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This past Friday Disney unveiled the teaser for the upcoming live-action ‘Lion King’ which looks like a shot-for-shot remake of the original, only this time, instead of animation, presented to us in CGI. Let’s line-up 16 upcoming live-action Disney remakes that have been greenlit: “Beauty and the Beast,” “101 Dalmatians,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Jungle Book 2,” “Peter Pan,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo,” “Mulan,” “Dumbo,” “Sword in the Stone,” “Winnie The Pooh,” “Snow White,” and “Tinker Bell....

More info came today - from Disney CEO Bob Iger, including the news that the service will be called Disney+. “The service will also feature new, original shows and movies, including original Marvel and Star Wars series. Marvel fan favorite character Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, will get an original series on the Disney+ service. A prequel series to Star Wars movie “Rogue One” about the character Cassian Andor, portrayed by Diego Luna, will also call the service home....

They are whining about the absence of several female filmmakers in the Best Director category, including The Woman King’s Gina Prince-Bythewood, Women Talking‘s Sarah Polley, Till‘s Chinonye Chukwu and She Said‘s Maria Schrader. The 2023 directing nominees — Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), James Cameron (Avatar: The Way of Water), Baz Luhrmann (Elvis), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin) — are all predominantly white, with Kwan being the sole exception....

The story goes that Coppola told Cannes in 1979 that he wouldn’t screen “Apocalypse Now” unless it was in competition. They accepted his proposition. It’s been recently revealed that Coppola gave Cannes the same ultimatum for his 2009 film “Tetro”: Competition or you just don’t get to screen the movie. Thierry Fremaux eventually rejected it. Back to “Apocalypse Now”. Françoise Sagan, the President of the 1979 Jury, complained that Robert Favre Le Bret, director of the Festival, had stepped out of his role and put pressure on the jury to pick Coppola’s film for the Palme d’Or....

Author Daniel Kraus, a Guillermo del Toro collaborator, tweeted about watching the film yesterday and, suffice to say, he was impressed. Kraus called the film a “revelation” and “Romero’s most overtly horrifying film” other than “Night of the Living Dead,” calling it “hugely upsetting in form & function.” Kraus went on to add in a later tweet: “The film is far too powerful for American society…It must remain under lock & key never seeing the light of day,” adding “It was never shown publicly....

However, this year’s Palme d’Or winner and the French submission, “Titane,” was snubbed. People will now claim that it would have been a better idea to submit Venice winner “Happening,” I’m part of the crowd that believes in that theory. No matter how original and genre-bending “Titane” might be, it is very much a midnight genre film and just doesn’t adhere to the safer tastes of those who choose the Oscar shortlist....

“I’m working on a film called Passages about two men who’ve been together for fifteen years, and one of them has an affair with a woman,” Sachs told Outtake Mag. “It’s an intimacy triangle I’ll hopefully be shooting this year.” The film stars Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski and Adele Exarchopoulos. You can now add Sachs to a starry roster of directors who are aiming to premiere their new films at Cannes 2022....

“Oh, the best of American cinema of the last decade, probably, for me, is ‘Twin Peaks: The Return,’ an 18-hour film that is incomprehensible and dreamlike in the most beautiful, adventurous way,” Jarmusch said. “That is a masterpiece. Why can’t they just give David Lynch whatever money he needs? Why can’t you give Terry Gilliam? He needs money to make something; just give it to him! I don’t understand.” Contribute Hire me...

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Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island,” Universal’s Pete Davidson-starring comedy, will be hitting VOD in June, making it the latest film to cancel a traditional theatrical release for direct home viewing instead. “The King of Staten Island” will be available to purchase on June 12th, a week before it was scheduled to debut in theaters. Davidson and Apatow announced the news in a video posted via Twitter. Here’s the official synopsis for the movie: “Scott (Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven....

Oof. There is an embargo for Gerwig’s period piece, although I’ve already shared cryptic thoughts about it. I am, suffice to say, not a huge fan of what Gerwig was trying to do here. And yet, Kohn and Thompson are jumping on-board the Oscar train for “Little Women.” Thompson says the film feels very “contemporary” in its depiction of marriage, and that it feels like a modern-day adaptation of May Louise Alcott’s classic novel, despite the “old-school vernacular....

“Suspiria” is set in 1977, the year that Dario Argento’s original came out. It deals with a coven of venal, sadistic, witches who set up shop in the basement of a Berlin dancing school, heralded by a well-renowned dance teacher played by Tilda Swinton. They raise a filthy, thorn-fingered demon that seems to signal the end of times. Their ultimate catch for ritual is a talented dancer from Ohio named Suzie (Dakota Johnson) whose dream was to join a dance company whose VHS videos she has watched on repeat over the years, memorizing every dance movie....

Yet, despite its ambitions and risk-taking demeanor, the spartan and sometimes daring “Arctic” isn’t a refreshing watch. Penna summons the talent of Mads Mikkelsen and brings his camera to Antarctica for a lonely, survive-against-the-odds narrative that tries to differentiate itself, but just can’t break through the conventional tropes set forth by its more successful forebears. A midnight selection at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this 90-minute film takes risks that sadly just don’t pay off....

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The Academy announced today that Twitter users will get to vote on their favorite films of 2021 — regardless of whether the film was nominated for an Oscar. The film that receives the most fan votes will be recognized during the ceremony. Call it the Oscar-equivalent of a People’s Choice Award. Yikes. I feel like we are inching ever so close to the misbegotten Best Popular Film category making a comeback in 2023....

The deal also mentions that Fox will be working with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company, “which granted full cooperation from the organization that controls the rights to Ailey’s choreography.” The package also includes the rights to Jennifer Dunning’s biography “Alvin Ailey: A Life In Dance.” Screenwriter Julian Breece (“Buppies,” “When They See Us”) has been hired to pen the screenplay. As per IndieWire: “Ailey, who passed away in 1989, was a celebrated African-American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (which is still going strong in NYC) and the Ailey School in New York City....

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Every generation has a cinematic master. You know, a director who stands above the rest in terms of artistry and groundbreaking works. These directors tend to be the ones that everyone else tries to catch up to. There usually are, with every generation, only a few that can have the title of ‘master.’ Paul Thomas Anderson is most definitely one. After “There Will Be Blood” and “The Master” it was quite clear, that PTA was the master of the aughts....

The fact that Verhoeven’s film has been pushed back by nearly a year must mean that its producers, which include Ben Saïd, think highly of the film’s chances to win the Palme D’or at next year’s Cannes. It could also mean that Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux has told Verhoeven that his film is guaranteed a competition slot at next year’s festival. Expect more Cannes-worthy films to be pushed back a year now....

According to an “S&P Global” report, AMC Entertainment’s credit rating has been downgraded froma ‘B’ to a catastrophic ‘CCC-’, which means, “Default imminent, with little prospect of recovery." That means its 600 chains all around the country are in danger of being shut down for good. Supposedly, even before the COVID-19 pandemic happened, AMC was already playing with fire and on the brink of bankruptcy. The impending, maybe even inevitable, closure of AMC theaters all around the country would be a devastating blow to the theatrical experience in the United States....