HBO announced today that Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler have officially joined the cast of the upcoming DC series Lanterns. Aaron Pierre will play John Stewart and Kyle Chandler has been cast as Hal Jordan.

The anticipated series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

Lanterns is an HBO series in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King will co-write the series based on the DC comic Green Lantern.

James Hawes directs the first two episodes. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, King, and Hawes.

Aaron Pierre currently stars as the lead in Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge, which debuted on Netflix on September 6th and was the #1 title worldwide on the streaming service for three weeks in a row.

Elizabeth Banks is to lead the cast of the recently greenlit ‘Skincare,’ from Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment and Producers Jonathan Schwartz and Logan Lerman, directed by Austin Peters.

Banks is joined by a supporting cast that includes Lewis Pullman, Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Luis Gerardo Mendez, and Nathan Fillion.

The vanity thriller is set in Hollywood, but any further details on the movie’s plot are being kept under wraps. The screenplay was written by Deering Regan, Sam Freilich and Austin Peters. Production wrapped before the Writers’ strike.

Also in news – Antonio Banderas, Olivia Coleman & more set for ‘Paddington in Peru’

Andrea Iervolino and Lady Monika Bacardi financed and produced the film through their Ilbe banner alongside Logan Lerman and Jonathan Schwartz. ‘Skincare’ is the third film Schwartz and Lerman have collaborated on as producers following A24’s “The Vanishing of Sidney Hall” and Cj Enm’s “Press Play.

This June on HBO and HBO Max will play host to a new season of “Westworld,” a new adaptation of “Father of the Bride” and much more.

The big new Warner Bros. release on HBO and HBO Max this month is “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which actually debuted on the HBO Max streaming service on May 30. The third film in the Wizarding World prequel franchise first hit theaters in April, and is now available to stream in 4K.

There’s also the updated version of “Father of the Bride” premiering on June 16, while a pair of noteworthy documentaries are coming on the early side this month: “The Janes” premieres June 8 and follows unlikely outlaws in pre-Roe v. Wade America who defied state legislation that banned abortion, while “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” debuts on June 9.

As for original series, the fourth season of “Westworld” premieres on June...

With its list of new releases for June 2022, HBO Max is joining in what should be a TV summer to remember.

Not content to let Netflix’s Stranger Things or Prime Video’s The Boys to dominate the summer TV landscape, HBO is coming through with a new season of one of its big hits. Westworld season 4 is set to premiere June 26 on both HBO and HBO Max. What will this season of the increasingly confusing sci-fi drama be about? Per HBO’s synopsis it will be “A dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on earth.” So you know, only that.

Irma Vep is the only other Max Original of note this month. Based on a 1996 cult classic of the same name, this limited series stars Alicia Vikander as a disillusioned movie star looking to remake the early 20th century French silent film serial Les Vampires.

It’s...

Margaret Qualley will exec produce and star in The End of Getting Lost, an Amazon Studios thriller from Mustang director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, which also has Paul Mescal in talks to co-star, Deadline has confirmed.

The film is based on a novel of the same name by Robin Kirman, which Simon & Schuster will publish on February 15. In this dark, cunning love tale set against 1990s Europe, we follow a young couple, Gina (Qualley) and Duncan (Mescal), on what Duncan claims is their honeymoon—but after Gina suffers a mysterious accident, we’re brought into a dizzying journey where we toggle between past and present, husband and wife, to uncover a portrait of love’s power, as well as its dangers. As the pair hop borders across Europe, their former lives threatening to catch up with them while the truth grows more elusive,...

Emmy winner Kyle Chandler is the latest addition to the cast of Super Pumped, a new anthology series with the first season based on Mike Isaac's bestselling book Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.

Chandler will star as Bill Gurley, the plainspoken, brilliant Texan venture capitalist who bets his sterling reputation on Uber's success - and then has to live with the consequences.

Chandler joins Emmy winner Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Trial of the Chicago 7), who has signed on to star in the first installment as Travis Kalanick, Uber's hard-charging CEO who was ultimately ousted in a boardroom coup.

Brian Koppelman and David Levien and Beth Schacter (Soundtrack) will executive produce, write and serve as showrunners on the series.

The announcement was Thursday by Amy Israel, Executive Vice President, Scripted Programming, Showtime Networks Inc.

"Kyle Chandler brings deep integrity, authentic presence and undeniable magnetism to every role he inhabits,...

Michelle Monaghan has joined the cast of “The Craft” remake, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Zoe Lister-Jones is writing, directing and executive producing the reimagining of the 1996 film. The story centers on a teenage girl and high school outcast who falls in with three other girls who practice witchcraft. As they cast spells and curses on those they dislike, they soon face the consequences of those actions. David Duchovny, Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Zoey Luna, Nicholas Galitzine and Julian Grey also star.

Jason Blum is producing for Blumhouse, while Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing for Red Wagon Entertainment. Wick also produced the original film. Andrew Fleming, Lucas Wiesendanger, Natalia Anderson, Daniel Bekerman, Couper Samuelson, Jeannette Volturno and Bea Sequiera are executive producing. Blumhouse and Columbia are co-financing the film.

Also Read: Cailee Spaeny to Star in 'The Craft' Remake for...

Exclusive: The True Detective Golden Globe nominated actress is boarding Blumhouse-Sony-Red Wagon’s reboot of the 1996 teen witchcraft feature The Craft.

Michelle Monaghan joins the growing Craft cast of David Duchovny, Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Zoey Luna, Nicholas Galitzine and Julian Grey all who’ve been announced. Monaghan’s role is being kept under wraps. The original movie followed a newcomer at a Catholic prep high school who falls in with a trio of outcast teen girls who practice witchcraft, and wage curses against those who tick them off.

She’ll next be seen in Netflix’s 2020 geo-political thriller series Messiah in which Monaghan plays CIA agent Eve Geller. When a CIA officer investigates a man attracting international attention and followers through acts of public disruption, she embarks on a global, high-stakes mission to uncover whether he is a divine entity or a deceptive con artist.

You’ve read about the best movies of 2018 — IndieWire’s staff list is topped by “Roma,” followed by “First Reformed,” “The Favourite,” “Cold War,” and “Shoplifters” — but what about the worst? As they do every year, the fine folks at Metacritic have crunched the numbers and come out with a list of the most poorly received films to come out in the last 12 months.

Dinesh D’Souza’s “Death of a Nation” has the dubious distinction of coming in at #1, but it isn’t just the worst film of 2018 — it’s the worst film in the site’s history: “Out of the 11,819 films for which we have Metascores,” the list reads, “‘Nation’ ranks as #11,819.”

The full list:

“Death of a Nation” (Metascore: 1) “London Fields” (Metascore: 16) “The Vanishing of Sidney Hall” (Metascore: 18) “Reprisal” (Metascore: 19) “Life Itself” (Metascore: 21) “The Clapper” (Metascore: 21) “211” (Metascore: 21) “Dark Crimes” (Metascore: 21) “Gotti” (Metascore: 24) “Stratton” (Metascore: 26) “Hell Fest” (Metascore:...

“Percy Jackson” alum Logan Lerman is set to star in the Jordan Peele-produced Amazon drama “The Hunt.”

Set in 1977 New York City, “The Hunt” centers on a group known as The Hunters, who discover that hundreds of high ranking Nazi officials have been conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. and set out on a bloody quest to bring them to justice and thwart their new genocidal plans.

Lerman is set to play Jonah Heidelbaum, who, when his grandmother is slain by a mysterious intruder in their apartment, sets out to track the culprit — only to find himself swept up in the mysterious organization known as The Hunt, a group of justice-seeking individuals dedicated to rooting out the Nazi murderers living in the U.S. under assumed identities.

Also Read: Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey and More Join Amazon's 'Modern Love' Anthology Series

Created and written by David Weil,...

Later today, the Sundance Film Fest unveil their 2019 line-up. Taking a Thierry Fremaux Cannes approach, the fest will be annoucing their programming offerings in real time. For those who want to check out our prognosticates, you’ll find a simple checklist and of particular note, this upcoming fest should be especially sweet for a pair of 24 year-olds in Montana born Margaret Qualley and New Orleans born Kelvin Harrison Jr. Qualley who broke out in Park City with Novitiate and a supporting role in The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, could be there with five films in Rhys Ernst’s Adam, Benedict Andrews’ Against All Enemies, Rashid Johnson’s Native Son, Jonathan Helpert’s Io and the American premiere to Tim Sutton’s Donnybrook.…...

Exclusive: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is set to star opposite Dakota Fanning in the Zeresenay Berhane Mehari-directed Sweetness In The Belly based on the bestselling novel by Camilla Gibb.

Adapted for the screen by Laura Phillips, the film is a powerful love story that explores an immigrant’s life from a unique perspective. In a story that is relevant to today’s cultural landscape, Fanning stars Lilly Abdal (a role which Saoirse Ronan was originally attached), who was orphaned in Africa as a child and escaped to England as a refugee, fleeing civil war. Lost in this cold new world, Lilly embraces the immigrant community in London, attempting to reunite people with their scattered families. However, Lilly’s mission isn’t purely selfless: A passionate lost love affair is revealed between Lilly and Aziz (Abdul-Mateen II), an idealistic doctor. But can Lilly let go of the past?...

Actor Blake Jenner makes his writing debut with the thriller “Billy Boy.”

The film follows a young boy named Billy Forsetti, played by Jenner, who spends his evenings committing crimes and stealing cars with his friends. But after one of his friends is found dead, Billy attempts to leave his dangerous life behind him. Melissa Benoist (“Supergirl”) stars as Billy’s girlfriend Jennifer who tries to help him change the course of his life.

“Billy Boy” will be released on June 15 in 10 markets and via video-on-demand.

The film also stars Grant Harvey, Nick Eversman, Nathaniel Stroud, Melissa Bolona, Greg Germann, Jim Beaver and Andre Royo.

Jenner and Benoist crowdfunded help pay for the movie. Jenner produced the film with Robert J. Ulrich, Mike Jenner and Cooper Ulrich. “Billy Boy” is directed by Bradley Buecker who is also a producer.

The pic reunites former “Glee” cast and crew members Jenner, Benoist,...

Encouraging their children to reach their full potential as they enter adulthood is one of the most important aspects of being a parent. The mother of the title character in the new mystery drama, ‘The Vanishing of Sidney Hall,’ loves her teenage son while he’s still living at home during his high school years. However, […]

The post Interview: Michelle Monaghan Talks The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (Exclusive) appeared first on Shockya.com.

Sometimes the best way a person can find success is to reject society’s perceptions about what defines happiness. That’s certainly the case for the troubled title protagonist in the new mystery drama, ‘The Vanishing of Sidney Hall.’ The film captures the essence of people mustering the courage to walk away from their perceived happiness and […]

The post Interview: Logan Lerman Talks The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (Exclusive) appeared first on Shockya.com.

There’s often a figurative hole in the middle of films about writers, especially fictional ones. While other kinds of artists like musicians, dancers, or painters can briefly display their artistry within a film, few movies take the time to give a granular depiction of the process of writing (exceptions like “Paterson” are delightful). Breaking the classic rule of show, don’t tell, films such as “The Vanishing of Sidney Hall” rely on repeatedly insisting to the audience that the writer is a genius, even when most other evidence suggests otherwise.

If you like a good mystery, I've got an intriguing trailer here for you to watch for the film The Vanishing of Sidney Hall. The film premiered at Sundance last year and I heard good things. After watching this trailer, I think it looks like a movie worth checking out.

The movie tells the story of a character named Sidney Hall, played by Logan Lerman, who found success as a writer with a popular novel that he wrote at an early age. He then ends up disappearing without a trace, so his friends and family start searching for him to see what happened. It's going to be interesting to see how this mystery unfolds.

I like the tone and the vibe of what I'm seeing and it has a super great cast that includes Logan Lerman, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Lane, and Margaret Qualley. Here's the synopsis:...

Following his Oscar-winning short Curfew, director Shawn Christensen assembled a starry cast for his new feature, including Logan Lerman, Elle Fanning, Michelle Monaghan, Kyle Chandler, and Nathan Lane. The Vanishing of Sidney Hall–which premiered at last year’s Sundance as the shortened-title Sidney Hall–follows a young author who goes missing and the detective on the case. Ahead of an A24 release, the first trailer has arrived.

Unfortunately we weren’t big fans of it at Sundance, saying in our review, “Sometimes a movie just does not have any reason to exist. That would be the case with Shawn Christensen‘s misbegotten Sidney Hall, a film which offers a mystery that never feels mysterious, falls so flat one is bewildered as to why and how such a project could even be green lit.”

See the trailer and poster below.

After publishing a bestselling novel based on the death of...

"Tell me if this sounds familiar..." A24 has unveiled an official trailer for a mysterious indie drama titled The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, formerly known as just Sidney Hall when it premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival. There wasn't much buzz for this and it's just finally getting a release one year later, for those who might be interested. Logan Lerman stars as the titular Sidney Hall, who found accidental success as a writer of a popular novel, along with unexpected love, at an early age, then disappears without a trace. Some of his friends and family go on a hunt to find him, and figure out what happened. Elle Fanning also co-stars, along with Kyle Chandler, Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Lane, and Margaret Qualley. I actually saw this film at Sundance but totally forgot about it, because there wasn't much to it. There's an intriguing truth to it with Lerman's character,...

How do you make a movie title more interesting? Add the word “vanishing.” Last year at the Sundance Film Festival, you probably forgot that a movie called “Sidney Hall” premiered. Despite a pretty solid ensemble, reception was pretty muted, and the picture was forgotten. Well, A24 thinks they can find an audience for it with a snappier title — “The Vanishing Of Sidney Hall” (which makes it sound like a horror movie) — and the first trailer is here.

Continue reading ‘The Vanishing Of Sidney Hall’ Trailer: Elle Fanning Steps Into A Novelist’s Life at The Playlist.

Alex Karpovsky is no stranger to a film festival. In the past year alone, he has had movies premiere at South by Southwest (Fits and Starts), Sundance (Sidney Hall), Tiff (My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea) and Tribeca (Folk Hero & Funny Guy, in which Karpovsky plays a struggling stand-up comedian who gets roped into opening for his more successful singer-songwriter friend on tour). Yet, when Karpovsky phoned Et to discuss Folk Hero & Funny Guy, out now, he said that he's the least busy he's been in years, despite having also had a prominent role as Ray Ploshansky in the sixth and finale season of HBO's Girls.

"I feel like there are guys working a lot harder than I am," Karpovsky laughed, explaining that he started acting in his early 30s when he and his friends would act in one another's independent movies. "I tried not to [turn friends down] as much as possible, just because...

The Sundance Institute launched a new program to help its festival films score theatrical and platform releases — and allow filmmakers to remain fully in control of their rights. The Creative Distribution Fellowship was announced Tuesday, with two inaugural winners in “Columbus,” from director and screenwriter Kogonada, and Jennifer Brea’s “Unrest.” “Many films that premiere at the Festival are never seen again,” a statement from Sundance reads on a Kickstarter page, which will supplement resources and mentorship form the institute in helping the films get to viewers. Also Read: A24, DirecTV Acquire Logan Lerman Sundance Mystery 'Sidney Hall'...

Logan Lerman’s mystery “Sidney Hall” has sold distribution rights to reigning Best Picture-winner A24 and DirecTV, TheWrap has learned. The 2017 Sundance Film Festival selection will have a 30-day exclusive prerelease on DirecTV before A24 rolls it out in theaters. “Sidney” stars Lerman as a literary prodigy whose insights into his suburban town have serious consequences — bringing shame and forcing the young author into hiding. It costars Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Nathan Lane, Blake Jenner, Margaret Qualley and Tim Blake Nelson. Also Read: Neon Acquires Buzzy SXSW Thriller 'Gemini' Shawn Christensen, who helmed the Oscar-winning short “Curfew” and the feature “Before I Disappear,...

It’s been a question many of us in the indie world have been asking for a couple years now: Where in the world is Benh Zeitlin? The filmmaker had one of the most breakthrough years ever in 2012 when his “Beasts of the Southern Wild” exploded from Sundance winner to four-time Oscar nominee. Zeitlin even knocked out Ben Affleck (“Argo”) to earn a Best Director nomination.

Read More: ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’ Director Benh Zeitlin Confirms Next Film Will Be Totally Bonkers

But in the five years since the success of “Beasts,” Zeitlin has remained all but off the grid. It was reported back in 2015 that he was finally getting the wheels going on his next feature, “Wendy,” but here we are two years later with nothing to show for it. Well, it appears the 34-year-old indie director is finally back behind the camera and shooting that project, albeit very quietly.

Elle Fanning has been commanding attention with films like “The Neon Demon,” “20th Century Women” and “The Beguiled” (which debuted its first trailer this week). Now, the 18-year-old is taking center stage in the biopic “Mary Shelley,” about the esteemed “Frankenstein” author.

The Hollywood Reporter shared the first photo from the upcoming film directed by Saudi filmmaker Haifaa al-Mansour. The image shows the actress sitting in a graveyard next to her mother Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s tombstone, with a book and pencil in hand. See the image here.

Previously titled “Storm in the Stars,” the drama follows the author’s early relationship with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the work of writing her masterpiece. It also co-stars Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Maisie Williams, Joanne Froggatt and Tom Sturridge.

Read More: ‘The Beguiled’ Trailer: Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning Turn on Each Other in Sofia Coppola’s Remake

Al-Mansour is best...

One of the most anticipated projects from the Sundance film labs is getting into gear for an immient shoot and Variety reports that Blake Jenner (most recently seen in Shawn Christensen’s Sidney Hall), Barry Keoghan, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd (seminal perf in Zobel’s Compliance) and legend veteran Udo Kier have been cast alongside Evan Peters in Bart Layton‘s fictional feature debut.

Continue reading...

Sofia Coppola last directed the Netflix special “A Very Murray Christmas,” but her last feature film seen on the big screen was 2013’s “The Bling Ring.” Now, the filmmaker returns with “The Beguiled,” a remake of Clint Eastwood’s 1971 film of the same name, which stars Kirsten Dunst as Edwina Dabney and Elle Fanning as Carol. After months of seeing photos from the set that the actresses shared on social media, Focus Features has finally unveiled the first trailer.

The drama is based on Thomas P. Cullinan’s 1966 novel “A Painted Devil” and is set during the Civil War. The story follows an injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) who, while imprisoned in a Confederate girls’ boarding school, cons his way into each of the lonely women’s hearts, causing them to turn on each other, and eventually, on him. Nicole Kidman, Angourie Rice and Oona Laurence co-star.

Read More: ‘The Beguiled...

She’s been working on her fitness!

Elle Fanning put her toned abs on display after hitting the gym for a workout. The 20th Century Women star walked out in a pale purple sports bra and high-waisted spandex crops, with her hair pinned back.

Fanning, 18, is known for taking fashion risks (like, say, walking through Lax barefoot in pantsuit-inspired pajamas), and previously showed off her abs in a crop top — back in 2014, before the shirt style was even cool.

The actress has been hitting the awards show circuit to promote the Academy Awards-nominated 20th Century Women, and just returned from...

A Ghost StoryBelow you will find our favorite films of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Awardstop Picksjosh Cabritai.Call Me By Your NameII.A Ghost StoryIII.Beatriz at Dinner, Dayveon, Dina, Golden Exits, Kuro, Person to PersonLAWRENCE N Garciai.Call Me By Your NameII.Golden Exits, My Happy FamilyIII.Beatriz at Dinner, Dina, The Big Sick, Landline, Long Strange TripCORRESPONDENCESBy Josh Cabrita and Lawrence N Garcia#1 Josh Cabrita on William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth, Dustin Guy Defa's Person to Person | Read#2 Lawrence N Garcia on Travis Wilkerson's Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, Gillian Robespierre's Landline, Damien Power's Killing Ground, Taylor Sheridan's Wind River | Read#3 Josh Cabrita on Bryan Fogel's Icarus, Dee Rees' Mudbound, David Lowery's A Ghost Story | Read#4 Lawrence N Garcia on Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, Matthew Heineman's City of Ghosts,...

Plot: A young writer (Logan Lerman) drops off the face of the earth after his first two novels become best-sellers. Years later, an investigator (Kyle Chandler) tries to figure out what happened to him. Review: Watching Sidney Hall at Sundance, right after seeing the J.D Salinger bio-pic, Rebel In The Rye, was weird. Did Sundance schedule their premieres so close together on purpose? Sidney Hall tries... Read More...

Composer Darren Morze collaborated with director Shawn Christensen to develop the lush sounds of Sundance entry ‘Sidney Hall.’ Sundance Film Festival entry Sidney Hall is a long-gestating labor of love for its creative team.

How a brilliant and clean-shaven young novelist could end up living like a bearded hobo is the central mystery of Sidney Hall, the sophomore feature from writer-director Shawn Christensen (Before I Disappear). The good-looking film scrambles three different timelines to tells its needlessly complicated — rather than complex — story: Sidney as a high-school student, being egged on by an inspirational teacher and interested in the cute girl across the street; Sidney as a young married man and successful author whose world starts to collapse around him; and finally Sidney as an aimless drifter, a poète maudit who has abandoned and...

Sometimes a movie just does not have any reason to exist. That would be the case with Shawn Christensen‘s misbegotten Sidney Hall, a film which offers a mystery that never feels mysterious, falls so flat one is bewildered as to why and how such a project could even be green lit.

Squandering a fine class of young talent, which includes Logan Lerman and Elle Fanning, the drama is tediously realized on page by screenwriter Jason Dolan and director Shawn Christensen (Before I Disappear), who appears to be game with stylish visual decisions, but can’t find a way to get the audience engaged.

The film begins with its titular character, Sidney (Lerman), reading aloud to the class an essay that ends up being a masturbatory fantasy about a cheerleader. The conservative teacher, who asked for an essay on the meaning of life, is obviously appalled. A particularly questionable decision...

Long Strange TripDear Josh,If there's one minor upside to Sundance, it's that the films typically aren't very long. Since the festival is dedicated to indie film—or whatever mutated strain that it's become in recent years—runtimes typically average around 90 minutes, sometimes less. (This certainly isn't Cannes, where three-hour art films are the norm.) So when I was making my schedule, Amir Bar-Lev’s four-hour Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip immediately stood out. (It apparently did so for a lot of other critics, too, given that this was, by far, the most sparsely attended press screening I went to.)Split into six “acts” (plus an intermission), the film chronicles the Grateful Dead from their start in the 1960s (“Act I: It's Alive!”) to the death of founding member Jerry Garcia in 1995 (“Act VI: It Becomes Everything”). Given the wealth of detail in the film—which covers everything from their time in Haight Ashbury,...

The first indication something is horribly awry in Shawn Christensen’s “Sidney Hall” announces itself early on, thanks to a scene in which the precocious eponymous character (Logan Lerman, who also produced) reads aloud an essay, one dedicated to the middle-school object of his masturbatory obsessions, in his high school class. His classmates are alternately amused and disgusted, his pal Brett (Blake Jenner) is super into it, and his teacher is rightly offended. “Sidney Hall” makes its allegiances clear immediately — Sidney is smart and funny, the teacher is a square, the world is unfairly against him — and that perspective pervades the rest of the execrable film.

Sidney gets away with the stunt (he’s even supported by an English teacher who thinks it’s justified by Sidney’s wit), and so does the film itself. Initially it seems as if “Sidney Hall” will just be another film about lone geniuses...

More than a dozen people walked out of a screening of Flying Lotus’ “Kuso” at the Sundance Film Festival, Pitchfork reports. The feature debut for the musician, whose real name is Steve Ellison, “Kuso” is a psychedelic dream movie set in Los Angeles after a devastating earthquake. The film premiered last Saturday in Sundance’s Midnight section.

Read More: IFC Midnight Acquires ‘Killing Ground’ — Sundance 2017

“Kuso’s” grotesque humor and trippy animated sequences proved to be too much for certain audience members at Sundance. Still, Lotus tweeted that the amount of people who left the screening was not significant given how many people were in attendance.

It was only like 20 people out of like 400 who walked out. Wasn’t as dramatic as they make it out to be. I tried to warn folks. https://t.co/j3GTtO906o

— Flylo (@flyinglotus) January 26, 2017

“Kuso” stars Anders Holm, Hannibal Buress, Tim Heidecker and George Clinton.

Ry Russo-Young was doing breathing exercises with me and her star Zoey Deutch before we sat down to chat about “Before I Fall,” her third film in a row to bow at the Sundance Film Festival. She was calm enough before she started breathing in and out in big, slow puffs, and she was positively beaming when we were done — with good reason.

Russo-Young may be a Sundance mainstay, but she’s never hit the festival with a film quite like “Before I Fall” – that is to say, a film that already has not only a well-regarded distributor (in this case, Open Road), but a set release date just a few weeks out. That’s one way to take the pressure off of the experience, but it’s understandable that the filmmaker would want to take a moment just to collect herself in the midst of the usual festival madness.

Shawn Christensen’s second feature following his Oscar-winning short Curfew, Sidney Hall chronicles the tumultuous life of a writer at the ages of 18, 24 and 30. The film boasts an impressive cast (Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Lane) to supports its titular lead, played by Logan Lerman. Below, cinematographer Daniel Katz speaks to Filmmaker about the cameras, lenses and lighting approaches he used to distinguish each era of Sidney’s life. Sidney Hall held its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors […]...

Producer Uri Singer and actors Geena Davis, Tim Robbins, Lois Smith and Jon Hamm, “Marjorie Prime” Photographed by Jana Cruder for TheWrap. Writer-director Shawn Christensen and stars Elle Fanning, Michelle Monaghan, Logan Lerman, Blake Jenner, “Sidney Hall” Photographed by Jana Cruder for TheWrap. Actors Julia Ormond, Martin Donovan and Peter Dinklage with writer-director Mark Palasky, “Rememory” Photographed by Jana Cruder for TheWrap. Actress Shiri Appleby, actress Judy Greer, director Janicza Bravo, actress Nia Long, co-writer-star Brett Gelman, “Lemon” Photographed by Jana Cruder for TheWrap. Actress Alfre Woodard, actor DeRon Horton, writer-director Gerard McMurray, executive producer Common, and actors Tosin Cole and Trevor Jackson,...

Photographer and magazine founder Jeff Vespa unveils eight artists to watch at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Actress Margaret Qualley, “Novitiate” and “Sidney Hall” Photographed by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap. Trevor Jackson, “Burning Sands” Photographed by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap. Harris Dickinson, “Beach Rats” Photographed by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap. Actress Danielle Macdonald, “Patti Cake$” Photographed by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap. Lakeith Stanfield, “Crown Heights” Photographed by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap. Haley Lu Richardson,”Columbus” Photographed by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap. Actor Josh O’Connor, “God’s Own Country” Photographed by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap. Michelle Morgan, “L.A. Times...

Later this week, Lrm will be attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival. While the festival tends to be a mixed bag of indie films, some will be picked up for distribution by studios and turned into mainstream hits, others will flounder and be lucky to get a VOD release. Even so, there’s no denying that Sundance is the real beginning of the year for most movie lovers as we’ll be talking about the movies below for the next 12 months.

Last year alone, Sundance held the premieres for The Birth of a Nation, Manchester by the Sea, Captain Fantastic, Love and Friendship, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Sing Street and many more films, some that appeared on The Weekend Warrior’s year-end Top 25. One or two of those might even receive Oscar nominations when they’re announced next week on January 24.

Most of the films I’ve selected...

Comprising a considerable amount of our top 50 films of last year, Sundance Film Festival has proven to yield the first genuine look at what the year in cinema will bring. Now in its 39th iteration, we’ll be heading back to Park City this week, but before we do, it’s time to highlight the films we’re most looking forward to, including documentaries and narrative features from all around the world.

While much of the joy found in the festival comes from surprises throughout the event, below one will find our 20 most-anticipated titles. Check out everything below and for updates straight from the festival, make sure to follow us on Twitter (@TheFilmStage, @jpraup, @djmecca and @FinkJohnJ), and stay tuned to all of our coverage here.

20. Come Swim (Kristen Stewart)

With her pair of career-best performances under the direction of Olivier Assayas, as well as working with Kelly Reichardt, Woody Allen,...

The subject matter of Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg’s new film Patriots Day might be even tougher to some as their last film, Deepwater Horizon, as it looks at the terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 that left three dead and dozens injured.

In the movie, Wahlberg plays police officer Tommy Saunders, who is on duty at the marathon on the day of the bombing, so he’s on the forefront of the investigation to find those responsible. His wife Carol is played by Michelle Monaghan, who has given breakout performances in films like Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, Duncan Jones’ Source Code, as well as the acclaimed first season of HBO’s True Detective, and she brings more humanity to the movie which ends up following the FBI and Boston Pd as they go after the perps.

What...

It seems you can’t turn around without bumping into another movie starring Elle Fanning these days, and that’s just fine by us. The actress is one of the finest talents of her generation, and next month she’ll be at the Sundance Film Festival to get the word out about “Sidney Hall.”

Read More: 2017 Sundance Film Festival Adds ‘Wilson,’ Dee Rees’ ‘Mudbound,’ ‘Wind River’ Starring Jeremy Renner, & More

Co-written and directed by Shawn Christensen (“Before I Disappear“), and co-starring Logan Lerman, Kyle Chandler, Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Lane, and Margaret Qualley, in a movie that follows the titular character across a dozen years.

Continue reading Sundance Film Festival: Elle Fanning In ‘Sidney Hall’ at The Playlist.

To mark the release of James Schamus’ directorial debut Indignation, we had the pleasure of speaking about the project with the film’s leading man Logan Lerman. The 24-year-old boasts quite a CV with star turns in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Fury, and his latest represents a mature, nuanced display. Lerman discusses his […]

The post Exclusive: Logan Lerman on Indignation and Sidney Hall appeared first on HeyUGuys.

The full cast for the upcoming TV series adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist has been revealed and the most notable star is Vikings actress Alyssa Sutherland.

The series will tell the story of "a foreboding mist that arrives in one small town ushering in a terrifying new reality for its residents, putting their humanity to the test." According to THR, Sutherland will play Eve Cunningham, “a wife and mother who fights to protect her teenage daughter from unknown dangers lurking both inside and outside the mist while facing down her past.”

I’m a big fan of this story. It one of my favorites that King has written and I also thought the movie directed by Frank Darabont was great, so I’m looking forward to this series and I have high hopes for it.

Hopefully, the creative team manages to bring some solid quality and creativity to the...

Joining the previously announced Alyssa Sutherland and Frances Conroy, eight additional actors have signed on to face the otherworldly horrors of The Mist, Spike TV’s upcoming 10-episode adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novella:

Press Release: New York, NY, July 13, 2016 – Further casting has been announced for Spike’s new original scripted series “The Mist,” based on the classic Stephen King novella of the same name. From TWC-Dimension Television (TV), “The Mist” goes into production later this summer and premieres on Spike in 2017.

“The Mist” tells the story of a foreboding mist that arrives in one small town ushering in a terrifying new reality for its residents, putting their humanity to the test. What will people do to survive when blinded by fear? The additional casting includes (in alphabetical order):

Gus Birney as “Alex Cunningham,” the teenage daughter of Kevin and Eve Cunningham. She’s always been the ‘good daughter,...

“Bloodline” Season 2, now streaming on Netflix, is a must-see. And much of the credit goes to its star, Kyle Chandler.

From “Damages” creators Todd and Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, the feverish Florida neo-noir is a dysfunctional family drama that reveals how and why three siblings would turn on their oldest brother (Ben Mendelsohn). The writers were fascinated by the roles taken on by each member of a family, from the black sheep to the fixer. When volatile wild card Danny Rayburn re-enters the scene, he disrupts the Rayburn family, led by its hotelier and matriarch (Sissy Spacek) and local detective John Rayburn (Chandler). (Mendelsohn and Chandler both scored acting Emmy nominations for Season 1.)

In Season 2, John and his two agitated siblings (Linda Cardellini and Norbert Leo Butz) must deal with the aftermath of Danny’s murder. Danny haunts them in more ways than one, not only messing with their heads,...

“Bloodline” Season 2, now streaming on Netflix, is a must-see. And much of the credit goes to its star, Kyle Chandler.

From “Damages” creators Todd and Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, the feverish Florida neo-noir is a dysfunctional family drama that reveals how and why three siblings would turn on their oldest brother (Ben Mendelsohn). The writers were fascinated by the roles taken on by each member of a family, from the black sheep to the fixer. When volatile wild card Danny Rayburn re-enters the scene, he disrupts the Rayburn family, led by its hotelier and matriarch (Sissy Spacek) and local detective John Rayburn (Chandler). (Mendelsohn and Chandler both scored acting Emmy nominations for Season 1.)

In Season 2, John and his two agitated siblings (Linda Cardellini and Norbert Leo Butz) must deal with the aftermath of Danny’s murder. Danny haunts them in more ways than one, not only messing with their heads,...

Kyle Chandler is an actor forever associated with family. Ever since he defined the ideal husband, father and “leader of men” in “Friday Night Lights,” the talented thespian has been playing against type to varying degrees, without distancing himself from that association. Instead, he deconstructs and reconstructs his perceived image, most notably as a deadbeat dad in “The Spectacular Now,” a manipulative husband in “Carol” and a dangerous leader in Netflix’s Emmy-nominated “Bloodline.”

In the first season of the drama, Chandler’s character, John Rayburn, did a very bad thing: [spoilers ahead] He killed his brother. Season 2 found John trying to move on from the tragedy, but, more importantly for the audience, Chandler had to convince us his character was a man worth watching — worth rooting for, even. To do this, Chandler told IndieWire he drew on memories of his late father, who died when Chandler was a young boy, his...