Author: ADMIN

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Zendaya is everywhere; she was a successful Disney star with musical abilities, then she went to blockbusters like “Spider-Man”, now works with auteurs like Denis Villeneuve on the upcoming “Dune”, made Emmy history with her “Euphoria” performance win, and has a strong social media following.

She doesn’t want to stop; now the reports claim she’s going to play Ronnie Spector for a new A24 biopic, Filmiere.com can confirm. A few years ago in David Mamet’s “Phil Spector”, she was a supporting character but now we’ll get a full portrayal of her early years, her rise to musical stardom,  her marriage, and divorce.

Just like Aretha Franklin personally endorsed Jennifer Hudson to play her in the upcoming MGM biopic “Respect”, Spector chose Zendaya as the actress she wished to portray her in her early years. A24 is a studio that usually brings high-quality stuff. So it’ll probably worth the wait.

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Filmiere.com lets you know that the “Lion King” live-action sequel (which is also a prequel if the rumors are true. Similar to “Godfather II”) is in development and it has a surprising name to direct it.

The film was a major box office success but gained rather mixed critical reception, with some dismissing it as an almost shot-by-shot remake with no life and energy of the original film.

Some minor changes were criticized instead of appreciated; such as the “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” scene-setting in a light atmosphere rather than in the night. The author of the song Elton John (who wrote a song for that film as well) was also not happy with the film.

But now the sequel is coming and this time director is a very surprising name; arthouse favorite, who directed Oscar-winning films “Moonlight” and “if Beale Street Could Talk” Barry Jenkins will handle the material. “Helping my sister raise two young boys during the ’90s, I grew up with these characters,” Jenkins said.

“Having the opportunity to work with Disney on expanding this magnificent tale of friendship, love, and legacy while furthering my work chronicling the lives and souls of folk within the African diaspora is a dream come true.” If any of the cast members will be back or not is unknown yet.

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“Avatar” sequels keep getting delayed. It raises questions around if they’ll be successful at this point because long time spans between a sequel and original are never too good, even if it’s a cult film. Sure, “Avatar” is not a cult film or anything.

It was a major blockbuster that became the highest-grossing film of all time until last year but it’s not necessarily something that has a major fan base. That said, it’s still James Cameron and the movie is still beloved by many and is pretty fresh on many people’s minds.

‘Avatar 2’ Filming Is 100% Complete, ‘Avatar 3’ 95% Finished says James Cameron, Filmiere.com can confirm. Cameron explained that the production lost “about four and a half months” owing to COVID-19, which “hit us like it hit everybody, it hit us hard.”

Avatar 2’s release, as previously announced, “rolled around a full year” because of the pandemic lockdowns, Cameron added. In July, Disney moved all the Avatar sequels, setting Avatar 2 on December 16, 2022, and Avatar 3 on December 20, 2024.

The fourth and fifth pictures are due in 2026 and 2028. The longer interview can be seen on his “Terminator” and “True Lies’ star Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Youtube account. Nice to know that majority of the work has been done for sure.

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British actress Olivia Colman doesn’t stop gaining new fans, with her recent Oscar win for “The Favourite” and Emmy nomination for “The Crown”, she keeps going strong and this year she has one of the most acclaimed films of the year titled “The Father”, co-starring Anthony Hopkins and Imogen Poots.

While she couldn’t travel to Switzerland to receive her Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Film Festival for COVID-19 restrictions, she instead accepted her award online. Have to note that the festival is held physically, Filmiere.com reports.

While accepting, she talked about her new film as well: “It is very moving, very beautiful and Florian Zeller is a very, very clever man. For me, it’s always the script – everything is in there. It arrived at my home and I couldn’t put it down.

I didn’t want anyone else to play that part!” and didn’t forget Hopkins also: “Anthony Hopkins is playing my dad – it doesn’t get any better than this. Tony and I, we are not a method. We were just playing off each other and it’s easy to just react to what he is doing.

He is exactly what you would hope he will be, he has endless brilliant stories. We were sitting offset once, and he just leaned in and said: ‘Aren’t we lucky? Isn’t life beautiful?’ His kindness to everyone on set is beautiful to behold and something to aspire to.” We will look forward to seeing “The Father”.

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The bank’s family is back! “Father of the Bride” was a very successful and now almost a classic film of the 90s, starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Martin Short among others. Now nearly all of the major cast members are back for a third part on zoom.

This time George Banks’ son, played by Kieran Culkin is getting married. The zoom conversation kind of sequel received a warm reception, as many people had nostalgic feelings, and fans of the original films are delighted to see the Banks family back.

This “sequel” is directed by Nancy Meyers, who co-wrote the 1990 version. Its first sequel was not that successful, yet managed to earn Steve Martin another Golden Globe nomination. This one however got around 200.000 views in its first hour.

Filmiere.com just recently reported about the table-read of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” but such “sequels” are also another good part of what Zoom technology brings to us. Not to mention, it had some surprises like Robert De Niro and Florence Pugh in supporting roles (both pictured).

If you’re a fan of the original film, don’t forget to check this out. The reunion, introduced by Reese Witherspoon, was to benefit the World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing meals to communities affected by disasters, such as the coronavirus pandemic. It’s free to watch on Youtube.

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Usually, Filmiere.com gives you information on the news regarding the actual moviemaking and films but there are notable exceptions like this that would probably be deemed as “showbiz news”.

Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix and Oscar-nominated actress Rooney Mara had been together for some time and it’s confirmed that recently they had a healthy baby boy.

Now what’s interesting about this news is that they named the kid River after Joaquin’s deceased brother. River Phoenix was an acclaimed young actor who has starred in classics like “Stand By Me” (Rob Reiner).

“Indiana Jones” sequel (Steven Spielberg), nominated for Oscar for his performance in Sidney Lumet’s “Running for Empty” and won Venice Film Festival best actor award for Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho”.

His filmography also included much underappreciated “Dogfight”, Lawrence Kasdan’s “I Love You to Death”, Peter Weir’s “Mosquito Coast”, Joe Dante’s “Explorers”. It’s amazing how many directors he has worked within his short career span.

River died of a drug overdose, soon after finishing his last movie “The Thing Called Love”, directed by another auteur Peter Bogdanovich. He was supposed to star in “Interview with the Vampire” next.

Joaquin didn’t talk about his brother’s sad passing until recently and he remembered him again when he won an Oscar for “Joker”. It’s touching to see River’s legacy is still living and his memory will keep on living.

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(Photograph credit: M. Night Shyamalan’s official twitter account)

Indian-born director M. Night Shyamalan is back in the movie sets. After hitting it big with “The Sixth Sense”, “Unbreakable” and “Signs”, he had some negatively reviewed films back-to-back but in recent years Shyamalan has gotten back to his old form; with successful films like “Split” and successful television projects “Wayward Pines” and “Servant”.

He has shared a poster and his first day on the set of shooting his new movie titled “Old” and from the poster, it’s obvious that it’s expected to come out in 2021 July, Filmiere.com reports.

Gael Garcia Bernal leads an ensemble cast that includes Vicky Krieps, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Eliza Scanlen, Rufus Sewell, Embeth Davidtz, Aaron Pierre, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Emun Elliott, and Ken Leung. Genre fans better get excited.

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Oscar-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou set to star in “African History Y”. If you think the title is very similar to “American History X”, a 1999 drama with Edward Norton, then Filmiere.com lets you know that it’s not coincidental. The same director Tony Kaye is back to making movies.

He notoriously had a hard time finishing that film since Edward Norton took over the project and Tony even wanted to take his name out of the final product in the end but couldn’t due to DGA rules. Now we’ll see if he’ll able to finish his vision.

“Djimon and I met just after I did American History X,” Kaye said. “It was a cathartic meeting, and I knew immediately that he was an actor that I had to work with. The material had to be right, and thank God, now we have a project to work together on.

The color cameras inside my head are ready to go to work in Africa.” Hounsou stated: “African History Y could not have come at a better time as I explore bringing more extraordinary African stories to the world.

I’m excited to be working with Tony, and it’s somewhat pre-ordained that he and I have come full circle to work with each other.” Currently in development.

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Filmiere.com usually informs you about the cinema news but since it’s very related, it has to be shared. This was certainly unexpected but here it is. Legend of Japanese cinema Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” is turning into a TV series in Hollywood.

‘The Comey Rule’s’ Billy Ray and ‘Mudbound’s’ Virgil Williams are expected to write the script for HBO Max. It’s said that it’s not going to be a direct adaptation. It will center on “a grisly sexual assault and murder and the unraveling mystery as seen through multiple characters’ competing narratives.

It will explore themes of the truth and subjective point of view in a modern setting. Each episode will detail the perceived truth of an individual character — putting each at the center of the story and telling the events surrounding the murder from their point of view.”

Since its not a direct adaptation but seemingly just more of something that is inspired by the original film, chances are it won’t make the fans of the original mad.

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Filmiere.com is glad to share information with you that it seems Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan is having a new project in development. Ceylan is a Cannes favorite and has made great films like “Winter Sleep”, “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” and most recently, “The Wild Pear Tree”.

It’s amazing that he hasn’t had a breakthrough with the Oscars yet but he’s very consistent with critics. Ceylan’s next is called “Dried Herbs”  but since he parted his way with Zeynep Atakan who has worked on several of his films, it’s interesting to see how it will affect his work.

While the premiere date or much of the plot is unknown other than it’s about two teachers whose life has changed when they meet with each other, it’s expected to premiere Cannes as is usual with Ceylan’s filmography. He won the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2014, for his film Winter Sleep.

The film is expected to star Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici.

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