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“Wonder Woman 1984” is currently the guinea pig of this experiment, testing out the strategy with its Christmas release, and soon after comes “The Little Things,” a psychological crime thriller from director John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks). Hancock has been a hired-hand filmmaker for a few decades now in the industry, a big-studio filmmaker the major studios can count on to deliver old-school chops....

Although “Lovebirds” reunites director Michael Showalter with his “The Big Sick” star-screenwriter Kumail Nanjiani, this indie rom-com delves more into genre cinema than the deft humane handling of their previous effort. A real shame, if you ask me. Showalter choosing the “high-concept” comedy “Lovebirds” as his follow-up feature is a peculiar decision and, more frustratingly, one riddled with a lack of artistic ambition. Showalter’s “The Big Sick” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay back in 2018, but don’t expect “The Lovebirds” to get any kind of Oscar love — it’s a real clunker....

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Yes, they have Jesse Eisenberg’s “When You Finish Saving the World,” the actor’s directorial debut, and Kogonada’s already-Cannes premiered “After Yang,” but don’t expect those films to break out. Eisenberg’s film was recently test-screened to middling reactions and ‘Yang,’ despite solid reviews at Cannes, has already been been forgotten since then. A hidden tidbit about A24’s reluctance to submit any of their films to Sundance 2022 was divulged in Eric Kohn’s 01....

Filming began in Massachusetts on January 27, 2022 and there were some reshoots in late April. I was under the impression that they might wait this one out until Cannes 2023, and maybe they will. However, if it’s being test-screened, maybe it’s close to being done. A surprise Telluride inclusion would be quite something. “The Holdovers” has Payne reuniting with his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti. Giamatti will play a “curmudgeonly walleyed disliked history teacher” who has to deal with the only student of his, a holdover, who remains in town for Christmas, as all the other students have left to see their families for the holidays....

Despite voting for it, Taubin was surprised and in fact didn’t seem super thrilled about ‘Jeanne Dielman’ winning. She called the ‘Dielman’ victory “the victory of British feminist cinema studies.” Taubin adds that a lot of the critics polled were British, around 40% of them, and a lot of them studied under Laura Mulvey who championed Akerman’s film for many years. When Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail” and Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” were mentioned, Taubin said “that’s also British feminist studies” entry....

Netflix has allowed Dominik to release the film as it was, unfiltered and without any cuts, maybe after realizing that “Blonde” wasn’t going to contend for Oscars and was a straight-up arthouse affair. Dominik’s cut is said to be rated NC-17. It was originally set to world premiere at the Venice Film Festival before being pulled out by Netflix late in the game. I broke the Netflix/Dominik dispute in the summer which led to a small online campaign by fans to give Dominik, a major auteur in world cinema, the cut that he so richly deserved....

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Supposedly, the budget on ‘Killers’ had inflated to a worrisome $225M and started to get Paramount a little too nervous about its commercial prospects by shelling out money for such a risky endeavor. The troubled post-production on the film resulted in Scorsese reaching out to countless studios including Netflix, Universal, and MGM. Ultimately, AppleTV+ won out the rights. Scorsese’s last movie (“The Irishman”) was a Netflix original with an equally expensive $173 million budget....

This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center will feature the world premiere of Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar.” Clocking in at nearly three-hours, the extended version will be shown for the first time ever on August 17. Aster had announced that his polarizing horror-drama-comedy would have a director’s cut which would include 30 minutes of additional new footage [via Reddit AMA]. “Working on extended cut now,” Aster confirmed on Reddit....

Croupier The Mike Hodge film lets you see things through the eyes of a live casino dealer. It focuses on sides of gambling that you may not have been aware of. The hero in Croupier, Jack Manfred, believes that you need to make a decision in life: be a croupier, or a gambler. Thanks to his casino job, he has a clear view of both bettors and the bosses in charge of the industry....

To all Caucasian people, don’t you DARE go watch the movie on opening weekend. Seats should be saved/reserved only for people of color, more specifically black people, and if you don’t abide by those rules then you are “anti-black.” The film is just too important for the black community that white audiences must absolutely refrain from attending opening weekend screenings of ‘Wakanda Forever.’ They must prove that they are “down for the cause”....

In an Instagram post, Singer states, “I have known for some time that Esquire magazine may publish a negative article about me. They have contacted my friends, colleagues, and people I don’t even know.” He continues on by saying that the upcoming exposée is an example of a recurrent trend these days where “careers are being harmed by mere accusations.” Singer has criticized the Esquire article as a “reckless disregard for the truth” and also as “fictional and irresponsible” journalism....

Sent from Berlinale-attending journalist to my email on Tuesday: “From what I’ve been hearing around the Berlinale, and I hate to be the first person to bring this up, but with the current outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy I think there’s a possibility that the Cannes Film Festival [could be] cancelled if this thing further spreads. Remember that there’s usually a large contingent of Chinese industry people that go to Cannes....

With that being said, this afternoon, Variety may have had the “exclusive,” but we‘be been saying all along that Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language film would be the Cate Blanchett-starring “A Manual for Cleaning Women.” Almodovar will be writing the screenplay in Spanish before translating it to English. ‘Manual’ is a collection of author Lucia Berlin’s short stories and Almodovar has, supposedly, managed to adapt five of them into one linear narrative....

I have to commend Dave Bautista for continuously pushing Disney to reinstate recently fired ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ director James Gunn. His passion and persistence says a lot about the loyalty this man feels for his director. Yesterday, Bautista explained why he has this unadorned passion for the cause of his beloved filmmaker: “I struggled, I starved for three years, I could barely get a job. There were a few people who believed in me along the way, but James was the one who really changed the course of my life” (via NME)....

And so, after a five-year break, Russell is planning a comeback. According to Deadline, Christian Bale is set to reunite with the writer-director on a new film. There’s no mention of a title and no plot specifics being given at the present time. No worries, just the news of Russell making a comeback and bringing along Bale for the ride is enough to whet our cinematic appetites. Bale’s fellow Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Angelina Jolie are also being sought for roles in the untitled movie, whereas Margot Robbie is the top female choice to star opposite Bale....

“I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about....

Daniel Craig is set to play Bond for the final time in Cary Fukunaga’s upcoming Bond 25, but we have yet to learn who might replace him afterwards. Rumored to be in contention are British actors Tom Hardy and Idris Elba. West’s assertions that an inclusive Bond would be the way to go have divided the film community. “Maybe a transgender Bond would be cool,” he told The Times. The actor said his role in the trans film “Colette” helped him come up with the idea....

But what do we know about the film so far? And what can we expect from what promises to be one of the most absorbing James Bond films to date? Bond Will Be Back on Our Screens in 2020 The official James Bond account on Twitter posted a teaser video on August 20th, which confirmed the name of the film and the release date. Although officially planned for an October and November 2019 release in the UK and the U....