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Movies are now treating the aughts like a second Stone Age. Hannah Macpherson’s Time Cut revels in the 2000s nostalgia of Avril Lavigne and Vanessa Carlton needledrops after a girl travels back in time to save her deceased family member from a slasher villain. Is your déjà vu intensifying?...

Smile 2 writer-director Parker Finn has outdone himself once more.

It’s rare for a horror sequel to surpass its hit predecessor, but Finn’s second installment has done exactly that with critics and audiences. It’s also on pace to exceed Smile‘s opening weekend box office of $22.6 million from two years ago. In any event, Smile 2‘s success shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise since Ohio native Finn already defied the odds with his feature directorial debut. The 2022 horror film about a curse that’s passed on through an unsettling smile was originally made for Paramount+, but as soon as its first test screening brought the house down, the Sosie Bacon-led film pivoted to theatrical, grossing $217 million on a $17 million budget.

Finn immediately engaged in sequel talks following his end-of-September opening weekend, but instead of picking up right where he left off with Kyle Gallner...

K.C. Fox, an Emmy-nominated set decorator who worked on the sets of films like Speed, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, died August 28 of pancreatic cancer. The prolific artisan, whose career spanned four decades, was 70.

“Known for her joie de vivre, keen artistic eye, belly laugh, and clever wit, she was beloved by her crew and colleagues,” the Set Decorators Society of America wrote in an obituary on its website. “K.C. generously offered career advice, mentored through the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and served on many Boards and Committees at the Sdsa and AMPAS.”

A founding member of the Sdsa and 2024 recipient of the Earl Cooperman Lifetime Achievement Award, Fox died at home, surrounded by her family. Throughout her illustrious career, she racked up two Art Directors Guild Awards for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and HBO’s Little Britain USA.

Karen Cynthia “Kc” Fox, an Emmy-nominated set decorator and founding member of the Set Decorators Society of America, died from pancreatic cancer on Aug. 28 at her Los Angeles home. She was 70.

The Sdsa confirmed Fox’s death on its official website on Friday, writing: “Known for her joie de vivre, keen artistic eye, belly laugh, and clever wit, she was beloved by her crew and colleagues. K.C. generously offered career advice, mentored through the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and served on many Boards and Committees at the Sdsa and AMPAS.”

Fox worked on the design for film, TV and commercial productions during her 40-year career. She served as the set decorator for more than 130 episodes of “Criminal Minds” from 2013 to 2020, as well as worked on other shows such as “Shameless,” “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.,” “Jesse” and “United States of Tara.”

Fox shared an Emmy nomination with...

Rúnar Rúnarsson’s latest film, “When the Light Breaks,” has found distribution in major markets around the world ahead of its North American premiere. The drama tells a universal story about loss and transformation through its main character Una, played by Elín Hall. Shot on film, the movie draws from Rúnarsson’s own experiences with grief.

The film first screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it received critical acclaim. Since then, distribution deals have brought the movie to audiences in key territories like Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan, Australia, and Brazil. Paris-based sales company The Party Film Sales secured these agreements.

This international success underscores Rúnarsson’s growing reputation as a director. His past works such as 2011’s “Volcano” and award-winning “Sparrows” and “Echo” have earned him praise on the festival circuit. “When the Light Breaks” marks his fourth full-length feature.

The movie will focus...

In the run up to its North American premiere at Toronto Film Festival, Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Icelandic film “When the Light Breaks” has been picked by international distributors. The critically acclaimed movie world premiered at Cannes and is being handled by Paris-based The Party Film Sales.

Shot in 16mm, the movie stars Elín Hall (“Let Me Fall”) as Una, whom Rúnarsson previously described in an interview with Variety as an “outsider in the events that unfold around her, even though she is in fact at their center.” It marks Rúnarsson’s fourth feature. He broke through internationally in 2008 with his Oscar-nominated short “Two Birds.” He went on to helm the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 entry “Volcano,” San Sebastian 2015 winner “Sparrows “ and 2019 Valladolid and Lübeck fest winner “Echo.”

Following its premiere at Cannes and screenings at Karlovy Vary and Munich FilmFest, The Party Film Sales closed theatrical deals for “When the Light Breaks...

The news of the moment keeps veering between cutbacks and comebacks. Keep your shrink on hold.

Paramount is laying off thousands and closing its TV studio, but Skydance’s David Ellison, its new owner, promises that an important new slate is on its way. Disney is shedding employees as park attendance sags, but also is investing billions in new theme park attractions and even a solid entertainment slate (Bob Iger calls it a “turbocharge”).

Even battle-scarred United Artists with Scott Stuber as its new savior promises yet another comeback after alternate decades of brilliance and disaster.

Given all this, the ongoing drama surrounding Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav seems downright comforting.

I take more than an academic interest in all this since I’ve personally been enmeshed in both ups and downs (the “ups” at ’70s Paramount were more memorable).

And it was Tom Cruise who, having just become chief of UA,...

Despite the many millions of adoring fans across the globe who may protest the title, there’s only one person on the internet who deserves to be called the World’s #1 Lorde-Lover.

When Randy Marsh first entered the South Park universe in the Season One episode “Volcano,” he looked very different from the multi-hyphenate pop star, geologist and ganja farmer that we know today — for one, he didn’t even have eyebrows in his inaugural appearance. The first South Park fans got to know Randy simply as the generic scientist hero in an extended parody of the inexplicably popular disaster film genre that Trey Parker and Matt Stone hated, but, as the show matured, so did Randy, so did Parker and Stone and so did the fans.

Today, Randy is the unofficial stand-in for the now-middle-aged Parker and Stone, and his personality is arguably the most nuanced of...

Plot: A former storm chaser (Daisy Edgar-Jones) recovering from a tragedy is convinced by a former colleague to help him chase a series of massive twisters rocking central Oklahoma.

Review: Jump back to the summer of 1996. I was fourteen years old and going to see Twister at the old Famous Eight here in good old Montreal, an old suburban movie theatre that was showing a movie in Thx for the first time ever. I’ll never forget sitting down with a friend to watch Jan de Bont’s classic and being rocked to the core by the amazing VFX and sound – and it remains a favourite of mine. It had a rock solid cast of characters, all of whom were memorable, plus two perfect regular Joe heroes in Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, with the movie, believe it or not, actually a disaster movie quasi remake of the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday,...

Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alan Ruck walked in Twister (1996) so that Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos could run in Twisters.

Many other famous faces appear in the sequel to the original tornado movie like Daryl McCormack and Kiernan Shipka. Bill Paxton’s son also has a small cameo in the film.

Scroll on to find the cast of Twisters and where you may have seen them before.

Related: Natural Disaster Movies: From ‘Volcano’ to ‘Don’t Look Up’...

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of August titles. The Tubi August 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals and numerous action, art house, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, the company engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library: over 200,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of Tubi Originals, and nearly 250 Fast channels.

You can watch the Tubi August 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the Tubi site.

Tubi Originals

Documentary

Defying Death:...

Amitabh Bachchan & Kamal Haasan Worked Together In Many Films. (Photo Credit – Youtube)

Kalki 2898 Ad has been the talk of the town ever since it was released, but the Nag Ashwin sci-fi film has been getting accolades for two characters who act as the strong walls of this fort. No, not Prabhas and Deepika Padukone, but it is Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan.

While Big B plays Ashwatthama, the cursed warrior from Mahabharata, Ulaganayagan plays Yaskin, ruler of the complex in 2898 Ad, the antagonist of the film. The two veterans, take the film to another level.

While the two have been winning accolades for their performances in Kalki 2898 Ad, there was once a time when Amitabh Bachchan felt threatened by Kamal Haasan‘s acting prowess and popularity, so much so that he went to the extent of shelving a film where he felt Haasan would overshadow him!

Trending Kamal Haasan...

At the beginning of Irvin Kershner's 1980 sci-fi flick "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back," Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is attacked by vicious yeti while patrolling the frozen wastelands of the planet Hoth. The yeti, called a wampa, carries Luke back to its lair, where it feasts on the bones of some other mysterious prey. Luke's feet are frozen to the ceiling, and he remains injured and dangling, unable to defend himself. Luckily, Luke brought a lightsaber with him, and he's able to use it to free himself and slay the yeti. It's a pity that the makers of "The Empire Strikes Back" didn't think to include a scene wherein the space yeti fought Chewbacca, a space sasquatch. 

In the original (and now unavailable) cuts of "Empire Strikes Back," the wampa was barely seen, achieved only through a clumsy costume and clever editing that left the bulk of its massive body obscured.

Here’s How Much Marvel Boss Kevin Feige’s Net Worth Is!(Photo Credit – IMDb)

Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios and one of the main pillars behind the successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, aka the MCU, turned 51 on Sunday, June 2. Marvel is one of Hollywood’s highest-grossing studios, making him one of the highest-grossing producers ever. But how much is he worth? Today, we have brought you the estimated net worth of Marvel boss Kevin Feige.

About him-

Feige was born in Boston and raised in New Jersey. He graduated from Westfield High School. Kevin’s maternal grandfather was reportedly a television producer in the 1950s. After high school, Feige attended the University of Southern California. However, he sent five applications to the USC School of Cinematic Arts and was rejected every time. Finally, he was selected for the sixth time.

Kevin Feige graduated in 1995 with a degree in...

Hulu has to be pretty pleased with its list of new releases for June 2024. That’s because it’s about to be the summer of The Bear once again.

The Bear season 3 premieres all of its episodes on June 27 on Hulu. This FX dramedy has proven to be one of the most successful shows of its era. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy Berzatto, a world-famous chef who returns home to Chicago to help his floundering family restaurant after the death of his brother. Season 2 saw The Original Beef of Chicagoland crew transform the spot into fine dining establishment The Bear. It ruled. So will season 3 probably.

FX is responsible for the other major TV release on Hulu this month. Clipped premieres on June 4 and is about the scandalous real life story of Donald Sterling, the awful owner of the basketball team the Los Angeles Clippers. Another intriguing TV option...

Rolling off its buzzy world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, Oscar-nominated Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson’s poignant drama “When The Light Breaks” has sold to a raft of territories.

Represented in international markets by The Party Film Sales, the movie has been picked up for Italy (Movies Inspired), Switzerland (Xenix), Norway (Arthaus), Denmark (Ost for Paradis), Finland (Cinemanse), Hungary (Vertigo), Greece (Cinobo), Israel (New Cinema), Poland (Aurora), Turkey (Bir Film) and Baltics (Estofilm). Cherry Pickers will release the film in Benelux, while Jour2fête will handle French theatrical distribution. The Party Film Sales is negotiating several deals.

As previously announced, The Party Film Sales is also selling Rúnarsson’s short film “O” which has just been completed.

While pitching the project at Goteborg Film Festival‘s work-in-progress showcase, Rúnarsson said he inspired by a personal event for “When the Light Breaks”. “Ever since experiencing the loss of a friend as a young man,...

Smita Patil In A Still From Namak Halal (Photo Credit – Youtube)

Smita Patil is one of the most iconic actresses Indian Cinema witnessed. However her journey was short lived since the actress passed away 15 days after giving birth to son Prateik Babbar and her husband Raj Babbar, moved back with his first wife and children Juhi Babbar and Aarya Babbar after Smita‘s death.

Smita’s body of work includes many award-winning films like Manthan, which will be screened at Cannes Film Festival this year to Arth. But apart from these heavy, content-driven films that were called the ‘artsy types,’ she was a part of commercial hits like Namak Halal and others.

Smita Patil was paired with Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halal. The film became iconic for its song Pag Ghunghroo Baandh Meera Naachi Thi – a must at Indian weddings. However, today, we will talk about what happened after shooting...

A pair of young adults sit on a rocky coast staring at the sun as it hovers on the horizon, casting an ochre glow over the landscape. They trade dreams, jokes and promises while smoking a joint. She teases him about being horny. He vows to break up with his girlfriend, so they no longer have to hide their relationship. Later, in bed, nestling into the grooves of each other’s bodies, they will excitedly murmur their visions of tomorrow.

None of their tomorrows comes true because the boy, Diddi (Baldur Einarsson), dies. On his way out of town, an explosion engulfs a tunnel in Reykjavik in flames, indiscriminately incinerating vehicles and bodies like his own. When the girl, Una (Elin Hall), hears the news, she is enveloped by a gutting despair.

Without ever working above a whisper, Runar Runarsson’s When the Light Breaks (Ljósbrot) finds distinctive and unexpectedly...

In our first encounter with Una (Elín Hall) and Diddi (Baldur Einarsson) in the long dusk of a Reykjavik spring night, they are thinking only of the future. The immediate future: will they be able to sleep overnight together without Diddi’s flatmate noticing? The near future, meaning the next couple of days, when Diddi officially breaks off his longstanding relationship with his high-school sweetheart Klara and starts a new life with Una. And the long term. A trip to Japan. A different life with a wider scope than Iceland can provide. “Should we make babies?” Diddi murmurs into Una’s ear as they lie, wrapped around each other like kittens, in his single-pillowed bed.

But when Diddi is killed in a freak fire in a road tunnel the next morning – a national disaster that claims upwards of a dozen lives – Una finds herself alone with her searing grief. Diddi...

In his fourth feature “When the Light Breaks,” Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson starts with a heartbreaking tragedy. Una (Elín Hall) finds out that the boy she loves was in an accident. What follows is a day full of grief — and sunlight. The film opens Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.

As proven by “Sparrows,” you are not afraid to tells stories with younger protagonists. Is it easy for you to go back to that mindset?

Everything I write is based on my first- or second-hand experiences, which I then mix with fiction. I also had an amazing cast, which is probably one of the first things you have to have. There is a lot of talent in Iceland, but we wanted the crème de la crème. It was crucial to find the right people to portray these characters and turn them into human beings.

It’s different when you work with young adults,...

Paris-based The Party Film Sales and Heather Millard of Iceland’s Compass Films have reunited with “When the Light Breaks” director Rúnar Rúnarsson on his next poetic filmic venture “O.”

The Icelandic film “When the Light Breaks” is due to open Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section May 15.

Headlining Iceland’s major international star Ingvar E. Sigurðsson (“A White, White Day,” “Fantastic Beasts, the Crimes of Grindelwald”), the 20-minute film “O” is a “humanistic and poetic story of a fragile man, trying to achieve a simple task where his main obstacle is within himself,” according to the official logline.

“We’re very excited to also accompany Rúnar on his new short film,” said The Party Film Sales’ Samuel Blanc. “O” and “When the Light Breaks” have a lot in common and resonate with each other. We’re confident distributors will be interested in programming both films in tandem: in the frame of special screenings,...

“Good evening, Hollywood-fucking-Bowl!” Paul McCartney exclaimed to the flock of Parrotheads gathered before him. A sold-out crowd had assembled in the famed Los Angeles venue on Thursday to celebrate the legacy of Jimmy Buffett at “Keep the Party Going,” a laid-back, one-night-only tribute show full of eclectic guests.

“I had the great pleasure of knowing Jimmy, and like everyone else on the bill tonight, I said, ‘This is one great man.’ He was generous. He was funny. He’d done just about everything in his life,” McCartney said, before launching into “Let It Be.

Major spoilers for "Immaculate" and "The First Omen" follow.

There's a history of movies with oddly similar premises premiering within months of each other. "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" both hit theaters in the summer of 1998, much like the Earth-shattering meteors featured in both films. The year before, there was "Volcano" and "Dante's Peak." 2022 gave us not one but two "Pinocchio" movies (with a clean victory for Guillermo del Toro's version).

This past month saw the latest case of dueling movies: "Immaculate," released on March 22, 2024, and "The First Omen," released on April 5, 2024. Both films are about American nuns who fly off to a new life in Italy. Once they arrive at the convent, the young sister discovers a sinister conspiracy at work and becomes pregnant via an unnatural conception. Unlike Mother Mary, the fruits of their wombs are not blessed.

"Immaculate," starring new starlet Sydney Sweeney as Sister Cecilia and directed by Michael Mohan,...

It’s been 20 years since Jeff Wadlow began his career in the entertainment industry, and he’s since created a name for himself as a highly reliable Swiss army knife. He can write, direct and produce across film and television, and he also has the added reputation of being an “idea guy.” When his career was at a crossroads in the early 2010s, he wrote his way out of it and sold spec scripts for what would become Kick-Ass 2 (2013) and Bloodshot (2020). And throughout the 2010s, whenever his next movie needed a bit of time to get off the ground, he’d put on his writer hat and join Carlton Cuse’s writers’ rooms for Bates Motel and The Strain.

The filmmaker is now back with his third Blumhouse horror film, Imaginary, which chronicles Pyper Braun’s Alice and the imaginary friendship she forms with her stepmother’s (DeWanda Wise) childhood teddy bear,...

The late 1990s had an odd fascination with the Devil and the end of days that gave audiences all kinds of crazy films with varied levels of success. Most of these seemed to come out right around 1999, the end of the millennium when people were starting to panic. However, some of these end of days films came out earlier and set the trend. 1997 was an odd year that saw the release of Dante’s Peak, The Devil’s Own, Volcano, the original Open Your Eyes, Seven Years in Tibet, and a bunch more. There was a trend for the end of days, but also a search for religion which then led to the perfect storm of both with The Devil’s Advocate (watch it Here), a bit end of days, a bit of religious mayhem, and a whole lot of cautionary tale.

In 1997, folks were getting ready for the big millennium change, but...

When two stories with similar premises debut around the same time, awkwardness is natural. We're about to have the latest case of this in 2024.

On one hand, "If" (short for "Imaginary Friend"). He may not be Reed Richards in "Fantastic Four" as some had anticipated, but John Krasinski has leveraged his success directing "A Quiet Place" and its sequel. Now, with "If," he's pivoting away from horror to a family-friendly comedy. "If" is about a young girl named Bea (Cailey Fleming) who can see people's imaginary friends. She then discovers her middle-aged neighbor (Ryan Reynolds) has the same power. "If" is set for release in May 2024.

Even as Krasinski flexes his directorial skills in a different genre, a horror film about imaginary friends is releasing a couple of months earlier on March 8. "Imaginary," the latest jump scare monster movie from Blumhouse, follows a mother, Jessica (DeWanda Wise), and her stepdaughter...

In the grasslands of Southern Ukraine, between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, a natural history researcher named Yura (Dmytro Bahnenko) is hoping to track down and photograph a groundhog. If he succeeds, the land can be protected as a European reserve. This apparently simple premise — the kernel at the outset of “The Editorial Office” — can’t begin to hint at the rugged tapestry of thematic and topical threads that Roman Bondarchuk’s second narrative feature proceeds to weave together, the unique product of both the director’s vision and ambition, and also of the circumstances under which it gestated.

Set and shot just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and completed during the war, the film closes with a dedication to editor Viktor Onysko, who lost his life in the conflict during a combat mission.

While attempting to track his groundhog target, Yura catches some arsonists on camera as they set a forest fire.

The Winds of War: Bondarchuk Straddles a World On a Wire

While it should play like an absurdist black comedy, Roman Bondarchuk’s sophomore narrative feature The Editorial Office arrives amidst a violent, turbulent atmosphere which somewhat nullifies its prescience. Much like his enjoyably weird 2018 debut, Volcano, he mines subversiveness in surreality, but with his latest, which began production prior to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, there’s also an inescapable queasiness in what plays like a prologue to an ongoing madness the eventual distance of which will eventually allow the film a certain novel vibrancy as a time capsule.…...

War in Ukraine was a distant rumble in the background of Roman Bondarchuk’s feature debut Volcano. Now, as he reteams with co-writers Alla Tyutyunnik, who is also his mum, and Dar'ya Averchenko to write again about the southern part of Ukraine, the sound of the impending Russian invasion is louder but still feels one step removed from the everyday chaos of life on the ground.

“Fake. That’s our reality,” says a journalist, summing up the tension at the heart of this absurdist comedy drama. The Editorial Office is, indeed, a place where stories are not only created but bought and paid for and their relationship to reality is optional. Even Kafkaesque ideas are subject to chaos. All of which is a far cry from the life of Yura. His work is all about quantifiable facts - specifically, documenting examples of the...

Paris-based The Party Film Sales has boarded renowned Icelandic auteur Rúnar Rúnarsson’s fourth pic, “When the Light Breaks,” which is selected for Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market’s works in progress session.

Rúnarsson serves as producer together with Heather Millard of Iceland’s Compass Films, in co-production with local banner Halibut, Holland’s Revolver, France’s Eaux Vives/Jour2Fête and Croatia’s MP Film.

Lauded for his coming-of age tales set against Iceland’s majestic scenery, Rúnarsson saw his international breakthrough in 2008 with his Oscar-nominated short “Two Birds.” Since then, he has delivered equally poetic fare in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 entry “Volcano,” San Sebastian 2015 winner “Sparrows “ and 2019 Valladolid and Lübeck fest winner “Echo.”

As in his earlier works, Rúnarsson was inspired by a personal event for “When the Light Breaks”. “Ever since experiencing the loss of a friend as a young man, I wanted to deal with the...

One of the most memorable characters on the long-running NBC sitcom "Frasier" isn't one of the fussy humans that surround radio psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) but rather his father Martin's (John Mahoney) Jack Russell Terrier, Eddie. Eddie is a fully-fledged character who sometimes seems even more human than his two-legged counterparts, showing love to Martin and the Crane's live-in housekeeper, Daphne (Jane Leeves) while serving as Frasier's arch-nemesis. Portrayed by dog actor Moose and later his son, Enzo, Eddie became a vital part of the series' comedic chemistry. However, there's an old adage about never working with animals or children because they can be difficult and chaotic, and that was often the case on the set of "Frasier."

In a Vanity Fair oral history of the sitcom series for its 25th anniversary in 2018, the cast and crew shared their memories working alongside furry four-legged actors, and it...

Mickey Cottrell, the beloved indie film publicist and producer who long championed independent cinema dating back to the early days of Sundance, has died at 79. He passed away Monday, January 1, 2024 at Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif. The news was confirmed by his sister, Suzy Cottrell-Smith, who shared on Facebook, “My adorable, fun, critical, foodie, particular, brilliant, loving brother passed on to the next life early on New Year’s Day. He was smiling when he died. Mickey Cottrell will be missed by many.”

Many of Cottrell’s friends and colleagues shared memories of the veteran PR whiz — who also had many credits as an actor — on Facebook. Cottrell suffered a stroke in 2016, with friends and loved ones raising more than $57,000 to help with medical bills on GoFundMe. He relocated back to Los Angeles in 2019 after recovering from the stroke with his sister in Arkansas.

Cottrell was never afraid to pick up the phone,...

Mickey Cottrell, the dependable Hollywood publicist who went to bat for independent films for decades while also dabbling in acting and producing, has died. He was 79.

Cottrell died on New Year’s Day at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his friend Ian Birnie, former Lacma film curator, told The Hollywood Reporter. He suffered a major stroke in 2016.

Cottrell did PR for three Gus Van Sant-directed films: Drugstore Cowboy (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), where he also played the clean freak Daddy Carroll in the movie, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993).

He also repped Bagdad Cafe (1987), Earth Girls Are Easy (1987), Phillip Noyce’s Dead Calm (1989), Tarnation (2003), Ballets Russes (2005), The Price of Sugar (2007), Skin (2008), Bill Cunningham New York (2010), Salt (2010) and Tab Hunter Confidential (2015), among many other films.

Films and filmmakers he represented were honored with eight Sundance jury prizes and three Oscars, he once noted.

Mickey Cottrell, a veteran publicist for independent films known as a champion of filmmakers and actors, died Monday at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, his sister Suzy Cottrell confirmed. He was 79.

Cottrell had returned to Los Angeles in 2019 after living with his sister in Arkansas while he recovered from a stroke he suffered in 2016.

His sister remembered him on Facebook, writing, “My adorable, fun, critical, foodie, particular, brilliant, loving brother passed on to the next life early on New Year’s Day. He was smiling when he died. Mickey Cottrell will be missed by many.”

A fixture at film festivals, he was remembered by friends on Facebook as a generous and sassy raconteur, a devoted mentor, the “life of the party” who threw star-studded Sundance parties in the 1990s and an expert on gay Hollywood history.

Cottrell also acted in numerous small roles over the years, including turns...

Two years in, the Academy Film Museum is rolling full steam ahead with a new programming director and a packed slate of upcoming films for the winter season. On Dec. 10, Christopher Nolan will present the classic Western “Shane” on its 70th anniversary and speak about the film for the George Stevens Lecture.

Other spotlight programs include:

A retrospective film series on “Parasite” actor Song Kang-ho in-person for four conversations starting Dec. 7 A 10th anniversary screening of “12 Years a Slave” on Feb. 25 with Steve McQueen. “3D-cember” with screenings like “Jaws” and “Frozen” in 3D “Works of Enduring Importance: 35 Years of the National Film Registry” starting Dec. 14 “Beware the Elements! Natural Disasters on Film” starting Jan. 4 A screening of 1972’s “Buck and the Preacher” will pay tribute to Harry Belafonte “Echoes of Africia” presents African stories on film from Feb. 1 to Feb. 9

K.J. Relth-Miller just took over as Director of Film...

Although they both established themselves as leading summer-shed troubadours of the Seventies, Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor seemed to live in different parts of a harbor: Buffett the effusive showman, Taylor the introspective loner. In fact, the two had more in common than anyone would have expected. Both were sailors, and both (as Buffett joked in a recent tribute to Taylor) dealt with early fame, receding hairlines and getting healthy in later life. The two shared stages together and collaborated in the studio on a few of each other’s records.

Jimmy Buffett, music’s easy-going icon, has died at the age of 76.

“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” according to a statement released on social media. “He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

TMZ reports that Buffett was diagnosed with skin cancer and lymphoma, and recently began receiving hospice care. Earlier this year, he postponed several upcoming live performances to “address some issues that needed immediate attention.”

As the founder of Margaritaville, “Bubba” catered to his own unique musical ecosystem, combining a natural country twang and western-folk influences with flavors from his tropical Gulf Coast upbringing. At live performances, he routinely graced his multiple generations of devoted fans, affectionately known as Parrotheads, with “The Big 8” set of signature songs including “Margaritaville,” “Come Monday,” “Fins,...

Jimmy Buffett, a singer and businessman best known for his hit song “Margaritaville,” which kicked off a themed restaurant chain and hotels, died on Friday. He was 76.

A statement shared on his website and social media late Friday, read, “Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs. He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

Buffett died at his home in Sag Harbor, Long Island, following a four-year battle with Merkel cell skin cancer, according to his obituary posted on his website Saturday. It said he continued to perform during treatment before playing his last show, a surprise appearance in Rhode Island, in early July.

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Born on Dec. 25, 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Buffett grew up in Alabama.

Long before Kevin Feige transformed the blockbuster business via the miraculous 11-year Avengers saga that began with 2008's "Iron Man" and ended with 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," he was an assistant to producer Lauren Shuler Donner on non-superheroic fare like "Volcano" and "You've Got Mail." The USC film school grad had an encyclopedic knowledge of comics and "Star Wars," but everyone's got to start somewhere, and working for the wife of Richard Donner, the man who directed one of the greatest superhero hero movies of all time in 1979's "Superman," was a heck of a lot better than waiting tables at Barney's Beanery.

As fortune would have it, Lauren Shuler Donner had purchased the movie rights to Marvel Comics' ultra-popular X-Men, and, after years of development stumbles and false starts that saw folks as disparate as Russell Crowe, Bob Hoskins, and Glenn Danzig considered for the pivotal role of Wolverine, Donner...

Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Bondarchuk is winding down post-production on his latest feature film, “The Editorial Office,” a dramedy set on the eve of the Russian invasion. It’s among the works in progress being presented this week at CineLink Industry Days, the industry arm of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

“The Editorial Office” follows Yura, a junior researcher at a provincial nature museum who witnesses an act of arson committed in the forest. When he brings evidence of the crime to the editor of a local newspaper, he unexpectedly gets hired as a journalist, a career change that suddenly pulls him into a treacherous world where the line between fact and fiction is blurred. “It’s about a young man who’s trying to discover his own truth, sometimes at a very high price,” said Bondarchuk.

The director, previously known for documentaries such as 2015 IDFA premiere “Ukrainian Sheriffs,” made the transition...

A pulse-pounding, pulled-from-the-headlines story of political intrigue set against the backdrop of Europe’s green revolution is at the heart of “Greater Adria,” an ambitious, pan-European co-production being prepped by some of the continent’s top independent TV producers.

The series, co-created by Nebojša Taraba and Simona Nobile, is produced by Taraba for Croatia’s Drugi Plan, Peter Nadermann of Germany’s Nadcon Film and Marco de Angelis for Italy’s Fabula Pictures. Also on board is Belgian distribution and production outfit Lumiere, the leading distributor in the Benelux region, while public broadcasters Hrt from Croatia and Rtv of Slovenia are among the financiers.

“Greater Adria” begins with a trans-national European green party calling for a referendum to ban all present and future exploitation of oil and gas in the Adriatic Sea. But the unexplained death of a well-known Italian scientist in the coastal town of Rijeka fuels suspicion of a sprawling international conspiracy.

The episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw covering Overlord was Written by Andrew Hatfield, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

The channel covers so much from the ’80s and ’90s but the truth is, there’s more horror floating around now than ever before. With the rise of horror studios like Blumhouse or prestige studios like A24 realizing that horror can not only be profitable but award worthy, the theaters have no shortage of scary. That’s not even including streaming services like Tubi, Shudder, and even the big 4 going all in on either producing or showcasing horror on their platforms. A lot of these end up being successful but some of them flounder a bit, even when they deserve to soar. Today’s movie has good names in front of and behind the camera,...

1995 wasn’t a good year for Sylvester Stallone at the multiplex. His summer tentpole, Judge Dredd, flopped domestically, and it was quickly followed by Richard Donner’s Assassins, which only grossed $30 million at the domestic box office. While Sly’s career had seen a few slumps, his straightforward action movies typically performed, and the failure of those two films put his clout as one of the world’s biggest stars in jeopardy. In this episode of Sylvester Stallone Revisited, we’re going to talk about a movie that was supposed to be a big-budget, commercial change of pace for the actor but wound up being the last would-be blockbuster he’d star in for years. That’s right; we’re going to talk about Rob Cohen’s Daylight.

Flashback to the mid-nineties. Sylvester Stallone had launched a major comeback with Cliffhanger and followed it up with two more global blockbusters,...

Audiences might bemoan the lack of original thinking at the movies these days — all those sequels, remakes, and reboots! — but even new ideas can feel suddenly played out when faced with the horrifying specter of parallel thinking. Consider everything from “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” to “Dante’s Peak” and “Volcano,” “Capote” and “Infamous” to “No Strings Attached” and “Friends with Benefits,” and those are just contemporary examples of the phenomenon. If you’ve got an idea for a movie — hopefully, a good one to boot — chances are, someone else has it, too. And they may even have it at the exact same time.

Such is the case with Kirk DeMicco and Faryn Pearl’s “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” which arrives on the heels (fins? paws?) of some very similar other animated adventures, like Pixar’s superior “Turning Red” and the studio’s less thrilling entry “Luca,” both of which use monstrous...

A Jimmy Buffett & the Coral Reefer Band concert in Charleston, South Carolina scheduled for this weekend has been postponed due to the legendary singer-songwriter being hospitalized in Boston.

Buffett, 76, made the announcement on social media. He didn’t disclose his health condition but promised to perform his South Carolina concert as soon as possible. In his message, he warned fans that “growing old is not for sissies.”

The Jimmy Buffett & the Coral Reefer Band concert at Credit One Stadium in Charleston scheduled for this Saturday May 20th is being rescheduled. All previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new date once announced. More information will be emailed to ticket purchasers… pic.twitter.com/ljKJ06hbiA

— Jimmy Buffett (@jimmybuffett) May 18, 2023

Buffett announced that all previously purchased concert tickets would be valid for the show’s new date.

Buffett refers to his music as “drunken Caribbean rock ‘n’ roll” while he...

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

It happens every so often: two Hollywood movies come out around the same time, with a shockingly similar premise. There was "Top Gun" and "Iron Eagle" in 1986, "Dante's Peak" and "Volcano" in 1997, and in more recent times, "Hercules" and "The Legend of Hercules" in 2014. But the most infamous of these twin films battles took place in the summer of '98, when "Deep Impact" went up against "Armageddon" as the two asteroid disaster flicks battled it out for box office supremacy. Ultimately, Michael Bay's "Armageddon" came out on top.

It's not as though director Mimi Leder's "Deep Impact" was a failure — in fact, by many metrics, it was a gigantic success. It's just that it wasn't quite as big as Bay's bombastic spectacle starring Bruce Willis,...

XYZ Films has unveiled New Visions, an initiative designed to spotlight bold new voices alongside established talent striking a new path in the international cinema space.

The initiative will serve as a curated collection of films that “exists to discover and support the next generation of great filmmakers at the inception of their career, and to give established talents room to do something smaller, more intimate, or challenging outside of the usual box of independent filmmaking,” XYZ said in a statement.

The slate will launch in Cannes with Directors’ Fortnight selection “In Flames,” a Pakistani-Canadian horror film directed by Zarrar Kahn and executive produced by Shant Joshi. As revealed by Variety, XYZ had boarded the title last year. In the Karachi-set film, after the death of the family patriarch, a mother and daughter’s precarious existence is ripped apart by figures from their past – both real and phantasmal. They must...

XYZ Films has hired Manon Barat, a former executive at the Spanish sales company Film Factory, to head a slate of titles that will fall under the company’s newly-launched global film initiative, New Visions.

Barat will work alongside XYZ Head of International Acquisitions Todd Brown to oversee the new slate, which the company has described as a “highly curated collection of films.”

XYZ will launch the new slate in Cannes with In Flames, a Pakistani-Canadian horror film directed by Zarrar Kahn and executive produced by Shant Joshi. The pic will screen as part of the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. Check out a first-look image from the film below.

Other titles from the initial New Visions slate include the Czech sci-fi pic Restore Point, directed by Robert Hloz and produced by Jan Kallista, which will have footage screened at the Marché du Film as part of the Fantastic 7 lineup. Paul Duane...

Exclusive: The BBC has greenlit a landmark documentary series spotlighting a once-in-a-generation Pompeii dig from Secrets Of The Saqqara Tomb producer Lion TV.

All3Media-owned Lion has gained access to a huge excavation taking place on the site of the former ancient city, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius around 2,000 years ago.

In the BBC’s Pompeii, present-day discoveries about the Roman world will be combined with a ‘ticking clock’ narrative told through the stories of real individuals from history who witnessed the ancient disaster.

“We don’t know what [the dig] will find but we do know the BBC wants new ways of hearing these stories,” said Richard Bradley, Chief Creative Officer of Lion.

Bradley said buyers are seeking docs with “cinematic and dramatic elements” that eschew a Western gaze, pointing to the positive reaction elicited by Lion’s 2020 feature film Secrets Of The Saqqara Tomb, which followed...

The Nevers now has a Roku release date, nearly eight weeks after the HBO Max castoff debuted on its other new streaming home, Tubi.

Roku announced on Tuesday that The Roku Channel has launched 14 Warner Bros.-branded linear channels, detailed below. On one of them, the WB TV Watchlist Channel, The Nevers will debut this Saturday, April 8 at 10 am Et, with a marathon of all 12 episodes (including the six that never aired on HBO).

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