Category: News

(photograph credit: BFI)

Terry Gilliam tried nearly 30 years to make “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” happen, and he finally did. Even though it was a film that was anticipated form film buffs for too long, Filmiere.com can claim that its critical reception was not so good. Then some of Gilliam’s comments on various topics also caused a stir on the internet. He received a lot of backlash for some of his thoughts.

But he doesn’t care seemingly as he seems to like to keep working. His next project was going to be “Lunatic at Large” until COVID-19 lockdown ruining all plans. Writer and Kubrick expert Filippo Ulivieri confirmed on Twitter that it was a short story/treatment. The pulp novelist Jim Thompson wrote in 1956 that Kubrick started developing before losing interest in 1962.

Back in 2010, it was planned to come alive with Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson but it never came to fruition. Both Kubrick and Gilliam are famous for having too many projects that left unrealized, so we’ll see if this one will happen or not. Gilliam’s films rarely receive a positive reception since the mid-90s but he’s still considered to be an auteur with a distinctive voice in cinema.

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(photograph credit: Lowe’s, Inc)

Legendary actress Dame Olivia de Havilland has passed away at the age of 104. Every year on her birthday film buffs loved to celebrate her physical and mental health by posting her recent pics or talking about how she sued the TV series “Feud” Just recently.

She died peacefully in her sleep in France.  She was also one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema until she died in 2020. Her younger sister was actress Joan Fontaine and they were the first sisters to both win an Oscar in the lead actress category.

Havilland was nominated for Oscar five times, first time for her iconic film “Gone with the Wind” and she later ended up winning twice for her performances in “To Each His Own” and “The Heiress”. She retired in 1988 but her legacy was always celebrated by film fans, critics, and culturemakers.

Her long list of awards includes state order from France (where she lived for most of her life), Medal of Honour from United States government (where she worked most), and “Dame” title from the British royalty (where she was originally from). Havilland was also a Venice Film Festival best actress winner and also notable for being the first female jury president of the Cannes Film Festival.

Her name lives on Hollywood Walk of Fame, Online Film Critics Association Walk of Fame, and many other places.

(Photograph credit: Paramount Pictures)

It seems “Avatar” movies are cursed, they’ve changed their release dates once again, with the last installment being scheduled for 2028. The recent few days had been full of release date changes. Paramount is moved A Quiet Place 2 and Top Gun: Maverick off their schedule for the year, moving them to 2021.

As of now, A Quiet Place 2 is set to bow April 23rd, 2021, while Top Gun: Maverick has been pushed to next summer, with the highly anticipated sequel now slated for July 2nd, 2021. Hopefully, these will pay off for Paramount since the studio had been taking more risks compared to other major studios recently on creating original content, which included first “A Quiet Place” but recently seemingly struggle with financial problems.

Wes Anderson’s “French Dispatch” and Disney’s “Mulan” are also nowhere to be found on the calendar. It’s a challenging time for studios for many reasons, they can’t just pick a release date easily because no one knows when things will be alright. It can be a strategy for the Oscars also since they’ve extended their eligibility period.

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(Photograph credit: Universal Pictures)

Filmiere.com reminds people that Tom Cruise was reportedly in talks with Elon Musk and others to have a film shot in space. Yes, in the actual space which sounds insane but Cruise, one of the major movie stars in the world who mostly take on action films in the last decade or so and known to make groundbreaking theatrical scenes and stunts, has now made a further step in making this project come alive.

According to Variety, the budget is around 200 million. Sources close to production tell Variety the $200 million price point is an optimistic projection given the space travel involved and therefore the budget could be much higher. Cruise himself is expected to get paid between 30M-60M.

The project is supposed to be directed by Cruise’s old pal Doug Liman who directed him in “Edge of Tomorrow” and “American Made” and they’re keen on making this a huge theatrical experience since according to reports, they’ve turned down every streaming service there is. Spending that much of money is risky but it’s Cruise, it’s something revolutionary (a film in space!), so it may pay off.

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(Photograph credit: Fred Duval, Filmmagic)

Tile-matching video game “Tetris” was created by Russian software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984 and since then became massively popular. Filmiere.com reports that according to some British press, British actor Taron Egerton is expected to star as the lead in the “Tetris” movie, which is supposed to be about the chronicle the copyrights issue on the game, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the game’s rights in the late 1980s.

After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, the rights reverted to Pajitnov in 1996, who co-founded The Tetris Company with Henk Rogers. Taron Egerton, who’s fresh from his much raved and acclaimed performance in “Rocketman” is supposed to play Rogers. Not too much is known about the project yet but Egerton is seemingly on a hot streak since he’s also going to appear in new “Little Shop of Horrors’ adaptation.

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(Photograph credit: Jorge Alvarino)

Santiago Segura’s “Father There Is Only One” was a second-best premiere at the Spanish box office in 2019. It raised more than 3 million euros and 600.000 spectators. As we all know, Spain was one of the countries that were hit hardest by the COVID-19 but recently cinemas were getting to open until the news of the second wave came up.

Sequel to the mentioned film was expected to be the biggest hit of the year but originally scheduled to open in Spanish theaters on Aug. 7, the sequel to the biggest Spanish movie release of 2019 will now bow on July 29. Sounds like an interesting decision for sure.

With no major Hollywood title hitting Spanish screens until “Mulan” on Aug. 21 (unless they change the date), the movie will give an idea about how willing European audiences to go to theatres and how it will affect the global box office since it’s Europe’s fifth-biggest movie market. Filmiere.com will keep on reporting further news regarding the European box office in the future weeks.

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(photograph credit: The Playlist)

It’s not only just major icons like Freddie Mercury or Elton John that gets a musical biopic. Dave Franco is involved in the biopic project of Vanilla Ice. He rose to fame after his hit single “Ice Ice Baby”, which was a major success but also criticized for so many reasons including plagiarizing Queen and David Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure” which he denied at first but later admitted.

However, years later he became somewhat of a punch-line in media and among music fans. That says, he still has a fan base as well. Dave Franco who recently got the best review of his career as an actor in “Disaster Artist”, directed by his brother James Franco and also getting good notices for his directorial debut “The Rental” has talked about the film,

Saying: “We have been in development for a while but we are inching closer and closer to preproduction.” in one of his interviews, Filmiere.com reports. Certainly sounds like a project that may have a different perspective of a person who used to be famous and got all kinds of attention.

“With Disaster Artist, people expected us to make a broad comedy where we make fun of Tommy Wiseau, but the more real we played it, the funnier and heartfelt it was — that’s the tone we want for this one as well,” Franco said.

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(Photograph credits: ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Seventh solo studio album by David Byrne called “American Utopia” was pretty successful and now a filmed-version of his hit Broadway show with the same title, will be the opening night presentation of the 45th Toronto International Film Festival. As expected, it’s not going to be the typical Toronto Film Festival.

The non-Canadian press is expected to view the films digitally and a mixture of physical and virtual events and many studios have privately said they don’t expect to have as big a presence because of the difficulty of traveling during the pandemic. So while Toronto will keep on premiering some anticipated films and shine a light on young filmmakers again, this time it seems it’s not going to be much of a presence in awards season.

However, the new Spike is always welcome even though it’s not a feature film but whatever he directs is always fascinating. He’s just fresh out of his acclaimed “Da 5 Bloods” and the concert film sounds good already.

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(Photograph credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC)

An unusually strange thing happened recently. Thirteen hostages in Ukraine have been released unharmed after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed to the kidnapper’s demand that he recommend an animal rights documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. Not too much is known about the incident and Filmiere.com is not be concrete about if he was an animal right or why he demanded people to watch the film but it’s possibly the case given the early reports.

“Earthlings” Is a 2005 documentary, narrated by a vegan and strong animal rights defender Joaquin Phoenix. It’s hard to watch and one of the most depressing films of its year. The Ukrainian President did so via a six-second clip posted on the presidential Facebook page, which was subsequently deleted. Certainly bizarre incident and like all violent attacks, it should be condemned.

Though probably it’ll raise a discussion about how much a documentary or a film can impact a person’s way of viewing things. It’s unknown if the terrorist was previously an animal rights defender or “Earthlings” changed his way. Hopefully, there’ll be more news regarding the case. Joaquin Phoenix commented on the film, “Of all the films I have ever made, this is the one that gets people talking the most.

For every one person who sees Earthlings, they will tell three.”

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(Photograph credit: Warner Bros Pictures)

Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts – two of the biggest movie stars alive – are set to be reunited in Netflix film “Leave the World Behind”, which is going to be directed by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot). This serves as Esmail’s second collaboration with Roberts after “Homecoming” but most importantly, Denzel and Julia reuniting again after “Pelican Brief”.

Who can forget how Julia was so happy to announce Denzel’s name when he won his second Oscar? So it’s got to be a very happy experience for them. The movie will be based on a novel and Filmiere.com can report the official synopsis which says: “Amanda and Clay’s aspirational vacation with their teenage children is interrupted by the arrival of a middle-aged couple who own the holiday home and who have fled an unprecedented blackout in the city.

When the internet, television, and radio stop working, as does the landline, they have no way of finding out what is happening. As strange sonic booms shatter the peace of the countryside, and animals start to migrate in strange ways, the physical and mental health of the families begins to disintegrate. The renters are upscale and White; the owners are upscale and Black.

The issues of race and clash become distractions to the more alarming things are happening all around them.” A very timely, very intriguing premise, and while it sounds like some kind of genre stuff; a mix of horror and thriller, it can also turn out to be an awards-player.

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