Category Archives: Film

Dolled up: Design Museum to host Barbie exhibition next year

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The London museum has been granted special access to the world-famous toy’s archives in California and will explore her history ‘through a design lens’

If this summer’s blockbuster movie has left you longing for more Barbie in your life, help is at hand. An exhibition on the history of the world-famous long-legged doll is to open at the Design Museum in London next year.

The museum says it has been granted special access to the Barbie archives in California, and dozens of rare and unique items will be displayed to tell the story of the brand over the course of 65 years.

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‘Braverman knows exactly what she’s unleashing’: Ken Loach on his latest, and possibly last, film

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The Old Oak, about tensions in a former mining village when refugees arrive, has touched a nerve more raw now than when filming began

The veteran film-maker Ken Loach is famous for storylines that depict life’s bleakest injustices. But his latest film has touched a political nerve that is more raw now than when it was conceived before the pandemic.

Loach, now 87, has said that The Old Oak, which opened in cinemas on Friday, will be his last in a career spanning more than six decades. The six-week shoot was challenging, he says, but plays down the difficulties of making a big film at his age with the sight in one eye almost gone.

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Hollywood writers agree to end five-month strike after new studio deal

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Writers Guild of America said its members could return to work while a ratification vote takes place for fresh three-year contract

Hollywood writers will officially end their five-month strike on Wednesday, as union leaders approved an agreement made with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and sent the full details of the new contract to union members for ratification.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) said in a statement on Tuesday evening that its members could return to work at midnight tonight, while a ratification vote takes place on a new three-year contract with Hollywood studios.

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Steve Coogan to star in Armando Iannucci’s Dr Strangelove play

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Coogan will follow in Peter Sellers’ footsteps to play multiple roles in stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satirical war film

Steve Coogan is to star in Armando Iannucci’s stage adaptation of the satirical war film Dr Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

The play, set to open in London next autumn, reunites the pair who worked together more than 30 years ago on the BBC radio comedy On the Hour, in which Coogan played Alan Partridge, and on subsequent Partridge projects.

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‘Exceptional’: Hollywood writers hail tentative deal to end strike

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Writers Guild of America says agreement on pay and conditions ‘due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power’

The tentative deal reached between Hollywood and studio executives has been received well by those on strike and others within the industry.

Members from the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who took on the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) with demands that included better pay and residuals, and safeguards on the use of artificial intelligence, shared their collective relief.

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‘Hard to know’ if Bruce Willis is aware of dementia condition, wife says

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Emma Heming Willis says she has been ‘care partner’ to husband, 68, after actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration

Six months after Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, it is “hard to know” whether the actor, known for roles in Die Hard and Pulp Fiction, is aware of the extent to which his condition has worsened, his wife has revealed in a new interview.

Emma Heming Willis also told Today’s Hoda Kotb in an interview broadcast on Monday that she has been a “care partner” to her husband since the moment of the diagnosis.

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Prize-winning Polish film on refugees opens to government backlash

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Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border tells story of brutal treatment of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe

A prize-winning film sharply critical of the Polish government’s attitude to refugees has opened at cinemas across the country, after being attacked in the run-up to its release by members of the Polish government.

Green Border, a feature film by the celebrated director Agnieszka Holland, won the special jury prize in Venice last month. It tells the story of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe via the Belarus-Poland border in 2021, and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of Polish border guards.

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Viral series about Chinese teapot escaping from British Museum to become film

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Series with 370m views echoes Chinese state media calls for return of cultural relics

A viral series on the Chinese version of TikTok about a jade teapot that turns into a woman and escapes from the British Museum is to be adapted into an animated film.

The plot of Escape from the British Museum, a series made by two social media influencers, echoes Chinese state media calls for the British government to make amends for “historical sins” and return Chinese cultural relics.

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Literary satire American Fiction takes Toronto film festival’s top award

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Cord Jefferson’s story of a novelist (Jeffrey Wright) grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers is now practically guaranteed serious Oscar consideration

American Fiction, the literary satire starring Jeffrey Wright as a novelist grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers, has won the Toronto international film festival’s influential People’s Choice award, a result that practically guarantees it serious Oscar consideration and contention for major awards.

Described by the Guardian as “hilarious and withering”, American Fiction triumphed over pre-festival favourites such as Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Boy and the Heron, which were named the runners-up. It is written and directed by Cord Jefferson, a credited writer on TV shows including The Good Place, Watchmen and Station Eleven, and now making his feature directing debut.

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Horace Ové, pioneering black British film-maker, dies aged 86

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Knighted in 2022, Trinidad-born Ové directed the first black British feature and documented the arrival of reggae to the UK

Horace Ové, regarded as the pioneer of black British film-making, died on Saturday at the age of 86, his son has announced.

Ové directed the first black British feature, Pressure, in 1976 and was also the first to document the arrival of reggae music to the UK with 1971’s Reggae.

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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis resign from anti-child sexual abuse charity

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Actors were on the board of Thorn when their letters defending convicted rapist Danny Masterson came to light

Ashton Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis have resigned from the board of the anti-child sexual abuse charity he founded amid swirling criticism of their defense of fellow actor and convicted rapist Danny Masterson.

Kutcher told the board of Thorn he was standing down immediately as its chair in a letter written on Thursday and posted to the organization’s website. Kunis’s role as an observer on the board ended at the same time.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Demolition of Marilyn Monroe’s house halted after widespread outrage

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Los Angeles officials intervened to block the tearing down of the property and are considering it for historic preservation

The final home of Marilyn Monroe – and the only residence she ever owned independently – will remain standing for now after Los Angeles officials intervened to block the property’s demolition.

The news that the new owners of 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, where Monroe died at age 36, filed for demolition permits had attracted widespread outrage. Los Angeles city councilwoman Traci Park said she received hundreds of calls urging her to save the Spanish colonial-style house in the city’s Brentwood neighborhood.

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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis sorry for ‘pain’ caused by letters on behalf of Danny Masterson

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Actors say letters were not meant to undermine victims of Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for rape

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologized on Saturday for character letters the celebrity couple wrote on behalf of fellow That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson before he was sentenced for rape this week.

A judge in Los Angeles on Thursday sentenced Masterson to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women in 2003.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Woody Allen in Venice: #MeToo has been good for women, but cancel culture can be ‘silly’

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Director attacks ‘extremes’ of movement while promoting Coup de Chance, his 50th film, at Venice film festival, as well as addressing persistent interest in historic allegations against him

Woody Allen has voiced his support for the #MeToo movement while promoting his new film, adding that he sometimes finds cancel culture “silly”.

The director’s career has lately been mired by a recent refocusing in social media on an allegation made against him in 1993, when his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, said he had sexually assaulted her in an attic at the time of the custody battle between Allen and Dylan’s adoptive mother, Mia Farrow.

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French actor Mathieu Kassovitz ‘seriously injured’ in motorbike accident

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Actor famous for Amélie, The Bureau and La Haine, which he also wrote and directed, reportedly in a ‘worrying’ condition

The French actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz is in a “worrying” condition after a motorbike accident in greater Paris on Sunday, authorities say.

The 56-year-old, who is best known for his 1995 film La Haine and his role in the 2001 film Amélie, was on a motorcycle training course at the time, a police source told Agence France-Presse.

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‘Then the black rain fell’: survivor’s recollections of Hiroshima inspire new film

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The 230-page unpublished memoir will reflect the horrors suffered by ordinary Japanese citizens in a feature-length drama

A major feature film on Hiroshima is going into production, inspired in part by an unpublished memoir of a Japanese man who witnessed the devastation of the city after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.

Scriptwriter Elisabeth Bentley was taken aback by the personal recollections of Kiyoshi Tanimoto in a 230-page memoir that she unearthed in a US archive.

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Makeup artist who created prosthetic nose for Bradley Cooper film apologises

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Kazu Hiro says he was surprised by ‘Jewface’ criticism over actor’s portrayal of composer Leonard Bernstein in biopic Maestro

The makeup artist who worked on Bradley Cooper’s movie Maestro has apologised to anyone who felt hurt by the use of a prosthetic nose, which has been criticised by some as an example of “Jewface”.

Speaking at a press conference at the Venice film festival – where Maestro, a biopic of composer Leonard Bernstein, will premiere – Kazu Hiro said he was surprised by the backlash.

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The Nun actor accuses Warner Bros of ‘hiding’ her share of merchandise revenue

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Bonnie Aarons, who plays demonic nun in billion-dollar Conjuring franchise, is suing studio for ‘obscuring’ the ‘true amount of her rightful share’

The actor who plays the demonic nun in the billion-dollar Conjuring film franchise is suing Warner Bros, claiming the studio is hiding the true amount of money it made from merchandise featuring her character.

Bonnie Aarons first played the nun, also known as “Valak”, in the 2016 horror film The Conjuring 2. The box office hit spawned a spin-off franchise just for her character: the 2018 film The Nun and the impending sequel The Nun 2, set to be released on 8 September.

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Martin Scorsese backs Iranian director jailed over Cannes screening

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Oscar winner urges signing of petition after Iran court finds Saeed Roustaee guilty of ‘contributing to propaganda’ for showing banned movie

Martin Scorsese has backed a petition against the jailing of the prominent Iranian movie director Saeed Roustaee for screening a film at the Cannes film festival.

Scorsese, the Oscar-winning director of Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, reposted a campaign launched by his daughter Francesca this week after news of Roustaee’s prison sentence emerged.

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Owner ‘mortified’ Margate gallery was closed when Pedro Pascal turned up

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Hollywood star had come to see an exhibition featuring 17 images of his face, but found the door locked

The owner of an art gallery featuring an exhibition dedicated to Hollywood star Pedro Pascal said she was “mortified” the gallery was closed when the actor turned up for a visit.

Jessica Rhodes Robb, who owns and runs the venue with her partner, Gavin Blake, was bemused to discover Pascal, 48, had turned up to the Rhodes Gallery in Margate on Sunday to find the door closed.

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