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According to Deadline, Samuel Goldwyn Films has purchased the North American distribution rights for “Waiting for the Barbarians.” The film. which stars Depp, Mark Rylance, and Robert Pattinson, is now set for a VOD launch in August. Based on the similarly-titled novel by author J.M. Coetzee, who also adapted the book for the film, ‘Barbarians’ tells the story of a Magistrate working in a distant outpost, and on the brink of retirement, who begins to question his loyalty to the empire....

Let’s not talk about that, for a moment. What interests me most is whether we have a rejuvenated Spielberg with this film. I actually find Spielberg became a better, more refined, filmmaker as he aged into his 60s. The craft and masterful storytelling between 1998 and 2006 (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Munich,” “Minority Report,” “AI,” “Catch Me If You Can,” and “War of the Worlds”) at times exceeded his, mostly, brilliant work from the ’70s and ’80s....

Not even the silly cuteness of that moment can stop trolls from bullying Rabe on social media. Yes, the actress has been receiving some none-too-kind messages on her Instagram, to the point where she has urged fans “please don’t bully my family or me”. “She’s a normal human being and she’s a child,” her mother wrote on her own page, adding “please keep your opinions to yourself so Lexi can grow up in the free world....

No plot details have been revealed, but Cuarón will write and direct the drama series which will consist of 8 one-hour episodes. This was all confirmed by Cuarón at the Rome Film Festival where he is the guest of honor this year. Cuaron is the director of such masterworks as “Roma,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and “Children of Men.” Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

In other news, Bo Burnham won best first feature for “Eighth Grade” actually beating out Bradley Cooper and “A Star is Born.” INSANE. Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

AMC, the world’s largest theater chain, and the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) released dual statements (via Deadline). The most scathing one came from AMC, who showed their displeasure by literally threatening Universal if they continued down the VOD path with their other upcoming titles. Will Universal listen to the threats and abide? “Trolls World Tour” has now grossed $100 million in digital rentals. While Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island” has a different demographic (millennials, adults), it’s not far-fetched to think that it will do very well on VOD, especially if it has no other VOD competition come its June 12th release date....

A horror movie that, at times, almost feels like a surreal comedy, Aster’s sophomore effort hits unlikely bumps along the way, but is powered by his considerable visual framing talents and a very strong performance from Florence Pugh. Pugh plays Dani, a young woman having to deal with a family tragedy and the toxic relationship she’s in with self-absorbed boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Despite initially wanting to break up with Dani, before the eventual tragedy that pulverizes her to depression, Christian ends up feeling obligated to invite her to a mid-summer getaway in Sweden that he and his friends planned to embark on after they broke up....

First things first, I was told by my Telluride contact to not expect the unexpected. Almost everything that’s been predicted to go is actually what will be going. There won’t be any “Babylon” surprise or David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam.” As Joe Pesci says in “The Irishman,” It is what it is. The first 8 months of the year have given us 3 Best Picture contenders: “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and “Elvis....

As far as Marvel is concerned., You can probably add “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho to the above list, as he recently expressed a lack of interest in joining the MCU team. This is not necessarily surprising as a majority of celebrated international auteurs are not Marvel/DC fans, but Bong does have a large fanbase, in geek culture, which could render the below comments a tad problematic for them: The high-budgeted enterprise which comes with Marvel movies seems to also be a turnoff for Bong....

The big news, however, is that, despite mixed reviews, Disney’s live-action “Aladdin” took in $86 million over the weekend. Having just come back from Cannes, I missed the film when it screened for Boston press last week. Will I ever watch it? Well, I have a duty to do so, but I dread the day it has to be done. From the very beginning this looked like a Disney-marketed nightmare....

Internationally, in which many territories received the film a day earlier than the US, the film grossed $198M from over 50 markets, giving it grand total of $373.5M to begin its life span. What will be interesting here is if the films ‘mixed’ reactions affect its rewatch-ability, a factor which no doubt led to the over $2B gross of “The Force Awakens” and the $1.3B haul of “The Last Jedi”, the latter of which Disney will hope its epic conclusion will be within touching distance of once its run ends....

In late 2019, director Thom Zimny was summoned by Springsteen to document the recording of the singer-songwriter’s reunion album with the E-Street Band, their first in over 10 years. They also hadn’t recorded an album this way, as a unit in the studio, since 1984’s “Born in the U.S.A.” Suffice to say, three cameramen were brought in to document the affair and the result is essential rock and roll cinema....

Singer has all but been shunned by the critical community, not to mention his Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” star Rami Malek who actually refuses to thank him in any speech he gives whenever winning his best actor awards, it most recently happened again last night at the BAFTAs where Malek decided to thank Singer’s two-week replacement on the Queen biopic Dexter Fletcher instead. Hilarious. The CEO of Millennium Films, the studio behind Singer’s latest “Red Sonja,” stood by Singer in a recent THR report....

It’s also his most politically charged film since his heyday of racially-charged, social justice statements from the ’90s. Although, Spike being Spike, I do feel he lays it on very thick in the last 5 or so minutes of the film by going a little too far with the politics and making obvious statements that the film made in more subtle ways during the previous 120 or so minutes. In these last 5 minutes there are attempts to paint President Donald J Trump as a sort of heir to KKK president David Duke, Lee even infuses footage of the protests in Charlottesville from earlier this year, which ended with the death of a protester, and Trump himself refusing to condemn by saying there were bad people on both sides....

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“Most persistent rumours around the Croisette: Cronenberg’s CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is way less shocking than Ali Abbasi’s HOLY SPIDER, Östlund’s TRIANGLE OF SADNESS is a bust, and Lukas Dhont’s CLOSE is an emotional wipeout that’s going to win the Palme d’Or.” Response from “Hanimal”: “CLOSE is indeed an emotional wipeout but not the Palme d’Or material. Best actor or Jury prize very likely.” Contribute Hire me Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy

— Film critic Glenn Kenny tweeted what I told Hollywood-Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells on Saturday, that we should not expect Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” to be another “Goodfellas” or “Casino.” I told Wells, during our podcast, that “The Irishman” will no doubt feel like it was “made more by the guy who made Silence than the guy who made Goodfellas.” I stand by that assertion, especially after having read the book the film is based on (Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses”) and then Steven Zaillian’s magnificent 10-year-old screenplay....

Still managing to keep the top spot this week is Disney and Pixar’s “Onward” which brought in just $10.5M in its second weekend, a ridiculously huge drop of over 70%. The film’s domestic total now stands at $61M. Internationally the Pixar original brought in an estimated $6.8M pushing its worldwide total beyond $100M. In second is Lionsgate’s new release “I Still Believe” with $9.5M. The critically panned (37 Metacritic) Movie did draw in a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes as of today....

You can now add “Dune” helmer, and ultra-popular French-Canadian director, Denis Villeneuve to that list of names. He’s been making the press rounds over the last couple of weeks to promote the upcoming sci-fi film. In an interview with French Premiere, he didn’t hold back when it came to Marvel: “The problem today… Well, if we’re talking about Marvel, the thing is, all these films are made from the same mold....

And so, is it any surprise that Alfonso Cuaron, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steve McQueen, three filmmakers who made my list of the 10 best living directors recently, have contacted Denzel for potential future projects? Denzel is nearing 70 years of age but is still a ferocious on-screen presence. Washington spoke on the red carpet of Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” about his insistence to now work only with the best auteurs out there and namechecked PTA, Cuaron and McQueen as directors he’s currently speaking to for future projects....