Chadwick Boseman enters Best Actor Oscar race with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

(Photograph credit: Netflix)

Ma Rainey was one of the earliest African-American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of blues singers to record.

The “Mother of the Blues”, she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers, and now her story is a subject of the film “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” where Viola Davis plays her.

Chadwick Boseman, in his final film, role-plays an ambitious trumpeter. It’s based on a play that is set in Chicago in the 1920s and deals with issues of race, art, religion, and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers.

Produced by Denzel Washington, the movie trailer is out from Netflix this week. Another surprising news is coming that Chadwick Boseman will be competing in the lead category at this year’s awards season which shows a lot of confidence in his performance.

Given the current climate, Netflix seems to have a lot of power on his hands with strong acting contenders, since they also have Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) and Gary Oldman (Mank). Given Chadwick’s narrative, if his role is strong enough, it makes sense to push him harder for a win.

Meanwhile, the movie fans are obviously excited to see the beloved actor’s last performance.

Mensur Zeinal

New Gyllenhaal-Villeneuve project is apparently a miniseries

(Photograph credit: Warner Bros)


Filmiere.com just recently reported Jake Gyllenhaal admitting that he has a project in development with Denis Villeneuve who directed him in two successful thrillers “Prisoners” and “Enemy”.

Apparently, it’s a miniseries, based on a Jo Nesbo novel “The Son” which was actually reported a while back but we didn’t get much development news since then. Gyllenhaal will star in this tale of vengeance, as it’s been called. Villeneuve will direct, Jonathan Nolan of recent “Westworld” fame will executive produce.

“Jonah and Lisa are a formidable creative force and we are excited to collaborate with them again, alongside the brilliant Lenore, to adapt Jo Nesbø’s novel,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming on this new miniseries.

“Denis is a master at weaving visually exquisite and unique narratives, Jake is a gifted actor and producer whose work often traverses provocative and compelling terrain, and of course, he and Denis have collaborated brilliantly in the past.

We are beyond excited to see how this powerhouse team tackles this exceptional work.” Since it’s a thriller yet again, it’ll most likely make many fans of their previous collaborations excited.

Mensur Zeinal

Sad news from Jeff Bridges

(Photograph credit: Jeff Bridges’ Instagram account)

Beloved “Dude” of cinema; Jeff Bridges has been considered one of the finest actors of his generation since ever he broke out with “Last Picture Show” (1971). But he didn’t stop since then; he created a certain persona on screen, mostly after his legendary character The Dude in “The Big Lebowski” (1997).

He had also shown incredible versatility through films “Mirror Has Two Faces”, “Fearless”, “Jagged Edge”, “Fisher King” and nominated for several Oscars, even for “Starman” which was unusual for a genre film. It took him a while to win it but he finally won for “Crazy Heart”.

Now the actor shared the pictured message from his social network accounts. While he didn’t forget to call Americans to vote at the elections, he also shared the sad news that he’s got Lymphoma. It’s a serious disease, as he says but he’s optimistic.

As Filmiere.com, we’ll also remain optimistic about the beloved actor and hopefully, we’ll see more of his terrific performances. Cinema is not complete without The Dude.

Mensur Zeinal

Denmark to decide its Oscar entry in soon

(photograph credit: Henrik Osten)

Oscars are not canceled and Filmiere.com hopes it won’t. Countries keep choosing their entry for the Oscar.

Denmark will announce their selection on 18 November but what films are the most possible? One of them is Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm-directed crime action “Shorta”, follows two policemen dealing with the rebel in the ghetto.

It did receive good reception at Venice Critics Week. Another one is “En helt almindelig familie”, a more family-oriented drama. But the one that seems to be the official selection is Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round”. It got very good reviews, it’s getting buzz and it’s made by one of the most acclaimed directors of Denmark.

As if it’s not enough, it stars Mads Mikkelsen. One of their previous collaborations were much appreciated by the Academy in the Past. At the Danish box office, the drama has sold over 500K tickets since release on September 24.

It’s estimated to ultimately pass 800K admissions, making it the biggest local title in three years. Surprise may happen but this seems to be the title to have an eye on.

Mensur Zeinal

Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep are among new stars joining Adam McKay’s new movie.

(photograph credit: Mega Agency)

Adam McKay has been recently making awards-bait films with star ensembles. Now we as Filmiere.com reported that Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett are part of his new film’s ensemble.

Now there’s more. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet, Ariana Grande, and “Yesterday” breakout Himesh Patel. The movie, written and directed by McKay himself will follow three low-level scientists (Leo, Lawrence, and Rob Morgan) discovering a meteor to crash on Earth in six months.

They try to warn the world with media tours but they seem to not getting any attention and the world remains unresponsive. Obviously rich with satire, it’s interesting what McKay will do this time with such a large starry cast.

DiCaprio was supposed to star in Martin Scorsese’s new film also, so it’s unclear when that one will start filming and how he’ll handle both projects or will he have to leave one of them. Netflix is backing the project up and it’ll probably be ready by next year’s award season.

The movie is heading toward a Nov. 19 start of shooting in Boston. McKay is also producing via his label, Hyperobject, along with partner Kevin Messick. Recently, McKay also confirmed that Streep will play the president, Jonah Hill will portray her son, Patel will be Jennifer Lawrence’s boyfriend.

Blanchett is expected to star as host of a political talk show.

Mensur Zeinal

Joaquin Phoenix to play Napoleon in Ridley Scott’s new movie.

(photograph credit: Mega Agency)

No pandemic can stop Ridley Scott. He just recently wrapped his new movie with Adam Driver and Matt Damon titled “The Last Duel” in Ireland.

He’s planning to make a new project “Gucci” with Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Adam Driver, and Jared Leto in March but now he has another project called “Kitbag” which will look at French military leader and emperor Napoleon’s personal life, his youth, his loves, the things that turned him into a ruthless emperor and his famous battles, which we know Ridley is very good at from “Gladiator” and “Kingdom of Heaven”.

The move is expected to star Joaquin Phoenix who recently won an Oscar for his performance in “Joker”. Scott has screenwriter David Scarpa –, who wrote the Scott-directed All the Money in the World — working on a script for the Napoleon epic.

The film will be produced by Scott and Kevin Walsh for Scott Free. Since Ridley is busy, we don’t know when they’ll start filming but when there will be more news to come; Filmiere.com will share it with you. It’s worth remembering that the previous Scott-Phoenix collaboration has earned them both Oscar nominations.

Mensur Zeinal

Park Chan-wook to make a new movie!

(Photograph credit: New York Times)

Park Chan-wook is one of the most celebrated directors of Korean cinema. Park is best known for his films Thirst (2009), The Handmaiden (2016), and what has become known as The Vengeance Trilogy, consisting of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005).

Obviously, he has fans all around the world and they’d be excited to hear from Filmiere.com that he’s working on a new project. He will start production later this month on the Korean-language drama film “Decision to Leave.” The cast is headed by China’s Tang Wei and Korean actor Park Hye-il.

According to reports: “The story involves a diligent and serious detective (Park Hye-il) who is investigating a possible murder case in the mountainous countryside. He begins to suspect the man’s widow (Tang), whom he also develops romantic feelings for.”

When more details will be announced, we’ll share them with you. For more news on Korean cinema and world cinema in general, keep following Filmiere.com

Mensur Zeinal

Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg to re-team again?

(Photograph credit: Focus Features)

Danish- American actor Viggo Mortensen and Canadian director David Cronenberg are some of the best director-actor pairs of our modern times which resulted in three great films with three terrific performances on its center that are “History of Violence” (2005), “Eastern Promises” (2007) and “A Dangerous Method” (2012).

Mortensen is currently promoting his own directorial debut “Falling” around the world in which he actually gave a small part to Cronenberg as an actor. He was just recently at Lumiere Film Festival in France and shared his desire to team up with Cronenberg for a new film sometime in 2021.

While we don’t know it’s wishful thinking or they have something in their mind, Filmiere.com is certainly excited to hear that there might be something in development. Mortensen said two years ago that David has some ideas but he’s struggling with budget issues. Hope Netflix or some other big company will help him out.

Credit: Mensur Zeinal

Cleopatra brings Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins together once again

(Photograph credit: Mega Agency)

“Wonder Woman” was a major hit for DC and Warner Bros, with a lot of praise for its star’s charisma and director’s talent. Now American director Patty Jenkins and Israeli actress Gal Gadot are collaborating again for an epic project won by Paramount Pictures in an auction.

This is the first major project package won by Paramount Motion Picture Group President Emma Watts in an auction that came down to Universal, Warner Bros, Netflix, and Apple, Filmiere.com reports based on information shared by Deadline.

While Jenkins-Gadot is an exciting team and the film lovers are long waiting to get a historical epic they deserve, Gadot’s casting as Cleopatra will certainly raise some discussions as her ethnicity and racial origin can be a part of the discussion by history lovers since ethnicity of Cleopatra’s mother is not fully known.

Another problem is the movie is expected to be written by Laeta Kalogridis who has “Shutter Island” among her credits but her historical films were not much successful; Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” being a notable exception. We’ll see how this will turn out and we hope this team will deliver another great work.

It’s also worth noting that Denis Villeneuve also had a “Cleopatra” project in mind with Sony Pictures. However, there hadn’t been much news on its development for a while.

Credit: Mensur Zeinal

John David Washington is part of new David O. Russell film

(Photograph credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for SBIFF)

John David Washington got his breakthrough with BlacKkKlansman (2018), for which he received both Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. In the same year, he got an Independent Spirit nomination for another performance and that was it; he keeps delivering since then.

He just led Nolan’s new film “Tenet”, stars in Luca Guadagnino-produced “Born to be Murdered”, new Sam Levinson film with Zendaya titled “Malcolm & Marie”, and he doesn’t stop; he’s just cast in David O. Russell’s new film opposite Christian Bale and Margot Robbie.

Three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki also is aboard. The project is based on an original idea from the multihyphenate writer-director-producer. New Regency will produce, and Matthew Budman will also produce.

The film will be distributed via New Regency’s deal with 20th Century Studios. More info will be shared by Filmiere.com as soon as they come.

Credit: Mensur Zeinal