Posts

Pressure has been on the Academy, after the ratings debacle of the pandemic Oscars last year, to lure audiences back with attractive hosts (the trio of Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall) and an entertaining, fast-paced, three-hour show. The time it takes to watch a line of craftspeople respected inside the industry but unknown to the public walk up to the stage to collect their Oscars has been an issue for anxious Oscar producers for years....

Set in 1717, “Our Flag Means Death” follows Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) after he trades in his aristocratic lifestyle to become captain of pirate ship Revenge following a midlife crisis. Helmed by creator David Jenkins and executive-produced by Taika Waititi (who also stars as Captain Blackbeard), “Our Flag Means Death” is loosely based on the real-life adventures of Bonnet and his crew. The 10-episode season premieres March 3 on HBO Max with three episodes, followed by three more episodes March 10, two episodes March 17, and the two final episodes March 24....

“You know when you think something is going to be funny and you say it and then you panic about it? That’s what I did,” Bettany said on “Good Morning America” ahead of the finale’s airing. “Fans started guessing who it might be. They were guessing people like Benedict Cumberbatch or Patrick Stewart. I was thinking, ‘God, that’s a good idea and they’re gonna be so disappointed when they find out it’s me....

For one thing, the movie isn’t really about Joelle Davidovich “Pompo” Pomponett, an eternally prepubescent girl who happens to be the most powerful super-producer in all of Nyallywood (basically Hollywood, but cuter and full of cats). For another, Pompo is more of a mogul than a cinephile. The studio that she inherited from her grandfather has built its success by making explosive junk that adheres to a simple mantra: “As long as the lead actress looks attractive, it’s a good movie....

For one, Schrader said he consulted with a number of colleagues and collaborators on the finished product, including Martin Scorsese, who directed his screenplay of “Taxi Driver.” “Here’s what happened. I was editing. My editor is in New Jersey and my assistant editor is in Tennessee, so we’re all editing virtually. And I had four major dialogue scenes between my principal characters that I had not shot,” Schrader said. “Then I was able to screen virtually the film for a number of people I respect, like Scorsese, who is the executive producer, like [filmmaker and programmer] Kent Jones and other people....

It was there that the network placed a “Screaming Booth,” where passersby could vent their anxieties in real time. Live-streamed on Facebook, where it played alongside cable news anchors issuing unnerving live commentary as results came in, the “Screaming Booth” feed eventually amounted to two hours and 18 minutes of pure existential terror — the essence of November 8, 2016. Standing in line that evening outside the Ed Sullivan and waiting to join the studio audience, I eyed that booth with a mixture of annoyance and queasy uncertainty before concluding I had no need for cathartic release....

The voice work is headlined by Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), Kacey Musgraves (“Golden Hour”), and Dan Stevens (“Legion”). The six-time Grammy-winning Musgraves will also record an English version of the theme song, “Don’t Disturb Me.” GKids Based on the children’s novel “Earwig and the Witch” by Diana Wynne Jones, the fantasy concerns the young Earwig (Taylor Paige Henderson) growing up in a British orphanage in the countryside with no idea that her mother (Musgraves) possessed magical powers....