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The Criterion Channel has unveiled its streaming lineup for August 2024, which features an eclectic mix of independent films showcasing the work of auteurs from around the world.

The boutique service will become the exclusive streaming home of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 comedy “Licorice Pizza,” and will celebrate the occasion by adding four more of his films to the channel: “The Master,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Punch-Drunk Love,” and “Magnolia.” Anderson’s frequent collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman will additionally be celebrated on the streaming service as part of a larger retrospective. Many of the late actor’s most iconic roles, including “Capote” and “Synecdoche, New York,” will be included, along with his sole directorial outing “Jack Goes Boating.”

The channel will also highlight several other prominent filmmakers including Preston Sturges, who helped pioneer the modern rom-com through films like “The Lady Eve” and “The Palm Beach Story,” and prolific Egyptian auteur Youssef Chahine.

The Criterion Channel’s August lineup pays tribute to auteurs of all kinds: directors, actors, and photographers, fictional or otherwise. In a notable act of preservation and advocacy, they’ll stream 20 titles by the Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, here introduced by the great Richard Peña. More known (but fun all the same) is a five-title Paul Thomas Anderson series including the exclusive stream of Licorice Pizza, as well as a Philip Seymour Hoffman series that overlaps with Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love (a Criterion Edition this month), and The Master, plus 25th Hour, Love Liza, and his own directing effort Jack Goes Boating. Preston Sturges gets five movies, with Sullivan’s Travels arriving in October.

Theme-wise, a photographer series includes Rear Window, Peeping Tom, Blow-up, Close-Up, and Clouzot’s La prisonnière; “Vacation Noir” features The Lady from Shanghai, Brighton Rock, Kansas City Confidential, Purple Noon, and La piscine. Alongside the aforementioned PTA and Antonioni pictures,...

The cause of Raquel Welch’s death on Feb. 15 was cardiac arrest, with Alzheimer’s disease a possible underlying factor.

The cause of death was disclosed in a death certificate filed yesterday with the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health and obtained by TMZ.

The star of One Million Years B.C. and The Three Musketeers also suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, which might have been an underlying contributor to her death at 82.

Her death had been confirmed in February by her reps at Media 4 Management, who noted that Welch died peacefully following a brief illness.

Welch rose to fame in the 1960s with performances in Fantastic Voyage, One Million Years B.C. and Bedazzled, then reached a new level of notoriety with the 1970 release of the controversial Myra Breckinridge.

Subsequent films included Fuzz, The Last of Sheila, The Three Musketeers and its sequel The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge,...

Once upon a time, The Bold and the Beautiful fans had grown tired of Florence “Flo” Logan. But since the character receded from the series, the absence of her brand of antihero has been strongly felt. Lately, there’s been a rising demand for Flo — and the most recent actor to play her — to re-emerge onto the Bold stage.

After all, Flo and her fiancé Wyatt Spencer’s raucous romance was perfect soap opera material. Why not bring back characters known for both grand magnanimous gestures and heartbreakingly awful schemes? It might depend on whether fans are ready for a recast.

Fans want Florence ‘Flo’ Logan back on ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ Katrina Bowden as Florence ‘Flo’ Logan in ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ | Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images

The Bold and the Beautiful corners of social media have been increasingly pro-Flo recently. Recap clips are often met...

Raquel Welch, the electric, multi-talented superstar of culture-rocking films like "One Million Years B.C.," "Myra Breckinridge," and "The Three Musketeers" has died. We're only 46 days into 2023, and it seems like the death of a major star has rocked almost every one of them. Burt Bacharach, Carlos Saura, David Crosby, Lisa Marie Presley, Ruggero Deodato, Cindy Williams — the list, unfortunately, goes on and on.

There's something particularly painful about Welch's death. She was best known in her time as a sex symbol. Parts like the role in "One Million Years B.C." which gave her such cultural latitude also hemmed her into a kind of straitjacket, in terms of roles she'd later be asked to play. But Welch soldiered on, delivering dynamic yet precise performances in everything from whodunnits like "The Last of Sheila" and social thrillers like "Bluebeard."

Her brilliant sense of timing regarding line delivery — comic and otherwise — is still deeply,...

Raquel Welch, the movie star and model Playboy declared "the most desirable woman of the 1970s," has died at the age of 82. According to her manager, Steve Sauer, (via CNN) Welch passed away after a "brief illness."

Welch was a much-buzzed-about Hollywood ingenue throughout the early 1960s before attaining international stardom in 1966's sci-fi classic "Fantastic Voyage" and the prehistoric Hammer flick "One Million Years B.C." While the latter movie did little to enhance her reputation as an actor, the sight of Welch in a two-piece deerskin bikini made her the pin-up heir to Marilyn Monroe.

Welch's physical beauty was undeniable, and she embraced her sex symbol status. But the Latina performer, who adopted her first husband's last name to avoid the kind of typecasting that drove Rita Moreno from Hollywood at the height of her popularity, knew she was more than just a pretty face, and proved it time and again throughout her career.

We have some sad news to share today, as Hollywood has lost one of its most legendary icons: Raquel Welch has passed away at the age of 82. Deadline reports that Welch’s passing was confirmed by her reps at Media 4 Management, who simply said that she had died after a brief illness.

Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois, but her family moved to San Diego, California when little Raquel was just two years old. She knew as a youngster that she wanted to get into the entertainment industry, and studied ballet for several years while entertaining – and winning – beauty contests. She attended San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship, but despite doing some stage acting and landing a job as a weather presenter on the local news, it took a while for her to break through into films. In fact, Welch had married...

Hollywood star Raquel Welch has died at the age of 82.

The star, who appeared in films including Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years BC, died on Wednesday (15 February) following a “brief illness”.

Welch’s rep confirmed the news to ABC, writing: “The legendary bombshell actress of film, television and stage, passed away peacefully early this morning after a brief illness.

“Her career spanned over 50 years starring in over 30 films and 50 television series and appearances. The Golden Globe winner, in more recent years, was involved in a very successful line of wigs.”

“Raquel leaves behind her two children, son Damon Welch and her daughter, Tahnee Welch.”

Tributes have quickly flooded in for the star whose breakout role came in 1965’s Fantastic Voyage, with One Million Years BC arriving the next year.

While Welch had just three lines of dialogue in the latter, a publicity shot depicting her in a bikini costume...

Raquel Welch, the big-screen star of the 1960s and ’70s who gained fame in movies including Fantastic Voyage, One Million Years B.C., Myra Breckinridge and many others, died today after a brief illness. She was 82.

Her death was confirmed by her reps at Media 4 Management.

Related: Raquel Welch: A Career In Photos

Welch’s career spanned more than 50 years, 30 films and scores of TV series and appearances, including about a dozen visits to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson spanning two decades. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Imagen Foundation in 2001.

From left: Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasence in ‘Fantastic Voyage’ (Everett Collection)

Born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Welch’s family moved to San Diego when she was a toddler. She attended San Diego State on a theater arts scholarship and got her start as a local TV weathercaster before starting to...

Raquel Welch, the actor who became an icon and sex symbol thanks to films like “One Million Years B.C.” and “Three Musketeers,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a brief illness, her manager confirmed to Variety. She was 82.

She came onto the movie scene in 1966 with the sci-fi film “Fantastic Voyage” and the prehistoric adventure “One Million Years B.C.,” the latter of which established Welch as a sex symbol. The actor went on to appear in the controversial adaptation of Gore Vidal’s “Myra Beckrinridge,” “Kansas City Bomber” and Richard Lester’s delightful romps “The Three Musketeers” (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe, and “The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge” (1974). She was one of the first women to play the lead role — not the romantic interest — in a Western, 1971 revenge tale “Hannie Caulder” — an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” (2003), according to the director.

(Earlier, Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford...

(L-r:) Justice Smith and Julianne Moore in Sharper Image: Courtesy Apple TV+ A sharper is someone who “lives by their wits,” as the opening onscreen text of Sharper informs us. The term could describe nearly every character in this twisty thriller, as well as director Benjamin Caron and writers Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka,...

Mark Twain once wrote that "there is no such thing as a new idea," but apparently the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences disagrees with him because they have two categories for writing: Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The distinction between the two should be pretty straightforward if you think about it. The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay should be adaptations of pre-existing stories, and the nominees for Best Original Screenplay should not. Except sometimes that's not how it works.

At the 95th Academy Awards, two nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay blur the line between original screenplays and adaptations, and pretty roughly. These films tell brand-new stories, but they just happen to use at least one pre-existing character. That means they default to the "Adapted Screenplay" category, but is that really in the spirit of the award? Is that really the same job as "adapting" something?

And if it is,...

A good mystery often begins with a clue that’s right out in the open, even if no one recognizes it at first. In a similar way, the extravagant Greek villa that serves as the principal setting for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery impressed production designer Rick Heinrichs when he first visited it early in his location search, but it wasn’t immediately selected for the movie’s game of murder that turns deadly. “It was a place that had a modernist take on classical architecture and had a hierarchy of stairs that led up to it, and I could see us placing a dome on top of it,” Heinrichs tells THR. “But our experience always tells us that the first place is never the one you end up with.” Instead, he conducted “a worldwide search and looked at everything, and it was only then that we fully appreciated the villa we had found.

From the moment the cast was announced, movie lovers knew that “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” would be a star-studded affair. Rian Johnson’s murder mystery sequel featured an A-list cast of suspects for Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc to investigate, including Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, and Dave Bautista. But once the film began streaming on Netflix, fans quickly learned that it featured surprise celebrity cameos at almost every turn.

One memorable scene features Blanc playing the video game “Among Us” on Zoom with several famous murder mystery aficionados, including Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury (who both made their final on-screen appearances in the scene).

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Johnson and producer Ram Bergman opened up about working with the two nonagenarians.

“She couldn’t have been lovelier and more generous,” Johnson said of Lansbury, though he noted that the video game-centric...

New Queer’s Eve.

It’s been a pretty wild December, with us covering off-kilter films like the much-maligned Batman & Robin, the not-as-bad-as-you-think Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings and the Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins-penned murder mystery The Last of Sheila. Now we’re wrapping up the year with a discussion of Carter Smith‘s Into the Dark entry “Midnight Kiss“!

In the film, a group of friends gather at a beautiful desert resort on New Year’s Eve, and play a game called Midnight Kiss, as is their tradition. The purpose of the game is for each of them to find someone with whom to start the New Year. When a killer tries to join in, relationships that are already stressed are further tested, and life itself becomes the prize.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts,...

This article contains major spoilers for "Glass Onion."

There are a number of insights one can glean about Rian Johnson as a filmmaker from his "Knives Out" films, but one of his most extraordinary abilities is that of pulling together a show-stopping, ensemble cast. In "Glass Onion," the latest entry in Johnson's whodunit series, folks like Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Edward Norton, Leslie Odom Jr., and Jessica Henwickare give their all to these puzzle-riddled characters. Then comes Janelle Monáe, who steals the movie right out from under them.

But even beyond the key players, Johnson manages to insert a wealth of cameos, all of which feel natural to the world of "Glass Onion." Serena Williams makes a hilarious appearance on a live interactive interface in Miles' exercise room. Yo-Yo Ma pops his head in for a moment, as does Ethan Hawke. Hugh Grant is perfectly fitting as the...

Rian Johnson's new film "Glass Onion," a sequel to his 2019 comedic murder mystery "Knives Out," boasts, like its predecessor, a massively impressive cast. While the first featured the likes of Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, Ana de Armas, and Don Johnson, the sequel contains Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, and Leslie Odom, Jr. "Glass Onion," not to be outdone, also features notable cameos from Hugh Grant, Jake Tapper, Serena Williams, and Yo-Yo Ma. In a very amusing scene, the film's central detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) shares a video call with Stephen Sondheim, Natasha Lyonne, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Angela Lansbury, all playing themselves.

Since the filming of "Glass Onion," both Lansbury and Sondheim passed away, at 96 and 91 respectively. That they were willing to appear in Johnson's film is a testament to their gameness, and perhaps to Johnson's charm as a filmmaker.

This piece contains mild spoilers for "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery."

The first time Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) appears on screen in Rian Johnson's latest installment to the "Knives Out" franchise, he is in a tub. From the looks of it, it's an average tub spruced up with a chic, wooden tub tray, a bottle of Ricard, and one lone but cheery-looking rubber ducky. Benoit indulges in a cigar as he struggles to understand the rules of the popular video game, "Among Us." Viewers quickly learn that he's in the midst of quarantining during the pandemic, which has forced him to seek out new intellectual pursuits to keep his mind busy while he waits to return to his true passion of detective work.

Of course, Benoit is not playing "Among Us" alone. He is tapped in to a Zoom call with four friends: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Natasha Lyonne, the late Angela Lansbury (i.

Glass Onion, the sequel to Rian Johnson’s hit 2019 murder mystery film Knives Out, has finally arrived on Netflix.

Glass Onion has been warmly received by critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey describing it as “populist entertainment with its head screwed on right”.

It’s fair to say not everyone agrees, however.

The film sees Daniel Craig return as the ace sleuth Benoit Blanc, surrounded by a host of new characters played by Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline.

In addition to the core cast, however, Glass Onion also featured a number of high-profile celebrity cameos.

While most of these were hard to miss, there was one secret cameo that only came to light after the filmmakers gave it away.

Here’s a rundown of all the celebrity cameos in the film...

Yo-Yo Ma

Revered classical cellist...

Glass Onion, the sequel to Rian Johnson’s hit 2019 murder mystery film Knives Out, has finally arrived on Netflix.

Glass Onion has been warmly received by critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey describing it as “populist entertainment with its head screwed on right”.

It’s fair to say not everyone agrees, however.

The film sees Daniel Craig return as the ace sleuth Benoit Blanc, surrounded by a host of new characters played by Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline.

In addition to the core cast, however, Glass Onion also featured a number of high-profile celebrity cameos.

While most of these were hard to miss, there was one secret cameo that only came to light after the filmmakers gave it away.

Here’s a rundown of all the celebrity cameos in the film...

Yo-Yo Ma

Revered classical cellist...

Bitchy, Bickering Bitches.

It’s been a pretty wild December, with us covering off-kilter films like the much-maligned Batman & Robin and the not-as-bad-as-you-think Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings. Now for a special holiday treat, we’re covering Herbert Ross‘ 1973 mystery The Last of Sheila, which not only inspired Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (review) and Glass Onion (review), but was also the only screenwriting collaboration between famous queers Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim!

In the film, movie producer Clinton Greene (James Coburn) invites a group of friends to spend a week on his yacht a year after his wife Sheila (Yvonne Romaine) was killed in a hit-and-run accident. While the plan is to have them play a scavenger hunt mystery game, it comes with a hidden agenda: exposing their worst secrets and possibly revealing one of them as Sheila’s killer. Is it Alice the actress (Raquel Welch), her...

Leave it to Edgar Allan Poe. While many probably associate the mercurial author and poet with horror milestones like “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” he’s also widely credited with inventing the detective story with his 1841 publication, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Since then the genre of detective fiction has spanned untold numbers of short stories, novels, plays, radio shows, TV series, and of course, movies.

One of the subsets of detective fiction, the whodunit, remains almost interchangeable with the genre itself and one of its most popular variations. From the urbane, eccentric likes of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot to the more grizzled Sam Spade and Mike Hammer, to the shapeshifting meta-detective Ellery Queen, stories that allow the reader or viewer to solve the mystery right alongside the protagonist are an entertainment staple to this day, as borne out by...

This article contains Glass Onion spoilers.

Agatha Christie once famously said, “Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend.” Perhaps that’s why in Rian Johnson’s latest whodunit, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the filmmaker has littered the screen with pals. If Benoit Blanc—who is winsomely as ever played by Daniel Craig—is a pursuer of the truth, and the vigilant hound dog chasing hidden murderers wherever they may dwell, surely he is then conscious of the company he keeps? There might even be some murderers in his midst… or at least fellow detectives.

Indeed, Johnson and Craig use their second Benoit Blanc picture to invite a lot of real-life friends to come out and play, and many of whom’s appearances have hidden ulterior motives that only the most eagle-eyed sleuths might notice. Let us explain…

Angela Lansbury

Among the first and most fan-pleasing cameos is...

Major spoilers for "Glass Onion" follow.

After the success of "Knives Out," you can imagine Rian Johnson had the ability to rope in just about anyone he wanted to be a part of the latest case for the brilliant detective Benoit Blanc, "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." Just look at the people on the poster. Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, and more fill out the latest slate of potential murder mystery suspects, and when the cast for the inevitable third film gets announced, I do not doubt that its ensemble will be just as eclectic and exciting.

But this doesn't just stop at the main cast. Oh, no. Even though the film is mostly confined to a secluded private island off the coast of Greece, "Glass Onion" is peppered with a string of delightful, and in a couple of cases bittersweet, cameos that each got massive...

"Knives Out" is one of the best movies of the past decade. There, I said it. The film has some very cool and inventive visuals, is brilliantly written by Rian Johnson, with plenty of memorable twists and jokes, a very memorable sweater, and an exquisite ensemble cast you just want to follow for hours on end. Not only is Daniel Craig endlessly watchable, hilarious, and charismatic as the mysterious Benoit Blanc, but the rest of the cast is quite memorable, both in terms of the main characters but also the cameos.

Now, Rian Johnson does it again with "Glass Onion," a movie that is bigger and better in virtually every way. As our own review called it, "'Glass Onion' is loaded with huge belly-laugh moments and the types of ultra-clever jokes that will make you want to cheer." Indeed, the film is bolder, it has something to say about class warfare,...

Spoilers ahead for both "Knives Out" and "Glass Onion."

The idea of "true disruption" runs rampant through the new Netflix film "Glass Onion." True disruption, we're told by a very confident billionaire living it up on his private island, comes in many forms. It can come in the form of a viral influencer who pushes questionable medical remedies. It can come in the form of a politician bucking norms regarding worldwide climate change. And it can come in the form of pushing out new energy sources supposedly intended for the benefit of mankind but primarily for the benefit of investors and stakeholders.

Anyone familiar with the work of writer/director Rian Johnson will be unsurprised to know that "Glass Onion," much like its 2019 predecessor "Knives Out," is a force of disruption itself, gleefully upending its own rules by fooling both the audience and many of its characters with information placed...

When Oscar-winning production designer Rick Heinrichs (“Sleepy Hollow”) was first tasked with designing the titular structure for Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” he treated it like a literal onion, taking the model apart and cutting into it to study the layers. “There was something so cool and architectural about it, that it became part of the design,” he told IndieWire. “You really see the layers of depth in the dome. The metaphor of the Glass Onion works so well and I tried not to invent stuff that wasn’t there.”

For Johnson — whose latest whodunit takes inspiration from such iconic films as “Sleuth,” “The Last of Sheila,” and “Evil Under the Sun” — the metaphor of The Glass Onion was wrapped around the narcissistic, bad-boy mind of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). Bron hosts a murder mystery weekend getaway on his private Greek island with his...

Plot: Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) travels to a remote island in Greece to solve a murder involving a reclusive tech billionaire (Edward Norton).

Review: Knives Out will probably become one of TIFF’s biggest success stories. Considered a risky gamble in its time, the movie proved to be a sensation upon its first screening. In the end, Knives Out was a smash hit at the box office that Netflix (who snapped up the rights to the series) has turned into what’s bound to become their first real franchise. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is bigger and perhaps even more brilliantly written than the first, sporting a tremendous cast led by Daniel Craig and Janelle Monáe.

If Glass Onion suffers at all, it’s that we go into it expecting a twisty murder mystery, while the original took us by surprise as it was so unique. It was...

It beggars belief that what started out as an idle thought — to continue the adventures of detective Benoit Blanc, the world’s “greatest detective” — has resulted not in just the inevitable franchise placeholder but one of the most exciting, funny and downright enjoyable movies of the year. Shrewdly cast, it boasts one of the most brilliant screenplays of the year, not just in terms of its exquisite, laugh-out-loud dialogue and satirical barbs at pop culture but in the meticulous, meta plotting of a traditional whodunnit that keeps the mind ticking over from start to finish. Unusually for a recent Netflix presentation, hardly a minute is wasted, and it’s no surprise that a Christmas release is planned for an intelligent crowd-pleaser that hits a bull’s-eye with every beat.

Toronto Film Festival: Deadline’s Complete Coverage

Director Rian Johnson was quite open about the original Knives Out‘s influences, and...

Did you know that Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins wrote a mean-spirited murder mystery film? Yes, that Sondheim of West Side Story (and perhaps more aptly Sweeney Todd) fame and that Perkins of Psycho infamy. To this day, not many folks are aware. But Rian Johnson has been for a long time. He previously cited The Last of Sheila, which was made from Sondheim and Perkins’ script, as one of his favorite whodunits in the lead up to Knives Out’s 2019 release.

Now with our first trailer for Johnson’s follow-up, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, it would seem the director is intent on doing his own take of that 1973 cult classic—or at the very least homaging it extensively.

This fact is made clear at the beginning of the Glass Onion trailer. Before we even see Daniel Craig’s well-groomed gentleman sleuth onscreen, we hear that unmistakable “Southern” drawl.

Is that a donut hole inside of a donut hole? No! Look a little closer, and you will see the donut hole has what seems to be a hole at its center. It's actually not a donut hole but a sequel to Rian Johnson's splendid 2019 whodunnit mystery-comedy "Knives Out" titled "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." And our donut is not whole at all, but a whole franchise!

"Glass Onion" is indeed the second entry in Johnson's original property about the ongoing saga of Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) and his bad habit of getting mixed up in murder mysteries involving wealthy jerks who all have a reason to bump one another off. This time, Benoit finds himself on a private Greek island owned by Miles Bron (Edward Norton), a tech billionaire who has invited all of his pals for a getaway trip when wouldn't you know it, one of them turns up dead.

Did you miss him? Of course you did! Everyone's favorite private detective with an unparalleled nose for the truth is back and ready for another round of "CSI: KFC" action. After writer/director Rian Johnson promptly reinvigorated the murder-mystery genre with the Oscar-nominated "Knives Out" in 2019, audiences, in no small part due to Daniel Craig's gloriously campy portrayal of Benoit Blanc, immediately looked ahead to the next time we could see the detective doing what he does best — snooping around in everyone else's business, casually making suspects uncomfortable, and using his vast insights to solve all the most complicated crimes.

"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" is the next buzzworthy installment of Johnson's hit original franchise and now we're getting a fresh look at what the sequel has to offer. If you recall, Netflix scooped up the rights to the second film (and a third!) in a frenzied bidding...

One of the most delightful surprises for the 2022 Emmy Awards was the unexpectedly large haul of nominations — 17 in all — garnered by “Only Murders in the Building.” The comedy mystery movie received more than twice as many as any other freshman comedy series. Though once a popular genre on TV, the comedy mystery series today might seem to stand out as a bit of a novelty, but it’s only the latest variation on a long line of comic whodunnits in both film and literature. Particularly in the past 50 years, the comedy mystery film has been a familiar genre to moviegoers, and many helped to lay the groundwork for what “Only Murders” has taken to the next level.

SEEJohn Hoffman interview: ‘Only Murders in the Building’ showrunner

Comedy mysteries have been fertile ground for innovation, as well as delivering laughs both very light, very dark (“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”) and very shady.

One of the most delightful surprises for the 2022 Emmy Awards was the unexpectedly large haul of nominations — 17 in all — garnered by “Only Murders in the Building.” The comedy mystery movie received more than twice as many as any other freshman comedy series. Though once a popular genre on TV, the comedy mystery series today might seem to stand out as a bit of a novelty, but it’s only the latest variation on a long line of comic whodunnits in both film and literature. Particularly in the past 50 years, the comedy mystery film has been a familiar genre to moviegoers, and many helped to lay the groundwork for what “Only Murders” has taken to the next level.

Comedy mysteries have been fertile ground for innovation, as well as delivering laughs both very light, very dark (“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”) and very shady. They even have found favor with Academy Awards,...

When asked what advice she would give her 20-year-old self, Tara Reid barely skips a beat: “Stay home.” Reid laughs, but it’s a laugh that feels loaded.

It was after her breakout success in turn-of-the-millennia films such as “The Big Lebowski” and “American Pie” that Reid found herself at the center of rumors about her partying. By the mid-aughts, she had become a tabloid staple alongside other women thrust into the public eye, such as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Monica Lewinsky, their lives and bodies endlessly dissected on the then-still nascent internet.

“There was a part of me that kind of got circled in that circle,” Reid acknowledges. “[But] I never got arrested, never did a sex tape, never did anything really wrong except have a good time.”

This was an era before celebrities had social media to set the record straight, and Reid found the rumors difficult to shake.

[Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for “The Afterparty” Episode 8, “Maggie,” including the killer’s identity.]

“The Afterparty” has ended. The killer has been caught. But unlike his prison-bound character, the actor behind the “who” in “whodunit” can breathe a little easier — at last.

“I’ve been lying to people for a year now.”

That’s Ben Schwartz, the actor behind Yasper, an Av technician and aspiring musician who turned out to be the suspect everyone was looking for throughout a tense, clever, and altogether rewarding first season of Christopher Miller’s Apple TV+ murder-mystery.

After a long night of interrogations, Tiffany Haddish’s Detective Danner makes an arrest and gets a confession out of Yasper, who sent Xavier (Dave Franco) tumbling to his death earlier that morning. Why? The former bandmates held a mutual grudge since their break up, one Yasper was willing to forgive if the megastar formerly known as Eugene helped jumpstart his nascent music career.

Tara Reid is set to star in a new psychological thriller “Sheila,” Variety can reveal.

Written by newcomers Jackie and Jennifer Moricz (better known collectively as The Moricz twins), whose work has been featured in the Blacklist, “Sheila” is described as a “modern day ‘Psycho.'”

“Left to run her family’s Suntan Motel for the week, Charlie takes a unique interest in the only guest, a girl in town for a bikini contest – Sheila,” reads the logline. “Tapped as the girl to beat in the 1980s bikini boom, it’s no surprise that when the story jumps twenty years, she’s known worldwide on a one-name basis. Sheila. Just Sheila.”

Fast-forward 20 years and viewers see Sheila’s Corvette in the bottom of the motel pool – with a body inside it – leading to the question of what really happened between Charlie and Sheila at the Suntan Motel in the last...

With the passing of musical theater genius Stephen Sondheim, many fans are looking to fill in any gaps in their knowledge of his incredible body of work. While everyone will be checking out "West Side Story" and "Sweeney Todd," few probably know about his 1973 neo-noir movie, "The Last of Sheila." Yes, that's a then-unknown Ian McShane in the picture above, wearing a gorgeous sweater and very tight pants. It's no wonder that "The Last of Sheila" is one of the primary inspirations behind Rian Johnson's "Knives Out," given the big cast of giant stars, the murder-mystery whodunnit fun, and of course, the sexy sweater.

Not...

The post Stephen Sondheim Wrote a Neo-Noir Film And You Probably Haven't Seen It appeared first on /Film.

Another day, another bidding war.

Apple and Netflix are among the deep-pocketed steaming services willing to shell out big money to land an Oscar-baity film. In this case, it’s for the chance to see Jennifer Lawrence playing Sue Mengers, a legendary super agent who donned a caftan-like a suit of armor and wielded a joint like a mace while trying to get the best deal possible for her A-list clients. Paolo Sorrentino, an Oscar winner for “The Great Beauty,” is attached to direct from a script by Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo and John Logan. The film will be produced by Excellent Cadaver, Lawrence’s production company, as well as by her producing partner Justine Polsky. Bidding has reportedly eclipsed $80 million and there are some mutterings it has reached $95 million, which means a big payday for Lawrence, Sorrentino and company, one that they likely would not receive from studios interested in pesky things like,...

Raquel Welch made a name for herself as an international sex symbol, but also an accomplished thespian as her career progressed. But what are her greatest accomplishments? Scroll down to see Welch’s most notable movies ranked, plucked from a career spanning well over half a century.

After winning beauty pageant titles including Miss San Diego and Maid of California as a teen, she attended San Diego State College on a theater arts scholarship and performed in local theater productions. Then she was a weather forecaster at a local San Diego TV station. And in 1963 she started to pursue roles with movie studios. Welch had a small part in 1964’s “Roustabout” starring Elvis Presley, and she stood out in the beach movie romp “A Swingin’ Summer” in 1965 as a bookworm who eventually tosses her glasses, lets down her hair, heats up the screen and even sings a tune.

Welch’s...

Billy Goldenberg, a two-time Emmy-winning composer and 21-time nominee who was musical director for Elvis Presley’s 1968 “Comeback Special” and worked on scores of shows ranging from Night Gallery and The Young and the Restless to Columbo, Kojak, Rhoda and Steven Spielberg’s Duel, has died. He was 84.

The news was confirmed on social media by Goldenberg’s friends Leonard Slatkin and Gary Gerani, but no cause of death was given. Read their tributes below.

Goldenberg worked on hundreds of films and TV programs — mostly the latter — during a career that spanned four decades. His early work included 1960s TV specials from Barbra Streisand and Ann-Margret and serving as music coordinator for the pop music series Hullabaloo.

In 1968, he was set as musical director for NBC’s Presley program that would come to be known as the ’68 Comeback Special. A few years later, Goldenberg would work his another showbiz legend,...

Billy Goldenberg, the Emmy-winning composer and songwriter, died Monday night at his home in New York City. He was 84.

Goldenberg wrote the themes for such 1970s TV series as “Kojak,” “Harry O” and “Rhoda,” composed the pilot scores for “Night Gallery” and “Columbo,” and won Emmys for the TV-movie “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” and miniseries “The Lives of Benjamin Franklin,” “King” and “Rage of Angels.”

He expanded his 1975 “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” song score, with lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman, into the score of the 1978 Broadway musical “Ballroom,” directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett of “A Chorus Line” fame. It earned eight Tony nominations including Best Musical.

Reminiscing Wednesday about their collaboration on “Ballroom,” Alan Bergman told Variety: “Billy was one of the rare composers who was also a dramatist. Lots of people can write melodies, but you could tell Billy the situation, what the characters were feeling,...

Billy Goldenberg, the Emmy-winning composer who collaborated with Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross, wrote the theme songs for Kojak and Rhoda and provided music for Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, Helter Skelter and Steven Spielberg's Duel, has died. He was 84.

Goldenberg died Monday in his Manhattan apartment, friend and screenwriter Gary Gerani, who is doing a documentary about the composer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

For the big screen, Goldenberg worked on films including Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (1972), Streisand's Up the Sandbox (1972), The Last of Sheila (1973), Busting (1974), Reuben,...

Billy Goldenberg, the Emmy-winning composer who collaborated with Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross, wrote the theme songs for Kojak and Rhoda and provided music for Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, Helter Skelter and Steven Spielberg's Duel, has died. He was 84.

Goldenberg died Monday in his Manhattan apartment, friend and screenwriter Gary Gerani, who is doing a documentary about the composer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

For the big screen, Goldenberg worked on films including Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (1972), Streisand's Up the Sandbox (1972), The Last of Sheila (1973), Busting (1974), Reuben,...

Refresh for updates The Phantom of the Opera‘s Emmy Rossum and The Lost Boy‘s Corey Feldman were among the actors remembering director Joel Schumacher today, with Feldman writing a stream of tweets recalling how the director attempted, unsuccessfully, to prevent the actor’s “descent” into drugs.

Feldman also credits Schumacher with first teaming him with Corey Haim for the 1987 film, and makes clear that Schumacher was not involved in the “corruption” that he and Haim experienced on The Lost Boys set..

The actor says that the sober Schumacher, suspecting the 16-year-old Feldman was high on cocaine, fired him from the movie, then relented and rehired him. Feldman says he stayed away from the drug for a year after that.

In the all-caps tweets, Feldman writes, “He Tried 2 Prevent My Descent.

Joel Schumacher, who directed some two dozen films including Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Brat Pack pics St. Elmo’s Fire and The Lost Boys along with Falling Down and John Grisham adaptations The Client and A Time to Kill, died today. He was 80.

His publicists at ID PR said he had a yearlong battle with cancer.

Schumacher was revered as one of Hollywood’s great storytellers. He had enormous charm and wit and could walk onto a tense set and instantly change everyone’s mood. It was magic chemistry.

His credits also include the 1980s pics D.C. Cab and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. He also helmed The Phantom of the Opera, Flatliners, Flawless, 8Mm Phone Booth, Trespass and most recently two 2013 episodes of Netflix’s House of Cards.

Notable Hollywood & Entertainment Industry Deaths In 2020: Photo Gallery

The native New Yorker also wrote the 1976 low-budget comedy Car Wash and the...

Directed by Terence Fisher (The Curse Of Frankenstein) starring Oliver Reed (Burnt Offerings), and based on Guy Endore's novel The Werewolf of Paris, the 1961 Hammer horror film The Curse of the Werewolf is coming to Blu-ray like never before in a new Collector's Edition from Scream Factory, and ahead of its April 21st release, we've been provided with the full list of bonus features and technical specs, including two new audio commentaries and a "4K scan from the interpositive."

We have the official press release with full details on The Curse of the Werewolf Collector's Edition Blu-ray, and to learn more, visit Scream Factory's official website.

Press Release: His beast-blood demanded him Kill ... Kill ... Kill! On April 21, 2020, Scream Factory™ is excited to present the highly sought-after Hammer Film cult classic The Curse Of The Werewolf Collector’s Edition Blu-ray. Directed by legendary horror filmmaker Terence Fisher, this horror classic stars...

Writer-director Rian Johnson assembles the makings of a great whodunnit for “Knives Out” and winds up making a good one. It’s a perfectly entertaining film, but its attributes and apparent ambitions make the results just a bit disappointing.

Johnson has always been a filmmaker whose love of genre somewhat exceeds his results, and so in the same way that “The Brothers Bloom” is about the idea of screwball comedy more than it’s a great example of one, “Knives Out” celebrates the twisty, all-star murder mystery without ever outshining films like “Sleuth” and “The Last of Sheila” that clearly inspired it.

That’s not to say “Knives Out” isn’t entertaining; there’s a lot to love here, from the twists and feints of Johnson’s screenplay to the all-star cast’s relish of their devious dialogue to the massive mansion to the insouciance with which Chris Evans’ rancid...

The new mystery feature "Knives Out" is written and directed by Rian Johnson ("Star Wars: The Last Jedi") starring Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell and Christopher Plummer, opening November 27, 2019:

".... a modern take on the whodunit murder mystery, the film follows a family gathering gone horribly awry...

"...as renowned crime novelist 'Harlan Thrombey' (Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday. 

"The inquisitive and debonair 'Det. Benoit Blanc' (Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. 

"From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web...

"...of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death..."

Cast also includes Riki Lindhome, Edi Patterson, Raúl Castillo, Noah Segan, Frank Oz and M. Emmet Walsh.

Johnson cited several classic mystery thrillers as influences on the film,...

A tale of the nefarious plots of a diabolical family that made its wealth off board games, “Ready or Not,” at its best, calls to mind some devilish delights of the 1970s, from the antique-toy-stuffed manor of the original “Sleuth” to the jet set’s homicidal party games in “The Last of Sheila” to the ever-resilient final girl of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

Some of its turns are better than others, but since this is the kind of twisty, hard-r comedy of gamesmanship and survival that Hollywood never seems to make anymore, fans of the genre are better off celebrating the film’s triumphs than picking over its occasional disappointing rolls of the dice.

Australian actress Samara Weaving, giving what can be legitimately termed as a “star-making performance,” plays Grace, who’s about to marry Alex (Mark O’Brien), scion of the rich and powerful Le Domas family. Just before the ceremony,...