Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Thursday that it will be minus CNN+ next week, shuttering 2022’s most confusing SVOD play a mere 32 days after its launch. The quick curtain proves David Zaslav is eager to sunset anything that fails to deliver on his goal of turning his newly combined business into “the best media company in the world.” CNN+ will become another weird footnote under the WarnerMedia leadership tenure of Jason Kilar....
Now that the 2021 Oscars have officially been delayed from February 28 to April 25, 2021, many other award shows and festivals that play a crucial role on the Oscar season circuit are also changing their dates. IndieWire will be keeping track of the changing 2020-2021 awards season with this running list of new dates for important events on the circuit. Independent Spirit Awards (January 21, 2021 Announcement) The Film Independent Spirit Awards, which has traditionally been held the day before the Oscars, is breaking with tradition by moving its ceremony to Thursday, April 22 at 10pm ET....
In that way, it’s hard not to see “The Closer” as a season finale of sorts — as one last anthology installment that brings into focus the full impact of a comedy project that, for the better part of a decade, many would have thought unfathomable. Maybe it’s a function of a level of sudden prolificness that is near impossible for any comic to maintain or perhaps it’s a man in search of a niche, but “The Closer” is far from a reckoning....
The move was a hot topic at Saturday night’s Art Directors Guild Awards, with two of Hollywood’s top directors adding their voices to the chorus of naysayers about the decision. “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve, who was honored with the William Cameron Menzies Award, was extremely blunt with his thoughts when he spoke to Deadline. “Honestly, I think that the Academy’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” Villeneuve said. “I think it’s a mistake....
Daniels (they’d prefer we drop the “The”) are one of two filmmaking duos with new work out this week, as siblings Adam and Aaron Nee release their first studio effort “The Lost City” from Paramount. Some of the most beloved filmmakers working today include the Safdie brothers, the Russo brothers, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller; cineastes mourned at the Coen brothers’ breakup, but many have stepped up to fill the void....
And then there’s Discovery+, which launched in the United States on January 4. Discovery+ hasn’t made waves in entertainment news like its nascent contemporaries and it doesn’t have a show as universally recognized as “The Mandalorian.” But that’s not to say the streaming service’s launch fell on deaf ears, and it certainly doesn’t say anything about the popularity of its content. Discovery+ boasts a mix of original programming and library content, and the platform’s offerings are immense....
The best feature noms went to “Raya,” (from “Big Hero Six” Oscar-winning director Don Hall), “Encanto” (from Byron Howard and Clark Spencer, the Oscar-winning director and producer of “Zootopia”), “Luca,” “The Mitchells” (from “Spider-Verse” Oscar-winning producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller), and Illumination’s “Sing 2.” The competitive studio race for best feature could go Disney’s way or “The Mitchells’” (winner of the NYFCC animated feature award). The race for best independent feature, meanwhile, was led by GKids’ “Belle,” the metaverse “Beauty and the Beast”-inspired musical from director Mamoru Hosoda; Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Oscar-buzzy, Afghan refugee animated documentary, “Flee” (which captured a total of four noms); “Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko” (from STUDIO 4oC and GKids); “Pompo the Cinephile” (from CLAP Animation Studio and GKids); and “The Summit of the Gods” (from Netflix)....
Another shocker: Lady Gaga won Best Actress for her either over-the-top or masterful turn on “House of Gucci,” depending on how you look at it, while London thespian Kathryn Hunter won Supporting Actress for Joel Coen’s Shakespeare movie “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” And where is Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” in the Oscar race? We weigh the NYFCC’s cinematography prize for his longtime collaborator Janusz Kamiński, as well as the overall success of frequent Spielberg collaborator Tony Kushner’s adaptation, which moves around key songs like “Somewhere,” and is expected to open soft at the box office....
Competing for feature visual effects are the frontrunning “Dune,” “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” Daniel Craig’s Bond finale, “No Time to Die,” and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” All have been shortlisted for the VFX Oscar, with “Dune” as the heavy favorite, in which DNEG supplied windblown sand, raging sandstorms, flying insect-like ornithopters, and the iconic CG sandworms. Supporting visual effects nominees include “Candyman,” “Last Night in Soho,” “Nightmare Alley,” “The Last Duel,” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth....
The new date “Dune” is moving to is currently where Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” is slated for by Warner Bros. No word yet on where that tentpole is moving. IndieWire has reached out to Warner Bros. for confirmation. This is the latest major date change from Warner Bros. Pictures, who in September moved “Wonder Woman 1984” to a Christmas Day release on December 25, 2020. The “Wonder Woman” date change marked the fourth such COVID-related shift for Patty Jenkins’ DC tentpole, originally set to debut June 5, then August 14, then October 2....
“We could probably build jurassic park if we wanted to. wouldn’t be genetically authentic dinosaurs but 🤷♂️. maybe 15 years of breeding + engineering to get super exotic novel species,” Hodak wrote on Twitter. See below. He followed up the tweet to suggest that the tech could also be used for conservation efforts to protect current species, but that it could be pushed even further. “Biodiversity (antifragility) is definitely valuable; conservation is important and makes sense....
Many predicted as much. After last year’s production shutdown threw release dates to the wind, the 2020-2021 class of Emmy contenders was upended. Perennial nominees from “Succession,” “Stranger Things,” “Ozark,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and more were unable to produce new episodes in their typical scheduling windows and had to bow out of this year’s race, accordingly. (Also, since the TV Academy’s cough-outdated-cough calendar can prove confusing for casual TV fans wondering why their favorite recent shows aren’t included on the nominations list, it’s worth noting that “Loki,” “Dave,” “Tuca & Bertie,” “The White Lotus,” “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson,” and more shows that premiered after May 31 are ineligible for this year’s Emmys, so they cannot be snubbed....
The story, which broke during the middle of the week when there is often a lull in the football news that’s the cabler’s greatest source of interest this time of year, dominated ESPN’s Thursday morning news coverage. Still, many felt like the coverage of Udoka’s personal life has been excessive, especially considering the other, arguably larger stories of ethical lapses currently being discussed in the sports world. Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is currently engulfed in a scandal after it was alleged that he helped misdirect $5 million in welfare funding in the state of Mississippi to build a new women’s volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi....
That’s a lot to take in, but it could get worse: Consider “The Flash.” The trials and tribulations of “The Flash,” and its star Ezra Miller, are widely reported. Yesterday brought the most recent update, published the same day that WBD reported its Q2 earnings after the close of market: A 6,300-word Insider expose of Miller included now-familiar allegations of grooming and abuse along with claims of escalating paranoia, weapons, body armor, and even leading a cult in Iceland....
Fox’s early and near-solitary call that Joe Biden won Arizona had an immense impact on what became a long and drawn-out process of certifying his victory. To this day, that reality hasn’t been accepted by many Republicans — including Arizona’s current Republican nominee for governor, who based her campaign on election denial. That accurate projection drew the displeasure of the White House, but Fox stuck by it — a decision that deflated then-President Donald Trump’s plan to declare an unfounded victory before supporters that evening....
Amid the long-running viral Twitter account and subsequent HBO Max docuseries, executive produced and hosted by Ava DuVernay, it seems like all eyes are on single scenes from movies. Now, film lovers can put their one-shot cinema knowledge to the test with the new game Framed. Already being compared to trend sensation Wordle, which The New York Times scooped up in January, Framed presents a single frame from a movie and asks users to guess the title of the film....
Per HBO Max’s official synopsis, “Hacks” explores “a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance (Smart), a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled outcast, 25-year-old (Hannah Einbinder).” The 10-episode debut season of “Hacks” will premiere with two episodes on Thursday, May 12, followed by two episodes each Thursday for the following four weeks. The two-episode finale is set to air June 10. In addition to Smart and Einbinder, “Hacks” stars series regular Carl Clemons-Hopkins and recurring guest stars Kaitlin Olson, Christopher McDonald, Paul W....
The star of HBO’s critically acclaimed two-hander series “Hacks,” opposite Jean Smart, spoke out against the myth that cancel culture affects the comedy world. To Einbinder, the real “hack” artists are those who continue to “bully people” using their platforms. “There are a lot of bullies who grew up to be comedians and they are just continuing to bully people,” Einbinder told The Independent. “They have no desire to be thoughtful or make light of things, only to cause chaos or be what they believe is ‘edgy’ but is actually, in reality, hack....
HBO Max originals featured in the spot include “Gossip Girl,” a reimagining of the iconic YA series for a new generation; “Nicki Minaj,” a docuseries offering a look inside the superstar’s life; crime thriller “No Sudden Move,” directed by Oscar and Emmy-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and starring an ensemble cast including Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Hamm and Ray Liotta; the much-anticipated “Friends Reunion Special;” and Snyder’s director’s cut of “Justice League....
“I’ve been in this position [of casting true stories] a couple of times, and I do think there are added responsibilities and challenges,” casting director Terri Taylor told IndieWire. “It goes beyond physical resemblance, because you don’t want to just cast a lookalike. You want to be able to capture the essence of the human being, but also stay true to the kind of story the filmmakers are trying to tell....
