Category: News

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On Disney’s 3Q earnings call today, it was announced that Mulan is going to Disney+ on Sept. 4, Filmiere.com reports. That shouldn’t be a big surprise, even though yes, it’s risky because it was a big-budget movie, it had significant importance of representation in American cinema as well as it was thought to make a lot of money in China but in those challenging times, maybe it’s for the best and it’s interesting to try out how much people are willing to watch something this big on their home.

CEO Bob Chapek said it was important to find new avenues of distribution during the pandemic and that “in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and a number of countries, we will be offering on Disney+, the epic Mulan on premiere access beginning Sept. 4, with the price point being $29.99 in the U.S.” Is it also good news for “Tenet” since it will have more screenings? who knows.

Everything is unpredictable these days. It’s unfortunate that this movie will not premiere on theatres first. Critics reviews are not out yet but Disney occasionally gets hits; like last year’s “Togo” with Willem Dafoe. Since the movie is directed by Niki Caro, it could be big for the female filmmaker’s sake also. The movie is expected to get a theatrical release in some markets though.

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Not in the competition but still nice to see big names are being added to Venice. Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar has made an English-language 30-minutes longer film with Tilda Swinton in what was said to be a “record-breaking time”, Filmiere.com reports.

Almodovar’s latest film “Pain and Glory” has gotten huge acclaim all over the world and this one must be interesting as well. Regina King, who just recently scored another Emmy nomination, makes her directorial debut with “One Night in Miami”.

The film tells a fictionalized story of Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke as the group celebrate Clay’s surprise title win over Sonny Liston in a Miami hotel room in 1964. King’s film has reported appearing in Toronto as well but we don’t know if it’ll be on the same day as “Nomadland” or not. As for Steve McQueen,  he will kick off the 58th edition of the New York Film Festival with his new work “Lovers Rock.

The movie unfolds during a blues party in the early 1980s and tells a story of young love. Two other films from the five-film anthology, “Mangrove” and “Red, White and Blue,” will also have their world premieres as part of this year’s main slate.

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Courteney Cox established herself as a major TV star with her turn in “Friends” but thanks to Wes Craven’s “Scream”, she proved that she’s more than a one-trick-pony and can play a wide range of roles. Her character Gale Weathers (Riley) is definitely the horror’s most famous tabloid reporter.

Cox lobbied hardback in time for the role for that reason, wishing to play a “bitch” character, her efforts ultimately succeeding when she was cast and “Scream” fans will be happy to know that she still loves to play the character and will be back to reprise it in the next installment, which will, unfortunately, be the first “Scream” film to not directed by Wes Craven because of his sad passing.

More casting updates should be announced soon and Filmiere.com will keep you updated with that. “Scream” will be directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of the filmmaking group Radio Silence (“Ready or Not,” “V/H/S”) from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt (“Murder Mystery,” “Zodiac,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”) and Guy Busick (“Ready or Not,” “Castle Rock”).

The film is intending to start shooting this fall in North Carolina, ahead of it hitting cinemas sometime in 2021.

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Another sad passing of the week that Filmiere.com has to report is unfortunately Wilford Brimley. As usual with many established character actors, he was more of a guy the audiences will think of “that guy in that movie” rather than knowing by his name but Wilford Brimley did it all; the scene he goes nuts in John Carpenter masterpiece “The Thing” is simply amazing to watch and it’s somewhat popular.

He had diabetes and 85, so the news shouldn’t be surprising to some but still, it’s sad to see a great character actor goes away. He was also very fun in “Cocoon” and “In & Out”, also memorable in “The Natural”, great performance in “The Firm”. Brimley also does a lot of TV work, which includes another great performance in the 80s TV series “Our House”.

And he was active on Twitter just until yesterday, similar to Carl Reiner which makes it all really sad. Don Amache won an Oscar for “Cocoon” but Brimley was as impressive, like that in the fishing scene. His presence will be missed in movies.

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China is an important market for cinema, it’s the second biggest one behind only by the US. A portion of Chinese cinemas have been ordered to program an intermission for films that exceed two hours as a COVID-19 prevention measure, Filmiere.com reports based on Chinese sources.

Because of this requirement, some films will be affected which includes “Ford v. Ferrari” and a 4K restoration of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in mid-August. What’s true about our current times is that nothing is predictable and we don’t know if in upcoming weeks these will change or not but if they don’t, then possibly Chinese debut of Chris Nolan’s much anticipated “Tenet” will also be affected.

Sure, it has no official release date yet but based on Warner Bro’s marketing strategy, chances are it’ll come out in late August. The policy does not apply to all cinemas nationwide; it will be enforced according to the requirements of local authorities in each region. There is currently no such requirement issued for Beijing, for instance.

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It’s very hard for Filmiere.com to keep on informing you about the deaths of beloved and respected movie people but unfortunately, we lost one of the great ones again – British icon Alan Parker, who has received two Oscar nominations for his directorial works in “Mississippi Burning” and “Midnight Express”.

He’s often associated with musical or music-based films like “Pink Floyd: The Wall”, “The Commitments”, “Evita”, and “Fame” but he has gone to make all kinds of movies, including hard-hitting dramas “Birdy” and “Angela’s Ashes” as well as many well-known and beloved thrillers and horrors like “Life of David Gale” and “Angel Heart”.

“I usually react against what I’ve just done before,” Parker said in a 2003 interview. “The thing is, I started with Bugsy Malone, which was like a ridiculous pragmatic exercise to try and get any kind of film done; and then I did Midnight Express. And they were such opposite kinds of film that it sort of set me in a pattern of doing different things each time.

“Parker hasn’t directed anything since 2003, though he kept on having a public appearance and still kept on getting honored for his remarkable contributions to cinema. So many of his fans were waiting that maybe he’ll still direct again. His legacy will live on.

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 Kevin Smith was one of the most original comedy writers of the 90s with the cult film “Clerks” and how he followed it with bigger films like “Mallrats”, “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma”. Smith’s career had been on the decline in the last decade, as his films don’t get the reception they used to get but he’s still a beloved man in the film community, not only for his past works but for his passion for cinema and his general geek/nerd attitude.

He’s still working and his fan base will glad to hear that. Kevin Smith has debuted the first trailer for his new upcoming horror film anthology, “Killroy was Here”. Smith is primarily known for comedy, but the last several years have seen Smith begin to experiment with low-budget horror filmmaking.

Some have criticized the look of the film but Kevin is a fan of the genre, has made a decent horror before and people are certainly interested to see what he has to offer as a slasher film director. He’s also trying to bring “Green Hornet” back, in animated series form.

The new series will be targeted at a family audience, while retaining many elements from the comics, including the titular character’s high-tech car, the “Black Beauty.” So there’s definitely going to be a lot of exciting projects to wait for Kevin Smith fans.

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Warner Bros’ ‘Inception’10th Anniversary re-release will reportedly include an extended look at the upcoming “Tenet”, new trailer for delayed “Wonder Woman 1984” and the first trailer for much anticipated for “Dune”. Filmiere.com is here to remind you that it’s not a hundred percent confirmed but it’s very possible.

Warner Bros. was due to using its upcoming re-release of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” as a marketing opportunity for Nolan’s latest “Tenet”. This info comes from Palads Teatret in Denmark, where the re-release is currently due to screen from August 12 along with other countries, ahead of a U.S. bow on August 21.

Other Danish theatres haven’t confirmed anything yet and we don’t know when they will be available online, though it’s possible that if international release for “Tenet” keeps going on as planned, then it will be available online as well since Villeneuve’s marketing strategy is different than Nolan’s. We’ll have to wait and see, hopefully, we’ll get a look at the trailer as soon as possible.

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It’s not only “Nomadland” that is the exciting title from the Venice line-up but it’s the only major American one, for obvious reasons. Other American titles include “The World to Come” and “Pieces of a Woman”, both starring Vanessa Kirby.

Michel Franco and Andrey Konchalovsky are among the directors to appear in competition, and it’s also worth noting that there are more female filmmakers than usual in the line-up.

The non-fiction line-up is even more exciting to some degree because we get “Welles”/”Hopper”, that meeting between Orson Welles and Dennis Hopper, alongside new documentaries by acclaimed auteurs Luca Guadagnino and Abel Ferrara.

Eccentric French director Quentin Dupieux makes an appearance out of competition with a film starring Adèle Exarchopoulos, The festival will take place in September, Filmiere.com can confirm. Full line-up:

In Between Dying, dir: Hilal Baydarov
Le Sorelle Macaluso, dir: Emma Dante
The World To Come, dir: Mona Fastvold
Nuevo Orden, dir: Michel Franco
Lovers, dir: Nicole Garcia
Laila in Haifa, dir: Amos Gitai
Dear Comrades, dir: Andrei Konchalovsky
Wife Of A Spy, dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Sun Children, dir: Majid Majidi
Pieces Of A Woman, dir: Kornel Mundruczo
Miss Marx, dir: Susanna Nicchiarelli
Padrenostro, dir: Claudio Noce
Notturno, dir: Gianfranco Rosi
Never Gonna Snow Again, dirs: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert
The Disciple, dir: Chaitanya Tamhane
And Tomorrow The Entire World, dir: Julia Von Heinz
Quo Vadis, Aida?, dir: Jamila Zbanic
Nomadland, dir: Chloé Zhao

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Filmiere.com is excited to let you know that, Chloe Zhao’s new film “Nomadland” is expected to appear in the New York Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival. It’s exciting news for so many reasons because once again it shows that the festivals are kept rolling, of course with restrictions and on a smaller scale but they’re going to happen.

We love cinema season – and Chloe Zhao is an exciting voice in cinema and her film sounds like a powerful tale once again. It’s the first role for McDormand since her Oscar win for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”. The film will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2020. 

The official synopsis says the film is about “A woman in her sixties who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.” McDormand will also appear in Joel Coen-directed new adaptation of “Macbeth”, which is titled “Tragedy of Macbeth” opposite Denzel Washington.

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