Category Archives: Film

Lebanon in move to ban Barbie film for ‘promoting homosexuality’

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Culture minister asks general security agency to act to prevent screening as anti-LGBT rhetoric ramps up

Lebanon’s culture minister moved to ban the film Barbie from the country’s cinemas on Wednesday, saying it “promoted homosexuality” and contradicted religious values.

Mohammad Mortada is backed by the powerful Shia Muslim armed group Hezbollah, whose head, Hassan Nasrallah, has ramped up his rhetoric against the LGBT community, saying it poses an “imminent danger” to Lebanon and should be “confronted”.

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William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist and The French Connection, dies at 87

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The Oscar-winning film-maker has died in Los Angeles, leaving behind a career as one of his generation’s most admired talents

• Gallery: Friedkin’s life in pictures

William Friedkin, Oscar-winning director of The Exorcist and The French Connection, has died at the age of 87.

The film-maker died in Los Angeles, confirmed by Chapman University dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of his wife and former producer Sherry Lansing.

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Kuwait bans hit Australian horror film Talk to Me over casting of trans actor Zoe Terakes

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Terakes, who plays a character whose gender is never mentioned in the film, called the decision ‘targeted and dehumanising’

The hit Australian horror film Talk To Me has been banned from screening in Kuwait, reportedly solely over the casting of non-binary trans actor Zoe Terakes, who plays a character whose gender identity is never mentioned in the film.

The Hollywood Reporter first reported on the decision, which they confirmed was based entirely on the presence of Terakes, an Australian actor who identifies as non-binary and trans-masculine. A rising star who has appeared in Wentworth and Nine Perfect Strangers, they are also the first trans actor to be cast in a Marvel TV series, with a role in the upcoming superhero show Ironheart. The Guardian has confirmed the decision independently.

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Jamie Foxx apologizes after Instagram post draws accusations of antisemitism

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‘I want to apologize to the Jewish community,’ says actor, who clarified that post was directed at ‘fake friend’ who betrayed him

The actor Jamie Foxx has apologized after a social media post from him drew accusations of antisemitism.

Foxx’s post – on Instagram – read: “They killed this dude name Jesus … what do you think they’ll do to you???! #fakefriends #fakelove”. But the 55-year-old entertainer deleted the post after fellow users asserted that it echoed the hateful belief that Jewish people all together as one crucified and killed Jesus Christ.

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Barbenheimer backlash: Warner Bros apologises after its Japan arm complains

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Warner Bros Japan publicly criticised US counterparts over ‘inconsiderate’ reactions to art combining playful Barbie imagery with mushroom clouds

Warner Bros global headquarters has apologised after its Japan office publicly complained that the US-based company was engaging with the “Barbenheimer” movement, which promotes a double bill of the apocalyptic Oppenheimer film and the lighthearted Barbie blockbuster.

There is a growing backlash in Japan against the conflation of Greta Gerwig’s playfully marketed movie with Oppenheimer, a biopic of the scientist behind the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Australian cinema chain co-owned by Mel Gibson to screen US conservative hit Sound of Freedom

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Dendy cinemas says they will screen movie promoted by American right wing ‘due to overwhelming demand’, despite questions as to actual popularity

An Australian cinema chain co-owned by actor Mel Gibson will screen the QAnon adjacent Sound of Freedom film in August, after the film became a hit among the far right and conservatives in the United States.

Sound of Freedom is based on the true story of Tim Ballard, a former homeland security department agent who tried to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. Ballard is played by Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus Christ in Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

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Netflix lists AI job worth $900,000 amid twin Hollywood strikes

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Company lists highly paid machine-learning project manager role while actors and executives at odds over future of AI in Hollywood

As actors and writers strike over fair compensation and protections from the encroachment of artificial intelligence, Netflix has listed a position for a machine learning product manager that will compensate somewhere between $300,000 and $900,000 a year. According to the Screen Actors Guild (Sag-Aftra), 87% of the guild’s actors make less than $26,000 per year.

The use of AI in the production of film and television – either to write scripts, generate actors’ likenesses, or cut corners in paying creative work, has been a major point of contention in negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Sag and the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Writers have been striking since May; the actors joined earlier this month. The first joint strike since 1960 threatens to bring Hollywood to a complete standstill.

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Venice film festival picks starry films despite actors’ strike

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Hollywood films vying for Golden Lion include Bradley Cooper’s Maestro and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, with non-competition films by Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater

The Venice film festival appears to have largely shrugged off issues caused by non-attendance of Hollywood actors due to the Sag-Aftra strike as it unveiled its lineup for its 2023 edition.

Venice has traditionally functioned partly as a platform for major American releases looking for strong positioning in the autumn awards season, and it has already seen its originally announced opening film Challengers, a tennis drama starring Zendaya, drop out after it was forced to delay its release date.

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‘The Barbenheimer effect’: Barbie and Oppenheimer smash Australian box office records

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Both blockbusters broke a variety of opening weekend records, in a double feature that’s enticing film lovers back to cinemas

The “Barbenheimer” effect has taken its hold over the Australian box office, with the release of blockbuster movies Barbie and Oppenheimer breaking a slew of local cinema records across their first weekend.

The Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie movie has made $21.5m at the box office since the film opened on Wednesday night. It was the biggest opening weekend for a movie released in Australia in 2023, more than double the nearest rival, The Super Mario Bros Movie, which collected $10.5m in ticket sales.

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Greta Gerwig makes history as Barbie has biggest opening weekend for film directed by a woman

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Barbie made $377m while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer took home $174m, making ‘Barbenheimer’ biggest box office weekend of 2023 so far

Greta Gerwig has made history as Barbie scored a US$377m (£293m, A$560m) opening weekend around the world, making it the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman.

At the North American box office – combining the US and Canada – Barbie claimed top spot with a massive $155m in ticket sales from 4,243 locations, surpassing The Super Mario Bros Movie and every Marvel film released this year to become the biggest opening of the year.

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Iran authorities ban film festival over poster of actor without hijab

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Government blocks event after release of publicity featuring Susan Taslimi in 1982 film The Death of Yazdgerd

Iranian authorities have banned a film festival that issued a publicity poster featuring an actor who was not wearing a hijab, state media has reported.

The move came after the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) released a poster for its upcoming short-film festival featuring the Iranian actor Susan Taslimi in the 1982 film The Death of Yazdgerd.

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Sound of Freedom passed the $100m mark. Who’s really watching the movie?

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The ‘QAnon adjacent’ film, co-opted by the right wing, has a ‘pay it forward’ scheme resulting in sold-out shows but empty theaters

Sound of Freedom, the religious, “QAnon adjacent” child-smuggling film that has enthralled conservatives across the US, passed the $100m mark in ticket sales on Thursday.

But as the movie continues to cause controversy – with its star touring conservative media to peddle conspiracy theories about unnamed persons harvesting chemicals from children’s blood and anti-trafficking experts criticizing the film’s entire premise – questions are also being asked about who is actually watching it and whether that many people are watching it at all.

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Barbie release delayed in Pakistan’s Punjab province over ‘objectionable content’

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Film being reviewed to ensure it is not violating the country’s social, cultural and religious values

The launch of the highly anticipated Hollywood movie Barbie has been delayed in Pakistan’s Punjab province over “objectionable content”.

Officials said the film would be reviewed and needed clearance from the provincial boards that censor scenes violating the country’s social, cultural and religious values.

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Unseen ‘log fight’ footage from Bruce Lee film Game of Death to be released

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Scene which has long been the holy grail for fans will feature in a new box set marking the 50th anniversary of the star’s death

Long-lost unseen footage of the celebrated “log fight” scene from the Bruce Lee film Game of Death is to be released in a new box set marking the 50th anniversary of the famed actor and martial artist’s death.

Lee, who shot to fame around the world with the 1973 film Enter the Dragon, died on 20 July 1973 before he could complete shooting on Game of Death, which eventually emerged in 1978, incorporating some of the original footage in a largely reshot and rewritten version.

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Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76

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Best known for the sexually explicit 1969 hit Je t’aime … moi non plus, her adopted France took her to its heart

France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.

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Hollywood actors’ strike: entertainment desert looms and pain will spread wider

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The walkout by writers and screen stars won’t affect just the US film industry but production in UK and Europe

There will be no fresh helpings of The White Lotus, The Last of Us or even Emily in Paris beaming into front rooms when summer fades. Nor will a screen version of the musical Wicked, starring Ariana Grande, be showing in your local cinema in the spring. And all shooting on Gladiator 2 in Morocco is likely to be indefinitely paused. Already, the wails are almost audible.

On this, the first weekend of the American screen actors’ strike, the level of frustration registered by film and TV drama fans around the world has dwarfed earlier reactions to the equivalent writers’ strike, running since the beginning of May.

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French film-maker’s family fight to keep link to chateau that inspired his stories

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Marcel Pagnol based his famous movies on a Provencal manor he’d known as a child. Now his legacy is at risk, says his grandson

In 1941 the French novelist, playwright and film-maker Marcel Pagnol bought a chateau in a Provençal valley outside Marseille on the advice of his solicitor without even seeing it.

He proposed to transform the property into a “cinema city”, a French Hollywood set in the hills and lavender fields of southern France where he had holidayed as a child.

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Hollywood on the Tiber: stars return to Rome studios once home to Heston and Fellini

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Sprawling Cinecittà complex is in demand again thanks to tax breaks and boom in film and TV production

Walk through the 1930s-built, dusty pink gates of Cinecittà, the legendary film studios in Rome, and the magic of its golden era is immediately palpable. This is where Charlton Heston rode to victory in his chariot race in Ben Hur, which went on to win 11 Oscars. It is where the real-life love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton played out on the set of Cleopatra, and where Federico Fellini produced classics including La Dolce Vita and Amarcord.

The sprawling Cinecittà was opened with great pomp by Benito Mussolini in 1937, in part to make films promoting the dictator’s fascist propaganda. During the second world war it was first occupied by the Nazis and later became a refuge to the thousands made homeless by the allied bombing of the Italian capital.

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Fran Drescher’s fiery speech against Hollywood studios goes viral as actors strike

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The Nanny star turned Sag-Aftra union president wins praise for her passion as performers join writers in action expected to halt majority of US film and TV production

Fran Drescher has blasted Hollywood studios in a fiery speech after talks between the actors’ union and studios failed to avert a strike, calling them “disgusting” for claiming “they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs”.

In a speech that was widely circulated on Thursday – particularly among many who did not know The Nanny star was heading up Sag-Aftra, Hollywood’s biggest union – Drescher said actors were being “marginalised, disrespected and dishonoured” by a business model that has been drastically changed by streaming and artificial intelligence.

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