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Exclusive: Range Media Partners is launching new divisions with the hiring of three industry veterans: Jeff Jernigan, Randie Adler and Jeff Speich.

Jernigan will help launch a Composer division within Range Music, which has already been active at the intersection of music & TV through the representation of talent like music supervisor Andrea von Foerster. Meanwhile, Adler is launching an IP/Media Rights capability within Range’s Film & TV division, with Speich to oversee the launch of Range Literary Publishing, an imprint with Central Recovery Press, which has specialized in the full spectrum of behavioral health topics since 2012.

Range Literary Publishing, in particular, will serve as a boutique, author-forward imprint committed to publishing high-quality works across genres including memoir, fiction, and non-fiction. With a focus on creative freedom and editorial excellence, the imprint aims to support both emerging and established voices while identifying projects with strong potential for adaptation in film and TV.

Plot: The narrative unfolds in the 14th Century amidst the days of the Holy Roman Empire where Europe’s nations fiercely vie for supremacy and the ambitious Austrians, desiring more land, encroach upon Switzerland, a serene and pastoral nation.

Review: It’s always interesting to hear about a different figure from the past that was otherwise unknown to most (or at least me). It feels like we often hear variations of the same stories. Historical epics are hard to do on a budget, but that doesn’t stop people from trying. William Tell is very impressive on a technical front, giving us a look at this Swiss figure. The production design is absolutely wonderful and it really feels like we’re in the 14th Century. But where it fails is in its story, which fails to muster much intrigue and moves at an undesirable pace.

William Tell is the story...

We were hardly surprised that AMPAS’s notoriously insular and tony music branch took a hard pass on Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor’s meme-tastic, Golden Globe- and Critics’ Choice Award-winning score for Challengers. While the branch’s voters welcomed Ross-Reznor to the club long ago (they’ve won twice), one wouldn’t need to examine the history of what’s been shortlisted but snubbed too closely to know that piledriver beats that sound straight out of a poppers trainer video were probably never going to connect with the same demographic that just last year gave John Williams a record-extending 54th Oscar nomination.

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Of course, getting the nomination is only half the battle, and for all the music branch’s efforts to keep its peers’ most unorthodox work at bay, voters at large feel less resistant these days to taking bigger swings—hence Steven Price’s Gravity beating Alexandre Desplat’s Philomena,...

Brandy Corbet’s The Brutalist from A24 hammered its way into theaters this weekend with one of the best limited openings of 2024 (no. 3 after Anora and Kinds of Kindness). It sold out nearly 30 showtimes in New York and Los Angeles for a gross of $266.8k on four screens for a per screen opening of $66.7k.

The majority of audiences were under 35 and almost half heard about the film via Letterboxd as the online film-centric social network continues to be a defining force for indie word-of-mouth in the post-Covid era.

Corbet’s third feature centers on Adrien Brody’s László Toth, a Brutalist architect from Hungary attempting to rebuild his life in postwar America. Initially forced to toil in poverty, Toth soon wins a contract that will change the course of the next 30 years of his life.

The sweeping film premiered in Venice where Corbet won Best Director and has built throughout the fall season.

In cinema, films based on true stories are often considered “safe,” but that couldn’t be further from the case for Los Frikis. Produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the Spider-Verse movies), Los Frikis takes its challenging subject matter and infuses it with genuine heart, making it an irresistible crowd-pleaser despite all the odds stacked against it.

Los Frikis Review

Los Frikis tells the story of a group of impoverished punk rockers living in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union who decide to inject themselves with HIV to allow them to live at a state-sponsored sanitarium for AIDS patients. The film is based on true events that many in America have likely never heard of, but it feels incredibly necessary nevertheless.

For an independent production, Los Frikis is actually a very strong movie from a technical standpoint. The cinematography and set design are very impressive, making...

A common refrain amongst entertainment industry types is that it's a miracle any movie gets made. There are so many moving parts to any production, from ensuring the script has a story audiences will want to see to managing a crew of hundreds to get that story onto film. Even if the final product isn't great artistically, one has to admire the hard work from all of those professionals to get any movie made in the first place. And while a movie can go off the rails at any point, it's astonishing how many are pretty much finished and then just ... never come out.

Just look at the case of the "Toxic Avenger" reboot starring Peter Dinklage and Elijah Wood. It earned widespread acclaim at festivals in 2023, with /Film's review calling it an "avalanche of blood-drenched chaos" (in the best way possible, naturally). Despite high praise from us and other outlets,...

Most people can’t conceive of the hardships and strife inflicted on others. It’s not entirely their fault. Television places onlookers behind a screen while horrors lurk outside their door, and news outlets are questionable these days at best. What I’m trying to say is oppression is omnipresent, and Los Frikis, the latest film from The Peanut Butter Falcon directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, is ready to throw audiences into a mosh pit of drama for a story about breaking the chains that bind us. What? You don’t believe me? Watch today’s emotionally charged trailer for Los Frikis and then decide.

Inspired by true events, Los Frikis is a coming-of-age story set in early 90s Cuba, where a group of punk rockers in search of freedom deliberately inject HIV to live at a government-run treatment home so they can create their own utopia. Produced by...

There is no happiness on this Earth more primal or profound than having a baby, and yet the expectation to do so has forever been wielded against women as a misery; it’s been a cross to bear for the people who get pregnant, a pariah-level sin for the people who choose not to, and — perhaps most unfairly of all — a curse from God for the people who can’t.

I trust you’re not hearing about this for the first time in a review of a pleasantly forgettable Netflix film starring Bill Nighy, but the fact remains that “society” has been content with that arrangement for much of the last few millennia, and science’s best efforts to amend it have invariably been met with scorn. Indeed, the work of developing in vitro fertilization was so controversial that it had to be hidden from the church and the tabloids alike.

Twenty five years ago, on October 29, 1999, Dark Castle Entertainment launched with a remake of William Castle’s The House on Haunted Hill. Penned by Dick Beebe from Robb White’s original 1959 story and directed by William Malone, the 1999 remake relocated to a foreboding psychiatric hospital for its haunted setting. This time the ghosts were very real and very vengeful. At the center of it all, though, was a very inspired performance by Geoffrey Rush. One that deserves a space in horror’s hall of fame.

Rush played amusement park mogul Steven Price, the rich host to his wife’s birthday party that offers up $1,000,000 to anyone who can endure a night-long stay in the haunted hospital. This was the precise same role Vincent Price played in the 1959 original film, and the character was renamed in reference. The irony, though, is that Steven Price wasn’t initially meant to look like...

I have to confess I don’t know much about William Tell, the legendary 14th century huntsman who we were told as school children took his bow and arrow and heroically shot an apple off the top of his son’s head. And there is also the infamous “William Tell Overture” played in concerts around the globe. So that’s it. That is all I knew, until now, when I was completely captivated by a rousing new adventure William Tell, which does indeed tell the tale of this reluctant warrior. But did he ever really exist or is this tale a tall one? Director-writer Nick Hamm tries valiantly to put the pieces together. It all happened a long time ago, as this film’s events are set in 1307, but whatever the facts I have to say this is perfect movie material, reminiscent in spirit and execution of 1995’s Oscar-winning Braveheart.

As Swiss legend goes, William Tell became a medieval folk hero when occupying Austrian militants forced him into a sick game: He was forced to fire an arrow into an apple atop his son’s head to save his family from execution. It was a daunting task, but the warrior’s aim was true, inspiring a rebellion among the Swiss and, centuries later, everything from Gioachino Rossini’s iconic overture to a very funny “Far Side” comic. With “William Tell,” producers hope that fable can spawn an action franchise as well.

Debuting at the Toronto Film Festival, it’s a film driven by future-proofed storytelling, setting up an overwhelming sweep of characters over its plodding 133-minute running time, before culminating in a shameless sequel tease in its final image. And yet, with a towering Claes Bang in the lead role and a dynamic supporting cast, it’s easier to swallow...

You probably remember one thing about the Swiss folk hero William Tell: He used a bow and arrow to shoot an apple off the head of his son. But did you know that he did so on the orders of a cruel Austrian leader who wanted to quell any resistance to that country’s onerous occupation of Switzerland? Or that he became a leader of the Swiss resistance?

If you don’t remember the backstory to the bow, the boy and the apple, Irish director Nick Hamm’s “William Tell” is here to remind you, and to add a few of its own embellishments to the centuries-old folk tale. The film is big, brutal and beautiful — over the top at times and stirring at others. It finds modern resonance in a 14th century European legend, and for better and worse it also turns that legend into a slam-bang bit of muscular Hollywood-style entertainment.

David Zaslav would famously make some unpopular and questionable decisions once he became in charge at Warner Bros. However, even before his takeover, the studio that oversaw the Dceu had already been under fire by critics and fans alike for their handling of the DC franchise. One notorious case came with David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. The theatrical release of the film would underwhelm audiences after the very warm reception of the final trailer set to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. DC’s final edit was one that felt disjointed and unfinished.

Months after he said he was done with DC, David Ayer would now take to his social media to get fans to press hard on demanding his cut of the film be released. Ayer posted a picture that stated, “Release the Ayer Cut.” The picture featured a giant art rendition of Jared Leto’s Joker mouth and a quote...

From one 1999 horror remake to another. After rewatching The Haunting with eyes that were both more critical and 25 years older, it got me thinking about the other remake that came out that year. One that was a remake of a far sillier movie and that was the first effort from a new studio, namely Dark Castle Entertainment. The original was from a far less dark castle in that of schlock and gimmick purveyor William Castle and it starred Vincent Price as a man offering strangers money to stay in an allegedly haunted house for a night. While The Haunting failed on multiple levels to improve with age, how does House on Haunted Hill (watch it Here) look after a quarter of a century? Does its cheesy yet graphic tone feel at home in the time of A24 and elevated horror or should it forfeit its 1 million dollar check and leave the cursed grounds forever.

Despite years of campaigning, lofty Twitter proclamations, and a burning desire to share his ideal vision for a film project he says got out of hand, David Ayer is “done” with DC Studios. In other words, he is abandoning hope of ever releasing a Director’s Cut of 2016’s Suicide Squad.

Speaking about the ongoing drama surrounding Suicide Squad on X/Twitter, a fan asked Ayer point-blank if he’s still fighting to release an extended version of the villain-centric ensemble film. “Nope. Done and done,” Ayer replied. “Very sad. You’ll be done after a good cry. I feel healthier. It’s a wound that needs to heal.”

I’m done with DC. https://t.co/Qnzh8jSO1G

— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) January 3, 2024

Fan demands for Ayer’s Director’s Cut of Suicide Squad began after Warner Bros. unleashed the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Confirmation of the 4-hour...

After Warner Bros. Pictures announced the cancelation of the film Coyote Vs. Acme, the studio has decided to change course and un-cancel the film.

The film’s director, Dave Green, will now be allowed to sell the film to another distributor for a theatrical or streaming release.

Warner Bros. is currently hosting screenings for Amazon Prime Video, Apple and Netflix.

The upcoming hybrid live-action/animated movie was set to suffer the same fate as Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, by being pulled from the release schedule to take tax write-downs from last year.

The company received extensive criticism for canceling the films.

Many filmmakers canceled upcoming meetings with the studio once word got out about Coyote Vs. Acme being shelved.

Green and several more of the film’s crew members expressed their disappointment, as well.

The director wrote about his feelings in a post on X.

“For three years, I...

Texas congressman Joaquin Castro has taken to X to slam Warner Bros Discovery for axing the $70M Coyote vs. Acme for a reported $30M tax writeoff.

That said, as we first reported, the studio is changing course this week and screening the film for potential buyers, i.e. Amazon Prime (a leading contender), Apple and Netflix. This pivot by studio brass was made after a weekend in which the studio’s phone rang off the hook as the creative community complained about the canceling of the finished film. There also was an outcry by the pic’s composer Steven Price, among others online.

“The @Wbd tactic of scrapping fully made films for tax breaks is predatory and anti-competitive,” wrote Castro, who has protested Wbd before on antitrust issues.

“As the Justice Department and @FTC revise their antitrust guidelines they should review this conduct,” he continued.

“As someone remarked, it’s...

Warner Bros might finally be learning to undelete films following its Coyote Vs Acme debacle: now it should revisit its disastrous cull of Batgirl and Scoob! 2.

It’s been a difficult week for Warner Bros Discovery, in a year that’s not been shy of them. Not that filmmakers and film fans are offering much sympathy for the company, which is in danger of making a habit of canning completed films.

The story so far.

Following its 2022 decision to scrap both Batgirl and Scoob! 2: The Holiday Haunt, a pair of pretty much completed movies that collectively had cost over $120m to make, it threw the anvil last week on Coyote Vs Acme.

As film critic Robbie Collin wrote on whatever Twitter’s called now, “Why would anyone work for a studio that makes a habit of this?”

And that’s the problem. Doing it once? A nasty one-off. Twice?...

The shelved Coyote vs Acme film may see the light of day after all. Amid industry outcry that WB was shelving yet another film, the studio has begun screening the movie for streaming services. Deadline reports that Prime Video seems to be the frontrunner as far as acquiring the movie goes. The shelving of the completed film has spurred lots of anger within the industry, as unlike the previously shelved Batgirl or Scoob’s Holiday Haunt, Coyote Vs Acme was complete and scheduled for a theatrical release.

Not only that, but reports suggest that the film was testing very well, with composer Steven Price roasting the company on Twitter for their “bizarre anti-art studio shenanigans.”

Had a lot of fun scoring Coyote Vs Acme. As no-one will be able to hear it now, due to bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans I will never understand, here is a bit of behind...

In a significant backpedal, Warner Bros. has reversed its decision to shelve the completed Coyote vs. Acme film, and is now allowing an outside distributor to purchase the film after significant public protest, a source confirmed to Rolling Stone.

It’s been a quick turnaround from Thursday when it was first reported that Warner Bros. was using the live-action/animation hybrid starring John Cena and Lana Condor as an estimated $30 million tax write-off instead of moving ahead with a theatrical and/or streaming release.

After filmmakers and crew expressed their...

Warner Bros. has reportedly reversed course on the Coyote vs. Acme movie starring John Cena. According to Puck News, the studio will now allow the filmmakers to shop the project to other distributors after shelving it for a tax write-off just last week.

Puck News’ Matthew Belloni reports that the abrupt decision was made by Warner film executives Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy alongside new head of animation Bill Damaschke after online backlash from Coyote vs. Acme director Dave Green and composer Steven Price, as well as the animation community overall.

Amazon is one of the contenders to pick up Coyote vs. Acme, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Screenings will take place for potential buyers this month.

“For three years, I was lucky enough to make a movie about Wile E. Coyote, the most persistent, passionate, and resilient character of all time,” Green wrote on Twitter about the James Gunn-produced film.

The shelved Coyote vs. Acme movie, initially set for release in 2023, may find new life elsewhere.

According to Puck News, Dave Green, the director of the now-shelved live-action/CGI Looney Tunes film, will be allowed to shop the movie around to other distributors. While Warner Bros. Discovery allegedly declined to confirm this report, it's said that Warner chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, and new animation head Bill Damaschke, were pressured by the online backlash as well as intense back-and-forths between Green and the actors' reps.

The Flash Producer Debunks Rumors of WB Nearly Shelving the Movie Due to Ezra Miller

Shelving Coyote vs. Acme was met with a strong reaction given it was already completed and, according to reported test screenings, a great film. The film's composer Steven Price slammed the move as "bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans" in a post to X where he gave a behind-the-scenes preview of the movie's soundtrack.

"Doctor Who" has long been regarded as one of the pillars of science fiction television. Unfortunately, back in the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC regarded previously broadcast "Doctor Who" episodes as junk that was just taking up space, so the episodes were destroyed to make room for new programming. Some lost "Doctor Who" stories have since been recovered from collectors, overseas broadcasters, and -- in the case of two episodes of the serial "The Daleks' Master Plan" -- in the basement of a Mormon church. However, despite decades of searching, 97 episodes remain lost.

That number could be whittled down to 95, according to a new report by The Observer, but there's a problem. Film collector John Franklin, who knows the locations of the two missing episodes, says their guardians are afraid that if they come forward their precious mementos could be confiscated, and that they might even face criminal prosecution. The...

A year after Warner Bros. decided to shelve Batgirl — to outcry from the public and the film’s own crew — the studio once again decided to ax another completed film project: Coyote vs. Acme.

The live-action/animation hybrid starring John Cena and Lana Condor was originally intended for Max before it was given a theatrical release date of July 21. But Greta Gerwig’s Barbie ended up taking the summer slot. After no update on its premiere or even a trailer, The Hollywood Reporter learned the studio would can the entire...

Coyote vs. Acme composer Steven Price has blasted the David Zaslav cost-cutting Warner Bros Discovery administration for axing the Looney Tunes hybrid live-action animated film.

Price, who won an original score Oscar for Warner Bros. tentpole Gravity in 2014 took to X to say “Had a lot of fun scoring Coyote Vs Acme. As no-one will be able to hear it now, due to bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans I will never understand, here is a bit of behind the scenes footage of our “Meep Meep” Roadrunner choir, with apologies to Tchaikovsky…”

Here is the composer’s tweet:

Had a lot of fun scoring Coyote Vs Acme. As no-one will be able to hear it now, due to bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans I will never understand, here is a bit of behind the scenes footage of our “Meep Meep” Roadrunner choir, with apologies to Tchaikovsky… pic.twitter.com/HL7h...

After yesterday's announcement that Warner Bros. wouldn't release their live-action and animation hybrid, Coyote Vs. Acme, Steven Price, the composer behind the canceled film's soundtrack, has shared a behind-the-scenes video of him working on the music for the defunct project. The footage shows a choir performing a fragment of a classic Tchaikovsky piece, but the soundtrack featured a twist. Instead of a regular performance of the piece, the choir sang using the known "Meep Meep" sounds produced by the Roadrunner as it makes the life of the titular Coyote impossible. Thanks to a corporate decision, the sequence that would've used the musical piece will never be seen by the public.

The scrapped “Coyote Vs. Acme” has now garnered a filmmakers vs. Warner Bros. campaign on social media.

On private Facebook group Crew Stories, “Coyote Vs. Acme” crew member Nate Bannister posted (and gave IndieWire permission to quote) his frustration. “I was Key Alm [assistant location manager] on this movie, almost died of stress pulling all the permits, we closed down the entirety of downtown Albuquerque, I had to call in every favor of my career to close an overpass with a half a days notice, I got so many angry calls from neighbors, business owners, etc day and night, working on this movie almost tore apart my relationship with my fiancée,” he wrote. “Why do I work in this industry?”

The live-action and animated hybrid film starring John Cena was officially axed by Warner Bros. November 9 as a tax write-off for its Q3 earnings, even though the film had been finished. The $70 million...

Both the WGA strike and most recently the SAG-AFTRA strike may be officially over, but I hope you didn't think that meant the studios would be finished with their nonsense just yet. Many will remember that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made himself public enemy #1 earlier this year with some particularly poorly-considered remarks (although Disney's Bob Iger subsequently waded into the fray and did everything he could to vie for the crown himself). Well, believe me, it's my deepest displeasure to report that Zaslav is, unfortunately, at it once more.

Barely a year after Warner Bros. incited all sorts of outrage over shelving high-profile productions such as "Batgirl" and "Scoob 2" for a tax write-off, dismissing the tireless work of countless artists with the flick of a wrist and preventing anyone from actually seeing the fruit of their labor, the studio has gone and done it all over again. This time,...

(Welcome to Best Action Scene Ever, a column dedicated to breaking down the best, most effective action sequences throughout the genre. In this edition, we cap off spooky season with the perfect meld between horror and action: the hallway fight in "Attack the Block.")

Do you feel that chill in the air? Halloween is once again upon us, providing the timeliest of reminders that the concepts of action and horror need not be mutually exclusive. Experienced viewers know full well that some of the best examples of either genre tend to share quite a few interests, whether it be James Cameron's "Aliens" taking a more militaristic approach than the claustrophobic, slasher-like original did or horror maestro John Carpenter staging a feature-length action sequence out of a classic horror premise in "Assault on Precinct 13," as we last covered in this column. As tempting as it was to focus on...

"We want to be free! We want to be able to do what we want to do! We want to get loaded, and we want to have a good time. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have a good time."

What better way to have a good time than sitting down and spinning some vinyl featuring Steven Price's sci-fi score for Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy capper, "The World's End"? Comprised of "Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz," and "The World's End," the Cornetto Trilogy is so-named for the cheeky reference to Cornetto ice cream cones in each movie directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Each film in the trilogy riffs on a different genre, providing satirical laughs that sometimes comes close to parody without ever venturing into full-on spoof territory. They're some of the most masterfully made comedies of the 21st century,...

Suicide Squad writer-director David Ayer shared a piece of trippy and creepy concept art of Enchantress.

In response to a comment on X about an earlier piece of artwork from the movie that saw the Joker walking in front of a mountain of skulls, Ayer posted an image that sees Enchantress sitting cross-legged and floating in the air while the background looks like its being broken up into cubes while her body glowed. Below her are more characters lined up like an army, several of which have white eyes. "It's just concept art," Ayer explained. "It ain't that deep. The idea was Enchantress was altering the reality around her and changing the environment. The Joker image is a simple take on that concept. Here’s more…"

Related: Suicide Squad Director Says James Gunn Could One Day Release ‘Ayer Cut’

It’s just concept art. It ain’t that deep. The...

(Welcome to Best Action Scene Ever, a column dedicated to breaking down the best, most effective action sequences throughout the genre. In this edition, we revisit the groundbreaking triumph of Alfonso Cuarón's "Gravity" and the adrenaline-pumping thrills of that opening one-shot sequence.)

Space is where things go to die. Whether it's literal stars going supernova, another of Elon Musk's Space-x rockets experiencing a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," or poor George Clooney on his last-ever mission to the International Space Station, the seemingly infinite vacuum surrounding our planet and the rest of the entire known universe is as inhospitable as environments get. So the fact that humanity keeps encroaching on this final frontier despite the mind-melting risks either speaks to our relentless industriousness as a species ... or our unparalleled pigheadedness. What "Gravity" suggests is: What if it were both?

Director Alfonso Cuarón's 2013 masterpiece is easy to praise as a technological marvel,...

Plot: An intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable and dangerous weapon.

Review: We have entered the strange period of the SAG-AFTRA strike, where big movies are being released with minimal marketing from the film stars. At any other time, Heart of Stone would get a substantial push on every platform you can imagine. Instead, there are a few interviews filmed several weeks in advance that try to promote the new film. With Wonder Woman herself in the lead, Heart of Stone is designed to be Netflix‘s equivalent of Mission: Impossible, even boasting their shared producers in the trailers. While the film shares more in common with the James Bond franchise, some spectacular chase sequences echo the most recent entries in Tom Cruise’s hit franchise. Heart of Stone is an action-packed movie that would have played well...

Netflix's Heart of Stone attempts to break free from its mediocre track record of action movies, but falls short due to a generic plot and lack of standout action sequences. Gal Gadot leads the film with her quiet strength and genuine heart, showcasing her excellent action star qualities, while Alia Bhatt delivers an intriguing performance as a multifaceted character. Though Heart of Stone has a unique layer to its spy story at the beginning, it loses its complexity and becomes a more simplistic film that may entertain viewers but fail to leave a lasting impression.

Editor's note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn't exist.

It's probably safe to say that Netflix has a so-so track record when it comes to its action movies. For every hit, such as...

David Ayer is keeping hope alive for his “Suicide Squad” director’s cut, dubbed the “Ayer Cut” on social media. In a recent post on X, the director informed his fans that new DC Studios boss James Gunn told him that the Ayer Cut “would have its time to be shared.” Ayer provided no further information.

Warner Bros. and Gunn’s representative did not respond to Variety’s request for comment.

“What’s your advice on how to navigate this situation with grace?” Ayer posted in response to a user who questioned why he was was still promoting his version of “Suicide Squad” seven years after the theatrical cut’s release. “There’s a genuine curiosity and interest from a lot of people. And I’m aware there is another group of people that have fun mocking the film. Your comment is a perfect example of how many are magnetically...

Blue Whales: Return Of The Giants 3D takes viewers on a journey of a lifetime to explore the world of the magnificent blue whale, a species rebounding from its near extinction. Following two scientific expeditions—one to find a missing population of blues off the exotic Seychelles Islands, the other to chronicle whale families in Mexico’s stunning Gulf of California—the film transforms our understanding of the largest animal ever to have lived. From its almost incomprehensible size to its spectacular feeding habits; from the surprising role it plays in the health of our oceans to its awesome long-distance communications, the film provides an unforgettable window into the lives these animals live—and the extremes scientists must endure to study them. Joined by a cast of supporting characters—from dolphins and sperm whales to sea lions and orcas—the blue whale finally gets its star turn … in life size,...

“Avatar: The Way of Water” and “E.T.” were just some of the films recognized at the 16th Krakow Film Music Festival in Krakow, Poland. The festival concluded on Monday, wrapping up the celebration of this year’s celestial lineup.

“Faced by the challenges posed by the pandemic, as well as the war that broke out at our doorstep, many of us have taken refuge in cinematic works – either trying to glimpse into the future or relive the amazing films from our childhood,” said Carolina Pietyra, director of the Krakow Festival office, in a statement. “The headline of this year’s edition of the Krakow Film Music Festival – Out of Space – stands for everything that takes us to other spaces and responds to our longing to explore realms unknown.”

The festival’s Space Gala featured otherworldly film scores including Jóhann Jóhannsson’s “Arrival,” Cliff Martinez’s “Solaris,” Steven Price’s “Gravity...

After pitting a knife-wielding Jennifer Lopez and a submachine gun-armed Jennifer Coolidge against a pack of wedding-crashing pirates in the rom-com/action mashup "Shotgun Wedding" (you can read our review of the film here), Prime Video is slowing things down a little in February. That month will see the release of the second and final season of the streamer's fantasy neo-noir series "Carnival Row," which is dropping nearly three and a half years after the first season launched in August 2019, in case you find yourself wondering (much like /Film's Valerie Ettenhofer), "Wait, so I didn't imagine the show where Orlando Bloom solves crimes and hooks up with pixie Cara Delevingne?" No, no you did not, but hey, at least now it has a proper ending!

In the absence of too many major new releases beyond that, Prime Video and Freevee viewers might want to spend February catching one of the...

Have a yen for the music, style and glamour of ’60s Swinging London? Edgar Wright’s hybrid time capsule / music extravaganza / horror thriller is an audiovisual delight from one end to the other. Young women from different decades seek to conquer London by different means — they meet as soul twins in a ghost world, where bloodsoaked murders haunt their dreams. Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy are the psychic twins; stars Rita Tushingham, Terence Stamp and the late Diana Rigg bring the authenticity. Soho can boast the most creatively ‘alive’ visuals of 2021.

Last Night in Soho

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital

Universal Home Entertainment

2021 / B&w / 2:39 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date January 18, 2022 / Available from Amazon

Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg, Terence Stamp, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, Synnove Karlsen.

Cinematography: Chung-hoon Chung

Production Designer: Marcus Rowland

Art Directors: Tim Blake, Victoria Allwood, Katie Money, Emily Norris

Costume Design: Odile Dicks-Mireaux...

Films based on true stories are not new. If anything, they are a staple of cinema. A core element that often tethers many of these stories is the collective celebration of the human spirit. Films like The Swimmers are so much more than just a celebration of their subjects — they often exist to illuminate certain realities that are often masked for various reasons. The lives of refugees have become so politicized that generalizations, misunderstandings, and lies shroud the individuals at the heart of the crisis. The Swimmers puts names to the faces of refugees and reminds audiences of the heart at the center — the people who do what they can to survive, not just for themselves but for the people who matter the most to them.

The Swimmers tells the story of the Mardini sisters, Yusra (Nathalie Issa) and Sara (Manal Issa) Mardini. The two have their whole futures ahead...

Music is instrumental to setting the mood for movies that take place during a time period beside the present, and this is certainly true for Amazon Prime’s My Policeman. Concurrently set in 1958 and 1999, My Policeman follows the tragic love story of Harry Styles’ Tom and David Dawson’s Patrick, the former of whom is married to Emma Corrin’s Marion. The soundtrack of the movie varies widely, featuring 50s rock and roll tracks as well as classical music, which not only helps establish the settings in My Policeman, but the characters’ and their points of view as well.

My Policeman’s soundtrack works extremely well when it comes to juggling the multiple time periods the story takes place in. The Amazon Prime movie’s music helps the transitions between 1958 and 1999 feel seamless and easy. The score by Steven Price also effectively establishes the loneliness encapsulating all three characters in 1999 during My Policeman.

A good romantic drama gives you a poignant ride you'll never forget while making you believe that love can make anything happen. But in "My Policeman," that ride stains your memory with transgressions and betrayals, and love makes people do things they regret. Whether or not the film can be considered a "good" romantic drama will probably be the subject of debate, but there's no denying that the Prime Video picture doesn't entirely amount to the sum of its parts, which are actually mostly good despite some core structural slowdowns that mar the overall experience. In fact, it feels like this one has the potential to build a second life on streaming. Either way, "My Policeman" is a touching and sometimes laborious emotional roller coaster that is sure to leave not one dry eye in whatever living room you choose to watch it in.

"My Policeman" tells the story of...

It’s more than just Harry, it’s an ensemble.

Amazon Studios is moving forward with an awards push for director Michael Grandage’s romantic drama “My Policeman,” despite mixed reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival, where it received an ensemble tribute. Variety has learned exclusively that Amazon will be submitting the entire cast, which includes music superstar Harry Styles and Emmy nominee Emma Corrin, all in the supporting categories for Oscar consideration.

Going between younger and older versions of the three main characters over a 40-year span, the British drama tells the story of Tom (Styles and Linus Roache), Marion (Corrin and Gina McKee) and Patrick (David Dawson and Rupert Everett) and how events from their past affect their future when reunited.

While awards strategists tend to commit “category fraud,” the act of submitting a lead performance in supporting categories for an easier pathway to a nom or win,...

Rolling Stone‘s interview series King for a Day features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and singers who had the difficult job of fronting major rock bands after the departure of an iconic vocalist. Some of them stayed in their bands for years, while others lasted just a few months. In the end, however, they all found out that replacement singers can themselves be replaced. This edition features former Creedence Clearwater Revisited singer John Tristao.

John Tristao caught so many Creedence Clearwater Revival shows in the band’s...

Three movies into his film career, Harry Styles’ ability as an actor continues to improve with each of his outings. Beginning as a young soldier in Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” (2017), he returns to the silver screen with two films this year. In the first, he’s the charming husband to Florence Pugh in “Don’t Worry Darling,” with the press tour that keeps on giving. In the second, he portrays a closeted gay police officer in Michael Grandage’s drama “My Policeman” from Amazon Studios, featuring his strongest turn yet as an actor. But is an Oscar nomination in his future?

Singers-turned-actors have had an inconsistent road to the Academy Awards. While there are successes such as Cher (“Moonstruck”) and Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Academy voters sometimes make actors prove themselves for a while to show they’re the real deal. Known as a “pretty boy,” Styles’ celebrity status does present an...

My Policeman, which had its world premiere today at the Toronto Film Festival, has its roots in a novel by Bethan Roberts which was actually based on a complicated love relationship between famed novelist E.M. Forster; his male lover of 40 years, a policeman named Bob Buckingham; and Buckingham’s wife May Hockey, who slowly came to realize her husband had a long-standing affair with Forster, but even after he had suffered a series of strokes took care of the author in his later life so deep was their friendship. Roberts changed the names and fictionalized it all for her book, which is now the basis of Ron Nyswaner’s (Philadelphia) screenplay that explores the love triangle of three freewheeling friends in 1957 who each was hobbled by the mores of the time, repressing rather than expressing their own sexuality, even as the...

On Thursday evening The Swimmers received a four minute standing ovation after its premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

This soaring epic dramatizes the true story of two sisters who left their home in war-torn Syria for a new life in Europe — and the chance to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

An epic adventure drawn from the most pressing of global stories, The Swimmers tells the remarkable true tale of sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini, who fled their home in war-torn Damascus to seek a new life in Europe and earn the chance to compete in the Olympics. Directed by Sally El Hosaini (My Brother the Devil) and written by Jack Thorne (TIFF ’19’s The Aeronauts), this is a moving story of two young women refugees, and their inspiring reach for a better life.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Etan Vlessing writes: “It’s an inspirational story,” director El-Hosaini said...

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Both adversity and triumph are in abundant supply in Sally El Hosaini’s The Swimmers, an undeniably powerful if inescapably episodic drama chronicling the harrowing, real-life flight taken by a pair of sisters from war-ravaged Syria to the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Ushering in the first business-as-usual edition of the Toronto International Film Festival since 2019, the film’s world premiere should set the stage for a buoyant response ahead of its Nov. 23 Netflix bow — particularly for the performances of the siblings cast as Olympics hopeful Yusra Mardini and her older sister Sara.

Prior to the outbreak of civil war in Syria, the rebellious Sara (Manal Issa) and her studious younger sister Yusra (Nathalie Issa) have been living the life of average teenagers in sun-drenched, suburban Damascus when not swimming competitively under the tutelage of their coach father (Ali Suliman).

But when the growing violence hits too close to home,...

Plot: After his ex-wife dies, a father (Idris Elba) takes his two daughters (Iyana Halley & Leah Sava Jeffries) to South Africa to stay with his best friend, a wildlife biologist (Sharlto Copley). While visiting a remote reserve, the group is attacked by a ferocious lion, who’s on the warpath after vicious poachers massacred his pride.

Review: Beast is a highly effective little thriller. While some may bristle at the idea of yet another “animal gone rogue” movie, under the eye of director Baltasar Kormákur and producer Will Packer, Beast makes the distinction that there’s no such thing as an “evil” animal. Instead, the lion hunting our heroes has been traumatized by the movie’s true villains, poachers, who massacred his pride to sell them off as trophies. No, this lion is simply butchering any human it crosses paths with, as it can’t distinguish between good and bad guys.

This Summer… Stay Quiet. Be Still. Pray To Survive. Universal Pictures Presents Idris Elba In Beast. Rated R. Only In Theaters August 19th.

Sometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster.

Idris Elba stars in Beast, a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator.

Elba plays Dr. Nate Samuels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles, an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.

From visceral, experiential filmmaker Baltasar KORMÁKUR,...