Instead, they decided to transition the show to focus on the character of Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones), who was a supporting character in the movie. The Starz show follows Ashley as she navigates raising her son after her partner of 12 years, Miles (Casal) is incarcerated for drugs. With Cephas Jones taking center stage it was an opportunity to explore the world of being a single mother, as well as show the relationship between Ashley and Miles....

This expansion of the existing feature isn’t as simple as plopping a new character in the same exact situation. There has to be enough material to extend for several episodes. Thankfully, Casal and Diggs crack the code, crafting a series that is, at times, hilarious, thought-provoking, lyrical, and provocative. Jasmine Cephas Jones, who played Ashley in the original film, takes centerstage here. It’s New Year’s Eve, presumably after the events of the film have concluded, and Ashley is ready to celebrate with Miles (Casal)....

While she’s “really excited for the phase of Marvel that’s coming,” specifically mentioning “Black Adam” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” she’s ready to see a trans superhero join the MCU. “I would love to see us in power. I would love to see us as superheroes, but I definitely would love to see us as villains too. But good villains though, lovable villains.” With her undeniable charisma and a recent slate of featured acting roles, Madison may be the one to fulfill her own dreams....

However, the film itself is a regrettable one: a movie that doesn’t do justice by its subject. At first, audiences may think “Charlotte” will render Salomon’s boldly expressionistic colors, shapes, and narrative flourishes in animated form. Perhaps it will be like “Loving Vincent,” but a new take on an artist who deserves more attention rather than another look at the world’s most overexposed painter. Sadly, it is not. With only the faintest attempts at replicating Salomon’s graphic style, “Charlotte” very much shows its directors’ lack of feature animation directing experience....

“We put our hearts and souls into it,” he said over coffee in New York this week. “It was really a process of learning for me. Those perspectives opened up a lot of my knowledge around how one innocent piece can be looked at from different ways.” At the same time, he was constantly getting asked what he would do next. “It was quite a challenge,” Dhont said, “going back to a desk and a white page and really finding something we wanted to talk about with the same energy and passion....

The first trailer for the season certainly emphasizes that music will be sung almost everywhere, whether it’s in the halls of Winchester University or on stage, where it’s traditionally housed. But the desire to return to the past for some is met with just as much urgency to forget about it by others. As the trailer shows us, the jubilant ’90s musical comes under fire from a younger generation of Ivy League students....

Not that “Midnight Cowboy” isn’t already fruitful subject matter. James Leo Herlihy’s radical 1965 novel was picked up by British kitchen sink filmmaker John Schlesinger, who related to its themes of repressed homosexuality, loneliness, victimhood and how our identities are, in truth, whatever we want them to be. Casting Jon Voight as the title gigolo Leo Buck, despite his previous work having been so-so, is the real masterstroke. One of those eager young actors who knew exactly what sort of movies he would succeed in, not just the type he wanted to make, Voight was a step ahead of Dustin Hoffman, who accepted “The Graduate” reluctantly, and became a movie star....

Set in a seaside English town in the 1980s, the upcoming drama stars Oscar winners Olivia Colman and Colin Firth, as well as Micheal Ward, Tom Brooke, Tanya Moodie, Hannah Onslow, Crystal Clarke, and Toby Jones, who plays a film projectionist and narrates the teaser. “Film: It’s just static frames with darkness in between,” the character begins in a remarkably meta moment of marketing that still doesn’t reveal much about the movie’s secretive plot....

This weekend, two new films were timed to Father’s Day, at least in part. Unfortunately for struggling theaters, neither had them in mind. “Luca,” Pixar’s latest, debuted on Disney+ free for subscribers (unlike some other recent Premium VOD offerings). No viewership reports have emerged. But the figure might have been in the millions just in the U.S. And with the low end of a Pixar opening this century at $39 million (for “Onward” last year, just before COVID shut down theaters), assume Disney+ play cost theaters tens of millions....

Emma Thompson had high praise for the script and the character she played. “With all actors, parts come along and they meet you right in the center of yourself,” the actress said. “I hadn’t read anything like it and I never played anyone like that. Even though she’s a very ordinary woman, she’s doing something extraordinary and she’s learning from pushing through her own preconceptions … about what it means to be female, about what it means to be a woman....

As Season 1 enters its second half, let’s look at the pros and cons of Episodes 1-6 to better assess how HBO’s latest juggernaut can get even better (and bigger?) from here. Episode 6 “The Princess and the Queen” jumps ahead more than any other so far, catching up with Alicent and Rhaenyra around 10 years after Episode 5, with the characters now played by Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy....

“House of the Dragon” has no problem keeping it all in the family when it comes to romantic relationships. The now-infamous (and viral) scene between Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and her uncle Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) at a brothel was long in the making with an intimacy coordinator on set for the “Game of Thrones” prequel series. And while Rhaenyra and Daemon are literally niece and uncle in the series, their steamy kiss has led to fans shipping the inevitable couple who seek to keep the Targaryen bloodline pure....

The series stars mostly young newcomers: Madison Iseman, Bill Heck, Brianne Tju, Ezekiel Goodman, Ashley Moore, Sebastian Amoruso, Fiona Rene, Cassie Beck, and Brooke Bloom. The new series is being helmed by Sara Goodman, who serves as writer and executive producer. Goodman was a producer and writer on the original “Gossip Girl” as well as the critically beloved AMC series “Preacher,” which seems like a promising choice for the franchise....

If the answer to that question for you is “No,” then you’re in luck: the first teaser for “John Wick: Chapter 4” is here, in which Fishburne, as The Bowery King, tangles once again with Keanu Reeves’ stylishly groomed title character. Watch the video below and thrill to the sight of that guy doing battle with a samurai sword. This fourth installment in the assassin franchise is once again directed by Chad Stahelski, who had served as Reeves’ stunt double in the original “Matrix” trilogy and who founded the action design company 87Eleven with David Leitch (who was uncredited as director on the first “Wick” movie)....

The $165 million film, set for June 2022 release, is the sixth installment in the “Jurassic Park” franchise. “Dominion” marks the return of “Jurassic World” director Colin Trevorrow to the series, along with stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum will appear together for the first time since the original 1993 movie (all three have separately reprised their roles for various sequels since then)....

Fan demand for the Snyder Cut has raged on social media ever since Snyder stepped down from directing “Justice League” following a personal tragedy in May 2017. The film was Snyder’s next effort in the DC Extended Universe after “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” the latter of which earned critical pans for its overtly grim tone. Warner Bros. brought in Joss Wehdon to oversee “Justice League” reshoots and complete the movie in post-production....

In 2018 the first major report on the multi-level-marketing company (MLMs), LulaRoe, was published in Bloomberg. The company, touting female empowerment through the selling of leggings and maxi skirts, was not only battling numerous lawsuits but several claims that they were a pyramid scheme. The story on its own sounds ridiculous. Setting the pyramid scheme aside, there were allegations that the company sold moldy, stinky leggings, their founder was ushering women down to Tijuana for gastric bypass, and designs that included a hamburger print in unfortunate places....

The new season will star Gbenga Akinnagbe, Lucy Boynton, Tom Burke, Minnie Driver, newcomer Grace Edwards, Dominique Fishback, Zoë Chao, Kit Harington, Garrett Hedlund, Tobias Menzies, Sophie Okonedo, Zane Pais, Anna Paquin, Isaac Powell, Marquis Rodriguez, and Lulu Wilson. John Crowley, Marta Cunningham, Jesse Peretz, and Andrew Rannells will each direct an episode while Celine Held and Logan George will co-direct an episode. Todd Hoffman, Trish Hofmann, and Anthony Bregman serve as executive producers on Season 2, along with Choire Sicha and Caitlin Roper of The New York Times, with Sean Fogel and Miriam Mintz serving as producers....

As Season 1 of “Moonhaven” is ending, an entire society hangs in the balance. A generations-long plan is starting to crumble, there’s a coup in progress, and some new arrivals are making the people of a self-contained lunar colony question pretty much everything. Most other shows would lean into or feed off that chaos. Yet, “Moonhaven” takes some time for Earther pilot Bella (Emma McDonald) to join Paul Sarno (Dominic Monaghan) and his family in a quiet meal where they all talk about what they value and what’s to come....

“Official Competition” stars Cruz as a renowned filmmaker hired by a billionaire entrepreneur (José Luis Goméz) to create the movie of the century. Banderas is the Hollywood heartthrob set to star in the fictional feature, along with a radical theater actor played by Oscar Martinez. The legendary nemeses sling jabs at one another over who is a bigger sellout for money, all while Cruz is trying to teach them both how to really act....