“After ‘Iron Man’ to going into ‘Avengers,’ there’s been an evolution of her look,” Johansson said. “I think part of that is just gaining the trust of the executives at Marvel and kind of sitting in the character and just being able to make decisions for her. That really happened fairly early on. I mean, in ‘Iron Man 2,’ I worked with the amazing incredible costume designer Mary Zophres, who created an absolutely beautiful femme fatale look for the character....

Lourd pointed out that Johansson partnered with the studio on nine movies, “which have earned Disney and its shareholders billions.” The full statement is as follows: “I want to address the Walt Disney Company’s statement that was issued in response to the lawsuit filed against them yesterday by our client Scarlett Johansson. They have shamelessly and falsely accused Ms. Johansson of being insensitive to the global COVID pandemic, in an attempt to make her appear to be someone they and I know she isn’t....

“The Cannes Film Festival showed what we knew, that the film was spectacular and we had created something that would stand the test of time,” said Astin, who starred in all three “Rings” films as Samwise Gamgee. “It filtered up, down, and all around. I remember the initial marketing campaign sort of missed the mark, treated it as kind of a ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ thematic approach and missed the classical feel....

“During the shooting of the opening stabbing sequence of the film, at one point we cut and the actor did not respond. He just lay there, unconscious. I began to panic; I thought that the retractable fake ice pick had failed to retract and that I had in fact killed him. The fury of the sequence coupled with the director screaming, ‘Hit him, harder harder!’ and, ‘More blood, more blood!...

Variety reported on Tuesday evening that LaBeouf has been receiving inpatient care for five weeks and is currently living at an inpatient facility. A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to IndieWire that LaBeouf made a decision to step away from work and focus on his health and is currently receiving inpatient care. He in on hiatus from CAA and has not been fired from the talent agency, according to the source....

“Based on true intentions” (a real “uh oh” of an opening title card), Stephen Kijak’s long-gestating “Shoplifters of the World” essentially wonders what might’ve happened if that kid hadn’t started something he couldn’t finish. A halcyon ode to being young and feeling everything so intensely that only Morrissey could ever understand you, Kijak’s film unpacks that fateful night into one of those ensemble comedies about the end of an era; one that so cringingly tries to split the difference between Julie Taymor and John Hughes that it winds up feeling about as true to the spirit of The Smiths as buying “The Queen Is Dead” at Urban Outfitters....

The first three episodes, which kick off Saturday, October 1, will be hosted by Miles Teller, Brendan Gleeson, and Megan Thee Stallion. “Top Gun: Maverick” actor Teller will make his hosting debut during the Season 48 premiere, with Kendrick Lamar as the musical guest for the third time. The Pulitzer Prize, Emmy, and Grammy Award winner is currently on a world tour following the release of his album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers....

The presentation inside the Caesars Palace Colosseum is hosted by Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tom Rothman, Sony Pictures president Josh Greenstein, president of international releasing Steven O’Dell, and president of domestic releasing Adrian Smith. “When I was here seven months ago, I said theatrical would triumph and indeed it has, and we did it together,” said Greenstein upon the presentation’s start, thanking AMC and Regal especially for rallying to save the theatrical experience....

While on the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, Marder and Ahmed discussed how the key to tuning the audience into Ruben’s experience was to first create an immersive and realistic experience for the actor on set. “It all boils down to the same thing, which is veracity,” explained Marder. “When we look upon truth and we feel truth. … I think we recognize something fundamentally human when that happens.” To prepare for the role, Ahmed learned American Sign Language (ASL) and how to drum....

Sondheim’s death came as a shock to many in the film and theater communities, as he was known for his dynamic persona (and even very recently gave an interview to The New York Times and visited “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”). Collaborators and friends took to social media to remember the icon, including Steven Spielberg, who offered this statement to Deadline: “Stephen Sondheim was a gigantic figure in American culture — one of our country’s greatest songwriters, a lyricist and composer of real genius, and a creator of some of the most glorious musical dramas ever written....

But don’t let the relative lack of A-list names suggest that sales activity will be sluggish. Amid a dearth of production, streaming arms race, and the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel coming into view, buyers are hungry for new product. The result is an environment where theatrical distributors are bracing for competition from streamers for titles that are usually their bread and butter, while buyers of all breeds are expecting to consider films that in other years they might have passed on....

“TÁR” is set to make waves at the fall festivals with stops at Venice and NYFF before Focus Features releases the whopping two-hour-and-40-minute film on October 7 stateside. Cate Blanchett stars as renowned (and highly fictional) composer Lydia Tár, in the film regarded as the first-ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. While plot details are scarce, it’s clear from this latest teaser that she’s up against a moment of crisis....

The news comes just over two years after Jackson replaced longtime festival director John Cooper, who worked in that capacity for over a decade. Jackson was the first woman, the first person of color, and the first person from outside the United States to hold the position at the festival. She is a Sundance veteran who headed up the festival’s Documentary Film Program and advocated for adventurous forms of non-fiction storytelling....

The unique graduate degree program will begin in the 2021 fall semester in downtown Los Angeles at the ASU California Center in the historic Herald Examiner building. The MGCI is designed for learners interested in pursuing global leadership and management careers in entertainment, film/television/new media, music, VR/XR/MR, gaming, design, dance, fashion, theatre, sports, themed entertainment and the arts. The program is both for managers who want to learn creative competencies and for creatives seeking management expertise....

The August 31 debut would mean that some U.S. audiences could start seeing the film a few days after its initial international release date of Wednesday, August 26. Warner Bros. did not respond to calls seeking comment. While Nolan has made clear his preference for large-format screens such as 70mm and IMAX, Warners would face a challenging sneaks environment even without format restrictions. Multiple major areas are not yet cleared for theater reopenings, including much of New York state, California, and some of Arizona; North Carolina will not open until September 11....

After a much improved October showing at the multiplex, can we expect the upcoming holiday grosses to come close to a recent rise at the multiplex? Don’t get your hopes up. New releases “Encanto” (Disney), “House of Gucci” (United Artists), and “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” (Sony) all open wide November 24, and will compete with recent winner “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” (Sony). That’s a decent lineup, but it isn’t expected to provide box office at a level close to what the last “normal” Thanksgiving, back in 2019, looked like....

The best survival films immerse viewers in life-or-death scenarios, balancing realism and believability with slow-burn suspense. Even in lighter survival fare, such as “Swiss Family Robinson,” filmmakers have to keep up the pace and pressure to deliver the subgenre’s characteristic urgency. Sure, “Cast Away,” “The Revenant,” and epic sagas like them are sweeping in scope with the lengthy running times to match. But survival stories work best when every frame feels like a passive threat to the protagonist’s existence....

The key was seamlessly integrating the VFX around production designer James Chinlund’s reimagined Gotham as a Gothic nightmare and cinematographer Greig Fraser’s ’70s inspired dark lighting (“The French Connection” meets “All the President’s Men”). “Matt wanted the Gotham cityscapes to be unique and special but still feel real,” said production VFX supervisor Dan Lemmon (the “Apes” trilogy), who works at Weta. “He wanted the forms, architecture, and the fabric of the city to look like it was really in decay....

All that’s true — until it’s not. The sheer quantity of TV does not always equate to quality TV winning out, and each year, there are a number of worthy shows that don’t reach whatever mystical threshold television executives have ascertained is required to keep a project in production. This is even more true this year, with the business pressures created by the pandemic often — and some cynics would argue, conveniently — cited as the reason for cancellation....

In the film, the title character played by Lesley Manville is inspired to change her life when she lays eyes on her employer’s Christian Dior dress; the British housekeeper is so dazzled that she scrapes together all the money she can and travels to Paris to get her own Dior gown straight from the source. This simple premise belies the complex challenges faced by the film’s costume designer, who had to create a dress so stunning it would instigate a character’s transformation and be a convincing imitation of the work of one of the greatest fashion designers of all time....