HBO Max’s Julia Child Drama Finds A New Lead To Replace Joan Cusack By Ben Pearson/March 13, 2020 4:00 pm EST Joan Cusack was all set to play famous author and chef Julia Child in an upcoming HBO Max pilot, but since she left the project, the show needed a new cook in the kitchen. Now the fledgling streaming service has found a new star for the show. Get the details below....
How ‘Watchmen’ Balances Pleasing Comic Book Fans And Newcomers Alike By Rafael Motamayor/Nov. 16, 2019 1:00 pm EST Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal graphic novel Watchmen is a dense and complex work. When the HBO adaptation was announced, the biggest question would be how closely it would follow the graphic novel, and whether you needed to read it beforehand. The truth is, you can argue both for and against reading the graphic novel, it just depends on what you want out of Watchmen....
Paramount Is Holding A Fan Event Double Feature Screening Of ‘A Quiet Place’ And ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ By Hoai-Tran Bui/Feb. 28, 2020 5:00 pm EST It’s been two years since A Quiet Place became a surprise horror hit. But a lot of happened in the years since then (hell, in the months since 2020 started) and it’s easy to forget the details of exactly what happened to the Abbott Family in the 2018 horror sensation....
Pop Culture Imports: ‘Funan,’ ‘Japan Sinks 2020,’ ‘The Whistlers,’ And More By Hoai-Tran Bui/July 17, 2020 12:00 pm EST (Welcome to Pop Culture Imports, a column that compiles the best foreign movies and TV streaming right now.) We’ve got an animation-heavy column for you in this week’s Pop Culture Imports, but if you’re looking for bright, family-friendly fare, they won’t be here. What is it with foreign filmmakers using animation as a medium through which to work through some of the most traumatic events (fictional or otherwise) in history?...
Roku Confirms Acquisition Of Exclusive Global Rights To Dozens Of Quibi Shows By Hoai-Tran Bui/Jan. 8, 2021 11:00 am EST Roku has officially bought the exclusive global streaming rights to Quibi’s bite-sized portfolio. That includes the dozens of TV shows starring the likes of Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam Hemsworth, and Anna Kendrick, and developed by filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro and Steven Spielberg. Dozens! Deadline reports that Roku has finalized its acquisition of the exclusive global distribution rights to Quibi’s library, one month after Jeffrey Katzenberg’s mobile-only streaming venture shuttered....
Spike Lee Will Be President Of 2020 Cannes Jury; China Independent Film Festival Is Shutting Down By Chris Evangelista/Jan. 14, 2020 5:30 pm EST Spike Lee is about to make history as the first African-American to serve as jury president for the Cannes Film Festival. Lee had seven films premiere at the fest in the past, and will now preside over the 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival taking place from May 12-23, 2020....
Thanksgiving Of Horror: Breaking Down The Many Movie References In The Latest Episode Of ‘The Simpsons’ By Rafael Motamayor/Nov. 27, 2019 8:00 am EST Even after three decades, The Simpsons is still finding ways to keep things fresh. The latest example takes the long-running “Treehouse of Horror” and repeats it just a month after this year’s proper “Treehouse” episode, but with a Thanksgiving setting. The episode begins with Marge introducing three spooky tales of horror and warning the audiences not to let their kids watch – just like in the good old days....
The Apple TV+ Launch Survey: Is The New Streaming Service Worth Your Time And Money? By Josh Spiegel/Oct. 31, 2019 11:00 am EST One of the quirkier elements of living in the world of Peak TV™ is that viewers are often told to give new shows time to find their footing. Rare is the TV pilot, no matter where it’s airing, that comes out of the box so fully formed that you can’t help but be sucked in completely....
The Penguin Doesn’t Have “Much To Do” In ‘The Batman’, According To Colin Farrell By Hoai-Tran Bui/May 18, 2020 11:00 am EST Batman’s rogues’ gallery is one of the most famous in comic book history, featuring such a wide variety of colorful and unique villains that the Caped Crusader is often in danger of being overshadowed. But while the comics can pack each frame with rogues and still keep Batman as the star, movies are often in danger of becoming unwieldy with more than three villains....
The Quarantine Stream: ‘Ghost Town’ Makes Ricky Gervais Endearing In A RomCom From ‘Spider-Man’ Writer By Ethan Anderton/June 28, 2020 11:00 am EST There have been a variety of romances featuring ghosts over the years, but none have brought such a refreshing take on the afterlife as Ghost Town. David Koepp, along with writer John Kamps, gives us a movie that not only delivers a heartfelt new approach to the idea of ghosts having unfinished business, but a funny romance between two unlikely neighbors, and they don’t even have the typical cool big city jobs that all romantic comedies seem to have....
VOTD: ‘Moving Pictures 2019’ Movie Trailer Mash-Up Looks Back At The Year In Cinema By Ethan Anderton/Dec. 4, 2019 4:00 pm EST It’s getting close to the end of 2019, and that means we’ll soon be looking back at the year in cinema. We have our traditional year-end coverage and “Best of” lists in the pipeline (not to mention a celebration of the end of the decade), but in the meantime, some talented editors have started to bring tributes of their own to the films of 2019....
VOTD: Creating The ‘Avengers: Endgame’ VFX Of The Epic Final Battle By Ethan Anderton/Aug. 27, 2019 6:00 am EST Perhaps the most rewatched part of Avengers: Endgame is the extensive final battle that takes up most of the film’s third act. It’s full of some of the greatest moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Captain America’s summoning of Mjonir to Iron Man’s last stand. And it’s all thanks to visual effects supervisor Dan DeLeeuw and his incredible team of visual effects artists that those moments were brought to life so spectacularly....
Watercooler: Stephen King, Parks And Rec, Mandalorian, The Kid Who Would Be King, The Half Of It, Pet Sematary, Schitt’s Creek, First Kid, Never Have I Ever, Community, Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters By Peter Sciretta/May 1, 2020 2:15 pm EST On the May 1, 2020 Episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor-in-chief Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film managing editor Jacob Hall, weekend editor Brad Oman, senior writer Ben Pearson and writers Hoai-Tran Bui and Chris Evangelista to discuss what they’ve been up to at the Water Cooler....
What Happened This Week On ‘Westworld’ Season 3: “The Mother Of Exiles” By Chris Evangelista/April 6, 2020 8:00 am EST Westworld season 3 continues to expand the reach of the show with yet another twisty episode. And yet, while a lot of action happens this week, and a huge twist is revealed, this episode still feels a little bit like filler. So just what happened this week on Westworld season 3, “The Mother of Exiles”?...
‘Candy’ TV Series: Elisabeth Moss To Play A Real-Life Killer In 1980s Texas By Ben Pearson/July 7, 2020 3:30 pm EST Elisabeth Moss, one of the best actresses of her generation, is set to play a real-life killer in a new TV series. In Candy, a limited series currently being developed by Universal Content Productions, Moss will play Candy Montgomery, a Texas woman who murdered her friend Betty Gore with an ax....
‘Clouds’ Review: A Perfectly Respectful And Perfectly Acceptable Weepie Drama By Josh Spiegel/Oct. 13, 2020 10:00 am EST The new film Clouds is perfectly harmless, which feels almost required to mention up-front. The true story on which the film is based, derived from an online phenomenon, feels like it belongs to a different era of the Internet, when people could spend a day or two on social media focusing on nothing more than a feel-good story....
‘Hellraiser’ Reboot Coming From ‘The Ritual’ And ‘The Night House’ Director David Bruckner By Chris Evangelista/April 10, 2020 1:30 pm EST That Hellraiser reboot is still happening, and it has found its director. Last year, word broke that David S. Goyer was writing and producing a new take on Clive Barker’s horror classic, and now the project has attached David Bruckner to helm. Bruckner directed segments in horror anthology films V/H/S and Southbound, as well as the Netflix title The Ritual, and the upcoming The Night House....
‘Hope’ Review: The Relationship Between Two Artists Is Tested [TIFF 2019] By Jason Gorber/Sept. 20, 2019 4:00 pm EST Scandinavians know how to draw out operatic misery from quotidian life, and Hope, filmmaker Maria Sødahl’s masterful take on a couple in crisis, illustrates just how effective delving into the misery of brokenness can be.We meet Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig), a ballet director who is finally finding her own success after many years of living in the shadow of her husband....
‘Laid-Back Camp’ Is The Ultimate Comfy Anime And A Proper Escape From Real-Life Horrors By Rafael Motamayor/Jan. 22, 2021 8:00 am EST (Welcome to Ani-time Ani-where, a regular column dedicated to helping the uninitiated understand and appreciate the world of anime.)It turns out 2020 is refusing to go, because the start of 2021 has been a bit of a mess. That being said, one of the beauties of the anime medium is how easily it can take you on a journey and immerse you in an entirely different world....
‘Little Women’ Early Buzz: Greta Gerwig’s Sophomore Effort Is Already Getting Oscar Buzz By Hoai-Tran Bui/Oct. 24, 2019 9:00 am EST Little Women has been positioned as an Oscar contender since its announcement — and with awards darling Greta Gerwig helming the adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott coming-of-age classic, and a star-studded cast led by Lady Bird’s Saoirse Ronan, how could it not be? The fact that Sony was positioning it for a Christmas release, that sweet spot where awards season and the holidays overlap, could only mean that the studio is confident in Little Women’s awards contender status....
