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This year’s SXSW Film Festival, taking place in Austin, TX, has unveiled its lineup this afternoon and it’s another insanely packed year for horror premieres.

While the Midnighter section is dedicated to the genre lovers, SXSW 2025 has filled its Headliner section and beyond with buzzy, highly anticipated titles including Flying Lotus‘s sci-fi horror movie Ash, Christopher Landon‘s ode to Brian De Palma in Drop, and A24’s Death of a Unicorn. Also look for Clown in a Cornfield, the film adaptation of Adam Cesare’s YA slasher novel.

Read on for the genre titles included in SXSW 2025’s lineup, and stay tuned for additional programming announcements.

Headliner

Big names, big talent featuring red carpet premieres and gala film events with major and rising names in cinema.

Ash

Director: Flying Lotus, Producers: Nate Bolotin, Matthew Metcalfe, Screenwriter: Jonni Remmler

A woman wakes up on a distant planet...

Updating the themes of The Conversation and Blow Out for the pandemic era, 2022’s Kimi, Steven Soderbergh’s thriller about the panoptic world of voice assistants, marked the director’s first realized collaboration with veteran screenwriter David Koepp, whose filmography is noteworthy for his many scripts written for legendary auteur directors, including Brian DePalma, Steven Spielberg, and David Fincher (Panic Room). And that’s in addition to his direction of his own scripts, including Stir of Echoes and Ghost Town. Now, with another fleet, multi-layered thriller, Presence, Koepp continues his collaboration with Soderbergh, […]

The post “The Boys in the Basement Were Very Active On This One”: Screenwriter David Koepp on Writing Steven Soderbergh’s Ghost Pov Thriller Presence first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Updating the themes of The Conversation and Blow Out for the pandemic era, 2022’s Kimi, Steven Soderbergh’s thriller about the panoptic world of voice assistants, marked the director’s first realized collaboration with veteran screenwriter David Koepp, whose filmography is noteworthy for his many scripts written for legendary auteur directors, including Brian DePalma, Steven Spielberg, and David Fincher (Panic Room). And that’s in addition to his direction of his own scripts, including Stir of Echoes and Ghost Town. Now, with another fleet, multi-layered thriller, Presence, Koepp continues his collaboration with Soderbergh, […]

The post “The Boys in the Basement Were Very Active On This One”: Screenwriter David Koepp on Writing Steven Soderbergh’s Ghost Pov Thriller Presence first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Following its debut in theaters attached to Wolf Man, the trailer for Drop has made its way online.

From director Christopher Landon, the horror-thriller drops in theaters on April 11 via Universal.

Meghann Fahy (“The White Lotus”) and Brandon Sklenar (It Ends With Us) star as a couple on a blind first-date whose romantic dinner spirals into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse in which everyone’s a suspect.

“Violet, a widowed mother on her first date in years, arrives at an upscale restaurant where she is relieved that her date, Henry is more charming and handsome than she expected. But their chemistry begins to curdle as Violet begins being irritated and then terrorized by a series of anonymous drops to her phone.

“She is instructed to tell nobody and follow instructions or the hooded figure she sees on her home security cameras will kill Violet’s young son and babysitting sister.

At the outset of 1987, Kevin Costner was best known as the cocky gunslinger Jake in Lawrence Kasdan's Western romp "Silverado." This was a make-good role from the director, who'd cut Costner out of "The Big Chill" because his portrayal of the deceased Alex didn't play well with test audiences; basically, the ensemble cast had done such a great job of building up Alex's significance that the then unknown Costner couldn't live up to the legend. And while it was a nice gesture on Kasdan's part, "Silverado" didn't quite catch fire at the box office in the summer of 1985.

So when Costner landed the plum role of Eliot Ness in Brian De Palma's 1987 gangster saga "The Untouchables," Paramount Pictures mounted a publicity offensive to sell the appealing 32-year-old actor as a major movie star who'd at long last arrived. Decked out in fine Giorgio Armani threads and armed with razor-sharp David Mamet dialogue,...

The Palisades Charter High School, which has become recognizable to millions as a location where multiple movies and television series have been filmed inside its halls and exterior, is seeking a temporary campus after 40 percent of the property was scorched in the ongoing Palisades Fire.

Faculty and students are barred from entering the campus, according to an announcement from the school indicating that a decent portion of the school remains viable after the largest fire in Los Angeles history tore through the campus. Principal Dr. Pam McGee wrote that the charter schools’ classroom buildings and gyms were in good shape and its gyms, baseball field, stadium and aquatic center are all viable.

The fires that are still burning in the area have led to the start of the semester being delayed until Jan. 21, when the school plans to offer online instruction when classes resume next week. The Palisades Fire was...

When Bruce Willis vaulted from television stardom to the motion picture big time in 1988 with "Die Hard," he seemed destined for a long run as a blue-collar rake the likes of which movies had never seen. He possessed the incorrigibleness of Cary Grant and the two-fisted capableness of Gary Cooper, but he felt more accessible than either of them. Willis wasn't erudite and he wasn't trying to be. God no. His characters tended to be rough-and-tumble smartasses with moral compasses that pointed true north, men who made their share of mistakes and spent the average length of a feature film atoning for them as they went after bad men who sinned with impunity. He played well-meaning f***-ups we could identify with and perhaps look up to.

There was, however, another Willis, who I think was even more admirable. He was a true actor-star. He wanted to step outside of...

Butterfly Blues.

After closing out December with a look at Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 (listen) and Sophia Takal’s Into the Dark entry “New Year, New You” (listen), we’re kicking off 2025 with a bang by concluding the Grindhouse double feature that we started last summer with Planet Terror (listen) and finally making our way to Quentin Tarantino‘s Death Proof (2007)!

In Death Proof, two separate groups of women are stalked by a vicious serial killer named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), who uses his “death proof” car to execute his murderous plans.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 316: Death Proof (2007)

Grab your belts and hop on the roof of that car because we’re discussing our very first Quentin Tarantino film in 2007’s pseudo-slasher/exploitation film Death Proof.

Back in 2004, Jamie Foxx did some of the best acting of his career, in a popular film involving a major American cultural icon, and was recognized by the Academy for his efforts. He also won an Oscar for his capable impersonation of Ray Charles in the movie Ray, but I...

When it comes to the genre of Horror as a whole, there tend to be several common characteristics from movie to movie. It's a safe bet to assume there will be suspense, jump scares, or over-the-top gore. However, regardless of any differences in plot, it is virtually guaranteed that one of the characters will make a string of poor decisions. The beloved Scary Movie films, which will gain another title in 2026 with Scary Movie 6, managed to build an entire franchise around this idea.

As frustrating as these stupid choices are, some don't hold a candle to others. In certain instances, a simple action could've completely changed the trajectory of the story and nullified the threat. These examples are typically present in films where the villain gains their power from some sort of summoning or ritual, or the ire of the villain could have been avoided through common decency. There...

Anthony Hopkins is among the Los Angeles area residents who lost their homes to the Palisades Fire, a source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

THR has learned that Hopkins and his wife owned two houses in the Palisades, both of which have burned down.

In photos obtained by People magazine, the Pacific Palisades home of the Welsh actor can also be seen burned to the ground with only concrete pillars still standing and a stone pathway at the property.

This is not the first time the actor has endured a property loss due to flames. In 2000, the Oscar winner reportedly lost a home in London to a fire. Meanwhile, in 2018 his Pacific Palisades home narrowly escaped the Woolsey Fire, according to TMZ. The outlet also reported that the actor has been in the U.K. this week.

Hopkins is one of the myriad Hollywood stars who have tragically lost their homes.

Despite the widespread devastation to homes and businesses across the Southland, central production hubs in Los Angeles appear to remain unscathed from the historic destruction caused by wildfires in the region.

Not included in the 5,000-plus structures that have been ravaged by the blazes are major soundstages that host the majority of TV and movie shoots in Los Angeles. Most production in the area has been suspended but is expected to return.

While some of those soundstages were threatened by the Sunset Fire, which triggered mandatory evacuation orders in Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, that blaze is subsiding as firefighters made big gains overnight pushing it back. If the fire continued unabated, it could’ve approached critical production facilities, including Radford Studio Center and Sunset Gower Studios, as well as iconic Hollywood locations such as Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Dolby Theatre and the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.

To the west,...

Al Pacino is one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. Though he is now 84 years old, Pacino got his start in acting in his late 20s, when he played a role in the 1968 television series N.Y.P.D. Only four years after that debut, Pacino became best known for playing the role of Michael in The Godfather. This earned Pacino an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and later Best Actor for the sequel The Godfather Part II. It would not be until 1993, however, that Pacino first won an Oscar, for Scent of a Woman.

Pacino has also won two Tony awards and two Emmy Awards, giving him three of the coveted Egot letters (he is missing a Grammy). This is a huge achievement that few actors have been able to accomplish. Impressively, Pacino's career continues today, and he even got a Best Supporting Actor nomination in 2020 for The Irishman.

“Luke Skywalker” Mark Hamill is among the people who have evacuated Malibu amid the fires raging across parts of L.A. The Star Wars actor shared on Instagram how he and his family left their home amid the spreading fire.

Starting in Pacific Palisades, the fires have overnight also hit parts of Malibu and Santa Monica.

“7pm – Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there (were) small fires on both sides of the road as we approached Pch,” Hamill posted on his Instagram account on Tuesday night. The Pch is the Pacific Coast Highway.

At 8:15 p.m., Hamilton, wife Marilou York, and their dog Trixie arrived at their daughter “Chelsea’s house in Hollywood,” he added. “Most horrific fire since ’93,” he concluded, expressing hope that other people would also “stay safe.”

Other Hollywood stars have also spoken out about the blaze and its impact. Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, as well as...

The Palisades Fire has engulfed Palisades Charter High School, a school that has long been a popular location for Hollywood productions.

NBC Los Angeles reported on Tuesday night that the fire spread through several structures at the Pchs campus, and had all but destroyed the adjacent Theater Palisades.

Earlier in the day, Pchs posted a note on its website that the school was closed due to the Palisades Fire.

As the fires continued to rage, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, and nearly 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate.

Pchs is a popular location for Hollywood productions. The school has featured prominently in films, most notably Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror classic Carrie, where it was dubbed Bates High School in the movie. The school also featured heavily in Danny Steinmann’s 1984 teen vigilante movie Savage Streets, the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday, the Teen Wolf TV series,...

Streaming might be the future, but physical media is still the present. It's also awesome, depending on the title, the label, and the release, so join us as we take a look at the new 4K UHDs, Blu-rays, and DVDs making their way into the world. Now join us as we explore... some of the best new 4K Uhd releases from Kl Studio Classics! Kino Lorber's Studio Classics line is arguably one of the most reliable labels going when it comes to keeping older films in the physical media conversation. They've recently added 4K Uhd releases to their monthly drops, and we're going to take a look at the best from the past couple months. First out of the gate is Brian De Palma's Snake...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The 1983 remake of Scarface, starring Al Pacino, is revered now, but it had a difficult journey to the screen. Plus: a long chat with Robert Eggers.

With Oliver Stone writing the script, Al Pacino starring and Brian De Palma behind the camera, perhaps it’s no wonder that 1983’s Scarface has enjoyed a long success. It was met with no shortage of problems during its production though: an unhappy shoot, a change of location, long overruns and the budget soaring. And then Al Pacino had to go to hospital. It’s quite the film story.

The second half of this episode? Filmmaker Robert Eggers arrives for a long chat about Nosferatu, The Northman, The Witch and more.

The post Podcast | Scarface (1983), plus Robert Eggers appeared first on Film Stories.

Shot largely from the point of view of its two main characters, RaMell Ross’s masterly film takes you to the wrenching heart of this American south tale of brutal 60s racism

An unwritten rule of cinema is that great books very rarely make great movies. It’s not inevitable that a film adaptation of a literary classic will turn out to be a stinker, but plenty do: take Roland Joffe’s disposable and tawdry version of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Brian De Palma’s notorious butchering of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities, and my personal nadir, Peter Jackson’s mangling of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. There are ways of side-stepping the curse of the literary adaptation, of course, a recent example being Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a picture that kept the title and the location of Martin Amis’s novel...

Image Source: Paramount Pictures When Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes was initially released in 1998, it was met with mixed reviews and indifference at the box office. Over the years, though, thanks to home video and streaming, the movie has finally found the audience that eluded it in theaters. Part of that could certainly be chalked up to a recent resurgence in star Nicolas Cage’s career. Cage has always enjoyed working with acclaimed directors, so when he got the opportunity to work with De Palma, at the time of the film’s release he told us he felt a real sense of freedom in his performance. (Click on the media Nicolas Cage.) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Nicolas_Cage_Snake-Eyes_Brian_-De_-Palma_.mp3

Snake Eyes is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K, and most digital platforms.

The post Working With De Palma Made ‘Snake Eyes’ A Winner For...

In 1999 “The Sixth Sense,” a spooky-ooky movie involving ghosts and a freaky little kid who sees them, opened theatrically and quickly became a cultural sensation and a box office juggernaut. It would end up earning $672 million at the global box office and garnering six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Its signature line of dialogue (“I see dead people”) would enter the lexicon, endlessly quoted, parodied and spoofed.

But there was another, very similar, equally wonderful movie that opened in 1999 that didn’t get nearly the attention that it deserved – or, indeed, the attention that was bestowed upon “The Sixth Sense.”

That movie was writer/director David Koepp’s “Stir of Echoes,” which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and as such has a brand-new 4K Uhd Blu-ray disc out (available exclusively through Amazon). And, incredibly, one of the new special features details how Koepp was...

There are few actors more recognizable and respected in Hollywood than Al Pacino, who has been a staple of the big screen since the 1970s. Pacino first became a star in 1972 with the release of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, a crime epic that is now widely regarded as one of the best movies of all time. Pacino would reprise his role as Michael Corleone for the acclaimed The Godfather Part II (1974) and a 1990 threequel, but he also branched beyond this franchise, playing memorable characters in a range of films.

In 1975, for example, Pacino starred in Dog Day Afternoon, and the following decades would see him star in projects like Dick Tracy (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Heat (1995), and Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood (2019). One of Pacino's most iconic roles, however, came in 1983 in the form of a collaboration with director Brian De Palma, with the pair ultimately making what...

Guy Pearce, known for his role in L.A. Confidential, recently shared how close the movie came to getting a sequel. Released in 1997 and based on James Ellroy’s novel, the crime drama helped launch the international careers of Australian actors Russell Crowe and Pearce.

The film was a major hit, earning nine Academy Award nominations and winning two, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Kim Basinger.

In a chat with Business Insider, Pearce explained that around 2007, director Curtis Hanson told him about a sequel idea he had been discussing with Ellroy. Pearce was eager to return as Detective Ed Exley alongside Crowe, and the entire team seemed on board. But Hanson’s health took a turn, and he passed away in 2016.

The sequel concept wasn’t abandoned entirely, though. Plans emerged to set L.A. Confidential 2 in 1974, 21 years after the original story. The late Chadwick Boseman...

In 1976, Brian De Palma mounted the first film adaptation of a Stephen King novel with "Carrie." This was long before the author was a household name, so there was no noticeable hue and cry over the alterations the filmmaker made to the narrative. Even if some literalists did throw a fit over the film not being an overly-faithful recreation of King's original story, most fans of the book to this day will tell you that De Palma and screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen served up with admirable concision a movie that is enthrallingly true in spirit to the tragic journey of Carrie White.

It might be hard for many to imagine someone making a better movie out of "Carrie" than a filmmaking legend like De Palma, but there's always room for different interpretations of a great novel. After all, there are multiple classic adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women...

In the last 50 years, there have been countless excellent adaptations based on Stephen King's stories. In many cases, the movies and TV shows paid tribute to the ingenuity of the King of Horror, proving themselves as brilliant, emotionally charged, and twisted as their sources. A feature that contributed to the success of these adaptations, in several instances, has been the performances of the actors.

Stephen King provides an exceptional foundation with his well-crafted and fascinating characters, but once a story unfolds on the big or small screen, the actors are the ones who bring those same characters to life. Their performances determine whether the tension, fear, and humanity in the author's books resonate with the audience. Some of these portrayals have captured the core of his work so profoundly that they cemented their place in cinematic and television history.

Keith Gordon As Arnie Christine (1983)

The ingenuity of Keith Gordon's performance as Arnie,...

We hear all the time that a movie starts on the page, and while this is true in an overarching sense, for practical purposes, the process of making a motion picture intended to screen in theaters or stream into living rooms starts when you've raised enough money to hire the actors and crew and so on required to get that page-bound vision before a camera. It's at this point that you begin fretting about getting a return on your investment and, just maybe, turning a profit. In this sense, all filmmaking is risk-taking.

This is the movie business, and it didn't used to be of widespread public interest. Once in a blue moon, people would be aware that a film like Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "Cleopatra" cost a studio-devouring amount of money; meanwhile, they could tell "The Exorcist," "Jaws" and "Star Wars" were making scads of money because they could...

We can debate whether or not we take the masters of cinema for granted or not, but there is always hope in the future filmmakers to build on what they did. Maybe some of the legends dismiss things like Marvel as not being true cinema but it all came from somewhere; that is, influences carry on through generations. And that will be true forever, whether we can imagine it or not.

Francis Ford Coppola recently stopped by The Criterion Collection’s famed closet to not only take home a tote bag full of movies but give his thoughts on the state of cinema and where it might be headed. Speaking on influences and where he sees the next generation of filmmakers headed, Coppola stated, “All of us are on the shoulders of giants. And hopefully will provide that same kind of inspiration to the wonderful young people coming along. And...

Sissy Spacek has been one of America’s top actresses for almost 50 years. Throughout her career she has received six Oscar nominations for Best Actress, seven Golden Globe bids and three Emmy nominations. The New York Film Critics Circle has been so enamored of her work that they have recognized her four times, placing her second behind only Meryl Streep as the organization’s most acclaimed actresses.

Stephen King‘s first novel “Carrie” first brought Spacek international stardom after she initially gained attention in the movie “Badlands.” Spacek has told the story of how she volunteered to do “Carrie” for director Brian De Palma as a favor. Spacek was in demand after her reception in “Badlands,” but after De Palma hired Spacek’s boyfriend and future husband Jack Fisk as the art director for “Carrie,” Spacek read the script, liked it and offered De Palma her services.

The success of...

Beginning in the late 1960s and spreading into the 1970s, American cinema was revolutionized by the New Hollywood movement. At the forefront of this movement was a crew of directors from different entertainment disciplines who spoke to the exploding youth counterculture with classics like "Bonnie and Clyde," "The Graduate," and "M*A*S*H." The world felt like it was going mad, but the movies were somehow helping us make sense of this descent. Before moviegoers could adjust to this newfangled mode of motion picture art, the film brats arrived. Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg rattled the industry's cage in wildly different ways. It was a glorious time. Then studios, with the perhaps unwitting assistance of Lucas and Spielberg, locked in on a formula: They could make hundreds of millions of dollars off a single movie if they hit the right commercial buttons.

Arrow Video’s March 2025 releases promise a treasure trove of cult cinema, featuring everything from gory giallo to shark-infested waters and a Japanese gem making its international debut. With restored classics, genre-defining hits, and packed collector’s editions, this line-up is a must for film fans.

The headline release is Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture a Duckling, arriving on 24 March in a pristine 4K restoration. Considered Fulci’s masterpiece, this 1972 giallo blends mystery and horror with biting social commentary. Following a series of child murders in a superstitious village, journalist Andrea (Tomas Milian) and socialite Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet) uncover shocking secrets. With its brutal violence and critique of the Catholic Church, Don’t Torture a Duckling is both provocative and essential viewing. Arrow’s edition includes a collector’s booklet and reversible sleeve, perfect for fans of Italian cinema.

On 3 March, Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill arrives in a Limited Edition 4K Uhd.

As Kate Miller’s (Angie Dickinson) guilt turns into trepidation after encountering the stranger at the elevator’s entrance in “Dressed to Kill”, the background score converts from a pensive longing to a soul-tearing screech. We’re alerted to a horrid possibility even before the stranger’s razor has risen or Kate’s wailing and pleas fall on our ears.

Apart from the musical cues, this tragedy has already been foreboded to us by Brian De Palma, who gives us a glimpse of the shadowy figure stalking Kate at least twice before in this tense sequence. These prompts are effective signals that keep the viewers on the edge of their seats, reimposing the dread they would’ve anticipated after coming across its grim title and promotions onto an atypical slasher start: it is a story of marital discord and extramarital agony till Kate’s tragic run-in.

This murder sequence from “Dressed to Kill,...

2024 was a big year for Stephen King, with new books, big plans announced for 2025, anniversaries, more adaptations of his works, and a lot more. The King of Horror has been terrorizing generations of readers for decades, with over sixty books and hundreds of short stories, either exploring fears in supernatural ways or in more grounded, realistic ways. King’s reign in the world of horror started in 1974 with the publishing of Carrie, though it wasn’t the first novel he wrote – that honor belongs to The Long Walk, published until 1979.

Since Carrie, King has been unstoppable and consistently publishing novels and collections with short stories, of which many have been adapted to TV and film, sometimes more than once. 2024 was no exception, and fans of the King of Horror were treated to not only new short stories and novels by King but also big news about some of the many upcoming adaptations of his works.

Photos (l-r) Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Halston, Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger by Dustin Pittman in New York After Dark (Rizzoli) at Eerdmans Photo: Anne Katrin Titze, featuring work by Dustin Pittman

In the second instalment of our conversation with renowned photographer Dustin Pittman and music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman, we start out with the New York music scene at Cbgb and Hurrah, then go on to Andy Warhol superstars Candy Darling, Taylor Mead, Jackie Curtis, Sylvia Miles (in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy), Lana Jokel, and Bob Colacello. Dustin also had a distinguished career working with directors such as Alan J Pakula on The Sterile Cuckoo (starring Liza Minnelli), Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables, Miloš Forman’s Ragtime, and is seen at a party with Bernadette Peters in James Ivory’s adaptation of Tama Janowitz’s The Slaves Of New York.

Dustin Pittman (in Edie Sedgwick...

The tension within Ryan J. Sloan’s indie directorial debut “Gazer” is almost unparalleled: Of course the IndieWire review pointed to comparisons between Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma, and Christopher Nolan when it came to decoding just how thrilling the feature is.

“Gazer,” which was among our favorite movies at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, premiered during the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Metrograph Pictures later acquired the North American rights to the neo-noir heist thriller, with Head of Metrograph Pictures David Laub saying in a press statement just how much writer/director Sloan’s vision echoes cinema history.

“‘Gazer’ is a movie born of cinema and those who love it,” Laub said, deeming the feature “a brilliant homage to the unforgettable New York thrillers of the 1970s and 1980s.”

Well, we couldn’t agree more. Sloan, who co-wrote the film with breakout lead star Ariella Mastroianni, filmed “Gazer” over weekends...

Iconic Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill has shared his experience auditioning for Star Wars, and it's a perfect reminder that, at first, so much was unknown about the franchise that would eventually become a major phenomenon. A New Hope was the very first addition to Star Wars movies and TV shows, but at that point, it was only called Star Wars. Undoubtedly, part of this initial title for the movie was due to uncertainty about Star Wars' future—that is, whether it would have a future at all.

The newness and uncertainty of Star Wars' early days was evident in Mark Hamill's recent revelation that, when he first auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker, he had no idea who George Lucas was. In an interview on the Politickin' with Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch, and Doug Hendrickson podcast, Hamill shared:

Then, some friend of mine said, 'Did you hear about...

Berlin-based M-Appeal will handle world sales for erotic thriller “Night Stage,” which will world premiere in Berlinale’s Panorama sidebar.

“Night Stage,” the latest film by Brazil’s Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon, follows an ambitious actor and a successful politician who start a secret affair, and together discover their fetish for having sex in public places. The closer they get to their dream of fame, the more they feel the urge to put themselves at risk.

The film is an erotic thriller with nods to Brian De Palma and Paul Verhoeven, but with a Brazilian twist. The cast is led by Gabriel Faryas as Matias, and Cirillo Luna as Rafael.

Matzembacher and Reolon told Variety: “We’ve always been interested in universes filled with desire, danger and tension, so making an erotic thriller was the natural way to go. However, this is a genre with a strong heterosexual dominance,...

The comedy that saved John Travolta's career 35 years ago was almost canceled, according to its director, who says "John was box-office poison." The actor rose to fame for his role in the ABC sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter from 1975 to 1979. In the following years, Travolta gained further recognition with two of his most iconic performances in Saturday Night Fever, earning his first Oscar nomination, and Grease, which were both massive box-office hits that propelled Travolta to global fame.

Travolta's success continued into the early 1980s, capitalizing on the growing country music craze with Urban Cowboy. In 1981, he starred in Brian De Palma's Blow Out, which earned critical acclaim, but struggled at the box office, likely due to its somber ending. Following Blow Out, Travolta faced a string of commercial and critical misfires that temporarily derailed his career, including Two of a Kind, Perfect, and the Saturday Night Fever sequel Staying Alive,...

January 2025 could mark a bleak month for very specific reasons, but in that month one can watch a nicely curated collection of David Bowie’s best performances. Nearly a decade since he passed, the iconic actor (who had some other trades) is celebrated with The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Linguini Incident, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Basquiat. (Note: watch The Missing Pieces under Fire Walk with Me‘s Criterion edition for about three times as much Phillip Jeffries.) It’s a retrospective-heavy month: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Crowe, Ethan Hawke, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Paolo Sorrentino, and Sean Baker are given spotlights; the first and last bring with them To Die For and Take Out‘s Criterion Editions, joining Still Walking, Hunger, and A Face in the Crowd.

“Surveillance Cinema” brings Thx 1138, Body Double, Minority Report, and others, while “Love in Disguise” offers films by Lubitsch,...

Police dramas were flourishing in the 1970s (and later parodied in the 1980s) thanks to "Dragnet" when television writer Robert L. Collins hit upon what counted as a genius notion at the tail end of the Richard M. Nixon administration: what if instead of "policeman," "policewoman?" NBC said "Show us," and Collins responded with the buzzy "Police Woman" starring Angie Dickinson as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson.

"Police Woman" was about as progressive as you could expect from an hour-long network drama in the '70s when it was rare for a drama of any genre to be headed up by a woman. Once a week, Dickinson struck a quasi-feminist figure as an ultra-capable officer of the law with a penchant for dressing in tight-fitting shirts in pants. At least once she went undercover in a swimsuit. And as she complained to the press years later, the writers liked to have...

Saban Films has promoted its top executive team and extended their deals through 2026, Variety has exclusively learned.

Bill Bromiley has been promoted to Vice-Chairman, where he will work on advancing key strategic goals, while Shanan Becker and Jonathan Saba will now serve as Co-Presidents. Becker will focus on the company’s financial and operational functions while Saba will shape content, marketing and monetization.

“As we celebrate Saban Films’ remarkable journey over the past decade, we are thrilled to see Bill, Shanan and Jonathan take on these pivotal leadership roles,” Haim Saban, Chairman and CEO of Saban Capital Group said in a statement with Adam Chesnoff, President and COO. “Their vision, dedication, and expertise have been instrumental in establishing Saban Films as a leader in independent film distribution. With this exceptional team at the helm, we are confident the company is poised for continued success.”

Bromiley co-founded the company in 2014 in the role of president.

Scarface is one of Al Pacino's most legendary roles and is still regularly quoted over 40 years since it was first released, so naturally, it was the perfect candidate for a remake, and Diego Luna was once involved. Alongside Al Pacino starring as Tony Montana, Brian De Palma was in the director's chair, following his work on other major films like Carrie and Blow Out. Together, Pacino and De Palma made a dynamic combination, resulting in a film so gleeful in its excessiveness that it must be applauded, and has only gotten more appreciation over time.

Hot off the heels of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Diego Luna was tapped to take over as Tony Montana in the Scarface reboot that would see Antoine Fuqua direct the film after David Ayer's Scarface didn't come to fruition. An inspired pairing, both Luna and Fuqua had proven throughout their careers...

When Steven Spielberg first heard John Williams’ shark music for Jaws – the menacing “dunh dunh dunh dunh” signalling the approach of the terrifying beast – he wasn’t blown away. He gave “dunh dunh” a “meh,” more or less.

That’s one of the revelations in the Oscar-contending documentary Music by John Williams, director Laurent Bouzereau’s exploration of the work of the maestro. Eventually, Spielberg came around, of course, recognizing the brilliance of the score that became integral to one of the great Hollywood blockbusters of all time. Alluding to the struggles he faced getting the motorized fish to function as intended, Spielberg says in the film, “His musical shark worked a lot better than my mechanical shark.”

Director Laurent Bouzereau

Bouzereau approached the documentary having absorbed Williams’s scores in his youth growing up in France. In the 1970s, a big Hollywood movie like Jaws came out in the U.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting scripts from the year’s most talked-about movies continues with The Substance, Mubi’s satirical horror from writer-director Coralie Fargeat. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a once famous actress and now a fading fitness celebrity who decides to use a black market drug that creates a young, better version of herself.

The Substance had a splashy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Screenplay award and scored a 13-minute standing ovation, establishing it as one of the year’s buzziest horror films. It hit U.S. theaters in September and has grossed $56.1 million globally year to date.

In the pic, Elisabeth unintentionally discovers her fate while sitting in a men’s restroom stall where she overhears Harvey, the odious network executive, declaring at the urinal, “We need her young, we need her hot, we need her now.” Shortly after,...

Spoiler Alert !!!This post contains spoilers from Season 5, Episode 'Three Fifty-Three.'

Yellowstone fans, brace yourselves because Taylor Sheridan is not here to coddle your feelings. Kevin Costner’s John Dutton, the patriarch who practically held the ranch together with grit and guts, got an exit that was as brutal as it was shocking. And it wasn’t the dignified cowboy farewell you might’ve expected—it was pure Sheridan-level savage.

Taylor Sheridan in Yellowstone as Travis | Credit Paramount Network

Rumors swirled, and Dutton’s demise hit like a sucker punch, leaving fans wondering if it felt personal. Revenge, maybe? Sheridan walked that fine line between genius storytelling and straight-up heartbreak once again.

From Cowboy to Corpse: The Savage Exit of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton Kevin Costner as John Dutton in Yellowstone | Credits: Paramount Network

Yellowstone fans didn’t just lose John Dutton—they got blindsided. Kevin Costner...

Alfred Hitchcock is, as the kids would say, the G.O.A.T. when it comes to crime thrillers. And I love how so many of his protagonists unknowingly find themselves in the middle of a mystery, but, over the course of the film, prove that they were probably the right person to end up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Jeff solved a murder in Rear Window, Ben and Jo unearthed a political crime in The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Roger Thornhill shed light on a deadly game of spies in North by Northwest. Later on, filmmakers like Brian De Palma (Blow Out), the Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men), Steven Soderbergh (Kimi), David Robert Mitchell (Under the Silver Lake), and Sriram Raghavan (Andhadhun) furthered this particular subgenre of crime thrillers while making some kind of relevant commentary on the state of modern society.

Almost six years have gone by since Tom Cruise announced that Paramount Pictures had given the greenlight to two more Mission: Impossible movies, with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) and Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) writer/director Christopher McQuarrie returning to the helm. At one point, we thought these movies were going to carry the titles Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two… but Paramount has backtracked from that decision. After Dead Reckoning Part One underwhelmed at the box office when it was released last year, the studio has dropped Part One from the subtitle and has let it be known that the next film, which is still in production, will have a different title. A decision they really should have made before releasing the first half of the story. At least we’re still getting the second half of the story, with the...

Remember the 1980s? The decade of big hair, neon everything, and VHS tapes taking over the video shop. Aside from the flashy pop culture, this was also a great time for thrilling, edge-of-your-seat movies. The 1980s provided a wealth of classic 80s thrillers that redefined what it meant to feel suspenseful rather than just keeping viewers wondering. From dark crime dramas to mind-bending 1980s suspense movies that made your heart race, this era became the best place for directors who wanted to try new things and moviegoers who wanted to be shocked.

Why did the best 80s thriller movies come out at such a great time? The genre wasn’t just one thing but a wide range of movies. It had dark, twisty psychological thrillers that peeled back the layers of the mind (think Fatal Attraction), gritty crime sagas dripping with danger, and every once in a while, a heart-pounding story inspired by true events.

Before Tom Cruise was driving motorcycles off cliffs, clinging to planes, and fighting bad guys atop moving trains in the name of "Mission: Impossible," the franchise had its humble beginnings in the form of a very '60s CBS series. The original "Mission: Impossible" was a spy series with a rotating cast of characters created by Bruce Gellar, who died in a plane crash just five years after the show ended. Several key cast members have passed away in the years since then, including Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Martin Landau, Steven Hill, and, of course, Leonard Nimoy.

"Mission: Impossible" was a huge success when it aired, winning 10 Emmys throughout its seven-season run and producing 171 episodes. The show inspired an '80s revival series, but "Mission: Impossible" really took off when Cruise (and Brian De Palma) got a hold of the franchise in 1996. The near-superhuman character Ethan Hunt was created for the movies,...

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Netflix has the biggest content library of any streaming service, and for that reason, many movies from the past are available on it. So, we thought about all the fans of old brilliant movies that are now characterized as classics and decided to compile a list of the best classic movies on Netflix that you should check out right now.

Scarface Credit – Universal Pictures

Scarface is a crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay by Oliver Stone. Based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Armitage Trail and its 1932 film adaptation, the 1983 film follows Tony Montana and his close friend Manny, who build a ruthless and successful drug empire in Miami. However as Tony’s power grows so do his enemies, but the biggest threat to his empire is his own paranoia. Scarface stars Al Pacino,...

Tom Wolfe's social satire "The Bonfire of the Vanities" was published in 1987 and was constructed as a wry, readable send-up of New York's high society at the time. Its story follows a callow yuppie named Sherman McCoy who, while out on a drive with his mistress Maria, accidentally head into the Bronx. A series of small misunderstandings results in Maria taking the wheel and accidentally running over a Black teenager, Henry Lamb, then fleeing the scene. The accident is covered by a burned-out tabloid reporter named Peter Fallow, whose reporting leads to McCoy's arrest. The bulk of the narrative then focuses on McCoy's trial. No one is wholly good in "Bonfire," and most of the characters are largely bad.

The book was infamously adapted into a feature film by Brian De Palma in 1990, and, boy howdy, is it bad. Every character is miscast, with Tom Hanks playing Sherman...

Director Elia Kazan‘s “The Visitors” was barely noticed when it was released in 1972, and it hasn’t had many opportunities for reappraisal since. While several of Kazan’s other movies that were commercial failures during their initial runs — most notably “Baby Doll,” “A Face in the Crowd” and “Wild River” — have since been canonized as classics, “The Visitors” remains obscure. That’s a shame, because it’s a fascinating case of Kazan applying his talents to film that initially seems like a major departure, but on deeper examination reveals itself to be a personal and profound work.

A new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber provides the perfect opportunity to take a closer look after decades in which “The Visitors” was almost impossible to find (and almost never in watchable transfers — the long out-of-print MGM DVD reduces the entire movie to a murky blob). The story is stark and simple: Years...