The latter is also the latest original streaming series with the weight of an entire service on its shoulders. Co-created and written by Taylor Sheridan, who helped Spike TV transition to the Paramount Network with 2018’s “Yellowstone,” the blue-collar, blue-tinged, pseudo-cop drama’s raison d’être is to build a bridge from the Network to the “+” — from the presumed past to the supposed future — so the (massive) audiences who have already flocked to Kevin Costner’s ranch will make their way over to Renner’s prison town....

A source tells IndieWire that Metrograph management scrapped the Q&A out of concern that ongoing claims of labor issues at the lower Manhattan arthouse would overshadow the movie if the floor was opened up to the audience. The status of another Q&A for a Monday evening screening is yet to be determined, sources tell IndieWire. Directors Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer shared a joint statement with IndieWire, saying, “We recently heard rumors of a conflict between the management of the Metrograph Theater and their staff....

“As a mother of fourteen children, my family means the world to me,” Mia Farrow writes in a statement obtained by IndieWire but also published to her Twitter account. “While I chose a career that placed me in the public arena, most of my children have elected to live very private lives. I respect each of their wishes. Few families are perfect, and any parent who has suffered the loss of a child knows that pain is ceaseless....

With the cast finally settled and financing in place, Mann is finally gearing up to shoot his passion project in Italy this July. While various iterations of the film have come close to being greenlit, this is by far the closest Mann has come to seeing his vision become reality. And today, Deadline has reported that the director is currently in Italy, immersing himself in pre-production for the shoot....

“Heat 2,” as announced by Deadline, is written by Mann with co-writer Meg Gardiner, and will track the lives of the film’s characters (Robert De Niro as a professional thief and Al Pacino as a Los Angeles Police Department Lieutenant among them) both before and after the events of the original movie. Watch a teaser, shared by Mann, for the novel below. “It’s been my intention for a long time to do the further stories of ‘Heat,’” Mann told Deadline....

“I had to make a decision — I could walk away from it and it wouldn’t happen,” Sheen said. “I thought, ‘I’m not going to let that happen.’ So, I put all my money into keeping it going. I had a house in America and a house here and I put those up and just did whatever it took. It was scary and incredibly stressful. I’ll be paying for it for a long time....

Variety reported on Thursday that Pfeiffer, who starred in recent films such as the upcoming “French Exit,” as well as “mother!,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” and “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” will portray Betty Ford, who served as First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. Susanne Bier will direct and executive-produce the hour-long series. The filmmaker most recently served as the director behind HBO’s “The Undoing,” and prior, Netflix’s “Bird Box,” but also helmed Danish favorites including “After the Wedding” and “Open Hearts....

The Russos, whose upcoming addiction drama “Cherry,” starring Tom Holland, is now in the awards mix courtesy of Apple TV+, will also produce “The Electric State” via their evolving AGBO banner. “Electric State” will be penned by AGBO writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the scribes who previously teamed up with the Russos on films like “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War,” and “Avengers: Infinity War” and Avengers: Endgame,” all of which the brothers directed....

Mother’s Day is right around the corner (literally), and if you haven’t quite settled on a gift, there’s no need to stress. To help with your shopping list, we put together a gifting guide so that you can choose the perfect present for your mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, friends, and anyone else who deserves to be celebrated on Mother’s Day. Streaming subscriptions are another great gifting idea for moms who love movies and TV, and it won’t cost you very much....

However, creator and star Natasha Lyonne considers the recent run of episodes to be defined by one band in particular. “I think this is the Pink Floyd season,” said the star, appearing via Zoom like co-star Chloe Sevigny at the show’s FYC event on Saturday in Los Angeles. Rose, who was there in person alongside moderator Maya Rudolph, executive producer Amy Poehler, costume designer Jennifer Rogien, and actors Charlie Barnett, Greta Lee, Annie Murphy, and Carolyn Michelle Smith, talked about how including two songs from the eminent British psychedelic rock group was one of their biggest wins this season....

On July 28, over 411 female creators collaborated on a letter to top executives at Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, Apple, Paramount, Lionsgate, AMC, and more production companies urging specific protocols be in place for pregnant employees throughout the U.S. The list of “grave concerns” over the handling of employees in anti-abortion states culminated in four demands (the below is an example from the letter tailored specifically to Netflix): ● Published policies and procedures to provide an abortion travel subsidy for employees of your productions including specific information on how the employee’s medical privacy will be safeguarded....

Netflix is seeking a streaming industry-leading $60 CPM, guaranteeing media buyers 500,000 AVOD subscribers at or shortly after launch, according to Ad Age. The Wall Street Journal says the number to reach 1,000 viewers is more like $65 (weeks ago, WSJ said CPMs could “eventually” reach $80). By comparison, Disney+ AVOD has reportedly sold ads on a $50 CPM. WSJ reported that by the end of this month, Netflix wants advertisers to sign up for a year-long commitment that’s similar to what the linear television networks seek during the May upfronts....

In this film, like Pasolini’s, a beautiful man drops seemingly out of the sky and into an affluent community, invigorates their dreary lives for a minute, and then is gone in a flash. Alec Utgoff of “Stranger Things” plays a masseur who — part cherub, part beefcake — brings hypnotic powers with him from Pripyat, the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, to a gated Polish neighborhood of the rich and bored....

Fox Entertainment announced on Friday that it will premiere two animated shorts based on the Icebox series “Poker Night,” inspired by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’s iconic 1900s art series, “Dogs Playing Poker.” Per Fox, “Dogs Playing Poker” centers on five dog friends — Brownie (Leary), Daphne (Elaine Hendrix, “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”), Ditka (Roy Wood, Jr., “The Daily Show”), Froyo (Bobby Kelly, “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”), and Stan (Adam Ferrara, “Rescue Me”) — as they banter about football and other timely sports topics....

Jusu has been traveling festivals with short films for almost 15 years, teaching film at George Mason University, and trying to get a feature off the ground for most of that time. Ultimately, that was “Nanny,” the riveting tale of a Senegalese immigrant (Anna Diop) tasked with caring for a white family in New York while coping with strange supernatural forces that hark back to her homeland. The slow-burn story is both artful and unnerving as it digs inside the psychology of a woman at odds with the attempts to recenter her life in foreign terrain....

As reported by Variety: “In September, LaBeouf was officially moved off the project. Instead, studio sources announced that Harry Styles would be replacing him, citing a scheduling conflict. It turns out that wasn’t the full story. Variety has learned LaBeouf was dropped from the film. Though shooting had not started yet when LaBeouf departed, insiders close to the project say LaBeouf displayed poor behavior and his style clashed with the cast and crew, including Wilde, who ultimately fired him....

Diversity contenders like “King Richard,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” and “West Side Story,” don’t need Academy Awards to validate them, but the Academy may need these films to draw viewers. Ratings for the Oscar telecast reached an all-time low in 2021, but it was a strange year. And in a year as wacky as the last one was, surprises shouldn’t surprise. Let’s take a look at the major categories. Apple/A24...

Sure enough, right off the bat, actress-turned-director Regina King strode into Union Station in a dazzling blue gown clutching an Oscar like she owned the place. She was covered by a long wide-angle tracking shot as credits rolled, and entered the intimate Oscar show. “It’s been a hard year for everyone,” said King as she gained her footing on the stage. “But our love of movies helped us to get through....

Critics Choice and BAFTA nominee Aunjanue Ellis plays Brandi Williams, the nurturing mother of aspiring tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s sports drama “King Richard” (Warner Bros./HBO Max). The scene that clinched her nomination: Brandi challenges her overbearing husband Richard (Will Smith) in a kitchen standoff. BAFTA nominee Jessie Buckley is a young academic mother (played as an older woman by Olivia Colman) in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Elena Ferrante adaptation “The Lost Daughter” (Netflix)....

While “Robin Robin” is the clear frontrunner this year, (aside from the studio’s name recognition, it also boasts the vocal stylings of Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant), the rest of the category is filled with experimental and challenging fare from around the world. It may not make the race very interesting, but the viewing is another story. Playing as if in a different world entirely, the other four contenders feature poignant meditations on love and romance, a whimsical character study of an eccentric artist and her sister’s obsession with taxidermy, and a shocking mini-horror about a secret police agent and her torture dog....