Director rejects fears that the sequel to record-breaking 2009 blockbuster will be met with apathy, since ‘people binge-watch TV for eight hours!’
James Cameron has pre-empted fears that his forthcoming sequel to 2009’s Avatar will be met with apathy when it’s released in December.
Speaking to Empire, Cameron addressed the frequent criticism of the original film that few can remember the name – Jake Sully – of its protagonist, played by Sam Worthington.
Continue reading...Director’s lawyer says prosecutors in Italy are deciding whether to investigate allegation he had sex with a woman without consent
A judge in southern Italy on Monday ordered the film director Paul Haggis released from detention at his hotel while prosecutors decide whether to pursue their investigation of whether he allegedly had sex with a woman without her consent over two days, his lawyer said.
Michele Laforgia told the Associated Press that his client Haggis, who is also a screenwriter and an Academy Award winner, was still in Italy. The ruling was made by Judge Vilma Gilli, based in Puglia, which is the region that forms the “heel” of the Italian peninsula.
Continue reading...TikTok craze for dressing up linked to unruly behaviour among young people at screenings
Some UK cinemas have banned groups of young people wearing suits during screenings of Minions: The Rise of Gru.
The decision came after some young moviegoers were criticised for rowdy behaviour after a viral trend erupted on the social media app TikTok.
Continue reading...The actor has announced he will speak live online to the director on 28 June
Alec Baldwin has announced he is to interview Woody Allen on Instagram Live on 28 June.
The actor made the announcement on his own Instagram account, with a note which sought to pre-empt criticism of the move.
Continue reading...Prosecutors say allegations involve ‘young foreign woman’ who was forced to have ‘non-consensual’ sexual relations over two days
Authorities detained Oscar-winning film director Paul Haggis on Sunday in connection with allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in southern Italy, Italian news media said, quoting local prosecutors.
The Canadian-born Haggis, 69, has been in Italy for a film festival that begins on Tuesday in Ostuni, a tourist town in Puglia, the region that forms the “heel” of the Italian peninsula.
Continue reading...At a special Tribeca film festival event, the stars of Michael Mann’s acclaimed crime saga reminisced while offering suggestions of who could play them in a remake
Any misgivings about terseness at a Q&A panel dedicated to Heat, a film in which men prefer to let their automatic rifles talk about their feelings for them, were quickly put to one side last night at the dazzling United Palace theater in Manhattan’s Washington Heights.
The Tribeca film festival event dedicated to the 1995 crime classic from Michael Mann – who couldn’t attend due to a positive Covid test, but took care to record a video message from the Italian set of his forthcoming Enzo Ferrari movie, wistfully recalling his initial pitch all those years ago at a Broadway Diner lunch – began with an out-of-the-gate standing ovation for the assembled talent: producer Art Linson, as well as stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, a couple of guys unable to get a cup of coffee in New York without a round of applause. Things only got rowdier from there.
Continue reading...A new documentary takes viewers back down the rickety stairs to the trailblazing Gateways in Chelsea
The Gateways is back. The longest-running lesbian club of all-time – the one whose actual clientele appeared in the 1968 film The Killing of Sister George; the one where Mick Jagger tried to talk the owner into letting him crash in a frock; the one that was a sanctuary to every class and sort of woman, from well-known figures such as the writer Patricia Highsmith and the artist Maggi Hambling (then an art student) to swimming-pool attendants at the Tooting Bec lido – has been given a new lease of life in the first full-length documentary film to celebrate its history, and ensure that it is not erased.
Behind a dull green door on the corner of King’s Road and Bramerton Street in Chelsea, down some rickety steps to the basement lay the dive, a former strip club. The lease had been won in a bet at a televised boxing event at the Dorchester hotel by course bookie Ted Ware in 1943, and initially he offered it as a hang-out to a group of his lesbian pals who had been kicked out of their old Soho haunt the Bag O’ Nails pub after new owners took over and banned them.
Continue reading...Netflix film, which has been called ‘startling’ by source author Joyce Carol Oates, stars Ana de Armas as the tragic actor
The first trailer has launched for Blonde, Netflix’s controversial biopic of Marilyn Monroe.
Directed by Andrew Dominik, best known for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, the film stars Ana de Armas as the tragic star and is based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize.
Continue reading...Pencil cases, skirts and hats among items targeted for ‘contradicting Islamic faith and public morals’
Saudi officials have been seizing rainbow-coloured toys and clothing from shops in the capital as part of a crackdown on homosexuality, state media has reported.
The kingdom opened to tourism in 2019 but, like other Gulf countries, it is frequently criticised for its human rights record, including its outlawing of homosexuality, a potential capital offence.
Continue reading...The actor, who received an honorary Oscar this year, spoke out against the producers’ handling of the in memoriam section, as well as the choice of presenters
Samuel L Jackson has criticised this year’s Oscars ceremony for its handling of the death of pioneering actor Sidney Poitier, as well as their attempts to reach a wider demographic by expanding the pool of presenters.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Jackson said he was “still a little ticked that the greatest actor we had in Hollywood died and they gave him, what, 10 fucking seconds. No. It should have been a whole Sidney Poitier section.”
Continue reading...Copy of film on now antiquated format was previously owned by actor Tom Wilson, who played Biff Tannen in movie series
A sealed VHS tape of the hit 1980s movie Back to the Future has sold for $75,000 in the first ever auction of the now antiquated video-playing format.
The auction, held by Texas-based Heritage Auctions, featured 260 sealed VHS tapes, most of which were first-edition copies of movies from the 70s and 1980s. The Hill reported that the price tag meant the tape was probably the most expensive ever sold.
Continue reading...Editor Bevan Shields has now accepted full responsibility for the paper’s coverage and apologised for the delay in acknowledging mistakes were made
The international backlash against the Sydney Morning Herald over its reporting of Rebel Wilson’s new relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma has intensified, with celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg now criticising the masthead.
Columnist Andrew Hornery and Herald editor Bevan Shields have this week apologised after Wilson was given a two-day deadline to respond to plans to write about the relationship.
Continue reading...Andrew Hornery, gossip columnist for Sydney Morning Herald, says he regrets how he handled the story
An Australian newspaper columnist has apologised after being accused of trying to out the actor Rebel Wilson.
Andrew Hornery, who writes a gossip column for the Sydney Morning Herald, said he regretted how he handled the story – which has been characterised as an attempt to expose the sexuality of the Pitch Perfect star.
Continue reading...Actor says she doesn’t blame jurors for ruling against her in defamation trial but criticizes online commentators
Amber Heard doesn’t blame jurors for ruling against her in the defamation trial pitting her against her fellow actor and former husband Johnny Depp over domestic abuse allegations, but she did dismiss the social media commentary surrounding the case as “unfair” to her, she said in her first remarks since the blockbuster verdict.
Heard made the statements during a sit-down interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, a preview of which aired on Monday morning on the network’s Today show.
Continue reading...The Hollywood film has been banned in a number of countries in the Middle East because of a kiss between space ranger Alisha and her partner
Toy Story spin-off Lightyear will not be released in Saudi Arabia due to the inclusion of a same-sex kiss, the latest in a string of Hollywood films that have been banned in the Middle East over LGBTQ+ content.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the scene in question involved a space ranger called Alisha (voiced by Uzo Aduba) and her partner who greet each other with a kiss on the lips. Variety reports that Lightyear was not submitted to censors in Saudi Arabia, as it was anticipated it would not pass due to the country’s total prohibition of same-sex relationships. However, the Pixar film was submitted to censors in the comparatively more liberal United Arab Emirates, but the film’s licence was revoked after complaints on social media.
Continue reading...SMH columnist admits mistakes after complaining about being gazumped on story about Wilson’s new girlfriend Ramona Agruma
Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery has admitted he made mistakes in his approach to Australian actor Rebel Wilson’s new relationship, her first with a woman.
After complaining on Saturday about being gazumped on a story about Wilson’s new partner, Ramona Agruma, Hornery has written a new column apologising for his reaction and saying he will take a different approach from now on. Saturday’s column has been removed and replaced with the new one.
Continue reading...At a Tribeca film festival event, the singer discussed directing the short All Too Well as well as the difficult time she went through over control of her music
Lines of young fans stretch down Broadway. Selfies aplenty snapped in a crowded lobby. Wild cheers as anticipation built inside, followed by intermittent shrieks during an opening speech from Tribeca film festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal. A short film screening that morphed into a pop concert, complete with sing-along.
It’s safe to say this wasn’t your standard film festival event. But what else do you expect when the festival, now in its 20th year, decided to trot out the newly-minted Dr Taylor Swift to muse about film-making in honor of her music video-slash-short film aptly dubbed All Too Well: The Short Film? Released in November and directed by Swift herself, it fit like a glove into the festival as production partly took place in the actual Tribeca neighborhood in New York.
Continue reading...An Cailín Ciúin, as it is known in Irish, has earned more than €600,000 since its release last month
An Irish-language film has shattered box office records in Ireland and the UK and become a standard-bearer for a language seldom seen on the big screen.
The Quiet Girl has astonished the industry by quadrupling the previous record for an Irish language film, and by last week earning more than €610,000 (£518,000) since its release in mid-May.
Continue reading...The actor has been coy about returning to movies after his blockbuster defamation case – but PR moves are being made
Johnny Depp can probably thank his lawyers and PR for suddenly having a shot at a dramatic public image resurrection, but the question remains whether Hollywood will soon restore him to the big screen he used to dominate.
In the wake of his dramatic win in the defamation case against his ex-wife and fellow star Amber Heard – though Heard herself also won on one count against her former husband’s agent – speculation is now rife that Depp may go back to movies, despite his own claims that he has no interest in returning to the franchise blockbusters that supplied his fortune.
Continue reading...New single This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr is a ballad about the difficulties of film stardom, taken from Depp’s forthcoming album with Jeff Beck
Johnny Depp has released a new self-penned song performed with Jeff Beck, This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr, taken from the pair’s forthcoming collaborative album, entitled 18.
A trudging rock ballad sung by Depp interspersed with solo vocals from Beck, it hymns the 1940s film star (and innovative electrical engineer) Hedy Lamarr, though this lament about fame will inevitably be read as a reaction to the high-profile, frequently ugly defamation case he recently brought against his ex-wife Amber Heard.
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