Top Gun: Maverick Snatches Second Weekend B.O. Record

Posted on June 5, 2022 by admin

After scoring a boxoffice record on Memorial Day Weekend, Top Gun: Maverick seems designed to take another one. If estimates hold, the sequel to the Tom Cruise 80s classic is set to gross over $86 million. That would be enough for the record “smallest second-weekend decline for a movie that opened to $100 million or more,” according to Comscore.

Top Gun: Maverick has now grossed $291 million in North America, and thereby officially becoming the highest-grossing film ever at the domestic box office for Cruise.

This is especially impressive given that typical big-budget blockbusters tend to decline by at least 50%, even films are backed by positive reviews.

For comparison, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” each declined 67% in their second weekend, while another well-reviewed blockbuster, Robert Pattinson’s “The Batman” fell 50% in its second weekend.

“It has never been more appropriate to say ‘the sky’s the limit’ for ‘Top Gun: Maverick,'” Paramount’s president of domestic distribution Chris Aronson wrote in a note to press.

Not a lot of films opened against “Maverick” second weekend. Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” which opened in limited release, made $1.1 million from 773 theaters.

Watergate Thriller/Comedy “18½” Set Release To Theaters On May 27th

Posted on May 28, 2022 by admin

“18½” features an acclaimed cast led by stars Willa Fitzgerald (Amazon’s “Reacher”) , John Magaro (“First Cow”), Vondie Curtis Hall (“Harriet”), Catherine Curtin (Netflix’s “Stranger Things”), Richard Kind (“Argo”), Sullivan Jones (“The Gilded Age”), Alanna Saunders, Claire Saunders, and the legendary voices of Ted Raimi (“Spider-Man”) , Jon Cryer (“Two and a Half Men”), and Bruce Campbell (“Evil Dead”) as President Richard Nixon.

The film “18½” humorously crafts its own narrative into the notorious gap in Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Taking place in 1974, “18½” is about a fictional White House transcriber finds the only copy of the infamous 18½-minute gap in Nixon’s Watergate tapes but her attempts to leak it to the press run afoul of hippies, swingers and nefarious forces.

Directed by Dan Mirvish, “18½” features a screenplay by Daniel Moya, story by Dan Mirvish & Daniel Moya, with classic cinematography by Elle Schneider. The film is produced by Dan Mirvish, p.g.a., Daniel Moya, p.g.a. and Terry Keefe. Executive producers are Tel K. Ganesan, Ashwin T. Ganesan, Richard Schenkman and Sebastian Twardosz, co-executive producers are Paul Orzulak, Kyra Rogers, Elisabeth Jereski, Jarrod Phillips, Dana Altman, Frédéric Forestier.

18½- trailer from Sonder Entertainment on Vimeo.

Varèse Sarabande Records To Release LP of The Iron Giant Original Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition)

Posted on May 27, 2022 by admin

Varèse Sarabande Records is set to release the LP of The Iron Giant (Deluxe Edition) Original Motion Picture Score with music by Michael Kamen. Varèse Sarabande has previously released Kamen’s The Iron Giant score as a 49-minute program single LP. The album will release August 5.

Creating The Iron Giant’s beautiful, sympathetic score was Michael Kamen, one of his last major scores and his first animated film, miles away from the action blockbusters for which he had become known.

This Deluxe Edition adds an additional 13 minutes of alternates, outtakes and rare demos—including a piano-and-guitar attempt at an unrealized song, “Souls Don’t Die,” based on Kamen’s theme, performed by Kamen and Eric Clapton. Tim Greiving’s new liner notes feature new interview material with director Brad Bird, music editor Christopher Brooks and orchestrator Blake Neely, going deep into Kamen’s working process and their adoration for the gifted, late composer.

A modern classic, The Iron Giant, directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol) tells the story of a young boy who befriends a giant alien robot during the Sputnik era of the Cold War. Based on the 1968 book The Iron Man by poet Ted Hughes, the film is a marvel of heartfelt storytelling, with timeless themes of friendship, caring and self-determination.
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Jeremy Renner To Star In A David Armstrong Feature

Posted on May 21, 2022 by admin

Jeremy Renner is set to star in an untitled David Armstrong feature for 101 Studios and Expanded Media/LBI Entertainment.

Expanded Media/LBI Entertainment and 101 Studios announced today that two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner will star as Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist David Armstrong who – through a riveting and perilous journey – uncovered the secrets of how the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma fueled a national nightmare.

Over a four-year investigation, Armstrong discovered evidence that, in order to maximize their profits, members of the Sackler family knew of and supported Purdue’s concealment of the strength and addiction risks of the drug OxyContin. Since the release of OxyContin, more than two hundred thousand Americans have died from prescription painkiller related overdoses.

The film will be written and directed by the award-winning, husband-wife filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly (Beneath The Harvest Sky, Queenpins).
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Ron’s Gone Wrong Studio Locksmith Animation Pacts With DNEG Animation For “That Christmas

Posted on May 19, 2022 by admin

Locksmith Animation, the leading CG animation studio based in London, has awarded the digital production of its second movie That Christmas to DNEG Animation.

The film is based on the successful series of children’s books by filmmaker Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Yesterday) and marks the feature film directorial debut of renowned character animation and story artist veteran Simon Otto (How to Train Your Dragon trilogy).

Locksmith and DNEG Animation enjoyed a successful outing on Locksmith’s first film Ron’s Gone Wrong. The film garnered multiple Annie Award nominations and was voted “Best Feature” at the 2022 British Animation Awards.
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Varèse Sarabande To Release New Edition Of Firestarter (1984) Soundtrack By Trangerine Dream

Posted on May 17, 2022 by admin

Varèse Sarabande revisits the glory days of 1980s sci-fi “synthwave” with a new edition of Tangerine Dream’s classic electronic score for Firestarter (1984). This is in conjunction with the new Firestarter (2022) film, released May 13. This 11-track program—released on LP by MCA Records in1984 and on CD by Varèse Sarabande in 1990—has been newly remastered for this reissue.

The new LP and CD packages also contain previously unused film stills and new liner notes by Randall D. Larson explaining how the band did not score to picture but created “wild” cues to be used by the film’s music editors. The re-issues is available on VareseSarabande.com and Intl.VareseSarabande.com. Both the CD and LP are available now for pre-order and will release July 22.

Firestarter, based on a 1980 book by Stephen King and directed by Mark L. Lester, starred eight-year-old Drew Barrymore as Charly, a girl with pyrokinetic powers owing to her parents’ participation in a secret study of hallucinogenic drugs. When the agency behind the experiments comes for Charly to weaponize her powers, led by an assassin played by George C. Scott, she goes on the run with her father.

Firestarter came amidst the 1980s film-scoring heyday of German synth band Tangerine Dream, in their well-known lineup of Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Johannes Schmoelling. The band’s pulsating textures and ambient soundscape reinvented film scoring in films as varied as Thief, Risky Business, The Keep, Legend (U.S. version), Three O’Clock High, Near Dark and Miracle Mile, and have cast a long shadow on future styles.

IndustryWorks Studios To Bring “Bullet Proof” To Marche du Film in Cannes

Posted on May 14, 2022 by admin

As the Festival de Cannes celebrates its 75th anniversary, IndustryWorks Studios announced today that the studio will present the action-packed and relentless film Bullet Proof to the foreign market this year at the world-renowned Marche du Film in Cannes, France. Grindstone Entertainment Group, a Lionsgate company, will distribute the film in the U.S. and Canada this summer.

Bullet Proof stars tough guy Vinnie Jones (Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) as the ruthless drug lord Temple.

The talented ensemble cast features breakout performances from Lina Lecompte (“Charmed,” and Monster High), Janvier Katabarwa (‘Deadpool 2, Cold Pursuit) as the deadly character The Frenchman, and a lead performance by James C. Clayton as a cantankerous criminal mind who finds himself with a big bag of money and surprisingly with extra deliverable goods.

In Bullet Proof, a thief who only looks out for number one pulls off the robbery of a lifetime when he robs the psychotic drug lord Temple. The plan goes off without a hitch until the thief discovers a stowaway in his getaway car: Temple’s wife, Mia. With Temple and his top hitman, the deadly and mysterious hitman The Frenchman, in hot pursuit, and torn between making a quick getaway or taking a risky detour to help Mia escape her husband’s abusive grasp, the thief finds the only way to get out alive is to drive.
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“Spider-Man: No Way Home” Leads Noms At MTV Movie & TV Awards

Posted on May 12, 2022 by admin

The MTV Movie & TV Awards are returning this year, with Spider-Man: No Way Home leading the nominations with seven. “Euphoria” followed closely with six nominations and The Batman with four noms.

This year, MTV will be combining the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards and Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted shows into a single event.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards has two new categories, which are best song and “Here for the Hookup” categories. New unscripted show categories include Best Reality Return, Best Music Documentary, Best Reality Romance, and Best Reality Star.

The show’s categories also continues to be gender-neutral, and most of the movie/TV categories have been merged.

Fans are ablee vote at vote.mtv.com through May 18, with the final results to be revealed during the award show’s live broadcast on Sunday, June 5 at 8/7c from Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

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L.A’s Dances With Films Celebrates 25 Years, Sets Lineup, “The Walk” To Open Festival

Posted on May 5, 2022 by admin

The most defiantly independent film festival, DANCES WITH FILMS (DWF:LA), is celebrating 25 years of championing innovation, talent and creativity with a 2022 lineup that founders Leslee Scallon and Michael Trent declare is “the most dynamic and diverse we’ve ever seen.” The Los Angeles-based indie film event will take place at the TCL Chinese Theater from June 9-19.

The festival will kick off opening night with THE WALK, directed by Daniel Adams and starring Terrence Howard, Jeremy Piven, Malcolm McDowell and Justin Chatwin, a powerful story based on true events about Boston’s 1974 desegregation busing.

Additional titles include ASHGROVE, a pandemic era film starring Amanda Brugel (The Handmaid’s Tale), THE LATIN FROM MANHATTAN, which follows the wild life of adult film icon Vanessa Del Rio, starring Shane West, Jesse Metcalfe, Taryn Manning, Esai Morales, Drea de Matteo and Dita Von Teese.
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Thriller “Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes” Comes to Digital on 6/24

Posted on May 5, 2022 by admin

The gothic thriller with Jeff Wilbusch of Peacock’s The Missing is set for release to digital Platforms June 24, 2022.

Winner of multiple genre awards including Best Feature Film Pumpkin at Fantasy Film Festival and Best Cinematography at FilmQuest Festival, the film is directed by Kevin Kopacka (Hades), and written by Lili Villányi & Kevin Kopacka.

The thriller from Dark Sky Film casts Anna Platen (Para – Wir sind King), Jeff Wilbusch (Peacock’s The Missing, Netflix’s Unorthodox), Luisa Taraz, Frederik Von Lüttichau (Notes of Berlin, Gender Crisis), with Bill Becker, Christopher Ramm, and Elena Gomez Alvarez.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
Margo, who comes from a noble family, inherited a castle that she inspects with her ill-tempered husband Dieter. When they arrive at the run-down keep, their relationship is put to a test as their sanity slowly deteriorates. This opens up a new world. As time and space begin to shift around them, a reality that only exists within the walls of the eerie building is exposed – a reality full of warmth and excess.

Things aren’t as they seem in this genre-bending film, that shifts between different story layers in unpredictable ways. It is a love letter to European cinema of the sixties and seventies that will leave viewers guessing what will happen next.