Indie News

As has been seen several times over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, studios have been trying to figure out how to release their films with no theaters and that has resulted in some features being sold off to streaming services. That is exactly what happened with Seth Rogen’s new film “An American Pickle,” which arrives on HBO Max after Sony decided to forgo a theatrical release.

Continue reading ‘An American Pickle’ First Look Photos Show Seth Rogen’s Dual Roles In The HBO Max Comedy at The Playlist.

It seems like a lifetime ago, especially considering how many appearances Spider-Man has made in the McU since 2015, but just five years ago, it was being reported that actor Asa Butterfield was the frontrunner to become the new Peter Parker for Sony and Marvel Studios. Of course, we would eventually find out that Tom Holland landed the role and is already about to begin production on his third solo ‘Spider-Man’ feature after appearing in multiple films already as the Wallcrawler.

Continue reading Asa Butterfield’s Spider-Man Would Have Been “Entirely Different” Than Tom Holland’s If He Landed The Role at The Playlist.

Louisiana native Lynn Whitfield has been portraying strong female characters, many of them Southern, throughout much of her career — from HBO’s 1991 biopic “The Josephine Baker Story,” which she won an Emmy for, to “Eve’s Bayou” six years later, as well as numerous memorable TV roles in “Mistresses,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” and “The Women of Brewster Place.”

In her current role, she plays the fierce and fiery Lady Mae Greenleaf (Mae McCready), one of the lead protagonists and anti-heroine of the OWN drama series “Greenleaf.” She plays Bishop James Greenleaf’s ex-wife, family matriarch, and the former First Lady of Calvary Fellowship megachurch.

Viewers were first introduced to Lady Mae in 2016, when the series premiered, as the queen who reigned over her family and business. Since then, fans of the series have been entertained by all kinds of lies, deceit and struggle within the Greenleaf family and their Calvary Fellowship World Ministries.

What will the future film output from studios look like post-covid-19? That’s the question that doesn’t really have much of an answer right now. We know that some studios are beginning to ramp up production on films for the first time since March, but there are now strict regulations that are governing what can and can’t be done on a film set. This means crowd scenes, fight scenes, love scenes, and other close-contact portions of films are likely going to require some creativity to make happen.

Continue reading Sony Exec Believes More R-Rated Animated Films Will Be Made Due To Covid-19 at The Playlist.

Nearly 30 years ago, Daughters of the Dust ruptured the fixed line of film history. It was the first film directed by a Black woman to see theatrical distribution in the United States. It fit neither the Black history Hollywood co-opted, nor the modern Black story they allowed (urban peril). Daughters of the Dust portrayed a day in the life of the Gullah-Geechee community off the coast of South Carolina through their circular perception of time, a past, present and future that runs concurrently. Nana Peazant, the old matriarch, urges her successors to cling to their roots, to hang on to her, as each body holds both “the last of the old and the first of the new.” The younger generations plan to run up the river north, leaving behind Ibo Landing, home to centuries of their ancestors. An unborn child narrates from the future and dawdles through the present day,

“Westworld” may continue to become the source of much debate amongst TV fans, with its seasons varying greatly in both quality and story. But that doesn’t mean that creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are any less in-demand in Hollywood. And it appears that they’re about to begin work on a brand-new series based on one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, “Fallout.”

Read More: HBO Gives Early Renewal For ‘Westworld’ Season 4

According to THR, Amazon Studios have teamed up with Joy and Nolan to develop a new TV series based on the “Fallout” video game franchise.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Creators Adapting ‘Fallout’ Video Game Franchise For A New Amazon Series at The Playlist.

Without a doubt, in an industry overrun with true-crime series and docs, “Mindhunter” is easily one of the best of the bunch. Netflix’s drama series about the early origins of the FBI’s investigations into serial killers and their behavior has only two seasons under its belt but the show (produced and partially directed by David Fincher) is already a must-see for anyone interested in crime stories and/or just great filmmaking.

Continue reading ‘Mindhunter’ Dp Doesn’t Know If Season 3 Will Happen But Says “It Would Be An Honor To Go Back” at The Playlist.

It is with great anticipation and not a little bit of trepidation that we officially begin the final countdown to the 2020 Emmy Awards with the kickoff of nominations-round voting. It’s been a wholly unprecedented season to date and as a consequence, we might just be looking at the most unpredictable set of nominees in recent history.

Voting for the nominations round begins today, July 2, and is slated to close at 10 p.m. Pt on Monday, July 13; it marks the midpoint of the Emmy calendar which has faced several adjustments at the hands of the Television Academy in recent months.

On March 6, when the widespread threat of coronavirus was not yet fully realized, the organization announced changes to its For Your Consideration events, barring autographs and selfies, meet-and-greets and audience questions, advising that attendees who felt ill or had pre-existing conditions to skip the events. Less than a week later,

Nothing busts canons quite like living in interesting times. In our ongoing Inflection Point series, we look back at the films that have taken on new relevance due to our ongoing cultural and political upheaval. Some beloved, some undiscovered, these titles deserve newfound consideration as film criticism evolves to meet the moment.

In 1997, a pair of high-profile incidents put a national spotlight on the Los Angeles Police Department.

Continue reading Oren Moverman’s ‘Rampart’ Takes An Unconventional Approach To Bad Cop Cliches at The Playlist.

Yesterday, “Justice League” actor Ray Fisher continued to show his displeasure with Joss Whedon and how the filmmaker changed the superhero team-up film. However, instead of cryptically commenting (as he did previously), the actor went on to accuse Whedon of “gross, abusive, unprofessional” behavior on set. While Whedon has yet to comment, Jon Berg, a producer on “Justice League” who was also mentioned in Fisher’s tweet, did speak up, and as you might expect, he doesn’t agree at all with what the actor said.

Continue reading ‘Justice League’ Producer Says Accusations Against Joss Whedon Are “Categorically Untrue” at The Playlist.

The BFI London Film Festival finds itself experiencing many of the issues that are plaguing the 2020 festival circuit. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many events to close this year and with the fall shaping up to be only a slight bit better than the spring and summer, events like the Lff are having to adapt. And that means the 2020 event is going to go virtual, at least partially.

Read More: Sundance 2021 To Be Partially Online & Expand To Cinemas Outside Of Utah

According to the organizers of the BFI London Film Festival, circumstances are forcing this year’s fest to be quite a bit different than previous editions.

Continue reading 2020 BFI London Film Festival Goes Mostly Digital Featuring Audience Awards & Limited Physical Screenings at The Playlist.

Now that the 2021 Oscars have officially been delayed from February 28 to April 25, 2021, many other award shows and festivals that play a crucial role on the Oscar season circuit are also changing their dates. IndieWire will be keeping track of the changing 2020-2021 awards season with this running list of new dates for important events on the circuit.

Screen Actors Guild Awards (July 2 Announcement)

SAG Awards executive producer Kathy Connell confirms the 27th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will now take place on Sunday, March 14, 2021 at 8pm Et. Key deadlines and dates have also been released for the celebration of excellence in film and television.

Per a statement from the Screen Actors Guild: “With this new show date, the SAG Awards is extending its eligibility period by two months. Motion pictures, primetime television, cable, and new media programs first exhibited or broadcast during the period of January 1, 2020 – February 28, 2021 may qualify.”

“Submissions

There has been a lot of discussion about cop films over the past several weeks. Particularly, film fans have gone through Hollywood’s history with how studios portray police officers (in films that have been dubbed “copraganda”) and shown that the industry has failed to really show the truth behind what happens in many of the departments around the Us. So, with this renewed focus on telling appropriate cop stories, it makes sense that maybe the much-discussed, new “Lethal Weapon” sequel would maybe be put on the back burner.

Continue reading Danny Glover Is Interested In Another ‘Lethal Weapon’ Film If It Tackles Today’s “Political Framework” at The Playlist.

Girl band mystique owes a lot to The Go-Go’s. Now, the women behind one of the most successful bands of all time are telling their own stories. Showtime’s upcoming doc, “The Go-Go’s,” chronicles the band’s rise in the punk scene, emerging as chart-topping sensations, personal as well as professional struggles, and a subsequent breakup which resulted from it all. The outcome is a no holds barred inspection of what made them legendary.

Continue reading ‘The Go-Go’s’ Trailer: The Powerhouse Girl Band Is Showcased In This Sundance Doc at The Playlist.

The first half of 2020 has been one of the most tumultuous periods in the century-plus history of the motion picture industry, as the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the entire activity of theatrical movie-going for the first time since… well, since the last pandemic, back in 1918. As rules have been rewritten, high-profile releases have been delayed, rescheduled, and delayed again, in an increasingly desperate and depressing game of Kick the Can.

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2020… So Far at The Playlist.

Horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan has become Hollywood’s go-to director for adapting Stephen King, thanks to his work on films like “Gerald’s Game” and “Doctor Sleep,” the latter of which bombed at the box office last year but is now gaining more admirers after debuting on HBO Max. Flanagan is staying faithful to the Stephen King universe with his next project, a Warner Bros. adaptation of the author’s 2014 novel “Revival.” During an appearance this week on “The Kingcast” podcast, Flanagan said his “Revival” movie would be his darkest King adaptation yet.

“What I love about it is it’s a return to cosmic horror, which I think is so fun,” Flanagan said (via Digital Spy). “It is relentlessly dark and cynical and I’m enjoying the hell out of that… I haven’t gotten to end a movie [this] way since ‘Absentia,’ maybe? Maybe ‘Ouija’? This one was a really

Another guns and glory war movie about young American soldiers having to shoot their way out of some rats nest they should never have been sent to in the first place, Rod Lurie’s “The Outpost” is Set during America’s War in Afghanistan — which technically means that it could take place anytime between 2001 and God knows when — Lurie’s film dramatizes the bloodiest and most disastrous engagement our military has been involved in since deploying to Afghanistan almost two decades ago.

It all went down on October 3, 2009, when hundreds of Taliban soldiers took advantage of the fact that the 54 servicemen of Bravo Troop 3-61 Cav had been stationed at the bottom of a valley that would later be deemed “obviously indefensible.” Lurie has described what followed as “an extraordinary shitshow of mayhem and violence,” and “The Outpost” conveys that sense and then some. The film’s “Call of Duty

If you have Apple TV+ and haven’t watched the critically acclaimed anthology series “Little America,” make it a priority in your binge list. Based on a collection of real-life stories published in Epic Magazine, the eight-part program chronicles unexpected stories of first-generation immigrants in the United States. It’s the brainchild of executive producers Lee Eisenberg, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon and the latter two joined the Four Quadrant podcast last week to discuss there Emmy-worthy show.

Continue reading Kumail Nanjiani & Emily V. Gordon Have Kept Busy On ‘Little America’ Season 2 During Pandemic [Podcast] at The Playlist.

For ten months in 2004 and 2005, an Australian citizen named Cornelia Rau was detained at the Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre and then at a place called the Baxter Detention Centre, a lonely place in the outback that is typically occupied by immigrants awaiting confirmation of their status or deportation back to their home country. Mentally ill and possibly traumatized after time in a cult, Rau was suffering a severe mental breakdown, and a reporter broke the story that an Australian national was being unlawfully detained.

Continue reading ‘Stateless’: Cate Blanchett’s Powerful Series Showcases A Tragically Common Immigration Story [Review] at The Playlist.

Thanks to films like “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Atomic Blonde,” Charlize Theron has positioned herself as one of the most badass actresses in action films today. And she hopes to keep that trend going with the upcoming Netflix action film, “The Old Guard.”

As seen in the new trailer for the film, “The Old Guard” follows Theron as the leader of a mysterious group of immortal mercenaries that has stayed under the radar for hundreds of years.

Continue reading ‘The Old Guard’ Trailer: Charlize Theron Explains Immortality In New Footage From Netflix’s Action Film at The Playlist.