Rights to the book were purchased by “Saturday Night Live” showrunner Lorne Michaels. The deep-dive biography of the movie as told by Wasson unfurls the twisty story that led to the 1974 classic that lost Best Picture, but still earned screenwriter Robert Towne a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. Framed against the wildly changing backdrop of 1970s Hollywood, “The Big Goodbye” looks at the backstage saga of the film, including with stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, and the movie’s hopeless ending that the studio, and filmmakers, went back and forth on....

Affleck’s “Justice League” co-star Jason Momoa seemed to tease a return to the DCEU for upcoming “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” Momoa posted on Instagram after fans of a Warner Bros. tour bus caught wind of Affleck filming with Momoa on the lot. “REUNITED Bruce and Arthur,” Momoa captioned, citing his character Arthur and Affleck’s Bruce Wayne. “Love u and miss u Ben WB studio tours just explored the backlot alright....

Content creation has grown ever more popular in the last year, and if you’ve been shopping around for the right gear to start your own YouTube page, buying a proper microphone should be at the top of your list. Sound quality is obviously a major part of the YouTube experience, especially when it comes to audio clarity and background noises — both of which can ruin a prerecorded video or live stream (crystal clear audio also makes it easier to generate captions for the hearing impaired)....

“I kept getting these notes from my agent, who kept sending me cassettes of his first film, ‘Bottle Rocket,’” Murray recalled at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (via Collider) this month about how his relationship with Anderson started. “I probably have the largest collection of ‘Bottle Rocket’ of any man on the planet, and I still haven’t seen the movie. I just never got around to watching it.”...

The documentary will center on the 18-year-old musician in the time after she released “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” her breakout debut album, in March 2019. It is scheduled to hit theaters and Apple TV+ sometime in February 2021. “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry,” directed by R.J. Cutler (“Belushi,” “The September Issue,” “The War Room”), comes from from Apple Original Films, in association with Interscope Films, Darkroom, This Machine and Lighthouse Management & Media....

Emelie Mahdavian’s documentary “Bitterbrush” looks at women in a state of becoming, but where most films position their subjects on a threshold — say, the evolution from girl to woman — “Bitterbrush” is about the quiet moments when you’re already an adult but wonder what the next decade or two will bring. A slow-moving feature of itinerant lives cast against the sublime landscapes of the American West, Mahdavian’s film is quiet — but it packs a hell of a punch....

Before it became fashionable for every TV show to have an LGBTQ+ character, queer art was often made with very little money or support. This led to the scrappy, DIY aesthetic of the New Queer Cinema, a term coined by film historian B. Ruby Rich for the indie queer cinema of the ’90s. Hallmarks of the genre include Jennie Livingston’s “Paris Is Burning” (1991), Todd Haynes’s “Poison” (1991), and Rose Troche and Guinevere Turner’s “Go Fish” (1994)....

The “Saturday Night Live” breakout star joked that he would love to don a wig and glasses to play “The Power of the Dog” director Jane Campion amid the “debate” with Sam Elliott (who, to note, is not in Campion’s film.) Oscar-nominated director Campion had a viral reaction March 12 to Elliott’s criticism that “Power of the Dog” was a “piece of shit” and that New Zealand-born Campion was out of her element to adapt the Western novel for the big screen....

It’s a big victory for theaters for multiple reasons. Perhaps most importantly, as Warner Bros.’s first release of the year, it returns them to theater-exclusive openings after more than a year of initially streaming on HBO Max as well. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Batman v Superman,” two comparisons to “The Batman,” set unreasonably high marks for similar releases. The former opened to just over double ($260 million), while the most recent D....

The undisputed victor of the Venice-Telluride dash is “TÁR,” which arrived in the Rockies from the Lido riding the waves of rapturous praise. The Telluride crowd confirmed that director Todd Field’s first movie in 15 years is a riveting cinematic journey into the downfall of a brilliant-but-troubled conductor whose career goes into a tailspin after a series of scandals. With Cate Blanchett’s fiery performance as celebrated composer Lydia Tár at its center, the movie barrels through nearly three hours of inquiries into personal and professional behavior, separating art from the artist, and social media snafus....

“I loved him from from ‘Billy on the Street,’” Stoller said during an interview for IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “And then we screened the first episode of that show in a movie theater and every time he was on screen, the audience exploded with laughter. And I was like, ‘Oh, this guy is like a movie star, which was really exciting.’” Soon after Stoller approach Eichner to see if he’d be willing to collaborate on something bigger....

“Bullet Train,” budgeted at $90 million pre-marketing, will need a strong multiple to support profitability as well as exhibitors’ hopes; otherwise, this month will likely be the lowest grosser since March. After that bottoming out we’ve seen grosses increase to the point that July achieved 90 percent of the 2019 take. The hope is August openings show signs of lingering momentum. Next weekend, we’ll know if that’s the case for “Bullet Train....

What we don’t know is how big Cannes will be. France’s own entry guidelines continue to evolve with the pandemic, and many countries still don’t know if they’ll be able to travel. However the practicalities play out, Cannes has thrown down the gauntlet with this year’s selection. It doesn’t emphasize movie stars, and it may not fuel constant Oscar buzz, but it compensates with work that’s passionate about cinema and some of its greatest contemporary filmmakers....

It’s not that last year’s edition was a bust — the virtual market launched sales for projects from Alexander Payne, Todd Solondz, Todd Haynes, and Zoë Kravitz — but even the most optimistic of players can’t help but wonder if sales out of Sundance, Cannes, and other festivals might have been even bigger had the gatherings been in person. “The last few festivals and markets have been huge successes and we all still have the huge question mark of ‘Would they have been even more successful?...

The movie calendar can’t seem to find its old rhythm: Oscar season intersects with SXSW and “The Batman” is soaring in a period that was once a box-office dumping ground. But one element is returning to the scene right on schedule and it’s more than welcome in this column: Cannes hype! While COVID case counts in Europe may be cause for concern, the world’s most glamorous celebration of the art form remains on track for its 75th edition as it returns to its usual May slot....

Speaking on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” (via The Independent), Everett touched on the topic of straight actors playing gay roles, and while he doesn’t think all gay roles should be played by gay actors, he seemed annoyed that the straight-identifying Firth played a gay role in Tom Ford’s 2009 film. “It’s quite frustrating. I was frustrated, I remember going to see Colin Firth in the film by Tom Ford [‘A Single Man’]....

No star-studded awards dinner inside a freezing hangar at the Santa Monica Airport this time around; instead nominees like Gillian Anderson zoomed in from Prague at 1 AM to banter with host Taye Diggs, and accept her Supporting Actress prize for embodying Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown” (Netflix). (Read the full list of film and television winners here.) Because the annual Critics Choice Awards are voted on by the largest (and most diverse) film critics organization in North America (400 television, radio, and online critics), the CCAs are often the most accurate critics’ prediction of Academy Award nominations, including the Golden Globes....

“I want to play Bane so bad I went to Warner Bros., had an appointment with them, had an appointment with DC, walked in the door and said, ‘I want to play Bane,’” Bautista said. “I’m not kidding. They were a little like. ‘Woah, we’re not even casting Bane.’ I was like ‘I don’t care, I’m playing him.’” Bautista might have to wait a while before Warner Bros. decides to bring Bane back to the big screen....

Lee rushed the stage and tackled Chappelle during the Netflix Is a Joke live comedy show while carrying a replica gun that could eject a knife blade, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to pursue felony charges for Lee, who ultimately pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of battery and trespassing in a restricted area, as Entertainment Weekly reported. Lee is set to serve 270 days in county jail and the weapon will be destroyed, a representative from the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office told EW....

Filoni is beloved among “Star Wars” fans, as George Lucas selected him in 2005 to run “The Clone Wars,” the animated series that started its run in 2008 and lasted seven seasons. Filoni went on to create three more animated series, “Star Wars Rebels,” “Star Wars Resistance,” and, most recently, “Star Wars: The Bad Batch,” following Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm. The creator was then asked by Jon Favreau to serve as an executive producer on “The Mandalorian,” the first live-action “Star Wars” series....