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If you remember, Spacey was kicked off his own Netflix show, “House Of Cards,“ and then had his already shot role in Ridley Scott’s “All The Money In The World” completely erased and redone by actor Christopher Plummer. Spacey last year even released a strange video where he appeared as Frank Underwood, the conniving U.S. President he played in “House Of Cards,” in which he mentioned: “I’m certainly not going to pay the price for the thing I didn’t do....

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi is —finally— taking on the Iranian government’s gross human rights abuses. This all means that Farhadi could soon either be persona non grata in Iran or, if he doesn’t escape on-time, will face a prison sentence. We’ve seen it happen in the past with such filmmakers as the late Abbas Kiarostami, Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi. The gist of Farhadi’s political stance against his own government has to do with Iranian authorities celebrating his latest film, “A Hero,” as one of their own....

“Mary Poppins Returns” ($31 million) had a nice showing, which will surely improve over the holidays, and Paramount’s “Transformers” spin-off “Bumblebee"did decently $21 million for the weekend. TheJennifer Lopez-starring rom-com “Second Act” was average at best (off to a $6.5 million start) but it’sRobert Zemeckis’“Welcome to Marwen” that is the bomb of the week with a disastrous $2.4 million opener, on a $39M budget. “Marwencol” hoped to bank on word of mouth, alas not only did the critics hate it but audiences were very meh on it also, as the film garnered a mediocre B- CinemaScore rating....

No surprises for guessing which film tops the Christmas box office as Disney’s ‘saga ending’ “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” raked in a solid $72M in its second weekend, giving it a domestic haul of $361M. This good second-week hold, unexpected by many given its extremely polarizing reviews has seen the film firmly set its sights on 2017’s “The Last Jedi” and its global haul of $1.3B. That’s because the film also added $94....

And speaking of $1B Disney Movies, Marvel (and Disney’s) “Spider-Man:Far From Home” became the ninth Movie in the MCU to join the club this weekend thanks to a $12.2M domestic gathering and a further $21M overseas, making it now (unsurprisingly) the highest grossing Spider-Man Movie ever made. Rounding out the Disney picks this week is Pixar’s “Toy Story 4,” which took a heavy 36.5% drop off, all be it in its sixth weekend, bringing in $9....

Now, according to Deadline’s sources, the film actually cost around $460M before P&A. That’s an astounding figure. Almost half a billion dollars to make this movie. That is not even counting the onslaught of advertisement/marketing that would back such a blockbuster. Its original price tag was said to be at around $250 million, but it seems as though the budget ballooned during COVID and, probably, with technology continuing to progress these last few years....

Rumors were gathering up with swift momentum that Jarmusch was putting the finishing touches on his upcoming zombie film, “The Dead Don’t Die” and that it would have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May — there were also rumors that the editing process might make the film miss the deadline to appear at the festival. So, I kept asking around and most people were telling me that the plan was always Cannes....

For one, I have heard, from more than a few sources, that Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” is a lock. The film is set to bring a star-studded cast to the Croisette including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Margot Robbie, Kurt Russell, and Lena Dunham. However, the question still remains as to whether it will play in competition or out of competition. Other almost sure-things include Pedro Almodovar’s “Dolor and Gloria,” Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite,” Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardennes’s “Ahmed,” and Ira Sachs’ “Frankie....

Nope — Jordan PeeleUntitled — Na Hong-JinAnatomy of a Fall — Justine TrietThe Children of Others — Rebecca ZolotowskiThe Beast — Bertrand BonelloZ — Michael HazanaviciusBlossoms — Wong Kar-Wai Does anyone have any insight on these? What exactly is going on with Wong Kar-Wai’s “Blossoms”? It’s been in post-production for a few years now. Maybe it’s awaiting the OK from the Chinese censorship board? These kind of things move very slowly in China....

The film finally opened in select Chinese theaters on March 22, of course the version that is being shown has removed any dialogue or scenes referring, explicitly or unexplicitly, to Freddie Mercury’s homosexuality. China has strict policies on exhibiting LGBTQ content. Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” was released in China without the kiss between Michael Fassbender and himself. Also, recent LGBTQ classics such as Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” and. Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name,” were, of course, banned completely from ever being show in the country....

A slew of details about Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” have been revealed via a leaked production note. The film is said to start production in February until June. That’s a 5 and a half month shoot. As you may already know, Cillian Murphy will play father of the hydrogen bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer. A man who, despite inventing it, wanted to place International controls on his dangerous invention, post-Hiroshima. Emily Blunt will play his wife Kitty Oppenheimer....

“I’m working in the mornings on a new script because I am also preparing a feature film for the end of fall in Central America with Robert Pattinson and Margaret Qualley,” wrote Denis. “This, of course, is already postponed. But in the meantime, I’m writing.” Much like yours truly, Denis is also catching up on cinema that she may have missed over the years. “I’m watching films at night sometimes, too,” she said....

Speaking at this year’s Lumiere Film Festival in France, Viggo Mortensen revealed that he’s working on a new film with Cronenberg, which is set to shoot sometime in 2021. Of course, no details were shared about what the film might be about. However, Cronenberg and Viggo teaming up for a movie again is not a stretch, both have become friends over the years thanks to their consummate working relationship with 3 films: “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises,” and “A Dangerous Method....

It makes you wonder, why? Russell’s film is skipping all the fall fests. An AFI and BFI showing is also out of the question because of this new release date. Deadline expands by stating, “there was early buzz that Amsterdam was going to world premiere at TIFF, however, we understand now that the plan is for a straight theatrical release play.” Gee, I wonder what made them decide not to go … As far we know, the only fall contending titles not doing the fall festival circuit are “Amsterdam,” “Pinocchio,” “Babylon,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” (yes, I still believe there is a chance)....

This sad state of affairs continued this afternoon when Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that the Mouse House was no longer concentrating on its billion-dollar-making theatrical releases, but, instead, would heavily concentrate on Direct-to-Consumer services such as Disney+ [via THR]. “Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Chapek said....

To keep an industry fresh, it needs to be constantly adapting to the technological environment while also offering something to customers in line with their wants and needs. The cinema industry is a prime example of one which can utilize both to remain relevant. But what does this mean and what new technology needs to be embraced to achieve this? What does the future hold for the reliance on VR in the film industry?...

Stéfano Gallo plays the main character, Bobby. The most notable name of the Cold Deck cast is Paul Sorvino, who gained worldwide fame for his role as Paulie Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 blockbuster, Goodfellas. Sorvino also starred as Sergeant Phil Cerreta in NBC’s Law & Order hit series. Kjartan Hewit (Ben), Kate Trotter (Audrey), Jessica Sipos (Kim) and Prison Break star Robert Knepper round out the other main characters of the film....

Why is the newspaper so scared of “Richard Jewell”? Because it exposes the outright irresponsible journalism they conducted back in 1996 when they basically destroyed the life of a security guard at the Atlanta Olympics who found a bomb, evacuated the entire Olympic village, but was then smeared by the FBI and the AJC as the guy responsible for the bomb. And yet, despite the irresponsible journalism that this Atlanta newspaper conducted, they are threatening to sue for the WB defamation?...

More intriguingly, came the film Academy passing a vote to rename the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category to ‘Best International Feature Film.’ Good stuff, brah. Except, the category still excludes any foreign films in English. If they aren’t changing the rules to let actual international films that happen to be in English to enter, why even bother with a name change? That means that a Canadian, South African, Irish, Zimbabwean, Belizean or Indian film in English can’t be submitted....

Regardless, It all seems to be water under the bridge as Schrader has found a way to cast Isaac in another movie. The play stars as William Tell in Schrader’s upcoming “The Card Counter.” We now have our “first look” at the film, courtesy of Schrader’s Facebook account, and I dig those frames on Isaac. The official synopsis for the “The Card Counter”: A longtime contact and friend for Schrader’s sent me a message in Early March raving about the new project....