Despite anticipation for the live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1998 animated film of the same name, “Mulan” has been plagued by calls to boycott the film, which began in August 2019, when star Liu Yifei appeared to show support for Hong Kong’s police, who have been accused of violence towards pro-democracy protesters. The actress reshared an image posted by Chinese newspaper People’s Daily, which included a quote from Chinese reporter Fu Guohao who worked for the Global Times: “I support Hong Kong police....

The ongoing series is set in a world where the majority of the population possess a “Quirk,” or an innate power that varies wildly in strength and utility. The main character, Izuku Midoriya (or Deku), is one of the 20 percent of humans born without a quirk, but dreams of becoming a superhero. Although Deku’s goals seems hopeless, a chance encounter with Japan’s greatest hero All Might ends with the crimefighter gifting the idealistic young man with the quirk to manipulate energy — so Deku enrolls in U....

“Once you decide to build something with Guillermo, it gets bigger, and Guillermo’s theme is we’re all in a prison,” said Deverell. The first part takes place in a traveling carnival in 1939, which afforded the production designer the opportunity to build her own carnival from the ground up in the parking lot field of Markham Fairground in Toronto. The color palette resembled the stark hopelessness of Edward Hopper’s paintings, while the shape language consisted of circular patterns and hallways as dead end metaphors....

As The Wall Street Journal reports: “Typically, the pre-title sequences have been throwaway scenes packed with gratuitous chases, violence, and sex. And in every Bond film, save the first (which had no pre-title sequence), they feature 007. However, with the opening scene, Fukunaga bucks tradition in every way: It’s slow-paced, visually arresting, subtitled with dialogue in French, and entirely Bond-free.” Fukunaga’s opening instead focuses on Lea Seydoux’s Madeleine and recounts a tragic encounter from her childhood in which “Safin (Rami Malek), wearing a Japanese Noh mask, kills her mother, pursues Madeleine through the home, and hunts her down on a frozen lake....

Both Peele and Tarantino are contemporary American cinema auteurs, filmmakers who tend to both write and direct their original, non-franchise visions. With his third film, Peele has an original screenplay Oscar to his name (for his debut “Get Out”), while Tarantino has been nominated five times and won twice (screenplays for “Django Unchained” and “Pulp Fiction”). The consensus preopening projection for “Nope” is $50 million, about 25 percent less than “Us” — but that shouldn’t be perceived as a disappointment....

If telepathy via The Force exists among “Star Wars” devotees, then around 1 a.m. ET on Friday, they likely shared the same simultaneous thought: “It’s a trap!” (Or, perhaps, they merely sent around the popular .gif.) At the end of the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” premiere, the eponymous Jedi himself walks into an ambush — an ambush obvious to everyone watching long before the episode confirms as much. After a decade in hiding, Ben Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) makes the difficult and dangerous decision to leave Tatooine....

Van Dyke said that a hybrid approach was much more appealing than building a ship against a blue screen set, which would’ve made every shot on the deck of The Revenge a visual effects shot. “When we went into this, at first there was a lot of conversation about it being more of a ‘Mandalorian’ level,” he said, referring to the “Star Wars” series that popularized the method of shooting against a huge, wrap-around wall of LED panels in lieu of the chroma key screens that make any superhero behind-the-scenes extras look a little goofy....

Lurie — who writes, directs, and stars in “Painting with John” from somewhere in the Caribbean — may seem to be joking, but the multi-hyphenate talent is being serious. Dead serious. “When season one of the show came out, I got so many people saying, ‘Oh you live in paradise. You’re so lucky.’ And I’m thinking, ‘It is paradise,’” Lurie says in a close-up. “But we didn’t show you the bad stuff....

“I’ve always found the combination of this proto-feminism, of these women trying to make sense of the world that they’re trapped in, but also the romanticism and the kind of utter joy and the warmth of her storytelling, to be a really compelling combination,” Cracknell said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “It was one of the backdrops of growing up for me.” Her favorite Austen? “Persuasion,” the final novel the author completed before her death in 1817 (it was published, alongside her earlier “Northanger Abbey,” six months after she passed away), which was why Cracknell opted to helm a fresh adaptation of the novel for her feature directorial debut....

Gutierrez Reed also said that she was hired for two positions on the movie, which made her ill-prepared to do either job properly, and met friction among her production team as well as her department. Authorities believe a lead bullet removed by doctors from Souza’s shoulder is the same bullet that struck and killed Hutchins, and was fired out of the gun shot by Baldwin on the New Mexico set last Thursday....

Netflix announced on Tuesday that Murphy will appear in Season 2 of “Russian Doll,” but did not provide any details about the character that she will portray. While fans of the show, which premiered its first season on Netflix in February 2019, will have to wait a bit longer to learn more about Murphy’s character, the news marks one of the few major announcement about the series’ upcoming second season in over a year....

That “Schitt’s Creek” is the Emmy winner for Outstanding Comedy Series after its first four seasons were shut out of the Emmys completely is no small feat. Critical support for the show and seasons being made available to stream on Netflix drove more and more viewers to “Schitt’s Creek” over the years. ViacomCBS also put its whole Entertainment and Youth Group portfolio behind the show as well in its final season, heavily promoting across VH1, MTV, Paramount, and more....

But since then there’s been little movement until last week when another teaser, actually showing Serratos performing, hit the internet. Now, the first official trailer is here and it’ll make you want to dance. This is the first attempt at a series documenting the life of the Tejano singer who was poised for an English-language crossover before her untimely death at the age of 23. In 1997 director Gregory Nava helmed the first biopic on the singer, “Selena,” starring Jennifer Lopez....

Eight new actors are joining the cast of “Severance” for Season 2, including notable stars like Gwendoline Christie (“Game of Thrones”), Alia Shawkat (“Arrested Development”), and Bob Balaban (“The French Dispatch”). Merritt Wever, Robby Benson, Stefano Carannante, John Noble, and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson have also been cast. They’ll join a stacked ensemble that already includes the likes of Adam Scott, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, Tramell Tillman, and Zach Cherry....

Fear not, faithful readers: No spoilers will be listed here, even if those of you familiar with the source material — Lauren Beukes’ 2013 novel “The Shining Girls” — already know what’s up. (If unfamiliar, avoid the Wikipedia page. There’s no coming back from the first sentence.) Showrunner Silka Luisa’s adaptation is far from straightforward; our point of entry is flipped, among other maneuvers, but even reorganizing a book described as “extremely complex” isn’t enough to derail the assurance of these early episodes....

Horror dramedy “Shining Vale” premieres Sunday, March 6, on Starz with two back-to-back episodes. The series follows Pat (Cox) as she tries to finish a novel on time after moving with her family to Shining Vale, Connecticut. The only problem? Her husband Terry (Greg Kinnear) seems distant, her kids (Gus Birney and Dylan Gage) hate it, and the new mansion is definitely haunted by glam ghost, Rosemary (Mira Sorvino). Created by Jeff Astrof (“Trial & Error”) and Sharon Horgan (“Divorce”), “Shining Vale” co-stars Merrin Dungey, Judith Light, and Sherilyn Fenn....

Host: Benedict Cumberbatch Cumberbatch’s first time hosting provided the memorable “Why Is Benedict Cumberbatch Hot?” sketch, showing just how game he is when it comes to poking fun at his — let’s say, distinct — physical appearance. This episode’s cold open also continued down that path, specifically when it came to his — let’s also say distinct — smile. But the point of this monologue was more the Mother’s Day of it all, as Cumberbatch shouted out both his mother and wife....

The movie is about Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a struggling middle-school band teacher from Queens, who finally gets a gig playing piano at the Half Note in Manhattan, only to fall in a manhole. But he leaps off the monochromatic stairway to The Great Beyond and lands in The Great Before, a celestial training center where new souls are formed before birth. There he’s assigned to mentor the rebellious prankster, 22 (Tina Fey), who has no interest in life and refuses to be born....

The new gross for “Spirited Away” means the fall 2020 box office sensation “Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train” has a bit more to go to claim the all-time record. Released by Toho and Aniplex in October, the animated action movie “Demon Slayer” has grossed $291 million to date in Japan and was expected to clinch the title for highest grosser from “Spirited Away” by the next week. Now that “Spirited Away” has surpassed $300 million, it will take “Demon Slayer” a bit longer than expected to move into the number one position....

Your favorite “Squid Game” characters are being turned into vinyl figurines for the latest edition of Funko Pop! collectibles, which includes Players 456, 218, 001, 067, 199, and the masked guards. In the South Korean series, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, hundreds of financially strapped adults agree to compete in a series of children’s games for money. “Squid Game” has been streamed in more than 111 million households since debuting on Netflix in September, and its popularity has extended beyond the series and into cosplay....