The network synopsis for the season reads: “In its fifth and final chapter, ‘Better Things’ focuses on ‘the road ahead’ for its unconventional, unfiltered heroine, Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon), so devoted to her life as a working actor and single mother of three that she’s left little time for that one elusive thing: herself. As she navigates three daughters, each coming of age; the challenges of her chosen career; and her mother’s increasing signs of aging (as well as her own) — Sam embraces each moment, and each member of her family, with a fierce love, raw honesty, and biting humor....

“The Expanse,” true to its name, ran for six seasons as one of the most sprawling space stories ever put on film. But you might not have guessed that if you only saw the show’s sets. “I’ve always been pushing to make the ships more and more cramped, make everything a little tighter, a little smaller, ceilings a little lower,” said Breck Eisner, director of 14 episodes of “The Expanse” over its six seasons....

The time-traveling series is based on author William Gibson’s bestselling sci-fi novel, and is adapted for the screen by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, the creators of “Westworld.” The show premieres October 21 on Prime Video. In the vein of “The Matrix” and “Total Recall,” “The Peripheral” introduces viewers to another dimension: but this time, it’s a voyage into the future, not an alternate past. The cast includes Jack Reynor, Gary Carr, Eli Goree, Louis Herthum, JJ Feild, T’Nia Miller, Charlotte Riley, Alexandra Billings, Adelind Horan, Alex Hernandez, Katie Leung, Julian Moore-Cook, Melinda Page Hamilton, Chris Coy, and Austin Rising....

For showrunner Jenny Klein, the trick was juxtaposing Pam’s bizarre personality with an awareness of the real and immense pain caused by her actions. “We went into the show with the knowledge that we needed to balance this story that’s so disturbing and tragic with the totally absurd details that come from Pam’s over-the-top behavior,” she said. While Pam is the story’s focus, the series’ point of view is often that of her victims, which creates unique emotional effects as the audience is simultaneously amused by Pam’s brazen conduct, pained by its effects, and frustrated by the authorities’ unwillingness to acknowledge the truth....

“For TIFF audiences in the know, the Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths programmes are where you’re rewarded for taking risks and being adventurous,” offered Anita Lee, TIFF’s chief programming officer. “Whether it’s the discovery of an audacious new auteur, a brilliant visionary work that reimagines storytelling or the most wicked cinematic experience you will ever have, this is where you will find it.” Discovery “TIFF’s Discovery program is a showcase of cinema and talent from around the world — a place to unearth work that is bold, distinctive, and, above all, passionate,” said Dorota Lech, Discovery lead and international programmer, TIFF....

Timothée Chalamet might seem quite young to become a full-fledged movie legend, but the 25-year-old actor is already poised for icon status. As if working with major directors like Wes Anderson and Greta Gerwig wasn’t impressive enough, Chalamet has two movies scheduled for release this October. The first being “Dune,” Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel about a young man on an interplanetary trek to save his family. Chalamet stars in the film alongside Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, and David Bautista....

“Tom and I knew each other a bit — have known each other for years and years and years and have wanted to work together for quite some time,” Serkis said about joining the “Venom” franchise. “And whether it be as actors or whether it was me directing. In fact, he called me before the first Venom and said, ‘Andy, I’m going to be doing this character and it’s going to be a digital character, and I wondered if I could come down to the Imaginarium,’ which is a performance-capture studio, ‘and do some sort of practice with performance capture....

“We talked with [president Kevin] Feige at Marvel about Holland and he got excited and then we went to Sony…” said Joe Russo. “And they were like, ‘Let’s think about it for a minute.’ We could tell we were meeting resistance from Sony. So we brought [Holland] back, brought him back, brought him back, and we were relentless in our pursuit of jamming him down the throat of the studio who owns this IP....

“Tobey’s movies, I love the final battle between him and the Goblin [from 2002’s ‘Spider-Man’],” Holland said. “I think something that I really wish we had done with our movies is kind of the tattered suit stuff. You know how he always has the rips in his costumes and the rips on the mask? I really like that because it brought a kind of realism to the injuries that Spider-Man can get....

“Top Gun: Maverick” began production in May 2018. It opened Memorial Day weekend 2022 to exceed its domestic gross expectations by more than 50 percent with a four-day total of over $160 million. Most credit goes to the film, the still-potent appeal of Tom Cruise, Paramount, and co-financier Skydance, but attention must be paid to the often-difficult decisions that went into committing to a massively expensive global theatrical release four years after the film’s production began....

During a recent episode of “Watch What Happens Live” hosted by Andy Cohen, Hunt said she showed interest in directing a sequel in June of 2020, right around the time a reboot was announced as in the works at Universal Pictures. (Via Insider.) Hunt, who currently stars on the upcoming Starz series “Blindspotting,” said she wanted to make a film with a multiracial cast, but that an unnamed studio rejected the idea....

Warners says it’s not reporting because “Inception” is a library title, but the studio is allowing other library titles to show Comscore results (this week led by Warners’ 1985 “The Goonies,” which generated around $200,000 for two days). “Unhinged,” the first release from Solstice Studios, reported an estimate of over $4 million in 1,823 theaters. That would be a per-theater average of around $2,200. Those figures come with fewer than half of the first-run theaters open in North America, and only drive-ins in New York and Los Angeles....

Veronica (the always delightful Haley Lu Richardson) is a high school superstar, bound for Brown in the fall but still very busy living out the waning days of her super-fun senior year. Mega-popular and mega-smart, Veronica has a tight-knit pack of girlfriends (that the other members of the foursome seem to operate with one brain is more than just a joke) and a devoted boyfriend (Alex MacNicoll). Her Instagram account is popping, but is also filled with meaningless material (#SelfCare) that offers no real insight into her life....

Last year’s Scripter film winners were “Nomadland” screenwriter Chloé Zhao and author Jessica Bruder (non-Scripter nominee “The Father” took home the Oscar); past winners include “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars. The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title: Screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune” (Warner Bros....

“The thing that I’ve never understood about Cronenberg is that he’s had almost a half a century of making movies, and many really good movies,” Mortensen said. “He’s clearly one of the masters, right? Living masters. And yet this is a man who, every time out, struggles for years, usually, to raise minimal financing for his movies. Which are never really expensive.” Mortensen continued, “He always comes in on or under budget, on or before time on shoots....

As reported by Variety: “With a planned 10th and 11th film in the works, [director Justin] Lin says he and Diesel have been plotting future storylines for years, but admits that ‘We’ve been talking a lot about Mrs. Toretto, from the very beginning of [me] coming back for ‘F9’. So, I feel like there’s gonna be a time and place to be able to reveal that.’ Diesel confirmed the storyline discussion, saying that the plot point has ‘come up in so many story meetings for ‘Fast 10....

That combined with four other titles taking in over $14 million (double the number over the holiday-adjacent weekend in 2019) suggests that going out to movies, and then other outside-the-house activities, may have made a dent into home viewing. But the strong results also will have an immediate impact on the VOD market. The strong initial take for “Minions” guarantees it will not be available at home until at least after its fifth weekend, not its third weekend, based on Universal’s opening-weekend gross determining policy....

“WB’s admission leaves no doubt that its coercive conduct is a continuing, thinly-veiled effort to eliminate Village Roadshow’s rights going forward so that it can keep for itself valuable derivative rights to tent pole films, and use those films (and future creative derivative products arising from those films) to steer would-be theatergoers to HBO Max, thereby gaining billions in enterprise value,” states the Village Roadshow filing. Village Roadshow also issued a statement via law firm Kirkland & Ellis that called for a preliminary injunction by March 7....

Greenblatt served as chairman of WarnerMedia entertainment, while Reilly was the chief content officer for the company’ HBO Max streaming service, which launched in late May. Reilly also served as president of TNT, TBS, and truTV, while Cocozza was the executive vice president of corporate marketing and communications. Deadline reported that the trio will be exiting the company while Warner Bros. chief Ann Sarnoff takes oversight of all network, film, TV studio, and streaming assets, effectively making her head of all content for the company....