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It is a widespread belief among fans and critics that actors do not choose roles rather the role chooses the actor. In the history of the film industry, there have been several iconic roles, but Keanu Reeves’ portrayal of Neo in The Matrix will always occupy a special place in popular culture.

Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix | Credit: Warner Bros.

A role that not only propelled him to the forefront of Hollywood but also made him famous across the world, today, it is hard to imagine anyone else as the titular character. This idea seems even more perplexing when one realizes that the Wachowskis had initially offered Will Smith the lead role but he turned it down fearing it won’t be a good film. However, he recently teased starring in such a film, sending shockwaves across The Matrix fandom.

Before Keanu Reeves, Will Smith was the first...

Twenty years ago, John Magaro was an aspiring actor who had just moved to New York when he got a call about being a background actor in Munich, Steven Spielberg‘s historical drama about the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis.

“Mainly it was sitting around in like a community center in Brooklyn, and then the ADs come in and they’re like, ‘Hey, you, you, you come over here.’ We’re walking on the street, walk across the street, past Eric Bana, and don’t f— it up. And that was my start. You can see my younger version of myself walking across the street from Eric Bana,” Magaro tells Gold Derby. “Eric Bana and I ended up working together on this movie that a lot of people haven’t seen called The Finest Hours, this Disney movie, and I never mentioned that [to him]. I never mentioned that I had walked across...

Christopher Nolan is returning to cinema and this time he is bringing an epic piece of literature history with him. The film will bring to life the popular poem, Odyssey, written by Homer. The poem revolves around the Trojan War and narrates the story of Odysseus’ journey back home to Ithaka. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is all set to include a stellar cast including one of Hollywood’s favorite couples, Tom Holland and Zendaya.

Christopher Nolan | Credits: HellaCinema/ Cc-by-sa-4.0/Wikimedia Commons

Now, an industry insider has claimed that the upcoming film will not be as grounded as the other films that have attempted to tell the story of the Trojan War. This might be a good thing for Christopher Nolan who once fell on the bad side of comic book fanatics for making The Dark Knight trilogy grounded.

Christopher Nolan’s next film is reportedly going to be anything...

Tobey Maguire is celebrated as being perhaps the best iteration of Spider-Man today, but that was not always the case, at least when it came to critics. While some might say that the love that the actor is getting is thanks to nostalgia-tinted glasses, the man’s performance as Peter Parker shattered expectations in its heyday and also shut down critics who believed Maguire was not up to the role.

Spider-Man || Credit: Sony Pictures

Maguire himself came out to talk about the criticisms that were leveled at him at the time, which focused on the fact that he did not seem like a conventional hero. Then again, Peter Parker was not a conventional hero, and therefore merited someone like Tobey Maguire being cast in the role for the big screen.

Tobey Maguire believed the criticism leveled at him was poor Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker || Credit: Sony Pictures

Maguire believed...

The AMC Networks January 2025 schedule has been announced and includes a new season of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches and AMC’s premiere of Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale; Acorn TV’s new mystery series The Gone; BBC America’s new natural history series exploring Asia; the return of We TV’s hit series Toya & Reginae; and Allblk’s new political thriller Conspirators.

The New Year will also bring exciting film debuts, including IFC Films’ Skincare, starring Elizabeth Banks, comedic slasher Get Away, written by and starring Nick Frost, Shudder’s satirical body horror Grafted, starring Jess Hong, and wrestling-themed action-horror Dark Match, starring Sara Canning and Steven Ogg.

These films, series and more join an extensive catalog of compelling dramas, beloved franchises, popular films, and timely collections on Acorn TV, Allblk, AMC+, BBC America, Hidive, Shudder, Sundance Now, and We TV all month long.

Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches Season...

Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are probably aiming to recreate the magic of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Marvel’s earlier strategy which hinged on great storytelling needs to be replicated after a slew of films that haven’t really resonated with the audience that well. While Marvel has a lot of ground to cover between now and Avengers: Doomsday, it seems like the studio will be relying on one crowd-pleasing tactic to make its films as palatable as possible.

Avengers: Endgame || Marvel Entertainment

Avengers: Secret Wars and Doomsday will probably try to culminate the Multiverse Saga in the best way it can, which could possibly include a slew of cameos from a bunch of Marvel properties, that are not necessarily in the MCU. Given that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been able to connect numerous IPs that were made under the Marvel banner before Iron Man (2008), there...

For our most comprehensive year-end feature, we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2024. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions––many of those personal selections will be shared in coming weeks in separate features––and from tallied votes has this top 50 been assembled.

Without further ado, check out out the best in 2024 cinema below, our ongoing year-end coverage here, and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2025.

50. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)

While Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga earned less than its predecessor at the box office, it was no less creatively satisfying. There should be little hesitation in calling Fury Road one of the greatest action films of all time (if not the greatest); all the more impressive that George Miller had it in him to make Furiosa even more epic.

The upcoming historic drama September 5, which chronicles the 1972 Munich Massacre at the Summer Olympics, will be released on December 13. The Tim Fehlbaum directorial has been nominated for the Golden Globe Awards in the Best Picture—Drama category and has received rave reviews during its festival run.

The film has been in the news due to its subject matter i.e. the tragic deaths of Israeli athletes at the hands of the Palestinian militant group Black September. The topically relevant subject matter as well as its focus on the ABC Sports network’s coverage of the events has made it one of the most interesting films of the year. Here are three reasons why you should watch it.

1. September 5 Deals With The 1972 Munich Massacre From Another Perspective A still from September 5 | Credits: Paramount Pictures

The 1972 Munich Massacre during the Summer Olympics in Germany was one of the most harrowing incidents in history.

The Robbie Williams biopic “Better Man” has taken center stage in the 2025 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) Awards nominations.

“Better Man” earned a record-breaking 16 nominations, the most ever received by a single film in the awards’ 66-year history. Directed by Michael Gracey, the musical film secured nods across key categories, including Best Film, Best Direction, and Best Screenplay, as well as multiple acting, technical, and creative honors.

“Better Man” is joined in the Best Film category by George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “How to Make Gravy,” both with 15 nominations, the horror standout “Late Night with the Devil” with 14, the animated feature “Memoir of a Snail” with 11, and “Runt,” which received four.

For the first time, the Aacta Awards have recognized motion capture and voice performances in acting categories. Jonno Davies received a nomination for his motion capture portrayal of Robbie Williams in “Better Man,...

Exclusive: Amidst the awards campaign for Memoir of a Snail, his latest animated feature, which is one of the best reviewed of the year, Academy Award-winning Australian filmmaker Adam Elliot has signed with UTA for representation in all areas.

Released by IFC Films in October, Memoir of a Snail is an R-rated, stop-motion feature set in 1970s Melbourne that follows the story of Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook), an introverted woman who has endured a lifetime of tragedy. After losing her mother at birth and later her father, Grace and her twin brother, Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee), are separated into different foster homes. Following this series of unfortunate events, the siblings seek friendships in unlikely places before attempting to reunite.

Memoir of a Snail premiered at Annecy in June, winning the Cristal Award, before going on to take the top honor of Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival. Pic also...

Movies about gambling follow a simple mantra: A character or characters go up against the odds, eschewing safe bets for a risky, life-changing move. The stakes are high, but the rewards are plentiful. Our protagonists encounter numerous obstacles during their journey and often incur severe losses. They almost always experience a moment of self-reflection and are faced with the ultimate choice: go all in or fold. Rinse and repeat.

Hundreds of movies about gambling exist to tell this same story time and again, with slight variations on the formula. Audiences turn up in droves to watch these powerful morality tales play out on the silver screen. And why not? The gambling genre presents the hero's journey in its purest form. It's the quintessential underdog tale, except rather than score the final shot in the big game, characters risk life and limb for a chance to beat the house, upend the establishment,...

Image Source: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment In the pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe days, a standalone Hulk movie was made. It was directed by Ang Lee, who was the third director attached to the project and a controversial choice at that, despite having won an Oscar for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. While the film was received poorly by audiences, it got a better reception from critics; over time, the film has developed a cult following, and many fans have re-evaluated their feelings about it. The film’s star, Eric Bana, was optimistic from the start. At the time the film was released, Bana told us he thought Lee had done an amazing job, and he’d hoped that fans would agree. (Click on the media bar below to hear Eric Bana.) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Eric_Bana_Hulk_.mp3

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

John Magaro is the glue that holds September 5 together. He stars as ABC Sports producer Geoffrey Mason, who was covering the 1972 Munich Olympics when Black September terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage in the Olympic compound. Magaro must convey the enormous pressure and responsibility placed on Mason as he is suddenly thrust into the hot seat to produce live coverage. Director Tim Fehlbaum chose Magaro because, he says, “He’s one of the best there is.” Next, Magaro is set to appear with Michael Fassbender in the spy drama The Agency, followed by Maggie Gyllenhaal’s film The Bride.

Deadline: You weren’t even born then, but what did you already know about Munich ’72?

John Magaro: I knew about it. I don’t know why I knew about it. I mean, I’ve always been a lover of history. My mother’s Jewish. I was raised Jewish, so I think...

Exclusive: Rising Australian star Sam Corlett, of Netflix’s Territory and Vikings: Valhalla, is the newest addition to the cast of Headhunters, the surf thriller co-written by and starring Kevin Costner, which also has actors Evan Mock, Chloe East and Daniel Zovatto in the mix.

Marking the feature directorial debut of veteran cinematographer Steven Holleran, Headhunters follows Lazer (Costner), a washed-up American ex-pat, convicted for smuggling ancient relics, who’s serving time in Bali’s infamous Kerobokan prison. After a daring escape, he recruits a group of thrill-seeking surfers led by Bima (Zovatto), a local photographer, and embarks on a journey to an uncharted island, believed to host the perfect wave. What they don’t know is that the island is home to an ancient tribe of headhunters who will guard their island and its treasure at all costs. What ensues is an adventure turned survival story of epic and...

Mark Ruffalo has become synonymous with the Marvel superhero Hulk over the years. But unlike some of his predecessors, he doubted he’d ever get his own official Hulk film.

Why Mark Ruffalo felt a solo Hulk movie was unlikely Mark Ruffalo | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Ruffalo has been playing Marvel’s Hulk since 2012’s The Avengers movie. But unlike Eric Bana and Edward Norton before him, Ruffalo’s monstrous counterpart has only been seen in superhero team-up films. In an interview with Empire (via Contact Music), Ruffalo asserted that he wasn’t against doing a Hulk solo feature. He even shared what he wanted to see in a potential Hulk sequel.

“Who knows where these things will go,” Ruffalo said. “But as Bruce is able to impress his will on the Hulk – going into The Hulk and being inside the Hulk when he’s raging – The Hulk’s will is...

For all the incredible guest stars and forgotten characters whom Ryan Reynolds roped into the making of Deadpool & Wolverine, there are still a small handful of big gets who got away — maybe they saw what he did to Brad Pitt in the last movie.

Six years after Deadpool 2 proved that Reynolds’ decade-long struggle to get Hollywood to buy into his darkly hilarious, R-rated super-antihero film franchise wasn’t just a flash in the pan, the multi-hyphenate mogul pulled out all the stops to turn this year’s Deadpool & Wolverine into one big send-up of the chaotic comic book movie industry that exists outside of the mainstream Marvel Cinematic Universe. After all, Reynolds is far from the first A-lister to attempt to bring a less-loved comic book character to life on the big screen, and he graciously decided to turn his smashing success at the ambitious undertaking to honor...

Brad Pitt’s top five action movies ranked by box office performance showcase his most successful action-packed roles (Photo Credit – Facebook)

As superstar Brad Pitt‘s career draws close, look at his top five action films that dominated the box office and kick-started his career. Pitt’s action-packed roles, ranging from thrilling epic heists to post-apocalyptic pandemonium, have dominated the box office and demonstrated his talent for captivating performances.

Whether Pitt is fighting zombies, pulling off stylish heists, or brandishing a sword in ancient wars, his action movies have shaped his career and gripped us. Now fast-forward to these box office successes that catapulted Brad Pitt into the realm of action stars.

World War Z – $540 million World War Z (Photo Credit – Prime Video)

Is Brad Pitt battling zombies? It’s fantastic, as expected. Pitt’s highest-grossing film was World War Z (2013), which grossed $540M worldwide. In this spectacular apocalyptic journey,...

John Magaro went from an extra on a Steven Spielberg film to leading his own movie about the same tragic events 20 years later.

Magaro has steadily built a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors, seamlessly transitioning between indie gems and major studio films such as “Not Fade Away” and “Past Lives.” But despite his steady rise in the industry, he remains grounded and deeply connected to the craft of acting, driven by a passion for storytelling and a dedication to exploring the complexities of each role.

In this episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Magaro discusses his latest project, Paramount Pictures’ “September 5” — a dramatic thriller about the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis. He also reflects on his early days in the business, which included an unexpected start as an extra in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film “Munich,” a full-circle moment for him. Listen below.

“What makes this...

Four top films this weekend are indies – five including The Substance at no. 11, as the specialty market roars back to life. No. 3 at the domestic box office is a great story, Conclave from Focus Features, the studio behind the Downtown Abbey films. excels at drawing still elusive but key older demos to theaters and broadening out from there as it did most recently with Oscar-winning The Holdovers.

The Vatican thriller by Edward Berger (whose All Quiet On The Western Front took the Best International Feature Oscar in 2023) and starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini opened to a sweet $6.5 million at about 1,750 theaters. The kicker is that some 77% of the audience is over 35 with the biggest chunk (44%) being 55+, a rare feat.

The title refers to the ancient tradition that sees Cardinals from across the globe gather sequestered behind Vatican walls to elect a new Pope when the previous Eminence expires.

While many of the animated films that dominate the awards conversation are studio-produced, there are usually a few indie contenders that shine through. This year, that title belongs to Adam Elliot’s devastating Memoir of a Snail — the claymation filmmaker’s second feature after Mary and Max. While it can be incredibly difficult to watch at times, Elliot’s movie is poignant and consistently beautiful, making it a must-see for animation enthusiasts.

Memoir of a Snail Review

Memoir of a Snail tells the story of a woman who grew up after being separated from her twin brother in the foster care system, having to face all the joys and tragedies of life by herself or with the companionship of other kindred souls she meets along her journey. If it’s not clear, this isn’t your typical family-friendly animated film, having a much darker story and more mature themes than...

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Canary Black is a spy action thriller film directed by Pierre Morel from a screenplay by Matthew Kennedy. The Prime Video film follows Avery Graves, an exceptional CIA agent whose husband is kidnapped by terrorists to blackmail her into stealing sensitive information that would betray her country. Canary Black stars Kate Beckinsale in the lead role with Rupert Friend, Ray Stevenson, Saffron Burrows, Ben Miles, and Michael Brandon starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the explosive action, thrilling story, and compelling characters in Canary Black here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Salt (Netflix & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Columbia Pictures

Salt is a spy action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce from a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer. The 2010 film follows Evelyn Salt, an exceptional CIA agent who is wrongfully accused of killing the Russian president.

Indie releases from limited (Memoir of a Snail) to wide (Conclave) are testing an increasingly lively specialty box office heading into awards season with a handful of decorated documentaries this week including Dahomey, Black Box Diaries, My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock and A New Kind of Wilderness and some notable expansions.

Also hitting theaters this weekend, a new documentary showing the soft side of Donald Trump, The Man You Don’t Know, whose producers are crying foul, saying a number of theaters have bailed on opening weekend.

Expansions: Anora, Neon’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film by Sean Baker, expands to 35 screens after posting 2024’s top limited opening of $550,000 on six screens. It heads into week 2 with a $752,400 cume. Utopia’s The Line goes from one screen to 55, and High Tide from Strand Releasing expands from NYC to Los Angeles at the Laemmle’s Royal and NoHo 7.

A24’s We Live In Time...

There is a light at the end of writer-director Adam Elliot’s claymation tunnel, though it’s a cold and artificial respite from its lifelong suffering. Though Elliot’s sadsack bookworms persist through their hardships, Memoir Of A Snail piles on the pain. By the time its Series Of Unfortunate Events finally relents,...

That Memoir of a Snail is a catalog of bleakly unfortunate events shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who’ve seen Adam Elliot’s previous feature, Mary and Max, and his Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet before it. This stop-motion animated film—part seven of a “trilogy of trilogies”—opens with Grace Pudel witnessing the last gasp of an elderly pal, Pinky (Jacki Weaver). As she goes to scatter Pinky’s ashes in the garden, Grace narrates her life in a shy whisper to a pet snail, sparing no tragic detail.

Grace’s mother died in childbirth, and her alcoholic father was left paralyzed from a traffic accident. She loves her twin brother, Gilbert, a budding pyromaniac who defends her from school bullies, but even this relationship doesn’t last, as they’re separated and shipped off to foster homes at separate ends of Australia once their father passes.

Modern Films has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights on Memoir Of A Snail, which won the Best Film award in Official Competition at the BFI London Film Festival today.

Modern is scheduling a theatrical release for February 2025, with an awards campaign. Anton and Charades handle international sales on the film.

Australian director Elliot’s second feature-length animation is a story of a melancholic woman – voiced by Sarah Snook – who is a hoarder of snails, romance novels and guinea pigs.

Australian stars Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jacki Weaver and Nick Cave are also among the voice cast, as is Elliot.

The film...

The 68th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (Lff) is wrapping up Sunday night with Piece by Piece, the animated Lego biopic of Pharrell Williams by Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 20 Feet From Stardom) following the unveiling of this year’s various competition winners, led by Adam Elliot’s claymation feature Memoir of a Snail.

Set in Australia in the 1970s, the movie, which had already won the animation-focused Annecy Film Festival, stars Succession‘s Sarah Snook as Grace Pudel, a shy girl born with a cleft palate who grows up with her wild and occasionally pyromaniac twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) but eventually becomes a lonely hoarder of ornamental snails. Her only friend is a wild octogenarian named Pinky (Jacki Weaver). Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon, and Nick Cave provide supporting voice work. IFC Films has set an Oct. 25 U.S. release date.

Memoir of a...

Memoir Of A Snail, the latest stop motion pic from Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam Elliot, and Edinburgh-based filmmaker Laura Carreira’s haunting debut feature On Falling are among the top prize winners at this year’s London Film Festival.

The competition winners were announced this afternoon by the London Film Festival’s various juries. The jury heads were Alexandre O. Philippe, (Official Competition), Dionne Edwards (First Feature Competition), June Givanni, (Documentary Competition), and Chloe Abrahams (Short Film Competition).

Memoir Of A Snail took Best Film while Carreira’s On Falling, produced by Jack Thomas-o’Brien of Sixteen Films, won the Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition. On Falling is the first British feature to win the Sutherland Award since 2010. Clio Barnard won it that year with The Arbor. Previous winners include Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay, Robert Eggers, Julia Ducournau, and Mati Diop.

Memoir Of A Snail tells the tale of separated twins in 1970s Australia.

An adaptation of Nicholas Hogg’s novel Tokyo, Jordan Scott’s sophomore directorial “A Sacrifice” has all the indications of competent filmmaking. The production design is neat and stately, and the pace is quite brisk. However, the very center of the film is caught up in a mesh of major screenwriting issues. Scott, who has also written the adapted screenplay, seems to have been trapped in key, critical areas of the plot, which she entirely dispenses with in a hasty rush of information, intercutting between various perspectives in the climactic stretch.

The rush and scramble of providing detailed backstories all at once at a juncture in the film that’s simply too late comes off as an effort to purely cushion the ‘big twist’ in the tale. While the predictability of it is up for debate, the twist considerably sacrifices facets of characterization, pulping previously established parameters so as to achieve a swift landing.

Edward Norton still has the honor of starring in the only solo Hulk movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he is also one of the few actors to have their role replaced in the series that spans over 30 movies and 10 canonical shows. Ruffalo began his MCU journey a dozen years ago in the first Avengers blockbuster; where he “incredibly” captured the duality of Banner/Hulk better than any prior performer. Ruffalo managed to pull off the feat in a team-up event, whereas Norton, and a pre-mcu Eric Bana, had an entire feature dedicated to the hero.

Ruffalo immediately connected with audiences more than any of his predecessors, which raised the bar for how compelling this hero could be in live-action, while also rounding out the Avengers ensemble wonderfully. He gave the Marvel Cinematic Universe a big green hand to help lift the franchise to stratospheric heights. Without individual projects to focus on,...

Captain America: Brave New World, set to be the fourth installment in the MCU’s Captain America franchise, will be released by 2025 in theaters worldwide. This upcoming installment will officially mark Chris Evans’ exit as our beloved Steve Rogers, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, formerly The Falcon, will take on the mantle of Captain America.

Anthony Mackie in a still from Captain America: Brave New World | image: Marvel Studios

But does that mean that there’s no hope for Chris Evans to surprisingly pop up on screen in a fleeting cameo in Captain America: Brave New World? Well, after the iconic teaser trailer release and a bunch of rumors swirling around the internet about cameos and superhero appearances in the upcoming blockbuster, it is yet to be seen who makes the cut and appears on the silver screen to earn thrilling applause.

Captain America: Brave New World Teaser Trailer and...

As we go deeper into the fall movie season, October often offers the cream of the cinematic crop. This year is no different: with this year’s top winners at Berlinale and Cannes, and much more, there’s plenty to enjoy. As many of these will begin in limited release, look for them to expand in the weeks to come.

10. Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito; Oct. 25)

A personal and harrowing exploration of sexual assault, Black Box Diaries was one of the best documentaries of Sundance this year. Lena Wilson said her review, “In the middle of Black Box Diaries, journalist Shiori Ito’s debut documentary, Ito grins at the camera as she strolls through downtown Tokyo on the day of her book launch. It’s October 18, 2017. The New York Times broke the Harvey Weinstein news two weeks ago. Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag #MeToo two days ago. Ito, fresh-faced and...

The world of Arthurian lore is packed with great adventures, high drama. love, lust, betrayal, battles and conniving magic users. Camelot was born from pagan myths turned into chivalric romance, and its archetypes run deep and ancient. It is no surprise that filmmakers have long interested in the story of King Arthur, with varying results. The following list of 16 Arthurian-themed film and TV projects ranks the best of those ambitious cinematic efforts.

16) First Knight (1995)

Columbia Pictures rolled out First Knight in the summer of 1995. A Jerry Zucker-directed Arthurian chivalric romance starring Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Julia Ormond and Ben Cross, First Knight is unique among Arthurian projects for its rejection of the story's magical aspects. First Knight looks to the early works of French poet Chretien de Troyes, who wrote about Arthur in the 12th century, for inspiration.

First Knight's script focuses on the classic relationship/love triangle between Lancelot,...

Samer Salem (The Expanse) has joined the series regular cast of CBC’s procedural Allegiance for Season 2, currently in production in British Columbia through December 5. New episodes are set to premiere this winter.

From series creator series Anar Ali, Allegiance focuses on identity and belonging, policing and politics, and finding truth within the heart of a flawed justice system. Season 2 will be rooted in a powerful set of engaging and topical storylines including online gambling, tech janitors and international schools.

Lead character Sabrina Sohal (Wraich) joins the Serious Crimes Unit of the Cfpc and has six months to prove she’s got what it takes to be a detective. She’s paired with a newly transferred partner who has a decade more experience than her and a very different approach to the job. While navigating a complex love life and an equally complicated family life, Sabrina is determined to take...

Spoiler Alert !!!This articles contains Spoilers for Season 3 of 'From'

Sometimes, filming requires actors to push past limits that the human body cannot adjust to, and From actor Harold Perrineau did exactly that while filming Season 3 of the hit American sci-fi series. The first two seasons did the needful, giving the critically acclaimed television series a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7/10 score on IMDb.

Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens on From | Credits: MGM

It was chilling enough for fans. The initial season introduced the nameless town, the Matthews family, Sheriff Boyd Stevens (played by Perrineau), and the mysterious creatures that fed on residents trapped inside.

Season two dives deeper into the backstories of various characters and it shows the unraveling of the history behind the town. Boyd also struggles in certain ways to maintain his power as the Sheriff. Additionally, it also featured new challenges that residents had to deal with.

"We have over 200 characters in the film and every single one of them has been handmade." This is what sets stop-motion films apart. Everything is handmade by amazing craftspeople! Madman Films in Australia has revealed a series of 5 mini-featurettes for the acclaimed stop-motion animated film called Memoir of a Snail. It's the latest creation from animation maestro Adam Elliot, and it just premiered to rave reviews at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival, with a US release set for October (watch the main trailer). I'm a huge fan of this film! Set in 1970s Australia, it's a bittersweet memoir of a melancholic woman called Grace Pudel – a hoarder of snails, romance novels, and guinea-pigs – and her brother after they're separated. Featuring the voices of Sarah Snook as Grace, with Jacki Weaver, Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Dominique Pinon, Magda Szubanski, with Nick Cave. This one is a winner - I wrote a glowing...

Oscar Isaac has portrayed Moon Knight in the MCU, a character expected to appear in Secret Wars with most other heroes that have been introduced in the wake of Avengers: Endgame. However, Isaac might be in for some heavy work in Secret Wars the claims of an industry insider are true, owing to the fact that the actor is a part of the two other universes that have confirmed connections to the MCU.

Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight || Credit: Disney+

While Isaac could return to play a version of Apocalypse in Secret Wars, there has been some chatter about the Spider-Verse having a direct connection to the MCU, or at least getting a nod in Secret Wars, perhaps in a similar way that the MCU did in Across the Spider-Verse.

Apocalypse, Spider-Man 2099, and Moon Knight could all be in Secret Wars Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara || Credit: Sony Animation...

Imagine if Neo had faced a third pill in The Matrix—a green one. The Wachowskis nailed the classic red or blue choice, but a green pill could’ve added a whole new layer. What if this pill offered a reality that redefined both Zion and the Matrix?

Keanu Reeves in The Matrix | Warner Bros.

Could this twist have flipped the script on the entire narrative? Dive into the rabbit hole and explore how this missed opportunity might have transformed The Matrix forever.

What If The Matrix Had a Third Pill? Exploring a Missed Existential Twist Keanu Reeves in The Matrix | Credit: Warner Bros.

In 1999, The Matrix dropped into theaters, shaking up action movies with its game-changing “bullet time” effect. But it wasn’t just about flashy visuals; it also tackled the big question: What’s real? In a classic scene, Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus gives Keanu Reeves’ Neo a...

Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond lasted for fifteen years beginning with Casino Royale in 2006 and No Time to Die in 2021. While there was initial doubt about the actor filling in Pierce Brosnan’s shoes, he soon proved everyone wrong with his physicality and charm. He is also responsible for the highest-grossing James Bond film in history – Skyfall. The film made over $1.1 million at the box office as it received unending praise from all.

Daniel Craig in Casino Royale | Credits: Columbia Pictures

Of course, his run as James Bond was nothing short of impressive and successful. However, he could have lost it all if Steven Spielberg did not step in at the right time. That’s right, Daniel Craig actually contemplated giving up the role at one point.

Daniel Craig Almost Said No to Agent 007 Daniel Craig as James Bond in Skyfall | Credits: Columbia Pictures

During Daniel Craig...

The BFI London Film Festival (Lff) 2024 will screen documentaries about “witches,” and zoos and animal rescue centers in Argentina, first features from directors of varied backgrounds, and Ali Abbas’ Donald Trump film The Apprentice in its gala lineup organizers said on Wednesday as they unveiled the full program for this year’s event.

Overall, Lff will screen 253 titles, including features films, shorts, series, and immersive works, that hail from 79 countries and feature 64 languages. Of the total, 112 works are made by female and non-binary filmmakers, or 44 percent of the program, the fest said.

The London doc lineup includes the likes of Elizabeth Sankey’s 90-minute goth-y Witches, which posits a connection between historical witchery and post-partum psychological suffering and debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Meanwhile, the first feature program at Lff includes Denise Fernandes’ Hanami, which recently world-premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and Neo Sora’s Happyend, which debuted...

El director de ‘Mary and Max’ regresa con una emotiva historia. © IFC Films

Tras conquistar al público y a la crítica con Mary y Max, en 2009, Adam Elliot regresa con su animación stop-motion con Memoir of a Snail, una película que se proyectará en el Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, dentro de la sección Perlak.

Memoir of a Snail se ambienta en la Australia de los años 70. La vida de Grace está marcada por la desgracia y la pérdida. Cuando su unidad familiar se desmorona y es separada de su hermano gemelo, Gilbert, Grace desarrolla una afición a coleccionar adornos de caracoles para calmar su soledad y encuentra esperanza cuando desarrolla una amistad con una anciana excéntrica, Pinky, quien la inspira a salir de su caparazón y dejar de lado las cosas que alborotan su hogar y su mente.

Elliot, quien escribe y dirige la película, ha reunido un impresionante...

Zoe Saldaña (Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave), and Daniel Kaluuya (Black Panther, Get Out) are among the stars set to come out for the 68th BFI London Film Festival and its popular Screen Talks this fall.

“Audiences have the chance to hear first-hand from leading voices in contemporary cinema and television from both sides of the camera, Lff said on Tuesday, also unveiling on-stage appearances from the likes of Denis Villeneuve (Dune, Arrival), Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, Red Road), Sean Baker (Anora, The Florida Project), following his winning the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year, Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake), Steve McQueen (Hunger, Widows), and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Nyad, Free Solo).

Last week, the Lff unveiled the 11 competition titles for its 2024 edition, which feature Barry Keoghan, Nick Cave, and the voices of Sarah Snook and Eric Bana, among others.

Ahead of the programme release for the 2024 London Film Festival on Wednesday, the BFI have revealed which movies will be competing for the Best Film Award in this year's Official Competition line-up. Among the eleven hopefuls looking to scoop the prize taken last year by Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist, highlights include Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott's feuding farmer feature Bring Them Down, Adam Elliot's (Mary & Max) long-awaited stop-motion movie Memoir Of A Snail with Sarah Snook and Eric Bana, and Geraldine Flower documentary The Extraordinary Miss Flower, the latest from 20,000 Days On Earth directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

In a banner year for international representation at the London Film Festival (13 countries are represented across the Official Competition line-up), the rest of the buzzy films set to compete in competition are as follows: Rungano Nyoni's Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Zambian drama On Becoming A Guinea Fowl...

It was the year 1992 when Keanu Reeves (who hadn’t quite found his fame for The Matrix) worked alongside Gary Oldman and veteran director Francis Ford Coppola in the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Keanu Reeves in a still from John Wick: Chapter 4 | Credits: Summit Entertainment

In the movie, Reeves portrayed the role of Jonathan Harker, the fiance to Winona Ryder’s Mina Murray. Well, a concept trailer released on the internet asks whether Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman had swapped their roles.

Keanu Reeves Will Shine As Count Dracula

Although Dracula shouldn’t shine, technically, you get our point. Keanu Reeves made a name for himself when he starred in iconic films like The Matrix, Speed, and, the John Wick franchise.

Keanu Reeves in Constantine (2005) | Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures

The actor was attached to Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and although the film received some criticism,...

Recently featured on our fall movie preview, Memoir of a Snail marks the long-awaited return to feature filmmaking from Adam Elliot, director of 2009’s Mary & Max and Oscar winner for the short film Harvie Krumpet. Featuring the voices of Sarah Snook, Eric Bana, Jacki Weaver, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, the film won the top prize at Annecy earlier this summer and will now stop by Telluride ahead of an October 25 release from IFC Films. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her fire-breathing twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky,...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Venice Film Festival. Paramount releases “September 5” in theaters December 13.

A story that doesn’t seem fresh on paper — and one previously explored in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” — may be a barrier to entry for some audiences. But Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5,” which takes audiences inside the airtight, under-air-conditioned ABC News control room as terrorists commandeered the 1972 Summer Olympics mere yards away, is a gripping, singular depiction that stands on its own merits.

In a tight 94 minutes, Fehlbaum pivots from the mayhem outside and solely toward the handful of sports broadcasters forced to improvise as eight Palestinian militants, known as Black September, took the Israeli Olympic team hostage. All 11 hostages were killed. Though going into this movie with that historical perspective doesn’t impede the tension onscreen — even if “September 5’s” psychological inquiry into the crisis and how it reshaped TV news,...

"I believe in glasses half-full and silver linings..." IFC has revealed the official US trailer for the wonderful stop-motion animated film Memoir of a Snail, the latest creation from animation maestro Adam Elliot. It's set for a US release in October this fall. Adam won an Oscar in 2004 for his short Harvie Krumpet, but he is best known for his exceptional stop-motion film Mary and Max, which premiered at Sundance 2009. He's back again 15 years later with his second feature. A bittersweet memoir of a melancholic woman called Grace Pudel - a hoarder of snails, romance novels, & guinea-pigs. Set in 1970s Australia, her life is troubled by misfortune & loss. After their mom dies during pregnancy, she and her twin brother, Gilbert, are raised by their paraplegic-alcoholic former juggler father, Percy. Despite a life filled with love, tragedy strikes when Percy passes away in his sleep. The siblings are separated and thrust...

Adam Elliot’s animated feature “Memoir of a Snail” from IFC Films shows off sibling love with a snail’s quirky, whimsical nature in the first trailer ahead of its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, which was announced in today’s lineup.

The stop-motion adult drama took nearly a decade to create and follows the life of Grace Puddle, a lonely misfit with a passion for collecting ornamental snails and a deep love for romance novels. Her life takes a downward turn when she’s separated from her twin brother at a young age. Despite ongoing hardships, Grace perseveres and finds inspiration through a friendship with Pinky, an elderly eccentric woman, as she slowly learns to find confidence and love.

The sweet trailer follows the twins as they grow from babies to teenagers, encountering bullies, rollercoasters, and old ladies in bikinis. With a swell of dramatic music...

Barry Keoghan, Nick Cave, and the voices of Sarah Snook and Eric Bana will feature in the competition lineup of the 68th BFI London Film Festival (Lff), held this fall in partnership with American Express. The Extraordinary Miss Flower, the new film from Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, known for their Cave movie 20,000 Days on Earth, and the Luca Guadagnino-produced April from Georgia’s Dea Kulumbegashvili, whose feminist debut feature Beginning drew rave reviews, will be among the 11 movies competing for the best film award in London.

So will a drama about Islamic inheritance laws and gender dynamics, as well as a film about a Ukrainian family that most cope with the Russian invasion of their home country while away on a beach holiday.

Organizers on Thursday also unveiled such competition titles as Chris Andrews’ Bring Them Down, starring Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,...

The 68th BFI London Film Festival (Lff) has announced the 11 films selected for its official competition, vying for the best film award at this year’s event. The diverse lineup represents 13 countries and showcases a range of international filmmaking talent.

The selected films include:

“Memoir of a Snail” (Australia) dir. Adam Elliot: A stop-motion animated tale of separated twins in 1970s Australia, blending humor and emotion. Featuring the voices of Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Eric Bana, it won best film at Annecy earlier this year.

“Bring Them Down” (Ireland-u.K.-Belgium) dir. Christopher Andrews: A portrait of two feuding farming families in rural Ireland, starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott. The film travels from Toronto where it is a special presentation.

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” (Zambia-u.K.-Ireland) dir. Rungano Nyoni: A story of tradition, abuse and strength within a Zambian family. The film debuted...

Michael Bay’s Bad Boys with Will Smith kicked off the director’s career, where he introduced his distinct visual style. While his films may not be for everyone, no one can deny that he is a visionary filmmaker with a bombastic and gritty approach to staging action sequences. In addition to being known for the Transformers franchise, he is also celebrated for crafting the Bad Boys franchise.

Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in Bad Boys II | Credits: Columbia Pictures

The success of the first film put Smith and Martin Lawrence on the map, catapulting their star power in the industry. Bay created something special with the first film and there was huge pressure to deliver when they were developing a sequel. The film was going up against tentpole films Hulk and The Matrix: Reloaded and the director did his best to mount the film to the level of those two films.