Spectacular conflagration prompts evacuation of Tom Sawyer Island at California resort but no injuries reported
A 45ft-tall Disneyland dragon caught fire late on Saturday during a show in Anaheim, California, causing those in attendance to flee, local media and officials said. No injuries or deaths were reported.
“The dragon’s head started to glow, and I see fire and kind of smoke coming out,” Elaine Gilmer, who was at the event, told ABC News.
Continue reading...One of two identical white three-pieces worn by star in 1977 role expected to fetch $250,000
It’s one of film’s iconic images: a smouldering John Travolta, in a white three-piece suit, lapels licking the shoulders, raising his right arm on a glowing dancefloor.
And now, the white polyester outfit from Saturday Night Fever – the 1977 chronicle of the dying days of disco – could be yours for a quarter of a million dollars.
Continue reading...Baldwin was pointing a pistol at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal in 2021 when the gun went off
Prosecutors in New Mexico have dropped criminal charges against the actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the western movie Rust, officials confirmed on Thursday.
Baldwin, 65, was pointing a Colt .45 pistol at Hutchins during a rehearsal on 21 October 2021 when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director Joel Souza.
Continue reading...Vladimir Putin hails achievement that beat Hollywood project announced by Tom Cruise, Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceX
The first feature film shot in space premiered in Russian cinemas on Thursday, as Moscow exulted in beating a rival Hollywood project amid a confrontation with the west.
The Challenge is about a surgeon dispatched to the International Space Station (ISS) to save an injured cosmonaut. Russia sent an actor and a film director for a 12-day stint on the ISS in October 2021 to film scenes aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Continue reading...A representative said filming likely to restart in Montana on Thursday while a number of legal issues remain unresolved
Filming on the western movie Rust could resume this week in Montana, the production company said, 18 months after the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a rehearsal with actor Alec Baldwin on the original production in New Mexico.
Baldwin is set to continue his involvement with the project as both actor and co-producer. Rust Move Productions attorney Melina Spadone said via a representative that filming will restart on Thursday at the Yellowstone Film Ranch.
Continue reading...Prestige slot for Jeanne de Barry, featuring Depp as Louis XV, has drawn criticism but general delegate Thierry Frémaux says it is not ‘a controversial choice’
Cannes film festival general delegate Thierry Frémaux has defended the decision to hand the prestigious opening slot to Jeanne du Barry, in which Depp stars as Louis XV.
Directed by and starring Maïwenn, Jeanne du Barry is a biopic of the famous 18th-century maîtresse-en-titre, who was executed in 1793 during the French revolution. Speaking to Variety, Frémaux said it was not “a controversial choice”, adding: “If Johnny Depp had been banned from working it would have been different, but that’s not the case. We only know one thing, it’s the justice system and I think he won the legal case.”
Continue reading...The six films include the tale of an ogre who preys on women, a sci-fi Nigeria taken over by AI, and a girl on a mission to end drought
Traditional African tales of monsters, genies and malevolent spirits have been reworked for a contemporary audience in a new Netflix series.
Film-makers from Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritania and Uganda have turned six traditional stories into dark fantasy dramas that cover topics including domestic violence, suicide and child marriage.
Continue reading...Directors such as Yorgos Lanthimos have joined campaign to save the Astor and Ideal from hotel and office developments
The spectre of two historic Athens cinemas being closed by commercial interests bent on turning them into a hotel and office block has spurred film-makers to get in front of the camera with pleas to stop the process.
Directors of international acclaim have appealed to save the buildings amid mounting public disquiet over the pace of development in one of Europe’s oldest capitals. Leading the charge, Costa-Gavras, the Paris-based film director who shot to fame with the political drama Z, released when Greece was under military rule, called the existence of the Ideal and Astor cinemas indispensable for the enjoyment of film in an era when the “barbarism” of movies being watched on TV and mobile phones was widespread.
Continue reading...Avengers actor apologises to family for snowplough accident that left him close to death
The Oscar-nominated actor Jeremy Renner has said he was at fault in a New Year’s Day snowplough accident that left him close to death and apologised to his family for putting them through the ordeal.
Renner, in an interview on Walt Disney Co’s ABC network on Thursday, said he was driving the snowplough after using it to pull one of the family’s trucks out of the snow.
Continue reading...In speech to Bafta, Chariots of Fire producer says industry must invest ‘far more’ to close yawning skills gap
The Oscar-winning producer David Puttnam has issued a rallying cry to the film industry to address its yawning skills gap and grow audiences before the UK is eclipsed as a cinematic powerhouse.
In a speech to Bafta on Tuesday, Puttnam – the president of the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) and a former peer – urged the industry to “invest far more” in its workforce to retain international competitiveness.
Continue reading...Sakamoto was one of Japan’s most successful musicians, acclaimed for work in Yellow Magic Orchestra as well as solo albums and film scores
Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese musician whose remarkably eclectic career straddled pop, experimentalism and Oscar-winning film composition, has died aged 71.
Sakamoto’s management company said he died on Tuesday. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer.
Continue reading...Dave Halls given six-month suspended sentence after pleading no contest to gun charge as part of agreement with prosecutors
A Santa Fe judge on Friday accepted a plea deal, bringing the first conviction for the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the western movie Rust in New Mexico.
Dave Halls, first assistant director on Rust, pleaded no contest as part of an agreement with prosecutors to the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death.
Continue reading...Report says some depictions of violence in pornography should be allowed, with government to first tackle gambling in video games
Australia should ditch its censorship of certain fetishes and some instances of violence in pornography, according to a review that could open the way to everything from wax fetishes to pirate pornography.
On Wednesday the Albanese government released a review of the classification system handed to the Morrison government three years ago, promising to prioritise reforms to tackle in-game gambling.
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Continue reading...Actor and former Miss World announced move to US at pinnacle of her fame in India eight years ago
The Indian actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas has spoken of how Bollywood’s enduring obsession with fair skin was one of the reasons she left the industry to try her luck in Hollywood eight years ago.
Chopra, 40, is a former Miss World and was at the pinnacle of her fame in India when she abruptly announced the move to the US.
Continue reading...Amsterdam court dismisses French author’s complaint against film that shows him having sex with young women
A Dutch art collective can release an experimental erotic film showing the French novelist Michel Houellebecq having sex with young women in spite of the author’s attempt to stop its circulation, an Amsterdam court has ruled.
Amsterdam’s district court on Tuesday afternoon dismissed a legal complaint by Houellebecq and his wife, Qianyun Lysis, that had aimed to curb the distribution of the film KIRAC 27 by Keeping It Real Art Critics, as well as a trailer that was uploaded on the art collective’s website last month but has since been taken down.
Continue reading...Excerpts from depositions of actor’s children also to be read in court during trial over 2016 collision
Gwyneth Paltrow’s attorneys are expected to call a series of experts and read depositions from her two teenage children in the first full day of the actor’s trial that they have to call witnesses to make their case.
Owing to the eight-day limit the judge imposed on the trial, Paltrow’s defence team is expected to face difficult time-management decisions, much like Terry Sanderson’s experienced last week as they attempted to juggle family members, ski instructors and experts in skiing and brain science.
Continue reading...Terry Sanderson, 76, suing actor for more than $300,000 over 2016 collision, claiming she skied recklessly into him from behind
The man suing Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 collision at one of the most upscale ski resorts in North America is expected to take the stand on Monday as the closely watched trial goes into its second week in Utah.
Attorneys said on Friday that retired optometrist Terry Sanderson, 76, would likely testify first on Monday, before his attorneys rest and hand the courtroom over to Paltrow’s defense team, who are countersuing, to make their case.
Continue reading...Heather Rae has identified as Native American throughout her career but public family records don’t show any evidence of it
Questions about the Native American ancestry of film producer Heather Rae, known for being an activist for Native and Indigenous creators and projects in Hollywood, are being raised after a group published public family records that do not show evidence of Native ancestry.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, an organization that examines claims of Native ancestry from individuals and businesses who publicly represent Native identity, told the New York Post that public family records do not show any ties to tribal heritage for Rae. Citing research published in a blogpost, the group said her family identified as white across multiple public records.
Continue reading...The Creed III actor’s ads were a key element in the army’s drive to revive struggling recruitment numbers
Ads for the US army featuring Jonathan Majors have been pulled after the actor’s arrest.
Majors, who authorities said was arrested on Saturday in New York on charges of assault and harassment, was the narrator of two ads at the heart of a broader media campaign that kicked off at the start of the NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament. Army leaders were hopeful that the popularity of the star of the recently released Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would help them reach the youth audience.
Continue reading...The Best Part and I Hate Myself are performed by her character in A Good Person, written and directed by Zach Braff
Florence Pugh has released her first performances as a singer-songwriter, which are included on the soundtrack to her new film A Good Person.
The British actor has written and performed two songs: the slow ambient ballad The Best Part, and the self-lacerating piano-driven number I Hate Myself. Each are presented in the film as being sung by her character, Allison, a promising musician whose career is set back by personal tragedy.
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