Movie News

With his Emmy-nominated series “Glow” wrapping up its second season, Marc Maron has found the project to keep him busy during the show’s hiatus.

Sources tell Variety that Maron is in talks to join Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips’ untitled Joker origin movie.

Besides Phoenix, Maron will be joining previously announced cast members Robert De Niro and Frances Conroy.

According to sources, Maron would be portraying an agent on Robert De Niro’s talk show who plays a part in booking Phoenix’s character, and eventually causing him to go mad and become the Clown Prince of Crime.

Phillips is on board to co-write and direct the Warner Bros. movie, which is set to bow on Oct. 4, 2019.

Insiders stress that Jared Leto, who starred as the Joker in “Suicide Squad,” is still on board to portray the character in the DC Universe and that this Phoenix pic has no

After seven weekends in theaters and with releases in several major overseas markets still to come, Disney/Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” has hit $1 billion at the global box office, doing so faster than any other animated film in history.

The sequel to Brad Bird’s hit 2004 film is also the 36th film in box office history to hit $1 billion and the seventh animated film to do so, alongside “Frozen,” “Minions,” “Toy Story 3,” “Finding Dory,” “Despicable Me 3,” and “Zootopia.” Of these films, “Frozen” is the all-time record holder with $1.27 billion.

While all these films had a staggered international rollout and hit $1 billion more than two months after their initial release, “Incredibles 2” has made $1 billion in less than eight weeks, counting Monday’s totals, thanks to unparalleled interest from American audiences. The movie has yet to be released in 14 countries — including Japan,

Exclusive: Paramount Players has set Erin Cressida Wilson to script a new version of Indecent Proposal, the 1993 Adrian Lyne-directed film about the consequences of a financially strapped couple young couple that succumbs to a $1 million offer from a rich man to sleep with the wife. Robert Redford, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson starred in the hit. The original grossed $266 million worldwide. Cressida Wilson scripted Secretary and The Girl on the Train. It will be…

Priyanka Chopra is in talks to join Universal’s adaptation of “Cowboy Ninja Viking” starring Chris Pratt.

The role was one of the more highly coveted in town and Chopra beat out a slew of talent after a chemistry test with Pratt went extremely well.

The film is based on the Image Comics graphic novel by A.J. Lieberman and illustrator Riley Rossmo. It was adapted by Dan Mazeau (“Wrath of the Titans”) and Ryan Engle (“The Commuter”). Craig Mazin wrote an earlier draft of the screenplay with an original version by “Deadpool” writers Paul Wernick and Everett David Reese.

The novel revolves around an assassin who manifests the toughest skills of three different personas: a cowboy, a ninja, and a viking.

Entertainment 360 — the production arm of Management 360 — Mark Gordon via eOne, Michael De Luca for Michael De Luca Productions, and Pratt will produce. VP of production Sara Scott will

Florence Pugh is set to star in “Herditary” director Ari Aster’s next film, which A24 is producing.

Pugh broke the news while promoting her new BBC drama “Little Drummer Girl” at this week’s Television Critics Association press tour. Production is currently underway in Budapest.

Following the success of “Hereditary,” which recently became A24’s highest-grossing movie with $70 million worldwide, the studio was quick to sign on to finance and distribute Aster’s next film.

Plot details are being kept under wraps. Aster also penned the script. Lars Knudsen is producing.

Pugh stars in BBC/AMC’s limited series “Little Drummer Girl” for director Park Chan-Wook. The series, based on a John Le Carré novel and also starring Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Shannon, premieres in October for eight episodes.

Pugh is also the female lead in Netflix drama “Outlaw King,” which will debut on Nov. 9, directed by David Mackenzie.

Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Madison Curry, Cali Sheldon, and Noelle Sheldon have rounded out the cast of Jordan Peele's next film, Us.

They join Lupita Nyong'o, Elisabeth Moss, Winston Duke, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Anna Diop in the Universal pic.

The movie is the first project under Peele's first-look deal with Universal Pictures, which he signed with his Monkeypaw Productions last spring. Get Out opened No. 1 at the domestic box office last year on its way to grossing $255.5 million worldwide. It scored glowing reviews and an Oscar best picture nomination, with Peele winning the best original screenplay Academy Award for the thriller.

Peele will write and direct the pic, in addition to producing it for Monkeypaw Productions alongside Sean McKittrick and Jason Blum. Monkeypaw's Ian Cooper is also producing 'Us.'

Universal has already dated the film for March 15, 2019.

Production is currently underway. Peele

The 'Aquaman' trailer made waves at San Diego Comic-Con but left us with questions about the mysterious villain Black Manta. Let's explore Black Manta's sinister comic-book origins.

Black Manta, who's also known as David Hyde, was created by writer Bob Haney and artist Nick Cardy in 1967, and first appeared in "Aquaman" No. 35.

In his initial outing against the aquatic hero, he managed to poison Atlantis, kidnap Aquababy, and nearly kill Aquaman.

For years, Manta was shrouded in mystery until his first definitive origin story was revealed in the sixth issue of the 1993 "Aquaman" series.

In this version of the origin, we find out that Hyde was kidnapped as a child and forced into slave labor on a ship. During his torturous imprisonment, he saw Aquaman at sea and tried to signal him for help but failed to get his attention. After escaping captivity, Manta vowed to one-day master the sea and seek vengeance on Aquaman.

That is one of three Black Manta origin stories, which may be the reason director James Wan decided to go with a wholly original version in the upcoming film.

In the movie, Manta — played by actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II — is a pirate whose father died at the hands of Aquaman, which fuels his quest for revenge. Even though Wan's Black Manta is ditching his comic-book backstory, he is staying true-to-form with his looks and abilities.

In the comic books, and Wan's new movie, Manta wears an all-black diving suit with a giant football-shaped helmet that has two massive red eyes. These eyes aren't just for show. They fire powerful laser blasts.

The suit also features high-tech gadgets and grants Manta super-strength and enhanced underwater mobility, which comes in handy when you're constantly battling the King of the Seven Seas.

'Aquaman' hits theaters Dec. 21, 2018.

Watch our video on Black Manta.

Lior Raz, co-creator and star of the Israeli TV political thriller Fauda, is joining Ryan Reynolds in Six Underground, the action pic that Michael Bay is directing.

Netflix and Skydance are behind the project, which is scheduled to begin shooting next month in locales such as Italy and the United Arab Emirates.

The project, which has been described as being in the tone of Deadpool meets Mission: Impossible, centers on a group of six men and women who team up to fight evildoers. All have numerical code-names, with Reynolds’ character known as "One.” The script is from Rhett Reese and Paul ...

Peter Segal, the director of the Get Smart movie and films such as Fifty First Dates, has been tapped to helm My Spy, STXfilms’ action-comedy starring Dave Bautista.

The move keeps Segal in the fold of STXfilms, a division of Robert Simonds’ global media company STX Entertainment, as the filmmaker is already prepping Second Act, a comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, for a Nov. 21 release.

My Spy will tell the story of a hardened CIA operative (Bautista) who finds himself at the mercy of a precocious 9-year-old girl, having been sent undercover to surveil her family.

Jon and Erich Hoeber wrote the script....

The third episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who Is America?” made headlines for Roy Moore undergoing a pedophile lie detector test, but one of the half hour’s lighter and funniest moments found the comedian’s Dr. Nira Cain-n’Degeocello character rap battling Atlanta freestyle legend Ness Lee. Vulture spoke with Lee after the episode aired to get the details on what it’s like to be tricked into going head-to-head with Cohen in a rap battle.

Ness told the publication it was never revealed to him that the battle was being filmed for a Sacha Baron Cohen series. Ness was told a “college professor” who was a “super-far leftist” wanted to battle him as part of a documentary he was making exploring “urban culture.” The rapper was told the professor “really wanted to indulge in a life with the people he fought for for so long.”

“So I’m like,

A pair of influential watchdogs that monitor how Hispanics are portrayed onscreen have called for a boycott of Paramount Pictures. The National Latino Media Council (Nlmc) is made up of 12 civil rights and advocacy groups that champion Latino representation, including the National Hispanic Media Coalition (Nhmc). Leaders from both organizations assembled Tuesday in Pasadena to unpack a poll of Latinos viewers’ sensibilities, and unveil a list of planned actions against Paramount.

Based on their film studio research from 2012 to 2017 — and UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report, released in February — the Nhmc found that Paramount had the worst numbers when it came to hiring Latino actors, writers, and directors.

According to Nhmc’s just-released “Lack of Latinx in Film Industry,” which narrowed its focus on the top 100 grossing films per year, between 2016 and 2017, Paramount released zero films featuring either a Hispanic writer or a Hispanic actor in a lead role. During that period of time,

Exclusive: The long running ABC series Fantasy Island is being reconstituted as a feature film by Blumhouse and Sony Pictures, the latter of which controls the rights to the Aaron Spelling series which ran from 1977-84. Jeff Wadlow is directing. He just teamed with Blumhouse on Truth Or Dare, the genre film that grossed $100 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. Wadlow is writing with Truth or Dare co-scribes Chris Roach and Jillian Jacobs and Jason Blum is producing…

Fresh off his time spearheading the incredibly popular reboot of “Doctor Who,” writer-producer Steven Moffat has found his next major project, and time-traveling is still involved.

According to Deadline, HBO has ordered a series based on Audrey Niffenegger’s novel “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” with Moffat attached to write and executive produce. The novel, which spawned a 2009 film of the same name with Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in the lead roles, revolves around the relationship between a husband and wife that is complicated by the husband’s penchant for time-traveling.

Continue reading HBO Teaming With ‘Doctor Who’ Mastermind Steven Moffat For ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ Series at The Playlist.

The pitch for “Making It,” NBC’s new foray into reality-competition shows, is pretty simple: Take the structure and — more importantly — the tone of “The Great British Baking Show,” but instead of baking, the challenges all center around craft projects. In the series, former “Parks and Recreation” co-stars Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman guide eight professional crafters through challenges blending paper, fabric, wood, and tons of other unconventional ingredients to create wonderful and unexpected things.

Set in a picturesque wooded glen referred to as “the farm”, the eight crafters represent a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, with their unique styles showcased by the variety of concepts they’re asked to create. In the episodes screened for review, the projects made include quilts, childrens’ play forts, Halloween costumes, and lawn furniture, and the level of skill presented is really impressive (at least to a layperson).

It’s also refreshingly positive. As

In the wake of orders from new corporate parent WarnerMedia to increase its output, HBO has given a straight-to-series order for a TV show adaptation of Audre Niffenegger’s novel The Time Traveler’s Wife. Not only that, but Doctor Who and Sherlock showrunner Steven Moffat is at the helm of the drama series adaptation. The story revolves around a man who has a genetic disorder that causes him to travel through time unpredictably. This causes him to experience his life—especially his relationship with his wife and daughter—through a skewed lens, meeting his grade-school-aged …

Hollywood breathed a sigh of relief Thursday as news came that the producers (AMPTP) and West Coast crew (Iatse) reached a tentative labor agreement. By the weekend, of the 13 locals represented in the Iatse-amptp negotiations, 12 informed their memberships that they would recommend ratification. Iatse locals traditionally vote in accordance with the recommendations of its leadership, but something else happened this weekend: Union members began a grassroots Get Out the Vote campaign, with an eye toward killing the deal.

This effort traces back to the lone standout, Local 700 (the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild). Under Cathy Repola, the union’s executive national director, the leadership did something unheard of in modern labor negotiations of below-the-line crew: they organized and engaged its members, walked them through the negotiations, and framed the differences over work hours and benefits funding as being worthy of a labor stoppage.

The AMPTP and other locals don’t appreciate the effort,

“Blindness is an illness, but it’s also a metaphor,” explains the actress Mabel (Jess Weixler) in an interview with a skeptical journalist. She’s talking about her role as a blind woman in a sordid arthouse horror film set in a hospital for the disfigured and genetically abnormal. As she, a sight-seeing woman, defends her choice […]

The post ‘Chained for Life’ is a Masterful Dissection of How the Film Industry Treats Disability [Fantasia Film Festival] appeared first on /Film.

After an insightful discussion featuring the dramatic actors, THR’s “Close-Up with The Hollywood Reporter” sat down with a number of dramatic actresses to discuss a range of topics, including gender pay disparity and being able to say no to roles. Included within the panel were Emmy nominated lead actresses Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”), Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”), and Claire Foy (“The Queen”), in addition to best supporting actress nominee Thandie Newton (“Westworld”).

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss, Claire Foy, Sandra Oh & More Discuss Pay Disparity And Being Able To “Say No” To Roles at The Playlist.

Michael Weber’s The Match Factory is on board as sales agent of Locarno Film Festival International Competition title “Wintermärchen” (A Winter’s Tale), the company announced Tuesday. The film is German writer-director Jan Bonny’s follow-up to black comedy “Counterparts,” which played in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

“Wintermärchen” explores how social problems and emotional disorientation can result in violent right-wing terrorism. The film centers on a right-wing terror cell, whose members dream of nationwide attention. “Tommy and Becky are tired and disillusioned until Maik joins them. Overwhelmed by a complex relationship of love, hate and friendship their path of destruction leads to a series of violent crimes,” according to a statement.

The German-language film, which world premieres Aug. 10, stars Thomas Schubert, Ricarda Seifried and Jean-Luc Bubert. It was written by Jan Eichberg and Bonny, and produced by Bettina Brokemper at Heimatfilm, whose other titles include

The horror thriller starts shooting this week in Thailand with Darren Lynn Bousman directing.

Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth have been set to star in Death Of Me, a horror-thriller directed by Darren Lynn Bousman that starts principal photography this week in Thailand.

The film, about a couple on an exotic holiday who discover they have participated in a husband’s ritual murder of his wife, is financed by Media Finance Capital, Samuel Marshall Productions and Envision Media Arts (Ema). 13 Films is handling international rights.

Ari Margolis, James Morley III and David Tish wrote the script and the producers