Category: News

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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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(Photograph credit: Netflix)

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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(Photograph credit: Photofest)

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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(Photograph credit: Hurriyet)

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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(photograph credit: Ocean Shores Video)

Chinese auteur Wong Kar-Wai is one of the most beloved names by cinephiles around the world. “Chungking Express” was one of his most respected and acclaimed works from the mid-90s.

Filmiere.com reports based on the stuff that has surfaced from many Chinese media outlets (via Reddit and The Film Stage) that Wong Kar-wai has scripted a sequel to his beloved 1994 romance Chungking Express.

Titled Chungking Express 2020 and set in Chongqing in 2036, the China Film Administration approved the script back in April, which means it can move ahead.

While Wong Kar-wai has already technically expanded the story of Chungking Express with Fallen Angels––which was the planned third story of Chungking but ended up spinning off into its own feature––he’s clearly taking a different route than a direct follow-up.

It certainly sounds intriguing and any new Kar-Wai movie is always welcome.

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(Courtesy: British Film Academy/Steve Finn/Getty Images)

British Film Academy gives their own biggest film prize every year, as probably known to most film lovers and award season followers around the world.

BAFTA has been recently on news for making changes for the “Best British Film” category with the inclusion of diversity rules. Now they did more changes and it seems mostly positive.

Longlists are back from the old times and acting categories are now six. The main changes are:

A new longlisting round of voting in all categories, making three rounds in total and giving members a long time period to watch films. It will now also be compulsory for members to watch all longlisted films in the second round before voting.

– In the acting categories, the number of nominees is being increased from five to six.

– In the directing category, BAFTA’s directing chapter will rank the top 20, with the top eight female and top eight male directors making the longlist.

-A special jury will then select the final four directors for this long list of 20, choosing two females and two males (from the next 10 ranked respectively). The number of final nominees will also increase from five to six.

– In the outstanding British film category, the number of nominations has jumped from six to 10, to give space for independent British films over Hollywood co-produced projects.

– In an effort to prevent films with larger campaigning budgets from “dominating the conversation,” BAFTA will be discontinuing DVD screeners by 2020 and moving all films to its new BAFTA View digital platform, set to launch for the 2021 awards season.

Distributor communication will also be further limited per title, with members now having to opt-in to receive DVDs, attend screening invites or receive trade publications during awards season.

There are more of course which you can see in more detail on BAFTA’s own website. Filmiere.com will keep you informed on the award season and further updates.

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(Photograph credit: 20^th Century and Disney)

Seems almost impossible to think of a year without a Marvel release but for obvious reasons, there’s none this year. As “The Eternals” moved to late next year, and “Black Widow” will also get a summer release. “The King’s Man” delayed way more.

But it’s not just Marvel or comics-related movies. Kenneth Branagh’s sequel to “Murder on the Orient Express” called “Death on the Nile” will be released next December.

Ben Affleck and Anna De Armas-starring supposedly erotic thriller, and a comeback from director Adrien Lyne titled “Dark Water” moved to August of 2021.

Steven Spielberg will also not be in conversation this year for any awards since “West Side Story” will be kept for next year’s fall release.

Credit: Mensur Zeinal