Netflix was particularly quick to implement the policy. More major studios are expected to follow in the coming weeks as they work out the challenging logistics of overhauling their approaches to pandemic safety on set. Netflix’s policy covers everyone working in Zone A, which includes actors — who work maskless while cameras are rolling — and people who must regularly interact with actors or come in close proximity to them....
On a warm February 1964 night in Miami, self-professed “The Greatest” (a distinction that’s still hard to argue with, even so many decades on) Muhammad Ali defeated Sonny Liston to capture his first World Heavyweight Championship. A 7-to-1 underdog, Ali’s win was hardly expected, but it also somehow felt preordained, a necessary step towards his domination of the sport and then the world. Malcolm X, a close friend of Ali’s and his spiritual guide who would lead him to the Nation of Islam soon after the win, was there....
And while many bigger films pushed back to post-Oscar 2021 and the slimmer fall festivals didn’t serve as the usual awards launchpads, they did brand smaller titles, including four of the films whose directors will compete for the Best Director brass this year. Two of them came straight from Sundance 2020, which yielded two mighty Oscar contenders, Lee Isaac Chung’s jury and audience-award winning farmland family drama “Minari” (A24), starring nominees Steven Yeun and Youn Yuh-jung, and rookie writer-director Emerald Fennell’s stylized revenge fantasy “Promising Young Woman” (Focus Features), starring Best Actress frontrunner Carey Mulligan....
Friday afternoon, “Atlanta” star Donald Glover dropped a video on his Instagram, wherein he starts to dance to Paul Anka’s “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, of “Fleabag” fame, looks unimpressed. As she gets up to do a seductive dance of her own, the reveal is that the two will be teaming up for a property titled “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” Update: Related Donald Glover to Play Obscure ‘Spider-Man’ Villain Hypno-Hustler in Sony Film Everything Coming to Prime Video in January 2023 Related Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Movies: 53 Films the Director Wants You to See Oscars 2023: Remarkable Transformations Lead the Way in Makeup and HairstylingThe new series is based on the 2005 Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie action flick of the same name, which was produced by New Regency....
With both “Raya and the Last Dragon” (Disney) and “Tom & Jerry” (Warner Bros.) grossed over $6 million (a first since March 13 last year, just before theaters closed), the top 10 grossed over $23 million, with the total take over $24 million. That is the same as December 25-27 (normally a massive weekend). This was also the best year-to-year performance since March, with business down “only” 76 percent compared to most weeks closer to 90 percent....
Co-directed by Pete Docter (“Inside Out”) and Kemp Powers (“One Night in Miami”), the imaginative story of a jazz musician attempting to avoid the afterlife marks the first Pixar movie with a Black lead, and blends its lively celebration of music with a broader emotional drama about finding purpose in life. All of that means it’s bound to resonate in the midst of Oscar season, and not only in the animation category....
Writer, producer, and director Spike Lee came into the 1990s hot. After the critical and commercial triumph of his 1989 masterpiece “Do the Right Thing,” he started the decade with the exquisite jazz film “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990) and kept up the pace with 1991’s provocative, furious, and hilarious “Jungle Fever.” Those three films had all been made for Universal with modest budgets and were all successes relative to those budgets, but for his next movie Lee was ready to go to the mattresses....
