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Melissa’s mother finally appeared for the first time in Abbott Elementary season 4, and a notable guest star portrayed the supporting character. Abbott Elementary’s cast of characters are all memorably funny, but some of them receive more focus than others. Abbott Elementary’s Janine and Gregory relationship was central to the show’s first three seasons, as the two trepidatious teachers navigated their attraction towards each other. This meant that many beloved supporting characters, like Lisa Ann Walter’s Melissa and Janelle James’s Principal Ava, were largely relegated to B-stories in most episodes. Season 4 has changed this.

Related Abbott Elementary Season 4’s Character Return Had An Unexpected Significance

Abbott Elementary season 4, episode 6 brought back a major supporting star from season 3, but they were playing a very different role this time.

Throughout Abbott Elementary season 4, the acclaimed sitcom has devoted more screen time and story focus to characters like Ava,...

“The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu,” a multi-generational comedy starring “Crazy Rich Asians” actor Lisa Lu, is set for a March 17 premiere at the Laemmle Theater in North Hollywood, following the film’s acquisition by Freestyle Digital Media. The coming-of-age story will then have a one-week theatrical run.

Reflective of the feature’s expansive crew of female filmmakers, “The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu” is centered around the challenges of mother-daughter relationships. The film follows Emma (Rochelle Ying), an introverted teenager, on a road-trip up the California coast after her grandmother, Lily (Lu), asks for help breaking out of her nursing home. Along the way, Emma begins to obtain a better understanding of her immigrant mother and their complicated relationship.

Director Anna Chi reunited with screenwriter Donald Martin to pen the project, who she collaborated with on 2008’s “Dim Sum Funeral.” Lu is no stranger to working with Chi either, having appeared...

It’s a new year and everyone wants to put the vile cesspool that was 2020 behind them. Thankfully, HBO Max is coming out swinging to make the transition out of the hellyear even easier. HBO Max’s list of new releases for January 2021 is positively packed with notable film releases and even a fun HBO Max Original or two.

For starters, Search Party season 4 will arrive to HBO Max on Jan. 14. This season of the show with a now-surprising lifespan finds Dory Sief in the thrall of a deranged stalker…right after getting off on murder charges. These Brooklynites lead such fascinating lives! The other major original or note is the HBO documentary Tiger, that premieres on Jan. 10 and will delve into the complicated history of golfing legend Tiger Woods.

The real story this month, however, are the movies. Perhaps emboldened by its success with Wonder Woman 1984, HBO Max is...

What fresh hell is this? Variety is reporting that a group of investors has picked up the rights to Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, a book of prose poems about a wandering prophet who offers his wisdom to the people he meets: insights on friendship, love, marriage, and other topics. Those investors are hoping to bundle the insightful chapters into "an omnibus-style 3D-animated film," which will be developed by different groups of animators around the world.

The team behind the project isn't inspiring any faith in me, either. Clark Peterson, who is co-producing with Ron Senkowski, has Monster on his resume but has otherwise produced some rather iffy projects, like Dim Sum Funeral with Bai Ling. (He's also attached to the terminally in limbo James Ellroy adaptation White Jazz.) Investor Steve Hanson and William Nix will be working as executive producers on the project.

Will this project ever actually come together,...

By Lisa Horowitz

The first fictional work from best-selling "The Power of Now" author Eckhart Tolle will be filmed by Peace Arch Entertainment and Emmy-nominated producer Barnet Bain.   The children's book, "Milton's Secret: An Adventure of Discovery Through Then, When, and the Power of Now," was Tolle's first work of fiction, co-written with Robert S. Friedman.   Donald Martin ("Dim Sum Funeral") is adapting the book about a boy who discovers that his pre-teen fears, shaky parental relationships, confidence issues and schoolyard bullying are preventing him f...

Chinese-born actress Bai Ling gets around, and that's not meant to sound as filthy as you gutter-minds might interpret. Sure, she's a ubiquitous social butterfly as caught by paparazzi at various premieres and events in the States, but just look at her lengthy résumé, and you'll find roles in countless indies ("Southland Tales," "Edmond"), multiplex fare ("Anna and the King," "Crank: High Voltage"), popular TV shows ("Lost," "Entourage") and foreign films (the woefully underseen "Dumplings"). If she's as crazy as the media often depicts her, how come she's been hired for at least nine upcoming features -- including "Confidante," in which she's a male, black gangster? (Okay, maybe that's actually crazy.)

This week, Bai can be seen in director Anna Chi's new dramedy "Dim Sum Funeral," about estranged Chinese-American siblings who reunite after the death of their overbearing but misunderstood mother. Bai plays Deedee, a martial arts coordinator and...

This week sees a couple of golden oldies trotted out alongside the customary summertime family fun, docs on science both good and bad, and another lesson from the Tony Scott school of flash-bang filmmaking.

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"Betty Blue: The Director's Cut"

Having inspired everything from ardent film student party chatter to the pure cinematic showmanship of Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1986 Oscar-nominated romantic drama has a legacy that reaches far and wide. This new print of Beineix's definitive 1991 cut of his oh so artsy tale of an aspiring writer Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade), his wild, volatile muse Betty (Béatrice Dalle) and her gradual descent into self-destruction contains more than an hour of additional footage that stretches out Betty's madness and embellishes it with such antics as Zorg's cross-dressing crime spree. In French with subtitles.

Opens in New York.

With so much fuss being made about J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, it's easy to forget that there is another successful franchise out there with Star... in the title. That would be Stargate, which is due for its own sort of makeover later this year with the premiere of Stargate Universe. This is no sign that the concept is struggling, though. Indeed, the slew of awards that Stargate productions won at the recent Leo Awards in Vancouver, British Columbia (the home base of CinemaSpy) shows that it continues to be admired.

The Leo Awards are presented by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of B.C.. They were established in 1998 to celebrate excellence in film and television productions that are made in the province. Stargate series and movies are largely filmed in Vancouver. At this years Celebration and Gala Ceremonies for the Leos, which took place on May 8 and...

The 24th edition of the Santa Barbara Film Festival will kick off Jan. 22 at the Arlington Theatre with Rod Lurie's political thriller "Nothing but the Truth," starring Kate Beckinsale.

The Feb. 1 closing-night film is the world premiere of Jeff Balsmeyer's "Lightbulb," starring Dallas Roberts and Jeremy Renner.

The fest's lineup, announced Wednesday, encompasses more than 200 films from 41 countries, including 21 world premieres and 29 U.S. premieres.

David Fincher has been named guest director. On Jan. 30, the festival will present "A Celebration of David Fincher," at which the director of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" will be joined by a number of his friends.

Santa Barbara also will feature an array of tributes to many of this season's awards hopefuls, including Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Kristin Scott Thomas, Clint Eastwood and Mickey Rourke. Its Virtuosos 2009 Award will shine a spotlight on Viola Davis, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins,...

Joel Hopkins' "Last Chance Harvey," the romantic comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, has been added to the lineup of AFI Fest 2008 as one of the festival's Centerpiece Screenings. The film, which Overture will release Dec. 26, will have its world premiere at the fest on Nov. 8 at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinerama Dome.

The festival, which runs Oct. 30-Nov. 9, also has added five other titles to its schedule: Juan Taratuto's "Boyfriend for My Wife"; Anna Chi's "Dim Sum Funeral"; Ella Lemhagen's "Patrik 1.5"; Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata"; and George Dunning's animated Beatles film "Yellow Submarine."...