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Fresh off the skyrocketing success of Netflix’s “Fair Play,” Phoebe Dynevor is now leading a spy thriller titled “Inheritance.” The film is written and directed by Neil Burger, best known for having helmed the 2014 adaptation of “Divergent.” Olen Steinhauer also co-wrote the script alongside Burger.

IFC Films picked up the movie a few months ago and is now ramping up the marketing campaign before it bows out in cinemas this January.

Continue reading ‘Inheritance’ Trailer: Phoebe Dynevor Stars in Spy Thriller Releasing This January at The Playlist.

"He'll kill me if he finds me!" Run, Phoebe, run! IFC Films has unveiled an official trailer for an indie thriller film titled Inheritance, now set for release in theaters starting late January 2025. Strangely haven't heard much about this film before and it hasn't shown up at any film festivals either. From director Neil Burger, Inheritance follows Maya, who learns her father Sam was once a spy. Suddenly, she finds herself at the center of an international conspiracy and must go on the run, too. Starring Phoebe Dynevor, Rhys Ifans, Ciara Baxendale, and Majd Eid. This looks like an intricate & intimate thriller, with tons of intense GoPro-esque close-up shots of Dynevor as she goes on the round. Also looks like they shot this with a tiny crew using cheap digital cameras all around the world and filming on the fly (without permits or approvals in some of these countries). It might be entertaining?...

Rosa Salazar (Brand New Cherry Flavor) has been cast as the female lead opposite Matthew Gray Gubler in Einstein, CBS’ crime procedural pilot from the Monk team of creator/executive producer Andy Breckman and director/executive producer Randy Zisk.

In Einstein, a drama with comedic undertones based on the German series of the same name, brilliant but directionless, the great grandson of Albert Einstein (Gubler) spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad-boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective (Salazar) solve her most puzzling cases.

Salazar’s Maddie Paris is a Detective Inspector for the New Jersey State Police, who went into law enforcement after the death of her husband. Sharp and disciplined, Maddie demands a lot from her colleagues and even more from herself and feels conflicted about working with Professor Lew Einstein (Gubler).

Breckman,...

Step aside, Jason Bourne: There’s a new star in the espionage genre.

Phoebe Dynevor makes her action debut with “Inheritance,” the latest thriller from acclaimed filmmaker Neil Burger. “Bridgerton” alum turned indie darling Dynevor leads the feature as Maya, who learns that her father is an ex-spy. Yet Maya becomes caught up in a globe-spanning scheme that puts her on the run — and reveals who she truly is.

The official synopsis reads: “When Maya (Dynevor) learns that her father was once a spy, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an international conspiracy. In her quest for answers, Maya becomes a target and must travel the globe, mastering her father’s skills and unraveling the mysteries of his past in this gripping espionage thriller.” Rhys Ifans co-stars.

Burger directs from a script he co-wrote with Olen Steinhauer. Burger, Bill Block, and Charles Miller produce the feature.

Burger in...

It’s a death-defying act to split one property into two movies.

Warner Bros did it with the greatest of ease on the final film adaptation of Harry Potter, 2010 and 2011’s Deathly Hallows, which combined grossed $2.3 billion worldwide. However, Lionsgate ran into a buzz saw and tried it with the final Divergent book, Allegiant, by Veronica Roth, which flopped so badly ($179.2 million), it never saw its final conclusion on the big screen.

Musicals have always proved a rags-or-riches genre at the box office, and when it came to the ambitious task of dividing up Wicked into two parts, director Jon M. Chu, says “it was also the most obvious thing to do because every time we tried to make it one movie, you had to rip out songs.”

“If we’re ending up on (the song) ‘Defying Gravity’, then we need to movie backwards from ‘Defying Gravity’,” the director says...

Starz has announced the movie and TV titles that will be available on the service in December. The Starz December 2024 schedule includes new episodes of Outlander Season 7 Part 2 all month long.

On the film front, Borderlands, Renfield, The Fabelmans, Midas, Polite Society, and several other notable titles will be joining the Starz app this month. This month, the app will feature a special collection, “Franchise Frenzy,” featuring titles from The Bourne series, The Chronicles of Riddick, Blair Witch, Divergent, and Ghostbusters, among others.

To get you through the holidays, Starz has a thrilling week of action-packed titles that are more naughty than nice, including The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Jurassic World Dominion: Extended Version, the Divergent trilogy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cocaine Bear, and more.

Outlander Season 7 Starz Highlights

Outlander Season 7 Part 2

The land the Frasers call home is changing – and they must change with it.

Hollywood has had no shortage of talent and boasts some of the most riveting actors with pure raw talent and fearless authenticity. While seasoned actors like Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis might find their names often taken in this context, a swarm of young actors too hold the same charm and blend of talent. One of these notable actors is Shailene Woodley.

Shailene Woodley | Credit: Allegiant / Summit Entertainment

The American actress who has long captivated audiences with her riveting performances is now 33. As we celebrate her splendid career, there are several fascinating and surprising facets of her life that make her who she is. While many know her for her performances in films like The Faults in Our Stars or her role in the Divergent franchise, there is much more to Shailene Woodley than just her feats in the entertainment industry.

The ever-so-grounded and genuine star, known for her outspoken and candid personality,...

Timothée Chalamet is on his way to becoming a legend. Shifting his skin like water, he goes from one character to another effortlessly. Fans have seen him grow into a true artist, embodying the essence of every film he has been a part of, regardless of how significant his role is.

Timothée Chalamet in Little Women | Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing

Going from Lady Bird to the Dune franchise, his presence on the scene was impactful in both projects. Now, Chalamet is taking a new step in his professional life, starring in a film about Bob Dylan titled A Complete Unknown.

Looking at this, one cannot help but notice the similarities between the actor and the music legend, specifically when Chalamet is so evidently pointing them out.

Timothée Chalamet and Bob Dylan Were Rejected From Their Dreams

Recently, Timothée Chalamet gave an interview with Apple Music where he went into great detail about his upcoming film,...

Timothée Chalamet was told to gain weight to land major movie roles.The 'Wonka' actor will play folk legend Bob Dylan in biopic 'A Complete Unknown' and he explained he was able to relate to the legendary musician because he felt like an "outsider" within his own career until he was able to carve out his own path.Speaking on 'The Zane Lowe Show' on Apple Music 1, he said: "I've had a life experience, I want to say it's weird, but I can relate to some of these things he went through. "So Bob wanted to be a rock and roll star, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, that was, depending on your point of view, the sort of rice crispy pop rock and roll music that was saturated and marketed to kids in the late ‘50s. Equally, I wanted to be a big movie actor.

Timothee Chalamet is opening up about his auditions for popular franchises in the past and how he was told to gain weight if he wanted to get the role.

The 28-year-old actor is now the star of franchises like Dune and Wonka, but he was up for roles in some major franchises earlier in his career.

Keep reading to find out more…

Timothee says he was told he didn’t have the right body to appear in The Maze Runner, Divergent, or other dystopian franchises.

“If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body,” he told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I had an agent that called me and said, ‘You got to put on weight,’ basically, not aggressively, but you know.”

One actor is opening...

While reflecting on his career, Timothée Chalamet said there were certain doors that were closed to him in the industry based on his looks.

In a new interview with Zane Lowe promoting his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown for the first time, the Oscar nominee said he related to certain outsider elements the legendary musician contained, as he’s been somewhat typecast for roles.

“I’ve had a life experience, I don’t want to say it’s weird, but I can relate to some of these things he went through,” he explained. “Bob wanted to be a rock & roll star — Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley — that was the sort of, depending on your point of view, the sort of rice crispy pop, rock & roll music that was saturated and marketed to kids in the late ’50s. Equally, I wanted to be a big movie actor.”

The Call...

Timothée Chalamet once had an agent tell him he needed to gain weight, the actor recalled this week. Though weird at the time, memories of the experience helped Chalamet prepare to play Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s upcoming A Complete Unknown.

“If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body,” Chalamet told Zane Lowe in an interview released Tuesday. “I had an agent that called me and said, ‘You got to put on weight,’ basically, not aggressively, but you know.”

Though he may not have become the face of any dystopian teen dramas that peppered the 2010s, Chalamet’s career turned out to be just fine. Now, as he prepares for the release of A Complete Unknown next month, the actor says his experience felt...

Timothée Chalamet said he was advised to gain weight when he was coming up as a young actor auditioning for big movies.

“If I auditioned for ‘The Maze Runner’ or ‘Divergent,’ things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body,'” Chalamet said in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I had an agent that called me and said, ‘You got to put on weight,’ basically — not aggressively, but you know.”

Chalamet related his experience of having to find his own route in Hollywood to that of Bob Dylan during his early years in Minnesota. Chalamet is playing Dylan in the upcoming music biopic “A Complete Unknown.”

“I found my way into these very personalized movies,” Chalamet said. “For [Dylan], it was folk music. He couldn’t keep a rock and roll band because...

Exclusive: Rosa Salazar, the actress, director and producer best known for roles in Alita: Battle Angel and Prime Video’s Undone, has signed with Sugar23 for management ahead of a busy 2025.

On February 14, Salazar enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a role alongside Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford in Captain America: Brave New World.

Upcoming, she’ll also be seen starring alongside Mark Wahlberg and Lakeith Stanfield in Amazon MGM’s thriller Play Dirty, based on the Parker crime novels written by Donald E. Westlake under the pen name Richard Stark. Shane Black wrote and directed that film, billed as The Italian Job meets Heat, which has not yet been dated for release.

Capturing the industry’s attention with her lead role in Robert Rodriguez’s 2019 cyberpunk actioner Alita: Battle Angel, Salazar is also known for producing and starring in Amazon’s acclaimed rotoscoped series Undone, from the BoJack Horseman...

Was Mary Jane Watson almost removed from The Amazing Spider-Man 2? (Photo Credit – Netflix)

Mary Jane Watson was ready to strut her stuff in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. But she didn’t. Instead, she disappeared. Shailene Woodley wanted to bring that fiery redhead to life, but the final cut didn’t have her.

Now, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Mj first crashed the Marvel Comics party back in 1965—and nope, she wasn’t just another pretty face. She gave Gwen Stacy a severe run for her money! After Gwen’s exit, courtesy of the Green Goblin, Mj swooped in, ready to make sparks fly. Kirsten Dunst nailed it as Mj in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, while Zoë Kravitz brought her voice to life in Into the Spider-Verse.

When filming started for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in early 2013, everyone was splitting up about Woodley stepping into the redhead’s shoes.

Shailene Woodley initially didn’t realize her mother in The Secret Life of the American Teenager was actually an ’80s teen icon.

The actress revealed during a recent appearance on Vanity Fair’s “Scene Selection” that she had no idea who Molly Ringwald was when they first started working together on the ABC Family drama, which ran from 2008 to 2013. Ringwald played Anne Juergens, the mother of Woodley’s Amy Juergens, on the show.

“I didn’t know who Molly Ringwald was,” Woodley confessed. “I was 15, didn’t grow up with a TV. Like, every one of my parents’ friends were like, ‘You’re working with Molly Ringwald!’ And I was like, ‘What is her…. Why? I don’t get it.’ Because I had never seen Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles or any of her films.”

However, the Three Women actress said having not watched any of director John Hughes’ films...

The Divergent franchise never quite got to the finish line. However, the three movies that we got, based on Veronica Roth‘s novels, are still fan favorites that we remember fondly.

Set in a dystopian world, the series focused on Tris (Shailene Woodley) and her many adventures. It also highlighted her romance with Tobias Eaton (Theo James), more commonly known as Four.

While Shailene was the only actress in the running to play Tris, Theo faced some competition to play the male lead in the series.

The Divergent series arrived on Netflix this summer, and we got curious about who else could have appeared in the movies. We rounded up eight stars who also auditioned for Theo‘s role.

Interestingly, very few actors have discussed the audition process. However, multiple reports at the time suggested that these stars were brought in to screentest alongside Shailene.

The list includes one of...

Not to give you a fright head of Halloween, but an alarming number of fan-favorite movies will be leaving Netflix by the end of October 2024. We all know that movies tend to come and go on Netflix, so even though a long list of movies are departing Netflix this month, the cycle will continue and some might even pop back up in future months.

Last month saw the departures of the Divergent and Fifty Shades of Grey movies, along with beloved movies like A Walk to Remember and The Breakfast Club. This month, as many hit movies are leaving Netflix, too. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Crazy Rich Asians, It Follows, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and more have already left with lots more still to leave.

If you're hoping to have a Chucky marathon on Halloween, you're in luck. You'll be able to watch right under the wire, as...

Protagonizada por Theo James, Tatiana Maslany y Elijah Wood. © Neon

Neon ha publicado un nuevo tráiler de la película The Monkey, dirigida por Oz Perkins (Longlegs) y basada en un relato corto de Stephen King.

The Monkey sigue a dos hermanos gemelos, Hal y Bill, que descubren el viejo mono de juguete de su padre en el desván. Cuando una serie de espantosas muertes empiezan a ocurrir a su alrededor, los hermanos deciden deshacerse del mono y seguir adelante con sus vidas, distanciándose con el paso de los años. Pero cuando las misteriosas muertes comienzan de nuevo, los hermanos deben reunirse para encontrar la manera de destruir el mono.

La película de terror está protagonizada por Theo James (Divergente), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Elijah Wood (El señor de los anillos), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth: El niño ciervo), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campell (Los hermanos Hardy) y Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek...

Imaginary. Borderlands. The Crow. Megalopolis. 2024 has been a colossally bad year for Lionsgate Films. Whether it’s critical ratings or box office take, there’s not a lot to be optimistic about if you’re a fan or shareholder. This is too bad as Lionsgate has always been the studio I’ve always rooted for. As distributors of the Saw, John Wick, and Rambo they’ve always had an edge to them, giving smaller films a chance to reach larger audiences. And franchises like Twilight (purchased from Summit), Divergent, and Hunger Games showed their ability to make/acquire broadly appealing films. Then they’ve even gotten into the Oscar space with releases like La La Land, Knives Out, and Sicario. But it’s getting to the point where I groan every time the Lionsgate logo comes up as it’s no longer a sign of quality or fun.

It’s...

Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet first met when they collaborated on the hit film adaptation Divergent. After they got to know each other, Woodley confided that Winslet had a profound impact on her life that ultimately shaped who she’d become.

Kate Winslet helped guide Shailene Woodley through Hollywood Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet | Kevin Winter/Getty Images

It seems that Winslet and Woodley were able to relate to each other immediately when they came together on the Divergent set. Woodley was just entering another realm of superstardom at the time. She’d graduated from doing her hit television series Secret Life of the American Teenager and went on to the big screen. Soon after her critically acclaimed performance in The Descendants, Woodley was quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

She was aware that Divergent might only expand her fame even more, which was why she was hesitant...

Actress Shailene Woodley opened up recently about how her co-star Kate Winslet positively shaped her career when she was just starting out in Hollywood. The two worked together on the 2014 Divergent franchise films when Woodley was 21 years old. In a new interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, Woodley said Winslet played a key role in helping her navigate the challenges of fame and public scrutiny at a formative time.

Woodley described Winslet as authentic and unafraid to show her true self. The Oscar winner had already faced many years in the spotlight from her role in Titanic. According to Woodley, Winslet advised her not to change herself for others or listen to directives about her looks.

At the time, Woodley said she faced pressure to alter her appearance and lifestyle. But Winslet firmly told her that’s “not who you are” and to stay true to herself. This guidance came...

Kate Winslet has been in several significant films over the years. From starring in the Avatar franchise to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Reader, and even Divergent, these films have certainly added to her image as a talented actress. However, none have been as culturally significant and iconic as 1997’s Titanic.

A still from Titanic | Credits: 20th Century Fox

The film brought her into a completely new light, making her one of the most well-known names in Hollywood and establishing her as one of the greats. Considering how much this film affected her life, it is quite surprising to know that the actress ended up missing both premieres of the film.

However, the reason why she was unable to attend is extremely heartbreaking.

Kate Winslet’s First Time Watching Titanic

During a recent interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Kate Winslet was asked about...

Shailene Woodley is opening up about her sex life.

The 32-year-old Three Women star spoke about her romantic life during an episode of the SheMD podcast.

During the appearance, she talked about being “a very sexual person” during a larger conversation about women’s health and societal expectations around sex with co-hosts Dr. Thais Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I always have been. I was very lucky in my life as a young person, discovering myself and my body, to have a partner at the time who loved to dance,” she said.

“I always call it a dance — it’s a dance, we’re exchanging energy. Sometimes the dance is like a really fast tango, and sometimes the dance is a really slow groove, and sometimes it’s loud and sometimes really soft.”

She recalled that she “had somebody that helped me discover myself...

Shailene Woodley is giving further insight into what she experienced when she was undergoing several health issues in her early 20s.

The actress made an appearance on the She MD podcast, hosted by Mary Alice Haney and Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, where she discussed her new series, Three Women, and her struggles with an undisclosed illness during the early peak of her fame.

When asked if she’d be willing to elaborate on her previous comments about how she was “very sick” while filming the Divergent films, she said she doesn’t feel the need to share what she was diagnosed with because it’s personal but would be willing to talk about what she went through more in-depth.

“It got to the point where I was losing my hearing. I couldn’t walk for longer than five minutes at a time without having to lay down for hours and hours and hours and sleep,...

Shailene Woodley is opening up about the health scare she experienced while filming the Divergent movies.

The 32-year-old actress said that she began losing her hearing, had trouble eating, and couldn’t walk for long periods of time.

While she previously has noted in interviews that she went through a “very scary physical situation” in her early 20s, this is the most she’s ever revealed about it.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I haven’t spoken about what exactly it was because that feels like a personal thing that I don’t need to disclose,” Shailene said on the She MD podcast. “I was in a position in my early 20s, it got to the point where I was losing my hearing, I couldn’t walk for long periods of time without having to lay down for hours and hours and sleep. Everything I ate hurt my stomach.

It's a bummer every single month, but a handful of fan-favorite movies leave Netflix at the end of the month before a new collection of movies arrives the following month. In September, a number of popular movies are leaving Netflix, including two throwbacks and two beloved trilogies.

This month already saw a large number of unfortunate removals from Netflix, including a handful of complete series fans love to watch. The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, iZombie, and Jane the Virgin have already departed and soon Great News, Good Witch, and How to Get Away with Murder will join them in the final week of the month.

Looking to quickly watch your favorite movie before it leaves Netflix? We shared four good movies watch to add to your watch list before time runs out!

The Divergent Series

Leaving Netflix: Sept. 30

If you need a quick fix of young adult dystopian adventure after watching the current No.

Shailene Woodley has joined the cast of the upcoming Broadway play Cult of Love from Leslye Headland, the creator of The Acolyte.

She joins Zachary Quinto and Euphoria star Barbie Ferreira, who have also boarded the play about four adult children from the Dahl family returning to their childhood home with their partners for the Christmas holidays, only to see their harmony interrupted as old and new conflicts arise.

Big Little Lies star Woodley, who currently appears in the Three Women TV series for Starz, is making her Broadway debut, as is Headland. The play’s ensemble cast also includes Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell and Christopher Sears.

Woodley’s other credits include the Divergent film series and roles in The Fault in Our Stars, The Spectacular Now and The Descendants. Bernard is best known for playing Lauren Heller on Younger. She also starred in Milkwater and...

Back in the 2010s, YA stories were all the rage. And not just any YA stories; we went through a stretch when we were obsessed specifically with YA stories where teenagers were living under oppressive sci-fi dystopias that sorted them into categories. There was The Hunger Games, where everyone lived in increasingly impoverished districts and the teens were offered up as human sacrifices who fought to the death in public games for the amusement of the privileged. There was the Divergent series, where everyone is assigned a faction that corresponds to their personalities...except for our heroes, who are too much themselves to belong to any one faction. Teen power!

in 2005, when this kind of thing was still on trend, Scott Westerfeld wrote a book called Uglies, about a sci-fi dystopia where "uglies" are given cosmetic procedures at the age of 16 so they can become "pretties." I have to quote...

The dystopian young adult genre had its heyday in the early 2010s, thanks to iconic blockbusters like The Hunger Games and Divergent. These films, based on best-selling book series, captured the imaginations of millions and dominated the box office. Now, nearly a decade later, Netflix’s adaptation of Uglies is trying to bring back that same excitement, with Joey King in the lead role.

Credits: Joey King in Uglies / Netflix

Media outlets have even gone so far as to claim that Uglies could be the next Hunger Games. The audacity to position this film as a rival to The Hunger Games is, frankly, unbelievable. To Jennifer Lawrence and the legacy of The Hunger Games, we’re sorry you had to witness this.

Joey King’s Ambitious Comparison of The Hunger Games And Uglies Credits: Joey King in Uglies / Netflix

Joey King, the star and producer of Uglies, has been vocal...

The highly anticipated Netflix movie, Uglies, based on Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 novel, has left fans and critics underwhelmed. Despite being Joey King’s passion project, which she pitched to Netflix for years, the film’s execution failed to deliver.

Critics and reviewers weren’t so impressed with the unengaging plot, ranking this movie abysmally at the bottom. The actress expressed her love for the books, stating she had been pitching the movie to the streaming platform for years. Unfortunately, this toil of several years failed to reflect on screen and the film’s review took a nosedive.

From Page to Screen: Joey King’s Passion Project

Directed by McG, Uglies stars Joey King as Tally Youngblood in a dystopian world. Based on the book of the same name by Scott Westerfeld, the film was very much a passion project for the young actress.

Joey King in Uglies | Credits: Netflix

I...

We open on a world bathed in concrete gray. There’s a powerful government, a postapocalyptic class system with a telling name, and an unassuming teenager primed to start a worldwide revolution. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s the underpinning of most popular dystopian young adult franchises, including Uglies, a mid-aughts novel series by Scott Westerfeld that has finally been adapted to film (now streaming on Netflix). Unfortunately, while Westerfeld’s books were memorable trendsetters in the genre, the long-awaited movie feels like a collection of YA clichés. And...

(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's ridiculous, frankly, that a studio head, Emma Watts of Fox at the time, saw my little animated short, which was really all I had done and said, 'Here is $24 million, go make a movie.'" Those are the words of director Wes Ball speaking with DiscussingFilm in 2020. The movie in question is 2014's "The Maze Runner." While the final budget was closer to $34 million, the astonishing point remains the same. Yes, Ball getting to direct the film based on the strength of his short "Ruin" is surprising. Far more surprising? That he made a straight-up YA blockbuster for less than half what it cost to make "The Hunger Games."

Historical context is important here. In 2012, "The Hunger Games" hit it big pulling in $678 million worldwide,...

The golden age of young adult dystopian films is already behind us, but some are still attempting to change that. Take, for instance, Joey King’s new Netflix movie. Based on the novel by Scott Westerfeld, Uglies revolves around a future post-apocalyptic dystopian society where everyone is compelled to look pretty.

Credits: Joey King in Uglies / Netflix

While it sounds like an interesting and relevant story that many can relate to, especially with the beauty standards of today, fans of the novel didn’t feel like it captured the essence of the book.

Fans Despised Netflix Adaptation of Uglies

Joey King is known by many for her stint in Netflix’s The Kissing Booth, and ever since her rise to fame, she became involved in the film industry. In fact, not only did she star in the Uglies adaptation, but she also served as an executive producer. That only reveals...

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for Netflix’s Uglies movie.

Uglies author Scott Westerfeld always hoped that one of his readers would take action to get his book adapted to the screen, and he got his wish when Joey King read the books and later pitched them to Netflix.

The movie, now out on the streamer, adapts the 2005 first book in Westerfeld’s quartet and tells the tale of Tally Youngblood (King in the movie), who is ready to get the obligatory cosmetic operation that makes 16-year-olds pretty in her futuristic society. This way of life takes on a different meaning when Tally is tasked with recovering her missing friend Shay (Brianne Tju) from The Smoke, a community of rebels who leave the city and forgo surgery to live a simpler life.

“When I wrote the book in the early 2000s I was mostly talking about real plastic surgery,...

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for Uglies on Netflix.

Uglies star and producer Joey King first became aware of Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies book series when she was 11 years old, and now more than 10 years later, her pitch to adapt the first book into a film to Netflix will yield its result.

Uglies is based in a futuristic society that requires teenagers to get a cosmetic surgery once they turn 16 to make them “pretty,” or devoid of facial flaws with a toned body. Tally Youngblood (King) dreams of the day she can have the operation and get a symmetrical face, until her new friend Shay (Brianne Tsu) runs away to the rumored community known as The Smoke with the mysterious man David (Keith Powers), and Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox) sends her after Shay with the blackmail that she will never get surgery if she doesn’t retrieve her missing friend.

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for the movie Uglies.

Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies has made it to the big screen at long last.

After its publication in 2005, the first novel of four by the author gathered a big readership as a precursor to YA dystopia stories like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner and more. The story follows Tally Youngblood, who lives in a society that values face symmetry over anything else. All citizens within the society receive a mandatory surgical operation that makes them “pretty,” evening out their facial flaws and physiques.

Throughout the books, Tally gets an outside perspective on the operation that she once wanted more than anything else, first from a community of rebels who have escaped various cities to live a simpler life in a community they call The Smoke. The Netflix film, directed by McG and adapted by Jacob Forman, Vanessa Taylor...

Netflix stalwarts Joey King, Chase Stokes, Keith Powers, and Laverne Cox team up for the highly anticipated page-to-screen adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's popular novel Uglies. In the new movie, which began streaming on Sept. 13, Tally Youngblood anticipates her "pretty" procedure, until her friend goes missing and thus kicks off the beginnings of a potential revolution.

Before tuning into the new young adult dystopian sci-fi movie (that's a mouthful!), you might be in the market for a bit more information about the content featured in the film adaptation. Without giving away any major spoilers, only references to spoiler-adjacent situations, we're sharing a guide to what to expect from the action, violence, and more contained in Netflix's Uglies.

Uglies. (L-r) Chase Stokes as Peris and Joey King as Tally in Uglies. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix Uglies is rated PG-13 for violence, action, and language

According to the movie's official page on Netflix,...

An empty and exasperating teen book adaptation, set in a future where beautiful people rule the world, is one of the year’s most pointless films

It’s been a few years since Hollywood’s rush for young adult dystopian franchises, from The Hunger Games to Divergent to The Maze Runner. Which makes Uglies, a new Netflix adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 novel intended to kick off a new trilogy, already feel out of time. The exceedingly derivative film, directed by McG (Netflix’s Babysitter: Killer Queen) clearly tries to evoke its famous precedents, even hiring Divergent screenwriter Vanessa Taylor, along with Jacob Forman and Whit Anderson, for a script that takes broad swipes at the predominant dystopian YA themes: physical and emotional change, staying true to one’s values, remembering who the real enemy is.

Credit to Uglies for this: in the year 2024, plastic surgery and a beauty standard...

Sci-fi and fantasy movies have always taught us that fascism is bad and that we shouldn’t discriminate against each other under any circumstances because that leads to the death of humanity. Even though its rabid fanbase will claim otherwise, Star Wars has consistently talked about the dangers of dictatorship and highlighted the importance of rebelling. Young-adult franchises like The Hunger Games and Divergent have all been about the need to protect democracy and human rights because they take years to build and only a second of bigotry to destroy. I grew up watching all these movies, and, despite my low cognitive skills, I understood their anti-fascist messages, and I continue to promote them till this day. So, you can imagine my confusion upon seeing people who have also watched these movies and stars who have gained popularity by cosplaying as revolutionaries, partaking in discrimination, and celebrating wanton violence. Uglies,...

Do you, by chance, remember when director McG made good movies? Yeah, I know, me neither. And his latest, Uglies, won’t disprove that point. It is hard to believe that the man who cut his teeth directing Sugar Ray music videos has successfully made movies for nearly a quarter of a century.

Yes, cinema is a visual medium, but McG has always focused more on aesthetics. From the Charlie’s Angels franchise to family fare like Rim of the World and Family Switch, he emphasizes vain visuals instead of character depth and a good story.

McG may have finally found a film that tackles those sensibilities with Netflix’s latest Joey King vehicle. Uglies is a grossly digitally enhanced, special effects-driven, inefficacious streaming film whose themes are so wide of the mark that it practically becomes conceited.

Joey King in Uglies (2024) | Image via Netflix Relateda Family Affair (2024) Review — Joey King...

Even in a world where unrealistic photo filters have messed with our heads, Joey King (“A Family Affair”) wouldn’t be considered anything less than pretty with her lagoon-blue eyes and youthful complexion. But in the realm of “Uglies,” director McG’s (“Charlie’s Angels”) halfhearted screen adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 young-adult novel, her character Tally Youngblood’s objective attractiveness is irrelevant. That’s because being pretty means something entirely different in the reality that she lives, one that exists several hundred years after the demise of our own.

In that unnamed future, everyone at the age of 16 mandatorily goes through a surgical procedure to become their best-looking selves—a coming-of-age day as spiritual as getting one’s period or being celebrated at a teenage-centric religious custom. Until then, you’re stuck in an educational institution with the rest of “the uglies.”

Thanks to similar examples of the dystopian formula...

I think it’s fair to say film critics everywhere owe the YA genre an apology. Films about teens in sci-fi and fantasy settings who radicalize, organize, and tear down dystopian empires may be a little hokey and repetitive, but in retrospect, spending decades telling young people it’s their responsibility to be politically active and dismantle broken, oppressive social systems might have laid some positive groundwork. I’ll happily sit through hackneyed junk like “Divergent” and “The Host” and “The Darkest Minds” if it means one day their target audience will actually rise up and fix our broken health care system and repeal all the bigoted anti-transgender laws.

What I will not do is settle for McG’s “Uglies,” the latest YA dystopia yarn, based on a series of books by Scott Westerfeld. It’s a boring and disturbingly ill-conceived motion picture about a future where humanity tore itself apart,...

Ever so often, a role might come along and present a perfect opportunity for transformation, one that has the potential to redefine an actor. For Shailene Woodley, that moment appears to be right on the horizon, and we could soon see her reclaim the spotlight in a way that has been long overdue.

Theo James, Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley in Insurgent | Lionsgate Films

Time and again we’ve seen that navigating Hollywood’s ever-changing landscape requires not just talent, but bold choices that reflect versatility and commitment. By taking advantage of novel opportunities, artists can either be elevated to new heights, or quietly fade away.

Shailene Woodley Cast in the Janis Joplin Biopic Shailene Woodley in To Catch a Killer | FilmNation Entertainment

Shailene Woodley’s new project is officially backed by the California Film Commission’s Film and Television Tax Credit Program. As per their announcement, Woodley will bring Janis...

Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL but the athlete has also garnered plenty of headlines for his life off the football field. He’s made news in the past for dating some famous women including X–Men: Apocalypse actor Olivia Munn and former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick.

The New York Jets signal caller was also engaged to Big Little Lies star Shailene Woodley but they never made it down the aisle. The Divergent actor said after they split that was a really “s***** time in her life” but she never revealed what led to their breakup.

Now, in a new interview Woodley is discussing how she suffered a broken heart after dating A-Rod and giving some insight into why they didn’t last.

When Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley broke up (L): Shailene Woodley at an awards ceremony in Beverly Hills | Kevin Winter/Getty Images,...

Recently, Rotten Tomatoes introduced the new "Verified Hot" label to their audience-polled Popcornmeter. Should a film's audience score rank above 90%, they will receive a new badge of honor. Yes, despite the website's consistent fallibility to review bombing, on top of their already flawed and frequently-gamed system, the widely-revered review aggregate is still making steps to gain more credibility, yet all it's doing is further dividing critics and audiences. This heated topic of discourse continues to oscillate between "critics don't know how to have fun" to "audiences are too stupid to be trusted," to the point that it has become a staple in the alt-right culture war.

It goes without saying that critics and audiences perceive films differently, but the nuances that explain why are far from black and white. In fact, there's a lot that can be deciphered from a large gap in critics and audience scores, and it isn't...

This post contains spoilers for the "Divergent" trilogy.

The "chosen one" trope is a staple of young adult fare, through some franchises have made an effort to subvert it. For instance, "The Hunger Games" protagonist Katniss Everdeen is meant to embody the Mockingjay throughout "The Hunger Games" series, but she consistently detests being used as a revolutionary symbol for political propaganda. A similarly subversive figure emerges in Veronica Roth's "Divergent" book series, where Beatrice "Tris" Prior is initially presented as an anomaly within the system — with facets of the "chosen one" formula guiding her arc — only to be revealed as just one of many such anomalies. What really makes her stand out is being brave enough to challenge the status quo.

When director Neil Burger's adaptation of Roth's first book, "Divergent," was released in 2014, the film received mixed reviews from critics but did pretty well at the box office.

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Kate Winslet Brings the Heat to a Wild, Well-Dressed Revenge Dramedy

To paraphrase Moira Rose, “If you love female rage as much as I do, you’ll thrill to Kate Winslet in the underseen Australian movie ‘The Dressmaker.‘”

“The Dressmaker” exists in an odd lull in Winslet’s career. Post-Oscar win for “The Reader,” she appeared in a slew of Ok period films and the “Divergent” series — which meant no one was really looking for the next great Winslet performance. Too bad, because one of her best is at...

Netflix is removing a Ton of hit titles in September and fans are going to want to thoroughly go through this list.

Each month, the streaming service removes various movies and TV shows for a variety of reasons. In September, they’ll be removing several CW hits including all five seasons of Jane the Virgin, Dune, all six seasons of How to Get Away with Murder, all three Fifty Shades movies (despite them just becoming available in June and July), the Divergent films, two Conjuring movies, and more.

Keep reading to see the full list of titles being removed…

Every title leaving Netflix in September 2024:

Leaving 9/3/24

Beverly Hills Cop

Beverly Hills Cop II

Leaving 9/5/24

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Seasons 1-4

iZombie: Seasons 1-5

Jane The Virgin: Seasons 1-5

Leaving 9/8/24

Cuties

Leaving 9/19/24

Bodies Bodies Bodies

Leaving 9/24/24

A Walk to Remember

Leaving 9/27/24

Force of Nature

Great News: Seasons 1-...

Protagonizada por Theo James, Tatiana Maslany y Elijah Wood. © Neon

Neon ha publicado el primer tráiler de la película The Monkey, dirigida por Oz Perkins (Longlegs) y basada en un relato corto de Stephen King.

The Monkey sigue a dos hermanos gemelos, Hal y Bill, que descubren el viejo mono de juguete de su padre en el desván. Cuando una serie de espantosas muertes empiezan a ocurrir a su alrededor, los hermanos deciden deshacerse del mono y seguir adelante con sus vidas, distanciándose con el paso de los años. Pero cuando las misteriosas muertes comienzan de nuevo, los hermanos deben reunirse para encontrar la manera de destruir el mono.

La película de terror está protagonizada por Theo James (Divergente), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Elijah Wood (El señor de los anillos), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth: El niño ciervo), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campell (Los hermanos Hardy) y Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek...