Author: Deadline

Don’t expect Denis Villeneuve to take a call while making Dune Messiah, and not because the signal is weak on Arrakis. The 3x Oscar nominee recently revealed that phones are “absolutely” banned from his sets as they’re “addictive,” noting that he’s “very tempted to disconnect myself” from screens altogether as well. “Cinema is an act of presence. When a painter paints, he has to be absolutely focused on the color he’s putting on the canvas. It’s the same with the dancer when he does a gesture,” he explained to the Los Angeles Times. “With a filmmaker, you have to do…

The year 2024 proved that big budgets aren’t everything, with a new wave of independent filmmakers crafting stories that resonated with audiences and critics alike. These underdogs of the silver screen reminded us that sometimes, the smallest films cast the biggest shadows. Notable highlights in this year’s extensive festival offerings range from the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner In the Summers, directed by Alessandra Lacorazza; Pamela Anderson’s triumphant return to the screen in The Last Showgirl; and the Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize winner The Seed of the Sacred Fig, from Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof.…

Adrien Brody is opening up about the lengths he went to for his Oscar-winning performance in Roman Polanski’s 2002 film The Pianist. Brody portrayed Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman in the biographical film. For the role, Brody took on a near-starvation diet and lost 30 lbs., dropping his weight to 129 lbs. The actor was said to be “barely drinking water” when they started filming the movie, which was shot in reverse, showing Szpilman at his most depleted. “That was a physical transformation that was necessary for storytelling,” Brody told New York Magazine’s Vulture. “But then that kind of opened me…

Powerful performers punch above their weight in this otherwise by-the-book boxing drama. Based on the record-setting back-to-back Olympic victories—in 2012 and 2016—of professional boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, who came from a poor background in Flint, Michigan, to win gold medals in London and Rio de Janeiro, it’s a familiar tale of success against the odds that takes some interesting turns as a depiction of a woman competing in a stereotypically male sport. Ultimately, though, what made great material for a 90-minute documentary (2015’s T-Rex) doesn’t organically stretch to a 109-minute feature; thankfully, director Rachel Morrison resists the urge to confect…

Sony Pictures is set to co-produce and co-finance the highly anticipated new animated film, Scarlet, from Academy Award-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai, Belle, Wolf Children) with Studio CHIZU and Nippon TV. Sony will distribute Scarlet globally (outside Japan) with the U.S. release earmarked for winter 2025. Toho will release in the home market.  Producers are Yuichiro Saito (Studio CHIZU), Toshimi Tanio (Nippon TV), Nozomu Takahashi (Studio CHIZU). Scarlet is described as the story of a brave princess who transcends time and space. Hosoda began his career at Toei Animation in 1991 as an animator. In 1999, he made his directorial debut with Digimon Adventure.…

Veteran actor Joe Pesci committed to the bit a little too much when he accidentally bit Macaulay Culkin‘s finger while shooting the 1990 Christmastime classic Home Alone. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, star Daniel Stern — who portrays the goofier half to Pesci’s more determined robber — recalled what happened: “I totally forgot about that. Joe is … he’s wonderful, I love him, he’s a dear friend, but he’s a scary dude, and he was carrying it all. We were trying in the first movie to try to actually be scary to start with, and then you realize we’re idiots.…

With another year in the books, Barack Obama has some new recommendations for his fellow cinephiles. On Friday, the former president of the United States shared his annual list of top 10 movies, which featured a papal thriller, a sex worker’s romantic-dramedy and a Timothée Chalamet double billing. “Here are a few movies I’d recommend checking out this year,” he wrote on Instagram with the list. Obama’s list included All We Imagine as Light, Conclave, The Piano Lesson, The Promised Land, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Dune: Part Two, Anora, Dìdi (弟弟), Sugarcane and A Complete Unknown. His comments…

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies clinched a historic spot on the Oscar shortlist for Best International Feature Film this week, becoming the first Thai feature to ever make the December list. Thailand has submitted 24 films for the international Oscar to date, since 1984, but the country has never scored a nomination nor spot on the shortlist, before How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which is the debut feature of director Pat Boonnitipat. The film’s top star, musician-actor Billkin, first heard about the achievement via the Thai media on Tuesday. “I’m a bit surprised because it’s the…

Ladybird (2017) and Little Women (2019) co-stars Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan reunited at the BFI Southbank in London on December 18 for a conversation about their careers, collaborations with each other and new films. When discussing his portrayal of Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s upcoming musical biopic A Complete Unknown, Oscar nominee Chalamet revealed that he was nervous to play Song To Woody for the first time and that there was a “whole war on the movie” about whether he should use prerecords or sing the music live. “I was in the camp that wanted to do it live…

Spain’s Academia de Cine has unveiled its list of nominations for the 39th Goya Awards, the country’s equivalent to the Oscar. Leading the field is Marcel Barrena’s biographical drama El 47, with 14 mentions. It’s followed by thriller La Infiltrada (Undercover) at 13. Also in the mix is Segundo Premio (Saturn Return) with 11 nods. The movie about real-life rock band Los Planetas was Spain’s submission for the International Feature Oscar, though it did not make AMPAS’ shortlist cut which was revealed yesterday. Meanwhile, Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, The Room Next Door, scored 10 nominations including Best…