There’s more texture to plot to the story of Stanley, who recounts his memories of that era through a feature-length voiceover provided by no less than “School of Rock” star Jack Black. Through Stanley, whose dad is an engineer at NASA, a unique moment in American consciousness comes to life. At the same time, the story is an ode to the fantasies of youth, with the young character imagining his own unlikely journey to the Earth’s closest neighbor....

“It wasn’t a theater piece, and it wasn’t a film piece. I’ve never been in a situation where from the beginning of rehearsals, the cinematographer is in complete collaboration with you,” Buckley said to the Television Critics Association’s Winter Press Tour on Friday. “Even though the space and the lens and the theatrical space is smaller, the emotional space, especially with this story, is huge. This love is massive.” As part of a virtual PBS panel, Buckley, O’Connor, and director Simon Godwin explained how the project adjusted and reformed during the pandemic, ending up at a feature-length version of a classic story....

The “Stranger Things” star revealed to GQ UK that he reached out to Reynolds following the “flop” of “Hellboy” and asked Reynolds about how his career survived starring in the critically panned comic book installment “Green Lantern.” Harbour played the titular antihero in the 2019 remake; Reynolds led the DC film “Green Lantern” in 2011 and infamously live-tweeted his first time watching the film a decade later after having “fear” over how bad it was....

Update, January 7: Facebook has blocked Donald Trump’s account through the end of his presidency. The block includes the platforms Facebook and Instagram. Sacha Baron Cohen issued the following statement below. Earlier: Sacha Baron Cohen returned to Twitter for the first time in 2021 to react to the siege at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump insurrectionists. Addressing the executives of social media giants Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google, the “Borat” comedian called for a complete banning of Donald Trump from the platforms after the U....

“You want to talk about that piece of shit?” Elliott started out. “You didn’t like that one?” Maron asked. “Fuck no. Why? I’ll tell you why I didn’t like it anyway,” Elliott said. “I looked at when I was down there in Texas doing ‘1883’ and what really brought it home to me the other day when I said, ‘Do you want to fucking talk about it?’ There was a fucking full-page ad out in the LA Times and there was a review, not a review, but a clip, and it talked about the ‘evisceration of the American myth....

“I remember one of the rules was don’t ask my mom things that she’s supposed to know the answer to because she can’t come up with the answer. She gets very irritated,” Jackson recalled. In the Apple TV+ original series “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” Jackson takes us inside the mind of the titular character who is battling dementia. Based on the novel by acclaimed author Walter Mosley, “Ptolemy Grey” is a blend of familial drama, murder mystery, and science fiction, when Ptolemy takes part in a drug trial that momentarily restores his memories and reveals some shocking truths....

In a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Rogen revealed that the honor of starring in Spielberg’s autobiographical film was accompanied by an embarrassing grooming request. Rogen recalled that prior to his first day of shooting the film, Spielberg asked him to make a change to his appearance. “I want you to cut back your hairline so it looks like you’re going much more bald than you are,” Rogen remembered the director saying....

Actor Chris Noth has been cut from the season finale of HBO Max’s “Sex and the City” sequel series “And Just Like That.” The finale is set to premiere on February 3. Variety independently confirmed the news, while HBO Max representatives had no comment. Noth’s character, Mr. Big, was killed off in the premiere of the series when he suffered a fatal heart attack after riding a Peloton bike. The edit arrives three weeks after sexual assault accusations against Noth from multiple women began to surface....

As summarized by Insider: “About 80,000 members of the South Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in 13 different cities in South Korea went on strike on Wednesday local time, calling on the nation’s government to impose better working conditions for irregular workers and a minimum wage hike. In Seoul alone, 27,000 people gathered to protest, prompting local authorities to deploy about 12,000 officers to set up ‘bus walls’ and fences for crowd control, namely in Gwanghwamun Plaza, where most of the rallies took place....

Officially titled “NYC Epicenters 9/11➔2021½,” Lee’s latest documentary project includes interviews with over 200 subjects. Based on the first trailer below, the four-part documentary isn’t just a compendium of first responders but also Lee’s frequent film collaborators, congresspeople, and members of Lee’s own family. The trailer is an emotional journey, championing the city’s humor, warmth, and resilience. Per HBO: “With Spike Lee’s singular vision and stylistic eye, ‘NYC Epicenters 9/11➔2021½’ is a documentary event that challenges and provokes as it probes and reflects on historic events....

As THR writes: “Yeun doesn’t seem particularly thrilled about his status as the first Asian American nominee for the best actor Oscar. ‘If I step out of myself and see what that moment might mean beyond just me,’ he remarks, ‘it’s cool that we get to establish new ground and that young Asian American kids can feel like this is possible for them, too.’ But personally, he confesses, ‘I’m just not reactive to it in any direction....

Hall, alongside producers Margot Hand and Nina Yang Bongiovi, will join IndieWire Deputy Editor Kate Erbland to discuss her new film, premiering in the festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition during the first weekend of the festival. The panel discussion will stream Monday, February 1 at 5:00pm Mountain Time (7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT), and you can RSVP for free to attend it here. “Passing” tells a fascinating story that many might not immediately realize is rooted in Hall’s own experience: the daughter of beloved American opera singer Maria Ewing and British director Sir Peter Hall, Hall’s family tree is rich and varied, and includes not only British blood, but also Dutch, Native American, Scottish, and African American ancestry....

The 15-minute film stars Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) and Dylan O’Brien (“Teen Wolf”) as star-crossed lovers navigating the roller coaster of their relationship before inevitable heartbreak. It’s centered around the new, long version of “All Too Well”; the music is interrupted in the middle by an argumentative Sink and O’Brien. Swift makes a cameo at the end. Many of Swift’s devoted fans immediately pointed out that Sink (19) and O’Brien (30) have a similar age gap as Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal when the pair dated briefly about a decade ago....

But over the last few decades, what makes for great TV comedy has changed just as much as the genre itself. We’ve seen it all, and yet, there’s always something new right around the corner. So before we get too far along, let’s remember the best of what we’ve see so far, across the ever-changing landscape of television. READ MORE: The 20 Best TV Crime Shows of the 21st Century, Ranked [Editor’s Note: The below piece was originally published on May 23, 2017....

As part of IndieWire’s 25th anniversary series, who better to forecast the future of VFX than three-time Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Rob Legato (“The Jungle Book,” “Hugo,” “Titanic”)? The 2021 recipient of the VES Award for Creative Excellence, Legato has translated virtual production into a live-action, photorealistic methodology for James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Jon Favreau. In fact, Legato’s VR experimentation with Favreau on “The Lion King” led directly to the director’s pioneering work with Industrial Light & Magic on “The Mandalorian” series on Disney+....

Much like “Precious” and the Daniels-produced “Monster’s Ball” before it, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is somehow overbaked and raw as a bone at the same time, at all times. And much like those previous films, this one swirls around an astonishingly real performance that centers everything around it like the eye of a storm — one that can see naked truths about the continued subjugation of Black people in America through a flop sweat haze of hoary tropes and handsome window dressing....

So this season, spanning four episodes from different directors, presents a handful of children with the opportunity to share their experiences as they understand them. They have a varying level of comfort on camera, but each brings a sense of poise to their story. Collectively, they are aware of the challenges faced by their parents and guardians, and they’re conscious of how their family situations shape how they’re perceived by classmates and neighbors (and, one gets the feeling, those watching the series in which they’re appearing)....

It’s an unusual quirk in a two-year period of nothing but unusual quirks: TIFF is the only fall festival offering a robust online component. And while the festival is known as a launchpad for awards campaigns, that element will be largely absent from the way the majority of people participate in the proceedings. That, coupled with the fact that buyers have returned in force and are feeling more optimistic despite the Delta variant, could mean greater attention to a slate of titles that range from discoveries to awards bait with bankable elements....

Last weekend’s openings of “TÁR” (Focus) and “Triangle of Sadness” (Neon) saw good expansions, while “Till” (United Artists) and “Decision to Leave” (MUBI) made strong debuts. With “The Banshees of Inisherin” (Searchlight), “Aftersun” (A24), and “Armageddon Time” (Focus) to come in the next two weeks, October is becoming a strong month for specialized films. How strong is TBD. Unlike studios’ wide releases, initial impressive numbers don’t necessarily reflect strong results....

Netflix announced that “Wednesday” will be directed by Burton, who was previously tapped to direct a 3D Addams Family project that was scrapped in 2013. Longtime writing partners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, who previously wrote films such as “Spider-Man 2” and “Shanghai Noon” and the “Smallville” television show, will serve as showrunners on Netflix’s upcoming series. Netflix billed the eight-episode “Wednesday” as a “sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday’s years as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy....