The follow-up to 1986’s “Top Gun” was scheduled to open in the summer of 2020 until Covid-19 scrambled those plans. But Paramount and Cruise were adamant about keeping the film in theaters rather than sending the sequel straight to a streaming service. When Cruise was recently asked at Cannes Film Festival if the sequel would skip the big screen,

What happens after you spend nearly three years of your life studying and acting as Elvis Presley? If you’re “Elvis” leading star Austin Butler, your body shuts down almost immediately and you’re sent to the hospital. The actor told GQ magazine that he was diagnosed with a virus that hospitalized him the day after he wrapped production on Baz Luhrmann’s music biopic. The virus simulated appendicitis and left Butler bedridden for one week.

“The next day [after filming wrapped] I woke up at four in the morning with excruciating pain, and I was rushed to hospital,” Butler said. “My body just started shutting down the day after I finished ‘Elvis.’”

Butler was officially cast as Elvis in July 2019 after he auditioned for Luhrmann with a haunting rendition of “Unchained Melody.” Once the actor started immersing himself in the life and music of Elvis Presley, he didn’t stop. Filming on

The deals at Cannes keep coming.

Neon has now acquired the North American distribution rights to Ruben Östlund’s satire “Triangle of Sadness,” which is playing in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The English-language film from the Palme d’Or winning director of “The Square” and “Force Majeure” stars Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Woody Harrelson, Vicki Berlin, Henrik Dorsin, Zlatko Burić, Jean-Christophe Folly, Iris Berben, Sunnyi Melles, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, Arvin Kananian, Carolina Gynning, Ralph Schicha and a break-out performance by Dolly De Leon.

“Triangle of Sadness” is a social commentary about the 1 and luxury culture told in three chapters in which a social-media influencer couple on a cruise for the super-rich wind up ship-wrecked and trapped on a deserted island. The film shocked and wowed Cannes audiences with its gross-out humor. Here’s the full synopsis:

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‘Triangle of Sadness’ Film

A24 has snapped up the Paul Mescal-led tearjerker “Aftersun” out of the Cannes Film Festival.

The distributor has picked up North American rights for the movie, which premiered as part of Cannes’ Critics’ Week section to rave reviews last week.

The movie, directed by Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells in her feature directorial debut, stars Mescal and newcomer Frankie Corio as a young father and his 11-year-old daughter who are on holiday at a resort in Turkey in the late 1990s. Framed as a look back at a father-daughter holiday in the late 1990s, with occasional mini Dv footage adding to the period texture, the film is an ode to nostalgia with hints of something far darker.

Variety critic Guy Lodge said of “Aftersun”: “Ambitiously and poignantly, ‘Aftersun’ explores the oddly intimate chasm between parent and child, the latter forever playing catch-up to the former’s inner life, except on the brief occasions — like,

REinvent International Sales has closed major territory sales on “UFO Sweden,” a science fiction movie adventure from Crazy Pictures, a Swedish film collective whose past credits includes the 2018 hit movie “The Unthinkable.”

Described as a mix between “X-Files” and “Stranger Things,” “UFO Sweden” is set in a small town and follows a teenage rebel placed in foster care, who suspects that her father is not dead, but has been kidnapped by UFOs. With the help from a UFO association, she is determined to find out the truth. REinvent International Sales has sold “UFO Sweden” to Germany (Telepool), Spain (A Contracorriente Films) and Hungary (Vertigo). Other deals are in discussions.

Crazy Pictures got the idea for the film after learning about UFO-Sweden, which investigates mysterious phenomena and manages the world’s largest UFO archive, Archives for the Unexplained in Norrköping, Sweden.

“UFO Sweden” shot in Norrköping, Sweden, in September. Sf Studios

May 22, 2022 was the last day The Landmark theater -- located on the corner of Westwood and Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles, CA -- was open for business. The 12-screen theater opened in 2007 as an adjunct of the then-still-open Westside Pavilion, an indoor shopping mall that had itself been in operation since 1985. The Landmark was connected to the shopping plaza by a bridge that stretched over Westwood, and shared retail space with a three-story Barnes & Noble (accessed through the theater's lobby) and an upscale tavern on the ground floor. 

As the caprices of capitalism dictate, however, landlords eventually started dismantling...

The post What Hollywood's Past Two Years Means For the Future of Movie Theaters appeared first on /Film.

In the new chapter of the "Jurassic World" franchise, dinosaurs have expanded beyond the water's edge of Isla Nublar and are now all over the world. Humans and dinosaurs are going to have to find a way to co-exist. Though "Jurassic World Dominion" is the final film in the second "Jurassic Park" trilogy, there could certainly be more to the story. If we get another film, or even another trilogy, someone is going to have to helm the pic, and "Jurassic World Dominion" director Colin Trevorrow has a great choice for the spot, according to Variety. 

His pick for the...

The post Jurassic World Dominion Director Colin Trevorrow Knows Who Should Direct the Next Movie in the Franchise appeared first on /Film.

A nerdy East Coast teenager discovers that they have superpowers. They attempt to maintain a balanced life by juggling the struggles of being a "normal" high school student with living up to the great responsibility of helping others, all while keeping everything hidden from their family.

Sound familiar? 

For many True Believers, that's the origin story of Spider-Man. But for a whole new generation of Marvel Comics fans, that's also the tale of Kamala Khan aka the magnificent Ms. Marvel. Since her introduction in 2014, Kamala has somewhat been touted as the modern day Peter Parker in many ways while still making an impact...

The post Ms. Marvel's Directors Want the Character to Have an Arc Similar to Spider-Man appeared first on /Film.

For better or worse, the landscape that "Top Gun: Maverick" is debuting in during the year 2022 is far different from the one that the Tony Scott classic experienced upon release in 1986. Looking back, it's mildly startling to realize that the climax of the original film revolved around the United States Navy's most elite squadron of pilots directly engaging Soviet MiG fighter jets in aerial combat. Aircraft are shot down, people die ... and, somehow, this conflict doesn't escalate into a full-blown disaster at the height of nuclear tensions between the two superpowers.

Of course, that's mostly because the film had...

The post Top Gun: Maverick Had To Toe The Line When It Came To Casting Its Villains appeared first on /Film.

J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot has a lot of plates on the stove right now, from “Star Trek 4” to a live-action “Hotwheels” movie to numerous TV shows in development for HBO Max and AppleTV+. And they’re seemingly already really testing the patience of Warner Bros. Discovery that isn’t too happy they got a sweet 250 million exclusive deal to make HBO Max content and haven’t really produced jack so far.

Continue reading New Live-Action ‘Speed Racer’ Series In The Works At Apple With J.J. Abrams As Executive Producer at The Playlist.

The 2022 Cannes Film Festival kicked off May 17 with some of the world’s biggest stars and revered filmmakers in attendance.

Opening night saw Julianne Moore, special Palme d’Or winner Forest Whitaker, and jurors Rebecca Hall, Deepika Padukone, Noomi Rapace, Asghar Farhadi, Ladj Ly, Jeff Nichols, and Joachim Trier, plus jury president Vincent Lindon, unveil “Final Cut,” the latest from Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius. As the Ukraine-Russia war continues, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made a special guest appearance remotely via live video call.

Wednesday’s buzziest event was the star-studded premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick,” as lead star, producer, and ultimate icon of “contemporary cinema” (according to Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux) Tom Cruise graced the red carpet alongside Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, Eva Longoria, Jerry Bruckheimer, Elle Fanning, and Kering’s Women in Cinema award winner Viola Davis.

“Three Thousand Years of Longing” co-stars Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton

Welcome to My Favorite Moment! In a new week-long series IndieWire spoke to the actors behind just a few of our favorite television performances of the year about how the onscreen moment they are most proud of came together.

The gift (and some would argue curse) of a romantic comedy is that it tends to follow familiar beats like the meet-cute, the break-up, the reconciliation, and even a quick look at the couple’s happily ever after, that just need to be executed well for the project to work.

The HBO Max anthology series “Love Life,” which centers on a protagonist from their first love to their lasting love, impressively delivers on the genre’s tropes, but with its narrative taking place over 10 episodes, also answers the question of what happens in those in between moments that go overlooked in the movie version of a relationship.

Season 2 star William Jackson Harper,

“It doesn’t matter if you do 10 stupid things so long as you do one smart one,” Colonel Tom Parker advises us near the start of Baz Luhrmann’s utterly deranged musical biopic about the King of Rock & Roll, but even a ratio that forgiving would still leave “Elvis” roughly 370 “smart ones” short. If only this 159-minute eyesore — — were gracious enough to be as short in any other respect.

Luhrmann may be one of the most irrepressible maximalists the movies have ever known, and his new opus is perhaps the most visually anarchic Hollywood film since the Wachowskis’ 2008 “Speed Racer.” But it’s hard to find even ironic enjoyment in something this high on its own supply; something much less interested in how its namesake broke the rules than it is in how its director does, and something tirelessly incapable of finding any meaningful overlap between the two.

Indeed, “Elvis

If you are an actor in Hollywood, the chances that you have worn an uncomfortable costume are high. From itchy materials to bulky additions, actors still wear clothes they might not be the most comfortable in the world. This, of course, is not the fault of the costume designers; sometimes, a character requires a specific article of clothing or full costume that just cannot be made more comfortably.

Such was the case for the costume that Fred Gwynne, the actor that played the iconic Herman in "The Munsters," wore during the show's two-season run. Universal Television cast him as this comedic take...

The post It's a Wonder Fred Gwynne Could Even Walk In His Munsters Costume appeared first on /Film.

You didn't think Tom Cruise was the only one with a patent on the phrase "the need for speed," did you?

Both filmmaker J.J. Abrams and Apple TV+ remain incredibly busy these days. The producer extraordinaire has his fingers in a number of different pots through his Bad Robot production company, although we most recently heard that his "Demimonde" series over at HBO may have hit somewhat of a snag. No matter, however, as he seems to be moving forward with another project at another major streaming service.

Variety is reporting that Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television are teaming up with Apple TV+ to create a new live-action...

The post Apple TV+ Orders Speed Racer Series from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot appeared first on /Film.

After a lot of behind-the-scenes complications, "Black Mirror" is officially returning for a sixth season on Netflix. Now that fans have something to look forward to again, it's worth looking back on the show's most widely-derided string of episodes: season 5. The season started off with "Striking Vipers," an episode whose biggest claim to fame was the "I f**ked a polar bear" line. This was followed by "Smithereens," an episode that most people considered entertaining, but whose message was often conflated to nothing more than a "don't text and drive" PSA. This was followed by "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too," which is widely considered to...

The post Why Season 5 of Black Mirror is Better Than You Remember appeared first on /Film.

“The Three Musketeers,” Pathé Films’s 75-million two-part adventure epic saga based on Alexandre Dumas’s masterpiece, has been bought in major international territories rolling off a busy Cannes market.

Pathé unveiled a sprawling 15-minute promoreel for both “The Three Musketeers” – D’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers – Milady” at Cannes Marché du Film. Both movies are directed by Martin Bourboulon and boast a star-studded cast, including Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Vicky Krieps, Romain Duris, Pio Marmaï, François Civil, Lyna Khoudri and Louis Garrel.

Produced by Dimitri Rassam for Chapter 2, a Mediawan Company, and Pathé, the two films were picked up for Latin America (CDC United Network /Cine Video y TV (Zima)), Scandinavia (Nordisk Film), South Korea (First Run Inc.), Poland (Monolith Films), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aqs Inc.), Ex-Yugoslavia (Blitz Films), and Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania Vertical (Entertainment Kft.). Pathé is in advanced talks with distributors for the rest of Asia,

With June swiftly upon us, it's time to say goodbye to spring and hello to the long, luxurious days of summer. Unfortunately, it's also time to bid adieu to some great TV shows and movies set to leave Netflix at the end of next month. But fret not, reader — we'll guide you through a few series and films you should definitely try and catch before the month is out and they're no longer available on the streaming behemoth.

Whether embarking on a beloved rewatch or an entirely new viewing experience, here are a few of the most notable titles leaving Netflix at the end...

The post The Best TV Shows and Movies Leaving Netflix in June 2022 appeared first on /Film.

Step aside Mr. Darcy and Anthony Bridgerton — Regency-era London has a new most eligible bachelor.

Based on Suzanne Allain’s romance novel of the same name, “Mr. Malcolm’s List” centers on the titular Mr. Malcolm (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù of “His House”) who has impossible standards for his bride to be. Mr. Malcolm jilts love interest Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton) after she fails to meet one of his requirements, and Julia enlists best friend Selina Dalton (Freida Pinto) to go full “John Tucker Must Die” on Mr. Malcolm — aka, pretend to be his perfect woman with the intentions of duping the dumper into now becoming the dumpee.

“Emily in Paris” breakout Ashley Park and “The Time Traveler’s Wife” heartthrob Theo James also star, alongside Oliver Jackson-Cohen of “The Invisible Man” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor” and “Hill House” fame.

The film premieres in theaters July 1, with Bleecker Street distributing the title.

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "My Dinner with Andre"

Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max, Criterion Channel

The Pitch: Wallace Shawn, playing himself, is a struggling playwright and actor living in New York. He gets roped into joining an old acquaintance, avant-garde theatre director Andre Gregory, for dinner. The two both agree on how performance shapes reality, but aside from that, they could not have more different worldviews. Andre tells stories of flying off to Poland to make...

The post The Daily Stream: Finding The Cinema Of Conversation In My Dinner With Andre appeared first on /Film.