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Extensive reshoots were underway last year when screenwriter John Whittington arrived on the London set of Dolittle, Universal’s franchise hopeful shepherded by Robert Downey Jr., who starred in and executive produced the $175 million film.

The studio and a contingent of producers — said to be unsatisfied with initial cuts of a movie that was planned as a broad-audience family film reimagining of a tale first brought to the screen in 1967 — hoped to add more special-effects sequences and comedic elements to the project. Whittington met with Downey to discuss the scribe’s new pages. Downey, according to sources ...

Everyone’s favorite creepy and kooky family is back in the “frighteningly funny and fresh” animated feature film, The Addams Family, arriving on Digital December 24, 2019 and on Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand January 21, 2020 from Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios (MGM) and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Now you can win the Win the Blu-ray/Combo Pack of The Addams Family. We Are Movie Geeks has one copy to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling us what your favorite movie starring Charlize Theron. (mine’s Mad Max Fury Road). It’s so easy!

1. You Must Be A Us Resident. Prize Will Only Be Shipped To Us Addresses. No P.O. Boxes. No Duplicate Addresses.

2. Winner Will Be Chosen From All Qualifying Entries.

The very first full-length animated film about the eccentric and unconventional family, The Addams Family on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital showcase the wonderfully weird...

Last year’s Oscar nominations included many surprises, but some of them had this in common: they gave smaller, art-house contenders a boost even after they had under-performed at earlier awards events during the season. Pawel Pawlikowski (“Cold War”) for Best Director. Willem Dafoe (“At Eternity’s Gate”) for Best Actor. And perhaps most surprisingly, Marina de Tavira (“Roma”) for Best Supporting Actress.

I suspect we have the new academy to thank for that. In recent years, in an effort to address complaints about the homogeneity of the organization that had been dominated by white men, the motion picture academy has expanded its membership, opening their doors not only to more women and people of color, but to international film professionals as well. So art house contenders that miss at other awards can still get a foothold here. I think that has the potential to help the following contenders who have...

To say that two-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto is in demand would be an understatement. Prieto has been a frequent collaborator with directors Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Ang Lee, Julie Taymor and Oliver Stone and has worked with Curtis Hanson, Cameron Crowe and Pedro Almodóvar. He has shot Martin Scorsese’s past three films: “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Silence” (earning an Oscar nom) and this year’s “The Irishman.” He talked with Variety about the demands and rewards of shooting the current film.

What was the biggest challenge?

I think the schedule. It was well beyond 300 scenes, and we shot for 108 days. So we had to move frequently, often several times in one day. Add to that, roughly half the movie has visual effects with the de-aging techniques. That required a rig that we created for the three cameras needed, which created a lot of logistical questions on how to light the actors.

When Bonnie Hammer's boss, NBCUniversal chief executive Steve Burke, sat her down a year ago to discuss her future, she never anticipated cable television not being a part of it.

Hammer, after all, had spent 30 years in the cable arena, rising to an unparalleled perch atop six networks. In any given week, more than 100 million viewers would tune in to watch something on one of them, be it USA, Bravo or Syfy. Even as ratings declined, she managed to keep growing that portfolio in profit and revenue for 15 consecutive years.

But now Burke wanted her to ...

It sounds like Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi has had enough of Jersey Shore. “I have to do what’s best for me at the moment, and I am retiring from Jersey Shore,” Polizi announced on today’s episode of the It’s Happening With Snooki & Joey podcast. “I am not coming back to Jersey Shore [Family Vacation] for a Season 4 if there is one.”

Polizzi went to say there are many reasons why, but the bottom line is “I just can’t do it anymore.”

“When I leave my kids and I film the show, I want to have a good time, and I’m putting myself out there and I just want to come off as a good person,” she continued. “And lately on the show, it’s just been very [dramatic]. She added that Jersey Shore is about family and having fun and lately everything has been “so serious” with fans turning against certain cast members,...

Thirty years after Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Joe Johnston is going back to the property that made his name as a director. Johnston is in early talks to helm a reboot of the franchise for Disney, with Josh Gad circling to star, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Gad has been chasing a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids reboot for some time, with his involvement first being reported by Slash Film in May after he brought the idea to Disney. If the studio greenlights the film, it sees the project as a theatrical vehicle rather than a Disney+ movie.

David Hoberman is ...

"It was one of the scariest moments I've had on a set," actress-producer Elisabeth Moss said as we sat down at the Savannah College of Art and Design earlier this fall to discuss Alex Ross Perry's Her Smell, in which she plays a fictional punk rock star named Becky Something, and I asked her about one long scene in which her troubled character sings a melancholy version of Bryan Adams' "Heaven" to her young daughter while playing it on the piano. Moss, who has no background in singing or music playing, emphasized, "I was shaking."...

The Film Independent Spirit Awards began in 1984 as a way to shine a spotlight on smaller art-house movies made on a shoestring budget. To qualify these days, films have to cost no more than $20 million. You might think there would be little cross-over between this populist organization, which opens voting to all who pay a yearly fee of $95, and the glittery elitist Academy Awards.

But the winners lists of both organizations often match up. That is especially true in the supporting actress category, where the two groups agreed half of the time since 2009. The five featured women who claimed both an Oscar and a Spirit award in the past decade are Mo’Nique (“Precious”), Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”), Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”), Allison Janey and Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”).

See Latest Oscar predictions for Best Supporting Actress by 30 Experts

That stat is great news for the Jennifer Lopez,...

Jim Jefferies' late night Comedy Central series aired its final episode on Tuesday evening, with the Australian comedian and late-night host telling his audience the reasoning for doing so is pretty understandable.

"Tonight is the last-ever Jim Jefferies Show. It's been a great three years and we're sad to go but for good reason," he said in his goodbye monologue. "I've solved everything."

The host then left it to a montage of clips — sprinkled with celebrity appearances including Brad Pitt and Carol Burnett — to recap three seasons of The Jim Jefferies Show....

Ariana Grande is suffering from a major sinus condition that’s so bad, she may have to cancel upcoming shows.

Grande posted a message and some videos online talking about the condition, which she noted has made her “very sick.” The 26-year-old singer said that “my throat and head are still in so much pain.”

“I’m just in a lot of pain and it’s difficult to breathe during the show,” she said. “I just really don’t know what’s happening with my body right now and need to figure it out.”

Like many people, Grande claimed she plans to see a doctor soon. In the meantime, she is relying on her mother, friends, cough drops and “IV drips.”

“I’m scared that I might have to cancel some things, so this is kind just a heads up of like I don’t know what’s happening with my body,...