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With significant runs in every major wrestling promotion from Ecw to WCW to WWE and now Aew, Chris Jericho has done it all in the wrestling ring — but it wasn’t until his new role in Shudder’s Dark Match that he led a Satanic cult in a series of literal death matches.

I sat down with the reigning Roh World Champion to discuss playing Dark Match‘s evil prophet, the similarities between wrestling and horror, channeling one of Stephen King‘s deadliest villains, and joining the Terrifier franchise.

Dark Match came to Jericho as an offer — the part was his if he wanted it, no audition necessary — but he was apprehensive about doing a movie about wrestling.

“I didn’t want to do wrestling movies. I’ve been wrestling enough. Most wrestling movies aren’t any good,” he admits. “But then I saw that Lowell Dean was the director and writer.

The Sundance Film Festival has long been a cradle for groundbreaking independent cinema, launching films that often grow beyond their initial acclaim to achieve cult status. These are the movies that transcend their time, finding passionate followings for their innovative storytelling, unique aesthetic, or subversive themes. Whether through midnight screenings, viral word-of-mouth, or rediscovery years after their debut, these films embody the spirit of indie cinema and its ability to resonate deeply with niche audiences. From edgy horror to introspective dramas, these Sundance standouts continue to captivate viewers long after their festival premieres. Here are 15 Sundance films that grew into cult classics, each leaving a lasting mark on both the independent film world and pop culture at large.

1. Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989, Sex, Lies, and Videotape marked a groundbreaking moment in independent cinema. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film explored themes of sexual relationships,...

A number of comic convention regulars are banding together to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

On Feb. 22, names such as Kevin Smith, David Dastmalchian and Seth Green will assemble at MultiCon, taking place at The Preserve LA. There will be the normal trappings of a comic convention, including panels and autograph signings, but with a twist: fans can donate money to get autographs and selfies with talent.

Others attending include Rob Liefeld, Jackie Tohn, Daniel Logan, Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt, Isaac Robinson Smith, Monique Coleman and Kaycee Stroh. More will be announced as the date gets near.

Proceeds benefit United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

“Everyone knows someone whose life was turned upside down from the wildfires. We have planned this event with Multihouse to not only raise funds to help those in need, but to also provide an opportunity for people to start the healing process,” said Larry Bond,...

It’s time for the Sundance Film Festival, and once again I’ll be heading to Utah to bring readers of JoBlo loads of reviews of all the latest indie flicks coming soon to a theater (or streaming service) near you. Located in Park City, Utah (for now anyways), Sundance is always one of my favorite events of the year. Being a movie fan, I love nothing more than binging on movies in the same festival that gave birth to the directing careers of legends like Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Jordan Peele, Damien Chazelle, and so many more.

As has been the case for the last decade or so, the festival is jam-packed with horror flicks, as studios – in particular A24 – have had some major breakouts there, including The Babadook, The Guest, Hereditary, Talk to Me, and last year’s I Saw the TV Glow. So what are we psyched to see?...

Dragons play a huge role in Game of Thrones—they are the symbol of power and control for the Targaryen bloodline, and anyone who possesses or claims these fire-breathing creatures is feared or respected. Surprisingly, the early drafts of A Song of Ice and Fire had no dragons in it.

George R.R. Martin in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / Credits: YouTube

George R.R. Martin did not think about bringing these mystical beasts into his fantasy lore. He had a different vision for the Targaryens which, in retrospect, would have been underwhelming and ridiculous, and the franchise might not be as successful as it is today.

Game of Thrones almost had no dragons, according to George R.R. Martin

We’ve seen a lot of movies and shows with dragons in them, but nothing as grand and iconic as Game of Thrones. The feral beasts in the show earned a proper spotlight,...

Werewolf movies have been a staple of horror for decades, embodying the primal fear of losing control and becoming a beast. Whether it’s the gothic tragedy of The Wolf Man (1941) or the groundbreaking practical effects of An American Werewolf in London (1981), these films have cemented themselves as cultural icons.

But here’s the thing about werewolf movies—they rarely go stale. Even the bad ones have a certain charm, tapping into the visceral thrill of seeing humans transform into monsters under the glow of a full moon. There’s something timeless about this subgenre, whether it leans into campy B-movie territory, deep psychological horror, or full-throttle gore.

With Wolf Man (2025) now in theaters (and not doing too well), it feels like the perfect time to take a closer look at some of the most notable werewolf films from the 2010s to today. As someone who loves this genre so...

A24 has become one of the leading producers in horror over the past decade. Most recently, their horror film Heretic succeeded at the box office and among critics, scoring an impressive 91% Tomatometer. The central Heretic performance by Hugh Grant has also garnered attention at awards ceremonies, earning the actor nominations at the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. 2024 also saw the release of other A24 horror films including Y2K, The Front Room, MaXXXine, and I Saw The TV Glow.

But even before last year, A24 has been cultivating directorial talents in the horror genre for years. They were the distributor behind The Witch, for example, a film that would go on to make stars out of both director Robert Eggers and actor Anya Taylor-Joy. The company added other indie auteurs to its growing list of directorial collaborators, including Clerks helmer Kevin Smith, who directed their wacky 2014 horror film Tusk. Another director...

Before the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, franchise films used to be made in a far more improvised fashion. Nowadays, we're used to studios and filmmakers having a several-year plan in place for an interlocking series of films and their respective franchises, and while this system can create some very rewarding emotional and narrative payoffs, it doesn't allow for the freedom of spontaneity as much. With this freedom, filmmakers were able to follow their muse to places they previously had never thought of going to, and it's not just characters or moments that were thought up on the fly; in some cases, an entire film came into existence based on a chance encounter.

That's exactly what happened to Kevin Smith during his primary years making films set in his View Askewniverse, named after the View Askew production company he created when he began making movies. Initially, these films were...

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"My Name Is Earl" is one of those sitcoms that remains beloved to a select group of fans but never really caught on in the zeitgeist in a way like "The Office" or "30 Rock" did. It had a great, heartwarming premise of the titular Earl (Jason Lee) wanting to make amends to all the people he's wronged in his troublemaking life. Earl typically hung around an eclectic group of characters to help (or hinder) him along his journey, and there was the potential for the show to make some big waves had it been allowed to continue.

Sadly, "My Name Is Earl" was canceled after four seasons due to negotiation issues between the network and the studio. It was an anticlimactic development, especially seeing as season 4 ended on a cliffhanger with the revelation that Darnell (Eddie Steeples) wasn't the father to Earl Jr.

Professional wrestler Chris Jericho plays the lead role in the wrestling-themed horror film Dark Match, which is coming to us from writer/director Lowell Dean, whose previous directing credits include 13 Eerie, Wolfcop, Another Wolfcop, and SuperGrid. The movie is set to be released through the Shudder streaming service on January 31st, and today a trailer has dropped online! You can check it out in the embed above.

Dark Match will show us what happens when a small-time wrestling company accepts a high-paying gig in a backwoods town, only to discover when they arrive that the community is run by a mysterious cult leader with devious plans for their match.

Jericho, who previously appeared in the Terrifier sequels and the Kevin Smith horror anthology KillRoy Was Here, is joined in the cast by Ayisha Issa (Transplant), Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead), Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries), Michael Eklund (Wynonna Earp), and...

You can find Part One of our Incomplete History of Film Independent here.

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In filmmaker Alexander Payne’s acclaimed 2004 wine snob dramedy Sideways–a 4x Film Independent Spirit Award winner–vino-loving schlemiel Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) spends a lost weekend in Southern California wine country gradually coming apart at the emotional seams. At one point, dismayed by some bad news regarding the nonpublication of his new novel and an increasingly difficult-to-ignore awareness of his own loserdom, Miles impulsively storms into the tasting room of one particularly, agonizingly corporatized McVineyard and proceeds to freak the fuck out.

It’s not stretching the metaphor here to perhaps compare the shock of Miles’ existential meltdown, then, to the mindset of the typical indie film consumer (and/or industry participant) by the time of the mid-2000s. In both instances, there was the pervading sense that true believers had been left adrift to drown in a sea of plenty.

Nicholas has been "eating about 4,000 calories a day" and been doing a lot of weightlifting to prepare for role as He-Man in ‘Masters of the Universe’.The 30-year-old actor will play the Eternia superhero in the new live-action movie adaptation of the iconic Mattel toy line and cartoon series from Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Films.Galitzine has now detailed his intense fitness and exercise regime to achieve the muscle-bound body required to portray He-Man.Speaking with W Magazine, Galitzine shared: “No pressure, I just have to embody the strongest man in the universe.“There’s been a lot of eating and weightlifting, a lot of stunts. I’m eating about 4,000 calories a day, but the amount of physical work I’m doing, you end up hungry at the end of the day, which is quite surprising. This is the fun part.”However, ’The Idea of You’ star admitted he...

Lily-Rose Depp is clearly making a mark outside of her father Johnny’s legacy. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t given the chance to watch some of his movies as a young girl. In fact, one traumatized her to the point that she hasn’t forgotten the experience more than two decades later…and we’re not talking about A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Lily-Rose remembered being sat down to watch Johnny Depp’s 1990 film Edward Scissorhands when she was just three. One scene in particular — near the end where Edward is run back to his decrepit mansion by the citizens that grew to love him and his barbershop skills — was the one that she carried with her. “I was traumatised by it. Not because I thought he was scary, but because everyone was being so mean to him and I got really upset.

In “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Sav Rodgers takes a journey that goes beyond fandom, examining the complex web that Kevin Smith’s 1997 film woven. This documentary acts as a mirror, reflecting the film’s narrative and the intricate emotional landscapes of its viewers, particularly those from disadvantaged groups.

The coming-of-age story of transgender filmmaker Rodgers is connected to Smith’s work. Rodgers has dealt with bullying and isolation in the past, and “Chasing Amy” has been both a lifeline and a cultural reference for her. This isn’t just a personal investigation; it’s an attempt to question representation—how a film can comfort some while reinforcing damaging stereotypes for others.

The documentary asks what it means to find yourself in a narrative that wasn’t entirely written for you through candid interviews with Smith and Joey Lauren Adams. Rodgers invites viewers to engage with the ramifications of a straight male...

Lily-Rose Depp reveals which Johnny Depp's movie scared her the most as a child. As the daughter of the actor who famously portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and French singer and actor Vanessa Paradis, Depp grew up immersed in culture, art and cinema, splitting her time between the US and France. She would make her acting debut with Kevin Smith's Tusk before going on to star in everything from Netflix's The King to HBO's The Idol.

The 25-year-old actor recently starred opposite Bill Skarsgård in Robert Eggers' 2024 Nosferatu, a remake of the 1922 classic vampire movie of the same name, alongside Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, and Nicholas Hoult. Her entry into the supernatural horror genre isn't a surprise, given that her father has worked on several gothic horror fantasy films that share a similar dark appeal, including Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd,...

A new Dungeons & Dragons pinball machine is coming out this year, featuring an epic voice cast and tons of amazing nods to the popular tabletop franchise. Dungeons & Dragons has had a massive 50th anniversary, with multiple brand crossovers and a new set of rulebooks that made massive revisions to the current Fifth Edition rules. D&d's anniversary celebrations are spilling into 2025, with the release of a new Monster Manual due out in February and several other big plans teased as well.

Stern Pinball, a maker of licensed pinball games, has announced Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye, a new pinball machine coming out this year. The game features an animatronic mech red dragon and the voice talents of Michael Dorn, Kevin Smith, Luke Gygax, Chris Prynoski, Brendon Small, Gerard Way, Matthew Mercer, Laura Bailey, and Marisha Ray. The game also features a campaign storyline with character creation, items that can...

Last Updated on January 6, 2025

Put away your dice and pour yourself a flagon of ale to wash down your Nachos Supreme because Stern Pinball is back with a brand-new pinball machine that sets you up for adventure! Today, Stern Pinball is teasing its Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye pinball machine, available now in Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition models.

In celebration of 50 years of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game, Stern Pinball, in collaboration with Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast division, brings you the pinball adventure of a lifetime in Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye! Stern’s thrilling journey into the Forgotten Realms features iconic enemies, including a red dragon, gelatinous cube, mimic, Sammaster the lich, Xanathar the beholder, an owlbear, and locations including those in Faerûn such as Arabel and Westgate.

All models for Stern Pinball’s Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye feature artwork by prolific artist Vincent Proce,...

Michael Keaton returns as Bruce Wayne in an exciting fan trailer that shows what his cancelled Batman Beyond movie could have been like. Ben Affleck played Batman in the Dceu. However, both Keaton and George Clooney reprised their versions of the Dark Knight in 2023's The Flash. According to Kevin Smith, a Keaton Batman Beyond movie would have been made if The Flash was successful. Since the film bombed at the box office, becoming one of the lowest-grossing entries among all Dceu movies, Keaton's Batman Beyond movie was never made.

Dr FlashPoint shared a concept trailer that imagines Michael Keaton's cancelled Batman Beyond movie.

The trailer features many of the characters present in the iconic animated franchise, such as the villains Shriek, the Royal Flush Gang, and even the Joker. The fan trailer uses 13 Reasons Why actor Brandon Flynn as Terry McGinnis, the title Dark Knight of the Batman Beyond franchise.

Bruce Willis was once among the biggest names in the Hollywood action industry. With franchises like Die Hard, Expendables, and Red under his belt, he has toughened it through some of the most challenging stunts and sets. However, his life came crashing down after his degenerative brain disorder came to light, and he had to step down from the acting duties he once highly cherished.

Bruce Willis. | Credits: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, Az, United States of America / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution by Share Alike 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons.

Fans have always been nitpicking about celebrities’ lives, and Willis has of course seen a fair share of those. But his dementia and subsequent retirement changed how the world viewed him, and now social media is flooded with support from his fans. A recent example is the resurfacing of a “rude” interview where the actor showed signs of facing difficulty while communicating.

The...

Ben Affleck established himself as a profitable Hollywood leading man, and this would never happen if it wasn’t for the help of Kevin Smith. He credits the director for his success following their meeting and collaboration on 1997’s Chasing Amy.

Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting / Credits: Miramax

It is so crazy to think how Good Will Hunting – the drama starring Affleck and Matt Damon – would have been different today had both actors never met Smith. The script was written by the duo, but it was Smith who convinced the studio executives that they should lead the movie.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon owe Kevin Smith their Hollywood careers

Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting was the film that put Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s names on the Hollywood map. They weren’t supposed to star in it as the first studio that picked up the project,...

3 years after WandaVision concluded on our screens and cemented its status as one of the best superhero shows of all time, I'm still fascinated by what the show's cut tenth episode could have brought to the series. The MCU was void of definitively canon Marvel shows until WandaVision, with series like Agents of Shield still holding a complicated space in the franchise's history due to conflicts with the main MCU timeline. As such, the spotlight was on WandaVision in a big way to provide a story that showed audiences how exciting the McU's TV shows could be.

Mercifully, WandaVision managed to do this and then some, capturing audiences in a fascinating mystery regarding how Wanda's life had become a stylized sitcom so far from where we last left her - especially since this had also seen Vision brought back to life as the co-star of the series. Along the way to the heartwrenching WandaVision ending,...

Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter in the recently released horror film Nosferatu. The actress has received praise for her performance in Robert Eggers’ remake, which also stars Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, and more. It was released on Christmas Day and has reportedly been faring well at the box office.

Lily-Rose Depp received significant criticism for her previous role as pop star Jocelyn in the HBO series The Idol. The depiction of s*x and the relationship shared between The Weeknd’s Tedros and Depp’s character was criticized by many. However, the actress’ dedication to Nosferatu has been vouched for by director Eggers.

Robert Eggers praises Lily-Rose Depp’s dedication to her role in Nosferatu Lily-Rose Depp in The Idol | Credits: HBO

Lily-Rose Depp has had an interesting career so far. Making her film debut with Kevin Smith’s Tusk, the daughter of Johnny Depp gained notoriety...

While almost 30 years back Happy Gilmore had to enter the Tour Championship to win back his grandmother’s house after risking it due to unpaid taxes, this time he will return to the field to prove his worth and finally put an end to his rivalry with Shooter McGavin. Therefore, officially making his way to the silver screen, Adam Sandler is set to return with Happy Gilmore 2 in July 2025.

Adam Sandler in a still from Happy Gilmore 2 trailer | image: Netflix

Fans are super excited for the sequel, especially since there was no hope for it after the sweet conclusion of the 1996 movie. So Happy Gilmore 2 is happening folks, and we already came across its first trailer. But meanwhile, Shooter McGavin seems to have some sad news for fans. Judging Adam Sandler’s golf skills in the trailer, the self-proclaimed “former no 1 golfer in the world” dropped his opinion.

It would seem to be of vital importance that directors and actors at the very least respect each other while they're making a movie, but Hollywood history is riddled with instances where this simply didn't occur. One of the most famous disagreements nearly turned fatal when Werner Herzog threatened to shoot (with a gun) notoriously erratic star Klaus Kinski while filming "Aguirre, the Wrath of God." No guns were brandished on the set of "Hook," but Steven Spielberg famously did not enjoy his time collaborating with Julia Roberts (they haven't worked together since). And then there's David O. Russell, who's fought with and/or terrorized stars like Amy Adams, Lily Tomlin, and George Clooney; if there's any justice, O. Russell, a once-formidable talent who hasn't made a watchable movie since 2010's "The Fighter," won't be allowed back behind the camera until he learns how to behave like a decent human being.

Despite being one of the titles to put the studio on the mainstream map, one of A24's biggest horror movies is only just now finding a new streaming home six years later. Formed in 2012 and currently spearheaded by Daniel Katz and David Fenkel, A24 is one of the most widely regarded studios operating in the independent film sphere, with their output including everything from the surreal dramedies Swiss Army Man and The Lobster to two very different Best Picture winners, namely the multiverse family drama Everything Everywhere All at Once and the LGBTQ+ coming-of-age drama Moonlight.

One of the main genres that A24 has become known for across their decade of releases is horror, with one of their first being Kevin Smith's 2014 body horror comedy Tusk. The years since have seen them expand to a wide variety of horror subgenres, including the folk and religious-driven The Witch, the...

Robin Williams’ geek credentials were well-known, but the late comedian surprised comic book creator Michael Allred when he wore a Madman T-shirt during his appearance on HBO’s Comic Relief. This appearance cements Williams’ comic book fandom for all time and shows how deep his love for the medium really went.

Posting to Instagram, Allred relates how Williams was a big fan of Allred’s signature character Madman, to the point where he wore a T-shirt of the character during the Comic Relief V benefit show on HBO in 1992.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Michael Allred (@allredmd)

Writing that he had previously heard Williams was a big fan of the character, Allred was still thrilled to see the comedian rocking some Madman apparel on TV. Wearing a T-shirt of a cult character like Madman shows how deep Williams’ fandom really went, as Allred’s character had only...

Did Ben Affleck donate all of Harvey Weinstein’s film residuals? (Photo Credit – Wikipedia)

Amid the Harvey Weinstein scandal’s eruption, the Justice League star decided to take a very public stand—by donating 100% of his residuals from Weinstein films. No joke. As he bluntly put it, “I just didn’t want to cash any more checks from the guy, you know?” Talk about cutting ties in style.

We all know Ben Affleck’s history with Weinstein. He starred in Good Will Hunting, which, let’s be real, helped shape his career. But when the scandal hit and the smoke cleared, Affleck wasn’t just sitting on the sidelines. He did what a lot of us probably wished others had done—he gave back. Every cent earned from his Weinstein flicks? Gone. Sent straight to Film Independent (Fi) and Rainn, organizations supporting women in the industry and survivors of assault.

Three years removed from his performance 2021’s House of Gucci, Jared Leto is set to don a bald cap yet again, this time swapping out the skullet of Paolo Gucci for the literal skull of Eternia’s greatest supervillain, Skeletor, in the upcoming live-action film of Masters of the Universe.

Directed by Travis Knight, Amazon MGM’s upcoming adaptation of the beloved cartoon is due in theaters on June 5th, 2026. Along with Leto’s Skeletor, the film stars Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man and Alison Brie as Skeletor’s lieutenant, Evil-Lyn.

Rounding out the cast are House of the Dragon’s Sam C. Wilson as Trap Jaw; Game of Thrones’ Hafthor Bjornsson as Goat Man; Riverdale’s Camila Mendes as He-Man’s companion, Teela; and Idris Elba as Teela’s father, Man-at-Arms.

A live-action film based on Masters of the Universe was first announced as a Netflix project earlier this decade,...

I’m not a super-fan — just a casual Kryptonologist — but I must confess I never really got Superman’s dog. A canine with superpowers always struck me as deeply problematic. Does he knock over fire hydrants when he pees? Does the Earth’s rotation reverse whenever he chases his tail? Does he chew up his master’s red boots?

But now, after seeing Kal-El’s pooch in that just-dropped trailer for James Gunn’s upcoming Superman reboot, I’ve got just one question about the Man of Steel’s best friend: Great Caesar’s ghost, what took so long to get him onto the big screen?

The character has been around since 1955, when DC first dropped him into Adventure Comics #210 for what was supposed to be a one-off storyline. The plot arc was so popular, though, it wasn’t long before Krypto returned, again and again, romping regularly though a...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Anora (Sean Baker)

Sean Baker’s Anora expands his filmmaking vision, pushing the writer-director-editor’s fifth consecutive story on sex workers into a higher plane of awards and commercial success. It’s a romantic comedy, a madcap dash around New York City, a movie ruminating on loss, love, and class disparity. Baker aims to put audiences through a ringer of emotional swings, ending with a desolation that’s been building in the background, easier to spot once the tinsel’s shimmer fades. With a true star-making performance from Mikey Madison and a deep bench of supporting actors, Anora whirls until suddenly it doesn’t, and all that’s left is earned, resonant silence from both its characters and audience. – Michael F.

Where...

Alongside Kevin Smith, Universal is developing Local Heroes, a mystery-comedy series about comic book store regulars who solve crimes in their hometown. Smith is best known for his low-budget comedy film Clerks and his more recent comedy horror film Tusks, among other projects.

According to Variety, Smith will serve as writer and executive producer for Local Heroes. Inspired by Smith’s own comic shop in New Jersey, the show is being developed for NBC. The director shared the big news on Instagram. Check the post out below:

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith)

Developing...

Source: Variety, Kevin Smith/Instagram...

Filmmaker Kevin Smith has been the owner of a comic book store called Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash for decades, and for seven seasons AMC aired a reality show that was based around the store and the characters that inhabited it, a show called Comic Book Men. Now, Variety reports that Smith is drawing inspiration from his own comic book store again while developing a new TV series called Local Heroes. Smith is a writer and executive producer on the new show, alongside 30 Rock alums Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan. Set up at Universal, the show is being developed for NBC.

Hazy Mills’ Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner are also behind the project, as is Jordan Cerf.

Local Heroes is said to be about a group of comic book store regulars who band together to solve crimes in their hometown.

Jim Donnelly, Universal TV comedy development executive vice president,...

Several incredible films are challenging to watch nowadays. This can be for a variety of reasons, including issues with licensing or streaming. The best movies of all time rarely have issues such as these, but there are plenty of incredible movies that are still hard to find in the modern day.

Many of the films that are difficult to find, both on streaming or otherwise, are movies with great anti-heroes. Others, like Porgy and Bess, are great romance films. Regardless, the fact that these movies are so hard to find makes the effort worth it, as they are each an important part of movie history in their own right.

Dogma (1999) Licensing Issues Are At The Core Of This Comedy Film

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Dogma

Dogma is a 1999 comedy that revolves around two fallen angels, Bartleby and Loki, who try to...

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.

“Chasing Chasing Amy” filmmaker Sav Rodgers has signed with Sandstone Artists for management representation.

Rodgers enters the partnership as he looks to expand into scripted content while continuing his documentary work. “Chasing Chasing Amy” explores the complex legacy of Kevin Smith‘s 1997 cult classic movie “Chasing Amy” on LGBTQ+ people and its life-saving impact on Rodgers, who made his feature-length directing debut with the documentary. It premiered at Tribeca 2023 and went on to play at some 75 film festivals including London and BFI Flare.

Kevin Nicklaus, head of production and partner at Sandstone, will serve as Rodgers’ primary representative. Nicklaus’ current slate includes anime adaptation “The Beginning After the End” (Crunchyroll/Fuji TV) and a trilogy of horror features based on Junji Ito properties.

“Anyone who has seen ‘Chasing Chasing Amy’ can attest to the overflowing talent, artistic bravery, and soulfulness of Sav Rodgers. We are eager to help him bring...

Sav Rodgers’ documentary Chasing Chasing Amy premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and has been making the festival rounds ever since, screening at 76 festivals around the world to date. Level 33 Entertainment gave the film a theatrical release last month, and now we’ve learned that Chasing Chasing Amy will be available to rent or own on VOD as of next Tuesday, December 17th!

MediaPlayNews reports that in the documentary, filmmaker Sav Rodgers takes a journey of self-discovery while making a documentary about Kevin Smith’s 1997 film Chasing Amy and its polarizing reputation among LGBTQ+ people. They go on to reveal that Chasing Chasing Amy explores the transformational impact of the ’90s cult classic on a 12-year-old queer kid from Kansas, coming of age and to terms with his identity. For young Sav Rodgers, the Kevin Smith cult classic became a life raft. As Rodgers examines the film and its making...

Kevin Smith is clearly having a good year. His latest directorial effort, The 4:30 Movie was well-received by both audiences and critics, he randomly showed up in The Simpsons’ season premiere and he regained the rights to Dogma from real-life shit demon Harvey Weinstein. Now he’s ending the year by playing Santa Claus — literally.

This past weekend, Smith took on the mantle of “Santa Bob,” posing for pictures with fans at his New Jersey comic book shop Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. He even had his costume designer whip up a custom Santa Bob suit.

Smith invited locals to indulge their Yuletide nostalgia by sitting on his lap and poising for a picture “just like we were at JCPenney’s or Sears back in the day — or the mall!”

It may be a tad unusual to see a celebrity taking on a mall Santa-type gig, especially considering...

Warning! Spoilers for Green Arrow #18!Green Arrow has an iconic costume - one of the best in superhero comics - but how he keeps his identity secret has never really made much sense. While Green Arrow often wears a hood or a classic domino mask, the lower half of his face is completely exposed. While this isn't an issue for characters like Batman, Ollie has a distinctive beard that has always made hiding his identity hard, but his newest costume fixed this problem.

After working with Amanda Waller, Green Arrow is back in his city and doing his best to protect the people he cares about. This return also comes with a brand-new costume, and it's a fantastic update to his iconic look. Not only does Ollie have a cool cloak now, but most importantly, he's wearing a face mask that completely obscures his iconic blond beard, as seen in Green Arrow #18 by Chris Condon,...

Kevin Smith’s latest film, The 4:30 Movie, is a brisk affair, with hefty end credits. He tells us the story of what happened.

If you look on the end credits of Kevin Smith’s career-turning film Red State, you’d find a short sentence thanking the people who never questioned why, and instead asked why not. Fast forward to his latest release, 2024’s The 4.30 Movie, and the special thanks goes on, well, quite a bit longer.

Smith pens a note in the end credits of The 4:30 Movie, a missive of thanks to the people who helped him to get to where he is, and I had the chance to question Smith as to why he’d approached things that way. Turns out there was a practical bit of thinking involved.

“I’m going to disabuse you of the notion that it was ‘he knows what he’s doing...

While major Hollywood stars can be a big factor in drawing audiences to theaters, some movies have managed to find incredible success despite a total lack of star power. It’s true that some movies act as vehicles for major stars to show off their talents, but plenty of quirky comedies and horror hits have earned reputations as some of the best films of all time despite having no notable names among their cast lists. This was also often the case for first-time filmmakers, whose creative directorial debuts acted as the launching point for future stars’ Hollywood careers.

From low-budget surprise hits to films that have their lack of star power built into their very premise, an absence of major names can sometimes benefit a movie as audiences don’t associate the characters with anyone else. Often, a strong script, a clever concept, and some standout performances are enough to capture viewers' imaginations and interests.

Nicolas Cage as Superman in Superman Lives ( Photo Credit – Wikimedia )

Nicolas Cage as Superman? Yep, it happened—well, kind of. DC fans watching The Flash got a wild multiverse cameo of Cage battling a massive alien spider as Clark Kent himself. But here’s the twist: Cage’s Superman dream wasn’t just a random CGI throw-in. It was a callback to Hollywood’s most prominent “what-if” stories.

In the late ‘90s, Cage was set to wear the red cape in Superman Lives, a Tim Burton-led reboot that could’ve redefined the Man of Steel. The movie had Cage rocking samurai-style long hair as a darker, emo-ish Superman. Think moody, broody, and not your classic Clark Kent. Kevin Smith wrote the script, Jon Peters produced, and Burton was fresh off Batman and Batman Returns. Everything seemed primed for a super comeback—until it wasn’t.

The movie was supposed to pit Superman against Brainiac,...

The premiere of the 36th season of "The Simpsons" was novel. Matt Groening's animated sitcom has been airing for so long -- so ... so long! -- that audiences have frequently begun to wonder how the zeitgeist-defining hit should come to an end. Will it tap out at season 40? At 50? And if so, how would the series actually close? Perhaps to take the pressure off, the showrunners decided that the premiere of season 36 should be a preemptive series finale, giving a retrospective of the entire "Simpsons" oeuvre before the show actually ends. The episode, called "Bart's Birthday," was presented as an awards-show-style screening, projected in a theater stuffed with celebrities ("Weird Al" Yankovic! Penn & Teller! The Unknown Comic!). Conan O'Brien, playing himself, hosted the finale in wistful terms, bidding farewell to the long-running series. 

Of course, many famous people are in attendance, and sharp-eyed fans will be able to scan...

Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stan Lee was known as a Marvel Comics writer and editorial director. He was instrumental in creating some of the company's most prominent characters and oversaw the entire comic book universe's direction. Lee went from the voice of Marvel to its cameo king over the course of his illustrious career, and even fans who weren't familiar with him before soon got to know the guy, thanks to Lee's frequent MCU appearances. However, he was stealthily starting his cameo career well before the MCU, and unbeknownst to many, his résumé includes a truly offbeat appearance in Disney's "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement."

In this 2004 romantic comedy that depicts the further adventures of Princess of Genovia Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway), Lee has a brief but fun turn as a foreign wedding guest who does his best to greet Queen Clarisse (Julie Andrews) with language skills that,...

Making a hit comedy movie — let alone a hit comedy franchise — can be a bit of a daunting prospect. It's not too hard to make a film full of cheap laughs that land immediately but don't linger, as evident by the glut of pleasant but forgettable comedy films that exist out there. It's a little harder to make something ambitious and ahead of its time though, especially when the sting of initial failure hurts enough to make the decades-later reappraisal a long wait. The most key form of comedy movie alchemy is making a film which is extremely of its time yet continues to not just retain but gain devoted fans for years afterward, enough so that the gags that are dated don't grate too much, allowing for the more timeless material to shine through.

That pretty much describes "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" to a T. In a lot of ways,...

M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" is arguably one of the most unsettling horror movies of all time, following a young boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment) who has the ability to see and speak with the dead. Child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis, attempts to help him deal with what he believes is mental illness, though he eventually discovers that Cole's talents are all too real. With an incredible twist ending and one of the scariest scenes for kids ever, Shyamalan's 1999 thriller is an all-timer that launched him into mega-stardom right out of the gate. But while "The Sixth Sense" was a box office sensation and ended up becoming one of the biggest films of the '90s, Shyamalan himself (who was virtually unknown and only had a couple of features under his belt at the time) was a bit nervous during production, especially when...

It’s showtime! On Max. Or, it will be soon. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the long-awaited sequel to director Tim Burton’s 1988 classic Beetlejuice (watch it Here) and a project that was originally expected to receive a straight-to-streaming release, reached theatres back in September (you can read our review at This Link), and it managed to rack up over $450 million at the global box office. PVOD and physical media releases followed, and now Deadline has confirmed that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be streaming on the Max service as of December 6th. It will then debut on HBO linear on Saturday, December 7 at 6:10 p.m. Et.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was in development hell for decades before it finally got made. In 1990, Jonathan Gems was hired to write a sequel that was going to be titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. Burton considered having Daniel Waters rewrite that script, Pamela Norris did rewrite it, and Warner Bros....

Many iconic DC villains graced the screen in Batman: The Animated Series, but there were also numerous villains left on the cutting room floor. Some were deemed too dark, others simply didnt fit the tone of the DC show, and a few were outright vetoed by the studio. However, creators Bruce Timm and Paul Dini have revealed fascinating behind-the-scenes details about these unused characters. Theyve also speculated on who would have voiced them if they had made it into the series.

The creative team behind Batman: The Animated Series included Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and a stellar roster of writers and directors who redefined the Dark Knights rogues' gallery for Batman: Tas. Timm and Dini, in particular, often share behind-the-scenes tidbits through interviews and fan sites like The Worlds Finest. Theyve revealed details about villains who almost appeared on the show, how likely their inclusion was, and the actors they envisioned for these roles.

Like most fans of cinema, I enjoy reading a lot of reviews; not just to find a worthwhile movie to watch, but also to gain some insight and look into different perspectives on films that I find interesting. I especially like reading film reviews from the past to see how assessments back then measure up to how the film is viewed today, and to examine whether similar evaluations of the directors and predictions regarding their careers have aged well.

We all know how certain movies, like “The Thing” and “Blade Runner,” were poorly received during their time, only to become highly influential within their genres later on. But it’s even more fascinating to read why these movies were panned and what led to their reassessment. With that in mind, I would like to talk about eight reviews or assessments that I found particularly fun to revisit with the benefit of hindsight.

Exclusive: Cliff “Method Man” Smith (Power Book II: Ghost), Martha Kelly (Euphoria), and Will Price (After the Hunt) are the newest additions to Maude Apatow’s directorial debut, Poetic License.

Character details are under wraps. Written by Raffi Donatich, the film follows Liz, a former therapist and soon-to-be empty nester, as she becomes the unexpected point of tension between two inseparable best friends and college seniors, Sam and Ari. Liz is forced to reexamine her life as the boys’ friendship unravels in a fierce competition for her affection.

As previously announced, Andrew Barth Feldman, Cooper Hoffman, Leslie Mann, Nico Parker, and Maisy Stella will also star. The project is the first from Jewelbox Pictures, Apatow’s recently launched production company with Olivia Rosenbloom, which produces alongside Apatow Productions and Levantine Films.

A Grammy-winning musician and actor best known as a founding member of the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, Smith has...

Something Wicked this way comes in this week’s film quiz, with 30 all-new film-related questions, some of them about witchy business…

A movie version of Wicked has been a long time coming down the yellow brick road and this week’s new release still only covers the first half of the smash-hit Broadway musical. Meanwhile, this week’s film quiz is themed around witches but there are also questions about werewolf and vampire movies, slasher-movie villains, found-footage horror… heck, it’s looking more like a Halloween quiz than some of our Halloween ones.

Once you’ve completed all three rounds of movie-related questions, you’ll find a link to a separate post with the correct answers at the bottom of this post. As always, this is just for fun, but please let us know how you did in the comments (scores out of 31 this week!) and give us any other lovely feedback.