Category: News

(photograph credit: People magazine)

Filmiere.com sadly reports that the year of 2020 also, unfortunately, brings us celebrity death news back-to-back. American actress Kelly Preston has been battling cancer for nearly two years and she sadly lost the battle. She’s survived by her children and her husband John Travolta, whom she met on the set of 1989 comedy “The Experts” and they had been together since then.

Preston was mostly known for her comedic roles in films like “Twins”, “Mischief”, “Jerry Maguire”, “Nothing to Lose”, and “Addicted to Love”. Even collaborated with auteurs like Alexander Payne on the film “Citizen Ruth”. She also famously appeared in a popular Maroon 5 video “She Will Be Loved”. Preston often collaborated with her husband on films like “Battlefield Earth” and “Gotti”.

She was not prolific but was well-known for her roles among movie fans. Also for her long-lasting marriage with Travolta. Her warm presence in movies will be miss.

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(Photograph credit: Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros)

Apple has a new guest: Jake Gyllenhaal. He’ll star in a film directed by Gustav Möller whose recent “The Guilty” was nominated for Oscar this year. He will direct the film based on the story by Ollie Masters and published by Boom! Studios in 2017. Patrick Ness is writing the screenplay. Filmiere.com reports that, according to The Wrap, Apple has now acquired the rights of making a film adaptation of the “Snow Blind”.

The plot is reported as: “the story of a high school student in Alaska whose life is turned upside down when he posts a photo of his dad online. He soon thereafter learns that he and his family are in the Witness Protection Program and are now being hunted by not only the FBI but also a man out for revenge who invades their small town.” Gyllenhaal has starred in thrillers such as “Nightcrawler”, “Zodiac” and “Prisoners” over the years. Since he has a good eye for thrillers, this might be great as well.

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(Photograph credit: IFC Films)

Nikola Tesla has been only getting more popular over the last few decades, not only by science geeks but among the general population as well. Now you probably already know why he’s so beloved and that’s no surprise that he got more approaches in popular culture recently, including getting portrayed by David Bowie and Nicholas Hoult. Michael Almereyda, a director who’s known for making divisive films, has made a film about Tesla which has a modern setting.

Even Tesla sings karaoke at one scene and he cast Ethan Hawke in the lead role. The film got good reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. There had been no news about it until recently. Now the film is going to get released on VOD in August but because of Tesla’s birthday, as a present, we got the trailer to the film. Filmiere.com now happily reports that the trailer is now available everywhere to watch on the web and it’s a good one. Certainly worth to wait.

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(Photograph credit: Shutterstock, Deadline)

“Scenes from a Marriage” was a highly acclaimed Swedish miniseries written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson. After initially airing on Swedish TV in six parts, the miniseries was condensed into a theatrical version and received positive reviews in Sweden and internationally.

It even got an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. The film was highly influential as many of Bergman’s works and most recently showed its influence on Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” where it was even referenced by name in one scene. Now HBO decided to make a new limited series, based on the same material starring Oscar Isaac and Michelle Williams.

The new version is said to re-examine the show’s depiction of love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage, and divorce through the lens of a contemporary American couple. As filmiere.com, we’re certainly intrigued. Hagai Levi will write, direct, and executive produces.

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(Photograph credit: Universal Pictures)

We’ll get to see “Happy Halloween, Michael” but not this year. While the fans will be happy to learn to that the very effective small teaser is available for the next film of the trilogy reboot of the legendary film, this time called “Halloween Kills”, the film itself is unfortunately postponed to October 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, filmiere.com reports. John Carpenter himself tweeted about it and his statement goes: “If we release it in October of this year as planned, we have to face the reality that the film would be consumed in a compromised theatrical experience.

After weighing our options, we have chosen to push the film’s theatrical release by one year.” Very understandable. Better late than never, hopefully, “Halloween Kills” will be worth the wait. The film will now get both a traditional and IMAX release. Carpenter also noted that he and David Gordon Green also started to work the last part of the new trilogy called “Halloween Ends”.  Jamie Lee Curtis also reacted to the news, says she’s also disappointed as much as the fans but the film is “powerful” and will be “worth the wait”.

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(photograph credit: Arthur Mola/Invision/IP)

Filmiere.com reports that artistic director of Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera who stated that “The first international festival following the forced interruption dictated by the pandemic becomes a meaningful celebration of the re-opening we all looked forward to, and a message of concrete optimism for the entire world of cinema, which has suffered greatly from this crisis.”

As expected, some changes are going to happen. It’s already been announced that Terrence Malick-produced costume drama ‘The Book of Vision’ will open Venice Critics’ Week but what are going to expect us in the festival this year?   Roughly 55 titles will be world-premiering on the Lido either in competition, in the edgier Horizons section, or out of the competition.

The festival will take its Virtual Reality section online and this year forego its Sconfini section, which hosts smaller films and genre fare, to accommodate more socially distanced screenings of the major films in competition. Australian actress Cate Blanchett is presiding over the main competition jury. Netflix will mostly skip the festival but he promises a good representation of US films and more female directors than usual.

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(Photograph credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

Pitt made viewers feel amused with his unexpected brief cameo in “Deadpool 2”. Now he’s collaborating with the director of the movie again. Zak Olkewicz wrote the script, based on the Japanese novel “Maria Beetle” by Kotaro Isaka. Centers on a group of hitmen and assassins with conflicting motives on a train in Tokyo.

We don’t know too much about it yet but it’s been said to be similar in tone to “Speed” and “Non-Stop”. Pitt had been on fire recently, earning critical raves for his roles in “Ad Astra” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. Which he also won many major prizes including an Academy Award. So it’ s understandable that he wants to go back to blockbusters. He must have enjoyed that brief working process with Leitch.

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(Photograph credit: enniomorricone.com)

Filmiere sadly reports that the legendary Italian composer of movies Ennio Morricone has died age 91. His works had a wide range from spaghetti westerns to horror and romance films and many of his scores have defined the era, especially his 1960s scores for Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy.

Those western movies were a huge influence on Quentin Tarantino who hired him for his western film “The Hateful Eight”. It earned Morricone his first Oscar outside of his lifetime achievement award. Some of his other credits include the scores for “Cinema Paradiso”, “The Mission”, “The Thing”, “The Professional” and “The Untouchables”.

So many iconic scores, so many memorable scenes, and films. Sometimes his music is said to be the first thing coming to mind whenever a film title gets mentioned. Thanks to his range of composing, he has worked with countless directors including John Carpenter, William Friedkin, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Guiseppe Tornatore, Brian De Palma, and many more. He’ll be forever mourned by movie lovers. Rest in peace, maestro.

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(Photograph credit: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)

819 people are invited to join the Academy this year. 49% of them are being from outside of the United States, filmiere.com reports. Festival chefs are notably among them including Thierry Fremaux of Cannes Film Festival, Alberto Barbera of Venice Film Festival, and Carlo Chatrian of Berlinale. One of the most respected French actresses of the new generation Adele Haenel. Starred in two of the most acclaimed films of the previous year. Also made headlines for her Polanski protest at the Cesar awards, has also been invited.

Oscar-nominated Les Misérables filmmaker Ladj Ly, Agnes Varda’s daughter Rosalie and Mati Diop (“Atlantics”), German actor Udo Kier (most recently shining in “The Painted Bird”), North Macedonia’s Ljubomir Stefanov (“Honeyland”), Hong Kong actor Tzi Ma (from “Rush Hour” to “The Farewell”), Zhao Tao (“Ash is the Purest White”) are among new international members. Sure, these are just the people who got an invitation but they rarely turn down the invitations anyway.

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(Photograph credit: Universal Pictures)

All three are accomplished actors with a wide range of great roles but then again, all three are also often associated with their roles in “Jurassic Park”. Filmiere.com reports that Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum are going to be a large part of the upcoming film “Jurassic World: Dominion”. Yes, not just cameos At least that’s what Sam Neill claims so. In “Yahoo Movies! UK” interview, Neill has mentioned that he’s set to reprise his role Alan Grant in the new film.

Neill revealed that his character plays a sizeable part in the next installment, the same as Dern and Goldblum. “We’re through the film, Jeff [Goldblum], and me, and Laura [Dern],” he stated, though he also admitted that he “probably won’t be running quite as fast” as he did 27 years ago, referring back to the first film. Even though the last “Jurassic” film was not very warmly received, three being back are sure going to elevate the material.

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