Latest film in franchise takes just $43m in North America and $95m globally, against a $250m budget
The Walt Disney Company’s live-action remake of Moana may be the No 1 movie at the North American box office but it did not make a big splash in its first weekend in theaters.
The movie, which cost a reported $250m (£187m, A$360m) to produce, earned just $43m from ticket sales in the US and Canada, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Continue reading...Judge says ‘no legitimate forensic purpose’ to former Liberal staffer’s subpoena requesting footage, ahead of his Queensland trial
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Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has lost a legal bid to access copies of all footage from a documentary featuring Brittany Higgins.
Lehrmann had subpoenaed the producers of the documentary Silenced and signalled a possible attempt to ban its broadcast before his Queensland trial for rape.
Continue reading...Written in 1947, Kiyoshi Tanimoto’s account of the horrors of the atomic bomb attack will be published in August and is being made into a film
The memoir of a man who survived the horrors of Hiroshima is to be published for the first time this summer after its discovery in a US archive.
The 230-page memoir was written almost 80 years ago by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, who witnessed the city’s destruction after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. He will now be portrayed in a feature film by Takehiro Hira, whose acclaimed roles include the detective in the Netflix Japanese-British drama Giri/Haji. Pre-production begins in November, ahead of the shoot in February 2027.
Continue reading...Over 40 years, Italy’s Il Cinema Ritrovato – or ‘rediscovered cinema’ – has evolved into an influential international gathering
Bologna will be transformed into an open-air museum of cinema on Saturday as a nine-day festival dedicated to restored, rediscovered and overlooked films – some dating back more than a century – gets under way in the northern Italian city.
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, Il Cinema Ritrovato, or “rediscovered cinema”, has evolved from its niche origins into an influential international gathering captivating a new generation of cinephiles.
Continue reading...Responding to an incident in which she was verbally abused, the actor said that ‘evil forces are rising everywhere’, as well as expressing support for MobLand co-star Tom Hardy
Helen Mirren has commented on being called an “evil Zionist bitch” while being harassed in the street in London, saying she was “attacked by mistake by a man who was maybe a little over passionate or maybe mentally not quite stable”.
Footage circulated last month of an incident, believed to have taken place last year, while Mirren was walking with her husband, film-maker Taylor Hackford. They were approached and filmed by an unidentified person, who commented on Mirren’s support of Israel and then launched a volley of abuse at her.
Continue reading...Singer and actor has denied all charges after more than 20 women made allegations against him dating back to 1990s
The French singer Patrick Bruel has been charged with rape and sexual assault in one of the biggest #MeToo cases in the French music industry.
The 67-year-old, a major figure in French pop culture, was placed under formal investigation over four cases that included alleged rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Continue reading...Oscar winner Mikey Madison and Jeremy Strong to star in film focused on fallout from whistleblower Frances Haugen
The first trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Social Network has landed.
The Social Reckoning has been described as a film that isn’t a “straight sequel” but one that will still revisit Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
Continue reading...Two new rape complaints have been filed against the 67-year-old singer and actor, who denies the claims
French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, facing sexual assault allegations from multiple women, was taken into police custody on Monday, as two new rape complaints were filed against him.
The 67-year-old, a major figure in French pop culture with multiple top-selling albums and more than 40 film appearances, is being questioned about 13 victims, the prosecutor’s office in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said in a statement.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Continue reading...German director says he recognises actor should have been better protected during filming of Wrong Move
German director Wim Wenders has withdrawn from circulation his 1975 film Wrong Move, because of a scene featuring a child actor topless who was 13 at the time of filming.
The director said in a statement released on Wednesday: “Streaming, TV and distribution partners have been instructed to no longer make the film publicly accessible.”
Continue reading...Casting shifts to EU talent as paperwork delays and visa limits make hiring British crews less viable
From blacklists for UK passport holders to being asked to work illegally while on holiday, the plethora of extra costs and red tape thrown up post-Brexit are restricting opportunities for British actors seeking work in the EU.
Mainland Europe has always been a springboard for those in the creative industries, from gaining crucial first credits on a TV, film or theatre production to building a marketable resume and paying the bills while attempting to make it big in the UK or US.
Continue reading...Backrooms stunned industry observers by taking $81m in its first weekend, a record for studio A24
Kane Parsons has become the youngest film-maker to open a film at number one at the North American box office for his directing debut Backrooms.
Parsons, 20, is seven years younger than the previous record holder, Josh Trank, who was 27 when his debut Chronicle recorded a $22m opening in 2011. Backrooms stunned industry observers by taking $81m in its first weekend in North America – which was also a record for its studio, A24.
Continue reading...Wicked co-star said reactions to the incident, which included suggestions she was Grande’s ‘bodyguard’, reflect an insidious view of Black women
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo has said that reactions to the incident at the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good, in which she stepped in to fend off a red-carpet invader who grabbed co-star Ariana Grande, revealed “the insidious nature of how we view Black women” and put her off campaigning for Oscars.
In an interview with Variety, Erivo said that she and Grande were “terrified” when Johnson Wen jumped a barrier at Universal Studios Singapore and rushed towards them. “Nobody moved. Nobody moved. So I moved because my brain went, ‘Get him away! Get him out of here!’ … And what people couldn’t see is that he wouldn’t let go [of Grande]. He wouldn’t let go. So I just kept pushing at him to get him off.”
Continue reading...After winning the Grand Prix at Cannes film festival, the exiled auteur sent a direct message to the Russian president urging him to stop the war
Accoladed director Andrey Zvyagintsev has sent a direct message to Vladimir Putin urging him to start listening to the Russian people and end the “senseless” war in Ukraine, continuing a war of words between Russia’s most revered living film-maker and the Kremlin that started at the Cannes film festival awards ceremony over the weekend.
“Except for the limbs torn off from your fellow citizens in the name of an illusory goal, except for the massacre of young people that the country needs to build life and the future – nothing good is on the horizon if we don’t stop,” the exiled auteur said in a message sent to the Russian president’s press secretary through official channels on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Film starring Pedro Pascal next to ‘Baby Yoda’ took $165m globally on opening weekend, failing to surpass the opening of 2018 flop Solo
The Mandalorian and Grogu may have blasted into first place at the box office – but its launch was far, far away from impressive, having the lowest opening weekend for a Star Wars film since Disney took over the franchise.
The film, which stars Pedro Pascal as the titular helmeted warrior who travels the galaxy with a tiny companion better known as “Baby Yoda”, made $102m at the domestic box office (US and Canada) over the US’s four-day Memorial day weekend, contributing to a total $165m global box office.
Continue reading...Actor recounts three alleged approaches by intelligence services, including through senior BBC executive
Riz Ahmed, the Oscar-winning actor, has claimed that Britain’s intelligence services tried three times to recruit him, including one occasion involving a senior BBC executive.
Ahmed, 43, said: “Well, it’s happened three different times and they’re all slightly ridiculous, and this is what I mean by it, it’s just like inherently comedic.
Continue reading...The Oscar-winning actor’s role in the mythical drama has been attacked by Elon Musk and others on the far right
Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o has responded to far-right criticism of her role in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey.
In the big-budget film, out in July, the star plays Helen of Troy alongside cast members including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Zendaya.
Continue reading...Music is banned on Wednesdays on island of Stromboli where Rolling Stones frontman was celebrating wrapping a film
Police on an Italian island stopped a party attended by Mick Jagger – because music is banned on Wednesdays.
The Rolling Stones frontman was on Stromboli, the volcanic island among Sicily’s Aeolian archipelago, for the production of Three Incestuous Sisters, a film by the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher in which he stars.
Continue reading...Enthusiasts track down weapon used to fell fleeing Eli Wallach amid preparations for 60th anniversary of film’s release
Six decades after Clint Eastwood nonchalantly used a cigar to light its fuse and fell a fleeing Eli Wallach, the Manchester-made cannon that appeared in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly has been rediscovered in a museum in south-east Spain.
The artillery piece was tracked down by the Sad Hill Cultural Association, a group of volunteers dedicated to restoring the graveyard near Burgos, northern Spain, built for the climax of Sergio Leone’s seminal spaghetti western.
Continue reading...Singer and actor who has appeared in more than 40 films faces investigations in France and Belgium
The French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, the subject of multiple rape allegations, protested his innocence on Sunday and said he would not step away from his work.
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced earlier on Sunday that Bruel was the subject of at least four complaints of sexual assault in France, and that the cases would be investigated together.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Continue reading...The film-maker, who won the Grand Prix for A Hero in 2021, condemned both the killing of protesters and the conflict’s bombing campaigns during a Cannes press conference
Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has described the deaths of civilians in Iran as “extremely cruel and tragic” during a press conference at the Cannes film festival.
Farhadi, whose new Paris-set drama Parallel Tales premiered on the Croisette on Thursday night, was asked about working free from censorship in France, the war involving Iran, the US and Israel, and the repression of protesters in his native country.
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