Noticias

Olatunde Osunsanmi's new TV movie "Star Trek: Section 31" is weirdly retro in its setup, feeling reminiscent of delightfully corny B-movies of the 1980s like Peter Manoogian's low-budget time-travel lark "Eliminators." The main character is Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), the genocidal tyrant of the Mirror Universe, and she has been enlisted to be part of Section 31, Starfleet's ethics-free black ops organization that handles dangerous secret missions.

The film's cast, however, is rounded out by a rogues' gallery of diverse aliens and specialists, each one enlisted to help the Empress on a vital mission to retrieve a doomsday device. There is the shapeshifter Quasi (Sam Richardson), a none-too-bright cyborg bruiser named Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), a microscopic organism named Zeph piloting a human-sized robot (Robert Kazinsky), an ultra-seductive Deltan named Melle (Humberly Gonzalez), and Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl), a straight-laced Starfleet officer who is there to make sure...

U.S. actor Omar Benson Miller who is known for roles in “8 Mile,” HBO’s Ballers, and Apple’s “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” stars in Italian immigration-themed drama “Naples to York” by Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores that is having its festival premiere at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival.

Interestingly, Federico Fellini co-wrote this tale of two Neapolitan kids who embark on a ship to New York to escape Italy’s early postwar poverty with his frequent collaborator Tullio Pinelli, a writer on the Italian maestro’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2,” as well as other titles.

In the film Benson Miller plays the ship’s cook who, during their travels, takes the kids under his wing.

He spoke to Variety about being back in Italy more than a decade after working in Tuscany with Spike Lee on “Miracle at St. Anna”; why this movie, conceived by Fellini,...

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Clint Eastwood's 2006 war picture "Flags of Our Fathers," based on the book by James Bradley and Ron Powers, told the story of the five Marines and one Navy corps soldier who famously raised an American flag at the top of Mt. Suribachi during the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima. The moment was captured in an equally-famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal, and it served as the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington Ridge Park in Arlington, Virginia. It's one of the more famous American images of the World War II battlefield. Eastwood built an entire film about the Battle of Iwo Jima, climaxing with the raising of the flag.

Eastwood shot "Flags of Our Fathers" back-to-back with "Letters from Iwo Jima," also released in 2006, which told the same story from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers, diplomatically balancing out the thudding,...

Winsome Sinclair, a veteran casting professional who worked on scores of films and TV shows — many as casting director — including Malcolm D. Lee’s The Best Man, Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, the Gabrielle Union series Being Mary Jane and a dozen Spike Lee movies, died August 12 of colon cancer on Long Island. She was 58.

Her rep Clorissa Wright-Thomas confirmed the news to Deadline, saying Sinclair had been in hospice care and that her family was at her bedside. “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Winsome Sinclair, a woman of extraordinary faith and a trailblazer in the film industry,” her family said in a statement (read it in full below). “Winsome’s life was a testament to radical faith, and she lived each day with a heart full of love and gratitude.”

Born on October 27, 1965 in Jamaica, she grew up in New York after...

Winsome Sinclair, a prolific casting director best known for her frequent collaborations with Spike Lee, has died at the age of 58 after a battle with colon cancer. News of her passing was confirmed by producer and publicist Cassandra Butcher in a post on Instagram.

“Winsome Sinclair brought light to everyone she encountered, with a unique ability to see more in people than they could see in themselves,” Butcher wrote on Instagram. “A true fan of life and culture, her passion for the arts and her deep love for family and community will continue to inspire those who know her. Winsome’s legacy in the film industry and the lives she touched will live on, reminding us of her vibrant spirit and the stories she helped bring to life.”

Born in 1966, Sinclair began her career in Hollywood as a casting production assistant on Lee’s 1991 film “Jungle Fever” before rising to...

Winsome Sinclair, the casting director who helped bring in actors for Waiting to Exhale, Amistad, Precious, The Best Man and a dozen films directed by Spike Lee, has died. She was 58.

Sinclair died Monday in hospice care on Long Island after a long battle with colon cancer, publicist Clorissa Wright-Thomas told The Hollywood Reporter. Her family was at her bedside.

The New York native launched the global casting agency Winsome Sinclair and Associates in New York in 1996, then relocated the business to Atlanta in 2014 amid that city’s production boom.

Sinclair also cast extras for the John Singleton-directed features Higher Learning (1995), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Abduction (2011), for the Malcolm D. Lee-helmed The Best Man (1999) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) and for the Dee Rees-directed Pariah (2011) and Bessie (2015).

She handled similar duties on the Hughes brothers’ Dead Presidents (1995), Forest Whitaker’s Waiting to Exhale (1995), Steven Spielberg’s...

Colman Domingo’s star has been on the rise for over a decade now with his Tony-nominated role in Kander and Ebb’s “The Scottsboro Boys” on Broadway leading to roles in Spike Lee films “Miracle at St. Anna” and “Red Hook Summer,” as well as parts in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and Ava Duvernay’s “Selma.” Last year alone saw Domingo featured in four feature films and his performance in “Rustin” earned him his first Academy-Award nomination.

This weekend saw the wide release of his latest awards contender, “Sing Sing,” which sees Domingo as an inmate of the eponymous prison and participant in their Rehabilitation Through the Arts (Rta) program. The film also features actual former members of the Rta program playing versions of themselves. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Domingo reflected on the process of making the film and how it was unlike any other...

Exclusive: Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) is the latest addition to Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic that Antoine Fuqua is directing for Lionsgate and Universal Pictures International, sources tell Deadline.

The actor will play famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, who repped Jackson in a 1993 child molestation case that was settled out of court. As previously announced, Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson leads the ensemble as Michael, with Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Miles Teller, Laura Harrier and Juliano Krue Valdi among others set for key roles.

Scripted by by John Logan, Michael promises to bring audiences a riveting and honest portrayal of the brilliant yet complicated man who became known worldwide as the King of Pop. The film will examine Jackson’s triumphs and tragedies — from his human side, to his public and private struggles, to the accusations and the 24/7 media microscope Jackson lived under, even at his artistic apex. Pic will also...

Roadside Attractions has acquired “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” the directorial debut of artist Titus Kaphar that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The drama, about an acclaimed painter whose life is upended by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, stars André Holland (“Moonlight”) and John Earl Jelks (“Miracle at St. Anna”), along with Oscar nominees Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard”). Kaphar wrote the film, in addition to directing it.

“‘Exhibiting Forgiveness’ was produced by Stephanie Allain, Derek Cianfrance, Jamie Patricof and Sean Cotton. Roadside plans to open the film nationwide for the fall awards season.

Holland stars as Tarrell Rodin, an artist who lives with his wife, singer-songwriter Aisha (Day), and young son Jermaine. His artwork explores the anguish of his youth. His path to success is derailed when his father, La’Ron (Jelks), a recovering addict desperate to make amends,...

When you first see The Ghoul in “Fallout,” the most pronounced feature of Walton Goggins’ character is what’s missing. Just under the brim of his weathered cowboy hat and just above his wrinkled upper lip — you know, where his nose should be — there isn’t one. You can see the narrow nostril-dividing tissue, but there are no nostrils to divide. Instead, there’s just an A-shaped hole in his face. A cavity. An absence. So even though it’s obvious the handsome charmer from “Justified” is there, buried under a pound of latex, Prime Video viewers may not realize the physical demands of a role visibly defined by what’s been removed.

“I can’t see so well. I mean, I could see, but your periphery is gone,” Goggins said in an interview with IndieWire. “I’ve got these things over my teeth, so it’s hard to talk.

Following a potential MCU reboot, T'Challa's Black Panther could be recast, opening up new storylines for the character. Potential actors who could successfully portray T'Challa include Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, David Oyelowo and Laz Alonso. The First Purge star Y'lan Noel has expressed interest in assuming the role of T'Challa in the McU's future.

Marvel Studios' T'Challa, a.k.a. the Black Panther, may be recast if the MCU is rebooted following 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars. The late Chadwick Boseman first appeared as T'Challa, the Prince of Wakanda and the Black Panther, in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, and went on to star as the vibranium-empowered superhero in Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Boseman's tragic passing after a battle with colon cancer in 2020 came as a shock, but instead of recasting T'Challa in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Marvel Studios and Ryan Coogler developed the sequel as...

The American Film Institute has its sights set on Matthew Libatique.

The Oscar nominated cinematographer, who graduated from the institution in 1992, has been tapped to receive AFI’s Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal. It will be presented during the AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to Nicole Kidman at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 27.

The medal is awarded annually “to an alumnus of either the AFI Conservatory or the [AFI Directing Workshop for Women] who best embodies the qualities of the late director: talent, taste, dedication and commitment to quality filmmaking.” Schaffner, who died in 1989, won a best director Oscar for Patton in 1970. Recipients of the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal include David Lynch, Edward Zwick, Amy Heckerling, Terrence Malick, Darren Aronofsky, Patty Jenkins, Paul Schrader, Janusz Kamiński, Caleb Deschanel, Lesli Linka Glatter, Rachel Morrison, Melina Matsoukas, Siân Heder and others.

The honor comes as Libatique has earned raves for working on Bradley Cooper...

Exclusive: Lulu Wilson (The Wrath of Becky), Omari Hardwick (Power) and Trae Romano (Stargirl) are set to star in Xeno, a new film that writer, director and VFX Artist Matthew Loren Oates (Farewell Bender) will direct for Kevin Hart‘s Hartbeat, from his own script.

In the film poised to enter production in Albuquerque on May 8th, a teenage girl befriends a terrifying alien that crash-lands in the desert near her home. As government agents close in, the girl protects her dangerous new companion while also dealing with her depressed mother and the mother’s abusive boyfriend.

The Xeno announcement follows news that Hartbeat is developing the comedy The Backup, produced by and starring Keke Palmer, for Universal Pictures, as well as a feature adaptation of Danielle Nicolet’s short Black Karen, which emerged from Nicolet’s time as part of Hartbeat’s Women Write Now screenwriting fellowship.

Kevin Hart,...

Since he launched his feature directorial career with She’s Gotta Have It, the longest break Spike Lee has taken between narrative films is the four years between 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna and 2012’s Red Hook Summer. With it being three years since 2020’s Da 5 Bloods, we’ve been awaiting word on when his next film would be confirmed and now it looks like a contender has emerged with Da Understudy.

In what would mark a reteam with Jonathan Majors––who starred in Da 5 Bloods and is enjoying a major moment in the spotlight with Magazine Dreams, Creed III, and the Marvel Machine––and the actor is set to star and produce the film from Westbrook Studios and Amazon Studios, Deadline reports. Lee is in early talks to direct the film, which is scripted by Tom Hanada, Zach Strauss, and Tyler Cole. The film tells the story of...

Omari Hardwick (Army of the Dead), Kelly Rowland (American Soul) and Rome Flynn (How to Get Away with Murder) have signed on to star alongside Marsai Martin in Nickelodeon and Awesomeness Films’ upcoming feature Fantasy Football. The film directed by NAACP Image Award winner Anton Cropper (Black-ish) has entered production in Atlanta and will debut exclusively on Paramount+ later this year.

Fantasy Football follows 16-year-old Callie Coleman (Martin), who discovers that she can control her professional football player dad Bobby Coleman’s (Hardwick) prowess on the field through EA Sports’ Madden NFL. Rowland is playing Callie’s mother, Keisha Coleman, with Flynn portraying Bobby’s rookie archival, Anderson Fisher. Elijah Richardson, Hanani Taylor, Abigail Killmeier, Tyla Harris, Isac Ivan and Tony Gonzalez will round out the cast.

John Madden Dies: NFL Coach, Longtime Broadcaster & Video Game Namesake Was 85

Fantasy Football is the third film to enter production under Awesomeness and...

Exclusive: Oliver Trevena has signed on to star alongside Aaron Eckhart and Nina Dobrev in the action-thriller, The Bricklayer, which is heading into production in Europe next month.

In the film from director Renny Harlin, based on the novel by Noah Boyd, someone is blackmailing the CIA by assassinating foreign journalists and making it look like the agency is responsible. As the world begins to unite against the U.S., the CIA must lure its most brilliant – and rebellious – operative out of retirement, forcing him to confront his checkered past while unraveling an international conspiracy.

Hanna Weg and Matt Johnson penned the script. G-Base’s Alan Siegel, Butler and Danielle Robinson are producing with Eclectic Pictures’ Heidi Jo Markel, and Millennium Media’s Jeffrey Greenstein, Les Weldon, Jonathan Yunger, Yariv Lerner and Rob Van Norden. Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson and Tanner Mobley from Millennium are serving as exec producers.

Spike Lee will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction at this year’s DGA Awards, Directors Guild of America President Lesli Linka Glatter announced today.

The DGA’s highest honor will be presented to Lee at the 74th annual DGA Awards on Saturday, March 12. Lee is the first Black director to get the award, which recognizes extraordinary efforts in the art of cinema, He joins a roster of just 35 helmers so honored, including Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Miloš Forman and, most recently, Ridley Scott.

In a statement, Glatter said, “Icon. Trailblazer. Visionary. Spike Lee has changed the face of cinema, and there is no single word that encapsulates his significance to the craft of directing. From his groundbreaking Do the Right Thing, BlacKkKlansman, and everything in-between – to his signature ‘double dolly’ shot, Spike is an innovator on so many levels.

Derek Luke will star in “Rare Objects,” reuniting with Katie Holmes nearly two decades after the pair appeared together in 2003’s “Pieces of April.”

Holmes not only stars in “Rare Objects,” but will produce and direct the movie as well. She also co-wrote its screenplay, which is based on Kathleen Tessaro’s novel of the same name, with Phaedon Papadopoulos. Julia Mayorga, the breakout star of Showtime’s “American Rust,” is part of the ensemble.

Luke will also appear in another (still-untitled) film directed by Holmes alongside Jim Sturgess and Melissa Leo.

Luke is an Independent Spirit Award-winning actor for his debut performance in the 2002 film “Antwone Fisher,” which was directed by Denzel Washington. He also starred in “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Friday Night Lights” and in Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” and appeared in Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” and FX’s “The Americans.”

“Rare Objects...

Exclusive: Abbie Cornish (Jack Ryan) and Laz Alonso (The Boys) have signed on to star in Detained, a psychological thriller from director Felipe Mucci (Two Deaths of Henry Baker), which counts Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy), John Patrick Amedori (Dear White People), Silas Weir Mitchell (Grimm), Moon Bloodgood (Falling Skies), Josefine Lindegaard (The Comeback Trail) and Breeda Wool (Mr. Mercedes) amongst its supporting cast.

The film follows a woman (Cornish) who wakes up in a police interrogation room with no memory of the night prior. The accusations against her may have life-altering implications. However, in this isolated police station, something is not quite right.

Mucci wrote the script with Jeremy Palmer. Kinogo Pictures’ Ryan Scaringe is producing, with Amy Lippens serving as co-producer. Cornish and Alonso are exec producing alongside Monica Sufar, who is also handling sales for the film.

Cornish is...

CAA has signed three-time Emmy Award-winning writer, director, editor and producer, Randy Wilkins, best known for his work on ESPN Films’ “30 for 30.”

Up next, Wilkins will direct “The Captain,” a multi-episode docuseries for ESPN Films focused on New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter. The series is set to debut in 2022 and will tell the story of Jeter’s professional and personal triumphs and challenges, using the athlete’s journey to tell a larger cultural story that explores race, family, community, rivalries and more.

Wilkins notably directed the ESPN Films’ “30 for 30” documentary “86-32,” which chronicles the controversial decision between boxers Roy Jones Jr. and Park Si-Hun in the light middle-weight gold medal match at the 1988 Summer Olympics. The filmmaker also directed and executive produced two seasons of the web series “Docket 32357.”

He helmed the premiere episode of Apple TV Plus’ documentary series “Dear…” for which he interviewed his mentor Spike Lee.

A version of this story about Terence Blanchard and “Da 5 Bloods” first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Quincy Jones may be the Black composer with the most Oscar music nominations — six in total, three for songs and three for the scores to “In Cold Blood” in 1967, “The Wiz” in 1979 (Best Original Adaptation Score) and “The Color Purple” in 1985 (which he shared with 11 other composers). But with his nomination this year for “Da 5 Bloods” to go with his nom two years ago for “BlacKkKlansman,” Terence Blanchard becomes the first Black composer with two solo Best Original Score nominations, and only the 10th ever nominated in the category, in a lineage that goes back to Duke Ellington.

“It’s extremely significant, because we’re trying to move the country forward,” he said. “What makes it significant has nothing to do with me...

Spike Lee calls his 30-year collaboration with composer Terence Blanchard “a match made in heaven.”

The two have worked together on 17 films and three television projects including their most recent collaboration, “Da 5 Bloods.” Written and directed by Lee, it stars Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Norm Lewis, Isiah Witlock Jr., Clarke Peters and Chadwick Boseman.

Hot off winning the Academy Award for adapted screenplay for “BlacKkKlansman,” Lee moved onto “Da 5 Bloods” with Blanchard on board to score.

“I feel like Spike is the type of artist who never stands still and is never satisfied with something he’s done before,” says the composer. “He’s always upping his game.”

Music has come to be another character in Lee joints, even becoming iconic in his films, such as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” used in “Do the Right Thing.” With “Da 5 Bloods,” Blanchard’s score, featuring a 90-piece orchestra,...

After nearly 30 years collaborating with Spike Lee to compose the music on his films, Terence Blanchard’s soaring compositions are finally getting noticed. He got his first Oscar nomination for BlacKkKlansman, a Best Picture nominee which brought Lee his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. And the morning they sat down to discuss the method of their collaboration with Mike Fleming Jr., Lee’s first words to Blanchard were congratulatory, since Da 5 Bloods had just joined the Academy’s Best Score shortlist. The pair have worked together on more than 15 films, including Malcolm X, When the Levees Broke, Jungle Fever, Inside Man and Miracle at St. Anna. Blanchard, who moonlights as a jazz musician in between scoring jobs, has also worked on the Kasi Lemmons-directed Eve’s Bayou, Anthony Hemingway’s Red Tails, executive produced by George Lucas, and the Matthew Rhys-starrer HBO series Perry Mason. Here, Blanchard and...

Spike Lee is being honored with the American Cinematheque Award, and it undoubtedly encapsulates the director’s nearly five decades of artistic achievement. The award will be presented Jan. 14 in a virtual ceremony. “It’s a recognition of the body of work, and I’ve been putting in the work since the fall of 1979,” says Lee.

Previous American Cinematheque Award honorees include Amy Adams (2017), Bradley Cooper (2018) and Charlize Theron (2019).

After graduating from Morehouse College, Lee attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the graduate film program. He has been a tenured professor and the artistic director since 2002. Lee also eyes the next generation of filmmakers and considers himself a “proud parent” when looking at all of his students, including directors Shaka King (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”).

“I’ve always felt that teachers that teach well are also learning from their students,...

Spike Lee will receive the American Cinematheque Award and will be honored during a virtual tribute on Jan. 14, 2021.

American Cinematheque chair Rick Nicita said the legendary director always keeps his finger on the pulse of society.

“As a cultural arts organization that celebrates the importance of film in our society, Spike Lee is the perfect choice for the Cinematheque’s annual award,” Nicita said. “Spike’s ability to perceive and depict the tone of contemporary society is shown in his movies, ranging from ‘Do the Right Thing,’ ‘She’s Gotta Have It,’ ‘Malcolm X’ and ‘BlacKkKlansman’ to name only a few. He continues his outstanding output with this year’s ‘Da 5 Bloods’ and ‘American Utopia.’ We look forward with great anticipation to where he will next shine his light.”

“BlacKkKlansman,” which Lee co-wrote and directed, won the Academy Award for adapted screenplay. He was also nominated for an Oscar for directing and producing “BlacKkKlansman.

“A Call to Spy” braids the stories of three decorated WWII spies to reveal — and to revel in — their pivotal roles in British spy craft and history. The title may fall flat but the movie, a sturdy directorial debut for producer Lydia Dean Pilcher, gets to the heart of the matter. Even as they faced various forms of discrimination, Vera Atkins, Virginia Hall and Noor Inayat Khan responded boldly to the tug of duty. They served Britain, and

A scene of torture begins the film. The year is 1941, and Germany has invaded France. The person being interrogated is a woman. Soaked, gasping, she will not crumble. Turns out, she doesn’t have to. The woman is Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), and to our relief, she’s undergoing the final test in her training. Three months earlier, the Special Operations Executive branch of the British government began recruiting “lady spies.” Winston Churchill...

As August winds down, it’s time to look ahead to everything that’s hitting the major streaming services in September. As always, there’s an enormous haul of originals and newly licensed titles going up across Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video over the month, including content from every genre out there.

The first day of September brings the usual lengthy list of movies arriving on most of the sites. Just a few of the highlights include all three Back to the Future films returning to Netflix, every entry in the Twilight saga arriving on Hulu and countless iconic movies going up on HBO Max, including Grease, Miss Congeniality and V for Vendetta. Also, Doctor Who fans will want to take note, as the most recent season of the show lands on HBO Max the same day.

Feel free to inspect the full list of everything...

Although it still has a long way to go to catch up to Netflix, HBO Max is gradually building a reputation for both an impressive library of content and its own original programming. As well as reportedly working on a number of Batman-focused series, the WarnerMedia streamer is also absorbing shows from DC Universe, and funding the Snyder Cut of Justice League. We now know what’s coming to HBO Max in September, and there’s plenty there for subscribers to sink their teeth into.

The big original series highlight next month is the Ridley Scott-produced Raised by Wolves, which explores two androids raising human children. Created by Adam Guzikowski, the program could be one of HBO Max’s first big hits with critics and audiences, and is set to arrive on September 3rd. Other notable originals include comedy Unpregnant, wherein a pregnant teenager travels to Mexico with her...

HBO Max is out with its list of everything new coming to the streaming service in the month of September.

Highlights include Ridley Scott’s “Raised by Wolves,” out Sept. 3, which follows two androids raising a human child on a distant planet; “Coastal Elites” starring Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Levy, Sarah Paulson and Issa Rae, out Sept. 12, and “The Murders at White House Farm,” which is out in Sept. but doesn’t yet have an exact premiere date.

Others without a premiere date coming in Sept. include season one of “Haute Dog,” “Mo Willems: Don’t Let the Pigeon Do Storytime!” and seasons one through three of “The Great Pottery Throw Down.”

Also Read: 'Lovecraft Country' Premiere Draws 1.4 Million Multiplatform Viewers - Including HBO Max

Read the full list below:

Sept. 1

93Queen, 2018

All The Right Moves, 1983 (HBO)

The Astronaut Farmer, 2007 (HBO)

Badlands, 1973

Ballmastrz: 9009, 2018

Bandidas, 2006 (HBO)

Barnyard, 2006 (HBO)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,...

WarnerMedia’s grand streaming experiment continues apace with HBO Max’s list of new releases for September 2020.

This month, HBO Max is bring some serious dramatic heat with the Ridley Scott-directed sci-fi series Raised by Wolves arriving on Sept. 3. And if science fiction isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, then HBO Max has identified something that is: true crime. The Murders at White House Farm will arrive at a date to be determined in September.

In addition to those intriguing original offerings, HBO Max is making the best of its WarnerMedia library this month. Doctor Who season 12 makes its long-awaited streaming debut on Sept. 1. Also arriving on the first of the month are Clerks, Election, and the hopefully-not-too-timely V for Vendetta.

Recent horror hit The Invisible Man arrives on Sept. 19. It is complemented by HBO Max original comedy Unpregnant on Sept. 10.

Here is everything else coming to HBO Max this month.

Vertical Entertainment has picked up the North American distribution rights to Breaking Fast, a romantic comedy from first-time writer/director Mike Mosallam. The film stars Haaz Sleiman (The Visitor), Michael Cassidy (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) and Amin El Gamal (Good Trouble). Set to screen at the upcoming Outfest Film Festival, the pic is set against the twinkling lights of West Hollywood and follows Mo, a practicing Muslim still reeling from heartbreak. When an All-American guy named Kal offers to join him in his nightly Iftars –the traditional meal eaten by Muslims during Ramadan– meal after meal, the two start to discover they have more in common than meets the eye. Producers are Seth Hauer, Sarah Bazzi, Alex Lampsos, Davin Michaels, and Bay Dariz under his Minutehand Pictures label. Breaking Fast premiered earlier this year at the CineQuest Film Festival is slated for release in US theaters and on VOD early next year.

Spike Lee’s Netflix venture Da 5 Bloods, in which four African-American vets return to Vietnam to retrieve their late squad leader’s remains (and a strongbox full of gold bars they hid in the jungle), is “the first major film that views Vietnam entirely through the eyes of black soldiers,” writes Peter Travers at Rolling Stone: Lee is just the trailblazer to bring passion and clarity to his presentation of the bloods as patriots who suffered disproportionate combat losses in an immoral war that wasn’t theirs, then came home to a country that denied them civil rights and left them alienated and adrift. It’s the unbroken line of black sacrifice that gives the movie its cumulative, confrontational power.The idea that wars never end for those who go through them may not be entirely novel, but the film, as remarked by Vulture’s Bilge Elbiri, adds a powerful spin,...

Sister, the content company headed by Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone, has nabbed the television rights to James McBride’s novel “Deacon King Kong.”

The announcement comes one day after “Deacon King Kong” was named as the latest Oprah’s Book Club selection.

McBride will pen the TV adaptation of “Deacon King Kong,” set in 1969 when a fumbling, comical old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. To uncover the causes and consequences of this burst of violence, the novel explores the Cause Houses housing projects, inspired by the Red Hook housing projects that produced McBride.

“I’m delighted that ‘Deacon King Kong’ has found a home with the Sisters. They are big lifters of story, and big believers in the common...

Sister, the global content company co-founded by Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone, has won the rights to James McBride’s Deacon King Kong to develop as a television series. The praised novel was just named by Oprah Winfrey yesterday as her latest Book Club Selection.

McBride will pen the adaptation and executive produce with Brian Taylor alongside Sister’s Carolyn Strauss and Kate Fenske, with Jonah Disend for Complementary Colors set as a producer.

Deacon King Kong takes place in September 1969 and follows the life of a community in a Brooklyn housing project. “In a moment when our country roils with righteous anger and grief, Deacon King Kong reminds us that when we come together as a community in compassion and empathy, our love triumphs,” Winfrey said in announcing the selection.

Per the book’s synopsis, “a fumbling, comical old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the...

Since Spike Lee burst onto the scene in 1986, the timeliness of his movies has been the filmmaker’s calling card — with Lee assembling a body of work that meditates on world events in a way that seems almost prescient. So, with his latest joint, “Da 5 Bloods” debuting on Netflix amid a groundswell of support for the Black Lives Matter movement after the recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade at the hands of police, the filmmaker feels there’s no better moment for his film to debut.

“I cannot take any credit for this. The film was shot when it was shot; it was ready to come out when it was ready to come out. And then the world changed for everybody,” Lee tells Variety about the timing of the film’s release. “When something is repeated all the time it becomes a cliché … but that...

Spike Lee fans, get ready: “Da 5 Bloods” takes the filmmaker’s familiar obsessions to an extreme, douses them in wartime grief and bloody jungle showdowns, all without an iota of compromise. In Lee’s lively, discursive look at a quartet of black Vietnam vets searching for their old squad leader’s remains (and the gold that was lost with him), the filmmaker’s voice permeates each scene with such mighty force it’s a wonder he never pulls a Porky Pig and bursts into the center of the frame.

“Da 5 Bloods” doesn’t always gel as it careens through overstuffed plot twists and disparate tones, with some big moments better executed than others. Still, that freewheeling energy is in short supply, and

Unfolding across an unusual pace for two and a half hours, “Da 5 Bloods” feels like a pair of intriguing movies jammed together. For its first 90 minutes or so,...

Following the news that Leos Carax’s Annette was going to premiere at Cannes Film Festival, we have now learned about another hugely-anticipated film that was likely to make its debut at the festival.

After his Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee is returning to the war genre for the first time since Miracle at St. Anna with the Netflix production Da 5 Bloods, which was shot last year. In a surprise reveal, he’s announced his 154-minute epic will arrive on the streaming service on June 12.

Starring Chadwick Boseman, Paul Walter Hauser, Norm Lewis, Delroy Lindo, and Jonathan Majors, the film follows four black war veterans who return to Vietnam to search for their missing commander and hopefully find treasure. As we await the first trailer, check out Spike Lee’s message and the poster debut below.

God Thursday Morning. Da New Spike Lee Joint-Da 5 Bloods Will Be Streaming Out Onto World On Friday,...

The Paley Center for Media today announced that it will pay tribute to the extraordinary Kerry Washington with the special program Celebrating Kerry Washington: Conversation & Exclusive Preview Screening of Little Fires Everywhere.

The program will take place on Tuesday, March 17 at 7:30 pm.

“I’m truly honored to be returning to the Paley Center stage for this look back at my work,” said Kerry Washington. “And I’m thrilled to be previewing Little Fires Everywhere, as part of this extraordinary evening.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome back Kerry Washington to the Paley Center,” said Maureen J. Reidy, the Paley Center President & CEO. “Ms. Washington is a tremendous talent and we look forward to celebrating her remarkable career and to hosting the exclusive New York premiere of Little Fires Everywhere.”

Kerry Washington is among the most respected and influential talents in television today. A New York native, this versatile talent has...

Exclusive: Intercut Capital, founded this year by producers David Pomier and R. Bryan Wright and which is a co-financier on the upcoming Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, has added $125 million in new funding in a partnership with TinRes Entertainment. The private lender plans to expand its scope worldwide eyeing projects budgeted between $3 million-$20 million.

News of the deal is being unveiled Monday at the American Film Market in Santa Monica.

It’s the latest move from Intercut, which launched earlier this year. Pomier is a producer whose credits include Free State of Jones, Looper, Self/less, Cleaner, Seeking Justice, Spike Lee’s She Hate Me, 25th Hour and Miracle at St. Anna, U-Turn and the Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona. Wright is a film producer and financier whose credits include Jumper, Miracle at St. Anna and Cadillac Records, as well as working on Zipper, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Left Behind, American Horror House and The Chameleon.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee might not be in the awards season mix this year — after finally winning his first Oscar last year for scripting “BlacKkKlansman,” he’s deserving of a break — but the indelible New Yorker will be on hand to accept at least one huge honor in 2020. Film at Lincoln Center has announced that Lee will be honored at the 46th Chaplin Award Gala on Monday, April 27, 2020. “We are delighted to honor Spike Lee, an original and iconic New York filmmaker,” said Ann Tenenbaum, Film at Lincoln Center’s Board Chairwoman, in an official statement. “It is thrilling to welcome his bold voice into the pantheon of artists who have received the Chaplin Award.”

The Chaplin Award Gala is the organization’s most important fundraising event of the year and all proceeds benefit the organization in its mission to support the art and craft of cinema. The annual gala...

After earning his first Best Director and Best Picture nomination with BlacKkKlansman, the prolific Spike Lee is showing no signs of slowing down. He’s already expected to begin production on his next film as early as next month and he’ll be reteaming with Netflix following his She’s Gotta Have It TV show.

Variety reports the film is Da 5 Bloods, which finds Lee returning to the war film after Miracle at St. Anna, this time the Vietnam War. Rather than actually depict the period of the war, it will follow veterans who return to the jungle fifty years later in search of the remains of a soldier left behind as well as gold. Leading the film will be Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, along with Delroy Lindo and Jean Reno. There are also rumors that Samuel L. Jackson, Giancarlo Esposito, and Don Cheadle would join the cast, but...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival has selected Spike Lee as the recipient of its career achievement award.

Lee will be presented with the honor at the festival’s awards gala on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival runs from Jan. 3 to Jan 14.

“Spike Lee has been an outstanding warrior for equal rights while creating an iconic body of film and television work over his 30-year career,” said festival chairman Harold Matzner. “In BlacKkKlansman,’ Lee directs one of his best and most provocative films about an African-American detective and a white detective who are determined to infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs. It is our great honor to present the Career Achievement Award to Spike Lee.”

Past recipients of the festival’s career achievement award include Annette Bening, Kevin Costner, Bruce Dern, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Sally Field, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s “Sew the Winter to My Skin,” about a real mid-century outlaw and his Robin Hood-style exploits, is South Africa’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar race. The movie, which world premiered in the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, was selected by the National Film & Video Foundation (Nfvf) on Friday.

Written and directed by Qubeka, “Winter” is an adventure epic inspired by the story of John Kepe, who eluded authorities in South Africa’s rugged Boschberg Mountains for 12 years as he stole from wealthy white landowners and gave to the black poor. His exploits made him a folk hero to his own people and a public enemy in the eyes of the apartheid government.

The selection committee lauded what it described as “an unmistakable, bold South African voice that tackles historical and contemporary issues, in both South Africa and the world.” Describing Qubeka’s cinematic technique as “visionary and bold,...

Another summer movie season has come and gone, and the film industry is a much different place at the end of August than it was at the start of May. As always, it’s been an enlightening time, full of huge surprises and game-changing takeaways. Three months ago, no one would have guessed that a Supreme Court Justice would — pound for pound — prove to be a greater box office draw than Dwayne Johnson, or that a movie about Jason Statham fighting a giant shark would be on pace to outgross Han Solo’s origin story. Three months ago, no one knew that Tom Cruise was about to make us forget that “The Mummy” ever happened, or that rom-coms were on the verge of a huge comeback (both in theaters and at home).

It’s a brave new world, and mostly for the better. Here are nine lessons we learned from the 2018 summer movie season.

When “BlacKkKlansman” had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the rapturous reception signaled one thing — Spike Lee is back.

So it makes sense that when the timely crime drama opened at the domestic box office four months later, it earned Lee his best debut since 2006. Twelve years ago, “Inside Man” launched with $29 million and went on to generate an impressive $183 million worldwide. In between, Lee has delivered a series of theatrical misses. Many of the films that he released over the ensuing decade and change — works such as “Oldboy” and “Miracle at St. Anna” — lacked the pop of the filmmaker’s previous efforts. Critics are saying “BlacKkKlansman,” an alternately satiric and horrifying looking at hate groups in America, signals a return to form for the director. Its $10.8 million start in North America trails only “The Original Kings of Comedy’s” debut ($11 million) as Lee’s third-biggest opening of all time.

“BlacKkKlansman,” which premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival, is quintessential Spike Lee, impassioned and messy and vital as anything he’s done in decades.

It’s also far more accomplished a piece of filmmaking than many of Lee’s recent narrative films. Let’s face it, the director of “She’s Gotta Have It,” “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X” has long been an iconic director, educator and activist, but films like “Red Hook Summer,” “Miracle at St. Anna,” “Oldboy” and even the spirited but uneven “Chi-Raq” just didn’t have the impact or the quality of his earlier films.

His television documentaries, including “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” and “If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise,” have fared better.

Also Read: 'Dog Days' Film Review: Intertwined Lives of Owners and Pets Makes for Obediently Heartwarming Comedy

But...

Blumhouse Television is developing a limited series based on James McBride’s 2013 National Book Award-winning novel “The Good Lord Bird,” Variety has learned.

Ethan Hawke is on board to star as abolitionist leader John Brown, and will co-write the script with Mark Richard (“Fear of the Walking Dead”).

The project will reunite producer Jason Blum with Hawke, the star of “The Purge,” the hit 2013 horror film. It comes as Blumhouse is making a broader push into the television world. The company is best-known for backing low-budget scary movies, but it’s doing something different on the small screen. It is making several prestige dramas with healthy budgets. It’s a group that includes such high-brow literary-based series as HBO’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s “Sharp Objects” and Showtime’s forthcoming version of Gabriel Sherman’s “The Loudest Voice in the Room.”

Hawke’s involvement shouldn’t be a complete surprise.

A Spike Lee movie called Blackklansman likely goes one of two ways, the question at hand being: are we getting a film by the director Do the Right Thing, Miracle at St. Anna, When the Levees Broke, and 4 Little Girls, or something from the man behind Chi-raq and Inside Man? Any one of those (maybe not St. Anna) would do, but the pleasures at hand in the first preview for his Cannes-premiering, I guess it turns out, comedy are plentiful, and make me glad for the latter. Judging by first reactions, it’s a sign of things to come.

The very strange true story of a black detective, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), who managed to infiltrate the Kkk with careful deception, it’s (by the look of things) the sort of satire for which Lee’s prankster sensibilities might be especially well-attuned. Produced by Jordan Peele — who could...

The Tribeca Film Festival has finalized its juries for the 2018 fest, two days before it kicks off its 17th edition. Names including Martha Coolidge, Norman Reedus, André Holland, Ray Liotta, Chris Messina, Zosia Mamet, Sasheer Zamata, Alyssa Reiner, Josh Charles, Haifaa Al Mansour and Lakeith Stanfield have been set to oversee the features, shorts, Storyscapes section and awards categories.

The fest launches Wednesday night with the world premiere of the Gilda Radner documentary Love, Gilda. Tribeca runs April 18-29 in New York City.

Here’s the full list of jurors:

Feature Film Competition Categories

The jurors for the 2018 Us Narrative Competition section are:

Justin Bartha: Actor Justin Bartha has co-starred in two be-loved billion dollar franchises: The Hangover and National Treasure. Some of Bartha’s other notable film credits include White Girl, Holy Rollers, Dark Horse, The Rebound, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Failure to Launch with Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker.

In this week’s edition of Canon Of Film, we take a look at one of Spike Lee‘s underrated masterpiece, ‘25th Hour‘. For the story behind the genesis of the Canon, you can click here.

’25th Hour‘ (2002)

Director: Spike Lee

Screenplay: David Benioff, based on his novel “The 25th Hour”

When Spike Lee’s ‘25th Hour,’ came out in 2002, it was ignored by most every award show, and made only a handful of top 10 lists. It was on my top ten list of that year, and I thought it was one of Lee’s absolute best; I’ve often called it his most underrated film. It’s a funny thing about movies, sometimes a film needs a certain amount of time to pass before people truly recognize its greatness, and time for those who were ahead of the curve to gloat a bit. Suddenly, at the end of the decade,...